Part 11
III. As to our opportunities for doing good.
1. In relieving the wants of our fellow-men.
2. In alleviating their sufferings.
3. In promoting their salvation. What time and effort, what anxiety and prayer, have we devoted to these objects? Remember, the rule is not the effects, but the desire and the labor. Many labor much and accomplish little. Many labor little and accomplish much. The former are the most blessed. A man may write a book which costs him little trouble, and yet it may be the means of great good. This is no thanks to him. He is rewarded according to the labor and self-denial which it cost him, and not according to the good accomplished. The value of the widow's mite did not depend on the amount of food it would purchase for the hungry. Here again few have had our advantages. What have we done? How much have we labored, or denied ourselves for the good of others? How much reason have we to hide our heads in shame? How will many rise up in the day of judgment and condemn us?
II. What is to be done? What effect should the consideration of this subject have on us?
1. It should lead us to deep humiliation and repentance before God.
2. It should destroy all disposition to think ourselves better than others, especially to value ourselves on account of our advantages.
3. It should lead us to seek forgiveness for the past through the blood of Christ.
4. To the determination to redeem the time, to make the best use of the short, uncertain future, knowing that the day is far spent, and that the night is at hand in which no man can work.
CLXXVII. Take heed what ye hear.—Mark
4:24. Take heed therefore how ye hear.— Luke 8:18
[December 9th, 1855.]
To hear is either, 1. To perceive by the ear. 2. To understand. 3. To answer, or respond to, or obey.
I. Faith cometh by hearing.
This means 1. Faith comes from knowledge, i.e., there can be no faith without knowledge. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" About this there can be no dispute.
2. But secondly, it means that the living preacher, as opposed to mere instruction out of books, is the great means of producing faith. This does not mean, 1st. That God does not employ his written word, and written expositions of his truth in producing faith and holiness. 2d. Nor does it mean that the proclamation of the gospel, or what is commonly called preaching, is the only method of making the gospel heard, and thus of producing faith. But 3d, it means that the instruction by the ear, as coming from a living preacher, is the ordinary method of salvation.
Proof from Scripture and experience.
1. From Scripture. The command to preach and to teach indicates this. "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." "How shall they hear without a preacher?" (κηρὐσσοντος, without one preaching.) Christ gave some apostles, some pastors and teachers, &c. Eph. 4:11.
2. From experience. No nation is ever converted, no church ever gathered, no church ever sustained, without the living preacher. Few comparatively are ever converted without his intervention.
II. Why is hearing, or the living preacher, necessary? Why may not books and Bibles answer for the conversion of men?
1. The sufficient answer to the question is the divine appointment. If God has determined, for wise reasons, to advance his kingdom in a certain way, no other can succeed.
2. Because from the constitution of our nature, what is addressed to the ear has more power in arousing attention, in producing conviction and exciting feeling, than what is addressed to the eye. This is universally acknowledged. Hence a sermon heard has ten-fold more power, in most cases, than a sermon read; the sermons of Whitefield, for example.
3. There may be, and probably is, a deeper reason than the preceding one. There is a law of propagation of divine life analogous to the propagation of vegetable and animal life. The various productions of the vegetable kingdom are not new and independent products. The life of the parent plant is in the seed which it produces. The life of the parent animal passes over to its offspring. So in the Church it is the general law that the spiritual life is communicated through and by living members of the Church. This is not always the case with either plants or animals; there have been many creations. Nor is it always the case with the communication of spiritual life. We might as well ask why the Spirit does not operate without the written word, as why he so seldom operates without the living preacher. In both cases we can only say: "Even so Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight."
Two inferences flow from this truth. First, that we should hear for ourselves, and cause others to hear the gospel, not being content in either case with books, to the neglect of the living teacher. Second, that we should be careful what we hear, and how we hear.
If salvation is connected with hearing, there is abundant ground for both these exhortations, "Take heed what," and "Take heed how ye hear." The exhortation in Mark 4:24, may indeed mean nothing more than "attend to what you hear." It is then of vast importance. But it may be also understood as including an exhortation to be careful as to what we hear. Salvation does not come from hearing error. It is of the last importance, therefore, that we take heed what we hear. Never go where error is taught. This is as foolish as going into places of dissipation and debauch, or profanity; or as foolish as going into pestiferous regions, unless in either case on errands of mercy. If from
curiosity or for amusement, the result will be evil in the one case as certainly as in the other. Secondly, "Take heed how ye hear."
1. The object of hearing, viz.: salvation, spiritual edification, must be kept in view, and be our governing motive; not pleasure, not criticism.
2. The mind must be prepared for the reception of the truth. The Scriptures tell us how. The apostle says, (1 Pet. 2:1), "Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as new born-babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby." And St. James says, (1:21), "Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." These passages teach, 1st. That everything hostile to the truth must be removed from the mind and from the heart. All cares, thoughts of other things, doubts, unbelief, should be banished from the mind, and all evil feelings from the heart, and all indulgence of those feelings from the life. Secondly, they teach that we should be as new-born babes, i.e., desirous, submissive, confiding.
This with prayer includes our duty as to hearing. With this will be connected laying the truth up in our hearts, and practicing it in our lives.
CLXXVIII. Brotherly Love
[March 27th, 1864.]
Few words have a wider sense than love. The general sentiment may exist and does exist under the most diverse modifications. Its object may be some inanimate object, a house, a tree, our home, the land in which we were born. It may be some irrational animal. A man's love for his horse, his faithful dog, or the shepherd's love of his sheep is a strong and abiding sentiment. It may be a rational being, where the
love of sympathy is only a natural relation, independent of the character of the object. It may be a companion or friend where the ground is congeniality of character and natural good offices. Or it may be a superior where the sentiment is founded on reverence for his character and benefits conferred. Or it may be God himself. In all cases the sentiment is love, although the word stands for very different states of mind. In its modifications love includes, 1. Delight in its object. 2. Desire for its well-being. 3. A desire for its possession and enjoyment.
Brotherly love is the love which arises out of the fraternal relations of men. There is a common brotherhood among all mankind, founded, 1. On their having God as a common Father. 2. Community of nature, being all descendants of the common parents of the race. 3. Common necessities, sympathies, affections and destiny. A man, therefore, who does not love his fellow-men, who does not estimate their value as men, recognize the bond of relationship between himself and them, desire their well-being, and seek appropriate intercourse with them, violates the first of all duties next to that of honoring God. The first command is, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; the second is, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, thy fellow-man. Within this vast brotherhood of man there are more intimate bonds of relations. The people of one race, one nation, of the same tribe, of the same household, are bound by peculiar ties and have the general obligation of love modified and strengthened by these special relations.
