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THE 
 
 CHURCH IN EARNEST 
 
 JOHN ANGELL JAMES, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE CHURCH MEMBER'S GUIDE, ETC. 
 
 ELEVENTH THOUSAND. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 aOUT.r> AND LINCOLN, 
 
 59 WASHINQTON STREET. 
 
 NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY. 
 
 CINCINNATI : GEO. S. BLANCHARD. 
 
 1860. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Last year I ventured to publish a little work, entitled, 
 ' An Earnest Ministry the Want of the Times." Most of 
 the Reviews which did me the honor of criticising it char- 
 acterized and recommended it as a pr actual work. Whether 
 this were intended in the way of depreciation or information, 
 it most aptly describes the production, which contains no 
 profound disquisition — no new views — no development ot 
 abstract principles, and wliich pretends to nothing more than 
 a humble effort, made in love, to stir up the pure minds of 
 ray brethren, by way of remembrance, and to furnish a few 
 practical directions to beginners in the ministry. 
 
 Every one who writes to do good, and who yields to the 
 impulse which says to him, " Do something ; do it ;" should 
 well consider, not only what he would do, but what he can 
 do ; should study, not only his obligations, but his talents, 
 his opportunities, and his means. It was a wise plan of 
 action which the Psalmist laid down for himself, when he 
 said, " Neither do I exercise myself in things too high for 
 me." On this rule I have uniformly endeavored to act, in 
 all my attempts at authorship. If I have any talent for 
 usefulness, it is essentially a practical one. I will not con- 
 ceal that t have been sometimes almost tempted to envy 
 those who possess greater power of abstract thinking. This 
 is a noble faculty, and the men to whom it is given perform 
 services for truth which are invaluable, and, indeed, indis- 
 pensable; they explain its nature — unfold its beauty — 
 defend it against the attacks of error — and establish prin- 
 ciples to be applied by those who could neither so clearly 
 discover, nor so ably sustain them. Practical men, howev- 
 er, are as useful' in their place as ingenious and contempla- 
 tive ones ; and if their department be a more humble, yet 
 it is not a less necessary, one, than that of theorists, philoso- 
 phers, and logicians. There must be the hands to work the 
 engine, as well an the mind to invent it. 
 
rV PREFACE. 
 
 In the exercise of this my vocation, I now send forth 
 anotaer work, no less practical than the one which immedi- 
 ately preceded it, or than several others, the products of my 
 pen. The pubhcation of the volume on " An Earnest Min- 
 istry," brought to me many and urgent applications for a 
 similar one, addressed to the Churches. When I considered 
 these appeals, I foresaw, what I have since experienced, the 
 difficulty of keeping clear, in this work, of some of the topics 
 involved in the subject of its predecessor. That difficulty 
 I have not been able altogether to avoid. The earnestness 
 cf the ministry, and the earnestness of the people, in refer- 
 ence to the same great object, are, on so many points, coin- 
 cident, that it was neither possible, if it had been desirable, 
 nor desirable, had it been possible, to avoid the repetition of 
 some views and counsels common to both. Yet, even after 
 this explanation, I anticipate a complaint that several por- 
 tions of this work are but a republication of some portions 
 of the other. I cannot altogether deny the charge, and can 
 only observe, in addition to what has been already just 
 stated, that as the volumes are intended for two different 
 classes of persons, comparatively few wall read both ; and 
 that, though in some places the same topics are taken up, 
 the discussion and the illustrations are considerably varied. 
 
 To the publication of thi«» work I have been stimulated 
 by an able critique in the "British Quarterly Ke\'iew," for 
 February last, entitled, " The Christian Mmistry, and how 
 to mend it." In that essay occurs the follo\%ing remark, 
 " We confess, however, that we have been prompted, in great 
 part, to the writing of this paper, by a fear, lest, while the 
 responsibilities of the pulpit are discussed, those of the pew 
 should be forgotten ; for assuredly while an earnest ministry 
 may conduce to an earnest church, it is only as we possess 
 both, we shall possess an earnest and powerful Christianity." 
 
 To the wisdom, truth, and importance of this momentous 
 paragraph, I most heartily subscribe, and in the hope of 
 promoting the union and harmony which it recommends, 
 nave addressed this volume to the occupant of the pew, as 
 I did the former to the occupant ci the pulpit. Earnestness 
 is equally the duty of both, and so close is the sympathy 
 between them, that it is almost impossible for the one to be, 
 or to continue long, in a state of full devotedness, if the other 
 be not in a similar condition. Even the seraphic ardor of 
 a minister who is as a flame of fire, will soon be in danger 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 of coding down to the lukewarmness of the flocK, if his 
 efforts are unsuccessful in raising their spiritual teinpera- 
 ture to his own. 
 
 It is more than probable that some persons wiU be of 
 opinion that I underestimate the piety of the present gener- 
 ation of professors, and the spiritual condition of the church — 
 that I have written m too desponding a tone — and that in 
 adverting to defects and imperfections, I have not done jus- 
 tice to acknowledged excellences. In reply, I observe, that 
 my object is not so much to compare the piety of the age 
 with that of any antecedent one, which is an extremely dif- 
 ficult attempt, as with the standard set up in the Word of 
 God, for all times, and for all states of society. I have fol- 
 lowed, what appears to me to be, the precedents of our 
 Lord's addresses to the seven churches in Asia, and the 
 apostolical epistles to the primitive churches ; in which, 
 while the good is acknowledged and commended, the evil 
 also, is disclosed and condemned. How much of complaint, 
 expostulation, and reproof, do we find in these solemn and 
 faithful appeals to the churches of those days ! A weak and 
 foohsh love, which sees no fault in the object of its blind 
 afiection, deals only in flattery and caresses ; while a judi- 
 cious regard, which is jealous for the honor of its object, and 
 wishes to advance it to perfection, is in danger of being too 
 impatient under a sense of its defects. 
 
 Some of my readers will also accuse me of magnifying 
 the dangers to which the evangelical system is hkely to be 
 ekposed in this and the coming age, from popery, infidelity ^^ 
 and false philosophy. In this I have acted upon the truth 
 of the proverb, that <' to be forewarned is to be forearmed." 
 The man who, in such an age as this, folds his arms, closes 
 his eyes, falls back in liis chair, and lulls himself to sleep, 
 with the easy consciousness that there is no need of alarm, 
 vigilance, and caution, must have powers of observation, or 
 methods of calculation, very different from mine. Recent 
 events, I know, it is said, are most inauspicious for popery. 
 Be it so : but do we imagine that it is dead ? Have we for- 
 gotten how it recovered from a deeper, and seemingly more 
 deadly wound, inflicted upon it by the first revolution of 
 France ? Moreover, is it lost sight of, that though it should 
 be destroyed as a temporal power, and should be left by all 
 secular governments to take care of itself, its spiritual poten- 
 cy to fascinate and to seduce men still remains ? Consider- 
 1* 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 ing what has occurred, and is still going on, in this land of 
 liberty, science, philosophy, and commerce, shall we smile 
 at the fears of those who -dread an increase of this perni- 
 cious system ? As regards infidelity and false philosophy, 
 that man must be a recluse, and know nothing of the pro- 
 gress of events, who is ignorant of the rapid advance which 
 these foes of the Bible are making in society. Let the state- 
 ments which will be found in the following pages be atten- 
 tively considered, and then say if they who ke2p watch and 
 ward on the towers of Zion ought not to sound the alarm 
 of an approaching foe ? 
 
 Danger ? Of what ? Not indeed of the downfall of either 
 Christianity or Protestantism. "What believer in the truth 
 of revelation, or what follower of the doctrines of the 
 Reformation, has a moment's solicitude on that point ? I, 
 for one, feel not a single trepidation for the safety of either 
 of these. I have no doubt of the final, complete, and glo- 
 rious triumph of truth over error, and good over evil. Not- 
 withstanding the vicissitudes of human affairs, and some 
 of them disastrous ones too, I am a firm believer in the 
 onward course of events. The way of Providence does not 
 resemble one of our modern railways, but is more like a 
 noble river, which is ever winding in its channel, and which, 
 though, amidst its many convolutions, it seems sometimes 
 rolling back upon its source, is ever flowing towards the 
 ocean. In such an age as this, when it would look as if a 
 destroying angel were passing over the despotisms of all 
 •Europe, and making way for the sudden, unexpected, and 
 universal reign of liberty, to doubt which way the current 
 is flowing, betrays a deplorable ignorance of the tendencies 
 of events, and of the designs of the great Ruler of the 
 nations. But are liberty and reUgion identical? Are the 
 downfall of tyranny and of infidehty sure to be contempo- 
 raneous ? Will a false and seductive philosophy necessarily 
 and immediately wither in the light and air of freedom ? 
 
 It is to be recollected that there can be no perfect freedom 
 of conscience, while there is a single fetter left upon the 
 expression of religious opinion. The utterance of a man's 
 thoughts must no more be stopped by the stern interdict of 
 the law, than the utterance of his breath. If the next mo- 
 ment we could destroy, by the power of the sword, all the 
 infidel books in existence, we ought not to do it. Christian- 
 ity gams no honor by any triumph, nor, in the long run, 
 
PREFACE. VII 
 
 any power, but what she fairly wins by argument, and the 
 blessing of Almighty God. And will her enemies be slow 
 to avail themselves of the new liberty which they are now 
 to have throughout Europe, for assailing her? On the con- 
 trary, their troops v/ill be reinforced, and with new courage 
 they will advance to the attack. What then ? Has Chris- 
 tianity anything to fear? Nothing, for her stability and 
 final triumph. Founded on a rock, the gates of hell cannot 
 prevail against her. But, then, how does she gain her vic- 
 tories ? Not certainly by an ignorance, a denial, or a con- 
 tempt, of the strength of her foes, for they are many and 
 mighty. Not by a careless security. Not by commanding 
 silence to the warders on the keep, or ridiculing and rebuk- 
 ing their alarms, when they see the foe advancing. No; 
 but by sounding the trumpet, calling upon the sacramental 
 hosts to consider the resources of the enemy, bidding them 
 arm for the conflict, and summoning them to her uplifted 
 standard. Besides, who would not wish that the final vic- 
 tory of truth should be won, with as little loss as possible 
 to those who are its professed followers ? Who would not 
 desire to prevent even the partial and temporary victories 
 of error ? And we know that many an army destined to 
 ultimate defeat, has, for a while, been successful, and inflict- 
 ed much injury upon the troops by which it was to be in the 
 end subdued and routed. In this view of matters, I believe 
 the caution of the timid, when it does not amount to panic, 
 may be of some use, in the way of directing the courage 
 of the brave. Such is my defence against those who might 
 accuse me of magnifying the danger to which evangelical 
 religion is in this day exposed from its triple foe. With 
 the calm and assured confidence of its final, complete, and 
 universal triumph, I combine what I consider a well-founded 
 dread of its present and partial discomfiture; and in my 
 bright and joyful anticipations of the former, will not forget 
 to guard against the latter. 
 
 J. A. J. 
 Edgbaston, 
 
 April 7th, 1848. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Pagt 
 THE DESIGNS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED BY THE CHURCH, AS REGARDS 
 
 THE PRESENT WORLD, 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 KEMARKS ON THE EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES IN ASIA, 
 TENDING TO ILLUSTRATE THE NATURE OP EARNESTNESS IN 
 RELIGION, 34 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 NATURE OP EARNESTNESS, VIEWED WITH REPERENCE TO INDIVID- 
 UAL ACTION, AND PRIMARILY AS REGARDS PERSONAL REUGION, 63 
 
 CHAPTER TV. 
 
 EARNESTNESS IN THE WAY OF INDIVIDUAL EXERTION AND DIRECT 
 
 ACTION FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS, 87 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHRISTIAN EARNESTNESS IN FAMILY RELIGION, 107 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ACTIVITY OP CHURCHES IN THEIR COLLECTIVE CAPACITY ; OR THE 
 
 DILIGENCE OP CHRISTIANS CONSIDERED AS CHURCH MEMBERS, 131 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CAUSES THAT OPERATE TO REPRESS THIS EARNESTNESS OF 
 
 RELIGION, » • • 164 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 INDUCEMENTS TO EARNESTNESS, 199 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EXAMPLES OF EARNESTNESS, 237 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE MEANS TO BE USED TO OBTAIN A HIGHER DEGREE OP EABiJEST 
 
 PIETY IN THE CHURCHES, 257 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CONCLUSION — THE MILLENNIAL STATE OF THE CHURCH, 283 
 
THE CHURCH IN EARNEST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE DESIGNS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED BY THE CHURCH 
 AS REGARDS THE PRESENT WORLD. 
 
 How much of history, as well as of religion ; how 
 much that is momentous to man as a pilgrim to immor- 
 tality, as well as interesting to him as a sojourner upon 
 earth, is associated with that most familiar, yet most sig- 
 nificant word, The Church : what moral power, what 
 high destiny, what divine operations and exalted pur- 
 poses, are comprehended within its legitimate meaning ! 
 Vet no term has been more misunderstood, none more 
 abused. What mistakes have been made about it ; what 
 controversies has it occasioned ; what usurpation, and 
 tyranny, and bloodshed, has it been made to sanction! 
 and yet, if men would drop their prejudices, and study the 
 subject in that only volume which can decide every ques- 
 tion relating to it and involved in it, how easily would 
 it be understood, and how simply and correctly might it 
 be stated ! ^ 
 
 The church, according to Scripture testimony, was a 
 phrase in use before either Rome or England was known 
 in connection with Christianity ; and must mean some- 
 thing which would have existed had these places never 
 received the gospel ; and which would still exist, if they 
 were the next hour sunk to the bottom of the ocean. To 
 appropriate this appellation, therefore, to either of the ec- 
 clesiastical organizations bearing these names, and to call 
 the Romish or the English communions "TAe church," 
 is as great an impropriety as it would be to apply it to 
 designate the Methodist, the IndepencJent, or the Baptist 
 
14 THE DESIGNS TO 
 
 body There is a wider signification of the term, which 
 enters into all systems of polity, gathering out of them 
 those who "through grace have believed," and contem- 
 plating them apart from their sectional distinctions, asso- 
 ciates them together by no other bond than the " like 
 precious faith," and views them as possessing the com- 
 mon salvation — there is " The church." 
 
 It is in this sense the word is to be understood in this 
 volume : as meaning that part of the mighty aggregate 
 of God's redeemed people, who are still on earth, " work- 
 ing out their salvation with fear and trembling," and who 
 are " the pillar and ground of truth." Beneath the thin 
 covering of denominational distinctions, there, in all the 
 true believers in Christ which they contain, lies the true 
 church. These sects comprise the reahty, contain the 
 divine idea, but they are not identical with it. The fun- 
 damental creed of the true church is held by them all ahke : 
 and that faith which is essential to the church's existence 
 is also in them all alike. There is much in each that is not 
 of the church, and there is much in each that is. The true 
 link of membership and union is nothing sacerdotal, or cer 
 emonial, or political, but something moral and spiritual 
 Other things may be necessary to regulate the social rela 
 tions of the various bodies of its professed members, and 
 to direct their intercourse and operations — hence forms of 
 polity and ceremonial observances — but the church itself 
 consists of all " who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in 
 Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." 
 
 What a community ! A something divine amidst what 
 is human — a heavenly citizenship on earth — an eter- 
 nal production of Omnipotent love, surrounded by the ever 
 perishing vanities of what is seen and temporal. 
 
 Such is the church, — a kingdom, not of this world, 
 chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sanctified 
 by the Holy Ghost ; and set up to be to the praise of his 
 glory, " who worketh all things after the counsel of his 
 own will," as " an habitation of God through the Spirit." 
 None but God himself can adequately understand, much 
 less fully comprehend, the vast importance, the intrinsic 
 worth, the real glory, of this community : divested of all 
 
BE ACCOMPLISHED. 15 
 
 those foreigTi, impure, and disfig-uring accietions which 
 ignorance and superstition, fraud and ambition, have gath- 
 ered around it, it is a crown of glory and a diadem of 
 beauty in the hand of our God. How has this venera- 
 ble and sacred name been abused and prostituted to sanc- 
 tion the principles, and abet the designs, of ecclesiastical 
 t)rranny ; to inflame the darkest passions and perpetrate the 
 foulest deeds ; to subvert the liberties of mankind, and 
 arrest the progress of social improvement ; till " the 
 church" has become the reproach of religion, the scoff 
 of infidelity, and the deepest blot of history ! But this 
 is not the church, and the organizations which have called 
 themselves such have but usurped an honor which does 
 not belong to them. 
 
 It is quite time for all professing Christians to begin 
 to think more of the church, as recognized by its divine 
 Head, and less of their church, as limited by their pecu- 
 harities. They can never answer the end and purpose 
 for which this community is set up in the world, till they 
 better understand its nature. As long as they lose what 
 is universal in what is partial ; what is catholic in what 
 is denominational ; what is essential in what is circum- 
 stantial — in short, as long as forms of polity, however 
 important in their place, rather than fundamental truths, 
 constitute, in their view, the basis of the church, the 
 grand designs of God in reference to his kingdom upon 
 earth cannot be fully carried out, and the end of its exist- 
 ence must be in some measure lost. 
 
 What, then, is the design which God intends the 
 church to accomplish in this world, and with relation to 
 the world ? 
 
 There is a subjective design which refers to itself, — 
 this is obviously its own salvation. God, in the exuber- 
 ance of his love, and in the riches of his mercy, has de- 
 termmed to save, through the mediation of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, all those who repent and beHeve. These he will 
 redeem by the blood of the cross, and the grace of the 
 Spirit, from the guilt, power, and love of sin, from death 
 and hell, and bring into a state of favor and hoUness here, 
 and to the fehcities and honors of heaven hereafter : and 
 
16 THE DESIGNS TO 
 
 all this to the praise of the glory of his own grace, wisr 
 dom, truth and justice. 
 
 But we now speak of the objective purpose of the 
 church, so far as this purpose applies to our world 
 This is two-fold — it is designed to be a witnessing 
 and a proselyting church — to be, in other words, the 
 depository and the herald of truth. 
 
 The first part of its mission is to receive the truth, and 
 bear testimony for God in, and to, our world. The uni- 
 verse is full of witnesses for its divine Creator. " There 
 is one important respect in which all its objects, from the 
 atom to the arch-angel, unite — all are witnesses foi 
 God." " The heavens declare his glory, and the firma- 
 ment showeth forth his handy-work. ' ' Everything on oui 
 earth, by silent yet expressive testimony, speaks of God, 
 and for him. Science, the great prophet and expoundei 
 of nature, and all her sons, bear constant, though in some 
 instances reluctant, testimony for him who created all 
 things by his power. Chemistry bears witness to his 
 wisdom, astronomy to his immensity, and geology to his 
 eternity. On every leaf, on every blade, and every peb- 
 ble. He has written his name and impressed his character, 
 so that while the solitary voice and gloomy lie of the 
 atheist are saying there is no God, the million voices 
 around contradict him, and even the pulses of his own 
 heart, and every atom of that organ, contradict him and 
 say, " There is, and He is thy Maker." 
 
 But there are other witnesseg for God, who give forth 
 a fuller and more impressive testimony than the material 
 universe, viewed as a whole, or contemplated in its sep- 
 arate parts. To the question, "What is God as to his 
 moral character, and his disposition towards the sinful in- 
 habitants of our globe," this oracle is dumb : to the in- 
 quiry, " How shall man be just with God," no response 
 is given forth. The sun with all his glory, the moon 
 with all her beauty, and the earth with all its various con- 
 tents, deliver no testimony of mercy for fallen, guilty 
 man. For this high purpose is the church raised up ; 
 this is her momentous vocation, her solemn duty, her bles- 
 sed privilege. " She is first a focus in which all light 
 
BE ACCOMPLISHED. 17 
 
 from heaven should meet, and all the sanctified excellence 
 of heart be collected and combined ; that it might next 
 be a centre whence the Hght of truth might radiate and 
 pour forth in all directions over the face of the earth." 
 
 First of all, there is the divine Head of the church 
 himself. Of him it was predicted, " He shall be for a 
 witness to the people." He claimed this prerogative ; 
 he asserted this to be his mission, when standing at the 
 bar of Pilate. " To this end was I bom, and for this 
 cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to 
 the truth." The same mission is claimed for him by 
 the beloved apostle, where he calls him " the faithful and 
 true witness." He is personally the true tabernacle of 
 witness, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily. He came from the bosom of the Father to reveal 
 the nature, plans, purposes, and the work of God. He 
 is " Me Word'," the great prophet, the " true light which 
 lighteth every man that cometh into the world." In the 
 mysterious constitution of his person, and in the accom- 
 plishment of his mediatorial work by his death, resurrec- 
 tion and intercession, he stands before the universe as an 
 embodiment of truth. The mingled glories of the divine 
 nature, and the full revelation of the divine plans, stream 
 forth from his cross, as a comprehensive and sublime 
 testimony to all that is necessary for man to know and 
 believe in order to salvation. 
 
 Next to him, comes the goodly company of the apos- 
 tles, to repeat in echo the testimony of Christ ; and not 
 only by their living voice, but by their inspired and immor- 
 tal writings, to send to the uttermost ends of the earth, 
 and down to the latest posterity, the witness of the So» 
 of God. 
 
 But neither the Lord Jesus, nor his apostles, are the 
 church, and it is the whole church to whom God says, 
 " Ye are my witnesses." It is the whole body of the 
 faithful, " the general assembly and church of the first- 
 born," to whom this momentous commission is intrusted, 
 on whom this solemn duty is devolved. We must ever 
 think of the truths to which the witness of the church is 
 to be borne. The unity, spirituality, attribij«£s, and 
 2 
 
18 - THE DESIGNS TO 
 
 works of the Eternal Father — the divinity and nediation 
 of Christ — the personahty, divinity, and operations of 
 I he Spirit — the doctrines of regeneration and justifica- 
 tion — the greatness and attainableness of salvation — 
 the necessity of holy obedience — the reahty and glory of 
 eternal life for the righteous — and the certainty of eter- 
 nal death for the wicked. Such is in substance the truth 
 10 which the company of the redeemed are to depose be- 
 fore a dark and wicked world. Such are the verities in 
 support of which the voice of the church is to be lifted 
 up on our earth. . Viewing man as a moral agent, a sin- 
 ful creature, a ruined immortal, what to him are all the 
 facts and wonders of science, compared with these 
 things, but as the trifle of a moment, the small dust of 
 the balance ? 
 
 Such is the vocation of every single Christian, however 
 voung, or poor, or uneducated, to hold up these realities 
 before the minds of men, and attest their divine truth, 
 their power, and excellence. Hence the descriptions 
 given by the apostle of the design and business of the 
 church, where he calls her, the pillar and ground of the 
 truth. Not that the church either originates or accredit? 
 the truth, — not that it constitutes the obligation of obey- 
 ing it, or infallibly and authoritatively expounds its mean- 
 ing, — but that it is merely .the depository of it for the 
 world, and holds it up to be seen and known upon the 
 earth. She is the Pharos of the moral world, the light- 
 house of this dairk region, exhibiting to public notice, and 
 for general observation, all those subjects which stand 
 connected with man's highest obligations, dearest inter- 
 ests, and immortal hopes. This high vocation, this holy 
 mission, she is to fulfil by sustaining the Christian minis- 
 try ; by keeping safely her creeds, catechisms, and other 
 formularies ; by looking well to the education of her 
 children ; by taking care for the instruction of her mem- 
 bers in Christian doctrine and duty ; by holding fast the 
 form of sound words, and attaching importance to right 
 sentiments ; by giving encouragement to orthodox litera- 
 ture ; by " contending earnestly for the faith once deliv- 
 ered to the saints ;" in, short, by every way in which an 
 
BE ACCOMPLISHED. 19 
 
 intelligent and firm yet catholic spirited and tolerant zeal 
 for truth can be maintained and diffused. Every (/liris- 
 tian man and woman mi st consider that it is by the truth 
 the world is to be converted to Christ, and all the pur- 
 poses of divine grace fulfilled, and that they are called to 
 be the conservators of that truth. " He that believeth 
 hath the witness [or testimony] in himself." He has it 
 as a sacred deposit laid up in his mind, to be ever carried 
 about with him wherever he goes, and is to watch it with 
 the same care as he would if he were individually the 
 last light of the world, and the only remaining witness 
 for God upon the face of the earth. 
 
 How high and honorable a vocation ! but withal how 
 awful and responsible its duty — to bear witness for God '. 
 To be called to the work of perpetually bearing testi- 
 mony, before an ignorant and careless world, on such 
 topics ! To lift up, amidst the din of politics, the bustle 
 of commerce, the pretensions of science, and the shouts 
 of folly, a voice which shall remind the busy and eager 
 throng, that there are other and more important matters 
 than these, which deserve and demand their attention ! 
 To exhibit truths that relate to another world, and which 
 appeal exclusively to faith, to the men who are wholly 
 absorbed in objects of sense ! To obtrude the solemn 
 verities of heaven, heU, and eternity, upon the attention 
 of those who mind earthly things ! To add the living 
 voice, the acting power of a truthful and consistent exam- 
 ple, to the silent testimony for God and religion which 
 is borne by the churches and chapels that are planted in 
 our streets, to scatter the beams of divine truth over the 
 darkness of the surrounding scenes ; while, at the same 
 time, they open their doors to welcome the inquirers after 
 the reality and repose of a better world. This, this is 
 the cliurch's mission and vocation : for this she is kept 
 upon earth to be a witness for God, where God is so 
 much forgotten, and to be so far his representative amidst 
 his too thouglitless and disobedient creatures. 
 
 Already, then, does the need of earnestness commend 
 Itself to our judgment, and come home to our heart and 
 conscience. Wit'i what state of mind should the church 
 
20 THE DESIGNS TO 
 
 apply herself to such a commission ? Is this a • /ork to 
 be touched with careless hands, or pursued with listless 
 steps ? If, in ordinary and unimportant matters, matters 
 which affect the character and the temporal interests of 
 a fellow-creature, witness-bearing is esteemed of impor- 
 tance, and should be entered upon with seriousness, care, 
 and caution, how much more so when we are to bear 
 witness for God, and deliver a testimony that must inevi- 
 tably affect the eternal welfare of immortal souls ! If 
 false witnessing be branded with such infamy, when it is 
 offered in cases that relate to the character and the well- 
 being of a fellow-creature, what degree of criminality 
 must be attached to the act of bearing false witness for 
 God! 
 
 Such a view is indeed most impressive, and has not 
 yet perhaps received all the attention due to it from pro- 
 fessing Christians. The mission and obhgation of the 
 church are the mission and obligation of the individual 
 members of which it is composed, for it can in this case 
 no otherwise act than by its individual members. To 
 every reader of this work, these considerations are now 
 addressed. You, yes, you, personally and individually, 
 are intended to be a witness for God : have you thought 
 of this, and are you habitually thinking of it? This is 
 the end and purpose of your conversion : for this you 
 are kept upon earth, instead of being immediately taken 
 to heaven. You are asked, yea, implored, seriously to 
 consider and accurately to understand your position, 
 your duties, your responsibility. God detains you here 
 to be a light to the world, and you can do this only by 
 your personal religion. Think what kind of religion 
 that ought to be which is to teach men, by what is seen 
 in you, the nature of God, the work of Christ, the cer- 
 tainty of immortality, the value of salvation. Thmk 
 how you ought to act if you would have it said of you, 
 "His conduct is a true witness to all these matters." 
 Will a lukewarm, careless, worldly, inconsistent piety 
 answer such ends 1 Are you a true or a false witness ? 
 Tremble, as you well may, at the idea of giving to the 
 world a lying testimony for God. Do, do ask whether 
 
BE ACCOMPLISHED. 21 
 
 you are giving out, and living out, the truth concern- 
 ing him and his word in your hiaitual character and 
 conduct ^ 
 
 To bear witness for the truth, however, is not the 
 only purpose which God intends should be accomplished 
 by. his church, but also to fr of agate it. It is not only 
 to receive the treasure, but to diffuse it ; not only to be 
 a stationary oracle, giving out its responses to those who 
 come to it for guidance, but to be a messenger carrying 
 the proclamation into all lands. The Jewish church was 
 a witness, and a glorious one too, for God. Its temple, 
 with its altar, its sacrifices, and its worship ; its kings, 
 its prophets, and its priests ; its sabbaths, and, above ail, 
 its lively oracles, bore witness for Jehovah. Its very 
 locality, situated as it was in almost the very centre of 
 the civilized world, and surrounded as it was by none 
 but idolatrous nations, was admirably suited to this pur- 
 pose. There stood the tabernacle of witness, there was 
 the oracle of testimony, ever speaking, not only to the 
 Jews, but to the multitudes of idol- worshipping* people 
 that dwelt in their immediate vicinity. The light of that 
 heaven-kindled splendor might have been seen from afar, 
 even by those who dwelt in the realms of darkness, and 
 the valley of the shadow of death. The worshippers of 
 Baal and Moloch, of Ashtaroth and of Tammuz, had 
 only to turn towards Judea to see a light which revealed 
 the atrocity of their conduct, and to hear a voice which 
 rebuked their iniquity. Still this witness was stationary ; 
 it gleamed like a beacon from afar, but it did not revolve 
 Hlce the sun ; it conunissioned its priests and its prophets 
 to receive all that came for instruction, but it did not bid 
 them carry the glad tidings to distant realms. It opened 
 a quiet haven into which the tempest-tossed ships might 
 sail for refuge, but it did not send out the life-boat to 
 fetch the sailors from the wreck : it opened its fold to the 
 returning sheep, but did not send out its shepherd to seek 
 after him in the wilderness, to bring him back ; it wel- 
 comed the prodigal on his return, but did not, like the 
 father in the parable, go out to look for him ; all this 
 belongs U3 the wider ca iprehension, and the richer 
 2* 
 
22 THE DESIGNS TO 
 
 mercy of the Christian system. True it is that Judaism 
 enjoined the same neighbor-love as does the Christian dis- 
 pensation, and made it the duty of a Jew, if his brother 
 ened, to restore him ; and if he sinned, to rebuke hiin 
 for his recovery ; but the law enjoined no mission to the 
 Gentiles ; it contented itself with summoning- the sur- 
 rounding nations to come and receive instruction from its 
 prophets and its priests ; it sent them no message of life, 
 no word of salvation.* 
 
 But now turn to the dispensation, the brightest and 
 the richest ever granted to man, under which it is our 
 mercy to live. Christianity has nothing local in its insti- 
 tutions, nothing limited in its provisions, nothing exclu- 
 sive in its spirit. When the Sun of Righteousness rose 
 upon our world, it was not to stand still on the hills and 
 valleys of Judea, but with the mild aspect of universal 
 benevolence, to pursue a course round the whole earth. 
 Jesus Christ, by the power of his cross, threw down the 
 middle wall of partition, and, standing upon its ruins, 
 gathered his apostles around him, and said unto them, 
 "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
 creature. Begin at Jerusalem, and let those that struck 
 the rock be the first to drink of its healing streams ; but 
 stay not there ; let repentance and remission of sins be 
 preached to all nations. Content not yourselves, as did 
 the priests and the prophets of the law, with inviting the 
 perishing outcasts to come and be saved, but go to them. 
 Mine is a richer grace, the very fulness of mercy ; go, 
 therefore, and carry to every perishing child of Adam the 
 offer of love, the means of salvation ; and neither rest 
 nor stop till not an individual shaJ have to say, ' No man 
 careth for my soul.' " 
 
 Such is the nature, the spirit, and the design of Chris- 
 tianit/, and such its difference from Judaism : its doo- 
 a-ines, its duties, its institutions, have no peculiarities that 
 
 * Se^ this beautifully illustrated in Dr. Harris' Sermon, en- 
 tilled -^The Witnessing Church," (republished in Boston, m a 
 small volume, with several other worKs of Dr. Harris, under 
 the title of the "Active Christian.") 
 
BE ACCOMPLISHED. 23 
 
 fit them only for one place, or one people, but ^re like 
 the light of the sun, and the air we breathe, adapted to 
 eveiy age and every people, whether burning under the 
 line, or shivering at the poles ; whether enlightened by 
 science and polished by learning, or wh ether wrapt in the 
 gloom of barbarism and degraded to the brutal habits of 
 savage life. And as it is adapted to all, so it is intended 
 for all : no one nation can claim a deeper interest than 
 another in the love of the Saviour, or the blessings of 
 salvation. He is the Redeemer of the world. And the 
 gospel being intended for all, it is the duty of those who 
 possess it to extend it to those who have it not. Chris- 
 tianity explains the glowing language and splendid im- 
 agery in which the ancient seers had predicted the times 
 of the Messiah ; and has revealed secrets which came 
 not within the horizon of their far-seeing eye ; it has 
 cleared up every perplexity, the solution of which eluded 
 their inquiries, often as they employed themselves in 
 " searching what and what manner of time the Spirit of 
 Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified 
 beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that 
 should follow." They perceived, through the clouds of 
 their own dispensation, and amidst the haze of futurity, a 
 dim splendor, which they could not comprehend. Those 
 clouds have rolled off, that haze has cleared up, and 
 though still future and distant, the glory of the millennial 
 age is seen by us spreading over all lands. From the 
 mount of vision we behold the beauties of holiness cov- 
 ering every region, and hear the song of salvation rising 
 from every land. To our believing and enraptured eye, 
 no less an object presents itself than the whole earth 
 reposing in peace beneath the sceptre of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 How much is to be realized in that wondious scene of 
 grace and glory, to which, notwithstanding its present 
 aspect of crime, and curse, and misery ; notwithstand- 
 ing its present attitude of revolt, hostility, and enmity 
 against God ; its present bondage to idolatry, tyranny, 
 and barbarism ; our groaning earth, our weeping, bleed- 
 ing, miserable world, is destined by a God of love ! And 
 
24 THE DESIGNS TO 
 
 how, but by the instrumentality of those who proelaui 
 themselves his children by breathing his own Spirit, is 
 this glorious regeneration of the nations to be accom- 
 pUshed 1 Yes, here is the vocation, the business, and 
 the triumphs of the church. All this is to be done, not 
 by the intervention of angels, but by the agency of man. 
 The treasure of Christ's immeasurable riches is depos- 
 ited, not in vessels of gold, cast and burnished in heaven, 
 but in vessels of earthly mould, and evincing the weak- 
 ness, the coarseness, and the brittleness of their original. 
 To the church, Jehovah is ever saying, " for this purpose 
 have I raised thee up, to be my salvation to the ends of 
 the earth. Behold I send thee far hence to the Gentiles.'' 
 In fulfilling this commission, the church is not to take her 
 stand upon Calvary, and lifting up the blood-sprinkled 
 sign, to summon the gods of the heathen to come and 
 yield up their usurpations at her feet : no, but she is to 
 carry that blessed symbol into the very Pantheon of idol- 
 atry, and by the power of God to drive out the rabble of 
 divinities, and take possession of their desolate abode for 
 him. She is to commence an invasion of the territory 
 of Satan, rescue vassal nations from his yoke, overturn 
 the altars of paganism on her march, and win the world 
 for Him whose right it is to reign. 
 
 Here, we repeat, here is the purpose of God in con- 
 tinuing his church upon earth — to extend herself by her 
 own sanctified energies, till by holding forth the fact and 
 doctrine of the cross, she shall draw all men unto him 
 that hung upon it. It is not for us to speculate upon the 
 question whether the world's conversion could have been 
 accomplished in any other way. It is enough for us to 
 know that this is the way God has chosen, and ordained 
 for this purpose. The weakness of the instrument mag- 
 nifies the power of him by whom it is made efficient, and 
 at the same time humbles the pride of that great adver- 
 sary, who is to be utterly vanquished in the contest. 
 " For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that 
 he might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 
 iii. 8. 
 
 Let the church well consider what her divine Head 
 
BE ACCOMPLISHED. 25 
 
 has i US intrusted to her hands, and is ever expecting 
 from her exertions. Her own improvement, of course, 
 is one part of her duty, as we shall afterwards show : 
 for what must her own internal cofidition be to fit her 
 for such an occupation ; but this is only a part of her 
 duty; the other part is — to fill the earth with the 
 knowledge of the Lord. 
 
 Satan, when expelled from heaven, chose this earth as 
 the place where he would raise the standard of revolt 
 against Christ, as he had done in heaven, where he would 
 fix the scene of his hostility, and the seat and centre of 
 his empire of darkness. Hither has the Lord followed 
 him, to bruise his head, and wrest the sceptre from his 
 hands. For a while, and even yet to a considerable ex- 
 tent, the victory seems on the side of the god of this 
 world. The conflict is, however, still going on : the bat- 
 tle still rages : and Jesus Christ summons his church to 
 his standard. For this purpose, to secure his ultimate 
 victory over Satan, he is " head over all things to his 
 church," and holds the government of the universe in 
 his hands. He has one line of policy, and one plan of 
 action, in all he does ; and that is the destruction of Sa- 
 tan's kingdom, and the establishment of his own. For 
 this the wheels of nature roll on, and the cycles of time 
 are ever revolving. He is bending everything to his pur- 
 pose, and gathering up everything into his scheme. The 
 revolutions of empires, the issues of battles, the ambition 
 of heroes, and the rise and fall of monarchs : the pro- 
 gress of civilization, the efflux of emigration, and the 
 formation of colonies ; the discoveries of science, and 
 the inventions of arts ; the course of the traveller, and 
 the speculations of the philosopher ; the decrees of coun- 
 cils, the edicts of monarchs, and the debates of senates : 
 — all, all, are within the sphere of his dominion, sub- 
 ject to the control of his power, and tributary to the ad- 
 vancement of his cause. 
 
 "As the world," says an American preacher, "was 
 wholly intended for the scene of redemption, all the good 
 which it contains belongs to the plan of grsce that was 
 
26 
 
 THE DESIGNS TO 
 
 laid in Christ. His kiigdom comprises every valuable 
 object which God prop:ised to himself in creating-, pre- 
 serving, and governing he world ; the whole amount of 
 his glory upon earth, and the immortal blessedness of 
 millions of men. It is the only cause on earth that 
 deserves an anxious thought : it is the only interest 
 which God pursues or values. For this sole object were 
 men created, and placed in this world, with social affec- 
 tions adapted to their present state. No one interest 
 distinct from the kingdom of Christ are they required to 
 pursue. No laws but such as directly or indirectly, 
 proximately or ultimately, appertain to this 'kingdom, 
 were ever enacted by heaven to direct their concerns. 
 Their secular employments, their social duties, are en- 
 joined in subordination to this kingdom. Their private 
 and social propensities they are not indeed required to 
 extinguish, but with these about them to march with a 
 strong and steady step towards this great object, with 
 their eye filled with its magnitude, and with hearts glow- 
 ing with desires for its promotion. It is required that 
 whether they eat, or drink, or whatever they do, they 
 should do all with reference to this object. As then we 
 can rely on the decisions of infinite wisdom, expressed 
 both in the precepts and example of God, we are as- 
 sured that 'this kingdom ought to engross the supreme 
 cares of men, and exert a commanding influence ever all 
 their actions. The bosom of the child should be taught 
 to beat with delight at the name of Jesus, before it is 
 capable of comprehending he nature of his kingdom. 
 The youth ought to regulate :'l his pleasures, his ac- 
 tions, and his hopes, with an eye fixed on this kingdom. 
 The man ought to respect it in every important under- 
 taking, in all his common concerns, in the government of 
 his passions, and in the thoughts of his heart. Instead 
 of pursuing with headlong zea their own separate inter- 
 ests, all men should join in piQmoting this kingdom as 
 the common interest of mankind — the great concern for 
 which they were sent into the world. 
 
 " In applying this subject, I would summon, if I were 
 able, all the kingdoms of the earth to arise in one mass to 
 
BE ACCOMPLISHED. 27 
 
 urge fon^'ard the cause of the Redeemer. Assemble, ye 
 people, from the four quarters of tl\e globe ; awake, ye 
 nations, from your sleepy pillows — combine in this grand 
 object of your existence, this common interest of the world. 
 Ye husbands and wives, why are ye searching for hap- 
 piness out of this kingdom, and overlooking the cause of 
 Christ, as though he had no right to hold an interest on 
 earth? Know ye, that no man is licensed to set up 
 another on this ground, which is sacred to the Redeemer. 
 What have ye to do in this world, if ye will not serve 
 the Lord's anointed? If ye will not submit to his do 
 minion, and join to advance his cause ; go, go, to some 
 other world — this world was made for Chiist. But 
 whither can ye go from his presence ? All worlds are 
 under his dominion. Ah ! then return and let your 
 bosoms swell with the noble desire to be fellow-workers 
 with the inhabitants of other worlds in serving this glo- 
 rious kingdom. 
 
 " My brethren, my brethren! while all the agents in 
 the universe are employed, some with fervent desire, and 
 others by involuntary instrumentality, to advance the 
 cause of Christ, will an individual of you refuse it your 
 cordial support? Can you in the centre of universal 
 action consent to remain in a torpid state, absorbed in. 
 private cares, and contracted into a littleness for which 
 you were never designed ? Awake, and generously ex- 
 pand your desires to encircle this benevolent and holy 
 kingdom." 
 
 This is as true as it is eloquent, and lays before us in 
 a most impressive manner our duty, our business, and 
 our honor, as professing Christians. How little is this 
 practically considered by the great bulk of professing 
 Christians — yea, how little is it understood, or even 
 admitted ! How deeply are they sunk in the love and 
 pursuits of the world, and how almost entirely occupied 
 by its cares or its enjoyments ! How few of them in- 
 dulge and cherish such reflections as these : " I li'^ > in 
 no ordinary age, either as respects the world o- he 
 church ; and I must therefore be a man of the age, and 
 for it ! I cannot flatter myself ir*,o the belief that I am 
 
28 THE DESIGNS TO 
 
 one of those extraordinary individuals who are before 
 their age ; but then I need not be one of those mean and 
 creeping ones who are behind it. I learn clearly from 
 the Scriptures that Christ's church is a missionary 
 church, and that the spirit of Christianity is essentially 
 a proselyting one. T am not to consider myself as sent 
 into the world merely to get wealth, and enjoy myself. 
 T am the servant of Christ, and must do my Master's 
 work. I am bought with a price, and am not my own, 
 ind must yield myself up to my divine Proprietor. I am 
 
 soldier, and I am put in requisition by him to whom 1 
 belong. I am called out to service. The trumpet bids 
 me to take my station round the standard, and join my 
 comrades in arms to fight the battles of my Lord. The 
 world is in rebellion and hostility against Christ, and I 
 must take the field, and endeavor to bring it into subjec- 
 tion to him. lam but one — but I am one. I cannot 
 do much, but I can do something : and all I can do, I 
 ought to do ; and by God's grace will do." 
 
 It is to be known and recollected, I repeat, that what 
 is the business or vocation of the churchy is the business 
 or vocation of every one of its members. This is not the 
 work of apostles, or of reformers, or of ministers, or of 
 missionaries only, it is your work by M^homsoever these 
 pages are read. In the movements and actions of the body, 
 there is the movement and action of each limb, organ, and 
 sense, and all animated by the one vitalizing, guiding, and 
 impulsive soul ; and each contributes its measure of ser- 
 vice in accomplishing whatever is achieved. There was 
 no more and no other obligation to convert sinners resting 
 on the conscience of the apostle Paul, viewed simply as a 
 Christian, than rests now upon the conscience of each 
 member of the Christian church. If you ask, then, by 
 whom is the high destiny of the church to be fulfilled, 
 the answer comes directly back, by you. You, each one 
 of you, are the church, at least in part ; and in part the 
 church's business lies with you. Ask not for any 
 special command that is to bind you ; we may rather 
 inquire for the special release that exempts you. You 
 cannot be freed from the duty, the personal duty, of 
 
BE ACCOMPLISHED. 29 
 
 seeding the world's conversion, without a fresh revela- 
 tion from heaven. You must have a new Bible if you 
 would be freed from this obligation, and a new order of 
 things set up ; for the old Bible and the old order clearly 
 lay this obligation upon you. Would you wish to be 
 freed from this obligation 1 What, so insensible to the 
 honor of being a witness for God, and his instrument in 
 converting the world, as to wish to devolve it upon 
 another ! Is this the life that comes from Christ the 
 vine, into the branches grafted into him 1 Is this the 
 vital power which proceeds from the head into every one 
 of the members 1 
 
 Do ask what you are doing and how you are living. 
 Do the men of the world see clearly that while you are 
 as diligent in business, as careful of your families, as 
 good citizens as they are, you have another errand upon 
 earth, another object of pursuit, another engrossing in- 
 terest, than anything to be found among things seen and 
 temporal 1 Are you carrying out the noble assertion of 
 the apostle, made on behalf of the whole church, " Our 
 conversation [citizenship] is in heaven" ? Does the spir- 
 itual patriotism of the kingdom of Christ glow in your 
 bosom, as the love of his country did in that of the Ro- 
 man citizen in the purest age of the Republic ? Or are 
 you taken up in getting and enjoying wealth, grandeur, 
 and worldly ease 1 Citizens of the New Jerusalem, in- 
 habitants of the holy city that cometh down out of heav- 
 en, I call upon you to rouse from your lethargy, to throw 
 off your indolence, your worldliness, and to gird your- 
 selves for the great work of bearing testimony for God to 
 a dark, infatuated, and miserable world. Leave it not 
 to ministers and missionaries ; it is yours also to lift high 
 the heaven-lighted torch which is to illumine the earth. 
 But then, for such a purpose, what manner of persons 
 ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness ! 
 What an honor, and what an ardv.ous one too, would 
 you deem it, to have a commission to carry a specific 
 to a country where the plague was sweeping its inhab- 
 itants by millions to the grave ! Or to be the herald 
 of emancipation to a nation of slaves Or to convoy 
 3 
 
m 
 
 THE DESIGNS TO 
 
 a fleet of vessels laden with food to a starving people ! 
 But infinitely higher than this is your commission, for 
 you are put in trust with the gospel for curing the dis- 
 eases, achieving the liberty, and providing the food, of 
 countless millions of immortal souls. God has called 
 you first of all to obtain the salvation which is in Christ 
 Jesus, with eternal glory, for yourself; and being 
 thus qualified for the work, then, as far as in you 
 lies, to extend that salvation to the ends of the earth. 
 Christians, there is your vocation : understand it, value 
 it, pursue it : 
 
 " 'Tis what might fill an angel's heart, 
 And filled a Saviour's hands." 
 
 Now a proselyting church must of course be an earnest 
 one. He must have formed very inadequate ideas of 
 what is necessary for the conversion of a world from sin 
 and Satan, to Christ and holiness, who imagines this will 
 ever be done without the most intense earnestness, and a 
 degree of self-devotement which has never been wit- 
 nessed, except in a comparatively few instances, since the 
 days of the apostles. It was this that made even the 
 heroic Paul exclaim, in an agonizing consciousness of 
 inabiUty, " Who is sufficient for these things?" Let any 
 one imagine what a triumph over all the selfishness, the 
 cupidity, the worldliness, the indolence, the luxurious- 
 ness, which are to be found among professors, must take 
 place ; and what a predominance of the holy, heavenly, 
 spiritual, self-denying, generous virtues must come on — 
 what a general breaking down of all the barriers of preju 
 dice between different denominations of Cliristians must b 
 effected — what a fair and open field for the operations oi 
 Christian zeal must be presented — what a mighty growtb 
 of spiritual power from all sections of the one church must 
 be exhibited — before ever these realms of darkness and 
 wickedness are evangelized. What a great work it must 
 be to overtake the population of even this country with 
 the means of religious mstruction, and to reclaim from 
 sterility and desolation the vast and neglected wastes 
 which are found here ; and to drain and c iltivate these 
 
BE ACCOMPLISHED. 31 
 
 pestilent bogs of ignorance, crime, and misery ! And this 
 is only but as the homestead, and the garden, compared 
 with the wilderness of Paganism and Mahommedanism 
 which lies beyond. Let any man man cast his eye over 
 a map of our globe, with a geographical and historical 
 knowledge of the tyrannical governments, the idolatrous 
 reUgions, the savage barbarism, the multifarious lan- 
 guages, the unapproachable suspicion, which are com- 
 prehended under the names and within the hues that are 
 before him ; and then think of winning all this to Christ, 
 and covering all these dark domains of sin and Satan 
 with the beauties of holiness, the joys of hope, and the 
 blessings of salvation — and yet this is the business of the 
 church, its labor, and its hope. Will these valleys be 
 filled up, these mountains be levelled? Will these 
 crooked things be made straight, and these rough places 
 be made plain, without an earnestness we have never yet 
 witnessed] Is there not an agonizing effort, such as we 
 know nothing about, yet to be called forth, by which all 
 this is to be achieved 1 We have even yet to learn what 
 kind of work we have undertaken, in setting our hands 
 to the world's conversion ; and must be made to learn, 
 perhaps, more painfully, more impressively, than we have 
 yet done, the nature of the difficulties that are to be over- 
 come, that we may see what kind of men, and what kind 
 of efforts, are required for the accomplishment of the 
 marvellous and glorious consummation. 
 
 This is the burden which the Lord has laid upon us of 
 this age, above most other ages that have preceded us, 
 and which we dare not cast off from us ; but concerning 
 which we must set ourselves to inquire how it is to be 
 borne, so as that his work may prosper, and the church 
 of our day well and successfully do her part. 
 
 It is but too evident that the church of this age, and 
 perhaps, with few exceptions, the church of every age, 
 has but very imperfectly and inadequately understood her 
 vocation as a testifying and proselyting body. She has 
 been too secular and too selfish. She has not allowed 
 the wondrous tiuths which she professes to exert all their 
 power, and has luenched the Divine Spirit which dweU- 
 
32 THE DESIGNS TO 
 
 eth in her as in his bodily temple. Christians seem to be 
 trying the dangerous and desperate experiment of gaining 
 just religion enough to save them from hell and take 
 them to heaven ; rather than putting forth all their de- 
 sires and energies to see how much of the light, and 
 power, and joy of true godliness they can possess. They 
 seem as if they would be content to float into the haven 
 of eternal rest upon any plank or fragment of the ship- 
 wrecked vessel, rather than intensely long to make a pros- 
 perous voyage, and have an " abundant entrance," with 
 every sail set, the precious cargo all preserved, and to 
 drop their anchor amidst the acclamations of the admiring 
 multitudes who throng the heavenly strand. 
 
 We can conceive that a time will come when the heav- 
 enly and holy calling will be better understood and more 
 perfectly exhibited. When Christians wiU be seen on 
 every hand, taking up as their rule of conduct the apos- 
 tle's epitome of his whole moral self, and saying in truth, 
 "Forme to live is Christ." When personal ease, do- 
 mestic comfort, and the acquisition of wealth, knowledge oi 
 fame, though not neglected, will all be considered as very 
 secondary and subordinate matters to the great business 
 of bearing testimony for God, and converting the world 
 to him. When they will feel that "the Lord hath set 
 apart him that is godly for himself," and consider them- 
 selves as something sacred to God, formed for himself to 
 show forth his praise. Instead of looking with envy and 
 an imitative propensity on the men of this world, who 
 devote themselves wholly and successfully to the acquisi- 
 tion of wealth, grandeur and power, they will pray to be 
 delivered from them, as pursuing a low, sordid, and a 
 sinful course, compared with their own, in witnessing for 
 God, and spreading the savor of his knowledge through 
 the world ; and will feel that so that they do but fulfil their 
 mission, they can be content to be the witnesses who 
 prophesy in sackcloth. They wUl no more dream of giv- 
 ing themselves up to personal ease and enjoyment, as the 
 great object of desire and pursuit, to the neglect or luke- 
 warm accomplishment of the design of their profession, 
 than would an ambassador sent to bear testimony for his 
 
BE ACCOMPLISHED. 
 
 33 
 
 sovereign and his nation in a foreign court, and before an 
 antagonistic and hostile people. Up then, ye soldiers of 
 the cross — gird you for the conflict — quit you like men. 
 The world is all before you. The commission is in your 
 hands. Victory awaits you. With such a Captain and 
 such a cause, what enemy could prevent you from win- 
 ning the world for Christ, md immortal honors foi your- 
 selves^ 
 
 3* 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 REMARKS ON THE EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES IW 
 ASIA, REVELATION, CHAPTERS I., II., III., TEND- 
 ING TO ILLUSTRATE THE NATURE OF EARNESTNESS IN 
 RELIGION. 
 
 It is a matter of no moment to the design of this work, 
 in what light these epistles are to be considered ; whether 
 as the past real histories of the churches here mentioned, 
 and of their actual condition at the time, or as symbolical 
 or prophetical representations of the different states 
 through which the church was then destined to pass in 
 its future history ; since the spiritual instruction to be 
 gathered from them is the same in either case. The 
 former supposition seems the more likely one, and it is 
 probable that these churches were specially under the 
 superintendence of the beloved apostle during the decline 
 of his life ; not, however, these alone, but lliey were the 
 more considerable ones under his care ; and as the seals, 
 the trumpets, and the vials, were all in sevens, so, to pre- 
 serve the harmony, the churches also were set forth under 
 that number. 
 
 Though the epistles were addressed to the presiding 
 pastor or bishop under the designation of " the angel," 
 for what reasons it does not appear quite clear, it is evi- 
 dent that they were intended for the whole church. 
 
 It is not proposed here to go into any minute exposi- 
 tion of these addresses, but only to make some general 
 remarks upon them, tending to show the nature and ne- 
 cessity of an earnest piety, and to stir up the churches to 
 Beek after it. 
 
 1. Unlike the other inspired apostolical epistles, these 
 are all delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ in person 
 thx ugh the medium of the apostle, and are therefore ana^ 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 36 
 
 ogous, in that particular, to the messages which, under 
 the Jewish dispensation, the prophets dehvered to the 
 people, with a '* Thus saith the Lord." This indicates 
 the deep inierest which Jesus Christ takes in the spiritual 
 welfare of all and each of his churches. His regard to 
 these seven communities was by no means exclusive or 
 special : all others which then existed were as dear to 
 his heart, because as much the purchase of his blood, as 
 they : and so are all that now exist, even to the least 
 company of believers in the mosl obscure village. How 
 exquisitely beautiful is the description given of him, as, 
 " He who ivalketh amidst the seven golden candlesticks :''^ 
 and how impressive a symbol is this of the design of each 
 church to be a fountain of the purest light to the place in 
 which it exists Can anything more emphatically remind 
 us than this symbol, of the devoutness, the zeal, the spir- 
 itual knowledge, which each church should possess, since 
 it is formed to illuminate a dark world, is under the per- 
 sonal superintendence of the Lord Jesus, and is an object 
 of his solicitous care ? How earnest is he on behalf of 
 every community of the faithful as a whole, and every 
 member of it m particular. 
 
 2. The address to each church commences with the 
 same solemn assurance of his intimate acquaintance with 
 its spiritual condition : "I know thy works." He thus 
 declares that he is ever looking upon his churches, not 
 as we look, from a distance, but with an eye immediately 
 fixed upon each — not with a cursory or general glance, 
 but With a close and minute inspection into the state of 
 every heart ; so that his knowledge of each member is as 
 perfect as his knowledge of the entire chuich, and is de- 
 rived from its proper source — the real facts of every 
 case subjected to that all-searching eye, Mhich is repre- 
 sented by a flame of fire, chap. ii. 18. This is expressed 
 with still more explicitness in his address to the church 
 at Thyatira, to which he says, " All the churches," not 
 the world merely, but " the churches shall know that I am 
 he which searcheth the reins and hearts ; and I will give 
 unto every one of you according to your works." This 
 asserts not onl his power or his right, but his occupa- 
 
36 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 tion ; he is ever thus engaged ; his eyes are always rua 
 ning to and fro through every church. His attention is 
 minute and specific ; it is not the church collectively, but 
 the church in its individual members, that is the subject 
 of his scrutiny. How anxiously and how inquisitively 
 should each church say, what does he see in us? and 
 each member say, what does he see in me? Can any- 
 thing be a stronger incitement to diligence, to earnestness, 
 to entire self-consecration, than the thought that we are 
 ever in the great task-master's eye. Over each one of 
 us continually rolls the thrilling and solemn announce- 
 ment, " I know thy works." Could we but set the Lord 
 always before us ; could we but realize him as at our 
 right hand ; could we but even look up to him as pres- 
 ent, though invisible, saying to' him, " Thou God seest 
 me," should we need anything more to stir us up to the 
 most intense devotedness? 
 
 3. Christ always begins his addresses to these churches 
 with the language of commendation, where there is any- 
 thing to commend. How condescending, kind, and gra- 
 cious is this, and what a lesson does it furnish to us for 
 regulating our conduct towards each other ! How en- 
 couraging is this in all our attempts to please him, and 
 what an incentive to labor more abundantly for him ! He 
 is not a hard master, nor an ungracious one, turning 
 away with indifference and disdain from the services of 
 his people. The feeblest efforts made by his feeblest dis- 
 ciple, when made with sincerity, are accepted by him • 
 the wish, the sigh, the tear, the inarticulate and unut- 
 tered, because unutterable, groaning, are all noticed by 
 him, and received with a most condescending, " Well 
 done." 0, Christians, shall such a master be served with 
 a slack hand, a tardy foot, or a cold heart 1 Shall stinted, 
 grudged, or lukewarm services be offered to Him? 
 Shall less than the best, or the utmost, be done for Him ? 
 *' If ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil 1 and if 
 ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? But cursed be 
 the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth 
 and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing : for I am a 
 
THt SLVEN CHUKC'HES. 37 
 
 great Kuig, saith the Lord of Hosts, and my name is 
 dieadtul among the heathen." Mai. i. 14. 
 
 4. At the same time, Christ, in the exercise of a right- 
 eous severity, rebuked each church for what was wrong, 
 where he found anything worthy of reproof. His love is 
 not a blind and doating affection, which sees no fault in 
 its object ; but is a wise and judicious regard, which 
 searches out failings, not so much to expose and punish, 
 as to correct and remove them. Even to the most cor- 
 rupt of the seven churches, he said, after a severe repre- 
 hension, " As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." 
 Inconsistent and negligent professors ! ye who know your 
 worldliness ; your evil dispositions ; your breaches of 
 truth, honor, and justice ; your neglects of prayer in 
 the closet and in the family ; your general declensions 
 and decay of piety ; your gross irregularities and mani- 
 fest inconsistencies — hearken to his reproving voice ; look 
 at his frovming countenance ; dread his continued re- 
 bukes. Amend your doings. Put away the evil that is 
 in you. He will not tolerate sin in you ; nor should you 
 in yourselves. 
 
 5. Each address closes with a promise of reward to 
 those who are victorious in the Christian conflict. " To 
 him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, 
 which is in the midst of the paradise of God — he shall 
 not be hurt by the second death — I will give to him to 
 eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, 
 and in the stone a new name written, which no man 
 knoweth save he that receiveth it — I will give him power 
 over the nations — he shall be clothed with white raiment ; 
 and 1 will not blot out his name out of the book of hfe, 
 but 1 will confess his name before my Father and before 
 his angels — I will make him a pillar in the temple of 
 my God, and he shall go no more out — and I will wrrite 
 upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city 
 of my God : and I will write upon him my new name — 
 and he shall sit with me c«i my throne, even as I also 
 overcame, and am set down with my Father on his 
 throne."^' 
 
 Such are the 3xceeding great and precious promises 
 
30 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 which are made to those who " come off more than con- 
 querors through him that hath loved them" in the fight 
 of faith, and which, though distributed among the 
 churches, will all be fulfilled in every individual victor. 
 Though some of the expressions have a meaning which 
 can never be fully developed in this world, that very dif- 
 ficulty seems to add to their value, since it exhibits in 
 vague and general outline an object too vast to be compre- 
 hended, and too bright to be seen by our present limited 
 and feeble vision. Christians, look up at these stupen- 
 dous objects of hope, floating in obscure grandeur behind 
 the dim and mysterious transparency of Holy Scripture ; 
 and then imagine, and it can only be faintly, the reward 
 of successful diligence. You are engaged in a conflict 
 of immense difficulty and of tremendous importance. See 
 what consequences hang upon it ; and for what stake 
 you are contending. An archangel coming direct from 
 the throne of God, with all the scenes of eternity and 
 heavenly glory fresh in his recollection, could not make 
 you comprehend the weight, and the brOliancy, and the 
 worth, of that crown which is held forth by the hand of 
 infinite love, to engage your ardor in the contest against 
 sin, Satan, and the world. Earnestness ! Where 1 for 
 what? and in whom should it be expected, if not in him 
 who is contending upon earth for glory, honor, immortal- 
 ity, and eternal life '^ Is he a cold statue or a living 
 man, wh.^ can see such objects placed before him, and 
 not feel every ambitious desire influenced, and all his en- 
 ergy engaged for their possession 1 It was on this the 
 mind of the apostle was fixed when he uttered that heart- 
 exciting, soul-inspiring language — "Brethren,! count 
 not myself to have apprehended ; but this one thing I do, 
 forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching 
 forth unto those things which are before, I press toward 
 the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
 Christ Jesus." Phil. iii. 13, 14. If an apostle felt 
 such earnestness indispensable, inevitable, and neces- 
 sary, how much more should we ! 
 
 Let us now take up each epistle separately, and learn 
 the one great lesson which each seems adapted and de- 
 signed to teach 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 39 
 
 EPHESUS, CHAP. H. 1, 
 
 " Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write. 
 These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his 
 right hand, who walketh amidst the seven golden candle- 
 sticks : I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy pa- 
 tience, and how thou canst not bear them that are evil ; 
 and thou hast tried them that say they are apostles, 
 and are not, and hast found them liars : and hast borne, 
 and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, 
 and hast not fainted. This thou hast, thou hatest the 
 deeds of the Nicolaitanes, [i. e., a sect of practical anti- 
 nomians,] which I also hate." 
 
 We are ready to exclaim, what a church and what a 
 character ! They worked, yea, labored, for Christ ; they 
 were called to suffer persecution, and instead of aposta- 
 tizing, endured their sufferings with patience ; they 
 maintained a strict and holy discipline, and cast out from 
 among them impostors and eVil characters ! Is any- 
 thing wanted here 1 Will the Lord Jesus find any fault 
 with them 1 Yes, he did. He commended them for 
 their good, but " Nevertheless," said he, "I have some- 
 what against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 
 Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and 
 repent, and do thy first works, or else I will come unto 
 thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of thy 
 place, except thou repent." I know of nothing more 
 alarming and impressive than such a rebuke to such a 
 church. 
 
 Now the lesson taught us here is, that nc measure oj 
 attainment in churches or individual members uAll satisfy 
 Christ, whi^e any palpable defect in other things is observ- 
 able. We cannot, we must not, attempt to compound for 
 attention to some things by the neglect of others. Here 
 was a church that excelled in so many arduous duties, 
 that one should have almost expected to hear nothing but 
 the language of unmixed commendation ; and we are ready 
 to say, if such a community was rebuked for deficiency, 
 what shall be said of usi How we ought to tremble ! 
 Theii sin was a leaving of first love ; their religious 
 
40 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 affections had abated, the spirituaUty of their minds had 
 declined, their joy was not so hvely, nor their love so ar- 
 dent, as it once was ; and notwithstanding their labor, and 
 patience, and external holiness, the Lord Jesus rebuked 
 them even with threatenings. How fearfully common 
 is this declension ! How many are there, who are 
 saying, 
 
 " Where is the blessedness I knew, 
 
 When first I saw the Lord : ^ 
 Where is the soul-refreshing view 
 
 Of Jesus and his word ? 
 
 '* What peaceful hours I once enjoyed! 
 How sweet their memory still ! 
 But they have left an aching void, 
 The world can never fill." 
 
 This is so common that many are almost ready to ex- 
 cuse it as a state to be looked for in the natural course of 
 things ; but Christ treats it as a sin, and calls upon the 
 party to repent of it ; and threatens, if they do not, to 
 remove the candlestick out of its place. 
 
 I ask, then, if anything less than the most intense 
 earnestness can prevent this declension, or recover us 
 from it when we have fallen into it 1 The language of 
 Christ to us all is, " Go on unto perfection." Which of 
 our modern churches can compare with this at Ephesus, 
 and which of them therefore should not hear the words 
 of Christ addressed to them, " Repent, repent!" 
 
 SMYRNA, CHAP. H. 8. 
 
 " Unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write. I 
 know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou 
 art rich,) and I know the blasphemy of them that say they 
 are Jews, and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. 
 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer ; be- 
 hold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye 
 may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days ; be 
 thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of 
 life." 
 
 Now it is observable that this is one of the two churches 
 against which nothing is alleged in the way of blame : 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 4 
 
 and to which no language of rebuke is addressed : and it. 
 is evident at the same time that it was much and sorely 
 tried by persecution. This persecution had reduced them 
 to great poverty. " We see here of what little account 
 worldly wealth is in the estimation of Christ. We hear 
 much of respectable congregations and churches, where 
 little else is meant by that but that they are numerous or 
 opulent ; but the estimation of Christ goes on quite 
 another principle. What a contrast there is between 
 this church and that at Laodicea ! They were rich in 
 tliis world's goods, but poor towards God; these were 
 poor in this world, but rich towards God." 
 
 Now the lesson to be learnt from this church is, that 
 persecution, if it reduce the numbers of professors, is 
 favorable to eminent piety. 
 
 In times of unrestricted liberty, external prosperity, 
 and unmolested ease, such as ours, especially in an age 
 when evangelical sentiment is to a certain extent fashion- 
 able, professors of rehgion multiply fast ; but like the 
 Juxuriant produce of tropical regions, they want the 
 strength and solidity which colder climates and more 
 frosty atmospheres give to the plants and trees which 
 grow under their influence. Persecution, which withers 
 and destroys the profession of multitudes of these effem- 
 inate and feeble followers of Christ, leaves the deeply 
 rooted plants of God's own right hand planting still 
 growing strong and fair. What strange and awful 
 havoc in our churches would one year of bitter and op- 
 pressive intolerance make ! In what numbers would the 
 sofl, luxurious and self-indulgent members drop off from 
 the fellowship of the faithful : and, on the other hand, in 
 what majestic grandeur and heroism would the cross- 
 oearers stand forth, and revive the martyr age of suffer-, 
 ing and glory. As skilful and intrepid seamen are 
 formed by the tempest ; as heroes are made in the battle- 
 field ; and as gold is purified in the furnace ; so eminent 
 Christians are raised up, and called forth, by the force of 
 persecution. 
 
 Now let us all consider what kind of religion that 
 must be which makes a man a martyr ; what depth of 
 4 
 
42 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 conviction, what strength of faith, what ardor of love, 
 what Mvehness of hope ! Let us think what a value and 
 impression of eternity ; what an assurance of heaven ; 
 what a conquest of the world ; what an emancipation 
 from the fear of death, there must be, to make a man 
 press forward in his religious profession, not only at the 
 hazard, but with the certainty, of bonds, imprisonments, 
 and death ! Is ours such a religion 1 Do we know the 
 power of a principle which the prospect of the scaffold 
 could not overcome ; and the ardor of an attachment 
 which the agonies of the stake could not extinguish? 
 Have we a self-denial, a habit of mortification and cruci- 
 fixion as regards our sinful desires, which is itself the 
 gevm of the martyr-spirit, and which makes it clearly in- 
 ielligibie, how we could die for it? Is there, when we 
 are looking round upon a quiet and happy home, and 
 upon a ciide of endeared relations, such a state of mind 
 as this, " I feel as if, by God's grace, I could give up all 
 this, ratjier than deny my Lord." This is required in all 
 who would be Christ's disciples. He will accept no man 
 on other terms. It is his own declaration, which we 
 should do well to study, " If any man come to me, anc 
 hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, 
 and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he 
 cannot be my disciple ; and whosoever doth not bear his 
 cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple." Luke 
 xiv. 26. This single passage seems enough to circulate 
 alarm through all Christendom^, and to excite apprehen 
 sion in the minds of nijie tenths of the professed disciples 
 of the Lamb, about the sincerity of their religion. We 
 are involuntarily led, in consternation., to say, " Who then 
 can be saved ? What diligence and devotedness ; what 
 solicitude and intense earnestness, are necessary to jus- 
 tify and sustain our pretensions to such a religion as this ! 
 Who has enough of the pure gold, or is free enough 
 from thQ dross of sin, to stand the test of such a fire?" 
 
 PERGAMOS, CHAP. H. 12. 
 
 " Unto the angel of the church in Pergamos write. 
 Thepe things saith he that hath the sharp sword with 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 43 
 
 two edges : I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, 
 even where Satan's seat is ; and thou holdest fast my 
 name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days 
 wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain 
 among you where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few 
 things against thee, because thou hast them that hold the 
 doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling- 
 block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacri- 
 ficed to idols, and to coimnit fornication. So hast thou 
 also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, 
 which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come unto 
 thee quickly, and will fight against thee with the sword 
 of my mouth." 
 
 Pergamos was a city of IMjrsia, in Asia Minor, the cap- 
 ital of the province, the seat of government, and the resi- 
 dence of a race of monarchs whose ambition it was to 
 make it rival Rome or Alexandria in wealth, grandeur, 
 and elegance. It abounded with idol temples, in which 
 the most impure and lascivious orgies were celebrated ; 
 it was addicted to excessive luxury, effeminacy, and cor- 
 ruption, and was infamous in Roman history for the 
 polluting influence which, in its subjugation by that peo- 
 ple, it exercised over their conduct. So that very em- 
 phatically might it have been said, " Satan's seat was 
 there," and that there he dwelt as in his loved abode. 
 Yet amidst these abominations was planted a Christian 
 church. It was not to be wondered at that in such a 
 place persecution should be kindled, and should rage 
 against those whose doctrines and whose practices were a 
 constant and a severe rebuke upon the religion and works 
 of the whole city. In the persecution, Antipas, perhaps 
 a faithful pastor, was crowned with martyrdom, and prob- 
 ably others with him. The great bulk of the church 
 continued steadfast amidst surrounding opposition, and 
 pure amidst surrounding vice. It requires a stretch of 
 imagination to conceive of the earnestness which must 
 have been cherished and exhibited by those who remained 
 faithful. 
 
