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CHRISTIAN PROGRESS: 
 
 A SEQUEL 
 
 ANXIOUS INQUIRER AFTER SALVATION, 
 
 BY REV. JOHN ANGELL JAMES, 
 
 OF BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND. 
 
 . 
 
 
 Forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
 things which are before. PHIL. 3 : 13. 
 Then shall we know, if we follow on, to know the Lord. HOSEA 6 : 3. 
 
 PUBLISHEITBY THE 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORB. 
 
?i 
 
i. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction ... . , . 5 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 The Necessity of Progress 21 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Nature of Progress 47 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Means of Progress 105 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Mistakes concerning Progress 147 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Hinder ances to Progress 184 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Motives to Progress 216 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Encouragements to Progress 25 2? 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE DESCRIPTION OF PERSONS FOR WHOSE 
 BENEFIT THIS WORK IS INTENDED AND 
 TO WHOM IT IS ADDRESSED. 
 
 "!F there be one word," says a writer in one 
 of the ablest of our evangelical periodicals, 
 "which more than another now commands the 
 ear of the public, that word is * PROGRESS. It 
 has fallen like a spark among the inflammable 
 mass of the working and thinking classes. 
 This mighty watchword of the newest and 
 most potential eras has run through the mighty 
 chain of hearts and minds with electric in 
 tensity." This is true of science, of literature, 
 of arts, of commerce, of jurisprudence, and of 
 politics. It would be strange if religion, con 
 sidered as a practical system, could be justly 
 exempted from this law of progress. We are 
 to expect no new revelations, and cannot look 
 for any new doctrines to be brought out of th3 
 old ones. That these however have yet to 
 develope themselves still more clearly ; that 
 new treasures are to be brought out of this 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 
 
 inexhaustible mine, and a new power to be 
 exerted by this mighty instrument for the 
 world s regeneration, who can doubt ? 
 
 It is not, however, of the progress of theo 
 logical science, as it is found in the systems of 
 divines, and as it shall clear away the clouds 
 and mists which hang over men s minds, and 
 hide the glory of the great luminary of the 
 world, that I now write, but of the progress of 
 truth in the individual mind and heart and 
 character ; of that blessed growth in spiritual 
 life which is to be the supreme object of every 
 one who has passed through a state of religious 
 solicitude, and which carries forward the soul 
 of "the anxious inquirer" to the condition of 
 the established believer. 
 
 This work takes it for granted that the 
 reader has decided, in his own opinion at any 
 rate, in the great business of religion, to look 
 for salvation by faith in Christ alone. I am 
 supposing that he has been led to this by the 
 blessing of God upon my former work, or upon 
 some other means. It is not my design now 
 to urge him to surrender at the foot of the 
 cross to God. I consider this as done. He 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 has also become the professor of the faith he 
 has exercised. His difficulties have been re 
 moved, his mistakes rectified, and seeing his 
 only way of salvation to be by trust in Christ, 
 he is now to be led forward in the ways of the 
 Lord. 
 
 It is the confession and lamentation of the 
 horticulturist that many of the most promis 
 ing and beautiful blossoms of his trees do not 
 set in fruit ; and that many which do, never 
 ripen to maturity. Precisely similar cases occur 
 to the spiritual husbandmen in the garden of 
 the Lord. "Where is the faithful minister of 
 Jesus Christ who has not often in sadness and 
 disappointment, to adopt the language, and to 
 sympathize in the feelings of surprise, grief, 
 and disappointment of the apostle Paul, where 
 he said, "I am afraid of you, lest I have 
 bestowed upon you labor in vain. ("My little 
 children, of whom I travail in birth again until 
 Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present 
 with you now, and to change my voice ; for I 
 stand in doubt of you. Ye did run well ; who 
 did hinder you, that ye should not obey the 
 truth ?" Gal. 4 : 11, 19, 20 ; 5 : 7. How often, 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 when through (rod s grace we fondly hoped we 
 had led the penitent to the cross, directed the 
 eye of faith to the Lamb of Grod, assisted him 
 in the exercise of a "good hope," and left him 
 in possession of a quiet consciousness of the 
 great change, have we seen him leave his " first 
 love," and instead of advancing into a fuller 
 development of Christian character, relinquish 
 ing the solicitude he once possessed, and sink 
 ing into a state of lukewarm indifference. 
 
 Often do faithful ministers perceive that 
 religious concern is awakened in the minds of 
 some of their hearers. Conviction of sin by 
 the law is produced, and the great question 
 with its accompanying solicitude is awakened, 
 ""What shall I do to be saved ?" The anxious 
 inquirer is instructed in the way of salvation. 
 He professes to understand and receive "the 
 truth as it is in Jesus." His solicitude sub 
 sides into peace. He becomes a professor of 
 religion ; is received into the fellowship of the 
 church ; and considers himself, and is con 
 sidered by others, a Christian. It might be 
 expected that he would now grow in grace ; 
 that he would be continually advancing in the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 divine life ; that his attainments would "be 
 always increasing ; that progression would be 
 the law of his new existence. But is not the 
 contrary to this the case with many of those 
 who make a profession ? Do they look like 
 learners in the school of Christ who are mak 
 ing great proficiency in divine knowledge ? On 
 the contrary, does it not appear too evident 
 that in many cases the young disciple, instead 
 of remaining the anxious believer and pro 
 gressive Christian, has subsided into the care 
 less professor ? As if his solicitude was to 
 -make a profession, not to maintain it; to be 
 called a Christian, rather than be one ; to enjoy 
 church privileges, rather than to feel individual 
 obligations. 
 
 It might seem strange that when a false 
 profession is so awfully denounced, and the 
 Lord s table guarded as if by the flaming 
 sword of a cherub in that woe pronounced by 
 the apostle upon the unworthy receiver, any 
 one should be so rash and reckless as to expose 
 his soul to the perilous stroke of that fearful 
 weapon. Yet many do, by partaking in an 
 unmeet state of mind of the sacred supper. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It will perhaps be asked, Why do the minis 
 ters of religion permit it ? We reply, Can they 
 search the heart ? Can they discern between 
 the sincere and the self-deceived communicant ? 
 Is not a credible profession a sufficient warrant 
 to any minister to admit a person to the com 
 munion ? 
 
 In an age like ours, when evangelical religion 
 bears no stigma, and its professors are called to 
 endure no persecution, it is natural to suppose 
 that some, yea, many, will say, " Lord, Lord," 
 who do not the will of our Father in heaven. 
 Many there are who feel the obligation to make 
 a profession of religion, who have no just sense 
 of what it includes and requires. The persua 
 sion of friends and their own wish to be associat 
 ed with them, may also lead to this ; and thus 
 the conscience is appeased, a sense of religious 
 decorum indulged, and pious relatives pleased, 
 while at the same time there is no adequate 
 idea of the obligation which the assumption of 
 the Christian name involves. 
 
 With many persons there seems to be a radi 
 cal mistake as to the true nature of the Chris 
 tian life. It is regarded too much in the light 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 of a mere profession, rather than a practice a 
 state, rather than a habit a fixed point, rather 
 than a continuous line a resting place, rather 
 than a field of labor the goal, rather than the 
 starting point. A profession has been looked 
 forward to with anxiety, as a something which 
 is to fix and determine the character to give 
 a religious status, to secure certain immunities. 
 The mind in prospect is perhaps somewhat seri 
 ous, agitated, and solicitous. The table of the 
 Lord is approached, and perhaps with some so 
 lemnity and self-surrender. And it is now regard 
 ed as a thing done. The Christian character is 
 formed. The mind is at ease. The inward con 
 sciousness is, " I am a professor." In too many 
 cases, solicitude is from that hour at an end. 
 Instead of a trembling anxiety to be all that 
 they profess ; to do all that is required of them ; 
 to develope all that is contained in the Christian 
 character ; to supply all the defects in know 
 ledge, faith, and holiness, which might be sup 
 posed to exist in one so young in religion ; to 
 demonstrate to all around the reality, by the 
 growth, of their piety ; they settle down at ease 
 upon their profession, and in many cases are 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 never more in earnest, and in not a few less so, 
 than when they began to seek the Lord. 
 
 But without supposing such extreme cases 
 as these of self-satisfaction in the first stages of 
 religion, there are others of a somewhat more 
 hopeful character, but which still require the 
 cautions, directions, and admonitions of such a 
 work as this. And to put these more clearly 
 before the reader, I may observe there are four 
 successive states of mind in reference to relig 
 ion : absolute indifference concern, attended 
 by conviction of sin faith in Christ, bringing 
 relief to the burdened and troubled conscience 
 and then the work of faith in its continuous in 
 fluence on the Christian life and character. I am 
 supposing now the case of one who has reached 
 the third stage. His indifference has given place 
 to solicitude, his solicitude has obtained relief 
 by faith. The young disciple has discovered, 
 to his delight, the way of pardon, peace, and 
 eternal life, through the atonement of Christ. 
 There he is, lying down in peace at the foot of 
 the cross. The oppressive burden of his guilt is 
 lost. The tormenting fear which it produced has 
 been cast out by love. He is now ready to say, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 "Sweet the moments, rich in blessing, 
 
 Which before the cross I spend, 
 Life, and health, and peace possessing / 
 From the sinner s dying Friend. 
 
 "Here I 11 sit, with transport viewing 
 
 Mercy s streams, in streams of blood : 
 Precious drops my soul bedewing, 
 Plead and claim my peace with God." 
 
 All this is well, good, happy but it is not 
 enough. Even he, this relieved soul, is but too 
 apt to forget that he has " not yet attained, and 
 is not yet perfect." Even he is but too apt to 
 consider that the great transition from a state 
 of nature to a state of grace that the mighty 
 bound from impenitence to conversion that the 
 wondrous translation from the power of dark 
 ness to the kingdom of (rod s dear son, is, if 
 not all that is required, yet all that need make 
 him anxious. He is so taken up with his jus 
 tification through faith, and the peace with God 
 which it brings with it, that his sanctification 
 is too little thought of. He is ready to say of 
 Calvary what Peter did of Tabor, "It is good 
 to be here ;" not considering how much yet 
 remains to be done. It is indeed a blessed thing 
 to be pardoned : who can deny it ? To look up 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and see the brow of Deity not clothed with a 
 frown, but radiant with a smile to see the 
 heavens all serene and cloudless, and to feel the 
 bright beams of mercy diffusing warmth as well 
 as light over the conscience. " Oh, the blessed 
 ness of the man whose transgressions are for 
 given, whose sin is covered, to whom the Lord 
 imputeth not iniquity." But this is not the 
 whole of religion nor the end of it nor the 
 highest glory of it. There is the purpose for 
 which this very pardon is granted, to be accom 
 plished. There is all the subsequent work of 
 grace, of which this is only the commencement, 
 to be carried on and completed. 
 
 Oh, thou blessed penitent, thou relieved 
 anxious inquirer, thou rejoicing young believ 
 er, I would not dash the cup of consolation 
 from thy lips, nor drop into it wormwood and 
 gall. I would not affirm thy joy is premature. 
 On the contrary, I would say, " Rejoice in the 
 Lord, rejoice in the Lord always." " The joy 
 of the Lord is thy. strength." " Go on thy way 
 rejoicing." Yes, but then, Go on. Carry thy 
 joy with thee, even joy and peace in believing. 
 But still I say, Go on. Onward, onward 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 is the Christian s watchword. How blessed a 
 night was it to the children of Israel when they 
 celebrated the paschal feast on the eve of their 
 flight from the house of bondage. Yes, but 
 they were to eat it with their staves in their 
 hands, and with other emblems of progress. 
 How jubilant were their feelings when they 
 found themselves safe on the farther shore of 
 the Red sea. Yes, but there they were not to 
 linger, but must move onward. All the length 
 of the wilderness stretched between them and 
 the promised land. Privations were to be en 
 dured, enemies to be encountered, difficulties 
 to be surmounted, and dangers to be escaped, 
 ere they could set their foot on Canaan. So is 
 it with the Christian his conversion is but his 
 flight from Egypt ; and amidst all the joy of 
 his first faith and first love, he must be remind 
 ed of the journey through the wilderness, and 
 be prepared to make it. 
 
 The journey is in fact to the latter what 
 it was to the former, the great test of charac 
 ter. Of all those six hundred thousand who 
 started so joyfully from Egypt, only two crossed 
 the Jordan. All the rest found graves in the 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 wilderness. Of those who now seem so hope 
 fully to set out for heaven, and make a good 
 profession before many witnesses, how many are 
 satisfied with merely beginning well. In them 
 the Christian character is never developed. 
 They make no progress. Not going forward, 
 they turn backward. They are like ever 
 greens transplanted in the spring, which for 
 a while look as vigorous and fresh as the other 
 shrubs all around them ; but they send out no 
 shoots, though retaining for a while their ver 
 dure. The gardener as he looks upon the plant 
 has his fears, and shakes his head ; till, as the 
 season advances, the signs of decay are but too 
 apparent, and the leafless skeleton proclaims the 
 work of death. So is it with some who make 
 a profession of religion in youth. 
 
 The design of this volume, then, will now be 
 clearly seen, and the persons for whom it is in 
 tended be correctly understood. It is a sequel 
 to " The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation," and 
 takes up the traveller to heaven where that 
 leaves him, and offers to guide him onward in 
 his perilous and eventful course. To change 
 the illustration from the flight of Israel out of 
 
INTRODUCTION. . 17 
 
 Egypt to that of Lot from Sodom, and to con 
 nect it with, the work above alluded to, I may 
 say, that if the intent and effect of that little 
 work, in every case where it is successful, is, to 
 pluck the sinner from the condemnation of the 
 law, as the angel brought the patriarch out of 
 the city doomed to destruction ; the purpose of 
 this is, to say to the rescued fugitive, "Escape for 
 thy life : look not behind thee, neither stay thou 
 in all the plain ; escape to the mountain, lest 
 thou be consumed." 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE READER. 
 
 Before you proceed to read another page, 
 pause, ponder, and examine. Solemnly, as in 
 the presence of Grod seriously, as taking up the 
 most momentous subject in the universe hon 
 estly, as wishing to know your real state, ask 
 yourself the question, "Am I stopping in a mere 
 profession ? Have not I hastily taken up the 
 Cliristian name without duly considering what 
 it is to be^ a Christian; what strictness and 
 earnestness it implies; what obligations it im 
 poses ; what duties it requires ; and what pro 
 gressive improvements it demands ? Have I 
 
 Chr. Pro ff . 2 
 
18 . INTRODUCTION. 
 
 really studied the word of Grod to obtain a cor- 
 rect idea of the nature of religion ; of its holi 
 ness, spirituality, heavenliness ? Do I under 
 stand it to be a growing meetness for, and a 
 steady advance towards celestial glory ? Have 
 I not concluded I am a Christian too hastily ? 
 Or, have I not settled down into a state of care 
 lessness, while I ought to "be still in a state of 
 anxiety and effort ? Or, supposing I have ex 
 perienced a change, have I not taken up the idea 
 that religion is a state rather than a progress ?" 
 Reader, put these questions to yourself. Be 
 honest. "Wish, long, be intensely anxious to be 
 right. Tremble to your very soul s centre at 
 the idea of self-deception on so momentous an 
 affair. Before you read another chapter, put 
 down the volume, fall upon your knees and ag 
 onize in prayer that the perusal may be blessed 
 to your soul. Take the book with you into 
 your closet. Read it in your most serious hours, 
 in your greatest privacy, and in the most solemn 
 manner. I would recommend these and some 
 such other directions for its perusal as are found 
 in " The Anxious Inquirer." In books for spir 
 itual edification, much depends upon the man- 
 
INTRODUCTION. . 19 
 
 ner in which, they are read. If taken up care 
 lessly and read in a light mood, or in the com 
 pany of others, they are likely to do little good. 
 The attention will not be fixed, nor the heart 
 engaged, nor the conscience awakened. You 
 must be somewhere alone with God ; where you 
 can have leisure and opportunity to commune 
 with your own heart and with him ; where you 
 can pause, reflect, and pray, unobserved by a 
 single fellow-creature ; where you can stop, ex 
 amine, ejaculate, and it may be, weep. 
 
 You must read this work, if you would get 
 any good jrom it, in some such serious manner 
 as this. I have been very serious in writing it. 
 It has lain with great weight upon my spirit, 
 and has been the subject of much earnest prayer 
 to God. I have seen much of the evils it is in 
 tended to remove, and felt much of the need of 
 some such work. And as every page has been 
 written in the spirit and exercise of prayer more 
 or less, so I feel anxious that every page should 
 be read in the spirit of prayer. Offer, there 
 fore, some such supplication as this : 
 
 " Father of mercies and God of all grace, 
 since thou hast put it into the heart of thy ser- 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 vant to write this little work for my edification, 
 grant me, through Jesus Christ my only Medi 
 ator and Advocate, the teaching and help of thy 
 Holy Spirit, that I may derive spiritual advan 
 tage from the perusal of it. Rouse my too dull 
 and flagging soul to consider the importance of 
 the subject. I give thee sincere and hearty 
 thanks that thou hast awakened in me an anx 
 iety about salvation, and enabled me to look for 
 the mercy of God, through Jesus Christ, unto 
 eternal life. But as the work of grace is only 
 just begun in me, I earnestly pray that I may 
 be deeply impressed with the indispensable need 
 of progressive improvement. Make me desirous 
 to grow in grace : and may this book, through 
 thy blessing, greatly conduce to that end. Help 
 me to fix my attention upon what I read; to 
 understand what I attend to ; to treasure up 
 what I understand in my memory ; and to prac 
 tise what I remember, so that I may have cause 
 to bless thee that ever this work came into my 
 hand. Thus, while I am thankful for the in 
 strument, thine shall be the glory, through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Amen." 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE NECESSITY OF PROG-RESS. 
 
 ALL spiritual good things tend to improve 
 ment. A right principle must, from its very 
 nature, push outward and onward as long as 
 there is in contact with it any thing that is 
 wrong, for there is an expansive power in all 
 truth and virtue. It would be strange if this 
 were not the case with religion. It is with 
 goodness as with money, the possession aug 
 ments the desire to possess more. So that they 
 who are contented with such a measure of piety 
 as they already suppose they possess, give fear 
 ful evidence that they have none. And this 
 ought to sound alarm at once in the ears of a 
 very large number of persons. "Is it true," 
 they should say, " that a self-satisfied condition 
 
22 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 is proof of little or no religion ; that a quiet, 
 easy, contented mind, without any anxiety to 
 advance, is an evidence that the soul is not in 
 a good and safe state ? Then ought I not to fear 
 that I am deluding myself, since certainly I 
 know very little about such a solicitude as this ? 
 Have I not, since I made a profession, seemed 
 to reach the summit of my hopes, and settled 
 down, into a state of religious competency upon 
 a supposition that I am rich enough already ?" 
 It may be well for the fears of some to be thus 
 excited ; and that they should ask such ques 
 tions about their real condition. An uninquis- 
 itive state of mind cannot be a safe one. It is 
 too momentous an affair to be treated in this 
 " free and easy" sort of manner. It would be 
 far more rational for a young tradesman lately 
 started in life to be careless and questionless 
 about his advance or retrogression, than for a 
 young Christian lately set out on the journey 
 to heaven. " Am I making progress ?" should 
 be his inquiry. Just for this reason, progress 
 is the law of true religion. This appears, 
 
 First, from Scripture COMMANDS. "We shall 
 select only a few of the most prominent. 
 
NECESSITY OF PROG-RESS. 23 
 
 How impressive is such language as the follow 
 ing: " That he would grant you, according to 
 the riches of his glory, to "be strengthened with 
 might by his Spirit in the inner man ; that 
 Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that 
 ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be 
 able to comprehend with all saints* what is the 
 breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; and 
 to know the love of Christ, which passeth know 
 ledge, that ye might be filled with all the ful 
 ness of God." Ephes. 3 : 16-19. " That we 
 henceforth be no more children, tossed to and 
 fro, and carried about with every wind of doc 
 trine, by the sleight of men, and cunning crafti 
 ness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive ; but 
 speaking the truth in love, may grow up into 
 him in all things, which is the head, even Christ : 
 from whom the whole body fitly joined together 
 and compacted by that which every joint sup- 
 plieth, according to the effectual working in the 
 measure of every part, maketh increase of the 
 body unto the edifying of itself in love." Eph. 
 4:14-16. Read also Phil. 1:9-11; Col. 1:9-11 ; 
 Heb. 6:1-3; 13:20,21; 1 Pet. 2 : 1 ; 2 Pet. 
 1:5; and especially 2 Pet. 3 : 18 : " Grow in 
 
24: CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ." May I request you to 
 lay down this volume, open your Bible, and 
 read these passages, remembering that it is 
 God who speaks to you in every one of them, 
 and commands you to go forward. 
 
 Secondly, consider the scriptural ILLUSTRA 
 TIONS of the nature of true religion. "We take 
 one first from the Old Testament, and a beau 
 tiful one it is the rise and progress of the SUN. 
 " The path of the just is as the shining light, 
 that shineth more and more unto the perfect 
 day." Proverbs 4 : 18. It is not the glimmei 
 of the glow-worm, nor the transient blaze oi 
 the meteor, nor the wasting ray of the taper, 
 but the grand luminary of heaven " coining 
 out of his chamber and rejoicing as a strong 
 man to run a race." And a very beautiful 
 sight it is, to see a soul rising out of darkness, 
 not stopping on the verge of the horizon, but 
 ascending higher and higher not merely be 
 ginning its course and remaining amidst fogs, 
 clouds, and mists, but shining brighter and 
 brighter at every step with increasing know 
 ledge, faith, and love. But is this shining light 
 
NECESSITY OF PROG-RESS. 25 
 
 the picture of our path? There is no such 
 command given as, " Sun, stand thou still ;" 
 therefore it rebukes a stationary profession. It 
 is a rising and advancing, not a declining sun ; 
 therefore it rebukes a backsliding state. There 
 may be an occasional cloud, or even in some 
 cases, as of David and Peter, a temporary 
 eclipse. But when did the sun fail of carrying 
 on its early dawn to a perfect day ? Be thank 
 ful, then, for " the day of small things ;" despise 
 it not. But be not satisfied with it. Religion 
 must be a shining and a progressive light. 
 
 Among these scriptural illustrations there is 
 none more frequent or better known than LIFE. 
 It is scarcely necessary to quote passages, they 
 are so numerous and so familiar. " He that 
 belie veth hath everlasting life." " By this we 
 know that we have passed from death unto life." 
 " He came that we might have life, and that 
 we might have it more abundantly." " Your 
 life is hid with Christ in G-od." " When Christ 
 who is our life shall appear." Religion is a 
 new, a spiritual, a divine, a heavenly life; the 
 life of Grod in the soul of man. Now, it is the 
 law of all life to progress. It is so with veget- 
 
26 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 able and animal vitality, and it must of neces 
 sity be so with that which is spiritual. Mark 
 the new-born babe : there is a spark of life, 
 always very feeble, sometimes scarcely distin 
 guishable from death. Yet, there is life. The 
 babe becomes a child, the child a youth, the 
 youth a man. Life is progressive. Is not this, 
 I say, the selected, the frequent emblem of the 
 Christian? In support of this illustration of 
 progress in religion, we may refer to one of the 
 passages already quoted : " As new-born babes, 
 desire the sincere milk of the word,that ye may 
 grow thereby." Newly converted persons are 
 babes lately born, little infants, feeble in every 
 thing that pertains to spiritual life, yet there 
 is life. They are not like still-born children, 
 that cannot grow, but are quickened from a 
 death of sin to a life of righteousness. "What 
 is dead cannot grow ; as what is wholly perfect 
 does not need to grow. An unregenerated sin 
 ner can never grow in spiritual life ; he must 
 first be made alive : and when he is alive he 
 must grow. This constitutes the difference 
 between "living" in the Spirit, and " ivalk- 
 ing" in the Spirit. There is first the principle 
 
NECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 27 
 
 ot life, then its manifestation in activity. So, 
 young Christians are very far from being what 
 they are yet to be, even on earth ; as all Chris 
 tians are very far from being what they are to 
 be in heaven. The child of Grod is born to 
 grow as well as to live ; and G-od, who has 
 ordained the growth, has provided for it in the 
 milk of the word. The representation of Arch 
 bishop Leighton in his exquisitely beautiful 
 exposition of this passage is so striking that I 
 shall introduce a long quotation from it, which 
 no one will deem too long : 
 
 " The whole estate and course of the Chris 
 tian s spiritual life here is called their infancy, 
 not only as opposed to the corruption and 
 wickedness of their previous state, but like 
 wise as signifying the weakness and imper 
 fection of it at the best in this life, compared 
 with the perfection of the life to come ; for 
 the weakest beginnings of grace are by no 
 means so far below the highest degree of it 
 possible in this life, as the highest degree falls 
 short of the state of glory : so that, if one 
 measure of grace is called infancy in respect 
 to another, much more is all grace infancy in 
 
28 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 respect to glory. And surely, as for duration, 
 the time of our present life is far less to eter 
 nity than the time of our natural infancy is 
 to the rest of our life ; so that we may stil] 
 he called hut new or lately horn. Our hest 
 pace and strongest walking in ohedience here, 
 is hut the stepping of children when they 
 hegin to go hy hold, in comparison with the 
 perfect ohedience in glory, the stately, grace 
 ful steps with which, on the heights of Zion, 
 we shall walk in the light of the Lord ; when 
 * we shall follow the Lamh whithersoever he 
 goeth. All our knowledge here is hut the 
 ignorance of infants, and all our expressions 
 of Grod and of his praises, are hut as the first 
 stammerings of children which are, however, 
 very pleasant hoth to child and parent in 
 comparison with the knowledge we shall have 
 of him hereafter, * when we shall know as we 
 are known ; and with those praises we shall 
 offer him, when that new song shall he taught 
 us, which is sung hefore the throne, and 
 hefore the four living creatures, and which 
 none can learn hut those who are redeemed 
 from the earth. Rev. 14 : 3. A child hath in 
 
NECESSITY OF PROG-RESS. 29 
 
 it a reasonable soul ; and yet, "by the indis- 
 posedness of the body, and abundance of 
 moisture, it is so bound up, that its difference 
 from the beasts, and its partaking of a rational 
 nature, is not so apparent as afterwards ; and 
 thus the spiritual life that is from above in 
 fused into a Christian, though it doth act and 
 work in some degree, yet it is so clogged with 
 natural corruption still remaining in him, that 
 the excellency of it is much clouded and 
 obscured ; but in the life to come it shall have 
 nothing at all encumbering and indisposing it. 
 And this is the apostle Paul s doctrine : For 
 we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 
 But when that which is perfect is come, then 
 that which is in part shall be done away. 
 When I was a child I spoke as a child, I 
 understood as a child, I thought as a child ; 
 but when I became a man, I put away child 
 ish things. For now we see through a glass, 
 darkly ; but then face to face : now I know in 
 part;, but then shall I know even also as I 
 am known. 1 Cor. 13 : 9-12. 
 
 " And this is the wonder of divine grace, 
 that brings so small beginnings to that height 
 
30 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 of perfection that we are not able to conceive 
 of; that a little spark of true grace, that is 
 not only undiseernible to others, but often to 
 the Christian himself, should yet be the begin 
 ning of that condition wherein they shall shino 
 brighter than the sun in the firmament. The 
 difference is great in our natural life, in some 
 persons especially, that they who in infancy 
 were so feeble and wrapped up like others in 
 swaddling clothes, yet afterwards come to excel 
 in wisdom and in the knowledge of the sci 
 ences, to be commanders of great armies, or 
 to be kings ; but the distance is far greater 
 and more admirable, between the weakness of 
 these new-born babes, the small beginnings of 
 grace, and their after perfection, that fulness 
 of knowledge that we look for, and that crown 
 of immortality that all are born to who are 
 born of God. But as in the faces and actions 
 of some children, characters and presages of 
 their after greatness have appeared as a sin 
 gular beauty in Moses countenance, as they 
 write of him, and as Cyrus was made king 
 among the shepherd s children with whom he 
 was brought up so also certainly in these 
 
NECESSITY OF rROQRESS. 31 
 
 children of God there be some characters and 
 evidences that they are born for heaven by 
 their new birth. That holiness and meekness, 
 that patience and faith, that shine in the 
 actions and sufferings of the saints, are char 
 acters of their Father s image, and show their 
 high original, and foretell their glory to come ; 
 such a glory as doth not only surpass the 
 world s thoughts, but the thoughts of the chil 
 dren of G-od themselves. * 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. 1 John, 3:2." 
 We now, in prosecution of the scriptural 
 illustrations of religious progress, take up the 
 idea of a SPRING. " Jesus answered and said 
 unto her, Whosoever shall drink of this water 
 shall thirst again ; but the water that I shall 
 give him shall be in him a well of water 
 springing up into everlasting life." John 
 4 : 13, 14. Permit me to direct your fixed 
 attention to the beauties of this passage. 
 While the pleasures of the world, " the lust 
 of the flesh, the pride of life, and the lust of 
 the eyes," are but as drops which excite rather 
 
32 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 than allay the thirst of the natural man after 
 true happiness, or at best leave him unsat 
 isfied ; the grace of Christ, in renewing and 
 sanctifying the soul, leads it to the true foun 
 tain of bliss, and compels it in the fulness of 
 satisfaction to exclaim, "I have found it, I 
 have found it." And this source of happiness 
 is not far off, for it is within and not without 
 its possessor. "It shall be in him a well of 
 water." He carries the spring about with 
 him. Hence it is said, " The good man shall 
 be satisfied from himself." And it is also 
 abundant, an unfailing source, a constant 
 supply, a well ever accessible and never -dry. 
 But it is not merely the satisfying, but the pro 
 gressive nature of true religion which is here 
 represented. It is a beautiful image not a 
 stagnant pool, nor a well so deep as that its 
 waters cannot rise ; but a spring whose spark 
 ling and gushing ebullitions shall be ever 
 bubbling up, and forming an ever-living foun 
 tain that flows at all seasons of the year, in 
 heat or cold, and in all the circumstances of 
 the weather, whether foul or fair, wet or dry. 
 Religion always lives, always shows its beau- 
 
NECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 33 
 
 ties, and amidst all changes of external cir 
 cumstances. But this inward spring of grace 
 in the soul is represented as rising higher and 
 higher and never stopping till it reaches eternal 
 life ; swelling into a stream which refreshes 
 others in its course to eternity, making all 
 around it fruitful and pleasant; just like a 
 river flowing through a country, which irri 
 gates the land and covers it on every hand 
 with fertility and beauty. 
 
 I ask, Is this descriptive of our religion ? Do 
 we know any thing of this indwelling of the 
 Spirit of G-od ; this inward supply from a di 
 vine source of sanctity and bliss ; these holy 
 ebullitions of sanctified feeling ; this rising up 
 of an inward principle to a divine source, an 
 element of life issuing from the parent fountain, 
 and returning to its primitive source a some 
 thing godlike, which aspires to God heavenly, 
 which aspires to heaven eternal, which rests 
 not till it has reached the eternal ? "What of all 
 this is in us ? Is it mystery, or plainness to 
 us? It is immensely important that we give 
 ourselves time and leisure to inquire into this 
 matter. 
 
34 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 The next illustration I borrow is that which 
 we find in our Lord s language, " The earth 
 bringeth forth fruit of herself: first the blade, 
 then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." 
 Mark 4 : 28. This language is rather a descrip 
 tion of the growth of grace in the heart, than, 
 like the grain of mustard-seed, of the advance 
 ment of the kingdom of Christ in the world. It 
 is an allusion to one of the beautiful develop 
 ments and slow processes of nature in regard to 
 vegetable life. How gradually does the princi 
 ple of vitality evolve, its first germinating being 
 imperceptible to the most observant eye. Yet 
 from that invisible germ, there grows up at 
 length the strong and verdant blade. Then the 
 ear gently and gradually comes forth from its 
 envelopments. This, under the genial influence 
 of the heavens and the fertilizing power of the 
 earth, swells into the plump, ripe corn, ready for 
 the reaper s sickle. Instructive and beautiful 
 emblem of that more precious seed of the word 
 of God which is sown in the heart of man by 
 Grod s regenerating work ! It is at first small, 
 feeble, tender, scarcely perceptible, like the first 
 shoots of the grain in the earth. It may be the 
 
NECESSITY OF PROG-RESS. 35 
 
 early impressions upon a child s mind listening 
 to his mother s gentle admonition and familiar 
 instruction. Or it may be a conviction lodged 
 in the soul under some melting or alarming 
 sermon. Or it may be a serious reflection oc 
 casioned by some painful visitation of Provi 
 dence. God has various methods of entering 
 by his grace into the soul of the unconverted sin 
 ner. The seed may lie long like the grain in 
 the earth before any sign of vegetable life is per 
 ceptible, yet all this while the vital process may 
 be going on. At length it rises above the ground 
 and growth is visible, which continues till the 
 result already described is apparent. But like 
 that, in its earlier stages it needs the greatest 
 watchfulness and care, for it is peculiarly sus 
 ceptible of injury and destruction. 
 
 The last illustration I take up is that of a 
 RACE. " The most splendid solemnities which 
 ancient history hath transmitted to us were the 
 Olympic games. Historians, orators, and poets 
 abound with references to them, and their sub- 
 limest imagery is borrowed from these renowned 
 exercises. The games were solemnized every 
 fifth year by an infinite concourse of people from 
 
36 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 almost all parts of the world. They were 
 observed with the greatest pomp and magnifi 
 cence ; hecatombs of victims were slain in hon 
 or of the heathen deities, and Elis was a scene 
 of universal festivity and joy. "We find that the 
 most formidable and opulent sovereigns of those 
 times were competitors for the Olympic crown. 
 Even the lords of imperial Rome and emperors 
 of the world entered their names among the 
 candidates, and contended for the envied palm ; 
 judging their felicity completed, and the career 
 of all human glory and greatness happily ter 
 minated, if they could but interweave the Olym 
 pic garland with the laurels they had purchased 
 in the fields of war." Alas for the littleness of 
 earthly ambition and the narrow range of hu 
 man vanity ! It is not to be wondered at that 
 an institute so celebrated should be employed 
 by the sacred writers to illustrate the sublimer 
 objects which they had to propose, and to stim 
 ulate the desires which they were anxious to 
 awaken. Hence the impressive language of the 
 apostle : " 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 
 
NECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 37 
 
 that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all 
 things. Now they do it to obtain a corrupt 
 ible crown ; but we an incorruptible." 1 Cor. 
 9 : 24, 25. No subject could be more familiar 
 than this to the minds of the Corinthians, who 
 were often spectators of similar games celebrat 
 ed upon the isthmus on which their city was 
 situated, and hence denominated the Isthmian. 
 Among these games the foot-race sustained a 
 distinguished place. To this, express allusion 
 is made by the apostle in writing to the He 
 brews, among whom these national festivi 
 ties had been introduced by Herod the Great. 
 " "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about 
 with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay 
 aside every weight, and the sin which doth so 
 easily beset us, and let us run with patience 
 the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus 
 the author and finisher of our faith." Heb. 
 12 : 1, 2. Every expression in these two pas 
 sages is allusive and instructive. The enrolled 
 competitor underwent for several months like 
 the men who engage in those disgraceful feats, 
 our prize fights a rigid system of physical 
 training. Hence the expression, " He that striv 
 
38 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 eth for the mastery is temperate in all things" 
 The candidates \vere obliged to keep in the 
 course marked out, and to observe all the rules 
 prescribed; wherefore it is said, "If a man 
 strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned ex 
 cept he strive- lawfully^ 2 Tim. 2 : 5. The 
 racers laid aside their garments and ran nearly 
 naked. Hence the exhortation, "Let us lay 
 aside every weight " every unnecessary care, 
 every lust both of the flesh and of the mind 
 "and the sin which doth so easily beset us." 
 The race was carried on amidst an immense 
 crowd of spectators ; hence the language, "We 
 also are compassed about with so great a cloud 
 of witnesses." The prize was merely honorary, 
 consisting only of a chaplet of leaves, which 
 withered ere it was worn ; hence it is said, 
 "They do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but 
 we an incorruptible" How finely does this 
 illustrate that sublime passage in the epistle to 
 the Philippians : " Not as though I had already 
 attained, either were already perfect ; but I fol 
 low after, if that I may apprehend that for which 
 also I am apprehended of Jesus Christ. Breth 
 ren, I count not myself to have apprehended ; 
 
NECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 39 
 
 "but this one thing I do, forgetting those things 
 which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
 things which are before, I press toward the 
 mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
 Christ Jesus." Phil. 3 : 12, 14. Every term 
 here employed refers to the ancient foot-race, 
 and the whole passage beautifully represents 
 the ardor which fired the competitors when 
 engaged in the contest. 
 
