Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

above, but it is more, for it is an ordinance of selfedification. The offspring of our desires, it reacts upon its source, making them more strong, more vivid, more solemn, more prolonged, and more definite as their objects; forming them into expressions to God will concentrate the soul in them, and upon their objects. Every sincere act of adoration increases our veneration for the Divine character; every confession of sin deepens our penitence; every petition for a favour cherishes a sense of dependence; every intercession for others expands our philanthropy; and every acknowledgement of a mercy inflames our gratitude. Every good man is therefore the better for his own prayers, which not only obtain other good things, but are good to him themselves. Hence, when an individual can be stirred up to pray more for increased earnestness of religion, his supplication contains both the prayer and its answer, and affords a literal fulfilment of the promise, "Before they call I will answer." Thus a good man never entirely loses his prayers, for if they do no good, and bring no blessing to others, they do to himself. Whenever the Church, therefore, is stirred up to a more intense spirit of prayer for a revival, the revival is begun.

But the benefit does not stop here, for God will answer such supplications, and bestow the gift that is sought. God is ever waiting to be gracious. His language ever is, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." The promises to this effect are so numerous and so express, that it would seem as if the Church might enjoy any measure of divine power which she had the piety to desire, the faith to ask, or the will to receive. She is invited to launch forth

into all the fulness of God, and to replenish herself with the inexhaustible riches of divine grace.

The best way to ascertain how much of the spirit of prayer is wanting, or is possessed, in this day, is for each reader of this volume to ask how it is with him. He best knows himself, and his own practice, and he may therefore say, "Suppose my case is not singular, but an average, as there is reason to suppose it is, what is the state of the Christian Church ?" And what will that individual find to be the case with himself? How much time in each day does he devote to this most incumbent, most momentous duty, to pray for his conduct in life, his salvation, his family, his Church, the world? How much, as compared with other things? With his relaxation from business, his recreation, the time he gives to the newspaper, or even to absolute vacuity? Is there not a frequent reluctance to the duty? Is it not of ten performed rather from a haunting sense of duty, and to silence the accusations of conscience, than from any attractions sweet and irresistible, coming over the heart from the throne of grace? Is there not a habit of letting come first to be attended to, any inferior thing that may offer itself, and a disposition to postpone the exercise to a more convenient time, and a more appropriate frame? Is their no habit of "making social or domestic prayer a partial

excuse for omitting the private exercise, a kind of acquittance, the share of a social exercise being reckoned enough for the whole tribute of an individual, as if a social tribute were for the purpose of gaining an exemption for each individual." Now, how much prayer, such as really deserves the name, is going up to heaven continually from the Church, and for it? Surely, surely, we need far more, and must have far more, if the Spirit shall come down in plenitude and power, to make us more earnest in religion.

MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES.

1. A FEARLESS PREACHER.

WHEN Mr Davies was yet under thirty years of age, he was induced to accompany the Rev. Gilbert Tennant to England, to solicit donations for the college of New Jersey, of which he afterwards became the president.

His fame as a pulpit orator was so great in London, that it reached the ears of King George II., who expressed a strong desire to hear him. This was brought about, and Mr Davies preached before a splendid audience, composed of the royal family and many of the nobility. It is further said, that while Mr Davies was preaching, the king was, at different times, seen speaking to those around him, who were seen also to smile. Mr Davies observed it, and was shocked at what he thought was irreverence in the house of God, utterly inexcusable in one the influence of whose example was so great. After pausing, and looking sternly in that direction several times, the preacher proceeded in his discourse; but the same conduct was still observed. The fearless preacher then exclaimed: "When the lion roars, the beasts of the forest tremble; and when King Jesus speaks, the princes of the earth should keep silence!" The king is said to have given a signincant but courteous how to the preacher, and to have sat very composedly and reverently during the rest of the service.

preacher's manner and eloquence, and to have been The king is said to have been enraptured with the expressing his delight to those around him. He sent for the preacher, who repeated his visit, and received from the king a handsome donation for the college.

2. SUCCESSFUL PREACHERS.

THE most eminently useful men have been those of the deepest piety. President Edwards' success may be attributed, in a very eminent degree, to this fact. He writes: " Once, as I rode out into the woods, having alighted from my horse, in a retired place, for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view, that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God, as Mediator between God and man. The person of the Son of God appeared ineffably excellent -with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception. This view continued, as near as I can judge, about an hour, and kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be, what to lie in the dust, and to be full of Christ alone; to I know not otherwise how to express, emptied of self, love him with a holy and pure love; to trust in him; to live upon him; to serve and follow him; and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure, with a divine and heavenly purity." Such passages as these constantly occur in his moral history.

