L/II3RARY 
 
 OF 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Mrs. SARAH R WAUSWORTH, 
 
 'Received October, 1894. 
 Accessions No. 5~Ltf''L6i Class No. 
 
MAN AND THE GOSPEL 
 
ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER 
 
 148 Strand, LONDON 
 
 178 Grand Street, NEW YORK 
 
MAN AND THE 
 GOSPEL 
 
 BY THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE GOSPEL IN EZEKIEL," ETC. 
 
 SIXTH THOUSAND 
 
 ff*r OF 
 
 fuFr7SESIT? 
 
 ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER 
 
 LONDON AND NEW YORK 
 
 1865 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 IN TRIAL, 7 
 
 REFUGE IN TRIAL, 23 
 
 IN TEMPTATION, 46 
 
 TRUE RELIGION, 74 
 
 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD, . . . . IO2 
 
 PURITY, 129 
 
 RICHES, 154 
 
 THE LAW OF GOD, . . ... l8l 
 
 FAITH AND WORKS, 207 
 
 THE POOR, 231 
 
 CHARITY, 254 
 
 THE SHINING LIGHT, 274 
 
 RISEN WITH CHRIST PART I., . . . 2 95 
 PART II., , . . .318 
 
 EARLY PIETY PART I., 346 
 
 PART II., 365 
 
 PART III., 389 
 
 PART IV., 409 
 
 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT, . . ... 430 
 
Of THIS 
 
 Bin '/ 
 
 IN TRIAL. 
 
 "My brethren, count it all joy when 
 ye fall into divers temptations." 
 ST JAMES i. 2. 
 
 'HT^HERE is an old story of two knights who fell 
 into a quarrel, almost into a combat, about 
 a shield the one asserting, and prepared with his 
 sword to maintain, that the shield was made of 
 gold ; the other as positively asserting that it was 
 not gold but silver. Both were right ; and there 
 was no more occasion for quarrel between them 
 than there has often been between good men in 
 religious controversy. Looking at a doctrine from 
 different points of view, not having the same 
 stand-point, as it is called, they quarrelled; and 
 the quarrel was a mistake. These two knights 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 saw one and the same shield ; but looking on it 
 from opposite sides, each saw a different face; 
 this was of silver, that of gold. 
 
 Like that shield, the word temptation, as used 
 in Holy Scripture, has to be regarded under two 
 aspects. It has two meanings ; and unless care 
 be taken to distinguish the one from the other, 
 we may fall into a very serious mistake. Some- 
 times temptation is employed as another word for 
 afflictions, trials ; at other times in a sense so dif- 
 ferent, that, instead of counting it all joy, we should 
 dread nothing more than to fall into divers tempta- 
 tions. Whatever is calculated to inflame our cor- 
 ruptions, and has a tendency, from its own nature 
 and ours, to seduce us into sin, is temptation ; and 
 it is in this sense the word is used when it is 
 said, " Let no man say when he is tempted, I am 
 tempted of God : for God cannot be tempted with 
 evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every 
 man is tempted when he is drawn away of his lust, 
 and is enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, 
 it bringeth forth sin ; and sin when it is finished 
 bringeth forth death." 
 
 In this, the most common sense of the word, to 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 fall into temptation, is often, notwithstanding our 
 best and strongest resolutions, to fall into sin. 
 Such is the weakness of our nature ! and how can 
 that, which leads in so many cases to sin, ever be 
 an occasion of joy ? Who would keep his body 
 under, as the apostle says, who would be tem- 
 perate in all things, who would hold the old man 
 nailed to the cross, who would mortify the flesh 
 with its affections and lusts, who would keep his 
 marriage garment unspotted of the world, will not 
 throw himself into the arms of temptation, but 
 rather shrink from it with fear and dread. He 
 will go out of his way to avoid temptation, as he 
 would the road frequented by a ravening lion, a 
 house or street where coffins were rife, and the 
 plague was raging. " He fell among thieves," is 
 true of him who falls into divers temptations ; and 
 he would often die under his wounds, but for Him 
 who drew His own portrait in the picture of the 
 good Samaritan. Beset by robbers and assassins, 
 he may conquer through divine strength, but he 
 has a hard fight for it, nor comes out of the battle 
 without some wounds to heal. 
 
 " Stand in awe, and sin not ; " " Watch and 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 pray, that ye enter not into temptation," are warn- 
 ings which no good man should disregard. Is this 
 to be a coward ? Anything else were the height 
 of rashness. Who sleeps by a magazine of gun- 
 powder needs to take care even of sparks ; who 
 walks on slippery ice, let him not go star-gazing, 
 but look to his feet, and take care of falling. What- 
 ever provokes to sin, though beautiful as Bathsheba, 
 - what is in its nature calculated, and by the cun- 
 ning fiend intended to draw us into transgression, 
 is a danger against which we cannot be too much 
 upon our guard. Though in themselves innocent, 
 pleasures are sought at too great hazard that grow 
 on a dizzy crag, or among the grass where adders 
 creep, or in the lofty crevice of some tottering 
 wall, or on the brink of a swollen flood ; and all the 
 more if, such as our poet describes, 
 
 " Pleasures are like poppies spread, 
 We nip the flower, the bloom is fled ; 
 Or, like the snow-flake on the river, 
 A moment white, then gone for ever." 
 
 The language of joy is praise: but when a man 
 is passing through temptation, the time is not for 
 praise but prayer; it is for sighs, much more than 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 songs ; for strong crying, and tears, and holy fears ; 
 for deep horror, and the drawn sword that gleamed 
 in the hand of Christian, as, amidst spectral forms, 
 hideous sights and sounds, he trode the Valley of 
 the Shadow of Death. Count it all joy ? Who 
 consults his soul's peace, purity, and safety, in- 
 stead of counting it all joy to fall into divers temp- 
 tations, will do his utmost to avoid them ; his con- 
 stant, daily, earnest prayer, "Lead me not into 
 temptation ; " and when he falls into it, his cry 
 St Peter's on the sea, " Save me, I perish !" that 
 of one with the coils of a monstrous snake con- 
 tracting round his form, " Make haste unto me, O 
 God, thou art my help and my deliverer ; O Lord, 
 make no tarrying." 
 
 It is in an old, but now rather uncommon, use 
 of the word that we are to understand tempta- 
 tion, as used by St James when he says, " Count 
 it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." 
 It stands there for what in common language we 
 call trials; those troubles from which the best 
 no more than the worst are exempt ; the bitter 
 ingredients that mingle with every man's cup; 
 the cup that is found in every man's sack; the 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 sufferings that, in some form or other, are ever oc- 
 curring between the cradle and the grave, and that 
 chequer a life which at birth begins with a cry, 
 and at death ends with a groan. And what a 
 grand faith is that which glories in these tribula- 
 tions ! The world, a cold philosophy tell us to 
 bear what we cannot throw off, stoutly to face 
 what we cannot shun, and, like one who holds his 
 breath and sets his teeth to some painful oper- 
 ation, to endure what we cannot cure. How 
 divine the faith which, thrusting these cold com- 
 forters aside, comes to the mourner weeping by 
 the coffin, visits the captive pining in his dun- 
 geon, stands by the martyr bound to his stake to 
 say, " Glory in tribulations " " Blessed is the man 
 that endureth temptation, for when he is tried he 
 shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath 
 promised to them that love him ! " Since trials 
 more or less painful are the lot of all, God's people 
 should learn how to bear them. 
 
 In Old Testament times Christianity was in the 
 opening bud ; now it is in the full-blown flower. 
 Sustained then by types and symbols, it was the 
 eaglet when the mother stirs her nest and bears it 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 on her wings ; now a full-feathered eagle with her 
 foot on the rock, and her far-piercing eye on the 
 sun, she springs upwards to cleave the parting 
 clouds and soar high above them. Still, though 
 without our advantages, these Old Testament saints 
 present remarkable instances, among other graces, 
 of resignation ; and as we see the trees in early 
 spring living, standing, though autumn blasts and 
 winter frosts have stripped off all their leaves, 
 we see in these patriarchs how stoutly faith in 
 God can stand when trials have robbed life of 
 every green joy, and the days come, of which he 
 says, " I have no pleasure in them," the poor suf- 
 ferer would be happy with his head beneath the 
 sod, to sleep where the wicked cease from troubling, 
 and the weary are at rest. What an illustrious 
 example of this was Job, when deep answered 
 unto deep at the noise of God's waterspouts ! Bil- 
 low after billow went over him ; he goes down, 
 never as it seemed to rise again ; but faith cannot 
 drown, and how wonderful to see his head emerge, 
 and, as he looks around on the desolation, fortune 
 and family ingulfed, to hear him say, " The Lord 
 giveth, and the Lord taketh away, blessed be 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 the name of the Lord ; " or, " Though he slay me, 
 yet will I trust in him;" He has slain mine, my 
 sons, my daughters, my joys and hopes, all are 
 dead and gone; now let Him slay not mine but 
 me also, yet will I trust in Him. What faith ! 
 What sublime resignation ! And would we, now 
 suffering under trials, bear them, or, having to 
 suffer, would we meet them with like submission, 
 we must learn to yield to, not to resist God's will. 
 Strive to enter in at the strait gate, at all cost 
 and hazard ; let sinners strive after conversion to 
 be in Christ ; but strive not, impatient of trials, to 
 get out of them. If, like many, you are " bound 
 in affliction," it will do you no good to fret against 
 it; that will but make the iron cut deeper into the 
 flesh. The yoke sits easiest on the neck of the 
 patient ox ; and he feels his chain the lightest who 
 does not drag but carry it. Bow before the trial, 
 as I have read travellers do when overtaken in 
 the desert by the dreadful simoom. The Simoom ! 
 When that cry rises, striking terror into the boldest 
 hearts, and the purple haze sweeps on, which to 
 breathe is death, they make no attempt to fly 
 the swiftest Arab scours not the desert like the 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 wing of this scourge but, instantly, they throw 
 themselves on the ground ; every head is muffled ; 
 and there, low in the dust, trembling, dumb, in 
 awful silence they lie, and let the poisonous wind 
 blow over them. " Hide thee in the dust," hide 
 thee in the dust, is the voice of God in our cala- 
 mities ; and the lower we lie there before Him, 
 passive under His mighty hand, yielding to His 
 sovereign will, we shall suffer the less when days of 
 darkness come. 
 
 To take an illustration from more familiar scenes, 
 we should meet life's trials as we do the billows, 
 to which Scripture so often compares them. When 
 the foaming breaker comes rolling in, meet it 
 erect, with bold front, defiant of its strength, and, 
 sweeping you off your feet, it hurls you among the 
 seething water. We have tried it ; and, all but 
 suffocated, have risen, lacerated and bleeding, from 
 the flinty beach. But meet the billow bent, stoop 
 to its foaming crest, bow before its power, and, 
 roaring, it passes harmlessly over your head ; and 
 as the waves neither come so fast, nor stay so long, 
 but there is time to breathe between them, by this 
 simple art you stand like a rock, and see the 
 
10 IN TRIAL. 
 
 proudest billows burst foaming on the beach. 
 A blessed art this, when deep is answering unto 
 deep, and all God's waves and billows go over us ! 
 Who, seizing every opportunity to pray, bends to 
 trials, breaks them and is least stunned by the 
 rudeness of their shock. And thus it is, perhaps, 
 that Christians of a gentle spirit, by nature as well 
 as grace more pliant than defiant, that women, 
 by their constitution less tough and more ready 
 to bend, have more passive courage, often bear 
 troubles better than stout men ; they let the wave 
 go over them, not fighting against God, but saying 
 with Christ, " Father, not my will, but thine, be 
 done ; " or with Eli, " It is the Lord, let him do 
 what seetneth him good." 
 
 Again, the sight of God in his trials greatly 
 helps a good man to bear them. The nearer we 
 get to God in times of trouble, the less their pain 
 and the greater our profit. The son who, seek- 
 ing to escape correction, stands at arm's length 
 struggling to get away, feels the full power of the 
 rod ; but light falls the stroke on him who, con- 
 fessing, " I am afflicted far less than my iniquities 
 deserve ; I will be dumb, opening not my mouth, 
 
IN TRIAL. II 
 
 because thou didst it," flies to his father's bosom, 
 and falls penitent at his feet. It happens in the 
 spiritual as in the natural world, that the farther 
 from him who strikes the heavier, and the nearer 
 to him who strikes, the lighter falls the blow. 
 Consider this, besides, that God never strikes his 
 people with both hands ; for who has ever sought 
 Him in their trouble, drawn near to him in deep 
 affliction, but found that if He was strong to 
 smite, He was strong also to support ? Did you 
 ever see a father beating a son who resisted ? He 
 holds the boy with one hand, and he smites him 
 with the other. It is not so God corrects a peni- 
 tent, loving child. While one hand is employed 
 to strike, what does He with the other ? They 
 who draw near to Him crying, " Though he slay 
 me, yet will I trust in him," ever find the other 
 employed not to hold, but to uphold them. 
 Wiping away the tears the rod starts in their 
 eyes, pouring balm into the wounds His hand in- 
 flicts, sustaining while He smites, kissing while He 
 corrects, He teaches His people that trials are the 
 badge of sonship. " Whom he loveth he chasten- 
 eth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." 
 
12 IN TRIAL. 
 
 But submission is not the highest lesson taught 
 in the school of trial. That school has higher 
 instruction and nobler prizes. It is a great thing 
 to learn submission ; but it is a grand thing to 
 rejoice in, and rejoice over our afflictions, as St Paul 
 did ; and St James says we are to " count it all joy 
 when we fall into divers trials." Why not ? why 
 should that language surprise us ? why should 
 we start at it ? why hear it with an incredulous 
 ear, if seasons of trial are the occasions of drawing 
 out the tenderest love of God ? Why not, if they 
 correspond to the sick-bed and sick-chamber, 
 where we get into the innermost circle of domestic 
 affections ? By the anxiety all show for our re- 
 covery ; by the midnight watching at our bed ; 
 by no trouble grudged, but sleep, and rest, and 
 pleasure, and everything sacrificed for us ; by the 
 noiseless step and gentle whispers ; by the cloud 
 that darkens every brow when physicians look 
 grave, and our case looks worse ; by the joy that 
 sits on every face when we are better ; by a thou- 
 sand little kind attentions that, never thought of 
 in the day of health, come out shining like stars at 
 night, we now know how precious we are to others, 
 
IN TRIAL. 13 
 
 how much we are valued, how tenderly loved. It 
 is almost worth being ill to know this, and receive 
 the kindnesses that our illness calls out. Is that 
 a set-off to thy pains of sickness ? How many of 
 the Lord's people have had this to set against their 
 sorest trials, that they never felt nearer to God, 
 and God never drew nearer, nor dealt so kindly 
 with them, as when they were cast into darkness 
 and the deeps their affliction abounded, but then 
 their consolations much more abounded. It was 
 on the mount where it lightened and thundered 
 that God showed them His glory. It was in the 
 wilderness that water gushed from the smitten rock 
 and they ate of angels' food ; that the pillared 
 cloud was seen by day, the pillared fire by night. 
 It was when their bark was tempest-tossed, and 
 the sky was dark, and the sea was rough, that 
 Christ came walking on the billows to still the 
 tempest, to subdue their fears. Can they ever 
 forget how then and there He fulfilled these gra- 
 cious promises " When thou passest through the 
 waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, 
 they shall not overflow thee ; thou shalt walk 
 through the fire, and not be burned ; neither shall 
 
14 IN TRIAL. 
 
 the flame kindle upon thee. Fear not, for I am 
 with thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy 
 One of Israel, thy Saviour.'* 
 
 But, as I have said, the child of God has joy not 
 only in trials, but through them ; and for this, 
 among other reasons, because they prove the genu- 
 ineness of his faith they are the trying of youi 
 faith, as an apostle calls them. 
 
 There was a British regiment once ordered to 
 charge a body of French cuirassiers. The trum- 
 pets sounded, and away they went boldly at them ; 
 but not to victory. They broke like a wave that 
 launches itself against a rock. They were sacri- 
 ficed to traders' fraud. Forged not of truest steel, 
 but worthless metal, their swords bent double at 
 the first stroke. What could human strength, or 
 the most gallant bravery, do against such odds ? 
 They were slaughtered, like sheep on the field. 
 And ever since I read that tragedy, I have thought 
 I would not go to battle unless my sword were 
 proved. I would not go to sea with anchors that 
 had never been tried. But of all things for a man's 
 comfort and peace, what needs so much to be 
 proved as his faith its truth and genuineness ? 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 Any way, it is a serious thing to face death, and 
 meet the King of Terrors on his own ground ; but 
 were our faith never tried till we stood face to face 
 in the valley with our last enemy, face to face with 
 our God at the bar of judgment, it were still more 
 serious. With our powers of self-deception with 
 Satan sitting at the sinner's ear, saying, Peace, 
 peace, when there is none to be found with so 
 many who have the form of godliness, but are 
 strangers to its power the stoutest heart might 
 tremble for the issues. Before I go down to battle, 
 I want to know if my sword is forged of trusty 
 steel ; before I go to sea, I want to know if my 
 anchor is hammered out of the toughest iron ; be- 
 fore I set out on my journey, I want to know if 
 this is sterling money is it genuine ? has it the 
 ring of true metal ? will it stand the test ? So long 
 as it is fair weather, I want to know if my hopes 
 rest on sand or on solid stone ; when rains descend, 
 and waters rise, and winds blow, and beat on my 
 house, it may be too late to know the truth. I 
 want to know it now ; now, when, if I should have 
 been building on the sand, there is time to seek in 
 Christ the Rock of Ages, a foundation that cannot 
 
l6 IN TRIAL. 
 
 be moved. It is of the utmost importance to have 
 our faith tested ; and God's people, therefore, have 
 cause to bless Him, and do bless Him, for the trials 
 that have put it to the test, and proved it true. 
 
 If like the treading of camomile, or the crushing 
 of a sweet-scented plant, that bathes in odours the 
 hand that bruises it, or the burning of incense that 
 draws out its latent perfumes, your trials have 
 called forth heavenliness of mind, child-like sub- 
 mission to God's sovereign will, strong trust in His 
 providence, a ready willingness to bear your cross 
 for the honour of Him that bore His cross for you, 
 count it all joy when ye fall into divers trials. 
 They have equipped you for future battles, and 
 furnished you with recollections and experiences 
 to disarm the greatest evils. His presence with 
 you in the past is a pledge of His presence in the 
 future ; that He will be with you through what- 
 ever troubles, great or small, you have to go with 
 you always with you even unto the end. Not 
 one that has never been tried when days of dark- 
 ness come, you can " remember the years of the 
 right hand of the Most High." Why should you 
 be dismayed ? You stand on the vantage-ground 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 of David, when, the host reeling back with terror, 
 and Saul attempting to dissuade him from meet- 
 ing the Philistine, he stood calm, collected, and, 
 eyeing the giant, said, " He that delivered me from 
 the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, shall 
 he not also deliver me from the hand of this 
 Philistine ? " Let the past throw its shadow, or its 
 light rather, on the future. " That which is to be 
 hath already been ;" for " our God is the Father 
 of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow 
 of turning." Courage, then ! go forward ! and as 
 in days gone by, the favour of God shall be your 
 shield, and the joy of the Lord your strength. 
 
 Some bear their sufferings as, if we are to be- 
 lieve the stories we have read, the Indian bears his 
 tortures. Tied to the stake, abandoned of hope, 
 looking on his last sun, a crowd of enemies dance 
 round him with frantic gestures and brandished 
 knives ; and as they go round and round in the 
 horrid dance, though avoiding to wound, they 
 strike at his throat and face ; but the red man 
 stands motionless, erect ; nor shrinks, nor winks, 
 nor gives sign of terror. Ingeniously cruel, they 
 search out the most delicate seats of feeling, and 
 
l8 IN TRIAL. 
 
 thrust the burning match up to the quick. Inch 
 by inch they cut his living form to pieces ; but, 
 with blood, they wring out no groan from that 
 defiant man. Naming their braves he has slain 
 and scalped in battle, this hero of the forest sings 
 his bold death-song, scorning their powers of tor- 
 ture. How different from the central object in 
 this savage scene the form of Christian patience, 
 her head meekly bowing to the hand of God ; 
 heaven in her eye ; resignation in her face ; and 
 on her pale lips the seal of silence ! It is pride, 
 not patience, that sustains yonder haughty savage 
 stubborn endurance, the power of an iron will. 
 And in some who, uncomplaining, suffer pain, or 
 loss, or wrong, or calumny, their silence, though 
 they get credit for patience, may be but pride. It 
 is a well-known fact, that a man who stands erect 
 can carry a heavier burden on his head than he 
 ever can on his back ; and, raising itself to the 
 occasion, pride has stood erect under crushing 
 burdens, confronted misfortune, and, while smart- 
 ing under insult and injuries, has scorned to gratify 
 its enemies by betraying a sign of pain. This is 
 but the counterfeit of patience. 
 
IN TRIAL. 19 
 
 Nor are we to take for this Christian grace the 
 callousness or hardening effect which sometimes 
 follows trials of great severity. They say that the 
 wretch condemned to the Russian knout feels only 
 the few first blows. After these have cut to the 
 bone, and brought away long strips of flesh from 
 his quivering back, the power to feel is gone. 
 The nerves are crushed, their life destroyed ; his 
 head droops, and the lash falls on the dying man 
 as if he were already dead. And some such cal- 
 lousness has come over hearts that have suffered 
 many and severe afflictions ; future trials giving 
 them no more pain than the hot iron gives the 
 blacksmith's horny hand. I once knew one, a 
 Christian widow, who had early lost the husband 
 of her youth. Other losses succeeded. The 
 pledges of their love, a son and daughter, were 
 snatched from her arms ; her house was left unto 
 her desolate. But these blows did not, as many 
 feared, break that bruised reed. A pious woman, 
 she was patient, resigned to the will of the widow's 
 Husband ; still it was not patience that replied to 
 my sympathy, when, alluding to her first great 
 trial, she said, " My first grief made so large a hole 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 in my heart, that now it can hold no common 
 sorrow." 
 
 Patience is not pride ; and is not insensibility. 
 Acutely sensitive, she may feel all the pain of the 
 rod, while kissing the hand that uses it. She 
 bears, not because she can do no otherwise, but 
 would no otherwise ; not because she cannot help 
 it, but would not alter it. Leaving God to choose 
 for her as well as chastise, to select her cross as 
 well as her crown, she meekly says, " It is the 
 Lord, let him do what seemeth him good," not 
 me, but Him, good. How noble is this grace ! It 
 makes the greatest of all sacrifices, yielding up our 
 fondest wishes, our dearest hopes, our strongest 
 will to the sovereignty of God. Offering the great- 
 est of all sacrifices, it achieves the greatest of all 
 victories ; here man makes a conquest of himself : 
 and, in the judgment of Solomon, " he that ruleth 
 his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city." 
 
 Let a good man, then, count it all joy when he 
 'alls into divers trials, for God's Spirit brooding 
 In the stormy waters patience is born of trials. 
 ff not their child, she is their nursling; it is their 
 storms that rock her cradle. I say not that we 
 
IN TRIAL. 21 
 
 are to pray for trials, though, all unexpected, they 
 may come in answer to our prayers. We seek that 
 patience may" have her perfect work, and God 
 sends trials in answer. It is rough work that 
 polishes. Look at the pebbles on the shore ! Far 
 inland, where some arm of the sea thrusts itself 
 deep into the bosom of the land, and expanding 
 into a salt loch, lies girdled by the mountains., 
 sheltered from the storms that agitate the deep, 
 the pebbles on the beach are rough, not beautiful ; 
 angular, not rounded. It is where long white 
 lines of breakers roar, and the rattling shingle is 
 rolled about on the strand, that its pebbles are 
 rounded and polished. As in nature, as in the 
 arts, so in grace ; it is rough treatment that gives 
 souls as well as stones their lustre ; the more the 
 diamond is cut the brighter it sparkles ; and in 
 what seems hard dealing, their God has no end in 
 view but to perfect His people's graces. Our 
 Father, and kindest of fathers, He afflicts not will- 
 ingly ; He sends tribulations, but hear St Paul 
 tell their purpose, "Tribulation worketh patience, 
 patience experience, experience hope." Therefore, 
 as he said, we glory in tribulation, therefore we 
 
IN TRIAL. 
 
 should count it all joy when we fall into divers 
 trials. Let patience have her perfect work ; wait 
 patiently for God to explain His own providences ; 
 wait patiently for the hour of deliverance, Woman, 
 He says, my time is not yet come ; wait patiently 
 for the hour of death, for the heavenly rest, for the 
 blood-bought crown. A little more patience, arid 
 you shall need patience no more. One of the mul- 
 titude whom no man can number, who stand before 
 the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with 
 white robes, and palms in their hands, the days 
 of your mourning are ended. 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 11 If any of you lack "wisdom, let hint 
 ask of God, that giveth to all 
 -men liberally, and -upbraideth 
 not; and it shall be given him. 
 But let him ask in faith, nothing 
 wavering. For he that ivavereth 
 is like a wave of the sea driven 
 with the wind and tossed." 
 ST JAMES i. 5, 6. 
 
 TT was a common thing for men In old times to 
 provide themselves with a refuge against the 
 hour when the worst came to the worst. You may 
 see it in the crumbling ruins of our old castles, 
 where, once carefully concealed behind the arras, it 
 now stands exposed in the narrow stair within the 
 thick and massive walls. By this, when the gates 
 were forced, and the defenders, a bleeding band, 
 were driven back from room to room, they, suddenly 
 pushing aside a panel, descended into the dungeons ; 
 
24 REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 and issuing out by some secret port, escaped with 
 their lives. And to this day the shepherds show 
 the hiding-places among their green hills, the 
 " holes and caves of the earth " to which our fore- 
 fathers betook themselves when persecution waxed 
 hot, and bloodhounds bayed at their heels. A 
 midnight march brought the ruthless soldiery in 
 the gray of the morning to the cottage of a lone 
 upland, where some man of God was in hiding. 
 They surrounded the house but missed their prey. 
 Warned by trusty watchers, who often concealed 
 bold daring and deep cunning under the garb of 
 homely simplicity, he was off. Near by rose a 
 dizzy crag, roared a foaming waterfall ; and ere his 
 enemies arrived, the fugitive had leaped the chasm, 
 and scaled the rock, and swinging himself up by 
 the arms of a friendly mountain-ash, whose scarlet 
 foliage screened the mouth of a dark cavern, he 
 was safe within, singing to the music of the cataract 
 these appropriate words : " In the time of trouble 
 he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret of his 
 tabernacle shall he hide me, he shall set me up 
 upon a rock ; and now shall mine head be lifted 
 up above mine enemies round about me." 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 25 
 
 The " Chronicles of Froissart " relate the strange 
 issue of a siege which took place in the days of 
 chivalry and somewhere, I think, in France. 
 Though gallantly defended, the out-works of the 
 citadel had been carried; the breach was practi- 
 cable ; to-morrow was fixed for the assault. That 
 none, alarmed at the desperate state of their for- 
 tunes, might escape under the cloud of night, the 
 besiegers guarded every sally-port, and indeed the 
 whole sweep of wall. They had the garrison in 
 a net ; and only waited for the morrow to secure, or 
 to slaughter them. The night wore heavily on ; no 
 sortie w r as attempted ; no sound carne from the 
 beleaguered citadel ; its brave, but ill-starred de- 
 fenders seemed to wait their doom in silence. The 
 morning came ; with its dawn the stormers rushed 
 at the breach ; sword in hand they poured in to 
 find the nest empty, cold. The bird was flown j 
 the prey escaped. But how ? That was a mystery; 
 it seemed a miracle, till an opening was discovered 
 that led by a flight of steps down into the bowels 
 of the rock. They descended, and explored their 
 way with cautious steps and lighted torches, until 
 this subterranean passage led them out a long way 
 
26 REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 off from the citadel, among quiet, green fields, and 
 the light of day. It was plain that by this pas- 
 sage, the doors of which stood open, their prey 
 had escaped under cover of the night. A clever 
 device a wise precaution. It was the refuge of 
 the besieged, provided against such a crisis. And 
 when affairs seem desperate, and the worst has 
 come to the worst, how should it encourage God's 
 people to remember that He has promised them as 
 safe a retreat ! What says an apostle ? " God is 
 faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted 
 above that ye are able to bear ; but will with the 
 temptation also make a way of escape." Our ex- 
 tremity is His opportunity. 
 
 These words of Scripture, and a whole cloud of 
 corresponding passages " a cloud of witnesses," 
 indicate that God's people always have a refuge in 
 their days of trial. According to David, " God is 
 known in hej- palaces for a refuge ; " and in what 
 glowing language is that truth sung out by Moses 
 in his parting words to the tribes of Israel: "There 
 is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth 
 upon the heaven in thy help. The eternal God is 
 thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 27 
 
 arms. Happy art thou, O Israel ! who is like 
 unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield 
 of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excel- 
 lency!" 
 
 Now let us turn our attention to one of the many 
 refuges and sources of support which a pious man 
 has amid the trials of life. " Is any among you 
 afflicted ? let him pray." So says the apostle St 
 James ; and referring to the trials of the first Chris- 
 tians, he says : " If any of you lack wisdom, let him 
 ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and 
 upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him. But 
 let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he 
 that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven 
 with the wind and tossed." I would ask atten- 
 tion to the following points : 
 What we are to ask. 
 
 Wisdom ! As used in Scripture, that word has 
 a wide meaning ; and here, as elsewhere, it may 
 stand for all the graces and virtues that constitute 
 true religion. And what of these we lack, what- 
 ever indeed we lack not this or that man lacks, 
 but any man, every man lacks, God promises a 
 liberal supply of it. There is no restriction, no ex- 
 
 0* THE 
 
28 REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 elusion here. He would have all men to pray. It 
 is their own blame if people are not saved. As a 
 mother would do to her fallen and guilty child, 
 God opens His arms wide to the world ; and would 
 press it to His bosom. With the offer of Christ to 
 all, and virtue in His blood to cleanse all, who is 
 lost is his own murderer. Who goes to hell is not 
 excluded, but excludes himself from heaven. As 
 the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 whom He sent to seek and save the lost, God, if 
 they will but ask it, giveth liberally to all men. 
 
 But though I do not understand the word wis 
 dom y as employed by St James in the passage 
 quoted, in a strictly literal sense, there is much 
 need of wisdom, of a sound, right, practical judg- 
 ment, in times of trial. That will save us much 
 suffering, if not much sin. 
 
 It is not wise to fret under our trials ; the high- 
 mettled horse that is restive in the yoke but galls 
 his shoulder the poor bird that dashes herself 
 against the bars of the cage but ruffles her 
 feathers and aggravates the sufferings of capti- 
 vity. It is not wise, overlooking the sovereign 
 will of God, and that presiding Providence which 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 29 
 
 numbers the hairs of our head as well as the stars 
 of heaven, and without which neither a sparrow 
 nor an angel can fall, to trace our calamities 
 only to ourselves that breeds but unavailing re- 
 grets; or to others that only kindles bad and 
 angry passions. It is not wise to look on our 
 trials as heavier than those of others, and as war- 
 ranting us to cry, in the language of Jerusalem, 
 " Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like 
 unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, where- 
 with the Lord hath afflicted me ! " that can only 
 foster a rebellious spirit. It is not wise to forget 
 that our blessings are loans from God; and that 
 when we lose them, whether husband, wife, or 
 child, health or wealth, fame or fortune, their 
 owner but resumes His own, otherwise we shall 
 be ready to regard God as a robber, rather than 
 to render Him the gratitude due to a most boun- 
 tiful benefactor. It is not wise to cling too closely 
 to the living, else we shall some day be found 
 embracing the dead. We are to inquire whether 
 God has any controversy with us, whether He 
 is not rebuking idolatry by destroying our idols, 
 still it is not wise to regard our trials as being 
 
30 REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 certainly expressions of His wrath : it were a 
 great mistake to fancy that the goldsmith is dis- 
 satisfied with the gold he burns or the lapidary 
 with the diamond he grinds, or the gardener with 
 the tree he prunes. On the contrary, the metal 
 is cast into the furnace, and the gem is ground 
 on the wheel, and the tree bleeds beneath the 
 knife, not because they are little, but because 
 they are much esteemed. It is not wise to meet 
 trials in our own strength ; on the contrary, when 
 they advance with threatening front let us run to 
 God, and lay hold on Him ; as, at the cry " Hold 
 on," sailors seize rope, mast, shrouds, or bulwark, 
 when the curling wave rises at their bows, and, 
 bursting, sweeps the deck ; and but for their hold 
 would sweep them overboard, into a watery grave. 
 I need not say that it is not wise it is madness, 
 it is misery in this world, and damnation in the 
 next, to fly from grief to the intoxicating bowl. 
 I don't say that it is unnatural. Tell the drown- 
 ing man it is but a floating straw, a poor rotten 
 twig he seizes, yet he clutches at it, grasps it ; 
 and when all God's billows are going over men's 
 heads, those who have not comfort in God will 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 31 
 
 seek it elsewhere, anywhere. Men have fled to the 
 wine-cup to drown reflection ; and I have heard 
 a poor, wretched mother, the slave of drinking, 
 trace her habits to domestic trials, to the desola- 
 tion death had made in her home and heart. 
 Miserable refuge ! Job's friends, indeed, are these 
 stimulants beer, wine, spirits : " Miserable com- 
 forters are ye all I" Yet, as the wise man says, 
 "They drink to forget their poverty, and remember 
 their misery no more." By all means fly from 
 sorrow to the bosom of God : but to fly from sor- 
 row into the arms of sin is an awful illustration of 
 the common adage, "An unsanctified affliction is 
 the worst of all afflictions " and also of the pro- 
 phet's question : " Why should ye be stricken 
 any more ? ye will revolt more and more." 
 
 There is great need of wisdom under trials ; to 
 be enlightened as well as supported by the grace 
 of God, and in the Holy Ghost to have a Coun- 
 sellor as well as Comforter. With all thy getting 
 get wisdom wisdom to trace your trials to the 
 Hand above ; to bear them so that you may 
 glorify God in the fires ; to improve them, so that 
 you may get the good intended, and be more 
 
32 REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 than indemnified for their heaviest sufferings. The 
 honey of the bee is an excellent antidote to its 
 sting ; and what comfort under trials like feeling 
 that we are the better of them ? Has not many 
 a dark cloud, that in the distance lightened and 
 thundered, and filled us with alarm, broke in bless- 
 ings on our head leaving us, as, passing away, it 
 showed the bright bow of the covenant on its back, 
 to say, " It is good for me that I was afflicted : 
 before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have 
 I kept thy word." " Right are thy judgments, O 
 Lord ; in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me ! " 
 " Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, 
 shall work out for us a far more exceeding, even 
 an eternal weight of glory/' 
 
 Next, Of whom we are to ask wisdom. 
 
 Of God, who giveth liberally and upbraideth 
 not ! If we want money, w r e go to the bank ; 
 water, we go to the well ; medicine, we go to the 
 physician ; and who wants divine blessings, mercy 
 to pardon, or grace to help, is to go to God " He 
 giveth liberally." 
 
 Did you ever stand in a bright summer day by 
 the black swirling pool at the foot of a waterfall, 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 33 
 
 and look up to the top of the cascade, where, 
 scattering its liquid beads, like sparkling diamonds, 
 it sprang boldly out from the rock into the air ? 
 How ceaseless the flow ! and with its snowy foam 
 ever flashing in the light of day, and its deep, 
 solemn voice, in that lone glen, ever praising God 
 through the hours of night what an image does 
 it offer of the stream of mercies that are con- 
 tinually falling on us from the bountiful hand of 
 God! 
 
 The Scriptures employ other, and indeed many 
 images of God's affluent bounty. God himself 
 says, " I will be as the dew unto Israel" but 
 there are cloudy skies and breezy nights when no 
 dew falls, emblem of divine bounty, to hang gems 
 on every bush, and sow the fields with " orient 
 pearls." Again it is said : " He shall come down 
 like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that 
 water the earth" but there are days and weeks 
 without a drop of rain. Again it is said, " I will 
 pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods 
 upon the dry ground" but it is only on rare occa- 
 sions that the river, swollen by many a tributary, 
 comes down red and roaring, and, overflowing all 
 
34 REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 its banks, turns every wooded knoll into an island, 
 and green valleys into inland seas. But, is there 
 ever a month, a week, a day, an hour, a moment, a 
 single moment, when from thy blessed and boun- 
 tiful hand, O God ! mercies are not falling in 
 showers thick as the rain-drops that shimmer in 
 sunlight on the water, or as the snow-flakes that 
 fill the wintry air ! 
 
 He giveth liberally, and He giveth constantly ; 
 and, if He pours such affluence of blessings on all 
 men, even on His enemies, even on those that 
 trample the mercies, as they trample the snows, of 
 heaven under their foul, guilty feet, what may not 
 His own, His chosen people, expect ? Will He 
 deny His fathership when they, His children, His 
 own loving children, repair to Him with wounds 
 to stanch, with cheeks to dry, with bruised or 
 broken hearts to bind, with cries like these Father, 
 help me, I am weak ! Lift me up, I have fallen ! 
 Forgive me, I have sinned ! Save, oh, save me, I 
 perish ! How have I seen a poor wandering 
 vagrant, when her child, footsore and weary, had 
 sunk, crying, on the road, true to a mother's love, 
 take up the creature in her arms, and, shifting 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 35 
 
 its burden to her own back, trudge on her weary 
 way ? And what may not you, groaning undei 
 your burdens, hope for from Him, who is as much 
 greater than we in love, as in the wisdom that 
 planned, and the power that built this glorious 
 universe ? You know what are your thoughts and 
 ways to a darling child that is withering away like 
 a delicate flower, over whose couch you hang in 
 anxious solicitude, for whom you have prayed in 
 agony, and whose young life you would purchase 
 at the price of all your fortune ! Hear, then, what 
 God says : " My ways and my thoughts to you, are 
 as far above your ways and thoughts to it, as the 
 heavens are above the earth." I have known a 
 mother who trod the great city's streets, with 
 weary steps and broken heart, the long night 
 through, searching every house and den of infamy 
 to find her lost one. She found her. Clasping 
 the unholy thing to her virtuous bosom, locking 
 her in close embraces, to win the wanderer back, 
 how did she promise her every pleasure of home, 
 with these hands to toil and work for her, never to 
 cast up her sins, nor speak an upbraiding word ? 
 and these yearnings of a mother's heart, what were 
 
36 REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 they, but, if I might say so, a spark struck from 
 divinity a drop out of the ocean of love that fills 
 the bosom of an infinite God ! 
 
 " He upbraideth not/ 1 You are unworthy ; you 
 have abused my kindness ; chanty is wasted on 
 you ; I am tired of helping you ; patience is ex- 
 hausted ; you come too often ; you ask too much 
 such language never fell from the lips of God. 
 I have often seen a shivering, ragged child, or a 
 widow, in brown and rusty weeds, with an ema- 
 ciated infant in her bosom, timidly knocking at a 
 rich man's door, to have it, as soon as it was 
 opened and they were seen, shut rudely in their 
 face. And while I thought how ill it would be for 
 them were God, in their hour of need on a bed of 
 death, or at a bar of judgment to deal with them 
 as they deal with others, it was blessed to think 
 that the door of mercy is shut in no man's face ; 
 that God's heart is shut against no man's misery ; 
 that God's hand is shut against no man's need ; 
 that God's eye is shut to no man's danger ; that 
 God's ear is shut to no man's prayer. " He giveth 
 liberally, and upbraideth not." Appearing in 
 human form, and speaking through the voice of 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 37 
 
 His beloved Son, He stands up there at the wide- 
 open door of heaven, crying, " Come unto Me, all 
 ye that labour, and are heavy laden ;" be your 
 burden sins or sorrows, be your load grief or guilt, 
 Come unto me, and I will give you rest ; Cast thy 
 burden on the Lord and He will sustain it ; Open 
 thy mouth wide and He will fill it. 
 
 Again, How we are to ask. 
 
 With faith, nothing wavering ! 
 
 The pendulum of a time-piece is in constant 
 motion, yet it makes no progress, because it has no 
 sooner swung a certain way to one side, than it 
 swings as far to the other. In like manner, as you 
 may know by watching the floating weed, or the 
 foam-bells that whiten it, or the boat that rides on 
 its back the mass of water that forms a wave 
 makes no progress. Impelled by the wind, the 
 wave advances, but not the water of which it is 
 formed. If the water did, it would bear yonder 
 drowning wretch to the shore ; nor merely leave 
 the wave, passing under, to raise his head to catch 
 a sight of the blessed land, and then, rolling away 
 to break on the beach, leave him to perish. And 
 so, alas ! will it be with many, who are not alto- 
 
38 REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 gather insensible to religious impressions, who may 
 even be easily affected by such influences as a 
 sermon, the solemnities of a death-bed, the heaving 
 swell of a revival ; and being so, imagine them- 
 selves on the way to heaven, just as many careless 
 observers imagine because the wave goes shore- 
 ward, the water also does. 
 
 As employed by St James to describe certain 
 characters, the wave is a most felicitous figure. 
 Look at a boat floating on the sea, at high or low 
 water, when the tide, out or in, and on the turn, 
 has ceased to run ; or watch a boat away amid the 
 swell of a mountain lake when the wind, retiring 
 to its caves among the hills, has roared itself to 
 rest ! It is in constant motion between earth and 
 heaven now mounting to the top of the billow, 
 and now sinking out of sight in the trough of the 
 sea ; yet with all this violent action, heaving, toss- 
 ing, rolling, the skiff does not make an inch of way, 
 but continues to ride over the self-same spot. Too 
 true a figure of many professing Christians ! Va- 
 cillating not hypocrites, but through the influence 
 of opposing motives double-minded, and therefore 
 unstable, heaven now seems to draw them upward, 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 39 
 
 and then again earth draws them down now, fol- 
 lowing Christ, they cry, with the young ruler, 
 " Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life ? " 
 and then, with their backs turned on Him, they are 
 leaving Him ; sorrowful, perhaps, but still leaving 
 Him now they are casting sin away from them, 
 and by and by they are locked in her foul em- 
 braces now they are fighting the Philistines, and 
 ere long you find them sound asleep in Delilah's 
 lap now full of alarm, in fear of hell, pricked to 
 the heart, their conscience awake, bent on being 
 saved, they make a rush for heaven, and their foot 
 is on the door-step " they are not far from the 
 kingdom of heaven;" but a cross lies on the 
 threshold, and stumbling on that they fall fall 
 back into sin ; and the last state of that man is 
 perhaps worse than the first. One day they seem 
 to serve Christ, and certainly serve their lusts the 
 next. They don't want to lose heaven, yet they 
 cannot part with earth. Often starting up in their 
 sleep, like one disturbed by horrid dreams, they are 
 ever falling back again into slumber ; and thus, 
 equally affected by opposite influences, they are 
 like a wave of the sea, rising and falling, now mov- 
 
40 REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 ing heavenward, now earthward driven with the 
 wind and tossed. Well, of a life spent in such un- 
 steady efforts after what is good in sinning to- 
 day, and repenting to-morrow what is to be the 
 issue ? It comes to nothing ; like a door moving 
 on its hinges, they make no progress ; and the fate 
 of their hopes, when death throws them on another 
 world, is foreshadowed by the wave, that, launched 
 on an iron-bound shore, bursts into froth and foam* 
 The end of these things is death. 
 
 Who, dying, would go to glory, who would be 
 redeemed from sin and hell, who would secure a 
 saving interest in Christ, who would have strength 
 to endure trial, and stand its buffetings, as a rock 
 stands the blows of waves, must have his heart 
 steadily, resolutely, firmly fixed on divine things. 
 " No man having put his hand to the plough, and 
 looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven." 
 Pray for unwavering faith, a strong as Jabez 
 Bunting, when dying, said, an obstinate faith in 
 God. Seek such faith as not only lays hold of 
 Him, but holds Him and won't let Him go ; that 
 has the grasp of a drowning man. Seek a faith 
 greater than Joshua's, when, laying its hand on the 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 41 
 
 sun, he held it back from going on ; a faith like 
 Jacob's, who, strange as it seems, held God from 
 going away, as, endowed with superhuman energy, 
 he wrestled the night through with an angel, and, 
 the stronger of the two, prevailed replying to the 
 prayer, Let me go, for the day breaketh, I will not 
 let thee go, unless thou bless me. 
 
 Were this too bold a freedom to take with God ? 
 No ! We have " boldness to enter into the holiest 
 by the blood of Jesus." It is the boldness of the 
 little child that, unabashed by any one's presence, 
 climbs his father's knee, and throws his arms 
 around his neck or, bursting into his room, breaks 
 in on his busiest hours, to have a bleeding finger 
 bound, or some childish tears kissed away ; that 
 says if any threaten or hurt him, I will tell my 
 father ; and, however he might tremble to sleep 
 alone, fears neither ghosts, nor man, nor darkness, 
 nor devils, if he lies couched at his father's side. 
 Such confidence, bold as it seems, springs from 
 trust in a father s love ; and pleases rather than 
 offends us. Well, then, if you that are evil have 
 such hearts, and know how to give good gifts to 
 your children, how much more will our heavenly 
 
42 REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 Father give the Holy Spirit, all, everything they 
 need, to them who ask asking with faith, nothing 
 wavering ! 
 
 Hope, as well as prayer, opens a welcome refuge 
 to the good man in times of trial. " Blessed is he 
 that endureth temptation, for when he is tried he 
 shall receive the crown of life which the Lord 
 hath promised to them that love him." Here, how 
 true is the common proverb: "All is well that 
 ends well." It is not, Blessed is he that hath no 
 trials, whose heart they never wrung ; whose tears 
 never flowed ; whose brightest prospects were 
 never clouded ; whose dearest hopes never lay 
 withered and scattered like autumn leaves, on 
 life's rough and rugged path ; who never entered 
 the fiery furnace, nor trod the swelling flood. He 
 is blessed who endureth temptation ; stands the 
 test; bears his burden well; glorifies God in the 
 fires, and comes forth shining like gold from a 
 refiner's furnace. Every wave of trouble lifts him 
 but higher on the Rock of Ages wafts him nearer 
 to the heavenly shore. 
 
 Let the downcast lift their heads, and look up- 
 ward and forward! For the joy set before Him, 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 43 
 
 Jesus endured the cross and despised the shame. 
 And He says, Learn of me ; overleap the narrow 
 bounds of a few short years, and what shall your 
 present sorrow be but the morning's recollection 
 of a disagreeable dream ! The days of your 
 mourning shall be ended your cross exchanged 
 for a shining crown. I have heard one say, as he 
 bent over a friend who was groaning under the 
 surgeon's knife, It will soon be over ! and so Jesus, 
 with tender fellow-feeling for their infirmities, con- 
 soles His suffering people. Amid your trials, 
 think of that they will soon be over ; sooner, 
 perhaps, than you fancy. Your salvation, not only 
 nearer than when you believed, may be nearer 
 than you suppose ; even now the cry may be 
 sounding in heaven Room for another saint! a 
 crown for another head ! and the next turn of the 
 road may bring you in front of the gates of glory. 
 Whatever be your cross, don't keep, with down- 
 cast head, looking at it ; but raise your eyes to the 
 crown that hangs yonder in heaven beyond the 
 grave. When grim death comes, see it glittering 
 bright behind his awful form ; nor fear the King 
 of Terrors. Constructed of bands of metal and 
 
44 REFUGE IN TRIAL. 
 
 bits of stone, and doomed to perish in the wreck 
 of all things, other crowns grace the brows of 
 dying men ; they are borne in the procession that 
 carries a king to his grave and, in mockery of the 
 royal pageant, the heads that wore them are laid, 
 ' low as a beggar's, in the dusty tomb. But this is 
 a crown of life. Immortals wear it, and it is itself 
 immortal "a crown of glory that fadeth not 
 away." And how will that moment swallow up 
 all memory of the sorrows of earth, when, led by 
 angels, or a father or mother, within the brilliant 
 circle where you recognise the glorified forms of 
 long-lost friends, you stand before the throne ; and, 
 bending low your head, receive, amid the plaudits 
 of the sky, this crown at the hand of Jesus. 
 
 And what shall heaven see there and then ? 
 Life crowning love ! not Merit, that stands proud 
 and panting at the goal; not Success, that has 
 filled the world with famous deeds ; not Learning, 
 that has explored all the mysteries of knowledge, 
 human and divine ; not Prophecy, with her many 
 tongues ; not even Faith, grasping the cross ; nor 
 clear-eyed Hope, with her hand on the anchor, 
 and her gaze on heaven ; but Love, the true queen 
 
REFUGE IN TRIAL. 45 
 
 of graces. She who, when Faith seemed to lose 
 hold of Christ, and Hope to lose sight of heaven, 
 still clung to Jesus ; and, refusing to part with 
 Him, said, Entreat me not to leave thee, nor to 
 return from following after thee ; where thou goest 
 I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge. 
 Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ, says St Paul ; and 
 I say, thanks be to God, who bestows the crown 
 of life on those that love Him ; and can say, 
 Though I have not honoured thee, nor served 
 thee, nor followed thee, nor fought for thee, nor 
 wrought for thee, nor suffered nor sacrificed for 
 thee, as I should have done, yet, " Lord, thou that 
 knowest all things, knowest that I love thee." 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 "Let no man say 'when he is tempted\ 
 J am tempted of God: for God can 
 not be tempted with evil, neither 
 tempteth he any man : but every 
 man is tempted, when he is drawn 
 away of his own lust, and etiticed. 
 Then when lust hath conceived, it 
 bringeth forth sin: and sin, when 
 it is finished, bringeth forth 
 death." ST JAMES i. 13-15. 
 
 of the highest flights of Milton's poetry 
 is his story of the encounter between Satan 
 and the porters of the gate of hell : 
 
 " Before the gates there sat 
 On either side a formidable shape ; 
 The one seem'd woman to the waist, and fair j 
 But ended foul in many a scaly fold, 
 Voluminous and vast ; a serpent ann'd 
 With mortal sting; the other shape, 
 If shape it might be call'd, that shap^ had none, 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 47 
 
 Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb ; 
 
 Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd, 
 
 For each seem'd either ; black it stood as night, 
 
 Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as hell, 
 
 And shook a dreadful dart ; what seem'd his head, 
 
 The likeness of a kingly crown had on." 
 
 The monster, thus graphically described, ad- 
 vances with horrid strides to bar Satan's pas- 
 sage. Incensed at its presumption, and fearing no 
 created thing, he prepares, with arms, to force his 
 way. Like two dark clouds charged with thun- 
 ders, they approach each other Satan resolved 
 to be out, this grizzly terror resolved to keep 
 him in : 
 
 " And now great deeds 
 
 Had been achieved, whereof all hell had rung, 
 Had not the snaky sorceress, that sat 
 Fast by hell-gate, and kept the fatal key, 
 Risen, and, with hideous outcry rush'd between. 
 ' O father, what intends thy hand,' she cried, 
 ' Against thy only son ? What fury, O son, 
 Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart 
 Against thy father's head ? ' " 
 
 Having thrown herself between the combatants, 
 and stayed their fury, in a tale which the poet's 
 fancy has woven out of a passage in the Epistle of 
 St James, this creature, half fair woman, half scaly 
 serpent, proceeds to explain herself. Addressing 
 
48 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 her words to Satan, she tells him how her name 
 is Sin and how, at the time of the great revolt 
 in heaven, she sprung, a goddess armed, from his 
 pain-split head and how, pregnant by him, when 
 cast out of the celestial spheres, and sent to keep 
 watch at the gates of hell, amid parturient pangs 
 she gave birth to a son, who 
 
 " Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart, 
 Made to destroy. I fled, and cried out, Death ! 
 Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd 
 From all her caves, and back resounded, Death ! " 
 
 In this grand fashion John Milton illustrates 
 these weighty sayings, " Let no man say when he 
 is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God can- 
 not be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he 
 any man : but every man is tempted, when he 
 is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 
 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth 
 sin : and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth 
 death." 
 
 Now, leaving the poet to soar away, singing on 
 wings sublime, let us descend, and take a practical 
 view of the temptations with which every good 
 man has to contend. 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 49 
 
 Reflect on the importance of this subject. 
 
 An example of "much in little," the Ten Com- 
 mandments embrace the whole duty of man. 
 An example also of " much in little," the Lord's 
 Prayer, in a few heads, sums up all that we should 
 pray for. It contains but seven petitions ; and 
 how large the subject of temptation bulked in our 
 Lord's eye, and how important therefore it should 
 seem in ours, is to be gathered from the circum- 
 stance, that it forms the subject of one of these 
 seven. You may guess the rank and conse- 
 quence of a man by the society that he moves 
 in, and here the subject of temptation appears 
 in the highest company. It is classed with sub- 
 jects that engage the intellects of angels, that 
 concern God's glory, and that are identified both 
 with our present, and with our eternal welfare. 
 If it occupied the same proportion of man's life, 
 a seventh part of all our thoughts, our cares, 
 and our time, would be given to it to resisting 
 temptation ; avoiding it ; fighting it ; guarding 
 against the sins it may lead to, as well as mourn- 
 ing and seeking the forgiveness of those it has 
 
 led to. 
 
 D 
 
50 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 If the temptations that beset and assail us do 
 not occupy such a place in our thoughts and lives 
 for they give some men no trouble that ad- 
 mits of an obvious but melancholy explanation. 
 It is not, that the man who is without regrets, 
 anxieties, daily and hourly struggles, is a better 
 man than he w r ho has "fightings without and 
 fears within/' It is not that he is holy ; never 
 tempted ; or that he never yields to temptation. 
 On the contrary, it is because he, unresisting, 
 yields to it. What more pleasant and easy than 
 the motion of a vessel that, gliding down the 
 stream, is borne onwards to the cataract that shall 
 hurl it to destruction ? But bring the boat's 
 head round, and a struggle begins ; peace is gone 
 now; she trembles from stem to stern; and by 
 her violent plunges, the waves that break over her 
 bows, and, shaking every timber, threaten to 
 ingulf her, you know the power and presence of 
 a current that had been quietly wafting her on 
 to ruin. 
 
 Thus it is with man and temptation, so soon 
 as he is converted. No sooner is peace with God, 
 through Christ, settled, than war is proclaimed ; 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 and the man involved in its arduous and life-long 
 struggles. I have seen one that had grown gray 
 in the army, and yet had never been under fire ; 
 or seen the serried bayonets glance, but on 
 parade. The Captain of our salvation has no 
 such soldiers ; His have given and suffered many 
 wounds ; and have all a sore fight of it. This 
 conflict begins with conversion, and if I might 
 borrow an illustration from heathen fables, the 
 infant Hercules has to strangle serpents in his 
 cradle. So soon as a man is new-born, and turns 
 his face heavenward, he has hell to confront 
 and fight with. And, besides the devil and his 
 angels, besides the world and its seductive influ- 
 ences, in passions that he has lodged in his breast, 
 and fed by long indulgence into strength, it may 
 be said that " his enemies are the men of his own 
 house." And such in number and in power are 
 the temptations with which a good man has to 
 contend, that no Christian will think the language 
 of David extravagant : " They compassed me 
 about ; they compassed me about like bees. My 
 soul is among lions ; and I lie even among them 
 that are set on fire." Nay, there are times, and 
 
52 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 terrible temptations, when, in the language of a 
 psalm, part, and some suppose all, of which our 
 Lord repeated on His cross, he may be ready 
 to cry, " Many bulls have compassed me : strong 
 bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They 
 gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening 
 and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, 
 and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is 
 like wax. My strength is dried up like a pot- 
 sherd : thou hast brought me into the dust of 
 death ; for dogs have compassed me. O Lord, 
 my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my 
 soul from the sword; my darling from the power 
 of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth; hear 
 me from the horns of the unicorns." 
 
 If these figures are appropriate, how formid- 
 able are our temptations ! It might seem im- 
 possible that victory could crown our arms in 
 a war waged against enemies that swarm thick 
 as bees ; that are strong as bulls, and fierce as 
 ravening lions. Yet, hear what God says : "Thou 
 shalt tread on the lion and adder, the young lion 
 and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot ;" 
 and hear Paul, as, calmly descending into the vale 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 53 
 
 of death, he goes, singing, like a brave old war- 
 rior "I have fought the good fight, I have 
 finished my course, I have kept the faith. Here- 
 after there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
 ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall 
 give me at that day." Nor is that all pro- 
 claiming equal triumphs through the same grace 
 to others, he adds, " and not to me only, but to 
 all who love his appearing." Let the good man 
 be assured that his victory over temptation is 
 certain, if he goes about it aright. It turns much 
 on prayer. Thrown into the scale, that decides 
 the battle ; drawing on divine strength, that 
 makes little Davids more than a match for giant 
 sins. What devil is there but may be cast out 
 by prayer and fasting ? 
 
 Yet, prayer is not enough. Like our fathers 
 when they conquered the English at Bannock- 
 burn, or the English when they conquered the 
 French at Cressy, we are to rise from our knees; 
 to stand up and fight ; to quit us like men ; 
 "having done all," to stand. We are to put on 
 the whole armour of God ; and, since we know 
 neither when nor where the adversary may 
 
54 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 assault us, we are never to put it off. Live and 
 die in harness using such precautions, as some 
 say Cromwell did against the assassin's dagger 
 his dress concealed a shirt of mail : and in the 
 council-chamber, at the banquet, in courts as in 
 camps, he wore that always. To his workshop, 
 the counting-room, the social circle, the market, 
 the place of business, the scenes of his most in- 
 nocent enjoyments, let a good man go, as the 
 peasant of the East goes to his plough. With 
 larks singing in blue skies above his head, and 
 daisies, bathed in dew springing at his feet, and 
 feathered flocks from sounding shore and noisy 
 woods wheeling round, and feeding in the fur- 
 rows behind him, our ploughman, void of care, 
 and fearless of danger, whistles at his work ; but 
 yonder, where fiery Bedouins scour the land, and 
 bullets whistling from the bush nray suddenly call 
 he peasant to drop the ox-goad and fly to arms, 
 the sun glances on other iron than the plough- 
 share a sword hangs at his thigh, and a gun is 
 slung at his back. 
 
 To pray, to fight, are important; but not less 
 important if we would have no man take our 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 55 
 
 crown, and, resisting, overcome temptation, is a 
 right understanding of its springs and sources. 
 The physician is most likely to cure disease who 
 has discovered its seat and nature ; while the 
 patient dies in the hands of him who prescribes 
 for the head, when it is the heart that is diseased. 
 To save a ship from sinking, we must find the 
 leak. Temptations, like noxious weeds, are best 
 killed by putting the knife to their root ; nor 
 will the stream of our thoughts, and wishes, and 
 desires ever be sanctified till the salt, as at Jeri- 
 cho, is cast in at the spring. Let us see, there- 
 fore, where the springs and sources of sin lie. 
 
 The source of temptation is not in God. 
 
 The apostle St James is clear on this point. 
 He says, " Let no man say, when he is tempted, 
 I am tempted of God ; for God cannot be 
 tempted with .evil, neither tempteth he any 
 man." 
 
