L T B R ^ R Y OF 'J UK Theological Seminary, f^RlNCETON^N^J. _^ BV 4811 .G68 1877 Cas Goulburn, Edward Meyrick ^,j^^, 1818-1897. Thoughts on personal THOUaHTS ON PERSONAL RELIGION, BEING A TEEATISE ON THE CHEISTIAN LIFE VS ITS TWO CHIEF ELEMENTS, DEVOTION AND PRACTICE. BY EDWARD MEYRIOK^GOULBURN, D.D., mBEKNDARY OF 6T. PAUL'S, CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OF OXFOBd/ahD ONE OF HEB majesty's CHAPLAINS IN OBDINAEI. FOURTH AMEBIC AN EDITION ENLARGED. WITH A PREFATORY NOTE. BY GEORGE H. HOUGHTON, D.D., BEOTOB OP TUB OHUKCH OF THB TRANSFIQUKATION IN THIS CITY OF NEW YOKK. NEW YORK : D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 549 & 551 BROADWAY. 1877. WILLIAM GIBBS, ESQ., OF TYNTEaFIELO, TUB KIND FRIEND OP THE POOR. THE MUNIFICENT PATRON OP ALL GOOD WORKS, A LOYAL SON OF THE ENGLISH CnURCH, €fy^t ^acjes arc lusttibcb WITH BEVERENCE, OBATITCDE, ANP AFFSCTIOH. 21, Sussex OARorNs, Htdb Park, J October 17, 1S61. f My dear Mr. Gibbs, You have kindly permitted me to inscribe to you this little treatise on the Christian Life. Most heartily do I wish that I had some worthier tribute of respect and affection for one, who has shown me such unceasing kindness, and has been the instru- ment of 'such incalculable blessings to my flock. But I know you will believe that my acknowledgement of all that I owe to you is, if not of any great value, at any rate sincere. We have laboured much and happily together in the cause of the New Church, which your munificence has enabled us t6 com- plete and to endow. Perhaps this little book may serve as a me- morial of the happy hours so spent in one another's company, — hours which, I can assure you, have been some of the pleasantest of my life. The leading thoughts of my treatise are so well expressed by a passage from a work which you gave me. that I should like to adopt it as my motto : " The oftener I read Jeremy Taylor, the more I am satisfied of the ex- cellence of his method of recommending holiness to the heart and imagina- tion, as well as to the understanding of frail man by dwelling on the infinite lovo and condescension of our gracious Father in taking so much pains to make it attainable, if not easy ; and by mixing it up with every act and dxUy of ordinary life, so as to make every hoitr spent in the world, as well as in tJie closet, when sanctified by its m,otive, an act of religion and obedience. I have often wished to "hear Christianity inculcated from tho pulpit on this principle."— -Sir John Richardson, as quoted in the Life of Mr. Joshua Watson. Vol. ii. p. 10. You will, I think, see that these three thoughts, — the power of attaining, under God's Grace, a real, though gradual, growth in sanctity ; the possibility of making the homeliest acts of common life contribute to this growth ; and the expediency of giving to such topics as these much more room than they generally occupy in Christian Teaching, — have been more or less present to mj n Upistle Dedicatory. mind throughout my argument. I have to thank you for giving me the opportunity of here stating the fundamental principles of my little book so tersely and clearly. There is one point connected with this treatise on which an ex- planation seems necessary. By those who know what an all-im- portant position the Holy Scriptures hold in the Economy of Grace, it will be remarked as a grievous omission, that in that part of tho work, which professedly treats of Devotional Exercises, there should not be a chapter devoted to the study of Scripture. My answer is, that a single chapter could not do justice to a subject so wide and important, and that I have already published a small volume upon it, which has met with a fair circulation and a kind reception. I do not wish to repeat myself in print. It only remains to add, by way of explaining some peculiaritiea of the style, that these pages, before they were' thrown into the shape of a treatise, have been orally delivered, some of them in your own hearing, in the form of Sermons ; but that the subject of them has been upon my mind for seven or eight years, and in the course of that period most of the chapters have been recon- sidered and written afresh. Faults, no doubt, many will be found in them ; but I trust that on topics of such transcendent import- ance I have not allowed myself to put forth any crude or pre- cipitate views. You will join with me, my dear Mr. Gibbs, in the prayer that, BO far. as it exhibits His Truth, God's Blessing may rest upon this little work, and that what is erroneous in it may be forgiven to me, and neutralized to the reader, through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I remain, my dear Mr. Gibbs, Your affectionate friend, Edward Meyeick Goulbcrm. William Gibbs, Esq., PREFATORY KOTE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. Dk. GoTJLBiJEN, the aiithor of the foUov/iiig Treatise on the Christian Life, is one of the lead- ing divines of our mother Church of England. To his pen is she indebted for a number of the most useful religious works that, of late years, have issued from the press; among which may be named: "Lectukes on the Office of the Holt Co:mmunion ; " " Inteoduction to the De- votional Study of the Holy Sckiptukes;" "The Idle Word, or Short Keligious Essays on the Gift of Speech ; " " Sermons preached during the last Twenty Years;" "Sermons AT THE Bampton Lecture IN 1850;" "Answer to THE Essay on the Education of the World." viii Prefatory Note. To those of our own Church who may be familiar with any of these works, his " Thoughts ON Personal Keltgion,-' if not already known to them, will need no word of introduction or commendation. To others, however, it may not be improper to say, that there are few, if any Treatises of the kind, of superior, if of equal merit. It is a treatise marked by great compre- hensiveness of subject ; strong, practical sense ; vigour and beauty of style; fulness and felicity of illustration ; and thorough warmth and spirit- uality of tone. Its words are, most truly, whole- some words — even the words of our Lord Jesus Cheist ; and its doctrine — so sound and moderate withal — is according to godliness (1 Tim. vi. 3). There is nothing in it that is dry, uninteresting, unreal, extravagant, impracticable, or beyond ordinary reach and compass. It is full of stimu- lus and full of encouragement. It is a manual, not so much, perhaps, for those who have abun- dant leisure and lead a retired life, as for those, especially, who are engaged in the ordinary avocations of the world. It will teach them how, while living in the world — amid its cares and perplexities — to live above the world ; while Prefatory Note. iy not slothful in bubiiioss, to be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord ; in one word, how to sanctify the secuLar, all-engrossing pursuit, and the daily toil. What is thus said, is said not without a thorough knowledge and trial of the book. Soon after its first publication in England in 1861, I procured it for my own private use, and its frequent perusal during the past two years, has not been, I trust, without advantage. I have read it in place of a weekly lecture, to a consider- able number of my parishioners, and, I believe, to their lasting benefit. I have added it as an ap- proved book to our Parish Library. I have placed several copies of it, and to their great satisfaction, in the hands of intelligent and ear- nest-minded friends. Li'one case, during a length- ened sickness, it proved a source of much comfort and instruction — its chaj)ter on the Magnificence of Prayer, solacing almost the dyiug hour. In the present edition a few verbal changes have been made, in order that it might be tlie better adapted for the use of American church- men ; a reference to a verse in one of the Psalms has been introduced; and two liturgical works, X Prefatory Note. bj divines of our own Clmrcli, have been named in addition to tbose recommended by De. Gotjl- BUKN. May the blessing of God rest upon the author, and His grace be given to the reader. Laus Deo I G. H. H. Lkwt, 1864. OOI^TEIvrTS, PART I . INTROD UGTORY, CHAPTER I. ON THE LOW STANDARD OF PERSONAL RELIGION NOW PREVALENT, AND TKE CAUSES OF IT. " A certain man drew a how at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness^ — 1 Kings xxii. 34. , PAOB Religion widel)' diffused, but of a low type in individuals— the imruense motive powers of Cliristianity should secure larger results —Analogy between knowledge and piety in respect of their difl'usion over a wide area and their shallowness in individuals — Is there any defect in the means employed, which may account for this result ?