THE TRUE PATH,
OR THE
YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.
IN A SERIES OF LECTURES.
BY THE
REV. JOSEPH M. ATKINSON.
RALEIGH, N. C.
PHILADELPHIA:
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,
No. 821 CHESTNUT STREET.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by
JAMES DUNLAP, TREAS.
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District
of Pennsylvania.
STEREOTYPED BY WILLIAM W. HARDING PHILADELPHIA.




Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,
while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh,
when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Ecc. xii. 1.
And the king said, Is the young man safe?  2 Sam.
xviii. 29.
Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way?  By
taking heed thereto according to thy word. Ps. cxix. 9.
Run and speak to that young man.  Zech. ii. 4.
Thy creatures have been my books, but thy Scriptures
much more. I have sought thee in the courts, fields, and
gardens, but I have found thee in thy temples.-LORD
BACON.
The end of learning is to repair the ruins of our first
parents, by regaining to know God aright, and out of that
knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as
we may the nearest, by possessing our souls of true virtue,
which, being united to the heavenly grace of faith, makes
up the highest perfection.-JOIIN LMILTON.
That religion must needs be worth looking into, which
so many wise and excellent men do so much value above
their lives and fortunes.-JEREMY TAYLOR.
(3)








TO
REV. JOHN  M. P. ATKINSON, D. D.,
PRESIDENT OF HAMPDEN SIDNEY COLLEGE, VA,
THE FACT, THAT YOU HAVE BEEN CALLED IN THE PROVIDENCE OF
GOD, TO PRESIDE OVER THE INTERESTS AND DESTINIES OF
ONE OF THE MOST ANCIENT AND NOT THE LEAST HONOURED AND USEFUL OF THE COLLEGES OF OUR
NATIVE STATE, WOULD SEEM TO RENDER
THE DEDICATION OF THIS VOLUME TO
YOU, A THING NOT LESS PROPER
IN ITSELF, THAN GRATEFUL
TO MY OWN FEELINGS.
~~~~1*      ~(5)








CONTENTS.
LECTURE I.
PAGX
Introductory-divine revelation-general statement of its claims
and   aspects.....................................................................   11
LECTURE II.
Divine revelation specially suited to the nature and needs of
the soul.............,......................................... 36
LECTURE III.
Transcendent nature of the doctrines of divine revelation........... 55
LECTURE IV.
The sentimental and the scriptural theologies.......................... 72
LECTURE V.
Relation of reason to revelation..................................... 94
LECTURE VI.
Apparent discrepancies touching justification.......................... 117
LECTURE VII.
The christian religion, the leaven of life................................ 137
(7)




8                               CONTENTS.
LECTURE VIII.
PAGE
Christ, the burden of prophecy........................................... 167
LECTURE IX.
Christ, considered as our example..................................... 191
LECTURE X.
The christian graces, the highest human virtues..................... 211
LECTURE XI.
The glory of God, the end of our existence........................ 230
LECTURE XII.
The providence of God in the common affairs of life................ 249
LECTURE XIII.
Sovereign grace, the sinner's hope................................... 267
LECTURE XIV.
The new heavens and the new  earth................................. 283




PREFACE.
THE rapid multiplication of Young Men's Christian
Associations is a noticeable fact of the age.  It at once
indicates a disease, and furnishes at least a partial remedy.
The disease is the unnatural and perilous aggregation of
young men in cities and villagesin which the temptations
to extravagance, dissipation, and vice peculiarly abound;
and in which the restraining and meliorating influences
of domestic life are in many instances wholly unknown.
The remedy is a counter-movement of Christian benevolence, which seeks out such-throws around them  the
guards of sympathy and virtue; leads them to the sanctuary of God; and gives them access to select periodicals,
books, and newspapers.
The happy influence of such associations, when rightly
constituted and conducted, and rigidly confined to their
proper sphere, can hardly be over-estimated; and it is
with a view to their special needs and uses, that this book
has been prepared.
I have aimed to adapt it to them, and to young men
of whom  the number is very great and perpetually increasing, who are pursuing a course of liberal study in
high schools, academies, and colleges.
In its style and structure, I have endleavored to make
it attractive to cultivat-ed v-u,!n' mlel; land at the same
(9)




10                        PREFACE.
time, render it intelligible t, those who haxe never b)een
much conversant with Tmoral land inettalphysi(al elnquiries.
The staple of' the book is- the doctrine s of Evanllelical
Protestant Theology, as,opposed to tihe perversions of
Popery on the one side, and the negations and errors of.Rationalistic infidelity on the other.
There are few, if any, detailed discussions of particular
vices, not only because  such  discussions are foundl in
sufficient plenty elsewhere-in  Sermlons and Lectures
addressed to young men —but because my endeavour llas
been to develope, and inculcate principles, which, cordially
adopted and acted on, would cut off all particular vices;
implant and nourish all particular virtues.  General principles bear the same relation to particular precepts, which
Algebra bears to Arithmetic; the formula  applied  in
the solution of a particular problem, embracing any number
of problems of like conditions.
I am persuaded that the body of virtue is one, and the
life of' virtue one; that all particular virtues flow  from
the one comprehensive  principle of obedience to God,
founded on love; and that the avoidance of all particular
vices flows from  the operation of the fear of God, founded
on faith, fixed in the heart and ruling the life with inperial sway.
I have endeavoured, so far as it extends, to make it such
bookl, as I now feel would have been useful to me when
a young man in college; and such a book as a Christian
prent might put into the hands of a son, not only with
conefdence that its teachings were scriptural, but with the
hIope that, with the blessing of God, they might be sa+ving.
i f it shall be the means of confirming any young disciple in'' the faith once delivered;" or in rescuing any fromi  the
deadly. delusions of, pr)evalent fCorms of infidelity, I shall
have aundant caunse for thlanksgiving in the attainment
of the end for which it waIs written.




THE TRUE PATH,
OR THE
YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.
LECTURE I.
INTRODUCTORY- DIVINE  REVELATION - GENERAL
STATEMENT OF ITS CLAIMS AND ASPECTS.
GoD has graciously revealed all necessary truth,
in the gospel of his Son. He has fully unfolded a
costly and magnificent scheme of redemption, in
which his own glory and the salvation of the believer, are identified and secured. The Lord Jesus
Christ as the Author and the Finisher of our faith, with
obedience as its test, holiness as its fruit, and salvation as its end, is offered to all men on every
page.  The wickedness and folly of those who refuse and rebel, are condemned in the strongest
terms.  Total indifference, the most unreasonable,
the most common, and the most fatal species of infatuation, is made matter of particular mention and
(11 )




12         THE TRUE PATH, OR THIE
vehement rebuke.  Speaking by the mouth of the
wisest of men, he says: "To you, 0 men, I call;
and my voice is to the sons of men.  Hear, for I
will speak of excellent things, and the opening of
my mouth shall be right things." Prov. viii. 4, 6.
Seeming even to mourn over the obstinate disobedience of his chosen people, he addresses them by
the lips of Isaiah, in these singular terms, " Oh! that
thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then
had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness
as the waves of the sea." Isaiah xlviii. 18.
Inattention to the paramount claims of divine
revelation may be traced ultimately to a wilful and
guilty ignorance. The transcendent importance of
the subject; the everlasting issues depending on a
right decision; the favourable verdict of the most
powerful and independent minds that have yet arisen
among the most enlightened nations; the willing
homage of Bacon, Milton, Newton, Locke, and Boyle,
to the solid foundation of its claims, have not been
sufficient to arrest the anxious attention of the
larger portion of mankind.
The more profound our examination, and the more
extended our knowledge of the system of Religion
revealed in the Bible, the more assured will be our
conviction that it came from God; and that it has
divine power to enlighten, to console, to sanctify,
and to save. Systems of man's device may be exposed by an intelligent and thorough scrutiny; but
that plan of salvation which descended from heaven,




YOUNG MAX,'   1NXVTT]I!< TO T111   SAV[OU1R.   I- 
and is recorded il the  ibook of (God, has nothing to
d.read from the most searching examination.
Excluding, for a moment, the retributions of
eternity, and regarding only its historical influence
and the magnitude of its clains, this system  deserves the attention of wise and thoughtful men.
Its enemies themselves being judges, it is a powerful
agent and has effected immense results.  It has not
failed to mould the character of every people, among
whom it has obtained a transient footing, even in a
corrupted form.  It has given tone to the laws, to
the civil institutions, and to the social usages of
every civilized  state.   The code  of Moses has
formed the basis of the code of Christendom, and
especially of the legal system which prevails in this
country and in Great Britain, the foremost nations
in all the world, in the elements and the fruits of
moral greatness.
From  the period of its first appearance, it has
been charged, and not unjustly, with being exclusive.
It cannot, like the tolerant and easy systems of
Piaganism, bear a competitor.  Wherever it prevails,
and just so far as it prevails, every idolatrous rival
must be thrown to the moles and to the bats.  Not
content with setting forth its own claims to the belief and obedience of mankind, it denounces every
otiier system of salvation as delusive, and proclaims
every other god,.; than Jehovah, false.  In this the
New Testament is not less uncompromising than
the Old.  It says, " If any man love not the Lord




14           TIlE TRUE PATH.    R T,'lE
Jesus Christ, let him be Anathelma Maranatha;'
1 Cor. xvi. 22; that " there is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved;"
Acts iv. 12; that every other refuge is a refuge of
lies, which will be swept away when He shall rise
up in the fierceness of his wrath, and be destroyed
with the brightness of his coming.  It aims at nothing less than setting up an interior dominion in the
heart of man; bringing every thought into captivity
to the obedience of Christ; planting an incorruptil-le
seed in the soul, which is constantly to grow  in
power, until finally it shall pervade and sanctify
every faculty; yielding precious fruits: holiness in
life; peace in death; and happiness in heaven.  No
sovereignty ever known among men by the articulate
confession of one of the very greatest of earthly
sovereigns-Napoleon-can be compared either in
the completeness or in the permanence of its sway
with that kingdom which its divine Founder declared
not to be of this world.
That:which gives coherence, clearness, and completeness to the whole Bible-to the Old Testament
not less than to the New; and binds the whole
together with the golden chain of unity, is the
marvellous testimony which it delivers in type and
symbol-in prophecy and history-to the person,
work, and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God manifest in the flesh for our salvation.
Strike Christ from the Bible and it is like striking
the sun from our system; 11l is darkness and con



YOUNG(i MAN INVITED TO T11E SAVIOU.I.    15
fusion; the vacuity and emptiness of the original
chaos! As formed in the heart of the believer, he
is the hope of glory; as in the infinite effulgence of
his exalted person, he is the light of the heavenly
temple; so the revealed Redeemer of God's elect is
the sun of the inspired Scriptures.  The facts connected with him render the doctrines and declarations of the whole Bible, clear and harmonious;
hence it happens that they who deny his divine
claims, and degrade his divine person, are inevitably
forced to deny other truths, and often lapse by
degrees into the fathomless abyss of Atheism. The
only schemes of theology self-consistent throughout
are evangelical christianity at the one pole, and
absolute atheism at the other.  E very intermediate
system is a compromise and a contradiction.
The one great fact to which all the Apostles bear
witness with united voice is, that Jesus Christ came
into the world to save sinners; that he "who being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, made himself of no reputation, and
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made
in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion
as a man, humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil. ii. 6
-8.  This is in brief, the sum  of their testimony.
To this they were divinely constituted witnesses.
And if the ministers of Christ now would have the
same success, they must bear a faithful testimony
to the same truth.  The great doctrines of atone



16          Ti.E T1U L' PATi. 1U1!'.iIE
ment by the precious blood of the Lamb of God;
and justification by faith in his name, must be not
obscurely recognized in their preaching, nor remotely inferred from it, but plainly and prominently
set forth. Their inseparable connection with the
honour of God, with the satisfaction of law, and with
the peace of the believer, must be made to appear.
The church of the living God is the woman of
the Apocalypse-the woman clothed with the sun.
Rev. xii. 1. The servant of Christ, therefore, should
take his stand in the very centre of the Gospel
system-the focal point of its peculiar glory.  The
light of the knowledge of the glory of God, as it
shines in the face of Jesus Christ, should be seen to
shine in him with a lustre limited indeed by the
finite capacities of man, but pure as when it sprang
from the bosom of the infinite God.  The law of the
Lord should dwell upon his lips; the gentleness of
heaven in his heart and on his brow.  He should
build his argument on the immovable basis of the
love of God, revealed in redemption.  He should
draw his exhortations to obedience from the example
of Jesus, and his incitements to devotion, from the
solitude of the mountain and the fervours of his
midnight prayer.
No inferior motive —no meaner topic should be
permitted to usurp the place of these.  May he not
without presumption hope to convince, to warn, to
counsel and to comfort, whose arguments rest on
God; whose warnings are drawn from  the inter



Y'lN(G MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   17
Ilinable agonies of hell; whose counsels are dictated by the inspiration of the Almighty; and whose
comfort is supplied by the Holy Ghost?  The
glorious shlekinzah of God, the appointed symbol of
the divine Majesty, rested on the mercy-seat; thus
foreshadowing  mercy  and  truth  met together,
righteousness and  peace embracing  each other.
Above shone the holiness of God in all its inaccessible and intolerable brightness; and underneath
was placed the ample basis of peace and pardon.
Thus does the Lord our righteousness fulfil the law
and propitiate the "holiness of God," at the very
moment that he gives the largest scope to mercy
and grace.  The work of redemption by Christ
Jesus is a work every way worthy of God.  It is
a work which it required the love of God to originate;
John iii. 16; the wisdom  of God to devise; the
power of God to execute; and the grace of God to
apply.  The recognition of Christ is, therefore, an
infallible test of the true relation of the soul to God
and to the gospel salvation. The due apprehension
of spiritual things is just in proportion as they are
spiritual; the most purely and highly spiritual demanding the clearest and nicest perception, and
appealing to the deepest and most delicate sympathies.  Therefore the  Lord Jesus being in his
person the fountain of spiritual life; in his doctrine
the sum of spiritual truth; and in his character the
standard of spiritual beauty; the right apprehension
of Christ may be regarded as the measure of our
2*




18          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
illumination and the test of our moral excellence.
Hence the question, "What think ye of Christ?"
is reckoned, in the Scripture, so decisive of our standing in the sight of God and of our destiny for ever.
The faculty of discovering Christ everywhere in the
Scriptures in the types and shadows and ceremonies
of the law, of which we have such signal instances
in Matthew Henry and in Andrew Bonar, and perhaps more remarkably than in either, in the saintly
McCheyne-is a token of discriminating wisdom
and of delicate spiritual tact. Christ is with us in his
providence, when we think not of him.  Like the
disciples when they saw him walking on the sea, we
vaguely discover the outlines of his beloved form,
but require the gracious assurance of his compassionate voice, " It is I; be not afraid."  M/ark vi.
50. So he is with us in the word of his grace, but
we perceive him not because our eyes, like those of
the disciples, "are holden."  The inward unction
of the Holy Ghost is essential to a correct apprehension of revealed truth; to a saving knowledge
of the incarnate God.  For the truth may be
clearly discerned by the natural understanding and
yet make no impression on the heart; or excite
only opposition and disgust.  Mixed with faith and
impressed by the Holy Spirit, it is not only understood but acquiesced in, and not only acquiesced in
but rejoiced in; it is then not better known than
loved; the strong affections of the soul keeping pace
with the clear apprehensions of the mind. John i.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THlE SAVIOUR.   19
12; 2 Cor. iv. 13; 1 John iii. 24; John xvi. 13.
Hence it is that the saving knowledge of God and
of his Christ can never be got by definition or
description.  It can be attained only by experience;
the Holy Ghost himself being the teacher.
As a man with weak or impaired vision can see
comparatively little; though all the wonders of earth
and sky-of land and sea-be spread out before
him; and one with strong and clear vision, can
take in a wide and varied prospect of " meadow,
grove, and stream;" so it is with the eye of the
mind.  The material world does not exhibit the
same aspects, suggest the same truths, or convey
the same lessons to all men indifferently.  How
much more is suggested to an Aristotle and Bacon;
to a Newton, a Franklin, a Humboldt, by the sensible phenomena before us, than to men in general,
who pass through the world with their eyes shut
or dreaming-rational somnambulists?  To the eye
of an angel, still more to the eye of the omniscient
Creator, there is infinitely more in the -universe
than the most gifted of the sons of men have been
able to see or to divine.  So it is in relation to the
hidden riches of the word of God.  The Bible is
not the same book to every reader; just as the visible universe is not the same object to every observer.
To perfect knowledge and to perfect enjoyment, it
is not less essential that the organ of discernment
be clear and sound, than that the object of attention be instructive and beautiful.  With many now




20          THE TRUE PATH, OR T[IHE
as with the Jews of old, 2 Cor. iii. 14, there is a
veil on the mind in the reading of the Scriptures;
which renders it impossible for them to discern their
most delicate beauties-or to appreciate their most
precious lessons. This veil it is the province of the
Holy Spirit to take away; and exhibit the word of
God in its unsearchable riches of truth and wisdom,
of grace and glory.
The Bible comes to us originally from  God;
mediately by man.  There are accordingly two
ways of looking at it. The one is to confine our
regards to the human instruments, through whose
agency it was given to us. This is the method of
the rationalist.  The other is to contemplate it as
essentially a revelation from God and of God; inspired by his Spirit, and instinct with his presence.
This is the method of the enlightened believer.  We
may therefore read it grammatically, critically,
coldly, intellectually; weighing carefully every senterre and word and syllable and punctuation-point,
just as we should read any mere human production.
Or we may take it up with the vital interest, with
the sacred awe, with the implicit faith, with the
humble docility, and with the fervent prayer for the
promised teaching of the Holy Ghost, which befit
the word of the only wise God, our Father, in the
hands of his lowly children. The way to read it to
good purpose, is to make every passage our own,
by a diligent self-application, whether it be a command, a prohibition, a precept, a promise, or a




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   21
prayer.  So studied, its glorious divinity shines out,
as sun-light from  the parted cloud; its ineffable
sweetness streams out, as the juice from the full
and fragrant clusters of the grape; its sovereign
majesty is felt, its heavenly grace is tasted, its
matchless and mysterious power to subdue, to sanctify, and to cheer the soul, is infallibly evinced.
The soul of the believer instinctively moves towaid
God; strives after communion with him in his word
and ordinances, as the flower struggles toward the
light.  IIe now feels that one hour's fellowship with
the Father, through the gracious mediation of his
dear Son, is worth a whole lifetime of sensual bliss;
and he anticipates with irrepressible ardour and delight,, the spiritual joys of heaven.
The more the Christian reads the Scriptures, and
ponders the Scriptures, and prays over the Scriptures,
the better will he understand, the more will he revere and love them.   Approaching the recorded
revelations of God, in this frame of mind, they have
for us an indescribable elevation and a peculiar
charm.  Studied in the spirit in which they were
given under His power who indited them-read in
the pure light of heaven under which they were
written; their superhuman glory will be intuitively,
unmistakably, and profoundly apprehended.  Thus
contemplated, the vast and simple grandeur of Bible
revelations, on a general and comprehensive survey,
cannot but strike the mind.  There is a majestic
harmony in all the proportions of Christian truth;




2           TIlE T'TUE PATH, OR TIHE
in all the propositions of the Christian theology. As
St. Peter's at Rome is said to impress the eye of
the beholder with its finished symmetry and proportioned beauty; as the glorious dome of the firmament gives a still higher impression of unity and
greatness, so likewise the Bible.  There is not a
logical merely, but a theological and transcendental
relation among the several parts of this spiritual
temple of God;-a relation among its several doctrines higher than any formal logic of man's discovery or device; deeper than any analogies or processes of nature; of vast but still measured correspondence between the various but never conflicting
truths of divine revelation; the absolute sovereignty
of God and the free agency of man; the doctrine
of divine election and the doctrine of human responsibility. These several truths elude our grasp and
rise above our comprehension, by reason not of their
obscurity but of their sublimity. The method of
conciliation is unknown to us, not from any want
of congruity in them, but from the limited range of
our reason.  The darkness is all our own, in God is
light and in him  is no darkness at all.  When
we come into the world of Scripture we come into a
world of wonders. There is the immensity, the variety, the magnificence of nature. Every thing is on a
stupendous scale; the holiness and love, the wrath
and the mercy of God. Those doctrines of divine revelation which are most offensive to the pride of human
reason, and to the corruption of the human heart,




YOIN01'( MAN INVITED TO TTIlEE  AVIOT)R "  *T
rest upon precisely the same testrilony,  with those
which are most gladly received; as, for instance,
the eternal punishment of the wicked in a fiuture
state of existence, and the everlasting blessedness
of the righteous.  Matt. xxv. 46.  All the truths
of divine revelation relating directly to God and to
the destiny of the human soul, have an immeasurable significance and grandeur.   When we think
therefore, of the catastrophe impending over the
impenitent sinner, let us not lose sight of the associated truths-the inconceivable height of heavenly
glory to which the believer is advanced; the ample
provision made for our salvation in the redemption by
Christ Jesus; the transcendent wisdom and excellence of the law violated; the infinite elevation of
the Being affronted; the unutterable majesty and
merit of the Son of God who died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
In its lowest function, as a means of intellectual
culture, as a gymnastic of the mind, indispensable
to its fullest and finest development, the Bible is
worthy of all study and of all praise. Some classes
of books are positively pernicious to some classes
of minds; as poetry and fiction to excessively ardent and imaginative persons; extreme addiction
to mathematical studies to those whose mental tendencies are just the reverse-men of dry and sapless
minds;* but prescribed by Lord Bacon as a medicine
*Sir Wiliam Hamilton's Discussions. English edition,
p. 258, &c.




24            THE T'!- T'r  PAt".'!LT OR T[F'V
for such as mav ny 1    afl    d   ih ct<ed   ih  "   with " naanlermi
wit,'' or, as'leo es-ewl.-r''  expres'ses it, are " birdwitted."   The Bible, however, is a perennial fountain  of  health, a.nd healing whatever may be the
morbific tendencies of the mind.  There can be no
perfect system  of education even for the mind, from
which the Bible is excluded. This might be demonstrated, not only from  the greatness of the ideas it
etolves and  discloses; from  the  purity, variety,
vigour, and sublimity, of its style; hut from  the
moral elevation of its distinctive and reigning spirit.
There must be a proper adjustment-an interior
harmony between the intellectual and moral forces,
to  develope  the highest vigour of either; and a
right state of the affections is indispensable, if not
to perfect sanity of mind, to its utmost strength and
keenest sagacity. The Rabbins say that the manna
whlich fell in the wilderness, was divinely adapted
to every man's taste.  So the word of God-the
bread of heaven, is divinely adapted to every man's
intellectual habit.  See what innumerable speculations in moral truth, of the utmost variety, beauty,
sublimity, and value, filling  numberless folios, in
many tongues, have all been  legitimately  drawn
from  the sacred Scriptures; pure, fertilizing, lifegiving streams, branching out from  these inexhaustible fountains; as the river, which went out from
Eden, was divided into four heads.  G-en. ii. 10.
To see a man, who is not professionally bound to
study the Scri'ptures, familiar with the several parts of




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIIE SAVIOUR.  25
the Bible; not only its doctrines and precepts, but its
histories and prophecies, and the exact circumstances
of tleir acconmplishment-is a rare thing.  For this
there is no excuse whatever, in an educated Protestant
community, where the people at large are not forbidden to study the Scriptures.  There are many
books-and even popular books, which we should
blush to have read.  But there is one book, which
every man who can read should blush not to know
familiarly, and in every part of its diversified revelations.  That book is the Bible.  The deep and
diligent study of every portion of God's word-for
it is all more precious than the gold of Ophir, and
even the very dust of the stones of this temple of
God glitters with heavenly radiance-would be followed by a visible and vast improvement, not only
in purely spiritual knowledge, but of the natural
powers.  Every other study is comparatively contracted in its tendency and scope.  This alone can
impart to the various faculties, a complete and
catholic education.   Those who  imbibe  secular
knowledge only, are like those who fed from  the
tables of the king of Babylon.  There is nothing
sacred in their aliment, and nothing striking in their
aspect.  But those who feed upon what some may
choose to regard as the pulse and water of the word
of God-will be found in the end, like the three
children, "fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat."
Daniel i. 8-16.
3




26          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
We speak habitually of the moral and intellectual
faculties; and the distinction is not only common
but convenient.  Still we should never lose sight of
the fact that the soul is an indivisible unit, and that
these various exercises are but different manifestations of the one indwelling spirit. It has often been
remarked, that the Bible does not recognize that
wide distinction between them, which obtains in our
prevailing systems of philosophy, and in common
parlance. Hence we frequently read of the thoughts
of the heart and the desires of the mind; men are
said to understand with the heart, and the heart is
said to be enlightened with knowledge.  On the
other hand, they are spoken of as serving the Lord
with all humility of mind, and receiving the word
with all readiness of mind.  Matt. xiii. 15; Rom.
x. 10; 2 Cor. iv. 6; Acts xvii. 11; xx. 19.  See
Hodge on Romans, i. 21. So intimate indeed is the
connection between the apprehensions of the mind,
alnd the corresponding moral emotions-especially
in regard to the most sublime and sacred truthsthat it is often exceedingly difficult to draw the line
between them.  There is a wisdom, which may be
called the wisdom of the heart.  A  tender heart
and benevolent temper will sometimes not only surpass the wisdom of years, but anticipate the discoveries of ages.  Thus, at the early age of fourteen,
Edward the Sixth acknowledged principles of toleration, which Archbishop Cranmer, the counsellor
of kings, could -not lundirlvstalnd, and which are far




YOUNG MAN INVITEI) TO TILE SAVIOUt.   27
from being universally embraced, even at the present day.  How did this English Josiah come to
understand more than all his teachers?  Simply,
because his soul tutored his understanding, and this
serene and comprehensive wisdom was the appropriate result.
The preceptive portions of the word of God requiring us to fulfil all righteousness, forbidding
every transgression, and disobedience, are an argument of the goodness, scarcely less than of the
holiness of God. Is it not a plain proof of goodness,
that all his commands should be of such a nature,
that obedience exalts us to glory, honour, and
virtue; that he should enjoin nothing which it is
not for our well-being to do; that he should forbid
nothing which it is not for our well-being to forbear
or to forego?  And what is remarkable is that
obedience should exalt us just in proportion as it is
perfect and willing; and what is still more remarkable is that there should be nothing painful in it,
provided it be voluntary, nothing servile or degrading in obedience, provided it be rendered to just
authority.  We can indeed conceive of no higher
freedom than to have the soul subject to conscience,
and conscience subject to God.
Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
When love is an unerring light,
And joy its own security.
God himself-who is in the highest sense free and




28           TIE TRUE PATH, 01i THIE
the fountain of freedom to all his creatures-is yet
obedient to the law of his own most excellent nature,
in the exercise of that very freedom  and in virtue
of that very excellence.  1 Tim. ii. 13.
Examine the Bible, in any light and from  any
point of view, and it is infinitely remarkable as
containing the earliest and only authentic history
of our race; in the peerless majesty of its utterances
concerning God; in its incomparable power over the
human heart and conscience; in its unapproachable
influence on the character of nations and races, and
on the whole course of this world's history.  Is it
not remarkable that the Scriptures, written many of
them in the infancy of our race, should not have
been superseded by something later and better;
that all the wit of man cannot go beyond them, as
a scheme of salvation, or even as a book of moral
duty and practical wisdom? Is it not still more remarkable that such a book should have emanated
from such a people, from the Jews; and that nothing to compare with it should be found among the
Greeks, or elsewhere; and that nothing to compare
with it should be found among the uninspired books
of the Jews themselves; that it should stand alone
and aloft, in the firmament of letters, like the star
which the wise men saw over the place where the
Christ should be born?  This is one of the many
circumstances, which mlark the Scriptures of the
Old Testament, not less than the New, as unique
and unparalleled in the intellectual history of man



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   29
kind.  It is only one of the manifold difficulties of
infidelity-a thousand fold more insuperable than
any of the difficulties of Scripture; and it is one
which infidels never will be able to remove with all
their art and industry, so long as history, sacred
and profane, shall survive.  It is only one of the
many infallible proofs of the divine origin and authority of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.
Is it not indeed a singular phenomenon? and is there
not a wonderful assemblage of singular phenomena
about the Christian system, both in its substance
and history, as there was about the life and death
of Christ himself, in whom the whole system centres,
around whom it all revolves?
The Bible is demonstrably different from what it
would have been; is, in many parts of its structure,
in many of its doctrines, in much of its spirit,
entirely the opposite of what it must have been, if
it had been concocted by shrewd and sagacious
men.  Many of its details touching Jewish history
and other things seem  to us needless, especially
when repeated with no remarkable or essential
variation; while its notices on many other occasions, and on many other topics, which seem to us
much more important and attractive, are extremely
scanty, if any at all. What better evidence could
we have that " the prophecy came not in old time by
the will of man, but that holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost;" since we find
just such difficulties in nature and providence; and
3*




830          THIlE TRUE TPATH, OI THE
God himself has told us that his thoughts are not
as our thoughts, nor his ways as our ways? 2 Pet.
i. 21.  Isa. lv. 8.  When with this consideration
we connect the remote and apparently antagonistic
fact of the complete correspondence and harmony
running through the Bible histories, such as no
human foresight or forethought could have contrived; the miracle of the gift of tongues, for example, prefiguring the ingrafting of the Gentiles, as
the miraculous confusion of tongues had prefigured
their excision, the proof of the superhuman character
of these records becomes altogether irresistible.
Acts ii. 1-13.  Gen xi. 1-9.
It is not uncommon for modern infidels to speak
of the Christian religion as obsolete; not coincident with their scientific conclusions, and not equal to
their schemes of philanthropy.  As an illustration,
we may refer to one of the latest and most arrogant
forms of atheistic unbelief, that known as the Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte, which affirms
that mankind in their normal development pass
through three successive stages, 1st. the Theological;
2d. the Metaphysical; 3d. the Scientific.  When
therefore they become Scientific, they must of necessity cease to be Christian.  To all this we may
reply:
In the first place, that the Bible does not purport
to be a revelation of scientific, but of spiritual truth;
that the glorious gospel of the blessed God is the
gospel of our salvation; that science belongs pro



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   31
perly to the domain of reason; that a religious
revelation is addressed primarily to the moral sense,
and has to do with moral truth and with moral
duty.
In the second place, that it is not a little remarkable that no scientific error ever should have been
positively fastened upon it, alluding as it does to
every department of nature animate and inanimate;
rehearsing the creation of the world; repeatedly
recounting the wonders of the universe; and touching, in prophecy or history, or both, on every
important dynasty and nation which has  ever
existed.
In the third place, that those who have expended
all their eloquence, learning, and wit, in the endeavour to discredit and destroy it, as Volney and
Gibbon, have done it involuntary service; rendered
unconscious tribute to its truth, and accumulated
unwilling testimony to its divinity; that Christianity is true, and therefore immortal; that it has
been assailed in turn by Judaism  and Paganism;
by Herod and by Julian; by secret stratagem and
by open force; from within and from without; by
persecution, heresy, and schism; by the treachery
of false brethren and by the violence of professed
enemies; and that it yet survives, not in decrepitude and decline, but in unwasting vigour and invincible might; that let a man of science, like Kepler,
or Laplace, or Lavoisier, simply pursue his scientific investigations, question nature in Bacon's




32          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
noble phrase, without once thinking of the Bible, and
it will be amazing to remark the strict correspondence
between his most mature conclusions and the Bible
testimonies in regard to the same subjects.  The
recent testimony of our distinguished countryman,
Lieutenant Maury, on this point, is of the highest
value; coinciding, as it does with the recorded sentiments of Sir Humphrey Davy, Sir Isaac Newton,
and Lord Bacon; not one of whom was the less
religious because scientific. Bacon's works generally, in all of which not a sentence or sentiment will be found in disparagement of the Christi in
religion, and especially his essay on Atheism, should
be deeply pondered by every educated young mntl.
who may be in danger from  the significant silence
of Humboldt, or the recorded blasphemies of Conite.
"The Sciences," says Cousin, "so far from  turning us away from religion, conduct us to it. Physics
with their laws, mathematics with their sublime
ideas, especially philosophy which cannot take a
single  step without encountering universal and
necessary principles, are so many stages on the way
to Deity, and thus to speak, so many temples, in
which homage is perpetually paid to Him." *
In the fourth place, that in experience, the Bible
is found to carry with it all other blessings, whether
to an individual or to a community; for this world,
as well as the world to come; that while it primarily contemplates the soul and the spiritual inter*Lectures on the True, Beautiful, and Good, p. 99.




YOUNG.XMAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   33
ests of men; the forgiveness of sin; peace of conscience; hope toward God; support in trouble, in
sickness, and in death; together with an inheritance
beyond the grave, incorruptible, undefiled, and that
fadeth not away; it incidentally, but invariably and
inevitably, carries other blessings in its train.  To
an individual, it not only brings peace of conscience
-a never-failing spring of the sweetest enjoymentbut ordinarily the public respect and confidence;
and that too, just in proportion, as the real nature
of this religion is understood, and to the purity and
fulness, with which the individual is believed to have
embraced it.  To a community, it brings all public
and social blessings.  In the exact proportion in
which it prevails, industry, honesty, thrift, chastity,
temperance, mutual good-will, intellectual improvement, equal laws, social elevation, civil and religious
liberty prevail.  1 Tim. iv. 10.  Its influence in
improving the condition of society; preserving peace
among the nations; softening national prejudices;
affirming the unity of the race, and teaching the
brotherhood of the nations; giving rise to wholesome laws, and disposing men to desire and observe
them; promoting benevolent institutions, for the
relief of the wretched and the helpless-almshouses, hospitals, asylums for the blind, the deaf,
the dumb, and the insane; the consecration of
philosophical discoveries and scientific inventions to
merciful uses; all these are to be taken into the
account.  Mankind have been much more happy




34          THE TRUE PATH, OR TIlE
since the advent of our Saviour, and Christian nations have been incomparably more happy and
more elevated in mind and morals, than other nations. Unfaithful, as many nominal Christians are,
real Christians are still, as they have ever been, as
they must ever be, the salt of the earth and the
light of the world. For the soul of the true believer
is a divine palimpsest, from which the base characters of sin have been at least partially erased, to
make room for the beautiful inscriptions of holiness.
In the fifth place, the fundamental lessons of
Nature, as well as of Scripture, presuppose and
demand no acquaintance whatever with the abstruser
parts of science.  Nature and Scripture were both
designed for the instruction and delight, not of a
select circle, but of all mankind; and the wisdom
of the common Author of both is conspicuous in this
common characteristic.  The peasant, not less than
the philosopher, can admire the wisdom of God in
the grand though familiar forms and arrangements
of nature; in the wonderful instinct of bees and
birds and beasts. In early days, not less than now,
in primitive and simple, not less than in later and
scientific times, the undimmed glories of majestic
nature, of night, of the ocean, and of the mountain,
the sounding cataract and the sunny slope, spoke
in audible accents and intelligible voice, to the heart
of man. David, Isaiah, and Homer felt as deeply the
magnificence and the beauty of these objects as
Milton, Chalmers or Brewster.  So the prime and




YOTUNG MAN INVITED TO TITE SAVIOITR.   85
obvious revelations of the word of God; the great
truths of Catholic Christianitv, which stand out
from the general level of inspired Scripture, as the
stars and the mountains from the landscape of nature; in their simple grandeur, may strike the
mind of the pious cottager, with as deep a sense of
awe and as delicious a sense of beauty, as that with
which they fill the admiring soul of the learned
philosopher or Rabbi. The just, the final and the
only conclusion is, that there is no real conflict between Scripture and Science-the word and the
works of God-and that any apparent discrepancy
arises from our misconception of the true teachings
of one or of both.




36           THE TRUE PATH, OK THE
LECTURE II.
DIVINE  REVELATION  SPECIALLY  SUITED  TO THE
NATURE AND NEEDS OF THE SOUL.
FROM this general and distant view of the subject,
let us pass on to the consideration of particular
truths.  This is indeed like fixing the eye distinctly, for a while, on "one bright particular star,"
after it has been wearied by gazing on the general
glories of the midnight sky.
By way of simple and easy illustration, let us
take the first doctrine of all religion, natural and
revealed-the being of a God-more precisely the
Bible idea of God, in all his infinite perfections as
revealed to Moses:" The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and slow to anger, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that
will by no means clear the guilty." Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7.
Now just conceive of a, man cut off from all knowledge or hearing of God altogether; into whose
mind the sublime conception of God had never




YOUNG MAN INVITED T0 TilE SAVIO't.   3i
entered, s(uddenly lavinr a full  revelatioin of this
all-glorious Being and of all his adorable perefections.
It would be like the wide shining of the mid-day
sun, rising on the' noon of night; at once bursting
forth in his meridian splendour from the deep bosom
of all-surrounding darkness.
In the second book of his very remarkable treatise
"Concerning the Nature of the Gods," Cicero has
preserved to us a singularly interesting extract from
a lost work of Aristotle.  "If there were beings,
who had always lived underground, in convenient,
nay magnificent dwellings, adorned with  statues
and pictures, and every thing that belongs to prosperous life, but who had never come above ground;
who had heard however, by fame and report, of the
being and power of the gods; if at a certain time
the portals of the earth being thrown open, they
had been able to emerge from those hidden abodes
to the regions inhabited by us; when suddenly they
had seen the earth, the seas, and the sky; had perceived the vastness of the clouds and the force of
the winds; had contemplated the sun, his magnitude
and beauty, and still more his effectual power, that
it is he who makes the day by the diffusion of his
light through the whole sky; and when night had
darkened the earth, should then behold the whole
heavens, studded and adorned with stars, and the
various lights of the waxing and waning moon, the
rising and the setting of all these heavenly bodies;
and their courses fixed and immutable in all eternity;
4




38         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
when, I say, they should see these things, truly they
would believe that there are gods, and that these so
great things are their works.*   Not only does it
illuminate and exalt, but it mightily fortifies and
draws the mind to conceive of God, not a mere
presence like the air, not a mere general name for
the unknown forces of nature; but a perfect and
personal being, in conscious existence before the
mountains were brought forth, and destined to exist
after the dissolution of the universe; full of majesty
and grace, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises,
doing wonders, and yet not far from any one of us;
in whom we live and move and have our being, our
Father in Heaven!
This grand conception, this fundamental truth,
this primary fact is not formally propounded in
divine revelation, but everywhere  assumed  and
proceeded upon.  Gen. i. 1.  And so the wonders
rise as we ascend, step by step, the mystic ladder
of inspired Scripture, Gen. xxviii. 12, one end resting on the earth, the other reaching to the skies;
as we scrutinize the several doctrines of this matchless volume in their isolated grandeur or in their
combined and reflected glory.  One God the Father
of all, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable; the Father
of lights; the Father of mercies; the God of glory;
* The translation is by our American Cicero, Edward
Everett. Appropriate reference is made to this passage
of Aristotle in a beautiful essay of Addison. Spectator.
No. 465.




YOUNG MANl  IV\'ITED TO T'lE SAVIOUR.   39
One Lord Jesus Christ; the Only Begotten of the
Father; full of grace and truth; his co-equal and
co-eternal Son; in the ineffable majesty of his person; in the unspotted beauty of his life; in the
greatness, the multitude, and gracious character of
his miracles; in the divine Majesty, the unfathomable
depth, and the inexhaustible power of his spoken
words; ordrds which are this day spirit and life, to
us as truly and as largely as to them that heard
him; in his life of holy obedience and in his death
of gracious expiation, equally marvellous and alike
unparalleled.  One blessed and eternal Spirit, proceeding from  the Father and the Son; who, with
life-giving energy, moved upon the face of the waters;
who garnished the heavens and formed the crooked
serpent; the Source of all created light and life and
love; in the unsearchable wisdom and greatness of
his operations; in his power to make alive the
soul dead in trespasses and sins, to subdue its iniquities, to expel its corruptions, and to create it
anew in the glorious image of God.  This one God,
in three persons, the same in substance, equal in
power and glory, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier,
revealed as the proper and only object of religious
worship; as the proper and all-sufficient portion of
the creature, his heritage and joy for ever; the incarnation, the atonement, and the intercession of
the Lord Jesus Christ; his power and glory as
Mediator; the gracious office of the Holy Ghost, as




40           THE TRUE PATIH, OR TlE
Sanctifier, Comforter, and Guide, his cle-ansing efficacy, his vital ray, his healing unction.
Not less wonderful is this revelation in what it discloses concerning the origin, history, and destiny of
man, than in what it makes known in regard to the being, the nature, the will, and the works of God; in the
doctrine which it delivers, of an immortal, undivicled,
complete existence of man in body and soul after
death; in a body raised and renovated, but still
ours and recognized as ours; in a soul not as now
contracted and impure, but expanded and immnaculate, still ours, and rejoiced in as truly and consciously our own; in its recognition of our poor
fallen human nature, just as it is in all its degradation, helplessness, and woe; in its taking up the
puzzling problem of man's estate of sin and misery,
and furnishing a satisfying solution and the only
solution of it; in its revelation of a remedy for all
our diseases and a balm for all our wounds!
The wonders which God exhibits to our contemplation in the world of nature, would seem more
amazing, were our perceptive faculties enlarged and
sharpened.  In certain cases, the chief inconveniences, arising from the imperfection of our bodily
organs, have been at least partially remedied by
mechanical instruments.
The microscope and the telescope have in turn
revealed to us treasures of heavenly wisdom, invisible to the naked eye; of a wisdom which is alike
able to crowd with wonders a single drop of water,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  41
and the boundless expanse of the starry skies.  So
in regard to the infinite realities, revealed to our
faith in the Scriptures. They can never be comprehended.  They can never be numbered.  They can
never be measured.  But they are not therefore to
be overlooked; only to be all the more diligently
pondered, and all the more highly prized.
It may be that the more thoughtful of us, in early
youth, dreaded lest increase of years and of wisdom should dispel the majesty, which invested the
objects of revelation to our immature minds. This
feeling is not only natural to a thoughtful mind,
imbued with the gentle sympathies, and the tender
sentiments of natural piety, awake to the magnificence of the outer world, of sky, and plain, and
river, bathed in the splendours of the rising or the
setting sun; and alive to the still purer glories, the
more tender light, the more perfect loveliness that
beams upon us, from the face of heavenly truthinspired Scripture-but true in regard to every
other religion known to history except that revealed
in the Bible. No other can be consistently maintained,
or adhered to in consistency with the progress of
scientific intelligence. We know that the religious
systems of India at the present day are so vitally bound
together with demonstrable errors in various departments of natural science, that the only alternative
with an educated native is infidelity or Christianity.
Nor is this by any means a new or a rare phenomenon.  Neander tells us that'the popular reli4 *




42         THE TIlUE PATH, OR THE
gions of antiquity answered only for a certain stage
of culture.  When the nations in the course of their
progress had passed beyond this, the necessary consequence was a dissevering of the spirit from the
religious traditions.  In the case of the more quiet
and equable development of the Oriental mind, so
tenacious of the old, the opposition between the
mythic religion of the people, and the secret theosophic doctrines of a priestly caste who gave direction
to the popular conscience, might exist for centuries
without change.  But among the more excitable
nations of the West, intellectual culture, so soon as
it attained to a certain degree of independence, must
fall into collision with the mythic religion handed
down fiom the infancy of the people.