 In the mountains of the Black Forest an extra- 
 ordinary appearance is occasionally seen. With 
 the sun just rising at your back, you look across 
 the valley on the curtain of mist that, hung from 
 the skies, falls in rolling folds on the opposite hill ; 
 
56 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 and there, wearing a faint halo round his head, 
 stands the giant spectre of the mountains a colos- 
 sal form of vast proportions, looking as if, at one 
 bound, he could leap from hill to hill, and tearing 
 up oaks and rocks, hurl them at the head of his 
 enemies. The terror of superstitious peasants, the 
 origin of many a wild, unearthly legend, this is a 
 mere vision a shadow without substance. It has 
 no reality. Observed to bend or stand erect, to 
 move a limb or arm after him, to repeat every 
 motion of the spectator, it is nothing more than his 
 own form, immensely magnified ; and projected on 
 the cloud, like the pictures of a magic lantern on 
 its screen. Such pictures on the mind's fancy were 
 the pagan deities ; the object of the heathen's 
 worship, whether Baal, or Jupiter, or Venus, or 
 Mars, or Bacchus, being but a projection of the 
 man himself on the field of fancy, with the faculties 
 and passions of humanity all immensely magnified. 
 A strange mixture, like himself, of vices and of 
 virtues, they illustrate the words of God, Thou 
 thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as 
 thou art; and thus formed, these gods were 
 tempted with evil, and with evil tempted men. 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 57 
 
 Importing this idea of heathenism, or perhaps 
 misunderstanding the Scriptures, where God, ac- 
 cording to an Eastern idiom, is said to do what in 
 fact He but permits to be done as when it is said 
 that He "hardened Pharaoh's heart," it appears 
 that in the days of the apostle St James, some 
 accused God of sin ; alleging, in excuse of their 
 sins, that they were tempted of Him. We shrink 
 with horror from such an idea. "Their rock is 
 not as our Rock." Time casts its stains on the 
 purest snow, and the sun shines not undimmed 
 by spots ; but we bow in the dust before God, 
 as a being of ineffable purity and infinite holi- 
 ness. More shocked than if we heard some foul 
 crime imputed to parents we venerate and love, 
 we recoil from the thought that He before whom 
 angels stand veiled and in whose eyes even the 
 heavens are not clean, could either be Himself 
 tempted to commit sin, or could tempt any to 
 commit it. 
 
 Yet what many would not directly, they indi- 
 rectly lay at God's door in the attempt to excuse 
 themselves, accusing Him. Look, for example, 
 at Adam's answer to the question, Hast thou 
 
58 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 eaten of the tree ? Summoned from his hiding- 
 place, standing beside the blushing partner of his 
 guilt, overwhelmed by strange terrors, trembling 
 in every limb, the prey of anguish and remorse, 
 had his tongue, cleaving to the roof of his mouth, 
 refused to do its office, we should not have been 
 astonished. But he replies ; and his answer be- 
 trays cunning rather than confusion. How mean 
 and dastardly, how base and selfish and hateful, 
 has sin made this once noble creature ! How are 
 the mighty fallen ! See him trying to turn over 
 on his poor wife the whole vengeance of an angry 
 God ! He attempts to save himself, and leave her 
 to bear the brunt of it ; hers is the guilt ; she is 
 the temptress. Hear him : " The woman, she 
 gave me and I did eat." Nor is that all ; nor 
 "the front of his offending." More, and worse 
 still, he divides the blame between her and God. 
 It is not simply, " the woman gave me and I did 
 eat," but "the woman that tliou gavest me, she 
 gave me, and I did eat ;" a serpent in my bosom, 
 I got her from thee ; the circumstances in which 
 thou didst place me, more than my own fault, are 
 answerable for my sin. "The woman that tJiou 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 59 
 
 gavest me ! " What was this but a covert way of 
 accusing God ; a bold insinuation that God, not 
 he, was to blame for the Fall; an excuse, that, 
 like all our apologies for sin, adds insult to injury ; 
 and but aggravates the offence ? 
 
 I do not fancy any are so bold and bad as of 
 deliberate intent to lay the guilt of their crimes on 
 God. Yet what else, in fact, do they, who make 
 a scapegoat of their circumstances attributing 
 their sins to constitutional temperament, or to the 
 headlong power of their passions, or to the diffi- 
 culties of their position, or to the suddenness or 
 the strength of their trials ? These apologies, 
 whether offered to men, or used to allay guilty 
 fears, and quiet an uneasy conscience, throw the 
 blame of sin on Providence ; and to throw the 
 blame of it on Providence, is to throw it upon 
 God. Excuses such as these but add to our 
 guilt. They may now satisfy, or rather stupify 
 our conscience, but they shall stand us in no 
 stead at the bar of Him who neither tempts 
 nor is tempted. He has left us without excuse. 
 Assured that God will not suffer any, that seek 
 Him, to be tempted above that they are able to 
 
60 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 bear, but will with the temptation also make a 
 way of escape, we are without excuse ; but not 
 without a remedy. Blessed be God ! the blood of 
 Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. 
 
 The source of temptation is in ourselves. 
 
 " Every man is tempted when he is drawn away 
 of his own lust, and enticed." 
 
 If you apply a magnet to the end of a needle 
 that courses freely on its pivot, the needle, affected 
 by a strange attraction, approaches as if it loved 
 it. Reverse the order, apply the magnet now to 
 the opposite end to the other pole, and the 
 needle shrinks away, trembling, as if it did not 
 love, but hated it. So it is with temptation. One 
 man rushes into the arms of vice ; another recoils 
 from them with horror. Joseph starts back, say- 
 ing, How can I do this great wickedness, and sin 
 against God ? What is loved by one, is loathsome 
 in another's eyes ; and according as the nature it 
 addresses is holy or unholy, temptation attracts or 
 repels ; gives pain or pleasure ; is loved or hated. 
 It is our corrupt and evil passions that give its 
 power to temptation. These are the combustibles 
 it fires ; the quick and fiery powder, that a spark 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 6l 
 
 which a dewdrop had quenched, flashes into an 
 explosion. 
 
 In their visits to our world, the angels were 
 exposed to temptation; but what harm did they 
 suffer ? None. Amidst widespread contagion, 
 they never were infected ; nor, as people import 
 the plague from other countries, did they take sin 
 away with them on their return to heaven, and 
 spread the deadly pestilence in that sinless land. 
 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes 
 not be burned ? True ; yet angels suffered no- 
 thing from coming in contact with sinners ; but 
 passed among them as unstained as the sunbeam 
 of their heavens through the murky air of our 
 smoky cities. Like a flower that, brought from 
 breezy hill or open moor, pines away amid the 
 pent-up and poisoned atmosphere of our towns, 
 Lot's graces were blighted by his residence in 
 Sodom ; it corrupted him, but not his heavenly 
 visitors. True, it may be said that, since our un- 
 happy fall, the stay of angels in our world has 
 been brief, and that sin had no time to affect their 
 constitution that the leaven had no time to work. 
 But time is of no account in their case ; nor would 
 
 ^s 
 
 >* OF rag^C^s 
 
 W T tr la r 
 
62 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 it be in ours if the Fall had not furnished occasion 
 to cry, How is the gold become dim ; how is the 
 most fine gold changed ? Pure gold may remain 
 in the fire a thousand years without loss of sub- 
 stance ; without contracting a single stain, or 
 losing an atom of its weight. The fire that turns 
 the oak into ashes, marble into dust, iron into rust, 
 has no power to destroy, or even injure, a metal 
 that shines but the brighter for the glowing flames. 
 Gold is therefore called, in the language of metal- 
 lurgy, a pet feet metal ; and were we perfect 
 perfect in holiness the only effect of life's fiery 
 trials would be, not to burn up, but to brighten 
 the features of God's image. Thus I believe no 
 angel ever descended on our world, but he re- 
 turned to his native heavens to abhor sin more ; 
 to hate it with a more perfect hatred ; and with 
 deeper, holier feelings to sing, as he resumed his 
 place in the shining ranks, and joined his fellows 
 in their song Holy, holy, holy, art thou, Lord 
 God Almighty, who was, and is, and art to come ! 
 
 Look at our Lord's case ! How clearly it shows 
 that temptation, however much to be dreaded by 
 us, is harmless, unless where it finds corruption 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 63 
 
 that the seed dies, unless it falls on a congenial 
 soil ! He lived among temptations for more than 
 thirty successive years. For more than thirty 
 years His holy manhood was in the fire ; and He 
 came out of it without stain or sin. The Lamb of 
 God, without spot or blemish, holy, harmless, 
 undefiled, He was among, and yet separate from, 
 sinners. A remarkable phenomenon this ! one 
 sinless among the sinful ; pure amid pollution ; a 
 faultless man, in whose chaste and placid bosom 
 temptation never kindled a wish, a thought, a 
 fancy that might not be exposed to the eyes 
 both of God and man. He himself explains the 
 wonder " The prince of this world cometh, and 
 hath nothing in me." 
 
 Who, therefore, would keep out of sin, should 
 give his chief attention to the state of his heart ; 
 ever praying w r ith David Create in me, O God, 
 a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me ! 
 Not that a good man will overlook the influence 
 of external circumstances, the temptations of his 
 position, or the character of his companions ; not 
 that we are ever to rush into temptation naked 
 into the battle ; or enter it without fear and trem- 
 
64 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 bling till we are perfect in holiness. Stand in 
 awe, and sin not. We cannot be too careful to 
 keep out of the reach of sin ; not to stand in the 
 way of sinners ; not to breathe pestilential air. 
 Bathe not in the brightest waters where sharks 
 are playing ! By prayer, by self-denial, by, as St 
 Paul did, keeping the body under, give sin no 
 hold of you. Imitate yon ancient wrestler, who, 
 laying aside his robes and ornaments, and all the 
 bravery of his attire, steps naked into the arena 
 limbs and body shining with slippery oil ; clos- 
 ing with an antagonist, whose hands, slipping on 
 the unctuous limbs, catch no firm hold, he heaves 
 him up to hurl him in the dust, and bear off the 
 palm honour won, less by his power than by his 
 wise precaution. If prevention is better than cure, 
 precaution is better than power; therefore ought 
 a good man ever to watch and pray that he enter 
 not into temptation ; his prayer, that which our 
 Lord has taught us, Lead us not into temptation 
 but deliver us from evil. 
 
 Our corrupt nature, acted on by temptation, is 
 the source of sin. 
 
 " Lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin." 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 65 
 
 The woman died because she ate of the tree : 
 and she ate of the tree because she lusted after its 
 fruit. In doing so, in the first instance, she toyed 
 with temptation a thing more dangerous than to 
 play with fire-arms. With an overweening confi- 
 dence in herself, she thought, perhaps, as many do, 
 that she might venture a certain way ; and, stop- 
 ping at her own pleasure, draw up though in 
 circumstances where poor reason is like the driver 
 pulling at the reins, when the coach, at the heels 
 of maddened and mastersome horses, is whirling 
 to an upset half-way down hill. Confidence in 
 one's self, giving presence of mind, is sometimes 
 of advantage; but never in those spiritual con- 
 flicts where strength is weakness ; and, as leading 
 us to fly from danger to the arms of God, weak- 
 ness is found to be strength. 
 
 The fatal mistake, which our mother committed, 
 lay in not taking alarm at the first sign of evil, 
 and in the first bad, wrong thought, the nascent 
 desire for a forbidden pleasure, crushing sin in the 
 egg putting her foot on the spark ; like Job, who 
 made a covenant with his eyes, shutting hers to 
 the tempting colour of the fruit ; stopping her 
 
66 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 ears to the talk of the cunning devil ; flying, as if 
 she had seen the serpent in its own proper shape, 
 with crest erect, and burning eyes, and form coiled 
 to spring flying with terror from the scene, call- 
 ing her husband Adam, calling God himself from 
 heaven to her help. 
 
 Beware, therefore, of evil in the buddings of 
 desire ! Whoever allow themselves to indulge in 
 evil imaginations or thoughts, are preparing them- 
 selves to commit the crimes they fancy. Desires 
 are the seed of deeds. Working in the dark, and 
 all the more dangerous that their progress, like a 
 miner's, is silent and unseen, they sap the walls of 
 virtue ; and thus the man of God is overthrown by 
 temptations that otherwise had broken on him, as 
 breaks the mountain billow on a front of rock. 
 May not the bad thoughts and fancies, that do 
 their work secretly and unsuspected within the re- 
 cesses of the heart, account for those sudden falls 
 and sins on the part of such good men as David, 
 that neither they, nor others, would have ever 
 dreamt of? The mischief is due less to the temp- 
 tation than to what preceded it and prepared 
 for it. You are walking, for example, through a 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 67 
 
 forest. Across your path, and on the ground lies, 
 stretched out in death, a mighty tree, tall and 
 strong fit mast to carry a cloud of canvas, and 
 bear unbent the strain of tempests. You put your 
 foot lightly on it ; and how great your surprise 
 when, breaking through the bark, it sinks deep 
 into the body of the tree a result much less 
 owing to the pressure of your foot, than to the 
 poisonous fungi and foul, crawling insects that had 
 attacked its core. They have left the outer rind 
 uninjured but hollowed out its heart. Take care 
 your heart is not hollowed out; and nothing left 
 you but the crust and shell of an empty profession. 
 Keep thy heart, therefore, with all diligence. 
 Give it your chief and most anxious attention. 
 Guard most sedulously, and cultivate most prayer- 
 fully that part of you where the true man lives ; 
 and which, unseen by any but God, neither incurs 
 the blame, nor wins the applauses of men. It 
 is in its inner chamber remote from the public 
 eye, that sins, and also noble deeds, are born : 
 there, the play of life is rehearsed ; and that per- 
 formed in fancy which is afterwards acted before 
 a thousand eyes ; there, God or Satan sits en- 
 
68 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 throned ; there, lie the deep, hidden fountains of 
 good or evil ; there, visited by angels, or haunted 
 by demons, is a little heaven or a little hell. Be 
 sure you keep it for God. Be thy body His 
 temple, and thy heart the secret shrine, where the 
 light of the Shechinah burns, and the holy law is 
 preserved, and good angels spread their wings over 
 the blood-besprinkled seat of mercy, and the spirit 
 of man, all alone, like the solitary High Priest 
 within the veil, holds closest intercourse with God. 
 Holiest of temples ! see that nothing enter or find 
 lodgment there that can hurt or defile. 
 
 The fruit of sin is death. 
 
 .(, What man is he that desireth life, and loveth 
 many days ? The Psalmist answers his own ques- 
 tion, and in the ordinary course of Providence 
 what rule so good as his to attain longevity, and 
 fall at mellow autumn like a shock of corn in 
 its season ? There is more truth in his answer, 
 though it be summed up in a single sentence, 
 than in whole volumes on medicine and the art 
 of preserving, or restoring health. What man, 
 desiring life, and loving many days, would, where 
 rosy infants play with hoary locks, see his children, 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 69 
 
 and his children's children ? Let him, says David, 
 depart from evil and do good. In the ruddy 
 cheek, and robust form, and elastic step, and 
 bounding health, and iron frame, and the long, 
 light-hearted, laughing, singing, happy years the 
 green old age which the early and continued prac- 
 tice of Christian virtues so often insures we have 
 still some links, some lingering vestiges of the old 
 marriage tie between a sinless and an endless life. 
 Death has passed on all men, because all have 
 sinned. And looking only at temporal death, 
 see how vice hurries multitudes into the grave 
 shortening their days, and rudely shaking out the 
 sands of life. Some four or five years, on an 
 average, darkly closes the life of such as seduced 
 become seducers ; and prowl our streets, like night 
 wolves, ravening for their prey. So perishes many 
 a sweet flower that a villain's hand did pluck ; 
 and, when it had lost its blooming attractions, 
 flung on the street to be trodden under foot as the 
 veriest, vilest weed. Is not the cup where the 
 wine conceals a serpent, and the vile dregs are 
 shame, and sorrow, and disease, offered to the 
 drunkard's lips by a grisly hand ? Immorality 
 
7O IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 wrecks more fortunes than adversity ; and bad 
 habits make more bankrupts than bad trade. Vice 
 supplies the greedy grave with more victims than 
 war more of our countrymen, directly or in- 
 directly, year by year, perish by the bottle than 
 fell in Britain's greatest and bloodiest battle ; more 
 cruel than old Time, she plucks the scythe from 
 his hands, and, with rapid step and long sweep, 
 mowing down the fairest flowers of the grass, she 
 cuts short the life of thousands he had spared for 
 years. Time " slays his thousands," but Vice her 
 " tens of thousands/' Many do not live out half 
 their days. Even when their sun does not go 
 down at noon, and life's lamp, not blown, is left 
 to burn out, how true of many are the words of 
 the Naamathite " His bones are full of the sin 
 of his youth, which shall be down with him in the 
 dust." While godliness is profitable for all things, 
 having the promise of the life that now is, as well 
 as of that which is to come, in the horrid diseases, 
 and in the many grim shapes of death which 
 follow the steps of vice, and form the train both 
 of Bacchus and of the Paphian queen, God brands 
 sin with the stamp of His high displeasure. 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 71 
 
 But here death does not carry our thoughts only 
 to the grave, but beyond the grave into eternity 
 down into the pit. It is a sad and awful thing 
 to see one struggling in the arms of death ; to 
 watch the light of life sinking in its socket, till, 
 sometimes with a dying flash, it expires ; to gaze 
 on the pale, silent, solemn, lifeless corpse ; to hear 
 the mould, from sexton's shovel, rattle hollow on 
 the coffin ; and when his spade has smoothed the 
 grassy turf, and uncovered mourners have paid 
 farewell honours to the dead, to leave a loved one 
 to moulder away into the dust of death. Yet 
 faith in Jesus can stand these trials. Soaring to 
 the heavens where the spirit has fled, anticipating 
 the hour when graves shall heave, and rending 
 tombs shall open for mortal to spring into immor- 
 tality, faith can go through the last parting as 
 friends, standing on the shore, wave hands and 
 handkerchiefs to the emigrants they are to follow 
 in the next ship ; and rejoin ere long in a better 
 land. But where there is no true faith in Christ, 
 and peace has never been made with God through 
 the blood of His cross, sins are finished in a more 
 dreadful death the second death eternal death 
 
72 IN TEMPTATION. 
 
 in those doleful regions where the dying never 
 die. " Rest for the weary ; " " There is no sorrow 
 there ;" these revival hymns are sung of another 
 land. Here is no rest for the weary ; the eye 
 never closes ; no sleep brings sweet forgetfulness ; 
 no hope ever whispers, It will soon be over; but 
 despair, with stony horror in her face, shakes her 
 snaky locks, and, gnashing her teeth, mutters, It 
 will never be over never ! 
 
 Looking at death under this aspect, on the brink 
 of the " horrible pit," I almost cease to wonder 
 that God gave up His Son to save us there is 
 something so dreadful in that doom. The reason- 
 ableness, as well as love of the Cross, is nowhere 
 seen so well as by the light of these lurid gleams ; 
 and where are seen so well the unreasonableness, 
 the folly, the mad insanity of all who put away 
 God's mercy, and day by day neglect this great 
 salvation ? Strong in the goodness of his cause, 
 with his back to the throne of God, and his foot 
 planted on the rock of truth, a man can stand 
 against the world ; who is supported by a Father's 
 hand, can stand erect beneath any load of sorrow ; 
 who has made his calling and election sure, can 
 
IN TEMPTATION. 73 
 
 stand unmoved by the approach of death, and 
 even urge him to hasten his tardy steps with the 
 eager voice and outstretched arms of a lover, cry- 
 ing, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly ! But who 
 shall be able to stand, and hear this doom pro- 
 nounced on his downcast head, Depart from me, 
 ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
 devil and his angels ? From that fate, Jesus died, 
 and is now willing now waits to save you. Haste 
 to the refuge ! Flee to His arms from the wrath 
 to come ! 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 "Pure religion and undefiled before 
 God and the Father is this. To visit 
 the fatherless and widows in their 
 affliction, and to keep himself un- 
 spotted from the world" ST 
 JAMES i. 27. 
 
 "^HE sky which, whether studded with stars 
 or hung in gold and purple, or one azure 
 field over which the sun wheels his glowing course, 
 presents always a glorious, occasionally a very 
 extraordinary appearance. Not one but two suns 
 are there ; and in the Arctic regions, as if to com- 
 pensate the long periods when their skies are left 
 to perpetual night, there are sometimes three 
 blazing away in brilliant rivalry, and shedding in- 
 crease of light on sparkling icebergs and the dreary 
 wastes of snow. Yet, though there were not 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 75 
 
 three but three hundred suns, only one of them 
 could be a true sun. The others, which are pro- 
 duced by a peculiar state of the atmosphere, being, 
 though bright, yet mere images, are analogous, to 
 borrow a familiar illustration, to the multiplied 
 candles that shine on the silvered facets of a re- 
 flector. As with these suns, so is it with the 
 various religious systems of the world. They are 
 many ; numbered not by units, but hundreds. 
 Almost every new country that voyagers have 
 discovered has, with new trees and new flowers 
 and new animals, presented a new form of faith. 
 The world has no building big enough to hold all 
 the gods that men do worship. Yet, though 
 greater in number, and much greater in essential 
 differences, than the races of mankind for, differ- 
 ing in colour and contour as the negro and the 
 white man do, they meet in Adam, God having 
 made of one blood all the families of the earth 
 among these many religions there is but one true ; 
 the rest are false false as the mock suns of an 
 Arctic sky. For as God is one, truth is one ; and 
 though the true may be separated from the false 
 by a line as sharp as the edge of a razor, still they 
 
76 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 stand as irreconcilable as if they were parted by 
 the whole distance of the poles. There are " lords 
 many, and gods many," yet but one true God; 
 even so there are many faiths and forms of reli- 
 gion, and yet but one " pure and undefiled before 
 God." 
 
 It has been said there are many ways of going 
 out of the world, and but one of coming into it ; 
 and it may be said there are many roads to hell, and 
 but one to heaven. No doubt, in St John's vision, 
 where the final state and place of the blessed was 
 represented as a glorious city, with streets of pure 
 gold, and walls built of precious gems, all shining 
 in light, that fell neither from sun nor moon, but 
 streamed out in dazzling effulgence from the throne 
 of God, he saw not one gate, but twelve. These 
 gates, each a pearl, and opening on streets of gold, 
 had a meaning. Standing open, and never shut by 
 day or night, they betoken the security enjoyed by 
 the blessed inhabitants ; and also how open heaven 
 has been made to every sinner who seeks it through 
 the blood of Christ. Approach it in the right way, 
 and whatever may have been your character, and 
 is your age, country, or condition, you are free to 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 77 
 
 enter unchallenged without let or hindrance. No 
 armed sentinels, as at earthly palaces, guard the 
 gates that invite alike the feet of prince and beggar 
 Whosoever believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ 
 shall not perish, but have everlasting life. But by 
 these twelve gates St John never meant that there 
 are as many different ways of getting into heaven. 
 This portion of sacred Scripture is a figure. It is 
 to be understood within limits ; and is no more to 
 be pushed too far than many of our Lord's para- 
 bles. There is but one way to the kingdom of 
 God to a state of grace in this world, and a state 
 of glory in the next. I, says Jesus, am the way, 
 the truth, the life ; not one of many ways, but the 
 one way. Come unto ;;2^, he also says, all ye that 
 labour and are heavy laden, and / will give you 
 rest ; and in perfect harmony with these declara- 
 tions is that of an apostle, " There is no name 
 given under heaven whereby man can be saved but 
 the name of Jesus." There is but one true religion 
 " pure and undefiled before God." 
 
 We have this religion in our Bible. There it 
 flows unadulterated and undefiled, fresh and pure 
 as it came from the upper spring. Let us draw it 
 
78 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 at this well not taking our faith from man or 
 minister, but directly from the word of God ; lest 
 it should be like water that acquires a poisonous 
 quality from the leaden pipes it flows through. 
 Yet though we have the true religion here, how 
 many mistake what religion is ; its real character ; 
 and in what its true life consists ! They fancy 
 themselves to be religious ; and that all is right 
 when all is wrong with them. There is a sense in 
 which he that doubteth is damned ; but are not 
 many damned just because they never doubt ? 
 They go on, satisfied with themselves ; not doubt- 
 ing but that they are on the right course, when 
 every step they take leads them further and fur- 
 ther astray. Sincere they may be, but it is not 
 enough to be sincere. Sincerity and zeal, as well 
 as ease of mind, and peace of conscience, may but 
 more surely seal their fatal, utter ruin. For it 
 stands to reason that the faster and further a man 
 goes, if he take the wrong direction at starting, he 
 goes but the further wrong : the more sail she car- 
 ries, the more steam she puts on, the greater the 
 impetus with which she takes the reef, the ship is 
 sooner and more surely wrecked. What need, 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 79 
 
 therefore, since there is but one safe course to 
 heaven, that we should often take soundings ! 
 Why was that noble steamer which was wrecked 
 some time ago on the coast of England lost ? 
 not simply because she was caught in the sea mist, 
 nor because she was often thrown out of her course 
 by porting her helm to avoid collisions, but from 
 false security for want of soundings ! They had 
 no doubt they were right, till the dreadful cry of 
 breakers and a sudden crash too late revealed their 
 danger. And if we would not make shipwreck of 
 the faith, nor run the risk of never discovering our 
 mistake till we find ourselves at the door of hell, or 
 stand at the bar of judgment, to hear with black 
 amazement the unexpected sentence, " Depart 
 from me, for I have never known you, ye 
 workers of iniquity/' we will try our religion 
 put it to the test see whether it is true reli- 
 gion, that which, to use the words of St James, 
 is " pure and undefiled before God and the 
 Father." 
 
 What, then, is the character of this religion ? 
 There are two ways of describing a thing first, 
 showing what it is not ; and second, what it is. 
 
8o TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 Now, to follow, meanwhile, the first of these 
 methods, I purpose showing that 
 
 True religion does not lie in talking about it. 
 
 In our Church and country the pulpit has all the 
 speaking. In Jewish synagogues, as appears from 
 our Lord's history, it was not so. Any person in 
 the assembly who had got anything good to say, 
 might say it. It appears from the Epistles that 
 this custom was engrafted on the Christian Church, 
 and flourished in its early days ; and some who 
 abused this privilege, and, being talkative and con- 
 ceited, were, perhaps, ever thrusting themselves on 
 the public notice, may have been in his eye, when 
 St James, laying down a rule valuable at all ages, 
 and at all times, said, Be swift to hear, and slow to 
 speak. Though the customs of the Church have 
 changed with time, and speaking in public is now 
 commonly confined to the pulpit, there is still dan- 
 ger and especially in these times of religious 
 excitement of fancying, because we can and do 
 talk about religion, that we are religious. 
 
 There are individual as well as national pecu- 
 liarities ; and, in this country, the common error 
 certainly is not to talk too much, but too little, 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 8l 
 
 about religion ; or, at least, too little religiously. 
 In Scotland, at least, we are taciturn ; and carry 
 our proverbial canniness to a fault. How little 
 do those of us who are undoubtedly on the way 
 to heaven resemble a body of emigrants on ship- 
 board on their way across the ocean to America ! 
 Listen to that group of men, women, and children 
 that have seen their native hills sink below the 
 wave, and, now leaning over the bows, are looking 
 a-head ! Compared with theirs, how little does 
 our conversation turn on the land in prospect; 
 its employments ; its enjoyments ; the friends 
 that wait our coming ? Throwing off false shame, 
 let us be more faithful to the souls of men, and 
 to a world that lieth in wickedness ; and much 
 more free in converse with each other about the 
 Prince and the things of the heavenly kingdom 
 after the manner of the men of old, of whom it is 
 said, They that feared the Lord spake often one to 
 another. 
 
 Still, it should not be forgotten, lest any deceive 
 themselves, that to talk about religion, ministers 
 and sermons, missions and missionaries, religious 
 schemes and books, revivalists and revivals, is not 
 
82 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 religion. Some have been the most fluent talkers 
 about these things who felt them least. Shallow 
 rivers are commonly noisy rivers ; and the drum is 
 loud because it is hollow. Fluency and feeling 
 don't always go together. On the contrary, some 
 men are most sparing of speech when their feel- 
 ings are most deeply engaged. I have been told 
 that there is an awful silence in the ranks before 
 the first gun is fired, and little talking heard dur- 
 ing the dreadful progress of the battle, or sound, 
 save the roar of cannon, the cries of wounded, 
 the shouts of attack, the bursts of musketry, and 
 bugles sounding the charge. And I have also 
 heard men say, that when the ship is labouring 
 for her life, and every moment may decide her 
 fate, and whether she shall clear reef or headland 
 hangs in anxious suspense, there is no talking, 
 nothing heard amid the roaring of the storm but 
 the voice of officers, as they shout forth their 
 orders to cut away the mast let go the sails 
 or put the helm hard a-port. Deep passions, like 
 deep waters, often run silent ; and men in earnest 
 are more given to act than to talk. True, Out of 
 the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh ; still, 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 83 
 
 the fuller the heart is, the less fluent sometimes is 
 the speech. There are things too deep for utter- 
 ance. Strong gratitude, deep love, are not fluent ; 
 nor is intense anxiety. The sight of her child 
 wrapped in flames, or tottering on the edge of a 
 precipice, has paralysed its mother ; rooted to the 
 ground she has gazed in speechless horror, unable 
 to raise a shriek, or move a foot to save it. 
 
 Besides, owing, perhaps, to constitutional pecu- 
 liarities, the religion of some has its most perfect 
 emblem in Christ's own words, Ye are the light 
 of the world. It is a thing seen, not heard ; it 
 shines, but it makes no sound ; not often found 
 on their lips, but always in their lives. Who, 
 that ever heard, has forgotten a story told by Dr 
 Chalmers when he pleaded for the right of Chris- 
 tian congregations to reject a minister against 
 whom they felt, but could not state, objections? 
 A woman sought admission to the Lord's table. 
 At her examination she broke down ; unable to 
 give her pastor any satisfactory answers, she was 
 dumb, or her replies were such as made her ap- 
 pear stupid and ignorant. He did not feel that 
 he could admit her to the table of the Lord ; and 
 
$4 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 told her so. Cut to the heart she rose; she 
 reached the door ; but, ere she left, with the tear 
 shining in her eye, and in tones that went to the 
 good man's heart, she said, referring to our Lord, 
 "Sir, though I cannot speak for Him, I could die 
 for Him ! " Blessed speech ! and blessed woman ! 
 the gate of heaven was opening to her advancing 
 steps ! 
 
 Such love to Jesus Christ is the soul of true 
 religion. And without their becoming loud talk- 
 ers, or making a parade of piety, it will lead those 
 that feel its power to "exhort one another daily ;" 
 to try to bring sinners to the Saviour; and as 
 many who have overcome a false modesty are 
 now doing to seize all opportunities of dealing 
 faithfully with, other men about their souls. Why 
 should not we tell others the way to heaven if we 
 ourselves have found it? Why should not we 
 warn a man who, unconscious of his danger, is 
 approaching the brink of ruin ? Why should not 
 we snatch the poisoned chalice from a brother's 
 lips ? Why should not we reach a hand down to 
 the drowning, and pluck him from the jaws of 
 death, and seat him beside us on the rock where 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 85 
 
 there is room for both ? If people are loud in the 
 praises of the physician who has cured them of 
 some deadly malady recommending others to 
 trust and seek his skill, why should not Christ's 
 people crown Him with equal honours, commend 
 Him to a dying world, and proclaim what He has 
 done for them ? Let them say with David, Come, 
 all ye that fear the Lord, and I will tell what He 
 hath done for my soul ; and tread in the steps of 
 the Samaritan who threw away her pitcher, and, 
 running to the city, brought them all out crying, 
 Come see a man who hath told me all things that 
 I have ever done. 
 
 It is a bad thing ostentatiously to parade reli- 
 gion ; but it is a base thing for a Christian man 
 to be ashamed of it ; not to stand by his colours ; 
 by his silence, if not his speech, to deny his 
 Master ; to sneak away, like a coward, out of the 
 fight. Stand up for Christ everywhere ; speak 
 for Him ; suffer the scorn of the world for Him ; 
 and, among the ungodliest crew, quit you like 
 men, saying, 
 
 " I 'm not ashamed to own my Lord, 
 Or to defend His cause, 
 
86 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 Maintain the glory of His cross, 
 And honour all His laws. 
 
 " Jesus, my Lord ! I know His name, 
 
 His name is all my boast ; 
 Nor will He put my soul to shame, 
 Nor let my hope be lost." 
 
 Religion does not lie in cherishing bitter feelings 
 towards those who differ from us. 
 
 "Be slow to wrath," says St James, "for the 
 wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of 
 God. If any man among you seem to be religious 
 and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own 
 heart, this man's religion is vain." From a small 
 town that lay in the bosom of gently swelling hills, 
 rose, some with spires and some without them, 
 three or four churches, belonging to the chief de- 
 nominations of our country the sign at once of 
 our religious liberties and religious earnestness. 
 On a sweet summer evening a traveller looked 
 along the valley on this peaceful scene, when a 
 shower of rain was falling. Suddenly the sun 
 broke out, and flung a bright bow on the cloud, 
 that, like that of mercy, discharged its showers on 
 all. The rainbow encircled within its arms suburb 
 and city, lofty church and humble meeting-house. 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 87 
 
 And was it not a true and happy fancy that saw 
 in this heavenly bow an emblem of that covenant 
 which, irrespective of minor differences, embraces 
 all believers within the same arms of mercy ? 
 
 How different from this genial spirit that of 
 gloomy bigotry ! Scowling on chanty, it would 
 probably pronounce that thought about the rain- 
 bow to have more poetry than piety in it. I 
 would not be uncharitable even to uncharitable- 
 ness ; but it is very unlovely. It holds the truth ; 
 but it is in unrighteousness. It contends for the 
 truth ; but it is with unholy passions often per- 
 suading itself that it is religious when it is but 
 rancorous. Some appear to think that to be 
 narrow-minded is to be heavenly-minded. A 
 great mistake ! The black, bitter sloe of the 
 hedges appears in the garden with the fair hues 
 and sweet juices of the plum; and it is certainly 
 no proof that a man's temper is sanctified that 
 it is sour. Christians never should forget the 
 meaning hidden in the very form which the Holy 
 Spirit assumed when He dropped from the skies 
 on our Saviour's head. The rapacious eagle, 
 grasping thunderbolts in his talons, and sacred to 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 Jove among the heathens, or rushing down from 
 the rock on his quarry, has been the favourite 
 ensign of bloody conquerors, and ambitious kings ; 
 now, not it, but that gentle bird which, they say, 
 has no gall, and is sacred to love, and whose 
 snowy plumage was never dyed with a victim's 
 blood, descends yonder by the quiet banks of 
 Jordan on the head of Jesus. I do not say that 
 religious men have never cherished an exclusive 
 and narrow spirit. I admit that some excellent 
 iren have done so. 
 
 Still, it is not religion to speak bitterly of those 
 who differ from us ; it is not religion to minister 
 at the altar with " strange fire ; " it is not religion 
 to serve the cause of a loving God with unlovely 
 passions ; it is not religion to defend Christ's 
 crown with other weapons than His own sword ; 
 it is not religion to be serious on light, and great 
 on little things ; it is not religion to exalt points 
 to the place of principles ; it is not religion to 
 contend as earnestly for forms of worship as for 
 the faith of the gospel ; it is anything but religion 
 to dip our pens in gall, to give the tongue un- 
 bridled licence, and so to speak of others as to 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 89 
 
 recall these words of Scripture Their teeth are 
 spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. 
 There is no religion in the narrow, sectarian, ex- 
 clusive prejudices which say, Can any good thing 
 come out of Nazareth ? 
 
 In this imperfect state, it is perhaps as impos- 
 sible for two parties, as it is for flint and steel, 
 to come into collision without eliciting some 
 sparks of fire. It were foolish to expect that 
 there should be nothing said or done in a time 
 of religious controversy, which good men will 
 see no reason afterwards to regret and to recall ; 
 for that were to expect lesser men to be greater 
 than apostles holier than St Paul and Barna- 
 bas, between whom, as we are told, there rose a 
 "sharp contention." Nor even after the contro- 
 versies have ceased, need we wonder that their 
 unhappy influences do not always, and all at 
 once, cease with them. That were such a miracle 
 as was only seen in Galilee, when at Christ's 
 voice the winds and waves went down at once, 
 and together. It is with human passion as with 
 the sea, when violently agitated, stirred by some 
 storm to its briny depths ; it continues, hours 
 
90 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 after the wind has ceased, to swell, and heave, 
 and roll its foaming breakers on the beach. We 
 are not to wonder that wounds received in contro- 
 versy, like those received in battle, take some 
 time to heal. It is reasonable to expect that ; 
 though, as it were a bad sign of a man's consti- 
 tution, if his wounds, however deep, turned into 
 running sores, there is something wrong, un- 
 hallowed, and unchristian in our spirit, if grace 
 does not soften the asperities, and time close the 
 wounds of controversy. 
 
 There is a time of peace, says Solomon, as well 
 as a time of war; and when fields, white for the 
 harvest, call Christians to sheath their swords and 
 put in their sickles, he must be a stranger to the 
 spirit of the gospel whose cry is, My voice is still 
 for war. War ? " They are for war, I am for 
 peace," said David. And they who have inbibed 
 most of the spirit of their Master, even when con- 
 tending for the faith, will engage in quarrels with 
 reluctance, and end them with pleasure. The 
 Christian graces, like spice-bearing trees, grow best 
 under serene and sunny skies. Nor should Chris- 
 tian men ever enter keenly into any controversy 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 91 
 
 that is not vital, unless it involve matters of 
 paramount importance. The theology of our life 
 should be the theology of the death-bed, amid 
 whose solemn, deepening shadows small points 
 and matters of form dwindle out of sight ; or 
 rather are lost in the blaze of coming glory. The 
 loftiest piety ever attaches the lowest importance 
 to party badges and ecclesiastical distinctions; 
 and the holier the Christian grows, he will more 
 and more resemble the holly tree, which, as it 
 rises, and gets away from the ground, and shoots 
 its top up to heaven, loses the thorny prickles 
 from its leaves. Be assured that tenderness of 
 
 heart, and gentleness of spirit, mark the highest 
 
 
 
 form of Christianity ; and that the true fire of the 
 Spirit, the celestial flame like that which fell at 
 Pentecost, blazes, but never burns. Let the 
 same mind be in you, therefore, that was in Jesus 
 Christ ; otherwise, whatever be our creed, we are 
 none of His. 
 
 Religion does not lie in knowledge, or the obser- 
 vance of religious forms. 
 
 A man who rose on the wings of genius from 
 obscurity to the highest fame, was, on an occasion 
 
92 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 of a visit to Edinburgh, walking with one who 
 plumed himself on his wealth, and rank, and 
 ancient family. As they strolled along the street, 
 Burns for of him I speak encountered a country 
 acquaintance, attired in rustic dress ; he seized 
 him by the hand ; and leaving his companion 
 offended and astonished, he linked his arm in the 
 rustic's. With a manner that bespoke esteem 
 and admiration of his humble friend, the poet 
 made his way through the brilliant crowd that 
 worshipped his genius, and ruined his morals. 
 On returning, he was met with expressions of 
 surprise that he could so demean himself, and 
 stoop to walk the streets among his fashionable 
 admirers with one in such a vulgar garb. " Fool," 
 said Burns, his dark eye flashing, and his soul 
 rising above the base pleasures and pursuits he 
 had sunk to in high society, and returning to its 
 own native region of noble sentiments ; " Fool," 
 he said, " it was not the dress, the peasant's 
 bonnet and the hodden gray, I spoke to, but 
 to the man within ; the man who beneath that 
 bonnet has a head, and under that hodden gray 
 a heart better than yours, or a thousand such 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 93 
 
 as yours." Nobly said ! A true distinction 
 too often forgotten, between the man and his 
 externals ! Nor is this distinction anywhere 
 more true, important, vital, than in the Church 
 of God. Be it gorgeous like that of Rome in 
 her stately temples, or simple like that of our 
 fathers, with the blue heavens for a canopy, a 
 lone glen for their church, the gray stones of 
 the moor for communion tables, and, for music 
 to the wild strain of their psalms, the dash of 
 a waterfall or the roar of breakers the ritual of 
 a church is but her dress. And what more 
 than his dress is a man's profession of piety, his 
 religious forms and observances those peculiar to 
 the Sabbath, or common to every day ? They 
 may be worn by the dead as well as the living. 
 While St Paul exhorts us to " hold fast the form 
 of sound words," he speaks of some as " lovers of 
 pleasure more than lovers of God ;" as " having 
 the form of godliness, but denying the power 
 thereof;" and there may be much of that in these 
 days when, in contrast to the profane swearing, 
 and deep drinking, and loose morals, and open 
 neglect of worship both in the family and in the 
 
94 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 church, of the last century, religion is rather 
 fashionable than otherwise. She now walks, to 
 use John Bunyan's figure, in golden slippers on 
 the sunny side of the street. 
 
 Let us beware ! Form, dress, and paint are not 
 life. In the studio of the artist, and, in the shape 
 of man or woman, there stands a figure, the first 
 sudden sight of which strikes most with surprise, 
 and makes some start with fear. Is it dead or 
 alive ? Supplied with joints that admit of motion, 
 attired in the common garb of men or women, 
 seated in a chair, or standing in easy attitude on 
 the floor, it might pass for life, but for that still 
 and changeless posture, those speechless lips, and 
 fixed staring eyes. It is a man of wood. Cold 
 paint, not warm blood, gives the colour to its 
 cheek ; no busy brain thinks within that skull ; 
 no kind heart loves, or fervid passions burn within 
 that breast. The lay figure that the artist. dresses 
 up to help him to represent the folds, the lights 
 and shadows of the drapery, it is but death attired 
 in the clothes of life ; and, like a hypocrite or 
 formalist in the sight of God, is offensive rather 
 than otherwise. And, as the dress there, however 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 95 
 
 rich and costly, true and skilfully arranged, does 
 not make a living man, no more do the observance 
 of religion, attendance at church, going to the 
 communion, closet prayer, family worship, the 
 daily reading of God's Word, make a religious 
 man a living Christian. 
 
 Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, 
 deceiving your own selves, says St James ; and, to 
 take that example, though some may think they . 
 are religious because they read the Scriptures 
 daily, religion does not consist in reading God's 
 Word, nor in going to church to hear it preached, 
 Sabbath by Sabbath. I say nothing against hear- 
 ing ; God forbid. We are not to neglect the 
 assembling of ourselves together. It is well to 
 hear ; to pitch our tent where manna falls ; to sit 
 by the pool where an angel stirs the waters, and 
 descends to heal ; to go up to the mountain of the 
 Lord, that, surmounted by the cross, and trodden 
 by the feet of saints, has conducted many to the 
 skies ; and on which, like mountain ranges that 
 attract the clouds, and are watered by many 
 showers that never fall in the valleys, the blessing 
 most frequently and fully descends God loveth 
 
96 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 the gates of Sion more than all the tabernacles of 
 Jacob. But will hearing a discourse on fire warm 
 a man ? on meat, feed him ? on medicine, cure 
 him ? If not, no more will it save us to know all 
 about the Saviour. It will no more take a man to 
 heaven than it will take him to France, or Rome, 
 or Jerusalem, that he knows the way. We must 
 go, as well as know travel, as well as be able to 
 trace out the route. We get Christ presented to 
 our acceptance every day ; but what of that ? 
 What will that avail us, unless we accept of Him ? 
 Have we done that ? It is not an offered but an 
 accepted Saviour nor is it the word heard, but 
 the word done diligently, habitually, prayer- 
 fully done, that will bring us to the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 Otherwise, hearing, according to St James, is 
 like merely looking into a glass, which never yet 
 arranged woman's hair, or washed man's dirty face. 
 We see the faces of others, not our own not our 
 own otherwise than by reflection. The wild beauty 
 of the forest bends over some placid pool to feed 
 her vanity, and admire charms that unadorned are 
 adorned the most ; and before an artificial mirror 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 97 
 
 her refined and polished sisters, with ornaments 
 borrowed from birds, and beasts, and worms, the 
 mines of earth and depths of ocean, may stand 
 bedecked, and armed for conquests over fools. To 
 such a looking-glass, but cast for another purpose, 
 the apostle St James compares God's Word. It is 
 given of God that we may see ourselves spotted 
 and stained with sin ; and seeing that, may go to 
 wash away the foul pollution in the blood of 
 Christ. And the mere hearers of the word, before 
 whom I would hold up this heavenly glass to show 
 the dark stains that lie not on their faces, but on 
 their souls, what are they ? They are like one 
 that having seen his foul face reflected in a faithful 
 mirror, goes away, not to wash it, but to forget all 
 about it. Their religion lies all in hearing not at 
 all in doing. It is therefore vain. 
 
 To know the way to heaven, sometimes to cast 
 a longing eye in that direction, and by fit and start 
 to make a feeble effort heavenwards, can end in 
 nothing. Man must get the Spirit of God. Thus 
 only can we be freed of the shackles that bind the 
 soul to earth, the flesh, and sin. I have seen a 
 captive eagle, caged far from its distant home, as 
 
98 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 he sat mournful-like on his perch, turn his eye 
 sometimes heavenwards ; there he would sit in 
 silence, like one wrapt in thought, gazing through 
 the bars of his cage up into the blue sky ; and, 
 after a while, as if noble but sleeping instincts had 
 suddenly awoke, he would start and spread out his 
 broad sails, and leap upward, revealing an iron 
 chain that, usually covered by his plumage, drew 
 him back again to his place. But though this bird 
 of heaven knew the way to soar aloft, and some- 
 times, under the influence of old instincts, decayed 
 but not altogether dead, felt the thirst for freedom, 
 freedom was not for him, till a power greater than 
 his own proclaimed liberty to the captive, and 
 shattered the shackle that bound him to his perch. 
 Nor is there freedom for us till the Holy Spirit 
 set us free, and, by the lightning force of truth, 
 breaks the chains that bind us to sin, till, with 
 the way laid open by the blood of His covenant, 
 Jesus says to the Spirit, Loose him, and let him 
 go ; let him fly ; let him spurn the earth, and, on 
 the wings of faith and prayer, soar away upward to 
 the gates of glory. For that end, come Lord 
 Jesus, come quickly! 
 
TRUE RELIGION. 99 
 
 Belonging to a church, or sect, said Baron Bun- 
 sen on his deathbed, is nothing. The direction 
 which the mind of that great and good man took 
 on some theological subjects is much to be re- 
 gretted very much to be deplored. We have no 
 sympathy with it. Yet, in those solemn hours 
 when the shadow of death falls on the bed, and 
 the depths of the soul rise to the surface, few have 
 borne themselves more Christianly than Bunsen, 
 or in their dying utterances, with .failing, faltering 
 breath, brought out more clearly, more beautifully, 
 more attractively, the spirit of pure, undefiled, 
 living, loving, true religion. I have spoken of it ; 
 he speaks it. Let us, for an example of the reli- 
 gion that lies not dead in forms, but lives in faith 
 and love, turn our steps to the chamber where 
 Bunsen is dying, amid the glories of a brilliant 
 sunset emblem of his own the tears of his family, 
 and the regrets of the world : " My best experi- 
 ence," he said, " is that of having known Jesus 
 Christ. I leave this world without hating any one. 
 No, no hatred : hatred is an accursed thing. Oh ! 
 how good it is to look upon life from this eleva- 
 tion. One then perceives what an obscure exist- 
 
100 TRUE RELIGION. 
 
 ence we have led upon earth. Upward ! upward ! 
 It becomes not darker ; but always brighter, 
 brighter. I am now in the kingdom. O my God, 
 how beautiful are thy tabernacles ! Let us part in 
 Jesus Christ. God is life, love, love that wills ; 
 will that loves. I see Christ, and I see God 
 through Christ. I am dying, and I wish to die ; 
 I offer my blessing, the blessing of an old man, to 
 all who desire it ; I die in peace with all the world. 
 Those who live in Christ, in loving Him, those are 
 His. Those who do not live by His life do not 
 belong to Him, by whatever name they may call 
 themselves, and whatever confession of faith they 
 may sign. Belonging to a church or sect is no- 
 thing. I see clearly that we are all sinners ; we 
 have only Christ in God ; all else is nothing. 
 Christ is the Son of God, and we are His children 
 only when the spirit of love which was in Christ is 
 in us." 
 
 This is a voice from the grave ; or rather from 
 those heavens to which, notwithstanding their mis- 
 takes and errors, true believers in Christ go to join 
 their Lord. How grand these last utterances of 
 a long, honoured, brilliant, and useful life ! One 
 
TRUE RELIGION. IOI 
 
 among the greatest of his age in learning, and 
 science, and humanity, and statesmanship, Bunsen 
 left the world with this sentence ringing in its ears, 
 To love God in Christ is all : to belong to a 
 church or sect is nothing all else is nothing. 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 " Pure religion and undefiled before 
 God and the Father is this, To 
 visit the fatherless and widows in 
 their affliction, and to keep him- 
 self unspotted from the world" 
 ST JAMES i. 27. 
 
 \T 7ITH a natural sagacity that has been mis- 
 taken for prophecy, some men have seen 
 far ahead of them. It is related of John Knox, 
 for example, that he sent a message from his 
 deathbed to Kirkcaldy of Grange, who then held 
 Edinburgh Castle, warning him to repent and turn 
 from his evil ways, else he should be hanged up 
 by the neck before the sun. He did not repent ; 
 and he was hanged, exactly as Knox predicted. 
 This was not prophecy. The Reformer's vision 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 103 
 
 had not become clearer as he drew near eternity : 
 for there, as on other shores, the fog lies thickest. 
 It grows darker rather than clearer as we are 
 leaving the world ; and the change at death is 
 perhaps as sudden as at birth in a moment out 
 of the profoundest darkness into a blaze of light. 
 The prediction was due to the sagacity by which 
 Knox was able to anticipate the probable issue of 
 the circumstances in which Kirkcaldy had placed 
 himself; of the dangerous game he was playing. 
 With such sagacity, though otherwise applied, 
 Captain Cook, the great navigator, when engaged 
 in the survey of New Zealand, before the foot of a 
 white man was ever planted on its shores, predicted 
 the day when these remote islands, lying on the 
 other side of the globe, almost beneath our feet, 
 would become a valuable British colony. Nearly 
 a century before the tide of emigration set that 
 way, he saw our flag flying in its harbours, our 
 shepherds feeding their flocks on its fern-covered 
 hills, and perchance the unhappy wars which now 
 rage there to our shame, I fear certainly to the 
 sorrow of its stout and gallant natives. Curiously 
 enough, his foreknowledge grew like their fruit 
 
IO4 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 on the New Zealand trees. Sailing along, he saw 
 these unknown shores covered, not with low scrub 
 or brushwood, but with gigantic timber ; and a 
 sagacious man he concluded that the soil must 
 be deep, and rich, and strong, since none other 
 could rear such forest giants. 
 
 Now, what is true of the nature of the soil is 
 equally true of the religion of the soul. You can 
 always judge of it by what it yields. In both 
 cases the crop is the test of character. By their 
 fruits, says our Lord, ye shall know them. The 
 soil is known by its trees ; and the trees are 
 known by their fruit. True of the vineyard of 
 the husbandman, this is true also of the Church 
 the vineyard of the Lord. It is not, therefore, 
 what we profess, but practise ; it is not what a 
 man says with his tongue, or signs with his hand, 
 but what he does with his heart, that settles his 
 religion in the sight of God, and on the great day 
 of judgment shall settle his fate. Heaven is 
 allotted to well-doers the holy, loving, kind, 
 gentle, merciful ; but ill-doers the impious, the 
 unholy, the greedy, the grasping, the cruel, the 
 pitiless, shall have their portion in hell. Hear 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 105 
 
 our Lord ! To those on His right hand He says, 
 Well done ; not well said, or well believed, or 
 well professed, or even well designed, but, Well 
 done, good and faithful servants, enter ye into 
 the joy of your Lord ; to those on the left again, 
 Depart from me, for I have never known you, ye 
 workers of iniquity. 
 
 The great Stagyrite thus opens one of his im- 
 mortal works, This book is written not for know- 
 ledge but for action. And for what other end 
 was the Bible written written by men, and in- 
 spired of Heaven ? Not that we might know the 
 truth, but do it; not that we might know the 
 way to heaven, but travel it ; not that we might 
 know, but accept of an offered Saviour. Religion 
 does not consist in doctrinal or prophetical specu- 
 lations ; nor lie like a corpse entombed in old 
 dusty confessions. She lives in action, and walks 
 abroad among mankind calling us to leave our 
 books, to shut our Bibles, to rise from our knees, 
 and go forth with hearts full of love and hands 
 full of charities. According to St James, Pure 
 and undefiled religion before God and the Father 
 is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their 
 
106 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the 
 world. 
 
 Such is true religion in the judgment of " God 
 and the Father!' 
 
 God and the Father! what a blessed conjunc- 
 tion ! God and the Father ! that might breed 
 hope in the darkest bosom ; for who, though 
 lying in deepest dungeon, despairs of mercy that 
 knows he is to be tried by his own father? To 
 be tried by our Father ! Is not that to be assured 
 of pity and tenderness, of great allowance for our 
 infirmities, and of a kinder consideration both of 
 our difficulties and defects than angels or men 
 would give? This goes far to divest a judgment- 
 day of its terrors. Our Father is to try us ; then 
 may we sing 
 
 " Such pity as a father hath 
 Unto his children dear ; 
 Like pity shows the Lord to such 
 As worship Him in fear." 
 
 Looking with fond and partial eyes on his 
 children, how slow is a father to discover their 
 faults, and how ready to cover them ! He ap- 
 proves and applauds their feeblest efforts to 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 107 
 
 please him. See, though her song may violate 
 the rules both of time and tune, how the father 
 smiles on the fairy form that, with laughing eye, 
 and golden locks, and blushing cheek, warbles 
 out an infant's song to please him. But what 
 father is like our Father that is in Heaven! How 
 easily is He pleased, and how largely He rewards! 
 Why, He promises even a crown of glory for a 
 cup of water given to a disciple, and raises to 
 a throne all that have learned lessons of love, 
 and kindness, and humility sitting at Jesus's 
 feet. He raiseth the poor out of the dust, and 
 lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that He 
 may set him with princes for Christ's sake for- 
 giving our greatest faults, and rewarding our 
 smallest works. 
 
 Still, though God will not look for perfection in 
 our works as if they were to save those that are 
 saved only by the righteousness of Christ, the 
 final judgment is to turn on works. Look at the 
 picture of that last judgment, as it was drawn by 
 Christ's own hand ! The trumpet has sounded ; 
 and at its long, loud, and solemn summons, the 
 graves have given up their dead. Coming from 
 
108 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 their sepulchres, whether in the tombs of earth or 
 the caves of ocean, the whole family of man is 
 met for the first time, and met for the last an 
 innumerable multitude, above whose heads, in 
 high and solitary majesty, rises the great white 
 throne. The Son of Man, attended by all the 
 holy angels, descends. Now the work begins. 
 Some men of science suppose that the gold we 
 dig out of its veins was originally diffused through 
 the rock; and that at some remote period, and 
 by a power unknown to us, its atoms, separated 
 from the earthy mass, and made to pass through 
 it, were deposited in the veins where they now 
 lie. By a power as mighty and mysterious, that, 
 breaking up families which had slept and rose 
 together, sunders for ever the tenderest relation- 
 ships, the mingled mass of men is separated. 
 Even as a shepherd, says our Lord, divideth the 
 sheep from the goats, the crowd is divided these 
 move to the right, those to the left. And now, 
 amid an awful silence, and in a voice distinctly 
 heard at the farthest bounds of the mighty crowd, 
 the Judge pronounces sentence ; and gives reasons 
 for it. And what turns the balance in His hand ? 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 109 
 
 Not the churches men belonged to ; nor the 
 creeds they signed ; nor the doctrines they 
 espoused, believed, defended, even died for. No, 
 it turns upon works. Listen He says, I was an 
 hungered and ye gave me meat ; or, I was an 
 hungered and ye gave me no meat. Visitors of 
 prisons, clothers of the naked, feeders of the 
 hungry, advocates of the wronged, husbands of 
 widows, fathers of orphans, bearing names un- 
 known in courts or camps, or in the seats of learn- 
 ing and of science, but household words in the 
 homes of sorrow rising from graves you were 
 borne to amid the griefs of the poor and needy, 
 the crowns are for you. But for you, whether 
 high or low, that wrapped yourselves up in narrow 
 selfishness, the curse. No religion shall be owned 
 then, but what now sheds blessings on misery, 
 and lights up with rainbow hues the cloud of 
 human sorrow. 
 
 Do not suppose because I speak thus of works, 
 that I substitute them for Christ ; or that I hold 
 evangelical doctrine and sound views of divine 
 truth, as is the fashion now, at a discount as of 
 small consequence. No I say, Hold fast the form 
 
110 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 of sound words Contend earnestly for the faith 
 which was once delivered to the saints Try the 
 spirits whether they be of God. Right views of 
 divine truth are of the highest importance ; for 
 how can a vessel reach her harbour if her compass 
 and charts be wrong ? Doctrines are the seeds 
 of duties ; and it proves nothing to the contrary 
 that some good men have held grave errors. They 
 were good, and got to heaven, not in consequence 
 of their errors, but in spite of them ; for as many 
 men are worse, some men are better than their 
 creeds. With gold, silver, precious stones, wood, 
 hay, stubble, and a vast quantity of rubbish, they 
 rest on the Rock ; and shall be saved so as by fire. 
 Under the influences of the Spirit, endowed with 
 the grace of God and love of Christ, the Tightness 
 of their hearts overcomes the wrongness of their 
 heads, and so they get to heaven : as I have seen 
 a ship, under a power generated from water by 
 fires that glowed within her hold, cross the roaring 
 bar, and in the face of adverse wind and tide, 
 plough her way safe into harbour. 
 
 It has not been worldlings that have done most 
 for the world. Your creatures of fashion and 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. Ill 
 
 lovers of pleasure, who has met them where misery 
 dwells? If they repair to the haunts of crime, it 
 is not to cure it. Nor is it those who talk lightly 
 of doctrines, and profess to have neither taste nor 
 time for religious questions, but men like Luther, 
 that were strong in doctrine, and sound in faith, 
 and ready to contend for it men of ardent piety, 
 men great in prayer, that have done most to mend 
 the miseries of the world ; and, leaving their foot- 
 prints on the sands of time, have been most blessed 
 while they lived, and most missed when they died. 
 It cannot be otherwise ; it is not in the nature ol 
 things that it should be otherwise. A belief in our 
 lost state, in the sacrifice of a divine Redeemer, in 
 the free gifts and grace of God, is intimately con- 
 nected with the whole circle of Christian charities 
 is the centre from which they radiate. How can 
 he in whose eyes all out of Christ are perishing^ 
 hanging over hell, dream away life in idle plea- 
 sures ? In the light of redemption, the outcast, 
 the vile thing many would not touch, shines like a 
 diamond on a dust heap. The condescension of 
 the Son of God teaches me to stoop not to the 
 great, but to the ground, to pluck the foulest from 
 
112 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 the gutter. Feeling that I am forgiven much, I 
 am ready to forgive ; and that I have gotten much, 
 I am ready to give. God's costly gift to me, the 
 free gift of His dear Son, both opens my hand, and 
 warms my heart. Melted by His love and mercy, 
 my icy selfishness gives way ; and like a lake 
 loosened from its wintry chains, my bounty flows 
 freely out to others. His generosity begets my 
 own. As in His light I see light, in His love I feel 
 love. It is the sight of Jesus stepping from His 
 throne to lie in a manger, and to die on a cross, 
 that most of all inclines me to forget myself like 
 Him, to deny myself, that I may live and labour 
 for the good of others. Thus, as St Paul says, the 
 love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus 
 judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead, 
 and that He died for all, that they who live should 
 not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him 
 who died for them and rose again. 
 