In the Christian sense of the terms, brotherly love is the love which should exist among Christians as brethren in Christ. This is founded, 1. On their common relation to Christ. They are all united to him, and therefore are united to each other. They constitute his kingdom, his fold, his household, his body. He is their common Lord, common Saviour, their common portion, the object of supreme love to each, and therefore the bond of union between them.
2. Upon the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; so that they have a common spiritual life, involving, (a.) one faith, (b.) one hope, (c.) one experience.
3. Upon the congeniality of nature or feeling. They sympathize in all their likes and dislikes, in their aims, in their characteristic pursuits.
II. This love is not merely an obligation. It is a necessary result of the relation in which believers stand to each other; so that if this love does not exist, that relation does not exist. If a man does not love his Christian brethren, he does not love Christ; is none of his.
This love manifests itself, 1. In a disposition to recognize Christians. 2. In delight in their society. 3. In a desire to promote their welfare. 4. In a sympathy with them in all their joys and sorrows, in their trials and conflicts; in espousing their cause, standing by them and defending their character. 5. In forbearance. 6. In charitable judgment.
It stands opposed, 1. To hatred. 2. To a desire to degrade, or injure, or wound the feelings. 3. To envy or jealousy, regretting that they are honored or advanced. 4. To evil speaking and censoriousness. 5. To contemptuousness, or harshness of spirit or demeanor.
Love reduces men to a level. A man who is actuated by Christian love is a Christian gentleman. No matter what his birth, his culture or social position, he will be a gentleman in character and conduct; and on the other hand, a man not under the control of love will not be, and cannot be a gentleman, no matter what his birth or position may be. This love is the cement, the life, the blessedness of the Church, and of any society on earth. Its perfection is heaven. In proportion as it is wanting in a man, or a community, or a church, in that proportion do they approach the character and condition of the lost.
CLXXIX. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby
thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or
is made weak.—Rom. 14:21
[Oct. 24th, 1867.]
Some things are unlawful in their own nature, and can never be right. Others are wrong because positively forbidden; are wrong only so long as the prohibition continues, and only to those upon whom the prohibition is laid. Others are wrong on the grounds of expediency, and therefore are sometimes wrong, and sometimes right. It is not always easy to discriminate these classes. There are, however, certain criteria by which we can distinguish what things are wrong in their own nature, and what are in their nature indifferent.
1. One of these criteria is to be found in our own moral constitution. We can see intuitively that malice, envy, pride, etc., are in their nature wrong. They are evil, not because they are forbidden, not because of their injurious tendency, but they are essentially evil.
2. The Scriptures condemn such things as are in their nature evil, not for one people, nor for a limited period, but for all men in all times.
With regard to things indifferent in their own nature, the Scriptures lay down the following rules:
1. If prohibited for any special reason, they are unlawful while that prohibition lasts.
2. When the prohibition is removed, they are right or wrong according to circumstances; wrong at one time and place, and not at another. 1st. They are wrong when their use or enjoyment would do harm to others. 2d. They are right when no such evil is to be apprehended. 3d. That principle is never to be sacrificed to
expediency; that is, when doing or not doing anything would imply the denial of an important truth. All these principles are illustrated by the apostle's conduct and teaching in relation to the three matters, in themselves indifferent, which troubled the early Church. These were circumcision, the observance of the holy days of the Jews, and eating meat forbidden by the Mosaic law, or which had been offered to idols. With regard to these Paul taught,
1. That there was no harm in doing or neglecting them. Circumcision was nothing. If any man chose to circumcise his son, he was free to do so. If he chose to observe a holy day, he might do so. If he chose to abstain from meats sacrificed to idols, he might do so.
2. That he must not make his judgment a rule of duty to others. He must not condemn those who thought and acted differently. "To his own master he standeth or falleth." "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of a new moon, or of the Sabbath days."
3. But if any of these became a source of evil, caused the weak to offend, then the law of love forbids our indulging in them, or availing ourselves of our Christian liberty.
4. But if any of these things were urged as a matter of duty, or a condition of salvation, then it became a sin to make things indifferent necessary. Paul, therefore, although he circumcised Timothy, refused to allow Titus to be circumcised. It is difficult to determine whether compliance with the prejudices of others is right or wrong. Our Lord disregarded the prejudices of the Jews in regard to the Sabbath. In other cases he complied in order to avoid giving offense.
There are certain principles important to have fixed, as guides of conduct.
1. Nothing is right or wrong which is not commanded or forbidden in Scripture.
2. We must stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and not allow any rule of duty to be imposed upon us.
3. In the use of this liberty, and while asserting and maintaining it, we should not so use it as to do harm to our neighbors.
4. Nothing indifferent can be a proper ground of church discipline or a condition of church fellowship.
These principles are often violated, as in the course pursued by many on slavery, temperance, tobacco, dress, church ceremonies, &c., &c.
CLXXX. Christian Forbearance
[Jan. 11th, 1857.]
Every particular is a manifestation of something general. Every grace is a form of the same general principle of piety. The divine life manifests itself, 1. In the intellectual apprehension and belief of the truth; not of this truth to the exclusion or neglect of others, but of all revealed truth. It is not by urging the claims of any doctrine admitted to be revealed that it becomes a matter of faith, or that our experience of its power is increased, but by strengthening the principle of faith.
2. It manifests itself in the affections, in love to God, to Christ, and to our fellow Christians.
3. In the exercise of the social virtues. In all these cases the degree in which the effects are manifested depends on the vigor of the principle of life. It is analogous to the case of a tree. It is not so much by attention to the fruit, as by attending to the health of the tree which produces the fruit, that success is secured. This is a general remark, applicable to all questions of this kind.
By forbearance is meant abstaining from action. In a moral sense, it is abstaining from cherishing or exercising those feelings which insult or injury is adapted to produce. Such conduct, (i.e., insult and injury) is adapted to produce resentment and retaliation. Forbearance is abstaining from exercising such resentment, and from endeavoring to retaliate. Christian forbearance is forbearance exercised from Christian motives. A man, when insulted, or injured, may forbear from mere interested or prudential considerations, or from self-respect, or from the desire of approbation; but in such cases there is no religion in the act. It is only when the forbearance is determined by Christian motives that it is a Christian grace. What then are the Christian motives which give a gracious character to our forbearance?
1. A sense of our own ill desert, i.e., vileness and unworthiness. The quickness to resent an injury or insult is in proportion to the value we set upon ourselves. If, therefore, we are truly humble, if we are really conscious of our vileness and unworthiness in the sight of God, we shall be little disposed to be offended when others manifest towards us a want of respect or of kind feelings. We shall know in our hearts that we little deserve the respect or affection of any human being. We often deceive ourselves in this matter, and call ourselves the chief of sinners, when, if men seem to think us so, we feel greatly injured.
