1849.] 'Their regular Structure. a. It is often mingled with superstitious notions. 319 b. It is often depreciated into a mere intellectual and inoperative faith. B. Because those who adopt the true religion are easily inflated with pride. a. They become proud of their superior knowledge. b. They become proud of the distinguishing favors which they have received from God. C. Because those who adopt the true religion easily sink into carelessness and negligence with regard to it. a. They become careless and negligent with regard to the preservation of the true religion in themselves, and the propagation of it among others. b. They become careless and negligent with regard to the application of the true religion to the peculiar and diversified circumstances of their time. D. Because those who adopt the true religion often derive from it excuses for their sinful conduct. a. They place too high an estimate upon its external duties. b. They abuse its most sacred truths into a defence of their misdeeds. Peroration. A personal application of the subject involved in the last Subdivision of the fourth head. Lest the regularity of Reinhard's discourses should seem to interfere with their ductile, flexible application to the varying states of his hearers, we add a fuller syllabus of a sermon, which is as practical in its character as it is exact in its plan. Introduction. A thoughtful man must have often lamented, that the great majority of men and women are immersed in labors which apparently interfere with their mental improvement. They need but a short time for learning the processes of their handiwork, and ever after they seem to go through a routine of services which require no thought, and which at length not only indispose but also incapacitate them for high intellectual exertion. “Sad, indeed, is the condition of our race, if these petty and monotonous duties, which pertain more or less to every vocation, must be in fact so enervating to our faculties and depressing to our aspirations, as they at first appear to be. But can we believe that the wise and benignant Ruler of the world has condemned by far the greater part of men to wring out their life in fruitless pains-taking? Has the Father of spirits sunk so many millions of his noblest creatures into a state, in which they must necessarily 1 1 Predigten, 1797, Band II. 258-274. enfeeble their own minds, and gradually lose not only the wish but also the power to act in accordance with their dignity? Oh! ye who look with aversion and abhorrence upon the dull sameness, the littleness, the insignificance of human toils, and upon their oppressive, enslaving influence; ye who find your own calling to be so odious and intolerable, that ye cannot conceive why God has put a yoke upon you which weighs down into the dust your aspiring minds, hear me to-day. I will attempt to give you another view of the matter. I will venture to unfold the propriety of that constitution of things which has been established by the Ruler of your destinies. I will take pains to reconcile you with your lot and to comfort you." Text. Luke 5: 1-11 (previously repeated in the devotional service). Explanation and Transition. "Fear not," says Jesus, "from henceforth thou shalt catch men." What a change from the employment of an humble fisherman on the lake of Gennesaret, to the most intellectual and sublime office with which a man can be honored! But in what manner had Peter been preparing himself for the duty of persuading the world to obey the truth? Would he have been elevated to this vocation, if he had not, in his lowly employment, acquired the discipline which fitted him for a nobler sphere? Let us attend to our Proposition. The faithful discharge of the duties imposed on us by our appropriate calling, qualifies us for still higher functions. Division. First, let us explain; secondly, prove; thirdly, show the importance of this Proposition. First Head. In explaining the Proposition we will consider, A. What are the duties of our calling? They are all the services which Divine Providence requires of us. B. What is the faithful discharge of these duties? Our text illustrates it. "We have toiled all the night," says Peter, "and have taken nothing; nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net." We must not be wearied with our services, for Peter was ready still to labor. We must devote the most appropriate time to them, for Peter toiled all the night. We must not be repulsed, as he was not, by failures. We must gladly receive the stimulus to new duties, as Peter was prompt to let down the net. We must regulate our affairs by the will of God, as Peter was quick to obey the first word of Jesus. C. What is meant by being qualified for still higher functions? Whatever our calling may be, the conscientious performance of its duties has such an influence upon our mind and heart as to 1849.] Their regular Structure. 321 make us better in ourselves, more capable of doing good to others, more suitable for being introduced into a higher sphere of operations in the eternal world. But does our devotedness to even the minute employments of household life, tend to such a spiritual result? Second Head. In proof of our Proposition, we remark, A. The faithful discharge of the duties of our station, how low soever that station may be, enriches us with useful knowledge. The harvest of true wisdom is not reaped in those fascinating fields which open to you unnumbered volumes for your indolent perusal; not in that world of phantasy, where the imagination is disordered by dreams; not in those abysses of speculation, where the reason broods over its own subtilties; but wherever God has appointed you to labor, in the fields of that every-day occupation which duty requires of you, there shall you pluck the flowers of the fairest knowledge, reap the most wholesome experiences, garner without interruption the most profitable wisdom. mother, sedulous to perform her domestic duties, acquires a fund of more solid information than the