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<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44644 ***</div>
<div class="bbox">
<p><b>Transcriber's Note</b></p>
<p>There is a small amount of Hebrew, e.g. <span lang="he" xml:lang="he" dir="rtl">קדש</span>
and Greek, e.g. ἅγιος in this book. If this text does
not display correctly, you may wish to adjust your font or browser settings.</p>
</div>
<div class="figcenter" style="width: 416px;">
<img src="images/cover.jpg" id="coverpage" width="416" height="700"
alt="Front cover of the book" />
</div>
<div class="titlep">
<h1><span class="smlfont">PHILOSOPHY</span><br />
<span class="tinyfont">OF THE</span><br />
PLAN OF SALVATION.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">A Book for the Times.</span></h1>
<p class="authcenter">BY AN AMERICAN CITIZEN.</p>
<p class="edcenter"><i>A NEW EDITION REVISED.</i></p>
<p class="pubcenter">THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,<br />
56, Paternoster Row; 65, St. Paul’s Churchyard, and<br />
164, Piccadilly.</p>
</div>
<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>iii]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="preface" id="preface"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
<h3>I. OCCASION OF THE WORK.</h3>
<p>During some of the first years of the writer’s active
life he was a sceptic; he had a friend who has since
become well known as a lawyer and legislator, who was
also sceptical in his opinions. We were both conversant
with the common evidences of Christianity. None of
them convinced our minds of the Divine origin of the
Christian religion, although we both thought ourselves
willing to be convinced by sufficient evidence. Circumstances,
which need not be named, led the writer to
examine the Bible, and to search for other evidence than
that which had been commended to his attention by a
much-esteemed clerical friend, who presided in one of
our colleges. The result of the examination was a
thorough conviction in the author’s mind of the truth
and Divine authority of Christianity. He supposed at
that time that, in his inquiries, he had adopted the only
true method to settle the question, in the minds of all
intelligent inquirers, in relation to the Divine origin of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>iv]</a></span>
the Christian religion. Subsequent reflection has confirmed
this opinion.</p>
<p>Convinced himself of the Divine origin of the religion
of the Bible, the author commenced a series of letters to
convey to his friend the evidence which had satisfied his
own mind beyond the possibility of doubt. The correspondence
was, by the pressure of business engagements,
interrupted. The investigation was continued, however,
when leisure would permit, for a number of years. The
results of this investigation are contained in the following
chapters. The epistolary form in which a portion of
the book was first written will account for some repetitions,
and some varieties in the style, which otherwise
might not have been introduced.</p>
<h3>II. REASONS FOR PRESENTING THE WORK TO THE
PUBLIC.</h3>
<p>Book-making is not the author’s profession. But
after examining his own private library, and one of the
best public libraries in the country, he could find no
treatise in which the course of reasoning was pursued
which will be found in the following pages. Dr. Chalmers,
in closing his Bridgewater Treatise, seems to have
had an apprehension of the plan and importance of
such an argument; and had he devoted himself to the
development of the argument suggested, the effort would
have been worth more to the world than all the Bridgewater
Treatises put together, including his own work.</p>
<p>Coleridge has somewhere said that the Levitical
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>v]</a></span>
economy is an enigma yet to be solved. To thousands
of intelligent minds it is not only an enigma, but it is an
absolute barrier to their belief in the Divine origin of
the Bible. The solution of the enigma was the clue
which aided the writer to escape from the labyrinth
of doubt; and now, standing upon the rock of unshaken
faith, he offers the clue that guided him to others.</p>
<p>A work of this kind is called for by the spirit of the
age. Although the signs of the times are said to be
propitious, yet there are constant developments of undisciplined
and unsanctified mind both in Europe and
America, which furnishes matter of regret to the philanthropist
and the Christian. A struggle has commenced—is
going on at present; and the heat of the contest is
constantly increasing, in which the vital interests of
man, temporal and spiritual, are involved. In relation
to man’s spiritual interests, the central point of controversy
is the ‘cross of Christ.’ In New England,
some of those who have diverged from the doctrine of
the fathers have wandered into a wilderness of speculation
which, were it not for the evil experienced by themselves
and others, ought, perhaps, to be pitied as the
erratic aberrations of an unsettled reason, rather than
blamed as the manifestations of minds determinately
wicked. The most painful indication connected with
this subject is, that these guilty dreamers are not waked
from their reveries by the rebuke of men whose position
and relations in society demand it at their hands.</p>
<p>The west, likewise, is overrun by sects whose teachers,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>vi]</a></span>
under the name of Reformers, or some other inviting
appellation, are using every effort to seduce men from
the spiritual doctrines and duties of the gospel, or to
organize them into absolute hostility against Christ.
These men are not wanting in intellect, or in acquired
knowledge, and their labours have prejudiced the minds
of great numbers against the spiritual truths of the
gospel, and rendered their hearts callous to religious
influence. These facts, in the author’s opinion, render
such a volume as he has endeavoured to write necessary,
in order to meet the exigencies of the times.</p>
<p class="break"><sup>*</sup><sub>*</sub><sup>*</sup> The present edition has been carefully revised;
and has been slightly modified on one or two minor
points, to which exception had been taken, or which
appeared obscure in expression.—1881.</p>
<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>vii]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="contents" id="contents"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
<div class="centered">
<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of contents">
<tr>
<td class="tdrt"><small>CHAPTER</small></td>
<td class="tdlt"> </td>
<td class="tdrt"><small>PAGE</small></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">I.</td>
<td class="tdlt">Man will worship—he will become assimilated to the character of the object that he worships—Character of heathen deities defective and unholy—From this corrupting worship man has no power to extricate himself</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap01">9</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">II.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The design and necessity of the bondage in Egypt</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap02">21</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">III.</td>
<td class="tdlt">Miracles—particularly the miracles which accompanied the deliverance of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap03">25</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">IV.</td>
<td class="tdlt">What was necessary as the first step in the process of revelation</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap04">34</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">V.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The necessity of affectionate obedience to God; and the manner of producing that obedience in the hearts of the Israelites</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap05">36</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">VI.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The design and necessity of the Moral Law</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap06">41</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">VII.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The development of the idea of holiness, and its transfer to Jehovah as an attribute</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap07">45</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">VIII.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The origin of the ideas of justice and mercy, and their transfer to the character of Jehovah</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap08">53</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">IX.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The transition from the material system, by which religious ideas were conveyed through the senses, to the spiritual system, in which abstract ideas were conveyed by words and parables</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap09">61</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>viii]</a></span>X.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The medium of conveying to men perfect instruction in doctrine and duty</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap10">66</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">XI.</td>
<td class="tdlt">Some of the peculiar proofs of the Messiahship of Christ</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap11">70</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">XII.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The condition in life which it was necessary the Messiah should assume in order to benefit the human family in the greatest degree, by his example and instructions</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap12">75</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">XIII.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The essential principles which must, according to the nature of things, lie at the foundation of the instruction of Christ</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap13">81</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">XIV.</td>
<td class="tdlt">Faith, the exercise through which truth reaches and affects the soul</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap14">82</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">XV.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The manifestations of God which would be necessary, under the new and spiritual dispensation, to produce in the soul of man affectionate obedience</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap15">89</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">XVI.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The influence of faith in Christ upon the moral disposition and moral powers of the soul</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap16">117</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">XVII.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The design and the importance of the means of grace—prayer—praise—preaching</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap17">133</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">XVIII.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The agency of God in carrying on the work of redemption, and the manner in which that agency is exerted</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap18">146</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tdrt">XIX.</td>
<td class="tdlt">The practical effects of the system as exemplified in individual cases</td>
<td class="tdrb"><a href="#chap19">150</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p class="padtop"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>9]</a></span></p>
<p class="reptitle"><span class="smlfont">PHILOSOPHY</span><br />
<span class="tinyfont">OF</span><br />
THE PLAN OF SALVATION.</p>
<h2><a name="chap01" id="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">INTRODUCTORY.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="subfont">MAN WILL WORSHIP—HE WILL BECOME ASSIMILATED TO
THE CHARACTER OF THE OBJECT THAT HE WORSHIPS—CHARACTER
OF HEATHEN DEITIES DEFECTIVE AND
UNHOLY—FROM THIS CORRUPTING WORSHIP MAN HAS
NO POWER TO EXTRICATE HIMSELF.</span></h2>
<p>There are three facts, each of them fully developed in
the experience of the human family, a consideration of
which will prepare the mind for the investigation which
follows. When considered in their relation to each other,
and in their bearing upon the moral interests of mankind,
they will be seen to be of exceeding importance.
We will adduce these facts, in connection with the statements
and principles upon which they rest, and show how
vital are the interests which depend upon them.</p>
<h3>THE FIRST FACT STATED.</h3>
<p>There is in the nature of man, or in the circumstances
in which he is conditioned, something which leads him to
recognise and worship a superior being. What that
<em>something</em> is, is not important in our present inquiry:—whether
it be a constitutional instinct inwrought by the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>10]</a></span>
Maker—whether it be a deduction of universal reason,
inferring a first cause from the things that are made—whether
it be the effect of tradition, descending from the
first worshippers, through all the tribes of the human
family—whether any or all of these be the cause, the fact
is the same—<em>Man is a religious being: <strong><small>HE WILL WORSHIP.</small></strong></em></p>
<p>In view of this propension of human nature, philosophers,
in seeking a generic appellation for man, have
denominated him a “religious animal.” The characteristic
is true of him in whatever part of the world he may
be found, and in whatever condition; and it has been true
of him in all ages of which we have any record, either
fabulous or authentic.</p>
<p>Navigators have, in a few instances, reported that
isolated tribes of men, whom they visited, recognised the
existence of no superior being: subsequent researches,
however, have generally corrected the error; and, in all
cases, when it has been supposed that a tribe of men was
found believing in no god, the fact has been stated as an
evidence of their degradation below the mass of their
species, and of their approximation to the confines of
brute nature. Of the whole family of man, existing in
all ages, and scattered over the four quarters of the globe,
and in the isles of the sea, there is scarcely one well-authenticated
exception to the fact, that, moved by an
impulse of nature, or the force of circumstances, man
worships something which he believes to be endowed with
the attributes of a superior being.</p>
<h3>THE SECOND FACT STATED.</h3>
<p>The second fact, connected as it is, by the nature of
things, with the preceding, assumes the highest degree of
importance. It may be stated in the following terms:—<em>Man</em>,
by worshipping, <em>becomes assimilated to the moral
character of the object which he worships</em>. This is an invariable
principle, operating with the certainty of cause and
effect. The worshipper looks upon the character of the
object which he worships as the standard of perfection.
He therefore condemns everything in himself which is
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>11]</a></span>
unlike, and approves of everything which is like that
character. The tendency of this is to lead him to abandon
everything in himself, and in his course of life, which is
condemned by the character and precepts of his god, and
to conform himself to that standard which is approved by
the same criterion. The worshipper desires the favour
of the object worshipped, and this, reason dictates, can
be obtained only by conformity to the will and the character
of that object. To become assimilated to the
image of the object worshipped must be the end of desire
with the worshipper. His aspirations, therefore, every
time he worships, do, from the nature of the case, assimilate
his character more and more to the model of the object
that receives his homage.</p>
<p>To this fact the whole history of the idolatrous world
bears testimony. Without an exception, the character of
every nation and tribe of the human family has been
formed and modified, in a great degree, by the character
attributed to their gods.</p>
<p>From the history of idolatrous nations we will cite a
number of familiar cases, confirmatory of the foregoing
statement, that man becomes like the object of his
worship.</p>
<p>A most striking instance is that of the Scythians, and
other tribes of the Northmen, who subdued and finally
annihilated the Roman power. Odin, Thor, and others
of their supposed deities, were ideas of hero-kings, bloodthirsty
and cruel, clothed with the attributes of deity, and
worshipped. Their worship turned the milk of human
kindness into gall in the bosoms of their votaries, and
they seemed, like bloodhounds, to be possessed of a horrid
delight when they were revelling in scenes of blood and
slaughter. It being believed that one of their hero-gods,
after destroying great numbers of the human race,
destroyed himself, it hence became disreputable to die in
bed, and those who did not meet death in battle frequently
committed suicide, supposing that to die a
natural death might exclude them from favour in the hall
of Valhalla.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>12]</a></span>
Among the gods of the Greeks and Romans there were
some names, in the early ages of their history, to which
some virtuous attributes were attached; but the conduct
and character generally attributed to their gods were
marked deeply with such traits as heroism, vengeance,
caprice, and lust. In the later history of these nations,
their idolatry degenerated in character, and became a
system of most debasing tendency.</p>
<p>The heroism fostered by idolatry was its least injurious
influence. Pope’s couplet, had he thrown a ray or two of
light across the background of the dark picture, would
have been a correct delineation of the character of pagan
idols—</p>
<div class="cpoem28">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">‘Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust;<br /></span>
<span class="i0">Whose attributes were rage, revenge, and lust.’<br /></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>In some cases the most corrupt attributes of human
nature, and even of brute nature, were attributed to
objects of worship, and while men bowed down to them,
they sank themselves to the lowest depths of vice. The
Egyptians might be named as an instance. The first
patrons of the arts and sciences were brute-worshippers;
and it is testified of them that bestiality, the lowest vice
to which human nature can descend, was common amongst
them. The paintings and sculpture of their divinities, in
the mummy catacombs, are for the most part clusters of
beasts, birds, reptiles, and flies, grouped together in the
most disgusting and unnatural relations; a true indication
that the minds of the worshippers were filled with ideas
the most vile and unnatural.</p>
<p>The ancient Venus, as worshipped by almost all the
elder nations of antiquity, was a personification of lust.
The deeds required to be done at her polluting fane, as
acts of homage, ought not to be named.</p>
<p>In the best days of Corinth—‘Corinth, the eye of
Greece’—the most sacred persons in the city were prostitutes,
consecrated to the worship of Venus. From this
source she derived a large portion of her revenues. The
consequence was, that her inhabitants became proverbial
for dissoluteness and treachery.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>13]</a></span>
To the heathen divinities, especially those placed at
the head of the catalogue as the superior gods, what theologians
have called the physical attributes of deity—omnipotent
and omnipresent power—were generally ascribed;
but their moral character was always defective, and
generally criminal. As one of the best instances in the
whole mythology of the ancients, the Roman Jupiter
might be cited. Had a medal been struck delineating
the character of this best of the gods, on one side might
have been engraved <em>Almightiness</em>, <em>Omnipresence</em>, <em>Justice</em>;
and on the reverse, <em>Caprice</em>, <em>Vengeance</em>, <em>Lust</em>. Thus men
clothed depraved or bestial deities with almighty power,
and they became cruel, or corrupt, or bestial in their
affections, by the reaction of the character worshipped
upon the character of the worshipper. In the strong
language of a recent writer, ‘They clothed beasts and
depraved beings with the attribute of almightiness, and
in effect they worshipped almighty beasts and devils.’
And the more they worshipped, the more they resembled
them.</p>
<p>These testimonies concerning the influence of idolatrous
worship, and the character of the idols worshipped,
are maintained by authorities which render doubt in
relation to their credibility impossible. Upon this subject
the wiser men among the Greeks and Romans have
borne unequivocal testimony. Plato, in the second book
of the Republic, speaks of the pernicious influence of the
conduct attributed to the gods, and suggests that such
histories should not be rehearsed in public, lest they
should influence the youth to the commission of crimes.
Aristotle advises that statues and paintings of the gods
should exhibit no indecent scenes, except in the temples
of such divinities as, according to common opinion, preside
over sensuality.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> What an affecting testimony of
the most discriminating mind among the heathen, asserting
not only the turpitude of the prevailing idolatry,
but sanctioning the sensuality of their debauched
worship!</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a>
Aristot. Politica, vii. 18, ed. Schneider. <a href="#FNanchor_1_1">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>14]</a></span>
As Rome and Greece grew older, the infection of
idolatry festered, until the body politic became one mass
of moral disease. The state of things, in the later ages
of these nations, is well stated by a late writer of the
first authority.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> ‘We should naturally suppose,’ says
this writer, ‘that among so great a variety of gods, of
religious actions, of sacred vows, at least some better
feeling of the heart must have been excited; that at
least some truly pious sentiment would have been
awakened. But when we consider the character of
this superstition, and the testimony of contemporaneous
writers, such does not appear to have been the fact.
Petronius’ history of that period furnishes evidence that
temples were frequented, altars crowned, and prayers
offered to the gods, in order that they might render
nights of unnatural lust agreeable; that they might
favour acts of poisoning; that they might cause robberies
and other crimes to prosper.’ In view of the
abominations prevailing at this period, the moral Seneca
exclaimed—‘How great now is the madness of men!
they lisp the most abominable prayers; and if a man
is found listening they are silent. What a man ought
not to hear, they do not blush to relate to the gods.’
Again, says he, ‘If any one considers what things they
do, and to what things they subject themselves, instead
of decency he will find indecency; instead of the
honourable, the unworthy; instead of the rational, the
insane.’ Such was heathenism and its influence in the
most enlightened ages, according to the testimony of the
best men of those times.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a>
Tholuck on the Influence of Heathenism. <a href="#FNanchor_2_2">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>In relation to modern idolatry, the world is full of
living witnesses of its corrupting tendency. We will
cite, in illustration, a single case or two. The following
is extracted from a public document, laid before Parliament
by H. Oakley, Esq., a magistrate in Lower Bengal.
Speaking of the influence of idolatry in India, he says of
the worship of Kalé, one of the most popular idols,
‘The murderer, the robber, and the prostitute, all aim
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>15]</a></span>
to propitiate a being whose worship is obscenity, and
who delights in the blood of man and beast; and without
imploring whose aid no act of wickedness is committed.
The worship of Kalé must harden the hearts of
her followers; and to them scenes of blood and crime
must become familiar.’</p>
<p>In China, according to Medhurst, the priests of
Buddha understand and teach the doctrine of the assimilation
of the worshipper to the object worshipped.
They say—‘Think of Buddha and you will be transformed
into Buddha. If men pray to Buddha and do
not become Buddha, it is because the mouth prays, and
not the mind.’<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a>
For a succinct statement of the universal prevalence of false
religions, and their corrupting influence, see Ryan on the Effect of
Religion upon Mankind, <i>passim</i>. <a href="#FNanchor_3_3">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>Two facts, then, are philosophically and historically
true: First—Man is a religious animal, and will worship
something as a superior being. Second—By worshipping
he becomes assimilated to the moral character of
the object which he worships. And (the God of the
Bible out of view for the present) those objects have
always had a defective and unholy character.</p>
<p>Here, then, is one great source which has developed
the corruption of the family of man. We inquire not in
this place concerning the origin of idolatry; whatever
or wherever was its origin, its influence has been uniformly
the same. As no object of idolatrous worship
was ever conceived to be perfectly just and benevolent,
but most of them no better than the apotheosis of
heroes, or the deification of the imperfect faculties and
impure passions of human or brute nature, the result
followed, with a certainty as unerring as cause and effect,
that man, by following his instinct to worship, would
becloud his intellect and corrupt his heart. Notice how
inevitable, from the circumstances of the case, was the
corruption of man’s powers:—He was led to worship by
an instinct over which he had no control:—The objects
of his worship were, whether he originated them or not,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>16]</a></span>
all of them of a character that corrupted his heart; thus
the gratification of his instinctive propensities inevitably
strengthened the corruption of his nature.</p>
<p>Now it is not our design to inquire whether, or how
far, man was guilty in producing this evil condition of
things. In considering the facts in the case, the inquiry
which forces itself upon the mind is—Were there any
resources in human nature, or any means of any kind, of
which man could avail himself, by which he might save
himself from the debasing influence of idolatrous worship?
In reply,</p>
<h3>THE THIRD FACT IS STATED.</h3>
<p><em>There were no means within the reach of human power or
wisdom, by which man could extricate himself from the evil of
idolatry, either by an immediate or by a progressive series of
efforts.</em></p>
<p>This fact is maintained from the history of idolatry,
the testimony of the heathen philosophers, and the
nature of man.</p>
<p>1. Instead of man acquiring the power or the disposition,
as the race became older, to destroy idolatry—idolatry,
from its first entrance into the world, gained
power to destroy him. Amid all the mutations of society,
from barbarous to civilised, and amid all the conflicts of
nations, and the changes of dynasties and forms of
government, from the first historic notices which we
have of the human family down to the era of Christ,
idolatry constantly became more evil in its character and
more extended in its influence. It is well ascertained
that the first objects of idolatrous homage were few and
simple, and the worship of the earliest ages comparatively
pure. Man fell into this moral debasement but
one step at a time. The sun, moon, stars, and other
conspicuous objects of creative power and wisdom received
the first idolatrous homage. Afterwards a divinity
was supposed to reside in other objects, especially in
those men, and beasts, and things which were instrumental
in conferring particular benefits on tribes or
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>17]</a></span>
nations of men. And finally, images of those objects
were formed and worshipped. Images, which subsequently
became innumerable, were not so in the earliest
historic ages. In some nations, they were not allowed
until after the era of the foundation of Rome.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> As the
nations grew older, images, which were at the first but
few and clothed with drapery, became more numerous,
and were presented before the worshippers in a state of
nudity, and in most obscene attitudes. And, as has been
before stated, their character, from being comparatively
innoxious, became, without exception, demoralising in
the extreme.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a>
Plutarch says that Numa forbade the Romans to make statues
of their gods. <a href="#FNanchor_4_4">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>2. During the Augustan age of Rome, and the age of
Pericles and Alcibiades in Greece—those periods when
the mind had attained the highest elevation ever known
among heathen nations—the mass of the people were
more idolatrous in their habits, and consequently more
corrupt in their hearts, than ever before. The abominations
of idol-worship, of the mysteries, and of lewdness,
in forms too vile to name, were rife throughout the
country and the villages, and had their foci in the capitals
of Greece and Rome. Jahn says, in relation to this
period, ‘Deities increased in number, and the apotheosis
of vicious emperors was not unfrequent. Their philosophers,
indeed, disputed with much subtlety respecting
the architect of the universe, but they knew nothing
about the Creator, the holy and almighty Judge of men.’</p>
<p>Some of the more intelligent of the philosophers, perceiving
the evil of the prevailing idolatry, desired to
refine the grossness of the popular faith. They taught
that the facts believed concerning the gods were allegories.
Some endeavoured to identify the character of
some of their deities with the natural virtues; while
many of them became sceptical concerning the existence
of the gods and of a future state. Those were, however,
but isolated exceptions to the mass of mankind; and had
their views been adopted by others, they would only
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>18]</a></span>
have modified, not remedied the evil. But a contemporary
writer shows how entirely unavailing, even to
modify the evil, was the teaching of the philosophers.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus says, ‘There are only a few
who have become masters of this philosophy. On the
other hand, the great and unphilosophic mass are accustomed
to receive these narratives rather in their worst
sense, and to learn one of these two things, either to
despise the gods as beings who wallow in the grossest
licentiousness, or not to restrain themselves even from
what is most abominable and abandoned, when they see
that the gods do the same.’ Cicero, in one sentence, as
given by Tholuck, notices both the evil and its cause;
confirming, in direct language, the preceding views.
‘Instead,’ says he, ‘of the transfer to man of that which
is divine, they transferred human sins to the gods, and
then experienced again the necessary reaction.’ Such,
then, is the testimony of the philosophers in relation to
the idolatry of their times. A few gifted individuals
obtained sufficient light to see the moral evil in which
men were involved, but they had neither wisdom to devise
a remedy, nor power to arrest the progress of the
moral pestilence that was corrupting the noble faculties
of the human soul.</p>
<p>3. It was impossible, from the nature of man, that he
should extricate himself from the corrupting influence of
idolatry. In this place we wish to state a principle which
should be kept in view throughout the following discussion:
<em>If man were ever redeemed from idolatrous worship,
his redemption would have to be accomplished by means and
instrumentalities adapted to his nature and the circumstances
in which he existed.</em> If the faculties of his nature were
changed, he would not be man. If his temporal condition
were changed, different means would be necessary;
if, therefore, man, as man, in his present condition, were
to be recovered, the means of recovery, whether instituted
by God or man, must be adapted to his nature and
his circumstances.</p>
<p>The only way, then, in which relief was possible for
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>19]</a></span>
man was, that an object of worship should be placed
before the mind directly opposite in moral character to
those he had before adored. If his heart was ever purified,
it must be by tearing his affections from his gods,
and fixing them upon a righteous and holy being as the
proper object of his homage. But for man to form such
an object was plainly impossible. He could not transfer
a better character to his gods than he himself possessed.
Man could not ‘bring a pure thing out of an impure.’
The effect could not rise higher in moral purity than
the cause. Human nature, in the maturity of its faculties,
all agree, is imperfect and selfish; and, for an imperfect
and selfish being to originate a perfect and holy
character, deify it, and worship it, is to suppose what is
contrary to the nature of things. The thought of the
eloquent and philosophic Cicero expresses all that man
could do. He could transfer his own imperfect attributes
to the gods, and, by worshipping a being characterized
by these imperfections, he would receive in
himself the reaction of his own depravity.</p>
<p>But if some men had had the power and the disposition
to form for the world a perfectly holy object
of worship, still the great difficulty, as we have seen in
the case of the philosophers, would have remained, that
is, a want of the necessary power to arrest the progress
of idolatry and substitute the better worship. To doubt
the truth of the prevailing idolatry was all that men, at
the highest intellectual attainment ever acquired in
heathen countries, could do. And if they had had
power to convey their doubts to all minds in all the
world, it would only have been to place mankind in
the chaotic darkness of atheism, and leave them to be
led again by their instincts into the abominations of
imperfect and impure worship.</p>
<p>The testimony, then, is conclusive, from the history
of idolatry, that the evil became greater every age—from
the statement of the wisest of the heathen, that
they had no power to arrest its progress—and from
the nature of man, that it was not possible for him to
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>20]</a></span>
relieve himself from the corrupting influence of idolatry,
in which he had become involved.</p>
<p>From the foregoing facts and reasonings it is plain
that the high-born faculties of the human soul must
have been blighted for ever, by a corrupting worship,
unless two things were accomplished, neither of which
it was in the power of human nature to effect; and yet
both of which were essentially necessary to accomplish the
elevation of man from the pit into which he had fallen.</p>
<p>The first thing necessary to be accomplished was, that
<em>a pure object of worship should be placed before the eye of
the soul</em>. Purity of heart and conscience would be necessary
in the object of worship, otherwise the heart and
conscience of the worshipper would not be purified.
But if an object were presented, whose nature was infinitely
opposed to sin—to all defilement, both physical
and spiritual—and who revealed, in his example, and by
his precepts, a perfect standard to govern the life of man
under the circumstances in which he was placed, then
man’s mind would be enlightened, his conscience rectified,
and the hard and corrupt feelings of his heart
softened and purified, by assimilation to the object of
his worship.—As, according to the nature of things, an
unholy object of worship would necessarily degrade and
corrupt the human soul; so, on the contrary, a holy
object worshipped would necessarily elevate and purify
the nature of man.</p>
<p>The second necessary thing in order to man’s redemption
was, <em>that when a holy object of worship was revealed,
the revelation should be accompanied with sufficient power to
influence men to forsake their former worship, and to worship
the holy object made known to them</em>. The presentation of
a new and pure object would not cause men to turn from
their former opinions and practices, and become directly
opposed in heart to what they had formerly loved. A
display of power would be necessary, sufficient to overcome
their former faith and their present fears, and to
detach their affections from idols, and fix them upon the
proper object of human homage.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>21]</a></span>
It follows, then, that man must remain a corrupt
idolater for ever, unless God interpose in his behalf.
The question whether he would thus interpose, in the
only way possible, to save the race from moral death,
depends entirely upon the benevolence of his nature.
The question whether he has done so may be answered
by inquiring whether any system of means has been instituted
in this world, characterized by sufficient power
to destroy idolatry—revealing at the same time a holy
object of worship—and this revelation being accompanied
by means and influences so adapted to man’s
nature as to secure the result.</p>
<p>To this inquiry the future pages of this volume will
be devoted. The inquiry is not primarily concerning
the truth of the Bible; but concerning the only religion
possible for mankind, and the only means by which such
religion could be given consistently with man’s nature
and circumstances.</p>
<h2><a name="chap02" id="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE DESIGN AND NECESSITY OF THE BONDAGE IN EGYPT.</span></h2>
<p>There are certain bonds of union, and sources of sympathy,
by which the minds of a whole people may be
united into one common mind: so much so, that all hearts
in the nation will be affected by the same subjects, and
all minds moved by the same motives. Any cause which
creates a common interest and a common feeling, common
biases and common hopes, in the individual minds which
compose a nation, has a tendency to unite them in this
manner.</p>
<p>Some of the causes which have more power than any
others to bind men, as it were, into a common being, are
the following:—The natural tie of consanguinity, or a
common parentage, is a strong bond of affiliation among
men. And there are others, which, in some cases, seem
to be even stronger than this; among these may be named
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>22]</a></span>
a common interest; a common religion; and a common
fellowship in suffering and deliverance. Any circumstance
which educes the susceptibilities of the mind and twines
them together, or around a common object—any event in
which the interest, the feelings, the safety, or the reputation
of any people is involved, causes them to be more
closely allied to each other in social and civil compact.</p>
<p>The more firmly a people are bound together by these
ties of union, the more strength they will possess to resist
opposing interests and opinions from without; while, at
the same time, everything national, or peculiar to them
as a people, will be cherished with warmer and more
tenacious attachment.</p>
<p>From the operation of this principle originates the
maxim ‘Union is strength;’ and whether the conflict be
mental or physical, the people who are united together by
the most numerous and powerful sympathies will oppose
the strongest and the longest resistance to the innovations
of external forces. On the contrary, if the bonds of moral
union are few, and easily sundered, the strength of the
nation is soon broken, and the fragments easily repelled
from each other.</p>
<p>According to this principle, in all cases in which a
whole nation is to be instructed, or prepared for offence
and defence, or in any wise fitted to be acted upon, or to
act as a nation, it would be necessary that the bonds of
national union should be numerous and strong; and that,
as far as possible, a perfect oneness of interest and feeling
should pervade the nation.</p>
<p>So long as the human mind and human circumstances
continue what they are, no power in heaven or on earth
could unite a people together, except by the same or
similar means as have been stated. If, therefore, God
designed to form a nation, either to be acted upon or to
act as a nation, he would put in operation those agencies
which would bind them firmly and permanently into one
mass.</p>
<p>Now, mark the application of these deductions to the
case of the Israelites. About the period when the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>23]</a></span>
corruptions of idolatry were becoming generally prevalent,
Abraham, the Bible record states, was extricated by
Divine interposition. He was assured that his descendants
should suffer a long bondage, and afterwards become
a numerous nation. Abraham was their common ancestor,
one whom they remembered with reverence and
pride; and each individual felt himself honoured by the
fact that the blood of the “father of the faithful” circled
in his veins. The tie of consanguinity in their case was
bound in the strongest manner, and encircled the whole
nation. In Egypt their circumstances and employments
were the same; and, in the endurance of a protracted
and most galling bondage, they had a common lot. Their
liberation was likewise a national deliverance, which
affected alike the whole people, the anniversary of which
was celebrated by distant posterity with strong and
peculiar national enthusiasm.</p>
<p>Now, it has been said that the events of our colonial
servitude, and the achievement of American independence,
are points in our history which will ever operate
upon our national character, impressing clear views of the
great principles of republicanism, and uniting all hearts
in support of those principles: how much more affecting
and indelible, then, was the impress made upon the
national heart of the Israelites by their bondage and
deliverance! They were bound by blood, by interest,
feeling, hopes, fears, by bondage, and by faith.</p>
<p>And how firmly did these providences weave into one
web the sympathies and views of the Jewish people! It
is a fact which is the miracle of history, and the wonder
of the world, that the ties which unite this people seem
to be indissoluble. While other nations have risen and
reigned and fallen; while the ties which united them have
been sundered, and their fragments lost amid earth’s
teeming population, the stock of Abraham endures, like
an incorruptible monument of gold, undestroyed by the
attrition of the waves of time, which have dashed in pieces
and washed away other nations, whose origin was but yesterday,
compared with this ancient and wonderful people.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>24]</a></span>
In this manner was this nation prepared for peculiar
duties, and to discharge those duties under peculiar circumstances.