2. A sense of guilt; a consciousness that we are even greater sinners against God than any human being can be against us. Such is our moral hebetude that we are obliged to take extreme cases to awaken in us the feeling which we wish to describe. Suppose, then, a man guilty of patricide, or still worse, of matricide; suppose such an one brought to a sense of his guilt; would it be possible to awaken in his mind a feeling of resentment by any amount of insult or injury that could be heaped upon him? Would he not feel that he deserved it all? And what are we? I will not say that we are as wicked as a murderer of his father, but this I will say, that no patricide ever abhorred himself half so much as it would be just for us to loathe ourselves.
Can we look at the cross and ask why Jesus died, without feeling ourselves guilty of his blood? Put it to yourselves. If the conduct of a people had been so rebellious that it was impossible to pardon them unless their prince should die for them, would they not feel that they were the guilty authors of his death? And suppose further, that they, instead of being penitent and won to obedience by the exhibition of his love, treated him with neglect and continued in their rebellion, what would they think of themselves if they were brought to a right state of mind? It is impossible for us to exaggerate our guilt in the sight of God. We are more guilty than we ever have conceived, or ever can conceive ourselves to be; and depend upon it, the more honestly and truly we feel this, the more forbearing will we be towards those who neglect or injure us.
3. The fact that Christ is so forbearing towards us, will render his true disciples forbearing towards others. Christ, notwithstanding our vileness, and notwithstanding our guilt, treats us as though we were pure and innocent. That is, he loves us and receives us into his favor. He not only forgives us offenses infinitely greater and more numerous than any we ever can experience from our fellow-men, but he continues to heap his favors upon us while we are trying his patience to the uttermost. If he forgives us ten thousand talents, should we not forgive our fellow-servant an hundred pence? He who feels that he has been forgiven much, will be disposed to forgive much.
4. Another Christian motive is the peculiar relation in which believers stand to each other. They are children of the same Father, members of the same family, united to the same Saviour, heirs of the same inheritance, partakers of the same Spirit. Paul exhorts believers not to lie; not because of the obligation of truth, or the evils of falsehood, but because believers are members one of another. When the hand resents the imperfections of the eye, or the head execrates the stumbling of the feet, then may one believer be resentful against another.
5. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ."
CLXXXI. Judge not that ye be not judged.
Matt 7:1
[Feb. 12th, 1854.]
Moses on Mt. Sinai; Christ on the mountain of Palestine.
1. The one was terrible, the other attractive.
2. The one was legal and ceremonial, the other spiritual and evangelical.
3. The one was ministerial, the other authoritative
4. The one was in form earthly, the other heavenly.
This discourse is distinguished, 1. By its heavenly character. 2. By the comprehensiveness and spirituality of its precepts. 3. By its catholicity.
The peculiar command, Judge not.
1. The word κρίνειν means simply to pronounce on the conformity, or want of conformity of an act or person to the law. This may be done, 1st, Officially and with authority. 2d, It may be done unofficially, as when we express a conviction regarding a person or act, that he or it is worthy of praise or blame. 3d, As intermediate between official judgment and the mere expression of approbation or disapprobation, is the decided condemnation of our brethren, or a pronouncing them guilty before God. The former is the expression of our own judgment, the latter is a declaration of what is the judgment
of God. In the first sense there is of course no sin in judging. As to the third sense, it does not belong to us.
1. We have the right and duty to declare what God's judgment is, so far as it is revealed, e.g., that no one who denies Christ, or says that Jesus is accursed, is of God; that no unclean person, or unjust, or murderer, or drunkard hath any part in the kingdom of God.
2. But beyond this we have no right to go. 1st. We have no right to pronounce that sin which God has not so declared—meats, days, etc. 2d. We have no right to judge the heart, or to pass sentence upon motives. Paul refused to be thus judged by the Corinthians.
(a.) We are utterly incompetent for this office.
(b.) This is not the time for judging.
(c.) We have no authority. It is an office which belongs to Christ. It is a usurpation on our part.
The second kind of judging, viz., the expression of approbation or disapprobation.
This is right, 1. When done with competent knowledge. 2. On suitable occasions. 3. From proper motives and design. 4. With proper mildness.
It is wrong on the other hand—and what is here condemned—when it is accompanied with,
1. Undue severity of judgment.
2. A disposition to condemn, to put the worst construction on acts, or to censure when we are not called upon to do it.
3. It is wrong to condemn where we are not competent to form a right judgment.
4. Where the motive is bad, to gratify malice, to wound the feelings, or to amuse others.
Reasons against judging:
1. We shall be judged, here and hereafter.
2. We are guilty of folly.
3. We cherish evil feelings ourselves.
4. We promote them in others.
CLXXXII. Christian Rebuke
[Jan. 31st, 1864.]
In the Scriptures we have a two-fold description of the Church; as a whole, of individual churches, and of believers as individual men. The one description sets forth the ideal of the Church catholic, of a congregation, and of a believer; the other sets them before us as they actually are. The Church as a whole is described as the body of Christ, as his fold, as his kingdom, his family, his temple; all of which is intended to express its relation to him as his dwelling, as his possession, as the object of his delight, and as filled with his Spirit and presence.
I. In virtue of this relation to Christ, the Church is, 1. One in faith, in experience, in communion, and fellowship; so that if one member suffers, every member suffers with it. They are also in mutual subjection, and united in discipline and worship. 2. It is holy, sacred, set apart from the world, undefiled, conformed to the will of Christ, devoted to his service, and pure from the corruption of heresy and sin.
II. As the Church is what it is just described to be, a body filled by Christ's Spirit, taught and controlled by him, it has the prerogative, 1. To teach others. 2. To bind and loose, to receive into, and reject from her communion. 3. To reprove and rebuke, as well as to exhort.
III. Now, as every man is a microcosm, so every believer is an epitome of the Church. What is true of the Church as a whole, is true of every believer in his measure. 1. The relation in which every believer stands to Christ is that which the Church as a whole bears to him. If he is the king, the head, the shepherd, the prophet, the priest, the husband of the Church, so he is of each and every believing soul. If the Church is filled by his Spirit, enlightened, sanctified and guided by him, so is each believer. 2. Therefore the attributes of the believer are essentially the attributes of the Church. He is holy, separate from the world, purified from sin. He is free from heresy and defilement. 3. Consequently the prerogatives of the believer are the same in his sphere and measure with the prerogatives of the Church. 1st. He has the right to teach. 2d. To bind and loose. 3d. To exhort and rebuke with all long-suffering.