fashionable devotee of light literature, who lives that she may shine in society; the industrious farmer, hand-workman, artisan, obtains more substantial knowledge than the learned man who is absorbed in trivial speculations. The B. Fidelity to our vocation inures us to the practice of beneficent virtues. Our daily business is the central point where all the moral duties meet; as regularity, punctuality, patience, perseverance, self-denial, contentment, modesty, love to others, readiness to serve them, etc. C. The same fidelity strengthens all the faculties of our nature. There is no honest trade, however menial, which when attentively pursued, does not exercise the memory, imagination, judgment, feelings, in fine the whole man. Experience and the nature of the case prove, that our mental and moral powers gain a vigor, flexibility, versatile activity from our appropriate labors, and are thereby qualified for higher functions than are now assigned to them. Third Head. The Proposition of our discourse is important, because, A. It must awaken within us a thankful admiration of God's fatherly goodness and wisdom. The daily labor of men, which seems so forbidding, is the school in which he is educating them for himself. B. It binds us to the most sedulous activity in our vocation. Jesus tried Peter by requiring a new duty, before he elevated him to be a fisher of men. And if we do not endure our trial, if we are unfaithful in the unrighteous mammon, will God commit to our trust the true riches? Will he call to the higher sphere of heaven, those who are remiss on earth? C. It consoles us for our want of visible success in our labors. The crowning result of these labors is inward. What if men have toiled all the night and gained no external good? They have qualified themselves for a nobler labor with which they are to be honored. Was the net full of fishes the chief reward for Peter's diligence? "When they had brought their ships to land," says the text, "they forsook all and followed him." D. It proves that we should not abandon our present calling, be it what it may, until God summon us to another. Almost every one has, at times, a prurient desire to do something else: women to manage the affairs of men, the lower classes to imitate the higher, the ignorant to set up for scholars, etc.; and multitudes ruin themselves by fickleness and instability in their profession, by overstepping their proper limits. But He who called fishermen to a more exalted office, will call us to one when we are fitted for it. E. It awakens in our hearts the hope of immortality. All this discipline of our daily business is not to be wasted on our ephemeral comfort, but was designed to form our characters for an eternal state. What if thousands on thousands die in obscurity, "we are not concerned for them, Almighty Father, since we know how much thou workest in stillness, to what perfection thou leadest all who follow thee. Let us only hear, when thou teachest, let us obey, when thou commandest; let us all, after we have been faithful over a few things, be made rulers over many things, and enter into thy joy. Amen." From precisely the same text with that of the preceding discourse, our author introduces another sermon, with remarks on the frequency of commencing new friendships, the indifference with which they are regarded, etc., and then, after stating his text, explaining the particulars of Christ's first interview with Peter, he announces his theme, The Beginnings of our Acquaintances, which he divides thus: A. They are often on our part accidental; 1 Predigten, 1808, Band II. ss. 40-58. 1849.] a. in the time, Their regular Structure. b. in the circumstances of their occurrence. B. They have always a wise design on the part of God; a. as means of good to us, b. as tests of our character. C. They are rich in their results; a. upon our moral feelings, b, upon our happiness or misery. D. They impose on us new duties; a. to be circumspect in our conduct, 323 b. to make a zealous use of our new privileges. Peter instantly left all and followed his new friend. Sometimes Reinhard adopts the alternative or disjunctive division; and very often employs the disjunctive phraseology in his plan. In a sermon on Luke 15: 1-10,1 his Proposition is, The conversion of a sinner is an event which gives joy in heaven; and his Division, first, The meaning and truth of this Proposition, secondly the application and use of it. I. In giving the import and proof of this Proposition I remark, that it admits a double meaning, and is to be understood as either an emphatic description of the great importance of the sinner's moral improvement, or as an express announcement that this event does rejoice the hearts of beings in heaven. In other words, it is a figurative and rhetorical sentence, or a literal and historical one. A. It may be an emphatic but figurative description of the great importance of the sinner's conversion. Such phrases are used in this rhetorical manner. a) Reason proves, and b) the Bible teaches that the reformation of a man is thus inconceivably momentous. B. The Proposition may be a literal and historical announcement that a sinner's conversion pleases the inhabitants of heaven. They actually feel this interest in his spiritual condition. a) Reason makes this statement probable, and b) the Scriptures favor it. II. In the application and use of this Proposition I remark, A. it teaches that human nature, even in its degraded estate, merits our high regard; B. it is fitted to touch the hearts of the impenitent especially, and make them zealous for their own moral transformation; C. it should encourage the regenerate to perseverance and to progress; D. it should stimulate all who can contribute to the moral improvement of their brethren, to do so with an unwearying zeal.— This skeleton also illustrates a peculiarity, and a somewhat monotonous one, of the Plans of Reinhard's discourses. He is too much inclined, first to explain, secondly to prove, and thirdly to apply |