— The Ministry the great means of forming in man the saintly charac- ter — The guidance of the conscience (as distinct from its awakening) too often neglected in our Ministry— our aim to make good impres- sions, but not to follow them up by systematic teaching— Popular Lectures as a means of difl'using knowledge compared with populai Sermons as a means of diffusing Religion— Neglect of ministerial guidance of the conscience due (1) to a reaction from the confessional, (2) to a reaction from the dry moral sermons of half a century ago — Earnest desire of holiness tho state of mind contemplated in the reader— This desire is the rudiment out of which the spiritual crea- tion may be, step by step, built up ... . ... xii Contents. CHAPTER II. ON THE CHIEF CHARACTERISTIC OF PERSONAL * RELIGION. " Grow in graccy — 2 Pet. iii. 18. PAOH Accurate notion of the nature of Personal Religion, desirable in the outset — It involves, as its chief characteristic, growth in grace —the essential connexion between growtt and life in Nature — no spiritual life without growth in grace — the distinction betweeji spiritual life and spiritual impulses illustrated by the difference between the operations of life and those of galvanism — indhidual- izing scrutiny of the character at the Day of Judgment — the question of our Religion being personal wiU resolve itself into the question, Is it a growing Religion ? — this (and no other) the critical question for each of us — Is growth consistent with relapses ? Yes, if the fall have been one of infirmity — the occasional strong impulse of penitent love — the Christian's progress, like that of the tide, is move- ment upon the whole — Growth in Grace, as in Nature, is by many fresh starts — all healthy growth gradual — no comfort in these reflec- tions for the indolent and formal — if we are not advancing, we must be falling back— formation of the character, either for good or evil, continually in progress 14 1 CHAPTER III. OF THE ENTIRE DEPENDENCE OF SANCTITY ON CHRIST, AND OF THE RELATION WHICH THE MEANS OF GRACE HOLD TO HIM. *^ Abide in Me, and lin you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye^ except ye abide in Me. " / am the vine, ye are the branches : he that abidcth in Jfe, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit : for with out Me ye can do nothing.'*'' — St. John xv. 4, 5. A clear notion of the nature of Christian Holiness essenfal— The difference of meaning between " "Without Me " and " Apart from Me"— the fruits of the Spirit enumerated in detail in Gal. v. 22, 23.— Dependence of Justification on Christ generally recognized — Sanctification not an accumulation of righteous acta and ordi- nances, but a momentary receiving out of the fulnesB of Christ — ih% ContenU, xiii PiQR eirculating sap, which is the life of tho vine-hranch, not from tbo branch, but from the Stock — all graces inhere in Christ, as colours in the Sunlight ; and independently of Christ, the heart has no grace, even as, independently of the Sun, a landscape has no colour — tho secret of sanctity, then, is mutual indwelling of the Christian in Christ, of Christ in the Christian — We abide in Ilini by faith in Him, aa being made to us Sanctiflcation— Could we doubt His willingness to sanctify us, even if v/e had no promise to that eflfect? — May not our very struggles to be holy be, in a certain sense, a token of want of faith ?— yet lie will not (and cannot) sanctify us, unless we yield np the soul into Ilia hands— and this implies yielding up the will— Christ abides in the Christian by Ordinance, and specially by the Holy Communion — ^how the allegory before us implies that even this Sacra- ment will be profitless without faith— Ordinances are merely chan- nels by which the Virtue of Christ is conveyed into the souls of faith- ful recipients — illustration from tho story of the woman of Samaria- Christ the Well ; the Ordinance, the Pitcher ; Faith, the muscular action, which lifts the pitcher 'iA CHAPTER IV. PERSONAL RELIGIO^r BOTH ACTIVE AND CONTEM- PLATIVE. "/» the yeartlmt King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne^ high and lifted up, and Jiis train Jilled the temple. *^ Above it stood the Seraphims: each one had six wings: with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.'''' — Isa. vi. 1, 2. Tho subject falls into two great divisions- The angelic life tho model of the Christian— Adoration and Service tho elements of tho angelic life- Monasticism discards tho latter of these elements — the active services of holy Angels— necessity for work in the consti- tution of our nature— each of us has a stewardship, and a work an- nexed to it, in the great social system — the "business" of the child and of the slave— the two chief scenes, in which angels are seen en- gaged in Worship — the barrenness and weariness of activity, if not fedfi'om the springs of devotion — defective devotion the snare of these busy times— The angelic life has been led upon earth, under the pres- sure of physical infirmities, by Christ— His persistent activity and nnwearied devotion — Service and Prayer must interpenetrate one an- other—prayer the spot of God's children— are we men of prayer ? 31 xiv Contents. PAET II, THE CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE, CHAPTER I. OP THE MAGNIFICENCE OF PEAYEE, AND THE PKAC* TICAL DEDUCTIONS FEOM THAT DOCTEINE. "jETe that cometJi to God.'''* — Heb. xi. 6. PAQH An effort necessary to grasp the idea of prayer — Gradual ascent as necessary to the mind in reaching a great idea as to tlie body in reaching a great height— Prayer a coming to God— -we will seek to realize the grandeur of this idea — supposed privilege of consulting in our difficulties the wisest and best man upon earth — of consult- ing a departed parent or friend— of consulting our guardian-angel —proof that such intercourse between this world and another would be largely practised, if it were feasible— these hypotheses help us to realize the idea of coming to God, which however must always transcend our powers— God permits, invites, commands our approach — But may not the consciousness of our guilt debar us from access ?— were it not for Christ, it must be so — the sym- bolism of the surplice — difficulty of rescuing prayer from formality —design of this chapter to help us in such difficulties— the exer- cise however demands time— which might perhaps bo gained by self-discipline — a little well done better than much done superficially — the end of stated Prayers (as well as the entrance into them) should be made the subject of attention— we must watch agaiust sub- eequcnt levity 5) Contents. xv CHAPTER II. OF THE TWOFOLD ASPECT OF PEAYEK, AND THE NE- CES8ITY OF PKACTISING IT IN BOTH ASPECTS. " Let my prayer he set forth before thee N THE "WISDOM AND COMFOET OF LOOKING NO FLTB. THER THAN THE PEESENT DAY IN OUR SERVICE 01 GOD. * He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.'''' . — LtJKE xvi. 10. PAS* Wisdom of limiting the field of research in the pursuit of knowl- edge — wisdom of beginning from one centre in the practical life of the Christian — the general principle applied to our time — the natural divisions of time— the day the least of them— the day a miniature of the whole life — illustration from a convex mirror — passages of Scrip- ture implying that the day is tha rndiment of the life— our provisions meted out by the day — our anxieties to be limited by the day — fore- thought allowed within the horizon of the day — our purposes to be limited by the same horizon — difficult j^ of so limiting them — the morn- ing a miniature of youth— how much depends upon the way in which the morning hour is spent — entrance npon the business of the day compared to entrance upon the business of life — little crosses of the day compared to the great trials of life— consolatory prospect of the evening hour of devotion, if we maintain patience and watchfulness —Resemblance of Sleep to Death— and of rising to Resurrection- Look to it that the days be well spent ; for they make up our life— But if we have thrown away (for all spiritual purposes) many days, still there is a possibility of redeeming the time— how this may be done— let to-morrow begin a new era with us 207 Contents. xxix CHAPTER n. ON UNITY OF EFFORT IN THE SEEVICE OF GOD, ' Tliou art careful and troubled about many things ; bui one thing is needful.'''' — Luke x. 41, 42. FAG8 Simplicity and depth of the -words of our Lord illustrated by the depth of a pellucid stream — necessity of peace in endeavour, as well as of peace in the consciousness of acceptance — desirableness of hav- ing one single principle at the foundation of our spiritual character — how is this to be reconciled with the obligation of fulfilling all God's commandments? — the way in which Christian virtues hang together — prominence of a particular feature in all natural characters, and of a particular grace in all spiritual characters— growth in Nature proceeds from one nucleus — application of the princijile — bend your eflbrts to the eradication of the bosom sin — other graces will form themselves while this process goes on— Choose one maxim as the foundation of the spiritual character — " Ilallowed bo thy Name " — what God's Name includes—" Blessed are the poor in spirit" — the principle chosen should not be too narrow, so as to give fare scope for acting upon it — nor too broad, so as to include (vir- tually) many principles— it should lie in a line of thought to which we are naturally drawn — Cultivate quietness of mind as a great se- cret of success in spiritual endeavour — how this quietness may be had even under the consciousness of falls 303 CHAPTER III. OF THE WAT IN WHICH WE SHOULD SEEK TO EDIFY OTHERS. *' Let your light so shine before )nen, that^ they may see your good workSj and glorify your Father which is in heaven.