The first remark which this view of the matter suggests is, that the relation both of the Church and of the believer to Christ is not an external one, but an internal and vital one. It is not by outward profession, nor by external rites that this relation is consummated or preserved, but by a living faith and the indwelling of the Spirit; and consequently no individual man, and no body of men have a right to be regarded, treated or obeyed as a part of the Church catholic, except so far as he or they give evidence of this real union with Christ.
The second remark is, that the prerogative of the Church and of believers severally, to teach, to give or withhold Christian fellowship, to exhort or rebuke, is founded on this relation to Christ, and conditioned on the possession of the attributes or character which flow from that relation: holiness, faith, love, meekness, etc. We are not bound to obey in the Lord those who are not in the Lord.
Protestants were right in resisting the authority of Rome; so were the Presbyterians in Scotland, and the Puritans in England right in resisting those who claimed the power of the Church over them. So the right to teach, to exhort and reprove belongs to those who are members of Christ's body, and are governed by his Spirit; and it belongs to them only so far as this is actually true concerning them.
Third. It follows from what has been said, viz.: that it is the prerogative of the Church and of the believer thus to teach and to rebuke, that it is also his duty. He cannot see ignorance or sin without doing what he can to remove them.
Fourth. If this be the prerogative and duty of the believer and of the Church, then it is the duty of others to receive instruction and rebuke with a humble and submissive spirit. Here, as elsewhere, we do service not to men, but to God; we bow to the authority of God, or of the Holy Spirit in the humblest of his organs which he sees fit to employ.
As the actual Church is far from corresponding to the ideal; or the actual Christian to the ideal believer; as neither the Church as a whole, nor any of its members are really conformed to the standard of the Scriptures; as neither live worthily of the relations which both sustain to Christ, and neither possess in their fulness the internal character or attributes which flow from that relation, it follows,
First, that neither should be forward in claiming the prerogatives which are founded on that relation to Christ, and on the possession of its consequents. It has ever been the case that those bodies who possess the least of the attributes of the Church, have been most strenuous in the assertion of its prerogatives. Romanists proceed on the principle that the Church actual is the Church ideal, that the visible body is all that the Scriptures say the real and perfectly redeemed body is, or is to be. And it often happens that those individual Christians who have least of the spirit of Christ, are most disposed to exercise his power. Hence censoriousness results.
Second, as the rebuke comes from the indwelling of the Spirit, as the Christian does not act in his own name, it follows (a.) That the rule of his judgment must be the revealed will of the Spirit. (b.) That the motive must be the good of the offender. (c.) That the manner and tone must be such as the Spirit dictates.
Third, as concerns those who receive rebuke, it follows from what has been said, (a.) That they should recognize the right and duty of their brethren to administer it. (b.) That they should receive it as coming from the Lord. (c.) That as neither the Church nor the believer, whether the rebuker or the rebuked, is perfect, imperfection in the character of the reprover, or in his manner or spirit, would not justify us in resenting or resisting it. The Church is one. We should bear each other's burdens, sympathize in each other's sorrows, and endeavor to correct each other's faults.
CLXXXIII. Forgiveness of Offenses
[Dec. 17th, 1854.]
I. A personal offense is anything whereby we are personally injured in our feelings, our reputation, our person or estate.
A public offense is one by which the Church or the community is injured in any of its interests.
II. The question is, what is our duty in reference to personal offenses?
1. We should not cherish any malignant or revengeful feelings towards those who injure us.
2. We should not retaliate, or avenge ourselves on our offenders. If the offense is of such a nature that the interests of society or of the Church require it to be punished, it is right in us to desire such punishment.
3. We should cherish towards those who offend us, the feelings of kindness, regarding them with that benevolence which forbids our wishing them any harm.
4. We should treat them in our outward conduct with kindness, returning good for evil, and acting towards them as though they had not injured us.
III. When are we to forgive?
There are two classes of passages which bear upon this subject. 1. Those which prescribe the condition of repentance. "If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him." 2. Those in which no such condition is prescribed. "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." (Matt. 6:14.) "How oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?" (18:21.) "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." (Matt. 5:44). So God does. "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust." (Matt. 5:45). So Christ prayed for his crucifiers. So Stephen prayed. So is God in his dealings with us.
These passages are not inconsistent. The word forgiveness is used in a wider or a stricter sense. In the wider sense, it includes negatively, not having a spirit of revenge, and positively, exercising a spirit of kindness and love, and manifesting that spirit by all appropriate outward acts. This is forgiveness as a Christian's duty in all cases. In a more restricted sense it is the remission of the penalty due to an offense. This is illustrated in the case of an offense against the Church. Repentance is the condition only of the remission of the penalty, not of forgiveness in the wider sense. There are penalties proper to private as well as to public offenses.
IV. Grounds of the duty.
1. God's command.
2. God's example.
3. Our own need of forgiveness. Our sins against God are innumerable and unspeakably great.
4. The threatening that we shall not be forgiven unless we forgive others.
5. It is a dictate of Christian love.
CLXXXIV. Let not then your good be evil
spoken of. Rom. 14:16
[January 13th, 1855.]
1. The Scriptures speak much of the beauty of holiness. They represent the Lord Jesus as the chief among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely; as fairer than the children of men. He is divinely beautiful. His beauty consists in his perfect excellence, in the absolute wisdom and symmetry of his whole character.
2. Believers are the epistles of Christ. They are his witnesses. They represent him among men. It is their solemn duty to make a fair representation of what he is, and of what his religion is, before the world. This idea is often presented in the Old Testament, and the people were often upbraided because the name of God was blasphemed among the gentiles for their sake.
3. There are two ways in which believers dishonor Christ, and make a false representation of him and of his religion: First, when by breaking the law, they give men to understand that Christ either allows or approves of such transgressions, and secondly, when they cause even their good to be evil spoken of; that is, when they either so act on right principles as to give those principles a bad character, or so conduct themselves as to mislead others as to the true nature of
the gospel. This is done (1.) When men so use their Christian liberty as to injure their brethren. The distinction between months and days, between clean and unclean meats, had been abolished. It was right that this fact should be asserted and taught. It was right that Christians should act upon this liberty; but if they so used it as to destroy their brethren, without any regard to their interest, they sinned against Christ; they caused what was good to be evil spoken of. So now in regard to temperance, men may make such a use of truth, and so act on true principles, as to do great harm. (2.) This is done when undue stress is laid on trifles. Paul says that religion does not consist in meat and drink; and to act as though it did, is to slander the gospel. All who make that essential which is not essential are guilty in this matter. They cause the gospel to be misunderstood. This is true of the Papists; it is true of High Churchmen; it is true of the seceders; of fanatics of all classes, and of all bigots. They belie religion, as the tattooed New Zealander, or the painted Indian, or the Hindoo with his smeared countenance, all misrepresent the human face divine. (3.) This is done also by the sanctimonious, who make a false representation of religion, and cause it to be evil spoken of when they hold it up thus caricatured before men. (4.) It is done also by the censorious, not only in making non-essentials of too much importance, but also in misrepresenting the spirit of their Master. His religion does not justify their harsh judgments. (5.) It is done by those who carry any right principle to excess. (a.) By the Puritans in regard to the Sabbath, to things indifferent in worship, to days of religious observance. (b.) By the Quakers in regard to dress and conformity to the world. (c.) By those who deny the Church any liberty in her organization.
