C CRRISTIAN   SELF-CULTURE; 
OR
COUNSELS FOR THE BEGINNING AND
PROGRESS OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE.
By LEONARD BACON,
Pastor of the First Church in New Haven.
Published by the
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.
28 Cornhill, Boston.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by
THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts,
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY H. 0. HOUGHTON;




I INSCRIBE
atis Yotunme
TO MY B&LOVED PEOPLE OF THE FIRST CHURCH AND
ECCLESIASTICAL SOCIETY IN NEW HAVEN,
GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGING THEIR UNWEARIED KINDNESS TO
ME, AND IN THE HOPE THAT FROM THESE PAGES I MAY
SPEAK TO THEM AND TO THEIR CHILDREN WHEN
MY VOICE SHALL BE SILENT.
LEONARD BACON.








PREFACE.
THE author of this book has had a long experience
in the ministry of the gospel. As he looks back to
the time when he entered on that ministry, and inquires of himself *hat progress he has made in the
knowledge of the gospel, he finds that in nothing
has the habit of his mind undergone a greater
change than in his sense of the freedom with
which he may offer salvation to men in the name of
Christ. Year after year, without becoming conscious
of any deviation from those views of Christian doctrine which are commonly recognized as "evangelical," he has been acquiring a more enlarged and unembarrassed conception of the gospel as opening a
way in which any man who will can be saved. Surely, if there is any first principle in Christianity, which
is to be held at all hazards, and which no theological
system or theory may be permitted to darken, it is
the principle that salvation from sin, and from the
death which is the wages of sin, is offered, frankly
and without equivocation, to all men.




vi                  PREFACE.
This book, therefore, regards the beginning and
progress of the Christian life from that point of view
to which the author has been brought by his experience in the ministry of the gospel, as well as by his
study of the Scriptures. It assumes that in the case
of every reader, whoever he may be, the beginning
of a new life is possible by the grace of God in
Christ. It assumes that every man may avail himself of all those offers and promises which the gospel
sets before him,- may accept and appropriate the
offered forgiveness of sins, —may act on the assurance that God is willing to give the Holy Spirit in
answer to prayer, - may confidently trust in Christ's
presence and friendship, - may immediately undertake to follow Christ, striving to overcome his own
selfish and unbelieving habits, and hoping to get the
victory. Therefore, it offers to the reader, not a psychological explanation of the change which takes place
in conversion, nor any metaphysical disquisition about
the will, but only some practical counsels for the beginning and progress of a Christian life. If it is to
do any good, it must be read, not for theological
speculation and discussion, nor with the expectation
that it will produce its effect by some impression on
the feelings, but for the practical purpose of Christian
self-culture.




PREFACE.                   vii
It should not be forgotten that in this book the
Christian life is considered only in one aspect. The
Christian life is the life of one who, at the call of
God, under the mediation and leadership of Christ,
and in reliance on the promise of the Holy Spirit,
has undertaken -to be a new creature in Christ, to
be progressively transformed by the renewing of his
mind, to train himself in and for the service of God,
and so to make the most of himself as a living soul
whose chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him
for ever. Considered in this aspect, it is Christian
self-culture. Considered in another aspect, it is Christian experience; and in that aspect it has often been
described and analyzed with careful discrimination
between the genuine and the false.   Let not this
book, because it treats only of Christian self-culture,
be considered as denying or doubting the reality of
Christian  experience.  Christian  self-culture, earnestly undertaken in reliance on the grace of God,
and diligently pursued, will involve in its progress
all that is essential to a full experience of the gospel as a quickening and transforming power.
With these explanations, the author sends forth
his work upon its errand, praying, and asking the
prayers of others, that God's blessing may attend the
reading of it.








CONTENTS.
CEAP.                                   PAGE
I. THE BEGINNING...11
II. WHEN TO BEGIN....       31
II. INTEGRITY AND AMIABLENESS AS RELATED
TO A RELIGIOUS LIFE..     47
IV. FAITH AND MANLINESS.               67
V. ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.. 
VI. FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED...   111
VII. STEADFASTNESS....        133
VIII. GODLINESS.......  153
IX. BROTHERLY KINDNESS... 175
X. CHARITY.......   195
XI. CHRISTIAN GROWTH.....215
XII. FRUITFULNESS...       237








CHAPTER I.
THE BEGINNING.




" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of
me: for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light." Matt. xi. 28-30.
"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day
of salvation." 2 Cor. vi. 2.
"' It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Heb. ix. 27.
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For
lie that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;
but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life
everlasting. Gal. vi. 7, 8.
"' Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but
one receiveth the prize  So run that ye may obtain. And
every man that striveth for the, mastery is temperate in all
things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but
we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly;
so fight I, not as one that beateth the air." 1 Cor. ix. 24-26.
"Exercise thyself unto godliness." 1 Tim. iv. 7.
"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth
me." Philip. iv. 13.




CHAPTER I.
THE BEGINNING.
The design of this book. What are you in your own consciousness? You are a living soul. Your destiny can not be
completed in this life. Your faculties are proof that you
were made for a free and intelligent service of God. You
are capable of unlimited progress. Connection between the present and the future. Now or never you must be trained for
your hereafter. Difficultiesi and disadvantages. Power of sin.
Encouragement.  Offers and hopes presented in the gospel.
lNature of the Christian self-discipline.  It is a discipline in
duty, aided by the means of grace.
A TRULY religious life is often represented in
the Scriptures as a life of self-discipline and selfculture. Viewed in this aspect, a really Christian life is the life of one whb, under the influence of Christian views and motives, and in the
use of those means and        helps which    God    has
given him in giving him the gospel, is striving
to make the'most of himself for the ends for
which he was created, and to bring himself into




14          CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
the highest possible conformity to the will and
the image of God. Thus the Apostle Paul describes the Christian life, and particularly his
own life as a Christian man, in words and images borrowed from the discipline by which the
candidates for prizes in the athletic games of
Greece were exercised and trained to their utmost capability of bodily activity and power.
Thus, too, he charges his friend and former pupil, Timothy, "Exercise thyself unto godliness."
In other words, train thyself, by a religious discipline, to the knowledge and service of God.
A man who has set his heart upon winning the.
prize in the Olympian or the Isthmian games
trains himself to that end; he goes daily into
the gymnasium, to leap, to run, to wrestle, to
develop and cultivate the power of his muscles
by every sort of practice: so "exercise thyself
unto godliness."
Reader, this book is designed to help you in
beginning and pursuing a Christian life. It is
designed to help you by persuasion and by friendly counsel. The religion which it commends to
you is not merely the intellectual reception of a




THE BEGINNING.             15
certain doctrinal scheme; nor is it merely an
experience of excited feeling; it is a life, a
thoughtful and earnest way of living, a life of
self-discipline. A  religious life is not a life of
forms, or of outward proprieties and moralities;
it is the interior life of a soul training itself and
developing its own nature aright, —a soul humbly, yet with resolute diligence, educating its
own moral and spiritual faculties into conformity with truth and with God. Think, as you
read, that a friend is speaking to you. I wish
to bring home to your thoughts the reasonableness, the duty, the necessity of such a life. I
am to make you understand, if I can, what is a
truly religious life, and what it is to be a religious man, religion being viewed under the form
of Christian self-culture. Allow me thus to help
you, if I can, in beginning such a life. And
may God help me while I write, and help you
when you read.
We begin, then, with this question: Have you
ever considered what you are? In order to any
right understanding of the subject, or any conscious interest in it, you must be willing to think




16         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
and to turn your thought upon youself.   You
must reflect; for serious thought turned inward
is reflection. You must reflect on the nature,
the capabilities, and the future of your own
existence; on your faculties of thought and will,
and your capacity of progress; on the career for
which you were created, and to which your powers and capabilities, as a living soul, are adapted.
What are you? Are you an animal, merely,
with some few faculties that give you the advantage over other animals; while they, in their
turn, have in some other respects the advantage
over you? If so, eat and drink, for to-morrow
you die. But you start back from such a conclusion; you know that you differ from the noblest of brutes, not in degree, not by those incidents and circumstances merely that constitute
variety, but in kind.  These limbs and organs
of yours, this material body and its parts and
members, are yours, indeed; but they are not
yourself. You are, in your own consciousness,
a living spirit, reasonable, voluntary, determining
your own course and character.  Inferior creatures are bound by laws which they know not,




THE BEGINNING.             17
and can not resist; but you are bound by laws
which speak through your reason to your voluntary nature, and which you resist or obey at
your option. You can perceive and grasp truth,
-not merely the phenomena that strike your
senses as they strike the senses of inferior creatures, -but truth. You can perceive truths invisible, truths infinite, truths necessary and eternal. You can perceive not merely colors, forms,
and distances, as inferior creatures'see'them, but
beauty and grandeur spread like a vail Qf light
over all the creation of God. You can perceive
not merely pleasure and pain, consequent in various degrees on various acts; but obligation, duty,
the right and the wrong, with the beauty of the
one and the hatefulness of the other. Your hunman body-the frail thing that eats, drinks,
sleeps, is weary and sick, decays and is resolved
into dust-how small a part is it of yourself!
You, in your consciousness and personality, are
something else than the organization through
which you are in communication with material
nature.  Your being is that which thinks, reasons, knows, inquires, believes, remembers, imn2




18         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
agines, loves, hates, hopes, fears, determines, reflects, approves, condemns, rejoices, repents. You
are a living spirit, created in the likeness of God,
created for freedom and responsibility. Have you
ever considered, thoughtfully, what you are?
Think again. Can such an existence as yours
accomplish all its destiny in this short course of
mortal life?  You were created for more than
this. There was an hour when -you began to
be; but Wvhen will you cease to be? Death,
indeed, is at hand; there will soon be a great
change in your condition, and none can adequately tell you what that change will be; but
the instinct of immortality within you constrains
you to look forth into the infinite future with
expectation that will not be, suppressed.  This
mortal life, under this material organization, is
only the beginning of your history, -a history that
will have no end. Have you ever thought of
this? Think of it now. Think what it is to
be a living soul, rational, responsible, immortal.
Let your soul thus rouse itself from its unreflective habit to the consciousness of what you'
are, and another view will open to your thoughts.




THE BEGINNING.             19
For what were you made with these capabilities
and faculties? The world is full of life, and full
of the manifested power and skill and love of
its Creator; but, of all the living creatures that
you see, you only, and your fellow-men, are capable of knowing God. Other creatures do his
will ignorantly and involuntarily; you are capable of rendering to him —or of withholding from
him —an intelligent and willing service. This,
then, is what you were made for, — to know
God, to behold with adoring acknowledgment
his manifestations of himself, to commune with
him in thought and action, to be his willing servant and his loving child, and to be blessed in
his service and his love. If you were made for
this, as your consciousness assures you that you
were, then to this you must be trained, -to this
your character must be formed,- or you miss
the "end and aim" for which you came into
existence.
Think also (for just here it is natural for you
to think of it) what your progress may be in
the future. Take away the limits which are inseparable from the present condition of the soul,




20         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
bounded on every side by the grossness and the
frailty of this material organization, and what
limit can be set to the progress which you shall
hereafter make in knowledge, in the intensity
of love or hate, and in the capacity of blessedness or wretchedness?   With what a treasure,
then, are you embarked upon the sea of existence; and how important is it that your soul
be so trained and disciplined as to secure this
infinite treasure!
Having led you to these reflections on your
own nature, with its marvelous powers and capabilities, I now propose another question: Have
you ever considered, with due thoughtfulness, what
connection there may be between your present life
and your life hereafter?  Think how far your
soul's well-being after death may be dependent
on what your soul shall have become before
death.
I am  not asking you to occupy your mind
with useless conjectures, or with inferences from
doubtful speculations. We have a sure word of
prophecy. God has given us intelligible certainties. Now is the accepted time. After death is




THE BEGINNING.              21
the judgment. Every one shall receive according to that he hath done in the body. You are
now sowing that of which you will reap the infinite harvest hereafter; and what a man soweth
that shall he also reap; he that soweth to the
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, and he
that soweth to tle Spirit shall of the Spirit reap
life everlasting. This life is your probation. All
is involved in the result of it. The character
which your soul shall bear in the sight of God,
at your departure from this mortal life, will determine your course and destiny in the immortal
life to come. Now or never your soul must be
formed, by fit culture, for the love and service
of God, as its chief end and its immortal blessedness. Let this opportunity be wasted, -let your
soul pass through this period of probation uneducated, undisciplined in God's service, unfitted for
That high career to which its faculties and its
capacities were destined,   and when, in all
the cycles of eternity, will you find one opportunity to repair the infinite waste?
And,here another question presents itself:
Have you ever considered how much has been al



22         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
ready lost, and under what difficulties and disadvantages the training of your soul, for its immortal life of duty and of blessedness, must be begun.
The fact of your apostasy from God, and of the
effects which sin has already produced upon your
spiritual nature, is a most material fact in the
problem of that moral and spiritual self-culture
to which you are invited.
In the education of your soul for the immortal love and service of God, you have not only
every thing to learn, but every thing to unlearn.
You must cease to do evil, or you can not learn
to do well; and this necessity of ceasing to do
evil is what makes the task of learning, to do
well so difficult. You are under the power of
habits, long-established and confirmed, which it
must be the first effort of a; religious self-discipline to break up and dislodge. From your earliest remembrance of yourself, you have been
governed, consciously or unconsciously, by propensities which must be resisted and subdued.
This is not a trivial accident which has befallen
you, and which the better forces of your nature
may be expected to throw off by their spon



THE BEGINNING.              23
taneous working.  You know there is nothing
trivial or transient in the corruption which has
taken hold of your spiritual nature, and has degraded you so far below what you ought to be,
and so far below what you must yet become,
unless your soul is wrecked for ever. Our present purpose does not require us to enter into
any speculative explanations of the fact;- the
fact itself is what concerns us now. The selfdiscipline to which you are invited is not merely to train the powers, and to unfold and direct
the pure susceptibilities of an unfallen  spirit.
It is a remedial discipline, dealing with an apostate soul. It is a discipline designed and conducted for the recovery of a sinful soul; aiming
to humble it, to renew it, to purify it, to set it
free from its bondage, to transform it into the
resemblance of God's holiness, and thus to make
it fit for the inheritance of the saints in light.
Or, rather, it is the life-long labor of such a soul,
led by the grace of God to struggle for its own
deliverance, to work out its own salvation with
fear and trembling, to purify itself by obeying
the truth through the Spirit, to exercise itself




24         CIHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
unto godliness. How important is it, then, to
you that this remedial discipline be undertaken
without delay, and be maintained with ceaseless
diligence to the end.
Here the question comes: Is there any possibility, any reasonable hope, of success in such an
attempt?  In answer to this question, I commend to your attention and your confidence the
grace of God that is offered in the gospel.
The gospel of Christ does not merely propose
the reward of eternal blessedness to those who
are worthy of such an inheritance; its grace is
far ampler and richer than that.   Read what
the Saviour says: "If ye continue in my words,
then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free."  Hear him inviting you: "Come to me
all ye that labor and are heavy laden -take my
yoke upon you and learn of me."    The gospel
is rich with promises like these, by which we
may escape the corruption that is in the world,
and may be made partakers of the, Divine nature. (2 Pet. i. 4.)  It reveals not only heaven
for the holy, but also (what is much more per



THE BEGINNING.             25
tinent to our case) pardon for the guilty.  It
reveals not only God the Judge of all, but also
Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant. Nor
is this all; for, with the atoning Saviour, it also
reveals and offers a renewing Spirit.  To the
believer in Christ, not only is there no more
condemnation (Rom. viii. 1), but old things are
passed away and all things are become new
(2 Cor. vi. 17); and, notwithstanding that corruption of his nature which sin has caused, he
may learn to say, with humble assurance, "I
can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
To you, then, the assurance is offered, that
if you will come to God in Christ for pardon
and grace, -if you will come, humbling yourself and- repenting and asking for the Holy
Spirit,-you may undertake this course of selfdiscipline for immortal holiness with a confident
hope of success. The-gospel, with all its grace,
is: set before you expressly for this end, that
you may be persuaded and enabled and encouraged to exercise yourself now in, the service of God, and so to train yourself for that




26         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
higher and perfect service of God, which will
employ for ever the perfected spirits of the just.
I will now presume that you are ready to ask
for yourself, What is the self-discipline \to which
I am   invited?  What are the processes and
methods, what the means and helps, of this spiritual self-training?
Understand, then, that the discipline to which
you are summoled is the discipline of duty, of
voluntary subjection to trhth, of holiness, of
the service of God. Just that service of God
to which you are called in this world, whatever your particular field of service may be, as
determined by your place and your-relations in
society- that service, whatever it may be, which
-the providence of God allots to you —a service
which you are to perform in the face of innumerable temptations, and which involves a perpetual conflict with whatever is perverse in your
own habits and inclinations -that service of God,
in your place and calling, is itself the most material part of the discipline by which you are to
be trained for a higher ministry hereafter. By
all those daily duties, then, and all those daily




THE BEGINNING.             27
cares, in which God would have you serve him
and your fellow-men, you are to be trained and
exercised unto godliness. He who, whether he eats
or drinks, or whatever he does, strives to do all to
the glory of God - he who, in any sphere of toil,
from the loftiest to the lowliest, learns to do all
things heartily to the Lord and not to men - is
training himself effectually for imnmortal virtue.
Subsidiary to this discipline of daily duty,
there are the various means of grace, - the means
by which the soul is led and assisted in the performance of duty and in the culture of holy affections and habits. You know what these means
of grace are. There is prayer,-by which the
soul comes into immediate communion with God,
and receives immediately from him a quickening
influence. By prayer you can exercise yourself
to godliness. There is the religious duty of reflection in order to self-knowledge; the devotional exercise of communing with your own
heart, and inquiring into your own habits and
condition before God, so that by growing more
and more acquainted with yourself, you may
grow in humility and penitence. In this way,




28         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
you are to exercise yourself to godliness. There
is also the exercise of an habitual watchfulness
against temptation, - the habit of observing one's
own weaknesses and spiritual dangers, and of
keeping guard against them.   By this you are
to discipline and train your soul till you are always on your guard, -incapable of a surprise.
Need I insist oi the right use of times and seasons, and of all special opportunities for cultivating those affections in which the soul has fellowship with God?  Whenever any thing occurs that
quickens your religious sensibilities, - any thing
that brings God, eternity, heaven, near to your
thoughts and feelings,-then is a time in which,
if you will use the opportunity aright, you may
effectually discipline your soul to godliness. And
with all these, yet distinct from them all, there
is that special intercourse with God which you
may have in the devout and teachable study of
his word; there is thle house of God; there is
the fellowship of those who love God, and who
walk by faith.  In the use of all these means
of grace, you are to train yourself to the blessedness of serving God in love for ever.




THE BEGINNING.             29
Such is the discipline of your own spiritual
faculties and capabilities, to which religion calls
you. Such are the modes and processes by which
you are to exercise yourself to godliness. Think,
now, what sort of a discipline this is. Is it any
thing servile? Is there any degradation in being
subject to it? Is there any thing in it that you
need be afraid of?  Is it any thing else than the
highest and noblest culture of your spiritual and
immortal nature?   To be without such discipline- to be left under the power of the
habits and tendencies which this discipline proposes to resist and overcome - that is bondage;
that is degradation; that is the soul's wretchedness and ruin. The great author and finisher of
this discipline, the Divine Revealer of its promises and hopes, will make you free. "Come unto me," he says, " all ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and
lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your
souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light."
Reader! have you entered upon this course




30         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
of'self-discipline, under the guidance of Christ?
Have you -reflecting on the nature, the capacities and the destiny of your own soul, realizing
the relations which connect this transient life
with the infinite hereafter, remembering the fact
of your apostasy and alienation from God, and
trusting in the offered grace of the gospel-begun with earnest and resolute purpose to exercise yourself to godliness? Are you daily practicing this self-discipline, watchfully, diligently,
and in the believing spirit of dependence on
Christ?
If you have not yet begun, why should you
not begin to-day?




CHAPTER II.
W'HEN TO BEGIN.




" Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom
of God." John iii. 3.
"Murmur not among yourselves.    No man can come to
me, except the Father who hath sent me draw him.
Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the
Father, cometh to me." John vi. 43, 45.
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature."  2 Cor.
v. 17.
" This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 1
Tim. i. 3.
" The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared
to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who
gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."
Tit. ii. 11-14.
"Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the fear of God." 2 Cor. vii. 1.  ^




CHAPTER II.
WHEN TO BEGIN.
A common excuse. Mistakes about conversion. The mistake of thinking that you must make some preparation. The
mistake of thinking that you must not trust in Christ till you
feel that you have been converted. The mistake of thinking
that after conversion every thing will be easy. How the Christian life really begins. Will you make this beginning now?
IT has been shown that the gospel invites you
to a life of moral and spiritual self-discipline in
preparation for the life to come. But you, perhaps, excuse yourself by saying that a Christian
life must begin with being born again. You tell
me, perhaps, that all counsels and persuasions in
reference to a Christian life are properly addressed
to the converted; and that you, inasmuch as you
have had no experience of the great change in
which a Christian life begins, have no present
concern in the subject which I am commending
to your attention.
3




34         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
Let us, then, look this difficulty fairly in the
face, and see what becomes of your excuse. I
would by no means intimate that there is no difficulty in your way, nor that your conversion
from a thoughtless and selfish life to a life of
humble and earnest preparation for eternity is
dependent simply on your sovereign volition. I
would by hno means lessen your sense of your dependence on God for those merciful influences of
his, under which so great a change in you must
be effected. But may it not be that you have
taken up some erroneous conception of what that
change is which the Scriptures call a being born
again? May it not be, that if you will deliberately and fairly reconsider what the gospel requires of you, and what it offers you, and will
cease to resist the influences which at this moment are working within you and moving you to
a decision, you will see and feel the fallacy of
your excuse?  It may help you to understand
yourself, and the nature and extent of your responsibility for your own well-being, if I succeed
in explaining to you some of the common mistakes about conversion. Let us inquire a little




WHEN TO BEGIN.             35
into your theory about the beginning of a Christian life.
Perhaps you have fallen into the habit of supposing that your conversion to Christ, and your
privilege of appropriating as your own the offers
and promises which are set before you in his
name, must be the result of some preparatory
work on your part. I shall not argue with you
on this point. What more need I say than that
such a habit of mind contradicts and excludes the
first right conception of the gospel?  Why do
you need Christ? Your need is that without
him you are helpless. The simplest and most
comprehensive statement of the gospel is that
"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." If you were now just what Saul of Tarsus was when he was on his way from Jerusalem
to Damascus, the first thing for you to do, at the
moment of coming to yourself, would be - not
a preparation for conversion, but conversion itself- not a getting yourself ready for coming to
Christ, but an actual turning to Christ, with that
question of a submissive and confiding soul,
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"   If




36         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
you were at this hour the guiltiest of men in the
sight of God, the first thing for you to do would
be not to establish a new character as a preparation for trusting in Christ, but to trust in Christ
in order to your becoming a new creature. Remember what the true idea of the gospel is. It
is God's way of saving men from their sins. It
is God's revealed method of turning men to himself, and of training them in this world for immortal activity and blessedness in the world to
come.
Just here another mistake sometimes occurs to
hinder the beginning of the Christian life. Perhaps you are in the habit of thinking that the
consciousness of a great change wrought within
you by the power of God must precede your act
of trusting in Christ. Some such theory of conversion is sometimes deduced, indistinctly, or
even unconsciously, from the necessity of being
born again.  The promises and hopes of the
gospel, it is said, are only for those who have
been born again, and not for the unregenerate
or unconverted. " The work of saving me from
my sins," it is said, "is God's work and not




WHEN TO —BEGIN.           37
mine; how, then, am I to begin unless I am first
assured that God has begun his saving work within me, -how can I claim and appropriate the
Christian hope of emancipation from sin, and of
victory over it, - how can I enter upon the Christian life of self-discipline for immortal holiness, -
unless I am conscious in some way that God has
called me, and that I am born again? "
The answer to all this is that you are mistaken
in your theory of how God works in renewing
and saving men.  If you will suffer yourself to
be taught by the Holy Scriptures, you will find
that they give no support to such a theory.
Where or how do the Scriptures teach that you
must be born again before you accept the pardon and the grace which God is offering you?
They teach you, indeed, that "if any man be
in Christ he is a new creature;" but they do
not teach that any ilan becomes a new creature
while he is out of Christ, —still less, that his
being in Christ is because he became a new
creature while he was yet out of Christ. They
teach, indeed, that "' except a man be born again,
he can not see the kingdom of God; "-but they