^'''— Matt. v. 16. - A desire to do good to others is the very spot of God's children— this desire often directed in wrong channels— the history of schism — misdirected desire to edify— its mischievous results— fundamental passage on which the duty of Edification is built— Sermon on the Mount a perfect code of Christian duty— danger of applying indis- criminately words spoken to the Apostles, or to individuals under pe- culiar circumstances — " Let your light shine before men " explained from the context— do nothing to hide your Christian profession— our XXX Co7itenis. PAQI Lord Bpeakg of edification by example— and does not recoinraeud even this for the sake of ediJicatioTi— every light must shine unless you cover it up— dangers of indiscriminate religious admonition— as an assumption (which may be groundless) of religious superiority— as being most often a failure in point of result— as being a display of spiritual feeling, which may be mischievous to this delicatp plant- How we may edify others— Live close to God, and strive to do all ac- tions as unto Him— never lower your principles to the world's stand- ard—aim at appearing just what you are, neither better, nor worse- eschew afiectation in every form 819 CHAPTER IV. IN WHAT THE SPIEITUAL LIFE CONSISTS. . K " And he opened his mouthy and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness : for they shall be filed. Blessed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for rigid eousness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.''^ — Matt, V. 2—10. The author's excuse for introducing this suhject at so late a pe- riod of the work — In what the Spiritual life does not consist— Not in ordinances- ordinances the means of kindling the flame or of feeding St, but not the flame— the gardener's tools not the life of the tree — our unhappy tendency to confound means with ends — Monas^iciem aBsumes that the Spiritual Life consists in ordinances— Scripture, where it touches on the vitals of religion, omits all mention of ordi- nance—the Spiritual life does not ccnsist of actions— the fruit is not the life — View of religion as mere usefulness congenial to the English mind— Spiritual life does not consist in activities— religious activity of the present day — we all catch the spirit of it — our natural zest for work quickened by the disgust of young and earnest minds with the controversial extravagances of the day — the mischievous tendency of this result — Christian practice supposed to be separable from Chris- tian doctrine — in what the Spiritual life does consist ?— answers from Scripture— it is internal — not even private prayer is the spiritual ?>fe, Contents. XXXI PAGB Independently' of tbe mind with which it la offered— it is supernatural —the application of this term juBtified — it is developed amid trial and opposition — this illustrated by the beatitudes of meekness and mercy —the first beatitude gives the fundamental grace of the Christian character — application of these various criteria in self-exam inatiou S29 CHAPTER V. THAT OUR STUDY OF GOD'S TRUTH MUST BE WITH THE HEART. ^But even unto this day^ when Moses is read^ the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord^ the vail shall be taken awayy — 2 Cor, iii. 15, 16. Jewish blindness resulted from a predisposition not to believe — In what form the truth is recognized that a man's judgment is liable to be prejudiced by his inclinations— non-recognition of this truth in the attempt of heathen philosophers to persuade men to virtue— the method of Socrates — historically Christianity began with an appeal to the affections — the doctrine of the Gospel makes the same appeal —Moral effect which the story of Christ's death is likely to produce —justifying faith shown to be an operation of the heart— every for- ward step in the spiritual life must be made with the heart — the ne- cessity of "«ncart sanctity itself, and not rather something to begin and go on upon, — the primary impulse in the life-long pursuit of sanctity. And thus the good impressions are allowed to run to waste, and no real ground is gained by them. We have said that a low standard and a wide difTusion seem to be the law to which both religion and education are subjected in the present day. And perhaps there may be, when we come to look closely, a similar defect in the instrumentality employed by both. Popular lectures are one of the great agencies employed in the spread ot knowledge. It is the object of these lectures to put in a lively and attractive form so much of the subject as is agreeable and entertaining, and to hide away all the abstruse re- search, or the abstruse reasoning, by which the results are arrived at. The lecturer is considered to have gained his point if he has skilfully dressed a rather spare dish of knowledge with the garniture of amuse- ment, and sent away his audience pleased and tickled with the conceit of having caught a cursory insight into the bearings of his subject. But as they have never grappled with the elements of the study, the new facts or ideas conveyed to them are forgotten almost as soon as acquired. Whatever advantages such a system may have, it is certain that no scholar was ever made by it. For even now (notwithstanding our intellectual advance) there is no royal road to knowledge ; and those who would really and truly know must still submit to the condition of laborious and gradual discipline ; " line upon lino, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little." But do not the great majority even of good and useful sermons resemble in their principles and objects these popular lectures? Do not those sermons i( noil' prevalent, and the Causes of it. 9 especially resemLle them, which it is now the fashion to preach to the masses, and from which we expect some great results, as if they were the one religious agency of the day ? If we were to define modern sermons as "popular expositions of Holy Scripture, with a warm and stirring application to men's con- sciences," should we go far wrong ? They are de- signed to make, and often (under Grace) they dc make, wholesome impressions of a spiritual character, and the people wlio are touched by them go away pleased, thinking "they have got good." And good they have got, no .doubt ; but then it is good which is not followed up. .'f the good should go in some cases as far as real conversion, or change of will, there seems to be no provision for edification, that is, for building on the foundation thus laid. They have been exhorted to religion; but they have not been instructed in it. There is in our exercise of the ministry no systematic plan on which people are taught, and brought on gradually towards " the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." And the results are most mis- chievous. Piety, degenerates into a series of shallow emotions, which evaporate in the absence of stirring appeals to the conscience. The souls of our people become like Bethesda's pool. Periodically they are impregnated with an healing influence ; " an angel goeth down into the pool, and troubleth the water." But, alas ! the virtue of the stirring is but momen- tary ; the dregs quickly fall again to the bottom, and the water becomes dead, stagnant, and unprofitable as before. Thus we seem to have found that one of the causes of the low standard of Personal Religion among us, is probably the want of any definite direction of con iO On the Low Standard of Personal Religio7i [part Bcience, after it has been once awakened. If we carry our inquiry still further back, and ask the reasons why this part of the ministerial work has been neglected, we shall probably find that it is owing to reactions from a state of things wrong in itself. Before the Reformation, the confessional existed as a living power in the church ; it exists still in the communion of the Church of Rome. Frightful as are the evils and abuses inseparably connected with the system of regular compulsory confession, there was at least this advantage connected with it, that under such a system the minister could not forget the duty imposed upon him of directing the awakened conscience. Counsel he must perforce give, counsel practical and definite for the eradication of those sins, the avowal of which was poured weekly into his ear. The Protestant clergy- man on the other hand, confined to the pulpit, is thereby, of course, thrown back to a much greater distance from the minds of his flock. He does not know, and cannot know, except in those very rare cases, where a revelation of such things is voluntarily tendered to him, what is the nature of their difficulties, or the quarter in which their trials lie. Hence arises a temptation (though surely not a necessity) to do as the certain man in the passage above referred to did, to let fly his word of counsel without any definite aim, to be general and vague both in doctrine and exhorta- tion. And it is well if the generality and vagueness do not go so far as to become unreality, if the por- traitures of the believer and unbeliever are not so overcharged as that no man really resembles either of them, and if consequently the discourse, being meant for nobody in particular, does not fiire worse than the death-shaft of Ahab, and hit nobody in particular I.] now prevalent^ and the Causes of it. 11 But why, because we rightly reject the odious system of the confessional, are we to abandon the attempt to direct the human conscience from the pulpit, or from the press ? The Apostles had no confessionals. And yet were not the Apostles ever making such attempts' as we speak of? What is the nature of the Apostolic Epistles 1 Are they not all addresses to believers in Christ, whose consciences had already received tlie 'primary impulse of true religion, with the view of guiding them in their perplexities, confirming them in their convictions, forewarning them against their tempt- ations, encouraging them in their troubles, explaining to them their