In every case of this kind, the human degrades the divine. What is indifferent is made essential, and what is essential is made indifferent. Let not then your good be evil spoken of.
1. By making a wrong use of Christian liberty.
2. By teaching trifles as matters of vital importance.
3. By sanctimoniousness.
4. By censoriousness.
5. By pressing right principles to an extreme, as the Puritans did, and the Seceders and Quakers do. Make a fair exhibition of the gospel, and to this end, 1. Study Christ and his work. 2. Be filled with his Spirit.
CLXXXV. Waiting on God
[November 21st, 1852.]
I. Two conditions are necessary to physical life, viz.: repose and activity. So also in the spiritual life there are two conditions of health, viz.: passivity and exercise. The former is expressed by WAITING, which implies,
1. Passivity; a state in which we are the recipients, in which we do nothing, but quietly expect something to be done. Thus men wait for the morning; they wait for the salvation of God; for the fulfillment of his promises; they wait for the coming of the Lord.
2. It implies confidence in God, an assurance that he will reveal himself, that he will accomplish his word.
3. It implies desire and expectation. Men who wait for the morning both expect it and long for it. So those who wait for God, for his salvation, for his coming, expect it and long for it.
4. It implies patience and submission; patience, because we know that the good waited for will not be granted before God's time; submission, because we know that it is in God's power to grant or to withhold, and that our only hope is in him.
Waiting, therefore, though it implies passivity, is the opposite; (1.) of indifference; (2.) of despair; (3.) of rebellious discontent.
II. Those who wait on the Lord renew their strength.
1. Because God flows in upon the soul, imparts larger measures of life. As occurs in sleep. As touching the ground according to the fable.
2. Because God approves and blesses those who thus confide in him and long for him.
III. Times in which we should wait.
1. In seasons of devotion, private and public.
2. In times of sickness and sorrow.
3. In times of spiritual dearth.
4. All the time of our continuance in this world, is a time of waiting for the salvation of God.
CLXXXVI. Fight the good fight of faith.—1
Tim. 6:12
[April 10th,1853.]
The attainment of eternal life is a great and difficult work. It is not to be attained without great effort.
1. Because it implies victory over sin, bringing ourselves into subjection to God, and into conformity to his image.
2. Because the enemies which stand in our way are so numerous.
This truth is variously presented in the Scriptures. It is presented by our Saviour's exhortation to strive to enter in at the strait gate; by the command to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; by comparing the Christian life to a race, to a conflict, etc. The latter is the figure here used.
I. What is meant by the fight of faith? II. Why is it called a good fight? III. What is the nature of this conflict? IV. What are the means, or weapons of this warfare?
I. What is the fight of faith?
1. The Christian life, considered as a fight.
2. It is called the fight of faith, not because it is a conflict in behalf of a creed, but because faith is the contending principle; it is a fight in which faith is the combatant. Such is the life of faith, the walk, the triumph of faith. It is explained by 2 Tim. 4:7: "I have fought a good fight,—I have kept the faith;" that is, faith in the subjective sense. He had not lost his faith, he had kept it unto the end. On this salvation is suspended. "If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end," we are made partakers of Christ. The fight, therefore, which we have to endure, is a conflict to preserve the inward life of the soul, which consists in faith.
II. Why is it called a good fight?
1. Because it is the conflict in behalf of what is good; not for riches, honor, or dominion, but for holiness. 2. Because it is a conflict which ends in triumph.
III. Nature of the conflict.
The faith here spoken of is, 1. Not merely faith in the being, perfections and government of God. To maintain such a faith is a great thing, considering all the sources of doubt and difficulty which surround us.
2. But it is also faith in the gospel, i.e., faith in Christ; in his divinity, incarnation, atonement, intercession, etc.
3. Faith in our interest in his redemption, or rather, faith considered as the appropriation to ourselves of the promises of the gospel, and the consequent union of the soul with God.
The enemies of faith are,
1st. A spirit of skepticism. (a.) The sources of this evil. (b.) The cure of it.
2d. A spirit of despondency. (a.) On account of sin, i.e., its power. (b.) On account of guilt.
3d. A distrustful, gloomy spirit. (a.) As to our destiny in this life, and hereafter. (b.) As to our usefulness.
4th. A worldly spirit; a disposition to seek, to fear, to obey the world.
IV. Means of maintaining faith.
1. Nearness to God, and sense of dependence.
2. Use of the means of grace.
3. Exercise of our faith.
CLXXXVII. Rejoice in the Lord
[January 24th, 1864.]
Joy is either a transient emotion produced by the expectation or enjoyment of good, or it is a permanent state of the mind, an habitual, cheerful and happy frame of the spirit, arising from the sense of security and blessedness. The command is,—
I. To be happy. II. To be happy in and through the enjoyment of spiritual good.
I. The command is to be happy. This is not inconsistent with the duty of mourning for our sins, nor with the duty of sympathy with the sorrows of others, weeping with those who weep, nor with being duly and naturally affected by the trials and afflictions of life, nor with the declaration that God looks with special favor upon such as are of an humble and contrite spirit, and tremble at his word. There may be joy in sorrow.