 True religion consists " in visiting the fatherless 
 and widows in their affliction, and in keeping our- 
 selves unspotted from the world" 
 
 To visit the fatherless and widows in their 
 affliction, from natural pity, is beautiful ; and may 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 113 
 
 be called virtuous. We commend, and admire it. 
 Still, though it cannot be true that there are 
 people who are very religious, and yet not kind, 
 people may be kind who are not religious. Visits 
 and deeds of charity, to become religious, pious 
 actions, besides springing from natural compassion, 
 must be done in obedience to the will, and out 
 of regard to the glory of God. The most common 
 action, such as sweeping a floor or kindling a fire, 
 when done because God has bidden it, and done 
 well that He may be glorified, and religion not 
 despised but honoured, rises into piety ; and thus 
 a humble servant cleaning shoes may be doing a 
 thing as truly religious as a divine preaching from 
 a pulpit, or an angel singing in the skies. Great 
 and lofty deeds, on the other hand, that, though 
 crowning their authors with honour, and filling the 
 mouths of men, are done without any regard to 
 God, have not an atom of religion. Therefore it 
 has been said, that the virtues of an unconverted, 
 ungodly man, are but splendid vices. They are 
 without value in the judgment and sight of God. 
 But to visit the fatherless and widows in their 
 
 affliction, and keep one's garments unspotted from 
 
 H 
 
114 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 the world, under the influence of the holiest mo- 
 tives, and with a view to the highest ends, though 
 here called pure and undefiled religion before God 
 and the Father, is not the sum-total of true reli- 
 gion. These are but samples of the stock the 
 small segments of a large circle. Here, as else- 
 where in Scripture, a part, or parts, is put for the 
 whole ; and these two are selected for this among 
 other reasons, that they are characteristic and most 
 important ; not secondary but primary ; not acci- 
 dental, but essential features of all true religion. 
 To make this plainer, it is as if I described a living 
 man by saying he breathes. But he does many 
 things else. He sees and hears ; he walks and 
 talks; he thirsts and hungers and a hundred 
 things besides. Still, unless he breathes, he is not 
 alive, but dead ; and dead is the religion which 
 does not aim at these two things, personal purity 
 and active charity ; in other words, doing good 
 and being good. 
 
 It is interesting to discover this truth enshrined 
 within the name we apply to the Divine Being. 
 God ! where got we that word, God ? It is not 
 Hebrew ; nor Greek ; nor Latin. It was invented 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 115 
 
 by our forefathers. Though rude and ignorant, 
 and little acquainted with the arts and sciences, 
 these half-savage men seem to have penetrated 
 the mysteries of true religion, and caught its lovely 
 spirit. Having dismissed Woden, and Thor, and 
 Tuesco, their stern and wild and bloody gods, to 
 embrace the Christian faith, they had to invent a 
 name for the new object of their worship. Leaving 
 Rome to borrow her forms and garments fro;n 
 heathen temples, and dress up the new faith in the 
 cast-off clothes of the old, our ancestors neither 
 chose Jove from the heathens, nor even Jehovah 
 from the Jews ; nor, selecting the power, or know- 
 ledge, or justice, or offices of the Divine Being, 
 called him the Almighty, or the Omniscient, or 
 the Wise, or the Just, or the King. Regarding 
 goodness as the most prominent, and to sinners as 
 the most engaging and winning feature of His 
 character, because He was good, and ever doing 
 good, because He was in His nature perfectly holy, 
 and to all His creatures infinitely kind, they called 
 Him Good, abbreviating it into God. God and 
 Good are certainly the self-same words ; and no- 
 body, therefore, can be God's that is not good ; 
 
Il6 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 who does not seek to do good, as well as to be 
 good. 
 
 That any calling themselves Christians should 
 believe or act otherwise, is shocking ; is a scandal 
 to religion, and enough to make it stink, like a 
 dead carcass, in the nostrils of sceptics and scoffers. 
 Yet read this passage of a letter from a lady, who, 
 touched with divine compassion for a class of 
 wretched outcasts, is appealing for help. " I sup- 
 pose you are aware/' she writes, " that the Chris- 
 tianity of the (I shall not say what part of 
 
 our country) is not aggressive ; they have a pre- 
 judice against working Christians as superficial 
 ones ; and if we are therefore to attempt to strike 
 at the root of the degradation of this class, we must 
 ask help from your quarter." Alas for religion ! 
 thus caricatured and misrepresented; held up to 
 the pity of good men, and the scorn of bad, as a 
 lifeless system of effete doctrines and beliefs 
 deaf, dumb, and dead to the miseries of mankind ! 
 That true religion ? No ; and no more like it than 
 a dry skeleton, hung by the neck from the ceiling 
 of an anatomical theatre, and grinning grimly 
 down on the students' faces, is like yon man bend- 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 117 
 
 ing to the helm, and steering the life -boat ashore ; 
 or yon man, sword in hand, fighting freedom's 
 battle ; or yon man, with fire in his eye and pathos 
 on his tongue, pleading amid plaudits or hisses 
 the cause of the slave ; or yon good Samaritan 
 stooping over a suffering brother, and binding up 
 his gaping wounds; or yon gentlewoman, whom 
 we meet on foul, dank stair, concealing bread for 
 the hungry beneath her cloak, or find on her knees 
 at the bed of dying penitence, wiping off the 
 clammy death-sweat, and smoothing a thorny 
 pillow with the consolations of religion. 
 
 Working Christians, superficial Christians! Chris- 
 tianity not aggressive ! Hear, O heavens ! and be 
 astonished, O earth, that bore on thy dusty roads 
 and Galilee's sandy shores, the prints of Jesus's 
 feet ; and saw Him going about continually doing 
 good ! From that deformity, that vile abortion, 
 let me turn your eyes away to the religion that 
 illumines the pages of the Bible, and walked a 
 world which crucified it, in the blessed form of 
 our Divine Redeemer. 
 
 Let us successively study the two features of 
 pure and undefiled religion of St James's picture. 
 
Il8 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 It appears in acts of charity. 
 
 The widow and orphan are selected as the 
 representatives of all human sorrow their case 
 needing our help most, and appealing loudest to 
 our pity. It even touches us to see widowhood 
 symbolised, there, where a tree, around which 
 some beautiful creeper had wound its arms, spang- 
 ling its robust form with flowers, lies on the 
 ground, felled by the axe, its head prostrate in the 
 dust ; while that tender plant, crushed and bleed- 
 ing but still alive, clings with fond embraces to 
 the dead. More touching still, when the mother 
 bird has been struck down by the hawk, to look 
 into the bush of golden gorse where her orphan 
 brood sit pining in their cold nest, with no mother 
 now to sing to them ; to feed them ; to cover them 
 with her warm wings left to die unless they 
 move the pity of some sweet child or tender 
 woman. 
 
 Sin has not so utterly blotted out the beautiful 
 lineaments of God, but that helplessness goes to 
 our hearts ; this, as well as some other lovely 
 flowers, continue to grow on the ruins of our fallen 
 greatness. In busiest hours, when other intrusion 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 119 
 
 would be resented, let any one enter in the garb 
 of a widow, pale and sad, her eyes consumed with 
 grief, she commands our attention and respect; 
 and on these streets where the hearse, parting the 
 tide of business, comes with its nodding plumes, 
 how touching it is to see two or three little boys 
 following a father to the grave ; only more touch- 
 ing, where poverty's one room holds the dead and 
 living, to see an infant, attracted by the glitter, 
 break away from kind friends to rattle the handles 
 of a mother's coffin, and smile pleased with the 
 sound. I have seen that sight raise roughest 
 hands to wipe tears from eyes unused to weep. 
 
 Widow and orphan ! there is something sacred 
 to our ears in these names. Over widows and 
 orphans, as well as over weeping penitents, the 
 Man of sorrows casts His shield. Their wrongs 
 stirred His placid spirit to its deepest depths. He 
 made no complaint of wrongs inflicted on Himself; 
 He bore His own sufferings with divine meekness ; 
 reviled, maligned, spit upon, crowned with thorns, 
 nailed to the tree, He was dumb, nor opened His 
 mouth save to pray for His enemies. But He 
 could not stand by and see the widow and orphan 
 
120 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 wronged. See how He steps up to yonder sleek 
 and oily Pharisee praying on the widow's floor, 
 that he might prey on the widow's substance, and 
 strikes the mask from his face, saying, Woe to you, 
 scribes and Pharisees ! hypocrites, for ye devour 
 widows' houses, and for a pretence make long 
 prayers ye serpents and generation of vipers, how 
 can ye escape the damnation of hell ? Harlots 
 can ; publicans can ; and thieves can ; the Ca- 
 naanite and Samaritan can ; but robbers of the 
 widow, how can ye ? There you have a commen- 
 tary, by way of contrast, on the words "Pure 
 and undefiled religion before God and the Father 
 is to visit the widow and fatherless in their afflic- 
 tion." I do not believe in the Christianity that is 
 not Christ-like : and I no more believe in a pro- 
 fession of piety which is not associated with His 
 pity than in a sun that sheds no light in a fire 
 that gives out no heat in a rose that breathes no 
 perfume ; they are mere painting : life-like, but 
 dead ; clever, but cold. People may talk of such 
 and such a man being godly ; but none are godly 
 but the godlike. God is the "Judge of the widow, 
 and the Father of the fatherless in his holy habi- 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 121 
 
 tation ;" and he only is godlike who stands to 
 
 widows in the room of the dead, and in whom 
 
 m 
 orphans find both a father and a friend. 
 
 True religion will express itself in personal, 
 actual visits to widows and fatherless in their 
 affliction. 
 
 The circumstances of some are such, that they 
 can bequeath at death what they could not afford 
 to part with in their lifetime ; but there is no 
 charity in leaving money, which we could now 
 spare, to do good when we are dead. There is no 
 self-denial no cross-bearing in that. If we could 
 carry the money along with us to another world, 
 there might be virtue in leaving it behind ; but 
 since we cannot, and have to leave the world as 
 naked as we entered it, there is none. In fact, we 
 are giving away what is not ours, what ceases 
 to be ours the moment of our death, what our 
 right to expires with life. Men are called by the 
 apostle to mortify the flesh with its affections and 
 lusts ; but by such mortifications, as they are called 
 in Scotland, men do not mortify themselves, but 
 their heirs whom they cheat of their expecta- 
 tions, to purchase a worthless name. The fortunes 
 
122 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 that rear such falsely splendid chanties prove 
 nothing in favour of the donors ; but rather the 
 reverse. They only show how hard, and cold, and 
 grasping, and avaricious these men and women 
 were ; and that only death could compel the miser 
 to relax his iron gripe of the widow's and orphan's 
 bread. Whatsoever thy hand, therefore, findeth 
 to do, do it with thy might ; for there is no work, 
 nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, to be 
 found in the grave whither thou goest. 
 
 Now, in regard to the works of charity which 
 religion requires, it is a pity that some, willing 
 and anxious to do them, should miss the way of 
 doing them well. They overlook the importance 
 of giving a literal obedience to the words of St 
 James. They help, but they do not visit, person- 
 ally visit the widows and fatherless in their afflic- 
 tion. Such direct intercourse is of as great ad- 
 vantage to those that give as to those that get ; 
 softening, if not sanctifying, the hearts of both. 
 Many do not seem to know how much charity 
 resembles a delicate perfume that, by being 
 poured from one vessel into another, loses the 
 finest part of its aroma : and that to awaken gra- 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 123 
 
 titude, it is not sufficient that the giver dole out 
 his bounty through a middle party by the hands 
 of a hired, and it may be a hard, official. Let 
 thirsty lips drink, not at the pipe, but where the 
 grateful spring bubbles up fresh and cold from its 
 native fountain. Wherever possible, therefore, 
 distribute your charities with your own hand ; for 
 there is much the same difference between sending 
 your servant, or the agent of a society, and carry- 
 ing the gifts yourselves, that there was between 
 Gehazi with his master's staff, and the living pro- 
 phet the first may fill the hand, but, as when 
 Elisha took the dead boy in his arms, it is the 
 last that sets the heart a-beating. The kindly 
 visit, the look, the tone, the starting tear of sym- 
 pathy, the patient attention to the tale of suffer- 
 ing, these make our gold or silver shine with 
 double brightness, and impart a double sweetness 
 to the bread we give. By this, without lowering 
 yourself, you will lift up the poor ; and win them, 
 perhaps, to God and goodness. A hand laid 
 kindly on a child's head has been laid on a 
 mother's heart ; and with hold of that, God help- 
 ing you, you may save the perishing, and steer a 
 
124 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 whole household right to heaven. See, whether 
 you eat or drink, or give meat and drink, you do 
 all to the glory of God. 
 
 Some think that they have no leisure or means 
 to undertake such missions. Roman Catholics 
 leave them to Sisters of Charity ; and we, in these 
 Protestant lands, too much to hired agents, be- 
 nevolent societies, and kind Christian women. 
 Now, though not able personally to do all that we 
 wish, we should do all that we can ; for I am sure 
 that to be brought into personal contact with the 
 poor is good both for us and them. How much is 
 in our power " the day will reveal/' when, called by 
 name, some of once straitened circumstances and 
 humble life shall step out from the crowd to hear 
 the Judge say, " I was an hungered, and ye gave 
 me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink : 
 I was a stranger, and ye took me in : I was sick 
 and in prison, and ye visited me ; for inasmuch as 
 ye did it unto one of the least of these, ye did it 
 unto me." Woe that day to them who find time 
 to visit the great, and rich, and noble, but the 
 poor never ; time to spend on luxurious banquets, 
 and at theatres and balls, where delicate feet 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 125 
 
 thread the gay dance, that never stood on the 
 bare floors of poverty ; who regale with music 
 ears that never listened to the wail of widows, or 
 the moaning child that cried for bread and its 
 mother has none to give it ; who stoop to worship 
 wealth and rank, but never to raise the fallen, 
 or bend, with words of comfort, over the bed of 
 some poor, trembling, dying sinner ! . "Go to now, 
 ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries 
 that shall come upon you ; your gold and silver 
 is cankered, the rust of them shall be a witness 
 against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were 
 fire." 
 
 None are without time and means for such 
 missions of mercy. To convince you, let me 
 guide you to a scene where pure and undefiled 
 religion stands before us in those who had little 
 time to spare, and less money to spend. Enter 
 this foul close with me; bend your head to this 
 low-browed door ; climb one dark stair, another, 
 and still another. Now, you are in a cold, empty 
 garret ; and there, beneath a patched and dusky 
 skylight, lies a dying woman, a stranger in a 
 strange land ; beside whose lowly pallet stands 
 
126 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 a pale, gentle, weeping child. Called to many a 
 dying bed, I have seen death in all shapes and 
 forms some despairing ; some rejoicing ; many 
 afraid to let go, and clinging to the earth ; others 
 eager to be gone ; but that garret, where I knelt 
 on the bare floor, seemed nearer than any to 
 heaven. It seemed as if the angels that carried 
 the beggar to Abraham's bosom were there 
 waiting the last sinking breath to bear that 
 saintly spirit to the skies. I saw not them ; but 
 in the room where the orphan stood by her 
 mother's corpse, seemingly without a friend in 
 all the world, I met two God-sent angel-women. 
 They took the child to their own home. Bereft 
 of one mother, in them she found two. They 
 shared their scanty meals with her ; and when 
 the world was sleeping, plied their needles to 
 earn her bread, to send her to school, to rear her 
 in comely virtues, and shield her young head 
 and heart in an evil world. What inspired this 
 noble generosity ? They had come from the 
 country, and were themselves poor ; but touched 
 with the sight of much poverty greater than their 
 own, they resolved that though they could not 
 
DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 127 
 
 do much, they would do what they could. If 
 many around them must perish, they could, at 
 least, save one; and so, each taking this sinking 
 child by the hand, with the other free, these sisters 
 buffeted the billows of adverse fortune, and, un- 
 known to the world, but amid the applause of 
 Jesus, and of angels that watched their progress 
 from the skies, they brought the orphan in safety 
 to the shore. There was pure and undefiled 
 religion before God and the Father. 
 
 May the Spirit of God inspire you to go and 
 do likewise. Better walk in the steps of these 
 lowly women than in the dazzling train of queens. 
 Better have our names written on the hearts of 
 widows and the fatherless, than on the pages of 
 immortal history. Let crawling worms creep up- 
 wards, and leave behind them the slime of their 
 meanness, and base methods of reaching heights, 
 from which death's rude hand shall cast them 
 down into the grave. Be it ours rather, like 
 God's heavenly creatures the sun, the rain, the 
 dew to descend in blessings on those beneath 
 us. How many fruits that sun ripens, how many 
 cold things he warms, how many flowers he paints 
 
128 DOING GOOD, AND BEING GOOD. 
 
 and opens, how many birds he sets a-singing be- 
 fore he sinks in night ! I would be the rain-drop 
 that, ere it returns to its parent sea, leaves a 
 blessing at some lowly root. Nay, I would be 
 the tiny dew-drop that, glistening in the morn- 
 ing sunbeams, refreshes the lips of some thirsty 
 flower ere, exhaled by the sun, it ascends to 
 heaven ! Do, at least, some, and try to do much 
 good ere you die. Seek to live loved, and to 
 die lamented ; to be blessed in life, and to be 
 missed at death. Live so that over your grave, 
 however lowly, they may raise a tombstone, in- 
 scribed with the words, " Blessed are the dead 
 that die in the Lord ; they rest from their labours, 
 and their works do follow them." 
 
PURITY. 
 
 41 Pure religion and undefiled befo* t 
 God and the Father is this. To 
 visit the fatherless and widows in 
 their affliction^ and to keep him- 
 self unspotted from the world." 
 ST JAMES i. 27. 
 
 T^\ISTINGUISHED from other jewels that 
 have but one colour, such as the fiery 
 ruby, the milk-white pearl, the sapphire that bor- 
 rows its tint from the sky, and the emerald from 
 the sea, diamonds owe their beauty, brilliancy, 
 and costly value to this, that they burn with many 
 hues. Turned round, they sparkle with shifting 
 colours, as the light flashes from their different 
 faces. Still, though it appears in this variety of 
 aspects, the diamond is one gem "pure and un- 
 
 defiled," as a dew-drop distilled from the skies. 
 
 I 
 y> 0? TKE "v^J 
 
 ftl IT 17 SI 
 
130 PURITY. 
 
 And why should not Christians believe that the 
 Church of the living God is also one, though in 
 forms of worship, ecclesiastical constitutions, and 
 somewhat even in doctrines, it presents various 
 aspects as St Paul says, " There are differences 
 of administration, but the same Lord." 
 
 Like the costliest and most brilliant of gems, 
 pure and undefiled religion before God and the 
 Father presents itself under various aspects. 
 Every one is beautiful, heavenly in its source 
 like the rays of the diamond caught from the 
 sun ; yet each differs from another, as much as 
 do the properties which St James assigns to divine 
 wisdom. In this passage, "the wisdom that is from 
 above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy 
 to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, 
 without partiality and without hypocrisy," we 
 have something like a full description ; but in say- 
 ing that "pure and undefiled religion is to visit 
 the widow and fatherless in their affliction, and 
 keep himself unspotted from the world," the 
 apostle does not attempt to give a full-length por- 
 trait. Out of many he mentions but two features ; 
 but these, though highly characteristic, neither 
 
PURITY. 131 
 
 embrace all the duties of a Christian's life, nor 
 exhaust the graces of his character. On the 
 contrary, as the sun in his annual course passes 
 through all the signs of the zodiac, pure and un- 
 defiled religion, overlooking no commandment, 
 but endeavouring to keep the entire law of God, 
 walks the whole circle of Christian duties. Then, 
 though some may be more prominent and more 
 fully developed than others, the believer, "com- 
 plete in Christ," is bedecked with every Christian 
 grace. None are wanting ; all are there, like the 
 precious stones of the high priest's breastplate, 
 when, with a blood-filled bowl of purest gold, 
 wearing his crown, and robed in white, he drew 
 aside the veil ; and vanishing, entered into the 
 Holy of Holies to commune alone with God. 
 With this explanation, let us now study the 
 second phase of true and undefiled religion. 
 
 It requires us to keep out selves unspotted from the 
 world. 
 
 An obstruction to our prayers, efforts, and pro- 
 gress meets us here, in limine, on the very 
 threshold, which it is necessary to take out of 
 the way. It lies in a feeling, or fancy, that it is 
 
132 PURITY. 
 
 impossible to keep ourselves unspotted from the 
 world, or even to come within sight of such a high 
 attainment. To live in this world, and yet keep 
 ourselves uncontaminated by its influence, pure 
 in heart and life, seems as impossible as to be im- 
 mersed in water, and yet keep dry ; or to walk a 
 muddy road, and keep our garments clean ; or to 
 take fire into our bosom, and not be burned. Well, 
 if not more impossible than these, it can be done. 
 It has been done to some extent, at least, by help 
 of Him who says, " My grace is sufficient for thee." 
 To be plunged overhead in water, and yet keep 
 dry, is not impossible. From rocking boat, or 
 sandy shore, observe yon sea-fowl poised on white 
 wing above the deep. Catching sight of her prey, 
 see ! she descends like a flash of light, diving into 
 the belly of the wave ; ere long she emerges, and 
 bearing no touch of damp on her snowy plumage, 
 rises into the air with feathers dry as the eagle's, 
 that springs from the rock to soar in sunny skies. 
 With feet webbed to swim, and broad sails to fly, 
 and warm downs to preserve her heat, God has 
 furnished this bird with an oil, that, coating her 
 feathers, protects them from the touch of water. 
 
PURITY. 133 
 
 Nor is it impossible to crawl undefiled in mire. 
 How often have I seen a creeping thing come 
 wriggling out of the foulest mud, pure ; clean ; 
 without a speck on its ringed and slimy form. 
 And if God enables it, by a fluid secreted from its 
 lubricious skin, to pass through defilement unde- 
 filed, may not the Christian say, Shall He take 
 such care of the poor worm that we tread upon, 
 and not preserve from worse pollution those whom 
 He has called to heaven, and redeemed with the 
 blood of His beloved Son ? 
 
 " He who His Son, most dear and loved, 
 
 Gave up for us to die, 
 Shall He not all things freely give 
 That goodness can supply ? " 
 
 Grant that contact with a sinful world is like 
 taking fire into our bosom ; it does not follow that 
 we shall certainly be burned. With the troubled 
 king, his nobles, and the eager multitude that 
 crowd round the fiery furnace, look at these three 
 Hebrews ! Their naked feet are on glowing coals ! 
 they breathe the burning flame ! and yet they 
 come forth, no hair singed on beard or eyelash, 
 nor smell of fire upon their clothes. 
 
134 PURITY. 
 
 We might meet this difficulty with such answer 
 as the holy Leighton once gave to such another 
 plea. Grieved with the unhappy state of his 
 country, and the failure of his own well-meant 
 attempts to reconcile his countrymen to prelacy, 
 and stop the bloody cruelties of the time, he had 
 retired into England to pass the clouded evening 
 of his life in the house of a married sister. Having 
 a family, she had many domestic cares ; and cum- 
 bered by them, she came far short of his close and 
 devout walk with God. One day, addressing her 
 brother, who had never married, she said, " It is 
 easy for you to live a holy life ; it is otherwise 
 with me ; with children and many household cares 
 to occupy my thoughts and engross my attention, 
 such a life as yours is to me impossible." With 
 one blow of his gentle hand, Leighton demolished 
 her plea. He engaged in no argument, nor set 
 himself to prove her wrong ; but kindly turning to 
 her, and quoting God's own word, he said, " Enoch 
 walked with God, and begat sons and daughters." 
 Like her, many deem high degrees of grace beyond 
 their reach ; therefore they aim low, and in con- 
 sequence of that their attainments are low ; for 
 
PURITY. 135 
 
 few are so fortunate as the son of Kish, who, 
 leaving home to seek his father's asses, found a 
 crown on the way. We expect too little ; and to 
 those who would dismiss this subject, abandoning 
 all efforts after a purity which they deem as im- 
 possible in this world, as to live in water, or 
 breathe unhurt in fire, I have an answer, drawn 
 also from the Word of God an arrow taken from 
 the quiver where the good Archbishop found his 
 shaft. What saith the Lord ? He puts the case 
 in your own form, and taking your very figures of 
 fire and water, says, " When thou passest through 
 the waters I will be with thee, and through the 
 rivers they shall not overflow thee ; thou shalt 
 walk through the fire, and not be burned, neither 
 shall the flame kindle upon thee." 
 
 To keep themselves unspotted from the world, 
 God's people are carefully to avoid its vices. 
 There is much vice in the world. Thousands 
 make no profession of religion ; having broken 
 loose from their anchors, and drifted into practical 
 infidelity, they have no connexion with any church, 
 and seek none. Thousands besides are to be found 
 within the Church who are dead dead as the 
 
136 PURITY. 
 
 bodies that rot and moulder outside its walls! 
 They have the form of godliness, but are strangers 
 to its power. It requires neither an intimate nor 
 an extensive acquaintance with society, to discover 
 that thousands are living in open profligacy. 
 The vices of town and country indeed thrust 
 themselves on our notice. Though not exactly 
 defended, they are allowed and winked at now 
 excused on the plea that the young must sow 
 their wild oats, as if it was no solemn truth that 
 "what a man soweth that shall he also reap" 
 and now varnished over by giving respectable 
 names to bad things. For example, seduction is 
 called an affair of gallantry ; murder by duel, an 
 affair of honour ; drunkenness, intemperance ; the 
 debauchee who ruins his health, is a fast liver ; 
 and he who cheats another, is a sharp man of 
 business. Licentiousness, with brazen front and 
 painted face, openly walks our streets pushing 
 virtue aside, and putting modesty to the blush ; 
 while immoral and impure habits, though dis- 
 creetly veiled, like an internal cancer, are destroy- 
 ing the health, the fortunes, the happiness, the 
 bodies and souls of thousands. With idiot look, 
 
PURITY. 137 
 
 drunkenness reels abroad in the face of day; and 
 events ever and anon are coming to light that 
 show how many of both sexes, and of all ranks, 
 are the secret slaves of this debasing vice. What 
 falsehoods are told, and frauds largely practised 
 in commerce, and in almost every kind of busi- 
 ness ! and are not the poor often defrauded of 
 their wages, helpless widows and orphans of their 
 substance, to maintain a splendid extravagance 
 a false position in society, to blow and keep up 
 a bubble that sooner or later bursts ? By how 
 many is God's holy name profaned ; and how 
 many more like the drunken king, who, in car- 
 ousal with his wives and concubines, made wine- 
 cups of the vessels of the sanctuary profane 
 the Sabbath by idle recreation, or feasting, or 
 business, wasting its sacred hours on the most 
 common purposes ! 
 
 To warn religious people against such vices 
 may seem unnecessary. I know that they will 
 not practise them; yet they may fall into what 
 they will not practise. Fall ? alas ! how have the 
 mighty fallen ! and were all our secrets revealed, 
 how would it be seen that many who never fell, 
 
138 PURITY. 
 
 had been on the point of falling tottering, when 
 God's arm pulled them back, on the very edge 
 of the precipice. What sore battles have been 
 fought of which the world knows nothing ! Ex- 
 amples of this, that "the righteous scarcely are 
 saved ; " wounded, and bleeding, and all but over- 
 come, their shield and helmet battered, their 
 crown in danger and all but taken, they have 
 come off conquerors only by help of Him who 
 finds his opportunity in man's extremity, and 
 saves at the very uttermost. 
 
 It is not the practice of fathers to publish the 
 faults of their children ; they are slow to believe 
 them; they are much more ready to conceal than 
 to reveal their failings. And for what end were the 
 sins of Noah, and Jacob, and St Peter, and David, 
 written in the Bible, and proclaimed in the ears 
 of the world, but to warn us ? Their moral is 
 this, Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed 
 lest he fall. Do any, astonished and indignant 
 at the insinuation, resent it, saying, There is no 
 fear of me ? Ah ! the day was when these good 
 men would have said the same, asking with horror 
 as great as yours, Is thy servant a dog, that he 
 
PURITY. 139 
 
 should do such a thing? Yet they did it; and, 
 though with Noah's sons we would throw a mantle 
 over their shame, the sound of their fall has its 
 echo in our Saviour's words, Watch ! Watch and 
 pray, that ye enter not into temptation. 
 
 We are to abstain from all worldly pursuits and 
 pleasures that are of a doubtful character. 
 
 The atmosphere is sometimes in such a peculiar 
 state that the spectator, on coast or shore, look- 
 ing abroad over the sea, cannot tell where the 
 water ends and the sky begins; and as if some 
 magician had raised them out of their proper 
 element, and turned their sails into wings, the 
 ships seem floating in mid-air. But occasionally 
 no line of separation is more difficult to draw than 
 that which lies between what is right and what is 
 wrong. Whether such and such a business or 
 amusement, pursuit or pleasure, is wrong, and one, 
 therefore, in which no Christian should engage, 
 is a question that, so far as the thing itself is con- 
 cerned, may be difficult to answer. But it is not 
 difficult to answer, so far as you are concerned, if 
 you doubt whether it is right. The apostolic rule 
 is, Let every man be fully persuaded in his own 
 
140 PURITY. 
 
 mind ; and unless you are so, then, " what is not 
 of faith is sin " sin at least to you. No man, I 
 freely admit, has any more right to add to the 
 duties than he has to add to the doctrines of 
 religion ; and he assumes an authority which be- 
 longs not to man, who pronounces anything to be 
 positively sinful that is not clearly forbidden either 
 by the letter or by the spirit of God's Word. 
 These are the impious pretensions of the Church 
 of Rome. Still, whatever others may feel them- 
 selves at liberty to do, if you are not satisfied in 
 your own mind and conscience that the thing is 
 right, that the pursuit, or pleasure, or enjoyment, 
 is lawful, it may be right for others, but it is 
 wrong for you to do it. Hence the Word of God 
 says, He who doubteth is damned ! not that he is 
 damned in the common sense of that terrible 
 expression ; not that he is damned to hell ; but 
 that he is convicted, condemned of wrong-doing, 
 in doing that which he is not sure is right. 
 
 In regard to the lawfulness of certain pursuits, 
 pleasures, and amusements, it is impossible to lay 
 down any fixed and general rule ; but we may 
 confidently say, that whatever is found to unfit you 
 
PURITY. 141 
 
 for religious duties, or to interfere with the per- 
 formance of them ; whatever dissipates your mind, 
 or cools the fervour of your devotions ; whatever 
 indisposes you to read your Bibles, or engage 
 in prayer ; wherever the thought of a bleeding 
 Saviour, or of a holy God, of the hour of death or 
 of the day of judgment, falls like a cold shadow on 
 your enjoyment ; the pleasures which you cannot 
 thank God for, on which you cannot ask His bless- 
 ing, whose recollections will haunt a dying bed, 
 and plant sharp thorns in its uneasy pillow, 
 these are not for you. These eschew ; in these be 
 not conformed to this world, but transformed in 
 the renewing of your minds " Touch not, taste 
 not, handle not." Never go where you cannot ask 
 God to go with you ; never be found where you 
 would not like death to find you ; never indulge in 
 any pleasure which will not bear the morning's 
 reflection. Keep yourselves unspotted from the 
 world ! nor from its spots only, but even from its 
 5uspicions. If the virtue of Caesar's wife, according 
 to the Romans, was not even to be suspected, may 
 I not say as much for the purity of the Lamb's 
 Bride ? Remember that the character of a Chris- 
 
142 PURITY. 
 
 tian is easily blemished ; that they who wear white 
 robes need to take care where they walk ; that the 
 smallest stain is visible on snow ; that polished 
 steel takes rust from the slightest touch of damp. 
 Keep your garments clean. Keep your conscience 
 tender tender as the eye that closes its lids 
 against an atom of dust, or as that sensitive plant 
 which I have seen shrink and shut its leaves, not 
 merely at the rude touch of a finger, but at the 
 breath of the mouth.- Walk holily, and humbly, 
 and circumspectly, lest your good should be evil 
 spoken of, and you should give occasion to the 
 enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. Mould your 
 life on Christ's ; and, in the noble words of His 
 apostle, " Whatsoever things are true, whatso- 
 ever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, 
 whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things 
 are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; 
 if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think 
 on these things." 
 
 Religion does not require us to retire from the 
 world. 
 
 In the strict sense of the term, the world has 
 nothing to defile us. It is a beautiful world 
 
PURITY. 143 
 
 furnished with delights, and full of loveliness. 
 Its fields carpeted with flowers ; its mountains 
 wreathed with mists, or bathed in sunshine, or 
 crowned with glistening snows ; its bright skies 
 and green woods ringing with merry music ; its 
 air loaded with the perfumes of ten thousand 
 censers ; its seas and lakes spread out like great 
 mirrors of living gold or silver ; its various ele- 
 ments teeming with happy myriads, that, gathering 
 what God gives, are the pensioners of His bounty 
 the world is full of God ; and converse with 
 nature, so far from corrupting or defiling us, has a 
 tendency to purify our thoughts and improve the 
 mind. It was not of this world, in the ordinary 
 sense of the term, that our Lord spake, when, see- 
 ing Satan advance to the combat, He said, " The 
 prince of this world cometh, and he hath nothing 
 in me." Our earth owned not Satan, but Christ, 
 as its Prince. It felt the pressure of His foot ; its 
 waters sustained His form ; its midnight sky rang 
 with the song of His nativity ; its air bore Him up 
 as He rose to His Father ; in a golden cloud it 
 provided the Conqueror with a chariot ; its waves 
 and winds in their wildest uproar were obedient to 
 
144 PURITY. 
 
 His command ; at His bidding its water reddened 
 into wine, its graves opened to give up their dead, 
 its bread multiplied to feed His train ; and, as if 
 the blow that struck Him had fallen heavy on its 
 head, it trembled with -horror as it received His 
 blood. It never gave its iron to be nails for His 
 blessed hands ; nor grew its thorns to pierce His 
 brow. With high heaven, the earth was a mourner 
 at Christ's death ; and as if it were never to recover 
 the shock of that day, when they hung its King 
 and Creator on a tree, an old legend says, that the 
 reason why the aspen leaf is ever trembling on its 
 stalk is because the cross was made of an aspen 
 tree. 
 
 It is not the world, but the men of it, that are 
 corrupt and corrupting. It is from these that 
 religion calls us to keep ourselves unspotted. 
 Uncontaminated and unstained by their vices, we 
 are to recoil from them, saying, My soul, come not 
 thou into their secret ; with them, mine honour, 
 be not thou united. In Scripture, the world often 
 stands for the ungodly; and the application of that 
 term to them proves, alas ! that the ungodly form 
 the great mass of mankind. God's enemies are the 
 
PURITY. 145 
 
 majority ; His people the minority ; and in some 
 places a very small minority. Hence they are 
 called a peculiar people a description altogether 
 inappropriate, were the mass of society holy and 
 leavened with divine principles ; for in that case 
 it would be the bad, not the good who were pecu- 
 liar distinguished from the multitude, like the 
 man at the marriage feast who wore no wedding 
 garment. An important, this is a serious and 
 alarming consideration. It makes it all the more 
 difficult to keep ourselves unspotted by prevailing 
 ungodliness ; just as it is more difficult to make 
 way in the streets against a rush and press and 
 crowd of people, than against a few individuals 
 advancing in a direction opposite to our own. 
 Here number is power ; mass is power ; as in the 
 ball that goes crashing through walls of oak, or 
 grinds granite stones to powder, and owes as much 
 to its mass as to its momentum to its weight as 
 to its velocity. 
 
 Alarmed at this, and deeming it impossible, if 
 exposed to it, to stem the flood of evil, and main- 
 tain a successful resistance against such odds and 
 
 power of numbers, some have fled from the world. 
 
 K 
 
146 PURITY. 
 
 There are good Christians now-a-days who shut 
 themselves up as they would in a town where the 
 plague was raging ; retreating before danger, they 
 keep aloof from society mingling little, or not 
 at all with the world. Under the same fears, 
 though allowing themselves to be carried to 
 greater lengths, men in old times withdrew to the 
 solitude of deserts, rocks, and forests ; and became 
 hermits. Content with a bed of dry leaves for 
 their couch, a bare cave for their home, wild fruits 
 for their food, the crystal spring for their simple 
 drink, they renounced the society of man for that 
 of the more innocent beasts, that they might 
 escape the contaminations of an evil world. It 
 were unjust not to admire the self-denying, brave 
 devotion of these old anchorites ; yet they mistook 
 the path of duty. While all, and especially young 
 Christians the raw recruits as they may be called 
 should carefully avoid the dangers of tempta- 
 tion, still, I ask, If the leaven is withdrawn from 
 the lump, how is the meal to be leavened? If 
 the candle is removed, how is the house to be 
 lighted ? If Christian men and women are to 
 retire from the world, pity the world ! how is it 
 
PURITY. 147 
 
 ever to be converted ? It is well to retire at times, 
 by prayer, and meditation, and communion with 
 God, to get our wounds healed and our strength 
 renewed for the warfare and the work. But 
 though our Lord, for example, did occasionally 
 withdraw Himself to lone shores, and desert places, 
 and mountain-tops, His common walk was among 
 the haunts of men. Now He is at a merry mar- 
 riage feast, and now in the silent house of mourn- 
 ing here He dines with a pharisee, there He 
 accepts the hospitalities of a publican His foot- 
 prints are on the sands of busy shores and the 
 dusty streets of Bethsaida, Capernaum, and Jeru- 
 salem. He went about continually doing good. 
 
 Followers of Jesus ! seek others' good as well 
 as your own. We are to leaven the world, not to 
 leave it ; not to run away, but to stay. " The field 
 is the world," said our Lord ; our ploughshare is 
 to gleam in its furrows, and with flashing sickles 
 we are to go in and reap it. Though He sent 
 them out as sheep among wolves, to be hunted, 
 and torn, and murdered, Jesus said to His disciples, 
 as to us also, Go ye into all the world, and preach 
 the gospel to every creature. The part of a brave 
 
148 PURITY. 
 
 sailor is not to take to the boat, pull ashore, and 
 leave the shrieking or sleeping passengers to 
 perish ; but to stick by the ship so long as there is 
 a hope of saving her. And the part of a Christian 
 is not to desert his post in the world, but to stay 
 by it to keep the ship afloat, the world from 
 perishing. They fall well, and are saved who fall 
 at the post of duty. He who gave Paul the lives 
 of all on board, has given Christ the souls of all 
 His people ; and though the world should go down 
 like a foundering ship, they perish not with it 
 sinking, it does not, whirlpool-like, suck them 
 down into destruction. Those that Thou hast 
 given me, says Jesus, I have kept they shall 
 never perish no man shall pluck them out of 
 my Father's hand. 
 
 Look at these two illustrations of the differ- 
 ence between leaving the world, and remaining to 
 leaven it. 
 
 In a beautiful town of Switzerland, there is a 
 large convent belonging to an order of Dominican 
 nuns. Ill-guided, but, let us hope in chanty, 
 seeking the religion that, pure and undefiled, 
 keeps itself unspotted, these timid women have 
 
PURITY. 149 
 
 fled from the world to devote themselves to what 
 is called a religious life, and become candidates 
 for the highest honours of their Church. Who 
 visits the scene, and having read of such con- 
 vents as Le Vive Sepolte by the Tarpeian rock, 
 where the living interred occupy themselves by 
 incessant mortification, fast continually, never 
 read, direct their constant meditation to death 
 and corruption, never change their dresses, and 
 their under garments only twice in the year, 
 never see their connexions, nor yet hear their 
 voices, nor even know anything about them, are 
 not permitted to see the sacrament, but have it 
 administered to them through a hole in the wall, 
 through which, also, they make their confession 
 and receive absolution has associated such a 
 life with severe austerities will be agreeably dis- 
 appointed. Beautiful order, neatness, and a fine 
 feminine taste, reign within the convent walls. 
 The attire of the inmates, who occupy them- 
 selves to such an extent with works of chanty as 
 to ward off ennui, is no doubt odd and funereal- 
 like, and not calculated to gratify female vanity. 
 Still, their appearance betokens no rigid fasts, 
 
150 PURITY. 
 
 or painful mortifications. The apartments are 
 small, but most tastefully adorned. The walls 
 are hung with needlework and pictures ; every 
 couch is white as the snows of the neighbouring 
 Alps ; and at our visit, the summer breeze, as it 
 whispered among the leaves of the vines, and 
 stole in at the open window, filled the room with 
 a sweet scent of beautiful flowers that grew on 
 the window-sill. It was a sunny scene, where 
 one could dream away life, remote from the 
 battles and turmoil of the world, but remote also 
 from its duties ; and I could not but look on 
 these fair devotees as deserters who, selfishly 
 consulting their own safety, and distrusting the 
 grace of God, had abandoned the post of duty. 
 They were not keeping themselves unspotted 
 from the world, but had fled from it. 
 
 Not in that, but in this other scene we meet 
 the pure and undefiled religion which, while in 
 the world, keeps itself unspotted. Go with me 
 on a winter's night into one of the worst quarters 
 of London. Threading streets that here blaze 
 with the gas and glare of lowest drinking shops, 
 and now dark and dismal, are the walk of prosti- 
 
PURITY. 151 
 
 tutes, and the haunts of robbers, we reach a large, 
 dingy building. Ascending by a trap-stair to a 
 spacious loft, we find ourselves in the strangest 
 scene of human woe and wickedness you could 
 look on. It is a Night Refuge for houseless 
 women for the friendless, those who, thrown out 
 like faded flowers to be trodden on in the streets, 
 had sunk into dark depths of loathsomeness and 
 degradation. The hour is late, and though a few 
 lingered by the stove, the most, glad to stretch 
 their weary limbs, had lain down on the pallets 
 that, spread on the floor, were ranged along the 
 bare walls. Every head was raised, and all eyes 
 turned on us as we entered. And what looks 
 they had ! Here vice stared with her unblushing 
 front Some had the look of fiends; treachery, 
 brutal cruelty, falsehood, wrongs, and neglect, 
 having turned whatever kindliness had once been 
 in the heart into gall and wormwood ; and now 
 hatred both of God and man shot forth in their 
 scowling looks. Others wore an expression of 
 most touching sadness : one reclined with her 
 back to the naked wall, gasping for breath, and 
 dying of a raking cough ; while another sat 
 
152 PURITY. 
 
 upright in a corner, a living form of death. The 
 tide of night had floated in this wrack for the 
 sake of a meal, a fire, the humblest of couches, 
 and a roof to cover heads that otherwise had lain 
 on the cold flags, or been pillowed on a door- 
 step. 
 
 In the centre of this scene, just risen from her 
 knees, beside a table where the Bible still lay 
 open, from whose pages, accompanied by prayer, 
 she had been reading words of hope and peace 
 to these wretched outcasts, stood a woman I 
 might say an angel. Leaving father, mother, 
 brother, sister, pure associations, and a sweet 
 home, to breathe this foul atmosphere, and take 
 those forlorn creatures to her arms, she had be- 
 come mother, nurse, physician, comforter, saviour 
 guardian of those from whom all others shrunk 
 as the filth and offscourings of the earth. When 
 Carey and his associates contemplated a mission 
 to the heathen, he, on condition that they would 
 raise the means at home, volunteered to go abroad, 
 boldly saying, " If you will hold the rope, I will 
 go down into the pit." Never had we seen this 
 graphic speech so nobly illustrated. I stood 
 
PURITY. 153 
 
 rebuked in the presence of this noble woman. 
 Pure, virtuous, and delicate, what a sacrifice had 
 she made for Christ and perishing souls ! It was 
 one for angels to sing, and for Christ himself to 
 reward with, Sister of mine, well done. More 
 than any sight I ever saw, it reminded me of 
 Him who left His Father's bosom, and the 
 honours paid by angels, to become the associate, 
 and be called the Friend of sinners, to save us 
 by His blood, and teach us by His example how 
 to labour for the world's good, and keep our- 
 selves unspotted from its evil. 
 
RICHES. 
 
 ** My brethren, have not the faith of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord 
 of glory, with respect of persons, 
 For if there come unto your as- 
 sembly a man with a gold ring, in 
 goodly apparel, and there come in 
 also a poor man in vile raiment: 
 and ye have respect to him that 
 weareth the gay clothing, and say 
 unto him,, Sit thou here in a good 
 place ; and say to the poor, Stand 
 thou there, or sit here under -my 
 footstool: are ye not then partial 
 in yourselves, and are become 
 judges of evil thoughts ? Hearken, 
 viy beloved brethren, Hath not God 
 chosen the poor of this world rich 
 in. faith, and heirs of the kingdom 
 which he hath promised to them 
 that love him /" ST JAMES ii. 1-5. 
 
 / ""1T V HE same cause produces different effects 
 
 under different circumstances. Look, for 
 
 example, at volcanic action. As the higher we 
 
 rise in the air, though we approach the sun, it 
 
RICHES. 155 
 
 grows the colder ; the deeper we descend into the 
 bowels of the earth it grows the hotter, by some- 
 thing like a degree for each hundred feet ; every 
 fathom down being, in fact, six feet nearer the fire 
 nearer to that immense, central mass of burning 
 matter, around which this green earth, where we 
 build our houses and reap our harvests, lies like 
 the shell of an egg around its contents ; and 
 which, once it burst out, will remove the doubts 
 of sceptics, and supply fire enough for the flames 
 of the last day. To this imprisoned power, 
 struggling to escape, we probably owe the earth- 
 quakes that make the frame of nature tremble, as 
 well as those volcanic phenomena, which, though 
 all arising from the same cause, present so many 
 different appearances : as in Iceland, where, pre- 
 ceded by a noise like thunder rolling underground, 
 a vast column of hot water is suddenly projected 
 to a great height into the air, amid discharges like 
 artillery and clouds of snowy vapour ; or as in one 
 of the beautiful islands of the Pacific, where the 
 mud of the soil is constantly boiling over the thin 
 crust that there separates the surface of the ground 
 from the fires below ; or, as in the lofty ranges 
 
156 RICHES. 
 
 of the Andes, where flames and smoke are ever 
 rising from what have been called the chimneys 
 of the world the tops of mountains that are 
 wrapped in a mantle of perpetual snow. 
 
 As it is with such physical forces, so it is 
 with the passions that rage and burn in human 
 breasts ; their expression varies with circum- 
 stances. It is affected by the period and condi- 
 tion of life. It is modified by the influence of the 
 gospel and of civilisation, by the customs and the 
 laws of different countries human passions no 
 more than the earth's fiery contents exploding 
 everywhere alike. The detracting word dropped 
 of one who has injured you, the abuse bandied 
 between two scolding women, the curse one rough 
 and angry man hurls at another's head, the sudden 
 blow dealt by a boy in the playground on the 
 cheek of his companion, are ebullitions of the same 
 passion that used to place two men on the dewy 
 ground, amid some peaceful, rural scene, to aim 
 their bullets at each other's hearts ; and which still, 
 in the south of Europe, steals with noiseless foot 
 and coward steps on an unsuspecting enemy to 
 plant the poignard in his bosom, and wipe the 
 
RICHES. 157 
 
 bloody steel with a grim smile of satisfied re- 
 venge. 
 
 Like revenge, the love of money, the thirst for 
 gold, the inordinate desire for wealth, against 
 which God's Word raises some of its most awful 
 warnings, presents itself under a variety of as- 
 pects. Proteus-like, it assumes sometimes one 
 form, sometimes another ; but in whatever form 
 it appears a base, soul-destroying passion, it is 
 accursed of God ; insidious as it is fatal ; one on 
 which our Lord pronounces this decisive sentence, 
 "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.'* In such 
 a country as ours, which owes its greatness to 
 its commerce, whose ships plough the waters of 
 every sea, whose manufactures clothe the natives 
 of every land, where millions rise every morning 
 to the sound of the factory-bell, and trade is 
 carried on to an extent, and with an energy 
 unexampled in the history of the world, we 
 especially need to guard against the worship of 
 money, the inordinate desire for its possession, 
 giving to mere wealth the honour that belongs to 
 moral worth. For this end, let us look at the 
 way in which an undue regard to wealth appeared, 
 
158 RICHES. 
 
 according to the apostle St James, among the first 
 Christians. 
 
 The church is met for worship ; or rather per- 
 haps to sit in judgment on a dispute between 
 two contending parties, who, according to the 
 directions of the apostles, have referred their 
 difference to the decision of the church rather 
 than of heathen judges. The court is consti- 
 tuted ; the case is called ; the clients enter. One 
 is sumptuously attired ; good living in his shining 
 face, and wealth upon his back ; the gold ring 
 that glitters on his white, soft hand bespeaking 
 his condition ; he advances with pomp and dignity. 
 But what is this other object that the same door 
 admits ? a moving heap of rags. Hunger in his 
 haggard cheek, sorrow in his sunken eye, his 
 whole mien and bearing betraying a crushed and 
 broken spirit ; it is a poor man in vile raiment, 
 with a starving wife and children perhaps at home. 
 The law of God, in directing judges how to act 
 in such circumstances, utters no uncertain sound. 
 Its noble words are, " Ye shall not respect persons 
 in judgment : ye shall hear the small as well as 
 the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of 
 
RICHES. 159 
 
 man." That in one place; this in another: "Ye 
 shall do no unrighteousness in judgment ; thou 
 shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor 
 honour the person of the mighty ; in righteous- 
 ness shalt thou judge thy neighbour." Thus 
 spake God ; and in the case put by St James, a 
 right-minded judge would lean to neither side, 
 but with steady hand hold the balance even 
 neither allowing pity for the poor man on the 
 one hand, nor respect for wealth on the other ; 
 to sway his decision, to turn the scales. These 
 noble and divine instructions, which contrast so 
 strikingly with the old practice of Scotland, where 
 it used to be said, " Show me the man, and I will 
 tell you the law," and deserve to be written in 
 bright letters of gold on the walls of every court, 
 were admirably embodied in the figure which the 
 old Egyptians gave to justice. She was symbol- 
 ised by a human form without hands to indicate 
 that judges should accept no bribe ; and not with- 
 out hands only, but sightless to indicate that 
 the judge is to know neither father nor mother, 
 nor wife nor child, nor brother nor sister, nor slave 
 nor sovereign, nor friend nor foe, when he occupies 
 
l6o RICHES. 
 
 the seat of justice. He is not to see the client, 
 but only to hear the cause ; and, uninfluenced 
 either by fear or favour, to decide that upon its 
 merits. 
 
 But in the assembly of which St James gives 
 us a picture, the hideous form of Mammon sits 
 enthroned above Christ and the law of God. 
 Indicating their bias, and inflating the pride of 
 wealth, neither, on the one hand, teaching the 
 proud man that his lofty airs go for nothing there, 
 and that their eyes are not to be dazzled by the 
 flash of his ring ; nor, on the other hand, telling 
 the poor client to hold up his head like a man, 
 and be assured that his vile raiment will not tempt 
 them by an unjust judgment to defile the purity 
 of their ermine, they invite the first to a place of 
 honour, and say to the other, Stand back ! stand 
 there ! or if you will sit, sit on the floor under my 
 feet ! feet, some one might whisper, that shall 
 trample on you because you happen not to be 
 rich, but poor. Betraying by this conduct an 
 undue regard to wealth, let them be beacons to 
 warn us off a shore where many have made sad 
 and unlooked-for shipwreck. Christ was poor; 
 
RICHES. l6l 
 
 and let us not forget that poverty is the lot of 
 many of the excellent ones of the earth ; that if 
 it comes not through our vices, it is the cup our 
 Father has mingled for us ; and that many of 
 those on whom wealth looks down in haughty 
 contempt, God has chosen to be rich in faith, and 
 heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to 
 them that love Him. 
 
 Years ago, a trial took place in the highest judi- 
 cial court of our country, which shook this kingdom 
 to its centre, and drew on it the eyes of the world. 
 A queen was on her trial. On that occasion, a 
 great man, with the passions and power of the 
 Crown arrayed against him, stood up boldly in 
 her defence ; and, confronting royalty as a rock 
 confronts the surging sea, flung back the threats 
 with which they attempted to deter him from his 
 duty, saying, with defiant air and attitude, "An 
 advocate is to know no person on earth but his 
 client." But a judge is not even to know the 
 clients. He is to know nothing but the cause. 
 It appears, however, that such judges did not 
 preside in the court that incurred the censure of St 
 James : " My brethren," he says, " have not the 
 
162 RICHES. 
 
 faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, 
 with respect of persons. For if there come unto 
 your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly 
 apparel, and there come in also a poor man in 
 vile raiment ; and ye have respect to him that 
 weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit 
 thou here in a good place ; and say to the poor, 
 Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool ; 
 are ye not then partial in yourselves ? " In these 
 words the apostle charges them with having re- 
 spect of persons. Nor was it, strictly speaking, 
 respect for persons these first Christians showed ; 
 it was something worse, meaner, baser still it 
 was respect merely for dress, attire, gay clothing, 
 a gold ring. It was not moral worth that pro- 
 cured one of them a distinction which was denied 
 to the other it was but the wealth of which the 
 raiment and the ring were tokens. 
 
 Here, then, in the very house of God, these 
 Christians bowed the knee to Mammon ; and, like 
 the spaniel that licks the hand that beats it, they 
 crouched to the power that smote, persecuted, and 
 oppressed them. How mean that was ! To what 
 baseness will the love of money make men stoop ! 
 
RICHES. 163 
 
 The scene fires the apostle's just indignation. It 
 bursts out in these exclamations : " Ye have 
 despised the poor ! Do not rich men oppress 
 you ? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name 
 by which ye are called?" This injustice, viler 
 than the poor man's raiment this cringing, 
 crouching, creeping baseness, shows how the love 
 of money, the inordinate regard for wealth, de- 
 means men, demoralises them ; and what need 
 we, in this busy, trading, commercial country, have 
 to guard against a passion that has enslaved the 
 sovereign on the throne ; corrupted the judge on 
 the bench ; seduced the priest at the altar ; and 
 which, almost more than any other passion, is so 
 incompatible with piety, that the apostle St John 
 says, " If any man love the world, the love of the 
 Father is not in him." 
 
 This passion appears among us in the inordinate 
 desire after riches. 
 
 What a scene of bustle, and hurry, and trouble, 
 and toil we live in ! It is not for bread to eat, 
 and raiment to put on nature's wants are few 
 and simple. It does not accord with the unam- 
 bitious prayer of our Divine Teacher, Give us day 
 
164 RICHES. 
 
 by day our daily bread. As on the turf, where, 
 abreast each other, with foaming bits, and panting 
 sides, and distended nostrils, high-mettled horses 
 strive which shall first reach the winning-post, so 
 is that race for riches in which we see the law of 
 God, the cross of Christ, the interests of the soul, 
 the wellbeing of the body as well as of the soul, 
 trampled under foot by the eager competitors. 
 Were the crown of heaven, all sparkling with the 
 gems of redemption, hung aloft on the goal, and 
 were there but one crown to a crowd of candi- 
 dates, people could not be more earnest, eager, 
 bent upon their object. How they run, and sweat 
 and toil, to the whip and spur of this master- 
 passion ! not seldom meeting the fate of the poor 
 race-horse, that, distancing his fellows, and reach- 
 ing by wide and rapid strides the goal, drops dead 
 in the moment of triumph. How many embitter, 
 and how many shorten their life in pursuit of a 
 wealth they live not to enjoy leaving people, as 
 they carry the rich man with parade and costly 
 pomp to his grave, to moralise on his folly, and 
 exclaim, Vanity, vanity, all is vanity ! 
 
 This desire, which is so apt to grow into an in- 
 
RICHES. 165 
 
 controllable passion, has no warrant in Scripture. 
 The Scriptures teach us to pray, and pray ear- 
 nestly, to be saved, good, wise, holy, kind, lovers 
 of God and man ; but nowhere to be rich and 
 a man should never try to be what he cannot 
 pray to be. Indeed, we are taught to pray, not 
 for, but against riches. And so men pray ; but 
 how often, like one who rows a boat, do they look 
 one way and pull another ? It is not uncommon 
 for people to say that ministers should not be 
 rich ; and some take good care, as far as they are 
 concerned, that they shall not muzzling the ox 
 that treadeth out the corn. When pleading the 
 cause of my poorer brethren, not seeking riches 
 for them, but only a competency, and that those 
 that serve at the altar should live by the altar, 
 the response I met from one who " fared sump- 
 tuously every day/' was Oh, ministers should not 
 be rich ; it is not good for them. But was Agur's 
 prayer intended only for the lips of ministers ? 
 On the contrary, I believe that riches were less 
 dangerous in their hands than in those of most 
 other men. Brought more than others in contact 
 with the poor and needy, they would be more 
 
l66 RICHES. 
 
 likely to make a generous, and hedged round by 
 the sacredness of their office, they would be less 
 likely than many to make a vicious use of their 
 wealth. At any rate, other men have as much 
 need as the ministers of religion to pray with 
 Agur, " Give me neither poverty nor riches/' 
 
 But some say, the tide of fortune flows in on us 
 the money comes unprayed for, and unsought. 
 If so, if it flows in on you, then let it flow out from 
 you in as full a stream. Be like yonder lake, that, 
 refusing to be surcharged with water when thun- 
 ders are pealing and lightnings are flashing among 
 the dark hills, and a thousand foaming torrents 
 leaping down their sides, pour a flood into its 
 bosom, ere long pours forth a corresponding flood 
 at its exit ; and, giving to the earth as it gets from 
 heaven, swells the river, that, rising on its banks 
 and rushing from the glen, winds its bright and 
 blessed way onward to the sea. 
 
 The desire for riches, while unscriptural, is, in 
 many instances, in the highest degree irrational. 
 Hoarding is a strange insanity. I discover divine 
 wisdom in the hoarding habits of some animals ; 
 in the honey the bee stores up in waxen cells, and 
 
RICHES. 167 
 
 in the wealth of nuts the brisk and merry squirrel 
 packs up in the hollow tree. Their supply of food 
 is uncertain ; and, with more than suffices for pre- 
 sent wants, God teaches them through their in- 
 stincts not to waste the bounties of nature, but lay 
 them up for a time of need. And though it seems 
 foolish in the dog who has a kind master, and gets 
 his regular meals, yet it rather amuses us than 
 otherwise to see him, under the influence of in- 
 stincts which domestication has dulled rather than 
 destroyed, steal away into the garden, and, cau- 
 tiously looking round to see that he is unnoticed, 
 scrape up the soil with his paws to bury a bone 
 for future use. This hoarding is the natural habit 
 of the animal the true instinct of his wild life 
 of value to the dog. But for a man with ample 
 means, possessing already more than he can require 
 or use, to hoard up wealth clothes when the poor 
 are naked, food when the poor are hungry, money 
 when others have not wherewithal to buy a meal, 
 and children, to use the touching words of Scrip- 
 ture, are crying for bread, and their mothers have 
 none to give them, is, to say nothing of its inhu- 
 manity, a species of madness. Cui bono ? What 
 
l68 RICHES. 
 
 is gained by it ? Nothing. Nothing can properly 
 be called a man's own but what he can use. There 
 is no profit of it under the sun. God has no re- 
 spect for persons ; in His eyes wealth is not worth ; 
 and you may know how little God thinks of money 
 by observing on what bad and contemptible char- 
 acters He often bestows it. Forfeiting man's- re- 
 spect as well as His, the greedy, griping, grasping 
 lose the shadow as well as the substance ; despised 
 by the great and detested by the humble, they 
 live unloved, and die unmourned. Yet to that 
 miserable end the craving for wealth brings us, 
 unless we are kept by the grace of God. There 
 is a witchery about money -making, as well as 
 gambling, against which those who make it 
 honestly, and use it well, and save only what is 
 wise and prudent, cannot be too much on their 
 guard. He who is saving money should look well 
 to the saving of his soul. He is mounted on a 
 steed which has often run away with its rider. 
 He is sailing on the rim of a whirlpool which is 
 apt to draw him in ; and where, though the water 
 seems smooth as oil, and placid as a lake, he may 
 detect this fatal tendency ay, and catch the dis- 
 
RICHES. 169 
 
 tant roar of its devouring vortex. He is working 
 at a machine which, without constant care, will 
 draw in his finger ; and after that his hand ; and 
 then his arm ; till by and by spectators stand 
 aghast to see his body whirled round, a bloody, 
 mangled, lifeless mass. Make wise and prudent 
 provision for the future ; yet let it be your daily 
 and most earnest prayer that God would keep you 
 from forgetting the great future of eternity, or 
 allowing carefulness for this world to grow into 
 carelessness of the next into that love of money 
 which is the ruin of so many souls, and which the 
 word of God declares to be the " root of all evil." 
 
 This undue regard for wealth may be seen in 
 the conduct of parents. 
 
