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THE

YOUNG CHRISTIAN’S GUIDE

TO

THE DOCTRINES AND DUTIES

RELIGIOUS LIFE.

FROM THE WRITINGS OF

J. EDWARDS, J. A. JAMES, and J. HARRIS.

BOSTON:
GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN,

59 WASHINGTON STREET.



a rn






PREFACE.

THE frequent calls fora manual of Christian doctrines and
duties, suggested the union of the two works here presented.
They combine the highest excellencies of composition with
the richest veins of heavenly instruction, and the sweetest
waters of the Fountain of Life. They are adapted to elevate
the mind and cheer the heart; to guide and aid the christian
pilgrim through life’s temptations and trials, upward to the
Celestial City. The names of Jonathan Edwards, John
Angell James, and John Harris, are familiar to Christians of
every denomination. Their teachings will be regarded by
all, as trueresponses to the Divine WoRD, and as deserving
when selected and combined, asin this volume, to be called

‘The Young Christian’s Guide.’






CASKET

FOUR JEWELS, °

YOUNG CHRISTIANS.

BOSTON:
GOULD, KENDALL, & LINCOLN.







Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by
GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.
se ever sete ners SSS ED













CONTENTS.

I.
APOLLOS;
Or, Directions to Persons just commencing a
_ Religious Life.
Il.
GROWTH IN GRACE;

Or, the Young Professor directed how. to attain
to Eminent Piety. By the Rev. JonaTHAN ©
Epwarps and J. A. JAMEs.

TIT, . .
THE GOLDEN CENSER; |
Or, a Visit to the House of Prayer. By Joun ©
Harris, D. D.
IV.
THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.
By Joun Harris, D. D. |





PREFACE.

te

=

Sprritrua CHRISTIANS have examined these
Jewels separately, and, expressing high admira-
tion of their individual preciousness, have desired
to possess them in a form less perishable and more
-worthy of their excellence. They are therefore
| placed together in this Casket, not only for their
safe preservation, but also for their better exposi-
tion. Four such Brilliants are not often combined.
Young believers, especially, will here find an
“Ornament,” if not of ‘‘great price,’’ yet of
uncommon worth, and will doubtless be happy
both to wear it themselves, and to procure it for
their many friends, as a most unexceptionable
SOUVENIR.





APOLLOS:

OR,

DIRECTIONS TO PERSONS JUST COMMENCING
A RELIGIOUS LIFE.



1. RememsBer that the commencement of
the Christian life is to be like the “dawning
light, which increaseth more and more to the
perfect day.”” Therefore, when the hope of
peace and pardon dawns in the heart, do not
consider the great business of life as accom-
plished, but only as begun.

2. Do not expect so sudden and remark-
able a change, as to leave no doubt of its
reality. Did religion enter the soul in per-
fection, and to the entire exclusion of sin,
the change would be so marked and obvious
as to leave no room for doubt. But, usually,
the Christian character is full of contrarie-
ties. There is a perpetual struggle between
good and evil, and thus a continual compe-
tition of evidence for and against, according
as the good or evil prevails.

3. Evidence of piety is not so much to be
sought in high emoticns of any kind, as in



6 APOLLOS: OR,

real humility, self-distrust, hungering and
thirsting after righteousness, sorrow for sin,
and a continual effort, in every-day life, to
regulate our thoughts, feelings. and conduct
by the word of God. It is the nature and
not the degree of our affections which is to
be regarded in the examination of our evi-
dences. Some persons are so constituted,
that they are not susceptible of very strong
emotions, and ought not to expect them, in
reference to religion, any more than other
subjects that interest the mind. The best
way to know our feelings is, to see how they
influence the conduct. “By their fruit ye
shal! know them.”

4. Do not expect to find in your own case,
everything you have heard or read of in the
experience of others. For, it may be, many
things we hear and read of, are not correct
feelings, and do not afford just grounds of
confidence to any one; and if they are correct
experience, it may be the experience of-a
mature Christian, and not to be expected in
the beginning of a religious life. It must be
remembered that as no two countenances are
formed alike, so no two hearts are fashioned
alike, or placed in exactly the same circum-
stances ; and it would be as vain to seek all
the varieties of Christian experience in one





















DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 7

———ae

person, as to seek all th varieties of human
features in one face. _

5. Do not expect that the evidence desired
will all come immediately and at once. It
must come progressively, as the result of
continued effort in obecience to the will of
God. |

6. Do not suppose that religion is a prin-
ciple of such self-preserving energy, as that
when once implanted in the soul it will con- -
tinue to thrive and increase without effort.
The plant of divine grace can no more thrive
without care, and diligent and. patient culti-
vation, than can those rare and valued
plants, that demand the physical efforts and
culture of man.

God will not sustain and bring to maturity
the work of grace, without your own volun-
tary concurrence in the diligent use of
means. He will not do it any more than he

‘would cause the harvest to whiten in the

field of the sluggard. Indulge, therefore, no
such ideas of inability and dependence on
God, as shall impair a full sense of perfect
obligation to do whatever can be done in
working out your own salvation. God never
assists any but those who make efforts to
aid and advance themselves.

7. Entertain no such ideas of the sove-





8 APOLLOS: OR,



reignty of God in the bestowment of his
grace, as would awaken any doubt of his
affording needful aid, where he sees sincere
endeavors to grow in grace. If some Chris-
tians are more eminent than others, it is
simply because they make more efforts to be
so, and God aids these efforts. So that all
worldly-minded and indifferent Christians
continue in this state, because they do not
choose to make efforts to get out of it.
Any person can be an eminent Christian
that chooses to be so. Christians are too
apt to feel as if eminence in piety was a
distinction made by the sovereignty of God,
and to suppose that high attainments are
not within the reach of all, and that languid
and inefficient piety is the result of divine
sovereignty rather than negligence . and
sloth. .A more false or more pernicious
opinion cannot easily be adopted by Chris-
tians. The truth is, that the road to emi-
nence in gifts aad graces, and the means of
obtaining them, are open to all who seek
them, and if any do not obtain them, it is
owing to their own sloth and inefficiency,
and not to any deficiency on the part of God
in blessing diligent efforts. It always
pleases him to crown with success the hand
of the diligent instead of the hand of the



DIRECTIONS. TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS.

Oe ee ee ae
















slothful, not only in temporal but in spirit-
ual things. This thought cannot be too
strongly impressed upon the minds of those
who are just commencing a Christian life.
To them, peculiarly, are such promises as
these directed: ‘“ Ask, and ye shall receive;
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it. shall
be opened unto you. Every one that asketh
receiveth,” &c.

Do not be afraid of indulging in feelings
which may seem to be right, from the fear
of deception. On the contrary, cherish such
feelings, and try to recall them often. Go
forward and do your duty, and God will save
you from deception while thus employed.

8. There is one caution which is pecu-
liarly needful to those who have been
greatly interested in the subject of religion,
and ‘that is, to take particular care of the
health. ;

.:: There is such a mysterious and intimate
connection between the mind and the body,
that one cannot be wearied or suffer, with-
out affecting the other. When the mind is
fatigued or exhausted, it affects the body,
and this again reacts on the mind.

Every person ought to be aware, that the
more anxiously and intensely the mind is
interested on any subject, the greater is the /

memset,





i
i





10 APOLLOS: OR,





need of exercise, sleep and frequent relaxa-
tion. Attention to religion, doés not de-
mand that ail lawful business be suspended,
and forbid the neglect of all needful rest
and exercise. |

~«9. ‘Do not expect to be made happy by
religion, unless you become eminent Chris-
tians. A half-way Christian can neither
enjoy the pleasures of the world nor the
pleasures of religion; for his conscience
will not let him seek the one, and he is too
indolent to obtain the other. The Christian
may be the happiest man on earth, but he
must be a faithful, active and devoted Chris-
tian. None are disappointed in finding re-
ligion a source of unfailing peace and joy,
but those who refuse to drink. deep of the
wells: of salvation; unless we except those
who, from some derangement of the nervous
system, or failure of health, do not enjoy the
clear and undisturbed exercise of their facul-
ties. A healthy mind in a healthy body,
may always be made happy by religion.

10. Do not look at the practice and ex-
ample of other Christians, in forming the
standard of piety at which you aim. The
allowance of this thing has probably had a
more disastrous influence on the church and
on the world, than all other causes that





DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 11

could be named. Generally, when persons
commence a Christian life, their consciences
are susceptible and tender. They are strict
and watchful in the performance of duty,
and are pained even by a slight neglect.
They have been wont to feel that becoming
religious implies a great change; that “old
things must pass away and ail things be-
come new.” But when they begin to look
around among their Christian friends, and
turn to them for aid, as those who. have had
experience and have made advances in
Christian life, they find that they seem to
look upon duties and deficiencies in a very
different manner. They. seem to- neglect
many things which the young Christian has
felt to be very important; and to practise
many things which he had supposed to be
inconsistent with religion. Then commences
the disastrous effect. The young Christian
begins to feel that he need not be more
particular than those to whom he has ever
looked up with deference and respect. He
begins to imagine that he has been rather
too strict and particular. He begins to take
a retrograde course; and though his con-
science and the Bible often check and re-
prove, yet, after a few inefficient struggles, he
lowers his standard and walks as others do.









12 APOLLOS: OR,

Look into your Bible, and see how Chris-
tians ought to live. See how the Bible says
those who are Christians must live, and’then,
if you:find your Christian friends living in a
different way, instead of having cause for
feeling that you may do so too, you have
only cause to fear that they are deceiving



themselves with the belief that they are

(hristians, when they are not. Remember
that the farther your Christian friends de- |
part from the standard of Christian char-
acter laid down in the Bible, the less reason
have you to hope that they are Christians.
And do not hesitate on this subject because
you find many professed Christians, who are
indifferent and lax in their practice and
example. Remember that Christ has said,
“ Many shall say unto me, inthat day, Lord,
Lord,” thus claiming to be his disciples, to
whem he will say, “I never knew you.”
Do not let professed Christians tempt you
to fall into the society of such unhappy cast-
aways. .

11. Do not be periodical Christians.
There are some who profess religion, who
never seem to feel any interest on the sub-
ject except when every one else does. It
is true, there are special seasons of revived
religion in the hearts of all Christians, but



































DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 13

if it is only at such times that progress is
made in divine life, and interest is mani-
fested in the salvation of souls, there is great
reason to fear that what is called religion is
nothing but sympathy with the feelings of
others.

12. Be sure that there exists a. marked
difference between your appearance and
conduct, and that of those who are not
Christians. Remember that Christ has re-
quiréd this of you, and that even the world
expects it. |

Do-not suppose you can recommend reli-
gion, by appearing interested in everything
that interests those who have no better
portion than this world. Remember that
your deportment; your conversation; your
interest in dress, in company and amuse-
ments; the manner in which you perform
your religious duties; are all carefully noted
and weighed by those around you, who do
not love religion; and if they do not see a
marked difference between you and them-
selves, they either conclude there is nothing .
in religion, or else, that you are a hypocrite.
The world expect that you will be very
different from them, and despise you in their
hearts if you are not. If you wish to recom-
mend religion, let the world see it acted out





| trifling and levity. This is quite as incon-

14 APOLLOS: OR,

according to the beautiful pattern laid down
in the Bible; and do-not suppose that you
can improve this pattern by any addition or
subtraction of your own. On one subject
there are some who need instruction. There
is a class of Christians who appear taciturn,
unsocial, and even sad. This appearance is
altogether inconsistent with the spirit of
religion. Christians ought to appear cheer-
ful and happy; to appear to receive, with
pleasure and gratitude all the lawful enjoy-
ments bestowed by their heavenly Father. |
Such a gloomy deportment as has been
described, does not do honor to religion, and
causes those whom we wish to win to the
ways of pleasantness and: peace, to feel that .
religion is a melancholy, unsocial and for-
bidding subject. .

All professors of religion should endeavor
to have such views of God, his love, his
providence, his care; and should so live, as
to be cheerful and happy, and to appear so.

On the contrary, there is a class of profes-
sed Christians, who indulge in frequent




















sistent and injurious as the former, and if
anything, itis more so. Let the Christian, ,
at least, learn to make a distinction between
cheerfulness and levity. Remember, we are









DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 15

en etd

commanded to avoid Fila talicing and
jesting, and that it is possible to be happy,
cheerful, affable and kind, wqehont any
trifling or levity.

13. Remember that your evidence of pos-
sessing religion ceases, when anything else
has the first place in your thoughts and



| interests.

Religion should not lessen our love for

| our friends, or our enjoyment of rational’

pleasures, but the desire to please God in ali
our ways should be the prevailing feeling of
the mind. Our Saviour says, we cannot
have two masters ; God and his service must
be first in our thoughts and_ affections, or
else the world and its pleasures are first.
If then we would find whose servants we are,
we must find who has the first place in our
thoughts and affections.

14. Never for one day omit to read the
Bible with prayer. This is a most impor-
tant direction. It is of the utmost impor- —
tance that you should never fer once break |
over this habit. Prayer and the Bible are —
your anchor and your shield ; which will hold
you firmly in the path of duty, and protect
you from temptation. You had better give
up one. meal every day, if it is necessary, in

order to secure time for this duty. You had |
































16 a APOLLOS: OR,

better give up anything else. Nothing is a
duty, if the performance of it will interfere
with this duty. Remember, this is the bread
of your life, and the water of your salvation ;
and that you cannot live in health a single
day without their strengthening and invig-
orating influence.

15. Be regulated by a principle of duty in
little things. This is the way that common
Christians are to cause their light to shine. |
Few Christians can expect to do any great
things to show their love for the Saviour, but
all can “deny themselves, and thus daily
take the cross and follow him.” Religion
should govern the temper and the tongue;
should save us from indolence, from vanity,
from pride, from foolishness, from levity,
from moroseness, from selfishness, and all
the little every-day foibles to which we are
exposed. Religion should exemplify its gen-
tleness in your kind and affable manners ; its
purity and propriety, in your conversation ;
its benevolence, in your conduct; and its
consistency and heavenly tendency, in all
your ways.

It is a most excellent method to go to
some sincere and candid friend, and inquire
what are your own defects in temper, char-
acter and every-day deportment; and when

































DIREUTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 17 |

you have discovered these, make it the object
of your prayers and efforts to correct them.
One thing ought to be strictly regulated by
principle, and that is, the employment of time.
| Always feel that you are doing wrong when
your time is passing unprofitably. Have
some regularity and method on this subject.
Endeavor to ascertain how much time should
be devoted to your friends and to relaxation,
and to Jet the remainder be all of it employed .
in the most useful manner you can devise.
Never be satisfied with the manner in which
you are spending your time, if you can think
of any possible way in which it might be
more usefully employed.
Remember that time is the precious talent
for which you must account to God, and if
you find yourselves indulging in listless
inactivity, or tempted to engage in employ-
ments of no practical use, remember your
account to God. Be in a habit of inquiring,
when you commence any employment, “Is
“there anything I can do, more useful than
this?” And do not be satisfied till you
have settled the question, that you are doing
all the good you can. 3
16. Attempt, by your efforts and example,
to raise the standard of piety and activity.
If all who are now commencing Christian





ene tert eerenseenetes>etttnterenentetesoednatterestients anaeretsgent er onion hed Gnidia icin nbs innnncaeinnnnintineienioneenane

1s APOLLOS: OR,

life, should make this an object, and not fall
into ‘the temptation which professed Chris-
tians so often set before the lambs of the
flock, the church would indeed soon rise
before the world, “ fair as the moon, clear as
the sun, and terrible as an army with ban-
ners.” :

Resolve to be an example to thosé who |
ought to be an example to you, and take the -
Bible, and the Bible only, for your guide in —
forming Christian character.

Be active in promoting all benevolent
objects. Make it an object to prepare to |
lead with propriety in all social devotional
duties. At this period, when prayer and |
effort must unite in hastening the great day
of the Lord, let every young Christian learn
to guide the devotions of others, as well as to .
lift up his own private supplication. There
is nothing which so much promotes the
‘brotherly love” required in the Bible, and
nothing which so much promotes union of
effort and interest, as social prayer; and
every one who commences religious life,
should aim to be prepared to perform such
duties with propriety; and should stimulate
others to engage in them.

17. Do not hesitate in the performance of’
all the external duties of a Christian, because





DIRECTIONS gfO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 19

~

you do not find satisfactory evidence that
| your feelings are right.

Religious duty consists of two parts—feel-
ing and action; and because we find great
deficiency in one respect, we surely ought not
| to neglect the whole. It is as unreasonable, |
as it would be not to attempt to feel right .
till every external duty was perfectly per-
formed.

If we are dissatisfied with our evidence,
let us go on and do everything that a Chris-
tian should do, as the most hopeful way to
produce right feelings. We surely cannot
hope to bring our hearts right by neglecting
our outward duties. *

Go forward, then, and take a stand as an
active Christian, and if your hearts are not
right with God, you may be sure you are in
less danger in taking this course than in
neglecting it.

18..Remember that the principal duty of
a Christian, as it respects others, is to excite
them to the immediate performance of their
religious duty.

Jesus Christ has instituted his church in
the world, that through their instrumentality
the perishing may be saved. There is no
Christian but can find some one mind, at
least, over which he can have some influence,

































20

ee



APOLLOS: OR,

and if we can do anything to save others
from eternal death, nothing should for a
moment prevent our attempting it.

‘But to perform our duty faithfully in this
respect, requires both discretion and some
knowledge derived from the experience of
-others. The following hints, therefore, are
added as the result of long experience and
observation, and as a sort of guide to those
who may be anxious to save a soul from
death.

Let your first object be to persuade your
friend to give an earnest and immediate
attention to the subject. Serious remarks
upon religion do not produce much effect,
unless some direct object is had .in view.
Endeavor to persuade your friends to com-
mence the daily reading of the Bible with.
‘prayer. Show them that the Holy Spirit
operates by means of the truths which we
find in the Bible, and which are most forci-
bly presented to the mind in the solitude
and solemnity of closet devotion. The char-
acter of the God we are commanded to love,
can no more be perceived by a mind: that is
engrossed by other subjects and turned away
from this, than the human eye can perceive
the beauties of a picture, when it is not
directed. towards it. And as it is not only








DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 2]





needful in beholding a picture, that light
should shine upon it, but that the eye should
be turned to it, so in order that the heart
may be sanctified by the truth, it is as need-
fil that the mind should be turned towards
it, as that the Holy Spirit should enlighten
by his illuminating influences. Always,
then, in all your efforts, have this definite
end in view, to persuade your friends to
spend much time in studying the Bible with
prayer.

When this object is secured, then urge the
immediate duty of giving the affections of
the heart to God. Show them that if they
will only love God, they will then feel their
guilt in refusing to obey him, and will great-
ly desire to live for his glory. If they will
only love their God and Saviour, they will
feel that they can trust in the merits of his
atoning blood. Do not, for a moment, allow
them to feel that performing the outward
duties of religion is doing anything to recom-
mend them to God, but is only a means of
making them feel more deeply their immedi-
ate obligation to give the affections of their
hearts to him, and of realizing the reasona-
bleness of his holy law which requires it.
Speak to them as if you really fel¢ that there
was no need of any delay, but that they























































22 APOLLOS: OR,

could immediately perform what God re-
quires; and, in order to do this, endeavor to
have a deep and realizing sense of this
truth yourself. If they complain of their
inability, or of the difficulty they find in
performing their duty, show them that it is
because they have so long forgotten and
| neglected these things, and formed such bad
habits, that though it has really become
difficult, it is a difficulty they have made for
themselves, and which is an addition to their
guilt. Show them that whatever the diffi-
culty is, they can overcome it; for God
never requires of his creatures what they
cannot perform, and his standing, unalterable
law is, “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart.” Remember always
that the more clearly, constantly and forcibly
the truth is presented to any mind that will
attend to it, the more hope there is that it
will be ohayed’

One caution, however, seene to be added,
and that is, that when it becomes apparent
that the mind will not be brought to attend
to the subject ; when you find that the efforts
become wearisome and unpleasant, always
cease for a while, and wait for another time,
or else you will do more harm than goutl.
Persevering after this, will only affect their









DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 23 os

minds with disgust and aversion towards a
subject to which they have resolved they
will not attend. |

Another caution is also important. Al- |
ways speak kindly and affectionately to
friends upon this subject, and if you find
all your efforts vain, though you cease to
urge neglected duty, still continue to express
the same kindness and interest for them.
Do not give them occasion to feel that be-
cause they will not take your advice, you
have cast them off as reprobates, and no
longer desire their society. We may still
continue to love the amiable natural traits of
our friends, even though we find that they
refuse to have them crowned and beautified
by religion. Let all your efforts for the
good of others be accompanied by earnest
and constant prayer. | |

Lastly, do not be discouraged because you
find that you are very deficient in every one
of the particulars specified.

Remember that Christian life is a warfare,
and that it is only at the end that we are to
come off conquerors and more than conquer-
ors. Remember that He whom you are
striving to serve and please, is not a hard |
Master. Though you have been inexcusable |



in forming such inveterate habits of sin, and





—

ne EY



24 APOLLOS.

a a a aT SA

all the difficulties you find are of your own
making, yet he can be “touched with the
feeling of your infirmities.” When he sees
that you really are afflicted because you so
constantly abuse and forget him, he pities
you as a father pitieth his children; and so
long as you use the means he has appointed
to keep you from sin, and wait upon him for
strength and guidance, he will never leave
nor forsake you. When you feel your own
strength and resolution failing, go to him
who hath said “my grace is sufficient for
thee, and my strength shall be made perfect
in weakness.” Call upon him, “and he will
be very gracious unto the voice of thy cry;
when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
And thine ears shall hear a word behind
thee, saying, this is the way, walk ye therein,
when ye turn to the right and when ye turn
to the left.” Remember, also, that the con-
flict is short; the race will speedily be
accomplished—soon your deficiencies and
guilt shall pain you no more—soon you shall
‘see him as he is,” and “awake in his like-
ness and be satisfied therewith.”





















A

MEMENTO OF AFFECTION,

FROM

CHRISTIAN PASTORS,

TO THOSE WHO UNDER THEIR CARE HAVE
COMMENCED A RELIGIOUS LIFE.



To them who have obtained like precious faith
with us, through the righteousness of God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ.

We thank our God upon every remembrance of
you, always in every prayer of ours, making re-
quest for you with joy. Being ccnfident of this
very thing, that he who hath begun a good work
in you, will perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. Even as it is meet for us to think this of
you ali, because we have you in our heart. For, |
ye remember our labor, how we exhorted, and com-
forted, and charged, every one of you, as a father
does his children ; and we were with you in weak-
ness, and in fear, and in much trembling; and our
exhortation was not of deceit, nor in guile; neither
at any time used we flattering words, as ye know;











26 MEMENTO OF AFFECTION,

nor of men sought we glory, neither of you. But
we were gentle among you, even asa nurse cher-
isheth her children; so being affectionately desir-
ous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto
you, not the gospel of God only, but our own souls
also, because ye were dear unto us.

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
children of God. For you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein, in
times past, ye walked according to the course of -
this world, according to .the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience ; among whom we ald had our con-
versation in times past, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the chil-
dren of wrath, even as others. But God, who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he
loved: us, even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised
us up together, and made us sit together in heaven-
ly places, in Christ Jesus. For ye were as sheep
going astray, but now are returned unto the shep-
herd and bishop of your souls.

Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children,
and walk worthy of the vocation whereby ye are
called. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now
are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of the
light. If then ye be risen with Christ seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on
the right hand of God. Set your affections on |





Te RE Pe en eae aeetTe aeeeaeeAT





FROM CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 27



things above, not on things on the earth. For all
that is in the world, the desire of the flesh, the
desire of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth
away, and the desire thereof; but he that doeth
the will of God abideth forever. And this is the
victory that overcometh the world, even your
faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but:
he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
And Jesus saith, ‘‘I am the way, and the truth,
and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but
by me. If aman love me, he will keep.my com-
mandments, and my Father will love him, and we
will come unto him, and make our abode with
him. This is my commandment, that ye love one
another as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man may lay down his
life for his friends.—Ye are my friends if ye do
whatsoever I command you.”’ If God so loved us,
we ought algo to love one another. For every one
that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is
begotten of him. And by this we know that we
love the children of God, when we love God and
keep his commandments. For this is the love of
God, that we keep his commandments. And we
have known and believed the love which God hath .
towards us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in
love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Know ye
not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy
Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God?
And ye are not your own, but are bought witha





28 MEMENTO OF AFFECTION,

i ee oe

price; therefore glorify God in your bodies, and in
your spirits, which are his.

Search the’ Scriptures, for tn them ye have
eternal life. For the entrance of that word giveth
light, and giveth understanding to the simple.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the
soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making
wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart; the commandments of the
Lord are pure, enlightening the eyes; more.to be
desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine
gold ; sweeter also than honey, and the honey-comb.
Let the word of God, therefore, dzed/ in you richly,
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace
in your hearts to the Lord.

Pray without ceasing; in everything, by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let
your request be made known to God. And the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus.

But of the times and seasons, ye need not that
we write unto you; for ye know him that hath
said, ‘‘ Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy. work, but
the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy
God.’”? Blessed is the man that doeth this, and
the son of man that keepeth the sabbath from pol-
luting it. And if thou turn away thy foot from
the sabbath, and from doing thy pleasure on my



FROM CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 29



holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy
of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor him, not
doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own
pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt
thou delight thyself in the Lord. Exhort one
another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of
you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin;
not forsaking the assembling of yourselves togeth-
er, as the manner of some is.

Be not conformed to the world, but be ye trans-
formed by the renewing of your minds. Lay not
up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where
moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break
through and steal. But lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break
through and steal. For where your treastire is,
there will your. heart be also. Love not the world,
neither the things of the world. If any man love
the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
No man can serve two masters, for either he will
hate the one, and love the other, or else he will
hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot
serve God and mammon. Hear now what the
Lord saith: ‘“‘He that loveth father or mother
more than me, is not worthy of me, and he that
loveth son or daughter more than me, is not
worthy of me, and whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits whether they be of God; for they are not



30 MEMENTO OF AFFECTION,





all Israel, that are of Israel; for many walk, of
whom we have told you often, and now tell you
even weeping, who are enemies of the cross of
Christ, whose end is destruction, whose giory is
their shame, who mind earthly things. Not every
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the
will of my Father which is in heaven. Ye shall
know them by their fruits.

In all things show yourselves a pattern of good
works, that they of a contrary part, may have no
evil thing to say of you. Benot wise in your own
conceits, for God resisteth the proud, but giveth
grace to the humble. For the wisdom that cometh
from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy
to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, with-
out partiality and without hypocrisy. Be kindly
affectionate one to another, in honor preferring one
another. Be not desirous of vain glory, provoking
one another, envying one another. How can ye
believe which receive, honor one of another, and
seek not the honor which cometh from God only ?
Be content with such things as ye have, for godli-
ness with contentment, is great gain. For we
brought nothing into the world, and it is certain
we can carry nothing out; and having food and
raiment, let us be therewith content. Charge them
‘that are rich in this world, that they be not high-
minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the
living God, who giveth us richly all things to
enjoy. That they do good, that they be rich in



—



FROM CHRISTIAN PASTORS. ol

| good works, ready to distribute, willing to commu-
nicate.

| Let your conversation be as becometh the gos-
pel of Christ. Let no corrupt communications

proceed out of your mouth; neither foolish talking



























nor jesting. Every idle word that men shall speak,
they shall give an account thereof at the day of
judgment ; for by thy words thou shalt be justified,
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Speak evil of no man; let your speech be always
with grace, that ye may know how to answer
every man. Bear ye one another’s burdens; have
compassion one of another, be pitiful, be cour-
teous. Your adorning, let it not be that out-
ward adorning of wearing gold, or of putting on of
apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart;
even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,
which is, in the sight of God, of great price. And
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, think
on these things.
Wherefore, let us lay aside every weight and the
‘gin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run
with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him,
endured the ‘cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. For
we have not an High Priest which cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was
in all points tempted like as we are, yet without

































32 MEMENTO OF AFFECTION,



sin. Who can have compassion on the ignorant,

and on them that are out of the way, for in that he

| himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to

| succor them that are. Trust in him at all times;

| pour out your heart before him; and he will be
very gracious at the voice of your cry; when he
shall hear it, he will answer. And he will feed his
flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs in
his arms and carry them in his bosom. And for-
get not the exhortation that speaketh unto you as
unto children, ‘‘ My son, despise not the chasten-
ing of the Lord, neither faint when thou art
rebuked of him.’? For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth. For our light afflictions, which are but
for a moment, work out for us a far more exceed-
ing and eternal weight of glory.

For ye are not come to the mount which might
be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto
blackness, and darkness, and tempest; but ye are
come unto Mount Zion, to the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumera-
ble company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the first-born, which are written in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the
Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that
of Abel. Having, therefore, these promises, what
manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy con-
Versation and godliness ?



FROM CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 83

Therefore, dearly beloved, our joy and our
crown, so stand fast in the Lord, our dearly be-
loved. For now we live, if ye stand fast in the
Lord. And what thanks can we render to God
again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for
your sakes, before our God? For what is our
hope, and joy, and crown of rejoicing? are not
even ye, in the presence of the Lord? For the
Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of an archangel and with the trump of
God. Then shall we be canght up together to
meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall be ever
with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words,

Now unto Him that is able to keep you from
falling, and to present you faultless before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy; to the
only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.





PLEADING FOR ACCEPTANCE.

WHEN thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come
To take thy ransomed people home,
Shall I among them stand?
Shall such a worthless worm as I,
‘Who sometimes am afraid to die,
Be found at thy right hand ?

[ love to meet thy people now,

Before thy feet with them to bow,
Though vilest of them all; ,

But—can I bear the piercing thought ?—

' What if my name should be left out,

When thou for them shalt call ?

O Lord, prevent it by thy grace;
Be thou my only hiding-place,

In this the accepted day ;
Thy pardoning voice, O, let me hear,
To still my unbelieving fear,

Nor let me fall, I pray.

And when the final trump shall sound,
Among thy saints let me be found,
To bow before thy face:
Then in triumphant strains I’ll sing,
While heaven’s resounding mansions ring.
With praise of sovereign grace.







GROWTH IN GRACE:

OR, THE YOUNG PROFESSOR DIRECTED HOW TO |
ATTAIN TO EMINENT PIETY.



BY JONATHAN EDWARDS AND JOHN A JAMES.

P

By the Young Professor, I mean the person
lately converted, and who has but recently |
assumed the Christian name, whether in the ©
morning or the meridian of his days. Ican- |
not do better than submit to the considera-
tion of such persons the following judicious
advice, given by the justly celebrated Jona-—
than Edwards, to a young person who had
just commenced the life of faith.

“ My dear young Friend:

‘* As you desired me.to send you, in writing,
some directions how to conduct yourself in
your Christian course, I would now answer
your request. The sweet remembrance of
the great things I have lately seen at S——,
inclines me'to do anything in my power, to
contribute to the, spiritual joy and prosperity
of God’s people there.





















36 THE YOUNG PROFESSOR.

“1. I would advise you to keep up as
great a strife and earnestness in religion as if
you knew yourself to be in a state of nature,
and were seeking conversion. We advise
persons under conviction to be earnest and
violent for the kingdom of heaven; but when
they have attained to conversion, they ought
not to be the less watchful, laborious, and ear-
nest in the whole work of religion; but the
more so, for they are under infinitely greater
obligation. For want of this, many persons,
in a few months after their conversion, have
begun to lose their sweet and lively sense of

spiritual things, and to grow cold and dark,
| and have ‘pierced themselves through with
many sorrows ;’ whereas, if they had done as
the apostle did, (Phil. ili. 12—14,) their path
would have been ‘as the shining light, that
shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’

“2. Do not leave off seeking, striving, and
praying for the very same things that we
exhort unconverted persons to strive for, and
a degree of which you have had already in ~
conversion. Pray that your eyes may be
opened, that you may receive sight, that you
may know yourself, and be brought to God’s
footstool; and that you may see the glory of
God and Christ, and may be raised from the
dead, and have the love of Christ shed abroad













THE YOUNG PROFESSOR. 37

in your heart. Those who have most of these
things, have need still to pray for them; for
there is so much blindness and hardness,
pride and death remaining, that they still
need to have that work of God wrought upon

that shall be bringing them out of darkness
into God’s marvellous light, and be a kind of
new conversion and resurrection from the
dead. There are very few requests that are
proper for an impenitent man, that are not
also, in some sense, proper for the godly.
“3. When you hear a sermon, hear for
yourself. Though’ what is spoken may he
more especially directed to the unconverted,
or to those that, in other respects, are in dif-

the chief intent of your mind be to consider,
‘In what respect is this applicable to me? and
what improvement ought I to make of this,
for my own soul’s good ?? ;

4, Though-God has forgiven and forgot-
ten your past sins, yet do not forget them
yourself: often remember what a wretched
bend-slave you were in the land of Egypt.
Often bring to mind your particular acts of
sin before conversion ; as the blessed apostle,
Paul, is often mentioning his old blasphem-
ing, persecuting spirit, and his injuriousness





them, further to enlighten and enliven them,’

ferent circumstances from yourself; yet, let
































38 THE YOUNG PROFESSOR.

to the renewed, humbling his heart, and ac-
knowledging that he was the least of the
apostles, and not worthy ‘to be called an
apostle,’ and the ‘ least of all saints,’ and the
‘chief of sinners ;’ and be often confessing
your old sins to God, and let that text be
often in your mind, ‘that thou mayest re-
member and be confounded, and never open
your mouth any more, because of thy shame,
when I am pacified toward thee for all that
thou hast done, saith the Lord God.’

“5, Remember, that you have more cause,
on some accounts, a thousand times, to lament
and humble yourself for sins that have been
| committed since conversion, than before, be-
| cause of the infinitely greater obligations
that are upon you to live to God, and to look
upon the faithfulness of Christ in unchange-
| ably continuing his loving kindness, notwith-
standing all your great unworthiness since
your conversion.

“6, Be always greatly abased for your
remaining sin, and never think that you lie
low enough for it; but yet be not discouraged
or disheartened by it; for, though we are
| exceeding sinful, yet we have an advocate
. with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous ;
the preciousness of whose blood, *the merit
- of whose righteousness, and the greatness of




























THE YOUNG PROFESSOR. 39

whose love and faithfulness, infinitely over-
top the highest mountain of our sins.

“7, Remember, that pride is the worst
viper that is in the human heart, the greatest
disturber of the soul’s peace, and of sweet
communion with Christ; it was the first sin
committed, and lies lowest in the ‘foundation
of Satan’s whole building, and is with the
greatest difficulty rooted out, and is the most
hidden, secret, and deceitful of all lusts, and
often creeps insensibly into the midst-of re-
ligion, even, sometimes, under the disguise of
humility itself.

“3, That you may pass a correct fidesinent
concerning yourself, always look upon those
as the best discoveries, and the best com-
forts, that have most of these two effects:
those that make you least and lowest, and
most like a child; and ‘those that most

-engage and fix your heart in a full and firm
disposition to deny yourself for God, and to
spend and be.spent for him.

“9, If at any time you fall into doubts about
the state of your soul, into dark and dull
frames of mind, it is proper to review your
past experience; but do not consume too
much time and strength in this way: rather
apply. yourself, with all your might, to an
earnest pursuit after renewed experience,









40 THE YOUNG PROFESSOR.



new light, and new lively acts of faith and
love. One new discovery of the glory of
Christ’s face, will do more toward scattering
clouds. of darkness in one minute, than ex-
amining old experience, by the best marks
that can be given, through a whole year.

‘10, When the exercise of grace is low,
and corruption prevails, and by that means
fear prevails,-do not desire to have fear cast
out any other way than by the reviving and
prevailing of love in the heart: by this, fear
will be effectually: expelled, as darkness in
a room vanishes away when the pleasant
beams of the sun are let into it.

“11. When you counsel and warn others,
do it earnestly, and affectionately, and tho-
roughly ; and when you are speaking to your
equals, let your warnings be intermixed with
expressions of your sense of your own un-
worthiness, and of the sovereign grace that
makes you to differ.

12. Under special difficulties, or when in
great need of, or great longings after, any
particular mercy for yourself or others, set
apart a day for secret prayer and fasting by
yourself alone; and let the day be spent, not |
only in petitions for the mercies you desire, |
but in searching your heart, and in or ins |

over your past life, and confessing your sins





°



| THE YOUNG PROFESSOR. Al
b





efore God, not as is done in public prayer,
but by a very particular rehearsal before
God of the sins of your past life, from your
childhood hitherto, before and after conver-
sion, with the circumstances and aggrava-
tions attending them, and spreading all the
abominations of your heart very particularly,
and as fully as possible, before him. |

“13. Do not let the adversaries of the cross
have occasion to reproach religion on your
account. How holily should the children of
God, the redeemed and the beloved of the
Son.of God, behave themselves! Therefore,
‘walk as children of the light, and of the
day,’ and ‘adorn the doctrine of God your
Saviour ;’ and especially abound in what are
called the Christian virtues, and which make
you like the Lamb of God; be meek and lowly
of heart, and full of pure, heavenly, and hum-
ble love to all; abound in deeds of love to
others, and self-denial for others; and let
there be in, you a disposition to account
others better than yourself.

“14. In all your course, walk with God,
and follow Christ, as a little, poor, helpless
child, taking hold of Christ’s hand, keeping
your eye on the marks of the wounds in his
hands and side, whence came the blood that
cleanses you from sin, and hiding your naked-





































42 GROWTH IN GRACE,

ness under the skirt of the white-shining
robes of his righteousness.

“15, Pray much for the ministers and the
church of God; especially that he would
carry on his glorious work which he has now
begun, till the world shall be full of his
glory. |
J. Epwarps.”

If it be necessary to add anything to this
excellent letter, I would deliver it in the fol-
lowing particulars.

Set out in your profession with clear and
impressive ideas of what it implies, and for
what purpose it is to be made.

Seek to possess and to retain a comfortable
sense of your interest in the blessings of sal-
vation, even the witness of the Spirit that you
are a child of God; and remember that evi-—
| dence of piety is not so much to be sought in

strong and high emotions of any kind, as in

real humility, self-distrust, hungering and
thirsting after righteousness, sorrow for sin,
and a continual effort to regulate your
thoughts, feelings, and conduct by the word
of God.
Do not expect to find, in your own case,
everything you have heard or read of, in the
lp eapemenee of others. In the work of grace

























THE YOUNG PROFESSOR. 43 |

there is substantial uniformity and circum-
stantial variety. Especially remember that.
religion is not a principle of such self-pre
serving energy, as that, when once planted in |
the soul, it will continue to thrive and in-
crease without effort ; but, on the contrary, is
of so tender and delicate a nature as to
require great, constant, and peers anx-
iety, watchfulness and care.

Do not expect to be made happy 1 eit
gion unless you become eminent Christians.
They who would enjoy their profession must
drink deep of the wells of salvation. A luke--
warm, half-hearted Christian enjoys neither
the world nor religion:

Do not make the average piety of profes |
| sors the model or standard of your own; but
look to the standard set up in the word of
God. Consider not what professors are, but
what they should be. Many are deceiving
_ themselves, and if you copy them in their |
delusion, you will follow them in their ruin.
This being satisfied to be as others are, has
had a more disastrous influence on the church

and the world than all other causes put to-
gether.

Remember that your evidence of religion
ceases when anything else has the first place
in your thoughts and affections.











L———

44 GROWTH IN GRACE.

Never suffer any day to pass without read-
ing a portion of the Holy Scripture; and be
jealous of every book that becomes a rival
with the Bible.

Acquire and maintain great tenderness of
conscience, and recollect that there are no
little sins for a professor.

Begin your Christian course with habits
of usefulness. A constant desire and aim to
do good as instruments of saving sinners, and
raising the standard of piety and benevolent
activity in our fellow-Christians, is one of
the ends of our conversion, and a convincing
proof of its reality.

Do not neglect religious duty because you
suppose your feelings are not right at the
time. Action begets emotion; and the right
feeling comes with the right doing.

In the great work of mortification, do not
despond and give up the work, although often
defeated in the attempt to conquer and eradi-
cate a corruption. It must be conquered ; 1t
may be by divine grace assisting your en-
deavors; and it will be, if you are resolute
and persevering.

Recollect, you as much need supporting
and preserving grace, as you did converting
grace. Regeneration supplies no stock which
makes you independent of God. “If we live







THE YOUNG PROFESSOR. 45



in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Gal. v.25. “We must know what is the ex-
ceeding greatness of God’s power to us-ward
who believe.”? Our every action as believers
must be performed in the dependence and
confidence of faith.

Do you need ENcoURAGEMENT? Are you
alarmed at the difficulties and, dangers of the
way? Does your heart. faint to think how
many have made shipwreck of faith and a
good conscience? Consider, you enjoy the
sympathies and prayers of the whole church
—the watchfulness and care of the pastor—
and, what is of far more value and consola-
tion, the notice, the love, intercession, and
the support of the Great and Good Shepherd,
who gathers the lambs in his arms, and car-
ries them in his bosom. He will not forget
the lambs; their feeble bleat attracts his
notice, their helplessness -draws his atten-
tion, and for them he puts forth all his pasto-
ral kindness and skill. Consider, also, that
when Jesus Christ begins a good work he
will carry it on to perfection. You have all
the infinite resources of the Holy Spirit to
depend upon, and to draw from. Exceeding

| great and precious promises, which are all
yea and amen in Christ Jesus, are continually
| speaking encouragement to you from God.