Many of the nations by which they were
surrounded were more powerful than themselves; all were
warlike, and each had its peculiar system of idolatry,
which corrupted all hearts that came within its influence.
Hence the necessity that this people should be so united
as to resist the power and contagious example of surrounding
nations, while they were fitted to receive and preserve
a peculiar national character, civil polity, and religious
doctrines; of all which they were to be the conservators,
amid surrounding and opposing heathenism, for many ages.</p>
<p>Other facts might be added to the induction, which
would make the design, if possible, more apparent. If
the Jews were to be the recipients of new instruction—to
obey new laws, and to sustain new institutions, it
would be desirable that their minds, so far as possible,
should be in the condition of new material, occupied by
little previous knowledge, and by no national prejudices
against or in favour of governmental forms and systems.
Now, in the case of the Jews, the habit of obedience had
been acquired. They had no national predilections or
prejudices arising from past experience. In relation to
knowledge of any kind, their mind was almost a <i>tabula
rasa</i>. They were as new material prepared to receive the
moulding of a master hand, and the impress of a governing
mind.</p>
<p>Now, as this discipline of the descendants of Abraham
was the result of a long concatenation of events, and
could not have been designed by themselves to accomplish
the necessary end; and as the whole chain of events
was connected together and perfectly adapted, in accordance
with the nature of things, to produce the specific
purpose which was accomplished by them, it follows, as
the only rational conclusion, first that the overruling intelligence
of God was employed in thus preparing material
for a purer religious worship than the world then enjoyed;
and, second, that a nation could have been so
prepared by no other agent, and in no other way.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>25]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="chap03" id="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">CONCERNING MIRACLES—PARTICULARLY THE MIRACLES
WHICH ACCOMPANIED THE DELIVERANCE OF THE
ISRAELITES FROM BONDAGE IN EGYPT.</span></h2>
<p>There has been so much false philosophy written concerning
the subject of miracles, that it is difficult for
those conversant with the speculations of writers upon
this subject, to divest their minds sufficiently of preformed
biases, to examine candidly the simple and
natural principles upon which are based the evidence
and necessity of miraculous interposition.</p>
<p>The following statement is true beyond controversy:
<em>Man cannot, in the present constitution of his mind, have
sufficient reason for believing that religion has a Divine
origin, unless it be accompanied with miracles.</em> The natural
inference of the mind is that, if an Infinite Being act, his
acts will be superhuman in their character; because the
effect, reason dictates, will be characterized by the nature
of its cause. Man has the same reason to expect that
God will perform acts above human power and knowledge,
that he has to suppose the inferior orders of
animals will, in their actions, sink below the power and
wisdom which characterize human nature. For, as it is
natural for man to perform acts superior to the power
and knowledge of the animals beneath him, so reason
affirms that it is natural for God to develop his power by
means, and in ways, above the skill and ability of mortals.
Hence, if God manifest himself at all—unless, in
accommodation to the capacities of men, he should constrain
his manifestations within the compass of human
ability—every act of God’s immediate power would, to
human capacity, be a miracle. But, if God were to constrain
all his acts within the limits of human means and
agencies, it would be impossible for man to discriminate
between the acts of the Godhead and the acts of the
manhood. And man, if he considered acts to be of a
Divine origin, which were plainly within the compass of
human ability, would violate his own reason.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>26]</a></span>
Suppose, for illustration, that God desired to reveal a
religion to men, and wished them to recognise his character
and his benevolence in giving that revelation.
Suppose, further, that God should give such a revelation,
and that every appearance and every act connected with
its introduction were characterized by nothing superior
to human power; could any rational mind on earth believe
that such a system of religion came from God?
Impossible! A man could as easily be made to believe
that his own child, who possessed his own lineaments,
and his own nature, belonged to some other world, and
some other order of the creation. It would not be possible
for God to convince men that a religion was from
heaven unless it was accompanied with the marks of
Divine Power.</p>
<p>Suppose, again, that some individual were to appear
either in the heathen or Christian world—he claimed to
be a teacher sent from God, yet aspired to the performance
of no miracles. He assumed to do nothing superior
to the wisdom and ability of other men. Such an individual,
although he might in gaining proselytes
to some particular view of a religion already believed, yet
could never make men believe that he had a special commission
from God to establish a new religion, for the
simple reason that he had no grounds more than his
fellows to support his claims as an agent of the Almighty.
But if he could convince a single individual that he had
wrought a miracle, or that he had power to do so, that
moment his claims would be established, in that mind, as
a commissioned agent from heaven: so certainly, and
so intuitively, do the minds of men revere and expect
miracles as the credentials of the Divine presence.</p>
<p>This demand of the mind for miracles, as testimony of
the Divine presence and power, is intuitive with all men;
and those very individuals who have doubted the existence
or necessity of miracles, should they examine their own
convictions on this subject, would see that, by an absolute
necessity, if they desired to give the world a system of
religion, whether truth or imposture, in order to make
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>27]</a></span>
men receive it as of Divine authority, they must work
miracles to attest its truth, or make men believe that they
did so. Men can produce doubt of a revelation in no way
until they have destroyed the evidence of its miracles; nor
can faith be produced in the Divine origin of a religion
until the evidence of miracles is supplied.</p>
<p>The conviction that miracles are the true attestation of
immediate Divine agency, is so constitutional (allow the
expression) with the reason, that so soon as men persuade
themselves they are the special agents of God, in propagating
some particular truth in the world, they adopt
likewise the belief that they have ability to work miracles.
There have been many sincere enthusiasts, who believed
that they were special agents of Heaven, and, in such
cases, the conviction of their own miraculous powers
arises as a necessary concomitant of the other opinion.
Among such, in modern times, may be instanced Emanuel
Swedenborg. Impostors also, perceiving that miracles
were necessary in order that the human mind should
receive a religion as Divine, have invariably claimed
miraculous powers. Such instances recur constantly,
from the days of Elymas down to the Mormon, Joseph
Smith.</p>
<p>All the multitude of false religions that have been
believed since the world began have been introduced
by the power of this principle. <em>Miracles believed</em>, lie at
the foundation of all religions which men have ever
received as of Divine origin. No matter how degrading
or repulsive to reason in other respects, the fact of its
establishment and propagation grows out of the belief of
men that supernatural agency lies at the bottom.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> This
belief will give currency to any system, however absurd:
and without it, no system can be established in the minds
of men, however high and holy may be its origin and its
design.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a>
Mohammedanism is no exception: as the wonders reported by
the false prophet, though unseen, were <em>believed</em>. ‘The Koran,’ he
said, ‘is itself a miracle!’ <a href="#FNanchor_5_5">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>Such, then, is the constitution which the Maker has
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>28]</a></span>
given to the mind. Whether the conviction be an intuition
or an induction of the reason, God is the primary
cause of its existence; and its existence puts it out of
the power of man to accept a revelation from God himself,
unless accompanied by miracle. If, therefore, God ever
gave a revelation to man, it was necessarily accompanied
with miracles, and with miracles of such a nature as would
clearly distinguish the Divine character and the Divine
authority of the dispensation.</p>
<p>The whole fulness and force of these deductions apply
to the case of the Israelites. The laws of their mind not
only demanded miracles as an attestation of Divine interposition;
but at that time, the belief existed in their
minds that miracles were constantly performed. Although
they remembered the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
yet they likewise, as subsequent facts clearly attested,
believed that the idols of Egypt possessed the attributes
of Divinity. The belief in a plurality of gods was then
common to all nations. And although this error was
corrected, and perhaps entirely removed, by succeeding
providences and instructions, from the minds of the Jews;
yet, before the miracles in Egypt, while the God of Abraham
was, perhaps, in most cases acknowledged as their
God, the idols of Egypt were acknowledged as the gods
of the Egyptians, and probably worshipped as the divinities
who had power to dispense good and evil to all the
inhabitants of that land. And in common with all
Egypt, they, no doubt, believed that the acts of jugglery,
in which the magicians, or priests of Egypt, had made
astonishing proficiency, were actual miracles, exhibiting
the power of their idols, and the authority of the priests
to act in their name.</p>
<p>In view, therefore, of existing circumstances, two things
were necessary, on the part of God,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> in order to establish
belief in any revelation to the Israelites:—First, that he
should manifest himself by miracles; and, Secondly, that
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>29]</a></span>
those miracles should be of such a character, as evidently
to distinguish them from the jugglery of the magicians,
and to convince all observers of the existence and omnipotence
of the true God, in contradistinction from the
objects of idolatrous worship. Unless these two things
were done, it would have been impossible for the Israelites
to have recognised <strong><span class="smcap">Jehovah</span></strong> as the <em>only living</em> and <em>true
<strong><span class="smcap">God</span></strong></em>.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a>
When we speak of a thing as necessary on the part of God, it
is said, not in reference to God’s attributes, but to man’s nature
and circumstances. <a href="#FNanchor_6_6">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>It follows, then, that by the miracles which God
wrought by the hand of Moses, he pursued the only
way that was possible to authenticate a revelation in
which his presence and power would be recognised.
The only point of inquiry remaining is, Were the
miracles of such a character, and performed in such a
manner, as to remove false views from the minds of the
Israelites, and introduce right views concerning the true
God, and the non-existence of factitious objects of worship?</p>
<p>With this point in view, the design in the management
and character of the miracles in Egypt is interesting
and obvious. Notice, first, the whole strength
of the magicians’ skill was brought out and measured
with that of the miraculous power exerted through
Moses. If this had not been done, the idea would
have remained in the minds of the people that, although
Moses wielded a mighty miraculous power, it might be
derived from the Egyptian gods, or if it were not thus
derived, they might have supposed that if the priests
of those idols were summoned, they would contravene
or arrest the power vested in Moses by Jehovah. But
now, the magicians appearing in the name of their gods,
the power of Moses was seen to be not only superior to
their sorceries, but hostile to them and their idolatrous
worship.</p>
<p>Notice, secondly, the design and adaptedness of the
miracles, not only to distinguish the power of the true
God, but to destroy the confidence placed in the protection
and power of the idols.</p>
<p>The first miracle, while it authenticated the mission
of Moses, destroyed the serpents which, among the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>30]</a></span>
Egyptians, were objects of worship; thus evincing, in
the outset, that their gods could neither help the people
nor save themselves.</p>
<p>The second miracle was directed against the river
Nile, another object which they regarded with religious
reverence. This river they held sacred, as the Hindoos
do the Ganges; and even the fish in its waters they
revered as objects of worship. They drank the water
with reverence and delight; and supposed that a Divine
efficacy dwelt in its waves to heal diseases of the body.
The water of this, their cherished object of idolatrous
homage, was transmuted to blood; and its finny idols
became a mass of putridity.</p>
<p>The third miracle was directed to the accomplishment
of the same end—the destruction of faith in the river as
an object of worship. The waters of the Nile were
caused to send forth legions of frogs, which infested
the whole land, and became a nuisance and a torment
to the people. Thus their idol, by the power of the
true God, was polluted, and turned into a source of
pollution to its worshippers.</p>
<p>By the fourth miracle of a series constantly increasing
in power and severity, lice came upon man and beast
throughout the land. ‘Now, if it be remembered,’ says
Gleig, ‘that no one could approach the altars of Egypt
upon whom so impure an insect harboured, and that the
priests, to guard against the slightest risk of contamination,
wore only linen garments, and shaved their heads
and bodies every day,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> the severity of this miracle as a
judgment upon Egyptian idolatry may be imagined.
Whilst it lasted no act of worship could be performed;
and so keenly was this felt, that the very magicians
exclaimed—“This is the finger of God!”’</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a>
Every third day, according to Herodotus. <a href="#FNanchor_7_7">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>The fifth miracle was designed to destroy the trust
of the people in Beelzebub, or the Fly-god, who was
reverenced as their protector from visitations of swarms
of ravenous flies which infested the land, generally about
the time of the dog-days, and removed only, as they
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>31]</a></span>
supposed, at the will of this idol. The miracle now
wrought by Moses evinced the impotence of Beelzebub,
and caused the people to look elsewhere for relief from
the fearful visitation under which they were suffering.</p>
<p>The sixth miracle, which destroyed the cattle, excepting
those of the Israelites, was aimed at the destruction
of the entire system of brute worship. This system,
degrading and bestial as it was, had become a monster
of many heads in Egypt. They had their sacred bull,
and ram, and heifer, and goat, and many others, all of
which were destroyed by the agency of the God of
Moses. Thus by one act of power Jehovah manifested
his own supremacy, and destroyed the very existence
of their brute idols.</p>
<p>Of the peculiar fitness of the sixth plague (the seventh
miracle), says the writer before quoted, the reader will
receive a better impression, when he is reminded that in
Egypt there were several altars upon which human sacrifices
were occasionally offered when they desired to propitiate
Typhon, or the Evil Principle. These victims
being burned alive, their ashes were gathered together
by the officiating priests, and thrown up into the air,
in order that evil might be averted from every place to
which an atom of the ashes was wafted. By the direction
of Jehovah, Moses took a handful of ashes from the
furnace (which, very probably, the Egyptians at this
time had frequently used to turn aside the plagues with
which they were smitten), and he cast it into the air, as
they were accustomed to do; and instead of averting
evil, boils and blains fell upon all the people of the land.
Neither king, nor priest, nor people escaped. Thus the
bloody rites of Typhon became a curse to the idolaters;
the supremacy of Jehovah was affirmed, and the deliverance
of the Israelites insisted upon.</p>
<p>The ninth miracle was directed against the worship of
Serapis, whose peculiar office was supposed to be to protect
the country from locusts. At periods these destructive
insects came in clouds upon the land, and, like an
overshadowing curse, they blighted the fruits of the field
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>32]</a></span>
and the verdure of the forest. At the command of Moses
these terrible insects came—and they retired only at his
bidding. Thus was the impotence of Serapis made manifest,
and the idolaters taught the folly of trusting in any
other protection than that of Jehovah the God of Israel.</p>
<p>The eighth and tenth miracles were directed against the
worship of Isis and Osiris, to whom and the river Nile they
awarded the first place<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> in the long catalogue of their
idolatry. These idols were originally the representatives
of the sun and moon; they were believed to control the
light and the elements, and their worship prevailed in
some form among all the early nations. The miracles
directed against the worship of Isis and Osiris must have
made a deep impression on the minds both of the Israelites
and the Egyptians. In a country where rain seldom
falls—where the atmosphere is always calm, and the
light of the heavenly bodies always continued, what was
the horror pervading all minds during the elemental war
described in the Hebrew record—during the long period
of three days and three nights, while the gloom of thick
darkness settled, like the out-spread pall of death, over
the whole land! Jehovah of hosts summoned Nature to
proclaim him the true God—the God of Israel asserted
his supremacy, and exerted his power to degrade the idols,
destroy idolatry, and liberate the descendants of Abraham
from the land of their bondage.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a>
Against the worship of the Nile, two miracles were directed,
and two likewise against Isis and Osiris, because they were supposed
to be the supreme gods. Many placed the Nile first, as they
said it had power to water Egypt independently of the action of the
elements. <a href="#FNanchor_8_8">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>The Almighty having thus revealed himself as the true
God, by miraculous agency, and pursued those measures,
in the exercise of his power, which were directly adapted
to destroy the various forms of idolatry which existed in
Egypt, the eleventh and last miracle was a judgment, in
order to manifest to all minds that Jehovah was the God
who executed judgment in the earth.</p>
<p>The Egyptians had, for a long time, cruelly oppressed
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>33]</a></span>
the Israelites, and to put the finishing horror to their
atrocities, they had finally slain, at their birth, the offspring
of their victims; and now God, in the exercise of
infinite justice, visited them with righteous retribution.
In the mid-watches of the night, the ‘angel of the pestilence’
was sent to the dwellings of Egypt, and he
‘breathed in the face’ of all the first-born in the land.
In the morning, the hope of every family, from the
palace to the cottage, was a corpse. What mind can
imagine the awful consternation of that scene, when an
agonizing wail rose from the stricken hearts of all the
parents in the nation? The cruel task-masters were
taught, by means which entered their souls, that the true
God was a God not only of power but of judgment, and
as such, to be feared by evil-doers, and reverenced by
those that do well.</p>
<p>The demonstration, therefore, is conclusive, that in
view of the idolatrous state of the world, and especially
of the character and circumstances of the Israelites, the
true God could have made a revelation of himself in no
other way than by the means, and in the manner, of the
miracles of Egypt; and none but the true God could have
revealed himself in this way.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a>
In accordance with the foregoing are the intimations given in
the Bible of the design of the miracles of Egypt. By these exhibitions
of Divine power God said—‘Ye,’ the Israelites, ‘and
Pharaoh shall know that I am Jehovah.’</p>
<p>Miracles, moreover, were the evidence that Pharaoh required.—Ex.
vii. 9, God said to Moses, that when he should present himself
as the Divine legate, and Pharaoh should require a miracle, he
should perform it accordingly.</p>
<p>In relation to the destruction of idolatry, the design of Jehovah
is expressly announced (Ex. xii. 12), ‘Against all the Gods of
Egypt I will execute judgment: I am Jehovah.’</p>
<p>See also Ex. xviii. 11. <a href="#FNanchor_9_9">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>34]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="chap04" id="chap04"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">WHAT WAS NECESSARY AS THE FIRST STEP IN THE
PROCESS OF REVELATION.</span></h2>
<p>By the miracles of Egypt, the false views and corrupt
habits of the Israelites were, for the time being, in a
great measure removed. Previously they had believed
in a plurality of gods; and although they remembered
the God of Abraham, yet they had, as is evident from
notices in the Bible, associated with his attribute of
almighty power (the only attribute well understood by
the patriarchs) many of the corrupt attributes of the
Egyptian idols. Thus the idea of God was debased by
having grovelling and corrupt attributes superinduced
upon it. By miraculous agency these dishonourable
views of the Divine character were removed; their minds
were emptied of false impressions in order that they
might be furnished with the true idea and the true
attributes of the Supreme Being.</p>
<p>But how, to minds in the infancy of knowledge respecting
God and human duty—having all they had
previously learned removed, and being now about to take
the first step in their progress—how could the first
principles of Divine knowledge be conveyed to such
minds?</p>
<p>One thing, in the outset, would evidently be necessary.
Knowledge, as the mind is constituted, can be communicated
in no other way than progressively; it would be
necessary, therefore, that they should begin with the
elementary principles, and proceed through all the stages
of their education. The mind cannot receive at once all
the parts of a system in religion, science, or any other
department of human knowledge. One fact or idea must
be predicated upon another, just as one stone rests upon
another, from the foundation to the top of the building.
There are successive steps in the acquisition of knowledge,
and every step in the mind’s progress must be
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>35]</a></span>
taken from advances already made. God has inwrought
the law of progression into the nature of things, and observes
it in his own works. From the springing of a
blade to the formation of the mind, or of a world, every
thing goes forward by consecutive steps.</p>
<p>It was necessary, therefore, in view of the established
laws of the mind, that the knowledge of God and human
duty should be imparted to the Israelites by successive
communications—necessary that there should be a first
step, or primary principle, for a starting point, and then
a progression onward and upward to perfection.</p>
<p>In accordance with these principles, God, in the introduction
of the Mosaic dispensation, revealed only his
essential existence to the Israelites. In Exodus iii. 13,
14, it is stated that Moses inquired of God, ‘Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you;
and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall
I say unto them? And God said, I AM THAT I AM:
and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of
Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.’ In the Hebrew
text, the simple form of the verb is used, corresponding
with the first person present, indicative, of the English
verb <em>to be</em>. Simply, ‘I am,’ conveying no idea but that
of personality and existence. <strong><span class="smcap">What He</span></strong> was, besides his
existence thus revealed, was afterwards to be learned.
This was a revelation of Divine <strong><small>BEING</small></strong>—a nucleus of
essential Deity, as a foundation fact of the then new dispensation,
upon which God, by future manifestations,
might engraft the attributes of his nature.</p>
<p>Thus, at the outset of the dispensation, there was
thrown into their minds a first truth. God revealed his
Divine existence; and the idea of God, thus revealed,
was in their minds, without any other attribute being
connected with it than that of infinite power—an attribute
of the Godhead which all men derive from the works
of nature—which was known to the patriarchs as belonging
to the true God, and which was now, by the miracles
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>36]</a></span>
manifesting supreme power, appropriated to <strong><span class="smcap">I am</span></strong>—Jehovah—the
God of the Israelites.</p>
<p>Thus were this peculiar people carried back to the first
principles of natural religion—their mind disembarrassed
from false notions previously entertained, and the true
idea of the supreme God and Judge of men revealed. By
these providences, they were prepared, in a manner consistent
with the nature of things and the nature of mind,
to receive a further revelation of the moral attributes of
Jehovah, whom they now recognised as the Supreme
God.</p>
<h2><a name="chap05" id="chap05"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE NECESSITY OF AFFECTIONATE OBEDIENCE TO GOD;
AND THE MANNER OF PRODUCING THAT OBEDIENCE IN
THE HEARTS OF THE ISRAELITES.</span></h2>
<p>The following principles in relation to the affections will
be recognised by consciousness as true in the experience
of every man. As they lie at the foundation of the
moral exercises of the soul, and as they relate to the
sources and central principles of all true religion, it will
be necessary for the reader to notice them, in order that
he may see their application in subsequent pages.</p>
<p>1. The affections of the soul move in view of certain
objects, or in view of certain qualities believed to exist in
those objects. The affections never move—in familiar
words, the heart never loves, unless love be produced by
seeing, or by believing that we see, some lovely and excellent
qualities in the object. When the soul believes
those good qualities to be possessed by another, and
especially when they are exercised towards us, the affections,
like a magnetised needle, tremble with life, and
turn towards their object.</p>
<p>2. The affections are not subject to the will;<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> neither
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>37]</a></span>
our own will nor any other will can directly control them.
I cannot will to love a being who does not appear to me
lovely, and who does not exhibit the qualities adapted
to move the affections; nor can I, by command, or by
any other effort of will, cause another being to love me.
The affections are not subject to command. You cannot
force another to love, or respect, or even, from the heart,
to obey. Such an attitude assumed to produce love
would invariably produce disaffection rather than affection.
No one (as a matter of fact) thinks the affections
subject to the will, and, therefore, men never endeavour
to obtain the affections of others solely by command, but
by exhibiting such a character and conferring such
favours as they know are adapted to move the heart.
An effect could as easily exist without a cause as affection
in the bosom of any human being which was not
produced by goodness or excellencies seen, or believed to
exist, in some other being.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a>
We state the facts in the case, of which every man is conscious
in his own experience, without regard to the theories of sects in
religion or philosophy. <a href="#FNanchor_10_10">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>3. The affections, although not governed by the will,
do themselves greatly influence the will. All acts of
will produced entirely by pure affection for another are
disinterested. Cases of the affections influencing the
will are common in the experience of every one. There
is probably no one living who has not, at some period
of his life, had affection for another, so that it gave more
pleasure to please the object of his love than to please
himself. Love for another always influences the will
to act in such a way as will please the object loved.
The individual loving acts in view of the desires of the
loved object, and such acts are disinterested, not being
done with any selfish end in view, but for the sake of
another. So soon as the affections move towards an
object, the will is proportionably influenced to please
and benefit that object; or, if a superior being, to obey
his will and secure his favour.</p>
<p>4. All happy obedience must arise from affection.
Affectionate obedience blesses the spirit which yields
it, if the conscience approve the object loved and obeyed,
while, on the contrary, no happiness can be experienced
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>38]</a></span>
from obedience to any being that we do not love. To
obey externally either God or a parent, from no other
than interested motives, would be sin. The devil might
be obeyed for the same reasons. Love must, therefore,
constitute an essential element in all proper obedience
to God.</p>
<p>5. When the affections of two are reciprocally
fixed upon each other, they constitute a bond of union
and sympathy peculiarly strong and tender:—those
things that affect the one affecting the other, in proportion
to the strength of affection existing between them.
One conforms to the will of the other, not from a sense
of obligation merely, but from choice; and the constitution
of the soul is such that the sweetest enjoyment of
which it is capable arises from the exercise of reciprocal
affection.</p>
<p>6. When the circumstances of an individual are such
that he is exposed to constant suffering and great
danger, the more afflictive his situation the more grateful
love will he feel for affection and benefits received
under such circumstances. If his circumstances were
such that he could not relieve himself, and such that
he must suffer greatly or perish; and, while, in this
condition, if another, moved by benevolent regard for
him, should come to aid and save him, his affection for
his deliverer would be increased by a sense of the danger
from which he was rescued.</p>
<p>7. It is an admitted principle that protracted and
close attention always fixes the fact attended to deeply
in the memory; and the longer and more intensely the
mind attends to any subject, other subjects proportionably
lose their power to interest. The same is true in
relation to the affections. The longer and more intensely
we contemplate an object in that relation which
is adapted to draw out the affections, the more deeply
will the impression be made upon the heart, as well as
upon the memory. The most favourable circumstances
possible to fix an impression deeply upon the heart and
memory are—First, that there should be protracted and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>39]</a></span>
earnest attention; and—Second, that at the same time
that the impression is made, the emotions of the soul
should be alive with excitement. Without these, an impression
made upon the heart and the memory would be
slight and easily effaced; while, on the contrary, an impression
made during intense attention and excited feeling
will be engraved, as with a pen of steel, upon the
tablets of the soul.</p>
<p>Now, with these principles in mind, mark the means
used to fix the attention and to excite the susceptibilities
of the Israelites, and, while in that state of attention and
excitement, to draw their affections to God.</p>
<p>The children of Israel were suffering the most grievous
bondage, which had arrived at almost an intolerable
degree of cruelty and injustice. Just at this crisis the
God of their fathers appears as their Deliverer, and
Moses is commissioned as his prophet. When the
people are convened and their minds aroused by the
hopes of deliverance, their attention is turned to two
parties: one, Pharaoh, their oppressor and the slayer
of their first-born; and the other the God of Abraham,
who now appeared as their Deliverer, espousing their
cause and condescending personally to oppose Himself
to their oppressor. Then a scene ensues adapted in all
its circumstances to make a deep and enduring impression
upon their memory and their hearts.—The God of
Abraham seems, by his judgments, to have forced the
oppressor to relent, and to let the people go. At this
point hope and encouragement predominate in their
minds. Now their oppressor’s heart is hardened, and he
renews his cruelty; but while their hopes are sinking,
they are again revived and strengthened, by finding that
God continues to use means to induce Pharaoh to release
the captives. Thus, for a considerable length of time,
all the powers of excitability in their nature are aroused
to activity. Towards that being who had so graciously
interposed in their behalf they felt emotions of hope,
gratitude, love, and admiration. Towards their oppressor
feelings of an opposite character must have been
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>40]</a></span>
engendered; and this state of exciting suspense—the
emotions vacillating between love and hatred, hope and
fear—was continued until the impression became fixed
deep in their souls.</p>
<p>Keeping in mind the fact, that the more we need a
benefactor and feel that need, the stronger will be our
feelings of gratitude and love for the being who interposes
in our behalf—notice further: When, through the interposition
of the Almighty, the Israelites were delivered,
and had advanced as far as the Red Sea, another appeal
was made to their affections which was most thrilling,
and adapted to call by one grand interposition all their
powers of gratitude and love into immediate and full
exercise.</p>
<p>The army of the Israelites lay encamped on the margin
of the Red Sea, when, suddenly, they were surprised by
the approaching host of Pharaoh;—before them was the
sea, and behind them an advancing hostile army. If they
went forward, they would find death in the waves; if
they returned backward, it would be to meet the swords
of their pursuers. A rescue, by earthly means, from
death or bondage more severe than they had ever borne,
was impossible. Just at this crisis of extremity, Jehovah
appears as their Deliverer. The bosom of the pathless
sea is cleft by the power of God. The stricken waters
recoil upon themselves on either side. The Israelites
pass over in safety. The Egyptian host enter, and are
overwhelmed in the waters.</p>
<p>Now, it may be affirmed, without qualification, that,
in view of the nature and circumstances of the Israelites,
no combination of means, not including the self-sacrifice
of the benefactor himself, could be so well adapted to
elicit and absorb all the affections of the soul, as this
wonderful series of events. That this result was accomplished
by these means, is authenticated by the history
given in the Bible. When the people were thus delivered,
they stood upon the other side of the sea, and their affections,
in answer to the call which God had made upon
them, gushed forth in thanksgiving and praise. Hear
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>41]</a></span>
the response of their hearts, and their allusion to the
cause which produced that response:</p>
<p>‘I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed
gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into
the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is
become my <strong><small>SALVATION</small></strong>. He is my God, and I will prepare
him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will
exalt him.’—Ex. xv. 1, 2, etc.</p>
<p>Thus was the attention of the whole nation turned to
the true God. An impression of his goodness was fixed
deeply in their memory, and their affections drawn out
and fastened upon the true object of worship. Now
this, as was shown in the commencement of the chapter,
was necessary, before they could offer worship either
honourable or acceptable to God. The end was accomplished
by means adapted to the nature of the human
soul and to the circumstances of the Israelites; and by
means which no being in the universe but the Maker
of the soul could use. The demonstration is therefore
perfect, that the Scripture narrative is true, and that no
other narrative, differing materially from this in its
principles, could be true.</p>
<h2><a name="chap06" id="chap06"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE DESIGN AND NECESSITY OF THE MORAL LAW.</span></h2>
<p>At this stage of our progress it will be useful to recapitulate
the conclusions at which we have arrived, and thus
make a point of rest from which to extend our observations
further into the plan of God for redeeming the
world. This review is the more appropriate as we have
arrived at a period in the history of God’s providence
with Israel, which presents them as a people prepared
(so far as imperfect material could be prepared) to receive
that model which God might desire to impress upon the
nation.</p>
<p>1. They were bound to each other by all the ties of
which human nature is susceptible, and thus rendered
compact and united, so that everything national, whether
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>42]</a></span>
in sentiment or practice, would be received and cherished
with unanimous, and fervent, and lasting attachment:
and, furthermore, by a long and rigorous bondage, they
had been rendered, for the time being at least, humble
and dependent. Thus, they were disciplined by a course
of providences, adapted to fit them to receive instruction
from their Benefactor with a teachable and grateful spirit.</p>
<p>2. Their minds were shaken off from idols; and Jehovah,
by a revelation made to them, setting forth his name and
nature, had revealed himself as a <strong><span class="smcap">Divine Being</span></strong>, and by
his works had manifested his almighty power: so that
when their minds were disabused of wrong views of the
Godhead, an idea of the first, true, and essential nature
of God was revealed to them; and they were thus prepared
to receive a knowledge of the attributes of that
Divine essence.</p>
<p>3. They had been brought to contemplate God as their
Protector and Saviour. Appeals the most affecting and
thrilling had been addressed to their affections; and they
were thus attached to God as their almighty temporal
Saviour, by the ties of gratitude and love for the favour
which he had manifested to them.</p>
<p>4. When they had arrived on the further shore of the
Red Sea, thus prepared to obey God and worship him
with the heart, they were without laws either civil or
moral. As yet, they had never possessed any national or
social organization. They were therefore prepared to
receive, without predilection or prejudice, that system of
moral instruction and civil polity which God might
reveal, as best adapted to promote the moral interests
of the nation.</p>
<p>From these conclusions we may extend our vision
forward into the system of revelation. This series of
preparations would certainly lead the mind to the expectation
that what was still wanting, and what they had
been thus miraculously prepared to receive, would be
granted—which was a knowledge of the moral character
of God, and a moral law prescribing their duty to God and
to men. Without this, the plan that had been maturing
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>43]</a></span>
for generations, and had been carried forward thus far by
wonderful exhibitions of Divine wisdom and power, would
be left unfinished, just at the point where the finishing
process was necessary.</p>
<p>But besides the strong probability which the previous
preparation would produce, that there would be a revelation
of moral law, there are distinct and conclusive reasons,
evincing its necessity.</p>
<p>The whole experience of the world has confirmed the
fact, beyond the possibility of scepticism, that man cannot
discover and establish a perfect rule of human duty.