 The foremost thing with them should be the 
 spiritual and eternal interests of their children 
 otherwise the authors shall prove the curse of their 
 being. Carry them in the arms of prayer to 
 Christ. Seek not that they may be great, but 
 good. Care not though their names are not in the 
 temple of fame, if they are found in the Book of 
 Life. Teach them to strive not so much for the 
 honours of the school, or of their profession, as for 
 
170 RICHES. 
 
 the " honours that come from God only/' Train 
 the branches upward ; guide their aspirations 
 heavenward ; point them to the skies. Let their 
 ambition rise above an easy or prosperous life, to 
 a useful one. Teach them to spurn the maxims of 
 the world, and live for others loving and loved. 
 What though they have a humble home on earth 
 if they have a mansion above the stars ; though 
 they are poor in this world's goods if they are rich 
 in faith ; though their road below be rough and 
 flinty, if it conduct them to the cross of Calvary, 
 and by that to the gate of heaven and the bosom 
 of God. 
 
 Yet, alas ! how often are children sacrificed to 
 wealth ? Crimes that were done at the altars of 
 Moloch are repeated at the shrines of Mammon. 
 To come down from generalities to matters of 
 actual and every-day life, see in these, among 
 many other things, the undue regard paid to 
 wealth, and the gross neglect of higher interests. 
 
 Parents eagerly seek rich marriages for their 
 daughters. 
 
 Wealth is weighed against worth ; and in the 
 estimation of many outweighs it. The happiness 
 
RICHES. 171 
 
 of children is cruelly sacrificed, or never consulted 
 in these wretched money-matches. The only 
 plain rule which Scripture lays down in regard to 
 marriage is trodden in the dust. Not forbidding 
 the bans where there are differences of rank, or 
 fortune, or race, or colour ; the apostle says, " Be 
 not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." 
 Yet see the court paid to a man who has neither 
 brains in his head, nor generosity in his heart, nor 
 piety in his soul, but only money in his purse 
 the money, not the man, the true attraction. 
 With hand and heart cruelly divorced, many a 
 poor girl is sacrificed at the marriage altar. She 
 wears chains of slavery in the gold she wears 1 Not 
 less than yon dark negress who, rudely handled, 
 stands blushing, or with swimming eyes fixed on 
 her lover, weeps on the auction-block, this fair 
 creature is sold for gold ; not by a master but 
 by her parents ; not by heathens but by Chris- 
 tians ; and in a land, too, where the soil boasts 
 such liberty, that the bondsman who touches it 
 is free. Forced, perhaps, to part with the true 
 gem of a kind, true, attached, and loving heart for 
 these dead things, the diamonds that, flashing on 
 
172 RICHES. 
 
 her attire, blind others' eyes to the desolation 
 within her soul, are the marks of her bondage. 
 Compared with parents that sacrifice their children 
 for money, a title, rank, estates, how noble the 
 Hebrew chief! Jephthah sacrificed his daughter, 
 but not for gold. He offered her up on the sacred 
 altar of his country. Patriotism dictated, and 
 piety demanded the sacrifice ; he said, I have 
 opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go 
 back. Still, though animated by the purest mo- 
 tives, and sustained by the highest principles, it 
 was in the bitterness of his heart, he stood over 
 the gentle sufferer, meekly bending her head to 
 the stroke, to cry, Alas, alas, my daughter ! But 
 the bitterness of that hour is not to be compared 
 with the self-reproach and wretchedness of him 
 who, sacrificing his child for money, has broken 
 her heart ; giving her to some ungodly man, has 
 ruined her soul ; and is left to cry in unavailing 
 regrets, Alas, alas, my daughter! 
 
 The undue regard of wealth appears in the 
 lucrative positions parents seek for their sons. 
 
 How and where, in what profession, business, 
 town, country, their children will make most 
 
RICHES. 173 
 
 money, and find the surest, shortest road to for- 
 tune, is the only consideration with many and 
 the chief one with some whose Christian character 
 might have warranted us to say, "We hope better 
 things of you." In this matter how may we ask 
 of many unquestionably devout and pious parents, 
 What do ye more than others? How rare is it, 
 for instance, to find Christians in affluent circum- 
 stances educating a son for the ministry ; like 
 Samuel's mother, dedicating a child to the service 
 and house of God ! Ever and anon the churches 
 lift up a loud and urgent cry for more volunteers 
 to storm the breaches God's providence is making 
 in the walls of Heathendom, for more mission- 
 aries to carry the cross to pagan lands, for more 
 candidates to supply the lack of service at home ; 
 and all this, while other professions are over- 
 stocked, and Christian parents are sending off 
 their sons by thousands every year to seek wealth 
 beyond the wide seas, in inhospitable climes, and 
 on heathen shores. Why is this so ? It cannot 
 be because the office of the ministry is not re- 
 spectable. In influence and dignity, the pulpit 
 yields to no place under the sun. Others hold 
 
174 RICHES. 
 
 their commission from the Sovereign, but the 
 minister of the gospel holds his from the King 
 of kings and Lord of lords; and fills an office 
 of such dignity as in the eyes even of the world 
 to impart a measure of respectability to its holder, 
 though he may have no claim otherwise to re- 
 spect. But it is not lucrative. There is the key 
 to the mystery. It is usually a poor office ; and 
 pity 'tis 'tis poor! and thus, though Christ was 
 poor, and made Himself poor to make us rich, 
 those for whom He gave His blood, refuse Him 
 their sons. Let Christians blush to read the story 
 of the rude clansman who, after seeing six stal- 
 wart sons fall defending his chief, called for his 
 seventh and last boy, his Benjamin, to fight and 
 die with him in the noble but hopeless struggle. 
 
 In the profession of the ministry, it is true 
 men may save souls ; but in others, they will 
 save money. In this they may win jewels for 
 Christ's crown, but in these they may hope to 
 array wife and daughters in the glittering pride of 
 jewellery. In training a son for this office, they 
 will place him in circumstances the most favour- 
 able to virtue and piety ; still, though removed 
 
RICHES. 175 
 
 far from a father's care, and a mother's prayers, 
 and the means of grace, in secular occupations, in 
 lands where he hears no Sabbath-bells, or amid 
 the temptations of great cities, where no one cares 
 for his soul, he may make a fortune and so 
 money carries it over the highest and holiest con- 
 siderations. The youth is launched forth on the 
 world. The helm is in the grasp of a feeble hand. 
 The storm of temptation comes. His father's 
 parting prayer, his mother's last tender look, and 
 the holy recollections of home, still fresh in his 
 mind, he makes an effort to hold on in his virtuous 
 career ; but by and by he gives up the unequal 
 struggle, and with " youth at the prow and plea- 
 sure at the helm," drives on to ruin becomes a 
 total wreck. What a fate for a parent to weep ! 
 What a sorrow for his life ! As he recalls the 
 image of the boy whom he sacrificed to the love 
 of gold, how will remorse wring from his heart 
 more than the bitterness of David's cry, O my son 
 Absalom ! my son, my son Absalom ! would God 
 I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son ! 
 
 The undue regard to wealth appears in the 
 desire of parents to bequeath riches to their children. 
 
176 RICHES. 
 
 If parents, without any respect to the spiritual, 
 looked only to the temporal interests of their 
 children, they would not be so anxious to leave 
 them wealth. Few greater misfortunes could befall 
 a youth than to be left a fortune. How would 
 that event increase his danger; and, filling a 
 father's heart with new fears, cast a dark shadow 
 over the hopes he had begun to cherish of his 
 son ! The world presents temptations enough to 
 youth without that. It needs a steady foot and 
 a cool head to stand on the edge of a dizzy cliff; 
 a steadier hand than most young men possess to 
 carry a full cup. With few, or almost no excep- 
 tions, they have a roaring sea of temptations to 
 swim through ; and to how many has their wealth 
 proved a bag of gold, which a foolish parent's 
 hand has tied round the neck of the unhappy 
 youth ? We have watched their course, and seen 
 their heads, after a brief struggle, go down be- 
 neath the wave ; while those who had nothing 
 but their own exertions and God's blessing to 
 depend on, finding in that emptiness a life-buoy, 
 have struck out manfully for the land, and stood 
 alive on the shore of a sea thickly strewn with 
 
RICHES. 177 
 
 the drowned bodies of others, to thank God that 
 they had had a hard battle to fight, arid the yoke 
 to bear in their youth. Look around and see 
 who those are that stand on the heights of their 
 profession, or business ! With few exceptions, 
 they are those whom riches did not tempt to be 
 idle; who wrought under the spur of a sharp 
 necessity; whose purses were lighter than their 
 hearts ; who, receiving little else from a father 
 but a good education and an honourable name, 
 had no portion of goods to spend " on harlots 
 and riotous living" hand over hand, by their 
 own manful exertions, they have climbed to the 
 positions of honour, affluence, or usefulness they 
 fill. 
 
 Now, look on the other hand to the common 
 not universal, but common fate of those for whom 
 anxious parents have laid up stores of wealth ! In 
 how many instances has it proved their ruin ; 
 Well and truly does the Psalmist say, " He heap- 
 eth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather 
 them." It is well he does not. He sleeps, but it 
 might disturb him in his grave to see how reck- 
 lessly squandered is all that he carefully gathered! 
 
 M 
 
178 RICHES. 
 
 that the portions he left are spent with the 
 prodigal's folly without being followed by the 
 prodigal's repentance ; and that no inscription 
 so describes his life and befits his tombstone, as 
 Vanity, vanity, and vexation of spirit ! He has 
 enriched his children ; and ruined them. He 
 sowed the wind, and they reap the whirlwind ; 
 and may use in hell the words of one who, 
 mourning the dissensions that a fortune they 
 succeeded to had bred among her brothers and 
 sisters, the deplorable wrecks which it had made 
 of youths once full of promise, exclaimed, as she 
 wrung her hands Oh, that wretched money ! 
 that wretched money ! 
 
 Let us not be misunderstood. It is the duty 
 of parents to make a prudent provision for their 
 children, and against the accidents of life. An 
 apostle, speaking of him who provides not for 
 those of his own house, says, that he " is worse 
 than an infidel, and has denied the faith." That 
 man certainly commits a crime against his chil- 
 dren who rears them in the habits of affluent 
 circumstances, and leaves them beggars at his 
 death. Such conduct, however common, is inex- 
 
RICHES. 179 
 
 cusable and cruel in the upper classes. And it 
 is unwise and wrong in the humbler, not to make 
 honey or hay when the sun shines ; and stand 
 prepared for days when the right hand has lost 
 its cunning, and the brawny arm its strength, and 
 the back that bore itself erect under the burden 
 of life's daily toil, bends beneath the weight 
 of years. Only let money be kept in its own 
 place. Its place is in your hands, not in your 
 affections. Lodge it in the bank ; but not in 
 your heart keep that for God. Gold is a good 
 servant ; but a bad, base, exacting, cruel, despotic 
 master. Be on your guard ; if it is not your 
 servant, you must be its slave. Well does the 
 Bible pronounce the love of it to be " the root of 
 all evil." It drew Lot into Sodom, from whose 
 fiery ruin he escaped but by the skin of his teeth. 
 Demas was an apostle, arid it made him an apos- 
 tate. It turned Judas into a traitor, and, loading 
 his name with eternal infamy, sank his soul into 
 eternal' perdition. Money cannot be safely made, 
 or safely saved, but by those who through grace 
 receive and use it as a gift from God ; who would 
 not give one red drop of a Saviour's blood for all 
 
"l8o RICHES. 
 
 the gold of banks ; who amid all other questions 
 of profit and loss, are most impressed and most 
 occupied with this, What shall it profit a man 
 though he gain the whole world, if he lose his own 
 soul? What shall a man give in exchange for 
 his soul ? 
 
THE LA W OF GOD. 
 
 " If ye fulfil the royal law accord- 
 ing to the scripture, Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbour as thyself, ye 
 do well: but if ye have respect to 
 persons, ye commit sin, and are 
 convinced of the law as transgres- 
 sors. For whosoever shall keep 
 the whole law, and yet offend in 
 one point, he is guilty of all* For 
 he that said. Do not commit adul- 
 tery, said also, Do not kill. Now 
 if thou commit no adultery, yet if 
 thou kill, thou art become a trans- 
 g ressor of the law. So speak ye, 
 and so do, as they that shall be 
 judged by the law of liberty. For 
 he shall have judgment without 
 mercy, that hath show ed no mercy ; 
 and mercy rejoiceth against judg- 
 ment" ST JAMES iL 8-13. 
 
 /^ OD always uses such means as are best 
 suited to the work He has on hand car- 
 penters, architects, mechanics, in employing vari- 
 
182 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 ous kinds of tools, but copy the great Maker 
 and Monarch of all. Long ages ago ten thou- 
 sand, perhaps ten hundred thousand years ago, 
 when God was preparing this world for the abode 
 of man, working on rough materials, He employed 
 agents of tremendous power. What fires they 
 were that fused the solid rocks; how they roared 
 and flamed, when as science teaches and the 
 Bible tells "the hills melted like wax at the 
 presence of the Lord!" We talk of stormy seas 
 and mountain billows that toss our stoutest ships 
 like feathers on the wave, and round the rattling 
 shingle as it is swept up and down the foaming 
 beach ; but what waves were those that, surging 
 up the valleys, broke on the tops of our highest 
 hills, and flinging their spray in the face of 
 heaven, left the plains covered with immense beds 
 of gravel, and our glens with those granite boul- 
 ders, whose rounded forms speak of long ages 
 during which they had been rolled about on the 
 shores of tremendous seas ! Who reads the 
 pages of the book of Nature cannot doubt that, 
 like man, our earth had been born naked not 
 clothed as now with soil and verdure. And what 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 183 
 
 forces of ice, of iceberg, of glacier, were they that 
 ground the surface of the rocks to dust, which, 
 borne off by rivers, was spread out on the bot- 
 tom of the ocean to form the forest lands and 
 corn fields of future continents ! And when in 
 the course of time these were ready to be raised, 
 how tremendous the power that heaved up, for 
 example, the Alps, the Andes, this island, from 
 the bed of the sea, and gave the rocks around 
 which fish once swam and sea monsters sported, 
 to be the home of the eagle for clouds to girdle 
 and snows to crown ! 
 
 These forces have disappeared. They have 
 done their work. And now God in Nature works 
 by other and gentler agencies soft falling dews, 
 summer showers, the silent light, the feathery 
 snow, the golden clouds, the ebb and flow of 
 tides, and seas that turned by sails and steam 
 into the high road of distant nations man 
 ploughs as safely almost as he ploughs the land 
 " He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in 
 working ! " 
 
 In His spiritual kingdom, in the dispensation of 
 grace, as well as in the department of Nature, we 
 
184 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 find God also selecting instruments suited to the 
 work He has in hand using rough or gentle 
 means according to the subject he has to work 
 upon. And in turning our attention to the law 
 of God, I may remark that this accounts for the 
 circumstances in which the moral law was de- 
 livered to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai. 
 
 These circumstances were of a kind to rouse 
 the attention of the most stupid, and strike terror 
 into the stoutest hearts. Tw r o days of preparation 
 have passed, since Jehovah announced His inten- 
 tion of descending on the mount ; and many an 
 eye is turned on Sinai, that, with its gray head 
 lifted calm and peaceful against the evening sky, 
 wears no sign of the approaching event. If any 
 asked, Where is the promise of His coming ? the 
 third morning sealed the lips of cavillers and set 
 all doubts at rest. A burst of thunder that shook 
 the earth and heavens roused the sleeping camp ; 
 and brought old and young to their tent doors to 
 gaze with pale faces on Sinai. Wrapt to its feet 
 in a sable mantle, it stands up a mass of solid 
 blackness. Lightnings played around it : pierced 
 it : and streaming from it, mingled many peals 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 185 
 
 into one long, continuous, stunning roar of thunder. 
 The mountain, as if kindled by these fires, vomited 
 forth a smoke that, spreading a lurid cloud over 
 the sky, darkened the face of day ; and the earth, 
 as if infected with the terror of the people, began 
 to tremble beneath their feet. The thunders cease 
 but to give place to sounds still more awful. 
 Out from that terrible darkness, loud and long, 
 louder and still louder, till it rung like the sum- 
 mons that shall wake the dead, pealed the notes 
 of a heavenly trumpet. Next, as I read the story, 
 the trumpet ceases ; and the people who, struck 
 with a panic, had fled from the borders of the 
 mountain, and were standing afar off, heard a 
 voice. It issued from the dark bosom of the 
 cloud ; and audible not to hundreds, nor thou- 
 sands, nor tens of thousands, but to the millions 
 of that mighty multitude, it rang out loud and 
 clear those ten commandments which, forming the 
 moral law, expressed the will of God, and should 
 ever prove the rule of man. Overwhelmed, half 
 dead with terror, ready to exclaim with Jacob, 
 How terrible is this place ! the people ran to 
 Moses, crying, Speak thou with us, and we will 
 
l86 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we 
 die. 
 
 Such were the circumstances in which the ten 
 commandments were first spoken to man ; and 
 looking only at circumstances in which that law 
 appears clothed and crowned with terrors, without 
 reflecting on the reasons for them, or considering 
 the peculiar nature of the case, we allow ourselves 
 to associate the law of God with His terrors, and 
 only the Son of God with His love as if God in 
 the law, and God in redemption appeared in 
 different characters. Ask a man where the love 
 of God is to be seen, he would never dream of 
 pointing to the table of the ten commandments. 
 He turns his back on Sinai, and his face to Cal- 
 vary, saying, There, on that bloody tree, in its 
 blessed burden, behold the love of God ! This 
 is a mistake ; a very great mistake ; a pestilent 
 heresy. No doubt it is hardly possible to imagine 
 a greater contrast than the scenes of Sinai, and 
 those in which the Saviour of the world was born : 
 shepherds watching their flocks on the quiet up- 
 lands of Bethlehem; the calm night with its spark- 
 ling stars and soft falling dews ; the world around 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 187 
 
 the babe on its mother's breast, and children 
 locked in each other's arms, all hushed in slumber ; 
 the deep silence broken by no sound save the 
 baying of a watch-dog, the tinkling of mountain 
 streams, or the distant murmur of a waterfall ; a 
 beautiful light far up in the deep blue sky, de- 
 scending, brightening till the stars are quenched 
 in its glory; then a gentle voice, sounding down 
 from above to banish the alarm of these simple 
 shepherds, and saying, Fear not, behold, I bring 
 you good tidings of great joy then the whole 
 sky suddenly bursting into light, and songs of 
 sweetest voices singing, as they sing before the 
 throne, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
 peace, good-will toward men. 
 
 Still, in delivering the moral law amid circum- 
 stances so different from these, the God of love 
 was only using such means as the work required- 
 True, they were circumstances of terror; but they 
 were needed. Slavery had been for centuries the 
 cruel lot of the children of Israel; and that 
 which John Wesley rightly called "the sum of all 
 villanies" had sunk the Hebrews, as it does 
 every race it curses, into the lowest depths of 
 
l88 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 ignorance, stupidity, brutality, mental and moral 
 debasement. Their history is crowded with proofs 
 of that ; they were a stiffnecked people, ever 
 longing to return to Egypt preferring its onions 
 with bondage, to liberty with the bread of heaven. 
 
 In dealing with such a people God had the 
 rudest materials to work upon. Rough work re- 
 quires rough instruments : to use a figure whose 
 appropriateness may excuse its familiarity, men 
 don't cut blocks with razors. It is with an 
 axe the woodman fells the forest. It is with the 
 strongest stimulants in a case we knew of, 
 pouring boiling water on his naked thighs that 
 the physician rouses one sunk into deadly stupor. 
 Snow melts before the soft breath of spring ; but 
 rocks are only split by the stroke of lightning or 
 the blast of powder. Gold is beaten into shape 
 without the aid of fire not iron : more stubborn 
 metal, it has to be thrust into the roaring forge. 
 
 A dull, gross, animal, apathetic congregation 
 requires a rousing preacher that he who occu- 
 pies the pulpit be no Barnabas but a Boanerges, 
 a son of thunder. Even so, God having in Israel 
 to deal with a hard-hearted and obdurate people, 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 189 
 
 adapted His instruments to the material He had 
 to work upon : thundered out His law in their 
 ears, and sought by these circumstances of terror 
 to impress it on their hearts. These, however, 
 being but the dress it wore, do not properly be- 
 long to the law ; nor are they the true ex- 
 ponents of the mind of the Lawgiver. There is 
 the same love in the law as in the gospel the 
 difference is only in expression, as when I warn 
 one against venturing into the roaring flood, and 
 when, on his leaping madly in, I follow to save 
 him. In the law Love warns, in the Cross it re- 
 deems. Both are, as I undertake to show, the 
 true mirror of Him who thus defines His own 
 character, " God is love " " Fury is not in me." 
 
 The spring of the law is love. 
 
 With its, Thou shalt not do this, and Thou 
 shalt not do that, the law presents rather an un- 
 gracious aspect. We like ill to be bidden, but 
 worse to be forbidden. But does Love never for- 
 bid ? A mother, does she never forbid her child; 
 but, on the contrary, indulge every caprice and 
 grant all its wishes? How disastrous the fate 
 and brief the life of a child denied nothing ; in- 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 dulged in everything allowed to play with fire, 
 or fire-arms ; to devour the painted but poisonous 
 fruit to bathe where the tide runs like a race- 
 horse, or the river rushes roaring into the black 
 swirling pool. And who frets against the re- 
 straints of God's holy law because it forbids this 
 and the other thing, is no wiser than the infant 
 who weeps, and screams, and struggles, and per- 
 haps beats the kind bosom that nurses it, because 
 its mother has snatched a knife from its foolish 
 hands. 
 
 No doubt the law restrains us ; but all chams 
 are not fetters, nor are all walls the gloomy pre- 
 cincts of a jail. It is a blessed chain by which 
 the ship, now buried in the trough, and now rising 
 on the top of the sea, rides at anchor and out- 
 lives the storm. The condemned would give 
 worlds to break his chain, but the sailor trembles 
 lest his should snap ; and when the gray morning 
 breaks on the wild lee-shore, all strewn with 
 wrecks and corpses, he blesses God for the good 
 iron that stood the strain. The pale captive eyes 
 his high prison wall, to curse the man that built 
 it, and envy the little bird that, perched upon its 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 19! 
 
 summit, sings merrily, and flies away on wings of 
 freedom ; but were you travelling some Alpine 
 pass where the narrow road, cut out of the face 
 of the rock, hung over a frightful gorge, it is with 
 other eyes you would look on the wall that re- 
 strains your restive steed from backing into the 
 gulf below, Such are the restraints God's law 
 imposes no other. It is a fence from evil no- 
 thing else. I challenge the world to put its finger 
 on any one of these ten commandments which is 
 not meant, and calculated to keep us from harming 
 ourselves, or hurting others. There is the same 
 love in the law that there is in the gospel; and 
 between them a harmony as perfect as the music 
 of that heaven where the harps are gold, and the 
 strings are touched by angels' fingers. The hand, 
 indeed, that wrote these commandments is the 
 same that was nailed to the cross ; and amid 
 Sinai's loudest thunders Faith recognises, though 
 it speaks in other tones, the voice which prayed for 
 mercy on murderers, and promised paradise, to a 
 dying thief. 
 
 The spirit of the law is love. 
 
 By her subtle arts chemistry extracts from the 
 
192 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 crude and bulky substance its spirit, essence, essen- 
 tial element : offering us in a small phial of the 
 costly attar the fragrance of a whole field of roses, 
 and in a few drops drawn from the poppy juice, 
 that potent element which dulls the sense of pain, 
 and charms suffering to sleep. But no odour dis- 
 tilled from the blushing rose smells so sweet, no 
 spirit drawn from the gaudy poppy soothes the 
 smart of pain, as the spirit of love which Jesus finds 
 in a law that so many regard with dread fears 
 groundless as those that saw in Himself a spectre 
 of the deep, and which He laid, as His voice on 
 another night did the waves, with It is I, be not 
 afraid. With such reassuring, comforting words, 
 God, as a God of love, comes to us in this dreaded 
 Law. Jesus takes these ten commandments into 
 His hands, analyses them, extracts their true es- 
 sence and spirit and what is it ? It is love love 
 toward God, and love toward man. Whoever 
 doubts it, let them listen to His answer, when a 
 lawyer, tempting Him, came and said, Master, 
 which is the great commandment ? Jesus said unto 
 him, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 193 
 
 mind ; this" not, thou shalt have no other gods 
 before me; nor, thou shalt not make unto thee 
 any graven image ; nor, thou shalt not take the 
 name of the Lord thy God in vain ; nor, thou shalt 
 not kill, or steal, or commit adultery " this is the 
 first and great commandment ; and the second is 
 like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
 thyself and on these," He adds, "hang all the law 
 and the prophets," 
 
 Take, for example, the second table of the law, 
 those six commandments which respect our con- 
 duct not to God, but to our fellow-men. Do not 
 these enjoin the very things which Love would 
 prompt to ; and teach us to carry into practice the 
 golden rule, as it is called, that grandest maxim 
 which ever fell on human ear, Do unto others as 
 ye would have others do unto you ? Who that 
 loves his neighbour as he loves himself would steal 
 from him, would kill him, seduce his wife, or swear 
 away his fair name, his liberty, or life ? Does not 
 the loveliness and divine excellence of the law 
 appear in this, that no man, however much he 
 might wish to have liberty to break it for his 
 
 own pleasure against others, would wish that any 
 
 N 
 
194 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 should have licence to break it against himself? 
 What villain coolly laying, devil-like, his snares to 
 seduce another's wife, sister, or daughter, would 
 consent that others should have licence to seduce 
 his own ? Even thieves insist on honesty between 
 each other. Traitors consign to death the man 
 who turns traitor on themselves. Thus the worst 
 of men pay homage to the law it is sacrificed to 
 their passions, but like the victims of old that were 
 led to the altar crowned with garlands of flowers. 
 
 With their bad passions raging against it as the 
 sea foams and rages against the shore that con- 
 fines its waves within their bounds, men, like the 
 fool who hath said in his heart, There is no God, 
 have sometimes wished there were no law; and 
 that every one was left, as in Israel when there 
 was no king, to do what was right in his own eyes. 
 No law ! That wish were hardly granted when it 
 would happen with them as with the man of hea- 
 then fable, who had sought and received from 
 Jupiter the power of turning all he touched to 
 gold. And when the bread he hungered for 
 changed in his hand to gold, and the water he 
 raised to his thirsty lips turned at their touch to 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 195 
 
 gold, and the downy pillow on which he laid a 
 weary head stiffened into a solid, unyielding, 
 uneasy mass of gold, he besought the god to 
 resume the grant, and relieve him of this fatal 
 gift. Fancy what a world this would be, set loose 
 from the restraints of God's holy law no written, 
 no inner law no conscience no ten command- 
 ments the reins flung loose on the neck of pas- 
 sion all men and women left to obey every im- 
 pulse of appetite, and do what was right in their 
 own eyes ! What a Sodom, Gomorrah, hell ! 
 Remove these restraints, and iniquity in such 
 deluge as would pour on a neighbouring land 
 were its sea-dikes thrown down, would drown the 
 earth and destroy men from off its face. 
 
 On one occasion the barons of England ad- 
 dressed their king, saying, We do not wish the 
 laws of England changed; and we have only to 
 fancy what a dreadful world this would become, 
 without the restraining influence of these laws of 
 God, to say, We do not wish one of them changed 1 
 Not prisons and police, not the baton of the con- 
 stable or the bayonet of the soldier; but these are 
 the bond of society ; the shield of virtue ; the pro- 
 
196 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 . 
 
 tection of innocence ; the strength of v/eakness ; 
 the guardian of public morals and domestic peace. 
 And nothing but the base bad passions that spring 
 from our corrupt nature, hinders any from saying 
 with David, Oh how love I thy law, O Lord : it is 
 my meditation all the day teach me thy statutes 
 the law of thy mouth is better to me than 
 thousands of gold and silver therefore I love thy 
 commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold : 
 and esteem all thy precepts concerning all things 
 to be right 
 
 The sacredness of this law. 
 
 The apostle St James says, " Whosoever shall 
 keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, is 
 guilty of all." This seems hard measure to make 
 a man offender for a word to treat him for break- 
 ing one commandment as one that had broken 
 all the ten. It looks at first sight as if the unpro- 
 fitable servant who hid his master's talent in a 
 napkin, had some reason for speaking of him as 
 an " austere" man. How do we justify that ? We 
 might leave God to justify Himself. We might 
 ask, Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? 
 And leaving this, with many other mysteries, to 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 197 
 
 be solved at the last day, or in that world where, 
 with eyes purified from the mists of sin, we shall 
 see as we are seen, and know as we are known, we 
 might answer with St Paul, " Who art thou, O 
 man, that repliest against God ? Shall the thing 
 made say to him who made it, Why hast thou 
 made me thus ?" But the case is not without a 
 parallel in our own judicial proceedings and as 
 done in our courts of law who thinks the practice 
 wrong ? A witness, for instance, sworn by Al- 
 mighty God to tell the truth, the whole truth, and 
 nothing but the truth, is giving evidence in a case 
 where a man is on trial for his life. He states 
 many, as lawyers say, damning facts, and makes 
 out a case against the accused clear as daylight. 
 What need of further witnesses? The jury lay 
 down their pens, the judge throws himself back in 
 his seat, and the spectators, turning to the poor, 
 pale wretch at the bar, look on him as a dead man, 
 feeling as sure that he will be hanged as that the 
 sun shall rise to-morrow. And yet he is not 
 hanged the tables are turned in an instant ; and 
 like one in battle from whose head the sword 
 has shorn his nodding plume, the man escapes 
 
198 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 escapes, as the Bible says, by the skin of his teeth. 
 The witness whose evidence had brought him to 
 the scaffold, and to the very brink of ruin, tells a 
 lie ; one clear, deliberate falsehood. It may be on 
 a very small point ; it does not matter. All his 
 other evidence may be true as the gospel it 
 does not matter ; that one lie nullifies all his other 
 testimony blotting it clean out reducing it to 
 nothing. Convicted of perjury on one point, his 
 evidence is dealt with as if he had been guilty of 
 perjury in all ; and that for this good reason that 
 one capable of swearing to a single lie, is capable 
 of swearing to twenty. Even so though you 
 may start at the bold assertion, and when you 
 think of some gross and horrid sins may be ready 
 to exclaim, Is thy servant a dog that he should do 
 such a thing ? the man who is capable of break- 
 ing one of God's commandments, is capable of 
 breaking them all ; in mind and spirit, he that 
 offendeth in one point is guilty of all. 
 
 There are degrees, no doubt, of guilt as there 
 are degrees of glory ; there is a descending as well 
 as an ascending scale; there are higher places in 
 heaven, and hotter places in hell. It shall be more 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 199 
 
 tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of 
 judgment than for Jerusalem sinners : and more 
 tolerable for Jerusalem sinners than for the sinners 
 of our land and cities, for us if we reject or even 
 neglect the great salvation. Still there is no de- 
 gree of guilt but is fatal ; sin is a poison of which 
 the smallest drop kills ; the law is so sacred that 
 one offence, one breach of any of its command- 
 ments, exposes us to the wrath of God as certainly 
 as a thousand. The case finds its apt illustration 
 in yonder arch which spans the waters that reflect 
 its bending beautiful form drive out not ten stones, 
 but one, and the whole pile tumbles into a mass of 
 ruins. Or to vary the figure, a woman's virtue is 
 as certainly lost by one fall as by twenty ; and he 
 is as certainly a thief who steals a penny as he 
 who steals a pound who filches but a farthing 
 from a ragged beggar, as he who plunders a bank 
 of its gold, or robs a king of his crown. " He who 
 offendeth in one point is guilty of all." 
 
 Tried in this balance, who is not wanting ? 
 Tried by this test, who can stand the ordeal ? 
 Well is it said, " If thou shouldst mark iniquity* 
 O Lord, who shall stand ?" You have not been 
 
200 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 great sinners ! What of that ? he who offendeth 
 in one point is guilty of all. I admit that there are 
 unconverted people " lovely in their lives," in tem- 
 per amiable, very likeable, kind-hearted, generous, 
 just in their dealings, honest to a farthing, and in 
 their friendships true as steel ; such that, were 
 Christ to walk this world now as He did eighteen 
 hundred years ago, He would love them as He 
 loved the young ruler who came, and, falling at 
 His feet, cried, Master, what shall I do to inherit 
 eternal life ? Suppose you were such, and that is 
 not supposing little, what of that ? What man or 
 woman can hold up their hands to say, These 
 hands are clean ; uncover their bosom, lay bare the 
 secrets of their hearts, to say, My heart is pure 
 then, alas ! he that offendeth in one point is guilty 
 of all One, but one sin ! Ah ! that is the dead fly 
 in the apothecary's ointment ; there stands the spot 
 of leprosy on beauty's brow. There are none, not 
 the loveliest of human characters, but have sinned ; 
 and he who offendeth in one point is guilty of all. 
 This bolts the door of heaven against all self- 
 righteous hopes. Looking down on others, shrink- 
 ing from the society of the openly licentious, the 
 
THE LAW OF GOD, 2OI 
 
 ungodly or profane, and saying, as we push our way 
 on, to this and that one, Stand aside, I am holier 
 than thou, we may march bravely up to the gate. 
 But to our plea, I have not been a great sinner, or 
 I have not sinned like others, or I have been 
 honest, and sober, and virtuous, correct in my 
 deportment, and constant in my attendance on 
 religious ordinances, there follows no drawing of 
 bar and bolt but only through the unopened door 
 this stern reply, these words of doom, He that 
 offendeth in one point is guilty of all. 
 
 Terrible, yet blessed words ! Like the muttering 
 of distant thunder, they warn us to haste to the 
 refuge opened in the gospel. Like a friendly 
 notice, they warn us in letters which he who 
 runneth may read, No road to heaven this way. 
 They shut us up to Christ. No misfortune that ! 
 In Him we have all fulness of mercy to pardon, 
 and grace to help ; and as men who, when they 
 have done their utmost to stop the leak, and keep 
 the ship afloat, find her settling down in the deep, 
 in that terrible hour, with death staring them in 
 the face, thank God for the life-boat that, pulled 
 by strong hands, bears down on the sinking wreck, 
 
202 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 so we thank God for Christ ; we hail the Saviour 
 of the lost. He has hastened to our relief He is 
 at our side He invites us to His arms for in 
 Him, though the law condemns, "mercy rejoiceth 
 against judgment." 
 
 The gospel brings salvation to the law-breaker. 
 
 Mercy does not rejoice against the justice of 
 God. The claims of Justice were not ignored or 
 repudiated ; but satisfied. Jesus bore our punish- 
 ment, dying, the Just for the unjust, that He 
 might bring us to God ; and the gospel that 
 saves does not present the sword of Justice broken, 
 but, though red with blood, wreathed with roses. 
 Nor does Mercy rejoice against the law of God r 
 Christ tells us that He came not to destroy the 
 law and prophets, but to fulfil them ; and when 
 the Son of God, leaving His Father's bosom, be- 
 came a man to obey the precepts of the law, and 
 pay the penalty due by us for breaking them, He 
 crowned the law with higher honours than it had 
 worn though Adam had never fallen, and Eden 
 had ne'er been lost. It was great honour done to 
 the law when God wrote it with His own finger 
 on tables of stone ; but it receives a higher honour 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 203 
 
 when, dipping His finger in the blood of Christ, 
 He writes it on the fleshly tablets of a living, 
 loving heart. There have been great sermons 
 preached and printed on the ten commandments, 
 but the Cross is the greatest sermon that was ever 
 preached on the law ; and as we have seen a 
 lofty mountain best, not from the plain, but from 
 the top of another, it is on the summit of Calvary 
 that you command the grandest views of Sinai. 
 
 It is against not God's law or justice, but the 
 devil and death, the grave and hell, that Mercy 
 rejoiceth. Rejoiceth ! grand, wonderful word, it 
 lays open the very heart of God. Father of the 
 prodigal, kind, loving, joyful man, running to meet 
 thy trembling son, folding the poor wretch in thy 
 fond embraces, lavishing tears and kisses on his 
 haggard cheek, bestowing forgiveness before con- 
 fession, and with answers anticipating prayer, thou 
 wert but a dim, imperfect image of our Father 
 which is in heaven. It is not only that God 
 "has no pleasure in the death of the wicked." 
 What father has ? The more wicked the son, the 
 calamity is the greater; the deeper goes the knife 
 into a bleeding heart, as that greatest, blackest 
 
204 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 grief gushes forth in a cry like this, O my son 
 Absalom ! my son, my son Absalom ; would God 
 I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son ! 
 Nor is it only that God is " not willing that any 
 should perish." He is God and not man ; and 
 even we are not. I have seen the life-buoy spun 
 out to a drowning man, and, amid the crowd on 
 the pier that gazed in horror, there was none, as 
 they watched its course over the roaring waves, 
 but wished in his heart that it might reach its 
 mark. Nor is it only that God is "willing that 
 all should come to Him, and live." What mother 
 but would open her door who heard the knock- 
 ing, and recognised the well-known voice of some 
 poor, fallen child, that had sunk down there amid 
 the winter drift, and cried, with failing breath, O 
 mother, mother dear, open and let me in. And 
 who thinks so ill of God as to believe that when 
 He hears such a cry at the door of mercy, He 
 will not rise to let us and to welcome us in ! 
 More than all that, God rejoiceth to save, and 
 receive back to His bosom the worst and un- 
 worthiest of His erring children of those who, 
 like lost sheep, have gone astray. Mercy re- 
 
THE LAW OF GOD. 205 
 
 joiceth against judgment. It is a blessed thing 
 to fill a mother's heart with joy, and pour a tide 
 of gladness into the bosom on which we hung 
 so deeply loved and tenderly cared for in help- 
 less infancy. And be he poor or rich, prince or 
 peasant, I honour the man who would do, dare, 
 suffer anything to gild the evening of a father's 
 life, and smooth the thorns of his dying pillow. 
 It is a grand thing to make glad a parent's heart. 
 But here we may do a thing grander still. Turn 
 to the call of mercy, and you fill the great heart 
 of God with joy, and angels' harps with praise. 
 It may be that you do not love Jesus. Well, 
 Jesus loves you ; and pities you. You spit on 
 Him, despise His love, repel His approaches ? 
 Well, His blessed hand arrests the gleaming axe, 
 as He turns to His Father to say, " Father, forgive 
 them ; they know not what they do ! " 
 
 Thus mercy rejoiceth against judgment. And 
 let none stand back as if their sins were too great 
 to be forgiven, or their case too bad to be cured. 
 Jesus is an Advocate who never lost a cause a 
 Physician who never lost a patient His blood 
 cleanseth from all sin, and through Him the door 
 
206 THE LAW OF GOD. 
 
 of heaven stands open to publicans, harlots, the 
 chief of sinners. Let all come ! See there Mercy, 
 sweet Mercy, wearing a form of celestial beauty, 
 with a blood-bought pardon in this hand, and a 
 sparkling crown in that, stands aloft on the 
 summit of the Cross, ringing forth this old cry, 
 " Sing, O daughter of Zion ; be glad and rejoice, 
 O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken 
 away thy judgment; he hath cast out thine enemy. 
 Fear not, and let not thine hands be slack. 
 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty ; 
 he will save." Save ? save is almost a cold and 
 feeble word. More, much more than save ; " as 
 a bridegroom rejoiceth over his bride, so will thy 
 God rejoice over thee." 1 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 " What doth it profit, my brethren, 
 though a man say he hath faith, 
 and havs not -works f can fa ith 
 save him t If a brother or sister 
 be naked, and destitiite of daily 
 food, and one of y oil say unto them, 
 Depart in peace, be ye "warmed 
 and filled ; notwithstanding ye 
 give them not those things -which 
 are needful to the body; -what doth 
 it profit t Even so faith, if it 
 hat ft not -works, is dead, being 
 alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou 
 hast fa ith, and I ha ve -works : show 
 we thy faith -without thy -works , 
 and I -will show thee my faith by 
 wy works. Thou believest that 
 there is one God: thou doest well" 
 the devils also believe, and tremble. 
 But -wilt thou know, O vain man, 
 that faith without works is dead? 
 Was not Abraham our father 
 justified by works, when he had 
 offered Isaac his son upon the 
 altar? Seest thou how faith 
 wrought with his works, and by 
 tvorks was faith made perfect f 
 
208 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 And the scripture ivas fulfilled 
 ivhich saith, Abraham believed 
 God, and it "was imputed Tinto him 
 for righteousness : and he was 
 called the Friend of God. Ye see 
 then how that by works a man is 
 justified, and not by faith only. 
 Likewise also ivas not Rahab the 
 harlot j^^stified by works, when 
 she had received the messengers, 
 and had sent them out another 
 wayf For as the body without 
 the spirit is dead, so faith with- 
 out works is dead also. ST JAMES 
 ii 14-26. 
 
 ' INHERE is no analogy between mind and 
 matter more remarkable than the reaction 
 to which both are liable. Set free the pendulum 
 which you have drawn to one side, and, obeying 
 the law of gravitation, it returns to its centre ; but 
 in doing so, swings over to the other side. Or, 
 twist a cord that has a weight attached to it ; and 
 set loose, w r hirling rapidly on its axis, it untwines 
 itself; but does more, taking many a turn in the 
 opposite direction. Or, follow the billow that, 
 driven by the tempest and swelling as it advances, 
 flings itself on the iron shore ; it bursts, thunder- 
 ing, into snowy foam ; but does more like men 
 from a desperate charge, it rolls back violently 
 into the sea. Even so on a change of opinions 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 2OQ 
 
 and manners, how prone are men to pass from 
 one to the opposite extreme, borne by the recoil 
 beyond the line of truth a danger this against 
 which reformers, whether of states or churches, 
 of public morals or private manners, need to be on 
 their guard. 
 
 Thus we account for the extraordinary judg- 
 ment that such a man as Martin Luther, that 
 champion of the faith, pronounced on the book 
 of St James. He denied its inspiration ; and not 
 content with robbing this book of divine authority, 
 he scrupled not to speak of it in contemptuous 
 terms calling it a chaffy epistle. It is easy to 
 account for his saying that, when he believed it. 
 He was a man of dauntless courage. Remaining 
 at Wirtemberg when all others had fled, he faced 
 the plague, saying, It is my post ; should brother 
 Martin fail, yet the world will not fail. When 
 Melanchthon, and every friend he had on earth, 
 urged him not to go to Augsburg, to be given up 
 to the machinations of the legate, They have 
 already, he replied, torn my honour and my repu- 
 tation, let them have my body if it is the will of 
 God my soul they shall not take. Entreated on 
 
210 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 his approach to Worms not to enter a town 
 where his death was decided on, he pushed for- 
 wards, saying, Tell your master, that if there 
 were as many devils at Worms as tiles on its 
 roofs, I would enter. And there, before the 
 world's great Emperor, face to face with a host 
 of princely and priestly enemies, he stood a lion 
 at bay, and to the reiterated question, Whether 
 he would retract, with a sword suspended over 
 him, and a grave yawning at his feet, replied, I 
 will retract nothing ; here I take my stand ; I 
 cannot do otherwise. So help me God. Amen. 
 This was a man to speak whatever he believed ! 
 
 Nor is it difficult to account for Luther's error. 
 One day while climbing a stair at Rome on his 
 knees, in hope of thus climbing to heaven, of 
 meriting salvation through such pains and pen- 
 ances, the Spirit of God flashed this great truth into 
 his mind, with the effulgence and force of light- 
 ning, "The just shall live by faith." He rose a 
 new man ; a second St Paul ; his mission hence- 
 forth on earth, to preach life by faith the glori- 
 ous doctrine of justification by faith without works, 
 through the blood and merits of Jesus Christ. 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 211 
 
 Well, look now at his position. There, hoar with 
 age, strong in the personal interests of her 
 priests and the profound prejudices of her people, 
 resting on salvation by works, ceremonies, pay, 
 and penance, stood the old walls of Rome ; and 
 on their ramparts the cowled Dominican, selling 
 indulgences, and boasting (I quote his very 
 words) "I would not exchange my privilege 
 against those that St Peter has in heaven, for I 
 have saved more souls by my indulgences than he 
 by his sermons. Whatever crime one may have 
 committed, let him pay well, and he will receive 
 pardon." All that he said, and something about 
 the Virgin more shocking too shocking for your 
 ears. This profanity, this daring blasphemy, and 
 that whole Romish system which substitutes the 
 crucifix for the Crucified, and for His merits man's 
 wretched works of penance and pilgrimages, sack- 
 cloth for the skin, and fish on Friday, these pro- 
 duced on Luther's impulsive mind such a tre- 
 mendous recoil, that in the rebound from error he 
 passed the line of sober truth. Fancying some- 
 thing in the Epistle of St James to be at variance 
 with the doctrine of justification by faith, as set 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 forth in the writings of St Paul, he rejected it; 
 rashly rejected it scared by a phantom, the mere 
 appearance of discrepancy. And doing so, he 
 has furnished the Church of God with another 
 illustration of the words, " Put not your trust in 
 princes," nor in Luther, nor Calvin, nor in Cran- 
 mer, nor Knox " nor in the son of man, in whom 
 there is no help." 
 
 Between the sentiments of these two apostles 
 there is no real discrepancy. Before St James 
 had written his Epistle, the doctrine of justifica- 
 tion by faith without works had been abused, and 
 turned to the vilest purposes. "Wresting," to use 
 St Peter's language, the words of St Paul from 
 their true meaning, some made them a' cover for 
 the grossest sensuality, holding this immoral, hor- 
 rible doctrine, that men could be saved by mere 
 knowledge of the truth, mere intellectual assent 
 to sound doctrines miscalled faith, though they 
 were impious in heart, and in practice impure. 
 It was against this pestilent heresy, this poisonous 
 weed, that, native to every soil, has sprung up in 
 all ages, and against those who confessed Christ in 
 words, but in works denied Him, that St James 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 213 
 
 took pen in hand, saying, What doth it profit, my 
 brethren, that a man say he hath faith and have 
 not works ? Can faith this faith, such a faith 
 save him ? Faith, i it hath not works, is dead, 
 being alone. 
 
 We are saved by faith in the merits of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Can faith save ? Certainly ; if it be not that 
 false and spurious thing which St James pro- 
 nounces dead ; but true faith. Sooner than be- 
 lieve otherwise, even on the authority of an 
 epistle attributed to St James, I would believe 
 with Luther that the apostle's name was a forgery; 
 and that the epistle which bore it, and was bound 
 up with the Bible, had, like Satan among the 
 sons of God, or bad money among the current 
 coin, got into company better than its own. 
 
 And how are we saved by faith ? Not by any 
 merit in our faith, for that is the gift of God 
 and the work of His Holy Spirit ; and is, so to 
 speak, but the rope which the drowning man 
 clutches, and by which another pulls him living 
 to the shore. God its author, the heart its seat, 
 good works its fruit, Christ is its object ; and it 
 
214 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 saves by bringing us to the Saviour. It weeps 
 with the Magdalene at His feet ; it prays with the 
 thief, Lord remember me; with the blind it gropes 
 for Christ, crying, Thou Son of David, have 
 mercy on us ! and with Simon, as he sank arnid 
 the roaring billows, seeing help in none else, it 
 stretches out its arms to Jesus, with Lord save 
 me, I perish ! Greatest act of the soul, it lays 
 my sins on Jesus, and so relieves my conscience 
 of a load of guilt ; and taking off my rags to 
 put Christ's righteousness on me, it covers a poor 
 sinner with a robe fairer than angels wear. 
 
 May any be thus saved ; without works ; with- 
 out merit ; guilty as he who said, I believe that I 
 have committed every sin possible to man unless 
 murder ? Ay, and with murder to boot. It is 
 the glory of Christ's blood that it cleanseth from 
 all sin, and was poured out freely for the chief 
 of sinners ; so that if any man, troubled for his 
 sins, in terror of divine wrath, afraid to die, afraid 
 even to go to sleep lest he should awake in hell, is 
 crying, Oh, sirs, what shall I do to be saved ? I 
 say with St Paul, when the jailer, at midnight, on 
 his knees, was putting the same question, " Be- 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 215 
 
 lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
 saved." I know no other way. There is none. 
 There is no name given under heaven whereby 
 we can be saved but the name of Jesus ; and 
 united to Him, though by the weakest, slenderest 
 faith, you are safe. 
 
 Christ drew divine lessons from gay flowers and 
 singing birds. And in the conservatory I have 
 seen a plant from which such saints as Bunyan's 
 Mr Feeble-mind might draw strength ; gather 
 something more fragrant than its odours, more 
 beautiful than its purple flowers. Climbing the 
 trellis, which it interwove with spreading verdure 
 and flowery beauty, it sprang from the soil by a 
 mere filament of a stem. Unlike the mountain 
 pine and sturdy oak, that seem built for the 
 heads they carry, and the storms they have to 
 encounter, one had to trace it upwards and down- 
 wards to be convinced that this thread of a stalk 
 was the living, nourishing, sustaining channel be- 
 tween these flowering branches and the hidden 
 root. How like that seemed in its feebleness to 
 the faith of some ! But there the likeness ceased. 
 Roughly handled, that fragile stem was broken; 
 
2l6 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 and, severed from their root, branches and flowers 
 all withered away ; but thanks be to God that, 
 united to Christ, even by the feeblest faith, we 
 can affirm that, Neither death nor life, nor things 
 present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, 
 nor any other creature, shall be able to separate 
 us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus 
 our Lord. 
 
 Good works are the certain fruit of this saving 
 faith. 
 
 One of the greatest marshals of France had for 
 his opponent in a civil war the Prince of Conde. 
 In him Turenne found a foeman worthy of his 
 steel the only man indeed who could rival him in 
 military genius, moving troops, the arrangement 
 and fighting of battles, sudden surprises and suc- 
 cessful attacks. One night, when the prince was 
 supposed to be many leagues away, Turenne lay 
 sleeping securely in his camp. He was suddenly 
 roused, to hear in cries and shouts, the roar of mus- 
 ketry and cannon, the signs of a midnight assault. 
 Hasting from his tent, he cast his eye around him ; 
 and at once discovering, by the glare of burning 
 houses, the roar of the fight, the skill with which 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 2IJ 
 
 the attack had been evidently planned, and the 
 energy with which it was being executed, the 
 genius of his rival, he turned to his staff, and said, 
 Conde is come ! Now, in some cases especially 
 of sudden conversion, the advent of faith may 
 be as certainly pronounced upon. The peace of 
 death is broken, conscience awakes, sin appears 
 exceeding sinful, empty forms no longer yield 
 any comfort, carelessness about divine things gives 
 place to all absorbing and intense anxieties, Death 
 seems crowned with terrors, Sinai clothed with 
 thunders, and exclaiming, What shall I do to be 
 saved, the trembling soul hies to the Cross, clasps 
 it, clings to it, to cry, Lord, save, I perish : in 
 such circumstances you can safely say conversion 
 is come, salvation come, Christ come ; and there 
 is no presumption then in using, as we fall at 
 Jesus' feet, the language of him who said, Lord, I 
 believe; help thou mine unbelief! 
 
 But though thus saved through faith, and not 
 of works, as St Paul says, lest any man should 
 boast, St Paul is not less explicit about works ; 
 on that subject his trumpet has an equally certain 
 sound ; for in the very same passage he tells us 
 
2l8 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 that believers, they that have a true saving faith, 
 are not only cleansed through Christ from guilt, 
 but are created in Christ unto good works, which 
 God, he adds, " hath foreordained that we should 
 walk in them " that these in fact are, in all 
 cases, as surely as divine foreordination can make 
 them, the fruit of living faith. How should it be 
 otherwise ? Is not faith in every other condition 
 of its existence full of works; the world's great 
 worker? Look abroad! In yonder husbandman 
 who, though snow lies on hill-tops and frost bites 
 in the air, and nights are long and days are short, 
 and woods are bare, and birds are mute, believing 
 that spring will come, summer come, and autumn 
 come, gives his labour to the naked fields, Faith 
 ploughs the soil. And in yon sailor, who though 
 he sees the land sink beneath the wave, boldly 
 pushes out on the pathless deep, and trusts not to 
 sight, for he sees only a wide waste of water 
 where other keels have left no furrow, but to his 
 charts and trembling needle. Faith ploughs the 
 sea. And there were men, inspired with con- 
 fidence in _ their comrades' bravery and com- 
 mander's skill, march to their positions on the 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 219 
 
 battle-field as on parade, stand up facing the 
 deadly hail, or, crouching like lions to the spring, 
 wait the word to rise and charge, Faith fights 
 and wins. Not cannon, nor bayonets, but mainly 
 Wellington's faith in his men, and his men's faith 
 in Wellington, won Waterloo; and who takes 
 time to follow out the thought will find that faith 
 in God's providence, in what are called the laws 
 of Nature, in the fidelity of husbands and wives, 
 in the affection of children and parents, in the 
 justice of masters and honesty of servants, in 
 man's integrity where they buy and sell, exchange 
 or manufacture goods, in every mill and market, 
 in every harbour and counting-room, is the work- 
 ing power of the world the mighty wheel that 
 most turns its machinery. 
 
 Well, if faith is so productive of works outside 
 the region of religion, how much more within it ? 
 If faith in man so works, how much more faith in 
 God ? Such faith as naturally produces what are 
 called good works, as vines produce grapes, or 
 sorrow tears, or joy smiles; as the soil beneath 
 us yields fruits and flowers, or the skies above us 
 showers and sunshine. In the character of God, 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 in the person, love, and work of His Son, in an 
 eternal world, in the Bible, its gracious promises 
 and its glorious prospects, it has to do with the 
 grandest truths ; and for a man whose heart is not 
 devout, nor his life holy, to say that he has that 
 faith, is to deceive himself and furnish an awful 
 illustration of the saying, "The heart is deceitful 
 above all things, and desperately wicked." Let no 
 man deceive you. Not I, but God says, "No 
 whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous 
 man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 Therefore the hopes of salvation that rest on a 
 faith without works are false, and being false, are 
 fatal. 
 
 Last century, faith was out of fashion ; the pe- 
 culiar doctrines of the gospel were ignored, unless 
 it might be at a communion time. " Christ and 
 Him crucified" were thrust out of sight ; unless in 
 the form of some old mouldering stone, which the 
 hammer of Reformers had missed, the cross was 
 removed from the Church ; children learned to 
 repeat the creed, but the boasted creed of many 
 was that sung by Pope 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 221 
 
 "For modes of faith let graceless bigots fight, 
 His can't be wrong whose life is in the right." 
 
 Virtue and vice, the beauty of the one and the 
 deformities of the other, were the favourite topics 
 of the pulpit. Yet the people had so little taste, 
 that they did not appear to fall in love with virtue ; 
 nor were even some of those much smitten by her 
 charms to whom she sat for her portrait. Men 
 drank deep last century ; swore profanely ; talked 
 obscenely ; and indulged in a very loose morality. 
 Strange to say, good works were never so much 
 preached, and so little practised. The more they 
 were found in Sabbath sermons, the less they ap- 
 peared in everyday life. Yet not strange ! " Thou 
 bleeding Love," as Young sings 
 
 "The grand morality is love of Thee," 
 
 and Jesus, His love, His life, His death, excluded 
 from pulpits, there was nothing to produce good 
 works ; no pith in preaching ; no seed to yield a 
 harvest ; no straw to make bricks ; no solid back- 
 bone, so to speak, to support the soft parts, and 
 keep the frame erect And the attempt at home 
 to have a morality without religion proved as 
 
222 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 signal a failure as that abroad, in France, to have 
 a nation without a God. 
 
 Morality without religion is a dream ; but not 
 less a dream, and wild a dream, is religion without 
 morality a faith that lies in an orthodox creed 
 without a godly and honest life that lies in the 
 cold assent of the understanding to truths that 
 never touch the heart or affect the conduct This 
 won't stand the day which shall try the tree by its 
 fruits, and by Christ's own lips pronounce per- 
 dition on the workers of iniquity. We want a reli- 
 gion that walks in the path of the ten command- 
 ments saying, Blessed is the man that walketh 
 not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in 
 the way of sinners. We want a religion that, not 
 dressed for Sundays and walking on stilts, de- 
 scends into common and everyday life ; is friendly, 
 not selfish ; courteous, not boorish ; generous, not 
 niggard ; sanctified, not sour ; that loves justice 
 more than gain ; and fears God more than man ; 
 to quote another's words " a religion that keeps 
 husbands from being spiteful, or wives fretful ; 
 ihat keeps mothers patient, and children pleasant ; 
 that bears heavily not only on 'the exceeding 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 223 
 
 sinfulness of sin/ but on the. exceeding rascality of 
 lying and stealing ; that banishes small measures 
 from counters, sand from sugar, and water from 
 milk-cans" the faith, in short, whose root is Christ, 
 and whose fruit is works. 
 
 Any other St James pronounces dead not like a 
 dead stone which in flashing diamond, or sculptured 
 marble, may be beautiful but dead like a lifeless 
 body ; putrid, horrible, in decay. Not more loath- 
 some to me the fetid corpse where no trace of 
 beauty lingers, than to a holy God the man who 
 holds good doctrines, but lives a bad life ; who 
 unites a low practice to a high profession ; who, in 
 words, exalts the Saviour's Cross, but in works in 
 crucifying His flesh, in living for others, in acts of 
 self-denial, won't take up his own. Like some of 
 old, does he say, I am for St Paul, not for St James ? 
 St Paul is not for him. I can fancy that apostle, 
 in horror, rending the garment he wears in heaven ; 
 repudiating the connexion. One in glory before 
 the throne, he and St James are one in sentiment in 
 this Bible. St Paul, indeed, counted all things loss 
 for Christ. He held the Cross aloft ; and, shaking 
 that banner from its folds in the face of friend and 
 
224 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 foe, he waved it over the scaffold where his testi- 
 mony was sealed with his blood. But the faith 
 he preached was a faith that worketh worketh 
 by love ; crucifieth the flesh ; purifieth the heart ; 
 and overcometh the world. Mark his last words 
 to the Christians of a city in whose dungeons he 
 had sung Christ's praises, and whose jailer he had 
 conducted to Christ's feet. "Finally, brethren, 
 whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are 
 honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
 things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
 whatsoever things are of good report, if there be 
 any virtue, and if there be any praise, think 01? 
 these things." 
 
 Believers are called by Christ's word to be workers. 
 
 There are times and such are ours when, the 
 inspiration of God's Word, the propitiation of the 
 Cross, the necessity of conversion being denied, 
 sound men are called to close their ranks, and 
 contend together for the faith once delivered to 
 the saints. The Captain of our salvation now 
 seems to address His Church, as a commander the 
 hollow square that with its front rank on the knee 
 presenting a hedge of bayonets, and the second on 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 225 
 
 their feet, with eyes glaring along the deadly 
 barrel, is formed to receive cavalry. Their 
 swords flashing in the sun, thundering on they 
 come, with the impetus of a tremendous shock. 
 The moment, how critical ! Let courage fail, the 
 line waver, offer an opening, and in sweeps the 
 foe like a whirlwind of steel. It is the moment 
 for their commanding officer, as he runs his eye 
 along the grim and stern faces, and ere he gives 
 the word that, in a burst of musketry, empties 
 many saddles, and rolls back that array like a 
 broken, bloody wave, to cry, Be steadfast, im- 
 movable ! In regard to matters of doctrine, at- 
 fiicked in our day from strange quarters, so 
 Christ speaks to us now ; but He adds as when 
 He first spake these words by the mouth of St 
 Paul, " always abounding in the work of the 
 Lord/' Yes! Believers are now and then to be 
 warriors ; but always to be workers. 
 