46 GROWTH IN GRACE.

And behold in the church around you, pro- |
fessors, gray in the service of the Lord, who |
were once young and trembling as you now
are, but who have been kept through all the
duties, the difficulties, and. the temptations —
of perhaps forty or fifty years; and if you
look into the unseen world, there are millions
round the throne, who have been kept by the ©
power of God through faith*unto salvation.
The faithful love and all-sufficient grace
which have kept them, can-and will keep
you. .With these considerations, “go on
your way re joicing. -





EMINENT PIETY.



THE NECESSITY AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUNG PRO-
FESSORS SEEKING TO ATTAIN TO
EMINENT PIETY. .

Aut true Christians are really converted,
but all are not equally sanctified. There is
an essential difference of nature between the
least eminent Christian and the most excel-
lent worldling ; but it is not always percepti-
ble to us.

Perhaps it may be well to state what is
meant by eminent piety. Real personal god-
liness consists of the union of scriptural opin-
ions—spiritual affections—a tender conscience
—good morals—and Christian love : eminent
piety, therefore, means all these same ele-
ments united and carried on to a high degree.

A great regard for, and relish of evangeli-
cal sentiment is necessary: a discriminating
mind, that attaches much importance to right
opinions, in opposition to that spurious can-
dor and destructive latitudinarianism which
thinks it of little consequence what aman
believes, provided he acts well.



48 GROWTH IN GRACE.

With this must be associated a large meas- -
ure of spiritual affections, or what in common
discourse is called spirituality of mind; a
great and prevailing taste for divine and
heavenly things; a walking with God; living

by faith; setting our affections on things
above ; being dead to the world ; a proneness
to devout meditation; a delight in prayer; a
fondness for the Scriptures; a disposition to
retire from company to hold communion with
God ; an ardent love to religious ordinances ;
an enjoyment of the peace that passeth un-
derstanding, and a frequent experience of the
joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.
This is eminent religion.

It must contain much laborious and pain-
Sul mortification of sin in the heart. The
New ‘Testament everywhere supposes the
indwelling of sin in believers, and every-
where enjoins its mortification. There is
“ still a law in our members warring against
the law of our mind, seeking to bring us into
captivity to the law of sin which is in our
members.” ‘The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, andthe spirit against the fiesh; and
these are contrary the one to the other, so
that we cannot do the things that we would.”
Hence we are called upon “to crucify the
flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof ;”






EMINENT PIETY. 49



























“to mortify the deeds of the body;” “to strive
against sin;” “to cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holli-
ness in the fear of God.” He is therefore
most eminent in religion who is most engaged
to the work of mortification of sin; who deals
with his heart as a most reat and cleanly
~-woman deals with her house, not enduring
that one filthy room or one unclean spot
should be found in it. This struggle after
universal holiness, inward holiness, perfect
holiness, this is eminent religion: a desire
and endeavor after purity of heart; a real
and vigorous pursuit after absolute perfec-
tion. :

It includes also an exquisite tenderness of
conscience ; a mind that trembles at sin, and
shrinks like the apple of the eye from slight
offences, as well as greater ones; a holy
watchfulness against sins of the tongue, and
of the imagination, and of the heart, as well
as of the life; a constant penitential frame
for our manifold imperfections.

Nor must we omit to mention; as essential
to eminent piety, a high-toned morality; a
sense of honor; an inflexible integrity, not to
be seduced by the greatest temptations and
most flattering prospects.

Liberality for the cause of Christ propor-











50 GROWTH IN GRACE.

tioned to our circumstances, is also necessary
to exalted religion ; a mind so penetrated .and
filled with a sense of God’s love in Christ
Jesus to us, as shall make us willing to give
freely to the cause of God, of that property
which he has first given to us.

Nor is the description complete without
mentioning a large portion of that charity
which the apostle so beautifully describes
in the thirteenth chapter of the first epistle
to the Corinthians. The spirit of love must



be in us, or there is no religion; there must

be much of this spirit, or there cannot be
eminent religion. This, this is piety. Love

is religion; and the man who is greatly want-

ing in this, let him have what else he may,
is low in personal godliness.

Connected with all this must be the preva-
lence af evangelical motive; a constant im-
pulse supplied to the soul from the belief and
sense of the love of Christ. The moral ex-
cellence of Christianity is not an abstract
system of ethics, a mere sense of propriety,

leading to a cold, heartless, though still well -

formed character: it is a constant movement
of the heart in the splendor and attraction of
the cross of Christ. “The love of Christ con-
straineth us,” is the spring and reason of all
Christian piety. He is eminent in religion













EMINENT PIETY. 51

——

in whose heart Christ dwells by faith; who
is rooted and grounded in love; who knows
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,
and to whom this divine love is as the
warmth of its spiritual life, the pulsation of
the heart, the source of healthful action ; who
loves his wife as and because Christ loved
him; who forgives his enemy because Christ |
forgave him; who is benevolent to others
because Christ was full of grace to him; who
lives in all holiness because Christ died for
this purpose in reference to him; this is
eminent piety; to be always in sight of the
cross, having fellowship with Christ in his
sufferings, and being made conformable unto
his death; so that we shall truly comprehend
the meaning and feel the force of the apos-
tle’s words, “ FoR ME TO LIVE 1s CurisT.”

The union of all these constitutes eminent
religion. It is not a great prominence of any
one of them, to the neglect of others; but the
combination in due proportions of these va-
ried excellences. |

A man, though seemingly eminent for
spirituality, yet if low in morality ; or if defi-
cient in liberality ; yet lukewarm in spiritual
affection; or if very upright, and also devo-’
tional, yet of known bad temper, cannot be
eminent in religion.




































52 GROWTH IN GRACE.



Sometimes we see an individual generous
and public-spirited, but he is perhaps austere
and tyrannical at home; or else he is want-
ing in a nice and delicate sense of honor in
his commercjal transactions; or his personal
religion is lukewarm or defective. Here isa
second; he is a partaker of a zealous and
enlightened attachment to orthodox senti-
ment, but he is too covetous, or too. much
given to unsubdued temper. A third is up-
right and honorable as a tradesman, a pat-
tern of all that is just, true, honest, lovely
and of good report, but he is sadly deficient in
spirituality of mind and religious affections.
A fourth 1s spiritual above most, fond of
meditation, and much given to prayer, but is
at the same time somewhat puffed up with
pride, censorious, and sadly wanting in zeal
for the spread of Christ’s kingdom in ‘the
world. Thus we find, in looking round on
the Christian church, that the various excel-
lences and beauties of the New Creature,
seem rather shared by many than possessed
by each.

Eminent piety is the way to happiness. It
is Joy, and peace, and bliss—the sunshine of

the heart, the Sabbath of the soul, the rest-
ing place on which the heart lays down its
load of cares, and anxieties, and sorrows.





EMINENT PIETY. 53


























There is happiness in faith, but it must be
strong faith; happiness in hope, but it must
be lively hope ; happiness in love, but it must
be fervent love. The religion of many pro-
fessors is useless to them. It does nothing
for them. They derive no good from it.
They are neither comforted in trouble, grate-
ful in prosperity, nor sustained in anxiety, by
it. They hear some talk of their joys, and
hopes, and seasons of communion with God,

but they are strangers to these things; in
short, their religion is a mere dead form. In
the case of some other professors, their reli-
gion is an actual incumbrance, a hindrance to
their happiness, rather than a help. They
are spoiled for the world, without being fitted

‘for the church. They cannot go to fashion-
able amusements, and yet they have nothing
in the place of them. Their soul dwells ina
wilderness, a bleak and cheerless desert,
where no pleasant plant grows, not even the
deleterious flower of sinful pleasure. The
happiness of religion is reserved for those
whose piety is sincere, and the higher degrees
of its happiness for such as have large meas-
ures of holiness. God is the fountain of life ;,
and in his light only you can see light; you
must press nearer to him if you would enjoy

him. His dwelling is in the holy mount, and







54 GROWTH IN GRACE,

you must ascend to him there, if you-would
have joy and peace in believing. You have
read. the biography of eminent saints, and
sometimes have exclaimed, in almost an
agony, “ Why am I a stranger to their de-
lights?” The answer is easy : “ Because you
ure a stranger to that elevated piety from
which their joy sprung.”” The same meas-
ure of faith would have been attended, in
your case, with the same degree of holy joy.
You are too worldly, too proud, too irritable,
too prone to violate the rule of duty in little
things, too careless in your walk; and must
therefore grow in grace before you can in-
crease in religious comfort.

The continuance of religion in the soul is
exceedingly precarious if it he not eminent.
In many cases, piety is so superficial, feeble,
lukewarm, and undecided, that it soon dies
away amidst the cares, the comforts, and the
pursuits of life. It has not root, strength, or
vitality enough, to resist the influence of the
calm, much less the shock of the tempest. It
is like a taper, that needs not the gust of
wind to blow it out, but which expires in still
air, for want of oil to keep it burning. We
see many and melancholy exemplifications
of this. Young females, who in single life
- seemed to have religion, have lost it all





EMINENT PIETY. 55

amidst the cares of a family; many a ser-
vant, who, in his dependent situation, was a
consistent, though not an eminent professor,
has become a contirmed worldling upon enter-
ing into business as his own master; many
an individual, whose piety was sustained by
the aid of quickening and powerful preach-
ing, has relapsed into utter carelessness
when taken away from these refreshing ordi-
nances. In all these instances, religion with-
ered away for want of root: In other cases
it has been destroyed, laid. prostrate at once,
by a violent attack of temptation, or some
sudden change of circumstances. There is, |
' therefore, no safety but in a heart established
by grace; a clearness of view, a strength of
principle, a deep-rooted conviction, and a
peace that passeth understanding, keeping
the heart and mind in the fear of God.¢ Oh
what disclosures would days of persecution
make; if they were to come again! In such
sifting times, how many professors, who now
excite no suspicion of their sincerity, would
be blown away as the chaff! } We see this in
part exemplified now, by the influence of or-
dinary troubles upon some of these. In pros-
perity they are cheerful, regular, and appa-
rently consistent ; but see them in adversity ;

what poor, dispirited, despairing creatures









56 GROWTH IN GRACE.



they are! -Not a ray of comfort reaches their
heart; nota smile is on their countenance ;
every pleasant prospect is vanished, every
hope is extinguished, and they are as bleak,
desolate, and forlorn, as the veriest worldling
on earth in the wreck of his fortune. Would
it. be thus if there were eminent piety ?

How will your usefulness be increased by
eminent piety. Pure zeal is the emanation
of true godliness, and in proportion to the
strength of the latter will be the fervor of the
former. It is the love of Christ constraining
us, that will keep us steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord.
Excitement from other causes, impulses
from other sources, will subside; it is this,
this only, that can supply a constant spring
of activity and liberality. This will give
permanency and regularity to our efforts, and
will be likely to give success also by bring-
ing down, through the instrumentality of
fervent prayer, the blessing of God on all we
do. . ’

And then grace and glory are inseparable;
grace is glory begun, and glory is grace com-
pleted; grace is the seed, glory is the crop,
and in proportion to the seed will be cer-
tainly the harvest; for what a man soweth
that shall he also reap. That there are dif-

























































EMINENT PIETY...

ferent degrees of honor and felicity in the
heavenly world, is clearly a doctrine of Scrip-
ture, and it is proposed there as an incentive
to seek after high attainments in godliness.
Our future happiness or misery, though the
former is strictly a gift of grace, and the
other an award of justice, will unquestiona-
bly spring out of the character we attain to
in this world. A very large proportion of
both heaven and hell will consist of some-
thing within us; will arise from what we are;
in one case from perfect holiness, and in the
other from absolutely matured sin. There
will be, of course, external objects that will
contribute to the exercises of these different
states of mind; but the states of mind them-
selves will be the seat of misery or bliss.
Hence then it is evident we are now contin-
ually meetening for one or other of these condi-
tions ; and so close is the connection between
| grace and glory, that it is probable that not
a.single act of true piety, not an effort, not a
motive, not a feeling, is without its influence
upon our eternal state. Every holy desire,
volition, word, purpose, and action, is some-
thing carried to the formation of the eternal
character; just as every little dot of the
painter’s pencil is something contributed te
the completeness of the picture. So, on the


































58 GROWTH IN GRACE.





contrary, every single sin on earth is an
addition to the character and torment of a
damned spirit in hell. What a motive, then,
is this consideration to exalted piety, to high
degrees of religion! All you acquire in this
world is an accumulation going on for'the
next. This is laying up treasures in heaven,
growing rich towards God, and becoming
affluent for eternity. The eminent Christian
is preparing for some high post in the king-
dom of God, and for a station of double
honor in the realms of immortality.

O professors! let me, with all the earnest-
ness of which I am capable, or which I am
able to express, exhort and entreat you to seek
after higher attainments in piety thaa you
possess. You are living too low, far too
low ; beneath, much beneath your duty, your
privilege, your principles, and your profes-
sion. Your religion is too much a religion
of mere opinions, and forms, and ceremonies ;
of mere abstinence from gross immorality,
coupled with an attendance upon an evangel-
ical ministry. Where, O where, [ask again,
as I have done before, do we see the life of
God in the soul, the heavenly mind,the work
of faith, the tender conscience, the image of
God, the mind of Christ, the impress of eter-
nity? Who have conqueredthe world by



EMINENT PIETY. 59

faith? Who have set their affections on
things above? Who are making it their
great business to prepare for the coming of
Christ, and their blessed hope to look for his
arrival? Where are the epistles of Christ
known and read of all men? Where are the
peculiar people? Where the witnesses for
God? Where are they to whom we can
point and say, “ Behold the men and women
who look not at things seen and temporal,
but at things not-seen and eternal ?”” Awake,
arise, shine; listen to the fearful language of
Christ to a Christian church of antiquity:
“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold
nor hot. I would thou wert either cold or
hot. So, then, because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out
of my mouth.” (Rev. iii. 16.) Tremble at
this denunciation, lest it should come upon
you.

Begin, from the perusal of these pages, to
seek after higher degrees of personal religion.
Be not satisfied with present attainments.
Even the apostle Paul resolved to forget the
things that were behind, in a desire to press
on to greater excellence. And can you be sat-
isfied? Beware of making the perilous yet
frequent experiment of ascertaining with how
little piety you can reach heaven. They who







| 60 GROWTH IN GRACE.



are seeking just enough religion for this pur-
pose, will find out, to their eternal confusion,
that they had not enough. ~ The love of God,
like the love of money, is never satisfied with
| its possession. Real grace in the soul is
ever seeking after increase, and any ap-—
proach to contentment with what you have
is a proof you have none. You must grow.
It is your solemn duty. God demands it;
| your happiness and your safety require it.
It is as much your duty to be eminent Chris-
tians as it is that of others. No reason for
this applies to them which does not equally
apply to you. attainable by you. ‘The grace that is neces-
sary for this is within your reach. You are
not to imagine that there is any peculiarity in
your case which forbids the hope of improve-
ment. God’s grace is all-sufficient ; the Holy
Spirit is omnipotent. You are commanded
as a matter of duty, invited as a matter of
privilege, to be eminent in religion. O take
up the wish, the purpose, the determination,
Make it an object that you must accomplish,
an attainment you must secure. Set about
it in earnest. Give yourself to reading, to
meditation and prayer. Set apart time, suf-
ficient time, for all the purposes of private
devotion; for communion with your. own





EMINENT PIETY. 61

——:

heart, and for communion with God. Resist
the encroaching, absorbing, destructive influ-
ence of the world in any form. Consider
you have a soul to be saved, a hell to avoid,
a heaven to obtain. Your profession cannot
do this for you; rely not upon that; feel as
if the work were all to be begun; let there be
the same earnestness, the same diligence, the
same solicitude, as there were when you com-
menced the pursuit of eternal life. Adopt
the Bible afresh as the Book of bocks; let
nothing supplant this precious volume. One
great cause why the piety of this age is so
feeble and so languid, is because the Bible
has in many cases been swept away by a
flood of uninspired publications. The pure
milk of the word has been neglected, or has
been so diluted, as to leave but little nourish-
ment in the mixture; and the new-born babe,
as matter of course, has remained dwarfish
and sickly. Even the biography of the most
distinguished saints, which ought to form a
part of the Christian’s reading, and is emi-
nently calculated to fan the flame of devotion
in the soul, ought not to be allowed to dis-
place the word of God. Again, I say, pro-
fessors, awake, arise, shine. “To be car-
nally minded is death; to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. If ye be risen







62 GROWTH IN GRACE.

with Christ, seek those things which are
above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God. Set your affections on things above,
not on things on the earth. For ye are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
Col. iii. 1—3.





“QO, coun I find, from day to day,
A nearness to my God,
Then would my hours glide sweet away,
While leaning on his word.

Lord, I desite with thee to live
Anew from day to day,

In joys the world can never give,
‘Nor ever take away.

'

Blest Jesus, come, and rule my heart,
And make me wholly thine,

That I may never more depart,
Nor grieve thy love divine.

Thus, till my last, expiring breath,
Thy goodness I’ll adore ;

And when my frame dissolves in death,
My soul shall love thee more.’’



















THE GOLDEN CENSER:

OR,

A VISIT TO THE HOUSE OF
PRAYER.

BY

JOHN HARRIS, D.D.



THE

GOLDEN CENSER.



MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER
FOR ALL PEOPLE.—Isa. lvi. 7.

In order to realize the glorious scene
glanced at in the text, in which the world
shall finally be‘seen prostrate before God in
prayer, the first and the earliest step neces-
sarily was a revelation of the divine exist-
ence.

_For he that cometh to God must believe
that he is; and how shall they call on him
of whom they have not heard ?

This fact takes us back in thought to the
time when the knowledge of God was lost
from the earth; when the Lord, looking
down from heaven, to see if there were any
that understood and seek God, beheld the
appalling spectacle of an entire race in apos-
tacy with Him; and when, breaking the fear-
ful silence which sin had produced, he called
to.his wandering creatures and proclaimed I
am. That was an era in the moral history



66 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

of man, for it was, in effect, giving: to a
world of atheists a God. There the great
object of prayer stood revealed before them.
Had they known Him, the world would have
flocked at once in adoration to his feet. _
But does he take an interest in the affairs
of the world? for if he does not, prayer to
him is useless. In answer to this question,
Sinai rises to view. Sinai, burning with fire,
covered with the blackness and darkness of
the tempest, and echoing with the sound of a
trumpet, and the voice of words: God is
there, legislating for sinful man. Can ‘you
question his deep interest in human affairs?
Listen to his law as he’ proclaims it, and
mark how much of it relates directly to your
welfare. Mark how it denounces a curse
against all who shall neglect the duties ‘they
owe to you; how tender it is for your life;
how it denounces the man who shall even be
angry with you without a cause; how Jjeal-
ously it guards your property, your reputa-
tion, and everything that is dear to you; how
it throws its ample shield over you and all
you have; how it constitutes itself thewatch-.
ful guardian of all; how it kindles into a wall
of fire around you; how it thunders forth
“cursed is every one” that attempts to“in-
jure you, and requires all the people to say



THE GOLDEN CENSER. 67

“amen ;” how it requires the universe to
give a solemn pledge to be tender of your
welfare! The essence of the whole law is
love, and that essence it seeks to instil into
human hearts, binding them together into
one great community of love.

_ But, is the great God accessible? That
he takes a benevolent interest in human af-
fairs is evident; but if, however, the terrors
of Sinai are not laid aside, if that be a speci-
men of his usual state, who can venture to
approach him? .“'The Lord,” said Solomon,
“the Lord said he would dwell in thick dark-
ness.” Will he emerge from that cloud, will
he dissipate that gloom, and allow man to
approach him? The temple ef Sion is an
answer to this inquiry—‘ Let the people be-
hold me; I will dwell among them.”

The very idea that He should do this over-
whelmed the mind of Solomon with amaze-
ment, ‘“ Will God,” said he, “in very deed”
—is it not merely a figure ?—“ will he in very
deed, and literally, dwell with men on the
earth! Behold the heaven, and the heaven
of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much
less this house which I have built. Will the
divine Omnipresence take up his dwelling
here ?. Is not the expectation too great to be
realized?” “No,” said God, “this is my



68 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

rest forever; here will I dwell; for I have
desired it.” What amazing condescension
is this !:

And why dwells he there? That men may
come and fall down before him, and that he
may commune with them from off the mercy-
seat. Why dwells he there? Do you not see
through his gracious design? He makes it
his rest, that men may come to him and
make it their rest. Numbers through suc-
cessive ages availed themselves of his grace
there ; Penitence often smote on its breast till
its tears were wiped away; there conscious
Guilt lost its tormenting sting and first found
peace; Fear lifted up its eyes and smiled;
Faith looked up in the face of God, and
appealed to the heart of God, as she stood
with her hand on the head of the victim.
There prophets and kings, and the righteous
men of many nations, bowed down in prayer,
and found that which they sought—accept-
ance with God.

But everything there, gracious as it was,
calculated as it was to bring all people in
humble prostration before God, existed only
in type and promise. It may be asked,
therefore, in the next place, have those types
been accomplished? That temple is gone;
its splendors have vanished ; its most sacred



THE GOLDEN CENSER. 69

things have disappeared; its whole econ-
omy is abolished; the very nation itself is
scattered to the winds of heaven ;—are those
promises fulfilled? Oh! what tremendous
scenes arise and present themselves in reply!
The fulness of time arrives,,and behold, God
sending forth his Son. All heaven is wonder-
ing and rejoicing, for in his person Divinity
and Humanity have at length met. Before,
they had been only approaching each other,
but now they have met, coalesced, and be-
come one. He has taken our nature and has
made.a temple of that ; God is manifested in
the flesh. Calvary appears; there is our
substitute—the Son of God; he is making an
infinite compensation for our demerit, wash-
ing out the guilt of the world in his own
blood ; dying, that God may never more be
angry with man, that man may never more
deny or grieve the love of God. The day of
Pentecost arrives—behold in its scenes a
proof that our Advocate has entered on his
office of intercessor above, and that his saeri-
ficial plea has prevailed. For, lo! the Spirit
is poured out from on high, and thousands
bow in meek subjection to His power, con-
stituting at once the means and the pledge
that His house shall become a House of
Prayer for all people. Is it then still asked,



70 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

if the ancient promises have been fulfilled ?
Let the tears of the sinner, the joy of the
saint, and the success of the Gospel in every
subsequent age, bear witness. ~

Do you look around and ask for the altar
of sacrifice ? ye have an altar, says the
Apostle; though invisible to the eye of
sense, the eye of faith beholds it; and on
that altar there is a victim. Will you not
reverentially approach and look upon it?
Mark the majesty and meekness, the dignity
and compassion of his looks. It is Christ
crucified ; it is the Lamb of God taking away
the sins of the world. The Lord hath laid
upon him the iniquity of us all. Is not that
superior to the Jewish sacrifice? . He is
‘spotless; his blood cleanseth from all sin;
“by his one offering he hath perfected for-
ever them that are sanctified.” Will you not
draw near and nearer still, and lay your hand
by faith on the head of this atoning sacrifice ?
God hath set him forth as a propitiation for
sin through faith in his blood.

Do you look around here for the ark of the
covenant? The ark we have not, but the
covenant we have. What means this sacred
book ?

* All that the ark did once contain
Could no such grace afford.”’



THE GOLDEN CENSER. 71



“This is the new covenant,” saith Christ ;
“the new covenant in my blood,” the cove-
nant of life. Every page of it proclaims,
*‘ Hear, and the soul shall live.”

“ Our Advocate with the Father is Christ
Jesus the righteous.” ‘He ever liveth to
make intercession for us. Everything valu-
able in the Jewish economy here finds ac-
complishment, stability and perfection ; and
the design of it all is to make his house of
prayer a place of friendly meeting between
God and man. This was the great object
at which he aimed when he dwelt among us.
Hence the attractions with which he in-
vested the throne of grace, adorning it with
precious gifts, on which is inscribed, “ Ask
and ye shall receive ;” describing Him that
sits on the throne as our Father, waiting to
receive us, and us as. his children; assuring
us that we go there invited and expected as
his friends; placing in our hands a censer
filled with his own merit, to make our accept-
ance secure; and still his heart is bent on
effecting an interview between God and man.
Hence the specific design for which he has
instituted the ministry of the Gospel is to
beseech men to be reconciled to God, to come
and cast themselves down at his feet; and
hence the office of Mediator, which he fills in
























72 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

heaven, never quitting his station, never re-
mitting his duties for a moment, but watch-
ing and encouraging the sinner as he takes
his first step to the mercy-seat, by declaring,
‘Twill pray the Father for you ;” for well he
knows, that when brought in penitence to the
footstool of mercy, our forgiveness is certain,
and the end of the Gospel is gained.

( But again—admitting that God is thus
accessible and gracious, is he thus accessible
and gracious to all? Ask if the light of day
is free for all that’see it—ask if the air of
heaven is free for all that breathe; but ask
not if the throne of mercy be open to all that
need salvation. ‘ My house shall be called
a house of prayer for ail ce re-
member that he said this under the moral
economy of the Jews. Is the Gospel church
less open and free than the Jewish temple ?
Its gates are never to be shut night or day ; its
blessings are to be offered without money and
without price; its ministers are despatched
into all lands with the command, “ Preach
the Gospel to every creature under heaven;
proclaim that I am now on my throne, giving
audience to the world. Say to them, all
things are mine; come and share.them. I
possess them for your enjoyment and use;
come, and let me confer them upon you. All

SE ee, Cenc aEEENEE IEEE

———





THE GOLDEN CENSER. 73

the riches and resources of heaven are mine.
and you may be made the happy recipients.
Come, and I will bless you with eternal life.
, Whosoever will, let him come; I cast out |
“none. ) My house shall be called a house of
prayer for all people.”

By what particular changes in the present
kind of instrumentality, at what precise pe-
riod, or to what exact point of perfection the
result may be realized, we cannot say, and
are not anxious.to know; sufficient is it for
us to know that the time will come when the
world shall be seen prostrate before God in
prayer, and then will it be clearly perceived
that this has been brought to pass as. the
result of all that God has planned, and
Christ has suffered, and the Holy Spirit has
effected. The very mention of his name
then will be sufficient to bring the whole
world into a posture of adoration; they will
come before him hungry for his blessings,
languishing for his Spirit, casting themselves
before him, and coveting and craving the gifts
of his grace. And as his throne is open for
all, so is his house a house of prayer (for all
people. “O then, Thou that hearest prayer,
to thee shall all flesh come.” They shall not
be satisfied to enjoy Thee alone. They shall
go out, and with a friendly violence compel —







74. THE GOLDEN CENSER. |

others to come in and share thy favors with
them. “It shall come to pass that. there
shall come people, and the inhabitants of
many cities; and the inhabitants of one
city shall go to another, saying, Let us go
speedily to pray before the Lord. Iwill go
also; yea, many people and strong nations
- shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts, and to
pray before the Lord.” Churches shall come
to adore him and to pay him homage, cities
to consult him, nations to surrender to him,
all the kindred of the earth to fall down
before him. They shall not be content to
praise him alone; they shall feel as if they
wanted help, the help of the world, to raise a
song adequate to his praise, and a prayer
equal to the ardor of their desires. “ And it
shall come to pass, that from one new moon
to another, and from one sabbath to another,
shall all flesh come before me, saith: the
‘Lord of Hosts.” Then will man have found
his only proper place; he will have returned
to the only spot in.the universe which be-
comes him—at the feet of God; and, having
found his proper place, as his ultimate end,
there will he rest, confessing himself nothing,
that God may be all; going out of himself
and losing himself in God, finding his heaven

| in the smile of God. Then God will have

ee a a neh OD A RE



5





en nn nm ee ent en en rn tree en een eer seni



THE GOLDEN CENSER. 75

recovered his proper glory, every idol shall
be abolished, every rival :power cast out, the
eyes of all shall wait on him, all flesh shall
be hanging on him, and staying themselves
upon him, and he will be seen by the uni-
verse as the centre of a lapsing creation, the
support and the stay of a sinking world.
Then the design of the whole gospel consti-
tution will be completed, that no flesh should
glory in his presence; everything will have
redounded to the glory of his grace; and
when all flesh shall thus be seen prostrate
before God in prayer, what. will it be but the
prelude to the worship of, heaven? What
will remain but that all should be trans-
formed to the employment of praise above?
Infinite love, ascending to the Throne and
putting on the Crown, shall sit down and
enjoy an eternal sabbath of love, while the
myriads of the redeemed and glorified, cast- |
ing their crowns at his feet, shall ascribe |
their happiness to Him, and the jubilee of |
eternity begin! !
Brethren, to this period everything in the |
universe, everything in the mediatorial gov- |
ernment of Christ, is tending with the direct- |

ness and force of alaw. To this end there-
fore every event in his Church, every move-
ment of his people, should be intentionally





76 THE GOLDEN CENSER. f



subordinate. Viewed apart from this ulti-
mate design, the most magnificent projects
_ of men become puerile; viewed in connection
with it, things in themselves of very slender
account swell into infinite importance. It
hallows whatever it touches; it ennobles
whatever it employs.

Every power in the universe is regarded
by God as more or less opposed to him, ex-
cept the power of prayer, and the means
which prayer has sanctified. Every human
habitation in which God is not worshipped is
a fortress raised in hostility to him; and the
family which inhabits it is in arms against
him. On the other hand, wherever prayer
is made, and exactly in the proportion in
which it is made, there he beholds a spot
reclaimed from the powers of darkness, and
subjects swearing allegiance to his throne.
My friends, the world itself was intended to |
be a house of prayer; every spot in it was
meant to be sacred to the worship of God ;
all its airs should have been incense, and all
its sounds adoration and praise. That pur-
pose sin attempted to defeat; but, oh! a
higher purpose still only waited till the at-
tempt should be made! From that moment
a plan of grace has been unfolded which con-
centrates within itself all the interests of the









THE GOLDEN CENSER. 77



world’s history,—all that is eventful in the
universe of God; and when the consumma-
tion of all things shall arrive, what will this
world be thought of, think you, but as it has
furnished a stage for the unfolding of that
plan, and as it was gradually reclaimed in
consequence from being a house of sin, again
converted into a house of prayer, and thus
restored to its original design? Let man

record its history, indeed, and he would

dwell chiefly on topics of war and peace, of
pestilence and famine, the changes of thrones
and: the revolutions of empires: but as writ-
ten by the finger of God, these things shall
be noticed only as they subserved or opposed
his final purposes; while the history of the
world, as far as man’s instrumentality tended
to promote that. purpose, will be chiefly a
history of prayer. Preaching itself, benevo-
ent activity itself, except so far as it is asso-
ciated with devotion, shall be passed over to
record the triumphs of prayer. Many a
Christian, who once filled the public eye
with his active deeds and burning zeal, shall
be comparatively unnoticed, and the man of
prayer, the wrestler with God, shall be drawn
out from his closet of obscurity, and pro-
claimed in his stead; and it shall appear,







that whilst the one was only moving earth,
ta an ae tener feo oieiioatiomisel



73 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

the other was moving heaven. Are we
asked for a proof of this? Brethren, a great
portion of the world’s history is written—
written by the finger of God. The Bible is
God’s summary of the history of the world
down to the close of the first century of the
present era. What are the deeds? What
is the kind of human instrumentality which
God has deemed most worthy of recording ?
Oh! if I did not believe you to be sufficiently
acquainted with them already, I would say,
paint them on the walls of your dwelling.
Let the spaces now left unadorned, be occu-
pied with the principal scenes of God’s his-
tory of man’s instrumentality, and they would
be seen peopled with suppliants in all the
postures of devotion, and crowded with vari-
ous forms and attitudes of prayer. In one
place Abraham would appear interceding for
Sodom, and Omnipotence waiting till he had
done; the tempest of descending fire sus-
pended in the air, and ready to be blown
away by the breath of prayer. In another
space Moses would appear holding back the
arm of God, while Omnipotence is saying,
as if hampered and embarrassed, “ Let me
alone, let me alone, that I may destroy this
nation.”? In one compartment should stand
the temple, with the season of dedication; a



.~—

THE GOLDEN CENSER. 79

nation at prayer, and clouds of massive glory
filling the house. And in another, the same
temple, with its high priest occupied with
the office of two-fold intercession, prayer
with the voice and prayer by sacrifice, the
prayer of blood, thus justifying the descrip-
tion of 1 given in the text,—‘a house of
prayer. nf Did Jesus pray? Oh, in a sense
more than figurative, he saved the world by
prayer! Portray a mountain-top, and Jesus,
on it, prostrate, alone, wet with the dews of
night, praying to God with strong cries and
tears. And next, a garden,—Gethsemane,—
and Jesus there, praying in an agony, which
baptizes him in his own blood. And next,
the place called Calvary, for “ there they cru-
cified him;’? and Jesus died, offering that
great sacrificial prayer, which still pleads
above,—still fills the ear of God; and for the
sake of which alone all other prayers are
heard!. Can the cloven tongues of fire be
portrayed? Forget not to represent the
apostles on whom they rest assembled in
prayer! Elsewhere, let an angel be seen
despatched from the divine presence to liber-
ate Peter from prison; but forget not to rep-
resent the apostles ina neighboring house,
in prayer! But oh! there is a vision no

human eye but one has seen, a heavenly





80 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

scene which sums up all, an angel standing
at the altar, having a golden censer; and
there is given him much incense, that he.
may offer it with, mark, the prayers of all
saints upon the golden altar which is before
the throne; and the smoke of the incense,
blending with the prayers of the saints, as-
cends up before God out of the angel’s hand.
Yes; draw near :—it is the summing up of
man’s. instrumentality. Of all the various
ways in which he employs himself here,—
look into that censer, and mark which of
them it is that reaches heaven. Only that
which was sanctified by prayer. When the
clamors of a turbulent zeal have subsided,
and the undevout means which have dazzled
and astonished men have spent their force,
mark what is left in the censer. Only that
which partook of the nature of prayer. This
is all that lives to reach the skies, all that
heaven receives from earth, all that is ever
permitted to ascend before God. Nothing
but prayer shall be in that censer;_ and
nothing will ever find a place in that censer,
but that which ascends on the breath of
prayer. }
Again, here everything is to be done with -
the view of leading to prayer. As we have
been proceeding with our remarks, the ques-





THE GOLDEN CENSER. 8l





tion may have arisen in some minds,—What,
is our piety to take no other form than that of
prayer? Is it to show itself in no other way
but by prayer? Such a question could be
entertained only where there existed a mis-
apprehension of the nature of the prayer, or
of the way in which prayer blends with all
the acts of devotion and methods of instru-
mentality by which God works, Confine
yourself to prayer? No; not even in the
house of prayer itself. Only see that what-
ever you do, you do it with an ultimate view
to prayer. If you preach the gospel, for in-

stance, you are to bear in mind that that is_

the most successful preaching which brings
man prostrate before God for mercy. This
is the very end of the Gospel ministry; and
the more vividly you can set forth Jesus
Christ crucified among them, the more effec-
tually this end will be answered. Yes, let
every place of prayer have a Calvary in the
midst of it, and on that Calvary let. there be
a cross, and on that cross a bleeding Sa-
viour; and on that sight, that spectacle of
love, let the eyes of the people be kept per-
petually fixed. As preachers of the Gospel,
our great distinction is that we are ministers
of the Cross, we have to wait on the Cross,
to walk around the Cross, and to point out to



|























cree paraennnteennanaaenanntas any; mete SRS a senna erate pene ee RA Ar ASR cE RS GO POR ISPREISTES SY YOO OCCA SY SO A

82 THE GOLDEN CENSER.,





a le ieee

the people the wonders of the Cross. Have

we any pathos? It should be kept for tell-
ing them of the Cross. Have we any affec-
tion for their souls? It should gush forth
when we are pointing to the Cross. Have
we any tears for them? When shall we

‘shed them, but when we have led our people

to the Cross, when we are there saying to
the sinner, “Behold Him! look on Him!
He is wounded for your transgressions, He
is bruised for your iniquities, the chastise-
ment of your peace is upon Him, that with
His stripes you might be healed. Draw
nearer to Him; it is of you that he is think-
ing; that blood is to wash away your sins;
that life which He is pouring out is the ran-
som which He is giving for your souls.
Draw nearer still; look into His heart; read
the names which are written there; your
name is among them.’”? And while we are
thus entreating the sinner, does he relent?
Does he look upon him whom he has pierced,
mourning? Does he smite upon his breast,
erying, “God be merciful to me a sinner?”
Then the end of the ministry is answered.
“ Behold, he prayeth.”

But besides the preaching of the Gospel,

_all the other ordinances of God’s house are

to be administered likewise; and, in addition











THE GOLDEN CENSER. 83




to this, children are to be collected, and
taught on the Sabbath ; ‘pecuniary offerings
are to be cast into the Christian treasury;
the Bible is to be distributed; visits of
mercy to be paid to the neighborhood around.
‘But however various or extensive are your
labors, however ably your operations may
be organized and generally pursued, the ten-
dency of the whole must he to bring men to
God in prayer. Never will it avail if it stop
short of this—if it does not contribute to this.
‘My house,” saith God, “shall be called a-
house of prayer for all people.” But as all
people will not, and cannot come and here
pray for themselves, your obvious duty is to
come and pray for them.( ‘Parents, pray for ,
your children; and children, pray for your ”
parents; let all the various relations in life °
come to pray for each other. Pray for the
neighborhood around; there is a sense in.
which it is committed to your care, in which. p
God is saying to you, as to his people of old, ?
J will make you and the places round about |
my hill, a blessing; and I will cause the |
shower to come down in your season; there |
shall be showers of blessing.” Pray to be |
made the cloud from which the showers of |
blessings shall descend, the channel throug
which they flow. } Pray for the prosperity























BR cg yee Neem O PM
































84 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

of the whole Christian church. The great
Entercessor above prays, not for a party; the
names of all the tribes are written on his
breast-plate. And does he not prefer that
prayer the best which most nearly is like his
own? Pray, then, for the whole church.
Do you ask what should be principally and
especially the objects of supplication? It
, wants more deep spirituality, and distinct-
‘ness from the world; a higher appreciation
of its office as the instrument of Christ for
saving the world; more of a spirit of union,
of oneness, that it may be one in accordance |
with the prayer of Christ ; one in zeal in the
preaching of the Gospel and for the universal
triumph of Christ. But one want there is
which comprehends the whole; the imparta-
tion of the Spirit of Christ.’ ‘Could a con-
vocation be held of all the churches on
earth, the object of their united ery should -
be for that promised Spirit. Let that be
secured, and in obtaining that, we should
obtain the supply of every other want. We
should find that we had acquired the same.
mind also that was in Christ; a benevo-
lence which would reign over the whole
human race, a “brotherly love which would
combine the whole body of Christians for the
} conversion of the world, a zeal which would







THE GOLDEN CENSER. 85>




























_ be ever devising fresh methods of usefulness,
practising self-denial, laying itself out in the
service of Christ, and a perseverance which
would never rest till the whole family of man
should be seated together at the Banquet of
Salvation. And, in coming together to im-
plore an effusion of the Spirit on the church,
remember that you are in effect interceding
for the. world; for it is through the instru-
| mentality of the church that God proposes
to save the world. Christians, realize in
thought the dignity of your office ; you go to
God as the earthly fepreseritatives: of man-
kind ; as intercessors for the world. You
pass to the throne of grace through multi-
tudes and myriads of human beings. Do you
not hear them as you go, imploring a place
in your supplications? Do you not see all
Africa assembled in your path, urging you to
go to God for them, to describe their wrongs,
to ask for the blessings of the reign of Christ
forthem? And, before you have done plead-
| ing for Africa, China comes with its untold
| myriads, entreating you to interest yourself
| for them; and while yet you are pleading for
China, India comes with its tales of lamenta-
tion and wo, and entreats you to speak for it.
And can you refrain? And when you grow
faint they all combine their entreaties that





























86 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

you cry to God for them louder still, that you
call in help more intgrcessors and more still,
till all the church be prostrate in prayer;
and when’ you move to quit the throne of
grace, they all in effect entreat you not to
leave them unrepresented before God. “Oh,
if there be a God,” they say, “and if prayer
can reach him, do not leave us thus, or we
perish! Our only hope is in the God you
worship, the Saviour you proclaim ; pray that
the blessings of his grace may speedily be
extended to us.”

From this day, let a period of enlargement
commence in your views of the’ kingdom of
Christ, and in your endeavors to realize
them! Imagine that a new page is open to-
day in your history. Review that past;
ascertainfin what respects it admits of im-
provement; whether in the regularity of your
attendance on the means of grace, in the
attentive seriousness and self-applications
with which you hear the word of God, in the
amount of your pecuniary contributions to
his cause, in a personal activity in his ser-
vice, or in the fervor and comprehensiveness
of your prayers; and in whichever it may be,
ask God to record to-day in the book of his
remembrance a holy resolution of instant
amendment. Especially see whether you





|
|
















inven ae



THE GOLDEN CENSER. 87

—_—



ought not to takea loftier stand than ever
in relation to the great interest and means
used for the extension of the kingdom of
Christ. Has he made you a partaker of
his grace? Then he has taken you to a
height which commands a view of eternity.
He bids you take a comprehensive view of
eternity, to regard it as a whole, to live for

_ eternity; and having done this, for your own

personal happiness, he next takes you to a
mount which commands a view of all man-
kind, and he bids you to pray for them all, to
open your heart and embrace them all, to
live for the universe. Let this house Be to
you that mount of vision. The present is a
day of more extended views than the past, a
day of greater designs and of more generous
endeavors.