 Such, and so impressive is the description 
 given us by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures, 
 of the nature of religion of the Christian life ; 
 and it is sufficient to make all somewhat 
 anxious about their own state, and to reveal 
 the utter worthlessness and hollo wness of the 
 pretensions of many to the possession of true 
 piety. Does not this illustrative figure set 
 forth more forcibly and vividly than any mere 
 language could do, that the Christian life is a 
 state of self-denial, intense desire, deep so 
 licitude ; of strenuous, unr emitted, unwearied 
 action ; and of constant progress ? How was 
 the soul of the racer filled and fired with the 
 hope of success ; how patiently were the 
 necessary privations borne ; how was every 
 
40 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 muscle strained, and the speed quickened to 
 the uttermost, "by the fear of defeat and the 
 prospect of victory. Reader, whosoever you 
 are whose eye shall wander over these pages, 
 pause, I beseech you, and ponder this subject. 
 This is the inspired description of religion, and 
 must therefore be the correct one. Does your 
 religion answer to this ? Know you aught of 
 such solicitude for the salvation of your soul, 
 such labor to attain it, as are implied in this 
 representation ? Is your religion really a race ? 
 Does your eye often gaze upon the crown of 
 life, and your bosom swell with the mighty 
 aspiration after glory, honor, and immortality ? 
 Oh, do not deceive yourself. Look at this, 
 there is something more than profession here ; 
 something more than the easy and careless 
 bearing of the Christian name which many 
 exhibit. 
 
 But it is PROGRESS that the subject leads us 
 now especially to contemplate. The racer was 
 not only in action, but in progress. It was 
 with him not merely bounding off with a 
 vigorous start, nor exerting himself to the 
 uttermost of his strength for a part of tho 
 
NECESSITY OF PHOG-RESS. 41 
 
 
 
 course, but a continual going onwards. Hence 
 the beautiful language of the apostle, " For 
 getting the things that are behind, and reach 
 ing forth unto those which are before." One 
 who was running in the ancient race would 
 not stop to look back to see how much ground 
 he had run over, or which of his companions 
 had fallen or lingered on the way. He would 
 keep his eye fixed on the goal and the prize, 
 and strain every nerve to reach them.- If his 
 attention were diverted for a single moment, it 
 might hinder his speed and might be the 
 means of his losing the crown. Onward, on 
 ward, was the mighty impulse which stimu 
 lated him in his course. So was it with the 
 apostle. He fixed his eye intently on the prize 
 and allowed no past attainments as a Christian, 
 or success as a minister, to make him linger 
 on the way. So must it be with us. No 
 measure of knowledge, of faith, or holiness, 
 must satisfy us, but we must be ever making 
 advances in the divine life. 
 
 Thirdly, if any thing more be necessary to 
 convince us of the necessity of progress, con 
 sider scriptural REBUKES. How often did our 
 
42 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 Lord reprove his disciples for the infantine- 
 feebleness of their faith ; and with what just 
 severity did the apostle reproach the believing 
 Hebrews for their want of progress. " When," 
 said he, "for the time ye ought to be teachers, 
 ye have need that one teach you again which 
 be the first principles of the oracles of Grod ; 
 and have become such as have need of milk, 
 and not of strong meat." Heb. 5 : 12. Could 
 any thing be more reproachful of their culpable 
 negligence, their shameful indolence, their 
 voluntary backwardness in seeking after divine 
 knowledge ? They were babes when they 
 ought to have been, and might have been, of 
 full and matured strength. They were con 
 tent with the very rudiments of Christianity, 
 the alphabet of religion. It satisfied them just 
 to have light enough .to grope after salvation, 
 and to walk on in dim twilight. Alas, alas, 
 how many are like them. How many are con 
 tent with the veriest elements of knowledge 
 and experience. Talk with them, observe them 
 years after they have made a profession of relig 
 ion, and you will find them possessed of only 
 the crudest notions and the most unsettled 
 
NECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 43 
 
 feelings. They are no -further on in the divine 
 life than they were ,* yea, they have gone back. 
 Read also the pungent rebukes of our Lord 
 to the churches in the Apocalypse. He thus 
 addresses the church at Ephesus. "I know 
 thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, 
 and how thou canst not bear them which are 
 evil ; and thou hast tried them which say they 
 are apostles and are not, and hast found them 
 liars : and hast borne, and hast patience, and 
 for my name s sake hast labored, and hast 
 not fainted." How exalted a character ; how 
 rich a piety ; how fine an eulogium ! Surely 
 there is nothing here to condemn. Yes, there 
 is. Mark what follows. " Nevertheless, I 
 have somewhat against thee, because thou hast 
 left thy first love." See that. Dwell upon it. 
 No attainments, no eminence can compensate 
 for a decline of " first love." Christ will allow 
 no plea of extenuation to be put in ; much less 
 any defence to be set up. Hence what follows, 
 " Remember, therefore, from whence thou art 
 fallen, and repent, and do thy first works ; or 
 else I will come unto thee quickly, and will 
 remove thy candlestick out of his place, except 
 
44 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 thou repent." Rev. 2 : 5. But perhaps it will 
 be said, all that Christ required in this case 
 was that they should only recover lost ground, 
 return to their former state, and continue as 
 they were. Ah, hut what must have been 
 their first love, when their diminished affection 
 was so great ? "What must have been their 
 first works, when their secondary ones were so 
 signal? And moreover the rebuke did not 
 necessarily imply that they were to be satisfied 
 with even this. They had declined just be 
 cause they had neglected to advance, and it 
 was therefore strongly implied that they must 
 advance in order that they might not again 
 recede. 
 
 If these things do not prove the necessity of 
 progress, it is hopeless to prove any thing. 
 "We should give to them their due weight and 
 act under their influence. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE READER. 
 
 You have now learnt from the word of God 
 the necessity of progress ? "What think you of 
 it ? Has it ever thus occurred to you before ? 
 Does it strike you now? Can you deny or 
 
NECESSITY OF PROGRESS. 45 
 
 doubt this necessity ? Can you be indifferent 
 to it, or trifle with it ? Perhaps you have over 
 looked it. You have never entered into the 
 subject ; but have had all your attention 
 directed, and all your solicitude awakened to 
 make a good beginning, a public profession, a 
 favorable start. But is this all that is neces 
 sary ? Does this answer to the description of 
 religion, as a race, a spring, a growing child, 
 or tree ? Can you really satisfy yourself that 
 your religion is real, if it be unattended with a 
 conviction that it should be progressive ? Do, 
 do study afresh, I beseech you, the representa 
 tions given in this chapter. Ask yourself the 
 one question, " Am I laying aside every weight, 
 and the sin that does so easily beset me, and 
 so running the race that is set before me as to 
 obtain the prize of eternal glory ?" Are you ? 
 Is there that intense desire after the crown, 
 that vigorous effort to obtain it, that eager 
 hope to receive it, which shall impel you 
 onward with the speed of the ancient racer ? 
 Oh, are you convinced that it is not a faint 
 endeavor, but a mighty conflict, that must gain 
 eternal life ? Are you saying to yourself, "I 
 
46 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 must forget the things that are behind, and 
 press toward the mark for the prize of my 
 high calling? I cannot be satisfied to bo 
 always as I am. I pant to be holier." Again, 
 I say, pause and pray. Read no more till you 
 have entered your closet and have put up the 
 prayer of faith for a deeper conviction of the 
 necessity of progress. 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 47 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 NATURE OF PROGRESS. 
 
 WHAT is it to make progress in religion? 
 Progress is not only action, but moving onward. 
 A door turning upon its hinges is in a state 
 of motion, but it never advances. A chariot 
 moving upon wheels is not only in action, but 
 goes onward. The conduct of some persons 
 in religion resembles the former there is 
 action, but no advancement ; they move, but 
 it is on hinges, not on wheels. They go 
 through, perhaps, even with regularity, the 
 exercises of devotion, both public and private. 
 They may be mechanically exact and punc 
 tual, still they do not go forward. 
 
 There are two ways of setting forth the 
 nature of progress. First, by representing 
 the young convert retaining his first views, 
 feelings, and conduct with consistency after 
 his profession has been made, and then carry 
 ing them with him into future life and all its 
 various conditions, scenes, duties, and rela- 
 
48 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 tions. Life itself is progressive and ever 
 changing. Imagine the case of a youth who 
 receives his first religious impressions, and 
 assumes the religious character while at home 
 with his parents. To prepare for future life, 
 ho leaves his father s house either as an 
 apprentice or a shopman. In too many cases, 
 
 a change of scene produces a change of char 
 acter ; and religion, under the influence of the 
 unfavorable circumstances in which he may 
 now "be placed, or by the power of temptation, 
 declines, if it be not altogether abandoned. 
 But in the case I am supposing, the youth 
 holds fast his integrity, and amidst irreligious 
 and scoffing companions maintains his stead 
 fastness and consistency. He bears opposition 
 and insult with firmness, fortitude, and meek- 
 
 \ness. Here is progress. There may be no 
 great increase of knowledge or of holiness, 
 but what he had has been exposed to hard 
 trials and has surmounted them, and this 
 itself is growth, and great growth too. So of 
 a daughter who remains at home : her profes 
 sion may have been assumed when very 
 young, before her heart was susceptible of 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 49 
 
 the corrupting influence of the world. The 
 time arrives when the child passes into the 
 girl and the girl into the young woman. In 
 this transition, when she feels the desire of 
 companionship, when her society is courted, 
 and she is invited to parties and amusements, 
 we often see sad instances of declension. 
 Seriousness is gone, and little else than a mere 
 profession is left. But in the case of real 
 progress, the purpose to serve the Lord is 
 unmoved, the resolve to come out from the 
 world and be separate is unshaken. There is 
 the same earnestness, seriousness, and decision 
 as ever. Company, flattery, publicity, produce 
 no alteration of conduct or character. There 
 is a solicitude, not how nearly she can come 
 to the world and yet not be of it, but how 
 far she may recede from it without affected 
 singularity, unnecessary precision, or a viola 
 tion of the courtesies of life. She is the same 
 simple-minded Christian, the same decided 
 follower of the Lamb, amidst the development 
 of womanhood as she was in her teens. This 
 is progress, great progress. To retain her first 
 love amidst this change of circumstances is an 
 
 Chr Prog. 4 
 
50 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 advance, because it has been put to a new 
 test, and has honorably passed the ordeal. 
 
 A similar remark may be made in reference 
 to the influence of our religion on the different 
 relations of life. When young people who 
 have parents living, are converted to Grod, it is 
 of course their duty to let their religion influ 
 ence them as children. Religion is not only 
 to make us better towards God, but better 
 towards man ; and he who is really made 
 better towards God, will infallibly be made 
 better towards man ; and if we are not im 
 proved in our conduct towards our fellow- 
 creatures, there is a moral certainty we are 
 not improved towards our Creator. There is 
 progress when the great change is proved by 
 persons being made better husbands or wives, 
 better parents or children, better masters or 
 servants. It is a beautiful growth of godli 
 ness, when social excellence and all its blessed 
 fruits are seen springing out of the stem of 
 piety. Oh, to see the prodigal son brought 
 back by religion to his father s arms and home ; 
 or the unkind and unfaithful husband won 
 back by his piety to the woman whom he had 
 
NATURE OF PROORESS. 51 
 
 oppressed and insulted ; or the faithless ser 
 vant, like Onesimus, reclaimed by his conver 
 sion from dishonesty and injustice. Show me 
 the professing Christian whose social character 
 is as unlovely after profession as it was before, 
 and though there may be an increase of 
 knowledge and of some other things connected 
 with religion, there is no progress. 
 
 Then, when the youth arrives at manhood, 
 and carries his religion with him also into 
 business, and amidst all its cares, temptations, 
 and perplexities, holds fast his personal godli 
 ness and unites the Christian tradesman with 
 the Christian professor, letting his light so 
 shine before men that they seeing his good 
 works glorify God, there is progress ; for alas, 
 alas, how many who, while in the capacity of 
 a servant, maintain a conscience void of offence 
 both towards (rod and man, and keep up a 
 regard to the one thing needful, lose nearly 
 all the power of religion, either as a principle 
 or a taste, when plunged into the anxieties 
 and snares of trade. 
 
 Have not many women who, while young 
 and unmarried, and unencumbered with do- 
 
52 CHRISTIAN PROCURESS. 
 
 mestic cares, were earnest in piety, become 
 careless, lukewarm, and indifferent, when sur 
 rounded with the scenes and occupied with the 
 solicitudes of a wife, a mother, and a mistress ? 
 This, however, is not always the case, as our 
 biography of pious women can amply testify. 
 It is a beautiful sight to behold a young wife 
 and mother retaining her attention to religion 
 in all its earnestness and spirituality, and thus 
 qualifying herself for her new situation by all 
 the power of that godliness which she gained 
 in single life. Here is eminent progress. 
 
 Then what vicissitudes affect us in this world. 
 Some are raised to prosperity from low circum 
 stances, and lose their religion by little and 
 little in the ascension, till it is all gone by 
 the time they reach the summit. Rarely has it 
 happened that men have not been the worse for 
 prosperity ; rarer still, that they have been the 
 better for it. "What an advance in godliness has 
 he made, who retains his decision, his earnest 
 ness, his spirituality, his humility, amidst the 
 rising tide of wealth, and who is the same man 
 in spirit after his success as he was before it. 
 
 And so with adversity : to bear it with meek 
 
NATURE OF pmjSpCESS. II ^ 5 T 1> 
 
 submission to the will of dSod ; to endure chas 
 tisement with all long-suffering and joy fulness ; 
 to appear cheerful amidst surrounding gloom, 
 hopeful amidst desponding circumstances, hap 
 py in God when there is nothing else to make 
 us happy : he who does this has indeed made 
 great advances in the divine life. 
 
 But perhaps what we have hitherto con 
 sidered does not so completely bring out the 
 idea of progress as another method of repre 
 sentation, since it is rather the progress of the 
 Christian with religion, than in it the reten 
 tion and manifestation of piety in various situ 
 ations, rather than the increase of piety itself. 
 Still it is a necessary and most important part 
 of the subject. "We now therefore take up this 
 latter view of the subject. 
 
 There ought to be a growth in every thing 
 that constitutes personal godliness. And as 
 all true religion is based on KNOWLEDGE, there 
 should be an increase of this. Defects here, as 
 we have already shown, were the occasion of 
 the apostle s rebuke to the Hebrews. The in 
 crease of knowledge was much in the apostle s 
 prayers for the churches. Ephes. 1 : 17-23 ; 
 
54 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 3 : 18, 19 ; Phil. 1:9; Col. 1:9. In all these 
 passages, to which it is hoped you will turn, you 
 will see how earnest St. Paul was that his 
 converts should advance in knowledge. Apart 
 from, or without this, there can be but slow 
 advances in any thing else. This is clear from 
 the apostle s exhortation, " Grow in grace and 
 in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Je 
 sus Christ." Thus you see growth in grace and 
 growth in knowledge are inseparably connected. 
 Light is essentially necessary to natural vege 
 tation ; so it is to that which is spiritual. Young 
 converts are sometimes so taken up with re 
 ligious feeling and doing , as to forget the im 
 portance, even in reference to these, of knowing. 
 By a growth in knowledge, then, we mean an 
 increasing understanding of the contents, and 
 their true meaning, of the word of God ; a real 
 advance in acquaintance with biblical truth. 
 Not only an acquaintance with systems of relig 
 ious opinion, but with the design and meaning 
 of the books and chapters and texts of Scrip 
 ture ; an ever-growing disposition and ability to 
 read the sacred word with intelligence, discrim 
 ination, and self-application. 
 
NATURE OF PROORESS. 55 
 
 There are three or four matters which may 
 be considered the very substance of the Bible, 
 and with which every Christian should make 
 himself as familiar as his time and circumstan 
 ces will allow. The Person and work of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, as (rod, man, Mediator, 
 or " Grod in Christ reconciling the world to him 
 self," is the grand peculiarity of the Bible. It 
 was dimly shadowed forth under the Old Tes 
 tament, and is clearly revealed in the New. 
 Christ is the alpha and omega of revelation ; 
 you cannot understand the Bible if you are ig 
 norant of this. The true and proper divinity ot 
 Christ s person is the corner-stone of Christian 
 doctrine. Compare Psalm 102 : 25-27, with 
 Heb. 1 : 10 ; Psalm 45 : 6, with Heb. 1:8; Isa 
 iah 6, with John 12 : 37-41 ; Isaiah 45 : 23, 24, 
 with Rom. 14 : 9-11. Read also, Matt. 18 : 20 ; 
 John 1 : 1, 10-14 ; 8 : 56-58 ; 10 : 30 ; 14 : 8-10 ; 
 17:5; 20:28; Rom. 9:5; Phil. 2:5-11; 
 Col. 1 : 16 ; 2 : 9 ; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 1 ; 1 John, 
 5 : 20 ; Rev. 1. These are only a portion of the 
 scriptures that testify the true and proper di 
 vinity of our Lord. Do give yourselves time 
 and leisure to turn to them, to study them, to 
 
56 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 treasure them up in your mind. But it is Christ 
 as Mediator, also you are to consider, uniting 
 in a way we cannot comprehend the divine and 
 human nature in his one glorious person. As 
 Mediator, he died in the sinner s stead as his 
 substitute, and by his death upon the cross 
 made an atonement for the sinner s transgres 
 sion. How clearly, how gloriously, how unan 
 swerably does the doctrine of atonement shine 
 forth in that wonderful passage, Rom. 3 : 24-26. 
 There, propitiation, which is the same in mean 
 ing as atonement, is declared to be the very 
 end of Christ s incarnation and death. Three 
 times, in the compass of two verses, is it de 
 clared, that the demonstration of God s justice 
 is the end of Christ s sufferings unto death. 
 The whole gospel scheme is a manifestation of 
 mercy in a way of righteousness. In redemp 
 tion, God shows love to us in a way that eclipses 
 neither the glory of his character, his laws, nor 
 his government. Understand well the design 
 of Christ s death, of that mysterious economy of 
 a vicarious sacrifice that it was to harmonize 
 the salvation of the sinner with the honor of God, 
 and this could only be done by an atonement. 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 57 
 
 At the same time understand well the doctrine 
 of atonement. This means, that Jesus Christ 
 having died in the place and stead of guilty 
 man, it is for the sake and out of regard to his 
 death as the meritorious consideration that God 
 pardons the sinner ; and that by this scheme of 
 divine wisdom and mercy, the same purpose 
 in regard to justice and to the maintenance of 
 the principles of moral government will be ac 
 complished, as the punishment of the sinner 
 would have done. And it is in this view that 
 we see the connection between the divinity of 
 Christ and the doctrine of atonemorit. The sac 
 rifice of one who was a mere ma.j, or a creature 
 however highly exalted, could not be as clear a 
 display of God s public justice as the punish 
 ment of the whole multitude of pardoned sin 
 ners would have been. There was required a 
 sacrifice of a very peculiar nature. Here we 
 have it, in Christ. He was truly and properly 
 man that he might suffer and die, which God 
 could not do ; he was God, and thus the suffer 
 ings of the manhood acquired from his divinity 
 a character of infinite merit and worth. For 
 a proof of this doctrine we refer you to Isaiah 
 
58 CHRISTIAN PROaRESS. 
 
 53 to the whole Levitical law as compared 
 with the epistle to the Hebrews, especially to 
 Leviticus 16, compared with Heb. 9, 10. Read 
 also Matt. 20 : 28 ; Rom. 5 : 9 to end ; 1 Cor. 
 15 : 3 ; 2 Cor. 5 : 21 ; 1 Peter, 1 : 18, 20 ; 2 : 24 ; 
 1 John, 4 : 10 ; Rev. 1 : 5. These scriptures are 
 only a few of what might be selected to set 
 forth the doctrine of the atonement a doctrine 
 not only momentous as an article of faith, but 
 infinitely precious as a basis of hope. 
 
 Another subject which it is immensely im 
 portant for a young Christian to understand is, 
 God s method of bestowing the blessings of 
 salvation upon the sinner that is, the doctrine 
 of justification by faith. Who are the per 
 sons that will receive salvation, and what is the 
 way in which they receive it ? This has been 
 plainly set forth in the former treatise I 
 mean " The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation." 
 By the doctrine of justification by faith, we 
 mean, that when a sinner is convinced of his 
 transgression, is truly penitent, and believes in 
 the testimony of the gospel that " God so Ibved 
 the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
 that whosoever belie veth in him should not 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 59 
 
 perish, but have everlasting life," he is pardon 
 ed, received to the divine favor, and entitled 
 to eternal life, not on account of his own senti 
 ments, feelings, actions, or any thing of his 
 own, but entirely for the sake of the blood and 
 righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, which 
 are in such sense imputed to him that he re 
 ceives the full benefit o them as if they were 
 his own. Justification by faith is the answer 
 to that momentous question, " How shall man 
 be just with God ?" And the reply is, not by 
 works of his own, but by faith in the work of 
 another, that is, Christ. He must have a right 
 eousness in which to stand before a righteous 
 and a holy, as well as a merciful God. He has 
 no such righteousness of his own. " Christ is 
 the end of the law for righteousness unto him." 
 u He of God is made unto him righteousness." 
 This is justification, the same in substance as 
 pardon, with this difference, that the word 
 pardon simply expresses only the blessing we 
 receive, while the word justification includes 
 the idea of the way in which it comes to us, 
 that is, by righteousness. There is also this 
 difference justification signifies our entrance 
 
60 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 upon the state of pardon or adoption ; pardon 
 may be often repeated towards one who is in 
 this condition of acceptance. 
 
 It is of much consequence to a right under- 
 standing of divine truth, and to the proper 
 growth in knowledge and in grace, to observe 
 and ever maintain the distinction between jus 
 tification and sanctifioation. The fall brought 
 in two evils upon man : guilt upon his con 
 science, whereby he lost God s favor, and be 
 came obnoxious to his wrath ; and depravity 
 into his nature, whereby he lost (rod s image, 
 and became earthly, sensual, and devilish. To 
 be restored to bliss, in other words to be saved, 
 he needs to have his guilt pardoned and his 
 nature renewed. This is provided for in the 
 gospel scheme of redemption. By the blood and 
 righteousness of Christ, our sins are pardoned ; 
 and by the work of the Holy Spirit our hearts 
 are renewed, our nature changed, and our lives 
 sanctified. The work of the Spirit begins in 
 regeneration, and is carried on in progressive 
 sanctification. The difference, therefore, be 
 tween justification and sanctification is very 
 great and obvious, and must ever be maintained 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 61 
 
 in our views. Justification is the work of Christ 
 for us ; sanctification the work of the Spirit in 
 us : justification is perfect at once ; sanctifica 
 tion is progressive : justification is before sancti 
 fication, and sanctification is the fruit of justi 
 fication ; consequently the evidence of our justi 
 fication is in our sanctification. The first joy 
 and peace of the sinner come to him by justi 
 fication ; his peace, joy, and bliss as a believer 
 flow in great measure from his sanctification : 
 justification is in order to sanctification, rather 
 than sanctification in order to justification. 
 These remarks may seem to some to be mere 
 theological technicalities. But they are not so. 
 They enter into the very vitalities of personal 
 godliness. For the study of the doctrine of jus 
 tification and it ought to be a subject of study, 
 deep study and progressive intelligence the 
 following portions of Scripture should be de 
 voutly perused : Isaiah 43 ; Jer. 33 : 15, 16 ; 
 Rom. 3, 4, 5, 10 ; 1 Cor. 1 : 30, 31 ; 2 Cor. 
 5:21] Gal. 2, 3, 4 ; Phil. 3. 
 
 These are the chief matters to be investigat 
 ed in perusing the word of Grod. Not that the 
 attention is to be exclusively confined to -these 
 
G2 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 subjects. Nothing in the Bible is unworthy 
 the attention of a Christian. The ancient and 
 interesting histories of the hooks of Moses, and 
 the subsequent chronicles of the Jewish nation ; 
 the lofty devotions of the Psalmist ; the Prov 
 erbs of Solomon ; and the sublime and beauti 
 ful books of the Prophets, should also be studi 
 ed ; for " all Scripture," and this expression refers 
 to the Old Testament, " is given by inspiration 
 of Grod, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
 for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; 
 that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly 
 furnished unto all good works."* 
 
 It is not, however, in the doctrinal or his 
 torical parts of the word of God only, that the 
 young Christian is to increase his knowledge. 
 In religion there is nothing purely scientific : 
 all, all is practical. Every part is " a doctrine 
 according to godliness." It is declared, in the 
 passage just quoted, to be the design of the 
 
 * I know of no volume more excellent for a knowledge of 
 the general contents of the Bible, and the history of the texts, 
 than " Nicholl s Help to the Reading of the Bible ;" except it 
 be Home s noble work. But the former is only one small 
 volume, whereas the latter is too large and expensive, except 
 for students or wealthy Christians. 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 63 
 
 Bible "that the man of God may be perfect, 
 thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 
 Truth is but a means to an end, and that end 
 is holiness. Every one of us ought to study 
 our Bibles with that prayer upon our lips, 
 " Sanctify me by thy truth ; thy word is truth." 
 We should grow in our knowledge of the char 
 acter of Grod, that we may resemble it in the 
 perfection of the law, that we may be con 
 formed to it in the example of Jesus, that we 
 may be more like it. There should be a con 
 viction that we are not yet as perfect in what 
 we do know as we should be, as well as that 
 there is much yet that we do not know. A de 
 sire to know merely to know, is curiosity ; but 
 a desire to know in order to do, is sanctity. 
 
 There ought, then, to be progress in know 
 ledge. No Christian should be satisfied with 
 mere rudiments. And yet the great bulk seek 
 for nothing more. It is really humiliating and 
 painful to preachers to find how little, in the 
 way of imparting knowledge, is effected by all 
 their sermons. No students seem satisfied 
 with so little increase of ideas as those who 
 profess to be in the school of Christ. Useful- 
 
64 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 ness, happiness, and true religious dignity are 
 thus hindered. And not only so, hut religion 
 itself is stunted and starved, and its lustre 
 diminished. And even they who do read and 
 think, peruse only, or chiefly, the works of 
 men. Never was there an age when Bihles 
 were more widely circulated, and never an age 
 when by many who possess them they were 
 less read. Magazines, periodicals, and "books 
 of all kinds have come in upon us like a flood, 
 which in many cases has almost swept away 
 the Bible. After all, it is Bible truth from its 
 own source that is the concentrated nutriment 
 of the divine life ; and it will be found that 
 they are usually the strongest, healthiest, and 
 most rapidly growing of the children of God, 
 who live most upon the sincere, that is, the 
 pure and " unadulterated " milk of the word of 
 God. The works of men are very useful in 
 their place when they lead us to the word of 
 G-od, but too many persons allow themselves 
 to be kept away by them from the fountains of 
 pure truth. For the growth of the church of 
 God generally, it needs to be led back more 
 to the sacred Scriptures. 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 65 
 
 DECISION OF CHARACTER must be strengthened. 
 At first many a true Christian is a little hesi 
 tating and halting. His opinions are fluctuat 
 ing. His purposes are irresolute. His steps 
 are faltering. He is timid ; afraid of the 
 laughter of some, and the frowns of others. 
 He is fearful of being made the subject of 
 remark, and especially of critical and cynical 
 remark. He cannot encounter reproach ; and 
 is not yet bold enough to say, " Laugh on; 
 none of these things move me ; my mind is 
 made up." Sometimes he is too regardful of 
 his worldly interests. He is a little too flexible 
 and compliant. He makes concessions which 
 consistency of principle forbids. Companion 
 ship has too much power over him. He has 
 not acquired grace yet to assert manfully his 
 independence. Hence he is in great danger. 
 This state of mind is perilous in the extreme. 
 If he do not grow out of it, it will grow upon 
 him. He is likely to draw back, and to give 
 up all. See, then, the importance of his 
 immediately seeking to grow in firmness, reso 
 luteness, determinateness. This was the first 
 thing which the apostle enjoined next to belief: 
 
 Chr. Trog. 5 
 
66 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 "Add to your faith virtue," or as the word 
 signifies, "courage" courage to assert and 
 maintain your principles before all observation, 
 and against all opposition. Put on at once the 
 courage of a hero, and the constancy of a 
 vnartyr. Prove that piety, though contrary to 
 ambition after military heroism, is itself the 
 most heroic spirit in the world. Acquire more 
 and more of the courage which dares to be 
 singular in goodness. Be more insensible to 
 the world s favor, frown, or smile. Religion 
 does not encourage or foster a haughty spirit 
 of independence or a total disregard of the 
 world s opinion, but it does teach us so to re 
 spect the testimony of the Bible and the dictates 
 of conscience as to disregard all censures or 
 remarks that are opposite to these. The tree 
 in its growth strikes its roots deeper and deeper 
 into the earth, and thus strengthens the hold 
 it has upon the soil, so that it is far less likely 
 to be blown down by the raging winds. In 
 like manner let your conviction strike deeper 
 and deeper into the truth, so that you shall 
 not be thrown down by the conflicting opinions 
 or the stormy passions of men. 
 
NATURE OF PROCURESS. 67 
 
 FAITH is susceptible of growth.. It was the 
 prayer of the apostles, "Lord, increase our 
 faith." And we read continually in the Bible 
 of " strong" and " weak faith." Faith may be 
 considered either as general, believing the 
 whole word of God, which is the faith spoken 
 of in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews ; or 
 particular, as having respect to the person and 
 work of Christ. As regards the former, there 
 is ample room in most minds for growth. 
 Difficulties, after the first impressions and con 
 victions are over, soon arise and present them 
 selves to the young and inexperienced Chris 
 tian, and often multiply in his path. He^is 
 perplexed and knows not how to get rid of 
 them. He is sometimes staggered. His mind 
 is uncomfortable. Now, it is obviously his 
 duty and equally his privilege to put aside 
 these obstacles. Of course he should pray for 
 divine grace, and, in the language already 
 quoted, should say, "Lord, increase my faith." 
 But this is-- not all he should do. He should 
 read as well as pray. His mind should grow 
 in acquaintance with the evidence of divine 
 revelation. He should ponder upon the miracles 
 
68 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 of Christ and his apostles the accomplishment 
 of prophecy in the person and work of the 
 Saviour the history of the Jews -the success 
 of the gospel in its first ages by fishermen, 
 not only without, hut against the powers of 
 the earth the sublime doctrine and pure 
 morality of the Bible the lofty views it gives 
 of Grod, and its correct representations of human 
 nature the power it has in not only changing 
 the aspects of society, but doing this by the 
 renovation of the individual man the miserable 
 condition of humanity beyond the range and 
 influence of Christianity, showing the need 
 men have of a revelation with the pretensions 
 of false religions, proving the expectation they 
 entertain that a revelation will be given. Now 
 all these should become the subject of deep 
 thought and reflection, by which the opposing 
 difficulties will appear light and little. Such 
 studies are too much neglected by many per 
 sons, who are contented to take their religion 
 upon trust, or to go on their way perplexed by 
 the flippant cavils of infidelity which are so 
 common in this age of scepticism and unbelief. 
 True it is. that their own conversion ever will 
 
NATURE OF PROaRESS. 69 
 
 be the strongest evidence of the truth of reve 
 lation to the great mass of the people ; yet an 
 acquaintance with these, its historic proofs, 
 will be of great service, and yield great pleas 
 ure in their religious course. 
 
 But there must be a deep solicitude to grow 
 in that special faith which has direct reference 
 to the Saviour and his work. Christ is the 
 chief object proposed to the sinner in the New 
 Testament. The eye that sweeps round the 
 whole circle of divine truth must rest in him 
 as the centre. Faith is confidence, and con 
 fidence may be weak, partial, and wavering ; . 
 or it may be undivided, firm, and settled. 
 The young Christian, though convinced that 
 Christ is the only ground of hope and the only 
 source of salvation, though upon the whole 
 resting upon him and expecting all things 
 from him, is not yet brought, perhaps, to that 
 full and entire turning away from every thing 
 else, and that full and entire resting on the 
 Lord Jesus which an intelligent and strong 
 faith requires. He looks much to his frames 
 and feelings, and his various experiences ; as a 
 consequence, his peace rises and falls on this 
 
70 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 thermometer. A little more freedom in prayer, 
 or enjoyment under a sermon, or elasticity of 
 feeling in his ordinary course, raises him to the 
 mount ; while a little less sinks him to the 
 valley. His opinion of his state is as variable 
 as his emotions, and to a considerable extent 
 is decided by them. Thus, his course is an 
 alternation of gloom and gladness. What does 
 all this indicate, but that the eye is not upon 
 Christ, but upon self? What does it prove, but 
 that faith in Jesus is weak and wavering 
 that the mind does not yet see so clearly His 
 finished work as the ground of hope and source 
 of joy as it should do ? The soul is not yet 
 weaned from self-righteousness, but is almost 
 unconsciously to itself going about "to establish 
 its own righteousness," if not of works, yet of 
 feelings. Now, faith will as certainly take us 
 off from dependence upon the latter as upon 
 the former. Nor is this all, for the soul weak 
 in faith is looking about to many other things 
 for strength and holiness, instead of Jesus. It 
 does not yet see so clearly as it should do, that 
 "He is made of God unto us wisdom, and 
 righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- 
 
KATUB.E OF PROCURESS. 71 
 
 tion." 1 Cor. 1 : 31. Friends, ordinances, self- 
 imposed rules of conduct, are all appealed to 
 with this petition, u Help me ;" and in proper 
 measure and season, it is quite right to use 
 these helps, but not to the neglect of faith in 
 Jesus. A Christian who has grown in faith 
 lias risen above this, and is enabled to say, and 
 to rejoice as he says it, "I now see that all ful 
 ness of blessing is in Christ, and that it is from 
 that fulness I am to receive, and grace for 
 grace. I am now weaned from self, and am 
 no longer looking to it for any thing but 
 conviction and condemnation, but am looking 
 wholly and always to Jesus. My justification, 
 sanctification, consolation, stability, and per 
 severance, are all from him, just as all the sap 
 which supports the life and promotes the fruit- 
 fulness of the branch is derived from its vital 
 union with the tree. Being safely built upon 
 him as my foundation, I mingle nothing with 
 his work, and find continual matter of rejoic 
 ing. Whatever view I take of his person and 
 work, whether I think of his divinity or per 
 feet humanity, his atonement, intercession, or 
 example, comfort presents itself. Grace has 
 
72 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 made me willing to live out of myself, upon 
 the fulness of Jesus. In him I have what I 
 want, all I want." This is strong faith, and 
 what an advance from that feeble, fluctuating 
 confidence which marked the first stages of 
 religious experience. This is true evangel 
 ical confidence, to look for joy, holiness, and 
 strength; and to look for all from Christ. 
 Then is faith settled and strong when we are 
 brought to say, "For me to live is Christ," or 
 as it might be rendered, Christ is my life. 
 