 Yet even here there were some who were exceptions 
 to the rest ; some that held the doctrines of Balaam, 
 
44 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 who had instructed Balak to seduce the Israelites nto 
 the lascivious rites of the Moabitish idolatry. By this 
 we are to understand that some of the members of that 
 church, while professing the doctrines of the gospel, 
 gave connivance in some way or other to the flagitious 
 idolatry of their city ; and, in addition, there were some 
 of the antinomian Nicolaitanes there also. For this the 
 church was called to repentance, which they were to ex- 
 ercise and manifest by bearing ^testimony against such 
 sins, and by separating the transgressors from their com- 
 munion. 
 
 The lessons to be learnt from the history of this 
 church are two ; the danger of ■professors of religion 
 imitatiyig the manners of the age and country in which 
 they live ; and the sinfulness in the sight of God of re- 
 taining ungodly persons in communion. In every age 
 and every country, the church has been exposed to pecu- 
 liar trials of its constancy, consistency, and fidelity, by 
 the prevalence of surrounding evils, ever varying with 
 the circumstances of the times, but always existing in 
 some form or other. These it is its wisdom to know, 
 and its duty to avoid. In these lie its chief danger, and 
 in avoiding them its chief difficulty. It is far more easy 
 -o reconcile ourselv.^s to common and prevailing sins, 
 than to such as are rare and infrequent ; to follow the 
 multitude to do evil, \\ian to piirsue a solitary or almost 
 deserted path of sin. Custom abates the dread, and in 
 the estimation of some almost annihilates the criminality, 
 of transgression. That cannot be wrong which so many 
 and such -reputable persons do without scruple, is the 
 false and fatal but common logic by which Satan deludes 
 not only the world, but also the church. Hence it is the 
 duty of professors to study well the circumstances, habits, 
 customs, and tendencies of the times in which they live, 
 in order to ascertain what evils have obtained credit 
 under the veil of currency and fashion. God's laws do 
 do not change with the times, nor does he lower his re- 
 quirements to meet the relaxed and degenerate morality 
 of a lukewarm generation. We are not to be carried 
 about with divers and strange -practices^ any more than 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 45 
 
 with divers and strange doctrines: the morals of (Chris- 
 tianity are as fixed and unalterable as its truths. 1 o re- 
 sist the tyranny of custom, and tlie seductions of fash- 
 ion ; to wade against the stream of prevalent example ; to 
 be singular, when that singularity is an emphatic protest 
 and severe rebuke, which are sure to irritate the many 
 who feel themselves condemned ; to draw down the taun*^ 
 of an ostentatious puritanism, and the imputation of an af- 
 fected sanctimoniousness — this is no easy task — yet it 
 is demanded of us all — but can be achieved only by an 
 earnestness of mind which amounts to a species of moral 
 heroism. Vices condemned by all, improprieties which 
 are disgraceful and involve a loss of reputation, are easi- 
 ly avoided ; and virtues which are in universal repute, as 
 easily practised ; but the sins which are attended with no 
 disgrace, Ijut on the contrary have changed their names 
 into virtues, and are committed under a plea of necessity ; 
 and virtues which have acquired the character of a mo- 
 rose and proud asceticism, are shunned with aversion and 
 disgust. Christian professors ! the downward progress 
 of the church of Christ has in our age commenced ; the 
 deteriorating process is in operation. Awake, open your 
 eyes, look around you ! 
 
 But this is not the only lesson taught by the history of 
 the church at Pergamos : we learn also how displeasing,, 
 in the eyes of Christ, is impurity of communion. Every 
 church is intended to be a light of the world, not only by 
 its creed but by its conduct. Holiness is light, as well as 
 truth. God is light ; by which is intended that he is; 
 holy. Creeds, confessions, and articles, except as they 
 are sustained by their practical influence in the fruits of 
 righteousness, do little good ; they may be as the flame 
 which is to illuminate a dark world, but the misconduct 
 of those by whom they are professed so beclouds the glass 
 of the lamp with smoke and impurity, tliat no light comes 
 forth, and the lamp itself is unsightly and offensive.. 
 To receive or retain unholy men as members of our 
 churches, is a fearful corruption of the church of Christy 
 which was ever intended to be a ' • congregation of faith- 
 ful men,' a coirmunion of saints. How severely did the 
 4* 
 
46 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 apostle rebuke the Corinthian church for retaining- its in- 
 cestuous member, and how peremptorily did he command 
 his excision. To retain notorious sinners in the fellow- 
 ship of the church is the most awful connivance at sin 
 which can be practised in our world, for it is employing 
 the authority of that body to defend the transgressor and 
 to apologize for his offence. There is a strong repug- 
 nance in some persons to proceed, almost in any case, to 
 the act of excluding an unworthy member, just as there 
 is, in cases of disease, to give up a mortified limb to am- 
 putation, — but it must be done; the safety as well as 
 the comfort of the body requires it. In the case of sud- 
 den falls, and single sins, where there is a deep sense and 
 ingenuous confession of sin, much lenity should be ob- 
 served ; but where the sin is public and aggravated, and 
 the conscience hardened, to show mercy in such a case, 
 is high treason against Christ, by retaining enemies and 
 rebels in his kingdom who are virtually seeking its over- 
 throw. The church is a band of witnesses to the neces- 
 sity and excellence of holiness, and anything which 
 could enfeeble or divaricate that testimony is infinitely 
 mischievous to the cause of Christian morality, and 
 therefore grossly insulting to him who died, "to purify 
 to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works;" 
 Whenever the church ceases to bear testimony for holi- 
 ness, it abandons its commission, and is no longer a wit- 
 ness for Christ. If it lean to either side, it should be to 
 the side of severity of discipline, rather than of laxness, 
 •since it is far better that an offending member should 
 liave this addition to the burden of his punishment, than 
 that the character of the church, as a witness for holi- 
 ness, should be impaired. What a horrid caricature, 
 what a monstrous perversion, what a profanity of the 
 very idea of a Christian church, has been given to the 
 world, by the so-called church of Rome ; by that sty of 
 beastly sensuality, that slaughter-house of horrid murder, 
 that emporium of chartered crime, and commerce of 
 iniquity, which t'ne Vatican has presented in past ages 
 to the eyes of an astonished, disgusted, and loathing 
 world ! And even now, what a sphere of Jesuit craft, 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 47 
 
 and odious vice, are most of the countriis \vhich are 
 incladed in the Roman see, and within the member- 
 Bhip of the Roman church ! How summ.arily and how 
 truly is the whole described by that one comprehensive 
 and expressive phrase, "The mystery of iniquity!" 
 The true church must be, and is, in direct opposition to 
 this ; it bears upon its lofty front this inscription, " Holi- 
 ness to the Lord," and it stands out adorned with the 
 beauties of holiness, as a living witness for him, who in 
 the cherubim's song is lauded as the " Holy, holy, holy, 
 Lord God Almighty." 
 
 THYATIRA, CHAP. II. 18. 
 
 "Unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write : I 
 know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and 
 thy patience, and thy works ; and the last to be more 
 than the first. Notwithstanding, I have a few things 
 against thee, because thou sufFerest that, woman Jezebel, 
 which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce 
 my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things^ sac- 
 rificed to idols : and " I gave her space to repent of her 
 fornication, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast 
 her into a bed, and tliem that commit adultery with her 
 into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. 
 And I will kill her children with death ; and all the 
 churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the 
 reins and heans ; and I will give unto every one of you 
 according; to your works. But unto you I say, and unto 
 the rest in "^rhyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, 
 and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they 
 speak ; I will put upon you none other burden." 
 
 Thyatira was a city of Macedonia, of some celebrity 
 in its day, and is still a considerable place, in the posses- 
 sion of the Turks. In the^ church at this place our Lord 
 saw much to commend. His eulogium is very strong. 
 There was faith, charity, patience, seiTice, works, and, 
 what was the reverse of the state of the church in Ephe- 
 sus, which had left its first love, the last works of the 
 church hi Thyatira were more than the first. Of how 
 few churches can this be said ! How many are rathop 
 
48 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 declining in piety than advancing ; but here was growth, 
 progress. Her( last love was stronger than the first. 
 Yet even in this church there was something to condemn ; 
 nor would the good do to set over against the bad. 
 
 What is meant by the woman Jezebel, whether it is to 
 be interpreted literally of some female of rank and influ- 
 ence, set forth under this name, who exerted a pernicious 
 influence in corrupting the church by false doctrine, and 
 practices arising out of it — or whether it is to be under- 
 stood mystically, as importing a corrupt faction, who, 
 though united to God's people as Jezebel was by marry- 
 ing an Israelitish prince, yet were attached to idolatry, 
 and labored to seduce others into it, is not easy to deter- 
 mine ; nor is it important to our present purpose that it 
 should be so determined. Probably the allusion is to 
 some false teachers who were assiduous in corrupting the 
 minds of the church. On these wicked men Cod de- 
 nounced the most awful threatenings, if they repented not. 
 
 The lesson for the churches to learn from this epistle 
 is, that it is our duty to set our face against the teachers 
 of false doctrine, especially such doctrine as relaxes the 
 bonds of moral obligation, and is opposed to the purity of 
 God's law. 
 
 When our Lord prayed in behalf of his ])eOi)le that 
 they might be sanctified by the truth ; and when the 
 apostle described the doctrines of the gospel as " the 
 truth according to godliness," this great sentiment was 
 taught us, that error is essentially polluting ; for if truth 
 sanctif}'', error must corrupt ; except two causes so dia- 
 metrically opposite to each other as truth and falsehood 
 can produce the same effects. The germ of holiness lies 
 hid in every truth, and of sin in every error ; and there- 
 fore much does it become the church to hold fast the 
 truth. It is a notion with many that there is no sin in 
 error. The adage of Pope has been adopted by nmlti- 
 tudes in these free-thinking, latitudinarian days : 
 "For modes of faith let graceless zealots light, 
 His can't be wrong whose life is in tie right." 
 
 This is true in the letter, but false in the spirit, since 
 there can be no right life, in the scriptural sense of the 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES, 
 
 49 
 
 word "right," but what comes from a right mode of 
 faith — so that if the former be correct, so must be the 
 latter. The intention of the poet, however, was to anni- 
 hilate the importance of distinctive sentiments on religion, 
 and by insinuating that all were equally valuable, or 
 equally valueless, to subvert the very throne of truth, 
 and thus to do away the authority and obligation of the 
 Bible. This hackneyed couplet is a dreadful doo-ma of 
 scepticism, soaked and drenched with infidelity to its very 
 core. This bantling of infidelity has been foisted upon 
 the church, and profanely baptized by the name of char- 
 ity : depend upon it, it knows notiiing of charity but the 
 name, and if the father of it had not renounced the Bible, 
 he would have kno^^^l that errors of doctrine, to whatever 
 extent they go, show a mind not yet brought into subjec- 
 tion to Christ. If a man may renounce one truth of 
 revelation, and yet be sinless, lie may renounce two ; if 
 two, four ; if four, eight ; if eight, half the Bible ; if 
 half, the whole ; and yet be innocent. What, then, be- 
 come of those threatenings which are denounced against 
 all unbelievers ; and of those numerous passages which 
 suspend our salvation upon the reception of the truth as 
 it is in Jesus ? It may be difficult and altogether impos- 
 sible for us to draw the line between doctrines essential 
 to salvation and such as are not,, and to fix upon that 
 kind and that measure of error which is incompatible 
 with true religion : we had better not make the attempt, 
 but leave those who hold false doctrin€,s to the justice or 
 mercy of God. There is, in this respect, the same diffi- 
 culty in practical as in speculative error. Who shall 
 undertake to declare what measure of sinful conduct is 
 incompatible with personal safety as regards eternity ? 
 Still we may hold, and should hold, the importance of 
 truth, and the sinfulness of error, as well as of practice, 
 and on this ground should ' ' earnestly contend for the faith 
 once delivered to the saints." Let this be one object, 
 and no uiconsiderable one either, of an earnest church, to 
 stand up for the great fundamental truths of salvation. 
 We have arrived at a latiludinarian age : a spurious phi- 
 
60 ON THE EIISTLES TO 
 
 losophy is creeping- over us : an unconcealed hostility to 
 those truths which we had thought were settled as the 
 faith of the universal church, is now extensively mani- 
 fested, from opposition to which we must not shrink 
 under the pusillanimous dread of being classed with the 
 bigots and petrifactions of a by-gone age. Our theology 
 is our glory, not indeed in the form of a stiif, cold, statue- 
 like symmetry of dogmatic system, but as the warm life 
 blood flowing- through our practical religion. The at- 
 tempt of many is to persuade us to give up and abandon 
 our creeds ; instead of this, our object should be to give 
 them life, vigor, power, and beauty, in holy actions, spir- 
 itual affections, and heavenly aspirations. The aim of 
 many is to philosophize our faith into metaphysical specu- 
 lation : ours should be to infuse faith into philosophy. 
 Give up our theology ! Then farewell to our piety. 
 Give up our theology ! Then dissolve our churches, for 
 our churches are founded upon truth. Give up our 
 theology ! Then next vote our Bibles to be myths ; 
 and this is clearly the aim of many — the destruction of 
 all these together, our piety, our churches, our Bibles. 
 What is it that has given us our confessors but our the- 
 ology 1 What is the inscription emblazoned on the ban- 
 ners of the noble army of martyrs, and that has formed 
 the song to which these moral heroes have marched to 
 battle, victory, and death? what, but the apostle's injunc- 
 tion, " Contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to 
 the saints ?" Give up our theology ! Then what have 
 we as the children of God, begotten by the incorruptible 
 seed of the word, and taught to feed upon the unadulter- 
 ated milk of the word, to live upon? Give up our the- 
 ology ! Then with what armor and with what weapons 
 shall we carry on the missionary war against the powers 
 of darkness in the fields of paganism 1 Give up our the- 
 ology ! And what are we to receive in return ? What 
 is offered to us for that which has founded our churches, 
 been the theme of our ministers, the hfe of our souls, the 
 means of all the religion we have possessed ? What has 
 philosophy ever yet done, what can she do, or is fitted to 
 do, for a lost world, and a ruined race ; for groaning, 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 51 
 
 oleeding, dying humanity? No, in alandonm^ our the- 
 ology, we give up God's most glorious revelation, ami 
 man's last hope. 
 
 Let an earnest church, therefore, put out its noblest 
 and most determined energies in holding last the form of 
 sound words. Let there be no coquetting on the part of 
 our theological literature with unsanctified genius in the 
 form of infidel poetry, and sceptical philosophy : no 
 eulogy on writers and their productions avowedly hostile 
 to Christianity, unaccompanied at any rate with firm, 
 calm, yet indignant, protests against their enmity to re- 
 vealed truth. Let there be no attempts to catch a com- 
 pliment from men who hate our religion, for the candor 
 with which their unbehef is treated. Painful instances 
 of this kind have occurred of late, in which periodicals 
 avowedly devoted not only to Christianity, but to evan- 
 gelical doctrines, have spoken of infidel writers and their 
 worlvs in a style of compliment, not to say flattery, w^hich 
 has greatly astonished and' sorely grieved the friends 
 of truth. We want not that the just tribute to genius 
 should be withheld, much less do we ask that the m.ost 
 virulent infidels should be assailed wdth a virulence equal 
 to their own. Our religion teaches us to be courteous, 
 and meek, and forbearing : but it teaches us, at the same 
 time, "not to bear them which do evil," and to with- 
 stand them to the uttermost. Infidelity is never so dan- 
 gerous as when associated with poetry and philosophy ; 
 and to beguile the young to these dreadful snares, by 
 compliments lavished on the authors of the mischief, 
 "without corresponding protestations and warnings against 
 the poison, is strange work for the Christian essayist 
 or reviewer. What is it but to furnish the gilt to cover 
 the pill, or the honey to conceal the poison ? Never, 
 never was there an era in the history of religion, when 
 it more became the master minds, the heaux-esprits of 
 evangelical truth, to summon their energies to the great 
 conflict now going on between truth and error, and to 
 manifest an intense earnestness in upholding the divine 
 authority and momentous importance of evangelical truth. 
 
S2 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 SARDIS, CHAP. III. 1. 
 
 " And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write ; j 
 know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou hvest, 
 and art dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things 
 which remain, that are ready to die; for 1 have not 
 found thy works perfect before God. Remember there- 
 fore how thoii hast received and heard, and hold fast, and 
 repent, if therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come 
 on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I 
 will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in 
 Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they 
 shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy." 
 
 Sardis was the capital of the kingdom of Lydia, in 
 Grecian liistory, and, has acquired a notoriety by its hav- 
 ing been the seat of government to a monarch whose 
 name has become the proverb of wealth, and his end a 
 proof of the instability of human greatness, — I mean 
 Croesus. 
 
 The description of the state of this church is not very 
 creditable to its religious character. It had " a name to 
 live," by which we are to understand it was held in 
 repute by surrounding churches as in a flourishing con- 
 dition. Its members perhaps were considerable, their 
 circumstances respectable, their orthodoxy undoubted, 
 and their general conduct reputable. They were neither 
 immoral nor heretical — but all the while, though thus 
 esteemed, the church was dead ; not in the fullest sense 
 of the term, but comparatively so, for in the next clause 
 it is said, there were some remains of life, but which 
 seemed ready to expire. The charges brought against 
 it were of a serious nature, alfecting its spiritual, though 
 perhaps not its moral, condition. Christ tells the mem- 
 bers he had not found their works perfect before 
 God, implying that his churches ought to go on unto per- 
 fection — he represents their piety as in the lowest state 
 of declension — and this was the more sinful, as at one 
 time they appear to have been in a far better state, from 
 which they had backslidden. Many, if not most of them, 
 had defiled their garments, had soiled their profession 
 
THE SEVEN CHUECHES. 53 
 
 and affections by worldly conformity, though perhaps 
 not by vice. In short, its condition was low, flat, and 
 languishing, so as to be an illustration of the Saviour's 
 metaphor of the salt that had lost its savor. It is bad 
 for the world to be dead ; for a church to be so is far 
 worse : it is bad w^hen many individuals are so, but when 
 the great bulk of a Christian community is so, it is 
 deplorable indeed. Yet this was not the case with the 
 whole body, for our Lord says, " There were a few 
 names even in Sardis, which had not defiled their gar- 
 ments," and whom he would not involve in indiscrimi- 
 nate censure. For their sakes, for the sake of their 
 reputation and their comfort, he excepted them from his 
 general charge against the body. 
 
 The lessons to be learnt from the epistle to this 
 church are two : first. In the midst of general declension 
 it is possible for any one to keep up the power of vital 
 godliness, and in most cases there are some who do. 
 There are few churches in which, however prevalent may 
 be the corruption of the body, there are none who are 
 exceptions to the general rule ; none who are " faith tul 
 found among the faithless ;" none who mourn in secret 
 for the declension of their brethren, and who by exam- 
 ple and reproof endeavor to arrest the progress of decay. 
 Even in the most degenerate days of Israel's apostasy, 
 when Elijah knew not where to look for a second wor- 
 shipper of the living and true God, there were seven 
 thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. What 
 honor encircles those members, how precious are they in 
 the eyes of God, who are not carried away by the swell- 
 ing stream of corruption, but stand firm to the doctrines 
 and spiritualities of the gospel profession ! Their con- 
 duct shows what can be done to maintain our ground 
 against prevalent declension. It is a beautilul spectacle 
 to see a few consistent, spiritually-minded professors 
 holdmg on the even tenor of their way, when the greater 
 part of the church are gradually sinking into worldly 
 conformity ; bearing high the standard of the cross, and 
 becoming a rallying point for all the piety thkt remains 
 in the church; laboring by prayer, example, and persua- 
 5 
 
64 ■ ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 sion, to save the walls of their Zion from bearing the 
 inscription of " Ichabod ;" and amidst the indignation, 
 contempt, or reproach of men whose consciences are 
 wounded by their testimony, pursuing their holy and 
 blameless career. Happy few ! Your Master knows 
 your works, your trials, your difficulties,. 2nd will reward 
 them all. Be not disheartened therefore or discouraged 
 by the frowns and imputations of worldly-minded pro- 
 fessors, who will not be backward to set down you"» 
 conduct to spiritual pride, to an affected singularity, oi 
 sanctimonious hypocrisy. Men who withstand the cor- 
 ruptions of the church can expect no better treatment 
 than those who reform the evils of the world. Nay, a 
 resentment more bitter, an exasperation more angry, 
 and a malignity more envenomed, will be often cherished, 
 by inconsistent and hypocritical professors of religion, 
 towards those who rebuke their conduct, than by the men 
 of the world, just because a deeper wound is inflicted in 
 their conscience. Let us covet to be among the few who 
 are counted worthy to stand in the gap when a breach 
 has been made in the wall, and to keep out the enemy. 
 The prevalence of evil is no excuse for committing it. 
 God can, and v.dll, assist all who are anxious to be kept. 
 He will inspire them, if they seek it, with the courage 
 of heroes, and the constancy of martyrs. He will be 
 a wall of fire round about them for defence, and guide 
 them through every difficulty as by a pillar of cloud. 
 Amidst envious eyes that watch them, spiteful tongues 
 that love to speak ill of them., and hearts that wait for 
 their halting, he will preserve them blameless, and assist 
 them to hold on their way. Let no one say, I fear I 
 cannot be a reformer, or even a witness. God can nerve 
 the most timid mind with courage, and make the irost 
 faltering tongue fluent in his cause, where there is an 
 anxiety to maintain the purity of the church, anc to 
 uphold, amid such trying circumstances, the consistency 
 of the Christian profession.' 
 
 Secondly. But another and a most impressive lesson 
 which is taught by this epistle is — that churches may 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. t)5 
 
 have a reputation for being in a Jlourishing conditioUy 
 which are all the lohile in a state of progressive decay. 
 
 It was an impressive description which the piophet 
 gave of the king-dom of Israel, when he said, " Strangers 
 have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not : 
 yea, gray hairs are here and there upon hirn, yet he loiow- 
 eth it not." Hosea vii. 9. Decay is always gradual, 
 and in the case of bodily consumption singularly con- 
 cealed from the subject of it. Equally deceptive is the 
 spiritual consumption of the soul ; and he who is on the 
 very verge of death, in some cases knows not his danger. 
 As it is with individuals, so it is also with churches : 
 there may, to aiv unpractised eye, be the appearance of 
 life and even health associated with the certain but insidi- 
 ous progress of dissolution. How many individuals and 
 churches, too, are not only flattering themselves that they 
 are in a flourishing condition, but imposing upon others 
 with the same delusion. The place of worship may be 
 commodious, elegant, and free from debt — the minister 
 popular, and approved by his flock — the congregation 
 large, respectable, and influential — the communicants 
 numerous, and harmonious — the finances good, and even 
 prosperous — the collections for public mstitutions liberal 
 and regular — in short, there may be every mark of 
 external prosperity, till the church flatters itself, and is 
 flattered by others, into the idea of its being in a high 
 state of spiritual health. It has " a name to live." But 
 now examine its internal state — inquire into its condi- 
 tion as viewed by God — inspect the private conduct of 
 its members, and ask for the accessions of such as shall 
 be saved ; and what a different aspect of things is seen 
 then. How low is the spirit of devotion, as evinced by 
 the neglect of the meetings for social prayer ; by the 
 omission in many households of family prayer, and by 
 the heartless, perfunctory, and irregular manner in which 
 it is maintained in others ; and by the giving up, in 
 numerous cases, of private prayer. How feeble is the 
 attachment to evangelical doctrine, and how little relish 
 is there for that truth which is the bread of life to those 
 who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Talent, 
 
Q6 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 talent, is the demand; "We want eloquence, genius- 
 oratory," is the cry. Nothing will do without this, and 
 almost anything will do with it. How prevalent is the 
 spirit of the world in their social intercourse. Routs and 
 parties, differing scarcely anything from the fashionable 
 circles of the worldly and the gay, are kept up at mucl. 
 expense, and with every accompaniment of frivolity anc 
 levity. Let a stranger, of devotional taste, and spiritual 
 affection, and tenderness of conscience, enter into the 
 families and frequent the parties of such a congregation, 
 and what a destitution would he find of the vitality of 
 religion. Under the deceptive appearance of a large and 
 flourishing assembly, an eloquent preacher, and an air of 
 general respectability and satisfaction on a Sabbath day 
 in the sanctuary, what a deadness of the heart would he 
 find ; \vhat a prevailing worldliness in the houses of pro- 
 fessors. How many modern churches answer to the con- 
 dition of that of Sardis. Here is the precise danger to 
 which, above most others, we of this age are exposed, 
 especially the large and externally flourishing churches, 
 in the metropolis and the provincial tov/ns. Oh, let us 
 all, and especially those who are most in danger of com- 
 ing into, or are already in, this deceptive condition, exam- 
 ine ourselves before God. Let us look beneath the 
 illusive covering of an external prosperity, and examine 
 whether disease and decay are lurking underneath. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, CHAP. IIL 7. 
 
 " Unto the church in Philadelphia \\Trite. Behold, i 
 have set before thee an open door, and no man f An 
 shut it ; for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept 
 my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I 
 will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say 
 they are Jews, and are not, but do lie ; heboid, I will 
 make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to 
 know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept 
 the word of my patience, I also will keep thee fi:om the 
 hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, 
 to try them that dwell upon the earth." 
 
 This is one of the seven churches of which no com- 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. Si 
 
 plaint is made, and to which no language of censure is 
 addressed. We should judge they were not distinguished 
 by opulence, but what is infinitely preferable, by piety. 
 They were tried by severe persecution, but they kept the 
 word of Christ's patience, and though but feeble as to all 
 that constituted worldly power, and not very strong in 
 numbers, they still maintained their steadfastness, and 
 kept their hold upon the truth with a martyr's grasp. It 
 would seem they had been much tried by the seed of 
 Abraham, who, having rejected the true Messiah, were no 
 longer worthy the name of Jews. Amidst all opposition 
 and discouragement they were exhorted still to persevere, 
 by the assurance that they should be aided by Divine help 
 in their religious profession, and that even their perse- 
 cutors should be compelled to do them honor. 
 
 The lesson to be gathered from the history of this 
 church is — that eminent piety, and especially immovahh 
 steadfastness in the face of opposition and persecution, ii 
 the ivay to honor. 
 
 There are many intimations scattered through the Word 
 of God, that the church is destined to high distinction in 
 the earth, and to receive a tribute of respect and honor 
 from the nations. The prophecies are full of the most 
 glowing descriptions of this kind ; and why has she not 
 yet received this promised tribute of respect 1 Just be- 
 cause she has not fulfilled the condition on which it is to 
 be granted, and that is, eminent and consistent piety. 
 When she shall be beheld as the tabernacle of God with 
 men, and as having the glory of God ; when she shall 
 rise from the dust, and put on her beautiful garments ; 
 when she shal be radiant with the light of heaven, and 
 be adorned with all the beauties of holiness, then shall she 
 be as a " crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and 
 a royal diadem in the hand of her God." — " Their seed 
 shall be known among the Gentiles, and theu* offspring 
 among the people ; all that see them shall acknowledge 
 them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath 
 blessed." 
 
 As yet the church, so far from gaining that honor and 
 esteem ivhich are so often referred to, and so divinely 
 6* 
 
68 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 promised, has been too much an object of contempt and 
 derision ; not that God has failed in his promise, but she 
 has failed in the terms upon which alone she can expect 
 to be esteemed. Religion has not yet generally appeared 
 in that subhme majesty, that heavenly glory, that spot- 
 less purity, and that effective beneficence, which alone 
 can command the reverence of mankind. Let her be only 
 seen as a seraph from the skies, pure, benevolent, and 
 consistent, — an image of God, — and then, though she 
 may be too holy for the carnal heart to love, she will stili 
 command respect and admiration. Men will not turn 
 from her with disgust and aversion, as from a spirit of 
 falsehood and mischief; they will not insult and despise 
 her, but will consider it as a species of profanity to treat 
 her with rudeness and scorn. It is the feeble, distorted, 
 and crippled form in which she has too generally appeared, 
 the worldliness of her spirit, so strangely contrasted with 
 the heavenliness of her profession ; the loftiness of her 
 pretensions, with the lowness of her practice ; the extent 
 of her claims, with the insignificance of her deserts, that 
 has brought upon her the contumely and derision which it 
 has been hitherto her lot to receive. 
 
 Who ever saw or heard of a Christian, who united m 
 his character all the beneficent, righteous, and gentle vir- 
 tues of the gospel profession ; whose very name was a 
 guarantee for whatsoever things are pure, just, honest, 
 true, lovely, and of good report ; who added to his faith, 
 virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, 
 brotherly kindness, and charity — where, and when, 
 did such a character exist, or one approaching reasonably 
 to such a standard, and not receive the respect even of 
 his enemies, if he had any 1 God will compel men to do 
 him homage. He will bring his foes to his feet, and 
 make them feel how he is honored of God, and " how 
 awful goodness is." Yes, the greatest persecutors have 
 sometimes paid involuntary homage to eminent and con- 
 sistent piety, and in every age, and every country, exalted 
 goodness has extorted confessions of respect, even where 
 it has not conciliated affection. It is the exhibition of 
 this eminent piety which, when presented to the world, 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 59 
 
 shall soften prejudice, disarm opposition, abate malignity, 
 and prepare mankind more fully and generally than they 
 have ever yet been, for the reception of the truth of God. 
 
 LAODICEA, CHAP. HI. 14. 
 
 "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans 
 write. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor 
 hot ; I would thou wert cold or hot. So, then, because 
 thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, i will spue 
 thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich 
 and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and 
 knowest not that thou art wTetched, and mis(3rable, and 
 poor, and blind, and naked ; I counsel thee to buy of me 
 gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and 
 white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the 
 shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint tliine 
 eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see." 
 
 Of this city, frequent mention is made in the New 
 Testament, as the seat of a Christian church of some 
 celebrity among the primitive communities of believers. 
 It is pretty evident from the epistle we are now consider- 
 ing, that it was considerable for the number and wealth 
 of its members. Religion rarely thrives amidst much 
 worldly prosperity. Our Lord's words contained a truth 
 which observation and experience unite to confirm. 
 " How hardly .shall they that have riches enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven. It is easier for a camel to pass 
 through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter 
 into the kingdom of God." Exceptions doubtless there 
 are, but they are only exceptions. We have known profes- 
 sors of religion the better for adversity, but who ever knew 
 one the better for prosperity 1 If such a case ever occurs, is 
 it not regarded as a prodigy of grace 1 On the contrary, 
 how many have we known, whose piety has dechned as 
 tlieir wealth increased ; and even where religion has not 
 totally disappeared, amidst accumulating opulence, it has 
 retained only the form or shadow of what it once was. 
 Multitudes in eternity wiU regard their money as their 
 curse ; so says the apostle. " They that will be rich fall 
 into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and 
 hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdi- 
 
60 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 tion." 1 Tim. vi. 9. Yes,' it is the bag of gold thai 
 drags down the soul of rich men into the pi.. The love 
 of money is the cause of more souls being lost than any 
 other in all Christendom. Hence rich churches are rarely 
 eminent for vital godliness. The spiritual state of the 
 church at Laodicea verifies this remark. They were as 
 poor in religion as they were affluent in worldly wealth. 
 They boasted of their prosperity, saying, " I am rich." 
 It was their matter of glorying ; they vaunted and were 
 puffed up, for w^ealth generates pride, and fosters vanity, 
 beyond anything else. There is more j5?«-5e-pride in ex- 
 istence tlian of any other kind of pride, just because 
 nothing gives a man more consequence in general soci- 
 ety than wealth. 
 
 And what, all the while, was the spiritual state of 
 this church ? There is not a syllable mentioned in the 
 way of commendation ; they had not grace enough to 
 furnish the Saviour, inquisitive as he was for something to 
 praise, with matter for one note of approbation. The 
 specific charge which he brought against them was luke- 
 warmness, that middle state between heat and cold. Some 
 professors are ardent almost to an enthusiasm of zeal ; 
 others cold to the absolute extinction of all vital heat ; 
 the one all religion, the other no religion at all ; but the 
 Laodiceans were neither the one nor the other ; they had 
 no fire, yet they were not ice ; they had no decided piety, 
 yet would not leave religion alone ; they would not throw 
 off the profession and forms of godliness, yet knew nothing 
 of its power. This state of mind was peculiarly offSn- 
 Bive to Christ. To halt between God and the world, 
 truth and error, holiness and sin, is worse, in some 
 respects, and in some persons, than to be openly irreli- 
 gious. Corrupt Christianity is more offensive to God 
 than open infidelity. No man thinks the worse of religion 
 for what he sees in the openly profane, but it is far 
 othervi'ise vdth respect to rehgious professors. If he 
 that nameth the name of Christ depart not from iniquity, 
 the honor of Christ is affected by his conduct. Therefore 
 Christ seemed to say, " Be one thing or the other. Have 
 more religion oi less ; act morv'»- consistently, or let religion 
 alone altogether. ' 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 61 
 
 Yet the church, though in this depkrable state, was 
 not aware of its condition, but thought all was gt)ing 
 on well ; it did not know that it was wretched, and mis- 
 erable, and poor, and bhnd, and naked." This is sur- 
 prising and affecting, and shows, in an alarming view, 
 how far self-deception may be carried, especially in the 
 case of those, who, like the members of the church at 
 Laodicea, are much taken up with the enjoyment of 
 worldly prosperity. Let a professor of rehgion have his 
 mind much occupied with the cares of business, and his 
 affections much engrossed with the objects of sense, and 
 it is astonishing how ignorant and mistaken he may re- 
 main as to the real state of his soul. Prosperity is the 
 smoothest, easiest, and most unsuspected road to the bot- 
 tomless pit. 
 
 The lesson to be leamt from the condition of this 
 church is too obvious to be mistaken or doubted, and too 
 impressive to be unfelt or unheeded ; it is this, lukewarm- 
 ncss in a Christian church is a state peculiarly offensive to 
 Christ ; a state which may exist without heiyig properly 
 known or seriously suspected ; and which is very likely to 
 he produced by worldly prosperity. There stands the 
 awful beacon, and will stand to the end of time, of this 
 corrupt community, warning all the churches of God 
 against a state which is as ruinous to themselves as it is 
 displeasing, yea disgusting, to him. It is a record which 
 every community of Christians should frequently read 
 with most solemn awe ; and it is a record which it 
 especially becomes the churches of our age and country 
 to peruse, since in these days and in this country of Uh- 
 erty, commerce, wealth and ease, the danger of sinldng 
 into this condition is most imminent. Sardis and Laodi- 
 cea, it may be feared, furnish the types cf many of the 
 churches of this age. We can conceive, and perhaps 
 describe, one of these Laodicean professors. By some 
 means or other, either by an alarming illness, the death 
 of a near relative, or an impressive sermon, his mind has 
 become a little interested in the subject of rehgion ; but 
 his knowledge of its nature was never very clear, nor his 
 conviction of sin ever very deep, nor his sense of tho 
 
62 
 
 ON THE EPISTLES TO 
 
 need of a Saviour ever very pungent ; but still his views 
 were sufficiently correct, sustained as they were by a good 
 moral character, to gain him access to the fellowship of 
 the church, and the table of the Lord. The object of 
 liis solicitude having been gained, he soon loses what 
 little real solicitude he once possessed, and though hti 
 does not abandon the forms of godliness, is evidently 
 a stranger to its power. He is perhaps engaged in a 
 prosperous trade, the profits of which accumulate and 
 enable him to command the elegances and the luxuries 
 of fashionable life, or at any rate the substantial comforts 
 of a competent fortune. He is now taken up almost ex- 
 clusively with business, and worldly enjoyment. All 
 spirituality is evaporated from his mind ; religion, as a 
 source of personal enjoyment, a fount of real bliss, an 
 object of experimental interest, has ceased. Private 
 prayer is given up, or confined to a few hurried and 
 heartless expressions uttered on retiring to rest, or rising 
 hastily from it. As to communion with God, if he ever 
 knew it, he has lost it. His family prayers are irregular, 
 formal, or totally relinquished. His family are brought 
 up almost without the least care or anxiety for the forma- 
 tion of then- religious character, for he has married a 
 woman without decided rehgion, and who is one with 
 him in all his worldly habits. There is taste, elegance, 
 fashion, amusement, in his house, but the stranger who 
 visits him neither sees nor hears anything of rehgion. 
 All is gayety in the way of parties and entertainments. 
 On the Sabbath he goes regularly once, perhaps twice, 
 to public worship ; that is, his body is there, for his 
 thoughts are on his busir jss, his wealth, or his pleasure. 
 The prayers kindle no devotion, the sermon yields no 
 religious enjoyment. To ordmary religious truth, how- 
 ever rich and full the exhibition of fundamental gospel 
 doctrine, he is quite insensible, though upon an extraor- 
 dinary display of pulpit eloquence, by some gifted 
 preacher, he bestows both attention and eulogium. He 
 is an admirer of talent, and is gratified by its displays. 
 He is found, also, at the Lord's table ; but though Jesus 
 Christ is there evidently set forth, crucified before him, 
 his heart never melts with penitence, nor glows with love, 
 
THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 63 
 
 nor experiences the peace of believing. As to the week- 
 ly meetings for prayer or preaching, these have been 
 entirely given up ; nor does he take any interest in the 
 affairs of the church, or the usefulness and comfort of the 
 pastor. His love of the world, unsubdued by faith, makes 
 him in his business, sharp, eager, overreaching, so as to 
 make others complain of him, suspect him, and reproach 
 him. In his temper he is perhaps passionate, implacable, 
 and litigious. Yet all this while he is a professor of re- 
 ligion, a member of a Christian church, and known to be 
 such. He does not cast off his religion, or rather his pro- 
 fession of it, but he retains it only to dishonor it. Now 
 this is lukewarmness, and it is a representation which in 
 various degrees suits thousands and thousands of the mem- 
 bers of all denomuiations at the present day. Such 
 members are to be found in all our churches, corrupting 
 the communion, grieving the pastor, discrediting religion, 
 deceiving themselves, and offending Christ. There may 
 he no foul blots, no great scandals, no grievous falls, 
 which call for excommunication ; these but rarely occur, 
 and are not after all the chief source of discredit to reli- 
 gion, and of hindrance to its extension ; it is lukewarmness, 
 that slothlike vice, which deteriorates its nature, degrades 
 its dignity, rendering it a low and reptile thing, and which 
 by its extensive prevalence, not only destroys the souls 
 of those who are subject to it, but spreads the odious 
 infection far and wide. 
 
 What renders it the more alaiming is that the luke- 
 warm are not sufficiently, or not at all, aware of their 
 own destitute and miserable condition. Having dwelt on 
 this in considering the state of the church at Sardis, 
 which very nearly resembles that of Laodicea, it is un- 
 necessary to enlarge upon it here. 
 
 Having, with as much brevity as I could employ, thus 
 exhibited the contents of these instructive and impressive 
 addresses, I would once more, before I go on to other 
 parts of this work, commend with all the earnestness I 
 can express, the perusal of them to tte churches of our 
 day. In no part of Scripture shall (ve find a clearei 
 statement of what, as regards the spiritual condition of 
 
64 ON THE EPISTLES TO THE SEVEN CHURCHES. 
 
 a church, Christ requires of his people. Nowhere sliall 
 we find a more correct standard by which to examine our 
 condition, or a more inteUigible rule by which to guide 
 our conduct. If, in the epistles of Paul, and Peter, and 
 James, and in the other epistles of John, we find a more 
 expanded view of Christian doctrine and morality, we 
 find here, more than in almost any other part of the 
 "Word of God, that which turns our attention inward up- 
 on the state of spiritual life in the church. Here are 
 disclosed to us those heart-diseases, so to speak, which 
 may be impairing- the health, and imperiling the very 
 life, of a Cliristian community, and which may be carry- 
 ing on the work of destruction almost without being 
 suspected. No part of the word of God deserves more 
 of the attention of the pastorate of this day, than this 
 ■which we have been now considering. No minister can 
 do a better service to his church, and to his age, than 
 by an able, faithful, and practical exposition of these im- 
 portant addresses. By God's blessing upon such a ser- 
 nce, the church must be the better for it, when it has 
 been well and diligently performed. Nor should it be felt 
 as an objection to such a labor, that the other parts of 
 this mysterious book are not yet clearly understood, 
 and that as this is a part of the whole, to touch this 
 without going on, is but a fragmentary work. In reply, 
 it may be said, that these letters are each complete in 
 itself, as much so as Paul's epistles, and furnishes lessons 
 distinct, separate, and important, though no other part 
 be handled. Here are instructions of momentous con- 
 ssequence to be attended to, and which may be under- 
 stood, though the seals, the vials, and the trumpets, 
 now covered with a cloud of hieroglyphics, which per- 
 haps nothing but futurity will ever disclose, should 
 remain unintelligible to the most sagacious expositor. 
 To explore this rich vein of divine truth requires no great 
 skill in spiritual mining. No surer or better method can 
 be taken to obtain an earnest church than a general dispo- 
 sition in ministers to endeavor to fix the attention of their 
 flocks upon these epistles to the seven churches which 
 ^ere in Asia. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 NATURE OF EARNESTNESS, VIEWED WITH REFERENCE 
 TO INDIVIDUAL ACTION, AND PRIMARILY AS REGARDS 
 PERSONAL RELIGION. 
 
 The first and most important concern of the church of 
 Christ is its own internal spiritual condition. Its care 
 and solicitude must commence with laborious efforts for 
 its own improvement. It must be turned inwards upon 
 its own state before it seeks to employ itself for the good 
 of others. As God's instrument for thd conversion of 
 the world, it must be fitted for its work, and become a 
 vessel fit for the Master's use. Its zeal must not be a 
 thing- separate from its piety, but a part of it ; not even 
 a foreign graft upon the stock, but a branch growing out 
 of it, the putting forth of its own living principle, and an 
 activity sustained by its own internal vigor. No other 
 zeal will live long, or be very successful wliile it lives ; 
 any other will be only an excrescence or a parasite. 
 The church cannot be an earnest one, in the true sense 
 of the term, without being in a high, or at least in a 
 healthy, state of spiritual religion within itself. 
 
 The more active it is in the way of proselyting, the 
 more devoted it should be in the way of piety. With- 
 out this, even the present missionary ardor, instead of 
 being as the light-house of the world, will be but as a 
 bonfire upon the heights of Zion, a transient blaze, which 
 will soon burn itself out, but which will yield no perma- 
 nent illumination. Here then must be our starting point ; 
 to begin anywhere else is to begin in the middle. It is 
 one of Satan's deep devices to call off the attention of 
 the church from its own state, to the condition of the 
 world without and around her. He cares but little for 
 the efforts of a feeble church, or a lukewarm mind. He 
 6 
 
66 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 fears more from the attacks of a single troop of deter* 
 mined heroes, than from an army^f timid, half-hearted, 
 and untrained soldiers. We must take care, therefore, 
 not to look away from ourselves. Ministers must be 
 •watchful of the state of their churches to keep up an 
 intense piety there, and the churches must enter into 
 this the design of their pastors. The army that would 
 invade and conquer the world must itself be in a good 
 state of disciphne, courage, arms, and personal health. 
 
 We bring forward the remark we have already applied 
 to the work of bearing testimony, and of evangelization, 
 to apply it to the subject of this chapter ; and it is a 
 remark of so much importance, and so liable to be for- 
 gotten, that it will be kept before the reader through the 
 whole of this volume. There are some views so impor- 
 tant, that in reference to them tautology is not only 
 justifiable, but an excellence — and this concerning indi- 
 viduality is one of them. The earnest piety of the 
 church consists of the earnest piety of its individual 
 members. No illusion is more common, both in civil 
 and sacred things, than for membership to weaken the 
 sense of responsibility, and even to cause an oblivion of 
 individuality. There can be joint action, but no joint 
 piety or conscience. There are many things a man can- 
 not do without the cooperation of others, but religion is 
 not of this number. AH its obligations, all its duties, all 
 its privileges, belong to man as an individual, with the 
 exception of the duties of social worship. The piety of 
 a community is made up of the piety of its individual 
 members : there being just as much religion in the whole 
 as there is in all ^ts separate parts, and no more. But 
 we forget this. We talk of the religion of the church, 
 the duty of the church, forgetting that this means our 
 individual duty, our personal religion. What we mean, 
 then, in this volume, is the intense devotion, the spiritual 
 earnestness, of each professing Christian ; and what we 
 aim at is to prevent each individual from looking away 
 from himself to the body of which he is a member, 
 and to compel him to look upon himself. What- 
 ever is required in the way of more consecration to God, 
 
PBKSOSTAL RELIGION. 67 
 
 more religion is required of you, each one of you, who 
 shall read these pages. Do not satisfy yourself by think- 
 ing or saying that the church must be in earnest ; but 
 say to yourself, "/must be in earnest, for I am a part of 
 the church." It is another of Satan's deep devices to 
 keep the eye and mind of individual members directed 
 away from themselves, and^xed upon the body. He 
 will allow us to utter what^amentations, and to make 
 what resolutions, we please concerning the whole, as long 
 as we keep away from ourselves as parts of the whole. 
 It is individualism he fears, more than Catholicism. 
 
 Our idea of the nature of earnest individual piety 
 must be taken, not from the conventional standard of the 
 age, hut from the Word of God. It is of immense 
 importance to bear this in recollection, and to admit its 
 truth. It must be so, whether we admit it or no. Once 
 give up the Bible as the only true standard of personal 
 religion, and there is no rule left but custom, which is 
 ever varying with the opinions and corruptions of the 
 times. On this principle all but the very lowest stages 
 of apostasy might be justified, for they were the con- 
 ventional notions of their day. No, the Bible, the Bible 
 alone, is the religion of Christians. " To the law and 
 to the testimony ; if they speak not, and act not, accord- 
 ing to them, it is because there is no hght in them." 
 Yet how prevalent is the disposition to conform ourselves 
 to the prevailing religion of the day and of the church 
 to which w'e belong, and to satisfy ourselves with the 
 average measure of piety around us. "I am as good as 
 my neighbors," is the shield with which many a man 
 repels the charge of deficiency. " I am as good as my 
 fellow-members," is the self-same shield with which a 
 professor of religion wards off" the allegation of his being 
 below his duty. The very same conventionalism which 
 ruins Ihe world, corrupts the church. That which keeps 
 down the standard of morality in the one, depresses the 
 standard of piety in the other. This has been the fatal 
 practical error of the church through every age of its 
 existence, and by which its beauty has been disfigured, 
 its power weakened, and its usefulness impeded : its 
 
68 
 
 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 members, mstead of looking into the perfect law oi 
 Scripture, and seeing themselves reflected from that 
 faithful mirror, and adjusting their character and conduct 
 by its infallible revelations, have placed before themselves 
 the glass of the Christian profession as it was found in 
 the church of the day, and have regulated their beha^dor 
 by what they saw in the prevailing character of their 
 fellow-Christians. Thus a constant multiplication of 
 corrupted copies is going on, and religion as seen in the 
 conduct of its professors, and as it is described in the 
 pages of its own inspired rule, are quite different things- 
 Hence the necessity of occasionally bringing under 
 review, in a condensed form, the testimony of Scripture 
 on the nature of earnest religion. 
 
 First. What, then, says the Bible in answer to this 
 question, " What is earnest piety? " 
 
 Perhaps, after what has been said in our remarks upon 
 the epistles to the seven churches in Asia, this is almost 
 unnecessary ; but the scattered illustrations presented in 
 those beautiful addresses may be brought into a collected 
 form, and if this does not show at once the nature and 
 necessity of earnestness in religion, nothing can. 
 
 1. Consider the general design of religion, so far as 
 man is concerned : now this is summed up in that one 
 word, salvation — the salvation of the soul' — the great 
 salvation — the common salvation — the salvation of 
 man's immortal soul from sin, from death, from hell, to 
 pardon, holiness, peace, and heaven, and all this for 
 eternity. What a word ! Salvation ! What ideas, — 
 heaven, hell, eternity ! Eternal existence, with every- 
 thing that can make that existence happy. Here is our 
 situation ; life is a probation and a discipline for eternity. 
 We are here to obtain salvation, to enjoy its first fruits, 
 and to meeten for the full possession. And now just 
 glance at the representation of the state of mind which 
 the Scripture represents as in those who are pursuing 
 this salvation, and in reference to it. " Seek ye first the 
 kingdom of God and his righteousness," i. e., let this be 
 the object of your most intense desire, most eager, con- 
 stant and persevering pursuit, so that ever Vthing else 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION. 09 
 
 shall be brought into subordination to it. " We look 
 not at tlie things which are seen, but at the things wbieh 
 are not seen ; for the things which are seen are tem- 
 poral, but the things which are not seen are eternal," 
 i. e., "Our eye is constantly upon eternity. We see 
 all things in their relations to ^his, and can scarcely see 
 anything else. We regulate all our conduct by a 
 regard to eternity. We are so httle affected by tempo- 
 ral things that they seem scarcely to exist, while 
 heavenly and eternal things seem to be the only reali- 
 ties." This is earnestness. 
 
 2. Consider the scriptural representation of the par- 
 ticular branches of true religion. 
 
 — Take piety towards God. 
 
 Rehgion in man, who is a sinner, must of course 
 include conviction of sin, true penitence, and ingenuous 
 confession : " The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, 
 a broken and a contrite heart." What an expression, 
 a broken heart ! how comprehensive, how emphatic ! 
 What a sense of sin is included in that one striking 
 phrase, " a broken heart!" 
 
 — What a conspicuous place in religion does faith 
 bear ! How it runs through the whole texture of the 
 New Testament, as the silken cord which binds all parts 
 of our rehgion ! " We are justified by faith — we live 
 by faith — we work by faith." Now faith is not mere 
 opinion, a mere hearsay assent, an hereditary educational 
 notion ; but a conviction, a mental grasp, a martyr's hold 
 upon the gospel of salvation ; a living upon Christ, upon 
 heaven, and for eternity. 
 
 — Then there is love; not a loving in word only, but 
 in deed and in truth. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
 all thy mind." " The love of Christ constraineth us ," 
 i. e., bears us away with the force of a torrent. What 
 an intensity of emotion do these words imply ! A 
 love that fills up all the intellect, and all the heart, and 
 all the hfe. 
 
 — Faith, v/here it is real, brings peace and joy ; for if 
 there be no peace there can be no faith, and there will be 
 
 6* 
 
70 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 as much peace as there is of faith ; hence we read that 
 the fi:uit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, even a peace 
 that passeth understanding, a joy unspeakable and full 
 of glory : a joy which continues even when we are in 
 manifold trials. 
 
 — True religion inspires an ardor of devotion. How 
 intense were the breathings of the Psalmist's sou after 
 God ! How his very heart seemed to glow, and burn, 
 and melt with devotion ! And the apostle also, in describ- 
 ing our duty, says, " We are to be fervent in spmt, serv- 
 hig the Lord." 
 
 — The piety of the New Testament necessarily in- 
 duces a deep-toned spirituality. "To be spiritually 
 minded, k life and peace," By this we are to under- 
 stand a spontaneous, prevaihng, and delightful propensity 
 to meditate on divine truth, and holy things ; and allied 
 to this is heavenly-mindedness, or an habitual tendency to 
 dwell on the glory to be revealed. We are " to be risen 
 with Christ," and to " seek those things which are above ; 
 setting our affections on things above, where Christ sit- 
 teth on the right hand of God;" we are to be waiting 
 for the Son of God from heaven, and to be looking for 
 his coming as our blessed hope, above all other hopes. 
 This waiting for Christ was in an eminent degree char- 
 acteristic of the primitive Christians ; it is frequently 
 mentioned by the apostles, and seems to have been a 
 prevailing feeling of the churches ; and all earnest Chris- 
 tians now have the same spirit. The bride, the Lamb's 
 wife, is, and must be supposed to be, ever looking for 
 the return of the heavenly Bridegroom. The want of 
 this habitual looking for the return of Christ indicates a 
 low state of piety, a prevalence of worldly-mindedness 
 among professing Christians. 
 
 — True religion includes a si^J/wo-a^wn of the world: 
 " This is the victory that overcometh the world. e%en our 
 faith." " If any man love the world, the love of the 
 Father is not in him." " Ye are dead, and your life is 
 hid \^ ith Christ in God." How strong an expression, 
 ** Ye are dead!" Dead [> sin — dead to the world — to 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION. 71 
 
 things seen and temporal — a corpse amidst all these 
 matters ! 
 
 — There is in the Lord's people a hungering and thirst- 
 ing after righteousness. Do we consider how craving an 
 appetite is hungering after food, and thirst after water? 
 So are we to long and pant for holiness. 
 
 — If there be earnest piety there must of necessity be 
 a s-pirit of frayer. We are to be " instant in prayer," — 
 " to pray always," — " to pray alwa^^s with all prayer," 
 
 — to be importunate in prayer — to enter into our closet 
 
 — to pray with the family, and to join in public prayer. 
 Our whole life is to be in one sense a continued devotional 
 exercise, 
 
 — Rehgion implies habitual, minute, and anxious con- 
 scientiousness. Having in all things " a conscience void 
 of offence, both towards God and towards man," and 
 " avoiding even the appearance of evil." 
 
 — Earnest piety requires a constant, diligent, and spir- 
 itual attendance ufon all the prescribed means of grace — 
 the holy observance of the Sabbath, the assembling of 
 ourselves together for public worship, the celebration of 
 the Lord's Supper, the devout reading of the Word 
 of God. 
 
 — To sum up all, if we are fervent in spirit, serving 
 the Lord, we shall endeavor to comply with the apostle's 
 exhortation where he saith, " Whether )^e eat, or drink, 
 or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." And 
 we shall copy his example in that description of his end 
 of life where he says, " For me to live is Christ." 
 
 But there is another branch of true religion : God has 
 taken under his protection, sanction, and enforcement, all 
 the interests of our fellow-creatures : and it is therefore 
 as much a part of our business to promote these, as it is 
 to practise the duties of piety towards God. 
 
 — How large and prominent a place does charity, or 
 love, bear in our Christian obligations! " Charity suf- 
 fereth long, and is kind ; charity envieth not ; charity 
 vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up : doth not behave 
 itself unseemly ; seeketh not her own ; is not easily pro- 
 voked ; tbinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but 
 
72 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 • 
 
 rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all thing^s, bel eveth all 
 things, hopeth all things." How beautiful a virtue, but 
 how difficult ! This is what our Lord enjoins where he 
 commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves : a dispo- 
 sition which means that we are to do nothing to produce 
 the misery, and everything to promote the happiness, of 
 our fellow-creatures. 
 
 — As a branch of this we are to be merciful, tender- 
 hearted, sympathizing, and full of practical compassion. 
 — Nor are we to stop here, but are to follow " whatso- 
 ever 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." So that the most refined morahty is a 
 necessary part of true religion. 
 
 If we are earnest in religion, we shall aim to let its 
 power regulate, and its beauty adorn, all our social rela- 
 tionships, and all that is to be done in the state, and in 
 the family, will be performed under its influence. 
 
 And because motives have much to do with actions, 
 and contain all in them that is moral, and because 
 thoughts and feelings ai'e the seeds of actions, a man 
 who is earnest in religion will pay most assiduous atten- 
 tion to the state of his mind : will watch the heart with 
 all diligence ; will often scrutinize his soul, and will 
 crucify ^he affections and lusts of his corrupt nature. 
 
 Nor must he stop here, for, knowing his own weak- 
 ness, he will pray, wrestle, and agonize, for the power 
 of the Spirit to help his infirmities. He must have grace, 
 or he will fall. He cries to God in fervor and faith for 
 the aid without which he cannot take a step, and will 
 gladly place himself under the teaching and guidance of 
 this ever-present, all-sufficient Agent. 
 
 Such is a ccndensed view of the Scripture account of 
 true religion. If anything more than this were required 
 to set forth the necessity of earnestness, we must refer 
 to the figures under which the divine life is exhibited in 
 the Word of God. It is a race — what preparation, 
 what laying aside of encumbrances, what intense solici- 
 tude, and what strenuous exertion, are here imphed ! It 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION. 73 
 
 is a conflict^ a fight of faith — what anxiety, what peril, 
 what skill, what courage, w^hat struggling, are included 
 in the strife of the battle-field ! It is « warfare — • what 
 self-denial, what perseverance, what labor, are required 
 for such a journey ! 
 
 It is impossible not to be struck, in reading such an 
 account, with the idea that here is something more than 
 a round of ceremonies, a course of physical exertion, a 
 routine o:' mechanical action. This is not a mere repe< 
 tition of prayers, and counting of beads, and holdmg of 
 vigils, which are all a mere bodily service ; no, what is 
 here laid down is a reasonable service, a course of action 
 for the intellect, the will, the heart, the conscience, and 
 all the more difficult for being- mental : calling for reflec- 
 tion, determination, resolute purpose, and resistance of 
 opposition. 
 
 This, be it recollected, is not man's device, but God's 
 prescription. It is not what the ministers of the gospel 
 have determined upon, but what God has set before us. 
 Whether we like it or not, there it is, every sentiment of 
 it drawn from the Bible. We may complain of it as 
 being too strict, but this must be settled with God, since 
 it is no stricter than he has thought fit to make it. Let 
 us read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it. Let us set 
 it before us. Let us turn away from the religion we see 
 in the church, to the religion we read in the Bible. Let 
 us not listen to what man says is necessary, but to what 
 God says is necessary. Let us go for our information, 
 not to the imperfect and blurred copy in the ordinary pro- 
 fession, but to the perfect and unspotted original. 
 
 Secondly. A question, however, will now suggest 
 itself to some minds, " /s this oxir standard? Is this 
 representation of the nature of true piety intended for us 
 as our guide, and is it obligatory upon us ? Strange 
 that such a question should be asked. Is the Bible ours, 
 and given for us, and are its contents binding upon us, 
 as they were on those who first received it from the hand 
 of God ? Who among professing Christians ever doubted 
 it, except some few modern semi-infidels, who tell us the 
 Bible WIS a very good book, and Jesus Christ a very 
 
74 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 good 1 eacher for the earlier times of Christianity, but that,' 
 in the progress of reason, and the advance of science and 
 civilization, both may be dispensed with. But we have 
 not so learned Christ. We profess to believe that the 
 inspired volume, like its Divine Author, is " the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and forever ;" unalterable in its mean- 
 ing, in its adaptation, in its authority. The Scriptures 
 were written for all times, and all countries, and are alike 
 obhgatory upon all. We are as much bound by Paul's 
 epistles as were the churches to which they were origi- 
 nally addressed. There, in those blessed pages, is the 
 description of our religion, both in its privileges and its 
 duties. There are potent, but they will prove abortive, 
 efforts to substitute something else for all this. It is too 
 spiritual, too devout, too unearthly, too self-denying, too 
 humbling, for many ; and it must be pushed out for 
 man's device ; and this is done in two ways, and by two 
 different classes of teachers. One class are endeavoring 
 to set aside the prescriptions of the New Testament, by 
 a philosophized Christianity, which retains the name, but 
 repudiates everything else of this divine system. This 
 is intended for the thoughtful and scientific, who cannot 
 quite do without some reference to God and immortality, 
 but who cannot endure anything so humbling to reason, 
 and so mortifying to depravity, as the New Testament 
 description of religion. While, on the other hand, there 
 are the men who are governed by their senses and their 
 imagination, for whom all this which has been set forth 
 is too spiritual, and intellectual, and moral ; and they, 
 therefore, must have a ceremonial and ritual piety. They 
 must dwell in the regions of poetry, and architecture, 
 and sculpture ; and be regaled by sights and sounds 
 which shall supply them wdth the luxuries of taste, with- 
 out any very large demand upon the understanding, the 
 will, the heart, and the conscience. Against both these 
 the Word of God lifts up its own inspired, unalterable, 
 and infallible standard, and with the authority of a Divine 
 voice says, " This is the way, walk ye in it." Yes this, 
 all this, which we find in the Scriptures of the New 
 Testament as descriptive of the religion of Jesus Christ, 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION. 75 
 
 IS binding upon us. Every particular enumerated is 
 binding upon every individual Christian. There can be 
 no dividing the religion of the Bible ; no parcelling it out 
 amidst various individuals ; no giving piety to one, and 
 morality to another ; no leaving one man to do this, to 
 the neglect of that, and allowing another man to do 
 what his fellow-professor has neglected, and to neglect 
 what he has done ; it is all binding upon each. The 
 whole moral law, and the whole gospel of the grace of 
 God, come down with undiminished and undivided weight 
 upon each man's conscience. 
 
 Now it is not enough to say, " Who then can be 
 saved?" and endeavor to get rid of our obligations by 
 affirming that such a life as this is impossible to any 
 one in this world. This has been often said, and an 
 infidel objection has been raised against the gospel, on 
 the ground of its high standard of duty. It has been 
 alleged against it, that its requirements are beyond the 
 reach of any one situated as we are, with a corrupt nature, 
 and surrounded by temptations. There would be some 
 force in this, if nothing were accepted short of absolute 
 perfection. Difficult, indeed, it is, so much so, that even 
 "the righteous are scarcely saved." But is it more 
 difficult for us than it was for the first Christians? 
 They were surrounded by idolatrous friends, customs, 
 and rites, and had to force their way to heaven through 
 bonds, imprisonment, and death, in addition to all that is 
 trying to us. They could not move a step in their reli- 
 gious course without encountering an antagonism of 
 which we can form no conception. Yet even to them no 
 concession was made ; " Deny thyself, and take up thy 
 cross and follow me," was the stern, unbending demand 
 of Christ. He required of them, and he requires of us, 
 also, the double crucifixion, of the outer and the inner 
 man, as the terms of discipleship. 
 
 This, I admit, is somewhat alarming ; it is, indeed, 
 startling, and enough to awaken all Christendom to very 
 serious consideration, to be told that this is the religion 
 they must have, or abandon their pretension to religion 
 
76 earnest:ness in 
 
 altogether. Can anything more clearly prove the neces- 
 sity of earnestness than such a statement as this 1 
 
 Thirdly. We may now proceed to ask, whether this 
 is the religion which is prevahnl in this day, and among 
 us ? This is a question which we approach with trem- 
 bling solicitude, anxious not to give a wrong answer, 
 neither on the one hand to exaggerate, nor, on the other, 
 to underrate, the piety of this age. Recollect, the ques- 
 tion is not whether we have more or less earnest piety 
 than some former ages. No doubt there have been times 
 when there was a more intense devotion than ours, and 
 other times when there was less. There can be little 
 doubt that the number of true Christians is greater now 
 than it has been in any modern age, and as little, that in 
 some directions, this number is still greatly augmenting. 
 We are disposed, therefore, to drop this inquiry, and 
 take up the question of the present state of piety as 
 viewed only in comparison with the standard laid dow^n 
 before. Even could it be shown that we were somewhat 
 more in earnest than others that have gone before us, 
 yet how far short are w^e, both of what the word of God 
 requires, and of what is necessary for our high duty and 
 destiny, as God's witnessing and proselyting church. 
 
 We would not lose sight, and ought not to do so, of 
 certain distinguishing and lofty features in the church's 
 piety of this day. There is, no doubt, a very prevailing 
 disposition to profess Christ. Religion is unquestionably 
 gaining ground in this respect. Whatever disposition 
 there may be in some quarters, that is, among the second- 
 rate men of science, and also among great numbers of 
 the operative classes, to espouse the cause of infidelity, 
 — and a fearful disposition there is to do so, — public opin- 
 ion is in other quarters conciliated to religion, and even 
 to evangehcal religion. But we are not now so much 
 thinking of the characteristics of the age, as of the 
 church : and of this latter, we find a noble distinction in 
 Its liberal, yea, munificent activity. Never, no, never, 
 since the days of the apostles, was there such a per- 
 vading spirit of religious zeal as there is now : nor would 
 we be over curious and severe in our scrutiny to ascer- 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION. 77 
 
 lain how much of this is tainted with sectarianism ; that 
 it is not all pure, we admit, but whatever alloy may be 
 mixed with it, much of it is genuine gold. It is a sight 
 for the admiration of angels, and on which the great God 
 himself looks down with ineffable complacency, to see 
 the church rising up from the slumber of ages, multiply- 
 ing her instruments, and accumulating her means, for the 
 world's conversion. See her efforts at home for tho 
 building of churches, the training of ministers, the erec- 
 tion of schools, the preaching of the gospel, and the 
 education of the people : and see her, at the same time, 
 on both sides of the Atlantic, stretching out her arms 
 half round the globe, and, by her missionaries and mis- 
 sion stations, giving the blessings of salvation to half the 
 teeming population of our earth. We would not be 
 blind to this, for it is a glorious sight to see our mer- 
 chants beginning to inscribe upon their merchandise, and 
 upon the bells of the horses, " Holiness to the Lord !'* 
 Should some of the friends of Zion, who departed to 
 their rest a century ago, look out of their graves upon 
 the scenes exhibited in the metropolis in the month of 
 May, they would be almost ready to conclude we had 
 reached the millennial period of the world's history. 
 Zeal is at length recognized as one of the constitueut 
 elements of piety, and that professor would be viewed as 
 a relic of a by-gone age, who did not recognize his com- 
 mission in the command of the Saviour, to go into all 
 the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 
 
 This is delightful, but it is not everything : there may 
 be, as we have seen, a name to live while we are dead. 
 It is impossible to be ignorant, or to forget, how much 
 of all the money given may be bestowed without any 
 real love to the object ; and how much of all the labor 
 thus employed may be carried on from a mere love of 
 activity, and by the strong current of public example. 
 It is only necessary to look to the church of Rome, to 
 learn how much of zeal may be manifested, and how 
 much of property may be expended, without any pure 
 religious motive. And even taking the gross amount of 
 wha* is given, and what is done, without making anv 
 7 
 
78 EARNESTNESS IN . 
 
 deductions for the counterfeit coin of fulse motives, how 
 little does it amount to, compared with what we spend 
 upon ourselves, and with what the cause of Christ re- 
 quires at our hands ! 
 
 Giving-, then, all that is due to this spirit of liberality 
 and activity, let us come back to the question about the 
 earnest fiety of the age. Has the church so clothed 
 herself with the garments of salvation and the robes of 
 righteousness, and does she so shine with the beauties 
 of holiness, and the reflected light of heaven falling upon 
 her, as to attract the notice, to fix the attention, and 
 excite the admiration of the world 1 Is she all bright- 
 jaess, a Goshen amidst Egyptian gloom, a verdant oasis in 
 fthe midst of this moral desert? Has she, by her unearthly 
 '.temper, her consistent holiness, her heavenly-mindedness ; 
 by her exalted morality, by her exemplary benevolence, 
 hy the radiance of truth sparkling in her eye, the spirit 
 -of love breathed from her lips, and the blessings of mercy 
 dropping 'from her hands, silenced the cavils of infidelity, 
 and answered the taunts of her enemies, " What do ye 
 more than others?" Does she appear like the taber- 
 nade of God, filled with his glory and indicating his 
 presence'? Have Christians, by their victory over the 
 world, itheir constant and earnest pursuit of salvation, 
 their copsisten't piety, their general excellence, their gen- 
 tleness, meekness, and kindness, lived down the sus- 
 picion, and silenced the charge, of hypocrisy? Do we 
 appear wl^q.t we .profess to be, as men living supremely 
 for immortality, aad bearing visibly to every eye the stamp 
 of heaveji and eternity upon our character? Do we look 
 like the competitors for a crown of glory, the warriors 
 Sighting for eternal liberty and life ? Does our religion 
 aj;pear like that which is making us a saint in life, and 
 wQiuld make us a martyr in death? Can we pretend to 
 be in earnest,;if these questions must be answered in the 
 negative ? 
 
 ijf asked to point, out -the specific and prevailing sin of 
 th^;ehurch in the present. day, we cannot hesitate in re- 
 pljfiixg, a 'pervading worldliness of mind, heart, and con- 
 dust.. .She is,feaTfully.seculai:i5^d in the spirit and temper 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION. 79 
 
 of her membe.s.- The love of the woiid is become the 
 master passion, before which other and hoHer affections 
 grow dim and weak. Nor is this at all inconsistent with 
 the spirit of liberahty, which has been already admitted 
 to exist. There may, by the force of circumstances, be 
 a spirit of giving, where at tjie same time there may be 
 an excessive anxiety about getting. In this commercial 
 country, it is difficult even for the professors of religion 
 to escape the contagious spirit of speculation, eager com^ 
 petition, and over-trading. The determination, as well 
 IS the anxiety, to be rich, will, without great watchfiil- 
 less, rush into the church : it has done so, and those who 
 )rofess to have overcome the world by faith, appear 
 ;.lmost as eager as others in all the schemes for getting 
 wealth in haste, and by almost any means. But it is not 
 only in the way of doing business that this secular spirit 
 is seen, but in the general habits and tastes of professing 
 Christians. Their style of living, their entertainments, 
 their associations, their amusements, their conversation, 
 evince a conformity to the world, a minding of earthly 
 things, a disposition to conform themselves to the world 
 around, and an apparent desire to seek their happiness 
 from objects of sense, rather than from those of faith, 
 which prove the extent to which a secular spirit is bear- 
 ing down the spirit of piety. 
 
 It may not be improper here to ask what are the prin- 
 cipal defects, as well as sins, of the religion of this day ; 
 in what it is that the professors of this age chiefly fall 
 short? Two only shall be mentioned, as perhaps the 
 most prominent. I may first mention that class of duties 
 which come under the head of the devotional, the spirit- 
 ual, the contemplative, as distinguished from the active 
 and practical, or that which is specifically known as piety 
 towards God : the love of, and communion with, God ; 
 looking to Jesus, and the habitual sense of his unutter- 
 able preciousness ; the commerce with the skies ; the 
 abiding unpression of eternity ; the impressive sense of 
 the Divine presence ; the constant reference to the future 
 Btate, which, like an invisible but powerful linkj connects 
 us with another world. This is what we want, the higli- 
 
so E. RNESTNESS IN 
 
 toned spirituality, the ueeply devotional spirit, the heav- 
 enly aspirations, the yearnings after a higher and holier 
 state of existence, which are exhibited in many of the 
 hymns we sing, many of the biographies we read, and 
 many of the sermons we hear. We have a faith which 
 converses with the letter, b^t we want one which presses 
 on to the spirit, of the word of God : our faith stops in 
 words, but does not reach on to things ; the awfully glo- 
 rious form of truth passes before our intellect, but it is 
 veiled and muffled ; we do not take hold of her garment, 
 entreat her to smile upon us, and tarry with us, admit- 
 ting our hearts to' communion with h^r. 
 