My young friends, whose eyes kindle at
these designs, whose hearts beat high at
these endeavors, be you as men of God, men
of and for the day. Louder voices urge you
on than your predecessors ever heard, and
more splendid achievements await your ad-
vance. Take enlarged and comprehensive
views of duty; devise liberal things ; design
for the universe and for eternity. The Lord
of the Church himself is your leader, eet
witness the scene, and the world waits to be



eee




























88 THE GOLDEN CENSER.



blessed by your instrumentality. Let us
hear, as we do of the churches of Macedonia,
not only of your liberality, but of the contin-
uance, the habit, and the riches of your liber-
ality. Give as God gives.

Prayers too have been offered, solemn pray-
ers, comprehensive prayers, prayers which the
angel, having the censer hath presented, and
_ which God who sits on the throne hath heard.
But has each one present joined? Let in-
quiry be made. Have all prayed? What!
Is there one present whose heart has not
united in the general supplication? One who
has never yet begun to pray, and who, in the
very house of prayer, while every one around
him was engaged in prayer, has yet kept
aloof from the throne of mercy? Is he not
| pointed out at this moment. by invisible
| beings? Are they not gazing on him with
pity and with wonder? Ought not all pres-
ent to gather around him and to pray for him?
My friend, do you. know what you do? Shall
we pause while you do pray? Suppose we
were now to say to this assembly, in the
language of the prophet, “ Come now and let
us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual
covenant,” and let all who are ready to
comply give a sign; would you alone give
no sign? Would you give none? Ifall the |


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THE

YOUNG CHRISTIAN’S GUIDE

TO

THE DOCTRINES AND DUTIES

RELIGIOUS LIFE.

FROM THE WRITINGS OF

J. EDWARDS, J. A. JAMES, and J. HARRIS.

BOSTON:
GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN,

59 WASHINGTON STREET.



a rn
PREFACE.

THE frequent calls fora manual of Christian doctrines and
duties, suggested the union of the two works here presented.
They combine the highest excellencies of composition with
the richest veins of heavenly instruction, and the sweetest
waters of the Fountain of Life. They are adapted to elevate
the mind and cheer the heart; to guide and aid the christian
pilgrim through life’s temptations and trials, upward to the
Celestial City. The names of Jonathan Edwards, John
Angell James, and John Harris, are familiar to Christians of
every denomination. Their teachings will be regarded by
all, as trueresponses to the Divine WoRD, and as deserving
when selected and combined, asin this volume, to be called

‘The Young Christian’s Guide.’
CASKET

FOUR JEWELS, °

YOUNG CHRISTIANS.

BOSTON:
GOULD, KENDALL, & LINCOLN.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by
GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.
se ever sete ners SSS ED










CONTENTS.

I.
APOLLOS;
Or, Directions to Persons just commencing a
_ Religious Life.
Il.
GROWTH IN GRACE;

Or, the Young Professor directed how. to attain
to Eminent Piety. By the Rev. JonaTHAN ©
Epwarps and J. A. JAMEs.

TIT, . .
THE GOLDEN CENSER; |
Or, a Visit to the House of Prayer. By Joun ©
Harris, D. D.
IV.
THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.
By Joun Harris, D. D. |


PREFACE.

te

=

Sprritrua CHRISTIANS have examined these
Jewels separately, and, expressing high admira-
tion of their individual preciousness, have desired
to possess them in a form less perishable and more
-worthy of their excellence. They are therefore
| placed together in this Casket, not only for their
safe preservation, but also for their better exposi-
tion. Four such Brilliants are not often combined.
Young believers, especially, will here find an
“Ornament,” if not of ‘‘great price,’’ yet of
uncommon worth, and will doubtless be happy
both to wear it themselves, and to procure it for
their many friends, as a most unexceptionable
SOUVENIR.


APOLLOS:

OR,

DIRECTIONS TO PERSONS JUST COMMENCING
A RELIGIOUS LIFE.



1. RememsBer that the commencement of
the Christian life is to be like the “dawning
light, which increaseth more and more to the
perfect day.”” Therefore, when the hope of
peace and pardon dawns in the heart, do not
consider the great business of life as accom-
plished, but only as begun.

2. Do not expect so sudden and remark-
able a change, as to leave no doubt of its
reality. Did religion enter the soul in per-
fection, and to the entire exclusion of sin,
the change would be so marked and obvious
as to leave no room for doubt. But, usually,
the Christian character is full of contrarie-
ties. There is a perpetual struggle between
good and evil, and thus a continual compe-
tition of evidence for and against, according
as the good or evil prevails.

3. Evidence of piety is not so much to be
sought in high emoticns of any kind, as in
6 APOLLOS: OR,

real humility, self-distrust, hungering and
thirsting after righteousness, sorrow for sin,
and a continual effort, in every-day life, to
regulate our thoughts, feelings. and conduct
by the word of God. It is the nature and
not the degree of our affections which is to
be regarded in the examination of our evi-
dences. Some persons are so constituted,
that they are not susceptible of very strong
emotions, and ought not to expect them, in
reference to religion, any more than other
subjects that interest the mind. The best
way to know our feelings is, to see how they
influence the conduct. “By their fruit ye
shal! know them.”

4. Do not expect to find in your own case,
everything you have heard or read of in the
experience of others. For, it may be, many
things we hear and read of, are not correct
feelings, and do not afford just grounds of
confidence to any one; and if they are correct
experience, it may be the experience of-a
mature Christian, and not to be expected in
the beginning of a religious life. It must be
remembered that as no two countenances are
formed alike, so no two hearts are fashioned
alike, or placed in exactly the same circum-
stances ; and it would be as vain to seek all
the varieties of Christian experience in one


















DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 7

———ae

person, as to seek all th varieties of human
features in one face. _

5. Do not expect that the evidence desired
will all come immediately and at once. It
must come progressively, as the result of
continued effort in obecience to the will of
God. |

6. Do not suppose that religion is a prin-
ciple of such self-preserving energy, as that
when once implanted in the soul it will con- -
tinue to thrive and increase without effort.
The plant of divine grace can no more thrive
without care, and diligent and. patient culti-
vation, than can those rare and valued
plants, that demand the physical efforts and
culture of man.

God will not sustain and bring to maturity
the work of grace, without your own volun-
tary concurrence in the diligent use of
means. He will not do it any more than he

‘would cause the harvest to whiten in the

field of the sluggard. Indulge, therefore, no
such ideas of inability and dependence on
God, as shall impair a full sense of perfect
obligation to do whatever can be done in
working out your own salvation. God never
assists any but those who make efforts to
aid and advance themselves.

7. Entertain no such ideas of the sove-


8 APOLLOS: OR,



reignty of God in the bestowment of his
grace, as would awaken any doubt of his
affording needful aid, where he sees sincere
endeavors to grow in grace. If some Chris-
tians are more eminent than others, it is
simply because they make more efforts to be
so, and God aids these efforts. So that all
worldly-minded and indifferent Christians
continue in this state, because they do not
choose to make efforts to get out of it.
Any person can be an eminent Christian
that chooses to be so. Christians are too
apt to feel as if eminence in piety was a
distinction made by the sovereignty of God,
and to suppose that high attainments are
not within the reach of all, and that languid
and inefficient piety is the result of divine
sovereignty rather than negligence . and
sloth. .A more false or more pernicious
opinion cannot easily be adopted by Chris-
tians. The truth is, that the road to emi-
nence in gifts aad graces, and the means of
obtaining them, are open to all who seek
them, and if any do not obtain them, it is
owing to their own sloth and inefficiency,
and not to any deficiency on the part of God
in blessing diligent efforts. It always
pleases him to crown with success the hand
of the diligent instead of the hand of the
DIRECTIONS. TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS.

Oe ee ee ae
















slothful, not only in temporal but in spirit-
ual things. This thought cannot be too
strongly impressed upon the minds of those
who are just commencing a Christian life.
To them, peculiarly, are such promises as
these directed: ‘“ Ask, and ye shall receive;
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it. shall
be opened unto you. Every one that asketh
receiveth,” &c.

Do not be afraid of indulging in feelings
which may seem to be right, from the fear
of deception. On the contrary, cherish such
feelings, and try to recall them often. Go
forward and do your duty, and God will save
you from deception while thus employed.

8. There is one caution which is pecu-
liarly needful to those who have been
greatly interested in the subject of religion,
and ‘that is, to take particular care of the
health. ;

.:: There is such a mysterious and intimate
connection between the mind and the body,
that one cannot be wearied or suffer, with-
out affecting the other. When the mind is
fatigued or exhausted, it affects the body,
and this again reacts on the mind.

Every person ought to be aware, that the
more anxiously and intensely the mind is
interested on any subject, the greater is the /

memset,





i
i


10 APOLLOS: OR,





need of exercise, sleep and frequent relaxa-
tion. Attention to religion, doés not de-
mand that ail lawful business be suspended,
and forbid the neglect of all needful rest
and exercise. |

~«9. ‘Do not expect to be made happy by
religion, unless you become eminent Chris-
tians. A half-way Christian can neither
enjoy the pleasures of the world nor the
pleasures of religion; for his conscience
will not let him seek the one, and he is too
indolent to obtain the other. The Christian
may be the happiest man on earth, but he
must be a faithful, active and devoted Chris-
tian. None are disappointed in finding re-
ligion a source of unfailing peace and joy,
but those who refuse to drink. deep of the
wells: of salvation; unless we except those
who, from some derangement of the nervous
system, or failure of health, do not enjoy the
clear and undisturbed exercise of their facul-
ties. A healthy mind in a healthy body,
may always be made happy by religion.

10. Do not look at the practice and ex-
ample of other Christians, in forming the
standard of piety at which you aim. The
allowance of this thing has probably had a
more disastrous influence on the church and
on the world, than all other causes that


DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 11

could be named. Generally, when persons
commence a Christian life, their consciences
are susceptible and tender. They are strict
and watchful in the performance of duty,
and are pained even by a slight neglect.
They have been wont to feel that becoming
religious implies a great change; that “old
things must pass away and ail things be-
come new.” But when they begin to look
around among their Christian friends, and
turn to them for aid, as those who. have had
experience and have made advances in
Christian life, they find that they seem to
look upon duties and deficiencies in a very
different manner. They. seem to- neglect
many things which the young Christian has
felt to be very important; and to practise
many things which he had supposed to be
inconsistent with religion. Then commences
the disastrous effect. The young Christian
begins to feel that he need not be more
particular than those to whom he has ever
looked up with deference and respect. He
begins to imagine that he has been rather
too strict and particular. He begins to take
a retrograde course; and though his con-
science and the Bible often check and re-
prove, yet, after a few inefficient struggles, he
lowers his standard and walks as others do.






12 APOLLOS: OR,

Look into your Bible, and see how Chris-
tians ought to live. See how the Bible says
those who are Christians must live, and’then,
if you:find your Christian friends living in a
different way, instead of having cause for
feeling that you may do so too, you have
only cause to fear that they are deceiving



themselves with the belief that they are

(hristians, when they are not. Remember
that the farther your Christian friends de- |
part from the standard of Christian char-
acter laid down in the Bible, the less reason
have you to hope that they are Christians.
And do not hesitate on this subject because
you find many professed Christians, who are
indifferent and lax in their practice and
example. Remember that Christ has said,
“ Many shall say unto me, inthat day, Lord,
Lord,” thus claiming to be his disciples, to
whem he will say, “I never knew you.”
Do not let professed Christians tempt you
to fall into the society of such unhappy cast-
aways. .

11. Do not be periodical Christians.
There are some who profess religion, who
never seem to feel any interest on the sub-
ject except when every one else does. It
is true, there are special seasons of revived
religion in the hearts of all Christians, but
































DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 13

if it is only at such times that progress is
made in divine life, and interest is mani-
fested in the salvation of souls, there is great
reason to fear that what is called religion is
nothing but sympathy with the feelings of
others.

12. Be sure that there exists a. marked
difference between your appearance and
conduct, and that of those who are not
Christians. Remember that Christ has re-
quiréd this of you, and that even the world
expects it. |

Do-not suppose you can recommend reli-
gion, by appearing interested in everything
that interests those who have no better
portion than this world. Remember that
your deportment; your conversation; your
interest in dress, in company and amuse-
ments; the manner in which you perform
your religious duties; are all carefully noted
and weighed by those around you, who do
not love religion; and if they do not see a
marked difference between you and them-
selves, they either conclude there is nothing .
in religion, or else, that you are a hypocrite.
The world expect that you will be very
different from them, and despise you in their
hearts if you are not. If you wish to recom-
mend religion, let the world see it acted out


| trifling and levity. This is quite as incon-

14 APOLLOS: OR,

according to the beautiful pattern laid down
in the Bible; and do-not suppose that you
can improve this pattern by any addition or
subtraction of your own. On one subject
there are some who need instruction. There
is a class of Christians who appear taciturn,
unsocial, and even sad. This appearance is
altogether inconsistent with the spirit of
religion. Christians ought to appear cheer-
ful and happy; to appear to receive, with
pleasure and gratitude all the lawful enjoy-
ments bestowed by their heavenly Father. |
Such a gloomy deportment as has been
described, does not do honor to religion, and
causes those whom we wish to win to the
ways of pleasantness and: peace, to feel that .
religion is a melancholy, unsocial and for-
bidding subject. .

All professors of religion should endeavor
to have such views of God, his love, his
providence, his care; and should so live, as
to be cheerful and happy, and to appear so.

On the contrary, there is a class of profes-
sed Christians, who indulge in frequent




















sistent and injurious as the former, and if
anything, itis more so. Let the Christian, ,
at least, learn to make a distinction between
cheerfulness and levity. Remember, we are






DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 15

en etd

commanded to avoid Fila talicing and
jesting, and that it is possible to be happy,
cheerful, affable and kind, wqehont any
trifling or levity.

13. Remember that your evidence of pos-
sessing religion ceases, when anything else
has the first place in your thoughts and



| interests.

Religion should not lessen our love for

| our friends, or our enjoyment of rational’

pleasures, but the desire to please God in ali
our ways should be the prevailing feeling of
the mind. Our Saviour says, we cannot
have two masters ; God and his service must
be first in our thoughts and_ affections, or
else the world and its pleasures are first.
If then we would find whose servants we are,
we must find who has the first place in our
thoughts and affections.

14. Never for one day omit to read the
Bible with prayer. This is a most impor-
tant direction. It is of the utmost impor- —
tance that you should never fer once break |
over this habit. Prayer and the Bible are —
your anchor and your shield ; which will hold
you firmly in the path of duty, and protect
you from temptation. You had better give
up one. meal every day, if it is necessary, in

order to secure time for this duty. You had |





























16 a APOLLOS: OR,

better give up anything else. Nothing is a
duty, if the performance of it will interfere
with this duty. Remember, this is the bread
of your life, and the water of your salvation ;
and that you cannot live in health a single
day without their strengthening and invig-
orating influence.

15. Be regulated by a principle of duty in
little things. This is the way that common
Christians are to cause their light to shine. |
Few Christians can expect to do any great
things to show their love for the Saviour, but
all can “deny themselves, and thus daily
take the cross and follow him.” Religion
should govern the temper and the tongue;
should save us from indolence, from vanity,
from pride, from foolishness, from levity,
from moroseness, from selfishness, and all
the little every-day foibles to which we are
exposed. Religion should exemplify its gen-
tleness in your kind and affable manners ; its
purity and propriety, in your conversation ;
its benevolence, in your conduct; and its
consistency and heavenly tendency, in all
your ways.

It is a most excellent method to go to
some sincere and candid friend, and inquire
what are your own defects in temper, char-
acter and every-day deportment; and when






























DIREUTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 17 |

you have discovered these, make it the object
of your prayers and efforts to correct them.
One thing ought to be strictly regulated by
principle, and that is, the employment of time.
| Always feel that you are doing wrong when
your time is passing unprofitably. Have
some regularity and method on this subject.
Endeavor to ascertain how much time should
be devoted to your friends and to relaxation,
and to Jet the remainder be all of it employed .
in the most useful manner you can devise.
Never be satisfied with the manner in which
you are spending your time, if you can think
of any possible way in which it might be
more usefully employed.
Remember that time is the precious talent
for which you must account to God, and if
you find yourselves indulging in listless
inactivity, or tempted to engage in employ-
ments of no practical use, remember your
account to God. Be in a habit of inquiring,
when you commence any employment, “Is
“there anything I can do, more useful than
this?” And do not be satisfied till you
have settled the question, that you are doing
all the good you can. 3
16. Attempt, by your efforts and example,
to raise the standard of piety and activity.
If all who are now commencing Christian


ene tert eerenseenetes>etttnterenentetesoednatterestients anaeretsgent er onion hed Gnidia icin nbs innnncaeinnnnintineienioneenane

1s APOLLOS: OR,

life, should make this an object, and not fall
into ‘the temptation which professed Chris-
tians so often set before the lambs of the
flock, the church would indeed soon rise
before the world, “ fair as the moon, clear as
the sun, and terrible as an army with ban-
ners.” :

Resolve to be an example to thosé who |
ought to be an example to you, and take the -
Bible, and the Bible only, for your guide in —
forming Christian character.

Be active in promoting all benevolent
objects. Make it an object to prepare to |
lead with propriety in all social devotional
duties. At this period, when prayer and |
effort must unite in hastening the great day
of the Lord, let every young Christian learn
to guide the devotions of others, as well as to .
lift up his own private supplication. There
is nothing which so much promotes the
‘brotherly love” required in the Bible, and
nothing which so much promotes union of
effort and interest, as social prayer; and
every one who commences religious life,
should aim to be prepared to perform such
duties with propriety; and should stimulate
others to engage in them.

17. Do not hesitate in the performance of’
all the external duties of a Christian, because


DIRECTIONS gfO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 19

~

you do not find satisfactory evidence that
| your feelings are right.

Religious duty consists of two parts—feel-
ing and action; and because we find great
deficiency in one respect, we surely ought not
| to neglect the whole. It is as unreasonable, |
as it would be not to attempt to feel right .
till every external duty was perfectly per-
formed.

If we are dissatisfied with our evidence,
let us go on and do everything that a Chris-
tian should do, as the most hopeful way to
produce right feelings. We surely cannot
hope to bring our hearts right by neglecting
our outward duties. *

Go forward, then, and take a stand as an
active Christian, and if your hearts are not
right with God, you may be sure you are in
less danger in taking this course than in
neglecting it.

18..Remember that the principal duty of
a Christian, as it respects others, is to excite
them to the immediate performance of their
religious duty.

Jesus Christ has instituted his church in
the world, that through their instrumentality
the perishing may be saved. There is no
Christian but can find some one mind, at
least, over which he can have some influence,






























20

ee



APOLLOS: OR,

and if we can do anything to save others
from eternal death, nothing should for a
moment prevent our attempting it.

‘But to perform our duty faithfully in this
respect, requires both discretion and some
knowledge derived from the experience of
-others. The following hints, therefore, are
added as the result of long experience and
observation, and as a sort of guide to those
who may be anxious to save a soul from
death.

Let your first object be to persuade your
friend to give an earnest and immediate
attention to the subject. Serious remarks
upon religion do not produce much effect,
unless some direct object is had .in view.
Endeavor to persuade your friends to com-
mence the daily reading of the Bible with.
‘prayer. Show them that the Holy Spirit
operates by means of the truths which we
find in the Bible, and which are most forci-
bly presented to the mind in the solitude
and solemnity of closet devotion. The char-
acter of the God we are commanded to love,
can no more be perceived by a mind: that is
engrossed by other subjects and turned away
from this, than the human eye can perceive
the beauties of a picture, when it is not
directed. towards it. And as it is not only





DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 2]





needful in beholding a picture, that light
should shine upon it, but that the eye should
be turned to it, so in order that the heart
may be sanctified by the truth, it is as need-
fil that the mind should be turned towards
it, as that the Holy Spirit should enlighten
by his illuminating influences. Always,
then, in all your efforts, have this definite
end in view, to persuade your friends to
spend much time in studying the Bible with
prayer.

When this object is secured, then urge the
immediate duty of giving the affections of
the heart to God. Show them that if they
will only love God, they will then feel their
guilt in refusing to obey him, and will great-
ly desire to live for his glory. If they will
only love their God and Saviour, they will
feel that they can trust in the merits of his
atoning blood. Do not, for a moment, allow
them to feel that performing the outward
duties of religion is doing anything to recom-
mend them to God, but is only a means of
making them feel more deeply their immedi-
ate obligation to give the affections of their
hearts to him, and of realizing the reasona-
bleness of his holy law which requires it.
Speak to them as if you really fel¢ that there
was no need of any delay, but that they




















































22 APOLLOS: OR,

could immediately perform what God re-
quires; and, in order to do this, endeavor to
have a deep and realizing sense of this
truth yourself. If they complain of their
inability, or of the difficulty they find in
performing their duty, show them that it is
because they have so long forgotten and
| neglected these things, and formed such bad
habits, that though it has really become
difficult, it is a difficulty they have made for
themselves, and which is an addition to their
guilt. Show them that whatever the diffi-
culty is, they can overcome it; for God
never requires of his creatures what they
cannot perform, and his standing, unalterable
law is, “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart.” Remember always
that the more clearly, constantly and forcibly
the truth is presented to any mind that will
attend to it, the more hope there is that it
will be ohayed’

One caution, however, seene to be added,
and that is, that when it becomes apparent
that the mind will not be brought to attend
to the subject ; when you find that the efforts
become wearisome and unpleasant, always
cease for a while, and wait for another time,
or else you will do more harm than goutl.
Persevering after this, will only affect their






DIRECTIONS TO YOUNG CHRISTIANS. 23 os

minds with disgust and aversion towards a
subject to which they have resolved they
will not attend. |

Another caution is also important. Al- |
ways speak kindly and affectionately to
friends upon this subject, and if you find
all your efforts vain, though you cease to
urge neglected duty, still continue to express
the same kindness and interest for them.
Do not give them occasion to feel that be-
cause they will not take your advice, you
have cast them off as reprobates, and no
longer desire their society. We may still
continue to love the amiable natural traits of
our friends, even though we find that they
refuse to have them crowned and beautified
by religion. Let all your efforts for the
good of others be accompanied by earnest
and constant prayer. | |

Lastly, do not be discouraged because you
find that you are very deficient in every one
of the particulars specified.

Remember that Christian life is a warfare,
and that it is only at the end that we are to
come off conquerors and more than conquer-
ors. Remember that He whom you are
striving to serve and please, is not a hard |
Master. Though you have been inexcusable |



in forming such inveterate habits of sin, and


—

ne EY



24 APOLLOS.

a a a aT SA

all the difficulties you find are of your own
making, yet he can be “touched with the
feeling of your infirmities.” When he sees
that you really are afflicted because you so
constantly abuse and forget him, he pities
you as a father pitieth his children; and so
long as you use the means he has appointed
to keep you from sin, and wait upon him for
strength and guidance, he will never leave
nor forsake you. When you feel your own
strength and resolution failing, go to him
who hath said “my grace is sufficient for
thee, and my strength shall be made perfect
in weakness.” Call upon him, “and he will
be very gracious unto the voice of thy cry;
when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.
And thine ears shall hear a word behind
thee, saying, this is the way, walk ye therein,
when ye turn to the right and when ye turn
to the left.” Remember, also, that the con-
flict is short; the race will speedily be
accomplished—soon your deficiencies and
guilt shall pain you no more—soon you shall
‘see him as he is,” and “awake in his like-
ness and be satisfied therewith.”


















A

MEMENTO OF AFFECTION,

FROM

CHRISTIAN PASTORS,

TO THOSE WHO UNDER THEIR CARE HAVE
COMMENCED A RELIGIOUS LIFE.



To them who have obtained like precious faith
with us, through the righteousness of God and our
Saviour Jesus Christ.

We thank our God upon every remembrance of
you, always in every prayer of ours, making re-
quest for you with joy. Being ccnfident of this
very thing, that he who hath begun a good work
in you, will perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. Even as it is meet for us to think this of
you ali, because we have you in our heart. For, |
ye remember our labor, how we exhorted, and com-
forted, and charged, every one of you, as a father
does his children ; and we were with you in weak-
ness, and in fear, and in much trembling; and our
exhortation was not of deceit, nor in guile; neither
at any time used we flattering words, as ye know;








26 MEMENTO OF AFFECTION,

nor of men sought we glory, neither of you. But
we were gentle among you, even asa nurse cher-
isheth her children; so being affectionately desir-
ous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto
you, not the gospel of God only, but our own souls
also, because ye were dear unto us.

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
children of God. For you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein, in
times past, ye walked according to the course of -
this world, according to .the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience ; among whom we ald had our con-
versation in times past, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the chil-
dren of wrath, even as others. But God, who is
rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he
loved: us, even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised
us up together, and made us sit together in heaven-
ly places, in Christ Jesus. For ye were as sheep
going astray, but now are returned unto the shep-
herd and bishop of your souls.

Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children,
and walk worthy of the vocation whereby ye are
called. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now
are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of the
light. If then ye be risen with Christ seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on
the right hand of God. Set your affections on |





Te RE Pe en eae aeetTe aeeeaeeAT


FROM CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 27



things above, not on things on the earth. For all
that is in the world, the desire of the flesh, the
desire of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth
away, and the desire thereof; but he that doeth
the will of God abideth forever. And this is the
victory that overcometh the world, even your
faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but:
he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
And Jesus saith, ‘‘I am the way, and the truth,
and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but
by me. If aman love me, he will keep.my com-
mandments, and my Father will love him, and we
will come unto him, and make our abode with
him. This is my commandment, that ye love one
another as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man may lay down his
life for his friends.—Ye are my friends if ye do
whatsoever I command you.”’ If God so loved us,
we ought algo to love one another. For every one
that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is
begotten of him. And by this we know that we
love the children of God, when we love God and
keep his commandments. For this is the love of
God, that we keep his commandments. And we
have known and believed the love which God hath .
towards us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in
love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Know ye
not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy
Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God?
And ye are not your own, but are bought witha


28 MEMENTO OF AFFECTION,

i ee oe

price; therefore glorify God in your bodies, and in
your spirits, which are his.

Search the’ Scriptures, for tn them ye have
eternal life. For the entrance of that word giveth
light, and giveth understanding to the simple.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the
soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making
wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart; the commandments of the
Lord are pure, enlightening the eyes; more.to be
desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine
gold ; sweeter also than honey, and the honey-comb.
Let the word of God, therefore, dzed/ in you richly,
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace
in your hearts to the Lord.

Pray without ceasing; in everything, by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let
your request be made known to God. And the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus.

But of the times and seasons, ye need not that
we write unto you; for ye know him that hath
said, ‘‘ Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy. work, but
the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy
God.’”? Blessed is the man that doeth this, and
the son of man that keepeth the sabbath from pol-
luting it. And if thou turn away thy foot from
the sabbath, and from doing thy pleasure on my
FROM CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 29



holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy
of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor him, not
doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own
pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, then shalt
thou delight thyself in the Lord. Exhort one
another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of
you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin;
not forsaking the assembling of yourselves togeth-
er, as the manner of some is.

Be not conformed to the world, but be ye trans-
formed by the renewing of your minds. Lay not
up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where
moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break
through and steal. But lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break
through and steal. For where your treastire is,
there will your. heart be also. Love not the world,
neither the things of the world. If any man love
the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
No man can serve two masters, for either he will
hate the one, and love the other, or else he will
hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot
serve God and mammon. Hear now what the
Lord saith: ‘“‘He that loveth father or mother
more than me, is not worthy of me, and he that
loveth son or daughter more than me, is not
worthy of me, and whosoever doth not bear his
cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits whether they be of God; for they are not
30 MEMENTO OF AFFECTION,





all Israel, that are of Israel; for many walk, of
whom we have told you often, and now tell you
even weeping, who are enemies of the cross of
Christ, whose end is destruction, whose giory is
their shame, who mind earthly things. Not every
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the
will of my Father which is in heaven. Ye shall
know them by their fruits.

In all things show yourselves a pattern of good
works, that they of a contrary part, may have no
evil thing to say of you. Benot wise in your own
conceits, for God resisteth the proud, but giveth
grace to the humble. For the wisdom that cometh
from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy
to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, with-
out partiality and without hypocrisy. Be kindly
affectionate one to another, in honor preferring one
another. Be not desirous of vain glory, provoking
one another, envying one another. How can ye
believe which receive, honor one of another, and
seek not the honor which cometh from God only ?
Be content with such things as ye have, for godli-
ness with contentment, is great gain. For we
brought nothing into the world, and it is certain
we can carry nothing out; and having food and
raiment, let us be therewith content. Charge them
‘that are rich in this world, that they be not high-
minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the
living God, who giveth us richly all things to
enjoy. That they do good, that they be rich in
—



FROM CHRISTIAN PASTORS. ol

| good works, ready to distribute, willing to commu-
nicate.

| Let your conversation be as becometh the gos-
pel of Christ. Let no corrupt communications

proceed out of your mouth; neither foolish talking



























nor jesting. Every idle word that men shall speak,
they shall give an account thereof at the day of
judgment ; for by thy words thou shalt be justified,
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Speak evil of no man; let your speech be always
with grace, that ye may know how to answer
every man. Bear ye one another’s burdens; have
compassion one of another, be pitiful, be cour-
teous. Your adorning, let it not be that out-
ward adorning of wearing gold, or of putting on of
apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart;
even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,
which is, in the sight of God, of great price. And
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, think
on these things.
Wherefore, let us lay aside every weight and the
‘gin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run
with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him,
endured the ‘cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. For
we have not an High Priest which cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was
in all points tempted like as we are, yet without






























32 MEMENTO OF AFFECTION,



sin. Who can have compassion on the ignorant,

and on them that are out of the way, for in that he

| himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to

| succor them that are. Trust in him at all times;

| pour out your heart before him; and he will be
very gracious at the voice of your cry; when he
shall hear it, he will answer. And he will feed his
flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs in
his arms and carry them in his bosom. And for-
get not the exhortation that speaketh unto you as
unto children, ‘‘ My son, despise not the chasten-
ing of the Lord, neither faint when thou art
rebuked of him.’? For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth. For our light afflictions, which are but
for a moment, work out for us a far more exceed-
ing and eternal weight of glory.

For ye are not come to the mount which might
be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto
blackness, and darkness, and tempest; but ye are
come unto Mount Zion, to the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumera-
ble company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the first-born, which are written in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the
spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the
Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that
of Abel. Having, therefore, these promises, what
manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy con-
Versation and godliness ?
FROM CHRISTIAN PASTORS. 83

Therefore, dearly beloved, our joy and our
crown, so stand fast in the Lord, our dearly be-
loved. For now we live, if ye stand fast in the
Lord. And what thanks can we render to God
again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for
your sakes, before our God? For what is our
hope, and joy, and crown of rejoicing? are not
even ye, in the presence of the Lord? For the
Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of an archangel and with the trump of
God. Then shall we be canght up together to
meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall be ever
with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words,

Now unto Him that is able to keep you from
falling, and to present you faultless before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy; to the
only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.


PLEADING FOR ACCEPTANCE.

WHEN thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come
To take thy ransomed people home,
Shall I among them stand?
Shall such a worthless worm as I,
‘Who sometimes am afraid to die,
Be found at thy right hand ?

[ love to meet thy people now,

Before thy feet with them to bow,
Though vilest of them all; ,

But—can I bear the piercing thought ?—

' What if my name should be left out,

When thou for them shalt call ?

O Lord, prevent it by thy grace;
Be thou my only hiding-place,

In this the accepted day ;
Thy pardoning voice, O, let me hear,
To still my unbelieving fear,

Nor let me fall, I pray.

And when the final trump shall sound,
Among thy saints let me be found,
To bow before thy face:
Then in triumphant strains I’ll sing,
While heaven’s resounding mansions ring.
With praise of sovereign grace.




GROWTH IN GRACE:

OR, THE YOUNG PROFESSOR DIRECTED HOW TO |
ATTAIN TO EMINENT PIETY.



BY JONATHAN EDWARDS AND JOHN A JAMES.

P

By the Young Professor, I mean the person
lately converted, and who has but recently |
assumed the Christian name, whether in the ©
morning or the meridian of his days. Ican- |
not do better than submit to the considera-
tion of such persons the following judicious
advice, given by the justly celebrated Jona-—
than Edwards, to a young person who had
just commenced the life of faith.

“ My dear young Friend:

‘* As you desired me.to send you, in writing,
some directions how to conduct yourself in
your Christian course, I would now answer
your request. The sweet remembrance of
the great things I have lately seen at S——,
inclines me'to do anything in my power, to
contribute to the, spiritual joy and prosperity
of God’s people there.


















36 THE YOUNG PROFESSOR.

“1. I would advise you to keep up as
great a strife and earnestness in religion as if
you knew yourself to be in a state of nature,
and were seeking conversion. We advise
persons under conviction to be earnest and
violent for the kingdom of heaven; but when
they have attained to conversion, they ought
not to be the less watchful, laborious, and ear-
nest in the whole work of religion; but the
more so, for they are under infinitely greater
obligation. For want of this, many persons,
in a few months after their conversion, have
begun to lose their sweet and lively sense of

spiritual things, and to grow cold and dark,
| and have ‘pierced themselves through with
many sorrows ;’ whereas, if they had done as
the apostle did, (Phil. ili. 12—14,) their path
would have been ‘as the shining light, that
shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’

“2. Do not leave off seeking, striving, and
praying for the very same things that we
exhort unconverted persons to strive for, and
a degree of which you have had already in ~
conversion. Pray that your eyes may be
opened, that you may receive sight, that you
may know yourself, and be brought to God’s
footstool; and that you may see the glory of
God and Christ, and may be raised from the
dead, and have the love of Christ shed abroad










THE YOUNG PROFESSOR. 37

in your heart. Those who have most of these
things, have need still to pray for them; for
there is so much blindness and hardness,
pride and death remaining, that they still
need to have that work of God wrought upon

that shall be bringing them out of darkness
into God’s marvellous light, and be a kind of
new conversion and resurrection from the
dead. There are very few requests that are
proper for an impenitent man, that are not
also, in some sense, proper for the godly.
“3. When you hear a sermon, hear for
yourself. Though’ what is spoken may he
more especially directed to the unconverted,
or to those that, in other respects, are in dif-

the chief intent of your mind be to consider,
‘In what respect is this applicable to me? and
what improvement ought I to make of this,
for my own soul’s good ?? ;

4, Though-God has forgiven and forgot-
ten your past sins, yet do not forget them
yourself: often remember what a wretched
bend-slave you were in the land of Egypt.
Often bring to mind your particular acts of
sin before conversion ; as the blessed apostle,
Paul, is often mentioning his old blasphem-
ing, persecuting spirit, and his injuriousness





them, further to enlighten and enliven them,’

ferent circumstances from yourself; yet, let





























38 THE YOUNG PROFESSOR.

to the renewed, humbling his heart, and ac-
knowledging that he was the least of the
apostles, and not worthy ‘to be called an
apostle,’ and the ‘ least of all saints,’ and the
‘chief of sinners ;’ and be often confessing
your old sins to God, and let that text be
often in your mind, ‘that thou mayest re-
member and be confounded, and never open
your mouth any more, because of thy shame,
when I am pacified toward thee for all that
thou hast done, saith the Lord God.’

“5, Remember, that you have more cause,
on some accounts, a thousand times, to lament
and humble yourself for sins that have been
| committed since conversion, than before, be-
| cause of the infinitely greater obligations
that are upon you to live to God, and to look
upon the faithfulness of Christ in unchange-
| ably continuing his loving kindness, notwith-
standing all your great unworthiness since
your conversion.

“6, Be always greatly abased for your
remaining sin, and never think that you lie
low enough for it; but yet be not discouraged
or disheartened by it; for, though we are
| exceeding sinful, yet we have an advocate
. with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous ;
the preciousness of whose blood, *the merit
- of whose righteousness, and the greatness of

























THE YOUNG PROFESSOR. 39

whose love and faithfulness, infinitely over-
top the highest mountain of our sins.

“7, Remember, that pride is the worst
viper that is in the human heart, the greatest
disturber of the soul’s peace, and of sweet
communion with Christ; it was the first sin
committed, and lies lowest in the ‘foundation
of Satan’s whole building, and is with the
greatest difficulty rooted out, and is the most
hidden, secret, and deceitful of all lusts, and
often creeps insensibly into the midst-of re-
ligion, even, sometimes, under the disguise of
humility itself.

“3, That you may pass a correct fidesinent
concerning yourself, always look upon those
as the best discoveries, and the best com-
forts, that have most of these two effects:
those that make you least and lowest, and
most like a child; and ‘those that most

-engage and fix your heart in a full and firm
disposition to deny yourself for God, and to
spend and be.spent for him.

“9, If at any time you fall into doubts about
the state of your soul, into dark and dull
frames of mind, it is proper to review your
past experience; but do not consume too
much time and strength in this way: rather
apply. yourself, with all your might, to an
earnest pursuit after renewed experience,






40 THE YOUNG PROFESSOR.



new light, and new lively acts of faith and
love. One new discovery of the glory of
Christ’s face, will do more toward scattering
clouds. of darkness in one minute, than ex-
amining old experience, by the best marks
that can be given, through a whole year.

‘10, When the exercise of grace is low,
and corruption prevails, and by that means
fear prevails,-do not desire to have fear cast
out any other way than by the reviving and
prevailing of love in the heart: by this, fear
will be effectually: expelled, as darkness in
a room vanishes away when the pleasant
beams of the sun are let into it.

“11. When you counsel and warn others,
do it earnestly, and affectionately, and tho-
roughly ; and when you are speaking to your
equals, let your warnings be intermixed with
expressions of your sense of your own un-
worthiness, and of the sovereign grace that
makes you to differ.

12. Under special difficulties, or when in
great need of, or great longings after, any
particular mercy for yourself or others, set
apart a day for secret prayer and fasting by
yourself alone; and let the day be spent, not |
only in petitions for the mercies you desire, |
but in searching your heart, and in or ins |

over your past life, and confessing your sins





°
| THE YOUNG PROFESSOR. Al
b





efore God, not as is done in public prayer,
but by a very particular rehearsal before
God of the sins of your past life, from your
childhood hitherto, before and after conver-
sion, with the circumstances and aggrava-
tions attending them, and spreading all the
abominations of your heart very particularly,
and as fully as possible, before him. |

“13. Do not let the adversaries of the cross
have occasion to reproach religion on your
account. How holily should the children of
God, the redeemed and the beloved of the
Son.of God, behave themselves! Therefore,
‘walk as children of the light, and of the
day,’ and ‘adorn the doctrine of God your
Saviour ;’ and especially abound in what are
called the Christian virtues, and which make
you like the Lamb of God; be meek and lowly
of heart, and full of pure, heavenly, and hum-
ble love to all; abound in deeds of love to
others, and self-denial for others; and let
there be in, you a disposition to account
others better than yourself.

“14. In all your course, walk with God,
and follow Christ, as a little, poor, helpless
child, taking hold of Christ’s hand, keeping
your eye on the marks of the wounds in his
hands and side, whence came the blood that
cleanses you from sin, and hiding your naked-


































42 GROWTH IN GRACE,

ness under the skirt of the white-shining
robes of his righteousness.

“15, Pray much for the ministers and the
church of God; especially that he would
carry on his glorious work which he has now
begun, till the world shall be full of his
glory. |
J. Epwarps.”

If it be necessary to add anything to this
excellent letter, I would deliver it in the fol-
lowing particulars.

Set out in your profession with clear and
impressive ideas of what it implies, and for
what purpose it is to be made.

Seek to possess and to retain a comfortable
sense of your interest in the blessings of sal-
vation, even the witness of the Spirit that you
are a child of God; and remember that evi-—
| dence of piety is not so much to be sought in

strong and high emotions of any kind, as in

real humility, self-distrust, hungering and
thirsting after righteousness, sorrow for sin,
and a continual effort to regulate your
thoughts, feelings, and conduct by the word
of God.
Do not expect to find, in your own case,
everything you have heard or read of, in the
lp eapemenee of others. In the work of grace






















THE YOUNG PROFESSOR. 43 |

there is substantial uniformity and circum-
stantial variety. Especially remember that.
religion is not a principle of such self-pre
serving energy, as that, when once planted in |
the soul, it will continue to thrive and in-
crease without effort ; but, on the contrary, is
of so tender and delicate a nature as to
require great, constant, and peers anx-
iety, watchfulness and care.

Do not expect to be made happy 1 eit
gion unless you become eminent Christians.
They who would enjoy their profession must
drink deep of the wells of salvation. A luke--
warm, half-hearted Christian enjoys neither
the world nor religion:

Do not make the average piety of profes |
| sors the model or standard of your own; but
look to the standard set up in the word of
God. Consider not what professors are, but
what they should be. Many are deceiving
_ themselves, and if you copy them in their |
delusion, you will follow them in their ruin.
This being satisfied to be as others are, has
had a more disastrous influence on the church

and the world than all other causes put to-
gether.