In our callow youth we have perhaps wondered
how the revelations of Scripture, so glorious and so
dear to us, appeared to grown men, and feared lest
" Years that bring the philosophic mind,"
might enable us to overmaster them, to see through
them, to rise above them; and there has been something of surprise mingled with our delight to find that
the only effect of the exercise of our improved faculties on these sublime subjects, has been kindred to
the revelations of the microscope and the telescope in
regard to the miracles of nature.  Together with
the enlargement of our spiritual vision, has there
been a corresponding increas" in the apparent
magnitude of spiritual objects.  The oldest and the




YOUNG MAN INVIT E'')   T [IIE SAVIrOR.   43
most intelligent Christian, Sir Isaac Newton or
Chalmers or Edwards, is as far from a complete
mastery of the grand truths which relate to the
being, the perfections, and the works of God, in the
two distinct departments of nature and grace, as a
little child.
In their infinite elevation, in their unfathomable
significance, in their manifold relations, and in their
abiding results, the truths of divine revelation
transcend not only the human understanding but
the ken of an angel.  1 Pet. i..12; Eph. iii. 10, 19;
Rev. iv. 8-11. As our impressions of the pomp and
prodigality of nature, everywhere teeming with life
and with prolific powers, are heightened by the revelations of the microscope and by the illuminated page
of the firmament, written over within and without
in the glorious handwriting of God; so the more
improved our spiritual faculties, the more extended
our spiritual knowledge, the more august will be our
conceptions, the more exalted our impressions of
revealed truth.  The stronger and the more exercised our spiritual faculties, the more marvellous
and splendid our spiritual discoveries.  But the last
and highest discovery of all, will be that this is verily
a love that passeth knowledge, that ours is verily a
God that hideth himself though it be in a pavilion of
light, that we cannot find out the Almighty to perfection, and we shall finally exclaim with Paul, when we
have reached the highest point in our future advancement, "Oh! the depth of the riches both of




44           TIIE TRUE PATH, OR THE
the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable
are his judgments and his ways past finding out!"
Rom. xi. 33.
The conscious wretchedness of man in his fallen
state is a truth attested by all the feelings of the
heart, expressed under all the forms of speech,
acknowledged by every system  of philosophy, assumed in every scheme of religion; lamented in the
poetry, recorded in the history of every nation; the
universal sentiment because the universal experience
of the race. The noblest work of God even in his
ruin, man still bears the mark of his primitive and
princely glory.  His physical organization, his
intellectual faculties, his social affections, his moral
powers, his indestructible sense of religion, found
wherever he is found, evinced amidst ignorance and
vice, blindness, and barbarism, prompt him always and
everywhere to seek after God. Bound to the earth
by fetters of corruption, but still lifting an eye of
devotion and hope to heaven, the victim of sin and
the born thrall of Satan, he still in conscience recognizes the just authority of God.  And though
the currents of this his nature are now all turned
awry, its sweet harmonies disturbed and jarred, its
integrity lost, its powers enfeebled, its heavenly peace
fled, its once unspotted purity defiled, yet does the
soul of man, by its conscious craving and continual
cry, show that he was meant to be the minister, that
it was meant to be the temple of God. The mind
of man has many mansions, imagination, taste,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   45
sentiment, a capacity of perceiving and enjoying
various species of truths poetical, mathematical,
moral, and divine. This we feel when we gaze on
~ the universal book of knowledge fair," the face
of nature, the bright sky, and the fruitful earth.
But these mansions of the mind are either tenantless
of the noblest truths which should dwell in thenm, or
they are occupied by hideous monsters, depraved
affections, and loathsome errors.
The affinity of the soul for universal truth, environed as it is by mysteries in every object and by
ignorance in every science, and most of all in theology, the vast disproportion between its present
powers and desires, its aspirations and attainments,
are an unfailing source of inward fretting and disquiet, of resentful humiliation not of sweet humility,
of secret corroding bitterness, of an ulcerous and
ungovernable discontent.  There is now  a schism
in the soul itself which man can neither disguise nor
heal, deep discord among its faculties and forces;
a dissatisfaction which he would allay, a disorder
which he would remove but cannot I
Now there is a striking congruity between the
human soul, with its vast capacities of knowledge
and enjoyment; with its incessant yearnings after
what is great, what is true, and what is good, and
the Christian religion, in its revelation of infinite
greatness, of absolute truth, and of the supreme
good-an admirable correspondence, as of the echo
to the sound; a visible adaptation, as of the respira



46          T1lE TRUE PATH, 01t THE
tory organs to the vital air; as of the form of the
key to the wards of the lock; as the soil to the seed;
the ear to  music, the eye to beauty, and the
heart to love. The revelation of God, with all its
truths and sanctions, consolations and gifts, is addressed to the soul of man. The soul of man, with
all its instincts, capacities, desires, and needs, responds to the revelation of God.
It requires no elaborate analysis of the faculties
of the soul to evince this spiritual correspondenceno partial appeal to select circles-to limited classes
-to individuals highly cultivated and rarely endowed.  All that we have to do, is simply to go
forth and make known the gospel call to the religious consciousness of mankind at large; to address
the common reason-the general conscience burdened, polluted, enthralled, trembling; to speak to
the throbbing heart of the mixed multitude; to
knock at the door of ordinary, lowly, human affection.  Then present the grand scheme brought to
light in the Gospel-Christ the power of God and
the wisdom  of God to every one that believeth.
Only sound out the superhuman revelations of THE
BOOK —that system of Scriptural doctrine of which
Christ and he crucified is the Alpha and Omega.
Only go to man, high or low, savage or civilized,
let the powers, the passions, and the aspirations of
this, our common human nature, be deeply stirred; let
them heave like the billowy sea-the quaking earth
-the volcanic mountain.  Then bring the grand




YOUN(i MAN INVITED TO TILE SAVIOUR.   47
and soothing, the awful and gracious truths of Christ
before the mind-softer than the melody of the
whispering wind, as it creeps from flower to flower;
more beautiful than the light that dwells in the daystar, will be the voice of God, uttered in the wordwill be the grace of God, echoed in the heart.
A  keen sense of literary beauty, even in the
Bible, is not piety.  A  man may enjoy the Bible,
or the eloquent exposition of the Bible, with the
greatest zest, and yet not have a single spark of
love to God or faith in Christ.  There is in the
Bible, a moral force entirely independent of rhetorical beauty-a penetrating power-a voice of command, which springs from its divinity, and seals it
and proves it.  The exceeding preciousness of the
Bible, to the poor and miserable, the down-cast
and the down-trodden, can hardly be understood or
conceived of, by the prosperous and the gay, the
worldly minded and the proud hearted. What could
Dives, clothed in purple and faring sumptuously
every day, know of the soul of Lazarus, feeding on
the heavenly promises, while in want of what is
needful for the body; and soon to be borne by angels from the rich man's gate to Abraham's bosom?
We naturally cling to the earth, and it requires for
the most part, a forcible blow to detach us from it.
The sons and daughters of affliction need the sunlight, that beams from  the loving face of the Man
of Sorrows, the Friend and Saviour of sinners.
They need his sweet sympathy.  Disappointed and




48           THE TRUIE PATH, olt THE
unhappy here, they look to heaven.  Forslaken (of
man, they take refuge in God.  Weary and heavy
laden, they turn to him, who gives rest to the soul.
Such are truly blessed; led by trouble to rest; by
want of friends, to "an innumerable company" of
saints and angels; by human desertion, to the companionship of the Lord of glory; by poverty on
earth, to durable riches in heaven; by shame, and
sorrow, and death, to honour, and joy, and life
everlasting.
The trifling, the self satisfied, the shallow minded,
the grossly sensual, the deeply deluded, may heed
not, may feel not, this spiritual accordance of the
revelations of God and the needs of the soul; for
they have not the depth of conviction on any subject;  the seriousness, the heart knowledge, to
hearken to the word of God in the Bible, or to listen to the voice of God uttering his oracles from the
Shekinah of conscience.  In the great events of
life, when the strongest passions, such as fear, remorse, and grief, are stirred to their depths, nothing
but the Christian religion can soothe and still the
soul.   Books of amusement and gay exhibitions
may serve to occupy the vacant mind, and business
of importance may employ more serious hours. But
there are seasons, when both of these are felt to be
unsatisfying and impertinent; when grander aims
and graver cares than belong to this fleeting scene,
are felt and owned to be the proper portion of the
immortal spirit.




YOUNG MAN INAVTEDR TO TIlE SAVIOUTR.   49
The largest rivers empty into tie sea'  so the
deepest feelings terminalte in religion, or tend towatrd it. In the wonder working providence of God,
men are often led to lasting happiness by transient
troubles-the loss of property, friends, or children;
and this is the use which the wise will always strive
to make of the adverse dispensations of heaven;
adopting the prayer of Moses:  "So teach us to
number our days that we may apply our hearts unto
wisdom." Deep as is the heart of man, the Christian
religion is still deeper.  It may have little attraction for the gay, the superficial, the light minded;
but the old, the disappointed, the wretched, the
sadly and the truly wise-who have tested and
sounded human life, and have been taught by bitter
experience to sigh for a better portion-taught by
heavenly grace, turn with irrepressible eagerness to
the consolatory and sublime hope of immortality.
There is not a promise of the word of God, which
has not inspired the heart of many an afflicted saint
with unspeakable comfort.  How often has a single
text of Scripture, made the object of an appropriating faith, darted  an instant sunshine  into  the
darkened heart!  As hunger naturally disposes us
to seek food, as thirst to crave drink, as weariness
to long for rest; so a wise sorrow, a sadness of the
heart, sanctified and blessed, prepares us to desire
the bread of heaven, causes us to cry for that
living water of which if a man drink he shall never
thirst.  There is a constant intercourse by faith
5




50          TIET Titi l  PAT)H, 2til THE
and prayer, between heaven and earth; as the rain
comes down from  heaven and returns again in
vapour; so grace comes down into the heart and
returns in the fragrant breath of prayer and praise.
No one need ever fear that he will exhaust the
Christian religion; that he will get to the bottom
of it, that he will find it old and impotent, effete and
barren.  It is a perpetual novelty, not indeed in
the substance of its revelations, but in our personal
apprehension and experience of them.  On every
occasion of life, which shakes and startles us, and
discovers, as by a flash of lightning, the mysteries
of our moral being, and exhibits to our own eyes'the
unsuspected depths of our own nature, shows us our
mortal weakness and our immortal strength, then
will the authentic revelation of Him, who was the
Son of God, and the Man of Sorrows, of him who
at one moment wept by the grave of Lazarus, and
the next moment said unto him, "Lazarus, come
forth!" then will this revelation appear to us in a
light new and fresh and wonderful, in aspect beautiful and benign, sublime in its dimensions, expanding on every side beyond the most enlarged capacities of the soul, an inscrutable, an eternal, an infinite reality; recognized by the clear spirit, as true
when most it needs, discerns, and delights in the
truth.
The grandeur of the Christian revelation may
be inferred from the fact, not only that it has seemed
grandest to the purest and most exalted of our




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIlE SAVIOUR.   51
race, but that it seems grandest even to them, when
the mind is in its purest and loftiest mood, when it
rises above its ordinary level-when, conscious of
its own inherent, spiritual dignity, it looks up in
filial worship to the Father of Spirits, whose eternal Son hath taken to himself our nature.  In the
material universe, we see the glory of God consi(lered absolutely-his eternal power and Godhead.
In scripture, we see his glory as it is in the face of
Jesus Christ.  His grace as a Saviour sheds a sweet
and tender light over every other attribute.  This
is indeed " the mystery of godliness-God manifest
in the flesh; justified in the spirit; seen of angels;
preached unto the Gentiles; believed on in the
world; received up into glory.  1 Tim. iii. 16.
The Christian religion is myriad-sided.  It may
be considered as an instrument of present and palpable good; as the cement and conservator of
human society.  It touches and connects the most
distant extremes.  It at once teaches man true
humility, by revealing the true God in his true glory;
and it lifts him to an inward and abiding elevation,
by conscious communion with the God whom  he
adores, like the rainbow that spans the sky and
seems to touch the earth, at once connecting and
beautifying both.  The Christian religion, in the
highest sense and in its purest exercise, is the
believing worship of God, revealed in Christ as reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them.  It is therefore the




52          TIlE TU''l  i'ATHi, OR THE
highest attainment of a redeemed creature; the
supreme blessedness of the adopted sons of God.
The love of God, shed abroad in the heart by the
Holy Ghost, is not only the most sublime but the
most delightful affection of which the human soul
is capable.  It is that water of life of which if a
man drink he shall never thirst. It is that wine, of
which the miraculous wine of Cana may be taken
as the symbol and the pledge, of all the gifts of
God, the flower and the crown.
There is hardly any experience of human life,
there is hardly any form of human sorrow, which
does not impart additional significance and sweetness
to the Christian Scriptures.  Many a man has read
the narratives of our Lord's miraculous cures, with
comparative indifference when in health; and when
worn by sickness, he has learned to peruse the same
passages with the deepest sympathy and delight.
But whatever our outward lot, no one can truly
understand the Scriptures without the internal unction of the Holy Ghost; no one can rightly enter
into the truths they contain without His spiritual
illumination and guidance. We cannot, for instance,
receive the doctrine of total depravity, without such
an apprehension of the evil of our own hearts as no
man can attain without the teaching of the Holy
Ghost; and he who has been the subject of that
gracious enlightening, feels that nothing that the
Scriptures affirm of the depravity of the heart is
too strong, because he knows something of the evil




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   53
of his own heart. Nor will any man ever learn to
estimate aright the preciousness of Christ, who has
not been taught of God, to hate the pollution of
sin, and strive after inward, absolute, universal
holiness.
The word of God is a well-ordered armoury, in
which we may find a weapon fitted and furbished, for
every occasion.  1 Tim. iii. 17.  Eph. v. 11-17.
In having the Scriptures, we are richer than we
know.  There may be truths in the Scriptures,
which we have not yet learned to understand, to
feel, to prize, simply because we have not yet been
placed in  circumstances to make us need their
power and taste their sweetness.  In passing over
the field of the word of God, and little heeding the
precious treasures imbedded in its hidden depths,
we are like the simple Aborigines of our own broad
land who roamed, careless and thoughtless, over
mines of golden ore.
The Bible is a firmament, in which new stars of
surpassing brilliancy are continually coming forth
to our view; and it may be that the light that dwells
in some-the unfulfilled prophecies-has not travelled to the earth, to the present time. Doubtless our
understanding of the manifold wisdom of God, revealed in his word, will be advancing through all
eternity, in due proportion to the expansion of our
faculties, and our personal experience of an exceeding and eternal weight of glory.  No other language than that of God himself can adequately set
5*




54          THE TRUE'ATHI, OR THE
forth the present experience of a child of God; his
sense of the sinfulness of sin, of what he owes to
the sovereign grace of God the Father; of what
Christ, his Saviour, is made unto him of God; his
habitual impression of the incomparable glories of
his Saviour's person, and the exceeding greatness
of the reward that there is even now m keeping his
commandments.
" Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that
when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we
shall see him as he is." 1 John iii. 2.




YOUN(G MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   55
LECTURE III.
TRANSCENDENT NATURE OF TIE DOCTRINES OF DIVINE
REVELATION.
THE transcendent nature of the Christian doctrines,
so far from being an objection, constitutes a peculiar
and a necessary proof of the divine origin of the
Christian revelation. The sphere of thought of a
man of genius is altogether inconceivable to an
ordinary mind; how much more the divine counsels
to the most exalted created intelligence I There
are accordingly things in the Bible, which previous
to experience we should not expect to find there;
and other things are not there which we should
naturally anticipate. This singular character of the
sacred record is conditioned in the first place on the
perfection of God, its Author; in the second, on the
ignorance, weakness, and guilt of man, to whom it
is addressed.  It is a supernatural revelation of the
infinite and all-perfect God, to fallen and finite man.
This we should remember when reading it, and therefore not be suprised at the presence of mysteries.
The Apostle Paul repeatedly affirms that the re



56          TlHE TRUE PATH, 1(,11 THE
velations of God are beyond the reach of human
philosophy; that the wit of man is wholly incompetent, not merely to discover, but to understand
them; that they can neither be anticipated nor received by the wisdom of men, and that we cannot
possibly attain to the saving knowledge of them
but by the unction of the IHoly One.  This is unquestionably true in regard to many of the facts
and doctrines which the Bible discloses. They are
such as men never would have suspected; such as
they never could have dared to look for in a revelation from  God; such as in fact they could not
possibly have affirmed beforehand to be there without the utmost impiety.  And this, not because there
is any fact or doctrine delivered in the Bible, unworthy of the holiness or the majesty of God, but
chiefly because of the transcendent grace, the
unsearchable wisdom, the ineffable condescension,
the far-reaching providence of God, seemingly and
for a season perplexed, tortuous, standing still, like
the pillar of cloud, but ever keeping the purposed
end in view, spreading over nations, comprehending
centuries; slowly unrolled  and  unravelled, but
never for a moment suspended or slumbering, never
lost sight of, never defeated; working out its secret
and its declared purposes, alike by enemies and
friends; at times swiftly and conspicuously; at times
obscurely and slowly; suffering long ages to intervene, and seeming slack concerning his promises;
then riding upon the wings of the wind, m'aking the




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   57
clouds his chariots, and causing a nation to be born
in a day.  What mortal could have anticipated the
first, the central truth of revealed religion, that of
God manifest in the flesh dying for our sins?  Or
having conceived of such an event, would have dared
to utter it in words?  Who would not have feared
that the lightnings of heaven, the hot thunderbolts
of God, would instantly blast him for giving utterance to such an amazing imagination?  How hard
do we find it now ourselves fully to believe this
capital article of our creed, with all its awful and
consoling consequences, and to make our fellow
men believe it, when it is not an unauthorized imagination of the thought of the heart, but a recognized doctrine of the Christian church; when it is
not cloudily unfolded or scantily witnessed or feebly
affirmed, but shone upon by a perfect flood of day,
the grand lesson, the governing idea, the paramount
truth of all the Evangelists and of all the Apostles
alike!
In the very difficulties of belief we find our answer
to the infidel and sceptic, in the very fact that the
most characteristic and the most obtrusive and unquestionable doctrines of the Bible are so hard to
be understood, are so apt to be wrested, are so often
and so obstinately and so bitterly rejected; on this
very ground do we build our argument, for the
divine origin and the binding authority of this revelation. For God's thoughts are not as our thoughts,
nor his ways as our ways.  If mere men —uninspired




58          THE TRUE PATI, OR THIE
men had made this book, it would have been more
like their work. It would have been more in harmony with their preconceptions.  It would have
been more congenial to their tastes. But being the
work of God, it is like God, in knowledge, wisdom,
holiness, goodness, and truth. It has the stamp and
seal of his supreme divinity on every page; it has
his sacred superscription, his uncreated image on
every doctrine.
From their heavenly import and origin, from their
superhuman nature, they never could be divined by
the wit of man.  Even a wise man's counsels are
beyond the ken of an idiot; a liberal man's spirit,
above the comprehension of a, churl.  How  far
above, out of sight, are the eternal counsels of the
most high God! the wisdom  and grace of the
" Father of lights, from whom cometh down every
good and every perfect gift."
That which constitutes the proper and peculiar
glory of the gospel, is its revelation of a class of truths,
of all others the most needful, precious, and high,
which the most Enlightened and thoughtful of the
children of men never could find out; which were
inaccessible to the human understanding in their
very nature, wholly unattainable otherwise than by
the gift, incommunicable save by the wisdom  and
the grace, of God.  The characters graven on the
gospel are incomparably more glorious than those
impressed on the material universe.  For if the
eternal power and Godhead of Jehovah are clearly




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  5O
seen in sun, moon and stars, the flowers and birds
and trees and sparkling waters, his tender mercy
beams brightest in the gospel of his Son: and if
the law, which as a glorious mirror at once revealed
and reflected his unspotted holiness, was given by
Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
The very design of a supernatural revelation from
God is to disclose truths beyond the unaided ken
of man; to unveil what otherwise would remain
for ever secret.  And just in proportion to the
sacredness, the  vitality, the elevation, and the
transcendent preciousness of the truths revealed, is
their seeming remoteness from  the ordinary apprehensions of the human mind.  The body of revealed
truths which specifically constitute the gospel of
our salvation, which refer more directly to the constitution of the person of Christ, God and man in
two natures yet one person for ever; and which turn
upon the nature and design of the work of Christ,
dying for our sins according to the Scriptures, and
rising again from the dead a divine Victor over death
and over him that had the power of death, even the
Devil, the present lapsed state of human nature
through the original offence of one man, whose sin
in eating the forbidden fruit "brought death into the
world and all our woe;" the indispensable need of the
Holy Ghost to cleanse and sanctify our infected
nature; the whole nalture of our infrafting into
Christ by faith; our effectual calling, adoption,
justification, sauctification, peace of conscience, and




60          THE TRIUE PATH, OiK TIlE
assured hope of a blessed immortality-these things
pertain  to the  gospel properly  and peculiarly.
They are absolutely its own, without the obscurest
hint in any of the eloquent voices of the material
world, without trace or footprint in any path that
uninstructed man had trodden.
From the necessity of the case therefore, unless
we get our information from the Bible, we must remain in utter ignorance on subjects of everlasting
moment to us all.  The distinctive doctrines of divine revelation, are of such a transcendent character-so remote from the apprehension of any created mind-so entirely without the faintest hint or
notice in all nature, that they never can be known
at all if they are not known from inspired Scripture.
The constitution of the divine nature-the doctrine
of the Holy Trinity, of three persons and one essence,
the same in substance, equal in power and glory, which
underlies and interpenetrates the whole scheme of
redemption by Christ Jesus-is a doctrine of which
there is no trace in nature, no shadow in reason,
and no prophecy in man.
There is another view of this subject incomparably more awful and appalling. The difficulty in the
way of our anticipating the gracious counsels of heaven which we have just glanced at, is one which arises
mainly from their superhuman elevation, from their
unfathomable riches in glory. But the difficulty which
I wish now to point out, is one which iniheres not in
the subject but in us, having its foundation in our




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOITR.   61
depra.vity, and foolislness, and slowness of heart to
believe all that the prophets of Cod have taught. The
ii visible God has afforded us in the creatures with their
endless diversities of form, colour, habit, instinct, and
element, with their varied classes, ranks, natures,
and ldegrees of intelligence, a clear and beautiful
mirror of his wisdom, so that such as possessed a
single spark of sound judgment, might be hurried
away into the involuntary adoration of himself.
Rom. i. 20; 1 Cor. i. 21. But how far this is from
the truth, let the sad experience of all heathen nations bear witness.  The wisest of them  have been
able to rise little if at all above the most illiterate
and debased, in their apprehensions of the true nature and right worship of God.  Egypt, the cradle
of knowledge and the arts, worshipped the most despised animals, the most loathsome reptiles; and the
great nations of classic antiquity feigned innumerable gods, like unto themselves, vain, licentious, and
bloody-minded.   The sense of man, which is so
strong and sagacious in regard to earthly things, is
inexpressibly weak and dark in its apprehensions
of things heavenly. " The sense of man," in a passage quoted by Lord Bacon, " is aptly said to resemble the sun, which openeth and revealeth the terrestrial globe, but obscureth and concealeth the
celestial; so doth the sense discover natural things,
but darken and shut up divine."
It appears, therefore, that men, even the wisest
and the most cultivated of them, not less than the
6




'62          TlE Tl TRITE PATH, OR TIlE
multitude, are apt not merely to overlook or mistalke, but to corrupt and reject the truth; and this, not
merely in regard to the obscurer and lower lessons
gr}aven on the creation, but equally in regard to the
clearer and higher revelations of the gospel.  For
this very reason does the apostle call the proclama.tion of the glorious gospel of the blessed God-thait
which alone reveals his well-beloved Son as the Author and Finisher of faith-the preaching of foolishness.  It does indeed seem foolishness to the wise
men of this world, who scruple not to tax with folly
the sacred truth of God, drunk with false confidence,
and blind with ignorant rage.   What distinctive
doctrine of the gospel is there-what doctrine so
plainly revealed, so precious to his saints, so essential
to his truth and glory, that men held in reputation
for wisdom and honour have not rejected-openly,
obstinately, blasphemously rejected?   What cani
seem more absurd to human reason than that God
should take to himself our nature, and as a man
should die; that the life of the world should be
obnoxious to death; that the very light of heaven
should be extinguished in preternatural darkness;
that the righteousness of God should be covered
over with the likeness of sin; that the chastisement
of our peace should be inflicted on the Holy One;
that the Bringer of salvation, the Giver of the blessing, should be madle sin, and subject to the curse for
us; anld that in this way, and this only, men alre
to be rede(emn.ed l   roi d(a.th1 an(tl nm1 iae pa, rtalkers of




YOUN( MAN INVITED TO Tile SAVIOUiLi.  f63
a lappy immortality; sin is to be destroyed, and
righteousness to reign, and death, and the curse, to
be swallowed  up for ever!   Neveltheless, the
God-enlightened, the God-anointed know, that the
gospel is the supreme wisdom of God, though that
wisdom be veiled in mystery from the vision of the
wise-a wisdom  whose holy heights scan, nay rise
above the heavens themselves, and into whose fathomless depths, the angels desire to look.  Of
all mysteries in religion, this is the sum and the
chief, that, " when we were without strength, in due
time Christ died for the ungodly."
The revelations of God are beyond the reach of
human philosophy, and contravene the conclusions
of human reason, not only in their greatness and
majesty, but in the method and measure of their
manifestation.  This may be illustrated in what
may be styled Evangelic obscurities.
There are many practical difficulties of this sort
which strike the minds not only of open infidels,
who studiously hunt for objections, but of plain
people and even devout Christians, who would
gladly know, believe, and do the truth. There is a
class of men who have never felt the deep significance of human life; who have never conscientiously
striven to know their duty toward God and to do
it; who read the Bible and hear the gospel, not to
learn the truth but merely to cavil, to trifle, to show
their ingenuity, to gratify their vanity, to scatter
Qre-brands, arrows, and death; and say, Am not I in




(6!         T iE TiUlIE PATH, OR THE
sport'  Now I have not a word for such as these,
except to say, " Behold ye despisers, and wonder, and
perish!"'fools make a mock at sin and God will
bring every secret thing into judgment." But there
is another class to whom we cannot refuse the tribute of our respect and sympathy.  It is those who
honestly meditate on the word and providence of
God, and are at once perplexed and pained by the
difficulties which they find in both. That God should
have reserved the full revelation of the gospel for
four thousand years is a providential fact of marked
character, and is in direct conflict with every natural anticipation. It has accordingly " given pause"
to many a thoughtful mind.  In the long lapse of
time from the apostasy and the promise, to the incarnation and sacrifice of the Redeemer, many have
found matter of sad and troubled thought.  Now it
is not so much my concern, to vindicate this dispensation, to assign the probable grounds and reasons
of it, to show that the lesson to be taught us of the
imbecility of the human understanding in relation
to divine things, of the impotence of man to devise
a way of salvation, and to order his life according
to the rule of righteousness, was of sufficient moment to explain and to justify it; or that such a
preparation would naturally dispose and fit the
world to receive the revealed Redeemer with becoming sensibility and gladness-all of which is
unquestionably true and of the highest importance;
nor to insist upon the retro-active virtue of the




YOOUN( MAN INVITED TO THIE SAVIOUJi.   65
Saviour's death, extending in its saving power to
the Patriarchs and Prophets, to Abel and Abraham,
as well as to the apostles and to us.  My simple
purpose is to show that this difficulty, however it
may arise, however it may be removed, is in harmony with other dispensations of God.  If the
gospel is not what men would have expected to find
it, what men would have made it, in its provisions, no
more is it in its progress. If it is alien from the natural apprehensions of men in its substance, it is alien
to these apprehensions in its developent. So that if
it be inconsistent with the untutored anticipations of
human reason, it is at least, throughout, and conspicuously consistent with itself, which is far better.
The principle alleged is comprehensive enough
to apply to other difficulties, nearer and more pressing than this. It will apply to the. future as well as
the past; to the slow progress of love and light on
the earth; not merely the introduction and existence,
but the prevalence and persistency of sin and ignorance among the nations.  This is a difficulty which
thinking men cannot altogether evade.   So far,
indeed, as men are concerned, as the church is concerned, as we are concerned, alas! there is no difficulty in the case. The light of the gospel has shone
so dimly, so feebly, over so scanty an area, because
the proper light-bearers, light-dispensers, have been
themselves so dark and so faithless: because instead
of being themselves filled and glorified by this light,
transfigured by its power, and translucent with its
6*




66'TihE TRUE PATH, OR THE
brightness, bearing it aloft and bearing it every
where, it h:ts been hidden under a bushel, it has
been hardly able to shine obscurely out from  the
overlying mass of unbelief, and covetousness, and
worldliness in ourselves, and we have done little and
thought little to send it abroad.  But in its relation to the sovereign dispensations of God, let us
not be embarrassed or alarmed, but pray with increasing faith and fervency, " Thy kingdom  come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;" and
cry and sigh with Calvin, and other fervent saints,
afflicted and cast down but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, " 0 Lord, how long? In the
midst of the years make known, in wrath remember
mercy. 
The patience with which God now endures the
reign of evil, the aspect and the character which the
world bears under the dominion of Satan, is a
standing trial of the believer's faith, and it is yet a
majestic monument of the wisdom  and grace of
God, whose thoughts are not as our thoughts, and
whose ways are not as our ways. All his schemes and
movements are on a scale of infinite grandeur.
With him a thousand years are as one day, and one
day as a thousand years.  Nothing can occur in
the succession of times, and in the infinite variety
of events and agents, to frustrate his purpose, or to
disconcert his plans. All was foreseen, all was
foreordained positively or permissively, and all will
ultimately be overruled for the clearer manifesta



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  67
tion of his own glory in the eternal salvation of
his own children.   Those very evils which now
"perplex and dash our maturest counsels" will be
found to work in most harmoniously with his concealed but cherished ends.  When we contemplate
these difficulties therefore, the part of wisdom is not
to indulge scepticism, but to exercise faith, seeing
they are in perfect keeping with the general plan
and procedure of divine Providence.  Let us be
thankful for the gospel which, by bringing " life and
immortality to light," scatters the darkness which
would otherwise encompass his ways, and await with
patience and hope the final "manifestation of the
sons of God."
If the gospel be beyond the compass or the
comprehension of nature, then it is evident that
ministers should set it forth in all its simplicity,
however repugnant to the notions or repulsive to
the tastes of the natural man.  It requires great
faith to preach the gospel, as it ought to be
preached.  It requires spiritual discernment to perceive its spiritual glory and repose with unswerving
confidence in its power to save.  It is the simple
truth that Jesus Christ came down from heaven to
die for lost sinners that we must trust in, to be
saved.  Whosoever believeth in Jesus shall be
saved; and the more simple the faith, the more
child-like your trust in him, in his merit, his
power, his grace, his perfect willingness to receive and bless all that come unto him and for his




68          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
own namle's sake to bestow  upon them  the Holy
Spirit, the better. Luke xi. 13. Strange as it may
seem, there are those in Christian lands who do not understand, and cannot be made to understand, the gospel of our salvation. They can repeat the Creed, the
Ten Commandments, and give some tolerable account of the plan of salvation, and yet they do not
truly, spiritually, practically, understand the gospel.
They have never seen its spiritual beauty and glory.
They have never beheld it from  the true point of
view. If they have seriously directed their eyes to
this spiritual firmament, lit up with the highest
splendours of the Father of lights, it has been tas
through an inverted telescope.  They have never
perceived the sovereign glory of God in the free
forgiveness of guilty sinners, for the sake of Christ.
Therefore, they have no sympathy with the grateful song of the redeemed in heaven: " Unto him that
loved us and washed us in his own blood, and hath
made us kings and priests unto God and the Father,
unto him be glory and dominion for ever and ever,
Amen."
It is surely not less evident, from the consideration of its transcendent nature, that a hearty acquiescence in the gospel doctrine is one of the
plainest marks of saving grace, as the rejection of
the gospel, though by men who are deeply religious
according to their own scheme of salvation, is one of
the saddest signs of final reprobation and ruin.
When Dr. Archibald Alexander was about to die,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIlE SAVIOUR.   69
and was looking for the last time for the evidence
of his preparation for death, lie tells us that he took
a deliberate survey of the scheme of salvation offered
in the Bible, and was conscious that he embraced it
and could rest on it.  This view of the subject, so
purely objective and practical, might possibly simplify the enquiry to the mind of many a timid and
doubtful disciple, conscious of much indwelling corruption, and embarrassed by artificial and minute
tests of piety.  We are sometimes confused by the
multiplicity of the marks of a true faith which have
been devised and recommended, and are discouraged
because our own experience does not completely correspond with them.  And when we search in the
dark and dusty and winding passages of our own
hearts, we cannot in many cases interpret our own
spiritual state in a manner satisfactory to ourselves.
They are too often indeed like the vineyard of the
slothful, all grown over with thorns and briers, and
the stone wall thereof overthrown, so that if there
be the fair flower of grace in them and the fragrant
fruits of righteousness, they are so covered over as
to be well nigh, if not altogether, imperceptible.
How  comforting then to have a test so plain, so
clear, in a sense so outward and open as this 
Does my heart now fully acquiesce in this simple,
scriptural method of salvation by the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus?  Does it seem to me all
that is needed, and just what is needed?  Do I let no




70          TilE T lUE PATH, 011 TiHE
other trust intrude, but simply take the offered gift,
receive and rest upon the reveale ed Redeeer?
The substitution of external rites, though of
divine origin, or any system of human philosophy,
or an amalgamation of the two, for the pure gospel of
the Son of God dying for our sins, is fatal to the
soul.  There is a deep seated disposition in human
nature to depend upon something that men can do,
instead of trusting simply and only to what Christ
has done to save them.  This is precisely what Paul
charged upon the Jews. Rejecting the righteousness
of God, they went about to establish their own righteousness, and so came short of the salvation of the
gospel.  We see the same evil leaven of will-worship
and self-righteousness at work in unregenerate men
now.  They are impatient of unco.iditional submission to the authority of God, even as it is exercised in the dispensation of his grace.  Allied to
this is a secret tendency to substitute some system
of human philosophy for the soul-humbling truths
of revealed religion. Disgusted and confounded by
the simplicity of the gospel method of salvation,
they are tempted to exclaim with the proud Syrian,
" Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus,
better than all the waters of Israel? May I not
wash in them and be clean?" and like him they are
ready to go away in a rage.  Now let me urge such
with all solemnity to give heed to the simple doctrine
of the gospel, to take the Saviour at his word, to
renounce all trust in their own merit and strength,




YO()UN( MAN INVI'TED Ti  Tl IE SAVIOUR. 
and as dying men, to look up to the living, gracious,
interceding Saviour and live 
Since all the efforts even of the wisest men to
devise a way of salvation for themselves have uniformly proved abortive, there is a clear obligation
resting on the church to preach the gospel to every
creature.
Shall we whose souls are lighted
With wisdom from on highShall we to men benighted
The lamp of life deny?
It is surely a very remarkable fact that the Jews
should have had so much more just and exalted
apprehensions of religious truth than the Greeksa nation otherwise incomparably more cultivated
and intellectual.  The only Jewish literature, of
any account, is religious, and that is as far above
the most famous productions of Grecian genius, as
the inspired work of the eternal Spirit is above the native offspring of the human mind.  Our first great
duty to the world is to give it the gospel, as the one
great want of the world is the knowledge of the
gospel.  Spread abroad then this pure, this mighty
gospel.  Wherever apostate man is found, let the
saving grace of Christ be known.  As you prize
this blessed boon yourself, send it forth on the
wings of the wind-to the ends of the earth.




72          THE TRUE PATH, OR THIE
LECTURE IV.
THE SENTIMENTAL AND THE SCRIPTURAI THEOLOGY.
THE paternal character of God is one in which
we naturally delight to contemplate him.  It is one
which he does actually sustain toward the whole
human race, as is clearly taught by the light of
nature, and made still more certain by the authority
of an inspired apostle, who quotes and adopts the
sentiment of a Greek poet, "For we are also his
offspring."  Acts xvii. 28.  There is unquestionably much in the varied and exuberant goodness of
God, as we behold it in the forms of nature and in
the facts of Providence, to beget filial confidence in
the mind of a good man; but there is still enough,
even in these, to dispel the notion of unmingled
benevolence.  God does, indeed, reveal himself in
the endearing relation of a Father; but he is manifested not less clearly in the awful character of a
Judge. Even in this world, there are painful events
which show his righteousness, quite as impressively
is any which proclalin  his benevolence; and this,
A'c sthould remlembler, is only a rudilmentary, not a




YOIVUN  MSIAN INVITED TO THE SAV[OUJR.    73
completed and final state.  Ij'ence, the tendencies
of things ar(e all that appear, the full consummation
is reserved for eternity.
The general tendency of the light literature of
the present day is to descant in soft and sentimental
terms on  the benevolence  of God, which  these
writers represent as not only inexhaustible, but
indiscriminate; in relation to his other attributes
supreme and despotic, in relation to the objects of
its exercise altogether irrespective of mloral character. This favoutrite attribute they delight to honour, not only to  the disparagement, but to  the
exclusion of his righteousness.  To this end, they
exalt certain pleasing facts and phenomena, and
studiously keep out of view all of an opposite nature.
Thus the God that has taken  possession  of the
popular mind is not the God of the Bible; he is an
easy, indulgent being, who disapproves of sin in
his creatures, and has testified against it, but who
will not be very rigorous in its punishment.
Such views savour rather of romance than reality,
and correspond rather with the wishes than the
experience of men.  In nature, God appears not
only  in  the  sunny  and  smiling  landscape, but
in the tornado and tempest.  iHe not only sends
fiuitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness, but gaunt famine, wasting pestilence, blighting
mildew. We see the triumphal chariot, but it is met
by the funeral hearse. We hear the voice of mirth and
revelry, but if we listen for a moment, we shall hear
7




74          TIlE TRUI, PATH, (R THE
notes of sadness and fear.  Laughter is followed
by a sigh.  We can scarcely enjoy our present
possessions, from the dread that we shall lose them.
The beauty, which we gaze on with joy to-day, tomorrow may be laid in the grave.  The labour of
years may be destroyed by the forgetfulness of an
hour.  The inheritance of many generations may
be lost by the heedlessness of a servant, or an accidental spark, or an unexpected flood.  The world,
in which we live, is subject to decay and change.
Our life-long friend may betray or forsake us.
Slander may blacken our names, and those we love
as our own souls may be smitten by death. Sorrow
is written on every human countenance, in characters which none can mistake.  The most happy on
earth are only the least miserable.
There may be beings in the universe, toward
whom the infinite Author of all manifests himself
in the tenderness of a purely paternal character;
because, toward them, there may be no occasion for
the vindication of rights which have never been
invaded, or the enforcement of claims which have
never been disputed.  But not thus assuredly does
he manifest himself toward us, who have been guilty
of such foul revolt. Toward us, he reveals himself
in the awful terrors of injured justice, of outraged
and indignant majesty.
Now, we experience an alternation of good and
ill; of joy and sorrow; of pain and pleasure; of
health and sickness; of life to be followed by, to




YOUNG MIAN'NViTED TO ThE SAVIOUR.   75
end with, to be swallowed up in death. Our earthly
condition is not simple but mixed; our earthly experience is not a complete and consistent whole, but
fragmentary and imperfect; not homogeneous, not of
a piece, but contradictory and conflicting. We are
rarely well, even in body; not merely free altogether
from pain, but in a state of positive bodily enjoyment,
in which the very sense of existence is a conscious delight. And if the body be diseased and partially disabled, in the mind of every man there is a certain unsoundness. Each man has his own particular folly;
his constitutional infirmity; his besetting sin. Heb.
xii. 1.  On some subjects and to some extent we
are all insane, or have been; we may have sense
enough for ordinary purposes, but pure reason and
perfect knowledge we have not.  We seek it, but it
for ever eludes our grasp, as flies from our approach
like the horizon; or in mathematics, two lines
approach each other for ever, and never touch; or
in natural philosophy, our hypothetical estimates
are never absolutely exact, and we must make some
allowance for friction and rigidity of cordage.  Ignorance and error encompass the very wisest men
in relation to the most important matters.
There are those, who make it a matter of ostentatious boast, that they fear not God, and regard it as
the mark of a weak and craven spirit to fear him.
But who is this dreadful God? And who are these
puny creatures who presume to despise and defy
him?  He is the great and dreadful God; mighty




76           THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
in counsel and excellent in working, who planted
the pillars of the earth, and can remove them out of
their places, who giveth to all men life and breath
and all things, in whose hand our breath is, and
whose are all our ways, who appointeth the moon for
seasons and whose sun knoweth his going down, who
doth his will among the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, who turneth man to
destruction and saith,  Return ye children of men."
"Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear so is thy wrath;" Ps. xc. 11.
" Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for
unto thee doth it appertain." Jer. x. 7.  And who
is man that he should dare to contemn the wrath of
the Almighty?  The creature of a day, a worm of
the dust, crushed before the moth, liable to instant
death, from an invisible insect or atom; dependent
for his continued existence on the gracious energy
of that awful Being, whom he so audaciously provokes.  Of all the follies that men on the earth
commit, the most fruitful and fatal is to cast off
the fear of God.
So far as it regards the insult offered to the divine Majesty, and the injury which they themselves
sustain, it is perfectly immaterial whether this insane confidence is built on the belief that God is
unable or that he is unwilling to punish them.  Of
one class it is true that they are like the Sadduc(ees of
old, not knowing the Scriptures nor the pow er of Go(d.
The other class attribute to the God )of truth an(l




WY0L-N:    I 1NVITED TO TIHE SAVIOUR.   77
righteousness the same insensibility to sin which
they find in themselves, and he might truly address
them in the language of the prophet Asaph, " Thou
thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself; but I will reprove thee and set them in order
before thine eyes."  Ps. 1. 21.
Upon no subject are men prone to fall into more
serious and hurtful error, than in regard to what
they imagine suitable to the character of God.
Losing sight of that pure and glorious Being whom
the Bible reveals to our faith and worship, they
form in their foolish hearts, a God like themselves.
This has always been the disposition of corrupt
mankind.  It was so in the time of the Apostle
Paul.  It is so now.  Then they turned the truth
of God into a lie; i. e., they exchanged the true
God for a false one. They could not behold his
holiness and truth, without self-condemnation and
alarm; and therefore they divested him of these
attributes in their thoughts and adapted the service
which they offered him, not to his majesty and excellence, but to the erroneous and degrading conceptions which they had formed of his nature. Thus
they disrobed him of his real and essential glories,
and arrayed him in false and imaginary perfections.
So we find in our own day that there are men who
profess unlimited veneration for the divine character;
representing themselves as his only true and worthy
worshippers; declaring that all who assert his
punitive justice do dishonour to his nature, and make
7*




78           TIIE TRUE PAT 11, O)  TIE
him  out a cruel and sanguinary tyrant, exulting in
the eternal agonies of his hapless offspring.  While
affecting to honour God, they are heaping upon him
the foulest indignity.  While in words magnifying
his mercy and grace, they in fact strip him of holiness, justice, and truth.  They array our Lord in
purple and put a sceptre in his hands, but it is in
mockery and scorn.  They seem  to surpass his
most devoted followers in expressions of reverence
and esteem, but the only tendency of their caresses
is to betray and to crucify.  They impiously affirm
that God is too merciful to visit the transgressions
of a finite and fallible creature with everlasting
woe.  Miserable men! how  fatal the delusion in
which you are held captive! When was God too
merciful to punish sin unrepented, unforsaken, unforgiven, with banishment for ever from his favour
and presence?  Where now are those rebel angels,
who dared to wage impious battle against the King
of heaven?  In  uncontrollable and endless torment! When shall the sound of release or remission
gladden their hearts?  Never! If it was not inconsistent with the mercy of God to inflict such punishment on sinful angels, why should he not inflict it on
sinful men?  Have angels not been as much exalted
and blessed?  Are they not capable of as deep
degradation  and pain?  If God has pitied and
loved with such amazing tenderness, be assured
he will take destructive vengeance.  If he has at
any time made stupendous displays of his grace, be,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIHE SAVIOUR.   79
assured he will make equally stupendous exhibitions
of his judgments.  For all the actions and attributes
of Jehovah have a grandeur commensurate with his
divine nature.
