FOUNDATIONS OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP. FEBRUARY 22. There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. 61 FRIENDSHIP is the clasp of souls; and a true friend is the continuation of one's self. The case however is rare, in which double bosoms wear one heart. Friendship cannot subsist but between persons of real worth; for friendship must be founded on esteem, and there can be no high esteem where there is not honesty, benevolence and faithfulness. No natural advantages will do instead of moral worth. There must be in friendship a certain likeness in views and temper-now, this likeness is produced and secured only by probity and kindness. Good spirits therefore are kindred spirits. We can have no security of friendship with a bad man. Vicious principles are the deadly foes of genuine affection. To real worth, must be added tenderness of affection. Jonathan loved David as his own soul. There is a stupidity and unconcernedness in some, which make them incapable of any thing so refined as friendship. The truly susceptible mind loves a friend as it loves itself; makes its own delight to consist in promoting his happiness. The true friend enters by ready sympathy in every joy, sorrow, plan and care, which belongs to the object of his regard. Every thing is important to him which is so to his friend. This tenderness of affection begets that delightful harmony of souls, resembling the two chords of a musical instrument strained to the same key, where, if one is touched ever so slightly, the sound is immediately communicated to the other. Friendship requires frankness-the most open avowal of all sentiments and secrets. A dark reserved mind cannot be a friendly one. It has been received as a rule-'deal with your friend as though he was one day to become your enemy.' This is very cunning, but is what the generosity of friendship cannot submit to. It implies a suspicion of our friend, which is fatal to all love, since true affection abhors all jealousy, art and management. The hearts of friends are transparent to each other. Friendship requires prudence. Indiscreet openness may lead to the most mischievous consequences. Our friend must have care, discretion and forethought, or we must not trust our happiness in his hands. Unfaithfulness is the first, and imprudence the second great enemy of friendship. The Friendship demands faithfulness-not only in its preservation, but in its offices; and one of these is animadverting on faults. greatest delicacy is required in this momentous duty. To do it heedlessly, publicly, haughtily or angrily, is unpardonable. Where two virtuous friends strive to make each other still more lovely than they are, they perform a duty which nature, which Christ, and which God requires. While we thank God for this cordial in human life, let us never forget, that no friendship can bind us to do any thing wrong. Our obligations to be virtuous are prior to our obligations of friendship. How bless'd the sacred tie that binds In union sweet, according minds! How swift the heavenly course they run, Whose hearts, whose faith, whose hopes are one! 62 CHRISTIAN CHARITY TOWARDS DIFFERING SECTS. FEBRUARY 23. Let every man be persuaded in his own mind.—Charity thinketh no evil.— Why beholdest thou the mote in thy brother's eye and perceivest not the beam in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite! first cast the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye. THE sacred volume contains the record of God's revelation to man. Written, as it was, centuries ago, under circumstances widely differing from any in the present day, some passages have an obscurity which can hardly be dispersed by any criticism. All that is important in doctrine, and all that is necessary to salvation, is clearly revealed, and intelligibly translated in our common version. Men however have raised queries about doctrines which they have supposed belonged to the Bible, and have been bitter towards each other in proportion to the uncertainty with which the disputed doctrine was invested. Far be it from the writer, however, to censure any of his brethren, who after an equally honest and impartial inquiry, think in some respects differently from him. Conscious of his liableness to err, from the infirmities of nature, the prejudices of education, and the acknowledged difficulty on various questions, of ascertaining the true sense of scripture; he hopes never to withhold from others, that charity which he claims for himself. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind, clearly implies the right of every man to read and understand the scriptures for himself, with no other responsibility but to God and his own conscience. Each of us ought to think and judge for himself, using the reason which God has given us, in searching and studying his revealed will. A mind thus independent, an understanding thus unfettered and unawed by uninspired names, is honorary to a christian, especially to a minister of Christ. From this unrestricted freedom, variety of opinion may be expected to follow. Principles may be adopted by some, which, in the judgment of others, may seem to sully the glory of the gospel. Under the influence of other principles however, held in common by both parties, their hearts and lives may be conformed to the precepts of Christ. In this case, there can be no excusable pretence