 HOLINESS is an essential part, yea, the very 
 essence of personal godliness. This was the 
 image of God in the soul of man at his creation, 
 which man lost by the fall, and which it is the 
 design of the work of redemption to restore. 
 Gen. 1 : 26, 27, compared with Ephes. 4 : 22-24. 
 Are we predestinated, it is that we might be 
 holy. Ephes. 1 : 4. Are we called, it is with 
 a " holy calling." 1 Thes. 4:7; 2 Tim. 1 : 9. 
 Are we justified freely by God s grace, it is 
 that we might be holy. Titus 3:7, 8. Are 
 we afflicted, it is that we might be partakers 
 of God s holiness. Heb. 12 : 10. The whole 
 work of Christ has its end in holiness. He 
 
NATURE OF PROORESS. 73 
 
 " loved the church, and gave himself for it ; 
 that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the 
 washing of water by the word, that he might 
 present it to himself a glorious church, not hav 
 ing spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but 
 that it should be holy and without blemish." 
 Ephes. 5 : 26, 27 ; Titus 2 : 11-14. It is a very 
 low and unworthy idea of the design of Christ s 
 death, to conceive of it as only intended to save 
 men from hell to consider it as only designed to 
 save them from becoming prisoners and felons, 
 or from the ignominy of a public execution. 
 His gracious purpose, in addition to this, was 
 to make them sons of God, and bright and 
 glorious resemblances of their divine Parent. 
 Holiness was the bliss of paradise before Adam 
 fell : holiness will constitute the bliss of heaven. 
 All the inhabitants of that state are holy ; all 
 its occupations are holy ; all its influence is 
 holy. Hence the indispensable necessity of 
 holiness in the Christian character, and the 
 growth of holiness in the Christian life. But 
 what is holiness ? The purification of the heart 
 by the Spirit of Grod from the love of sin, and 
 the life from the practice of it. But this is onb} 
 
74 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 a negative view of it, there is also a positive 
 one. Holiness is the love of God, for his own 
 sake ; and of man, for God s sake. It is the 
 separation of the soul from the works of the 
 flesh, and the substitution in their place of the 
 fruits of the Spirit. Gal. 5 : 19-26. It is that 
 blessed work by w T hich the wilderness of an 
 unrenewed heart, where grow the briar and 
 the bramble, the thorn and the nettle, is chang 
 ed into the garden of the Lord, which bears the 
 fruits of righteousness. Isaiah 55 : 13. It is 
 obvious that this is susceptible of all degrees, 
 and therefore of continued increase. One man 
 may be holier than another, and the same man 
 may be holier at one time than another. Take, 
 for example, any one single lust either of the 
 flesh or of the mind, any one besetting sin ; 
 and the gradual mortification of that is a growth 
 in grace. If a man have less pride, or covetous- 
 ness, or malice, or impurity of imagination, 
 than he had at one time, and more of the op 
 posite disposition, there is progress. Now, there 
 is great need to say to the recent convert, " Fol 
 low after holiness," for he is so likely to be 
 taken up with the joy of pardon and the peace 
 
NATURE OF PB.OG-B.ESS. 75 
 
 of faith as somewhat to forget the necessity of 
 sanctification. At first his views of sin are both 
 defective and superficial. Many things in prac 
 tice are wrong which he does not at first think 
 to be so ; and of the depravity of his heart he 
 has very faint notions at all ; while also he sees 
 but little of the exceeding sinfulness of sin in 
 general. He must therefore seek to increase 
 in the love of God, the hatred of all sin, and 
 the entire consecration of his heart and life to 
 the service of God. "While God is calling to 
 him out of heaven, and saying, " Be ye holy, 
 for I am holy," he must reply by sincere and 
 earnest prayer, " Purge me with hyssop, and I 
 shall be clean : wash me, and I shall be whiter 
 than snow. Create in me a clean heart, and 
 renew a right spirit within me." Psa. 41 : 7, 11. 
 Be not satisfied then without a growth in 
 holiness of which you shall yourself possess the 
 most entire consciousness, and which shall be 
 equally evident to others. Holiness is hap 
 piness, and the more you have of the former 
 the more you will undoubtedly enjoy of the 
 latter. Enter more and more fully into the 
 bliss of finding the life of God in the soul con- 
 
76 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 tinually increasing in vigor and in operatiui. 
 It is a sign of growth in holiness when the 
 mind is not only more enlightened in the na 
 ture, evil, and existence of sin in general, but 
 when we become more aware of little sins 
 which did not formerly strike us ; when the 
 eye of the mind is more microscopic, and can 
 detect sins which we formerly did not see, and 
 especially when we are more affected by them. 
 When also we are more solicitous to find out 
 such unknown sins ; when we search for them 
 ourselves, taking the candle of the Lord, and 
 going down into the depths of our own heart to 
 bring to light what we did not before discover ; 
 and when not being satisfied with our own 
 searching, we carry the matter to Grod, and in 
 the language of David pray thus, " Search me, 
 Grod, and know my thoughts ; try me, and 
 know my ways, and see if there be any wick 
 ed way in me." When we are afraid of little 
 sins sins of ignorance, of inadvertence, and 
 of carelessness ; when the soul is so anxious to 
 be holy that it would not have even secret 
 faults kept within it ; when the conscience, 
 like the apple of the eye, becomes so tender 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 77 
 
 that it cannot tear the slightest touch this, 
 this is growth in holiness. Blessed is that soul 
 which is thus assimilating more and more 
 closely to the image of G-od. 
 
 Spirituality of mind and heavenliness of 
 affection are essential elements in true piety : 
 " to be spiritually-minded is life and peace." 
 And it is also the state and character of the 
 Christian to live with his thoughts, affections, 
 and aspirations centering in G-od and heaven. 
 How strong an expression is that of the apostle, 
 and how little is it known by the generality of 
 professors : " If ye then be risen with Christ, 
 seek those things which are above, where 
 Christ sitteth on the right hand of G-od. Set 
 your affection on things above, not on things 
 on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is 
 hid with Christ in God." Col. 3 : 1-3. Pause, 
 reader, and ponder upon this impressive lan 
 guage. This is the mind of a real Christian ; 
 this is the experience of a child of God. It 
 is to this that renewing grace is designed to 
 bring us. "What know you of this spiritual 
 renovation, this strange mixture of death and 
 life in the same soul ; this holy paradox ? Ah, 
 
78 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 what ! Know and understand that vital piety 
 is something more than an abstinence from 
 crimes, vices, and sins ; yes, and something 
 more than the practice of the conventional 
 virtues, not only of the world, but of the 
 church. It is a spiritual, heavenly mind an 
 unearthly disposition. The thoughts and af 
 fections, by a holy spontaneity, rise up and flow 
 to Grod, like the ebullition of a spring, without 
 external force or instrumentality. Divine 
 things possess attractions which of themselves 
 draw the soul towards them. There needs not 
 sermons, or books, or places, or occasions, to 
 engage the mind and heart that way. There 
 is an inward taste which, like any other taste, 
 is itself a predisposition for them. The soul, 
 of its own accord, self-moved, self-drawn, goes 
 to Christ, to God, to heaven. This is growing 
 in grace, and increasing with all the increase 
 of (rod ; this is walking more and more by 
 faith, when spiritual, divine, invisible objects 
 acquire a greater power over the soul ; when 
 there needs but the slightest touch to set 
 the mind in spiritual motion, and the Chris 
 tian feels increasingly that his element is 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 79 
 
 devotion and his native air the atmosphere , of 
 piety. 
 
 The Christian temper is one great part 01 
 true religion ; and by this, as distinguished 
 from what has gone before, I mean the passive 
 virtues and amiable affections of the heart, or 
 what is called " the meekness and gentleness 
 of Christ." Or to refer to another term so often 
 employed by the apostle, I mean the charity 
 so beautifully described in the thirteenth chap 
 ter of the first epistle to the Corinthians. It 
 is of immense importance that every one be 
 ginning the divine life should study both that 
 chapter and our Lord s sermon upon the mount. 
 These portions of holy writ fully and inten 
 tionally describe and set forth the Christian 
 temper. Young professors, and indeed old ones 
 too, sadly forget that LOVE is the very essence 
 of the Christian spirit : it is the very soul of 
 practical religion a love that represses the 
 strong passions of the heart and the boisterous 
 conduct of the life a love that makes us cau 
 tious against giving offence, and backward to 
 receive it a love that renders us forbearing 
 and forgiving a love that produces a calm, 
 
80 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 equable mind, and which speaks in soft, kind, 
 and gentle speech a love that dreads the in 
 fliction of pain and covets the communication 
 of happiness. " Oh divine and heavenly char 
 ity, thou offspring of that glorious Being of 
 whom it is said, GOD is LOVE ; thou of whom 
 the Lord Jesus Christ was hut an impersona 
 tion and embodiment ; thou that art another 
 name for the gospel, and the very end and ful 
 ness of the law ; thou benign and gentle spirit, 
 how little is thy nature understood and thy 
 claims admitted, not only in the world, but in 
 the church : when shall thy sway be felt by 
 all who profess to bow to thy sceptre, but who 
 withhold from thee their allegiance, and exhibit 
 so little of thy rule ?" How peaceful and ami 
 able ; how courteous and affable ; how tender 
 and sympathetic ; how kind and obliging, 
 would this love make us to all around. "What 
 lovely specimens of christianized humanity, 
 and what attractive recommendations of it, 
 would this make us. Here, here is the spirit 
 in which to make progress. Too many have 
 no idea of the subjection of their temper to the 
 influence of religion. And yet what is changed, 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 81 
 
 if the temper be not ; or of what use is any 
 other change ? If a man is as passionate, ma 
 licious, resentful, sullen, moody, or morose, 
 after his conversion as before it, what is he con 
 verted from or to ? "Let the mind of Jesus 
 be in you," said the apostle ; and in another 
 place, " If any man have not the spirit of Christ, 
 he is none of his." Now, the mind of Jesus 
 was loving, kind, meek, gentle, and forgiving ; 
 and unless we have these virtues we have not, 
 cannot have, the mind of Jesus. We must not 
 take up the idea that temper is so constitutional, 
 a thing so unconquerable, that we may as well 
 think to alter the shape and complexion of our 
 body, as to attempt to change the natural tem 
 per of the mind. It can be improved it has 
 been in millions of instances it must be. "We 
 must all of us grow more and more in the 
 "whatsoever things are lovely." We must 
 set out in the Christian career with the deter 
 mination, through grace, to eradicate the briar 
 and bramble, the thorn and the nettle those 
 lacerating and stinging shrubs and to plant 
 in their room the ornamental fir, the odoriferous 
 myrtle, and the fruitful vine. 
 
 Chr. Pro S . 6 
 
82 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 There is perhaps no sign of growth more de 
 cisive, nor any thing more desirable in itself, 
 than the union of increasing holiness with a 
 wider view of Christian liberty. These two 
 are sometimes dissociated, and we see, on the 
 one hand, liberty degenerating into licentious 
 ness, and on the other, righteousness sinking 
 into bondage. The freedom of the one is privi 
 lege in opposition to duty ; the thraldom of the 
 other is duty to the neglect of privilege. Many 
 an old, but corrupt, professor has abjured the 
 obligations of the moral law, that he might en 
 joy, as he supposes, " the liberty wherewith 
 Christ makes his people free ;" while many a 
 young one has placed himself in spirit under 
 the yoke of the ceremonial code, and brought 
 himself into a slavery repugnant to the free 
 and generous spirit of the gospel. It is as un 
 doubted a fact that " where the spirit of the 
 Lord is there is liberty," as that there is holi 
 ness. Both passages in the same context are 
 equally true, where it is said, " There is nc 
 condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus ;" 
 but then "they walk not after the flesh, but 
 after the Spirit." " For the law of the Spirit of 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 83 
 
 life in Christ Jesus hath made them free from 
 the law of sin and death." This is in order 
 "that the righteousness of the law might be 
 fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but 
 after the Spirit." Rom. 8 : 1-4. How beauti 
 fully liberty and holiness are balanced in this 
 passage. And how important is the exhorta 
 tion of the apostle, " Brethren, ye have been 
 called to liberty ; only use not liberty for an oc 
 casion to the flesh." Gral. 5 : 13. By liberty, 
 then, we understand, not only a freedom from 
 the yoke, but also from the spirit, of the cere 
 monial law : the spirit of a child in opposition 
 to that of a slave. In other words, serving God 
 in a spirit of love, which casts out tormenting 
 fears. Young Christians, who are not yet so 
 enlightened and so settled in what are called 
 the doctrines of grace, or of free justification 
 through the righteousness of Christ, are a long 
 time troubled with a legal spirit. There is a 
 kind of superstitious punctiliousness in little 
 things-^-things which are prescribed by human 
 authority, or invented by human ingenuity, or 
 borrowed from human examples, but not pre 
 scribed by the word of God. In the early 
 
84 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 stages of religious experience there is often an 
 unenlightened and sickly tenderness of con 
 science, an excessive and shrinking sensibility, 
 which not only subjects its possessor to a dep 
 rivation of lawful comforts and a large amount 
 of very unnecessary pain, but which also in 
 capacitates him for the vigorous and efficient 
 discharge of duty. A man always hesitating, 
 and fearing and trembling lest he has failed 
 to execute in some minute particular the will 
 of God, even when his intentions were the most 
 pure and his efforts the most diligent and faith 
 ful, is but ill prepared either to enjoy his privi 
 leges as a child of God, or for encountering the 
 various events and changes of the Christian 
 life. He will experience little of that " joy of 
 the Lord which is our strength," and go on 
 his way in heaviness. He is the last to whom 
 we should look for an illustration of that scrip 
 ture, " Great peace have they that love thy 
 law, and nothing shall offend them." "We 
 should cultivate a filial spirit that shall enable 
 us, amidst our numberless imperfections and 
 failings, all of which must be mourned and 
 resisted, still cheerfully to enjoy our Christian 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 85 
 
 privileges, and to persevere in the way of duty, 
 not doubting that \ve shall be sustained with 
 power from on high to lead a holy life, and thai 
 through the grace of God, and the merits oJ 
 Christ, all our deficiencies and errors will be 
 mercifully forgiven, and we shall find accep 
 tance at the last. I know very well that the 
 tendency of many is, in these days, to extend 
 too widely, rather than to contract too narrow 
 ly, the circle of Christian liberty ; but in theso 
 cases, there is a proportionate diminution of 
 holiness. The conduct is as little scrupulous 
 in neglecting the weightier matters of the law, 
 as it is in overlooking the lesser matters of hu 
 man imposition. There cannot be a darker 
 sign for any person than to be for ever com 
 plaining of the strictness of religion, and endeav 
 oring to relax the bonds of spiritual obliga 
 tion under the notion of enjoying Christian 
 liberty. It is a striking mark of progress in 
 the divine life when we are brought to adopt, 
 in intelligence and good faith, the apostle s rule 
 of conduct for himself: " All things are lawful 
 unto me, but all things are not expedient ; all 
 things are lawful for me, but I will not be 
 
86 CHRISTIAN PROG-EESS. 
 
 brought under the power of any." 1 Cor. 6 : 12. 
 Instead of claiming, as many do, indulgence 
 for acts in themselves unlawful because they 
 are supposed to be beneficial in their effects, 
 Paul was not content even with the positive 
 lawfulness of actions, unless to this was super- 
 added a manifest tendency to the production 
 of good, setting in no case these two qualities 
 of morality and expediency in opposition to 
 each other, much less making the inferior to 
 overbalance that which is of greater force and 
 value, but refusing to take a step when they 
 did not coincide. He did not resolve, " I will 
 perform those things that are expedient, though 
 they be not lawful ;" but, " I will not venture 
 even upon lawful actions, if they be not expedi 
 ent." Here is progress indeed, when with en 
 larged views of Christian liberty, there is at 
 the same time an increasing disposition to make 
 that liberty subservient to our own holiness, 
 and also the well-being of others. 
 
 Christian activity is essential to Christian 
 consistency. The injunctions to this are so 
 numerous as to be interwoven with the whole 
 texture of Scripture. This is set forth by two 
 
NATURE OF PROG-RESS. 87 
 
 very striking metaphors, where Christ told his 
 disciples they were to be "the light of the 
 world," and " the salt of the earth ;" than which 
 nothing can be more instructive or impressive. 
 They are to illuminate the moral darkness, and 
 purify the corruption by which they are sur 
 rounded. It is one end of their conversion, for 
 no man is converted only for himself. Hence 
 said Christ to Peter, " And when thou art con 
 verted strengthen thy brethren/ 5 Every truly 
 regenerated person is, and should consider him 
 self, another chosen, appointed, and prepared in 
 strument for the world s conversion. God works 
 by means and instruments, and these .are not 
 exclusively confined to the ministers of relig 
 ion. There are many ways in which every real 
 Christian can, without invading the ministerial 
 office, or stepping out of his place, do good to 
 others. This is required by the law which 
 commands us to love (rod ; for can we love him 
 and not desire that others should do so too? 
 Equally also by that other great command 
 ment which requires us to love our neighbor 
 as ourselves ; for can we really love him and 
 not seek to do him all the good we can? Bead 
 
88 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 the following scriptures with great care and 
 attention : Matt. 5 : 42-48 ; Rom. 10 : 6-13 ; 
 14 : 7, 9 ; Gal. 6 : 6-10 ; Phil. 2 : 4, 15, 16, 21 ; 
 Heb. 13: 16 ; 1 John, 4: 10, 11. 
 
 Young converts should have a clear under 
 standing, a deep conviction, and a very pow 
 erful impression of this, that they are called 
 not only to holiness and happiness, but also to 
 usefulness; and should also perceive that no 
 small pari of the two first depends upon carry 
 ing out the last. Yet they are not always so 
 disposed ; they are sometimes so much taken 
 up with the enjoyment of their own personal 
 religion and Christian privileges, as to sit down 
 in luxurious ease, and indolently enjoy the hap 
 piness to which they are brought. But let 
 them know and remember, that one of the 
 strongest evidences of our own salvation, is a 
 deep concern and a vigorous activity for the 
 salvation of others. Every true believer should 
 begin his religious course with an intelligent 
 purpose to lay himself out for usefulness, ac 
 cording to his abilities, his means, his situation, 
 his resources, and his opportunities. He cannot 
 be a Christian who in the spirit of the first 
 
NATURE OF PROG-RESS. 89 
 
 murderer asks, " Am I my brother s keeper ?" 
 Benevolence must enter very largely into the 
 constitution of every real Christian ; and like 
 every other part of the Christian character, it 
 must be ever growing. He must be useful, 
 and do good as a young man, with even limited 
 means and opportunities : he must first be ac 
 tive in that way to which he is most adapted ; 
 then he must look out for something else, for 
 nothing is so suggestive and inventive as benev 
 olence. His sphere of activity must continu 
 ally widen as his experience becomes estab 
 lished, his knowledge increases, his observation 
 extends, and his resources accumulate. Noth 
 ing progresses more rapidly in a heart set upon 
 doing good, than an ability to be useful. They 
 who at first are timid, shy, awkward, in such 
 efforts, soon acquire courage, expertness, and 
 efficiency. It is a sad sight to see the heart 
 contracting, the hand growing slack, and the 
 foot heavy and slow, as the means and oppor 
 tunities for doing good are multiplied. On the 
 other hand, how beautiful a scene is it to wit 
 ness the professor becoming more and more 
 both of the Christian and of the philanthropist 
 
90 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 as years roll on, till he realizes the description 
 of the Psalmist where he says, the righteous 
 " shall bring forth fruit in old age ; they shall 
 be fat and flourishing." Psalm 92 : 14. 
 
 And what is the crowning grace, the finish 
 ing stroke of beauty, and the brightest ray of 
 glory in the Christian character? HUMILITY. 
 " It is this among other things, and high among 
 them too, which distinguishes Christianity from 
 all the wisdom of the world both ancient and 
 modern, not having been taught by the wise 
 men of the Grentiles, but first put into a disci 
 pline and made part of religion by our Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; and who chiefly proposes himself 
 as our example by exhibiting in his own per 
 fect character the twin sisters of meekness and 
 humility. Every thing our ignorance, our 
 weakness, our sins, and our follies, prescribe to 
 as that our proper dwelling-place is low in the 
 deep valley of humility. We have only to 
 compare our present spiritual condition, I will 
 not say with the holy God, the holy Jesus, or 
 the holy angels, but with holy Adam before his 
 fall, to see how low we have sunk, and how 
 entirely by the fall we have lost all ground and 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 9] 
 
 all excuse for pride, ^e have only to look at 
 human nature in general, all corrupt as it is, 
 or study it in our own selves as its epitome ; we 
 have only to look back at what we were before 
 conversion, or to look in and see how imperfect 
 even in our converted state we still are ; we 
 have only to consider how strong are our reso 
 lutions, and how feeble and broken have been 
 their performance how many the temptations 
 by which we have been assailed, and with 
 what success against ourselves, to see most 
 abundant cause for humility. You may read 
 for injunctions to this virtue, Prov. 15 : 33 ; 
 18 : 12 ; 22 : 4 ; Mic. 6:8; Luke 14 : 11 ; Col. 
 3 : 12 ; 1 Peter, 5 : 5. But all these injunctions 
 and all possible motives to this grace are bound 
 up in the example of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Remember that the blessed Saviour hath done 
 more to prescribe and transmit and secure 
 this grace, than any other ; his whole life being 
 a great, continued descent from the glorious 
 bosom of his Father to the womb of a poor 
 maiden, to the form of a servant, to the like 
 ness and miseries of sinful flesh, to a life of 
 labor, to a state of poverty, to a death of mal- 
 
92 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 efactors, to the grave of death, and to the in 
 tolerable calamities which we deserved ; and 
 it were a good design, and yet but reasonable, 
 that we should be as humble in the midst of 
 our greatest imperfections and basest sins, as 
 Christ was in the midst of his fulness of the 
 Spirit, great wisdom, perfect life, and most ad 
 mirable virtues."* 
 
 The same author has given us the following 
 signs of humility. " If you would try how 
 your soul grows, you shall know that humil 
 ity, like the root of a goodly tree, is thrust very 
 far into the ground, by these goodly fruits 
 which appear above ground. 1. The humble 
 man trusts not to his own discretion, but in 
 matters of concernment relies rather upon the 
 judgment of his friends, counsellors, or spiritual 
 guides. 2. He does not pertinaciously pursue 
 the choice of his own will, but in all things lets 
 God choose for him, and his superiors in those 
 things which concern them. 3. He does not 
 murmur against commands. 4. He is not in 
 quisitive into the reasonableness of indifferent 
 and innocent commands, but believes their 
 
 * Bishop Jeremy Taylor. 
 
NATURE OF PROG-RESS. 93 
 
 command to be reason enough in such cases to 
 exact his obedience. 5. He lives according to 
 a rule, and with compliance to public customs, 
 without any affectation or singularity 6. He 
 is meek and indifferent in all accidents and 
 chances. 7. He patiently bears injuries. 8. 
 He is always unsatisfied in his own conduct, 
 resolutions, and counsels. 9. He is a great 
 lover of good men, and a praiser of wise men, 
 and a censurer of no man. 10. He is modest 
 in his speech, and reserved in his laughter. 
 11. He fears, when he hears himself commend 
 ed, lest God make another judgment concern 
 ing his actions, than men do. 12. He gives 
 no pert or saucy answers when he is reproved, 
 w r hether justly or unjustly. 13. He loves to 
 sit down in private, and, if he may, he refuses 
 the temptation of offices and new honors. 14. 
 He is ingenuous, free, and open in his actions 
 and discourses. 15. He mends his fault, and 
 gives thanks, when he is admonished. 16. He 
 is ready to do good offices to the murderers of 
 his fame, to his slanderers, backbiters, and de 
 tractors, as Christ washed the feet of Judas. 
 17. And is contented to be suspected of indis- 
 
94 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 cretion, so before God he may be really inno 
 cent, and not offensive to his neighbor, nor 
 wanting to his just and prudent interest." 
 
 Such is the grace, and such its signs, in winch 
 it is the duty of every Christian to be continu 
 ally progressing. It is not unfrequently the 
 case that young converts in the ardor of theii 
 first love are self-confident, and sometimes a 
 little high-minded. They are unduly exalted 
 in their own estimation by the strength of theii 
 feelings and the liveliness of their frames, and 
 are almost ready to wonder at, and to censure, 
 the lovely confessions of others far older in the 
 divine life than themselves. They seem al 
 ready to realize, in their own estimation, the 
 beautiful language of the prophet, and mount 
 up with wings as eagles ; they run and are not 
 weary, and walk and are not faint. Thus spir 
 itual pride, like the fly or the worm striking the 
 young germination, eats into the heart of the 
 young believer, and where it does not destroy 
 the principle of life, sadly impairs its growth. 
 
 Let, therefore, the early professor be duly 
 aware of this tendency and watch against it. 
 Let him recollect that as humility may be com- 
 
NATURE OF PROG-RESS. 95 
 
 pared to the roots of the tree, while other gra 
 ces are its fruits, the latter must be expected 
 in abundance only as the former strike down 
 wards deeper and deeper into the earth. Surely 
 it might be supposed there is no one grace in 
 which the soul would be more disposed or find 
 it easier to grow than this, since every day as - 
 it passes gives us greater and greater know 
 ledge of ourselves and shows us how little cause 
 there is for pride. " If we need any new in 
 centives to the practice of this grace, I can say 
 no more, but that humility is truth, and pride 
 is a lie that the one glorifies G-od, the other 
 dishonors him : humility makes men like angels, 
 pride makes angels to become devils ; that pride 
 is folly, humility is the temper of a holy spirit 
 and excellent wisdom ; that humility is the 
 way to glory, pride to ruin and confusion : hu 
 mility makes saints on earth, pride undoes 
 them ; humility beautifies the saints in heaven, 
 and * the elders throw their crowns at the foot 
 of the throne; pride disgraces a man among 
 all the societies of the earth : G-od loves one, 
 and Satan solicits the cause of the other, and 
 promotes his own interest in it most of all 
 
96 CHRISTIAN .PROGRESS. 
 
 And there is not onejh:ace in which Christ pro 
 pounded himself inmable so signally as in this 
 of meekness and humility, for the enforcing of 
 which he undertook the condition of a servant, 
 and a life of poverty, and a death of disgrace ; 
 and washed the feet of his disciples, and even 
 of Judas himself, that his action might be turn 
 ed into a sermon to preach this duty, and to 
 make it as eternal as his own story." And can 
 we present for ourselves a more appropriate 
 and beautiful prayer than that with which 
 Bishop Taylor closes his " Considerations upon 
 Christ s Humility :" 
 
 " holy and eternal Jesus, who wert pleased 
 to lay aside the glories and incomprehensible 
 majesty which clothed thy infinity from before 
 the beginning of creatures, and didst put on a 
 cloud upon thy brightness, and wert invested 
 with the impure and imperfect broken robe of 
 human nature, and didst abate those splendors 
 which broke through the veil, commanding 
 devils not to publish thee, and men not to pro 
 claim thy excellences, and the apostles not to 
 reveal those glories of thine, which they dis 
 covered encircling thee, upon mount Tabor, in 
 
NATURE OF 
 
 thy transfiguration, and ;&idst ; by peipettf$l T 
 homilies and symbolical mysterious actions, 
 as with deep characters engrave humility into 
 the spirits of thy disciples and the discipline 
 of Christianity, teach us to approach near to 
 these thy glories, which thou hast so covered 
 with a cloud that we might without amaze 
 ment behold thy excellences ; make us to 
 imitate thy gracious condescensions ; take from 
 us all vanity and fantastic complacencies in 
 our own persons or actions ; and when there 
 arises a reputation consequent to the perform 
 ance of any part of our duty, make us to re 
 flect the glory upon thee, suffering nothing to 
 adhere to our own spirits but shame at our 
 own imperfection and thankfulness to thee for 
 all thy assistances ; let us never seek the praise 
 of men from unhandsome actions, from flatter 
 ies and unworthy discourses, nor entertain the 
 praise with delight though it proceed from 
 better principles ; but fear and tremble, lest 
 we deserve punishment, or lose a reward 
 which thou hast deposited for all them that 
 seek thy glory and despise their own, that 
 they may imitate the example of their Lord. 
 
98 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 Thou, Lord, didst triumph over sin and 
 death ; subdue also my proud understanding, 
 and my prouder affections, and bring me under 
 thy yoke, that I may do thy work, and obey 
 my superiors, and be a servant of all my 
 brethren in their necessities, and esteem myself 
 inferior to all men by a deep sense of my own 
 unworthiness, and in all things may obey thy 
 laws, and conform to thy precedents, and enter 
 into thine inheritance, holy and eternal 
 Jesus. Amen." 
 
 And now we may ask, Are there not certain 
 points of resemblance between natural growth 
 and progressive holiness which deserve notice ? 
 We apprehend there are, and principally the 
 following : 
 
 1. It is the order of the natural world for 
 all life, whether in vegetables, brutes, or human 
 beings, to grow. Growth, as we have said, is 
 the law of healthful life. 
 
 2. Growth is dependent upon means used 
 to promote it. The child grows in strength 
 and stature by his mother s milk ; animals in 
 much the same way ; and trees and vegetables 
 by all the processes and supplies of agriculture 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 99 
 
 and the influences of the heavens and the soil. 
 So is it with religion in the soul : there cannot 
 be advance without the appropriate means, 
 both in kind and measure. These will be the 
 subject of the next chapter. 
 
 3. Growth in other things is proportionate 
 in all the parts which belong to them. If of 
 a tree, the roots, stem, and branches all grow 
 together, if the tree be in a sound state. If it 
 be a child, all the limbs grow proportionately, 
 and the body, and also mind, keep pace with 
 each other. Disproportion produces monstrosi 
 ties. If, for instance, the head be larger than 
 the body, or the limbs smaller ; or if the mind 
 is childish while the body is advancing to the 
 period of youth or manhood, in either of these 
 cases there is deformity. So it is in religion. 
 The Christian grows in knowledge, faith, and 
 holiness together. There is, or should be, no 
 spiritual deformity or monstrosity. 
 
 4. Growth is very gradual in all life, not 
 excepting the Christian. No plant becomes a 
 tree, no child a man, all at once : so is it with 
 the Christian. 
 
 5 Growth is perceptible, not indeed in its 
 
100 CHlUbTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 principles, but in its effects. In the case of a 
 tree or shrub, he who sees it when first planted, 
 and looks at it some years afterwards, will 
 perceive progress. So of a new-born babe, 
 growing into a child of two years old. So of 
 a young convert : he who converses with him 
 at his first awaking, and a year or two after 
 his conversion, will perceive an increase of 
 knowledge and decision and . comfort and 
 holiness. This, however, will sometimes be 
 more clearly perceived by those who stand by, 
 than by the Christian himself. The child is 
 not at the time sensible of his own growth ; 
 and it often, yea, generally, requires to look 
 back and compare what he is now with what 
 he recollects himself to have been, to convince 
 him of his growth. And so it is with the 
 spiritual babe. 
 
 " A healthy child," says Dr. John Brown 
 in his admirable exposition of the epistle of 
 Peter, to which I am indebted for several of 
 the preceding remarks, " grows without think 
 ing much about its growth. It takes its food 
 and exercise, and finds that it is growing in 
 the increase of its strength and its capacity 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 101 
 
 for exertion. And an analogous state is, I 
 believe, the healthiest state of the spiritual 
 new-born babe. "While self-examination, right 
 ly managed, is very useful, a morbid desire of 
 the satisfaction of knowing that we are im 
 proving, is in danger of drawing the mind away 
 from the constant employment of the means of 
 spiritual nourishment and health. The best 
 state of things is where, in the healthy vigor 
 ous state of the spiritual constitution, ready 
 for every good work, we have the evidence in 
 ourselves that we are growing ; and when that 
 is wanting, application to the sincere milk of 
 the word will do a great deal more than poring 
 into ourselves to find either proof that we are 
 growing or not growing." 
 
 This is very true, very judicious, and very 
 important ; but then it must not be abused 
 and allowed to degenerate into an utter care 
 lessness about our spiritual state, nor abate 
 that holy jealousy over ourselves, and that 
 just anxiety to grow in grace, without which 
 declension and not progress will be our con 
 dition. It is quite true that our chief solici 
 tude should be not to neglect, but diligently to 
 
102 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 use, all the means of progress, rather than an 
 attempt, as by a spiritual pedometer, to be 
 perpetually measuring the ground over which 
 we have passed. A child who does not grow, 
 who finds his years rolling on and adding 
 nothing to his stature, soon becomes anxious 
 about it, and inquires into the cause of his re 
 maining in his dwarfish littleness. And when, 
 therefore, the child of (rod, or one that pro 
 fesses to be such, makes no advance percepti 
 ble either to himself or others, it is quite time 
 for him to begin to be anxious, to inquire what 
 has stopped his progress, and to apply afresh 
 to all the appointed means for his spiritual 
 advancement. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE READER. 
 
 You now see what is meant by progressive 
 religion. You cannot be ignorant of this im 
 portant subject, nor plead ignorance for the 
 neglect of it. You see clearly it is not merely 
 an uninterrupted round of ceremonial observ 
 ances, nor merely an acquisition of knowledge, 
 though these things may comport with it, but 
 that it is an advance in faith and holiness. Do 
 
NATURE OF PROGRESS. 103 
 
 you understand this matter, and apprehend 
 clearly its nature as well as its necessity ? 
 Doss that one impressive word growth, growth, 
 stand out clearly defined, luminously seen, im 
 pressively felt, before you ? If so, immediately 
 enter upon a course of self-scrutiny diligent, 
 impartial, close examination, to ascertain if 
 there be this progress in you. Again enter into 
 your closet, shut the door, and commune both 
 with your own heart and with God, and say, 
 as in his sight, 
 
 Am I as really in earnest as I once was ? 
 
 I have changed my situation, do I retain my 
 religion, and have I carried into new circum 
 stances and relations my former earnestness ? 
 
 Am I advancing in my knowledge of the 
 Scriptures and the great truths of religion, 
 gaining clearer and more distinct apprehensions 
 of spiritual things ? 
 
 Am I more decided and resolute and set 
 tled in all my religious convictions and pious 
 habits, than I was at first ? 
 
 Is my faith stronger and more influential, 
 and am I less troubled with doubts and fears, 
 than I was ? 
 
104 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 Am I really holier than I was? Have I 
 gained greater power over my corruptions ? 
 
 Am I more spiritual and heavenly, more full 
 of devout thoughts and affections ? 
 
 Do I improve in my temper by becoming 
 more meek, gentle, forgiving, and kind ? 
 
 Have I learned to combine more of the gen 
 erous and free spirit of Christian liberty with 
 an equal advance in holiness ? 
 
 Am I more anxious about universal and un 
 varying consistency of conduct ? 
 
 Is it more and more my concern to be active 
 and useful ? 
 
 Withal, do I increase in humility ? Have I 
 a deeper and deeper sense of my own short 
 comings, and a growing disposition to think 
 better of others and lowlier of myself ? 
 