Remember that your evidence of religion
ceases when anything else has the first place
in your thoughts and affections.








L———

44 GROWTH IN GRACE.

Never suffer any day to pass without read-
ing a portion of the Holy Scripture; and be
jealous of every book that becomes a rival
with the Bible.

Acquire and maintain great tenderness of
conscience, and recollect that there are no
little sins for a professor.

Begin your Christian course with habits
of usefulness. A constant desire and aim to
do good as instruments of saving sinners, and
raising the standard of piety and benevolent
activity in our fellow-Christians, is one of
the ends of our conversion, and a convincing
proof of its reality.

Do not neglect religious duty because you
suppose your feelings are not right at the
time. Action begets emotion; and the right
feeling comes with the right doing.

In the great work of mortification, do not
despond and give up the work, although often
defeated in the attempt to conquer and eradi-
cate a corruption. It must be conquered ; 1t
may be by divine grace assisting your en-
deavors; and it will be, if you are resolute
and persevering.

Recollect, you as much need supporting
and preserving grace, as you did converting
grace. Regeneration supplies no stock which
makes you independent of God. “If we live




THE YOUNG PROFESSOR. 45



in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Gal. v.25. “We must know what is the ex-
ceeding greatness of God’s power to us-ward
who believe.”? Our every action as believers
must be performed in the dependence and
confidence of faith.

Do you need ENcoURAGEMENT? Are you
alarmed at the difficulties and, dangers of the
way? Does your heart. faint to think how
many have made shipwreck of faith and a
good conscience? Consider, you enjoy the
sympathies and prayers of the whole church
—the watchfulness and care of the pastor—
and, what is of far more value and consola-
tion, the notice, the love, intercession, and
the support of the Great and Good Shepherd,
who gathers the lambs in his arms, and car-
ries them in his bosom. He will not forget
the lambs; their feeble bleat attracts his
notice, their helplessness -draws his atten-
tion, and for them he puts forth all his pasto-
ral kindness and skill. Consider, also, that
when Jesus Christ begins a good work he
will carry it on to perfection. You have all
the infinite resources of the Holy Spirit to
depend upon, and to draw from. Exceeding

| great and precious promises, which are all
yea and amen in Christ Jesus, are continually
| speaking encouragement to you from God.
46 GROWTH IN GRACE.

And behold in the church around you, pro- |
fessors, gray in the service of the Lord, who |
were once young and trembling as you now
are, but who have been kept through all the
duties, the difficulties, and. the temptations —
of perhaps forty or fifty years; and if you
look into the unseen world, there are millions
round the throne, who have been kept by the ©
power of God through faith*unto salvation.
The faithful love and all-sufficient grace
which have kept them, can-and will keep
you. .With these considerations, “go on
your way re joicing. -


EMINENT PIETY.



THE NECESSITY AND IMPORTANCE OF YOUNG PRO-
FESSORS SEEKING TO ATTAIN TO
EMINENT PIETY. .

Aut true Christians are really converted,
but all are not equally sanctified. There is
an essential difference of nature between the
least eminent Christian and the most excel-
lent worldling ; but it is not always percepti-
ble to us.

Perhaps it may be well to state what is
meant by eminent piety. Real personal god-
liness consists of the union of scriptural opin-
ions—spiritual affections—a tender conscience
—good morals—and Christian love : eminent
piety, therefore, means all these same ele-
ments united and carried on to a high degree.

A great regard for, and relish of evangeli-
cal sentiment is necessary: a discriminating
mind, that attaches much importance to right
opinions, in opposition to that spurious can-
dor and destructive latitudinarianism which
thinks it of little consequence what aman
believes, provided he acts well.
48 GROWTH IN GRACE.

With this must be associated a large meas- -
ure of spiritual affections, or what in common
discourse is called spirituality of mind; a
great and prevailing taste for divine and
heavenly things; a walking with God; living

by faith; setting our affections on things
above ; being dead to the world ; a proneness
to devout meditation; a delight in prayer; a
fondness for the Scriptures; a disposition to
retire from company to hold communion with
God ; an ardent love to religious ordinances ;
an enjoyment of the peace that passeth un-
derstanding, and a frequent experience of the
joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.
This is eminent religion.

It must contain much laborious and pain-
Sul mortification of sin in the heart. The
New ‘Testament everywhere supposes the
indwelling of sin in believers, and every-
where enjoins its mortification. There is
“ still a law in our members warring against
the law of our mind, seeking to bring us into
captivity to the law of sin which is in our
members.” ‘The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, andthe spirit against the fiesh; and
these are contrary the one to the other, so
that we cannot do the things that we would.”
Hence we are called upon “to crucify the
flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof ;”



EMINENT PIETY. 49



























“to mortify the deeds of the body;” “to strive
against sin;” “to cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holli-
ness in the fear of God.” He is therefore
most eminent in religion who is most engaged
to the work of mortification of sin; who deals
with his heart as a most reat and cleanly
~-woman deals with her house, not enduring
that one filthy room or one unclean spot
should be found in it. This struggle after
universal holiness, inward holiness, perfect
holiness, this is eminent religion: a desire
and endeavor after purity of heart; a real
and vigorous pursuit after absolute perfec-
tion. :

It includes also an exquisite tenderness of
conscience ; a mind that trembles at sin, and
shrinks like the apple of the eye from slight
offences, as well as greater ones; a holy
watchfulness against sins of the tongue, and
of the imagination, and of the heart, as well
as of the life; a constant penitential frame
for our manifold imperfections.

Nor must we omit to mention; as essential
to eminent piety, a high-toned morality; a
sense of honor; an inflexible integrity, not to
be seduced by the greatest temptations and
most flattering prospects.

Liberality for the cause of Christ propor-








50 GROWTH IN GRACE.

tioned to our circumstances, is also necessary
to exalted religion ; a mind so penetrated .and
filled with a sense of God’s love in Christ
Jesus to us, as shall make us willing to give
freely to the cause of God, of that property
which he has first given to us.

Nor is the description complete without
mentioning a large portion of that charity
which the apostle so beautifully describes
in the thirteenth chapter of the first epistle
to the Corinthians. The spirit of love must



be in us, or there is no religion; there must

be much of this spirit, or there cannot be
eminent religion. This, this is piety. Love

is religion; and the man who is greatly want-

ing in this, let him have what else he may,
is low in personal godliness.

Connected with all this must be the preva-
lence af evangelical motive; a constant im-
pulse supplied to the soul from the belief and
sense of the love of Christ. The moral ex-
cellence of Christianity is not an abstract
system of ethics, a mere sense of propriety,

leading to a cold, heartless, though still well -

formed character: it is a constant movement
of the heart in the splendor and attraction of
the cross of Christ. “The love of Christ con-
straineth us,” is the spring and reason of all
Christian piety. He is eminent in religion










EMINENT PIETY. 51

——

in whose heart Christ dwells by faith; who
is rooted and grounded in love; who knows
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,
and to whom this divine love is as the
warmth of its spiritual life, the pulsation of
the heart, the source of healthful action ; who
loves his wife as and because Christ loved
him; who forgives his enemy because Christ |
forgave him; who is benevolent to others
because Christ was full of grace to him; who
lives in all holiness because Christ died for
this purpose in reference to him; this is
eminent piety; to be always in sight of the
cross, having fellowship with Christ in his
sufferings, and being made conformable unto
his death; so that we shall truly comprehend
the meaning and feel the force of the apos-
tle’s words, “ FoR ME TO LIVE 1s CurisT.”

The union of all these constitutes eminent
religion. It is not a great prominence of any
one of them, to the neglect of others; but the
combination in due proportions of these va-
ried excellences. |

A man, though seemingly eminent for
spirituality, yet if low in morality ; or if defi-
cient in liberality ; yet lukewarm in spiritual
affection; or if very upright, and also devo-’
tional, yet of known bad temper, cannot be
eminent in religion.

































52 GROWTH IN GRACE.



Sometimes we see an individual generous
and public-spirited, but he is perhaps austere
and tyrannical at home; or else he is want-
ing in a nice and delicate sense of honor in
his commercjal transactions; or his personal
religion is lukewarm or defective. Here isa
second; he is a partaker of a zealous and
enlightened attachment to orthodox senti-
ment, but he is too covetous, or too. much
given to unsubdued temper. A third is up-
right and honorable as a tradesman, a pat-
tern of all that is just, true, honest, lovely
and of good report, but he is sadly deficient in
spirituality of mind and religious affections.
A fourth 1s spiritual above most, fond of
meditation, and much given to prayer, but is
at the same time somewhat puffed up with
pride, censorious, and sadly wanting in zeal
for the spread of Christ’s kingdom in ‘the
world. Thus we find, in looking round on
the Christian church, that the various excel-
lences and beauties of the New Creature,
seem rather shared by many than possessed
by each.

Eminent piety is the way to happiness. It
is Joy, and peace, and bliss—the sunshine of

the heart, the Sabbath of the soul, the rest-
ing place on which the heart lays down its
load of cares, and anxieties, and sorrows.


EMINENT PIETY. 53


























There is happiness in faith, but it must be
strong faith; happiness in hope, but it must
be lively hope ; happiness in love, but it must
be fervent love. The religion of many pro-
fessors is useless to them. It does nothing
for them. They derive no good from it.
They are neither comforted in trouble, grate-
ful in prosperity, nor sustained in anxiety, by
it. They hear some talk of their joys, and
hopes, and seasons of communion with God,

but they are strangers to these things; in
short, their religion is a mere dead form. In
the case of some other professors, their reli-
gion is an actual incumbrance, a hindrance to
their happiness, rather than a help. They
are spoiled for the world, without being fitted

‘for the church. They cannot go to fashion-
able amusements, and yet they have nothing
in the place of them. Their soul dwells ina
wilderness, a bleak and cheerless desert,
where no pleasant plant grows, not even the
deleterious flower of sinful pleasure. The
happiness of religion is reserved for those
whose piety is sincere, and the higher degrees
of its happiness for such as have large meas-
ures of holiness. God is the fountain of life ;,
and in his light only you can see light; you
must press nearer to him if you would enjoy

him. His dwelling is in the holy mount, and




54 GROWTH IN GRACE,

you must ascend to him there, if you-would
have joy and peace in believing. You have
read. the biography of eminent saints, and
sometimes have exclaimed, in almost an
agony, “ Why am I a stranger to their de-
lights?” The answer is easy : “ Because you
ure a stranger to that elevated piety from
which their joy sprung.”” The same meas-
ure of faith would have been attended, in
your case, with the same degree of holy joy.
You are too worldly, too proud, too irritable,
too prone to violate the rule of duty in little
things, too careless in your walk; and must
therefore grow in grace before you can in-
crease in religious comfort.

The continuance of religion in the soul is
exceedingly precarious if it he not eminent.
In many cases, piety is so superficial, feeble,
lukewarm, and undecided, that it soon dies
away amidst the cares, the comforts, and the
pursuits of life. It has not root, strength, or
vitality enough, to resist the influence of the
calm, much less the shock of the tempest. It
is like a taper, that needs not the gust of
wind to blow it out, but which expires in still
air, for want of oil to keep it burning. We
see many and melancholy exemplifications
of this. Young females, who in single life
- seemed to have religion, have lost it all


EMINENT PIETY. 55

amidst the cares of a family; many a ser-
vant, who, in his dependent situation, was a
consistent, though not an eminent professor,
has become a contirmed worldling upon enter-
ing into business as his own master; many
an individual, whose piety was sustained by
the aid of quickening and powerful preach-
ing, has relapsed into utter carelessness
when taken away from these refreshing ordi-
nances. In all these instances, religion with-
ered away for want of root: In other cases
it has been destroyed, laid. prostrate at once,
by a violent attack of temptation, or some
sudden change of circumstances. There is, |
' therefore, no safety but in a heart established
by grace; a clearness of view, a strength of
principle, a deep-rooted conviction, and a
peace that passeth understanding, keeping
the heart and mind in the fear of God.¢ Oh
what disclosures would days of persecution
make; if they were to come again! In such
sifting times, how many professors, who now
excite no suspicion of their sincerity, would
be blown away as the chaff! } We see this in
part exemplified now, by the influence of or-
dinary troubles upon some of these. In pros-
perity they are cheerful, regular, and appa-
rently consistent ; but see them in adversity ;

what poor, dispirited, despairing creatures






56 GROWTH IN GRACE.



they are! -Not a ray of comfort reaches their
heart; nota smile is on their countenance ;
every pleasant prospect is vanished, every
hope is extinguished, and they are as bleak,
desolate, and forlorn, as the veriest worldling
on earth in the wreck of his fortune. Would
it. be thus if there were eminent piety ?

How will your usefulness be increased by
eminent piety. Pure zeal is the emanation
of true godliness, and in proportion to the
strength of the latter will be the fervor of the
former. It is the love of Christ constraining
us, that will keep us steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord.
Excitement from other causes, impulses
from other sources, will subside; it is this,
this only, that can supply a constant spring
of activity and liberality. This will give
permanency and regularity to our efforts, and
will be likely to give success also by bring-
ing down, through the instrumentality of
fervent prayer, the blessing of God on all we
do. . ’

And then grace and glory are inseparable;
grace is glory begun, and glory is grace com-
pleted; grace is the seed, glory is the crop,
and in proportion to the seed will be cer-
tainly the harvest; for what a man soweth
that shall he also reap. That there are dif-






















































EMINENT PIETY...

ferent degrees of honor and felicity in the
heavenly world, is clearly a doctrine of Scrip-
ture, and it is proposed there as an incentive
to seek after high attainments in godliness.
Our future happiness or misery, though the
former is strictly a gift of grace, and the
other an award of justice, will unquestiona-
bly spring out of the character we attain to
in this world. A very large proportion of
both heaven and hell will consist of some-
thing within us; will arise from what we are;
in one case from perfect holiness, and in the
other from absolutely matured sin. There
will be, of course, external objects that will
contribute to the exercises of these different
states of mind; but the states of mind them-
selves will be the seat of misery or bliss.
Hence then it is evident we are now contin-
ually meetening for one or other of these condi-
tions ; and so close is the connection between
| grace and glory, that it is probable that not
a.single act of true piety, not an effort, not a
motive, not a feeling, is without its influence
upon our eternal state. Every holy desire,
volition, word, purpose, and action, is some-
thing carried to the formation of the eternal
character; just as every little dot of the
painter’s pencil is something contributed te
the completeness of the picture. So, on the































58 GROWTH IN GRACE.





contrary, every single sin on earth is an
addition to the character and torment of a
damned spirit in hell. What a motive, then,
is this consideration to exalted piety, to high
degrees of religion! All you acquire in this
world is an accumulation going on for'the
next. This is laying up treasures in heaven,
growing rich towards God, and becoming
affluent for eternity. The eminent Christian
is preparing for some high post in the king-
dom of God, and for a station of double
honor in the realms of immortality.

O professors! let me, with all the earnest-
ness of which I am capable, or which I am
able to express, exhort and entreat you to seek
after higher attainments in piety thaa you
possess. You are living too low, far too
low ; beneath, much beneath your duty, your
privilege, your principles, and your profes-
sion. Your religion is too much a religion
of mere opinions, and forms, and ceremonies ;
of mere abstinence from gross immorality,
coupled with an attendance upon an evangel-
ical ministry. Where, O where, [ask again,
as I have done before, do we see the life of
God in the soul, the heavenly mind,the work
of faith, the tender conscience, the image of
God, the mind of Christ, the impress of eter-
nity? Who have conqueredthe world by
EMINENT PIETY. 59

faith? Who have set their affections on
things above? Who are making it their
great business to prepare for the coming of
Christ, and their blessed hope to look for his
arrival? Where are the epistles of Christ
known and read of all men? Where are the
peculiar people? Where the witnesses for
God? Where are they to whom we can
point and say, “ Behold the men and women
who look not at things seen and temporal,
but at things not-seen and eternal ?”” Awake,
arise, shine; listen to the fearful language of
Christ to a Christian church of antiquity:
“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold
nor hot. I would thou wert either cold or
hot. So, then, because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out
of my mouth.” (Rev. iii. 16.) Tremble at
this denunciation, lest it should come upon
you.

Begin, from the perusal of these pages, to
seek after higher degrees of personal religion.
Be not satisfied with present attainments.
Even the apostle Paul resolved to forget the
things that were behind, in a desire to press
on to greater excellence. And can you be sat-
isfied? Beware of making the perilous yet
frequent experiment of ascertaining with how
little piety you can reach heaven. They who




| 60 GROWTH IN GRACE.



are seeking just enough religion for this pur-
pose, will find out, to their eternal confusion,
that they had not enough. ~ The love of God,
like the love of money, is never satisfied with
| its possession. Real grace in the soul is
ever seeking after increase, and any ap-—
proach to contentment with what you have
is a proof you have none. You must grow.
It is your solemn duty. God demands it;
| your happiness and your safety require it.
It is as much your duty to be eminent Chris-
tians as it is that of others. No reason for
this applies to them which does not equally
apply to you. attainable by you. ‘The grace that is neces-
sary for this is within your reach. You are
not to imagine that there is any peculiarity in
your case which forbids the hope of improve-
ment. God’s grace is all-sufficient ; the Holy
Spirit is omnipotent. You are commanded
as a matter of duty, invited as a matter of
privilege, to be eminent in religion. O take
up the wish, the purpose, the determination,
Make it an object that you must accomplish,
an attainment you must secure. Set about
it in earnest. Give yourself to reading, to
meditation and prayer. Set apart time, suf-
ficient time, for all the purposes of private
devotion; for communion with your. own


EMINENT PIETY. 61

——:

heart, and for communion with God. Resist
the encroaching, absorbing, destructive influ-
ence of the world in any form. Consider
you have a soul to be saved, a hell to avoid,
a heaven to obtain. Your profession cannot
do this for you; rely not upon that; feel as
if the work were all to be begun; let there be
the same earnestness, the same diligence, the
same solicitude, as there were when you com-
menced the pursuit of eternal life. Adopt
the Bible afresh as the Book of bocks; let
nothing supplant this precious volume. One
great cause why the piety of this age is so
feeble and so languid, is because the Bible
has in many cases been swept away by a
flood of uninspired publications. The pure
milk of the word has been neglected, or has
been so diluted, as to leave but little nourish-
ment in the mixture; and the new-born babe,
as matter of course, has remained dwarfish
and sickly. Even the biography of the most
distinguished saints, which ought to form a
part of the Christian’s reading, and is emi-
nently calculated to fan the flame of devotion
in the soul, ought not to be allowed to dis-
place the word of God. Again, I say, pro-
fessors, awake, arise, shine. “To be car-
nally minded is death; to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. If ye be risen




62 GROWTH IN GRACE.

with Christ, seek those things which are
above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God. Set your affections on things above,
not on things on the earth. For ye are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
Col. iii. 1—3.





“QO, coun I find, from day to day,
A nearness to my God,
Then would my hours glide sweet away,
While leaning on his word.

Lord, I desite with thee to live
Anew from day to day,

In joys the world can never give,
‘Nor ever take away.

'

Blest Jesus, come, and rule my heart,
And make me wholly thine,

That I may never more depart,
Nor grieve thy love divine.

Thus, till my last, expiring breath,
Thy goodness I’ll adore ;

And when my frame dissolves in death,
My soul shall love thee more.’’













THE GOLDEN CENSER:

OR,

A VISIT TO THE HOUSE OF
PRAYER.

BY

JOHN HARRIS, D.D.
THE

GOLDEN CENSER.



MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER
FOR ALL PEOPLE.—Isa. lvi. 7.

In order to realize the glorious scene
glanced at in the text, in which the world
shall finally be‘seen prostrate before God in
prayer, the first and the earliest step neces-
sarily was a revelation of the divine exist-
ence.

_For he that cometh to God must believe
that he is; and how shall they call on him
of whom they have not heard ?

This fact takes us back in thought to the
time when the knowledge of God was lost
from the earth; when the Lord, looking
down from heaven, to see if there were any
that understood and seek God, beheld the
appalling spectacle of an entire race in apos-
tacy with Him; and when, breaking the fear-
ful silence which sin had produced, he called
to.his wandering creatures and proclaimed I
am. That was an era in the moral history
66 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

of man, for it was, in effect, giving: to a
world of atheists a God. There the great
object of prayer stood revealed before them.
Had they known Him, the world would have
flocked at once in adoration to his feet. _
But does he take an interest in the affairs
of the world? for if he does not, prayer to
him is useless. In answer to this question,
Sinai rises to view. Sinai, burning with fire,
covered with the blackness and darkness of
the tempest, and echoing with the sound of a
trumpet, and the voice of words: God is
there, legislating for sinful man. Can ‘you
question his deep interest in human affairs?
Listen to his law as he’ proclaims it, and
mark how much of it relates directly to your
welfare. Mark how it denounces a curse
against all who shall neglect the duties ‘they
owe to you; how tender it is for your life;
how it denounces the man who shall even be
angry with you without a cause; how Jjeal-
ously it guards your property, your reputa-
tion, and everything that is dear to you; how
it throws its ample shield over you and all
you have; how it constitutes itself thewatch-.
ful guardian of all; how it kindles into a wall
of fire around you; how it thunders forth
“cursed is every one” that attempts to“in-
jure you, and requires all the people to say
THE GOLDEN CENSER. 67

“amen ;” how it requires the universe to
give a solemn pledge to be tender of your
welfare! The essence of the whole law is
love, and that essence it seeks to instil into
human hearts, binding them together into
one great community of love.

_ But, is the great God accessible? That
he takes a benevolent interest in human af-
fairs is evident; but if, however, the terrors
of Sinai are not laid aside, if that be a speci-
men of his usual state, who can venture to
approach him? .“'The Lord,” said Solomon,
“the Lord said he would dwell in thick dark-
ness.” Will he emerge from that cloud, will
he dissipate that gloom, and allow man to
approach him? The temple ef Sion is an
answer to this inquiry—‘ Let the people be-
hold me; I will dwell among them.”

The very idea that He should do this over-
whelmed the mind of Solomon with amaze-
ment, ‘“ Will God,” said he, “in very deed”
—is it not merely a figure ?—“ will he in very
deed, and literally, dwell with men on the
earth! Behold the heaven, and the heaven
of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much
less this house which I have built. Will the
divine Omnipresence take up his dwelling
here ?. Is not the expectation too great to be
realized?” “No,” said God, “this is my
68 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

rest forever; here will I dwell; for I have
desired it.” What amazing condescension
is this !:

And why dwells he there? That men may
come and fall down before him, and that he
may commune with them from off the mercy-
seat. Why dwells he there? Do you not see
through his gracious design? He makes it
his rest, that men may come to him and
make it their rest. Numbers through suc-
cessive ages availed themselves of his grace
there ; Penitence often smote on its breast till
its tears were wiped away; there conscious
Guilt lost its tormenting sting and first found
peace; Fear lifted up its eyes and smiled;
Faith looked up in the face of God, and
appealed to the heart of God, as she stood
with her hand on the head of the victim.
There prophets and kings, and the righteous
men of many nations, bowed down in prayer,
and found that which they sought—accept-
ance with God.

But everything there, gracious as it was,
calculated as it was to bring all people in
humble prostration before God, existed only
in type and promise. It may be asked,
therefore, in the next place, have those types
been accomplished? That temple is gone;
its splendors have vanished ; its most sacred
THE GOLDEN CENSER. 69

things have disappeared; its whole econ-
omy is abolished; the very nation itself is
scattered to the winds of heaven ;—are those
promises fulfilled? Oh! what tremendous
scenes arise and present themselves in reply!
The fulness of time arrives,,and behold, God
sending forth his Son. All heaven is wonder-
ing and rejoicing, for in his person Divinity
and Humanity have at length met. Before,
they had been only approaching each other,
but now they have met, coalesced, and be-
come one. He has taken our nature and has
made.a temple of that ; God is manifested in
the flesh. Calvary appears; there is our
substitute—the Son of God; he is making an
infinite compensation for our demerit, wash-
ing out the guilt of the world in his own
blood ; dying, that God may never more be
angry with man, that man may never more
deny or grieve the love of God. The day of
Pentecost arrives—behold in its scenes a
proof that our Advocate has entered on his
office of intercessor above, and that his saeri-
ficial plea has prevailed. For, lo! the Spirit
is poured out from on high, and thousands
bow in meek subjection to His power, con-
stituting at once the means and the pledge
that His house shall become a House of
Prayer for all people. Is it then still asked,
70 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

if the ancient promises have been fulfilled ?
Let the tears of the sinner, the joy of the
saint, and the success of the Gospel in every
subsequent age, bear witness. ~

Do you look around and ask for the altar
of sacrifice ? ye have an altar, says the
Apostle; though invisible to the eye of
sense, the eye of faith beholds it; and on
that altar there is a victim. Will you not
reverentially approach and look upon it?
Mark the majesty and meekness, the dignity
and compassion of his looks. It is Christ
crucified ; it is the Lamb of God taking away
the sins of the world. The Lord hath laid
upon him the iniquity of us all. Is not that
superior to the Jewish sacrifice? . He is
‘spotless; his blood cleanseth from all sin;
“by his one offering he hath perfected for-
ever them that are sanctified.” Will you not
draw near and nearer still, and lay your hand
by faith on the head of this atoning sacrifice ?
God hath set him forth as a propitiation for
sin through faith in his blood.

Do you look around here for the ark of the
covenant? The ark we have not, but the
covenant we have. What means this sacred
book ?

* All that the ark did once contain
Could no such grace afford.”’
THE GOLDEN CENSER. 71



“This is the new covenant,” saith Christ ;
“the new covenant in my blood,” the cove-
nant of life. Every page of it proclaims,
*‘ Hear, and the soul shall live.”

“ Our Advocate with the Father is Christ
Jesus the righteous.” ‘He ever liveth to
make intercession for us. Everything valu-
able in the Jewish economy here finds ac-
complishment, stability and perfection ; and
the design of it all is to make his house of
prayer a place of friendly meeting between
God and man. This was the great object
at which he aimed when he dwelt among us.
Hence the attractions with which he in-
vested the throne of grace, adorning it with
precious gifts, on which is inscribed, “ Ask
and ye shall receive ;” describing Him that
sits on the throne as our Father, waiting to
receive us, and us as. his children; assuring
us that we go there invited and expected as
his friends; placing in our hands a censer
filled with his own merit, to make our accept-
ance secure; and still his heart is bent on
effecting an interview between God and man.
Hence the specific design for which he has
instituted the ministry of the Gospel is to
beseech men to be reconciled to God, to come
and cast themselves down at his feet; and
hence the office of Mediator, which he fills in





















72 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

heaven, never quitting his station, never re-
mitting his duties for a moment, but watch-
ing and encouraging the sinner as he takes
his first step to the mercy-seat, by declaring,
‘Twill pray the Father for you ;” for well he
knows, that when brought in penitence to the
footstool of mercy, our forgiveness is certain,
and the end of the Gospel is gained.

( But again—admitting that God is thus
accessible and gracious, is he thus accessible
and gracious to all? Ask if the light of day
is free for all that’see it—ask if the air of
heaven is free for all that breathe; but ask
not if the throne of mercy be open to all that
need salvation. ‘ My house shall be called
a house of prayer for ail ce re-
member that he said this under the moral
economy of the Jews. Is the Gospel church
less open and free than the Jewish temple ?
Its gates are never to be shut night or day ; its
blessings are to be offered without money and
without price; its ministers are despatched
into all lands with the command, “ Preach
the Gospel to every creature under heaven;
proclaim that I am now on my throne, giving
audience to the world. Say to them, all
things are mine; come and share.them. I
possess them for your enjoyment and use;
come, and let me confer them upon you. All

SE ee, Cenc aEEENEE IEEE

———


THE GOLDEN CENSER. 73

the riches and resources of heaven are mine.
and you may be made the happy recipients.
Come, and I will bless you with eternal life.
, Whosoever will, let him come; I cast out |
“none. ) My house shall be called a house of
prayer for all people.”

By what particular changes in the present
kind of instrumentality, at what precise pe-
riod, or to what exact point of perfection the
result may be realized, we cannot say, and
are not anxious.to know; sufficient is it for
us to know that the time will come when the
world shall be seen prostrate before God in
prayer, and then will it be clearly perceived
that this has been brought to pass as. the
result of all that God has planned, and
Christ has suffered, and the Holy Spirit has
effected. The very mention of his name
then will be sufficient to bring the whole
world into a posture of adoration; they will
come before him hungry for his blessings,
languishing for his Spirit, casting themselves
before him, and coveting and craving the gifts
of his grace. And as his throne is open for
all, so is his house a house of prayer (for all
people. “O then, Thou that hearest prayer,
to thee shall all flesh come.” They shall not
be satisfied to enjoy Thee alone. They shall
go out, and with a friendly violence compel —




74. THE GOLDEN CENSER. |

others to come in and share thy favors with
them. “It shall come to pass that. there
shall come people, and the inhabitants of
many cities; and the inhabitants of one
city shall go to another, saying, Let us go
speedily to pray before the Lord. Iwill go
also; yea, many people and strong nations
- shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts, and to
pray before the Lord.” Churches shall come
to adore him and to pay him homage, cities
to consult him, nations to surrender to him,
all the kindred of the earth to fall down
before him. They shall not be content to
praise him alone; they shall feel as if they
wanted help, the help of the world, to raise a
song adequate to his praise, and a prayer
equal to the ardor of their desires. “ And it
shall come to pass, that from one new moon
to another, and from one sabbath to another,
shall all flesh come before me, saith: the
‘Lord of Hosts.” Then will man have found
his only proper place; he will have returned
to the only spot in.the universe which be-
comes him—at the feet of God; and, having
found his proper place, as his ultimate end,
there will he rest, confessing himself nothing,
that God may be all; going out of himself
and losing himself in God, finding his heaven

| in the smile of God. Then God will have

ee a a neh OD A RE



5


en nn nm ee ent en en rn tree en een eer seni



THE GOLDEN CENSER. 75

recovered his proper glory, every idol shall
be abolished, every rival :power cast out, the
eyes of all shall wait on him, all flesh shall
be hanging on him, and staying themselves
upon him, and he will be seen by the uni-
verse as the centre of a lapsing creation, the
support and the stay of a sinking world.
Then the design of the whole gospel consti-
tution will be completed, that no flesh should
glory in his presence; everything will have
redounded to the glory of his grace; and
when all flesh shall thus be seen prostrate
before God in prayer, what. will it be but the
prelude to the worship of, heaven? What
will remain but that all should be trans-
formed to the employment of praise above?
Infinite love, ascending to the Throne and
putting on the Crown, shall sit down and
enjoy an eternal sabbath of love, while the
myriads of the redeemed and glorified, cast- |
ing their crowns at his feet, shall ascribe |
their happiness to Him, and the jubilee of |
eternity begin! !
Brethren, to this period everything in the |
universe, everything in the mediatorial gov- |
ernment of Christ, is tending with the direct- |

ness and force of alaw. To this end there-
fore every event in his Church, every move-
ment of his people, should be intentionally


76 THE GOLDEN CENSER. f



subordinate. Viewed apart from this ulti-
mate design, the most magnificent projects
_ of men become puerile; viewed in connection
with it, things in themselves of very slender
account swell into infinite importance. It
hallows whatever it touches; it ennobles
whatever it employs.

Every power in the universe is regarded
by God as more or less opposed to him, ex-
cept the power of prayer, and the means
which prayer has sanctified. Every human
habitation in which God is not worshipped is
a fortress raised in hostility to him; and the
family which inhabits it is in arms against
him. On the other hand, wherever prayer
is made, and exactly in the proportion in
which it is made, there he beholds a spot
reclaimed from the powers of darkness, and
subjects swearing allegiance to his throne.
My friends, the world itself was intended to |
be a house of prayer; every spot in it was
meant to be sacred to the worship of God ;
all its airs should have been incense, and all
its sounds adoration and praise. That pur-
pose sin attempted to defeat; but, oh! a
higher purpose still only waited till the at-
tempt should be made! From that moment
a plan of grace has been unfolded which con-
centrates within itself all the interests of the






THE GOLDEN CENSER. 77



world’s history,—all that is eventful in the
universe of God; and when the consumma-
tion of all things shall arrive, what will this
world be thought of, think you, but as it has
furnished a stage for the unfolding of that
plan, and as it was gradually reclaimed in
consequence from being a house of sin, again
converted into a house of prayer, and thus
restored to its original design? Let man

record its history, indeed, and he would

dwell chiefly on topics of war and peace, of
pestilence and famine, the changes of thrones
and: the revolutions of empires: but as writ-
ten by the finger of God, these things shall
be noticed only as they subserved or opposed
his final purposes; while the history of the
world, as far as man’s instrumentality tended
to promote that. purpose, will be chiefly a
history of prayer. Preaching itself, benevo-
ent activity itself, except so far as it is asso-
ciated with devotion, shall be passed over to
record the triumphs of prayer. Many a
Christian, who once filled the public eye
with his active deeds and burning zeal, shall
be comparatively unnoticed, and the man of
prayer, the wrestler with God, shall be drawn
out from his closet of obscurity, and pro-
claimed in his stead; and it shall appear,







that whilst the one was only moving earth,
ta an ae tener feo oieiioatiomisel
73 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

the other was moving heaven. Are we
asked for a proof of this? Brethren, a great
portion of the world’s history is written—
written by the finger of God. The Bible is
God’s summary of the history of the world
down to the close of the first century of the
present era. What are the deeds? What
is the kind of human instrumentality which
God has deemed most worthy of recording ?
Oh! if I did not believe you to be sufficiently
acquainted with them already, I would say,
paint them on the walls of your dwelling.
Let the spaces now left unadorned, be occu-
pied with the principal scenes of God’s his-
tory of man’s instrumentality, and they would
be seen peopled with suppliants in all the
postures of devotion, and crowded with vari-
ous forms and attitudes of prayer. In one
place Abraham would appear interceding for
Sodom, and Omnipotence waiting till he had
done; the tempest of descending fire sus-
pended in the air, and ready to be blown
away by the breath of prayer. In another
space Moses would appear holding back the
arm of God, while Omnipotence is saying,
as if hampered and embarrassed, “ Let me
alone, let me alone, that I may destroy this
nation.”? In one compartment should stand
the temple, with the season of dedication; a
.~—

THE GOLDEN CENSER. 79

nation at prayer, and clouds of massive glory
filling the house. And in another, the same
temple, with its high priest occupied with
the office of two-fold intercession, prayer
with the voice and prayer by sacrifice, the
prayer of blood, thus justifying the descrip-
tion of 1 given in the text,—‘a house of
prayer. nf Did Jesus pray? Oh, in a sense
more than figurative, he saved the world by
prayer! Portray a mountain-top, and Jesus,
on it, prostrate, alone, wet with the dews of
night, praying to God with strong cries and
tears. And next, a garden,—Gethsemane,—
and Jesus there, praying in an agony, which
baptizes him in his own blood. And next,
the place called Calvary, for “ there they cru-
cified him;’? and Jesus died, offering that
great sacrificial prayer, which still pleads
above,—still fills the ear of God; and for the
sake of which alone all other prayers are
heard!. Can the cloven tongues of fire be
portrayed? Forget not to represent the
apostles on whom they rest assembled in
prayer! Elsewhere, let an angel be seen
despatched from the divine presence to liber-
ate Peter from prison; but forget not to rep-
resent the apostles ina neighboring house,
in prayer! But oh! there is a vision no

human eye but one has seen, a heavenly


80 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

scene which sums up all, an angel standing
at the altar, having a golden censer; and
there is given him much incense, that he.
may offer it with, mark, the prayers of all
saints upon the golden altar which is before
the throne; and the smoke of the incense,
blending with the prayers of the saints, as-
cends up before God out of the angel’s hand.
Yes; draw near :—it is the summing up of
man’s. instrumentality. Of all the various
ways in which he employs himself here,—
look into that censer, and mark which of
them it is that reaches heaven. Only that
which was sanctified by prayer. When the
clamors of a turbulent zeal have subsided,
and the undevout means which have dazzled
and astonished men have spent their force,
mark what is left in the censer. Only that
which partook of the nature of prayer. This
is all that lives to reach the skies, all that
heaven receives from earth, all that is ever
permitted to ascend before God. Nothing
but prayer shall be in that censer;_ and
nothing will ever find a place in that censer,
but that which ascends on the breath of
prayer. }
Again, here everything is to be done with -
the view of leading to prayer. As we have
been proceeding with our remarks, the ques-


THE GOLDEN CENSER. 8l





tion may have arisen in some minds,—What,
is our piety to take no other form than that of
prayer? Is it to show itself in no other way
but by prayer? Such a question could be
entertained only where there existed a mis-
apprehension of the nature of the prayer, or
of the way in which prayer blends with all
the acts of devotion and methods of instru-
mentality by which God works, Confine
yourself to prayer? No; not even in the
house of prayer itself. Only see that what-
ever you do, you do it with an ultimate view
to prayer. If you preach the gospel, for in-

stance, you are to bear in mind that that is_

the most successful preaching which brings
man prostrate before God for mercy. This
is the very end of the Gospel ministry; and
the more vividly you can set forth Jesus
Christ crucified among them, the more effec-
tually this end will be answered. Yes, let
every place of prayer have a Calvary in the
midst of it, and on that Calvary let. there be
a cross, and on that cross a bleeding Sa-
viour; and on that sight, that spectacle of
love, let the eyes of the people be kept per-
petually fixed. As preachers of the Gospel,
our great distinction is that we are ministers
of the Cross, we have to wait on the Cross,
to walk around the Cross, and to point out to



|




















cree paraennnteennanaaenanntas any; mete SRS a senna erate pene ee RA Ar ASR cE RS GO POR ISPREISTES SY YOO OCCA SY SO A

82 THE GOLDEN CENSER.,





a le ieee

the people the wonders of the Cross. Have

we any pathos? It should be kept for tell-
ing them of the Cross. Have we any affec-
tion for their souls? It should gush forth
when we are pointing to the Cross. Have
we any tears for them? When shall we

‘shed them, but when we have led our people

to the Cross, when we are there saying to
the sinner, “Behold Him! look on Him!
He is wounded for your transgressions, He
is bruised for your iniquities, the chastise-
ment of your peace is upon Him, that with
His stripes you might be healed. Draw
nearer to Him; it is of you that he is think-
ing; that blood is to wash away your sins;
that life which He is pouring out is the ran-
som which He is giving for your souls.
Draw nearer still; look into His heart; read
the names which are written there; your
name is among them.’”? And while we are
thus entreating the sinner, does he relent?
Does he look upon him whom he has pierced,
mourning? Does he smite upon his breast,
erying, “God be merciful to me a sinner?”
Then the end of the ministry is answered.
“ Behold, he prayeth.”

But besides the preaching of the Gospel,

_all the other ordinances of God’s house are

to be administered likewise; and, in addition








THE GOLDEN CENSER. 83




to this, children are to be collected, and
taught on the Sabbath ; ‘pecuniary offerings
are to be cast into the Christian treasury;
the Bible is to be distributed; visits of
mercy to be paid to the neighborhood around.
‘But however various or extensive are your
labors, however ably your operations may
be organized and generally pursued, the ten-
dency of the whole must he to bring men to
God in prayer. Never will it avail if it stop
short of this—if it does not contribute to this.
‘My house,” saith God, “shall be called a-
house of prayer for all people.” But as all
people will not, and cannot come and here
pray for themselves, your obvious duty is to
come and pray for them.( ‘Parents, pray for ,
your children; and children, pray for your ”
parents; let all the various relations in life °
come to pray for each other. Pray for the
neighborhood around; there is a sense in.
which it is committed to your care, in which. p
God is saying to you, as to his people of old, ?
J will make you and the places round about |
my hill, a blessing; and I will cause the |
shower to come down in your season; there |
shall be showers of blessing.” Pray to be |
made the cloud from which the showers of |
blessings shall descend, the channel throug
which they flow. } Pray for the prosperity























BR cg yee Neem O PM





























84 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

of the whole Christian church. The great
Entercessor above prays, not for a party; the
names of all the tribes are written on his
breast-plate. And does he not prefer that
prayer the best which most nearly is like his
own? Pray, then, for the whole church.
Do you ask what should be principally and
especially the objects of supplication? It
, wants more deep spirituality, and distinct-
‘ness from the world; a higher appreciation
of its office as the instrument of Christ for
saving the world; more of a spirit of union,
of oneness, that it may be one in accordance |
with the prayer of Christ ; one in zeal in the
preaching of the Gospel and for the universal
triumph of Christ. But one want there is
which comprehends the whole; the imparta-
tion of the Spirit of Christ.’ ‘Could a con-
vocation be held of all the churches on
earth, the object of their united ery should -
be for that promised Spirit. Let that be
secured, and in obtaining that, we should
obtain the supply of every other want. We
should find that we had acquired the same.
mind also that was in Christ; a benevo-
lence which would reign over the whole
human race, a “brotherly love which would
combine the whole body of Christians for the
} conversion of the world, a zeal which would




THE GOLDEN CENSER. 85>




























_ be ever devising fresh methods of usefulness,
practising self-denial, laying itself out in the
service of Christ, and a perseverance which
would never rest till the whole family of man
should be seated together at the Banquet of
Salvation. And, in coming together to im-
plore an effusion of the Spirit on the church,
remember that you are in effect interceding
for the. world; for it is through the instru-
| mentality of the church that God proposes
to save the world. Christians, realize in
thought the dignity of your office ; you go to
God as the earthly fepreseritatives: of man-
kind ; as intercessors for the world. You
pass to the throne of grace through multi-
tudes and myriads of human beings. Do you
not hear them as you go, imploring a place
in your supplications? Do you not see all
Africa assembled in your path, urging you to
go to God for them, to describe their wrongs,
to ask for the blessings of the reign of Christ
forthem? And, before you have done plead-
| ing for Africa, China comes with its untold
| myriads, entreating you to interest yourself
| for them; and while yet you are pleading for
China, India comes with its tales of lamenta-
tion and wo, and entreats you to speak for it.
And can you refrain? And when you grow
faint they all combine their entreaties that


























86 THE GOLDEN CENSER.

you cry to God for them louder still, that you
call in help more intgrcessors and more still,
till all the church be prostrate in prayer;
and when’ you move to quit the throne of
grace, they all in effect entreat you not to
leave them unrepresented before God. “Oh,
if there be a God,” they say, “and if prayer
can reach him, do not leave us thus, or we
perish! Our only hope is in the God you
worship, the Saviour you proclaim ; pray that
the blessings of his grace may speedily be
extended to us.”