Who can wonder that such a man was eminently useful as a preacher? When he preached, it was with a heavenly unction and power that subdued a whole assembly. Many aim to be very intellectual,

MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES.

and avoid the manifestation of deep emotion, as if it were allied to weakness-than which nothing can be more untrue. There is in their discourses an affec. tation of argumentative power. Every thing is viewed by them in the mere light of reason, rather than in the soft and mellow light of fervid and holy feeling. We care not how rigid the preacher's logic; but it must be a logic warmed and vivified by a spirit of deep and earnest piety. The preacher must not be professionally pious. He must study the Bible with a constant reference to his own personal wants, and to the sanctification of his own heart.

3. THE INDIAN MOTHER.

DR COTTON MATHER has related a very pleasing incident which occurred in the seventeenth century, in connection with Mr Mayhew.

It appears that soon after he began to preach in Martha's Vineyard, the wife of Pammehannit, a leading man among the Indians, became deeply impressed with the gospel. In the confession she made before her admission into the Church, she stated that long before she heard the gospel, she lost five children in succession while very young, and that when her sixth was born, who was a son, agitated with fear lest she should lose him also, she took him in her arms, and walked into the fields. While there she mused on the insufficiency of all human help, and it was suggested to her mind that there was an almighty God who ought to be prayed to-that he had created all things-and that he who had given life to all was able to preserve the life of her child. With these feelings she cried to God for the life of her child, and the child lived. As soon as this poor woman heard the gospel, it was evident that her mind was fully prepared to receive it. Her son became an eminent Christian, and a laborious minister of an Indian church, consisting of some scores of regenerated souls. He was living when Dr Mather wrote in 1696, faithfully and successfully labouring to extend the gospel among the Indians on the mainland. His name was Japhet.

4. FAST-DAYS.

THE Rev. W. Tennent, who, in the last century, was distinguished for great usefulness, was one day passing through a town in the state of New Jersey in which he had never preached, and, stopping at a friend's house to dine, was informed that it was a day of fasting and, prayer in the congregation, on account of a very remarkable and severe drought, which threatened the most dangerous consequences to the fruits of the earth. His friend had just returned from church, and the intermission was but half an hour. Mr Tennent was requested to preach, and consented after great hesitation, as he wished to proceed on his journey.

At church the people were surprised to see a preacher, wholly unknown to them, and entirely unexpected, ascend the pulpit. His whole appearance, in his travelling-dress, covered with dust, and exhibiting a long and meagre visage, engaged their attention, and excited their curiosity. On his rising up, instead of beginning to pray, as was the usual practice, he looked around the congregation with a piercing eye and earnest attention; and after a minute's profound silence, he addressed them, with great solemnity, in the following words: "My beloved brethren, I am told that you have come here to-day to fast and pray: a very good work indeed, provided you have come with a sincere desire to glorify God; but if your design is merely to comply with a customary practice, or with the wish of your church officers, you are guilty of the greatest folly imaginable; as you had better have stayed at home, and earned your

417

three shillings and sixpence." (At that time this was the stated price of a day's labour.) "But if your minds are indeed impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, and you are really desirous of humbling yourselves before Almighty God, your heavenly Father, come, join with me, and let us pray."

This had an effect so uncommon and extraordinary on the congregation, that the utmost seriousness was manifested. The prayer and the sermon added greatly to the impressions already made, and tended to rouse the attention, influence the mind, command the affections, and increase the emotion which had been so happily produced. Many had rear on to bless God for the unexpected visit, and to reckon the day one of the happiest of their lives.

[ocr errors]

5. AT WORK TO THE LAST.

SUCH was the perseverance of John Eliot in his great work, that on the day of his death, in his eightieth year, the "Apostle of the Indians" was found teaching the alphabet to an Indian child at his bedside. Why not rest from your labours now ?" said a friend. "Because," said the venerable man, "I have prayed to God to render me useful in my sphere; and now, that I can no longer preach, he leaves me strength enough to teach this poor child his alphabet."