Whatever may be said of the many excellent maxims
expressed by different individuals in different ages and
nations, yet it is true that no system of duty to God and
man, in anywise consistent with enlightened reason, has
ever been established by human wisdom, and sustained by
human sanctions; and for reasons already stated,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> such a
fact never can occur.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a>
See chap. <a href="#chap01">i</a>. p. <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <i>et seq.</i> <a href="#FNanchor_11_11">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>But, it may be supposed that each man has, within
himself, sufficient light from reason, and sufficient admonition
from conscience, to guide himself, as an individual,
in the path of truth and happiness. A single fact will
correct such a supposition. Conscience, the great arbiter
of the merit and demerit of human conduct, has little
intuitive sense of right, and is not guided entirely by
reason, but is governed in a great measure by what men
believe. Indeed, faith is the legitimate regulator of the
conscience. If a man has correct views of duty to God
and men, he will have a correct conscience; but if he can,
by a wrong view of morals and of the character of God,
be induced to believe that theft, or murder, or any vice,
is right, his conscience will be corrupted by his faith.
When men are brought to believe—as they frequently do
believe in heathen countries—that it is right to commit
suicide, or infanticide, as a religious duty, their conscience
condemns them if they do not perform the act. Thus,
that power in the soul which pronounces upon the moral
character of human conduct, is itself dependent upon and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>44]</a></span>
regulated by the faith of the individual. It is apparent,
therefore, that the reception and belief of a true rule of
duty, accompanied with proper sanctions, will alone form
in man a proper conscience. God has so constituted the
soul that it is necessary, in order to the regulation of its
moral powers, that it should have a rule of duty, revealed
under the sanction of its Maker’s authority; otherwise its
high moral powers would lie in dark and perpetual disorder.</p>
<p>Further, unless the human soul be an exception, God
governs all things by laws adapted to their proper nature.
The laws which govern the material world are sketched
in the books on natural science; such are gravitation,
affinity, mathematical motion. Those laws by which the
irrational animal creation is controlled are usually called
instincts. Their operation and design are sketched, to
some extent, in treatises upon the instincts of animals.
Such is the law which leads the beaver to build its dam,
and all other animals to pursue some particular habits
instead of others. All beavers, from the first one created
to the present time, have been instinctively led to build
a dam in the same manner, and so their instinct will
lead them to build till the end of time. The law which
drives them to the act is as necessitating as the law which
causes the smoke to rise upwards. Nothing in the universe
of God, animate or inanimate, is left without the
government of appropriate law, unless that thing be the
noblest creature of God—the human spirit. To suppose,
therefore, that the human soul is thus left unguided by
a revealed rule of conduct, is to suppose that God cares
for the less and not for the greater—to suppose that he
would constitute the moral powers of the soul so that a
law was necessary for their guidance, and then reveal
none—to suppose, especially in the case of the Israelites,
that he would prepare a people to receive, and obey with
a proper spirit, this necessary rule of duty, and yet give
no rule. But to suppose these things would be absurd;
it follows, therefore, that God would reveal to the Israelites
a law for the regulation of their conduct in morals
and religion.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>45]</a></span>
But physical law or necessitating instinct would not
be adapted in its nature to the government of a rational
and moral being. The application of either to the soul
would destroy its free agency. God has made man intelligent,
and thereby adapted his nature to a rule which
he understands. Man has a will and a conscience: but
he must understand the rule in order to will obedience,
and he must believe the sanction by which the law is
maintained before he can feel the obligation upon his
conscience. A law, therefore, adapted to man’s nature,
must be addressed to the understanding, sanctioned by
suitable authority and enforced by adequate penalties.</p>
<p>In accordance with these legitimate deductions, God
gave the Israelites a rule of life—the Moral Law—succinctly
comprehended in the Ten Commandments. And
as affectionate obedience is the only proper obedience, he
coupled the facts which were fitted to produce affection
with the command to obey; saying, ‘I am the Lord thy
God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and
from the house of bondage’—therefore, love me and keep
my commandments.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a>
Deut. v. 6, <i>passim</i>. <a href="#FNanchor_12_12">Back</a></p>
</div>
<h2><a name="chap07" id="chap07"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF HOLINESS AND
ITS TRANSFER TO JEHOVAH AS AN ATTRIBUTE.</span></h2>
<p>As yet the Israelites were little acquainted with any
attribute of the <strong><span class="smcap">I am</span></strong>—Jehovah—except his infinite
power and goodness; and his goodness was known to
them only as manifested in kindness and mercy towards
themselves, as a peculiar people, distinguished from other
nations, as the special objects of the Divine favour. They
had a disposition to worship Jehovah, and to regard the
rights of each other according to his commandments; but
they knew as yet little of his moral attributes. Of the
attribute of holiness—purity from sin, and opposition of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>46]</a></span>
nature to all moral and physical defilement—they knew
comparatively nothing. After the law had been given,
they knew that God required worship and obedience for
himself and just conduct towards others, but they did not
know that his nature was hostile to all moral defilement
of heart and life. And to this knowledge, as we have seen
in the introduction, they could not of themselves attain.</p>
<p>At the period of the deliverance from Egypt, every
nation by which they were surrounded worshipped unholy
beings. Now, how were the Jews to be extricated from
this difficulty, and made to understand and feel the
influence of the holy character of God? The Egyptian
idolatry in which they had mingled was beastly and
lustful; and one of their first acts of disobedience after
their deliverance showed that their minds were still
dark, and their propensities corrupt. The golden calf
which they desired should be erected for them, was not
designed as an act of apostasy from Jehovah, who had
delivered them from Egyptian servitude. When the
image was made, it was proclaimed to be that God which
brought them up out of the land of Egypt: and when
the proclamation of a feast, or idolatrous debauch, was
issued by Aaron, it was denominated a feast, not to Isis
or Osiris, but a feast to Jehovah; and as such they held
it.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> But they offered to the holy Jehovah the unholy
worship of the idols of Egypt. Thus they manifested
their ignorance of the holiness of his nature, as well as
the corruption of their own hearts.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a>
Ex. xxxii. 4, 5. <a href="#FNanchor_13_13">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>It was necessary, therefore, in order to promote right
exercises of heart in religious worship, that the Israelites
should be made acquainted with the holiness of God.
The precise question, then, for solution is, How could the
idea of God’s holiness be conveyed to the minds of the
Israelites? If it should be found that there is but one
way in which it could be originated, according to the
nature of mind, then it would follow, necessarily, that
God would pursue that way, or he would have to alter the
human constitution, in order to communicate a knowledge
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>47]</a></span>
of his attribute of holiness. But, as it is matter of fact
that the constitution of the mind has not been altered, it
follows that that method would be pursued which is in
accordance with the nature of mind, to convey the necessary
knowledge. Now all practical knowledge is conveyed
to the understanding through the medium of the
senses. Whatever may be said about innate ideas by
speculative philosophers, still all agree that all acquired
knowledge must reach the mind through the medium of
one of the five senses, or upon the occasion of their exercise.
Through the senses the knowledge of external
objects is conveyed to the mind, and these simple ideas
serve as a material for reflection, comparison, and abstraction.</p>
<p>The etymology of the Hebrew language, as written by
Moses, and spoken by the Israelites, furnishes an interesting
illustration of the origin of the few abstract terms with
which their minds were familiar. The abstract ideas of
the Hebrew tongue may even now, in most instances, be
traced to the object or circumstance whence they originated.
Thus the idea of power, among the Hebrews,
was derived from the horn of an animal; and the same
word, in Hebrew, which signifies horn, likewise signifies
power, and may be translated in either way to suit the
sense. The idea was originally conveyed through the eye,
by noticing that the strength of the animal was exerted
through its horn. The force thus exerted, especially when
the animal was enraged, was the greatest which fell under
their observation; and sometimes, in its effects, it was
disastrous and overwhelming. Hence, the horn soon
became a figure to denote power, and when the idea was
once originated and defined in their minds, they could
apply it to any object which produced a strong effect either
upon the bodies or the minds of men. An idea of power
likewise originated from the human hand, because through
it man exerted his strength. The same word in Hebrew
still expresses both the object and the idea derived from
it—‘Life and death are in the power of the tongue,’ reads
literally—‘Life and death are in the <em>hand</em> of the tongue.’
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>48]</a></span>
Sunshine, in Hebrew, is synonymous with happiness, the
idea being originated by experiencing the pleasant feelings
produced by the effects of a sunny day; and when
thus originated, it was applied to the same and similar
feelings produced by other causes. The abstract idea of
judgment or justice is derived from a word which signifies
to <em>cut</em> or <em>divide</em>; it being originated by the circumstance
that when the primitive hunters had killed a stag, or other
prey, one divided the flesh with a knife, among those who
assisted in the pursuit, distributing a just portion to each.
Thus, the act of cutting and dividing their prey, which
was the first circumstance that called into exercise and
placed before their senses the principle of justice, was the
circumstance from which they derived this most important
abstract idea.</p>
<p>Other instances might be mentioned. These are sufficient
to show the manner in which the abstract ideas of the
Hebrews were originated. And so, every new idea which
found a place in their understanding had to be originated,
primarily, by an impression made by external objects upon
the senses.</p>
<p>Further, all ideas which admit of the signification of
more or most perfect, can be originated only by a comparison
of one object with another. More lovely, or
more pure, can only be predicated of one thing by comparison
with another which it excels in one of these
respects. By a series of comparisons, each one exceeding
the last in beauty or purity, an idea of the highest degree
of perfection may be produced. Thus one flower may be
called lovely, another more lovely, and the rose the most
lovely; and the idea of the <em>superior</em> beauty of the rose
would be originated by the comparison or contrast
between it and other flowers of less beauty. It is not
said that the rose would not appear lovely without comparison,
but the idea of its <em>superior</em> loveliness is originated
by comparison, and it could be derived in no other way.</p>
<p>With these principles in mind, we return to the inquiry,
<em>How could the idea of God’s holiness, or moral purity,
be conveyed to the minds of the Jews?</em></p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>49]</a></span>
First, mark the principles—(1.) There was not an
object in the material world which would convey to the
mind the idea of God’s holiness.—(2). The idea, therefore,
would have to be originated, and thrown into their
mind, through the senses, by a process instituted for
that express purpose.—(3.) The plan to originate the
idea, in order to meet the constitution of the mind, must
consist of a series of comparisons.</p>
<p>Now mark the correspondency between these principles,
founded upon the laws of the mind, and that
system devised to instruct the Israelites in the knowledge
of God.</p>
<p>In the outset, the animals common to Palestine were
divided, by command of Jehovah, into clean and unclean;
in this way a distinction was made, and the one
class in comparison with the other was deemed to be of
a purer and better kind. From the class thus distinguished,
as more pure than the other, one was selected
to offer as a sacrifice. It was not only to be chosen
from the clean beasts, but, as an individual, it was to
be without spot or blemish. Thus it was, in their eyes,
purer than the other class, and purer than other individuals
of its own class. This sacrifice the people were
not deemed worthy, in their own persons, to offer unto
Jehovah; but it was to be offered by a class of men who
were distinguished from their brethren, purified, and set
apart for the service of the priest’s office. Thus the idea
of purity originated from two sources; the purified
priest and the pure animal <em>purified</em>, were united in the
offering of the sacrifice. But before the sacrifice could
be offered it was washed with clean water—and the
priest had, in some cases, to wash himself, and officiate
without his sandals. Thus, when one process of comparison
after another had attached the idea of superlative
purity to the sacrifice—in offering it to Jehovah
in order that the contrast between the purity of God
and the highest degrees of earthly purity might be seen,
neither priest, people, nor sacrifice was deemed sufficiently
pure to come into his presence; but the offering
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>50]</a></span>
was made in the court without the holy of holies. In
this manner, by a process of comparison, the character
of God, in point of purity, was placed indefinitely above
themselves and their sacrifices.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a>
It is not argued that no other end was designed and accomplished
by the arbitrary separation of animals into classes of
clean and unclean. By this means the Jews were undoubtedly
excluded from partaking in the feasts of the heathen around, who
ate those animals which were forbidden to them. An excellent
writer observes that it is characteristic of the wisdom of God to
accomplish many ends by a single act of providence. <a href="#FNanchor_14_14">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>And not only in the sacrifices, but throughout the
whole Levitical economy, the idea of purity pervaded all
its ceremonies and observances. The camp was purified—the
people were purified—everything was purified and
re-purified; and each process of the ordinances was designed
to reflect purity upon the others; until finally
that idea of purity formed in the mind and rendered
intense by the convergence of so many rays, was, by
comparison, referred to the idea of God; and the idea
of God in their minds being that of an infinitely powerful
and good Spirit, hence purity, as a characteristic or
attribute of such a nature, would necessarily assume a
moral aspect, because it appertained to a moral being—it
would become <em>moral purity</em>, or <em>holiness</em>. Thus they
learned, in the sentiment of Scripture, that God was of
too <em>pure</em> eyes to look upon iniquity.</p>
<p>That the idea of moral purity in the minds of the
Israelites was thus originated by the machinery of the
Levitical dispensation, is supported, not only by the philosophy
of the thing, but by many allusions in the Scriptures.
Such allusions are frequent, both in the writers of the old
and of the new dispensations; evidencing that, in their
minds, the idea of moral purity was still symbolized by
physical purity. The rite of baptism is founded upon
this symbolical analogy: the external washing with water
being significant of the purifying influence of the Holy
Spirit. St. John saw in vision the undefiled in heart
clothed with linen pure and white; evincing that, to the
mind of the Jew, such vestments as the high priest wore
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>51]</a></span>
when he entered the holy of holies, were still emblematical
of moral purity. In the Epistle to the Hebrews,
which is an apostolic exposition of the spiritual import
of the Levitical institution, so far as that institution
particularly concerns believers under the New Testament
dispensation, we have the foregoing view of the design of
ceremonial purification expressly confirmed. ‘It was,
therefore, necessary,’ says Paul to the Hebrews, ‘that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified
with these (that is, with these purifying processes addressed
to the senses), but the heavenly things themselves
with better sacrifices than these.’ The plain
instruction of which is, that the parts and processes
of the Levitical economy were patterns addressed to
the senses of unseen things in heaven, and that the
purifying of those patterns indicated the spiritual purity
of the spiritual things which they represented.</p>
<p>There is, finally, demonstrative evidence of the fact
that the idea of perfect moral purity, as connected with
the idea of God, is now, and always has been, the same
which was originated and conveyed to the minds of the
Jews by the machinery of the Levitical dispensation.
The Hebrew word <a name="translit1" id="translit1"></a><span lang="he" xml:lang="he" dir="rtl">קדש</span>
(<a href="#translit">Transliteration</a>) <i>quadhosh</i>, was used to express
the idea of purity as originated by the tabernacle service.
The literal definition is, <em>pure</em>, <em>to be pure</em>, <em>to be purified
for sacred uses</em>. The word thus originated, and
conveying this meaning, is employed in the Scriptures
to express the moral purity or holiness of God.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> In
the New Testament this word is translated by the Greek
term <a name="translit2" id="translit2"></a><span lang="el" xml:lang="el">ἅγιος</span>, (<a href="#translit">Transliteration</a>) <i>hagios</i>, but the Hebrew idea is connected
with the Greek word. In King James’s version this
Greek word is rendered by the Saxon term <em>holy</em>—the
Saxon word losing its original import (<em>whole</em>, <em>wholly</em>),
and taking that of the Hebrew derived through the
Greek. So that our idea of the holiness of God is
the same which was originated by the Levitical ceremonies;
and there is no other word, so far as I have
been able to examine, in any language which conveys
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>52]</a></span>
this idea. Nor is there any idea among any people that
approximates closely to the Scripture idea of holiness,
unless the word received some shades of its signification
from the Bible.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a>
<a name="translit3" id="translit3"></a><span lang="he" xml:lang="he" dir="rtl">שם קדשי</span> (<a href="#translit">Transliteration</a>)
‘my holy name.’—Lev. xx. 3. <a href="#FNanchor_15_15">Back</a></p>
</div>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a>
One of the principal difficulties which the missionary meets
with, according to letters in the missionary reports, is, that of conveying
to the mind of the heathen the idea of the holiness of God.
They find no such idea in their minds, and they can use no words in
their language by which to convey the full and true force of the
thought. The true idea, therefore, if communicated at all, must be
conveyed by a periphrasis, and by laboured illustration. This
obstacle will be one of the most difficult to surmount in all
languages; and it cannot be perfectly overcome, till the Christian
teacher becomes perfectly familiar with the language of those whom
he wishes to instruct. <a href="#FNanchor_16_16">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>Here, then, the idea of God’s moral purity was conveyed
by the Mosaic economy in a manner in accordance
with the constitution and the condition of the Jewish
mind. This same idea has descended from the Hebrew,
through the Greek, to our own language; and there is,
so far as known, no other word in the world which conveys
to the mind the true idea of God’s moral purity,
but that originated by the institution which God prescribed
to Moses upon the Mount.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a>
Ex. xxv. 9. <a href="#FNanchor_17_17">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>The demonstration, then, is conclusive, both from
philosophy and fact, that the true and necessary idea of
God’s attribute of holiness was originated by the ‘patterns’
of the Levitical economy, and that it could have
been communicated to mankind, at the first, in no other
way.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a>
The foundation principle of that school of scepticism, at the
head of which are the atheistical materialists, is, that all knowledge
is derived through the medium of the senses, and that as God
is not an object of sense, men can have no knowledge of his being
or attributes. Now these deductions show that the truth of
revealed religion may be firmly established upon their own
proposition. <a href="#FNanchor_18_18">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>53]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="chap08" id="chap08"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE ORIGIN OF THE IDEAS OF JUSTICE AND MERCY, AND
THEIR TRANSFER TO THE CHARACTER OF JEHOVAH.</span></h2>
<p>Although holiness and justice convey to the mind ideas
somewhat distinct from each other, yet the import of the
one is shaded into that of the other. Holiness signifies
the purity of the Divine nature from moral defilement;
while justice signifies the relation which holiness causes
God to sustain to men, as the subjects of the Divine
government. In relation to God, one is subjective,
declaring his freedom from sin; the other objective,
declaring his opposition to sin, as the transgression of
the Divine law. The Israelites might know that God
was holy, and that he required of them clean hands and
a clean heart in worship, and yet not understand the full
demerit of transgressing the will of God, or the intensity
of the Divine opposition to sin. God had given them the
moral law, and they knew that he required them to obey
it; but what, in the mind of God, was the proper desert
of disobeying it, they did not know. They had been
accustomed, like all idolaters, to consider the desert of
moral transgression uncertain and unequal. Now they
had to learn the immutable justice of the Supreme Being—that
his holiness was not a passive quality, but an active
attribute of his nature, and not only the opposite, but the
antagonist principle to sin.</p>
<p><em>In what manner, then, could a knowledge of the Divine
justice, or of the demerit of sin in the sight of God, be conveyed
to the minds of the Jews?</em></p>
<p>There is but one way in which any being can manifest
to other minds the opposition of his nature to sin. A
lawgiver can manifest his views of the demerit of transgression
in no other way than by the <em>penalty</em> which he
inflicts upon the transgressor. In all beings who have
authority to make law for the obedience of others, the
conscience is the standard which regulates the amount of
punishment that should be inflicted upon the disobedient;
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>54]</a></span>
and the measure of punishment which conscience dictates,
is just in proportion to the opposition which the lawgiver
feels to the transgression of his law; that is, the amount
of regard which he has for his own law, will graduate the
amount of opposition which he will feel to its transgression.
The amount of opposition which any being feels to
sin is in proportion to the holiness of that being, and
conscience will sanction penalty up to the amount of
opposition which he feels to crime.</p>
<p>If the father of a family felt no regard for the law of
the sabbath, his conscience would not allow him to punish
his children for violating, by folly or labour, a law which
he did not himself respect. But a father who felt a sacred
regard for the Divine law, would be required by his conscience
to cause his children to respect the sabbath, and
to punish them if they disobeyed. The penalty which
one felt to be wrong, the other would feel to be right,
because the disposition of the one towards the law was
different from that of the other.</p>
<p>The principle, then, is manifest, that the more holy
and just any being is, the more opposed he is to sin, and
the higher penalty will his conscience sanction as the
desert of transgressing the Divine law. Now God being
infinitely holy, he is, therefore, infinitely opposed to sin;
and the Divine conscience will enforce penalty accordingly.</p>
<p>This is the foundation of penalty in the Divine mind.
The particular point of inquiry is, <em>How could the desert of
sin, as it existed in the mind of God, be revealed to the
Israelites?</em></p>
<p>If the penalty inflicted is sanctioned by the conscience
of the lawgiver, it follows, as has been shown, that the
opposition of his nature to the crime is in exact proportion
to the penalty which he inflicts upon the criminal.
Penalty, therefore, inflicted upon the transgressor, is the
only way by which the standard of justice, as it exists in
the mind of God, could be revealed to men.</p>
<p>The truth of this principle may be made apparent by
illustration. Suppose a father were to express his will
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>55]</a></span>
in relation to the government of his family, and the regulations
were no sooner made than some of his children
should resist his authority and disobey his commands.
Now, suppose the father should not punish the offenders,
but treat them as he did his obedient children. By so
doing he would encourage the disobedient, discourage the
obedient, destroy his own authority, and make the impression
upon the minds of all his children that he had
no regard for the regulations which he had himself made.
And further, if these regulations were for the general
good of the family, by not maintaining them he would
convince the obedient that he did not regard their best
interests, but was the friend of the rebellious. And if
he were to punish for the transgression but lightly, they
would suppose that he estimated but lightly a breach of
his commands, and they could not, from the constitution
of their minds, suppose otherwise. But if the father,
when one of the children transgressed, should punish him
and exclude him from favour till he submitted to his
authority, and acknowledged with a penitent spirit his
offence, then the household would be convinced that the
father’s will was imperative, and that the only alternative
presented to them was affectionate submission, or
exclusion from the society of their father and his obedient
children. Thus the amount of the father’s regard for the
law, his interest in the well-being of his obedient children,
and the opposition of his nature to disobedience, would
be graduated in every child’s mind by the penalty which
he inflicted for the transgression of his commands.</p>
<p>So in the case of an absolute lawgiver: his hostility to
crime could be known only by the penalty which he inflicted
upon the criminal. If, for the crime of theft, he
were to punish the offender only by the imposition of a
trifling fine, the impression would be made upon every
mind that he did not, at heart, feel much hostility to the
crime of larceny. If he had the power, and did not
punish crime at all, he would thus reveal to the whole
nation that he was in league with criminals, and himself
a criminal at heart.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>56]</a></span>
So in relation to murder, if he were to let the culprit
go free, or inflict upon him but a slight penalty, he would
thus show that his heart was tainted with guilt, and that
there was no safety for good men under his government.
But should he fix a penalty to transgression, declare it to
all his subjects, and visit every criminal with punishment
in proportion to his guilt, he would show to the
world that he regarded the law, and was opposed directly
and for ever to its transgression.</p>
<p>In like manner, and in no other way, could God manifest
to men his infinite justice and his regard for the laws
of his kingdom. Did he punish for sin with but a slight
penalty, the whole universe of mind would have good
reason to believe that the God of heaven was but little
opposed to sin. Did he punish it with the highest degree
of penalty, it would be evidence to the universe that his
nature was in the highest degree opposed to sin and
attached to holiness.</p>
<p>Now, whatever may be said in relation to the application
of these principles to future rewards and punishments,
one thing will be apparent to all, which is all that the
present argument requires to be admitted, that is—the
mind of man would receive an idea of the amount of
God’s opposition to sin, only by the amount of penalty
which he inflicted upon the sinner.</p>
<p>Having ascertained these premises, we return to the
inquiry, <em>How could the demerit of sin in the sight of God, or
the idea of God’s attribute of justice, be conveyed to the minds
of the Jews?</em></p>
<p>The people had now, in a good degree, a knowledge of
what sin is. In addition to the light of natural conscience,
which might guide them to some extent in relation
to their duties to each other, they had the moral
law, with the commentary of Moses, defining its precepts,
and applying them to the conduct of life. Their minds
were thus enlightened in relation to sin in the following
particulars. First, those acts which were a transgression
of the positive precepts of the law; Second, omissions of
duties enjoined in the law; and, Third, many acts which
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>57]</a></span>
the spirit of the law would condemn, but which might
not be defined in any particular precept, would now be
noticed by enlightened conscience, as sin against Jehovah,
their holy benefactor, and the giver of the law.</p>
<p>Having thus been taught what was sin of commission
and omission, one obvious design of the institution of
sacrifices,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> and one which has been perceived and understood,
both by the Jews and Gentiles, was to convey to
the mind the just demerit and proper penalty of sin.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a>
The question whether the sacrifices, and the particular regulations
concerning them, were of Divine origin, does not affect the
argument. Whether they were originally instituted by Divine
command, or whether Moses, acting under Divine guidance, modified
an existing institution and adapted it to the Divine purposes,
both the design, and the end accomplished, would be the same.
There are good reasons, however, for the opinion, that sacrifices for
sin were of Divine appointment. <a href="#FNanchor_19_19">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>There were three classes of sacrifices in the old dispensation
in which death was inflicted. The first, which
Gentiles as well as Jews were permitted to offer, was the
holocaust, or whole burnt-offering, which was entirely
consumed by fire. Sacrifices of this description seem to
have been offered from the earliest ages. They were
offered, as the best informed think, as an acknowledgment
of, and atonement for, general sinfulness of life.
They seem to have had reference to the fact that men
constantly violate known duty, and do many things which
the light of nature and conscience teaches them not to do.</p>
<p>After the whole burnt-offering, was the sin-offering,
sacrificed for an atonement, when the individual had
transgressed any specific precept of the moral law.</p>
<p>The trespass-offering differed only from the sin-offering,
as the learned suppose, in this, that it was a sacrifice for
sins of omission, or for the non-performance of duty,
while the sin-offering was made for a violation of the
specific precepts of the moral law. Whether the design
of the different classes of sacrifices was as above specified
or not, is not material, further than it shows how nicely
the forms of the Levitical economy were adjusted to meet
that varied consciousness of sin which the precepts of the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>58]</a></span>
law and an enlightened conscience would produce in the
human soul. The material point to which attention is
necessary, with reference to the present discussion, is that
by which the death and destruction of the animal offered
in sacrifice were made to represent the desert of the sinner.</p>
<p>When an individual brought a sacrifice, he delivered it
to the priest to be slain. He then laid his hands upon
its head, thereby, in a form well understood among the
Jews, transferring to it his sins; and then the life of the
sacrifice was taken as a substitute for his own life. He
was thus taught that the transgression of the law, or any
act of sin against God, was worthy of death; and that
the sacrifice suffered that penalty in his stead.</p>
<p>Further: the Jews had been taught that the blood of
the sacrifice was its life; or rather the principle upon
which the life of the body depended. Upon this subject
they had the following express instruction—‘For the life
of the flesh is the blood: and I have given it to you
upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for
it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.’<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>
Now, this blood, which the Jews were thus taught to believe
was the life of the sacrifice, was repeatedly sprinkled
by the priest upon the mercy-seat and towards the holy
place; thus presenting the life of the sacrifice immediately
in the presence of God (the ineffable light, or
symbol of God’s presence, rested over the mercy-seat between
the cherubim); signifying—as plainly as forms, and
shadows, and external types could signify, that life had been
rendered up to God to make atonement for their souls.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a>
Lev. xvii. 11. <a href="#FNanchor_20_20">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>Thus the idea was conveyed to their minds through the
senses, that the desert of sin in the sight of God was the
death of the soul. And while they stood praying in the
outer court of the tabernacle, and beheld the dark volume
of smoke ascending from the fire that consumed the sacrifice
which was <em>burning in their stead</em>, how awful must have
been the impression of the desert of sin, made by that
dark volume of ascending smoke! The idea was distinct
and deeply impressed, that God’s justice was a
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>59]</a></span>
consuming fire to sinners, and that their souls escaped only
through a vicarious atonement.</p>
<p>As a picture in a child’s primer will convey an idea to
the infant mind, long before it can be taught by abstract
signs, so the Jews, in the infancy of their knowledge of
God, and before there were any abstract signs to convey
that knowledge, had thrown into their minds, through
the senses, the two essential ideas of God’s justice and
mercy: His justice, in that the wages of sin is the death
of the soul; and His mercy, in that God would pardon
the sinner, if he confessed his sin, acknowledged the life
of his soul forfeited, and offered the life of the sacrifice as
his substitute.</p>
<p>In this manner an idea of the desert of sin was conveyed
to the minds of the Jews; God’s law honoured, and
the utter hostility of the Lawgiver to sin clearly manifested;
and God’s mercy was likewise revealed as stated
in the preceding paragraph. Thus, in a manner accordant
with the circumstances of the Jews, and by means adapted
in their operation to the constitution of nature, was the
knowledge of God’s attribute of justice, and the relation
which mercy sustains to that attribute, fully revealed in
the world; and in view of the nature of things, it could
have been revealed in no other way.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a>
Inquiring readers of the Old Testament often find many things
announced in the name of God, which must seem to them inconsistent
with the majesty of the Divine nature, unless they view
those requirements in the light of the inquiry, ‘What impressions
were they adapted to make upon the Jewish mind?’ There are but
few readers of the Old Testament who read on this subject intelligently.
In this remark we do not refer to the historical or
preceptive portions of these writings, but to the elements of the
Mosaic institution. In order to see the design of many items of
the system, we must consider those items as exhibitions to the
senses, designed chiefly, perhaps only, to produce right ideas, or to
correct erroneous ones then existing, in the minds of the Jews.
The inquiry ought not to be, What impressions are they adapted to
produce upon our minds concerning God? but, What impression
would the particular revelation make upon <em>their</em> minds? An
instance or two will illustrate these remarks.</p>
<p>The adaptation to accomplish a necessary end is apparent in the
scene at Sinai. The Israelites had been accustomed to an idolatry
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"><!-- continuing footnote --></a></span>
where the most common familiarities were practised with the idol
gods. The idea of reverence and majesty which belongs to the
character of God had been lost, by attaching the idea of divinity
to the objects of sense. It was necessary, therefore, that the idea
of God should now be clothed, in their minds, with that reverence
and majesty which properly belong to it. The scene at Sinai was
adapted to produce, and did produce for the time being, the right
impression. The mountain was made to tremble to its base. A
cloud of darkness covered its summit, from which the lightnings
leaped out and thunders uttered their voices. In the words of a
New Testament writer, there was ‘blackness, and darkness, and
tempest.’ It was ordered that neither man nor beast should touch
the mountain, lest they should be visited with death. The exhibition
in all its forms was adapted to produce that sense of
majesty and awe in view of the Divine character which the Israelites
needed to feel. To minds subjected to the influence of other
circumstances than those which affected the character of the
Israelites in Egypt, such manifestations might not be necessary;
but in the case of the Jews, accustomed as they had been to witness
a besotting familiarity with idols, these manifestations were
directly adapted to counteract low views of the Divine character,
and to inspire the soul with suitable reverence in view of the
infinite majesty and eternal power of the Being with whom they
had to do.</p>
<p>The testimony of the Bible in relation to the design of the exhibition
at Sinai corroborates the views that have been given.
‘When the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. And
they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but
let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the
people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear
may be before your faces, that ye sin not.’—Ex. xx. 18-20.</p>
<p>The scene which occurred afterwards, evinced the necessity of
this exhibition, and developed the result of the proof [trial] that
was made of their character. In the absence of Moses, they
required an image of Jehovah to be made, and they feasted and
‘played’ (this last word having a licentious import) in its presence.