 Indeed, an idle Christian is a contradiction in 
 terms ; as much so as a drunken, lying, or 
 adulterous Christian. For is not the Church a 
 body, that has Christ for its Head, and His people 
 
 for its members ? But did God ever make a 
 
 P 
 
226 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 body which He encumbered with idle members ? 
 Never. What part, what member of this frame, 
 moulded of clay, yet so fearfully and wonderfully 
 made, does not work, was not made for working ? 
 The eye is formed to see ; the ear to hear ; the 
 tongue to speak ; the feet to walk ; the hands to 
 grasp ; the lungs to breathe ; the brain to think ; 
 the busy heart the first to live and the last to 
 die, a clock that needs no winding to beat and 
 beating, send its blood through all the throbbing 
 arteries. Let all, or even some of these members 
 cease to work, I die instantly. Let any work 
 irregularly, my health suffers ; the whole body, 
 where each member has sympathy with anothef, 
 suffers. Every member works. And the harbour, 
 with its forest of tall masts, the city, with the 
 grinding noises, and rolling carriages, and hurry 
 of crowded streets, present no scene of activity so 
 wonderful as that which, covered and concealed 
 by our untransparent skin, is going on within us 
 innumerable organs all at work working the 
 livelong day the night that stills the hum of 
 streets, and throws the world's machinery out of 
 gear, bringing no pause to them. 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 227 
 
 Although in communion with this or that other 
 Church, a member of an Episcopalian, or Presby- 
 terian, or Independent Church, who is not a work- 
 ing Christian, is no member of Christ's Church. 
 Let those who are, work do all the good, to all 
 the persons, at all the times, in all the ways they 
 can abounding in good works. Every day they 
 live, the busier the shorter the time, the busier 
 the nearer the grave, the busier; as a stone, 
 descending the hill, rolls with increasing speed, 
 till, taking its last bound, it plunges into the 
 lake, and sinks into its placid bosom. 
 
 So may the grave, with its " rest for the 
 weary," close above our heads ; and, as heaven 
 opens to receive our spirits to the repose of the 
 just, may Jesus meet us at the gate, with His 
 " Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou 
 into the joy of thy Lord/' 
 
 Believers are called by Christ's example to be 
 workers. 
 
 It is common to speak, by way of distinction, of 
 the working classes. And men of lofty social posi- 
 tion, and loftier minds for, after all, there is 
 nothing great about man but mind when they 
 
228 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 stand on the platform of a popular assembly ad- 
 dressing the sons of toil, to win their ears and 
 hearts, will sometimes, referring to the labours 
 and brain-work of office, rank themselves among 
 the working class. But whatever be their sex, 
 sphere, or talents, all true followers of Jesus are 
 of the working class. They were otherwise no 
 followers of Him who is not our Propitiation only, 
 but also our Pattern ; who is not our Propitiation 
 unless He is also our Pattern ; and whose life, 
 begun in Bethlehem, and closed in Calvary, was 
 spent in " doing good." 
 
 Bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, true 
 man as well as God, He drank of our cup enjoy- 
 ing as much, and more than we, the pleasures of 
 friendship, the loveliness of nature, the feast kind- 
 ness spread, the happy faces of a marriage scene, 
 seasons of welcome rest amid mountain solitudes, 
 by Galilee's smiling lake, in the sweet society of 
 Bethany. But was it for these He lived ? for 
 enjoyment, or for employment ? for others, or 
 Himself? Himself! He denied Himself; forgot 
 Himself ; barely allowed Himself the rest that 
 nature needed. His heart felt, and His eye wept, 
 
FAITH AND WORKS. 229 
 
 and His hand was ready for all human wretched- 
 ness. Who so patient with the bad so gentle 
 to the erring so tender to the penitent ? Who 
 sought His help in vain ? What poor beggar un- 
 pitied, or poor sinner unpardoned, ever left His 
 door ? What blessings fell from the hands, on 
 what errands of mercy went the sacred feet, they 
 nailed, O Calvary, to thy cruel, accursed tree ! 
 
 In the charity that covereth a multitude of sins, 
 that hopeth and believeth all things, I can believe 
 much. I believe that God will have mercy on the 
 chief of sinners. I believe there is no sin you or I 
 have done but may be washed out in the fountain 
 where sins are lost and souls are saved. I believe 
 that the vilest creature who pollutes society and 
 degrades humanity, may creep into heaven at the 
 back of the thief, shine with the purity, and mingle 
 her voice with the song of angels. I believe no 
 one is to be despaired of; not even the man who 
 is just going over into the pit. Let him turn to 
 Christ He saves at the uttermost. But I cannot 
 believe that a God of truth, with, reverence be it 
 spoken, will tell a lie and what but a lie were it 
 to say to a man that had wasted his life in ease, 
 
230 FAITH AND WORKS. 
 
 and pleasure, and self-indulgence, Well done ! 
 How could He, who made it His meat and drink 
 to do His Father's will, who lived and laboured 
 for His Father's glory, who died for the good of 
 men, say to one who came up with his talent in a 
 napkin, Well done, good and faithful servant fol- 
 lower of mine, Well done ! Certainly not. None 
 share in Christ's joy but those that, in a sense, 
 have shared in His agony. They enter into His 
 rest who, baptized with the Spirit as well as the 
 blood of Calvary, have entered into His labours. 
 The wages, no doubt, are of grace ; yet no work, 
 no wages ! No work, no wages as true an aphor- 
 ism as the well-known saying, No cross, no crown. 
 Crowns are for living brows, but faith without 
 works is dead. Ours be such a life as grace forms, 
 and the poet sings, 
 
 " I live for those that love me, 
 For those that know me true, 
 For the heaven that smiles above me, 
 
 And waits my coming too. 
 For the cause that lacks assistance, 
 For the wrongs that need resistance, 
 For the future in the distance, 
 
 For the good that I can do." 
 
THE POOR. 
 
 " If a brother or sister be naked, and 
 destitute of daily food, and one of 
 you say unto them, Depart in 
 peace, be ye warmed and filled i 
 notwithstanding ye give them not 
 those things which are needful to 
 the body ; what doth it profit f " 
 ST JAMES ii. 15, 16. 
 
 / T A HERE are elements in nature which, though 
 not always apparent to the senses, pervade, 
 and, pervading, affect every substance. Heat, for 
 instance. There is warmth even in ice, cold as it 
 feels ; heat as well in the icicles that hang from 
 his thatch as in the glowing iron the smith, amid 
 a shower of sparks, hammers on his ringing anvil; 
 fire not only in the sun, in the blazing grate, 
 there where swarthy men tap the furnace, and 
 molten iron rolls forth like liquid gold, but fire 
 
232 THE POOR. 
 
 also, though asleep, and waiting the touch of steel, 
 in the cold and coal black flint. Never dead, 
 nor even altogether dormant, this all-pervading 
 element is everywhere active ; the seeds and eggs 
 which lie buried in the frozen soil owing to it 
 their life, and the great ocean its fluidity the 
 waves that roar or ripple on its shores, the path it 
 offers to our keels, and the innumerable myriads, 
 from whales to shrimps, that people its depths and 
 shallows. 
 
 There are also laws in nature which, though 
 often working in secrecy and silence, are domi- 
 nant in every place and acting on every substance 
 the law of gravitation, for instance. We may 
 recognise it only in its more striking displays : in 
 the spheres where planets roll ; in the orbit which 
 our earth describes around the sun ; in the skies, 
 where the eagle, pierced by feathery arrow or 
 bullet, and leaving for ever its airy fields, drops 
 dead, like a stone, at our feet ; or on the moun- 
 tain, where some rock, leaping from its lofty base, 
 rushes down into the valley with the speed of 
 lightning and the roar of thunder. Still, this law 
 affects as well the mote of the sunbeam as the 
 
THE POOR. 233 
 
 sun, and alike shapes the tear on an infant's cheek 
 and the stars in heaven ; it is there, running in 
 the sands of an hour-glass ; there, sounding in the 
 tinkling of the tiniest rill ; and by the same power 
 that bends the tail of a fiery comet and its path 
 back to the sun, it bends the neck of a snowdrop, 
 and thereby preserves from perishing the herald 
 and harbinger of spring. 
 
 As it is with such elements and laws in the 
 kingdoms of nature, it is with the presence and 
 influence of religion in a good man's life. It may 
 not be always apparent, but it should be always 
 present its influence felt where it is not seen. 
 Often, like those greatest powers of nature, heat 
 and light, and electricity and magnetism, acting 
 silently sometimes, like the will when moving 
 our lips to form words, or our limbs to produce 
 motion, acting unconsciously yet always acting ; 
 so that in everything we do, in every step we take, 
 in every duty we discharge, though it cannot be 
 said with strict propriety that all our actions are 
 religious, yet none are contrary to religion, and all 
 of them are done religiously. Is not this just the 
 mark at which St Paul teaches us to aim in saying, 
 
234 THE POOR. 
 
 (< Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever 
 ye do, do all to the glory of God ?" Doing so, 
 human life, in its lowliest spheres, from man's 
 cradle onward to his grave, or rather from his con- 
 version to his death, may be made one long, con- 
 tinuous, noble, religious service ; more sublime 
 than any poem John Milton wrote ; more instruc- 
 tive than any sermon of the greatest preacher ; 
 and more acceptable far to God than any services 
 performed within dead stone walls, amid cathedral 
 pomp, and before ten thousand spectators. 
 
 Now, in the whole range of duties there is none 
 which, if not strictly religious, and, in the highest 
 sense of the expression, a religious service, is more 
 nearly allied to religion, and should be more 
 under its presiding and holy influence, than that 
 charity to the poor which is plainly dictated, and 
 indeed powerfully enforced, in the question, " If a 
 brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily 
 food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in 
 peace, be ye warmed and filled ; notwithstanding 
 ye give them not those things which are needful to 
 the body, what doth it profit ?" Religion imposes 
 this duty on us. In proof of which- 
 
THE POOR. 235 
 
 God presents Himself to us as having a peculiar 
 and tender care of the poor. 
 
 It is not the robust but delicate child of the 
 family, around whom a father's and mother's affec- 
 tions cluster thickest, and are most closely twined. 
 The boy or girl whom feebleness of body or mind 
 makes- least fit to bear the world's rough usage, 
 and most dependent on others' kindness, is like 
 those tendrils that, winding themselves round the 
 tree they spangle with flowers, bind it most closely 
 in their embraces, and bury their pliant arms 
 deepest in its bark. And what a blessed and 
 beautiful arrangement of Providence it is, that they 
 who cost most care, and lie with greatest weight 
 on parents' arms and hearts, are commonly most 
 loved ! Helplessness, appealing to our pity, begets 
 affection. Thus was the heart of the rough sailor 
 touched, when, tossing with other castaways in an 
 open boat on the open sea, he parted with a morsel 
 of food, which, hidden with more care than misers 
 hide their gold, he had reserved for his own last 
 extremity. Around him lay men and women; 
 some dead with glassy eyes ; some dying, and 
 these reduced to ghastly skeletons; but none of 
 
236 THE POOR. 
 
 these moved him to peril his own life for theirs. 
 The object of his noble and not unrewarded gene- 
 rosity for, as if Heaven had sent it on purpose to 
 reward the act, a sail speedily hove in sight was 
 a gentle boy that, with his face turned on hers, 
 lay dying in a mother's arms, and between whose 
 teeth the famishing man put his own last precious 
 morsel. Of this feeling I met also a remarkable 
 illustration in my old country parish. In one of 
 its cottages dwelt a poor idiot child ; horrible to 
 all eyes but her parents' ; and so helpless, that, 
 though older than sisters just blooming into 
 womanhood, she lay, unable either to walk or 
 speak, a burden on her mother's lap, almost the 
 whole day long, a heavy handful to one who had 
 the cares of a family, and was the wife of a hard- 
 working man, and a most painful contrast to the 
 very roses that flung their bright clusters over 
 the cottage window, as well as to the lark that, 
 pleased with a grassy turf, carolled within its cage. 
 Death, in most instances unwelcome visitor, came 
 at length, to her and to their relief. Relief! so 
 I thought ; and, when the father came with invita- 
 tion to the funeral, so I said. Though not roughly, 
 
THE POOR. 237 
 
 but inadvertently spoken, the word jarred on a 
 tender chord ; and I was more than ever taught 
 how helplessness begets affection in the very 
 measure and proportion of itself, when he burst 
 into a fit of sorrow, and, speaking of his beau- 
 tiful boys and blooming girls, said, If it had 
 been God's will, I would have parted with any 
 of them rather than her. 
 
 Now this kindness to the helpless, of which 
 man's home, both in the humblest and highest 
 walks of life, presents so many lovely instances, 
 and which, you will observe, moves the roughest 
 crowd on the street, without taking time to inquire 
 into its merits, to throw themselves into the quar- 
 rel of a woman or weeping child, is a flower of 
 Eden, that clings to the ruins of our nature, 
 one beautiful feature of God's image which has 
 to some extent survived the Fall. "The Lord is 
 very pitiful and of tender mercy." Well named, 
 " Our Father who is in heaven;" he sets Himself 
 forth in his Word as the Patron and Protector of 
 the poor ; he recommends them in many ways 
 and by many considerations to our kindness ; and 
 teaches us that, if we would be like Himself, we 
 
238 THE POOR. 
 
 must remember their miseries amid our enjoy- 
 ments, and fill their empty cups with the over- 
 flowings of our own. In proof of this 
 
 Observe the sentiments of His Word toward the 
 poor. 
 
 It breathes the most tender regard to them : 
 for example Whoso reproacheth the poor, re- 
 proacheth his Maker ; Blessed is he that consider- 
 eth the poor, the Lord shall deliver him in the 
 time of trouble ; He shall judge the poor and 
 needy; He shall stand at the right hand of the 
 poor ; The needy shall not alway be forgotten ; 
 the expectation of the poor shall not perish for 
 ever. How different from the spirit of a sordid 
 age, which, as if there were no worthiness in genius 
 or sense, or bravery, or virtue, or grace, values 
 man by his money ; and speaking of what he is 
 worth, takes into account nothing but his wealth ! 
 There are some, too many, in whose eyes money, 
 like chanty, covereth a multitude of sins ; and 
 who would esteem a piece of gilded fir more 
 highly than odorous and imperishable cedar, or 
 marble that vies with driven snow. But the 
 poverty which incurs their contempt demeans no 
 
THE POOR. 239 
 
 one in the sight of God. He is no respecter of 
 persons. At His height, all ranks appear on a 
 level ; and if there is any advantage, the poor 
 have it, in a better chance, if I may say so, of 
 getting to heaven than the rich. I go, said the 
 dying Rutherford, when summoned in the king's 
 name to appear before an earthly tribunal, to obey 
 a higher summons ; I go to a place where there 
 are few kings. And does not heaven open to the 
 poor a refuge where there are few rich ? St James 
 asks My beloved brethren, hath not God chosen 
 the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the 
 kingdom ? And what said St Paul ? " God hath 
 chosen the weak things of the world to confound 
 the things which are mighty; and base things of 
 the world, and things which are despised, hath 
 God chosen, and things which are not, to bring to 
 nought things that are : that no flesh should glory 
 in his presence." Let honest poverty then lift up 
 its head ; next to infants, those unblown buds 
 which the Lord has plucked to open out their 
 beauties on His bosom in heaven, no class is so 
 fully represented in the general assembly of the 
 first-born as the poor. They not only form the 
 
240 THE POOR. 
 
 largest class on earth, but by much the largest in 
 that kingdom where, before Mary's Son, and by 
 Mary's side, they may lift up her hymn, and sing 
 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, 
 and exalted them of low degree ; He hath filled 
 the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath 
 sent empty away. 
 
 Observe His enactments on behalf of the poor. 
 
 A legal provision for the poor is no modern 
 invention. It is a common notion that regular 
 poor-laws date from the days of Elizabeth of 
 England ; but it is a mistake. They are of much 
 older date. A divine institution, they are found 
 in that system of polity which God set up among 
 His ancient people by the hands of His servant 
 Moses. He did not leave His poor to depend 
 altogether on the fits and chances of a precarious 
 charity. One of the many provisions made to 
 supply their wants, was lately brought to our 
 recollection, when travelling through a valley, 
 where embowering vines threw their clusters over 
 the road ; and planted on rising terraces, occu- 
 pied the sunny slopes of mountains that rose to 
 skies of deepest blue clothed with shaggy forests, 
 
THE POOR. 241 
 
 and crowned with eternal snows. One of the 
 guides, without consent asked or given, left the 
 path, and, stepping into a vineyard by the way- 
 side, plucked a rich bunch of grapes. The cus- 
 toms of that country may, perhaps, permit a 
 freedom with property which would' not be toler- 
 ated in ours. Standing on the extremest rights 
 of mine and thine, we will send a poor vagrant 
 child to jail for taking a turnip to satisfy his 
 hunger; but in the Holy, might I not add, and 
 Happy Land, where God would have no man 
 starve, the beggar, any hungry Israelite could 
 take such freedoms without let or challenge. His 
 hunger was his need, and God's law was his right 
 to do so. " When thou goest," said the Lord, 
 " into thy neighbour's vineyard, thou mayest eat 
 grapes thy fill ; but thou shalt not put any in 
 thy vessel ; " and so long as a poor man kept 
 within this limit, he had full liberty to satisfy the 
 wants of nature; nor was branded as a thief for 
 doing so. 
 
 Another provision kindly and divinely estab- 
 lished on behalf of the poor, in these good old 
 
 times, was, though in the way of contrast, also 
 
 Q 
 
242 THE POOR. 
 
 recalled to our recollection on passing, one of 
 these autumn days, a harvest-field at home. In 
 a teethed machine, which, raking the stubble- 
 land, gathered up the stalks of grain that the 
 reapers had left, we saw a custom which God 
 forbade on the soil that was trodden by a Re- 
 deemer's feet. He, who reserved the seventh day 
 to Himself, reserved, along with the standing corn 
 that grew in the corners of the fields, the glean- 
 ings of the whole harvest for the exclusive use of 
 the poor ; and thus all those whom Ruth and 
 Naomi represented the widows of Israel, the 
 fatherless, and the orphan had a share of others* 
 plenty, and their own joy in every harvest. 
 
 Nor were the corners which the husbandman 
 was forbidden to reap, and the gleanings of har- 
 vests and vineyards which the proprietors were 
 forbidden to gather, the only bounty, which the 
 earth poured into the lap of the poor; and to 
 which they had a legal and unchangeable claim. 
 By God's express appointment, the land was to 
 enjoy a sabbath once every seven years, during 
 which the fields w r ere to lie untilled, the olive- 
 trees and vines to grow unpruned. Now, the 
 
THE POOR. 
 
 243 
 
 whole produce of that sabbatical year belonged 
 to the poor ; none of it to the proprietor. " Six 
 years," said the Lord, " thou shalt sow thy land, 
 and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: but the 
 seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still ; 
 that the poor of thy people may eat ; and what 
 they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In 
 like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard and 
 with thy oliveyard." God's care of His poor, like 
 a mother's for her babe, extended even to what 
 might be considered minute and trivial matters. 
 The rich were forbidden to make any charge for 
 money lent to a poor man ; and if his necessities 
 obliged him to pledge bed or garment, God took 
 care that he should not suffer for it. Many a 
 poor wretch in our cities is left with his children 
 to shiver through cold winter nights, while their 
 blankets are locked up in the broker's store. 
 Better care was taken of an unfortunate Israelite, 
 " In any case," said the Lord, " thou shalt deliver 
 him the pledge when the sun goeth down, that he 
 may sleep in his own raiment." 
 
 Stern and severe as were some aspects of the 
 Mosaic law, it looked kindly upon poverty. That 
 
244 THE POOR. 
 
 law treated it not as a crime, but as a misfortune 
 deserving the tenderest compassion. And though 
 not required to copy its details, ought we not to 
 preserve their spirit ; and in dealing with honest 
 poverty, meet it in the benevolent spirit of the 
 commandment, " If thy brother be waxen poor, 
 and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt 
 relieve him, though he be a stranger or a so- 
 journer, that he may live with thee ? " No man 
 can read these o-d laws, so full of tender care and 
 regard for the poor, without seeing the point 
 and feeling the power of the apostle's question, 
 " Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his 
 brother in need, and shutteth up his bowels of 
 compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of 
 God in him ? " Let us then, as St John says, " not 
 love in word, neither in tongue ; but in deed and 
 in truth." 
 
 Observe His judgments for the wrongs of the poor. 
 
 Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a 
 wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation ; our holy and 
 our beautiful house, where our fathers praised 
 thee, is burned up with fire; all our pleasant 
 things are laid waste. So spake Isaiah, looking 
 
THE POOR. 245 
 
 with prophetic eye on the future, where he saw 
 the grass grow rank on the city's untrodden 
 streets, and the fox looking out of the temple 
 window, and satyrs dancing in the holy place 
 the shrine deserted, its lamp extinguished, and 
 the ashes of its altar cold. And what dreadful 
 sins were those which brought down such judg- 
 ments on a guilty land moving God to cast 
 away His people as a loathsome thing, and make 
 them a by-word, and a proverb, and a hissing on 
 the earth ? Sabbath-breaking, idolatry, drunken- 
 ness, loose-living ? Yes ; these, but others also ; 
 wrongs inflicted on the poor. Hear how these 
 bold and bearded prophets speak "The spoil of 
 the poor is in your houses" as it is, now, in 
 every house where a fortune has been built on 
 their ruins. Again, " Ye grind the faces of the 
 poor,'* as is done still, when advantage is taken 
 of his necessities to deny the labourer a fair 
 day's wage for a fair day's work. Again, 
 " They buy the poor for silver, and the needy 
 for a pair of shoes," crimes perpetrated, high 
 treason against God committed, as it were but 
 yesterday, yonder where, under the flag of 
 
246 THE POOR. 
 
 liberty with its brave motto, All men are born 
 free, the hammer of the auction-room knocked 
 down men and women for so many hundred dol- 
 lars. These old preachers, asserting the sanctity 
 and liberty of the pulpit, deemed it their right, 
 and used it as a privilege, to proclaim from that 
 place of truth the wrongs of the poor, and the 
 judgment of their oppressors. Inspired of God, 
 they were fearless of man. Hear how they spake 
 to the times : " Is it," they asked, speaking in 
 their Master's name, "such a fast that I have 
 chosen a day for a man to afflict his soul ? to 
 bow down his head as a bulrush ; to spread sack- 
 cloth and ashes under him ? Wilt thou call this 
 a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord ? Is 
 not this the fast that I have chosen ? To loose 
 the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy 
 burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that 
 ye break every yoke ? Is it not to deal thy 
 bread to the hungry, and to bring the poor that 
 are cast out into thy house ? when thcu seest the 
 naked, that thou cover him, and that thou hide 
 not thyself from thine own flesh ? " This is not 
 done. Many of our poor go hungry and houseless. 
 
THE POOR. 247 
 
 Stretching themselves upon their couches, eat- 
 ing the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out 
 of the midst of the stall, chanting to the sound of 
 the viol, drinking wine in bowls, anointing them- 
 selves with the chief ointments, and not grieved 
 for the affliction of Joseph, many, realising this 
 voluptuous picture, leave the poor to herd in 
 filthy dens ; and out of houses not fit for human 
 beings, not compatible with health, or decency, or 
 virtue, come swarms of ragged, uncared-for, and 
 uneducated children, to turn the tread-mill, and 
 feed the prison. It is not for us to scan the ways 
 of Providence, but the dying echoes of past judg- 
 ments sound us a solemn, may it be a timely 
 warning. What shall be, says the wise man, is 
 that, which hath already been. The wrongs of 
 the poor have a way of avenging themselves. Ne- 
 glected poverty may rise some day like the blind, 
 strong man to pull down the prosperity and pillars 
 of the land ; and when no Joseph shall appear in 
 providence to avert the impending evil, a worse 
 future may come than was foreshadowed in royal 
 dreams, when, in visions of the night, Pharaoh 
 saw the seven lean kine eat up the seven fat. It 
 
248 THE POOR. 
 
 is with judgments God arms Himself, when He 
 says, " For the oppression of the poor, for the 
 sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the 
 Lord. 5 * See how, in this terrible aspect, He 
 arose in that land from whose shores Atlantic 
 waves lately wafted the boom of cannon to our 
 own. Would that after the roar of that fratri- 
 cidal war, America may hear the voice of rebuke, 
 sounding down from the throne of God! Un- 
 doing the heavy burdens, and letting the op- 
 pressed go free, out of the broken fetters of 
 emancipated slaves, let her make a lightning- 
 conductor to turn away the bolts of a righteous* 
 roused, and angry God! Then, in the beautiful 
 words of the prophet, " shall her light break forth 
 as the morning, and her health spring forth 
 speedily, and the glory of the Lord shall be her 
 rear-ward, and her darkness shall be as the noon- 
 day and she shall be like a watered garden, and 
 like a spring of water whose waters fail not." 
 
 Observe how Jesus showed His care for the poor. 
 
 The poor, He said, ye have always with you, 
 and whensoever ye will ye may do them good 
 repeating in substance God's much older words, 
 
THE POOR. 249 
 
 "The poor shall never cease out of the land; 
 therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt 
 open thy hand wide unto thy brother; to thy 
 poor; and to thy needy in the land." How 
 beautifully this divine tenderness to the poor 
 comes out welling and warm, in the very terms 
 applied to them ; it is not, if a man or woman 
 but if a brother or sister be naked thou shalt 
 open thy hand wide unto thy brother. 
 
 In dealing with the poor we are not, however, 
 to put all over in the same boat huddling to- 
 gether the good and bad, virtue and vice, decent 
 age and hoary sin in our plans, as is done in our 
 poorhouses. There is no line of separation be- 
 tween peer and peasant so broad as divides the 
 two classes of the poor. There are God's poor, 
 whose cause I chiefly plead. These, reduced to 
 want, brought to suffering by no fault of theirs, 
 have the strongest, at any rate the first, claim on 
 our compassion. There are the poor of provi- 
 dence ; and a much more numerous elass, the 
 poor of improvidence the devil's poor, who, 
 reaping as they have sowed, and drinking as they 
 have brewed, are suffering under these righteous 
 
250 THE POOR. 
 
 laws : " He becometh poor that dealeth with a 
 slack hand ; " " If any will not work, neither 
 should he eat ; " " He that loveth pleasure shall 
 be a poor man." None are in some respects, I 
 admit, greater objects of compassion than these. 
 It is pitiable to see the wrecks of comfort, and 
 decency, and humanity, that go drifting about 
 our streets. How foul and forbidding with the 
 rags that vice has hung on their back, and the 
 wolfish look that want has given their faces ! Yet 
 many of them were once bright and sunny chil- 
 dren; dandled on a father's knee; and sung to 
 sleep by kind mothers, who, putting their little in- 
 nocent hands together, taught their infant lips to 
 pray* We are not to loathe them ; nor will, if we 
 remember that they cannot be so black or so bad 
 in our eyes as we were in God's when He gave up 
 His dear Son to save us. Yet how profoundly are 
 they to be pitied ! They have got to the dregs of 
 their cup ; and how bitter they are ! They dare 
 not look back on the past, with its recollections of 
 early innocence, a virtuous home, and the vener- 
 able image of a mother or father, whose gray hairs 
 they brought in sorrow to the grave ; nor dare 
 
THE POOR. 251 
 
 they look forward on the future ; and unless re- 
 ligion come to their help, what will they or can 
 they do, but "drink to forget their poverty, and 
 remember their misery no more?" What else are 
 you to expect of impiety under sufferings greater 
 than wrung from God's servant the cry, " Oh, that 
 my mother had been my grave ; wherefore came I 
 from the womb, that my days should be consumed 
 with shame ? " Theirs is not the poverty that has 
 wealth in heaven, and, touched by lights from an- 
 other and better world, is a cloud that wears silver 
 edges ; nor is theirs the cup which faith sweetens 
 witri the promise of all things working together 
 for good. Without God or hope, they are the 
 poorest of the poor ; and claim in a sense our 
 deepest and holiest compassions. 
 
 Still, our compassion must never take the shape 
 of a bounty on idleness and vice. Such philan- 
 thropy is mischievous ; and finds not the sem- 
 blance of encouragement in our Lord's example. 
 He went about doing good ; and chiefly in the 
 walks of the poor. But how ? He restored health 
 to sickness, vigour to the withered arm, sight to 
 the blind, speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, 
 
252 THE POOR. 
 
 reason to the insane ; and, doing so, taught us the 
 wise charity that helps a poor man to help himself. 
 He did not maintain the poor in idleness, but sent 
 them back with renovated powers to their different 
 fields of labour. It is as instructive as it is re- 
 markable, that on only two occasions did our Lord 
 create food ; and money only on one leaving the 
 law of God not only to its righteous but beneficent 
 course, " in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
 bread.'* Not even in the days when He scattered 
 miracles around Him in divine profusion, did He 
 anything to counteract the lesson of those won- 
 drous years when His neighbours heard the car- 
 penter early at His bench ; and honest labour 
 sharpened His appetite and sweetened His simple 
 fare; and at every week's end, a pattern of filial 
 duty and model to our youths, He poured His 
 earnings into a mother s lap. 
 
 While our Lord, employing His miraculous 
 powers to help the poor to help themselves, 
 showed them the wisest and truest kindness, He 
 forgot not, even in His narrow and straitened cir- 
 cumstances, the claims of a helpless poverty. It 
 is evident that the bag which Judas carried served 
 
THE POOR. 253 
 
 a double purpose ; the poor had their share of its 
 scanty store. The patriarch says, I did not eat 
 my morsel alone. No more did Jesus with this 
 difference, that Job was rich, but Jesus was poor 
 Yet what He had, He gave. Ay, His generosity 
 but dimly shadowed forth by the widow who " of 
 her want did cast in all she had, even all her 
 living ;" He gave not His living but His life for 
 a greater poverty than stands in ragged beggar 
 at our door ; He made Himself poor that He 
 might make us rich ; He poured out His soul 
 unto death dying, the just for the unjust, that 
 He might bring us to God 
 
CHARITY. 
 
 '* Jf a brother or sister be naked, and 
 destitute of daily food, and one of 
 you say unto them, Depart in 
 $eace, be ye warmed and filled: 
 notwithstanding ye give them not 
 those things which are needful to 
 the body; what doth it profit ?" 
 ST JAMES ii. 15, 16. 
 
 A N Arab possessed a horse so famous far and 
 near for its beauty, gentleness, and match- 
 less speed, that he had many tempting offers to 
 part with hen He refused them all , and, in 
 particular, the repeated solicitations of one who 
 offered an enormous price. One day, as, with 
 head wrapped in mantle and lance at rest, he was 
 pressing homewards through the burning desert, 
 his horse suddenly started ; and there, right across 
 the path, lay a poor traveller alive, for he groaned ; 
 
CHARITY. 255 
 
 but exhausted, and apparently at the point of 
 death. Like the good Samaritan for, though 
 fierce, these wild Bedouins have savage virtues, 
 are hospitable and friendly he dismounted, and 
 finding the unfortunate traveller unable to walk or 
 even to stand, set him in his own saddle. No 
 sooner done than, as if the vigour of the steed had 
 been imparted to its rider, the bowed and languid 
 form became instantly erect ; the horse suddenly 
 wheeled round, sprang off to the stroke, and a laugh 
 of triumph revealed the trick. The man who had 
 offered him an enormous price for the horse was 
 on her back. Assuming the guise of distress, he 
 had taken advantage of the other's generous feel- 
 ings, to steal what he could not buy. The injured 
 man did not curse him ; nor, fortified by the stoi- 
 cism which the Mohammedans' belief in fate im- 
 parts, merely bow his head to the misfortune. He 
 soared above it to a height of moral grandeur 
 which few reach. Calling on the other to halt, he 
 said that he had one favour to ask ; it was this, 
 that he would never tell how he had won the horse, 
 because, were that known, it might hinder some 
 from receiving help in circumstances of danger not 
 
256 CHARITY. 
 
 feigned, but real and so doom the unfortunate to 
 perish. It is but justice to human nature to add 
 what indeed shows that fine feelings may lie dor- 
 mant in the worst of men that the other was so 
 touched by the unselfishness and nobility of this 
 appeal, that he relented ; and, riding up to the 
 man he had wronged, gave him back his horse. 
 
 Human nature is a plant that, unchanged by 
 climate, colour, or circumstances, presents the 
 same characters, and bears the same fruit, amid 
 the smoke of crowded cities as in the lonely 
 desert. And this appeal of the Arab, in the ad- 
 vantage so often taken of our kindness, in the 
 bad persons on whom it is bestowed, and the bad 
 uses to which it is turned, touches what forms 
 the greatest obstruction to the flow of charity, 
 and our ready, literal obedience to the precept 
 " Deal out thy bread to the hungry ; if thou 
 seest the naked, clothe him, and bring the poor 
 that are cast out into thy house." But because 
 others do ill, is no reason why we should cease 
 to do well. The case is one to which the apostle's 
 words are specially appropriate, " Be not weary 
 in well-doing." This leads us to remark 
 
CHARITY. 257 
 
 That the abuse of our charity should never dry 
 itp our hearts. 
 
 Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? 
 so Nabal replied to David's appeal for help, at 
 the time he and his men were hiding in the wilder- 
 ness of Paran adding, by way of reason, this 
 reproach to refusal, " There be many servants 
 now-a-days that break away every man from his 
 master." Perhaps there were. The earthquake 
 that casts towers and castles to the ground, 
 brings vile reptiles out of it ; the storm that sinks 
 the noblest ships, throws sea-weeds and wrack 
 upon the shore ; and the political convulsions of 
 Nabal's time, producing corresponding effects, had 
 very probably thrown the dregs of society, like 
 scum, to the surface ; and relaxing the bonds of 
 order set loose bands of marauders on the land. 
 These supplied the sordid churl with an excuse 
 for refusing David ; and so does the abuse of our 
 charity those who seek to throw over their covet- 
 ousness the cloak of some decent pretext. Theirs 
 is never abused ; their excuse but the sound of 
 a hollow heart, the rattle that a withered kernel 
 
 makes within its shell. I do not now address 
 
 R 
 
258 CHARITY. 
 
 myself to these, beyond reminding them of the 
 solemn, awful, warning words, "Your gold and 
 silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be 
 a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as 
 it were fire." 
 
 But there are many who feel for the poor. 
 They would gladly relieve their wants. They 
 are pained to see these wretched mothers, and yet 
 more wretched children ; but having found their 
 charity often misapplied and thrown away on 
 the unworthy and ungrateful, they are afraid to 
 give ; and not seldom tempted, on discovering how 
 they have been imposed upon, to say in their 
 haste as David did in his, All men are liars ! But 
 if charity often fails in its object, so do other 
 things. The sun shines on many a fair blossom 
 that never turns into fruit, and the clouds pour 
 their bounties on fields that yield no harvest. But 
 to leave figures for facts. Education, as well as 
 chanty, often fails : it is but a small proportion 
 of children that become ripe scholars. Moral 
 training fails ; how many parents, besides David, 
 have had their hearts wounded and torn by wicked 
 children ! The labours of husbandry fail ; it is 
 
CHARITY. 259 
 
 but a proportion of the seed that springs ; and a 
 still less proportion that, reaching maturity, in 
 golden sheaves rewards the farmer's toil. Phy- 
 sic fails ; diseases rage, and patients die in spite 
 of it. Even the pulpit fails ; but what preacher 
 thinks of abandoning it, because many of his 
 sermons do no good ; nay, like abused charity, do 
 positive harm hardening those they fail to soften, 
 and making people as indifferent to the most 
 solemn things as a hoary sexton to the moulder- 
 ing remnants of mortality, the skulls he tosses 
 out of the grave ? 
 
 Man is answerable for duty ; but not for results. 
 And as with faith in a promised blessing, we are 
 always to preach, in season and out of season, to 
 sow beside all waters, you are never to cease your 
 charities. Let not the cold ingratitude of other 
 hearts freeze your own. Ingratitude ! Abuse of 
 mercies ! Who met so much of these as our 
 blessed Lord? Yet the fountains of His heart 
 were ever full, and, till that heart was broken, 
 never ceased to flow. His miracles yielded no 
 adequate return ; nor out of thousands to whose 
 limbs they had given vigour, whose tongues they 
 
260 CHARITY. 
 
 had loosed, on whose blind eyes they had poured 
 light, brought one, so much as one, to cry, 
 Crucify him not. Yet His works of beneficence 
 were like a river that, breaking over every ob- 
 stacle, and in its ample flood, burying the stones 
 that would impede its course, widens as it runs, 
 and is largest at the beach where it is lost in 
 the sea. So let it be with our sympathies and 
 charities! May our hearts, with advancing age, 
 grow less sour and more sweet, less hard and more 
 tender, like downy peach or golden apple that 
 ripens to its fall. 
 
 Our charity should be discriminating. 
 
 Discriminating, first, as to its objects. The 
 " household of the faith" have a prior claim on 
 Christians. " If thy brother or sister be naked 
 and destitute of daily food " thy brother, thy 
 sister, these tender expressions apply to them 
 in a holy and peculiar sense. Next come 
 others ; and last, but not to be omitted, our ene- 
 mies. We never rise so high above ourselves, 
 and so near to God as in yielding obedience 
 to these wonderful divine words If thine 
 enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him 
 
CHARITY. 26l 
 
 drink ; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of 
 fire upon his head. 
 
 Careful discrimination is required also both in 
 what we give, and how we give. This is implied 
 in the words, Blessed is the man that considereth 
 the poor ; and is brought out fully by those who 
 turned these psalms into rhyme 
 
 " Blessed is he that wisely doth 
 The poor man's case consider. " 
 
 This is true of public charity. The poor man's 
 case has not been always wisely considered. Very 
 much the reverse. Listen, for example, to this 
 description of the old Poor-laws of England. 
 " The pauper was led to think that the Govern- 
 ment had undertaken to repeal the ordinary laws 
 of nature ; that children should not suffer for the 
 misconduct of their parents, nor the wife for that 
 of her husband ; and that no one should lose the 
 means of subsistence whatever might be his indol- 
 ence, prodigality, or vice. They offered food to 
 the idle, and impunity to the profligate." And 
 out of those convents that swarm with lazy monks 
 and idle nuns, where shall we find more question- 
 
262 CHARITY. 
 
 able, and, in many of their results, more pernicious 
 charities than the splendid hospitals that rise 
 around our city ? These, not like its old walls, 
 a defence, are monuments of the folly, if not of 
 the vanity of their founders. There they stand, 
 tempting parents to cast on cold officials the 
 loving burden which God lays on a father's back 
 and in a mother's bosom. Moses might never 
 have been the man he was unless he had been 
 nursed by his own mother. How many celebrated 
 men have owed their greatness and their goodness 
 to a mother's training ! What is the law of nature ? 
 God has committed children to the care of their 
 parents, and the care of parents to their children ; 
 and the charity that interferes with this law of 
 Providence is the -parent of evils far greater than 
 it cures. In Scotland, the people once were poor, 
 but not mean ; and if our countrymen were pro- 
 verbial for pride and poverty, it was the pride, if 
 such term could be applied to a feeling so noble, 
 which made sons and daughters work late and 
 early, walk in sober gray, and live on the hardest 
 fare to keep a venerable and venerated parent off 
 the poors-roll. For the aged man or mother 
 
CHARITY. 263 
 
 there was always a corner, and that the warmest 
 in the cottage, where one whose infancy they had 
 nursed tenderly watched their declining years. 
 Within these homes, sacred to filial piety, I have 
 seen a lovely counterpart to the scene without, 
 where the ivy which once found support in old 
 wall or hollow tree, now embracing, supports it in 
 its turn, and covers its hoar decay with a graceful 
 and glossy mantle. Honour to the humblest home 
 whose thatch covers a parent's head ; where daily 
 toil is cheerfully borne to obey the precept that 
 finds an echo in our hearts, " Honour thy father 
 and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the 
 land which the Lord thy God giveth thee !" 
 
 Discrimination as to whom, and what, and how 
 we give, is also necessary in the distribution of 
 private charity. St Giles, the patron saint of our 
 city, in devout imitation of Him who made Him- 
 self poor to make us rich, is said to have sold all 
 his property for the benefit of the poor, to feed 
 the hungry and clothe the naked. And what were 
 the result if any of us should blindly follow his 
 example, and pour our fortunes into the lap of the 
 parish that bears the old saint's name ? What good 
 
264 CHARITY. 
 
 would it do the haggard men and women that 
 there and elsewhere swarm so foul and thick from 
 this rocky castle to yonder silent palace ? We 
 should make ourselves poor, but, alas ! not them 
 rich. They owe their poverty to intemperance and 
 improvidence ; and a stream of money turned on 
 them being less like water poured on a sand-bed 
 than oil on raging flames, would but increase their 
 wretchedness, and feed the vices that have hung 
 them in rags. " It came to pass that the beggar 
 died, and was carried by the angels into Abra- 
 ham's bosom ;" but now-a-days rags are more 
 frequently than otherwise the devil's livery. 
 
 The love of drink is "the root of all evil." In 
 an obscure and wretched close you have lighted 
 on a decent and devout widow, with no cordial 
 by her dying bed but a cup of water. Happy to 
 find such a person there, as a flower blooming in 
 the desert, you hasten to minister to her neces- 
 sities ; these words of Jesus sounding in your ears, 
 " Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of 
 them, ye did it unto me." But the wine given to 
 touch dying lips a wretched daughter turns to 
 another purpose ; so one day, when engaged in 
 
CHARITY. 265 
 
 prayer, the opening of a door, thick and strange 
 mutterings, a reeling step, the noise of one falling^ 
 induce you to open your eyes and there, before 
 you, on the same bed, lies a dying mother and 
 a dead-drunk child. You have often climbed the 
 stair to read and pray by the bed of a woman 
 who talks religiously ; and whose sickly husband, 
 and pale, ill-fed, ill-clad children, have drawn out 
 your bounty. Circumstances occur to excite sus- 
 picion, suspicions darken, deepen; and one day, 
 from beneath a pillow, on which her head and 
 God's Word lie, you drag the evil to light, draw 
 out the drunkard's bottle. Away, high up in a 
 garret room, you find a young man, sinking under 
 a slow decline, and shivering beneath a thin, thread- 
 bare coverlet, in the cold that blows keen through 
 patched and broken window. You try to raise his 
 thoughts to the Saviour and the house of many 
 mansions; and leave to send warm coverings for 
 his emaciated form. Before your return, that 
 wretched apartment has seen a terrible struggle. 
 Turning a deaf ear to his pitiful cries, unmoved 
 by the tears on his hectic cheek, his father and 
 mother have pulled the blankets from his body ; 
 
266 CHARITY. 
 
 and sold them for drink. I speak what I know ; 
 what my own eyes have seen, and ears have heard. 
 These are examples of the difficulties that beset 
 the feet of charity, and teach the necessity of dis- 
 crimination, if we would not increase the evils we 
 attempt to alleviate. 
 
 Nor is that all. What we bestow on idleness or 
 on vice is so much taken from the worthy poor. 
 They have the first claim on what we can spare ; 
 and to throw away our means on others is to de- 
 fraud the widow, the orphan, and poor, innocent, 
 suffering children. It is, therefore, our duty to 
 meet improvidence and intemperance sternly no 
 doubt with Christian pity, but that mingled with 
 the indignation due to those who are not so much 
 robbing us, or the rich, as heartlessly plundering 
 the worthy poor. There are such many worthy 
 poor. We should seek them out; and it should 
 be our happiness to contribute to theirs. Let us 
 earn for ourselves what is better than gold that 
 perisheth the blessing of them that are ready to 
 perish a character such as His, who, at once the 
 painter and the subject, has left us in this likeness 
 of Himself the most beautiful portrait of man, 
 
CHARITY. 267 
 
 " When the ear heard me, then it blessed me ; 
 when the eye saw me, it gave witness of me. I 
 was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I 
 delivered the poor that cried ; the fatherless 
 and him that had none to help him. The bless- 
 ing of him that was ready to perish came upon 
 me ; and I caused the widow's heart to sing 
 for joy." 
 
 Charity brings its reward first in this world. 
 
 While there is no class more tender-hearted 
 than physicians, I have observed that people who 
 live amid their comforts, and are seldom brought 
 into relationship with suffering, are apt to grow 
 selfish. In such circumstances our nature, like a 
 single tree that stands out in the open field, grows 
 dwarfed and gnarled. Indeed, just as without sin 
 the character of God had not been fully developed, 
 nor shone forth full-orbed merciful and gracious, 
 as well as great and holy, it is difficult to see how, 
 without the presence of suffering, helplessness, and 
 poverty, our nature could have been brought 
 out in some of its most attractive aspects. Sym- 
 pathy with suffering, as well as our sense of what 
 is right and wrong, separates us by an immeasur- 
 
268 CHARITY. 
 
 able distance from the lower animals. It presents 
 one of the truest and noblest characteristics of 
 humanity. The pampered dog never turns a 
 piteous eye on some lean, and hungry, and house- 
 less fellow ; but, growling at his approach, and 
 rushing open-mouthed to the assault, drives him 
 from the door. It is fellow-feeling, not mere 
 feeling that raises a man above a beast. It is 
 that which allies us to the angels who take a 
 lively interest in mundane affairs, and, watching 
 the struggle between good and evil, fill heaven 
 with joy as often as the battle goes for Christ, and 
 a sinner is saved. And those gentle sympathies 
 and kindly feelings which the abodes of poverty 
 awaken, are means whereby the Spirit of God 
 softens us moulding the plastic heart into the 
 likeness of that blessed Saviour who is " touched 
 with a feeling of our infirmities,'' and of that 
 blessed God who is " very pitiful and of great 
 mercy." 
 
 The hammer and the iron are both hardened 
 by the same stroke. So is the heart that, deny- 
 ing pity, does a cruel thing, and the heart that 
 denied suffers it. But acts of kindness improve 
 
CHARITY. 269 
 
 the morale both of him who gives, and of him who 
 gets. Indeed, it is both a sad and a lightsome 
 thing to visit the dwellings of the poor. It clears 
 our sky of vapours. We return more contented 
 and happy ; much stouter to endure the petty 
 troubles of our own lot seeing how comfortable 
 our circumstances are compared with those of 
 others, and how many would be glad to exchange 
 condition and cup with us. 
 
 Next to peace with God, through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, there is no higher happiness on earth 
 than lies in making others happy ; nor is man 
 ever so gracious and God-like as when shedding 
 brightness and blessings around him. There is 
 no flower in gay parterre so beautiful as the roses 
 that grow on an orphan's cheek ; no sunshine like 
 the smile of a happy face ; no sound of woman's 
 voice, or lute or harp of sweetest strings, so full of 
 music as the singing of a widow's heart; no jewel 
 on queenly brows so brilliant as the tear in eyes 
 we have lighted with gratitude and joy. Yes 
 it is more blessed to give than to receive ; and 
 these beautiful lines apply as well to charity as 
 to mercy 
 
270 CHARITY. 
 
 " It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
 Upon the place beneath. It is twice bless'd. 
 It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes." 
 
 Charity brings its reward in another world. 
 
 Some of the greatest masters have given us pic- 
 tures of the Last Judgment; placing Him whom 
 they had often painted dying on His cross amid 
 a crowd of enemies, high above another crowd . 
 crowned and seated on a great white throne. 
 Around Him are the host of heaven, and stretch- 
 ing away into distant space are the hosts of 
 heaven, His angel train. Before Him is the 
 world ; a vast assembly where, all on one level, 
 stand kings and beggars, priests and people, the 
 master and his slave, men and women, childhood 
 and old age. Their attire, or some other expe- 
 dient of the painter's, reveals what had been their 
 condition ; their place, and the passions on their 
 faces, what it is. Here, on the right hand, some 
 are on their knees, adoring some forms stretch 
 upward with eager arms some strike golden 
 harps some are waving palms of victory ; but 
 all, with their eyes fixed on Jesus, look as if they 
 had never sinned nor sorrowed. God has wiped 
 
CHARITY. 271 
 
 away all tears from all eyes ; and their beautiful 
 faces, so serene, so pure, so radiant with heavenly 
 joy, inspire the wish, as we gaze on the picture, 
 Their place be mine ! may I die the death of the 
 righteous ; and may my last end be like His ! 
 
 Between these and those* on the left, what a con- 
 trast ! how great a gulf! Despair, horror, agony, 
 are depicted in their looks ; driven downward by 
 armed angels, they fall headlong into the hell that 
 opens its fiery mouth to receive them; while above 
 their wail we seem to hear the words of Jesus, 
 as, waving them away, He says, with a touch of 
 sadness in His voice, " Depart from me, ye cursed, 
 into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
 angels !" These pictures, though often studied as 
 mere works of art, are great sermons. Like Jonah 
 on the streets of Nineveh, they might arrest the 
 feet of busy crowds, as they cry from the walls 
 where they hung, Remember that thou must die, 
 and after death the judgment. 
 
 The picture on which I would fix your eyes is 
 one of Christ's own painting. It sets before us 
 not so much the scene as the ground of the last 
 judgment. The multitude are parted into two 
 
272 CHARITY. 
 
 great classes at the close of the day to be for ever 
 parted. "These" I quote our Lord's own words; 
 the everlasting is not mine, but His "these," 
 proving that no stern prophet ever spake such 
 awful truths as the Saviour's own gentle lips, 
 " these go away into everlasting punishment, 
 but the righteous into life eternal." Momentous 
 verdicts ! changeless destinies ! On what pivot do 
 they turn ? on this, feeding the hungry, clothing 
 the naked, visits to the sick and to the prisoner in 
 his lonely cell. The tree is known by its fruit. 
 Unhappy trees on which Christ, coming to seek 
 such fruit, finds none ! I am not saying that we 
 are not to contend earnestly for the faith once de- 
 livered to the saints ; or that there is no import- 
 ance in creeds, or difference between churches; 
 or that if people are sincere, it is of no conse- 
 quence what they believe ; or that there is any 
 other name given under heaven whereby we can 
 be saved but the name of Jesus. I have no 
 hope but His cross. I may give all my goods to 
 feed the poor, and my body to be burned ; yet 
 if I have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Still 
 our Lord exalts charity to the poor into a test 
 
CHARITY. 273 
 
 of piety of living, saving faith. Identifying 
 Himself with them, He says, " Inasmuch as ye 
 did or did it not unto one of the least of these, 
 ye did or did it not to me!" David returned to 
 Saul, bringing the giant's head; the spies came 
 back to Moses, loaded with grapes from Eshcol ; 
 Jesus ascended to His Father, bearing in His hand 
 the soul of the thief, blood-won trophy of His 
 victory ; one has said that Wilberforce went up to 
 God, taking with him the broken fetters of eight 
 hundred thousand slaves. What proofs of true 
 piety shall we carry to heaven ? What works will 
 follow us ? Shall widows and orphans, the wretched 
 and the ragged, coming from homes which our 
 bounty has blessed, and our prayers have sancti- 
 fied, though not our saviours "for there is one 
 God, and one Mediator between God and men, 
 the man Christ Jesus*' be our witnesses ? May 
 their testimony, that the same mind was in us that 
 was in Christ, call down on us this gracious ap- 
 proving sentence, "Well done, good and faithful 
 servant ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 " The path of the just is as the shining 
 tight, that shineth more and more 
 unto the perfect day " PROV. iv. 18. 
 
 T?VERY man's life is a path. Long in some 
 cases, it is in others so short that many- 
 that all those, indeed, of whom our Lord says the 
 kingdom of heaven is leave no impression on the 
 sands of time other than the prints of little feet 
 and a few brief steps. With all varieties of length, 
 this path presents also an endless variety of scenes 
 and circumstances. Like travellers whose road, 
 passing over a mountainous district, now climbs to 
 the summits of the hills, and now plunges into 
 their gloomy gorges some meet many " ups and 
 downs" in life; they come out of one difficulty to 
 encounter another; their home is saddened by 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 275 
 
 successive bereavements ; misfortune follows on 
 misfortune, as do the billows on each other that 
 come swelling in with foaming crests to break, and 
 thunder on the beach. On the other hand, some 
 who enjoy the peace of God and a good con- 
 science, have so little in their outward circum- 
 stances to give them trouble, that their life, like 
 a river flowing by wooded banks and through 
 fertile fields, glides smoothly on ; and they are 
 in considerable danger of loving the world too 
 well, of forgetting a better one, amid so much in 
 this to gratify their desires. But, long or short, 
 bordered with flowers or beset with thorns, life is 
 but a pathway which has, for all the crowd that 
 travel it, in the cradle a common beginning, and 
 in the coffin a common end. 
 
 The grave is the end of all men. Here all 
 things earthly the grandest schemes, ambition's 
 ladder, love's torch, the marriage altar, the con- 
 queror's sword, the poet's laurels, the rich man's 
 gold, the poor man's sorrows, woman's beauty, and 
 manly strength find their tomb. "One dieth," 
 says Job, " in his full strength, being wholly at ease 
 and in quiet ; his breasts are full of milk, and his 
 
276 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 bones are moistened with marrow. Another dieth 
 in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with 
 pleasure. They shall lie down alike in the dust ; 
 the worms shall cover them." 
 
 But life is a path in another, and still more im- 
 portant, sense. We shift the scene. Now, in place 
 of many roads that start from a common cradle 
 to meet again, after diverging far apart, in a com- 
 mon grave, we see but two ; and they proceed 
 in entirely opposite directions. They open differ- 
 ently a wide gate admits to this, a narrow one 
 to that. They end differently these the inscrip- 
 tions above their respective portals: on this, "Wide 
 is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to 
 destruction ; and many there be that go in there- 
 at;" on that, "Strait is the gate and narrow is 
 the way that leadeth to life ; and few there be that 
 find it." Solemn words, which it were well all had 
 grace to lay to heart ! On the one path or the other 
 our feet are planted ; and since every step is one 
 upward to heaven or downward to perdition, it is 
 sufficient to cast a solemn aspect over the glories of 
 each setting sun, to think that it leaves us a day 
 nearer hell, or nearer heaven. Different in character 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 277 
 
 that broad and this narrow ; different in access 
 that wide and this strait ; different in their ends 
 this terminating in heaven and that in hell : 
 these roads, on which a motley crowd, kings and 
 beggars both, may be met, differ no less in the 
 character of those who travel them ; and we are 
 thereby furnished with tests for determining, each 
 for himself, this grave and most important ques- 
 tion On which am I travelling? To which of 
 the parties do I belong ? 
 
 One of these lies in the progressive advance- 
 ment of God's people in virtue, in holiness, and 
 in all manner of heavenly graces a distinctive 
 feature of their character which it may be inter- 
 esting and profitable to study, as set forth in this 
 beautiful image, " The path of the just is as the 
 shining light, which shineth more and more unto 
 the perfect day." 
 
 But, before looking at the figure, let us, in the 
 first instance, consider Why God's people are called 
 just. 
 
 Of all who have lived in the world since Adam's 
 fall, our Lord Jesus Christ alone was, in the strict 
 and proper sense of the word, entitled to that 
 
278 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 high character to an appellation which He ob- 
 tained from an unlooked-for quarter in the dark- 
 est crisis of His history. The fulness of time has 
 come. The hour of redemption strikes. All things 
 are now ready the altar and the victim both. 
 There is the wood and the fire, and the Lamb 
 also for a burnt-offering. Heaven and hell look 
 on in high expectancy. The representative and 
 substitute of an elect world, the Son of Mary and 
 of God, stands before Pilate to be condemned to 
 death ; and pour out His sinless soul an offering 
 for sin. At this moment, to human eyes, the fate 
 of Jesus hangs in the balance : for though the 
 Jews demand His execution, the Roman governor 
 refuses His assent. Strange rumours about this 
 same Jesus of Nazareth, how He cured the most 
 inveterate diseases, calmed storms on the deep, 
 cast out devils, opened the eyes of the blind, the 
 ears of the deaf, and even the graves of the dead, 
 have reached Pilate's ear; stirred, astonished, and 
 awed the palace. The Roman hesitates to strike ; 
 not so much probably out of regard to justice, as 
 because he is afraid to challenge and provoke the 
 power of this unknown ; and rouse perhaps a lion 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 279 
 
 in this gentle Lamb. Besides, there is a strange 
 calm, lofty, mysterious dignity in the bearing of 
 the prisoner that strikes terror into the heart of 
 his time-serving, guilty judge; making him shrink 
 back like one who is about to take a leap in the 
 dark he knows not where. Indeed, once and 
 again, he attempts to save the accused. He 
 pleads his cause, but in vain. And now, as no 
 way of escape seems left, either for the prisoner 
 or himself, submitting like a heathen to the Fates, 
 he resumes his place on the seat of judgment, 
 and, though reluctant, is about to pronounce the 
 fatal sentence. At this critical moment there is a 
 stir among the crowd, through which one, wear- 
 ing Pilate's livery, is seen elbowing his way. He 
 comes in hot haste, a messenger from Pilate's 
 wife ; and ascending the steps, whispers this warn- 
 ing in his master's ear, " Have thou nothing to do 
 with that just man, for I have suffered many 
 things this day in a dream because of Him." 
 Strange, of all the thousands whom Jesus had 
 blessed and cured, there was not so much as one 
 to cry, Crucify Him not ! Strange, as the only 
 confession of Him came from the lips of a dying 
 
280 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 thief, the only voice raised in His behalf came 
 from the lips of a dreaming woman ! Yet though 
 He was despised and rejected of men, though He 
 came unto His own and His own received Him 
 not, well spoke that dreamer. Let the guards 
 unbind His arms, let Him break the strange 
 silence that seals His lips, and He holds up His 
 hands high above that raging multitude, before 
 them, before the priests, before Pilate, before 
 heaven as well as earth, before God himself, to 
 say, These hands are clean ! He, and He alone, 
 of all that ever lived, since sin entered our world, 
 was without sin guile, there was none in His 
 mouth ; guilt, there was none in His heart. In 
 Him a clean thing came out of an unclean. 
 Though entering the world by Mary's womb, He 
 was by birth the Just One. Though called the 
 friend of publicans and sinners, He holy, harm- 
 less, and undefiled, separate from sinners, as oil 
 from the water amid which it floats was in life 
 the Just One. Though condemned as a male- 
 factor, and crucified between two thieves, He was 
 in death the Just One. He died, as Scripture 
 says, "the just for the unjust, that we might be 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 281 
 
 saved" that His righteousness, the merits of 
 His holy life and of His atoning death, being im- 
 puted to us, we might appear righteous ; in othef 
 words, be reckoned just in the judgment, and 
 therefore acquitted at the bar, of a holy God. 
 Thus the apostle says, "justified by faith" in 
 other words, made just through the righteousness 
 which grace on God's part imputes, and faith on 
 ours receives " we have peace with God through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." So I remark 
 
 It is through the righteousness of Jesus Chiist 
 that any, in the strict and proper sense of the 
 term, are just in the sight of God. 
 
 Society divides itself into a variety of classes 
 an arrangement that to some extent seems as 
 much a law of Providence as the division of the 
 hand into fingers, or of a tree into boughs, and of 
 its boughs into branches. So we speak of the 
 higher and lower classes, of nobles and com- 
 moners, of sovereigns and subjects, of the rich 
 and the poor, of the learned and the unlearned. 
 Like the differences of stature among the indivi- 
 duals of a crowd, between even giants and pig- 
 mies, to one who surveys them from a lofty 
 
282 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 bartizan, the ordinary distinctions of society vanish 
 in the sight of heaven; and in the eyes of Him 
 who looks down on the world from the heights of 
 divinity, there remains but one, only one distinc- 
 tion. It is that which divides the whole human 
 family, princes and peasants both, into two great 
 classes the good and evil, the just and unjust 
 and so, for example, it is said, " God maketh his 
 sun to shine upon the evil and the good ; and his 
 rain to fall on the just and unjust." At any rate, 
 no other distinction but that survives the stroke of 
 death ; descending with us into the grave and 
 making it our peaceful bed, or a doleful prison. 
 You cannot tell the skull of a king from that of a 
 beggar ; and in the grave, beauty the most charm- 
 ing and deformity the most revolting moulder into 
 indistinguishable dust. Yet Jesus knows them 
 that are His. It is as the just they sleep in Him ; 
 and as the just they shall rise from their graves 
 on that day when the trumpet sounds the resurrec- 
 tion, and it shall be said " to the north, Give up, 
 and to the south, Keep not back ; bring my sons 
 from far, and my daughters from the ends of the 
 earth!" 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 283 
 
 But how do any become just with God ? It can- 
 not be because they are sinless. There is not a 
 just man on earth that doeth good and sinneth 
 not ; and the inspired author of that statement also 
 remarks of those who may in a sense be called 
 just, "a just man falleth seven times and riseth up 
 again." And since the best do fall, and that not 
 seven times, nor seventy times seven, but times 
 and ways innumerable, notwithstanding that they 
 do rise again, and, through the grace of God sancti- 
 fying the humbling lesson, may rise, like the fabled 
 giant, stronger than before, then in the words of 
 the patriarch, " How can man be just with God ? 
 If he will contend with him, he cannot answer 
 him one of a thousand." Such being the case, the 
 apostle argues with unanswerable logic, that by 
 the deeds of a law which requires perfect obedi- 
 ence, in other words, by man's own righteousness, 
 " no flesh can be justified in the sight of God." 
 
