Page images
PDF
EPUB

well never have been. Whosoever loves God is active in his service; he is like the mountain river which, owing its existence to a kindly cause, in whose operation it has no part, speeds onward its glad course, mutually helping and being helped in its journey, by those tributary streams. with whom it is tending to one common end: till having fertilized the country through which it passed, and left behind it evident marks that it had not rolled in vain, it reaches its destination, ocean. Thence again exhaled in vapour, and wafted to its native hill, it falls in grateful showers, and offers to the parent source, its humble modicum of aid.

If you do no good, you are as effectually shut out from the pale of salvation, as the greatest sinner, tho' your condemnation may not be so great as his. If you merely abstain from evil, you will have nothing more to shew in your favour in the great day of account, than that you did not act as it would have been madness to have acted.

Throughout the Scriptures, the curse is not denounced against the rebellious sinner merely, (such are more obvious ly the fit objects of punishment) but against him who has no good works to shew in his defence. The drunkard, who is killing himself by inches, does as much for his fellow men, and the increase of morality, as you, wrapt up in indolent self complacency; the sceptic, who doubts the truth of the Scriptures, does as much to promote their spread, as you, who confess them true, but act not upon your belief, * Again: I exhort you, not merely to give money, for this is the most equivocal evidence of Christian benevo lence, and may proceed from either ostentation, shame, or indolence; but to give it secretly to know the objects on whom you bestow it, where it is in your power to do so; to ascertain that they are deserving of it. Merely to give money, may be the consequence of thoughtlessness, or indifference; of disregard for what you give; of ignorance of its value, or inexperience. Or it may be the effect of strong feelings, or a sudden impulse, which i would be

[ocr errors]

more painful to restrain than to indulge. I exhort you therefore, to let your benevolence be systematic, uniform, rational sanctify it by your motive, by which alone it can be sanctified; prescribe to it no bounds but your means; no check but real prudence ;-a term how little understood! That ostentation may have no part in it, perform it for the most part privately; that shame may claim no share of the merit, let it, when (as must sometimes happen,) it is performed more openly, be the result of a preconceived resolution; the operation of a system. Though, fearful of acting in a wrong spirit, you perform most of your charities secretly, yet be not afraid to do them publickly. Nay, if you are convinced of the purity of your motives, you should even seek on some occasions to do them openly; for we are commanded, to let our light shine before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven." The cup which, in Parnell's Hermit, the attendant angel stole from the hospitable man, was given to the unfriendly miser, to the end that seeing the good deeds of others, the sordid wretch might learn to imitate them. In like manner, the less humane spectators of your benevolence, won by your example; charmed by the beauty of Christian love; infected by the spirit of your zeal; may perhaps, go and do likewise,"

[ocr errors]

TH

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

HAT good resolutions should be productive of good effect, it is absolutely necessary, not only that they should

have been sincere, but deliberately formed, well planned, and strengthened by all the auxiliaries, that we can procure. I believe that there are very few men who can engage seriously in religious meditation, without acknowledging the force and necessity of religion, and resolving at the moment, to govern their future lives by its precepts. How unavailing these speculative resolutions generally are however, every man's own experience must tell him. They are unavailing, because they are not systematic; because they are not methodized, and reduced to a specific plan. We promise ourselves, that we will pray, but we do not resolve upon praying at any stated times; we do not determine to devote such and such particular hours to prayer, let what will happen. We find ourselves the better and stronger for our prayers; and confident in our new strength, we relax in them; forgetting, that it is to them, and to them only, that we owe our improvement. We forget that they are as necessary to secure us on the height we have attained, as they were to raise us to it; and that if we do not go forward, we must inevitably fall back. Thus, deserting the bridge which is carrying us safely over, we are again borne away by the current of our passions. Relinquishing our strong hold, we have once more to go through the often repeated task of swimming against the stream, towards the point from which we fell.

