Jesus; by being earnest and instant in prayer; by throwing ourselves into the arms of Omnipotence; by clinging to the Rock that cannot be shaken; by merging our will in that of our heavenly Father; by emulating His example, who went about 'doing good ;' by serious self-examination, and by daily sitting in judgment upon ourselves. "There is no armour like that of faith. David knew this; 'Let all that put their trust in Thee, rejoice; let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them; let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee, for thou, oh Lord, wilt bless the righteous, with favour wilt thou compass them as with a shield!' Look at the vast difference between the favour of God and that of man. The first is a shield.; the latter, proverbially deceitful; a snare, a stumbling-block, a rock of perdition. The first is a spring of exuberant and eternal joy; the latter, a source of feverish and empty excitement. The first like the mild and refreshing influences of morning; the latter, like a noon-day sunbeam which leaves us, when it withdraws its shining, distressingly susceptible of the chill and gloom by which we are surrounded. 6 "But what is the preparation incumbent on the unbeliever? The gospel urges him to prepare for death and judgment. This is to him indeed, a battle.' The Christian's conflict is here-the unbeliever's hereafter. Balaam trembled at it, though but in distant prospect, when he said, 'Let me die the death of the righteous!' Felix trembled at it till his throne shook under him. Agrippa trembled at it when Paul stood before him. Saul trembled at it, though not given to fear, when there shone round about him a light from heaven, and his enormous sins stood revealed in its exceeding brightness. Balaam felt it; Felix felt it; Agrippa felt it, when the hot vengeance of God fell upon them; but Saul, the blasphemer, the persecutor, the waster of the church of God believed-embraced the gospel, and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, stood forward in complete panoply, to vindicate and extend the preaching of his cross. The day of battle came, as come it must; the rolling of the seven thunders, the trump of the archangel, and the voice of God were present in all their majesty in his dying visions; but to him they had no terrors as he passed by a violent and bitter death to that holy city, in whose streets violence shall be no more heard, and bitterness is a thing unknown. Man dies by his own act; he is made alive' by God's. We earn the 'wages' of sin; but we cannot merit the gift' of God. But because none but God can quicken our souls, shall we absent ourselves from his peculiar and chosen resorts? Shall we go on in sin, which he cannot even look upon,' expecting the visits of his redeeming Spirit there? And because he has told us that the wicked are an abomination, shall we number ourselves with them till rescued by his grace? As well might we court kingly favor by associating with the off-scouring of the earth, or bury ourselves in the ancient hills, to enjoy the warmth and splendour of a mid-day sun. The king might condescend to meet us, or the sun might struggle through a chink in the mountain side upon our solitude, but still Wisdom would be justified in her bitterest irony against us, and the world fairly entitled to number us amongst her many madmen. Far be it from me to mete out Infinity-to limit the grace of the All-merciful, or disparage the magnificence of the love of God in Christ Jesus; but still I must say, Seek God where he will be found, and wait not only where he never dwells. The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, honestly and godly in this present evil world. Nor do the abundant mercies of God in Christ for a moment countenance our doing evil that good may come. The Cross once seen is death to every vice, "I have supposed the Christian's preparation to refer only to the time of his sojourn here; because as a 'stranger in a strange land,' it is only now that he needs it. Heaven, as "his Father's house," will be so well known to him, and so entirely consonant with his feelings, purposes, and practice, that he will no longer need a schoolmaster- the Lamb himself will feed him, and will lead him to everlasting fountains, and God will wipe away all his tears. But with the unbeliever the case is quite different. He has laid up treasure for the moth, and spoil for the thief. He has built on the sand, and may be hurried to destruction. trusted in man, whose life is as the flower of grass. ventured on a sea that may engulph him. He is tottering on a height that trembles under him. He is leaning on a reed that He has He has may break like tow at the touch of fire. He is throned in vanity. He is living on the promises of the father of lies,' and has bargained that which is substantial, and above all price, for emptiness, vexation, and eternal misery. But still he may avail himself of the preparation of the gospel of peace.' The gospel means 'the good news.' Is it good news to you? Do you not sometimes say, as the Jews did before you,' We were never in bondage to any man?' spurning, at the same time, the freedom which it offers to those who are Christ's disciples? Do you never say of it, Lord, is it I against whom all the serious charges which it prefers, are brought? Do you never say of it, Christ came to call sinners,' and therefore I have neither part nor lot in it? Do you never say of it, 'Are not honesty and uprightness fairer virtues than the righteousness which is by faith in Christ?' Do you never say of it, after considering its unbending requirements, Who then can be saved?' Do you never turn from its perusal like Naaman, and go away in a rage? Do you never thank God that you are not as those, who are held up in the clear light of truth