When these sophistical and sentimental objectors
come into the atmosphere of the Bible, their respiration is uneasy and imperfect. The God whose
voice is heard in every sentence, and whose image is
reflected on every page, is not the God of their imagination and affections.  He is to them a strange
God.  The commonest words of the New Testament,
holiness, righteousness, grace, inspire unconquerable
disgust.  The aspect under which they view God,
is one adapted to divest him of every attribute which
might excite terror. They throw an impenetrable
veil over those exhibitions of his character, which
render him an object of apprehension to sinners,
and bring forward in bold relief every thing tending
to allay alarm, and beget a profane and pernicious
confidence.
Now it is undeniable, that God has a controversy
with the whole human race.  Under the existing
economy, man is born to trouble as the sparks fly
upwards.  There are terrible visitations abroad in
the earth.  Men suffer under every form  of pain,
calamity, and disease.  We all come into the world
convicts under a sentence of death.  We enjoy a
brief respite, which is continually interrupted by
painful monitions of our mortal state. The representations of the word of God on this subject




80          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
exactly accord with the actual experience of man,
wherever found, whatever his country, climate,
laws, government, religion, or race. Turning away
fiom those who are ready to lie for God, to prophesy
smooth things, to prophesy deceits, to the sure
testimonies of God himself, all is perfectly intelligible; the dispensations of his providence and the
testimonies of his word are seen and felt to be in
absolute harmony. In the Scriptures, the real relations which subsist between Him who is at once the
Father of mercies and a God of righteousness, and
his rebellious children, shine forth in the unchanging and awful light of truth. In them, the infinite
goodness of God is not more distinctly affirmed than
his unspotted holiness.  In them, the feelings, with
which God once regarded man, and with which man
once regarded God, are spoken of as having undergone a corresponding change, and given place to
others of mutual estrangement.
There are in every climate, in every object,
traces of the severity and the goodness, the wrath
and the kindness of God. The contradiction of mute,
material nature, is just what we might expect it to
be, under the righteous government of the God of
revelation.  The double aspect of earthly things
caused the ancient Gnostics and Manichacans to
feign two Gods, a supreme and a subordinate, a
benevolent and a malignant deity; and modern sceptics have been often driven to atheism by the apparent uncertainty, confusion, and disorder, which we




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   81
find in the world of nature.   The same ray of
sunlight, which ripens the growing grain, darts
contagious fire-pours raging fever into the blood
of the husbandman, who fondly hoped to enjoy the
mature fruits of his labours.  There is the deadly
hemlock growing beside the healing balm; now the
desolating torrent, and now the fragrant and gentle
shower; the tremendous concussions of nature, and
the soft landscape sleeping in the moonlight, and
bathed in the dew.   There is here the festive
gathering, but it crosses the slow-moving funeral
train.  In one house, there is a gay wedding, and
in the next street, a mother with heart-wrung anguish
is bending over the couch of her pale, unconscious,
dying child.  Again, there is the voice of infant
mirth, ringing out clear and glad, and the old man
sobbing in desolate agony, and looking to the grave
as his only friend.
The influences which tend to steep men in spiritual slumber, derive much of their power from their
speciousness and subtlety. They are connected with
a partial view of the character and providence of God.
They come dressed in the fascinating garb of sentiment
and poetry.  There is so much of truth mingled
with them, and they apparently render such willing
and splendid homage to the goodness of our heavenly Father, and present him to the imagination
in an attitude so winning, that to oppose the error
seems almost impious.  And yet the error is only
the more mischievous because it is thus disguised.




82          THE TRUIE PAT', O1l TIlE
We shall never truly honour God by exalting one
attribute at the expense of another, or by the contemplation of one to the exclusion of another.
Truth, in all things, and especially in regard to
God, will be found ultimately to be not only the
safest, but the most truly beautiful.   There are
stern and solemn facts daily taking place before
our eyes, which should arouse us from these illusive
dreams.  There are scenes of wretchedness around
us, which we can no more explain than we can deny,
except on the concession that God is not made up
of benevolence, unaccompanied by attributes of a
more severe kind.  What means that bed of straw
on which the pallid sufferer has been lying for
years, with pain which time has only increased?
When by these means, the person is brought to piety
and to heaven, or receives any material moral benefit,
we can understand it; and the advantage is greatly
on the side of the sufferer. The physic, though
bitter, has wrought a cure.  The road, though
rough, has led to the much loved home. The voyage,
though stormy, has ended in the desired haven. This
consideration should sustain God's afflicted children.
"No suffering for the present seemeth to be joyous,
but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruits of righteousness in them which
are exercised thereby."  But is this the case with
all?  Are there none who suffer severely at the
hand of God, and who suffer without profit, without
repentance, and without contrition?  It cannot be




YOUNG MAN INSV1'TiUD  TO THE SAVIOUR.   83
doubted that there are such persons.  This is a
painful case to contemplate.  But it is necessary to
a view of the whole truth, and it may prove more
useful than a more pleasing train of observation.
It proves that punishment is not always disciplinary,
even in this world; that there are cases, in which
it is evidently and only retributive.  This we are
assured by inspiration is the essential nature and
proper end of future punishment.  It is for the
vindication of God's justice, not to illustrate his
benevolence.
There are those who flatly deny all this, who
represent God as sustaining exclusively a paternal
character toward men; and who thus quell the
rising fears of their own consciences, and the salutary apprehensions of others. Now for the effectual
conviction of such men, and to dispel the perilous
error in which they are involved-it is necessary to
pass in review  a class of facts, which it is very
painful to consider.  We are compelled to contemplate God, not only as he sits enthroned in smiling
goodness over his glad and grateful creatures;
opening his hand and satisfying the desire of every
living thing, and therefore, an object of trust and of
tenderness; but likewise as making his power known
by present demonstrations of destroying vengeance
against the workers of iniquity; and therefore, a
God not only to be loved but to be feared.  He
has not only denounced for the future, but inflicted
before our eyes, indignation and wrath, tribulation




84           THE TRUE T PATH, ORl TIlE
and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil.
"Upon the wicked, he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest; this shall be the
portion of their cup."  Ps. xi. 6.  Ought not men
to consider the solemn facts and calls of God's
providence? Ought they not to fear him? Are not
the most terrible denunciations of what he will do
in eternity, of the intolerable weight of his wrath
which shall finally break forth and bear down and
burn to the lowest hell-borne out by the plain
proofs of his consuming indignation against the
children of disobedience, which he has afforded,
even in this world?  But the uncompromising and
inviolable sacredness of the law, which these presumptuous despisers spurn, is seen, most of all,
in the gracious method by which the voice which
cried for the blood of the sinner is silenced by t]he
blood of the Saviour.   The character of Jehovah
must be inflexible in its righteousness, when his
well-beloved Son must drain to the dregs the bitter
cup of anguish, simply because he stood in the sinner's  place and  sustained  what infinite  justice
adjudged to the sinner's substitute.  The ground
of carnal security is a false view of the moral character and the moral government of God.  Men
could not remain careless in their sins, if they
seriously believed and thought upon the truth.  It
is not in the nature of things.  It is not in the nature of man.
Let us now proceed to point out the moral use




YOUNG MAN INVITED T       Ti) T   S.AVIOUR.   85
and bearing of this argument.  Anl oljector may
affirm that these views of God-of the objects, the
means, and the ends of his moral government, are
derogntory to his benevolence.  The reply is obvious: explain them as you can; deny them if you
will; still they are experimentally true.  We cannot be more satisfied of our own existence, than of
these facts and principles of the divine administration.  But we take higher ground.  They are not
only true, but they are honourable to God.  Those
who deny or asperse them, degrade while they pretend to exalt him.   While they profess to be contending for the honour of his name, they rob him
of his most sacred and shining glories. These pains,
proceeding as they do from  the presence of sin,
proclaim  more loudly than a voice from heaven his
holy abhorrence of sin.  By these dreadful terrors
and solemn sanctions is the unspotted righteousness
of his eternal throne vindicated.  They are not
only designed to impress the mind with salutary
awe-to instruct us in regard to the insufferable
odiousness of sin, and so to deter us and others from
the commission of it, and allure us onward to holiness and heaven-they have an additional and a more
awful purpose in view. We can have nothing like
an adequate apprehension of the terrors of the
Almighty, and conscience is disarmed of her most
dreaded sting, while we yield ourselves to the imagination so assiduously cherished by a superficial
and sentimental theology, that the only design of
8




i'";         TIlE TRUE PATH, OR THE
punishment is disciplinary; that in all cases in which
pain is endured, the purpose is either to reform the
sufferer, or to warn others.  There is, under the
government of God, a retributive justice  which
marks its power and makes its presence known, in
the sufferings of the guilty, not only in this world,
but in that which is to come.
The view presented throws a painful but a powerful light on the doctrine of human depravity.  It
shows that it is no pedantic dogma about which
bigotted theologians may wrangle, with the consideration of which men of sense and candour have
nothing to do.  It shows that as this appalling
corruption is present in the experience of every
man, so it is a fact, which has materially affected
every man's relations towards God. So that, if it be
ignored, no great question in morals can be understood or settled aright.   So interwoven is it with
our recollections, our experience, and our prospects;
so essentially does it modify the feelings, with which
we are regarded, and the principles on which we
are treated, on the part of God, that it is a material
element in the solution of every problem, which
respects the relations of the creature to the Creator.
Why this extensive suffering in the universe of
God? Why pain, sickness, death? Because of sin.
The existence of sin is an ultimate fact.  When we
have pushed our inquiries to this point we must stop
short.  Beyond this, revelation is silent, and reason
and experience cannot pass.  To those who deny




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   87
either the righteousness of God or the sinfulness
of men, and the binding link between them, the
actual experience of the human race must be an inexplicable enigma.
There is nothing which the Bible discloses, in
relation to the condition of man in a future world,
which we do not behold in principle, in seed, and in
germ, in our present economy.  The government
now carried on is not the perfection of moral government; but still it is truly moral.  There is the
native impression on every unsophisticated mind,
that vice deserves to be punished, not simply for
the good of the offender or for the benefit of others,
but simply because it is vice.  God has himself distinctly announced this fact, in our present constitution, in the uneasiness or pleasure which arises in
the mind, according as we have done what we
regard as a good or a bad action.  Thus we have
the fact of moral rewards and punishments, established in the most immediate and intimate manner.
Could we receive the infallible assurance, that no
human being would ever be injured by what we
had done amiss, and did we know that there was
no possibility of its repetition by ourselves; still if
we distinctly recognized it as wrong, we should
quite as distinctly recognize it as worthy of punishment; and the pungency and the power of this
conviction, would be in precise proportion to the
moral sensibility and purity of the offender. The
man vhose moral feelings and whose moral judg



88          TIE TRUE PATH, OR THE
ments were most like God's, would have the most
oppressive sense of guilt, if consciously a sinner.
These are plain traces of a righteous government,
whence it is easy to answer all objections, since they
proceed from, and imply a righteous Governor.  It
is the highest evidence that God approves righteousness and abhors sin, that he has made his vicegerent
and voice in the soul, to testify with such authority
on the side of righteousness.  The conscience of the
human race is the moral vindicator of God.  IIe has
inserted in the breast of every living man a principle and a power, that bears instant witness to the
infinite rectitude of the divine character, and the
inviolate justice of God, in his fearful visitations
on the lawless and disobedient.  The office of conscience is two-fold: to guide man and testify for
God.  The profoundest interpretation of its utterances is given by the smitten and penitent psalmist
when he says, " That thou mightest be justified
when thou speakest and be clear when thoujudgest."
Ps. li. 4.  In the present life, men may sport themselves with their own deceivings, resolutely shutting
their eyes to the manifold traces of a righteous
government all around them, refusing to acknowledge
the God either of Scripture or of Providence, and
making to themselves an imaginary being who will
verily clear the guilty, that they may cast off all fear
and sin, as it were with a cart-rope.  But let such remember that God has made ample provision, not
only for the execution but for the vindication of his




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO T1lE SAVIOUR.   89
righteous sentence.  What shall at last be spoken
by the voice of the eternal Judge, shall be echoed
by the conscience of the condemned.  The circunstance, of all others, which will render that sentence
most fearful, is that it will be felt to be just.  "And
a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our
God all ye his servants, and ye that fear him both
small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice
of a great multitude, and as the voice of many
waters, and as the voice of a mighty thundering,
saying, Alleluia: for the Lord  God omnipotent
reigneth." Rev. xix. 5, 6.  "I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every
knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear." Isa.
xlv. 23.  " Those mine enemies which would not
that I should reign over them, bring hither and
slay them before me." Luke xix. 27.
It plainly appears from the unchangeable character of God, and from the feelings with which he
now regards sinners, that they are shut up to the
salvation of the gospel.  The appalling dispensations of his providence, which now so expressively
mark his purpose to punish sin, are only the premonitions of a more overwhelming perdition which
will be the eternal portion of the finally impenitent.
God, out of Christ, is a consuming fire.  But God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world through him  might be
saved.  The sum of the gospel testimony, is that
8*




90          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
" God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself; not imputing their trespasses unto them." Let
such therefore as think the view of the divine character and government, presented in this chapter,
harsh and repulsive, know that it is inseparably
connected with our pardon, peace, and safety.  We
seek merely to drive them  from  a deceitful trust,
that their feet may rest upon a solid rock.  The
same principle of immutable righteousness, which
secures the condemnation of the  impenitent, is
pledged for the salvation of the believer in Jesus.
Just as the man who rejects the salvation of the
gospel, through unbelief, will be sentenced to everlasting perdition by the unchanging fiat of Jehovah,
so the man who believes on the Son of God, " shall
not perish but have everlasting life." John iii. 16.
For the salvation of the believer, we have all the
assurance that can arise from all the attributes of
God; from all the dispensations of providence; from
all the promises of the gospel, and from all the provisions of heavenly glory. Rom. viii. 28; John xiv.
2.  The way of access, the new and living way, has
been opened to the favour of God, and the ripe fruits
of that favour in the paradise above. " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which
he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that
is to say, his flesh; and having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart,
in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled




YOUNG. MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   91
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with
pure water." Heb. x. 19-22.  The acceptance of
the man who relies not on his own works but on the
grace of God; who, casting away every other ground
of trust, reposes on the word of God, and receives
with humble thankfulness the great salvation; is
secured by the very righteousness, which adjudges
the obstinate sinner to everlasting woe.  It is likewise on the same basis that the accepted believer
may triumphantly rest for the effectual keeping of
that which he has committed to his faithful Saviour.
They whom the Father hath given to Christ, in
eternity, and who, constrained by his grace, have
given themselves to him in time, are kept by the
power of God, through faith unto salvation.  The
righteousness of God, which is the ground of just
dread to the man who persists in his sins, is the
refuge and bulwark of the man who has fled for
refuge to the hope set before him.
Religious reverence makes up a large part of
intelligent and acceptable piety.  God is the object
of humble adoration to the heavenly hosts.  H1-ow
much more lowly the homage, due the Majesty on
high, from guilty creatures, such as we! Wherever
God has revealed himself to men, he has surrounded
himself with circumstances of majesty and terror,
clouds and darkness, lightnings and thunderings.
Thus he appeared to Moses and Isaiah; to Ezekiel
and to Daniel; to Paul and to John; and thus he




92          THE TRUE PATI, OR THE
will appear to every eye, in the awful Epiphany of
the last day!
The Apostle draws a distinction, however, to which
it becomes us to give heed.  It is that which obtains
between a reverential and a servile fear. The one
is the feeling of an affectionate son for an honoured
father.  The other, that of a sullen slave for an
abhorred and dreaded lord. The right faith and the
right fear draw men near to God in holy fellowship and in willing service. They make men fearful of committing sin, which is that evil and bitter
thing that God hates.  They render his favour
which is life, and his loving-kindness which is better
than life, the object of supreme desire and delight.
This is that fear of the Lord, which makes men
depart from evil. It is that fear of the Lord which
is the beginning of wisdom; and which, so far from
being lessened, is increased with growth in knowledge and grace. A servile and sinful fear, on the
other hand, is founded on the conviction of guilt,
and the absence of faith in the mercy of God and in
the merit of Christ, our most gracious Mediator
and Advocate.  Its effect is to fill the soul with
hostility and bitterness, and render the thought
of drawing near to God intolerable.  It is the
feeling which sprang up in the remorseful soul
of apostate Adam, and is displaced by a, delightful
confidence, when the painful sense of guilt has been
exchanged for a heartfelt trust in the grace of Immanuel! A servile and sinful dread is the perennial




YOUNG OMAN INVITED T' T'IHE SAVIOUR.,
source of all will-worship and superstition. A godly
and filial reverence is the fountain whence issue
the streams which make glad the city of our God,
free and joyful worship, grateful and holy obedience.
The one is the spirit of popery; the other, the spirit
of the true gospel church.




94          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
LECTURE V.
RELATION OF REASON TO REVELATION.
IN the revealed word there is, as it were, a reappearing of the original Paradise of God; in which
there is the greatest abundance of trees, good for
food and fair to look upon, of which we may freely
eat; and others kept in sacred seclusion-" a privacy
of glorious light"-a religious reserve not to be
violated without sin and death.
There are certain disclosures of revelation, which
belong to us just as truly as the permitted trees of
the garden belonged to Adam; truths as beautiful,
as grand, as precious, as the immortal fruits and
flowers that shed fragrance and beauty and endless
riches there:
Groves of myrrh,
And flowering odours, cassia, nard, and balm,
A wilderness of sweets.
In the Bible are revelations touching the nature,
the purposes, and the empire of God; setting forth
the origin, the fall, and the redemption of man-the
creation, the government, and the destiny of this




YoUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.   95
material Universe, to all of which we have as free
access as Adam had to any of the trees of Eden.
While there are truths relating to all these matters,
but more immediately pertaining to the nature and
purposes of God, as inaccessible, as veiled in the unfathomable mysteries of his providence, as were
any of the trees of the garden, to which we have no
more right to draw near than Adam had to taste of
the tree of the knowledge of good or evil-or the
people of Bethshemesh to gaze with profane eyes
into the Ark of God-or any other than the high
priest among the Hebrews to enter in and examine
the awful arcana of the Holy of HIolies.
There is this difference, however, that Adam was
at liberty to eat or not to eat of the permitted fruits.
We have no such liberty.  We are positively required, on pain of the sore displeasure of Almighty
God, to search diligently into the things that are
revealed. I hardly know which is the greater sin,
to pry into the unrevealed or to slight the revealed
mind of God.  Certain it is, that the things which
are revealed are not only our property but our province.  It is not only our right but our duty to
know and do all the revealed will of God. On the
same authority, and to the same degree, we are bound
not to be wise above what is written; and to be sure
that we are wise up to what is written.  The revelation of God is to be the measure of our knowledge and
faith. In the whole compass of the Bible, there is
not one revealed truth of which we may remain in



96           TIIE TRUE PATI, OR TIlE
nocently or safely ignorant.  There is no folly into
which men fall, or sin that they commit, against which
they are not guarded in Scripture; and which they
might not have escaped, had they given intelligent
heed to the sure testimonies of God.  "Thy word,"
says David, "have I hid in my heart, that I might not
sin against thee."  "Wherewith shall a young man
cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to
thy word."  "All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
Ps. cxix. 11, 9; 2 Tim. iii. 16.  No portion of the
Scripture can be safely overlooked or underrated.
All is needful.  All is useful.  Every part is inspired, and the whole binding on the conscience.
If there be one truth revealed in the Bible, and
that truth be one of which we remain in willing
ignorance-that one truth may belong to the law
or the gospel-it may set in array the terrors of
the Almighty, or it may be full of grace-and yet,
contrary to its own nature and proper tendency, it
may become to us the occasion of death; first, by
way of privation and absence.  It may be the very
truth that we need for correction, for consolation,
for reproof, or for instruction in righteousness.  Or
secondly, by way of direct and positive operation.
It may be a word of grace, but that word is turned
against us, and becomes to us a word of death, like
the sword which is madly directed against the
bosom  it should have defended.  The truths of




YO)VUNG MAN 1NVITE1D Tu TIlE SAVIOUR.   97
G(od')s word arre like the pillar of cloud that went
before ancient Israel; they hlave a bright side and a
dark; they are a light and defence to his friends;
obscurity and terror to his foes.
Lord Bacon says, "The prerogative of God extendeth as well to the reason as to the will of man; so
that as we are to obey his law, though we find a
reluctation in our will, so we are to believe his
word, though we find a reluctation in our reason."
There is hardly any subject of inquiry more difficult and important, than the true limits and use of
reason in spiritual things.  It is the office of reason
to weigh the evidence of what purports to be a revelation from God; and we cannot be too cautious or
too exact in our examination of what claims to be
of supernatural origin and of binding authority.
But when once adequately attested, all that remains
to reason, the proper and the only function of reason, is not to determine beforehand, what such revelation can consistently unfold, but simply to ascertain
with all available helps and, above all, with humble
prayer to the eternal Spirit, what it actually discloses.
It is no business of ours to reconcile the several
doctrines of the Bible with one another.  There is,
no doubt, an interior, though it may be, for the
present, an invisible harmony between them; and
hereafter, doubtless, all apparent discrepancies will
be resolved into a higher unity. We are not bound
to  evince  the logical consistency, for  instance,
9{




98          THE! TRUE PATH, OR THE
between divine sovereignty and human responsibility, the election of God and the free agency of
man.   The one is assumed, the other affirmed
throughout the Scriptures.  The one is necessary
to the constitution of man, the other to the authority
of God.  The one is an intimate and universal fact
of consciousness, the other is an essential and inalienable prerogative of God. Without the one, we cease to
be men; without the other, he ceases to be God. Without the one, we should not be capable of salvation;
without the other, there could be no salvation for us.
In a word, every man feels that he is responsible to
God for what he is, and dependent upon God for what
he should be.  So true is that saying of Augustine,
" Command what thou wilt, andt give what thou dost
command."
It is the height of folly for men to torment themselves about the secret decrees of the Most High.
They never can know  them.  They never were
designed to be known but by the event, or the plain
prognostic of the event.  The eternal election or
reprobation of particular persons, belongs to this
class of truths.   Many assume, always without
authority, and often most erroneously, that they
are non-elect, that God never designed to save them,
that if he did, he will save them without any anxiety
or exertion on their part; and therefore, they fold
their hands in total apathy, awaiting some extraordinary visitation of the Holy Ghost, without offering
that prayer which is at once a proof of his presence




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIHE SAVIOUR.   99
and a pledge of his favour.  Now what may be the
secret purpose of God in regard to any particular
individual, is wholly unknown to himself or to any
other human being: and of course, it should not,
in reason, be the motive or the rule of his personal
action.  If secret, if unrevealed, it is that with
which we can have no direct concern.  It is not an
element of responsibility or a rule of action to us.
But "the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth
and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith which
we preach:  That if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised Him  from  the dead,
thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Rom. x. 8-10.
How unreasonable and sinful is it, thein, for men
to be perplexing themselves about the secret decrees
of God, and the ultimate issue of things, when the
way of salvation is so plainly pointed out in the
Scriptures, when the only condition exacted is a
sense of need and a free acceptance of everlasting
life! Any man, who is willing to be saved on these
terms, God, for Christ's sake, is willing to save!
and he is willing to save no man on any other
terms.  This is positively all that is revealed concerning the purpose of God toward any.  He does
not say of any particular sinner, that he is elect or
non-elect. HIe says of some, " Ye will not come
unto me that ye might have life." He says to all,




100         TIEl TRUE PATH, ORt THE
" Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavyladen and I will.give you rest."  "And if any man
thirst, let him come unto me and drink."
The secret things of God are a stumbling-block,
over which many souls fall into perdition.  It may
be that some of my young readers may be "throwing
their inch of time away," in endless and profitless
endeavour to find out what is not revealed, and what
can be known only from  the event, or from  those
spiritual fruits, which are the effects of grace, and
therefore the presages of glory. The most favoured
and mature Christian can know his gracious election
of God only by inference.  There is no private and
special revelation to any of his eternal designation
in the purpose of God to have a part in the glorious
inheritance of the saints in light.  Even the Apostles
when upon the earth were saved by hope; that is,
their salvation in its complete consummation was
prospective, not present; a matter of anticipation,
not a matter of experience.  The true and the right
process is this. We rise from the consciousness of
love to God to the conclusion that he loves us-for
we know from  the Scripture that if we love him, it
is only because he first loved us.  We are sensible
of being the subjects of holy dispositions, sympathies,
desires; and we know that all who are the subjects
of such affections, and who bring forth such fruits,
are ordained unto eternal life.  Hence the exquisite
beauty and fitness of Archbishop Leighton's comparison of the decree of election to a golden chain




YON(G MAN INVITED TO TIIE SAVIOUR.  101
let down fron  heaven to earth: the centre link,
holiness, being within the sight of men, and the two
extremes, eternal election and eternal glory, reserved
in the keeping of God.
The Lord has revealed his will so far as it is
needful for us to know  it, but he has disclosed
nothing for the gratification of mere curiosity or
carnal speculation.  We should be concerned therefore to explore the counsels of the Most High only
so far as he has been pleased to make them known.
He has inculcated modesty upon us, in all our religious inquiries, by making it the indispensable
condition of true knowledge, as well as in the
method and measure of his gracious communications.
Profound and insoluble difficulties present themselves in the infancy of thought, and in every subsequent stage of our intellectual progress. They
startle the child as well as the man; the savage as
well as the philosopher; and their satisfactory
solution is as effectually hidden from one as from
the other.
Thus to take the fundamental difficulty of allthe existence anywhere in the universe of God, of
any sort of evil moral or physical, for any period
extended or brief.. This is a difficulty by no means
peculiar to the Christian Scriptures or to the Christian system, but pertaining as well to every other
scheme of religion and philosophy. The existence
of evil is a fact that confronts the Atheist as pal9*




102         TIlE TI'l:' PATHI  OR( THE
pably and bro:adly as it does the Bible believer.  It
is a fact which is simply recognized as a fact
under every dispensation.  It is not accounted for,
not vindicated; but assumed or asserted in every
part of Scripture.  Still the specific and perfect
method by which it is to be reconciled with the attributes of God, is nowhere intimated-the reasons
which determined a Being of infinite wisdom, power,
and goodness to permit it, are not even glanced at-a
profound darkness envelopes the whole subject; and
every attempt which men have made to dissipate the
darkness has served only to make it more palpably
obscure.
As a matter of fact, the associated doctrines of
original sin and total depravity are painfully attested by the universal history of our race.  How
different would the present aspect of the world be,
if, from the beginning of time until now, men had
employed the thought, the money, and the effort in
advancing the physical and intellectual well-being
of one another, their progress in knowledge, virtue,
and happiness, which they have expended in mutual
slaughter, persecution, and ruin! The greatest of
all mysteries calls for the exercise of the greatest
faith, and so of all lesser mysteries in their degree.
We are divinely assured that the whole scheme of
things was not suddenly improvised on an unexpected emergency; but foreseen and foreordained
from all eternity, for the highest conceivable end,
the most illustrious display of the divine perfections.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIE SAVIOUR.  103
It is expressly affirmed that it is his sublime prerogative to bring good out of evil; and in the evenls
connected with our Redeemer's advent, life, and
death, in their remote relations and revealed results,
we have the clearest demonstration of this cheering
truth.
It has been an occasion of astonishment, and perhaps of infidelity to some, that God should have
visited sin, under the old dispensation, with such
destructive judgments; as in the case of Sodom,
of Korah, of Achan, and others,  The true solution,
undoubtedly, is that at that time the doctrines of a,
future state and eternal punishment were obscurely
revealed; and the most appalling instance of his
wrath against sin had not then been exhibited in
the unparalleled sufferings of his beloved Son. The
Mosaic Dispensation  was especially designed to
illustrate the holiness of God: the Christian, his
grace.
If sin be a greater evil than pain, as every one
not utterly debased will admit, then the pains of
life consequent on sin, and designed to punish and
prevent it, so far from  being in conflict with the
wisdom  and goodness of God, are a strong confirmation of both.  That there should be suffering in
this life, therefore, admitting the existence of sin,
presents no mystery to reason, and should create no
difficulty or surprise; but should be considered inevitable, under the government of God, and on the
hypothesis of sin.  Suffering is the frown of God




104         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
on sin. It is as natural, considering who God is,
and what sin is, as the darkening of the day when
the beautiful sunlight is obscured by an intervening
cloud, or as the face of a wise and loving father is
shaded with displeasure at the presence or mention
of an undutiful son. The most signal mark of God's
favour indeed is the making its object holy, though
by a painful process.  How could a human friend
show such friendship as by seeking to lead us to
holiness, though by a rough and thorny path; and
how could God show his larger love more wisely
than by effecting the same gracious end, though by
piercing sorrows?  The advanced Christian will
value the gifts of God's grace above those of his
providence, and will therefore take joyfully the
spoiling of his goods, the loss of his health, or the
death of his friends, if it yield the peaceable fruits
of righteousness to himself or others.
The sufferings of infants and saints are mysterious;
but what if we had seen the Son of God taunted,
buffeted, expiring on the cross! Let the believer
then think of the sorrows of his Lord, when his
own seem mysterious.  Let him ponder the death
of his Saviour, when his own death seems dreadful.
There is profound wisdom  in the saying of John
Howe, that no secrets of nature can outvie the
mysteries of godliness.
The reason why particular events in time have
occurred at one period rather than another, is in
many cases unsearchable by the human understand



Y'('N(; MANI INVITED TO THE SAViOUR.  105
ing.  It is one of God's secrets.  It is locked up by
the King of kings in his cabinet councils; not
offered to the gaze of created intelligences.  Dr.
Arnold, a wise observer of the ways of providence
as revealed in the history of nations, remarks in his
Lectures on Modern History: "No man can say why
the great discoveries of science were made only
at the time and in the country when and where they
were made actually: why the compass was witlhheld from the navigation of the Roman empire, but
was already in existence, when it was needed to aid
the genius of Columbus: why printing was invented in time to preserve that portion of Greek
literature  which  still survived in the  fifteenth
century, but was not known early enough to prevent
the irreparable mischiefs of the Latin storming of
Constantinople in the thirteenth: why the steam
engine, triumphing over time and space, was denied
to the striving spirit of the sixteenth century, and
reserved to display its wonderful works only to the
nineteenth."
These are only a few  samples of innumerable
questions of the same general character, which may
be asked, but which cannot be satisfactorily answered.   "What I do," says Christ to Peter,
" thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter."  All the dispensations of God toward nations, families, and individuals, which are not interpreted in the event, will be intelligible in eternity.
No cloud will ultimately rest on the character of,J




106          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
God, as Ruler and Judge.  The set time for the
full vindication of his ways, is the judgment of the
great day.  Then, doubtless, all seeming incongruities will be reconciled; all obscurities cleared up;
and the sun of his righteousness shine forth with
unclouded ray.   Then, satisfied, thankful, joyful,
all his saints shall sing the song of Moses and the
Lamb, saying, "Great and marvellous are thy
words, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy
ways, thou king of saints!"  Rev. xv. 3, 4.
As in the ancient dispensation, before the coming
of Christ, many types and usages might have seemed
unmeaning and even absurd, which are now clear
and significant; so in the future world many things
may be seen to be wise and righteous in the economy
of God, which at present we cannot understand.
We must be content, therefore, to walk by faith,
not by sight. Faith in God is the great cure alike
for the maladies of human nature, and the infirmnities of human reason.  The predominance of sense
is one of the most comprehensive evils of the fall.
Faith is opposed to sense and not to reason; so far
as it prevails it subdues the one and exalts the
other, cheering the desponding soul by the promised
rewards of the celestial paradise.  Faith in the full
disclosures of eternity, in regard to the profound
mysteries which prevail in the two grand departments of providence and  grace, should inspire
patience.  Now we are in darkness; but then we
shall know, even as we are known. Now our dis



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  107
coveries of truth are slow, circuitous, obscure, and
partial; then they will be rapid, intuitive, clear,
and perfect.
Human reason  can  no more comprehend the
whole compass of divine revelation, than the human
eye can take in, at a glance, the whole material
universe.  Therefore, let us cease from  man whose
breath is in his nostrils, even the wisest, the greatest,
and the best, and let us look to God as our infallible
Teacher and sovereign Lord.
It is not surprising that men should find difficulties in Scripture, who, in addition to the ordinary
infirmities of human reason, read it in a spirit so
different from  that in which it was written by the
holy men of old.  Having nothing in their own
spiritual experience to correspond with its sacred
truths, and no proper sympathy with them, they
can have no true knowledge, no adequate appreciation of them.  To enjoy the beauties of nature, of
literature, and of art, requires delicate sensibility,
and a cultivated taste.  How much more to discern
and delight in the spiritual splendors which light
up the firmament of inspired Scripture! 1 Cor. ii.
14.  It is true not only of individuals, but of whole
generations, that when frivolous, heartless, sensual,
and blood-thirsty, they have been invariably sceptical in regard to divine revelation, and prone to
reject it.
It belongs to the sovereignty of God to determine first, whether he shall give to us a supernatural




108          TIE TKRUE PATH, OR THE
revelalion of his will at all; secondlly, what the revelation shall unfold, and whl;at it shall conceal; what
portion of the spiritual horizon it shall illuminate,
and what it shall leave in partial or in total darkness.  In other words, the fact, the matter, the
measure, and the methods of divine revelation, all
pertain alike and alone to the sovereignty of God,
who at one time hideth himself in the majesty of
darkness, and at another covereth himself with
light, as with a garment-of whom, at one time, it
is said, his pavilion  round about him  was dark
waters and thick clouds of the sky; and at another,
that he dwelleth in light inaccessible and full of
glory.
There are those who acknowledge the fact of a
supernatural revelation, and yet determine beforehand what it must, what it shall contain.  They
come to the Bible, with a complete system of theology, morals, and even church government, elaborated in their own minds, not loosely sketched, but
finished and rounded.  The conclusion on all these
grave subjects is fully resolved on, before the authoritative record is consulted.  They then, with
pertinacious diligence, hunt out whatever may be
made to sustain their foregone conclusion; and with
perverted ingenuity, distort or reject every thing
against it.  We can hardly  say whether greater
violence is done to human reason or to divine revelation, by such a procedure.  An acknowledged
revelation from God must partake of the supremacy




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  109
which pertains to its author. What is the meaning,
where is the use of a revelation, which is not to be
above but below the authority accorded to the human
mind?  What intolerable arrogance in man to presume to sit in judgment on an accredited revelation
from God, not to ascertain, but to determine its
meaning!  What a monstrous abuse of human
reason! What an audacious affront to the divine
majesty!
The design of God in revelation can be known
infallibly and only from what the Scriptures actually contain. What then, in brief, do they principally teach?  They teach explicitly and authoritatively, what man is to believe concerning God, and
what duty God requires of man.  The result of
all speculative wisdom, the sum of all practical religion-in a word, the whole duty of man, is to fear
God and keep his commandments.  Correct apprehensions of the nature, the authority, and the contents of divine revelation, lie at the foundation of
the piety which God approves; for the piety which
God approves consists in right views of God, in
right affections towards him, and in a correspondent
course of action.
It is a remarkable fact, that the bitterest controversies, which have vexed the church of God, have
turned upon matters, indeterminate, uncertain, and
incapable of scriptural adjustment.   There the
Bible stands, immutably, inflexibly one, and the
same amid the wars and changes of human opinion;
10




110            THE TTUVE PATTI, OR T-HE
meanwhile, the fashions of this world passing away,
revolutions perpetually taking place in systems of
human  philosophy, in theories toniching( the origifn
and destiny of man, in speculations conccriinl  the
origin and destiny of the earth wlich lie inh;btits;
controversies in  rela.tion  to  the  constitution, tlhe
character and the inhabitants of other, anl often
very distant bodies of the material universe, Geollog,
Astronomy, Metaphysics, Morals, Politics,:11 the
waves of pedant pride and popular tumult, risilg,
rag-ing, breaking against this our spiritual Gibraltar
harmlessly; then  retiring, their fury spent, to be
succeeded by other systems of speculation, alike
oaggressive and alike impotent.
Unchangeableness, which is so essential an attrib)ute of the Father of lights, is one of the most
marked  characters of that marvellous book, 1which
unfolds to lman  His eternal counsels.  Schools of
philosophy, systems of science, methods of interpi'etation, spring up; live through their appointed
dav; die, and are heard of no more. But the Bible,
althouglh often misinterpreted, distrusted, corrupteed,
a1nd opposed, is self-consistent, indestructible, and
invariably triumpha.nt.  It is a thing  well-worthy
of being pondered, that those very sciences, which
in  their infancy seemed  irreconcilably at variance
with  this  blessed  book, in  their maturity  have
borne witness to the more than mortal wisdom of the
holy men, wllo were moved to write it, and as willing capl:tives have joined tlhemnselves to its chllariot



YOUNG MAN IINVITEI') TO lE SA VIOUI.  Ill
wheels to swell its triumlIphs and to sound its praise!
It becomes the friends of God then to honour his
holy word by a calm, unfaltering trust; neither
torturing its language into a forced conformity with
the supposed testimony of infant sciences, nor rejecting the clear demonstrations of science, from
the foolish fear that they will be found to clash
with the recorded revelations of God.
No one need dread, lest the testimony of the
rocks or of the stars, when read aright, should be at
variance with the testimony of the Bible, rightly
interpreted. " Hath the rain a father? or who hath
begotten the drops of dew?  Out of whose womb
came the ice? and the hoary fiost of heaven who
hath gendered it? Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?
or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set
the dominion thereof in the earth?"  Job xxxviii.
28 33.
What would now remain of the primitive revelation of God, if it had been adjusted to every change
in science, to every phase in philosophy, to every
transient doctrine in morals, to every imaginary
improvement of the times-if it had been left in the
hands of men to be twisted, dropped, squared,
stretched, according to their will?  Not a shred!
not a fragment! It is likewise a truth, well worthy of remark, that some of the bitterest controver



112          TIEI TRUE PAT'I, OR THE
sies have turned not upon the fact, or the necessity,
or the rcsult of God's supernatural operation, but
upon the )iode of the divine working.  Now it is
highly important to bear in mind, that the latter
strictly belongs to Him, of which it may be we can
have no knowledge, while the former may be of the
number of our most sacred beliefs and duties. Thus
in regard both to the material and to the spiritual
creations.  I may be wholly ignorant or incurious
concerning the method of the creation, the worker in
the process, and even in the period employed in
calling into existence, and arranging in their relative forms and orders, the various tribes and species
of his diversified creation, from  the lowest to the
highest. I may believe with Dr. Chalmers, that an
indefinite period intervened between the original
act of creation referred to in the first two and a
half verses of Genesis, and the cosmical arrangement detailed in the succeeding verses of the first
and second chapters.  I may believe with Dr. Pye
Smith, that the chaos of darkness and confusion
was of limited extent.  I may hold with Hugh
Miller, that the days of Genesis first, were not
natural days, as Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Pye Smith
believed, but vast periods of indefinite duration; or I
may never have thought or heard of the matter at
all; and all or either, in perfect consistency with
the deepest reverence for the Scriptures, as divinely
inspired and divinely binding alike on faith and
reason. For each of these illustrious men believed




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  113
as fully in the divine origin and authority of the
Mosaic record, as the simplest Christian in all the
world.  There are many things in regard to the
mode of the creation, in respect to which intelligent
believers may innocently differ; but in regard to
the fact, there can be no difference of sentiment,
because he who denies it, not only ceases to be, in
any sense, a Christian, but proclaims himself an
Atheist.
So in regard to the new creation of the soul in
the spiritual image of its Maker.  There are many
things in relation to the work of the Spirit, in enlightening, attracting, subduing, sanctifying, and
comforting the believer, which we cannot explain.
But the fact, that rational and credible persons have
been the conscious subjects of such a supernatural
change, we can no more doubt than we can doubt
our own existence.  It is not only affirmed by innumerable and most trust-worthy persons of themselves as the conscious subjects of a spiritual renovation, in their desires, purposes, tendencies, hopes,
and fears, but it is the promise of God to as many as
should receive his Son, that they should have power
to become the sons of God; " which were born not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man but of God."  Still, while the fact is clearly
affirmed both of God and man, the mode of the
Spirit's operation is confessed of one and authoritatively declared of the other, to be obscure and
inscrutable. While the one gives, as the sum of his
10 *




114          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
witness, this testimony, "I know that whereas I
was blind, now I see;" the other says, " The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and
whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the
Spirit." John iii. 8. "For what man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in
him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man
but the Spirit of God.  For who hath known the
mind of the Lord, that he might instruct him?"  1
Cor. ii. 11-16.
The obvious design of God, in giving us a supernatural revelation, was to furnish certain intelligence
on the most important truths.  Those  matters
therefore, which it is most essential that we should
know, are most clearly revealed.
The primal duties shine aloft like stars;
The charities that soothe and heal and bless
Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers;
The generous inclination, the just rule,
Kind wishes and good actions and pure thoughts:
No mystery is here.
If a man were giving a chart to his fellowman,
travelling for the first time through an unknown
country, he would naturally set down, most plainly,
the largest objects, the highest mountains, the
principal rivers, the widest expanse of lake and
moor: and if any two intelligent persons should
examine such a chart together, and a dispute arise
concerning the way-marks, we might expect it to




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 115
turn upon the less considerable objects, which had
been wholly overlooked or obscurely indicated.
Now the Bible is an inspired chart of the way of
life: and shall God be reckoned less wise or less
compassionate in its construction, than a man would
be?  They who hold the grand and cardinal doctrines of the Christian revelation, and whose lives
accord with them, have the same precious inheritance; and should rejoice together as equally partakers of the common salvation. There ought then
to be no fierce controversies among men, who agree
in holding what both concede to be fundamental
truth.
It is a nearly related consideration and of the
same peace-making tendency, that the further we
recede from the obvious teachings of Scripture by
rational deduction, the more uncertain our conclusion, and the less likely to commend itself to the
reason and conscience of another.  Many men contend for the dark and doubtful inferences from a
long and intricate chain of reasoning, with not less
vehemence, than for the first principles of the doctrine of Christ; and represent them as not less
binding  on  the  faith of Christians generally.
Nothing can be more unjust and unreasonable.
The further we depart from what is plainly laid
down in Scripture, the less authoritative and the
less binding our conclusion.
We are prone to resent the restraints which
divine revelation lays upon our reason and our




116         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
will; but the greatest curse which God, in pitiless
wrath, could inflict upon us, would not be to annihilate us at once and for ever; but to let us live on
for ever and leave us without any authoritative rule
of conduct or definition of duty, to put out the light
of truth, to take away the key of knowledge, to
deny the consolations of grace, and extinguish the
hope of glory.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR. 117
LECTURE VI.
APPARENT DISCREPANCIES TOUCHING JUSTIFICATION.
WHEN we look at any point of the visible horizon,
it is but a very small portion of that glorious circle
which we can embrace at a glance.  Turning our
eyes in one direction, we necessarily turn our backs
upon the opposite point of the compass.  If we had
the hundred eyes of the fabled Argus-eyes before
and behind and on either side-if, in a word, the
whole body were one seeing faculty, we might survey
the whole circle of the heavens at once.