6. A QUIET REBUKE.

THE late Rev. B. Jacobs, of Cambridgeport, could, when necessary, administer reproof very forcibly, though the gentleness of his character was always seen in the manner in which it was done. Some young ladies at his house were one day talking about one of their female friends. As he entered the room, he heard the epithets "odd," "singular," &c., applied. He asked, and was told the name of the young lady in question, and then said, very gravely, "Yes, she is an odd young lady; she is a very odd young lady; I consider her extremely singular." He then added very impressively, "She was never heard to speak ill of an absent friend." The rebuke was not forgotten by those who heard it.

[ocr errors]

"whose

7. THE TRACT DISTRIBUTOR. "A PIOUS young physician," says one, father I knew, and of whose excellent character I had often heard, called on me one day, and after friendly salutations and expressions of Christian affection, said, 'Do you know, sir, how much I am indebted to you for giving me a tract many years ago? I told him I had no knowledge of ever presenting him with one; but recollecting that his father formerly kept a turnpike gate, and that often, when I stopped to pay my toll, I used to give tracts to the children who were playing about the door, it occurred to me as possible that on some of these occasions he had been among them. When I was a boy,' said he, you gave me a tract as you were riding by my father's house, and the first words that caught my eye were, Stop, poor sinner, stop and think. I was much affected with the whole hymn beginning with these words, and committed it to memory. Five years ago, while a member of a university, in a time of universal attention to religion, I was present at a meeting for prayer and other devotional exercises, when they commenced singing the hymn, Stop, poor sinner, stop and think.' My early impressions were all instantly revived; I saw that I was ruined by sin; that an eternity of woe was before me; and I found no peace till I looked to the Saviour crucified for me, and as I hope, by true repentance and faith in his blood, gave myself to him,

to be his for ever.' The youth is now an active, pious, praying physician."

8. THE SINS OF CHRISTIANS.

A CLERGYMAN, in a recent discourse, was speaking of the practice of pointing to the sins and follies of the members of the Churches as an excuse for others, when he thus illustrated the evil of such an argument: "Ah!" said he, "it is the common device of the devil, to blind the eyes of his disciples with the dust shaken from the soiled garments of Christians."

9. MODES OF PREACHING.

A CELEBRATED divine, who was remarkable, in the first period of his ministry, for a boisterous mode of preaching, suddenly changed his whole manner in the pulpit, and adopted a mild and dispassionate mode of lelivery. One of his brethren observing it, inquired of him what had induced him to make the change. He answered, "When I was young, I thought it was he thunder that killed the people; but when I grew wiser, I discovered that it was the lightning-so I letermined in future to thunder less and lighten

more."

THE GREAT THING IN SINGING.

BY THE REV. THOMAS BINNEY, LONDON. THE GREAT THING IS TO BE GOOD. It is the good that worship-the good that sing. "Praise is comely -for the upright." "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, who shall stand in his holy place?" Whose is the privilege "to draw nigh unto Him with psalms, and to come before his presence with singing?" "He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness; in whose eyes a vile person is contemned, out who honoureth them that fear the Lord." This "the man whom thou choosest, and causest to aproach unto thee; who seeketh, and who seeth thy face, O God of Jacob."-(Psa. xxxiii. 1; xv. 1, 2, ; xxiv. 3-6.) Here the grand practical lesson from the present topic. To be religious, to have true faith, to be pure in heart and lip and life-this is the preparation, the moral pre-requisite, for "the service of song." "To the pure, all things are pure." To the holy in life, the spiritual in character, there might be found a blessing in all praise. Simple forms or elaborate services-airs like the first tones of childhood, or anthems like the pealing thunder of the skies, might alike be used with simplicity and acceptance-might descend upon the heart like "the dew of Hermon," or brace it for moral battle and war. "The service of song" is not for the sinner living in his sin; it is not for the unbeliever, the ungodly, the unjust, the proud, the malignant, the selfish, the impure; it is not for the prodigal, while unconverted and far off; the hardened and impenitent, the fettered slave of the world and the flesh, "led captive by the devil at his will." All these, by contrition and tears, by faith in Christ and return to God, may pass through a process that shall capacitate and prepare them for the high service; but sanctified affections and established holiness are the "robe and adorning" of God's priesthood, for the regular discharge of their sacred