38         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
do not teach that any man is born again, or can
be, before he accepts the gospel as his hope, and
trusts in Christ as the power that is to save him,
-still less that he must have the consciousness
that he is born again before he can believe.in
the Saviour of sinners. Christ, indeed, teaches
you, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him;" but he
does not teach you that the Father is not at
this moment drawing you, nor that you must
wait for any new consciousness before you accept the hopes and promises which the gospel
offers. On the contrary, the Scriptures are full
of a very opposite sort of doctrine, inviting you
and all men to be saved; warning you against
the peril of neglecting so great salvation; and
urging you to work out your salvation, for the
reason that it is God who is working in you to
will to do.
This error, in regard to the beginning of the
Christian life, is closely related to another. Perhaps your theory supposes not only that the
consciousness of a great change wrought within
you by the power of God must go before, in



WHEN TO BEGIN.             89
stead of following, your personal confidence in
Christ as a Saviour for you, but also that the
-change which you are waiting for will take away
the necessity of further effort and conflict in the
Christian life. Perhaps the theory which you
have indistinctly and unthinkingly adopted, concerning the work of God in drawing you to
Christ and making you a new creature, implies
that, after you have ohce passed through that
change, your progress in the new life will be,
not by thoughtful and resolute diligence,not by struggles against temptation and the force
of old habits, -not by intelligent aspiration and
strenuous endeavor, - but by mere propensity,
like the propensity to selfishness and unbelief
to which you have heretofore yielded the dominion over your soul. I apprehend that few mistakes in regard to the change at the beginning
of a Christian life are more common than this
among those who, having been taught in some
form of sound words the great and true doctrine
of regeneration and sanctification by the grace
of God, have accepted that doctrine in a merely traditionary way, instead of deriving it di



40         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
rectly from the Scriptures. They find that now
they are worldly, selfish, and thoughtless, without effort, - that they are carried along by mere
propensity, - that they are borne as it were
upon a mighty current; and they heedlessly
presume that, if ever they are born again, the
current will be reversed, as in a change of tide,
- the propensity will incline the other way, as
the inclination of the scale-beam  changes with
the shifting of the weights, - and that a life of
faith and prayer and holy love will be as easy
as a worldly life now is.  Surely I need not
remind any thoughtful soul how contrary all this
is to the whole course of God's teaching in his
recorded word. You know well enough, if you
will remember what you know, that the beginning of a Christian life, - the change which
takes place in conversion when God draws the.soul to Christ, —the change which takes place
when the man is born again and becomes a
citizen in the kingdom of God,- is not after
such a fashion. - The being born again,- the
coming to Christ, —the conversion of the soul
to God, - the becoming a new creature, - the




WHEN TO BEGIN.              41
great transition from death in trespasses and sins
to a new and spiritual life,-is the beginning
of a life-long conflict with inward propensities,
as well as with outward temptations.
Think, then, what that life is to which the
gospel invites you, and you will have a clearer
knowledge of what the beginning of that life
must be. All the words and images by which
the greatness of that change is represented to
you, or by which God's mercy in bringing that
change to pass is commended to your humble
and grateful adoration, will become alike intelligible and impressive, when you remember distinctly what sort of a life it is to which tlh
gospel calls you.  Just remember that the gospel calls you to a life of humble, praying, and
constant self-discipline, under the guidance of
God's word and with his promised help, preparing you for immortal well-doing and wellbeing in the life to come; and you will hardly
fail to see what the beginning of such a life
must be.   Remember'that such a life must
needs be a life of free obedience to the will of
God, and of earnest self-denial for the sake of




42         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
pleasing him,- a life of conflict with temptation
and of resolute watchfulness, - a life of trusting
dependence on Christ and of habitual looking
for help in time of need,-a life of practical
love to God testified by the doing of his will,
and of practical love to men testified by doing
good, -a life, therefore, of progress by God's
blessing on your diligence in the face of obstacles and under the consciousness of infirmity.
Can you not see, with the offers and promises
of the gospel before you, what you are to do,
and what is wanting in your case to the commencement of such a life?
Just this is wanting in your case, - not some
preparation for beginning such a life, but simply a beginning, —not some preparation   that
shall make it possible for you to lay hold on
the hope set before you, or that shall make it
right for you to do so, but simply that you accept the mercy and help which God offers you.
That new life to which Christ calls you begins
with believing that he calls you.  It begins
with a practical confidence in that way of being saved which the gospel opens before you.




WHEN TO BEGIN. -           43
It begins with simply trusting in that "faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,"-just such sinners as you are.   It begins, therefore, with what we call coming to
Christ,-that is, with the act of accepting him,
leaning upon him, trusting in him that he is
and will be all that the gospel testifies concerning him. Christ has come to you, and is waiting before you, as a Saviour from sin by expiation and free forgiveness. You can do nothing
for yourself, nor can he do any thing more for
you, unless you trust in him. He has come to
you, and is waiting before you as a teacher and
guide; and his promise is that he will be with
you always in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Do you not see, then, what it is to begin that
life to which the gospel is inviting you?  Do
you not see that, while you wait for some preparation, which you mistakenly call conversion,or which you hope to achieve by your own endeavors,-while you hesitate about committing
yourself, just as you are, to the divine offer of
salvation, just as you find that offer in the gospel,- you are really "neglecting the great sal



44         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
vation," and are resisting the Holy Spirit?  Do
you not see that there is, and can be, no other
way for you to begin than by trusting God's
" exceeding great and precious promises " of forgiveness, of help in the conflict with sin, and
of final victory and deliverance? Such a beginning of the Christian life is conversion. This
is what we mean when we talk of coming to
Christ, and this is what Christ himself means
when he bids you come to him. He who thus
comes to Christ is thenceforth "in Christ," and
is, therefore, "a new creature."  The question
is before you, whether you will commit yourself frankly to the grace of God in Christ, and
in that confidence undertake, with full purpose
of heart, the sublime work of self-discipline for
an immortal life of blessedness in the love and
service of God.
You begin when you "flee for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before you." You begin when your heart yields to the force of that
argument: "Having therefore these promises,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness, in the fear
of the Lord."




WHEN TO BEGIN.            45
Have you made that beginning? If you have
not, will you begin to-day?  Come, then, for
there is no real hinderance. Come, without waiting. Now let the blessed covenant which God
in Christ offers to make with you be established
for ever. You are alone with God; kneel before him, and say, not with your lips only, but
with all your heart,"God be merciful to me a sinner! O God,
most holy, thou hast been merciful to me.
Thou hast met me a great way off, and hast
called me to return and be at peace with thee.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed on me, that I should be numbered
with the sons of God!  Lord, I believe; help
thou mine unbelief!  Needy and guilty as I
am, I come to thy mercy-seat, that I may take
the offered mercy, and may find grace to help
in time of need. I come to lay hold on the
hope set before me. O God, who art in Christ,
reconciling the world to thyself, I come to
thee! 0 Lamb of God that takest away the
sin of the world, be thou in me the hope of




46         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
glory! To whom can I go but to thee, for thou
only hast the words of eternal life. Let me sit
at thy feet, henceforth, receiving and obeying
all thy words, and trusting in thy power to
save. Henceforth be my life a continued conflict with my own infirmities, with the temptations that surround me, with the evil that dwells
within me.   O  God, that forgivest my sins,
give me the victory! Let it be my experience,
as it is now my humble confidence, that I can
do all things through Christ who strengtheneth
me! Thou who art not willing that any should
perish, and who givest the Holy Spirit to them
that ask thee, here am I in my unworthiness
and helplessness; I present myself, a living
sacrifice to thee.  Trusting in thy offers and
promises, I covenant with thee that I will be
no more'conformed to this world, and that I
will give all diligence to be transformed by the
renewing of my mind, and so to prove in my
experience what is thy good and perfect and
acceptable will that leads me to repentance.
Work thou in me of thy good pleasure, while
I work out my salvation with fear and trembling!"




CHAPTER III.
INTEGRITY AND AMIABLENESS AS RELATED
TO A RELIGIOUS LIFE.




"Provide things honest in the sight of all men." Rom.
xii. 17.
"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever 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. iv. 8.




CHAPTER III.
INTEGRITY AND AMIABLENESS AS RELATED TO A
RELIGIOUS LIFE.
Religion without goodness. A truly Christian man is the
better for his religion, - more worthy of love and confidence in
all the relations of society. The culture of the secular virtues
is one part of the Christian self-culture. How these virtues are
to be cultivated. Difference in this respect between the believer in Christ and the unbeliever.
A RELIGIOUS life is sometimes supposed,
strangely enough, to be quite reconcilable with
a most disagreeable deficiency of those social and
secular virtues which may exist without the inspiration of Christian faith.   Doubtless those men
who think that mere good-nature, or the graceful
play and impulse of natural affections, or the
merely secular morality which makes an agreeable
neighbor and a wholesome member of society, is
an all-sufficient substitute for religion- fall into a
fatal error.  But, on the other hand, those who
4




50         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
make religion an all-sufficient substitute for the
many estimable and amiable qualities of which an
unregenerate man is capable, and who, therefore,
undertake to be religious men without undertaking to be good men, are equalry mistaken. There
is no religious delusion more gross than that of men
who expect to be saved by a religiousness which
cares nothing for the things which are " honest,"
estimable, or becoming —" in the sight of all
men."
No reader of the Scriptures can fail to observe
how often the apostles, in their letters to " saints
and faithful brethren in Christ Jesus," urge them
to cultivate those ordinary human virtues which
the moral sense of all men honors, and of which
there may be beautiful examples among men who
know nothing of Christ, or who, having heard of
Christ, do not believe in him. The thing to be
observed is not that amenity of temper and of manners, or an irreproachable morality in social and
civil relations, is represented as a necessary preliminary to the reconciliation of the soul with God;
but that the believer in Christ, putting on Christ's
likeness, and exercising himself unto godliness, can




INTEGRITY AND AMIABLENESS.       51
not neglectthese ordinary human virtues. Any
man, however unamiable in his natural temper,
and however great his need of moral reformation
in order to his being loved or respected among
men, may undertake to follow Christ in the confiding hope that, by the grace of God, he shall attain
a perfect salvation; and his undertaking thus to
follow Christ is just what is meant by believing in
Christ. But if he does thus undertake, he commits himself, intelligently and with all his heart, to
become " a new creature " - new in respect to
whatsoever things are "beautiful in the sight ofall
men,"- new in respect to whatsoever things in
human conduct are true or honest or just or pure
or lovely or of good report,- as well as in respect
to spiritual exercises and experiences.
Assuming, then, that you to whom I am speaking
from this page have undertaken, or are in the act
of undertaking thus to follow Christ, I have some
things to say about this particular side or aspect
of the Christian life. What I say will have no
other purpose than to help you in a life of faith
and of devout and spiritual self-discipline.
First, then, let this be distinctly understood.




52         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
The interior life of the man who follows Christ
must have, for one of its manifestations, that character of integrity and amiableness in social and civil
relations which the common moral sense of men
instinctively honors. A naturally amiable temper,
a good education, and the power of merely secular
motives, may' indeed go far towards forming such
a character; and often a man fortunately constituted by nature, brought up under salutary restraints and influences, and accustomed to cherish
every honorable and amiable impulse, may be
greatly beloved and honored without any inward
experience of the gospel as a renewing power.
But if religion - that is, the power of the gospel
applied by the Holy Spirit to renew the heart in
holiness -does not find the man already formed
to such a character, it must reform him,- and it
will. He in whom the religion which he professes
to have experienced does not thus manifest itself,
- he in whom the Spirit of grace and holiness
does not actually produce these ordinary human
virtues, -lacks an essential part of the character
which belongs to a renewed and religious man.
Whatever else he may have, this deficiency vitiates




INTEGRITY AND AMIABLENESS.       53
his pretensions and forbids his hopes.  He in
whose outward life there is not, in consequence
of his religious experience, more of rwhatsoever
things are true, —that is, who is not manifestly
more to be trusted and depended on in every
relation, -is a deceiver.  He in whose outward life there is not, in consequence of his
following Christ, more of whatsoever things are
serious and dignified,-that is, who is not more
sure to rise above what is trifling and low, - is a
deceiver. He in whose outward life there is not,
in consequence of his reconciliation to God, more
of whatsoever things are just,- that is who is not
more inflexibly upright in his intercourse with men,
- is a deceiver. He in whose life there is not, in
consequence of his being born again, more of whatsoever things are pure, - that is, whose words and
actions do not indicate a growing purity of thought
and feeling, - is a deceiver. He whose life does
not exhibit, in consequence of the work of the
Holy Spirit upon, his soul, more of whatsoever
things are lovely,- that is, who is not more
amiable, more gentle, more patient, more kind, or
who has not more of that which wins and fixes the




54         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
affectionate regard of those with whom he has to
do, - is a deceiver. He in whose life there is not,
in consequWce of his emancipation from bondage
to sin, more of whatsoever things are of good report, - that is whose outward life does not exhibit,
on the whole, more of those qualities which command the approving testimony of men's moral
sense, -is a deceiver.  All this is too plain to
need any argument.
But we may take a higher and wider view of
the connection between the interior life of Christian faith and the cultivation of these ordinary
human virtues. The culture of the secular and
social virtues, -the habitual study to acquire those
moral qualities which are "beautiful in the sight
of all men," and to acquire them, not for the sake
of the secular advantages which attend them, but
for their own sake, -is no unimportant part of
the soul's self-discipline for immortality. A truly
Christian life —a life inspired and guided by the
knowledge of Christ-is the life of a redeemed
soul educating and training itself for God's service
here, and for that boundless existence to which it
is destined hereafter. Regarding religion in this




INTEGRITY AND AMIABLENESS.       55
light, we may say that the conscientious cultivation of these.moral qualities and habits, being a
part of religion, is a part of the. soul's self-discipline
for immortality.
It is not to be'assumed that these qualities and
habits, because they are in some sense a natural
outgrowth of the new life within, will therefore
come spontaneously and of course. A voluntary
diligence,- a conscientious watchfulness of effort,
-is necessary to the formation of a character that
shall exhibit and illustrate all that is true and
dignified and just and pure and lovely and of
good report.  "If there be any virtue; and if
there be any praise, think on these things." If
virtue itself is any thing more than an empty
name,-if the distinction between that which the
moral sense approves and praises and that which
it condemns and abhors is any thing more than a
dream,-" think on these things."   Think on
them,-that is, more accurately, hold them  in
estimation; reckon them at their real worth. In
other words, seek for these traits of character;
make them your study and pursuit; cultivate them
as of inestimable value. If you would be fully




56         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
qualified for the service of God in this life, —if
you would be prepared for that higher career of
service to which he calls you in the life to come,
-cultivate these virtues.
But you ask, perhaps, what connection is there
between the culture of these secular virtues, and
of these affections that have their sphere and being
only in the present life, and the discipline of my
soul for the higher career of its immortality? So
have I known a thoughtless boy refusing to believe that the discipline and instruction of the
school had any connection with his being prepared
for the career which he was destined to run in
the years of his manhood. The Author of our
immortal nature has placed us here for a while,
in his own wisdom, and in the prosecution of the
ends for which he gave us' being; and here, in
this brief span of life, we must be educated for
an immortal career of holiness, or else we must
go to our eternity, at the end, unfitted, and with
an account to give of life misspent and blessed
opportunities and privileges abused. Of the life
to come we know little beyond the fact that it
is, and that its course, whether of endless and joy



INTEGRITY AND AMIABLENESS.        57
ful advancement in purity, love, and blessedness,
or of endless darkness and despair, is to be determined by the results of this preparatory stage of
being. But of this present life, we know that, in
one way or another, all the elements and conditions of it are ordered and combined by infinite
wisdom, with reference to that life to come. We
know that, however duty here may differ in its.details from duty hereafter, these duties here,all of them,- the duties which grow out of relations soon to be dissolved,-the duties which have
respect to interests transient in their nature,are duties not less really than the duties which
have respect immediately and exclusively to God,
and which grow directly out of our relations to
him; and that, if performed as duties, they may
be the best of all methods for disciplining the
soul, and training it into fitness for the performance of higher, yet analogous and kindred duties,
in eternity.  For example; the relation of property or possession may not exist hereafter in any
form in which we can now conceive of it; but
how easy is it to understand that the duties growing out of this relation here, disciplining the soul to




58         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
justice, to self-denial, to industry, to beneficence,
may be essential as a preparatory discipline for the
exercise of the same generic virtues in duties and
relations now unknown and unconceived.  For
another example; the daily household duties that
press upon us, in the homely and humble form
of care and toil for bodily supports and comforts,the father and mother feeding the children, clothing them, guarding them from danger, ministering
to them in sickness,- may be quite unknown
hereafter. We may even imagine that, among the
mejnbers of one family on earth, there will be in
eternity no mutual dependence, no relation of
peculiar duties and affections; but who can not see
that, even in such a case, the love, the patience,
the gentleness, the confidence, and the gratitude,
which are learned, or ought to be learned in the
family, and in the performance of the humblest
family labor, may be of incalculable importance as
a part of the soul's education for the exercise of
the same virtues in relations of which we have
now no conception, but to which our approaching
change will introduce us.
Remember, then, that the devout and habitual




INTEGRITY AND AMIABLENESS.        59
culture of all these secular virtues- domestic,
social, and civil-is essential to the soul's selfdiscipline for the immortal life to come.
Here we come to a view still more practical.
How is such a character to be formed and cultivated? How may I promote in myself the growti
of whatever in human affection and conduct is
true, and whatever is noble, and whatever is just,
and whatever is pure, and whatever is amiable
and attractive, and whatever is of good report?
The answer to this question divides itself into two
parts, neither of which is complete by itself.
First, the character in question may be cultivated by cultivating the constitutional sensibilities
on which it depends. These sensibilities are natural to all men, not indeed in the same degree,
but in various degrees; and in all men they may
be cultivated, or they may be suppressed. There
is in all men, for example, a natural sensibility to
whatsoever things are true,- a sensibility which
is the foundation of the virtue of mutual fidelity
among men. There is a sensibility in your nature, prompting you to fulfill your engagements.
Whatever you know that your dependents, your




60         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
friends, your fellow-men in whatever relation,
may reasonably expect of you, —that the sensibility I speak of prompts you to do. The sensibility may be stronger in you, naturally, than. it is in
some men; it may be weaker than it is in some
other men; but, in one degree or another, it is an
element of your constitution, and of the constitution of every human-being.  This sensibility may
be cultivated and developed, till it shall move as
with the precision and force of an instinct; and,
on the other hand, it may be resisted; kept under,
and suppressed, till you shall become almost unconscious of it. In like manner, (to take another
example,) you are so constituted by the Author
of your nature that you feel yourself moved -
not irresistibly impelled, but moved - to whatsoever things are amiable, kind, and winning. All
men have, naturally, the same feeling, not in the
same degree, but in various degrees, according to
the individual peculiarities with which they are
born. In you, in all men, this sensibility may be
cultivated and increased, or may be stifled and
suppressed.
These sensibilities are suppressed, subdued, and




INTEGRITY AND AMIABLENESS.       61
in a measure extinguished, by being resisted and
counteracted. No fact in the natural history of
the human mind is more familiarly known than
this. Every natural sensibility may be gradually
extinguished by resistance and by disuse. The
robber, at first, struggled against his inborn sense
of justice to bring himself to the crime which he
meditated; but, by familiarity with crime, that
better sensibility, which at first revolted at the
thought of plundering his neighbor, grows faint
and ineffective. So each of the human sensibilities related to these secular virtues may be deadened by habitual suppression, or by the habitual
indulgence of antagonist passions. You may resist the impulse which moves you to whatsoever
things are true; and, by the resistance, the spring
from which that impulse comes is weakened. You
may refuse to act in accordance with the impulse
which moves you to act in accordance with whatsoever things are honorable, and at each refusal
that impulse loses somewhat of its power. You
may hold back from whatsoever things are demanded by an ingenuous sense of justice, or from
whatsoever things are pure, or lovely, or of good




62         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
report; and all those things will become, gradually yet infallibly, more and more alien to your
nature; your soul will have less and less affinity
for such things. Just so, on the other hand,
these impulses, by yielding to them and bringing
to their aid the power of habit, may be made
continually more effectual.  Let your thoughts
be accustomed to observe, and your will to honor
with its free homage, the beauty of whatsoever
things are true, or honest, or just, or lovely,
or of good report; and the sensibilities which
recognize these things and move you to pursue
them will become more vivid, more distinct, more
prompt and powerful in their impulse on the
soul. Think on these things. Cultivate the sense
of their worth and their beauty. Let the habits
of your mind be formed to obey these sensibilities; be careful to allow in yourself nothing that
is unamiable, ungenerous, or mean, and you will
find that you are training yourself to do, as if by
an unconscious instinct, whatsoever things are
true, or dignified, or just, or pure, or lovely, or
of good report.
But I do not forget that I am dealing with you




INTEGRITY AND AMIABLENESS.        63
to help you in the beginning and progress of a
religious life. I say then, secondly, that the secular and social virtues which I am now commending to your attention can not be cultivated in their
due relation to the Christian life and spirit, unless
the natural sensibilities which prompt them are
associated with higher affections.  These sensibilities are a constituent part of that curiouslywrought and complicated nature which was created in the image of God. They are a portion
of that nature which was designed to attain its
highest dignity and blessedness in the conscious service of God, and in a willing conformity to him.
These sensibilities, therefore, can have their best
culture and their fairest and thriftiest growth only
when they have their life in a natural and healthy
connection with nobler principles. If you would
cultivate in your own conduct, amid the temptations of this world, whatsoever things are true, you
must learn to adore, to fear, to love in filial confidence, the God of truth. If you would exhibit
in your own character and life whatsoever things
are worthy of reverent regard, you must learn to
walk with God by faith, and to live in the habit




64         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
of a high and blessed intercourse with him. If
you would cultivate in your soul the sense and
love of justice, you must find your ideal of justice
in God. If you would wear the image of whatsoever is pure or lovely or of good report, you
must sit at the feet of Jesus, and be led by him
to the knowledge of infinite purity and infinite
love.
You see what difference there is in this respect
between the man who has learned to trust in
Christ, as a Saviour from sin, and the man, however amiable or generous, who is living without
God in the world. The latter is just what his
constitutional impulses and his early education
have made him, and he has no expectation of
becoming better than lie is. The other confesses
to himself that he is not what he ought to be;
he asks to understand his errors; he prays to be
delivered even from the faults of which he is unconscious; he is watchful against his own infirmities; and, depending on the offers and promises
of God in the gospel, he- is devoutly aspiring to
become like Christ, and so to be conformed to the
will and image of God. In his habitual thought,




INTEGRITY AND AMIABLENESS.       65
all secular and social duties, —all the duties of
industry and fidelity, of kindness and courtesy, of
justice and of mercy,-are hallowed and elevated
by their relation to God, to his own emancipation
from sin, and to eternity. By all the discipline
of duty in this life,- by all the affections and responsibilities that connect him with human society,
— the care of a redeeming God is training him,
and he, entering into God's plan, is training himself for an immortal life of duty and of love.
Are you thus training your soul for immortality?
5








CHAPTER IV.
FAITH AND MANLINESS.




"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do, of
his good pleasure." Phil. iv. 12, 13.
" Building up yourselves on your most holy faith." Jude,
20.
"According as his divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the
knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue,
whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be made partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust; and, beside this, giving all diligence,
add to your faith virtue." 2 Pet. i. 3-5.




CHAPTER IV.
FAITH AND MANLINESS.
Why the gospel is given to you. Encouragements to diligence in self-discipline. Faith without virtue, -not necessarily licentious, - may be intellectual, -may be sentimental and
aesthetic. Virtue added to faith. How?
IF you are ready to accept that salvation which
is offered to you in the name of Christ, - if you
are ready to ask, not merely, What shall I do to
be saved from the fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation? -but also, What
shall I do to be saved from sin?-it will be
easy to lead you, by God's help, in the right
way.   Your desire is to attain a truly and thoroughly Christian character; and you have made
a covenant with yourself and with God that
you will use all diligence to that end. What I
propose, therefore, is not to argue with you, nor
to expostulate, nor to ply you with exciting appeals to sensibility, but to help you by showing




70          CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
you what it is which constitutes a truly and
thoroughly Christian character, and by what
means and endeavors you may attain to it.
Sometimes in the Scriptures the entire Christian character is summed up in a single word
or phrase, - such as faith, or love, or the knowledge of God, or obedience to the truth. In that
mode of speech, it seems to be assumed that any
one trait of holiness must of course involve and
imply every other.  In other passages, we have
a catalogue of Christian graces, "fruits of the
Spirit," the elements of character, which, in their
union, are Christian holiness, and which are to
be severally cultivated by him  who would be
saved through   Christ.  These two modes of
speaking are by no means inconsistent with each
other. All the Christian graces may grow naturally from one stock, and the existence of any
one of them, in reality and simplicity, may involve the existence, in some degree, of all the
rest; and yet each of these graces may need,
in order to its growth and its full manifestation
in the life, a diligent cultivation on the part of
the renewed and struggling soul.