for either party's excluding the other from christian or ministerial fellowship. It is certain that the spirit of Christ is not confined to any one sect, party or denomination of his professed followers. We sometimes see it adorning the lives of those whose peculiar opinions and modes of worship may seem unfavourable to its growth; and we often, alas! find it wanting, deplorably wanting, where it might be expected to shine with superior strength and lustre. Instead, therefore, of limiting our charity to persons of our own persuasion, let us learn to extend it to all, who bear the image of our heavenly Master, and show their love to him by keeping his commands. By their fruits ye shall know them, not by their doctrines, nor by their professions. Who with another's eye can read? RELIGION A SOCIAL PRINCIPLE. FEBRUARY 24. 63 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. RELIGION is a social principle. The common relation of God to all men makes it a duty to offer him the most public acknowledgements. He is our public as well as private Benefactor. Religion is a social concern, for it operates powerfully in various ways on the prosperity and stability of society. Civil freedom and true christianity are associates in the great duty of elevating society. They both need the aid of parents, the aid of men of ability, and the aid of friendly associations. They are both to be spread by human agency. The father who neglects to teach his children religion, is a traitor to his sacred trust; so the ruler who disregards it, is no fellow-labourer with God. Religion is founded in our social nature, and springs from our social relations. Your religion, you say, is a private concern, with which no one has any thing to do but yourself. But whence did you obtain it? Was it born with you? Did you bring it with you into life? No. In an important sense it is the gift of society. You received it from parents, and still more from the community; for did not christianity flourish in the community, were it not made visible by public institutions and continual observances, how few of us would possess it. We are religious, because we are social beings. How do we form ideas of the attributes of God, particularly of his goodness and equity, those chief foundations of religion, but by seeing them manifested in our fellow creatures, and in social life? And our affections towards God, such as love, gratitude, esteem, are in the first instance called forth towards fellow beings; and thus society is the school in which the heart is trained for the Creator. It may thus be said with strict truth, that all our religion comes to us through our social connections, is a growth and fruit of social life. The community then cannot but influence it, cannot leave the individual to himself in forming his religion. Religion is a social concern, for it is a subject on which men have a strong tendency to feel and act together, and thus it is a strong bond of union. Religion is not a secret to be locked up in our own hearts, but a sentiment to be communicated, shared, strengthened by sympathy, and enjoyed in common with all; and this results from its very nature; for who is God, the great object of this principle? Is he the Father of this or that individual only? or the Father and head of that great family of which every individual is a member? If other men have the same interest in this Great Being, and the same relation to him with myself, if God be a common object and centre to their souls and mine, then we possess in him a strong bond of union to one another. Religion has always manifested its social nature, by encouraging associations for the utterance and strengthening of its feelings. In all nations men have come together for religious purposes, and especially under christianity, some of the strongest attachments have their root in reverence for the Supreme Being. Thus religion is a social principle. Be thou, my heart! dilated wide With love's kind, social grace; 64 ADVICE TO ALL CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. FEBRUARY 25. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. CHRISTIAN FRIENDS-you are anxious to disseminate your views of christian truth-no way is so effectual as by your personal probity and worth. There is a contagious influence in a pure life. This is the first great argument by which you will win the hearts of the community, as it is the greatest test which our Lord himself proposed, "by their fruits ye shall know them.” Do you wish to make people believe that yours is a true doctrine, nothing will do it so effectually as showing that it makes its believers good men. The heart of prejudice itself cannot hold out against this. Be upright and honourable, punctual and trusty in the affairs of life; let your word and your promise be sure and faithful; your intercourse kind, friendly, and open; be not too forward, but always ready for every kind and charitable work; let your houses be the abode of decency and of order, of purity and peace; and enter with moderation into the cheerful and innocent pleasures of life, for which Heaven has given us the senses, the faculties, and the tastes; build an altar of family worship in your dwellings; and be not superstitiously precise, but regular and punctual in your attendance on the public worship, and you will need not to assert your claim to the name and character of