difficulties, and generally building them up in their most holy faith 1 And are not the Apostolic Epistles the great model of what stated Christian teaching in a Christian country should be ? — a process, be it observed, widely different from the evangelizing of the heathen, and recognized as different in the great baptismal commission given by our Lord in the last verses of St. Matthew's Gospel, where He bids His Apostles first " teach " as a preliminary to baptism^ — teach with the view of making disciples, — and subsequently to baptism ^Heach" the converts so made " to observe all things, whatsoever He had commanded." Those two teachings are quite distinct. The object of the one was to arouse the conscience of the heathen ; the object of the other was to direct the conscience of the Christian. The state of things on which we have been animad- verting is also probably due in part to a reaction from the hard and dry style of preaching, which was in fashion some half-century ago. Some of us can remember the time when sermons were nothing more than moral essays, setting forth some duty, or some / 12 0]i the Low Standard of Personal Religion [paki grace of the Christican character, with little or no reference to those evangelical motives from which alone an acceptable obedience can spring, and no suggestions of any value as to the method in which the particular grace recommended might be obtained. You were told that humility, and self denial, and contentment were excellent things, and worthy of being pursued by all men ; l3ut as to the considerations which alone can move to the pursuit, and as to any practical method of maintaining them under difficulties, you were left in ignorance. But when it pleased God to quicken the dry bones of the Church with new life, men began to see that to divorce the moral code of Christ from His constraining love, which alone can enable us to keep it, was an unhallowed act, upon which God's blessing can never rest, and that the exhortations of the Christian preacher should be somicthing warmer, and more genial, and more persuasive than the moralizings of Seneca. Since that time, with the usual precipitancy of men to extremes, our divines have chiefly busied themselves with doctrine, and relinquished (or but feebly occupied) the ground of precept. The impression has been that people know every thing about Christian duty, and have no need to be enlio-htened on that head. And if by Christian duty be meant simply the moral law of God, in its outward, literal aspect, perhaps the impres- sion is more or less correct, at least as regards the educated classes. But if by Christian duty be meant sanctity of life and character, and a growing conformity to the image of the Lord Jesus, we must be pardoned for expressing our conviction that our best and most respectable congregations have very little insight into the thing itself, and still less into the method of its attain mentc I.] now 'prevalent, and the Causes of it. 13 We devote these pages, then, to givhig some su^- gestions on the nature of Personal Religion, and the method of cultivating it, — a subject for the treatment of which by the ministers of Christ it appears to us that the circumstances of the time urgently call. We address our remarks more especially to those who per- ceive the hollowness of a religion of merely good impressions, and who feel that, if there be vitality in the Christian principle within them, they ought, as years roll on, to be making progress. The mere earnest desire for a holier life, Avhich is often found in such souls, is something, — nay, it is much, — it is the fruit of grace, it is the working in the inner man of the instinct which Baptism implanted. Take courage, brother ! Earnest desire of holiness is holiness in the germ thereof. Soon shalt thou know, if only thou wilt follow on to know, the Lord. But take one short and plain caution before we start. Sanctity is not the work of a day, but of a life. Growth in grace is subject to the same law of gradual and imperceptible advance as growth in nature. God's natural creation, Moses tells us, was built up step by step, out of its first rudiments. Who could have believed that the germs of all the fair objects which we behold in nature were in that void, and dark, and formless earth, over whose waters the Spirit of God spread His fostering wing ? And who could have be- lieved that in this heart of ours, — such a medley of passions, vanities, pettiness, ignorance, as now it is,- — there should be the germs of every grace which can bloom in the garden of God — of child-like humility, yea, and of heroic self-sacrifice'? Yet so it is. Be but true to your convictions. Do but follow the instigations of that Spirit who hovered over the waters of your Baptism. Follow ITim in darkness and light, through 14 On the Chief Characteristic [part honor and dishonor, through evil report and good report, and in due time the new creation shall dawn within thee, and the fair fabric of God's spiritual king- dom shall be built up step by step, — " righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." CHAPTER II. ON THE CHIEF CHAEACTEEISTIC OF TEESONAL EELIGIOK " Groio in grace.'''' — 2 Pet. iii. 18. In our first Chapter we spoke of the low standard of Personal Religion now prevalent, and of the causes of it. We assumed that every one of our hearers would form a more or less correct idea of what was meant by Personal Religion, and thus that there was no need, — at all events at that early stage of the argument, — of any forma, definition. The words spoke for themselves sufficiently to enable us to follow the line of thought, along which our minds were then travelling. We shall gain, as we proceed, a more distinct and more highly chiselled notion in connexion with them ; and such a notion, we trust, the present Chapter will convey. What ^5 Personal Religion? What has been said already will have taught us that it is something more than a mere partaking in those sensations and in that general interest about religion, which are now so widely diffused among the public. We have also seen that it is something distinct from good impressions on the mind of the individual, which too often terminate upon I.] of Personal Religion. 15 themselves. These, however, are rather negative than positive features of it ; and, having intimated what it is not, we are now inquiring what it is. One positive characteristic, then, of Personal Religion — perhaps its chief positive characteristic — is, spiritual growth — the growth of the individual soul " unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Personal Religion involves growth in grace ; so that where there is growth, there is Personal Reli- gion ; and where there is no growth, although there may be interest in religious subjects, and keenness about controversies, and a perception of the importance of Divine truth, and a warm defence of orthodoxy, there Personal Religion is unknown. Now to say that Personal Religion is characterized by growth, is only another form of saying that the man who has it is spiritually alive. Growth in tho animal and vegetable worlds is the sure sign, and the only sure sign of life. If a branch does not sprout, and put forth leaf and blossom in the spring, we know that it is a dead branch, — the sap which is the life of the tree does not reach it, is not circulating through it. If an infant lives, it grows, — increases in stature daily, while its features fill out gradually into that definite shape which they are to wear through life. But we need not restrict the remark to infants. The bodies of adults grow as really, though not as sensibly, as those of children. Particles of matter are continually flying off from our bodies, and being replaced by others ; so that, according to a very old and often- quoted computation, the whole mass of the human Dody undergoes an entire change, — becomes, in fact, a new body, — once in every seven years. This constant iischarge of old particles, and accretion of new ones, Ii> On the Chief Characteristic [paEa though accompanied with no change of feature or stature, is growth ; and it is a sign of the vitalityof the body. A dead body lacks the principle of life, by which alone nourishment can be taken in from air and food, and transmuted into the substance of the human frame. Now we know that nature is every where a parable of grace. Its being so is the basis of all those beau- tiful illustrations which are called the parables of our Lord. And in the case before us, nature furnishes a most important parable of religious truth. There is no organic life without growth in nature ; and there is no spiritual life without growth in grace. I say, no spiritual life, — no continuous state of life. Spiritual impulses there may be many. Impulses, however, are not life, though they may originate or restore life. Here again we resort to nature for an illustration. There is an agency connected with life called galvanism. You may galvanize a paralysed limb, and by galvanism may restore the circulation, and so restore life, to it. But the galvanism is not the life; it only rouses the dormant powers of life. Galvanism is a certain develop- ment of electricity, the same mysterious agent which in another form, darts to and fro among the clouds of heaven. The life of the limb, on the other hand, con- sists in its answering the purposes for which it was made, in its habitual subservience to the will, in the power of contracting and relaxing its