Precisely so is it with us in regard to moral
truth; we cannot take it in at once, in all its bearings and in all its beauty; in the act of looking at
one truth we turn our backs on another at the opposite pole. This arises, evidently, not from any
want of clearness or of prominence in the truth
itself, but from the infirmity of our faculties.  God
alone can take in at a glance the boundless and
beautiful circle of universal truth. To him-the infinite and essential Light-the Father of lights and
Fountain of light-no part of that circle is in




118         TIlE TRUE PATH, OR THE
shadow-no part is unseen.  His eye rests at the
same moment on all the propositions which constitute
the sum of universal truth.
What may be justly predicated of other truth,
that it is consistent with itself, may, with the utmost
confidence, be claimed for inspired truth. Sometimes
this harmony may not be apparent, and then it becomes a matter of faith.  Sometimes it is obscured
by difficulties, which arise from our ignorance, and
which disappear before fuller knowledge; but of this
fact we may rest assured, that there is no real contradiction in inspired truth-that it is all capable
of harmonious adjustment-that those truths which
to us seem most mysterious and remote, pursue their
even course, like the mighty and marshalled hosts
of heaven, which, though separated by vast spaces
and altogether invisible to mortal eyes-yet march
on in beauteous order to the eye of God, and make
sweetest melody in the Creator's ear.
The testimony of the Apostles Paul and James
touching the matter of justification, furnish the most
remarkable instance, perhaps, in all the Bible of an
apparent contradiction.
Paul says expressly that we are justified by faith
alone, without works.  Gal. ii. 16; Rom. iv. 1-4.
James says, in terms equally express, we are not
justified by faith without works, but that we are
justified by works also. James ii. 21-24. And as
an illustration of his doctrine, each appeals to the
case of Abraham.  Thus at first sight, there seems




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIlE SAVIOUR.  119
to  be  a palpable contradiction  throughout.   So
hopeless and invincible did the difficulty seem  to
Luther, that at one time he rejected the epistle of
James from the Sacred Canon, and stigmatized it as
an epistle of straw.  He afterwards, however, corrected his judgment concerning the canonical authority of this epistle, as subsequent editions of the
German Bible testify.*
*Turrettin's Theology, vol. 4.  Special dissertation De
Concordia Pauli et Jacobi in Articulo Justificationis. The
method of reconciling these two apostles adopted by Turrettin in his acute and learned discussion, and by Owen
in his massive and masterly treatise on Justification, had
not escaped the penetration of Augustine, the profoundest
theologian among the Latin fathers.  In his commentary
on psalm xxxi., he thus remarks: Jam qui audit, non ex
operibus, sed ex fide, observet illam voraginem, de qua
locutus sum: Vides ergo quia ex fide, non ex operibus
justificatus est Abraham; faciam ergo quidquid volo, quia
etsi bona opera non habuero, et tantum credidero in Deum,
deputatur nihi ad justitiam.  Si dixit et decrevit, lapsus
demersus est; si adhuc cogitat et fluctuat, periclitatur.
Scriptura autem Dei verusque intellectus, non soluri periclitantem a periculo liberat, sed et demersum a profuindo
elevat.  Respondeo ergo tanquam  contra Apostolum  et
dice de ipso Abraham quod invenimus etiaml in Epistola
alterius apostoli, qui volebat corrigere homines, qui male
intellexerant istum apostolum.  Jacobus enim in Epistola
sua, contra eos qui volebant bene operari de sola fide praesumentes, ipsius Abrahae opera commendavit, cujus Paulus fidem; et non sunt sibi adversi Apostoli. Dicit autein
opus omnibus notum, Abraham filium suum imnmolandum
Deo obtulit (Jacobi ii. 21) Ilagnum  opus, sed ex fide.




120          TTHE TRUE'PATH, OR THE
In the rejection of tlhis epistle he was followed by
the Magdeburg Centuriators.  The Epistle of James
was one of the last portions of Holy Writ to be received into the Sacred Canon; not so much from
any deficiency of external evidence, as because it
was thought that this Apostle's doctrine concerning the efficacy of works, was in direct conflict with
the scriptural doctrine of justification by faith in
Christ, without the works of the law.  This, together
with the final and general reception of the Epistle
into the Sacred Canon, proves, first, that the difficulty was great enough to be felt by the church;
secondly, that still it was not invincible.
I now proceed to show that there is no real discrepancy in the apostolic testimony, however real
and great it may at first appear.  Two knights of
yore are said to have quarrelled about the inscription
on a shield, and afterwards found that they were
both right; for they had been looking at the same
shield, but from different sides.  So it is in regard
to the matter in hand.  There was no real contradiction between the knights, and there is none between the Apostles.  What each knight said of his
side of the shield was true, and what each of these
Apostles says of justification and faith is true. But
the knights were not speaking of the same side of
the shield, and the Apostles were not speaking with
Laudo superoedificatiolnem operis, sed video fidei fundanentunl; laudo fructum boni operis, sed in fide agnosco
radicem.




YOUNO MAN INVITED TO TIlE SAVIOUR.  121
the same design, of the same justification, of the
same faith, or of the same characters.  The difference between  them, therefore, is verbal and apparent only, not real and essential.  This will he
evident:
First, from  a consideration of the design and
scope of each.  The free justification of the sinner
before God, by faith alone, is the ruling thought of
Paul's mind, and the reigning thought of all his
epistles and addresses. In its foundation, development, proofs, and consequences, it occupies the larger
part of the Epistle to the Romans, by far the most
extended and elaborate of his writings.  It is prominently put forward in the Epistles to the Galatians
and to the Ephesians, and is recognized and affirmed
throughout his epistles generally.  He was the
chosen champion of the doctrine, which, according to
the great Luther, is the article of a standing or of a
falling church. Paul was the great Protestant of
that day against the manifold corruptions and antievangelical errors of the Jewish Theology, errors
which have their deep foundation in human nature;
and have reappeared in various forms, and under
different names in all subsequent ages. The student
of the Scriptures and of church history, will continually find ancient errors and devices represented
as the discoveries of modern science, and the fictions
of yesterday proclaimed as the high, unquestioned
truths of antiquity.  Some historical acquaintance
not only with the current belief of the Jews in
11




122'[I11: TRUiE PATH, OR THE
Paul's day, but of the circle of errors through
which Greek philosophy ran, is necessary to a full
understanding of the Apostle Paul; especially the
first of his Epistles to the Corinthians and that to
the Romans.  Beginning with proud pretension, it
ended in absolute and universal scepticism; professing to be able to explain all mysteries, or aspiring
to do it, it ended with doubting all existence, all
truth, all thought.* The errors against which Paul
protested so vehemently are precisely those against
which Augustine contended manfully in the fifth
century;  and  Luther,  Calvin,  Zuingli,  Knox,
Cranmer, and other faithful reformers in the sixteenth.  The root of all these errors was and is,
that fallen  man  has in himself a  recuperative
energy, that he can  do something effectual and
meritorious, toward restoring himself to the favour
and fellowship of God.  It matters not, in regard
to the deadly effect of this error, whether it rest on
a denial of the total depravity and consequent helplessness of apostate man, or whether it proceed
from  some assumed relaxation of the holy rigour
of the divine law, or upon a special covenant made
* It is remarked by G. H. Lewes in his History of
Philosophy: Vol. ii. p. 136: that modern sceptics have
added nothing, which is not implied in the principles of
the Pyrrhonists. The arguments by which Hume thought
he destroyed all the grounds of certitude, are differently
stated from those of Pyrrho, but not differently founded;
and they may be answered in the sameiC way.




YOJI;S  MAN INVITED'TO THE SAVIOUR.  123
with a particular family or nation; it is, on either
hypothesis and in any case, equally unscriptural,
and altogether destructive of the grace of the gospel.  The design of Paul, consistently carried out
in all his extant addresses and epistles, was to correct the prevailing  errors on this  subject, and
authoritatively expound the real method of justification before God.  This he does by showing that
all men, Jews and Gentiles, are alike sinners against
a known law; that the sin is in every instance only
aggravated in proportion to the clearness and fulness
of the revelation; that the covenant made with
Abraham was not designed to secure the salvation
of all his natural descendants, without respect to
their personal character; that the rite of circumcision was so far from conveying a justifying virtue
that it was itself the seal of the righteousness of
faith; that the blood of Jesus Christ afforded the
only sacrifice for the sins of men; that his perfect
obedience not only satisfied but magnified the law; and
finally that through faith the justifying righteousness
of Christ was imputed to the believer, so that he, for
Christ's sake and for his sake alone, was discharged
from the obligation to die and was received as righteous before God.  The righteousness of Christ imputed to him, being the righteousness of God, manifest
in the flesh, and the sufferings of Christ accepted for
the expiation of his sins, being the agonies not of a
mere man, nor of a mighty angel, but of one who
was truly and in the most peculiar, exclusive, and




124          THE TRUE PATH, OR T1IE
exalted sense, the Son of God, the justified sinner,
according to Paul's teaching, is not only free from
all the penal demands of the law, which by his sins
he had broken; but is brought nearer to God, and is
more inseparably united to him  than Adam  was
before the fall.
The relation which faith bears to salvation in the
theology of Paul, is very distinctly marked and is
of vital consequence.  It does not justify, because
it is itself meritorious or the ground of our salvation,
for Paul assumes or asserts, throughout, that no
creature can lay  God  under obligation  or can
properly be said to merit anything good; still further that no sinner can, while a sinner and as a
sinner, do anything pleasing to God; still further
that justifying faith is itself the gift of God, through
Jesus Christ our Lord.  What then, according to
Paul, is the relation of faith to justification?  It is,
simply, that of an instrument by which we lay hold
of and rest upon the strength and merit of another.
Faith saves us, because by faith we receive Christ
Jesus, the anointed and almighty Saviour, in his true
character, in his proper office, as a gracious and
God-given Redeemer from sin and death and hell.
It is the link which unites the soul dead in sins to
Christ, the source of spiritual and immortal life;
and as the dead man revived when he touched the
bones of the prophet, so the dead soul revives when
brought into contact with the Lord of life.  Faith
has no virtue in itself, save as it puts us in connec



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  125
tion with Him who is made unto us of God wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Faith
saves us, because by faith we come to Christ, the
Saviour. We receive him; we believe on him, and
by his grace we are his and he is ours.
The design of the Apostle James was entirely
different from that of the Apostle Paul. It was not
to speak of the method of our justification in the
sight of God at all, but of the evidence of our justification in the sight of men, such as could be submitted to the intelligent judgment of our fellowcreatures, and should be satisfactory to ourselves
and others.  There seems to have been men in that
day, who believed and taught that the nominal
renunciation of Paganism or Judaism, and the bare
profession of the Christian faith, was enough to save
them, while they retained all their ancient vices, or
were at least total strangers to the purity, benevolence, and charity of the gospel.  The manifest
design of James was to rebuke their practical immoralities and neglects-to show that these were inconsistent with the Christian profession, at war with
the benevolent spirit of the gospel, and incompatible
with its most imperative obligations.
The faith of which Paul speaks as justifying, is
not the faith which James affirms that it cannot
justify.  So far are they from being the same, that
they have not one thing except the name in common.  According to the uniform testimony of Paul,
the faith which justifies a sinner before God, is
11 *




126          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
never found alone.  It is a faith which works by
love and purifies the heart.  It is variously and
vitally connected with every other Christian grace,
and it establishes its own identity; it proves and
proclaims itself a divine faith, only when it is evidently productive and powerful, a root from which
every other noble virtue springs, and of which heavenly charity is "the bright consummate flower."
Hence, this very apostle thus exhorts his Philippian
brethren: " Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report, if there be
any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these
things." Phil. iv. 8.
It is a very striking illustration of the apostles' harmony in doctrine, that Peter commences his
glorious catalogue, his golden band of Christian
virtues, with this radical and fruit-bearing grace.
"And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your
faith, virtue [or manly energy]; and to virtue
knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to
temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity." 2 Peter i. 5-7.
Such is the faith connected with every Christian
virtue, productive of every Christian grace, and
flowering out in love; such is the faith that Paul
says justifies without the works of the law. It justifies alone, but not being alone. The works, how



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  127
ever, with which it is invariably found connected in
our experience, are in no sense the cause, but ill
every case the effect and the evidence, of our justification before God.
Now let us compare, or rather contrast with this,
what is predicated of the faith of which the Apostle
James affirmed that it cannot justify.  It is a faith,
the very essence of which is profession or presumption.  It is not found associated with other graces.
It does not produce good works.  It is not fruitful,
but barren; not living, but dead; not saving, but
worthless. It is not faith in deed, but in name only.
It can deny a starving brother.  It cannot cloths
a naked sister.  It is a faith no better than the
faith of devils, who believe and tremble, but not adore
and love; a faith seeming and spurious, not real and
genuine-like bad money, which may have the name
of the king upon it, but is made of base metal-copper for gold, and lead for silver.  The faith then,
of which the two apostles speak, is not the same
faith.  Paul is speaking of a living faith, whose
fruits and proofs he gives.  James of a dead faith,
without works and every way worthless.   Since,
therefore, they do not speak of the same faith, there
is no real contradiction between them.
The truth is, that the other apostles urge the
indispensable necessity of good works, as the proper
evidences of regeneration, quite as freely as James,
when the occasion demands it.  Thus Paul says of
Christians, that they are " created in Christ Jesus




128          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
unto good works."  Eph. ii. 10.  He says the
design of Christ's death was " to purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."
Titus ii. 14.  He not only inculcates good works in
general, but in numberless places urges the obligation of particular duties, and affirms that it is a
distinctive mark of the gospel doctrine, that it is a
doctrine according to godliness, and says of wicked
men that while they profess to know God, yet in
works they deny him. Titus i. 16. I have dwelt on
these testimonies from Paul, the more fully, because
it has been thought that his doctrine was diametrically opposed to the doctrine of James; and that
while one was the champion of faith, the other was
the champion of works. The Apostle John, besides
urging particular duties, such as the forgiveness of
offenders, and kindness to the poor, almost in the
words of James, 1 John iii. 17, sums up all the
evidences of love to God in one, keeping his commandments.
As the faith of which Paul speaks is different from
that of which James speaks, so also is the justification. Paul intends justification in the sight of God.
James intends justification in the sight of men.
Paul refers to that " act of God's free grace wherein
he pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of
Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone."
Eph. i. 7; 2 Cor. v. 21; Rom. v. 19. James refers
to the demonstration to ourselves and others, that




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIIE SAVIOUR.  129
we are justified persons-a demonstration which
cannot be made or conceived of, except by works
and through works.  Paul's object is to exhibit the
method by which a guilty sinner is pardoned and
accepted of God, and obtains a clear title to the
heavenly inheritance.  The object of James is not
to declare the method of justification before God,
but to show wherein Christian character consisted
and whereby it might be evinced.  His sole aiSd
simple purpose is to show by what effects and arguments we may rightly conclude, who are justified
persons. 
Keeping in mind the facts, that the two apostles
are speaking of a different faith, of a different
justification, and of characters widely different: the
one of a living and working, the other of a dead and
worthless faith; the one of justification before God,
the other of justification before men; the one of
a conscious and convinced sinner, the other of a
sensual and false-hearted Antinomian, we may
now see how they might both appeal with equal
propriety to Abraham as a practical illustration of
the truth taught.
James says that Abraham was justified by works,
and the particular work intended was the offering
up of Isaac at the command of God. This, taken in
all its circumstances, is the most illustrious act of
obedience recorded of any mere man; and every
word of that command seems purposely selected to
heighten the trial and magnify the triumph of the




130          THE TRUE PATH, 01R THE
patriarch's obedience.  "And he said, Take now
thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom  thou lovest,
and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him
there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains
which I will tell thee of."  Gen. xxii. 2.  Isaac was
the son of his old age, the child of promise, the heir
of the covenant, born by miracle, the progenitor of
the Messiah.  The act of obedience was not of such
a nature that it could be instantly despatched, but
was to be postponed as to its consummation for
several days, and this dear son was to die, not by
the common visitation of men, not byilow disease,
not by sudden accident, not even by hostile violence
at the hand of a stranger, but by an uplifted knife
in his father's hand.  We know how hard it is for
a parent to bear the death of a beloved son, even
when he falls in the path of glory and of duty.
Oliver Cromwell tells us-strong-hearted soldier as
he was-that the death of his son, slain in battle,
went to his heart like a dagger.  Edmund Burke
soon followed to the grave the remains of his gifted
son, whose genius he fondly believed superior to his
own, and whose loss he did not wish to survive.*
*Nothing can be more affecting than the language in
which Burke deplores the death of his son: "The storm
has gone over me; and I lie like one of those old oaks
which the late hurricane has scattered about me.  I am
stripped of all my honours; I am torn up by the roots and
lie prostrate on the earth.  I am alone, I have none to
meet my enemies in the gate; desolate at home, stripped




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIlE SAVIOUR.  131
Could anything be imagined, therefore, better adapted
to show that the faith of Abraham was real, practical, supernatural?  Could anything better illustrate the view of the nature, design, and office of
faith, which the Apostle James had given, than this
incident in the life of Abraham?  Did not this
heroic act of obedience prove him a justified person
to himself, to his nation, to us, and to all men?'
Was not the plaudit of Jehovah just?  " For now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not
withheld thy son, thine only son, from  me."  Gen.
xxii. 12.
Now let us see how reasonably and forcibly the
case of Abraham  is alleged by Paul, to illustrate
his doctrine of the justification of a sinner before
God, without works and by faith alone. This sublime
act of obedience on the part of Abraham was not
the cause of his justification, but the evidence and
the fruit of it.  For he was in a justified state at
the very time of its performance, Moses and Paul
being witnesses, and not only so, we have the same
divine warrant for affirming that at the period of
his offering up Isaac, he had been in a justified state
for thirty years.  In the fifteenth chapter of Genesis,
referring to a period thirty years antecedent, it is
said "he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to
him for righteousness."  Gen. xv. 6.  Finally, it is
said by the Apostle Paul, "And he received the
of my boast, my hope, my consolation, my helper, my
counsellor, and my guide."-~Pror's Life of Burke.




THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of
the faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised,
that he might be the father of all them that believe,
though they be not circumcised, that righteousness
might be imputed to them also."  Rom. iv. 11. So
we may conclude assuredly, that there is no contradiction between those two apostles, but the most
perfect accord since they speak respectively of a
different faith-of a different justification-and of
different characters.
If it be asked, Why this apparent discrepancy in
the testimony of two inspired writers? we reply
that it is designed to exercise our faith and stimulate
our diligence.  "What I do thou knowest not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter," is the key to all the
difficulties of Scripture.  As there is the hiding of
Jehovah's power, so there is the hiding of his purpose.  When the difficulties are insoluble and insuperable, this concealment is to repress our intellectual pride and rebuke our rash judgments.
" Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou
find out the Almighty to perfection?"  In the mind
of God and in the counsels of God there is infinite
harmony; but that harmony is not always evident
to us.  We may see that several propositions are
contained in what we acknowledge to be a divine
revelation; and yet we may not be able to perceive
their consistency and correspondence.  The proper
course in that case is to take each on its own proper
evidence, and wait for the fuller light of heaven




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIIE SAVIOUR.  133
to shine upon them and show their mutual accordan ce.
When, however, the difficulty is of such a nature
that it may be removed or subdued by careful study,
the plain design of providence in permitting it, is
to stimulate our diligence in the investigation of
truth.  And this design is not more obvious than
beneficent.  Many a truth passes lightly over the
surface of the mind because it is so evident and
familiar; and many a passage of great preciousness
and profound significance is slightly regarded because its import is obvious.  It is an acute and
characteristic observation of Coleridge that, " Truths
of all others the most awful and interesting, are
too often considered as so true, that they lose all
the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors."  The very difficulties
that we meet with in the study of the Scriptures,
not only provoke inquiry but increase our strength
and brighten  our joy, when submitted to with
humility or surmounted with success.  Just as when
a man is walking on level ground, he is apt to walk
on lazily or turn aside lightly; but when he has to
ascend a high and rugged hill, or wade through a
deep and perilous morass, he gathers up his strength
and girds himself for labour.
We have seen that Paul presents our justification
in one of its aspects, and James in another; separate
and distinct, but not in conflict or contradiction.




134          TTHE TRIUE PATH. OR THE
A corollary may be drawn from either aspect of the
subject worthy of our consideration.
The first is the importance of keeping the law and
the gospel strictly separate in the matter of our
justification before God.  This is not a secondary
concern-a thing of speculation or theory, but of
prime necessity, of supreme moment.  It is not a
matter in which our Christian comfort and clearness alone are involved, it is a matter of life and
death with us.  There is but one method of justification for a sinner before God, and that is the
method revealed in the gospel by faith on the Lord
Jesus Christ, a Saviour objectively presented, a
Saviour out of ourselves, a Sacrifice of infinite merit
and power.  We cannot trust partly in him, and
partly in ourselves, in our repentance, our faith,
our reformation, our love, our humility, our prayers,
our tears, our benefactions, or anything that is ours,
either as wroluht in us, or done by us.  We may
not divide the work or the glory with him.  We
must be content to receive a free pardon and hope
in a gracious Saviour. Do this, and y6u need never
fear falling into condemnation; he will receive you
as you are, and make you what you ought to be; he
will take you in the roughness and pollution of your
nature, and make you a pure and polished pillar in
the temple of our God whence you shall no more go
out for ever.  He will look upon you in your nakedness and blood, cast out as defiled and loathsome
and execrable, and he will wash vou in clean water




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIlE SAVIOUR.  135
and clothe you in a shining robe, and put a ring on
your hands and shoes on your feet.  His salvation
is of pure grace.  He came not to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance: Christ is God's free gift:
the Spirit is his free gift: heaven is his free gift:
repentance, faith, perseverance, and eternal gloryall that accompanies, accomplishes, and constitutes
salvation, all is his free gift.
The second is the importance of guarding against
practical Antinomianism, or the profane notion,
that we believe in Christ, we are orthodox Christians, and, therefore, we shall be saved, though we
live not as becometh the gospel.  The great danger
with many in our time, is a forgetfulness of James'
doctrine, that we are justified by works also, and
not by faith alone, that our faith itself is justified,
and our Christian confession can be justified only
by works.  Already we can discern clear signs of
impatience in many, when the binding obligation of
good works is urgently exhibited. Such teaching is
stigmatized as legal teaching.  If this is legal teaching, then Paul was a legal teacher, when he exhorted
to "maintain good works for necessary uses." Tit.
iii 14. And James, when he said, " Show me thy
faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith
by my works."  James ii. 18.  And Peter, when he
said, "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He which hath called you is holy, so
be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because




136          TIlE TtUE PATI, OR TllE
it is written, Be ye holy for I am holy."  1 Peter i.
14-16.  And Johni,' Beloved, follow not that which
is evil, but that which is good.  Hte that doeth good
is of God; but he that doeth evil hath not seen God."
John iii. 11.  And our Lord himself: "A good tree
cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt
tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth
not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into
the fire.  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know
them."  Matt. vii. 18-20.  In the dispensation of
God, our sanctification flows from our justification,
but in the experience of man, we infer our justification from  the consciousness of our sanctification.
The only certain evidence, therefore, which a man
can exhibit to satisfy himself or another that he has
faith, is afforded by his works.  Mere profession
without works is mere delusion, or presumption, or
hypocrisy.  The pretence of piety without the mortification of sin, without justice, truth, conscientiousness, humility, self-denial, alms-giving, brotherlykindness, and charity is inexpressibly odious in the
sight of God, our Supreme Judge, injurious to the
souls of our fellowmen, and a high aggravation of
every other sin.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  137
LECTURE VII.
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, THE LEAVEN OF LIFE.
How different the emotions which the spectacle
of Athens awakened in the souls of Cicero and of
Paul! both of whom saw this illustrious city, as we
know, and at no great interval of time. The one
surveyed it with the eye and the heart of a heathen;
although a philosopher, a scholar, a statesman, and
an orator.  He instinctively and delightedly recalled its ancient glories; the voices of the gifted
dead still rang in his ears; the awful tones of Demosthenes aroused a sympathetic dread or an admiring glow, in the heart of the orator. The splendid
rule of Pericles spoke to the statesman; those
structures, which even in decay and in fragments,
have been the admiration and despair of succeeding
ages, appealed to his sense of the beautiful, still
more deeply touched by the unrivalled productions
of the pencil and the chisel, fit ornaments of such
architecture; and then, as the croiwn of all, the intellectual glories, which like a spiritual halo encircled
those wondrous works  of art, those matchless
12 *




138           TIIE TRUE PATH, OR THE
triumphs of the painter, the sculptor, and the architect-temples and theatres, which revived the hoar
majesty  of  /Eschylus, the moral wisdom  and
pathetic vehemence of Euripides, the artistic skill,
the harmonious grandeur, and the consummate grace
of Sophocles.
The actual emotions excited in the mind of the
apostle are not left to conjecture.  His spirit was
stirred within him, when he saw the city wholly
given to idolatry.  HIe seems not to have had an
eye or a thought for inferior interests, although no
stranger to the culture of the Greeks.  What to
him were the graceful proportions of the Parthenon,
or the glories of the famous Pnyx, where the greatest of orators had so often held spell-bound the
most imaginative and the most impulsive souls to
whom human eloquence had ever been addressed?
What to him were the artistic triumphs of Phidias
or Praxiteles, when the orator in the height of his
great argument, though a Pericles or a Demosthenes,
could appeal only to an unknown God? and what to
hinm were the aesthetic attractions of a temple or image, if that temple were dedicated to Minerva or to
Venus, and that image consecrated to Jupiter or
Mars?  Hie felt that men's religious interests were
their highest interests, that God's best gift to man
was the gospel, though foolishness to the Greek;
that it was the most potent factor and the most precious element that had ever entered into the history




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  139
and heart of man; that it was the tree of life, whose
leaves were for the healing of the nations.
Men there are in the world who are not of the
world, the good seed of the kingdom, children of
the light and the day. The superficial may be able
to discern no difference between them and others.
There is nothing peculiar in their dialect, dress, diet,
or occupation; but their principles, aims, instincts,
spirit, their pains and pleasures, hopes, and fears,
all are different from those of this world's children,
their character in time and their destiny for ever!
God the Creator and Father of all men, but by a
double and a dearer title, their God and Father,
does not regard them as he regards others.  They
are especially dear to him, his elect lot, his beloved
heritage, his desired portion, "a garden enclosed, a
spring shut up, a fountain sealed." Song iv. 12.
For them  he moves, controls, exalts, abases, all
other agents; for them he orders all events and determines all their issues.
Accordingly, one thing  especially remarkable
about the Christian religion is the absolute identity
of its manifestations all over the world and in all
ages of the world; not merely the internal bond,
that constitutes its essential unity, the conclusive
fact that all its doctrines cohere and correspond,
that there should be no irreconcilable conflict between statements of innumerable men of various
nations, ranks, lineage, education, calling, and extending over a vast period of not less than sixteen




140         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
centuries, from the author of the book of Genesis
to the author of the book of Revelation; not this
merely, but the practical spirit which it has evinced,
and the practical fruits which it has borne in every
soil and under every sky.  In the four quarters of
the globe, the faithful servants of the true God have
been distinguishable, from the giving of the law on
Mount Sinai to the preaching of the gospel on the
Mount of Blessing; from the first century of the
Christian era to the present day, by the same attributes, evincing the same traits, doing the same
deeds, preferring duty to interest, rendering good
for evil, and renouncing life rather than a good
conscience.
Under every dispensation, the grand design of
every revelation of grace has been to bring many
sons unto glory; to redeem immortal souls from the
deadly evils of the first apostasy, and conduct them
to the full fruition of heavenly bliss. When one of
our race is regenerated by the Holy Ghost, adopted
into the family of God, and made an heir of eternal
glory, Satan loses a slave and a victim, our Father
in heaven gains a child and a worshipper for ever!
What a change takes place in the spirit, the character, the destiny of the subject of that gracious
adoption in time and throughout eternal ages!
What wonder that the angels in heaven rejoice over
a repenting sinner; that the Father of all rejoices;
that the Son of God rejoices over the returning
prodigal! If any man sin and one convert him,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIE SAVIOUPI. 141
"let him know that he which convereth the sinner
from the error of his way shall save a soul from
death and shall hide a multitude of sins." James v.
20. Is it not worth then all the anxieties which
the christian can endure, all the efforts that he can
make, all the intercessions that he can employ, and
all the indignities that he can suffer, to achieve such
an end?
The sovereign good of human nature is holiness,
inward purity, consecration to God, in which alone
we attain that freedom, dignity, and happiness, in
which the proper perfection of our nature consists.
This then is what all men should seek first and
most; happiness will naturally follow in the wake of
duty.  Self-seeking is self-destruction.  The direct
pursuit of pleasure is the certain death of happiness.
Nothing indeed should be mainly and primarily
sought but duty. When a man has any other guide,
seeks any other end, he is self-condemned; and the
voice of his own condemning conscience is but the
echo of the more awful voice of God. To fit us for
heaven we need an inherent and subjective qualification, and this qualification is holiness, the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost.  Heaven is an unmerited but not an arbitrary gift, ajd therefore not irrespective of moral
fitness.  Rev. xxi. 27.  Without personal godliness, the perpetual presence of God would be the
most abhorred thraldom, the most terrible woe.
Our preparation for heaven is a progressive work,




142         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
and God detains us upon the earth only till it is completed.  We should indeed be saved if we were to
die the moment the Saviour says, "Thy sins are
forgiven thee;" but we have not a proper and perfect fitness for our purchased crown, until our work
on earth is ended, the battle fought and the victory
won. Addressing myselfespecially to young men, just
entering on a religious course, I say, Press on, strive
to enter in at the strait gate, remember that a crown,
a kingdom is before you, a crown of righteousness
and the kingdom of heaven.  If a Christian at all,
you will endeavour to be a growing Christian, and
you will be. Until the end of your life you will be
making daily progress in knowledge, zeal, love,
devotion.  You will have an increasing power in
prayer, more courage and heart for duty. You will
be more conscientious as you become more confirmed
in holiness and wisdom.  The painter with every
touch of his brush gives more distinctness, delicacy,
harmony, finish to his picture.  Day by day, the
sun and air cause a deeper shade to descend on the
golden rind of the summer fruit, and add more
sweetness to its luscious juices.  So with Christian
character, every day will add a finer tint, a livelier
hue. Daily will evil passions be more perfectly subdued, faults confessed and corrected, errors detected
and amended, under the discipline of Providence,
the means of grace, and the teaching of the Holy
Ghost.
The gospel is the great instrument of spiritual




YOTUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  143
regeneration, according to the commission of our
Lord to the apostles, " Go ye into all the world andl
preach the gospel to every creature, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
you, and lo! I am with you always, even unto the
end of the world."  Here we have the original
affirmation of the teaching office of the church; the
permanent commission of representatives and ministers, in its Author and purpose, in its terms and
promise.
The whole world, then, is to be sought, to be
reached, to be renovated. Unregenerate humanity is
the corrupt mass; the gospel of the grace of God is
the leaven which is to pervade and purify it.  The
church of the living God, small and unnoticed in its
earlier progress and incipient movements, is destined
when grown, to fill the earth with its fiagrance and
its fruit, as the grain of mustard seed which a man
took and sowed in his field, "which indeed is the least
of all seeds, but when it is grown is the greatest
among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds
of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."
Matt. xiii. 32.
These characteristic images are supposed to set
forth, with admirable aptness and completeness, the
two-fold aspect and operation of the gospel, intensive and extensive, on the thoughts, affections, discourse, and conduct of the individual man, as they
are progressively pervaded and transformed thereby;
and its external operation on the forms and forces,




144          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
the institutions and usages, the objects and interests
of organized society.
The universal spread of the blessed gospel in its
doctrine and spirit, in its power and glory, is the
heaven-ordained process by which men are to be
delivered from corruption, translated into a kingdorn, and invested with a character of righteousness.
To act upon this great truth is the office of faith;
to put our trust in no earthly organization, in no
human contrivance, in no system of man's device,
in no scheme of philanthropy, in no scheme of
benevolence; but in the pure and simple gospel,
wherein is the wisdom of God and the power of
God unto salvation.  Honour the gospel, honour
God, and he will honour you. Cast contempt upon
hlim, his truth, his church, which is the pillar and
gro.und of the truth, his chosen instrument to reform
~an,1 save men, and he will overwhelm you and your
presumptuous schemes with merited confusion and
shame.  Moral and benevolent societies are very
good things, when directed to proper objects and
lnd.er wise control; but they are not the gospel,
and they are not the church.  They never can be
the instrument of the world's regeneration.  All
such pretensions are vain and fallacious, arrogant
and wicked.
God's providence appears in so  ordering  all
things-the minutest, the most painful, seemingly
the most adverse ain(d injurious-as to facilitate the
conversion  atnd effect the final salvation of his




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIlE SAVIOUR.  145
own people.  TTis naturall andl g.racious sovereignty
over all elements, agents, eveits, ld cfcects, in
endless succession, is gloriously exercised in doin*
just what is needful; sending trouble when, where,
in the form, in the way, and in the measure, in
which it will be most efficacious; at the same time
operating within by his Spirit, on the thoughts
and affections of the heart, so as most effectually to
incline it to himself, and bind it fast in chains of
heavenly love.  Of one thing we have the absolute
assurance, that Christ, as King, shall ultimately
subdue, by his word and Spirit, all his and our enemies; among whom  the chief and worst are unbelief, pride, rebellion, sinful anger, lust, superstition,
covetousness, and the love of this present evil
world.
Every man contributes to the diffusion of the
gospel, as himself imbued with its spirit and power.
As himself leavened, he is not only one taken from
the corrupt mass, and so in an individual and isolated form leavened; but he directly spreads the
hallowed influence, and so the saving process goes
on, until a family, a state, a nation, a world is
leavened.  The man, who is not faithful to every
other man's soul, is not faithful to his own.  The
man who does not properly care for, pray for, and
labour for the conversion and edification of every
member of his family, of every human being in the
proportion of his personal claims on his Christian
charity, is not faithful to his own spiritual interests,
1t —




146         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
So wisely hath God identified our own comfort and
safety, with the punctual discharge of our duty to the
souls of all others; and so effectually hath he provided
for the universal diffusion of gospel light and truth!
Men do not stand apart, insulated, alone in this world.
There is therefore in the saving conversion to God
of a particular person, not the mere leavening of
that one, not the subtraction of a single unit from the
side of sin and Satan, and the carrying over of that
single unit to the side of holiness and of the Saviour;
there is not merely the kindling of one other light
in a dark place, but there is the lifting aloft of one
who shall shine, and cheer, and guide, by his
own solitary radiance, but the putting into being
and brightness one from whose blazing body innumerable other lights may be kindled in all lands and
through all time.  It is not the mere electrifying
of a single substance, cut off from all communication with every other, but it is the communication
of the electric current to a whole battery at once,
or in scarcely appreciable succession.  The history
of the propagation of religion in this way, from
man to man, like men riding post and taking the
truth from one point to another, from one person to
another, like  the fiery cross of Scotish  story,
the gleaming light borne far over hill and dale,
by the first messenger committed to a second,
who repeats the same process, and then he in turn
gives it to a third, until the whole country is illuminated and aroused; or like men joining hands,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  147
in long succession and in a vast circle-such a history  would be replete  alike with interest and
instruction.  Thus from  Adam  to Enoch, from
Enoch to Noah, from  Noah to Abraham, from
Abraham  to David, and from  David to Christ;
then taking the advent of the Redeemer as the
second great starting-point, tracing this line of light
over the vast spaces which have intervened; some
of them centuries of darkness, degradation, superstition, and shame; but that line of light, though
flickering and feeble, never quite extinguished, but
still visible, and sometimes rising and beaming far
and high with heavenly radiance, from  Christ to
Paul, from Paul to Augustine, from Augustine to
Luther, from Luther to the present hour! How
strict and clear the connection between the conversion of many of these, as of Paul and Stephen,
Augustine and Ambrose-Augustine from whose
heaven-filled urn so many of God's faithful servants
replenished their waning lamps, during the long
night of Papal domination and darkness, till the
rise of Martin Luther aud John Calvin, both of
whom reverenced him as they reverenced no other
uninspired mortal; and in later days from William
Wilberforce to Legh Richmond, from Legh Richmond to John Newton, and from  John Newton to
Thomas Scott.
Think of the leavening influence going out from
all of these men; from the great Protestant reformers
of Germany, France, Switzerland, England, and




148          THE Trll I: PATIi. e1   TILL
Scotland, personally by their preaching l andl example
while they lived; by their writings and their prayers,
which in different ways, have operated on the minds
and hearts of men, since they died; and which must
continue to live and work and spread,
" Till the last syllable of recorded time,"
"like a circle in the water, which never ceaseth to
enlarge itself."  The man who in any way contributes to the diffusion of this leaven by his life,
his labours, his teaching, his prayers, or his money,
is doing a certain, an endless, an incalculable good.
The better and nobler order of spirits have a high
sense of intellectual obligation.  They feel a strong
personal attachment to their teachers, those who
have led them  into the secret chambers of moral
wisdom, at first of difficult access it may be, but
once entered, shining with a serene and heavenly
light, garnished with pure gold and pearls and precious
stones, and compassed about with goodly pillars and
strong and stately walls.  They feel a sentiment of
personal gratitude to those who first elicited their
dormant energies, furthered the development of their
conscious powers, communicated to their minds a
pleasure higher far than the wealth of Xerxes could
purchase, or the banquets of Apicius afford-the
pleasure that'springs up in the soul on the perception of a new truth, or of an old truth in new forms,
under new aspects, in new relations.  Every scholar
is sensible of a feeling akin to personal attachment




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  149
to the great intellectual benefactors of the race,
stars of the first magnitude in the firmament of
letters; to Bacon " the minister and interpreter of
nature," who so justly says of himself, "I have
taken all knowledge to be my province;" to Milton,
to whom it was given " to celebrate in glorious and
lofty hymns the throne and equipage of God's
almightiness, and what he works, and what he
suffers to be wrought with high providence in his
church; to sing victorious agonies of martyrs and
saints, the deeds and triumphs of just and pious
nations;" to Shakspeare "so noble in reason! so
infinite in faculties!"  How  much greater, how
much more worthy of grateful remembrance, obligations purely spiritual and religious! What do
we not owe to the great Protestant Reformers,
to our own spiritual pastors, who in labour and
weariness, with many tears and temptations, have
watched for our souls as they that must give account! Hereafter, how vain and empty will many
objects seem, which now so engross and ensnare
us! How  lighter than the small dust of the
balance, the aims of vulgar ambition, the petty
gains and honours, the jealousies, the triumphs,
the hopes and fears, which now  so absorb and
agitate us! When once the line that separates for
us time and eternity has been passed, our brief
and unreturning probation ended; of what infinite
importance will purely spiritual labours and attainments seem!
13 *




150         TIE TRUE PATH, OR TIlE
All lands and times are bound together by thousand-fold influences.  The aggregate of all history,
known and unknown, the former chiefly affects the
thinker-moulds the mind and heart of successive
generations.  We act on the future, and we in turn
are acted on by the past.  Every event in time,
every thought of man, expressed in speech or action,
is at once a seed and segment of universal history.
It is this which throws such an immense responsibility
around human opinion, feeling, and action.  We
cannot even in thought touch the utmost limit to
which influence extends, or the innumerable avenues
through which it goes forth.  The knowledge of the
influence which good and bad men respectively exert,
is concealed from them in great part till eternity.
God alone, who has given men their faculties and
assigned their duties, to whom the ultimate and
most awful responsibility is due, can fully estimate
the infinite importance of faithful obedience to his
own laws.  Thus our very ignorance of the remote
and possible consequences of our conduct should
instruct us.  Of whatever else we may be ignorant,
we know that,
" Duty, stern daughter of the voice of God,"
is a sacred thing.  We cannot tell how far the
consequences of obedience or rebellion may reach,
or how long they may endure.  It is not our part
to reckon consequences, or balance probabilities,
but to obey laws.  Who can estilmate the remote




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  151
issue of one act of resolute virtue or of one life of
heroic service, like that of Moses or Paul, of Luther
or Martyn?
The most potent agencies of nature are always
slow  and silent.  When Jehovah spoke of old to
the prophet, it was not in the great and strong wind
which rent the mountains, nor in the earthquake,
nor yet in the fire; but in the still, small voice; 1
Kings xix. 9-13; and so it has ever been.  The
wisest of us are very incompetent judges of the
elevation and dignity, the magnitude or the extent,
of moral forces.  The kingdom of God cometh not
with observation.  Religion is making progress
when the world, when the church, and the teachers
and rulers of the church, are not dreaming of it.
If we had " senses exercised to discern both good
and evil;" Iheb. v. 14; a more delicate tact wherewith to  perceive  spiritual things, the  scarcely
audible whisper of a divine truth as of the gentle
sigh of the summer wind, passing over the tender
grass, the scarcely formed footprints of the King
of kings, as in noiseless majesty he passes by, the
ethereal aroma of the Saviour's presence and working, so "that though he would not be known, yet
he could not be hid," the obscure intimation of the
glorious day in the first faint flush of the rising
dawn, we should oftentimes be thankful and glad,
when now we are cast down with sorrow and fear.
It may serve, too, to show how shallow as well as
audacious, are the flings and jeers of free-thinkers




152         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
and pseudo-philosophers, like the Pantheist Carlyle,
when they would fain have it believed that the
Christianity of our time is worn out and worthless,
incapable of heroic struggles and sacrifices, of the
crown of martyrdom and the palm of victory.
Patient progress is the law of the kingdom of
God on earth.  Men are impatient and impulsive.
They are for precipitating events, doing every thing
at once, sowing the seed and reaping the harvest,
the same day.  Not so God, with whom a thousand
years are as one (lay, and one day as a thousand
years.  The world was created successively, not
simultaneously, all its kingdoms and species and
races at once.  Four thousand years were suffered
to elapse from the apostasy to the redemption, from
the expulsion of the first Adam from Eden in shame
and sorrow, to the opening of "the most ancient"
heavens to receive the second Adam, the triumphant
and ascending Saviour, the glorious Conqueror of
the gloomy realm  of sin and death, the gracious
Revealer and Giver of Paradise regained, a world of
perfect joy and love, a region of perpetual light and
sunshine and peace.
The providence of God is the gradual evolution
and accomplishment of a far-reaching plan. Every
step contemplates something beyond, is conditioned
by the past, and connected with the future.  The
same great law applies to the three great kingdoms
of nature, of providence, and of grace; in each there
is first the grain, then the ear, after that the full




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  153
corn in the ear. " Excelsior" is the Christian's proper
motto, as it is his constant aim.  Ile is called continually to purer and loftier heights of holiness,
until at last, every sin subdued, and every stain
effaced, he is invited to come up higher, above the
starry heights, beyond the crystal sphere, aloof
from the region of storm  and tempest, of sin and
death, to mansions of peace and glory prepared in
heaven for him.  The life that we now  live is an
education for eternity; and on the proper exercise,
and discipline, and consequent development of our
powers on earth, may depend the largeness, the
variety, and the comparative glory of our final
attainments.  This may possibly be true, and most
probably is true, in regard to the redeemed at least,
of our purely intellectual progress, especially in
the knowledge of what is revealed, and in obedience
at once to the law of conscience and to the love of
truth.  It holds certainly and absolutely of our
moral and spiritual attainments.  The talent which
is now wisely laid out, will there be found to have
multiplied exceedingly, and yet in proportion to
our present diligence.  So that at death, there will
not only be an immediate, but a prospective and
progressive reward for our present faithfulness in
self-culture in the service of God. Every stroke
that is designed to bring out the living image of
perfect excellence, will go sounding  on through the
noiseless slumber of the tombh, through the dateless
ages of eternity.  Still, we must never forget, that




154         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
religion does not consist in speculative knowledge,
or in sentimental virtue, or in motiveless action, or
in constitutional benevolence, or in an external
course of good living based upon earthly principles
and affections. It is a life, created and kindled by
the breath of God, having its seat in the soul, and
its proof and power in all manifestations within and
without; conscious and sensible in the affections,
principles, and conduct.