Thus, after trial of the strongest exhibitions upon their mind, some
of them proved themselves so incorrigibly attached to licentious
idolatry, that they desired to worship Jehovah under the character
of the Egyptian calf. They thus proved themselves unfit material,
too corrupt for the end in view; and they were, in accordance with
the reason of the case, destroyed.</p>
<p>Another conviction necessary to be lodged in the minds of the
Israelites, and impressed deeply and frequently upon their hearts,
was faith in the present and overruling God. This was the more
necessary, as no visible image of Jehovah was allowed in the camp.
There were but two methods possible by which their minds could
be convinced of the immediate presence and power of God controlling
all the events of their history. Either such exhibitions
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"><!-- continuing footnote --></a></span>
must be made that they would see certain ends accomplished without
human instrumentality; or they must see human instrumentality
clothed with a power which it is not possible in the nature of things
it should in itself possess. The circumstances connected with the
fall of Jericho will illustrate the case. The people were required
to surround the city, by a silent procession during seven days,
bearing the sacred ark, and blowing with rude instruments which
they used for trumpets. On the seventh day, the people were to
shout after they had compassed the city seven times; and when
they shouted, according to a Divine promise, the walls of the city
fell to the ground. Now, here was a process of means in which
there was no adaptation to produce the external effect, in order that
the <strong><small>INTERNAL</small></strong> effect, the great end of all revelation, might be produced—that
they might be taught to recognise Jehovah as the
present God of nature and providence, and rest their faith on him.</p>
<p>If the Israelites had, in this case, used the common instrumentalities
to secure success—if they had destroyed the wall with instruments
of war, or scaled its height with ladders, and thus overcome
by the strength of their own arm, or the aid of their own devices,
instead of being led to humble reliance upon God, and to recognise
his agency in their behalf, they would have seen in the means
which they had used a cause adequate to produce the effect, and
they would have forgotten the First Cause, upon whose power they
were dependent. Second causes were avoided in order that they
might see the connection between the First Cause and the effect
produced—human instrumentality stood in abeyance, in order that
the Divine agency might be recognised. Thus they were taught to
have faith in God, and to rely upon the presence and the power of
the Invisible Jehovah. <a href="#FNanchor_21_21">Back</a></p>
</div>
<h2><a name="chap09" id="chap09"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE TRANSITION FROM THE MATERIAL SYSTEM, BY WHICH
RELIGIOUS IDEAS WERE CONVEYED THROUGH THE
SENSES, TO THE SPIRITUAL SYSTEM, IN WHICH ABSTRACT
IDEAS WERE CONVEYED BY WORDS AND PARABLES.</span></h2>
<p>Human language has always advanced from its first stage,
in which ideas are acquired directly through the medium
of the senses, to the higher state, in which abstract ideas
are conveyed by appropriate words and signs. When an
idea is once formed by outward objects, and a word
formed representing that idea, it is then no longer necessary
or desirable that the object which first originated the
idea should longer be associated in the mind with the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>62]</a></span>
idea itself. It is even true that the import of abstract
ideas suffers from a co-existence, in the mind, of the
abstract thought with the idea of the object which originated
it. Thus the word spirit now conveys a distinct
idea to the mind of pure spiritual existence; but the distinctness
and power of the idea are impaired, by remembering
that the word from which it was derived originally
signified wind, and that the word itself was originated in
the first place by the wind. So in other cases, although
the ideas of abstract and spiritual things can be originated,
primarily, only from outward objects, yet when they have
been originated, and the spiritual idea has been connected
with the sign or word conveying its proper sense, it is
desirable, in order to their greater force and perspicuity,
that their connection with materiality should be broken
off in the mind.</p>
<p>In all written languages this advancement from one
stage of perfection to another, by the addition of abstract
ideas, can be traced; and experience teaches, incontrovertibly,
that the advancement of human language, as
above described, and the advancement of human society,
are dependent upon each other.</p>
<p>The preceding principles being applied to the subject
under consideration, it would follow that the Mosaic
machinery, which formed the abstract ideas, conveying
the knowledge of God’s true character, would no longer
be useful after those ideas were originated, defined, and
connected with the words which expressed their abstract
or spiritual import. It would follow, therefore, that the
machinery would be entirely dispensed with whenever
it had answered the entire design for which it was
put into operation. Whenever the Jews were cured
of idolatry, and had obtained true ideas of the attributes
of the true God, then the dispensation of shadows and
ceremonies, which ‘could not make the comers thereunto
perfect,’ would, according to the reason of things, pass
away, and give place to a more perfect and more spiritual
dispensation.</p>
<p>We find, accordingly, that the machinery of the tabernacle
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>63]</a></span>
was gradually removed, it never having existed in
perfection after the location of the tribes in Palestine.
They sojourned in the wilderness until those who had
come out of Egypt died. The generation who succeeded
them had the advantage of having received their entire
education through the medium of the Mosaic institution,
and thus of being freed from vicious habits and remembrances
contracted in idolatrous society.</p>
<p>Afterwards the Prophets held an intermediate place
between the material dispensation of Moses and the pure
spirituality of that of Christ. In the prophetic books,
especially the later ones, there is an evident departure
from a reliance upon the external forms, and an application
of the ideas connected with those forms to internal states
of mind. Their views of the old dispensation were more
spiritual than the views of those who lived near the origin
of the institution. And in the dispensation of the Messiah,
the Prophets evidently expected clearer light and purer
spirituality.</p>
<p>The state of the case, then, is this: The old dispensation
was necessary and indispensable in itself, and in
its place; but it was neither designed nor adapted to
continue. The knowledge of Divine things which it
generated was necessary for all men, but as yet it was
circumscribed to a small portion of the human family.
The point of inquiry now presents itself: <em>How could this
essential knowledge concerning the Divine Nature and attributes
be extended throughout the world?</em></p>
<p>There would be but two methods possible—either the
same processes, and the same cumbrous machinery (which
were a ‘burden’ that an apostle affirmed neither he nor
his fathers were able to bear) must be established in every
nation, and kindred, and tribe of the human family, and
thus each nation be disciplined and educated by itself, or
one nation must be prepared and disciplined, their propensity
to idolatry destroyed, the ideas coined in the die
prepared by Jehovah thrown into their minds, and then,
being thus prepared, they might be made the instruments
of transferring those ideas into the languages of other
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>64]</a></span>
nations.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> If the Almighty were to adopt the first method,
it would exclude men from benevolent labour for the
spiritual good of each other; and besides, the history of
the process with the Jews, as well as the reason of the thing,
would indicate that the latter method would be the one
which the Maker would adopt.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a>
There is a common, and to some minds, a weighty objection
against the truth of revealed religion, stated as follows:—If God
ever gave a religion to the world, why did he not reveal it to all
men, and reveal it at once and perfectly, so that no one could
doubt? If this had been possible, it might not have been expedient;
but the nature of things, as we have seen, rendered it impossible to
give man a revelation in such a manner. <a href="#FNanchor_22_22">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>But, in order to the diffusion of the knowledge of
God by the latter method, some things would be necessary
as pre-requisites, among which are the following:</p>
<p>1. That the Jews, who possessed these ideas, should be
scattered throughout the world, and that they should be
thus scattered long enough before the time of the general
diffusion of Divine knowledge to have become familiar
with the languages of the different nations where they
sojourned. This would be necessary, in order that, by
speaking in other tongues, they might transfer into them
their own ideas of Divine things, by attaching those ideas
to words in the respective languages which they spoke, or
by introducing into those languages words and phrases of
Hebrew origin conveying the revealed ideas. Whether
the different languages were acquired by miraculous or by
human instrumentality, there would be no other way possible
of transferring ideas from one language to another,
but by the methods above mentioned.</p>
<p>2. It would be necessary, before the Jews were thus
scattered, that their propensity to idolatry should be
entirely subdued, otherwise they would, as they had frequently
done before, fall into the abominable habits of the
nations among whom they were dispersed.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a>
Idolatry is one of the most unconquerable of all the corrupt propensities
of the human soul. Miracles under the new dispensation
had scarcely ceased—the apostolic fathers were scarcely cold in their
graves, before idolatrous forms were again superinduced upon the
pure spirituality of the holy gospel; and in the papal church the
curse continues till this hour. <a href="#FNanchor_23_23">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>65]</a></span>
3. The new and spiritual system should be first propagated
among those who understood both the spiritual
import of the Hebrew language, and likewise the language
of the other nations to whom the gospel was to be
preached. It was necessary that the new dispensation
should be committed, first to the Jews, who were scattered
in the surrounding nations, because, as we have
seen, they were the only individuals immediately prepared
to communicate it to others.</p>
<p>Now the following facts are matters of authentic history.</p>
<p>1. By instruction and discipline the Jews were entirely
cured of the propensity to idolatry—so much so that their
souls abhorred idols.</p>
<p>2. They were, and had been for many generations, dispersed
among all nations of the Roman world; but still,
in their dispersion they retained their peculiar ideas, and
multitudes of this peculiar people assembled out of all
countries, at least once a year, at the city of Jerusalem, to
worship Jehovah; and it was while the multitudes were
thus assembled that the gospel was first preached to them;
and preached, as was proper it should be, by power and
miracle, in order that those present might know assuredly
that the dispensation was from heaven.</p>
<p>3. The new dispensation was likewise introduced, in
the first place, among the Jews who continued to reside
in Palestine, and when a sufficient number of them were
fully initiated persecutions were caused to arise which
scattered them abroad among the nations; and the
Gentile languages not being known to them, they were
miraculously endowed with the gift of tongues, that they
might communicate to others the treasures of Divine
knowledge committed to them.</p>
<p>Thus, when the old dispensation had fulfilled its design
in disciplining the Jews, in imparting first ideas,
and thus, as a ‘schoolmaster,’ preparing the people for
the higher instruction of Christ; and when the fulness
of the times had come that the means and the material
were prepared to propagate the spiritual truth of the
new dispensation, then the Mosaic cycle would
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>66]</a></span>
appropriately close—it would not be consistent that it should
remain longer, for the plain reason given by Jesus himself,
that new wine should not be put into old bottles,
nor the old and imperfect forms be incorporated with
the new and spiritual system.</p>
<p>Therefore it was that so soon as the new dispensation
had been introduced, and its foundations firmly laid,
Jerusalem, the centre of the old economy, with the
temple, and all things pertaining to the ritual service,
was at once and completely destroyed, and the old system
vanished away for ever. It would not have been
expedient for God to destroy the old system sooner,
because it was necessary to engraft the new system upon
the old; and it ought not to have remained longer, for
the reasons above stated.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a>
It was necessary that the old system should be destroyed at this
time in order to throw the Jews upon Christ as the sacrifice for
their sins. Under the old dispensation the sacrifices for sin were
allowed to continue to the end. From this sacrifice they were
taught to hope for pardon. An idea had been, by the process which
God himself instituted, originated in their mind, that death must
ensue for sin; but by transferring their sins to the head of the
sacrifice, it died as a vicarious expiation, and they lived. It had
become a part almost of the Jewish mind, that they could not hope
for pardon, unless the sacrifice was offered. They felt that their
life was forfeited by sin, and they were unpardoned until the sacrifice
was made, and it could be made nowhere else but at Jerusalem.
Now God destroyed Jerusalem, and caused the offering for sin to
cease, and entirely annihilated the possibility of their ever again
expiating their sins by the bloody sacrifices; they were therefore
shut up to the doctrine of Christ’s sacrifice for sin. By the destruction
of Jerusalem the alternative was presented to the Jews—Accept
of Christ’s sacrifice, or you have no propitiation for your
sins. <a href="#FNanchor_24_24">Back</a></p>
</div>
<h2><a name="chap10" id="chap10"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE MEDIUM OF CONVEYING TO MEN PERFECT INSTRUCTION
IN DOCTRINE AND DUTY.</span></h2>
<p>The knowledge which the old dispensation was designed
to generate had been transmitted into the minds of the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>67]</a></span>
Jews; and the Jews had been prepared to transmit the
abstract import of those spiritual ideas into other languages.
The Mosaic institution, having accomplished
its design, was about to ‘vanish away,’ and give place
to the new dispensation, which would end the series of
God’s revealed instructions, by giving men a perfect
system of religion, accompanied by those aids and influences
which would be adapted to develop and perfect
man’s moral powers, and render him, in his present condition,
as perfect as his nature and his circumstances
would allow.</p>
<p>At this point of our progress the inquiry presents
itself—<em>What can we learn, from the present constitution
of things, concerning the medium or instrumentality that
God would adopt in giving mankind a perfect system of
religion?</em></p>
<p>When the ideas that conveyed the knowledge of God
were understood by the people, human language would
then become the proper medium of communication. The
very fact that the ideas were generated and thrown into
language, evinces that language was designed eventually
to be the medium through which they should be transmitted
to the world. When the ideas were prepared, as
has been stated, then all that would be necessary, in
order to the further and more perfect communication of
knowledge, would be, that men should have a teacher
to use this language—to expand, illustrate, and apply
these ideas; and by these, give definitions, and illustrate
and spiritualize other ideas when necessary.</p>
<p>Further: man’s senses are constituted with an adaptation
to the external world; and his intellectual constitution
is adapted to intercourse with his fellow man. The
delicate bony structure of the ear, which conveys sounds
from the tympanum to the sensorium, is nicely adjusted
by the Maker to appreciate and convey the tones and
modulations of the human voice. Human gesture, likewise,
and the expression of the countenance and the eye,
are auxiliary to human language in conveying instruction.
The nature of man, therefore, is adapted, both
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>68]</a></span>
physically and intellectually, to receive knowledge by
communications from one of his own species. If God
designed that an angel should instruct the human
family, one of two things would have to be done—either
the human constitution would have to be elevated
and adapted to intercourse with a being of a higher
order in the scale of creation, or that being would have
to let down his nature to human capacity, and thus
adapt himself to intercourse with human natures. And
it would even be requisite that the teacher should not
assume the highest condition of humanity in order that
his instructions should accomplish the greatest general
good; nor should his communications be made in the
most cultivated and elevated style of language. If he
would instruct the common mind in the best manner, he
must use common language and common illustrations;
and if God (blessed be his name) were himself to instruct
human nature, <em>as it is</em>, the same means would be
necessary.</p>
<p>Another step—Man is so constituted that he learns by
example better than precept. Theory without practice,
or precept without example, does not constitute a perfect
system of instruction. The theory of surveying,
however perfect it may be taught in college, never makes
a practical surveyor. An artist may give a most perfect
theory of his art to his apprentices or those whom he
wishes to instruct in a knowledge of his business; but
if he would have them become practical artists themselves,
he must, with tools in hand, practise his own
instructions before the eyes of the learner. In the
language of the trades, he must ‘show how it’s done.’
Such, then, is the nature of man, that in order to a perfect
system of instruction there must be both precept
and example.</p>
<p>Now there can be but one perfect model of human
nature. And man could not be removed to some other
planet, nor out of his present circumstances, to be instructed.
If the Almighty, therefore, designed ever to
give a perfect and final system of instruction to
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>69]</a></span>
mankind, it could be done only by placing in this world a
perfect human nature—a being who would not only give
perfect precepts, but who would practise those precepts
before the eyes of men. If such a being were placed
among men, who, amid all the perplexities, difficulties,
and trials which affect men in their present condition,
would exhibit perfect action of body, heart, and mind in
all his relations of life, and in all his duties to God and
man—that would be a model character, practising the
precepts of the Divine law in man’s present circumstances.
The example of an angel, or of any being of
a different order from man, would be of no benefit to
the human family. Man must see his duties, as man
exemplified in his own nature. Human nature could be
perfected only by following a perfect model of human
nature. But, with the rule of duty in his hand, and a
model character before him, man would have a system of
instruction perfectly adapted to his nature, and adapted
to perfect his nature. If God, therefore, designed to
give man a final and perfect system of instruction, he
would adopt the method thus adapted to the constitution
which he has given his creatures.—Now, Jesus Christ is
that model character. He assumed human nature—came
to the earth, man’s residence—expounded and
illustrated the law in human language; gave it its
spiritual import, and applied it to the different circumstances
and conditions of human life. He removed the
false glosses which the ignorance and the prejudices of
men had attached to it; he modified or rescinded those
permissions or clauses which were accommodated to the
darkness of former times, and the imperfections of the
Jewish system: and then, by applications the most
striking and definite, he showed the bearing of the rule
of duty upon all varieties of human action.</p>
<p>And further: the law being thus defined and applied,
in order that the world might have a model character,
he conformed himself to all its requirements. And in
order that that model might be a guide in all the varied
circumstances in which some of the family of man might
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>70]</a></span>
be placed, Jesus placed himself in all those circumstances,
and <em>acted</em> in them. Is man surrounded by a
sinful and suffering world? So was Jesus. Does he
desire to know how to act in such circumstances?
Jesus ministered occasionally to the temporal wants of
men, and laboured continually to promote their spiritual
good. Is man popular? So was Jesus; and he used
his influence to purify his Father’s house. Is man forsaken
by his last friend? So was Jesus; and he upbraided
and murmured not, but sought consolation in
communion with the Father. Does man visit and dine
with the learned and the religious formalists of the age?
So did Jesus; and in his conversation he maintained
the claims of spiritual religion, and reproved man’s
hypocrisy and formality. Does man sit down in the
cottage of the poor? So did Jesus; and he encouraged
and comforted the inmates with spiritual instruction.
Is man present when a group of friends are assembled
on an occasion which warrants innocent enjoyment?
So was Jesus; and he approved their social pleasures.
Is man called to sympathize with those in affliction?
So was Jesus; and ‘<em>Jesus wept</em>.’ Thus by land and by
sea, in all places and under all circumstances, wherever
any of earth’s children are called to act, Jesus—the
model Man—is seen living and moving before them:
and his voice falls upon their ear with the mingled
cadence of authority and encouragement, ‘<strong><span class="smcap">Follow Me</span></strong>.’</p>
<p>The demonstration, then, is manifest, that, through the
medium of Jesus Christ, man has received a perfect system
of instruction; and a final and perfect revelation
of duty to God and man could be given in no other way.</p>
<h2><a name="chap11" id="chap11"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">SOME OF THE PECULIAR PROOFS OF THE MESSIAHSHIP
OF CHRIST.</span></h2>
<p>We have now arrived at a point in our subject where the
light of history will aid in our investigations. The facts
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>71]</a></span>
which history furnishes, and which will elucidate the present
point of inquiry, are the following: First, the Jewish
prophets lived and wrote centuries before the period in
which Jesus appeared in Judæa. This fact is as certain
as any other item of human knowledge.</p>
<p>A second fact is—The Jews, about the time of Christ’s
appearance, expected with more earnestness and desire
than usual the appearance of their Messiah, who, they
supposed, would deliver them from subjection to Gentile
nations, and place the Jewish power in the ascendant
among the nations of the earth. They generally supposed
that as a king he would reign with great dignity
and power, and, as a priest, preside over, not abrogate,
the ceremonial law. Although some of the common
people may have had some understanding of the true
nature of the Messiah’s kingdom, yet the prominent men
of the nation, and the great body of the people of all
classes, were not expecting that the kingdom of Christ
would be purely spiritual, but that it would be mainly
temporal. And, indeed, it was necessary that they should
not have a clear conception of the worth and spirituality
of the Messiah’s dispensation previously to his coming;
because if they had had such a conception, the imperfections
and darkness of their own dispensation would not
have been borne. It is contrary to the nature of mind
when it is enlightened, to delight in, and employ itself
longer about, the preparatory steps that lead it to the
light.</p>
<p>The facts in the case, then, were, first, The prophets
lived and wrote centuries before the era of Christ; and,
second, On account of intimations, or supposed intimations,
in their prophecies, the Jews were expecting the
Messiah about the time that Jesus appeared in Judæa.
With the question concerning the inspiration of the prophets,
we have just now nothing to do. Whether they
were inspired or not, their books contained the matter
upon which the Jews founded their expectations of the
appearance of the Messiah. With the question how the
Jews could mistake the character of the Messiah, we have
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>72]</a></span>
also now nothing to do; although the solution of the
question would not be difficult. The simple facts which
require attention are—The prophecies existed; and in
those prophecies a Ruler was spoken of, of most exalted
character, whose dominion would be triumphant, universal,
and endless—whose doctrines would be pure and
spiritual; and whose administration would be a blessing,
not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles—and yet,
his life would be humble and not suited to the feeling of
the Jews—his sufferings extreme; and that he would
terminate the old dispensation, and die for the sins of
the people.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a>
Isaiah liii. Dan. ix. 24-27. Micah v. 1, 2. Mal. iii. 1-3.
Zech. ix. 9, 10. Isa. ix. 1-7. <a href="#FNanchor_25_25">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>Now, in view of these facts, <em>In what character would the
true Messiah appear, when he assumed his duties as the
Instructor of mankind?</em></p>
<p>If he had appeared and conformed to the views which
the Jews entertained of a temporal Messiah, it would
have been direct evidence that he was an impostor; because
the Jewish views of his character and reign, as all
can now see, were selfish, ambitious, imperfect, and partial.
Now, a teacher sent from God to give the world a
perfect religion could not conform to such views; but an
impostor, from the nature of the case, could have conformed
to no other standard than the views of the people.
If an impostor wished to pass himself upon the Jews as
their Messiah, he must assume that character and conform
to that conduct which he knew they expected in
their Messiah. For an impostor to assume a different
character from that which he knew the nation expected
their Messiah would bear, would have been to use means
to frustrate his own plans, which would be impossible;
because man cannot have a governing desire for attainment
of an end, and at the same time use means which
he knows will frustrate the accomplishment of his own
object. An impostor, therefore, in the state of expectancy
which existed at that time in Judæa, could not do
otherwise than conform himself to the character which
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>73]</a></span>
the nation were expecting their Messiah would possess.</p>
<p>Mark the two points. The prophets gave a delineation
of the character, life, and death of the Messiah. This
delineation the Jews misinterpreted, or applied to several
individuals; so that they were expecting in their Messiah
a character entirely different from that described by the
prophets.</p>
<p>Now mark the application of these points. If Christ
had conformed to the views of the Jews there would have
been three direct testimonies that he was not from God.
(1.) Because their views were partial, prejudiced, wicked.
(2.) He could not have conformed to their views, and
sustained at the same time the character of a perfect
instructor.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> (3.) He would not have fulfilled the predictions
of the prophets concerning him. But, on the other
hand, if he conformed to the prophets, and assumed the
character of a perfect teacher, his rejection by the Jews
was absolutely certain.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> It follows, therefore, legitimately
and conclusively, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah
of God, because he pursued that course which would, from
the nature of the case, result in his rejection by the
nation; which conduct, in an impostor, would be impossible—but
in the true Messiah it was the necessary
course.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a>
See chap. <a href="#chap10">x</a>. <a href="#FNanchor_26_26">Back</a></p>
</div>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a>
The fact that Jesus conformed to the prophets, established the
truth of the prophecies; because, by conforming to them, he suffered
death; while by his death, in accordance with the prophets, the
world gained the evidence that he was the true Messiah. To give
life as a testimony to falsehood, is impossible, either in a good or in
an evil being. <a href="#FNanchor_27_27">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>But further: it was necessary that Jesus should establish
his claim as the Messiah by miraculous agency.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>
But owing to the peculiar state of the Jewish nation at
that time, there would be great difficulty in doing this,
for the following reasons.—If he, as Moses did, had come
publicly before the nation at Jerusalem, and by miracles
of great power, frequently repeated, and extending their
influence throughout all the land, had forced conviction
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>74]</a></span>
upon the minds of all the Jews that he was the true
Messiah, the immediate and inevitable result would have
been, that they would have raised one universal revolt
against the Roman power, and would have hurried the
Saviour of sinners into the office of the King of the Jews;
and then bowed down to him as the temporal sovereign
of the Jewish nation. But, notwithstanding this error
of the Jews, and the results to which it would directly
tend, still it would be necessary in order to meet the
constitution of things, that Christ should manifest, by
exhibitions of miraculous power, the credentials attesting
the Divinity of his mission. The inquiry then arises,
<em>How could Jesus perform miracles, and at the same time
prevent revolt in the nation?</em></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a>
See chap. <a href="#chap03">iii</a>. On Miracles. <a href="#FNanchor_28_28">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>The circumstances of the case would render it necessary
that his miracles should not be attended by that
publicity and power which would lead those who had
the influence of the nation in their hands, and who were
blind to the true design of his mission, into revolt and
destruction. It was likewise necessary, on the other
hand, that they should be sufficiently frequent, and of
sufficient power, to convince the candid who witnessed
them that they were the seal of heaven to the mission of
Jesus. When Christ wrought miracles, therefore, he
would have to aim at one end, and endeavour to prevent
another—the end aimed at, that the impression might be
made on honest minds, that he was the true Messiah;
the end avoided, that the rulers of the nation might not,
on account of his mighty miracles, rally round him as
their temporal king, and thus hurry themselves and their
nation to premature destruction.</p>
<p>Now, the character and conduct of Jesus accord
entirely with the foregoing deductions, made out from
undoubted historical facts. That he performed many
miracles, and yet suppressed their extensive publicity, is
frequently noticed in the New Testament. Jesus, therefore,
had the peculiar marks of the true Messiah; and,
in view of the peculiar condition of the Jewish nation at
that time, the true Messiah could have assumed no other
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>75]</a></span>
character, and pursued no other course of conduct, than
that exhibited in the life of Christ.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a>
Another item might be added to this demonstration, showing
that in order to the ultimation of the plan of salvation, it was
necessary that Jesus should so manifest himself and manage his
ministry, that a part of the Jews should receive him as the
Messiah, and a part reject him. <a href="#FNanchor_29_29">Back</a></p>
</div>
<h2><a name="chap12" id="chap12"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE CONDITION IN LIFE WHICH IT WAS NECESSARY
THE MESSIAH SHOULD ASSUME IN ORDER TO BENEFIT
THE HUMAN FAMILY IN THE GREATEST DEGREE, BY
HIS EXAMPLE AND INSTRUCTIONS.</span></h2>
<p>Selfishness is a fundamental evil of human nature, the
existence of which is acknowledged by all men. It is
not an evil which belongs to any one class of human
society. It is generic; and moves all ranks; each individual
looks upon those who stand next or near him in
society, and desires equality with, or superiority over
them in wealth, or popularity, or power. The law of
reason and of God requires that men should endeavour
to elevate those below them up to their own condition;
selfishness is the opposite principle, which urges men to
elevate themselves over others. If the militia captain
could follow the desires of his nature, and ascend from
one condition to another until he stood upon the floor of
the senate chamber, he would find that the desire which
led him to take the first step, had only increased its
power by gratification, and was still goading him on to
rise higher; and he would stop nowhere while life lasted,
until he perceived further efforts useless or dangerous.
This selfish pride and desire for self-aggrandizement is
detrimental both to the individual and to the social
interests of men. Wherever selfish ambition exists in
any degree of strength, it generates misery to the individual
and to others about him. There are not, perhaps,
more miserable men in the world than are some of those
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>76]</a></span>
who have gained to some extent the object of their
ambition, and are seated in the halls of legislation.
Their minds are constantly anxious in making some
effort, or devising some plan, by which they may promote
the schemes in which they are engaged. And every
time the hopes of one are realised, the stings of envy,
and jealousy, and concealed hate, rankle in the bosoms
of some others. In the humbler walks of life, the evil
exists, perhaps in a less degree, but still it exists; and
its existence is the bane of human happiness, and the
cause of human guilt.</p>
<p>Now, this wicked desire of human nature to aspire
after elevated worldly condition, rather than after usefulness
of life and goodness of heart, would be either fostered
or checked by the condition in life which the Messiah
assumed among men. In proportion as his condition was
elevated, pride and the desire of elevation would be
fostered in the hearts of his followers. In proportion as
his condition was humble and depressed, pride of heart
would be checked in all those who received and honoured
him as their Master and Teacher.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a>
See chap. <a href="#chap05">v</a>. <a href="#FNanchor_30_30">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>Suppose that the Messiah had presented himself in the
condition anticipated by the Jews; surrounded by the
pomp and parade of a powerful temporal prince; sustaining
the earthly dignity and splendour of the ancient
monarchs of the dynasty of David. Now, had such a
Messiah appeared in Judæa, it is perfectly certain, from the
character of human nature, that his earthly circumstances
would have a tendency to cherish in the people, as a
nation, and as individuals, the bad principles of pride and
ambition. Worldly pomp and circumstances would have
had the sanction of the highest authority in the person of
their Messiah; and it would have induced the desire in
all hearts to elevate themselves as nearly as possible to his
temporal condition. The pride of the human heart would
have been fostered and not humbled. Instead of causing
the middle walks of life to be grateful and contented in
their condition, it would have produced in them an anxiety
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>77]</a></span>
to stretch themselves upwards. And instead of causing
those already elevated to benefit the worthy poor, it would
have caused them to have no sympathy for any of the
human family in low estate; because theirs was a condition
the opposite of that assumed by the great model
which they loved and admired. And instead of causing
the poor to feel a greater degree of contentment, and to
avoid repining at their lot, the circumstances of the
Messiah would have deepened their dejection, and rendered
them less happy in their depressed condition; because
their condition would hinder them from approach to, or
fellowship with, the Heaven-sent Instructor. A teacher,
therefore, believed to be from heaven, who should assume
an elevated condition in the world, instead of being a
spiritual blessing to the whole family of man, by promoting
in their bosoms humility and sympathy for each other,
would have been a spiritual curse, by producing haughtiness
and hardness of heart in the rich, ambition in the
middle classes, and hopeless dejection in the poor.</p>
<p>Suppose the Messiah had come in the character which
the Greeks admired; that, assuming the seat of the philosophers,
he had startled the learned world by disclosing
to them new and sublime truths. Suppose he had, by
the power of far-reaching intellect, answered all the questions
and solved all the difficulties which perplexed the
minds of the disciples of the Porch and the Academy.
In such a case his instructions would have been adapted
to satisfy the minds of a few gifted individuals, but they
would not have been adapted to benefit the minds of
many, nor the heart of any of the great mass of mankind.
Vain of their wisdom already, the character of the
Messiah would have been adapted to make the philosophers
more so; and instead of blessing them, by humbling
their pride, and giving them a sympathy with their
fellow men, it would have led them and their admirers to
look upon those who were not endowed with superior
mental qualities, as an inferior class of men.</p>
<p>But, if the Messiah could not have appeared in the
condition desired by the Jews, nor in that admired by
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>78]</a></span>
the Gentiles, the inquiry arises—What condition in life
would it be necessary that the Messiah should assume, in
order to benefit the human family in the highest degree
by the influence of that condition? In view of the foregoing
deductions, the solution is obvious: <em>In that condition
which would have the most direct influence to destroy
selfishness and pride in the human heart, and to foster, in
their stead, humility, contentment, and benevolence.</em></p>
<p>Now, in view of this result, deduced directly from the
acknowledged character of human nature, turn your attention
to the earthly circumstances of Jesus, and see how
he brought the whole weight of his condition in life to
bear against selfishness and pride of heart.—He was born
in the lowest possible circumstances. His life was the
constant rebuke to every ambitious and proud feeling of
the human heart; and his death was one esteemed by
men the most ignominious. No one who openly acknowledged
and had fellowship with Jesus of Nazareth, as his
Teacher and Master, could do so until the natural pride
of his nature was subdued. It was impossible for a man
to find fellowship with Jesus unless he humbled himself,
because in no other state could his feelings meet those of
Christ. ‘Take my yoke upon you,’ said Jesus, ‘and
learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye
shall find rest unto your souls.’</p>
<p>Thus did Jesus place himself in a condition which rendered
humility absolutely necessary in order to sympathy
with him—in the condition directly opposed to pride of
heart, one of the most insidious enemies of man’s happiness
and usefulness. And as it is an acknowledged and
experimental fact that the soul finds rest only in meekness,
and never in selfishness and pride of mind, therefore,
the demonstration is perfect, that Christ assumed
the only condition which it was possible for him to assume,
and thereby destroy pride and misery, and produce
humility and peace, in human bosoms.</p>
<p>Profane history and the New Testament Scriptures
confirm the foregoing views. Tacitus, speaking of the
primitive Christians, alludes to them with marked
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>79]</a></span>
contempt, as the followers of one who had been crucified.