function. The dead in sin, the sensual and corrupt -"what have they to do" to speak God's praise, any more than "to teach his statutes?”—(Psa. i. 16.) The wickedest man may listen to preaching-may be appealed to and addressed, that he may be warned or won; but some movement of spiritual life, some spark of "grace in the heart," is necessary to enable any man to sing-to sing as an act of acceptable worship. The sinner may be affected by the praises of the Church-" his heart may smite him " (1 Sam. xxiv. 5), as he attempts to take its language on his lips-so far " singing" may at times impress and arouse the conscience; but habitual wickedness and habitual song in the house of the Lord, is a monstrous union which, while persisted in, can only harden the human heart and provoke the Divine displeasure. "Will a man mock God?" It is terrible to think that there may be the appearance of this-more terrible, perhaps, to know that it cannot be. "Be not deceived-God is not deceived."—(Gal. vi. 7.) The sinner may sing, but it cannot be mistaken for the spontaneous expression of loyalty and love. The idea is fearful of his celebrating perfections which he is for ever turning against himself; mercy, which may change to wrath; patience and forbearance, which he may possibly exhaust; rectitude, that may reject; an almightiness, that may crush him-that he honours in song a Saviour whose salvation he will not accept; joins in services in which he can have no spiritual sympathy;' anticipates, in words, the blessedness of a world he will never enter; and describes the approaching advent of a Judge, "who will destroy him with the brightness of his appearance, and blast him with the breath of his mouth."-(2 Thess. ii. 8, and i. 7-9.) I would willingly have been spared this language. To utter it is "the burden of the Lord." It is entirely scriptural, however, in thought and phraseology, thus to speak. The sentences are simple terms and touches of New Testament truth. And they bear directly on our present theme; for, far more terrible must be lip service and lifeless song, amid the breathing splendour and in the spiritual services of the Christian church, than in the Jewish temple with its dim light, and dark shadows, and "carnal commandments."—(Heb. ix. 9, 10.) Yet even then, to the formal and faithless worshipper, God's rebuke and complaint are piercing. "I hate, I despise your feast days; I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your viols "—(Amos v. 21, 23.) This language, "and what is like unto it," in the first chapter of Isaiah, is addressed, it is true, to the very wicked, who came in hypocrisy before God, and pretended to honour him with sacrifice and song; but it involves a principle applicable to all. The other side of it, the converse to that exhibited by the prophet, might be stated:-Holy Character, in its entireness and perfection, will come to its fitting and full utterance in the psalmody of heaven; but the principle and beginnings of it must exist here, to qualify a man for the psalmody of earth.

Thus every thing illustrates our lesson. The

GOD'S CHOICE OF HIS RODS.

great thing is to be good. The singer should himself be a true song. His mind and heart, his reason and passions, his inward and outward life, should all be in harmony with each other, and his whole nature should be in harmony with God's. Every day and hour, every act and utterance, allowing for unavoidable human infirmity, should flow onwards and rise up as the verses and words of a Divine psalm. This is the melody that God best loves. The accordant, harmonious movements of the virtuous universe give forth an unintermitted song of infinite grandeur, sweetness, and force, of which God is the sole and ceaseless anditor, and to which he is ever listening, delighted! Let us aspire to bear our part in that glorious anthem. When men are reconciled to God by the faith of Christ-when, sanctified by the Spirit, they "appear before Him in the beauty of holiness," and "walk with Him in peace and equity" (Mal. ii. 6); then are advances made towards the realization of the picture in which the prophet portrays the ultimate and everlasting complacency of God in his Church-a prediction in itself of exquisite beauty, but which invests our present theme with incomparable magnificence. It comes to it as if it were the last hope of the mind labouring for expression to enunciate and embody some boundless thought. In "the service of song" could alone be found what might adequately intimate the exquisiteness and depth of infinite delight!"Sing, O daughter of Zion; be glad and rejoice with all thine heart." "THE LORD THY GOD is in the midst of thee; HE will rejoice over thee with joy; HE WILL REST IN HIS LOVE. HE WILL JOY OVER THEE WITH SINGING!"—(1 Zeph. iii. 14, 17.)

WRITTEN AND UNWRITTEN SERMONS. UNDER the above heading, we find the following remarks in a contemporary:-" We have generally found that those ministers who scold about unwritten sermons, are wholly unable to preach except as they read from their manuscripts; and those who condemn a man as unfit to preach unless he can always do it extemporaneously, are wholly incapable of writing any thing fit to be read. The greatest preachers the Church ever produced both wrote and preached extemporaneously, such as Fénélon and a hundred others. A man who always writes generally becomes a mere reader; whilst the one who always extemporises is apt to become lazy, and trusts to his imagination and the inspiration of the moment and the occasion, which often fail him."