Constant progress is the law of the religious life
of the individual believer.  The reason why any
"that did run well" fall away, is the fatal thought
that they can fall back, with impunity, that they can
stand still without danger.  Under these delusions,
instilled by Satan and fostered by the corrupting
example of nominal believers, they remit their diligence, cease their watchfulness, lose their tenderness of conscience, dally with what they call little
sins, have no longer any sense of freedom and joy
in prayer; a yawning chasm, a dreadful and increasing distance, now separates their souls from God.
They are tottering on the verge of a deep abyss;
at length, they commit some overt act of transgression, gross and scandalous. Their spot is evidently
not the spot of God's children; they stand revealed
to their own eyes, and to the view of all men, selfconvicted and foul apostates.  What, let us ask, is
the origin-what the secret history of these melancholy cases? What but the absurd and unscriptural
notion that they might dismiss all zealous concern,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  155
when they thought their sins forgiven, their peace
made, their salvation sure?  These are the successive steps and stages of their downfall.  First they
grow  presumptuous, then they become lukewarm,
then they relapse into worldliness, formality, sloth,
and death! There is no better test of true piety,
than that it continues to the end, and grows to the
last.  The promise is to such, and to such only.
The principle of piety, when genuine, is permanent
and progressive.   It is diffusive, like light; it is
pervasive, like leaven.  Accordingly, we are exhorted to grow in grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The whole man in his thoughts, feelings, speech,
conduct, objects, and interests, is to be pervaded
and purified by the gospel.  A true faith works at
once, equally, and in all directions; in its nature,
it is impartial; in its sphere, universal.  It spreads
through the whole mass. Other images are employed
in Scripture to indicate the same general truth.
Sometimes the gospel is represented under the
image of leaven, diffusing itself through all the
faculties of the soul; sometimes as a principle of
life, giving rise to a spontaneous and symmetrical
development. A normal and healthy growth implies
a uniform expansion, a proportioned increase. This,
we see in the graceful flower, its stalk swelling, its
verdant branches putting forth tender buds, which
in their time unfold in " the bright consummate
flower."  Thus, true piety, like leaven, spreads its




156          TTTE TRUE PATH, OR THE
sanctifying  and saluta.ly  forces throughl  all the
mind, through all the man.  it induces a regular
and harmonious development of all the graces of
the Spirit.  It spares no vice, however pleasing and
prevalent, however deep-seated and constitutional.
It will not do for the passionate man, after he
becomes a Christian, to excuse his unchristian outbreaks on the ground that his is a constitutional
infirmity, a besetting sin.  The faithful commander
doubly fortifies the weak point, and places his most
trusty sentinel at the post most liable to surprise
and assault.  " Wherefore, seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let
us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the
race that is set before us."  -leb. xii. 1.
It is then not less the command of God, than the
dictate of reason, to guard with special vigilance
against our besetting sins.  If our religion be not
thus impartial, comprehensive, and harmonious, it
is not genuine, scriptural, saving.  A  single leak
neglected may sink a ship; and a single sin indulged may damn a soul. The earnest and elevated
believer is perpetually surrounded by a sense of
duty, by the conscious presence of God, like an allembracing atmosphere.
All the events of life may be made conducive to
tliis leavening process; health and sickness,wealth
and poverty, shame an(l honour, life and deatl,
evermy (lispensation of Providence, 1an11d evclry enlotion




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIIHE SAVIOUJR.  157
of  the heart.   " All tilings work  together for
goo4 to tllicm that love God, to them  that are the
called accorldilg to his purpose.   All things are
yours, a(nd ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's."
Even our verLy sins may instruct us, lay be made
the instrumients under God of teaching us a truer
and deeper self-knowledge, of breeding within us a
purer and mlore perfect humility, of making us more
distrustful of our own imagnined strength and holiness, of leading us to put our trust more simply in
the all-sufficing grace of the Lord Jesus.  Let not
those therefore, who have fallen into open sin, and
so brought dread and darkness on their own souls,
and scorn on the holy name by which they were
called, fall into despair.  Satan would drive you to
despair, but Christ calls you to repentance.  Your
only hope is in the recovering, pardoning grace of
your injured, but still forgiving Father.   Let your
instant, incessant, and only appeal be to his mercy
in Christ. Zech. xii. 10; lHosea xiv. 4-7.   "Let
your eyes look upon me whom you have pierced,"
says our loving, bleeding  Saviour, "and mourn for
him  as one mourneth for his only son, and be in
bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his
firstborn.  Take with you words, and turn to the
Lord; say unto him, Take away all iniquity and
receive us graciously, so will we render the calves
of our lips:"  Then will he turn and say unto you,
"I will heal their backsliding, I will love them
freely, for mine anger is turned away from him.  I
1-1




158          THE TRUE PATIH, OR THE
will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the
lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.  They
that dwell under his shadow  shall return; they
siall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine; the
scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon."
As the thoughts, the dispositions, the habits, the
spirit, and life of the individual are to be leavened
by the gospel, so the beliefs, the literature, the laws,
the maximis, the manners, the principles, and the
polity of nations, of the race, are all to be leavened
in like manner.  And the process is indicated in
the leaven.  It is to be silent, gradual, insensible,
communicated.  It is to be a real leavening.  It is
to spread from  man to man; from  land to land.
The race is indeed a unit-as the individual is one;
as the family is one; as the nation is one.  We are
made of one blood.  We are redeemed by one Saviour.  We are sanctified by one Spirit.  We have
all one Father.  We look forward with glad hearts
to one heaven.  One of the race influences each;
each of the race influences all.  The injury I dlo
myself, does not, cannot terminate with me.  The
saying so common among young men, "No man's
enemy but his own," is a solecism, an absurdity,
an impossibility.  The man who is his own enemy
is tie enemy of the whole human race, just so far.
He defrauds all whom  he might have served: he
injures by his death all whom he might have benefitted by his life.  And his bad example may be all
tile more extensive, the ilore infections, and the




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIE SAVIOUR.  159
more mischievous if it gain currency and colour
from accidental association with certain amiable and
pleasing qualities, which are often found in the selfindulgent voluptuary. Of whatsoever he may seek
to persuade himself, however he may be regarded
by  others, he is a genuine Ishmael; his hand is
against every man.  There is a trembling, widespread sensibility in the soul of man.  The blow
that strikes one wounds all men through all time.
This is true of wickedness and of wicked men; preeminently true is it of moral goodness and of good
men.  That is only a half truth then, which Shakspeare utters when he says,
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones.
In the providence of God, on the principle of
accountability, neither the evil nor the good will
ever cease to live and act and spread; neither
the good nor the evil is interred with our bones.
Each is vital, eternal, on earth, and in other worlds.
Our influence for good or evil is boundless in duration and degree. It is fraught with a perpetual life.
It is essentially, infinitely, eternally reproductive.
Powers depart;
Possessions vanish and opinions change,
And passions hold a fluctuating seat;
But by the storms of circumstance unshaken,
And subject neither to eclipse nor wave,
Duty exists —immutably survive,
For our support, the measures and the forms,




160           THIE TIEI; P        OATH, OR TIIE
Which an abstract intellie nce supplies,
Whose lingdom is, where time and space are not.
God call;; us to take part in a great work, in a
great warfare; the  accomplishment of many  an
ancient and glorious prophecy; the application to
ourselves and others of the gracious and saving
atonement; the diffusion of the gospel and the conversion of the world.  Will you hearken?  Will you
do it?  Christ has done his part.  His work is
finished and accepted.  The Spirit of grace, the
purchase of the Son, and the promise of the Father
is ready to do his part.  Will you do yours?   Will
you 1e co-workers with God? Will you seek to win
souls? Will you pray, labour, suffer sacrifice in this
holy cause, for this grand object?  The importance
of human action cannot be exaggerated, cannot be
expressed, and the corresponding importance of a
sound judgment, of a thoughtful mind, above all, of
a: conscience enlightened and controlled by the truth
and Spirit of God.  It is awe-inspiring to reflect
upon the permanence, still more the propagation,
of influence.  The universe is a vast whispering
gallery, wherein the least and lowest accent of truth,
of faith, of prayer, of love, is no sooner uttered than
it is tiaken up and repeated and reverberated everywhere and for ever.
The sin of Ada.m  as our natural and our federal
head, wa1s in several respects peculiar, both as imputed  land as tl.-ransmitted; but cever('y  manl's sin
spreads:abroad atId afair disease, corruption, vwsretch



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  161
edness, and death, in his own immediate circle, first
and worst; then, in ever-widening circles, till it
reaches the last man and the last moment; then,
surviving the dissolution of all material things, it
"spreads undivided," " operates unspent," through
the illimitable ages of eternity.
That is a sublime passage in which Christ is represented as mounted on a white horse, going forth
conquering and to conquer.  It is a truly delightful
thing to anticipate the gradual spread of the kingdom, which is not of this world, till in successive
waves of light it sweeps over and gladdens and
glorifies all lands,
"Till like a sea of glory,
It spreads from pole to pole,"
till with its heavenly power it pervades all the
thoughts, interests, duties, and enjoyments of men.
It is sin that embitters human hearts and human
life. Every institution of society might remain unchanged, the elements rage with their accustomed
fury, the ground abide under the curse as of old,
and yet what a mighty, what an instant, what a
happy change would take place, if the heart of
every man were suddenly to be imbued with the regenerating and sanctifying grace of the gospel!
How would a peace, deep, delicious, calm, and pure
as the heavens, descend into the soul! What blessedness past all comprehension would at once drop as
the rain and distil as the dew on hearts now " dry
as summer dust!"  What a, beauty would be re14*




162           TE TiL U:  ATHi, 011 THE
fleeted back from the beainnmg and blissful spirit on
the unconscious wor]ld airound us! and how would
heaven  and earth unite in harmony and praise!
The reason why the regeneration of the world, its
restoration to God, is so long delayed, is that Christians, through whose willing agency this happy consummation is to be effected, acquiesce in its present
character and state, and intercede, and strive, and
sigh so little, for a better and a brighter dispensation.
Ultimately, we know all will be leavened, but now
much remains to be done.  Look at literature, laws,
art, science, social life.  IIow far are all these from
the pure and heavenly spirit of the gospel!  Suppose all these animated and informed with  the
grace and glory of the sacred Scriptures, how raised,
how radiant would they be! how resplendent with
a beauty akin to that which rested on the fresh, unfallen creation!
Unfaithful as the church has been, still it should
not be forgotten, that much has been accomplished
already by the leavening power of the gospel. There
are two classes of men of entirely opposite character,
and impelled by directly opposite motives, who are
prone to underrate the actual results of religious
agencies.  The first is the humble and zealous
Christian, dismayed at the wickedness which still
abounds in all places, in all persons, and especially in
himself; despondent because so much less has been
even attenmpted than his ardent and eager benevo



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THIE SAVIOUR.  163
lence can conceive of, and burns to see accomplished.
The other is the smiling infidel,;rho can coldly and
proudly point to the ignorance and vice yet remaining in Christian communities, in Christian men,
and on the untrodden wastes of heathendom, and
ask, Where is the promise of his coming, what the
fruit of eighteen centuries of teaching and effort? *
Where are the triumphs of the gospel, where its
trophies and monuments?  We answer, If you seek
its monuments, look around you; compare even
yourself with your bloody pagan  ancestors, the
laws, the institutions, the literature, the moral and
social state of modern Europe and the United States,
with any part of the world and any period of the
world before the advent of our Lord.
Whatever tends to exalt the spiritual part of
man, to give the interests of the soul and of eternity
prominence and dignity, as contrasted with the
fugitive interests of time and of the perishable body,
tends to the real honour of human nature.  Of all
things it is most ennobling to sacrifice material to
spiritual interests.  Ience the pse-eminent grandeur of the missionary enterprise, looked at from
the lowest ground of contemplation.  The commission of our Lord to his apostles, in which alone the
church proceeds in all her plans to evangelize the
nations, comprehends the interests of all the world.
We should, therefore, pray and labour for the speedy
conversion of all nations, because the longer that
* XWestlinst-ler Review, (t id omc/ fuwi.r




164          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
blessed consummation is deferred, the more generations will go down to the grave without the knowledge of the only Saviour.  The same Christian
spirit which impels a man to go as a missionary to
foreign lands, should induce him to use every effort
to instruct the ignorant, awaken the careless, reclaim the erring, and save the lost around him.
Alas! that we should be so prone to defer service!
When shall we learn to do the work of the day in
its season, to embrace with prompt alacrity every
opportunity of doing good to the perishing souls of
our fellow-men?
The necessity in nature for the doctrines of grace,
the ground in reason and philosophy for the evangelical doctrine of spiritual regeneration is maade
clear when we consider the pervasive and assimilating quality of the Christian faith.  "Except a
man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
heaven," is the personal testimony of the Lord Jesus,
and it is a conclusion which all human experience,
so far as it can be ascertained from the historical
record of the characters and tendencies of our fallen race, amply confirms. The efforts which individual men of the better order have made to root
out the evil affections of their nature, and raise
their souls above sordid and sensual desires, have
been lamentably vain; even morality, in its outward
form  and garb, has never appeared among any
pagan people.  The character of the most cultivated
nations of profane antiquity was notoriously stained




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  165
with the most detestable vices.  Their most admired
authors record of themselves with utter unconsciousness of wrong, or with visible elation of spirit, what
cannot now be read without a blush.  Nothing but
the grace of God is stronger than human corruption.
All the maxims of men, all the exhortations of men,
all the devices of men, are vain to sanctify the soul.
Thy blood, eternal Saviour, alone cleanseth us from
all sin!  Let me then urge all who know that they
are unregenerate  sinners, to  betake themselves
without delay to the Lamb of God, that taketh
away the sin of the world.  Trust in his atoning
blood for pardon and peace.  Humbly and with all
your hearts cry to God, for the gracious Spirit of
his Son to sanctify and save you.
There is no more amiable and majestic aspect of
the church of the living God, than that which she
sustains in her ordained and historic relation to the
missionary  enterprise.  It pertains to the very
essence of piety in an individual or a community to
be communicative, to diffuse itself.  When Andrew
had found the Saviour, he made haste to tell Peter,
and he Nathanael.  The faith of God, the love of
Christ, is a fire in the bones.  It cannot be suppressed; it cannot be concealed; it cannot be confined; it will discover itself; it will propagate
itself.  By its very  charter, the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ is a missionary institution.  If it
cease to make progress, it ceases to be firuitful, to
be strong, to be pure.  Like the pool of' Bethelsda,




166         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
its waters must be agitated, to exert their healing
virtue.  Historically regarded, the purity and vigour
of the church are nearly convertible terms.  In the
ages in which she has been most holy in doctrine,
in life, and in spirit, she has made most extensive
and glorious progress.  Look at her during the
apostolic period, magnificently endowed with truth
and grace, majestic, free, full of inward and irrepressible life, going forth to the spiritual conquest
of the world, with nothing but the Shepherd's sling
and stone, but guided by Jehovah and girt about
with his invincible strength, therefore " fair as the
moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with
banners."  The energies of the church were given
her for expansion, for conflict, for victory.  She
has gone forth on the high enterprise of the world's
subjugation, and she cannot stop in her onward
march, or turn aside from  her heaven-appointed
task.  Go on then, ye conquering legions of the
Prince of Peace! Let no region of the habitable
earth be barbarous enough or cruel enough to daunt
your courageous mind! Let no opposition appal!
No disappointment depress you! Know that the
earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and that
in due time all flesh shall see his salvation.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIIE SAVIOUR.  167
LECTURE VIII.
CHRIST, THE BURDEN OF PROPHECY.
THERE are many distinct lines of argument,
which terminate in a common conclusion, the truth
of the gospel system.  The exuberance and variety
of these separate sources of conviction are suited to
the infinite filness of God, who hath replenished
the material world with his riches, and adapted the
evidences of the faith to the peculiar tastes, tempers, and intellectual habitudes of different men.
Each of these sources of proof is independent of all
the rest, and sufficient in itself alone.
To some, the argument which carries conviction,
is the triumphant progress of the Christian faith,
against early organized and incessant opposition
from rival religions. Springing up among a people;
naturally and universally detested by gentile nations, unsocial in their habits, of peculiar institutions, religiously segregated from the rest of mankind, in the decline of their political power and
national prosperity; in fact, a subject race, with
no advantages arising from the natural abilities, the




t68           THIlE TRUE1.  PATII, ORl TIIE
eloquence, the wealth, or tlhe reputation of its earliest arid most successful advocates, who were despised Galilean fishermen, unlearned, and laymen;*
yet did  this faith, mighty through God, triumphl
over the superstition of the people and the pride of
the philosophers, the tumultuous outbreaks of the
infuriated rabble, and the persecuting edicts of hostile princes-until at length, in the person of Constantine, it ascended the throne of the Czmsars.
The miracles recorded in Scripture, performed in
the presence of sagacious and  hostile witnesses,
suljected to keen scrutiny and owned to be supernatural, occurring at intervals of four thousand
years, manifest in the marvellous communications
of God, witl the Patriarchs, in the wonders wrought
fromn the time of Moses to the time of Christ, and
in  the amazing  succession  of signs and  mighty
deeds, which continued until the close of the Apostolic age —these constitute an irrefragable argoment
of the divine origin of the religious system, in demonstration of which they are alleged.
Another species of proof, running back to the fall
of man, and stretching onward to the second advent of
Christ, when he shall conic in the clouds of heaven,
with the voice of the Archangel and the trump of
God, to judge the quick and the dead, consists of
prophecies, commenl surate in  duration  with  the
history  of apostate man, embracing  an  infinite
*Acts iv. 13.'Ayp(tjlltaroT K<L it(rSra. See ver. 9. A. Alexandir, in loco.




YOTTNG MAN INVITED TO THTE SAVIOUR.  169
variety of minute palrticulars, which no human foresight could possibly anticipate or provide for, depending for their fulfilment not less on the agency
of enemies than of friends, boldly  committing
the credit of their authors to the combinations and
counsels of men widely scattered over the earth, and
who were not even to be born for many generations
-this species of proof which so clearly implies the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, is
peculiarly adapted to impress another class of minds.
Each of these arguments is entirely distinct from
the other, and a clear addition to the other. We
may consider them  alone, and then each will have
its separate weight, or we may consider them together, and then they will strike the mind with their
collective and united force.
However we may  regard the argument from
prophecy, for the truth and divinity of our religion,
there can be no question that the Lord Jesus himself attributed the utmost importance to it.  After
his glorious resurrection, we find him pointing out
to his disconsolate disciples, on their way to Emmaus, the exact agreement between the prediction
and the event, and showing the moral necessity
for his sufferings, which existed in the purpose and
prophecy of God.  "And beginning at Moses and
all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the
Scriptures the things concerning himself."  Luke
xxiv. 27-44.  And he said unto them, "These are
the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet
15




170          TIE TRUE PATTH. ()iO  TBHE
with you, that all things must be fulfilled which
were written, in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me."
No man can read the Scriptures attentively, without remarking how solicitous the sacred writers are
to show this agreement on every occasion.  Hence,
the expression so often used, "that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled."  Criminal thoughtlessness alone
could induce any person to overlook the immense
weight of the circumstance, on which they so strongly and so often insist.  Prophecies, which but for
their singular and exact fulfilment might have escaped notice altogether, are brought forward prominently to view; and so the faith of every intelligent
Christian is powerfully confirmed.
Christ, considered as the burden and fulfiller of
prophecy, presents the grandest sulject on which
the mind of man can he fixed,  The wildest excursions of fancy, the most extravagant dreams of
romance, are not half so amazing.  It carries us
back to that awful moment, when the guilty pair
stood before their offended Maker, and the predestined Redeemer of a lost world was obscurely promised.  It comprehends every intervening moment
and each successive prophet, from that period till
the day and person of Malachi.  It conducts us to
the magnificent courts of David and Solomon, and
we see the splendours of Jerusalem, when she rejoiced in the wealth of tributary kings. Again, we
wander in sadness by the waters of B1abylon, and




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO T1lE SAVIOUR.  171
mingle our tears with those of the captive daughter
of Zion.  We hear Moses the man of God, whom
the Jews suppose to have enjoyed more direct and
intimate intercourse with Jehovah, than any other
of the sons of men was ever favoured with, promising that the Lord would raise up of their brethren a prophet like unto  himseil.  We behold
men of the highest dignity, like Isaiah and Daniel,
concurring in testimony with herdsmen, like Amos,
and all showing what must shortly be.
Now it is the multiplicity and minuteness of these
testimonies, to which I wish to direct attention; for
it is in this particular point of view that the argunent appears to me most complete and conclusive.  It
is not the meeting of a single prediction in Christ.
It is not the meeting of several.  It is not the
meeting of many.  It is the meeting of all these
predictions, which assures us that Jesus is indeed
the Messiah of God.  In no one prophecy, in no
one prophet, shall we find a full description of Christ
and of Christianity.  The successive revelations
which were made sometimes to settle the minds of
the doubtful and timid shaken by some alarming
emergency in the commonwealth, the spiritual education of the chosen race, the manifold exigencies
arising in the eventful history of the Jewish people,
above all the clearer development of advancing time,
forbade it.  Before the rising of the Sun of righteousness in his unveiled glory, these prophetic
teachers heraldeld his advent.  But the general and




172         TIiE TRUE PATI, OR THE
scattered lustre which was diffused through them as
a body, was collected in his divine person and shone
forth with combined and concentrated beauty.  Or
to change the figure: no one prophet gives us a
complete picture of Christianity or of Christ; no
single picture could comprehend the multiplex and
many-sided subject.  We should rather look upon
the prophets as sketchers of particular incidents
and events, and upon prophecy itself as a gallery of
paintings.  Thus does prophecy prove itself to be
from  God; not because it comes as a finished
picture done at one time or by one hand.  It is
rather a succession of pictures, executed at different
times and by different hands.  One presents a particular scene, incident, or object, as his birth-place.
Another describes his humiliation. A third beholds
him surrounded by the ensigns of an unenvied and
universal royalty; the kings of most distant nations
pressing forward to do him voluntary homage, and
nations reposing in peace under his banner, and delighting to be called by his name.
These many and seemingly conflicting prophecies,
uttered with the same confidence and often by the
very same voice, all meet harmoniously in Jesus
Christ, and assume their appropriate places in the
history of the manifested Messiah.  Is it wonderful,
when we remember the complex and apparently
discordant elements, which entered into the prophetic conception of Christ, that the prophets themselves should be represented as in amazement and




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TTHE SAVIOUR.  173
searching with intense solicitude and unwearied
assiduity, " what or 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 which should follow."  1 Peter i. 11.  The
wisdom and truth of that eternal Spirit, by whom
these holy men were moved, could, and he alone
could, so variously and justly describe Him, who in
the fulness of time was to assume our nature and
bear our sins.
Suppose a man or set of men to describe the successive periods and passages in the life of Napoleon.
One might point to his birth-place on the island of
Corsica.  Another view  him  as a cadet at the
military school at Brienne. A third describe his
elevation to the command of the army of Italy. A
fourth sketch him amid the sands of Egypt. A fifth,
as emperor. A sixth, during the disastrous expedition to Russia. A seventh, amid the anxieties and
overthrow at Waterloo.  And the last, closing "this
strange eventful history," might describe his banishment and death on the lone isle of St. Helena. No
one historian could present the whole at a single
view; and if he could, that view would be neither
correct nor complete. Napoleon was not indeed the
same man at these several periods.  It is a common
but egregious error, to form our conceptions of
a man's character, from  a survey of his finished
career, and transfer this idea to any previous period
of his history. But how unphilosophical, how de15*




174         THE TRUE PATH, OR THIE
lusive such a course!  lHow many and often insignificant apparently, and even invisible altogether,
the influences and events, which act upon character
and determine our destinies!
How do our views change with circumstances and
expand with success! There are those, who believe
that Oliver Cromwell had the protectorate or the
crown in view, when he first drew the sword against
Charles the first.  The same men may believe that
the topmost height of his imperial elevation was
clearly in the eye of Napoleon, from the beginning
of his career; but such persons can know but little
of human nature and of human life. In the rise of
an ambitious man, as in the aspect of nature,
" Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise."
This is the true history of both Cromwell and
Napoleon.  They could not stop midway in their
career of greatness. They could not pause without
receding.  To ascend higher was a necessity of
their position. No more could they have ventured
to anticipate at first their ultimate elevation.  It
had been, not sagacity, but madness, in either of
these extraordinary men, to have looked forward to
the supreme headship of affairs, when the one was
a plain country gentleman and the other a poor and
obscure adventurer.  The same thing is more conspicuously true of Mohammed.  It is true of all
men, who from obscure beginnings "achieve greatness."  Their views change with their circumstances,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO'TIE SAVIOUR. 175
and they rise in their aspirations and demands as
they increase in power.  Hence it happens that ve
must see them not at one time, if we would estimate
them  aright, but view  them  at each successive
period, and take a comprehensive survey of their
whole lives.
A similar course must be adopted by the student
of prophecy.  For prophecy contemplates events
before they take place, as history does after.  It is
the part of the historian to revive the past, of the
prophet to reveal the future. The man who would
have an adequate idea of the wonderful variety,
completeness, and minuteness of the evidence arising
from the prophetic descriptions of Christ and his
kingdom, must not fix his mind on any one prophecy
or picture, to the exclusion of the rest; but consider
each in its turn.  To gaze upon this great body of
prophecy is indeed like the attempt to survey the
whole of a globe at a glance.  While we examine
one country, or even one hemisphere, we are prone
to forget the corresponding portion, equally extended
and equally admirable. Thus while fascinated with
the minute accuracy and pathetic beauty, with which
our Redeemer's sufferings are "painted out and described," we may lose sight, for the time, of the
equally impressive and instructive portions, which
exhibit the holy and peaceful nature of his kingdom,
or those equally authentic and precious, which promise its perpetual increase and universal prevalence.
"To him give all the prophets witness."  In the




176         THE TRUE PATH, ORI THE
promise to Abraham it is said,  "In thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed;" Gen. xxii.
18.  And how beautifully was this fulfilled when
the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile was broken down, and our risen Lord gave to
his church her catholic commission, " Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature!"
Mark xvi. 15; and what a glorious fulfilment yet
awaits it, when the new song of thanksgiving and
triumph shall be sung: "And every creature which
is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth,
and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them
shall be heard saying, Blessing and honour and
glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the
throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever!"
Rev. v. 13.  And how does history sustain the next
prophecy  " The sceptre shall not depart from
Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, till
Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of
the people be!" Comparing the prophecy with the
fact, we find that the tribe of Judah continued as a
people  and  possessed a  government until the
Messiah, and that shortly after, it lost its dominion
and separate existence in the destruction of Jerusalem.
In the Psalms, we have prophetic descriptions of
Christ, alike in his glory and in his abasement.
As early as the second psalm, the Father is represented as laughing in security and derision, at the
impotent attempts of the kings of the earth, confederate against him, exalting him upon his holy




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  177
hill of Zion, publicly proclimning him  the Son of
God and heir of the uttermost parts of the earth,
as dashing his enemies in pieces, and blessing all
those who put their trust in him.  In the forty-fifth,
he is described as fairer than the children of men,
abounding in grace, a mighty conqueror, glorious
and majestic, prosperous in his enterprises, concerned for the cause of truth, meekness, and righteousness, and as its invincible champion, as having
an eternal throne and a righteous sceptre, anointed
above others, with the oil of gladness, rejoicing in
rich and odorous garments, and attended by the
Queen in gold of Ophir.  His church is then described as holy and beautiful and beloved, the
cherished inmate of the King's palace, adorned in
fine raiment of needle-work, and as the finishing
touch it is added that the King's name is everlasting.  In the seventy-second, the same royal personage is described as both compassionate and just,
the distinctive characteristic of his kingdom is that
it is a kingdom of peace, as of his person that he is
the Prince of Peace; his dominion is to be from sea
to sea, the dwellers in the utmost wilderness are to
bow before him, the most distant kings to bring
him presents, in token of friendship and subjection.
He is to be known as the friend of the poor and
needy, and of him that hath no helper, and his name
is to endure for ever.  The hundred and tenth
celebrates his deity and priesthood.  All his enemies
are to be subdued.  His people are to be made




178           TIlE TRU' P'ATH1, O()  THE
willing in the day of his power; and his converts
are to be numerous and resplendent as the drops of
morning dew.  In the prophecies already recited,
the glory of the church is incidentally connected
with that of her King.  But it is more prominently
set forth by Isaiah.  The mountain of the Lord's
house is to be established in the top of the mountains and exalted above the hills, and all nations
are to flow into it. Isa. ii. 2.  In the ninth chapter,
we have a magnificent description of the person
of Christ, in his human and divine natures.*
The passages which we have been  considering
present our Saviour under the character of an illustrious Prince and Ruler. There are others, however,
* The prophetic images, employed to illustrate the triumphant aspect of the Redeemer's kingdom, are well
combined and exhibited in Pope's spirited verse:
Rapt into future times the bard begun,
& Virgin shall conceive, a Virgin bear a son;
From Jesse's root behold a branch arise,
Whose sacred flower with fragrance fills the skies
Rise crowned with light, imperial Salem rise!
Exalt thy towery head and lift thy eyes!
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend.
See thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings,
And heaped with products of Sabean springs!
For thee Idumea's spicy forests blow,
And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.




YOUNG MAN iNVTT'ED TO TIlE SAVIOUR.  179
equally descriptive, in which he is portrayed as
poor, despised, and afflicted.  One part of the prophetic portrait is not more clearly his than the
other, and it is the concurrence in one person of
these seemingly incompatible attributes, that establishes the truth of the Christian religion.  We find
these apparently conflicting statements very near
to one another, and often the same writer will pass
suddenly, not to say abruptly, from one to another.
But that which constituted an impediment to the
faith of those who studied the prophecies before
their fulfilment, is a strong confirmation of the faith
of those, living after the incarnation of Christ and
the organization of the church.  I shall of course be
unable to go over the whole body of this extended
testimony minutely; all that I can hope to do, and
all that I shall even attempt, will be merely to in(licate the argument, and refer to some of the most
important passages which sustain it.
The twenty-second Psalm opens with those memorable words, which our Saviour uttered on the
cross, expressive of the most mysterious and awful
agonies.  They can never be heard or pondered by
any pious heart, without sympathy and wonder;
and the record of the undeserved and unparalleled
sufferings of the Lamb of God should not only make
us abhor the sins which occasioned them, but should
arm us to bear with unshaken constancy, our comparatively light afflictions.  "' My God! my God!
why hast thou forsaken me?" was the prophetic and




180           THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
actual outcry, extorted by imputed guilt.   The
remainder of the Psalm is in a similar strain of
sorrow, and in the minuteness of its prophecies, and
in their exact fulfilment, in the recorded history of
Christ, it must be regarded as one of the most important portions of the Old Testament.  There are
passages in the prophets, above all in Isaiah, which
a tender-hearted Christian can scarcely read without weeping.  The heart is softened by the consideration of what shame and grief were able to
wring from  the constant soul of our Saviour.  In
the fiftieth chapter of Isaiah, we find him using the
following language: "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them  that plucked off the
hair; I hid not my face from  shame and spitting."
The fifty-third chapter of this prophet is less like
a prediction, than a historical narrative. It is, perhlaps, the clearest and most complete prophecy of
Christ, in all the Old Testament. The nature and
object of his sufferings, as well as their fearful intensity, are there unfolded.  His want of outward attractions, his lowliness and rejection, his extreme agonies, their vicarious purpose, his lamb-like meekness
and  resignation, the cruel injustice shown him
throughout, together with the most singular circumstances attending his death, such as the guilt of
those crucified with him, and the splendour of his
tomb, the design of the Father in what he endured,
and his glorious reward,-all these are detailed with




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIlE SAVIOUR.  181
the minute fidelity, not of a historian merely, but
of an eye-witness.
We have seen what a strikingr contrariety there is
in the prophecies relating to Christ; and yet, how
exactly they are all fulfilled in his character and
kingdom, his person and work.  It is perfectly
evident, that of the millions of men who have lived,
renowned and obscure, Jew  and Gentile, no other
will correspond to all the parts of this prophetic
picture.  Of all these, there is no other, whose life
history will answer to the successive pictures, presented by the ancient prophets.   On the other
hand, it is not less evident, that in him, the correspondence, in all points, is complete.  The prophecies in the Old Testament, touching the promised
Messiah, are found on comparison to tally exactly
with the testimony of the New Testament, concernthe historic Jesus.  The fact is undeniable, the
conclusion irresistible.  The Messiah of the Old
Testament is the Christ of the New.  Then are
both Testaments given by inspiration of God. Then
is the question, "What think ye of Christ?" a
question of transcendent moment to every son of
Adam.  Then are the immortal destinies of every
accountable human being absolutely dependent on
the relations which he sustains, to the only Mediator
between  God and men-the man Christ Jesus.
Then the inquiry, What must I, a condemned and
helpless sinner, do to be saved? admits demonstrably of only one answer, " Believe in the Lord Jesus
16




18 2          THE TRUE PATHI, OR TIHE
Christ!'  THow adorable is the wisdomi of (od, aLnd
how  clear the divine inspiration of his prophlets!
low (lo the separate rays of divine truth blenil aind
shine in the cross of our Redeemer!    ow glor ious
are the attributes of God, providentially illus-i;:ated
in the events of the life of Christ, consitdeti(i in
their  indivisible  connection  with  the pro-pictie &cs
which had gone before.!  How copious and clear is
the proof of our holy religion, and how worthy of all
acceptation the faith of the gospel 
From the ignorance, which the Jews evinced of
tlhe real neaning of their own prophecies, and their
maelignant rejection of their own Messiah, we may
learn the disastrous effect of religious prejudice. If
in the whole rannge of thought there be one subject,
in regard to which, it becomes men to deal honestly
witlh themselves, and obey the truth, however unexpect d and unwelcome, that subject is religion.  In
relation to this, as to every thing else, the views
vwhich we adopt do not alter the real facts.  Truth
has an objective reality, an independent subsistence.
It is wholly unaffected by our belief or unbelief.
A  man may suppose that he is taking wholesome
food or healing medicine, but if through some sad
mistake, he should swallow arsenic, the drug is not
the less likely to be fatal.  A  man may go to law,
under the strongest conviction that his case is perfectly just, and needs only to be fully stated to be
instantly adlmitted, a,(nd hie may find, that thle very
law ol which l-e, reh kne(l is dir(tectl  amis>llt hlla.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TliE SAVIOUR.  183
A man may invest all his substance in a particular
species of merchandise, anticipating brilliant and
certain success, and yet want and ruin come upon
him  like an armed man.   Truth, natural or reveale(d, scientific or religious, will not bend to our
apprehensions; our apprehensions must bend to the
truth.  The great facts of astronomy, of geography, of chemistry,-we may be ignorant of them, we
may deny them, but still they remain firmly fixed
as the ancient heavens or the everlasting hills. The
secret influences of Pleiades, the secret agencies
of nature, the achievements of human art, the creations of almighty power, are not suspended on our
knowledge or belief.  It is not the office of faith to
create, but accept revealed truth.  It is like light.
It bears the same relation to spiritual things that
light does to natural. We might conceive the world
to contain all the widely diversified objects, with
which it is so richly replenished, and at the same
time so shrouded in a universal pall of darkness, as
to be impenetrably hidden from  every eye.  Now
only conceive the sun to arise suddenly, in all his
strength and glory; no change might pass upon a
single object, and yet every thing from darkness
would rise into visibility. In like manner. faith
makes no change whatever in the truths of religion,
or in their relation to ourselves, but in our apprehension of them.  It is, indeed, "the master-light
of all our seeing."  It is something more than the
light by which we see.  It at once supplies the




184          TIlE TRUE PAT,'i  Ol THE
element and restores the organ of vision.  The real
difficulty, in the case of the Jews, was no obscurity
in the revelation, but the veil upon their hearts in
the reading of the Old Testament, 2 Cor. iii. 13-16,
and when that veil shall be removed by the finger of
God, they will gladly recognize the proper glory of the
long-expected Messiah, the only begotten of the
Father.
It is the more necessary to guard young men
against the disastrous effects of religious error, because among the most prevalent and pernicious is
that which supposes that God holds us responsible
for the sincerity, but not for the soundness of our
religious convictions.  If error, on this subject of
all the most important, arose simply from weakness
of mind, then it is conceded that we should not be
held responsible, as idiots and madmen are not accountable for involuntary ignorance or inevitable
error.  But it springs mainly from aversion to the
truth.  The corruption of the heart spreads a dark
cloud over the pages of the inspired word, which
otherwise would be effulgent with the light of heaven.
The persistent rejection of certain truths involves
a wicked and punishable blindness. The prejudice
which led the unbelieving Jews to cast off and crucify the Lord of glory was unutterably wicked,
because the evidence, not merely of his personal
innocence, but of his divine glory, was so accessible,
perspicuous, and complete.  It must have been selfevident to every unbiassed hearer of his words of




YOUNG MAN INVI'rTED TO T  iIE SAVIOUR.  185
grace and truth, to every dispassionate witness of
his works of power and love, that he was a. Teacher
come from God, that this was of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world, able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by
him.
The peculiar nature of the Christian evidences
affords a signal illustration of the divine perfections,
especially of the wisdom and goodness of God, and a
delicate test of human character.  They are for
the most part moral, and demand for their appreciation not so much intellectual strength and culture,
as riglht moral dispositions. From their very nature
they can be understood only by such as come to
the consideration of them  with candour, humility,
reverence, and love of truth.  To receive them  in
simplicity and joy of heart, there must be that inward
and spiritual preparation of which the IIoly Ghost
is the author.  Tie confidence of men, therefore, in
their plenary and conclusive character, may vary,
and in experience is found to vary, with the presence
or absence, the strength or weakness, of such dispositions.  The internal and experimental evidences
of Christianity are those on which the soul reposes
with most unshaken trust, in which the soul rejoices
with most ineffable delight.  No accumulation of
outward evidence can be so impressive, no logical demonstration so convincing, as the direct spiritual
apprehension of divine truth in its divine beauty.
The truth contained in the Scriptures is intuitively
16*




186         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
recognized as the source, the standard, and the sum
of spiritual excellence.  We feel constrained to
acknowledge the divinity of the Christian system,
because it bears the image and superscription of
God.  There is a reigning spirit of holiness and
beauty, of truth and power, in the word of God
which, obviously and infinitely, transcends any thing
of man's device; and the conscience responds to the
voice of its eternal and only Sovereign speaking to it
from the inviolable sanctuary wherein he dwells, and
with the awe-stricken disciple exclaims, " My Lord
and my God!"  The words of Jesus are not only
superior to those of any mere human teacher, in the
depth of their spiritual significance and in the
strength of their spiritual sanctions; they are
altogether of another kind; they belong to another
sphere; they address another sense.  Where the
word of a king is there is power, and these are the
words of the King of glory. There is no excellence
which he does not inculcate, none which he does
not exemplify.  The noblest aspiration of the loftiest
mind after glory and virtue, cannot rise above the
commanded  duty  of every  disciple  of Christ.
" Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are
pure, whatsoever things are lovely, if there be any
virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these
things." Phil. iv. 8.
In regard to the nature and extent of that
control which we may and which we should ex



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  187
ercise over our moral convictions, it is an unquestionable fact of consciousness, not less than of divine
revelation, that we cannot indeed  change  our
corrupt hearts, or elicit any distinctively holy
affection.  But we can direct our minds to some
objects rather than to others, to some considerations to the exclusion of others.  We can read
some books rather than others.  We can choose
some companions in preference to others.  And
there are corresponding emotions awakened on the
presentation of appropriate objects, and the occurrence of suitable considerations to the mind, in
virtue of a law simple, universal, inevitable, the law
of association.  In clear addition to which, God has
ordained a supernatural connection, between pious
labours and spiritual blessings.
It is true, that our nature is radically corrupted,
and the deadliest part of our corruption is a total
inability to recover ourselves.  Still we are conscious
of certain moral susceptibilities, which render us the
proper subjects of redemption and the meet recipients of heavenly grace. If we can do nothing
directly, we can do much indirectly. If, by an immediate and sovereign act of the will, we cannot
expel vicious affections, we can discard the images
and ideas with which the vicious affections are
naturally associated, and the Bible, which does not
indeed formally propound, but silently assumes and
proceeds upon the profoundest philosophy of the
mind, commands us not to look upon the wine when




188          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
it is red, and not to draw nigh to the door of her
house whose steps take hold on death.  We can
direct our minds, not to the alluring aspects under
which the forbidden fruit may be regarded, the sinful
gratification  contemplated; but dwell upon such
considerations as may disarm it of its perilous power,
the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all
unrighteousness, the mortal misery, the incalculable
mischief, which drunkenness, adultery, false-swearing, and the love of money, have produced in other
cases, as revealed in inspired Scripture or recorded
in profane history.  We may then reflect upon the
hideous evil which the particular sin to which we
are tempted or inclined is, from  its very nature,
adapted to produce, above all the dishonour done to
God; and exclaim with the purest of the ancient
patriarchs, " How can I do this great wickedness
and sin against God?  Gen. xxxix. 9; Ps. li. 4.
We may properly call to mind " in the very torrent,
tempest, and whirlwind of passion," the special aggravations of the sin arising from our peculiar circumstances-age, honour, authority, family, or station.
As many of the Jews rejected the manifested
Messiah from prejudice; so many stifled their convictions from fear, either for their personal safety.
their property, or reputation. The evangelist John
mentions some who believed on him, but would not
confess him for fear of the Jews, lest they should be
put out of the synagogue. Jesus himself warns his
disciples against the sinful fear of men.  Nothing




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  189
is to be feared so much as fear, as there is no despotism so great and so harsh: none but the brave
man can be free, and none but the good man can be
both brave and rational.  In the book of Revelation the fearful are put into the same category
with the unbelievers, clearly implying the close connection between lack of faith and lack of courage,
the converse of which, or the intimate connection
between them, is positively affirmed by Peter, when
he exhorts Christians to add to their faith, virtue, or
courage-manly energy.*  The relation of courage
to Christianity, its proper place in a system of
Christian morals, presents a subject of enquiry of
vast practical moment, and one which deserves much
more attention at the hands of Christian teachers,
than it has received hitherto.  It is, in fact, not less
essential to the Christian than to the Homeric hero:
and in its true nature and highest forms, it is not
merely illustrated but commended and enforced in
the Bible, not less than in the Iliad.  In its aggressive form it is exercised principally in a positive
testimony for certain truths which men are apt to
despise and hate, although in themselves most sublime, and to us most needful; and a corresponding
witness against certain sentiments and usages which
though highly esteemed among men, are abomination in the sight of God.  It commands us not to
resist evil; and, therefore, many of its most despised
manifestations and sublime triumphs are passive.
*2 Peter i. 5: aptrtl. John xii. 42; Matt.  28-33,




190          THE TRUE PATH, OR THtE
Assuming the gentle form of charity, it encdurcth all
things.  In no character, is courage more useful
and becoming than in a minister of the gospel: he
needs it not less than a soldier.  The commission
under which he holds his sacred office obliges him
to go to the ends of the earth, if called, in the
providence of God, to visit infected districts, to
minister to men dying of contagious and loathsome
distempers, and confront death in all its most appalling forms.  IIe must execute justice and maintain truth; he must exercise discipline on the rich
and resentful; and thereby not unfrequently risk
his reputation, ease, and what is more trying than
either, the very bread of his wife and children.