His manner evinces clearly not only his own feelings, but
it is a good index to the feelings of a majority of the
people of that proud and idolatrous age; and it establishes,
beyond all controversy, the fact, that no one
could declare himself a follower of Christ until, for truth
and for Christ’s sake, he was willing to be considered base
in the estimation of the world. The elegant Pliny likewise
bears direct testimony to the humility and integrity of
life which characterized the early disciples of Christ.</p>
<p>A great number of passages in the New Testament
confirm the preceding views. It is only necessary to say
that the apostles understood not only the effect of their
Lord’s circumstances, in life and death, upon the minds
of men, but they understood likewise the philosophy and
the necessity of the case. Says Paul—‘It became (or
was expedient for) Him, from whom are all things, and
by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto
glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they
who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is
not ashamed to call them brethren.’—That is, the humble
and self-denying life and death of Jesus was necessary,
because it would have a sanctifying effect in counteracting
the evils in the hearts of men. It was necessary for
him to become their brother man, and assume a certain
character and condition, in order that, by their becoming
one with him, they might be sanctified and made happy
and useful.</p>
<p>Thus, while the Jews required a sign, and the Greeks
sought after wisdom, the apostles preached Christ crucified;
understanding the philosophy, the efficiency, and
the necessity of their doctrine. And so long as the world
lasts, every man who reads the New Testament, whether
saint or sinner, will be penetrated with the conviction
that a vain, aspiring, selfish spirit is incompatible with
the religion of Jesus.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>80]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="chap13" id="chap13"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES WHICH MUST, ACCORDING TO
THE NATURE OF THINGS, LIE AT THE FOUNDATION OF
THE INSTRUCTION OF CHRIST.</span></h2>
<p>The Messiah having come in the proper character, displayed
the proper credentials, and assumed the necessary
condition, the question arises, What may we learn from
the character of God and the nature of man concerning
the fundamental principles which would govern the
teaching of Jesus?</p>
<p>God is righteous and benevolent; it therefore follows
that he would connect happiness with righteousness and
goodness in his creatures. Were he to do otherwise, it
would be causing the happiness of man to arise from a
character different from its own, which, as God is good,
would be impossible, because it would be wicked.</p>
<p>Further, man is so constituted that, as a matter of
fact, his true happiness depends upon righteousness of
life and benevolence of heart. When his will accords
with his knowledge of duty, or when he acts as he
knows is right towards God and his fellow men, there
is peace and even complacency of conscience. Peace
and complacency of conscience is the happiness which,
according to man’s moral constitution, arises from
righteousness, or right acting, in life. And when man
exercises benevolent feeling—has love in his heart to
God and men, this exercise of benevolent affection produces
happiness. Now there can be no such thing as
happiness of spirit except it arise from these sources.
And when these sources are full and flowing, and thus
unite together—when there is perfect love and a perfect
life, the soul is rendered happy. A single unrighteous
act of will or malevolent feeling of heart will destroy
this happiness; a single emotion of hatred or ill-will, or
a single evil act, known to be such, towards any of God’s
creatures, will destroy the peace of the soul. Even
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>81]</a></span>
hatred to an enemy, or the desire of revenge, or any
emotion but good-will, injures the soul’s happiness.</p>
<p>Thus, in constituting the human soul, God, in accordance
with his own character, has caused its happiness to
depend upon righteousness and goodness.</p>
<p>Now, then, a teacher sent from God must recognise
these fundamental principles, and give him instruction in
view of them. The happiness of the human soul, which
is its <em>life</em>—its first, and best, and only good, could be
produced in no other way. The whole force, therefore,
of Divine instruction would be designed and adapted to
accomplish this necessary end. The legitimate development
of God’s nature, exercised towards man, would
produce such instructions and such an example; and the
best good of the human soul rendered it necessary that
they should be given.</p>
<p>It is not said that, as in the schools of philosophy, the
constant inquiry and search should be for the ‘greatest
good.’ The very effort to obtain happiness in this way
would destroy its existence. Happiness is not objective
but subjective; no direct effort could gain it; it is the
result of the right action of the moral powers. It would
not be necessary, therefore, that those instructed should
even understand the principles which governed their
instructor. It would be sufficient if the instruction were
designed and adapted to promote righteousness and
goodness: the happiness of the soul would follow as a
result, whether or not the recipient of the instruction
understood the principles which governed his teacher.</p>
<p>Now the whole power of Christ’s instruction was
directed to this point. It was distinguished in this
respect from all other instruction ever given to mankind.
I say unto you, Love your enemies. Do good to them
that despitefully use you. Be anxious about no worldly
good. The weightier matters of the law are righteousness
and the love of God. Love and obey God, and
love and do good to your neighbour: this is the law
and the prophets. Seek first the kingdom of heaven
and its righteousness, and all other things will be added
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>82]</a></span>
to you. That is, seek first righteousness and the love of
God, and the necessary result will grow out of these
exercises—happiness, or life, will be added as a consequence.</p>
<p>Thus was the whole force of the Saviour’s teaching
and example designed and adapted to produce righteousness
and benevolence; and as these are the only exercises
from which man’s true happiness can arise, it
follows that the principles involved in the instruction of
Christ, connecting happiness with holiness, are the only
principles which can, in accordance with the character of
God and the constitution of man, produce the greatest
good of the human soul. Jesus, therefore, was the
Christ of God; because the Christ of God could found
his instructions on no other principles,—the principles
which are fundamental in his teaching being those which
alone can produce the happiness of the soul in accordance
with its own moral nature, and in accordance with
the moral character of God.</p>
<h2><a name="chap14" id="chap14"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">FAITH, THE EXERCISE THROUGH WHICH TRUTH REACHES
AND AFFECTS THE SOUL.</span></h2>
<p>When Christ, man’s perfect and spiritual Instructor, had
come, and introduced the great doctrines of the spiritual
dispensation, the next necessary step in the process was,
that those truths should be brought to impress the soul,
and influence the life, and so produce their proper effects
upon human nature. The inquiry then presents itself:
<em>In what way could the truths of the gospel be brought into
efficient contact with the soul of man?</em></p>
<p>There are but two ways in which truth can be brought
into contact with the mind. The one is sometimes called
knowledge; the other, faith, or belief of testimony. In the
earlier and ruder ages, men were necessarily moved more
by knowledge, derived from their own observation and
experience, through the medium of their senses; but as
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>83]</a></span>
mankind increased in number, important truth was conveyed
by one man or one generation communicating their
experience, and another man or another generation receiving
it by belief in their testimony. Perception and faith
are the only modes by which truth can be brought into
contact with the soul; and their effects are nearly the same
upon man’s conduct and feelings, with the following
remarkable exception: Of facts which are the subjects of
personal observation, every time they are experienced, the
effect upon the soul grows less; while, on the contrary,
those facts which are received by faith, produce, every
time they are realised, a greater effect upon the soul. By
constant sight, the effect of objects seen grows less; by
constant faith, the effect of objects believed in grows
greater. The probable reason of this is, that personal
observation does not admit of the influence of the imagination
in impressing the fact; while unseen objects, realised
by faith, have the auxiliary aid of the imagination, not to
exaggerate them, but to clothe them with living colours,
and impress them upon the heart. Whether this be the
reason or not, the fact is true, that the more frequently we
see, the less we feel the power of an object; while the more
frequently we dwell upon an object by faith, the more we
feel its power. This being true, it follows that faith would
be the method best adapted to bring the sublime truths of
the new dispensation to bear upon the souls of men. And
further, as the dispensation is spiritual, and has relation
to unseen and eternal things, faith becomes the only
medium through which they can be conveyed to the soul.</p>
<p>Furthermore, man is so constituted that his faith, or
belief, has an influence not only over his conduct in life,
but, likewise, over the character and action of the moral
powers of the soul.</p>
<p>Faith governs the <em>conscience</em>.</p>
<p>We have said, in another place, that a true conscience
depends upon a true faith. No proposition in morals is
more plain. It is not our design to inquire what leads,
or has led, men to a wrong faith. Whatever may be the
cause of any particular belief, it is incontrovertible that,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>84]</a></span>
if a man believes a thing to be right, conscience cannot
condemn an act performed in view of that belief. Conscience
is so modified and guided by a man’s faith, that
it will sanction and command an act in one man which
it will forbid and condemn in another. A Roman Catholic
believes that he ought to pray to the Virgin Mary to intercede
for him with God; and if a good Roman Catholic
were to neglect his worship to the saints, his conscience
would smite him, until, in some instances, he confessed
his sin with tears. Now, if a good Protestant were to
pray to saints, or to any other being but God, his conscience
would smite him for doing that which the conscience
of the Roman Catholic smote him for not doing.
So the heathen mother will conscientiously throw her
infant into the Ganges, or under the wheels of Juggernaut,
while the conscience of a Christian mother would
convict her of murder were she to do the same act. Conscience
seldom convicts those whom Christians call impenitent
persons for neglecting to pray, while the moment
a man becomes a true believer, he will be convicted of
guilt if he neglects the duty. So certainly and so clearly
is it true, that a man’s conscience is governed by his faith.</p>
<p>Faith governs the <em>affections</em>.</p>
<p>As man is constituted, no power in the universe can
move his affections to an object until he believes that the
object possesses some loveliness or excellency of character.
The heart is affected just as much by the goodness of
another, if we <em>believe</em> that goodness to exist, as it would
be if we <em>knew</em> that it existed. No matter, in the case of
the affections, whether the object in reality possesses the
good qualities or not, if they are fully believed to exist,
the affections will act just as certainly as though they really
did exist. The affections are constituted to be governed
by faith. And they act most powerfully, as was demonstrated
in a previous chapter, in view of good qualities
existing in another, who, under certain circumstances,
exercises those qualities towards us. The fact, then, is
apparent, that the conduct of man’s life is influenced by
what he believes; and especially that the character and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>85]</a></span>
action of the moral powers of his nature are governed by
the principle of faith.</p>
<p>Another most important fact in connection with this
subject is, that a man’s interests, temporal and spiritual,
depend upon what he believes. The nature of man and
the nature of things are so constituted, that the belief
of falsehood always destroys man’s interests, temporal or
spiritual, and the belief of truth invariably guides man
right, and secures his best and highest good.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most absurd and injurious adage that has
ever gained currency among mankind, is ‘that it is no
difference what a man believes, if only he be sincere.’
Now, the truth is, that the more sincerely a man believes
falsehood, the more destructive it is to all his interests, for
time and eternity. This statement can be confirmed in
every mind beyond the reach of doubt.</p>
<p>First, <em>The influence of believing falsehood on temporal and
social interests</em>.</p>
<p>We will state some cases of common and constant
occurrence, in order that the principle may be made
obvious.</p>
<p>A gentleman of property and the highest respectability,
in the course of his business transactions, became acquainted
with an individual, who, as the event showed, was a man
destitute, in a great degree, of a conscientious regard for
truth. The persuasions and false representations of this
man led the gentleman referred to, to embark almost his
entire fortune with him in speculations in which he was at
that time engaged. While this matter was in progress,
the friends of the gentleman called upon him, and stated
their doubts of the individual’s integrity who solicited
his confidence, and likewise of the success of the enterprises
in which he was asked to engage. The advice of
his friends was rejected—he placed confidence in the false
statements of the individual referred to—he acted upon
those statements, and was, consequently, involved in
pecuniary distress. In this case, the gentleman not only
sincerely believed the falsehood to be the truth, but he
had good motives in relation to the object which he
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>86]</a></span>
desired to accomplish. He was a benevolent man. He had
expended considerable sums for charitable and religious
uses, and his desire was, by the increase of his property,
to be enabled to accomplish greater good. In this case he
was injured likewise by believing what others did not
believe. The individual who seduced him into the speculation,
had endeavoured to lead others to take the same
views and to act in the same way; they did not believe
the falsehood, and were, consequently, saved; he believed,
and was, consequently, ruined.</p>
<p>When the English army under Harold, and the Norman
under William the Conqueror, were set in array for that
fearful conflict which decided the fate of the two armies,
and the political destinies of Great Britain, William, perceiving
that he could not, by a fair attack, move the solid
columns of the English ranks, had recourse to a false
movement, in order to gain the victory. He gave orders
that one flank of his army should feign to be flying from
the field in disorder. The officers of the English army
believed the falsehood, pursued them, and were cut off. A
second time, a false movement was made in another part
of the field. The English again believed, pursued, and
were cut off. By these movements the fortunes of the day
were determined. Although the English had the evidence
of their senses, yet they were led to believe a falsehood—they
acted in view of it; the consequence was, the destruction
of a great part of their army, and the establishment
of the Norman power in England.</p>
<p>How often does it occur that the young female,
possessing warm affections and being inexperienced in
the wiles of villains, is led to believe falsehood which
destroys her prospects and her happiness while life lasts!
Under other circumstances she might have been virtuous,
useful, happy. By false indications of affection her heart
is won—by false promises of faithfulness and future good
her assent to marry is gained; and then, when too late,
she discovers that her husband is a villain, and she is
forsaken, with a broken heart, to the cold sympathies of
a selfish world. No matter how many hearts, besides
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>87]</a></span>
her own, are broken by her error; no matter how sincere,
or how guileless, or how young; she sincerely believed
the falsehood, and is thereby ruined. Nothing in heaven
or on earth will avert the consequences. If she had
doubted, she would have been saved. She believed, and
is consigned to sorrow till she sinks into her grave.</p>
<p>Secondly, <em>The belief of falsehood in relation to spiritual
things destroys man’s spiritual interests</em>.</p>
<p>It is an incontrovertible fact that the whole heathen
world, ancient and modern, have believed in and worshipped
unholy beings as gods. Now, from the necessities
of the case, as demonstrated in the introductory
chapter, the worshipper becomes assimilated to the
character of the object worshipped. In consequence
of believing falsehood concerning the character of God,
all heathendom, at the present hour, is filled with ignorance,
impurity, and crime. As a mass of corruption
spreads contagion and death among all those who approach
it, so certainly does the worship of unholy beings
taint the soul, and spread moral corruption through the
world. ‘Can a man take coals into his bosom, and not
be burned?’—Neither can the soul hold communion with
beings believed to be unholy, and not itself become
corrupt. The fact is so plain that it is not necessary to
detail again the impurities, the vices, the tortures, the
self-murders, and the unnatural affections of the heathen
world, in order to show the deadly evils, both to the
body and soul, which arise from the belief of falsehood
in relation to spiritual things. It must be obvious to
everyone that, if the heathen believed in one holy and
benevolent God, their abominable and cruel rites would
cease. It follows, therefore, that it is the belief of falsehood
that causes their ignorance and corruption.</p>
<p>Thus it is invariably and eternally true that the belief
of truth will lead a man right, and secure his temporal,
spiritual, and eternal interests; and on the contrary, the
belief of falsehood will lead a man wrong, and destroy
his interests in relation to whatever the falsehood pertains,
whether it be temporal or eternal.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>88]</a></span>
The preceding premises being established, the following
conclusions result:</p>
<p>1. The entire man, in his body and soul, his actions
and moral feelings, is governed by what he believes;
and that, in relation to things that should have a constantly
increasing influence over the spirit, faith is a
more powerful actuating cause than sight, because the
one gains while the other loses power by repetition.</p>
<p>2. That the belief of falsehood, concerning any human
interest, is fatally injurious; while the belief of truth is
eternally beneficial. And that the more sincerely any
one believes error, the more certainly he destroys his
interests, whether temporal or spiritual: while, on the
contrary, the more sincerely a man believes truth, the
more certainly and powerfully are his interests advanced.
The living God has connected evil with the belief of
falsehood, and good with the belief of truth; it is a part
of the constitutional law of the moral universe; and
there is no power in existence that will stop the consequence
from following the antecedent.</p>
<p>Mark it—That doctrine which rectifies the conscience,
purifies the heart, and produces love to God and men, is
necessarily true; because, as it has been demonstrated
that righteousness and benevolence are the greatest good
of the soul, and likewise that the greatest good must
depend on the belief of truth, therefore the conclusion
is inevitable that that doctrine which, being believed,
destroys sin in the heart and life of man, and produces
righteousness and benevolence, is the truth of God. No
matter whether men can comprehend all its depths and
relations or not, if it destroys sin wherever it takes effect
by faith, and makes happiness grow out of right living
and right loving, from the constitution of things—from
the character of God—from the nature of man—that
doctrine is the <strong><span class="smcap">truth of God</span></strong>. And that doctrine
which hinders this result, or produces a contrary result,
is the falsehood of the devil.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a>
John viii. 44. <a href="#FNanchor_31_31">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>4. Therefore Christ laid at the foundation of the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>89]</a></span>
Christian system this vital and necessary principle, ‘He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he
that believeth not shall be damned,’—saved in accordance
with the moral constitution of the universe, and
damned from the absolute necessities existing in the
nature of things.</p>
<h2><a name="chap15" id="chap15"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD WHICH WOULD BE
NECESSARY, UNDER THE NEW AND SPIRITUAL DISPENSATION,
TO PRODUCE IN THE SOUL OF MAN
AFFECTIONATE OBEDIENCE.</span></h2>
<p>Man’s mental and moral constitution was the same under
the New as under the Old Testament dispensation. The
same methods, therefore, which were adapted to move
man’s nature under the one, would be adapted to do so
under the other. The difference between the two dispensations
was, the first was a preparatory dispensation,
its manifestations, for the most part, being seen and
temporal; the second, a perfect system of truth, spiritual
in its character, and in the method of its communication.
But whether the truths were temporal or spiritual, and,
whether they were brought to view by faith or sight, in
order to produce a given effect upon the soul, or any of
its powers, the same methods under all dispensations
would be necessary, varied only to suit the advancement
of the mind in knowledge, the differences existing in the
habits and circumstances of men, and the character of
the dispensation to be introduced. For instance: under
one dispensation—it being in a great measure temporal,
preparatory, and imperfect—love might be produced by
making men feel temporal want, and by God granting
temporal benefits: while under a spiritual and universal
system, men must likewise feel the want, and receive the
benefit, in order to love; but the want felt and the
benefit conferred must be of a spiritual character.</p>
<p>Under all dispensations, an essential requisite, after
the way for its introduction was prepared, would be such
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>90]</a></span>
manifestations of God to men as would produce love in
the human heart for the object of worship and obedience.
‘Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,’ is the first
great law of the universe; and God cannot be honoured,
nor man made happy, unless his obedience be actuated
by love to the object of obedience.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> Now the manifestations
of mercy, under the old dispensation, were
mainly temporal in their character, and limited in their
application to the Jews. But God’s special goodness to
them could not produce love in the hearts of the Gentiles.
The manifestations in Egypt were, therefore, neither
adapted in their character, nor in the extent of their
design, to the spiritual and universal religion of Jesus
Christ. But one part of the Mosaic economy was universal
and immutable in its character. The moral law is the
same for ever in its application to all intelligent beings in
the universe. It is plain to reason that, whatever means
may be adopted to bring men to rectitude of conduct or
to pardon them for offences, the rule of right itself,
founded upon the justice and holiness, and sustained by
the conscience, of the Eternal, must be immutable and
eternal as its Author; and the means, manifestations,
and influences, under the different dispensations, are expedients
of mercy, designed and adapted to bring men
to act in conformity with its requirements.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a>
See chap. <a href="#chap04">iv</a>. on Affectionate Obedience. <a href="#FNanchor_32_32">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>How, then, under the new dispensation, and in conformity
with its spiritual and universal character, could
love for God be produced in the human heart?</p>
<p>We will here, again, as the subject in hand is most
important, notice some of the conditions upon which
affection for an object may be produced in the heart.</p>
<p>The will is influenced by motives and by affection;
and all acts of will produced entirely by pure affection,
are disinterested acts. There is, probably, no one living,
who has attained to maturity of years, but has, at some
period of life, felt affection for another, so that it was
more gratifying to please the object of his affection than
to please himself. Love for another always influences
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>91]</a></span>
the will to do those things which please the object
loved; and the acts which proceed from affection are
disinterested, not being done with any selfish end in
view, but to conform to the will and meet the desires of
another. The moment the affections are fixed upon an
object, the will is drawn into union with the will of the
object loved; and if that object be regarded as superior,
in proportion as he rises above us in the scale of being,
to obey his will and secure his regard becomes a spontaneous
volition of the soul; and the pleasure that arises
from affectionate compliance with the will of a worthy
and loved object, does not arise because it is sought for,
but from the constitution the Maker has given to the
human soul; it is the result of its activity, produced in
accordance with the law of love.</p>
<p>All happy obedience must arise from affection, exercised
towards the object obeyed. Obedience which
arises from affection blesses the spirit which yields it, if
the conscience approve of the object obeyed. While, on
the contrary, no being can be happy in obeying one
whom he does not love. To obey a parent, or to obey
God, from interested motives, would be sin. The devil
might be obeyed for the same reasons. All enlightened
minds agree to what the Bible confirms, and what reason
can clearly perceive, without argument, that love for
God is essential to every act of religious duty. To tender
obedience or homage to God, while we had no love for
him in our hearts, would be dishonourable to the Maker,
and doing violence to our own nature.</p>
<p>When an object presents itself to the attention, whose
character engages the heart, then the affections flow out,
and the soul acts sweetly in this new relation. There is
a bond of sympathy between the hearts of the two beings,
and those things which affect the one affect the other, in
proportion to the strength of the cherished affection.
One meets the desires and conforms to the will of the
other, not from a sense of obligation merely, but from
choice. And in thus giving and receiving affection, the
soul experiences its highest enjoyment, its greatest
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>92]</a></span>
good; and when the understanding perceives, in the
object loved, perfections of the highest character, and
affection of the purest kind for those that love him, the
conscience sanctions the action of the heart and the
obedience of the will, and all the moral powers of the
soul unite in happy and harmonious action.</p>
<p>We return, now, to the problem—Under the spiritual
dispensation of Christ, how could the affections of the
soul be awakened by faith, and fixed upon God their
proper object?</p>
<p>The principle has been stated, which everyone will
recognise as true in his own experience, that the more we
feel the want of a benefactor, temporal or spiritual, and
the more we feel our inability to rescue ourselves from
existing difficulties and impending dangers, the more
grateful love will the heart feel for the being who, moved
by kindness, and in despite of personal sacrifices, interposes
to assist and save us.</p>
<p>Under the Old Testament dispensation the affections of
the Israelites were educed and fixed upon God in accordance
with this law of the soul. They were placed in
circumstances of abject need; and from this condition
of suffering and sorrow, God delivered them, and thus
drew their hearts to himself. Now the Jews, as has been
noticed, supposed that the Messiah would appear, and
again confer upon them similar favours, by delivering
them from their state of dependence and subjection as a
nation. But a temporal deliverance of this kind, as has
been shown, was not consistent with the design of Christ’s
perfect and spiritual dispensation, which was designed to
save men from sin and spiritual bondage, and restore
them to spiritual happiness by restoring them to affectionate
obedience to the only living and true God.</p>
<p>The inquiry, then, presents itself, as a feeling of want
was necessary, in order that the soul might love the
Being who supplied that want—and as Jesus came to
bestow spiritual mercies upon mankind—<em>How could men
be brought to feel the want of a spiritual Benefactor and
Saviour?</em></p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>93]</a></span>
Allow the thought to be repeated again—According to
the constitution which God has given the soul, it must
feel the want of spiritual mercies before it can feel love
for the Giver of those mercies; and just in proportion as
the soul feels its lost, guilty, and dangerous condition, in
the same proportion will it exercise love to the Being who
grants spiritual favour and salvation. How, then, could
the spiritual want be produced in the souls of men, in
order that they might love the spiritual Benefactor?</p>
<p>Not by temporal bondage and temporal suffering,
because these would lead men to desire a temporal deliverance.
The only possible way by which man could be
made to hope for and appreciate spiritual mercies, and to
love a spiritual deliverer, would be to produce a conviction
in the soul itself of its evil condition, its danger as
a spiritual being, and its inability, unaided, to satisfy
the requirements of a spiritual law, or to escape its just
and spiritual penalty. If man could be made to perceive
that he was guilty and needy, that his soul was under
the condemnation of the holy law of a holy God, he would
then necessarily feel the need of a deliverance from sin
and its consequences; and in this way only could the
soul of man be led to appreciate spiritual mercies or love
a spiritual benefactor.</p>
<p>Mark another fact, in connection with the foregoing,
which is to be especially noticed, and which will be developed
fully in subsequent pages—The greater the kindness
and self-denial of a benefactor manifested in our behalf,
the warmer and the stronger will be the affection
which his goodness will produce in the human heart.</p>
<p>Here, then, are two facts growing out of the constitution
of human nature—First, the soul must feel its evil
and lost state, as the pre-requisite condition upon which
alone it can love a deliverer; Secondly, the degree of
kindness and self-denial in a benefactor, temporal or
spiritual, graduates the degree of affection and gratitude
that will be awakened for him.</p>
<p>Now, in view of these necessary conditions, mark the
means which God has used, and the manifestations which
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>94]</a></span>
he has made of himself, in order to secure the supreme
love of the human soul.</p>
<p>In the first place, <em>The soul is brought to see and feel its
evil and lost condition, and its need of deliverance</em>.</p>
<p>At the advent of Jesus, the Roman world was in precisely
the condition which was necessary to prepare it for
his doctrines. The Jews had the moral law written in
their Scriptures, and recognised it as the will of Jehovah;
and the Gentiles had its requirements, concerning their
duty to each other, and their duty to worship, written
upon their hearts. Both the doctors among the Jews,
and the schools of philosophy among the Gentiles, especially
those of the Stoics, taught the obligatory nature of
many of the important moral duties which man owes to
man. No period in the history of the heathen mind ever
existed before or since, when man’s relations to man
were so clearly perceived.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> The Jews, however, had
these advantages, that while the few intelligent Gentiles
received the instruction of the philosophers in relation
to morals as truth, it was truth without any higher
sanction than that of having been spoken by wise men,
and therefore it contained in itself no authority or weight
of obligation to bind the conscience; while they had the
Moral Law as a rule of duty, sanctioned by the authority
and infinite justice of Jehovah. Thus the moral virtues
assumed the sanction of religious duties; and they had
not only the moral precepts thus sanctioned, but, having
been taught the true character of God, their religious
duties were likewise united in the same sacred decalogue.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a>
For the views of the different schools of Grecian and Roman
philosophy at this period, and the amount of their indebtedness to
the Jewish Scriptures, see Enfield’s History of Philosophy. <a href="#FNanchor_33_33">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>There was, however, in the application of the law, one
most important and vital mistake, in relation to what constituted
human guilt. The moral law was generally
applied as the civil law, not to the acts of the spirit, but
to the acts of the body. It was applied to the external
conduct of men, not to the internal life. If there was
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>95]</a></span>
conformity to the letter of the law in external manners, there
was a fulfilment, in the eyes of the Jew and the Gentile,
of the highest claims that God or man held upon the
spirit. No matter how dark or damning were the exercises
of the soul, if it only kept its sin in its own habitation,
and did not develop it in action, the penalty of the
law was not laid to its charge. The character of the
spirit itself might be criminal, and all its exercises of
thought and feeling sensual and selfish, yet if it added
hypocrisy to its guilt, and maintained an outward conformity
to the law—a conformity itself produced by
selfishness—man judged himself, and others adjudged
him, guiltless. Man could not, therefore, understand his
own guilt, as a spiritual being, nor feel his condemned and
lost condition, until the requirements of the holy law were
applied to the exercises of his soul.</p>
<p>Now, Jesus applied the Divine law directly to the soul,
and laid its obligation upon the movements of the will
and the desires. He taught that all wrong thoughts and
feelings were acts of transgression against God, and as
such would be visited with the penalty of the Divine law.
Thus he made the law spiritual, and its penalty spiritual,
and appealing to the authority of the supreme God, he
laid its claims upon the naked soul. He entered the
secret recesses of the spirit’s tabernacle; he flashed the
light of the Divine law upon the awful secrets known
only to the soul itself; and with the voice of a God, he
spoke to the ‘I’ of the mind: ‘Thou shalt not will, nor
desire, nor feel wickedly.’</p>
<p>When he had thus shown that all the wrong exercises
of the soul were sin against God, and that the soul was
in a guilty condition, under the condemnation of the
Divine law, he then directs the attention to the spiritual
consequences of this guilt. These he declared to be
exclusion from the kingdom and presence of God, and
penalty which involved either endless spiritual suffering,
or destruction of the soul itself. The punishment which he
declared to be impending over the unbelieving and impenitent
spirit, he portrayed by using all those figures which
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>96]</a></span>
would lead men to apprehend the most fearful and unmitigated
spiritual misery.</p>
<p>Before the impenitent and unpardoned sinner there
was the destruction of the soul and body in hell—consignment
to a state of darkness, where the worm dieth
not, and the fire is not quenched—cursed and banished
from God into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
his angels—agonising in flame, and refused a drop of
water to mitigate the agony. Now, these figures, to the
minds both of Jews and Gentiles, must have conveyed a
most appalling impression of the misery that was impending
over the soul, unless it was relieved from sin, and
the consequent curse of the law. Jesus knew that the
Jews, especially, would understand these figures as implying
fearful future punishment: he therefore designed to
do, what was undoubtedly accomplished in the mind of
everyone that believed his instruction, which was, to produce
a conviction of sin in the soul, by applying to it the
requirements of the spiritual law of God, and by showing
that the penalty consequent upon sin was fearful and everlasting
destruction. We say, then, what everyone who has
followed these thoughts must perceive to be true, that the
instruction of Jesus would necessarily produce, in the
mind of everyone that believed, a conviction that he was
a guilty and condemned creature, and that an awful doom
awaited his soul, unless he received pardon and spiritual
deliverance.</p>
<p>Thus, then, by the instruction of Jesus Christ, showing
the spirituality and holiness of the Divine law, and applying
it, with its infinite sanctions, to the exercise of the
soul, that condition of mind was produced which alone
could prepare man to love a spiritual deliverer; and
there is no other way in which the soul could have been
prepared, in accordance with truth and the constitution of
its own nature, to appreciate the spiritual mercies of God,
and love him as a spiritual Saviour.</p>
<p>The law and the truth being exhibited by Christ in the
manner adapted to produce the condition of soul pre-requisite
to the exercise of affection for spiritual
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>97]</a></span>
deliverance—now, as God was the author of the law, and as he
is the only proper object both of supreme love and obedience;
and, as man could not be happy in obeying the
law without loving its author, it follows, that the thing
now necessary, in order that man’s affections might be fixed
upon the proper object of love and obedience, was, that
the supreme God should, by self-denying kindness, manifest
spiritual mercy to those who felt their spiritual wants,
and thus draw to himself the love and worship of mankind.