 It has sometimes occurred to me that we have suffered 
 our very orthodoxy, in one respect, to do us harm, as if 
 the doctrine of justification by faith, that fundamental 
 truth, and the only legitimate source of peace to a sin- 
 ner's conscience, were intended to chill our affections, and 
 extinguish the exercise of a , holy and chastened imagi- 
 nation in the soul of a saint. In setting aside frames 
 and feelings as grounds of hope and sources of peace, 
 we have been in danger of extinguishing them altogether 
 as exercises of devotion. In doing honor to the work of 
 Christ, as the sole ground of acceptance with God, we 
 have neglected the work of the Spirit to raise us unto 
 the element of light and love. In turning with aversion 
 from the crucifix as an aid to devotion, we have neglected 
 to use the cross to produce in us all the legitimate emo- 
 tions of earnest contemplation. In refusing to enter the 
 cloister, we have neglected also the closet. In repudi- 
 ating the visions, the raptures, and the dreamy silence of 
 the mystics, we have also let go the peace that passetb 
 understanding, the joy that is unspeakable and full ot 
 glory. In surrendering such books as Madame Guion'i 
 rapturous hymns, Mrs. Rowe's Devout Exercises of tht 
 Heart, Hervey's Meditations, and Law's Serious Call, 
 we have at the same time renounced almost all other 
 works, which, though of a more sober spirit of devotion, 
 are intended and calculated to excite and sustain religious 
 affection. We have repudiated manuals of devotion, 
 which prescribe employments for passion-week, a whole 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION. 81 
 
 week's preparation for the Lord's supper, prayers to be 
 repeated in dressing and undressing, and all the various 
 situations in which we can be found, as tending to make 
 religion a thing of and by itself, as belonging to times 
 and places, but not constituting an element of habitual 
 character, and a principle designed to influence us always, 
 everywhere, and in everything : but have we not too 
 much abandoned all aids to devotion, all means and helps 
 to keep up the piety of the heart towards God. Missals, 
 breviaries, and rosaries, are abjured by us as the inven- 
 tions of man, the devices of superstition, the mockeries of 
 devotion ; but do we substitute them by our Bibles, our 
 hymn-books, our religious biographies, as closet com- 
 panions, as fuel for the flame of devotion? We doubt 
 the genuineness of that emotion which can be excited only 
 by Gothic architecture, beautiful sculpture, sublime music, 
 and mouldering ruins of religious fabrics ; but do we 
 take pains to nourish devotion by the appeals made to 
 our senses, in the scenes of nature, and the legitimate 
 symbols of our holy religion 1 In short, we have abjured 
 Popery, and its late-born child, Puseyism, but we still 
 want the devotion of some of the best of their votaries, 
 puriiied from its superstition, illuminated and guided by 
 the clear light of the evangelical system of revealed 
 truth, — the piety of Fenelon and Pascal, as a graft upon 
 the doctrine of justification by faith, or rather yielded by 
 it as its legitimate produce. Such instances there arc 
 among us, not a few ; w^ould God they were more nu- 
 merous ! 
 
 But, "this kind goeth not forth but by fasting and! 
 prayer," and in the former of these, if not in the latter,, 
 the Christians of the present day are singularly wanting.. 
 We live in a busy age, when men find little time for 
 private prayer, reading the Scriptures, and meditation. 
 Perhaps there was never so little private prayer among 
 professors as there is now. The closet was never mor& 
 neglected by the great bulk of those who call themselves. 
 Christians. A few hasty expressions or a few broken, 
 thoughts, poun d out without solemnity or without cohe- 
 rence, or else a short form learnt by heart, and repeated 
 7* 
 
82 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 ai night or morning, or perhaps bo ,h, constitntes, it is tc 
 be feared, as we have already said, all the private prayer 
 which some offer to God. Closet prayer means a person's 
 selecting some suitable time and place to be alone with 
 God, to pom- out into his ear, with freedom and enlarge- 
 ment, all the cares, the sorrows, the desires, and the sins 
 of a burdened heart, and a troubled conscience : it means 
 more, for it signifies the act of a child going to commune 
 in the spirit of adoption with his Divine Parent, and to 
 give utterance to the expressions of his adoring grati- 
 tude, praise, and love, and to present his intercessions 
 for all that claim an interest in his supplications. It is 
 but too obvious that there is comparatively little of such 
 closet exercises in this day of engrossing worldliness. 
 Christians live too much in public to be much in their 
 closets. Answer, ye who read these pages, is it not sol 
 What say your closets and consciences? What testi- 
 mony is borne for you ? Say, professors, say, if you are 
 not restraining prayer, and framing all kinds of excuses 
 for the neglect 1 What spirituality, what heavenly-mind- 
 edness, can you expect in the habitual neglect of the 
 closet? 
 
 But this is not the only deficiency of the church in the 
 present day, for the want of a prevailing conscientiousness 
 .is as conspicuous as that on which we have just dwelt. 
 .Earnestness in religion is as much displayed in a sincere 
 :and anxious desire in all things to do what is right, as it 
 ;is in praying, and cultivating the spirit of devotion. And 
 rthis is, perhaps, much easier to be manifested than the 
 ■ other. There are great numbers of God's people, who 
 are so situated that they cannot command much time for 
 ^devotional exercises : their hours are not their own ; but 
 every one can be conscientious in his conduct. It re- 
 quires no more time, though, in some cases, much more 
 resolution, to do right, than to do wrong. In a trading 
 country, like ours, where competition is so keen, and 
 success so precarious, the temptations to a violation of 
 the " whatsoever things are just, hones , true, and love- 
 ly," will be very numerous, very strong, and constantly 
 recurring. Trade affords constant tests of principle. It 
 
PERSONAL RELIGION. 83 
 
 supplies the standard of honor with men of business. 
 But dishonorable transactions are no uncommon occur- 
 rences among professors of the present day. More 
 scandals are brought upon the cause of Christ from this 
 source, than from any other that could be na:.ned. A 
 want of strict and eminent integrity is so common, that 
 the manifestation of it, in an}'' high degree, excites 
 admiration, and insures for its possessor unusual testimo- 
 nies of commendation. 
 
 It is not meant by this to avow, or insinuate, that 
 almost all professors are dishonest men, but merely that 
 in little affairs of a pecuniary nature, and other matters, 
 violations of the honorable and generous are so common, 
 as to excite less surprise and censure than they should 
 do, in one who professes to be in earnest for the kingdom 
 of God. What Paley said in reference to subscription 
 to articles of faith, " that he could not afford to keep a 
 conscience," is said by multitudes besides, or if not said, 
 is acted upon. A man, who in all his actions, his words, 
 and feehngs ; in all his conduct which is seen only by 
 God, as well as in that which comes under the cognizance 
 of men ; when it exposes him to inconvenience and loss, 
 as well as when it puts him to no cost, and calls for no 
 shame, makes an enlightened and tender conscience his 
 guide, and which he implicitly obeys, is a character too 
 rare even among professors of religion. To adopt as the 
 rule of conduct, " I will in all things do that which my 
 Bible and my conscience tell me is right ;" and to carry 
 this rule into all the great branches and minute ramifi- 
 cations of Christian duty ; to adopt it in reference to our 
 temper and spirit, our thoughts and feelings, as well as 
 our words and actions ; to make it govern us in all our 
 social relations, and all our business transactions ; and, in 
 conformity to this rule, to make any sacrifice, to practise 
 any self-denial, and to endure any loss, is a line of con- 
 duct, which, though imperatively demanded by religion, 
 is but too seldom seen, but wherever it is seen can never 
 fail to be admired. 
 
 It appears quite clear, then, that great numbers of 
 Christian professors are but very imperfectly acquainted 
 
84 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 with the reqairements of " pure and undefiled religion," 
 and need to be led to re-study it in the pages of Holv 
 Scripture. We have lost sight of the Divine Original, 
 and have confined our attention to the imperfect tran- 
 scripts which we find on every hand. We have by tacit 
 consent lowered the standard, and fixed our eye and our 
 aim upon this depreciated rule. We are a law to each 
 other, instead of making the Word of God the Jaw to us 
 all. We tolerate a worldly-minded, and diluted, and 
 weakened piety in others, because we expect a similar 
 toleration for ourselves. We make excuses for them, 
 because we expect the like excuses for our own conduct in 
 return. Instead of " seeking to cleanse ourselves from 
 all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and perfecting holi- 
 ness in the fear of God," we have abused, shamefully 
 abused, the fact that there is no perfection upon earth, 
 and converted it into a license for any measure and any 
 number of imperfections. We have set our highest 
 mark upon an abstinence from immorality and the more 
 polluting worldly amusements ; an attendance upon an 
 evangelical ministry ; and an approval of orthodox doc- 
 trine ; this, with the act of joining a Christian church, 
 a participation in the Lord's supper, and a little occa- 
 sional emotion under a sermon, and a hasty prayer night 
 and morning, this, this is the religion of multitudes. 
 There may be no habitual spirituality or heavenly-mind- 
 edness ; no life of faith and communion with God ; no 
 struggling against sin, Satan and the world; no anxiety 
 to grow" in grace ; no supreme regard to eternity ; no 
 studied and advancing meetness for the eternal world ; 
 no tenderness of conscience ; no laborious disciplining 
 of the temper ; no cultivating of love ; no making reli- 
 gion our chief business and our highest pleasure ; no 
 separation in spirit from the world — in short, no impress 
 upon the whole mind, and heart, and conscience, and hfe, 
 of the (character of the Christian as delineated upon the 
 page of Scripture. We need to be all taken out of the 
 religious world, as it is called, and collected again round 
 the Bible, to study wha*; it is to he a Christian, as well as 
 to be called one. Let as do tliis very thing. Let us 
 
PERSON-/* L RELIGION, 85 
 
 endeavor to forget what the bulk of professors are, and 
 begin afresh to learn what they ought to be. Let us 
 select the most eminently holy, devout, and conscientious 
 Christians we can find ; and if we know not many living 
 ones which stand high above the rest, let us go to the 
 memoirs of departed ones, and say to ourselves, " Even 
 these, distinguished as they are, do not come up to the 
 standard ol God's law; and admitting this, as they did, 
 if they bewailed their deficiences and their imperfections, 
 then what am I?" It is to be feared that we are cor- 
 rupting each other, leading each other to be satisfied with 
 a conventional piety. Many have been actually the worse 
 for church membership. They were more intensely 
 anxious and earnest before they came into fellowship, 
 than they were afterwards. Their rehgion, in joining 
 the communion of saints, as they professed to be, seemed 
 to come into an ice-house, instead of a hot-house. They 
 grew better in their former state than in their new one. 
 At first they were surprised and shocked to see the luke- 
 warmness, the irregularities, the worldliness, the incon- 
 Bistencies, of many older professors, and exclaimed with 
 grief and disappointment, " Is this the church of Christ?" 
 After a while, a fatal influence came over them, and their 
 piety sank to the temperature around them. 
 
 Let us, then, cast away the fatal opiate which so often 
 quiets a troubled conscience, " I am as good as my neigh- 
 bors," and go with prayer, trembling and anxiety to the 
 Scriptures with the question, " What is it to be a Chris- 
 tian?" None but an earnest religion can be a sincere 
 one ; none but an earnest religion will take us to heaven ; 
 none but an earnest religion can be a happy one. Rouse, 
 Christian professors, from your slumbers and your 
 dreams. Multitudes of you are perishing in your sins ; 
 you are going down to the pit with a lie in your right 
 hand. Your profession alone will not save you, and it is 
 all that some of you have to depend upon. There are 
 millions of professors of religion in the bottomless pit, 
 who brought no scandal upon rehgion while they lived, 
 by immorality ; but the life of God was not in theii 
 
86 EARNESTNESS IN PERSONAL RELIGION. 
 
 fiouls ; they had a name to live, but were dead. They 
 looked around upon the low conventionalism of the day 
 in which they lived, instead of studying the Bible for 
 their standard of piety, and went to the bar of God, 
 saying, " Lord, Lord, have we not been called by thy 
 name?" where they met with the dreadful rebuff, and 
 rejection, " I never knew you ; depart from me." 
 
CHAPIER IV. 
 
 EARNESTNESS IN THE WAY OF INDIVIDUAL EXERTION, 
 AND DIRECT ACTION FOR THE SAL^'ATION OF SOULS. 
 
 Patriotism is a part of religion, and he who is a 
 true lover of God will be a genuine lover of his country 
 also. It is true the Bible knows nothing of national 
 antipathies, but on the contrary condemns the absurd and 
 wicked prejudice which leads the people of one land to 
 hate those of another, because they are under another 
 government, talk another language, and are separated 
 from them by a sea, a river, or a land-mark. Still there 
 are grounds of affection, and motives for benevolent 
 action, relating to our own country, which do not apper- 
 tain to any other. One of these is contiguity. We are 
 bound to do good to all men as opportunity shall present 
 itself, and especially to those in our own vicinity. The 
 people who are starving at the antipodes ought to receive 
 our bounty as soon and as far as we can send it to them, 
 but the man who has just dropped down in utter 
 exhaustion, and is dying at our door, has especial claim 
 upon us. We must care for the perisliing heathen — 
 but shall we forget the perishing Englishman 1 To the 
 former we can send missionaries, to the latter we can go 
 ourselves. This, then, is the subjec^ of the present 
 chapter, the obligation of individual earnestness in the 
 way of direct action for the conversion of souls. This 
 must of course respect our countrymen, our neighbors, 
 our families, our friends. Is such individual action 
 necessary 1 
 
 Look at the moral aspect of your country. It is now 
 more than three centuries since the Reformation from 
 Popery ; almost two since the era of toleration ; more 
 than one since the revival of religion by the labors of 
 
8S EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 Whitfield and Wesley ; nearly seventy years since the 
 setting up of Sunday-schools by Robert Raikes ; fifty 
 since the spread of evangelical religion in the Church of 
 England ; forty-three since the establishment of the 
 Bible Society, and a little more than that since the form- 
 ation of the Religious Tract Society, and somewhat 
 less since the invention and promulgation of the popular 
 systems of education by Bell and Lancaster : to say 
 nothing of the various institutions, such as Home Mis- 
 sionary Societies, Town Missions, District Visiting Socie- 
 ties, and other organizations, which have since then been 
 set up for improving the spiritual condition of the people. 
 The Bible Society has issued twenty million copies of 
 the Scriptures. The Tract Society has sent out nearly 
 five hundred million copies of books and tracts : other 
 institutions have added millions more of Bibles, tracts, 
 and prayer-books. Churches, chapels, and schools, have 
 been multiplied beyond all precedent in former times. 
 And yet what is the moral condition of the people of 
 England, of Protestant England, at this moment? The 
 town in which I live contains, with its suburbs, about two 
 hundred and ten thousand inhabitants, and of these per- 
 haps not more than forty thousands, above twelve years 
 of age, are ever at public worship at the same time. 
 Take from these all Roman Catholics, Unitarians, and 
 other denominations who do not hold evangelical senti- 
 ments, and what a small portion remains out of the whole 
 population who are enjoying those soul-converting means 
 of grace which stand so intimately connected with eternal 
 salvation. Where are the bulk of the remainder, and what 
 is their state and character as regards eternity ? This is 
 but a specimen of other large towns, and of the state of 
 the metropolis. What, then, it may be asked, must be the 
 spiritual condition of this land of Bibles, of sanctuaries, 
 of ministers ; this valley of vision, this land of light ? 
 
 If, however, it were merely the paucity of means of 
 doing good we had to complain of, it would be a matter 
 of less grief and horror ; but let any one think also of 
 the agencies, instruments, and means of doing evil, which 
 are in active operation. The moral, or rather demoi>- 
 
INDIVIDUAL EXERTION. S9 
 
 alized, condition of a large proportion of the people of 
 this country is beyond the conception of those who have 
 not been inquisitive into the subject. All persons .-enow 
 the prevalence of drunkenness and sensuality, and most 
 are impressed vaguely wuth the idea that there is a great 
 deal of infidelity at vi^ork ; but the depths of iniquity, the 
 stagnant, pestiferous sinks of vice which are ever send- 
 ing forth their destructive miasmata into the moral atmos- 
 phere, and poisoning the souls of the people of these 
 realn «i, are neither known nor conjectured by those who 
 are ignorant of the statistics of the kingdom of darkness. 
 
 A writer to whom the religious public are much in- 
 debted, has lately published a work, entitled " The 
 Power of the Press," in which he has sent forth a state- 
 ment, derived from authentic sources, and sustained by 
 unquestionable evidence, which is enough, if anything 
 can do it, to circulate a thrill of horror through the whole 
 nation, and to rouse into activity every friend of his Bi- 
 ble, his country, and his God. 
 
 This indefatigable investigator informs us that 11,702,- 
 000 copies of absolutely vicious and Sabbath-breaking 
 newspapers are annually circulated in these realms ; 
 while the issues of the British and Foreign Bible Soci- 
 ety, the Trinitarian Bible Society, the Coldstream Free 
 Press Bible Society, and the grants of the Religious 
 Tract Society, did not amount last year to one-third of 
 tliis immense number I 
 
 " But a more fearful revelation still remains. There 
 are about setenty cheap periodicals (varying in price 
 from three half-pence to one half-penny) issued weekly ; 
 and supposing an extensively cu'culated series of popular 
 works issued from Edinburgh, the tendency of which is 
 believed by many to be injurious, are omitted, there re- 
 main at least sixty of a positively pernicious tendency. 
 Of these the most innocent is one which has perhaps the 
 largest circulation. It is said to issue 100,000 weekly. 
 But though vicious principles are avowedly repudiated, 
 yet a depraved and disordered imagination is fostered in 
 this journal, by the introduction into its pages of French 
 novels, and similar trash, as a principal feature. Then 
 8 
 
90 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 comes a less scrupulous paper, with a weekly issue of 
 about 80,000 ; followed by six papers, all a degree lower 
 in the scale of corruption, with an average weekly circu- 
 lation of 20,000 each, or yearly sale for the six, of 
 6,240,000. And lastly comes a catalogue of intolerably 
 polluting trash, which, closely examined, will make the 
 Christian shudder at its contemplation ; wondeiJ«g where 
 readers can be found, and amazed at the neglect and in- 
 difference of the church of Christ. The works thus 
 alluded to may be classified thus : 1st, infidel ; 2nd, pol- 
 luting. Of these two there are circulated a yearly aver- 
 age of 10,400,000. 
 
 " But even beyond this dreadful limit, there is a very 
 large annual circulation, into which the wnriter dare not 
 enter, so awfully polluting is the character. In the last 
 mentioned class, engravings and coldrings are employed 
 to excite the lowest passions. It is true, these last works 
 are supposed to be sold by stealth, but they are easily 
 procurable from the same sources as the papers and 
 periodicals before mentioned. The vendors of the one " 
 generally procure the other; moreover, the unstamped 
 journals previously alluded to usually contain advertise- 
 ments of these works ; and as the sale of these journals 
 is large, they obtain a wide circulation for the filth, which, 
 bad as they are themselves, they would profess to abom- 
 inate. 
 
 " Now, if we sum up the entire yearly circulation of 
 the different kinds of popular, but manifestly pernicious 
 literature, which has been passed in review before the 
 reader, it will stand thus, 
 
 10 stamped papers 11,702,000 
 
 6 unstamped papers 6,240,000 
 
 About 60 miscellaneous papers . . 10,400,000 
 
 Worst class 520,000 
 
 Being a total of 28,862,000 
 
 '' The effect of this immense annual issue, which if at 
 iJl mis-stated, the writer behoves to be considerably below 
 
rNDIVIDUAL EXERTION. 91 
 
 the average, can scarcely be contemplated by the Chris- 
 tian for one moment without producing', we repeat, a thrill 
 of horror ! Week after week — week after week — year 
 after year — year after year, does this literature meet the 
 mind which may have been for a few weeks or months, 
 perhaps, under Christian control one day in seven ; or A 
 arrests the attention of those who have never been so 
 privileged. The process and effect are alike in both 
 cases, though in one results may be more gradual. The 
 mental appetite exists and must be fed ; it meets with 
 the food which we have just analyzed, at every turn, in 
 ever)'' variety, to suit every taste." 
 
 What has been done (by the press) to meet this evil ? 
 Putting together the annual issues of Bibles, Testaments, 
 Religious Tracts, Newspapers, and Periodicals of every 
 kind, we find a total of 24,418,620, leaving a balance 
 of 4,443,380 in favor of pernicious and corrupting litera- 
 ture.* 
 
 Let it, then, be imagined, if imagined it can be, what 
 must be the moral state of multitudes in this country, 
 when nearly thirty millions of such pestiferous publica- 
 tions are annually going out among the masses of our 
 population. Let the minds of all Christian people be 
 fixed upon these facts. Let them dwell upon the insult 
 oflfered to God, the ruin brought upon souls, the injury 
 done to morals, and the mischief perpetrated in the 
 nation, by such a state of things. Friends of Christ, 
 lovers of your species, professors of religion, you must 
 
 * As a supplement to this appalling statement, I may slate that 
 a few weeks since I received a copy of a number of one of these 
 low, cheap, infidel publications, containing strictures on "The 
 Anxious Inquirer. " The writer of these strictures avowed him- 
 self an atheist, and indeed he has done ample justice to his 
 profession, by effusiors of the most vulgar, blasphemous, and 
 horrid atheism I ever read. But what was most alarming is, 
 this wretched messenger of mischief announced on its cover 
 twelve places in London, where infidel meetings are held, and 
 gave a list of subjects to be discussed, all intended to bring the 
 Christian religion into contempt and derision. This number 
 of the publication alluded to was ostentatiously exhibited in the 
 window of a she p in this town where this and similar Vorks 
 are sold. 
 
92 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 pause and ponder these statements. You must not read 
 and dismiss them, «as you would the statistics of pulitical 
 economy. The writer of these facts has led you to the 
 very door of Satan's workshop, and has thrown open to 
 you the scenes of that awful laboratory of mental and 
 moral poison. He has shown you authors, compositors, 
 printers, engravers, publishers, booksellers, vendors, by 
 myriads, all busy and indefatigable, to do — what? To 
 destroy the Bible — to pull down the cross — to dethrone 
 God — to subvert religion — to uproot the church — to 
 turn man into a thinking and speaking brute, and, as a 
 necessary consequence, to overturn all morality, to poison 
 the springs of dortiestic happiness, to dissolve the ties of 
 social order, and to involve our country in ruin. Is this 
 so, or is it not? If it be, you are summoned to ponder 
 this awful state of things, and to ask what can be done 
 to arrest this tide of ruin, this awful cataract of perdition, 
 which is dashing over the precipice of infidelity into the 
 gulf of the bottomless pit, and precipitating millions of 
 immortal souls into the boiling surges and tremendous 
 whirlpools below. Hell is in earnest in ruining men's 
 souls, if the church is not in earnest in saving them. 
 
 But what is to be done, and who is to do it 1 Much 
 of course is to be done by the pulpit, and it is never to 
 be forgotten that the preaching of the gospel is God's 
 great instnmient for the conversion of souls. Nothing 
 can ever supersede this. Towering above all other means 
 will the sacred desk, and he that fills it, ever stand, as 
 God's chosen means for reclaiming the wandering and 
 lost soul of apostate man to his Saviour. There must be 
 np suspicion coming over the preacher or the hearer of 
 the gospel, that the pulpit has had its day, done its work, 
 and must give place to something else." It will never 
 have had its day till the world has had its day. Preem- 
 inently adapted to man as man, through every period of 
 ids history, and every change of his condition, it will 
 remain to the end of time, the great means for the sin- 
 ner's conversion, and the saint's edification, sanctification 
 and consolation. And the iniidel operations we have just 
 
INDIVIDUAL EXERTION. 93 
 
 witnessed lo but proclaim with trumpet-call the jtiore 
 urgent necessity of an earnest ministry. 
 
 The appalling activity in corrupting the public mind 
 just related, must be met also by rehgious organizations, 
 such as Home Missionary Societies, and Town and City 
 Missions, those admirable institutions for carrying light 
 into the regions of darkness, and purity into the dens of 
 filth. Churches and chapels, however numerous and 
 well supplied with ministers and preachers, will not en- 
 tirely meet the case, since multitudes who most need the 
 instructions of the pulpit never come to receive them. 
 There are millions to whom, if they ever know anything 
 of the gospel, it must be carried. Under the pressure of 
 want, men will seek the food of their bodies with an 
 eagerness proportioned to the cravings of hunger ; but 
 though perishing for the lack of the bread of life, they 
 will take no pains to obtain it, for they are unconscious 
 of their necessities. What is wanted, then, is the plan of 
 domiciliary visitation, and appeals to the people in their 
 own localities, carried out to a still wider extent, and by 
 a still larger and more perfect organization. Shall we 
 ever have well-educated and devoted men, versed in all the 
 popular systems of infidelity, fluent, eloquent, and bold, 
 who will go upon a mission to the masses, and be able 
 to conciliate them by kindness, and to convince them by 
 argument, and thus to win them to Christ and to his 
 church ? Our town missionaries and scripture readers are 
 doing great good, but we still want a class of agents 
 above them in mental stature, who shall, by sound logic, 
 scriptural knowledge, and commanding intellect, grapple 
 with the demon of infidelity in its own domain. 
 
 The Press also must be worked with still greater 
 power and efliciency. If it has a power for evil, it has 
 also a power for good. The pulpit cannot do everything 
 — some think it cannot do most in this educated age and 
 nation — at any rate it is not jealous of the press as a 
 rival, but invites its assistance as an auxiliary. The min- 
 isters of the sanctuary hail as coadjutors the priesthood of 
 letters. The press must not be left, thank God is not 
 left, in the hands of the men of the world, and the mot- 
 8* 
 
94 EAUNESTNESS IN 
 
 ley crew of all grades of scepticism. "Are they its 
 friends 'I So are we. Are their liberties the offspring of 
 its efforts 1 So are ours. Does it minister to their idol- 
 gods ? And shall it not minister to the one living and 
 true God ? Let us therefore consecrate the press in the 
 midst of our churches. Let sume of our most talented 
 ministers of the gospel, who are adapted to the work, (and 
 have no gift of elocution) devote themselves entirely to 
 teaching hy the press. The world requires their ser- 
 vices. Millions of minds can be reached only by means 
 OF the press," The Religious Tract Society is doing 
 wonders, and will do greater wonders yet ; let it be well 
 supported. Our journals and periodical literature, from 
 the bulky quarterly do\\Ti to the penny magazine are do- 
 ing great things. Let them be hberally sustained. If 
 infidels and immoral writers are pouring forth a deluge of 
 scepticism and vice, let us send forth a higher and a more 
 mighty flood, to sweep away by its force the turbid 
 streams, in the waters of which nothing lives, and which 
 are depositing a pernicious and pestiferous slime, instead 
 of a fertile soil. Christians, support well the religious 
 press ; remunerate and encourage your editors, authors, 
 and societies, by pushing, to the widest possible extent, 
 their publications. Grudge not the money you spend in 
 supporting the press ; very little is better spent. 
 
 Still this, even this, all this, is not enough. Give to 
 the pulpit all the power that is claimed for it ; give to 
 social organization all the efficiency that it may be sup- 
 posed and made by God's blessing to possess ; and add to 
 this the well directed energy of the press, — we have an 
 evil to contend with, so gigantic in its strength, so diffused 
 in its influence on all sides of us, and so infectious and 
 malignant in its efforts, that nothing short of tlie engage- 
 ment, the energies, and the earnestness, of the whole cJiurch 
 can cope loith it. The whole church must be employed for 
 the conversion of the whole country. The levy en masse 
 must be called out. The enemy is coming in like a flood ; 
 infidelity and immorality are invading us ; the tocsin must 
 be rung ; the beacon-fire must be kindled on ' every hill 
 of Zion ; the sound must float from every tower and esory 
 
INDIVIDUAL EXERTION. 95 
 
 battlement, " To arms, To arms !" and every man that 
 can shoulder a musket, or bear a pike, must take the ^eld, 
 and array himself against the foe. There is not a single 
 member of a single church, male or female, young or old, 
 rich or poor, but what ought to be engaged in -personal 
 efforts for tlie salvation of souls. An army may as ration- 
 ally leave the battle to be fought by the officers alone, as 
 the church may leave the conversion of the world to the 
 ministers of the gospel. It is a fundamental error, a 
 practical heresy of most pernicious and deadly influence, 
 to consider the conversion of souls as merely ministerial 
 work. This is Popery and Puseyism, which would 
 restrict the conveyance of renewing grace to the medium 
 of priestly hands, and sacramental channels. Against 
 this the whole church of God ought to rise up in the atti- 
 tude of firm resistance, and with the language of indig- 
 nant protestation, as an invasion of the rights of the 
 Christian people, a robbery of the privileges of the 
 "chosen generation," and a deposition of the "royal 
 priesthood . " As an honor, — and it is one of the brightest 
 and richest that can light upon the head of mortal or im- 
 mortal, — the work of saving souls is as truly and as legit- 
 imately within the reach of the pious pauper in the 
 work-house, or the godly child in the Sunday school, or 
 the religious maid-servant in a family, as within the grasp 
 of the mitred prelate. The church, the whole church, 
 and nothing less than the whole church, inclusive of mem- 
 bers as well as ministers, is the priesthood by which the 
 work of conversion is to be carried on upon earth. The 
 clergy-church, that is, a church consisting only of minis- 
 isters apart from the people, is a figment, which may do 
 well enough at Rome, or at Oxford, but it will not do 
 wherever the New Testament is possessed, read, and 
 understood. This divine, heavenly Magna Charta of the 
 Christian church must be held up to wrest from the 
 usurpation of tyrannizing ecclesiastics the assumed exclu- 
 sive patent for saving souls ; and as a divine right of the 
 people, must be bestowed upon any one who has grace 
 enough to claim it, and virtue enough to exercise it. 
 Delightful and auspicious it, is to see this admitted and 
 
96 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 put forward by authorities which will hijve weight with 
 those who will not be swayed by the same statements 
 coming from other quarters. 
 
 In the North British Review for November last, is a 
 critique on a work by the Chevalier Bunsen, Prussian 
 ambassador to the British Court, entitled " The Church 
 of the Future ;' which, though it be well worthy the at- 
 tention of every thoughtful mind, contains many strange 
 views, and yet many deserving of approval ; among the 
 latter is the following extract selected and commented upon 
 in the Review : 
 
 " But, in considering the assistance rendered to the 
 pastors in the evangelical instruction and education of the 
 people, we have met with a mighty institution, the only 
 one of its kind, the 17,000 schoolmasters who stand at 
 the side of the parochial clergy, and assist them in the 
 congregation. That which is good and evangelical in the 
 system of the clergy-church is still to be found in it, and 
 new and vigorous shoots present themselves on every 
 side, and manifest a life full of hope for the future. We 
 found the most startling and important signs of this in 
 the help afforded to the church in her care of the poor, 
 the sick, and the prisoners. We were met by a zealous 
 company of men and women, who had founded institu- 
 tions of helpful love, for the reformation of those who had 
 gone astray, for the maintenance of homeless and orphan 
 children, for the comfort of the sick and the prisoner. 
 We were met by operatives full of faith, and by a holy 
 band of deaconesses performing the works of the merciful 
 sisters of the clergy-church, without vows, in the full free- 
 dom of the Gospel, and in the might of free, because 
 thankful, love. Now^ every one who considers the way 
 in which the diaconate first decayed and died, and how it 
 is especially wanting in the clergy-church, because it 
 requires for its free development the full communion of 
 the laity, and the full acknowledgment of the universal 
 priesthood, will readily comprehend the historical signifi- 
 cance of the fact, that amongst the vigorous offshoots 
 of the church life of the present day, the diacanate is the 
 most distinctly and gloriously proi inent. This is the 
 
INDIVIDUAL EXERTION. 97 
 
 ministry of love, and in a special rrMnner the ministry of 
 the church of the Future. We may here behold coming 
 to the birth the new element of that church of the Future, 
 whose birth-throes we all feel, of that free congregation 
 of faithful men, to which the groaning of the creature, 
 and the ever more fearful revelations of the misery of 
 mankind, are pointing. Here is that ministry which is 
 open to all ; here is that approval of our faith to which 
 every one is called ; here is that exercise of the priest- 
 hood for which every constitution of the church gives 
 liberty ; here is that centre from which the constitution 
 of this church of the Future must proceed, if it is to be 
 a partaker of an inward and spiritual life." — Bunsen. 
 
 "All hail to such a church of the Future ! The world 
 yearns for it, creation groans for it. Society is sick at 
 heart, sick of sore maladies which politics can scarcely 
 cure ; sick of many empirics and few physicians. And 
 Christ's church alone has the panacea — the universal 
 cure. Deacons and deaconesses, brothers and sisters of 
 charity, with Christ's love in their hearts, and no pope's 
 yoke on their necks — priests and priestesses, self-de- 
 voted to the High Priest's own work of going about to do 
 good — such is the ministry the age, the church, and the 
 world all demand. Otherwise, churches are self-consum- 
 ing ; light and hfe go out in a cold vacuum. Pastors, 
 elders, deacons, schoolmasters, people, eat in on them- 
 selves and on one another. Forms of polity and worship 
 stand ; rights of rule and rights of choice are balanced ; 
 but love dies, and with love, all peace and joy. An ear- 
 nest out-going ministry, in all who are, the Lord's — in 
 Dorcas as in Paul — is the grand want of the times. 
 What church will realize this 1 That is the church of 
 the Future. Bunsen, Arnold, Vinet, Chalmers, all are 
 one here. For at the last, intellect, humanity, piety, are 
 always one." 
 
 Yes, this is all true, and just, and impressive ; we want 
 the Christian people to come forth, and claim and exercise 
 to the utmost their privilege, as God's priesthood, fully 
 commissioned by the Divine Head of the church, to evan- 
 gelize the world. The re nainder of this chapter must 
 
98 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 now be devoted to a consideration of personal effort fot 
 the salvation of souls, viewed in the light of a dutt/. 
 Yes, it is the duty of every one ; not an individual can 
 plead exemption. Is it not the duty of every one to love 
 God with all his heart, and his neighbor as himself? If 
 so, does not this love demand that we should seek the 
 conversion of souls ? Can we pretend to love God, and 
 not seek that others should love him too ? Or can we 
 love our neighbor, and not seek his salvation ? Are not 
 all Christians represented as the salt of the earth, and 
 the light of the world 1 And can they answer to these 
 impressive figurative representations of their duty and 
 design, if they never attempt to diffuse by personal effort 
 their holy religion? As we have opportunity, we are 
 commanded to do good. What good is so good as saving 
 souls, and have we not all ever-recurring opportunities 1 
 Consider your capability ; you can do something for the 
 salvation of souls. Every one who has the knowledge of 
 the way of salvation, and a tongue to speak, can explam 
 it to others. Or if too timid to speak, he can give a tract, 
 or write a letter, which will speak for him. There is not, 
 in all the family of God, a single child who can do 
 nothing for the cause of his heavenly Father, in our apos- 
 tate world ; and nothing more is necessary to constitute 
 obhgation in such a matter as this, but the means and an 
 opportunity. If, when the ability and opportunity con- 
 cur to rescue a fellow-creature from a watery grave, or a 
 fiery death, the obligation is complete ; how much more 
 so, where the means and opportunity are possessed to 
 save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins! 
 Souls are perishing all around you ; in your town ; in 
 your streets ; in your neighbor's houses, and in your 
 own. 
 
 Say not you can do nothing. Have you ever tried! 
 Have you ever taken a bundle of tracts, and gone out 
 into a dark street, and entered the houses of the poor, 
 and begun a conversation with them about their souls ? 
 You have a Bible : have you ever put it m your pocket, 
 and gone to some habitation of ignorance and sin, and 
 asked permission to read a chapter ? Have you ever 
 
INDIVIDUAL EXERTION. 99 
 
 written a letter to an unconverted friend or relative, on the 
 subject of r3ligion, and the salvation of the soul ? Have 
 you ever mildly expostulated with a relative on the neg- 
 lect of this momentous concern 1 Have you ever gently 
 and gracefully reproved a swearer or a Sabbath breaker, 
 for his sin against the Lord 1 Have you ever dropped a 
 word to a fellow-traveller in a steamboat, or a railway 
 carriage? Not do anything! Will you, till you have 
 tried some such simple and easy methods as these, have 
 the courage to tell God so 1 Not do anything ! Will you 
 degrade yourself so much, and sink so low in your own 
 estimation, as to say you are a nonenity in the church as 
 regards the church's mission to our world 1 Not do any- 
 thing ! What is it in you that says so, your indolence or 
 your modesty "? You must do something, or answer for it 
 at the bar of God, why you have not done anything. Be 
 it that you have only one talent, or a fraction of a talent ; 
 that fraction, or that unit, must be employed, or you must 
 bear the character and meet the doom of the slothful 
 servant. 
 
 Of course each professing Christian, in his efforts to 
 do good, must consult his own abilities, means, and 
 opportunities. It is admitted that there are varieties here 
 which must not be overlooked. Every one must say 
 "Lord, 'what wilt thou have me do?" and each should 
 honestly, and with good intent, look into his circum- 
 stances to see what are Christ's claims upon him. Per- 
 haps it will be found, upon examination, that those do 
 least in the way of personal effort who have the ability to 
 do most; I mean the talented, the wealthy, and the 
 manufacturer who has a large number of persons in his 
 employ, and who might be supposed to have a great in- 
 fluence over them. It happens that with the exception of 
 pious females of the upper classes, men of talent and 
 business are most rarely found engaged in personal 
 effort for the salvation of their neighbors ; they will give 
 their money, and perhaps will also give their time, to the 
 business of committees ; and this so far is well, for many 
 will not do this ; but how seldom are they found engaged 
 in personal effort for the conversion and salvation of 
 
100 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 Others. Yet what might they not do in this way if they 
 tried? Their station and thJeir talents would give them 
 advantages for tliis sublime occupation, which others 
 do not possess. Conceive of the effect which might be 
 expected to result, if all the wealthy and intelligent mem- 
 bers of our churches would give only one hour a week 
 to the labor of diffusing religion, by endeavoring to influ- 
 ence the minds of others, and win their attention to the 
 great concerns of religion. 
 
 This applies with especial force to master manufac- 
 turers, and others who have a large number of men in 
 their employ, and under their influence. One gentleman 
 is known to me who has several hundred men in his 
 service, and who takes a deep interest in the spiritual 
 welfare of his workmen. He has a Bible class for all 
 who are willing to attend. He holds a prayer meeting 
 with them every week ; distributes religious tracts ; gives 
 them counsel and admonition ; encourages their attend- 
 ance upon pubhc worship without at all exerting any 
 sectarian influence, and is about to establish for their 
 benefit a library and reading-room. He is a catholic- 
 spirited churchman, but never suffers his predilections 
 for the Church of England to influence him in his 
 endeavors for the spiritual welfare of the objects of his 
 solicitude. What might not be expected to our popula- 
 tion if all our manufacturers and large retail shop-keep- 
 ers felt the same pious solicitude for the souls of their 
 work-people and shopmen as does this devoted and 
 eminent servant of our Lord 1 How this would counter- 
 act the infidelity and immorality which so extensively 
 prevail among our laboring population, and which, with 
 such busy assiduity, are cherished by a corrupt press, 
 and by those emissaries of Satan, the teachers of scep- 
 ticism, profanity, and licentiousness! Our factories are 
 the strongholds of infidelity. It is there that all the 
 elements of moral mischief mingle and ferment. The 
 chaplain of the hospital in Birmingham was informed by 
 one of the patients whom he visited, that out of three 
 hundred men who worked in the same manufactory as he 
 did, he could aflirm of his own personal knowledge that 
 
INDIVIDUAL EXERTION. 101 
 
 one hindred of them were avowed infidels. Now there 
 is no reason to suppose that this is a solitary case, but' on 
 the contrary a specimen of what very extensively prevails. 
 It is among these men that the publications already 
 alluded to are circulated. Surely it becomes Christian 
 masters to ask whether they cannot do something to 
 arrest the progress of this dreadful mischief. But alas ! 
 coo many of the men of trade, and even of the Christian 
 masters, are either so little concerned about their work- 
 men as to care for nothing but just what measure of 
 profit they can get from their labor, or else they are on 
 such bad terms with them as to render nugatory any 
 efforts they might make for their spiritual welfare. 
 
 Pious females have ever been foremost in this good 
 work of saving souls by personal effort, and have been 
 eminently successful in their labors of love. Married 
 women, who have but few domestic cares to confine them 
 at home, and unmarried ones of a sufficiently advanced 
 age, who have much leisure at command, may be singu- 
 larly useful. "Devout and honorable women, not a 
 few," are already busily employed in this way. Chris- 
 tian women, we appeal to you all, to join this noble sister- 
 hood of benevolence. We would not have you lessen 
 that attention to the temporal wants, sorrows, and cares 
 of your sex, for which you are already so eminent, but 
 we would have you add to it a still deeper solicitude 
 for the miseries that oppress and ruin their souls. You 
 know how the church of Rome boasts of her " Sisters 
 of Mercy," whom she sends out from her convenis into 
 the abodes of ignorance, disease, and want. It is, after 
 all, but a shallow device, though a plausible means, for 
 drawing attention to Popery, and conciliating public 
 fevor towards it. We call, therefore, upon you, without 
 abjuring the names, the duties, or the comforts, of the 
 wife and the mother, to perform the service of an evan- 
 gelist, and by such acts as fall within your own sphere 
 to spread abroad the knowledge of religion, in order to 
 save the souls of your own sex, and thus to be, in the 
 fullest sense of the words, the Sisters of Mercy indeed. 
 
 Whatever be our situation, there is no hope of om 
 9 
 
102 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 doing much good in this way without hav'ng a definite 
 object in view, and pursuing it in a right way, and with 
 a proper spirit. The direct aim should, of course, be 
 the actual conversion of the soul to God. Where nothing 
 else, however, can be accomplished, besides inducing 
 people to read the Word of God and religious books, and 
 to attend upon the preaching of the Gospel, something 
 is done ; but the aim of a Christian should be, to be the. 
 instrument of making others truly and really such as he 
 is himself. 
 
 To accomplish this end , and to find out the best means 
 within your power, you must be studious and inventive. 
 It is astonishing what means will occur to him, who is 
 deeply anxious and firmly resolved upon the accomplish- 
 ment of some great object. Let the heart be once on 
 fire with zeal, and then the light of this sacred flame will 
 ascend into the judgm.ent, as well as fall upon surround- 
 ing objects, and disclose means and methods of action 
 which will be hidden from colder intellects. When 
 once the passion for saving souls has got possession of 
 the heart, it will supply not only incentives but instru- 
 ments. Necessity is the mother of invention, and when 
 we are brought to this determination, " \jnust be useful ; 
 I must do something to save souls ; I must find means 
 of doing good;" means will present themselves; and 
 opportunities will occur. Invention is a secondary crea- 
 tion, and he who cannot find opportunities will certainly 
 make them. Read the life of Harlan Page, a reference 
 to which will be contained in a future chapter, and learn 
 in how many ways a man,' even in humble life, may be 
 useful, whose heart is set upon doing good. 
 
 It is of immense consequence to remember that what- 
 ever you do for the salvation of souls m.ust be in the 
 earnestness of love, expressed with the meekness and 
 gentleness of Christ. There is a boisterousness and 
 vehemence, not to say rudeness, in the manner of some, 
 which defeat their own object. They seem determined 
 to take Ihe citadel by storm ; while love undermines it, 
 and enters it almost unperceived. There is a beautiful 
 illustration of this in the life of Mr. Simeon, of Cam- 
 
INDIVIDUAL EXERTION. 103 
 
 bridge. Konig, the only son of a rich merchant of 
 Amsterdam, came over to England, and was received aa 
 a guest by Mr. Simeon's brother in the Isle of Wight. 
 It soon appeared that young Konig w^as destitute of 
 true religion, and ignorant of its principles; but his 
 appearance and manners were such as to invite kindly 
 attention and feeling. Mr. Simeon's benevolent heart 
 was drawn towards him, and he earnestly desired to win 
 this soul for Christ. One day he was riding a few yarda 
 in advance of a party of which Konig was one. Konig, 
 seeing Mr. Suneon alone, rode up to join him ; and per- 
 ceiving that his lips were in motion, though he was not 
 engaged in conversation, inquired, with his usual simpli- 
 city, " What he was saying." Mr. Simeon replied, " I 
 vi-as praying for my young friend." These words made 
 a deep impression upon the interesting youth, and caused 
 him to regard Mr. Simeon as one who was tenderly 
 concerned fof liis welfare. His mind had in fact been 
 prepared by the providence of God for this impression, 
 which might otherwise have been transient. The party, 
 who were making the tour of the island, arrived at an 
 inn, where Konig and another gentleman were necessi- 
 tated to occupy a double-bedded room. The gentleman, 
 before he retired to rest, knelt down and prayed by his 
 bed-side. This, it afterwards appeared, was a new sight 
 to the young Hollander ; but it went to his heart. He 
 had long been unhappy, from feeling the unsatisfactori- 
 ness of the things which are ordinarily accounted capa- 
 ble of conferring happiness ; but knew not the better 
 way. Immediately, however, as he afterwards declared, 
 he said to himself, " How happy is that man! What 
 would I give to feel myself in the hands of an Almighty 
 Guide and Protector, as he surely does!" Under this 
 conviction, he fell upon his knees, which he had not 
 before done in private for years, and the very next morn- 
 ing he unbosomed himself to his companion. He was 
 thus prepared for the reply of Mr. Simeon to his inquiry, 
 and was not repelled, but encouraged by it. Mr. Simeon, 
 perceiving that the Spirit of God had marked this stran- 
 ger for himself, resolved to do all in his power to train 
 
104 EARNESl'NESS IN 
 
 him for happiness and usefulness. His exertions were 
 blessed for his conversion : and the writer who gives the 
 account says, in referring to it afterwards, " The remem- 
 brance of that youth, graceful in person and beaming 
 with benignity, is even now redolent with everything 
 lovely and of good report. Pie was in fact ri]:>eiiing for 
 early removal to a higher sphere. He returned to Hol- 
 land, where he died of consumption ; but not till he had 
 been permitted and enabled to witness for his Saviour a 
 good confession in his native city. The report of his 
 behavior during his death illness excited considerable 
 interest and surprise in Amsterdam, where his family 
 were well known. Many, it has been stated, seemed to 
 say, ' What new thing is this?' " 
 
 This beautiful story is replete with instruction on the 
 subject of this chapter. 
 
 Such efforts require a high state of personal religion 
 to supply the impulse, and keep up the m#tion. The 
 fire of zeal must be fed with the fuel of piety, or it will 
 be only as " the crackling of thorns beneath a pot," a 
 noisy blaze, and a momentary one also. And then, to be 
 useful, a Christian must be consistent. A diseased or 
 dying physician may be the means of healing others ; 
 but an inconsistent Christian only inspires revulsion and 
 disgust by all his endeavors to do good ; disgust not 
 cmly against himself as a hypocrite, but against the very 
 religion he would teach as being all hypocrisy also, want- 
 ing the confirmation of example. They who would save 
 others, then, should exhibit in themselves all the holiness 
 and happiness of that salvation which it is their aim to 
 communicate. There are some persons whom we could 
 wish never to say a word to recommend religion unless 
 they would show its beauty in a consistent example ; and 
 whom we could desire never to attempt to save their 
 friends, miless they gave better proof they were really 
 and in earnest seeking 'to save themselves. Not that 
 the mstrument of conversion must of necessity himself 
 be absolutely perfect ; for then none but an angel from 
 heaven could be employed in saving man, but he ought to 
 approach as near to it as possible. It should, moreover 
 
INDIVIDUAL EXERTION 
 
 105 
 
 be recollected as an encouragement to Christian exertion, 
 that it is with the instrument of conversion as it is with 
 many other instruments, it improves by use. If you 
 would grow in grace yourselves, seek to be the means 
 of communicating grace to others. A light is brightened 
 by kindling other lights, and a fire is made to burn with 
 a greater intensity by the neighboring fire which it has 
 ignited. We get good by doing it ; and if we save not 
 others, the very attempt aids, and in one sense increases 
 our own salvation. 
 
 Take the following anecdote from America, in illus- 
 tration of the necessity of consistency in those who 
 would make personal effort for the salvation of sinners. 
 
 "An excellent minister, referring to his own conversion, 
 said, ' When I was yet a young and thoughtless man, a 
 pious deacon addressed me about my salvation. I was 
 angry : my heart rose in bitterness against him. I re- 
 proached him ; pointed out the inconsistencies of profes- 
 sors, talked indeed like a madman, while my conscience 
 was grinding me lilce a mill-stone. He bore it all with 
 meekness, perfectly unmoved. If he had only given one 
 retort, shown one angry feeling, it would have relieved 
 me. His Christian meekness was too much for me. I 
 went into the woods, smarting' with my wounds, fell 
 under what he had said to me, and went and asked his 
 pardon.' " 
 
 And now by what arguments can you be persuaded, 
 by what inducements moved, by what incentives excited, 
 to make these efforts? Consider your principles. You 
 believe in the immortality of the soul — in the evil of 
 sin — in the curse of the law — in the wrath of God — 
 in the reality of hell — in the horrors of damnation — in 
 the intensity and eternity of the quenchless fire. You 
 believe in a merciful God — a redeeming Saviour — a 
 converting Spirit — in the possil)ility of salvation for each 
 one of the perishing millions around you — in the inef- 
 fable and eternal bliss of heaven. You believe that it is 
 God's will that those men should be saved, and that they 
 should be saved by human instrumentality, and by your 
 exertions among the other means of life eternal. This, 
 9# 
 
106 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 all this, is in your creed. Christians, study afresh youi 
 articles of faith, that you may know more accurately 
 than you seem to do, what ought to be the obligations 
 of your conscience, and the actions of your life. Indeed, 
 you must do more, or believe less ; your creed and your 
 conduct are at variance. Follow only one human soul 
 into eternity ; trace its endless course through delights 
 which flesh and blood could not sustain ; or through 
 torments which human nature must have supernatural 
 strength to endure ; pursue it along the course of its eter- 
 nal progression, and contemplate it maldng acquisitions in 
 knowledge, holiness, and happiness, all but infinite, and 
 leaving behind eten the former attainments of cherubim 
 and seraphim — or forever sinking from gulf to gulf of 
 misery and despair in the bottomless abyss — and then 
 conceive, if it be possible, in some tolerable degree, what 
 an event is the salvation of a single soul ! And when 
 you have revolved the comprehension of this mighty and 
 mysterious unit of a single soul, carry it on to the tens, 
 and hundreds, and thousands, or tens of thousands of 
 such souls that are hurrying on to eternity, even in the 
 town where you dwell ! Christians, again I say, abjure 
 these vast ideas, or act more conformably to them. 
 Abandon your belief in these stupendous realities, or at 
 any rate prove that you are absolved from the obligation 
 of arresting this tide of ruin, and swelling this stream 
 of salvation, or else be more in earnest in your endeavor 
 to save souls. You must do one or the other. In youi 
 present conduct, with such a profession upon your lips, 
 and with such lukewarmness in your zeal, your conduct is 
 the most monstrous inconsistency in our world. Infidels 
 see it, and comparing your creed and your conduct, taunt 
 you with your hypocrisy. " I remember," says Mr. Bin- 
 ney, " a very striking circumstance which a neighboring 
 minister mentioned to me in proof of this. There was 
 in the town in which he preached, an avowed and deter- 
 mined infidel. lie saw this man one Sunday evening in 
 his p'ace of worship. He was preaching on some of the 
 great verities of faith, and the duties resulting therefrom. 
 As he was, the next morning, passing the door of the 
 
INDIVIDUAL EXERTION. 107 
 
 man, he was standing at it, and he said to him, ' I saw 
 you at worship last night, and was rather surprised to see 
 you there, as you do not beheve what I was preaching.' 
 ' No,' said he, ' nor you either.' ' Indeed.' ' No ;' he 
 went on to say, ' why, if I were to beheve the things 
 you affirm to be true, and which are written in your 
 books, I should not know how to contain myself. I 
 should feel their importance so much, that I should ex- 
 hibit them wherever I went. I should not know how to 
 hold in the enthusiasm they would excite. But I do not 
 believe them, nor do you, or you would be very different 
 people from what you are.' " Dreadful sarcasm ! Cut- 
 ting irony ! Withermg rebuke ! But how deserved ' 
 Shall we not feel it ? Shall we not learn our defect, our 
 duty, our inconsistency, even from an infidel 1 Let us 
 look at and judge ourselves as infidels do, who examine 
 us and try us by our creed and profession. Rise, rise to 
 action ! do something worthy of your principles ! Roll 
 away the reproach, and silence the taunt, of your adver- 
 saries ! 
 
 Think of the honor of success ! What a volume, 
 never to be fully known in this world, is comprehended 
 in the apostle's beautiful language, " Brethren, if any of 
 you do err from the truth, and one convert him ; let him 
 know that he who converteth a sinner from the error of 
 his ways shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a 
 multitude of sins." A vagrant sinner, wandering from 
 God, from holiness, and bliss, restored to the fountain of 
 life and light — a soul, dead in trespasses and sins, quick- 
 ened into life — a multitude of sins, each one of w^hich 
 containing the sentence and the venom of an eternal 
 curse, all covered over by an act of pardoning mercy, — 
 what an achievement ! The liberation of a nation from the 
 fetters of slaver}'^, and the rescue of an empire from the 
 ravages of a pestilence, viewed as temporal deliverances, 
 are not to be compared with the eternal salvation of one 
 immortal soul ! Had one of the planets of our system 
 broken the chain of gravity, and was rushing off into 
 space, threatening ruin to itself, and to other orbs, into 
 collision with which, in its course of destruction, it might 
 
108 
 
 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 be brough;, and it were in our power to restore it again 
 to its place, its dependence, and its order ; it would be 
 less a matter of exultation, than to be the instrument of 
 saving a single soul from the bitter pains of eternal death. 
 What was the civic crown awarded to him who had saved 
 the life of a Roman soldier on the field of battle ; or the 
 statue of brass erected to him who had defeated his 
 country's foe in a hundred battles ; or the shrine pre- 
 pared in the temple of fame for him who had enriched 
 his country and the world by some splendid discovery in 
 science, or invention in the arts, compared with the crown 
 of amaranth which shall flourish forever on the brow of 
 the Christian who hath saved a soul from death ? Medals, 
 statues, arches, processions, are all puerilities compared 
 with this ; and such is the distinction placed within the 
 reach of every child of God ! What an incentive to 
 earnestness this ! and yet how few the competitors for 
 such a crown, and such an honor ! 
 
 Consider, moreover, what others have done, and 
 done with no greater advantages than you have pos- 
 sessed. Instances have occurred, perhaps within the 
 range of your own observation, of persons who have 
 laid themselves out with extraordinary earnestness, and 
 with as extraordinary success, for the salvation of souls. 
 They have been the honored instruments of bringing 
 many to Christ. It is their exquisite felicity on earth, 
 and will be their still higher felicity in heaven, to receive 
 the grateful acknowledgments of those whom they have 
 plucked as brands from the burning. This is a happiness 
 which angels know not. They indeed rejoice over sou.s 
 converted by others, but never over any converted by 
 themselves : in this particular, they are inferior to many 
 a poor peasant, who has been the instrument of saving a 
 soul fi-om death. Envy not such persons, but imitate 
 thdm. Their bliss may be yours. What they have 
 done, you, by God's grace, may do. It was not by might 
 nor by power that they did it, but by God's truth and by 
 God's Spirit. The truth may be presented by you as it 
 was by them, and God's Spirit is as willing to come on 
 your humble labors, as he was upon theirs. He loves to 
 
INDIVIDUAL EXERTION. 109 
 
 bless feeijla but willing instruments, that he may mxgnify 
 hiis oUTi po^v^er. 
 
 As proof of what some others have done, take the 
 following instance, which has been brought under my 
 notice by one of our home missionaries, in a letter I lately 
 received from him. After describing the great spirituaJ 
 destitution of large tracts of our country, and our inabil- 
 ity to supply by any organization we now have, or are 
 ever likely to have, this lamented deficiency, he adds, 
 " I have been thinking of a plan, which in some instances 
 has been tried and greatly blessed, for the spread of the 
 gospel and the conversion of souls. Are there not in the 
 churches of our cities and large towns, men of ardent piety 
 and love to souls, of ability to preach the gospel ivith sim- 
 plicity, affection, and power, of ivealth to support them- 
 selves, and leisure to labor for God and precious souls ? 
 Are not some of their talents buried, for want of a proper 
 sphere for their exertion ? Could they not obtain a com- 
 fortable residence for themselves in these districts, and 
 devote themselves to the eternal welfare of those for 
 whom no other spiritual provision is made ? 
 
 "A dear relative of mine, some years ago, had a 
 considerable amount of property left him. He at once 
 retired from business, to devote himself entirely to the 
 work of the Lord. He was the instrument of intro- 
 ducing the gospel to this town where I now labor. He 
 went to reside at a village about eight miles from hence. 
 He there began to preach, built one chapel, then another, 
 and then another, in different hamlets. We have two 
 village chapels connected with us besides. Other chapels 
 in this locality sprung from his efforts. It is gratifying 
 and astonishing to consider how the gospel has spread, 
 and is still spreading ; and we trace back these streams 
 to the blessing of God upon the efforts of this servant of 
 his. He died in the pulpit, nearly four years ago. His 
 son, now residing upon his own farm, is the zealous and 
 successful pastor of the church which his father was the 
 instrument of gathering. Two day schools and four 
 Sabbath schools have arisen from the same efforts. 
 
 ** Now, sir, are tl ere not others connected with oui 
 
J 10 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 churches who may go and do Ukewise ? May we not 
 believe that God would crown with his blessing such 
 efforts as these?" 
 
 Believe ! We are sure of if. This is what we want. 
 This we must have, or we can never overtake the popu- 
 lation of our counlTy with the means of grace. I say 
 again and again, and I say it with all possible emphasis, 
 and would send it, if I could, with a trumpet-blast over 
 the land, '^Societies must not he substitutes for personal 
 labors. Organization must not crush individualism.^^ 
 Here was an individual waiting for no society, but going 
 off himself to the scene of moral desolation — venturing 
 alone into the wilderness — going single-handed, but 
 strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, to 
 pour the light of truth over a dark neighborhood. See 
 how God honored and blessed him ! what good he did ! — 
 what a name he left ! Ye pious, well-read, gifted, and 
 zealous tradesmen, who have talents as well as piety, 
 and, in addition to all these, abundant wealth, or a com- 
 petency, at any rate, why not imitate this beautiful exam- 
 ple 1 Why content yourselves with getting more wealth, 
 which you do not want, when you might be employed 
 in building chapels, forming churches, saving souls, and 
 planting schools "? How noble an association — • the coun- 
 try gentleman and the village pastor ! the retired trades- 
 man and the preacher of the gospel !' Is there nothing 
 to fire your ambition, to excite your ardor, to kindle a 
 holy enthusiasm, in such a prospect and such a hope ? I 
 am not setting aside an educated ministry, by a system 
 of lay preaching, but am speaking of spots where no 
 congregation exists, no chapel is built, and where none 
 is ever likely to exist without some such plan as this. 
 
 Remember kow little you have hitherto done. 
 You have experimentally known the way of salvation, 
 and the value of a soul, these ten, twenty, thirty years, 
 and yet, up to this hour, you have perhaps never won a 
 soul to God ! perhaps have never tried. Man^ellous ! 
 Painful neglect, in-etrievable omission ! The wasted 
 hours can never be recalled, t^e lost souls that have 
 dropped into the pit from beneatt vour very eye and hand 
 
INDIVIDUAL EXIRTION. Ill 
 
 can never be placed again within the circle of your influ- 
 ence. As you saw them falling, you stretched out no 
 helping hand, and there amidst the torments of despair 
 they are, uttering their reproaches upon your cruel indif- 
 ference. Time is still rolling on ; souls are still crowd- 
 ing to perdition, and soon, soon, both you and they will 
 be in eternity ! Hasten, oh hasten, to the scene of ruin ! 
 put forth every energy ! their damnation lingers not, and 
 shall your compassion linger 1 Shall your efforts still be 
 withheld ? 
 
 Once more consider what would be the result, ivere all 
 THE MEMBERS of our churches stirred up to an earnest^ 
 endeavor to save souls. Take a community of Christians, 
 of three, four, or five hundred communicants, yea, of a 
 lesser number, and think of all these, each in his own 
 sphere, and according to his own talents, means, and 
 opportunity, laboring for God and souls. Think of five 
 hundred, or even of one hundred, scattered over the whole 
 expanse of a town or village, communicating more or less 
 with the whole population : some of them masters and 
 mistresses at the head of families ; others manufacturers 
 presiding over large establishments of workmen ; others 
 servants in the midst of godless families ; others work- 
 men surrounded by wicked fellow-workers ; others rich 
 or well informed, and possessing considerable influence in 
 society ; others poor and inhabiting courts where neigh- 
 bors on all hands have an opportunity to see their conduct 
 and hear their conversation ; others young and possessing 
 all the health and energy of their years, and in the habit 
 of meeting with persons of their own age ; — let such a 
 community be conceived of, where all these members 
 were walking in holy conversation and godliness, sending 
 forth the light of a beautiful example, full of zeiJ, labor- 
 ing for the salvation of their fellows, and inspired with 
 the ambition and animated with the hope of saving souls 
 by personal effort, each studying what he could do, and 
 each doing what he could — what might not be looked 
 for as the glorious result of such general activity, zeal, 
 and earnestness ? What an awakening would take place, 
 what revivals would come on ! Would not God pour out 
 
112 EARNESTNESS IN INDIVIDUAL EXERTION. 
 
 his Spirit on such churches as these ? What prayer 
 would ascend, and what showers of blessings would come 
 down in their season ! When our churches shall exhibit 
 such scenes as these, then will God's work go on in the 
 earth ! And why do they not exhibit such scenes ? Are 
 not these the scenes they ought to exhibit ? Is not this 
 the intention for which they are raised up ? Friends of 
 Christ, and truth, and God, look back for a moment again 
 to the horrifying details of a former part of this chapter — 
 read again the statistics of the Pandemonium of infidelity 
 and immorality, and say if the passion for ruining souls 
 shall be more intense among the emissaries of Satan, than 
 the passion for saving them shall be among the followers 
 of the Lamb. O what, and who, shall rouse the church 
 of God to a sense of her duty, her destiny, and her honor, 
 as God's instrument for converting an ungodly world ? 
 Where is the more than trumpet breath that with the 
 thunders of the skies and the voice of eternal truth shaU 
 break in upon the slumber of a luxarious church, and 
 rouse her to her mission as a witnessing and a proselyting 
 body ! What visitations of mercy or of judgment ; what 
 internal commotions, or external assaults ; what national 
 convulsions or social disruptions, are necessary to call her 
 to her work, and prepare her to perform it ? When shall 
 all controversies seem to be little or nothing, compared 
 with the church's one great controversy against sin, 
 Satan, and perdition ? Whei^ shall every Christian feel 
 that God's chief end of keeping him out of heaven for a 
 season is that he might keep immortal souls out of hell ? 
 When shall another Luther rise up in the midst of the 
 Protestant church, and reform us from our worldly -mind 
 edness, even as the first, delivered us from Popery ? 
 When shall another Whitfield pass through the midst of 
 us, and with his burning eloquence kindle a fire of zeal in 
 our hearts which shall consume the dross of earthliness, 
 and purify the gold of our faith ? Shall infidelity, 
 popery, and false philosophy, share the world between 
 them] Individual Christians, priesthood of God, con- 
 sider and decide. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHRISTIAN EARNESTNESS IN FAMILY RELIGION. 
 
 The next step from individual earnestness is to that 
 which is expressed at the head of this chapter. This, 
 of course, has reference to the duties of parents. It is 
 not my intention to enter at large on the great subject in all 
 its details of religious education ; this I have already done 
 in my work entitled " The Family Monitor, or Help to 
 Domestic Happiness ;" but to insist on the importance 
 and necessity of carrying forward this work with the 
 most intense solicitude and the most untiring devoted- 
 ness. Perhaps at no period in the church's history has 
 this been understood and felt as it ought to be ; but it is 
 to be feared that there have been few periods since the 
 revival of religion, when it has been less felt than it is 
 now. How few are the habitations, even of professors, 
 upon entering which the stranger would be compelled to 
 say, " Surely this is the house of God, this is the gate 
 of heaven !" And yet ought it not to be so ? Ought not 
 the dwellings of the righteous to be filled with the very 
 element of piety, the atmosphere of true religion 1 It 
 may be that family prayer, such as it is, is coldly and 
 formally, though with little seriousness and no unction, 
 performed ; but even this, in many cases, is wholly omit 
 ted, and scarcely anything remains to indicate that God 
 has found a dwelling in that house. There may be no 
 actual dissipation, no drunkenness, no card-playing, but 
 oh, how little of true devotion is there ! How few fami- 
 lies are there so conducted as to make it a matter of sur- 
 prise that any of the children of such households should turn 
 out otherwise than pious ! how many that lead us greatly 
 to wonder that any of the children should turn out other- 
 wise than irrehgious ! Now the church cannot be in 
 10 
 
114 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 earnest if its families are not. An awakening attention 
 to the claims of religion must begin in the domestic circle. 
 Ministers may be in earnest for the salvation of the young, 
 schoolmasters and mistresses may be in earnest for their 
 salvation, but if parents also are not, all the efforts and 
 influence both of the pulpit and the school united will be 
 in vain. Home is usually the mould of character ; and 
 the parent is the help or hindrance of the minister of 
 religion. Parents, this chapter, then, is for you. .Fath- 
 ers and mothers, read not another line until you have 
 lifted up your hearts to God in prayer, for a blessing on 
 what is now submitted to your attention. 
 
 Thoroughly understand and remember what it is we 
 aire jiow considering ; it is not merely religious education, 
 but earnestness in this momentous duty. It is not whether 
 you are paying some attention to the salvation of your 
 children, but whether you are paying such attention as 
 this great subject requires ; whether you are so devoting 
 yourself to tlie religious education of your children as 
 that a visitor on leaving your house shall bear this testi- 
 mony concerning your parental solicitude : " That father 
 and mother are really anxious for their children's salva- 
 tion ; it is seen in all their conduct. This is the ques- 
 tion, whether you are so pursuing this object as that 
 your children themselves shall say, " My father and 
 mother are truly in earnest about my soul." This is the 
 question, I repeat, whether religion is the great thing, 
 the one thing, you are pursuing for them ? Does this 
 gather up into itself your chief solicitude and your gen- 
 eral plans ? What I mean by the earnestness of domestic 
 religion will be obvious from the following considera- 
 tions. 
 
 I. It includes a deep thoughtfulness about the subject ; 
 a religious thoughtfulness. You. will, if you are thus 
 pensive, often say ; "I am a parent. I am a Christian 
 parent. I profess to believe that my child has a soul, the 
 salvation or the loss of which will depend much upon me. 
 Yes, upon me does it much depend whether my children 
 are to be forever in glory, or in perdition. How inex- 
 Pire.s.sjblj .aw'ful ! How tremendously important ! I have 
 
FAMILY RELIGION. 115 
 
 not only bodies to care for, or minds to cultivate, but 
 souls, immortal souls, to bring to Christ ! Every other 
 parent, the beast, the bird, teaches by instinct to their 
 offspring the highest good of which theh* nature is capa- 
 ble ; and shall I, by neglecting to teach mine religion, 
 leave out the highest good of which their immortal nature 
 is susceptible 1 Even the sea monsters draw out the 
 breast, yea they give suck to their young ; and shall I be 
 more cruel than they V 
 
 n. There must be a right understanding and a con- 
 stant re.collection of the nature and design of the domestic 
 constitution. 
 
 Families are the nurseries both of the state and of the 
 church ; and if this be true, then the design of the 
 domestic economy must be to form the good citizen and 
 the true Christian. No doubt the present and future 
 welfare of the individual members of each household, 
 their right conduct towards each other, and their own 
 good training for any domestic relations they may sustain, 
 are the proximate objects to be sought ; but the ultimate 
 end is the formation of a character in which patriotism, 
 loyalty, and piety, shall be beautifully united and har- 
 monized. Well instructed, well' ordered, and well gov- 
 erned families, are the springs which from their retire- 
 ments send forth the tributary streams that make up by 
 their confluence the majestic flow of national greatness 
 and prosperity. No state can be prosperous where fam- 
 ily order and subordination are generally neglected, and 
 every one loill be prosperous, whatever be its form of 
 political government, where these are maintained. Dis- 
 orderly families are the sources of vicious characters, 
 pestilent criminals, factious demagogues, turbiJent, 
 rebels, and tyrannical oppressors, who are their neigh- 
 bors' torment and their country's scourge. 
 
 But every family has also a sacred character belonging 
 to it, which ought ever to be sustained ; I mean it is a 
 preparatory school both for the church militant and the 
 church triumphant, where the immortal soul is to be 
 trained up, by the influence of a pious education, for the 
 fellowship of saints on earth, and for the felicities of a 
 
116 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 higher association still, in heaven. The mother, as she 
 presses her babe to her bosom, or sees the httle gioup 
 sporting around the hearth ; and the father, as he collects 
 the circle round his chair or his table ; as he directs their ed- 
 ucation, or selects for them their future occupation, should 
 never forget to say to themselves, " These are given to us 
 that we may train them up to be useful members of society, 
 and holy members of the church. God and our country will 
 demand them at our hands. Yea, the destinies of the world 
 will in some measure be affected by them, and the present 
 and all future generations of mankind have claims upon us 
 in reference to the training of our children." Yes, those 
 children are something more than living domestic play- 
 things ; something more than animated household orna- 
 ments, who, by theu' elegant accompMshments, and grace- 
 ful manners, shall adorn the habitation, and constitute a 
 father's pride, a mother's boast : they are the future gen- 
 eration of our country, and the next race of friends or 
 enemies to the cause of God on earth. The family, then, 
 I repeat, is the mould of the state and the church, where 
 the members of both are cast and formed, and this ought 
 never, for a single day, to be forgotten. 
 