But the command to rejoice is, 1. A condemnation of a sad, desponding, discontented state of mind. It is a condemnation, 1st. On the one hand, of the doctrine that such sadness or despondency is in itself a desirable or profitable state; that it tends to holiness, or is the appropriate condition of the Christian. 2d. On the other hand, of the doctrine that these feelings should be cherished and rendered habitual. This is a common opinion. There is much to make it plausible. The awful interests of eternity which must be more or less in doubt until our destiny is decided, the amount of evil in our own hearts, the prevalence of evil in the world, the state of those dear to us, the low condition of the Church, the certainty of the perdition of so large a portion of the human race; these as well as our own personal sorrows and difficulties, would seem enough to banish all happiness from the heart of those who take a believing and enlarged view of the realities by which they are surrounded. Nevertheless joy, and not sadness, is the normal state of the Christian; and this state of depression of spirits is not itself good, nor a state of mind to be cherished as desirable and productive of holiness. 2. It is not only, however, a condemnation of habitual sadness, but it teaches, 1st. That the opposite state is the one which we ought habitually to enjoy; and 2d. That it is the one which we ought habitually to cherish. And this for two reasons. First, the Christian has abundant cause to be habitually joyful; reasons which cannot be duly and believingly apprehended without producing joy. Sadness, therefore, is the fruit and evidence of unbelief, as spiritual joy is the fruit and evidence of
faith. The fact, (1.) That the Christian is forgiven. (2.) That he is reconciled to God and is the object of the divine love. (3.) That he is united to Christ. (4.) That all the exceeding great and precious promises of the Word of God are his. (5.) That Christ is set before him as the object of love, adoration and delight. (6.) That heaven is his everlasting inheritance. (7.) That all power is in the hands of Christ, that all things must work together for good, and that the final consummation will result in bringing infinite good out of the infinite evil that is in the world; these are rational sources of joy. It is unnatural and wrong, unbelieving and ungrateful for those who have all these sources of joy to be habitually sad and desponding. Nothing is more difficult to bear than for a father to see a child, surrounded by everything necessary to render him happy, habitually and causelessly miserable.
The second reason why we are commanded to be happy is that this state of mind is healthful. It tends to holiness. It is to the graces of the Spirit what the light of the sun is to nature. It renders them more healthful, vigorous and beautiful. Happiness belongs to heaven; misery, to hell.
II. This command to be happy is, however, not a command to be happy simply, but to be happy in the Lord. This is, 1. A prohibition against seeking happiness in the world. It is not a prohibition against opening our hearts to the sources of pleasurable emotion which surround us in the world. But it is a prohibition against seeking our happiness from that source, or even enjoying them as merely worldly. They should be received and enjoyed religiously. This moderates, modifies and regulates all worldly joy.
2. It is a command to seek our happiness in God, and in the things of God. We must choose. If we come to the fountain of living water we shall not only be refreshed, but also enabled to enjoy worldly good more, and be safer than if we had made that good our portion.
III. In what sense is this joy a fruit of the Spirit?
1. The Spirit is the author of that gracious state of mind out of which joy springs.
2. He bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God, and he is the earnest of our inheritance.
3. He sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, and directly infuses the special grace of joy.
IV. The reasons for this command.
1. Joy is healthful in all its natural influence and tendencies. Pain and sorrow are the reverse. The one is the inseparable companion or consequence of holiness; the others are inseparable from sin. The one tends, therefore, to produce holiness, and the others, sin. Pain and sorrow may be useful as medicine, not as food. Joy, however, is the natural atmosphere of the soul, out of which it cannot live. Or, it is as oxygen in the air; it is its vital principle. Take joy out of heaven, and what would it be? It would be as though the oxygen of our air were removed; all that lives would die. For our own good, therefore, we should rejoice.
2. This joy is a holy exercise. 1st. Because its objects are holy, pure, spiritual. 2d. Because it is in its nature the exercise of holy feeling.
3. It is a gift of God and the fruit of the Spirit. "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." (John 15:11.) "And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves." (John 17:13.) "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." (Rom. 14:17.) "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace," etc. (Gal. 5:22.) "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." (Jude 24, 25.) Surely, that which is the gift of Christ, the fruit of the Spirit, and the
atmosphere of heaven, must be holy, and worthy of being assiduously cherished.
4. It beautifies, adorns, and renders attractive the Christian character. A gloomy Christian is not only a burden to himself, but also a source both of unhappiness and of evil to those around him. We are bound, therefore, to be joyful as a means of honoring God, and being useful to our fellow-men.
5. Surely we of all men have abundant cause for joy. The absence of joy is a proof of unbelief. How can a man who believes that he is united to Christ, and therefore partaker of his righteousness, the temple of his Spirit, a child of God and an heir of heaven, fail to rejoice? If assured of great earthly good, we should not fail to overflow with joy. How then can we believe that we are partakers of Christ's glory, and not rejoice?
CLXXXVIII. Zeal
[December 18th, 1853.]
I. Its general nature. II. Criteria by which to distinguish between true and false zeal. III. The duty and importance of being zealous.
I. The general nature of zeal.
Zeal is fervor. Ζῆλος is from ζἐω, to boil. It stands opposed (a.) To opposition. (b.) To indifference or lukewarmness. Its object may be good or bad, a person or thing, truth or error. The Jews and Paul were zealous for the law, and for the tradition of their fathers. Paul through zeal persecuted the Church.
II. Criteria of true and false zeal.
1. They are not determined by their object. There can indeed be no holy zeal for sin or error; but there may be an unholy zeal for God
and truth. Of this the Jews were an example.
2. True or false zeal is not determined either by its energy, or by the self-denial and exertions to which it leads. Many unholy men are exceedingly fervid in their zeal, and many such make the greatest sacrifices for their ends.
3. It is determined, first, by its source. The source of false zeal is either, 1st. Some selfish interest, as in the case of the Jews, the high churchman, the Romanist; or, 2d. Party spirit, national feeling, esprit de corps; or, 3d. False doctrine, hatred of the truth. The source of true zeal, i.e., of zeal as a Christian grace, is, 1st. The Holy Spirit, as the author of all good. 2d. Spiritual apprehension of the dignity and excellence of its object, whether it be God, the truth, or the Church. Second, it is determined by its concomitants and effects. 1st. False zeal is malignant; true is benevolent. The one is the fervor of an unrenewed mind; the other of a renewed mind. Illustrations of this are, Jesus, and the Jews. 2d. False zeal is proud; true zeal is humble. The former arises often from a sense of superiority which it seeks to vindicate and assert; the latter, from such views of God and things divine as tend to produce humility. 3d. The one is reverent and the other irreverent. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The want of this attribute vitiates, or proves to be spurious, much that passes for religion. 4th. True zeal is connected with a holy life. It is remarkable how often the greatest zealots for God, the Church, and sound doctrine (as they regard it), have been unholy and even immoral in their lives.
III. The duty of zeal.
1. This state of mind is demanded by the infinite importance of the interests at stake: the glory of God, the Redeemer's kingdom, the progress of truth, the salvation of men. To be unconcerned about these things is the greatest sin and evil.
2. God, therefore, declares his special abhorrence of the cold and lukewarm.
3. Our relation and obligations to God and Christ call for zeal. A child is zealous for its father, a subject for his sovereign, a soldier for his commander, a captive for his redeemer. Our zeal should be proportioned to our obligations.