If any other being should supply the need, that
being would receive the love; it was therefore necessary
that God himself should do it, in order that the affection
of believers might centre upon the proper object.</p>
<p>But, notice, that in order to the accomplishment of
this end, without violating the moral constitution of the
universe, it would be essentially necessary that the holiness
of God’s law should be maintained. This would be
necessary, because the law is, in itself, the will of the Godhead,
and God himself must be unholy before his will can
be so. And whatever God may overlook in those who
know not their duty, yet, when he reveals his perfect
law, that law cannot, from the nature of its Author, allow
the commission of a single sin. But, besides, if its holiness
were not maintained, man is so constituted that he
could never become holy. Every change to a better course
in man’s life must be preceded by a conviction of error;
man cannot repent and turn from sin till he is convicted
of sin in himself. Now, if the holiness of the law, as a
standard of duty, was maintained, man might thus be
enlightened and convicted of sin, until he had seen and
felt the last sin in his soul; and if the law allowed one
sin, there would be no way of convicting man of that sin,
or of converting him from it; he would, therefore, remain,
in some degree, a sinner for ever. But, finally and conclusively,
if the holiness of the law was not maintained,
that sense of guilt and danger could not be produced
which is necessary in order that man may love a spiritual
Saviour. Jesus produced that condition by applying to
the soul the authority, the claims, and the sanctions of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>98]</a></span>
the holy law. It is impossible, therefore, in the nature of
things, for a sinful being to appreciate God’s mercy,
unless he first feel his justice as manifested in the holy
law. Love in the soul is produced by the joint influence
of the justice and mercy of God. The integrity of the
eternal law, therefore, must be for ever maintained.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a>
The preceding views are confirmed, both by the character of
the moral law, and by its design and exposition, as given by the
apostles of Christ. The moral law, or the rule and obligation of
moral rectitude in the sight of God, which is revealed in the
Scriptures, and interpreted by Christ as obligatory upon the thoughts
and feelings of the soul, is not only in its nature of perpetual and
universal obligation, and adapted to produce conviction of sin in
every soul that is sensible of transgressing its requirements; but
the Scriptures expressly declare that it was designed to produce
conviction of sin in the soul, in order to prepare it to receive the
gospel.</p>
<p>The moral law is set forth in the Scriptures as holy, just, and
good in its character; and whatever may be its effects upon the
soul itself, that its character is such no intelligent being in the
universe can doubt, because it requires of every one perfect holiness,
justice, and goodness; it requires that the soul should be perfectly
free from sin in the sight of God: and, as we have seen, God ought
not to allow one sin; if he did, the law would not be holy, nor
adapted to make men holy. But the more holy the law, the more
conviction it would produce in the mind of sinners. If the law
extended only to external conduct, men would not feel guilty for
their wrong thoughts, desires, or designs; and if it extended only
to certain classes of spiritual exercises, men would not feel guilty
for those which it did not condemn; but if it required that the soul
itself—the spiritual agent—the ‘I’ of the mind—should be holy,
and all its thoughts and feelings in accordance with the law of love
and righteousness, then the soul would be convicted of guilt for a
single wrong exercise, because, while it felt that the law was holy,
just, and good, it could not but feel condemned in breaking it.
When Christ came, therefore, every soul that was taught its
spirituality would be convicted of sin. One of two things men had
to do, either shut out its light from their soul, and refuse to believe
its spiritual and perfect requirements, or judge and condemn themselves
by those requirements. And while the law thus showed sin
to exist in the soul, and condemned the soul as guilty and liable to
its penalty, it imparted no strength to the sinner to enable him to
fulfil its requirements; it merely sets forth the true standard, which
is holy in itself, and which God must maintain; and, by its light, it
shows sinners their guilt, condemns them, and leaves them under its
curse.</p>
<p>Now, the Scriptures declare that this is the end which, by its
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"><!-- continuing footnote --></a></span>
nature, it is adapted to accomplish, and that it was revealed to men
with the design to accomplish this end, and thus lead men to see
and feel the necessity of justification and pardon by Jesus Christ.
The Scripture says, ‘It is easier for heaven and earth to pass than
one tittle of the law to fail.’ ‘The law worketh wrath: for where
there is no law, there is no transgression.’ ‘Moreover the law
entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded
grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by
Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Mark the following—‘Now we know that
what things soever the law saith it saith to them who are under the
law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge
of sin.’</p>
<p>The argument of the apostle in vindicating the holiness of the
law, while it, at the same time, produced conviction and condemnation,
is conclusive. ‘What shall we say then? Is the law
sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for
I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not
covet; (that is, I should not have felt covetousness to be sin,
except the law had condemned it as such;) for I was alive (that is,
not consciously condemned) without the law once; but when the
commandment came, sin revived, and I died; and the commandment,
which was ordained to life, (that is, which required the soul
to be holy and therefore alive to God,) I found to be unto death.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, (or acts shown to be
sin by the commandment,) deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore
the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and
good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God
forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, (that is, sin which did
exist in the soul, was made to appear in its true evil character,)
working death in me by that which is good; (that is, the holiness
of the law showed the evil of sin;) that sin by the commandment
might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is
spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.’ And then, for deliverance
from this bondage, he looks to Christ—‘For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin
and death,’ etc. And mark again—‘Is the law then against the
promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given
which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been
by the law (that is, while the law showed the soul unholy and
condemned to spiritual death, it provided no means for the relief of
the sinner—no influence by which love and holiness could be
produced in the heart). But the Scripture (that is, the revelation
of law in the Scriptures) hath concluded all under sin, that the
promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto
the faith which should afterwards be revealed; wherefore the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be
justified by faith.’</p>
<p>Now, from the above Scriptures it is evident that the apostle
understood the law not only to be adapted, but designed by its
Author, to show the soul its guilty and lost condition, its inability
to free itself from the condemnation to which it was liable, and to
prepare it, at the proper time, to love and trust in Christ for
salvation from sin, and spiritual death, the consequence of sin. <a href="#FNanchor_34_34">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>How, then, could God manifest that mercy to sinners
by which love to himself and to his law would be
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>100]</a></span>
produced, while his infinite holiness and justice would be
maintained?</p>
<p>We answer, in no way possible, but by some expedient
by which his justice and mercy would both be exalted.
If, in the wisdom of the Godhead, such a way could be
devised, by which God himself could save the soul from
the consequences of its guilt—by which he himself could
in some way suffer and make self-denials for its good;
and, by his own interposition, open a way for the soul to
recover from its lost and condemned condition, then the
result would follow inevitably, that every one of the
human family who had been led to see and feel his guilty
condition before God, and who believed in God thus
manifesting himself to rescue his soul from spiritual death—everyone,
thus believing, would, from the necessities
of his nature, be led to love God his Saviour; and mark,
the greater the self-denial and the suffering on the part
of the Saviour, in ransoming the soul, the stronger would
be the affection felt for him.</p>
<p>This is the central and vital doctrine of the plan of
salvation. We will now, by throwing light and accumulating
strength upon this doctrine from different points,
illustrate and establish it beyond the possibility of rational
doubt.</p>
<h3 class="inline">1. The testimony of Jesus that it was necessary man should
feel the want, in order to exercise the love.</h3>
<p>Jesus uniformly speaks of it as being necessary that,
previously to accepting him as a Saviour, the soul should
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>101]</a></span>
feel the need of salvation. He does not even invite the
thoughtless sinner, or the Godless worldling, who has no
sense of the evil or the guilt of sin, to come to him.
Said Jesus, ‘I came not to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance.’ ‘They that are whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick.’ ‘Come unto me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’
‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.’
‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness for they shall be filled.’ Thus, the points
which have been shown to be necessary, from the constitution
of things, in order to the soul’s loving God, are
presented in the same light by Jesus himself; and upon
the principle which they involve, he acted during his
ministry.</p>
<h3 class="inline">2. The testimony of the Scriptures that God did thus manifest
himself as suffering and making self-denials for the spiritual
good of men.</h3>
<p>‘God was in Christ,’ says the apostle, ‘reconciling the
world to himself;’ that is, God was in Christ doing those
things that would restore to himself the obedience and
affection of everyone that believed. Christ represents himself
as a ransom for the soul, as laying down his life for
sinners. He is represented as descending from a state of
the highest felicity; taking upon him the nature of man,
and humbling himself even to the death of the cross, a
death of the most excruciating torture; and thus bearing
the sins of men in his own body on the tree, that through
his death God ‘might be just, and the justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus.’</p>
<p>It was thus, by a self-denial surpassing description,
by a life of labour for human good, accomplished by constant
personal sacrifices, and tending at every step towards
the centre of the vortex, he went on until, finally, life
closed to a crisis, by the passion in the garden, the rebuke,
and the buffeting, and the cruel mockery of the Jews
and the Romans: and then, bearing his cross, faint with
former agony of spirit, and his flesh quivering with recent
scourging, he goes to Calvary, where the agonised Sufferer
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>102]</a></span>
for human sin cried, ‘<strong><span class="smcap">It is finished</span></strong>;’ and gave up the
ghost.</p>
<p>Such is the testimony of the Scriptures; and it may
be affirmed, without hesitancy, that it would be impossible
for the human soul to exercise full faith in the testimony
that it was a guilty and needy creature, condemned
by the holy law of a holy God; and that from this condition
of spiritual guilt and danger, Jesus Christ suffered
and died to accomplish its ransom—we say a human
being could not exercise full faith in these truths and not
love the Saviour.</p>
<h3 class="inline">3. The atonement of Christ produces the necessary effect
upon the human soul, in restoring it to affectionate obedience,
which neither philosophy, law, nor perceptive truth could
accomplish.</h3>
<p>The wisdom of Divine Providence was conspicuous in
the fact that, previously to the introduction of Christianity,
all the resources of human wisdom had been
exhausted in efforts to confer upon man true knowledge
and true happiness. Although most of the great names
of antiquity were conspicuous rather for those properties
which rendered them a terror and a scourge to mankind;
and although society, among the ancients, in its best
state, was little better than semi-barbarism, yet there was
a class in society, during the Augustan and Periclean
ages, and even at some periods before the last-named,
that was cultivated in mind and manners.</p>
<p>From this class, individuals at times arose who were
truly great—men distinguished alike for the strength,
compass, and discrimination of their intellect. In all the
efforts of these men, with the exception of those who
applied themselves exclusively to the study of physical
phenomena, the great end sought was the means or secret
of human happiness. All admitted that human nature,
as they found it, was in an imperfect or depraved condition,
and not in the enjoyment of its chief good; and
the plans they proposed by which to obtain that happiness
of which they believed the soul susceptible, were as
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>103]</a></span>
various and diverse from each other as can be imagined.
No one of these plans ever accomplished, in any degree,
the end desired; and no one of them was ever adapted to,
or embraced by, the common people. The philosophers
themselves, after wrangling for the honour of having discovered
truth, and making themselves miserable in the
pursuit of happiness, died; and man was left unsatisfied
and unhappy, philosophy having shed only sufficient light
upon his mind to disclose more fully the guilty and
wretched state of his heart.</p>
<p>There are, perhaps, two exceptions to these remarks
as applied to the great minds of antiquity: those are
Socrates and his pupil Plato. These men, with a far-penetrating
insight into the constitutional wants of man,
contemplating the disordered and unhappy condition of
human nature, and inquiring for a remedy adequate to
enlighten the mind, and give the heart a satisfying good,
perceived that there was not in the resources of philosophy,
nor within the compass of human means, any
power that could reach the source of the difficulty, and
rectify the evil of human nature, which consisted in a
want of benevolent affection.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Inferring from the nature
of man what would be necessary, and trusting in the
goodness of the Deity to grant the requisite aid, they
expressed their belief that a Divine Teacher would come
from heaven, who would restore truth and happiness to
the human soul.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a>
That Plato had some idea of the want, and none of what was
necessary to supply it, may be seen in the fact that in order to make
men love as brethren, which he saw to be necessary, he recommended
a community of wives to the members of his ideal republic. <a href="#FNanchor_35_35">Back</a></p>
</div>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a>
In Plato’s dialogue upon the duties of religious worship, a
passage occurs, the design of which appears to be, to show that man
could not, of himself, learn either the nature of the gods, or the
proper manner of worshipping them, unless an instructor should
come from heaven. The following remarkable passage occurs
between Socrates and Alcibiades:—</p>
<p><i>Socrates.</i>—To me it appears best to be patient. It is necessary
to wait till you learn how you ought to act towards the gods, and
towards men.</p>
<p><i>Alcibiades.</i>—When, O Socrates, shall that time be? and who
shall instruct me? for most willingly would I see this person, who
he is.</p>
<p><i>Socrates.</i>—He is one who cares for you; but, as Homer represents
Minerva as taking away darkness from the eyes of Diomedes,
that he might distinguish a god from a man: so it is necessary that
he should first take away the darkness from your mind, and then
bring near those things by which you shall know good and evil.</p>
<p><i>Alcibiades.</i>—Let him take away the darkness, or any other
thing, if he will; for whoever this man is, I am prepared to refuse
none of the things which he commands, if I shall be made better.—<i>Platonis
Alcibiad.</i> ii. <a href="#FNanchor_36_36">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>104]</a></span>
It is strange that among philosophers of succeeding
ages there has not been wisdom sufficient to discover,
from the constitutional necessities of the human spirit,
that demand for the instruction and aid of the Messiah
which Socrates and Plato discovered, even in a comparatively
dark age.</p>
<p>There are two insuperable difficulties which would for
ever hinder the restoration of mankind to truth and
happiness from being accomplished by human means.
The first, which has been already alluded to, is that
human instruction, as such, has no power to bind the
conscience. Even if man were competent to discover all
the truth necessary for a perfect rule of conduct, yet
that truth would have no reformatory power, because
men could never feel that truth was obligatory which
proceeded from merely human sources. It is an obvious
principle of our nature that the conscience will not
charge guilt on the soul for disobedience, when the command
proceeds from a fellow man who is not recognised
as having the prerogative and the right to require submission.
And besides, as men’s minds are variously
constituted, and of various capacities, there could be no
agreement in such a case concerning the question, ‘What
is truth?’ As well might we expect two schoolboys to
reform each other’s manners in school, without the aid of
the teacher’s authority, as that men can reform their
fellows without the sanction of that authority which will
quicken and bind the conscience. The human conscience
was made to recognise and enforce the authority
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>105]</a></span>
of God; and unless there is belief in the Divine obligation
of truth, conscience refuses to perform its office.</p>
<p>But the grand difficulty is this:—Truth, whether sanctioned
by conscience or not, has no power, as has been
shown, to produce love in the heart. The law may convict
and guide the mind, but it has no power to soften
or to change the affections. This was the precise thing
necessary, and this necessary end the wisdom of the
world could not accomplish. All the wisdom of all the
philosophers in all ages could never cause the affections
of the soul to rise to the holy, blessed God. To destroy
selfish pride, and produce humility—to eradicate the evil
passions, and produce in the soul desires for the universal
good, and love for the universal Parent, were
beyond the reach of earthly wisdom and power. The
wisdom of the world in their efforts to give truth and
happiness to the human soul, was foolishness with God;
and the wisdom of God—Christ crucified—was foolishness
with the philosophers, in relation to the same subject;<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a>
yet it was Divine philosophy: an adapted means,
and the only adequate means, to accomplish the necessary
end. Said an apostle, in speaking upon this subject:
‘The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek
after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, unto the
Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness:
but unto them which are called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>106]</a></span>
God.’ The Jews, while they required a sign, did not
perceive that miracles, in themselves, were not adapted
to produce affection. And the Greeks, while they
sought after wisdom, did not perceive that all the
wisdom of the Gentiles would never work love in the
heart. But the apostle preached ‘Christ crucified,’ an
exhibition of self-denial, of suffering, and of self-sacrificing
love and mercy, endured in behalf of men; which,
when received by faith, became ‘the power of God, and
the wisdom of God,’ to produce love and obedience in
the human soul. Paul understood the efficacy of the
cross. He looked to Calvary and beheld Christ crucified
as the sun of the Gospel system. Not as the moon, reflecting
cold and borrowed rays; but as the Sun of
righteousness, glowing with radiant mercy, and pouring
warm beams of life and love into the open bosom of the
believer.</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a>
From an observation of one of the Fathers, it would seem that
after the Gospel had been preached among the Greeks, many of
them perceived its adaptedness to accomplish the end for which
they had sought in vain. ‘Philosophy,’ says Clemens, of Alexandria,
‘led the Greeks to Christ, as the law did the Jews.’</p>
<p>Concluding paragraph of the apology of M. Minucius Felix in
defence of Christianity, <small>A.D.</small> 250:</p>
<p>‘To conclude: the sum of our boasting is, that we are got into
possession of what the philosophers have been always in quest of;
and what, with all their application, they could never find. Why,
then, so much ill-will stirring against us? If Divine truth is come
to perfection in our time, let us make a good use of the blessing;
let us govern our knowledge with discretion; let superstition and
impiety be no more; and let true religion triumph in their stead.’ <a href="#FNanchor_37_37">Back</a></p>
</div>
<h3 class="inline">4. Analogy between the moral and physical laws of the
universe.</h3>
<p>The laws which govern physical nature are analogous
to those which the gospel introduces into the spiritual
world. The earth is held to the sun by the power of
attraction, and performs regularly its circuit round the
central sustaining luminary: maintaining, at the same
time, its equal relations with its sister planets. But the
moral system upon the earth is a chaos of derangement.
The attraction of <em>affection</em> which holds the soul to God
has been broken, and the soul of man, actuated by
selfishness—revolving upon its own centre only—jars in
its course with its fellow spirits, and crosses their orbits;
and the whole system of the spiritual world upon earth
revolves in disorder, the orbs wandering and rolling
away from that centre of moral life and power which
alone could hold them in harmonious and happy motion.
Into the midst of this chaos of disordered spirits, God,
the Sun of the spiritual world, came down. He shed
light upon the moral darkness, and by coming near, like
the approaches of a mighty magnet, the attraction of
his mercy, as manifested in Christ crucified, became so
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>107]</a></span>
powerful, that many spirits, rolling away into darkness
and destruction, felt the efficacy, and were drawn back,
and caused to move again, in their regular orbits, around
the ‘Light,’ and ‘Life,’ and ‘Love’ of the spiritual system.</p>
<p>If free agency could be predicated of the bodies of the
solar system, the great law which governs their movements
might be imposed on them—<em>of attraction to the
Sun, and mutual attraction among themselves</em>. Similar is
the great law of the spiritual world: ‘Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy soul, and thy neighbour
as thyself.’ Now, if a planet had broken away from its
orbit, it would have a tendency to fly off for ever, and it
never could be restored, unless the sun, the great centre
of attraction, could, in some way, follow it in its wanderings,
and thus by the increased power of his attraction,
as he approached nearer to the fallen planet, attach it to
himself, and then draw it back again to its original
orbit. So with the human spirit; its affections were
alienated from God, the centre of spiritual attraction,
and they could never have been restored, unless God had
approached, and by the increased power of his mercy, as
manifested in the self-denial, sufferings, and death of
Christ, united man again to himself, by the power of
affection, that he might thus draw him up from his
misery and sin, to revolve around him, in harmony and
love, for ever.</p>
<p>If this earth had, by some means, broken away from
the sun, there would be no way possible of recovering it
again to its place in the system but that which has been
mentioned—that the sun should leave his central position,
and approach the wandering orb, and thus, by the
increased power of his attraction, draw back the earth to
its original position. But the sun could not thus leave
the centre of the system without drawing all the other
planets from their orbits by the movement to recover
the lost one. The relations of the system would be
broken up, and the whole solar economy sacrificed, if the
universal and equal law of gravitation were infringed by
the sun changing his position and his relations in the system.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>108]</a></span>
Further, the established laws of the physical universe
would render it impossible that any other planet should
be the instrument of recovering the earth to the sun.
If another planet should approach the earth while thus
wandering, the increased power of attraction would cause
the two globes to revolve round each other; or if the approaching
planet was of greater magnitude, the earth
would revolve as a satellite round it. But this would
not be to restore the earth to its place in the system,
nor to its movement round the sun, but to fix it in a
wrong position and a wrong movement, and thus alienate
it for ever from the central source of light and heat. It
follows, therefore, that in accordance with the established
laws of the solar system, the earth could never be
recovered, but would fly off for ever, or be broken into
asteroids.</p>
<p>There would, therefore, be no way possible for the
recovery of the earth, unless God should adopt an expedient
unknown to the physical laws of the universe.
This, all who believe that God is almighty, and himself
the Author of those laws, will allow that he might do.
That expedient must not destroy the great laws of the
system, upon which the safety of all its parts depends,
but an augmented force of attraction must be thrown
upon the earth from the sun itself, which would be sufficient
to check the force of its departing momentum, and
gradually draw it back to its place. If a portion of the
magnetic power of the sun could be thrown into the
earth, an adhesion would take place between it and the
earth, and then, after the cord was fastened, if that body
of attractive matter could ascend again to the body of
the sun, the earth would receive the returning impulse,
and a new and peculiar influence would be created to
draw it back to its allegiance to the sun. If, as has been
said, the power came from any other body but the sun
itself, or attracted towards any other body, the earth
would lose its place in the system for ever.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a>
These illustrations are not to be applied to the mode of
existence, or subsistence, in the Godhead; but as God is the Author
of both the physical and moral laws, and as the attraction of
gravitation in physics corresponds with the attraction of affection
in morals, an analogy of what would be necessary under one, is
taken to what was accomplished by Christ under the other. <a href="#FNanchor_38_38">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>109]</a></span>
So in the moral world: God’s relations to the moral
universe must be sustained. The infinite justice and
holiness of the Divine law must not be compromised.
The end to be gained is, to draw man, as a revolted
sinner, back to God, while the integrity of God’s moral
government is maintained. Now <em>affection</em> is the attraction
of the moral universe. And, in accordance with the
foregoing deduction, to reclaim alienated man to God
would be impossible, unless there should be a manifestation
of the Godhead in the world to attract to himself
man’s estranged affections; and then, after the affinity
was fastened by faith, by his ascending again to the
bosom of the Deity, mankind would thus be gradually
drawn back to allegiance to Jehovah.</p>
<h3 class="inline">5. Illustrations from nature and the Scriptures.</h3>
<p>The plan of salvation is likened to a vine which has fallen
down from the boughs of an oak. It lies prone upon the
ground; it crawls in the dust, and all its tendrils and
claspers, which were formed to hold it in the lofty place
from which it has fallen, are twined around the weed and
the bramble, and having no strength to raise itself, it lies
fruitless and corrupting, tied down to the base things of
the earth. Now, how shall the vine arise from its fallen
condition? But one way is possible for the vine to rise
again to the place from whence it had fallen. The bough
of the lofty oak must be let down, or some communication
must be formed connected with the top of the oak, and at
the same time with the earth. Then, when the bough of
the oak was let down to the place where the vine lay, its
tender claspers might fasten upon it, and, thus supported,
it might raise itself up, and bloom and bear fruit again in
the lofty place from whence it fell. So with man—his
affections had fallen from God, and were fastened to the
base things of the earth. Jesus Christ came down, and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>110]</a></span>
by his humanity stood upon the earth, and by his Divinity
raised his hands and united himself with the Deity of the
everlasting Father: thus the fallen affections of man may
fasten upon him, and twine around him, until they again
ascend to the bosom of the Godhead, from whence they fell.</p>
<p>It was thus that prophets, evangelists, apostles, and the
Son of God himself, presented the Divine scheme of
human redemption. Christ is the ‘Branch’ by which
the vine may recover itself from its prone and base condition:
he is the ‘Arm of the Lord’ by which he reaches
down and rescues sinful men from the ruins of the fall:
‘through whom,’ says Peter, ‘ye believe in God’ [that
is, believe in God manifested through Christ], ‘that raised
him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith
and hope might be in God.’ Says Paul, ‘Your life is hid
with Christ in God.’ Jesus himself proclaimed that the
believer should have within him ‘a well of water, springing
up into everlasting life’—that is, he that believeth
in Christ crucified, the hard heart within him will be
struck by the rod of faith, and in his soul there will be
a well of pure and living affection springing up to God for
ever. And again: ‘Jesus cried and said, He that believeth
on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent
me, and he that seeth me seeth him that sent me’—that
is, Christ was <em>God acting</em>, developing the Divine attributes
through human nature, so that men might apprehend and
realise them. God might have been as merciful as he is
if Christ had never died; but man could never have known
the extent, nor felt the power, of his mercy, but by the
exhibition on the cross. His mercy could have been
manifested to man’s heart in no other way. And men
cannot love God for what he truly is, unless they love
him as manifested in the suffering and death of Christ
Jesus. ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man
cometh unto the Father but by me.’ ‘If ye had known
me, ye would have known my Father also; and from
henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.’</p>
<h3 class="inline">6. The preceding views established by reductio ad absurdum.</h3>
<p>It is necessary that man should know the character of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>111]</a></span>
the true God, and feel the influence of that character upon
his mind and heart. But human nature, as at present
constituted, could not be made to feel the goodness of
God’s mercy unless God—blessed be his name!—should
make self-denials for man’s benefit; either by assuming
human nature, or in some other way. And is it not true
that God could make self-denials for men in no other way
than would be plain to their apprehension, except by
embodying his Godhead in human nature? Mercy can
be manifested to man, so as to make an impression upon
his heart, in no other way than by labour and self-denial.
This principle is obvious. Suppose an individual is confined,
under condemnation of the law, and the governor,
in the exercise of his powers, pardons him: this act of
clemency would produce upon the heart of the criminal
no particular effect, either to make him grateful, or to
make him better. He might, perhaps, be sensible of a
complacent feeling for the release granted; but so long as he
knew that his release cost the governor nothing but an act
of his will, there would be no basis in the prisoner’s mind
for gratitude and love. The liberated man would feel
more gratitude to one of his friends, who had laboured to
get petitions before the governor for his release, than to
the governor who released him. To vary the illustration:
Suppose that two persons, who are liable to be destroyed
in the flames of a burning dwelling, are rescued by two
separate individuals. The one is enabled to escape by an
individual who, perceiving his danger, steps up to the door
and opens it, without any effort or self-denial on his part.
The other is rescued in a different manner. An individual,
perceiving his danger and liability to death, ascends
to him, and by a severe effort, and while he is himself
suffering from the flames, holds open the door until the
inmate escapes for his life. Now, the one who opened
the door without self-denial may have been merciful, and
the individual relieved would recognise the act as a kindness
done to one in peril; but no one would feel that <em>that</em> act
proved that the man who delivered the other manifested
any special mercy, because any man would have done the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>112]</a></span>
same act. But the one who ascended the ladder and
rescued, by peril, and by personal suffering, the individual
liable to death, would manifest special mercy, and all
who observed it would acknowledge the claim; and the
individual rescued would feel the mercy of the act, melting
his heart into gratitude to his deliverer unless his heart
were a moral petrifaction.</p>
<p>What are, in reality, the facts by which alone men
may know that any being possesses a benevolent nature?
Not, certainly, by that being conferring benefits upon
others, which cost him neither personal labour nor self-denial;
because we could not tell but these favours
would cease the moment they involved the least degree
of sacrifice, or the moment they interfered with his selfish
interests. But when it requires a sacrifice, on the
part of a benefactor, to bestow a favour, and that sacrifice
is made, then benevolence of heart is made evidently
manifest. Now mark—any being who is prompted, by
benevolence of heart, to make sacrifices, may not lose
happiness, in the aggregate, by so doing; for a benevolent
nature finds happiness in performing benevolent acts.
Self-denials are, therefore, not only the appropriate
method of manifesting benevolence to men, but they are
likewise the appropriate manifestations of a benevolent
nature. Now, suppose God is perfectly benevolent;
then, it follows in view of the foregoing deductions, in
order to manifest his true nature to men, self-denials would
be necessary, in order that men might see and feel that
‘God is love.’ It is clear, therefore, that those who reject
the Divinity of Christ, as connected with the atonement,
cannot believe in God’s benevolence; because God is really
as benevolent as the self-denials of Christ (believed in as
Divine) will lead men to feel that he is: nor can they
believe in the mercy of God in any way that will produce
an effect upon their hearts. To say that the human
heart can be deeply affected by mercy that is not manifested
by self-denial, is to show but little knowledge of
the springs which move the inner life of the human
soul. Man will feel a degree of love and gratitude for a
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>113]</a></span>
benefactor who manifests an interest in his wants, and
labours to supply them; but he will feel a greater
degree of grateful love for the benefactor who manifests
an interest in his wants, and makes self-denials to aid
him. To deny, therefore, the Divine and meritorious
character of the atonement, is to shut out both the
evidence and the effect of God’s mercy from the soul.</p>
<p>In accordance with this view is the teaching of the
Scriptures. There is but one thing which is charged
against men, in the New Testament, as a fundamental
and soul-destroying <em>heresy</em>, and that is, not denying the
Lord, but ‘denying the Lord that bought them.’ It is rejecting
the purchase of Christ by his self-denying atonement
which causes the destruction of the soul, because it rejects
the truth which alone can produce love to the God of love.</p>
<p>But further: the facts have been fully proved, that
God Jehovah, by taking a personal interest in the well-being
of the Israelites, and labouring to secure their
redemption, secured their affections to himself; and that
his acts of mercy produced this effect was manifested by
their song after their final deliverance at the Red Sea.
‘I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed
gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into
the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is
become my salvation.’ In like manner, Jesus Christ
secured to himself, in a greater degree, the affections of
Christians, by his self-denying life and death, to ransom
them from spiritual bondage and misery. The Israelites
in Egypt were under a temporal law so severe, that
while they suffered in the greatest degree, they could
not fulfil its requirements: they therefore loved Jehovah
for temporal deliverance. The believer was under a
spiritual law, the requirements of which he could not
fulfil, and therefore he loved Christ for spiritual deliverance.
This fact, that the supreme affection of believers
was thus fixed upon Christ, and fixed upon him in view
of his self-sacrificing love for them, is manifest throughout
the whole New Testament—even more manifest than
that the Jews loved Jehovah for temporal deliverance.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>114]</a></span>
‘The love of Christ constraineth us,’ says one: thus
manifesting that his very life was actuated by affection
for Jesus. Says another—speaking of early Christians
generally—‘Whom [Christ] having not seen, ye love; in
whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.’ The
Bible requires religious men to perform religious duties,
moved by love to Christ: ‘And whatsoever ye do, do it
heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men; knowing
that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance:
for ye serve the Lord Christ.’ Mark—these
Christians were moved in what they did, what they
said, and what they felt, by love to Christ: love to Jesus
actuated their whole being, body and soul. It governed
them.</p>
<p>Now, suppose that Jesus Christ was not God, nor a
true manifestation of the Godhead in human nature, but
a man, or angel, authorised by God to accomplish the
redemption of the human race from sin and misery. In
doing this, it appears, from the nature of things, and
from the Scriptures, that he did what was adapted to,
and what does, draw the heart of every true believer—as
in the case of the apostle and the early Christians—to
himself, as the supreme or governing object of affection.
Their will is governed by the will of Christ; and
love to him moves their heart and hands. Now, if it be
true that Jesus Christ is not God, then he has devised
and executed a plan by which the supreme affections of
the human heart are drawn to himself, and alienated
from God, the proper object of love and worship: and,
God having authorised this plan, he has devised means
to make man love Christ, the creature, more than the
Creator, who is God over all, blessed for evermore.</p>
<p>But it is said that, Christ having taught and suffered
by the will and authority of God, we are under obligation
to love God for what Christ has done for us. It is
answered, that this is impossible. We cannot love one
being for what another does or suffers on our behalf.
We can love no being for labours and self-denials in our
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>115]</a></span>
behalf, but that being who voluntarily labours and
denies himself. It is the kindness and mercy exhibited
in the self-denial that moves the affections; and the
affections can move to no being but the one that makes
the self-denials, because it is the self-denials that draw
out the love of the heart.</p>
<p>It is still said, that Christ was sent by God to do his
will and not his own; and therefore we ought to love
God, as the Being to whom gratitude and love are due
for what Christ said and suffered. Then it is answered:
If God willed that Christ, as a creature of his, should
come, and by his sufferings and death redeem sinners,
we ought not to love Christ for it, because he did it as a
creature, in obedience to the commands of God, and was
not self-moved nor meritorious in the work; and we
cannot love God for it, for the labour and self-denial
were not borne by him. And further: If one being,
by an act of his authority, should cause another innocent
being to suffer, in order that he might be loved who had
imposed the suffering, but not borne it, it would render
him unworthy of love. If God had caused Jesus Christ,
being his creature, to suffer, that he might be loved
himself for Christ’s sufferings, while he had no connection
with them, instead of such an exhibition, on the
part of God, producing love to him, it would produce
pity for Christ, and aversion towards God. So that,
neither God, nor Christ, nor any other being, can be
loved for mercy extended, by self-denials to the needy,
unless those self-denials were produced by a voluntary
act of mercy upon the part of the being who suffers
them; and no being, but the one who made the sacrifices,
could be meritorious in the case. It follows, therefore,
incontrovertibly, that if Christ was a creature—no
matter of how exalted worth—and not God; and if God
approved of his work in saving sinners, he approved of
treason against his own government; because, in that
case, the work of Christ was adapted to draw, and did
necessarily draw, the affections of the human soul to
himself, as its spiritual Saviour, and thus alienate them
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>116]</a></span>
from God, their rightful object. And Jesus Christ himself
had the design of drawing men’s affections to himself
in view, by his crucifixion: says he, ‘And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.’