 Test yourself, very searchingly, by such 
 questions as these. 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 105 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MEANS OF PROGRESS. 
 
 THIS is of unspeakable importance. I will 
 suppose that some by the reading of the fore 
 going pages begin to see this subject in a light 
 in which they never saw it before. I will sup 
 pose that a new anxiety has come up in the 
 mind now the old one is allayed, and that the 
 great question at present is not, " What shall I 
 do to be saved?" but, " What shall I do to be 
 sanctified ?" We have already said that means 
 must be used. But what means ? 
 
 1. There must be a deep conviction of the 
 necessity and importance of progress, and an 
 intense desire to attain it. 
 
 The subject must lay hold of the mind and 
 possess the heart. Will a man increase in 
 knowledge, in wealth, in influence, who has no 
 desire after it ? What object ever was or can 
 be obtained^ without a conviction of its value or 
 a wish to secure it ? Is it not the desire that 
 originates the effort, and will not exertion ever 
 be in proportion to the intensity of desire ? 
 
106 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 What prodigious and wonderful efforts have 
 men put forth after an object upon which their 
 hearts were set. Look at the tradesman : how 
 will he toil, rising up early and sitting up late, 
 and eating the bread of carefulness, to increase 
 his trade. Look at the student panting after 
 knowledge : how will he consume his days and 
 trim his midnight lamp to increase his scientific 
 stores. Look at the hero : braving all the 
 dangers of the field, and the hardships of the 
 campaign, to increase his fame and to acquire 
 glory which is but the name vanity turned 
 into an idol. Why, why all this intense ener 
 gy ? Because they have a deep, but mistaken 
 sense of the importance of the object of pursuit, 
 and an absorbing and overheated desire to pos 
 sess it. And on the contrary, why is it that so 
 many professing Christians do not make progress, 
 and indeed make no efforts to obtain it ? Why, 
 because they care nothing about it. To take 
 up a profession is all they desire ; but to pro 
 ceed from one degree of piety to another, to 
 grow in grace, to go on unto perfection, is no 
 part of their ambition. How many are there 
 to whom if wo were to say, " Well, now you 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 107 
 
 call yourself a Christian, and wish others to 
 consider you as such, and you are of course- 
 eagerly desirous of making continual advances 
 in knowledge, faith, and holiness ; and we shall 
 see you evidently becoming more and more like 
 Christ" who, I say, if we should thus address 
 them, would look wonderingly in our face, as if 
 they did not comprehend our meaning ; or re 
 proachfully, as if we questioned their sincerity ; 
 or contemptuously, as if we were indulging in 
 enthusiasm or mysticism, and wished them to 
 be as visionary as ourselves. Of course such a 
 frame of mind, and such views as these, are 
 adverse to all progress. There must then be 
 concern about the matter. And shall there be 
 none? What, no solicitude to have more of 
 the knowledge of truth, of faith in Christ, of 
 likeness to God, of meetness for heaven? No 
 desire to advance in such things ? Is it possible 
 to be a Christian, and yet destitute of this ? 
 No, it is not. I tell you, it is not. If you 
 have 110 concern to grow, there is no life in 
 you. You are a piece of dead wood, and not 
 a living branch a spiritual corpse, and not a 
 livinsf man. In this state there can be no 
 
108 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 growth, for dead things never grow ; while 
 on the other hand, the very desire will insure 
 the possession of its object. 
 
 2. You must enter deeply into that "beati 
 tude of our Lord, which says, "Blessed are 
 they which do hunger and thirst after right 
 eousness ; for they shall be filled." Matt. 5 : 6. 
 This is a passage too much overlooked and 
 forgotten by most professing Christians. Its 
 terms are exceedingly strong, its sentiment 
 amazingly important. Among all the appetites 
 of our animal nature none is so strong, none 
 so imperiously demands supply, none so con 
 stantly returns, none inflicts such suffering 
 when not supplied, as this of hunger and thirst. 
 And this is the appetite which, in the figura 
 tive language of Scripture, is selected to ex 
 press the vehement desire we should feel after 
 righteousness or holiness ; and it is not only one 
 of our natural instincts of this kind, but both 
 hunger and thirst, that are spoken of. It is 
 not the faint and feeble desire which by one 
 filled almost to repletion is felt after some 
 luxury, which, if it be not obtained, the person 
 can do very well without. Oh, no ; but the 
 
MEANS OF PROG-HESS. 109 
 
 insatiable, unappeasable desire of the empty, 
 hungry stomach, after necessary food, that is 
 employed. Such should be the longing of 
 every renewed soul after holiness. Righteous 
 ness should be to it that which bread is to the 
 body, and in reference to which we should say, 
 " Evermore- give us this bread." Instead of 
 those longings after earthly blessings which 
 characterize the worldly mind those pantings 
 after wealth, honor, and pleasure, which excite 
 such energies and call forth such activities, the 
 mind of the believer should be intent on spirit 
 ual blessings. No measure of holiness to which 
 he has already attained should satisfy him. 
 There are sins yet to be mortified, and he must 
 not be content till they are dead. There are 
 heights of moral excellence above him which 
 IIQ has not reached, and he should long to 
 climb up%to them. What he has yet attained 
 to, are but as crumbs to a hungry man who 
 longs for the full meal, or drops of water to a 
 thirsty one who pants for the copious draught. 
 It is astonishing and affecting to see with what 
 low degress of righteousness some professors 
 are satisfied. How little they seem to have of 
 
110 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 the spirit of holiness. How very little is there 
 of forgetting the things that are behind, and 
 pressing forward to greater things yet. How 
 many are there who are contented with the 
 average piety of the church and the age, and 
 seem only anxious to stand well in the estima 
 tion of their fellow- Christians who are no better 
 than themselves. How few are there whom 
 nothing can satisfy but an ever-growing con 
 formity to the divine image. 
 
 Perhaps there is in some persons a sad dis 
 position to pervert and abuse a passage of most 
 instructive and encouraging and cautionary 
 import : I mean the question which was asked 
 concerning the small beginnings in the erection 
 of the second temple at Jerusalem, " Who hath 
 despised the day of small things ?" Zech, 4:10. 
 This has been applied also in a spiritual way to 
 the commencement of religion in the toul ; and 
 we are told that little grace is better than 
 none at all that faith is still faith though it 
 be weak, just as diamonds are diamonds and 
 gold is gold, though it be in small pieces. Or, 
 to return to the idea already dwelt upon, life 
 is life though it be but that of a babe, and 
 
MEANS OF PROCURESS. Ill 
 
 therefore is not to bo despised. We know it 
 and admit it. Bat then if little things are not 
 to be despised, ought great ones to be so 
 treated ? And is not satisfaction with little 
 things, when great ones may be obtained, to 
 despise the latter ? Be it so, that fragments 
 of gold and diamonds are not to be rejected ; 
 yet who are contented with the dust of either 
 when they might have ingots of the one, or 
 large and costly jewels of the fther ? No ; the 
 least measure of holiness is not to be despised. 
 It contains a powerful principle of expansion 
 and enlargement. Does the gardener despise 
 the germ of the flower, or the seed of a plant, 
 or the acorn of the oak ? Or does the parent 
 despise the day of small things in the life of 
 his babe ? No ; but then neither the gardener 
 nor the parent is satisfied with the day of 
 small things. So neither should the Christian. 
 It is well therefore to consider, as Barnes the 
 commentator remarks, that there is no piety 
 in the world which is not the result of cultiva 
 tion, and which cannot be increased by the 
 degree of care and attention bestowed upon it. 
 No one becomes eminently pious, any more 
 
112 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 than any one becomes eminently rich, or learn 
 ed, who does not intend it ; and ordinarily 
 men are, in religion, what they intend to be. 
 They have about as much religion as they 
 wish, and possess about the characters which 
 they design to possess. "When men reach ex 
 traordinary elevations in religion, like Baxter, 
 Pay son, and Edwards, they have gained only 
 what they meant to gain ; and the gay and 
 worldly professors of religion, who have little 
 comfort and peace, have in fact the characters 
 which they designed to have. 
 
 3. Great attention to self -cultivation, spir 
 itually considered, is a means of growth. By 
 this I mean what is expressed in one or two 
 passages of Scripture ; such, for instance, as 
 the exhortation, "Keep thy heart with all 
 diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." 
 Prov. 4 : 23. It is the heart, the great vital 
 spring of the soul, the fountain of actions, 
 the centre of principle, the seat of motives 
 the heart, where are the thoughts and feelings 
 out of which conduct comes. It is this that 
 must be the first, chief, constant object of 
 solicitude to the Christian. It is this which 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 113 
 
 God sees, and as God sees it, and because God 
 principally looks at it, that must "be ever upper 
 most in our concern. To keep the heart must 
 mean exerting ourselves with great earnest 
 ness, in dependence upon divine grace, to pre 
 serve it in a good state ; laboring to preserve 
 its vitality, vigor, and purity. "We must often 
 ask the question, " In what state is my heart ? 
 Are my thoughts and affections in a good spir 
 itual condition ?" It is, in another view of it, 
 the citadel of the soul : if this be neglected, 
 the enemy at the gates will soon be in and 
 take possession. Set a watch, therefore, upon 
 the heart. Let the sentinel be never off duty, 
 nor sleeping at his post. Keep out evil thoughts, 
 and unholy affections, and vile imaginations. 
 "Without great vigilance they will elude obser 
 vation. As soon as an enemy of this kind is 
 detected, he must be seized and made captive, 
 till every thought is brought into subjection to 
 Christ. As the state of the heart is, so is the 
 man in reality, and before God. Discipline 
 the heart then * 
 
 * See an admirable volume lately published, entitled "Heart 
 Discipline," by my friend the Rev. James Cooper. 
 
 Chr. Prog. 8 
 
114 ;- CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 But there is a second passage well worthy 
 the attention of all young converts ; . I mean 
 where Paul exhorts Timothy thus: " Exercise 
 thyself unto godliness." 1 Tim. 4 : 7. The 
 word in the original is very strong, and might 
 be rendered by a free translation, " practise 
 gymnastic exercises in religion," like the an 
 cient competitors in the Olympic games. "We 
 say also of soldiers in the early stage of their 
 training, " They are practising their exercise" 
 They are being trained in what they do not 
 previously know, and cannot perform without 
 being taught ; and to learn which, and do it 
 well, requires a great deal of labor. So it is 
 with the Christian ; he must in all that concerns 
 true godliness, learn his exercise, and be often 
 thus engaged. Religion and religious progress 
 cannot be acquired without great pains. As a 
 man cannot be at once a good soldier, while he 
 is, a young recruit and before he has been 
 drilled upon the parade-ground, so no one can 
 be an eminent Christian as soon as he is con- 
 verted, and before he has been at his drilling. 
 Self-improvement in knowledge by the student, 
 and in business by the tradesman, are the re- 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 115 
 
 suit of great painstaking. No one can expect 
 advancement without labor. It is astonishing 
 and affecting to see how little anxiety there is 
 among many to improve themselves in religion. 
 
 4. One great means of progress is a constant, 
 earnest, and spiritual attendance upon all the 
 appointed means of growth. 
 
 Private prayer is essentially necessary. 
 " And thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy 
 closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray 
 to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father 
 which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." 
 Matt. 6:6. A spirit of prayer is so essential 
 to personal religion, that it may as certainly be 
 said that it is a dead soul in which there is not 
 this spirit, as it may of the body that it is a 
 corpse in which there is no breath. Prayer is 
 the most secret intercourse of the soul with 
 (rod the converse of one heart with another. 
 Prayer requires retirement : a real Christian 
 must be often alone with God. No one can 
 make progress without much prayer. Religion 
 is a plant that for growth must be often remov 
 ed into the shade. It will be scorched and 
 wither if it be always kept in the broad sun- 
 
116 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 shine of publicity. It is the private intercourse 
 of friends that increases their friendship. None 
 can progress in love to God without this pri 
 vate communion. There must be time found 
 and fixed for prayer, and the time fixed must 
 be kept. That which is left to be done at any 
 time, is likely to be done at no time. There is 
 nothing about which a young Christian should 
 be more anxious than maintaining the spirit, the 
 love, the practice of private prayer ; and nothing 
 which should more seriously alarm him, than 
 any disposition to neglect this. He who makes 
 any excuse for omitting the appointed hour of 
 visiting a friend, must be in a fair way to lose 
 all regard for him. 
 
 But there are also public as well as private 
 means to be observed. You must " Remember 
 the Sabbath-day to keep it liohj." How neces 
 sary a right, though not a gloomy or supersti 
 tious observance of this day is to the preserva 
 tion and strengthening of our piety, is attested 
 by the experience of others, and not less so by 
 our own. It is true it is a feast, and not a fast 
 day, and should be kept in the spirit of the 
 new and not of the old covenant; that is, 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 117 
 
 with joy and freedom, and not with gloom and 
 bondage. Still it must be serious joy. He 
 who passes his Sabbaths in frivolous conversa 
 tion and levity of spirit; who is not devout in 
 his attendance upon the means of grace ; who 
 does not make the best of the precious opportu 
 nity to improve his religious condition ; who 
 conducts himself much as on other days, ex 
 cept that he does not buy and sell, and goes 
 once or twice to the house of (rod, cannot .expect 
 to get on in religion. Tell me how a professor 
 spends his Sabbaths, and I will tell you in 
 what state his soul is, spiritually considered. 
 
 A Christian ought to be, and I am supposing 
 he is, a communicant at the table of the Lord. 
 If he is not, he ought to be. It is by way of 
 eminence the ordinance. Apart from any su 
 perstitious notion of it, it is a solemn and im 
 pressive solemnity. As creatures formed to be 
 moved, as well as instructed, through the me 
 dium of the senses, we are likely to be affected 
 by those symbols of the body and blood of 
 Christ which, with such awful, though silent 
 eloquence, speak to the ear of faith of Him who 
 is thus set forth crucified before us. Perhaps 
 
118 CHRISTIAN PK.OG-RESS. 
 
 there is no ordinance of God which, when ob 
 served in a proper frame of mind, speaks so 
 forcibly to our hearts and operates so power 
 fully upon our whole souls as this. There, 
 believer, there renew your faith in the crucified 
 Saviour ; there increase your love, as you see 
 his love so strikingly exhibited ; and there, by 
 the mercies of God, present your bodies a living 
 sacrifice, holy, acceptable, and well-pleasing 
 to God. There consecrate yourself afresh each 
 time to his service, as his faithful devoted ser 
 vant. What progress can you expect to make 
 if you neglect this institute so expressly set up, 
 that through feeding by faith on the great sac 
 rifice offered for you upon the cross, you might 
 be " strengthened with all might by the Spirit 
 in the inner man." 
 
 Connected with this, is an attendance upon 
 the solemnities of public worship. None who 
 make any pretensions to religion can altogether 
 neglect these. All such persons are there some 
 part of the. Sabbath. But is it not too obvious 
 to be denied, that modern habits of suburban 
 residence in large towns are introducing a most 
 injurious partial neglect of public worship. 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 119 
 
 Once on the Sabbath-day, and never in the 
 week, is all the attendance some give at the 
 house of God. Can there he progress where 
 this is the case ? Can the soul he strong and 
 healthy upon such scanty fare as one meal a 
 week ? They who would grow in grace, must 
 love the habitation of God s house ; must have 
 the one desire of David to see God s power and 
 glory in the sanctuary ; must know something 
 at least of what he felt when he said, " As the 
 heart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth 
 my soul after thee, God. My soul thirsteth 
 for G-od, for the living God ; when shall I come 
 and appear before God ?" Psa. 42 : 1, 2. It 
 is the man who loves the house of God, who 
 will put himself to some little inconvenience, 
 and will make some sacrifices of ease to be 
 there, who is likely to profit by the appointed 
 means. It is those that are planted in the 
 courts of the Lord who shall flourish, and not 
 those who are only occasionally there. 
 
 And then how much depends upon the frame 
 of mind in which, and the purpose for which, 
 this attendance is carried on. There is a man 
 ner of attending upon the means of grace, which 
 
120 CHRISTIAN 
 
 instead of benefiting the soul does it great 
 harm. Gospel sermons and the richest devo 
 tional services may harden the heart instead of 
 sanctifying it, and be a savor of death unto 
 death instead of life unto life. Let us never 
 forget, that to be profited, that is, to be spirit 
 ually improved in knowledge, faith, holiness, 
 joy, and love, is the end of hearing sermons, 
 and not merely to have our taste gratified by 
 genius, eloquence, and oratory. I know scarce 
 ly any thing of more importance to put before 
 a young Christian, than the necessity, in order 
 to a healthful state of religion, of a right end 
 and object in hearing the word of God. "We 
 live in an age when talent is idolized, and 
 genius adored. This is " the image of jealousy 
 which maketh jealous" in the temple of the 
 Lord. With too many it is not the truth of 
 God that is thought of, valued, and delighted 
 in, but the talent of man with which it is set 
 forth. Now we admit that it is almost impos 
 sible not to admire and be affected by genius. 
 Mind must admire the nobler exhibitions of 
 mind ; and cultivated intellects cannot put up 
 with the crude effusions of ignorance r dul- 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 121 
 
 ness. To such persons, it is not only offensive 
 to taste, but to piety, to hear such sublime and 
 glorious themes as the gospel contains set forth 
 in the mean and tattered habiliments of vulgar 
 language and mean thought. Who would like 
 to have the richest delicacies served up on the 
 meanest or broken earthenware ? Even in 
 regard to books, elegant typography and good 
 paper add to the pleasure of reading, even 
 where the matter is instructive and the sub 
 ject of perusal is interesting. But it would 
 argue an ill-regulated mind, in the one case to 
 be fonder of the elegance of the dish than of 
 the good food which it contains ; and in the 
 other, of the type, paper, and binding of the 
 book, than of the momentous subject on which 
 it treats. It is scarcely possible to give a more 
 important piece of advice to one setting out on 
 the ways of G-od, than our Lord s words, " TAKE 
 HEED HOW you hear." "We should hear sermons 
 with something of the same state of mind, and for 
 the same purpose, as we should directions from a 
 physician concerning our health, or from a law 
 yer how to a vert an impending sentence of death. 
 Intimate converse with the word of God is 
 
122 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 essential to progress. We must neither neglect 
 nor idolize the preacher. The sermon in the 
 house of Grod must not displace the Bible from 
 our hand. To he contented with the public 
 ministry without the private searching of the 
 Bible, is virtually so far to turn Papists, or at 
 any rate to act like them. It is painful to 
 think how little use multitudes make of their 
 Bibles. It is a question which might bring a 
 blush, or ought to do so, upon many a professor s 
 cheek, " How many chapters of God s holy 
 word have you read the last week or month ?" 
 Not that the Scriptures should be merely read 
 for the sake of being read. Some no doubt 
 prescribe to themselves the task of reading so 
 many chapters every day; and perhaps with 
 much the same motive as the Papist repeats 
 his Ave Marias, or his Paternosters : as a kind 
 of penance. This is not what we mean : and 
 we would at once suggest, that as in eating it 
 is not the quantity of food taken into the 
 stomach, but the quantity that can be digested, 
 which keeps up our strength and promotes our 
 health ; so it is not the quantity of Scripture 
 read, but the quantity studied, understood, and 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 123 
 
 applied, that does us good. One verse pon 
 dered upon, felt, applied, is better than a whole 
 chapter or book read negligently, thoughtless 
 ly, and without self- application. Not that a 
 verse a day is enough spiritual food for any 
 one. It may be feared that not a few have 
 abused those little manuals of piety got up for 
 the edification of persons who really cannot 
 command time for much reading ; I mean the 
 " text-a-day " books, which are now so com 
 mon. Surely they who can command time, 
 should hardly be satisfied with such a crumb 
 of the bread of life as this. A real, devout, 
 and intelligent study of the Scriptures, then, is 
 essential to great progress in the life of Grod. 
 " Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every 
 word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Grod." 
 To every young convert, therefore, we say, 
 SEARCH the Scriptures daily. Meditate on the 
 law of Grod day and night. Try how much 
 of the word of God you can understand, and 
 what is more, try how much you can practise. 
 Study the word of Grod with prayer for divine 
 teaching. Take up David s petition, " Open 
 thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous 
 
124 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 things out of thy law." Remember this also, 
 there is much corruption in your heart gen 
 erating a false bias, and beclouding your judg 
 ment, and likely therefore to lead you to mis 
 conception and error. Beseech of G-od to send 
 forth his Spirit into your heart to purify it from 
 depravity, that your understanding may be 
 better preserved from error. Enter deeply into 
 the meaning and spirit of that remarkable 
 saying of our Lord, " If any man will do his," 
 God s, " will, he shall know of the doctrine, 
 whether it be of (rod, or whether I speak 
 of myself. " John 7:17. In this important 
 passage we are taught that the disposition of 
 the heart has much to do with the views and 
 opinions of the intellect. In all moral questions 
 it must be so. A sincere wish and purpose to 
 do the -will of God, will be our best way to 
 know the mind of God. An honest heart is 
 the most likely means to gain a correct judg 
 ment. True it is, that we must in some degree 
 know the mind of God in order to do his will ; 
 but a desire to do his will is also the way to 
 know it more perfectly. We must have know 
 ledge to produce holiness, but holiness will 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 125 
 
 prepare us for more knowledge. And the 
 knowledge we acquire in this way will be of a 
 spiritual and experimental kind. We must 
 give up all preconceived ideas, all prejudices, 
 all pride of intellect, and go in humility to the 
 Scriptures as learners. 
 
 5. A deep conviction and ever-present sense 
 of the need of the Holy Spirit, accompanied 
 by a constant dependence upon him, is indis 
 pensable to progress in the divine life. "With 
 out this the soul can no more grow in grace, 
 than the produce of the earth can be brought 
 forth without the genial influences of the 
 heavens. "Whatever means are used, and all 
 covenanted and appropriate ones must be used, 
 still our dependence for their efficiency must 
 be upon (rod s blessing. Hence says the apos 
 tle, " If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk 
 in the Spirit." Gal. 5 : 25. First, as in the 
 body, there must be the principle of life, then 
 the activities of that principle. And in both 
 natural and spiritual existence, it may be said, 
 in God we live and move and have our being. 
 Agreeably also to this, is the other exhortation 
 of the same apostle, " Work out your salvation 
 
126 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 with fear and trembling, for it is God which, 
 worketh in you both to will and to do of his 
 good pleasure." Phil. 2 : 13. This is one of 
 the most instructive and important passages of 
 the New Testament. Now, it must he observed 
 that this was addressed to those who were sup 
 posed to be Christians, who were already saved, 
 though not formally and finally possessed of 
 salvation ; and yet they are commanded to 
 work out their salvation. Of course, therefore, 
 it did not mean works for justification, for this 
 was already completed. It means, " Go on 
 working in your sanctification, with a view to 
 the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 
 Go on earnestly in the way of holy walking, 
 even to the close of life, for though you cannot 
 be saved by and for your works, you cannot be 
 saved without them ; nor can you be saved 
 unless you continue in them to the end." This 
 is also to be done " with fear and trembling," 
 that is, with all that deep solicitude which he 
 might be supposed to feel, who knows he has 
 so important an interest at stake as an immor 
 tal soul. The most confident hope that we are 
 in a state of salvation should not, in the smallest 
 
MEANS OF PROORESS. 127 
 
 degree, abate our solicitude about our salvation. 
 But now observe the motive : "For it is God 
 that worketh in you both to will and to do" 
 God s working is not mentioned as a reason 
 why we should not work ourselves, but as an 
 inducement to engage us in an earnest and 
 diligent cooperation with him. The meaning 
 is, Grod exerts a certain influence upon our 
 minds to produce a certain effect on us ; that 
 effect is " to will," that is, to " choose" to be 
 holy ; " to do," that is, to perform holy actions. 
 This effect in us is the end and purpose of his 
 influence upon us. It is not Grod who wills 
 and acts for us, but we who will and act our 
 selves under his influence. The mode of thi? 
 divine influence we cannot explain. It is not 
 a physical force, such as is exerted on passive 
 unintelligent matter ; nor is it the mere moral 
 force of persuasion, such as one man exerts 
 upon another by mere argument and entreaty ; 
 but it is an influence of a peculiar kind, and 
 peculiar to this subject, the operation of the 
 divine Spirit upon the human mind, causing 
 it to understand and yield to the power of 
 truth as set forth in the gospel, and addressed 
 
128 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 to man s intellect. "We see in this passage, 
 then, what every young convert should very 
 distinctly notice and constantly remember, the 
 union of human activity and divine agency. 
 "We can do nothing good for ourselves without 
 (rod s grace working in us, and God s grace 
 never works in us but to lead us to do that 
 which is good ourselves. "We are not to sit 
 down in indolent inactivity waiting for God s 
 grace to set us upon working ; but are without 
 delay to begin working in a spirit of dependence 
 upon God s grace. The husbandman sows his 
 seed in expectation of the cooperation of the 
 influences of the heavens ; and so must the 
 Christian go to his work. God s grace comes 
 not upon the idle, but upon the diligent. 
 
 Christians in the early stage of their religious 
 experience are but too apt to fall into one or 
 other of the extremes of leaving God to do all, 
 or attempting to do all themselves. The most 
 common error is the latter. Full of the ardor 
 of first love, they make resolutions, lay down 
 plans, enter upon a course of action, too often 
 in their own strength. They soon meet with 
 checks and defeats. Their resolutions are 
 
MEANS OF r&OG-RESS. 129 
 
 broken, their plans frustrated, and their course 
 impeded by unsuspected difficulties or success 
 ful temptations. Disheartened and discourag 
 ed, they are ready to give all up, and walk the 
 ways of G-od no more. Let them rather learn 
 the lesson of the great apostle who said, " When 
 I am weak, then am I strong ;" or that other 
 lesson, "Yet not I, but the grace of God in 
 me." " Be strong in the Lord and in the 
 power of his might" You cannot be too active 
 as regards your own efforts ; you cannot be too 
 dependent as regards divine grace. Do every 
 thing as if God did nothing: depend upon 
 God as if he did every thing. Hence, do all in 
 a spirit of prayer. Go to every sermon, every 
 book, especially the Bible, every effort in a spirit 
 of prayer. This is to pervade every thing. 
 Prayer is the golden thread that is to run through 
 all our actions, stringing them all together, and 
 suspending them all upon the hand of God. 
 
 6. The company, conversation, and fellow 
 ship of established and earnest Christians, 
 will be of great service to the young disciple. 
 " As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth 
 the countenance of his friend." Prov. 27 : 17. 
 
 Chr. Prog. 9 
 
130 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS: 
 
 The allusion is familiar, but it is very illustra 
 tive. The knife whetted upon the steel acquires 
 a sharper edge. By the intercourse of friends 
 of congenial minds, knowledge is communicat 
 ed from the more to the less intelligent ; ani 
 mation, encouragement, and courage from the 
 lively and the sanguine to the dull, the timid, 
 and the gloomy ; caution, wisdom, and modes 
 ty from the more to the less prudent and dis 
 creet ; and exhilaration from the joyful to the 
 sad. Thus the sympathies of friendship are 
 made conducive to the advantage of those who 
 enjoy them. Sharpening indeed must have 
 been the intercourse with Christ on the way to 
 Emmaus, when the hearts of the disciples 
 burned within them as he opened their under 
 standings to know the Scriptures. Even tho 
 apostle Paul himself, great and illustrious as 
 he was, did not feel himself lifted above these 
 sympathies of Christian friendship ; even he 
 was so cheered by the conference and coun 
 tenance of friends, that he longed to be "some 
 what filled with their company ;" and when, 
 in a moment of dejection, on his way to Rome, 
 he saw the three brethren who had " come to 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 131 
 
 meet him as far as Appii Forum and the Three 
 Taverns," he recovered from his depression, 
 * thanked (rod, and took courage." Hence, 
 then, the necessity and advantage of Christian 
 fellowship and religious friendship, and I seri 
 ously and earnestly advise all young converts 
 to cultivate it. They should not remain in 
 solitude, having none with whom to exchange 
 their thoughts, feelings, and solicitudes on those 
 momentous topics which have lately possessed 
 their minds. It is not good for them in this 
 situation "to be alone." Solitary and seclud 
 ed piety, like the fire of a single coal, burns 
 feebly ; but like that, is more easily kept alive 
 and kindled to a flame by contact with other 
 coals. Great care, however, is necessary in 
 the selection of companions. This is true in 
 reference to all stages of our Christian history, 
 but especially to the first. Those wlio are 
 established in the divine life can bear with less 
 injury the influence of persons whose taste, 
 habits, and conversation are uncongenial with 
 the spirit of true piety, than can the young , 
 convert. It is therefore important he should 
 choose for his associates not only those who. are 
 
132 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 truly, but tliose who are eminently pious. 
 There is among those whom we may hope to 
 be sincere in their profession a very great dif 
 ference as regards the degree of their personal 
 godliness. As there are those who are only 
 almost Christians, there are others of whom it 
 may be said, they are only just Christians. 
 While the former seem only just without the 
 line of demarcation between the converted and 
 unconverted, the latter only just within it. 
 Their attainments are so slender, their religion 
 is so feeble, their conversation and spirit are 
 so worldly and trifling, that it is difficult to 
 determine their real spiritual character. These 
 are not the associates which will help on the 
 young believer. They will damp his zeal and 
 cool his first love. It will be like plunging his 
 knife into earth, which instead of sharpening 
 it, will take off its edge ; or like bearing his 
 newly lighted taper into foul air, which will 
 cause it to burn dimly, if it does not extinguish 
 it. Instead of this, the inquirer after holiness 
 and higher sanctification should associate with 
 those who are as earnest as himself, or even 
 more so : whose intelligence will instruct hi -a ; 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 133 
 
 whose example will guide him ; whose con 
 versation will inspire him ; whose cautions will 
 warn him. Let him seek companions whose 
 society will be as a prop round which his own 
 young plant can entwine itself for support and 
 growth, and by whose friendly aid his yet feeble 
 tendrils shall be well sustained. 
 
 7. Religious reading is of great service to 
 all, whether old or young in the Christian life 
 The Bible I know is the book of books, and 
 should be supplanted by no other. But we 
 would not imitate the conduct of the Caliph 
 Omar, who committed the library of Alexan 
 dria to the flames, under the absurd idea that 
 if the books contained only what was approved 
 by the Koran, they were useless ; if what was 
 contrary to it, they were pernicious. Our 
 religious literature is as valuable as it is 
 extensive. If it contains no other religious 
 truth than that which is in the Bible, which if 
 it be orthodox of course it cannot, it is still 
 immensely valuable as explaining and enforc 
 ing that which is in the Bible. It is one part 
 of the creed of Popery that the Bible does not 
 contain the whole word of God, for tradition 
 
134 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 is a part of it ; and we scruple not to aver 
 that their oral law is in many things opposed 
 to the written one. "We reject all such un 
 authorized and wicked attempts to corrupt the 
 divine testimony, and abide close to the writ 
 ten law or holy Scripture. But though we 
 deny authority to the works of men, we attach 
 great importance to them as eminently useful 
 in helping you to understand the word of Grod, 
 and therefore earnestly recommend the perusal 
 of them. To pretend to select from the flood 
 of publications which is flowing in upon us in 
 this extraordinary age any works that might 
 be recommended would be difficult and un 
 necessary, and had better be left to the coun 
 sel of those ministers with whom all young 
 disciples are connected, and who, from a know 
 ledge of their state of mind or advance in 
 religious subjects, might be supposed better to 
 understand what is suitable for them. They 
 who are really anxious for progress in the di 
 vine life, will not content themselves with the 
 parlor reading of whatever religious books cr 
 periodicals may happen to bo thrown in their 
 way, but will have some biographical or devo- 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 135 
 
 tional work as a closet companion, the pages of 
 which will be prayerfully read in those seasons 
 of retirement when the soul secludes herself 
 from all human society to converse with God. 
 8. Occasional seasons of extraordinary de 
 votion^ self-examination, and humiliation, will 
 he found eminently conducive to progress. I 
 am of course supposing, for I have already 
 prescribed it, that a regular course of private 
 prayer is kept up. But we all know that 
 regularity is apt to degenerate into formality ; 
 and what is customary, into mere routine. 
 There may be the most exact order, and the 
 most constant observance of religious exercises, 
 and yet there may be nothing better than a 
 dull round of observances. Hence it is indis 
 pensable that there should be occasional sea 
 sons of unusual devotion, when the soul shall 
 take as exact account as it can of its state and 
 condition. What has been already said on the 
 subject of an excessive anxiety about our 
 growth leading to almost a neglect of the 
 means of progress, in an inquiry into the 
 reality of progress, should be borne in mind. 
 But still occasional examination into the state 
 
136 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 of our profession cannot be wrong, but must 
 be right. A tradesman who is always taking 
 stock, under a fidgety anxiety about his trade, 
 would only divert his attention from that 
 industry and persevering effort which are 
 essential to success. Still, he ought occasion 
 ally to do this, for how else can he know how 
 he is going on, or whether he is not going 
 back. So also a nervous person always fear 
 ful about his health, and ever inquisitive into 
 symptoms and poring into books to see how ill 
 he is, instead of using all the means of obtain 
 ing and preserving health, is not very likely 
 ever to be well. Yet sometimes, provided it 
 does not occur too often or hinder him from 
 present duties, he may inquire whether some 
 chronic complaints are giving way, and whether 
 his constitution is strengthening. We surely 
 ought not to be less anxious about our soul s 
 health than we are about that of our body ; 
 and though a religious nervousness about theii 
 soul, which really does distress some good 
 people, should not be fostered, still an occasional 
 examination into our spiritual condition ought 
 to be instituted, and is really essential to prog- 
 
MEANS OF PROG-RESS. 137 
 
 ress. I do not see how we are to know what 
 corruptions exist and are to he mortified, or 
 what graces languish and need to be revived, 
 without occasional more minute inspection 
 than we give to the subject in our ordinary 
 conduct. In this age when secular matters 
 are so pressing, I may say, so engrossing and 
 absorbing ; when business so encroaches on 
 devotion, and the time formerly given to the 
 closet is taken away to be given to the shop ; 
 when all men are living in a hurry, and life 
 itself is one constant bustle ; surely, I say, at 
 such a time as this, it is necessary sometimes 
 to step out of the circle, and to enter the closet 
 for pressing home upon the conscience the 
 momentous question, "How am I going on in 
 my heavenly course ?" Such seasons may be 
 found, and if it can be at no other time, and 
 in no other way, it is worth while to give up 
 occasionally a sermon, and to spend the hour 
 or two which would be otherwise devoted to 
 that exercise in solitary communion with our 
 own heart, with our Bible, and with our God. 
 9. This enumeration would be incomplete 
 were I to leave out from it, as a means of prog- 
 
138 CHRISTIAN PROORESS. 
 
 ress, those various afflictive events with, which 
 it pleases God sometimes to try, to shake, and 
 ultimately to settle and strengthen the faith of 
 his people. Plants and trees not unfrequently, 
 in very dry seasons, require watering at the 
 time of or soon after their planting ; and indeed 
 all vegetable life depends much on the rain and 
 the dew for its growth. Hence God said to 
 the Jews, "I will be as the dew unto Israel." 
 Constant sunshine, especially for youthful 
 vegetation, is unfriendly to prosperity. Hence 
 God sometimes sees it necessary to darken the 
 soul with cloud shadows, and cause the clouds 
 themselves to pour down their contents on 
 the young convert. Disappointed hopes of a 
 worldly nature, frustrated schemes of happi 
 ness, and bodily sickness, even thus early 
 come on some persons, all the more painful 
 and depressing because occurring at the outset 
 of life. "What," says the early sufferer, 
 "must I so soon prove how treacherous are the 
 smiles of the world ; so soon learn by expe 
 rience that man is born to sorrow as the sparks 
 fly upward ? Must my very morning of life 
 be overcast, and the first stage of my journey 
 
MEANS OF PROG-RESS. 139 
 
 be amidst storms? Is my destiny so soon 
 developed to be one of grief and lamentation ?" 
 Hush those complaints, dry those tears, dis 
 miss this foreboding, my young friend. It is 
 wisdom, though you cannot understand it ; 
 and mercy, though you cannot at present see 
 it. Have you ne^er read what is said by the 
 weeping prophet, "It is good for a man that 
 he bear the yoke in his youth." Lam. 3 : 24. 
 Observe, it is not said, it is "pleasant," but 
 "good." At the very outset of life take up the 
 conviction that every thing is good for us that 
 is good for our souls ; and that G-od is the best 
 judge of what is good for them. That very 
 disappointment or other kind of affliction 
 which cost you so many tears, such sleepless 
 nights, such distress by days, was just the 
 thing which your heavenly Father saw to be 
 necessary at that time for your spiritual benefit. 
 You were concerned about religion, and seemed 
 in earnest ; but you were in danger of being 
 too much taken up with the world which had 
 come out to meet you on your way with smil 
 ing face and open arms. The syren song had 
 sent its music into your ears, and you were 
 
140 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 all but ravished and ruined "by the strain. 
 And then God, by the affliction he sent upon 
 you, warned you of your danger, and plucked 
 you from its jaws. Many in your situation 
 have been treated in the same manner, and 
 have at length been compelled to say, 
 
 " Foolish and vain, I went astray 
 
 Ere I had felt thy scourges, Lord ; 
 I left my guide and lost my way, 
 
 But now I love and keep thy word." 
 
