126 STEADFASTNESS REQUIRED BY JEHOVAH. APRIL 28. How long halt ye between two opinions? IF reason be compared to the helm of a ship, the passions are the sails. It was necessary we should be compelled to act, as well as that our actions should be duly regulated. Hence the need of discretion and enthusiasm. But those who approach the summit of perfection are comparatively few; so are they who are sunk in the depths of depravity. Between these two extremes, the human character exhibits every gradation of moral excellence and corruption. Distinguished in the midst stands the man who halts between two opinions. This character God and Christ condemns; it comes not within the line of salvation marked out by the gospel. "If ye continue in my word, says Christ, then are ye my disciples indeed." -"No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."-"To them who, by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, honour and immortality; eternal life."—"In due season ye shall reap, if ye faint not."-In the 33d chapter of Ezekiel, we find these same principles definitely expressed by Jehovah. The wicked man must become permanently good before he may expect the pardon or the smiles of his Creator. As guilt is the poison of the soul, so repentance is its cure. He who halts between two opinions, betakes himself alternately to the poison and the remedy. If such treatment would be fatal to the bodily constitution, how much more to the constitution of the mind; which if it do not fix in virtue, must sink into the reverse, while the passions and appetites are rather inflamed than moderated by temporary and ineffectual restraints; and all those finer principles which should hold them in subjection, are gradually impaired and become callous by frequent injuries. Every virtuous effort grows weaker and weaker, till it yields mechanically to every impulse of desire, and the whole soul becomes at length, blind to danger, deaf to counsel, and dead to the sense of goodness!-Who would not weep over this wreck of all that is energetic, intellectual and divine in man. In this melancholy condition, what hope of moral recovery can remain? Those who have lost sight of reason, in the career of accidentally excited passion, or who have slumbered in a state of unthinking wickedness, may still be awakened by strong motives and strenuous exertions: but when reason and conscience have tried their utmost in vain, what more remains on earth to be done? Nothing but the breaking thunders of the last day can awaken them to the wretchedness of their situations. To our own diligent endeavours in establishing just and firm principles, and guarding against the sources of errour and corruption, we must add our anxious supplications to God, that he would guide our wavering minds to the sustaining truths of his gospel, that he would establish, strengthen, settle us, thus forming us to the likeness of that exalted excellence in which there is no variableness nor shadow of changing. My soul! I charge thee to excel GENUINE FAITH A PRACTICAL PRINCIPLE. APRIL 29. I will shew thee my faith by my works.-Faith without works is dead. 127 CHRISTIAN faith, strictly speaking, is a practical conviction of divine truth. If any man believes christianity, and yet conducts as if the reverse was true, he contradicts himself and imposes on society. Faith which produces not a holy life is "the letter which killeth." It is self condemnatory. If a man in any way acknowledges Christ as a divine ambassador, and yet refuses to hearken to his precepts, and to free himself by his doctrine from the empire of sin, his pretended faith is utterly useless, it is as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. But let no man abuse this truth by saying, that therefore faith is of no value, if good works are but performed. Faith founded on perspicacity and conviction, is of immense value. It is the determination of the mind towards the great principles and motives of action. It is the footstep in the way of vigorous effort and religious pacification. The more elevated and consonant to truth it is, the more powerful its incitements and sanctifying its influences.--Would men accomplish certain duties heartily and willingly without repugnance or delay; would they encounter the greatest perils ; make the costliest sacrifices, bear the acutest pains, and never be weary in well doing, if they were not animated by faith in God, and in the retribution of eternity ?