This he said, signifying what death he should die: thus
distinctly stating that it was the self-denials and mercy
exhibited in the crucifixion that would draw out the
affections of the human soul, and that those affections
would be drawn to himself as the suffering Saviour.
But that God would sanction a scheme which would
involve treason against himself, and that Christ should
participate in it, is absurd and impossible, and therefore
cannot be true.</p>
<p>But if the Divine nature was united with the human
in the teaching and work of Christ—if ‘God was in
Christ,’ [drawing the affections of men, or] ‘reconciling
the world unto himself’—if, when Christ was lifted up,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, he
drew, as he said he would, the affections of all believers
unto himself; and then, if he ascended, as the second
person of the Trinity, into the bosom of the eternal Godhead—he
thereby, after he had engaged, by his work on
earth, the affections of the human soul, bore them up to
the bosom of the Father, from whence they had fallen.
Thus the ruins of the fall were rebuilt, and the affections
of the human soul again restored to God, the Creator,
and proper object of supreme love. Oh the length, and
the breadth, and the depth, and the height, of the
Divine wisdom and goodness, as manifested in the wonderful
plan of salvation! ‘Great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the
Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, received up into glory.’ Amen.
Blessing and honour, dominion, and power, be unto Him
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for
ever and ever. Amen and amen.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>117]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="chap16" id="chap16"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE INFLUENCE OF FAITH IN CHRIST UPON THE MORAL
DISPOSITION AND MORAL POWERS OF THE SOUL.</span></h2>
<p>It has been demonstrated that the teaching and atonement
of God the Saviour would draw to him, by faith,
the affections of the human heart. We will now inquire
what particular effect that faith in Christ which works
by love has upon the moral disposition, the conscience,
the imagination, and the life of believers. Would faith
in Christ, as a Divine, suffering Saviour, quicken, and
regulate, and harmonize the moral powers of the soul?</p>
<p><em>1. The influence of faith in Christ upon the moral disposition
of the soul.</em>—When its disposition is affected, the
soul is affected to the centre of its being. By disposition
is meant the desires or predilections of the heart, which
influence the choice of the will to do good or evil. The
radical difference of character in spirits depends upon
their disposition. The spirit that has a settled love for
sin and hatred for holiness is a devil, whether it be in
time or eternity—embodied or disembodied. And that
spirit which has a settled love for holiness is a benevolent
spirit, in whatever condition it exists. A devil or
malignant spirit is one that seeks its gratification in
habitually doing evil. A holy being, or benevolent
spirit, is one that finds its gratification in habitually
doing good. Whatever, therefore, affects the moral disposition
of the soul, affects, radically, the character of
the soul. It becomes, therefore, a question of the
deepest interest—What effect will faith in Christ have
upon man’s moral disposition?</p>
<p>The solution of this inquiry is not difficult. Is Jesus
Christ holy? All Christendom—sceptics and believers—answers
in the affirmative. Now the love of a holy
being will, as a necessary result, counteract unholiness in
the heart. Holiness is the antagonistic principle of sin.
The soul cannot love a holy being, and at the same time
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>118]</a></span>
cherish those principles and exercises which it is conscious
are offensive to the soul of the beloved object.
From the nature of the case, love to holiness will produce
opposition to sin. Love is the fulfilling of the law,
and sin is the transgression of the law; so that, while
the soul is entirely actuated in all its exercises by pure
love to Christ, those exercises of the heart cannot be
sinful.</p>
<p>When the heart is attached to any being, especially
when that being is lovely and pure in his character, it
becomes averse to everything which, from its evil nature,
causes suffering to the object of its affections. There are
few things which will cause one to feel so sensibly the
evil of sin as to see that his sins are causing anguish to
one that he loves.</p>
<p>It is said of Zeleucus, a king of the ancient Locri, that
he enacted a law, the penalty of which was that the
offender should lose both his eyes. One of his sons
became a transgressor of that law. The father had his
attachment to his son, and regard to the law he himself
had promulgated as righteous in its requirements and in
its penalty. The lawgiver, it is said, ordered his son
into his presence, and required that one of his eyes
should be taken out, and then, in order to show mercy
to his son, and at the same time maintain the penalty of
the law, he sacrificed one of his own eyes as a ransom for
the remaining eye of his child. Now we do not refer
to this case as a perfect analogy, but to show the moral
effect of such an exhibition of justice and self-sacrificing
mercy. As man is constituted, it is perfectly certain
that this transaction would produce two effects; one
upon the subjects of the king, which would be to impress
upon every heart that the law was sacred, and that
the lawgiver thus regarded it. This impression would
be made much more strongly than it would have been if
the king had ordered that his son should lose both his
eyes; because it manifested, in the strongest manner
possible, his love for his son, and his sacred regard for
his law. If he had allowed his son to escape, it would
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>119]</a></span>
have exhibited to his subjects less love for his law; and
if he had executed the whole penalty of the law upon
the son, instead of bearing a portion of it himself, he
would have manifested less love for his son. The king
was the lawgiver; he therefore had the power to pardon
his son, without inflicting the penalty upon him, and
without enduring any sacrifice himself. Every mind,
therefore, would feel that it was a voluntary act on the
part of the king; and such an exhibition of justice and
mercy, maintaining the law and saving his son by his
own sacrifice, would impress all minds with the deepest
reverence for the character of the lawgiver, and for the
sacredness of the law.</p>
<p>But another effect, deep and lasting in its character,
would be produced upon the son who had transgressed
the law. Every time that he looked upon his father,
or remembered what he had suffered for his transgression,
it would increase his love for him, increase his reverence
for the law, and cause an abhorrence of his crime to
arise in his soul. His feelings would be more kind
towards his sire, more submissive to the law, and more
averse to transgression.</p>
<p>Now this is precisely the effect necessary to be produced,
in order that pardon may be extended to transgressors,
and yet just and righteous government be
maintained. If civil law had some expedient by which,
with the offer of pardon, some influence could be exerted
upon the heart of the transgressor which would entirely
change his character; an influence which would make
him love the law he had transgressed, hate the crime he
had committed, hate himself for committing it, and
implant within him the spirit of an obedient and faithful
subject—if such an effect could be produced by
pardon, then pardon would be safe; because there
would be some means, or some moral power, connected
with it, that would, at the same time that the pardon
was granted, change the moral disposition of the criminal
from that of a rebellious to that of a faithful and affectionate
subject. This expedient the civil law can never
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>120]</a></span>
have. Such an expedient was that of Zeleucus, the self-sacrificed
lawgiver and father. Such an expedient, in
some respects, in the moral government of God, is the
atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. ‘He,’ says the
prophet, ‘was bruised for our iniquities;’ says the
apostle, ‘He bare our sins in his own body on the
tree;’ says himself, ‘This is my body broken for you.’
Now two effects would follow this exhibition of the self-sacrificing
love of Christ. One in the heart of the believing
sinner; every time he realized by faith that the
Divine Saviour suffered the rebuke, the scorn, and the
cross, as a sacrifice for his sins, he would regard the
Saviour with greater love; and sin, which caused the
suffering of his Divine Benefactor, he would regard in
himself and others with greater abhorrence. Another
effect which would result would be that all the holy
beings in the universe, if they had knowledge of the self-sacrifice
of God the Saviour, as an atonement to maintain
the law and redeem sinners, would be inspired with
greater reverence for the eternal law, and greater aversion
to sin. Thus would the faith of Christ affect the
moral disposition of believers, and of all holy beings
throughout the universe; drawing the believer back to
holiness and obedience, and adding a new motive to confirm
holy beings in happy allegiance.</p>
<p>The language of the apostle confirms this view: ‘What
the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh’—that is,
the law, although it had power to show to the mind the
evil and the guilt of sin, had no power to produce in the
heart an aversion to it; but Christ coming in the body,
and dying for sin, in that way reaches man’s moral feelings,
and creates a sentiment of condemnation of, or
aversion to, sin in the heart of every believer.</p>
<p>A feeling cannot be manifested by intellect or will. A
communication of knowledge, or law, does not manifest
feeling so that it produces feeling in others. The moral
feelings of God were manifested by the sacrifice of Christ;
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>121]</a></span>
and that manifestation, through the flesh, affects the
moral feelings of man, assimilates them to God, and produces
an aversion to sin—the abominable thing which
God hates. Blessed faith! which, while it purifies the
heart, works by the sweet influence of love in accomplishing
the believer’s sanctification.</p>
<p><em>2. The influence of faith in Christ upon the moral sense, or
conscience of believers.</em>—To a mind endowed with the higher
qualities of reason, there can be no more interesting
thought than that noticed in a previous demonstration;
which was, that a man’s conscience is guided by his faith.
Conscience is the highest moral faculty, or rather the
governing moral power of the soul; and this governing
faculty is regulated and controlled by faith. Man’s conscience
always follows his religious belief, and changes
with it, and grows weak or strong with it. Now, as God
has so constituted the world that the affections, and likewise
the conscience, are affected and controlled by faith;
and the purity of the one, and the integrity of the other,
and the activity of both, depend upon what man believes:
this being true, no mind can avoid the conviction, that
the principle of <strong><small>FAITH</small></strong>, which Christ has laid at the foundation
of the Christian system, is from the nature of things,
the only principle through the operation of which man’s
moral powers can be brought into happy, harmonious,
and perfect activity. But this happy effect, as has been
shown, can be produced only by faith in the truth; and
besides, it is an intuition of reason, that God certainly
would not make the soul so that its moral powers would
be controlled by faith, and then cause that faith in falsehood
should perfect and make happy those powers. Such
a supposition would be a violation of reason, as well as
an impiety. In searching, therefore, for the answer to the
inquiry, What is truth? as it concerns the spiritual interests
of man, the direct process of solution would be, to
inquire what effect certain facts, or supposed facts, would
have upon the moral disposition and moral powers of the
soul; and that faith which quickens and rectifies those
powers, as we have noticed, is necessarily truth.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>122]</a></span>
We come now to the inquiry, <em>What effect has faith in
Christ—in his Divinity, in his teaching, and in his atonement
for sin—upon the conscience of believers?</em></p>
<p>The answer is plain. In those who received Christ as
possessing supreme authority as a Divine Teacher, their
faith would so affect their conscience, that it would reprove
for every neglect of conformity to the example of Jesus.
The moment faith recognises Christ as a Divine instructor,
that moment conscience recognises his instruction and
his example as obligatory to be received and practised.
To the believer, the teachings and example of Christ
have not only the force of truth, recognised as such by
the understanding, but they have likewise the authority
of supreme law, as coming from that Divine Being who
is the rightful Lawgiver of the soul. Now, then, if faith
in Christ would regulate the conscience according to his
example and precepts, the only inquiry which remains is,
Were the example and precepts of Christ a perfect rule
of duty towards God and men? This inquiry has been
the subject of examination in another chapter, in which
the fact was shown—which has been generally admitted
by all men, believers and sceptics—that Christ’s example
of piety towards God, and kindness towards men, was
perfect. When this is admitted, the consecutive fact
follows, whether men perceive it or not, that in the case
of all who receive him as their Lord and Lawgiver, the
conscience would be regulated according to a perfect
standard, and guided by a perfect rule.</p>
<p>But further—While it is true that a knowledge of
duty guides the conscience, and a knowledge of the
Divine authority of the lawgiver binds it, by imposing a
sense of obligation, it is likewise true that faith in Christ’s
atoning sacrifice has peculiar efficacy to strengthen this
sense of obligation. Two men may have an equal
knowledge of duty, and yet one feel, much more than
the other, a sense of obligation to perform it: whatever,
therefore, increases the sense of obligation, increases the
power of conscience, and thereby promotes in a greater
degree active conformity of the life to the rule of duty.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>123]</a></span>
The atonement of Christ increases the sense of obligation,
by waking into exercise gratitude and hope in
the soul of the believer. Gratitude gives the conscience
a power in the soul where it exists, which could arise
from no other source. Conscience reproves for the neglect
of known duty; but to neglect duty, when it involves
the sense of gratitude to the kindest of benefactors, is to
arm the moral sense of the soul with a two-edged sword.
When the lawgiver is likewise the benefactor, conscience
rebukes, not only for wrongdoing, but for ingratitude.
One step further—</p>
<p>When the being who claims our obedience is not only
our benefactor, but the object of all our hopes, the power
of obligation is still further increased. To disobey a
being whom we ought to obey, would be wrong; to
disobey that being, if he were our self-denying benefactor,
would be ingratitude added to the wrong; and to disobey
that being, if from him we hoped for all future
good, would be to add unworthiness to wrong and ingratitude.
Thus, faith in Christ Jesus combines the
sense of wrong, of ingratitude, and unworthiness, in the
rebuke which conscience gives to the delinquent believer;
and obedience to the Redeemer’s example and precepts is
enforced by the united power of duty, gratitude, and hope.</p>
<p>Further, and finally—Conscience recognises the fact
that our obligation of gratitude is in proportion to the
benefit conferred. If a benefactor has endured great
sacrifices and self-denials to benefit us, the obligation of
gratitude binds us the more strongly to respect the will
and feelings of that individual. Conscience feels the
obligation of gratitude just in proportion to the self-denials
and sacrifices made in our behalf. If a friend
risks his interest to the amount of a dollar, or an hour of
time, to benefit us, the obligation of gratitude upon the
conscience is light, but still there is a sense of obligation;
but if a friend risks his life, and wades through deep
afflictions, to confer benefits, the universal conscience of
man would affirm the obligation, and would reprobate
the conduct of the individual benefited, as base and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>124]</a></span>
unnatural, if he did not ever after manifest an affectionate
regard for the interests and the desires of his benefactor.</p>
<p>Thus, by faith in Jesus Christ, the conscience is not
only guided by a perfect rule, but it is likewise quickened
and empowered by a perfect sense of obligation. Christ
is the Divine Lawgiver; therefore it is right to obey him.
He is our Benefactor; gratitude, therefore, requires obedience.
But as our Benefactor he has endured the utmost
self-denial and sacrifice for our sake, therefore we are
under the utmost obligation of gratitude to return self-denial
and sacrifice for his sake; or, in the words of an
apostle, ‘He died for all, that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which
died for them, and rose again;’ and, added to this, our
hope of all future good rests in the same Being that right
and gratitude require us to obey and love. Thus does a
perfect faith in Christ perfect the conscience of believers,
by guiding, quickening, and by producing a perfect sense
of obligation.</p>
<p><em>3. The influence of faith, in Christ upon the imagination.</em>—There
are few exercises of the mind fraught with so
much evil, and yet so little regarded, as that of an evil
imagination. Many individuals spend much of their
time in a labour of spirit which is vain and useless, and
often very hurtful to the moral character of the soul.
The spirit is borne off upon the wings of an active imagination,
and expatiates among ideal conceptions that are
improbable, absurd, and sinful. Some people spend about
as much time in day-dreams as they do in night-dreams.
Imaginations of popularity, pleasure, or wealth employ
the minds of worldly men, and perchance the Christian
dreams of wealth, and of magnificent plans of benevolence,
or of schemes less pious in their character. It is
difficult to convey a distinct idea of the evil under consideration,
without supposing a case like the following:</p>
<p>One day, while a young man was employed silently
about his usual pursuits, he imagined a train of circumstances
by which he supposed himself to be put in possession
of great wealth; and then he imagined that he
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>125]</a></span>
would be the master of a splendid mansion surrounded
with grounds devoted to profit and amusement—he would
keep horses and conveyances that would be perfect in all
points, and servants that would want nothing in faithfulness
or affection—he would be great in the eyes of men,
and associate with the great among men, and render himself
admired or honoured by his generation. Thus his
soul wandered, for hours, amid the ideal creations of his
own fancy.</p>
<p>Now, much of men’s time, when their attention might
be employed by useful topics of thought, is thus spent in
building ‘castles in the air.’ Some extraordinary circumstance
is thought of by which they might be enriched,
and then hours are wasted in foolishly imagining the
manner in which they would expend their imaginary
funds. Such excursions of the fancy may be said to be
comparatively innocent, and they are so, compared with
the more guilty exercises of a great portion of mankind.
The mind of the politician and of the partisan divine is
employed in forming schemes of triumph over their opponents.
The minds of the votaries of fashion, of both
sexes, are employed in imagining displays and triumphs
at home and abroad; and those of them who are vicious
at heart, not having their attention engaged by any useful
occupation, pollute their souls by cherishing imaginary
scenes of folly and licentiousness. And not only the
worthless votaries of the world, but likewise the followers
of the holy Jesus, are sometimes led captive by an unsanctified
imagination. Not that they indulge in the
sinful reveries which characterise the unregenerate sons
and daughters of time and sense; but their thoughts
wander to unprofitable topics, and wander at times when
they should be fixed on those truths which have a sanctifying
efficacy upon the heart. In the solemn assemblies
for public worship, many of those whose bodies are
bowed and their eyes closed in token of reverence for
God, are yet mocking their Maker by assuming the external
semblance of worshippers, while their souls are
away roaming amid a labyrinth of irrelevant and sinful
thought.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>126]</a></span>
It is not affirmed that the exercises of the imagination
are necessarily evil. Imagination is one of the noblest
attributes of the human spirit; and there is something
in the fact that the soul has power to create, by its own
combinations, scenes of rare beauty, and of perfect happiness,
unsullied by the imperfections which pertain to
earthly things, that indicates not only its nobility, but
perhaps its future life. When the imagination is employed
in painting the beauties of nature, or in collecting
the beauties of sentiment and devotion, and in grouping
them together by the sweet measures of poetry, its exercises
have a benign influence upon the spirit. It is like
presenting ‘apples of gold in pictures of silver’ for the
survey of the soul. The imagination may degrade and
corrupt, or it may elevate and refine the feelings of the
heart. The inquiry, then, is important. How may the
exercises of the imagination be controlled and directed,
so that their influence upon the soul shall not be injurious,
but ennobling and purifying? Would faith in
Christ turn the sympathies of the soul away from those
gifted but guilty minds:</p>
<div class="cpoem27">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i4">‘Whose poisoned song<br /></span>
<span class="i0">Would blend the bounds of right and wrong;<br /></span>
<span class="i0">And hold, with sweet but cursed art,<br /></span>
<span class="i0">Their incantations o’er the heart,<br /></span>
<span class="i0">Till every pulse or pure desire<br /></span>
<span class="i0">Throbs with the glow of passion’s fire,<br /></span>
<span class="i0">And love, and reason’s mild control,<br /></span>
<span class="i0">Yield to the simoom of the soul?’<br /></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>When the conscience had become purified and quickened,
it would be a check upon the erratic movements of the
imagination; and when the disposition was corrected, it
would be disinclined to every unholy exercise; so that,
in the believer, the disinclination of the will and the
disapprobation of the conscience would be powerful aids
in bringing into subjection the imaginative faculty.
But, more than this, faith in Christ would have a direct
influence in correcting the evils of the imagination. It
is a law of mind, that the subject which interests an
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>127]</a></span>
individual most, subordinates all other subjects to itself,
or removes them from the mind and assumes their place.
As a group of persons, who might be socially conversing
upon a variety of topics, if some venerable individual
should enter and introduce an absorbing subject, in which
all felt interested, minor topics would be forgotten in the
interest created by the master subject;—so when ‘Christ
crucified’ enters the presence-chamber of the believer’s
Soul, the high moral powers of the mind bow around in
obeisance; and even imagination folds her starry wings
around her face, and bends before Immanuel. When
the cross of Christ becomes the central subject of the
soul, it has power to chasten the imagination, and subdue
its waywardness by the sublime exhibition of the
bleeding mercy in the atonement. The apostle perceived
the efficacy of the cross in subduing vain reasoning and
an evil imagination, and alludes to it in language possessing
both strength and beauty, as ‘casting down imaginations,
and every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God, and [mark] bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ.’</p>
<p>That these views are not idle speculations, but truthful
realities, is affirmed by the experience of every Christian.
When the imagination is wandering to unprofitable or
forbidden subjects, all that is necessary in order to break
the chain of evil suggestion, and introduce into the mind
a profitable train of thought, is to turn the eye of the
soul upon the ‘Lamb of God which taketh away the sin
of the world.’ By the presence of this delightful and
sacred idea every unworthy and hurtful thought will be
awed out of the mind.</p>
<p>Thus does faith in the blessed Jesus control and purify
the imagination of believers.</p>
<p><em>4. The influence of faith in Christ upon the life: leading
man to such conduct as would eventually accomplish the salvation
of the whole human family.</em></p>
<p>It is certain that men have all the faculties which, if
rightly directed, would be necessary to enable them to
benefit and bless each other. Suppose one individual
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>128]</a></span>
did all in his power to do others good and make them
happy, who can limit the amount of consolation which
that man might impart to the children of want and
sorrow; or the amount of light he might shed upon the
minds of the ignorant; or the rebukes and warnings he
might sound in the ears of those who persisted in sin?
Suppose a whole community of such individuals, denying
themselves the selfish ease and worldly pleasures which
the children of this world seek after, and devoting their
lives to spread around them the blessings and benefits of
the gospel—should individuals or communities desire
thus to devote their lives to benevolence instead of selfish
effort, it is certain the Creator has endowed them with
every faculty necessary to the accomplishment of such a
work. They have hearts to love their fellow-men; they
have reason and knowledge to learn themselves, and then
to instruct others. They can travel to where the ignorant
and the needy dwell, either at home or abroad; or, if
they feel disqualified personally to do this, they have
hands to labour for the means to send others on errands
of benevolence throughout the world. That men have
been created with the faculties, therefore, to diffuse the
blessings which they possess, throughout the world, no
one can doubt.</p>
<p>But, secondly—Men are so constituted, that the
exercise of those faculties, in a manner that would bless
others, would likewise produce a blessing in their own
souls. It is a fact in experience, as well as philosophy,
that the exercise of any power of the soul, gives increased
strength to that power. By exercising their
selfish and malevolent feelings, men become continually
more selfish and malevolent; while, on the contrary, by
exercising self-denial and the benevolent feelings, men
become continually more benevolent. Selfishness, all
admit, is an evil in the heart. Self-denial is its antagonist
principle; and it is by invigorating the latter by
exercise, that the former evil principle is to be eradicated.
It would, therefore, be the greatest benefit to those who
possessed blessings, to induce them to exercise benevolence
by communicating them to others.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>129]</a></span>
It follows, therefore, that not only the greatest good
of the guilty and the ignorant requires self-denying
benevolence in those who have the means and the power
to enlighten and guide them to truth and happiness;
but likewise, that the greatest good of those possessing
blessings is, to impart them to others. ‘It is more
blessed to give than to receive;’ because, by the exercise
of self-denial to do good, benevolence is strengthened in
the soul; and from benevolent exercises arises the
blessedness of the spirit. Men are constantly making
sacrifices to advance their own aggrandizement, and
thus, by increasing their own selfishness, they make
themselves more miserable: the great end to be gained,
is to lead them to make sacrifices for others, and thus,
with others, bless themselves.</p>
<p>Now, no one doubts that the whole human family, in
the days of Christ, needed the blessing of an enlightening
and purifying religion. And no one doubts that the
ultimate end of a religion from heaven would be the
greatest ultimate good of the entire race. Three things,
then, are obvious: 1. That a religion from heaven would
be designed ultimately to bless the whole world. 2.
That the best good of mankind, as a family, required
that they should be the instruments in disseminating this
religion among themselves. 3. That the principle of
self-denial, or denying ourselves the ease and pleasures
of selfishness, in order to perform acts of benevolence, is
the great principle by which the operation of spreading
this religion would be carried on.</p>
<p>Now, Jesus Christ professed to give a universal spiritual
religion; one which encircled in its design, and was to
bless by its influence, the whole family of man; and faith
he set forth as the great motive-power of the whole plan.
The question then is—Would faith in Christ lead men to
that method of living and acting, and to the possession
of those views and feelings, which would make them instrumental
in benefiting each other, and which would
destroy selfishness and promote the happiness and interest
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>130]</a></span>
of the whole family of man, in accordance with the three
principles above specified?</p>
<p>1. It has been shown that the example and precepts of
Christ become the guide to conscience, and the rule of
faith and practice for all believers. What, then, has
Christ said and done, to induce men to do each other
good, and to unite the race of man in one harmonious
and happy family?</p>
<p>The gospel of Christ possesses all the characteristics of
a universal religion. <em>It is adapted to human nature: not
to any particular country or class of men; but, as has been
shown, to the <strong><small>NATURE</small></strong> of the race.</em> Its truths are intelligible,
and may be understood by all men, and transferred
into all languages. It is spiritual in its character; designed
to affect the mind and heart of man; so that
wherever intelligent beings are to be found, there it may
be introduced into the heart by faith, to correct the spiritual
evils of their nature, and produce happiness in the soul.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a>
See Reinhard’s Plan: sect. 17, 22. <a href="#FNanchor_39_39">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>The precepts and teachings of Jesus are designed and
adapted to harmonize the race of man into one happy
family. Instead of the abominations and folly of polytheism,
he presented before the minds of men one common
object of worship; and so exhibited the character of that
object, by presenting before the world a grand spectacle
of self-denying mercy, that the exhibition was adapted to
attract the attention of all, and draw all hearts to one
centre of affection.</p>
<p>In all his instructions to regulate the conduct of men,
he viewed them as brethren of the same great family, and
taught them to consider themselves as such. No retaliation
was to be offered for injuries received, but the injured
child was to appeal only to the great Parent of the family.
No one might treat another as his enemy: and no one
was to cease in efforts to do good to another, unless he
perceived that those efforts were treated with contempt,
and instead of benefiting, had a hardening effect upon
the heart.</p>
<p>2. Their lives were to be spent in efforts to impart
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>131]</a></span>
those blessings which they possessed, to their brethren of
the human family who possessed them not. Instead of
the unhallowed and anxious struggle which worldly men
manifest to raise themselves to power over their fellows,
their efforts were to be directed to the opposite end—to
raise the ignorant and the needy to the enjoyment of the
blessings and privileges which they possessed.</p>
<p>This active and constant effort to extend the blessings
which they possessed to others, and to relieve men from
their vices and ignorance, was not to stop with their own
kindred, or nation, or tongue, nor to be restricted to the
grateful, or the deserving; in this respect, their philanthropy
was to be modelled after that of their heavenly
Father, who causeth his sun to shine upon the just and
the unjust. It was to continue during life, and to extend
to the ends of the earth. And in proportion as men were
found in a condition of ignorance and want, in the same
proportion they were to make benevolent exertions to
elevate and bless them.</p>
<p>Now, every one can see, that if these precepts were
obeyed, strife between individuals and nations would
cease, and the glorious process of benevolent effort would
go on, until the last benighted mind was enlightened,
and the last corrupted heart purified by the power of the
faith of Christ.</p>
<p><em>It was necessary, in connection with these precepts, that some
motive should be presented to cause men to deny themselves, in
order to act in accordance with them.</em> Now it has been
shown that the believer acts in view of the character and
will of Jesus. Christ, therefore, in order to give these
precepts moving power upon the souls of men, identified
himself with his needy creatures, and sanctioned the duty
which he prescribed to others, by conformity to it himself;
so that these precepts, given to govern men’s conduct
in this life, he made the rule of judgment in heaven’s
court of equity, and by them the decision will be made
out, which will settle, finally, the spiritual destiny of
men. ‘Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of
these my brethren, ye did it not unto me.’ Thus Christ
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>132]</a></span>
identifies himself with the most needy of mankind, and
receives an act of kindness done to them, as done to himself.
When the love of Christ, therefore, constrains men,
he has so exhibited his will, that it constrains them to
act for the good of each other. Those that love Jesus,
therefore, and expect his favour, must serve him by
doing good to others.</p>
<p>Moreover, Christ has sanctioned these precepts by his
own example. His life was a life of self-denying labour,
for the benefit of our race; and his command to everyone
is—‘Deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow me.’
Thus, by Christ’s precepts, by his example, and especially
by his identifying himself with those in need, that method
of life is sanctioned which alone could make man the benefactor
of his fellows—unite the human family in one happy
brotherhood—and make them blessed in doing each other
good, in the faith of Christ.</p>
<p>Those that love Jesus will desire to do his will—will
find their happiness in obeying him; and that will is, that
they should labour to benefit his creatures. Those who
believe in and love Jesus will have their conscience regulated
by his precepts and example. Thus, the conscience
of believers is set (if I may so express it), so that it will
regulate the movement of their life in such a manner, as
finally to work out the salvation of a world lying in
wickedness.</p>
<p>It follows, therefore, that faith in Jesus Christ is directly
designed and adapted to strengthen men’s benevolent
affection, and to produce in believers that active desire
and effort for the good of others which will necessarily
produce the dissemination of the light and love of the
gospel throughout the whole habitable world.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>133]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="chap17" id="chap17"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE DESIGN AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MEANS OF
GRACE.</span></h2>
<h3>1.—PRAYER.</h3>
<p>It has been shown that, constituted as we are, the manifestations
made of the character and attributes of God in
the Scriptures are adapted to produce the greatest good
in the human spirit; and in order that that good may be
effected, it is necessary that the truths of the Scripture be
brought into contact with the soul, that it may be impressed
and influenced by them. The truths and manifestations
of revelation are the elements of moral power,
which, apprehended by faith, are effective in purifying the
fountain of life in the soul, and in rectifying and regulating
its exercises; it follows, therefore, that the requirement
to bring those truths before the mind in a particular
manner would be a duty necessarily connected with the
revelation of the doctrines, as directions for taking the
medicine are connected with the prescription of a physician
into whose hands a patient has submitted himself. Now,
prayer, or worship, is one method by which the truths and
manifestations of revelation are directly brought before
the contemplation of the soul. Prayer brings the mind to
the immediate contemplation of God’s character, and holds
it there, till by comparison and aspiration the believer’s
soul is properly impressed, and his wants properly felt.
The more subtle physical processes and affinities become,
the better are the analogies which they furnish of processes
in the spiritual world. The influence of believing
prayer has a good analogy in the daguerreotype. By
means of this process, the features of natural objects are
thrown upon a sensitive sheet, through a lens, and leave
their impression upon the sheet. So when the character
of God is, by means of prayer, brought to bear upon the
mind of the believer—that mind being rendered sensitive
by the Holy Spirit—it impresses there the Divine image.
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>134]</a></span>
In this manner the image of Christ is formed in the soul,
the existence of which the Scriptures represent as inspiring
the believer with the hope of glory.</p>
<p>In the introductory chapter it was shown that the impulse
which leads men to worship proves a curse to the
soul, where the objects worshipped are unholy, and that
the only remedy for the evil was the revelation of a holy
object for the supreme homage of the human soul. So
soon as a righteous and benevolent God is presented before
the mind, then prayer becomes a blessing instead of a curse
to the soul. Look at the subject in the form of a syllogism:</p>
<p>Man, by worshipping, becomes assimilated to the moral
character of the object that he worships:</p>
<p>The God of the Bible, as manifest in Christ Jesus, is
the only perfectly righteous and perfectly benevolent
Being ever worshipped by man.</p>
<p>Therefore, man can become righteous and benevolent in
no other way but by that worship which will assimilate
him to the God of the Bible.</p>
<p>And further, as it has been demonstrated that righteousness
and benevolence produce the rectitude and the
happiness—the greatest good—of the soul, man can gain
the great end of his being only by that worship which
assimilates his nature to the moral image of God.</p>
<p>It follows, therefore, that prayer is a necessary and
most important means of grace—a duty growing out of
the nature of the case, and a duty upon which depends, in
a great measure, the well-being of the human spirit. The
apostle understood the philosophy of this subject when he
said: ‘But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image,
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.’