 The Shuhite asked, as you will find written in 
 the Book of Job, "How can man be justified with 
 God ? how can he be clean that is born of a 
 woman ? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth 
 not ; yea, the stars are not pure in His sight. How 
 
284 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 much less man, that is a worm ; and the son of 
 man, which is a worm?" Bildad's question finds 
 its answer, the grand difficulty of all heathen 
 nations and ages its complete solution, in the 
 gospel. Let this poor "worm" but creep through 
 the dust to the foot of the Cross, and bathe itself 
 in the blood of Calvary : and how it is changed ! 
 What a change on that which, once a creeping 
 caterpillar, crawling on the ground and devouring 
 garbage, now spreads its painted wings, and springs 
 into the air to live in sunbeams and to feed on 
 flowers ! What a change on the leper, when, bend- 
 ing his way from the prophet's house to the banks 
 of Jordan, he goes down into the sacred stream ; 
 and dips, and dips again, and, taking the seventh 
 plunge, rises from the parting waters with a skin 
 like a little child's ! But a greater change is 
 here. At the foot of the Cross, sprinkled with the 
 blood of Christ, the sinner changes into a saint; 
 the unjust into the just; the condemned into the 
 acquitted ; the child of hell into an heir of heaven. 
 Putting off self-righteousness to put on Christ, he 
 exchanges a beggar's rags for a kingly robe ; once 
 covered with iniquity as with a garment, he now 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 285 
 
 stands apparelled in one finer, fairer, costlier than 
 ever angel wore ; and in the eyes of his Sovereign 
 Judge, the believer, happy man ! is without spot, 
 or stain, or any such thing. " There is no condem- 
 nation for those who are in Jesus Christ, who walk 
 not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
 
 As appears from this figure, the spiritual life of 
 the just, the justified, the believer in Jesus, is one 
 Q{ progress. 
 
 A connoisseur in works of art, so soon as the 
 dust of years has been wiped from an old picture, 
 can name the master who painted the glowing 
 canvas. So also, though time has left no record 
 of their history, and no date stands carved on the 
 crumbling ruins, an antiquarian can tell from its 
 form when that arch was sprung ; from their 
 capitals, by what hands, long mouldering in the 
 dust, these grand, impressive, silent pillars were 
 reared on their massive pedestals. The works of 
 all great men, and those of all great ages, are 
 marked by properties peculiar to themselves. 
 And features entirely their own are eminently 
 characteristic of all the works of God ; so charac- 
 teristic of these that the untutored Arab when 
 
286 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 challenged to prove in God the existence of a 
 being whom he had never touched, nor heard, nor 
 seen, regarded the scoffer with amazement ! nor 
 deigned to return any answer to his gibes but one 
 borrowed from the scenes of his native desert : 
 "Just as I know," he replied, in terms worth a 
 volume of divinity "Just as I know/' pointing to 
 a footprint on the sand, " whether it was a man or 
 a camel that passed my tent last night." 
 
 So distinguished by a divine wisdom, power, 
 and goodness are God's works of creation and 
 providence that all Nature, by the gentle voices of 
 her skies and streams, of her fields and forests, as 
 well as by the roar of breakers, the crash of thun- 
 der, the rumbling earthquake, the fiery volcano, 
 the destroying hurricane, echoes the closing sen- 
 tence of this angel hymn, " Holy, holy, holy is the 
 Lord God Almighty, the whole earth is full of his 
 glory !" But the works of God are not less 
 marked by their progressive character than by the 
 attributes of wisdom, power, and goodness. A 
 work of time, the world was built story by story ; 
 and course by course the pyramid of animated 
 nature rose from its base, till man, his Maker's 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 287 
 
 image, and creation's crowning work, was placed 
 on its lofty summit. Brief as is the history of 
 creation compared to the large portion of the 
 Bible which is devoted to the story of redemption, 
 the opening chapter of Genesis, though leaving 
 much unexplained and wrapt in impenetrable 
 obscurity, shows us God working onward to His 
 Sabbath rest by a series of successive creations ; 
 and when we close the pages of revelation to exa- 
 mine those of nature, they who are skilled to read 
 that older record, see progress inscribed on all its 
 stony leaves. 
 
 Then, the Providence that governs the world 
 is equally characterised by progress. It is to be 
 seen every morning in the approach of day not 
 flashing like an explosion to startle the world 
 from sleep, but advancing, by silent though steady 
 steps, from the first faint streak in the east through 
 all the glories and changing hues of sunrise, of 
 amber and saffron and gold and purple, to the 
 blaze of the perfect day ; we see it in the growth 
 of plants, from the pale, tender shoot which lifts a 
 tiny head above the soil to its maturity in the 
 tree that, with its stately form rifted in the rock, 
 
288 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 throws out its giant arms, and, battling with the 
 elements, defies the rage of storms ; we see it in 
 the change a few days make on the flowers of the 
 garden, or a few months on our corn fields or a 
 few swift years in our families where girls grow 
 into women, and boys into stalwart men. Like 
 God's works of creation, and His works also of 
 providence, redemption, while displaying all His 
 attributes in their brightest lustre, and forming 
 His greatest work, is also marked by this never- 
 failing feature of progress. The temple of salva- 
 tion was not built in a day, or in a century, or 
 even in a thousand years. Its foundation was laid 
 in Eden, and at a time remote as the Fall laid 
 in that promise of a Saviour which God em- 
 bosomed in the curse He pronounced on the cun- 
 ning serpent, " I will put enmity between thee 
 and the woman, and between thy seed and her 
 seed : it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt 
 bruise his heel." Yet not till four thousand long 
 years had come and gone did the Redeemer 
 crown His work; and, in the dying but triumphant 
 accents of His expiring breath, pronounce it 
 finished. 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 289 
 
 And it is with the work of our sanctification, 
 the work of renewing grace in the soul, as with 
 all God's works in all places of His dominion ; 
 " Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord." 
 In this, as in all things else, progress is God's 
 plan, and man's pathway to perfection. Let this 
 yield comfort to some in whom grace seems but 
 a little spark a feeble, flickering flame, easily 
 quenched and often ready to expire. Let them 
 not be cast down ; but pray God, with His Spirit 
 and the breath of His mouth, to blow the smok- 
 ing flax into a bright, burning, heaven-kindled, 
 and ascending flame. The day of small things 
 in grace is no more to be despised than the day 
 of small things in sin ; for it is commonly with 
 Christ formed within us as it was with Christ on 
 Mary's bosom, in the carpenter's house of Naza- 
 reth. He grew in wisdom as in stature ; at first 
 a feeble babe, hanging on a mother's breast, cling- 
 ing to a mother's side, He grew betimes into a 
 man whose voice hushed the tempest, whose foot 
 trode the rolling billows, from whose presence 
 devils fled, and whose behests even the dead 
 obeyed. 
 
290 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 Imitating Him whom faith receives both as our 
 propitiation and our pattern, we are by pains and 
 prayer to grow in holiness and humility; in sweet- 
 ness of temper and heavenliness of mind ; in active 
 obedience and patient suffering ; in conformity to 
 the will and delight in the ways of God. Why 
 should we be cast down, dispirited, disheartened, 
 and ready to abandon all efforts in an unwar- 
 rantable despair ? No doubt, whether our aim 
 be high or humble, we always come short of the 
 mark ? Yet let us be thankful, though we have 
 not reached, if we are nearing perfection ; if, like 
 the harbour lights, we see it ahead of us, not 
 vanishing on the stern, but growing on the bow ; 
 if our course shows marks of progress; if our 
 spiritual life is lighting up like the morning ; and 
 we can express our experience in the words of the 
 apostle, "We all, with open face beholding as 
 in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into 
 the same image from glory to glory, even as by 
 the Spirit of the Lord." 
 
 As does not appear in this figure, the progress 
 of God's people in a life of grace may be helped 
 and hastened. 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 291 
 
 The progress of those celestial luminaries that 
 raise the tides of ocean and rule the seasons of 
 the year, and make night and day, morning's 
 growing dawn and evening's deepening twilight, 
 is independent of us ; both of our works and our 
 wishes. Those heavenly bodies that roll through 
 the fields of space, move in orbits beyond our 
 reach ; nor did man ever interfere with their 
 machinery but on that occasion, when, for a 
 special purpose and by miraculous power, Joshua 
 laid his hands on their wheels " So the sun stood 
 still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go 
 down about a whole day ; and there was no day 
 like that before or after it, that the Lord hearkened 
 unto the voice of a man : for the Lord fought for 
 Israel." All experience confirms that observation 
 of the inspired historian. Ah, time moves no 
 slower for the wishes of the miserable wretch, in 
 whose eyes, as he waits the day of execution, 
 its sands never ran, and in whose ears its lessen- 
 ing hours never struck, so quickly and the long 
 night passes and the dawn comes no sooner for 
 the wishes of the crew that, wrecked on the 
 thundering reef, with a straining ship breaking up 
 
292 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 beneath and every moment threatening to in- 
 gulf them, scan the east with anxious eyes ; and 
 watching for the first streak of light, weary, and 
 pray for the coming of the morn. The natural 
 light which shines over our heads and brightens 
 into the perfect day, obeys the unalterable decrees 
 of heaven our wishes cannot hasten its progress, 
 nor can our indifference by one moment delay or 
 hinder it. 
 
 It is otherwise with grace in the soul ; in the 
 life, habits, and hearts of God's chosen people. 
 No doubt sanctification, like redemption, is the 
 peculiar work of God the life of grace in His 
 people being as much His work as the light that 
 breaks and brightens on the eastern sky when, 
 with almighty hand, He throws open the gates of 
 day. Yet, while God by His Spirit works in sanc- 
 tification, we also are to work. In this field, as in 
 that of the conversion of the world, Christians are 
 honoured and are called to be fellow-workers with 
 God the injunction of the apostle being laid on 
 them all : " Work out your own salvation with fear 
 and trembling ; for it is God which worketh in you 
 both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Hence 
 
THE SHINING LIGHT. 293 
 
 we are exhorted to grow in grace ; to grow in the 
 knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ ; to 
 labour for the bread that never perisheth ; to for- 
 get the things that are behind, and press forward, 
 onward, upward the path we move on, progress ; 
 the end we aim at, perfection. No effort of ours 
 can either hasten or hinder the dawn of day ; but 
 by watchfulness and prayer, by the devout use of 
 our Bibles and the hallowed observance of God's 
 holy day, by waiting on Him in all the ordinances 
 of His house and holding fellowship with our hea- 
 venly Head, and Lord, and elder Brother, we can 
 do much to promote our growth in grace, and 
 mature our meetness for the kingdom of heaven. 
 Let us labour for such lofty ends. Anything 
 beneath them is to mistake the grand purpose 
 of life, and to peril the salvation of our souls. 
 He who imagines that the grace of God, once 
 received into his heart, will grow in that soil with- 
 out either effort, or care, or prayer of his, as with- 
 out these the dawn breaks and the day brightens 
 above his head, is grievously, fatally mistaken. 
 Alas ! his case is described by another figure, 
 though also borrowed from the break of morn : 
 
294 THE SHINING LIGHT. 
 
 unlike the shining light which shineth more and 
 more unto the perfect day, his goodness, a delu- 
 sion, shall be " as a morning cloud and the early 
 dew " that vanish away ; and, dissolving into 
 empty air, leave neither on earth nor sky so much 
 as a trace behind them. 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. PART I. 
 
 " If ye then [or, since ye then] be 
 risen with Christ, seek those things 
 which are above." COL. iii. i. 
 
 '""INHERE are tracts of country in some regions 
 of the world where the soil feels hot to 
 the touch, the ground rings hollow to the foot, 
 and groaning mountains belch forth flames, clouds 
 of vapour, and streams of molten rock. There, 
 where the "solid earth " seems an inappropriate 
 expression, earthquakes occasionally occur, to 
 bury, not houses only, but whole cities, in their 
 yawning chasms. Unlike these, which are con- 
 nected with ordinary volcanic agencies, was the 
 earthquake that, with strange signs in the heavens, 
 distinguished our Lord's from all other deaths. It 
 opened graves, not to bury the living, but set 
 
296 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 the dead free ; and, wrenching the bars of death 
 asunder, exposed to the eye of day the grim and 
 silent tenants of the tomb. 
 
 So happened it when Jesus, God manifest in 
 the flesh, gave up the ghost. Our earth was 
 struck with terror. Seized with an extraordinary 
 trembling, the rocks, in whose bowels the Jews 
 hollowed out their tombs, were rent asunder; and 
 such as had the curiosity and courage to look in, 
 saw the dead each lying in his stony chamber. 
 They were waiting the hour of resurrection ; nor 
 could they rise till Christ had risen. A king goes 
 foremost not before, but after him his subjects ; 
 nor is it the feet but the head that rises first to 
 the surface when a man, falling overboard, is 
 buried in the sea. Such was the order of events 
 on the morning of the third day. The angel, 
 seated on the stone that he had rolled from the 
 door, is silently waiting the issue with eyes fixed 
 upon the tomb, when Jesus, untouched, unsum- 
 moned, awakes ; and rising to put off shroud and 
 face-cloth, passes forth into the morning air with 
 the step of a conqueror. For this hour, for the 
 joy set before Him, to redeem our souls from hell 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 297 
 
 and our bodies from the grave, He had endured 
 the cross and despised the shame ; and He now 
 lives to die no more. And as, so soon as the 
 heart in a case of suspended animation resumes 
 its functions, the blood begins to flow and pulses 
 throb through all the body, even so they revive 
 with Christ, who were to show forth the connexion 
 between His resurrection and that of His saints at 
 the final judgment. Prefiguring that great event, 
 and leaving the graves the earthquake had opened, 
 many saints arose. The evangelist St Matthew thus 
 describes the scene : " Jesus, when he had cried 
 again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 
 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in 
 twain from the top to the bottom ; and the earth 
 did quake, and the rocks rent ; and the graves 
 were opened ; and many bodies of the saints 
 which slept arose, and came out of the graves 
 after his resurrection, and went into the holy 
 city, and appeared unto many." Our Lord's 
 ascent from the grave was a fit counterpart to 
 His descent from the skies ; both events being 
 characterised by manifestations of the divinity 
 
298 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 that touched with resplendent glory the darkest 
 mysteries of His life. He left heaven attended by 
 a train of angels, and left the tomb with one hardly 
 less, if not more remarkable a band whom he 
 had restored to life, and brought out of their 
 graves. They, the strangest assembly ever met 
 on earth, had " risen with Christ ; " and so, in the 
 plainest sense of the terms, St Paul might have 
 addressed them, saying, " If ye then," or since ye 
 then, "are risen with Christ, seek those things 
 which are above." 
 
 Had the apostle addressed these words to that 
 company, they could have had little interest, and 
 no application to us. But the words occur in a 
 letter he wrote to the church at Colosse ; and were 
 addressed to such as, far removed from the scene 
 of this stupendous miracle, had no more share in it 
 than we have. We shall therefore consider them 
 as bearing on the whole Church of Christ, in every 
 age as well as in every country of the world. 
 Happily combining doctrine and practice, they 
 present two distinct points for consideration ; they 
 delineate a character and enjoin a duty. Taking 
 these in their order, let us consider 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 299 
 
 Who are those that may be said to have risen 
 with Christ 
 
 There is a churchyard where the passenger who 
 reads the inscriptions on the tombs, that stand up 
 amid the long rank grass beneath the shadow of 
 waving elms and an old gray steeple, will find one 
 to surprise him ; which, though quaint in form, I 
 doubt not is true in substance. Here, no angel 
 flying through the heavens sounds a trumpet ; no 
 figure of old Time, with bald head, shoulders a 
 scythe or shakes an hour-glass ; no cross-bones 
 rudely carved, nor sexton's spade, nor grinning 
 skull, give point to the trite " Memento Mori." 
 Stranger still, the monument which is raised to the 
 memory and virtues of one person bears the date 
 of more than one birth : with long years between, 
 it says, speaking in name of the dead, I was 
 born the first time on such a day, and born the 
 second time on such another day of another year. 
 Strange, indeed ! Yet, had John Baptist's disci- 
 ples erected a monument to the memory of their 
 murdered master, it might have recorded a more 
 astounding fact ; and, to those ignorant of the 
 work of God's Spirit, a more inexplicable riddle. 
 
300 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 For, contradiction in terms though it seems, the 
 second birth in John's as in Jeremiah's case, went 
 before the first the Baptist being sanctified from 
 his mother's womb. There, a babe yet unborn, he 
 rejoiced in God his Saviour ; " Lo," said Elizabeth 
 to Mary, when the two cousins, both by and by to 
 become mothers, met " Lo, as soon as the voice 
 of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe 
 leaped in my womb for joy." 
 
 The history of every saint on being completed, 
 which it shall not be till the final judgment, and 
 heads mouldering in the dust are crowned with 
 immortality, will contain a record of two births, 
 of two deaths, and of two resurrections the first 
 visible, the second invisible ; the subject of the one 
 change, the body ; the subject of the other, which 
 is a matter of faith and not of sight, the soul of 
 the believer. This second birth and first death, or 
 resurrection, are one and the same event. Here 
 let me pause to say, How important an event ! and 
 to ask, Have we any experience of it ? This 
 change of heart is the door to heaven, the hinge on 
 which turns our eternal destiny ; without it Jesus 
 declares that no man, however virtuous or honest, 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 301 
 
 can see the kingdom of God ; promising to bestow 
 it, God says, " O my people, I will open your 
 graves, and cause you to come up out of your 
 graves a new heart also will I give you, and a 
 new spirit will I put within you ;" and what God 
 has promised in these, and many other no less 
 gracious words, Ezekiel was privileged to see in 
 vision there, where the bones of a valley, once a 
 battlefield, orderly arrange themselves into skele- 
 tons, and the naked skeletons get clothed with 
 flesh, and no sooner does a wind from heaven 
 come, sweeping along to stir their hair and kiss 
 their lips, than every dead man, inspired anew with 
 life, springs to his feet, and the valley, before so 
 silent, echoes to the blare of trumpets, and is filled 
 with " an exceeding great army," God's host, 
 bannered and marshalled, and eager for battle. 
 
 The words " risen with Christ," which express 
 the condition of such as are born of God's Spirit 
 and have passed through the first resurrection, are 
 in complete harmony with all that Scripture and 
 conscience reveal of our lost state by nature. The 
 Word of God pronounces all men dead, " dead in 
 trespasses and sins ;" and the most cursory exa- 
 
302 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 mination of the subject teaches us that more is 
 meant by that expression than the fact, alarming 
 as the fact is, that, until justified by faith in the 
 righteousness of Jesus Christ, we all lie under 
 condemnation. What does he think of, for exam- 
 ple, who lies in a condemned cell, sentenced within 
 so many days to be taken to the place of public 
 execution, and hanged by the neck till he is dead ? 
 of what he shall eat, or drink, or wherewithal he 
 shall be clothed of comforts with which to sur- 
 round himself of the pastimes and pleasures in 
 which he may spend his numbered hours ? No. 
 By his grated window the wretched man sits, 
 inditing petitions for pardon : when the world 
 sleeps, and all but his beating heart is still, he 
 creeps softly from his pallet to try the strength of 
 the iron bars ; unlike those who neither pray nor 
 solicit the prayers of others, he engages every pos- 
 sible interest to intercede with the Crown on his 
 behalf, nor leaves any means untried to make his 
 pardon sure. But, till awakened and converted by 
 divine grace, do men show any such anxiety for 
 salvation : or put forth one earnest effort corre- 
 sponding to his ? If they did, who should be lost ? 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 303 
 
 None. With pardon freely offered to be got for 
 the asking ; with liberty proclaimed and prison 
 doors flung open ; with God not willing that any 
 should perish, but that all should come to Him 
 and live, it is not possible to account for sinners 
 perishing otherwise than by the fact that men, 
 while under the sentence are also under the insen- 
 sibility of death. Think you that unless the body 
 stretched on the funeral pile by the banks of the 
 Ganges were dead, it would lie passive there, to be 
 wrapped in flames and reduced to ashes ? Alive, 
 how the man would watch the torch's fiery glare, 
 and, perceiving it touch the pile, burst his bonds, 
 spring from his bed, and fly for life ! Much more, 
 were men not " dead in trespasses and sins," would 
 they work out their salvation with fear and trem- 
 bling give all diligence to " make their calling 
 and election sure." 
 
 Besides being marked by insensibility, death is 
 followed by corruption. It, not the glassy eye, 
 nor marble brow, nor rigid form, nor heart that 
 neither beats nor flutters, is the surest, saddest 
 proof that life has fled : and so with the grand 
 and bold imagery of inspiration, the prophet re- 
 
304 RISEN WI*TH CHRIST. 
 
 presents the dead as talking in their graves, say- 
 ing " to corruption, Thou art my father ; and to 
 the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister." 
 And turning from the physical to the moral 
 aspects of man's case, alas ! how much corruption 
 is in his heart to prove him " dead in trespasses 
 and sins." Let the Holy Spirit, before he begins 
 to cleanse it, open a sinner's eyes to its depravity, 
 show the man himself in the mirror of God's 
 Word, and he starts back from the glass, aghast 
 at his own image ; shocked to see that there is no 
 grave so foul as man's heart. "Ye shall loathe 
 yourselves," says God to His people, "ye shall 
 loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the 
 evils that ye have committed." Need we wonder 
 at such strong expressions ? Why ? Even saintly 
 Ezra blushed to lift up his head : and Job, emi- 
 nent above all the men of his time for uprightness, 
 cried, "I abhor myself:" and St Paul, as if this 
 greatest of apostles had been the greatest of 
 sinners, feeling through the corruptions that clung 
 to him like a living captive in a most horrible 
 predicament chained to one whom death had 
 turned into a festering corpse, exclaims, "Who 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 305 
 
 shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 
 If it is so with renewed men, what must it be 
 with those who are entire strangers to the grace 
 of God if such is the state of the green tree, how 
 must it be with the dry ? 
 
 I am far from asserting, though sin, like a 
 poison carried along in the blood, has affected in 
 a sense our entire nature, that the unconverted 
 are without amiable, excellent, and valuable pro- 
 perties. I have seen flowers of lovely hue and 
 fragrant odour clinging to the walls of a crumbling 
 ruin, and I have seen such beauty lingering on the 
 face of the dead as went far to deprive death of 
 its repulsive aspect, and make it difficult to be- 
 lieve that life had fled. Such are the graces that 
 belong to fallen humanity. They adorn, but can- 
 not redeem it pleasing man, but not propitiating 
 God. If our Lord's body in the grave, to borrow 
 an illustration from it, might be regarded as the 
 type of a soul " dead in trespasses and sins," these 
 natural virtues are but the fine linen in which 
 Joseph wrapped the sacred form, the bed of spices 
 on which with tender hand he composed the 
 mangled limbs. What availed the snowy fabric of 
 
306 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 the loom, and fragrance that filled the sepulchre ? 
 Death was there the dear form was cold ; the 
 eyes were fixed and filmy; silent the voice that 
 hushed the tempest and cheered the weeping 
 penitent ; powerless the hand at whose touch 
 blind eyes opened and old sores were closed ; and, 
 with its features muffled in a napkin, low on the 
 cold ground lay the head that had lain in the 
 bosom of God. Thus Jesus was under the insen- 
 sibility as well as the sentence of death ; and so 
 remained till, after three days and nights, as the 
 Jews expressed it, life returned to the lifeless body, 
 and His heart with all other organs resumed its 
 functions. Then He rose ; declared by His resur- 
 rection to be the Son of God with power. And 
 they who are risen with Him, undergoing a greater 
 change than the saints who had their graves 
 opened at His death, and their life restored at His 
 resurrection, are those whose souls once dead in 
 sin have become alive through grace. Your way 
 to spiritual life opened up, perhaps, by convictions 
 that have rent the rocky heart and shaken soul 
 and body too, as earthquakes shake a trembling 
 world, have you risen to newness of life ? Then 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 307 
 
 cast off, like grave-clothes, the habits of sin. In 
 the strength of heavenly grace, burst its bonds, 
 and go forth to enjoy the light and walk in the 
 liberty of the sons of God. 
 
 For on those who have thus risen with Christ is 
 The duty enjoined seek those things which are 
 above, or as St Paul more fully expresses it in 
 words we shall by and by consider, Set your affec- 
 tions on things in heaven, and not on things on 
 earth. 
 
 When the doctrine of a resurrection was first 
 revealed, it dazzled all eyes and blinded some. 
 Reason started at the strange announcement ; and 
 treating its great preacher with undisguised con- 
 tempt, the Athenians sneered asking, as they 
 curled the lip and pointed to St Paul, " What doth 
 this babbler say?" To throw some light on that 
 mystery, he employed the similitude of such fami- 
 liar objects as corn-seed, which is cast on the soil, 
 and, though when buried in the furrow a dry, 
 sapless, lifeless-looking thing, rises to push aside 
 the clods, and clothe the fields with verdure, and 
 fill the barns of the husbandman with golden 
 sheaves. In other realms of nature, science finds 
 
308 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 a still more remarkable similitude in the insects 
 that, sporting in sunbeams and flitting from flower 
 to flower, give life to the air and beauty to the 
 scene. Once creeping worms, after a while they 
 wove a shroud and wrapped it round them, and, 
 dropping from bush or tree, sought a grave in the 
 earth, where they lay entombed till spring winds 
 thawed and summer beams warmed the soil, and 
 at the appointed time shuffled off their shroud, 
 and rose into the sunny air on silken wings in 
 form, in food, in tastes, in habits so different, that 
 it might be said, " Old things have passed away, 
 and all things are become new." 
 
 An image of the change on our bodies when 
 this poor dust shall hear the trumpet, and mor- 
 tality put on immortality, this is not less, but per- 
 haps more, an image of the change wrought in our 
 souls when the Spirit renews them at the second 
 birth and first resurrection. Then, at least, in 
 their dominant power, old things have passed 
 away; and, in their bud and germ at least, all 
 things have become new. The Bible, for example, 
 so soon as a man is converted, reads like a new 
 book ; the Sabbath bell rings out new sounds ; 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 309 
 
 Jesus, once despised, but now invested with new 
 and attractive graces, is prized as the chiefest 
 among ten thousand and altogether lovely every 
 feeling and affection leaving its old channel, flows 
 in a new and opposite direction ; and loving what 
 once he hated and hating what once he loved, 
 shunning what once he sought and seeking what 
 once he shunned, the years the renewed man 
 spent in sin seem to him like a strange, and guilty, 
 and frightful, and horrid dream. Yet, though 
 perfect in nature, this holy change is imperfect 
 in degree many being the hostile influences to 
 which believers are exposed here ; many the 
 temptations that assail their virtue ; many the 
 difficulties that impede their course ; many the 
 conflicts they have to maintain against the lovs 
 of the world and the remaining corruption of their 
 hearts. Therefore St Paul urges them to with- 
 draw their affections from things on earth, and, as 
 those that have risen from sin to the enjoyment 
 of a new life, to set them on things above. 
 
 Thus to rise and soar, though by no means 
 easy, is a duty to which God's people will give 
 earnest heed if they consult only their present 
 
310 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 happiness. The ivy which throws its arms around 
 a hollow and rotten tree dooms itself to be 
 crushed ; and they are laying up suffering for a 
 future day who allow affections which should be 
 trained to the skies to be entangled with perish- 
 ing earthly objects. God will not permit His 
 redeemed ones to perish ; but to save their souls 
 He will sink their treasures cast away the cargo 
 to keep the ship afloat. If they choose Sodom, 
 He will burn them out of it ; to deliver them 
 from idolatry, He will destroy their idols ; and 
 when precepts fail to teach it, He will teach them 
 by bitter experience that " he builds too low, who 
 builds beneath the skies." Startled by the whirr- 
 ing of a scared bird, the fall of a leaf, even their 
 own shadow which the moon, shining through a 
 glade of the forest, projects on the path, they may 
 fear robbers who carry their fortune on their 
 persons ; but he who has his wealth in the 
 banker's safe, walks light-hearted through the 
 gloom of night, and whistles as he goes careless 
 though thieves be thick as forest leaves. Even so, 
 the man who has his treasure in heaven is, in a 
 sense and measure at least, prepared for the worst 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 3!! 
 
 that can befall ; nor, when misfortune comes to 
 take away his wealth, or disease to take away his 
 health, or calumny to take away his reputation, 
 or death to pluck wife or child from his loving 
 arms, has he to raise the old, bitter cry, " Ye have 
 taken a\vay my gods, and what have I more ? " 
 He who has his affections set on things above is 
 like one who hangs on by the skies ; and, having 
 a secure hold of these, could say though he saw 
 the world roll away from beneath his feet, " My 
 heart is fixed, my heart is fixed, O Lord, I will 
 sing and give praise !" 
 
 I do not say, notwithstanding all its sins and 
 sorrows, but that there is much good in God's 
 world. It is a good servant, though, like fire and 
 water, a bad master ; useful as a staff, though in 
 the heart a tyrant's rod ; good beneath a man's 
 feet, though on his back a burden to make a saint 
 groan, like Atlas. Be careful, therefore, by setting 
 your affections on things above, to keep the world 
 in its own place. Allow it to thrust itself in be- 
 tween you and God, and Christ, and holiness, and 
 heaven, and it shall be with your souls as with our 
 planet when the moon rolls in between us and 
 
312 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 the sun ; though vastly inferior to that glorious 
 luminary, yet blotting out all beauty, hushing the 
 voice of song, turning day into sudden night, and 
 striking terror into all nature, it wraps the world 
 in the darkness of a cold eclipse. It matters 
 little how much of the world is in our hands, if it 
 is kept out of our hearts, and care be taken that 
 neither business nor pleasures make us forget that 
 heaven, not earth, is our home. Would that 
 heaven had such a place in our thoughts as home 
 has in the hearts of boys about holiday time, of 
 soldiers when the weary war draws to a close, 
 of exiles looking to see the ship sail round the 
 headland which is to convey them and their 
 fortunes from a foreign shore. As I have seen 
 the twittering swallows, when their time of 
 migration drew near, sit on house-tops pruning 
 their pinions, and wheel in mazy circles through 
 the air to try and to strengthen their powers of 
 flight, so, living above and looking beyond this 
 world, let us prepare for our departure daily, 
 prayerfully, assiduously cultivating that holiness 
 which is the unfailing characteristic of believers, 
 and which, perfected on their arrival at the gates 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 313 
 
 of heaven, shall be their highest happiness and 
 brightest crown. 
 
 But if we are to live separate from the world 
 like oil among water though in it, not of it 
 how, it may be asked, since men only do well 
 what they do with a will, are we, with affections 
 fixed on things above, to perform aright the 
 secular, ordinary duties of life ? If our hearts 
 are engrossed with heavenly things, how are we 
 to obey this other, and equally divine, command- 
 ment, "Whatsoever" be it to sweep a floor or 
 reform a state, hold the helm of a ship or of a 
 nation " whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do 
 it with thy might" a way of doing ordinary 
 work, let me observe, not more conducive to our 
 temporal advantage than creditable to our reli- 
 gious profession. " With might " implies that the 
 heart is engaged along with the head and hand ; 
 and having, though two hands, but one heart 
 which, like the living child for whom the mothers 
 wrangled, to divide were to destroy, how can we 
 do things apparently so incompatible as to set 
 our affections on the things of heaven and yet 
 engage with " might " in the secularities of earth ? 
 
314 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 The two are perfectly consistent. Man standing 
 between the celestial and terrestrial worlds is re- 
 lated to both ; and resembling neither a flower 
 which, springing from the dust and returning to it, 
 belongs altogether to the earth, nor a star which, 
 shining far remote from this lower sphere, belongs 
 altogether to the heavens, our hearts may be fitly 
 likened to the rainbow that, rising into heaven 
 but resting on earth, is connected both with the 
 clods of the valley and the clouds of the sky. 
 
 Let this familiar example show how Christians 
 may have their affections set on things above, 
 and yet give diligent attention to the duties of 
 their earthly calling. With the salt tear standing 
 in his eye, with a mother's precious counsels and 
 a father's pious prayers, a youth leaves home for a 
 distant colony. At the foot of the ladder he looks 
 to its topmost round ; resolved to climb, step by 
 step, up to wealth and honour. For this end 
 he saves with an economy that allows no waste ; 
 works with an energy that never wearies ; submits 
 without shrinking to trials and hardships ; arid 
 throws himself into his duties with a zeal that 
 merits fortune and commands success. People, 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 315 
 
 and especially his fellows whom he leaves lagging 
 far behind, fancy that his affections, like its trees, 
 have taken root in that foreign soil, and that his 
 heart is wholly engrossed with the cares and busi- 
 ness of his post. They know no better. His heart 
 is not there. It is at home its affections, like 
 an elastic chain, stretching unbroken over all the 
 lands that lie and broad seas that roll between. 
 Visions of his father's house float around his couch; 
 the forms of loved ones move in his nightly 
 dreams : where palm-trees wave, he longs to see 
 the hills of dusky pines, and thinks, when the 
 nightingale sings from orange groves, of the larks 
 that carol, soaring over his native fields. Fond 
 memory dwells on the past ; fancy stretches away 
 into the future ; and he sets store on honours 
 and wealth, chiefly for the pleasures they will 
 yield to loved ones at home. Home is the centre 
 around which his hidden life keeps turning ; the 
 dear word stands engraven on his heart : his settled 
 purpose, his daily thought is one day to go home. 
 And yet, whether his office in that distant land be 
 to sit at the head of a council, or march at the 
 head of an army, to manage a business, to hold a 
 
316 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 pen or guide a plough, whatever his hand findeth 
 to do he does it with all his might. 
 
 Even so should it be with us in our earthly pil- 
 grimage. So far from doing our earthly duties 
 worse, we do them better by having our affections 
 set on things above the hope of rest strengthen- 
 ing us for labour: the example of Christ inspiring 
 us with ardour; and no fears of ultimate disap- 
 pointment clouding our prospects and weakening 
 us by the way. One, long an exile, returns to his 
 native land ; but not to home. Ah ! he finds no 
 home. The voices are silent he hoped to hear ; 
 the cold grave holds those he hoped to see ; his 
 old friends are in the dust, nor live but in his 
 dreams : and turning away from a generation that 
 stare coldly on his gray hairs, he repairs to the 
 churchyard, and, sitting down on a father's or 
 mother's grave, weeps over the ruins of fondly 
 cherished hopes this the verdict on all his toil, 
 and exile, and wealth, and honours, Vanity and 
 vexation of spirit ! But where Christ sitteth at 
 the right hand of God, we shall find more than 
 hope ever anticipated, imagination fancied, or love 
 desired. Who after long years of exile goes up to 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 317 
 
 the door of his old home, approaches it with a 
 beating heart ; knocks with a trembling hand. 
 He knows not what has happened in his absence : 
 an empty chair may meet his eye, and to the 
 questions that tremble on his lips the only answer 
 may be, Dead all dead ! How different his for- 
 tune who knocks at heaven's happy gate ! It 
 opens on scenes of surpassing glory. Arrayed in 
 robes of light, long missed and long mourned ones 
 hasten to meet him at the door ; and lead him up 
 through lines of shining angels to the throne where 
 Jesus, his Saviour, seated in glory at the right 
 hand of God, bends on him looks of ineffable 
 affection, and bids him Welcome to the bliss of 
 Paradise. 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIS T. PART II. 
 
 ti lf ye then [or, since ye then] be 
 risen with Christ, seek those things 
 which are above" COL. iii. i. 
 
 "^HE world once boasted of possessing seven 
 wonders ; but a greater than any or all of 
 them is, a true Christian. His feelings, enjoy- 
 ments, aims, and objects are such, that he is more 
 than a wonder; he is a mystery which none but 
 those initiated, like himself, in the mysteries of the 
 faith, are ' able to comprehend. Dying, yea, by 
 nature "dead in trespasses and sins," he lives; 
 sorrowing, he rejoices ; having nothing, he pos- 
 sesses all things ; poor, he makes many rich ; 
 reversing the common proverb, that "seeing is 
 believing," he believes more firmly in what he 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 319 
 
 does not see than in what he sees ; contrary to 
 the ordinary laws of nature, he is more powerfully 
 attracted by distant objects than by near ones; 
 his well, like Israel's of old, is a flinty rock ; his 
 bread grows on barren sands ; his homeward path 
 is at the beginning through a tumultuous sea, and 
 at the end through a dark, roaring flood. He 
 is confident of wanting nothing, yet depends on 
 the bounty of One who depended for His own 
 bread on others, and had not a place where to 
 lay His head ; for his joys, he looks to One who 
 was a Man of Sorrows ; and expects a crown of 
 glory from Him who wore no crown on earth but 
 a wreath of thorns. 
 
 If the world is right in its judgment of what 
 constitutes true greatness, the humblest believer 
 is a great man. What discoveries in science so 
 important or sublime as those he makes in the 
 study of the Bible and of his own heart ? Neither 
 David with his sling, nor Abishai with his sword, 
 slew such giants as he conquers and slays in 
 his sins. What victories does history record, or 
 triumphal arches celebrate, so grand in their 
 nature and enduring in their effects as those He 
 
320 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 wins over " principalities, and powers, and spirit- 
 ual wickedness ?" No laurels crown his humble 
 brow; his name is unknown to fame. Yet, mor- 
 tifying his affections, controlling his passions, 
 keeping his body in subjection, and subordinat- 
 ing his will to God's, this is what the wise man 
 says of him : " He that is slow to anger, is better 
 than the mighty ; and he that ruleth his spirit 
 than he that taketh a city." 
 
 No true greatness, there is no true faith, like a 
 believer's. One of the grandest characters in his- 
 tory is Christopher Columbus ; but what the bold 
 Italian did, when, leaving the shores of Spain, 
 he sailed west, and still farther west, over an 
 unknown and a boundless sea, seeking a world 
 none had discovered, and hardly any but himself 
 believed in, the Christian does. " He seeks a 
 country" and with stronger faith; since from 
 that world in whose existence he firmly believes, 
 and on whose happy shore he hopes one day to 
 land, not one of the thousands that have gone to 
 seek it have returned. Columbus appeared again 
 in Europe, loaded with the strange fruits and 
 golden spoils of his brilliant discovery: but, like 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 321 
 
 barks that, foundering at sea, have never been 
 heard of after they left the port, none have come 
 back from the other world to say, "Arise, we 
 have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good ! " 
 Of boundless faith, whose aims and aspirations 
 soar like the believer's ? The world which the 
 Macedonian subdued by his arms has wondered 
 less at his achievements than at his . ambition ; 
 nor has it ever ceased to regard as one of its 
 strangest spectacles that man of universal empire 
 sitting down to weep, because he could find no 
 other world to conquer. And yet there burns a 
 loftier ambition in that lowly cottage, where a 
 sun-browned peasant sits reading his Bible, with a 
 roof of thatch above his head, a rough clay floor 
 beneath his feet, and no more of the earth to call 
 his own than the graves where his fathers sleep. 
 He is thankful for bread to eat, and raiment to put 
 on ; he is content to possess as much as will serve 
 for staff and sandals to the end of the pilgrimage ; 
 yet he has a heart not one, nor a thousand worlds 
 could fill. Nothing below, however it may gra- 
 tify, can satisfy his longing soul. He sets his 
 affections on things above, and turning from all 
 
322 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 created enjoyments to God, his language is the 
 Psalmist's "Thou art my inheritance and the 
 portion of my cup. Whom have I in heaven but 
 thee ? there is none in all the earth whom I desire 
 besides thee." 
 
 Nevertheless, naturally drawn like a falling 
 stone to the earth, the best of God's people often 
 feel constrained, amid the attractions and distrac- 
 tions of this world, to cry with David, " Quicken 
 me, O Lord, according to thy word, for my soul 
 cleaveth to the dust ; " and to help such as have 
 risen with Christ to rise to things above, let me 
 point out some earthly objects from which they 
 should be careful to withhold, and withdraw their 
 affections. Pope, the poet and moralist, has re- 
 marked, that to attack vice in the abstract, and 
 not in persons, is safe fighting, but is fighting 
 with shadows ; and, instead of indulging in such 
 general observations against the love of earthly 
 things as would furnish an unhappy illustration 
 of his remark, let us come to close quarters ; and 
 select some of those objects on which we should 
 not, and yet on which we are prone to, set our 
 affections. 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 323 
 
 One of these is the adornment of the body. 
 
 I have seen a child in ignorance of its great loss 
 totter across the floor to its mother's coffin, and, 
 caught by their glitter, seize the handles, to look 
 round and smile as it rattled them on the hollow 
 sides. I have seen a boy, forgetting his sorrow 
 in his dress, survey himself with evident satis- 
 faction as he followed the bier that bore his 
 father to the grave. And however painful such 
 spectacles, as jarring our feelings, and out of 
 all harmony with such sad and sombre scenes, 
 they excite no surprise nor indignation. We only 
 pity those who, through ignorance of their loss 
 or inability to appreciate it, find pleasure in what 
 should move their grief. When one is a child, 
 as St Paul says, they speak as a child, and think 
 as a child. Nor is it difficult also to understand 
 how families which have lost their social position, 
 either through injustice or misfortune, should re- 
 tain, and take a pride in showing, the relics and 
 memorials of their better days. These may secure 
 the respect usually paid to fallen greatness ; and if 
 they do not exalt them in the eyes of others, they 
 minister to self-esteem, and exalt them in their own. 
 
324 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 The pride of dress, however, though excusable in 
 those savage tribes who walk their forests daubed 
 with paint and decked with feathers, is a passion 
 in all other cases as strange as in some it is strong. 
 Can a maid, says God, forget her ornaments, or a 
 bride her attire ? Yet, though this be an example 
 of what is improbable, or indeed impossible, we 
 might wonder that woman's attire, though spark- 
 ling with costly gems, does not cover her cheeks 
 rather with the blush of shame than the glow 
 of pride. The history of dress is humbling ; not 
 flattering to our vanity. I do not refer to special 
 cases, the hardships they endure who thread 
 their needles with the threads of life, and die early 
 victims to the demands of fashion ; nor to those 
 who, more vain than honest, purchase what they 
 cannot pay for, and assume an appearance as false 
 as the flowers they wear nor to those who are 
 more proud of being gaily attired than ashamed of 
 casting their parents on public charity ; nor even 
 to those who buy their wretched fineries with the 
 wages of iniquity, and abandon the paths of virtue 
 for the sake of gaudy attire. Associations belong 
 to dress, when most honestly obtained and mo- 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 325 
 
 destly worn, and altogether suitable to the rank 
 and condition of the wearer, sufficient to prevent 
 it becoming an idol. No doubt robes of snowy 
 white may raise our minds by reminding us of the 
 fine linen of the saints, the spotless garments of 
 Jesus' righteousness ; and the spectacle of a queen 
 at court or coronation, arrayed in jewelled crown 
 and regal splendour, may recall the psalm where 
 the graces of His Church are set forth under the 
 imagery of a maiden's beauty, raiment of needle- 
 work, and cloth woven with threads of gold and 
 blazing with costly gems. Still the oldest associa- 
 tions connected with dress are those of sin and 
 shame. Sin was its beginning, as it is often still its 
 end. It dates from the fall of our first parents, and 
 has led to that of many of their children : and 
 surely there is nothing, either in its root or in its 
 fruits, to justify us setting our affections on it, or 
 giving it any measure of attention beyond what 
 propriety demands, or comfort and health re- 
 quire. 
 
 Apart from these considerations, vanity of dress 
 
 v is, more than anything else, "vanity of vanities." 
 
 Man's soul is a spark struck from divinity; and 
 
326 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 with its expressive features and graceful symmetry, 
 even his body presents a form of beauty worthy of 
 the hand that moulded it; but in the matter of 
 attire, man is as inferior to many other creatures 
 as he is inferior in brute strength to an ox, or to 
 a frog in the art of swimming. Let looms and 
 needles do their utmost, the worm yield its silk, 
 the rocks their gold, the mine its diamonds, the 
 deep her pearls, and Nature all her treasures, to 
 adorn the person and inflate the pride of a haughty 
 beauty. The bird whose plume she wears, when it 
 flashed a winged and living gem through tropic 
 groves, was more gorgeously apparelled than she 
 the difference between her and it, that which lies 
 between the Almighty's hand and ours. Here the 
 proudest beauty bends to the flower that bends its 
 head to the wind, and is crushed by a passing hoof. 
 How miserable the vanity that feeds on dress ! 
 How wicked, in practically regarding the ques- 
 tion, Wherewithal shall I be clothed? as greater 
 than this, What shall I do to be saved ? How 
 utterly contemptible, since, with taste as true as 
 divine, our Lord, pointing to a bed of lilies whose 
 graceful forms and glowing colours bedecked the 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 327 
 
 meadow, said, " Solomon in all his glory was not 
 like one of these ! " 
 
 A story is told of one whose bosom swelled and 
 heaved with pride as, standing before a mirror, 
 she decked herself out for triumphs. Suddenly, 
 though none had entered the chamber, another 
 figure appeared in the glass. An awful form, it 
 was wrapped in a winding-sheet, and dressed out 
 in grave-clothes, and stared at her with pallid 
 face and glassy eyes. And if, on recognising 
 herself in that hideous vision, she started back, 
 and horror seized her, and her pride was humbled 
 in the dust, how should it wean our affections 
 from these vanities, and secure much of our daily 
 and all our Sabbath time for the study of our- 
 selves in the mirror of God's holy Word, to reflect 
 that the fairest form which draws admiring eyes 
 shall be wrapped in a shroud, and put away in 
 a coffin, and thrust into the grave for worms to 
 hold riot on its damask cheek, and nestle their 
 loathsome brood where the lights of life and love 
 are flashing ! 
 
 I have often wondered at the amount of pre- 
 cious time, at the eager attention, and at the 
 
328 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 vast sums of money lavished on vain attire, as 
 on extravagant feasts. Where many have hardly 
 rags to cover them, and shoeless children shiver 
 on the winter streets, and cold and hunger banish 
 sleep from the eyes of houseless wretches, and 
 by the tongues of hundreds, Jesus, making their 
 cause His own, being naked, beseeches us to 
 clothe Him, one may wonder more to see Chris- 
 tians gay as butterflies fluttering about in the 
 very pride, and height, and extravagance of 
 fashion. How unworthy such pride and plea- 
 sures of those who have in Jesus' blood-bought 
 righteousness a robe beside which silks lose their 
 lustre, diamonds their brilliancy, the very snow 
 its whiteness ; and royal apparel seems filthy 
 rags ! It is enough to sadden one to think of 
 the time, and thought, and conversation, and keen 
 and lively interest that are wasted even by God's 
 people on the changes, and often absurd forms, 
 of fashion. It almost makes one wish that our 
 fashions were as fixed as the laws of the Medes 
 and Persians ; or the customs of the Arabs ; or 
 the colours of the flowers that are not ashamed 
 to come out in the same robes year by year. 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 329 
 
 " Let our adorning," as St Peter says, " be the 
 hidden man of the heart, in that which is not 
 corruptible a meek and quiet spirit, which is in 
 the sight of God of great price : " ours be the 
 treasure which moth and rust cannot corrupt, and 
 thieves break not through to steal. Having in 
 salvation " the pearl of great price/' we possess 
 a gem worth more than the costliest that ever 
 topped kingly crown, or was fished from the dark 
 depths of ocean. If we have put on Christ, what 
 matters how homespun or humble our attire ? 
 What though no rings flash on fingers that shall 
 ere long be mouldering bones, if the Father, 
 accepting us in Jesus Christ, and regarding us as 
 beloved for the Beloved's sake, has kissed the tear 
 of sorrow from our eyes, and, calling for music 
 and the dance, given forth the glad command, 
 Put a ring on his finger, and shoes on his feet, 
 and bring forth the fairest robe and put it on him ; 
 and let us rejoice and be merry, for this my son 
 that was dead is alive again, that was lost is found. 
 
 Another is money. 
 
 When swimming a river where the current runs 
 strong, who, however powerful his strokes, does 
 
330 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 not find himself borne a long way down, ere he 
 reaches the other bank ? It is even difficult to 
 make one's way across a street along which a vast, 
 eager, excited crowd is rushing, without being 
 lifted off our feet and swept along like a straw 
 on the stream. Such are the contrary influences 
 which impede, if they do not prevent, the heaven- 
 ward progress of God's people. God's people are 
 not the majority. The multitude goes the other 
 way. And, since there is moral as well as mate- 
 rial weight in masses, devout men and women in 
 old times, to escape being carried away by the 
 ungodly influences of those around them, fled to 
 cloistered retreats ; or, withdrawing altogether 
 from the society of men, passed their days as her- 
 mits amid the silent solitudes of forest or desert. 
 Let two musical instruments be placed on the 
 same floor, within the walls of the same apart- 
 ment, if a player sit down before one of these and 
 strike its keys, the other instrument, as if some 
 spirit's finger had lightly touched its chords, un- 
 approached and untouched by mortal hands, 
 sounds out the self-same note. And such, but 
 still more remarkable, is the influence which, by 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 331 
 
 the laws of sympathy, men have in forming the 
 opinions and moulding the manners of each other 
 on the side at least of worldliness and sin. Re- 
 cognising the existence of this law, and the danger 
 to which it exposes the godly in an ungodly world, 
 the Bible says, " Evil communications corrupt 
 good manners ;" David resolves, " Mine eyes shall 
 be upon the faithful of the land, that they may 
 dwell with me;" Solomon declares, "He that 
 walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a com- 
 panion of fools shall be destroyed;" and the Book 
 of Psalms opens its divine melodies with this grand 
 beatitude, " Blessed is the man that walketh not in 
 the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the 
 way of sinners/' It is not easy to walk on muddy 
 streets and keep our garments clean ; it is still 
 more difficult to live in an infirmary, breathing 
 its pestilential airs, and escape plague or fever; 
 but it is most difficult of all to resist the immoral 
 influences that surround us, to live pure amid 
 corruption, to be in the world, and yet not of it, 
 while making and spending money, while en- 
 joying the pleasures of possessing or suffering the 
 serious inconvenience of wanting it, to walk the 
 
332 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 earth as they the Celestial city, who, walking on 
 streets paved with gold, tread it beneath their feet. 
 
 We are neither to despise, nor refuse money. 
 Honourably come by, or the reward of honest 
 industry, this, like other gifts of God, is without 
 repentance. Well employed, it affords much en- 
 joyment ; and, when applied to dry the widow's 
 tears, to fill the orphan's cup, to help the deserving 
 poor, yields one of life's sweetest pleasures to its 
 fortunate possessor saving him from the pangs 
 they suffer, who, with the inclination, but without 
 the ability, to assist suffering and do the kind 
 office of a good Samaritan, have, though neither 
 priest nor Levite, to " pass by on the other side." 
 
 Nor, however applicable to cases where wealth 
 is found dissociated from worth, to scenes where, 
 as in the parable, sin sits robed in purple and fares 
 sumptuously every day, while saintship is clad in 
 rags and fed on crumbs, is the remark one made 
 so just as it is smart : " You may see how little 
 God thinks of money by observing on what un- 
 worthy characters He often bestows it." It is the 
 law of a wise and holy Providence that the hand 
 of the diligent maketh rich; God promises that 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 333 
 
 riches and honour shall be in the good man's 
 house ; and many are the instances in which He 
 has bestowed great wealth on such as were persons 
 of great worth. We have one in Abraham ; and 
 in his history a remarkable proof of that grand 
 man's superiority to the love of money. Entitled 
 by the laws of war to the whole spoil of battle, he 
 might have swept all into his own hand enriching 
 himself like those who, taking advantage of the 
 laws of commerce, make fortunes out of specula- 
 tions that involve others in ruin. But he refuses 
 the gains which law puts within his reach ; and out 
 of regard to the honour of his God, the wants and 
 the welfare of his fellow creatures, he abandons his 
 legal claims, and, declining to grow rich on other 
 men's losses, leaves the spoil to its proper owners 
 saying, " I will not take from a thread to a shoe 
 latchet, lest thou shouldst say, I have made Abra- 
 ham rich." We have a second instance in David, 
 who did not forget on the throne Him who had 
 taken him from the sheepfold, nor, when riches 
 increased, set his heart on them. David was dead 
 and buried before the temple was begun. It rose 
 from its foundations to look on his tomb ; but the 
 
334 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 house that bore Solomon's name was a monument 
 of his father's piety. It was built with David's 
 money; and unlike such as never part with theirs 
 for the best objects till death parts them from it, 
 this good king, grieved that Jehovah should dwell 
 in curtains while he dwelt in a house of cedar, 
 would, but that God forbade him, have raised it 
 with his own hands in the fruits of peace and 
 spoils of war, lavishing his treasures on the house 
 of God. We have a third instance in Job. No 
 man of his day was so perfect, and few men of 
 any day so rich. Some there are who resemble the 
 pestilential swamp that, poisoning the air and 
 spreading disease around it, retains in its spongy 
 bosom all the bounties of the skies. Not so the 
 man of Uz. He resembled rather what imparts 
 blessings and beauty to a landscape the lake 
 that with flowery verdure on its winding shores, 
 life in its waters, and heaven reflected on its un- 
 ruffled bosom, discharges at its outlet the full flood 
 of streams that enter it ; making glens and plains 
 to smile. Their recollections of prosperity abused 
 must exasperate, rather than alleviate, the misfor- 
 tunes of many ; but Job draws a picture of his 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 335 
 
 days of prosperity which we look on with admira- 
 tion, and he, amid changed and adverse fortunes, 
 must have looked on with comfort : " When the 
 ear heard me, then it blessed me ; and when the 
 eye saw me, it gave witness of me ; because I de- 
 livered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, 
 and him that had none to help him. The blessing 
 of him that was ready to perish came upon me : 
 and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy." 
 
 But though, as these cases prove, money may 
 be found in the hand where the love of it is 
 not eating, like a cancer, into the heart, there is 
 danger of gold stealing our affections from God 
 as was strikingly put by Richard Cecil to one 
 of his congregation. This person had suddenly 
 and unexpectedly succeeded to an enormous for- 
 tune. Cecil met him sometime afterwards, and 
 inquired anxiously about his welfare. The other 
 having expressed surprise, Cecil said, " I heard 
 that you had been in great danger." " In great 
 danger," replied his friend ; " I never was better 
 in my life." " Have not you succeeded to a 
 large fortune?" said Cecil, adding, as the other 
 nodded assent, "Well, sir, I consider any man 
 
336 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 in your circumstances to be in circumstances of 
 very great danger," there sounded the echo of 
 Agur's words, " nor riches, lest I be full, and 
 deny thee." The larger and more sudden the 
 accession of wealth, the greater the danger it 
 being with riches as with rain. When showers 
 fall slow and soft, they penetrate the soil, and 
 refresh the ground without disturbing it ; but, 
 falling in waterspouts, descending in a deluge 
 from the loaded air, they fill the river to the 
 brim, and, bursting its banks, carry havoc and 
 destruction along their tumultuous course. 
 
 But there are no circumstances under which 
 we do not need to be on our guard against 
 wealth. Its attractions are great to all, and 
 seem to exert over some a resistless power. See 
 what sad illustrations this sinful and suffering 
 world presents of these words : " The love of 
 money is the root of all evil." How are woman's 
 virtue, and man's honesty, the liberties of the 
 slave, the dignity of rank, the purity of justice, 
 the sacredness of the pulpit, the claims of Christ's 
 cause and of humanity, the love of God and of 
 man, all sucked in and swallowed up by this 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 337 
 
 roaring, devouring whirlpool ! No doubt, this is 
 the basest of passions ; and one with which, 
 amid all the faults recorded against them in the 
 Bible, the saints are almost never charged. Still 
 let none feel secure. Let him that thinketh he 
 standeth, take heed lest he fall, and his fate re- 
 semble that of the almost invulnerable Greek, 
 who, fearing neither the thrust of lance nor crash 
 of battleaxe, fell by a wound in his least mortal 
 and meanest part. Achilles was slain by an arrow 
 that hit him on the heel. 
 
 To the love of money we trace the melancholy 
 apostasy of Demas, the awful perfidy of Judas, 
 the fatal lie of Ananias and Sapphira all, and 
 some of them distinguished, professors of religion. 
 Be on your guard. Watch and pray. Their 
 history is written for our instruction. Nor need 
 any of His people who allow the love of money 
 to entwine itself around their hearts, expect that 
 in saving them God will do otherwise than the 
 woodman who, seeking to save a tree, applies his 
 knife to the canker that eats into its heart, or the 
 ivy that has climbed its trunk and is choking 
 it in its close embraces. He is a jealous God. 
 
338 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 He will not give His glory to another. While 
 then we have, and shall have so long as we are 
 here, in some form or other to do with money, 
 let us beware of setting our affections on it. There 
 are better riches those that take not to them- 
 selves wings and flee away those that neither 
 moth nor rust corrupt, and thief breaks not 
 through to steal. In these, the riches of redeem- 
 ing grace, seek the things that are above ; saying 
 with Bunyan, in these rude but expressive lines, 
 
 " Our drossy dust we change for gold, 
 
 From death to life we flee, 
 We let go shadows, and lay hold 
 Of immortality. " 
 
 Another is our living, or rather dying, fellow- 
 creatures. 
 
 The gospel does not forbid us to give them 
 a place in our hearts who have one in our houses. 
 On the contrary, it teaches us by the voice of 
 Christ to love even our enemies. " Ye have heard 
 that it hath been said," says Jesus, " an eye for an 
 eye, a tooth for a tooth ; but I say unto you, that 
 
 ye resist not evil ; and whosoever shall smite thee 
 
 
 on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 339 
 
 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy ; but I 
 say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that 
 curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use 
 you ; that ye may be the children of your Father 
 who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise 
 on the evil and the good, and his rain to fall 
 on the just and unjust." And what is thus written 
 with sunbeams, and sounds audibly in every fall- 
 ing shower, is, more affecting still, seen in the 
 blood and heard in the groans of Calvary ; all 
 forgiveness extended, love-felt kindness shown to 
 enemies, being but a faint echo of Christ's answer 
 to the blows that sent the nails through his qui- 
 vering flesh, " Father, forgive them, they know 
 not what they do!" Well, it stands alike con- 
 sonant to reason and religion, that if it is right to 
 love our enemies, much more should we love our 
 friends ; still more our families. God is not a God 
 of confusion, but of order ; and the language of 
 the Bible is always in perfect unison with the best 
 feelings of nature. 
 