muscles, when the will gives it notice to do so. Now the professing Christian, who is not spiritually alive, is a paralysed member of the Body of Christ. Impulses from a heavenly agent, the Holy Ghost, are ever and anon sent through the medium of God's ordinances into the Body of Christ, and impart a convulsive, fitful motion I.] of Personal Religion, 17 even to those limbs which are paralysed. It does not, however, follow that the paralysed limbs are restored. In some cases they may be ; in some they may not. At all events, the fitful movement of the limb is one thing, its permanent vitality another. That glowing impression which you carried away from such a sermon, that seriousness which such a warning or such a bereave- ment left on your mind, may, after a convulsive move- ment of the soul — after saddening you for a week, or wringing a few tears from you — pass away for ever, and leave you still in a state of spiritual paralysis. Or it may really rouse the powers of life in your soul, may succeed in enlisting the whole machinery of the inner man, — understanding, affections, will, in Christ's service, — may act as the first impulse in a career of holiness. Do not confound God's grace, its motions, in- fluences, instigations, inspirations, with spiritual life. It is on account of this confusion of thought that well- meaning persons often suppose all to be right with them because they are the subjects of so many good im2:)res- sions. God's grace comes to us from without, in order to quicken spiritual life in us ; but the life itself is some- thing internal. The grace resembles the angel who troubled Bethesda's pool, and for a moment conveyed to it a healing virtue. The life of the water would have consisted in its being changed permanently from a stagnant pool into a living spring, which as a fact was never done. To resume, then, our argument at the point from which we have slightly digressed. The question whether any of us has Personal Religion, resolves itself into a question whether he has in him a principle of spiritual growth ; and spiritual growth implies spiritual life. Per- sonal Religion therefore is, in fact, one and the same 18 On the Chief Characteristic [part thing with the spiritual life of the individual soul. — And now let us turn, at this early period of the discussion, to examine our own consciences upon the truth which we have already gained. It must, I suppose, stand to reason "that nothing but a Personal Religion will stand us in stead at the last day. The individual will then be the object of the Divine scrutiny ; not the society in which he has moved, and whose sentiments, habits, and circumstances have perhaps reflected upon him a super- ficial tinge of piety. Society is made up of individuals ; and the sentiments of society are ultimately formed and determined by the sentiments of individuals ; and there- fore God, who searches all deep things, will examine at that day microscopically the little world of the in- dividual's mind. " And when the king came in to see the guests," says our Saviour, " he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment." He saw there a man ; one man, — singular ; — not that there will not be found at the last day hundreds of thousands of souls in the same sad plight as this poor man ; but to teach us forcibly, by the selection of a single specimen, that no one shall pass muster in the crowd, that not only all, but each must be judged, — that upon each soul in that awful crisis the full glare of Divine Omniscience must be turned in — that the religion which alone will then abide must be personal, deep, individual. Is ours then at present a Personal Religion % Is it a growing one ? Is there a principle of growth in it 1 Does it wax stronger against tempt- ations, more stedfast in faith, more constant and more fervent in prayer, as years roll on % Are our views of God and of Christ gradually enlarging and clearing, and becoming more adequate % Are they more humbling to ourselves, but at the same time more inwardly satis factory and consolatory than tliey used to be % Are bt> I.J of Personal Religion. 19 setting sins more resolutely and successfully mortified than they used to be ? Are our souls, though sometimes stirred by spiritual emotions, like Bethesda's pool ? or is the Spirit's agency in them deep, profound, eternal — " a well of water springing up into everlasting life ?" Reader, seeing that on the answer to these questions our all is suspended, it behoves us to be very careful in answering them. Is my religion a growing one ? In that word '* growing " the decision of the whole ques- tion is wrapped up. Mark the point, I pray you, and keep to it. The point is not whether I have very lively feelings, very warm emotions in connexion with religion (those are often constitutional and dependent on physical temperament), but whether I am growing ? The point is not, whether I fulfil certain duties, social and religious, with commendable regularity (a reflec- tion satisfactory enough as far as it goes, but not bearing on the present question), but, whether I am growing ? And again the point is not (God forbid that it should be ! ) whether I am coming up to the standard of character and conduct, which I have set before myself? whether I am satisfied with my own life? whether I am as yet near to the mind and image of Christ ? whether I am in sight of the goal of perfection 1 — not this, but simply, " Am I grow- ing ?" This one little word is the test, which, faith- fully applied, shall roveal to us our state. But how to apply it"? how to be sure that we are applying it right 1 Methinks I hear some reader ask whether this growth is consistent with frequent relapses, with the backslidings (some of them very serious) of which he is only too conscious ? To which we answer, with some assurance, " Yes, if the fall have been one of infirmity ; if the will has (so to say) picked itself up afterwards, 80 On the Chief Characteristic [part and, though bruised and bleeding, gone manfully forward, giving its hand once again to the Lord Jesus, and consenting heartily (as before) to His guidance.'* There may be health and vitality in a constitution plagued with sickness ; and if there be such a vitality, it will enable the constitution to throw the sickness off. We do not for a moment desire to excuse sin ; but at the same time God's people should be instructed, for their comfort, that there is a wonderful economy in His Kingdom of Grace, by which He sometimes brings even out of relapses (as in the case of the fell of St. Peter) a burst of penitent love and zeal, w^hich gives the soul a most powerful forward impulse. The Apostle had denied Christ in a moment of weakness ; but he rises from the denial at once, when his Master's look recalled him to himself, and goes out and weeps bitterly. Soon afterwards we discover that he has grown in grace. We see him throwing himself into the water, and wading ashore to meet the Loi*d, — a mute but very touching way of saying that his affection is now more zealous than ever. As an illustration of this law in the Kingdom of Grace, consider the move- ment of the tide when it is coming in. It is movement upon the whole. The water is sure to cover that dry beach in two or three hours' time, and to float that stranded sea-weed ; hut it is not a movement without rela^yses. Each wave, I suppose, gains a little ground, but each wave falls back as soon as it has plashed upon the shore. Even so in the Christian life, there may bo a forward movement on the whole, consistently with many relapses, though this assertion requires to be guarded by the observation that the relapses must be such as proceed from infirmity, and not from malice prepense. Deliberate, habitual sin, cannot possibly I.] of Personal*Reli(jion. 21 consist with spiritual growth; but the shaking of a •man's stedflistness by a sudden tornado of temptation (which was St. Peter's case) may do so. The great question is whether, after every such fall, the will recovers its spring and elasticity, and makes a fresh start with new and more fervent prayer and resolve Indeed, the making many fresh starts after relapses of infirmity is a hopeful sign of growth. In order to any great attainment in spiritual life, there must be an indomitable resolve to try and try again, and still to begin anew amidst much failure and discouragement. On warm dewy mornings in the spring vegetation makes a shoot ; and when we rise, and throw open the window, we mark that the May is blossoming in the hedgerows. And those periods when a man can say, " I lost myself sadly yesterday in temper or in talk ; but I know that my crucified Lord took upon Him those sins and answered for them, and to-day I will earnestly strive against them in the strength of His Spirit, invoked into my soul by earnest prayer:" these are the warm dewy mornings of the soul, when the spiritual life within us sprouts and blossoms apace. Again, it should be remembered, lest any whom the Lord hath not made sad should be put out of heart by the application of the test, that all real growth is very slow, and its actual progress imperceptible. The seed oowo on stony ground, which forthwith sprang up, because it had no deepness of earth, proved a failure. .Jonah's gourd, which came up in a night, perished also in a night. We never see plants actually growing; we only take notice, that they have grown. Tie who would form a sound judgment of his spiritual progress must throw his eye