-No,-there are many cases where men would fail, was it not for their trust in God and their faith in Christ. These hold the counterpoise to all objections of self-interest, sloth and timidity. Faith presents the promise of eternal life through the divine mercy; shows the infinite value of the soul that stands trembling on the verge of life, and lights up the dying eye with the vision of future bliss. If then we wish tranquillity of mind, we must have a well-defined faith in God and religion. How can we extricate ourselves from the labyrinth of doubt and seeming incongruities in the world, but by a conviction of an all-involving, all-wise providence? If ĺ believe God is 'from seeming evil still educing good, and better thence again, and better still, in infinite progression,' I can rest quietly under any juncture of affairs. I can look at death with triumph, for I see hope and immortality beaming in the gospel. I can see the grave bursting, and Jesus rising as the infallible pledge of my own resurrection. I can see this world as a state of powerful moral discipline, necessarily introductory to a higher scene of action and enjoyment. I can see that God has not designed us for corruption or sin; and that he will not annihilate children already far advanced in the acquisitions of eternal truth and sanctifying virtue. While we deem a barren faith a disgrace, let ours be pure and practical. As christian strength, it can then do all things. It will be courage, confidence and gladness. It will make the temper serene and the heart happy--it will be heaven on earth. As body when the soul has fled, 128 DANGER OF DELAY. APRIL 30. It is high time to awake out of sleep. ANOTHER month is now closing; and it is with sentiments of deep concern I address the squanderer of time. Your past month, yes, probably your past year, has been given to idleness, to folly and to vice! At this delightful season you are surrounded with proofs of God's goodness, power and care. The instructive volume of nature is unfolded, the doors of her temple are opened, the pages of her scripture are read, and the invitations of her love are sent to you-and will you shut your heart to all these messages of grace ? Your moral delay ought to address the principle of shame and remorse within you, by reminding you of the addition it has made to the term of your ignominy. For another month, alas, perhaps for another year! you have continued a blemish and a blot, among the works of God. For another month you have withheld from society those honourable services, those regular offices of goodness, and those amiable examples of virtue, for which it has a demand upon you. For another month, you have existed but to be shone on by day, and to consume the fruits of the earth. Thirty more suns have gone down upon moral depravity; upon guilty inutility or noxious guilt; upon inglorious inaction, or base activity. Another deep shade is added to the Ethiopian's skin; another foul disfigurement of the image of God; another period to the reign of appetite.— Enough-enough of folly. Dishonour has received its sufficient measure. Close-close the term of infamy. It is time for fairer days to begin their course-it is high time to awake out of sleep. Perhaps he believes all may be secured on the death-bed. Heaven is promised to a holy life, and can he live a holy life upon a death-bed?-This deceit is short, is fruitless. Suppose the amazed spirit about to dislodge. Who shall speak its terrour and dismay, when he cries out thus in the bitterness of his soul, 'What capacity has a diseased man-what time has a dying man-what disposition has a sinful man to acquire good principles, to unlearn false notions, to renounce bad practices, to establish right habits, to begin to love God, to begin to hate sin? How is the stupendous concern of salvation to be worked out by a mind incompetent to the most ordinary concerns?'-How wretched must this dying sinner be! The infinite importance of what he has to do-the goading conviction that it must be done-the utter impossibility of doing all-the dreadful combination in his mind of both the necessity and incapacity-the despair of crowding the concerns of an age into a moment-the impossibility of beginning a repentance which should have been completed of setting about a peace which should have been concluded-of suing for a pardon which should have been obtained :— all these complicated concerns, without strength, without time, without hope, with a clouded memory, a disjointed reason, a wounded spirit, undefined terrors, remembered sins, anticipated judgment, an offended God, an accusing conscience,-altogether, intolerably augment the sufferings of a body, which stands in little need of the insupportable burden of a distracted mind to aggravate its torments. PROGRESS OF THE SEASON. MAY 1. 129 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. THE delightful month of May is connected in our minds with all that is verdant, promising and attractive. How exquisitely are its colours mingled! From the agreeable green which clothes the fields, to the rich azure which fills the sky, all declare the unwearied providence, paternal benignity and unrivalled greatness of nature's God. The earth, the air, the water, teem with delighted existence. How many objects, that engross and delight the soul, crowd upon our view at this season! What freshness is felt in the morning and what brilliancy is seen in the day. God sends the copious showers to purify the air, soften the ground and nourish the plants; so also he draws from the bosom of the earth, rivers and streams which course their devious way to invigorate and beautify the world. As we stand on an eminence, how enchanting is the varied view before us ! We receive pleasure from the forms and colours and motions which are before us; from the various green of fields and woods showing itself in many different shades, some dark and deep, some vivid and glossy, and some light and pale-from the waving