Life is proverbially a contest. Scarely a religious writer since the days of St. Paul, but makes the comparison. It is a warfare; and a warfare in which we must not only fight boldly but skilfully. We must have our redoubts, our fortifications, our spies, and our centinels. We must not only keep the firm phalanx, the close column, the ready front; but our out-posts, and parties of observation. We must observe the exactest rules of discipline, and all the spirit of military order and subordination. Convinced that our forces can never be too great, we must continually be adding to their number. We must set up a fictitious enemy, and accustom our troops to hardships of our

9

[ocr errors]

own creating. We must inure them to petty trials, that they may suffer the less from great ones. This is surely the best possible policy; for trials must come, and is it not better by voluntarily encountering trifling ones, to come off ultimately victorious, than avoiding them, to fall? An enemy must attack us sooner or later, and is it not better to have received in our mock encounters some slight scratches, and flesh wounds, than to fall beneath the hostile sword? Let us accustom ourselves to small privations, and we shall be able to bear large ones. Let us now and then abstain from things innocent and lawful, and we shall find it less difficult to abstain from forbidden things. Let us now and then fast, and we shall more rea◄ dily subdue all disposition to excess. But let us not be satisfied with a general resolution to do so, for unless we assign stated times for the performance of these acts of discipline, depend upon it, they will never be performed. We shall never think the present moment, the proper one for beginning a disagreeable exercise.

Seeing that pride, self applause, vanity, ostentation, may take from the most proper actions all their value; we should investigate every act of our moral and religious lives, with the minutest and most suspicious scrutiny. Forbearing to judge of ourselves by comparison with our neighbours (arule entirely at war with the spirit of the Gospel) let us henceforth watch as carefully for our own faults, as we have been accustomed to do for those of others, and we may rest assured, that they will not escape us. There is nothing that prevails more generally, or needs watching more closely, than the propensity, I will not say to vilify and traduce, but to lessen and detract. This is a habit which roots itself in our very souls, and the more firmly because its approaches are unperceived, and its influence unsuspected. Who has not somé nominal friend, in the circle of their acquaintance, against whom they are continually and covertly shooting the pigmy arrows of un-charitable construction, invidious comparison, or recalled misconduct? Whom, like Gulliver, they bind with cob

web fetters indeed, but fetters imposed, when the power of resistance is quiescent? Whom they pierce with tiny spears, but spears, whose minuteness secures them a free passage; and which make up in number, what they want in weight?

To say that perseverance in a religious life, is in nowise difficult, would be untrue; but to say, that it does not repay itself a thousand fold, even in this life, would be at least as false. The first steps in religion, are to him who has habitually avoided, or even for a time deserted her path, steep and rugged; but the ascent afterwards, is smooth and pleasant. It is not indeed without asperities, but they are asperities which circumspection may avoid, or perseverance overcome. The higher we get, the less they exist; whilst the view above us, (which, though sometimes obscured, was always cheering,) becomes inexpressibly bright, as we approach towards the summit. Such, and so great is their mistake, who affirm, that the path of religion is a gloomy one!

My friends, how can it be such? Can it depress the spirits to learn, that if we continue to the end in well-doing, there is laid up for us a crown of glory, in that happy kingdom, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal ?” Can it depress our spirits to hear, that though our sins be red as scarlet, they shall be made white as snow ?" That there is no conceivable sum of iniquity, which may not be forgiven to us, through faith, by repentance, and Christ's atonement? Can a religion, thus fraught with "good tidings," make men melancholy, or desponding? Or need

It is remarkable that Dr. Johnson, and Cowper, are continually brought forward, as instances in which religion has had this effect. How very little inquiry would tell the anti-religionists, that the former, besides suffering almost unceasingly from bodily ailments, lived continually apprehensive, that a prediction of mental derangement, made to him by a physician in early life, should be fulfilled! Of Cowper, it remains recorded in his own hand-writing, (see Christan Observer, 1802, p. 323)

« PreviousContinue »