over long, not short, intervals of time. lie must compare the self of this year with the 22 On the Ch'uf Characteristic [y.LiiT self of last ; not the self of to-day with the self of yesterday. Enough if amid the divers and shifting experiences of the world, and the manifold internal self-communings arising thereupon, that delicate plant, spiritual life, has grappled its fibre a little deeper into the soil than it seemed to have done in an earlier stage of our pilgrimage, now fairly past. Let those characters, for whom they are designed, take to themselves the comfort of these considerations. But let not the indolent and formal derive from them the slightest encouragement. Again we say, that the one sign of vital Personal Religion is growth. There is no growth in a life of spiritual routine, in a mechanical performance of duties, however important, or a mechanical attendance upon ordinances, however sacred. There is no growth without zeal and fervor^ and that sort of enthusiastic interest in religion, with which a man must take up any thing if he wishes to succeed in it. There is no growth in the deliberate adoption of a low standard, in the attempt to keep back a moiety of the heart from Christ, in consenting to go with God thus far only, and no further. There is no growth in contenting ourselves with respectability, and declining the pursuit of holiness. There is no growth without fervent prayer, "in spirit and in truth." And, finally, there is no growth (whatever be the hopes with which we ma}' be flattering ourselves) without continual and sincere eflbrt. But it is now time to conclude this chapter. And we will do so by remarking that if an examination of conscience should show that we ^re not growing in grace, there is but one alternative, which is that we are falling back. An awful truth ; but one as infallibly certain as any other phenomenon of our moral state. l-l of Personal .Uelujion, 23 Neither in mind nor body does man ever " continue in one stay." His body, as we have seen, is constantly throwing off old particles of matter, and appropriating new ones. Every breath he breathes, evei-y exertion of his muscles and limbs, every particle of food he swallows, makes some minute change in the bodily framework, so that it is never entirely the same. Of each individual among us it may be said with truth at any given moment, that he is either rising to, or de- clining from, the prime of life and the maturity of his physical powers. And the mind no less than the body is in a continual flux. It too has its moral element, the society in which it lives, — it too has its nourish- ment, which it is constantly imbibing, — the influences of the world and the lower nature, or those of the Spirit of God. One or other of these influences is always imperceptibly passing into the mind and effecting a gradual change. And the awful thought is, that if the change is not for the better, it must be for the worse ; if the mind is not appropriating the higher, it must be appropriating the lower influences ; if there is no growth in grace, there must be a growth in worldliness and sin. Strictly speaking, nothing is morally indifferent ; every moral action leaves its impress upon moral character. Our fireside conver- sations, our thoughts as we pass along the streets to our daily work, our spirit in the transaction of business, all have some amount, small though it be, of moral value ; all are tending more or less remotely to form the character ; amid all, and through all, we are either making spiritual progress or falling back from the mark. With what solemnity do these thoughts invest even the most trifling incidents of life ! It is impossible to pass through them and come out the 84 Of the entire dependence |_paki same ; — we are changed either for the better or for the vvorse. We will look to it, then, that in future at 'east it shall be for the better. If it have been hithertc /or the worse, we will this very hour embrace thf.fc already purchased pardon, which obliterates in an instant the guilt of a whole past career of sin, and that grace, proffered by Christ no less gratuitously, which renews the will unto newness of life. And to- morrow we will, in the strength of that grace, make a new beginning, taking up this anthem into our mouths : " All my fresh springs shall be in Thee." CHAPTER III. OF THE ENTIKE DEPENDENCE OF SANCTITY ON CUKIST, AND OF THE RELATION WHICH THE MEANS OF GRACE HOLD TO HIM. **■ Abide in Me^ and lin you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye^ except ye abide in Me. " / am the vine, ye are the brancyes : he that abideth in 3fe, and I in him, the same b^'ingeih forth much fruit : for with- out Me ye can do nothing. '*'' — St. John xv. 4, 5. The subject of this treatise is Personal Religion, or in other words, that " holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." It is evident that we shall be liable to misapprehend the subject fundamentally, unless we have at the outset a clear notion of the nature of Christian holiness. It is to give the reader this clear notion that the present chapter will be devoted. In the passage which ?^ lands at the head of it, there I.J of Sanctity on Christ. i25 is a slight inaccuracy of translation, which requires to be set right before the force of Our Lord's words can bo thoroughly appreciated. " Without Me ye can do no- thing," should rather be rendered, '^Apart from Me,'' " separate from Me," " in a state of independence on Me, ye can do nothing." " Apart from Me," by no means conveys the same idea as " Without Me." The hitter would imply merely that unless Christ concurred with His people in their efforts, they could do nothing. " Apart from Me," goes beyond this. It implies that He is the alone originating source of all sanctity in them. " Without " the concurrence and assistance of a strong person, a weak one cannot lift a heavy weight ; but the dependence of the weak person on the strong in order to lift the weight, is not the dependence which the word here employed indicates. " Apart from " the soul (or principle of life) the body is motionless, a nd cannot stir a finger. This is the sort of dependence indicated in the passage before us. Christ is to the Christian the alone source of sanctification or spiritual life, just as the soul is to the body the alone source of natural life. I do not know that any other prefatory observation is needed, except that " the fruit " mentioned in this passage generically is specifically, and in detail, those fruits of the Spirit which are enumerated by St. Paul in Gal. v., " Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." The fruit consists in certain holy tempers and affections of heart, the possession of which will uniformly ensiirb right conduct, but which are much more easily seen to be absolutely dependent upon Christ's working than right conduct itself is. If a man be commanded by God to do any action whatsoever, he can string up his 20 Of the entire dependence [part will to do It. But when certain sentiments and dispo- sitions are required of him, which involve a thorough change of the heart's natural propensities, that is another matter. The affections are far less under the will's control than the actions are. — That these gracious sentiments and dispositions are called by the Apostle, fruits of the Spirit, and by His Divine Master, fruit proceeding from himself, the true Vine, need not cause any difficulty. In Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He is the smitten Rock of the wilderness, through whom alone the living waters force their passage to polluted man. His glorified humanity is the appointed receptacle of Grace, from which Grace emanates into all the moral universe. Hence the Spirit is called the Spirit of God's Bon. The great subject brought before us by the passage is, that THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE CHRISTIAN, LIKE his justification, is entirely dependent upon our Lord. As regards our Justification, this is clearly seen (at least in the Reformed Churches) and generally admitted. That Christ alone can atone for sin; that His Blood and nothing else can procure the pardon of it ; that on the ground of His merit exclusively we can find accept- ance with God, reinstatement in his favour, and admis- sion to His Presence ; that " all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," and that therefore we must look out of ourselves for a righteousness which can stand the scrutiny of God's judgment, and that such a righteous ness, white as the driven snow, is to be found in Christ only, — all this, whatever reception such a doctrine might have met with half a century ago, is now so thoroughly established, and has gained such a footing in I.J of, Sanctity on Christ, 27 the minds of religious people, that to prove it from Holy Scripture to persons of ordinary religious ac- quirements would be altogether superfluous. But it is thought that, unlike Justification, (which is something that passes on the sinner externally to him, a sentence of acquittal pronounced on him by God, in consideration of Our Lord's merits,) Sanctification is a process within us (which no doubt is true); and hence it is erroneously inferred that it is carried on much more independently of Christ than Justification is; that human will, effort, and exertion contribute very mainly to it, and that Christ is not the uU in all of it, not " our strength " in the same way and to the same extent as He is " our