FAITH AND MANLINESS.          71
I have already reminded you, more than once,
of the cardinal fact that the gospel is given to
you for the express purpose of calling you and
helping you to be saved. That fact is the reason why your salvation, from first to last, depends on your believing the gospel.  Your believing the gospel, in the sense of accepting it
and trusting in it, implies that you are to avail
yourself of its offers. No man can really accept the gospel and avail himself of it as a way
of salvation from  sin, who does not undertake
to follow Christ in newness of life.  His believing the gospel implies, of course, that he is
to build up himself on his most holy faith; and
that he is to add to his faith virtue, or a manly
well-doing.
All that God has done to save you, -first by
providing and proclaiming a free forgiveness
through Christ, and then by the promise and
the gift of the Holy Spirit,- encourages you and
summons you to diligence that you may make
your calling and election sure.  One apostle
says, "Work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling, for it is God who worketh in




72         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
you." Another expands the same thought into
particulars.  First, the divine power has enriched us with all things necessary to spiritual
life, by giving us the knowledge of a Saviour.
Secondly, Chlist calls us, by bringing life and
immortality to light, - by setting before us glory
and virtue as one and inseparable.   Thirdly,
there are given to us exceeding great and precious promises, that by them, we, fleeing from
the corruption that is in the world, may become
partakers of a divine nature.  Look at these
several considerations, and think how they urge
you to work out your own salvation in a diligent self-discipline.
Whatever pertains to life and godliness,whatever is necessary to your beginning and
pursuing such a life,-that God has given you,
by giving you a knowledge of Christ. He who
knows Christ, knows that there is pardon for
sinners;- that a reconciliation and perpetual
friendship between his own soul and the holy
God is a practicable thing;- that his guilt, and
all the infirmity and perverseness of which he
is conscious, need not hinder him from coming




FAITH AND MANLINESS.         73
to God in a penitent submission, nor from being owned of God as a forgiven and beloved
child.
Christ calls you, by the glory and virtue which
he sets before you. Think who calls you. He
who is himself "the brightness of the Father's
glory."  He who, in your nature, compassed
about with human temptations like as you are,
has magnified and honored the law of perfect
holiness, and who thus shows you in his own
person all true'glory and virtue. He calls you,
not only by his word of invitation, but by his
example and by his mediation. He calls you to a
glory like his own,  a glory not factitious nor
dependent on circumstances, not in any way external to yourself, but the glory of virtue or true
manliness, -a glory which is simply the realization of the dignity and blessedness for which your
spirit, with its immortal powers of thought, affection, and activity, was created, - a glory
which is in truth the glory of God himself shining forth from within you. Under such a call,
— when Christ the Redeemer calls you, by setting before you the hope of immortal glory and




74         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
virtue, -how urgently does the deep sense of
what you are and of what you may become
move you to give yourself at once to the diligent training of yourself in holiness.
There are given to you exceeding great and
precious promises. What are they? The promise of the Holy Spirit, the inward teacher, comforter, and guide of those who trust in Christ.
The promise from the ascending Saviour, " Lo, I
am with you always!"    The promise from the
bosom of Almighty love, " My grace shall be sufficient for thee;" "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."  The promise, "No good thing will
be withheld from them that walk uprightly."
Such promises are given to you, that by them,
overcoming the temptations that address themselves to so many inferior sensibilities, you may
escape the corruption that is in the world through
lust, and may be transformed into the likeness of
God's own purity and love. Having, therefore,
these promises, how cogent is the inference,"Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
God."




FAITH AND MANLINESS.          75
You believe, then, the "faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners." Trusting in-that
testimony and in the exceeding great and precious
promises which it includes, you desire to build up
yourself on that most holy faith. The question is,
how you are to build, - what you are to do in the
process of working out your salvation. You are
resolved and ready to use all diligence that you
may make your calling and election sure; and the
question is, how you are to do it? You tell me
that you believe the gospel-that you are not
hindered by doubts on the question whether God
is in Christ reconciling the world to himself; but
you ask, "What am I to do?"  Just here I meet
you, in Christ's name, with an answer which can
not be disputed:" ADD TO YOUR FAITH VIRTUE."
Such a precept implies that, in some sense, there
may be faith without virtue; or, at least, that faith
may be contemplated as disjoined from virtue, even
when it is in some sense Christian faith. What is
that faith to which virtue is not supplied?




76         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
It is not, necessarily, a licentious religion like
that antinomianism, theoretical and practical,
which sometimes appears in the garb of zeal for
the gospel of salvation by grace alone. It may
be something more than that gross caricature of
religion which satisfies itself'with its own dogmas,
and despises the restraints of morality. Virtue,
as the word is now currently used, is. often regarded
as a merely negative quality, - an exemption from
certain outward vices, particularly fraud and impurity. The word, however, in its ancient and
proper meaning, implies much more than this; it
means something positive; it means strength,
manliness, worth. In its primitive sense, the word
virtue (and also the Greek word thus translated)
includes the idea of valor, or courage and strength
for war, - the quality most appreciated and honored in that state of society in which war is the
chief test of manhood. Faith, then, though it happens to coexist with outward decency and negative
morality, may yet be faith without virtue. Faith
without virtue, in the true sense of words, is faith
without real manliness, —faith which imparts no
positive strength or worth to the soul.




FAITH AND MANLINESS.            77
Christian faith, in its largest sense, and indeed
in every sense, is the opposite of infidelity, or of
the unbelief which rejects Christ and the Word of
God. Faith, in whatever sense, is the belief of
Christian truth. Bearing this in mind, you may
see more distinctly what faith is when disjoined
from its proper relation to virtue.
There may be a merely intellectual state of
mind, which, under the force of tradition or authority, or in view of historical or other arguments,
recognizes the gospel of Christ as from God, and
recognizes the Scriptures as a true record of God's
revelations to men, and recognizes certain propositions as revealed and recorded in the Scriptures.
Undoubtedly, this is faith or belief, so far as it goes.
So far, it is the same thing with the faith of the
humblest, most penitent, and most devoted believer. But if it goes no farther, it is faith without virtue, - it is dead; it is not faith in that higher
and more complex sense in which the gospel tells
us, " He that believeth shall be saved;" it is not
faith in that less analytic and more Christian use
of the word in which " faith is the substance of
things hoped for, and the. evidence of things not




78         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
seen." The faith which is only orthodox, however
logical, however intelligent and exact, is faith without virtue.
But faith without virtue may be something more
than this. There may be a habit of mind, not
simply intellectual but sentimental, which is only
another style of the faith to which virtue has not
been added. In the intellectual apprehension of
God,- the eternal source of being, the wise and
beneficent Creator, - the ever-present, sustaining,
and guiding energy of the universe,- the ruler
and judge of his responsible creatures in all the
worlds of his infinite empire, —in the mere idea
of God as the Bible reveals him to our faculty of
knowledge, -there is something which kindles the
natural sensibilities of wonder and awe, and
wakens even a sluggish soul to emotion.. In the
idea of eternity, and especially in the thought of
a personal immortality, there is something which
dilates the mind with the sense of grandeur, and
thrills it with the feeling of an infinite need. In
the thought of responsibility and of eternal retributions, there is something which compels the soul
to tremble. So in the history and character of




FAITH AND MANLINESS.            79
Jesus Christ, there is something which speaks to
the tenderest and the sublimest sensibilities of
every human being. No man can intelligently
trace the story of redemption,- from the mangercradle at Bethlehem to the cross and the tomb,
and thence to the ascension from the Mount of
Olives,- and not feel, to some extent, the power of
it on his human sensibilities.  All this awakened
sensibility may be added to the intellectual recognition of Christianity as historically and doctrinally true, while yet the virtue of which we are
speaking is absent. This, so far as it goes, is faith.
So far as it goes, it is identical with the faith of
the humblest and holiest mind. But all this, if it
stops here, exhausting itself in mere feeling, however intense or however refined, is not faith, in
that more complex sense in which faith accompanies salvation. Even at this point, though the
feeling be ever so deep and strong, and ever so
delightful, the mind's reception of the truth is faith
lonly in that analytic sense in which faith is dead.
The faith of mere sentiment and emotion, as really
as the faith of mere logic and doctrine, is faith
without virtue, belief without true manliness.




80         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
You are to remember, then, that faith is complete, and is really itself, only when it stands in
its proper relation to virtue; that is, when it lives
in a vital connection with true worth, with active
strength, with manliness of soul. In other words,
faith is an unfinished and fragmentary, and therefore an unnatural thing, unless to faith is added
virtue. But how is it that, when virtue is added
to faith, the faith is completed and becomes itself?
How is it that faith is developed into virtue?
What is the vital relation of the one to the other?
I answer, faith begins to be unfolded into virtue,
when the intellectual reception of the gospel as
true, with the naturally attendant feeling, is accompanied by the appropriate action of the moral
powers. There may be, in some sense, just conceptions or intellectual views of things not seen;
and there may be emotions of wonder and awe, of
fear, of desire, of hope, and even of delight, while
yet there is no sovereignty of right principle and
purpose within the soul, no force of restraining and
controlling conscience, no action of the moral
powers in conformity with truth and obligation.
But when these sensibilities, fed by the contempla



FAITH AND MANLINESS.          61
tion of the truth, serve to quicken and invigorate
the conscience, and when, instead of terminating
in mere emotion, they terminate in right action,
swaying the will and all the moral and responsible
nature to those inclinations and affections, and to
those aims and efforts in life, which constitute true
manhood, - when thus all that the gospel reveals
of majesty and glory, of terror and mercy, of pity
and of love, begins to be the spring of action
in the soul, -then to faith is added something
of virtue, and faith begins to show itself in its
completeness, - not dead but living, - a vital force.
Then it is, and not till then, that faith begins to
" work by love," and to take hold upon eternal
life.
The progress of faith, as it is unfolded into
virtue, may be delineated by tracing the progressive
subjugation of the soul in all its habits to the power
of conscience and to the will of God. When the
soul is not only impelled to individual acts of manliness by overmastering appeals, but is formed to
habits of manliness by the steady influence of eternal things upon the thoughts and the unexcited
feelings, - when, through the long-accustomed
6




82         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
regard of things not seen, temptation gradually
loses its power, and duty is performed, -not reluctantly, nor as the result of a struggle against old
propensities, but promptly, gladly, with undivided
energy, - then virtue is added to faith. Then it
is that faith is complete, by being the source from
which the soul is supplied, unfailingly, with manly
strength for all responsibility, and with a spontaneous earnestness in duty.
We are now prepared for the more immediately
practical question: How, by what diligence, is
this result to be realized? I will suppose that this
question is your question. I will suppose that you,
to whom I am speaking from this page, are asking
how you may thus build up yourself on your most
holy faith, -by what endeavors of self-discipline
your belief of the gospel may be unfolded into
virtue. Assuming that you are in earnest, I will
answer your question, not by propounding particular rules of self-discipline, but rather by suggesting
to you some general views, which, if you receive
them and act upon them, may be better to you
than'much minute instruction.
1. Remember, then, that to perform all the




FAITH AND MANLINESS.         83
duties of your allotted place and relations in this
life is the service to which God is calling you.
This is the way in which you are to serve the will
of God in your generation. God has made you,
not for mere contemplation, not for the acquisition
and enjoyment of knowledge alone, not merely to
see and to know even the highest and most glorious of all themes of thought; but for something
better and nobler. God has made you, not for
mere feeling, and that kind of enjoyment which
consists in feeling only; but for something higher
and better. God has made you for work, and he
has given you work to do. The end for which all
your powers are given is not thought, nor emotion,
but duty,-work.to be done for Godthe infinite and
universal worker. Remember God has placed you
here not merely to know and to feel, not merely
to worship in prayer and praise, not merely to be
enraptured with the sublime and the beautiful in
God, and in his works and ways, but to work.
And what is the work which God has given you
to do? What is the work which he puts to your
hand,' day by day? That work you are to do for
him. That work is duty; and duty, however




84         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
humble may be the sphere in which it is to be performed, is something higher than all the activity
of mere thought or all the rapture of emotion.
The duties of your allotted place and relations in
this world,-the work which he gives you the opportunity of doing,-the honest and useful work (honest
because useful) which belongs to your position as
a member of the great human family, - the whole
of it, including all that you can do to make any
human being better or happier, - is the service to
which God is now calling you. Remember this,
and you will never fail to realize that the religion
of mere knowledge and intellectual belief is worthless, and that the religion of mere sentimentalism
is no better. Remember this; remember that the
service to which God calls you is not mere meditation or emotion, but duty, - duty in every relation of man to man or of man to God; and all the
grandeur and impressiveness that there is in the
objects of faith becomes a living power to waken
and impel the conscience.
2. Remember that unless religion has this efficacy upon your conscience, and through your
conscience upon your entire character, the whole




FAITH AND MANLINESS.          85
apparatus and discipline of religion is in your case
a failure. The Bible, prayer, the Sabbath, the
hows of God, the preaching of the Word, and
the formal communion of God's people with each
other and with Christ, are what I mean by the
apparatus and discipline of religion. The end at
which all these things aim is that the soul may
be brought under the dominion of the high and
holy will of God. Subjection to God -or, what
is the same thing, subjection to duty-is the only
true manliness, for it is the chief end of man.
Conscience, echoing the voice of God, and swaying the soul to a willing obedience, - conscience,
communing with God, and drinking in light and
life from the glory of his countenance, - conscience, acting not as an accuser only, to terrify
the soul with a certain fearful looking for of
judgment, but as a guide to lead the soul in paths
of wisdom and of peace, -is the highest nobleness of man. And all religion, or rather all religiousness, -whether it be the religiousness of
formalism, or the religiousness of dogmatism, or
the religiousness ot sentimentalism, - all religious
service and ceremony, - all religious knowledge,




86         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
- all religious feeling, - which does not quicken
the conscience into activity and dominion in the
soul, is a failure.
3. I may answer your question, then, in this
one comprehensive precept: If you would build
up yourself on your most holy faith, adding to
your faith virtue, walk by faith. You say that
you believe the gospel; then let that which you
believe inspire and control your daily activity.
Faith, in the most analytic sense, is the knowledge
and belief of things not seen. He who walks by
sight,- no matter how much he knows nor how
much he feels of things beyond the vail,- he who
in the daily work of life, in the toils and struggles
through which the providence of God is leading
him, governs himself only by considerations from
the sphere of the things which are transient and
visible, -'will never add to his faith virtue. But
if you will, from this time forward, walk by faith,
- if you will henceforth bring your employments,
your plans and undertakings, your hopes and
aims, your pleasures and amusements, into the
light of those invisible and eternal things which
your belief recognizes, and will govern yourself




FAITH AND MANLINESS.         87
accordingly, - your faith, instead of lying fruitless
and dead in the mind, a matter of mere intelligence or mere sentiment, will henceforth be a
practical thing, translating thought and emotion
into manly action, and finding itself completed in
virtue.








CHAPTER V.
ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.




"As concerning, therefore, the eating of those things that
are offered in sacrifice to idols, we KNOW that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one:
for though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or
in earth (as there be gods many and lords many); yet to us
there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and
we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all
things, and we by him. Howbeit there is not in every man
that KNOWLEDGE: for some with conscience of the' idol unto
this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled." 1. Cor. viii. 4-7.
"Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in
malice be ye children, but.IN UNDERSTANDING BE YE MEN."
1 Cor. xiv. 20.
" Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the
Lord is." Eph. v. 17.
"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and
more in KNOWLEDGE and in all judgment." Phil. i. 9.
"Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; AND TO
VIRTUE, KNOWLEDGE." 2 Pet. i. 5.




CHAPTER V.
iENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.
Add to virtue knowledge. Relation of religious knowledge
to Christian character. Necessity of knowing what is right,
in order to do what is right. An illustration from the New
Testament. Defects of virtue without knowledge. Morbid
scrupulousness, - a servile spirit, - bigotry. When virtue is
completed in knowledge, the purpose of well-doing is enlivened
and invigorated, and becones an enlightened conscientiousness.
ASSUMING, now, that you humbly trust in the
grace of God, and that, depending on Christ for
reconciliation to God and for strength and victory
in the conflict with evil, you have heartily undertaken to follow Christ in all well-doing, I ask for
your serious attention while I attempt to show
you another aspect of progress in the Christian
life. You have undertaken a life-long work of
self-discipline.  You are resolved that hencefortlr
the great business of your life shall be to do God's
will, trusting in his mercy and his promised help,




92         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
and so training yourself for your immortality.
Thus you hope to be progressively emancipated
from the power of sin, and transformed by the
renewing of your mind.
Such progress can not be achieved by mere
strength of will. The purpose to do right, always
and in all things, is not all that is necessary to a
perfect well-doing.  In order to do right, you
must know what is right.   The manliest, most
strenuous, and most conscientious purpose will
often err, unless itbe guided by intelligence. It
is not enough that you add to your faith virtue;
your manly purpose of well-doing must be divinely
enlightened. You must add
"( TO VIRTUE KNOWLEDGE."
If we take the word knowledge in its widest
sense, there is a beautiful fitness in the conjunction
of knowledge with that manly conscientiousness
which is the legitimate consequence of faith in
the word of God. The man who receives the
gospel as his hope, and who, with a quickened
conscience and a resolute determination, undertakes to obey and follow Christ, must be, in pro



ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.     93
portion to his faculties, his opportunities, and his
means of acquiring knowledge, an intelligent man.
Especially is he bound to be intelligent in the
things which immediately concern his faith and
duty as a follower of Christ. From the beginning
of his confidence and hope, from his first experience of the work of the Holy Spirit, onward
through all his progress as a believer, he is to
grow in grace and in the knowledge of his Lord
and Saviour. It is true that no eminent intelligence is necessary to the beginning of discipleship
in the school of Christ, —nothing more than the
childlike belief that Christ is able to teach and to
save, and the humble purpose to learn of him and
to obey him; but from that beginning the disciple
follows on to know the Lord, and to know all
that God has revealed to men. True religion
distinguishes itself from superstition by its alliance
with light, and by its genial influence on all the
powers of thought. It says to all who receive its
lessons, "Be not children in understanding; in
malice be ye children, but in understanding be
ye men."
At present, however, let us take this word




94         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
" knowledge " in a more limited meaning. The
spontaneous utterance of faith unfolding itself into
virtue is in the question which came from the
heart of Saul in the hour of his conversion, -
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"  That
question was a cry for knowledge, -" How can
I rightly serve thee whom I have persecuted?"
The converted mind, turning to follow Christ in
newness of life, longs for the knowledge of all
duty.  Such is the knowledge which must be
added to virtue, as virtue is added to faith.
For the sake of giving you a more definite idea
of what the knowledge is without which conscientiousness is incomplete and unbalanced, let
me illustrate my meaning by a historic instance
from the New Testament.
One great error of Judaism, in the time of
Christ and the apostles, was that, in its attention
to external and ceremonial institutions, it had lost
sight of higher principles, and had ceased to honor
with due regard the eternal distinctions between
right and wrong. Those among them who aspired
to eminent sanctity were extremnely scrupulous
about the payment of tithes and the practice of




ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.     95
ceremonial washings, and extremely sensitive to the
forms of sanctity as they understood it; but withal
they were prone to neglect the weightier matters
of inward purity and faithfulness, and of spiritual
religion.  On the other hand, one grand characteristic of the religion taught by Christ and his
apostles was, that it insisted on the universal and
eternal first principle of holiness,-love to God
and love to man,-love in the heart, flowing out
spontaneously into all outward duties of morality
and of piety.  All outward performances, not
springing from the perception and recognition of
the great objects of faith, were worthless in the
view of Christ, and of the apostles who spoke in
his name and by his Spirit. Yet those who accepted. the gospel, and trusted in Christ as the
one Mediator between God and men, did not all
throw off at once and equally their former habits
of thinking.. The converted Jew was often prone
to think that ceremonial observances were of much
importance, and to cramp the freedom of the gospel with the fetters of Jewish scrupulousness.
Thus it came to pass, that wherever there were
churches consisting partly of Jews and partly of




96         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
Gentiles,'the relations of Christians to the superstitions of the heathen around them were complicated and often perplexing. The abhorred idolatry of the heathen was not confined to their temples, nor to acts of public and formal worship, but
was mingled with all the concerns of life. When
victims were slain in sacrifice at the temples, only
a part of the flesh was ordinarily consumed on the
altar; another portion was reserved by the offerer
to be a feast for his family and friends, either in
the temple or in his own dwelling; and another
portion became the perquisite of thb priests, and
was often sent to be sold in the public market.
Thus, and in many other ways, the Christian, and
especially the converted Gentile, was surrounded
by temptations to some sort of communion with
idolatry; and what he might do, and what he
might not do, without contracting the guilt of
idol-worship, was sometimes a perplexing question.
Some, especially those of Jewish birth and education, had a strong feeling, as if some moral pollution was attached to the very flesh of an idol
sacrifice, and would purchase nothing in the market, would eat nothing anywhere, without being




ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.     97
first certified that it had no taint of idolatry about
it. In this way, they brought themselves under a
yoke of bondage. Forgetting that the earth is. the
Lord's and the fullness thereof,-forgetting that
it is not that which entereth into a man that defileth him, — their virtue, or strength of character and strenuous purpose to do right, though
prompted and sustained by faith, was misdirected.
Others there were who looked on the whole matter in a different view. " The idol," they said,
"is nothing, and to me, therefore, the circumstance that this food which I find in the marketplace, or which is set before me at the table of a
fiiend, has been offered to an idol, is of no consequence. I do not offer it to the idol; and in eating it, I give God thanks and commit no idolatry."
This difference of views among imperfectly instructed disciples was one of the many sources of
difficulty in the church at Corinth; and the question was referred to the Apostle Paul for his
advice. The apostle in his answer [1 Cor. viii.],
speaks of " knowledge" and the want of " knowledge" as having caused the difference. "We
know," he says, " that an idol is nothing in the
7




98         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
world, and that there is none other God but one,"
"of whom are all things, and we in him;" and,
therefore, he whose mind is completely emancipated from all reverence for idols, and who eats
this food merely as food, not asking any questions
as to whence it came, and giving thanks through
Jesus Christ to God the author of all good, is
free from the guilt of idolatry. "Howbeit," adds
the apostle, "there is not in every man that
knowledge; for some, with conscience of the idol
to this hour, eat it as a thing offered to an idol,
and their conscience, being weak, is defiled;"
and, from that point, he proceeds to show that a
good man's conduct, in such cases, should be regulated by a benevolent regard: for the welfare of
others.
You see, then, what I mean when I say that
if you are to advance in the moral and spiritual
self-discipline to which the gospel calls you, your
believing manliness in duty must be enlightened
by knowledge. Those who were most scrupulous, most superstitious, most censorious, in regard
to the indiscriminate use of meats sold in the
markets at Corinth, had faith; they believed in




ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.      99
Christ; they trusted in him for acceptance with
God; they received with full confidence the truth
that God hath appointed a day in which he will
judge the world in righteousness. Nor was their
belief inoperative, for to faith they added virtue.
Their faith was not mere theory or imagination,
nor mere feeling; it was to them the main spring
of action. They combined with it an active conscientiousness. They intended to do right, whatever it might cost them.  But their Christian
manliness, not being conjoined with knowledge,
was incomplete; it was virtue without guidance;
and, therefore, with all their conscientiousness
and their determination to do right at all hazards, they erred, and so erred as to be deserving of censure for the dishonor which they
brought on the name of Christ.
No wonder, then, that knowledge is so often
insisted on in the Scriptures as an element of
Christian character. Knowledge, wherever it is
spoken of in a catalogue of spiritual graces or of
spiritual gifts, means just what it means in the
instance to which I have referred you for an
illustration; it means not speculative science,




100       CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
natural or even theological, but moral discrim.
ination. Thus when the apostle Paul prays for
the Philippians that their love "may abound yet
more and more in knowledge and in all judgment," it is that they "may approve things that
are excellent," that they "'may be sincere," (that
is, reproachless, such that the sun may shine upon
without discovering any flaw or fault,) " and without offense till the day of Christ."
You see, then, already, that as virtue is necessary to the completeness of faith, so knowledge,
in this New Testament meaning of the word, is
necessary to the completeness of virtue. As faith
is the first element, and practical conscientiousness the second, so this knowledge is the third
element in a well-proportioned Christian character. It is distinct fi'om faith and virtue, inasmuch as in the analysis of character it may be
distinctly contemplated, and a lack of it is sometimes manifest where faith and virtue are conspicuous. Yet, if we take another view, it is in
fact inseparable from faith and virtue, and something of it must be implied in the very existence
of true virtue sustained by Christian faith. Vir



ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.     101
tue, in the New Testament meaning of the word,
is the manliness of faith, the soul's activity under
the dictates and the impulse of those moral sensibilities which faith has quickened. Knowledge
is that illumination and enlargement of mind, that
habit and disciplined faculty of moral discrimination, which gives force and direction to virtue.
Virtue without knowledge is fragmentary; virtue in its just combination with knowledge is a
whole, rounded and complete.
You understand, then, what that knowledge is
without which virtue, or religious conscientiousness, however strenuous, is imperfect.  But I
would have you understand more distinctly what
are the defects of that imperfect virtue.   I
do not imply that such virtue is only a formal
morality, for it is a virtue in which faith is presupposed.  It is a living conscientiousness, inspired and sustained by the habitual contemplation of things not seen. It is an earnest purpose,
inspired and sustained by the habitual contemplation of God and eternity, of the soul's infinite
need and infinite ruin, and of redemption by the
power and the sacrifice of Christ. Such virtue,




102        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
however feeble, and however erring, implies something of the faculty and of the habit of moral
discrimination, some discerning of things that are
excellent, some perception of the moral relations
and tendencies of actions, and some sense of the
grand principles of Christian duty.  But how
often do we actually find such virtue erring, and
missing its mark, and starving itself, and dishonoring its own name, for the lack of knowledge?
Conscientiousness without knowledge may be earnest and devout, but it betrays its weakness; it
is, at the best, a lame and unfinished virtue.
1. It is often characterized by a morbid scrupulousness.  " Tenderness of conscience," says a
most acute observer, "is always to be distinguished from   scrupulousness.  The conscience
can not be kept too sensible and tender; but
scrupulousness arises from  bodily or mental infirmity, and discovers itself in a multitude of
ridiculous and superstitious and painful feelings."
Whenever that moral discernment, which the
New Testament calls knowledge, is wanting,
there virtue, however conscientious and religious,
is prone to exhaust itself on little things.  So




ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.    103
much of its time and thought and zeal is occupied with tithing mint, anise, and cummin, —
so much of its force is directed to the circumstances of duty, - that it can not expand into the
graceful and commanding proportions of the perfect man in Christ Jesus.
2. Virtue without knowledge is naturally servile
in its spirit. It walks in the oldness of the letter,
and not in the newness of emancipated life. It
brings itself under bondage to forms, and acts more
from the fear of doing wrong than from the fearless and joyous consciousness of right. It lacks
the inspiring sense of freedom.  Confounding
duty itself with the form  or circumstances of
duty, it moves under constraint, and can not
mount up as with wings. As it can not see the
right and the wrong in the light of the highest
and most comprehensive principles, it naturally
falls back upon some narrow formula, and guides
itself by specific rules blindly applied. It depends upon some authority which is not the authority of God himself speaking to the soul which
he has made. It asks not, simply and directly,
What is right?- what is the'application of the




104        CHRISTIAN SFLF-CULTURE.
law of love? - what the spontaneous impulse of
a soul moving in free and blessed accordance with
the mind of God?-but what is it which the
Church, as taught by the fathers or by councils,
pronounces wrong?- or, what is it which this
or that dictator to conscience prohibits?- or,
what is it which has been voted into the catalogue of immoralities by this or that reforming
society? - or, what is it which in some particular clique or circle is considered to be inconsistent with religion?  Virtue without knowledge
may be earnest and true, sustained by an inspiring conviction of the reality of things not seen;
it may thus have a zeal which will compass sea
and land with its heroic enterprises; it may have
the sturdy inflexibility that will stand up against
a world of opposition, -that will not be dauntedby the gloom of the prison, -that will raise the
hymn of victory at the stake amid the crackling
fagots; but after all it is prone to be servile.
3. It follows that the virtue which has this
defect is often, not to say always, bigoted. The
man who, while to faith he adds virtue, does
not add to virtue knowledge, is not only natu-,




ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.    105
rally scrupulous in respect to his own actions,
and, servile in the subjection of his conscience
to his leader or his party or to his narrow rule,
but he can hardly avoid some taint of bigotry
in his judgment of those whose consciences differ
in any thing from  his.  That particular form
of doing a thing, those, particular circumstances,
just that drapery, may be, to such a man, in all
his conscientiousness, the very essence of the duty,
and the test by which he judges all men. If he
were to neglect that form or those circumstances,
he would condemn himself severely; and when
he sees such neglect in others, he judges them
with the same severity. As he guides his own
conduct, so he judges the conduct of others, by
forms, by traditions perhaps which he has received
from  those around him, and not by principles
clearly discerned and freely applied.
Understanding thus the defects of virtue without knowledge, you are prepared to understand
how it is that knowledge is the complement or
completeness of virtue. Think what that virtue
is which is combined with the faculty and habit
of moral discrimination.




106       CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
1. It is virtue enlivened and invigorated by an
enlarged acquaintance with the objects of faith.
There is a difference between that simple conviction of the reality of things not seen, which lies
at the foundation of all Christian character, and
that clear, discriminating, expanded acquaintance
with things pertaining to God and salvation,
which is acquired in the progress of religious
experience. The one is faith; the other is knowledge. Some knowledge, -some idea or conception of eternal things as real, — is indispensable
to faith; but as the believing soul carries out
its convictions, and translates them into action,
and thus follows on to know the Lord, —as, in
a devout and obedient attention to God's word,
it walks with God, and holds communion with
infinite purity, - that soul grows not only in
gracious affection but in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and of course
in the knowledge of all that concerns his dignity,
his office, and the salvation he accomplishes.
Thus as virtue springs from faith, and is nourished by it, so faith and virtue furnish the soul
with knowledge; and the more familiarly a truly




ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.    107
Christian man is acquainted with Christianity
as a whole, and in all its parts, —with God in
his revealed majesty and holiness, - with Christ
in the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, and in the glory of his humiliation and death as a partaker of our nature,
- the more will his resolute purpose to do right
be instructed and strengthened.   The virtue
which has ripened into knowledge is an earnest
conscientiousness, strengthened and cheered by
familiar acquaintance with things not seen.
2. It is more than this. It is virtue enlightened and.free.   It is the virtue or manliness
of a mind accustomed to regard the principles
of duty and the relations and tendencies of actions. There may be a true conscientiousness,
resolute and strenuous, that moves in bondage
to rules inadequately comprehended by the mind,
and applied without just discrimination. But as
the disciple whose faith inspires and sustains his
manly purpose of well-doing advances in Christian knowledge, he becomes familiar, not with
rules alone, but with grand principles of duty.
He sees everywhere, in whatever work or duty,




108        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
the application of that paramount law,-the law
of love to God and to man,-the law of doing
good, always and everywhere, for time and for
eternity, in communion with the God of love.
The more familiar he becomes with this first
principle of all duty, and with its leading- applications, the more accustomed he is to see, in
every particular rule of right, the sanctity and
beauty of this universal law; the more spontaneously will his sense of right distinguish the
things that are excellent; and the more effectually will he be brought into the illuminated
freedom  of those whose inmost life is holiness
and love.
" Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge." Remember this.
Knowledge, the completeness of virtue, is to be
attained by diligence.  Remember that the disciple must give all diligence if he would build
up, on the basis of his faith, a true and manly
character. Remember that, in order to the completeness of virtue and of the soul's conformity
to Christ, there must be a steady, earnest, persevering self-discipline. And is not the attain



ENLIGHTENED CONSCIENTIOUSNESS.   109
ment worth the effort? Think not that the attainment is too high for you. Remember those
exceeding great and precious promises whereby
you may escape the corruption that is in the
world, and become partaker of a divine nature.
Remember that those promises avail not for the
indifferent and the slothful, but for those who
give all diligence that they may add to their
faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge.








CHAPTER VI.
FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED.




"But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them that are weak. For if any
man see thee, who hast knowledge, sit at meat in the idol's
temple, shall not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; and
through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom
Christ died "  1 Cor. viii. 9-11.
" You know that in the races of the stadium, though all may
run, yet but one can gain the prize;- (so run that you may win.)
And every man who strives in the matches, trains himself by
all manner of self-restraint; yet they do it to win a crown of
fading leaves, -we a crown that can not fade. I, therefore,
run not like the racer who is uncertain of his goal; I fight, not
as the pugilist who strikes out into the air; but I bring my
body into bondage, crushing it with heavy blows, lest, perchance, having called others to the contest, I should myself
fail shamefully of the prize." 1 Cor. ix. 24-27. Conybeare's
version.
"Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant
how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed
through the sea.... But with many of them God was
not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we
should not lust after evil things as they also lusted..
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
fall...  All things are lawful for me, but all things are
not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify
not." 1 Cor. x. 1, 5, 6, 12, 23.
" Giving all diligence add... to knowledge temperance."
2 Pet. i. 5, 6.




CHAPTER VI.
FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED.
One-sidedness. Two sorts of one-sided men at Corinth.
Knowledge without temperance tends to sensual indulgence, -
to contempt of the weak, - to lax opinions terminating in
apostasy. Knowledge developed into temperance-puts the
disciple on his guard against all self-indulgence, -makes him
humble and gentle, -trains his inclinations and emotions into
harmony with duty. How to acquire a Christian self-control.
THERE is great need of watching against onesidedness in the formation and growth of religious
character. Faith is the basis of all religion; and
faith in Christ, or a simple reliance on him as the
only sacrifice for sin, and a simple confidence in
his promises of free and full salvation, is what
makes a Christian.    It is here that you are to
begin. You are to receive Christ and justification
before God by faith; you are to live by faith; you
are to walk by faith; and your faith is to save
you.   But, as "J Jnaes, the servant of God,"
8




114        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
assures you, " faith without works is dead." The
faith which does not quicken the conscience, and
strengthen the soul in all well-doing, is worthless.
Faith, then, or confidence in the gospel, must be
completed and balanced by what the Apostle Peter
calls " virtue," or the strenuous purpose to perform
all duty; for otherwise it is one-sided and monstrous, — a mere perversion of faith rather than faith
itself. In like manner that resolute conscientiousness- as I have already shown you - needs the
guidance and strength, and the enlargement and
freedom, which come from knowledge; or it is in
danger of, becoming a servile and timid scrupulousness or a narrow and contentious bigotry.
I am now to warn you against one-sidedness in
another direction.  Even when we add to faith
virtue, and to virtue knowledge, we have not yet
formed the perfect man in Jesus Christ. We have,
indeed, guarded the conscientious purpose to do
right against the danger of becoming bigoted and
tinorous. We have released it from the bondage
of mere forms and mechanical rules, and have
brought it forth to breathe the invigorating.air and
move in the cheering light pf Christian freedom.




FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED.         115
But just at this point the believer seeking to form
his soul by grace into the image of Christ needs
another caution. He must add
" TO KNOWLEDGE TEMPERANCE."
Let your mind again revert to those circumstances in the early history of the gospel, and
especially of the Corinthian church, from which
we have already derived an illustration of the
necessity of knowledge to guide and strengthen
virtue.  Those believers at Corinth whose zeal
against idolatry, and whose dread of the moral pollution inseparable from it, would not let them purchase what was offered in the market, or eat what
was set before them at the table of a friend, unless
they could first obtain positive evidence that it
had no taint of idolatry about it, had added virtue
to their faith.  They had conjoined with their
confidence in Christ an earnest purpose to do
right.  The practical error into which they fell
was the error of strenuous virtue not rightly directed. It was the error of that conscientiousness
which lacks the guidance of knowledge. Others
there were in Corinth who had the knowledge in




116       CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
which those over-scrupulous brethren were deficient; but for that very reason, they, on their
part, needed to be put upon their guard against an
opposite danger. They saw and understood that
an idol is nothing in the world. They knew that
it was only by the consent and act of the mind
that the guilt of idol-worship could be contracted.
Thus they were free from the bondage of a morbid
scrupulousness. Whatever was set before them
- whatever was sold in the market - they could
freely eat, asking no questions for conscience' sake,
and offering thanks to God the giver. They added
to their virtue knowledge. But they were not,
therefore, free from danger even in that matter of
things offered to idols.  On the contrary, their
strong sense of the freedom of the gospel -that
very elevation of their minds above mere forms
and outward rules- involved some special perils.
Let us see what those perils were, and what they
must be in all similar cases.
1. The man of knowledge, in the sense in which
knowledge is now spoken of, is in danger from
temptations to sensual indulgence. He knows that
"it is not that which goeth into the mouth that




FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED.         117
defileth a man."  He knows that in mere abstinence from this or that particular kind of food,
in merely denying a natural and healthy appetite
or taste, in mere fastings and vigils, or in any other
self-imposed privation or infliction, there is no
righteousness nor any thing that can commend the
ascetic to God. He knows that "every creature of
God, is good, and to be received with thankfulness."
He is emancipated from the narrow scruples by
which some men are fettered. He has overcome
the slavish spirit of subjection to dead forms. The
gospel is to him a law of liberty. On this side,
then,-even in the direction of that knowledge
which, emancipates him, and of that enlargement
and elevation of mind which rises above little
scruples and looks exclusively to great principles,
-in just this quarter, he is exposed to danger
from the temptations which address themselves to 
his inferior nature. He is in danger of falling
into practices and habits, which will be more pernicious to his soul than all the over-scrupulousness
of an unenlightened conscience.
It seems to have been so with some at Corinth.
The apostle Paul, in his first epistle to that




118       CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
church, found it necessary to caution them in this
particular.  He warned them  against " lusting
after evil things," (x. 6,) and most earnestly put
them on their guard against drunkenness and other
gross sensualities, (vi. 9-20,) in comparison with
which the most timid and bigoted scrupulousness
would be only a trifling error. You may pity the
man who is afraid to taste even of the sacramental
cup lest it should happen to contain something fermented. No doubt the addition of more knowledge to his virtue would be a great improvement
in his religious character.  But, on the other
hand, that man who, having added to his virtue
knowledge, rises far above all scruples about selfindulgence,-that man who, having learned that
"Christianity is neither ascetic nor fanatic," puts
the sparkling wine freely and daily to his lips, and
becomes discriminating and learned in the science
of good eating and good drinking, and feels that to
lose any thing of the daily indulgence of his cultivated and fastidious appetite is a serious encroachment on his happiness, -that man needs something else, far more than the most timid slave of
petty scruples needs knowledge. While he is




FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED.         119
rejoicing in his freedom from a scruple, he is becoming the slave of a lust, - bound and led captive
by habits of sensual indulgence. There are men
who abstain from the use of sugar, and wear no
cotton in their clothing, lest they be compromised
with the guilt of slavery.  There are men to
whose sensitive conscience the odor of burning
tobacco is as offensive as it is to unsophisticated
human nostrils. We may be sorry for the weakness of their consciences, -especially f they insist
that their scruples shall be a rule by which to pronounce on other men's religious sincerity. But,
after all, dare we say that those men, or any others
equally scrupulous in other and. similar matters,
need the emancipating and liberalizing influence
of knowledge more than he who is enslaved to the
continual use of tobacco and can not be persuaded
to throw off his fetters needs something better than
mere knowledge? The slave of a scrupulous conscience, much as he needs to add to his virtue
knowledge, holds a position of moral dignity when
compared with one who, rejoicing in the freedom
which his knowledge gives him, is enslaved by a
factitious appetite for a vile and filthy drug.




120        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
This, then, is the first danger which besets the
man of knowledge, rising above petty scruples.
He is in danger on the side of self-indulgence.
At the same time, -
2. He is also in danger of acquiring a contemptuous feeling toward those whose consciences are
more timid and sensitive than his own.   His
knowledge shows him the weakness of other men's
scruples; and he is likely to have little sympathy
with them dh some points, at least, on which their
conscientious feelings are deep and strong. While
he seems to them to be wanting in virtue, or the
will to do right, they seem to him to be deficient
in common sense; and while they, perhaps, censure
him in their bigotry, he, in his pride, with knowledge that "puffeth up," despises them.
Such seem to have been the reciprocal feelings
of parties in the Corinthian church. While those
who fell into the error of excessive scrupulousness,
in regard to things offered to idols, could hardly
avoid condemning others for what seemed to them
a participation in the guilt of idolatry, some, on
the other hand, of those whose knowledge emancipated them from all superstitious regard for the




FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED.        121
idol, and who felt that they Could eat of any thing,
any where, in the spirit of thankfulness to the living and true God, were proud of their knowledge, and despised the weakness of their brethren.
As to the effect of their conduct on other people,
-what was that to them? "Why," said they,
"is my liberty judged of another man's conscience?"  They felt that they could eat, even in
an idol's temple, without any inward homage to
the idol; and as long as they kept their own
conscience pure, they esteemed it of little consequence what effect their conduct might produce on
the weak minds of others. In reference to such
results, the apostle said, "Knowledge puffeth up,"
-that is, inflates the mind with pride,- "but
love edifieth. And if any_ man think that he
knoweth any thing,"- that is, if he values himself upon his knowledge, -" he knoweth nothing
yet as he ought to know." Knowledge that has
this effect is all in vain. Alas for that man whose
supposed enlargement and elevation of views has
broken the chain of sympathy between him and
those whom he regards as his weaker brethren!
3. It is also to be observed that this man of




122        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
knowledge is in danger of adopting lax opinions in
regard to duty, and thus gradually blunting and
benumbing his moral sensibilities till he becomes,
an apostate.  He thinks much of his Christian
liberty, his superiority to merely outward rules,
his illumination and guidance by great principles
living within him.  To him - if the heart is
right,- that is, if the disposition and ultimate aim
of the mind are right - the particulars of outward
conduct seem to be of little consequence.  His
religion, he says, is of the heart and spirit; it
does not consist in conforming to the customs or
the prejudices of other religious people, - in wearing a particular style of dress or a particular cast
of countenance,- in avoiding particular sorts of
company or particular amusements, - in going to
prayer-meetings, - no, nor in any special times or
rules of private prayer. Surely there is danger for
him. Surely he needs something for ballast to his
knowledge. The danger is that his religion will be
a mere ethereal essence which evaporates and is
gone. The danger is that, in his self-reliance and
his freedom from prejudices, he will throw himself
into one temptation and another, —will be con



FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED,        123
formed to this world in one particular and another,
-will fall into one worldly folly and another,till his devotional habits and feelings are entirely
gone, -till his sympathies with Christ and with
Christ's work in the world, and the communion of
his heart with the people of God, are broken, -
till his conscience, sophisticated and blinded by
false reasonings, is seared,  till he becomes at
last an apostate from the gospel. How many instances have'there been of such backsliding and
ultimate apostasy, which began in- petty self-indulgences and the contempt of petty scruples!
On this part of the subject, the Apostle Paul
warns his Corinthian friends most distinctly and
impressively. He warns those who, with an undue reliance upon their knowledge and upon the
consciousness of a right intention, were not afraid
to sit down at an idolatrous feast, or even in the
idol's temple. He warns them by the example
of those Israelites who, in the journeying under
Moses through the desert, were tempted into
intercourse and conformity with idolaters. "All
these things," he says, "happened to them for
ensamples, and they are written for our admoni



124        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
tion, upon whom the ends of the world are come*
Wherefore let him who thinketh he standeth, take
heed lest he fall."
These are some of the dangers which beset the
man of knowledge, as the word knowledge is here
used, -the man whose enlarged views of moral
questions have freed him from the power of superstitious or unenlightened scruples. To guard him
against such dangers, he needs something else,something without which knowledge is unbalanced,- something without which his knowledge,
in its highest attainments, is incomplete.  That
something else is Christian self-control. He must
add to knowledge temperance.
What, then, do I mean by temperance?   Of
course, we need not take the word in any technical or narrow sense. Temperance, as a Christian
grace,'is not the mere opposite of drunkenness.
It is not mere abstinence from intoxicating drinks
and drugs. It is not merely a wise and healthpreserving moderation in the use of food and
drink. The word has a broader and higher meaning. Temperance, in the Christian sense, is the
habitual and manful struggle of the soul against




FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED.          125
inferior and sensual appetites. It is the purpose
and habit of striving to subdue the passions. It is
the quickened spirit's watching, toil, and strife to
keep the body in due subjection, and to conquer
the propensities that war against the soul. This,
as we see at once, is a very different thing from
oriental, Jewish, or monkish asceticism, and from
the scrupulousness which ascetic notions generate.
It does not regard the infliction of bodily penances
as meritorious or holy, dr as the condition or
method of acceptance with God. It only sets itself in watchfulness and conflict against those
temptations which assail the soul, and seek to
bring it into subjection to sin, through the appetites and propensities of the inferior nature.
Christian temperance is self-control, inspired by
faith, animated by manly conscientiousness, and
guided by knowledge.
Let us, then, call up before our thoughts, and
portray to ourselves if we can, the man who,
having added virtue to faith and knowledge to
virtue, adds to knowledge temperance. Look at
him  under the influence of this disposition or
habit, and see how he is guarded against the perils




126        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
which beset the man to whose knowledge temperance is not added.
1. The first element in the idea of this temperance is that it puts the man on his guard
against all the forms of self-indulgence. He feels,
not blindly and superstitiously, but intelligently,
that the indulgence of any appetite, in such a way
or to such an extent as to bring him under its
power, is full of peril to his soul's prosperity.
He is therefore fixed upon securing, by the help
of Christ, the just dominion of his spiritual nature
over all inferior desires.  His body, with its
organs, senses, and appetites, is to him his vehicle,
his instrument, his temporary tenement, not himself; and it is a great and constant care with
him not to be degraded or fettered by it. The
ascetic or the mystic-for asceticism and mysticism are ordinarily related to each other-regards
the body as a clog, a burden, a prison, an enemy.
His theory, with the practice founded on it, puts
dishonor on his Maker, and cuts him off from the
sources of spiritual strength.  But the believer,
adding to knowledge temperance, regards the
complex constitution of his mortal existence, and




FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED.        127
all the circumstances of his probation,. as arranged
in the wisdom and the love of God. He is in the
body not for the sake of penance and suffering,
but that in the body he may serve his Maker;
that through these senses he may become acquainted with the outward and material creation;
that by these organs he may come into active
communication with the world in which God has
placed him, and in which he has a work to do for
God; and that, by the discipline of temptation
and of suffering, which the conditions of this life
involve, he may be trained for a better life to
come. Thus he puts himself intelligently on his
guard, lest, by the temptations incident to his residence in the body, his soul be brought into bondage.
2. As he thus adds to knowledge temperance,
he grows in humility and gentleness. Habitually
watchful, he becomes habitually aware of his own
weakness, his dangers, and his unworthiness. He
may understand, he may pity, his brother's undiscriminating and unguided scrupulousness; but he
does not therefore despise that brother, nor withhold from him a brother's sympathy. That his




128        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
brother is afraid of the very food which idolatrous
priests have handled, —that his brother, unable
to distinguish the circumstances of an evil thing
from  the thing itself, hates even "the garment
spotted by the flesh," and runs into weak excesses of conscientious antipathy, - does not seem
to him so unreasonable, nor is it so offensive to
his feelings, as the proud and self-conceited foolhardiness that rushes into perilous temptations
without fear.  Thus his knowledge, completed
and balanced by temperance, instead of puffing
him up and separating him from a salutary sympathy with less enlightened brethren, makes him
more and more helpful to them. Not having
lost his sympathy with them, he does not lose
their confidence, and therefore he does not lose
the natural and unresisted influence over them
which knowledge ought to give him. His knowledge becomes, in a sense, available for their use.
His intelligent habit of moral discrimination helps
to guide them.
3. In proportion to his proficiency in the habit
of watchful self-restraint, his inclinations and impulses, instead of controlling his judgment of what




FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED.        129
is duty, and thus blinding his conscience, become
themselves subject to the rule of truth and the
sense of obligation. Such is the constitution of
our nature, that when the passions are held in
subjection to reason and to faith, they gradually
learn to bear the yoke without resistance. At
first, there may be many a conflict between the
holy purpose of self-denial and the untamed passion excited by temptation and struggling for the
mastery over conscience. But each victory over
temptation weakens the enemy within; each effectual curbing of wayward and groveling inclinations gives the man more power of self-control;
his nature, perverted, corrupted, and in a sense
deranged and disorganized by sin, recovers more
and more of the just balance of its power; he
approaches ever nearer to a full experience of that
apostolic benediction, —" The very God of peace
sanctify you wholly; and your whole spirit and
soul and body be preserved blameless to the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
This Christian temperance —this holy and
vigilant self-restraint - is what the apostle Paul
commends, most seriously, to those knowing ones
9




130       CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
at Corinth, whose knowledge had inflated them
and led them into fearful perils. "Know ye not
that they who run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize.  So run that ye may obtain.
And-every man that striveth for the mastery in
the public games is temperate in all things. Now
they do it to obtain a fading crown, but we an
unfading. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly;
so fight I not as one that beateth the air; but I
keep my body under, and bring it unto subjection,
lest that, by any means, when I have preached
to others, I myself should be a castaway." Such
is Paul's commentary on adding to knowledge
temperance.
Let me now give you a few brief rules that
may help you in your endeavor to cultivate this
habit of Christian self-control.
I. Fill your mind with just views ofthe dignity
of your nature as created in God's image, and of
the grandeur of your destiny as made for immortality. Be always conscious of what you are and
what you were made for.
II. Be watchful against occasional temptations
and against the formation of self-indulgent habits.