4. Zeal is the chief source, or one of the chief sources of spiritual power. God employs living souls to communicate life. In all ages, men of zeal have produced great results. This qualification, in the absence of others, can accomplish wonders.
IV. Means of cultivating zeal.
1. Avoid all pretence or affectation, all expression of more interest than you feel.
2. Gather warmth by continual intercourse with God, and cherish the influence of his Spirit.
3. Keep your minds filled with the subjects about which you should be zealous, and your attention devoted to them.
4. Remember that zeal is a gift of the Holy Spirit; that whatever grieves the Spirit quenches our zeal, and that the more we are filled with the Holy Ghost, the more shall we be filled with godly zeal.
VIII
THE MEANS OF GRACE
THE SCRIPTURES, MINISTRY,
SACRAMENTS, &c.
CLXXXIX. The Means of Grace
[March 6th, 1853.]
I. Meaning of the terms.
1. Grace signifies goodness, love, divine influence.
2. The means of grace are the means appointed and employed in applying to men the benefits of redemption. These are the word, the sacraments and prayer; or more properly, the word and sacraments.
II. Wrong views on this subject.
First, that which depreciates their importance, their necessity. This is done, 1. By those who teach that reason and nature contain, or may discover truth enough to sanctify and save the soul. This is disproved, (a.) By Scripture. (b.) By experience. 2. By those who teach that the Holy Spirit is given to all men as a revealer of truth. This is disproved, (a.) By the Scriptures, which everywhere teach the necessity of the written or preached word. (b.) By experience, which shows that wherever the written word is forsaken, and inward illumination relied on, the result is folly and heresy.
Second, the doctrine which attributes an inherent efficacy to these means, and teaches, 1. That they are the only channels of divine influence and of saving benefits. 2. That they are always efficacious. 3. That their efficacy is independent of the state of the recipient (if non-resisting), and of the ab-extra power of the Spirit.
III. The true doctrine on the subject, is,
1. That they are absolutely necessary, except in the case of infants.
2. That their efficacy is due to the attending power of the Spirit.
3. That this power is given when and to whom God sees fit. That this divine influence, not being given independently of these means, our growth in grace depends on the proper use of them.
IV. The proper use of the means includes,
1. A proper understanding of their nature and importance. If we approach the Scriptures or the sacraments with wrong views of their nature, either too low, as though they were merely human, or with superstitious views, as though they had magical power, we shall fail.
2. A deep conviction of the necessity of divine influence, in order to render them efficacious.
3. A due preparation of mind, preparatory to their use. This is secured, (a.) By discarding other things, and especially by forsaking sin. (b.) By awaking a desire for spiritual nourishment.
4. The exercise, in the actual use of them, (a.) Of faith, as well as attention. (b.) Of self-application. (c.) Of the purpose to believe and act in accordance with the truth communicated.
5. Prayer and converse with God.
CXC. The Word of God as a Means of
Grace
[November 30th, 1856.]
I. What is the meaning of the phrase "means of grace?"
1. They are not means in the Romish sense, i.e., rites which have the power to confer grace. 2. Nor any service or thing which may be the means of good, such as dispensations of Providence, afflictive or otherwise, nor forms or ceremonies of man's arranging, though ever so useful. But, 3. Those which are appointed by God for the purpose of conveying grace, and which he has promised to attend by his divine influence. This supposes that God works by means. This he does, 1st. In the material world, which is governed, not by the blind laws of matter, but by the continual operation of God in sustaining and guiding those laws to intelligent ends. 2d. In the intellectual world, in the development and exercise of the minds and character of men; in sustaining, controlling, restraining and guiding their exercises, so that they with perfect freedom work out their own pleasure, and yet the purposes of God. 3d. In the world of grace, where also there is a continual agency of God in combination with the agency of man, in the development of the graces of the Spirit, and in attaining eternal life.
From this it follows (1.) That the means are adapted to the end. The laws of matter are to be employed and followed in attaining physical results; the laws of mind, or rather of human nature, are to be employed in attaining intellectual and moral results. (2.) That in all cases these means are appointed and determined by God. We can not substitute others in their stead. We must use those which God has appointed, or none at all. (3.) These means are absolutely essential, and not more so in one department than in another. (4.) In all cases the means are inefficacious without God's presence. God gives life
and power to natural causes; and he gives efficacy to the means of grace, according to the laws of the kingdom of grace.
II. What are the means of grace? The word, sacraments and prayer. There are no others. Our subject is the Word as a means.
1. By the Word we mean the Bible and its contents; the whole system of facts, doctrines, promises and principles therein revealed. 2. This is a means of grace, the means which God has appointed, and which we are commanded to use for the promotion of a work of grace in ourselves and others.
First, as to ourselves. 1st. It must be understood. It must become an object of knowledge. It is only as known that it exerts for us, or exerts over us any power. This knowledge supposes (a.) Familiarity with what the Bible says. (b.) An understanding of the meaning of what it says. If we attach a wrong sense to the language of the Bible, it is not the truth which it contains which is before our minds, but some form of human thought to which no promise is made.
2d. It must be spiritually discerned. That is, it must be apprehended in its spiritual excellence, as it is addressed to the heart as well as, in its logical relations, to the understanding. These may be so far separated that the intellectual may exist without the spiritual; but the spiritual cannot exist without the intellectual. A man may see a thing without seeing its beauty, but he cannot see its beauty without seeing the thing itself.
3d. The word of God must be studied with both these objects, that is, to know what it teaches, and to apprehend its spiritual power. With regard to this point, I would remark, (a.) That the two things are perfectly distinct. The ends aimed at are different, the means employed are different, and the posture of mind is different. (b.) Being thus different, the one can not be substituted for the other, the critical for the devotional, or the devotional for the critical reading. (c.) They may, however, be combined. The mind may pass
instantaneously from the one posture to the other, or turn its eye from one aspect to another, of the truth contemplated; as does the astronomer in the study of the heavens, or the man of science in the study of the laws of matter, or the physician in studying the structure of the human frame, or the lawyer in studying the principles of human justice.
4th. As the word is the great means of grace, it must be dilligently used for this end. (a.) It must be brought frequently and for protracted periods before the mind, and contemplated in its spiritual character, as designed and adapted to excite the proper emotions. That is, time must be devoted to the devotional reading and meditation of the truth. (b.) It must be read with constant selfapplication. As a means of communion with God we must read the word as if God were speaking to us; and we must answer in the words of gratitude, reverence, faith, joy or fear, as the thing said may require. (c.) The mind should be stored with the truth and with the words of Scripture. (d.) We should cultivate the habit of casual meditation, or of recurring to the word of God continually [a.] as matter or subject of thought, [b.] for direction, [c.] for support, and [d.] for consolation.