From this day, let a period of enlargement
commence in your views of the’ kingdom of
Christ, and in your endeavors to realize
them! Imagine that a new page is open to-
day in your history. Review that past;
ascertainfin what respects it admits of im-
provement; whether in the regularity of your
attendance on the means of grace, in the
attentive seriousness and self-applications
with which you hear the word of God, in the
amount of your pecuniary contributions to
his cause, in a personal activity in his ser-
vice, or in the fervor and comprehensiveness
of your prayers; and in whichever it may be,
ask God to record to-day in the book of his
remembrance a holy resolution of instant
amendment. Especially see whether you


|
|
















inven ae



THE GOLDEN CENSER. 87

—_—



ought not to takea loftier stand than ever
in relation to the great interest and means
used for the extension of the kingdom of
Christ. Has he made you a partaker of
his grace? Then he has taken you to a
height which commands a view of eternity.
He bids you take a comprehensive view of
eternity, to regard it as a whole, to live for

_ eternity; and having done this, for your own

personal happiness, he next takes you to a
mount which commands a view of all man-
kind, and he bids you to pray for them all, to
open your heart and embrace them all, to
live for the universe. Let this house Be to
you that mount of vision. The present is a
day of more extended views than the past, a
day of greater designs and of more generous
endeavors.

My young friends, whose eyes kindle at
these designs, whose hearts beat high at
these endeavors, be you as men of God, men
of and for the day. Louder voices urge you
on than your predecessors ever heard, and
more splendid achievements await your ad-
vance. Take enlarged and comprehensive
views of duty; devise liberal things ; design
for the universe and for eternity. The Lord
of the Church himself is your leader, eet
witness the scene, and the world waits to be



eee

























88 THE GOLDEN CENSER.



blessed by your instrumentality. Let us
hear, as we do of the churches of Macedonia,
not only of your liberality, but of the contin-
uance, the habit, and the riches of your liber-
ality. Give as God gives.

Prayers too have been offered, solemn pray-
ers, comprehensive prayers, prayers which the
angel, having the censer hath presented, and
_ which God who sits on the throne hath heard.
But has each one present joined? Let in-
quiry be made. Have all prayed? What!
Is there one present whose heart has not
united in the general supplication? One who
has never yet begun to pray, and who, in the
very house of prayer, while every one around
him was engaged in prayer, has yet kept
aloof from the throne of mercy? Is he not
| pointed out at this moment. by invisible
| beings? Are they not gazing on him with
pity and with wonder? Ought not all pres-
ent to gather around him and to pray for him?
My friend, do you. know what you do? Shall
we pause while you do pray? Suppose we
were now to say to this assembly, in the
language of the prophet, “ Come now and let
us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual
covenant,” and let all who are ready to
comply give a sign; would you alone give
no sign? Would you give none? Ifall the |
THE GOLDEN CENSER.. 89



rest were to join, would you be the one to
remain out of the holy confederacy? Shall
we pause then while you now pray? Shall
we wait while you now offer your first en-
treaty for mercy? Yes, it will gloriously



signalize the service if now the news would

be conveyed to heaven; it would be hasten-
ing on the day when all flesh shall be seen
prostrate before God in prayer; it would be

preparing additional lustre for that day when

all the crowns of the universe shall be cast
at the Saviour’s feet ; for then thy crown will
be amongst them. May God command his
blessing. Amen.

“ Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice,
- Returning from his ways,
While angels in their songs rejoice,
And cry, ‘ Behold, he prays.’

The saints in prayer appear as one
In word, and deed, and mind,

While with the Father and the Son
Sweet fellowship they find.

Nor prayer is made on earth alone;
The Holy Spirit pleads,

And Jesus, on th’ eternal throne,
For sinners intercedes.”’


PRAY WITHOUT CEASING.

Go when the morning shineth,
Go when the noon is bright,
Go when the eve declineth,
Go in the hush of night;
Go with pure mind and feeling,
Fling earthly thought away,
And, in thy closet kneeling,
Do thou in secret pray.

Remember all who love thee,
All who are loved by thee;
Pray, too, for those who hate thee, -
If any such there be;
Then for thyself, in meekness,
A blessing humbly claim,
And blend with each petition
Thy great Redeemer’s name.

Or, if ’tis e’er denied thee
In solitude to pray,
Should holy thoughts come o’er thee
When friends are round thy way,
E’en then the silent breathing,
Thy spirit raised above,
Will reach his throne of glory,
Where dwells eternal love.

O, not a joy or blessing

With this can we compare—
The grace our Father gave us

To pour our souls in prayer: _
Whene’er thou pin’st in sadness,

Before his footstool fall ;
Remember, in thy gladness,

His love who gave thee alli.



























THE

CHRISTIAN CITIZEN;

BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF A DISCOURSE DELIVERED
BEFORE THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.



BY JOHN HARRIS, D. D.



Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.

Puiu. i. 27.

TueE word citizen is not; in its application,
confined to the mere inhabitants of cities; it
means, a member of a civil society, or commu-
nity. The scripture inculcates the love of
country, but takes care to enjoin it in the
only sense in which it can, consistently with
the love of the species. It seems to say:
“Act the citizen and the patriot; only act
him in a way worthy of that gospel which
rejoices over the whole human race. Imitate
him who was the personification of a holy
patriotism; but do not forget that though he
wept over Jerusalem, he died for the world.”

Religion, so far from withdrawing us from
the active duties of life, instructs and pre-
pares us to discharge them. It knows no-
thing of the recluse. It has not a word of
encouragement for the virtue of the cloister.
It furnishes no rules for the monk, the mys-
tic, and the quietist. ‘“ Wisdom crieth 2ith-
out; she crieth in the chief place of con-



hy
%


92 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.







course ; in the city she uttereth her words ;”
that is to say, the busiest sphere of the
world is the busiest sphere of religion. And
the man who retires into inactive solitude,
not only runs from the field in the heat of the
conflict, but, as far as his secular obligations
are concerned, he voluntarily incurs a civil
death ; and, as far as his religious obligations
to others are concerned, he is chargeable with
a moral suicide.

According to the Scripture theory, the
Christian church should be the nursery and
school of all practical excellence; capable of
supplying the world with the noblest speci-
mens of wisdom and virtue, for filling offices
of utility and trust. Like a city set upona
hill, it should be conspicuous from afar—that
all might know where to look for “ whatso-
ever things are honest, lovely, and of good
report.” Here the irreligious master should
always be able to find the most faithful ser-
vants, and the unchristian servant to find the
most considerate and kind of masters. Here
the city should find its purest citizens, the
state its most incorruptible magistrates and
legislators, and public liberty its ablest cham-
pions. Not only is Christianity compatible
with the discharge of civil or social duties, it
will not absolve us from them—will not allow


























THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. 93



us to be idle spectators on the great theatre
of life. Destroying every selfish passion, it
teaches us to consider ourselves as parts of
a great community, and consecrates every
talent to the public good. Its golden law of
love commands us, by legitimate means, to
‘break the fetters of the slave, to watch over
the interests of the social body, and to act as
the anointed guardians of truth and freedom;
so that, if at any time they should be driven
from every other home, one asylum at least
might remain to which they might repair,
and whence they might again issue forth,
armed and reinforced from heaven.

Religion 1s condescending as well as prac-
tical, and condescending that it may be prac-
tical. ‘Though its ultimate aim is to train us
up for a heavenly city—to make us free of the
kingdom of God—it will not allow us to for-
get that, for the present, we are members of
an-earthly community, and calls on us to dis-
charge the consequent duties. Indeed, it
‘seeks to'prepare us for the duties and immu-
nities of that higher state, partly, by exercis-
ing us in the duties belonging to our earthly
condition. Of the great philosopher of anti-
quity it is said, to his honor, that he drew
philosophy down from the clouds to walk
among mea—converting it from empty spec-


94 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.

ulation, into a practical benefit. In a far
‘more exalted sense,’ this -praise-belongs:.to. -
the gospel. Though it is conversant with
the invisible, the universal, and the infinite,
it stoops to the sensible, the particular,:and
the minute. Though it prescribes the course
of an angel’s flight, it stoops to guide an in-
fant’s feet, and, if need be, steps over thrones |
to. do it. It enters the private dwelling,
mingles with its inmates, and addresses an
appropriate word to the husband and the
wife, the parent and the child. It takes the
servant by the hand, and leads him to his
daily task, and thus invests his station with
a-dignity, beside which the most splendid
idleness is eclipsed and disgraced.. It ac-
companies the tradesman to the place of busi-
ness, takes its seat by the judge, and to the
Christian patriot it says daily: “ Be the citi-
zen, -n a manner worthy of the gospel of
Christ.” It never quits the ground, except
to convey its disciples to heaven. Like him
who went about doing good, its majesty is
the majesty of condescension; and while it
seems to be intent only on the happiness of
eternity, it overlooks nothing connected with
the well-being of time.

Wherever the gospel comes, and whatever
| the secular station in which it finds.its disci-











=

‘cation of the commonwealth, as approaching



THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN, 95

ples, it aspires to raise the tone, and to
become the motive and’ standard of their
‘morality. Asa solitary savage, man is gov- ’

erned. only by appetite’ and climate. Asso-
ciated with others uncivilized like himself,
he is influenced by a sense of mutual depen-
dence, and by custom. -As a member of a
civil’ community—a citizen—he is governed

-by law... And beyond this, under the refining —

influence of civilization, he may come to form

an idea,a theory, of what a citizen should be,
far superior to the literal requirements of the

law under which he lives. Such an idea
appears to have actually obtained, and to
have obtained first in Greece. ‘ Each man,”
says Plutarch, “ each man concluding that he
was born, net for himself, but for his coun-
try.” The peculiar state of society in the
little commonwealths of Greece, made patri-
otism not merely a governing principle, but

. rather an ungovernable passion. With them,

the very city itself—the voas—became an
imaginary being, demanding the sacrifice of
each to all, the annihilation of the individual
interest to the general good. How beauti-

fully has Socrates, in the Crito, or, the Duty

of a Citizen, portrayed this stately personifi-

and addressing him on the eve of his martyr-


96 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.

dom,—forbidding him to escape even from an
‘unjust sentence, when escape was possible.
And, by submitting to that sentence, rather
than evade and weaken the authority of the
law, he, perhaps, of all the ancients, most
nearly realized the heathen idea of a perfect
citizen. The writers.of the Roman empire,
though with motives far inferior to the
Greeks, adopted the same lofty notions of
the self-sacrificing duty of the true citizen.
Now the apostle Paul knew this. He was
himself a Roman citizen, and gloried in the
distinction. But, aware as he was of the ex-
alted ideas which prevailed on this subject,
he knew that the gospel could carry those
notions higher still, And more: he knew
that while their conduct, as:heathen citizens,
had formed a striking contrast to their theory
of duty, the gospel would put that theory into
action, and turn their notions into reality.
He knew that the gospel, wherever it comes,
takes all that it finds there of wise and good,
under its.protection—erects a higher standard
of morals—gives new motives to duty, and
new sanctions to law. He knew that, civil-
ized as the community might be, Christianity
would there arm Justice with a keener sword,
and present her with balances more perfect
than she possessed before—that it would

































THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. | O97

throw its shield over oppressed and prostrate
virtue—become the rallying point from every
quarter for conscience and right—and culti-.
vate all the fruits of a self-denying benevo-
lence. He knew that it would do more than
this—that H# would exalt the man into the
saint—raise the citizen into the Christian—
into an agent of mercy to all around him.
What miracles of moral transformation had
it not accomplished! Was not the Apostle,
was not Philippi itself, an instance? There,
its first triumph was to change the very jail
into a church—the receptacle of a city’s de-
pravity into a sanctuary of God. There, by
the plantation of a Christian church, it had
created a city in a city—a centre of holy ac-
tivify in the midst of a wide circumference of
evil—and should it not enlarge, and enlarge,
till it had pervaded and embraced the whole ?
“O,” said he, “ Philippian Christians, act
the citizen—act him, not in a secular sense
merely—act him, not merely by assuming a
higher tone of morality than your fellow-citi-
zens—do not be satisfied with that—propose
loftier aims than ¢hat. Let them see that
Christianity is a new nature, as well as a.
new name—that it has baptized and elevated
your secular duties into acts of religion—that
| it has fused all your affections together as
ooo

98 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.





J

ern etree an



——e

the heart of one man—that it has turned. all
your motives into love—and that animated
by éhat, you heed not their weapons of perse-
cution, but are filled with an irrepressible
concern to save them from destruction. In
a word, act the citizen, as it becometh the gos-
pel of Christ. And you know how that is.
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ. You know the objects at which he
aimed, and how he labored to achieve them.
Make him your model. Seek the salvation
of men as lie did. Live for this object as he
did; and, if necessary, die for it. He has
brought salvation to you—he has given you
a citizenship in heaven. O, as if you had
already been there, had walked its golden
streets, and feasted on its ennobling foys,
and had again. returned to take others with
you, labor for this godlike end. By union
with each other, by a spirit of dependence
on God, by zealous endeavors for the salva-
tion of those around you, act the Christian
citizen—and let what will transpire, you
shall be sustained, your Saviour’s kingdom
shall advance, and heaven be filled with
joy.”

Christian brethren, you bear the Christian
name—you have been called to do so for the

| highest object—that. you may leaven the |




THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN, 99 |

great mass of humanity around you with the
influence of your Christian character. The
apostle, therefore, calls upon you—not now
from a prison at Rome, but from his throne
in glory, if that can add weight to the appeal
—and he adjures you, by all that is awful in
the consequences of your past neglect—by all
that is hallowed in the name you bear, and
valuable in the throng of immortal beings .
around you, and precious in the blood shed
for their redemption—that you live and act
the citizen as it becometh the gospel of
Christ.

Now that you may be assisted to do this,
and to doit intelligently and from conviction,
allow me to call your,attention to our im-
mense population—to our responsible posi-
tion, and moral importance, in the divine
administration of the world—to our spiritual
condition—to the employment of the gospel
as the only remedy for that condition—-and to
the method in which that remedy should be
employed.

I. First, remember our vast population.
“When the Almighty would vindicate his gra-
cious conduct in sparing Nineveh, he sought
to impress the rebellious prophet with the
greatness of its population. “Should not I
spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are

pte re at Se aad












100 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. —



more than six score thousand persons that
cannot discern between their right hand and
their left?” Almost every foreign visiter,
who writes of this country, expresses aston-
ishment at its vastness. We are living in
the midst of human beings, to number which,
though figures can describe, the mind cannot
grasp. Look at our cities. Here the gay
flock for pleasure—-the armies of the enter-
prising find a field for the conflicts of ambi-
tion and skill—the hives of industry daily
swarm—and the victims of poverty and wo
hide themselves and die, by thousands, un-
wept and unknown. So vast is the aggregate
of their population, that the individual man
is forgotten—so immense is the multitude,
that a single person, like a wave in the At-
lantic, is lost in the mass. But looking in
imagination at these congregated multitudes,
the Christian will reflect—these are all spir-
itual essences, immortal beings. All these
are to die, and will be judged, and are actu-
ally on their way to the tribunal, and are
carrying with them there, each in his own
bosom, the seeds of endless joy or endless
wo, What a harvest for death! What a
prey for the Grand Enemy! What a field
for Christian effort! And how loud the call

on every Christian mhabitant to “live and




act the citizen as it becometh the gospel of
Christ!”

_II. A second consideration, deserving the
most intense regard of the Christian citizen,
relates to the moral purpose which a great
city must be intended to answer in the divine
government of the world. We believe that
the divine administration of the world is con-
ducted on a plan—and that, of that mighty
plan, every individual, and every community
form a constituent part.

To a Christian, the traces of such a plan
are evident and irresistible. Revelation is
full of it. Sacred history is little more than
the record and development of such a plan.

Prophecy is little more than an intimation of # .

the way in which that plan will be accom-
plished, and of the fate which awaits the
cities and communities which neglect to
fulfil their part in effecting that accomplish-
ment. For, in virtue of that plan, each per-
son, as he comes on the busy stage of life,
has a post assigned to him—a post which he
alone of all the myriads of his contempora-
ries can fill; and it is, therefore, at his peril,
that he neglects it. But if the individual
man is a distinct agent in the great drama
of Providence, how much more important the






























102 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN,



office which a nation—or a city, the heart of
a nation—is called to fulfil!

The history of the ancient world is little
more than a history of its cities. Each of
those cities may be regarded as an individual
being; endowed with peculiar capacities ;
possessing a distinctive character; required
to act a particular part, to answer a specific
moral purpose; and allowed a fixed portion
of time to see whether it would answer that
end or not. And why did they all, succes- |
sively, perish in disgrace? The believer in
revelation has but one reply—they not only
failed to answer their proper end, but by
their depravity and rebellion, they thwarted
| the whole of the great plan of Providence.
Babylon, Nineveh, Jerusalem, Rome—each,
in its turn, was called to answer a particular
moral purpose, and for that end was made
| the leader of ,the world. But, failing to
fulfil this high vocation, there came forth the
likeness of a man’s hand, which wrote their
- doom, and gave their power to another.

But if the cities of antiquity held so re-
sponsible a position in the economy of the
world, how much greater the responsibility
of those which have been called into exist-
ence since the coming of Christ. That was
; an event which, by erecting an empire of

eS ES ER A




THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN, 103

truth, and infusing regenerating principles
into the heart of society, raised the scale of
human responsibility a hundred fold. For
example: the advantages peculiar to cities
are numerous; advantages of situation, of
commerce, government, art, science, wealth,
religion; one city may enjoy one class of
these advantages, and one another. Is there
a nation whose influence is such that it can
make itself be heard by all the governments
of the civilized world, and whose voice is
tespected wherever it is heard ?—that nation
is ours. Is there one nation, more than
another, which, to all these advantages, adds
the power of giving the gospel to the earth?
—still, that nation is ours. Commercially,
it has access to every part—it has the ear of
the world; while its resources of wealth and
moral influence are equal, under God, to an
attempt at the evangelization of the whole.
My brethren, theseare not accidents of for-
tune—they are talents of mighty worth. He
who has conferred them, has done so with
deep calculation, and for a special end.
Have our religious resources been self-ap-
plied? Have we christianized our own pop-
ulation? Has every Christian citizen, by
a laborious, persevering, and comprehensive
- scheme of benevolence, essayed to turn our






104 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.

whole population into a great Christian
church? What we can do, commercially, we
know. In this respect, our field is the world,
and we have occupied every part of it. . But
while our energies have gone forth commer-
cially to the ends of the earth, what have we
done religiously within our boundaries? Are
we standing like a servant, girt, and ready
for our Lord’s behests? or are we yet to be
aroused to duty? Have we heathens of our
own to. instruct? desolate tracts of our own
to cultivate? Is our population in a state to
propagate more religion or irreligion ? virtue
or vice? Have we. yet to learn that religion
is the very end of our existence? If so, we

‘have only to continue in our present state,
and our doom is sealed.

Ili. Then, thirdly, what zs the spiritual
condition of this great community ?

My brethren, were you now about to hear
of its moral state for the first time, I should
be greatly disappointed if I did not perceive
in: your faces, as I proceeded, marks of as-
tonishment, compassion, and alarm. But I
take it for granted that you have already
availed yourselves, in some degree, of .the
information extant on this subject. To sup-
pose that you have not, would be almost a

reflection on your piety. All that can now

























‘ THE CHR ISTIAN CITIZEN. 105



be necessary is, to condense and present that
information with a view to the enforcement
of certain practical remarks,

One of the most affecting pages in the book
of the world, is that which presents to the eye
of the Christian a tabular view of its reli-
gious state. If we suppose, according to the
usual estimate, that the inhabitants of the
world amount to 800,000,000, then the whole,
in round numbers, may be thus divided: Pa-
gans, 482,000,000; Christians, 175,000,000 ;
Jews and Mahometans, 143,000,000.. O whut
shame should cover the Christian church,
that such should be the state of the world—
of Christ’s world—eighteen hundred years
after he has died for its redemption! More
than three fourths of the human race in igno-
rance of him, or in avowed alienation from
him! But there isa fact, which should be
felt, by every Christian inhabitant of this
great country, more deeply still—the fact
that: its religious condition forms so striking
an epitome of the religious condition of the
world.

- When the Almighty would impress Jonah
with the extreme depravity of Nineveh, he
spoke of it as a gigantic personification of
evil, which had actually come up, and ob-
truded to his very throne. Were the guilt










|

106 ‘THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.

of this nation zmbodied, who could describe its
colossal stature, its Titanic daring, and. re-
volting aspect? When he would show Eze-
kiel the abominations of Jerusalem, he led
him through successive chambers of imagery,
on the walls of which were vividly portrayed
all their dark and idolatrous doings. /But
were a similar representation of the abomi-
nations among us to be attempted, what is
the emblematic imagery that would do them
justice? Where are the colors dark enough,

and, the imagination sufficiently daring, to
\ portray the guilty reality? There must be

seen groups of demons in human shape,
teaching crime professionally ; initiating the
‘young in the science of guilt; and encourag-
ing their first step towards destruction.
‘There must be trains of wretched females,
‘leading hundreds of guilty victims in chains
—and leading them through a fearful array
of all the spectres of disease, remorse, and
misery, ready to dart'on them. There must
be theatres—with a numerous priesthood
pandering to impurity, and offering up the
youth of both sexes at the shrines of sensu-
ality. There must be splendid porticoes, the

' entrances to which must be inscribed—AHells ;
| and on the breast of each of those entering
must ‘be written, in letters of fire, Heil.





ane ee i an nn A SRN


THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. 107



There must be a busy Sunday press, worked 3
by the great Enemy himself, in the guise of /

an angel of light; and despatching its winged

messengers in all directions, on errands of |
evil. There must be infidel demagogues |
“ mouthing the heavens ;” and gaping crowds |

admiring the skill that blindfolds them for
destruction. There must be gorgeous pala-

ces, in which death and disease shall appear |
holding their court; in which busy hands \
shall be seen distributing liquid fire to (
crowds of wan and squalid forms :—and each

of those palaces must be shown standing in

the midst of a jail, a poor-house, a lunatic |
asylum, and a cemetery, all crowded—and |
leaning over the bottomless pit. And over

the whole must be cast a spell—an all-en-
compassing net-work of satanic influences,
prepared, and held down, and guarded by
satanic agency. And, to complete the pic-
ture, three hundred thousand Christians
passing by, without scarcely lifting a hand

to remove it! ais

And is it true that scenes answering to this
dark picture of guilt exist under the meridian
—the very solar path—of Christian light and
| influence? Is it possible that this moral
ulcer has collected and formed around the
very heart of Christianity? Yes—and the














seg Oita se



















108 ’ THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.



painful thought will arise, that the worst part
of it might have been prevented—that it has
come to pass through neglect. For, is it not
true that, until lately, Christians, as a body,
had not even glanced a look in the direction
of the evil? that they were not aware even
of its existence? Is it not true, that the
Christian, when speaking of the religious
state of things, thought only and selfishly of
his own rich privileges? pointed exultingly
to the temples of piety and the palaces of
charity, and expressed an assurance that, in
the event of a national visitation, these hal-
lowed edifices, pointing, like lightning con-
ductors, towards heaven, would turn aside
the bolt of judgment from the favored city,
and leave it unscathed? And yet, at that
very moment, large tracts of heathenism
were, stretching away from the spot where
he stood; and he was thus proclaiming, to
his own condemnation, that he had never
explored them.

Brethren, there is a weighty responsibility
somewhere. Who has been, who is to be, ac-
countable for the moral state of the country ?
Were its history to close. to-night; were its
inhabitants to be arraigned in the presence
of God, to be there divided into the two

classes of religious and irreligious; and were
i ea ge ee


THE CHRISTEAN CITIZEN. 109

those enormities of the irreligious which we
have depicted to be there drawn out in detail,
would you not feel, as the examination pro- |
ceeded, that there was a momentous respon-
sibility somewhere? And, as the mighty
sum of those enormities went on swelling
and swelling under the rigorous investigation |
of Omniscience, would you not feel, think
you, that for ages past the nation had failed
to answer any leading moral purpose in the
divine government commensurate with its
vast resources; and had been owing its con-
tinuance from day to day to the same long-
suffering which spared the guilty Nineveh?
And as the examination still proceeded, and
extended to the religious advantages afforded
to the guilty population, to the efforts made,
and the Christian means employed, for their
reformation,—O, would you not be ready to
accuse yourselves—to advance, and fall down,
and acknowledge that there was a weighty
responsibility resting upon you? that you had
not acted the citizen as it became the gos-
pel of Christ ?

IV. But wide and appalling as are the
wastes of depravity around you, and great as
is the cause which Christians may have for
humiliation before God on acccunt of past
inactivity, there is no ground whatever for


110 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.





despair. For if you act the citizen, as it be-
cometh the gospel of Christ, you will bring

that gospel to bear on the depraved portions

of the community, and you will do so with

perfect confidence of success. ,

Thus saith the Lord: “ At what instant I
shall speak concerning a nation, and concern- .
ing a kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down,
and to destroy it; if that nation, against ©
whom I have pronounced, turn from their
evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought
to do unto them.”

With penitence for the past, then, and —
hope for the future, mark the present as an >
era in your history, by bringing the gospel to |
bear on its moral condition, and by doing —
this in the full confidence of ultimate success.
You will not neglect or depreciate the vari-
ous subsidiary means of human improvement
—the arrangements of police, the improve-
ments of art, the diffusion of knowledge, the
elevating influence of education, the impor-
tance of good government, the encourage-
ment of industry, and whatever tends to raise
a community in the scale of civilization and
comfort. But you will not expect much from
them all. As far as the moral, the highest,
welfare of man is concerned, you will re-
member that the hest forms of social gov-























eer

tion of the Spirit; not merely the economy
eee eneee,

| THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. 111



enna

ernment, and the most civilizing education |
and philosophy, apart from the gospel, are -
verfectly impotent. You will remember that
the gospel was sent on actount of that impo-
tence—that it was not until man had tried
and proved the worthlessness of all his reme-
dies, that God sent the gospel as his remedy —
—that he waited four thousand years, till -
man had tried, on the largest possible scale, |
all forms of society which: were then possi-
ble, and all degrees of civilization-—till He
had actually shown that the highest point of
man’s civilization may be the lowest point
of his depravity—and that not till then, |
when the fulness of that time was come, did —
God send forth his Son to save the world
from itself—to save earth from becoming
hell, »

In all your endeavors, then, to regenerate
the community, you will rely supremely on
the gospel of Christ. And in doing this,
besides effecting that regeneration, you will
be answering a most important end—you will
be entering a protest for God against that
infidel spirit of the age which proudly pro-
poses to renovate society by human science
alone.

The present is emphatically the dispensa-

















































112 THE CHRISTIAN. CITIZEN.



~ under which the impartation of the Spirit is
promised—but also in which his agency shall
be proved to be necessary, indispensable—in
which man will weary himself out in trying
to do without that agency, as he wearied
himself out under the former dispensation in
trying to do without a Saviour—and that it
is not until another fulness of time. shall
come, the time in which man shall have
worked out and demonstrated the fact of his
impotence to renovate society by his own
unaided efforts, that the Spirit shall be
poured out from on high—and that then, in
the crisis of human exigency, he will be
poured out; that no flesh should glory in his
presence. |
| Now permit me to remark, that, in the face
of this divine determination, man is, at this
moment, in the very heat of his endeavor to
dispense with every higher agency than his
own. Society is full of hope; but all that
hope is from itself. Asif it had no past to
learn from—as if its hopes had been disap-
pointed only once, instead of one million
times, it fixes its eye on the two or three
points of difference between the present and
former times, and, on the ground of that dif-
ference, it grows prophetic, and swells with
expectations of the future. Lay your hand




where you will on the bosom of society, you
feel it heaving—and heaving with the proud
confidence of its own resources; of its power
to originate events, and to perfect its condi-
tion. An improved form of social govern-
ment is to do everything :—a secular educa-
tion is to call forth virtues unknown before:
—philosophy and art are to restore the golden
age. The various instruments of civilization
are to be combined and formed into a:ma-
chine which is to lift the world into happi-
ness.

But, I repeat, while you will not depreciate
these things as the means of civilization—
you will remember that education, and phi-.
losophy, and governments, and all the human
institutions of social improvement, themselves
need renovation ;—that the great renovation
which society requires is of a spiritual kind
—and that, for the accomplishment of that,
the gospel is the only instrument. You will
bear in mind that the gospel, itself, though
divine, is but an instrument ; ‘and, remember-
ing this, you will not rely even on its instru-
mentality, nor on the best mode you can
devise of employing that instrumentality ;
but, having brought all your sanctified re-
sources into the field, you will then, by faith
and prayer, call down the quickening Spirit




114 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.

to give it success. Having prophesied to
the dry bones, you will then cry, ‘“ Come
from the four winds, O breath, and breathe
} upon these slain, that they may live.”
And thus will you be lifting up a protest
for God against the prevailing spirit of the
| age.
And not only will you commit yourselves
| to the instrumentality of the gospel in the
hand of God, but on that you will rely with
entire confidence of success. It’is the pecu-
liarity of the gospel, that it seeks to employ
those only who have experienced its. power,
that they may not entertain a doubt of its
power to subdue and to save others. Were
your resources human only, great as they
are, you would have everything to fear; but
they are divine, and you have everything to
hope.

There is that in the gospel which exults in
difficulty, and gathers strength from conflict.
The more impregnable the walls of Jericho,
the greater the occasion furnished for the dis-
| play of almighty power, and the more splen-
did the ultimate triumph. |

-V. But the same benevolence which im-
pels the Christian to employ the best instru-
mentality—that of the gospel—in the behalf
of his fellow-citizens, will render him solicit-

|
|
|
|


































THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. 115



ous to employ it in the most effective man-
ner. That the gospel is to be orally imparted .
by man to man, is indeed the appointment of
its Divme Author. But there are two ways
in which this may be done. The one sup-—
poses that men will come to be taught; the
other, without waiting for this, goes to teach
them. The one relies on the gospel as an
object of attraction; the other, employs it as
a means of aggression.

Now it is evident, that the state of ungod-
liness into which whole districts have settled
down, requires that the gospel should be em-
ployed aggressively. Wisdom must lift up -
her voice in the streets. The guspel must |
thread its way through the windings and ©
dark recesses of the district; must go from
village to village, from city’ to city, from |
street to street; and knock from door to |
door; and even descend from one department
to another. There must be a “ Christian
and civic economy.” There must be an
active, well-regulated, and comprehensive
system of Christian police; visiting from
house to house, and from family to familly,
to read to the inmates the word of God—to
induce them to an attendance on public wor-
ship—to.supply those who are destitute with.
copies of the Scriptures—to introduce chil- |





116 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.



dren into Sunday, and other schools—to cir-
culate tracts and approved religious books—
and to hold religious meetings; and thus it
seeks to domesticate the gospel—to erect the
cross in the centre of every habitation.
Christian, what is your impression of this
plan? Does it not commend itself to your
judgment? Are you not constrained to ad-
mit its necessity? Have you sufficiently
considered its merits? Remember, that in
taking the gospel from house to house—
which is its distinctive principle—it is only
leading us back to the apostolic plan of dif-
fusing the gospel. The first, ministers of
Christ taught the gospel not only in the
sanctuary, but also from house to house.
_ And they doubtless felt that an obligation to
do this was mvolved in their Lord’s com-
mand, to preach the gospel to every creature ;
that while some would not, others could not
hear of salvation, unless it should be thus
conveyed to them. The principle, then, is
no novelty. It is as old as Christianity. It
is a part of Christianity. It is Christ’s own
ordinance; as much so, I submit, as preach-
ing the gospel in the sanctuary. And the
church has been guilty, in allowing it to fall
into disuse. From the period when it was
discontinued, the mode of propagating the































THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. 117



gospel became incomplete; and to the pre-
sent time has remained incomplete. Can we
wonder at the little progress which the gos-
pel has made, when we remember that of
two methods for diffusing it—public preach-
ing, and domestic teaching—one of them
has for ages been almost laid aside and for-
| gotten?

Another recommendation which this plan
possesses is; that it enables the Christian
church to keep just ahead of the world, in its
methods of activity. It will, I think, be
found that almost every other plan is imi-
tated. Infidelity has mimicked some of
them. Science has copied nearly all but
this. It has its societies, and schools, and
tracts, and missionaries, and Sunday lec-
tures. The church has adopted scarcely a
single method of activity, but the world have
done the same with their enchantments.
But in this excellent plan of domiciliary visi-
tation, the church stands alone; this, at pre-
sent, is all her own.

And asa further recommendation, let me
remark, that it is a tried plan; and that
wherever it has been fairly put to the test, it
has eminently succeeded. Reports inform
us of tears which it has been the means of
wiping away—of dark haunts of depravity






L 118 THE CHRISTIAN GITIZEN.
i (

where it has kindled the light of life—of men
reclaimed from the last stages of vice, and
made new. creatures in Christ Jesus. It has
| made itself friends among the ministers of
| Ghrist, solely on the strength of its evident
usefuiness—-ministers, who attest an in-
creased attendance, in consequence, both at
their Sunday-schools, and on their own reli-
| gious ministrations. Itis an invaluable aux-
iliary to religious societies. It has been the
means of originating methods of usefulness ;
| for, like an elementary principle in the natural
world, the parent principle branches off, and
puts itself forth in an unceasing variety of
useful forms. All its fertility is not yet
developed; it is only awaiting your consent,
and your earnest supplications, to make
itself be felt in additional forms of practical
application.

Do you ask what is wanting to give it full
effect? Its wants are many; but, great as
they are, God has intrusted the churches
with ample power to meet them all. It
wants agents ;—men who, in the spirit of a
David, a Jeremiah, a Paul, shall mourn over
the prevailing wickedness; and watch for
' souls as they that must give account.

It wants agents for the rich. When Jesus
declared, “the poor have the gospel preached |






THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. 119

to them,” he did not intend that the rich
should be neglected.. He did not lay down
a rule; he was only stating a fact. When
Jonah was sent to Nineveh, his commission
was universal; and the king himself came
down from his throme, and sat in ashes.
When the apostles were commanded to open
the gospel commission, “ beginning at Jeru-
salem,” there was no restriction of their
labors to particular classes. On the con-
trary, they were to seek the salvation of every
creature. And can we picture to ourselves a
Peter, with that command still sounding in
his ears, passing by the door of'a rich Phari-
see, through fear? Ora Paul,.avoiding the
house of an Athenian philosopher, or a Ro-
man patrician, lest he should not be blandly
received’? No; but we can imagine the for-
mer saying to himself, “ I remember my Sa-
viour’s parable of the rich man in hell; ear-
nestly entreating that some one might go
and warn his brethren lest, they too should
perish. Perhaps in this house such breth-
ren dwell. Iwill cail and tell them of deliv-
erance from the wrath to come.” And we
can imagine the latter saying, ‘“ the destroy-
ing angel did not pass over. an unsprinkled
door, because its inmates happened to be
titled and rich; and shall the angel of mercy


THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN,



pass it by, without making an effort to save ?
I will call and testify of the blood which
cleanseth from all sin.” The spirit of their
Saviour possessed them—they looked on man
as man—in the recollection of his guilt, his
immortality, his urgent need of salvation,
they comparatively lost sight of his mere
social distinctions—they stooped to the low-
est, stood erect before the highest—testify-
ing alike “to small and great, repentance
towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ.” O, “where is the Lord God of
Elijah?” Where is the spirit of ardent zeal
which burned in the breasts of the Apostles ?
Is it for us to wonder at the dislike which
Jonah evinced to execute his great commis-
sion ?—for us, with our Nineveh as yet un-
warned; for us, who, in the. very spirit of
Jonah, are timidly shunning the gate of the
mansion, and entering only the door of the
cottage? Compared with our conduct, there
is a sense in which his cowardice was cour-
age and his guilt innocence; for while he felt
persuaded that his message would take effect,
and thus honored the power of truth, we fear
that our message will fail, and thus we dis-
honor “the glorious gospel of the blessed
God.”

Another of its wants is the united aid of

wrk ore Se ad ea ere tina or too nono nen cheno







stupendous is the object before us, that it
calls for the combined strength of the pious
of every denomination. And shall they not
coéperate? When the legions were scaling
the walls of Jerusalem, the hostile parties
within, forgetting their jealousies, rushed to
the scene of danger, and fought side by side,
with emulous valor, against the common foe.
Churches of every name! The foe is ad-
vancing—the foe is upon you—will you not
atise as one man to meet him? The work
to which duty invokes you is godlike—a
work in which the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit are one—will you not confede-
rate to perform it? “O,” says the Apostle,
“conduct yourselves as citizens in a way
worthy of the gospel of Christ, with one
mind, striving together for the faith of the
gospel.”

~It wants liberal pecuniary support. And
why has God instrusted you with more pro-
perty than you need for yourselves, but to
enable you to render that support? In plac-
ing that property in your hands, He was say-
ing in effect : “ Occupy this, until I shall send
my Cause to claim it. Zhen, faithfully and
freely restore it; and if you can trust the
word of a God, I will bless you, and intrust

THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. 121
the churches. Division is weakness: but so






122 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.

you with more.” Stewards of God! that
time has come ; your Master needs a portion
of his property. What are you prepared to
place on his altar? Christians! your Saviour
1S present to witness your liberality—and
more than to witness, to receive it. The hand
into which your contributions are poured, is
the hand that for you was nailed to the cross,
the hand that plucked you from destruction,
and the hand that is to award you the crown
of life. Christians, you never appeal to him
in vain; let his appeal to you be replied to
by acts of noble munificence. |

And it wants, it entreats, your earnest sup-
plications. View it as a loud call. to univer-
sal supplication. ‘“ Here,’ you say, ‘“ here is
the machinery ; that which we now want is
the hand of God to,move it. .O arm of the
Lord, awake! Here is the sacrifice; but
where is the fire to kindle it? We need it—
as much as Elijah when his altar and offering
were drenched in water. And we can obtain
it. Only let us pray as he did—for he was
but a man of like passions with ourselves—
and the sacred element shall descend, and
the sacrifice be accepted, and the people, fall-
ing down on their faces, shall acknowledge,
the Lord he is the God ; the Lord he is the
God.” Conduct yourselves as Christian citi-




THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. 123







zens, and you will become daily intercessors
for the depraved population around you: and
when once you have formed the habit of
prayer for them, you will cordially seek their
salvation: and then the work will be as good
as done.

Brethren! that work is now before you;
and you can perform it.

Do you need incitements? Think, I en-
treat you, of the magnitude, and the dreadful
proximity of the evil against which your
efforts are directed. Were you, on arising
to-morrow morning, to find that, by some sa-
tanic enchantment, temples had heen erected
during the night, in your various streets—-
temples to the heathen idols, Venus, and
Bacchus, and Mercury, and the Indian Jug-
gernaut—patrons of the vices—and that all
those temples were thronged with worship-
pers—and thousands of them preparing to
immolate themselves in honor of their gods
—would you not wither with amazement?
But here is all the most fearful part of the
scene passing in vivid reality before your
eyes. The very temples themselves virtually -
exist; nothing but the names are wanting;
and the votaries flock to them in crowds.
Were you, on arising to-morrow morning, to
find, that, by some unaccountable means, a |





124 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.

—

colony of hundreds of thousands of heathens
had come from the ends of the earth, and set
themselves down in the outskirts of your
city or neighborhood; and could you easily
go and assure yourselves of the fact; could
you see the great living mass of heathenism,
fermenting there in ignorance and depravity,
-would you not fear some moral contagion
from their vicinity; and would you not take
some instant means for penetrating that
- threatening mass with the healing influence
of the gospel? But here they are—and the
reality is worse than the supposition—they
are not in your suburbs, merely, but in your
midst—living at your doors, dwelling around
your sanctuaries, and they have done so for
years. The contagion arising from their
presence has not now to begin—it has long
been in wide, active, fatai operation, endan-
gering your cnildren, contaminating your ser-
vants, attacking your friends, destroying your
neighbors, aud kee ing thousands in a state
of weeping and wasting anxiety.’