christians. You will require no ingenious defence of your tenets; you will not need the aid of learning and of eloquence; you will not need to ask for respect and charity they will be showered upon you. Your object, indeed, is not to make proselytes, but to save your own souls. Yet if it were your object to recommend your opinions to the adoption of others, the testimony of a pure unspotted life, the outward operation of the inward faith, is the best and most persuasive missionary you can send into the world. This will convince those who will not be convinced by your reasons. For, as for reasons, and seemingly good reasons too. they may be had for almost any opinion; and there is really so much which is true and good in every form of christianity, as practised or held by sincere and worthy men, that of reason and argument there is really no end. I do not mean to say, that I do not think our views of christianity rest on stronger foundations of argument than any others essentially different. If I did not think so I could not hold them and be an honest man. But you are Protestants-do you suppose that the great and ancient Catholic church, the church of Bossuet, of Massillon, of Fenelon, has no arguments by which those illustrious men were able to give a ground for their faith? Or you are Catholics-but do you think that Luther, and Calvin, and Melancthon, were led without strong and solid reasons to adopt what they called the Reformation? You are of the church of England-but do you believe that Howe and Baxter had no arguments to defend their dissent ? Or are you a Dissenter-but will you not allow that divines like Taylor and Tillotson had something to say for their cause? No, my friends, believe me, that the shortest and most powerful argument by which you can enforce your claim to a fair standing in the Christian community is the whiteness of a pure heart, and the testimony of an unspotted life. PROPER CONDUCT IN ADVERSITY. FEBRUARY 26. Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. 65 ADVERSITY has slain its thousands, though prosperity may have destroyed its ten thousands. It is very important that trial should purify and exalt the character. These means of improvement are natural to some minds, easy to others, and attainable by all. The grand rule is to look to principles, and to leave feelings to take care of themselves. This rule includes every thing. Principle will lead the mourner to refer all to God; principle will oblige him to forget himself, and will suggest to him continual occasions of doing good to others. Principle will teach him that affliction is not intended to set him apart from others, but to enlighten his views of his relation to them, to exalt his affections towards them, to animate his efforts in their behalf. He must, sometimes, notwithstanding his endeavours to forget himself, feel what an aching void sorrow has left in his heart; but, instead of turning his view inwards to behold the desolation there, he will look abroad with a searching eye on the varied aspects which life presents to him he will gather together all the images of peace, hope, and joy, which he can lay hold on, to supply the cravings of his affections. He will go forth into the world from the house of mourning, calm and erect, prepared to abide its storms, and ready to welcome its sunshine. He will have smiles for the infant, and a heart open to its little joys: he will have cheerfulness for the aged, and a ready hand to help their infirmities; he will have words of encouragement and of warning for the young, and a watchful eye to protect their interests; he will rejoice in their brilliant hopes as if they were his own, and grieve for their destruction as if the loss were his. While he can 66 rejoice with those who rejoice," he will bury his peculiar griefs in his own bosom: when called on to " weep with those that weep," he will speak of himself only so far as to tell where he found the supports and comforts which, by the blessing of God, have been his. He does not desire to shroud his mind in mystery; it is there, clear and transparent, for all to look into who choose: he only wishes that the gusts of passion should not ruffle, or the clouds of despondency overshadow it. His regard to duty imposes on him the care of his health and of his tranquillity. The works of God are his study abroad; the word of God employs him at home. He keeps his powers in full exercise all day, and at night he seeks and obtains rest; or, if darkness and silence exert on him their peculiar influence of calling up the shadows of departed joys, he endeavours to be grateful that these joys were his; he estimates the privileges they have afforded him, and numbers the blessings he has left he listens to the assurances of faith, that all these and many more are laid up for him as a treasure in heaven; and his soul glows with the resolution, that where his treasure is, there his heart shall be also. It requires no great discernment to trace the further progress of his discipline. We need only look at some who have thus trodden their thorny path, and then we may see how he will daily advance in the love of God and man, and in fitness for his heavenly destiny. He will attain the heights of holiness, and will encourage many to follow him thither; for he will say, by example, though not in words, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." |