 III. Earnestness implies a deep sense of the tremen- 
 dous responsibility/ of the parental relation. Delightful as 
 it may be to hear the infant prattle ; to witness the gam- 
 bols of childhood's joyous years ; to mark the growing 
 development of faculty, and the gradual formation of 
 character during youth's advance to manhood ; interesting 
 as it is to see the slow unfolding of the human flower, a 
 solemn sense of responsibility ought, with all tins, to 
 come over the mind. It is an awful expression, " I am a 
 parent ;" for what is this but saying, " I have immortal 
 souls intrusted to my care, whose destiny for eternity will~ 
 be affected by my conduct?" Fond mother, look at that 
 babe hanging on thy breast, and those other children 
 sporting around your knee ; and thou, the father of the 
 group, watching with a parent's and a husband's swelling 
 heart, thy wife and the mother of thy children, and in- 
 dulging only in joyous emotions, and sportive expressions, 
 pause, ponder, reflect ! millions of ages from that moment 
 
FAMILY RELIGION. 117 
 
 of domestic ecstasy, every one of those little happy crea- 
 tures will be either in heaven, or in hell — v^^ill be a seraph 
 or a fiend — will be enduring inconceivable torment, or en- 
 -oving ineffable felicity ; and much, as to which it shall 
 DC, will depend upon you. Overwhelming thought ! Is 
 it true? Can it be true? It is ; and you admit it, at 
 least by profession. Then, I say again, how tremendous 
 the responsibility of a parent ! This is earnestness, to 
 have this fact written on our very heart ; to see it ever 
 standing out in visible characters before our eyes ; to 
 carry it with us everywhere, and into everything ; to be 
 ever saying to ourselves, " My child is immortal, and his 
 eternal destiny in great measure depends upon me. I am 
 not only the father of his existence, but in some measure 
 of his destiny. I shall be the means, perhaps, of raising 
 him to heaven, or sinking him to perdition. I am edu- 
 cating him to be an associate with the devil and his an- 
 gels in everlasting fire, or a companion with the innumer- 
 able company of angels in glory everlasting. O God, help 
 me ! for who is sufficient for these things ?" 
 
 lY. Arising out of this, and as a necessary adjunct, 
 earnestness implies a concentration of our chief solicitude 
 upon the salvation of the soul. A Christian parent, who 
 is not only nominally anxious for the salvation of his chil- 
 dren, but really so, often says to himself, " Yes, I see 
 it ; I feel it ; I own it ; my children are immortal crea- 
 tures ; their souls are intrusted to my care, and will be 
 required at my hands, and their salvation depends much 
 upon me. Then, by God's grace, ' this one thing I do,' I 
 will make their salvation, above all things besides, the- 
 object of my desire, of my pursuit, and of my prayer,. 
 1 will neglect nothing that can conduce to their respec- 
 tability, comfort, and usefulness in this world ; but above^ 
 and beyond this, I will chiefly desire and do whatever can 
 conduce to the salvation of their souls. Their religious, 
 character shall be, in my estimation with reference ta 
 them, the one thing needful. What shall I do, what can 
 I do, that they might be saved ?" Ah, this is it ; an ever 
 wakeful concern for their eternal welfare, an hiventive 
 solicitude for their immortal destiny ; a detennined, reso- 
 10* 
 
118 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 lute subordination of everything else to this as the 
 supreme object. Such a solicitude as never sleeps, noi 
 tires ; such a solicitude as leads, like all other anxieties, 
 to the right use of means. Not merely a concern, but the 
 concern ; not one among many objects, but the one great, 
 commanding, controlhng, absorbing object ; which, if it be 
 not gained, makes a father or a mother mourn over the 
 highest degree of worldly prosperity to which a child can 
 attain, and exclaim, " Yes, he is successful for this 
 world, and of course I am not insensible to the advantage 
 of this ; but alas ! it is un sanctified prosperity, which I 
 would gladly and gratefully exchange, on his behalf, for 
 sanctified adversity." 
 
 V. An earnest man will be cautious to avoid mistakes : 
 he will say to any one who can give him information, 
 *' Do guard me against error, that I maybe kept from 
 misspending my time, and misdirecting my labor." Now 
 there are some mistakes in education, against which the 
 Christian parent should be cautioned, and against which 
 he should most assiduously guard. A very common and 
 a most fatal one is that the conversion of children is rather 
 to be looked for as a sudden thing, which is to be expected 
 as the result of some single event, such as a sermon, or 
 an address, or a letter, or the perusal of a book, rather 
 than from a systematic and continued course of instruc- 
 tion, discipline, and example. It is a very frequent, and 
 I am afraid almost universal thing, for Christian parents to 
 say to themselves, and sometimes as an excuse for their 
 'Own indolence and neglect, " We are taught that regener- 
 :ation is a sudden and instantaneous change wrought by 
 the Spirit of God ; and therefore, though my children 
 ■exhibit no symptoms of religious concern at present, 
 yet I hope the time will come, when, by the bless- 
 ing of God upon some event, or some means or other, 
 they will be brought suddenly and at once to decis- 
 ion. Perhaps it may be at school, for I have selected 
 pious instructors ; or it may be by the preaching of the 
 ;.gospel, for they hear very faithful and energetic minis- 
 ters ; or it may be by some visitation of God in the way 
 4)f bodily sickness. I Uve in hope that the good time will 
 
FAMILY RELIGION. 119 
 
 come when I shall yet see them converted to God." 
 And perhaps all this while there is no systematic course 
 of instruction and of discipline going on at home, so that 
 their religious character is left to whatever contingencies 
 may arise. Fatal delusion ! False reasoning ! Ruin- 
 ous mistake ! It is very true that in some cases conver- 
 sion is sudden, but this is such a perversion of the fact 
 as involves not only mistakes, but criminality. If it is 
 sudden, how do such parents know but that the very next 
 efforts M'hich they themselves make may be the happy 
 means of effecting it ; and ought they not, upon their 
 own principle, to be ever laboring for, and ever expecting, 
 the blessed result 1 The fact is, it means nothing less 
 than an indolent handing over of the religious education 
 of their children to school-masters, to ministers, to friends, 
 to whomsoever will undertake it, and even to chance, so 
 as they may be rid of the trouble. A parent who has 
 right views of his relationship, and his responsibility, wiD 
 say, " I may commit the general education of my children 
 to others, but not their religious training. This is too 
 momentous to be intrusted out of my own hands. Oth- 
 ers may be ignorant, negligent, or erroneous : I must see, 
 therefore, to this matter myself. I cannot transfer my 
 relation or my responsibility, and I will not transfer my 
 exertions. God will require my children at my hands, 
 and as I cannot reckon with him by proxy, so I will 
 not work by proxy. And I will endeavor, by God's 
 grace, to form their religious character by a system and 
 a course of moral training, and not look for it as a sudden 
 result of passing incidents." This is a correct view of 
 the subject, and the only correct one. Sudden conversions 
 do often take place in those who have not enjoyed the 
 advantages of a religious education, but rarely in those 
 who have. In the latter case there is often a giudual 
 change of character and conduct, the effect of good 
 training, which issues at last in regeneration ; and in 
 some few, rare instances, of the conversion to God of the 
 chiWren of judicious, earnest Christians, the change has 
 boen so gradual as to be scarcely perceptible. Were all 
 Ciirisilan parents to act in the same way, the same results 
 
120 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 might with good reason he expected, and dcmestic edu 
 cation would be the ordinary means of conversion for the 
 children of the godly. There is more truth in the 
 proverb, even as regards religioii, than many persons are 
 disposed to allow, " Train up a child in the way he 
 should go, and when he is old he will not depart from 
 it." This does not insure success in every instance, but 
 it warrants the eccpedation of it, and should make the 
 want, and not the acquisition, of it, matter of surprise. 
 In all scriptural means of conversion, there is an adapta- 
 tion to the end to be accomplished, though there is no 
 necessary connection between them, and were right means 
 always used, efiiciency would more frequently be the 
 result than it now is. This is especially true of religions 
 education. Let parents give up all dependence upon 
 teachers and ministers, though thankfully availing them- 
 selves of their collateral aid, and consider t\\?it they are the 
 persons to be looked to as the instruments of their chil- 
 dren's conversion ; and at the same time let them aban- 
 don the expectation of sudden conversions by contingent 
 circumstances, and look for this blessed result from the 
 grace of God upon a system of instruction and discipline 
 begun early, extending through everything, and carried 
 on with judgment, perseverance, and prayer, and then 
 they will see, much more frequently than they now do, 
 the happy consequences of this holy training of the youth- 
 ful mind for God. 
 
 A second mistake in religious education is putting off 
 the commencement of it too long. Earnestness means 
 seizing the first opportunity that occurs for doing a thing, 
 and, indeed, a looking out, and waiting, for the first season 
 of action. " Begin yourself, begin well, and begin soon,*' 
 are the maxims of common sense, which apply to every- 
 thing, and especially to religion. Evil is already in the 
 heart at birth, and begins to grow with the child's mental 
 gi'owth, strengthens with his strength, and must be resist- 
 ed by early endeavors to root it out, and to plant and 
 nourish good. Most parents begin too late. They have 
 let Satan get beforehand with them, and have suffered 
 corruption to grow too long and get too much strength 
 
FAMILY RELIGION. 121 
 
 before they attack it. Half the failures in religious edu- 
 cation, yea, a far greater proportion, may be traced up to 
 this cause. Temper can be disciphned, conscience may 
 be exercised, subordination may be inculcated, and the 
 consequences of disobedience felt, long before the child 
 can receive what might be called religious instruction. 
 
 A third mistake to be avoided is 7naking religious 
 instruction a thing by, and fcr, itself, and not sustaining 
 it by other things which are related to it, and which 
 have considerable influence upon it. Earnestness presses 
 everything into its service, and avoids whatever would 
 defeat its end. A person intent upon some object which 
 is considered to be of importance, will sustain his pur- 
 suit of it, by attending to whatever will aid his endeav- 
 ors, and will carefully watch against everything w^hich 
 would impede his progress, or defeat his purpose. It 
 were to be wished that Christian parents would act upon 
 this principle, and call in the aid of whatever could 
 promote their one great object. With many, it is to be 
 feared, religious education is nothing more than a mere 
 patch upon a system of training, a bit sewed on, and not 
 an integral part of the whole, the very warp of the tex- 
 ture. For instance, they will teach a little religion occa- 
 sionally, and perhaps frequently, and somewhat seriously ; 
 but all this while will take no pains to inculcate obedience 
 to themselves, to discipline the temper, to cultivate habits 
 of application, to produce though tfulness, kindness, and 
 general good behavior. When a farmer wishes to pro- 
 duce a good crop, he not only prepares the ground, and 
 sows good seed, but he takes care that the young corn 
 shall enjoy every advantage for growth ; and knowing 
 that weeds will stifle it, and drain away its nourishment, 
 and keep out the sun's rays, he takes care to clear the 
 ground of these. So it is with the earnest parent ; he 
 not only communicates religious instruction, and thus 
 sows the good seed, but he takes care to keep down the 
 weeds, and to do all he can to aid the growth of the plant. 
 Some very good people have erred here ; they have taught, 
 and entreated, and prayed ; and then wondered that their 
 children do not become truly pious ; but thsir excessive 
 
122 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 indulgence, their injudicious fondness, their utter neg- 
 lect of all discipline, the relaxation of their authority 
 their neglect of themselves till the children have been 
 taught to consider that they, and not their parents, were 
 the most important personages in the household, might 
 explain to them, as these things do explain to others, the 
 cause of failure. If general excellence of disposition 
 and character be not cultivated along with that which is 
 specifically religiou's, the latter wiU make but slow and 
 sickly growth. 
 
 The last mistake in religious education to which I 
 shall refer, and which an earnest parent must avoid, is 
 the confounding instruction with education ; that is, 
 mistaking a part for the whole ; the means for the end. 
 What, in the estimation of many, is rehgious educa- 
 tion? Nothing more than the communication of so 
 much religious knowledge — a little Scripture, a few 
 hymns, or a catechism, committed to memory. Alas I 
 even this is not done in the families of some professors ; 
 and I have heard an anxious and accomplished president 
 of a lady's school express her grief and astonishment at 
 the deplt)rable ignorance of the very elements of biblical 
 knowledge of some of her pupils who have come from 
 the families of professors of religion. Some of the chil- 
 dren of the higher classes in our Sunday schools would 
 put to the blush many of these young ladies of our board- 
 ing schools. And even the more diligent parents are but 
 too apt to stop in the mere communication of knowledge ; 
 but this is not education in the more comprehensive sense 
 of the word, which means the formation of character. 
 And from the same quarter as I have just mentioned, I 
 have heard a most emphatic testunony borne to the anx- 
 ious and judicious care to form the character which 
 appears to be bestowed at home, upon their children, by 
 that respectable body of professing Christians, called 
 Quakers. None have been better trained, she has in- 
 formed me, than those who have come to her from such 
 families. There is a habit of thoughtfulness, by no 
 means gloomy, or unaccompanied with cheerfulness ; a 
 sense of propriety, without any such stiffness as is gen 
 
FAMILY RELIGION. 123 
 
 eraljy supposed to appertain to those young persons ; and 
 a respectful submissiveness, which are not found in most 
 others ; together with a soundness of judgment, which 
 afford admirable specimens of good domestic training. 
 The fact is that some of what are called the accomplish- 
 ments of fashionable and elegant education are banished 
 from the families of the Quakers to make way for the 
 cultivation of the mind and heart, and the formation of 
 the character. There may be, and I think there are, 
 among them, omissions which I should supply ; but for 
 the inculcation of habits of reflection, good sense, general 
 propriety of conduct, orderliness and control of the tem- 
 per and passions, most parents may take a les§on from 
 the home education of Quaker children. 
 
 Now observe the conduct of earnest parents. In addi- 
 tion to the communication of knowledge, they admonish, 
 entreat, warn, and counsel. They direct the reading of 
 their children, and watch carefully what books come into 
 their hands. They analyze their character, and make 
 themselves intimately acquainted with their peculiarities 
 of disposition and tendencies, that they may know how 
 to adapt their treatment to each. They encourage habits 
 of subjection, modesty, reflection, conscientiousness, frank- 
 ness, and at the same time, respect for all, especially for 
 themselves. They dwell on the .pleasures of religion, 
 and the miseries of sin. They repress faults, and en- 
 courage budding excellences. They speak to them of 
 the honor and happiness of good men, not only in anothei 
 world, but in this. They endeavor to implant the fear of 
 God, the love of Christ, the desire of holiness, in their 
 hearts. Everything is done to render religion attractive, 
 and yet to exhibit it as a holy and an awfhl reality. 
 They watch the conduct, look out for matter of commen- 
 dation and of censure. In short, their object and aim are 
 the real, right, permanent formation of the rehgious char- 
 acter, the character of the genuine Christian. 
 
 Parents, you are always educating yom- children for 
 good or evil. Not only by what you say, but by what 
 you do ; not only by what you intend, but by what you 
 are : you yourself are one constant lesson, which many 
 
124 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 eyes are observing, and which many hearts receive into 
 itself. Influence, powder, impulse, are ever going out 
 from you : take care then how you act ! 
 
 Let me, then, here remind you of the immense impor- 
 tance of three things : first. Parental Example. What 
 example is so powerful as that of a parent ? It is one of 
 the first things which a child observes ; it is that which is 
 most constantly before his eyes, and it is that which his 
 yery relationship inclines him most attentively to respect, 
 and most assiduously to copy. Every act of parental 
 kindness, every effort to please, every favor conferred, 
 softens a child's heart to receive the impressions which 
 such an example is likely to stamp upon the soul. Vain, 
 worse than useless, is that instruction which is not fol- 
 lowed up by example. Good advice, when not illustrated 
 by good conduct, inspires disgust. There are multitudes 
 of parents to whom we would deliberately give the counsel 
 never to say one syllable to their children on the subject 
 of religion, unless they enforce what they say by a better 
 example. Silence does infinitely less mischief than the 
 most elaborate instruction which is all counteracted by 
 inconsistent conduct. It is no matter, either of won- 
 der or regret, that some professing Christians discon- 
 tinue family prayer. How can they act the part of a 
 hypocrite so conspicuously before their households, as to 
 pray in the evening, when every action of the day has 
 been so opposed to every syllable of their prayer 1 O, 
 what consistent and uniform piety, what approaches to 
 perfection, ought there to be in him who places himself 
 twice every day before his household, at the family altar, 
 as their prophet, priest, and intercessor with God ! It 
 seems to me as if the holiest and best of us were scarcely 
 holy enough to sustain the parental character, and dis- 
 charge the parental functions. It would seem as if this 
 were a post for which we could be fitted only by being 
 first raised to the condition of spirits made perfect, and 
 then becoming again incarnate, with cele-stial glory beam- 
 ing around our character. What an additional motive is 
 there in this view of our duty for cultivating, with a more 
 intense earnestness, the spirit of personal religion ! 
 
FAMILY RELIGION. 125 
 
 Would you see the result of parental misconduct, look 
 into the family of David. Eminent as he was for the 
 spirit of devotion, sweet as were the strains which flowed 
 from his inspired muse, and attached as he was to the 
 worship of the sanctuary, yet what foul blots rested upon 
 his character, and what dreadful trials did he endure in 
 his family ! What profligate creatures were his sons ! 
 and who can tell how much the apostacy of Solomon was 
 to be traced up to the recollection of parental example ! 
 Parents, beware, I beseech you, how you act ! Ici 
 your children see religion in all its sincerity, power, 
 beauty, and loveliness ; and this may win them to Christ. 
 
 But there is another thing to be observed, and that is 
 the mischief of excessive indulgence. Read the history 
 of Eli, as recorded by the pen of inspiration. The hon- 
 ors of the priesthood and of the magistracy lighted upon 
 him. He was beloved and respected by the nation whose 
 affairs he administered, and to all appearance seemed 
 likely to finish a life of active duty, in the calm repose 
 of an honored old age. But the evening of his life, at 
 one time so calm and so bright, became suddenly over- 
 cast, and a storm arose which burst in fury upon his head, 
 and dashed him to the ground by its dreadful bolts. 
 Whence did it arise? Let the words of the historian 
 declare: " I have told him, said the Lord, that I will 
 judge his house forever for the iniquity which he know- 
 eth, because his sons made themselves vile and he re- 
 strained them not." 1 Sam. iii. 13. Poor old man ! who 
 can fail to sympathize with him under the terror of that 
 dreadful sentence, which crushed his dearest hopes and 
 beclouded all his prospects 1 but the sting, the venom of 
 the sentence, was in the declaration that a criminal un- 
 faithfulness on his part had brought upon his beloved 
 sons ruin both temporal and eternal. All this destruc- 
 tion upon his children, all this misery upon himself, was 
 the consequence of weak and criminal pares'<;al indul- 
 gence. Doubtless this began while they were yet chil- 
 dren ; their every wish and every whim were indulged, 
 their foolish inclinations were gratified ; he could never 
 be persuaded that any germs of m ilignant passions lurked 
 11 
 
x26 
 
 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 under appearances so playful and so lovely ; he smiled at 
 transgressions on which he ought to have frowned ; and 
 instead of endeavoring kindly but firmly to eradicate the 
 first indications of pride, anger, ambition, deceit, self- 
 will, and stubbornness, he considered they were but the 
 wild flowers of spring, which would die of themselves as 
 the summer advanced. The child grew in this hot-bed 
 of indulgence into the boy ; the boy into the youth ; the 
 youth into the young man ; till habit had confirmed the 
 vices of the child, and acquired a strength which not only 
 now bid defiance to parental restraint, but laughed it to 
 Bcorn. Contemplate the poor old man sitting at the way- 
 side upon his bench, in mute despair, his heart torn with 
 self-reproach , there listening with sad presages for tidings 
 from the field of conflict. At length the messenger ar- 
 rives — the doleful news is told. The ark of God is 
 taken, and Hophni and Phinehas are slain. His aged 
 hSart is broken — and he and his whole house are 
 crushed at once under that one sin, the excessive weak- 
 ness and wickedness of a false and foolish parental indul- 
 gence.* 
 
 Parents, and especially mothers, look at this picture 
 and tremble ! contemplate this sad scene, and learn the 
 necessity of a judicious, aifectionate, firm, and persever- 
 ing discipline ! 
 
 To all this add earnest, believing, and persevering 
 fTayer. Let family devotion be maintained with regu- 
 larity, variety, aflfectionate simplicity, and great serious- 
 ness. As conducted by some, it is calculated rather to 
 disgust than to delight. It is so hastily, so perfuncto- 
 rily, and so carelessly performed, that it seems rather a 
 mockery than a solemnity ; there is neither seriousness 
 nor earnestness. On the other hand, how subduing and 
 how melting are the fervent supplications of a godly 
 and consistent father, when his voice, tremulous with 
 emotion, is giving utterance to the desires of his heart 
 to the God of heaven, for the children bending around 
 
 * There is a beautiful sermon on this subject by Dr. Leland, 
 )f Charleston, in the " American Preacher." 
 
FAMILY RELIGION. 127 
 
 him ! Is there, out of heaven, a sight more deeply inter- 
 esting than a family gathered at morning or evening 
 prayer, where the worship is what it ought to be? 
 When the good man takes the "big ha' Bible," and 
 with patriarchal grace reads to his househoil the words 
 of heavenly truth"? And then the hymn of domestic 
 gladness, in which even infants learn to lisp their Maker's 
 praise ; not better music is there to the ears of Jehovah, 
 in the seraphim's song, than that concord of sweet 
 sounds ; and last of all the prayer — oh, that strain of 
 intercession in which each child seems to hear the throb- 
 bing of a father's heart for him ! Ah, when this is the 
 type of the families of professors ; when family religion 
 is conducted after this fashion ; when the spectator of 
 what is going on in such households shall be compelled 
 t5 say, " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy 
 tabernacles, Israel !" when earnestness, after beginning 
 in the soul of the Christian, shall communicate itself 
 to the parent, what a new state of things may we expect 
 in the church of Christ ! 
 
 In my volume addressed to the ministry I remarked 
 that the conversion of the children of the pious should 
 be looked for at home, and from the blessing of God on 
 the endeavors of Christian parents. And this is quite 
 true, and a truth which cannot be put forward too promi- 
 nently, or enforced upon public attention too urgently. I 
 cannot be supposed to underrate the importance of the 
 pulpit nor the value of preaching ; but it is possible so 
 to exalt this order of means as to depress, if not to dis- 
 place, all others. God never intended by preaching to 
 subvert or set aside the domestic constitution, or to 
 silence the voice of the parental teacher. All systems 
 that obtrude any one, whether priest, preacher, or school- 
 master, between the parent and his child, so as to merge 
 the obligations of the latter in the functions of the former, 
 are opposed alike to nature and to revelation. God 
 will hold every parent responsible for the instruction of 
 his children, and it will be no excuse for the neglect, 
 that he has handed them over to another. One of the 
 earliest and most certain indications of a revived church 
 
128 EARNESTNESS IN 
 
 will be, the marked revival of domestic religion. What- 
 ever stir be made congregationally, or ministerially, will 
 still leave the church but partially awakened, and relig- 
 ion but negligently attended to, till the families of the 
 righteous art become the scenes of religious concern 
 and of spiritual instruction. The canon of the Old 
 Testament closes with these remarkable words, " And 
 he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and 
 the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and 
 smite the earth with a curse." Mai. iv. 6. Under the 
 Christian dispensation the children were to be brought 
 in with their fathers, and through their instrumentality ; 
 and whenever, throughout the various churches of Christ, 
 we shall be favored to see those who sustain the rela- 
 tion of parents intensely earnest for the salvation of their 
 children, and adopting all proper means for that end, then 
 shall we see the blissful sight of fathers leading their 
 sons, and mothers their daughters, and bringing their 
 children to the church for membership, saying, " Behold, 
 T and the children thou hast given me." Then would 
 the families of the saints present the beautiful scene, 
 more than once spoken of in the New Testament, of a 
 church in the house. 
 
 This state of things will, perhaps, in some measure, 
 account for a very painful fact, which both parents and 
 ministers attest and lament, that very few of the sons of 
 our more wealthy members become truly pious. Many of 
 the daughters are brought under the influence of true 
 piety, and come into our fellowship, but comparatively 
 few of the sons. I am aware that, as a general fact, far 
 more women are pious than men ; but the disproportion 
 . is, I think, still greater in the class to which I now allude 
 than in any other. Many concurring causes will account 
 for this. Young men go out into the world, and are 
 exposed to its temptations, while the daughters remain 
 at home under the sheltering care of their parents. It 
 requires greater moral courage in a ^ young man to 
 profess religion, than in a female. Young men aie more 
 swallowed up in b\isiness, and have their minds more 
 drawn away from rehgion by this means. They are 
 
FAMILY RELIGION. 129 
 
 more exposed to the influence of bad companions, and 
 are more in the way of being injured by scepticism and 
 heresy. They are allured to out-of-door recreations and 
 games, which lead them into company. And from the 
 fact of a large proportion of pious people being females, 
 young men are carried away with the shallow and flip- 
 pant notion, that religion is a matter pertaining to the 
 w*eaker sex, rather than to them. These things will 
 account for the fact to Vhich I now allude, which is 
 indeed a very painful one. Our churches and our insti- 
 tutions need the aid of pious young men of this class. 
 We know the soul of a female is as precious in the 
 sight of God as one of the opposite sex, and we know 
 how valuable are female influence and agency in all 
 religious matters ; but women cannot be in such things 
 a substitute for men ; and, therefore, we do lament that 
 so few of our respectable young men become truly pious. 
 To what use ought this painful fact to be turned, and 
 to what specific eflbrts should it give rise 1 First of all 
 it should lead Christian parents to pay a more diligent 
 and anxious attention to the religious education of their 
 sons. Daughters must not be neglected, but so7is must 
 have special pains taken with them. As in good agricul- 
 ture most labor is bestowed on an unproductive soil, to 
 make it yield a crop, so in this religious culture of the 
 heart, the main solicitude should be directed to the boys. 
 Mothers, I beseech you, look to these, and from the very 
 dawn of reason exert your plastic influence over theii 
 more sturdy nature. Be anxious for your sons ; think of 
 their danger and their difficulty. Imagine sometimes 
 that you see that lovely boy a future prodigal, lost to 
 himself, to his parents, to the church, and tf society, and 
 yourself dying under the sorrows of a he? rt broken by 
 his misconduct ; at other times, look upon the enraptur- 
 ing picture of his rising up to be a minister of rehgion, 
 or the deacon of a church, foremost in aiding the relig- 
 ious institutions of the day, and yielding the profits of a 
 successful business to the cause of God in our dark 
 world. Oh, dedicate that boy to God, with all the ful- 
 ness of a mother's love, both for him and for his Lord, 
 11* 
 
130 EARNESTNESS IN FAMILY RELIGION. 
 
 and pour over him all the influences of a mother's judi- 
 cious care and culture. Fathers, I say to you, also, look 
 well to your sons ; be doubly solicitous, and doubly 
 laborious, and doubly prayerful, in reference to them. 
 Be the friend, the companion, the counsellor of your 
 sons, as well as their father. Be intensely solicitous to 
 see them not only by your side in the counting-house, 
 or the warehouse, but in the church of Christ, and in 
 the transactions of our religious' societies. 
 
 Mothers, much devolves on you. Both among the 
 rational and irrational tribes, the first training of the 
 infant race belongs to her that gives them being, and 
 supports them ; and of course the first yearnings of affec- 
 tion, and ever the strongest, are to her. It is her privi- 
 lege, and her reward for pains, and privations, and labors^ 
 all her own, to be thus rewarded by the earliest and most 
 earnest aspirations of the heart. Avail yourselves of 
 this bhss, and the influence it gives you, to mould the 
 infant heart and character for God. Let a mother's 
 vigilance, and care,' and affection, all be most earnestly 
 consecrated to the blessed work of sowing the seeds of 
 piety in childhood's heart, and thus forming the young 
 immortal. Scarcely a character of eminence has ever 
 appeared, either in the church or in the state, but con- 
 fessed his obligations to a judicious mother. Pious 
 mothers have done more to people heaven than any other 
 class of persons, next to the preachers of the gospel ; 
 and even the usefulness of ministers must be shared with 
 those who had prepared the minds of their converts to 
 receive impressions from their sermons. Napoleon once 
 asked Madam Campan what the French nation most 
 wanted. Her reply was compressed into one word — 
 "Mothers." It was a wise, beautiful, and comprehen- 
 sive answer. Ask me what the church of God wants 
 next to earnest ministers, and I answer — intelligent ^ 
 pious, earnest mothers. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ACTIVITY OF CHURCHES IN THEIR COLLECTIVE CA- 
 PACITY ; CR, THE DILIGENCE OF CHRISTIANS CONSIIH 
 ERED AS CHURCH MEMBERS. 
 
 The word church is now used in its limited sense, as 
 restricted to one assembly or congregation. It here 
 means a regularly organized body, meeting with its 
 office-bearers in one place for divine worship. And we 
 are now, therefore, to show in what manner the earnest- 
 ness of such a community is to show itself. 
 
 There must, of course, be an intelligent and pervading 
 apprehension amongst its members of its design as being, 
 next to its own eternal well-being, a witness for God in the 
 world, and his instrument for spreading the truth. Tliis 
 ought to be a well understood, deeply rooted, and con- 
 stmtly recognized principle. All the members ought 
 perpetually and conscientiously to bear in mind this their 
 high vocation, as a testifying, proselyting body, and stir 
 up each other's minds to carry out this their sacred and 
 common purpose. They must not allow one another to 
 forget that, as a part of the universal church, they are a 
 collective and embodied testimony to the existence, na- 
 ture, will, and works of God. 
 
 To this must be added a consciousness of the great 
 spiritual power for accomplishing this end, which is con- 
 tained in a church of Christ ; a power of which it ought 
 to be, but is not, duly sensible. There is moral power 
 in truth, in example, in prayer, m exertion. All these 
 combine in every sincere, consistent Christian. Each 
 believer in Christ is an instrument of great power in our 
 world, or has great power in himself. He has a greater 
 force of character than he has ever yet put for1h, or has 
 kn^wn himself to possess. Think what one Christian 
 
132 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 has, in some extraordinary cases, achieved ! What an 
 immense power, then, must there be in a church con- 
 sisting of one, three, five, or seven hundred members ! 
 Take even a small church of only one hundred, and 
 imagine thdm all eminently holy, benevolent, and active, 
 icattered all over the place in which they dwell, each a 
 radiating point of light and influence in the neighborhood 
 where he lives. And then conceive of them collecting 
 together periodically in their church relationship, to be 
 seen as a body of witnesses for God, and to be acted upon 
 by ministerial exercises and mutual influence ; keeping 
 each other up to the standard of obligation and the meas- 
 ure of duty. Let it be supposed that they were filled 
 with this idea of spiritual power ; that they assembled in 
 their collective capacity, to quicken and renew it, and 
 then dispersed to employ it in their several locahties. 
 
 There must, also, be a deep solicitude in each church 
 to answer the end of its formation, both in reference to 
 its own internal state and its external relations. 
 
 The active operations of a church may be classed 
 under several heads : the first class includes whatever 
 appertains to its own welfare. For this must, of course, 
 take precedence of all other duties. It is only as it is 
 itself in a good, sound, healthy, and working condition, 
 that it can expect to be of any service to others. A 
 state, as well as a church, must be strong internally, or 
 it can have no power to be beneficial to others. 
 
 Every member of every community is supposed to feel, 
 and to take, a deep interest in its welfare. The welfare 
 of the whole depends upon the solicitous endeavor to 
 promote it, on the part of its individual members. There 
 is a common interest, and there must be a common 
 activity to uphold it. Thus must it be with all church 
 members ; they must have an earnest, jealous, and ever- 
 wakeful solicitude for the well-being of the church to 
 which they belong. They are not, indeed, to cherish an 
 isolated, selfish spirit, which shuts up all its concern 
 within their own congregation, but this is to be the 
 object of their first and chief anxiety. It is then: rehg- 
 ious home, and every man's concern is to begin with 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 
 
 133 
 
 home. It is not enough that they are cordially attached 
 to the pastor, and take an interest in his comfort and 
 usefulness ; they must also feel an in^rest in the church. 
 There can be no doubt that many of our members almost 
 drop the church, and confine all their concern to the 
 minister. They rarely ever attend the church-meetings, 
 though they are always, or usually, present in the sanc- 
 tuary : they know scarcely any of their fellow-members, 
 and take little interest in their spiritual welfare, however 
 intimate they are with the pastor : they are well pleased 
 to see a good congregation on the Sabbath, though they 
 scarcely ever inquire about additions to the church. They 
 are like the inhabitants of a country who have a personal 
 attachment to the sovereign, but take no interest in the 
 welfare of the nation. Such persons are not actually in 
 fellowsbip, for they feel none ; their names are upon the 
 church books, but their hearts are certainly not in church 
 communion. There is no earnestness here. No broth- 
 erly love is in operation. 
 
 A church should endeavor most diligently to carry out 
 the ends of fellowship, which are mutual love, watchful- 
 ness, and helpfulness. 
 
 Love is the law of Christ's kingdom, the badge of his 
 subjects, and the evidence of his mission ; but theie is 
 not yet exhibited the intensity of affection among church 
 members which answers this design. Brother-love is 
 yet far too feeble in its exercise. The church is sadly 
 deficient in this lovely grace. The world does not yet 
 see her invested with this heavenly beauty, and therefore 
 does not feel her power as it would otherwise do. When 
 the earnestness of love shall come, when they who look 
 into the "spiritual house" shall see there a scene of 
 holy activity, and all the assiduities of a divine friendship, 
 they will begin to think differently of the Christian re- 
 ligion from what they now do. For want of more of this 
 love, there is not the watchfulness over one another 
 there should be, nor the disposition to bear one another's 
 burdens. We are brought into fePowship, not that we 
 might act as spies upon each other, and wait for a broth- 
 er's halting, but that we might perform with the tenderest 
 
134 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 affection the part of monitors, and prevent each other 
 from falling. We ought to feel it a most solemn and 
 sacred duty to gatlier the stumbling-blocks out of each 
 other's path, and prevent as far as possible even a trip in 
 the way of godliness. Then is a church in a happy state 
 when the members are observed watching in love, with a 
 trembling solicitude, over each other's welfare, and not 
 sparing, when it is needed, the voice of friendly warning, 
 or even the language of faithful reproof. Where there 
 is love there will also be assistance ; sympathy in afflic- 
 tion, congratulation in prosperity, relief in want, counsel 
 in perplexity, and visits in distress. What a lovely scene 
 would be presented to our selfish world, if the church of 
 Christ were really in earnest to put forth in its conduct, 
 as it is bound to do, " the charity that suffereth long, and 
 is kind ; that envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed 
 up ; that doth not behave itself unseemly ; seeketh not 
 her own ; is not easily provoked ; thinketh no e\al ; 
 rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; bear- 
 eth all things ; believeth all things ; hopeth all things ; 
 endureth all things." Whatever else there may be, 
 there is no real earnestness where there is no prevaihng 
 anxiety thus to carry out the ends of fellowship, and to let 
 the world " see how these Christians love one another." 
 1 . One of the first duties which a church owes to itself, 
 is an intelUgent, firm, and charitable zeal for the principles 
 on which it is founded, both doctrines, and also such as 
 relate to ecclesiastical polity. After what has been said 
 in reference to the former, in the remarks on the epistles 
 to the seven churches, it is not necessary to enlarge upon 
 it here, any further than to remark, that it is of infinite 
 importance for the churches to hold fast " the form of 
 sound words," and not to be carried about with every 
 \vind of false doctrine, by which the spiritual atmosphere 
 is so frequently disturbed. Truth is the food of piety, 
 and error its poison. There can be no sound spiritual 
 health apart from sound doctrine. And yet it is affecting 
 to perceive how lightly, in this age of spurious candor 
 and philosophic taste, of diminished spirituality and in- 
 '.reased worldliness, some of the fundamental doctrines 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 
 
 135 
 
 are held, and how easily the transfer is made by some 
 professors from, one set of opinions to another. Let the 
 members of our churches, then, look vigilantly after each 
 other, and sustain each other in the profession of the 
 faith. Let them not sacrifice the truth tor talent, and be 
 content with whatever deficiencies may exist with regard 
 to the former, provided it is made up by a supply of the 
 latter. Nothing can be, or ought to be, a substitute for the 
 evangelical system. Eloquent, but vague generalities, 
 which would suit the taste, and not offeiid the prejudices, 
 of a congregation of Unitarians or mere theists, should 
 not satisfy an orthodox congregation ; and let them be 
 careful how they choose a man who, even in his proba- 
 tionary sermons, seems to have come from Athens, rather 
 than Jerusalem ; and to have brought them the enticing 
 words of man's wisdom, instead of the doctrine of the 
 cross, which is the power of God unto salvation. No 
 brilliancy of genius, no fluency of speech, no power of 
 oratory, should reconcile them to a suspicion of error, or 
 even deficiency of evangelical truth. The life and vigor 
 of godliness can never be maintained by mere talent, in 
 the absence of sound doctrine : and, indeed, the greater 
 the talent the greater the danger, especially when such 
 talent appears not only in alienation from, but in hostility 
 to, the truth as it is in Jesus. It is a portentous sign for 
 a Christian community, when it can be satisfied with 
 mere displays of talent in the absence of scriptural truth. 
 Nor is it about doctrine only that our congregations 
 should be in earnest, but about matters of polity also. 
 Church government, though not everything, nor the most 
 important thing, is still something, and a great thing too. 
 It is a matter deeply affecting, in one way or other, not 
 only the spirituality of Christ's kingdom, but the interests 
 of evangelical religion ; it is a help or a hindrance, accord- 
 ingly as it is conformed or opposed to the model set up in 
 the New Testament ; and is therefore worthy all the zeal, 
 • apart however from the bitternc^ss, of sectarianism, which 
 has been manifested on its behalf. To reduce to nonen- 
 tities, as regards value and importance, the question 
 about established or non-established churches, or concern- 
 
136 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 ing Episcopacy, Presbyterianism, and Inaependency, is a 
 spurioius and unauthorized latitudinarianism, as remote 
 from a due regard to the authority of Christ in his word, 
 on the one hand, as a bitter and venomous sectarianism is 
 on the other. If Congregationalists are indifferent to 
 their principles, they are the only body that are so. The 
 advocates of other systems leave us no room to doubt 
 of their earnestness, nor ought we to leave them in any 
 doubt of ours. The principles which apostles taught, 
 which reformers revived, and for which martyrs bled, 
 ought not to be regarded with indifference by us. If they 
 are not matters of conscience, they ought to be abandoned, 
 since it is hardly worth while to stand in a state of sep- 
 aration for matters of mere taste or feeling ; and if they 
 are, then let them be held, as all matters of conscience 
 ought to be, with a grasp that relaxes not even in death 
 itself. If important to us, they are important to others, 
 and ought to be propagated, as well as held. Liberty to 
 hold an opinion is but the half of freedom, unless there 
 be liberty to diffuse it. What I plead for on our own 
 behalf, I plead for on behalf of all others. Only let us 
 unsting controversy ; only let us speak the truth in love ; 
 only let us controvert as brethren, and not as enemies ; 
 only let us contend for truth, not for victory ; only let us 
 carry on our contests about minor matters, with the recol- 
 lection that we are agreed on greater ones ; only let us 
 wrestle for church polity within sight of the cross, which 
 makes us all one, and of the heaven where we shall 
 feel as one ; only let us argue and expostulate as 've 
 should with a brother we most tenderly loved, alout 
 something he held, which we thought was doing him harm 
 — and then we may be as zealous as we please about 
 church government. If by an earnest dissenter be meant, 
 not a bigoted, uncandid, or pugnacious one, but an intel- 
 ligent preference founded on conviction, the holding fast 
 ojf his opinions without any compromise, and a zeal in 
 spreading tht m, which, though it affects no neutrality, 
 yet neither ivdates the courtesy of the gentleman, the 
 calmneas of the philosopher, nor the charity of the Chris- 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 137 
 
 tian — then may all dissenters be thus in earnest, yes, 
 and all churchmen too. 
 
 2. As the welfare of the church depends, under God's 
 Idessing, upon the labors of the pastor ; and as the ener- 
 gy and efficiency of his labors depend upon the state of 
 his own mind, it is indispensably necessary that he should 
 be kept as free as possible from all solicitude about pecuni- 
 ary matters. There are few matters about which the spirit 
 of liberality in this age has been less conversant or less anx- 
 ious, than the adequate and comfortable support of the min- 
 istry at home ; and as a consequence, there are few func- 
 tionaries so ni-supported as they on whom, under God, the 
 whole cause of evangelization depends. Secretaries of 
 societies, missionaries to the heathen, and schoolmasrers, 
 are all better paid, and have a more ample provision made 
 for their comfort, than the preachers of Christ's blessed 
 gospel. Preached sermons are the cheapest of all cheap 
 things, in this age of exceeding cheapness. And yet 
 what invaluable blessings have these sermons been to 
 multitudes ! By only one of them, in many cases, persons 
 have been converted to God, and enriched with eternal sal- 
 vation ; many have been relieved of burdens of care 
 which were crushing them to the earth ; others have 
 been rescued from a temptation which would have ruined 
 them for both worlds ; and myriads have been delivered 
 from the fear of death, and enabled to go on their way 
 rejoicing, even through the dark valley itself. Yes, by a 
 single sermon all this has in many cases been accom- 
 pjlshed. What, then, shall be said of all the sermons of a 
 whole year, or a whole life ? Think of this, and say 
 whether a payment of ten shillings or a pound a year, is 
 an adequate remuneration to the man who consumes hif 
 life in study and in labor for the purpose of conferring 
 such benefits as these 1 Is it not next to a miracle for a 
 man to be all energy, activity, and earnestness, in his 
 ministry, whose mind is bowed down with solicitude how 
 to provide bread for his family, and at the same time to pro- 
 vide also for things honest in the sight of all men ■? Chris- 
 tians, you want your pastor to run in the way of God's 
 commandments to his ministers ; then take off, by youT 
 12 
 
138 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 liberality, the burden under which he can scarcely ivalk o 
 stand. You complain that his sermons are poor and mea- 
 gre : is it not your own fault, by keeping him so poor 
 and meag-re in his wardrobe, and in his larder, that 
 the time which should, and would, have been spent in 
 study, has been consumed in endeavoring to get that 
 bread for his babes, with which you ought to have sup- 
 plied him ? If we would have earnest churches, I know 
 very well we must .^ave earnest ministers ; but then, if 
 we would have earnest ministers, we must have liberal 
 churches. What is wanted, is a provision for our pas- 
 tors which shall not be so profuse as to be a temptation to 
 luxurious indolence, and yet so ample as to raise them 
 above anxiety. 
 
 3. If it be incumbent upon a church to provide for the 
 comfort of a pastor, how much more so for his tisffnlness, 
 by improving, enlarging, or rebuilding, when his success 
 requires it, the house in which he ministers. Happily, 
 there is not, in the present day, much need for dilating- 
 upon this subject. One of the delightful features of this 
 age is a noble spirit of liberal activity, at which our fore- 
 fathers, were they to come back to life, would be aston- 
 ished. The voluntary principle is doing- wonders in this 
 way, within the pale of dissent, and far g-reater wonders 
 beyond it. Under its potency, inconvenient, dilapidated, 
 and old-fashioned buildings have given place to modern, 
 elegant, and commodious edifices, in beautiful symmetry 
 with the improved taste of the day ; and others have 
 sprung up where there were none before. Parliamentary 
 grants have been found to be unnecessary, and church 
 rates, extorted by force and paid with reluctance, have 
 been in many places superseded by a spontaneous liber- 
 ality. Still, it is not in every congregation we witness 
 this g-enerous activity, and churches are yet to be found, 
 where, through an almost superstitious regard for the 
 places where their fathers worshipped , the present congre- 
 gation are unwilling to touch a brick or a plank, and are 
 well-nigh ready to let the roof fall in and bury them, out 
 of reverence for antiquity ; or else, out of niggardly 
 regard to their purse, they are content to let a faithful 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 139 
 
 minister who has ability to preach to a crowd who are 
 anxious to hear him, go on ministering to a small con- 
 gregation, for which a man possessed of less than half 
 liis zeal or talent might suffice. I have known cases that 
 answer to both these hindrances to enlargements and 
 reerections, where the predilections for the antique have 
 stifled the nobler predilections for the useful, and the 
 ghosts of departed saints have been evoked to pronounce 
 it sacrilege to demolish the pew in which they once offered 
 up their prayers to God ; whereas, if the men themselves 
 could have been really there, they would have said, — 
 " Down with it, every stone, to make way for a place 
 where more souls might hear the gospel and be converted 
 to God." Wealthy men have sometimes opposed the 
 rebuilding of a place of worship, because they would be 
 expected to set the example of liberality, and give 
 more than their love of money would find it agreeable to 
 spare ; and I have known opposition raised by poor, 
 would-be gentlemen, because they could not give, and yet 
 ■.i-^d not the courage or the honesty to confess their pov- 
 c!rty. It is a gratifying spectacle, and, thanks to the Giver 
 of all grace, not unfrequently witnessed, to see a church, 
 not perhaps rich in this world's goods, blessed with a 
 pious, zealous, and successful ministry, and all activity, 
 lill liberality, all earnestness, to enlarge the sphere of his 
 usefulness by building him a new and more commodious 
 place of worship. I have been the witness of some such 
 C1.S3S, which are as much beyond the belief, as of the 
 pr ictice, of those who are taught by system to rely on 
 I'l^ compulsion of law, or the munificence of parliament, 
 i'lr their places of divine worship. 
 
 4. A general, regular, and punctual attendance upon 
 all tht means of grace is essential to the earnestness of a 
 Christian church. There is a wonderful difference in this 
 r-'spect in the various congregations of professing Chris- 
 tians. In some instances you will see the heansrs strag- 
 gling along with a dull and careless look, as if they were 
 going to an unwelcome service ; dropping into the place 
 of worship long after the service has commenced ; looking 
 round with vacant stare upon the congregation, undevout 
 
140 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 and listless, as if they were there, they knew nor cared 
 for why ; the seats half empty, and those that occupied 
 them seemingly neither expecting nor desiring a blessing 
 from above. There is no earnestness there. In other 
 cases, how diiferent ! you will observe a stream of people, 
 just before the hour of service, flowing into the place, with 
 a serious, thoughtful, yet cheerful air, as if they knew 
 what they were going for, and that it was a solemn, yet 
 gladsome occasion. They take their seats with a omw- 
 posed, collected, devout manner. A look of expectation 
 is in their eye, which is first cast towards the pulpit, as 
 if they waited for the preacher, with his message from 
 God, and then upward to that God who alone can make 
 the message eflfectual. A stranger coming in, is struck 
 with the appearance of earnestness that pervades the con- 
 gregation, and almost involuntarily exclaims, — "How 
 dreadful is this place ! surely this is the house of God, and 
 the gate of heaven." Yes, and if he were to visit that 
 place time after time, he would see the same scene repeat- 
 ed ; the same seats occupied by the same people, and in 
 the same devout manner. The earnest hearer is the con- 
 stant hearer, the punctual hearer, the devout hearer. 
 There is a spirit of indolence, self-indulgence, and mis- 
 chievous negligence, creeping over the churches, most 
 fatal to fervent devotion, in reference even to the Sabbath- 
 day attendance, which is rising out of the modern taste 
 for residing in the country. Yery many of the members 
 of our rehgious communities, of all denominations, go but 
 once a week to the house of God ; and this is on a Sab- 
 bath morning. All the resl of the holy day is spent in 
 idleness, perhaps feasting and lounging over the wine 
 through the afternoon, turning over the pages of a mag- 
 azine, with little devotion, and with no profit, in the 
 evening. If these persons were in their closets, studying 
 the Word of God, engaged in self-examination and 
 prayer, mortifying their corruptions, and invigorating 
 their graces, we should think less of it — but is this their 
 oceupation ? I fear this love of ease is eating out the piety 
 of our churches, and gradually turning the Sabbath into 
 a day of luxurious repose, instead of Christian devotion 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 141 
 
 Modern tastes are sadly at war with modem piety. It 
 seems as if many of the professing Christians of the day 
 were trying- with how httle attendance upon the ordi- 
 nances of pubhc worship, how httle of self-denial, and 
 how little a public manifestation of their religion, they 
 could satisfy their conscience — and, alas! how very 
 little that is ! 
 
 But this is not all — earnestness is displayed more com- 
 monly by the week-day attendance than the Sabbath 
 congregations. A professor of religion who has the 
 least regard for his reputation must be at public worship 
 once on the Lord's day, but he has no great reason, as 
 things exist, to fear for his religious reputation, at least 
 in the estimation of many of his fellow-Christians, who 
 are too much like him, though he is never present at a 
 week-day service. Tbere is a phenomenon in my own 
 church which I scarcely know how to explain ; I mean 
 that the attendance upon weekly services does not in- 
 crease with the augmentation of the church. I am not 
 sure that we have more at a prayer meeting now, than 
 we had when the church was only half its present num- 
 ber ; and I observe that it is pretty nearly the same peo- 
 ple who attend every time. This looks as if there were 
 a great number of our members who have no sense of 
 obligation to attend such services. But can we really 
 consider those who habitually neglect them to be very 
 lively Christians, or in any way advancing in the divine 
 life, unless, indeed, there be any special and sufficient 
 reasons for their absence 1 Earnestness manifests itself 
 in the way of laborious effort, a willingness to make sac- 
 rifices, and a disposition to endure self-denial ; and if it 
 characterized the religion of a church, it would display 
 itself in a willingness to put ourselves to some little per- 
 sonal inconvenience to attend the services of the week- 
 days, as well as the Sabbath-days. 
 
 5. There ought to be a cordial cooperation with the 
 pastor in all his labors for the salvation of souls. He 
 must be sustained in his endeavors to draw people to hear 
 the gospel. The plan of District Visiting Societies, 
 rtuopted of late years by the evangelical portior of the 
 12* 
 
142 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 clergy of the Church of England, is an admirable one, 
 by which Christian and matronly ladies go round to the 
 habitations of the poor, relieving their temporal necessi- 
 ties, distrib':ting religious tracts, selling Bibles, and urg- 
 ing the people to attend church. How can female influ- 
 ence be better employed 1 That there may b6 a little 
 Church-of-Englandism, a little dread of dissenters, mixed 
 up with this zeal, is very probable : but let dissenters then 
 imitate the plan — let the ladies of their congregations 
 commence similar efforts — let the?n form visiting societies 
 to assist their pastors — let them go to those who attend 
 no place of worship, and persuade them to come and hear 
 their minister. It would be highly improper to tempt 
 persons who already hear the gospel, to leave their own 
 pastor, to come to theirs ; but if they find people who go 
 nowhere, and belong to nobody, let them not scruple to 
 induce them to come to their own place of worship. 
 There need be no delicacy, no scruple, no fastidiousness, 
 here. Every pious churchman will allow, it is better 
 these people should attend among dissenters, or method- 
 ists, than nowhere. There is no room for jealousy in 
 these matters, while there are such millions in our coun- 
 try, who never go to public worship at all, and who, in- 
 deed, if all of them were disposed to do so, could not 
 find sufficient places to receive them. If every congre- 
 gation were really bent upon filling its place of worship, 
 and were not to leave it all to their minister, they would 
 soon accomplish the object, and be astonished to see what 
 crowds could be gathered. Yet how many of our hear- 
 ers are there who will go on complaining for years that 
 their minister does not draw a congregation to hear him. 
 while all this time they have never attempted to bring 
 one single individual to listen to his sermons ! What an 
 immediate effect would be produced, if fifty earnest per- 
 sons, or even ten, were to turn out, on a Sunday after- 
 noon, to visit the streets, alleys, and courts in the vicinity 
 of a place of worship, with a view to bnng into it the 
 persons who, in its very shadow, are neglecting to attend 
 the house of God, to urge them to keep holy the Sabbath, 
 and to seek tS* e salvat m of their immortal souls I Wo 
 
CHURCH MEMBEllS. 143 
 
 can never denominate a body of Christians an earnest 
 church till it is roused to make such efforts as these ; and 
 till its members, such of them, at any rate, as have leis- 
 ure, are thus exerting themselves to compel the neglect- 
 ers of public worship to come in, that God's house might 
 be full. There are some persons who are not satisfied 
 \%-ith net helping their pastors, but who actually hinder 
 them in their schemes for doing good. I know a min-is- 
 ter, who, as his galleries and other parts of the chapel 
 appropriated to the poor were not occupied as he wished 5 
 commenced an admirable course of sermons addressed to 
 the laboring classes, with the special design of drawing 
 their attention to his place of worship, and thus filling up 
 the vacant seats. By many of the congregation, who 
 entered into his views, and were anxious for his useful- 
 ness, the plan was approved ; but it will scarcely be cred- 
 ited, that by others it was disapproved of, and resented, 
 because it took away from them an ordinary sermon, 
 which they deemed more appropriate to themselves, than 
 an address to the laboring classes. 
 
 A man of powerful eloquence and splendid talents 
 will, by God's blessing upon his labors, raise a congre- 
 gation anywhere, without much cooperation on the part 
 of the people ; but such men are rare, and are not every 
 day to be met with. Yet, without these qualifications, a 
 man of good abilities, ardent piety, and great diligence, 
 will also, by God's blessing, do anywhere, if he be sus- 
 tained by the cooperation of a thoroughly working church. 
 And it becomes our churches to recollect that such is now 
 the competition of the different denominations, and such 
 especially the activity and energy of the Church of Eng- 
 land, that where the congregation is new, or small, or 
 diminished, there is little hope of its being raised to any- 
 thing like strength or stature, without the efforts of the 
 whole body ; whilst, on the other hand, if these efforts 
 are made, there is no ground for despair. 
 
 An earnest church, then, is one that is in such a state 
 of activity as to be denominated a thoroughly working 
 church. Its members will appear to be animated by one 
 spirit, like the bees of a hive, all busy, each in his own 
 
144 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 department, and all adding to the common st.ck. In a 
 community of this description, there will be a place fo- 
 everybody, and everybody will know and keep his place 
 Care should of course be taken by the pastor in receiving 
 members to impress upon them the noble idea, that a 
 desire and an effort to be useful is a part of religion ; and 
 he should also endeavor to asce-tain the talents, capabil- 
 ities, and tastes for usefulness, of all whom he admits, 
 and then assign to each his prof or place and appropriate 
 labor. Over the portals of eve y church should be this 
 inscription, "Let no one enter here who is not deter- 
 mined to be holy and useful." 
 
 In our large churches, an assistant minister, if not, a co- 
 pastor, is very desirable, and is becoming more and more 
 necessary, in consequence of the increased energy of the 
 clergy of the Church of England. Our single-handed pas- 
 tors can never, in matters out of the pulpit, cope with 
 those who have one, two, or three curates employed under 
 them. I am aware, that the Episcopal clergy have a mass 
 of laborious duty, in the way of baptisms, marriages, vis- 
 itation of the sick, and burials, which, except in a com- 
 paratively small amount, does not devolve upon us ; but 
 even in this our mitigated pressure the sick are too much 
 neglected, inquirers overlooked, and the young left to 
 themselves. The pulpit cannot, must not, be neglected ; 
 and yet how can this be duly regarded, and pastoral 
 claims, with demands for public business, and the in- 
 creased correspondence brought upon us by the penny 
 postage, be attended to by any one man, however quick 
 in the despatch of business, without assistance? We 
 want help, and we must have it. or much of our work 
 will be ill done, and much more left altogether undone. 
 I do not forget the difficulties which present themselves ; 
 first of all on the ground of expense, and secondly on 
 account of the probability of disagreement between the 
 two ministers. To obviate the first of these is in the 
 power, and ought to be in the will, of our people ; and 
 to meet the second, it might be well for the settled pastor 
 to have the sole right of engaging and of dismissing the 
 assistant, so as to be able at any time to stop incipient 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 145 
 
 mischief. It must be remembered, I am net now speak- 
 ing of a co-pastor ; when this is determined upon, it 
 must be by the church, both as to the time when it is to 
 be done, and the individual who is to be elected : but an 
 assistant is % different matter, though even with refer- 
 ence to him, care should be taken, by the pastor, espe- 
 cially if the assistant is to take a part in pulpit labors, to 
 select such an one as would be acceptable to the people. 
 The reluctance of some of our pastors to adopt this plan, 
 I know is very great, from the hazard which it brings to 
 the peace of the church. I am very well aware there is 
 some danger of this, for it has come under my own ob- 
 servation to see the jars and discords of two ministers, not 
 only among ourselves as dissenters, but also in the Church 
 of England. In the latter case, I admit, the risk is less, 
 Dn account of the exclusion of the suffrages, power, and 
 influence of the people ; and this difliculty, in our case, 
 it appears to me, would be in some measure obviated by 
 allowing the pastor to select and dismiss his own assist- 
 ant. Would it not be for the advantage of our young 
 preachers, on leaving college, to finish their education for 
 the pastorate under an experienced and successful minis- 
 ter ? Time would thus be given to them to carry on 
 their studies, and opportunity afforded to acquire a famil- 
 iarity with the details of pastoral duties. This may be 
 better than co-pastorships, except in those cases where 
 an aged minister would gladly aid in choosing his succes- 
 sor, and would thus have a good opportunity for doing it. 
 Next to this, the deacons should be looked to for 
 much more efficient assistance than they are in the habit 
 of rendering. I allow that the original appointment of 
 these ^'ent no further than for the care of the poor ; but 
 the customs of our churches have thrown many other 
 things into their hands. These, or some other spiritual 
 and experienced persons, should be found to help the 
 pastor in the spiritual, more private, and individual 
 duties of his office — such as conversing with inquirers, 
 comforting the distressfed, and guiding the perplexed. 
 Unhappily our deacons are usually men much immersed 
 in business, and who have little time for anything but 
 
146 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 their own concerns ; and more than this, some of then, 
 are men much called out for the business of the town in 
 which they live. But considering how solemn and 
 responsible a thing it is to bear office in the church of 
 Christ, and how momentous a community the church of 
 Christ is, they ought either to resign their office as dea- 
 cons, if they cannot discharge its duties, or else withdraw 
 their attention from public business. A deacon, next to 
 the pastor, should be the most earnest member of the 
 church. He should be all energy and devotedness, 
 breathing by his words, and inspiring by his conduct, a 
 spirit of love and activity into the souls of his fellow- 
 members. He should be ardent, without being rash — 
 active, without being obtrusive or officious — taking the 
 lead not merely by choice, but by request — stirring up 
 the liberality of the church by being first in all pecuniary 
 exertions, and setting others on fire by the warmth of 
 his own zeal. He should be his minister's counsellor, 
 without being his dictator ; his comforter, without being 
 his flatterer ; his helper, without being his master : and 
 his friend, without being his partisan. 
 
 Still, as we cannot in all cases expect so much as this, 
 or find all we could wish in deacons, there might be 
 found in most of our churches a few spiritual and judi- 
 cious persons who would be of essential service in the 
 way of teaching some of our inquirers and young con- 
 verts " the way of God more perfectly." It is painful 
 to think how much religious impression is allowed to pass 
 away, and how many deep and pungent convictions to be 
 extinguished, for want of their being watched and cher- 
 ished. There are many persons who would gladly 
 avail themselves of the assistance of a kind-hearted, able, 
 and wilhng instructor, guide, and comforter, though he 
 were not an official. It is perfectly clear to any attentive 
 student of the New Testament, that there was much 
 more of division of labor in the primitive churches than 
 there is in ours. If we refer to Rom. xii. 7, we find 
 mention made of" ministering,'' " teaching," " exhorta- 
 tion," "ruling;" and it woulu seem as if these func- 
 tions were severally discharged by different persons. So 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 147 
 
 again in 1 Cor, xii. 28, we read of " governments," 
 and " helps," as of something distinct from '* teachers." 
 The meaning of the word " helps " is of very wide lati- 
 tude, and as no hint whatever is given as to its precise 
 apphcation in this instance, we cannot determine to what 
 function it refers. It was not probably a designation of 
 an office in the usual acceptation of that word, but merely 
 a description of persons whose zeal and ability rendered 
 them of great use in a variety of ways to the regular 
 officers of the church. Why have we not more of these 
 " helps" now? — we certainly need them. And if we 
 do not think it proper to revive the supposititious office of 
 deaconesses, why may we not have a band of matronly 
 females, eminent at once for their piety and prudence 
 who shall be employed, without the formalities of office, 
 but under appointment by the pastor and deacons, to 
 visit the sick members of their own sex, and to aid in 
 the way of Bible classes, the instruction of the young 
 female inquirers. Perhaps the blame lies in the pas 
 tors, that more collateral help of this kind is not obtained 
 and employed. We are not wise in our generation, by 
 not finding out, and calling out, the help which must be 
 contained in every large congregation. I never will or 
 can believe that among those hundreds of enlightened 
 minds, and renewed hearts, which are in our churches, 
 there are not many who could, in various ways, be our 
 assistants, and who would not rejoice on being solicited 
 to give us their help. 
 
 A SECOND class of obligations and duties, in the way 
 of active operations, which devolve upon a Christian com- 
 munity, are such as appertain to the neighborhood in 
 whicli it is placed. Every church is to be a " light ol 
 the world," and the " salt of the earth," in reference to 
 its own locality. It is to seek to exemplify this beauti- 
 ftil language of Jehovah, by the prophet, " I will make 
 them and the places round about my hill a blessing ; I 
 will cause the shower to come down in his season ; 
 there shall be showers of blessing." Ezek. xxxiv. 26. 
 
 It is now a universal custom for every congregation to 
 have its Sunday school : this is considered so necessary 
 
148 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 an adjunct that the congregation can scarcely be supposed 
 to exist without it ; and an earnest church will be earnest 
 in its support of this kind of agency, which is so neces- 
 sary for the wants of the people, and the morals and 
 religion of the nation. And yet how few churches, as 
 such, and their pastors, take that lively interest in them 
 which they ought. How common is it to leave the 
 whole school to its own self-management, which is, in 
 many cases, to leave it to the direction of a few boys 
 and girls, who in general are but slenderly qualified 
 even to be led, much less to be leaders. It is affecting 
 to consider how these valuable institutions are often 
 managed, or rather m?5managed. Not unfrequently 
 have they punished both pastor and church that have neg- 
 lected them, by becoming seats of disaffection to the one, 
 and means of division to the other. Lefl to themselves, 
 the teachers have formed a fourth estate, which has 
 perplexed, if not overawed, the other three ; and yet, 
 after all, they have been less to blame than the pastor, 
 who thought them of too little consequence to be taken 
 under his patronage, till their importance was felt in the 
 way of mischief. A Sunday school is not so much a 
 part of the congregation, as another congregation by 
 itself, and is well deserving of the devoted attention of 
 both the pastor and his flock. It were a thing to be 
 greatly desired that none but truly pious members of the 
 church should be employed as teachers, and of them 
 none but the wisest and the best ; and it often appears 
 for a wonder and a lamentation, that such an opportunity 
 of doing good should be put aside by so many persons 
 who see it constantly within their reach. 
 
 It is of immense consequence that to every Sunday 
 school there should be the appendage of a Bible class for 
 the senior boys and girls, into which the children should 
 be introduced when they are too old to remain in the 
 ordinary classes.. The question has often been asked, 
 what is the best plan for the treatment of the children 
 who are of an age to leave the school ? What ? Strange 
 that such a question should be asked ! The answer, 
 lowever, is at hand ; form Bible classes, to be superin- 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 149 
 
 tended by some pious, judicious, and devoted persons, 
 vvlio shall give their hearts to the work, and who, with 
 scriptural instruction, shall combine a devoted and assid- 
 uous attention to the formation of their general and 
 religious character. I can speak from experience in 
 recommending this scheme. We have long had such 
 classes in our school, and blessed have been the results. 
 It has been our felicity to have had ladies, and gentle- 
 men too, who have given their time and labor to this 
 work, and whose reward and happiness it is to see as 
 members of the church, and as respectable members of 
 society, many who were once under their care. One of 
 the deacons of my church, a gentleman, whose mildness, 
 intelligence and firmness, eminently qualified him for 
 this work, was long engaged in it, and lately acknowl- 
 edged to me that he believed he was never so useful as 
 when he was thus engaged. Surely all our churches 
 contain persons qualified for such employment, and could 
 any object more gratifying to a holy ambition , more inter- 
 esting to a benevolent heart, or more fascinating to a 
 sanctified imagination, be presented, than such an occu- 
 pation 1 There can be little earnestness, indeed, if such 
 agency be wanting. 
 
 It is not Sunday schools alone that our churches must 
 take up, but daily and infant schools ; the former must 
 not be neglected, so neither must they be substitutes for 
 the latter. The cry of education is raised in our 
 country, and a noble cry it is. It is heard in the cabi- 
 net and in the senate — in the pulpit and on the platform 
 — in the crowded city and in the sequestered village. 
 The press, in every department, and by every means, is 
 keeping up the subject, and filling the land with the 
 echoes of that mighty word, " Education ! Education !" 
 Christians should be the last to let the sound die away ; 
 they must be foremost in pouring light and life over the 
 dark masses of our ignorant population, and let it be 
 seen that their religion hates darkness. Every church 
 must have its day school, and be considered behind its 
 age, and lamentably defective in its apparatus 0/ instruc- 
 tion and reformation, if there be no portion of the popu- 
 13 
 
150 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 latior. under its general and moral training. Let a con- 
 gregation neglecting this be looked at with wonder and 
 reproach, as if it knew not the signs of the times, or 
 heard not the call of God and its country to supplant the 
 crimes and curses of ignorance and vice, by the virtues 
 and the blessings of a sound education. In the glorious 
 rivalry that is stirred up among all denominations for the 
 education of the people, let each and every church con- 
 sider itself deficient in earnestness if it has no share in 
 the honor of a nation's education. The people 7nust be 
 educated — ought to be educated — will he educated, and 
 let us all contend who shall best and most effectually do 
 the work. 
 
 Again, I observe, every working church will also have 
 its Religious Tract Society, and thus call in the aid of 
 the press to counteract the mischief which the press, by 
 another kind of publications, already mentioned in a pre- 
 vious chapter, is continually doing. This is a means of 
 doing good which requires so small a capital, either for 
 setting it up, or keeping it up, that no community of 
 Christians, however small or however poor, can make or 
 find an excuse for neglecting it. If only a pound a yeai 
 could be raised, it would enable a few warm hearted 
 Christians to do much spiritual good : with even tha 
 Umited amount of small arms, these spiritual guerillc 
 parties might do some execution in the holy war. It is 
 painful to think how much this cheap and easy method 
 of doing good is neglected, and even where it is not 
 altogether neglected, how much it is left in the hands of 
 those who, as regards some of them, are least fit for it. 
 Where are our men of influence, and our females of 
 standing in society, and what are they about ? Is it a 
 work Ijeneath their dignity, to carry the message of salva- 
 tion into the cottages of the poor, and to scatter amidst 
 the abodes of ignorance, vice, and misery, those leaves 
 of the tree of Hfe which are for the healing of the na- 
 tions ? Would it degrade them to go and read such a 
 narrative, for instance, as that of " Poor Joseph," in the 
 dark and dreary habitation, where inmates as ignorant 
 aj;id as simple as he might be found, and who, like him, 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 151 
 
 might be induced, and by God's Spirit enabled, tc credit 
 the "faithful saying, that Jesus Christ came into the 
 worid to save sinners V Sliall the sons and daughteiB 
 of wealth leave the hymn of the widow's joyful heart, 
 and the V/lessing of him that was ready to perish, to be 
 the portion and bliss of the poor only] Why, O why 
 do not all who have no family claims upon their attention, 
 go forth, on a Sabbath afternoon, with these messengers 
 of mercy, into the scenes of ignorance, vice and misery, 
 which are in the vicinity of their own dwellings, and 
 thus encounter the prince of darkness in his own battle- 
 field, and fight him with weapons in size and shape like 
 those with which he is slaying the souls of men ? 
 
 In addition to this, how many could, in our warfare, 
 like artillery-men, manage what might be called the great 
 guns of Scripture, as Readers of the Word of God ! 
 Suppose every church had a Scripture- Reading Society, 
 formed of young or older men, or both, who would sally 
 forth with the Bible, and obtain houses where they might 
 be permitted to sit down, and read to the family alone, or 
 to others also that might be gathered in for the purpose. 
 We ask not, in this case, for preachers, but simply for 
 readers ; an office for which nothing is wanted but a 
 capacity to enunciate in an articulate and distinct manner 
 '• the true sayings of God." This is a means of use- 
 fulness which almost every one could command ; and it 
 is no feeble one either. God's word is as fire, and as a 
 hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. A single 
 passage lighting on the judgment, heart, and conscience, 
 alight be the power of God unto the salvation of the soul. 
 Let us have faith in our Bibles, and believe that they are 
 instruments adapted for their end. We must raise the 
 Bible in public estimation : and what could more efifect- 
 ually do this than to go and read it to the people ? How 
 would it impress them with the value and importance of 
 this precious vulume, if they saw gentlemen and ladies 
 ever coming to their habitations for the express purpose 
 of reading to them its contents ! The plan of hired per- 
 sons, who shall devote their whole time to this work, is 
 an admirable scheme, now much in vogue both in Ireland 
 
152 DILIGENCE AMf 
 
 and also among the evangelical clergy in this country,* 
 and will be productive, no doubt, of much good. But in 
 one respect the unhired and unpaid services of persons 
 who would give themselves to this labor, would be likely 
 to produce a still deeper impression upon the minds of 
 the laboring population, than stipendiary agents. . Here 
 vvould be no suspicion of sectarianism, no supposition that 
 it w^as undertaken by the agents as a means of livelihood, 
 but there w^ould be a deep conviction of the generosity 
 and kindness which could undertake such a labor, with 
 no other fee or rew^ard but that which is bestowed by the 
 testimony of conscience, the approbation of God, and the 
 gratitude of the objects. How is it so simple and so 
 admirable a plan has not been more generally adopted ? 
 Just because it has not been brought forward into notice- 
 by those whose duty it is to suggest plans, means, and 
 motives to the people for doing good, I mean their spirit 
 ual guides and instructors. Why might not every pasto- 
 have a band of these Scripture readers under his training 
 selecting for them week by week the portions which the] 
 might read to the people, and illustrating these portion; 
 by such remarks as the readers might understand, remem 
 ber, and repeat to those whom they visit? 
 
