Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][ocr errors]

suffered to put forth their power in attempting to harm us, yet they have no power which is not given them from above; and which is not limited and directed in its operations ultimately to subserve some good end. What direct influence these invisible agents may exercise in the affairs of men we know not, but whatever it may be, the fear of it betrays a want of faith; a forgetfulness that if God be for us, it matters little what other beings are against us.

The prevalence of spiritual doubts also betrays a weak faith. There are some Christians who, while they give much evidence of being sincere and conscientious, and even devout, seem nevertheless to have but little enjoyment, from the fact that they never gain any satisfactory evidence of their own piety. You may present before them the evidences of Christian character, and labour faithfully to show them that these evidences are furnished by their own experience, and expostulate with them in respect to the guilt and the ingratitude of refusing the comfort to which, through God's grace, they have a legitimate claim; and yet, after all, they will go on doubting and trembling, and perhaps scarcely daring to apply to themselves a single promise of the gospel. Now I say nothing here in respect to what may be the origin of this evil: perhaps it ought to be referred to a gloomy temperament, or to a disordered state of the body, or to various other causes, either of a physical or spiritual nature; but no doubt it is always in a greater or less degree connected with the want of faith. It is because the soul has lost sight of the promises which it has a right to appropriate; or at least because some of the truths of the gospel are not viewed in the practical and impressive light in which they ought to be viewed, that the soul is clouded with this oppres

sive gloom. Hence the Psalmist in contemplating the condition into which he was brought, as bereft of religious joy, and having his soul disquieted within him, prescribes to himself as a remedy, hope or confidence in God: and this is the true remedy for all religious despondency.

Another symptom of a weak faith is an excessive anxiety in regard to our temporal condition. No doubt it is right-it is an imperative duty for every person to exercise a prudent care, in respect to his worldly circumstances; and they whom God has constituted the guardians of others, especially the heads of families, are also bound to make provision for the temporal wants of those committed to their care. Inspiration itself hath declared-" He that provideth not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel;" and it seems impossible to comply with the spirit of this requisition, without bestowing upon the subject of it a considerable degree of care and thought. It is necessary to form plans that shall have respect to a future day; and, in ordinary cases, to labour diligently in some honest and lawful calling. But over and above all this, we often find, and in professed Christians too, an extreme anxiety in respect to their worldly prospects; gloomy forebodings that they or their children shall come to want; and that too perhaps at the very time when to every other eye than their own, such apprehensions would appear totally unfounded. They ought to recollect, and if they had more faith they would recollect and feel, that the ordering of their circumstances is in the best hands; that the special care and protection of God, even in this life, is pledged to the righteous; that if they discharge their duty faithfully, they have no right to doubt

that God will fulfil his promise: and whatever may happen to them or their offspring here, the glories of immortality are promised to the faithful hereafter. Wherever a Christian is seen inordinately concerned about his future temporal circumstances, and refusing perhaps the claims of real charity, lest some day or other his children should need what he might give away, there, be assured, you see a Christian, if indeed he be a Christian, who has very little faith: and if he dare not trust his God to direct his temporal interests, how dare he leave with him his interests for eternity?

A spirit of impatience in affliction is another symptom of a weak faith; and it is the last which I shall here notice. There are trials of some kind or other scattered along through the whole journey of human life; and some of them are exceedingly sharp and bitter. There is enough, however, in the gospel, to sustain the heart under the heaviest burden of sorrow which can rest upon it. Nevertheless, who has not seen the professed Christian, or rather, what Christian has not found himself, at some time or other, sinking under a weight of trial; indulging a spirit, if not uttering the language of impatience and complaint? Here again, is the want of faith. If the great truths which the gospel reveals were in the mind, as strong and living principles of action, especially if there were a deep conviction in the soul that a wise and merciful God was sending this affliction, and that he was sending it in compassion and kindness, the spirit of complaint would instantly give way to a spirit of resignation; and the language of the heart would be, even while it was pierced with the barbed arrows of adversity-" Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." "Let him do what seemeth him good."

From the Christian Observer.

ON THE CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST AS A TEACHER SENT FROM GOD.

The consideration of the manner in which our Lord Jesus Christ supported his character as a Teacher sent by God from Heaven, not only tends to confirm the faith of believers, but ought, also, to convince the infidel of the injustice of his unbelief. We claim for him, not only that he spake as man never spake, but as never man could speak.