as extortioners and unjust, though all the while they are just such as yourself? The preaching of the cross is stigmatised as 'foolishness,' but it is by those who perish,' and who have never clung around it, or proved its merits. It has been designated as the wisdom of God, and the power of God, by those who knew it to be such. And can you be so irrational as to reject as valueless, that of which you know nothing? We believe it has never been insinuated by the infidel of stoutest words, that those who had been once led to lay hold on the rock of ages, could be persuaded to think they had followed cunningly devised fables. Their steadfast gaze on the Star of Bethlehem; their desperate and determined grasp of the promises of God; their unshaken faith; their unwavering loyalty; their burning zeal; their passionate and overflowing joy in time of trial; their holy ardour and simplicity of heart, have been the only charges which could be substantiated against them. "Some idea of the terrors of this battle may be gathered from the manner in which the way of preparation is to be urgedWords easy to be understood,' are just the media for a message of overpowering importance. There is to be no false play, no trifling, no excellency of speech, no rounding of periods, or trimming of sentences; but truth-clear as the sun-pure, simple, beautiful truth, is to form the sum and substance of the argument. Line upon line, line upon line; precept upon precept, precept upon precept. Let it be known, to use the figure employed in the context, what is piped or harped,' that those who come to scoff may remain to pray. Paul reasoned, alleged, argued, disputed, explained, warned, taught; Apollos was mighty in the Scriptures; Peter 'testified,' 'exhorted,' strove; and oh! how was Christ, the pattern of preachers, pressed in spirit when he condescended to beseech those, whom he might have bidden, to receive the full and free salvation of his own gospel? “We shall never rightly estimate the importance of this preparation, if we measure it by the cold and dispassionate style of many who pretend to set it forth. The burden of the Lord is no light thing-the fight against sin, the world, and the devil on the Christian's part; and against eternal death, and the terrors of the judgment on the unbeliever's, are matters of the deepest interest. Who can dwell with devouring fire, with everlasting burnings? Cling then to the Rock of Ages. Flee to the everlasting arms for safety. Dwell in the shadow of the Almighty's wings, and wander not from His fold, who says, of the sheep of his pasture, 'None shall pluck them out of my hand."" THOUGHTS ON HEAVEN. I AM fond of retirement, some of my happiest hours are thus spent; I am not, however, sentimental or romantic. It is then in solemn meditation or holy prayer I learn how to act when I return to my daily vocations and intercourse with my fellow mortals; and moments snatched from necessary duties, and thus spent, have a foretaste and relish of the joys-the perennial joys of the Mount Sion I long to reach, but for which I am taught by Christian faith patiently to wait. A consideration of the bliss of heaven, (which seems to me to belong to the hope of it,) is very proper to excite us to love, if we properly reflect, and lay hold of it on the true side. In one of these meditations, I enquired, " in what will all my glory or felicity in heaven consist?" In loving. What shall I do throughout eternity? That which God himself does, “We shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." I shall believe no more, I shall see; I shall hope no longer, I shall possess ; love will occupy and absorb me entirely; my other sentiments and feelings, now so powerful, will be brought down and contained in that one of Love. And of what kind of love? It will be a love absolutely pure, absolutely disinterested; quite disengaged from reflection and thought of myself, or of these lower concerns. It will be love which will fix God so immoveably in my thoughts and affections, that I shall be able to love nothing but in Godbecause God will be "All in all;" it will be a love which will permit me so little to appropriate to myself, the joy which it will give me, that on the least signal of the divine will, I shall be prepared to sacrifice this ineffable joy to love, if it be exacted of me. Can heart of man conceive love like this? I am however called to exercise it during eternity. God reigns in heaven by the diffusion of His love, which He bestows on all those who compose His court, and which is faithfully returned him without any one requiring to retain any for himself. It is a continual flux and reflux of love Divine which, emanating from the godhead, returns to it again. God reigns in the regions of darkness in a terrible manner, in depriving the condemned for ever of his love; God hates them, and is hated by them; he has condemned them, and is cursed by them; their crimes separated them from Him in time, and they shall not love in eternity. "Behold their punishment !" When I accustom myself to view heaven and hell from this point of sight, what powerful motives do I not find to love God! What would I not do; what would I not suffer to assure myself of the happiness of loving always. The measure of my love here below, will be that of my love in heaven. Love only of different degrees, makes the ranks of the blessed. There is no distinction between the elect family, other than that of superior charity. The noble ambition, the ambition supremely agreeable to God, and satisfying to the heart of a Christian is, through love to aspire to the first place in heaven, that there God may be loved and worshipped more. "O Lord! I cast my care on thee; I triumph and adore ; Henceforth my great concern shall be, To love and serve thee more." |