Page images
PDF
EPUB

RELIGION AN ACTIVE PRINCIPLE.

THE great care of the man who is content with the form of godliness without the power, is, that every thing should be right without; while the true Christian is most careful that every thing should be right within. It would be nothing to him to be applauded by the whole world, if he had not the approbation of God and his own conscience. Real religion is, therefore, a living principle. Any one may make a show, and be called a Christian, and unite himself to a sect, and be admired: but for a man to enter into the sanctuary; to hold secret communion with God; to retire into his closet, and transact all his affairs with an unseen Saviour; to walk with God like Enoch, and yet to smite on his breast with the publican, having no confidence in the flesh, and triumphing only in Christ Jesus-these are the life and acts of a new creature

Real religion is a living principle in the heart. It is not like our dress, which is put off at night, and put on again during the day; but it resembles life, which we ever retain both by day and by night, both while we wake and while we sleep. Religion is a vital principle in the soul, and is constant in its operation. In order to possess it, we must be born again of the Spirit, and be truly converted to God. Such is the commencement of unfeigned piety in the heart: let us seek above all things to obtain it as our best inheritance.

THE VIRTUES OF IRRELIGIOUS MEN AN
AGGRAVATION OF THEIR GUILT.

If the virtues and accomplishments of nature are at all to be admitted into the controversy be tween God and man, instead of forming any abatement upon the enormity of our guilt, they stamp upon it the reproach of a still deeper and more determined ingratitude. Let us conceive it possible for a moment, that the beautiful personifications of scripture were all realized; that the trees of the forest clapped their hands unto God, and that the isles were glad at his presence; that the little hills shouted on every side, and the valleys covered over with corn sent forth their notes of rejoicing; that the sun and the moon praised him, and the stars of light joined in the solemn adoration; that the voice of glory to God was heard from every mountain, and from every water-fall; and that all nature, animated throughout by the consciousness of a pervading and presiding Deity, burst into one loud and universal song of gratulation. Would not a strain of greater loftiness be heard to ascend from those regions where the all-working God had left the traces of his own immensity, than from the tamer and the humbler scenery of an ordinary landscape? Would not you look for a gladder acclamation from the fertile field, than from the arid waste, where no character of grandeur made up for the barrenness that was around you? Would not the goodly tree, compassed about with the glories of its summer foliage, lift up an anthem of louder gratitude than the lowly shrub that grew beneath it? Would not the flower, from whose leaves every hue of loveliness was reflect

ed, sent forth a sweeter rapture than the russet weed, which never drew the eye of any admiring passenger? And in a word, wherever you saw the towering eminences of nature, or the garniture of her more rich and beauteous adornments, would it not be there that you looked for the deepest tones of devotion, or there for the tenderest and most exquisite of its melodies?

INFIDELITY.

THERE are certain men who, calling themselves wise men, pretend to have discovered the imposture of our most holy faith. The Bible, with them, is mere fiction, and the tendency of its belief, to wreathe the yoke of ignorance and superstition around the necks of their fellowmen. With a generosity quite worthy of their cause, they propose to emancipate us from our debasing thraldom! From what thraldom? From the thraldom of that faith which works by love, purifies the heart, and overcomes the world? from the thraldom of that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord; from the thraldom of the peace of God, which passeth understanding? from the thraldom of a hope of immortality that maketh not ashamed? from the thraldom of a joy unspeakable, and full of glory? From such a thraldom do we wish to be at liberty? No; we are determined, by the grace of God, to glory in the cross of Christ, and to rejoice in his service as the most honourable freedom. Infidelity, like the bird of night, seldom ventures abroad in the full splendour of day, but chooses rather to pursue its course among its native shades. When

going forth, as it often does, under covert of the clouds of night; or when, on some occasions, assuming a bolder attitude of defiance to the truth, we need narrowly to watch its movements, and to beware of those who, prompted by the pride of their heart, bid us join with them in despising the religion of the Bible. In viewing this book as the repository of the faith once delivered to the saints, "we have not followed a cunningly devised fable," but are cherishing a devout regard to "a sure word of prophecy, to which we do well to take heed, as unto a light shining in a dark place."

PRESUMPTION OF MEN IN REFUSING TO BE LIEVE WHAT THEY CANNOT COMPREHEND.

THE doctrine of the union of the divine and human natures in the person of Emanuel, is beyond the grasp of human reason; but faith receives it, because it is clearly revealed; and for a man to reject a doctrine of revelation, merely because it is beyond the grasp of his reason, is folly and presumption in the extreme, for it is saying in effect, that nothing can be true which he cannot comprehend. Pitiful creature! as though his grain of intellect were the standard of mental capacity to the universe, and nothing could be grasped by the Infinite Intelligence which is beyond the reach of his finite powers! Such an one reminds us of the man who had lived all his days in his native valley, and was at length induced to climb one of the neighbouring hills, when, looking abroad on the extended landscape, he exclaimed, "Well, I did not think the world had

been so large before!" And when we ascend to the summits of the everlasting hills, and view the scenery around in the strong light of eternity, we shall perceive the truth is far more extensive, and the intellectual universe more vast than our utmost efforts of imagination had ever pictured them to be.

MINISTRY OF ANGELS.

ALTHOUGH angelic ministry is no longer openly continued, we are nevertheless taught to believe that it exists, and that many of the blessings that fall upon our daily path, are shed from hands which have been lifted amidst the choirs of heaven in holy adoration to the God of all principalities and powers. As Christians ye are come to this "innumerable company of angels ;" ye are united to them by a bond which binds together every member of the happy family of God: you are blended with them into one vast and harmonious society. The discordance necessarily subsisting between these pure spirits and the sinful inhabitants of a fallen world is destroyed. Clothed in the merits, and washed in the blood of the Redeemer, you no longer present to them that impurity with which their holy nature could hold no alliance. They perceive, in the redeemed of the Lord, hearts blotted indeed by much imperfection, but yet impelled by the same principles, hopes, tastes, and affections as their own. Your song is at least the faint echo of theirs. Your Father is in every sense of the word their Father; your God is their God. Touched by these considerations, although once

« PreviousContinue »