 Thirdly. There are duties which the churches ow 
 to the country at large in the way of its more perfec 
 evangelization. All the remarks on religious patriotism 
 made in a former chapter on individual etfort for the cop 
 version of souls, apply with equal force here. I cannot, 
 nor is it necessary I should, enter into a minute specifica- 
 tion of all the various societies so happily multiplied ixi 
 tliis active age, to meet the various objects of Christian 
 
 * Among- the latter this scheme is become, and very deservedly, 
 a gre;U favorite. The Rev. J. C. Miller, tlie rector of St. Mai-- 
 tin's, ill Birmingham, has lately addressed to his parishioners a 
 heart- stirring appeal, entitled "A few anxiou.s words," to ex- 
 cite their zeal and liberality in supporting this plan, by raising 
 for him a fund to employ four readers in his parish ; and I believe 
 that from the high and deserved esteem in which he is held, this 
 indefatigable Christian pastor will be supplied with aU he asks 
 for. 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 1-53 
 
 compassion and religious zea! ; such as the British Mis- 
 sions for England, Ireland, and the Colonies, the Society 
 for the Conversion of the. Jews, the Seaman's Friend 
 Society, the Religious Tract Society, the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society. 
 
 Although I would not abstract either time, attention, 
 or money, from our foreign missions, and our labors for 
 the conversion of the heathen, yet I would have more of all 
 these given to home. To talk of abandoning the whole 
 heathen and Mahomedan world till this country is per- 
 fectly evangelized, is preposterous, and is usually the 
 slang of those who do very little for either ; as it will be 
 found by an appeal to facts, that those who are most 
 zealous in sending the gospel abroad, are the very men 
 who are most active in' spreading it at home. Still, it 
 must be admitted that our own country has been too 
 much neglected. Our own population are in a deplorable 
 condition as to morals, and religion, and education also j 
 and it Avould be Quixotic, indeed, to seek the conversion 
 of Chinese, Hottentots, and Polynesians, while our own 
 neighbors were left to perish. To leave our homestead in 
 an ill condition, and att'end only to the extremities of the 
 farm, is certainly not good husbandry. This is starting 
 from the end, instead of the beginning. The order of 
 benevolence is from particulars to generals, and from 
 what is proximate to what is remote ; and this rule should 
 be observed in part, though not rigidly, in the present 
 case. In addition to the claims which our country gives- 
 us as ours, and as more under our influence than foreign 
 lands, we should recollect that all we do for home is, inj 
 an indirect manner, something done for other lands. By- 
 spreading religion here, we are raising friends and funds 
 for foreign missions. Our churches and schools, as fast 
 as they are formed, are pressed in as auxiliaries to the^ 
 missionary societies. No church, therefore, car under- 
 stand its duties, or be exerting the proper influence which 
 belongs to it, that is not zealous in supporting all institu- 
 tions that have the more perfect evangelization of our 
 own CO . ntry for their object. China, India, and all other 
 heathen countries, must be, so to speak, converted in- 
 13* 
 
154 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 Britain, by multiplying here the instruments and means 
 for converting them abroad. 
 
 FouRTriLY. There are also the operaticiis to be carried 
 on for the conversion of the Avorld, in support of our vast 
 missionary schemes. This ought to be considered as the 
 vocition of the church, the full and final development of 
 hei energies, and that for which she ought to prepare 
 he] self by all her other engagements. I know not that 
 I could give a more beautiful exemplification of the spirit 
 which ought to pervade our churches on this subj'eet, 
 than that which occurs in the life of Baxter. Towards 
 the close of his holy and useful life, he set himself to 
 review his history, to compare his t|ien present with his 
 former self, and to record the changes which time, reflec- 
 tion, observation, and experience had made in his views, 
 feelings, and conduct. Among many other most instruc- 
 tive things we find the following : — 
 
 " My soul is much more afflicted with the thoughts of 
 the miserable world, and more drawn out in desire for 
 their conversion, than heretofore. I was wont to look but 
 little further than England in my prayers, as not consider- 
 ing the state of the rest of the world ; or if I prayed for 
 the conversion of the Jews, that was almost all. But 
 now, as I better understand the case of the world, and 
 tlie method of our Lord's prayer, so there is nothing 
 in the world that lieth so heavy upon my heart, as the 
 thought of the miserable nations of the earth. It is the 
 most astonishing part of all God's providence to me, that 
 he so far forsaketh almost all the world, and confineth 
 his special favors to so few ; that so small a part of the 
 world hath the profession of Christianity, in comparison 
 with heathens, Mohammedans, and other infidels ! And 
 that among professing Christians there are so few that 
 are saved from gross delusions, and have but any compe- 
 tent knowledge ; and that so few are seriously religious, 
 and truly set their hearts on heaven. I cannot be affected 
 so much with the calamities of my own relations, or the 
 land of my nativity, as with the case of the Heathen, 
 Mohammedan, and ignorant nations of the earth. No part 
 of my prayer is so deeply serious, as that for the conver- 
 
CilURCH MEMBERS. 155 
 
 eion of the infidel and ungodly world, that God's name 
 may be sanctified, and his kingdom come, and his will 
 be done on earth as it is in heaven ; nor was I ever so 
 sensible before, what a plague the division of languages 
 is, which hindereth our speaking to them for their con- 
 version ; nor what a great sin tyranny is, which keepeth 
 out the gospel from most of the nations of the world. 
 Could we but go among Tartarians, Turks, and heathens, 
 and speak their language, I should be but little troubled 
 for the silencing of eighteen hundred ministers at once, 
 in England, nor for all the rest that were cast out here, 
 and in Scotland, and in Ireland ; there being no employ- 
 ment in the world so desirable, in my eyes, as to labor 
 for the winning of such miserable souls ; which maketh 
 me greatly honor Mr. John Eliot, the apostle of the In- 
 dians in New England, and whoever else have labored 
 in such a work." 
 
 Such were the holy effusions poured forth in his soli- 
 tude by this holy and eminent man, when looking at 
 things in the light of an opening heaven and a coming 
 eternity, a situation so favorable to the clear and vivid 
 perception of divine truth. I know not where to look, 
 among all modern missionary sermons or speeches, for 
 anything more eloquent, more touching, or more in- 
 structive than this. Baxter lived in an age when no 
 missionary societies existed, and when he could only 
 lament the condition of the heathen world, and pray for 
 their conversion ; and oh, how intense were his feelings, 
 how fervent his prayers ! Could he have prophetically 
 anticipated the scenes of our May meetings, in what rap- 
 turous strains would he have congratulated the blessed 
 generation who were honored to bear a part in such 
 transactions; and yet, of that generation, with all their 
 activity, how few are there whose zeal can compare with 
 his for purity or ardor ! Which of us, in our most devoted 
 seasons, can emulate the deep emotion of these affecting 
 paragraphs ? Baxter was now silenced from his beloved 
 work of preaching the gospel, by that rancorous and re- 
 lentless spirit of persecution which had arraigned, con- 
 demned, and imprisoned him as a culprit ; and yet to 
 
156 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 hear Mm say, in such circumstances, that he was not so 
 affected by his own sufferings, or the sufferings of his 
 relatives, and his country, a? by the condition of the 
 heathen ! To hear him say that he should not regret the 
 silencing of two thousand witnesses for God in these 
 realms, if they could but go and bear their testimony in 
 foreign lands ! To hear him mourning over tyranny, not 
 because it robbed him of his rights and immured him in 
 a jail, but because it shut out the gospel from perishing 
 souls ! Oh where shall we find anything like this in all 
 the most heroic and self-denying instances of missionary 
 zeal in the day or the country in which we live ? Friends 
 of missions, see here a pattern, at once to instruct, 
 reprove, and stimulate you. Here \b individual zeal — 
 no waiting for others ; closet zeal — no mere platform 
 stimulus ; fray erf ul zeal — no self-sufficient activity ; 
 serious zeal — no levity, no frivolity, no laughter-loving 
 interest ; self-denying zeal, manifested in a willingness 
 to surrender the dearest rights of humanity, so that the 
 gospel could be preached to the heathen — no putting off 
 the cause with the mere parings of his comforts ; and all 
 this founded upon an intelligent and considerate acquaint- 
 ance with the condition of its object. Then, when such 
 a zeal as this pervades our churches — when each Chris- 
 tian apart, and each family apart, shall take up the sub- 
 ject on such ground, and with such solicitude as this — 
 when the missionary fire is thus kept burning upon the 
 altar of our hearts, fed by meditation and fanned by 
 prayer — when our trials press not so heavily upon us as 
 the miseries of the heathen — when liberty seems chiefly 
 precious because it gives us an opportunity to preach the 
 gospel to the heathen — and when even literature is 
 valuable most of all because it aids us in translating and 
 preaching the Word of God — then w'hen the great mis- 
 ery is an unconverted world, and the great desideratum 
 is a converted one — then will the Spirit be poured out 
 from on high, and the world, in answer to the prayers of 
 the church, be converted to Christ. 
 
 The present organization of the missionary societies is 
 the best, perhaps, th?* the circumstances of our times 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 157 
 
 allow, and deserves the support of all the friends of the 
 Redeemer and his cause, till God shall show unto us 
 " a more excellent way." That he will do so, I have 
 little doubt. We are only in the childhood of our mis- 
 sionary growth, and shall lay aside, when we have 
 reached our manhood, much that we are now doing, as 
 the childish things of our early years. More of God, 
 and less of man, will appear. The churches of Ciirist 
 will then, probably, themselves be the missionary socie- 
 ties of the day, instead of one vast, and to a certain extent 
 unvvieldly organization, embracing a whole denomination. 
 Missionaries will go out as members, representatives, and 
 messengers of these bodies of Christians at home ; and 
 much of the machinery of our present social arrange- 
 ments will be laid a^de as cumbersome and artificial, for 
 a mode of operation characterized by the simplicity of 
 primitive times. This, however, must be left for Divine 
 Providence to accomplish, who will, no doubt, verify in 
 this instance, as well as in every other, the truth of that 
 sublime declaration, " My thoughts are not your thoughts, 
 neither are your ways ray ways, saith the Lord. For as 
 the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways 
 higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your 
 thoughts." 
 
 What the churches have now to do, is to go on with 
 increased zeal, liberality, and prayer, in the great work 
 of sustaining their respective societies, which are labor 
 ing, and not without the token of God's blessing, for the 
 conversion of the world. 
 
 I may devote a few remarks here on two points a& 
 strictly appropriate to the subject of this chapter — female 
 agency and public collections. 
 
 With regard to the first of these I confess that while I 
 do not wish to dispense with it altogether, for this is not 
 possible, and if it were, would not be right, I feel jealous 
 lest it should in any measure impair that retiringness of 
 manner, that unaffected reserve, that modesty of demean- 
 or, and that delight in home, which are wonaan's chief 
 loveliness, and the fascination of her charms. Should 
 the modern practice of employing females so extensively 
 
158 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 in OUT religious institutions, make them bold, obtrusive, 
 and fon^ of publicity, it would be corruptino- society at 
 its source, by spoiling them for wives and mothers, how- 
 ever it might fit them to be the instruments of benevolent '' 
 organizations. Whatever impairs the beauty, or dimin- 
 ishes the strength, of the home virtues, though it may 
 aid the operations of public institutions, is radically mis- 
 chievous, and cannot be compensated by any benefit 
 which could be procured, of any kind, or for any object. 
 It is always revolting to my sense of propriety to see a 
 young girl of sixteen or eighteen, pacing a street, knock- 
 ing at door after door, entering shops, offices, and count- 
 ing-houses, and addressing herself in the character of a 
 beggar, to any one, and to every one, not excepting young 
 men. Such things are not unknown, perhaps not un- 
 common. Ministers should be very careful how they 
 employ young females, and take especial care, when it 
 cannot be avoided, to exert all their influence to repress 
 a spirit of levity and folly, and the least approach to im- 
 propriety ; and diffuse an air of seriousness and gravity 
 over all that is done in this way, and by such agents. 
 Judicious mothers will be much upon the alert in exercis- 
 ing a salutary vigilance over their daughters, and resist 
 every attempt to engage them in services which may 
 have the least tendency to despoil them of their modesty, 
 simplicity, and love of home. 
 
 The following appropriate remarks are from an article 
 in the Quarterly Review, on " The Life of Mrs. Fry." 
 " The high and holy duties assigned to woman by the 
 decrees of Providence are essentially of a secret and 
 retiring nature : it is in the privacy of the closet that the 
 soft, yet sterling wisdom of the Christian mother stamps 
 those impressions on the youthful heart, which, though 
 often defaced, are seldom wholly obliterated. Whatever 
 tends to draw her from these sacred offices, or even abate 
 their full force and efficacy, is high treason against the 
 hopes of a nation. We do not deny that valuable ser- 
 vices may be safely, and are safely, rendered by many 
 intelligent and pious ladies, who devote their hours of 
 leisure and recreation to the Raratongas and Tahitis of 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 159 
 
 Bri.ish Christendom — it is not to such we would make 
 allusion ; our thoughts are directed to that total absorp- 
 tion which, plunging women into the vortex of eccentric 
 and self-imposed obligations, merges the private in the 
 public duty, confounds what is principal with that vi'hich 
 is secondary, and withdraws them from labors which 
 they alone can accomplish, to those in which they can at 
 Jeast be equalled by others." 
 
 Considerable care should also be taken, when it is 
 vhought proper to employ the agency of children in collect- 
 mg money by cards or otherwise, that no injury be done to 
 their young minds in destroying that humility, simplicity, 
 and arllessness, which are the ornament of childhood, 
 and fostering a spirit of vanity, and a habit of obtrusive 
 forwardness in their manners. It is a doubt with some 
 persons whether this practice should be countenanced at 
 all. 
 
 Public Collections are a subject of immense im- 
 portance ; much that is going on in the world for its con- 
 version to God, depends upon them ; and the life, activity, 
 and earnestness of a church, must be estimated in some 
 measure by the readiness and liberality with which they 
 are made. This plan is an easy and expeditious method 
 of raising money, and is perfectly consonant with all the 
 principles of the New Testament. These collections 
 have become of so much consequence, that it seems 
 almost necessary to systematize them. Some attempt 
 and approach to this has been made by the plan among 
 the Congregational churches to collect on the last Sab- 
 bath in October, for the British missions ; but a far more 
 perfect scheme is adopted, under the power of Confer- 
 ence, among the Wesleyans, by which I believe certain 
 proscribed objects are collected for on certain days 
 throughout the whole denomination. We, as Congrega- 
 tionalists, and indeed other bodies of Christians, have no 
 such authority as this ; the independence of our system 
 of polity does not allow it. In Ireland, collections are 
 made after every sermon, it being understood that copper 
 only is expected ordinarily, and silver at stated and well- 
 known times. In Scotland, opportunity is given to the 
 
160 
 
 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 wfefshippers as they go into the sanctuary, to deposit 
 their offerings every Sabbath in plates held to receive 
 them at the door. 
 
 The greater part of the denominations in this country, 
 both established and unestablished, have no system what- 
 ever, beyond an arrangement, which some congregations 
 make at the beginning of the year, concerning the objects 
 they will collect for during the ensuing twelve months ; 
 and the standing rule as to time with some of them is to 
 have a collection for some object every month. My own 
 opinion is that, generally speaking, we have too few col- 
 lections, an idea wliich perhaps will be startling to some, 
 who think we have already too many, A " collection" 
 is a very vague term ; it may mean an effort to raise a 
 large sum, or it may mean only the gathering up of the 
 smaller offerings of the people ; and attaching to it only 
 the former idea, our congregations may well shrink from 
 the multiplication of these efforts; but suppose a collec- 
 tion implied, as it does, except on occasions, in Ireland 
 and Scotland, only the giving of a six-pence, or a penny 
 — such collections might be multiplied indefinitely, with- 
 out oppressing any one ; for who would be impoverished 
 by a six-pence, or a penny, even every week? Suppose, 
 then, we had a graduated scale of collections. The first 
 class actually requiring an effort, for the Missionary 
 Society, for instance, or for any other paramount object, 
 when everybody would be expected to give their largest 
 sums ; the second class requiring only half this effort, for 
 British Missions, or anything else the congregation 
 might determine upon ; the third class requiring no 
 effort at all, but merely the smaller sums. Now it is 
 the multiplication of this third class that I allude to, 
 which would oppress no one, and yet, if generally made, 
 would, for various objects that now receive very inade- 
 quate help, raise a large sum. What an amount would 
 be raised by a six-pence, or only a single penny, being 
 asked for from the individuals composing our whole 
 denomination! And if it were announced, when the 
 object is mentioned, that it came under the first, second, 
 
CHURCH r.IEMEERS. 161 
 
 or third class collection, the people would then know 
 what was expected from them in the way of coDtrihution. 
 
 This scheme will be thought by some to be liable to 
 objection ; first, as being fanciful ; but if it be effective 
 we need not mind that. Secondly, it would often lead 
 us into difficulty under what class to place an object ; 
 but there is already such a classification, though not so 
 systematically arranged and designated ; for who gives 
 as much to the Seaman's Friend Society, or to the Soci- 
 ety for the Conversion of the Jews, or to the Moravian 
 Missions, or to many other objects that could be men- 
 tioned, as they do to the London Missionary Society, or 
 to British Missions ? The objects classify themselves. 
 But it will be said this will restrict benevolence. By no 
 means, for no one need be tied down to the six-pence or 
 penny ; if they choose to give more, it is perfectly at their 
 option to do so, but they are not asked for more. And 
 then as to giving dissatisfaction to the societies which 
 would only get into the third class, many of them would 
 gladly get there, rather than not get into any one. Let 
 them have only the smaller gatherings from all the 
 churches, throughout the country, and they would 
 account themselves much better supported than they are 
 at present. But the multiplication of collections, it may 
 be said, would spoil the ministrations of the sanctuary, 
 and make us weary of hearing about societies. So it 
 would if there was to be a long statement made a]x)ut 
 each ; but not if a simple announcement was made, and 
 very little said about the matter, leaving the thing to 
 commend itself to every man's judgment, for no one 
 would want a long appeal which was to get only so 
 small a sum from him. 
 
 This plan would suit small congregations as well as 
 large ones, which are apt to excuse themselves from 
 doing anything, because they cannot do much. It is a 
 plea often used by a congregation that the little they can 
 raise is not worth sending ; but if they would consider 
 how a multiplication of these small sums makes a large 
 one, tbey would see that they ought not to be deterred 
 by iti6 consideration of their paucity and poverty. vSuch 
 14 
 
162 DILIGENCE AS 
 
 a plan as I now recommend would save the trouble, 
 expense and inconvenience of deputations, at least to a- 
 considerable extent. Nof that I think these can be 
 entirely dispensed with, though it is high time they were 
 reduced within a much narrower compass than they 
 occupy at present. They are a waste of public money, 
 a disparagement to resident ministers, a hindrance to the 
 duties of the pastorate, a pandering to a vicious appetite 
 for novelty and excitement, and a means of rendering 
 churches dissatisfied with their own pastors, by their 
 being thus brought into comparison, not to say contrast, 
 with the strangers who visit them. 
 
 The whole system of modern evangelization partakes 
 far too much of the noisy, the showy, the ostentatious 
 and vain-glorious. We are not content to work, but we 
 must talk so much about what we do ; there must be 
 such endless speechifying, such blowing of trumpets, 
 such parade of names and sums and operations, that it 
 looks as if it were not the doing of the thing upon which 
 we were intent, but telling what we have done, and 
 priding ourselves upon it. And why is all this, but 
 because our passions rather than our principles are al 
 present engaged in the work ; because our tastes rather 
 than our convictions are employed ; because motives 
 have less to do with these matters than impulses. We 
 want a deeper sort of piety in our churches, a more 
 realizing sense of the claims of Christ, the value of 
 the soul, the misery of men without the gospel, and the 
 great ends and obligations of the Christian profession. If 
 the love of Christ constrained us — if no man lived to 
 himself — if we felt that for every farthing of property 
 we were accountable to God, and were habitually look- 
 ing on to the day of account, w^e should not want such 
 instrumentality as is now employed ; or at any rate 
 should want much less of it. 
 
 But we now return to the idea that an earnest church 
 is A WORKING CHURCH. Churches as well as individuals 
 have their character ; and an honorable one it is for 
 either, to be known as always busy in doing good. 
 There are four descriptions of religious communities to 
 
CHURCH MEMBERS. 163 
 
 he found, as regards their prevailing character. The 
 first consists of those in which an apparent, and perhaps 
 it may be but an apparent, high degree of spirituahty 
 exists — the preacher is devout, and his sermons partake 
 of his ov^^n habitude of thought and feeling, and the 
 people, like the pastor, are thought to be, and perhaps 
 are, professors of a higher tone of piety than many 
 others — there is much of the divine life, h one of its 
 phases, there — but although numerous, and wealthy, 
 they do nothing, or nothing in proportion to their ability, 
 for the cause of Christ. Their collections are few and 
 small ; they are not at all known as engaged in any of 
 the great societies of the day. Their calling seems to 
 be to luxuriate on gospel privileges, to enjoy a perpetual 
 feast of fat things ; but they appear to think they have 
 no vocation to sound out the word of the Lord ; or, at any 
 rate, they consider themselves as something like the Jew- 
 ish church, a stationary witness for God. 
 
 The second description of our churches is that of the 
 communities of Christians where there is perhaps less of 
 spirituality, less of the unction and the odor of doctrinal 
 theology, either in the pastor or the flock, though the 
 spiritual life is by no means low in comparison with 
 many others ; but then all is activity and energy — the 
 pastor is devoted not merely to his people but to the 
 cause of God at large. The collections are numerous 
 and great. The church can be depended upon, and is 
 looked to for assistance by the directors of our institu- 
 tions. All hands are busy in Sunday and daily schools 
 
 — tract distribution — working parties — Bible classes — 
 and organizations for home and foreign societies — all 
 that know them think and speak of them as a thoroughly 
 working church. 
 
 The third description applies to those who are neither 
 the one nor the other of these ; they have lost theii 
 spirituality, and have not gained a character for activity 
 
 — they neither enjoy the life of godliness nor diffuse it — 
 they have not even a name to live, but are dead. 
 
 The fourth includes those — alas ! how few they are — 
 who unite an earnest spirituality with an activity and 
 
164 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 liberality no less eminent ; where the spiritual life is all 
 healthfulness and vigor, and where its developments are 
 seen in all the operations of a holy zeal. This, then, is 
 what we want ; churches in which the vital principle of 
 piety shall be so strong that they may be said to be like 
 the mystic wheels of Ezekiel, instinct with the Spirit of 
 God and ever in motion — churches whose activity, like 
 that of the strong and healthy man, is the working of a 
 life too vivacious to remain in a state of indolence and 
 repose — churches so filled with the Spirit, that his 
 gracious influence is perpetually welling up and flowing 
 over in streams of benevolent activity for the salvation of 
 the world — churches partaking of so much of the mind 
 of Christ that from their own internal constraint, they 
 must, like him, be ever going about doing good. Oh 
 that God would pour out his Spirit, and raise every 
 separate fellowship of believers to this blessed state of 
 spiritual prosperity ! 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CAUSES THAT OPERATE TO REPRESS THIS EARNEST- 
 NESS OF RELIGION. 
 
 Such a state of the church as that to which this vol- 
 ume refers, cannot be rationally looked- for without in- 
 tense solicitude, importunate and incessant prayer, reso- 
 lute e'flfort, and both a vigorous and watchful opposition 
 to hostile influence. This malign influence is exerted 
 in various ways, and from various quarters. Of course 
 the chief hindrance is from the remains of corruption in 
 the heart of every Christian, and the efforts of Satan ; 
 and these must be overcome by a more determined aiio' 
 severe mortification of our members which are upon the 
 earth, and a more unrelenting crucifixion of the flesh, 
 with the affections and lusts thereof; as well as by sobri- 
 ety and vigilance of mind in resisting the temptations of 
 our adversary the devil. But now I refer more espe- 
 cially to certain impediments arising out of the state 
 both of the church and of the world. 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 165 
 
 1. Perhaps we may consider the easy access to 
 church fellowship which is now so generally granted, 
 as one cause of the deterioration of the piety of this 
 da5'> I am aware that the admission of members ^ to 
 our churches Is a subject of perplexing ditF.culty ; it is 
 not at our option to make the door of ingress to the 
 church, and of approach to the table of the Lord, 
 either wider or narrower than it is made by him to 
 whom both the spiritual house and the table for ihe 
 inmates belong. But the difficulty lies in knowing 
 exactly what is his will on the subject, in each particular 
 case as it occurs. For my own part, it is a heavy bur- 
 den to determine upon the point ; no part of my duty 
 is so perplexing, I am afraid, on the one hand, to repel 
 the true convert, and deprive him of the means of nour- 
 ishment and growth ; and, on the other, of admitting the 
 self-deceived, and being thus the abettor of his delusion 
 and destruction. Two consequences result from the 
 reception of unsuitable persons to communion ; they not 
 only are confirmed themselves in their false views" of 
 their own case, but by their low state of pious feeling, 
 or total destitution of it, their worldly-mindedness and 
 laxity, they con'upt others, and exert a deadening influence 
 upon the v\'hole community. Their example is a source 
 of corruption to very many, who are allured by it into all 
 their seciilarities and fashionable follies. One family of 
 such worldly and lukewarm professors is often a grief to 
 the pastor, a lamentation to the spiritual part of the 
 flock, a snare to many of the less pious, and a reproach 
 to the church at large. Too many of this description 
 find their way, in these days of easy profession, into all 
 our churches. I have arrived, therefore, at the conclu- 
 sion, that our tendency in this day is to make the stan- 
 dard for admission too low, and the test of spiritual 
 fitness too easy. The consequence of this is that our 
 churches have many in them who are professors only, 
 and who exert an unfavorable influence over those of 
 whom we hope better things. They benumb by their 
 torpid touch those with whom they come into contact. 
 It is probable that there is no pastor who, upon looking 
 14* 
 
166 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 round upon his church, does not see many members, 
 who, if they had manifested no more concern when they 
 made appUcation for membership than they now do, he 
 would have never thought of receiving them into com- 
 munion, while they indeed would never have apphed for 
 it themselves. How much is it to be wished that such 
 persons, if they do not improve, would dissolve their 
 connection with the church, since their remaining only 
 corrupts it, without doing anything for themselves, but to 
 harden their hearts, aggravate then* guilt, and increase 
 their condemnation. 
 
 II. T'-'r3 are few things which exert a more unfavor- 
 able influence upon the piety of our churches than the 
 mixed marriages between those who are professors of 
 religion, and those who are not ; and which, it must be 
 acknowledged and regretted, are in the present day 
 lamentably common. The operation of such unions on 
 the state of religion, so far as regards the panics them- 
 selves, need be no mystery to any one. When two indi- 
 viduals of different tastes, in reference to any matter, are 
 associated, and one of them has an aversion, or even an 
 indifference, to the pursuit of the other, it is next to im- 
 possible for the one so opposed to sustain with vigor 
 and perseverance his selected course of action ; and then 
 if he carjnot assimilate the taste of the other party to his 
 own, he must, for the sake of harmony, give up his 
 cherished predilections. This applies to nf) subject with 
 such force as it does to religion. Every Christian man 
 carries in his own heart, and encounters from surround- 
 ing circumstances, sufficient resistance to a life of godli- 
 ness, without selecting a still more potent foe to piety in 
 an unconverted wife. Conceive of either party, in such 
 an unsaiictified union, continually exposed, if not to the 
 actual oi^osition, yet to the deadening influence, of the 
 other. Think of a religious wife, to put it in the mild- 
 est form, not persecuted indeed, though this is often the 
 case, by an irrehgious husband, but left without the aid 
 of his example, his prayer, his cooperation ; hindered 
 from a regular attendance upon many of the means of 
 grace which she deems necessary for keeping up the life 
 of godliness in her soul ; obhged to be much in a sort 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 167 
 
 of company for which she may have no taste, yea, 
 a positive aversion, and to engage in occupations which 
 she finds it dilhcult to reconcile to her conscience, 
 or harmonize witli her profession ; hearing no con- 
 versation, and witnessing no pursuits, but what are of 
 the earth, earthly; ridiculed, perhaps, for some of her 
 conscientious scruples, and doomed to hear perpetual 
 sneers cast upon professors for their inconsistency ; or, 
 what is still more ensnaring, constantly exposed to the 
 deleterious influence of an unvarying, but, at the same 
 time, unsanctiiied, amiableness of disposition in her hus- 
 band, whose want of piety seems compensated by many 
 other excellences — is it likely, unless there be a 
 martyr-like piety, that amidst such trials she will con- 
 tinue firm, consistent, and spiritual I Will she not, if 
 possessed only of the average degree of piety, relax by 
 little and little, till her enfeebled and pliable profession 
 easily accommodates itself to the wishes and tastes of her 
 unconverted husband 1 
 
 But perhaps the influence on religion generally is still 
 worse when the husband is a professor, and the wife is 
 not ; worse because he is more seen and known ; has 
 more to do with church affairs ; has greater power over 
 others, and therefore may be supposed to be more injuri- 
 ous or beneficial, accordingly as his personal piety is 
 more or less vigorous and consistent. When such a 
 man unites himself with a female whose tastes and hab- 
 its are opposed to spiritual religion ; who is fond of gay 
 company and fashionable amusements, and would prefer 
 a party or a rout to a religious service ; who feels rest- 
 less, uneasy, and discontented in religious society and 
 occupations ; who has no love for family devotion, and 
 is often absent from the morning or evening sacrifice — 
 is it likely the husband of such a woman will long retain 
 his consistency, his fervor, his spirituality] Will he not, 
 for the sake of connubial happiness, concede one thing 
 after another, till nearly all the more strict forms of god- 
 liness are surrendered, and much of its spirit lost. His 
 house becomes the scene of gayety, his children grow 
 up under maternal influence, his own piety evaporates, 
 and at List he has little left of religion, but the name. 
 
168 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 And now what is his influence hkely to be upon others? 
 What famiUes usually spring from such marriages ; and 
 what churches are, by a still wider spread of mischief, 
 formed by them. This practice is ever going on before our 
 eyes, and we feel unable to arrest it. It was never more 
 common than at this time. Notwithstanding the protests 
 which have been lifted up against it,* the evil is continu- 
 ally spreading, and while it too convincingly proves the 
 low state of religion amongst us, is an evidence of the truth 
 •j)f the last particular, that our present practice of the 
 admission of persons to membership is far too lax. Too 
 few of the female members of our churches would refuse 
 an advantageous offer of marriage on the ground of the 
 want of religion in the individual who makes the proposal. 
 And how many of the opposite sex would allow their 
 conscience, on the same ground, to control their fancy, 
 and give law to their passions 1 Can we wonder that 
 there should be little intense devotion in our churches, 
 in such a state of things as this 1 How can we look for 
 earnest piety when such hindrances as these are thrown 
 in the way of iil Honorable and noble exceptions, I 
 admit there are. Among others, one especially have I 
 known, where a female, by consenting to marry an 
 ungodly man, could have been raised with her fatherless 
 children, from widowhood, sohcitude, suspense, and 
 comparative poverty, to wealth, ease, and grandeur ; but 
 where, with martyr-like consistency, she chose rather 
 to struggle on for the support of herself and her chil- 
 dren, with the smile of conscience and of God to sustain 
 her noble heart, than to accept the golden bait under 
 the frown of both. But how few are there who would 
 thus account the reproach of Christ greater treasure than 
 all the riches of Egypt ! 
 
 It is diflicult'to know what to do with this evil. Some 
 chm-ches make it a matter of discipline, and expel the 
 member who marries an individual that is not a profes- 
 sor. This is the well-known practice of the Quaker 
 body ; and also of some of the churches of the Congre- 
 
 * By none, I believe more frequently than myself, for I have 
 adverted to it, or dw It at length upon it, in several of my 
 works. 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 169 
 
 gational order. There are objections, howevi-;*, against 
 this, which I have never yet been able to surmount. A 
 member, whether suspended or excommunicated, can 
 never be restored except upon a profession of penitence. 
 Now, thoug-h in this case there can be no reformation, 
 since the married cannot re-marry, there may be repent- 
 ance ; yet it is a deUcate affair, as affecting his wife, to 
 bring a man to say he is sorry he e^ier married ; unless, 
 indeed, we separate, by a refined abstraction, the act 
 of marrying an ungodly person, from his act of marry- 
 ing this particular woman. Instances may occur, and 
 have occurred in my own pastorate, of so very flagrant a 
 nature, indicating so total a want of all sense of religious 
 truth, feeling, and propriety, as to warrant, and indeed 
 require, a church to exscind the party who had thus vio- 
 lated every rule of Scripture and of common decorum. 
 In all cases of this description the pastor is called upon 
 to interfere before the connection is fixed, if he have an 
 opportunity. He should point out the inconsistency in 
 the church-member, the peril that must inevitably ensue to 
 the soul, and the all but uniform and considerable unhap- 
 piness that attends such marriages ; and in the case of 
 such flagrant impropriety as I have last mentioned, let him 
 candidly state the probability of exclusion from the church. 
 III. I may mention, as the next hindrance to earnest 
 pie^y, the taste for amusement by which the present day 
 is, perhaps, characterized m.ore than most which have 
 preceded it. Every age has had its sources of pleasure, 
 and its means and methods of diversion, to relieve the 
 mind from the fatigue and oppression of the more stmous 
 occupations of life. The human mind cannot be kept 
 always upon the stretch, nor can the heart sustain, with- 
 out occasional relief, its burden of care ; . and we would 
 not rob the soul of its few brief holidays, nor condemn as 
 irrational or unchristian its occasional oblivion of worldly 
 vexations amidst the beauties of nature, or the pleasures 
 of the social circle.* There is a tinie to laugh as well 
 
 * Two or three of the particulars of this chapter have been 
 touched upon in the volume upon "An Earnest Ministry ;" but 
 as they still more intimately relate to the congregation, they 
 are reintroduced here. 
 
170 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 as to weep. It is highly probable hat, vidth the advance 
 of civilization, and of the arts and sciences, man, instead 
 of rendering himself indepencfent of the lighter amuse- 
 ments, will actually multiply them. And it nmst be 
 admitted that modern taste has, by its elegance, sup- 
 planted some of the gross carnality and vulgar joviality of 
 former days. There is an obvious reformation and ele- 
 vation of popular amusements. The low taste for brutal 
 sports is we hope supplanted by a higher kind of enjoy- 
 ment, which, if not more Christian, is at any rate more 
 human and rational, and this is something gained to mor- 
 als, even where the improvement does not go on to 
 religion. Still, it may be seriously questioned whether, 
 among professing Christians, the propensity for enter- 
 tainments has not been growing too fast, and ripened 
 into something like a passion for worldly pleasures. 
 Dinner parties, among the wealthier classes of professors, 
 have become frequent and expensive ; viands the most 
 costly, and wines the most various, are set forth with a 
 profusion which prove at what an outlay the entertain- 
 ment has been served up to gratify the vanity of the host, 
 and the palate of his guests. There is an interesting 
 incident in point, mentioned in the life of Mr. Scott, the 
 commentator, which I shall here introduce, as showing 
 the light in which that eminent man viewed this subject. 
 I am not quite sure I have not introduced it in one of my 
 other works ; if I have, it will bear repetition. 
 
 " For some time I had frequent invitations to meet 
 dinner parties formed of persons professing religion, and 
 I generally accepted them ; yet seldom returned home 
 without dissatisfaction, and even remorse of conscience. 
 One day (the Queen's birth day) I met at the house of 
 a rather opulept tradesman, a large party, among whom 
 were some other ministers. The dinner was exceedingly 
 splendid and luxurious, consisting of tv o courses, includ- 
 ing every delicacy in season. Some jokes passed upon 
 the subject ; and one person in particular, a minister of 
 much celebrity, said, ' If we proceed thus, we shall soon 
 have the gout numbered among the privileges of the gos- 
 pel.' This passed off very well ; but in the evening, a 
 question being proposed on the principal dangers to which 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 171 
 
 evangelical religion is exposed in the present day, when it 
 came my turn to speak, I ventured to say that conformity 
 to the icorld among persons professing godliness was the 
 great danger of all. One thing led to another, and the 
 luxurious dinner did not pass unnoticed by me. I ex- 
 pressed myself as cautiously as I could consistently, with 
 oiy conscience, but I observed that however needful it 
 might be for Christians in superior stations to give 
 splendid and expensive dinners to their worldly relations 
 and connections, yet when ministers and Christians met 
 together, as such, it was not consistent, but should be 
 excl" anged for more frugal entertainments of each other, 
 ind more abundant feeding of the poor, the maimed, the 
 ame, and the blind. Luke xiv. 12-14. Probably I was 
 ^00 pointed ; and many strong expressions of disapproba- 
 'ion were used at the time ; but I went home as one who 
 lad throwTi off a great burden from his back — rejoicing 
 n the testimony of my conscience. The consequence was. 
 «, sort of tacit excommunication from the circle. The 
 gentleman at whose house this passed never invited mc 
 again but once, and then our dinner was literally a piece 
 of boiled beef. He was, however, a truly pious man, 
 though misled by bad examples and customs." He 
 always continued to act towards me in a friendly man- 
 ner, and though I had not seen him for several years, he 
 left me a small legacy at his death." There are few 
 who will not be of opinion that Mr. Scott's rebuke would 
 have been conveyed with more propriety, had it been 
 administered privately ; when it would manifest all the 
 fidelity, without any of the seeming rudeness, with which 
 it was given. Yet how convincingly does it prove the 
 cleamess^ of his perception of what is right, the tender- 
 ness of his conscience in shrinking from what is wrong, 
 and the strength of his moral courage in reproving what 
 he deemed'' to be a fault. What would Scott have said 
 of a professor of religion exhibiting two-and-thirty dif 
 ferent sorts of wine upon his table and sideboard at the 
 same time ! * 
 
 * When will the mmisters and members of our churches 
 begin generally to inquire, whether it is not expedient for them, 
 if not for their own sakes, yet for the sake of the communitj 
 
172 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 But it is not the dinner party so much as the evening 
 rout, that is becoming the prevaihng custom and the snare 
 of modern Christians, when large assemblages are con- 
 vened, comprising pious and worldly, grave and gay 
 young and old, not to enjoy " the feast of reason, and the 
 flow of soul;" not perhaps even to be regaled by the 
 pleasures of music, but by the amusement of the song 
 and the dance ; when large expense is incurred, late 
 houjs are kept, and everything but a spirit friendly to 
 
 to discontinue ahog-ether the use of intoxicating liquors ? When 
 it is considered that one half of the insanity, two thirds of the 
 abject poverty, and three fourths of the crime, of our country, 
 are to be traced up to drunkenness, — that more than £60,000,- 
 000 are annually expended in destructive beverages, —that 
 myriads annually die the drunkard's death, and descend still 
 lower than the drunkard's grave — that thousands of church 
 members are every year cut off from Christian fellowship for 
 inebriety — that every minister of the gospel has to complain of 
 the hindrance to his usefulness from this cause — and that more 
 ministers are diss^raced by this than by any other habit — that 
 in short more misery and more crime flow over society from 
 this source than from any other, war and slavery not excepted — • 
 and that by the highest medical authorities these intoxicating 
 drinks are reduced as diet, from the rank of necessaries to lux- 
 uries — it surely does become every professor of religion to ask 
 whether it is not incumbent upon him, both for his own safety 
 and for the good of his fellow-creatures, to abstain from this 
 pernicious indulgence. On the authority of Mr. Sheriff Alison, 
 It is stated that in the year 1S40, there were in Glasgow amongst 
 about 30,000 inhabited houses, no fewer than 3010 appropriated 
 to the sale of intoxicating drinks. The same gentleman de- 
 clared that the consumption of ardent spirits in that city 
 amounted to 1,800,000 gallons yearly, the value of which is 
 £1,350,000. No fewer than 30,000 persons there, go to bed 
 drunk every Saturday night ; 25,000 commitments are annually 
 made on account of drunkenness, of which 10,000 are females. 
 Is Glasgow worse than many other places ? Professors of re- 
 ligion, ponder this ; and will you not* by abstaining from a lux- 
 ury, lend the aid of your example to discountenance this monster 
 crime, and monster misery? It is in the power, and therefore 
 is it not the duty, of the Christian church to do much to stop 
 this evil, which sends more persons to the mad-house, the jail, the 
 hulks and the gallows — more bodies to the grave — and more 
 souls to perdition, than any other that can be mentioned. Can 
 the church be in earnest till it is prepared to make this sac- 
 rifice ? 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 173 
 
 religion is promoted. It is this kind of social amuse- 
 ment — the fashionable, full-dress, evening- party — car- 
 ried to the extent of entire conformity to the world, and 
 frequently resorted to — that is injurious to the interests 
 of vital godliness in our Christian churches. But even 
 where there is not this extreme of gayety, and a some- 
 what more sober aspect is thrown over the circle, yet 
 when the winter passes off in a round of evening assem- 
 blages for no higher occupations than music and singing, 
 it is an occupation scarcely congenial with the religious 
 taste, or friendly to the promotion of religious improve- 
 ment. I have known young people, professors of religion 
 too, who have related with gleeful boasting, as if this 
 were the element in which they delighted to live, the 
 number of evenings during one winter they have passed 
 in company, and in such occupations as have been just 
 alluded to. 
 
 Now it may be, and it is, extremely difficult, and no 
 one would attempt to solve the problem — to determine 
 what kind of parties, and what number of them, are com- 
 patible with true godliness, so that when the rule for this 
 kind, and this nmnber of entertainments, is transgressed, 
 the religion of the individual is questionable or must be 
 injured. We can only lay down general principles, 
 leaving the application of them to individual judgment. 
 There are, no doubt, persons of such strength of real in- 
 rooted piety, of such strong devotional taste, and such 
 fixed habits of godliness, that they could pass unhurt 
 through a constant round of seemingly dissipating amuse- 
 ments ; just as there are persons of such strong constitu- 
 tions and such robust health, that they can breathe a 
 tainted atmosphere, or even take some kinds of poison 
 without injury. There is a most striking instance of this 
 lately published by the Bishop of Oxford, in the Life of 
 Lady Godolphin, who preserved not only her personal 
 purity, but an unusual degree of spirituality and heav- 
 enly-mindedness, amidst the endless gayeties and the 
 revolting licentiousness of the court of Charles the 
 Second. In reference to which, we can only say, " To 
 the pure, all thing? are pure." But most certainly the 
 15 
 
174 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 average piety of our day is not of such robustness as tc 
 be able to resist strong- contag-ion. The very craving after 
 diversion, which there is in son:\e persons, shows a mor- 
 bid state of the soul. It might be supposed, judging 
 from the representations of true religion which we find 
 in the Word of God, and from the general principles 
 contained in them, as well as from the recorded experi- 
 ence of the saints, which is to be found in religious biog- 
 raphy, that a Christian, one who is really such, has been 
 rendered independent of all such sources of enjoyment as 
 those to which the people of the world resort. It might 
 have been concluded, that in the peace that passeth un- 
 derstanding, the joy unspeakable and full of glory, and 
 the rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, he had found 
 not only a substitute for the gratifications which by 
 becoming a Christian he had surrendered, but an infinite 
 compensation, and that he would deem it a disparage- 
 ment of his religious privileges to suppose that anything 
 more than these were necessary for his felicity, or that 
 if an addition tvere needed, an adequate one could not be 
 found in healthful recreation amidst the scenery of nature, 
 in the pleasures of knowledge, or the activities of benev- 
 olence. To hear all this talk, then, about the necessity 
 of entertainment, and the impossibility of relieving the 
 urgency of labor, and the monotony of life, without par- 
 ties, routs, and diversions, sounds very like a growing 
 weariness of the yoke of Christ, or a complaining, as if 
 the church's paradise were no better than a waste, howl- 
 ing wilderness, which needed the embellishments of 
 worldly taste, and all the resources of human art, to 
 render it tolerable, or which in fact must become little 
 better than a fool's paradise to please the degenerate 
 Christian. The growing desire after amusement marks 
 a low state of religion, and it is likely to depress it still 
 lower. It is the profession of a Christian, that he is not 
 so much intent upon being happy in this world, as upon 
 securing happiness in the next ; that he is rather pre- 
 paring for bliss, than possessing and enjoying it now ; 
 and that he can therefore be very well content to forego 
 «iany things in which the people of the world see no 
 harm, and tlie harm of which it might be difficult for him, 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 175 
 
 if called upon for proof, to demonstrate ; and which he 
 is willing to abstain from, just because they appear to 
 him o take him off from those pleasures Avhich await 
 him, and for which he is to prepare, in the eternal world. 
 IV. The spirit of trade, as it is now carried on, is no 
 less adverse to a high state of religion, than the spirit of 
 amusement ; and like that, is all the more dangerous 
 because of the impossibility of assigning limhs within 
 which the indulgence of it is lawful, and beyond which it 
 becomes an infringement of the law of God. Our chief 
 danger lies in those things which become sins only by 
 the degree in which an affection or pursuit, not wrong in 
 itself, is carried, — such as covetousness, pleasure-taking, 
 and attention to the business of life ; these all originate 
 in things lawful in themselves, and which are sinful only 
 by excess. Fornication, adultery, falsehood, robbery, 
 and other vices, are all so marked out and so marked off, 
 from the region of what is lawful, that the line of division 
 is distinctly perceptible, and we can see at once when we 
 are approaching the point of prohibition, and when we 
 have stepped over it. But we cannot say this of worldly- 
 mindedness. The love of acquisition and appropriation 
 is one of the instinctive principles of our nature, planted 
 in it by the hand of God, and intended to subserve the 
 wisest and most beneficent purposes. The whole fabric 
 of society is founded upon it, and all social organization 
 is regulated by it. Trade may be said to be of God's 
 appointment, if not directly; yet by the law of labor 
 under which we are placed ; and we cannot do withont 
 it. But then, like every other good, it may be abused 
 and become an evil. It may exert so engrossing an influ- 
 ence over the mind as to absorb it, and to exclude from it 
 the consideration of every other subject. It must never 
 be forgotten that the rule is binding upon us all, to " seek 
 first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ;" to 
 overcome the world by faith ; to set our affections on 
 things above, and not on things on the earth. All this is 
 as truly law, now, as it ever was ; and no attention to 
 things seen and temporal, no labor even to provide 
 things honest in the sight of all men, much more to pro- 
 vide th/'ngs abundant and luxurious for ourselves, can 
 
176 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 release us from the obligation of a supreme regard to 
 things " unseen and eternal." 
 
 Now there never was, in the history of the world, an 
 age 01 a country, in which the spirit of trade was more 
 urgent, than it is in this land, and in our day. We are 
 the greatest trading, manufacturing, and commercial coun- 
 try, not only that now is, but that ever was. Tyre, Car- 
 thage, Phoenicia, and Venice, were mere pedlers compared 
 with Britain. Ours is " the mart of nations ;" the empo- 
 rium of the world. Such a state of things affects us all. 
 Scarcely any stand so remote from the scene of busy ac- 
 tivity as not to feel the impulse, and to catch the spirit. 
 x\ll push into the contest for wealth ; all hope to gain 
 a prize of greater or less value. Education has raised 
 up many from the lower wallcs, and wealth has attracted 
 down many from the higher walks, to the level of the 
 trading portion of the community ; while population, 
 as is natural in such a state of things, has gone on 
 increasing. What is the result ? Just what might have 
 been expected, — a keen and eager competition for busi- 
 ness, beyond any former precedent. Every trade, every 
 profession, every branch of manufacture, or of commerce, 
 seems overstocked, and every department of action over- 
 crowded. See what must follow — time is so occupied 
 that men have scarcely an hour in a week, for thoughtful- 
 ness, reading the Scriptures, and prayer — the head, 
 and heart, and hands, are so full of secular matters, that 
 there is no room for God, Christ, salvation, and eternity — 
 competition is so keen and eager, that to get business, 
 the whatsoever things are true, and just, and honest, and 
 lovely, and of good report, are trampled under foot, and 
 conscientiousness is forgotten or destroyed. If these ef- 
 forts ar3 successful, and wealth flows in, and the trades- 
 man rapidly rises in society, tlien he is, perhaps, de- 
 stroyed by prosperity. In addition to all this, what an 
 inconceivable amount of mischief has been inflicted by the 
 gambling system of speculation, which, though not set up, 
 has been stimulated by the railway schemes. What mul- 
 titudes have plunged into the gulf of perdition wliich 
 yawns beneath those who have taken up the resolution of 
 the men that will be rich, and who are determined to 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 177 
 
 encounter the many foolish and hurtful lusts which beset 
 their path ! Religion becomes a flat, insipid, and abstract 
 thing, amidst all the excitement produced by such pur- 
 suits. Even the Sabbath day hardly serves its pur- 
 pose as a season of respite and repose, given to arrest 
 the eagerness of pursuit after wealth, and to loosen, for 
 a while, the chain that binds man to earth ; and is passed 
 with an impatience that says, " When will it be over, that 
 we may buy and sell and get gain?" Of what use are 
 sermons to those w'hose minds and hearts are intent upon 
 their speculations or their business? And even the voice 
 of prayer, which calls them into the presence of God, calls 
 them not away from their secularities. Their Father's 
 house is made a house of merchandise, and the Holy of 
 Holies a place of traffic. As soon might you expect a 
 company of gamblers to lay down their cards, and, with 
 the stakes yet undecided before their eyes, listen with 
 attention to a homily or a prayer, as some professing 
 Christians to join with reverence in the devotions of the 
 Sabbath, or to hear with interest the voice of the 
 preacher. The spirit of trade thus carried on is flattening 
 the religion that is left, and is preventing more from being 
 produced. 
 
 The great object of life to those professing Christians 
 who have the opportunity, seems to be, to become rich 
 Their chief end does not appear to be so much to glorify 
 God, and enjoy him forever, as to obtain and enjoy the 
 world. Wealth is the centre of their wishes, the point 
 to which their desires appear to presers'e an invariable ten- 
 dency. How many who have named the name of Christ, 
 and avouched him to be all their salvation, and all their 
 desire, still make " gold their hope, and say unto fine 
 gold, Thou art my confidence." Jehovah is the God of 
 their creed, but Mammon is the god of their hearts. 
 Part of one day only, they profess to worship in the 
 sanctuary of religion, and all the other six days of the 
 week they are devout adorers of the god of wealth 
 Professing Christians ! it is this worldly spirit that blights 
 your hopes — that chills religion to the very heart — that 
 withers your graces — that poisons your comforts, and 
 15* 
 
178 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 blasts the fair fame of your Redeeraei 's kingdom. While 
 this spirit pervades the professing people of God, vital 
 godHness will not only be low, but will remain so. How 
 can it be otherwise than that the church will appear cov- 
 ered with the dast of the earth, and robbed of hsr heav- 
 enly glory, while there are few to weep over the woes of 
 Jerusalem — few who struggle for her prosperity, who 
 are affected by her reproach, or are jealous for her lienor 1 
 Let us, then, be duly impressed with the fact that in this 
 country and in this age, trade is contending with religion 
 for the universal dominion over men's minds, hearts, and 
 consciences, and that, according to present appearances, 
 there is no small danger of the victory being gained by 
 the former. Cliristians, take the alarm ! 
 
 Y. Among the hindrances to a spirit of earnest piety 
 must be mentioned the political excitement which has so 
 extensively prevailed in this country since the passing of 
 the Reform Bill, and the repeal of the Test and Corpora- 
 tion Acts. Both these measures were just and right ; 
 and what is politically right, cannot in itself be morally 
 wrong ; they only conceded rights which could not be re- 
 fused in equity, and did but redress wrongs which not only 
 degraded the party that endured them, but also disgraced 
 that which inflicted them, and thus wiped out blots which 
 had long disfigured the British constitution, and sullied 
 the page of English history. But at the same time, 
 these great changes brought professing Christians into 
 new perils, exposed their religion to fresh dangers, and 
 rendered it necessary to give a greater vigor to that 
 faith which overcometh the world. It is freely admitted, 
 as has been a thousand times repeated, that in putting 
 on the Christian, we do not put off the citizen ; and do 
 not, upon entering the church, retire altogether from the 
 world. Religious liberty has an intimate connection with 
 the interests of religion, for the freedom of the Christian 
 cannot exist without the liberty of the man, and the sta- 
 bihty and progress of the Redeemer's kingdom is corsid- 
 erably affected by the course of legislation. Hence it 
 seems neither possible, if it were right, nor right, if it 
 were possible, for professing Christians altogether to quit 
 the arena of politics. Still, however, it must be confessed 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 179 
 
 (hat it requires a far larger measure of the life of faith 
 than they appear to have possessed, to resist the paralyz- 
 ing- influence which comes from such a quarter over the 
 spirit of piety ; and the consequence has been that she 
 has come out of the scene of strife, covered with its dust, 
 and enfeebled by its stru angles. 
 
 In such times as those of the great conflict agamst 
 tyranny and popery, in the reigi" of the Stuarts, when 
 everything dear to liberty and religion was at stake, the 
 politicians and heroes of those days prepared themselves 
 for the senate and the camp by the devout exercises of 
 the closet — fed the flame of their courage at the fount of 
 their piety — felt that they must be saints in order to be 
 patriots — and expected to have power to conquer man, 
 only as they had power to prevail with God. It might 
 be truly said of them it was not that their religion was 
 pohtical, but their politics religious. Everything they 
 did was consecrated by the Word of God and prayer. 
 They were wrong in some things they did, and unwise 
 in some things they said, but even this was at the dictate 
 of conscience, though a misguided one. There were 
 hypocrites among them no doubt, for it was hardly possi- 
 ble that such splendid virtues as many of them possessed 
 should not be admired and imitated by some who had 
 not the grace to be genuine followers : and an uncouth 
 cast of phraseology and some modes of action no doubt 
 marred their piety, but even these disfigm-ements could 
 not conceal their manly spirits. Is it so now in our 
 struggles for objects which, though of some consequence, 
 are of less importance than theirs ? Have we not all the 
 ardor of political excitement, without the felt necessity 
 of personal religion "? Db we realize the need of a new 
 baptism of the Spirit, to prepare us for political contests, 
 and are we acting as if we were convinced that we must 
 put on afresh the whole armor of God before we go into 
 the battle-field of contending paities ? Have ive made 
 our politics religious, instead of making our religion po- 
 litical ? Have our pastors, when they have engaged in 
 these matters, prepared themselves for it b}'- communion 
 with God ; and have our senators, before they have ffone 
 to the place of legislation, and our councillors, and alder 
 
180 
 
 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 men, ere they have entered the civic hall, fortified them- 
 selves, by fasting- and prayer, vidth tie spirit of religion t 
 Have we not, on the contrary, lost in piety what we 
 have gained in liberty, and felt " the powers of the world 
 to come " weakened in their influence over us, in propor- 
 tion as we have had a share in wielding the power of the 
 world that now iai As dissenters, have we not been 
 too anxious about our pohtical influence 1 Or, at any rate, 
 have we not, in seeking to increase this, lost something 
 of a better influence which we should have labored to 
 preserve 1 Perhaps it may be thought that this is the 
 day of struggle for great principles — the reform of great 
 abuses — the contest for lost rights — and the settlement 
 of a wise, equitable, and permanent constitution of things, 
 and that though the spirit of saintly and seraphic piety 
 may suffer somewhat during the conflict, yet the time 
 will come, by and by, when, having conquered an honor- 
 able peace, she shall sit down amidst the trophies that 
 have been won, to heal her wounds, and recover her 
 strength. I wish it may be so ; but what if by venturirig 
 unnecessarily so far into the thick of the affray, she should 
 receive wounds that are incurable, and sink into a state 
 of exhaustion from which she cannot be easily or speedily 
 recovered ! What I say, then, is this, that if we must 
 be political, — and to a certain extent we must be, — do 
 not let us smile with contempt at the craven fears, or the 
 superstitious apprehensions, or the ignoble whinings, as 
 they will be called, of those who would remind us that 
 a time of political excitement brings on a state of things 
 which endangers all that is vital in godliness, damps the 
 flame of devotion in the soul, and tends to depress religion 
 in our churches. 
 
 But there are other exciteme its against which we have 
 need to be on our guard, excitements which come still 
 more wdthin the unquestioned circle of religious activity. 
 It is well for us to remember that true religion, even in 
 its most vigorous and energetic course of action, is of a 
 calm, gentle, and equable temperament. It resembles its 
 Divine Author, of whom it is said, " He shall not strive 
 nor cry, neither sliall any man hear his voice in the 
 streets ;" it loves tlie quiet retreat of the closet, and 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 181 
 
 flourishes amidst the stilhiess of meditation ; to which it 
 adds the tranquil pleasures of the sanctuary, and the soft 
 and soothing delights of the communion of saints. It 
 cannot live, and grow, and flourish, amidst perpetual agi- 
 tation ; and it is ever placed in a dangerous position, in an 
 atmosphere too troubled, and in an element uncongenial 
 with its nature, when its active duties are pushed so far 
 as to exclude the devotional ones. There are times when 
 it must come out of its retreat, and mingle in the scenes 
 of agitation and excitement. There are occasions when 
 it must join the crowd, and let its voice be heard, not only 
 borne upon the gale of popular sentiment and feeling, but 
 swelling it. Yet this must be Imt occasional, and not 
 habitual. If we look back upon the great questions 
 which have called out professing Christians into the scene 
 of agitation during the last half, or only quarter of a cen- 
 tury, how many subjects of a public nature shall we find 
 that have called up our consideration, feeling, and ac- 
 tivity ! What a struggle we maintained, in what crowds 
 we gathered, and to what a pitch of enthusiasm we were 
 wrought up, for the removal of that foul blot upon oui 
 country's history — that heavy curse upon humanity — - 
 and that deep disgrace on our Christian profession — the 
 slave-trade and slavery ! In what a troubled element 
 have we lived of late, by contending against the various 
 schemes of popular education, because we viewed thorn 
 as unfriendly to our liberties as dissenters, and hostile to 
 the manly independence of the people ! There are other 
 topics, which need not be specified, tending greatly to agi- 
 tate the church of Christ. The wonder, perhaps, is, and 
 it is a c^e for gratitude, that, considering these things, 
 so much personal religion still remains. Yet it becomes 
 us to remember that as this is an element uncongenial 
 with its nature, there is the need of constant watchful- 
 ness, intense solicitude, and earnest prayer, that the 
 churches, while contending for important objects, do not 
 let down the tone of their spirituality. 
 
 VI. Even that which is the glory of the church in this 
 age, and the hope of the w^orld — which is one of the 
 brightest signs of the times — and the loss of which 
 would bf an occasion to clothe the heavens with sackcloth. 
 
182 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 and he earth wUh mourning — I mean the spirit of holy 
 zeal which is so active, — yes, even this, for want of 
 watchfulness, care, and earnest prayer, may become a 
 snare and a mischief to personal godliness. We have 
 need to take care that the reproach be not brought against 
 us, that, while we have kept the vineyards of others, our 
 own we have not kept ; that our zeal has been main- 
 tained, not by our religion, but at the expense of it ; that 
 our ardor is not the natural putting forth of the vital 
 energies of the tree, in branches, leaves and fruit, but an 
 excrescence upon it, which draws to itself the sap and 
 impoverishes the genuine produce. Ours is the age of 
 societies — the era of organization — the day of the plat- 
 form, the public meeting, the orator, the speech, and the 
 placard. Everything is trumpeted, blazoned, shall I say 
 puffed — not only our Missionary and Bible Society meet- 
 ings, but our ordination ser\qces, formerly so quiet and so 
 solemn ; even the subjects of our very sermons, the most 
 awful verities of our religion, must now obtrude them- 
 selves in glaring placards, and stare out in imposing 
 capitals, side by side with advertisements of plays by 
 celebrated actors — concerts by renowned singers — lec- 
 tures by itinerant philosophers — and f( ats of agility by 
 equestrian performers. All is agitation, excitement, and 
 publicity, and religion is one subject for this among many 
 others. Something of all this, no doubt, is proper, and 
 cannot be otherwise managed at present, and ought 
 not to be discontinued ; but then, on the other hand, 
 much of it is contrary to the dignity, the peacefulness, 
 and the sanctity, of true religion. There is in ^me of 
 our religious concerns too near an approach l^far to 
 mountebankship — to the newspaper puffing of noisy and 
 obtrusive tradesmen — to the catch-penny trickery of 
 quacks and impostors. Let us consider how the truly 
 religious spint — 'the lofty, heavenly, devout aspirations 
 of the renewoJ mind, must suffer for all this ; how true 
 godliness must be corrupted and changed into a novelty- 
 seeking, wonder-loving thing ; how the flame of devotion 
 must expire, or be changed into the fantastic fires round 
 which little children dance in sport. 
 
 And where matters are not in this fashion, and there ia 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 183 
 
 nothing b.it the mere reiteration of public meetings, yet 
 may they not by their frequency draw off the attention 
 from personal religion, and in many cases become a sub- 
 stitute for it? There are public meetings, and resolutions, 
 md speeches, and anecdotes, for everything — and we 
 must have them, and even be thankful for them, as long 
 ds the present mode of carrying on our schemes' of evan- 
 gelization are pursued. But then let us take care, anxious, 
 prayerful, vigilant care, that these things do not exert an 
 unfavorable influence upon us, — by producing a taste for 
 excitement which shall make the ordinary means of grace, 
 and Sabbath-day opportunities, tame, flat, and insipid — 
 by throwing an air of frivolity over our whole religion — 
 by drawing us out of our closets, and making us in re- 
 ligion resemble our Gallic neighbors, who are said to 
 know little of home enjoyment, and who live almost 
 entirely abroad — by making us ostentatious and vain- 
 glorious, instead of humble and retiring — by impairing 
 the modesty of our youth, who are so early brought into 
 action and notice — by corrupting the purity of our mo- 
 tives through the publicity given to names and donations 
 — by engrossing that time w^hich should be spent in pri- 
 vate prayer, reading the Scriptures, and meditation — in 
 short, by converting our whole religion into a bustling 
 activity about religion. 
 
 VII . The danger here set forth is not a little in- 
 creased, in our day, by the modern invention and exten- 
 sive prevalence of certain social convocations, — such, for 
 instance, as tea-meetings. Of this species of fraternal 
 intercourse our fathers were ignorant, and so were we 
 ourselves till within the last few years ; but now they 
 are the prevailing fashion of the day, and are become so 
 common, and in such frequent demand, as to have led in 
 many congregations to the fitting up of a kind of culinary 
 apparatus for their celebration. The incorporation of 
 these social festivities with religious matters, though it 
 prevails more among the Methodists and Dissenters, is 
 not exclusively confined to these bodies, as some of the 
 clergy of the Church of England have adopted the prac- 
 tice. 
 
 There are few things among modern customs which 
 
184 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 more need the vigilance, caution, and supervision of 
 Christian pastors and the churches, than these religio- 
 convivial entertainments. There can be no harm in the 
 abstract idea of Christians eating and drinking together, 
 especially when the elements of the feast are nothing 
 more expensive, inebriating, or epicurean, than tea and 
 bread and butter, or cakes. There can be little doubt 
 that the primitive Christians had their social meals, and 
 that to these agapcE, or love feasts, as they were called, 
 Jude refers, where he speaks of some who were '-spots 
 upon your feasts of charity.*' Out of this custom of 
 having meals together, which were made appendages of 
 the Lord's Supper, grew- the corruptions mentioned in 
 the first epistle to the Corinthians. The practice of eat- 
 ing and drinking together for purposes of unity and 
 charity still continued in the early churches, till it was 
 so abused to carnal purposes as to call for ecclesiastical 
 interference, and by the council of Laodicea, in the 
 fourth century, it was forbidden to eat and drink, or 
 spread tables, in the house of God. 
 
 There is little fear, it may be presumed, of the 
 modern practice of tea-meetings ever being abused in 
 such manner as this ; yet it becomes us to recollect that 
 all corruptions were at one time only as a grain of mus- 
 tard seed, which, sown in a congenial soil, advanced 
 after the first insidious germination with rapid growth to 
 unsuspected strength and stature. It is not, however, to 
 what these entertainments may become, should the tea- 
 meeting be exchanged for a supper, that T now allude, 
 but to what they are already. I have been present at 
 some, in which not only my taste as a man, but my sen- 
 sibilities as a Christian, have been somewhat offended. I 
 have seen the house of God turned into what had all the 
 air of a place of public amusement ; I have beheld grave 
 ministers, and deacons, and members, of the Christian 
 shurch, mingled up with professors, and non-professors, 
 of religion, young men and women, boys and girls, in all 
 the noisy buzz, and perhaps sometimes approaching to 
 obstreperous mirth, at one of these meetings ; I have 
 witnessed young women of the working classes, dressed 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 185 
 
 up as ladies for the occasion, flirting about with their 
 beaiuv of the other sex ; in short all was g]ee, and merri- 
 ment, and hilarity — and this, perhaps, in connection 
 with some religious object ; the anniversary of opening 
 a chapel for God's worship, or the celebration of a min- 
 ister's settlement with his flock. Probably it will be 
 said by some, this is caricature. I am conscious it does 
 not exceed the truth, and I might appeal to many of my 
 brethren who have witnessed and lamented the same 
 things. 
 
 To come to what is no less fashionable, but perhaps 
 somewhat less injurious to the spirit of religion, than 
 these things, — I mean the soirees of the present day; 
 these also require some caution in their management, 
 when held in connection with religion, lest they degener- 
 ate into a species of worldly amusement, the tendency of 
 which will be to depress the tone of piety, and to 
 destroy the seriousness of mind with which it ought ever 
 to be regarded. Now I know that it is difficult to prove 
 logically that these things are wrong, and I do not mean 
 to assert that they are ; by no means ; but as they are 
 the increasing custom of the day, and are liable to be 
 abused, either by being too frequent, or by being held in 
 a spirit of worldliness, I think the church of Christ, and 
 for them I write, should be put upon their guard, and 
 called to a spirit of holy vigilance. I know that the 
 social, the cheerful, and even the tasteful, are sanctioned 
 by religion, than which nothing is more social, cheerful 
 and tasteful ; and heaven is full of all these attributes. 
 But, then, religion is at the same time no less character- 
 ized by solemnity, sanctity and deep seriousness, than it 
 is by joy. It is that which connects the soul with God, 
 with salvation, with heaven, and with eternity — it is 
 the conflict of a soul fighting the great fight of faith, and 
 laying hold of eternal life — the agony of a heaven-born 
 spirit, reaching after celestial bliss — the training of an 
 immortal mind for the beatific vision of God and the 
 Lamb — and, therefore, with which all our pursuits, and 
 our pleasures too, should be in strict and constant har- 
 mony. When we affirm, as we most truly may, that 
 16 
 
186 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 " Religion never was designed 
 To make our pleasures less," 
 
 we should, at the same time, recollect that it puts aside 
 many of the pleasures of the world as beneath our notice, 
 if not injurious to our character, by others so incompara- 
 bly superior, as to dispose us, by a natural process, to 
 reject the drop for the sake of the fountain, and to lay 
 aside the taper when we see the sun. We have only to 
 consider what religion is, what it calls to, and what it 
 requires of us, and leads us to, and is intended to pro- 
 pare us for, to see at once, and to feel, as by a holy 
 instinct, what kind of pleasures it should lead us to seek, 
 and what to refuse. It will probably be asked, whether 
 I would suppress all these modern usages of tea-meet- 
 ings, soirees, and social entertainments. I reply, cer- 
 tainly not. They may unite much instruction, and much 
 spiritual improvement, with as much innocent social 
 enjoyment. But then I would watch them, with an 
 entire conviction that they may by possibility come to 
 what is harmful. I would limit their growth, that they 
 do not become too frequent and too trivial ; and I would, 
 where religion is in any form their object, take care that 
 they be conducted in a religious spirit. I would let 
 religion, with all her cheerfulness, but yet with all her 
 seriousness and sanctity, preside over the scene, and dif- 
 fuse her blessed influence through every soul. If, as is 
 usually the case, there are non-professors and uncon- 
 verted persons present, I would let them see how happy 
 Christians are, not indeed by transferring the pleasures 
 of the world into the social circle of the redeemed, but 
 by drawing down the pleasures of heaven into the church 
 on earth. The way to win the ungodly to religion is 
 not by showing them that their pleasures are ours, but 
 that ours are infinitely superior to any which they know. 
 A Christian ought to be, and would be, if he understood 
 his privileges, the very type of bliss in himself, and an 
 index pointing out the way of happiness to others. 
 
 It were well if the minister were always present at 
 every tea-meeting held amongst any section of his flock, 
 and were to endeavor to repress all undue levity as soon 
 as it appeared, . and to maintain a tone of rational, 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 
 
 187 
 
 religious and agreeable intercourse. The meetings of 
 Sunday school teachers especially require his presence 
 and his influence, not only to make them feel that he is 
 in fact their supreme superintendent, and the teacher of 
 teachers, but to prevent that excessive hilarity which 
 would, perhaps, in some cases, be likely to spring up. 
 And the pastor might also, with great propriety and 
 utility, hold occasionally such meetings with the mem- 
 bers of the church, and thus promote the unity and love 
 of his flock among themselves, and their attachment to 
 him. I adopt this plan myself. The church under my 
 care is large, amounting to upwards of nine hundred 
 ;members, and scattered over the whole expanse of this 
 great town ; and the public business and correspondence 
 devolving upon me, in common with my brethren, are so 
 oppressive that I cannot pretend to fill up the measure of 
 pastoral duty ; and, therefore, to remedy, as far as pos- 
 sible, this defect, I invite the members by sections to 
 take tea with me in the vestry, when I converse a little 
 with each individual separately, and then hold devotional 
 exercises with them all collectively. At such meetings 
 nothing, of course, but what is s^^rious and devout occurs ; 
 all is solemn, joyful and to edification; all sanctified by 
 the Word of God and prayer. 
 
 The object, then, of all these remarks will be seen ; 
 and that their design is to resist the tendency which 
 somw of our modern customs have to diminish the seri- 
 ousness, repress the earnestness, and altogether change 
 the nature of true religion — to impair the dignity, to 
 lower the spirituality, and impede the usefulness of its 
 professors — and thus, instead of making the people of 
 the world religious, to make the members of the church 
 worldly. 
 