 Duty to Christ may require a man to leave 
 father and mother, wife and children, and to act 
 
340 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 to use our Lord's strong figure sometimes as if 
 he hated them ; but the gospel is not calculated, 
 as it certainly was not intended, to cool, to freeze, 
 to blight our natural affections ; and, like the influ- 
 ences of winter on smiling, singing streams, to lock 
 them in chains of ice. They were not saints, but 
 sinners, of whom the apostle said, " They are with- 
 out natural affection ;" and elsewhere than in those 
 streets where you see mothers buying drink to 
 debauch themselves with the money that should 
 feed and clothe the skeleton infants they carry in 
 their arms, the ragged, shivering, hungry children 
 at their side, everywhere, indeed, sin is found 
 blighting the affections that cling like sweet wall- 
 flower to the ruins of humanity. Religion makes 
 better, but sin worse, husbands, wives, parents, 
 children, brothers, sisters producing such an 
 effect on the heart as a cancer on the bosom 
 it attacks. It hardens it ; and next destroys 
 what it has hardened ; and at length turns an 
 object of love and beauty into foul and hateful 
 loathsomeness. But piety, ever favourable to 
 humanity, intensifies, while it purifies, the best 
 affections of our nature. And so, did I wish to 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 341 
 
 illustrate, and by examples enforce, generous 
 friendships and domestic love, I would seek them 
 in the Bible there where the old man clings to 
 Benjamin, saying, with a voice choked by emo- 
 tion, "Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye 
 will take Benjamin away ; " or there where their 
 brother, within whose bosom the tide of affection 
 had been rising till his heart is ready to burst, no 
 longer able to restrain his emotions, cries, " I am 
 Joseph : " or there where David pours forth in 
 tears and touching numbers his sorrow over the 
 fate of Jonathan, or melts all who hear him as he 
 goes up to his house, wringing his hands at the 
 death of Absalom, and crying, " O my son Ab- 
 salom, my son, my son Absalom ! would God I 
 had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son ! " 
 The natural affections found then, as they find 
 still, their most congenial soil in pure and pious 
 hearts. 
 
 But while we are encouraged, rather than for- 
 bidden, to hold them dear who are near to us, we 
 are not to allow them to usurp the place of Him 
 who says, " Thou shalt have no other gods before 
 me." Beware of turning household delights into 
 
342 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 household deities, household goods into household 
 gods. The danger against which we are to guard 
 is not such attachment to loved ones as that, 
 when death lops off a branch, the poor tree, 
 shaken by the blow, is left wounded and bleed- 
 ing ; but such as makes gods of them, and mur- 
 muring, not merely mourning, at their loss, feels 
 as if with them all joy, and peace, and hope, and 
 life were for ever buried. Pliny the younger tells 
 us that when the eruption of Vesuvius, which 
 buried Pompeii, had covered with a pall of black- 
 ness the whole heavens, and the earth, rocking 
 beneath successive and tremendous earthquakes, 
 had no other light at broad noonday than the 
 blaze of the burning mountain and broad flashes 
 of lightning that occasionally penetrated but 
 added to the effect of the gloom, Pliny the 
 younger tells us that people thought not only 
 that nature was dissolving, but that the very gods 
 were dying. And if a god had died, the terror 
 and grief could hardly have exceeded that I once 
 saw in the case of a mother who had set her 
 affections too exclusively on the child we had 
 met to carry to the grave. Seated at the head of 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 343 
 
 the coffin, she seemed a statue ; the grand work 
 of some master hand, to represent the deepest, 
 blackest grief. No tears were on her bloodless 
 cheek. Fixed on the coffin, her eyes never left 
 it. She neither moved nor spake, as on her face 
 one could read these words, " My heart is 
 withered like grass/' Absorbed in sorrow, it 
 mattered as little to her as to the dead who went 
 out, or who came in. At length the moment 
 came to remove the body. Then, as when the 
 heavens that have been gathering blackness break 
 out into a blaze of flame and roar of thunder, 
 burst the storm. The form that had looked 
 more like lifeless marble than one animate with 
 life, now sprung up, threw itself on the coffin, 
 clung to it with wails to pierce a heart of stone ; 
 and, when gentle force was employed to unloose 
 her arms, she walked to the door patting the 
 poor coffin ; and saw it borne out of her sight 
 with an expression of agony, which, as she fell 
 back fainting into the arms of kind neighbours, 
 seemed to cry, Ye have taken away my god, 
 and what have I more ! 
 
 It is not so we are to love our loved ones. We 
 
344 RISEN WITH CHRIST. 
 
 are to love our children, for instance, as they are 
 to obey their parents, " in the Lord ; " never for- 
 getting that He who lends may resume His gifts 
 whensoever it pleases Him ; never forgetting 
 that the fairest flowers of the family may soon 
 wither and die ; ever striving as we keep our 
 children in their own place in the house, nor 
 allow them to usurp ours, to keep them in their 
 own place in our hearts, nor allow them to usurp 
 God's : ever seeking in our nurseries to rear 
 plants for heaven, and so train up our children in 
 the faith, in the saving knowledge of Christ and 
 the devout love of God, that we shall have the 
 consolation of knowing, if death enters our house 
 and plucks them from our arms, that our loss is 
 their gain ; that if a chair in the circle by our 
 fireside is empty, a blood-bought throne is filled 
 in heaven ; that if there is one voice less in the 
 psalm when we are assembled for worship, there 
 is one more ringing sweet and clear in glory, 
 praising Him through whose dying love and in 
 whose blissful presence we shall join our lost and 
 loved to weep and to part no more. 
 
 To live thus, walking by faith and not by 
 
RISEN WITH CHRIST. 345 
 
 sight, touching the impalpable, seeing the invis- 
 ible, living for eternity in time, and for heaven 
 on earth, with our affections not where we are but 
 where we hope to be where Jesus is, is no easy 
 work. But prayer, drawing down strength from 
 the skies, makes difficult things easy, and impos- 
 sible things possible. Through Christ strength- 
 ening me, said the apostle, I can do all things. 
 So may we. Turn to that source of superhuman 
 power. Trust to it ; nor doubt but that, as those 
 risen with Christ, you shall walk with Him, liv- 
 ing realisations of this old, quaint, but beautiful 
 picture : 
 
 " Man of lofty nature looks up 
 To heaven so calm, and pure, and beautiful. 
 He looks below, but not contemptuously : 
 For there he sees reflections of himself 
 As a poor child of nature : and he feels 
 A touch of kindred brotherhood : and pants 
 To lead the weak and erring into heights 
 Which he so joyous treads ; nay, more, descends 
 Into the smoky turmoil and the roar 
 Of the rude world : his hands at work on earth, 
 His soul beyond the clouds, dwelling with God, 
 And drinking of His Spirit." 
 
EARL Y PIETY. ?ART: I. 
 
 " Front a child thou hast known the 
 holy scriptures, -which are able to 
 make thee 'wise unto salvation 
 throTigh faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus" 2 TIM. iii. 15. 
 
 '""TT^HERE is no person, perhaps, who makes a 
 profession of religion but has come to some 
 decision or other on that all-important subject. 
 People either believe on good or bad grounds that 
 they are already religious, or they resolve to be- 
 come so at a future time. True, many Sabbaths 
 may have been spent, and many sermons heard, 
 and many funerals attended which have awakened 
 no serious thoughts, nor led to such questions as 
 these: Am I saved? What shall I do to be 
 saved ? In the case of many, more or less in the 
 
EARLY PIETY. 
 
 347 
 
 case of all, who are mere hearers of the Word, 
 familiarity with divine things breeds indifference ; 
 if not contempt. Under its influence they become 
 as insensible to the most solemn threatenings of 
 the law as the inhabitants of the Indies to the 
 thunderstorms that, though terrific, are common 
 there. The mercy of God, and the bleeding love 
 of Jesus are set forth in the sermons of every 
 Sabbath and the symbols of every sacrament, but 
 they are as little impressed by these as by the 
 nightly glories of the starry sky. Death is such 
 a common event, an obituary so certainly finds 
 a place in every newspaper, and they are so 
 accustomed, on inquiring, to hear that this old 
 acquaintance is dying, and -that one is dead 
 they are invited to so many funerals, and meet 
 so many hearses in the street with their nodding 
 plumes and sable array and, till more decent 
 customs were adopted, they so often saw the 
 mouldering relics of the dead " scattered at the 
 grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth 
 wood on the earth," that they grow familiar with 
 death ; and can hear him knocking at a neigh- 
 bour's door without once thinking that, whether 
 
348 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 they are ready or unready, his hand shall soon 
 knock at theirs. 
 
 True ; and pity 'tis 'tis true ! Yet there are 
 occasions which awaken serious thoughts in the 
 most careless however they may endeavour to 
 suppress and banish them. Some event occurs, 
 like a clap of thunder, to rouse the sleeping con- 
 science ; and, calling up terrible visions of death, 
 of judgment, and of hell, she insists on men think- 
 ing of the subjects that belong to their peace ; 
 and one of two things happens : either they con- 
 clude, on insufficient grounds, that they are saved, 
 or, as is much more common, they resolve to be 
 so at some future time. 
 
 In the first case, without altogether ignoring 
 Jesus Christ and His salvation, they trust to some- 
 thing meritorious in their works, or in themselves. 
 One builds much on his honesty, his motto the 
 adage, " An honest man's the noblest work of 
 God ; " another on his integrity his boast this, 
 that " his word is as good as his bond ; " another 
 on his charity seeking no better inscription for 
 his tombstone than one I have read in an old 
 churchyard, " He was kind to the poor ! " They 
 
EARLY PIETY. 349 
 
 have, or fancy they have, amid many sins, some 
 virtues. These be thy gods, O Israel ! Alas ! 
 that we should forget that sinners cannot get to 
 heaven on the fragments of a broken law, as in St 
 Paul's shipwreck some got ashore on the planks 
 of the broken ship. St Paul himself has made 
 that plain. Speaking of the works of the flesh 
 adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 
 idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, 
 
 wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envy ings, murders, 
 
 
 drunkenness, revellings, and such like they, he 
 
 says, who do such things shall not inherit the 
 kingdom of God. And what does it matter, 
 though men are not guilty of all, if they are 
 guilty of one of these sins? ''Cursed," says the 
 God with whom we have to do, " is every one who 
 continueth not in all things written in the book 
 of the law to do them." Other hope therefore 
 man has none but what lies in accepting the 
 righteousness which, wrought out by Christ and 
 imputed to believers, is not of works, but of faith. 
 And how sad it is to see men leave this solid 
 rock, and having to build a house, against whose 
 rocking walls fierce winds shall rave, and angry 
 
350 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 waters roar, build it on a sand-bank that the last- 
 flood cast up, and the next shall sweep away. 
 
 But those I have now to do with, belong to a 
 different class. They are convinced that they 
 have no righteousness of their own ; yet they put 
 off embracing Christ's they fear, were they to 
 die this night or drop down dead this moment, 
 that they would be lost ; yet they delay to seek 
 a Saviour till the evil days come, and the years 
 draw nigh when they shall say they have no plea- 
 sure in them. A dangerous delay ; a very despe- 
 rate venture ! yet not one for which a " heart, 
 deceitful above all things and desperately wicked/' 
 cannot urge some specious pleas. All who put 
 off salvation have reasons, of a kind, to plead for 
 the step they take. So had those who, with the 
 forms of polite respect, declined an invitation to 
 the " great supper :" I have bought a piece of 
 ground, says one, and I must needs go and see 
 it, I pray thee have me excused I have bought 
 five yoke of oxen, says a second, and I go to 
 prove them, I pray thee have me excused and, 
 with less manners but more appearance of reason, 
 I have married a wife, says a third, and there- 
 
EARLY PIETY. 
 
 35* 
 
 fore I cannot come. Even so procrastinators 
 have reasons, though not so plausible, for de- 
 clining, meanwhile, Jesus' gracious invitations. 
 But whether it is that they are so engaged in 
 the world's business that they have no time, or 
 are so bewitched with its pleasures that they 
 have no inclination to turn religious, one idea 
 is common to them all this, namely, that not 
 childhood, nor youth, nor manhood, but old age 
 is the most suitable period for becoming devout. 
 They argue thus : In old age we shall have less 
 to do with the business of this world, and have 
 consequently more leisure for that of the next ; 
 then this world will afford us little enjoyment 
 our passions, like fierce fires, will have burned 
 themselves out ; our bodies, withered and bent 
 beneath a load of infirmities, will be incapable 
 of debauchery or excess and, with more time, 
 we shall thus have more inclination to turn to 
 religion. The vessel that, racked by storms, is 
 falling to pieces and gaping at every seam, makes 
 all haste to port : so will we. Unfitted by age 
 for active pursuits, and compelled to withdraw 
 from the giddy circle that goes its round of plea- 
 
35 2 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 sures, we shall be left to quiet scenes and twilight 
 hours favourable to meditation. Brought in the 
 course of threescore years and ten to the borders 
 of another world, it cannot fail to occupy much 
 of our thoughts ; nor when the head has turned 
 gray, and the hands are palsied, and the limbs 
 shrunk and tottering, and ears are deaf and eyes 
 are dim, can we miss to recognise these as the 
 heralds of the grim king, and hear the voice that 
 says, Be ready, the Judge is at the door ! 
 
 Is this our hope ? Hope tells a flattering tale. 
 It is a wild fancy a mockery and baseless de- 
 lusion. See how God, with one blow of His 
 hand, one sentence of His Word, dashes the fabric 
 to pieces ! Talk of old age, gray hairs, passion 
 quenched, life's quiet evening, and sands running 
 to the threescore years and ten! what if He 
 should say, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall 
 be required of thee ? 
 
 To uproot an idea which stands in the way 
 of all attempts at, and hopes of, early piety, I 
 observe that conversion is more difficult in old 
 age than at any other period. 
 
 At whatever age it takes place, this change is 
 
EARLY PIETY. 353 
 
 properly the work of God " not by might nor 
 by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of 
 hosts ; " or, as our Saviour said to Nicodemus, 
 " Except a man be born of water and of the 
 Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God/ 1 
 Be he Jew or Gentile, old or young, learned or 
 ignorant, with many or few religious advantages, 
 no man can become a partaker of the present or 
 future blessings of grace unless he is born again ; 
 is changed into the divine nature; is renewed in 
 spirit ; has Christ formed within him : is, in short, 
 so far as his motives and affections, principles 
 and practice are concerned, made a new creature 
 in Jesus Christ. Regarded as a work of God, 
 this change, I admit, cannot be more difficult at 
 one age than another. With equal ease the great 
 ocean bears ships and seaweed on its bosom, the 
 earth carries mountains and molehills on its 
 back ; and still more are all things equally easy 
 to God to preserve, for instance, an angel or an 
 insect in life, to kindle a sun or a glow-worm's 
 fire, to create a world or a grain of sand. And 
 as it had been as easy for divine power to raise 
 
 z 
 
354 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 Adam, who had been dead four thousand years, 
 as Lazarus, who had been dead only four days, 
 or to raise Lazarus after four years as after four 
 days in the tomb, it is not more difficult for God 
 to convert an old than a young sinner. The 
 dying thief was saved in the jaws and very throat 
 of death he stept into heaven from the edge of 
 hell : John Baptist, again, was born the second 
 time before being born the first, being sanctified 
 from his mother's womb and both these events 
 were equally within the compass of His power, to 
 whom nothing is impossible who has in either, 
 or in any case, but to say and it is done : to 
 command, and it standeth fast. Therefore let 
 none despair. 
 
 Nevertheless, since we are fellow-workers with 
 God, there is a sense in which the difficulties of 
 conversion increase with years every year add- 
 ing strength to our sinful habits ; deepening, as 
 by the constant flow of water, the channels in 
 which they run. 
 
 Take a sapling, for example. It bends to your 
 hand, turning this or that way as you will. When 
 seventy springs have clothed it with leaves, and 
 
EARLY PIETY. 355 
 
 the sun of seventy summers, ripening its juices, 
 has added to its height and breadth, who is 
 strongest ? Now, it scorns not your, but a giant's 
 strength. Once an infant's arm could bend it; 
 but, with head raised proudly to heaven, and 
 roots that have struck deep in the soil and 
 cling to the rocks below, now it braves winter's 
 wildest tempests. They may break its trunk, 
 they cannot bend it ; nor is it but in death that 
 it lays its head on the ground. Every year of 
 the seventy, adding fibres to its body and firm- 
 ness to the fibres, has increased the difficulty of 
 bending it. That was less easy the second year 
 than the first, and the third than the second ; till, 
 as time went on, what was once easy grew dif- 
 ficult, and what was once but difficult became 
 impossible. Who, wishing to give it a peculiar 
 bent, would wait till the nursling had become a 
 full-grown tree, or stood in its decay, stiff and 
 gnarled, hollow in heart and hoar with age ? 
 None but a fool. Yet, with folly greater still, 
 we defer what concerns our conversion, a saving 
 change, and our everlasting welfare, till long years 
 have added to the power, and strengthened the 
 
356 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 roots, of every wicked, worldly habit. Oh, that 
 men were wise, that they understood this! 
 
 Human life, to borrow an example from it, 
 furnishes many, and some very melancholy, illus- 
 trations of this growth and power of evil habits. 
 Take the case of the poor drunkard, for instance. 
 The rust of years eats into other chains, making 
 it easier to snap them asunder ; but the links of 
 his grow stronger with time. Other cups may 
 quench thirst, his but increases it : till the love 
 of drink becomes, not a passion, but a madness ; 
 and, deaf to all arguments, and less blind than 
 careless to all consequences, he holds out the 
 goblet in palsied hand to cry, " Give ! give ! " 
 The day was when that wreck of honesty and 
 manly strength that sad ruin of grace and 
 womanly beauty, was filled with sorrow and re- 
 morse ; but these feelings became more and more 
 enfeebled, while drinking habits, fed by every 
 new indulgence, increased in strength making 
 reformation less hopeful by every day's delay. 
 And now, like a boat swept on in a foaming 
 rapid, which neither oar nor arm can stem, with 
 all the dread consequences full in sight a ruined 
 
EARLY PIETY. 357 
 
 character, a beggared family, his body descending 
 into an untimely grave, his soul to the doom of 
 these awful words, " no drunkard shall inherit the 
 kingdom of heaven " he yields to a torrent that 
 sweeps means, character, wife, children, body and 
 soul, into one common ruin. 
 
 With such touching and terrible illustrations 
 before their eyes, men talk of delaying to turn to 
 God for ten, twenty, or forty years ! Is. it pain- 
 ful now to tear the world from our hearts ? 
 when the love of it has grown with our growth, 
 and strengthened with our strength, when it has 
 spread its roots wider, and struck them deeper, 
 to tear it up will demand a mightier effort, and 
 inflict a greater pain. If sin has already so seared 
 the conscience, that we can hear another St Paul 
 reason of "righteousness, temperance, and judg- 
 ment," nor tremble in our seats as the Roman 
 trembled on his throne, in what state shall our 
 conscience be when the sins of future years have 
 passed over it like a hot iron searing, till, all 
 sensibility destroyed, it becomes as hard as horn ; 
 like callous flesh, which the knife finds it difficult 
 to penetrate, and impossible to pain ? This is 
 
358 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 no exaggeration. Of all tasks, we know none so 
 difficult as to touch the feelings, and rouse the 
 conscience of godless old age. 
 
 Besides, will conversion be more likely and easy 
 when age has dimmed our eyes, and the Bible is 
 become "as the words of a book that is sealed" 
 when the church-bell rings for others, but not for 
 us ; and, unable to creep beyond the door, our 
 Sabbaths are lonely and silent ? Which is the 
 better time when, in the enjoyment of health, 
 we can give undistracted attention to the things 
 that concern our peace, or, when sinking under 
 the infirmities of years, or racked with the pains 
 of disease, we are reduced to such weakness, or 
 suffer such torture, that we can neither pray, nor 
 join in prayer ? 
 
 Besides, second childhood, to a greater or less 
 extent, comes with age the faculties of the mind 
 failing with, sometimes even before, those of the 
 body. Like the leaves of the ash-tree, these 
 which were the last to appear, are occasionally 
 the first to depart ; leaving the mind a more 
 melancholy wreck than its shattered, crazy taber- 
 
EARLY PIETY. 359 
 
 nacle. And where the soul, asserting its immor- 
 tality, seems to grow larger, like a setting sun at 
 the close of day, and its faculties survive amid 
 the decays of age, it is by no means rare to see 
 life's last hours passed in a disordered day-dream ; 
 their realities offering a striking contrast to the 
 phantoms and fancies of the dying chamber 
 fancies which restore the preacher to his pulpit ; 
 the weaver to his loom ; the merchant to 'change ; 
 the sailor to the slippery deck ; the soldier, who 
 has no enemy now to fight but death, to the 
 battle-field, where, deliriously shouting out the 
 word of command, he mixes in the metie, or heads 
 the desperate charge. What man in his right 
 mind would select such times and scenes for 
 working out his salvation ? Which is better to 
 remember your Creator now, or delay till con- 
 version is a thousand times more difficult ; sinful 
 habits have struck a deeper root ; age has dulled 
 the mind, deadened the feelings, and seared the 
 conscience till you are but the wreck and shadow 
 of what you were ; and all your pitiful attempts 
 to turn to God only recall the warning, "Can the 
 
360 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his 
 spots ? then may ye also do good, that are ac- 
 customed to do evil." 
 
 Conversion in old age is a very doubtful 
 matter. 
 
 It is doubtful whether we shall ever reach old 
 age. Few do ; and the probability is that we 
 never shall. It is still more doubtful whether, 
 suppose we do, we shall be more serious than in 
 earlier years. The probability is all the other way 
 it being true of other sinners besides seducers, 
 that they, as Scripture says, " wax worse and 
 worse." But suppose that we are spared to old 
 age, and, by the devout attention we give to the 
 Bible, to prayer and the house of God, appear to 
 have undergone a gracious change, it lies open to 
 the gravest suspicion. The possibility of conver- 
 sion at the eleventh hour I do not deny ; still, its 
 reality is exceedingly doubtful. 
 
 Take the case, for instance, of a convicted thief. 
 You find him where silver plate, gold, and jewels 
 glitter temptations on his eye. Alarmed, you 
 reckon up your money, examine your treasures 
 to be agreeably disappointed. They are safe ; 
 
EARLY PIETY. 361 
 
 and you naturally conclude that he has turned 
 over a new leaf, and become an honest man. But, 
 however willing to judge charitably, how would 
 your confidence in him vanish on discovering that 
 his hands were shackled, and that, though it was 
 in his heart, it was not in his power to rob you ? 
 So far as many gross vices are concerned, such 
 is exactly the position of hoary-headed sinners. 
 Age has frozen their passions, and unfitted them 
 for pleasures after which they once "ran greedily;" 
 and so many infirmities have come with years, 
 that a regard to health, and to life itself, forcing 
 them to refrain from debauchery, produces an 
 apparent reformation. A boat rotten in every 
 plank, and gaping at every seam, has to avoid 
 the seas and swell that others brave ; and it 
 were death to old men to venture on debaucheries 
 in which others indulge. Thus the decorum which 
 in some cases marks the closing years of such as 
 had been notorious for vice, may be due to other 
 causes than an inward, saving, and gracious change. 
 The lion has not become a lamb when he has lost 
 his teeth. 
 
 But here is a hoary penitent. Poor old man, 
 
362 EARLY PIETY, 
 
 he trembles to hear of death and judgment ; his 
 aged limbs carry him to what he once neglected 
 the house of God; the glasses through which he 
 scans "his Bible are bedewed and dimmed with 
 tears ; bitterly lamenting his sins, he warns others ; 
 and on knees unused to bend, pours forth prayers 
 for pardon in tones of deepest earnestness. It 
 seems cruel to entertain doubts of such a case. 
 But what is it we doubt? Not that he is sorry 
 for his sins, after a fashion ; not but that he would 
 give a world, which he must any way soon part 
 from, to be saved. In this case we may cling to 
 the hope that He who can save at the uttermost 
 has called him at the eleventh hour; still, this 
 sorrow may only correspond to what the felon 
 feels for crimes which have brought him to the 
 gallows cut short a mad and guilty career. 
 Sorrow for sin, and wishes to be saved ? What 
 death-condemned man does not feel these ? does 
 not bitterly lament the hour he embrued his hands 
 in blood ? does not petition the Crown to spare 
 his life ? would not give the world for a file to 
 cut his chain for a key to unlock his prison ? 
 Repentance for crimes at the foot of a gallows is 
 
EARLY PIETY. 363 
 
 not more open to suspicion than repentance for 
 sins on the brink of a burning hell. 
 
 Solemn warnings have come from scaffolds ; 
 but no one standing on the brink of time, with 
 the white cap on his head, and his feet trembling 
 on the drop, as he made his last speech to the 
 awe-struck crowd, ever uttered voice so full of 
 warning as the recorded experience of the chap- 
 lain of a large jail in England. With the death- 
 bell slowly tolling, he had accompanied many to 
 the scaffold, and also prepared not a few for 
 execution who were unexpectedly reprieved. Of 
 these a large number seemed to be converted. 
 Their repentance appeared sincere ; and had they 
 suffered the penalty of their crimes, he and others 
 would have believed that, whom earth rejected, 
 Heaven in its mercy had received for the sake 
 of Christ's righteousness acquitting at its bar those 
 whom man had condemned at his. But they were 
 spared to lead a new life ? Alas, no ! Thrown 
 back into the world, the reality of their conver- 
 sion was put to the test. The glittering coin was 
 tested, exposed to a fiery trial ; and what deceived 
 others, deceived perhaps themselves, proved coun- 
 
364 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 terfeit. With hardly an exception, all who seemed 
 to be converted within the prison, under the shadow 
 of the gallows in circumstances to the condemned 
 corresponding with old age and the closing days of 
 life returned to their former courses ; went back 
 like the dog to his vomit, and the sow that is 
 washed to her wallowing in the mire. A melan- 
 choly fact ! What a dark suspicion does it cast on 
 late conversions ? In these cases the sun that sets 
 on this world may rise to shine in a better; but 
 dark clouds obscure such a close of life; and so 
 long as men will risk their souls on these desperate 
 ventures, however trite the remark, it cannot be 
 too often, or too loudly, or too solemnly repeated, 
 that the Bible, which ranges over a period of four 
 thousand years, records but one instance of a death- 
 bed conversion one that none may despair, and 
 but one that none may presume. 
 
EARL Y PIETY. PART II. 
 
 "From a child thou hast known thf, 
 holy scriptures, which are able to 
 make thee "wise itnto salvation 
 throrigh faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus" 2 TIM. iii. 15. 
 
 ' I ^O everything, says Solomon, in the Book of 
 Ecclesiastes, there is a season, and a time to 
 every purpose under the heaven : a proposition 
 which, like a flower full blown, he spreads out into 
 such particulars as these " a time to be born, and 
 a time to die ; a time to plant, and a time to pluck 
 up ; a time to kill, and a time to heal ; a time to 
 weep, and a time to laugh ; a time to mourn, and a 
 time to dance ; a time to get, and a time to lose ; a 
 time to rend, and a time to sew ; a time to love, 
 and a time to hate ; a time of peace, and a time of 
 
366 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 war." Religion, it may be observed, has no place 
 in this remarkable catalogue ; and, paradoxical as 
 the assertion seems, its absence only makes it the 
 more conspicuous. It has no place among births 
 or deaths, saving or slaughter, feasts or funerals, 
 the calm of peace or the tempests of war, because, 
 unlike these, it belongs to no season, but to all 
 seasons, to every period and time of life. Its func- 
 tions are like those of breathing, which, distin- 
 guished from eating, resting, or working, are car- 
 ried on throughout all the years of our existence, 
 nor cease even when reason sleeps and the bodily 
 senses are all steeped in slumber. 
 
 Notwithstanding, there is a sense in which reli- 
 gion also has its season. As there is a time to be 
 born, there is a time to be born again : to turn 
 to God ; to die to sin, and live to righteousness. 
 And which of all the periods of human life will 
 prove most favourable to that great change, is a 
 question we can neither too soon nor too care- 
 fully determine. Interests are involved here more 
 important far than those which belong to any, or 
 to all those other times ; to the loves or hatreds, 
 the wars or peace, the births or burials of a life, 
 
EARLY PIETY. 367 
 
 whose joys and sorrows in a few more years will 
 be nothing to us no more than the suns that 
 shine, or the storms that beat upon our grave. 
 The great English dramatist, accepting the three- 
 score years and ten of Scripture as the ordinary 
 span of life, divides it into seven decades ; and, 
 borrowing imagery from the stage and shifting 
 scenes of his own profession, represents each as 
 an act played out on the boards of a theatre be- 
 ginning and closing his famous description thus : 
 
 " All the world 's a stage, 
 And all the men and women merely players : 
 They have their exits and their entrances, 
 And one man in his time plays many parts, 
 His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, 
 
 Last scene of all, 
 
 That ends this strange, eventful history, 
 Is second childishness, and mere oblivion" 
 
 Without following, the French, to regard all 
 children under fourteen years as being, to use 
 their term, sans discernement, and not properly 
 amenable to punishment, let us here exclude in- 
 fancy and mere childhood from consideration; 
 periods, these, when many, hardly able to act 
 for themselves, are plastic as a piece of clay 
 
368 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 taking shape and form from the hands into 
 which they fall. And of the three remaining 
 periods, youth, manhood, and old age, which 
 is the most fitted for working out our salvation, 
 for giving all diligence to make our calling and 
 election sure, for fighting the good fight, for run- 
 ning the Christian race ? The very terms of the 
 question supply the answer. Solomon says the 
 first. Well, if he is right, if in this judgment 
 he sustains his fame as the wisest of the sons 
 of men, if he spake thus in the noontide of that 
 wisdom which dawned in his early choice and 
 rose like a sun on the eyes of a dazzled world, 
 I need not ask, if he is right, how many are 
 wrong ? Not but that they intend some day or 
 other to become religious ; only not now, when 
 their blood is hot, and the reins lie loose on the 
 neck of passion, and the cup of pleasure is foam- 
 ing to the brim. Were the plans and wishes of 
 many expressed in words, they would take the 
 very shape of the striking but shocking prayer 
 of Augustine, Lord, convert me ! but not now 
 not now ! 
 
 They have no wish to die as they are. On the 
 
EARLY PIETY. 369 
 
 contrary, knowing, at least fearing, that they have 
 never been converted, and are not at peace with 
 God, they recoil from such a thought ; their type, 
 one in whose company we once happened to be 
 placed in alarming circumstances. The carnages 
 flew along the iron rails ; they flashed by stations, 
 post, and pillar ; and began so to sway from side 
 to side, that my fellow-traveller, by profession a 
 minister of the gospel, got much alarmed, and 
 asked, "Do you think there is danger?" "Think 
 there is danger!" I gravely replied; "we may be 
 in eternity in another moment." Struck to the 
 heart as by a knife, his full and florid countenance 
 turned pale as death, while, with an emphasis no 
 acting could imitate, and a look of horror never 
 to be forgotten, he raised his hands to exclaim, 
 "God forbid!" Equally dreading a present and 
 sudden death, how many live and sin on in the 
 hope that, after spending their days as lovers of 
 pleasure, they shall end them as lovers of God; 
 that they will turn over a new leaf when they are 
 old ; and that, to use a common expression, it 
 will be all right in the end ? Bubbles, fair to look 
 
 on, but fragile as those the touch of a finger 
 
 2 A 
 
370 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 breaks ! and the breath that blows up such vain 
 expectations is the belief that of all the periods of 
 human life none is so favourable to religion as old 
 age. A great, yet not a wonderful, mistake ! 
 one into which, on the contrary, it is very natural 
 for unreflecting and inexperienced youth to fall. 
 Young people fancy that when the days are come 
 when they shall say they have no pleasure in 
 them, when, in other words, there are no plea- 
 sures to enjoy, it will be easy to cease being 
 lovers of pleasure, and become lovers of God ; 
 they fancy that when they have fallen "into the 
 sere and yellow leaf," fading sight and health and 
 hearing cannot fail to warn them of the approach 
 of death, and prepare them for his coming ; they 
 fancy that religion, like ivy, which gets no hold 
 of a close and firm wall, grows best on what is 
 old ; and that as the weathered stones, the cracks 
 and gaping rents of the shattered ruin, by offering 
 a hold to its arms, helps it to climb till it crowns 
 the summit and clothes the grim old tower in 
 a green, graceful mantle, so the infirmities and 
 decays of age will prove helpful to piety giving 
 it a hold on our hearts it had not obtained, but 
 
EARLY PIETY. 371 
 
 that they have been shattered by the disappoint- 
 ments, and trials, and shocks of life. 
 
 Alas for those who embark their salvation on 
 such bad bottoms, such ventures, and worthless 
 speculations ! Experience is the true test here. 
 Youth speaks from fancy, but old men from facts ; 
 and all experience whether that of Solomon, or 
 of others much less wise than he pronounces 
 these hopes to be utterly false, mere delusions. 
 Old fruit, still hanging on the tree, comes away 
 to the touch; but it is seldom without a wrench 
 that old people part with life. Have not I seen, 
 and wondered to see, how some aged saints would 
 cling tenaciously to life, and be almost as happy 
 on recovering as one in the green spring, or flower 
 and summer of their days ? Earthly joys are like 
 the sun, which never looks so big as at his setting; 
 and be it life, or children, or pleasure, or money, 
 it is natural to love that which we are soon to lose, 
 not less, but more. 
 
 *' I loved him much, but now I love him more. 
 Like birds whose beauties languish, half-conceal'd, 
 Till, mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes 
 Expanded shine with azure, green, and gold : 
 How blessings brighten as they take their flight ! " 
 
37 2 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 Then as to the effect on man of the near ap- 
 proach of death, youth has to learn what experi- 
 ence teaches age, that death resembles the horizon. 
 Within the lessening circle of advancing years, 
 death may seem much nearer than once it did, 
 and the expression, " If God spares me," may be 
 oftener in the thoughts and on the lips; still it 
 presents this remarkable feature of the visible 
 horizon that, whether it seem near in a misty, or 
 distant in a clear, fair, open day, as we advance, 
 it recedes ever flies before us. Youths count on 
 forty or twenty years ; and where is the old man 
 who does not, even from his stand-point by the 
 grave, see one or two years, at least some days or 
 months, before him ? 
 
 Suppose it otherwise; suppose also that the 
 powers of the mind do not fail with those of the 
 body ; suppose that no aged Christian ever had 
 to complain of the evil days when he could not 
 pray, nor meditate, nor fix his thoughts, nor rise, 
 as on eagle's wings, in heavenly meditations, as 
 once he did ; suppose that none ever blessed God 
 on their death-bed that they had not left their 
 peace to seek amid the weakness and infirmities 
 
EARLY PIETY. 
 
 373 
 
 of age ; suppose that sin may be safely yielded 
 to till it becomes habitual ; suppose, so to speak, 
 it were found as easy to bend an old tree as a 
 young one, to turn a swollen river as a tiny 
 stream ; suppose it is not true that 
 
 " 111 habits gather by unseen degrees, 
 As brooks inn rivers, rivers run to seas ; " 
 
 suppose that for once Solomon is wrong, and 
 that of all the periods of life old age is best for 
 getting a change of heart, an interest in Christ, 
 peace with God, a title and a meetness for the 
 kingdom of heaven, yet, I say, it were well and 
 wise not to delay, because we may not live to 
 be old. 
 
 The oak lives a thousand years. The yew 
 reaches a much greater age : a churchyard among 
 our Scottish mountains boasting one, specially 
 mentioned by Humboldt, under whose green 
 canopy we have sat, which flourished in the days 
 of Solomon, and stood, white with snows or hoar 
 frost, a mighty tree that Christmas eve on which 
 our Lord was born. In contrast with the giant 
 forms and stubborn lives of trees that, yielding 
 
374 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 slowly to their doom, look down on the graves of 
 many generations, are their leaves. Fragile and 
 fading, these are often nipped in the bud ; they 
 are easily crushed ; their life does not extend 
 beyond a few months ; the cold of autumn is 
 their death, and the snows of winter are their 
 shroud. For these reasons a leaf has been a 
 favourite emblem with poets, both sacred and 
 profane, of man, of his feebleness, of his mortality. 
 So, when stripped of all his property, his children 
 suddenly whelmed into a common grave, these 
 his dead griefs and his wife a living one, his few 
 friends the " miserable comforters " whose unskil- 
 ful hands widened the wounds they sought to 
 close, so spake Job : turning to God, he plaintively 
 expostulates with Him, crying, " Wilt thou break 
 a leaf driven to and fro ?" Thus also spake the 
 prophet who saw a picture of man, his sins and 
 sorrows, where the wind at the close of autumn, 
 tearing through the tinted woods, swept off their 
 leaves in showers, and scattered them swirling 
 and eddying along the ground " We all," he 
 exclaimed, " do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, 
 like the wind, have carried us away ! " 
 
EARLY PIETY. 375 
 
 We fade as a leaf! In one sense we do, and in 
 another we do not. Most leaves live out all their 
 days, but not many men few men the half of 
 them. Of all our race, nearly the half die in in- 
 fancy, and are torn from mothers' bosoms to lie in 
 the cold arms of death. Another large proportion 
 drop into the grave ere the summer of life is past. 
 The woods retain their foliage till days grow short, 
 and fruits grow mellow, and fields fall to the 
 reaper's sickle ; but how small the number of men 
 who survive, in gray hairs and stooping form, slow 
 step and shuffling gait, to wear the marks of age 
 ere they follow their companions to the tomb ? 
 Ask that hoar old man where are the playmates of 
 his childhood, where the boys who sat by him at 
 the desk in school, where the youths, flushed with 
 health and full of hope, with whom he started in 
 the race of life, where the guests of his board, his 
 competitors or his partners in business ? In the 
 grave ! all mouldering in the grave : save one and 
 another who, amid new faces, now find themselves 
 to be strangers on this earth, and remain the last 
 vestiges of their generation, clinging to life just 
 as I have seen a few brown leaves hanging on the 
 
376 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 tree, and whirling in the winter wind when skies 
 were dark with storms, and fields were white with 
 snow. 
 
 To the eye of faith this survey, these bills of 
 mortality, present nothing melancholy. An early 
 death to those who are in Christ is but another 
 expression for an early deliverance ; and if, in 
 place of being long becalmed, or tossed about by 
 storms, and perhaps driven out once and again to 
 sea when their ship was in sight of land, those 
 voyagers who make a short passage count them- 
 selves happy, fortunate, are not they rather to be 
 envied than pitied who, by an early death, escape 
 much of the sins and sorrows of this world ? like 
 birds of passage, they just light on it, rest for a 
 little while, and then, as if they found nothing 
 tempting them to prolong their stay, take wing 
 and soar up to heaven. Viewed in this aspect, 
 but for the cold, the cruelties, the hunger, the 
 wants and sufferings which, springing to a large 
 extent from parental vices, account for the circum- 
 stance, there is nothing melancholy in the short- 
 ness of many lives, and that nearly the half of all 
 born die under five years of age ; leaving but a 
 
EARLY PIETY. 377 
 
 small fraction to see the threescore years and ten. 
 But what more melancholy, more marvellous, than 
 to see thousands setting at nought these well- 
 established facts ; delaying their salvation, and, 
 where interests of the highest moment are con- 
 cerned, counting on years which not one in a hun- 
 dred of them shall ever reach ? No wise man acts 
 with such infatuation in other, and far less import- 
 ant matters. 
 
 For example. Prudent men insure their lives ; 
 and why ? Because, they answer, life is uncertain ; 
 because there is nothing more uncertain ; because 
 the chances are that they shall not live to be old. 
 And if I should be cut off suddenly, early, what, 
 says a man, is to become of my family ? The 
 children of this world are indeed wise in their 
 generation. Oh that men would reason as soundly, 
 and act as wisely, where higher interests are at 
 stake ! If you should be cut off suddenly and 
 early, what is to become of your family ? Well, 
 let me change but a little the terms of the 
 question, and ask him who, reckoning on 
 years, is putting off the things that concern his 
 peace, If you should die suddenly and early, 
 
378 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 what is to become of your soul your precious 
 soul ? 
 
 Prudent men, again, make their wills when their 
 bones are full of marrow, and there is not a gray 
 hair in their head. The deed shows their name 
 written with a strong and firm hand ; nor is it by 
 their death-bed that, hastily summoned to the 
 scene, the lawyer, the physician, and the minister 
 of the gospel meet. In many respects it would 
 prove much more convenient, saving the trouble 
 and expense of codicils, to delay the settlement of 
 their affairs to future years to old age, should 
 they ever reach it when they shall have retired 
 from business and realised their fortune. Should 
 they ever reach it ! But they know that few reach 
 it, and that they may never do so ; and therefore, 
 with health bounding in every artery, and bloom- 
 ing on their cheeks, they sign their last will and 
 testament. In matters where the interests and 
 peace of families are concerned, wise men repu- 
 diate delay, nor venture anything on the chance 
 of living to be old. Is the peace of our souls 
 less worthy of our care ? " Set thine house in 
 order, for thou shalt die," said the prophet to the 
 
EARLY PIETY. 379 
 
 king ; but how much more need, with a higher 
 foresight, that we should set our hearts than our 
 houses in order ? We may die to-morrow " Thou 
 fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." 
 Prudent men, again, by the practice of economy 
 and self-denial, make provision for dying in their 
 prime. Young, they seem to have reasonable 
 ground for expecting that many years are before 
 them ; and that they may live to see their children 
 standing on their own feet fighting their own 
 battle, altogether independent of a parent's help. 
 Why should not they then, launching on the tide 
 of prosperity, take their enjoyment of the world ? 
 in place of being haunted by fears of a widow 
 and children left with a scanty provision, why 
 should not they anticipate a venerable, green old 
 age, a long day and a quiet evening, with their 
 children's children climbing their knee and play- 
 ing at their feet ? Why ? Because, they answer, 
 though many fancy such a picture, there are few 
 that sit for it. Few live to be old ; nor on such an 
 unlikely chance will they venture the happiness 
 and well-being of their children not they. Would 
 to God we were all as wise in what involves the 
 
380 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 happiness and well-being of our souls ! and that 
 every sinner without an hour's delay turned to 
 Jesus, to embrace Him as his Saviour, to cry, in 
 his great extremity, Save, Lord, I perish ! 
 
 Old age is a most unsuitable period. 
 
 The work to which we are called, which must 
 be done by all in this world, and by some this 
 day, or never done, is well described in the words 
 of Nehemiah, " I have a great work to do, there- 
 fore I cannot come down." It requires our 
 utmost energies. You have seen a man who had 
 thrown himself into the crowd that blocked up 
 a narrow door, battling his way through, with 
 broad shoulder throwing the living mass aside, as 
 the vessel does the water that breaks and foams 
 and flashes from her brow so we are to strive 
 to enter in at the strait gate. You have seen 
 the smith swinging his heavy hammer at the 
 glowing forge, with the veins standing out on 
 his brawny arms, and the sweat on his swarthy 
 brow so we are to labour for the bread that 
 never perisheth. You have seen the sinewy 
 frame of a lithe and young competitor in the 
 race go by like the wind, as with flowing hair, 
 
EARLY PIETY. 381 
 
 expanded nostrils, eager eye, heaving breast, and 
 flying feet, he bends to the course so we are to 
 run the race set before us ; so, forgetting the 
 things which are behind, and looking to those 
 which are before, we are to press toward the 
 mark of the prize of the high calling of God in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 Whoever sat to Solomon for this graphic pic- 
 ture the keepers tremble, the strong men bow 
 themselves, the grinders cease, the windows be 
 darkened, the almond tree flourishes, and the grass- 
 hopper is a burden it is plain that neither the 
 old man he painted, nor any at his age, is fit for 
 tasks like these. The Scriptures, whatever figures 
 they employ, everywhere represent the work of 
 salvation as one demanding the highest energy, 
 powers untouched by time and unimpaired by 
 decay. Look at the subject in the light of that 
 figure, where the kingdom of heaven is repre- 
 sented as a city taken by assault. Defenders 
 man, and assailants swarm round the beleaguered 
 wall. It is breached ; the breach is pronounced 
 practicable ; the forlorn hope lie in the trenches, 
 ready when the bugle sounds to spring to their 
 
382 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 feet, and with a run and a dash to throw them- 
 selves headlong into the yawning chasm ; but 
 this must be bravely, quickly, vigorously done, 
 for the breach is bristling with bayonets, and men 
 within stand by their guns to sweep it with 
 showers of death. Now when the stormers are 
 waiting a leader whom they expect to come with 
 elastic step, and bold carriage, and manly form, 
 and eagle glance, and sword flashing in the sun, 
 and a voice that, crying, Follow me, rings through 
 the ranks, and starts all to their feet, let an old 
 man advance, tottering on a staff, with panting 
 breath and piping voice, to bid them follow, who 
 would follow ? Amid all the solemnities of an 
 hour that should be the last to many, they would 
 laugh his gray hairs to scorn. Let these and 
 like feeble steps keep the garrisons at home ; 
 but the assault of cities, and storming of the 
 deadly breach, require the pith of manhood, the 
 fire and flower of youth. So does the work of 
 salvation. It is inconsistent with the feebleness 
 and decay of age ; for " the kingdom of heaven 
 suffereth violence, and the violent," says our 
 Lord, " take it by force/' 
 
EARLY PIETY. 383 
 
 True, salvation is not of works. " By grace," 
 as St Paul says, " are ye saved, through faith ; and 
 that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of God : not 
 of works, lest any man should boast ; for we are 
 His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto 
 good works, which God hath before ordained that 
 we should walk in them/' And since God occa- 
 sionally magnifies and illustrates the exceeding 
 riches of His grace by calling one, and another, 
 at the eleventh hour, making them, after being 
 grafted into Christ, bring forth fruit even in old 
 age, making, so to speak, " the barren woman to 
 keep house and be a joyful mother of children," 
 there is no age, and no case hopeless. The words, 
 " Is anything too hard for the Lord ? " are as ap- 
 plicable to the new birth of an old man as to the 
 birth of Isaac by an old woman. So fast as their 
 tottering steps can carry them, in the last linger- 
 ing lights of day, let hoary-headed sinners hasten 
 to Jesus. He will not reject them. He might, 
 but He will not say, When I spake ye would 
 not hear, and when I called ye would not answer ; 
 now when ye speak I will not hear, and when ye 
 call I will not ans\ver; I will laugh at your cal- 
 
384 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 amity, and mock when your fear cometh. Fear 
 not that 
 
 " As long as life its term extends, 
 Hope's blest dominion never ends ; 
 For while the lamp holds on to burn, 
 The greatest sinner may return." 
 
 Notwithstanding this, and that the Word of God 
 assures us that whosoever cometh unto Him He 
 will in nowise cast out ; the homage we owe to 
 truth, and the duty we owe to souls, require us to 
 say, that, judging by results, old age is, of all the 
 ages of life, the least fitted for the work of salva- 
 tion. No doubt w r e have read of hoary sinners 
 becoming as little children, and turning to God ; 
 but in the experience of more than thirty years 
 we have never met with one such case. 
 
 At the close of a dark and stormy day we have 
 seen the sun break forth at his setting, to bathe 
 the whole landscape in a flood of glory, and having 
 painted a rainbow on the storm-cloud, to sink to 
 rest amid the odours of flowers, and the joyful 
 songs of groves and skies. But whatever others 
 may have done, we have met nothing correspond- 
 ing to this in the realm of spirits ; not one old 
 
EARLY PIETY. 385 
 
 man who lived the life of the wicked, and died the 
 death of the righteous. I am not speaking of 
 those who, in circumstances that were more their 
 misfortune than their fault, had no opportunity of 
 knowing the truth till they were old who, like 
 the penitent thief, perhaps, received their first as 
 well as last offer of a Saviour at death ; never had 
 Christ in their offer, as Simeon never had Him in 
 his arms, till their eyes were dim, and their heads 
 were gray with age ; I speak of those who have 
 gone Sabbath after Sabbath to the house of God, 
 whenever Christ was brought forward, to reject 
 Him, and cry, like the Jews of old, " We will not 
 have this man to rule over us;" who have put 
 Him off, again and again, with the most miserable 
 excuses ; who have resisted the influences of the 
 Holy Spirit of God ; who have wilfully shut their 
 eyes to the truth ; who have obstinately refused to 
 be saved ; who have spent long years in fighting 
 neither with the devil, nor the world, nor the flesh, 
 but with their own conscience ; and wounding it 
 to the death, have at length won the victory. 
 Now they have no qualms in sinning ; and they 
 
 may have no bands in their death. They have 
 
 2 B 
 
386 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 triumphed ; but their victory reminds us of the 
 saying of the king who, holding the ground after a 
 hard fought day, but seeing it covered with the 
 bodies of his bravest knights and stoutest men-at- 
 arms, exclaimed, Another such victory and we are 
 ruined ! So fatal are victories obtained over con- 
 science ! Delay till your head is hoary, and your 
 conscience seared, and you are, as they say, " gos- 
 pel-hardened," and there is none to whom these 
 words of hope are less applicable and appropriate, 
 " Thou art not far from the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 Still God does not shut the door in an old man's 
 face. The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin 
 even from his and the door of mercy stands 
 open to the chief of sinners. Only, none can come 
 too soon. Our position resembles his who, sole 
 survivor of the wreck, was seized by a mountain 
 wave, and, borne upon its crest onward to the cliff, 
 was flung into a cave midway between the top 
 where anxious spectators had gathered and the 
 sea that raged and foamed below. Over a preci- 
 pice no foot could scale, dangling above a sea 
 where no boat could live, friendly hands lower a 
 rope but, alas! the beetling rock overhung his 
 
EARLY PIETY. 387 
 
 place of shelter; and though he stood poised on 
 its utmost ledge with outstretched arms, the rope 
 hung beyond his reach, mocking his misery. 
 Quick to devise and prompt to act, like all sea- 
 faring men, his brave friends above haul in the 
 life-line, and, now loading its end, they toss it once 
 more over the crag, but seaward this time. It has 
 got the motion of a pendulum, and now swinging 
 back, it comes in beneath the beetling cliff. With 
 eager eye watching its coming, he makes a grasp ; 
 but alas ! his hand closes on the empty air, and 
 the rope swings out again to sea. Ere long it 
 returns, but to be as far, or farther, from his reach ; 
 and he now observes with horror that each time it 
 swings it comes less near him. A few more oscil- 
 lations, and the line dangles in the air a life-line 
 could he reach it, but beyond his utmost reach. 
 If, balancing himself on the utmost ledge, he leap 
 to catch it at its next approach, he may still be 
 saved not otherwise nor shall this long be pos- 
 sible. Once more, again, it comes; and a voice 
 seems to ring in his ear, Now, or Never ! With a 
 prayer on his lips, and his eye on the rope, he 
 bends to the spring, and, rising into the air, makes 
 
388 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 one desperate bound out from the cliff. The line 
 is caught ; he is saved ; and cheers from above 
 that go up to heaven greet him, when, swinging 
 out from below the overhanging crag, a living 
 burden hangs on that rope with the grasp of death. 
 So are we to understand the words, " Lay hold on 
 eternal life." Such is the diligence we are to give 
 to make our calling and election sure. For here, 
 as there, Soon and Saved, or Late and Lost, are 
 very near the truth. For anything, indeed, we 
 can tell, it may be Now, or Never. 
 
EARL Y PIETY. PART III. 
 
 " From a child thou hast known, the 
 holy scriptures, which are able 
 to make thee wise unto salvation 
 through faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus" 2 TIM. iii. 15. 
 
 T^\READFUL is the havoc which intemperance 
 works among us, on the finest virtues of 
 man and woman, on the peace of families and 
 the membership of Christ's Church. The sad 
 miseries it produces, the fair characters it ruins, 
 the kind hearts it breaks, the innocent children it 
 murders by want, cold, cruelty, and neglect, the 
 gray hairs it brings with sorrow to the grave, 
 should make us seek to protect the young from 
 its dangerous influences. Our hope for society 
 lies, not in adults, but in them, in the rising 
 
390 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 generation the position of social reformers re- 
 sembling that of the priests who went down into 
 the Jordan bearing the ark of God, and, leaving 
 the waters that had already passed to pursue their 
 course and find a grave in the Dead Sea, arrested 
 the descending current. We have tried to accom- 
 plish something like this. And when for that 
 purpose advising parents, as they valued their 
 own peace, the safety of their children, and the 
 reformation of society, to rear their households in 
 the entire disuse of all dangerous, because intoxi- 
 cating, stimulants, we have found them excuse 
 themselves on the ground that children brought 
 up in this, or in any other strict way, are after- 
 wards much more likely than others, by the very 
 law of recoil, to carry innocent indulgence to 
 excess. 
 
 There is no more vulgar or pernicious error 
 than this. It is a groundless fear the old cry 
 of " a lion in the way ! " wherewith many excuse 
 themselves for not doing what in truth they have 
 no inclination to do. We appeal from them to 
 history ; to the character as well as happy for- 
 tunes, for example, of a family whose stout ad- 
 
EARLY PIETY. 391 
 
 herence for successive generations to the simple 
 and sober manners of their father is recorded 
 with the highest approbation in the Word ot 
 God. Commissioned to try them, Jeremiah says, 
 " I set before the sons of the house of the 
 Rechabites pots full of wine and cups, and I 
 said unto them, Drink ye wine. But they said, 
 We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of 
 Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye 
 shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for 
 ever. . . . Thus have we obeyed the voice of 
 Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that 
 he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, 
 our wives, our sons, nor our daughters." Three 
 hundred years had passed since Jonadab was laid 
 in his grave ; but these, which had seen other 
 families rise and fall, wax and wane, win and 
 lose their character, had wrought no change on 
 Jonadab's. Teaching us how men live after they 
 are dead for good or evil in their manners and 
 morals, the character which their sire had im- 
 pressed on his family remained through the lapse 
 of centuries like features cut in granite. How 
 many families which vice has reduced to abject 
 
392 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 poverty, sweeping some of them even from the 
 face of the earth, would have inherited, had they 
 been trained to virtuous practices, the happy for- 
 tunes of the sons of Rechab ; and that through 
 the ordinary operation of the laws of Providence ? 
 " Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel : 
 Because ye have obeyed the commandment of 
 Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts 
 . . . . Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not 
 want a man to stand before me for ever." 
 
 The case of these Rechabites demonstrates 
 that strict training is not, as some believe, or at 
 least allege, likely to be followed by loose living. 
 The idea that children carefully instructed in the 
 principles and strictly reared in the practices of 
 piety, in a severe sobriety and holy observance 
 of the Sabbath, are more prone than others to 
 run into vice, cannot stand with the opinion of 
 Solomon, " It is good for a man to bear the yoke 
 in his youth." This notion, which is no less 
 pernicious than absurd, sounds as different from 
 Solomon's judgment as the ring of good money 
 from bad. Nor can it bear the test of experience 
 and Scripture more than a counterfeit coin the 
 
EARLY PIETY. 393 
 
 drop of acid that bites through the silver and 
 lays bare the brass. 
 
 But as this notion, were it allowed to stand, 
 would stand in the way of the cultivation of early 
 piety, let us look at one proof of it very com- 
 monly adduced. This is the fact, as they call 
 it, that the children of the strictly religious, 
 especially those of the manse, of ministers of the 
 gospel, have been often observed to be more 
 vicious than others. Cases of that kind have 
 certainly occurred. But it is not difficult to 
 account for such a melancholy result. It often 
 happens that men discharging the functions of 
 the sacred ministry, or those who devote them- 
 selves to redress the wrongs and promote the 
 welfare of society, have found their time and 
 talents so taxed, so occupied, so engrossed by 
 the public interest, that they have neglected their 
 own. They have bestowed the care which be- 
 longed to their children on the affairs of others. 
 As they contemplated the misconduct of this son, 
 and the misfortunes of that, and were reminded, 
 by the wreck which vice had wrought on their 
 family, of the sad old plaint, " The boar out of 
 
394 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of 
 the field doth devour it," how might they add, 
 " They made me the keeper of the vineyards, 
 but mine own vineyard have I not kept ! " But 
 the bad result in such cases is not due to the 
 children being reared too strictly, too carefully, 
 too piously. Suffering, on the contrary, from 
 neglect, they have been sacrificed, unintended but 
 unhappy victims, on the altar of the public good. 
 Nor when the children of pious people turn 
 vicious is it wonderful that they become worse 
 than others. The sweetest wine turns into the 
 sourest vinegar ; the blackest shadows are cast 
 by the brightest light ; the angel that falls be- 
 comes a devil and so, sinning against light and 
 conscience, the prayers, counsels, warnings, and 
 tears of godly parents, the children of the good, 
 on becoming wicked, become more remarkable 
 than others for their wickedness. Like Jeremiah's 
 figs, "the evil are very evil, so evil that they 
 cannot be eaten." And being also from their 
 birth and position as a city set on a hill, their 
 case attracts more attention than that of others. 
 While others escape notice, these are observed 
 
EARLY PIETY. 395 
 
 and talked of ; and thus people fall into the 
 vulgar, pernicious mistake that a strict and vir- 
 tuous training is apt to result in a loose and 
 vicious life. 
 
 Such is the complete and satisfactory explana- 
 tion which we give of those cases that impart any 
 semblance of truth to so gross an error. At the 
 same time we can adduce facts to prove that it is 
 an entire mistake. I have in my eye a district of 
 my country sufficiently large, and containing a 
 sufficient number of families, to form the basis of 
 a wide and sure conclusion ; and, on looking to 
 the history of the children who went forth from its 
 manses to make their way in the world and fight 
 the battle of life poor, but well, strictly, and vir- 
 tuously educated I can aver that, take them over- 
 head, they have not done worse, but better, than 
 others. Doing credit to their homes and virtuous 
 training, the sons of clergymen stand above the 
 common average, both in point of character and 
 of the position they have won. Unhappily, some 
 good people, by their sour tempers and severe, 
 forbidding manners, have made their children re- 
 coil from a pious life. By rough and injudicious 
 
396 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 treatment they have broken the twig which more 
 skilful and gentle handling, with God's blessing, 
 had trained upward to the skies. Accustom the 
 young to associate the Sabbath, and the Bible, 
 and piety, not with gladness, but with gloom ; 
 train them so that their affections are not won 
 over to the side of religion ; and no wonder that, 
 after bejng held in, like a horse, only by bit and 
 bridle, when they go forth on the world with the 
 reins loose on their own necks, that they plunge 
 into a career of vice as the war horse rushes into 
 the battle. But let justice be done to religion ; 
 let gentleness temper severity ; let there be as 
 much pains taken to win the heart as to instruct 
 the head of youth ; let mothers, as of old, employ 
 their loving, tender hands to give it a Christian 
 shape and form ; and the results will prove the 
 soundness of the advice, " Remember thy Creator 
 in the days of thy youth/' 
 
 The importance of this will appear if we con- 
 sider that youth is the critical period of man's 
 life. 
 
 An infant is a bud unblown, with green imper- 
 vious sheath hiding the flower within ; nor, though 
 
EARLY PIETY. 397 
 
 hope may paint fair visions of the future, can any 
 tell whether the cradle in their house holds a Cain 
 or Abel, a Jacob or an Esau. Childhood corre- 
 sponds to the next stage the bud has now blown 
 out into a fragrant, lovely flower ; but whether, as 
 the bud has changed into a flower, the flower shall 
 change into fruit, the child shall fulfil the wishes 
 and reward the care of parents, who can tell ? I 
 have seen the blast strew the ground with the hopes 
 of the garden, and trees stand barren in autumn 
 that had been white with blossoms, as with a 
 shower of snow. However genial the spring, or 
 cloudless and warm the skies of summer, there is 
 a critical period when the two seasons shade into 
 each other. This, which holds the fruits and future 
 of the orchard in its hand, fulfilling or disappoint- 
 ing the hopes of the gardener, lies in those few 
 days and nights when, to use a common expres- 
 sion, the fruit is setting. Wrapped up in its warm 
 sheath, the flower sleeps through the winter, nor 
 feels nor fears the frost ; when, waking to the 
 voice of spring, it throws aside its coverings, and, 
 disclosing its beautiful form, opens its bosom to 
 the sun and its treasures to the bees, it is full of 
 
 ' r* . , ' ' 
 
39$ EARLY PIETY. 
 
 life ; and, once changed into fruit, though its sweet- 
 ness may depend on the character of summer, it 
 battles bravely with adverse circumstances, and 
 lives and ripens in spite of cold and rain. But 
 there is a critical time, on which its whole future 
 depends ; and that lies in the few days and nights 
 when, in its progress from one stage to another, 
 the flower is changing into fruit. To use a fine 
 Scotch expression, this is the tyning (losing) or the 
 winning time. 
 