The highest courage is a Christian grace, and like
faith and love, of which it is compounded, is to be
sought from God by prayer.




YOUNCG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  191,
LECTURE IX.
CHRIST, CONSIDERED AS OUR EXAMPLE.
WE are often animated in duty simply by reflecting, how  another person of eminent faithfulness
would be likely to act, in our circumstances.  A.
question which might appear perplexed, or a course
which might seem doubtful, regarded alone in the
light which our own reason and conscience could
throw upon it, might seem  comparatively clear,
when considered in connection with the known principles and habits of another.  There are few of us,
perhaps, who have not been emboldened to enter
upon a hard or hazardous career of duty, by the
seasonable recollection of some one more largely
endowed with faith and the Holy Ghost than ourselves.  This impression will be the clearer, and
the corresponding impulse the more controlling, just
in proportion to the estimate which we form of the
excellence and wisdom of the man, whose salutary
influence we feel.
All this is not only recognized, but enjoined
by the Scriptures.  " Take, my brethren, the pro



1I2           TIlE TRUE PATTI, OR TR.
phets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord,
for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
Behold, we count them  happy, which endure.  Ye
have heard of the patience of Job, and seen the end
of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful and of
tender mercy." Jas. v. 10, 11. We are taught by
the meek fidelity of Mioses, the courageous piety
of Joshua, the religious candour of Caleb, the heroic
daring of Gideon, the early faith of Samuel, the
elevated devotion of David, the matchless wisdom
of Solomon, the steadfast resolution of Mordecai, and
the wonderful patience of Job; by the affectionate
reverence of John, by the impetuous zeal of Peter,
by the comprehensive wisdom, the enlightened zeal,
the single-eyed self-devotion, and the all-conquering
vehemence of Paul.  The timely recurrence of these
names to memory, may well animate our souls with
dauntless courage in circumstances of danger, and
inspire them with heavenly wisdom when perplexed
with doubt and difficulty.  If we can bring ourselves to think, as they in our situation would have
thought, to feel as they would have felt, and do as they
would have done, we shall, in the vast majority of
cases, thlink, (andI feel, and act, as we ought.
But after all, these were men of like passions
with us, eminently holy, and faithful, and wise, but
stained with the same original corruption, struggling with the same evil propensities, and sometimes,
alas! overcome by the same temptations. We must,
therefore, scrutinize  their conduct with  jealous




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  193
vigilance, and imitate their actions with discriminating wisdom.  As inspired by the Holy Ghost, their
official teachings are authoritative and infallible;
but as men compassed about with infirmities, their
example was imperfect, as they themselves bear
witness. Rom. vii., passirm; and 1 John i. 8. With
every reasonable abatement, however, on the score
of their personal deficiencies when brought to the
standard of a perfectly holy law, still the contemplation of their character is eminently fitted to
edify and ennoble us; and it can as little be doubted
that the more perfect their example, the more instructive and the more delightful to behold it. Now
what was confessedly wanting in them, his personal
attendants, his inspired apostles, his most saintly
disciples, is found in Christ himself.  He and he
alone has left us an example of holiness, in feeling,
in principle, in speech, and in action, which we may
imitate without exception and without error.  " He
was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners." When assaulted by Satan, that foul fiend
was made to feel that he had no part in him, that
in his nature was no corruption or weakness, on
which his diabolical engines could play, on which
his diabolical subtlety could fix or fasten; and the
glozing tempter was forced to retire from  the conflict baffled, beaten, ashamed, exposed. Our Lord's
triumph over Satan in his temptation was not only
in all points an example to believers, but an achievement for them.  He was their federal head and
17




194         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
representative in victory, as Adam in the fall; and
as in Adam's fall they fell, so in Christ's steadfastness they stood, in his victory they conquered.
Therefore, this was symbolic and prophetic of the
final triumph of all believers over Satan and sin,
death and hell.  To others, the Holy Ghost was
given by measure, to him without measure. Others
were sons of God by adoption and by grace, he was
the Son of God by the possession of a divine nature
and from all eternity.  In doing as the very best
of his servants have done, we may do wronrg; in
following his blessed example, it is impossible to
err.
Taking only a general and distant survey of the
character of Christ, we behold in him  the divine
law fulfilled in all its denmands, and obeyed in all
its precepts.  Matt. iii. 15.  The life of the Lord
Jesus Christ shows how beautiful the life of man
can be on the earth.  "' God is light, and in him
is no darkness at all." The natural sun, glorious as
it is, still hath its spots, but the moral excellence of
the Lord Jesus Christ is absolute, unspotted, infinite.  It is the righteousness of the great God and
our Saviour. But for our better instruction, certain
notes of this peerless harmony are singled outcertain rays of this sunlike glory, certain features
of this perfect beauty-and receive specific and
significant names, that we may bestow upon them a
more distinct and intelligent consideration.  Thus
the titles of the Lord Jesus Christ may be viewed




YOUNG 5MA. INVITED TO THlE SAVIOUR.  195
in their intrinsic or absolute significance, in their
relation to him, as marking off or shadowing forth
some special aspect of his universal excellence; and
in their relation to us, as indicating the attribute
which we are specially to study and copy.  As the
Lamb of God, the sheep dumb before his shearers,
we have not merely the great fact of his sacrificial
oblation, but he teaches us meekness, forbearance,
long-suffering, gentleness, all the passive virtues.
They are designedly illustrated in these events of his
recorded history. So the title of the Lion of the tribe
of Judah may teach us the opposite, and not less
important class of virtues, zeal, aggressive courage,
strength of will and, to sum up in a word, all the
active virtues.  The Bright and the Morning Star
indicates that as in his glorious person all divine
perfections meet, so the rising of the beams of
his grace upon the nations chases away the shades
of night, and heralds the coming day of knowledge
and holiness, of love and joy. As a painter contemplates the mien and features, the dress and gait,
the fugitive aspects and expression of the person,
whose portrait he desires to take; so the Christian
should dwell with studious and delighted attention on
the character of Christ, until the various lineaments
are traced on his own soul.  In proportion to the
clearness, the exactness, and the beauty of the
image of Christ drawn on our hearts, is the perfection of our subjective Christianity.  If a man have
the spirit of Christ, he will have the same spirit of




196          THE TRUE PATI, OR TIlE
prayer, of patience, of gentleness, of meekness, of
active goodness, of zeal for the glory of God, indifference to unjust and unreasonable ceisurlr, invincible calmness under contumely, and provocation, and
sinful persecution, which Christ himself evinced.
In his example was gathered a bright assemblage
of all the graces which constitute a perfect character. In him there was no defect and no redundancy.
One virtue is never exercised at the expense of
another. It is this admirable harmony of excellencies, which we are especially to note and to imitate.
All things great are simple-the sky-the sea. On
account of this very simplicity, perhaps, we are
less struck with the character than we might otherwise be.  There are no salient points, the whole is
a boundless and beautiful horizon.  There are no
peculiar virtues, there is throughout the harmony
of absolute and infinite perfection.  On every occasion he said exactly what was wise, he did exactly
what was right.  Never in the prosecution of an
important object, or the rebuke of a reigning sin,
or the correction of a prevalent evil, is he even for
a moment betrayed into any species of extravagance,
or does he for a moment overlook or forget any
portion of the vast circle of human duties; but with
the eye of Omniscience he scans it all at once.
Surveyed in the clear light of truth, as present to
his soul and shining in his life, every duty appears
in its proper magnitude, and assumes its just relations.  He gives to Caesar, the things which are




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  197
Caesar's, and to God, the things which are God's.
Of him  alone, of moral teachers, can it be truly
affirmed, that his precepts and practice perfectly
agreed.  Whatever he recommended to others, he
did; whatever he condemned, he forebore. And of
all the abuses of his times, none pained him more,
or excited in his benignant bosom deeper detestation, or called forth from his compassionate lips a
more withering anathema, than did the cruel hypocrisy of the Pharisees of the day, who bound on
men's shoulders heavy burdens, which they themselves would not so much as touch with the tips of
their fingers. It is impossible to contemplate such
a character with faith and love, and not receive
the highest spiritual profit. Nothing indeed is so
apt to redeem the soul from the curse of grovelling
propensities, and raise it to God, as the devout and
delighted contemplation of the brightness of the
Father's glory, and the express image of his person
in human flesh.  The mind is unconsciously, but
powerfully, affected by the objects on which it dwells
with sympathy and delight.  The forms of beauty
and of grandeur which fill the chambers of the soul
gradually become a part, not of its furniture, but
of itself; like the burnished and brilliant cloud
which we have often  seen dissolving insensibly
away, until entirely blended with the blue sky. So
well known is this principle of our nature to poets and
artists, that they love to reside amid the noblest
forms of nature, or the most wonderful achieve17*




198         THE TRUE PATH, OR TIHE
ments of art.  They gaze on these glories with
congenial delight, until the spirit which they breathe,
and the beauty which they bear, have passed into
their own souls, and become a permanent portion of
their spiritual being.  The sacred Scriptures explicitly recognize the operation of this principle, when
they urge us to behold the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, till we are changed into the same
image from  glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the
Lord.
To copy the character of Christ, will require of
course a very particular knowledge of the events
of his life, the places which he visited, the persons
with whom he was brought into contact, the occasions on which he spoke and did the things recorded
of him.  In order that we may have a fixed and
infallible standard of duty, we must have an exact
and extensive knowledge of what our Lord did, and
how he thought and acted; and with this perfect pattern compare our own thoughts and deeds in the
various exigencies of daily life.  Christ was the
great Reformer, not in the sense of adding anything
to the divine law, but of exposing and condemning
the false glosses of the Jewish doctors and restoring it
to its original integrity and lustre.  Thus most fine
gold, become dim, may be burnished and brightened.
As an illustration of these spiritual reforms, we
may consider our Lord's doctrine in relation to the
proper treatment of enemies; the ground and extent
of forgiveness; and the duty of suffering for right



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  199
eousness, sake; all of which was exemplified in his
own personal history, in infinit perfection.
The doctrine which he delivers in regard to the
proper treatment of our enemies is peculiar to revealed religion.  It is agreeable to reason, and it
commends itself to every man's conscience in the
sight of God, as truly noble.  But it is not the
spontaneous dictate of our corrupt affections, and it
is a doctrine totally unknown to the schools of
heathen moralists.  With them  it was a point of
honour to avenge every injury, and they regarded
it not as the glory of a man to pass by a transgression, but as the mark of a mean and craven
spirit. But our Lord makes the cordial forgiveness
of those who have injured us the indispensable condition on which we are to hope for pardon from
God.  He has embodied this benign principle in
that beautiful prayer, which he gave as a legacy
and model to his people, and we cannot say, " Forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass
against us," without suspending our own pardon on
the pardon which we accord.  Nay more, it may
be logically looked upon as a special imprecation
of the awful vengeance of Almighty God, to pray
for forgiveness if we fail to exercise it.
The principle on which we are required to forgive,
is that God is Judge alone, and that to assume to
ourselves the work of recompensing evil, is an audacious invasion of his judicial prerogative. It is in
effect to displace the Deity, and act on the principle




200          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
of atheistic independence.  We may further reflect
that it is entirely unreasonable to hope for the remission of such a debt as we all owe our Lordten thousand talents, while unwilling to forgive the
comparative trifle due to us from a fellow-creature.
The method by which we shall most successfully
resist the strong impulse which hurries us on to vengeance, is calm and Christian meditation.  We may
regard an enemy in our thoughts, as the heartless
and high-handed aggressor, who has invaded our
dearest rights and offended our deepest sensibilities,
or wrongfully deprived us of some coveted good;
and while we give place to thoughts like these, a
bitter and a burning rancour will take possession
of our souls, which nothing but an ample vengeance
can satiate.  Or we may contemplate this very
person, and all his deeds and designs of malice
toward us, as an offender against that great and
dreadful Being, who has made and will judge both
him and us.  We may think of the deep-seated and
tumultuating sorrows of the heart that is capable
of such perfidious and cruel wrong, and thus the
correspondent feeling of pity will be awakened, and
we shall be so far in spirit from the fiendish desire
to torment him  before the time, that we shall
sincerely ask God to forgive and bless him.  No disposition is more unbecoming a professed follower of
Jesus Christ, than a cold and sleepless, and snakelike malice.  " Put on therefore as the elect of God,
holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIHE SAVIOUR.  201
humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if
any man have a quarrel against any; even as
Christ forgave you so also do ye." Col. iii. 12, 13.
In the life and death of our blessed Master, we
have the most sublime exhibition of the fulfilment
of all these precepts.  Betrayed by one friend, denied by another, deserted by all, assaulted by a
furious multitude with swords and staves, confronted
by false accusers, beset by a hideous combination
of the chief priests and elders, condemned as a
blasphemer, spit upon, buffeted, scourged, arrayed
in a scarlet robe in bitter mockery, his brow encircled with a crown of thorns, reviled by the
passers by, scornfully taunted when hanging on the
cross, not a murmur of indignation or resentment
escapes his lips.  " But when he was reviled, he reviled not again, when he suffered he threatened not,
but committed himself unto him that judgeth righteously," and even amid the provocations and the
agonies of that hour, was heard a voice, that pierced
the heavens, " Father, forgive them, they know not
what they do." Luke xxiii. 34.
We have seen the generous compassion with which
our Lord forgave his enemies, even at the very
moment when he was enduring the utmost that their
insane malice could devise or inflict.  Let us consider another part of this universal goodness-I
mean his tender affection to his friends, and above
all to his mother.  It has been objected to Chris



202          TIlE TRUE PATH, OR, TIIE
tianity, that it nowhere inculcates, in express terms,
the duties of friendship, with how much candour and
justice we shall be able to see after passing under
review  a few  incidents of our Saviour's earthly
history. To speak of this affection, however, as the
proper subject of precept or command, is to betray
utter ignorance, both  of its nature  and  office.
Friendship is a sentiment which arises unbidden in
the mind, on the perception of attractive qualities in
another.  It is the manifest token, and the natural
fruit, of a certain indescribable congeniality of taste
and temper.  It is not an effect of volition, but an
instinct of nature.  It arises as surely from  the
common possession of certain moral affinities, as
does the sense of pleasure from the sight of a lovely
landscape, or from the odour of a rose. Christianity,
therefore, does not institute or command, but exemplify and consecrate these beautiful regards.  It is
no part of our duty to feel the sentiment of friendship for any particular person, and, therefore, it is
not authoritatively demanded.  There are other affections, however, such as gratitude and esteem,
which are often confounded with fiiendship in the
popular apprehension, and which frequently do terminate in it, which we ought to exercise, and which
therefore, are embraced in the precepts of Scripture.
We are plainly required to cherish feelings of cordial good-will toward every human being, whether a
foreigner or countryman, and to testify our good-will
by acts of substantial kindness.  We are expressly




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  208
taught to be courteous, to exercise ungrudging
hospitality, to show mercy to the poor, and to forgive our enemies.  So far as the exercise of the
emotion of friendship is a Christian virtue, it is included in the comprehensive precept of the apostle:
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things
are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there
be any praise, think on these things."  Phil. iv. 8.
Friendship, as ttie dictate of nature and not a fruit
of the Spirit, might safely be left to the simple
working of nature's laws and of nature's sympathies.
With the infallible insight which marks all the provisions of the gospel, our Saviour rather assumes
than inculcates the exercise of this pleasing affection
when he says, "If ye love them  which love you,
what thank have ye? for sinners also love those who
love them."  Luke vi. 32.
It has been very far from my intention to cast
contempt upon this noble and attractive sentiment.
It has always been felt with most generous ardour,
with most delicate sensibility, by the purest and
most exalted minds; and in its most perfect phase,
it dwells only among the good. In the Lord Jesus
it appeared in the highest lustre.  That universal
benevolence toward the sons of man, which caused
him to lay aside for a season the regalia of heaven
and tabernacle among us, was concentrated into a
livelier glow toward certain favoured objects.  It is




204           THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
scarcely possible to picture a more tender or a, more
delightful vision than that of the Son of man, retiring for a season from  the crowded and splendid
and wicked capital of Judea, to solace himself by a
few hours' heavenly converse with the affectionate
and simple-hearted family of Bethany.
The pen of the evangelist is suffused with a homefelt tenderness, while it portrays this scene of
natural joy; and many a Christian household has
been filled with a kindred delight, while the narrative which commemorates this scene of the moral
picturesque, has been read in their hearing by some
gray-headed father; and many an eye has been
moistened by the tear of sympathy with Him, who,
yielding to the tenderness of nature, wept with those
weeping sisters.  Iow well does this incident in the
personal history of our Lord accord with the precept afterwards delivered by his apostle, enjoining it
upon his disciples to weep with them that weep, and
rejoice with them that rejoice!
In nothing does the divine wisdom of our Saviour
appear more clearly than in his personal demeanour
toward her who was so "highly favoured" as to be
his mother according to the flesh.  Evidently anticipating and condemning the idolatrous homage
which has been bestowed upon her since his decease,
he spoke of her and to her in such terms as some
have deemed inconsistent with filial duty; but which
subsequent events, and the present sentiment of a
large portion of nrominal Christendom, have vindi



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TI'E SAVIOUR.  205
c'ated as emlnilluletli  Wise and clledfdll.  Wihen, upon
a certain occasion, a woman broke forth ilto the
exclalmation,'"llessed is the womlb) that bare thee,
and the paps which thou hast sucked," our Lord
corrected Ier ignorant adnilration, anl said, "Yea,
rather blessed are they that hear the word of God
and keep it."  Luke xi. 27, 28.  On another occasion, when told that his mother and brethren stood
without, desiring to speak with him, lie said, "Who
is my mother, and who are my brethren?"   Then
turning to his disciples, he added, "Behold my
mother and my brethren, for whosoever shall do the
will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is
my mother and sister and brother."  Matt. xii. 47.
These passages plainly show  that, so far fiom
being immaculate and the proper object of religious
worship to others, her own final and eternal blessedness was wholly suspended on the faith and obedience which she should render to H1im who was at
once her Son and her Saviour.  But while our Lord
did not fail to address her in such terms as should
for ever rebuke idolatry, he still manifested toward
her the most affecting filial tenderness.  Even in
that dread hour when a more than mortal darkness
overspread his soul and the weight of a world's redemption bowed his head, and the propitiatory blood
was flowing from  his feet, his hands, his side, his
brow; even then, in the last extremity of nature's
anguish, the thought of her who bare him, still
presses on his heart, and turning to the best beIS




206          TIlE TRUE PATH, OR THE
loved of all his disciples, he bequeaths the precious
legacy of his mother's keeping to his fidelity and
affection; saying to him, " Son, behold thy mother!"
and to his mother, "Behold thy son!"  WIhat an
example is here!  How  eloquently  does such a
scene enforce and enhance the sacred obligation of
filial duty!  I-ow does it consecrate and endear the
tender relation of parent and child!  There is no
spectacle dearer to the eyes of God or mian, than
that of an affectionate child cheering the declining
years of a parent.  This is evidently the order
of nature and the testimony of Jesus.  At such a
period, life requires every sweet and soothing attention, and the emotions of complacent and gratified
affection which such kindness excites, are scarcely
less to be considered than the substantial services
which gave them birth and being in the heart.
And if there'be a human tear
From passion's dross refined and clear,'Tis that which pious fathers shed,
Upon a duteous daughter's head
The extreme copiousness of our Saviour's example, extending to every branch of human duty,
renders it difficult to consider it at once with brevity
and profit. We have already contemplated his treatment of those two great classes-his enemies and his
friends.  We may now glance at certain of his extraordinary works, and, in conclusion, mark his exemplary performance of the special duties which
nlanl owes to (God.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIIE SAVIOUR.  207
It must be obvious, that in some particular aspects
of his conduct, Christ could be no example to us,
in consequence of the peculiarity of hi: person and
office.  We are evidently unable to follow him,
when he walks upon the sea, as on dry land; when
he but speaks a word, and its raging billows subside; when he converts a few loaves and fishes into
an abundant supply for above five thousand men,
besides women and children; when he restores the
loathsome leper to perfect soundness; when he
causes the sweet light of heaven to gladden eyes
long sealed in darkness; or when with perhaps a
more impressive majesty, he speaks and his voice
pervades the silent halls of death, and recalls to
the blessed consciousness of life, those who had
been locked in the mysterious slumbers of the
grave.
Destitute of the Divinity which dwelt in his human
nature, as in a temple, we cannot, of course, imitate
these miraculous manifestations of love. But we
can exercise the principle from  which they all
sprang, and which they were all designed to express.
It is true, we cannot raise the dead, but we can
serve the living.  We cannot cleanse the leper, but
we can visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction.  We cannot by miracle supply the needy, Lut
we can take of our abundance and minister to tl ei
wants.  We cannot restore sight to the blind, iir;
we can ourselves "be eyes to the blind."  We c'1v
sit by the bedside of the blind and sick, and red




208         TIlE TRUE PATII OR TIlE
the words of grace and life.  Thus, though we cannot exercise His almighty power, we may practise
his fervent charity; and if there be in us the same
mind which was also in Christ Jesus, we shall, like
him, go about doing good.
The narrow-minded and unbelieving consider that
lost which they dispense in charity.  They look
upon it as water spilt upon the ground which cannot
be gathered up again, as just so much taken from
the sum of their possessions; whereas nothing is so
truly and permanently ours as that which we bestow
in Christ-like charity. " le that giveth to the poor
lendeth to the Lord; and that which he hath given
will he repay him  again."  "Blessed is he that
considereth the poor; the Lord will deliver him in
time of trouble."  "It is more blessed to give than
to receive."
Surely it was not without design to affect our
hearts with a kindred charity, that the record of
our Saviour's personal beneficence was made. Surely, it was not without design to awaken in us a
kindred compassion, that we are informed of the bag
set apart for pious alms, even among the indigent
attendants of our Lord; and if on a bed of death
-a scene that most of all needs the balm of pleasant
memories-and a scene too, from which the most
beneficent life will look sufficiently barren of good;
if on a bed of death any recollection would be
sweet, it must be the thought that others, who have
gone before us to God, have borne witness to our




YOUNG MAN INVIT'IE)'i TO lE SAVIOUR.  209
bounty, and that there aire those left behind us on
earth to attest it when their praise can no more delight "the dull, cold ear of death."
In Christ, we perceive the harmonious union of the
active and contemplative life.  His beneficence toward men was not more remarkable than his piety
toward God.  If he went about doing good to the
bodies and souls of men, he walked with God in the
secret path of spiritual service. In religious observance, his example was as instructive as in useful
labours.  He often retired from the companionship
of his friends to commune with his heavenly Father.
Not one of his disciples spends the time in prayer
which he was wont thus to employ. HTe spent whole
nights in prayer. Alone with his God, by the cold
mountain's side, with no couch but earth, and no
canopy but heaven, he poured out his heart in
prolonged supplications and pious praises.  In the
garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives, on
the bloody cross, he prayed in agony and tears.
And in these hours of sacred and dread striving with
his God, against principalities and powers, he did not
confine his prayers to his own personal deliverance,
but bore, on his burdened heart, the sins and the
sorrows of all his people. As by virtue of his intercession it was, that Peter's faith failed not, and he
was graciously recovered from his grievous fall; so
the steadfast faith, and patient piety, and triumphant
struggles of his people since, are due to the prevalence of the same intercessions. In the seventeenth
18*




210          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
chapter of John, we have a recorded specimen of
our Saviour's intercessory prayers.  We there behold his reverence, his trust, his thankfulness, his
goodness, his faithful love to his own people, his
wise concern for their welfare, his comprehensive
and enduring care for all the generations of the
just.
This is a part of his perfect example, which especially commends itself to our imitation. Without the
spirit of prayer, there can be no Christian piety.
It is a blessed privilege of the believer in Jesus to
resort to him for light in darkness, consolation in
trouble, courage in danger, deliverance in temptation, and triumph in death.  All his people have
experienced the efficacy of prayer.   They have
gone forth from their dwellings in the anticipation
of trial, with a mind sobered and strengthened by
the grace of Christ.   And when the archives of
eternity shall be explored, and the events of this
life known in their hidden springs and most remote
issues, it will doubtless appear that many a noble
deed and many a wise forbearance has been effected
in direct answer to prayer, prompted by the Spirit
and presented in the name of the Lord Jesus.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIE SAVIOUR.  211
LECTURE X.
THE CHRISTIAN GRACES, THE HIGHEST HUMAN
VIRTUES.
IN the Christian system, the connection between
religion and morality is vital.  In the ancient
pagan religions, and in many, perhaps in most if not
in all, of the systems of modern paganism, they
were entirely divorced.  They were not only divorced but antagonistic.  Instead of enforcing the
obligations of morality, and establishing the authority of conscience, the pagan religions relaxed
the one and abolished the other.  They not only
permitted but prescribed the grossest immoralities,
in many instances making gluttony, drunkenness,
and lust, a component part of their abominable
idolatries.  Their religious services were the deification of sin, and their sacred temples, the schools of
pollution.  The moral among the pagans were
such not in virtue but in spite of their religion, and
the mild and modest among them habitually adored
cruel and licentious deities.  The gods they worshipped were not gods but devils, the magnified




212         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
image of their own vile affections.  Such were the
gods of Egypt and Syria, of Canaan and of
Greece.
It is highly worthy of remark that all corruptions
of the true religion and all departures from it, may
be traced and measured by their immoralities of
theory and practice; teaching that we may do evil
that good may come, cheat and lie and murder for
the credit of the church and the glory of God, and
indulge the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, provided we attend rigorously to all purely religious
duties.
This misdirection of the religious sentiment, this
divorce between the religious instinct and practical
virtue, which is the common characteristic of all
false religions and of all perversions of the true,
is perhaps the greatest enemy of true piety and of
pure morality.  The exclamation of Madame Roland, when she was carried to execution: " 0 Liberty!
how many crimes have been committed in thy
name!" maybe applied to religion. Looking back
upon the records of history, beholding the shameless
impurities, the horrible profaneness, the senseless
mummeries, and the hideous cruelties, which have
been employed in the worship of God, the bloody
wars which have been waged for the suppression of
his truth and for the extermination of his servants,
we may well exclaim, " 0 Religion! what crimes
have been committed in thy name!"
Such is the connection  between religion and




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  213
morality in the pagan and in the corrupter forms
of the Christian religion.  But in the pure andApostolic draught of Christianity, religion  and
morality are not indeed identified but inseparable.
Religion is the animating soul, morality the outward and visible body.  The Christian religion,
having its seat in the soul, works from within outwardly, and the daily beauty of a good man's life
is only the outward shining of a beautiful soul. It
is the unveiling of the hidden and holy light within,
the ebullition and overflow of the inner fountain of
life, the efflorescence and bloom, the aroma and
sweetness, of the incorruptible seed sown in the
heart and growing up silently and secretly there.
It is the ointment of the right hand that bewrayeth
itself, the articulate and audible voice going forth
from the recesses of the invisible oracle.  In the
wise and beautiful words of Coleridge, in whom the
wisest philosophic subtlety and the richest poetic
fancy were so signally combined: " It is indeed faith
alone that saves us, but it is such a faith as cannot
be alone.  Purity and beneficence are the epidermis,
faith and love the cutis vera of Christianity.  Morality is the outward cloth; faith the lining.  The
images of the sun in the earthly dew-drops are unsubstantial phantoms; but God's thoughts are things;
the images of God, of the Sun of righteousness, in
the spiritual dew-drops, are substances, imtperishable
substances.*
* Literary Remains, &c., Vol. v. p. 463: Prof. Shedd's
Edition.




214          TIlE TRUE PATH, OR THE
A  man who is truly religious will be righteous
just in proportion as he is religious.  Practical excellence is not only the fruit and the token, but the
test and the measure of Christian piety.  It is its
felt accordance with what conscience, the voice and
vicegerent of God in the soul, declares, demands,
and recognizes, as true, as fitting, as august and
holy and divine, which constitutes the plainest and
strongest of all the manifold proofs of the divinity
of the Christian religion, as revealed in the Scripture and represented in the Saviour.  We cannot
but feel, and from the depths of our spiritual nature
own, that a system which appeals so clearly and so
powerfully to that spiritual nature, in its wants and
wishes, in its hopes and fears, in its highest aspirations after truth and beauty and goodness, is a true
revelation from  the true God.  The voice which
comes forth from these holy oracles, is echoed back
from the profoundest depths of conscience.  That
religion, which is felt to affirm, to exalt, and to enforce all the sanctions and all the obligations of the
purest moral virtue, is felt to be true and divine.
It is self-evidencing, shining in its own light, and
commending itself to every man's conscience in the
sight of God.
No other than the true religion ever could accord
with an enlightened conscience.  In every other
there is a perpetual conflict between the convictions
of the moral sense and the supposed will of God.
The only strife which can arise in the mind of a




YOTUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAV[OUTR.  215
Christian is that which arises out of a want of complete correspondence between his religious creed anld
his moral conduct.  He feels that he fails in the
attainment of perfect excellence, only because he
fails in perfect obedience to what his religion requires him to be and to do.  The peculiar power of
the doctrine of Christ over the hearts of men lies
in the profound consciousness, that when most under
the dominion of the Christian faith, they are most
under the dominion of moral virtue.  The purifying
efficacy of the Christian faith on himself is a consideration which addresses itself with most intense
force to the consciousness of every believer; and it
is, of all the arguments for the divinity of the
Christian system, the most simple and conclusive.
When most religious we are most virtuous.  When
our souls are glowing with most grateful and adoring love to Him, who though he was rich yet for our
sakes became poor, that we through his poverty
might become rich, we feel the most patient and
zealous love for all men, especially for the household of faith; and thus there is consciously established the most complete correspondence between
Christian doctrine and moral excellence.
It is a sad and notorious truth, however, that
many nominal Christians, losing sight of the distinctive glory of their heaven-descended faith, really
sever their religion from  their morality, almost as
widely as the pagans ever did.  They go to church
and pass through all tle fornm  of worship punctually




216          THE TIJRUE PATH, OR THE
-it may be punctiliously. " And tbey come unto thee
as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my
people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do
them: for with their mouth they shew much love,
but their heart goeth after their covetousness."
Ezek. xxxiii. 31.  "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I
am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat
of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of
bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.  When ye
come to appear before me, who hath required this
at your lhandl to tread my courts?  Bring no more
vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto
me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with, it is iniquity, even the
solemn meeting.  And when ye spread forth your
hands, I will hide miine eyes from  you; yea, when
ye make many prayers I will not hear: your hands
are full of blood.   Wash ye, make you clean."
Isa. i. 11-16.
It may be that these deluded men have, while in
the house of prayer, what they account comfortable
frames and feelings, and yet when they go back to
their homes and their business, are just as proud
and selfish, and passionate and niggardly, as they ever
were.  Thus they do practically "fix a great gulf"
between religion and morality, an ordinary day
and the Sabbath-the counting-house or the workshop, and the sanctuary. Their religion and their
ever y day lorality, like k,: owledge and wisdom, "far




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  217
from being one, have ofttimes no connection,"like oil and water they refuse to coalesce; the one
floats on the top, the other sinks to the bottom.
The heartfelt reception of the Christian  religion carries with it not only the cardinal virtuessuch as truth, justice, chastity; and the utter abhorrence of the opposite sins-such as murder,
lying, theft, and all manner of uncleanness, but
the finer, loftier, and more ethereal graces, are studied and striven after, not only the sterling virtues
that go to make up the web and the woof of the
Christian character, but the beautiful graces which
set it off and commend it; sincere goodness showing
itself in its own native and proper lustre.  According to one divine delineation of the Christian virtues; Phil. iv. 8; we have first the broad foundation of truth, underneath the whole structure as a
solid rock, on which the whole building with its
appropriate ornaments and pendants may firmly
and fitly rest; then what is honest, or, perhaps more
strictly according to the present sense of the terms,
what is venerable or holy, and likely to fill the beholder with involuntary awe, but with an awe so
tempered by the presence of what is graceful and
lovely, as to be altogether pleasing-next justice or
equity in the dealings of men one with another,
seeking  not to  overreach or injure-manifestly
formed on the golden rule of doing to others, as we
would have them  do to us, and illustrating what
this same apostle enjoins elsewhere:  "Look not
1.9




218          TIHTE TRIIIE PATH, OR THE
every man on his own t,litins, lllt every mana  also
on the things of others," —then purity, not only
unfeigned  purity of heart, but showing forth in
speech and action,-" the sun-ciad power of chastity," in Milton's majestic phrase.  These are the
foundations and main supports of the building, the
solid rock, and the strong pillars, and the great
pilasters; to these we are to add every embellishment,
and every attraction proper to the finished beauty of
the finest Christian character. Whatever will naturally conciliate favour and win esteem, whatever men
justly approve as amiable andl praise-worthy, must
lend its fascination and its charm to the Christian
character, must confer a glory and beauty on this
architecture of heaven.
This is an inspired sketch of what every Christian
is sacredly bound to aim at for himself, and as far
as may be, to embody and illustrate.  He is not
only to abstain from the grossness of positive pollution, but to avoid what is unseemly or doubtful.
He is not only to attain the solid and staple principles of the Christian character, but the cheerful
and shining courtesy which will put a lustre on his
substantial worth and give it currency.  How many
are there who are good at heart, men whom  the
better you know  them, the more you respect alnd
like them; but men who are rough and regardless
of appearances, whose very piety has something
dogmatic and repulsive in its manifestations, whose
good is evil spoken of, not in conse(quence of any




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO T1lE SAVIOUR.  219
essential lefect, but from the neglect or disdain of
the amenities of life!  There are truly good men
whose dialect and demeanour do not recommend
their religion, especially to the young and unthinking men, who are seemingly so sour and cheerless
and churlish, so obviously lacking in that courtesy
which the most energetic and uncompromising of the
apostles explicitly commends, in. that winning sweetness of manner which is the true index  and fitting
interpreter of a loving heart, which propitiates
a. brother offended, and so disarms opposition, often
before it be itself aware, that they fail to recommend
their religion, where they might and when they ought.
So far is this gentle consideration for the rights
and feelings, and even the innocent prejudices of
others, from  involving a sacrifice of principle, or
implying a lack of honesty, that it is impossible, utterly impossible, for any who have not beforehand
secured the substantial framework, the strong and
solid foundation of love and truth and goodness, to
feel or to evince it.  These external indications
then appear as their fitting garments, their goodly
and graceful ornaments, apples of gold in pictures
of silver, the spacious and solid temple but stately
and magnificent, " Doric pillars overlaid with golden
architrave."
Thus we find that throughout the realms of
nature and the works of Providence, the useful is
accompanied by the beautifiul; the beautiful is based
and built upon tlhe useful  from  the sublime me



220          TIlE TRUE PATH, OR(  TlE
chanism  and movements of the heavenly bodies, so
glorious to behold, the moon walking in brightness,
accompanied by troops of stars, her shining retinue,
to the modest flower which performs her part in
the chemistry of nature, and in the very act unconsciously unfolds her beauty to the eye, and the rich
ripe fruit, or the clusters of the vine, bending beneath their precious burden, while glowing with
beauty and fragrant with sweetness.
A character, which should exhibit the graces portrayed by the pencil of the Holy Ghost, would
shine in the native beauties of holiness, in the genuine colours of heaven. What is holiness, but the
incarnation of the gospel in man, the possession of
the Spirit, and the practice of the precepts of Christ?
What is holiness in the creature, but likeness to the
all-glorious Creator?  And what is the beauty of
God, but the general sum of his ineffable and adorable perfections in their harmonious manifestation?
The beauty in which man shone at first, consisted
in the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness,
and true holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
That image lost by the apostasy, is restored in redemption; forfeited in fallen Adam, is replaced in
the Redeemer Christ.
To effect this renewal, the everlasting Jehovah
laid his glory by, became man, and suffered the
death of the cross.  IIe thereby purchased for his
own people the precious gift of the Holy Ghost,
whereby they are supernaturally renewed( in the




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  221
image of God, and have a title to the inheritance
of heaven. The crown of knowledge, holiness, and
dominion which had erewhile fallen from their heads,
is restored again by the gracious hand of a sovereign Redeemer.  They have now  pardon of sin,
peace of conscience, hope of a blessed immortality,
and the promise of a glorious resurrection.  It is
enough to say in the words of an apostle, " Even now
are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when he shall
appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as
he is: and he that hath this hope purifieth himself, even as he is pure. If ye love me, keep my
commandments." This is the all-comprehensive test
of love to the Saviour and of fitness for the kingdom
of heaven.
The improvement of a truly regenerate person in
all the beautiful graces, which adorn the Christian
character, is a gradual thing.  There is first the
grain, then the ear, after that the full corn in the
ear. The path of the just is as the shining light,
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
The building rises gradually and gracefully toward
heaven.  There is first the foundation, then the
main body of the building, then the capital and
crowning ornaments, the roof overarching all, and
the spire pointing to the skies. At first, the image
is drawn, it may be only in obscure outline; but
afterwards the lines are deepened, the features be19 *




222         THE TRUE PATIt, OR THE
come more distinct and definite, and the resemblance
to the divine original clear and strong.
The pulsations of spiritual life in the hearts of those
who are nevertheless " born again, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God"-may be so faint and feeble that they themselves may be scarcely conscious of it; but the proper law of the kingdom of God, in grace as well as
in nature, is growth. We are commanded to " grow
in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." We are exhorted to add to our
"faith virtue, [or courage,] and to virtue knowledge,
and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance
patience, and to patience brotherly-kindness, and to
brotherly-kindness charity;" and we are divinely
assured, that " if these things be in us and abound,
they make us that we shall be neither barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord  Jesus
Christ."  Faith is the root-grace, the mother-grace,
because it apprehends Christ, from whose indwelling Spirit all other graces flow. Love is the flower
of all the other graces, outlasting faith and hope,
flourishing in immortal fragrance and beauty, when
transferred to the atmosphere and transplanted in
the soil of Paradise.  These graces are essential to
the Christian character in its lowest stage of development, so essential that a man cannot be a
Christian and have them not, yet they are capable
of glorious increase. And as such, they are matter
of precept and promise. " Add to your faith," says




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  223
Peter, in a passage already quoted. " Lord, increase
our faith," is the prayer of the apostles.   Pi t
prays for the Colossian  Christians, "That they
might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing
in the knowledge of God;" Col. i. 10; and for
them  of Thessalonica, "The Lord make you to
increase and abound in love one to another, and
toward all men."  1 Thes. iii. 12.
We may now very briefly indicate some of the
most important instruments which Providence employs in this beauteous building, to bring it to the
fullest symmetry, and adorn it with the fairest
lustre.
It is an assured and delightful truth, "that all
things work together for good to them  that love
God; to them  that are the called according to his
purpose."  The way of the Christian is divinely
ordered in all things.  The gracious providence of
his God hedges him  about at all times.  Every
event in the earthly history of God's elect, is preordained and rendered conducive to their abundant
entrance into the everlasting kingdom of his dear
Son.  In reference to their present afflictions, it is
particularly promised that they shall work out for
them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory.  Temptations, which are so dreadful in the
view of our personal weakness, and are so fatal to
great multitudes of the rash and self-confident-are
to them not merely harmless, but just occasions of




24           TIIE TRIUE PATI, OR TIlE
thanksgiving and joy.  " My brethren, count it all
joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing
this. that the  trial of your faith worketh patience."  James i. 2, 3.  Thus the secret ie.xus
between the adverse dispensations of God, and the
spiritual prosperity of his people, is disclosed; and
so the sharpest sting of sorrow is extracted.
All the spiritual mercies of God are directly designed, as they are visibly adapted, to form  and fix
his holy image in their hearts.  The ordinances of
his house, the prayers, the praises, the instructions,
and the sacraments of the sanctuary, are formed in
infinite wisdom, to the end that they may build us
up in faith and hope of the gospel. Every exercise
of these graces tends to increase and confirm their
dominion.  The presentation of the gracious and
majestic objects of our faith to the mind, the distinct and delighted  contemplation of them, has,
naturally, a powerful tendency to awaken, to extend,
and to purify the Christian graces, to which they
severally and unitedly appeal.  Superadded to all
this is the supernatural supply of the Spirit of
grace:  "He giveth power to the faint; and to
them  that have no might he increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the
young men shall utterly i':  But they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew  their strength; they
shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall
run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not
faint." Isa. xl. 29-31.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIE SAVIOUR.  225
Every thing spiritually good in fallen man is, in
Scripture, ascribed to the supernatural working of
the Holy Ghost; and the experience of all Christians tallies with this account.  Pure religion and
undefiled is implanted, nurtured, and brought to
fruitfulness, by constant supplies of the Spirit of
grace.  For in us, that is in our flesh, dwelleth no
good thing; "and without me," says our blessed
Saviour, "ye can do nothing."
There are times when the ploughman is called to
plough and sow, for then the earth is soft with
showers and ready for the seed; so there are times
when the soul should be cultivated with special
diligence, for it is softened by affliction, and humbled
by sorrow, and made susceptible by grace.  There
are times when men should make great progress in
the understanding and fear of the Lord, in the
abundance and fervour of their supplications in
the Spirit; in their contempt of the pleasures, and
dreams, and passions of the world, and in the
warmth and purity of their love to the Lord Jesus.
The necessary conclusion from all that has been
alleged, touching the design of God's providential
dispensations, and his spiritual mercies, is, that the
continual growth of all true believers in the knowledge, the favour, and the likeness of God their
Saviour, is both a privilege and a duty.  But here
we are met with a practical difficulty.  We often
hear good men bemoaning themselves, and saying,
"Oh that it were with me as in months past, when




226          TIlE TIUE PATH, OR TItE
the candle of the Lord shone upon me! My leanness!
my leanness!" When these sad complaints proceed
from the sincere servants of the Most Iigh, they
are generally the outcry of a conscience wounded
and writhing under a sense of sin.  They have forsaken God and fallen from their first love, and as a
punishment, he sends a horror of great darkness.
If a Christian is not growing in all the parts and
perfections of the Christian life, he ought to be sad,
lie ought to be in trouble, and it is a dark sign of
hypocrisy if he is not in trouble, while living far
below his recognized duty and revealed privilege.
But some may complain that they are making
little, if any conscious progress, while yet they are
following on to know the Lord —faint, yet pursuing.
To such, I would suggest, in the first place, that
they may be really making progress, and yet not be
able themselves to discern it. This view, of course,
is not to be applied by any who are living in known
sin, or who are at ease in Zion, but by the humble,
the self-distrustful, the conscientious.  Let such
reflect that the operation of grace in the heart is
mysterious, and it may be imperceptible, yet we
know that, though unseen, the progress is not the
less real and rapid.'Though," says the apostle,
"our outward man perish, yet our inward man is
renewed day by day." 2 Cor. iv. 16.
We may not be able at the close of any one particular day to perceive that we have made any
appreciable advance, but take a longer period and




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIlE SAVTOTTR.  227
the progress may be more apparent.  Thus, when
we look at a young tree, or a flower, or a stalk of
corn, or a growing child, at the close of a single
day, we are able to detect no difference in height.
But let weeks or months intervene, and then the
growth will be obvious enough.
In the second place, we should reflect that we
may be growing in humility and godly sorrow; in
circumspection and in conscientiousness, in spiritual
discernment and in Christian charity; when we are
not growing in conscious joy, and in a comforting
sense of the divine favour.  We may, notwithstanding, be better in the sight of God, when we are
worse in our own; and we may be better in the
sight of God, because we are worse in our own.