There is this peculiarity in our Lord's preaching, distinct from that of all human teachers; that he constantly spoke of Heaven as a place he was acquainted with, by having seen it. When the Prophets and the Apostles spoke of the glories of Heaven, it was in a manner, if we except some visions of the Apocalypse, and a few other passages, which showed that their knowledge of Heaven was the result of inspired information, not of their own observation: they spoke of the joys of Heaven as what eye had not seen, nor ear heard. Christ spoke of Heaven as what he had seen, and his descriptions corresponded with an acquaintance thus directly obtained. He not only said, "I came down from Heaven," but relates various particulars of its state. "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you." Speaking of the "little ones" he says that "their angels do always behold the face of my father which is in Heaven." He showed that he was acquainted with the nature of the angels; "they are as the angels of God in Heaven;" and that he knew the limits of their knowledge. He declared also the joy experienced in Heaven, on the repentance of a sinner.

The Prophets and Apostles knew the will of the Father by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to whose

agency they ascribe all their Divine knowledge. Christ did not ascribe his Divine knowledge to the Holy Ghost; but, in those instances in which he declares the Father's will as the result of a revelation, it is as the result of an immediate personal communication. He knew the will of his Father from having been with him. Speaking of his disciples, in prayer to his Father, he says, "I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me."

Much of the information which Christ gave his disciples was in its nature distinct from any thing which God has revealed to the Prophets and Apostles. He sometimes spoke of the secret things of God. He declared that the names of his disciples were written in Heaven. He spoke of this confidently, as having been one in the council of Heaven.

tions, and should discriminate between what he said as the result of observation, and what he might describe as the offspring of imagination, or the result of communication. In all respects Christ's mission bears the test. There was a consistency, a perfect knowledge, and a simplicity of narration, which proved that he really came from another country; that he described what he had seen, and heard, and done, in Heaven. With such an earthly ambassador we should treat with confidence; enter on the object of his mission with willingness; and if it presented any advantage to our future interests, we should not hesitate in accepting his offers.

Were men as wise for another world as for this, they would, with equal confidence, receive the mission of Christ; for what could have been done to prove that he came from God, which he did not do? W. M.

ISAIAH xl. 31. Exulting and bright on his broad glossy wing,

The Eagle is piercing the mists of the

The Divine knowledge revealed to the world through the Prophets "They mount up with wings as eagles." and the Apostles, was generally mysterious, described as dark sayings, and at best as a light shining in a dark place. Much of the revelation given to us by Christ, was of the most simple and distinct character. He described the past, the present, and the future in connexion, and frequently in terms easily intelligible to his hearers.

If we judge of the character of Christ as an ambassador from Heaven, in the same manner that we should judge of any person who professed to come from a distant country but little known, we shall be able to form a correct opinion of His authority. We should expect such a one to speak the language of the country, to be able to describe its government and productions, and the habits and customs of its inhabitants. We should examine the consistency of his descripCh. Adv.-VOL. X.

morn,

And from his dark plumage is hastening to fling

The dew drops that sparkle as upwards

he's borne.

Beneath him the waves of the ocean are foaming,

And dash on the cliffs that rise stern o'er

the deep;

And through the grey heavens the Sirocco is moaning

As the sigh of that bosom that knows not to weep!

But he heeds not the storms, though they wildly contend,

While beyond sleeps a region all splenThe dark gilded vapours serve only to

dour and peace;

lend,

A fresh halo to glories that never de

crease.

He revels in sunbeams; and from the proud height 2 B

[blocks in formation]

When sorrow fills thine eye with tears,
And joy illumes thy path no more,
And anxious doubts and gloomy fears

On every side beset thee sore;
Hope thou in God-his chastening hand
Will, while it tries thee, still sustain ;
And suffering, sent at his command,

Shall prove thy everlasting gain.

When sin sits heavy on thy soul,

And conscience wakes within thy breast, While clouds of terror round thee roll, And nought of earth can give thee rest; Hope thou in God-his pity gave

A Saviour's precious blood for thee; Approach-his mercy humbly crave, "And he from sin shall set thee free.

When time to thee must be no more, And earth and all her pomp shall fade,

And thou upon the awful shore
Of dread eternity art laid;
Hope thou in God-his righteous will

Gave thee a while life's fleeting breath, And his right hand shall lead thee still, And hold thee in the house of Death. W.L.

TO A TRACT.