 YIII. But, perhaps, there are few things which tend 
 more effectually to repress the spirit of earnest piety, and 
 to keep it down at a low point, than those fallacies 
 about its nature, and that perversion of acknowledged 
 principles and facts in connection with it, in which so 
 many professors indulge. We will mention some of 
 these. 
 
 Is it not clear that many persons satisfy themselves 
 
188 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 with admitting the necessity of earnestness, v> /thout evei 
 once endeavoring to obtain it, and thus put their con- 
 viction and admission of the necessity of the thing in the 
 place of seeking after the thing itself? We talk to a 
 cold or lukewarm individual, and represent to him the 
 inconsistency of such a heartless religion as his, and the 
 indispensable necessity of more devotedness. It is all, and 
 at once, admitted ; and he stops the conversation, gets 
 rid of the subject, and evades impression and conviction by 
 this ready assent. And thus, by such a facile, assenting, 
 unresisting admission, the power of the awful truth 
 that he is in a dangerous state, seems to be destroyed. 
 It were better, far better, that these lukewarm profes- 
 sors should deny the necessity of more intensity of think- 
 ing, feeling, and acting, that they may be reasoned and 
 expostulated with, and made to think by force of argu- 
 ment, and to feel by the power of representation. But 
 in this easy admission, without opposition, question, oi 
 doubt, the strongest representation only goes in to be 
 cushioned, and fall asleep. 
 
 And then the applicability of the subject to so many, 
 if not to all, is another cause of individual evasion. " It 
 concerns /we," is the inward thought, " not more than all 
 these myriads of professors." Its absolute importance 
 as applicable to any one, seems dissipated in the idea of 
 how many it is applicable to. There is some unthinking 
 feeling, as if the authority and importance of the one 
 great admonition to earnestness were divided into innu- 
 merable diminutive shares, with but inconsiderable force 
 in each. How kindly and humbly each is wilhng not to 
 account his soul more important than that of any of his 
 fellow-mortals ! Yet not so benevolent either, in another 
 view of the matter ; for in a certain indistinct way, he is 
 laying the blame on the rest of mankind ; if he is indif- 
 ferent about his own highest interest, " they are under 
 the same great obligation ; in their manner of practically 
 acknowledging it, they are my pattern ; they keep me 
 down to their level. If their shares of the great concern 
 were m.ore worthily attended to, perhaps mine would be 
 also. One has fancied sometimes what might have been 
 the effect, in the selected instances, if the case had been 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 189 
 
 that the Sovereign Creator had appointea but a few men, 
 here and there one, to an immortal existence, or a1 least 
 declared it only with respect to them. One cannot help 
 imag-ining them to feel every hour the impression of their 
 sublime and awful predicament! But why — why is it 
 less felt a sublime and awful one, because the rest of our 
 race are in it too I Does not each as a perfectly distinct 
 one stand in the whole magnitude of the concern, and in 
 the responsibility and the danger, as absolutely as if there 
 were no other one? How is it less to him than if he 
 stood alone ? Their losing the happy interest of eternity 
 will not be that he shall not have lost it for himself. If 
 he shall have lost it, he will feel that they have not lost 
 it for him. He should, therefore, now feel that upon 
 him is concentrated, even individually upon him, the en- 
 tire importance of this chief concern." 
 
 Foster, in his lecture on " Earnestness in Religion," 
 from which this extract is taken, enumerates other falla- 
 cies by which men im.pose upon themselves in excuse for 
 lukewarmness in religion, such as taking a perverse ad- 
 vantage of the obscurity of the objects of our faith, and 
 of the incompetence of our faculties to apprehend them 
 — the recognition of the obligations of religion upon our 
 life, as a whole, without making them bear upon all the 
 particular parts of it as they pass — and a soothing self- 
 assurance, founded, the man can hardly say on what, that 
 some how or other, and at some time or other, he shall 
 be better : a kind of superstitious hope, excited by some- 
 particular circumstance, that he shall yet be improved., 
 although at the time he makes no effort, and forms no in- 
 tention, to amend. 
 
 There is no cause more fatal, in depressing true piety^ 
 among its professors, than the notion that religion is to» 
 be regarded rather as a fixed state, than a progress ; a. 
 point to be reached, rather than a course to be continually 
 pursued. It is both ; but it is only one of these notions 
 that is taken up by many persons. Justification does in- 
 troduce us to a state of favor with God ; regeneration 
 into a state of holy life ; and membership into a state of 
 commanion with the church — but in addition to this^ 
 16* 
 
190 THE CAUSES THAI 
 
 there is the progress of sanct Lfieation — the ^oing on un- 
 to perfection. It is to me extremely probable that many 
 of the ministers of the Evangelical school have almost 
 unconsciously, or inconsiderately, given countenance to 
 this mistaken, because partial view, by dwelling too ex- 
 clusively on the mere transition from a state of death to 
 a state of life. They have shown that in the act of re- 
 ceiving the gospel, a man is at once changed both in his 
 moral relation and moral condition. From that time he 
 becomes another man, his state is altered — he passes 
 from death unto life. But then this state is to manifest 
 itself by a progressive development of the new principle. 
 He is not only to be born, but he is to grow. It is falla- 
 cious to infer the growth, when we cannot infallibly de- 
 termine the birth : it is much safer to infer the birth from 
 the growth. The New Testament everywhere repre- 
 sents the Christian life by things denoting growth and 
 progress : " The path of the just is as the shining light, 
 which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 
 There is first the babe, then the young man, then the 
 father in Christ. There is first the springing of the 
 corn, then the blade, then the full ear. We are to 
 abound more and more in knowledge, faith, and all holi- 
 ness. The Scriptures never fail to keep before us the 
 idea of advancement. 
 
 But this is almost entirely overlooked by many profess- 
 ing Christians ; their idea is to get into a state of justi- 
 fication and regeneration, and having attained that, they 
 are content. They repose in it. They have, as they im- 
 agine, escaped the tempest, and reached the shore in 
 safety, and there they stand, exulting at best in their de- 
 liverance, without attempting to penetrate and possess 
 the country they have reached. Their feeling is, "I am 
 converted, and am in the church ;" and there they stop. 
 From the time they are received into fellowship, their so- 
 licitude begins to abate ; from that point they sink down 
 into the repose of those who are at ease in Zion — they 
 have received their certificate of personal religion, and are 
 satisfied. There is no great anxitty to grow in grace, to 
 be ever advancing in the divine life, and to be ever making 
 iresh attainments in holiness. If you see them ten or 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 191 
 
 twenty years after their profession was .itst made, you 
 find them where you left them, or even gone back from 
 first love ; their religion has had some kind of motion, 
 but it has been stationary or circular, not locomotive ; it 
 has gone upon hinges, not upon wheels, or if upon the 
 latter, they have moved in a circle, not on a line Yet 
 what invaluable means of culture they have had ; what 
 auspicious Sabbaths they have spent, what sermons they 
 have heard, what books they have read ! Still their tem- 
 pers are as unsubdued, their corruptions as unmortified, 
 and their g-races as stunted, as they were at first. No 
 pupils make so little proficiency as those which are 
 educated in the school of Christ ; in no case is so much 
 instruction, so much discipline, bestowed in vain ; no- 
 where is improvement so little perceptible as here. How 
 is this 1 Just because these persons are laboring under 
 the fatal mistake of their having- come into a state; 
 reached a standing point, not a starting point ; gained an 
 advantage, which render solicitude and progress unneces- 
 sary. They do not actually admit this in words, or even 
 in thought, but, unconsciously to themselves, this is the 
 secret working of their minds. 
 
 Akin to this is the sad abuse which is made of the 
 humiliating fact that there is no perfection upon earth ; 
 as if this should reconcile us to all kinds and to all degrees 
 of imperfection. It is astonishing, and somewhat pain- 
 ful, to observe with what indifference, and almost satis- 
 faction, this reflection upon our fallen humanity is made 
 by some persons, as if they were glad to find in this ad- 
 mission a cover and an excuse for all their faults. Under 
 the pretext that there is no perfection they do things at 
 which a tender-hearted Christian, a professor with a del- 
 icate sensibihty of conscience, would be shocked. They 
 forget that the command of God is to " perfect holiness 
 in the fear of the Lord ;" " to go on unto perfection :" 
 to " be perfect ;" and that he who does not desire to be 
 perfect, does not seek to be so, and does nof lament his 
 imperfections, and labor to remove as many of them as 
 possible, discovers a heart not yet brought into subjection 
 to the authority of Christ. The true earnestness of piety 
 is an intense desire and laboi after a perfect conformity 
 
192 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 to the revealed will of God. The individual who haa 
 this mind in him can tolerate no imperfections, but sin- 
 cerely wishes to discover all his faults ; he searches his 
 heart, and implores God to search it, in order that he 
 may find them out, and put them away. He knows that 
 the bliss of heaven arises in great part from the perfec- 
 tion of holiness, and he wishes to approach as near to 
 heaven upon earth as he can, by coming as near as pos- 
 sible to perfect holiness. 
 
 What a different aspect would the church of God 
 present to the world, and in what power and glory would 
 its professors of religion appear, if it consisted of a mul- 
 titude of men and women all striving and struggling after 
 a perfect conformity to that law which makes it our duty 
 to love God with all our heart, and our neighbors as our- 
 selves — all anxious to come as near to a resemblance of 
 God, and to have as much of the mind of Christ, as could 
 be attained by any one out of heaven — all hunting after 
 their short-comings and offences, and glad of any help 
 -.0 discover them, in order that they might be put away — 
 dll stimulating and helping each other on in the career of 
 moral improvement — all watching and praying for the 
 aid of the Divine Spirit to help their infirmities — what a 
 scene, I say, would then be exhibited to an astonished 
 world, on which the angels of God would delight to 
 gaze ! What less than this is the law of Christ's church ? 
 In what less interesting and important aspect than this 
 ought the church of Christ to be seen 1 
 
 It is not improbable that a dread of singularity, a fear 
 of breaking through the barrier of conventionality, a dis- 
 like o' being thought to be setting up as a reformer, have 
 kept many back from seeking a higher degree of piety 
 than has been exhibited around them. Theylrave been 
 conscious of prevailing defects, and of their own also, 
 and under the stern rebuke of an enlightened conscience, 
 have determined to advance to a more marked separation 
 from the world, and a higher tone of spiritual feeling. 
 From this resolution, however, they have been immedi- 
 ately and effectually deterred, by an apprehension of the 
 remarks, perhaps the sneers, they would bring upon 
 themselves from the lukewarm and the worldly, who 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 193 
 
 would taunt them for setting up as reformers of their 
 brethren, and as affecting the odor of superior sanctity. 
 This apprehension is strengthened in many persons by 
 too low an estimate of their own influence. " What can 
 J do V they say ; " T who am so obscure and uninfluen- 
 tial, to stay the torrent of worldly-mindedness which is 
 flowing through the church? My example can do noth- 
 ing for the good of others, and can only bring opposition, 
 reproach and reproof, upon myself. I see the miserably 
 low condition of professors around me, and I feel and 
 lament my own ; happy should I be to see a healthier 
 state of religion in our church, and gladly would I follow 
 in the wake of those who would attempt to improve it, 
 but I cannot attempt this myself. I should only be 
 laughed at as a person affecting what I did not possess, 
 inflated by vanity, or cherishing the pride of singular- 
 ity." Let such persons remember that whatever may be 
 thought of their conduct by others, v^^hatever influence it 
 may have upon them, or whatever opposition it may 
 provoke, they are not to take these matters into account : 
 convinced of their short-comings, they are intensely and 
 laboriously to seek to have them made up. Whether 
 others will applaud or censure, follow or resist, approve 
 or condemn, they are to go on. No dread of ridicule 
 or reproach should deter them from growing in grace. 
 They must dare to be singular ; venture to go alone ; 
 determine, whether men will bear or forbear, to go for- 
 ward. The church can never be improved if this spirit 
 of timidity prevails. There could have been neither 
 martyr nor reformer upon these craven principles. I tell 
 the man who will be in advance of his generation, he 
 will be the object of their envy, their suspicion, and their 
 ill-will ; and there will be no exemption from such treat- 
 ment for the professing Christian who aims at a higher 
 standard of piety than he sees in the church of which he 
 is a member. 
 
 The people of the world will be less envious, jealous, 
 and spheful, towards a neighbor who excels them in hon- 
 esty and integrity, than inconsistent and worldly-minded 
 professors will be towards a fellow-member who has 
 more piety than they have ; just because their conscience 
 
194 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 having a little more light, reflected from the exampio 
 and expostulation of their more consistent neighbor, is 
 thus rendered more sensitive, and is more easily wounded. 
 Such persons are more censorious of superior holiness, 
 and more tolerant of great imperfections, than any others ; 
 and he who would, by avoiding their sins, rebuke them, 
 though it be in love, is sure to be the object of their dis- 
 like. But we must not be thus stopped in our endeavors 
 after higher attainments in piety. We must follow out 
 Our convictions, endeavoring to live up to the standard 
 set before us in God's Word, and not suffer ourselves to 
 be deterred from our duty by the opinion of our fellovsr 
 creatures, or fellow-professors. Our condemnation will 
 be the greater, if, after our attention has been drawn to 
 the subject, and our conscience awakened, we allow our- 
 selves to be turned aside by the fear of either the frowns 
 or the sneers of others. God will help us if we are will- 
 ing to be helped, and raise us above all that fear of man 
 which bringeth a snare. No one who is really in earnest 
 to grow in grace, and to attain to more eminent piety, 
 will be left to struggle on, unassisted in his endeavors. 
 Divine grace will be made sufficient for him, and he 
 shall be successful in his efforts. 
 
 At the same time, he must remember that his humility, 
 meekness, and gentleness, must be no less apparent than 
 his other excellences. It must be earnestness itself, and 
 not the appearance of it merely, that he seeks and man- 
 ifests ; and it must be for its own sake, and not for the 
 sake of gaining the character of it. There must be 
 nothing even remotely approaching to the contemptuous 
 disposition which says, " Stand by, I am holier than 
 thou." No affected airs of superior piety — no offensive 
 obtrusion of our example — no supercilious rebukes — 
 no bitter censoriousness — no angry reproaches — but a 
 piety, which, hkethe sun, shall be seen rather than heard, 
 and shall diffuse its influence in a noiseless manner, and 
 almost without drawing attention to its source. Such a 
 profession must do good, however humble the station in 
 life of him who makes it ; and if all who are convinced 
 by these pages of their own deficiencies, as w^ell as of 
 those of the church at large, shall attempt to make up 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 195 
 
 the latter by beginning with the former, this volume will 
 not have been written in vain. 
 
 IX. This enumeration of the causes that tend to de- 
 press and injure the spirit of vital godliness would be 
 incomplete if I did not mention the modern taste for fre- 
 quenting watering places and travelling abroad. Having 
 dwelt on this at length in " The Christian Professor," 
 under the chapter, "The Professor away from /fowie," 
 I shall only briefly advert to the subject here. There 
 are few things which have had a more unhappy influence 
 upon the middling and upper classes of professing Chris- 
 tians than this. Even those annual visits to the coast, 
 or the inland places of fashionable resort, now so prev- 
 alent, are sufficiently pernicious in their influence to put 
 all who have any regard to their eternal welfare most 
 seriously upon their guard, against the temptations which 
 are thus presented, by the sudden and complete transition 
 from employment to idleness — by the removal of those 
 salutary restraints with which they are surrounded in the 
 habitations where they statedly reside, and the mixed 
 characters of the society into which they are almost 
 necessarily thrown — by the amusements which are there 
 most prevalent and fashionable — by the general air of 
 dissipation which is thrown over the whole scene — by 
 the interruption of their usual habits of devotion, private, 
 domestic, and social — and by the indisposedness w^hich 
 is the consequence of all this, for the seasons and exer- 
 cises of religion. These are no imaginary dangers, as 
 the experience of all who have adopted this practice 
 must attest, and as the total apostasy of some, and the 
 backsliding of many, will corroborate. 
 
 This danger is of course increased by foreign travel, in 
 numerous ways — by a removal from the usual means of 
 grace — by the frequent desecration of the Sabbath — by 
 associations oftentimes with worldly-minded companions 
 
 — by a strain upon, and tampering with, co'iscience, in 
 reference to many matters of very questional e propriety 
 
 — and by the familiar gaze of mere curiosity upon scenes 
 and customs known to lae sinful. In all these ways ma 5 
 the spirituality of our minds, the tenderress of our con- 
 science, and the delicacy of our moral sensibilities, 'ie 
 
196 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 impaired by those continental tours which are so fashion 
 able and so fascinating-. Their influence, no doubt, has 
 been mischievous to an extent of which we are not aware, 
 among many whose religion was already of a feeble and 
 a doubtful kind. Nor have more vigorous spiritual con- 
 stitutions escaped the influence of the malaria of these 
 infected regions. But as the thing is lawful in itself, and 
 only sinful when abused, let us, if disposed thus to 
 recreate our minds, and gratify our curiosity which we 
 innocently may, recollect that we are about to expose 
 ourselves to peril, earnestly pray for grace to preserve 
 us, and watch as well as pray that we enter not into 
 temptation. As our best preservative from home, and at 
 home — as one of the most eflfectnal means of resisting 
 temptation and promoting holiness, " Let us consider 
 ourselves under the all-seeing eye of the Divine Majesty, 
 as in the midst of an infinite globe of light, which com- 
 passeth us about both behind and before, and pierceth to 
 the innermost recesses of the soul. The sense and the 
 remembrance of the Divine presence is the most ready 
 and eflfectual means, both to discovering what is unlaw- 
 ful, and to restrain us from it. There are some things 
 which a person could make a shift to palliate or defend, 
 and yet he dares not look Almighty God in the face, and 
 adventure upon them. If we look unto him we shall be 
 lightened ; if we ' set him always before us, he will 
 guide us with his eye, and instruct us in the way wherein 
 we should walk.' " * 
 
 X. The last thing I shall mention as tending to depress 
 the spirit of true religion, is the spirit of sectarianism, 
 which so extensively prevails among the various sections 
 of the Christian Church. 
 
 By the spirit of sectarianism, I mean that overweening 
 
 * Scougal's "Life of God in the Soul of Man." Would God 
 the whole generation oi the professors of true religion of this 
 day, and of every age, would read this most beautiful and in- 
 comparable treatise on practical religion ! This is the religion 
 we want, and of which we have too little. There is an edition 
 of Scougal's whole works, in one small volume, among Collins* 
 Select Authors, enriched by an inestimable Introductory Essay, 
 by that able and eminent man, the late Rev. Richard Watson. 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 197 
 
 attachment to our distinctive opinions on doctrine, gov- 
 ernment, and sacrament, which leads to a disproportion- 
 ate and often a distempered zeal for upholding- and pro- 
 mulgating them ; and to a state of alienation, if not of 
 hostility, towards those who differ from us, notwithstand- 
 ing their agreement with us in still more fundamental and 
 important matters. This spirit of exclusiveness, which 
 shuts out from our affection, sympathy, and communion, 
 all those, however evangelical in sentiment and holy in 
 conduct, who are not within the pale of our church, and 
 which would seem to restrict all excellence to our own 
 body, is, whatever its abettors may imagine, not only 
 anti-social, but positively anti-Christian. It is the es- 
 sence of bigotry ; the germ of intolerance ; and in its 
 last development, the spirit of persecution. 
 
 That such a spirit of sectarianism as this does prevail, 
 is the confession and the lamentation of all catholic- 
 minded Christians. It might seem as if this spirit were 
 itself an indication and an operation of earnestness. So it 
 is of the earnestness of party, but not of piety. Saul of 
 Tarsus had no lack of this when he was hastening to Da- 
 mascus, and breathing out threatening and slaughter against 
 the disciples of Jesus ; nor the Popish inquisitors in exter- 
 minating heretics by fire and sword ; but who will call this 
 the earnestness of true religion ? It is zeal, but kindled 
 by a spark from the flaming pit below. Zeal for lesser 
 matters, to the neglect of greater ones, and which pro- 
 duces more dislike, or even indifference, to those who 
 differ from us in these minor points, than friendship, 
 sympathy, and love to them, on the ground of those 
 more important ones on which we are united, is an 
 antagonistic feeling to true piety. This is easily demon- 
 strated. — It is an injury and opposition to that truth 
 which is the basis of all religion, inasmuch as it depresses 
 its more momentous doctrines, and gives an undue eleva- 
 tion to its lesser ones. — It is at open war with that love 
 which is the greatest of the Christian graces, the very 
 essence of religion, and without which all else is but as 
 sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal . — It introduces a 
 foreign and corrupting element into true godhness, and 
 17 ' 
 
198 THE CAUSES THAT 
 
 envenoms it with the poison of mahce and \a rath. — It 
 diverts attention from primary to secondary matters, and 
 exhausts the energies of the S'lul in bringing forth the 
 fruits of contention, instead of the peaceable fruits of 
 righteousness. — It cuts off the channels of sympathy 
 between the different sections of the universal church, 
 and thus deprives each pail of the benefit of what may 
 be found in the way of example, spiritual literature, and 
 cooperation, in the other sections of the great fellowship 
 of believers. — It tends to perpetuate our strifes and divi- 
 sions, by extinguishing the spirit by which alone we are 
 hkely to come to ultimate agreement. — It fosters in 
 many a disposition to infidelity, by disparaging the excel- 
 lence and weakening the power of true religion. — It 
 represses the spirit of prayer, and thus is a barrier to the 
 spread of the gospel in the world — and it grieves the 
 Holy Spirit of God, whereby he is induced to withhold 
 his gracious influence. 
 
 Such are the consequences of sectarianism, and can 
 any one doubt whether this is inimical to religion ? It 
 may substitute for the fervor of a pure zeal, a fxCry tur- 
 bulence ; but this is not genuine piety ; this is not the 
 true vital warmth of a soul in full health, but the fever 
 of a diseased and morbidly restless spirit. It is high 
 time to stop the progress and destroy the power of this 
 hateful temper. If we have not religion enough to van- 
 quish sectarianism, sectarianism will acquire more and 
 more power to vanquish religion. Let charity arise into 
 the ascendant. We cannot do a better thing, either for 
 the church, or for the w^orld, than to seek for a greater 
 degree of love among the friends of Christ. How has 
 religion been tarnished in her beauty, weakened in her 
 influence, and limited in her reign, by these contentions 
 among her friends ! Success, therefore, be to those efforts 
 which are now being made, by the sons of peace, to bring 
 the scattered and alienated followers of the Lamb into a 
 closer union with each other ; and whether the Evangel- 
 ical Alliance shall continue to exist or not, in its present 
 forr'. and constitution, all good men must join in the long- 
 ings and the prayers of our Divine Lord, w'hen he thus 
 
REPRESS EARNESTNESS. 199 
 
 breathed out his heart for his disciples, " That they all 
 may be one ; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee ; 
 that they all may be one in us : that the* world may be- 
 lieve that thou hast sent me." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 INDUCEMENTS TO EARNESTNESS. 
 
 Inducements! Can it be necessary to offer these? 
 What ! is not the bare mention of religion enough to 
 rouse every soul who understands the meaning of that 
 momentous word, to the greatest intensity of action? 
 Who needs to have spread out before him the demon- 
 strations of logic, or the persuasions of rhetoric, to move 
 him to seek after wealth, rank, or honor ? Who, when 
 an opportunity presents itself to obtain such possessions, 
 requires anything more than an appeal to his conscious- 
 ness of their value to engage him in the pursuit ? The 
 very mention of riches suggests at once to man's cupidity 
 a thousand arguments to use the means of obtaining them. 
 What intense longings rise in the heart ! What pictures 
 crowd the imagination ! What a spell comes over the 
 whole soul ! And why is there less, yea, why is there 
 not intensely more, than all this, at the mention of the 
 word religion, that term which comprehends heaven and 
 earth — time and eternity — God and man — wit]\in its 
 sublime and boundless meaning? K we were a.3 we 
 ought to be, it would be enough only to -whisper in the 
 ear that word of more than magic power, ^o engage all 
 our faculties, and all their energies, in the most resolute 
 purpose, the most determined pursuit, and the most entire 
 self-devotement. Inducements to earnestness in religion ! 
 Alas, how low we have sunk, how far have we been par- 
 alyzed, to need to be thus stimulated ! But since this is 
 our state, we are at no loss for considerations which, with 
 every reflecting mind, will be found to supply motives 
 of irresistible potency. 
 
200 INDTTCEMEarTS 
 
 I. How, without such a state of mind , can we be satr 
 isfied that we have any personal reUgion at all ? Where 
 is our evidence ° that we are sincere Christians, if we are 
 not earnest Christians 1 Understand — consider — ponder, 
 what it is we are seeking after and contending for. Let 
 us recollect what we are professedly endeavoring to escape 
 from — nothing less than eternal perdition — and not in 
 earnest to flee Irom the wrath to come? Did any one, 
 besides Lot's wife, to whom we are directed for a warn- 
 ing, flee from a burning house with lukewarmness and 
 half a heart ? Let us consider what we are professedly 
 making the object of desire and pursuit — even glory, 
 honor, immortality, and eternal life — and not earnestly 
 seeking it? Did ever mortal yet, whose ambition led 
 him to combat for a crown, engage with languor and 
 supineness for the glittering prize 1 Is " the salvation 
 which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory," an object 
 so inconsiderable, and of such little value, that a person 
 can really be supposed to be pursuing it, though he is a 
 stranger to any ardor of soul in reference to it? Is 
 religion a contradiction to the usual maxim that a man's 
 activity in endeavoring to obtain an object is, if he under- 
 stand it, in exact proportion to the value and importance 
 which he attaches to it? Are heaven, and salvation, and 
 eternity, the only matters that shall reverse this maxim, 
 and make lukewarmness the rule of action? It cannot 
 be ; it is impossible ; if the supine and careless professor 
 be sincere, not only must all the principles of revelation 
 be cancelled, but all those of our own nature be sub- 
 verted. 
 
 Without earnestness you are not safe for eternity, and 
 ought not to conclude that you are. Doubt and suspicion 
 ought to rise at once in your mind, and you ought to fear 
 you have never yet started for the incorruptible crown of 
 life and glory. You are in the church only nominally. 
 Your profession, it is to be feared, is hollow and false, and 
 will be found utterly unavailing at last. You will add to 
 the already countless multitude that have gone down to 
 the pit with a lie in their right hand, and who prove that 
 though men may be lost without earnestness, they cannot 
 be saved without it. Would that I could alarm the care* 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 201 
 
 less, and awaken the slumbering- professor ! By what 
 thunder shall I break in upon your deep and dangerous 
 sleep? 0, that it were possible to reverberate in your 
 ears the echoes of the wailings of those who are mourning, 
 in the bottomless pit, the sin and folly of an insincere 
 profession of religion ! 
 
 Anl then, even where there is sincerity, and, therefore, 
 some legree of this intensity of mind, still it is your duty 
 and privilege to go on increasing it. The more devoted 
 you are, the clearer is your evidence of personal interest 
 in the blessings of salvation. Your doubts and fears w'ill 
 be dissipated by such a state of mind, like the mists and 
 clouds of the morning flying off before the rising sun. 
 You will have the full consciousness that you have be- 
 lieved in the Lord Jesus Christ, by your joy and peace in 
 believing, by your love to God, by your longings after 
 holiness, by your spirituality, heavenly-mindedness and 
 habitual communion with God. Your religion will be 
 self-evident to yourself and to others. You will feel 
 that your citizenship is in heaven, and that you belong 
 more to another world than to this. You will need no 
 voice from heaven, no messenger from God, no searching 
 for your name in the book of God's decrees, to convince' 
 you that you have passed from death unto life. The act- 
 ings of the new, the hidden and spiritual hfe, will be too 
 strong and steady to leave you in any doubt that the prin- 
 ciple of vitality is within. You will have the witness in 
 yourself, and its testimony will be too loud and unequiv- 
 ocal to be unheard or mistaken. 
 
 Do, do consider, then, ye professors of religion, what 
 it is about w^iich this assurance is to be obtained — it is 
 the salvation of your immortal soul ! O revolve often and 
 deeply the infinite realities about which religion is con- 
 versant ! Most subjects may be made to appear with 
 greater or less dignity, according to the greater or less de- 
 gree of importance in which the preacher places them. 
 Pompous expressions, bold figures, lively ornaments of 
 eloquence, may often supply a want of this dignity in 
 the subject discussed. But every attempt to give impor- 
 tance to a motive taken from eternity, is more likely t6 
 17* 
 
202 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 enfeeble the doctrine, than to invigorate it. Motives of 
 this kind are self-sufficient, descriptions the most sim- 
 ple, and the most natural, are always the most pathetic or 
 the most terrifying ; nor can I find an expression more 
 powerful and more emp/hatic than that of Paul, "Ty^ 
 things which are not seen are eternal." What more 
 could the tongues of men, and the eloquence of angels, 
 say? "Eternal things!" — oh what subjects are veiled 
 under that expression ! Nothing less than eternal sal- 
 vation — eternal perdition ! Professing Christians, sur- 
 mount your customary indolence ; summon your faculties, 
 and rouse your energies, to the consideration of this sub- 
 ject, and weigh the import of that phrase, eternal 
 things. The history of nations, the eras of time, the 
 creation of worlds — all fade into insignificance, dwindle 
 to a point, attenuate to a shadow, compared with these 
 eternal things. Do you believe them? If not, abjure 
 your creed, abandon your Bible, and renounce your pro- 
 fession. Be consistent, and let the stupendous vision, 
 which, like Jacob's ladder, rests its foot on earth and places 
 its top in heaven, vanish in thin air. But if you do be- 
 lieve, then, say what ought to be the conduct of him, who 
 to his own conviction stands with hell beneath him, 
 heaven above him, and eternity before him. O, could 
 you spend but one hour in heaven and hell, into one of 
 which you may pass the next hour, and will pass 
 some hour — could you be for so short a time the wit- 
 ness of ineffable glory, and inconceivable misery — could 
 you see " the solemn troops, the sweet societies," 
 of the celestial city, and the legions of accursed spirits 
 which throng the dark domain of the infernal world ; 
 and then come back again to earth, would it be pos- 
 sible any more to attend to things seen and tempo- 
 ral, when such things eternal were before you '^ Politics 
 would lose their fascination — business its importance 
 — wealth its charms — fame its glory — pleasure its 
 attractions — science its value, and even home its power 
 to please. Heaven and hell — the soul and eternity, 
 would annihilate forever all the vain things which now 
 please you most. To every temptation that would 
 
TO EARNF«TNESS. 203 
 
 divert your mind from the salvation of your soul, you 
 would say, — 
 
 " I cannot liny your bliss so dear, 
 Nor part with, heaven for you." 
 
 Indeed, you would be at once unfitted for earth. If 
 you endured existence at all, you must quit society, retire 
 to the hermitage, the convent, or the monastery. He 
 who had visited the upper and the nether world could do 
 nothing else than live to avoid the one, and prepare for 
 the other ; or to labor as Paul did after he came from the 
 third heavens, to take others with him on his return. 
 
 By all the worth of the immortal soul, then — by all 
 the blessings of eternal salvation — by all the glories of 
 the upper world — by all the horrors of the bottomless 
 pit — by all the ages of eternity, and by all the personal 
 interest you have in these infinite realities, I conjure you 
 to be in earnest in personal rehgion. 
 
 II. As another inducement to this, may be mentioned 
 the certain, connection between a high state of reli- 
 gion in this world, and an exalted state of honor and 
 happiness in the world to come ; or, in other words, the 
 different degrees of glory in the celestial kingdom. We 
 are too much accustomed to conceive of heaven and hell 
 as places where the happy inhabitants of the one, and 
 the miserable criminals of the other, will be, respectively, 
 al] upon a level ; the one all equally happy, and the 
 other all equally wretched. This is neither the doctrine 
 of Scripture, nor the deduction of reason. If we consult 
 the Word of God, we find it declared, in reference to the 
 wicked, that " The servant which knew his Lord's will, 
 and prepared not himself, nor did according to his will, 
 shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, 
 and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten 
 with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, 
 of him shall be much required." Luke xii. 47. So 
 again it is said by the apostle, " Be not deceived ; God is 
 not mocked ; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he 
 also reap." Gal. vi. 7. " He which soweth sparingly, 
 shall reap sparingly ; and he which soweth bountifully, 
 shall reap also bountifully." 2 Cor. ix. 6. Now the 
 
204 
 
 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 solemn truth conveyed in this language, is this —that 
 man's hfe is the seed-time for eternity — and that as here 
 he is always sowing, so he will hereafter be always reap- 
 ing ; and that the harvest, both as to the kind and 
 the quantity, will be according to the seed. They that 
 sow good seed will have, some thirty, some sixty, and 
 some a hundred folu, according to the quantity sown ; 
 while they who sow the seed of bad things will also have 
 a harvest regulated by their seed, both in its quality and 
 amount. God's rule of reward and punishment is a law of 
 proportion. True it is, that in the case of the righteous 
 and the wicked, there is on the part of God a different 
 ground of procedure in reference to each, inasmuch as 
 the punishment of the wicked is on the ground of their 
 own desert, while the reward of the righteous is on that 
 of Christ's merits — but this affects not the rule of dis- 
 tribution, since he who gives to- a believer any measure 
 of heavenly glory for the sake of Christ, may, on the 
 same ground, give to another a far greater measure ; 
 he might do this in a way of pure sovereignty, but he has 
 determined to do so according to the measure of holiness 
 to which believers attain on earth. 
 
 This principle of different degrees of glory does not at 
 all interfere with, or in the least oppose, the doctrine of 
 justification by faith ; nor does it affect the perfect happi- 
 n^^ss of the blessed in heaven. It will excite neither 
 envy, jealousy, nor ill-will of any kind, since these pas- 
 sions will be all rooted out from the spirits of just men 
 made perfect ; and no other disposition, but that of per- 
 fl^ct love to God and our fellows, will have any place in 
 us. A being possessed of this perfect love, though the 
 least and lowest in the scale of blessedness, would look 
 up to all above him without the smallest taint of malev- 
 olent feeling. All will be perfectly contented, and, there- 
 fore, perfectly happy ; and he who is perfectly contented 
 knows nothing of enyy ; these states of mind are incom- 
 patible with each other. There may be vessels of an 
 indefinite number of capacities, yet all may be full. Thus 
 we can conceive of different degrees of glory, and yet no 
 disturbance jf the felicity of those who are subjects of 
 them. 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 205 
 
 Now the law by which these varieties will be regu 
 lated will be, as we have already supposed, the attain- 
 ments in personal religion, and the degrees of usefulness 
 cf Christians upon earth ; and this law will help us better 
 to conceive of the whole subject. We may imagine that 
 every effort of vital godliness — every successful resist- 
 ance of temptation — every reach after holiness — every 
 mortification of sin — every aspiration after conformity to 
 God — may have some effect upon the moral constitution 
 of our nature, analogous to the exercise of our under- 
 standing or of our body, in strengthening our intellectual 
 and corporeal frame. There may be an expansion, so to 
 speak, of the spiritual nature, an increasing receptivity 
 of glory and honor, ever going on, by our growth in 
 grace on earth ; the child of God may here, by his good 
 habits in the school of Christ, and by his holy exercises. 
 be preparing for a larger stature of the perfect man ir 
 heaven. There can be little doubt that the society of 
 Paradise will be well compacted and orderly. There 
 may be varieties of rank, station and employment ; for 
 aught we can tell, there may be rule, subjection and gov- 
 ernment ; and therefore the different degrees of grace 
 may be the discipline, the education, the meetness, for 
 the different situations to be filled up, the posts to be 
 occupied, in the celestial kingdom. There are not want- 
 ing intimations of this in the Word of God. 
 
 Besides, let it be remembered that we shall carry with 
 us our memory to heaven, and will it be no bhss to 
 remember what we did for God on earth, and how we 
 attempted to serve Christ 1 Why, the apostle Paul felt 
 this even on earth ; and if the retrospect then afforded 
 him such delight, how much more when he saw the 
 results of all he did spread out before him in the celestial 
 world ! With what rapture would he there say, " I have 
 fought a good fight, I have finished my course !" How 
 precious would be the recollection of all his sufferings, 
 and all his labors ! How it would delight him to look 
 back, and recall to recollection his sacrifices and his ser- 
 vices, not in a spirit of pharisaic pride, but of deep hu- 
 mility, and adoring gratitude and love. There he would 
 realize the truth of his own words, " For what is our 
 
206 INDUCEMENTiS 
 
 hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in 
 the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming"^ 
 For 5^e are our glory and joy." 1 Thess. ii. 19. Every 
 soul he had been the instrument of saving would be a 
 separate jewel to enrich and adorn his diadem of glory. 
 
 Just thus M'ill it be with all others. Memory will add 
 to their felicities also. The whole multitude of the 
 redeemed will remember all they did for Christ, and 
 think of it with delight ; and they who have most to 
 think of will have most bliss in the remembrance of it. 
 The souls which they have been the instruments of 
 saving will all be present to swell their rapture and aug- 
 ment their bliss. Nor will the enjoyment stop here. 
 The blissful reminiscence will be enhanced by a divine 
 eulogy, for Christ will add his testimony of approbation 
 to all they did. Even a cup of cold water shall not lose 
 its reward, if given to a disciple in his name. He will 
 pass over nothing. He keeps a book of remembrance of 
 those who even think upon his name ; and he will mark 
 with his special and personal commendation all we have 
 done for him ; and then they who have served him best 
 will, of course, receive most of his gracious notice and 
 commendation. 
 
 Professors, I appeal to you, then, on this deeply inter- 
 esting and important view of our subject. True it is, 
 that to be just within the threshold of your Father's 
 house — to occupy the lowest room, and to perform the 
 humblest service, wall be amazing and unutterable grace 
 — but this ought not to be an excuse for indolence, an 
 apology for lukewarmness. If it be lawful for you to 
 long for heaven, because there you shall enjoy the pres- 
 ence of your Lord, it is surely lawful for you to desire to 
 press as near to your Lord as possible ; the outer circle, 
 the distant glimpse, the remote dwelling, ought not to 
 be enough to satisfy your desire, or fill your heart. If 
 it be lawful for you to co' et heaven at all, because you 
 shall there serve God, surely it is lawful for you also to 
 aspire to the honor of doing more for him than you could 
 do in one of the lowest posts. Call not this a spiritual 
 selfishness, or an unauthorized ambition ; it is no such 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 
 
 207 
 
 thing ; it is a legitimate yearning of the soul after the 
 glory to be revealed. This, this, is your business on 
 earth, you are training for heaven ; this is your work in 
 the church militant, to be preparing for some post and 
 place in the church triumphant. Is not this enough to 
 make you in earnest? Can you believe this, and not be 
 in earnest? Awake — arouse — put aside your earthly- 
 mindedness — mortify your corruptions ! " Gird up the 
 loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end. for the 
 grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of 
 Jesus ChriFt." 1 Pet. i. 13. 
 
 III. And without this intensity of mind, what is 
 your religion? Certainly not a source of pleasure, but 
 of distaste. An earnest religion is that alone which is a 
 happy one. To drink into the pleasures of religion, we 
 must drink deeply of religion itself. It is with the hap- 
 piness of piety as it is with ore in a mine, it lies far 
 below the surface, and we must make a laborious descent 
 to reach the treasure, but when reached, it is worth all 
 the digging and toiling to get at it. Many professors, if 
 they were honest, would say their religion is an incum- 
 brance, rather than a privilege. It yields no delight ; 
 they are strangers to the peace that passeth understand- 
 ing, and to the joy that is unspeakable and full of glory. 
 They occupy a position half-way between the church 
 and the world, and do not enjoy the pleasures of either ; 
 ihey are spoiled for the one, without being fitted for the 
 other. They have given up many of the fashionable 
 amusements of the gay, and have received nothing in 
 return ; and hence they turn many a longing eye on 
 what they have left. They were happier as they once 
 were ; they begin to think, and others thmk so too, that 
 they are in their wrong place in being in the church of 
 God, and were it not for the shame of retreat, they 
 would be glad to be back again amidst former scenes. 
 How much are they to be pitied, as well as blamed — and 
 they are not few — who have just religion enough to make 
 them miserable ! 
 
 IV. We live in an earnest age, and religion cannot 
 be expected to maintain its ground without a correspond- 
 
208 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 ing decision and resoluteness of character.* The human 
 mind was never more active than it is now ; the human 
 heart never more engrossed ; and, in consequence, human 
 schemes never came more thickly or rapidly crowding 
 upon the public attention. There have been times when 
 some one object has seized with a more absorbing power, 
 and a more giant grasp, the intellect of the nation, such 
 as a season of intestine commotion, of the dread of for- 
 eign invasion, of the prevalence of the plague, or othet 
 forms of pestilence — but these excitements have been 
 of a kind which, while they occupied the mind, did not 
 draw men away from, but drove them to, religion for 
 succor and support. An awe of God, and a sense of the 
 need of his interposition, came in such circumstances 
 over the nation. While the tempest was rolling over us, 
 and men's hearts were failing them for fear, they seemed 
 to see Jehovah riding in the whirlwind and directing the 
 storm. God was recognized as coming near to them, 
 wrapped in cloud and speaking in thunder. But it is not 
 so now ; it is an excitement which, to a great extent, 
 tends to shut out, and keep out, God from men's 
 thoughts ; and partakes, in some views and directions, 
 of an atheistic character. Politics, both national and 
 municipal, are engrossing, without being alarming; no 
 spectral forms of national danger soberize the minds of 
 men. Trade is a passion as well as a pursuit ; science 
 is all but miraculous in its discoveries, and is keeping 
 our mind upon the stretch in admiration of what it has 
 done, and in expectation of what it may yet do. Art is 
 continually surprising us with new inventions. The rail- 
 way system has almost changed our mode and habits of 
 existence. We seem scarcely to be inhabiting the same 
 planet as our forefathers. The press is astounding us 
 with the rapid multiplication of its products. Our minds, 
 hearts, hands, are all full — and what but an earnest 
 piety can prevent our being totally swallowed up in the 
 vortex, and carried away by the stream? If we have 
 not an earnest piety in the midst of this earnestness for 
 
 * I am obliged here to travel over some of the ground I took 
 in my " Earnest Ministry ;" but I cannot avoid it, and shall do 
 It now in a condensed form. 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 209 
 
 everything- else, we can have no piety at all. Men are 
 so full of action as to have scarcely time to think ; and 
 what thinking they can carry on is all of the earth, and 
 therefore earthly. It is the idolatry of genius, the 
 worship of talent, the ennoblement, almost the deifica- 
 tion, of man, that characterizes our day. This generation 
 seems -in danger of thinking, or of acting, as if they 
 thought there is nothing higher than human intellect 
 A sort of unacknovi'ledged, unsuspected Pantheism is 
 coming over us. God is by many shut out of his own 
 world ; nature is everything ; its Creator, nothing. 
 
 Now we — as Christians — are in danger of being in- 
 fected by this prevailing spirit. We never wanted more 
 religion, or wanted religion more, than we do now. 
 Upon it depends whether the Supreme Being shall be 
 any longer acknowledged by his creatures, or his very 
 name sunk in oblivion ; and yet we are not in the best 
 state to resist the assault upon the foundations of our 
 piety. Earnestness is going out of the church into the 
 world ; and unless it can be revived among us, the 
 church will go on sinking into a state of feebleness and 
 decay. Instead of the church permeating the world 
 with its own spirit, it is receiving the spirit of the world 
 into itself. Instead of directing, controlling, and sanctify- 
 ing the spirit and manners of the age, it is itself directed, 
 controlled, and contaminated by them. Its own light has 
 become pale, and is in danger of being extinguished by 
 the mighty beams of a more intense fire blazing around 
 from without. Earnest men of the world are crowding 
 past, and thrusting aside the professors of religion, and 
 Christians, in such a state of things, cannot stand their 
 ground, much less advance, without a robust and ath- 
 letic piety. They will be borne down, lose their spirit- 
 uality, become spiritless and weak, and soon cast oflf 
 their religion as having none of the life with which all 
 things around them are instinct. 
 
 And then what chance have they, unless they are as 
 flames of fire, of kindling a single spark in the souls of 
 others ? Men of the world are too busy, too much pre- 
 occupied, too in*-^nt on other objects, to be broken in 
 18 
 
210 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 upon, to be arrested, except by a most vigoi ,<u& religion. 
 They love excitement, and they have it ; they must go 
 v.-ith the men who are alive and active, and what care 
 they for a poor, dull, sleepy religion — a mere name — a 
 profession half dead? " Yes," they say, " I am in ear- 
 nest for this world, and I must be in earnest. I am made 
 for activity. I have a vast fund of energy in my nature, 
 which must be called out and employed, and I cannot put 
 up with your drowsy tinklings, while the trumpets are 
 sounding and calling me to the field. Show me a reli- 
 gion that is full of life, and vigor, and enjoyment, and 1 
 may then hearken to you, but not till then." We must 
 meet this demand, and exhibit a religion that in earnest- 
 ness surpasses even the energy of their pursuits. Every 
 Christian church should appear to be the region of life — 
 a very hive without any drones — al] busy for eternity, 
 all engaged upon their own salvation and the salvation of 
 the world ; a scene which exhibits the union of activity 
 and repose ; where the one is without weariness, and the 
 other without listlessness ; where the true secret of hap- 
 piness is found in hope without disappointment — energy 
 without exhaustion — happiness without satiety — and 
 life is in its fullest vigor and richest enjoyment. Such 
 should be every church, a peaceful haven, inviting men 
 to retire from the tossings and perils of the unquie ocean 
 of worldly troubles, to a sacred inclosiire, a sequestered 
 spot, which the storms and tempests of earthly interests 
 are not permitted to invade ; and yet where the happiest 
 employment is combined with the sweetest and safest 
 tranquillity. 
 
 V. Consider the combined and deleterious influence 
 which is likely to come against Christianity from the en- 
 grossing power of some things, good in themselves, and 
 evil only by their association with other matters — such 
 as science, philosophy, and liberalism in politics ; and the 
 positive and increasing influence of others — such as po- 
 pery and infidehty, which are evil, only evil, and that 
 continually. 
 
 Science of itself is of God, and leads to him, if men 
 will but give themselves up to its legitimate deductions, 
 and will allow themselves to be guided whither it would 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 211 
 
 conduct them, since its conclusions would infallibly lead 
 them to the temple of religion. But, alas ! how rarely is 
 this the case ! the most distinguished of our scientific 
 men stand without, or reach only the vestibule of the 
 temple, and instead of pressing on to adore the Deity en- 
 shrined in the holy of holies, are contented to admire the 
 fair proportions and stupendous magnitude of the sacred 
 edifice. Science cannot, of course, be made to speak of 
 God the Saviour and the Sanctifier, but it may be made 
 a teacher of God the Creator. But how rarely is even 
 this done ! For aught that is said by many of our great 
 teachers of nature's laws, of the supreme, intelligent, 
 and benevolent First Cause, we might be left to conclude 
 that we lived in a godless world, and that we saw around 
 us either the works of chance, or at any rate the produc- 
 tions of a being whom it was not thought worth while to 
 inquire after. Nor does the matter rest here, for many 
 are endeavoring by science to lead us away from God, and 
 thus making the very works of the infinite Intelligence a 
 blazing galaxy to eclipse the glory of the eternal Creator, 
 and lure us to the brink of Atheism or Pantheism. And 
 where this is not done ; where neither the teacher nor 
 the taught has any intention or wish to go astray from 
 God amidst the boundless fields of a universe ever widen- 
 ing upon the exploring and astonished mind ; yet how 
 much danger is there, lest the surprfeing discoveries 
 which are ever and anon bursting upon our view, should 
 by their novelty and their grandeur render the old and 
 long established truths of revelation tame and insipid ! 
 How imminent, to cultivated minds, is the peril, when 
 engaged amidst the all but overwhelming studies of ge- 
 ology, chemistry, astronomy, magnetism, electricity, and 
 optics, of passing by, with heedless step and averted eye, 
 that cross on which the Saviour loved and died ! How 
 sad, and yet how true, is it, that the more God reveals 
 himself through the discoveries of science, the more he 
 should be forgotten, and even denied, as he reveals him- 
 self in the pages of his Word I What else can this be 
 but the aui^ient disposition of not liking to retain tin 
 knowledge of God, and the ancient revulsion, " Depart 
 froTi us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways?' 
 
212 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 But even with pious people, who, in their more seri- 
 o-is moments, trace up all science to Gon, and find cause 
 in his works for adoring wonder, gratitude, and love, 
 there is need of caution, watchfulness, and prayer, lest a 
 love for general reading, and the constant occupation of 
 the mind amidst the fields of knowledge, which are ever 
 opv^ning before them, should lead the heart away from 
 God. Not a few, in soaring to the stars, or delving into 
 the earth — in analyzing substances, and ascertaining 
 properties — in balancing theories of currency, popula- 
 tion, and other matters, connected with the wealth of na- 
 tions, have lost their relish for the truths of the kingdom 
 of God, and instead of feeling any longer the attractions 
 of those things into which the angels desire to look, are 
 wholly taken up with the objects of this material and vis- 
 ible world. This is the snare of our age — such an oc- 
 cupancy of the mind by the varieties of knowledge which 
 are ever presenting themselves, as that there shall be 
 neither room, nor time, nor taste, for rehgion. " The 
 value, the uses, the pleasures of knowledge, and the best 
 means of acquiring it," is the cry of the age — and a 
 very good one, in measure, it is — but then it is crying 
 down, with many, everything else ; it is insidiously alien- 
 ating men's minds from religion, by throwing the great 
 moral truths of revelation into the shadow of a material 
 philosophy ; and ftiaking men feel as if the tree of knowl- 
 edge were the tree of life, or at any rate as if, by eating 
 the fruit of the former, they could dispense with the fruit 
 jf the latter, and either do without heaven hereafter, or 
 were fitted for it by the science they gain upon earth. 
 Christians, as well as others, are in danger from this 
 source, and instead of growing in grace and in general 
 knowledge, which they may and should do, have grown 
 in knowledge, but have declined in grace. • 
 
 Let me not be misconceived nor misrepresented, as if I 
 were pleading against knowledge, as if I conceived it 
 were an enemy to revelation and rehgion. No such 
 thing. I am only pleading against it as the substitute of 
 rehgion, as that which would be of itself sufficient for 
 man's moral and immortal self, without religion. I adopt 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 213 
 
 the noble language of Mr. Wells in his lecture upon the 
 instruction of the laboring class. 
 
 " If it be asked, What limits would you place on the 
 education of the working classes? the answer is ' none.' 
 Teach them all you can by any means induce or enabie 
 them to learn. How far would you carry the instruction 
 of the working classes ? As far as possible. . . . But, 
 apart from this, who is afraid of knowledge? of sound, 
 healthful intelligence 1 Of knowledge, the light and joy 
 of souls ! Of knowledge, the object for which minds 
 were made, and their faculties given ! Of knowledge, 
 in capacity for which, man resembles his Maker ; and in 
 acquiring which, he communes with all created things ! 
 Of knowledge, the foe of everything infidel, sensual, 
 and brutal ? What page of history, science, or genuine 
 poetry, must we close from any man, saying, here knowl- 
 edge is perilous — here ignorance alone is safety? Of 
 what discovered facts in nature — of what refined pro- 
 ductions of genius — must we say, ' These are the luxu- 
 ries of the few alone?' If, indeed, only of the few, 
 those few are not the favored in circumstances, but the 
 select in mind, and these may be found among the 
 working classes in as large proportion as among the 
 privileged classes ; and wherever they may be found, 
 there they should be sought, that at this uncostly and 
 noble banquet of mind they may be welcome guests, and 
 joyful partakers. Lift up the people, cheer on the 
 people, to as much acquisition of knowledge as possible. 
 Raise everywhere the standard of mind. If some, if 
 many, so encouraged and helped, press upwards into 
 higher departments and circumstances in society, so 
 much the better. They will bring health and power 
 with them into the ranks by which they will be hailed 
 as brothers, not scowled upon as intruders. No, teach 
 the people all they can learn, all they will learn." 
 
 Liberalism in politics, however excellent in itself, is 
 made, perhaps, by an abuse of it, to exert an influence 
 far from friendly to genuine piety. The love of freedom 
 is, or ought to be, with every Englishman, both a princi- 
 ple and a passion : and he who does not wish to lil'crate 
 18* 
 
214 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 the constitution of his country from the last remnant of 
 servihty, which is degrading or oppressive to a free man, 
 dishonors the soil which has been consecrated by the 
 blood of patriot martyrs. But it must be confessed, at 
 the same time, that the liberalism of our days has been 
 seen too nearly allied, in some cases, with a spirit hostile 
 to religion. There is no necessity it should be so ; the 
 very genius of Christianity is a spirit of freedom, and all 
 its precepts are opposed to tyranny. It defends witli 
 impartiality the palace and the cottage — the prerogative 
 of the monarch, and the rights of the subject ; bi:t 
 unhappily the priest and the altar have been so often on 
 the side of oppression that the cause of freedom has 
 been thrown too much into the hands of infidels ; and 
 there is no doubt that, in modern times, at least, nearly 
 the whole force of infidelity has been on the side of free- 
 dom. This proves the duty and the necessity of all the 
 friends of religion rallying round the standard of liberty, 
 and not leaving such a cause in the hands of the foes of 
 revelation. It is preeminently their cause — they have 
 suffered more than any others from the iroif heel and 
 bloody sword of t3n:anny ; and that which has trodden 
 down their persons has trampled their principles and 
 their cause with them in the dust, so that liberty is to 
 them not only a source of their enjoyment, but a means 
 of their usefulness. The last leaning in them to the side 
 of absolutism or servility is a sin against their holy 
 religion, in its prospects and its hopes, as well as an 
 offence against their own dignity and honor. Happily 
 for themselves, happily for their cause, and no less ha[»- 
 pily for their country and the world, they now live in an 
 age when the principles of religious freedom are better 
 understood and appreciated than in any preceding period 
 of the world ; and it becomes them more and more tc 
 take heed not to let it be the boast of infidels that the^ 
 are the staunchest friends of liberty. Their liberalisn. 
 goes to the destruction of religion altogether. Man, in 
 their view, is not free as long as he is bound by, what 
 they are pleased to call, the fetters of superstition. He 
 is a slave while he bows to the yoke of God, and from 
 this they are eager and officious to liberate him. I^et 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 215 
 
 any one read the organs of the extreme Chartist party, 
 and he will see this is no false accusation. And even 
 many of those who would spurn with disdain and loath- 
 ing- these infidel liberals, hold opinions of a character 
 very loose on the subject of religion. The tendency of 
 much of modern argument, policy, and legislation, is to" 
 represent all religions, as they are called, equally good, 
 that is, in the opinion of many, equally worthless. In- 
 stead of endowing none, and thus leaving truth to its 
 own strength, to fight its own battles under the protec- 
 tion and blessing of the God of truth, they would 
 endow all, as being all equally desen^ing of public pat- 
 ronage and support. If by religious equality nothing 
 more were meant than the equality of all religious denom- 
 inations in political rights — this is nothing more than 
 justice — but if it be meant, as it is by many, the equal- 
 ity of all religious sentiment — this is concealed infidel- 
 ity. When such a state of public opinion prevails 
 among a large portion of those who have embraced 
 liberal views of politics, is there not a danger of some 
 corrupting influence coming over the minds of those 
 professors of religion who, having also embraced liberal 
 opinions, are brought by association into contact with 
 the infidel party 1 Is there not need of a vigorous piety 
 to resist the insidious influence of this mischievous 
 leaven I Is it not a matter of necessity that they should 
 look up by prayer for divine grace, lest their politics, or 
 at any rate their party in politics, should weaken and 
 corrupt their piety? Liberalism is a good thing, and 
 has a good object, but like other good things may be 
 abused to a bad purpose ; and that is certainly a bad 
 use of it which either damps the ardor of religious affec- 
 tion, or loosens our hold upon religious opinions. 
 
 It is quite unnecessary, after what has been advanced 
 on this subject in a former chapter, for me to advert at 
 any length to the prevalence of infidel spirit, in its 
 open, avowed, and studious endeavor to undermine the 
 foundations of our faith ; I therefore now only refer to 
 it, as another inducement to seek after a vigorous and 
 manly piety to grapple with this foul spirit. 
 
 There is another enemy of o:r faith, more plausible, 
 
216 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 more insidious, and therefore more dangerous, with 
 which the church will soon have to contend, and the 
 conflict with which indeed is already begun ; and that is 
 ihe f^Mosophizir.g^ rationalizing, spirit, which is coming 
 over us from Gtrmany. This, aided by the works of a 
 popular English writer, is likely to diifuse itself over the 
 cultivated minds of this country. It is already, in some 
 measure, corrupting our orthodoxy, and in its progress 
 will do yet more mischief, if not resisted by the religious 
 intelligence of the tutors of our colleges, the editors of 
 our religious periodicals, with some of whom it finds too 
 much favor, our influential pastors, and the well instruct- 
 ed members of our churches. The pith of this system 
 is the old dogma, though somewhat dilFerently presented, 
 of the early English free-thinkers, that reason rather 
 than faith is our guide in religious matters ; and its 
 tendency is to prove that Christianity is a worn-out system 
 of superstition, and must now give place to something 
 more rational and more accordant with the spirit and ad- 
 vancement of the age. The progress of this system is 
 written in fearful characters by D'Aubigne, in his interest- 
 ing work lately issued, entitled " Germany, England, and 
 Scotland." After describing the progress of this system, 
 from the old Unitarian Neology, to downright atheism, 
 he remarks, " Thus Germany has exhibited within the 
 last few years a terrible, yet no doubt a salutary, spec- 
 tacle. The great lesson to be derived from it is, to yield 
 nothing when the truth of God is concerned. If v/e take 
 hut one step backwards, we give the first impulse to go 
 a hundred, a thousand, and we know not what will be 
 the end. Infidelity in Germany has not been confined to 
 a few obscure writers, obliged to hide themselves in 
 some corner, and reduced to communicate their blasphe- 
 mies to a small number of contemptible adepts. Such 
 may be the case in England, but it is far otherwise in 
 Germany, These men have been listened to with favor 
 by the cultivated classes. In the course of the summer 
 (1845) while I was in Germany, a great meeting of 
 German writers, for the most part infidel, was held at 
 Leipsic ; and there, one Mr, Jordan, of Konigsberg, at a 
 dinner of these literary men, proposed a toast to The 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 217 
 
 • 
 
 Atheists I . . . .1 will not repeat the terms their 
 impiety makes me shudder ; an icy coldness and i dead 
 silence pervaded the assembly. 
 
 " This modern impiety of Germany has been accom- 
 panied by great immorality ; and as faith is manifested 
 by works of charity, so does atheism show itself by the 
 grossest materialism. The young German generation 
 have declared, in one of their organs, that they will be 
 Iree, throw off, as oppressive bonds, all laws of civil 
 order, of ecclesiastical and religious institutions, and 
 finally emancipate themselves from the yoke of moral 
 principles. 
 
 " It is whispered that a young German party, forming 
 at Oxford, is desirous of planting in England the doc- 
 trines of Hegel and Strauss.* I do not know the opin- 
 ions of that school ; but if it belong to the modern Ger- 
 man philosophy, it is easy to see the course it will fol- 
 low, and whither it will lead England. Oxford would 
 thus pass from the extreme of superstition and formality, 
 (Puseyism,) to the extreme of unbelief and materialism. 
 I trust the British good sense — the practical sense of 
 Englishmen — will confine these follies to a few men in 
 a few colleges. Yet let us beware. If all the friends 
 of Christian religion and morality do not increase in 
 decision, holiness, and zeal, we may perhaps see them 
 raising their heads in every quarter ^ 
 
 It is not, however, the gross and extreme development 
 of German philosophy which is to be expected and 
 dreaded in this country. English individuality is too 
 strongly marked, not to impress upon it a peculiar stamp ; 
 its tendency will be greatly resisted and modified by our 
 more practical understanding, and its grosser, and more 
 polluted and polluting elements will be arrested in passing 
 through the filter of our common sense philosophy — but 
 even then, it is to be feared, it will :.ome out strongly 
 impregnated, in many cases, with necdogical principles. 
 It may, as I have remarked in my work on *' An 
 
 * A work of this description has lately appeared in Oxford, 
 entitled " The Spirit's Trials — Shadows of the Clouds," by 
 Zeta. See a full exposure of its Panthestic doctrines in the 
 Oxford Protestant Magazine, for January, 1848. 
 
218 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 • 
 Earnest Ministry," exert a baleful influence upon out 
 young ninisters, which, though it may not corrupt their 
 orthodoxy with positive error, may becloud it with the 
 abstractions of metaphysics ; and instead of leading them 
 to seek the salvation of souls by the simple, yet powerful, 
 exhibition of truths that come home to the heart, may 
 make them desire to excite admiration by novelties of 
 speculation, that surprise and amuse the intellect. Nor 
 is this the only danger, for many of their more intelli- 
 gent, and less pious hearers, especially the young, find- 
 ing their taste for novelty gratified, their love of what is 
 intellectual pleased, and their conscience, hitherto not 
 altogether easy, tranquillized, by something not quite so 
 pungent and searching as that which they have been 
 accustomed to hear, will take up with these new views, 
 and push them on to a point much beyond that where 
 the preacher has placed them. Even the more pious, 
 by having their minds too much alienated from the sim- 
 plicity that is in Christ, are in danger of losing their 
 relish for the substantial verities of the gospel, and 
 acquiring a taste for something fresh, and, as they deem, 
 more intellectual than the doctrines of grace. The life 
 of faith is thus imperilled by substituting, for that which 
 alone can nourish its vital principle, a system which 
 appeals exclusively to the reason. 
 
 It is this, then, that we have to fear, the elevation of 
 reason, and the depression of faith ; observant minds 
 have perceived signs of this already, not to be doubted 
 or mistaken, among some of the more intelligent mem- 
 bers of our churches. The roots of our evangelical 
 system are in danger of being eaten into by this canker 
 worm, and the heart of oiir experimental religion of 
 being organically diseased, by this cold and paralyzing 
 intellectuality. Even some of our educated religious 
 operatives begin to crave after something newer than the 
 gospe , something more speculative than the doctrines 
 of sa /ation, and something more rational than faith. 
 They who are not acquainted with the workings of the 
 popular mind, and the progress of opinion, may smile at 
 the apprehensions which are here expressed ; but others, 
 more attentive to the course of events, and therefore bet- 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 219 
 
 ter acqua'nted w^th them, will be most ready t( admit 
 there is sotne ground for alarm, and alundant reason for 
 caution. 
 
 Another source of danger must be also mentioned ; 
 and that is the growing taste, in an opposite direction to 
 thai I have just adverted to, for formalism and super- 
 stition — a religion of forms and ceremonies — a devo- 
 ■\ion which shall have more to do with the imagination 
 and the fancy, than with the understanding, the heart, 
 and conscience, and which shall gratify the possessor of 
 it in the allowed indulgence of his owti self-complacency. 
 This religion, in its more modified forms, is Puseyism, 
 and in its full development. Popery. The illusion 
 that Popery can flourish only in dark ages, and in 
 enslaved countries, begins to be dispelled by the facts 
 that have lately transpired amidst the light of the nine- 
 teenth century, and the freedom of England. The 
 increase of Popery in this country is no longer matter of 
 doubt ; and it is an astounding' and somewhat alarming 
 fact, that its efforts have kept pace with the extension of 
 education, the circulation of Bibles and tracts, and the 
 formation of institutions for its destruction. How shall 
 we account for this^ As Protestants ws cannot for a 
 moment allow that there is more in Romanism than in 
 its antagonistic system to commend itself to the unbiassed 
 judgment of the impartial inquirer ; no, it is to be ac- 
 counted for, by the greater earnestness of its advocates ; 
 and what a deep disgrace, an indelible blot is it, upon 
 the advocates of Protestantism, that they should be ex- 
 ceeded in zeal by the votaries of Romanism ; that the 
 crucifix should be the fount of a deeper inspiration than 
 the cross ! How are we to account for that extraordi- 
 nary fact, aud solve that hard problem, that error, at 
 least in very .ttiany cases, according to appearance, excites 
 in its abettors a more fervid enthusiasm than truth does 
 in hers ? 
 
 Such, then, are the influences, — powerful when viewed 
 separately, how much more so when combined ! — which 
 are exerted in this extraordinary age against rehgion ; 
 and how are they to be resisted and vanquished? How 
 shall the church bear up against such opposition ? We 
 
220 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 know her Dmne head lives. The infaUible, omnipotent 
 Pilot is at hn- helm, and though the tempest rages, and 
 the deep is stirred up from the very bottom, the holy 
 vessel is safe. Yes, but even this divine Pilot demands 
 the attention, the subjection, and the cooperation of the 
 crew, and employs their instrumentality for the presei-va- 
 tion of the sacred bark. 
 
 The danger is not to be warded off by mere systems 
 of ecclesiastical polity ; these, in proportion as they are 
 brought into conformity with the Word of God, may do 
 something ; and may, and should, be sustained with a 
 zeal proportioned to their importance ; but of themselves, 
 without a pervading spirit of evangelical piety, they will 
 be no better defence against popery, infidelity, and an 
 anti-Christian philosophy, than would be a breakwater of 
 sand or wicker-work, against the assault of the Atlantic 
 Ocean in a storm. Nor will any mode of worship, 
 whether arranged according to liturgical order, or left 
 free for the occasion. No, nor the most approved or- 
 thodox systems of theology ; the most noble, and even 
 scriptural, confessions of faith ; nor creeds that can boast 
 the highest antiquity, and the consent of the whole catho- 
 lic church. The spirit that is coming over Christendom 
 laughs at all these things, when left to themselves, like 
 leviathan at " the shaking of a spear," " esteeming iron 
 as straw, and brass as rotten wood." What did creeds, 
 catechisms, and symbols, accomplish for Switzerland, 
 where Rationalism and IJnitarianism, in spite of them, 
 have covered the scene of Calvin's labors ; or in Ger- 
 many, where they have desolated the garden of the Lord, 
 planted by Luther and Melancthon 1 A cold and heart- 
 less orthodoxy, however clear, wins no more respect from 
 infidelity or philosophy, than the gorgeous rites of super- 
 stition. An effete and languid church, a church of which 
 the vis vitcB of experimental religion is low — of which 
 the pulse beats feebly and slowly — of which, whatever 
 deceptive show of health there may be upon the counte- 
 nance, the vitals are diseased — of which it may be said, 
 thou hast a name to live, and art dead — such a church 
 cannot stand the shock which may be made upon our faith. 
 
 What is it, then, which we must oppose to the swelling 
 
TO EAHNESTNESS. 221 
 
 tide of opposition, should it rise against the evangelism 
 of the New Testament, and by which we may invest the 
 church with a power, not only to stand her ground, but 
 to advance? What? Earnest religion. A church 
 in earnest can never be vanquished, or even effectually 
 opposed. It is the union of two things, which ought 
 never to be separated, I mean sound doctrine and the 
 SPIRITUAL LIFE — an intelligent, public, courageous pro- 
 fession of evangelical truth, and the inward power of that 
 truth upon the affections ; the clearness of a martyr's 
 intellect to perceive the nature and the value of Christian 
 doctrine — the ardor of his zeal in espousing it — the love 
 of his heart in embracing it — and the integrity of his 
 conscience in being Avilling to die for it. An enthusiasm 
 of feeling which is not fed by an intelligent apprehension 
 of doctrine, will soon expire of itself, or be extinguished 
 by the breath of opposition ; an emotionless and merely 
 scientific profession of doctrine, which leaves the heart 
 without warmth, and the life without holiness, is scarcely 
 worth retaining, and in the hour of trial will be thought 
 scarcely worth contending for, and either thrown away in 
 contempt, or yielded up to the foe. 
 