 You recollect, perhaps, what God said to the 
 Jews, "1 spake unto thee in thy prosperity ; but 
 thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy 
 manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not 
 my voice." Jer. 22 : 21. It required a change 
 of circumstances to bring them to a right mind, 
 and that change came and effected its own 
 gracious purpose. Perhaps this may have been 
 the case with you. Full of the buoyancy and 
 eager expectation of youth, it was not likely 
 religion could flourish in such a state of mind 
 as that, and as God had purposes of mercy 
 towards you he sent trials that he might effect 
 his gracious designs. How strikingly is it said 
 of Israel, "I will go and return to my place till 
 they acknowledge their offence, and seek my 
 
MEANS OF PROG-RESS. 141 
 
 face ; in their affliction they will seek me early." 
 Hos. o : 15. Yes, many, very many, will have 
 cause through eternity to say, 
 
 " Oh, hadst them left me unchastised, 
 Thy precepts I had still despised ; 
 And still the snare, in secret laid, 
 Had my unwary feet betrayed." 
 
 I entreat you, therefore, to enter into Grod s 
 gracious purpose, and thus gather grapes as it 
 were from thorns, and figs from thistles, by ren 
 dering all your sorrows a means of progress in 
 tha divine life. Turn all these painful events 
 to a good purpose to check your vanity, to curb 
 your levity, and to establish you in the ways 
 of the Lord. Let them show you the need of 
 religion as a source cf consolation amidst the 
 vicissitudes of life, the power of religion to 
 support you under them, and its ineffable sweet 
 ness to console as well as to support. I just 
 now compared affliction to water, for so is it 
 often represented in the word of God ; but not 
 less frequently is it compared also to the action 
 of fire. Perhaps you know that in enamel 
 painting upon china this agent is employed. 
 The colors are laid on, and then the article is 
 
142 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 put into a small furnace, and subjected to con 
 siderable heat, which at once brings out some 
 of the colors more vividly, and gives fixedness 
 and perpetuity to them all in the painting. In 
 delineating the divine image upon your soul, 
 something like this method of painting may by 
 the divine hand be adopted, and the spiritual 
 coloring may be burnt in and perpetuated by 
 the furnace of affliction. Consider it a mercy 
 to have the work of grace carried on, though it 
 be by a process so painful as this. 
 
 It will be very clearly, and it may be hoped 
 impressively seen by these particulars, that 
 real religion is a very great thing, a matter of 
 immense importance, and requiring great exer 
 tion. No doubt many who have made a pro 
 fession of it have formed very inadequate ideas 
 of it, and are fearfully deceiving themselves, 
 and it becomes all who shall read these pages 
 to inquire what they know of these things. 
 Religion, as we have shown you, is a battle 
 which requires complete armor, and the busy 
 use of weapons, in order to secure a doubtful 
 victory a race in which many run, but in 
 which few will gain the prize a narrow path 
 
MEANS OF PHOG-RESS. 14.3 
 
 by which many shall seek to pass through the 
 gate of life, and by which the few only who 
 strive shall make good their entrance into 
 the paradise of God. It is only by dint of 
 painful and assiduous striving that salvation is 
 at length secured ; and just as the racer may 
 be said scarcely to have won, who with the 
 utmost power and fleetness makes good his dis 
 tance by a hair s breadth of space, or within a 
 moment of time, so is it said of the righteous 
 by the apostle, that they are but " scarcely 
 saved." 1 Pet. 4 : 18. This is a tremendous 
 passage, and is enough to awaken " fear and 
 trembling" in us all. The righteous are scarcely 
 saved! They escape from the fire into safety, 
 but as by a hair s breadth. How great is the 
 difficulty of bringing them first to be in ear 
 nest about salvation ; how great the difficulty 
 of keeping them from turning back and away 
 amidst the temptations to sin, and the allure 
 ments of the world, by which they are sur 
 rounded ; how difficult to rescue them from the 
 power of the great adversary of souls. Through 
 the internal struggles of the mind, and outward 
 conflicts of life, it often seems a matter of doubt 
 
144 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 whether, with all their efforts, they will be 
 saved ; and \vhen they are saved they will 
 appear to themselves as mariners who have been 
 rescued from shipwreck, who are amazed to 
 see how near they seemed to destruction, and 
 how unlikely to all human appearance it seemed 
 at one time they should be saved at all. Oh, 
 is this true ? then how few comparatively are 
 in the way to be saved. Where, we ask, are 
 those who are comporting themselves in a way 
 answerable to such a representation : eagerly, 
 anxiously as for their lives, striving to flee from 
 the wrath to come, and conscious that if they 
 are saved, it will be so as by fire ? Amidst the 
 multitudes who in this day are making a pro 
 fession of religion, how rarely are they to be 
 seen who are diligently plying at the taskwork 
 of Christianity ; who are making a real busi 
 ness of their growing sanctification ; who are 
 laboring for heaven as if pursued by a convic 
 tion that without effort they will never reach 
 it, and that even after their utmost labors they 
 will but save their distance, and scarcely reach 
 the goal to which they are tending. Is it not 
 time to sound the alarm, and especially in the 
 
MEANS OF PROGRESS. 145 
 
 case of those who are just, according to their 
 own declaration, setting out in the pursuit of 
 eternal life? 
 
 If any on reading this should say, as did the 
 apostles, " Who then can be saved ?" I adopt 
 our Lord s reply, " With man it is impossible, 
 but with God all things are possible." To 
 every earnest soul Jesus says, " My grace is 
 sufficient for thee." 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE READER. 
 
 Now turn back your attention upon the con 
 tents of this chapter, with even more solicitude, 
 because of the greater importance of the sub 
 ject, than you would in a time of bodily weak 
 ness upon some directions which had been 
 given you concerning your health. First of all, 
 however, .ask with serious and earnest concern 
 the questions, 
 
 Am I really so anxious to grow in grace as 
 to be using all the necessary means for that 
 purpose ? Am I serving my soul as I do my 
 body, that is, by being careful about my spirit 
 ual health, and adopting all proper measures, 
 and diligently employing them to promote it? 
 
 Chr. Pro-. 1 
 
146 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 Have I solicitude enough, about this matter to 
 be active and earnest in the use of means ? 
 
 Do I really want to grow ? 
 
 Do I hunger and thirst after righteousness ? 
 
 Do I take pains for this self-cultivation? 
 
 Do I most constantly and seriously attend all 
 the means of grace, public as well as private, 
 and week-days as well as Sabbath-days ? 
 
 Do I constantly, devoutly, read and study 
 the holy Scriptures, not allowing other books 
 to supplant the Bible ? And do I search them 
 to be made more holy ? 
 
 Do I feel my need of the Holy Spirit s in 
 fluence, and am I constantly wrestling with 
 God to bestow it upon me ? 
 
 Do I court the society of the more establish 
 ed and spiritual members of the family of God ? 
 
 Do I set apart special times for self-exami 
 nation, humiliation, and prayer ? 
 
 Am I improved and made more holy and 
 spiritual by my afflictions, disappointments, and 
 vexations ? 
 
 Reader, I beseech you, bring yourself to this 
 touchstone. You cannot progress unless you 
 are anxious to do so, and use the means. 
 
MISTAKES AS TO rHOG-RESS. 147 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MISTAKES CONCERNING- PROGRESS. 
 
 SUPPOSE a man were on a journey which was 
 of considerable importance to all his temporal 
 interests, on which it was every way desirable 
 he should be going forward with all convenient 
 speed. Imagine also that through some igno 
 rance of the country, or through his want of 
 acquaintance with his rate of speed, he should 
 conclude that he was advancing towards his 
 destined point, while at the same time, though 
 in constant activity, he was making no progress, 
 but only wandering about in by-lanes and cross 
 roads, and still remaining near the spot from 
 which he started. In such a case, he might 
 lose the end and purpose of his journey. Now, 
 there is something not unlike this in the course 
 of some persons in regard to religion. They 
 are in motion, but not in progress. The mis 
 takes on this subject are very numerous, and 
 require great pains in those who have to teach, 
 
148 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 to point them out; and also attention on the 
 part of all who have any solicitude about their 
 spiritual welfare, in order to be acquainted with 
 them. The temptations of the father of lies, 
 aided by the deceitfulness of the human heart, 
 originate many very injurious errors concerning 
 our spiritual condition, and lull us into a state 
 of complacency, where we ought to be deeply 
 solicitous and somewhat alarmed. 
 
 1. It is not an unfrequent case for persons 
 to conclude they are advancing, because they 
 are not, in their own view of their case, actu 
 ally receding. They do not see any outward 
 and visible signs of backsliding. They have 
 fallen into no grievous sin, and have brought 
 no blot upon their character, nor discredit upon 
 their profession. They are not conscious of any 
 known departure from the way of rectitude, 
 and have not fallen from their steadfastness. 
 Their usual round of duties is performed, and 
 they have not subjected themselves, by any part 
 of their conduct, to rebuke or censure. All 
 this may be so, and yet there may be no prog 
 ress. Is it enough to stand still on our path ? 
 "Would it satisfy the man on the journey just 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 149 
 
 alluded to, if he could merely say, " I am not 
 going back ?" "Would this prove he was advanc 
 ing ? It may be said, and we have already said 
 it, that in one sense not to advance is to recede. 
 But were it not so, surely to stand still is not 
 to go forward. Have you more knowledge, 
 more holiness, more love, more spirituality, than 
 you had ? Is your growth at all perceptible, 
 though it be in ever so small a degree ? Do not 
 compare yourselves with some who are rapidly 
 going back, and imagine that in relation to 
 them you are going forward, while you are 
 standing still. Have you ever, when travelling 
 in a steam-carriage, while your own railway 
 train was stopping at the station, and another 
 was passing slowly in a contrary direction, 
 imagined that it was you that were in prog 
 ress ? So is it in this case. You may be quite 
 at rest, while compared with others going back 
 you seem to be in motion forwards. 
 
 2. Some estimate progress by the time thty 
 have been in motion. Suppose a person unac 
 quainted with the rate of speed of a ship at sea, 
 and not understanding the influence of contrary 
 winds, and the process of getting slowly on by 
 
150 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 tacking, were to calculate thus, ""We have been 
 so many hours or days at sea, and we must 
 therefore be so far on our voyage." Suppose 
 the man on the journey to have fallen asleep, 
 or loitered away his time, and then, taking out 
 his watch, were to calculate that because he 
 left home so many hours since, he must be get 
 ting on very well. Is there nothing like this 
 in some professing Christians ? It is so many 
 months or years since they took up their stand 
 ing as religious persons. They have been all 
 this while regular attendants on public worship, 
 and communicants at the Lord s supper. They 
 have heard already innumerable sermons, and 
 read many good books. They have outlived 
 the novelties of a religious life, and the ways 
 of God are now familiar to them. How can it 
 be doubted, they say, that they who have been 
 so long on the road are advancing? Ah, this 
 is just calculating progress by time, rather than 
 by distance. Be it known to you, that a pro 
 fessed Christian may be long, very long, in 
 standing ; yes, and after all, it is but standing 
 without going. A dead stick, however long it 
 may be in the ground, will not grow. Finger- 
 
MISTAKES AS TO TROaRESS. 151 
 
 posts stand for ages, and measure distances for 
 travellers, but never advance an inch. Do not 
 conclude, then, that "because your conversion is 
 supposed to have taken place long since, that 
 therefore your sanctification must be far ad 
 vanced. It is a pitiable sound, and argues an 
 imbecile mind, as well as a diminutive body, 
 to hear a poor dwarf cripple say, " I must be 
 growing, for I am ten years old." It may be, 
 but every body else sees that the poor child s 
 stature never increases an inch. Let the Chris 
 tian not think of the years he has lived, but the 
 attainment he has made. The length of his 
 profession ought to be attended by an advance 
 in all that constitutes vital godliness, proportion 
 ate to the advantages he has enjoyed and the 
 time he has had them ; but alas, alas, how 
 rarely is this the case. In the orchard or vine 
 yard, young trees may be growing when they 
 bear no fruit, and a stranger may be ready to 
 say they make no progress ; but the skilful 
 gardener says, " Give them time, and they will 
 exhibit produce." And when they do bear fruit, 
 it is in proportion to their age. In the garden 
 of the Lord, young plants ought to fructify im- 
 
152 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 mediately, and the fruits of righteousness should 
 be also in proportion to their age. But is it so ? 
 How many whose eye shall read these pages 
 will Hush, if they have any holy shame, to 
 compare the date of their planting in the courts 
 of the Lord, and the produce they yield. 
 
 3. There may be an increase of theoretic 
 knowledge, and of ability to talk with fluency 
 upon the subjects of religion, and to defend the 
 truth against gainsay ers, without any corre 
 sponding advance in spiritual feeling and 
 holy conduct. There is a great deal of very 
 interesting matter in the Bible, apart from its 
 spiritual and vital power as God s instrument of 
 sanctification. Its history, its poetry, its sub 
 limity, its chronology, its eloquence, its proph 
 ecies, its pathos, all may become subjects of 
 study, and even of delightful study, without 
 faith in its doctrines or obedience to its pre 
 cepts. Thousands and thousands of volumes 
 have been written on religion by men whose 
 hearts were never under its power. Some of 
 the noblest productions of sacred science have 
 issued from the pens of those to whom, it is to 
 be feared, it was all mere theory. Like bril 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 153 
 
 liant lamps, they lighted others on their way 
 to heaven, hut never moved themselves ; or to 
 raise still higher the metaphor, they were like 
 lighthouses, which directed ships on their 
 course, hut were stationary themselves. In 
 more private life, and less important attain 
 ments, how many have made themselves ac 
 quainted with the theory of divine truth, as 
 taught in hooks, sermons, articles, creeds, and 
 catechisms, so as to Be ahle to explain the or 
 thodox system of doctrine, and to argue for it, 
 whose hearts have never been sanctified by the 
 truth. And even where it may be hoped the 
 great change has been wrought, and a start 
 made for salvation and eternal life, there may 
 be a growth in knowledge without a proportion 
 ate growth in grace. Many young persons are 
 now happily engaged in Sunday-school teach 
 ing, the distribution of religious tracts, and 
 various other operations of religious zeal, which 
 give them of necessity a growing acquaintance 
 with the system of religious truth. They can 
 talk with more fluency and correctness on di 
 vine things. History, doctrine, and precept, 
 are all more familiar to them, and at the same 
 
154 CHRISTIAN PROORESS. 
 
 time their thoughts are more drawn to the sub 
 ject of religion generally as the matter of their 
 teaching. Hence, there may seem to be to 
 themselves a perceptible progress. And so there 
 is in theory. But if at the same time there is 
 no advance in holiness, Christian charity, con 
 scientiousness, self-denial, and humility, these 
 signs of advance may be, and are, all deceptive. 
 Their knowledge has been collected, not as the 
 materials of personal sanctity, but of activity. 
 Such acquisitions may be only the " knowledge 
 which puffeth up," but not " the love that edi- 
 fieth." 
 
 There are persons whose acquaintance with 
 Scripture is surprising, and yet who, though 
 they could quote most aptly from nearly all 
 parts of the Bible, give too convincing proof 
 that their knowledge is of the letter only, and 
 not of the spirit. I knew a person who was so 
 intimately acquainted with the Scriptures, that 
 if you gave him any chapter or verse in most 
 of the books of either the Old Testament or 
 New, he would immediately repeat the words ; 
 and yet he was altogether an unconverted man. 
 And I was acquainted with another who was 
 
MISTAKES AS TO ntOG-RESS. 155 
 
 so fond of the study of prophecy that he "became 
 more conversant with the predictions of the 
 books of Daniel and of the Apocalypse than any 
 one I ever knew, who was at the same time 
 entirely a man of the world. Yet there are 
 many who regard this increasing acquaintance 
 with the text of the Bible as an evidence of 
 growth in grace. "While, therefore, we would 
 urge every young convert to make a longer and 
 larger acquaintance with the word of God, 
 assuring them that there can be no growth in 
 grace without some advance in knowledge, and 
 that the more knowledge of it they have the 
 more they are prepared to be useful, happy, and 
 holy, provided they couple with it other things, 
 yet that at the same time there may be large 
 increase of knowledge without any growth in 
 grace. Ask yourselves then the solemn ques 
 tion, and ask it solemnly too, whether in pro 
 portion as you store your minds with biblical 
 texts and biblical ideas, you all the while are 
 seeking to have your heart filled with biblical 
 feelings, and your life with biblical actions. Is 
 your advancing light attended with increasing 
 warmth? As you grow in acquaintance with 
 
156 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 the character of God, do you reverence him 
 more ? As your ideas brighten on the person 
 of Christ, do you love him more ? As you "be 
 come more acquainted with the perfection and 
 spirituality of God s law, do you delight in it 
 more and more after the inward man ? As you 
 see more clearly the evil of sin, do you hate it 
 with a more intense hatred ? As your horizon 
 widens, do you become more profoundly humble, 
 more tenderly conscientious, more gentle, more 
 spiritual ? Unless this be the case you are in 
 a fatal mistake by supposing you are making 
 progress in the divine life, merely because you 
 are advancing in biblical science. 
 
 4. In some persons there is a growing know 
 ledge of their corruptions, and perhaps an 
 increase of lamentation over them, unattended 
 by any disposition or effort to mortify them ; 
 and yet this growing light into the depravity of 
 their nature, and this real vexation, for so it 
 may be called, rather than godly sorrow, leads 
 to no proportionate mortification of sin. There 
 can be little doubt that many do know more 
 and more of the plague of their own hearts, 
 and are made continually more sorrowful by it, 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 157 
 
 who content themselves with venting their 
 unavailing regrets, and make no progress in 
 removing the evils they deplore, and yet con 
 clude that this growing self-knowledge is an 
 evidence of growing piety. So it would be if 
 it were followed up by amendment. " Godly 
 sorrow worketh repentance," that is, reforma 
 tion. And that sorrow is not godly, however 
 pungent it may be, and however miserable it 
 may make the man, which does not produce 
 reformation. Many a holy Christian is made 
 more and more holy, with less of misery on 
 account of sin, just because his grief, whether 
 greater or less, leads to amendment, than he 
 who, whatever may be his mortification of 
 feeling, does not carry it on to a mortification 
 of sin. "What should we say of a housewife 
 who made herself continually miserable about 
 the disorder and uncle anliness of her house, but 
 who took no pains to rectify the confusion and 
 to expurgate the filth? It is to be greatly 
 feared that very many professors of religion 
 satisfy themselves with being made unhappy 
 by the knowledge and experience of their sins. 
 They are loud in their lamentations, ample in 
 
158 CHRISTIAN rROG-RESS. 
 
 their confessions, and seemingly profound in 
 their humiliations. But there the matter ends. 
 They who heard their self-abasing acknow 
 ledgments yesterday, see them no better to 
 day. They are like some valetudinarians, 
 whose diseases arise, in great measure, from 
 their own indulgence, who are ever complain 
 ing of their ailments, and ever lamenting as 
 well as continuing their imprudence, but who 
 will never exercise that self-denial which is the 
 only way to restoration, and who yet imagine 
 it is a sign of growing attention to their health, 
 because there is an increasing disposition to 
 lament their sickness and to confess their im 
 prudence. 
 
 5. A very common error is to mistake a 
 growth of sectarianism for an increase of grace 
 Perhaps there is no delusion more common than 
 this. Ecclesiastical polity and sacramental ob 
 servances, as matters of divine revelation, are 
 both of some importance ; yet it is perfectly 
 clear, from the testimony of Scripture, that they 
 are of less consequence in the divine life, than 
 faith, hope, and love. " The kingdom of G-od 
 is not meat and drink ; but righteousness, and 
 
MISTAKES AS TO moaRESS. 159 
 
 peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Rom. 
 14 : 17. " In Jesus Christ neither circumcision 
 availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision ; "but 
 
 FAITH WHIQH WORKETH BY LOVE." Gal. 5 I 6. 
 
 If these passages mean any thing, they teach 
 us the entire subordination of what is ceremo 
 nial to what is spiritual. To see a person more 
 interested in, and more zealous for some ritual 
 observance than the cultivation of charity- 
 attaching more importance, both as matter 
 of experience and controversy, to baptism and 
 the external form of the church, than to the 
 doctrines of justification, regeneration, and sanc- 
 tincation, marks a state of mind very different 
 from that which is inculcated by the precepts, 
 and manifested in the conduct of the sacred 
 writers. The great object of the apostles was 
 to cherish in their converts the spirit of faith 
 and the practice of holiness. Yet we very often 
 see a different line of conduct, both in the 
 teachers and professors of religion in the present 
 day, by many of whom an extraordinary zeal 
 is manifested for either established or unestab- 
 1 lished churches, as the case might be, and for 
 a more elaborate or a more simple ceremonial ; 
 
 
160 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 while little concern is felt or expressed to incul 
 cate "the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, 
 joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
 faith, meekness, temperance." Gra.1. o : 22. 
 
 We not unfrequently see young professors, 
 when their first concern about religion is over, 
 taking up with the ardor of eager novices these 
 secondary matters, and becoming zealots for 
 supporting, defending, and propagating them. 
 This is sometimes especially apparent in those 
 who have lately transferred themselves from 
 one section of the universal church to another. 
 Proselytes, as if to prove the sincerity of their 
 conviction, and recommend themselves to their 
 new party, usually, in supporting their novel 
 opinions, excel in zeal those by whom these 
 notions have been long held. A change of this 
 kind has, in some cases, effected a complete 
 transformation of character, and they who were 
 before all torpor,, are now all activity and energy ; 
 not, indeed, for the great fundamental truths 
 on which all Christians agree, but for those 
 minor matters on which they differ. Church 
 men, that as such were dull and lethargic, have, * 
 on becoming dissenters, been all life and energy, 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 161 
 
 not so much for faith, love, and holiness, but 
 for non-conformity ; while on the other hand dis 
 senters, who while such were supine and inert, 
 on entering the establishment, have become the 
 zealous advocates and propagators of perhaps 
 even high-church principles. Let not persons 
 of this description mistake such sectarianism 
 for advancement in the divine life. This holy 
 vitality has reference rather to the principles on 
 which all are agreed, than to those minor mat 
 ters on which they differ. A mighty furor about 
 non- conformity, or a most impassioned zeal for 
 religious establishments, may comport with very 
 little vital godliness ; yea, the former may go 
 far to enfeeble the latter. Instead therefore of 
 such a state of mind indicating progress, it 
 manifests a retrogression. The man has become 
 more of a dissenter or churchman, but perhaps 
 less of a spiritual, humble, and simple-minded 
 Christian. It is the human element in their 
 religion, not the divine, that has strengthened ; 
 ihe shell that has thickened, not the kernel that 
 has enlarged. There has been motion, but it 
 is a lateral one from the straight line, not a 
 progress in the right direction. It is a going 
 
 Chr. Prog 1 1 
 
162 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 down and going back from primary to secondary 
 matters. An excrescence has grown upon the 
 tree, but the tree itself has been hindered and 
 not helped in its advance. 
 
 6. Much the same remark will apply to 
 a growing attachment to some particular 
 preacher, which is not always of itself a proof 
 of progress in religion. We are allowed our 
 preference even in this matter ; for though it 
 is the message rather than the messenger, the 
 truth rather than the preacher, that is to be 
 the ground of our attachment, yet it cannot in 
 the nature of things be otherwise than that we 
 should prefer one minister to another. He 
 may have been the instrument of our conver 
 sion, or the means of our establishment ; or 
 independently of these matters he may more 
 clearly explain, and more powerfully enforce 
 God s truth ; or even without this his natural 
 abilities with equal orthodoxy and piety may 
 be more to our taste ; and on all these grounds 
 preference, within certain limits, is allowed. 
 But nothing in a young convert requires 
 greater care and effort to keep down excess, 
 than ministerial attachment, lest it should 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 103 
 
 degenerate into exclusiveness and spiritual 
 idolatry. This is a danger into which multi 
 tudes run. They make this pulpit favorite 
 not only the standard of all excellence but its 
 monopolist. They think meanly of every one 
 else. They can hear, or at any rate relish no 
 other. When he preaches elsewhere they 
 follow him; or if they cannot do this, they 
 make up their mind not to profit by his sub 
 stitute. This actually grows upon them till 
 he is every thing, and all other ministers noth 
 ing. Now this very attachment is by some 
 supposed to be a proof of progress ; especially 
 in the case of those who formerly cared noth 
 ing about this minister or any other. They 
 now feel pleasure in hearing him, but then it 
 is confined to him, and this preference, instead 
 of leading them to love him for the sake of the 
 truth he preaches, leads them rather to love the 
 truth for the sake of the preacher. If with 
 their preference for him, they united a delight 
 in hearing all who preach the same truths; 
 and his preaching had formed in them a taste 
 for evangelical doctrines, instead of for one man 
 who preached them, this would be a blessed 
 
134 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 result, and one that would prove advance in 
 religion. Perhaps there are few evidences more 
 conclusive of progress than such a state of mind 
 as is described in the following reflections : " At 
 my first setting out in the ways of religion, I 
 felt a preference for my minister so strong, that 
 I could hear with pleasure no other. I was 
 disappointed and discontented if I saw any one 
 else in the pulpit, and thought the sermon 
 scarcely worth listening to. I now see it was 
 more an attachment to the preacher himself 
 than to his message. True, I was pleased with 
 his doctrine, hut still more with his manner of 
 setting it forth. As my knowledge of divine 
 truth increased, and I "become more and more 
 in love with this, I found my delight more and 
 more drawn off from the preacher to his doc 
 trine. Till now, with my preference for him 
 above all others still remaining, I am so much 
 taken up with the truth as it is in Jesus, and 
 feel so much more the importance of the matter 
 than the manner, that I can hear any one with 
 pleasure who, with tolerable ability, explains 
 and enforces the glorious gospel of the blessed 
 G-od. It is the man who opens most clearly to 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. IGo 
 
 my judgment the truth, of God s word, and 
 enforces it most powerfully upon my heart and 
 conscience, and carries on my growth in know 
 ledge, peace, and holiness that is the preacher 
 I love most." There is no mistake here. 
 
 7. Somewhat analogous to this, some mis 
 take a growing delight in some particular 
 theory, or some particular parts, aspects, and 
 subjects of the Bible, for progress in the divine 
 life. "All Scripture," to quote this passage 
 again, "is given by inspiration of Grod, and is 
 profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 
 for instruction in righteousness, that the man 
 of G-od may be perfect, thoroughly furnished 
 unto all good works." But all Scripture is not 
 equally adapted to foster the strength and pro- 
 mote the health of the soul. Now it is clear to 
 any one who will attentively study the New 
 Testament, that the truth by which we are to 
 be sanctified, the doctrine which is according 
 to godliness, the "perfection" which is distin 
 guished from first principles, is the mediatorial 
 character and work of Christ. This seems to 
 be plain from our Lord s words, "Verily, verily, 
 I say unto you, except ye eat the .flesh of the 
 
166 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life 
 in you. "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh 
 my Hood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise 
 him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat 
 indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." John 
 6 : 53-55. This is a most momentous passage, 
 and deserves the very serious attention of all, 
 and especially of young converts. It is of vast 
 consequence, in corporeal dietetics, to know 
 what is the most nourishing food, and what 
 will sustain the strength and increase the stat 
 ure of the body. Can it be less so in the die 
 tetics of the soul ? Here then, by Him who 
 came to give life, by the Physician of the soul, 
 WQ are told, upon what food the growing Chris 
 tian must live. In these words our Lord did 
 not, could not, mean to be understood literally. 
 By his flesh and blood, he meant his body 
 offered up in sacrifice, and his blood shed as 
 an atonement for sin ; and by eating his flesh 
 and drinking his blood, he intended nourishing 
 the divine life by the knowledge, the faith, the 
 contemplation of his death as it is set forth in 
 the Scriptures. The study of every thing that 
 stands connected with the death of Christ, 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PR00EJSSS. 167 
 
 whether it be in the types of the ceremonial 
 law, the predictions of the prophets, the nar 
 ratives of the gospels, the doctrines of the 
 epistles, or the sublime visions of the Apoca 
 lypse, this is the food of the soul, the manna 
 from heaven, the bread of life. This is "meat 
 indeed," and " drink indeed" Whosoever with 
 hungry appetite feeds upon this, will grow ; and 
 whosoever neglects this, will become lean and 
 weak. Now, there is a proneness in some to 
 neglect this, and endeavor to support their 
 spiritual strength by something else. It is not 
 the study of the natural history, or chronology, 
 or historical facts, or beautiful poetry, or pathet 
 ic narratives, or sublime compositions of the 
 Bible, that will best sustain our strength, and 
 yet some are thus attempting it. They see 
 many beauties in the Bible to which they were 
 formerly blind. They are enamoured with the 
 sublimities, for instance, of the book of Job or 
 Isaiah. They admire the wondrous wisdom of 
 the book of Proverbs. They luxuriate amidst 
 the, pathos of the history of Joseph, or the 
 morality of the sermon upon the mount. 
 Their attachment to those parts of revelation 
 
163 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 is rather growing than declining, and in proper 
 measure all this is highly commendable. Such 
 books as Kitto s " Daily Readings" should be 
 read, and cannot be read without admiration, 
 and exquisite delight, and valuable informa 
 tion. And many do read them with these 
 feelings, and hence they imagine they are pro 
 gressing in religion, although they have little 
 relish, perhaps, for the doctrines of the gospel, 
 the mediation of Christ, the salvation into 
 which the prophets inquired diligently, and 
 the angels desired to look. They do not feed 
 on the flesh and blood of the great sacrifice. 
 
 8. There may be a mistake made, by the 
 mortification of some ONE sin, while others are 
 left unsubdued. It is so far an advance if one 
 enemy of our soul, from right motives and by 
 right means, be destroyed. And in the work 
 of spiritual improvement it is wise and well, 
 instead of losing our time and wasting our ener 
 gies in mere general and unsystematic mortifi 
 cation, to select occasionally some on c sin to 
 begin with in the way of more direct and con 
 centrated attack ; and no doubt the crucifixion 
 of that corruption, the cutting off of that right 
 
MISTAKES AS 10 PROGRESS. 169 
 
 hand, or the plucking oat of that right eye, is a 
 gain in sanctification, a step in advance, and a 
 means of gaining other victories. But what I am 
 anxious to guard you against is, the supposi 
 tion that because some one evil to which you 
 may be more strongly tempted is abandoned, or 
 some practice which may militate against your 
 health, or interest, or comfort, is given up, you 
 are going on. Sin may be discontinued for va 
 rious reasons. A drunkard may give up his 
 inebriety, not because it is sinful, but hurtful. 
 Another may discontinue some fraudulent prac 
 tice, not because it is forbidden by God, but is 
 disgraceful in the estimation of man. A young 
 professor may give up some ensnaring worldly 
 amusements, not because he is afraid of their 
 influence upon his spiritual welfare, but because 
 they make too great inroads upon his purse, it 
 is not therefore the abstract ^abandonment of a 
 sin, but the motive which leads to it, which is 
 a proof of the work of grace. "How shall I do 
 this great wickedness, and sin against G-od T " 
 This must lie as the motive at the base of all 
 mortification of sin. And then moreover, the 
 destruction of any one sin must be viewed and 
 
170 CHRISTIAN PB.OG-RESS. 
 
 carried on as a part of the purpose and the act 
 for the destruction of all sin. 
 
 I now proceed to enumerate and to correct 
 some mistakes of a contrary nature to those just 
 considered. I mean such as are committed by 
 those who are making progress, and yet are 
 somewhat anxious and distressed under suppo 
 sition that they are not; and even fearing that 
 they are declining. 
 
 The cases are perhaps not numerous of persons 
 deeply concerned about salvation, really earnest 
 in religion, and yet harassed with the apprehen 
 sion that they are at a stand still, or even going 
 back. There is a sincere desire to advance in ho 
 liness, and to increase in spirituality ; and they 
 are even diligent in the use of means to accom 
 plish that end. In reference to them, I do not 
 hesitate to say that their very state of mind is 
 itself an evidence of progression. This solicitude 
 is itself advancement. The very desire of im 
 provement, the will to go on, the longing after 
 greater attainment, is improvement. It is itself 
 an impulse a forgetting the things that are be 
 hind, and a reaching forward unto those things 
 that are before. There cannot be a more convinc- 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 171 
 
 ing proof of halting or retrograding, than com 
 placency in ourselves. While, on the other hand , 
 a growing disposition to find fault with our 
 selves, and humble ourselves, and really improve 
 ourselves, is one of the brightest indications of 
 our going forward, provided there is all diligence 
 in the use of the means of self-improvement. 
 
 Some are fearful that they are not making 
 progress because their feelings are not so viv 
 idly excited in religious matters as they for 
 merly lucre. They are not as easily and pow 
 erfully wrought upon either in the way of joy 
 and sorrow, hope and fear, as they once w r ere. 
 They have not those lively and ecstatic states 
 of mind which they formerly experienced when 
 they began the divine life. 
 