And will you not arise to the rescue?
Shall it be necessary to remove these hea-
thens to the plains of India, or to the islands
of the Southern Sea, before you will think of
them? Will you feel only for guilt and mis-
ery which you do not see? Shall a suspicion




THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN. 125

of insincerity be thrown on all your mission-
ary operations abroad ?

Think of the number which God asks you
to benefit. Repeat the number to yourselves
as you sit in the house, and as you walk in
the way—and add, souls are perishing in my
neighborhood. Repeat it as you are about
to cast into the treasury of the Lord, and it
will impel you to increase your offering.
Repeat it as you bow at the throne of grace .
—souls perishing around me—and, like Abra-
ham interceding for Sodom, it will impel
you to wrestle with God for their salvation.

Think of the urgency of their danger.
Infidelity is active; proselyting, poisoning,
destroying souls. Vice is active—myriads
are in its pay—all sworn and devoted to its
work—all covered with the blood of souls.
Death is active—driving them away in their
wickedness—compelling them by tens of
thousands annually into the presence of their
Judge. And hell is enlarging itself to re-
ceive them; hell—and nothing standing be-
tween them and it; absolutely nothing, but
the patience of God. And shall Christians
be inactive? Will you not act the Christian
citizen, and hasten, and plant the cross be-
tween them and. ruin ?





126 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.





Think of the infinite importance of their _
salvation. Here are souls perishing; will you ©
not labor to save some of them? “ Brethren, _
if one convert a sinner from the error of his
ways—let him know’—let him press the
precious truth to his heart—let him announce
it to others—let him publish it through’ the
church as a proclamation from the throne of
God to inflame the zeal of others—let him
know, that he hath saved a soul from death:
and who can tell what that means? Will
you not try to save souls from death? They
will bless you for it in this world: and ten
thousand ages hence they will be blessing
you for it still.” :
Think of the provision made for their re-
demption. The feast-is prepared, and they
are famishing, and the.Lord of the feast is
waiting to welcome them; will you not go,
as he bids you, and urge them to come in?
Christians! O, as if he had proclaimed it
by special revelation from heaven, seek for
them. Send forth agents to look for them |
in all directions. Leave no spot unvisited— —
let the search be universal—and you shall |
find them in multitudes, “to the praise of .
the glory of his grace.”
And do you not see that success in this ©
respect, will include success of every other |






127



THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.





kind, and to an indefinite ainount ? The
churches of Christ will be filled and multi-
plied. Religious societies will glorify God
in you—for you will be enlarging their sphere
of operations, providing them with agents,
and replenishing their funds. The country |
at large will bless you; for, besides that
your example will lead to general imitation,
the heart of the community being renewed,
the whole of the body politic could not fail
to reap the advantage. The government
itself will be benefitted—for you would be
doing. more than any parliamentary enact-
ments to secure the reai sanctification of the
Sabbath, and to promote the ends of a true
political economy, :

The self-sufficiency of human science will
stand rebuked in the presence. of your spir-
itual triumphs, aad thus you will be pro-
claiming to the world, “Not by might,
nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the
Lord.” “And they shall call thee, the city
of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of
Israel.”

And now, thus saith the Lord: “Go through
the midst of the city, through the midst of
Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the fore-
| heads of the men that sigh and that cry for
all the abominations that be done in the




128 THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.



midst thereof.” ‘“ Ee that hath ears to hear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches :”—act now the citizen as it becometh
the gospel of Christ.

Happy the children of the Lord,
Who, walking in his sight,

Make all the precepts of his word
Their study and delight.

That precious wealth shall be their dower,
Which cannot know decay,

Which moth or rust shall ne’er devour,
Nor Ee take away.

For them that heavenly light shall —
Whose cheering rays iflume

The darkest hours of life, and shed
A kalo round the tomb.

Their works of piety and love,
- Performed through Christ, their Lord,
Forever registered above,

Shall meet a sure reward.


THE






ACTIVE CHRISTIAN.

FROM THE WRITINGS OF

JOHN HARRIS, D.D.

AUTHOR OF ‘MAMMON,’ ‘THE GREAT COMMISSION,’
‘THE GREAT TEACHER,’ ETC.

BOSTON:
GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN.

nen



eee merc
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844,
By GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN,

In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Dis-
trict of Massachusetts.













PREFACE.



No one can read the writings of Dr. Harris,
without discovering that a master spirit guides
his pen.

Few writers, of the present day, have attained
greater celebrity in the religious world than he.
The fact that three successive prizes have been
awarded to him, in England, for Essays written
on different important subjects, is sufficient proof
of the truth of this remark.

The present little volume, selected from his
writings, it is confidently believed, will be found
a valuable gem in the ‘Miniature SERIES OF
RELicIous Works.’ May its perusal lead many
| a formal Christian to aspire to become a faithful
| actor in the ' Witnessing Church,’ to be adorned

with all attainable ‘ Christian Excellence,’ and

faithfully to improve every proper ‘Means of

Usefulness ;? that thus he may present to the

world the fruits of the Spirit, and the beauty of

holiness, as exhibited in the life and character of

‘Tue ACTIVE CHRISTIAN.’



NRT NT OTE URNNET RRETE MIO ARRON OTE


CONTENTS.

I.
WITNESSING CHURCH, ++eeeeee §

2

Il.
CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE,+cese 7

III.
MEANS OF USEFULNESS,«« oee ell5


THE

WITNESSING CHURCH.

BY THE
REV. JOHN HARRIS, D. D.

Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that Iam God.
IsataAH 43:12,

THERE is one important respect in which
all objects in the universe, from the atom to
the archangel, unite: all are witnesses for
God. He who made all things for himself,
has so made them, that, voluntarily or in-
voluntarily, according to their respective
natures, they distinctly attest the divine
existence and character. He has not-left it
contingent whether they give such testimony
| ornot. The great name of the Maker is in-
woven into the texture of everything he has
made. So that even if the creature possess
a will, and that will become depraved, and
guiltily withhold its intelligent testimony

rrr meen oe:




























6 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.



to the divine existence, an eloquent and in-

corruptible witness is still to be found in the

physical constitution of that creature; if the

fool should say in his heart, ‘There is no
God,’ every pulse of that heart replies, ‘There
is,’ and every atom of that vital organ adds,
‘He is thy Maker.’

As the natures of the material witnesses
differ, it follows of course that the manner |
in which they render their evidence will
vary accordingly. In regard to some of
them, the marks of design and beneficence
are so obvious that they may be said to be
ever speaking for God, without solicitation,
—the divine signature is visibly imprinted |
on their surface. Inregard to others, the ev-
| idence lies deeper, and must be sought for
patiently. In such cases, while the wit-

nesses are under examination, while the in-
vestigation is proceeding from link to link in
the chain of evidence, the ungodly some-
times unseasonably exult, and the timid and
uninformed believer in revelation trembles
for the issue. But heneed not. Let himonly
wait confidently, as God does, till the exam-
ination be complete, till the inquiry has
| reached the last link of the chain, and that




THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 7

link will invariably be found in the hand of
God.

Chemistry — once the strong hold of the
sceptic— has long since discovered that no
substance in nature is simple and unmixed ;
in other words, that everything is in a made
state,—that even the atom is an artificial,
manufactured thing: so that an argument
for God lies hid in every particle of which
the globe is composed; and a witness is in
reserve in every pebble we pass; and a final
appeal is lodged for him in the elements, or
first principles, of all things: thus demolish-
ing the altar which scepticism had erected
to the eternity of the world, and replacing it
by an altar inscribed to the Divine Creator. |:
So that, if we hold our peace, or withhold |
our homage, the very stones will cry out.

Geology, — the voice of the earth, the |
Pompeii of natural religion, the witness now
under examination,—a witness raised from |.
the grave of a former world, is producing her
primitive formations, to show that even they
are in a made state, and her fossil skeletons,
to show that they bear indubitable marks of
having come from the hand of the one Great
Designer: leaving us toinfer, that, could we


—

8 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.



reach the foundation of the earth, we should
find it inscribed with the name of the Di-
vine Architect — that, could we penetrate to
the central atom of the globe, it would speak
for God; and thus impelling us to erect, out
of the wreck of a former world, a temple to
Him who hath created all things new.
Astronomy leads us forth into the vast
amphitheatre of nature, to gaze on ten thou-
sand times ten thousand burning worlds;
and are they not all witnesses for God?
For are they not allin motion? Thisis not
nature, but miracle. The first miracle was
the production of matter; the second, to
make that matter move. Its natural state
is rest: but here are unnumbered myriads
of material worlds in motion; out of their
natural state, in an artificial, constrained,
preternatural state. They are all God’s wit-
nesses. The stars in their courses fight
against irreligion. Each of them obediently
followed, is a star of Bethlehem—a guide
into the Divine presence. Each of them
rushes through immensity as a miracle and
a messenger from God to the universe, pro-
claiming —‘ There is a God, and the hand
of God is upon me;’ and all of them unite —




THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 9



ee

yes, this is the real music of the spheres,
the chorus of creation! —all-of them unite
in proclaiming his eternal power and god-
head. In the estimation of the psalmist, the
creation is a vast temple; and often did he
summon the creatures, and join them in a
universal song of praise. And John heard
the chorus. The noise and din of a dis-
tracted world may drown their voices here;
‘But,’ saith he, ‘every creature which is in
heaven and on the earth, and under the
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that
are in them heard J, saying, Blessing, and
honor, and glory, and power, be unto him
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb for ever.’ Thus nature, with all her
myriad voices, is ever making affirmation
and oath of the divine existence, and filling

_ the universe with the echo of his praise.



But since the period of creation, a new
state of things has arisen, and a new order
of witnesses has consequently become nec-
essary. Sin has entered the world. Man
has fallen away from his Maker, and has re-
nounced the divine authority. To say, there-
fore, that there is a God, and that that God
is wise, powerful, and good, is only to say,






10 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

in effect, that there is ground for the greatest
apprehension and alarm; for sin is a guilty
impeachment of that wisdom, a hostile de-
fiance of that power, and a wilful affront of
that goodness. The question, therefore, now
arises, what is the course which the offended
Majesty of heaven is likely to take towards
us? What, under these new circumstances,
are the new terms on which we stand with
him? Will justice have free course against
us? And, if no, what is to turn it aside?
On this anxious topic, nature has received
no instructions, and is silent. ‘The Depth
saith, “Jt es not a2 me.”’? Clouds of gloom
have gathered and settled into thick dark-
ness round about his throne, and whether the
light that will eventually burst forth from
that gloom will be a fierce flash to scathe
and destroy, or a genial ray to enkindle hope,
nature could not foretell. By the introduc-
tion of sin, our condition had become preter-
natural, and the voice that speaks to us,
therefore, must be supernatural. God must
become his own witness.

And he did so. Breaking the fearful si-
lence which sin had produced, and which
might have lasted forever, he spoke to us.

Se pt a ee er ge eae oe ee eee et ee ed











THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 11

And every accent he uttered was an accent
of love. His first sentence contained hope
for the world. He signified that it was his
divine intention to save, and announced, at
once,acoming Redeemer. Then God is love!
The great question is answered — the grand
secret has transpired, that God ts love!
And the world must know it. The veil
which sin had raised between God and us
| has fallen —and, behold ‘Godislove!’ And
every creature under heaven must hear it.
The happiness of every man depends on his
| knowing it. ‘ This is life eternal, to know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent.’

But if the knowledge of the divine charac-
{| ter be thus indispensable, how shall that
| knowledge be made most accessible and
available? As nations multiply, and one
generation succeeds another, how shall this
sacred treasure be preserved and trans
mitted ?

Depravity will tamper with its holiness;
who shall guard it from polluted hands?
Penitence and fear will question its truth ;
who shall encourage them to believe it?
Unbelief will dispute its authenticity; who

ST ORG a Nh
aaron etic eee
r nc ee A A rg oneness nearer erent te naa























12 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

shall bear witness for God? Al! will need it,
for it is essential to salvation; how shall it
be made accessible ? ,

Now these questions had been anticipated
by the eternal mind, and all these necessi-
ties provided for, in his purpose of instituting
a church. a society of witnesses for God.
The design of this divine institution, indeed,
is twofold—partly, to promote the welfare
of its own members, but principally to bea
witness for God, an instrument of his mercy
to the world. It is first a focus, in which all
the light from heaven should meet, and all
the sanctified excellence of earth be collect-
ed and combined; that it might next be a
centre, whence the light of truth might con~
stantly radiate, and pour forth in all direc-
tions over the face of the earth.

And, accordingly, the general remarks to |
which I would now solicit your devout at-
tention relate to the following important
positions ;— that the church of God is ex-
pressly designed, in its relative capacity, and
as the depositary of the knowledge of salva-
tion, to be his witness to the world; that in
every age it has prospered or declined in
proportion as it has fulfilled or neglected this




























THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 13

special office; that its motives and its re-
sponsibility for answering this end are greater
now than at any preceding period of history ;
and that this consideration should induce its
members anxiously to survey its wants and
its resources for answering that end; and
may the Divine Founder of the church be
graciously present by his Spirit to aid our
meditations. |

First, then, I would illustrate the great
truth that the church of God is expressly
designed, in its relative capacity, and as the
depositary of the knowledge of salva to
be his witness to the world..

Passing by all the interesting illustrations
of this truth which might be drawn from
antediluvian and patriarchal history, let us
confine our attention to the Jewish and
Christian churches. And here, on viewing
‘these churches together, as parts of a great
whole, we are instantly struck with the
different ways in which they concur to an-,
swer their design as witnesses for God. The
Jewish church was a local, stationary wit-
ness; and the duty of the world was to
come and receive its testimony; the Chris
tian church is not local and stationary, but






14 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

is to go to the world. The Jewish church
was an oracle, and the world was expected
to come and inquire at its shrine; the Chris-
tian church is an oracle also; but instead of
waiting for the world to come to it, it is
commanded to go into all the world, and to
testify the gospel of the grace of God to
every creature.

In accordance with this representation of
the Jewish church, we find that it contained
every prerequisite for answering its end asa
stationary witness for God; nothing was
omitted calculated to promote this object;
its early history was a history of miracles,
to excite the attention, and draw to. itself
the eyes of the wonder-loving world; its
ritual was splendid and unique; its members
were distinguished in character from those
of every community on the face of the earth ;
its creed, or testimony, was eminently adapt-
ed to the existing state of the world, for it
proclaimed a God, and promised a Saviour;
its members possessed a personal interest in
the truth of the testimony they gave; and,
what was especially important, its geograph-
ical position was central. That large portion.
of the earth, whose waters flow into the




THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 15

Mediterranean, is the grand historical por

| tion of the world as known to the ancients.

Judea was situated in the midst of it, like
the sun in the centre of the solar system.
Placed at the top of the Mediterranean, it
was, during each successive monarchy, al-
ways within sight of the nations; and its
temple-fires, like the Pharos of the world,
were always flinging their warning light
across the gross darkness of heathenism —
protesting against idolatry, witnessing for
the one living and true God, inviting the na-
tions to come and worship before him, and
foretelling the advent of One whose light
should enlighten the world.

Thus studiously adapted, and divinely

qualified to act as a stationary witness for |

God to the world, the Jewish church is
called on in the text to appear in this its
official capacity, and the idolatrous nations
are summoned to Judea to receive its testi-
mony. Ages had elapsed since that church
had been called into existence, but still the
worship of idols prevailed. Now, therefore,
God is sublimely represented as determined
to bring the great question to a close; his
voice is heard issuing his mandate to all the


16 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

natioris of the earth, to all the idols and their
votaries, to appear in Judea; and then call
ing forth the Israelites to give evidence in
his behalf. ‘Bring forth the blind people
that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears —
the senseless idolators; let all the nations
be gathered together, and let the people be
assembled; what God among them can show
us former things? Let them bring forth their
witnesses, that they may be justified; or, if
they cannot do it, let them hear me, and ac-
knowledge that what I say is truth. Ye
people of Israel are my witnesses, saith the
Lord, that I, even I, am God, and pasta’ me
there is no Saviour.’

As if the Almighty had said —‘It is high
time to bring this great controversy to a
final decision; let all my rivals come.’ And
we are to suppose them assembling: Moloch,
“besmeared with infant blood,’ and all the
cruel gods of the Ammonites; Rimmon,
Ashtaroth, and all the licentious idols of
Syria; Baal, Dagon, "Tammuz, and all the
false deities of Phoenicia; Apis, and all the
monster-deities of Egypt. ‘Let them come
from their fabled resorts in Ida, from the
heights of Olympus, from the shrines of


ec RS Lt ete Tee enna ESN SO

THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

Delphos and Dodona, from their temples,
groves, and hills,—the whole pantheon, —
the thirty thousand gods of heathen mythol-
ogy, with all their retinue of priests and
worshippers. And now,’ saith Jehovah,
‘having assembled, let them produce their
witnesses to justify their conduct in receiv-
ing worship; and for this end, let them prove
that one of their pretended prophecies was
ever fulfilled. I am content to rest my
claims on that single proof. Are they silent?
Then let my witnesses stand forth; let the
nations of Israel appear. Descendants of the
patriarchs, children of the prophets, ye are
my witnesses. Testify in my behalf before
this assembled and idolatrous world. Read
in their hearing the history of my conduct
towards you, from the day that I brought
you out of Egypt to the present moment, and
they will be constrained to admit the fact of
my existence, and the doctrine of my super-
intending providenc@ Tell them of all the
mifacles I have wrought in your behalf, —
and ‘thus you will be witnesses to my al-
mighty power. Inform them of all your
apostacies from me, and rebellions against
me, and of the way in which I have borne



|

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2


ee :
rn ne ence St nee.




























18 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

with and pardoned you, —and thus you will
be witnesses to my infinite patience. Tell
them of all the predictions which I have
caused my prophets to utter, and of the lit-
eral fulfilment they have received, — and
thus you will testify to my omniscience.
Take them, in solemn procession, to Sinai,
and repeat the laws which I there proclaimed
when the mountain trembled,—and thus
you will attest my unspotted holiness and
inflexible justice. Conduct them to my tem-
ple on Sion, lift up the veil of my sanctuary,
let them see for themselves that no im-
age stands in my shrine, no human sacrifice
bleeds on my altar, no licentious rites pol-
lute my worship,—and thus you will be
‘attesting the unity and spirituality of my
essence, the purity and mercifulness of my
character. Forget not to assure them that
I am no respecter of persons—that there is
mercy for them — that, as I live, I will not -
the death of a sinner. @ead them to the altar
of sacrifice, and, as the victim bleeds, say to
them, ‘ Behold, in a type, the Lamb of- God
which taketh away the sin of the world.’
Tell them that to him have all my prophets
given witness, and let them hear the glori-


A mare ae ceed enn Ee am ob a fechtiel te avec, ce ne

THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

ous things which they have witnessed. Let
my servant Isaiah stand forth and declare,
that upon that sacrifice I have laid the in-
iquities of mankind — that he is wounded for
their transgressions, bruised for their iniqui-
ties, —that the chastisement of thevr peace
is upon him, and that with his stripes they
may be healed,—that he shall see of the
travail of his soul, and be satisfied, for he
shall save out of all nations a multitude
which no one can number. Thus will you
be my witnesses that I am God, and that be-
sides me there is no Saviour.’

Now such was the honorable office and the
lofty intention of the Jewish church, — it
was a stationary witness for God to the
world; and the sublime scene described in
connexion with the text is only the figura
tive realization of that idea. Through each
successive age of that cl@ rch, this divine
mandate may be said to have been issued to
the world, directing it to repair to God’s
witnesses in Judea. But the world heeded
it not. Individuals, indeed, resorted thither
from far distant lands; but in all the regions
whence they came, idolatry still reigned.
The leading nations had, each in succession,




20 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.





come into contact with God’s witnesses;
but so far from receiving their testimony,
they went on worshipping their idol-gods,
and even essayed to enshrine them in the
very temple of Jehovah. Even the Jews
themselves lost the high and spiritual im-
port of their own testimony. All things pro-
claimed that, if the world is to be enlightened
and saved through the instrumentality of the
church, another church must be set up, and
another mode of witnessing be employed.
When the fulness of time was come, that
church was set up. You know its heavenly
origin, its aggressive constitution, and its
early apostolic history,—all combining to
prove that it was a new thing in the earth, a
fresh witness for God. In another and no-
bler sense than before, God became his own
witness. The §on of God, in person, as-
sumed the offic® In this capacity he had
been predicted —‘I have given him,’ said .
God, ‘for a witness to the people.’ In this
capacity he came; and having traversed Ju-
dea in every direction, and found it hemmed
in on all sides by the grossest idolatry, —
having found that he could nowhere step
over its frontiers without entering the terri-
THE WITNESSING CHURCH. Q1

tory of an idol-god,— having taken an am-
ple survey of the world,— what was his
estimate of its moral condition? He lifted
up his eyes to heaven, and said—for he
found that he could obtain no fit audience
on earth —‘ OQ, righteous Father, the world
hath not known thee!’ And what, under
these circumstances, was the course which
he pursued? ‘To this end was I born,’ said
he, ‘and for this cause came I into the
world, that_I should bear witness unto the
truth,’—to the full manifestation of God.
And, accordingly, his acts demonstrated the
existence of God; his humanity embodied
the spirituality of God; his character illus-
trated the perfections of God. He.was the
true ‘tabernacle of witness.’ The glorious
train of the divine perfections came down
and filled the temple of his humanity. God
was manifest in the flesh. His character
left no attribute of the divine nature unillus-
trated, —his teaching left no part of the di-
vine will unrevealed, — his kindness left no
fear in the human heart unsoothed,—his
meritorious death left no amount of human
guilt unatoned for. Wherever he went, and
however he was employed, he was still win-


a a



22 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.



ning for himself that title which he wears in
heaven —‘ The Faithful and True Witness.’
But, chiefly, Calvary was the place of testi-
mony. There, when he could say no more
for God, he bade the cross begin to speak.
There, when his divs had uttered their testiL
mony, he opened his heart and spake in
blood. There was the summing up of all
the promises, and of all the character of God;
and the total was—znvversal and infinite
love.

And now, if his first object had been thus
to witness for God, his second was to arrange
for the boundless diffusion of the testimony.
No sooner has he worked out the great truth
that God is love, than he provides that the
world shall resound with the report. As if
he had been sitting on the circle of the he&y-
ens and surveying all the possibilities and
events that could occur down to the close of
time, he answers the objections to this de-
sign before they are uttered, anticipates
| wants before they arise, and provides against
dangers before they threaten. Was it neces- |
sary, for instance, that he should first dis-
tinctly legislate on the subject? ‘Go,’ said
he — and he was standing but one step from

a NY





meme sor



ere


eeenareemeereate ae eee en a A rs yrds fr Er pe



ae nee

THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 93

the throne of heaven—‘Go into all the

world, and preach the gospel to every crea-
ture.’ Still, plain as this command might
at first appear, the duty which it enjoins is
so novel, and the project which it contem-
plates so vast, that doubts are likely to arise
as to its import and obligation; he repeats
it, therefore, again and again,—repeats it
in other forms, as an old prediction that
must be fulfilled, and as a new promise:
“Then opened he their understandings, that
they might understand the scriptures, and
said unto them, Thus it is writen, and thus
it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from
the dead the third day, and that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached
in his name among all nations, beginning
at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of
these things.’ But peculiar qualifications
willbe necessary: ‘Ye shall receive power



|
|

from on high,’ said he, ‘after that the Holy

Ghost has come upon you; and ye shall be
witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and
in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost parts of the earth.’ But peculiar
dangers will assail them: ‘All power is
mine,’ said he; ‘go, and you shall move un-

a






24 THE WITNESSING CHURCH

der the shield of Omnipotence; lo! I am
with you always, even to the end of the
world.’ Thus, making the most comprehen-
sive provision, and taking the whole respon-
sibility of success on himself, his last word
to his witnesses was, ‘ Go’ — his last act was
to bless and dismiss them to their work, —
and the last impression he left on their
minds was, that hes church was to be essen-
tially missionary, or aggressive.

And as this was the last indication of his
will on earth, you know how his first act in
heaven corresponded with it. Let the scenes
of Pentecost attest. The eternal Spirit him-
self came down; came expressly to testify
of Christ; came to be the great missionary
spirit of the church, to ‘convince the world
of sin You know how the witnesses began

at Jerusalem, when three thousand souls re-
ceived their testimony. You know how their
hesitation to quit Jerusalem and Judea was
gradually overcome; how a Paul was added,
like a new missionary element infused into
their spirit; and you can conceive how they
must have felt, in the terms of his new com-
mission to be a witness to the Gentiles, as if
their own original commission had been re-

RE ERR RRP SRA























insect



























THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 25



newed and reinforced. You know how they
were divinely allured further and further
from Jerusalem; how vision after vision
drew them on to invade the neighboring ter-
ritories of idolatry ; and how, at length, when
even a Paul evinced a reluctance to pass the
limit of Jewish restriction — when even he
scrupled to leave the confines of Asia — you
know how a vision was seen far back in the
western regions of idolatry —the emblem of
Kurope—in the person of the Macedonian
suppliant, saying, ‘Come over and help ws.’
Bursting that last enclosure, the outermost
circle of restriction, he was not disobedient
to the heavenly vision; and the church
found itself fully committed to its lofty of-
fice of traversing the world.

But was there no danger lest the church
should yet, under the influence of its old
attachments, cast back a lingering look to
Judea, lest it should debase and localize re-
ligion, by regarding Jerusalem as its rallying
point, and the temple asits home? Juda-
ism, and the place where for ages it had
dwelt, are forthwith swept away; henceforth
but two parties are to be left on the earth —
the missionary witnessing church of Christ,
THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

and the listening world. Thus Judea, which
had been the goal of the old religion, the
resting-place after its wanderings, now be-
came the starting-point of the Christian
church, for the race of the world. The old
economy had expected the world to be mis-
sionary, and to send toit. The new econ-
omy requires the church to be missionary,
and to send to the world. And if the wait-
ing and stationary character of that church
had been emblematically represented by the
bending cherubim on the mercy-seat, the
new missionary church was henceforth to be
represented by another mighty angel, flying
in the midst of heaven, having the everlast-
ing gospel to preach to every nation, and
kindred, and tongue, and people, that dwell
on the earth.

And now, we might have thought, the Sa-
viour has, surely made it sufficiently appa-
rent that his people are to be hes wetnesses
to the world. Nothing more can be necessary
to show that this great object enters into the
very design and principle of his church.
But not so thought the Saviour himself.
Once more does he come forth and reiterate
the truth. When we might have supposed






























THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 27



that his voice would be heard no more, once
again does he come forth and break the si-
lence of the church; and the subject on
which he speaks is the missionary character
of his church. Not that his church had lost
sight of its office. His witnesses were car-
rying their testimony in all directions. But
as if the angel having the everlasting gospel
did not yet speed on his way fast enough to
satisfy the yearnings of infinite compassion,
or as if he feared that angel would stop ere
the whole earth, the last creature, had heard
the gospel testimony, he came forth person-
ally, and announced, ‘The Spirit and the
bride say, Come; and let him that heareth
say, Come; and let him that is athirst come ;
and whosoever will, let him come, and take
| of the water of life freely.’ Oh! where is

the tongue that can do justice to the bound-
less benevolence of this final declaration of
Christ? What is the comparison which can
adequately illustrate it? Picture to your
minds a large company of travellers, desti-
tute of water, while crossing one of the vast
deserts of the east. For days previous, they
have had barely sufficient to moisten their
parched lips; but now their stock is quite |

Ee







28 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

exhausted. Onwards they toil for a time,
in the hope of finding a refreshing spring.
But the unclouded sun above, and the burn-
ing sands beneath, render some of them un-
able to proceed — they lie down never to rise
again. The rest agree to separate, and to
take different directions, in the hope of mul-
tiplying their chances of discovering water.
After long wandering in this almost forlorn
pursuit, one of them finds himself on the
margin of a stream. Slaking his enraged
thirst, he immediately thinks, of his fellow-
travellers. Looking around and perceiving

one in the distance, he lifts up his voice, |
and shouts to him, with all his returning
strength, to come. He communicates the
reviving signal to another still further off,
and he to a third, till the very extremities
of the desert ring with the cheering call to |
come.

Brethren, that desert is the moral waste
of the world; those perishing travellers, per-
ishing by millions, are our fellow men; that
living spring is the redemption of Christ;
the first that drank of it was his church;
that church, every member of it, directly or
indirectly, is to lift up his voice to the world,





THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 29


























with the divine invitation to come; while
the Spirit of Christ, speaking through them,
gives the call effect. Every one that hears
the call is to transmit it further still, till it
has reached the very last of human kind, and
the world echoes with the welcome sound.

Brethren, such is the scripture theory of
the Christian church. Its members are wit-
nesses for Christ to the world. Every place
to which their instrumentality reaches is
meant to be acentre for extending it toa
point further still. Every individual added
to itis meant to be an additional agent for
propagating the sound of salvation onwards,
till a chain of living voices has been carried
around the globe, and from pole to pole, and
the earth grows vocal with the voice of the
church witnessing for Christ.

II. Now, if the design of the Christian
church be essentially that of a missionary
witness, we may expect to find that every
page of its history illustrates and corrobo-
rates this truth. No law of nature can be
obeyed without advantage to him who obeys
it; nor violated, without avenging itself, and
vindicating its authority. The same is true
of the laws of the Christian church. And ac-








30° THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

cordingly, we find, secondly, that in every
age it has prospered or declined just in pro-
portion as it has fulfilled or neglected this
primary law of its constitution. This might
be demonstrated by an induction of the
great facts of its history. But we must con-
fine ourselves to general remarks. |
AndWhere, need I remind you that the pe-
_viod of its first, its greatest activity, was the |
season of its greatest prosperity ?
expanded without the aid of any of man’s
favorite instrumentality, learning, eloquence,
wealth, or arms? —that it achioved its tri-
umphs in the face of it all? —that though.
Persecution ten times kindled her fires, the
blood of the church ten times put them out?
— that it saw some of its bitterest foes be-.
come its champions and martyrs, and new
territories constantly added to its domains?
— that its progress from place to place was
marked by the fall of idol temples—the
banners of the cross floated over the thrones
of idolatry —and God caused it to triumph
in every place? And why all this, but be- :
| @fitse thé church was acting in character,
answering its end, fulfilling its office, as the
witness of Christ to the world?





























coe





THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 31.

Oh! had we witnessed the activity of its
first days, had we heard only of its early -
history and triumphant progress from land ~
to land, how naturally might we ask, ‘ How

long was the church in completing a univer-

sal conquest? At what precise period did.
India embrace the faith of Christ? How

long was it before China was evangelized?

Was there not a year of jubilee on earth,

‘when the gospel had been preached to the

last of the species; and in what year did it
occur? Alas, for the church! that these in-
quiries should sound so strange; and.alas,

for the world!-and alas, too, that the most.

striking historical illustrations of the design

-|.of the church should be those’ drawn. from
-its neglect of that design!

Need Iremind you that the cessation of ;
its activity was the cessation of its prosper-
ity? From the moment the church lost

sight of its appropriate character, it began
.to lose ground to the world. Its members,
-instead of witnessing to the world, began. to

bear false witness against each other. When
it ought to have been the almoner of God to
the world, it became the great extortioner,
absorbing the wealth of the nations. When






eee ems mates nenciontennane sn eieeiss memacannstneneseniath jarani

32 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

it ought to have been the centre whence ra-
diated the light of life, it was the focus,
drawing to itself the learning and the vain

philosophy of heathenism. When it ought

to have been the birth-place of souls, it was
the grave of piety; so that, in order to live,
it was necessary to leave it. When its
members should have been the peacemakers
of the world, it was a camp—the great
school of war. When it should have been
checking political ambition, it has been used
as the great engine of states. When it should
have been furnishing martyrs to the world,
it has itself been a great martyrium, in which
to witness for God was to burn. And the
strength of the church, which should have
been all put forth in aggressive efforts, has
been wasted in the strife of internal discords.

What was the history of the Christian
church, what has teen the history of any

branch of that church, when it has once lost

its, essential aggressive character, but the
closing scenes of Judaism enacted over
again? What do we see, in such a case,
but the spirit of piety displaced by the spirit

| of discord? Scribes, Pharisees, and Saddu-

cees — the proud, persecuting, and worldly


THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 33

among its members? The great doctrines of
grace supplanted by outward forms? What
do we see but the Son of God rejected, be-
trayed for money, deserted by his professed
| disciples, delivered into the hands of his en-
emies, receiving the mockery of homage,
crucified afresh, and put to an open shame ?
What, then, do we see in that church but
fearful signs of approaching judgments? till,
at length, when it ought to have been van-
quishing the world, the world, like the Ro-
man.army, advances, besieges, and destroys
the church.

But as every departure of the church from
its aggressive design is sure to be avenged,
so every return to that character has been
divinely acknowledged and blessed. Had
we no facts at hand to prove this, the calls
which our Lord gave to the seven Asiatic
churches to repeat their first works, and his
promises of prosperity if they did so, would
lead us to infer it; the uniformity of the di-
vine procedure would warrant us to expect
it; the very return itself, implying, as it
would, a divine influence, would itself be a
proof of it. But facts are at hand. The his-
tory of every protestant Christian church in






34 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.





Britain, during the last fifty years, demon-
strates, that every return to spiritual activity
is, in so far, a return to divine prosperity.
Ascertain the measure of holy activity and
devotedness in any church, and you have as-
_certained the measure of its internal prosper-
ity. Sothat a person might at any time safely
say, ‘ Tell me which branch of the Christian
church is the most scripturally active and

aggressive in its spirit, and I will tell you
which is the most prosperous.’

And the reason of this ts sufficiently obvi-
ous. The planet is then moving in its ap-
pointed orbit; the church is then moving in
a line with the purposes of Omnipotence,
and in harmony with its own principles. If,
before, it had been hampered with forms,
customs, and corruptions, at every effort
which it now makes to move, some portion
of these old incrustations falls off; a desire
to advance aright sends it to consult the
word of God; a concern to retrieve its past
indolence, fills it with a zeal that calls on
‘all men everywhere to repent;’ the con
versions which ensue furnish it with the
means of enlarging its sphere of activity.

The existence of all this, both proves the |



i een


THE WITNESSING CHURCH. Bo |

—_—_—

presence of the Divine Spirit in the midst of
it, and leads it to earnest cries for still larger
effusions of his influence; and thus by ac-
tion and reaction, an increase of its prosper-
ity leads to impcrtunate prayer for larger
impartations of the Spirit; and larger im-
partations of the Spirit necessarily produce
an increase of divine prosperity.

Brethren, look at the Christians and Chris-
tian denominations of Britain at present, and
say, what but their activity for God, and the
salutary effects of that activity on them-
selves, constitute the sign and means of their



visible prosperity? Take away this, and-

what single feature would remain on which
the spiritual eye could rest with pleasure?
Their orthodoxy? That would be their con-
demnation ; for, if their creed be scriptural,
activity for God is necessary, if only to make
‘them consistent with themselves. The num

bers they include? The world outnumbers
them; and it is only by their aggressive ac-
tivity, blessed by God, that they can hope
to keep their disproportion from increasing.
Their liberality? Apart from this Christian
activity, where would be the calls on that
liberality? It is this which brings it into



ae cnet ose iy nahn nn nen cn na anette A ARE

ell tacnce nid


















36 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.



——





exercise, and by exercise augments it. Their
union with each other? This activity for
enlarging the kingdom of Christ is almost
the only bond which, at present, does unite

them; take away this, and almost the last

ligament of their vzszdle union would be
snapped. Their spirit of prayer? That has
been called into exercise almost entirely by
means of their Christian activity; for, feel-
ing the utter insufficiency of their own en-
deavors, they have earnestly entreated God
to make bare his arm in their behalf.

Their aggressive spirit, then, in the cause
of human salvation, whether at home or
abroad, forms, at present, the principal sign |
and means of their visible prosperity. Amidst
scenes of political strife, it has brought to
them visions of a kingdom which is not of

this world. Amidst scenes of ecclesiastical
discord, it has provided one standard around
which all can rally against the common foe.
Amidst the icy selfishness of the world
- around, it has called forth warm streams of
Christian liberality; it has given employ-
ment to energies which would otherwise
_have been wasted in the arena of angry con-
troversy. It has given a heart to the church,












THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 37

stirred its deepest sympathies for the world, -

brought large accessions to its numbers, en-

larged its views, and brightened its visions —

of the reign of Christ, filled many of its
members with a sense of self-dissatisfaction,

of utter dependence on God, of aching want

and craving desire for something more, and
something better than it yet possesses; so

that its loudest prayers are prayers for the
promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit:
from all of which we infer, that a full return °

in faith and prayer to the aggressive design

of the Christian church, would be a full re- :

turn to its first prosperity.

Ill. Now if such be the design of the
church, and such its illustrative history, let |
us, therdiy, attempt to enforce that design;

and we shall find that the motives of the

Christian church, and its responsibility as a.

witness for God, are greater now than at any
preceding period. Not only do all the orig-

inal motives to this duty exist, they exist in:
aggravated force, and others in addition '

have come to reinforce them.

1. For instance, the first witnesses for

Christ required no higher motive to duty
than the divine command of their risen
388 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

Lord. They no sooner saw that he designed
his church to bear his testimony to the world,
than they hastened to.obey. Brethren, that
design is not merely essentially the same —
it is now more apparent than ever. Could
those first witnesses return to the church on
earth again, they would find that the history.
of every church, since the time of Christ,
had unceasingly illustrated and enforced
| that design, without a moment’s intermis-
sion. ‘He that hath ears to hear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.’
And this is the language of the Spirit, as he
conducts us over the ruins of once flourish-
ing churches, —‘ Exist aggressively, or not
at all. Behold in the state of every existing
Christian church an illustration of the prin-
ciple, that to act the evangelical missionary
church is to prosper; to neglect it, is to lan-
guish and perish.’

2. ‘But is there the same necessity for a
witnessing church now as at first?’ The
wants of the world are more urgent than
ever; or, what amounts to the same thing
in the matter of our responsibility, we are
better acquainted with them, and our facil-
ities for meeting them, as far as Christian


i pp a gp a re oo aan oer ena ep arian

than ever. The map of the world, in the




























THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 39

instrumentality cam meet them, are greater

days of the Apostles, was only the map of a
province, compared with that which lies open
before us. Every geographical discovery
since, has only served to enlarge our ideas
of the great Satanic empire. Oh! in what
a small minority does the Christian stand!
What a fearful expanse of darkness around
him ! — and that darkness how dense ! — and
what hideous enormities does it conceal!
There, cruelty has its chosen habitation, and
feasts perpetually on human blood. There
superstition has its temples, and its sacrifices
of human suffering, and its music of human
groans. There, sin has its priesthood, its
ceremonials of murder, and its ritual of lust!

By a very slight effort of the imagination,
we can cause the hosts of evil to pass before
us; and what a spectacle to behold! First,
come the Jews out of all nations under
heaven, each with a veil over his heart, and
stained with the blood of the Just one. Next,
nominal Christians, by myriads, and from
all parts of Europe, headed by one who drags
a bible in triumph, as a dangerous book, and
embraces an image, or an amulet, instead.