We should have ever present to our minds a high
i,leal of Christian excellence, not to discourage, but
to stimulate us.  This ideal we shall never approach unless we use, with all diligence, the means
graciously afforded.  They who neglect the means
need not expect to attain the object.  Is it surprising, then, that so many among us languish, when
they (lo so little for their spiritual health and happiness? Do we expect a man to enjoy bodily health
who neglects all rational precautions, and plunges
into every species of excess? You may reply, If we
are absolutely dependent upon divine grace, for every
good gift, where is the use of giving ourselves any
trouble about the result?  Why be so concerned
about diligence on our part?  It might be enough




228          TIHE TRUE PATH, OR TIHE
to reply, God wills our diligence and cominanlls it.
We are exhorted to "give all diligence, to make
our calling and election sure." 2 Peter i. 10. That
should be enough for us. But the method by which
God works in us, is by inciting us to work.  lHe
works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure; and every deep conviction of the necessity
of using to the utmost all the appointed means of
grace, is the fruit of his Spirit and the pledge of
his favour.
The religion of Jesus, in its power and purity, is
the perfection  of human nature-its glory and
crown.  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is the
universal cure for the manifold maladies, the only
corrective of the deepseated evils, of human nature.
It does not, indeed, alter or abolish the individual
differences among men, so as to reduce them all to
one level, to raise them all to one rank, to cast them
all in one type.  But it makes the most of any one
individual, on whom its power is legitimately exerted,
that can be made  of him.   It elucates, while
it exalts all his powers, enlarges and fills all his
capacities for truth, and goodness, and happiness.
All men have not the original grant of power, which
was lodged by nature in the Apostle Paul.  But
take a common man and let him be possessed of as
lalre a measure of grace as was bestowed on this
gifted disciple of Gamaliel.  lie might not then be
as ardent, as wise, as indulstrious, as eloquent, as
useful as he: but still lie would be an eminent saint,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIE SAV[OUR.: 2;9
a, hero, a lillt, and if need be, a, martyr. lie would
1,e allt ogetlher a lifferent man from what he was before, he would seem to have new faculties. Nothing
so elevates the moral feelings and invigorates the
natural powers as true piety. It strengthens, feeds,
developes, disciplines, and purifies all the powers
of thought and action.  A thorough Christian is of
necessity a thorough man.  Let any ordinary man
be transformed by divine grace into a thorough
Christian, be filled with the Spirit, and he will at
once undergo a wonderful metamorphosis; he will
become at once a marked man and a mighty man;
retaining all that properly pertains to his own individuality, he will yet be obviously a different man,
and a man in every point and particular, in mind,
an(l heart, and life, incomparably elevated, thus
showing that the Christian graces are the highest
human virtues.
20




230            THE TRUE PATI, OR THE
LECTURE XI.
THE GLORY OF GOD, TIIE END OF OUR EXISTENCE.
THE glory of God, or the manifestation  of his
supreme excellence, may witlout irreverence be declared to be the ruling thought of the divine mind,
the principle and en(l of his government, to whiclh
every thing is subordinated, to which every thling is
referred, the original spring and ultimate object of
all Ihis counsels and dispensations, word and works.
We tlherefore as his creatures should set it before
u    d, designedly,  consciously,  habitually,  as  the
motive and end of all we do. " To the glory of God,"
sholuld be written on ourselves, on  all our possessiolns and on all our actions.  If we ever forget that
this is the ultimate end of all that he does or permits to be (lone, we lose sight of the central and
controlling principle of the divine government.  It
is to the moral what the attraction of gravitation is
to tie imateiia.l world.  To it every tllinr  is subor(liated l an1d (on it everything is (lipellndent.  For it;
we should he resolved to live, and p1rep)arI'Idl  a,
content to lie. (c,   i minds, our lives, wvill nevi, 1,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIIE SAVIOUIt.  231
rightly adjusted, until they are brought into conscious and complete harmony with the mind and
counsel of God.
Obedience is the end of all scientific theology;
we know truly only so far as we love and serve.
There is a theology of the intellect, cold, barren,
dead, that may be united with a proud, imperious
and selfish temper, and there is a theology of the
heart, warm, fruitful, living, full of mercy and good
fruits, gentle, loving, faithful, self-sacrificing, promoting universal goodness, the fruit of God's truth,
applied by his Spirit, and the sure token of his everlasting  favour. 1 Cor. viii. 1.  That knowledge
which has its residence only in the head and on the
tongue, is of all ignorance the most incurable and
pernicious.  Obedience to God is first active, doing
whatever he commands; secondly, passive, forbearing to do what he forbids, and patiently enduring
what he imposes.  Our constant prayer should be,
Lord, make me fully obedient to thee in all things
through the life-giving power of thy grace!  We
misplace and misspend our anxieties, on earthly
treasure and pleasure, instead of our souls and heaven and God.  He who does nothing without reference to the glory of God can never willingly
commit sin.  Htow would the thorough ascendency
of this principle simplify our course and sanctify
our lives! How would it project our thloughts and
aims out of ourselves!  Ilow would it raise them in
sacred strivings above thic stars of heaven! We




232          TIHE TRUE PATI, OR TIHE
should put no limit to our obedience and consecration, not seek to come up to some commandments
or to the faithfulness of some Christians, but seek
to do all the holy will of God, spiritually and perfectly.  We should set no period to our labours, but
be most diligent and devoted, for the time to come,
in those very things in which we are conscious of
failure in the past, multiply defences and forces at
the weakest points, be strong in the Lord, and in the
power of his might.
There is great danger, as we advance in life, of
confounding the maturity of natural powers and
the soberness incident to a more enlarged experience,
with growth in grace. As there is a weariness of
life altogether different from deadness to the world,
so there is a perception of many of its vanities, and
a conviction of many salutary truths, painfully inwrought, which is consistent with a state of mind,
subject to all worldly delusions and practical ungodliness.
Duty and devotion rest on the same foundation.
Both are meant to render honour to God.  To abstain from  pettishness, violence, and all unseemly
actions and emotions; and to practise all righteousness, therefore, is as needful as to pray.  The consideration of the future, as an incentive to prayer,
is wise and Christ-like.  The habit of taking trouble
on trust is most unmlerciful to ourselves and the source
of unprofitable despondency, wholly foolish so far as
we are concerned, and at once betrays and begets




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIHE SAVIOUR.  033
lack of confidence in the providence and perfections
of God.  But there are certain inevitable and awful
events before us all, doubtless some peculiar trials
in reserve for some, that should be so considered as
to cause us to prepare for them  by prayer.  The
Bible tells us even in prosperity, to remember the
days of darkness, for they shall be many.
In  a  time  of adversity, Moses thus  prays,
" So teach us to number our days that we may apply
our hearts unto wisdom."  Our Saviour generally,
specially in the immediate foresight of what was
coming upon him, persecution, betrayal, denial,
death, and such a death! fortified himself by prayer,
and so should we. Prayer is our strength. Who has
not felt it a secure retreat when every other refuge
failed; a fortress of God safe and impregnable,
because it engages omnipotence to aid us?  It lays
hold of every ground of hope, every perfection of
God, every promise of Scripture, every motive of
action.  The real source of independence of men is
dependence on God.  Faith is the antithesis and
antidote to fear.  When we can confide the whole
care of our souls, the whole conduct of our affairs,
to God's keeping, they will be safe and we shall be
happy.  But they who renounce the service of God
in prosperity, when they think themselves secure,
will forfeit and must forego his help in trouble, when
they feel themselves needy.  We sl;)uld not transfer
to any creature or created cause, the love and confidence due to God.  If in danger or trouble, we
20*




234         TIIE TRUE PATH, OR THE
trust in strength of body, or wealth or health or
intellect, and they fail us, we have nothing left us
and therefore fall into despair.  When we lose
them we lose every thing; but when we put our trust
in the living God, we confide in One who will never
leave or forsake us; and if we lose every thing else, we
have all things in him. Ps. lxxiii. 25. Faith in
God implies and embraces all things, confidence in
the efficacy of prayer, sense of protection in peril,
comfort in distress, hope in extremity, perpetual
watchfulness against temptation and sin, together
with unslumbering diligence in all Christian duties.
No man ever yet attained great moral elevation,
without faith in God and the spiritual strength
which is derived from communing with him in prayer.
It is the highest triumph of faith, to believe that
God will overrule all the evil in the universe to the
best and noblest end-his own glory.  And of this
we may be absolutely certain, from the knowledge
not only of his purposes, but of his perfections, his
wisdom, holiness, power, mercy, goodness, and truth.
To love God and to trust in him  when he deals
kindly with us is natural, and may be seen even in
the heathen; but to love him when he deals with us
in fatherly severity, argues a truly Christian and
heavenly temper.
No creature is mean, since every creature can
minister, and was made to minister, to the honour
and glory of God.   Man is especially noble as
capable of rational, spiritual, and voluntary service,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  235
and of conscious delight therein.  The differences
between all human souls are small, compared with
the things which they have in common.  Varieties
of endowment, of vigour, versatility and brilliancy
of mind-of education and accomplishment, vast as
they may be-are yet inconsiderable, compared with
their common curse in the apostasy, their common
redemption in Christ, and their common immortality
in a future state of being. This constitutes the real
basis of the dignity of man, as man, of the immeasurable importance of every human being, savage
and civilized, bond and free. The importance which
attaches to mankind is quite peculiar. The interests
of the universe centre around man.  Our planet is
small in comparison with others, but it is the battlefield of the Deity and the devil, the scene of the
apostasy, and the theatre of redemption. No man
can be considered altogether wretched, so long as he
retains his interest in his fellow-man.  Hamlet was
on the verge of distraction, or over it, when he said,
"Man delights me not."   Brotherly love is the
medicine of individual griefs, as well as the cement
of human society. To cultivate a generous interest
in our kind, to cherish a tender spirit of humanity,
is not only to perform the most comprehensive of
our social duties, but to do most for the development and purification of our own happiness. The
devil can do us no greater mischief, than to make
us first hate God, and then hate man.
From the hour a man first believes, every thing




236         TIIE TRUE PATH, OR THE
should be given to God, and every thing should be
done to God, and for him. So comprehensive is the
apostolic precept, " Whether therefore ye eat or
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of
God." 1 Cor. x. 31. Whatever we undertake, and
whatever we do, we are to do all so that God shall
be praised and his glory promoted. This principle,
as it is of the utmost importance, so is of the
widest compass.  It extends to every person and to
every thing, to every action and to all places.  Nothing can be so important, and nothing so trivial, as
to be exempted from its operation or beyondits range.
In every prayer we offer, in every letter we write, in
every book we read, in every journey we take, and
in every conversation in which we engage, there
should be ever present and ever active the desire to
glorify God. We ought ever to contemplate and contrive every thing, with an eye to its effect on our
own, and the spiritual interests of others. In thinking, in speaking, in feeling, and acting, our sole
and simple purpose should be to glorify God.  If
every Christian were fully possessed with this habit
of mind and life, how speedily would the world be
converted to God!
There are two ways of doing all to the glory
of God; one is explicitly, consciously, designedly.
This we do in the important actions, and on the
great occasions of life, when we first solemnly dedicate our souls to God, and sanctify our lives to his
holy service.  We do this designedly and of set




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THIE SAVIOUR.  237
purpose to his honour and glory.  So when we
unite in any act of formal divine service, as in the
solemn celebration of the sacraments, and in the
stated service of the sanctuary, or in the regularly
returning seasons of private devotion.
But, as Christians, we may, we should, we must
set the Lord always before us, and feel that because
he is at our right hand, we shall not be moved. We
may not only pray formally and statedly, but
always, without ceasing, never fainting. Thus, we
may prosecute the glory of God, habitually, unconsciously, and generally, in the spirit and habit of
the soul, in every action of the life, and during
every hour of the day. It is possible to pursue our
common occupations in a sacred spirit, to intersperse
secular labours with fragrant and holy prayers, to
send up silent ejaculations to God, like swift-winged
messengers of trace, thus keeping up an instantaneous and uninterrupted commerce with the glorious world of invisible spirits. So to live, is to have
every day sanctified, a perpetual Sabbath of the
soul!-" the bridal of the earth and sky!"
Thus, a real Christian will see God at all times,
and serve him in all things, in his recreations, and
in his engagements. To him, a common meal, sanctified by faith and thanksgiving, will yield more
spiritual nourishment than a sacrament, to many
others.  This, to use the beautiful thought of the
excellent Leighton, is the elix'r that turns lower
metals into gold, the meaner actions of this life into




238          THE, TRUE PATH, OR TIIE
obedience and holy offerings unto God. To maintain such a holy correspondence with heaven, amid
our earthly labours and distractions, would lighten
them  amazingly, and make them  sweet.  This,
again, to adopt Leighton's thought, would refresh
us in the hardest labour; as they that carry the
spices from Arabia are refreshed with the smell of
them in their journey.  1 Peter iv. 2, 3.  Religion
is not intended for high days and holidays only, but
for all days.  It is not intended to afford us holy
cheer and comfort in death only, but to be our law,
and guide, and rule in life as well.  It doth not
carry with it a recompense only, but a duty and a
service also.  It is perfectly possible to pursue a
sacred calling, and be engaged in sacred duties in a
secular spirit; as on the other hand, it is possible
to pursue a secular business in a sacred spirit, with
faith and prayer, referring every thing to the will,
the providence, and the glory of God.
After these more general views let me now suggest some specific reasons why we should make the
glory of God our ruling principle and final aim  in
life.  To have some great and worthy object in life
is infinitely needful to every rational creature. And
what should this object be but to glorify our Creator,
from  whom we have received, and from  whom  we
hope  all thinlgs?  What nobler object cain any one
propose to ) imself than to live for the glory of God?
How  mean tand little that man's spirit, wlhose
supreme concern on earth is to advance his own




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIHE SAVIOURI.  28selfish interests, to heap up money, to build up a
family, to make a name!  Compare an evangelical
missionary of education, ability, piety, and zeal,
who spends his life in leading the heathen to heaven; instructing them  kindly by the wayside and
from  house to house; sanctifying their heathen
tongue by the translation of the Christian Scriptures,
with the same man spending his life in his native
land for merely personal purposes, or going to the
ends of the earth for the sake of gain.  How exalted
the one!  How cormon-place the other!  The one,
how like a white-robed visitant from heaven, passing
through this world of ours to beautify and bless it!
The other, a son of our common clay, born to consume the fruits of the earth, and die and be buried
and forgotten! What a noble answer is given to
the first question in our shorter Catechism! "What
is the chief end of man?  Man's chief end is to
glorify God and enjoy him for ever." What end can
the soul propose to herself more lofty and seemly,
more religious and holy, more attractive aidl wise,
than the beholding and manifesting the supreme
glory of the ever blessed God, the infinite Creator
of heaven and earth, to all eternity?  What can
impart such dignity, interest, elevation, sobriety,
steadfastness, and usefulness to our daily life, as the
faithful pursuit of this sublime end?  Wlhat else
can save us from a life of insil)i(lity, inSinifil nec,
failure, wretchedness, and vice, but such a ruling
principle, such an ultiIla.te( nd cx:llte('l aim'?  Wllhat




240          TITE TRUE PATH, OR TIIE
is the reason that so many men are perfect blanks,
utterly and inexpressibly useless in the world,
vegetating rather than living, therefore not cared
for, not respected while they live, not missed nor
mourned when they die, unless it be by some fond
mother or sister, whom the
" Strong bond of blood or nature draws,"
to weep over the grave where the useless lie buried?
Why is it that so many are positively pernicious,
their presence a pollution, their example a pest,
their memory a shame, and their influence a curse?
WThy is it but because they have not lived to the
glory of God, they have never once raised their
eyes above'' this dim spot which men call earth,"
to the bright and imperishable heavens, because
they have never sought seriously, diligently, patiently, prayerfully to serve the great Creator and
our Saviour Jesus Christ?  These men have lived
for meaner, lower, sinful, selfish  objects.  They
have been of the earth, earthy.  They have loved
and served the creature rather than the Creator,
who is God over all blessed for ever more.  They
have lived and longed and laboured for the things
of time and sense, not for the sublime realities of
faith and eternity, for the glory of God, the favour
of Chris:t, tll  fellowship of the Spirit, and( the
hap1pirne s of e1av enr.  Tlierelfore their whole career
has'been one l  l'lran.  mistlake, one general faillure,
one deatdly sil.'T'lity halve bteent, their' own begin*i   I                                <~)




YONT'N( MAN INVTTE') Ti) TO  i'T, AVfOITR.  241
ning andt  end, cn tre  n11( l circumllference.  Their
thouglts lhave begun, colntinued, and ended in self.
Themselves have  een tleir God(.'hey  have been
atheists because they hi-ive b een egotists.  Their
idolatry has been the basest aind the vilest, the
idolatry of self.  They have denied the Supreme
God(,  because they have been devoteed to their own
glory, or to their own ease, or selfish enjoyment.
The busy aspect and pompous preparations of such
men, men who live for temporal and selfish objects
merely, men who in heart and in fact are worshippers of self, may be fitly likened to an Egyptian
temple of enormous size, of immense cost, but enshrining an ape or a, toad.
All men, who are not living to the glory of God,
are living for self.  All who are not faithful, selfdenying, earnest-minded, single-eyed Christians, are
living for self.  Their real object may be artfully
concealed or disguised, and from  no human eye
more effectually than from  their own; but if they
are not living for this great end, if they are not
guided by this great principle, if they are not animated by this high purpose-regard in all they do
to the glory of God, nothing, alas! can be plainer
than that they are living for themselves.  The first
reason then why every man ought to live to the
glory of God, is that every man ought to ha.e a
great and governing purpose; to give unity, consistency, elevation, and interest to his life; to prevent aimless and useless endeavours, ill-directed,
21




242          THIE TRUE PATH, OR THE
unfixed, wandering desires; to evade the restlessness,
the perplexity, the anxiety consequent on an ungoverned mind; and as every man should have
a governing object in life, that object should be the
worthiest and highest. And the worthiest and highest
can be nothing less, can be none other than the
glory of God.  A  second reason for making the
glory of God the principle of action and the end
of existence is, that thus and thus only shall we
attain the proper perfection of our nature.  The
mind is a proper end unto itself.  Knowledge is so
noble and so precious, because it builds up the soul
in strength and freedom and dignity, not mainly for
any inferior and outward a(vantages connected with
it.  " But the greatest error of all the rest (says
Lord Bacon) is the mistaking or misplacing of the
last or furthest end of knowledge; for men have
entered into a desire of learning.and knowledge,
sometimes upon a natural curiosity, and inquisitive
appetite; sometimes to entertain their minds with
variety and delight; sometimes for ornament land
reputation; and sometimes to enable theml to victory
of wit and contradiction, and most times for lucre
and profession, and seldom sincerely to give a true
account of their gift of reason, to the benefit and
use of men; as if there were sought in knowledge a
couch whereupon to rest a searching and restless
spirit, or a terrace for a wanderling and variable
mind to walk up alld d(own with a fair prospect, or
a tower of tratfe for a proud mlind to raise itself tu)ol,




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THlE SAVIOUR.  243
or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention, or a shop for profit or sale, and not a rich
storehouse for the glory of the Creator, and the
relief of man's estate."*
Sir William Hamilton, in his Lectures on Metaphysics, just issued from  the press, a book that
opens a new world of thought to the intelligent
student, remarks more directly and explicitly on
this point: "It is manifest, indeed, that man in so
far as he is a mean for the glory of God, must be an
end unto himself, for it is only in the accomplishment of his own perfection, that as a creature he
can manifest the glory of his Creator.  Though,
therefore, man, by relation to God, be but a mean,
for that very reason, in relation to all else, is he an
end."t
God has so constituted man and the universe
which he inhabits, that he can find his true dignity
and blessedness, only when supremely devoted to
his service.  It is the crowning glory and felicity
of man's nature, that he has been made capable of
knowing, and loving, and serving the true God and
Jesus Christ whom  he hath sent.  Ite was never
designed to find his  happiness in the creature,
but in the ever blessed God; in a life of selfish
ambition, of vain p0ower, of successful striving after
worldly ricles, or glory, or good, but in seeking
Advatinctmei o' learining, Bk. lst. p. 174. Monague'  Ed litiil.
Metahsit  c,,li.t...i... -t.




244          THE TRUE PATH, OR THEI
after God, in the adoration of his glorious perfections, in profound subjection to his sovereign will,
in a sweet sense of his gracious nearness to us, and
fatherly compassion toward us.
If romance be an extravagant and erroneous
estimate of things, if it be a departure from  the
truth of nature into the wild realms of fancy and
fiction, then is the cold, hard, scheming man of the
world-intent on multiplying possessions which he
does not need and cannot use-as unwise as a romantic boy.  For consider, how little it takes to
satisfy the natural needs of men, how insatiable are
artificial and imaginary wants, how  this man is
degrading his nature, hardening his heart, burdening his conscience, and blotting his memory, merely
that he may indulge his imagination by dwelling on
that wealth, which he never means to use.  The
romantic boy and the scheming man are equally
busied with day-dreams and air-castles; who shall
say, whose are the more rational, or rather the more
ridiculous?  It would not be hard to say, whose
are probably the more exalted and generous; since
a tincture of noble sentiment is apt to mingle with
the extravagant dreams of youth, and impart to
them a beautiful colouring.
The true riches are not material, but spiritual; they
do not consist in fertile fields, and stately dwellings,
and fine pictures; in delicious viands, and costly
wines,:and a loli tirain of obseqtlious attenrdallts
but inl a well-o-ldeIred l d d i lit   purti   t   e)1e heIrt  i




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  245
composed affections; in a clear judgment; in a candid soul; in a will resigned to the dispensations of
heaven, and resolute in the choice of right; in the
absence of envy, suspicion, and hate; in the presence of humility, charity, and goodness; in the
favour of God, which is life; and in his lovingkindness, which is better than life.
A  transforming change, in the inner character
of the soul, would alter even the outward aspect of
the world.  Then smitten with the sacred love of
truth and goodness, spiritual beauty and heavenly
wisdom, how  empty and insipid would seem the
ordinary objects of ambition  and desire! how
like painted vanities and gaudy toys! The object
of the Christian religion, subjectively considered, is
the purification and development of man's inner and
spiritual being in the glorious service of God. The
essence of this consists in the assimilation of the
soul of man to the image of God, in knowledge,
righteousness, and true holiness. In these spiritual
treasures the proper wealth of the soul consists;
and thus we find that the perfection of our nature
is inseparably blended with the service and glory
of God.
A  third consideration, directly leading to the
same conclusion, has been incidentally alluded to
already; but, for its importance, deserves to be
more formally propounded.  It is, that his own
glory is the ultimate end of all that God does.  If
his own glory be the highest object that he can set
21*




246          TIlE TRUE PATH, OR TIIE
before himself, if it be the end of all his dispensations, it is clearly the highest object which we can
propose to ourselves. And need I argue, to prove
to any man who has access to the Bible, that this
is, of a truth, the ultimate end of all the dispensations of God? Is not the whole Scripture from beginning to end, one long, repeated, and diversified
testimony to this effect? " The Lord hath made all
things for himself." " For of him, and through him
and to him, are all things." "'For it became him, for
whom are all things, and by whom are all things."
"' I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last."
Prov. xvi. 4; Rom. xi. 36; Heb. ii. 10; Rev. i. 8.
The ultimate end of the creation, then, is to show
forth the glory of the Creator.  In every star his
glory shines, in every stream, in every flower and
gem, in every insect, in every angel, in cherubim
and seraphim, in heaven and on earth.
We cannot honour God by giving to him  any
thing that he has not already in possession, but we
may honour him by acknowledging what he is, reposing confidence in his promises, regarding his
threatenings with awe, and giving to him the glory
due unto his name.
The glory of God is the end contemplated in the
whole course of his providence, and pre-eminently,
in the work of redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ.
At the birth of our Saviour the angels sang, " Glory
to God in the highlest, and on earth peace, good
will toward meci.'  "That at the name of Jesus




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  247
every knee should bow, and every tongue confess,
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father."  "IIaving predestinated us to the adoption of children, to the praise of the glory of his
grace." Luke ii. 14; Phil. ii. 6-11; Eph. i. 3, &c.
The glory of God is the end of the creation, the
end of providence, the end of redemption, of his judgments on the wicked, of his sanctification of the
righteous. It is the great end of the miracles which
he has wrought, and of the ordinances which he has
bestowed upon his church.
In strict correspondence with this declared design, is the structure of our Lord's prayer; the first
petition of which is that his name be hallowed, and
the conclusion of which is an ascription of glory to
God, "for thine is the kingdom, and power, and
glory, for ever, Amen."  That which God aims at
we should aim at, that which the God and Father
of all proposes to himself as the best and highest
end of all that he does in nature and providence, in
time and eternity, on earth and in heaven, by
angels and men, should be our chosen aim and end.
This doctrine lies at the foundation of all correct
theology, of all just views in speculative morality,
of all sound principles of practical morality, of all
philosophic truth, and of all wise legislation.  Regarding his own glory as the final aim of all his
dispensations and decrees, many difficulties in the
course of divine providence, otherwise insuparable,
disappear at once; and many vaunted inmprove



248          THE TRUE PATI, OR TIlE
ments in systems of philosophy, morality, and law,
are perceived to be false and hollow.  Much of the
philanthropy which is supposed to be Christian, is, in
fact, antichristian, opposed alike to the law and the
gospel, equally irreconcilable with the spirit of the
Mosaic and Christian dispensations.  Thus, those
views of morality and law which resolve all punishment into benevolent chastisement for the good of
the offender, and represent the sole purpose of suffering judicially inflicted to be for the prevention,
and not the punishment of crime-are opposed alike
to the instincts of conscience, to the dispensations
of God himself, and to the welfare of human society.
Much of the humanitarianism of this age and country rests upon a total misapprehension of the true
character of the divine administration, and is wholly
inconsistent with any high view of human obligation, and of human destiny.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  249
LECTURE XII.
THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN THE COMMON AFFAIRS
OF LIFE.
THE Bible is an inspired commentary on the dispensations of God.  It lifts the veil from  divine
providence and shows his agency where, otherwise,
it might not be seen or suspected.  There is an incident in the history of Israel, which is in this point
of view peculiarly instructive. Joshua x. 11.  The
Hebrew leader had been engaged in a perilous conflict in defence of the Gibeonites, his allies and dependents.  The enemy far outnumbered any forces
that he could bring into the field.  But, animated
by the justice of his cause and putting his trust in
Israel's God, he advanced suddenly upon the enemy
and gained a decisive victory.  Now, in the inspired
account of this engagement, the agency of God is
recognized throughout.  It is the Lord that discomfited the foe before Israel; the Lord that slew
them; the Lord that chased theml; finally it is the
Lord that ast c down great stones trom heaven upon
them, causing their lisp)elsini  at11d (Leath.




250         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
If an uninspired historian had been giving a
narrative of this battle, he would probably have done
it in this wise: " The courage and conduct of this
skilful and intrepid  leader were  crowned with
deserved success.  His enemies, confident in their
superior numbers and anticipating an easy victory,
were surprised, subdued, and scattered.  What contributed not a little to the success of the forces of
Israel, was a fortunate fall of hail, which blinded
and terrified their adversaries."   If the writer
were a philosophical historian, like Hume or Gibbon,
he would probably add, with a sneer, that "the
discomfiture of the allied forces was the more disastrous and complete, by reason of a natural phenomenon which their ignorant and superstitious
fancies interpreted as a token of the displeasure of
the gods."
What a difference would it make in history, if it
were written and read and acted under a perpetual
sense of the divine presence! Practically, the
majority of men are atheists in their way of thinking, or they conceive every thing to be subject to an
iron necessity; the universe to be governed by
blind mechanical forces, alike uncontrollable and
irresistible, which they are content to recognize
under the dignified designation of " the laws of
nature."'They thus contrive to banish God from
his own universe as effectuailly as from their hearts,
to depose him fiom  his kingly throne, or're!:l(e
himn to a pitiable inmpotence and inic' tion




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  2,t)}
If this be philosophy, we would none of it!  We
prefer to believe with the simple-hearted Christian,
who, taking the Scripture for his guide, can sing
with cheerful faith that beautiful hymn,
In each event of life, how clear,
Thy ruling hand I see:
Each blessing to my soul, most dear,
Because conferred by thee.
God speaks of this world as his world. He claims
it as his own.  He declares his presence in every
place, his agency in every event, his power over
every person, his sovereign sway over every department and every manifestation of nature.
God speaks his will in his providence, he does
not write a man's sin over his name, but he so sends
his punishment as to mark the man and to mark
the sin.  How  often is all this perfectly plain, especially when the outward deed is shone upon by
the faithful light of conscience, and most of all,
when conscience has been itself first shone upon by
the pure light of God's truth and Spirit!  It is each
man's business to find out his sin for himself, and
so to read God's providence as to rise from  the
lesson a wiser and a better man.  If we do not see
the hand of God in the events of daily life, it is our
own blindness and folly.  His awful voice is heard
not less distinctly, not less impressively in providence than in nature; in the calamitous events of
life, not less than int tl(h strife of the material




252          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
elements; in the shocks and troubles of the heart,
not less than in the angry tones of the thunder;
while his gentle power is felt in the sweet peace of
the soul, not less than in the beautiful sunshine and
the soft evening breeze.
It is thus that God rules in nature, in history
and in the ongoings of the world.  He does really
rule as much in profane as in sacred history, but
not so manifestly. The veil is removed in the one
case, it remains in the other, to conceal " his hand
and his counsel," however, only from the unbelieving
and the undiscerning.  How gloriously did Jehovah
of hosts, the King of Heaven, go forth of old at the
head of his armies!  How  often, how solemnly,
with what authoritydoes he declare that they got
not the land in possession by their own sword;
neither did their own arm  save them; Ps. xliv. 3;
but his right hand and his arm and the light of his
countenance, because he had a favour unto them;
that the horse and his rider were thrown into the
sea, by the Lord Almighty, when Pharaoh tand his
"Memphian chivalry," sank like lead in the mighty
waters   The pillar of cloud and of flame was the
token of the God that led them.  The stars in their
courses fought against Sisera.  The proud hosts of
Sennacherib, King of Assyria, were gathered together against the beloved of the Lord, and he sent
forth ai an angel and slew  inl one nighlt a hundred and
eighty a.nd  five thousand.




YOUNG MAN INAVTE'I TO THE SAVIOUR.  258
Like the leaves of the forest, when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen;
Like the leaves of the forest, when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
In the times of the Judges, it was the Lord God
of Israel, that triumphed by Gideon, by Jepthah, and
by Sampson.
In the life of David we have repeated illustrations
of the same fact.  It is written, " Saul sought him
every day, but God delivered him not into his hand."
1 Sam. xxiii. 14.  Without admitting that the evil
actions of men proceed permissively from God, and
are comprehended in his plan of moral government
for this world, and are overruled so as to advance
his ultimate and gracious designs, we can not interpret Scripture or deal with the facts of humnan
history.  Not to insist at present on the most important and illustrious instance, the condemnation
and crucifixion of the Lord of glory, we can not but
be struck with the testimony of David, when urged
by Abishai to suffer him  to slay the injurious and
blaspheming Shimei.  It is abundantly manifest
that Shimei's cursing was the "foaming out" of
diabolical wickedness, in itself altogether unprovoked and inexcusable, and of course an affront to
the holiness of God; and yet David, in the exercise
of meekness, humility, faith, and wisdom testifies,'" Let him alone and let him curse, for the Lord hath
bidden him."  2 Sam. xvi. 11.  The following
chapter clearly shows that the impressions made on
00).4




254          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
our minds in the exercise  of reason, by advice
offered, are equally under the dominion of providence.
The counsel of Ahithophel would have been fatal
to David.  It would have secured the thlrolnle to
Absalom; and he and his counsellors were at first
unanimous in the opinion that it should be adopted.
But the Lord had deternined othlerwise, and aicordingly he is moved to call in Hushai.  And even to
us tle counsel of the latter seems quite as probable
and far more safe.  At all events it was followed,
and the purpose of God accomplished in the swift
destruction of the unnatural and rebellious son. 2
Sam. xvii. 14.  " The king's heart is in the hanld
of the Lord; as the rivers of water, he turneth it
wlhithersoever he will." Prov. xxi. 1.
Now, in the ordinary course of God's dealings
witl nations and with individual men, his providence
is not less wonderfully at work than of old.  But
we have not the hand of' the divine Revealer to lift
the veil.  God works most when he is least thought
of.  All the elements are under his control; he sends
the winds out of his treasury; he calls to the lightnings and they say, "HIere are we!"  "I-e giveth
snow like wool; he scattereth the hoar-frost like
ashes;" Ps. cxlvii. 16; he rules over the apparently
lawless waves of the sea; he tells them when to rage,
-and when to be calm as a sleeping infant.  There are
times when a great imoral purpose is visibly accomplished by a seasonable antd striking movement of
the elemelnts, in whiecll tlhe ag'ency of God is as un



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIHE SAVIOUR.  255
deniable, as immediate as it was in the annals of
ancient Israel. In the dispersion of the fleets of
the Spanish Armada, proudly called the Invincible,
who can deny that the hand of God was as plainly
revealed for the preservation of the true gospel in
England, as it ever had been for the confusion of
the idolatry of Baal or of Ashtaroth?  Who but
the Lord of all the earth raised that tempest, which
scattered the ships of Spain, confounded the counsels
of the Pope, and dashed the hopes of Philip? Who
but God alone?  And let us, American freemen,
never forget that more than once, in the darkest
hours of our Revolutionary struggle, God appeared
as our helper and guardian. Just when the bravest
began to fear, and the most sanguine to despond,
some seasonable and surprising turn would take
place in our affairs, plainly marked with the finger
of God.  And he who observes that most remarkable movement in its causes, course, and consequences, in the passions and errors, which precipitated it, in the marvellous meeting of happy contingencies in its progress, and its.unforeseen and
even now incalculable results, cannot but adore the
wonder-working providence of God.
The ancient Greeks greatly erred in multiplying
divinities, assigning its peculiar deity to fountain
and shade, to land and sea, to earth and air, to the
household and hearthstone; and yet there was a
great truth underlying this superstition.  The truth
was the all-pervading, ever-active, every where




256          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
present providence of the one living and true God.
We should learn  to recognize God's providence
in the familiar history of families and individuals.
But how stupidly blind are we for the most part!
God sends sickness, but he is little thought of.  We
can explain the operation of second causes.  We
can show the connection between our exposure to
the sun, our imprudence in diet, our over exertion
of mind or body, our excessive and wasting anxieties, and the visitations which followed.  But we
cannot see the hand and counsel of God in the
matter.  Now, if the Bible were to write the history
of the case, how different would it seem, how differently would it sound! It would then be God that
sent that sickness, God that saw fit to try you with
those inward, disquieting fears, God that caused you
to undergo those violent fatigues; for the Bible
makes him the Lord of sickness and health, of life
and death.  Not to own the hand of God in these
daily events, is not philosophy but unbelief.  It is
rank impiety. It is absolute atheism. Who denies
the operation of second causes? Not the Scriptures
most assuredly.  But they affirm the sovereign rule
of providence over them, his infinite wisdom  in
ordering and bounding them, in the accomplishment
of his gracious purpose in them and by them. God
takes away a son or a father, but the veil is not
lifted.  You can see to a certain distance.  You
can understand  the operation of certain visible
causes, certain material agencies.  But every man's




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  257
life has two histories, a secret and an open.  Every
event has two interpretations, a material and a
spiritual. It may be all true, that your son or your
father died, in consequence of certain remedial
agents being neglected, or postponed, or inaccessible,
in consequence of a certain state of the atmosphere
concurring with a certain state of the system, which
developed or induced disease.  But why stop there?
All this an  atheist might own.  A  Christian
believes much more; he rejoices to think that
beneath and behind this veil of second causes, of
visible and material agencies, there was an invisible
and intelligent agent at work, and that agent, his
almighty Friend, his heavenly Father.  Is there
anything unreasonable in such a creed? anything
delusive or unworthy in such comfort?
It is to those of us who hope and trust in God, a
truly delightful thought, that he can make not only
the marked and memorable events of life conduce
to our salvation and redound to his glory; but the
small trials, the petty vexations, the insignificant
provocations and perplexities.  Filial confidence in
the providence of God is essential to happiness in
a world like ours, full of mystery and change. And
a Christian's cheerfulness depends very much on
the objects of his habitual contemplation. If a man
look, first and most, at the number, force, malice, and
subtlety of his enemies, the various difficulties in
the way of his ultimate salvation, he may well be
despondent.  But let him look at the perfections,
2') *




258         T1Ee TRUE PATH, OL TIlE
promises, and providence of God, at the person and
work and grace of the Redeemer, at the steadfastness of the covenant and the fulness of the Spirit,
and he may well hope and rejoice.  The strength
of the everlasting Jehovah is mine, because I can
lay hold of it by faith and prayer.  We are especially to admire the wisdom of God in his methods
of providence and in answering prayer.  He is revealed in Scripture and known in experience to
answer "the  effectual fervent prayers" of his
pleading people, even while they are ascending to
heaven, as in the case of Daniel, Danl. ix. 20-27;
on  the day of Pentecost, Acts ii; when  the
church prayed without ceasing unto God for Peter,
Acts xii. 3-9; when Paul and Silas prayed and
sang praises unto God, Acts xvi. 25-40.  But if
this were invariably the case, it would doubtless
come to be looked upon, as in some way necessary
and mechanical, like the ordinary operations of
nature and providence.   Thus the supernatural
character of God's answers to prayer is kept up;
and the faith of his elect vindicated and fostered.
The history of the church is the record of- successive wonders, when we regard the signal and
seasonable deliverances which she has experienced,
as the interpositions of God. In ancient days, her
apostles were supernaturally inspired with the knowledge of the truth, for her instruction and comfort.
They were warned by significant dreams and visions of impending dangers, and of the best methods




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  259
of escape.  They were admonished by revelation,
when to make a journey, whither to go, and what
should be the issue of a hazardous or dubious enterprise. Acts xvi. 9, xxvii. 23; Gal. ii. 2; Acts x. xi.
xv. 2. It is a very signal illustration of the providence of God toward his church, that the occasions,
the scope, and the structure of the apostolic Epistles, should have been such as to afford permanent
instruction, touching the most important doctrines,
the most dangerous heresies, the most mischievous
disorders, the most excellent graces, the administration of discipline, the duty of ministers, the obligations of men to the civil authorities, and all the
relative duties, springing from  the constitution of
human society, and the various offices of father,
husband, master, embracing and prescribing the
correlative duties of children, wives, and servants.
At different periods in later ages, the divine deposit of the true doctrine has been threatened and
imperilled; but God has raised up able and faithful
men to define and defend it-men who could bring
the pearls profoundly hidden in the depths of Scripture.into open day, and clearly interpret for her
own recognition and rejoicing, the common consciousness of the Christian church.  Who can read
the history of the apostolic conferences, and not see
that they were presided over by the infallible Spirit
of the living God?  Who can consider the course
of later and uninspired Christian councils-note the
disturbing agencies at work among them, the natural




260          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
darkness of the human mind, and its strange proclivity
to error, and then see the clearness, the accuracy,
the subtlety, with which exceedingly difficult and
delicate, but withal, most precious and vital doctrines
were  affirmed and  illustrated, were stated and
established, so that all succeeding Christians have
found those early symbols and confessions the best
expositions of the common faith, and have been
utterly unable to improve upon them, or to go beyond
them; who, I say, can consider these things, and deny
the supreme and gracious providence of God? The
same all-wise and beneficent Being, who has furnished
antidotes where poisons grow, has sent forth champions of truth to meet the teachers of error, has summoned an Athanasius to bear witness to the Divinity
of our blessed Lord against the god-denying heresy
of Arius, and an Augustine to vindicate the doctrines
of grace against the proud and pestilent teachings of
Pelagius. The same gracious providence that raised
up the Apostle Paul like a pyramid of fire from the
ashes of his martyr Stephen-sent forth in successive ages, fathers, confessors, reformers, and martyrs to bear witness to the truth, in a day of trouble,
and rebuke, and blasphemy!
God's providence appears, in so ordering all
things-the most trivial and minute, the most unwelcome and painful, things seemingly most adverse
and injurious-as to secure the salvation of his chosen.
HIis natural and gracious sovereignty over all elements, agents, events, catuses, a;(i effects, is glori



YOUNG MAN VINVITED TO THE SAVIOU1t.  261
ously exercised in doing just what is needful, what
is wisest and best to accomplish the end in viewsending trouble when and where and in the form,
in which it will be most efficacious, causing his Holy
Spirit to co-operate with his providence, working
within by his grace on the thoughts, the feelings, the
convictions of the soul, so as most effectually to
draw it to himself and bind it fast in chains of heavenly love.  These chains, woven by the hand of
God, are willingly worn; instead of being detested as
the badges of servitude, the soul rejoices in them as
her ornament and strength. " Thy people shall he
willing in the day of thy power."  "All things
work together for good to them that love God, to
them that are the called according to his purpose."
We know of no employment, more appropriate
and delightful, than thus to contemplate God, executing in the whole course of his visible providence
the secret purposes of his grace. And if we had
an inspired interpreter of the mysteries which we
meet with here, we should doubtless often discover
a benevolent purpose where now all seems dark,
and discern an intelligent Agent.presiding over the
apparently casual and capricious agencies of nature.
Even now, obscure as the dispensations of God
confessedly are, in regard to particular events, yet
reason and faith, enlightened by the divine word
and Spirit, can suggest general considerations to
console the pious under the heaviest afflictions. It
is enough for us to know that God has commandc of




C22          TIHE TRUE PATI, OR TIIE
all, and that he loves his people with an infinite
love; therefore, we may conclude assuredly, that he
bestows on them as much of all kinds of temporal
good as they can bear. At the period of life which
infallible wisdom judges best for them, they gain or
lose, they grow  rich or become poor, they  are
ruddy with health or are wan with pining sickness;
their children and brethren are about them, or they
are put away in silence and darkness. Yet whatever happens they know is for the best, so far as
they are concerned.  Some, it cannot be doubted,
get to heaven with poverty and trial, who never
would get there with prosperity and plenty. Therefore, the apostle includes death as well as life in his
schedule of the saint's treasures.  If we could see
the marvellous means which God employs to bring
men to repentance, we should be amazed.  Some,
as Henry Martyn's friend, by a casual reproof, the
effect of which, we might have imagined, would have
been quite different.  The government of all men
and all events is going on to gather in the elect of
God.
The ultimate end of God's dealings with his own
children, is to empty them of self that they may be
filled with his fulness. This every believer is made
at last to feel, and does in his heart acknowledge.
At death and in the near prospect of eternity,
he is truly thankful for bodily pains, for bodily
sickness, for trouble in his family, for pecuniary
loss, for disappointed hopes, if such has been their




YOUTN(  MIAN INVITED TO TIIE SAVIOUIR.  26(3
fruit, if this has been their glad and golden issue.
Ilis disciplined heart, his purified spirit says, Be
thou exalted, ( Lord, by me, though I suffer and die
for it!
So strong is our corruption, so entrenched is
selfishness within us, that this sad discipline is often
sorely needed, nay, is often indispensable. Even zeal
to be actively employed in God's service may degenerate into sinful impatience.  We may glorify
God by waiting the time his providence shall appoint.   " He that believeth shall not make haste."
When the cloud abode upon the Tabernacle, the
children of Israel rested in their tents; Num. ix.
18; and it would have been rebellion in them to
have hasted on, even to the promised land. This
may comfort those who are cut off from active usefulness, and temper the rash zeal of the inexperienced.