 Here we must just glance at the constitution 
 of our nature. Religion exerts its influence 
 over all the faculties of the soul ; it calls into 
 exercise the understanding, engages the deter 
 mination of the will, moves the affections, and 
 quickens the conscience. The same differences 
 of natural constitution will be observable in 
 some degree in the new or spiritual nature as 
 existed in the old or physical one. A person of 
 
172 CHRISTIAN 
 
 great sensibility in ordinary things will, after 
 conversion, be so in spiritual ones ; while they 
 of little emotion in the former, will exhibit the 
 same phase of mind in the latter. The sensi 
 bility or emotional state of the mind depends 
 very much, therefore, on our physical organiza 
 tion. Now it is a very wrong criterion of the 
 reality and degree of our religion to judge of it 
 only by the exercise of the affections. Some 
 persons of excitable natures are easily moved 
 to joy and sorrow, hope and fear. The power 
 of poetry or eloquence, of sights of distress or 
 rapture, over their feelings is irresistible, while 
 at the same time their judgments are not propor 
 tionately employed, their wills not in the same 
 measure engaged, and their conscience but little 
 moved. Take, for instance, the sentimental 
 readers of novels, how by fits they are melted 
 to tears or excited to ecstasies. Yet how idle 
 and unemployed are all the other faculties of 
 the soul. There is no virtue in all this. It is 
 mere sympathetic emotion. Now look at the 
 philanthropist. He may not be a man of tears, 
 or of strong 1 and vivid emotions of any kind, 
 but he is a man of principle. His understand- 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 173 
 
 ing comprehends the circumstances of somo 
 case of deep distress, and he judges it is right 
 to pity and relieve it. His heart, though not 
 wrought up to extreme anguish, so as to fill his 
 eyes with tears and his mouth with loud lam 
 entation, feels for the miserable object ; his will 
 resolutely determines at once to help the suf 
 ferer ; and his conscience, which would con 
 demn him if he did not, approves the deter 
 mination. You will particularly notice what 
 constituted the virtue of the good man : not 
 wholly the emotional excitement, for there was 
 very little, but the dictates of the judgment, 
 the determination of the will, and the action 
 which was performed under these conjoint pow 
 ers. So it is in religion, which consists partly 
 of the exercise of all the faculties, but chiefly 
 of the judgment, will, and conscience. The 
 heart is of course engaged, for we must love 
 God and hate sin ; we must delight in Christ 
 and fear the wrath to come ; but the amount of 
 vivid emotion is of little consequence, compared 
 with an enlightened judgment, showing us 
 clearly what is right and wrong ; a determined 
 will to avoid the evil and perform the good ; 
 
174 ciiRisiiAX PUOG-EESS. 
 
 and a tender conscience shrinking from the 
 least sin. Emotion is, to a certain extent, 
 instinctive, involuntary, and irrepressible. Not 
 so with judgment, will, and conscience. It is 
 not, therefore, the amount of feeling, but of 
 willing and doing, and approving or condemn 
 ing, that determines the state of religion. There 
 is such a thing, I know and alas, it is a very 
 common one as losing " first love," and it is 
 marked by our Lord with his disapprobation in 
 his address to the church at Ephesus ; but many 
 distress themselves on this account who have 
 no need to do so. Their ardor perhaps, at first, 
 was in some measure the excitement of animal 
 feeling, which will soon die away of course, 
 though their real practical love may not be 
 diminished, but may be growing stronger. 
 "When a son returns home after a long ab 
 sence, especially if he be a reclaimed prodigal, 
 and meets his parents, brothers, and sisters, 
 there is a glow of feeling, a joyousness of emo 
 tion, which cannot be expected to continue 
 always, and which he may never be able to re 
 call again, though he may be ever growing in 
 real attachment to his friends and his home. 
 
MISTAKES A3 TO PROGRESS. 175 
 
 From all these it will be seen that the emo 
 tional part of religion may be, and is, by many, 
 overestimated. The question is not merely 
 what we can feet, but what we can do, for 
 Christ ; not how many tears we can shed, but 
 how many sins we can mortify ; not what rap 
 tures we can experience, but what self-denial 
 we can practise ; not what happy frames we 
 can enjoy, but what holy duties we can per 
 form ; not simply how much we can luxuriate 
 at sermon or at sacrament, but how much we 
 can exhibit of the mind of Jesus in our inter 
 course with our fellow-men ; not only how far 
 above earth we can rise to the bliss of heaven, 
 but how much of the love and purity of heaven 
 we can bring down to earth ; in short, not how 
 much of rapt feeling we can indulge, but how 
 much of religious principle we can bring to 
 bear on our whole conduct. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, there may be prog 
 ress where there is a fear that there has been 
 declension. The vividness of feeling may havo 
 subsided, but if the firmness of principle has 
 been strengthened, it is only like the decadence 
 of the blossom when the fruit has set. The 
 
170 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 joy might not "be so great, but it may "be more 
 intelligent, more solid, and more sober. Just 
 as the exuberant delight of the child, when it 
 passes off, leaves the pleasure of the youth less 
 noisy, but more rational. The frames and 
 feelings may be less rapturous, but they may 
 at the same time be less idolized, less depended 
 upon, less put in the place of Christ. The 
 young Christian is less pleased with self, but 
 sees more of the glory of the Saviour ; his own 
 righteousness appears more imperfect and de 
 filed, and is therefore less loved, but the right 
 eousness of the Saviour comes out before him 
 more beautiful, glorious, and necessary. 
 
 Distress is sometimes felt in consequence of 
 mistaking a clearer view and deeper sense of 
 depravity for an actual increase of it. This 
 is by no means an uncommon case. The young 
 Christian seems sometimes to himself to be 
 growing worse, when in fact it is only that he 
 sees more clearly what in fact he really is. In 
 the early stages of religion we have usually 
 but a slender acquaintance with the evil of 
 sin or the depravity of the heart. The mind 
 is so much taken up with pardon and eternal 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 177 
 
 life, and even, indeed, with transition from 
 death to life, that it is but imperfectly ac 
 quainted with those depths of deceit and wick 
 edness which lie hid in itself. And the young 
 convert is almost surprised to hear older and 
 more experienced Christians talk of the corrup 
 tions of their nature. It is almost one of the 
 first things one should suppose they would feel, 
 yet it is one of the last they effectually learn, 
 that religion is a constant conflict in man s 
 heart upon earth, between sin and holiness. 
 At first they seem to feel as if the serpent were 
 killed, but they soon find that he was only 
 scotched, for by the warmth of some fiery 
 temptation, he is revived and hisses at them 
 again, so as to require renewed blows for his 
 destruction. Nothing astonishes an inexperi 
 enced believer more than the discoveries he is 
 continually making of the evils of his heart. 
 Corruptions which he never dreamt to be in 
 him, are brought out by some new circum 
 stances into which he is brought. It is like 
 turning up the soil, which brings out worms 
 and insects that did not appear upon the sur 
 face. Or to vary the illustration, his increasing 
 
 Chr.Frojf. 12 
 
178 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 knowledge of God s holy nature, of the per 
 fect law, and the example of Christ, is like 
 opening the shutters, and letting light into a 
 dark room, the filth of which the inhabitant 
 did not see till the sunbeams disclosed it to 
 him. 
 
 Sometimes the young convert is discour 
 aged because he does not increase as fast as lie 
 expected ; and supposes, because he does not 
 accomplish all, and as speedily as he looked 
 for, that he does not advance at all. The ex 
 pectations of young Christians are sometimes 
 as irrational as the child s who sowed his seed 
 in the morning, and went out in the evening 
 to see if it was above ground. The recent 
 convert sometimes imagines that sanctification 
 is easy to work, and advance, for a regenerated 
 soul, a thing to be accomplished by a succes 
 sion of strides, if not indeed by one bound 
 after another. But the remains of old Adam 
 within him soon prove too str ,ng to allow this 
 unimpeded course of Christian progression. He 
 knew he had difficulties to surmount, but he 
 calculated on getting over them with ease 
 that he had enemies to conflict with, but then 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PROGRESS. 179 
 
 he hoped to go on by rapid victories from con 
 quering to conquer. He is disappointed ; and 
 now imagines he makes no way at all. But 
 why should he so hastily decide against him 
 self ? All growth is slow, and that is slowest 
 of all which is to last the longest. The mush 
 room springs up in a night : so did Jonah s 
 gourd ; and in a night it perished. The oak 
 requires centuries for its coming to perfection. 
 Some mistake by supposing they do not ad 
 vance at all because they do not get on so fast 
 as some others. We would by no means en 
 courage neglect, indifference, or contentment 
 with small measures of grace. On the contrary, 
 we urge the greatest diligence. We say, go on 
 unto perfection. They who are contented with 
 what grace they suppose they have, give fear 
 ful evidence that they have none at all. To 
 be self-satisfied is to be self-deceived. Still, 
 as in nature so in grace, all do not grow with 
 equal rapidity, or advance to equal strength 
 and stature. It is so with flowers in a garden, 
 trees in a plantation, children in a family, 
 boys at school, ships at sea, or travellers upon 
 the land. There is progress in all, but in dif- 
 
 
180 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 ferent degrees. Yet of which of all these can 
 it be said, they make no advance, because they 
 de not advance as fast as the foremost. The 
 use we should make of the superior attain 
 ments of the more eminent of (rod s servants 
 is, neither to envy them, nor to discourage our 
 hearts, but to find in them a stimulus and an 
 encouragement to seek larger measures of faith 
 and holiness for ourselves. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE READER. . 
 
 Reader, this is an unspeakably important 
 chapter for you to ponder. You must not pass 
 from it in haste, but linger, and muse longer 
 and deeper. You must now take up the 
 candle of the Lord, as I have said, and go clown 
 into the very depths of the soul, to search its 
 hidden recesses. Nor should you trust to your 
 own inspection and scrutiny. Like David, you 
 should earnestly pray to God to search you, 
 and reveal your real state to you. Psalm 
 139:23, 24. He knew how prone we are to 
 self-love and self-deception ; how sin lies hidden 
 in the folds of the heart s deceit, and therefore 
 he begged the trial and scrutiny of eyes more 
 
MISTAKES A3 TO PROGRESS. 181 
 
 piercing and less partial than his own. So 
 must you. "We are all liable to judge too favor 
 ably of our own case. Do, do consider the 
 fatal, the dreadful, the eternal consequences of 
 a mistake on this subject. Oh, the idea of 
 imagining we are going en to heaven, when 
 step by step we are advancing to hell. Is this 
 possible ? It is ; and the very possibility should 
 awakon our alarm. Is it probable ? It is ; 
 and this should increase our alarm. Is it cer 
 tain ? It is ; and this should raise still higher 
 our anxiety. Is it common ? It is ; and this 
 -should carry our solicitude to the highest pitch. 
 "What said Christ ? Read with awe and trem 
 bling, Matt. 7 : 21-23. Read, I say, this pas 
 sage in which our Lord with his own hand 
 rings the tocsin and sounds alarm through the 
 whole church. Ought you not to examine ? Is 
 not there need of it ? Is it not all but madness 
 to go on without it ? Mistake ! What, in such 
 a matter as salvation ? Mistake ! What, in a 
 matter in which an error will require, as I 
 have often said, an eternity to understand, and 
 an eternity to deplore it ? 
 
 Are you quite sure this is not your case ? 
 
182 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 Take up the subject, then, and put the follow 
 ing questions to your soul. 
 
 Am I right, and have I good evidence that I 
 am truly converted to God a real Christian ? 
 
 If I am a true Christian, am I really an 
 advancing one, or am I mistaking a declining 
 state for an advancing one ? 
 
 Am I mistaking a lengthened term of pro 
 fession for a genuine improvement ? 
 
 Am I putting an increase of knowledge, and 
 of ability to talk about religion, in place of an 
 increase of holiness ? 
 
 Does it satisfy me to grow in knowledge- 
 and lamentation of my corruptions without 
 mortifying them ? 
 
 Am I confounding sectarianism with true 
 piety ; attachment to some preacher with love 
 to the truth ; and zoal for some favorite theory 
 with real regard for the gospel ? 
 
 Is my mortification of sin confined to some 
 one corruption, which interest, ease, or reputa 
 tion may require me to surrender ; or is it 
 directed against all sin? 
 
 Is my religion a mere excitement of the 
 emotions, and my growth only a greater exci- 
 
MISTAKES AS TO PHOailESS. 183 
 
 tability ; or is my will more and more deter 
 mined for God, my conscience more tender, 
 and my life more holy ? 
 
 Inquire, I beseech you, into these things. 
 Be determined, by Grod s grace, to know the 
 real state of the case, and to be under no mis 
 take. Be this your prayer, "0 Grod of truth, 
 thou that searchest the hearts and triest the 
 reins of the children of men, thou knowest I 
 would not for ten thousand worlds be deceived 
 about my spiritual state. Do thou, who know 
 est me altogether, make known to me what I 
 really am in thy sight. Painful as it would be 
 to find out that I have been deceiving myself, 
 this were infinitely better than for me to go on 
 in error till the mistake is past being rectified. 
 [ want to know my real state. Even if I am 
 a Christian, and yet mistaking declension for 
 progress, I wish to know this also. Let my 
 spiritual insight be clear, my self-acquaintance 
 ba accurate. Suffer me on no account to de 
 ceive myself, even as regards my progress or 
 decline." 
 
184 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 
 
 IT is indeed a melancholy thing for the 
 growth of grace to be stopped ; and to see the 
 spiritual child remaining a dwarf. But it need 
 not be so, unless the child chooses it. 
 
 1. There is indifference to growth. This 
 has been in some measure anticipated where 
 we have said that earnest concern and desiro 
 are among the means of progress. If so, then 
 indifference must be an impediment to growth. 
 It is not so in nature. A child in health will 
 grow, and does grow without a thought or a 
 care about the matter* He may never have 
 one idea about it ; may be as indifferent as a 
 lamb or a young dove, a tree or a flower ; 
 yet his indifference will not affect his growth. 
 But it is not so with a young Christian. In 
 difference here is fatal to all progress. Look at 
 this. Indifferent ! What, about progress to 
 heaven and a fitness for it ? Indifferent ! What, 
 about increasing knowledge of eternal truth ? 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 185 
 
 Indifferent ! What, to increase in holiness, 
 which is the image of God in the soul of man ? 
 Indifferent ! What, about the development of 
 that character which is formed by a divine 
 hand, of heavenly materials, and for eternal 
 ages ? Young professor, can you endure the 
 thought ; does it not astound you, alarm you, 
 distress you, to think of being hindered by in 
 difference ? Oh, cast it away at once, and kindle 
 into solicitude and concern. Be indifferent to 
 anything, or everything else, rather than to this. 
 2. Of course we must not leave out of con 
 sideration, but place distinctly before you the 
 remaining corruption of human nature, and 
 its imperfect sanctification ; and this must be 
 viewed in connection with the temptations of 
 Satan. This view of the case has come out 
 incidentally, and may yet come out in other 
 parts of the volume, but on account of its im 
 portance it must have a separate place assigned 
 to it here. It is well for the young convert to 
 have a very clear and vivid perception of his 
 condition, of what he really is, what he has to 
 contend with, and what exertion therefore is 
 necessary to overcome the resistance he meets 
 
386 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 with in his course. What then is the real 
 condition, and what are the true circumstances 
 of the person whose case I am now meeting ? 
 He is supposed to he truly regenerated, "but at 
 the same time only partially sanctified. Sin is- 
 dethroned, tut not destroyed. His predomi 
 nant taste and disposition are holy, but his 
 principles have not yet struck their roots very 
 deep into his soul. His purposes are somewhat 
 irresolute, and his inclinations to evil sometimes 
 strong, just because, to use a scripture expres 
 sion, "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and 
 these are contrary the one to the other." Satan 
 knows all this, and by methods which we can 
 not understand, plies the soul with his various 
 machinations and subtle temptations. We need 
 not, for it is useless, attempt to explain the 
 mystery of Satanic influence. It is nowhere 
 laid open to us. One thing, however, beyond 
 the fact that he does so tempt us, is certain, 
 that he always assails us through the medium 
 of our own thoughts, imaginations, and feel 
 ings. Somehow or other he has the power of 
 exciting these. So that our resistance of evil 
 in ourselves is properly the resistance of the 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROG-RESS. 167 
 
 devil without us. No perplexity, therefore, 
 need trouble us about meeting the temptations 
 of Satan, for to vanquish our own evil hearts is 
 to vanquish him. It is well to know, to con 
 sider, to ponder the fact that there is still the 
 danger of an evil heart of unbelief, aided by 
 the power of Satan, hindering us on our way, 
 and attempting to turn us out of it. "We are 
 not only like Bunyan s pilgrim, when we first 
 become anxious, setting out with a burden of 
 guilt upon our back ; but when, like him, we 
 have lost that at the cross, we have still an 
 other burden of imperfections and corruptions 
 to carry, which without great labor and effort 
 will sadly retard us. It must be understood 
 well, that though all external circumstances of 
 situation and helps and advantages were as 
 favorable as they could be, we still have a sad 
 drawback within. We are like a traveller who 
 is on a smooth road, has fine weather, is inti 
 mately acquainted with the way, has agreeable 
 and helpful companions, but who at the same 
 time is very lame, or has a load to carry. His 
 lameness or his load will be a great delay to 
 him. His attention must be directed to these 
 
188 CHRISTIAN rE-OG-RESS. 
 
 things. He must cure the one or lighten the 
 other, or he will make slow progress. 
 
 3. Besetting sins are powerful hinderances. 
 "Lay aside every weight, and the sin which 
 doth easily beset you," said the apostlo. In 
 the case of most persons, there is some one sin 
 to which, either from their situation, constitu 
 tion, taste, or other circumstances, they are 
 more powerfully tempted than to others. Satan 
 knows very well what in every case this is, and 
 skilfully adapts his temptations to it. He is 
 an expert angler, and never takes his bait, or 
 throws his line, at random. Independently, 
 however, of him, the very tendency of the 
 heart is in that direction. That one sin, what 
 ever it be, while indulged, will hold you back ; 
 you cannot get on till it is mortified. Even 
 its partial indulgence, though it may be con 
 siderably weakened, will hinder you. Study 
 then your situation, circumstances, and con 
 stitution. You cannot be so ignorant of your 
 past history, your present situation, your con 
 stitutional tendencies, your experience, your 
 failures, your resolutions, as not to know what 
 it is which, in the way of temptation and sin, 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 169 
 
 you are most exposed to. You must, you do 
 know in what you have most frequently 
 wounded your conscience, and occasioned to 
 yourself shame and sorrow. Is it an unsanc- 
 tified temper ? An impure imagination ? A 
 proud heart ? A vain mind ? A taste for 
 worldly company ? A proneness to envy and 
 jealousy ? A love of money ? A tendency 
 to exaggeration in speech ? A fondness for 
 pleasure ? A disposition to censoriousness, de 
 traction, and backbiting? Study yourselves. 
 Examine your own heart. You must find out 
 this matter, and it requires no great pains in 
 order to know it. It floats upon the surface of 
 the heart, and does not lie hidden in its depths. 
 There, there is your danger. As long as that 
 sin, he it what it may, is indulged, you can 
 not advance. Other sins are as unnecessary 
 garments to the ancient racer; this, like a 
 chain round his ancle, or a clog to his feet. 
 
 4. The mistakes mentioned in the last 
 chapter are a very considerable hinderance to 
 progress. These should be well studied and 
 minutely examined. On an ordinary journey 
 errors of this kind will have great influence in 
 
190 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 keeping back the traveller. He who supposes 
 he is advancing when the contrary is the case, 
 cannot of course get on. We therefore recom 
 mend a very close study of that chapter with 
 especial reference to the subject of this. 
 
 5. There are some situations in life very 
 unfriendly to growth in grace. Plants, if they 
 flourish, require adaptation of soil, atmosphere, 
 and treatment. So do animals. So do young 
 children. So do young Christians. In all these 
 cases, however, except where the situation is 
 so uncongenial as to be certain death, and cer 
 tain destruction to the subject of care, much 
 may be accomplished by extraordinary atten 
 tion and culture. Corn, by great skill, labor, 
 and expense, may be made to grow in unfavor 
 able soils. Animals accustomed to a warm 
 climate may by very great care be kept alive, 
 and even in tolerable health, in colder regions. 
 Children do grow in the absence of many 
 things conducive to health. So it is with the 
 plants of grace, the lambs of Christ s flock, the 
 children of G-od. Religion has to exist some 
 times in situations most inauspicious to its 
 growth, yea, to its very existence. A servant 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 191 
 
 girl, for instance, may "be awakened to a seri 
 ous concern about the salvation of her soul, 
 while engaged in a large family, incessantly 
 occupied, and associated with other servants 
 who are not only destitute of all religion them- 
 selves, hut who ridicule and oppose hdrs ; while 
 the heads of the family are also utterly irrelig 
 ious ; so that in all that house there is nothing 
 to cherish, hut every thing to wither the blos 
 som of piety in this poor girl s soul. Or a young 
 man may be led in earnest to remember his 
 Creator in the days of his youth, and at the 
 time when this new solicitude is awakened in 
 his soul, he is engaged as shopman in some large 
 establishment, where he is surrounded by a 
 number of scoffing, dissolute, and infidel asso 
 ciates, and .the master is as ungodly as his 
 servants. Or a young lady may start in the 
 divine life, in the midst of a gay, worldly, 
 fashionable family. Or a wife may become 
 seriously concerned about divine and eternal 
 realities, whose husband is entirely a man of 
 the world, and requires her to be of one taste 
 with him in all his amusements and pursuits. 
 Now, can we conceive of any thing more un- 
 
192 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 friendly to earnest, consistent, advancing re 
 ligion, than these and many other situations 
 which may be easily imagined ; and yet growth 
 is required even here. " Growth !" exclaim 
 some, " why, life is scarcely possible here. You 
 may as soon expect pineapples to grow on the 
 summit of Mont Blanc, or roses and myrtles to 
 flourish amidst the polar ices, as think of re 
 ligion thriving in such situations as these." This 
 is to miscalculate its own vital strength, and also 
 the mighty power of God. I have known, and 
 many more have known it to flourish in all 
 these circumstances. I remember the case of 
 a lady who, within the first month of her mar 
 riage with an ungodly husband, was brought 
 under concern about religion, to which, till that 
 time, she had been a total stranger. And while 
 engaged in all the round of those festive parties 
 and amusements which are customary in fash 
 ionable circles on such occasions, had to strug 
 gle with this new anxiety recently awakened 
 in her heart, and subsequently with the oppo 
 sition of her husband and of her nearest rela 
 tives. Yet, by the grace of God, her piety not 
 only lived, but flourished. 
 
HINDEHANCES TO PP.OC-RESS. 193 
 
 Still, it shall be conceded that the situations 
 supposed are, for experience and observation 
 prove it, uncongenial with the growth of grace. 
 It is difficult to keep a standing- there, much 
 more to advance. But it is possible ; and the 
 very possibility is encouraging. Consider how 
 much is at stake the soul, salvation, heaven, 
 eternity. Consider how much greater your 
 condemnation will be, if having once been 
 awakened, you relapse again into a deadly 
 slumber. Be duly aware, then, of the diffi 
 culty of your situation, and even alarmed at it. 
 Say to yourselves, " How can I stand firm ?" 
 If you can alter your situation, it may be well 
 to do so ; I advise it. You should not be self- 
 confident, and say, "I can trust myself. My 
 mountain stands strong, I shall never be mov 
 ed. I fear nothing." Then I fear for you. 
 Such a spirit is the precursor of a fall. " Be 
 not high-minded, but fear." " Let. him that 
 thinketh he standeth take heed. lest he fall." 
 Flee, I say, flee if you can ; that is, if your 
 present situation be not one of obvious duty, 
 which leaves you no choice. Some of the cases 
 I have mentioned answer to this description, 
 
 Clir. Pies. \ 3 
 
 
194 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 and do leave you no option. The daughter can 
 not in many instances quit her father s house ; 
 nor can the wife, the home of her husband. 
 Where this occurs, let there "be the most earnest 
 prayer to God for divine grace, and full un 
 wavering faith in the divine promise. Let such 
 persons lay their case hefore the Lord, and 
 remind him of their peculiar need of his most 
 gracious assistance. Let them open the ear of 
 faith, and hearken to his voice. " Fear thou 
 not, for I am with thee ; "be not dismayed, for 
 I am thy Grod : I will strengthen thee ; yea, I 
 will help thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with the 
 right hand of my righteousness." Isa. 41 : 10. 
 6. Among the hinder ances to progress in 
 religion must he mentioned companionship. 
 "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise," 
 says Solomon, " but a companion of fools shall 
 be destroyed." Prov. 13 : 20. "We take the 
 tinge of our character from those with whom we 
 associate, and in return give back in brighter 
 hue the color of our own to them. We arc all 
 the communicants and recipients of unconscious 
 influence ; just as healthy or diseased subjects 
 are supposed to keep the atmosphere around 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROG-RESS. 195 
 
 them salubrious or infectious. As, therefore, 
 we would preserve our spiritual health and pro 
 mote our increase of strength, let us avoid the 
 society of those whose company and conversa 
 tion are unfriendly to piety. The strength of 
 our convictions, the fixedness of our habits, the 
 clearness and settledness of our principles, and 
 the firmness of our resolutions, must in a great 
 measure depend upon our associates. David 
 said, " I am a companion of all those that fear 
 Thee and keeep thy precepts." As to the choice 
 of good and suitable companions as a means of 
 progress, I have already written in a former 
 chapter ; but I now speak of the avoidance of un 
 suitable ones, of such as would be a hinderance 
 to it. And I would, with all the emphasis it is 
 possible to give to written language, conjure the 
 young professor to be most anxiously and trem 
 blingly concerned about this matter. It may 
 happen that now, when first brought under con 
 cern about salvation, you may have companions 
 congenial with your former tastes ; and some to 
 whom you were much attached, but who are 
 still as regardless of religion as you once were. 
 This is indeed a painful and perplexing situa- 
 
196 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 tion, and will expose you to considerable dan- 
 ger. You will find it difficult either to dissolve 
 the ties of friendship, or to maintain them 
 without peril to your infantine religion. To 
 withdraw from those in whose society you have 
 spent so many cheerful hours, will "be like cut 
 ting off a right hand, or plucking out a right 
 eye. "Well, and are not these the terms of 
 Christian discipleship ? Why, in the times of 
 persecution, the saints were often called to sur 
 render husbands or wives, parents or children, 
 for Christ s sake ; and can you not give up a 
 friend ? Will you risk your religion and jeop 
 ard your soul at the shrine of friendship ? Do 
 you know that your religious character must 
 be distasteful to your former friends, and that 
 their pursuits and conversation are now dis 
 tasteful and actually injurious to you ? Do you 
 not come from their society with religious ardor 
 damped, the spiritual taste lowered, the devo 
 tional spirit impaired, and the conscience of 
 fended and wounded by your sinking too deeply 
 into the current of their conversation ? Is it 
 not felt by you that there is one subject, and 
 that the most momentous of all, in reference to 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 197 
 
 which you can have no sympathies and no con 
 versation in common? You must withdraw. 
 It is come to this, that you must sacrifice your 
 friends or your souls ; which shall it he ? 
 
 We do not say that this should he ahruptly, 
 much less, rudely or sanctimoniously done. 
 There must he nothing at all approaching to the 
 " Stand "by, I am holier than thou." It might 
 he well, first of all, by letter or personal inter 
 course, to endeavor to influence your friends to 
 adopt similar views to your own ; to use all the 
 gentle and unassuming arts of affectionate per 
 suasion to induce them to go with you in the 
 ways of wisdom and the paths of peace. If 
 you prevail not, then, after a full and fair trial 
 to engage them in the bonds of a sacred fellow 
 ship, with tenderness, and frankly stating your 
 reasons, withdraw from them. It may he a 
 costly sacrifice, "but it is a necessary one. 
 
 How much more forcibly does this apply to 
 that one friend^ who, above all others, is dear 
 est to the heart, and likely, on that account to 
 be more influential over the character. "Where 
 this tender engagement has been formed before 
 the religious feeling was excited in either of the 
 
198 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 parties, it should be only a very hostile attitude 
 against religion in one of them that should in 
 duce the other to dissolve the bond. In such 
 a case there is sometimes little trouble, for 
 enmity against God goes far to extinguish love 
 towards man, and the pious party is released 
 by the other from vows always solemn, and 
 never to be broken without justifiable reasons. 
 But where no engagement of this nature has 
 been formed, and the young professor is free to 
 choose or to receive, surely, surely a due regard 
 to the happiness of both parties, the safety of 
 the soul, the pursuit of salvation, the commands 
 of Scripture, and the glory of God, should lead 
 to a determination never to form a connection 
 unfriendly to the interests of personal religion. 
 It is impossible to conceive of any thing more 
 likely to exert a deleterious and destructive 
 influence over incipient piety, than a cherished 
 regard for, and an avowed engagement to a 
 person who is a stranger to vital godliness. 
 Even they who have long been in the bands of 
 matrimony, and who, after they have entered 
 them, are brought under the power of godli 
 ness, find it difficult to maintain it, in its vigor 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 199 
 
 and consistency, against the hostile or even 
 neutral influence of a husband or a wife that 
 has no sympathy with them in this most mo 
 mentous of all concerns. How much more 
 unlikely is it that they who are in all the solici 
 tudes, the emotions, and the agitations of court 
 ship, and that in connection with an individual 
 who has no religious sensibilities, can hold on 
 their way and wax stronger and stronger. It is 
 by no means favorable to the cultivation of true 
 godliness, in its earliest stages, to have the 
 mind occupied by a subject so engrossing and 
 so interesting to the hearts of the persons con 
 cerned as courtship, even where it is between 
 persons both of whom are partakers of true 
 religion. How much more, then, where this 
 does not enter into the character and pursuits 
 of one of the parties concerned. 
 
 7. The inconsistencies, short-comings, or sta 
 tionary condition of those who already make, 
 and perhaps have long made a profession of 
 religion, are a great impediment to the advance 
 of those who are just beginning the Christian 
 life. There is a proneness on all hands, in 
 judging of religion, to look at the conduct of 
 
200 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 those who profess it, rather than to its own in 
 spired records. Infidels do this, and also those 
 who wish to be freed from its obligation, and 
 who for that end bring against it the incon 
 sistencies of its professors. Something like 
 this operates also on the minds of those who 
 are beginning the Christian course. Instead of 
 studying their obligations in the word of God, 
 and taking all their ideas from thence, and 
 finding there the proper models of character, 
 they look around upon those Christians with 
 whom they are acquainted, with a kind of tacit 
 idea that if they themselves are as holy and 
 earnest and spiritual as these, it is all that can 
 be expected from them. Yea, they imagine 
 that they who are so young in piety can hardly 
 be expected to be as holy, spiritual, and ear 
 nest as they who have been long in the way 
 And what do they see in these older Christians, 
 in whom at one time perhaps they looked for 
 an almost perfect exhibition of spiritual excel 
 lence, as the natural result of long experience 
 and rich advantages ? Ah, what indeed ? Of 
 tentimes low attainments, prevailing worldly- 
 mindedness, unsanctified tempers, and general 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 201 
 
 unlovelinesS of character. Instead of resem* 
 bling trees in the meridian of their age, lofty 
 in stature, spreading out their tranches, rich in 
 foliage, and laden with fruit, they see stunted, 
 almost branchless, leafless, and fruitless stocks, 
 calling for the gardener s interdict, " Cut them 
 down ; why cumber they the ground ?" Others 
 perhaps are not in so bad a condition as this, 
 but still far from what our Lord describes as 
 bearing "much fruit," and so glorifying G-od. 
 Here and there they discover some one in an 
 eminent degree growing like a cedar in Leb 
 anon, or flourishing like the palm-tree. But 
 these are the exceptions, rather than the rule. 
 The young inquirer therefore, instead of looking 
 at the exceptions, too often turns to the general 
 rule, and secretly thinks that he can hardly 
 expect to be among the rarer instances of god 
 liness, and contents himself with possessing the 
 average amount of it. There may be no actual, 
 formal, deliberate making up his mind in this 
 way, after general observation ; but an uncon 
 scious and unintentional influence of this kind 
 comes over his mind. It was only the day before 
 this was written, that a friend informed me of a 
 
202. CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 case he knew of a young female servant who was 
 brought under the power of religion, and wish 
 ing to he in a situation favorable to the growth 
 of her piety, she went into a family professing 
 godliness, where she hoped to find every thing 
 to foster her early impressions. Perhaps, as is 
 commonly the case, she expected too much 
 all but perfection ; but she saw so little like 
 true religion in either master or mistress, so 
 much worldliness, and such an absence of every 
 thing to encourage her in her recent impres 
 sions, that she found herself in almost as much 
 danger there as in the place she left. It had 
 nearly proved too much for her w r eak faith, and 
 she had well-nigh returned again to her for 
 mer state of careless unconcern. However, by 
 Grod s grace, she was preserved from falling, 
 and afterwards recovered her standing and 
 progress, though certainly not by any help she 
 gained from tin s worldly-minded couple whom 
 she served. 
 
 Against the pernicious influence of example, 
 we must earnestly caution the young disciples. 
 They must not allow themselves to be rendered 
 slow in their pace, because others before them 
 

 
 HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 203 - 
 
 are so ; nor to "be checked in Mieif speed, either.* 
 by a false modesty which would lead them to 
 conclude it would be presumption to pass their 
 seniors, nor by an indolence which would but 
 too easily lead them to be satisfied with keep 
 ing a little behind them. No doubt it has 
 sometimes happened that Satan has puffed up 
 the mind of some young ardent minds, when 
 in all the fervor of their first love, with vanity 
 and conceit, so that they have become some 
 what proud of their own ardor, and still more 
 censorious upon the lukewarmness of others. 
 There cannot be either a more unlovely or a 
 more injurious disposition than for a person 
 lately brought under the power of religion set 
 ting up for a public censor, and dealing out 
 w r ith unsparing hand his reflections and re 
 proaches upon the character and conduct of 
 his neighbors. It is sufficiently offensive in 
 ordinary life to hear one who is little beyond a 
 beardless youth becoming " Sir Oracle," and 
 presuming to scan and censure men old enough 
 to be his fathers; but it is still more disgust 
 ing to see this in reference to religion : and we 
 > ould most seriously warn all young disciple 
 
204 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 against such a temper, and admonish them to 
 cultivate, .among other virtues, the charity that 
 "doth not hehave itself unseemly/ * 
 
 8. There is another hinderance to progress, 
 which, in some periods of history, and some 
 
 * There is a very affecting and impressive illustration of the 
 influence of professors, in the way of giving advice to a young 
 convert, in the history of Roger Miller, that extraordinary 
 city missionary, who was killed by a railway accident at Wol- 
 verton in the year 1847; a most interesting memorial of 
 whom has been published by Mr. Orme. Soon after he became 
 awakened to a sense of religion and had entered into church- 
 fellowship, he opened a shop as a barber, and like the rest of 
 the trade, served his customers on the Sabbath. At length 
 he considered that this was a violation of the sanctity of the 
 Lord s day, and he determined to close the shop and trust 
 Providence for his support. His faith in God, however, at 
 that time was weak, and as his business fell off, he was, as 
 might have been expected, reduced to considerable straits in 
 his circumstances. He sustained the trial for some months, 
 when a fellow-professor and member of the same religious 
 community persuaded him to be less scrupulous. Unhappily 
 he listened to this advice. And now mark the consequence. 
 "In a short time after/ he says, impressively and instruc 
 tively, " all my real enjoyment in religion, and all my desire 
 to attend the means of grace, was gone." " To what appall 
 ing circumstances," says his biographer, "does one false step 
 give rise. In his case many dark years of open apostasy and 
 extreme irreligion and vice ensued, and innumerable troubles, 
 both temporal and spiritual, all ensued from this single act." 
 A-.d all must be traced up to that fatal advice of a professing 
 Christian. Oh, professors, take hsed what counsel you give, 
 as well as what examples you set r to young converts. 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. <?05 
 
 external states of the church of Christ, lias 
 "been found fatally successful in the case of 
 thousands I mean persecution. 
 