40 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

Then comes the crescent of imposture, fol-
lowed by Turkey and Persia, by large tracts
of India, the islands of the Eastern sea,
Egypt and Northern Africa, the inhabitants
of the largest and the fairest portions of the
globe. After these, the swarthy tribes of
Africa, central, western, and southern, with
their descendants of the Western Indies, la-
den with the spells of witchcraft, and cov-
ered with the charms of their Fetish worship.
Now come the aborigines of the two Amer-
icas, and the islanders of the great Pacific,
fresh from the scalp-dance, the cannibal
feast, or the worship of the snake-god.
Next, the selfish Chinese, one third of the
species, —in appearance all idolators—in
reality all atheists—a world of atheists, to
whom all truth is a fable, and all virtue a
mystery. Last, comes India—the nations
of southern Asia, and the many islands of
the Eastern sea, a thousand tribes, including
infanticides, cannibals, and the offerers of
human blood, dragging their idol-gods, an
endless train, with Juggernaut at their head,
worn with the toil of their penances, and
marked with the scars of self-torture. And
who are these that close the train? The


{ THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 41





Thugs of India, just discovered —a, vast fra-
ternity of secret murderers — the votaries of
Kalee, who has given one half of the human
race to be slaughtered for her honor.‘ Oh,
God! and is this thy world! Are these thy}
creatures! Whereis thy church? Oh,right »
eous Father! the world hath not known
thee; and thy church, appointed to declare
thee, hath neglected to fulfil her trust!
Christians, did you count their numbers as |:
they passed? Six hundred millions, at least..
Did you ask yourselves, as they passed,
whither they were going? Follow them,’
and see. Can you do so, even in imagina-.
tion, without feeling an impulse to rush and |

That is you office; that is the great practical
design for which the church exists, to go
and testify this faithful saying, that Christ
has come to save them all. ‘Ye are my wit-
nesses, saith the Lord.’ } ae

3. And this reminds us of another induce-
ment,—the testimony of the gospel is di-
vinely adapted to them. It is not the fearful
burden of Isaiah, threatening judicial blind-
{| ness and hardness of heart, or we might
TY hesitate to go. Itis gospel. It is a message








erect the cross between them and ruin? |































42 THE WITNESSING CHURCH. |

from Pity to Misery—an invitation from
Mercy to Guilt. It is a gift from the fulness
of God to the emptiness of man. The wit-
ness for Christ takes with him a treasure
more precious than the ancient Jew, could
he have taken the ark of the temple. Chris- |
tian missionaries, you take with you tears —
the tears of incarnate compassion; blood— |
the expiatory blood of the Son of God.
‘Before your eyes,’ said the apostle to the |
Galatians, ‘ Jesus Christ hath been evidently
set forth, crucified among you.’ Brethren, |
you go to India with the cross, to repeat the |
scenes of Calvary; to let. the Hindoo see
Christ crucified before his eyes. Do you
feel sufficiently the grandeur of your mes-
sage? You go to Africa with the identical
gospel that Paul took to Rome. You go to
China with the identical blessing that Christ
brought from heaven. Oh, it was the con-
sideration of their subject, its necessity, its
adaptation, its infinite grace and glory, which
fired the apostles; which made them think
little of life itself when this was at stake;
which made them wonder that any should
suppose that persecution could affright them
from their office; which gave them, the am-






THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 43

bassadors, the port of kings; which would
have led them, if necessary, to contend for
precedence with an angel. You go to ad-
dress a nature which, however depraved,
was originally pre-configured to the truth;
and the message you bear is divinely adapt-
ed to the moral state which that depravity
has created; and the Spirit goes with you to
give it effect. You go to tell the victims of
imposture of essential truth; to point the
eye of the Hindoo widow from the corpse of
her husband to Him who is the resurrection
and the life; to tell the infanticide mother |
that she may save her offspring, and may
press them to her heart; to tell the followers
of Boodha of a true incarnation; and the
parched pilgrim of the desert of a well of
water that springeth up to everlasting life;
and the devotee of the Ganges, of the wash-
ing of regeneration, and the renewing of the
Holy Ghost; and the self-torturing votary
of cruelty, that the name of God is Love;
and the self-immolating worshipper of Jug-
gernaut, of the sacrifice offered once for all,
and of the blood which cleanseth from all
sin. Oh, find out the nation where guilt has
been hourly accumulating ever since the







44



THE WITNESSING CHURCH.



time of the deluge, and the command of
Christ is, ‘Go to it. And, having gone,
challenge them to produce the one guiltiest
man of their nation; and the command of
Christ is, ‘ Offer him redemption through the
blood of the cross.’ Have they, as many of
the nations have, a fabulous tradition that
such or such a cavern is the mouth of hell?
Ask them to lead you to it; for even there,
could the dreadful spot be found, your com-
mission would extend—to the very brink ;
for He whom you preach is able to save even
‘ to that uttermost.

Brethren, in testifying to the necessity
and divinity of the gospel, you occupy higher
ground than did even the apostles. Since
their day, nearly eighteen hundred years
have added their testimony to the fact that
man by searching cannot find out God; that
Spiritual deliverance, to be effectual, must
come direct from heaven; and nearly eigh-
teen hundred years have only served to
demonstrate the sufficiency of the gospel
remedy. Guilt, which might destroy a world,
has been cancelled by it; iron chains of sin
have been burst asunder; hearts filled with
pollution made habitations of God; where























THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 45

Satan’s seat was, happy communities have
been formed; earth has been blessed by it ;
and heaven has been hourly growing louder
in its praise. In affirming its necesszty, then,
all history is speaking in your voice; the
nations that have perished —all the lost —
rise up and confirm your testimony, and
urge you to repeat it with a deeper, and yet
deeper emphasis. And in proclaiming its
efficacy, the thousands who in every age |
have been saved by it, urge you to speak
louder in its praise; the chorus of all heaven
comes to your aid, ascribing ‘salvation to
the Lamb that was slain.’

Again, think of the certainty that the tes-
timony of the gospel shall ultimately and
universally prevail. We do not undertake
to say that the present kind of Christian in-
strumentality alone will cause it to prevail;
that no new machinery, no miraculous
agency, will come to its aid. But, whatever
the means employed, the end will be gained,
and gained as the result of all that had in
any way been scripturally done to obtain it;
the gospel, in the most enlarged sense, shall
be preached as a witness to all nations.

Where now is Diana of the Ephesians?


46 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

Where now are Jupiter and the gods of
Greece? and where the whole Pantheon of
Rome? The first Christians testified against
them, and they vanished. Witnesses for
Christ came to Britain; and where now are
Woden, and all the Saxon gods, Hessus, and
all the more ancient and sanguinary rites of
the Druids? Brethren; the idols we assail
have long since been routed; and the sword
we wield routed them. The gods of India
are the same, under different names, which
Italy and Greece adored. The sword of the
Lord chased them from the West; and shall
it do less now in the East? Many of them
are already fallen. ‘Bel boweth down, and
Nebo stoopeth.’ And the Christian mission-
ary, approaching and standing before the
most crowded temple and the firmest throne
that idolatry boasts, is divinely warranted
in taking up a burden against it, and saying,
‘Thy days are numbered, and thine end
draweth near.’ Yes, if there be stability in
a divine decree—merit in the mediation of
Christ, —if any truth in the doctrine of his
reign—any power in the agency of his
Spirit, the prediction shall be fulfilled. Prior
to the ultimate triumph of the gospel, in-


|

THE WITNESSING CHURCIE ~ TE NEE ING CRUSE. Xe

deeds na@iamerd evens ihag Ganaplk unnumbered events may transpire
which have not yet been conceived. It is
possible, even, that the affairs of the king-
dom of Christ may. at times assume a doubt-
ful aspect, and his people may begin to
wonder how de can retrieve them. But he
sees no difficulty —he feels no perplexity.
At any moment, he can touch some secret
spring, which shall, silently and impercepti-
bly, but most effectually, change the whole
aspect of his affairs. Looking on to the end,
he sees nothing desirable which he has not
provided for,—nothing adverse which he
has not provided against.. The history of
the world, to the latest period of time, is
written already in his mind. Every prov-
ince of idolatry and error has its limit and
its date appointed there. The angel is al-
ready selected, who shall eventually shout,
‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen.’ The chorus is
appointed whose voices are to resound, ‘ The
kingdoms of this world are become the king-
doms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he
shall reign for ever and ever.’. ‘ And I heard,
as it were, the voice of a great multitude,
and as the voice of many waters, and as the
voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Halle-


48 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

luia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.’
Brethren, if we listen, we can hear that voice
too; for even now are they rehearsing for
the glorious day, and every hour increases
the chorus, and every echo that reaches us
rebukes our indolence as witnesses for God,
and proclaims the dignity of our office, and
the certainty of our success.

5. And then think what the consequences
of that success would be. Civilization? The
missionary of the cross, indeed, is the mis
sionary of civilization. This the gospel
taught first at imperial Rome, —cleansing
her amphitheatre of human blood, and evinc-
ing that her boasted civilization had. been
only a splendid barbarism. Morality? The
‘missionary of the cross zs the missionary of
morality. The gospel produced charity even
in Judea, humility at Athens, chastity at
Corinth, humanity at Rome. And wherever
it has gone, in our own day, liberty, moral-
ity, education, the arts of civilization, and
the blessings of commerce have followed in
its train. It has extinguished the fires of
the suttee, called away the cannibal from
his unholy feast, and among its latest tro-
phies are the broken slave-chains of a mil-


THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 49

lion men. It elevates the barbarian into a
man, and raises the man into a useful mem-
ber of society. It turns the wandering horde
of the wilderness into a civilized community,
and calls it to take rank among the nations.
There is but one art which the gospel does
not promote; as the peacemaker: of the
world, it steps between the ranks of war,
and, taking the weapons of death away, it
declares that men shall Jearn war no more;
und, joining their hands in amity, it says to
them, ‘ Love as brethren.’ Oh! could mere
human civilization effect results such as

these, how soon would her image be set up,
and what multitudes would fall down and
worship! But these are triumphs for the
gospel alone, and triumphs which it achieves
incidentally, by aiming at greater things
than these.

The gospel is the power of God unto sal-
vation. It raises the savage into the man
by making him a new creature in Christ
Jesus; it prepares him for civil society by
making him a member of a Christian church.
In the zeal of its new-found existence, that
church becomes a witness for Christ to
others; the word of God sou ds forth into



























50



THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

all the regions round about; and similar tri-
umphs result, only to be followed by similar
labors and triumphs again. .Thus every
step of present success is a new facility for
a further advance, and an additional pledge
of universal triumph. :

f Oh, there is a day — call it the millennium,
‘or by any other name—there is a period
' yet destined to bless the earth, when it shall
no more be necessary to witness for God,
for all shall know him; the knowledge of
| his glory shall fill the earth as the waters
cover the sea. Happy state of Christian
triumph ! —a day without a cloud — the re-
proach of indolence wiped away from the
church, and of ignorance from the world.
Truth shall have completed the conquest of
error; Christ shall have given law to the
world; and, impressing his image on every
heart, shall receive the homage of a reno-
vated race. Brethren, these are visions; but
they are the visions of God; and let nothing
rob us of the inspiration to be derived from
gazing at them. They are visions; but vis-
ions painted by the hand of God; dear in
every age to the church of God; gazed on
in death by the Son of God. Yes, then they



eS on
ite NS I RR, OB


THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 51

were brought and set before him; and such
was the joy with which they filled him, that
he endured the cross, despising the shame.
Then, on the lofty moral elevation of the
cross, all the ages of time, and all the tri-
umphs of his church passed in review be-
fore him. He saw our missionaries go forth
in his name to distant climes; again he
looked, and saw them surrounded by ten
thousand converts to his grace. He saw the
veil fall from the heart of the Jews; and
heard their bitter mourning as they stood
looking at him whom they had pierced. He
‘saw Ethiopia stretching out her hands unto
God; and heard her, as the slave-chain fell
from her loins, exulting in a double liberty.
He heard his name shouted from land to
land as the watchword of salvation, and
marked how its very echo shook and brought
down the pillars of the empire of sin. He
saw the race of Ishmael that now traverses
the desert tracts of Arabia, the castes of In-
dia with their numbers infinite, the national

Chinese, the Tartar hordes, the unknown .
and snow-concealed inhabitants of the north, «

the tribes of Europe, and all the islands of
the sea; he saw them flocking into his king-

yt

a Be Py gered ET

Tratlne Manner soirnicinnese PHiiy

Pease A aco





















52 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.



dom; his grace the theme of every tongue};
| his glory the object of every eye. He saw
of the travail of his soul, and was satesfied;
his soul was satisfied! Glorious intimation !
Even in the hour of its travail, it was satis-
fied. What an unlimited vision of human
happiness must it have been! Happiness
i not bounded by time, but filling the expanse
| of eternity! His prophetic eye caught, even
then, a view of the infinite result in heaven!
His ear caught the far, far distant shout of
his redeemed and glorified church, singing,
‘} ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain!’
| Brethren: if we would do justice to our of-
4 fice as witnesses for God —if we would catch
the true inspiration of our work — we, too,
must often cross, as he did, the threshold of
eternity; transport ourselves ten thousand
ages hence into the blessedness of heaven,
and behold the fruits of our instrumentality
there, still adding new joy to angels, new
crowns to Jesus, new tides of glory around

the throne of God. } } Realizing that scene,
. “we should gird up ‘our loins afresh, as if a
new command had come down from deseo
calling us by name to be witnesses for God.
IV. We have now seen that the Chris-

sceptical Be POR Ce geetpinn tate ronnatton,



te,

RI a cere RR










THE WITNESSING CHURCH 53




| tian church is, in its very constitution and
design a missionary church; that its history
illustrates this truth; and that all the origi-
nal motives for enforcing it still exist, and
exist in ever-accumulating force. What,
then, can be more appropriate for us, fourthly, |
than to survey our condition, and estimate
our wants, in relation to that design, to profit
by that history, and to yield obedience to
those motives.

1.’ Now it must be obvious that whatever
else may be necessary, a vivid and all-per-
vading apprehension of the original design of
the church is of the first importance. ‘But
do not our various aggressive efforts show
that we have already recovered that appre-
hension?’ Toa very limited extent. Until
recently, the Christian church was well nigh
as local and stationary as the Jewish. And,
as might be expected, considering the state
of its piety, its movements, since it began to
awake, have been fitful and uncertain, rather
than healthy and regular. Are not its mem-
bers, still too content, generally speaking,
with supporting a ministry for themselves
alone; and thus resembling the local charac-
ter of the Jewish church? Is not the clear





















































54 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

apprehension of its missionary design con-
fined still to a small minority? Or, if felt
by the many, felt only as a passing impulse;
the result of an annual appeal, rather than
as a personal obligation, and a universal
principle? Or, if felt as a claim, felt as a
duty to be easily devolved, and discharged
by proxy?

Brethren, according to the theory of the
Christian church, every one of its members
is a witness for Christ. In making you,
Christian, a partaker of his grace, he not
only intended your own salvation—he in-
tended the salvation of others by your in-
strumentality; he intended that you should
go forth from his presence as a witness, con-
veying to the world the cheering intelligence
that he is still pardoning and saving sinners;
sitting on his throne of mercy, waiting to be
gracious to them, as he has been to you.
He says to you, in effect, ‘You have given
yourselves to me, and I give you to the
| world; give you as my witnesses: look on
yourselves as dedicated to this office — dedi-
cated from eternity.’ Brethren, your very
business, as Christians, your calling, is to
propagate your religion. Is the gospel-cause




THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 55

a warfare? Every Christian is to regard
himself as drawn to serve. Is there a great
cause at issue between God and the world?
Every Christian is subpoenaed as a witness
for God? Look on yourself in this light, and
you will not, on the ground of disqualifica-
tion, dismiss the subject from your mind.
You will not think that a mere annual sub-
scription buys you off from that great duty
for which God has made you a Christian.
‘I cannot speak for Christ, said-a martyr
on his way to the flames, ‘but I can die for
him.’ And in the same martyr spirit,-you
will say, ‘I cannot speak for Christ — would
that I could —the world should hear of him;
my dips cannot speak for him, but my life
shall; my tongue cannot witness, but others
can; and, if property can aid, and prayers
prevail, they shall.’ Brethren, this is sim-
ply the sentiment of scripture ; this was the
spirit of the primitive saints. They looked
on themselves individually as born to be
witnesses for Christ — ordained to the office
of diffusing the gospel. Wherever they
went, the language of Christ was still sound-
ing in their ears,‘ Ye are my witnesses; go
into all the world.’ Is it true that he has


56 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.



said this to us? To the ear of piety he is
saying it still; to the eye of piety he is here
this day to repeat it: do you not behold
him? Do you not hear him saying it to
-you—and to you? Never till Christians
feel themselves thus individually addressed,
will the church fulfil its lofty design as a
missionary witness for Christ to the world.
2. A second requisite for this end is wis-
dom— wisdom to mark the characteristic
features of the age, and the movements of
the world; to appreciate the peculiar posi-
tion of the church in relation to them, and
to apprehend and obey the indications of
God concerning them. Never was there an
age when the wide field of human misery
was so accurately measured, and so fully
explored, as the present; and consequently,
there never was a time when the obligation
of the Christian church to bring out all its
divine resources and remedies, was so bind-
ing and so great. Never was there an age
when science attempted so much, and prom-
ised so largely —challenging the gospel, in
effect, to run with it a race of philanthropy ;
and, consequently, never was there a time
when it so much concerned the church to


THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 57

vindicate her character as the true angel of
mercy to the world; and to show that not
by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of
God, the wounds of the world must be healed.
Never was there a time when the elements
of universal society exhibited so much rest-
lessness and change; when the ancient su-
perstitions exhibited so many signs of dotage
and approaching death; when the field of
the world was so extensively broken up, and |
ready for cultivation; broken up, not by the |
ordinary ploughshare of human instrumen- |
tality, but by strange convulsions from be- |
neath, and by bolts from an invisible hand |
above; and, consequently, never was there |
a time which so loudly called on the Chris-
tian sower to go forth and sow. And never
was there a land blessed with such peculiar
facilities as Britain, for acting as a witness
for Christ to the world. Why is it that the
gospel is at this time in trust with a people
whose ships cover the seas—who are the
merchants of the world? Has he who drew
the boundaries of Judea with his own finger,
who selected the precise spot for the temple,
who did every thing for the Jewish church
with design, abandoned the Christian church


58 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

to accident? And, if not, if he has placed
the gospel here with design, what can the
nature of that design be, but that it should
be borne to the world on the wings of every
| wind that blows? Say, why is it that Brit-
ain and her religious ally, America, should
divide the seas—should hold the keys of
the world? Oh, were we but awake to the
designs of God, and to our own responsibil-
ity, we should hear him say, ‘I have put you
in possession of the seas; put the world in
possession of my gospel.’ “Ané every ship
we sent out would be a missionary church —
like the ark of the deluge, a floating testi-
mony for God, and bearing in its bosom the
seeds of a new creation. Christians, ours is
indeed a post of responsibility and of honor!
On us have accumulated all the advantages
of the past; and on us lies the great stress
of the present.. The world is waiting, breath-
less, on our movements; the voice of all
heaven is urging us on. Oh, for celestial
wisdom to act in harmony with the high ap-
pointments of Providence! to seize the crisis
which has come for blessing the world!

3. A third requisite is Christian union.
It is in vain to talk of the beneficial rivalry





59






THE WITNESSING CHURCH.



of sects. This only shows that we are so
much accustomed to our divisions, that we
ere beginning to see beauty in that. which
forms our deformity and disgrace. It is in
vain to say that good is done, notwithstand-
ing our want of union. Is not the good
which is effected abroad, effected by merging
the disputes of home—in fact, by uniting?
And would not a knowledge of our differ-
ences there, be fatal to our usefulness? But
the doctrine of Christ on the subject is de-
cisive—‘ that they all may be one, that the
world may believe that thou hast sent me.’
In other words, the visible union of. Chris-
tians is essential to the conversion of the
world. It is vain to say that but little dis-
agreement exists as yet among the Christian
witnesses abroad; the seeds of discord only
ask for time, and they will not fail to bear
their proper fruit. But why have not the
witnesses abroad differed? If they are right,
must we not be wrong? And how is it that
even we, on occasions like the present, can
quit our denominational camps, and proclaim
the truce of God? Both by the same means
— by paying greater deference to the will of
Christ than to the claims of party; by look-


























ing out on a world perishing; by erecting
the cross for its salvation, and rallying around
it; in a word, by reverting practically to the
design of the church. Oh! whois not ready
to say, at such times, ‘ Would that the whole
church could be converted into a Christian
| Missionary Society, and meet in that ca-
| pacity alone.’ The union wanted is not the
| union of one day in a year, but the union
of every day ; not merely a oneness of pur-
pose, but, as far as practicable, a union of
means for the attainment of that purpose. |
Here is one society calling aloud for agents, |
and pledging itself to raise the funds for their |
support; while another proclaims that it has |
agents ready, if it did but possess the means
of sending them forth. Now the spirit we |
need is that which, on the first hearing of a
statement like this, should induce the par-
ties to sympathize in each other’s wants. and,
by uniting their respective means, to supply
them. Brethren, the same obligation which
binds the church to act as a witness for God
at all, binds it to do so in the best manner,
and to the full amount of its resources.
While division is making that which is al-
ready little still less, not only would a spirit





























61



THE WITNESSING CHURCH.







of union, by combining our resources, econ-
omize and increase them, but by evincing a
greater concern for the will of Christ than
for the success of party, it would invite it;
it would humbly challenge his blessing, for
it would.be a substantial fulfilment of his
prayer.

4. And is not greater liberality wanted ?
Not that which waits for public excitement ;
that which gives, not a little from much, but
much from a little; that which brightens
into cheerfulness, and rises into prayer, as it
casts its gift into the treasury, saying, ‘May
this be a witness for Christ.’ The liberality
wanted is that which shall induce the wealthy
Christian parent to offer up his pious son on
the missionary altar, and to lay beside him,
at the same time, whatever may be neces-
sary to make the oblation complete. The
liberality wanted is that which shall con-
strain the wealthy Christian to ascend that
altar himself, taking with him all he has,
and offering the whole as a missionary obla-
| tion to God. Talk not of sacrifice; do you
forget that the world has been redeemed by
sacrifice ; do you remember the nature of
that sacrifice? Oh! if you really know the

—




























62 THE WITNESSING CHURCH. *

grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, let the church
but sympathize with Christ in the travail of
his soul; such acts of self-devotion would
become of frequent occurrence, and new
songs would burst forth in heaven.

5. The history of the church would. jus-
tify, and its present position demands, an
increase of energy and zeal. I say this, not
so much in relation to our missionaries as
to our churches. He must be ignorant, in-
deed, who does not know that rashness often
passes for zeal, and that the path of wisdom
lies between a blind impetuosity on the
one hand, and a cold, calculating policy on
the other. But blind must he be, also, not
to perceive that much in the Christian
church, at present, which assumes the name
of prudence, is timidity and unbelief in dis-
guise; that, as missionary witnesses, we
treat with God too much in the commercial
spirit; that we do not trust him to any large
amount; that we look too much at funds in
reserve, and too little at promises in reserve.
‘Prove me now, saith God, whether I will
not open the windows of heaven to bless
you.’ But wh thinks of accepting the gen-
erous challenge? Does not our conduct, in






































THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 63

effect, reproach the first witnesses, and
charge our confessors and reformers of later
days with guilty rashness? If we are only
prudent, what were they? Imprudent men,
to venture. life so recklessly as you did!
Imprudent witnesses for God, to calculate
present consequences so little, and to think
so much of the future! And how insensible
must you have been to say, when all the
engines of martyrdom were brought out, that
none of these things moved you! And how
presumptuous to affirm that the promises of
God warranted such zeal! How would you
have stood corrected now! How much more
cheaply might you have purchased distinc-
tion in the church now! But if distinction
was your aim, well is it for your present
fame that your zeal burned so long ago; for,
though your names are now on every lip,
and we boast that God raised you up, you
could not now repeat your noble deeds with-
out endangering your fame. Yours is zeal
to be admired at a distance!

And yet, brethren, theirs, in truth, is the
energy we want: the zeal of a Paul, and the
first disciples; of-a Luther, and the early re-
formers; of a Brainerd, and our first mis-




64 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

sionaries; a zeal that would startle the
church ; ay, and be stigmatized by thousands
of its members, as what zeal has not been? — |
zeal that would be content to be appreciated
a century hence. The zeal wanted is that
which, while it invites prudence to be of its
council, would not allow her to reign ; which,
while it would economize its means, would
be too frequent in its demands on the funds
of Christian benevolence to allow it to lie
long at interest — anniversary zeal made per-
petual. ‘The energy we want is that which
springs from sympathy with the grandeur of
our theme, the dignity of our office, and the
magnificence of the missionary enterprise.
Oh! where is the spiritual perception that
looks forth on the world as the great scene
of a moral conflict, and beholds it under the
stirring aspect which it presents to the be-
ings of other worlds? Where are the kindled
eye, and the beaming countenance, and the
heart bursting with the momentous import
of the gospel message? Where the fearless-
ness and confidence whose very tones inspire
conviction, and carry with them all the force
of certainty, and the weight of an oath?
Where the zeal which burns with its subject,





























THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 65

as'if it had just come from witnessing the
crucifixion, and felt its,théme with all the
freshness and force of a new revelation? — |
the zeal which, during its intervals of labor,
.| repairs to the mount of vision, to see the fu |
neral procession of six hundred millions of
souls; tothe mouth of hell, to hear six hun-
dred millions of voices saying, as the voice of
one man, ‘ Send toour brethren, lest they also
come into this. place of torment;’ to Cal-
vary, to renew its vigor by touching the
cross; to the spot where John stood, to catch |
a view of the ranks’ of the blesséd above.
Enthusiasm is sobriety here. In ‘this cause
the zeal of Christ. consumed him; his holiest
ministers have become: flames of fires and,
as if all created ardor were insufficient, here
infinite zeal finds scope to burn, ‘for the
zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform it’ . _
. 6. And where is this flame to be kindled ?
‘Where is the live coal to be obtained but
from off the altar? - It was there the wit-
nesses of Christ, in every age, found it; and -
there they kept it bright-and burning. It.
was there that Christ himself sustained that
zeal, in the flames of which he at last as- |
cended as a sacrifice to God. Nay, what


66 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.



was that atoning sacrifice itself, but a more
intense prayer for the salvation of the world
.—a prayer of blood—a prayer so ardent,
that he consumed himself in the utterance —
a prayer which is ascending still, and still
| filling the ear of God with its entreaties —
a prayer, from which all other prayers de-
rive their prevailing power. And what was
the object of that bleeding intercession?
and-what did he himself regard as the full
answer to it? What but the advent of the
Spirit, as the agent of a new.creation? Oh,
Christians! is there such a doctrine in our
creed as the doctrine of divine influence?
Is there such an agent in the church as the
Almighty Spirit of God? Js he amongst us.
expressly to testify of Christ ? to be the great
animating spirit of his missionary witness,
the church? and is it true that his unlim-
ited aid can be obtained by prayer— that
we can be baptized by the Holy Ghost, and
with fire? Oh, ye that preach ‘ Believe and
be saved’ to the sinner, preach the same to
| the. church—‘believe the promise of the
| Spirit, and be saved. Ye that love the
Lord, keep not silence; send up a loud, long,
united, and unsparing entreaty for his prom-






THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 67

ised aid. This, this is what we want. And
this is all we want. Till this be obtained,
| all the angelic agency of heaven would avail
us nothing; and when it is obtained, all that
agency will be unequal to the celebration of
our triumphs. .
Witnesses for Christ, hear the conclusion
of the whole matter; the cause of your Re-
deemer has come on in the heathen world —
the cause of human happiness; the destiny’
of immortal myriads is involved; and the
world is hushed, and waiting to receive your
evidence. By the love of Christ, will-you
not go and testify in‘ his behalf? The de-
- stroyer of souls is witnessing against him ;
and millions are crediting and confirming the
dreadful testimony ; will you not hasten and
testify for him? Mahometanism is denying
his divinity, and is placing an impostor in
his stead; will you not attest. that there is
none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we can be saved, but the name
of Christ your Lord? China is denying his
existence, and one third of the human race
believe it; will you not go to proclaim, ‘ This
is the true God and eternal life’? Hindoo-
ism is affirming that his name is Juggernaut,



ce = a a —

emo mpeg cotati ian iin ana ncn cee L aea agg i























68 THE WITNESSING CHURCH.

and that he — your Lord, the Saviour of the
world —that he loves impurity and blood;
and millions believe it; will you not go and
attest that ‘his name is Jesus, because he
saves the people from their sins’? Shall his
cross have next to no witnesses of its benev-
olence? shall his blood have no tongue to
proclaim its efficacy? his cause no friends
to espouse it? Witnesses for Christ, your
Lord is in India, awaiting your arrival. He
has obtained a hearing for you; and he is
on the plains of Africa, at the gates of Chi-
na, in the temples of Hindostan, calling for
his witnesses to come and testify in his be-
half. And shall he callin vain? He is say-
ing to his church to-day, not for the third,
but for the thousandth time, ‘ Lovest thou
me!’ Then, by the blood which redeemed
you—by the benevolent design of that re-
demption, that you might be my witnesses —
by the wants of the world, waiting to hear
you proclaim my grace, and perishing till |
they hear—by the certainty of your suc-
cess, and the glories that would result from
it—by the power of that cross which is
destined to move the world —awake, arise
to your high prerogative and office; call

—
THE WITNESSING CHURCH. 69

down the aid of the great renewing Spirit;
| and let every creature hear you say, ‘We
have seen, and do testify, that the Father
| sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.’
‘Ye are my witnesses.’






















4
i


CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE,

BY JOHN HARRIS, ND. D.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatso-
ever things are honest, {or venerable,] whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatso-
ever things are lovely, whatsoever. things are of good
report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any
praise, think on these things. — PHIL. 4:8

On reading this remarkable language, one
is almost unconsciously led to exclaim, How
noble and ennobling a system is the gospel
of Christ! how triumphantly does it sustain
a comparison with every other religion ! how
effectually does it eclipse, how gloriously
transcend, them all! For poor humanity has
had its systems—systems of philososphy,
morality, and religion — systems which for a
time resounded though the world — systems
which were to bring heaven down to earth,
or to raise earth to an equality with heaven;
‘it has had them by hundreds, if not by
thousands.

ae en re NE


72 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

Of all these, however, the system of Plato,
I suppose, by aiming at what he called the
true, the beautiful, and the good, is to be re-
garded as approaching nearest to the sur-

passing excellence of the gospel. To that
| system, the apostle is supposed by some to
refer in the text; for it is professed to be
composed chiefly of whatever things were
true and valuable in the various systems
which had preceeded it. But this character
he claims in an infinitely higher sense for
Christianity. For even if that human sys-
tem had ascertained the true, the beautiful,
and the good, how could it have demonstrated
that the true was not false; how could it
have embodied the beautiful, and made it
visible; how could it have induced mankind
‘to aim at the good, or practise the useful?
Where were its motives? what were its sol-
emn sanctions? and accordingly, where were
its churches or societies of men embodying
and propagating its principles? But ask
you for the motives which the gospel sup-
plies? The apostle never enforces its duties
apart from its motives. Before uttering the
practical appeal in the text, he takes us, in

the second chapter, to the cross; takes us
ae NS oF

Ag Ae NAR Aen tenement ranean
enn rr ene SES SESSA NN MSY ESR

a
CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 73



























there to behold an event, which whoever
considers feels that it contains motives for
all duties, and incentives equal to all sacri-
fices; takes us to behold Him, who ‘ was in
the form of God,’ ‘making himself of no rep-
utation, taking upon him the form of a ser-
vant,’ still humbling himself, still passing
from one depth of ignominy to a lower still,
till a cross receives him, and death arrests
his further descent. Ask you, then, for the

. practical results of the gospel; for its
churches and active societies? Oh, what
miracles of moral transformation has it not
accomplished! Was not the apostle— was.
not Philippi itself—an instance? There its
first triumph was to change the very jail
into a churech—the receptacle of a city’s
depravity into a sanctuary of God; and
there already it had begun to leaven and to
assimilate unto its own glorious nature the
mass of depraved humanity around. Nor
was it yet satisfied. He calls them in the
text to higher attainments and greater use-
fulness yet. Perfect itself, it labors to pro-
duce, and is impatient to behold, perfection
in all who embrace it.




Christian reader, the application of this





74 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

subject to yourself is obvious and inevitable.
If the character of Christianity be so lovely,
your character as its professor must be pro-
portionally excellent. If it actually pro-
duced in the Philippians an amount of
Christian excellence, which called forth
apostolical exultation, and if it still remains
what it ever was, it comes into the midst of
the church and makes inquisition for the
same excellence. It calls over (if I may say
so) the muster-roll of all the Christian graces,
nor allows even one to be absent. Taking
you to a mount of vision, which commands |
a view of all the moral greatness and good-
ness the world, the universe, has ever known,
it says to you, Aspire to imitate the whole;
whatever you behold in the wide horizon
true or venerable, just or pure, lovely or of
good report, take them all to your heart and
make them your own. It does not specify,
you perceive, what things these are; it seems
to say, Aim at universal excellence; cherish
the ennobling sentiment, that there is noth-
ing too good for Christian humility to hope,
nothing too great for Christian devotedness
to attempt; propose to yourself the loftiest
standard of Christian piety, and resolve de-
























es.

CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 75



















votedly to reach it; devise some exalted
idea, and determine in the strength of God
to attain it; vow to live for the cross of
Christ; do this, and it will not be necessary
to particularize and prescribe. For remem-
ber, he who dedicates himself to a great ob-
ject is a law to himself; he who acts on a
lofty principle, lifts his whole nature at once;
he who aims at an exalted end is more than
resolving on good acts or even good habits ;
he is necessitating and producing them; he
who lives for a nobje purpose is keeping all
the laws at once, without feeling that hei is
subjected to any. :

Any event which forms an era in the ex-
istence of a church, may be regarded as
opening a fresh page of existence, and pre-
senting a loud providential call to enter on
a higher stage of Christian excellence. In
order to render this call intelligible and im-
pressive, allow me to enforce at least the
spirit of the text by showing, that whatever
there is attractive in Christian morality, you
are to exemplify it; whatever there is exalted
and mature in scriptural piety, you are to
aim to attain it; whatever useful in Chris-
tian activity, you should labor to accomplish














76 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.



it; whatever there is tender in solicitude for
the salvation of others, you should cherish
it; whatever lofty in Christian enterprise,
you are to sympathize with it; and what-
_ever there is sublime and animating in Chris-
tian motive, you are to live under its ever- |
present influence. ?

I. Addressing myself especially to the
professed. disciples of Christ, permit me to |
remark, first, that whatever there ws lovely in
the practice of Christian morality, you are to
exemplify tt. é

Not only is Christian piety compatible with
the discharge of social duties; it will not
absolve us from them. It will not allow us
to be idle spectators on the great theatre of
life. It enters the domestic circle, and ad-

~ dresses an appropriate word to the husband
and the wife, to the parent and the child.
It takes the servant by the hand, and daily
leads him to his appointed task, and thus
invests his station with a dignity, beside
which the most splendid indolence is eclipsed
and disgraced. It accompanies the trades-
man to the place of business; takes its
seat by the judge; and establishes the very
throne in righteousness. And thus, while it























|

CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 77

seems to be intent only on the happiness of
eternity, it overlooks nothing connected with
the well-being of time. It even seeks to
prepare us for the duties and immunities of
that higher state, partly by exercising us
first in the duties of our earthly condition.
And the reason of all this is obvious; that
the object of the gospel is not to repeal
our original and natural relations, but to
remedy and restore our moral constitution,
and to do this through the medium of those
relations. It is the tendency of sin to de-
stroy them; the object of the gospel is to
employ them; and to restore and sanctify,

that it may employ them. Hence, it not

only republishes the duties of the second |
table, but adds tenderness and power to their |
sanction. However exhausted its treasury
may’ be, it will not allow the undutiful son

to-enrich it by saying ‘ Corban,’ and casting

into it that which the wants of his parents
require. However naked its altar, it scorns
to accept ‘robbery for burnt-offering.’ How- |
ever deserted its shrine, it will not allow the
angry suppliant to approach it, till he has
gone and become ‘reconciled to his brother.’
And however long any of its offices in the























78 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.



house of God may have stood vacant, the
only condition on which it will allow them
to be filled, is that the occupants ‘first rule
well their own house, and have a good report
of them that are without.’

And the advantage of all this is as obvious
as the reason in which it originates; at all
events, the evil resulting from the want of it
is obvious enough. Could the gospel over-
look these proprieties, without arming against
itself all that is most deep and central in hu-
man nature? Can a church neglect them
without soon becoming a proverb and a re-
proach? Is not the want of honesty, integ-
rity, natural: affection, —of any of the do-
mestic or social virtues,—in two or three
of its members only, sufficient to blast its
reputation and to impair its usefulness for
years, if not for ever? On the other hand,
can the members of a church honor these
relations and cultivate these virtues, with-
out augmenting their influence and their
-means of usefulness? Oh! if you would
‘adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour in
all things,’ if you would win for it the secret
admiration of the unconverted, and acquire
for it an influence over their hearts, exem-


CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 79

plify the attractions of Christian morality.
Think what prodigious effect it would give
to the gospel, if all its professors did this.
If they took ‘ whatsoever things are true, and
just, and pure, and loveiy,’ and formed them
into a bright and beauteous diadem, what a
halo of glory would it shed over the whole
of their earthly course! what a kind of em-
blazonment would be thrown over the very
name of Christianity! how impossible it
would be to pronounce that name, without
calling up in the heart feelings of homage
and of love ! si

And is not this what the gospel actually
requires? Can it consistently be satisfied
with less? Does it not seek to enlist into
its service all the relations which bind us
together, and all the natural means by
which we influence each other? It cannot
do without them; consistently with the di-
vine appointment, it cannot do without
them. They are the only instruments with
which it has to work. It seeks to win the
infant’s heart by looking up through the
eyes, and caressing it in the tones of mater
nal affection. The father’s love, the sister’s
entreaty, the brother’s warning, the persua-


&0 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

sion of friendship, the active attentions of
neighborly kindness, the tradesman’s integ-
rity and weight of character, the disinter-
ested beneficence of public lifes it wants —
them all, has work for them all. And even
if it have them, the kindest tones cannot
equal tha tenderness of z¢s entreaties, the
hottest tears cannot equal its anguish over
human misery, the most throbbing heart
cannot beat quick enough to satisfy its eager
longing for human salvation. All the influ-
ence which the church can wield in its be-
half, cannot do justice to its free and full
and gushing benevolence; cannot furnish
channels wide and deep enough to pour
forth the ocean of its grace.

II. But Christian morality supposes piety ;_
the holier a church is, the more is it likely
to excel in the practice of the virtues, for
the more will it live mnder the influence of
the motives which produce them. Then,
secondly, whatsoever things are exalted and
mature in Christian yrety aim to attain.

If the holiness of the individual Christian
be progressive, then should the piety of a
church be progressive also; for what is the
piety of the whole, but the collective piety


CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 81

of all its parts? And if the individual be-
liever should say, ‘Brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended,’ the language
of the church should also be, ‘ This one thing
we do, forgetting those things which are be-
hind, and reaching forth unto those things
which are before, we press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in |
Christ Jesus.’ And yet how few the churches
whose conduct would justify the adoption of
this language! How many a church is seen
to languish on from year to year, content
with a bare existence! How many a church
which not only exists, but wears the gen-
eral aspect of health, is yet content to re-
main at a stand for years together! as if it
had reached the standard of a perfect church,
it never exhibits a'single sign of self-dissatis-
faction, or makes an additional onward move
in the path of Christian activity. And how
many a church, it is to be feared, that does
exhibit some of these signs—signs of in-
crease in wealth, in numbers, and even in
Christian activity; signs like those which
led an ancient church to say, ‘I am rich, and
increased with goods, and have need of noth-
ing’—is yet wanting, like that church, in a




82 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

proportional increase of scriptural piety!
Indeed where vs the church, that aims as high
in this respect, or advances as rapidly as it
ought? Where is the church, which, if it
does ‘run well’ for a time, does not soon
begin to indulge in that self-complacency,
which is the sure precurser of a fall? Where,
ts the church, which thinks of making that
grandest of all experiments —how much it |
may enjoy of God, and how much (even to
the highest possible amount) it may achieve
of Christian usefulness? And consequently,
where is the church, which, if He who ‘ walks
in the midst’ of the churches were to. pro-
nounce on its character, might not expect
him to say, ‘Ihave somewhat against thee?’

Is it true that you might expect him to
say this of you? and will you not anxiously
examine what that ‘somewhat against you’
would prove to be? and will you not pray
for grace to discover and remedy the defect ?
and will you not henceforth aim at whatever
is exalted and mature in Christian piety?
‘What! know ye not that ye are the temple
of the Holy Ghost?’ and what is a ‘temple’
without piety? Know ye not that your only
glory in the eye of Christ, and your only
CHRISTIAN EXGELLENCE. 83

distinction from the world around, consists
in your spirituality of character and your
devotédness to his service? Know ye not,
that there is a something, the want of which
alone can account for the comparative inef-
ficiency of our churches, and the slow pro-
gress of the gospel? It is the want of that
‘holiness of character, which is essential to
give.it. weight with the world? Then will
you not cast out from the midst of you every
thing evil as soon as it shows itself, and
faithfully administer that Christian disci-
pline appointed.on purpose to promote holi-
ness, and attach supreme importarice to
every thing calculated to increase your spir-
ituality? Is it on account of the want of
that Christian devotedness, which counts
nothing that may be possessed its own?
Then will you not feel, as those who are
‘bought with a price,’ that all you have and
| are is the property of Christ? Is it the
want of that Christian union for which Christ
prayed, when he entreated ‘that they all
may be one?’ And will you not join in that
lofty supplication? Shall he offer it alone? |
Will you not take the entire church into the
ample embrace of your Christian affection ?


e4 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE,

Remember, however, that when you have
‘given all diligence,’ and have ‘added to
your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge,
and to Kriowledge temperance, patience,
godliness, brotherly-kindness, and charity,’
even then you will not have reached the |
limit of your progress. Never can you reach
that, till you have entirely exhausted the
power of prayer, or till the Holy Spirit has
no more quickening and enabling influences
to impart. And when shall that be?

As long, then, as the throne of grace con-
tinues to be accessible, and you continue to |
approach it in earnest and united supplica-
tion, and as long as the Spirit of all grace is
able to replenish your hearts with his influ-
| ences, so long should you continue to ad-
vance in whatsoever is exalted and mature
in Christian piety.

Ill. But such piety is diffusive; it can-
not exist without making itself felt by all
around; and the promise of God is, that it
shall be felt so as to issue in his Bory: Then,
thirdly, whatever is useful in personal Chris-
tian activity, aim to accomplish it.