righteousness." And hence a false notion of holiness springs up in many minds, and finds such a lodgment that it is very difficult to dis- possess it. Holiness is supposed to be an achievement mastered at length — much as a lesson is mastered — by a variety of exercises, prayers, fastings, meditations, almsdeeds, self-discipline, Sacraments ; and when mas- tered, a sort of permanent acquisition, which goes on increasing as the stock of these spiritual exercises ac- cumulates. It is not regarded in its true light as a momentary receiving out of Christ's fulness grace for grace, as the result of His inworking in a heart, which finds the task of self-renewal hopeless, and makes itself over to Him, to be moulded by His plastic hands, re- signing, of course, its will to Him in all things, without which resignation such a surrender would be a horriljle hypocrisy. Now let us take up the illustrations of this truth ; and first His own illustration, the wisest, profoundest, and most beautiful of all. "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more 28 Of the entire dependence |_pak7 can ye, except ye abide in Me ;" " Apart from Me ye can do nothing." The circulating sap, which is the lifo of the tree, is indeed in the vine-branch, so long as it holds on the stem ; but in no sense whatever is it from the vine-branch. Cut off the branch from the stem, and it ceases instantaneously to live, for it has no independent life. Even so the fruits of the Spirit, while of course our hearts are the sphere of their manifestation, are in no sense from our hearts ; they are not the result of the energizing of our own will ; they are not a right- eousness of our own, built up by a series of endeavours, or a laborious process of self-discipline, but a righteous- ness outflowing continually from the fulness of Grace wnich is in Christ. Another illustration may perhaps help to impress the truth. When we walk abroad on a beautiful day, and survey a landscape lit up by the beams of a sum- mer sun, our eye catches a variety of colours lying on the surface of this landscape, — there is the yellow of the golden grain, the green of the pasture-land, the dark brown of those thick-planted copses, the silver gleam of the stream which winds through them, the faint blue of distant hills seen in perspective, the more intense blue of the sky, the purple tinge of yonder sheet of water ; but none of these colours reside in the landscape, they are not the properties of the material objects on which they rest. All colours are wrapped up in the sunlight, which, as is well known, may be seen resolved into its elementary colours in the prism or the rainbow. Apart from the sunlight no object has any colour ; as is shown by the fact that, as soon as Light is withdrawn from the landscape, the colours fade from the robe of Nature. The diffeience of colour in different objects, while the sun is shining, is produced f.J of Sanctity on Christ. 29 by some subtle differences of texture or superficies, which makes each object absorb certain rays, and reflect certain other rays, in difTerent proportions. Now Christ is the Sun of Righteousness, in Whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, — the fair colour of every grace and Christian virtue. When Christ is shining upon the heart, then these virtues are manifested there by one Christian grace of one description, by another of another, according to their different receptivity and natural temperament, just as, when the sun is shining, colours are thrown upon a landscape, and reflected by the different objects in dif- ferent proportions. But as no part of the landscape has any colour in the absence of the sun, nor can acquire any independently of the sun, so Christians have no grace except from Christ, nor hold any virtue independently of Him. Let it be clearly understood, then, that the great secret of bringing forth much fruit, or, in other words, of all advance in grace and holiness, is according to the profound teaching of Our Lord Himself, a constant keeping open (and if possible, enlarging) the avenues of the soul towards Him. If a vine-branch is to sprout and throw out new suckers and shoots, the tube by which it communicates with the stock of the tree must adhere tightly to the stem, and be well open for the passage of the sap. If you desire to see the colours of furniture in this room, whose shutters are closed, throw open the shutters, and admit the full flood of sunlight. And if you desire to see the dead heart put forth the energies of .spiritual life, and the dark heart illumined by the fair colours of spiritual grace, throw wide open the passage of communication between Christ and it, and allow the Life which is in Him, and the Light 30 Of the entire dependence [pari which is in Him, to circulate freely through it. — But how to do this % in other words, how to fulfil His own precept, " Abide in Me, and I in you ?" Ah ! vitally important question, — question upon w^hich the whole of our sanctification (and thus the whole of our sal- vation) is suspended! Let us address ourselves to answer it, with the earnest prayer that God would guide us into all truth. Observe that our Lord prescribes mutual indwell- ing, as the secret of spiritual fertility. Take heed that ye " abide in Me, and I in you." Here is not one idea only, but two ; the dwelling of the Christian in Christ, as the body dwells in an atmosphere, and the dwell- ing of Christ in the Christian, as the soul dwells in the body. L Take heed, first, that " ye abide in Me." This is done by faith. As we first consciously entered into fellowship with Christ by faith (I say consciously entered into fellowship with him, for when we were baptised as infants, we entered unconsciously into His fellowship), so there is no other way to abide in Him, than by repeated exercises of the same faith. The fiiith which enables the soul to abide in Christ is nothing else than an assured trust and confidence on our part, that, as He has already wrought out for us our acceptance with God, so He will work in us every gracious disposition (be it repentance, or faith itself, or humility, or hope, or love) which is necessary to qualify us for glory. It is not enough to supplicate these graces ; we must lean upon Him for them, and fix the eye of expectation upon the promise of His new Covenant ; " I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts:" being well assured that He will fulfil to us the terms thereof. There is a pro I.J of Sanctity on Christ. 31 mise, I say, that lie ^vill fulfil in us all tho work of Sanctification ; and it is well that it i* so, by way of* making assurance doubly sure, and giving to the doubtful heart a stronger consolation. But even were there no promise, could it be a question as to whether He would form in us those tempers and frames of mind, which He Himself requires of us? Do we seriously believe that He loved us so intensely as to abdicate His throne in Pleaven for our sakes, to empty Himself of all the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, to confine Himself within the limits of man's feeble fliculties, and feebler body, to expose Himself to shame, and spitting, and obloquy, and a death most cruel and ignominious 1 If we do not believe as much as this, we are clearly no Christians. And if we do believe thus much, is it conceivable that He who has gone to the utmost verge of self-sacrifice in ransoming our souls, should be wanting to us in what will cost Him no sacrifice, but yet is necessary to complete our salvation ? If the soul has the least scintillation of a desire to be holy ; much more, if it is bent on being holy, as far as its power goes ; still more if it is striving and struggling to be holy, and beating against the cage of its corruptions in a great longing for spiritual free- dom, as a poor imprisoned bird beats, who sees outside the bright sun and the green trees, and other birds flitting to and fro in the blue ether, — is it conceivable that the Incarnate Love, the Love which bled, and agonized, and poured itself out in death for the objects on which it had fastened, should not meet that desire, that longing, that striving, and visit the soul with power? As without holiness no man shall (or can) see the Lord, must not Christ be much more earnestly anxious to make us holy, than we can be to be made 32 Of the entire dependence [part 80? If we do not believe m this earnest anxiety of His, do w^believe in His love at alH Have we ever really apprehended it ; or has it been merely a tale recited to our ears, which we do not care indeed to con- tradict, but which has never at all taken hold of, or touched, our hearts ? Ah ! what if these struggles to be holy should them- selves be in a certain sense a token of unbelief? What if the poor bird imprisoned in the cage should be thinking that, if it is ever to gain its liberty, it must be by its own exertions, and by vigorous and frequent strokes of its winors a attained to live the angelic life upon earth 1 Indeed he has done so ; and the record of his having done so is in the Gospels. There was One " tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin," who followed up days of active benevolence, in which He spent and was spent for the people, by nights of prayer. Consider only that touching passage of His history, in which, after receiving the announcement of the Bap- tist's death, our Lord expresses a natural desire for privacy and repose. The multitudes, however, track Him