 Persecution has not ceased, and never will 
 as long as society is composed of the righteous 
 and the wicked. The apostle s words will be 
 found to "be quite true: "All that will live 
 godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 
 2 Tim. 3 : 12. The essence of persecution lies 
 in subjecting a person to injury, pain of body 
 or mind, or some inconvenience, on account of 
 his religious opinions or conduct, whether this 
 be done by public unjust laws, or by private 
 ill-treatment. If a person be made the butt of 
 ridicule or scorn by his companions or others 
 for his religion, he is persecuted, and is called 
 tj endure cruel mockings and reproaches. Per 
 haps there is nothing more hard to bear than 
 this no test of steadfastness more severe. A 
 young man who becomes pious, if in a large 
 establishment, is sure to be the object of all 
 kinds of unhallowed mirth and sport, and if 
 amidst all he remains firm, inflexible, and con 
 stant, he is as truly a confessor as he who goes 
 to prison. It is scarcely possible to conceive 
 
206 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 of a harder trial of constancy than this. Many 
 have given way. They could not stand it ; 
 and have escaped the pitiless storm of ridicule 
 by taking shelter in apostasy. And where 
 they have not altogether abandoned their relig 
 ion, have "put the candle under a bushel," ana 
 concealed their opinions and feelings, so that to 
 others they appeared to have given them up. 
 This is as truly denying Christ as open apos 
 tasy ; and is the very case to which he alludes 
 when he says, ""Whosoever shall be ashamed 
 of me and of my words in this adulterous and 
 sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man 
 be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of 
 his Father with his holy angels." Mark 8 : 38. 
 Christ will have no secret disciples. Pie that 
 has faith must confess it before men. Rom. 
 10 : 9-11. In many cases it may be well, where 
 the opposition is too hard to be borne, to quit 
 the situation, though it is a noble instance of 
 moral heroism to endure it bravely, "strong jn 
 the Lord and in the power of his might." 
 
 But there are other cases, in some respects 
 more trying than even this : I mean where a 
 young person, especially a female, becomes 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 207 
 
 decided in spiritual religion in the midst of an 
 ungodly family ; where not one is found to 
 countenance her, and all oppose her. She can 
 not do many things she once did without 
 scruple or hesitation. Some of their amuse 
 ments offend her conscience, and she declines 
 them. She is now considered by her strict 
 ness as condemning all the rest, and is re 
 proached as an accuser and reprover of the 
 family, not excepting her parents. She is 
 charged with being a divider of the household, 
 and as having introduced discord and strife. 
 It is a most trying situation for the object of 
 persecution to endure the anger and meet the 
 frowns of father and mother, brothers and 
 sisters to be considered and reproached as the 
 disturber of the peace of a once happy and 
 united family : what firmness of principle, what 
 inflexibility of purpose, what martyr-like con 
 stancy, what a power of divine grace does this 
 require. 
 
 And even where the opposition is not so fierce 
 as in either of these cases, it may be so consid 
 erable as to be a great trial of constancy and a 
 powerful hinclerance to progress. There may 
 
208 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 be the threatened withdrawment of patronage, 
 favor, friendship, or custom ; and the mild ex 
 postulation and the gentle entreaty, which are 
 a persecution of love. How difficult to put 
 aside all this and go on. Instead of this, many 
 are themselves turned aside and go back. Their 
 courage fails, their love of ease gains the as 
 cendency, and they surrender their convictions 
 their hopes, their prospects in short, their 
 religion. 
 
 Let those who are thus tempted consider the 
 consequences of giving up their profession. Let 
 them read with solemn awe the passages of 
 Scripture already quoted. Foj their encour 
 agement, let them take up their Bibles and read 
 our Lord s w r ords in his sermon on the mount, 
 Mat. 5 : 10-18. Let them also peruse the beau 
 tiful language of the apostle, 1 Pet. 2 : 19-24 ; 
 4 : 12-19 ; 2 Tim. 2 : 11-13 ; Heb. 12 : 1-13. 
 Let them wrestle with God for his grace to 
 assist them, and cast themselves upon his prom 
 ised aid, expecting that he will uphold them. 
 It should be accounted by them an honor and 
 a glory to suffer for Christ. They should bear 
 all with patience, meekness, and forgiveness. 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROG-RESS. 209 
 
 A. quiet and gentle sufferer will in most cases 
 subdue even the hard-hearted oppressor. There 
 is a wondrous power in consistent and unvary 
 ing meekness. Let not opposition then hinder 
 you. Let your courage rise with your circum 
 stances, your self-denial keep pace with both, 
 and your humility and sense of dependence 
 upon Grod deepen with the pressure of opposi 
 tion upon your strength. 
 
 9. A taste for worldly amusements will 
 inevitably prove, wherever it is indulged, a 
 powerful obstacle to growth in grace. Man is 
 unquestionably made for enjoyment. He has 
 a capacity for bliss, an instinctive appetite for 
 gratification, and for this (rod has made ample 
 provision of a healthful and lawful kind. " A 
 taste for pleasure" means something different 
 from this ; or at any rate, it means this directed 
 to wrong sources, or carried to an excess. Now 
 there are some amusements which in their very 
 nature are so utterly incompatible with true 
 religion, that a liking for them and a hanker 
 ing after them, and especially an indulgence in 
 them, cannot comport with real, earnest, and 
 serious piety. The convivial parties of the glut- 
 
 Chr. Prog. I 4 
 
210 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 ton and the drunkard, the passion for tho 
 gambling-table, the pleasures of the race 
 course, and the performances of the theatre, 
 are all of this kind. A taste for them is utterly 
 uncongenial with a spirit of godliness. So is a 
 love for the gay and fashionable entertainments 
 of the hall-room, and the routs and parties of 
 genteel life. These are all unfriendly to re 
 ligion, and are usually renounced by persons 
 intent upon the momentous concerns of eternity. 
 A love for them dies out from the soul agitated 
 and made anxious by the great question, " "What 
 shall I do to be saved ?" "We would not doom 
 to perdition all who are at any time found in 
 this round of worldly pleasure ; but we un 
 hesitatingly say, that a taste for them is entire 
 ly opposed to the whole genius of Christianity. 
 They are all included in that "world" which 
 is overcome by faith and the new birth. Re 
 ligion is, though a happy, a very serious thing, 
 and can no more live and flourish in the heated 
 atmosphere of those parties, than could a plant 
 brought from the frigid or temperate zone under 
 the burning rays of a tropical sun. But in this 
 pleasure-loving, pleasure-seeking, and pleasure- 
 
HINDERAHCES TO PP,OG-RESS. 211 
 
 inventing age, there is a great variety of amuse 
 ments perpetually rising up -which it would be 
 impossible to say are sinful, and therefore un 
 lawful. Yet the supposition of their lawfulness 
 viewed in connection with their abundance, 
 variety, and constant repetition, is the very 
 thing that makes them dangerous to the spirit 
 of true religion. A taste for even lawful world 
 ly amusements, which leads its possessor to be 
 fond of them, seeking them, and longing for 
 them, shows a mind that is in a very doubtful 
 state as to vital piety. It looks as if he had 
 not yet entered into the Saviour s words to the 
 woman of Samaria, " Whosoever drinketh of 
 this water shall thirst again : but whosoever 
 drinketh of the water that I shall give him, 
 shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall 
 give him shall be in him a well of water, spring 
 ing up into everlasting life." John 4 : 13, 14. 
 Now this thirsting after worldly pleasure of 
 any kind would seem as if the subject of it had 
 not yet drank of the living water from the well 
 of salvation. This anxiety after even innocent 
 re or Idly gratification seems to indicate that 
 the peace which passeth all understanding had 
 
212 CHRISTIAN PK.OG-UESS. 
 
 not yet taken possession of the soul ; and this 
 inquiry, " Who will show us any good ?" hard 
 ly comports with a mind that had said to Grod, 
 " Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance 
 upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, 
 more than in the time that their corn and their 
 wine increased." Psalm 4:6, 7. 
 
 I do not like to be asked, as I sometimes am, 
 the question, "whether such and such amuse 
 ments are compatible with religion." That is, 
 I do not like it when it evidently proceeds from 
 a prevailing wish to enjoy them, and a desire 
 to get ministerial sanction for indulging in 
 them. It ought not to be necessary to prove 
 that many of these are unlawful, they should 
 be found unnecessary.* 
 
 * I am aware that it is sometimes pleaded on behalf of 
 worldly amusements by young people, that abstinence from 
 them represents piety as clothed with austerity, and as a spe 
 cies of penance, and that religious people should go as far as 
 they can in these things to disprove the calumny. There is 
 something perhaps in this, but it requires to be very narrowly 
 watched; for, without caution, see how far it would carry 
 us. They who indulge in pleasures which no religious person 
 could ever engage in, may say that all persons must have a 
 very melancholy religion who debar themselves of their pleas 
 ures. So that an excessive repugnance to all amusements, 
 and the repugnance may, I concede, be excessive and almost 
 
HINDERANCES TO PROGRESS. 215 
 
 After all, it is freely admitted that religion 
 is not hostile to any thing which is not hostile 
 to it ; that many things which are not religion, 
 though not opposed to it, may be lawfully en 
 joyed by the Christian ; that what he has to 
 do in this matter is, not to practise total absti 
 nence, but moderation : yet he should remem 
 ber how elastic a term " moderation" is, and to 
 be vigilant lest his moderation should contin 
 ually increase its latitude till it has swelled 
 into the imperial tyranny of an appetite which 
 acknowledges no authority, and submits to no 
 restraint. 
 
 ridiculous, should not be so beaten down as to make way for 
 a latitude which would be dangerous to personal godliness. 
 A Christian is not to partake of the pleasures of the world to 
 prove that his religion does not debar him from enjoyment; 
 but he is to let it be seen by his "peace that passeth under 
 standing," and his "joy unspeakable and full of glory," that 
 his religion gives far more enjoyment than it takes away 
 that in fact it gives him the truest happiness. The way to 
 win a worldly person to religion is not to go and partake of 
 his amusements, but to prove to him that we are happier 
 with our pleasures than he is with his ; that we bask in sun 
 shine, while he has only a smoking taper ; that we have found 
 the "river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from 
 the throne of God and the Lamb," while he is drinking of tha 
 muddy streams which issue from the earth. 
 
214 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE READER. 
 
 If in an important mission, journey, or under 
 taking of any kind, you were impeded in refer 
 ence to the object contemplated, you would in 
 quisitively and anxiously search for the cause 
 of delay, and never rest satisfied till you had 
 found and removed it. I am now supposing 
 there is a hinderance of one or more kinds to 
 your progress towards heaven, to your increase 
 of faith and holiness. There are stones in the 
 way to be gathered out. It is a fearful idea to 
 think of hinderances to heaven, impediments to 
 holiness. If there were any thing that hinder 
 ed your health, or prosperity in business, or the 
 success of any earthly scheme whatever, how 
 earnestly you would ask the question, " What 
 is it ; what is it ?" How thankful you would 
 be to the friend who pointed it out, and how 
 diligently you would set to work to take it out 
 of the way. "Well, there are impediments in 
 your way to Zion. You are hindered. You 
 do not perhaps make progress. How is this ? 
 I say to you what the apostle did to the Grala- 
 tians, " Who did hinder you ?" or what ? Look 
 
HINDERANCE3 TO .PROGRESS. 215 
 
 back througli this chapter ; take up every par 
 ticular ; say of each, Is it this, or this, that 
 stops my progress ? I ask you, and I implore 
 you to ask yourself, 
 
 Is it indifference to the subject ? 
 
 Is it the unsubdued corruption of your na 
 ture, left to itself, unresisted, unmortified ? 
 
 Is it an easily besetting sin ? 
 
 Is it one of the mistakes mentioned in the 
 last chapter ? 
 
 Is it the peculiarity of your situation being 
 unfriendly to a life of piety ? 
 
 Is it unsuitable companionship ? 
 
 Is it the inconsistencies of professing Chris 
 tians ? 
 
 Is it a taste for worldly amusements ? 
 
 Is it persecution ? 
 
 Examine, I beseech you, examine what it 
 is that arrests you in your course, and take it 
 away. Again I say, " Gather out the stones." 
 
216 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 
 
 IT might be supposed it would be its own 
 motive. "Who need to be admonished to pro 
 ceed in a course on which they have entered, 
 which leads to wealth ? Do the men who have 
 gone to the gold fields, and who have begun 
 to find the precious metal, need to be stimulated 
 to go forward ? And yet we do find that even 
 in relation to some earthly objects of pursuit, 
 and valuable ones too, where self-denial, sacri 
 fice, and surrender of present gratification for 
 future benefit is required, much persuasion is 
 sometimes necessary to keep the person in con 
 tinuous exertion for the attainment of the de 
 sired good. If he has lost his health by excess 
 in the indulgence of appetite, either in the way 
 of eating, drinking, or any other lust of the 
 flesh, and by medicine and moderate diet, and 
 other restraints, he is beginning to recover, how 
 necessary in some cases is perpetual exhorta 
 tion, to induce him to refrain from excess, and 
 
 
MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 217 
 
 to persevere in the denial of his appetite. How 
 earnest we must be in setting before him all 
 the motives which ought to have weight with 
 him in leading him to abstain from whatever 
 is injurious to his health. So is it in religion. 
 A person just commencing his attention to this 
 momentous concern has so many hinderances 
 both from within and without to stop his prog 
 ress, that he needs to be urged forward by the 
 voice of affectionate entreaty. He must be 
 appealed to by all that can be brought to bear 
 upon his judgment, heart, and conscience. He 
 is like a man just awaking out of a deep and 
 heavy slumber, about whom the drowsiness still 
 hangs, and who is strongly inclined to fall back 
 again upon his pillow and relapse into stupor. 
 You must speak loudly to him, and even shake 
 him with some degree of violence, and compel 
 him to rouse himself and keep himself awake. 
 Such is really the condition of a recently awak 
 ened sinner. I now therefore present the 
 motives which apply to his case for making 
 progress. 
 
 1. And the first I bring forward is the jne 
 just suggested, the danger of declension. I 
 
218 CHRISTIAN PROCURESS. 
 
 may even add to this the proneness to declen 
 sion. The progress of the sinner is like that 
 of a stone rolling down hill, which has a con 
 tinual tendency to go of itself, and by every 
 revolution to increase its speed and momen 
 tum : that of a believer is the progress of a 
 stone up hill, which has not only a considerable 
 vis inert-ice to be overcome by great effort, but 
 which when this effort is suspended tends to 
 roll back again. The stone in either case does 
 not, cannot stand still, but by the laws of mat 
 ter and motion must keep going backward, 
 unless prevented by actual effort. This is im 
 pressive, and deserves very serious considera 
 tion. If the young disciple does not advance, 
 he will in all probability retrograde. 
 
 Declension after we have once made a pro 
 fession, or have been awakened to solicitude, 
 is really a very fearful thing. It is most af 
 fecting and alarming to see a person once deeply 
 convinced of sin, seriously anxious about sal 
 vation, professedly obtaining peace through 
 faith in Christ and commencing a course of 
 practical godliness, either falling again into sin 
 or sinking into predominant worldliness. Has 
 
MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 219 
 
 not this sad spectacle been often witnessed ? 
 Have we not seen this in persons who at one 
 time seemed to have such love to Christ that 
 it might have been fitly called the love of their 
 espousals ? They scarcely wished for any other 
 pleasure than that which was enjoyed in com 
 munion with himself and with his saints ; his 
 name was as ointment poured forth, and they 
 loved his very image. The exercises of private 
 prayer, the perusal of the holy Scriptures, and 
 the public ordinances of the sanctuary were 
 waited for with eager expectation. The com 
 pany of those only who were like-minded was 
 selected, and the promotion of the cause of (rod 
 was the enterprise which most interested them. 
 They had often made solemn resolutions before 
 the Lord, and had often said, " Thy vows, O 
 God, are upon me." And what, and where 
 were they afterwards ? Alas, how changed ! 
 All their former resolutions were broken, and 
 all their habits changed. Their first love sub 
 sided into lukewarmness, and at last into ab 
 solute coldness and indifference. Prayer was 
 restrained ; public worship neglected ; the Bible 
 never opened ; the company of the saints for- 
 
220 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 saken ; the love of pleasure gained the ascen 
 dency ; and in some cases, open sins that had 
 teen forsaken, were again practised. The poor 
 backslider himself sometimes has conscience 
 enough left to be made miserable by its 
 reproaches and stings; while they who had 
 known him in his better days lament over 
 his change, and exclaim in bitterness of heart, 
 " Alas, how fallen !" The sins of such a person 
 have peculiar aggravations. They are com 
 mitted after the most solemn vows and engage 
 ments, and against clearer light. They are 
 without any provocation on the part of G-od. 
 "What iniquity," said God to the Jews, "have 
 your fathers found in me, that they are gone 
 far from me ?" Jer. 2:5. A question which 
 is addressed also to every backslider, and which 
 ought to cut him to the very soul, and stir 
 every spring of sensibility and self- abhorrence. 
 Did the backslider find him a hard Master ? 
 Was the way of obedience a rugged path, 
 through a barren wilderness and a land of 
 drought ? Sins after profession are attended 
 with circumstances of peculiar and horrid in 
 gratitude. After G-od has poured out upon us 
 
MOTIVES TO PROaRESS. 221 
 
 his Spirit, taken us by the hand, and led us to 
 repentance and the beginning of a religious 
 course, then to turn away from him, and refuse 
 any longer to be under his guidance, how base 
 ly thankless is all this ! Such departures from 
 (rod are expressive of the most extreme and 
 singular folly as well as wickedness. They 
 who commit them, once professed to be happy 
 in serving the Lord. They seemed to have 
 found rest in Christ. They were no longer run 
 ning up and down in the world, saying, ""Who 
 will show us any good ?" but had found happi 
 ness in religion. Their judgment was convinc 
 ed ; their heart was satisfied ; their conscience 
 was quiet ; their whole soul was at peace. But 
 now, by turning back again to sin or to the 
 world, they cast all this away. And they can 
 not now enjoy the pleasures of sin or the world 
 as they once did. They sometimes feel that 
 they have made a foolish bargain, and have 
 exchanged liberty for drudgery and slavery, 
 peace of conscience for bitter remorse, joyful- 
 ness of heart for sorrow and anguish. It is a 
 being weary of the government of the Prince of 
 peace, whose yoke is easy and whose burden 
 
222 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 is light, and putting their necks under the 
 iron yoke of Satan, which crushes them to 
 destruction. 
 
 Such conduct also causes the ways of godli 
 ness to be spoken ill of. It has the same effect 
 upon many as the ill report of the spies who 
 were sent to survey the land of Canaan, which 
 discouraged the people, caused them to mur 
 mur and rebel, and was the occasion of their 
 perishing in the wilderness. The backslider 
 thus perpetrates a double mischief, his conduct 
 is infectious and tends to corrupt those who 
 already believe, while it discourages those who 
 do not. It says to them, " I have tried the 
 paths of wisdom, and do not find her paths as 
 I was told and expected, to be paths of pleasant 
 ness and peace." This is a fearful contradic 
 tion of Grod s word, an awful calumny upon 
 religion, and in effect an impious blasphemy 
 against Grod. Such is the sin of declension 
 and backsliding ; and if it go on to apostasy, 
 then how fearful ! Read what the apostle has 
 said on this subject, Heb. 6 : 5-9. Let every 
 young disciple turn to the passage, read the 
 words, and tremble. And no less solemn is 
 
MOTIVES TO PHOORESS. 223 
 
 the language of the apostle Peter, 2 Peter, 
 2 : 21-22. 
 
 It is not only possible, but probable, that 
 some who shall read this work, will be found 
 by it in various stages of declension already ; 
 some who have consciousness enough of their 
 situation and even occasional regret enough to 
 borrow the poet s lament : 
 
 " Where is the blessedness I knew 
 
 When first I saw the Lord ; 
 Where is the soul -refreshing view 
 
 Of Jesus and his word ? 
 " What peaceful hours I once enjoyed, 
 
 How sweet their memory still ; 
 But they have left an aching void 
 The world can never fill." 
 
 To such I would say, instantly take alarm and 
 tremble at your danger. Let the words of God 
 sound like thunder in your ears, " If any man 
 draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in 
 him." He will be a man whom God ceases 
 to regard with approbation. His displeasure, 
 instead of his complacency, rests upon him. 
 He marks every footstep backward with re 
 proach and disgust. Can you bear to think of 
 this? " Can your heart endure and your hands 
 be strong" in such a situation? Perhaps the 
 
224 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 declension is yet slight, only like a speck of 
 disease, like the beginning of consumption, 
 curable if taken in time, but fatal if suffered to 
 go on to after-stages. But in whatever degree 
 the declension may have taken place, it should 
 excite solicitude and lead to immediate efforts 
 for recovery. The counsel delivered by our 
 Lord to the church at Ephesus should be 
 hearkened to with solemnity, and followed with 
 out delay : " Remember from whence thou art 
 fallen, and repent and do thy first works." It 
 is not enough to know that you are declining, 
 nor merely to lament it ; complaining alone 
 will not effect a cure. We may sigh and go 
 backward to the last period of our lives. Our 
 chief solicitude must be to recover lost ground. 
 In order to this, there must be deep contrition 
 and profound humiliation before God. In such 
 a state we must begin as we did originally, 
 with conviction of sin. The backslider must 
 return through the valley of humiliation. There 
 is no other way back for the wanderer. It 
 will be well to inquire diligently after the cause 
 of the declension. "What was it that led you 
 astray? Here begin in the way of return. 
 
MOTIVES TO PUOG-RESS. 225 
 
 The point where you left the road is of course 
 the point at which you must return to it. If 
 it were a sin of neglect, instantly take up the 
 omitted duty. If it were a sin of practice, 
 immediately put it away. It will perhaps be 
 somewhat difficult to recover your standing ; 
 for as we have said, declension is a down-hill 
 progress, but the way of return is all up hill. 
 You will perhaps be ashamed, afraid, and 
 somewhat reluctant to go back. He who un 
 gratefully and ungenerously quits a friend, feels 
 some shyness and backwardness to return, and 
 say, " I have sinned ; forgive me." So is it 
 with the backslider towards God. But mark 
 his love, where, even to backsliding Israel, who 
 had so often gone away from him, he said, 
 " Israel, return unto the Lord thy God ; for 
 thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with 
 you words, and turn to the Lord : say unto 
 him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us 
 graciously : so will we render the cialves," offer 
 ings, "of our lips. I will heal their backsliding, 
 I will love them freely ; for mine anger is 
 turned away from him." Hosea 14 : 1, 2, 4. 
 And to convince you how ready Grod is to re 
 cur. Prog. ] 5 
 
226 CHRISTIAN PE.OaE.ESS. 
 
 ceive you, let me refer you to that wonderfully 
 pathetic passage, where (rod is represented as 
 a loving father, overhearing the confession and 
 lamentation of his penitent child, and lavishing 
 upon him the fondness of his paternal heart, 
 Jer. 31 : 18-20. "What heart can stand out 
 against the melting pathos of this wonderful 
 passage ? What backslider need now fear to 
 return to the Lord ? 
 
 2. It should "be most impressively felt that 
 progression is commanded and expected by God. 
 We now refer you back to the commands which 
 are given in the second chapter ; and would 
 especially fix your attention on those which 
 enjoin you to seek after perfection. This is a 
 subject which a young Christian should thor 
 oughly understand, but which few do either 
 understand or consider. Misconceptions on 
 this subject are fatal to growth. The verb, 
 " be perfect," and the noun, " perfection," are 
 of such frequent occurrence in the New Testa 
 ment, that the subject to which they refer 
 ought to engage the close and serious attention 
 of every professing Christian. There can be 
 no doubt that these terms are sometimes em- 
 
MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 227 
 
 ployed by the sacred writers in a comparative 
 sense, as signifying high degrees, eminence, 
 completeness of parts. In Hebrews 6 : 1, per 
 fection signifies the more sublime, enlarged, 
 spiritual, and complete views of Christian doc 
 trine, as opposed to first principles. In 1 Cor. 
 2:6, Phil. 3:15, "to be perfect," means to 
 be far advanced in knowledge. But there are 
 other places where it is unquestionably to be 
 understood in its unqualified sense, as intending 
 absolute and sinless perfection ; such are 2 Cor. 
 7:1: " Having therefore these promises, dearly 
 beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthi- 
 ness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness 
 in the fear of God." So again, Heb. 13 : 21, 
 " Make you perfect in every good work." 
 There can be no doubt that in these passages 
 the apostle means entire freedom from sin, an 
 absolutely spotless holiness. 
 
 " The apostle does not say," to quote the 
 comment of Barnes, "that this perfection has 
 ever been attained, or is attainable, in this 
 world ; nor does he say that it has not been. 
 He only urges the obligation to make an effort 
 to be entirely holy ; jjrid this obligation is not 
 
228 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 affected by llie inquiry whether any one has 
 beenj or has not been, perfect. It is an obliga 
 tion which results from the nature of the law 
 of God, and his unchangeable claims upon the 
 soul. The fact that no one has been perfect, 
 does not relax the claim ; the fact that no one 
 will be perfect in this life, does not weaken 
 the obligation ; it proves only the deep and 
 dreadful depravity of the human heart, and 
 should humble us under the stubbornness of 
 guilt. The obligation to be perfect is one that 
 is eternal and unchangeable. The unceasing 
 and steady aim of every Christian should be 
 perfection, perfection in all things in the 
 love of G-od, of Christ, of man ; perfection of 
 feeling, words, and plans, and dealings with 
 man; perfection in prayers and submission to 
 the will of God. No man can be a Christian 
 w r ho does not sincerely desire it, and who does 
 not constantly aim at it. No man is a friend 
 of God who can acquiesce in a state of sin, 
 and who is satisfied and contented that he is 
 not as holy as God is holy. And any man who 
 has no desire to be perfect as God is, and who 
 does not make it his daily study and constant 
 
MOTIVES TO PKOG-E.ESS. 229 
 
 aim to be perfect as Grod is perfect, may set it 
 down as demonstratively certain that he has no 
 true religion. How can a man ho a Christian 
 who is willing to acquiesce in a state of sin, 
 and who does not desire to he just like his 
 Master and Lord ?" 
 
 This is strong and impressive language, and 
 requires the very devout, serious, and solemn 
 consideration of all who are beginning the 
 divine life, as showing them what is to be their 
 aim, their study, and their endeavor even to 
 be perfect in every good work. Young con 
 verts see no perfection in others ; they hear it 
 said by Christians there is no perfection ; they 
 feel none in themselves ; and therefore never 
 dream that it is their duty to seek after it ; 
 and thus reconciling themselves to all kinds 
 and degrees of imperfections, begin and con 
 tinue with a very low state of religion. I 
 believe that infinite mischief is done to the 
 souls of men, that the profession of godliness 
 is much disparaged and dishonored, and the 
 lustre of the church dimmed, by a prevalent 
 forgetfulness, and in some quarters a denial, 
 that it is our duty to go on unto perfection, 
 
230 CHRISTIAN PROQRESS. 
 
 Many are tolerating all kinds and degrees of 
 imperfection, under the plea that none are 
 absolutely perfect. Young disciples have teen 
 taught as one of their first lessons in theology, 
 that as absolute perfection is not attained in 
 this life, it is useless to seek after it, and that 
 they may be very good Christians, even while 
 not only possessing but indulging many known 
 corruptions. I would not for the world be 
 misunderstood ; I would not break the bruised 
 reed, nor quench the smoking flax. I would 
 not say any thing to cast a stumbling-block in 
 the way of the feeblest lamb in all the flock of 
 Christ ; and yet I would be equally solicitous 
 to guard them against self-deception. "What I 
 say then, is this, not that all imperfections are 
 evidence of an unconverted state, but that the 
 intentional indulgence of them, knowing them 
 to be such, under the notion that a great 
 amount of imperfection is compatible with a 
 state of grace, is so. Not that the possession 
 of perfection is essential as an evidence of sin 
 cerity, but a desire and pursuit after it. 
 
 3. Progress is a bright evidence of sincerity. 
 Growth, as we have already remarked, is the 
 
MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 231 
 
 proof of life. Dead things do not grow. There 
 are few minds among professors of religion in 
 which the question does not, and none in which 
 it ought not, with deep anxiety, sometimes to 
 arise, " Am I, or am I not, a child of (rod ?" 
 
 Now, surely the transition from death to life ; 
 the change from an unregenerate to a converted 
 state ; the ceasing to be an enemy to (rod by 
 wicked works, and becoming his child by filial 
 love and obedience, cannot be a change of so 
 trivial, superficial, and undistinguishable a 
 nature as not to be ascertained without great 
 difficulty. It might be supposed to be easily 
 recognized where it really exists. True it is, 
 that the change is in some cases more marked 
 than in others. Where the conversion is sudden, 
 and is a turning from actual vice, or awful 
 infidelity, or even from flagrant heresy, it is 
 more apparent, and more easily determined by 
 consciousness, than where it is the gradual 
 formation of religious character in persons pre 
 viously correct in their general conduct, and 
 brought up under religious instruction. It is 
 in these latter cases, that doubts and fears 
 about sincerity must be expected more fre- 
 
232 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 quently and painfully to occur. It is, there 
 fore, in these cases that progress is indispensable 
 as an evidence of sincerity. For it must be 
 recollected, that even in these, growth is as 
 essential to life as in the others. Grace never 
 finds in nature a subject for which there is 
 need of little to be done. There may be very 
 beautiful wild flowers blooming, or very good 
 fruits growing in the wilderness, yet even these 
 can be carried on to much higher beauty and 
 much richer flavor by the culture of the 
 greenhouse and the hothouse. "When tho 
 young disciple can say, " True, I have not to 
 compare, as the effect of Grod s converting 
 grace, a virtuous with a vicious life. I have 
 not to contrast a present pious belief with a 
 former blaspheming infidelity. But I find an 
 increasing loosening from many of my former 
 tastes. The love of worldly pleasure, which 
 even at my commencement of a religious life 
 was strong in me, is evidently weakened, and 
 I find piety more and more the source of my 
 happiness. If a growing conscientiousness to 
 avoid little sins, and to practise small duties, 
 be a proof of sincerity, I rejoice to say I have 
 
MOTIVES TO PROaRESS. 233 
 
 this. As regards besetting sins, I have reason 
 to believe these are far more mortified than 
 they were, and temptations to them have less 
 power over me. My temper, once so irritable 
 and impetuous, is subdued ; and I find it more 
 easy to govern my tongue. My prejudices 
 towards those who differ from me in religious 
 opinions have been softened by the influence of 
 Christian charity. If these things be evidence 
 of sincerity, I am no self-deceiver ; for I can 
 certainly perceive in myself these marks of 
 progress." 
 
 Here I will present a passage of holy Scrip 
 ture, which it is of importance every young 
 disciple should " read, mark, learn, and inward 
 ly digest." The apostle Peter thus exhorts: 
 " Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence 
 to make your calling and election sure." 2 Pe 
 ter, 1 : 10. The things to be made sure are 
 our " calling and election," G-od s choice of us, 
 manifested by his converting us ; in other 
 words, our spiritual character and spiritual 
 safety. To make this sure, or certain, cannot 
 have reference to Grod, for no act of ours can 
 make more certain any thing he does. Nor can 
 
234 CHRISTIAN PP,OG-RESS. 
 
 it refer to the things themselves, for if a man 
 be really chosen and called of G-od, nothing 
 that he can do can make these more certain. 
 It must therefore refer to ourselves. God treats 
 us as rational and moral agents, and what may 
 be absolutely certain in his mind from his mere 
 purpose that it shall be so, is to be proved to 
 us only by evidence and the free exercise of 
 our own powers. The meaning therefore of 
 this passage is, that we are to obtain evidence 
 that this is our condition. And how are we to 
 obtain it ? The celebrated Cud worth, in his 
 sermon on the text, " Hereby do we know that 
 we know him, if we keep his commandments," 
 has the following remarks upon the passage 
 from St. Peter which I am now considering: 
 " He that builds all his comfort upon an un 
 grounded persuasion that G-od from all eternity 
 hath loved him, and absolutely decreed him to 
 life and happiness, and seeketh not for God 
 really dwelling in his soul, builds his house 
 upon a quicksand, and it shall suddenly sink 
 and be swallowed up. "We are nowhere com 
 manded to pry into these secrets, but the 
 wholesome counsel and advice given us is this, 
 
MOTIVES TO PROG-RESS. 235 
 
 1 to make our calling and election sure? We 
 have no warrant in Scripture to peep into these 
 hidden rolls and volumes of eternity, and to 
 make it the first thing we do, when we come 
 to Christ, to spell out our names in the stars, 
 and to persuade ourselves that we are certainly 
 elected to everlasting happiness, before we see 
 the image of God in righteousness and true 
 holiness shaped in our hearts. God s everlast 
 ing decree is too dazzling and bright an object 
 for us at first to set our eyes upon. It is far 
 easier and safer for us to look upon the rays of 
 his goodness and holiness, as they are reflected 
 in our hearts, and there to read the mild and 
 gentle characters of God s love to us, in our 
 love to him, and our hearty compliance with 
 Heaven s will ; as it is safer for us, if we would 
 S38 the sun, to look upon it here below in a 
 pail of water, than to cast up our daring eyes 
 to the body of the sun itself which is too radi 
 ant and scorching for us. The best assurance 
 any one can have of his interest in God, is 
 doubtless the conformity of his soul to Him. 
 When our heart is once turned into a conformity 
 with the mind of God, when we feel our will 
 
236 CHRISTIAN PROaRESS. 
 
 conformed to his will, we shall then presently 
 perceive a spirit of adoption within ourselves, 
 teaching us to say, Abba, Father. We shall 
 not then care for peeping into those hidden rec 
 ords of eternity, to see whether our names are 
 written there in golden characters ; no, we shall 
 find a copy of God s thoughts concerning us 
 written in our own breasts. There we may 
 read the character of his favor towards us 
 there we may feel an inward sense of his love 
 to us, flowing out of our hearty and unfeigned 
 love to him. And we shall be more undoubt 
 edly persuaded of it, than if any of those wing 
 ed watchers above, that are prying into heaven s 
 secrets, should come and tell us that they saw 
 our names enrolled in those volumes of eternity." 
 4. Progress is its own reward. From what 
 infelicity is the advancing Christian protected. 
 He has not the unhappiness which in many, if 
 not in most cases, declension brings upon its 
 subject. But as pain is still a sign of life, 
 though a suffering one, even this is better than 
 the insensibility of death. In the case jus 4 
 mentioned, the individual still retains sorn* 
 considerable tenderness of conscience, some re- 
 
MOTIVES TO PR,OOB.ESS. 237 
 
 ligious sensibility, without being supposed to be 
 hankering after the amusements of the world ; 
 but I am now speaking of those who are almost 
 entirely dead to religious feeling and strongly 
 inclined to gayety, yet in some measure held in 
 check by the last lingering remains of religion. 
 They are still professors, but find their profes 
 sion only a clog and a hinderance to their 
 pleasures. They see its inconsistency with 
 their tastes and occasional enjoyments, and 
 find it as a drop of bitter in their cup of gratifi 
 cation. Sometimes they wish they had never 
 made a profession of religion. They are morose 
 and ill-tempered with themselves for ever think 
 ing of being a Christian, and till they are led 
 to abandon it altogether, which at length they 
 are brought to do, they are checked by it, much 
 to their annoyance, in their course. This is a 
 wretched state of mind ; it spoils its possessor 
 both for the world and for religion. 
 