FREEDOM SELF-GOVERNED.        131
Occasional temptations carry away the unwatchful and therefore unguarded soul; and as they
come, one after another, they bind that soul, ere
it is aware, as with a chain of iron. Be watchful.
Have you any self-indulgent practice or habit
which it would be better for you to renounce?
Have you any circle of companions whose example and whose society tempts you to self-indulgence? When I see a young man undertaking
to be a Christian, and yet spending annually a
larger amount in cigars than he can afford to
give away, I am, afraid for him.
III. Embrace such opportunities of self-denial
as God gives you.  Opportunities of self-denial
are to be found, not made. You have no need
to go out of the world into a desert or a cell, in
order to deny yourself. God will take care that
your moral nature suffers no harm for want of
opportunities to deny yourself, and to bring your
impulsive and wayward passions into subjection.
IV. Keep the end of life in view, and the end
of all things. This will help you in your watchfulness. This will stimulate you to seize upon
every legitimate opportunity of self-denial. This




132        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
will quicken your consciousness of what you are
and what you are made for. To remember that
your life is only a vapor, aid that the visible
world itself is passing away like a shadow, will
take away the glare and show of the things that
deceive you, - will help you to see things as they
are, and to walk as in'the light of an opening
eternity.




CHAPTER VII.
STEADFASTNESS.




" He that endureth to the end shall be saved." Matt. x. 22.
"In your patience possess ye your souls." Luke xxi. 19.
" Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience."
Rom. v. 3, 4.
"Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious
power, unto all patience." Col. i. 11.
" Not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and
patience inherit the promises." Heb. vi. 12.
" Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great
recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that
after ye have done the will of God, ye may receive the promise." Heb. x. 35, 36.
"Let us run with patience the race that is set before us."
Heb. xii. 1.
"Giving all diligence -add to temperance, patience." 2
Pet. i. 5, 6.




CHAPTER VII.
STEADFASTNESS.
Reading the Bible. Understandest thou what thou readest?
The word " patience" in the New Testament. Steadfastness a
distinct element of Christian character. How it may be attained:
1. As the legitimate result of faith, virtue, knowledge, and selfcontrol; 2. By watching against temptations to instability;
8. By habitually regarding the things which are not seen.
I CAN not undertake to lead you and help you
in the endeavor to attain the completeness and
symmetry of a truly Christian character, unless I
may assume that you are carefully and teachably
reading the Bible. Such reading of the Bible,
more than any thing else, brings you into communication with the mind of Christ, and with the
influence of the Holy Spirit.  Yet, in your reading of the Bible, you may often feel the need of
some friendly guidance and explanation. It will
not be strange, if sometimes you find yourself in
sympathy with the Ethiopian courtier, who, when
Philip asked him, " Understandest thou what thou




136        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
readest?" replied, " How can I, except some man
should guide me?"
For example, in your reading of the New Testament, you find that " patience " is frequently spoken of as something essential to the formation of a
Christian character and the progress of a Christian life. What is the meaning of that word
"patience," when it is thus used in the New
Testament? If I can help you to a clearer understanding of that word, as it meets you so often
in the reading of the Bible, perhaps I may bring
your mind into a closer contact with the mind of
Christ and the teaching of the Spirit.
Let me say, then, that there are two words
in the New Testament which are sometimes translated patience. One of those two words signifies
slowness to anger, - indisposition to sudden resentment or complaint; and this is very nearly
what we call patience, in our ordinary use of the
word.   The other-which is much more frequently used in describing the Christian character
and life - signifies rather what we mean by such
expressions as " continuing,'  " holding  out;"
"enduring," "persevering" against opposition or




STEADFASTNESS.            137
temptation of whatever sort. The idea of steadfastness or perseverance rarely occurs in the New
Testament under any other form than this.  It
is the idea of enduring and holding out in the face
of adverse influences. Read the words in which
our Saviour explains his own parable of the sower:
" They on the rock are they who when they hear,
receive the word with joy; and these have no
root, who for a while believe, and in time of
temptation fall away.   And  that which fell
among thorns are they, who, when they have
heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and
riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no
fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground
are they who in an honest and good heart,
having heard the word, keep it and bring forth
fruit with patience." In other words, they bring
forth fruit by persevering in their faith, their
virtue, their knowledge, and their. earnest and
watchful self-control.  Observe how the apostle
Paul represents God as awarding eternal life to
them who seek for glory and honor and immortal
ity " by patient continuance in well doing."  That
"patient continuance" is simply perseverance;




138-       CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
and what the apostle says is nothing else than
what Christ himself says, using essentially the
same word, "He that shall endure to the end, the
same shall be saved."  Just this is the "patience"
which the apostle speaks of when he says, "We
glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience." He
and his fellow.believers, " rejoicing in hope of the
glory of God," exulted even in their tribulations,
knowing that through the grace to which they had
been introduced by faith, tribulation would be. the
occasion and the means of disciplining them to
patience, or, in other words, would call them to
exercise, and thus to confirm their steadfastness in
the Christian life. They knew that from this
patience or principle of perseverance, tried and
manifested by tribulation, there would come " experience," or the experimental knowledge of
the gospel and the consequent conviction of its
truth. In the same sense of the word, it was the
same apostle's unceasing prayer for the brethren
whom he especially remembered before God, that
they might be " strengthened with all might according to God's glorious power, to all patience and




STEADFASTNESS.              139
long-suffering," - that is, to steadfastness combined with meekness under injuries and sorrows.
So, when he gave thanks for the spiritual prosperity and fruitfulness of those who had believed
under his ministry, he "remembered without ceasing," not only their "work of faith and labor of
love," but also their "patience," (or steadfastness)
"' of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ;" for it was
evidently his belief that as works of Christian
duty spring naturally from a living faith, and as
love naturally manifests itself in labor for those
beloved, so steadfastness, or an unwearied perseverance, is the appropriate manifestation and result of Christian hope. In the same sense of the
word, the believer, compassed about with the great
cloud of witnesses, is to run his appointed race
"with patience," —that is, with steady perseverance,-" looking to Jesus, —   who, for the joy
that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame: "- endurance is patience; - he
was crucified without being turned from his
purpose. Where such " patience has its perfect
work," there, in the estimation of the apostle
James, the Christian character is "perfect and




140        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
entire, wanting nothing," as if all the graces
of holiness were formed and manifested by the
discipline that tries the believer's steadfastness.
The same writer, in another passage, having exhorted his readers to equanimity and cheerfulness
under vexation, persecution, and the pains of hope
deferred, by reminding them of the nearness and
certainty of eternal things, proceeds to speak
again of the same "patience:"    "Behold we
count them  happy who endure," —that is, who
are steadfast when tried. "Ye have heard of the
patience "- the steadfastness — " of Job, and have
seen "    in his case -" the end of the Lord,"the completion of God's plan,-"how the Lord
is very pitiful and of tender mercy." So, in the
visions of God that were granted to his servant
in Patmos, when the vail of time was torn away,
and he looked down the long reach of coming
ages, he exclaimed, once and again, as he foresaw
the successive outbreaks of the powers of darkness
against the redeemed,' Here is the patience and
faith of the saints!"  "Here is the patience of
the saints! Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."  That




STEADFASTNESS.            141
"patience of the saints" is their constancy of
steadfastness.
It is not strange, then, that the apostle Peter
finds a place for this "patience" in his catalogue
of the qualities that make the completeness and
symmetry of Christian character. Nor is it difficult to see what he means by "patience."  He
means steadfastness. He means that weight and
force of purpose which holds out in the face of all
opposing  influences.  Having  admonished his
readers not to let their faith be that maimeddead
faith which is disjoined from the manly purpose of
well-doing,-and not to let their virtue be that
erring, servile, bigoted consciousness, which is disjoined from knowledge, -and, again, not to let their
knowledge be that proud, reckless, dangerous
knowledge which is disjoined from temperance, or
the purpose and habit of self-control, - he proceeds
to counsel them that to their temperance, to all
this combination of qualities, they add steadfastness, stability of character, the element and force
of perseverance in well-doing.
But here, perhaps, a question arises in your
mind: If the "patience " on which the Scriptures




142        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
insist so much is nothing else than steadfastness
or perseverance, how is it that " patience" in this
sense of the word is set down distinctly as one of
the elements of a C.hristian character? How can
it be made out that perseverance is a distinct thing
from faith, or virtue, or spiritual intelligence, or
temperance, or godliness, or brotherly affection, or
charity? Is it not rather something essential to
the very being of faith, of virtue, and of all the
rest, and, therefore, indistinguishable from them?
I afswer: It is true, no doubt, that the commencement of a really Christian life does, by the
grace of God, involve the certainty of its continuance to the end. Yet this certainty depends not
on the intrinsic nature of the Christian life, but on
the gracious purpose and promise of God. There
is no contradiction and no absurdity in supposing
that there may be faith and virtue and knowl
edge and temperance and every other trait of
Christian character, and after all a fatal defect of
perseverance. Hence it is that perseverance is as
distinctly insisted on by the Holy Spirit in the
Scriptures, and is made as really a condition of
final salvation as faith or repentance.  A man




STEADFASTNESS.            143
may make ever so much proficiency for a season;
he may advance ever so near to the goal; but if
to all this he does not add steadfastness, - if he
does not continue to the end, - he falls with them
who draw back'to perdition.
This, however, does not complete the answer.
When we see a man drawing back to perdition
from what seemed to be the beginning of a Christian life, we may indeed infer, (and the Scriptures
authorize us to infer,) from the fact of his falling
away, that all his religiousness was, in some
respect, unsound and hollow from the beginning. In this sense, it may be admitted that a
true repentance will be a persevering repentance, a true faith will be a persevering faith, a
true discipleship will manifest itself in the end as
a discipleship which endures to the end. But, at
the same time, it is true that there may be faith,
and with faith virtue, and with virtue knowledge,
and with knowledge temperance, without all that
stability which Christ and his apostles mean
when they speak of " patience."  There may be
an instability not amounting to actual and final
apostasy,- a deficiency of weight and force in the




144        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
character of the man, - an unsteadiness of aim
and purpose, — which weakens all the elements
of Christian character. Temperance -the attempt
to subdue the appetites and passions, and to bring
the whole man under the control of truth - may
be irregular and unsteady. Virtue- the living
conscientiousness - may act now and then with
power, and at other times the mind may be diverted from its purpose, and the conscience become less active and controlling. This shows us
what the apostle Peter means by faith, virtue,
knowledge, and temperance, without steadfastness.
He means that sort of Christian character which is
governed by impulses, occasions, sympathies, and
excitements, rather than by the force of inflexible
principles and well formed habits. How many
instances are there of that sort'in every place!
How many professed disciples, who are zealous
and joyful for a while in a time of general reviving, and seemingly earnest in every good word
and work, but whose religious life, like the physical life of those animals which have their winter
of torpor, hibernates through the interval from one
revived and joyful season to another! How many




STEADFASTNESS.            145
hopeful converts are there, who seem to run well
for a season, but are strangely and sadly hindered!
How many who received the word with joy, and,
as we thought, were adding virtue to faith, and
knowledge to virtue, and temperance to knowledge, but, after a while, when special excitements
and sympathies had become less effective, relaxed
their diligence! How many who have no root in
themselves, and so endure only for a time!
You see, then, how it is that steadfastness, or
patience, is a different thing from temperance, and
different from those other elements of Christian
character with which it is associated. Virtue, or
manly well-doing, is the legitimate attendant and
the natural product of faith, and yet there may be
a faith in which the element of virtue has not yet
been fairly brought out. Knowledge, or the power
of moral discrimination, - which acts intelligently
and with the sense of freedom, instead of acting
in a purblind subjection to formulas, - is necessary
to the completeness of the virtue which springs
from faith; and virtue itself, in its own legitimate
influence, leads the mind on to this sort of knowledge. Yet there may be virtue which is defective in
10




146        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
this respect, not having been developed into knowledge, and which is, therefore, narrow, censorious,
and servile. In like manner, knowledge, with all
its power of discrimination, is incomplete, if it does
not include a vivid sense of the duty and necessity
of self-control, or if it does not actually hold in
check the inferior impulses and passions; and the
man who has added to virtue knowledge will
naturally watch against temptations of this kind.
Yet there may be knowledge to which temperance
is not joined, and which is, therefore, so one-sided
and unbalanced as to be dangerous by tending to
licentiousness of living. Just so temperance, or
the purpose and attempt to subjugate the inferior
passions, is incomplete, feeble, and fruitless, without steadfastness; and it naturally tends to complete itself by working itself out into a firm stability of soul. Yet there may be a fervent temperance, striving to discipline the desires of the flesh
and of the mind, and to bring them into subjection, which, not having yet achieved its victory.
is too dependent on impulses, occasions, and sympathies, and which is, therefore, fitful and unstable,
- a temperance to which the grace of steadfastness
has not been added.




STEADFASTNESS.            147
We come, then, to the more directly practical
question, How shall we add to the purpose of
self-control this grace of steadfastness? What
method and measures can we use with ourselves
to develop, in the beautiful combination of faith,
virtue, knowledge, and temperance, that higher
form of a symmetrical Christian character, which
is seen when to all the rest is added- or rather
when from all the rest there is produced —stability or perseverance, as opposed to a mere impulsiveness that moves or stops, like the wheels
of the windmill that cease to revolve when the
breezes are still, —or that rises and falls, like the
mercury in the barometer, with the variations of
atmospheric pressure. This stability is properly a
distinct aim  and purpose of the Christian selfdiscipline. This weight and firmness of character
with its steadiness of movement in the Christian life  is not to be attained without attentive
effort, and may be attained by diligence in the
use of the "all things necessary to life and godliness" which are given to us "through the
knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and
virtue."




148        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
I offer, then, to your attention these practical
suggestions.
I. Stability of Christian character is, in one
sense, a natural result of faith, virtue, knowledge,
and temperance, as these qualities have been heretofore illustrated. The character that is to stand
immovable amid the fluctuations of external influence, like a light-house amid the waves, must
have for its foundation a firm belief in the great
disclosures which God has made concerning things
eternal. On that foundation there must stand an
earnest and strenuous purpose to do God's will,a purpose that sets the whole man at work. That
purpose of well-doing must enrich the mind with
a practical knowledge of the great principles by
which the moral sense is guided to the discernment of duty, and is emancipated from bondage
to narrow, slavish, blinding formulas.  That
knowledge, the enlightened and cultivated power
of moral discernment, must put the man upon his
guard against the misleading and degrading power
of inferior appetites; and, while teaching him the
necessity, must train him to the habit of a free
and Christian self-control.  Such a character,




STEADFASTNESS.            149
growing up from faith into virtue, from Virtue into
knowledge, and from knowledge into temperance,
grows naturally, though not without diligence to
that end, into a steadfastness which no changes of
condition, no caprices of fashion, no ebb or flow
of popular opinion or popular excitement shall be
able to overcome.  Remember, then, that your
stability of Christian character must not be a mere
appliance of external props and aids, but something intrinsic in the character itself, like the
stability of an oak, that holds with a living grasp to
the soil in which it grew from the acorn, and that
stands the stronger for all the winds that blow
upon it. Let yours be the stability of that selfbalanced character which is formed by the union
and cohesion of these great moral forces, faith,
virtue, knowledge, temperance.
II. At the same time, it is not unimportant to
say that the temptations to instability must be
watchfully avoided and resisted. A little thoughtfulness will make you know what those temptations are, and how easily they beset you. Beware
of them, whatever they may be in your case.
Beware of a frivolous and trifling habit of mind.




150        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
Many a painful instance of religious instability
comes from negligence on this point. Remember
that life, in this world of probation, is a serious
and earnest affair; and beware of those companions, those books, those amusements, those views
of life and duty, that make you thoughtless when
you ought to be in earnest.  Know what your
weaknesses are. Know on what side you are
likely to be assailed. Know at what point it is
that, in your mind, the principle of self-indulgence and self-pleasing is likely to prevail over
the principle of duty. Then to that self-knowledge add a more jealous self-watchfulness and a
more resolute self-control. Thus temperance, in
the large and Christian sense, shall be, in the
growth of your religious character, the parent of
stability and perseverance.  Self-indulgence, in
one form or another, -a habit of pleasing one's
self, -a yielding of the mind to impulses and dispositions that ought to be held in subjection,is the chief and proximate cause of religious instability. It is not by accident, nor without a
serious meaning, that the grace of steadfastness is
named by an apostle in close connection with the




STEADFASTNESS.            151
grace of self-control. Remember her who lingered
and looked back, when God's angel was leading
her to safety.  Forget the things which are behind, if you would press toward the mark for the
prize.
III. Above all, let your faith, your conscientiousness, your knowledge, your self-denial, be
continually reinforced by the contemplation of
God and of things invisible and eternal.  This
habit of mind —and nothing else when this is
wanting —gives seriousness, gravity, and immovable strength to religious purposes and affections.








CHAPTER VII.
GODLINESS.




"Behold, he prayeth." Acts ix. 11.
"Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when
thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, who is in secret;
and thy Father who seeth in secret will reward thee openly."
Matt. vi. 6.
"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the
Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance." Eph.
vi. 18.
" Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving." Col. iv. 2.
"Exercise thyself unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having
promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."
1 Tim. iv. 7, 8.
"Giving all diligence, add... to patience godliness."
2 Pet. i. 6.
"The doctrine which is according to godliness." 1 Tim.
vi. 3.




CHAPTER VIII.
GODLINESS.
Intercourse with God. Christianity is "godliness."  The
reenthronement of God in the soul. Progress from faith
onward. Elements of godliness: the "fear of God;" the
habit of prayer; the habit of praise. Godliness, if genuine,
presupposes faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, steadfastness, and is their vital power. How godliness is added to
patience.
THE Christian life is a life of intercourse with
God. "Behold, he prayeth," as it was said of
Saul when he had submitted himself to Christ,
may be said of every one in whom the life of
spiritual renovation and progress has begun. If
you have entered on a Christian course, you have
already begun to pray, believing that God is the
rewarder of them who diligently seek him. You
acknowledge the authority and embrace the promise of that saying, "Thou, when thou prayest,
enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy
door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and




156        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
thy Father who seeth in secret will reward thee
openly."  A praying man, "praying always with
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and
watching thereunto with all perseverance and
supplication," is a godly man.
"In all thy ways acknowledge God."    Look
to him continually, cherishing the sense of your
relation to him, and of his holy and loving presence ever surrounding you. Let all your undertakings be " begun, continued, and ended in
him."  This is godliness.
The word which in the'New Testament is
translated "godliness" signifies worship, or the
sentiment and habit of reverence, with the added
idea that it is the right kind of worship. Sometimes the word is used as a name for the true
religion,-the religion-which acknowledges and
honors the living and true God, revealed in the
person of Christ his son; and sometimes it is used
as denoting that particular trait or habit of a religious life which the word particularly describes,
- the habit of recognizing God, and communing
with him in acts of spiritual worship.
In the former application, the word is beauti



GODLINESS.              157
fully suggestive. The religion which the gospel
proclaims and establishes-the religion to which
Christ recovers men by his redeeming and renewing work-the religion of the kingdom of God
on earth - the religion which the Church, made
up of all the redeemed and holy, maintains in its
faith, in its teaching and testimony, and in its
practice - is godliness, the reverent knowledge
and service of the living God. Coming into a
world long darkened by estrangement from God
and ignorance of him, it dispels that darkness by
restoring the knowledge and the free and loving
worship of him whose presence, seen by faith,
illuminates all worlds. It reinthrones God in human thoughts and affections. Wherever it goes,
with its victories over unbelief and sin; voices
as of herald angels proclaim, " Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell
with them, and they shall be his people, and God
himself shall be with them and be their God."
Godliness, then, in the more definite use of the
word as descriptive of personal character, is nothing else than the same. reenthronement of God
in an individual soul. It is that particular aspect




158        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
of a Christian life which is seen in the intercourse
of thought and affection between the individual
soul and God. As the world lying in wickedness is a profaned and dishonored temple which
the gospel, in its progress, is to cleanse, and in
which it is to reestablish God's spiritual and
accepted worship,- so the individual soul, in its
apostate condition, is a desecrated temple; and
when the lustration of that living temple has
been performed,-when the fire of sacrifice has
been kindled within on the reestablished altar,
-when the thoughts and affections of that soul
have become habitually fragrant to God with
sweet incense of a penitent and loving worship,
- that is godliness. It is the conscious intercourse of the. soul with God.  As distinguished
from the other elements of a Christian character,
it is the habit and spirit of devotion,- that state
of mind in which God is consciously present,
the object of trust and love, as well as of awe.
It is the soul's obedience to the precept, "Pray
without ceasing: in every thing give thanks."
Perhaps I may show you how the habit and
the living spirit of devotion are related to other




GODLINESS.              159
elements of Christian character, by representing
to you, if I can, the progress of an earnest mind,
as the characteristics of the new man are successively formed in the heart and manifested in the
life. The man, we will suppose, has been made
to feel, with some degree of distinctness, his own
estrangement from God, and his need of a Saviour
who can bring him back to the fountain of light
and life. To him, in that state of mind, the gospel
comes.,It unvails before him the character of God,
the dread realities of the infinite hereafter, and
the way of salvation by the reconciling blood of
Christ and the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit.
He receives that gospel as true; he accepts its
offers as his hope for eternity; he yields himself
to be guided by its teachings; he becomes a believer. This is the beginning of his Christian
progress. He has faith, —not a merely speculative reception of the gospel, but a confidence in
it,-a living faith, which, from the moment of
its commencement in his soul, is the commencement of a new and spiritual life. In such a faith
is involved, undoubtedly, all that makes, when
fully developed, a matured and completed Chris



160        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
tian character; just as the oak that has braved
the storms of a thousand winters was once included in a tender sprout from a half-buried acorn
— so tender that it might have been crushed by
an infant's foot. But his faith will grow into
that matured and completed Christian character,
only as he gives all diligence to a course of continued and divinely guided self-discipline.  To
such diligence his faith is prompting him. And
now as he inquires what God, what Christ would
have him do, his conscience is quickened by the
impulse of this new principle of faith; his moral
sense acquires new sensibility and power; he forms
not the purpose only, but the habit also, of doing
always that which he U'nderstands to be the will
of God; and thus he adds to his faith virtue.
As he pursues this cotrse, training himself to the
habit of well-doing, his mind already touched and
stimulated in its intellectual faculty by the power
of faith in things not seen, acquires a more familiar acquaintance with the comprehensive principles of duty; and, by the practice of inquiring
what is right in order to do right, he rises above
mere forms and narrow, unintelligent rules of




GODLINESS.              161
duty, and learns to act under the guidance of great
principles clearly discerned and readily applied.
Thus he adds to his virtue knowledge.    Still
going on toward the measure of the stature of a
perfect man in Christ, he becomes conscious that
nothing is more adverse to his progress, or tends
more to pervert his moral judgment, and to lead
him through freedom into licentiousness, than the
remaining power of those desires and impulses
which reign unresisted in the natural man.  He
therefore sets himself to subdue those desires and
impulses, to get the command over himself in all
his feelings, and to bring his whole nature into a
cherished subjection to truth and God. He adds
to his knowledge temperance. As he becomes
more acquainted with himself and with the dangers that beset his way,- he feels more deeply that
he must never parley with temptation; that, if he
is to escape the fate of those who draw back to
perdition, he must maintain a watchful steadfastness, and that he can not depend on impulses and
feelings merely.  He gives all diligence to be
steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord. Thus he adds to temperance
11




162        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
patience, or holy constancy, the patience of the
saints.
But this is not the complete analysis of Christian character or of Christian progress. Faith,
virtue, knowledge, temperance, and constancy,
must be supported and enlivened, each of them and
all of them, by conscious and constant intercourse
with God. To every one of them, regarded as
Christian qualities, the recognition of God, as the
object of the soul's confidence and homage, is essential. A holy constancy of purpose-to follow Christ
and to obey his words is impossible, without constancy of intercourse with God. - He who would
add to faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and
to knowledge temperance, and to temperance steadfastness, must add to that steadfastness, and incorporate with it, the habit of reverent and affectionate communion with God; or his diligence in other
respects will be to little purpose. He must add
" TO PATIENCE GODLINESS."
The idea of godliness as distinguished from other
Christian qualities, and the relation of godliness in
that sense to spiritual life and growth, may be set
in a clearer light, by recollecting what particulars
are included in this meaning of the word.