surface of vallies and hills, contrasted with the level extent of meadows and fields-from the forms of trees, some spiry and slender, others spreading and pendulous, and others shooting forth strong branches and displaying an unbroken mass of leaves-from the opening buds, the clustering blossoms, the humble shrub, the majestic oak, and the beautiful garden. We are gratified with the cerulean hue of the ocean, varying as it is ruffled by winds and by the lights and shades which pass over it; with the blue heavens and the white fleecy clouds, and the general effect of sunshine and shade. We are gratified with the life we see mingled in the group; with the sight and voices of men at labour rejoicing in the prospect of contented industry; with the bounding agility of young animals, as they sport at the side of others intently grazing with a sharpened relish; with the cheerful song and easy flight of birds, the lyric lark, for example, soaring joyfully and singing as he rises to hail the early day or greet the coming spring.-All these and more are present sources of delight. The mournful silence and desolations of winter, are thus succeeded by the mingling melodies and rejoicing life of this season. -All are from God.-These causes of gratification are each so many messengers of that infinite power and infinite wisdom which administer to infinite goodness. They are so many heralds from the throne of divine mercy, and so many calls to devotion from the Giver of all good. We may regard ourselves as the objects of the care, the love and the providence of the Author of nature. Motion, life, beauty and happiness are before us; but in these we do not rest; they may become to us the visible signs of the immediate presence and energy of the all animating principle. Every thing is to delight, comfort and exalt man. Let us then see God in every thing around us. His presence, who made all so fair, perceived Makes all still fairer. Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? GOD can never become the foe of his children. Yet a serious consideration of the laws and precepts of the gospel, will fully convince us of the divine mercy and wisdom in making straight the gate and narrow the way that leads unto eternal life. We cannot name them all, or insist upon any at length. Look through that excellent sermon on the mount, and see what our Saviour requires of his followers. You will find him enjoining such a profound humility, as shall make us think nothing of ourselves, and be content that others think nothing of us; a meekness which no injuries can overcome, no affronts nor indignities can exasperate; a chastity which restrains the sight of the eyes, and the wandering of the desires; such an universal charity as will make us as tender of other men's welfare as of our own; and never to take any revenge against our most bitter enemies, but to wish them well, and to do them all the good we can whether they will or not. Whatever corrupt glosses men are bold to put on our Saviour's words, the offering of the other cheek to him who smote the one, and giving our coat to him who has taken our cloak, obliges us to suffer injuries, and part with something of our right, to avoid strife and contention. The pulling out of our right eye, and cutting off our right hand that offends, imports the renouncing of the most gainful callings, or pleasant enjoyments, when they become a snare to us, and the use of all those corporal austerities that are necessary for the restraint of our lusts and corrupt affections. The hating of father and mother for the sake of Christ, does at least imply the loving of him far beyond our dearest relations, and the being ready to part with them when either our duty or his will calls for it. And we must not look upon these things as only counsels of perfection, commendable in themselves, but which may yet be neglected without any great hazard: No, they are absolutely necessary; and it is a folly to expect happiness without the conscientious and sincere performance of them. "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." You see, then, by what strict rules he must regulate his thoughts and actions, who can, with any ground, hope to be saved. But let me tell you further, that he must not be put to the performance of his duty merely by the force and sanction of these laws. True religion is an inward, free, and self moving principle, and those who have made a progress in it, are not actuated only by external motives, are not merely driven by threatenings, nor bribed by promises, nor constrained by laws, but are powerfully inclined to that which is good. Though holy and religious persons weigh carefully the law of God, yet it is not so much the authority and sanction of it, as its reasonableness, purity and goodness, that prevail with them. They account it excellent and desirable in itself, and that in keeping of it there is great reward; and that divine love wherewith they are actuated, makes them become a law unto themselves. In a word, what our blessed Saviour said of himself, is in some measure applicable to his followers, that it is meat and drink to do their Father's will. We hail religion from above, And pointing through a world of strife, |