to His place of retirement, and throng around Him there with the clamour of their necessities, as heretofore. Fallen human nature could hardly have done otherwise than vent a slight irritability at having its purpose thus rudely crossed ; but from the depths of that most pure and loving heart there struggled up no other feeling than that of compassion, as He looked forth upon the sea of human heads. Human misery called the Good Shepherd, and He at once responded \o the call. He healed all the sick whom they had brought, and " began to teach them many things," until ihe day wore away. Having fed their minds with Divine 46 Persojml Religion [part truth, He proceeded to feed their bodies miraculously before He dismissed them, " lest they should faint by the way." And this being done, one might have thought that at the close of so laborious a day, Ho would at length have sought repose. But He does not so. The pouring out of His soul before tho Father has been delayed ; but it shall not be precluded. That His solitude might be entire, He compels His disciples to get into the ship, and go before unto the other side, while He Himself upon the mountain offers His evening orison late into the night. And though, of course, no fallen creature has ever maintained the same nicely-adjusted balance between devotion and active service, which is observable in the mind and life of Christ, — though some saints have been (like St. John) characterized rather by devout contemplative- ness, and others (like St. Paul) by zealous activity, — yet all His true people have preserved in different proportions the twofold character ; — all have been men of service, and all have been likewise men of prayer. We have spoken of service and prayer separately, as it is necessary to do in a disquisition. Yet we ought not to think of them as independent things, but rather as closely related and interpenetrating one another. Service and prayer are the web and woof of the Christian life, of which every part of it is composed. Both are in the groundwork of the stuff. Not even in point of time must they be too rigidly sundered from one another. Prayer at stated seasons is good and necessary ; but a man aiming at sanctity in ever so low a degree, will find it impossible to confine his prayers to stated seasons. He will soon discover that prayer is literally, and not merely in a figure, " the Christian's breath of life ;" and that to i.J both Active and Contemplative. 4^ attempt to carry on the spiritual life without more prnyer than the recital of a form on rising, and retiring to rest, is about the same absurdity as it would be for a man to open his casement morning and evening, and inhalo the fresh air for a few minutes, and then say to himsell on closing it, that that amount of breathing must suf- fice him for the rest of the day. The analogy suggested by this image is, I believe, a perfectly true one, and will hold good if examined. The air from the casement is very delicious, very healthful, very refreshing, very invi gorating ; it is a good thing to stand at the casement and inhale it; but there must be air in the shop, in the ,foc- tory, in the office, as well as at the casement, if the man, as he works, is to survive. Under this view of itj ejaculatory prayer is seen to be even a more essential thing than stated prayer. Both are necessary to the ivell-being of the Christian life ; but the momentary liftiiig the heart to God, — the momentary realization of His presence amidst business or under temptation, — is necessary to its very being. The life is no more, when this work is suspended. For which reason probably it is that the great apostolic prayer-precept is given with a breadth which excludes all limitations of time and place, — " Pray without ceasing." Ejaculatory prayer, how- ever, must by and by form the subject of a distinct Chapter, which we will not now anticipate. Reader, our subject assumes, as we progress with it, a more definite shape in our minds. Personal Religion, as we saw in our last Chapter, involves growth. Per- sonal Religion, as we now see, involves prayer, — in- cluding under that term all the exercises of devotion, both public and private. Then are we men of prayer 1 Let the conscience take home this question and answer it faithfully. Let the conscience of men, and of men o/ 48 Personal Religion both Active and Contemplative. business, take it home. It is a man's question, and a busy man's question, rather than a woman's. Women as a general rule have more leisure than men, and have certainly more of that constitutional temperament, which, w^hen God's grace visits it, inclines to devotion. It is in a hard, busy, bustling life, a life which asks an active and unimaginative mind, and which chills all approach to sentiment, — in short it is in the life of a man of business habits that the temptation to live without prayer is felt. How then, in your case and in mine, can the searching question be met % "Widely as in different ages and in different countries the experiences of the children^ of God have differed, this has been the one universal experience, the one common characteristic without a single exception, — hoary-headed elders, and brave martyrs, and wise teachers, and weak women, and servants, and even little children, " the great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," — all have been people of prayer. Prayer is the very spot of His chil- dren ; and the more we know of the power of Personal Religion, the more distinctly will the spot come out, as it were, upon the surface of the skin.- Is the spot upon us 1 Do we enter often into the closet of the dwelling, oftener still into the closet of the heart, to commune with our Father which seeth in secret? Unless this be our case, all our interest in religion is superficial, not personal, and will appear to be so, to our confusion, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by lesus Christ according to the Gospel. PART II. thp: contemplative life. CHAPTER I. on THE MAGNIFICENCE OF PKAYEE. AND THE PKAO TICAL DEDUCTIONS FEOM THAT DOCTEINE. " Ife that Cometh to Gody — Heb. xi. 6. The Christian life, as we saw in our last Chapter, branches out like the life of the Seraphim, into the two divisions of Devotion and Action. We shall speak first of Devotion, endeavouring to furnish some thoughts which may be practically useful to the reader in his efforts to maintain communion with God ; and then of Active Life, — the spirit in which its duties should be fulfilled and its difficulties surmounted. And as ejacu- latory prayer is, in fact, the intermingling of devotion with action, — as it is the meeting-point of prayer and service, — we shall give it a middle place between the two, and use it as a bridge, whereby to pass from the first to the second division of our subject. First, then, to speak of Devotion, which for our present purpose may be all summed up in one word. Prayer. There would be less of formality in prayer, and far more of strength and enjoyment in it, if men did but grasp the idea of what prayer is. But simple as the idea is, it requires an effort of the mind to master it • and while we are willing enough to pay mechanically our daily tribute of homage at the Throne of Grace, 52 Of ike Magnificence of Prayer^ and the [pAia natural slothfulness always recalcitrates against an effort of mind. Gradual ascent is as necessary to the mind, in order to its reaching a great idea, as it is to the body in order to its reaching a great height. We cannot as cend to the pinnacle of a cathedral, which towers aloft in air, without either steps or an inclined plane. We cannot reach the summit of a mountain without first toiling up its base, then traversing its breast, and then, successively, crossing the limits where verdure passes into crag, and crag into a wilderness of snow. Even when we have gained the highest point, we are still, it is true, at an infinite distance from the blue vault of the firmament which stretches above our heads. Still we have a better and more exalted view of what that fir- mament is : we have at least risen above the fogs and mists which obscure its glory ; and the air which en- compasses us is transparent to the eye, and invigorating to the frame. Now the law of man's bodily progress is also the law of his mental progress. Both must be gradual. No grand idea can be realized except by successive steps and stages, which the mind must use as landing-places in its ascent. But what if the mind, afler all its toil, should prove unable fully to master the idea, as must be the case where the idea to be mastered is connected with God and things divine ? It does not at all follow that therefore our labour has been lost. We have, at all events, risen to a higher level, where our view is more transparent, more elevating, more sublime, and where the play of tho thoughts is invigorating to the inner man. And now let us apply these reflections to the subject in hand. Prayer is nothing more or less than a " commg to God." Now the bare conception of this thing, " coming to God," is sublime and ennobling to the highest do II.] Practical Deductions from that Doctrine, 53 gree. But we are familiar with the idea, and our verj' familiarity with it — the currency of it among religious persons and in religious books — has worn off the sharp edges of it, until it has ceased to have any definite im press. Let us seek and pray that the idea may revive with some power in our minds. And this we will d