GODLINESS.              163
One part of godliness is the habitually-cherished
sentiment so often spoken of in the Scriptures as
"the fear of God."  The godly man is one who
carries in his mind a reverent sense of what God
is. He cherishes the awing and subduing thought
of his own relation to that eternal majesty and
purity. He realizes, in every place and in every
employment, the presence of that holiness to which
all must give account. He learns to see God in
all the works of creative power and wisdom, and
to acknowledge him in all the unfolding of his universal providence.
In a true and Christian godliness, the sentiment
of veneration toward God carries with it a sentiment of love, or of affectionate and obedient confidence. The " fear of God," prompted by faith, is
something very different from a slavish dread. It
is a loving and adoring awe. It has no place where
there is not a confiding and cheerful complacency
in God, an elevating and inspiring fellowship
with his holiness. The godly man -he who has
effectually received "the doctrine which is according to godliness" -looks up to his Father in
heaven, not in dumb terror, but with a humble




164       CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE..
trust, a free and filial spirit, a mind rejoicing in
God's power and universal dominion; and this is
love toward God.
Prayer is a part of godliness, and is essential to
it. Mere contemplation is not godliness, nor is
mere sentiment and feeling. A man may have a
philosopher's reach and depth of thought, and may
meditate sublimely on the being and the works of
God, and yet not be a godly man. He may have
a poet's splendor of imagination and tenderness
of sensibility; the beauty of God's slightest and
meanest workmanship may fill his eye with tears;
and yet he may come far short of being a godly
man. The devoutness of a Christian life includes
positive worship. It is not merely the flight of
lofty thought, nor the flight of raptured feeling.
It is the soul addressing itself directly and expressly to God, in the simplicity of the " belief that
God is and that he is the rewarder of them who
diligently seek him." The godly man regards
God as his Father, to whose kind ear he can have
secret and familiar access; and to that Father he
addresses himself in all his weakness and in all his
wants.




GODLINESS               165
Nor does he come to God with his petitions only;
he has thanks, adoration, praise to offer at the
mercy-seat. He loves to breathe out before God
his reverence, his gratitude, his confidence, and his
joy, as well as his desires and fears. The true
description of this godliness is in the Bible, full of
the thoughts which godly men have ever loved to
utter in the ear of God. Surely there is no need
of my taking pains to show you, from the examples
which the Bible gives you, how large a place
there is for adoration and joyful praise in the
soul's intercourse with God.
Observe, then, how obvious is the mutual dependence between godliness, or devoutness, and the
other elements of Christian character.
A genuine godliness is impossible, except in connection with the other elements of Christian life
and progress, and especially with those which have
been illustrated in the foregoing chapters. Godliness is something to be " added" not only to faith,
but to virtue, knowledge, temperance, and stability.
These are, in some sort, the indispensable prerequisites to a real and habitual communion with
God. We sometimes see a man setting out to be




166        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
very godly - a great example of devoutness --
without conscientiousness, or moral discrimination,
or self-control, or steadfastness of character. He
undertakes to add to his faith godliness, omitting those graces, intermediate in the catalogue,
which are the preliminary conditions of a developed
and thriving godliness. He does not add to faith
virtue; he has no strong and earnest conscientiousness, no fervent purpose to do always all
that is right, and to avoid always all that is wrong.
He does not add to virtue knowledge; he does
not apply habitually in his life those great principles of evangelical obedience which make the believer free indeed. He does not add to knowledge
temperance; he has never entered upon that Conflict with himself by which he is to acquire'the
control over the passions that pervert the moral
judgment and sear the moral sensibilities of selfpleasing men. He does not add to temperance
constancy; he does not combine with his attempt
or profession of well-doing that steadiness of purpose, which, having once put the hand to the
plough, refuses to turn back, or to look back, from
the furrow, - and which, instead of yielding the




GODLINESS.              167
soul to the power of emotions changing like the
wind, and of impulses fluctuating asithe sea, keeps
it under the direction of principle fixed as the
north-star.  All these.things he deems of little
moment; but before these, and instead of these, is
to be his godliness. A devotional habit, such as it
is, he holds to be the whole of Christian character.
Such godliness is unreal. That man's religion is
vain. He   ay deceive himself-he may not be
that gross, low hypocrite Who knows his own
hypocrisy; but, by and by, he will be found to be
a pretender.
Godliness, in order to be real, must have some
foundation in the character. It can not stand by
itself where other elements of Christian progress
are wanting.  Godliness is a renewed and holy
mind manifesting itself in those affections and
duties of which God is the immediate object.
But will the mind exercise itself aright in those
affections and duties which relate immediately to
God, if virtue, knowledge, temperance, and constancy are wanting? Godliness is the soul's communion with God. But how can a man commune
with God —how can he add to his faith godli



168        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
ness —when his faith does not quicken his conscience to virtue, and make him alive to all his
daily duties in all human relations? - when his
faith does not inform and. enliven his soul- with
the active power of that knowledge which is the
inspiration of free obedience? - when his faith
does not bring him into conflict with all the infirmities of his corrupted nature?- when his
faith imparts to his character no gravity nor
constancy? That man's devoutness, fervent as it
may seem, much as he may talk of it, much as he
may rejoice in it, is all pretense or all delusion.
So, on the other hand, the foregoing traits of
character are of no worth, unless they lead on to
godliness, or are connected with it. Let there be
virtue, knowledge, temperance, and constancy, all
connected with faith and with each other, as they
must be in a mind that is truly renewed; and that
renewed mind will add to them godliness, for without the habit of intercourse with God, they are all
dead. In such intercourse with God, faith finds
its most invigorating exercise. In such intercourse
with God, conscience becomes more sensitive to
evil, and more efficient in its dominion over the vol



GODLINESS.             169
untary powers. In such intercourse with God, the
soul, beholding the countenance of him who is infinite purity and infinite love, is inspired with clearer
perceptions of the law of love; and, enlarged with
such knowledge, it learns to walk in the manly
freedom of the sons of God. In such intercourse
with God, the soul is strengthened for conflict with
its own infirmities, and learns to strive more earnestly and more effectually for the mastery over
itself. In such communion with God, the soul
grows strong in the Lord and in the power of his
might, and thus the believer, divinely armed and
strengthened, learns to stand above dependence
upon varying impulses, "steadfast, unmoveable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord."
It is important, then, to a full and well-proportioned Christian growth, that, while you use all
diligence to make your faith complete in a manly
well-doing, and your virtue in knowledge, and
your knowledge in temperance, and your temperance in a Christian constancy, you use the same
diligence to develop, as the completeness and
beauty of your constancy, and in vital connection
with it, godliness, or the habit and spirit of intercourse with God.




170        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
But here you may reasonably ask, How shall
I add to patience godliness? By what care and
pains may I acquire these devotional habits of
thought, of feeling, and of action?  How shall
this element of a well-proportioned Christian character-an element so essential to the completeness and the life of every other-be so formed
in me that it shall be self-manifested in my life?
There is a simple way of answering such inquiries.
I. In all thy ways acknowledge God.  If you
would have your constancy in the Christian profession, and the steadfastness of your well-doing,
adorned and completed in the beauty of a devotional spirit, so that your face shall shine with
an unconscious glory caught from intercourse with
heaven, you must be careful to acknowledge God
in all your ways, remembering distinctly his presence and your relations of dependence and responsibility.  Let every duty —not religious duties
only, but duties of every class-not great and
arduous duties only, but all those seemingly less
important acts of duty which make up so much
of the labor and discipline of this life-be performed with a distinct reference to God's will, and




GODLINESS.              171
as under his eye.  Let every temptation - the
least as well as the greatest —be encountered
not in the unsupported strength of a sturdy and
steadfast will, not by inferior and merely prudential considerations, but by throwing the mind
upon its consciousness of God's presence, and its
assurance of his gracious help.  Thus learn by
practice and experience the beauty of that rule,
-" Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
II. Cultivate the habit of observing God in his
works. The whole creation is full of the Creator.
Eyes blinded by unbelief can indeed explore the
creation without discovering the impress of God's
hand and the gleams of his glory that linger upon
every thing that he has made. But let not your
eye be so heedless or so undiscerning. Learn to
see God as he reveals himself in nature. See him
in the morning and the evening, -in the beauty
of the earth, and the radiance of the sky.  See
him in the swelling bud, in the opening blossom,
in the fruit that blushes as it ripens. See him in
the rainbow, the shower, the dew, the falling
snow-flake. See him --    oh, where can you not




172        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
see him, if your eye is once opened to discern his
glory? Thus shall you find yourself ever more
and more encompassed with God. Nor is God to
be regarded as manifested in creation only; to
the believing mind, he is continually exhibiting
himself in his works of'providence. Learn to
acknowledge him  as the Supreme Disposer of
events, without whom no revolution of empire
shakes and confounds the nations, and without
whom no sparrow falleth to the ground. See him
in all the changes that affect your welfare or your
duties. He gives you daily bread. He appoints
your daily tasks. He permits, for his own wise
purposes connected with your highest welfare,
the temptations that make your daily conflicts.
When the floods of sorrow overwhelm you, and
deep calleth to deep, it is the noise of his waterspouts that you hear, it is his waves that have
gone over you. Learn to observe him and acknowledge him in nature and in providence.
III. Study to become more and more acquainted
with God in the Bible. See how he reveals himself there to your admiration, your confidence,
your grateful affection! See the illustrations of




GODLINESS.              173
his goodness, his mercy, his faithfulness, his lovingkindness! See his glory shining upon you from
the face of Christ!   Trust in him!   Commit
yourself, in all your interests, to his love and
power.   Fill your mind with his thoughts, as he
communicates them  to you in his Word.    Let
his affections reign in your heart.  Let his illdwelling Spirit be the life of your soul. So shall
you walk with God. So shall you dwell in the
secret place of the Most High, and abide under
the tabernacle of the Almighty.








CHAPTER IX.
BROTHERLY KINDNESS.




" Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love."
Rom. xii. 10.
"As touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto
you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another."
1 Thess. iv. 9.
"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth
through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see
that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently." 1 Pet.
i. 22.
"Put on therefore, as the elect- of God, holy and beloved,
bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness,
long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one
another; if any man have a quarrel against any: even as
Christ forgave you, so also do ye." Col. iii. 12, 13.
" Giving all diligence, add - to godliness brotherly kindness."
2 Pet. i. 5, 7.




CHAPTER IX.
BROTHERLY KINDNESS.
Natural affections - their place in the formation of a Christian character. Brotherly kindness in the New Testament.
The Christian self-discipline adds to godliness brotherly kindness. Godliness without human sympathies -its defects and
dangers. Healthful influence of human sympathies on the
religious life.
"WITHOUT natural affection" is the lowest
deep of human degradation. It is always to be
assumed, in dealing even with the most hardened
of outcasts from society, that however insensible
he may be to moral obligation and to the fear of
God, there is somewhere within him a remnant of
natural affection.  If it turns out otherwise,-if
there is no lingering memory of mother or sister,
living or dead, of father or brother, of wife or
child, of teacher or friend, which can be wakened
into tenderness, - there is no hope for him; he
is more than "twice dead;" his moral nature is
12




178        CHRISTIAN SEL]'-CULTURE.
"plucked up by the roots;" for these natural
affections, the ties of sympathy and instinctive
love which bind us to each other in the special
relations of human society, are at once the earliest
and the latest of the divinely provided restraints
on human selfishness, - the earliest to be felt, the
latest to lose their power.
It would be strange, then, if those natural
affections had no place or part in the formation
of a Christian character and the progress of the
Christian life. It would be strange, if we did not
find the apostles, in those Scriptures which have
come down to us from them, warning us against
"bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour
and evil-speaking," and whatever tends to disturb
the interchange of kindly feeling in the- relations
that constitute families and friendships and neighborhoods and churches and commonwealths, and
exhorting us to "put on, as the elect of God,
holy and beloved, deep feelings of sympathy,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving
one another, if any man have a complaint against
any."  It would be strange if we did not find




BROTHERLY KINDNESS.          179
them counseling husbands and wives, parents and
children, masters and servants, to an affectionate
well-doing in the relations that bind them to each
other. Most of all would it be strange if we dia
not find them, and the Master, too, insisting with
special distinctness on the affection which naturally springs up between fellow-disciples, partakers
in a common salvation, worshiping at the same
mercy-seat, working together in the same blessed
service, and recognizing each other as brethren in
Christ. If you would " grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour," you must
take care not to be.wanting in this element'of the
Christian character and of the Christian life.
The term " brotherly kindness," or " brotherly
love," as used in the New Testament, seems to
mean social affection or sympathy, as that principle of human nature is elevated and sanctified
by grace in the believer, and particularly as it
exists among believers in their relation to each
other. I need not undertake to prove that there
is such a principle in human nature as God made
it,- a principle of special kindness and sympathy
between those who are specially connected with




180        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
each other in the bonds that constitute society, -
a principle by Which those who are brought into
such relations, whether in the family or in the
neigborhood, whether in the daily studies and
sports of childhood or in the daily labors of
maturer years, whether as inhabitants of the same
village or as citizens in the same commonwealth,
are bound together, not merely in the sympathies
of a common humanity and the vague sentiment
of philanthropy, but in ties of special affection.
That there is such a principle in our nature, and
that God must have designed it for a good purpose,
is too obvious to be disputedl. Whether this principle of special attachment can be analyzed into
other and simpler elements, is a question of no consequence here. Let it suffice that there is such a
principle, and that it belongs to our nature by the
will of our Creator. This principle, - elevated and
sanctified by the grace of God, and especially in
the form of that special affection which springs up
between Christian believers in their relation to
each other as members of the household of faith,
-is what is meant in the New Testament by
"brotherly kindness," or " brotherly love."




BROTHERLY KINDNESS.         181
You, then, if you would " live godly in Christ
Jesus," must take care that your godliness be
completed and adorned, by adding to it brotherly
kindness. For the guidance of those who undertook to be Christians when Christianity was new,
it was not enough to admonish them that their
reception of the gospel should not be left incomplete, by being without virtue or a resolute and
conscientious purpose to do right; that their conscientiousness should not be misguided by being
without the enlightening and emancipating effect
of knowledge; that their knowledge should not
be permitted to make them reckless and self-indulgent, by being without temperance, or manly
self-control; that their temperance should not be
the fluctuating conflict with inclination, which it
will be if it is temperance without steadfastness;
that their steadfastness should not be mere strength
of will, or force of habit, as it must be, unless, by
being conjoined with godliness, it becomes a
steadfast walking with God: it was also needful to admonish them that their godliness or devoutness should not be without the softening influence of social affection and sympathy.




182         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
Is it then possible that godliness, or even what
seems to be godliness, may be separated from
brotherly kindness?  Ought we not rather to
presume that inasmuch as man is made for society, and is connected with his fellow-men around
him by instinctive affections, piety towards God
must of course be social; and that the separation
of it from social sympathies and duties can not
really be? In some sense, doubtless, it is true
that worship asks for society and sympathy; yet,
in another sense, the godliness or devoutness of
the recluse, who shuts himself up for the sake of
being religious alone, is not altogether unnatural.
That particular trait or habit of a religious life
which we distinguish by the name of godliness
is the intercourse of the soul with God. It is the
soul looking up to God, habitually, in veneration,
love, prayer, praise. In a word, it is worship.
And wherever worship is really offered, - whether in the wilderness or in the city, - whether in
the closet or in the great congregation, - it is
nothing else than the thoughts and emotions of
individual minds, offered, consciously and directly,
to God. All that there is in united worship to




BROTHERLY KINDNESS.         183
guide and quicken the mind is without effect,
unless the mind thus quickened and guided does,
itself, as an individual worshiper, address to God
its own thought and emotion. All is in vain, unless the individual mind, by its own act, is brought
into communication with God, not through the
minister or the congregation, but directly.  Devoutness, then, or worship, which is what we
mean by godliness as an element in a religious
life, may easily tend to withdraw itself from social
affections and duties. Inasmuch as private devotion, or the solitary communion of the soul with
God, is a necessary preparation for public worship, - and, on the other hand, a participation in
public worship, if it is true and fervent, sends
the worshiper back to his retirement, there to
renew and pursue his personal intercourse with
heaven, - we need not wonder if sometimes the
devout man begins to feel as if no duty were to
be thought of in comparison with the duty of
prayer and meditation, and as if the one great
business of his life were to contemplate with adoring thoughts the manifestations of God in revelation and in nature. When his mind has fallen




184        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
into such a habit, he will naturally begin to feel,
erelong, as if his human affections and sympathies, and the relations which bind him to society,
were a disadvantage to him, - as if solitude were
better than society for his religious progress and
enjoyment, —and as if he ought to withdraw as
much as he may from human fellowship that he
may spend his life in waiting upon God. Thus
his religion, if such feelings continue to grow
upon him, becomes unsocial. He cherishes the
dream of some retirement where he may be with
God, and be responsible for no man's welfare but
his own. The actual character of those around
him who bear the Christian name is painfully
incongruous with his ideal; he sees no benefit to
be derived from fellowship with them; and he
thinks that if he could be freed from the entanglements of human sympathies and social duties, he
could grow in grace. His godliness is honest and
earnest; but it is one-sided, and, therefore, incomplete.
But what are the defects and dangers of such a
godliness? This religion, in which the devotional
sentiment is not properly united with human affec



BROTHERLY KINDNESS.          185
tions and sympathies,-this self-isolating godliness that enjoys itself only in the shade, and lives
only in its own musings, - what are its tendencies in respect to the completeness of Christian
character? Can it attain to the stature of a perfect man in Christ 2 You may learn something
from an intelligent answer to this inquiry.
The most obvious answer is, that godliness, disjoined from brotherly kindness, tends to an inactive and indolent type of religion. It muses and
thinks; it kindles with the fervor of its own meditations; it prays and adores, and mounts up as
into heaven on the wings of contemplation; - or,
what is quite as likely, it walks sadly and tremblingly; it weeps in secret places; it sees not the
light of God's countenance; it moans over its own
sorrows; it is distressed both with some dim feeling
of its own deficiencies, and with the sight of wickedness and sorrow; it often repeats to itself, " 0
that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly
away and be at rest;" -but it forgets to ask,
" Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? " Disjoined
as it is from human sympathies, failing to recognize the ties that connect each soul with kindred




186        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
souls around, it does not feel the impulses which
prompt our nature to activity and to the putting
forth of influence upon others; or, if it feels those
impulses, it does not recognize them as proceeding
from God, and essential to mental and spiritual
health, but rather as something with which godliness has no alliance. A religion thus imperfect
and one-sided is deficient in respect to usefulness.
Because it lacks brotherly kindness, it tends to the
neglect of that great precept, " Let us do good to
all men as we have opportunity, and especially to
those of the household of faith."  It is unconscious of having been kindled to shine as a light
in the world. It is like a lamp lighted in a tomb
and left to burn itself away.
You see, then, that such a godliness is not in
harmony with the divine constitution of our nature. Godliness, disjoined from the special sympathies and affections of human society, is not
such a godliness as man was made for.    Man
was not made to think merely and to feel, but to
work under the guidance of thought and the impulse of feeling. He was not made for solitude;
that judgment of his Creator, " It is not good for




BROTHERLY KINDNESS.          187
man to be alone," is written on every part of his
complex nature. If we look at him in his relation to God, he was made, not for worship
merely, but for service. The powers with which
he is endowed,- the natural bonds which connect him with his fellow-men, - the affections
and sympathies which make those bonds a joy,
and can not be suppressed without some violence
done to nature,- all show that God has made
man, and placed him in this world, not to worship
only but to serve.   That godliness, then, to
which brotherly kindness in every brotherly relation has not been added as by a vital growth
is not in harmony with the nature of man, as
made for activity or as made for society. Thus
it soon parts with common sense; for common
sense is simply practical sense,  that kind of
sense which takes things as they are, and deals
with them  as they are;- that kind of sense
which God has given to man, as a social, active,
working creature, to tell him what to do and how
to do it. And when godliness, or the sentiment
of devotion, has parted with common sense, it
debilitates the soul instead of giving it strength;




188        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
it misleads the judgment; it becomes itself a
morbid thing; it fails of honoring God,
Here let me tell you that the godliness which
is separated from a healthy connection with human sympathies and affections tends to all sorts
of errors in religion. The whole history of religion is full of instruction on this point. Godliness without brotherly kindness is, essentially
enthusiastic. It lives'in the element of feeling.
It is imaginative and speculative. It has to do,
not with the tangible and every-day realities of
sober duty, but rather with the world in which
it walks alone, musing, communing with itself,
kindling itself into excitement for excitement's
sake. Thus becoming itself unhealthy and erratic,
it tends to all sorts of error. It is likely to'misinterpret and misapply the Word of God; for the
glory of the Bible is that it is so wonderfully
a book of common sense and common life. The
recluse, poring over it in his cell, separated from
all human activities and duties, can not understand it aright. The Bible was given for the
support and guidance of man in society; it was
given that it might help us in the duties, cares,




BROTHERLY KINDNESS.          189
sorrows, perils, and conflicts of this actual human
life; and in the cell of a hermit, who has fled
from the duties and the sympathies of manhood,
it is as much out of place as a sun-dial in a
dungeon. For the uses of that unpractical and
self-secluding devotion, the Bible, in its commonsense interpretation, is altogether insufficient.
And, therefore, that such devotion may find its
aliment and stimulus, the Bible, studied under
the guidance of a morbid imagination, is converted into a book of riddles and dreams. The
devotion of the cell; —the devotion that flees
from the homely sympathies and duties of society, - is the parent of mystical interpretation and
of mystical theology. An exaggerated and unpractical sentiment of devotion sees every truth
through a discoloring and distorting medium, and
so builds up its own systems of faith, mystical or
metaphysical, as far removed from any sound interpretation of the Scriptures as they are from
the actual need of human nature it its appointed
sphere of duty and of trial.
It will not be difficult for you to see what
advantages the devotional spirit derives from its




190         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
legitimate association with the sympathies and
affections that belong to man in   society.  In
what way is devoutness, or that part of religion
which is the direct intercourse of the soul with
God, benefited by being joined with brotherly
kindness or the social affections?
First, those social affections, ennobled and elevated by devotion, react to enliven, to guide, and
to strengthen the sentiment or principle of devotion. Godliness, to which brotherly kindness has
been added, says, " Our Father who art in heaven." It says, " Give us this day our daily bread."
It prays, " Forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors." It cries, " Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from   evil."  Godliness without
brotherly kindness is godliness in the  singular
number only. It prays, it confesses, it adores,
only by itself and for itself.  Such godliness sees
nothing, and knows nothing, save itself and God;
and, therefore, it knows neither itself nor God
aright. But godliness, in its legitimate union with
the sympathies and affections that belong to man
in his relations to his fellow-men, strengthens itself by all the natural strength of those affec



BROTHERLY KINDNESS.          191
tions and sympathies. The feeble voice of lonely
devotion swells to a manlier tone when loving
hearts are mingled in household worship, or when
many gathered households in the Sabbath congregation, -frienfds and neighbors, compassed about
with the same perils, struggling in the same conflicts and labors, and sharing the same joys and
sorrows, - fill the temple with their united songs
and prayers.
Thus godliness, in its legitimate union with the
social affections, becomes an active principle, and
rises to a just ascendancy over all the powers and
habits of the soul. Instead of living in silent
musings only, or in lonely communings with the
infinite, it comes forth into the sphere of human
duties and sympathies, to sanctify all that it
touches. When that natural sentiment of worship which exercises itself in the immediate addresses of the soul to God is not only-enlightened
and *directed by Christian faith, but strengthened by being blended with the sentiment of
brotherly kindness in the special relations of human society, it becomes an active force in all the
soul's activity. The man whose godliness is of




192        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
such a sort carries, not merely the form nor
merely the savor of godliness, but something
of its power, into all his intercourse with men.
Familiar with Christ, through whom he finds
access to God, he communes with Christ, and
attains to more and more of his spirit and
likeness, by following him in daily acts of brotherly kindness. He is the godly man in spirit and
in truth, whose godliness is not a mere sentiment,
uttering itself.in prayer and song, or feeding itself
in tranquil meditation, but a practical habit, blending its influence with all household love and duty,
and making home a blessed sanctuary, - the house
of God, - the gate of heaven. He is in truth the
godly man whose godliness, instead of being isolated and unsympathizing, goes forth spontaneously to offer the right hand of brotherhood to fellowworshipers and fellow-believers in Christ, loving
to work with them, loving them because they love
the Lord, and loving to comfort and to help them
for Christ's sake. He is the godly man whose
godliness mingles unaffectedly, yet powerfully, with
all his friendships, - who can not but pray for his
friends because he loves them, and can not but




BROTHERLY KINDNESS.           193
love them the more because he prays for them.
He is the godly man whose godliness, instead of
being a sabbath-day godliness only, or limiting
itself to some particular aspect of this complex
human life, hallows all his patriotic sympathies,
and guides him with a steady force in all the
duties of citizenship and public spirit. This is
true godliness, when the acknowledgment of
God, the religious or devotional sentiment which
Christ has awakened and enlightened, the feeling of worship, -humbled and contrite, yet confiding; awed, yet full of hope and love, - invests
all the legitimate sympathies and duties of this life
with the awfulness of their relation to eternity
and to God, and lifts up this whole mortal life
into the sphere of heavenly influences.
Learn, then, to correct in your own mind-if
you find it there -that unworthy prejudice which
represents religion as consisting exclusively in acts
and exercises of devotion.  That prejudice, so
widely entertained, dishonors religion,- dishonors the soul of man, - dishonors God. Religion
is not a separate and disconnected thing, arbitrarily appended, as it were, to the character of the
13




194         CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE
man; it is not some single act in which the effect
of God's grace begins and is finished; it is not
merely some distinct series of devout actions,
running like a golden thread through the complicated tissue of the man's various activity; it
is not the effect of God's grace upon some single
sentiment or faculty of our fallen nature; -it is
a new life breathed into the soul by the renewing
spirit; a new creation, in which old things pass
away and all things become new; a continued
and all-transforming process, in which the whole
body, soul, and spirit, - all faculties, all sensibilities, all affections and activities, - are sanctified
to the service and the praise of God.