5. As the means, though divinely appointed and divinely efficacious, is powerless in itself, we should always pray for the Spirit, and depend on his promised aid, without which the word will be to us only a savor of death.
Second, as to others.
1. The truth is the only, and the absolutely indispensable means. 2. We must endeavor, therefore, to bring men to the knowledge of the truth. 3. We must try to make them employ it in the way of God's appointment.
CXCI. Search the Scriptures
[February 18th, 1854.]
I. What are the Scriptures? II. For what are they to be searched? III. How are they to be searched?
I. What are the Scriptures?
The sacred writings contained in the Old and New Testaments are,
1. The Word of God. In the sense in which the works of a man are his words, revealing his thoughts, will, purposes, the Scriptures are the word of God. He is their author. Their contents rest on his authority. They are not merely his as written by pious men, not a human form of divine truth, but God's own exhibition of truth. This is opposed, first, to the Deistical, secondly, to the Rationalistic, and thirdly, to the Quaker views.
2. From this it follows, (a.) That they are infallible. (b.) That they are holy. (c.) That they are powerful. (d.) That they are consistent. (e.) That they are the appointed means of salvation. We are begotten, enlightened, sanctified, and saved by the truth.
3. They are complete, as containing all the extant revelation of God.
4. They are plain, so that every one can learn for himself what God says. They are the light of the world. They are the fountain of life. They are the treasury of divine things.
II. We should know what we seek when we search.
We should search the Scriptures, 1. For knowledge of God, of Christ, of truth, of duty. This knowledge is speculative, and spiritual.
2. For consolation.
3. For holiness.
III. How are we to search the Scriptures?
1. Reverently and submissively, with the fixed determination to believe every truth which they affirm. Everything is right which they command, and everything is wrong which they condemn. We are not to sit in judgment on the Scriptures.
2. With diligence, (a.) Studying them much. (b.) Studying them consecutively. (c.) Investigating what they teach on particular subjects. (d.) Availing ourselves of all aid; fixing right principles, and availing ourselves of all subsidiary means.
3. With dependence; convinced that without divine guidance we shall obtain neither right speculative knowledge, nor right spiritual views.
4. Therefore with prayer, previous and continued.
5. With self-application.
CXCII. Mighty in the Scriptures.—Acts
18:24
[March 15th, 1863.]
I. The Scriptures are like the ocean, boundless and unfathomable. No man can ever exhaust the stores of knowledge treasured in the ocean. It may be studied for a life-time under different aspects. 1. It may be viewed in reference to its distribution and topography; its great expanse, as it spreads between Asia and America, between America and Europe and Africa, between Africa and India; its indentations, gulfs, bays, etc., and the effects which this distribution has on climate, winds, rain, fertility, and hence on commerce; and the destiny of the human race. 2. It may be studied as to its basin, its mountains and valleys, the configuration of the crust of the earth on which it rests, and the nature of its bottom in different places. 3. It may be investigated as to its animals, the innumerable genera and species of living organisms with which it abounds, from the whale to
the animalcule, and the changes produced by the presence and labors of the millions of insects, rendering luminous miles of its surface, or building up reefs and islands and continents from its deeps. 4. It may be studied as to its tides, its currents, its prevailing winds. 5. As to its chemistry. 6. Besides all these kinds of knowledge, there is another kind, which can be obtained only by living on it; the knowledge of how to use it, how to avail ourselves of its power and resources. It is plain that a man may have much of the other kinds of this oceanic knowledge, and very little of the last kind. We should not like to go to sea in a ship commanded by Dr. Guyot or Prof. Agassiz.
All this may be applied to Scripture. It may be studied under different aspects, and in each, furnish inexhaustible stores of knowledge. 1. It may be viewed as a history extending from the creation to the present time, including its genealogical periods, its antediluvian period, its patriarchal period, its Jewish period, its life of Christ, its apostolic period. A man might spend his life in getting a clear knowledge of its facts, then of the bearing of those facts on ethnography, on the civilization of the world, on the destiny of the nations generally, and on the religions of men. 2. Scripture may be studied in its organic relations; the relation of the Adamic period to the Abrahamic, of the Abrahamic to the Mosaic, of the Mosaic to the prophetic, and of all to the culmination of all in the Christian period. 3. It may be studied as to its doctrines; what it teaches of the nature and perfections of God, of his relation to the material and spiritual world, of the distinction of persons in the Godhead, of the person and work of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit; what it teaches of man, his original state, his fall, his moral condition since the fall, of his ability and responsibility; what it teaches of the plan of salvation, of the application of the redemption purchased by Christ, and of man's destiny hereafter. 4. The moral code of the Bible is another wide field, including our religious, social and political duties, and the limits of human authority in church and state. 5. There is a knowledge given in special and general introduction. 6. In the study of the Church as the body of Christ, and as a visible society, from Adam to the present time; its organization, officers, prerogatives,
attributes and discipline. 7. There is a knowledge which is due to the illumination of the Spirit, including spiritual apprehension, deeper insight into the meaning of the word of God, and a firmer conviction of its truth than can be derived from any other source. 8. Besides all these kinds of knowledge, there is a familiarity with its language, a knowledge lodged in the memory, so that it can be readily quoted and applied. This is a great gift or attainment.
But as scientific knowledge of the ocean may be possessed without practical skill in navigation, so a man may possess a knowledge of Scripture history, of the relation of the parts of Scripture to one another, of its doctrines, of its moral code, of its literature and analysis, of the theory of the Church therein revealed; he may have spiritual knowledge, and have his memory stored with scriptural language, and yet not be mighty in the Scriptures. These are the requisite conditions of power, the materials rather, which power uses, and without which he can accomplish nothing; but the power itself, is the ability to use this knowledge effectively. This includes three things. 1. A mental ability; a clearness and power of the intelligence, to bring to bear the truths and facts of Scripture so as to produce the desired effect, whether that be conviction of the truth, or submission of the conscience, or the obedience of the will. 2. There is a might or power in feeling, strong conviction of the truth and importance of what the Bible teaches, and fervent desire that it should be recognized and obeyed. 3. There is a power of utterance, eloquence, the ability to convince, to persuade, and to excite.
II. After the nature of this gift of being mighty in the Scriptures, comes its importance. On this it may be remarked that the whole power of a minister as such, not as a man, or a Christian, but as a minister, is a power in the Scriptures. This exists in different degrees, but it is all any minister has, be it much or little. It is therefore the one object to be sought in preparing for the ministry, without which a minister, no matter what else he may have of knowledge or talent, will accomplish no good and may do immense harm.