ONE of the confidential elders of an extraordinary preacher, president Davies, once said to him :-" Mr Davies, how is it that you, who are so well informed upon all theological subjects, and can express yourself with so much ease and readiness, should think it necessary to prepare and write your sermons with so much care, and take your notes into the pulpit, and make such constant use of them? Why do you not, like many other preachers, oftener preach extempore?" Mr Davies replied, "I always thought it to be a most awful thing to go into the pulpit, and there speak nonsense in the name of God. Besides, when I have an opportunity of preparing, and neglect to do so, I am afraid to look up to God for assistance, for that would be to ask him to countenance my negligence. But when I am evidently called

419

[blocks in formation]

I RECOLLECT listening, when a boy, to a conversation between two Baptist clergymen; the one an uneducated but valuable extemporaneous speaker; the other an educated man, and a writer of beautiful, clear, and logical sermons, but notorious for the tempted to preach "without notes." hesitancy which he manifested whenever he at"How is it, Brother L- ," said the latter, "that you, without education, are able to get up, at a moment's warning, and speak so well, while I just as certainly fail as I attempt it?" "Well, Brother S, I'll tell you. You're just like a rich farmer, who goes into his toolhouse to get a hoe, and finds so many there that it takes him half an hour to pick out the best, and as likely as not, after all, goes off in a hurry with a poor one; while I'm just like one of his men who hires out by the day, and comes in the morning to the cornfield, all ready for work, with his old hoe on his shoulder." The thoroughly educated man very often fails as an extemporaneous speaker, from the mere excess of thought and good taste; while a man without education, and sometimes with little brains," goes off" in a steady stream of words, as if he were a rain spout in a thunder-storm. " Many a full barrel slower than a nearly empty one, which runs all the of cider," once said a witty friend of mine, "runs faster when so nearly out that it has to be propped up behind."

GOD'S CHOICE OF HIS RODS. THAT is a striking passage of Jeremiah-true, alas! of very many now:-" I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, and thou saidst, I will not hear." How often is it that a man's ear is obstinate or quite deaf to expostulations, and to the voice even of God himself in his word, and the heart obdurate, till the deaf ear is pierced by the loud voice of Providence, and the hard heart made tender by severe affliction! Prosperity long continued is apt to make such a lethargy steal over the soul, that the still voice of God in calm weather and the cool of the day will not awaken a man; but He must thunder and lighten about his ears in afflictions before the man will even notice that God is speaking to him. While all things go on smoothly with a man in his sins, the threatenings of God's word beat upon him with no more force than stubble or snow against a stone wall. He stands unshaken and unconcerned, presuming that the course of his affairs will go on always as evenly as now, that to-morrow will be as to-day, and much more abundant, until the big hail-storm of sorrow actually falls upon his own head, and he is startled by some dire calamity.

Now the wisdom of God is seen in the choice of his rods, in the divers ways whereby he corrects and makes his children perfect through suffering; for it is far from being one and the same form of trouble that will work upon and purge every sin, and he accordingly disciplines and punishes men, so to speak, in kind. If one's besetting sin is avarice, or a too great fondness for acquisition and the creation of wealth, he tells our riches to take wings and fly away: and our ships are sunk, our houses and stores and factories burned;

our fields are flooded, our farms swept away, our crops rotted in the ground, or blasted in the ear, or mildewed before they are harvested; our specula. tions turn out poorly; our stocks depreciate; our banks of deposit become bankrupt: and all this in a natural way, and by natural means, without God's at all suspending or working contrary to second causes. Or if our sin be any sensual indulgence, or too great fondness for creature comforts and pleasures, then God often makes that indulgence, like the manna of the greedy Israelites, to breed its own worm, and the quails so fondly lusted after to come out at the nostrils, the stomach to loathe even its natural food, and the appetite and ability of digestion both to fail. Or if the sin that is ensnaring our affections and keeping us at a distance from God be any creature-idolatry, as a wife or a child, then God, as we are strikingly taught in Parnell's Hermit,

"To save the father, takes the son;
The poor fond father, humbled in the dust,
Now owns in tears his punishment is just."
Rev. H. T. Cheever.

IS CHRIST ASCENDED.