CHAPTER X.
CHARITY.




"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling
cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand
all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith,
so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am
nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.... And now abideth faith, hope,
charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." 1
Cor. xiii. 1-3, 13.
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He
that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.... No
man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God
dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.... If a man
say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he
that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he
love God whom he hath not seen i" 1 John iv. 7, 8, 12, 20.
"And above all these things, put on charity which is the
bond of perfectness." Col. iii. 14.
"Giving all diligence, add - TO BROTHERLY KINDNESS,
CHARITY." 2 Pet. i. 5, 7.




CHAPTER X.
CHARITY.
The great commandment. Love, or holy benevolence, implied in every element of Christian character. Yet, in another
view, it is the consummation of progress in the new Jife.
Brotherly kindness, or instinctive special affection in social
relations, needs to be elevated, expanded, and completed by
the spirit of universal love. The self-discipline which trains
the soul to charity.
BROTHERLY kindness is always beautiful.         It
not only wins our sympathy, but commands respect and honor, especially when it is visibly
associated with religious conscientiousness. Yet
the precept, " Add to brotherly kindness charity,"
gives us to understand that in a completed Christian character there is a higher principle of benevolence.   Charity, as the word is used in the
New Testament, is the same thing with that love
which is required by the great commandment,
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."         It
is love, not in the limited and inferior sense,




198        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
not in the form of- those special attachments
which exist by the instinct of nature between
human beings connected with each other by relations of special dependence and duty, but in
the higher form of universal benevolence, —love
to all, without limitation or partiality. This universal benevolence, - which is to brotherly kindness or the special affections what virtue is to
faith, what knowledge is to virtue, what temperance is to knowledge, namely, its completeness and its security against being perverted and
corrupted, - is represented as the consummation
and the crowning beauty of a truly Christian
character. Thus the apostle Paul, having exhorted his friends at Colosse.to all the acts and
manifestations of brotherly kindness, or of that
special affection which they owed to each other
as members of the same Christian fellowship,
proceeds to urge upon them the higher and more
comprehensive duty of universal love.  Having
entreated them to " put on " sympathy, kindness,
humility, meekness, slowness to anger, and readiness to forgive, he adds, " And above all these
things " -that is, upon them, like a girdle, -" put




CHARITY.                199
on charity which is the bond of perfectness." It
is of this love that the apostle John speaks when
he says, "If we love one another," with a love
like that with which God loved us and in which
he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our.sins,
"God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected
in us." Thus it is that, in the passage which
above all others illustrates so beautifully the
meaning of this word charity, the apostle, while
insisting on the unspeakable superiority of personal holiness over all gifts, however wonderful,
and showing how prophecies will cease, and
tongues will fail, and knowledge will vanish
away, says, " Charity never faileth;" and again,
" Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three;"
-these are the permanent things, permanent as
religion itself, permanent as the soul which they
quicken and adorn, -" but the greatest of these
is charity."
Yet it is not to be supposed that because this
love, or charity is the crowning grace of a completed Christian character, therefore there are
some forms and degrees of Christian character
in which this element is wholly wanting.  On




200        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
the contrary, there is no true Christian profession, no renovation to holiness, no effectual experience of Christ's saving work, without love
in this highest meaning of the word. Thus our
Lord. himself taught, on many occasions, that
there is no true obedience to God where the
heart does not obey that great command, " Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Thus Paul
says, "He that loveth another hath fulfilled the
law;" for every commandment in respect to your
neighbor, every thing forbidden, and every thing
required, is briefly comprehended in this saying,
" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love
worketh no ill to its neighbor; therefore love is
the fulfilling of the law." And again, he says,
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and
of angels, and have not charity, I am become as
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though
I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have
all faith so that I could remove mountains, and
have not charity, I am nothing.  And though
I bestow all,my goods to feed' the poor, and
though I give my body to be burned, and have




CHARITY.               201
not charity, it profiteth me nothing." All works
and sacrifices of zeal, even in the service of religion, are worthless, if they are not inspired by love.
In another way, but with the same purport, the
apostle John says, " Every one that loveth is born
of God; he that loveth not knoweth not God,
for God is love." "If a man say, I love God,
and hateth his brother," -not his brother Christian merely, but his brother man, -" he is a liar;
for he- that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen, how can he love God whom he hath not
seen?" We may set it down, then, as a first
principle, that there is no truly Christian character
in which love, charity, universal benevolence, is
not an element. Wherever there is faith, a true
and active faith, it is faith that works by love.
Wherever there is virtue springing from faith, it
is conscience owning the obligation of the law of
love. Wherever there is knowledge or moral discrimination, it is a mind enlightened and trained
to see spontaneously what the law of love requires. Wherever there is a Christian self-control, it is a mind struggling against its own infirmities and passions, that it may be what God




202        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
would have it be, and may thus fulfill his benevolent designs. Wherever there is the principle of
Christian steadfastness, it is the perseverance of
a mind in which selfish impulses and habits are
progressively subdued by the new spirit within,the indwelling spirit of God's love. Wherever
there is a true communion with God in worship,
it is a mind that beholds and adores the glory
of God as the loving Creator and Ruler of the
universe.  And wherever there is a Christian
brotherly kindness, it is that special affection
toward members of the household of faith, or
toward others in relations of special sympathy
and duty, which is felt and cherished by a mind
that pays its willing homage to the law of universal love.  Without a mind obedient to the
law which says, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself," there can be neither repentance toward God nor faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
It will not be safe for you to forget that such
charity is essential to the beginning of a Christian life, and equally essential to every stage of
Christian progress.
Yet it is not the less to be remembered that




CHARITY.               203
charity, considered as the completeness of Christian
character, " the bond of perfectness," must be the
result of growth in grace. As related to other
elements of Christian life and progress, it is the
consummation of them all. In one who has just
been Converted from entire worldliness and unbelief, tie new mind may naturally make itself known
chiefly in the simplicity with which it relies on the
reality of things not seen, and lays hold on the
offers and hopes of the gospel. It may be exhibited in a new tenderness of conscience, and a
manly purpose to do right,- adding to faith
virtue. As it advances, it will naturally become
more familiar with the principles of the new life,
will see with a more prompt and accurate judgment what is right, and will act in the spirit of a
larger freedom, — adding to virtue knowledge.
Still advancing, it becomes acquainted with the
need of a vigilant self-control, aJd manifests itself
in the endeavor to subdue every wayward impulse,
and to live and walk in the pure light of truth,- and
so it adds to knowledge temperance. As the same
new mind goes on from strength to strength, the
disciple who was at first dependent upon frames




204        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
and feelings becomes steadfast, a firm and persevering Christian, strong in the stability of principle,-having   added to temperance patience.
Then, you may see him in another stage of his
spiritual growth; he walks with God, day by day,
in calm and heavenly intercourse; he dwells as in
the secret place of the Most High, —for to patience he has added godliness. Observing still the
progress of his character, you see that his devoutness, instead of making him unsocial and austere,
quickens his natural sympathies with those around
him, and especially with his fellow-disciples, and
the grace of God within him shows itself in the
sympathies and duties which connect him   with
brethren and friends, with home and country, with
the church and with the civil commonwealth, - for
he adds to godliness brotherly kindness. Nor'is
this all. In that brotherly kindness there is something more than the mere play of natural sympathies. Inasmuch as it is Christian, the brotherly
kindness of a soul that walks with God, there is
in it continually something of the spirit of God's
love; and thus brotherly kindness, in the various
forms of special sympathy and affection, grows




CHARITY.                205
into charity. The circles of that love, obedient
to the elastic force that shapes them, spread and
widen till they include the world. The disciple
whose conversion was first seen in the simple faith
with which he laid hold on God's word of grace
and hope, and in the humble, scrupulous, yet resolute conscientiousness with which he set himself to
the performance of all duty, stands up at last in
the manifest likeness of his Father in heaven, who
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
I have represented all this as if it were a natural growth, and in one sense it is entirely natural.
Yet you must not forget that there is another view.
In all the progress of the new and spiritual nature
there is need of diligence. This charity, which
so beautifully completes and crowns the combination of Christian graces, can not be attained without diligent self-culture. All spiritual growth is
simply the progress which the soul makes when,
forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, it
presses toward the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Jesus Christ.  Charity grows




206       CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
out of brotherly kindness only in that soul which,
moved by the Holy Spirit and living in fellowship
with Christ, is humbly and earnestly endeavoring
to become continually more like God. In other
minds, the instinctive sentiment which connects
them with the family, with kindred and friends,
with countrymen, and with associates in the same
religious body, is often seen to be the antagonist
of charity.
Think, then, what these instinctive affections
are when separated from the spirit of universal
love. In other words, what becomes of brotherly
kindness, in whatever form, when charity is not
added to it? For example; what is patriotism
without charity? The love of one's own native
land, and of one's own countrymen as distinguished from the men of other lands, is a natural
affection, and there is something generous in it, as
there is in every human sympathy. But is it of
course, and always, a benevolent affection? Does
it of course expand into benevolence?  On the
contrary, is there not in every land a vulgar and
heathenish patriotism, essentially malignant in its
tendency? In the language of such patriotism,




CHARITY.               207
as in the language of ancient Rome, a foreigner is
the same thing with an enemy; or, as in the language of ancient Greece, a foreigner is the same
thing with a barbarian. Such patriotism breathes
hatred and contempt toward all mankind. How
plain is it that the instinctive human sentiment of
affection toward one's own country and countrymen, instead of being essentially benevolent, is
often-nay, when detached from Christian principle, is naturally - nothing else than an extended and exaggerated selfishness, the more odious
for the grandeur of the scale on which it operates.
So of a man's instinctive affection for his family; -
how often do you see that affection, instead of
wakening the man to higher and better sentiments,
and making him feel (as his Creator designed it
should make him feel) his position in the universal
family of God, actually tending the other way,
and making him more and more selfish toward all
to whom he is not bound by this instinctive passion. Just so the sentiment of special affection
which naturally springs up among- those who hold
the same religious doctrines, and cherish the same
traditions, —which makes them feel that they have




208        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
common interests, and which brings them together
in a special communion both of worship and of
enterprise and effort, - needs to be watched lest it
become uncharitable, narrow, bigoted, the antagonist more than the support of that higher sentiment which is kindred to the universal love of God
and the infinite pity of Christ. The very sympathy of brother with brother in the same church,
unless each, giving all diligence, adds to brotherly
kindness charity, may degenerate into a sectarian
narrowness of feeling. Who will tell us that it
does not often so degenerate till it becomes, in
God's sight, hardly better or holier than the sympathy which connects the members of a political
faction or of a masonic fraternity? Brotherly
kindness, thus degenerate, and corrupt by unhallowed separation from  the principle of universal love, becomes a most unchristian clannishness.
But, on the other hand, where the believer,
walking humbly with God, and loving his brethren- of the household of faith, gives diligence that
he may add to brotherly kindness charity, there
brotherly kindness, in all its sympathies and im



CHARITY.               209
pulses, is hallowed and exalted by that higher principle of universal love to which it ministers. In
the church, the kindly sympathy of brother with
brother being thus ennobled is a sympathy by
which they incite each other to aspirations and
works of Christ-like love. The affection which binds
such an one to his own family, being sanctified by
its alliance with the higher principle of universal
love, is an affection which makes him more ready
to feel for the welfare of all; - as when a woman
was once asked, " Is that your son for whom you
are so interested in his danger? "  -and she made
answer, "No, but he is somebody's son."  Such a
man's love of country swells by a natural expansion
into universal philanthropy;- not that he loves
his country less, or is less ready to labor and to
suffer for its welfare; but the circles of his benevolence still expand beyond the habitations of his
kindred, beyond the limits of his native land,
beyond the mountains and the seas, in fellowship
with the all-embracing love of God.
By what kind of diligence, then, and in what
methods, may you make this grace of charity the
completeness of your Christian character?
14




210        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
1. Cultivate the spirit of universal love by a
devout and intelligent communion with God. The
Creator of the'universe, who has filled it with life
and with riches, and whose presence and character
are everywhere manifested to the eye of faith, is
the God of universal love. The controlling and upholding power of the universe, watching everywhere
over the welfare of his creatures, and overruling all
events into subserviency to his designs, is the God
of universal love. The holy Lawgiver and Judge
of the universe, who has hedged up the way of
sin with dreadful penalties, and who makes himself known in all worlds as the protector of innocence and goodness, and the adversary of wrong,
is the God of universal love. The great author
of forgiveness and salvation for sinners, he who so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth on him may not perish,
but may have everlasting life, he who is not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance, is the God of universal love.
Acquaint yourself, then, with God. Have communion with him in all those acts of homage and
devotion which he has appointed as the modes of




CHARITY.              211
intercourse between earth and heaven.  Behold
him in all the relations in which he manifests himself to the adoring and obedient mind. Behold
his glory as it shines in the.person of the world's
Redeemer, that so you may be changed into his
image. Bring down upon your soul by prayer the
Holy Spirit which he gives to them that ask him,
that so you may be elevated to fellowship with him.
in his thoughts and affections. So surely as God is
love, - eternal, universal, infinite love, - so surely
the soul that lives in a devout and loving intercourse with him will be adorned with the beauty
of resemblance to him, and will become a partaker of the Divine nature; for God is love,
and he that dwelleth in God dwelleth in love.
2. But in order that you may have such intercourse with God, you must also discipline your
soul to chfarity by diligent well-doing in a life of
usefulness. Observe what is necessary to such a
life.
Your employment in the world, whatever it may
be, should be such as is in itself useful to mankind.
No matter how humble, or how ill-rewarded in
this world, is the daily labor by which you live;




212       CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
if it is only useful, it may serve to discipline your
soul in love. It is not enough that your employment is a lucrative one, and that with the gain
which it brings you may hope to accumulate the
means of usefulness. You will never grow into
the likeness of God's charity in this way. Your
employment must be itself a daily contribution of
your labor to the great aggregate of human happiness. Never permit yourself to be drawn, by any
consideration, into an employment or enterprise in
which you can not have the consciousness that
you are doing good. And if you find that the
occupation into which you have entered unthinkingly is of such a nature that it has no tendency
to promote the welfare of your fellow-men, - still
more, if you find that the more you labor in it the
more are you doing to make men wicked and
wretched, -you must abandon it and betake yourself to some useful employment. Do you think
that the man whose daily activity in business goes
to swell the dreadful aggregate of human guilt
and sorrow can be at the same time adding to
brotherly kindness charity?  No; if you would
put on charity as the bond of perfectness, your




CHARITY.                213
employment must be such that in pursuing it day
by day you may be conscious of doing good as the
servant of Him who is love. Pursue your business in this spirit, and all your daily labor, like the
service of a ministering angel, is exalted into religion. Such labor, in whatever station, though it
be no higher than the labor of a rag-picker in the
streets, or of the barefooted child that sweeps a
crossing, may become a blessed ordinance by which
the soul is disciplined to charity.
This, however, is not the only diligence which
is necessary to a life of usefulness. Your daily
employment, be it ever so useful in itself, is not a
sufficient discipline for the training of your soul
into conscious fellowship with God's love. Therefore God surrounds you with means and opportunities of special usefulness additional to the general usefulness of your lawful industry. You have
many opportunities of doing good, not only incidentally and in the general result of that employment by which you live, but directly and for the
sake of the good to be done., In such opportunities
only is there the consciousness of doing good by
self-denial. You must use such opportunities in




214        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
the spirit of self-denial, if you would discipline your
soul to charity. Remember that word, -" To do
good, and to communicate, forget not." Do good,
as you have opportunity, to all men. Do good
not to your own family and kindred only,- not
only to those of your own church or sect, - not
only to those of your own " order " or fraternity,
- not only to those of your opinion or party, -
not only to those of your own country;- but to
all men, everywhere, as you have opportunity.
And how many opportunities have you of doing
good to men of every sort, and of every land and
lineage? Seize those opportunities; and so learn
to open your heart, and to enlarge the sphere and
reach of your affections. Thus learning freely,
under God's kind discipline, and by communion
with his Spirit, you may become a partaker of the
Divine nature.




CHAPTER XI.
CHRISTIAN GROWTH.




"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch can not bear
fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine: no more can ye,
except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches."
John xv. 4, 5.
"Wherefore lay apart'all filthiness, and superfluity of
naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ingrafted word,
which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the
word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
James i. 21, 22.
"Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil-speakings, as new-born
babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow
thereby." 1 Pet. ii. 1, 2.




CHAPTER XI.
CHRISTIAN GROWTH.
A caution. Christian character not a mechanical structure,
but a living growth. Mysteriousness of life. Growth of a
human mind from infancy. Growth in grace, beginning with
the new birth. Dependence of growth on food. " Sincere milk
of the word." Relation of Christian growth to Christian selfdiscipline. Conditions without which there can be no spiritual growth.
I HAVE been describing a religious life as a life
of self-discipline. I have been showing you that
the gospel, rousing you to a consciousness of your
capabilities and of your need, calls you to make
the most of yourself for time and for eternity;
and that it comes to your aid with infinite offers
and promises. Viewing the Christian life in this
particular aspect, I have been describing to you
the separate features of a truly religious character,
and have been showing you how one Christian
habit or quality must be added to another.   Perhaps I have-not sufficiently guarded you against




218        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
the impression that there is or may be some series
of exercises by which any man, if he will only
put himself through the course, may attain to any
degree of religious proficiency, - some drill like
that by which the raw recruit is trained into familiarity with the details of soldiership. Perhaps I
have not sufficiently warned you not to press too
far the analogy between that progressive renovation of your soul in conformity with a divine
model, and the process of building a house, or
constructing a machine, or of hewing and chiseling a statue. Therefore would I now distinctly
remind you that, from first to last, the formation
of a truly Christian character is not so much a
construction as it is a living growth. The Scriptures recognize, indeed, the analogy between the
progress of religious improvement and the construction of a building; they call, on believers to
build up themselves on their most holy faith, as
well as to edify one another; but, on the other
hand, they also use, and with much greater force
and'variety of expression, the analogies which
they find between the spiritual life, from its beginning onward, and the vital processes of nature.




CHRISTIAN GROWTH.           219
With them, the beginning of Christian character
is a birth, an ingrafting, the sprouting of a seed;
and its progress toward perfection is the growth,
now of a plant from the germ to the blade and
the ear and the full corn in the ear,- now of a
branch drawing its sap from the stock and bourgeoning into fruitfulness, -now of a human soul
and body from infancy to maturity. Yet it should
be observed, that, when the Scriptures" use the
idea of growth to represent the progressive renovation of the Christian believer, the nature of that
growth, as moral and spiritual, and not physical,
as the result of thoughtful and diligent self-culture,
and not of mere spontaneity, is never forgotten.
" As the branch can not bear fruit of itself," saith
Christ, "except it abide in the vine: no more
can ye, except ye abide in me." " Grow in grace,
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ."  "As new-born babes, desire
the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow
thereby."
Christian  growth, then, by the mysterious
forces of the spiritual life, is what Christian selfculture aims at. If you enter upon that self-dis



220        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
cipline to which Christ invites you, and in which
you may expect that God, according to his promises, will work in you, of his good pleasure to
will and to do, all your proficiency will be a
growth in grace. Doubtless your own thoughtful
diligence will be, from first to last, an essential
condition of that proficiency; yet, in all your
proficiency, you will be conscious of dependence
on higher forces than any force of your own will.
You are to grow as the plant grows under the
gardener's hand. He waters it, he watches it, he
trains and prunes it; but in all its growth there is
a power at work which is not his, and which
giveth the increase. Think, then, on the mysteriousness of a living growth; for with all your
diligence to put on Christ, and to train yourself
into conformity with him, the same mystery will
be inseparable from your growth in grace.
You look upon a new-born babe, - how helpless
a creature is it, and how frail! But that weak,
helpless thing is born for progress. Guarded and
fed by a care of which it is at first unconscious,
it not only lives, but grows. The food provided
for it by the all-providing hand of its Creator, and




CHRISTIAN GROWTH.           221
received into its healthy system, is mysteriously
transmuted into the blood, the muscle, the nerves,
the bones, the entire strength and beauty of the
body it nourishes. Thus, in due time, the babe,
by slow degrees, quite imperceptible from day to
day, grows to the stature and the strength of
manhood.
Analogous to this is the growth of the mind.
In that new-born babe, the mind, with all its
capacities undeveloped, and with fewer instincts
in operation than belong to the chicken breaking
from the shell, is nothing more than the germ or
the folded bud of an intellectual being. What is
there of thought, of desire, of volition, in that
mind just entering upon this mortal life? How
entire a blank is its consciousness! But from the
moment in which the eye first opens to the light,
from the moment in which the ear receives the
first impulse of sound, from the moment in which
the sense of touch first encounters resistance,
from the moment in which the instinct of hunger
or of pain first makes itself felt in that germ of
human life, the mind begins to know, to think, to
feel. In other words, it begins to receive into it



222        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
self, and to incorporate into its own being, - inadequately, no doubt, and, as it were, in merely
infinitesimal portions, - truth, the perceived reality of things. Thus the mind grows:-its various and marvelous capacities, which at first were
folded up, as the leaves, the flower, and the fruit
are folded up together in the bud, are expanded
and brought out, as the leaves and blossom and
then the fruit come forth to light and air from
the opening bud. It is by such a growth that the
mind advances.   The intellectual being grows
not, indeed, by the same process or the same
means with the material organization which it inhabits,- but by means and by a process suited to
its nature. It grows by acquiring knowledge, by
being warmed and expanded with emotion, by
putting itself forth in choice and action. It grows
by taking into itself and digesting, and so incorporating with its own existence, that manifested and
perceived reality of things which we call truth.
Truth is that after which the mind instinctively
hungers, and by which it grows.
When once the mind has begun to receive truth
into itself, and its powers have thus begun to be




CHRISTIAN GROWTH.            223
unfolded, it is thenceforth for ever another thing
from what it was before. With the first access
of knowledge to its faculty of knowing, - with
the first movement of its powers, spontaneously
unfolding to meet and to receive the access of
knowledge,-begins its experience as an intellectual being; and that first experience is the beginning of its growth. Thenceforth that experience is never lost. Consciousness may not analyze it; memory may not retain it; no image of
it may be reproduced; yet it is not lost.  All
that mind's after-history proceeds from this point.
Whatever that mind knows, feels, does, or is, for
ever afterwards, is blended with this first experience. So every subsequent experience from moment to moment, from year to year, - every perception, thought, feeling, or action, -is a part of
the mind's growth, whether for good or evil. It
may be soon forgotten, and never recalled, but it
is not lost; as a part of the mind's experience, it
is incorporated with the mind itself.
The body which we here inhabit, constructed
as it is for temporary use, comes to the limit of
its growth and strength, and then begins to decay.