Go, little messenger of peace,
Upon thy journey go;
Bid Zion's kingdom still increase,
And wide its shadows throw;
Till they who never knew the way,
And they who slight it known,
No more in paths of error stray,
But live to God alone!

Go, little messenger of peace,
Upon thy journey go:

Bid the lould laugh of folly cease,
The tear of sorrow flow;

Tell all, who have not sought the Lord,
Nor trusted to his grace,

That they, who will not hear his word, Shall never see his face!

Go, little messenger of peace,
Upon thy journey go;

From Satan's bonds the soul release,
Which pines in hopeless wo;
The sinner's troubled breast to calm,
To ease the mourner's care,
In Gilead, say, there is a balm,
A great physician there!

And oh! on him, whose feeble hand
Thy little pages penn'd,
May ev'ry grace, by Heav'n's command,
In gentle show'rs descend!
That if, on sin's deceitful waves

The wand'ring bark he stay,
He may not, while he others saves,
Himself be cast away!

Edinburgh.

Miscellaneous.

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF REV. JACOB

GREEN, A. M.

Agreeably to an intimation at the close of Mr. Green's autobiography, we are now to give some account of the last thirteen years of his life. We shall first take a brief view of what may be denominated his ministerial life; and then notice some incidents and transactions of

H. E.

a secular kind, in which he took a deep interest, and had a considerable agency.

After what is stated in Mr. Green's own narrative, till the general revival of religion in the congregation of which he was the pastor, and which took place in the year 1790, and in the midst of which, as we have already mentioned, his ministry was terminated by death,

we know of nothing remarkable to record, among the people of his particular charge. He continued to serve them with his wonted fidelity and diligence; and after he relinquished the practice of medicine, which he did about eight years before his death, his time was almost wholly devoted to their spiritual concerns and interests. His health was frequently interrupted by short turns of illness, which, however, seldom prevented his preaching on the Sabbath, and did not much interfere with the discharge of his parochial duties. Some additions, it is believed, were every year made to the communion of his church; and to the last he possessed without diminution, the affection and veneration of the people to whom he ministered. With them, his opinions were considered as decisive, in almost every doubtful question; and the usages to which he had accustomed them were not easily changed by his successors even in some cases in which changes, from altered circumstances, were desirable and proper. Thus, in the quiet but efficient performance of his pastoral duties, he passed the years that elapsed between the period at which his own narrative ends, and the time of his decease. He was infinitely overpaid for all his faithful labours, in a congregation which he served for four-and-forty years, by seeing them, at the close of his life, generally and earnestly inquiring what they should do to be saved, and many of them rejoicing in the hope of eternal life, through the abounding grace of their Lord and Redeemer.

Mr. Green had a principal agency in forming the Morris county presbytery. The origin of this presbytery, and its first constituent members, will appear by a short extract from a pamphlet before us, of 62 quarto pages, and entitled, "A VIEW OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH CHURCH GOVERNMENT; con

AND

taining many interesting matters; with an address to our congregations, and an appendix, representting the case and circumstances of the aforesaid presbytery of Morris county-To which is subjoined a letter relative to the same subject. By the associated presbytery of Morris county." The extract is as follows:

"Hanover, May 3, 1780.

"We, ministers of the gospel, viz. Jacob Green, Amzi Lewis, Joseph Grover, and Ebenezer Bradford, for various reasons, which we think sufficient to justify ourselves, have withdrawn from the presbytery of New York, and from the synod of New York and Philadelphia; and without desiring or designing to make any unscriptural or uncharitable breach or separation among ministers and churches, think proper to form ourselves into a voluntary society for promoting the interest of religion. And as we consider ourselves Presbyterians, in a scriptural sense, we agree to call ourselves and be known by the name of The Presbytery* of Morris County. And as it may be expected that we should give some reasons why we have withdrawn, we think the following sufficient:"-Then follows a statement of reasons, the sum of which is, that the parties forming the Morris County presbytery thought that the Presbyterianism of Scotland and of the synod of New York and Philadelphia (the General Assembly had not then been formed) was not entirely scriptural, and that "many of their rules, canons, or orders" were unduly and unscripturally restrictive of Christian liberty. In a word, the statement contained in our last number, of Mr. Green's "Tenets or Doctrinal sentiments,"

* "We did not, for some reasons, use the word associated when we first formed, yet then supposed it proper in itself, and have

since concluded to add it when we mention ourselves as a presbytery."

« PreviousContinue »