Is Christ ascended? Then how highly is our nature dignified and honoured! Adam had rendered it more vile than the beasts that perish; but Christ has raised it above the highest angels. After the fall it was thought to be unworthy of the earthly paradise; but in Christ it is exalted at God's right hand, fills the highest and most honourable seat next his throne. Sin had made human nature the derision of devils, but Christ has made it the delight of angels, and the joy and glory of the redeemed for ever. The union of our nature to Christ's divine person gives it a glory infinitely above all conception. The continuance of that union is such an honour done to it, as is far above our highest ad miration, and should make us cry out, "Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him!" Has Christ, then, ascended, and do our hearts descend? To have our head in heaven, and our hearts in the earth, is a very unbecoming separation. Did Christ leave the world, and shall we cleave faster to it? Did he ascend above it, and are we buried in the cares and pleasures of it? How dishonourable and displeasing to Christ must this be! O then, let the Christians affections be above, where his Saviour is. Is Christ ascended? Then how willingly may the believer leave this world, and follow his Saviour to heaven! While we are present in the body, we are absent from the Lord. How confident and willing, then, may the sincere Christian be, rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord! Heaven has a new attraction in it now; the man, Christ Jesus, is there in all his glory. Christ's ministry in the heavenly temple is infinitely preferable to the ministry and ordinances of the Church on earth. The believer is an infinite gainer by exchanging the sight of Christ through a glass darkly, for a sight of him as he is, and face to face. Christ thought our sight of his heavenly glory worth his praying for, and the Christian should think it worth the dying for. We have been attempting to get a glimpse of this glory through the glass of the gospel, and that is refreshing; but oh! what is it to behold it with open face, when there shall be no vail, either upon the eye or upon the object! To see the glory of the Deity shining through the man Christ Jesus, must be most desirable. How, then,

can the Christian refrain from earnestly longing to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better? Hurrion.

TEARS OF JOY.

"Joseph sought where to weep."-Gen. xliii. 30. To weep! What! When he saw his beloved bro ther Benjamin, and heard that his aged and affectionate father was alive and well? Yes, the sight of the one, and the news of the other, created such an ecstasy of joy in his heart, as was too great to bear! He sought where to vent it in tears. O! had one followed good Joseph to his chamber, and heard what passed there between God and his soul! Methinks I see the dear man fall prostrate, crying out in a flood of grateful, joyful tears, Oh! what a God do I serve! What amazing scenes of his providence have opened to my view! How has the Lord appeared graciously on my behalf! How strangely has he exalted me in life! And now, to crown all, and complete my happiness, I see my beloved brother, and hear of the welfare of my honoured father. Doubtless, he wept-he prayed-he praised-he rejoiced he loved--he adored his God, his kind preserver, his bountiful benefactor, his dear Saviour! Methinks one cannot meditate on Joseph's conduct without calling to mind some sweet weeping seasons of spiritual joy our souls have been favoured with, when, in some highly favoured moments, the blessed Spirit has brought some joyful tidings of, and some love tokens from, our once crucified, but ever-living brother in the flesh, Jesus. Oh! then what joy has sprung up in our souls!-too big for utterance-when he has assured us of his love to us-that we shall soon see him as he is, be with him where he is, and eternally enjoy him, and his Father and our Father, in glory! Oh! the rapture of this faith! Then we are ready to fly the world, and all its concerns, and even our brethren in Christ too. We seek to be alone, to pour out our souls, to give vent to our joy in a flood of loving grateful tears. Then, like the disciples on the mount, we cry out, It is good to be here. This is sweet. Methinks my soul is drowned in tears of love! Now, are we not ready to wish, Oh! that it were always thus with me! But neither Joseph, you, nor I, could live under such melting frames--such ecstasy, such rapture. The body could not support them--my weak body could not. Neither would it be good for the soul to be always in them. If so, we should be always favoured with them. This we are fully assured of; for "no good thing will the Lord withhold from them who walk uprightly."— Mason.

Fragments.

THERE is no better evidence against the bulk of any doctrine, than that its tendency is immoral.-Hodge. LET us honour God's truth by believing his word; Christ's blood, by hoping firmly in the Divine mercy; and all the Divine perfections, by loving God with all our hearts, and one another as Christ loved us.Fletcher.

"THE sufferings of Christ's soul were the soul of his sufferings."-Flavel.

« ZurückWeiter »