 Such a period is youth in human life. Then 
 impressions are received which remain for ever ; 
 then the character, like the colour fixed by the 
 mordant in cloth, is fixed ; then the die is struck ; 
 then a life of virtue or of vice is begun ; then the 
 turn is taken either for God or the world ; then 
 the road is entered on which leads to heaven or to 
 hell. The period is one which corresponds to a 
 knoll I know, where you stand on the watershed 
 of the country, midway between the two seas 
 which wash our shores; and there, standing on 
 the doorstep of a shepherd's cottage, as you turn 
 your wrist to this side or to that, depends the 
 course of the water you fling from your hand ! 
 
EARLY PIETY. 399 
 
 whether, after long travels and many windings, it 
 reach the east coast or the west, to mingle with 
 the waves of the German or Atlantic Ocean. It is 
 the youth, not the boy, as is commonly said, who 
 is father of the man. What importance, then, be- 
 longs to this over any other period of life what 
 care does it call for on the part of the young, and 
 on the part of those also who are charged with 
 their up-bringing ! Childhood receives impressions 
 easily ; but, like the sea that bears no traces of the 
 birds that skim, or the keels that plough its waves, 
 it does not retain them. Manhood, again, like the 
 solid rock, retains impressions once made, but does 
 not easily receive them. Now, it is in youth that 
 our minds, like the wax to which the seal, or the 
 clay to which the mould is applied, possess both 
 the power of receiving impressions, and the power 
 of retaining them. This, therefore, is the crisis of 
 life the time to be most careful of our company, 
 our pleasures, and our pursuits. Then the slightest 
 thing may fix our character, and determine our 
 future destiny the wax is cooling, the clay is 
 hardening into stone, the soul is receiving its form 
 and shape, and, as if time to some extent antici- 
 
400 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 pated the irrevocable decrees of eternity, it may 
 be said in many instances of our youth, what shall 
 be afterwards and absolutely and universally said 
 of our departed spirits " He that is filthy let him 
 be filthy still, and he that is righteous let him be 
 righteous still." 
 
 Youth is the most dangerous period of life. 
 
 There is no age which may not put principle 
 and piety to trial. Old men who shock the world 
 by their crimes, the occurrence ever and anon of 
 cases where vice, like a long pent-up power, over- 
 coming at length all restraint, breaks forth like 
 the volcano that pours its burning lava on the 
 woods, cornfields, and vineyards that clothe its 
 slopes these, and many things else, warn us that 
 we are never safe till we are in heaven, and have 
 laid off with our bodies the infirmities that belong 
 to them. Here, like travellers on those Alpine 
 slopes where a coating of snow hides the treacher- 
 ous ice, and one false step may prove their ruin, 
 we walk in slippery places, and have ever need to 
 lean on an arm stronger than our own, praying 
 " Hold up my goings that my footsteps slip not." 
 In no circumstances, and at no age, can any of us 
 
EARLY PIETY. 401 
 
 afford to forget the caution Let him that thinketh 
 he standeth take heed lest he fall. 
 
 Still youth is of all ages the most dangerous. 
 With its ardent temper, its inexperience, its cre- 
 dulousness, its impetuosity, its impatience of re- 
 straint, its unbroken passions, and feeble hands 
 to control and guide them, it requires the utmost 
 care and vigilance. " Lead us not into tempta- 
 tion," should be its daily, constant, earnest, anxious 
 prayer. 
 
 The most interesting and picturesque scenes, it 
 has been remarked, are found in those half-high- 
 land, half-lowland districts, where the wild and 
 shaggy and savage grandeur of the mountains 
 mingles with the rich and softer beauties of the 
 plain ; and so the most interesting period of life is 
 that where in youth the lightness and buoyancy 
 of childhood blends with the gravity and wisdom 
 of age. But as it is among scenes intermediate 
 between the mountains and the plain that the 
 river, which winds like a silver stream through the 
 glen, and after pursuing its calm and widening 
 course through the plains loses itself in the sea, 
 takes its wildest leaps, and, tearing its way through 
 
 2 C 
 
402 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 rocky gorges, now eddies in black pools, and anon 
 rushes roaring and foaming on its way ; so it is in 
 youth, when man, subject to the turmoil and dis- 
 turbances of impetuous passions, leaves the home 
 of his birth to enter on the world, that virtue has 
 to sustain her severest trials, and not seldom to 
 suffer her sorest falls. 
 
 How critical, how dangerous, I will say how 
 dreadful, the position of many launched, without 
 father or friend to counsel or control them, on the 
 temptations of a large city ! In what a multitude 
 of cases are large cities large graveyards of virtue, 
 honour, and honesty ; large shambles, if I may 
 say so, to which youths fresh from the country 
 and yet uncontaminated by vice, come up like 
 sheep to the slaughter ? Read the list of wrecks 
 that happen yearly on our winter nights and 
 stormy shores. And even when fancy fills our 
 ear with the shrieks of the drowning, or shows us 
 their imploring faces and dying struggles, the 
 corpses that strew the beach, the wild grief of 
 widows, the desolate home where the fatherless 
 boy weeps at a mother's knee, and the infant, un- 
 conscious of its loss, smiles or sleeps upon her 
 
EARLY PIETY. 403 
 
 breast what is that list of wrecks to that which 
 were written, had we such a record, of the men 
 and women who are year by year wrecked in their 
 youth on the dangers and vices of our towns ! 
 Let the places of business, where employers show 
 no regard to the welfare, but only to the work, of 
 those in their service, let the houses where no 
 friendly interest is taken in their domestics, in the 
 way they pass the Sabbath, in their company and 
 associates, let the scenes of public amusement, 
 the haunts of drunkards, and the hells of vice, give 
 up their secrets, as the sea does the drowned it 
 casts on its beach, and we should have a roll like 
 the prophet's, "written without and within with 
 lamentation, mourning, and woe " something 
 more shocking than the shores which the tempest 
 strews with wrecks, than fields which war covers 
 with its horrid carnage, the writhing forms of the 
 wounded and the mangled bodies of the dead. 
 
 We have always considered it a hard crook in 
 the lot of many, that they require to send their 
 children away from the virtuous influences of home 
 at the very period of life which forms the character, 
 and requires, more than any other, a parent's kind 
 
404 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 and Christian care. A dangerous transition, they 
 pass at once from the shelter and genial air of a 
 conservatory to the blast of rude tempests, to the 
 cold night and its biting frosts. Yet such is the 
 trial to which many a youth is exposed. His boy- 
 hood past, the day arrives when he must leave the 
 safe and happy home where, ever since she first 
 clasped her boy to her bosom, a mother's eye has 
 watched over him, and a father's steps have guided 
 his to the house of God, and his voice has mingled 
 in the evening psalm, and his knee bent in the 
 prayers which hallowed that home. It is a dark 
 morning in the house. Every face grave and sad, 
 they meet to pray and then to part ; and for the 
 last time a father's voice, amid a mother's sobs, 
 tremblingly commends the boy to God. But the 
 trial is past ; and, the quiet harbour left far behind, 
 with no other than his own inexperienced hand 
 on the helm, the youth finds himself among the 
 snares and sins of the city breakers a-head ; 
 roaring breakers on this bow and on that. He is 
 beset with temptations; and has now means and 
 opportunities of indulging in sin with which his 
 principles and virtue have never yet been tried 
 
EARLY PIETY. 405 
 
 At first shocked with what he hears and sees, the 
 raillery and ridicule of the wicked fail to shake his 
 virtuous resolutions. For a while he finds guard- 
 ian angels in those memories of home that are still 
 fresh and fragrant in his heart ; in the recollection 
 of a mother's last look and a father's last touching, 
 tender prayers ; in the knowledge that it would 
 wring their loving hearts should he consent when 
 sinners entice him. But time wears on ; and 
 familiarity with vice softens its harsher features. 
 It looks less shocking every day. He begins to 
 doubt whether he is not too puritanical and pre- 
 cise. And now comes the struggle. The Philis- 
 tines are on thee, Samson ! The hour of fate is 
 arrived. He has put his foot on a slide, down 
 which, unless God interpose and help, he goes to 
 destruction with growing, flying speed. Not alto- 
 gether approving, but quieting conscience by pro- 
 mises not to repeat it, he consents for once to 
 desert the house of God for some Sunday plea- 
 sure-party; to venture for once, but only once, 
 into scenes where virtue breathes the air, and dies. 
 That first act wherein he yielded to the entice- 
 ment of sinners, and whereby he did violence to 
 
406 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 conscience, is, so to speak, the first parallel of the 
 siege. The ground is not lost without many a 
 sore struggle ; yet step by step, from trench to 
 trench, the besiegers push on the attack ; at length 
 the last wall shakes, totters, falls, and a wide 
 breach is made. Now, unless Christ hold it, un- 
 less, as the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit 
 of God lift up a standard against him, unless God 
 save at the uttermost, vain all further struggle, 
 vain the efforts of expiring virtue. Exhausted 
 after some feeble strokes and show of resistance, 
 she yields, and vice conquers ; and after a while 
 parents who, forgetting and forgiving all, open 
 their doors to a child returning to die beneath 
 their roof, find nothing left to mourn over but a 
 miserable wreck their only consolation, perhaps, 
 as they stand weeping by his grave, that the turf 
 lies light on the breast of a penitent prodigal. 
 
 As the French proverb says, " It is not only the 
 first step that costs." Against that fatal step 
 the beginning of evil let me warn the young ; 
 for if Satan, to use a homely proverb, gets an 
 inch, depend on it, he will take an ell. The be- 
 ginning of sin, as well as that of strife, is like 
 
EARLY PIETY. 407 
 
 the letting out of waters at first a drop like a 
 diamond lies in a fissure, or hangs sparkling from 
 a grassy tuft of the embankment ; by and by, a 
 succession of drops like pearls falling from a 
 broken string ; by and by, a thin crystal stream ; 
 then a gush ; then a torrent ; and then, hurling 
 down the dike, a wide, thundering, resistless 
 flood, carrying havoc and death before it. Watch 
 and pray, therefore; for safety lies in avoiding 
 the approach as well as abstaining from the ap- 
 pearance of evil all toying, all tampering, with 
 temptation; in a prompt obedience to the apostle's 
 advice, Flee youthful lusts. Fight not, but flee; 
 or if fight you must, copy the old Parthians, who, 
 seated on fleet coursers and armed with bow and 
 arrows, shot from the saddle, flying as they fought. 
 If you cannot flee, then in Christ's name and 
 strength face round on the foe, and make a bold 
 stand for God ; and the virtues of youth shall 
 rebuke the vices of age, and hoary sin shall go 
 down before you armed with God's word, as did 
 the Philistine before the young shepherd and his 
 sling. Giving yourselves and the dew of your 
 youth to Christ, so far as sin is concerned, be 
 
408 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 those maxims your rule Touch not, taste not, 
 handle not. When sinners entice thee, consent 
 thou not ; but, recalling tender memories of home, 
 a father's authority, and a mother's love, follow 
 the advice of Solomon, " My son, keep thy father's 
 commandment, and forsake not the law of thy 
 mother; bind them continually about thine heart, 
 and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, 
 it shall lead thee ; when thou sleepest, it shall 
 keep thee ; when thou awakest, it shall talk with 
 thee. For the commandment is a lamp ; and the 
 law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the 
 way of life." 
 
EARLY PIETY. PART IV. 
 
 " Front a child thou hast known the 
 holy scriptures, which are able to 
 make thee wise unto salvation 
 through faith which is in Christ 
 Jesus.''* TIM. in. 15. 
 
 QOME live fast ; and growing old in constitution 
 while yet young in years, die before their 
 time their "sun is gone down while it is yet day." 
 Others work fast. Animated by ambition, and 
 sustained by untiring energy, they win for brows 
 not yet touched by its silver the fortunes and hon- 
 ours of age. Alexander the Great, for example, 
 ere he was two-and-thirty years old, had con- 
 quered Greece, Palestine, Egypt, Persia ; fought I 
 know not how many battles, and gained I know 
 not how many victories. Ere he had numbered 
 
410 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 half the years of human life, this remarkable man 
 had earned the proud title of the conqueror of the 
 world ; bestriding it like a colossus, he covered it 
 with his shadow, and at death shook it by his fall. 
 Leaving old to come down to modern times, some 
 half century ago, he who guided the helm of this 
 great empire had just entered on manhood ; yet 
 amid a hurricane of revolution that shook ancient 
 kingdoms and hurled monarchs from their thrones, 
 he was hailed as the " pilot that weathered the 
 storm." Nor is the history of the two greatest 
 generals of our, or of almost any other, days, less 
 remarkable ; seeing that ere the sun of either had 
 reached its meridian, or there was a gray hair in 
 their heads, both had shaken Europe with their 
 battles, and filled the whole world with their fame. 
 It is in the early part of the season that trees make 
 those shoots which the last months ripen : it is 
 youth that lengthens the bones which future years 
 mature and strengthen. Though they do not 
 reach their vigour, most men and women reach 
 the|r height before they are twenty ; and so, as 
 history shows, with some few and famous excep- 
 tions, the greatness of all distinguished statesmen, 
 
EARLY PIETY. 411 
 
 warriors, orators, philosophers, poets, though age 
 was required to bring their talents to perfection, 
 has been blocked out in the season of their youth. 
 The history of most pious men presents the same 
 features. Few people are converted when they are 
 old ; some are in manhood : but in most, the seeds 
 of the new life, though they lie dormant for months, 
 perhaps for years, are sown in the spring-time of 
 life. When his persecutors set before the aged 
 martyr a heathen altar and a stake, bidding him 
 decide to sacrifice to the gods or burn in the fire, 
 he boldly chose death, saying, I have served my 
 Master too long, and loved Him too well, to for- 
 sake Him now ! And as, on the one hand, no 
 man who, like him, remembered his Creator in 
 the days of his youth, forgets, or is forgotten by 
 Him when his head is hoary ; on the other hand, 
 few have remembered their Creator in manhood, 
 or old age, but those who were brought to Christ 
 before mid-life. A pious old age following a 
 youth of vice, and a manhood of worldliness and 
 indifference to religion, is not the rule, butj^the 
 exception and a rare exception. There is a 
 close analogy here between the phenomena of the 
 
412 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 material and the spiritual world ; conversions in 
 old age, or advanced manhood, being as un- 
 common as a fine afternoon with cloudless skies 
 and a glowing sunset, unless the rain ceases, and 
 the weather clear before twelve o'clock. 
 
 Look, for example, at the brightest names, the 
 greatest saints in Scripture history. Almost all 
 were examples of early piety. Look at David ! 
 Called by Samuel in his boyhood to be a king, 
 but ere that anointed with oil more precious 
 than flowed from the prophet's horn, how young 
 his years, yet how mature his piety ; and how 
 wonderful the faith which accepted the giant's 
 challenge, and entering the lists against a son of 
 Anak, proved itself the strongest of the two ! 
 Look at Josiah wearing the crown when eight 
 years old ; the youngest king who ever sat on a 
 throne, yet swaying the helm of state with a 
 firmness that astonished his oldest and ablest 
 statesmen. It was a sight to see that child seated 
 on David's throne ; robed priests and gray-haired 
 councillors bowing before him ; and the boy, with 
 a hand that hardly grasps the round of the 
 sceptre, guiding it with a wisdom that would have 
 
EARLY PIETY. 413 
 
 saved the kingdom from shipwreck had that been 
 possible. But the palace presented a still more 
 illustrious spectacle ; this boy, belonging to a 
 class that has few kings in it, walking with God 
 when his years were only twelve, and his feet 
 were surrounded by the snares and temptations 
 of a court. More than that, he was working 
 for God with the energy of a Luther attacking 
 abuses, bringing out God's own Word to the 
 light of day, and pursuing the work of public 
 reformation with a zeal which has never been 
 surpassed in the best periods of the Church's 
 history. Look also at Daniel and his three 
 companions the captive youths who maintained 
 their purity amid the seductions of a heathen 
 court, and, though borne away into distant exile, 
 unlike many of our youths, remembered in Baby- 
 lon the house of their God and the land of their 
 fathers. With prayer, they sustained their faith, 
 and sanctified their chamber; and many a time 
 the sentinels, as they walked their nightly rounds, 
 heard them singing strange sounds within palace 
 walls the songs of Sion and of Jerusalem, their 
 chiefest joy. Unless piety had struck its roots 
 
414 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 deep when their hearts were soft, yet young and 
 tender, and had grown with their growth, and 
 strengthened with their strength, it had never 
 endured their fiery trial ; nor stood erect against 
 a power that bowed the heads of the multitude 
 before the royal image like reeds or corn before 
 the wind. They grew up into the stoutest men, 
 with frames of strongest bone and toughest 
 muscle, who are not stinted, but well fed in 
 youth ; and to early piety those brave, ancient 
 witnesses owed the faith that stood undaunted 
 before the ravening lions, and the blaze of the 
 fiery furnace. 
 
 In further recommending early piety, I observe 
 that youth is the best period for acquiring reli- 
 gious knowledge. 
 
 This remark holds so true of all knowledge, 
 secular as well as sacred, that in another country 
 they use this striking saying, " What the boy 
 does not learn, the man does not know." In 
 powers of attention, if volatile, easily roused, in 
 rest^ss activity, an insatiable curiosity, enthu- 
 siasm, buoyant spirits, and a ready as well as 
 tenacious memory, God has given to youth such 
 
EARLY PIETY. 415 
 
 an aptitude for acquiring knowledge that it may 
 well be called the seed-time of life ; and to this 
 season let both parents and children, teachers 
 and scholars, apply the wise man's advice, " In 
 the morning sow thy seed." It is the young and 
 tender root that penetrates the soil; it is when 
 its fibres are delicate that, entering the fissures 
 and following all their windings, it passes into 
 the heart of the rock ; and the earlier the mind, 
 brought in contact with religion, is turned on its 
 great and greatest subjects, the better hold it 
 takes of them ; and though at first feeling lost 
 in a maze of mysteries, the more thoroughly in 
 after life will it comprehend, and, like a root 
 warped around the rock, the more firmly will it 
 hold them. 
 
 Of the advantage of a thorough religious in- 
 struction in early life, where could I find a better 
 illustration than in my own countrymen their 
 faults, which I would rather correct than conceal, 
 notwithstanding ? Germany, while boasting of 
 them, has to a large extent abandoned the faith 
 of Luther and her other great Reformers. Geneva 
 prides herself on having been, if not the birth- 
 
4T6 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 place, for that honour belongs to France, the home 
 of Calvin ; yet his creed not in any of its peculiar 
 but in all of its broadest evangelical doctrines is 
 repudiated in most of her pulpits. Her pastors 
 preach doctrines which his soul abhorred, and her 
 people love to have it so. In other countries, what 
 a diversity of religious opinions prevail, not among 
 different churches only, but within the distracted 
 bosom of the same church ! these lands, not 
 merely in their ecclesiastical but in their doctrina 1 
 systems, wearing creeds of as many colours as 
 Joseph's coat. Now why is it that, notwithstand- 
 ing the divisions in Scotland, her people, to what- 
 ever section of the Presbyterian Church they 
 attached themselves, have clung with proverbial 
 tenacity to their fathers' faith ; and in the contest 
 with Popery or Infidelity, Antinomianism or 
 Socinianism, have stood as firm as her sons in 
 bloody battles and on other fields ? When other 
 churches have left their old anchorage, and, 
 " driven with the wind and tossed," have made 
 shipwreck of the faith, how is it that during the 
 last three centuries the people of Scotland have 
 stood by the old truth as " steadfast and immov- 
 
EARLY PIETY. 417 
 
 able" as the mountains that guard her glens, or 
 the rocks that girdle her storm-beaten shores ? 
 How is it that here, where we have our full 
 share of ecclesiastical divisions, no minister of 
 the gospel has lapsed into Popery, and hardly 
 one of her people ? not more, certainly, than will 
 be found in every age flying off, at a tangent, 
 into some religious absurdity ? How is it that 
 Rome has made so few recruits here ? that 
 the Scarlet Woman has seduced so few with 
 her music, painting, dramatic spectacles, and 
 meretricious ornaments ? These are facts, and, 
 though we say it in no spirit of boasting, very 
 remarkable facts. Now, since there is no effect 
 without a cause, there must be some way of 
 accounting for this. Nor is it far to seek. The 
 circumstances admit of an obvious and easy ex- 
 planation. 
 
 When George Whitefield came to Edinburgh 
 nothing struck or pleased him so much as the 
 sound that rose in the church when he happened 
 to quote a passage of Scripture giving book, 
 chapter, and verse. His hearers, as was their 
 
 wont, had taken God's Word with them to God's 
 
 2 D 
 
418 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 house ; and as they turned up the passage, the 
 leaves of two thousand Bibles rustled, like the 
 sound of the wind among trees, in his astonished 
 ear. To their thorough Bible-knowledge instruc- 
 tion, illustrated by that anecdote, and given to 
 her youth in the house and in all her schools, 
 and to the complete drill and training which her 
 children, young men and women, get in that 
 Shorter Catechism which, the work chiefly of 
 English divines, and a remarkable compend of 
 theology, takes a hold of the mind singularly 
 firm, Scotland owes it that though a hundred 
 storms have blown, and blown their worst, she 
 rides to-day over the very ground where the 
 Reformers dropped their anchor three centuries 
 ago. The tenacity with which, in spite of all 
 their faults, and differences, and divisions, my 
 countrymen have adhered to their ancient and 
 common faith, illustrates the effect for to no- 
 thing else can it be ascribed of a thorough reli- 
 gious training in youth. Rich stores of divine 
 knowledge are then most easily acquired. Deep 
 and saving impressions are then most easily made. 
 It is young recruits that become the best soldiers, 
 
EARLY PIETY. 419 
 
 and young apprentices the best mechanics ; and 
 the best Christians, in like manner, are those of 
 whom, trained by a Lois or a Eunice, a saintly 
 mother or mother's mother, we can say, in St 
 Paul's words to Timothy, " From a child thou hast 
 known the holy scriptures, which are able to 
 make thee wise unto salvation, through faith 
 which is in Christ Jesus." 
 
 In youth the heart is most impressible. 
 
 Children are emotional as easily moved by 
 anything calculated to make them weep or laugh, 
 love or hate, be grave or gay, be sad or merry, 
 as the surface of a lake by the breeze that sweeps 
 over it. But the affections of childhood, having 
 at that inexperienced and unripe age no sound 
 judgment to direct them, resemble those pliant 
 tendrils which are ready to attach themselves to 
 any object whatever; to cling, to twine themselves 
 as readily in close embrace around some broken 
 branch that lies rotting on the earth, as around 
 the tree on whose strong and stately stem they 
 might climb to the skies. Besides being charac- 
 terised by a want of sound judgment, childhood 
 wants steadiness in its affections. They are easily 
 
420 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 transferred to new objects. The impressions made 
 on its heart are lively, but not deep or abiding. 
 How soon the infant forgets a dead mother ; and 
 with the arms it throws around her neck transfers 
 its love to the nurse that fills a mother's place. 
 Before the sod is green above his grave, the boys 
 that wept a father's loss, and walked so pale 
 and pitiful behind his coffin, have resumed their 
 gaiety ; and, but that memory sometimes casts a 
 passing shadow on their enjoyments, are as bright 
 and buoyant as the happiest of their playmates. 
 Calamity passes through their hearts, not like a 
 ploughshare through the soil, but a ship's keel 
 through the sea ; the furrow soon fills up, and 
 in a short while childhood retains hardly any 
 more trace of trials in its heart than of tears 
 on its cheek. 
 
 In manhood, on the other hand, the judgment 
 is or should be ripe ; but what the intellect has 
 gained in ripeness, the heart has lost in tender- 
 ness, in impressibility. Cooled by age as well as 
 by contact with the world, it has lost the glow 
 of early days ; and since religion addresses itself 
 both to the judgment and the affections, both to 
 
EARLY PIETY. 421 
 
 the understanding and the feelings, as well to 
 the head as to the heart, youth, since, lying mid- 
 way between childhood and manhood, it possesses 
 the lively affections of the first, and the somewhat 
 matured reason of the second, is, therefore, of all 
 the ages of life, the most favourable for receiving 
 saving impressions and turning to God. At the 
 mouth of our great valleys, on the shores of those 
 noble estuaries where our largest rivers join the 
 arms of the sea, there lie alluvial lands, flat and 
 fertile. There, in former ages, vast floods that 
 filled the glens and swept their hill-sides, deposited 
 the rich soil they carried in their muddy waters. 
 There now the husbandman raises his richest 
 crops ; not, however, unless in tilling the land, 
 ploughing and sowing the fields, he seizes that 
 auspicious time between the wet and the dry, 
 when the clayey loam is neither hard nor soft, 
 but between the two. Such a season youth offers 
 for that higher cultivation, where the seed is the 
 words of eternal life, the soul is the soil, preachers 
 are the sowers, angels shall be the reapers, and 
 heavenly, eternal blessings are the rewards of faith 
 and patience, of love and labour. Once gone, this 
 
422 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 most auspicious period never returns. Once lost, 
 it is never recovered. 
 
 The prayer, "Remember not against me the sins 
 of my youth," no doubt holds out hope to such as 
 have let slip this precious time. Thank God, they 
 are not to despair. Still, though Almighty grace 
 may work a saving change at a later, and even in 
 the latest period of life, not only does the proba- 
 bility of that grow less with every year's, and 
 indeed hour's delay, but the finest specimens of 
 piety are found in those who were converted and 
 called when, as in the case of the good King 
 Josiah, their hearts were young and tender. The 
 practice of sin, persevered in, and prolonged over 
 a period of guilty years, so blunts the conscience 
 that it never recovers the fineness of its edge ; nor 
 is the heart capable of receiving the most delicate 
 and beautiful impressions of Christ's image, unless 
 they are stamped on it while, like metals or melted 
 wax, it is soft and tender ere it has grown hard 
 and cold. 
 
 And what so adapted to youth as religion ; 
 what offers so many, such suitable, and such noble 
 objects to its affections? Youth is enthusiastic: 
 
EARLY PIETY, 423 
 
 and what field for the loftiest enthusiasm like the 
 salvation of a miserable and perishing world ? 
 Youth is brave : and more courage is often re- 
 quired of the Christian than of him who throws 
 himself into the life-boat, and pulls through the 
 breakers to the sinking wreck. Men have found 
 it a harder thing to stand up for Christ before 
 a battery of ridicule than, dashing through the 
 smoke of battle, to charge a battery of cannon ! 
 Youth is generous : and where such scope for the 
 purest generosity as in the call to take up our 
 cross, deny ourselves daily, and follow Jesus in 
 living and labouring for the good of others ? 
 Youth is earnest and impetuous : and this is the 
 very temper religion urgently requires ; it calls 
 us to give all diligence to make our calling and 
 election sure, since we know not what an hour 
 may bring forth ; this, not another, being the 
 accepted time; to-day, not to-morrow, being the 
 day of salvation. The door is closing, and the 
 grave is opening : haste, for your life, it says ; leap 
 into the ark ; another day, another hour, even an- 
 other moment, may be a long eternity too late. 
 Once more, youth is prone to love : and in all 
 
424 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 God's universe what object so fair, so lovely, so 
 worthy of our warmest affections, as He, the dear 
 divine Redeemer, to whose bleeding brows belongs 
 the wreath that David wove for Jonathan's, " Thy 
 love to me was wonderful, passing the love of 
 woman !" 
 
 It is well to give Jesus even blighted affections 
 and a broken heart; it is well, when the world 
 cannot fill our hearts, to turn our trembling steps 
 from its broken cisterns to the fountain of living 
 water ; it is well, when experience has taught us 
 that earth has no pillow without its thorns, to 
 go and lay the aching, weary head on Jesus' 
 bosom ; it is well when the battered ship, with 
 sails blown to ribbons and masts gone by the 
 board, makes through the roaring sea for a har- 
 bour of rest and refuge ; it is well when man turns 
 from his shattered fortunes, and maids from their 
 false lovers, and mothers from their sweet, pale, 
 lifeless coffined idols, to throw themselves at the 
 feet or into the arms of Jesus. But it is better 
 still, seeking Him early, to give our youth to 
 Christ ; with its glistening dews to bathe the Rose 
 of Sharon ; to honour God with our first-fruits ; 
 
EARLY PIETY. 425 
 
 to assign the Saviour such a place in our hearts as 
 His poor, mangled body found in Joseph's tomb 
 one where no man had been laid. 
 
 It is a grand testimony to religion to see a gray 
 and bent old man standing by the door of mercy, 
 and with voice and hand, with loud and urgent 
 knocking, imploring God to open and let him in ; 
 but much nobler the testimony, and finer the 
 spectacle, while he is muttering of the world, 
 " Vanity, vanity, and vexation of spirit," to see 
 a youth in the very flower and beauty of his age 
 refuse her tempting cup ; turn away his head from 
 her alluring smiles ; and, in happy ignorance of 
 her forbidden pleasures, resolve to give himself to 
 Christ and a life of high and holy virtues saying, 
 both of the fair tempter and her temptations, " My 
 soul, come not thou into their secret ; with them, 
 mine honour, be not thou united !" 
 
 Youth, as securing him the best of our life, 
 should be consecrated to God. 
 
 In old age, men offer Him but the dregs of the 
 cup ; and a wonder it is that any one is spared 
 to have dregs to offer. When men employ their 
 time and talents, their health, their strength, their 
 
426 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 genius, not to serve, but injure, the cause of God, 
 and turning His gifts against the Giver, wound the 
 very hand that blesses them, one wonders at the 
 long-suffering and patience of God ; that He does 
 not shake them off, as St Paul did the viper, into 
 the fire. Who can think of the load of obligations 
 under which daily mercies lay us, on the care of 
 that ceaseless Providence, without which we would 
 expire any instant, our health would turn into 
 sickness, our reason into madness, and our bless- 
 ings into curses, and especially on what, in the 
 person of His beloved Son, God has done and 
 given to save us, who can reflect on these things 
 and not be astonished at the base ingratitude 
 which would put Him off with the wretched ser- 
 vices of old age ; the forced reformation and re- 
 pentance of a dying bed ? Ingratitude and insen- 
 sibility this, against which God with a sublime 
 majesty might appeal again to creation, saying, 
 " Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth : I have 
 nourished and brought up children, and they have 
 rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, 
 and the ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not 
 know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful 
 
EARLY PIETY. 427 
 
 nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of 
 evil doers, children that are corrupters ; they have 
 forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy 
 One of Israel." 
 
 There are many formidable and fatal heresies. 
 Some deny the divinity of our blessed Lord, re- 
 ducing the Son of God to the common level of 
 humanity. Some strip the Holy Bible of its lofty 
 claims to inspiration, reducing it to the common 
 level of other books. Some repudiate the doc- 
 trines of the fall of man ; of the corruption of our 
 nature ; of the atonement ; of the imputation of 
 our sin to Christ, and of His righteousness to us. 
 But, with whatever horror we may regard such 
 dangerous errors, there is no error more dangerous 
 or fatal, more likely to sink a man into perdition, 
 than the notion that it is sufficient to seek God at 
 the close of a life devoted to sinful pleasures, and 
 passed in worldly pursuits. Other heresies slay 
 their thousands ; this, I fear, its tens of thousands. 
 
 In His dear Son, God has given to us the best 
 He had to bestow ; and is He not entitled to the 
 best of ours in return? Insult is harder to bear 
 than injury; and what more insulting to the kind- 
 
428 EARLY PIETY. 
 
 ness, love, mercy, and majesty of our God than in 
 effect to say, I will turn to Him when I can do no 
 better ; so long as I can sin safely, I will do it ; so 
 long as I can venture to despise Him, I will do it ; 
 so long as my portion lasts, careless of my Father's 
 displeasure, I'll play the prodigal, nor seek His 
 house till want sends me a beggar to His door 
 till the roar of the cataract warns me that to per- 
 severe will be to perish. I will sail down the 
 stream of pleasure, nor heed the voice that en- 
 treats me to turn, crying, " Turn ye, turn ye, why 
 will ye die!" 
 
 Suppose, then, it were as easy to bend a bough 
 when its bark is hoar with age, as when it was 
 green and young ; suppose it as easy to stop the 
 course of a stone when it is whirling, smoking, 
 leaping, thundering down into the valley, as when, 
 just loosened, it began to move from its bed ; sup- 
 pose it as easy to turn the river from its course, 
 where it sweeps on to the sea, as the rill by its 
 mossy fountain ; suppose it as easy to mould the 
 clay, when grown dry and hard, as when it will 
 receive on its plastic surface the impression of a 
 new-blown leaf; suppose you could expect to reap 
 
EARLY PIETY. 429 
 
 a crop from land neither ploughed nor sown till 
 trees were bare and hills were white ; suppose old 
 age were a favourable time to be saved ; are the 
 poor services that it can render such as this lost 
 world needs such as the interests of the Church 
 of God require such as the cross of Calvary de- 
 serves such as He who gave His Son for us 
 should receive at our hands? Let us reject the 
 notion. How plainly is it rejected, how strongly 
 condemned, in this touching expostulation : " A 
 son honoureth his father, and a servant his master. 
 If then I be a father, where is mine honour? and 
 if I be a master, where is my fear ? If ye offer the 
 blind for sacrifice, is it not evil ? and if ye offer the 
 lame and sick, is it not evil ? Offer it now unto 
 thy governor ; will he be pleased with thee, or 
 accept thy person ? saith the Lord of Hosts !" 
 Rejecting a thought that equally insults the ma- 
 jesty of Heaven and the mercy of the Cross, let 
 us offer the best, first-fruits of our life to God, and 
 Remember our Creator in the days of our youth. 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 tl The harvest is past, the summer is 
 ended, and we are not saved." 
 JER. viii. 20. 
 
 TT is in the form of one bending beneath the 
 weight of years, and advancing with feeble 
 steps, that Solomon paints man travelling to the 
 grave; and, though done with a trembling hand, 
 how graphic and true his touches ? " The keepers 
 of the house shall tremble " the arms that held 
 the plough, or plied the shuttle, or wielded the 
 sword, shake with palsy ; " the strong men shall 
 bow themselves" the limbs, those pillars of the 
 frame, shrunk and shrivelled, totter beneath its 
 weight; "the grinders cease" the teeth decay, 
 and drop from their sockets, warning man that he 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 431 
 
 himself shall soon drop into his grave ; " those 
 that look out of the windows be darkened " the 
 eye, that window where the soul sits looking out 
 on the world, grows dim with years, and man 
 enters the shadow of the tomb before he enters 
 itself; "he shall rise up at the voice of the bird" 
 the sleep of the cradle is calm, that of robust 
 youth long and deep, but old age brings broken 
 slumbers, and wakes with the birds that sing in 
 the dawn ; " the daughters of music shall be 
 brought low" deafness swells the train of infir- 
 mities, and amid the cheerful circle the old man, 
 cut off while alive from communion with the liv- 
 ing, sits with furrowed brow and snowy head in 
 a solitude which only religion can cheer ; " they 
 shall be afraid of that which is high " with heart 
 enfeebled, he leaves others to breast heights and 
 hills, and, staff in hand, creeps along the flat 
 shore or the level sward ; " the almond tree shall 
 flourish " his head is white as its blossoms, with 
 the frost of age ; " the grasshopper shall be a 
 burden " such his weakness, though as the tiny 
 insect leaps from blade to blade, the grass hardly 
 bends beneath its weight ; and, last of all, " desire 
 
43 2 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 shall fail " the very wish for pleasures dies with 
 the power of enjoying them. A miserable exist- 
 ence, unless where holy desires survive the decay 
 of nature, and the saint longs for the hour when 
 the dissolution of his old, crazy, earthly tabernacle 
 shall set him free for his flight to heaven ! 
 
 So Solomon paints man, to use his own words, 
 as going "to his long home." But instead of 
 a gray, decrepit man creeping slowly along a 
 shadowy vista, with a grave yawning to receive 
 him, he might have introduced a beautiful, rosy, 
 gleesome child, bounding on over the short course 
 between its cradle and a tomb. The journey to 
 the long home one which we begin with life and 
 are all engaged in is long to some and short to 
 others. The infant commences it before it has 
 learned to walk; the old man continues it when 
 his limbs are too feeble to bear him across the 
 floor. It is one we carry on sleeping as well as 
 waking on Sabbath as on other days on which 
 we never halt, till we stumble into the grave 
 which is dug at the end of the road. On this 
 journey we go swiftly flashing through the 
 threads of life like a weaver's shuttle ; we go in- 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 433 
 
 cessantly moving night and day, like the hands 
 that circle round the hours ; our heart beating 
 on like a pendulum, till the clock, wound up to 
 go a certain time, has run down, or accident stops 
 its motion. 
 
 We all are on the way to the long home ; and 
 at this season of the year* our position is that 
 of travellers who have reached the summit of 
 a mountain range that parts two great valleys. 
 Standing on one of Time's lofty watersheds, we 
 have left one year behind, and the next, into 
 which we are about to descend, lies stretched out 
 before us. In such circumstances it is natural to 
 do two things : first, to look back, taking a retro- 
 spect : and, secondly, to look forward, and try to 
 pierce the veil which, like a gray mist spread 
 over the valley, conceals the future from our view. 
 
 The Retrospect. One of the strangest things we 
 meet with is to see consummate wisdom so far 
 as the interests of this world are concerned, and 
 consummate folly as to everything belonging to 
 the next, in one and the same person just as in 
 
 * This discourse was preached on the last Sabbath of the year. 
 
 2 E 
 
434 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 the bed of the Rhone after it has received the 
 turbulent Arve the spectator sees two volumes of 
 water that for a while flow on side by side the 
 one foul, the other so beautifully blue and pure 
 that it looks like a liquid sky. Once on a time 
 a vessel, freighted with gold, was wrecked in cir- 
 cumstances which left her crew no chance of life 
 but swimming to the distant shore. Some had 
 committed themselves to the deep ; others were 
 stripping for the struggle; when one, turning an 
 avaricious eye on the treasure, seized the fortune 
 at his hand. Infatuated wretch ! His fellows 
 remonstrated, but in vain. Loaded with gold, he 
 leaps from the ship, and strikes out bravely for 
 the shore. But by and by his strokes grow 
 feebler, quicker then a short convulsive struggle 
 and then, borne down by the weight he carries, 
 he sinks beneath the wave. What a fool he was ! 
 We had not been such fools ! so many say, and 
 perhaps truly ; and yet, guilty of greater folly, 
 they allow themselves to be so engaged, and in- 
 deed engrossed with the pursuits of time, whether 
 of business or pleasure, as to neglect their salva- 
 tion, and lose their souls. 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 435 
 
 The children of this world are wise in their 
 generation! If a man is building a house, he 
 takes good care, in the first place, to get a sound 
 foundation. Is it a lighthouse, to stand with its 
 tall form and burning head a lonely pillar amid 
 tempestuous seas ? beneath the sand and shells 
 that storms have flung on the fatal reef he goes 
 down to the solid rock, seeking a foundation 
 which cannot be moved. And after having se- 
 cured a good foundation, in laying one course 
 on another, in raising story over story, the work 
 of examination keeps pace with the work of 
 building. By square and plummet he proves his 
 work ; teaching us, even when we are resting, in 
 the righteousness of Christ, on the Rock of Ages 
 in view of events which shall try every man's 
 work, how we should bring ours to the test of 
 God's holy Word. 
 
 This retrospect should embrace the way in 
 which we have discharged our duty to God. 
 
 It is much easier to say what God has done 
 for us than what we have done for Him. That 
 opens up a vast subject; His bounty presenting 
 the aspect of a majestic river, which, never frozen 
 
436 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 by winter nor dried by summer, winds full and 
 flowing through the past. To reckon up the 
 blessings which we have received at His hand 
 would prove, in fact, a task as impossible as to 
 number the dew-drops on the glittering sward, 
 the leaves of a forest, or the sands of ocean. No 
 doubt, as life is at the best but a chequered scene, 
 we may have been afflicted ; yet how far have our 
 mercies outnumbered our miseries ? Besides, who 
 has not been afflicted less than his iniquities de- 
 served ? Besides, does not faith in the assurance 
 that all things shall work for good to them who 
 love God, and are the called according to His 
 purpose, fling a bright bow on life's blackest 
 cloud ? work such change on our trials as the 
 branch which Moses cast in on Marah's waters, 
 turning bitter to sweet and evil to good ? 
 
 When God has done so much for us, nothing 
 can be more reasonable than to inquire what we 
 have done for Him ; and anticipate by a few 
 years, or days perhaps, the hour when He shall 
 address to each of us these solemn words, Thou 
 shalt be no longer steward; give an account of 
 thy stewardship. 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 437 
 
 Opportunities of serving, honouring, glorifying, 
 speaking for Him have occurred every day of the 
 past year ; and have they been improved, or 
 neglected ? Of our whole time He claims a 
 seventh part fifty-two days in every year, and 
 therefore no less than ten whole years in the 
 threescore and ten of human life all this for His 
 special service; communion with Him; and pre- 
 paration for a world of which this is but the ves- 
 tibule. How much work for God might we have 
 done in fifty-two busy days ? how much has 
 been done ? Required to do all for His glory 
 even in matters of eating and drinking, can we 
 recall any one thing we have done for that end ? 
 any one word we have spoken on behalf of His 
 cause, to the praise of His honour ? any one 
 effort we have put forth to be saved, or to save 
 others ? Alas ! on reviewing the past, the holiest, 
 the best and busiest of us have to acknowledge 
 ourselves " unprofitable servants ; " and as to 
 others, with a whole year misspent, abused, utterly 
 lost, they seem miracles of sparing mercy ; nor 
 does one know whether most to wonder at their 
 ingratitude, or admire His long-suffering who 
 
438 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 even yet delays to strike, waiting to be gra- 
 cious. 
 
 This retrospect should embrace the way in 
 which we have discharged our duty to our own 
 souls. 
 
 It were sad if, on reviewing the past year, with 
 all its opportunities, we could come to no other 
 conclusion than this "The harvest is past, the 
 summer is ended, and we are not saved ! " We 
 may have increased our store of earthly comforts, 
 we may have clambered up some steps higher in 
 society, we may have added broad acres to our 
 estate hundreds or thousands to our wealth ; 
 but, if we are not saved, we have only increased 
 the difficulties of our salvation and the terrors of 
 death. Nor, should we die now, have we any 
 other sentence to pronounce on our works than 
 Solomon pronounced on his I looked on all the 
 works which my hands had made, and on all 
 the labour which I had laboured to do ; and be- 
 hold all was vanity and vexation of spirit ; and 
 there was no profit under the sun. We have 
 spent our money for that which is not bread, and 
 our labour for that which satisfieth not : and, with 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 439 
 
 more toil and care and trouble than had been 
 required to build a bower in Paradise, we have 
 been training up a green, dying gourd in the vain 
 hope of finding beneath its leaves the happiness 
 found only in Him who is as an hiding-place 
 from the wind, and a covert from the tempest ; 
 as the shadow of a great rock in a weary 
 land. 
 
 Happy those who did not see the old year die 
 with unforgiven sins on its gray head, nor dread 
 meeting it again at God's bar of judgment. 
 Happy those whom it found in a state of enmity, 
 and left at peace with God. Happy those who, 
 on taking stock and striking a balance, if I may 
 so speak, find themselves poorer in spirit and 
 richer in grace who, on examining into their 
 position, find that though nearer the grave they 
 are riper for heaven, nearer to glory ; and that a 
 year which, making many wives widows and 
 children orphans, turning some hopes into fruit 
 and blasting others in the flower, has wrought 
 many changes, has changed them to the better 
 chastened and sanctified them ; so that they say, 
 "we all, with open face beholding as in a glass 
 
440 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same 
 image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit 
 of the Lord." 
 
 This retrospect should embrace the way in 
 which we have done our duty to others. 
 
 The Life of Jesus, the title of many good and 
 some bad books, has filled volumes. So full was 
 that life of gracious utterances, and so crowded 
 with works of majesty and mercy, that the evan- 
 gelist St John says, " If they should be written 
 every one, I suppose that even the world itself 
 could not contain the books that should be writ- 
 ten." Yet the Life of Jesus may be summed up 
 in this one short sentence, He went about doing 
 good. This brought Him from heaven and nailed 
 Him to the cross : for this object He lived, for it 
 He died. Fancy our Lord on one of those moun- 
 tain tops, where, with the world beneath and the 
 heavens a.bove Him, He courted solitude, taking 
 a quiet survey of one of His years looking back 
 on all the works which His hands had wrought, 
 and on all the labour that He had laboured to do. 
 How crowded the year with miracles and mercies 
 sinners warned ; mourners comforted ; the dead 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 441 
 
 rising at His word ; the blind gazing on His 
 blessed face ; the deaf listening with rapture to 
 His words ; the dumb singing His praises and 
 proclaiming His name and power; more good 
 crowded into one short day of that life than is 
 spread over long years of ours ! 
 
 Unless the same mind be in us that was in 
 Jesus Christ, we are none of His. So it behoves 
 us to consider what testimony, in good attempted 
 or done to others, the past year bears to the 
 genuineness of our Christianity. Whom have we 
 warned ? In our family, or in the circle of our 
 friends or neighbours, whom have we sought to 
 bring to Jesus ? What hungry ones have we fed, 
 what naked clothed? Whose wrongs have we 
 sought to redress, whose sorrows attempted to 
 alleviate ? Whose cup has been filled out of 
 ours? What widow's heart have we made to sing 
 for joy ? Of the two, a river that fed of heaven 
 and swelling beyond its banks spreads its waters 
 on the thirsty fields, or a whirlpool that, moving 
 around itself, and drawing all things to its centre, 
 swallows them up into its own greedy and devour- 
 ing vortex which does our course most re- 
 
442 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 semble ? In the year that is gone has the world 
 been the better or the worse of us ? 
 
 It behoves us to consider these things, nor go 
 recklessly on with such as, during the whole past 
 year, and indeed their whole past life, have never 
 given one hour of self-examination to a serious 
 review of their life. What recklessness is this ? 
 in our circumstances, what madness ? Do we 
 sail a sea where there is neither storm, nor cross 
 tides, nor sunken rock, nor shifting sandbanks, 
 that w r e go so merrily on with songs below, and 
 dances on the deck ; neither keeping watch, nor 
 taking observations, nor heaving the lead for 
 soundings ? There were fewer souls, as well as 
 ships lost, if men would use the means of safety. 
 We shrink from examining ourselves ; but if, 
 when judging our own cause with a strong bias 
 in our own favour, we cannot bear to examine 
 ourselves, how shall we stand at the bar of divine 
 judgment how endure the searching eye of God ? 
 " If thou hast run with the footmen and they have 
 wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with 
 horses ? and if in the land of peace wherein thou 
 trustedst they weaned thee, then how wilt thou 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 443 
 
 do in the swelling of Jordan ? " Here, more 
 than anywhere else, it is well to know the worst. 
 None are beyond the reach of redemption, whom 
 to awaken to a sense of their condition would 
 only be to torment before their time. Men are 
 going to ruin ; but not like the boat that was 
 seen shooting the rapid, and had reached a point 
 above the cataract where no power could stem 
 the raging current. To the horror of those who 
 watched it shooting on to destruction, a man was 
 seen on board, and asleep. The spectators ran 
 along the banks. They cried ; they shouted ; and 
 the sleeper awoke at length to take in all his 
 danger at one fearful glance. To spring to his 
 feet, to throw himself on the bench, to seize the 
 oars, to strain every nerve in superhuman efforts 
 to turn the boat's head to the shore, was the 
 work of an instant. But in vain. Away went 
 the bark to its doom, like an arrow from the 
 bow. It hangs a moment on the edge of the 
 gulf ; and then, is gone for ever. Suppose a 
 man to be as near hell ! if I could awaken him, 
 I would. The dying thief was saved in the act 
 of going over into perdition. Christ caught and 
 
444 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 saved him there. And He who is mighty to save, 
 saving at the uttermost, can save, though all our 
 life were wasted to its last breath, if that last 
 breath is spent in gasping out St Peter's cry, " Save 
 me, Lord, I perish ! " 
 
 The Prospect. Inspired of God, men have fore- 
 told coming events ; and so have others who 
 were neither prophets, nor prophets' sons. To 
 Kirkcaldy of Grange, then holding out Edinburgh 
 Castle against the Protestant Reforming party, 
 with whom he was once associated, John Knox 
 (as I remarked on another occasion) sent a re- 
 markable message from his death-bed. "Warn 
 him," said the dying man, " not to trust in 
 yon craggy rock, from which he shall be shame- 
 fully dragged to be hanged up in the face of the 
 sun." And, improbable as to many at the time 
 it seemed, it fell out as Knox had predicted. He 
 was dragged from his stronghold, like a ruffled 
 eagle from her rocky nest, and ignominiously 
 hanged in the face of day. The secret of the 
 Lord, says the Bible, is with them that fear Him ; 
 and in regard to extraordinary communications 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 445 
 
 of His will and mind, who shall limit the Holy 
 One of Israel ? But the great Reformer made no 
 claim to the gift of prophecy ; and whatever 
 powers were attributed to him in a superstitious 
 age, those who honour his memory regard Knox 
 as having been nothing more than a man of more 
 than ordinary sagacity. Penetrating through the 
 mask of false pretences into men's real designs, 
 and reasoning from causes to their legitimate 
 effects, he owed his fame, as one inspired, to the 
 seer-like certainty with which he foresaw and 
 foretold the natural issue of affairs. 
 
 History, in a sense, is prophecy ; since, accord- 
 ing to the words of Solomon, "that which is to 
 be hath already been." It is so to a large extent 
 in the kingdom of Nature ; her sequences and 
 her seasons being fixed by unalterable laws, each 
 running year just repeats the past. And thus, 
 though groves are mute and fields are naked now, 
 we can predict that spring shall come with open- 
 ing buds and singing birds ; and summer come, 
 her green lap filled with flowers ; and brown 
 autumn come, armed with the reaper's sickle and 
 crowned with ears of corn. 
 
446 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 Taking men in the mass, so is it in regard to 
 their fortunes and destiny to vary the mode but 
 not the sense of the wise man's adage, That which 
 hath already been is that which is to be. This 
 does not apply to individuals ; since many who 
 lived last year three hundred and sixty-five days, 
 shall not live this year as many hours. Nor 
 does it apply to individual homes and households 
 the cradle shall give place to the coffin ; the 
 marriage last year formed, this shall dissolve ; and, 
 on the other hand, a tide of good fortune coming 
 with the turn of the year, many before its close^ 
 taking their harp from the willow-tree, shall sit 
 singing with Hannah, " My heart rejoiceth in the 
 Lord ; mine horn is exalted in the Lord ; for the 
 Lord killeth and maketh alive ; he bringeth down 
 to the grave and bringeth up." But though the 
 fortunes of individual persons, or single families, 
 may vary much from year to year, it is otherwise 
 with masses of men. In regard to these, the events 
 of last year, whether they were good or evil, shall 
 find their counterpart in this, and thus the retro- 
 spect becomes a prospect, and the past presents a 
 magic mirror in which we can descry the future. 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 447 
 
 Thus some shall continue to neglect salvation. 
 
 A rope thrown to a drowning man, if well 
 thrown once, does not need to be twice thrown. 
 It needs no eloquent speaker on pier or bank to 
 address the sinking wretch and persuade him not 
 to " neglect so great salvation." Let it go spin- 
 ning out within clutch of his eager hands, and 
 how he grasps it ; and holds it with the grim 
 gripe of death! But it is not once, or twice, or 
 twenty times that salvation in these last twelve 
 months has been offered ; and to this day many 
 have obstinately, madly, refused to accept it. By 
 preachers and His providences, even as a father 
 pleadeth with his children, God has pled with 
 them ; His Son has implored them ; though vexed 
 and grieved by their obstinacy, His Spirit has 
 continued to strive with them the year has 
 brought them a thousand opportunities of being 
 saved ; yet it is gone, and they are not saved. 
 Alas ! in the words of Scripture, " The harvest is 
 past, and summer is ended, and we are not saved." 
 Give men an opportunity of escape do literally 
 what Christ is figuratively said to do, " proclaim 
 liberty to the captive, and the opening of the 
 
448 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 prison to them that are bound," disarm the 
 warders, throw open the cells and what a rush 
 for liberty ! and, after a brief space of wild shouts 
 and tread of hurrying feet, what a profound silence 
 and perfect solitude ! Yet how often has the door 
 of mercy been thrown open ? With kindness in 
 His looks, and love in His heart, and His hand 
 pointing to an open door, how often has Jesus 
 appeared to us, saying, " Behold, I have set before 
 you an open door ! " and turning over to the 
 other side for a little more sleep, how often have 
 we dismissed Him with this reply, " Go thy way 
 for this time ; when I have a convenient season I 
 will call for thee ! " Is this to go on for ever ? 
 each year repeating the risk, the sin, and folly of 
 the past ? The prospect looks even more melan- 
 choly than the retrospect. There is less hope 
 for us each year and day we live in sin. Every 
 hour we are drifting out to sea the helpless, 
 helmless barque is leaving the lessening shore 
 farther and farther behind. Our disease becomes 
 incurable. Like those stones which, though soft 
 as clay on being raised from the quarry, grow 
 hard as flint through exposure to the weather, our 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 449 
 
 hearts are growing harder day by day. Let such 
 as have been delaying, delay no longer; dare no 
 more. The axe is raised, gleaming, against the 
 tree ; and though it should not fall before the year 
 expires, before that God may be provoked to 
 withdraw His Spirit, and leave us to our fate, 
 saying, " They are joined to their idols, let them 
 alone." 
 
 Some shall be converted. 
 
 Like the loftiest snow-crowned peaks that tower 
 above the common Alps, there are periods and 
 events in history which are peculiarly marked and 
 memorable. Such a period in the history of the 
 world was that of the Deluge, when all mankind 
 were drowned but one family ; and also that 
 Christmas night when angels announced the ad- 
 vent and sung the birth of the new-born King. 
 Such a period in the history of nations was that 
 of the Hebrew exodus, when Israel burst his 
 bonds, and left the land of Egypt ; and that also 
 when He who had delivered His people by the 
 hand of Moses summoned a woman to the rescue, 
 and saved them by the hand of Esther from the 
 
 cruel wrath of Haman. Such also was the era 
 
 2 F 
 
450 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 of the Reformation in our Church, and of the 
 Revolution in our country events whose in- 
 fluence, growing with time, and extending with 
 distance, and widening out on all sides like the 
 watery circle that leaves the middle of the lake 
 to break in wavelets on its strands, is felt this 
 day on the shores of America and the plains of 
 Hindostan. 
 
 In the history of individuals also there are 
 memorable periods events on which turns man's 
 eternal, as well as his present, destiny. And of 
 all his years and days that is worthiest of a 
 Christian's remembrance on which, passing from 
 a state of nature into one of grace, he was born 
 again he drew the first breath, and, in an ear- 
 nest prayer, uttered the first cry of a new life. 
 Many usher in each new year with revelry, and 
 celebrate their birth-day as it comes round with 
 feasts, and songs, and dances, and delights, who 
 shall regret they were ever born saying, " Let 
 the day perish wherein I was born why died I 
 not from the womb ? " But the last year shall be 
 one of everlasting and grateful remembrance to 
 all whom it found the enemies, and left the friends 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 451 
 
 of God; whom it found slaves, and left freemen; 
 whom it found on the way to hell, but, converted, 
 washed, and sanctified, it left on the road to 
 heaven. That which is to be is that which hath 
 already been. Only let us pray that if the past 
 year has witnessed thousands, this may witness 
 tens of thousands of souls converted, poor sinners 
 saved ; that if its fields yielded harvests of thirty, 
 this, in a revenue of glory to God and good to 
 men, may yield, not thirty, but sixty, even an 
 hundred-fold. We cannot but hope that many 
 shall be saved this year plucked as brands from 
 the burning. God is making up the roll of His 
 elect ; Christ is gathering the jewels of His crown ; 
 heaven is filling fast ; and why should we see 
 others enter in countless crowds, and be ourselves 
 left out ? The cry comes forth, " Yet there is 
 room," room to spare ! While the door stands 
 open, rush in for that matter strive to enter in ; 
 and while a mouldering tombstone shall bear the 
 date of your first birth, of the year on which you 
 were born for the grave, let this happier year be 
 engraven on your grateful and enduring memory 
 as that on which you were born for God and glory. 
 
452 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 Death shall summon many to judgment. 
 
 Though, as he lies a-dying, every one feels as if 
 he were alone in the valley, none but himself on that 
 dark road, he is not a solitary traveller a great 
 throng crowd the way, passing in at the gates of 
 the eternal world. Men die in such numbers, that 
 for every breath we draw some one breathes his 
 last ; with every beat of our hearts some heart 
 ceases to beat. Let a knell be rung for every 
 departing spirit, and that bell would toll on with- 
 out a pause till Time's own knell was rung, and 
 Death itself should die. 
 
 That which hath been is that which is to be. 
 Willing or unwilling, fit or unfit to die, converted 
 or otherwise, voyagers to a land of bliss or bound 
 to misery, many in this have entered on their last 
 year. Like time and tide, death regardless of 
 his convenience and deaf to his prayers will wait 
 on no man. If in past years God has set a mark 
 on our houses, and turned the angel of death from 
 our door, as by the blood in Egypt, that im- 
 munity cannot last for ever. The more the years 
 of our life, this one is the more likely to be that 
 of our death the farther the tide recedes, the 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 453 
 
 higher at the flow it throws its foaming waves 
 on the beach ; the longer the cloud is gathering, 
 and thickening, and darkening before it bursts, 
 the brighter the lightning flashes, the louder the 
 thunder peals. 
 
 Since death is gain to the Christian, and 
 through faith in Christ may be so to all, we should 
 familiarise our minds with that event : beginning 
 every year, and indeed every day, as if it were to 
 be what it may be our last. Joseph of Aritna- 
 thea prepared himself a tomb, probably placing 
 it among the flowers and delights of his garden, 
 that the sight of the " long home " where he was 
 to lie might keep him mindful of his latter end. 
 One whom I knew, with the same object and 
 from no contempt of death, had his coffin made, 
 and studied the Bible with that memorial of our 
 mortality standing up, tall and black, beside him. 
 One of the greatest monarchs went further still. 
 Having resigned the sceptre and retired to a 
 monastery, he prepared a tomb for himself, and 
 fixed a day for the ceremonies of his burial. The 
 funeral procession is formed ; and with the bell 
 tolling for the dead, it takes its slow way to the 
 
454 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 
 
 tomb, the king himself bringing up the rear a 
 ghastly form attired in a long white shroud. He 
 is laid in his coffin ; round the body the priests 
 go, sprinkling showers of holy water, and swing- 
 ing incense out of golden censers. The service 
 for the dead is chanted over him ; the last prayer 
 is offered ; the last psalm has died away in solemn 
 echoes ; the candles, types of life's flame, are ex- 
 tinguished ; and, closing the door, they leave the 
 living man alone, stretched out in a coffin, en- 
 closed within a tomb, to meditate amid its lonely 
 and awful darkness on such subjects as this sin- 
 gular and terrible solemnity was oalculated to 
 suggest. Violent and revolting as such expedients 
 seem, better thus to be kept mindful, than live 
 habitually forgetful, of our latter end, and leave 
 death to break in on our fatal slumbers with the 
 suddenness and surprise of a thief. Watch, is the 
 word of Christ watch, for ye know neither the 
 day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh. 
 To be prepared for death so prepared that it 
 may be the happiest event that ever befell us, so 
 prepared that we may show how calmly a Christian 
 can die, so prepared that we may confront this 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 455 
 
 king of terrors without the shadow of a doubt or 
 any sense of fear, so prepared that, seeing the 
 heavens opening above our heads and angels de- 
 scending to carry us to glory, we shall be better 
 pleased to go than to stay let us make our call- 
 ing and election sure. Let us work out our salva- 
 tion with fear and trembling ; looking to Jesus for 
 pardon, and to God to work in us by His Holy 
 Spirit both to will and to do of His good pleasure. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Ballantyne, Roberts, and Co. , Printers, Edinburgh. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UBRARY