224        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
But the mind is of another nature. Created for
immortality, it is' created for unlimited progress.
Its growth may be retarded or quickened, may be
perverted or rightly directed; yet it grows, and
there is no reason why it may not, in some sense,
grow for ever. Its progress may be clogged by
the infirmities of the body, or may be arrested
and apparently suppressed by its decay; but progress is the first law of the mind's existence.  So
long as the immortal spirit continues to think, to
feel, to act, it continues to grow in some sort;
each act, each emotion, each thought, throughout
its immortality, is, as it were, some little line or
particle added to the previous amount of its existence.
The quality of the mind's growth depends on
the quality of the nutriment by which it grows.
Truth, simple and pure,   the reality of things,
fairly and rightly apprehended, - is the soul's fit
aliment; and when the soul is thus fed, its growth
is sound. But when the truth is mixed with false
apprehensions of things, or when from whatever
cause it is not fairly and simply received into the
mind as truth, the growth becomes diseased, de



CHRISTIAN GROWTH.           225
formed, monstrous, or dwarfish. When the mind,
instead of desiring the truth and accepting it, rejects it and yields itself to folly, its growth, instead
of being a joyful progress from one degree of wisdom and manliness to another, is a growth in folly
and madness.   He that "feedeth on wind, and
followeth after the east wind," " daily increaseth
lies and desolation." He that " feedeth on ashes"
is he whom " a deceived heart hath turned aside."
Such is the growth of the mind in general. I
have described it to you for the sake of illustrating
that Christian growth to which I would have you
aspire. That growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the
progress and development of spiritual life.' It is
the growth of the regenerate soul in likeness to
God and in fellowship with him. I say, the regenerate soul, because progress presupposes a beginning, growth presupposes a birth; and because
the beginning of this spiritual life is not by mere
nature, but by grace, - not by being born of the
flesh, but by being born of the Spirit. The soul,
awaking from the torpor of its native ungodliness,
led to repentance, led to Christ, trusting in him,
15




226        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
and sitting at his feet to learn of him, becomes a
new creature; and thus there begins in that soul
a new life, —a life which has its being and its
blessedness in a willing subjection to God.  In
that life the soul is conscious of its relation to
God through Christ, and conscious of living for
eternity. The soul thus born again is born to
progress. That soul's continual experience, tasting that the Lord is gracious, is a continual
growth in grace, - a growth in which the nature
of the soul, as created for conscious and willing
subjection to God, becomes more and more unfolded, - a growth in which the soul is habitually
approaching toward a perfect conformity to God's
moral image.
The food that nourishes the soul for spiritual
growth is the word of God, or, in the phrase of
an apostle, "the sincere [or unadulterated] milk
of the word."   It is truth, —such truth as is
suited to sustain the soul in a life of fellowship
with God. It is that truth which God has revealed concerning himself, - all the gospel of his
grace, and especially the true and faithful saying
in which all is comprehended, " Christ Jesus came




CHRISTIAN GROWTH.           227
into the world to save sinners." It is the truth
in its simplicity, "the sincere milk of the word,"
-the word, not as conveyed by moldy and
corrupting traditions, - not as coagulated by metaphysical discussion, and pressed into scientific
propositions dry and hard, -not as imbittered
and perhaps made poisonous by controversial
and sectarian passions,-not as diluted by the
tricks of fancy and the deceitfulness of a heart
unwilling to encounter and recognize the plain
reality of things, - but simply " the word which
by the gospel is preached to you."  In the gospel, no truth is set forth merely as an abstract
proposition to be received into the understanding
and to lie unproductive in the memory; but, on
the contrary, every truth is given out as an appeal to conscience, or to some affection of the
soul; every truth stands as a motive to repentance, to submission, to holy confidence in God,
to adoration, to obedience, to love. Thus in the
gospel every truth is vital, giving and sustaining
life in the believing soul. He who has once " tasted
that the Lord is gracious " must needs hunger and
thirst after righteousness; nor can he find-any




228        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
thing else than the sincere milk of the word to
satisfy that craving. "How sweet are thy words
unto my taste!" The soul, feeding upon immortal
truth, becoming more and more familiar with
what God has made known concerning himself
and his eternal counsels of love, - drawing nearer
and nearer to the glory of God in Christ, - animated and inspired more and more with thoughts
of eternity and heaven, of the cross, the conflict,
and the victory, - apprehending and taking in
more completely the exceeding great and precious
promises, - becomes more holy and heavenly,
bears more of God's likeness, partakes more
gloriously of his nature, grows daily toward the
perfect stature and the Christ-like beauty of its
approaching immortality.
But what connection is there between this spiritual growth and that Christian self-discipline to
which you are invited? Perhaps you are ready
to ask whether a vital growth is not necessarily
spontaneous and unconscious, and whether this
idea of Christian progress is not simply irreconcilable with the idea of progress by self-discipline.
I have already touched upon this thought; but




CHRISTIAN GROWTH.            229
let us now return to it, and see how spiritual
growth, in all its spontaneousness and unconsciousness, may be the result of conscious and
resolute endeavor.  The idea of growth is not
incongruous with the idea of culture; and selfculture is self-discipline.
What is the representation of the Scriptures
concerning Christian progresse, considered as a
vital growth? They clearly teach us that certain conditions are necessary to this spiritual
growth, and those conditions are such as can not
take place unconsciously or involuntarily. 1" Wherefore, laying aside all malice [oK wickedness], and
all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evilspeakings, as new-born babes [that is, with all simplicity], desire the sincere milk of the word, that
ye may grow thereby."     That the word may
have its effect, the mind must be in a state to
receive it and relish it, and thus to be nourished
by it.
Another apostle uses another comparison to
illustrate the same idea. "Wherefore lay apart
all filthiness, and superfluity of naughtiness, and
receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which




230        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
is able to save your souls." When the vinedresser would insert into a worthless stock a graft
of fruitful and generous nature, he begins by
pruning off the superfluous growth of the old
stock; he removes those worthless shoots and
branches, that the graft, drawing to itself the sap
and life of the stock, may have the opportunity
to bring forth fruit according to its nature from
the root which yielded no good fruit before. So
if the word of God is to be grafted effectually
into your soul, and if the ingrafted word is to
live within you and bear fruit according to its
nature, the process must begin with the pruningoff of the superfluous wild growth.  In other
language, dropping the figure, you must renounce
and resist the wayward affections that reign within you by nature; you must deny yourself; you
must overcome those habits of affection, of action,
and of thought, which are contrary to truth and
holiness; and thus you must receive the word
" with meekness," - that is, with a mind so simple so calm, so humble, that wayward passions
and wild affections shall not choke the word, and
cause it to become unfruitful.




CHRISTIAN GROWTH.            231.
Returning, now, to the figure which the apostle
Peter uses, we find- it setting forth the same idea
of the conditions without which there is no spiritual growth. If you would relish the pure milk
of the word, and grow thereby, as the new-born
babe lives and grows by its appropriate food, you
must become like that new-born babe; you must
lay "aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil-speakings;" you
must suppress all selfish habits and impulses, all
deceit and affectation, all that disposition which
hungers and thirsts after the seeming and advantages of righteousness rather than after righteousness itself, all that spirit of self-exaltation which
moves you to envy and makes another's welfare
or progress less desirable to you than your own,
and especially all those evil and unloving words
in which the spirit of selfishness seeks to express
itself.  The necessary condition of the soul's
growth in holiness, - the condition without which
the Word of God can not be effectual to spiritual
growth,- is that the soul shall diligently resist
all those propensities which are contrary to the
Word, and to that life which the Word nourishes.




232        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
The order of nature and of grace is, -the order
of all experience is, -" cease to do evil; learn to
do well." You can not learn to do well, unless
you begin by ceasing to do evil.
You see, then, how it is that men may hear
the word of God and read it, may find their
thoughts aid feelings deeply interested in it,
may even make it the subject-matter of their
studies and of the profoundest speculative inquiry, and may yet remain without God in
the world. It is not that there is no efficacy in
the word. It is not that the word is not suited
to their nature and capacities. It is that they
will not truly and frankly cease to do evil, in
order that they may learn to do well. It is that
they will not repent, in order to obey. It is that
they will not prune off the irregular, worthless,
thorny growth of selfishness and ungodliness, in
order to receive with meekness the ingrafted word.
It is that they will not lay aside all malice, and
all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evilspeakings, in order to receive the word and to be
nourished by it into holiness. They will not receive the kingdom of God as a little child may




CHRISTIAN GROWTH.           233
receive it. They will not turn and become as
little children.  A  little child in its simplicity
may receive the kingdom of God. The renewing
efficacy of the gospel may enter into the mind
with the earliest rudiments of intellectual and
moral instruction. In that little child, bending
at its mother's knee to pray, and hearing from
its, mother's lips "that sweet story of old," how
Jesus took little children into his arms and blessed
them, a new and spiritual life may begin, - an
infant life at first, but growing with the child's
growth, and strengthening with its strength. The
mind, the heart, the entire soul of that child may
be molded in all the process of growth, from infancy onward, by the power of truth quickening
the sense of duty and the consciousness of relations to eternity, and by the power of God's love
made manifest in Christ, - while' the man of high
and various intelligence, speculating profoundly
and inquiring accurately, reads and hears the
Word of life, and even studies it attentively,
without once tasting that the Lord is gracious.
The spiritual life begins even in a little child
that is simply and humbly obedient to the truth;




234        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
but it can have no beginning in the maturest and
most enlightened mind that will not resolutely
deny ungodliness, turning with earnest purpose
to obey and follow Christ.
In the same way you see how it is that in many
regenerate souls (as in a charitable judgment we
may presume them to be) there is so little evidence of spiritual growth. It is not because the
word can not nourish them. It is not because the
promises of God are of no validity. It is because
they are not diligent to overcome and suppress
that which remains within them of ungodly habits
and affections. They have no adequate sense or
resolution of what is necessary on their part in
order that the word with which they are fed may
have its effect in causing them to grow into more
of the likeness of God, and more of the beauty
and strength of spiritual life.  In other words,
they disregard the great principle which underlies those warnings, " Quench not the Spirit,"
"Grieve not the Spirit," "that Holy Spirit of
promise." Growth in grace, while it is in one
sense spontaneous and even unconscious, is in
another sense the effect of self-culture and self




CHRISTIAN GROWTHi           235
discipline. While it is in one aspect the work of
the informing Word and quickening Spirit of God,
it is also, in another aspect, the achievement of
the soul itself struggling in God's strength, and
under his guidance, against its own corruptions.
Thub have I shown you what is necessary on
your part to your spiritual growth. You must be
willing to know and to condemn your own deficiencies. You must diligently endeavor to understand your errors, and to escape from them. As
under the eye of God, and with prayer for his
illumination, you must search out your' secret
faults, confessing them to him, and forsalng
them. You must "purify your soul in obeying the truth through the Spirit." So shall you
"grow in grace and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."  Your soul shall
be nourished with angels' food, the Word of God,
and shall grow toward "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."








CHAPTER XIT.
FRUITFULNESS.




"I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in
me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for
without me ye can do nothing." John xv. 5.
"Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit;
so shall ye be my disciples." John xv. 8.
"Giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to
virtue, knowledge; and to knowlege, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness,
brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For
if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye
shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Pet. i. 5, 8.




CHAPTER XII.
FRUITFULNESS.
Self-culture resulting in fruitfulness. You must not confound fruitfulness with usefulness, nor with zeal for doing
good. Scriptural idea of Christian fruitfulness illustrated in
Christ's parable of the sower, - in his allegory of the vine, -
in the apostle Peter's synthesis of Christian character. Practical errors in Christian self-culture that may come from a
mistaken conception of fruitfulness.
No man should think of being Christ's disciple,
unless it be his aim and aspiration to become one
of those disciples in wvhom the word of Christ
brings forth fruit to eternal life. Christian fruitfulness is the end for which all the means of grace
are appointed, and for which grace itself is given.
It is the end, therefore, of all Christian self-discipline.
What is the true idea of Christian fruitfulness?
A  mistaken conception of it can not but mislead
your endeavors and your aspirations.      For exam



240        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
pie, if you assume that fruitfulness in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ is identical with visible
or traceable usefulness in the Church, you will be
likely to err, not only in your judgment of yourself and of others, but also in your thoughts and
hopes of Christian progress. Special usefulness is
in a great measure dependent on special gifts and
special opportunities. Nay, as the apostle Paul
suggests, a man may be greatly useful, though in
his own soul the gospel brings forth no fruit to
perfection; he may preach to otherscvith as wide
a success as that which attended the apostle to
the Gentiles, and yet be himself a castaway. In
like manner, if you identify the idea of fruitfulness with the one idea of zeal in some particular
department of religious or philanthropic activity,
or even with the one idea of zeal for doing good
in general, as if that were the sum total of the
Christian life, your judgment of yourself and of
others will be narrow and often erroneous, and
your aspirations after higher attainments in personal holiness will be often misdirected.
Observe, then, carefully, what idea of Christian fruitfulness is given in the Scriptures. Begin




FRUITFULNESS.             241
with the parable of the sower, in which the great
Teacher seems to have used this figure for the first
time. His instances and illustrations of unfruitfulness are significant.  First, "When any one
heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not," -that is, does not receive it
into his mind, -"then cometh the wicked one,
and catcheth away that which was sown in his
heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside." The word of the kingdom has no effect
upon him. Next, " He that received the seed into
stony places, the same is he that heareth the word,
and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not
root in himself, but dureth for a while." The
word in his case is what the seed was that fell
upon stony places, springing up suddenly, but
withering in the first heat, and so producing nothing. Another instance of unfruitfulness is, "he
that heareth the word, and the care of this world,
and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word,
and he becometh unfruitful." The opposite of all
this is fruitfulness, - the fruitfulness of him who
"heareth the word and understandeth it," or takes
it into his mind and digests it into thought and
16




242        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
life, -the fruitfulness of them who "in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep
it, and bring forth fruit with patience."  Fruitfulness, accordig to the illustrations given in the
parable of the sower, is nothing less than the entire effect of the gospel on the believing and obedient soul.
On another occasion, Christ employed a different analogy to set forth the idea of fruitfulness in
his disciples. It was when he spoke of himself
as. the true vine, of which his Father is the husbandman, and in which his disciples are the
branches. "As the branch," said he, " can not
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine:
no" more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am
the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth
in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."
"Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear
much fruit: so shall ye be my disciples,"that is, the fact that you are indeed my disciples shall be evidenced by your fruitfulness.
In this illustration, fruitfulness is nothing less
than the entire effect wrought- in the soul and




FRUITFULNESS.             243
life of the believer by that vital relation to Christ
which is represented in the words, "Abide in
me, and I in you,"
Christian fruStfulness is mentionle in yet another connection.  Turn once more to that remarkable passage which I have already so often
commended to your attention, and in which the
exceeding great and precious promises are referred
to as an encouragement to diligence in'a spiritual
self-discipline.  "For this very reason," - because such promises are given to us, -" add to
your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and
to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness,
brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you, and abound,
they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ." The meaning is not that these things are
to be the cause of fruitfulness, but that they are
fruitfulness itself. It is in these things that fruitfulness consists. They shall constitute you " neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our
Lord."




244        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
Your mind already adverts to passages in which
"the fruit of the Spirit" is described.  "The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, rmeekness, temperance."  "The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth." Fruitfulness,
as thus described, is the aim and appropriate result
of those Divine influences by which the soul is
renewed in the likeness of God.
It is evident, then, what Christ means when he
says to his disciples, " Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit."  Christian fruitfulness may be regarded as the effect of Divine
truth received into a believing mind and incorporated into the soul's life. It may be regarded as
resulting from that spiritual union between Christ
and his disciples, which he represents when he
calls himself the vine and them the branches. It
may be regarded as the true proficiency of a disciple in the knowledge of his Lord and Saviour.
It may be regarded as the fruit of that Holy Spirit
of promise by which believers are sealed, and
which is the earnest of their inheritance.  But
under all these aspects it is one and the same




FRUITFULNESS.            245
thing, —nothing else than the maturity, the
beauty, the worth, and the blessedness of a complete Christian character.
I have already warned you that a mistaken conception of what is meant by fruitfulness may have
the effect of misdirecting your aspirations and endeavors in the Christian life. Be careful, then, to
set before yourself a full and clear idea of what it
is which constitutes productiveness and fruitfulness
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is
a too common error to suppose that the fruitfulness of a Christian is to be found, not simply in
his own interior life, but rather in results external
to himself, - not simply in what he becomes under
God's renewing and sanctifying work, but rather
in what he brings to pass, and in the conviction
which he produces on other minds,- not so much
in the reality of a life which is hid with Christ in
God, as in the outward manifestation and visibility
of such a life, in the impression which it makes on
beholders, and in the efficacy of its influence on
the church or on the world. If you take up such
a notion of what you are to aim at in undertaking
and professing to follow Christ, you will be in




246       CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
danger of striving to seem holy instead of striving
to be holy. You will be in danger of substituting
the formalisms and conventionalisms that happen
to be in vogue among the religious people of your
acquaintance, for the simple reality of trusting in
Christ and walking humbly with God. You will
be in danger of falling into habits of religious affectation in manners and speech and in demonstrations of sanctimony or of zeal, instead of simply
striving to receive and obey the word of Christ,
to grasp the hope he sets before you, and to become
like him in the temper and spirit of your mind.
Instead of asking, in the simplicity of a believing
and obedient spirit, what the God in whom you
trust would have you do, and doing all things
heartily as to the Lord and not to men, you will
be continually and irresistibly tempted to ask,
What will men say or think about me? -how
shall I make the right impression upon them? -
how shall I make them feel that my religion is a
reality? All this tends to fix your mind more
upon how you appear than upon what you are,
and to make you more solicitous about the impressions and opinions of men than about what your




FRUITFULNESS.            247
own heart is in the sight of God. Thus it is that
many a man falls by degrees into an unintended
and unconscious hypocrisy, - acquires a habit of
using religious words and phrases by rote and with
little recollection or sense of what they mean,gradually assumes in his countenance and manner
an expression which, being designed for impression, is unnatural and perhaps repulsive. I do not
warn you against seriousness and.gravity of speech
or of deportment, but this I say, watch and
pray that you enter not into temptation, - watch
and pray that you may be always under the full
power of things unseen and eternal, rather than
that you may seem so.
By the same sort of misconception you may be
led to undervalue many of the most important elements of Christian character. It is easy for you
to take up the notion that if only you can be what
is called an active Christian, you will be of course
a complete and eminent Christian. Sometimes we
see a man who is conspicuous in efforts of one sort
or another for the advancement of religion, zealous
for the church, or for this or that religious enterprise, but who, in exercising himself unto godli



248        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
ness, is far from giving due attention to the things
that are true and honest and just and lovely and
of good report. It is easy for you to fall into just
that error, and to assume that what Christ looks
for in you is nothing else than zeal for the church,
or zeal for the interest of religion. Do not think
that I disparage religious activity as an element of
Christian character, nor that I would in any way
discourage or check your zeal to do all you can for
Christ, and for the souls of men. On the contrary, I would have you understand distinctly, and
remember, that the spirit of Christ in all his disciples is essentially a beneficent and active spirit, a
spirit of zeal for God, and of aggression against the
darkness and wickedness of this world. I would
have you understand that where there is no sympathy with Christ in his redeeming work, no compassion for those who are dead in trespasses and
sins, no love for the church and kingdom of Christ,
no readiness for self-denial in the service of Christ,
the spirit of Christ is not manifest. There may
be an unblamed and unsuspected uprightness in all
human relations, and with it there may be combined a most attractive personal amiableness like




FRUITFULNESS.             249
that of the young man whom Jesus loved; and yet,
if there is no sympathy with Christ and no readiness for self-sacrifice in his service, the one thing
lacking, as in the case of that young man, implies
a fatal deficiency. But I would have you understand also, and remember, that no manifestation
of zeal for the Lord, no bustle or eclat of religious
activity, no restlessness of endeavor in enterprises
of philanthropy or of moral or religious propagandism, no readiness to give, to suffer, or to die
in behalf of a principle, can turn the balance
against the want of personal integrity, of strict
veracity and honesty, of thorough purity, of conscientiousness in all those ordinary and homely
virtues without which the profession of saintliness
is an abhorrence to God. A man may not only
have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge without the principle of
holy love, - he may not only preach to others and
be himself a castaway, - he may even bestow all
his goods to feed the poor, and give his body to be
burned, in the fervor of a zeal which is not holy
love and has no fellowship with Christ. If there
be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on




250        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are
honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report. Remember
that " the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."  Remember that charity needs
no conspicuousness. of position, no celebrity or
notoriety, no trophies of success, as essential to its
reality. It suffereth long and is kind; it envieth
not; it vaunteth not itself, - is not puffed up,doth not behave itself unseemly, - seeketh not its
own, - is not easily provoked, - thinketh no evil,
-rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the
truth, — beareth all things,- believeth all things,
- hopeth all things, - endureth all things; and
in order to this it needs no splendor of gifts, no
rare felicity of opportunities, no great cloud of
mortal witnesses, no plaudits of this world's admiration. It may be as complete, as beautiful to the
eye of God, and as true a manifestation of his
glory, in the humblest position as anywhere else.
Some really conscientious persons, whose desire
and purpose to follow Christ need not be doubted,




FRUITFULNESS.           251
seem to misunderstand, in part, the application of
that precept, " Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father which is in heaven." Forgetful that it
is the nature of light to shine, they do not observe
that what the precept requires of them is simply
that interior life of purity and love, that inward
holiness, which can not but shine. If it be said to
the watchman on the mountain-top, " Let your
light shine," he has only to kindle his beacon, and
its warning flame flashes across the valleys. If it
be said to the keeper of a light-house," Let your
light shine," he has only to light up the lamp in
his turret, and far over the waves it shines. So
when Christ says to us, "Let your light shine
before men, -let it so shine, that they may see
your good works, and glorify your Father which is
in heaven," we need not concern ourselves about
the impression which our conduct may make on
other minds; we need only take care that in
thought, as well as in word and deed, our lives are
humble, holy, Christ-like; and our light will shine,
the self-same light that shone in Christ. If we
begin to be anxious about the impression we are
making upon men, we are immediately in danger




252        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
of becoming like the hypocrites, whose ruling
motive in their works of outward goodness, or of
outward godliness, is that they may be seen of
men. The habit of doing things for effect or impression is dangerous. It is affectation; and affectation is, in its degree, hypocrisy.
" Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ."  It seems almost irreverent even to inquire what the effect would be on our estimate of
Christ's human character, if we could imagine him
as doing any thing for the sake of appearances.
Who does not feel that the glory that shines in the
human life of our Redeemer would not be there,
but for his perfect unaffectedness? The glory of
Christ in his followers is dimmed, if it does not
shine naturally, and, as it were, unconsciously,
" in simplicity and godly sincerity." So let your
light shine,
Remember, then, that the aim of all your selfculture as a disciple of Christ must be not the
show and seeming of a Christian life, but the
reality. A completely Christ-like character is to
be valued for its own sake, and not for the sake of
what men may think of it. God values it for
what it is, and not for the impression which it




FRUITFULNESS.             253
makes. A truly and completely Christian character is nothing else than a Christ-like soul.
A Christ-like soul! Think, you whose eye is
on this page, how blessed it is to be like Christ,
not in profession only, but in reality; not only in
the show and seeming of a Christian character,
but in the soul's life. Think how possible it is for
you to be thus blessed. Think of God's love to
you, testified in Christ's self-sacrifice for you.
Think of God's willingness to give the Holy
Spirit to them that ask him. Think of those
exceeding great and precious promises which are
given to you in the gospel, that by them you may
be a partaker of the Divine nature. It is possible
for you to become - by God's mercy and gracious
help, by his blessing on your diligence, by his
answer to your prayers, by his performance of his
promises -a Christ-like soul.
Is this your aspiration? Are you hoping, praying, and striving to realize in your own experience
the blessedness of a Christ-like soul? There is no
really Christian self-culture which aspires to any
thing less than this. Assuming that such is your
aspiration, I have endeavored to help you by
these friendly counsels, and to encourage you by




254        CHRISTIAN SELF-CULTURE.
showing that this is the hope which the gospel sets
before you. All that I have written is worthless
to you, if you are not striving to "put on the
Lord Jesus Christ," and to be transformed into his
likeness "by the renewing of your mind."
Be assured that there is nothing extravagant or
unwarranted in your aspiring to all the dignity
and blessedness of a Christ-like soul. In truth
there is no other just conception of a Christian
life than this, that it is the life of a renewed soul
growing more and more like Christ. To "put on
the new man "is nothing else. than to "put on
Christ;-" and the new life is in us only as that
mind is in us which was also in Christ. Ask
what the blessedness is to which they that love
God are "called according to his purpose."  Let
an apostle answer. " Whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate; "- to what? -"to be
conformed to the image of his Son that he might
be the first-born among many brethren." [Rom.
viii. 28, 29.]  It is to this that you are invited.
"That ye might be partakers of the divine nature," is the end for which are given all the offers
and promises which constitute the gospel.
If you have heartily undertaken the self-culture




FRUITFULNESS.            255
to which the gospel calls us, you are already becoming a Christ-like soul. If you have received
Christ, you are one of those whom he has made
the sons of God, - himself the first-born among
many brethren. "Behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be
called the sons of God!"   "It doth not yet
appear what we shall be; but we know that when
he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall
see him as he is." A Christ-like soul is a Godlike
soul; and that likeness to God perfected in the
soul, is the consummation of blessedness. Your
assurance of hope is: "I shall be satisfied when
I awake with thy likeness." Meanwhile, all the
progress of your Christian self-culture is a progress m likeness to Christ, " whom not having seen
you love, in whom, though now you see him not,
yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, RECEIVING THE END OF YOUR
FAITH, THE SALVATION OF YOUR SOUL."
THE END.