 Let the orthodoxy of our churches be well and vigor- 
 ously maintained ; let there be no relaxation here ; let 
 the doctrines of the Trinity, the fall and inherent de- 
 pravity of man, the atonement, justification by faith, re- 
 generation by the Spirit, and the sovereignty of divine 
 grace in man's salvation, be considered as the very life's 
 blood of our piety ; let these great fundamental doctrines, 
 or facts, for such undoubtedly they are, and as such 
 should be considered, be held fast by us, not as cold, dry 
 dogmas, but as living principles of the heart, imparting 
 and maintaining a new and vigorous existence to the soul ; 
 and then may we confidently and triumphantly bid de- 
 fiance to the combined forces of all the enemies of religion 
 and the church. There has come upon us of late years 
 a kind of creed-hatred, so intense that many shudder at 
 the idea of catechisms, confessions, and articles, as if 
 under all circumstances they were a fetter upon our lib 
 erty, and a snare for our conscience ! But is not Ihii 
 19 
 
222 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 alarm groundless 1 D'Aubigne's words on this subject 
 are full of wisdom : "As for those who know what sal- 
 vation in Christ really is, what harm can the articles do 
 them 1 None ! indeed, rather the reverse. Every true 
 Christian has a spiritual life, an inward history, composed 
 of distinct phases — faith, repentance, justification, and 
 conversion ; sanctification, peace, joy, and hope. It is 
 requisite both for the sake of others, as for his own, that 
 he should profess the great doctrines to which his inner 
 life corresponds. Poor and ignorant Christians — and 
 these are the greater number — would not know how to 
 do this. If the church to which they belong presents 
 to them an evangelical confession of faith, at once plain 
 and profound, it renders them a very useful assistance. 
 Theologians could, no doubt, without a creed, easily give 
 utterance to their faith, but we m.ust think first of the 
 poor and simple of the flock. Men of the world segard 
 the articles of faith of the Reformation as antiquated 
 forms, because unnecessary in the present age. This 
 error arises from their having never experienced in their 
 hearts that faith in Christ which is the same in every age. 
 Those confessions of Christian hope which our fathers 
 made even in the face of Rome, and for the sake of which 
 so many martjTS have ascended the scaffold, can never 
 grow old, can never lose that divine fire which the Holy 
 Spirit imparted to them. It has been said, ' The articles 
 are useless to the church ; the Bible is sufficient.' But 
 most frequently, at least upon the Continent, those who 
 will not have confessions of faith will not have the Bible 
 either. A^ery lately, one of the most eminent Protestant 
 clergymen of Germany, Dr. Ammon, first preacher of 
 the court at Dresden, a rationalist, but yet an enlightened 
 theologian, made this candid avowal : ' Experience teaches 
 us that those who reject a creed will speedily reject the 
 Holy Scriptures themselves.' The importance given to 
 doctrine in the Church of England is her safeguard. 
 Without it, she would long ago have fallen beneath the 
 assaults, not of rationalism, but of traditionalism and su- 
 perstition. Let the ministers and members of the church 
 set forth and maintain once more the pure doctrines of 
 grace, as contamed in the Bible, and stated in the thirty- 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 223 
 
 nine articles ; let them raise on high, and firmly wave, 
 that glorious si indard, and the evil spirits will flee away." 
 And in his remarks on Scotland, the same author asks, 
 "What has secured Scotland this eminent ranlc of being 
 at the present period the vanguard of Christ's army 1 I 
 hesitate not to reply, ' Her attachment to sound doctrine.' 
 [t is"? because doctrine is placed so high, that the church 
 meets with so much sympathy. Whenever doctrine is 
 not Cared for, the people care little for the church, and 
 a miserable esprit de corps alone remains, which is the 
 most opposed of any to a Christian spirit. The ch,..ch 
 itself is doctrine. The most characteristic distinction 
 between the Christian church and Paganism, Mahom- 
 etanism, and Deism, either pure or Socinian, is the 
 Christian doctrine, as essentially different from the Pagan, 
 Mahometan, Deistical, or Socinian doctrines. This also 
 distinguishes the Roman from the Protestant church. 
 Observe, when I speak of doctrine, I do not mean a cold, 
 arid, lifeless orthodoxy ; I mean ' the doctrine which is 
 according to godhness,' as the apostle says ; ' that doc- 
 trine which produces life.' The Scottish theologian 
 places himself at once in the centre of the Christian doc- 
 trine ; it is on faith in the reconciliation by the expiatory 
 sacrifice that he takes his stand. This grand dogma, 
 which tells us at once of the sin of man, and the grace 
 of God • this fundamental doctrine, which contains, on 
 the one hand, the consciousness of our guilt, and, on the 
 other, the assurance of an irrevocable counsel of mercy 
 and salvation, is the vivifying centre of Scottish theology. 
 Faith in the Lamb of God who has borne the sins of the 
 world ; this is the milk with which the Scottish child is 
 fed in the schools of the towns, the mountains, and the 
 plains ; and the strong meat whose nourishing juices are 
 dispensed by the theologians of Edinburgh or Glasgow 
 CO the future ministers of the church." 
 
 All this is admonitory to us ; and should remind us of 
 he fact, and deeply impress us with it also, that it is 
 3nly by holding up the truth as it is in Jesus as the prin- 
 ciple of faith and spiritual life, we can hope to preserve 
 the church from being imperilled by tbe spirit of the age. 
 This is the true breakwater which alone can resist the 
 
224 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 billows of prevailing errors, and protect the vessels which 
 lie peacefully at anchor in the harbor. Let our pastors 
 diffuse these great doctrines among their flocks, and lift 
 them on high in the pulpit. Let there, I repeat, be no 
 coquetting with a false philosophy, and no complimenting, 
 by the suppression of the truth, even a true one. The 
 doctrines just before enumerated must be the very staple 
 of their sermons. Let the people also look for, require, 
 and live upon, these truths. The man who habitually 
 suppresses them, or studiously avoids them, with what- 
 ever of novelty, eloquence, or profundity of thought and 
 expression, he attempts to supply their place, should be 
 viewed as a suspected man — he who sparingly intro- 
 duces them, as a lukewarm man — and he only, who 
 dwells much and earnestly upon them, as an acceptable 
 man. In a philosophic age, and among an enlightened 
 people, Paul " determined to know nothing but Jesus 
 Christ and him crucified ;" and it would be difficult for 
 any man to find a reason why this rule of apostolic min- 
 istry should be departed from in this day. True it is 
 that ignorance would circumscribe the doctrine of the 
 cross within narrower limits than the apostle mtended, 
 since every portion of revealed truth has its centre there ; 
 but still, the doctrine of the cross must be the great theme 
 of preaching in every age, and in ours among the rest. 
 I say, with all possible deliberation, and with equal em- 
 phasis, to the churches, let nothing less, nothing else 
 than this, satisfy you. This is the bread of life, which 
 coraeth down from heaven for the nourishment of your 
 souls ; without which you will starve and perish. You 
 can live on nothing else. Say, therefore, to your minis- 
 ters, " Evermore give as this bread." Do not accept of 
 the stones of metaphysics or logic, instead of this, nor 
 the flowers of rhetoric, nor even the fruits of science or 
 literature. Let your request be for bread, the living 
 bread, which is Christ. It is no favorable sign of health 
 when the palate has ceased to relish bread and meat, and 
 is ever craving after novelties, and can be pleased only 
 with the piquant dishes of an inventive and artificial 
 cooker)\ Such a taste indicates incipient disease, and 
 prognosticates its increase. The parallel case in spiritual 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 22-5 
 
 things is to be found in those hearers of the Word of God 
 who have grown tired of Bible truth, the bread and meat of 
 the gospel, and can relish nothing but poetic sentimentalism 
 
 — rhetorical imaginativeness — or religious Carlylism. 
 
 I do not mean to say that the whole system of Christ's 
 mediation is to be brought into every sermon, for I am of 
 opinion that the pulpit may be sometimes employed to 
 explain and inculcate other subjects than such as are 
 strictly and exclusively doctrinal, but its predominant 
 character should be truly and richly evangelical. It will 
 be a dark sign of the approach of an evil day, — and there 
 are not wanting such portents upon our horizon already, 
 
 — when our churches in choosing their pastors shall be 
 guided rather by a regard to talent than to piety — by a 
 love for eloquence, rather than the gospel. 
 
 Not that piety and love of the truth constitute the 
 only qualifications of an able minister of the New Cov- 
 enant ; or should be the sole ground on which a church 
 should rest its choice of a pastor. By no means. We 
 must have men of talent, especially for our more im- 
 portant stations — men that will command attention — 
 men that will have power over the public mind, and 
 do some justice to the high themes of their ministra- 
 tion. But when talent is the first thing, and piety and 
 sound doctrine are viewed as quite secondary matters — 
 where the declaration is, not, — " We want an able 
 preacher of the gospel ; a faithful shepherd ; a vigilant 
 watchman for our souls ;" but — " We must have a grad- 
 uate, a scholar, an orator, a gentleman" — when this is 
 the state of things, there is much reason for alarm in 
 Zion. Let there be all these things ; no man is the worse 
 for them, and every man is the better for them, and the 
 more he has of them the better, viewed as secondary 
 qualifications ; but for Christ's sake, for the gospel's sake, 
 for our denomination's sake, for the sake of immortal 
 souls, and the salvation of a lost world, let them be 
 viewed but as secondary, while the higher place shall be 
 given to eminent piety, and a love for the great truths 
 which alone bring salvation. It is affecting, and fearfully 
 predictive of what is coming, to see the popularity, in 
 19* 
 
SS6 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 some instances, of men who are grown wiser than the 
 apostle Paul, as to tiie themes of their pulpit ministrations, 
 and to hear the eulog-iums pronounced on sermons which 
 would have made him weep. Woe, woe, woe, be to us, 
 when ar. all but a Christless ministry shall be welcome, 
 because it happens to be an eloquent one ; when the ' 
 doctrines of the atonement, justification, regeneration, 
 and ^ace, shall be set aside as puritanic themes, which 
 do not suit tiie circumstances or the tastes of this philo- 
 sophical age ! 
 
 Let me repeat, and insist a little more at length upon, 
 the fact that it is not doctrine alone that will meet and 
 successfully oppose the infidel spirit of this generation. 
 This alone never has been sufficient to keep out and keep 
 down error, and never will be. This, at most, will be* 
 but as the corpse and the panoply of the strong man 
 armed, set up for the protection of the spiritual house ; 
 what is wanted in addition is the living soul, to supply the 
 courage, the energy, and the potency, necessary for the 
 defence. Infidehty will not run away in terror from the 
 lifeless skeletons of our theological systems. In addition 
 to what has been said of Germany and Switzerland, it 
 may be said that all the dissenting churches in this coun- 
 try had the Assembly's Catechism, and yet how many of 
 them lapsed into Arianism, and then into Socinianism ! 
 How was this ? Just because there was doctrine, but no 
 life. Persons were admitted to fellowship upon a pro 
 fession of doctrine, without giving evidence that theii 
 doctrines had become the principle of spiritual life. 
 The doctrine will not always preserve life, but life 
 will always preserve doctrine. When religion is resolved 
 into the reception of certain dogmas apart from their vital 
 influence ; and when this oneness of mere sentimer.t, 
 ratiier than a principle of spiritual life, a sympathy of 
 heart, and a congeniality of soul, are made the basis and 
 ground of fellowship, the church must be weak, and in 
 no state to meet the attacks that are made upon it ; and, 
 indeed, is very likely soon to give up a creed, which, hav- 
 ing lost its chief purpose in renewing, sanctifying, and 
 comforting the soul, has ceased to be of any value, and 
 therefore of any importance. It is when the members all 
 
TO EARNESTi>:ESS. 227 
 
 grow into Christ by a living- faith, and into each other by 
 love, that the body is strong, both for defending itself, 
 and carrying on aggressions upon the world. What 
 is wanted for all times, but especially for this, is the union 
 of the contemplative with the active life. Every age, 
 almost, has its characteristic vices and defects. " The 
 Ascetics and the Mystics went off into one extreme ; they 
 sought in retirement, in a contemplative abstraction, and 
 in seraphic raptures, a high degree of holiness and joy. 
 Their contest was, not with sinful appetites, only with 
 innocent ones ; their following Christ was not in the 
 iDugh and arduous pains of outward service, but in the 
 concentration of powerful and pathetic meditations upon 
 his cross and passion. The arena of their conflict was 
 wholly within ; and a great part of the struggle consisted 
 in resisting the languor of over-done attention, arresting the 
 vagrancy of volatile thoughts, and rousing the ardor of feel- 
 ings which had expended themselves by their very inten- 
 sity." Our danger and defect lie in an opposite extreme. 
 In this age of external activity, we want, could we but 
 command it, more time, and more inclination to cultivate 
 the hidden life, to strengthen its principle, and to allow 
 its development in all its beautiful and appropriate exer- 
 cises of spirituality of feeling, heavenly-mindedness, and 
 communion with God. The spiritual life with us is low 
 and feeble, and for want of retirement, reading the Scrip- 
 tures, meditation, prayer, and rigid mortification, is not in 
 a state to resist the attacks that may be made upon our 
 faith. It is the energy of the heart, which, in the humaii 
 frame, nerves the arm to defend the head ; so is it in the 
 spiritual system. D'Aubigne, in the volume to which i 
 have already so frequently alluded, furnishes, by a recital 
 of his own religious experience, a beautiful proof and 
 illustration of this. 
 
 After his conversion to God, and after he had begun 
 to preach Chiist with fulness of faith, he was so as- 
 sailed and perplexed, hi coming into Germany, by the 
 sophisms of rationalism, that he was plunged into unutter- 
 able distress, and passed whole nights without sleeping, 
 crying to God from the bottom of his heart, or endeavor- 
 ing, by his argruments and syllogisms without end, to repel 
 
INDUCEMENTS 
 
 the attacks of the adversary. In his perplexity he visited 
 Kleuker, a venerable divine at Kiel, who for forty years 
 had been defending Christianity against the attacks of 
 infidel theologians. Before this admirable man D'Au- 
 bigne laid his doubts and difficulties for solution ; instead 
 of doing this, Kleuker replied, — " Were I to succeed in 
 ridding you of them, others would soon rise up. There 
 is a shorter, deeper, and more complete way of annihi- 
 lating them. Let Christ be really to you the Son of God, 
 the Saviour, the Author of eternal life. Only be fir«fily 
 settled in his grace, and then these difficulties of detail 
 will never stop you ; the light which proceeds from 
 Christ will disperse all darkness." This advice, followed 
 as it was by a study with a pious fellow-traveller at an 
 inn at Kiel, of Paul's expression, " Now unto him 
 who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we 
 ask or think," relieved him of all his difficulties. After 
 reading together this passage, they prayed over it. — 
 "When I arose," says this illustrious man, "in that 
 room at Kiel, I felt as if my wings were renewed as the 
 wings of eagles. From that time forward I compre- 
 hended that my own syllogisms and effi^rts were of no 
 avail ; that Christ was able to do all by his power that 
 worketh in us ; and the habitual attitude of my soul was 
 to be at the foot of the cross, crying to him, — ' Here 
 am I, bound hand and foot, unable to move, unable to do 
 the least thing to get away from the enemy who op- 
 presses me. Do all thyself. I knoio that thou wilt do it, 
 thou wilt even do exceeding abundantly above all that I 
 ask.' I was not disappointed. All my doubts were 
 soon dspelled, and not only was I delivered from that 
 inward anguish which in the end would have destroyed 
 me, had not God been faithful, but the Lord extended 
 unto me peace like a river. If I relate these things, it 
 is not as my own history — not the history of myself alone 
 — but of many pious young men, who, in Germany, and 
 even elsewhere, have been assailed by the raging waves 
 of rationalism. Many, alas ! have made shipwreck of 
 their faith, and some have even violently put an end to 
 their lives." 
 
 This interesting narrative is a most instructive one, as 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 
 
 «^ 
 
 teaching that the defence of the Christian, and therefore 
 of the church — the estabhshment of the individual mem- 
 ber, and of the whole of the church in the truth, depends 
 more upon faith than upon reason, and is to be sought 
 rather in the grace of the heart, than in the strength of 
 the intellect — and that therefore to become feeble in 
 piety is to let down our defences, and to expose ourselves 
 to the enemy. He who is " strengthened with might 
 by the Spirit in the inner man," and who is " rooted and 
 grounded in love," though less skilful in argument, is in 
 a far better condition to resist the subtleties of false doc- 
 trine, than he who is stronger in argument, but weaker 
 in faith. The hidden life within him is vigorous ; and 
 rich in the enjoyment of divine love, he is strong in the 
 Lord, and the power of his might: and though the 
 strength of the human intellect, the chain of sound rea- 
 soning, and the conclusions of a just logic, when em- 
 ployed in elaborate defences of our faith, are of inestima- 
 ble worth ; yet, after all, it is to the blessing of God on 
 the internal vigor of her own piety, that the church is 
 indebted for her stabihty, more than to these outworks, 
 which are cast up, from time to time, by her ablest de- 
 fenders. 
 
 VI. I now mention, as another inducement to seek an 
 earnest religion, the circumstances of the age, viewed in 
 connection with the spread of Christianity and as bearing 
 upon the moral interests of the world. The church was 
 never called to a greater work than she is at this moment, 
 nor was the call of Providence upon her ever more loud, 
 earnest, or unequivocal. There is no possibility of mis- 
 taking it, and there ought to be neither hesitation, delay, 
 nor negligence, in obeying it. That work is the conver- 
 sion of the world ; and for which all possible facilities in 
 the way of means, instruments, and appliances, have 
 been, and are still being, collected. Let us look at the 
 sphere of operation opened to us — let us survey the 
 territory that is added to our foreign empire — there is 
 nearly all Hindostan, with its hundred and fifty millions 
 of inhabitants, nearly every portion of which is accessi- 
 ble to our Christian influence — then there are Burmah, 
 Siam, Cochin China, all beginning to receive missionaries 
 
230 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 — next come our colonies in Canada, Australia, New 
 Zealand, Van Dieman's Land, and the Cape of Good 
 Hope. What a scope here for the energies and influence 
 of the church — what a sphere to occupy and fill with 
 our missionaries, our Bibles, and our churches ! Let us 
 dwell upon that most marvellous and glorious achievement 
 of modern times, the opening into China by five doors, 
 which no power but that of Omnipotence can ever close, 
 and through w^hich our religion may pass to the teeming 
 millions of that vast hive of human beings. We may 
 mention Madagascar, closed against us at present, but 
 which, at the death of the present queen, and who, for 
 aught we can tell, may die the next hour, or may be 
 dead while this is being penned, will be throw^n wide 
 open to our holy enterprise. Can we forget Polynesia, 
 yielding up itself, with its hundreds of islands, to the 
 influence of the gospel 1 
 
 Next, let us consider the means of rapid and safe com- 
 munication opened to those distant spheres of our holy 
 activity by steam navigation, and to the interior of the 
 countries by railways ; so that oceans seem to be bridged 
 over, and the extremities of continents to be brought near 
 to each other. We may add to this that most surprising 
 of all modern inventions, the electric telegraph, by which 
 intelligence, as upon the lightning's wing, might be con- 
 veyed in a few seconds, could the wires reach as far, 
 round the circumference of the globe. Nor is this all, 
 for we cannot but know how the arts have multiplied 
 and cheapened all the means and instruments of the 
 church's work ; how chemistry, by its various appliances, 
 has reduced the price of paper — how mechanics, by 
 means of stereotype and the steam press, have lowered 
 the cost of printing, till a bound copy of the whole 
 Scriptures can be purchased for ten pence. Nor does 
 the work of Providence stop here. What a marvellous 
 orogress has been made of late years in those researches 
 vhich lie more remote from popular notice, and in their 
 importance are less obvious to popular comprehension, 
 but which have still a close connection with the spread of 
 Christianity in the world — I mean the discoveries which 
 have been made by learned and exploring minds concern- 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 231 
 
 ing the origin, affinity, and ancestry, of nadons, theit 
 language, their customs, their religion, and their tradi- 
 tions ! The hieroglyphics of Egypt have at length con- 
 fessed their secrets, hidden from the ages and genera- 
 tions that are past ; while from its pictured tombs its 
 history has obtained a resurrection, confirmatory, in 
 various vt-ays, of the truth of Old Testament history. 
 The cuniform inscriptions of Perseopolis, like the mystic 
 characters in the temples on the Nile, are beginning to 
 be understood and deciphered. The analogies of the 
 various systems of idolatry are being traced and exhibited. 
 There are inquisitive and profoundly learned men, who, 
 amidst the shadows of the Pyramids — in the circles of 
 the Druids — or before the massive rock temples of 
 Iran, " are thinking of the way, and showing it too, in 
 which, from the very first, man has been dealing with 
 and corrupting the majesty of religion, and with him who 
 of that religion is the Author and the Object. Every 
 flame, every hieroglyphic, every ancient sculpture, and 
 every curious legend, suggests some glorious truth, 
 which man has labored to improve by his own imagina- 
 tions, but which is buried in the lie which man hath 
 made." Yes, but from that grave, dug by the hand of 
 falsehood, shall those glorious truths arise, and be shown 
 by missionaries competent to the work, to the people 
 who, in their own superstitions, have had the sepulchres 
 of truth. 
 
 Now let all this accumulation of means and instruments 
 be taken into account, in their number, variety, and 
 adaptation, and we shall certainly and impressively see 
 what advantages we possess for doing a great work for 
 God upon earth. 
 
 It is not, however, simply in this light that I view 
 these matters ; that is, as furnishing the opportunity for 
 labor, but as being a loud and impressive call from God 
 to embrace it. Under whose administration has all this 
 been done, and for what purpose has he done it, within 
 so short a space of time ? These questions are answered 
 by the apostle where he says, " He is Head over all 
 THINGS TO HIS CHURCH." Ycs — scicncc and the arts 
 — commerce and war — philosophy and literature, are 
 
232 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 his pioneers for levelling mountains, filling- up valleys^ 
 and preparing the way of the Lord in the desert, that his 
 glory may be revealed, and all flesh see it together. 
 The engi leers, and the craftsmen, and the literati, have 
 had other objects in view ; but who can for a moment 
 doubt that he who raised up Cyrus of old to set free his 
 people, has prepared these instruments to subserve his 
 own purpose of civilizing and evangelizing all nations ? 
 From every part of the world, and from every scene of 
 human activity — from India and China, from the islands 
 of the South Sea, and from the continent of Africa, from 
 the colonies, and the West Indies — the sound is heard 
 pealing over the land, "I the Lord have given you 
 power and wealth — empire and dominion — ships, col- 
 onics, and commerce ; and have added to all this, steam 
 navigation and railways, stereotype and printing by 
 steam ; for this also cometh from the Lord, who teacheth 
 man discretion, who is wonderful in counsel, and excel- 
 lent in working. And now, by all these things, glorify 
 me, and set up my kingdom in the world." Providence 
 was never more conspicuous in its operations, nor more 
 intelligible and uymistakable in its intentions, than at the 
 present moment, A preparation is going on for some 
 great moral revolution of our world ; against which infi- 
 delity, popery, and false philosophy, are arraying them- 
 selves in an opposition fierce and determined. The 
 forces on both sides are still moving to the conflict 
 already begun, and raging in the valley of decision. To 
 be negligent, dilatory, and indolent now ; to hang back 
 and give up ourselves to personal ease and enjoyment 
 now, is to bring upon ourselves the ancient denunciation 
 upon a Jewish city, of whom Jehovah said, in righteous 
 indignation, " Curse ye Meroz, curse ye bitterly the in- 
 habitants thereof, because they came not to the help of 
 the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." 
 But for such a work what qualifications of an intense 
 and earnest religion are indispensable ! The work with- 
 out this may go on ; yet it will go on but slowly. It 
 is not enough for Christians, in common with their fel- 
 low-citizens, to stand and wonder at the progress of 
 events, and compliment themselves on being born in an 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 233 
 
 age of deep interest and importance ; they must see in 
 all these events so many incentives to a fervent piety 
 as indicating the intentions and sounding forth the call 
 of Providence; and as presenting to them the great 
 object, which, amidst all their schemes and activities, 
 must be recognized and pursued as the end of their ex- 
 istence. 
 
 YII. The political aspect of the times supplies 
 another motive to the church, for an earnest and intelli- 
 gent piety. I am now writing amidst the unlooked for 
 and stupendous events which have occurred in France 
 within the last few weeks ; and which, as by an electric 
 shock, have so rapidly extended their influence over the 
 whole continent. In these tremendous convulsions, we 
 recognize the continuous throes of the fearful earthquake 
 which more than half a century ago convulsed all Europe 
 to its centre ; and we behold, after a temporary lull, the 
 continuance of the hurricane, which in its progress sub- 
 verted so many thrones, and devastated so many nations. 
 As then, so now, the friends of liberty are exulting in 
 the prospects which are opening before the world. We 
 are forcibly reminded of the eloquent language of Mr. 
 HaJl, in surveying the first revolution in France. " An 
 attention to the political aspect of the world is not now 
 the fruit of an idle curiosity, or the amusement of a dissi- 
 pated and frivolous mind, but is awakened and 1/ept 
 alive by occurrences as various as they are extraordinary. 
 There are times when the moral world seems to stand 
 still ; there are others when it is impelled towards its 
 goal with an accelerated force. The present is a period 
 more interesting, perhaps, than any which has been 
 known in the whole flight of time. The scenes of 
 Providence thicken upon us so fast, and are shifted with 
 so strange a rapidity, as if the great drama of the 
 world were drawing to a close. Events have taken 
 place, and revolutions have been effected, which, had 
 they been foretold a very few years [weeks] ago, would 
 have been viewed as visionary and extravagant, and 
 tlieir influence is far from being spent. Europe never 
 presented such a spectacle before, and it is worthy of 
 20 
 
234 INDUCEMENTS 
 
 being contemplated with the profoundest attention by all 
 its inhabitants. The empire of darkness and of des- 
 potism has been smitten with a stroke that has sounded 
 through the universe. When we see whole kingdoms, 
 after reposing for centuries on the lap of their rulers, 
 start from their slumber, the dignity of man rising up 
 from depression, and tyrants trembling on their thrones, 
 who can remain entirely indifferent, or fail to turn his 
 eyes to a theatre so august and extraordinary 1 These 
 are a kind of throes and struggles of nature to which 
 it would be a sullenness to refuse our sympathy. Old 
 foundations are breaking up ; new edifices are rearing. 
 Prospects are opening on every side, of such amazing 
 variety and extent, as to stretch farther than the eye cf 
 the most enlightened observer can reach." Alas, for 
 the vicissitudes of earthly affairs, and the vanity of 
 human hopes ! These jubilant and exulting strains, 
 penned in the year 1791, were soon succeeded by the 
 following still more eloquent passage by the same writer, 
 and in reference to the same events. " It had been the 
 constant boast of infidels, that their system, more liberal 
 and generous than Christianity, needed but to be tried 
 to produce an immense accession to human happiness ; 
 and Christian nations, careless and supine, retaining little 
 of Christianity but the profession, and disgusted with 
 its restraints, lent a favorable ear to their pretension. 
 God permitted the trial to be made. In one country, 
 and that the centre of Christendom, revelation under- 
 went a total eclipse, while atheism, performing on a 
 darkened theatre its strange and fearful tragedy, con- 
 founded the first elements of society, blended every age, 
 rank, and sex, in indiscriminate proscription and mas- 
 sacre, and convulsed all Europe to its centre ; that the 
 imperishable memorial of these events might lead the 
 last generations of mankind to consider religion as the 
 pillar of society, the safeguard of nations, the parent of 
 social order, which alone has power to curb the fury of 
 the passions, and to secure to every one his rights ; to 
 tlie laborious the reward of their industry, to the rich 
 the enjoyment of their wealth, to the nobles the preser- 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 
 
 235 
 
 vation of their lienors, and to princes the stabil ity of their 
 thrones." 
 
 The contrast presented in these two splendid pas- 
 sages, between the expected and the real results of the 
 first revolution in France, together with the disappoint 
 ment experienced in the consequences of the second., 
 should impose some caution in the anticipation of Ihe 
 effects of the third. A nation so slow to learn by the 
 two previous visitations, affords but a feeble hope that it 
 will profit much by the third opportunity of improve- 
 ment which is now granted it. When it is considered 
 that France is shared between a revived Popery and a 
 rampant infidelity — that there is a deplorable destitu- 
 tion of moral principle pervading all ranks — and that its 
 political crimes against Algeria, Tahiti, and Spain, cry 
 aloud to God for vengeance — and when to this it is 
 added that its present situation is that of the most com- 
 plete ochlocracy ever exhibited in a civilized country, 
 there is reason to apprehend that what we have yet wit- 
 nessed may prove only the prologue of the repetition of 
 the awful drama again to be performed in that irrehgious 
 land. 
 
 Let passing events issue as they may, either in the 
 dreadful struggles of another war, or in the quiet exten- 
 sion of political freedom, there is a high and sacred 
 duty resulting to the church of God from the present 
 posture of affairs. Our obligations are obvious and im- 
 perative. It is ours to survey the progress of the 
 storm, not merely with the feverish excitement, and 
 fluctuating hopes, of the mere politician, but with the 
 serene confidence of the Christian. We must remem- 
 ber that Jesus Christ is " head over all things to his 
 church," and feel assured that the rise and fall :f em- 
 pires are subservient to the accomplishment of his pur- 
 poses. It is not merely the extension of liberty, how- 
 ever valuable and important that may be, but religion, 
 that must be in our hopes. Our prayers should be con- 
 tinually ascending to God, for the subjugation of all 
 these changes to the wider establishment of that king- 
 dom which cannot be moved. Special meetings for 
 prayer ought to be held with reference to these e rents. 
 
236 INDUCEBIENTS 
 
 How important is it, that whether the nations are to be 
 scourged by war, or blessed with hberty and peace, they 
 should have their attention drawn to the church, as, by 
 her eminent piety, the seat of repose, and the circle of 
 bliss ! In what an attractive form, at once lovely and 
 awful, should she appear to the 'children of men, strug- 
 gling and wearying themselves in seeking after that 
 happiness in political reforms which religion only can 
 supply ! Perhaps new openings are about to be made foi 
 the evangelization of the continent of Europe. Popery 
 has little to hope, and everything to fear, from the 
 transactions which are going on in Italy, in France, and 
 in Germany. The prospects of the Jesuits become 
 more and more gloomy. The stability of the Papacy 
 itself is coming into jeopardy. The very seat of the 
 Beast totters. On the other hand, infidelity is becoming 
 emboldened, even to audacity, by these changes ; and 
 there is no doubt that it has had some hand in bringing 
 them about, for infidels have been often God's pioneers. 
 Christians, rarely has Providence addressed you with a 
 voice more impressive than that by which it now speaks 
 to you. It is possible that every obstruction in the 
 way of spreading the gospel on the Continent may be 
 about to be removed, by the proclamation of freedom 
 of conscience, and the liberty of the press. You, there- 
 fore, should be preparing yourselves by a fresh baptism of 
 the Spirit for your high vocation. Rise, O, rise above 
 the region of politics, into that of religion ! Connect 
 with all that is going on, the idea of a grand develop- 
 ment of God's plan of mercy for our apostate world. 
 Feel as if you must, for and by these things, be men of 
 stronger faith and more fervent prayer. Let it be a con- 
 viction deeply rooted in the mind of every one of you, 
 that there needs for such an age, and amidst such revo- 
 lutions, a new and grander exhibition of the excellence 
 of religion, and the power of the church. By the depth 
 of your own convictions, and the intensity of your own 
 hopes, that all now going on is but a preparatory pro- 
 cess to usher in an evangelical era of European history, 
 labor to communicate this idea, and to awaken this ex- 
 pectation in the public mind. Endeavor to make all men 
 
TO EARNESTNESS. 237 
 
 feel, that for the world's happiness, there is something 
 better than even liberty to be obtained, and without 
 which, freedom itself cannot be fully enjoyed, nor per- 
 manently secured. Let the church be seen as a light- 
 house to guide the nations of the earth into the haven of 
 safety and peace. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EXAMPLES OF EARNESTNESS. 
 
 Earnestness means intensity of feeling leading on to 
 vigorous and determined action ; and what is so likely to 
 produce this as example 1 Principles instruct us — pre- 
 cepts guide us — but example moves us. Example is 
 principle and precept embodied, living, and in action. 
 We see not only what is done, and what ought to be 
 done, but what can be done, and how it is done. It 
 appeals to all our faculties at once ; it fixes the attention 
 — engages the imagination — instructs the judgment — 
 moves the heart — subdues the will — awakens the con- 
 science — and assists the memory. Its motive power is 
 astonishing. Let us, therefore, look at the examples of 
 earnestness for the people, as in a former volume we have 
 selected some for the ministry. 
 
 Were it not undesirable to swell out this volume to an 
 undue extent, it would be well to bring forward some 
 examples of earnestness in the cause of evil, that Chris- 
 tians, by this means, might be stirred up to more fiiU 
 devotedness in the service of God. What intense activ- 
 ity has ever been exhibited by the worshippers of idols, as 
 proved by the facts of history and the records of Scripture 
 Isaiah xliv.; Jeremiah vii. 17 ; 1.38. Are Mahometans 
 usually lacking in zeal for their religion, or lukewarm in 
 professing or diffusing it 1 What shall we say of Popery, 
 which has breathed such an inspiration into its votaries 
 that every man becomes a zealot as soon as he is a papist ? 
 20* 
 
238 ' EXAMPLES OF 
 
 How is it, then, that these votaries of a false religion are 
 more in earnest than so many of the followers of the 
 true one? 
 
 If we look at the followers after wealth, science, fame, 
 how much do we see that confirms the truth of our Lord's 
 words, " The children of this world are wiser in their 
 generation than the children of light." 
 
 Happily, however, for the honor of a pure Christianity, 
 we may see among its professors instances of devotedness, 
 not to be surpassed in any other classes or communities 
 on the face of the earth. If we turn to the scenes which 
 followed the day of Pentecost, as described by the histo- 
 rian of " The Acts of the Apostles," chap. ii. 41, 49, 
 we shall find something more lovely than was ever exhib- 
 ited in our world. Then let us think of the martyr-age, 
 when the Christians went in crowds to the scaffold, the 
 stake, and the lions of the amphitheatre. Following 
 on the bloody track of persecution, we may turn our eyes 
 to the Alpine heights of Piedmont, whither the Walden- 
 ses retreated from the fury of the Papal Beast. Or if in 
 modern times we would look for instances of earnestness, 
 we may find them in the zeal of " The United Brethren," 
 or Moravians, as they are called, who, when their whole 
 society amounted only to six hundred poor, despised 
 exiles, sent out missions, in the short space of nine 
 years, to Greenland, St. Thomas', St. Croix, Surinam, 
 the Rio de Berbice, the Indians of North America, the 
 Negroes of South Carolina, Lapland, Tartary, Algiers, 
 Guinea, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Island of 
 Ceylon. 
 
 But as individual instances will have more power than 
 a reference to collective bodies, we will now look at some 
 of these. Have we forgotten John Howard, the philan- 
 thropist, who, under the influence of Christian philan- 
 thropy — for he loas a Christian in the spiritual sense of 
 the term — left his elegant retreat in Bedfordshire, to 
 traverse the length and breadth of Europe, and spend his 
 life in " diving into the depths of dungeons, and plunging 
 into the infection of hospitals, to survey the mansions of 
 sorrow and pain, and to take the gauge of misery, depres- 
 sion, and contempt ; to remember the forgotten, to attend 
 
EARNESTNESS. 
 
 239 
 
 to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to collate and 
 compare the distresses of men of all ages." 
 
 But perhaps examples bearing more directly upon 
 efforts for the spread of religion will be thought most 
 appropriate, and I proceed, therefore, to exhibit some few 
 of these. 
 
 I hold up, then, for the imitation of men of wealth, two 
 individuals, worthy to be associated on the same page, 
 and deserving of everlasting remembrance by the churcli 
 of God. The first is the eminent John Tkornton, Esq., 
 of Clapham, a name never to be mentioned, but with rev- 
 erent affection. This gentlenjan was a London merchant 
 and who by the high moral principle wliich guided all his 
 secular pursuits, and the munificent distribution of his 
 large profits, was one of those who inscribe upon their 
 merchandise, " Holiness to the Lord." He was, by 
 profession, a member of the Church of England ; but 
 neither his piety, nor his charity, nor his liberality, could 
 be bound up within the limits of any one section of the 
 Christian church. His heart was too large to be con- 
 fined with any amplitude of narrower dimensions than 
 the universal church. So that the cause of evangelical 
 religion could be promoted, he scarcely asked the question 
 whether it was done by churchman or dissenter ; his heart, 
 his lip, his purse, were opened to all ahke. Aware that 
 the preaching of the gospel is God's great instrument for 
 the conversion of sinners, he Was zealous for the educa- 
 tion of pious young men for the work of the Christian min- 
 istry, and from his own purse was maiidy instrumental 
 in establishing, and for a while supporting, the Dissent- 
 ing Academy at Newport Pagnell, then under the care of 
 the Rev. T. Bull. What a noble effort of piety ind 
 charity for a churchman ! In this labor of love he was 
 assisted by his friend, the Rev. John Newton, of St. 
 Mary, Woolnoth. In pursuance of the same object, he 
 purchased church livings, to bestow them upon men who 
 preached the pure gospel ; and was ever ready to con- 
 tribute large sums, or smaller, as the case might require,- 
 for the erection or enlargement of churches in the estab- 
 lishment, or chapels among dissenters. He scarcely ever 
 turned away a well accredited case. Often while he was 
 
240 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 transacting business with captains or with merchants, in 
 his own counting-house, appHcants for his bounty would 
 be waiting for their turn of audience in the outer one ; 
 and the latter were made as welcome to take away his 
 wealth, as the former vere to bring it in, and would be 
 received with a smile as cordial. In his ships large num- 
 bers of Bibles and good books were often sent with hi? 
 merchandise to the distant nations of the earth. 
 
 In subserviency to religion, and from the most enlarged 
 and expanded philanthropy, Mr. Thornton Uberally pat- 
 ronized every undertaking which was intended to reheve 
 the distress, or increase the comfort, of the human 
 species ; so that it would have been difficult to mention 
 one private or public charity of his day, to which he was 
 not a benefactor. To support such numerous and expeii- 
 sive designs of usefulness, without embarrassing his af- 
 fairs, or interfering with the real interests of his family, 
 he avoided all extravagance in his domestic establish- 
 ments, and acted upon the principle that frugality is the 
 best purveyor for liberality. He spent little upon himself, 
 in order that he might have the more to spend for God 
 and his fellow-creatures. Nor was it only his wealth 
 that he thus devoted, though the sums he spent must 
 have been immense, but he gave also his time and his 
 labor. He lived to do good ; he pursued it as a business, 
 and he enjoyed it as a pleasure. He was as earnest in 
 giving, as most men are in getting. Such was the good, 
 the eminent John Thornton, the Christian philanthropist 
 of Clapham. 
 
 Thomas Wilson, Esq.,* of Highbury, whose memory 
 will ever be'fondly cherished, as long as liberality in the 
 cause of God shall be esteemed a virtue, set out in life 
 as a Christian tradesman. He was partner in a respecta- 
 ble and lucrative establishment in the silk line, in London. 
 This, when bright prospects of worldly advantage were 
 
 *This eminent individual, and also Lady Huntingdon, were 
 mentioned in "The Earnest Ministry;" hut they are brought 
 forward here, and at greater length, as belonging more to this 
 volume than to that ; and had the present w jrk been contem- 
 t)lated when the former one was written, they would have been 
 eseived for this occasion. 
 
EARNESTNESS. 241 
 
 opening before him, he quitted early in manhood, to 
 devote himself wholly to the cause of God, and the spir- 
 itual welfare of his fellow-creatures. It may be justly 
 questioned, whether it would not be better, in most cases, 
 for pious and wealthy tradesmen to remain, like Mr. 
 Thornton, in business, and consecrate their profits to 
 Christ, than retire from it. This would augment their 
 means of usefulness by the acquisition of greater wealth, 
 and by the influence they exert over other men engaged 
 in trade. Occasionally, however, it is well for an individ- 
 ual, as in the present case, to give up altogether secular 
 pursuits, and yield himself, as well as his property, to 
 God. The time and attention of one such man, as well 
 as the property of many other men combined, is needed 
 for the benefit of our institutions. Mr. Wilson's excel- 
 lent father had been treasurer of the Dissenting College 
 at Hoxton, for the education of ministers, which has been 
 since removed to Highbury. To that office he succeeded 
 at the death of his father, and in which he has been fol- 
 lowed by his son, Joshua Wilson, Esq. From the time 
 of his official connection with this important institution, 
 he became, in the best sense of the term, a public man. 
 To his patrimonial inheritance, which was handsome, 
 though not, in the widest meaning of the expression, 
 affluent, he had a large accession by the death of a 
 maternal uncle ; which affi)rded him an opportunity, had 
 he chosen to embrace it, to add much to the splendor of 
 his style of living. He preferred rather to consider it as 
 furnishing him with fresh means for glorifying God, in 
 promoting his cause. 
 
 Mr. Wilson was one of the fathers and founders of the 
 London Missionary Society, and at the time of his decease 
 was its treasurer. He was a liberal patron of all the 
 religious societies of the day. But the object of his chief 
 attention, care, and solicitude, was the college ; and in 
 the cause of this, and what stood connected with it, he 
 embarked his time, his influence, his bodily labor, and to 
 a considerable extent, his fortune. To fill the college 
 with students — to help to support many of them during 
 their academic course — to provide chi irches for them to 
 settle wdth — and, where necessary, to build chapels foi 
 
^42 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 them to preach in, formed the noble object of his exist- 
 ence. To carry out this end, he had his office, his clerk, 
 and his correspondence ; to which he devoted himself 
 with the same assiduity as did the merchants around to 
 their commerce and their gains. In one sense, his office 
 yielded the advantage of a registration for ministers that 
 wanted churches, and churches that wanted pastors ; and 
 his private residence, also, was ever accessible to all who 
 had any communication to make, or wished his counsel. 
 What multitudes have been his guests, and have shared 
 his unostentatious, but generous hospitalities ! 
 
 Touched with the destitution of the metropolis, as 
 regards adequate evangelical means of instruction, he 
 erected at his own risk, and mainly at his own cost, four 
 spacious chapels — Hoxton, Paddington, Craven, and 
 Claremont. Nor was his munificence confined to Lon- 
 don, for he built new and elegant places of worship at 
 Ipswich, Northampton, Richmond, Dover. Besides this, 
 he contributed in sums from five hundred pounds to fifty, 
 to the enlargement and erection of eighty other chapels, 
 and in smaller amounts to hundreds more. He could 
 have spent little less than fifty or sixty thousand pounds 
 in the service of his Lord. It was not, however, the 
 amount of money that constituted the whole of his ear- 
 nestness, but the surrender of all he was, and all he had, 
 to the work of God. He lived for these two objects — 
 to educate ministers, and to build chapels. At home and 
 abroad — by correspondence and personal inspection — 
 by receiving information and seeking it, he was ever 
 laboring to carry out this design. Age did not paralyze 
 the ardor of this devoted and unwearied man, nor dismiss 
 him from his beloved employ. When too feeble to go to 
 his office in town, its business was brought to him at his 
 own habitation. The last interview I had with him, 
 which was not long before his decease, when, though 
 attenuated by disease and suffering from pain, his coun- 
 tenance brightened up, as he showed me a letter which 
 he had just received from a minister encouraging his 
 hopes that his correspondent would settle at one of the 
 chapels he had erected in the metropolis. 
 
 On reading this brief account, no one can doubt, much 
 
EARNESTNESS. 
 
 243 
 
 less any one who knew the subject of it, that Mr Wilson 
 was a fine specimen of an earnest man. Let men of 
 fortune contemplate this bright example, and go and do 
 likewise. Let them here learn the real design of Prov- 
 idence in bestowing wealth, and their own richest enjoy- 
 ment in appropriating it. What a service does that man 
 render to the cause of religion through all time, and the 
 souls of his fellow-creatures through all eternity, who 
 erects only one place of worship, or educates only one 
 minister for the preaching of the gospel ! 
 
 Men of leisure and of literature will find an admirable 
 example of intense activity and continued labor, in the 
 cause of public usefulness, in the late George Stokes, 
 Esq. This gentleman also commenced life as a partner 
 in a large wholesale silk establishment. He had received 
 a good classical education at Merchant Tailor's School in 
 London. While yet comparatively a young man, and 
 much engaged in business, he connected himself with 
 that inestimably valuable institution, the Religious Tract 
 Society, as one of its committee, and placed no divided 
 heart upon its altar. In addition to the ordinary duties 
 of a committee-man, -he soon brought his literary taste 
 and acquirements under requisition, for the benefit of the 
 Society, and wrote several tracts, which were adopted, 
 printed, and widely circulated. When the society felt 
 any pressure upon its finances, Mr. Stokes' purse was as 
 much at its command as his pen. At the meetings of 
 the committee, he was always present when not prevented 
 by sickness or absence from home ; and was often in daily 
 attendance at the depository for a long time together. He 
 wrote several of the annual reports, and proceeded vith 
 ever increasing zeal and ingenuity to multiply by his own 
 pen the productions issued by the Society. The series 
 of hawker's tracts, and- children's books, the Tract Mag- 
 azine, and the subsequent issue of larger works, owed 
 much to his inventive mind and ever active pen. The 
 stereotype plates for some of the earlier issues of religious 
 books cost him six hundred pounds. In all his labors he 
 was most ably assisted by his invaluable friend, and the 
 Society's incomparable agent, Mr. William Lloyd. His 
 greatest work was his preparation of the Society's Com* 
 
244 
 
 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 mentary upon the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testament. In the accomplishment of this he employed 
 five years, and was often engaged eight hours a day upon 
 it. It is needless to say he had long since resigned the 
 active duties Of worldly business, to devote himself to his 
 gratuitous, extensive, and unwearied labors, in the cause 
 of the Rehgious Tract Society. Mr. Stokes died at 
 Cheltenham, on the 31st of May, in his fifty-eighth year ; 
 soon after which a resolution of sympathy with his fam- 
 ily, of gratitude to God, and admiration of his hfe and 
 labors, was passed by the Society, of which the follow- 
 ing is an extract : " The committee now feel it their duty 
 to record upon their minutes the interesting fact, that Mr. 
 Stokes prepared for the Society about two hundred sep- 
 arate tracts, translations, juvenile and other larger vol- 
 umes ; including, ' The Commentary on the Holy Bible ;* 
 ' The Writings and Lives of the British Reformers ; ' 
 'The English History;' and various works on 'The 
 Manners and Customs of the Jews ;' and that in addition 
 to all these important publications, he zealously and dis- 
 interestedly discharged, for twenty-two years, the duties 
 of one of the editors of the Tract Magazine and the 
 Child's Companion." 
 
 Of these various publications nearly fourteen million 
 copies have been issued by the Society, Well mig-ht Mr. 
 Jones, the admirable travelling agent of the Society, in 
 his " Recollections of the late George Stokes, Esq.," 
 remark, we learn here ^^ the power of a single individual 
 to do much good. Mr. Stokes was a man of useful, 
 rather than of splendid, talents. He was not a literary 
 miser. He collected knowledge that he might freely 
 impart it. His light was not put under a bushel, but 
 was seen of men, and gave light to those around. He 
 lived not to himself. Without being fully conscious of 
 it, he so shone before men, through his numerous and 
 useful works, that many were led to glorify his heavenly 
 Father." 
 
 I now bring forward two instances from humble life, 
 for the instruction and encouragement of those in a simi- 
 lar situation. The first is Thomas Cranfield, of whom 
 an interesting memoir has been published by the Re- 
 
EARNESTNESS. 245 
 
 ligious Tract Society, under the title of "The Useful 
 Christian." Thomas Cranfield was the son of a journey- 
 man baker in South wark, and as he grew up to youth, 
 became a wicked, cruel and brutish lad. He absconded 
 from his master, enlisted into the army, and was at the 
 siege of Gibraltar. He was a brave soldier, and reckless 
 of danger, but a slave of sin and Satan. On his return 
 to England, he was taken to hear Mr. Romaine preach 
 at Blackfriars. His hard heart was broken down by the 
 hammer of the Word, and his pious parents soon had the 
 ineffable felicity to see their soldier-son enter, heart and 
 soul, into tiie service of the Captain of our salvation. 
 Having found joy and peace in believing, he became in- 
 tensely anxious and active for the salvation of others. 
 His first solicitude was for his wife, who soon became a 
 fellow-heir with him of the grace of life. He then 
 sought the conversion of her relatives, as his own were 
 already Christians. The next objects of his pious zeal 
 were the lodgers in the house where he resided, two of 
 whom became, by their conversion, the fruits of his 
 labors. Soon after he acted as clerk to an out-of-door 
 preacher, who proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation to 
 the multitude in Moorfields. Then he joined in setting 
 up a prayer-meeting among the brick-makers at Kings- 
 land. At length, panting for a regular means of doing 
 good, rather than these casual efforts, he opened a Sun- 
 day school at Rotherhithe, where he had witnessed some 
 awful scenes of juvenile depravity. Finding, at length, 
 some one to conduct this institution, he directed his views 
 to Tottenham, and opened another there. Founding and 
 conducting Sunday schools now became his vocation, to 
 which he surrendered himself with all the ardor with 
 which he had fought his country's battles on the heights 
 of Gibraltar. School after school was opened by him in 
 many of the darkest and rudest places in the neighbor- 
 hood of the metropolis, of which he was the teacher, the 
 superintendent, and the purveyor, finding friends to assis* 
 with their money, and teachers by their labors. To the 
 duties of a superintendent of Sunday schools, he added 
 those of a visitor of the sick, tjli Thomas Crar.field 
 21 
 
246 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 became known as a friend of the young, the sick, and the 
 poor, through whole neighborhoods. What he wanted 
 in order and method, he made up in zeal and persever- 
 ance. Individual, as well as general, in his attentions, 
 he visited the children at their homes, and wrote letters 
 enough to them to make a volume. He looked after 
 them when they had left the school, followed them to 
 their domiciles, or assembled them at a meeting of " old 
 scholars." At one of these gatherings, amounting lo 
 about sixty, it was ascertained that fourteen of those 
 present were members of churches, and that there was 
 scarcely one who did not attend a place of worship. The 
 lodging-houses, those dark domains of Satan, where filth, 
 and ignorance, and vice, seem all condensed together, 
 into their narrowest dimensions, did not escape his 
 notice, or daunt his courage, and he rendered many of 
 them accessible to the light of truth, and the glad tidings 
 of salvation. Thus lived and labored Thomas Cranfield. 
 Time blunted not his religious sensibilities, and he bore 
 fruit to old age — at fourscore he was still lively in de- 
 sire, though feeble in action, in the cause of his Master. 
 Half a century he had labored as a devoted Sunday 
 school teacher, and tired not to the last. This once 
 profligate youth, and brave but wicked soldier, when he 
 died, was honored with funeral obsequies, which the 
 hero under whom he served at Gibraltar might have 
 coveted in vain to enjoy. O, for more Thomas Cran- 
 field s !* 
 
 Harlan Page is more than worthy to be associated in 
 these biographical etchings, with the last mentioned indi- 
 vidual, for though not superior in piety and devotedness 
 to Thomas Cranfield, he was before him, both in talent 
 and in usefulness. Harlan Page was a native of Connect- 
 icut, in the United States. His father was a house- 
 joiner, to which trade he also was brought up. He was 
 converted to God when about twenty-two years of age. 
 " When I first obtained a hope," he said on his dying 
 bed, " I felt that I must labor for souls. I prayed year 
 after year that God would make me the means of saving 
 
 * " The Useful Christian," by the Tract Society. Is. 
 
EARNESTNESS. 247 
 
 souls." His prayer was soon answered; for who ever 
 presented such a prayer, and followed it up with appro- 
 priate and diligent exertions, that had not his des-ires 
 gratified? Three days after he pul icly professed his 
 faith in Christ, he began his useful career by addressing 
 a letter to one who had been long resisting conviction 
 and hardening his heart. Letter- writing now became 
 nis chosen means of doing good ; and this instrumentality 
 he scarcely ceased, for a single day, to employ. He ad- 
 dressed himself to relations and strangers — to friends 
 and foes — to the rich and the poor — to saints and sin- 
 ners — to persons in all states and stages of religious 
 experience — and to the young and old — with a dili- 
 gence that is surprising. No lover of wealth or literature 
 was ever more assiduous in correspondence than was this 
 pious carpenter. When lying on a sick bed, he would 
 employ himself in thinking in what new ways he could 
 be useful ; and when recovered, it was his first solicitude 
 to put his plans and purposes into execution. His next 
 means of saving souls was the printing and circulating 
 of small cards, with a short and impressive address, com- 
 posed by himself, on some of the momentous truths of 
 revelation. The distribution of tracts was added to the 
 circulation of cards. His object then was to promote 
 prayer-meetings and revivals of religion among his fellow- 
 members. On one occasion he had entered in his private 
 memoranda short notices of seventy-nine individuals 
 under concern, among whom he was ever active in pro- 
 moting their spiritual welfare. His pen was as busy as 
 his tongue, and he was always preparing addresses for 
 publication in some of the religious periodicals; and 
 ^vhich were full of point, pathos, and unction. " While 
 working at three shillings a day, here was a mechanic 
 performing his daily task on hire, establishing and sus- 
 taining a religious meeting at the boarding-house, on 
 Wednesday evenings ; a meeting of the people of God, 
 for prayer, on Sabbath mornings, at sun-rise ; and though 
 he went three miles to attend public worship, throwing 
 his efforts into a Sabbath school at five, p m. ; devoting 
 Sabbath evenings to meetings and family nsitation ; con- 
 versing with the sick, the careless, the anxious ; dis- 
 
248 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 tributing tracts ; endeavoring to awaken an interest in the 
 religious operations of the day ; keeping a brief diary ; 
 abounding in prayer ; and adopting, with others, an in- 
 cipient measure for the formation of a churcli and the 
 settlement of a pastor." 
 
 At length, Harlan Page was appointed Agent of the 
 General Depository of the American Tract Society, 
 which opened to him a new sphere of activity and useful- 
 ness, and which he filled with his accustomed energy. 
 He assembled, from time to time, all the tract distribu- 
 tors, companies of Sunday school teachers, and others, to 
 instruct them, as a kind of drill sergeant in the army of 
 the Captain of Salvation, in their several duties. The 
 great temperance movement received his- hearty coopera- 
 tion. During all these labors for others, he was no less 
 assiduous for his own family, and had the joy of seeing 
 his children walking in the truth. It may be truly said 
 he was animated by as much as is ever found in imperfect 
 humanity, of the passion for saving souls ; and for this 
 he would have been willing to become a martyr. 
 
 Yea, in some sense he w^as a martyr, for his constant 
 labors w^ore out a frame, never robust ; and after having 
 saved by his varied instrumentality more souls than most 
 of those who bear the ministerial office, he died, at the 
 comparatively early age of forty-two ; and has left an 
 example of earnestness in doing good, which were the 
 church of Christ disposed to imitate, our world would 
 soon be rescued from the dominion of sin and Satan, and 
 recovered to its rightful owner, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Lei us hear this dying saint say, "I know it is all "of 
 God's grace, and nothing that I have done ; but I think 
 that I have had evidejice that more than one hundred souls 
 have been converted to God through my own direct and 
 personal instrumentality ;^^ — and having heard it, let us 
 consider what one man in humble life, with by no means 
 a strong bodily frame, but with a heart burning with an 
 ardent desire to be useful to men's souls, can do, when he 
 is given up to this blessed and sublime occupation. Sup- 
 pose every Christian congregation were blessed with ten 
 such individuals, yea five, yea one, what a shovi^er of 
 blessi/ ig? might be expected to fall upon the neighborhood 
 
EARNESTNESS. 249 
 
 in which they live ! Here is earnestness indeed. It 
 would not be easy to think of a means more likely to 
 rouse Christians to a sense of *heir capacity and obhga- 
 tions for doing good, than •She ^^erusal of the cheap me- 
 moirs of this wonderful man, which also has been re- 
 published in this country by the Religious Tract Society. 
 
 We will now contemplate two or three examples of 
 female earnestness, which are selected for that sex which 
 has ever distinguished itself for zeal in every good cause, 
 and especially in that of religion. In the time of the 
 Saviour they were his most constant and devoted follow- 
 ers, were last at the cross, and first at the sepulchre ; and 
 since then, have in every age shown the ardor of their 
 love by distinguished services. 
 
 The first instance is selected from the peerage, and is 
 the well known Selina, Countess of Huntingdon. 
 This extraordinary woman was from a child of a grave 
 and serious disposition, and maintained, amidst all the ele- 
 gance and gayety of Donnington Park, a devout turn of 
 mind. She was, however, for a long time laboring hard 
 to establish her own righteousness ; till by conversation 
 with Lady Margaret Hastings, a near relative on her 
 husband's side, she received the knowledge of justifica- 
 tion by faith. Whitfield and Wesley were then in the 
 midst of their labors, and the zenith of their popularity 
 and usefulness. Lord and Lady Huntingdon immediately 
 patronized the new doctrine, and were the followers of 
 Whitfield wherever he preached. Connected by her 
 rank with nobility, and by her habits with literary men, 
 wits, poets, and statesmen, what decision, fortitude, and 
 even heroism, it required, not stealthily and by night, but 
 boldly in the face of day, to connect- herself with the sect 
 everywhere spoken ill of, and ridiculed as a band of ig- 
 norant fanatics ! Such qualities were possessed by the 
 subject of this sketch. She became to a certain extent 
 the patroness of the despised preacher at " the Foundry." 
 Her saloon was thrown open to h;s preaching, where 
 Lord Chesterfield, the high priest of the god of fashion, 
 Lord Bolingbroke, and many other peers and peeresses, 
 would not unfreqaentlv be found, at her ladyship's solici- 
 21* ' ' 
 
250 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 tation, listening to Whitfield, now appointed to be her 
 chaplain It was while this great man was on a visit to 
 Lady Huntingdon's seat, at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, that the 
 Tabernacle, in London, was planned, and chiefly at her 
 instigation By this time, her fortune, never very large, 
 and her influence, which was much greater, were both 
 put in requisition to meet the expense of the erection of 
 the Tabernacle, Tottenham Court chapel, and other 
 places of worship. Mr. Berridge, of Everton, Mr. 
 Rowland Hill, Mr. Matthew Wilks, and all others of 
 their style of preaching, whether in or out of the Church 
 of England, became her proteges. She was still profess- 
 edly a member of that communion, but loved the gospel, 
 and all who preached it, infinitely more than she did the 
 church. Lay preaching, and out of door preaching, 
 met with her entire concurrence and liberal support. 
 Chapels now were engaged by her wherever she could 
 obtain them, to the full extent of her means ; and it was 
 her special delight to buy theatres, when they were to be 
 obtained, and so turn those places into houses for saving 
 souls, which had been formerly employed for destroying 
 them. Wherever a revival of religion took place, in the 
 establishment, or in any other denomination, her influence 
 was sure to be engaged. 
 
 • After studding the land with chapels, and supplying 
 them with ministers, supporting them, in many cases, 
 from her own purse, she aimed at nobler game, and es- 
 tablished a college, at Trevecca, in South Wales, for the 
 education of ministers ; and I have lying before me, at this 
 moment, a hst of the names of ministers, and many of 
 them of considerable celebrity, amounting to one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five, who were educated in this semi- 
 nary. When the lease of the premises at Trevecca 
 'expired, the college was removed to Cheshunt, Herts, 
 where it now continues, under the able presidency of Dr. 
 Harris ; and already have nearly two hundred ministers 
 been educated for the preaching of the gospel, in that 
 seat of holy and general literature. A religious connec- 
 tion was formed which bore, and which still b(>-ars, the 
 name of this distinguished lady. Her personal exertions 
 in -ihese works of faith, and labors of love, were un- 
 
EARNESTNESS. 251 
 
 wounded. She lived for nothing- else. Rank, and for- 
 tune, and influence, were valuable in her eyes, only as 
 they enabled her to glorify God, advance the kingdom 
 of Christ, and save immortal souls. All she possessed, 
 she consecrated to the Redeemer of the world, and his 
 cause on earth. She kept no state, she incurred no ex- 
 pense, in order that she might give all to the Saviour. 
 She was often involved in considerable difficulties for 
 want of sioney, not, like many of the nobility, to meet her 
 debts for gambling or extravagance, but for buying or 
 erecting chapels. Having determined to erect a place of 
 worship at Brighton,, and being at the time rather strait- 
 ened for money, she came to the noble resolution of sell- 
 ing her jewels, and with the produce, amounting to 
 nearly seven hundred pounds, she built the chapel in 
 North Street, in that town, now occupied by the Rev. 
 Joseph Sortain. This was one of the most interesting 
 sacrifices of vanity ever made at the shrine of religion. 
 How truly may it be said of that place of Christian 
 worship, with an alteration of the future into the past 
 time, "I have laid thy stones with fair colors, and thy 
 foundations with sapphires, and I will make thy windows 
 of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders 
 of pleasant stones." 
 
 Such was Lady Huntingdon. How correctly has it 
 been said by her biographer, " The value of such a life 
 can never be ascertained, till the heavens and the earth 
 be no more ; and when temporal happiness and misery 
 shall have vanished like the illusion of a dream, thou- 
 sands, and tens of thousands, will be thankful that she 
 lived so long, the faithful servant of God, and the happy 
 instrument of their conversion." 
 
 Here was earnestness indeed ! 
 
 But few have such opportunities for service in the 
 cause of Christ as this illustrious woman, and we there- 
 fore descend to others nearer the ordinary level of human 
 life. From these we select that noble-minded woman, 
 Mrs. Fry. This lady, as is well known, was a member 
 of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, as they are com- 
 monly called. After spending her youth in worldliness, 
 vanity, and with an inclinaticv: to scepticism, yet still 
 
EXAMPLES OF 
 
 amidst many struggles with a eonscier ,e which urged 
 her to higher pursuits, she was converted to God by the 
 preaching and conversation of William Savory, an Amer- 
 ican Quaker minister, who visited this land on a religious 
 mission. Little did this holy and self-denying servant of 
 the Lord imagine, when he set his foot on the shores of 
 Britain, what a convert he was about to win to the cross 
 of his Master. Had he lived only for that one object, his 
 existence would have been a rich blessing to our world. 
 Mrs. Fry's piety, from the commencement of her reli- 
 gious life, partook of the ardor of her natural temperament. 
 In addition to the contemplative duties of religion, she 
 soon added the assiduities of an active benevolence, and 
 when surrounded by the cares of married life, and the 
 anxieties of a mother with an increasing family, and a 
 feeble constitution, she, notwithstanding, devoted much 
 time to visiting the poor. She gre-w in grace amidst some 
 bodily suffering, and became eminent for the power of the 
 hidden life. She was soon appointed visiter of the school 
 and work-house of the Society of Friends, at Islington, 
 upon the duties of which, notwithstanding her multiply- 
 ing cares at home, she entered with alacrity, humility, 
 and self-devotedness. Her active mind soon after this 
 became anxious to form an establishment for the welfare 
 of female servants. That mysterious, interesting, but 
 degraded race, the Gypsies, did not escape her notice, 
 and she visited their little camp as often as it was pitched 
 in her neighborhood ; relieving their wants, reproving 
 their sins, and furnishing such as could read with books. 
 After speaking occasionally in their meetings, the Friends 
 acknowleged her ministry as one whom the Lord had 
 called. Thirs devolved upon her new duties and frequent 
 journeys. 
 
 At length the attention of Mrs. Fry was called to the 
 female prisoners in Newgate, who at that time weie in 
 the most deplorable condition, both physically and morally. 
 Hundreds of these wretched beings were huddled together, 
 in filth, vice, and confusion ; and often infuriated to mad- 
 ness with ardent spirits, which were then allowed to be 
 sold in the prison, till the place resembled a pandemonium. 
 She was now the mother of eiffht children, and can she 
 
EARNESTNESS. 253 
 
 with such a charge find leisme, and for such an object 
 find courage, to venture into that den of revolting and 
 outrageous wickedness ? Or could she hope even by her 
 calnn and gentle presence to control that band of furies? 
 Against the remonstrances of some, the fears of more, 
 and the despondency of nearly all but her own heaven- 
 moved mind, this angel of mercy descended into that 
 dark domain of vice, which had acquired the designation 
 of" hell above ground." Her presence so benign, her 
 voice so musical, her disposition so affectionate, and her 
 whole manner so gentle and yet so confiding, awed the 
 rude spirits which collected around her. Such a form of 
 sanctity and mercy had never before been seen in that 
 abode of vice and misery ; and an immediate impression 
 in her favor was produced upon the minds of the female 
 culprits whom she had gone to instruct. At her instiga- 
 tion, " An Association for the Improvement of the 
 Female Prisoners in Newgate," was formed, of which, 
 of course, she was the chief agent. Their operations 
 were seconded by the civic authorities, and soon evinced 
 that there are no characters so desperate, and no habits 
 of vice so inveterate, which may not be expected to yield 
 to judicious, gentle, firm, and persevering kindness. 
 Mrs. Fry's unwearied labors continued, and with them 
 the reformation at Newgate advanced. But this brought 
 upon her an extensive correspondence, and much addi- 
 tional labor of other kinds, for she had become now a 
 female heroine whose fame had gone out into all the 
 earth ; it had penetrated mansions, palaces, and the 
 courts of justice ; and drew attention, not only to herself, 
 but, what was still more important, to the subject of prison 
 reform. Her visits were now extended, not only to 
 almost every part of the country, but also to the channel 
 islands. After this, she crossed the Atlantic, and visited 
 America, returning home through France. Scarcely 
 was she quietly and safely at home, before another jour- 
 ney was undertaken to the continent, when she traversed 
 Germany, Holland and Denmark. Thus did this won- 
 derful woman ever go about doing good. No distance, 
 no difficulties, no labors, appalled her, in her efforts to 
 instruct ignorance, to reform vice, and to alleviate wre^^h- 
 
254 EXAMPLES OF 
 
 edness. Advancing years chilled not her ardor, noi 
 indiiced her to seek repose. In this noble career she 
 continued till the Master whom she so much loved, and 
 BO well served, called her to her rest, and her reward. 
 Such was the woman, who in her last illness made this 
 declaration to her daughter, " I can say one thing — 
 since my heart was turned to the Lord, at the age of 
 Beventeen, I believe I have never wakened from sleep, in 
 sickness or in health, by day or by night, without my 
 first waking thoughts being. How shall I best serve my 
 Lord?" 
 
 Perhaps it will be thought by many that Mrs. Fry's 
 example, though so beautiful, is, like Lady Hunting- 
 don's, too lofty to be approached and imitated, however 
 it may be contemplated and admired, by the readers of 
 this volume. I now, then, exhibit one, altogether worthy 
 to follow Mrs. Fry's, to which no such remark will 
 apply. Sarah Martin, of Great Yarmouth, was brought 
 up to the business of a dress-maker, and followed this 
 vocation in her native town. Her mind was brought 
 under the saving influence of religion at the age of nine- 
 teen. Like most others, whose conversion to God is 
 real, she no sooner experienced the blessedness of true 
 religion, than she longed to diffuse it. The first impulse 
 of her zeal was a strong desire to visit the workhouse, and 
 read and pray with its inmates. God, who inspires such 
 wishes, will always make way for their gratification ; and 
 it was her felicity not only to gain admission to the 
 house, but to receive a hearty welcome, and a patient 
 attention, from its inmates. In the same year, when 
 passing the jail, she felt a strong inclination to be admit- 
 ted within its gloomy walls and cells, to read tlie Scrip- 
 tures to the prisoners. She kept her wishes a secret, 
 lest her friends should interfere, and hinder her in this 
 work of mercy. God led her, and she consulted none 
 but him. DiflSculties presented themselves, but they 
 soon vanished before the power of faith, prayer, and per- 
 severance. The governor, aware of her consistent piety 
 and benevolent character, indulged her in her generous 
 plan of benefiting his guilty charge. Her frequent visits 
 soon became habitual ones. Finding, on one occasion, 
 
EARNESTNESS. 255 
 
 a female convict, who was soon about to be transported, 
 making a bonnet on the Sabbath, she immediately ob- 
 tained permission to set up regular Sunday service, which 
 till then had been neglected ; and which from that time 
 was conducted by herself. 
 
 To carry out her schemes for the improvement of the 
 prisoners, she now sacrificed one day's profitable labor, 
 to give it to them. A pious lady, aware of this generous 
 sacrifice, bought another day's labor of her for the jail, 
 by allowing her what she usually received for her day's 
 work. Books were wanting for the instruction of the 
 women, and to obtain these she raised a quarterly sub- 
 scription among a few friends. In connection with these 
 visits to the jail, she carried on, during an hour or two of 
 the day, the instruction of a few boys and girls, and kept 
 up also her unabated attention to the paupers in the work- 
 house. As the close sick rooms of that asylum of pov- 
 erty materially injured her health, she was compelled to 
 relinquish this sphere of benevolence, and take up, in lieu 
 of it, a workhouse school. At length, her whole time 
 was redeemed from making ladies' dresses, and given to 
 the blessed work of instructing and reforming the vic- 
 tims of sin and of justice ; for, as may be supposed, her 
 business would naturally and necessarily decline, in con- 
 sequence of her irregular attention to it. Her support 
 failed with her business, except what she derived from 
 the interest of between two and three hundred pounds. 
 But with strong and unpresumptuous faith, she exclaim- 
 ed, " The Lord will provide !" And so he did. She 
 had by this time become, quite unintentionally, a public 
 character. The corporation knew, approved, and sanc- 
 tioned her labors ; and did more than this, for they voted 
 her an allowance from the public funds. Her delicate 
 and generous mind was wounded by the offer, and for 
 a while she pertinaciously refused it, till it was literally 
 forced upon her, by her acceptance of it being made the 
 condition of the continuance of her visits to the jail. 
 This, of course, subdued all opposition. In this career 
 she continued, setting up one institution after another in 
 the jail, for the benefit of its inmates, all tending to 
 instruct theu- minds, to reform their morals, to promote 
 
256 EjXAMPLES OF 
 
 their industry, to soften the rigor of their imprisonment, 
 and to prepare them either for their return to society, or 
 for their banishment into a land of exile. Nor did her 
 solicitude leave them when they were discharged from 
 prison, but followed them with its counsels and its 
 vigilance into whatever situation she could trace them. 
 It was her custom to compose addresses, in the fonii 
 of short sermons, to be read to them at their Sunday 
 worship, and which did honor to head and heart. A 
 few of these are printed at the end of her Memoirs. So 
 efficient were her services in the jail, that most honorable 
 mention of them was made in the report given to Parlia- 
 ment by the Inspector of Prisons. Her influence, which 
 consisted of the meekness of wisdom and the gentleness 
 of love, was unbounded over her guilty and degraded 
 pupils. Men, as well as women, hardened in crime, 
 would, by their attention and kindness to her, yield the 
 spectacle of the lion crouching at the feet of the lamb. 
 In this way did this modest and unassuming young 
 woman pursue her beneficial career, struggling all the 
 while with a feeble frame, till, worn out with the efforts 
 of her self-denying zeal, the operations of which were 
 often carried on amidst vermin, filth, and vice, so abhor- 
 rent to her physical and moral sensibilities, she ceased 
 from her labors, and entered that world where the wicked 
 cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. In 
 prospect of her decease, she composed a funeral sermon 
 for herself, to be read to the prisoners after her death, 
 and a touching and beautiful address it is. 
 
 The name of Sarah Martin will never cease to be 
 mentioned with a tribute of esteem, as long as there are 
 hearts to feel, or tongues to express, a high admiration 
 for pure, disinterested, and self-denying benevolence. 
 
 Was not this earnesness ?* 
 
 Let these sketches of character be considered not 
 merely as giving us information, but as furnishing exam- 
 ples — not merely to be admired, but imitated — not 
 merely to lay down a rule, but to give an impulse. We 
 see what others have done, and learn what we ought to 
 
 * An interesting memoir of this most excellent woman has been 
 published, price one shilling, by the Religious Tract Society. 
 