The discipline of sorrow is to many the gateway
to heaven.  As a physician is obliged to keep a
patient on low diet, who is consumed with a raging fever, and is often forced to reduce his system
by blood-letting, so our Divine Physician of the
soul is many times compelled to keep his people
low  by poverty, sickness, reproach, bereavement,
and even the absence of a confident sense of his
favour, lest they be consumed by the fire of pride,
vain glory, lust, or anger. Therefore, " whom he
loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth."  The more a, man is fortified by




264          THE TRIUE PATH, OR THE
wealth, and health, and earthly  good, the  less
direct apparently is his dependence on God, and
the less sensible of it is he. These gifts interpose
between the heavenly Giver and the soul so liberally
supplied; and instead of leading him  to worship
God with discerning eye and grateful heart, they
too often cause him, like the foolish king of Babyion, to glory as if they were the work of his own
hands, as if he were himself God: "Is not this great
Babylon that I have built for the house of the
king(dom, by the might of my power, and for the
honour of my majesty?"  Danl. iv. 30.
Modesty in our judgments, concerning the providence of God, is intimately  connected with the
exercise of charity toward others, and the enjoyment of peace in our own minds.  It is confessedly
mysterious now.  It is only partially unveiled here.
But it is, therefore, the best discipline of the most
excellent virtues, faith, patience, humility, forbearance, and brotherly love.  As he is justly reckoned
a faithful friend, who maintains the honour of his
friend, not only when it is aspersed by the ignorant, the envious, and the malicious, but when it is
really obscured by unaccountable conduct; so he
is the most faithful friend of God, who believes and
teaches that his way is perfect, even when his path
is in the deep, and his footsteps are not known;
and who, amid the clouds and darkness that now
invest his providence to mortal ken, is still assured




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  265
and still proclaims that righteousness and judgment
are the habitation of his throne.
The doctrine of Providence may justly be regarded as a sort of test doctrine, the reception or
rejection of which determines a man's religious
character; for no doctrine is more explicitly affirmed
by Christ, and none is more truly grateful to one
who has imbibed the spirit of Christ.   Our Saviour
makes the providence of his heavenly Father to be
in the moral world, what the law of gravitation is in
the  natural-all-comprehensive,  and  everywhere
operating; extending to the majestic march of the
heavenly hosts, and to the flower which to-day is, and
to-morrow is cast into the oven; to the flight of a
sparrow  and the falling of a hair; and to all the
interests, temporal and spiritual, personal and relative, for time and eternity, of all his people!  And
what more natural to a child of God, than to receive
that doctrine, so full of solemn cheer, that tells him
he is ever walking under his heavenly Father's eye;
that wheresoever he may wander beneath the cope
of heaven, he is still within a charmed circle, which
that Father's gracious presence ever fills; and that,
although to the uninstructed heart and to the unanointed eye, all may seem cheerless and casual, disordered and dark, it is his sacred privilege to discern the form  of one like unto the Son of God,
even in the furnace of affliction; and when he is
made to triumph over his enemies by any visible
23




266           THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
and intermediate agency, it is his and his alone to
discern the helping hand of his gracious Father! -
* It is gratifying to observe how uniformly Washington
recognized the overruling providence of God, and in the
most explicit terms, as at the discovery of Arnold's treason: Irving's Life of Washington, vol. iv. pp. 162, 436,
508, &c. " When I contemplate the interposition of Providenee, as it was visibly manifested, in guiding us through
the Revolution, in preparing'us for the reception of the
general government, and in conciliating the good will of
the people of' America toward one another after its adoption, I feel myself oppressed and almost overwhelmed
with a sense of divine munificence."




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  267
LECTURE XIII.
SOVEREIGN GRACE, THE SINNER'S HOPE.
IF we had a wise spirit, we should be filled with
love and wonder and worship, with thanksgiving
and deep gladness, in a world of beauty like this,
when we look at the bright birds and hear their
sweet song, and see them  gracefully hopping from
bough to bough, and gaily disporting themselves in
the pleasant sunshine; when we see the manycoloured beauties of the skies, and the soft green
of the grassy landscape, and the deep shade of the
full-leaved trees.  Oh! how good and loving must
our heavenly Father be!  Then to think, that all
these are in a world of sin and woe, and that he has
sent his Son to save, and to save by dying!  " For
when we were yet without strength, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly."  " This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners."  " For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not
perish but have everlasting life."  " For thy name's




2^8       THE TRUE PATH, ORt THEa
sake, 0 Lord, pardon mine iniquity for it is great."
" Come now and let us reason together, saith the
Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
as white as snow; though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool."'  orn. v. 6; 1 Tim. i. 15;
John iii. 16; Ps. xxv. 11; Isa. i. 18.
These  several passages, taken  from  the  Old
Testament, as well as the New, set forth: first, the
ground; secondly, the extent of forgiveness.  Salvation for sinners is in all its parts and provisions
undeserved and extraordinary.  From the beginning
to the end, from Alpha to Omega, from  Genesis to
Revelation, from its first and eternal inception in
the divine mind, through every period and by every
process of development, it is the motion and offspring of sovereign grace.  The moving cause of
our salvation is in God and not in man.  It is in
the inaccessible and adorable depths of the divine
nature, that we are to search for the reason and
ground of the plan, which restores weak, corrupt,
and apostate man to the image and enjoyment of
God.  If we wish to know how it is and why it is,
that we are to be saved, by what instrument and for
what cause, we must look away from ourselves and
glance our eyes upwards to God.  " Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight."
The petitioner for pardon is to base his plea, not
on anything in himself, but only on what is in God,
on God's revelation of what he is in himself, and
what he has done for the sinner.  On the name of




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  269
God and on that alone, the sinner is to base his
hope and urge his plea.  This he is to put in the
forefront of all, as an ample shield, an invincible
argument, an adequate answer to all objections, a
final solution of all difficulties. This he is to take
as a broad and strong foundation to build upon.
" For his name's sake." If allowed to plant himself
on this ground, the Devil himself might pray. No
sinner, how great soever his sin, need fear, need
despair of finding mercy, if only he have a warrant
from  God to use this argument, "for thy name's
sake."  And the only reason, why the prince of the
power of the air, by whatever name known, Beelzebub, Apollyon, Satan, or Belial, cannot be pardoned and reinstated in his forfeited throne, in his
lost dominion, is that he cannot pray this prayer.
He cannot urge this plea.  He is not permitted to
build upon this foundation.
Let us proceed to survey this ground, to consider
this foundation more closely.  What is meant and
what is said in that form of speech, " for thy name's
sake?"  What are we to understand by the name
of God?  It is a comprehensive phrase, expressing
the general sum of the divine perfections. Now it
is not for the glory of the divine perfections, that
Satan should be pardoned.  It is for the glory of
the divine perfections, that he should be punished;
and accordingly there has been a special, an ample,
an awful provision made for his punishment, none
for his pardon.  For him  and his rebellious crew
23 *




270         T'rE TRUE PATH, OR THE
have the deep founldations of hell been digged, fire
and brimstone, which the breath of the Lord doth
kindle, have been abundantly prepared.  " There is
weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth," "where
their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched."
Mark ix. 46.  There no love, no light, no mercy, no
mitigation, not a moment's ease, not a moment's
respite is ever known; but only terror, and darkness, and remorse, and wretchedness, and ruin, and
despair, whatever is known or dreamed of or possible,
whatever men imagine of wild, and horrible, and
loathsome, and  hideous, and  hateful, is there.
And it is there expressly for him and for such as
are like him.
"Then shall he say also unto them  on the left
hand, Depart from  me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,"
Matt. xxv. 41; his followers, his dupes, his victims,
among the former hosts of heaven and among the
children of men, the apostate, corrupt, impenitent
children of men.  For it is the truth of God, and it
ought to be told and believed and pondered and
acted on, that all who die in their sins, dwell for
ever in hell, with devils and damned spirits.
In their intolerable and eternal torments, these
all glorify the power and justice, the holiness and
truth of God.  These are the attributes which lost
spirits, whether of men or devils, illustrate; but these
are not all the attributes of God.  They are a part,
but not all that is embraced in his " name."  When




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  271
that glorious Name is uttered they do come forth
but not alone, not dissociated, not dissevered from
the rest.  All the attributes and all the perfections
of God are collected and concentred and expressed
in his Name. Holiness, justice, power, faithfulness,
and truth are there, but along with them  come
trooping, other attributes, other perfections and
such as accompany and promise salvation for penitent
sinners, love, goodness, mercy, and grace.  These
all blend and shine in the redemption which is in
Christ Jesus, our Lord, in the expressive Name of
Jehovah, each with its proper and separate glory,
all in undivided and united splendour, " with a far
beaming blaze of majesty," as several colours in the
rainbow, each distinguishable yet all harmonious,
and each lending its separate ray to the one effulgent glory.  The Name of God, therefore, comprehends all his adorable perfections, his love and
grace, not less than his holiness and power; and
when we are allowed to make our appeal to the
Namne of God for pardon, we are permitted to call
to our help Jehovah himself, in the full glory of his
being, in the entire circle of his attributes, in the
unfathomable fulness of his nature, in his essential
unity, in his tripersonal subsistence; not only as our
Creator and Lord, but as our Redeemer and Saviour.
We are shut up to the gospel method of salvation, because we have the profound conviction, that
God does dermand and can demand nothing less




272         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
than perfect holiness, and we are sensible that we
can never attain it, that at no happy conjuncture of
our lives can we hope to exhibit it, unless by the
gospel method, the free and full forgiveness of our
sins, the regeneration of our corrupt nature, the
sanctification  and  renewal of all our faculties
through the effectual working of the Holy Ghost;
and as the answer of all the law's demands, the imputed righteousness of God himself, in the person
of our atoning Saviour.
Let us, therefore, consider the extent of forgiveness.  After what has been said on the import of
the Name of God-the proper and only ground of
the pardon of any sin; it is hoped, that we can see
how any sin which man can commit may be forgiven, which does not by its nature preclude this
plea.  The greatness of the sin is really no bar, it
may on the contrary be an argument, for its remission.  We feel, that we are now treading on the
perilous edge of a high truth, from which unreasonable and wicked men may fall into a yawning and
infinite abyss; but it is a truth, nevertheless, and
" let God be true and every man a liar." There is no
sin, however great, which may not be pardoned "for
his Name's sake," if it be repented of truly. The
sin against the Holy Ghost is unpardonable, because it is of such a nature as to exclude repentance.
It is to be constantly borne in mind that it was not
on the ground that he had made a full confession,
that the Psalmist implored and anticipated pardon.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIlE SAVIOUR.  273
The celebrated French deist, Rousseau, after making a shameful and sickening confession of his lies,
and libertinism, and thefts, and manifold baseness,
said that he would present this record of his life
before the bar of God, in the confident anticipation,
that a full confession would be accepted as a full
atonement.  But the pious Psalmist thought, and
felt, and acted far otherwise.  The greatness of the
sin did not indeed cut off the hope of pardon; but
that hope was founded not on anything that he had
done or could do, but simply on the Name of God,
attended and attested by a godly sorrow for sin.
The promises of Scripture to the true penitent, are
such as may reasonably inspire hope in the chief of
sinners.   " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son
cleanseth us from  all sin, and if any man sin we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous."  The very design of our Lord's coming into the world is declared to have been, not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance;
and of old it was made a ground of accusation
against him, that he received sinners and ate with
them.
Rightly understood and proceeded on, however,
this great truth, like every truth of Scripture, is
not only innocent but highly profitable.  What is
repentance? and what is it to repent?  It is to be
truly sorry for sin, to wish it had never been
committed, to hate it from  the heart, to turn from
it, to keep clear of it, as far as possible in all time




274          TIlE TRUE PATH, OR TIlE
to come; and all this is wrought in the heart of
a sinner by the word and Spirit of God. and is
attended by a trust in the mercy of God in Christ.
The discriminating mark of a true penitent is, not
that he avoids gross transgressions from  the force
of natural conscience, still less from  respect to
human opinion; but that he hates pollution, that he
strives after holiness, that the personal consciousness of sin, whether known to another or not, is his
grief and burden.  Physical filth is not so intolerably loathsome to a person of purity and sensibility,
as moral pollution to a real penitent, a servant and
a saint of God.  It is necessary not only to confess
our sins, but to mourn for them, and not only to
mourn for them, but to forsake them.  Confession
alone will not be followed by forgiveness, on the
part of God, or by forsaking them on our part. There
is no such mark of being a child of God by gracious
adoption as the love of holiness, inward sighing, and
striving after it.  To be contented in the habit of
sin, or with constantly recurring sins, as want of
humility and fervency in our prayers, wandering
of heart at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and
the decay of brotherly love, is a sure sign, if not
of the total want of grace, at least of its feebleness.
If we truly love Christ himself, we shall love his
people, his cause, his church, his work.  The love
of the Lord Jesus Christ is inconsistent with the
love of sin, and as the one prevails, the other inevitably declines.  So far as the permanent interests




YO')UN  MAN INVITED TO TI HE SAVIOUR..  275
of virtue and morality are concerned, theorfore, no
matter how great a man's sins, if lie really, truly,
scripturally repent of them, there is no dlamage
done to these high interests when he is forgiven.
They are rather honoured and fortified.  For if a,
man is a true penitent, he can not willingly commit
these sins a second time, of which he has repented.
David was a true penitent; did he murder another
Urialh?  Peter was a true penitent; did he deny his
Divine Master after he had gone out and wept bitterly? Augustine was a true penitent; did hle go
back to his lies, and his libertinism, and to his old
errors in philosophy and religion?  Luther, Calvin,
Zwingle, Knox, and Cranmer, were true penitents; did
they return to the cruel and debasing superstitions
of Rome?
Those men who are always repenting and always
sinning, confessing before God and man that what
they do is wrong, and still doing the same things
over again, never have repented at all.  Rightly
understood then, not only is this doctrine consistent
with the sacred interests of morality and piety, not
only is it, in no way, repugnant to them, but in
every way conducive, and altogether essential.  If
you wish to make a man a villain, a real, thorough,
hardened, hopeless villain, all that you have to do is
to let him commit one criminal and infamous offence,
and then take away the hope of mercy, the possibility of his ever being restored to the respect and
confidence of his fellows.  Once make it plain to




L:T. 1?Till TIUE P1ATII, 01; THiE
lioiM that lie mtust always be an outcast, no matter
whalt ie is, no matter what he does, and you have
accomplished your object.  You have made that
man a reprobate for ever.  You have broken the
very spring of honour within.  For true honour is
based on an enlightened self-respect.  You have
poisoned the sweet fountain of humanity, and taught
him to hate, and as mruch as he can to hurt mankind.  You have razed to the very ground, the last
foundation of virtue and real greatness of soul.
You have demolished the whole structure of moral
worth within him, and have not left a solitary peg,
for a good principle, or purpose, or feeling to hang
upon.  This is the main reason why, when a wonran
once falls, her recovery is so difficult and rare;
so close is the bond between a good reputation and
a good character.  But if you make it plain to the
man that he may be restored to the respect of others
by his repentance, established beyond all dispute
by his change of conduct, the way is then open to
him to be restored to his own self-respect, and so to
recover his moral integrity.  We may reasonably
conclude therefore, that the forgiveness of great sins,
on the condition of a true repentance-and none
are ever forgiven on any other condition-is in no
way detrimental to the high interests of morality,
but on the contrary, their strong support and guard.
That which shuts up the devils themselves to eternal
infamy and anguish and rebellion is the certainty,
that for them there is no forgiveness.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  277
The pardon of the greatest sinnerl on such grounds
and with such consequences, reflects peculiar honour
on the divine perfections.  His mercy then appears
high as the heavens, equal to, yea greater than,
the subtlety and malice and power of the devil,
his enemy and ours.  His wisdom and love in providing a  Saviour then  shine out in  sovereign
majesty, in surpassing splendour.  The blood of
Christ is then seen to be powerful and precious,
infinitely exceeding in efficacy the blood of bulls
and goats, though whole hecatombs were slain-vain
sacrifice for human guilt!
We have seen how the general interests of truth
and righteousness are affected by the exercise of
grace in the forgiveness of great sins, and how the
perfections of God stand related to it; now let us
see what effect it will have on the sinner himself.
This has been partially anticipated already, sufficiently to render it proper to dismiss the matter
briefly, but not to pass it over altogether.
Fortunately for us, this is what the lawyers would
call a case ruled.  The judge has pronounced upon
it. The highest court has explicitly and authoritatively decided it. When that sinful but penitent
woman brought an alabaster-box full of precious
ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping,
and began to wash his feet with tears, and to wipe
them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet
and anointed them  with the ointment; our Lord
said, "Her sins which are many are forgiven, there24




278         TIHE TRUE PATH, OR THE
fore she loved much, but to whom little is forgiven
the same loveth little." Luke vii. 38-47.
There is therefore no bar in the way of the salvation of the greatest sinner but that which his own
obstinate, self-destroying impenitence creates.  The
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross is
of power to atone for the greatest and blackest
iniquities.  It cleanseth from  all sin.  It availed
for the pardon of some who shed it, and it is of
virtue sufficient to wash away your sins, horrible as
they may have been! Let not the number or the
malignity of your offences drive you away from
that life-giving fountain, which hath been opened to
the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanir:s.s. Zech. xiii. 1.
Jesus Christ " came not to call the righteous but
sinners to repentance."  Your sins are indeed numerous enough, heavy enough, aggravated enough,
to crush your soul for ever, to sink you down to the
lowest hell, but he is strong enough to bear the
mighty load. They are weighty enough to crush a
world, but he can bear them.  He has borne them
in his own body on the tree.  Cast thy burden
therefore upon him, and he will sustain thee. You
must sink beneath the enormous load, unless the
mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of
Peace, take it away.  He has endured the full
weight of the wrath of God, on the bitter cross, that
they who believe in him might be exempt from the
operation of law, and be graciously:ccepted in the




'YO)UNG 1MAN INVITED TO TIHE SAVIOUR. 279
Beloved.  Oppressed with sin, overwhelmed with
grief and fear, offer then this prayer, if for the first
time in all your life:  " For thy name's sake pardon mine iniquity, 0 Lord, for it is great."  In the
whole Bible, you will not find a prayer better suited
to you, a conscious and helpless sinner, unless it be
the prayer of the publican, "God be merciful to me
a sinner!"
It should ever be remembered, that no sin, however small it may seem to us, however small it may
be comparatively considered, can be pardoned in
any other way, on any other ground, than for the
sake of what our blessed Lord has done and suffered
for us.  In relation to this point, two things are to
be considered.  The first is the deadly nature of
the very least sin. The wages of sin, as sin, of any
sin, is death.  Though the sin committed or supposed, were the least conceivable, yet if unpardoned,
God could punish it with nothing less than eternal
death.  Sin carries in it essentially, inevitably,
always, the seed which when matured is death. The
whole genesis of sin, moral and historical, in itself,
in its working, and in its manifestation, is exhibited
in the words of the apostle: " Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished
bringeth forth death." Here then are the successive
steps in the process-lust, sin, death.
The second thing to be considered is, that when
a man has once committed the least sin against God,
he may regret it, he may rue it, but he can make




280          TIIE TRUE PATHI, OR TIE
no atonement for it.  No power or virtue can go
forth from  him  to satisfy God.  If it is ever covered, it must be by forgiveness.  If it is ever forgiven, it must be, not for the sinner's sake, but for
the sake of One not himself personally a sinner, but
who has borne the penalty due to sin. The sinner
himself can do absolutely nothing to satisfy law or
justice, or to make amends for his offence against
both.  So that for the least sin we are shut up to a
free forgiveness for the sake of Christ.  It is evident, then, that in relation to the terms and to the
method of pardon, all sinners are upon a perfect
level.  The way of salvation is the same for all.
All that enter heaven must pass through one door,
and that door is Christ; by one way, and that way
is Christ; in the heartfelt reception of one truth,
and that truth is Christ; in the inward appropriation
of one life, and that life is Christ. The pride of
the best, and the most moral, and conscientious, and
sober, and respectable sinner, must come down to
the thankful acceptance of a free pardon for the
sake of Christ, or he can never be pardoned at all.
God pardons no sin because it is little, but because
the blood of Jesus Christ, the atoning Saviour, is
precious, and his merit infinite.
It only remains for us to consider another truth
nearly connected with this, or rather a different
phase of this.  As no sin, however great, will exclude us from the kingdom of heaven if we repent




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  281
of it-none is so small as not to prove our everlasting perdition if unrepented of.
Our self-rilghteousness is one of the deepest and
most delusive forms of our sinful corruption. Satan,
too, knows full well, how to turn it to fatal account.
It works in various ways according to the former
history and existing circumstances of the sinner.
When a man who hitherto has been cautious and
careful, and so has been able to keep on good terms
with his own conscience, is once overtaken in a
great transgression, commits some gross iniquity as
adultery, lying, drunkenness, theft, or forgery, the
devil seeks to persuade him, and often with fatal
success, to give up in despair, to surrender all hope
of salvation, to abandon the fear of God, to deny
the faith of the gospel, and depart from  the path
of piety for ever. This is a most critical juncture
in his spiritual history. If Satan can prevail upon
him to do this, his damnation siumbereth not. But
if he will confess his sin to God and forsake it, and
trust in his mercy in Christ, and so far as man is
concerned, make such restitution as the nature of
the case may admit of, there is hope for him still,
-he may yet be forgiven and saved.
To sinners in other circumstances and of a different type, Satan presents a different temptation.
He seeks to persuade them that it is unreasonable,
that it is impossible that any should be consigned
to the dark dungeons of everlasting despair, for
such sins as they have committed.  Now what I
24*




i282)      TTHE TRUE PATH, OR THE
have to say to such, is, that the least sin you can
commit is large enough to banish you from heaven,
and sink you down to hell, unless it be truly repented of and fully pardoned. There is absolutely
no way of escape for any sinner but by that new and
living way which Christ opened for us through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh. " Wherefore he is able
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them."  Heb. vii. 25.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  283
LECTURE XIV.
THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH.
IF we had a valuable estate in another country,
should we not eagerly study any work relating to
that country-describing its soil, climate, productions,-the character of the inhabitants, together with
their occupations and enjoyments, and examine with
the greater accuracy and diligence whatever might
more particularly refer to the title, tenure, interests,
and value of our own personal estate? Again, if we
had a beloved friend or brother in that country, of
whose history, and glory, and love, we wished to
receive authentic intelligence, should we not ponder
the volume containing the coveted information?
To the Christian, heaven is that country, salvation
that estate, the Bible that volume, and Christ that
friend and brother.
The miser loves to retire, that he may feast his eyes
with his "unsunned heaps"of perishable gold and
silver. Why should not the heir of heaven itself, of a
crown of righteousness that fadeth not away, of




284          THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
durable riches, gladly contemplate his precious and
pleasant possessions-the inheritance of the saints in
light?
If we delight in humble and holy meditation here,
in believing and fervent prayer, in lively and spiritual praises to the God of our salvation, we may
be assured that we have even now the taste and the
temper which will render the services of the heavenly sanctuary congenial; when all sin shall be
purged away, and we shall see God in his infinite
glory, and serve him with ineffable delight!
One of the elements of interest and enjoyment
in the heavenly state, will be wonder.  God has
crowded this world with brilliant and amazing objects, for the very purpose of kindling an expectation of greater wonders in the world to come.  The
broad sun sinking down in his tranquillity, the ocean,
the mountains, the shifting and many-coloured clouds,
the green sward, the happy and animated creatures
-all excite a feeble interest in comparison with that
which heaven will elicit; but they may serve to
awaken within us the sense of God's power and glory,
which will be so much heightened hereafter!
This present earth is temporary only.  As man's
body is mortal, and man dies because he is a sinner,
so this tainted material universe, bearing the reflection, being the scene of sin, shall die after a fashion,
shall disappear and give place ultimately to an
untainted and  everlasting  materialism-the new
heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth right



YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THlE SAVIOUR.  285
eousness. It is sad to think, that the loveliest spots
on this earth have been polluted by blood and by
lust. The world endures, and is destined to endure,
while the work of ingathering is going on, and is
incomplete.  It is a stage on which grand and successive acts of a divine drama are in progress.  It
is a temporary scaffolding which will be taken down
when the spiritual temple has been reared and finished.
Let the work of redemption, in all its glorious extent,
be accomplished, let the last wandering and wayworn sinner be gathered into the fold and rest of
God, and this will be the signal of the consu.immation of all things here below. The exulting and
triumphant anthem  with which ministering spirits
shall celebrate the ingathering of the last of the
sons of men who shall be the heir of salvation, may
be regarded as tlTe requiem of the world's destruction.
The closing chapters of divine revelation contain
a magnificent description of the passing away of the
old heavens and the old earth, and the glorious evolution of the new.  The change from the dreariness
and death of winter, to the cheerful green and
bursting life of spring, is gradual.  The change
from the gloomy reign of night to the clear shining
of the perfect day, when the morning is spread
upon the mountains, is more rapid; but the morning-light does not transform  or transfigure.  It
only illuminates and reveals.  It shines upon the
very same earth, that a few  hours before was
wrapped in the mantle of darkness. Here there is not




286          THE TRUE PATH, OR T'IlE
a mere illumination, not even a glorious transfiguration, but a passing away of the one and a coming of
the other, a removal and a substitution.  Old things
have passed away, behold all things have become new.
There is now no more sea.  The new Jerusalem,
the redeemed, triumphant, and  glorified church,
comes down from God out of heaven. The marriage
of the Lamb and his bride is about to be solemnized
with the festive pomp and splendour, that befit
the nuptials of the King's Son, and his unspotted
and beloved bride.  Then a mighty voice is heard,
proclaiming the permanent abode of God with men,
the ratification, the renewal, and the fulfilment of
his gracious covenant.  God himself shall be with
them and be their God.  Then will be fulfilled in
its highest siganificance, our Saviour's intercessory
prayer for his people-that they might be with
him and behold his glory, the glory which he had
with the Father before the world. John xvii. 5.
This is the prelude and the preparation. Then
drawing nearer still, the Father's hand is stretched
out, and touches and blesses them  in their own
persons.  Before the original creation of man, the
earth was prepared to receive him, and before the
final blessedness of redeemed man, the new heavens
and the new earth, his destined and glorious habitation, are fitted to receive him.  Then the blessing
comes upon him, the exceeding and eternal weight
of glory, the honour and the happiness which flow
from the immediate ministrations of the Father of




YOUNG MAN INVITEDr TO THE SAVIOUR.  287
mercies and God of all comfort.  He himself wipes
away all tears from their eyes, with the gentleness
of parental love.  lie removes all occasion of remorse, disquiet, and anxiety.  lie buries in eternal
oblivion the bitter memory of grief, save as it may
purify and exalt the present sense of joy.  And
when these tears are wiped away, they are wiped
away for ever. Not only the channel but the fountain of weeping is dried up.  Now the reign of
sorrow and of death hath ceased, and that of joy
and of immortality commenced.  Death himself is
dead, and all his gloomy and hideous progeny,
sorrow and crying, which is the outburst of sorrow,
and pain, which is the eldest born of toil-these
have all departed never more to return.
It might be imagined that the Christian heaven
would be the point, to which the eyes of the men of
every land and nation would be turned with an
eager and incessant gaze.  It is described as the
everlasting abode of untroubled peace, where the
wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at
rest; as a sanctuary from which every thing profane
and polluted, is rigorously shut out; as the region
and the home of pure devotion and of perfect love;
as the fitting palace of the everlasting King, in
whose presence there is fulness of joy, and at whose
right hand there are pleasures for ever more.  The
Bible does not give these descriptions, in order to
excite a dream of Epicurean delight, but to animate
us in the pursuit of a pure and perennial bliss; to




288         THE TRUE PATH,.OR THE
assuage the sharp sense of present anguish  to disrobe this world of its fatal attractions; to raise us in
spirit and in striving above what is seen and tenmporal, and engage our deepest thoughts and elicit
our most strenuous efforts in the prosecution of objects unseen and eternal.
But does the revelation of this glorious rest animate us to incessant activity in the discharge of our
earthly duties?  Does the pleasant prospect which
it unfolds render us insensible to the allurements
of carnal pleasure?  Do our thoughts habitually
and delightedly turn to the serene enjoyments of
our spiritual rest, when vexed with the countless
cares of this present life?  Do we find a readiness
and a capacity within us to appropriate the exceeding great and precious promises, that God in his
infinite mercy has made to the way-worn pilgrim?
Do the sublime glimpses which revelation affords us
of that house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens, inspire us with undaunted courage to contend with every enemy, and press at every hazard
into the heavenly kingdom?  It is true, we cannot
see heaven with our bodily eyes, any more than we
can see the glorious God of heaven.  But as it is
our duty to endure as seeing him who is invisible,
so it is our part, not having  seen this goodly
possession, still to desire it and believe, though as
yet we behold it not, that God hath prepared for us
a heavenly city, and is not ashamed to be called our
God.




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  289
The prospect of eternal glory should inflame our
imaginations and our hearts.  If the portals of heaven's sanctuary were thrown open to our enraptured
gaze, and we could see the glowing ardours of the
Seraphim, and listen to those harmonious notes
that vibrate on the harps of gold, and fall prostrate
with the hosts that bow  in lowly reverence before
"the throne and equipage of God's almightiness,"
we should be filled with a kindred worship and rapture and love.
It is not then merely a spiritual luxury, a feast
of the imagination and the soul, to contemplate the
final blessedness of this renovated scene, of paradise
regained, the revealed glory of the new heavens and
the new earth; it is not merely a transporting pleasure to think of heaven, to speak of heaven, to hear
of heaven; but well and wisely considered, it is in
the highest degree profitable.  Such a contemplation, when scriptural and sober, will abound with
moral lessons addressed to the conscience, it wilt
lend most effectual aid to the daily discipline of our
hearts and lives, while it will animate the soul with
the most delightful prospects, and stimulate Christian
zeal and spiritual diligence with the most attractive
and holy visions-visions of a beauty far more beauteous, of a glory far more glorious, than ever burst
upon the eye or beamed upon the heart of mortal
man.  It is to us a token and a sample of the unimaginable fruitfulness of the promised land, li!ae
the grapes of Eshcol.  It is a premonition of the
25




290           THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
coming bliss, like the perfumed gales that blow far
off firom the Spice Islands, and encourage the tempesttost mariner in his sore conflict withl thie rocks and
waves.
The gracious design of these glorious revelations,
is to comfort afflicted believers under the hard pressure of earthly ills, to cast the light of promise and
of hope over the deep darkness of God's dispensations toward them now, to make them  joyful in all
tribulations, and instant in prayer, "' knowing  in
themselves that they have in heaven a better and
an end(uring substance."   Heb. x. 34.
It is a foolish and wicked abuse for carnal persons, whether in the church or out of the church, to
take the children's bread; to appropriate the chleer,
the wine, and oil, and pleasant fruits, the mountains
of myrrh and hills of frankincense, the milk and
honey, the fountains and orchards, which God hlatli
ordained for the refreshment and delight of his
fainting children; of such as are poor in spirit, and
hunger and thirst after righteousness, and desire no
earthly promotion, no natural joy, so much as that
their souls may drink abundantly from the fountain
of goodness, the well of living waters, and that they
may be filled, not with carnal delights and treasures,
but with that holy peace which springs from  the
indwelling of the Spirit of God, and passeth all
understanding.
There are three worlds of which we read in Scripture: this wvorld, and h11aven, an'nd hell.  Of this




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THiE SAVIOUR.  291
world alone have we any direct, sensible, personal experience or knowledge now. All that we do know or
that we can know of heaven and hell, w-hile we continue in the flesh, must be derived from revelation.
This world is, we know, a mixed, uncertain,
changeful, transient state-a place of perpetual
conflict between light and darkness, good and evil.
Hell is a place of unmixed evil and wretchedness,
unimaginable and everlasting woe.  Heaven is a
place of pure and perfect blessedness, of ineffable
glory and delight.
Even this present evil world is beautiful; though
the abode of birds and beasts, of evil beasts and
unclean birds, and hissing, hideous snakes, and foul
and abominable creeping things; though it is under
the curse of God and under the dominion of sin,
still, it is in many things a beautiful world. In the
Greek tongue it has its name thence-Koqa/oG,
beauty, arrangement, order, harmony, ornament,
honour, referring to the unnumbered prints of the
Creator's beauty, still plainly to be seen upon it.
And if this earth, defiled by sin, is so beautiful,
what will the new heavens and the new earth be?
In them  the goodness of God will have supreme
dominion and unimpeded flow; its infinite riches
will be poured forth in infinite profusion of beauty
and joy.  If the earth is robed with flowers, and
laced with shining streams, and girdled with glorious mountains, and ramparted with the everlasting
hills, and the munitions of rocks, and watered with




.29 2        THE TRUE PATH, OR TIlE
streams from  above and from below, and her dark
places enriched with precious stones, with the lustre of pearls, and diamonds, and rubies; if even the
sands of the seas and the rivers are all ablaze with
corals, and gems, and gold, if fragrant and beautiful blossoms grow wild and plentiful on every tree;
and the firmament overhead-is crowned with a
kingly diadem of stars, what must the new heavens
and the new earth be?
Heaven is set fortir to us in Scripture under the
emblem of a marriage feast; but to take away all gross
conceptions, we are told that the glorified bodies of the
risen saints will be spiritual. The pleasures of seeing
and hearing, of all sensible delights the most refined
and pure, and not unmixed with reason-delights
of which the brutes appear to have no sense or relish, are used to represent the blessedness of the
heavenly state to our apprehension-thrones, palms,
crowns, white raiment, bursts of choral melody, and
songs of celestial gladness. Rev. vii. 13-17. These
images, we know, are figurative, but they must be
adapted to set forth the fundamental spiritual truth,
and convey it with superior force and vividness to us
-or " men who wrote as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost," would not have selected and employed
them.
All our conceptions of heavenly things must, of
necessity, be conditioned by those sensible objects
wherewith we are now  surrounded.   Hence, its
happiness and glory are represented as consisting




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO TIlE SAVIOURI.  293
very much in the absence of sensible evils, all of
which are in fact the fruits of sin.  Thus it is
affirmed that " God shall wipe away all tears from
the eyes" of the redeemed.  What image could be
more tender and touching? What more expressive
of a father's sympathy?  The sorrows of the saints
shall cease, not by necessity of nature, but by the
grace of their heavenly Father.  With soft and
gentle hand he will wipe away the falling tear, and
then a smile of gratitude and gladness shall spread over
the happy faces of his favoured children-the voice
of weeping be heard no more, nor the spectacle of
tears be seen again.  The saints will then be done
with their sorrows for ever. All men, often the
best men, experience bitter sorrows here.  Those
clothed in white raiment, which is the righteousness
of the saints, with palms of victory in their hands,
have come up out of great tribulation.  Out of
dark valleys, out of lowly depths, they go up to the
mountain of the Lord's house, the Mount Zion of
God. Here the living stones of the heavenly temple
are quarried, and cut, and shaped, and fitted, to their
predestined and proper place, and according to the
beautiful accommodation of one of our admirable
old Puritan divines,' as the stones that were to
enter into the typical temple of Solomon, were
hewn and chiselled afar off, so that no sound of the
hammer was heard in the holy and beautiful house
* Bates, to whom I am indebted for several valuable
thoughts in this chapter.
25*




294         THE TRUE PATH, OR THE
of Jehovah  so the true children of the Most High,
the living stones of the heavenly temple, are hewn
by sorrows here, and then assume their places, polished after the similitude of a palace, in the true
tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not manthe celestial temple, pervaded by uncreated light,
not that of the sun or the moon, but of the Lamb,
resounding  through all its vast chambers, and
vaulted dome, and pillared aisles, not with such
melody as is heard on earth, but with the sweet and
holy chants of angel-voices, harping on their harps
of gold, to responsive choirs of blood-bought, happy
souls, ascribing salvation to the Lamb that was
slain.
Then there shall be no more death.  Death is
now the king of terrors, the consummation and
climax of earthly ills, in the apprehension of mankind. There is nothing which they dread so much,
and if they are not Christians, so justly; for it cuts
them off from every earthly blessing and consigns
them to everlasting woe. But then death for ourselves or our dear friends is felt and feared no more.
Now we dwell in the region and shadow of death, in
a world in which death reigns naturally over every
son and daughter of Adam.  But that is the land
of life and truly the land of the living. For there
Christ who is, in the supremest sense, the Life, lives
and reigns in all and over all. Christ himself, the
original, full, perennial, over-flowing fountain of
life, in the midst of the paradise of God, and as the




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  295
four streams watered and made fruitful and bright
and glad, the remotest borders of the earthly Eden.
So this heavenly fountain, this true  life, this
anointed Saviour, our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, who is himself the essential and eternal life,
will flow forth in living streams of blessing and
grace, of salvation and glory, over all the realms and
provinces of the new heavens and the new earth.
The destruction of death, which is the essence
and issue of all other evils, ensures the termination
of all the maladies which now afflict the body. How
many drag a crazy, creaking, crumbling body, all
their lives! Now we are frail, vulnerable, exposed
to a whole cohort of fevers, and to accidents and
injuries without number or name. There it will not
be so.  Christ shall bestow on us a body as it shall
please him, a better body and a more beautiful
body than Adam's was in its first creation.  His
was a natural body.  He had innocent infirmities.
Ours will be a spiritual and glorious body, like that
of Christ in  heaven.   The unbelieving scribes
stumbled at this doctrine when our Lord taught it,
not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
But why should we stumble at it?  Is any thing
naturally impossible to omnipotence? Cannot God
give us a spiritual body just as easily as he gave us
a natural body?  The superior excellence of the
work presents no difficulty to a divine Architect-an
almighty Creator.
Then all mental griefs, which are the most tor



296         THE TRUE PATiH, OR THE
menting and terrible, will be ended, and the happiness
of the soul will be perfect, for it will be akin to that
of the blessed God himself.  What is the nature
of the happiness of God, and whence does it arise?
It is a holy and supreme blessedness, and it arises
from the full knowledge and enjoyment of his own
infinite perfections.  The happiness of the saints
in glory will spring from the same inexhaustible
source.  The Lord is their portion.  The author
of their blessedness, the object of their adoration,
is the supreme God in his manifested glory.  The
most comprehensive faculties of the soul, are the
understanding and the will including the affections.
How suitable a portion, this infinite Being to the
soul of man!
The affections of man are a most sacred and
priceless gift.  By these he communes with his
fellows and with his God.  By these his heart
softens at the recollection of the dead, and the strong
man weeps like a little child.  By these his intellect
is prompted and fed, and to these it is mainly subservient.
There is an inherent difference  between  the
righteous and the wicked affections. A man whose
mind is disordered, uneasy, embittered, will turn any
the most indifferent and familiar action into matter
of harsh censure and clamorous complaint.  He
will make himself and every one around him  unhappy, by his sensitive and suspicious disposition,
his sulky and querulous behaviour. His acid and




YOUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAVIOUR.  297
abominable temper will turn every thing to sorrow;
especially, and by a just judgment of God, his own
evil heart. A man whose soul is serene and loving
and peaceful, will easily turn aside every untoward
and provoking incident, so that its very quality
shall seem changed.  Hence the necessity of sanctification to heaven.  Well, therefore, may we beg
of God, to cast out all uncleanness, and all wrath
and strife and envying, from our hearts.  We know
from our own experience, that to be happy we must
be good; and that well-disposed affections are the
chief sources of true and lasting enjoyment.  God
has so constituted us, that we cannot be wicked
without being wretched.  Every blow inflicted on
another recoils on ourselves.  According to the
striking oriental fiction, mentioned by Southey, in
whih a man has a serpent growing from between
his shoulders, and finds to his horror that it is a part
of himself, and every blow that falls on the serpent
falls on himself.
In fixing our affections upon God as their proper
object, the perfection and blessedness of our spiritual
nature will be attained.  With regard to all men,
to a lamentable extent, the forces and faculties of
the soul, spiritual in their principle and nature, are
sensual in respect both to their objects and application.   Hence  our confusion, disappointment,
sorrow, and disgust.  Hence weariness of life attended by the dread of death, a feeling of misspent
labour and unsatisfied desire.




298         TIHE TRUE PATH, OR THE
In heaven, the noblest faculties of our spiritual
nature will be directed toward a spiritual and perfect object.  They will be fixed on the everlasting
God with ever-increasing wonder and delight. They
will grow by what they gaze on.  They will grow
by what they feed on.  Each added ray from that
all-glorious orb, will strengthen and sharpen the
spiritual organ.  The powers of the soul will first
be so purged and invigorated, as to be prepared for
heaven; for now we could not see God and live;
now we could not breathe in that pure air. There
we shall be attempered to it, and rejoice in it, as in
our native element.  We shall move with immortal
vigour and delight, amid scenes of celestial majesty
and splendour.  The nation of the saved will grow
in power, in knowledge, in dignity, and in blessedness, throughout eternal ages.  Now we can behold
God only as his image is reflected in his works, and
expressed in his word, as in a glass darkly; then,
we shall be admitted to the immediate intuition of
his glory, the unveiled manifestation of his adorable
person. God is a Spirit, therefore for ever invisible
to the eye of sense; and as he is an infinite Spirit,
and we are finite, we shall never be able to find him
out to perfection.  We shall, indeed, behold him
after a more wonderful and excellent manner, for
we shall not only be with him, but be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
The necessity of a spiritual regeneration may
be argued and enforced from a consideration of the




YOTUNG MAN INVITED TO THE SAYfOUKR.  299
nature and sources of the happiness of the saints in
light.  These joys are not sensual, or such as sensual persons are capable of tasting, but spiritual
and holy.  Without holiness no man shall see the
Lord.  Into the heavenly city nothing can enter
that defileth. Without are dogs, and whorernongers,
and adulterers, and drunkards, and all liars.  Ye
must be born again-from above, to partake of the
divine delights of the new  heavens and the new
earth.  They consist in a soul purified fiom  all
sinful dregs and defilements, and completely filled
with the knowledge and fitted to the worship of the
infinite and ever blessed God. Its supreme blessedness consists in the plenary enjoyments of God,
and in conscious fellowship with his faithful servants in their fervent and lofty praises.  Without
love we could not be happy in heaven. The love of
God is the essential character of the heavenly city.
Love is the cement that binds together heavenly
minds.  It is the gravitating law of the celestial
sphere, which keeps them all in their proper orbits,
and causes them to revolve in eternal harmony and
gladness, around the great central Luminary-the
Sun of Righteousness, the ornament and glory of the
heavenly world-the Lord Jesus Christ, our most
gracious Redeemer.
It will make the joys of heaven the sweeter, to
enter upon them after the troubles of this life-to
pass from the confusion, the darkness, the disappointment, and the turmoil of earth, to the har



300          THE TRUE IATH, OR THE
mony, the peace, the rest, the light, and the joy of
heaven!  This idea of bliss in contrast with previous privation or positive woe, and of the one as a
preparation as well as a precursor of the other, is
plainly held out to us in the images under which
the blessedness of the righteous is at once veiled
and revealed in the Scriptures. It is an untroubled
and eternal Sabbatism, a rest that remaineth to the
people of God.  We feel our earthly Sabbaths all
the more sacred and delightful, for the strifes, and
secularities, and labours of the six preceding days.
And we shall find our heavenly rest all the more
welcome and dear, for the pains, and perils, and
wanderings of earth; when we shall pass from earth to
heaven, through death to life, from the gloom of the
grave to that glorious city, where they have no
need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it:
for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb
is the light thereof.
It is a pleasure to him that hath been long tossed
upon the sea, to gain the haven of repose; a pleasure to him that hath borne the strength and fury
of battle, to lie down in the lap of peace; a pleasure
to him  who hath endured the burden and heat of
the day, to see the long-descending shadows of
evening falling around him.  And even to the marvellous delights of the heavenly Canaan will it add
another and a higher zest, to taste them after hungering in the wilderness, after wandering in the
desert.