 But these are only the negative side of the 
 pleasure of growth ; we turn therefore to the 
 positive. And here we would remark, that 
 progress in any thing on which we have set our 
 hearts, is always agreeable; and this applies 
 
238 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 especially to religion. Viewed in its true na 
 ture, it unites the highest dignity with the 
 purest pleasure. Her ways are ways not only 
 of pleasure and paths of peace, but of honor 
 and renown. Can any thing he loftier, nobler, 
 sublimer, than a growing conformity to the 
 image of God ; to see a stronger and a stronger 
 resemblance to God in our soul ; to behold 
 the moral attributes of the divine nature fixed 
 with a deeper and a deeper coloring on the 
 character ? What to this is the pleasure of the 
 artist in seeing the correct likeness of some 
 great monarch, or some wonderful genius, grow 
 ing under his hand upon the canvas ? How 
 exalted is the pleasure of religion ; it is the bliss 
 of angels, the happiness of spirits made perfect, 
 yea, the joy of God s own heart. It is enjoyed 
 under the smile of conscience, and conscience 
 is undoubtedly the great repository and maga 
 zine of all those pleasures that can afford any 
 solid refreshment to the soul. "When this is 
 calm, serene, and smiling, then the man per 
 fectly enjoys all things, and what is more, him 
 self, for that he must do before he can enjoy 
 any thing else. It is a pleasure that never 
 
MOTIVES TO PRUORESS. 239 
 
 satiates nor wearies. Can the lover of worldly 
 pleasure say this ? With him how short is the 
 interval between a pleasure and a burden. 
 
 But we may descend to a few details. How 
 delightful is it to grow in knowledge. "With 
 what a passion for this are some minds possess 
 ed. And if such be the value of secular know 
 ledge, how much greater the worth of that 
 which is divine. Can any thing be more de 
 lightful, than to be ever finding out some new 
 meanings, some fresh beauties in the word of 
 (rod ; for the spiritual astronomer to discover 
 some new star in the firmament of inspiration ; 
 or for the spiritual botanist to light on some 
 new flower in the fields of revelation ? 
 
 But take also the trio of graces set forth by 
 the apostle FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY ; and here 
 again we say, to grow in each and all of these 
 is to advance in happiness. FAITH is the first 
 source of all true joy to the Christian. " In 
 whom believing," says the apostle, " we re 
 joice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 
 Faith looks abroad upon the whole field of 
 revelation, in all of whose facts, doctrines, pre 
 cepts, invitations, and promises, it finds so 
 
240 CHRISTIAN PROG-BESS. 
 
 many separate objects of delight. But it con 
 centrates its attention on Christ and heaven. 
 It looks with wonder, gratitude, and love, on 
 the cross, and then passes on with similar 
 feelings to the crown of glory. To grow in 
 faith is therefore to grow in bliss ; and to put 
 up the prayer, " Lord, increase our faith," is 
 only in other words to say, " Lord, increase 
 our happiness." Here we see the reason why 
 so many professing Christians go mourning all 
 their days their faith is so weak ; and it is of 
 momentous consequence for every young Chris 
 tian at his very outset in the divine life to 
 understand that faith is the branch, of which 
 joy is the blossom, and holiness the fruit. 
 Much the same strain of remark may be made 
 in reference to HOPE. It is easy to see that all 
 hope must be pleasant from its very nature. 
 This is the case with even worldly expecta 
 tions. Poets have sung "the pleasures of 
 hope," and experience has justified and echoed 
 the strain. The apostle in describing the 
 Christian state of mind in reference to this 
 object, speaks of it as "rejoicing in hope," 
 Romans 12 : 12, which is but a repetition of 
 
MOTIVES TO PllOaRESS. 241 
 
 what he had said before, " And rejoice in hope 
 of the glory of God." Rom. 5 : 2. 
 
 CHARITY, or LOVE, is another of the compo 
 nent parts of religion mentioned by the apostle, 
 to advance in which is to advance in happiness. 
 GOD is LOVE, and he is also the blessed God ; 
 and he is the blessed God, because ho is love. 
 It is impossible it should be otherwise. All 
 the malevolent feelings are productive of misery 
 to the subject of them. For this reason, Satan, 
 whose nature is unmixed malignity, must be 
 the subject of unmixed misery. No happiness 
 can dwell in that bosom from which all benevo 
 lence is expelled ; while no misery can be 
 found in that breast from which all malevolence 
 is cast out. Perfect love casteth out not only 
 fear, but wretchedness. Let any one read the 
 description of love in the epistle to the Corin 
 thians, and say if the grace there described 
 must not contain the very elements of bliss. 
 And is not growth in holiness equally delight 
 ful ? Holiness is our spiritual health, as sin 
 is our disaaso. How beautiful and how well 
 worthy our attention and adoption for ourselves 
 was the prayer of the apostle for Gaius : " Be- 
 
 Chr. Prog. 1 G 
 
242 CHRISTIAN PROaRESS. 
 
 loved, I wish above all things that thou mayest 
 prosper and he in health, even as thy soul 
 prospereth." 3 John, 2. Health, and especially 
 growing health, is one of the most delightful 
 sensations we can experience. To feel the tide 
 of energy flow back to its forsaken channel, 
 and the depressed frame become, amidst the 
 beauties of nature and the breezes of heaven, 
 more and more buoyant, the step more elastic, 
 the appetite more keen, and the power of 
 exertion more vigorous : this is to experi 
 ence in some cases almost a type of the resur 
 rection. But even this does not equal the joy 
 of growing in grace, of returning and increasing 
 spiritual health. 
 
 5. It adds to the credit and redounds to the 
 honor of religion generally. It is given out 
 to the world, and the world knows it, that in 
 crease is one part of the Christian s duty and 
 profession. Our phraseology and the language 
 of Scripture are well known to those who are 
 not pious, and who make no pretensions to be 
 so. They hear us preach and pray and talk 
 about growth in grace ; about our light shining 
 more and more unto the perfect day ; about 
 
MOTIVES TO PROG-RESS. 243 
 
 our running the Christian race, and other 
 matters of a like kind : they very naturally 
 take us at our word, and knowing that all 
 these figures of speech import progress, they 
 look for it, and expect to see it, and are disap 
 pointed if they do not see it ; and when they 
 observe those inconsistencies which prove that 
 we are either not going forward, but ever going 
 back, they taunt us with the sarcasm, " Where 
 is your advancement ?" " Is this your growth ?" 
 " Is it thus you improve ?" In all other mat 
 ters, or most others, they do see it in this 
 world s affairs, and ought to see it in religion. 
 It adds to the credit of any system of medical 
 practice, or of any individual practitioner, when 
 under their treatment the health of the patient 
 is restored ; so also it redounds to the honor of 
 a schoolmaster or a teacher of any kind when 
 his pupils make great and rapid advance in 
 what they are taught ; while on the contrary, 
 it discredits either or both of these, when there 
 is no improvement. And must it not be the 
 same with religion ? Yet, is there no occasion 
 given by the conduct of many for some such 
 reflections on the part of worldly people as 
 
244 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 tliese ? " Every system which, professes to lead 
 onward those who are under it, proves its 
 excellence for this purpose "by its results. And 
 in most we do see a manifest advance in those 
 who place themselves under it. We see boys 
 growing in knowledge at school, apprentices 
 advancing in acquaintance with their business, 
 and young tradesmen becoming more and more 
 clever in secular affairs. It ought, of course, 
 to be so in religion. The people who profess it 
 have the Bible in their own hands ; they go to 
 church every Sunday with great regularity ; 
 they take the sacrament ; and in many other 
 things make great -ado about their religion. 
 Now, with all these means, opportunities, and 
 advantages for personal improvement and 
 spiritual culture, what manner of persons 
 ought they to be ? These people tell us that 
 it is one of their principles to grow in grace. 
 What evident, conspicuous improvement ought 
 therefore to be seen in them. And yet really 
 religion seems to be almost the only thing in 
 which men do not make progress, if we may 
 judge by their conduct. What increase of 
 knowledge may take place in their minds we 
 
MOTIVES TO PROGRESS. 245 
 
 cannot tell, nor how often they pray in their 
 families or in their closets ; but forming our 
 opinions by their outward conduct and visible 
 character, the light of holiness does not shine 
 brighter and brighter before men. We have 
 known some of them many years, and have 
 watched them closely, though not unfairly, 
 much less malignantly, but we must confess 
 we see very little, if any improvement in 
 them. Nay, in some things, they have even 
 gone back, and are worse than they were when 
 they first made a profession of religion." 
 
 Dreadful reproach! Alas, alas, how just in 
 application to some, as well as dreadful ! Let 
 it be the deep solicitude of every one who has 
 the least regard for the honor and credit of the 
 gospel to roll this reproach away, by present 
 ing a character in which all the beauties of 
 holiness shall be continually coming out in 
 bolder and more striking relief. How would 
 it raise not only the gospel, but the church of 
 Christ, in public estimation, if men looked up 
 to it as a school where the pupils were ever 
 studying how to advance in all that can make 
 them acceptable to Grod, and useful to man. 
 
246 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 What reverence would it secure for the minis 
 ter of the gospel} and what respect for his min 
 istrations, i&by<him and by others, it were 
 seen that all who profess to have been convert 
 ed by his preaching, were beheld engaged in 
 an arduous struggle against all that is evil, 
 and continually making attainments in all that 
 is good. 
 
 6. And is it not a powerful motive to grow 
 in grace, to consider that our present attain 
 ments in true religion have a connection with, 
 and will have an influence upon our heaven 
 ly and eternal stale? There is a much closer 
 relation between our present selves in this 
 world, and our future selves in the next, than 
 most persons are aware of. " What a man 
 soweth, that shall he also reap," both in quali 
 ty and quantity. It is not possible to set out 
 in the Christian profession with a more in 
 structive or impressive idea than this life is 
 the seed-time for eternity. It is a common 
 way to think of heaven and hell as if they 
 were two states where all are alike happy in 
 the one, or miserable in the other, whatever 
 may have been their attainments in holiness, 
 
MOTIVES TO 
 
 or their deeds of 
 righteous will be in heaVen, and that all will 
 be perfectly happy there, is quite true. As 
 regards the general sources of heavenly felicity, 
 these will be open alike to all ; but this does 
 not suppose that in many particulars, there 
 will not be an endless variety. We know too 
 little of the future state to specify these mat 
 ters ; we walk by faith. " It doth not yet ap 
 pear what we shall be." There are, no doubt, 
 innumerable sources of delight, and varieties 
 of employment, of which we can now form no 
 more conception than we can of the exercises 
 and pleasures of a sixth sense. There may, 
 and in all probability will be social gradations 
 of rank, diversities of post, place, and service, 
 and higher and lower degrees of honorable dis 
 tinction. For these a proportionate and di 
 versified fitness may be required. One man 
 may be more qualified for some high place and 
 honorable service in the heavenly world than 
 another ; and that which constitutes the quali 
 fication for this higher place may be, not so 
 much great intellectual powers in our earthly 
 state, but more eminent piety. It is not the 
 
 
248 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 man of large yet unsanctified understanding, 
 that is qualified for heaven, hut the man of 
 sanctified heart. It is moral and spiritual excel 
 lence that is the meetness for the inheritance 
 of the saints in light. And whatever may be 
 the measure of his intellectual capacity, he is 
 the most meet for it who is most holy. If this 
 be true, many an eminently holy peasant or 
 artisan, will he higher in glory than the less 
 holy philosopher or scholar ; and many a youth 
 ful Christian cut off in the morning of his days, 
 but carried away in the full blossom of dis 
 tinguished piety, be found more qualified to 
 serve Grod in some high place above, than the 
 aged professor of low and small degrees of 
 personal godliness. Is it to be conceived Grod 
 will deal out as much commendation upon even 
 <in eminent Christian, as upon a martyr or an 
 apostle ? Or to take a more ordinary case, upon 
 the very feeble and too worldly-minded profes 
 sor, who may be after all a sincere Christian, 
 as upon the spiritually-minded, heavenly, self- 
 denying, and consistent one? 
 
 But the sources of our heavenly bliss will 
 not be all from without, but also from within. 
 
MOTIVES TO PROG-RESS. 249 
 
 Even on earth, " a good man is satisfied from 
 himself. 5 He carries, in his holy dispositions, 
 the springs of his own felicity about with him. 
 And so will it he in heaven. It is not only 
 ivhere, and with whom we shall he, hut what 
 we shall he, that will make us happy. And 
 eminent piety here will, in all likelihood, pre 
 pare us for a larger capacity of holiness and 
 happiness there. The holiness and happiness 
 of the least saint hi heaven will he as perfect 
 as that of the highest archangel, or the chief of 
 the apostles ; but the capacity for this per 
 fection may, and must be immeasurably larger 
 in the one case than the other. A tea-cup may 
 be as full to overflowing as a cistern, yet how 
 much greater is the fulness in the one case than 
 in the other. Here then is the connection not 
 only of a state of grace, but of the actings of 
 grace with a state of glory. It is not only that 
 one leads to the other, not only that one pre 
 pares for the other, but that one is proportion 
 ate is the other. It is probable that there i? 
 not one holy act, or motive, or desire, or volition 
 of our whole lives, that has not some bearing 
 upon our eternal character and happiness. God 
 
250 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 deals with us as regards another world, not only 
 according to our state, whether we are righteous 
 or wicked, but according to our actings in that 
 state. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE READER. 
 
 Is your heart susceptible of the power of a 
 motive to any thing ? Is there aught below or 
 above the skies that can move you ? Do you 
 really know what a motive means ? If so, sure 
 ly, surely you must feel the force of these I 
 have now presented. Must not the stone of an 
 unrenewed heart remain in your soul unchanged 
 to flesh, if you are insensible to the power and 
 attractions of these inducements ? If these 
 things fail to impress you and impel you, you 
 would remain stationary and indifferent beneath 
 a voice or a vision from heaven, or a messenger 
 from the burning pit. If these things do not 
 stimulate you, I should despair of the power 
 of an angel s harp or a demon s groan. Are 
 you on reading these pages at all excited to de 
 sire to advance ? Say, does the fire kindle, does 
 the glow diffuse throughout your soul at the 
 idea of what is here presented ? If not, let me 
 
MOTIVES TO PE.OG-HESS. 251 
 
 try again, not by new motives, but by recalling 
 those which are here enumerated. 
 
 Does not the dread of declension, backslid 
 ing, apostasy, terrify you ? 
 
 Shall not the command of God impel you ? 
 
 Will not the hope of gaining a sweet and 
 blessed evidence of sincerity, lead you to seek 
 after progress ? 
 
 Does not the experience you have already 
 had, though it may be in a small degree, of 
 the reward which advancement yields, induce 
 you to go forward ? 
 
 And then what shall be said of the fact that 
 our degrees of grace will regulate our degrees 
 of glory ? Has this no motive power for your 
 soul ? "What, so dull, so earthly, so insensible to 
 the felicities, honors, and distinctions of heaven, 
 as to feel little holy ambition to have some high 
 place there ? 
 
252 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 
 
 THERE is, perhaps, no greater hinder ance on 
 the part of some, than a desponding fear of 
 ever getting forward in the divine life. They 
 see so much in themselves that is imperfect 
 such ignorance, such corruption, such luke- 
 warmness ; so much in their situation and 
 circumstances that is opposed to their advance 
 ment ; so much of stagnancy or declension in 
 others, that seems to render it unlikely that 
 they shall succeed better than their friends and 
 acquaintances ; so much that renders it un 
 necessary, as they suppose, for them ever to 
 wish for it, that they give it up in hopeless 
 depression. " Ah," they say, "it is indeed a 
 desirable thing to grow in grace. Happy are 
 they who can realize so covetable a condition 
 of soul. I often long for it, but it is with the 
 wishes of one who sees the object of his desire 
 
ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 253 
 
 immeasurably above his reach. I sometimes 
 sigh amidst my low attainments in knowledge, 
 faith, joy, and holiness, and pant for better 
 things ; but I end as I began, in desponding 
 lamentations, I seem forbidden to hope for im 
 provement." Forbidden ! By whom ? Cer 
 tainly not by God. Discouraged ! Why ? Let 
 your despondency yield to the following con 
 siderations. 
 
 To those who are really anxious about this 
 matter, the Scripture is full of encouragement. 
 How confident is the language of Job amidst 
 all his sorrows. " The righteous shall hold on 
 his way, and he that hath clean hands shall 
 wax stronger and stronger." Job 17 : 9. Here 
 is not only continuance but progress. " Clean 
 hands" are designed to denote a holy life. 
 
 Among the ancients they were regarded as 
 
 / 
 
 indicative of purity of heart. Porphyry re 
 marks that in the heathen " mysteries," those 
 who were initiated were accustomed to wash 
 their hands with honey instead of water^ as a 
 pledge that they would preserve themselves 
 from every impure and unholy thing. So that 
 the language of Job is an assurance that a holy 
 
254 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 man should become still more holy. His very 
 practice of righteousness tends to establish him 
 in his way, to confirm his principles, and make 
 that easy by habit which is enjoined as duty. 
 Piety, like every thing else, strengthens by 
 exercise. 
 
 How beautiful is the language of the Psalm 
 ist : " The righteous shall flourish like the palm- 
 tree ; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 
 Those that be planted in the house of the 
 Lord shall flourish in the courts of our (rod. 
 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age ; they 
 shall be fat and flourishing." Psalm 92 : 12-14. 
 The palm is indigenous to tropical and other 
 warm climates. It grows to a considerable 
 height and size, and presents a beautiful appear 
 ance. Its fruits, which are called dates, are 
 much valued and are eaten both fresh and pre 
 served, and are also pressed for syrup and wine. 
 But it is not for its fruit alone that the palm is 
 so valuable. From the boughs, which are yearly 
 lopped off from the lower parts of the stem, are 
 made baskets, bird-cages, ropes, and sacks; 
 from the leaves, mattresses, sandals, etc. It is 
 an evergreen, and lives to an extreme old age : 
 
ENCOURAG-E^IEHTS TO PROGRESS. 255 
 
 the wood is durable and much. used. How 
 striking an emblem of a good man. He shall 
 flourish like the palm-tree. The cedar was 
 considered by the Hebrews as the monarch of 
 the vegetable world, on account of its magni 
 tude, majesty, the number and extent of its 
 boughs, and the durability of its wood, which 
 was so remarkable that some supposed it to be 
 incorruptible. Moreover every thing about the 
 oriental cedar has a strong balsamic odor, and 
 hence the whole forest is so perfumed with 
 fragrance that a walk through it is delightful. 
 Mount Lebanon was in ancient times covered 
 with forests of cedars, of which however there 
 are now only few remains. Again we say to 
 the Christian, Behold your emblem. " He 
 shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." 
 
 Similar to this representation is the extra 
 ordinarily picturesque language which we find 
 in the book of Hosea : " I will be as the dew 
 unto Israel ; he shall grow as the lily, and cast 
 forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches 
 shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the 
 olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They 
 that dwell under his shadow shall return ; they 
 
256 CHRISTIAN PROORESS. 
 
 shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine : 
 the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Leb 
 anon/ Hos. 14 : 5-7. These verses contain 
 gracious promises of Grod s favor and blessings 
 upon Israel s conversion. In the fifth verse it 
 is described by that refreshment which copious 
 dews give to the grass in summer. If we con 
 sider the nature of the climate and the necessity 
 of dews in so hot a country, not only to refresh 
 but likewise to preserve life ; if we consider 
 also the beauty of the oriental lilies, the fra 
 grance of the cedars which grow upon Lebanon, 
 the beauteous appearance which the surround 
 ing olive-trees afford, the exhilarating coolness 
 caused by the shade of such trees, and the 
 aromatic smell exhaled by the cedars ; if we 
 add to this the reviving of the corn with all 
 the verdure of spring, and the blushing grapes 
 pendant from the vine, we shall then partly 
 understand the force of the metaphors hero 
 employed by the prophet ; but their full energy 
 no one can conceive till he feels both the want 
 and enjoys the advantage of the particulars 
 referred to in that climate where the prophet 
 wrote. " What a glorious prophecy ! How 
 
ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 257 
 
 sublime, how energetic, how just! and this 
 description is not for Israel merely after the 
 flesh, but for the Israel of Grod. It may be 
 there is a national reference, but we have lot 
 and portion hi the matter. Grod sets his love 
 upon us ; pours down his grace upon us ; and 
 fulfils all this to those who have faith in the 
 promise of his Spirit." It is not merely the 
 poetic beauty of this passage that we hold up to 
 notice, though this is surpassingly great, and 
 it is one of those gems of composition which 
 so profusely stud the Bible and commend it to 
 taste as well as to piety, but it is the promises 
 of grace and growth which it contains for the 
 encouragement and consolation of all Grod s 
 people to the end of time. 
 
 How full of encouragement is also the lan 
 guage of the prophet, Isaiah 40: 31. "They 
 that wait upon the Lord shall renew their 
 strength ; they shall mount up with wings as 
 eagles ; they shall run, and not be weary ; and 
 they shall walk, and not faint." This beautiful 
 passage refers primarily, though not exclusive 
 ly, to the captive Jews in Babylon, and en 
 couraged the pious among them to exercise 
 
 Chr. Prf.fc 1 7 
 
258 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 confidence in God s ability and willingness to 
 accomplish his promises, and to wait with 
 patience for his gracious appearance on their 
 behalf. But it contains a general promise of 
 continued supplies of grace and strength to 
 all who really desire to serve the Lord with 
 integrity and simplicity. The image of the 
 eagle is a very fine one, and this is not the 
 only place where it is employed. The prophet 
 alludes to the strength of pinion and of vision 
 possessed by this noble bird, whereby it ascends 
 to a lofty height, untired and undazzled, soaring 
 even above the fogs and mists of the lower 
 regions of the air, mounting above the very 
 clouds, undeterred by the lightning, and floating 
 in the pure azure above. Thus shall all who 
 wait upon the Lord rise higher and higher, 
 upon the mighty pinions of strong devotion 
 and with the unblinking eye of faith, into the 
 regions of heavenly-mindedness ; and shall 
 approach nearer and nearer to Grod, the sun of 
 our spiritual day. 
 
 Then the other expressions, if less figurative, 
 are not less encouraging : " They shall run" 
 in the heavenly race, for the crown of immor- 
 
ENCOUE.AG-EMENTS TO PROaRESS. 259 
 
 tal glory, " and not be weary" Their strength, 
 instead of being exhausted, shall, contrary to 
 what occurs in bodily effort, be increased by 
 exertion. No length nor greatness of labor 
 shall be too much for them. Grod shall pour 
 into their souls fresh energy for every fresh 
 effort. They shall thus be enabled to press 
 along the mark towards the prize of their high 
 calling in Christ Jesus. " They shall walk, 
 and not faint" Their wayfare may be ardu 
 ous ; the road may be long and rugged ; often 
 up steep ascents, and down into deep and 
 rocky denies, where every step is a labor, but 
 they shall not lose heart or hope ; they shall 
 not swoon, nor halt, nor turn back, but go 
 forwards, sustained by a power greater than 
 their own. 
 
 But perhaps a plain didactic and unpoetic 
 quotation from the New Testament, will, after 
 all, have more weight with some minds than 
 this profusion of gorgeous oriental imagery. 
 What then can be more consolatory than the apos 
 tle s words to the Philippian church? " Being 
 confident of this very thing, that He which 
 hath begun a good work in you will perform it 
 
260 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 until the day of Christ." Phil. 1:6. He will 
 have respect to and delight in the work of his 
 hands. He is honored and glorified by the 
 perseverance of his people in faith and holi 
 ness, and will give all the supplies of grace 
 necessary for the work. He loves to see his 
 children grow in all that is excellent, even as 
 does a wise and good earthly parent, and far 
 more readily will contribute all that is neces 
 sary for this purpose. 
 
 2. Dwell upon the love and tenderness of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me direct your 
 attention first of all to that wonderfully beau 
 tiful and tender representation where it is said, 
 "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he 
 shall gather the lambs with his arm, and shall 
 carry them in his bosom." Isaiah 40 : 11. 
 Now you will notice who are here represented 
 as the objects of his care, " the lambs ;" which 
 means not only those of tender age, but of 
 recent standing in religion, they who are 
 young in Christian experience ; and also they 
 whose spirits are withal naturally timid, whose 
 strength is feeble, and whose danger is great. 
 You, you, recently brought to Christ by re- 
 
ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 261 
 
 pentance and faith, you are the objects of 
 Christ s special attention, care, and solicitude. 
 You are they whom he takes up in the arms of 
 his power, and lays on the "bosom of his love. 
 He knows your weakness, your timidity, your 
 dangers. He directs towards you his tenderest 
 sympathy, and will exert for you his greatest 
 vigilance and his mightiest power. This ex 
 pression however not .only conveys the idea of 
 great care of the weak, but the exercise of that 
 care with a view to their preservation and 
 growth ; it means not only that he cordially 
 receives them, will provide for their safety, 
 consult their comfort, and will accommodate his 
 conduct to their wants, but that he will nourish 
 them through their infant existence, and rear 
 them up to maturity and strength. You should 
 dwell upon the exquisite tenderness of the 
 passage but not only upon this, but upon its 
 intimation that he will assist you in your 
 growth. The good Shepherd does not wish or 
 intend that his lambs should be always lambs ; 
 his aim is that they should be full-grown sheep, 
 and he will leave nothing undone that this 
 might be accomplished ; and it is for this 
 
262 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 reason, as well as from pity and kindness, that 
 he takes such care of them. So it is with our 
 Lord Jesus in reference to the young convert 
 Let every lamb of the flock of Christ therefore 
 go to him by faith and prayer, and say, " Blessed 
 Jesus, I come to thee a poor weak and trembling 
 creature, doubtful of my own continuance, and 
 alarmed at my numerous difficulties and ene 
 mies. I am but a lamb, and often fear I shall 
 never be any thing better, but perish as I am. 
 But was it not in regard to such weakness that 
 thou hast been pleased to utter these gracious 
 and tender words ? I believe what thou hast 
 spoken, and will venture my soul upon it. I 
 flee to thee as the helpless lamb to its shepherd 
 when hungry to feed it, when pursued by wild 
 beasts that he may defend it. Lord, take me 
 in the arms of thy power and lay me on the 
 bosom of thy love, though I am so poor and 
 inconsiderable a creature. I will hope in thy 
 pastoral power and love, that I shall not only 
 continue but grow, and that thou wilt one day 
 rejoice in me as one of the flock which thou 
 hast purchased with thy own blood." 
 
 3. But perhaps you may find some en- 
 
ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 263 
 
 couragement even in your own experience, 
 without looking to others. You are sometimes 
 disheartened and oast down. You make little 
 or no progress in religion. You are no wiser, 
 holier, or happier than you were. And you 
 fear you never shall be. You begin to be 
 heartless and desponding. Deeply sensible of 
 your deficiencies, you fear they will never be 
 supplied ; you feel your remaining corruptions, 
 and have faint hopes of subduing them. You 
 see heights above your head, which you fear 
 you shall never reach. In the race you are no 
 nearer the goal, and in the conflict gain few 
 advantages over your foes. To be as you are 
 is your utmost hope, and not to go back your 
 strongest effort. For you, progress is out of 
 the question. Again I ask, Why ? Only because 
 you think so. I have referred you to the 
 promises of God to the grace and intercession 
 of Christ to the examples of others ; but now 
 let me refer you to your own history and ex 
 perience. I am supposing that you have expe 
 rienced the converting grace of Grod ; that you 
 have really and in earnest commenced the 
 great work of salvation ; that, in short, you are 
 
264 CHRISTIAN PROOJ-RESS. 
 
 not what you were. Old things have passed 
 away and all things have become new. And 
 if this be the case, is it for you to doubt whether 
 you can advance ? Is continuance to be de 
 spaired of by him who has been enabled to 
 begin ; or advancement by him who has been 
 enabled to continue ? Have you by grace taken 
 the mighty step, stride, bound, for it is all this, 
 from an unconverted to a converted state, and 
 do you doubt whether you shall go on step by 
 step afterwards ? Have you pressed through 
 the strait gate, and shall you not be able to 
 press forward also in the narrow path? Is 
 progressive sanctification more difficult, either 
 to you or to Grod, than regeneration ? Oh, think 
 of all the difficulties that stood in the way 
 when you first entered the road to glory. 
 Recollect what you had to encounter from 
 within and without. Have you forgotten the 
 trembling apprehensions with which, when the 
 decision wa*s to be made for Christ, salvation, 
 and eternity, you doubted if it ever would be 
 made ? The anguish with which, on a survey 
 of all you had to encounter, you exclaimed, 
 " Who is sufficient for these things ?" Yet it 
 
ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROG-RESS. 265 
 
 ivas made. Grod s grace was sufficient for you 
 in this tremendous crisis of your spiritual and 
 eternal history. And now, can you doubt 
 whether the grace that converted you can carry 
 you forward ? What, planted and not be able 
 to thrive? Born, and not be able to grow? 
 Started, and not be able to run? Victorious, 
 and not be able to conquer ? Will you so much 
 disparage the grace that has been given as to 
 doubt its continuance, and the work it has 
 wrought as to fear its going forward ? Have 
 you learned no more from God s past wisdom 
 and power and love, than to question whether 
 they will help you onward in that course to 
 which they have introduced you ? Why, one 
 should be ready to suppose you would be ever 
 full of joyful expectation and exultation too, 
 exclaiming, " To what measure of knowledge, 
 faith, holiness, joy, and usefulness, may I not 
 hope to reach, since I have been translated by 
 the power of Grod from darkness to light, and 
 from the kingdom of Satan unto Gfod ?" You 
 yourself, in what Grod has done for you, are a 
 proof of what he can and will do for yon if you 
 will ask him, and trust him. Cast away then, 
 
266 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 all your desponding fears, your low expecta 
 tions, your unworthy doubts ; they dishonor 
 G-od as well as distress yourself. You are 
 yourself the strongest proof that you can ad 
 vance, for you have advanced. " He that has 
 begun the good work in you will perform it 
 until the day of Jesus Christ." Remember 
 the words, and enter into the argument, of the 
 apostle, " Much more then, being now justified 
 by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath 
 through him. For if when we were enemies, 
 we were reconciled to Grod by the death of his 
 Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall 
 be saved by his life." Rom. o : 9, 10. 
 
 CONCLUDING- ADDRESS TO THE READER. 
 
 The subject, the ineffably, infinitely, eter 
 nally momentous subject, is now before you, 
 compared with which all other matters, even 
 the most valuable of them, dwindle into insig 
 nificance, shrink into nothing, and fade into 
 darkness. I have been speaking about prog 
 ress ; but progress in what? Not in science, 
 literature, wealth, power, fame. No. These 
 are important ; but what are they to religion ? 
 
ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PROGRESS. 267 
 
 They relate to earth, this to heaven ; they be 
 long to time, this to eternity. Their value 
 will cease at death ; the value of this will then 
 be perpetuated for ever and ever. Every step 
 you take in this course is a step to glory, honor, 
 and immortality ; consequences hang on each 
 step which no mind can comprehend but that 
 which grasps infinity and eternity. You are 
 fearfully and wonderfully placed, for you are 
 passing through a probation which must issue 
 in torment or in bliss which eye hath not seen, 
 nor ear heard, nor has ever entered into the 
 imagination of the human mind. I have laid 
 before you the necessity of that progress its 
 nature, its means, its hinderances, its mistakes, v 
 its motives, and its encouragements, which be 
 long to true religion. By the perusal of this 
 book you have incurred a new responsibility, 
 and are under a more solemn weight of obliga 
 tion than you were before. If you should turn 
 back in your course, you had better never have 
 read it ; or having read it, would find it a mercy 
 could you blot from your memory its contents. 
 But this you cannot do. No water of oblivion 
 can help you to cast into forgetfulness what 
 
268 CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. 
 
 you have read. Its coming into your hands 
 will form a new fact in your existence of no 
 small moment to you ; for it will be a new ag 
 gravation of the sin and condemnation of hack- 
 sliding, or a new means of growth in grace. 
 It may he neglected and for a while lost sight 
 of, hut it will rise up again and again, if you 
 recede, and will meet you like a frowning . 
 spectre in your retrograde path. It will follow 
 you into eternity, to give sharpness and venom 
 to the tooth of the never-dying worm, and 
 fierceness to the fire that never shall he quench 
 ed. But " I hope hetter things of you, and 
 things that accompany salvation, though I thus 
 speak." The motives I have suggested will, I 
 hope, prevail to urge, and the encouragements 
 I have suggested to excite you to advance. 
 Every thing you can desire or imagine, that 
 would he helpful, is with you and for you. The 
 attributes of the eternal Grod, the character and 
 offices of Christ, the influences and operations 
 of the Holy Spirit, the ministration of angels, 
 the labors of Christian ministers, the religious 
 literature of the age, the prayers of all good 
 men, are with you, to aid and encourage you 
 
ENCOURAG-EMENTS TO PROG-RESS. 269 
 
 in your progress. Is this nothing ? Is it little ? 
 On the contrary, is it not much ? Is it not every 
 thing ? What more can you need, or can you 
 have? 
 
 And now then let me conjure you to seek to 
 advance in the divine life. You must not, you 
 dare not, and I hope, by the grace of Gfod, will 
 not, be satisfied to be always what you are, 
 with no more knowledge, faith, holiness, or 
 peace than you* now have. What Grod com 
 manded to be said to the children of Israel, 
 that they should GO FORWARD, is said to you : 
 GO FORWARD. By all the authority, the com 
 mands, the promises of Grod by all the love, 
 power, grace, and intercession of Christ by all 
 the work of the Holy Spirit, so sufficient for 
 your need, I conjure you, GO FORWARD. By all 
 the value of your immortal soul and all the 
 blessings included in its salvation, I conjure 
 you, GO FORWARD. By all the pleasures of real 
 religion now, and all the meetness it furnishes 
 for eternal bliss hereafter, I conjure you, GO 
 FORWARD. By all the regard you have to the 
 credit of the Christian profession and the wel 
 fare of other men s souls, I conjure you, GO FOR- 
 
270 CHRISTIAN PROG-RESS. 
 
 WARD. By all the solemnities of judgment, 
 all the glories of heaven, all the torments of 
 hell, all the ages of eternity, I conjure you, GO 
 FORWARD. To all these arguments and entrea 
 ties, so urgent as well as so numerous, let judg 
 ment, heart, will, conscience, respond. " On 
 ward, onward in the path to holiness, happi 
 ness, and heaven ; and then onward, onward, 
 through the progression of eternal ages. 
 
 Now lay down the book anct present in sin 
 cerity, faith, and fervor, the following prayer : 
 
 Almighty and most merciful Father, thou 
 delightest not in the death of a sinner, much 
 less in the destruction of a believer ; grant me, 
 through Jesus Christ, the power of thy Holy 
 Spirit, to follow the directions laid down in this 
 book. Impress me more and more deeply with 
 the necessity of progress in the divine life. 
 Enlighten me to understand its true nature. 
 Preserve me from all mistakes on this moment 
 ous subject. Bless to me the use of appropri 
 ate means for growth in grace. Enable me to 
 avoid and put aside all hinderances to progress. 
 Stimulate me by the application to my con 
 science and heart of all the motives here sug- 
 
ENCOURAG-EMENTS TO PROORESS. 271 
 
 gested, and cheer me by the encouragements 
 which have been held out to me. Of thine in 
 finite mercy never suffer me to draw back unto 
 perdition, but number me with those who be 
 lieve to the saving of the soul. Help me like 
 thy holy and blessed apostle Paul to forget the 
 things that are behind and press towards the 
 mark for the prize of our high calling in Christ 
 Jesus ; and after continual increase of grace 
 here, bring me to the eternal progression of thy 
 saints in glory everlasting. Grant this accord 
 ing to the riches of thy grace through Christ 
 Jesus. Amen. 
 
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