EARNESTNESS. 257 
 
 do. We may not have their ten talents, but we learn 
 from them how to employ our five or one. Our opporti*- 
 nity may not be so extensive for doing good as theirs, but 
 our desire may be as ardent. The grace that mo\ed 
 them can move us. If we cannot be a Mr. Wilson, we 
 may, perhaps, become a Thomas Cranfield, or a Harlan 
 Page : and if, my female readers, you cannot be a Lady 
 Huntingdon, or a Mrs. Fry, you may perhaps be a Sarah 
 Martin. May we all, by God's grace, drink in an inspi- 
 ration to do good from looking at these examples ! 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE MEANS TO BE USED TO OBTAIN A HIGHER DEGRKK 
 OF EARNEST PIETY IN THE CHURCHES. 
 
 This increased earnestness is a state of things which 
 must not be left to come on of itself, without any efforts 
 of ours, or be carelessly thrown up(in the sovereignty of 
 God. If a farm, whose scanty produce scarcely repays 
 its tillage, is known to be susceptible of greater fertility, 
 how is that end to be attained ? Not by leaving the 
 ground to itself, or continuing the old sytem of hus- 
 bandry, or waiting for more auspicious seasons : there 
 must be better farming, and a more diligent farmer. 
 He who would double his crops, must double his labor. 
 "Up, and be doing," is the voice of both reason and 
 revelation. I would raise, if I could, through the length 
 and breadth of the land, the stimulating cry, ^'■Something 
 more must he done.^^ I do not mean to say nothing is 
 being done. No. Blessed be God, not only something, 
 but much, is being done. I would start in a new career 
 of earnestness, with a devout, joyful, and grateful admis- 
 sion of what is doing. It is easier to keep up motion 
 than to originate it ; and it is easier to keep in action 
 those who have risen up from their repose, and are 
 already moving, than to excite others who are reposing 
 22 
 
258 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 on the couch of idleness. It is both untrue and 3is- 
 heartening to affirm that there is no Hfe, no motioi , no 
 activity, in the church. In some things there never was 
 more. " Whereunto we have attained, let us walk by 
 the same rule." All good things tend to better things. 
 Past success encourages the hope of achievements yet 
 to be made. Despondency paralyzes exertion ; and the 
 shadows of present fears darken the path of the future, 
 and frighten us back when we would advance. Still we 
 are not what we ought to be, what we might be — what 
 we must be. 
 
 I. As everything that is done by human instrumental- 
 ity is the result of reflection, increased earnestness can 
 only arise from increased thoughtfulness ; and I therefore 
 now suggest certain topics connected with this subject, 
 for the deep meditation of professing Christians. 
 
 Has the church of God ever yet developed fully the 
 divine idea of its own nature, and transcendent excel- 
 lence and importance, as set forth in the New Testa- 
 ment 1 Let any one study this holy community as it is 
 there described, and then say whether the sublime theory 
 has ever yet been so entirely worked out, as it migh*" 
 have been, and should have been 1 Whether the unity 
 — the sanctity — the love — the zeal — the heavenliness, 
 of this " pattern given in the mount," have been em- 
 bodied with sufficient and attainable approach to perfec- 
 tion, in the Christian profession ? Whether the true idea 
 of " a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, 
 a peculiar people," — a body of redeemed and sanctified 
 men — a band of witnesses for God — has not been sunk 
 amidst forms of government, ceremonial observances, 
 and mere nominal Christianity ? If we cannot find in all 
 its grandeur this conception of the infinite Intellect in the 
 pages of the ecclesiastical history of past ages, can we 
 find it now 1 Will any one, on looking upon the schisms 
 which divide, the corruptions which have disfigured, and 
 still do disfigure, and the worldliness which enervates, 
 the church, affirm, that this is according to the archet3rpe 
 in the Word of God? Is it not, then, high time we 
 should begin to think, and think earnestly, of conforming 
 the church more exactly to its divine model 1 Have we 
 
AN EARNEST CHURCH. 259 
 
 not all been too much in the habit of considering the 
 church as symbolized by systems of ecclesiastical polity 
 and denominational distinctions and designations, rather 
 thai, as consisting of those who repent, believe, love God, 
 and .ead a holy life ? Have vv^e not practically mistaken 
 the whole matter, and lost the essential in the circumstan- 
 tial — the vital in the formal ? 
 
 A second subject of most serious consideration, con- 
 nected with the means of increased earnestness, is, 
 whether really the church of God has yet so fully 
 answered as it might have done, and should have done, 
 the divine purpose for which it was set up, and which is, 
 to bear witness of the truth to the nations, and to convert 
 them to God. If it has, how shall we account for it, that 
 in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, five sixths 
 of the population of the globe are Pagans, or Mahomet- 
 ans — that Christendom itself is covered with such hide- 
 ous corruptions of the gospel — and that even the more 
 spiritual professors of it are so deeply sunk in worldli- 
 ness? Surely it is time to ask, how it is that with such 
 a divine constitution in the world, and set up for such a 
 purpose, its design has not been more fiilly realized? 
 
 Thirdly. Has the church ever yet thoroughly under- 
 stood and seriously revolved its own design, and the won- 
 drous power with which it is, or might be, invested, for 
 the accomplishment of this end ? The most devoted 
 Romanist that ever lived, who has sacrificed everything 
 for the church, is right, quite right, in his idea of the im- 
 portance of the church, and is wrong only in applying 
 tt.at designation to his communion. The church, viewed 
 in all its relations, is God's grandest, noblest idea, and 
 when fully developed will reveal more of God than all 
 the universe besides. Have we, in dwelling upon our 
 connection with the church, felt as if we were lifted up, 
 by that one relationship, into an elevation of surprising 
 height, grandeur, and importance ; and as if, therefore, 
 the business of our existence were to answer the purpose 
 of our church fellowship? And then, have we studied, 
 and studied deeply, the wondrous spiritual power there 
 would be in the church if it were in such a state 
 as it might and should be? Suppose it were indeed 
 
260 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 " the tabernacle of God v/ith man " — " having the glory 
 of God " — and " filled with all the fulness of God " — 
 what a moral power would it not contain, and must it not 
 exert ! Suppose all its ministers were full of knowledge, 
 piety, and zeal — living only for the conversion of sin- 
 ners and the edification of believers — each in his place a 
 burning and a shining light. Suppose all its lay ofii- 
 cers were like the first deacons, full of faith and the Holy 
 Ghost, and given up to the welfare of the divine commu- 
 nity of believers upon earth. Suppose all the corruptions 
 that distort the form of Christianity and its doctrines 
 were done away, and the whole professing church were 
 entirely the pillar and ground of the truth. Suppose all 
 the members of the church were consistent in their conduct 
 — full of holy unction in their souls — all self-dedicated, 
 each with his one, five, or ten talents, whether of knowl- 
 edge, wealth, influence — and all united and harmonious. 
 Suppose, I say, this were the state of the church, what 
 wondrous moral power it would contain, and how soon 
 then would its design be accomplished in the conversion 
 of the world ! Just in proportion as this is its state now, 
 is its power already. Yes, it has a weight, and an influ- 
 ence now, low as it is, compared with this representation, 
 which nothing else wields. It is already silently sway- 
 ing to a considerable extent the world's destinies ; and 
 what would be its power if it were brought up to its 
 proper standard? 
 
 Such are some of the topics which must become the 
 subjects of reflection with the people of God, if there be 
 any hope of increased earnestness in religion. The mind 
 must be occupied with these momentous subjects. Some- 
 thing higher and nobler than matters of brrjness, or poli- 
 tics, or science, or of fashion, or even of church polity, 
 must possess their hearts. The world must he Lss. and 
 the church more, in their esteem. It. is only on the 
 broad, deep basis of such reflections that we can raise a 
 sound and enduring superstructure' of more intense piety. 
 The church, the true church — tl e church in its scrip- 
 tural meaning — in its spiritual n iture — as it is viewed 
 by God, and not as it is considered by ecclesiastics, 
 statesmen, historians, must become a matter of intense 
 
AN EARNEST CHURCH. 261 
 
 thoughtfulness, solicitude, conversation, and discussion by 
 professing Christians. Here we must begin, if we would 
 have it what it should be, and what God intended it to be. 
 II. Let the increased earnestness of the church be 
 the subject of devout, serious, and general conversation. 
 It must not be dismissed in a spirit either of levity, or 
 of self-complacency. It will not do sneeringly to say, 
 " Leave the subject to the gloomy croakers, and the self- 
 conceited reformers ; the church is in a very good state, 
 and need not be disturbed by a set of evangelical phari- 
 sees." They who speak thus cannot surely have read 
 the New Testament with attention and seriousness, nor 
 have compared with its requirements the state of their 
 own hearts, or that of the Christian church at large. 
 Are we, then, so holy, heavenly, and devout, so dead to 
 the world, and so devoted to Christ and his cause, as to 
 need no advance? So thought not Paul, when, in refer- 
 ence to his own personal experience, he would forget the 
 things that were behind, and reach forth unto those that 
 were before. A spirit of self-satisfaction and compla- 
 cency — a resting in things as they are — a good-enough 
 state of mind, will, if we cherish it, be our bane. We 
 shall never be in earnest at all, if we think we are in 
 iarnest enough. The very word, earnestness, implies an 
 ntense desire after what we have not at all, or after more 
 of what we already possess. Instead, therefore, of self- 
 complacency and satisfaction, let each member of every 
 church begin to think seriously and devoutly upon the im- 
 portance and necessity of improvement and growth. Let 
 each speak of it to his fellow-Christian, and raise a general 
 reference to the matter. Let it be the talk of the church, 
 the theme of the day. When it is uppermost in our 
 hearts, it will be sure to be the topic of our conversation 
 in company. When, instead of being contented with our 
 state, we begin to say, "We must have more life, 
 more vigor, more action, in our piety," then we shall 
 have it. Especially let us resist the efforts of those, who, 
 not wishing to be stimulated themselves, will endeavor to 
 persuade us that things are well enough already, and 
 should be let alone. There never will, never can, be 
 22* 
 
262 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 more earnestness, till a felt need of it pervade *ie Chris- 
 tian church, till it has seized and possessed the public 
 mind, and has become the topic of general discourse. 
 
 III. It is of immense importance that this subject 
 should be brought frequently and urgently before the 
 church(js, by the ministrations of the pulpit. The strain 
 of preaching should be of a character that tends to foster 
 this spirit. What is the design t)f ministerial and pas- 
 toral duties, if not to accomplish this end ? Every min- 
 ister should often ask himself a few such questions as the 
 following : — " What is genuine earnestness of personal 
 religion? What kind of ministry is adapted to promote 
 it? Is mine such a ministry?" Without a thorough 
 understanding of all these topics, no man can hope to ac- 
 complish the end of his office, and promote around him 
 a spirit of intense and consistent religion. If ministerial 
 notions of religion are loose, and extend no further than 
 to outward and conventional decorum — if ministers are 
 strangers themselves to any great power of the divine 
 life, and see no great need of it in others — if they set 
 down as enthusiasm, or as religious cant, the influence of 
 rehgion upon the heart, and a high-toned spirituality — 
 if they are lukewarm in their affections, worldly in their 
 tastes and habits, and lax in their theology — then, 
 nothing can be expected from their sermons in the pulpit, 
 or their conversation in the parlor, that is .likely to in- 
 crease the earnestness of their churches. Their ministra- 
 tion will inevitably partake of the character of their own 
 personal religion. They will not express, much less 
 inculcate, a ferv^or they do not feel. It becomes them to 
 take care that there does not spring up among the pastors 
 of the evangelical dissenting churches, a class answering 
 to the Moderates of the Church of Scotland, and the anti- 
 evangelical clergy of the Church of England ; men, 
 whose hearts are uninfluenced by the truth as it is in 
 Jesus, and about whom this very truth itself hangs but 
 loosely ; whose sermons are dry discussions of mere eth- 
 ical subjects ; whose demeanor may be marked by official 
 decorum, but whose character, conduct, and ministrations, 
 are devoid of that evangelical sentiment, spirituality, unc- 
 tion, fervor, which alone can promote similar views and 
 
AJM EARNEST CHURCH. 263 
 
 feelings among the people. Everything, under God, 
 depends upon the ministry : earnest churches cannot be 
 expected but from earnest preachers. But it will be un- 
 necessary to enlarge here upon a topic which has already 
 formed the subject of a volume, and it shall therefore be 
 only further remarked, that, unless the pulpit be made tc 
 bear with all its power on this very point, there is litt?« 
 hope of any increase in the earnestness of the churches. 
 The whole combined influence of the preachers of God's 
 glorious gospel is indispensable. The standard of per- 
 sonal godliness must be lifted up, and lifted high, too. 
 The nature of sanctification, as well as regeneration, 
 must be explained , and its necessity insisted upon — the 
 life of God in the soul enforced — the separation of the 
 people of God from the people of the world enjoined — 
 and a habit of self-denial and mortification inculcated. 
 There must be no sewing pillows under the arms of 
 sleepy professors — no spirit of accommodation to the 
 requirements of worldly-minded Christians — no prophe- 
 sying of smooth things — no healing the hurt of tb*) 
 daughter of Zion slightly — no crying peace, peace, 
 to them that are at ease in Zion. On the contrary, the 
 defects and sins of professors must be pointed out 
 rebuked, and denounced — their judgments must bf 
 informed of the nature of true godliness — their con- 
 sciences awakened, and their resolution of amendmem 
 engaged. Fpr this purpose the most unsparing fidelity, 
 combined with the greatest affection, must be used, every 
 energy roused, and the whole course of the ministry 
 directed so as to bring up the piety of the churches to 
 the standard of God's Holy Word. And all this must at 
 the same time be entered into and approved of by the 
 people. Instead of being offended by the plainness of the 
 minister, they must admire his courage and applaud his 
 fidehty ; instead of resenting his affectionate solicitude 
 to aid them in the crucifixion of besetting sins, and draw- 
 ing them out of the entanglements of the world, they 
 should feel grateful for such self-denying offices of his 
 generous friendship ; instead of quarrelling with him for 
 his puritanic notions and unnecessary strictness, they 
 ought to hold up his hands, in holding up the law of God 
 
MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 as the divine mirror by which they are to examine and 
 adjust themselves. 
 
 IV. If the church be ever stirred up to greater ear- 
 nestness, it must be by the greater earnestness ot its 
 individual riembers. We have already had frequent 
 occasion, in this work, to remark that there is a fatal 
 propensity, in the members of all communities, to get rid 
 of individual responsibility, and, by a fiction, to think of 
 the responsibility of the body. There is, in reality, no 
 such thing as a collective conscience; bodies, as such, 
 cannot be accountable. God will not, as regards eter- 
 nity, deal with nations, or churches, or families. It was 
 a fine purpose of a young Christian which he thus en- 
 tered in his diary : " Resolved that I will, the Lord being 
 my helper, think, speak, and act, as an individual; for 
 as such I must live, as such I must die, stand before 
 God, and be damned or saved forever and ever. I have 
 been waiting for others ; I must act as if I were the only 
 one to act, and wait no longer." This is just the view 
 and the purpose to be taken by us all. It is as indi- 
 viduals we must act for ourselves, and he who acts for 
 himself in this matter will certainly influence others. 
 Every man acts upon some other man. Example is 
 influence. The diffusion of religion is like the kindling 
 of a fire, or the lighting of so many tapers ; one original 
 flame may, by contact, communicate itself to a multitude 
 or other points. It was said of Harlan Page, by one 
 who knew him intimately, "I have well considered the 
 assertion when I say, that during nine years, in which 
 we were associated in labors, I do not know that I ever 
 passed an interview with him long enough to have any 
 interchange of thought and feeling, in which I did not 
 receive from him an impulse heavenward — an im.pulse 
 onward in duty to God and the souls of men." If this 
 could be said of all professing Christians, we should see 
 earnestness in reality. 
 
 Let it, then, be now formally, seriously, and solemnly 
 proposed, that each reader of this volume will seriously 
 and immediately begin to be more in earnest for himself. 
 Let him indulge in some such reflections as these : "If 
 the chup H is ever made more earnest, it must be by an in- 
 
AN EARNEST CHURCH. 265 
 
 creased earnestness in its indi\,idual members. 7 am one 
 of those members, and am as much bound to advance in 
 the divine life as any other. It is but hypocrisy, gross, 
 disgusting hypocrisy, to lament over the low state of re- 
 ligion in the church, and to desire a revival, while I am 
 unconcerned about the state of my own religion, and do 
 not seek a revival of that. I will begin with myself. 1 
 will wait for no other o I must be more in earnest, and, 
 God helping me, I will be." We may now just notice 
 the steps which such a person ought to take to accom- 
 plish his resolution. 
 
 Let him turn away from all the conventional piety of 
 the day, and read over, with devout attention, what is 
 said, in a former chapter, of the true nature of genuine 
 piety. 
 
 Let him, in a season of closet devotion, examine his 
 own piety, and compare it with this standard. 
 
 Let him, upon discovering his great and numerous 
 short-comings, humble and abase himself before God, in 
 a spirit of true contrition. 
 
 Let him reject all excuses which his own deceitful 
 heart, and lukewarm, worldly-minded Christians, will be 
 ever ready to suggest, for self-defence, and be thoroughly 
 convinced that nothing can, or will, be admitted by God 
 as an apology for a low state of personal religion. 
 
 Let him intensely desire to be raised from his depressed 
 condition into a more exalted state of spirituality, heav- 
 enly-mindedness, and devoted zeal. 
 
 Let him set himself most vigorously to the work of 
 mortifying sin and crucifying the flesh. 
 
 Let him redouble his diligence in attending the means 
 of grace, and especially let him give himself to reading 
 the Scriptures, meditation, and prayftr. 
 
 Let him add season to season of special numiliation 
 and supplication, to obtain a new and copious effusion of 
 the Holy Spirit of God. 
 
 Let him cultivate a new and more delicate sensibility 
 of conscience, in reference to all matters of offence, both 
 towards God and man. 
 
 Let him seek to have his mind illuminated by the 
 
S^ BIEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 Spirit and Word of God, in the knowledge of the person, 
 offices, and work, of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Let him give himself to Christian vigilance, watching 
 ever against sin. 
 
 Let him, in short, intelligently, resolutely, and unal- 
 terably, make up his mind to enter upon a new course 
 of personal godliness, so new that his past attainments 
 shall seem as if they were nothing. There is such a 
 thing as starting afresh, as forgetting the things that 
 are behind — and so must it be with him who would be 
 really in earnest. He will wake up from his slumber- 
 ing, dreamy profession, saying, " I have slept too long 
 and too much ; I must now throw off the spirit of sloth, 
 and give all diligence to make my calling and election 
 sure." 
 
 V. There must be an increased and pervading spirit 
 of believing and importunate prayer, especially for the 
 outpouring of the Spirit of God. If it is saying too much 
 to affirm that the earnestness of religion is identical with 
 the earnestness of prayer, because this would seem to 
 imply that prayer is the whole of religion, it is not too 
 much to say that earnestness in religion is ever charac- 
 terized by earnestness of prayer, and that there is really 
 no more of the former than there is of the latter. It is 
 absolutely impossible, in the nature of things, that either 
 an individual, a church, or an age, can be earnest in piety, 
 where there is lukewarmness in devotion. The church 
 needs the spirit of prayer, both for its own internal state 
 and for its external operations — for its own spiritual life, 
 and for its influence upon the world — for its more perfect 
 sanctification, and for its more extensive usefulness. 
 
 Let it be borne in recollection that religion is a divine 
 creation, a heavenly production ; there is not a particle 
 of it in our world, but what cometh down from above 
 no, not a ray of holy light, nor a glow of spiritua 
 warmth, but what is an emission from the fountain of 
 selestial radiance and fire. All on earth will be sterility 
 and desolation till the shower descends from the clouds 
 which hang around the throne of God. The world can 
 no more be regenerated and sanctified, without the work 
 of the Holy Spirit, than it can be redeemed without the 
 
AN EARNEST CHURCH. 267 
 
 blood of the Son of God. The soul that is not visited 
 by these genial influences of the new heavens will be a 
 desert soul ; without these, the church will be a desert 
 church ; the world a desert world. We cannot be too 
 deeply convinced of the need of the Spirit's operation — 
 a defect of conviction on this point is radical, and will 
 enervate everything, and cause ultimate and universal 
 disappointment. Deny or forget, or only coldly and 
 theoretically admit, this, and whatever forms of individual 
 devotion, and creeds of orthodoxy, we may maintain — 
 whatever systems of ecclesiastical polity we may set up 
 — whatever societies of confederated zeal we may organ- 
 ize, we are only building a Babel to proclaim our folly, 
 or a mausoleum to entomb our religion. This great 
 truth must not go down even in the shadow of the cross. 
 While we contend for the free agency, and therefore the 
 responsibility, of man, and press these home upon the 
 conscience, still we must recollect that the sinner never 
 will do, what in one sense he can do, till he is made 
 wiUing in the day of God's power. All hope of, and all 
 attempt at, revival, either in our own soul, or in our own 
 church, or in our own age, must begin here. This is to 
 begin at the beginning. " Christians, is there such a 
 doctrine in our creed as the doctrine of divine influence ? 
 Is there such an Agent in the church as the almighty 
 Spirit of God ? Is he amongst us expressly to testify of 
 Christ — to be the great animating spirit of his mission- 
 ary witness, the church? and is it true that his unlimited 
 aid can be obtained by prayer — (that we can be baptized 
 with the Holy Ghost, and with fire 1 O, ye that preach, 
 'believe the promise of the Spirit, and be saved.' Ye 
 that love the Lord, keep not silence ; send up a loud, 
 long, united, and unsparing entreaty for his promised 
 aid. This, this is what we want. And this is all we 
 want. Till this be obtained, all the angelic agency of 
 heaven will avail us nothings ; and when it is obtained, 
 all that agency will be unequal to the celebration of oui 
 triumphs."* 
 
 Let this impressive and beautiful paragraph be written 
 
 * " The Witnessing Church." 
 
268 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 upon our hearts, repeated by our lips, and sounded by 
 ten thousand echoes throughout the land. This must be 
 the burden of the chnrch's prayers, for God has sus- 
 pended, to a considerable extent, the outpouring of the 
 Spirit, upon the supplications of his people ; an arrange- 
 ment by which he honors himself in being thus publicly 
 acknowledged as the Author of all good, and at the same 
 time honors his church by making her the medium 
 through which the blessing descends. What a tremen- 
 dous responsibility, then, does this devolve upon the 
 church ! If it depended upon our prayers whether the 
 sun should rise, or the rain should descend, upon the in- 
 habitants of the other hemisphere, should we not, if we 
 neglected prayer, be chargeable with the perpetual night, 
 and desolating drought, which resulted to the countless 
 millions that perished for lack of the light of day, and 
 the fertilizing shower? Had we any bowels of compas- 
 sion, should we ever look up at the orb of day, or the 
 floating cisterns in the clouds of heaven, without implor- 
 ing the God of nature to forward their inestimable treas- 
 ures to the benighted and starving inhabitants of other 
 regions ? Christians, the moral world is in darkness and 
 in drought for want of your prayers — sin reigns, Satan 
 triumphs, hell is peopled, through the want of your 
 prayers — the dominion of Christ, the spread of truth, 
 the millennial glory, are hindered through the want of 
 your prayers — your missionary societies and all your or- 
 ganizations of pious zeal ; your abounding liberality and 
 active exertions, are but very partially successful, through 
 the want of your prayers. Think of this, and tremble 
 at your responsibility, and tremble still more at your in- 
 sensibility. Yes, what we want is more prayer. I know 
 we want money, we want men — but we want prayer 
 still more. More prayer will give us more of everything 
 else that is necessary. Hear the testimony of your mis- 
 sionaries sent to us from the midst of their difficulties 
 among the heathen — "Brethren, pray for us;" trans- 
 mitted to us from their sick and dying beds, " Brethren, 
 fray for us ;" delivered to us, when, wasted and worn, 
 they come back to England to recruit their enfeebled 
 Btrength, "Brethren, pray for us;" — this, this is the 
 
AN EARNEST CHURCH. 269 
 
 emphatic supplication from every missionary station un- 
 der heaven, and borne to us by every breeze and every 
 wave that touches our shore, " Brethren, pray for us." 
 Could all the missionaries of all the societies, and from 
 all the stations upon earth, assemble in one place, how- 
 ever they may differ on some points of doctrine and dis- 
 cipline, they would be perfectly harmonious in bearing 
 this testimony, that prayer is the best hope of the mission- 
 ary cause. 
 
 We were never more in danger of forgetting the im- 
 portance and necessity of prayer than at the present mo- 
 ment. Our institutions have risen *; : a magnitude and 
 extension which are grand and imposing ; it is an age 
 of great societies, an era of organization, when there is 
 imminent peril of trusting to the wisdom of committees, 
 and the power of eloquence, of numbers, and of money, 
 instead of the power of prayer. We cannot, I know, do 
 without organization, and it makes one's heart throb with' 
 delight to see to what an extent it is carried. The an- 
 nual list which is published of our May meetings is one 
 of the greatest wonders of the age, the brightest glories 
 of the church, and the richest hopes of posterity. That 
 one document appears to my eye as the ruby-tinted clouds 
 of the orient sky, which announce the approach of the 
 millennial orb. But then our glory is our danger ; this 
 very organization may seduce us, and I am afraid is se- 
 ducing us, and has seduced us, from our dependence upon 
 God, till organization is likely to become the image of 
 jealousy, which maketh jealous in the temple of the 
 Lord. 
 
 An eloquent speaker once said upon a missionary plat- 
 form, " Money, money, money, is the life's blood of the 
 missionary cause!" I would substitute another word, 
 and say, " Prayer, prayer, prayer, is the life's blood of 
 the missionary cause." I am no enthusiast ; I do not 
 expect our cause to be sustained without money ; nor do 
 I expect gold to be rained out of heaven into our coffers. 
 Money we must have, in far greater abundance than we 
 now have, and money will come at the bidding of prayer. 
 If we had more fervsnt, believing supplication, we should 
 23 
 
270 MEi\NS TO OBTAIN 
 
 have more wealth. The same spirit of sincere and im- 
 portunate supplication which would bring d^wn t.ie treas- 
 ures of heavenly grace, would call forth the supplies of 
 earthly means. I repeat, what I think I have said some- 
 where else, that I could be almost content that for the 
 next year not a word was said about money, and the 
 church be summoned universally to intense and believing 
 supplication. Ministers of the gospel, lay this matter 
 upon the consciences of your flocks ; instruct them in 
 their duty, and urge them to it. Remind them that what 
 we need is not only a giving church, and a working 
 church, but a praying church. Tell them that praying 
 for the coming down of the Spirit is not to be confined 
 to the Sabbath and the pulpit, nor to the missionary and 
 social prayer meeting, but that it is every man's business 
 at his own family altar, and in his closet. Then, when 
 the whole church of God, with all its families apart, and 
 every individual member apart, shall be engaged in a 
 spirit of believing and fervent supplication ; then may it 
 be expected the Spirit of God will come down in power 
 and glory upon the earth — and not till then, whatever of 
 organization, of wealth, of eloquence, or of numbers, 
 may be engaged in the cause of Christian missions. Ac- 
 tivity and devotion — giving and praying — a conscien- 
 tious zeal, and a feeling of entire dependence upon God, 
 must be nicely balanced 'in all we do. The more we 
 give, the more we should pray ; and the more we pray, 
 the more we should give. The proportions are often dis- 
 turbed ; — our danger in this day lies in an excess of ac- 
 tivity over the spirit of prayer. Let us restore the bal- 
 ance, and bring on an era which shall be characterized as 
 the praying age of the missionary enterprise. 
 
 Our supplications should be the prayers of faith. We 
 ought to know and to feel that the cause of missions is 
 no mere experiment in the spiritual world, no invention 
 of man, no mere tentative scheme — but an attempt, the 
 success of which is guaranteed by all the attributes of the 
 eternal God, and which should therefore be supplicated 
 in the full confidence of assured expectation. And to 
 faith, we must add fervor ; we must pray for the regen- 
 eration of the world, with an intelligent perception of 
 
AN EARNEST CHURCH. 271 
 
 what is include i in that wondrous phrase, " a world con- 
 verted from idolatry to Christ," with a recollection that 
 this is in some sense suspended upon our prayers — and 
 with such an importunity as we might be supposed to 
 employ if the world's salvation depended upon our indi- 
 vidual intercession. 
 
 But this spirit of prayer is needed by the church, not 
 only to give power and efficiency to her operations for the 
 conversion of sinners, but for her own internal improve- 
 ment — to increase, and indeed to indicate, her earnest- 
 ness for her own salvation. She needs an outpouring of 
 the Spirit upon herself, to rouse her from her lukewarm- 
 ness, and to elevate her to a higher state of purity, fer- 
 vor, and consistency. She needs revival, and it can be 
 looked for only in answer to the fervent prayer of faith, 
 and in answer to such prayers it may be ever and every- 
 where expected. To say nothing of other instances 
 well known, and some of them alluded to in this work, I 
 may refer to the success of that flaming seraph, Mr. 
 M'Cheyne, of the Free Church of Scotland, whose early 
 death, in the midst of his usefulness, is one of the myste- 
 .ies of Providence too deep to sound with mortal lines. 
 He thus records in his diary the spirit of prayer which 
 prevailed among his people, " Many prayer-meetings 
 were formed, some of which were strictly private ; and 
 others, conducted by persons of some Christian experi- 
 ence, were open to persons under concern, at one another's 
 h)uses. At the time of my returning from the mission 
 to the Jews, I found thirty-nine such meetings held weekly, 
 in connection with the congregation." that this beau- 
 xiful instance of cooperation with the minister, by the 
 ■people, prevailed through all our churches ! Look at it, 
 professing Christians — ponder it, church members ! The 
 whole church, or, at any rate, its more experienced mem- 
 bers, resolving themselves into thirty-nine prayer associ- 
 itions, meeting weekly, fostering new converts, ana all 
 ♦his in the absence of the pastor ! When shall this pat- 
 tern be imitated ? When shall all our deacons, and lead- 
 ing members, go and do likewise? When shall our 
 churches be made up of praying members, and be full of 
 the spirit of prayer after this fashion 1 This is the ear- 
 
272 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 nestness of a church — the earnestness of religion — the 
 earnestness of prayer. Revivals vv^ill always come, where 
 this is found. It is itself a revival. 
 
 If there be one thing v^hich is more suited to our con 
 dition, and more prompted by our necessities, it is prayer 
 — if there be one duty vt^hich is more frequently enjoined 
 by the precepts, or more beautifully enforced by the ex- 
 amples, of Scripture, it is prayer — if there be one prac- 
 tice in which the experience of all good men of every 
 age, every country, and every church, has more entirely 
 agreed, it is prayer — if there be one thing which more 
 decisively marks the spirit of sincere and individual piety, 
 it is prayer ; so that it may be safely affirmed, where the 
 spirit of prayer is low in the soul of an individual, a 
 country, an age, or a church, whatever else there may be, 
 of morality, of ceremony, of liberality, the spirit of reli- 
 gion is low also. 
 
 Now it is most seriously to be apprehended that this 
 deficiency of prayer is the characteristic of our age. It 
 is a preaching age, a speaking age, a hearing age, but 
 not eminently a praying one. Men are too busy to pray. 
 Even the most distinguished Christians are too apt to 
 shorten the seasons of prayer, in order to lengthen those 
 of secular and sacred business. Everything is against 
 the spirit of prayer, not only in the world, but in the 
 church. I know very well we cannot expect, in such an 
 age as ours^the same spirit of devotion as prevailed in 
 persecuting 'times, when John Welsh, one of the men of 
 the Covenant, spent whole days praying in the church of 
 Ayr for his parishioners, wrestling alone with God — 
 who used to lay his plaid by his bedside, and to rise often 
 in the middle of the night, wrap himself in his garment, 
 pour out his soul to his Maker, and say, " I wonder how 
 a Christian can lie in bed all night, and not rise to pray !" 
 We do not expect even the most holy ministers to spend 
 eight hours a day in prayer, as he did, who had little to 
 do but to suffer, and to pray ; but surely we may expect 
 more of the spirit of prayer than we now witness, either 
 in pastors or their flocks. 
 
 There is one view of prayer, which has not been so 
 much considered as it should be ; and that is its reflex 
 
AN EARNEST CHURCH. 273 
 
 power, or, in other words, the moral influence of prayer 
 upon the individual mind ei.gaged in it. No doubt it is 
 an expressive homage paid to God, and an appointed 
 means of obtaining blessings from above ; hut it is more, 
 for it is an ordinance of self-edification. The offspring 
 of our desires, it reacts upon its source, making them 
 more strong, more vivid, more solemn, more prolonged, 
 and more definite as to their objects ; forming them into 
 expressions to God will concentrate the soul in them, and 
 upon their objects. Every sincere act of adoration in- 
 creases our veneration for the divine character — every 
 confession of sin deepens our penitence — every petition 
 for a favor cherishes a sense of dependence — every in- 
 tercession for others expands our philanthropy — and 
 every acknowledgement of a mercy inflames our grati- 
 tude. 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 indi- 
 vidual can be stirred up to pray more for increased ear- 
 nestness of religion, his supplication contains both the 
 prayer and its answer, and affords a literal fufilment 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 him- 
 self. 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 win- 
 dows 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 
 9 ith the inexhaustible riches of divine grace. 
 23* 
 
274 WEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 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 incum- 
 bent, 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 often 
 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 
 oiFer itself, and a disposition to postpone the exercise to a 
 more convenient time, and a more appropriate frame ? 
 Is there 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 exemp- 
 tion for each individual ?" Now, how much prayer, such 
 as really deserves the name, is going up to heaven con- 
 tinually from the church, and for it ? Surely, surely, we 
 need far more, and must have far more, if the Spirit shall 
 come down in plentitude and power, to make us more 
 earnest in religion. 
 
 VI, Special seasons of devotion, instituted with imme- 
 diate reference to the revival and increase of religion, are 
 adapted to promote this object, and are, therefore, of con- 
 siderable importance. This is perhaps one of the most 
 difficult practical subjects of the present volume, and will 
 require the greatest caution in treating it. A prejudice, 
 founded partly on observation, and partly upon report, 
 but rarely upon experience, against any efforts beyond 
 
AN EARNEST CHURCH. 275 
 
 the ordinary course of minister'al and pastoral labor, 
 exists in many minds ; and if some instances of revival 
 efforts vi^ere made the example or the standard of what 
 is here meant by special services, they are to be dreaded 
 and deprecated by every lover of sobriety of mind, and 
 every friend to the credit of our holy religion. Scenes 
 more resembling Bedlam, than the solemnities of the 
 house of God, have been set forth under the name of 
 " revival meetings," to the disgust of the w^ise, the grief 
 of the good, and the scandal of the bad. Nor is it any 
 justification of such frantic orgies, to allege that souls 
 have been converted. Very likely. But how many have 
 imbibed invincible prejudice against all religion, how 
 many more, after the excitement has passed off, have 
 become increasingly hardened, and how many have 
 received a distaste for the ordinary and more sober minis- 
 trations qf the gospel ! There is, no doubt, a power in the 
 eternal truths of the Word of God, that will exert itself, 
 under God's Spirit, in defiance of all the revolting and in- 
 harmonious adjuncts with which they may be sometimes 
 associated. It is not, perhaps, to be questioned, that if 
 some of the monstrosities of the Church of Rome, such, 
 for instance, as dramatic exhibitions of the Saviour's pas- 
 sion, were united by some popular and energetic preacher 
 of the gospel, with a vivid appeal to the conscience, in 
 the statement of evangelical truths, souls might be con- 
 verted from the error of their ways ; but would this 
 authorize and justify us, in representing the scenes of 
 Calvary upon a stage? We eschew then, at once, and 
 forever, all attempts at revival which offend against the 
 majesty and sobriety of divine truth, — which violate the 
 proprieties of public worship — produce an excitement of 
 the passions that amounts to a kind of mental intoxica- 
 tion — and render tame, tasteless, and insipid, the ordi- 
 nary ministrations of the sanctuary. 
 
 But is there no middle course between wild extrava- 
 gance and dull formality 1 Between the performances of 
 the actor, and the somnolence of the sluggard 1 Shall 
 no stimulating treatment be adopted by a judicious phy- 
 sician with a collapsed patient, because some ignorant 
 quacks have carried it so far as to bring on epilepsy or 
 
276 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 madness? I know it is the opinion of many, t»'at all 
 attempts to keep up, or to increase, the spirit (f vital 
 godhness in the church, and to multiply conversi:ins, by 
 special services, tend to relax, on the part of both minis- 
 ters and their flocks, their diligence in the use of such as 
 are stated ; and to teach them to rely on occasional and 
 spasmodic exertions, rather than on such as are habitual. 
 Our object, they say, should be to produce a constant and 
 well-sustained earnestness, rather than a fitful and tran- 
 sient one ; just as, in regard to our bodies, our aim is 
 habitually to keep up robust health, rather than to neg- 
 lect it, and trust to occasional and extraordinary means 
 for restoring it. This is true. But surely if, in the 
 latter case, it be well to resort to special means of cure, 
 when the health is impaired, and the strength is reduced, 
 — and in the best constitutions this will sometimes take 
 place — it must be equally proper, so far the analogy 
 holds good, to follow this rule in reference to religion. 
 In the best and the most watchful Christians, piety, alas I 
 will occasionally decline : first love will abate, and vital 
 godliness be among " the things that remain; and that are 
 ready to die." Who does not feel this, and kment it 
 too ? Have not all in whose soul is the life of God, and 
 who are anxious to maintain that life in vigor, found it ne- 
 cessary occasionally to observe special seasons of examina- 
 tion, humiliation, and prayer ? Is there a volume of relig- 
 ious biography of any eminently good man extant, that 
 does not give us an account of his days of fasting and devo- 
 tion, which he observed to obtain a revival of religion in 
 his soul 1 Is there a Christian in real earnestness for 
 salvation, one if more than usual piety, that does not 
 feel it necessary to add an occasional season of devotion 
 to his accustomed duties, in order to recover lost ground, 
 and to advance in the divine life 1 And does this prac- 
 tice take him oflT from his usual and regular duties of 
 meditation and prayer? On the contrary, does it not 
 rather lead him to supply defects, to correct negligences, 
 and to pursue his course with fresii vigor and alacrity ^ 
 Surely, if this be the case with the individual Christian, 
 the same thing may be affirmed of a Christian church. 
 By special services are not meant fixed periodical 
 
AN EARNEST CHURCH. 277 
 
 ones, such as yearly fasts, or a regular annual repetition 
 of continue us preachings ; for such cease tc be special, 
 and become a part of the ordinary means, and are them- 
 selves liable to sink into the same dulness of routine, 
 and deadness of formalism, as the more frequent and 
 ordinary means. 
 
 What is meant by special services, are some such 
 exercises as the following. An occasional day of fast- 
 ing, humiliation and prayer, by a religious denomination, 
 to which all the churches shall be invited by the com- 
 mittees that manage their affairs, or which shall be deter- 
 mined upon by the churches themselves at their general 
 gathering. 
 
 An occasional meeting for solemn prayer by the direc- 
 tors of our public institutions, when all business shall be 
 excluded, and nothing else done but invoking the bless- 
 ing of God upon their plans, their councils, and their 
 objects ; and thus a devotional spirit be infused into all 
 their operations. It is true they generally commence 
 every meeting with prayer, but who has not felt how 
 perfunctorily this is often done? 
 
 How much would it tend to keep up a right feeling 
 and a fervent spirit in the ministry, if the pastors within 
 a district cf twenty or thirty miles diameter were occa- 
 sionally to meet, and spend a couple of days together 
 in solemn prayer, unrestrained conference, and mutual 
 exhortation ! What solemn discourse — what deep utter- 
 ances of the heart — what intercommunion of soul — might 
 not then take place ! As it now is, we meet only for 
 business, business, business, till we return to our homes, 
 revived a little, perhaps, in body, for the journey, but 
 not one whit better, sometimes even worse, in our spirit- 
 ual state. 
 
 Single churches could, by voluntary resolution of 
 their own, determine to keep occasionally a day of fast- 
 ing, humiliation, and prayer. In the olden times of our 
 forefathers, this was by no means uncommon ; but, alas ! 
 in our busy day we find little time, and biive less incli- 
 nation, for such exercises. True it might be difficult to 
 command a week day for such a purpose ; what hin- 
 ders, then, that a Sabbath should not sometimes be thus 
 
278 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 appropriated, and the services of that day ail be made to 
 bear on the object ? 
 
 Where whole churches do not set apart such reasons, 
 why may not a few of the members, who are like-minded 
 in their devotional habits, in their yearnings after a 
 higher tone of spiritual feeling, and their longing for 
 the out-pouring of the Spirit, agree together, to meet at 
 particular times for special prayer? How blessed an 
 invitation is it to issue from some spiritually-minded 
 Christian to his fellows, *' Come, let us set apart a sea- 
 son of special prayer for a revival of true piety in our 
 church, in the denomination, and the whole church of 
 God." 
 
 But there is another kind of special services, which, 
 for the purpose of conversion, might be resorted to with 
 great advantage, if conducted with propriety ; I mean 
 continuous preaching, carried on for several successive 
 days, and accompanied by earnest prayer on the part of 
 the members of the church. As already intimated, this 
 plan has been lamentably abused ; not only by certain 
 men, called " revivalist preachers," whose outrageous 
 rant, " pious frauds," and solemn trickery, have done so 
 much mischief, and have furnished the lukewarm with an 
 apology for formalism ; but by others, who have made 
 such services a mere pretence to call attention to a par- 
 tially deserted place, or to puff an unknown minister 
 into notice, till one almost loathes the very name of 
 "revival meetings." But how different from all this 
 " bellows' blowing," as Mr. Jay called it, are the sober 
 and solemn services which have been, and still are, car- 
 ried on by some ministers, to call, by special efforts, the 
 attention of the careless to the awful verities of eternal 
 truth ! When a minister perceives that little good seems 
 to result fi-om his preaching, that souls are not converted, 
 and that professors are lukewarm and worldly, is there 
 anything contrary to sobriety, to reason, to revelation, to 
 the laws of propriety, or to the mental economy of man, 
 in determining by a continuous series of services, sus- 
 tained through the evenings of a whole week, to keep 
 religion before the minds of the people, and rouse- their 
 slumbering attention to its ' igh import 1 Is this not per- 
 
AN EARNEST CHURCH. 279 
 
 feclly consonant with the strictest decorum, with the 
 most refined spiritual sensibility? Shall science, shall 
 politics, shall literature, have their special services, and 
 not religion 1 How likely a plan is it to rouse the minds 
 of the careless — to fix the thoughts of the volatile — 
 to decide the choice of the wavering — and to enkindle the 
 ardor of the lukewarm, thus to carry on a succession of 
 appeals to them through a whole week ! Keep out 
 extravagance ; let there be no anxious seat, no vocifera- 
 tion, no extravagant appeals to the passions ; but only 
 the vivid, solemn, and faithful exhibition of the truth. 
 As one minister, the pastor, may not have strength 
 enough for such services, another, or more than one, 
 may be called on to assist him. During all this while, 
 much prayer should ascend from the church for the 
 divine blessing to come down upon such efforts. What 
 can be objected to in such a scheme? Who has ever 
 tried it without a blessed result? What, in fact, were 
 the labors of Whitfield and Wesley, yea, what were 
 the labors of apostles, but such continuous services as 
 these? It is said of the blessed Paul, he disputed, or, 
 as it signifies by a better translation, discoursed, daily in 
 the school of Tyrannus. 
 
 What are we doing by the ordinary means ? What 
 souls are we converting to God by our regular routine ? 
 Does not the work of reconciliation languish in our 
 hands ? Are not the thousands and tens of thousands 
 perishing at our doors, and going down to the pit before 
 our eyes? And shall we be contented with routine, 
 formality, and custom, in our way of saving them ? 
 Shall we be afraid to step out of our ordinary course, 
 even to pluck sinners as brands from the eternal burn- 
 ing? 
 
 Shall we be afraid, lest, by adopting some new means, 
 however little differing from the stated services of the 
 sanctuary, we shall incur the charge of enthusiasm in 
 our attempts to carry out the purposes for which the Son 
 of God expired upon the cross ? Enthusiasm ! I wish 
 we better deserved the charge, and were more entitled 
 to the accusation. Enthusiasm ! Where is the cause 
 in our world that irore deserves or demands it, in a 
 
280 MEANS TO OBTAIN 
 
 modified and chastened meaning, than that of saving im 
 mortal souls from eternal perdition ? Enthusiasm ! Bid 
 the man who is snatching his fellow-creatures from the 
 flames, or from the wreck, not to be an enthusiast in his 
 heroic generosity, and the admonition will be far more 
 seasonable and appropriate than addressed to him who 
 steps a little out of the ordinary track to convert sin- 
 ners from the error of their ways, save souls from death, 
 and hide multitudes of sins. Enthusiasm ! Carry the 
 charge, as upon the principles of many of our bigots 
 to formalism we justly may, to that great man who said, 
 *' If by any means I might save some, I could even wish 
 myself accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kins- 
 men according to the flesh." 0, were that man again 
 in our world, what would he think, or what would he 
 say, of the fastidiousness of some of our ministers and 
 churches, about the propriety of stepping ever so little 
 out of the ordinary way of conducting the services of 
 religion ! The world is perishing — the great masses of 
 our population are sinking more and more under the 
 power of infidelity and irreligion ; and we stand by ask- 
 ing what can be done, and are afraid to try any new 
 scheme of action for their salvation, however discreet or 
 well adapted, lest we should discompose the dress, or 
 rufile the fringes, of our habits of ecclesiastical order ; 
 as if it were better that men should go down unobstruct- 
 ed to the pit, than that our formalism should be in the 
 least disturbed, for their salvation ! 
 
 On writing for his opinion on this subject to one whom 
 God has honored and blessed in his efforts, and who is 
 one of the most devout and sober-minded of our brethren, 
 he thus replies to my inquiries : "I think that, con- 
 sidering the state of the churches generally, there is a 
 call for something of this kind. The ministers are 
 unsettled, which they would not be if they were doing 
 good. I am sorry to say, also, the churches are often 
 dissatisfied with their ministers, an evil which would be 
 obviated were more good accomplished. It appears to 
 me that special efforts, if wisely conducted, would be 
 productive of much benefit ; first of all, to the ministers 
 themselves, in teaching them to understand better the 
 
AN EARNEST CHURCH. 281 
 
 naturo of the work in which they are engaged. They 
 would be led to know more how to aim at thp conver- 
 sion of sinners in their preaching. Secondly, it would 
 do much good to the churches, in arousing them to a 
 better conception of their calling and duty, and they 
 would acquire more of the taste for seeing good done, 
 which would render them discontented with the desola- 
 tion around them, and constrain them to give themselves 
 more to prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit. When 
 a church has once witnessed a season of revival, it is 
 much more likely to witness the same again and again, 
 than one that knows nothing of it but by hearsay. 
 Thirdly, the world around the church where the special 
 effort is made will often receive an impression, the effects 
 of which are visible for many years. Thoughts are first 
 started in the mind which are not for long after matured 
 into conversion. This I look upon as the greatest of all 
 the benefits derived from special efforts. A leaveji is 
 cast into the community, which makes the regular 
 preaching of the gospel afterwards much more efficacious. 
 I am sure this was the case at C — , and I have reason 
 to believe it has been the case at other places also." 
 
 This is the testimony of reason and experience, and 
 cannot be gainsaid. Similar testimony is borne by all 
 who have had the courage to institute such services, the 
 fervor necessary for their efficiency, and the discretion 
 requisite to conduct them with propriety. 
 
 "VII. If we would have an increase of earnest religion, 
 we must expect it, and look for it. There must be a 
 frame of mind the opposite of despondency. We must 
 not conclude that even in this age of worldliness, the 
 thing is impossible. There is enough of truth in the 
 promise, and power in the Spirit of God, to accomplish 
 this great achievement, and raise the church out of its 
 comparatively low condition, into a much loftier elevation 
 of piety and devotedness, if we have but faith to receive 
 the blessing. This is what we want — a faith equal to 
 the promise of God. If we could bring up our minds to 
 the point of expectation, we should soon reach that of 
 possession. We have not, because we ask not : and we 
 24 
 
282 MEANS TO OBTAIN AN EARNEST CHURCH. 
 
 ask not, because we exptct not. Let us only intensely 
 long, and earnestly pray, and diligently labor — and then 
 we are warranted to expect. When did God ever excite 
 expectation of this kind, and not fulfil it 1 There is every- 
 thing to warrant expectation. God is able to help us, and 
 give us any measure of grace we need. Nothing is too 
 hard for the Lord. This heis been the hope and triumph 
 of the church in every age. He can open the heavens, 
 and pour down salvation. He can make the wilderness 
 like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord ! 
 When we undertake anything for the revival of religion, 
 and the cause of the Redeemer, little as our encourage- 
 ments may be from any other quarter, we cannot expeci 
 too much from God. We may take hope /row the nature 
 of the object we are pursuing. What is it we are looking 
 for? Religion is God's own cause in our world. It 
 is the only cause which is his in the fullest sense of the 
 word. It is his highest and noblest production upon 
 earth — that in which he has a deeper interest, and on 
 which his heart is more set, than any other. In our 
 attempts to promote an increase of religion, we may 
 encourage expectation from the fact that God has ever 
 blessed the attempts of others. When and where did it 
 ever fail ? No, the whole history of the church does not 
 furnish a single instance of united, vigorous, humble, and 
 believing prayer, labor, and expectation, being disap- 
 pointed. Our own experience, limited as it is, sustains 
 our hope. Did we ever yet put forth our energies, in 
 fervent supplication and rigid mortification, and not find a 
 perceptible advance in spiritual religion 1 Did we ever 
 yet spend an extraordinary season of humiliation and 
 prayer, without a consciousness of a more intense reality 
 in our religion ? 
 
 O Christians ! throw off your despondency then ; adopt 
 the noble maxim of the immortal Carey : attempt great 
 things — expect great things. Granting that there is much 
 in the church that is dehghtful to contemplate, is it what 
 it ought to be — what it might be ■? Abandon the idea 
 that it never can be better. Reject the suggestion that 
 it is as holy, spiritual, and heavenly-minded as it can ev«r 
 
x»iiL.LENNIAL STATE OF THE CHURCH. 283 
 
 expect to be in such an age and such a country as this ; 
 that it is so environed with influences hostile to the spirit of 
 piety, that it is as high in devotion as it can be expected 
 to be. or need be. Do you say this cf yourselves 1 Do 
 you make these excuses for yourselves f Are you all you 
 can be expected to be, or need be ? Are you reconciled 
 to a lukewarm state of devotion, a low state of piety, 
 under the soporific, unworthy, unbelieving notion, that 
 nothing better is to be expected, and that God looks for 
 nothing better/? If you are, your religion altogether is 
 to be suspected. If not, then be not satisfied with the 
 condition of the church. God has better things in store 
 for us, if we will but have them. Let us only be earnest 
 in prayer — in faith — in labor — and in hope, and who 
 can tell but the day of blessing is near? Already I seem 
 to hear " the sound of abundance of rain." While bow- 
 in o- your knees, like the prophet on the top of Carmel, 
 soiiie herald of mercy may tell you of " a little cloud 
 that ariseth from the sea," which, though now no bigger 
 than a man's hand, may soon cover the heavens, and 
 pour down the refreshing shower ! 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CONCLUSION. THE MILLENNIAL STATE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 In the foregoing pages we have glanced at the state of the 
 Christian church from its commencement to the present 
 time ; and we have seen the imperfections and corruptions 
 ♦which, in its best condition, have hitherto weakened its 
 strength, impaired its beauty, hmited its extent, and hin- 
 dered its usefulness. An interesting inquiry now presents 
 itself, '•'■ Will it be always thus, till it is swallowed up of life, 
 glory, and immortality? Is there no hope that it will arise 
 from the earth, shake off the dust, put on its beautiful gar- 
 ments, and array itself as a bride adorned for her husband ?'' 
 It were a melancholy thing, both for herself and the world, 
 if there were no such expectation It were a painful thing 
 to look down the ^'•al f time, and see the same divisions, 
 
284 THE MILLENNIAL STATE 
 
 errors, worldliness, and feebleness, ever within the church ; 
 the same Paganism, Moliammedanism, Judaism, and Popery, 
 around it ; and no visions of better things advancing to 
 supplant these scenes of the moral world. If what we have 
 seen, or read, is all that Christianity is to do for our race — ' 
 if the M^orld is never to be converted to Christ, nor the 
 church to be brought into a nearer conformity to the New 
 Testament — then would infidelity triumph, and exultingly 
 affirm that the Son of God had not destroyed the works of 
 the devil — that the gospel had been partially, and to a great 
 extent, a failure, and therefore was a fable. We have r 
 apprehension that such a ground of triumph will ever ue 
 given lo the enemies of our faith. A brighter era is des- 
 tined to arrive ; a golden age is to dawn upon us, when the 
 predictions of prophets, and the descriptions of apostles, are 
 all to be fulfilled, and the earth be full of the knowledge of 
 the Lord. 
 
 If, as some eminent commentators suppose, the last two 
 chapters of the book of the Revelation are descriptive of 
 some happy state of the church of Christ on earth, and not 
 of its celestial state, what a scene opens through the vista 
 of time to the eye of faith ; what a landscape of surpassing 
 glory, for our dark, disordered world, expands upon the 
 Christian, as from the mount of promise he surveys the 
 promised land ! What a state mil the church attain to, 
 when " The nations of them which are saved shall walk in 
 the light of it ; and the kings of the earth do bring their 
 glory and honor into it ; and the gates shall not be shut at 
 all by day, for there shall be no night there ; and they shall 
 bring the glory and honor of the nations into it ! " Amidst 
 what united joys of angels and of men will " the holy city, 
 new Jerusalem, be seen coming down from God out of 
 heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband ! " 
 How welcome will be the great voice out of heaven, saying, 
 •'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will 
 dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God him- 
 self shall be with them, and be their God ! " 
 
 Yes, glorious things are spoken of thee, city of God, 
 v/hich, like Moses, we may now behold in the distance : — 
 
 First of all, there is preservation. Hear, Zion, the word 
 -if thy God, and rejoice for thy consolation: "No weapon 
 hat is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue 
 'hat shall rise against thee in judgment shalt thou condemn. 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 2S5 
 
 The Lord thy God, in the midst of thee, is mighty ; He 
 shall be a wall of fire round about thee, and the glory in 
 the midst of thee." Yes, the chui'ch is safe, though nothing 
 else is. Human systems of rehgion, of government, of phi- 
 losophy, that are opposed to the principles of revelation, like 
 the billows which roll with ocean's force against a rock, shall 
 successively dash and utterly dissolve. So it ever has been ; 
 so it ever will be; till the last foe shall be vanquished. 
 Let infidehty utter its blasphemies, and false philosophy its 
 sophistries, and popery its anathemas — we exultingly re- 
 peat, ''The church is safe." Amidst the wreck of em- 
 pires, and the subversion of thrones, she rises fresh in beauty 
 and in might, with celestial glory beaming around her, and 
 her enemies fleeing before her. Let no man's heart trem- 
 ble for fear ; no man's brow gather gloom ; no man's tongue 
 utter despondency. The celestial bark may be amidst the 
 billows, while the tempest sweeps along the deep, but Jeho- 
 vah Jesus is on board, and she cannot be lost unless the 
 pilot perish. But we have nothing to fear. Jesus lives ibr- 
 evermore, and is Head over all things to his church. In its 
 lowest state, he has never forsaken her. He never will. 
 His honor is identified with her final triumph. Every harp 
 should therefore be snatched from the willows — new joys 
 should be felt, and new anthems sung, by all the assem- 
 blies of the saints ; and amidst the convulsions of every 
 age, be this the song of the universal church : " God is our 
 refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. There- 
 fore will not we fear though the earth be removed, and 
 though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea ; 
 though the waters thereof roar and be troubled ; though the 
 mountains shake with the swelling thereof. God is in the 
 midst of her ; she shall not be moved. God shall help her, 
 and that right early." 
 
 But blessed as it is to know that immutable truth and 
 omnipotent power guarantee the continitance of the church, 
 this is the least and lowest of her hopes. Improveme?it in 
 her spiritual condition is another thing which the church is 
 authorized to expect. The earnestness now desiderated will 
 be given to her. Even before she shall assume her celes- 
 -lal form, and be presented a glorious church, not having 
 spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, her spots will not be so 
 dark, nor her \\Tinkles so deep, nor her blemishes so obvi- 
 ous, as they now are. She will appear, even upi>r »ai^'i, 
 24* 
 
286 THE MILLENNIAL STATE 
 
 invested with something of celestial radiance and beauty. 
 It is impossible even superficially to study the New Testa- 
 ment, and also the pages of ecclesiastical history, and not 
 be entirely convinced that Christianity has never yet been 
 fully developed as it might be expected would be done upon 
 earth, in the character and conduct of the churc; . There 
 surely must be an age and a state of her history, when this 
 shall be done, and when she shall not only be, but shall 
 appear to be, cast in the very mould of the inspired vol- 
 ume — when the Sermon on the Mount, the twelfth chapter 
 of the Epistle to the Romans, and the thirteenth chapter of 
 the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and the more eminently 
 devout parts of all the other epistles, shall not only be the 
 law, but also the practice, of Cliristians, and the Bible and 
 the church shall exactly agree — when every professor of 
 religion shall be a living exhibition of faith, hope, love, in 
 all their power and beauty — when, in short, the spiritual 
 shEill so far predominate over the carnal, the divine over the 
 human, the heavenly over the earthly, and the eternal over 
 the temporal, that the communion of the faithful shall ap- 
 pear like a bride adorned for her husband, and just ready 
 for the celebration of the nuptial ceremonies. Practical 
 Christianity will not then appear, as it now too often does, 
 as a feeble exotic withering in an uncongenial clime, but as 
 a plant of paradise, exhibiting something of its native beau- 
 ty, and shedding, though not wasting, its fragrance even on 
 this desert air. All the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in 
 rich abundance and full maturity. The workmanship of 
 the Holy Ghost will be manifested, not only in the outline 
 of the renewed mind, but in all the minute and delicate 
 touches of Christian character. The image of God will he 
 impressed upon the outer and visible man, M'hile the mind 
 of Christ vAW fill the inner and hidden man of the hean. 
 Such is to be the church of the latter day ; when the wintry 
 season shall pass off, and be followed by a scene which shall 
 exhibit, combined in one, the appropriate beauties of each 
 season, — all the energies of spring the glow of summer, and 
 the luxuriance of autumn. 
 
 Union, love, and harmony shall then characterize the New 
 Je>"usalem, the city of the living God. The prayer of the 
 divine Redeemer, that his people may be one, even as he 
 and the Father are one, shall be answered — the c-chorta- 
 tions of the apostle, to keep the unity of the spirit .i\ the 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 287 
 
 Dond of peace, shall be complied A\ith — the object, so long 
 lost, so ardently desired, so mistakenly £«ught after, shall 
 be restored, and the divided church become one again. The 
 din of controvers)^ shall cease with the din of arms — the 
 peace that shall prevail in the world shall be but an emblem 
 of the tranquillity which pervades the church — and the 
 pen of tlie polemic shall be laid up in the museum of the 
 antiquarian, with the sword of war. The spirit of division 
 will be healed, not by legal restraints or angry controversy ; 
 nor will an angel descend to give a sanatory virtue to the 
 troubled waters of strife ; but this disease will be cured by 
 a copious effusion of the Spirit of God upon the hostile par- 
 ties — by the diffusion of a larger degree of vital religion — 
 by drawing men from human systems to the fountain of 
 Scripture, there to purify their much abused vision from the 
 scales of error and prejudice — by causing them not only to 
 profess, but to feel, that love is the essence of Christianity, 
 and all beside but '' the earthly attire which she will throw 
 off as she steps across the threshold of eternity, to enter the 
 temple of God." Illustrious era! How many hearts, sad- 
 dened by the divisions of the visible church, are sighing for 
 thine advent, and how many sons of peace are lifting up 
 their aspirations to Him that ordereth the times and the sea- 
 sons, saying, " Come quickly ! " Thine it is to heal the 
 matricidal wounds inflicted by her own children on the 
 peace of Zion. Thine, not only to repress the bitter words, 
 and still more bitter feelings, and to expel the envies and 
 the jealousies occasioned by the barriers of sectarian zeal, 
 but to remove the very barriers themselves, and bring into 
 cue fold, under one shepherd, that precious flock of Christ, 
 which during the dark and cloudy day that has come upon 
 us, has been scattered upon the mountains and upon every 
 high hill. Thine it is to close the long reign of malice and 
 hate, to which our earth has been subjected ever since the 
 hour of the fall, and to give to it the nearest resemblance to 
 heaven it ever can have below, in the universal dominion 
 of love' Hasten, Saviour, this thy brightest triumph! 
 All creatures groan for thy coming, while thy church cries, 
 '•Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!" 
 
 But even this is not all that awaits the church on earth, 
 for she is assured of increase, triumph, and vniversal domin- 
 ion. She is not always to be shut up within her present 
 narrow limits, a little band, scorned by pride, oppressed by 
 
288 THE MILLENNIAL STATE 
 
 power ; the circumference of the globe is to be the circle of 
 her domain, and all nations are to be her subjects. The 
 Lord shall arise upon thee, " thou afflicted, tossed with 
 tempest, and not comforted." '•' The Gentiles shall see thy 
 righteousness, and all kings thy glory. Lift up thine eyes 
 round about, and see ; all they gather themselves together, 
 they come to thee ; thy sons shall come from afar, and thy 
 daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shall see 
 and flow together, and thy heart shall fear, and be enlarged, 
 because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto 
 thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee." A 
 thousand such promises as these, though partially fulfilled 
 by the incarnation of the Son of God. and the setting up of 
 his kingdom in the world, — await their consummation in 
 the latter day glory. Then shall God utterly aboUsh the 
 idols of every land. ''I have sworn by myself," says He. 
 "the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and 
 shall not return ; that unto me every knee shall boAv, every 
 tongue shall swear." Thus the oath of God is pledged to 
 the subversion of everything that opposeth itself to him. 
 Paganism, that blood-stained, hydra-headed monster of 
 impiety, cruelty, and lust, shall be slain to rise no more. 
 Mohammedanism, that audacious lie, propagated by the 
 scimitar, and kept up only by the means that estabhshed it 
 in the earth, shall be extenninated — and the Koran be 
 destroyed by the Bible, and the crescent disappear forever 
 in the blaze of the Sun of Righteousness. Then shall the 
 vail fall from the heart of the Jew, the blindness which hath 
 happened unto Israel be done away, and the outcasts of 
 Judea, still beloved for their fathers' sake, shall " come in 
 with the fulness of the Gentiles." The man of sin shall 
 be cut off; the mighty angel shall take the mill-stone, and 
 dashing ii into the sea, shall utter the shout, '• Babylon the 
 great is fallen, is fallen ;" while the loud voice of much 
 people shad reply, " Alleluia ; salvation, and glory, and 
 honor, and power, unto the Lord our God ; for true and 
 righteous are his judgments ; for he hath judged the great 
 whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and 
 hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand." The 
 sabbath of our world shall have arrived. The worship of 
 Jehovah shall be universal. The Name which is above 
 every name shall be heard on every plain, and echoed from 
 every mountain. The Bible shall be in every hand, a house 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 289 
 
 of prayer in every village, and an altar for God in every 
 habitation. The groans of creation shal' be lost amidst the 
 songs of salvation, and this vale of teaifj, even to its dark- 
 est nook and deepest recess, be irradiated with the suc'rhine 
 of joy and praise. Trie throne of tyranny, cemented ty 
 blood, and occupied by oppression, shall be overturned, and 
 the vine and iir tree overshadow the seat, and yield the 
 fruit, of liberty, planted in its place. Slavery, that veriest 
 type of selfishness, cruelty, and lawless power, shall be 
 abolished, as one of the greatest crimes and direst curses of 
 humanity. The Prince of Peace, whose throne is forevei 
 and ever, " shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke 
 many people j and they shall beat their swords into plough- 
 shares, and their spears into pruning hooks ; nation shall 
 not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn the 
 art of war any more." Commerce shall be purified from 
 its cupidity — legislation from its injustice — literature from 
 its pride — and philosophy from its scepticism. The principles 
 of Christianity shall permeate everything, and leaven the 
 whole mass of society with the spirit of that kingdom, 
 " which is righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Ghost." 
 Then will be realized all the glowing descriptions contained 
 in the chapters of Revelation, to which we have already 
 alluded, and men, and angels, and God himself, rejoice over 
 " the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 
 eousness." 
 
 How many centuries shall roll before this blessed era of 
 harmonized, sanctified humanity shall arrive — how much 
 more of its history our world is to spend in sin and rebel- 
 lion, and in groans and tears, it is not for any of us to say. 
 Some imagine they hear the clocks of prophecy and provi- 
 dence both set in harmony to the divine decree, striking the 
 eleventh hour. I am not so skilled in prophetical arithme- 
 tic, or mystic symbols ; <' it is not for me to know the times 
 and the season^, which the Father hath put in his own 
 power ;" and I am content with the promise and the hope, 
 that the time is coming, when " the kingdoms of the world 
 shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ." 
 
 What vials of wrath have yet to be exhausted upon the 
 world, or through what tribulations the church has yet to 
 pass on her way to her millennial, and to her triumphal 
 state, it is not for us even to conjecture. Perhaps there are 
 conflicts for her to endure, of which she is now happily 
 
290 THE MIL'^ENNIAL STATE 
 
 ignorant, but for which, however severe, the grace tha 
 Cometh from above wall pepare her. Still, she vmat be vic- 
 torious, for hers is the cause of God. Yes, Christians, the 
 days roll on, when " the shout of the isles shall swell the 
 thunder of the continent ; when the Thames and the Dan- 
 ube, when the Tiber and the Rhine, shall call upon the 
 Euphrates, the Ganges, and the Nile ; and the loud concert 
 shall be joined by the Hudson, the Mississippi, and the 
 Amazon, singing with one heart and one voice, ' Alleluia ! 
 Salvation ! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth !' " 
 
 Followers of the Lamb, professors of Christianity, friends 
 of your species — survey that wondrous scene, gaze upon 
 that enchanting panorama, no mere picture of a fervid im- 
 agination, but sketched by the pencil of a divine hand, as 
 of something which the resources and honor of God are 
 pledged to render a glorious reality ! Look at it, I say — a 
 world converted from every error that blinds the judgment — 
 every passion that corrupts the heart — every vice that de- 
 grades the character — and every curse that damns the 
 soul — to everything that purifies, exalts, and saves its mis- 
 erable inhabitants; and that by a power which subdues 
 their understanding to truth — their habits to rectitude — 
 and their hearts to happiness. If any dark ground be 
 needed to draw out into more impressive and attractive 
 beauty this age of the future — if anything more than the 
 contemplation of it, apart and by itself, be requisite to fix 
 your attention, kindle your enthusiasm, and engage your 
 exertions — compare it with the world's past history, and 
 its present aspect — " Professing themselves to be wise, they 
 became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible 
 God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to 
 birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Where- 
 fore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the 
 lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies be- 
 tween themselves ; who changed the truth of God into a 
 lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the 
 Creator, who is blessed lorever. Amen. And as they did 
 not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them 
 over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not 
 convenient ; being filled with al unrighteousness, fornica 
 tjon, wickedness, covetousness, iiictliciousness. full of envy, 
 debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of 
 God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, 
 
OF THE CHURCH. 291 
 
 disobedient to parents, witnout understanding, covenant- 
 breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." 
 This is the most awful, deeply shaded moral pict)ire ever 
 drawn by an inspired or uninspired pen, and it is affecting 
 to consider that the apostle is not writing the annals of hell, 
 and the biography of devils, but of our earth; and our species. 
 Such was this world in the apostle's days, as the history 
 of even classic Greece and Rome clearly attests — as the 
 disclosures of Herculaneum and Pompeii can corroborate. 
 Such is the world in our days, as observation and report 
 demonstrate. Such is God/s world, such is our world — thus 
 lying in the wicked one, clasped firmly in his arms, polluted 
 by his embrace, and ruined by his arts Christians, can 
 ye bear to look at it, rendered a thousand times mor# loath- 
 some, hideous, and revolting, by the light of millennial 
 glory, which from the preceding pages is poured over it to 
 reveal more impressively its frightful apostasy from God ! 
 Sink not into despair. It is not always to be thus. In the 
 midst of those deep sorrows which you feel, or ought to feel, 
 over this dark and dreadful scene, turn to the other side of 
 the contrast, and rejoice in prospect of the millennial glory. 
 By whom is the reign of truth, holiness, and happiness, to 
 be brought on ? 'Who will be the direct and chief instru- 
 ments of accomplishing this greatest of all happy revolu- 
 tions — this wondrous spiritual renovation ? Not the mighty 
 ones of the earth — not monarchs, nobles, and statesmen — 
 not warriors and heroes — not philosophers and scholars — 
 not poets and artists — as such — but the ministers of re- 
 ligion, and the members of our churches — the men of faith, 
 of prayer, and of zeal — the men who have fellowship with 
 the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ — the men who 
 are despised as enthusiasts, or hated as fanatics — yes, these 
 are the men to whom the world will stand indebted for its 
 restoration to God, to happiness, and immortality. What 
 an inducement, and what an obligation to more intense de- 
 votedness, are here! To bring on this stupendous and 
 auspicious change is your work — and O, what work ought 
 it to be to accomplish such an end ! See here the object, the 
 result, and the reward, of your labor. You cannot labor in 
 vain — not a moment of time — not a farthing of proper- 
 ty — not a fragment of activity — not a prayer of faith, can 
 be lost. Borrow inspiration to your zeal from the prospect 
 of the latter day glory, which you are to be the means of 
 
292 MILLENNIAL STATE OF THE CHTJ^CH. 
 
 producing. Let the groans of an unregenerated world melt 
 and move you to the most intense pity ; and let the antici- 
 pated shouts of a redeemed one awaken all the energies of 
 zeal and hope. What is wanted — and all that is want- 
 ed, UNDER God's blessing, for the world's con^'ersion to 
 Christ, is — an«earnest Ministry, and an earnest Church. 
 May they both and all awake to a deep sense of their 
 duty, and a holy ambition to perform it, combined at the 
 same time with a believing confidence in the truth of the 
 Divine promise, and the all-sufficiency of the Holy Spirit. 
 
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