As a church, remember, the very relative
design of your formation is the increase of





CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 8&5

your usefulness. Every thing in nature ex-
ists for a purpose; even the atom of the
rock has its appointed place and its definite
end. Surely, then, man—and of all men
the Christian —is not exempt from this law.
He has not been ‘created anew in Christ
Jesus’ for mere self-enjoyment or show.
And if not the individual Christian, still less
a number of these combined. As a church,
the mere circumstance of your separation
from the world is designed of itself to attract
attention. Your number is to invest you
with comparative importance; your forma-
tion and existence as a visible society, com-
plete in itself, is to raise you into the rank
of a distinct power. As a church, you are
entrusted with means, either exclusively
adapted, or eminently calculated to affect
and benefit the world around. You possess,
for instance, ‘the ministry of reconciliation ;’
and of what use is that, but to ‘beseech men *
to be reconciled unto God?’ As a church,
you have a special sphere of labor. How-
ever small the circle of Christian influence
which each one separately filled before, from
the moment you constitute a church, the
hand which so forms you draws around you

















































&6 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.





a circle, which includes the region round
-about. .As a church, you are now charged
with a collective responsibility. All the
souls within that circle, are in a sense given
into your hand. All its sick are to be vis-
ited, all its ignorant instructed, all its chil-
dren ‘trained up in the way they should go,’
its widows and fatherless and destitute vis-
ited in the time of their affliction; the whole
of its area is to be filled with appropriate
‘works of faith and labors of love.’ Hence
all your means, the mite of the widow and
the wealth of the affluent, the leisure of one
and the influence of another, the ardor of the
young, the wisdom of the aged, the resources
of the whole, are to be combined, surren-.
dered, and actively employed. Here the
motto of each is to be, ‘ None’of us liveth to
himself.’ Each one is to be assigned a post
of labor. The influence of each, by union
with all, is made to be felt; and as often as
others are added to you, you are to regard
the circle as proportionally enlarged, and are
| again to fill it to the circumference with the
influence of the cross.

But all this, I say, supposes that every
individual member is prepared to take his


| CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 87 .

post as an agent for Christ. It does not al-
low the indolent to fold his arms, and devolve
his duty on another. It does not permit the
fashionable professor to wait till Christian
labor becomes genteel. It will not permit
the wealthy to buy off his personal service
by the bribe of large donations ; it requires
both—his activity and his donation too.
Whether it contains a man for every post or
not, it-is certain that it contains a post for
every man. And hence the first inquiry
which some churches make of a newly-
admitted member, i; And what shall your
post be?

Were I to be asked to what it was owing
chiefly that the early triumphs of the gospel
were arrested; how it was that Christian
usefulness died out of the world, and piety
out of the church; I should say, that it was
to be ascribed chiefly to that master-device
of Satan, by which the Christian professor
was led to suppose that he could do almost
every thing by proxy; that there was an
order of men, on whom, for a certain consid-
eration, he could devolve his duties both to
God and man. By these means it was,
that the requirements of God came to be


POLO Gs RO NOR a ees Pek eee ee ee ee
88 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

lost sight of, and the claims: of the world
to be utterly neglected. Now this, I need
not remind you, is substantial Popery; the
very essence of that system consists in un-
dertaking to exempt its votaries from their
personal responsibility, in finding a price for
every duty, and a discharge from every claim
of. individual accountableness. We pride
ourselves in our Protestantism; but from
how much of that enormous system have
we been rescued? For just as much as still
cleaves to us, just so much are we effectu-
ally disabled from ‘doing the first works’
and emulating the first days of the Chris-
tian church. Now, judging from the past,
we should say that the Reformation rescued
us from only a part of Popery; from that
part which blinded men to a sense of their
personal concern in the affairs of their own |
salvation. But while the Protestant won-
ders at the infatuation of the Papist, in im-
agining that any thing can exempt from the |
necessity of personal diligence in seeking:
his own salvation, are not we objects of
equal wonder in acting so generally as if we |
thought any thing could exempt us from the
duty of personal activity in seeking the sal- |

























CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 89

vation of others? If the one is Popish, equal-
ly so in spirit is the other also. And oh!
glorious as the Reformation was for the
church, in rescuing its members from the
grasp of a spiritual despotism, and making
each one feel the necessity of personal faith
and personal holiness, as glorious will that
reformation be for the world, which shall
complete the work of deliverance, by rescu-
ing them also from the grasp of selfishness,
and making each one feel his accountable-
ness to God for personal activity in the work -
of human salvation. Never till the Chris-
tian feels himself as much ordained to diffuse
the gospel, as the minister is ordained to
preach it; never till a church regards itself
as a society organized expressly for that
diffusion, will it be aware of its vast capa-
bilities, in the hand of God, for blessing the
world. What but this feeling in the hearts
of a few, has originated all the Christian in-
strymentality which is at this moment at
work? And if sense of responsibility for
personal activity in only a few instances has
led to so much, what might we not hope
under God from the individual and united '
activity of the universal church?

see ee a A


I aS aed
90 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

Whatsoever things are useful, then, in
personal Christian activity, aim to accom-
plish.

IV. But all this supposes a deep solicitude
for human salvation. He who sympathizes
with Christ in actively seeking the salvation
of men, must have sympathized with him
first in his compassion for human misery.
Then, fourthly, whatever is tender in Chris-
tian solicitude for the salvation of others,
cherish it. |

The cross is-the utterance of divine com-
passion ; and the church collected around it
is the proof of its power. The compassion
which bled on the cross is supposed to be in
the hearts of all its members. They know
the wretchedness of sin, into which the sin-
ner sunk; they look forward in imagination
to the end of his course; hear already his
doom pronounced; see the pit open to re-
ceive him; and hear by anticipation his
hopeless cries for deliverance. And the deep
anxiety they should feel to snatch the fire-
brands from the flame, and to quench them
in the blood of Christ, should impart a depth
“of tenderness to their tone, an earnestness of
solicitude to their manner, and a combina-




CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 91

tion and energy to their efforts, which, by
the blessing of God, nothing should be able
to resist.

But who feels this? Who sympathizes |
with Christ in his travail for souls? How
little do we feel with God on that particular
point, on which (if on no other) the strongest
bond of union might be supposed to exist —
compassion for depraved, guilty, and perish-
ing men! Whois there, that makes the bur-
den of a dying world his own? that goes
about, as Paul did, with ‘great heaviness
and continual sorrow of heart,’ oppressed
| and borne down by the weight of its woes?
Jesus wept over the guilt and obduracy of
Jerusalem —a single city; who is there pre-
pared to mingle their tears with his over this
city — over the guilt and impending destruc-
_tion of a thousand cities —ofaworld? Abra-
‘ham and Moses, David and Jeremiah and
Paul evinced the tenderness and depth of
their compassion for men by tears, entrea-
ties, and restless anguish of soul; who is
there now, that can say, ‘Rivers of water
run down mine eyes because they keep not
{-thy law?’ Who now is heard exclaiming,
‘Oh! that my head were waters and mine


















92 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep
day and night for the slain of the daughter
of my people?’ Who now asseverates as
with an oath, ‘I could wish myself accursed
from Christ for my brethren and kinsmen’s
sake?’ .
Christians! are there not souls perishing
in the very midst of you? Do they not
| meet with you every Sabbath? sit by your
side every service? Have they not done so
for years? Are they not yet unsaved? Have
not the very sermons which have proved to
you a ‘savor of life unto life,’ proved to them
a ‘savor of death unto death?’ Has not
mercy wept over them in vain? Has not
Jesus Christ been ‘ evidently set forth cruci-
fied before them’ in vain? Can you con-
ceive any thing more deserving your deep
commiseration? You will have to appear
as witnesses against them; can you conceive
of any prospect more appalling? Oh! look
at them in imagination, till your eyes fill



ha een re ES, A NNR:

| with tears, till your hearts fill with pity and |

| yearn over them. Pray for them. Your
Lord has died for them; will you not pray
for them? Itis your interest todoso, At
present they constitute your weakness, your





CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 93























obstacles to enlarged prosperity; they im-
pair the effect of every sermon delivered, of
every prayer offered; whereas, if converted,
they might constitute your strength. Pray
for them. It is your office; you are to be
intercessors for them as Christ is for you.
Pray for them. It shall be your triumph;
for your prayers offered in faith shall ‘avail
much.’ Hold méetings of prayer for them;
in that act alone, angels would see occasion
to rejoice in the presence of God, and in its
glorious results Christ would ‘see of the
travail of his soul and be satisfied.’

V. But it is impossible to feel and act
thus for some, without being conscious of
similar solicitude for others: Christian com-
passion knows nothing of geographical lim-
its; the cross vibrates to the sounds of
human misery in every part of the earth,
and the heart of the Christian is to thrill in
sympathy with it. Then, fifthly, whatever
ws lofty in Christian enterprise, aum to sym-
| pathize with and promote it.

After what we have said, we cannot be
supposed to mean that the duties of the
family are to be neglected, or the duties of
{ the particular church to which we belong


94 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

a

overlooked, for any other objects, however
magnificent. Nor need they. Our duty is
in this respect coincident with our most en-
larged desires ; for by filling the sphere im-
mediately around us first, we are multiplying
our agencies for wider and still wider influ-
ence. And not only so; such are the gra-
cious arrangements of the scheme of mercy,
that by earnest supplications at the throne
of grace, the obscurest believer can touch
and set in motion an almighty agency for
the good of the world; such the facilities
which exist at present for the operations of
Christian beneficence, that by contributing
his mite, the poorest Christian can become
an instrument of good to the ends of the
earth, and to nations yet unborn; and such
the vast and varied machinery which that
beneficence has put into action, that the
humblest church is summoned to its part,
and. invited to share in the honor of restor-
ing a ruined world.

And will you not aspire to partake of it?
Can you ascend that mount of vision, which
takes in the field of the world, without mark-
ing how vast the multitudes, how urgent and
awful their condition, and how momentous

eae ere tn ec a EY NT LS NR


CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 95

the results depending on our hastening to
save them? Can you mark how uniformly
God enlarges the successes of his people in
proportion as they enlarge the sphere of their
activity, without feeling a holy determina-
tion that ‘no man shall take your crown?’
Can you remember the magnitude of the
work to be accomplished, and the claims
which the Saviour has upon you, without
feeling the strong necessity of entire conse-
cration to the service, and wishing that you
could multiply your means a thousand-fold?
Oh! whatever there is ennobling in Chris-
tian enterprise, be ambitious to mingle in
and practically to assist it.

VI. But all this supposes adequate mo-
tives; and accordingly, if the text does not
contain, it at least suggests them. ‘If there
be any virtue, and if there be any praise,
think on these things.’ In other words,
whatever there ts sublinte and animating in
Christian motive, live under its ever present
influence. |

Are we not apt to act from the lowest al-
lowable, rather than from the highest possible
motives to Christian devotedness? and is
not this one reason why our instrumentality

























96 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

is so feeble and inefficient? Whereas, the
apostle here seems to invoke all that is in-
spiring and noble from every part of the
universe. ‘If there be any virtue, and if
there be any praise,’ he intimates that the
church has heard of it, has had it, and that
we are to live as in its presence; that what-
ever the world has known of great and good
has belonged to the church; that its influ-
ence goes on accumulating from age to age,
~ and is devolved on each successive genera-
tion in the church; so that we in the present
day are living under the collective influences
of all the past, and moving under an impul-
sive power greater than that of any preceding
age. ‘Ye are come,’ says the apostle, ‘to
mount Zion, to the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumer-
able company of angels, to the general as-
sembly and church,of the first-born, which
are written in heaven.’

Your union with a Christian church brings
you into connection with all that was great.
and under the influence of all that was good
in the Jewish church. True, the temple is
gone, and the economy abolished; but all
its proper and mighty influence is existing


97



CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.



still. Nothing that belonged to it existed
for itself. Every judgment that made it
awful, looked on beyond its own time, and
is frowning still. ‘All these things hap-
pened unto them for ensamples; and they
are written for our admonition, upon whom
the ends of the world are come.’ Each of
its prophets spoke less for his own time than
for ours; so that for us, in effect, he is proph-
esying still. ‘Not unto themselves,’ says
an apostle, ‘but unto us they did minister
the things which are now reported to us’ by
the gospel. Every event which distinguished
them is still in actual operation, diffusing
the elements of other events and propagating
its influence somewhere. And where shall
we look for it, but within the limits of the
Christian church? The Bible is the true
conductor of all the holy influences the
church has ever known. , From it the Jewish
church received ‘whatsoever things were
true, and lovely, and of good report’ in the
preceding economy. In that church, it may
be truly said, Abel, ‘though dead, was ever
speaking,’ and Enoch, ‘the seventh from
Adam,’ was ever ‘ prophesying of the coming
of the Lord.’ There the patriarchs came






















98 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

and lived again for their posterity; there the
rod of Aaron was ever blooming, the manna
ever fresh, the rod of Moses ever working
and repeating its miracles ; there Sinai reared
its awful head, and from its thundering top
its law was ever demanding for God the
heart of the world, and demanding for every
man the love of all the rest. In the same
sense the Bible has now discharged all the
accumulated moral influence of the last
| economy into the present; the Christian
church has. received the whole. Here, in
effect, the temple still stands; though in a
literal respect, not one stone of that sacred
pile remains upon another, in the hallowed
influence which it sheds over the church of
God it still lifts up its awful front; its fires
still burn, its victims still bleed, its ‘day of
atonement’ still returns. We behold them
‘now; we shall see them in eternity.

All the great events and solemn transac-
tions of the Old Testament may be regarded
as having taken place in the Christian church
— within these walls. Here, in the ministry
of the gospel, they do come, and occur again.
Here its miracles are still convincing, and
its angelic messengers still appearing. Here



ee

en NN, OE



CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 99




Moses is still teaching self-renunciation, by
wishing himself ‘ blotted out from the book’
of life for the good of others; and David
leading the intercessions of the church for
the salvation of the ends of the earth; and
the prophets still ‘ testifying of the sufferings
of Christ, and the glory that should follow.’
And what is more, here they are all present
at once. Truths and events, which for the
Jewish church were scattered thinly over
a long tract of time, are here collected toa
point and made operative at once; ages, with
the men who made them memorable, and
dispensations, with all the miraculous facts |
and sublime disclosures which distinguished
them, pass in quick and close succession
before us, and we feel ourselves standing
under the eye and influence of the whole.
And more still; great as was the influence
which that economy was calculated to exer-
cise during its actual existence, that influ-
ence has gone on gathering strength with
each successive age, and is comparably
mightier for us, than for those who lived in
its immediate presence. All that was evan-
gelical and immortal in its principles, was
far in advance of the time then present, and


















































100 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.







was destined to act chiefly on the future.
Who does not feel, for instance, that the lofty
aspirations of the psalmist for the universal
diffusion of the truth, and the splendid visions
of prophecy in which those aspirations were
_ seen realized, are only as yet beginning to
produce their legitimate effect, and that with
every year that effect under God is likely to
increase ? :

But together with all this influence from
the former economy, theré comes a mightier
influence peculiar to the present —a power
so irresistible, that wherever it has had free
course it has swept away the thrones of
idolatry, changed the aspect of society, and
left its sacred impress upon every object it
has touched. Ours is THE cRoss — the
great ‘power of God’—not only absorbing
and concentrating all the influences of the
past, but charged with a new power direct
from God, containing in its bosom all the
| springs of benevolence the world will ever
know, an energy of expansive goodness ca-
pable of replenishing the universe with light
and with love. Here God is seen enriching
the world with a gift, which leaves us noth-
ing to ask for more. Here Christ is seen


CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 101

taking the world to his heart, seizing our
nature as it trembles over the bottomless
gulf, assuming it into union with his own, .
taking our place under the descending stroke
of justice, and suffering in our stead. Here
angels, drawn from heaven, bend to gaze,
and labor to comprehend the mystery of in-
carnate love. Here the infinite Spirit himself,
drawn down from the heights of his everlast-
ing dwelling-place, descends as ‘a rushing
mighty wind,’ and the eries of penitents are
heard around. Apostles come, to lose them-
selves in wonder, and exclaim, ‘Herein is
love!’ and to surcharge their hearts with a
benevolence which impels them to the ends
of the earth, testifying that the ‘ Father hath
sent the Son to be the Saviour of the
world.’

And what do we behold in this result, but
the appropriate answer to the prayer of
Christ, ‘Sanctify them through thy truth; thy
word is truth.’ The sanctification he prayed
for was not their personal holiness, (though
that was indispensable,) but their relative
or official consecration. ‘ As thou hast sent

“| me into the world,’ he adds, ‘even so have I

also sent them into the world, and for their


102 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

sakes I sanctify myself,’ or devote myself,
‘that they also might’ (in the same sense)
‘be sanctified’ or devoted ‘through the
truth;’ that, standing under the action of
my cross, feeling the full influence of that
‘mystery of compassion, beholding how JI,
thy Son, ‘ the brightness of thy glory,’ there
devote and set myself apart as a sacrifice for
the manifestation of thine infinite love, they
may feel impelled to devote themselves with
a similar entireness of consecration to the
proclamation of that love through the world.
Oh! if the influence of promises compara-
tively vague in their meaning, and indefi-
nitely distant in their fulfilment, could pro-
duce under God the martyr piety of Abel,
the dauntless fidelity of Enoch, the perse-
vering obedience of Noah, the missionary
pilgrimage of Abraham, the self-sacrificing
zeal of Moses, —if the comparatively feeble
influences of the Jewish dispensation could
create under God those splendid constella-
tions of excellence, which glow and burn in
the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews, — who
shall set limits to that moral greatness and
that Christian devotedness which the migh

tier influences of the gospel shall produce?


CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 103

To know that a whole economy has existed
for us, (that is, for the church of which we
are members,) that for us its heroes lived
and its martyrs died; to know that for us
that economy of a thousand years was at
last dismissed, as for us it had at first been
called into being, leaving to us all its rich
accumulations.of inspired wisdom, God-like
example, and moral wealth,— this alone
should surely be sufficient to teach us the
greatness of living for the future, and to
kindle in our hearts unquenchable desire of
transmitting the great inheritance to those
who succeed us, not merely unimpaired, but
augmented by the influence of our own de-
votedness. But to know that that which
displaced that. economy was the personal
advent, the actual sacrifice, the visible hu

miliation of the Son of God, —that the eter

nal Father should have ‘so loved us as to
give’ from his bosom ‘the express image of
his person,’ — should surely come on us with
an effect which should leave us no power but
that of obedience, no wish but that of mul-
tiplying our means of serving him ten thou-
sand fold. Before that gift could have been
bestowed, the ocean of the divine benevo-




104 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

lence must have been stirred in all its unfath-
omable depths; should the shallow stream
of our gratitude be only rippled upon the
surface? Of all his infinite resources He
freely gave the sum; of the mite-like penury
of our nature, shall we return him.only a
fraction? To know that He ‘ who was rich’
should ‘for our sakes have, become poor,’
that the second person in the mysterious
Godhead should have personally advanced
to our rescue, descending from one depth of
humiliation to another, till he had reached a
depth which-made it impossible for divine
condescension itself to stoop lower — this is
knowledge, which, as it has moved all heaven,
should surely be sufficient to move and agi-
tate all earth. To hear that event succeeded
by the signs and sounds of another advent,
the advent of the Holy Spirit — to find that
thus each of the three persons in the awful
and mysterious Godhead is infinitely inter-
ested in our recovery, and that so intimately
is the compassion of the triune God set upon
the object, that no truth is left untaught, no
miracle of mercy unperformed, no angel or

agency unemployed, no part of the universe
| unmoved, no perfection of the divine nature


CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 105

unconcerned, no aspect of the divine char-
acter unexhibited, which is in the least es-
sential to its accomplishment —this should
leave no portion of the church at rest, no
means within its farthest reach untaxed, for
the attainment of the same glorious end.
To find that. this is manifestly the divine
design, that Christ as the Head of the church
on.earth authoritatively requires that each
individual Christian surrender himself and
live supremely for the conversion of others,
that. these unite into particular societies, for
the conversion of greater numbers still, that
P all these societies in every land combine in
simplicity of purpose for the salvation, of the
entire race —to find that as the President of
the universe he commands and combines
the sympathies and instrumentality of the
church in heaven with that of the church on
earth, assigning to angels the time and the
place for thein agency in providence concur-
ring with his movements both in providence
and in grace — and_to find that in his media-
torial capacity, he even adds the presence
and the power of the Holy Spirit himself—
surely this should leave no Christian unem-
ployed, no church unrelated, no agency we


106 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.



could invoke on earth or in heaven to be
absent from our combined endeavors to carry
it into effect. And to find that this design
is as practical as it is obligatory —to hear
other Christians avowing their readiness to
be messengers or martyrs, honored or ac-
cursed, any thing or nothing, so that they
might be instrumental in promoting it—to
see churches selecting and sending out such
men to carry the gospel forward, and other
churches emutating and imitating their ex-
ample —to find that each convert as he
comes into the church is expected to be ever
at his post, and to find that each church as
it comes into being is expected to help for-
ward in the universal object—to see that
each church is expected to join in the tri-
umph of all, so that the success of one
church is the rejoicing of all, and that if they
suspend their efforts for a time, it is only to
prostrate themselves in prayer for that aid
which the Spirit alone can impart, and which
furnishes them with energy and means for
more vigorous endeavors and louder triumphs
still — this is a spectacle, which should
surely leave no other question on the lips
of every individual Christian, than ‘ Where


CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 107

is my post? What shall Ido?’ and no other
law for the church universal than that of
entire consecration. Now this was the
prayer of Christ, not for the apostles only,
but for them also (he adds) ‘ which shall be-
lieve on me through their word, that they
all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me
and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us, that the world may believe that thou hast
sent me;’ finding themselves acted on by
the presence of ‘ whatsoever things are pure,
and lovely, and of good report,’ by hallowed.
and benignant influences from every quarter
and from the remotest period of the church,
finding themselves surrounded by lofty ex-
amples of Christian devotedness, and ever
standing in the presence of his wondrous
cross, he prayed that they might feel them-
selves impelled to make his consecration the
model and motive of their own, that God
might be glorified and man saved.

Be it remembered, also, that there is a
sense, in which we of the present day sustain
the accumulated responsibility of the eight-
een centuries which have revolved since that
prayer was uttered. In each succeeding age,
‘the truth’ to which that prayer referred


108 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

(that is, the gospel) has been exercising its
consecrating influence, and instrumentally
creating eminent examples of moral power};
examples of conscientiousness, which treat-
ed no duty as unwelcome, and which evaded
no obligation; of fidelity, which spared no
sin, nor allowed any iniquity (however splen-
did and powerful) to pass unrebuked; ex-
amples of courage, which cowered before no
opposition, and shrunk from no conflict; of
enlarged benevolence, which knew no limits
to its plans and toils and travels for the wel-
fare of man; examples of Christian self-
abandonment, which swore eternal devoted~
ness to Christ, though in the presence of the
flames which were kindled for its martyr-
dom; and of love for man, which even in
those flames wept over the misery of the
world, and agonized in prayer for its recov-
ery. These examples are not lost. Though
their memory is not embalmed in the volume
of inspiration, their influence has been really
added to that of patriarchs and prophets, of
apostles and primitive saints. Whether we
are conscious of its stimulating power or
not, we are all at this moment reaping its
advantages, and are consequently standing
CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 109

under the weight of an increased respon-
sibility. |
And to this is also to be added the influ-
ence acting on us from the prophetic dis-
closures of the future. The torch which the
hand of prophecy holds up, throws its beams
onward to the consummation of all things.
By this light we catch glimpses of noble
examples yet to arise, and of glories yet to
dawn. Many are seen ‘running to and fro’
with the message of salvation, multitudes
flocking to embrace it, angels pouring de-
struction on its foes, mountainous obstacles
rolled from its path, nations walking in its

light, heaven and earth celebrating its tri- |

umphs, and Christ encircled by his redeemed |
| myriads, and receiving the homage of the
| renewed universe. One of the obvious in-
- tentions of these disclosures is, that by the
| certain prospect they afford of ultimate suc-
cess, the church may be encouraged to act
out its divine design, and to throw all its sanc-
| tified energies into the object of the world’s
recovery. This is the effect which they
have had on many of its members in every
age; ‘having seen them afar off,’ and caught

| their inspiration, the martyr for Christ has |





110 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

embraced the block, the minister has startled
the slumbering church, the missionary has
gone forth to arouse the slumbering world;
the saint, like David, has exclaimed in death,
“Let the whole earth be filled with his
glory’’—and the church has echoed with
the response of thousands, adding, * Amen
and Amen.” And for us the light of proph-
ecy still burns, that on us it may produce
the same effect.

And shall it zo¢ produce it? “Ifthere be
| any virtue,” here there is nothing else; and
shall we not copy it? ‘If there be any
praise,** here nothing but praise awaits the
devoted Christian; and shall we not aspire
to win it? Oh! if there existed a certain
method of extinguishing all human misery
and replenishing the world with joy, would
you not desire to promote it? Such a method
there is. All the treasures of eternity have
been lavished on it; “all creation is groaning
and travailing in pain together,” for want of
it; and all the voices of heaven and earth are
urging you to take part init. If you knew
of a scheme so vast in its sweep as to subor-
dinate all other plans to its own designs, so
varied in its workings as to demand the























ee ne een nS

CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 111



strenuous activity of every agent in the uni

verse, and yet so self-sufficient as absolutely
to stand in need of none, would you not
count it the highest honor to take part in it?
Need Iremind you that such a plan there
is? — that in the arrangements of that plan a
post of activity is assigned to each of you,
and that in that post (which awaited your
coming into the world,) the whole of your
consecrated influence was bespoke from
eternity? If we could inform you of an end,
so great that all other ends stand to it only
in the relation of means, so lofty that there is
nothing higher, so glorious that every thing
else is honored by serving it, would you not
pant to be identified with it? Need Iremind
you that such an end there is? —that the
one point, the sole end, to which every thing
in the universe of God is tending, is to “ the
praise of the glory of his grace,’ — that apart
from that end, nothing is great or good, —
that connected with it, nothing is mean or
little, — that it hallows whatever it touches,
and ennobles whatever it employs, — that
consequently it is our highest wisdom to
form such a plan, each one for himself, as’
shall link us on to that infinite ultimate end




112 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

as its humble willing agents, and as shall
appropriate all our moments and all our
powers to this grand design? If we could tell
you of a day when all the holy excellence in
the universe shall be collected together in the
presence of God, and all the holy beings in
the universe shall be convened together to
admire and to praise it, and when God him-
self shall applaud it in language with which
eternity shall never cease to resound, would
you not cheerfully give all the world, were it
yours, to share in the transports of that day?
Need Iremind you, that such a day there will
be ?— that Christ himself will preside over its
transactions, and that inconceivable eternal
blessing will be his certain award to every
one present devoted to his service? If, in
the revolutions of time, there should come a
period, when events should thicken, when
all the agencies of providence should seem
urged into unusual activity, and all things
seem rushing to that final issue, would you
not long to live in that period and to take
part in its scenes? Need I remind you that
that time has come, — that that period is the
present? Brethren, we stand in the midst
of a scheme, which unites us with all the





CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE. 113



past, and is in progress with all the future.
Upon our heads the relations, influences, and
consequent responsibilities of all the past
meet and rest; and to us the ends of the
earth, the remotest generations of time, and
all the holy beings and interests in the uni-
verse are looking for corresponding fidelity
and zeal. Whoever may deem it necessary
to form plans of independent action, we are
surely exempted from that necessity; for
we ourselves form part of a plan, in which
every being, from the loftiest archangel to
the lowliest saint, has his course assigned,
and every holy act its appointed effect, so that
the only solicitude left for us is how best we
may satisfy its high requirements. Boast
who may, of. extensive relations and influ-
ences; this plan connects us with every
being and agency in the past, and places in
our hand lines of interminable relation and
influence with all the universal and endless
future. Tremble who may, under a sense
of responsibility; upon us “the ends of the
world are come.’? Our very position conse-
crates us to the loftiest service, clothes us
with the weightiest obligations, surrounds
us with anxious eyes and cries of solicitude





















114 CHRISTIAN EXCELLENCE.

from every quarter of the divine dominion.
For the church to be faithful now, is to save
the world. Now, if ever, “the weak should
be as David, and David as an angel of the
Lord.” Now, if ever, prayer should wrestle,
—liberality should bring forth its richest
offerings, its final mite, —the church should
unite, and clothe itself with zeal. For now,
if ever, crowns may be gained, and kingdoms
won, and a world in the crisis of its danger
may be saved, — crowns to be cast at the feet
of Christ, kingdoms of which Christ is the
rightful Lord, and a world from-which he is
destined to derive his richest revenue of

praise for ever.




MEANS OF USEFULNESS.

BY JOHN HARRIS, D. D.

THE primary design of a church, is the
spiritual benefit of the members composing
it; that each might enjoy the assistance of all;
that the Christian principles and graces of
the whole community might be collected and
concentrated into a focus, and each believer
might stand at pleasure under its salutary
and transforming influence ; that scope might
be afforded for the exercise of sympathy,
and forbearance, and holy emulation; that
each might feel his weakness supported, and
his courage animated, by the presence of the
whole.

As a church, its members have a special
sphere of labor. They are charged with a
collective responsibility ; all the souls within
the circle of the church are, in a measure,
given into their hands. And hence all their

means—the mite of the widow and the


116 MEANS OF USEFULNESS.



wealth of the affluent, the leisure of one and
the learning of another, the ardor of the
young, the wisdom of the aged, the resources
of all—are to be combined and devoted to
the object of saving them. Here, the motto
of each is to be, ‘ None of us liveth to himself;’
—each one is assigned a post of labor; the
influence of each, by union with all, is made
to be felt; and as often as others are added
to them, they are to regard the circle as
proportionally enlarged, and are again to fill
it to the circumference with the influence of
the cross.

In this way other churches are supposed
to be planted. Each of these becomes the
centre of a new circumference. Every place
to which its influence reaches, is to be a point
for extending it farther still. Bursting the
limits of neighborhood, and the confines of
country, they are to carry the cross into
other lands, there to rally around it other
hearts, and thus to obtain the means of far-
ther conquests still.

What are some of the means of usefulness
to be employed?

Knowledge is a means of usefulness —* is
power. The Christian has had disclosed to




MEANS OF USEFULNESS. 117



| him the doctrine of the cross. His hand is
on a lever which can move the world—on
| the lever which shall move it—and his hand
is there that instrumentally he may attempt
| to move it. Moses, descending radiant from
divine communion, in the mount ;— the High
Priest, reappearing from within the myste-
rious veil;—JIsaiah, fresh from the visions
of the Lord, never returned to the waiting
and breathless people with a burden so pre-
cious —a truth so great—as that which he
holds. It is that from which all other truths
derive their force; it comes ‘not in word
only, but in power.’ It is, emphatically,

the power of God unto salvation to every
| one that believeth.’

Speech is a means of influence. It is the
great instrument for the interchange of
thought and feeling. The thoughts of a.
community are by this means kept in per-
petual circulation, and the long-cherished
sentiment of a private individual is propa-
gated till it acquires the force and univer-
sality of a law, and ‘sets on fire the whole
course of nature.’ To say nothing of the

power of public oratory, the simplest con-
| versation has an effect on the minds of those


118 MEANS OF USEFULNESS.



who engage in it, regulated by laws as
certain as those which direct the lightning
in its course. So that never do we come
out from such intercourse the same persons
as, we entered. The most casual remark
lives forever in its effects. There is not a
_ word which has not a moral history. Hence,
the Satanic art of calling all evil things by
harmless names; and hence it is, too, that
every ‘idle word’ which men utter assumes
a character so important, that it will be
| made a subject of inquest in the general
judgment.

But the Christian is taught to regard the
faculty of speech as a vehicle and means of
grace. In the salvation of the cross, the gos-
pel has supplied him with a theme of which
his heart is supposed to be full; and ‘he
cannot but speak the things which he has
heard and seen.’ Every man he meets is
interested in it as deeply as himself. Every
individual he addresses may be perishing
through want of it. Every conversation he
holds with others affords him an opportunity
of introducing it. Every word he has to utter
concerning it is ‘good news.’ Unless he
speak, they may die in ignorance of it;—


MEANS OF USEFULNESS. 119

and he is held conditionally responsible for
every word he might have uttered, but
omitted; and for every soul that perishes
through that neglect.

Relationship, whether natural or acquared,
as a means of usefulness. f The parent, for

instance, possesses an influence over his |

offspring more powerful than the mightiest
monarch ever swayed over his subjects.
His voice is the first music they hear; his
smiles their bliss; his authority, the image
and substitute of the Divine authority. So

)

q

)

absolute is the law which impels them to j

believe his every word, to imitate his every |

tone, gesture, and action, and to receive the

ineffaceable impression of his character, that {

his every movement drops a seed into the

virgin soil of their hearts, to germinate there -}

for eternity. His influence, by blending
itself with their earliest conceptions, and in-
corporating with the very elements of their
constitution, and by the constancy, subtlety,

een,

Ota es

variety, and power of its operation, gives |

him a command over their character and

destiny, which renders it the most appro- |

priate emblem on earth of the influence of

God himself. ° A

Ngee ne


























120 MEANS OF USEFULNESS. |
Now there is not a member of the human
family who does not sustain some relation,
original or acquired, public or private, per-
manent or temporary,—nor is there any
relation which does not invest the person
sustaining it with some degree of influence.
The particle of dust which we heedlessly
tread beneath our foot, propagates its influ-
ence beyond the remotest planet, and is felt
through all space. And though a man may
be apparently standing on the outermost
verge of the social system, he forms a vital
link in the great chain of dependence which
runs through the universe, linking man to
man, age to age, and world to world. The
connection, indeed, may not be visible to us,
to any great distance; yet does it exist, as
really as if he found himself standing in the
centre of the universe, with visible lines of
relation drawn from himself to every one of
the congregated myriads; nor is it possible
to detach him from the mighty whole. And,
— what is of importance to remark, —not
only is there no relation of life which does
not invest the person sustaining it with some
degree of influence, but which does not afford
him the power of exerting an influence in
MEANS OF USEFULNESS 121

it which no other being on earth possesses.
Here, then, is an important talent, which the
Christian is supposed to occupy for Christ.
But, whatever the relation which he sus-
tains to others, he is to regard the influence
resulting from it as a cord for drawing them
to Christ. There is a sense, indeed, in which
he stands related to the whole race. The
cross vibrates to the sounds of human misery
in every part of the earth, and his heart is to
thrill in sympathy with it. As the repre-
sentative of Christ, he is to regard himself
as the centre of all that misery; but as his
Christian duties lie around him in concentric
circles, and as the first circle includes those
most nearly related to him, nothing will |
excuse him for neglecting an inner for an
outer, because a larger, circle. In the day
of final account, the first subject of inquiry,
after that of his own personal piety, will
relate to the salvation of the souls imme-
diately around him. How came yonr wife, |
or child, or servant, to perish? is a question |
which cannot be met by a plea that he was
achieving a distant good. He must not
neglect the Christian welfare of his own
household, then, even for the sublime occu






























122 MEANS OF USEFULNESS.

pation of evangelizing a nation. Nor need
he—his duty in this case is coincident with
his most enlarged ideas. For, by filling the
sphere immediately around him first, he is -
multiplying his agencies for a wider and still
wider range of usefulness. It is by entering
into cohesive union with the particles im-
mediately around it, that the atom becomes
a component part of the rock, contributes
something towards the stability of the ever-
lasting hills, and towards the gravity of
the great globe itself; and, by erecting the
cross in his own house, and converting his
own house into a church, and that church
into a centre of usefulness to the neighbor-
hood, he is preparing to subserve most effec-
tually the interests of the race at large.
Property is @ means of influence. The
material itself, indeed, of which money is
made, is intrinsically worthless; yet having,
by the general consent of soeiety, been con-
stituted the representative of all property,
and, as such, the key to all the avenues of
worldly enjoyment, it excites some of the
strongest desires, and reflects some of the
deepest emotions, of the human breast. Its
fluctuations are the tides of national fortune.
























MEANS OF USEFULNESS. 123

It sways the heart of the world. Every piece
of coin that passes through our hand, has
been streaming with influence from the first
moment it was put into circulation. It has
a path through society, and a history of its
own; rather, it belongs to the history of the
world. Industry has toiled for it; enterprise
has hazarded life for it; speculation has
gambled for it; childhood has eyed it; pov-
erty rejoiced over it; covetousness worship-
ped it;—it has passed through the hands
of profligacy, intemperance, and all the
vices. How often has it been carried past
the temple of God, on its way to some shrine
of Satan; how seldom been diverted from
the service of sin! Could the history of all
the wealth of antiquity be given, what should
we hear, but, substantially, the history of
the ancient world itself,—of its sensual
pleasures, its projects of ambition, its san-
guinary wars, polluting temples, and national
oppressions! How great the opportunity,
then, which the Christian poSsesses, of glori-
fying God in this department alone! While
others are sullenly appropriating every thing
to themselves, as if God had ceased to reign,
and even to exist, he is to consecrate and
124 MEANS OF USEFULNESS.

offer up his substance before their eyes as
an oblation to his glory, and thus daily to
vindicate his claims.

Perseveri wng activity in the attainment of a
useful or benevolent olject 1s another means of
usefulness. It is by perseverance that the
small stream of the mountain, a thousand
leagues from the parent sea, conquers inter-
vening obstacles, wears itself a channel,
swells to ariver, traverses continents, gives
names to countries, assigns boundaries to
empires, and becomes celebrated in history.
And, by patiently persevering, with his face
and step always direct towards his object, a
single individual will acquire an amount of
influence and success in reference to that |
object, which a multitude, pursuing it only
by convulsive starts, would fail to obtain.
The multitude itself, gradually awed into
respect for his steady, onward course, will
come at length to clear a space, and make
way for his advance. And though for years
his cause may* not appear to be attended |
with any success, an event, unexpected, |
perhaps, will at length disclose that there |
never was amoment in which he was not
exciting the silent admiration of some, and


MEANS OF USEFULNESS. 125



preparing numbers to fall into his train,
and to yield themselves up entirely to his
influence.
| Now the Christian has motives to patient
perseverance in promoting the knowledge
of Christ, which no other object can inspire,
no other man can know. The persisting
energy which built the mountain pyramids
of Egypt — which reared the Chinese wall —
by which Alexander conquered the old
world— Columbus discoveréd the new—
and Newton elaborated the system of the
universe, had trifles for its objects, compared
with the aim of Christian instrumentality to
save the world. But besides the infinite
importance of his object, engaging, as it has,
the divine perseverance from eternity, there
“never was a moment in the life of Christ, his
Great Exemplar, which was not directly or
indirectly made subordinate to it; there is
‘ not a@ moment in which the command is
| suspended, ‘be not weary in well-doing,’
‘be always abounding in the work of the
Lord.’ So that, unless it can be shown,
that the perishing world ever: pauses in its
cry for deliverance, or that the Destroyer
ever pauses in working the great system





126 MEANS OF USEFULNESS.

of destruction, the Christian can know no>
moment in which it is permitted him to
pause in his peculiar vocation. The termi-
nation of one duty is to be only a signal for
the commencement of another; his life is to
be one continuous act of obedience. Every
day returns charged with an amount of ob-
ligation proportioned to his utmost means
of usefulness. His utmost powers are to be
constrained into the service, till by the force
of habit his perseverance becomes invincible.
He is to live under the ever present convic-
tion that he has one thing to do, and that
he is in danger of dying before it is done;
cheered on by the assurance, that every ‘act,
adds a ray to the radiance of that crown
which he hopes to lay at his Saviour’s feet,
and tends to secure the perseverance of |
others, when he himself shall have gone to
receive it.

Prayer is wnfluence. Appeals, entreaties,
and petitions, between man and man, move
the affairs of this world; but, in the church,
they move heaven. All those other things,
which we have described as exercising in-
fluence, become spiritually useful only by
that power which descends in answer to
























MEANS OF USEFULNESS. 127

prayer. Other means may be influential,
but the amount of their influence is incal

culable, bearing a proportion to the power
employed;—but prayer, by engaging a
divine power, sets all calculation at defiance.
Other means may be good, — but what must
that be, the effect of which is to bring down
Goodness himself ;— and yet here the entire
church is supposed to be in daily, unceas-
ing, impassioned, entreaty for the Spirit, to
‘¢ convince the world of sin.”’

Onion is a means of usefulness. And here
it is supposed to be universal, visible, divine.
As to each individual: here is the union
of the whole man—all his: principles and
passions combined—no part of his nature
wanting —no part shedding a counter-influ-
ence — the whole man bound and braced up
for one purpose, as if devoted to the grand
experiment of ascertaining how much a
single human agent can effect in the cause
of Christ. Here is the union of a number
of these in a particular church—in which
none is inactive—each has his post—all
act in concert—the whole blent into a
single power, and putting forth an undivided
effort to draw the world around them to























128 MEANS OF USEFULNESS.



Christ. Here is the union of all these dis-
tinct societies in one collective body
bringing together agencies the most distant
— harmonizing materials once the’ most |
discordant — blending hearts naturally the
most selfish—in bands more tender than
those of kindred, and so sympathetic that |
the emotion of one thrills through them all
—a union which economizes and combines
all the energies and passions of sanctified
humanity — which, collecting all the scat-
tered agencies of good that earth contains,
organizes them into a vast engine, whose
entire power is to be brought to bear for
the conversion of the world. And then, not
_merely in addition to, but infinitely more
than all, here is the union of Divine influ-,
ence with the whole—heaven come down
to earth—the powers of the future world
imparted to the present —the Spirit himself,
in a sense, incarnate— pervading his body,
the church—investing it with unearthly
power—and employing it as the organ of
an Almighty influence for recovering the
world to Christ.












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