Therefore it is that the commandment that men should
pray is presented in the Bible in every variety of language;
and it is constantly repeated by the inspired writers and
by the Son of God himself, who commended, by his precepts
and example, private, social, and public prayer; and
who taught by a parable that ‘men ought always to pray,
and not to faint.’</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>135]</a></span></p>
<h4>The importance of strong desire and importunity in prayer.</h4>
<p>It is impossible to produce grateful feelings by granting
a benefit for which the recipient has no desire. If a
child asked for bread when it was not hungry, and if,
while the child had no feeling of want, its unfelt request
was answered by its father, it could neither appreciate the
gift nor be grateful for it. The soul is so constituted, as
has been fully shown, that it must really feel the need of
the benefit before it can appreciate its importance, or be
grateful for the favour received. So it is in the case of
the suppliant in prayer: if he has an anxious desire, a
spirit of importunate solicitude, for the blessing which he
asks, when he receives it, gratitude and praise will, as the
consequence of gratified desire, spring up in the heart.
Now, mark, if there were not a feeling of importunate
desire in the mind of the suppliant, God could not be
glorified, nor the creature benefited, by an answer to
prayer. God could not be glorified, because his goodness
would not be felt and acknowledged in the answer. And
the creature could not be benefited, because it is the feeling
of gratitude and praise in his own heart which constitutes
the spiritual blessing, so far forth as the suppliant himself is
concerned; and this exercise is produced only so far as it
is preceded by dependent and anxious desire for the blessing
sought. When the supplication is for spiritual blessing
upon another individual, two minds are blessed by the
answer, the individual prayed for and the individual who
prays. And if a thousand individuals desired spiritual
mercies for that soul, God would be glorified by a thousand
hearts, and a thousand hearts would be reciprocally blessed
by the answer. The time may come when all the angels
in heaven, and all the saints upon earth, will be blessed
by mercy bestowed upon a single individual; when the
last unregenerated sinner stands in solitary and awful
rebellion upon the earth, should tidings be circulated
through earth and heaven that he had submitted himself
to God, and that his affections began to take hold on
Christ, every being in the universe who had strongly
desired the conversion of the last sinner would feel the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>136]</a></span>
thrill of ‘glory to God and good-will to men’ arise in his soul.
It follows, therefore, that a fervent, importunate state of
mind is, from the nature of the case, necessary, in order
that God may be glorified, and man blessed, by the duty
of prayer. It was in view of these constitutional principles
that Jesus constantly taught the necessity of desire
and importunity, in order that mercies might be received
in answer to the supplication of saints.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a>
Matt. vi. 6; Luke xi. 5-10, and xviii. 1-14. <a href="#FNanchor_40_40">Back</a></p>
</div>
<h4>The importance of faith and a spirit of dependence upon God,
as concomitants of acceptable prayer.</h4>
<p>The necessity of faith, as a primary element in all acceptable
religious exercises, has already been noticed. A
feeling of entire dependence upon God for spiritual mercies
is the only right feeling, because it is the only true feeling.
As a matter of fact, the soul is entirely dependent upon
God for spiritual mercies; truth, therefore, requires that
our dependence should be acknowledged and felt.</p>
<p>But further, without faith in God as the immediate
bestower of mercies in answer to prayer, he could not be
honoured for blessings received. Suppose two individuals
desired with equally strong feelings the same blessing, and
that both received it: each would rejoice alike in its reception;
but suppose there was this difference in their state
of mind—one regarded the blessing as coming immediately
from God in answer to prayer, the other did not: the result
would be that the one who had faith in God would be filled
with love to his Maker for the mercy, the other would
rejoice in himself, or, at least, he would not rejoice in God.
In the one case, God would be honoured and praised for his
acts of grace; in the other, he would neither be honoured
nor loved for his goodness. We do not present this
illustration as applicable in all its bearings—because we
do not suppose that the unregenerate ever truly desire
spiritual blessing till they are convinced of sin—but it will
make the point clear to the reason of everyone, that God
cannot be honoured without faith; and, therefore, ‘without
faith it is impossible to please him.’</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>137]</a></span>
It is necessary, according to the foregoing view of the
subject, in order to offer acceptable prayer, that men
should possess a spirit of faith and dependence upon
Christ. The principle upon which Christ acted in relation
to this subject, as well as his instruction concerning the
duty of prayer, fully confirm the preceding thoughts. He
seldom performed an act of mercy, by miracle or otherwise,
unless those who received the mercy could see the hand of
God in the blessing:—‘If thou canst believe, thou mayest
be cleansed,’ was his habitual sentiment. As if he had
said—Your desire for the blessing is manifest by your
urgent requests: now, if you can have faith to see God
in the blessing, so that he will be honoured and praised
for conferring it, I will grant it; but if you have no faith,
you can receive no favour.</p>
<p>And, again, in order that the believer might be brought
into a state of dependence, and have his faith quickened
every time that he presented his supplications to God,
Jesus said, looking forward to the time when he would
have perfected his ministry and atonement—‘In that day
ye shall ask me nothing,—whatsoever ye shall ask the
Father in my name’—that is, depending on me, the
atoning, interceding Saviour—‘he will do it;’ and in
another place he promised, ‘Whatsoever ye shall ask in
my name, that will I do.’ Thus does the instruction of
the Saviour make the believer entirely dependent upon
Christ himself when he approaches the mercy-seat of the
Most High. As the Jews were constantly to call to mind
the deliverance from Egypt, in order that their feelings
might be moved to love, dependence, and faith towards
their temporal deliverer, so Christians are to call to mind
the deliverance from spiritual bondage by the sacrifice of
Christ, in order that they may realize their dependence,
and be inspired with a spirit of faith and love towards
their spiritual Deliverer. And because believers can thus
depend upon Christ, and feel the mercy of God as it is
manifested in the atonement, they are constituted priests
‘to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ.’</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>138]</a></span></p>
<h3>2.—PRAISE.</h3>
<p>The truth which has been demonstrated in previous
chapters is again assumed, that the manifestations of God,
in Christ Jesus, would, when brought into efficient contact
with the soul, produce that active holiness in the
heart which is man’s greatest good. And as the end to
be accomplished depends, under God, on those truths
which are developed in the great plan of mercy being
impressed upon the mind and the heart, it follows that
those means would be used which, from their nature, are
best adapted to give influence and impressiveness to the
great truths of revelation.</p>
<p>The influence of music upon the emotions of the soul
is well known to every one—</p>
<div class="cpoem26">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">‘There is in souls a sympathy with sounds;’<br /></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>the soul is awakened, and invited by the spirit of the
melody to receive the sentiment uttered in the song.
Sweet, affecting music—not the tone of the piano, nor
the peals of the organ—but a melodious air, sung by
strong and well-disciplined voices, and accompanied by
the flute and viol—such music reaches the fountains of
thought and feeling; and,</p>
<div class="cpoem20">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">‘Untwisting all the links that tie<br /></span>
<span class="i0">The hidden soul of harmony,’<br /></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>it tinges the emotions with its own hues, whether plaintive
or joyous; and it fosters in the heart the sentiment
which it conveys, whether it be love of country or of
God, admiration of noble achievement, or of devoted and
self-sacrificing affection.</p>
<p>The power of music to fix in the memory the sentiment
with which it is connected, and to foster it in the heart,
has been understood in all ages of the world. Some of
the early legislators wrote their laws in verse, and sang
them in public places; and many of the earliest sketches
of primitive history are in the measures of lyric poetry.
In this manner the memory was aided in retaining the
facts; the ear was invited to attend to them; imagination
threw around them the drapery of beauty, dignity, or
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>139]</a></span>
power; and then music conveyed the sentiment, and
mingled it with the emotions of the soul. It was in view
of the power of music, when united with sentiment adapted
to affect the heart, that one has said: ‘Permit me to write
the ballads of a nation, and I care not who makes her laws.’</p>
<p>When the effects of music and poetry upon the soul are
considered, we can perceive their importance as means of
fostering the Christian virtues in the soul of the believer.
They should be used to convey to the mind sublime and
elevating conceptions of the attributes of Jehovah; to
impress the memory with the most affecting truths of
revelation, and especially to cherish in the heart tender
and vivid emotions of love to Christ, in view of the manifestations
of Divine justice and mercy exhibited in his
ministry, his passion, and his sacrifice.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a>
‘The proper drapery for music is truth. It is its only apparel,
whether as applied to God, or as used for the cultivation of man.’—<i>Erasmus.</i>
<a href="#FNanchor_41_41">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>There cannot be found, in all the resources of thought,
material which would furnish sentiment for music so subduing
and overpowering as the history of redemption.
There is the life of Jesus—a series of acts Godlike in their
benevolence, connected at times with exhibitions of Divine
power and of human character, in their most affecting
aspects. And as the scenes of Christ’s eventful ministry
converge to the catastrophe, there is the tenderness of
his love for the disciples, the last supper, the scene in
Gethsemane; the Mediator in the hall of judgment, exhibiting
the dignity of truth and conscious virtue amidst
the tempest of human passion by which he is surrounded.
Then the awful moral and elemental grandeur of the
crucifixion; the Saviour, nailed to the cross by his own
creatures, crying, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do;’ and then, while darkness shrouds the sun,
and ‘nature through all her works gives signs of woe,’ he
cries, ‘It is finished, and gave up the ghost.’ Thus did
the dark stream of human depravity roll,</p>
<div class="cpoem30">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">‘Till a rainbow broke upon its gloom,<br /></span>
<span class="i0">Which spanned the portals of the Saviour’s tomb.’<br /></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>140]</a></span>
Such exhibitions of sublimity and power, when clothed
with the influence of music, and impressed upon a heart
rendered sensitive by Divine influence, are adapted to
make the most abiding and blessed impressions.</p>
<div class="cpoem24">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">‘My heart, awake!—to feel is to be fired;<br /></span>
<span class="i0">And to believe, Lorenzo, is to feel.’<br /></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>It follows, from the preceding views, that in selecting
the means to impress the mind with religious truth, and
the heart with pious sentiment, music and poetry could
not be neglected. There is not in nature another means
which would compensate for the loss of their influence.
We do not mean to say that their influence is as great
as some other means in impressing the truths of revelation
upon the soul; but their influence is peculiar and
delightful, and without it the system of means would
not be perfect.</p>
<p>We see, therefore, the reasons why music and poetry
were introduced as a means of impressing revealed truth,
both under the old and the new dispensations. Moses
not only made the laws, but he made, likewise, the songs
of the nation. These songs, in some instances, all the
people were required to learn, in order that their memory
might retain, and their heart feel, the influence of the
events recorded in their national anthems.</p>
<p>Music held a conspicuous place in the worship of the
temple; and under the new dispensation, it is sanctioned
by the express example of Jesus, and specifically commanded
by the apostles; the example is given in connection
with the institution of the eucharist, which was to
commemorate the most affecting scene in the history of
God’s love; and the command is in such words as indicate
the effects of music upon the heart: ‘Speaking to
yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
giving thanks always for all things unto God and the
Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Upon
this subject, as upon some others, the apostolic churches
fell into some abuses; yet the high praises of God and
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>141]</a></span>
the Lamb have always been celebrated in poetry and
music by the church of Christ. One of the first notices
of the Christians by pagan writers speaks of them as
‘singing a hymn to Christ, as to a God;’ thus showing
that the principles established in the preceding views were
recognised by the early disciples, who used music as a
means of fostering in their hearts love to the Saviour.</p>
<p>As in the case of the primitive Christians, so every regenerated
heart delights in such spiritual songs as speak
of Christ as an atoning Saviour. And those only are
qualified to write hymns for the church whose hearts are
affected by the love of Jesus. On this account some of
the hymns of Cowper, Charles Wesley, Watts, and Newton,
will last while the church on earth lasts, <em>and perhaps
longer</em>. Thousands of Christian hearts have glowed with
emotion, while they sang,</p>
<div class="cpoem24">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">‘There is a fountain fill’d with blood,<br /></span>
<span class="i1">Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;<br /></span>
<span class="i0">And sinners plunged beneath that flood<br /></span>
<span class="i1">Lose all their guilty stains.’<br /></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>Or,</p>
<div class="cpoem18">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">‘Rock of ages, cleft for me,<br /></span>
<span class="i0">Let me hide myself in thee.’<br /></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>Thousands have been awakened to duty and to prayer,
by that solemn hymn,</p>
<div class="cpoem22">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">‘Lo, on a narrow neck of land,<br /></span>
<span class="i0">’Twixt two unbounded seas I stand,<br /></span>
<span class="i1">Yet how insensible!’<br /></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>And it would not have been possible for any but a
Christian poet to have written the lines,</p>
<div class="cpoem25">
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">‘Her noblest life my spirit draws<br /></span>
<span class="i0">From his dear wounds and bleeding side.’<br /></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h3>3.—PREACHING.</h3>
<p>It has been said that the truths and manifestations of
revelation are the elements of moral power, which, being
brought into efficient contact with the soul, are effective
in rectifying and regulating its exercises. A medicine
may be prepared in which are inherent qualities adapted
to remove a particular disease; but in order to the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>142]</a></span>
accomplishment of its appropriate effect, it must be brought
to act upon the body of the patient. And if the disease
has rendered the patient not only unconscious of his
danger, but has induced upon him a deep lethargy of
mind, it would be necessary that the physician should
arouse his dormant faculties, in order that he might
receive the medicine which would restore him to health.
So with the moral diseases of the soul; the attention and
sensibilities of men must be awakened, in order that the
truth may affect their understanding, their conscience, and
their heart. Whatever, therefore, is adapted to attract
the attention and move the sensibilities, at the same time
that it conveys truth to the mind, would be a means
peculiarly efficient to impress the gospel upon the soul.</p>
<p>There are but two avenues through which moral truth
reaches the soul. And there are but two methods by
which it can be conveyed through those avenues. By the
living voice, truth is communicated through the ear; and
by the signs of language it is communicated through the
eye. The first of these methods—the living voice—has
many advantages over all other means, in conveying and
impressing truth. It is necessary that an individual
should read with ease in order to be benefited by what
he reads. The efforts which a bad reader has to make,
both disincline him to the task of reading, and hinder his
appreciation of truth. Besides, a large proportion of the
human family cannot read, but all can understand their
own language when spoken. In order, therefore, that
the whole human family might be instructed, the living
speaker would be the first, and best, and natural method.</p>
<p>The living speaker has power to arrest attention, to
adapt his language and illustrations to the character and
occupation of his audience, and to accompany his communications
with those emotions and gestures which are
adapted to arouse and impress his hearers.</p>
<p>It is evident, from these considerations, that among the
means which God would appoint to disseminate his truth
through the world, the living teacher would hold a first
and important place. This result is in conformity with
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>143]</a></span>
the arrangements of Jesus. He appointed a living
ministry, endowed them with the ability to speak the
languages of other nations, and commissioned them
to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature.</p>
<p>In connection with this subject, there is one other inquiry
of importance. It concerns not only the harmony
of the gospel system with the nature of things, but likewise
the harmony of apostolic practice with what has
been shown to be necessary in order that the truths of
the gospel might produce their legitimate effect upon the
mind.</p>
<p>It has been demonstrated that a sense of man’s guilt
and danger must exist in the mind before there can be
gratitude and love to the being who removes the guilt and
rescues from the danger. It has likewise been noticed, as
a self-evident principle, that before repentance there must
be conviction of sin. A sense of guilt and error must
necessarily precede reformation of life. A man cannot
conscientiously turn from a course of life, and repent of
past conduct, unless he sees and feels the error and the
evil of that course from which he turns. To suppose
that a man would turn from a course of life which he
neither thought nor felt to be wrong or dangerous, is to
suppose an absurdity; it follows, therefore, that the
preacher’s first duty, in endeavouring to reclaim men to
holiness and to God, would be, in all cases, to present
such truths as were adapted to convict their hearers of
their spiritual guilt and danger. As God has constituted
the mind, repentance from sin and attainment to holiness
would for ever be impossible on any other conditions.</p>
<p>But the same truths would not convict all men of sin.
In order to convict any particular man, or class of men, of
sin, those facts must be fastened upon with which they
have associated the idea of moral good and evil, and concerning
which they are particularly guilty. Thus, in the
days of the apostles, the Gentiles could not be convicted
of sin for rejecting and crucifying Christ; but, it being a
fact in the case of the Jews that all their ideas of good
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>144]</a></span>
and evil, both temporal and spiritual, were associated
with the Messiah, nothing in all the catalogue of guilt
would be adapted to convict them of sin so powerfully as
the thought that they had despised and crucified the
Messiah of God.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the heathen, upon whom the charge
of rejecting Christ would have no influence, could be convicted
of sin only by showing them the falsehood and folly
of their idolatry; the holy character of the true God, and
the righteous and spiritual nature of the law which they
were bound to obey, and by which they would finally be
judged. The first preachers of the Gospel, therefore, in
conformity with these principles, would aim first, and
directly, to convince their hearers of their sins, and in
accomplishing this end, they would fasten upon those
facts in which the guilt of their hearers more particularly
consisted. And then, when men were thus convicted of
their guilt, the salvation through Christ from sin, and its
penalty, would be pressed upon their anxious souls; and
they would be taught to exercise faith in Jesus, as the
meritorious cause of life, pardon, and happiness.</p>
<p>Now, the apostolical histories fully confirm the fact that
this course—the only one consistent with truth, philosophy,
and the nature of man—was the course pursued by
the primitive preachers.</p>
<p>The first movement, after they were endowed with the
gift of tongues and filled with the Holy Ghost, was the
sermon by Peter, on the day of Pentecost, in which he
directly charged the Jews with the murder of the Messiah,
and produced in thousands of minds convictions of the
most pungent and overwhelming description. At Athens,
Paul, in preaching to the Gentiles, pursued a different
course. He exposed the folly of their idolatry, by appealing
to their reason and their own acknowledged authorities.
He spoke to them of the guilt which they would incur if
they refused, under the light of the Gospel, to forsake the
errors which God, on account of past ignorance, had overlooked.
He then closed by turning their attention to the
righteous retributions of the eternal world, and to the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>145]</a></span>
appointed day when man would be judged by Jesus Christ,
according to his gospel.</p>
<p>The manner in which the apostles presented Christ
crucified to the penitent and convicted sinner, as the object
of faith, and the means of pardon, and the hope of
glory, is abundantly exhibited in the Acts of the Apostles,
and in their several epistles to the Churches.</p>
<p>Thus did God, by the appointment of the living
preacher as a means of spreading the Gospel, adapt himself
to the constitution of his creatures; and the apostles,
moved by Divine guidance, likewise adapted the truth
which they preached to the peculiar necessities and circumstances
of men.</p>
<h2><a name="chap18" id="chap18"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">THE AGENCY OF GOD IN CARRYING ON THE WORK OF
REDEMPTION, AND THE MANNER IN WHICH THAT
AGENCY IS EXERTED.</span></h2>
<p>God having thus devised the plan, and manifested the
truth, and instituted the means of redemption, the inquiry
naturally presents itself: In what way would he put the plan
into operation, and give efficiency to the means of grace?</p>
<p>We cannot suppose that God would put his own
institution beyond his power, or that he would leave
it to be managed by the imperfect wisdom and the
limited power of human instruments. God would not
prepare the material, devise the plan, adapt the parts
to each other, furnish the instruments for building,
and then neglect to supervise and complete the structure.
God has put none of his works beyond his power;
and especially in a plan of which he is the Author and
Architect, reason suggests that he would guide it to its
accomplishment. The inquiry is—By what agency, and
in what way, would the power of God be exerted in
carrying into efficient operation upon the souls of men
the system of saving mercy?</p>
<p>In relation to the character of the agency, the solution
is clear. The agency by which the plan of salvation would
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>146]</a></span>
be carried forward to its ultimate consummation would be
spiritual in its nature, because God is a Spirit, and the
soul of man is a spirit, and the end to be accomplished is
to lead men to worship God ‘in spirit and in truth.’</p>
<p>In relation to the mode of the Spirit’s operation, some
things belong to that class of inquiries upon which the
mind may exert its powers in vain.—The mode by which
God communicates life to any thing in the vegetable,
animal, or spiritual world lies beyond the reach of the
human intellect. But although man cannot understand
the <i>modus operandi</i> of the Divine mind in communicating
life, yet the manifestations of life, and the medium
through which it operates, are subjects open to human
examination. Whether the influence of the Spirit be
directly upon the soul, or mediately by means of truth,
the end accomplished would be the same. The soul might
be quickened to see and feel the power of the truth; or,
by the spirit, truth might be rendered powerful to affect
the soul. The wax might be softened to receive the impression,
or the seal heated, or a power exerted upon it,
to make the impression on the wax; or both might be
done, and still the result would be the same. It is not
only necessary that the metal should be prepared to receive
the impression of a die, but it is likewise necessary
that the die should be prepared and adapted to the particular
kind of metal—the image and the superscription
of the king put upon it—the machinery prepared and
adapted to hold the die and apply it to the metal; and
after all these things necessary are done, the coin can
never be made unless power is exerted to strike the die
into the metal, or the metal into the die. So it is in the
processes of the spiritual world; the material [mankind]
must be prepared. The die [the truth of the gospel system]
must be revealed and adapted to the material; and the
image to be impressed upon human nature [the Lord Jesus
Christ] and the superscription [glory to God and good-will
to men] must be cut upon the die. Then the means of
bringing the truth into contact with the material must be
provided; and after all these preparations and adaptations,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>147]</a></span>
there must be the power of the Holy Spirit to guide the
whole process, and to form the image of Christ in the soul.</p>
<p>The foregoing is a complicated analogy, but not more
complicated than are the processes of the animal and
spiritual world. Look at the human body, with its thousands
of adaptations, all of them necessary to the system,
the whole dependent upon the use of means for the supply
of animal life, and yet deriving from God its rational life,
which operates through and actuates the whole. In like
manner the Spirit of God operates through and guides
the processes of the plan of salvation.</p>
<p>The Scriptures reveal the truth clearly, that the Spirit
of God gives efficiency to the means of grace. And not
only this, but he operates in accordance with those necessary
principles which have been developed in the progress
of these chapters. Christ instructed his disciples to expect
that he would send the Holy Spirit; and when he is come,
said Jesus, ‘He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment;’ that is, the Holy Spirit will produce
conviction of sin in the hearts of the unsanctified
and impenitent:—the office-work of the Spirit of God in
relation to the world is to convince of sin. In relation to
the saints he exercises a different office. He is their
Comforter. He takes of the things that belong to Jesus,
and shows them to his people.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> That is, he causes the
people of God to see more and more of the excellency,
and the glory, and the mercy manifested in a crucified
Saviour; and by this blessed influence they ‘grow in
grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.’ Christ, by
his ministry and death, furnished the facts necessary for
human salvation: the Holy Spirit uses those facts to convict
and sanctify the heart. Paul, in a passage already
noticed, alludes to the influence of the Spirit operating by
the appointed means of prayer, or devout meditation.
‘But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.’</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a>
John xvi. 7-14. <a href="#FNanchor_42_42">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p>Further: At what juncture, in the progress of the great
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>148]</a></span>
plan of salvation, would this agency be most powerfully
exerted? We answer, at the time when the whole moral
machinery of the dispensation through which the effect
was to be produced was completed. Whatever is designed
and adapted to produce a definite result as an instrument
must be completed before it is put into operation, otherwise
it will not produce the definite effect required. An
imperfect system put into operation would produce an
imperfect result. Here a special effect was to be produced;
it was necessary, therefore, that the truth should be revealed,
and the manifestations all made, before the power
was imparted to give them effect.</p>
<p>Under the new dispensation the greatest and most imposing
manifestations were the death, resurrection, and
ascension of Jesus: had the system been put into operation
before these crowning manifestations were made, the
great end of the gospel would not have been accomplished.
It follows, then, that the material would be first prepared,
the manifestations made and adapted to the material, the
appropriate means ordained, and then the agency of the
Spirit would be introduced to guide the dispensation to its
ultimate triumphs, and to give efficiency to its operations.</p>
<p>These deductions harmonise with the teachings of the
Scriptures.</p>
<p>First, they expressly teach that without the agency of
God no perfect result is accomplished.</p>
<p>Secondly, they everywhere represent that the Divine
agency is exerted through the truth upon the soul, or exerted
to awaken the soul to apprehend and receive the truth.</p>
<p>Thirdly, the Spirit was not fully communicated until
the whole economy of the gospel dispensation was completed.
The apostles were instructed to assemble at
Jerusalem after the ascension, and wait till they were
endued with power from on high. On the day of Pentecost
the promised Spirit descended. The apostles at once
perceived the spiritual nature of Christ’s kingdom. They
spoke in demonstration of the Spirit, and with power.
Men were convicted of sin in their hearts. Sinners were
converted to Christ by repentance and faith; and under
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>149]</a></span>
the guidance of that Divine Spirit, the plan of salvation
moves on to its high and glorious consummation when
‘the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms
of our Lord, and of his Christ.’ ‘Amen: even so, come
Lord Jesus.’</p>
<h2><a name="chap19" id="chap19"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<br />
<br />
<span class="vsmlfont">CONCERNING THE PRACTICAL EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM.</span></h2>
<p>The evidence which the Lord Jesus Christ proposed as
proof of the Divinity of the gospel system was its practical
effect upon individuals who receive and obey the truth.
‘If any man will do his will, he shall know of the
doctrine, whether it be of God.’ If a sick man calls a
physician, who prescribes a certain medicine, which, by
his receiving it according to the directions, cures him, he
then knows both the efficacy of the medicine and the skill
of the physician. Experience is evidence to the saints of
the Divinity of the system; and its effects, in restoring
the soul to moral health, is evidence to the world of the
Divine efficacy and power of its doctrines: ‘By their
fruits ye shall know them.’ In closing our volume,
therefore, we have now only briefly to inquire what are
the ascertained practical effects of faith in Christ?</p>
<p>We shall not refer to the moral condition of man in
countries under the influence of the gospel, compared
with his condition in pagan lands. We will not dwell
upon the fact which, of itself, is sufficient to establish at
once and for ever the Divine origin of evangelical religion,
and the truth of the distinctive views developed in the
preceding chapters—that the most holy men and woman
that have ever lived have been those who exercised most
constant and implicit faith in Christ. Passing these facts,
important in themselves, we will close our volume by a statement
of facts concerning the present influence of faith in
Christ upon individuals now living, and subject to the examination
of any one who might be sceptical upon the subject.</p>
<p>The following is a true statement of the influence of
the religion of Jesus upon several individual members of
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>150]</a></span>
a village church in one of the United States. It is composed
of members of common intelligence, and those in
the common walks of life. Other churches might have
been selected in which, perhaps, a greater number of
interesting cases might have been found. And there are
other individuals in this church that would furnish as
good an illustration of the power of the gospel as some of
those which are noticed below. This church has been
selected, because the writer had a better opportunity of
visiting it in order to obtain the facts than any other in
which he knew the power of the religion of Christ was
experienced.</p>
<p>With the individuals spoken of I am well acquainted,
having frequently conversed with them all on the subjects
of which I shall speak. Their words in all cases may
not have been remembered, but the sense is truly given.</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Case 1.</span>—An old man who has been a professor of religion
from early life. He was once a deacon, or elder, of
the church. Twenty years ago he was struck with
paralysis, by which he has been ever since confined almost
entirely to his room. His situation is one that, to a mind
which had no inward consolation, would be irksome in
the extreme. His books are the Bible and one or two
volumes of the old divines. He is patient and happy;
and speaking of the love of Christ almost invariably
suffuses his eyes with tears. He delights to dwell on religious
subjects; and to talk with a pious friend of the
topics which his heart loves gives him evident delight.
Recently, his aged wife, who had trodden the path of life
with him, from youth to old age, died in his presence.
She died, what is called by Christians, a triumphant
death; her last words were addressed to her children
who stood around—‘I see the cross,’—a gleam of pleasure
passed over her features, her eyes lighted up with peculiar
brightness; she said, ‘Blessed Jesus, the last hour is
come: I am ready;’ and thus she departed. At her
death, the old man wept freely, and wept aloud; but his
sorrow, he said, was mingled with a sweet joy. How
desolate would have been the condition of this poor
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>151]</a></span>
cripple for the last twenty years without the consolations
of faith in Christ! And when his aged wife died, who
had for years sat by his side, how appalling would have
been the gloom that would have settled upon his soul,
had not his mind been sustained by heavenly hope!
His case shows that the religion of Christ will keep the
affections warm and tender even to the latest periods of
old age, and give happiness to the soul under circumstances
of the most severe temporal bereavement.</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Case 2.</span>—A converted atheist. I knew that there
were those in the world who professed to doubt the
existence of a God; but I had met with no one in all my
intercourse with mankind who seemed so sincerely and
so entirely an atheist as the individual whose case is now
introduced. The first time that I met him was at the
house of his son-in-law, a gentleman of piety and intelligence.
His appearance was that of a decrepid, disconsolate
old man. In the course of conversation he unhesitatingly
expressed his unbelief of the existence of a God,
and his suspicion of the motives of most of those who
professed religion. I learned from others that he had
ceased in some measure to have intercourse with men—had
become misanthropic in his feelings, regarding mankind
in the light of a family of sharks, preying upon
each other; and his own duty in such a state of things,
he supposed to be to make all <em>honest</em> endeavours to wrest
from the grasp of others as much as he could. He used
profane language, opposed the temperance reformation,
and looked with the deepest hatred upon the ministers of
religion. His social affections seemed to be withered, and
his body, sympathizing, was distorted and diseased by
rheumatic pains.</p>
<p>1. This old man had for years been the subject of
special prayer on the part of his pious daughter and his
son-in-law; and he was finally persuaded by them to
attend a season of religious worship in the church of
which they were members. During these services, which
lasted several days, he passed from a state of atheism to
a state of faith. The change seemed to surprise every
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>152]</a></span>
one, and himself as much as any other. From being an
atheist, he became the most simple and implicit believer.
He seemed like a being who had waked up in another
world, the sensations of which were all new to him; and
although a man of sound sense in business affairs, when he
began to express his religious ideas, his language seemed
strange and incongruous, from the fact that, while his
soul was now filled with new thoughts and feelings, he
had no knowledge of the language by which such thoughts
are usually expressed. The effects produced by his conversion
were as follows—stated at one time to myself,
and upon another occasion to one of the most eminent
medical practitioners in this country:—One of the first
things which he did after his conversion, was to love, in
a practical manner, his worst enemy. There was one
man in the village who had, as he supposed, dealt
treacherously with him in some money transactions which
had occurred between them. On this account, personal
enmity had long existed between the two individuals.
When converted, he sought his old enemy—asked his
forgiveness—and endeavoured to benefit him by bringing
him under the influence of the gospel.</p>
<p>2. His benevolent feelings were awakened and expanded.
His first benevolent offering was twenty-five
cents, in a collection for charitable uses. He now gives
very liberally, in proportion to his means, to all objects
which he thinks will advance the interests of the gospel
of Christ. Besides supporting his own church and her
benevolent institutions, no enterprise of any denomination
which he really believes will do good fails to receive something
from him, if he has the means. During the last
year, he has given more with the design of benefiting his
fellow-men than he had done in his whole lifetime before.</p>
<p>3. His affections have received new life. He said to
me, in conversation upon the subject: ‘One part of the
Scriptures I feel to be true—that which says, “I will take
away the hard and stony heart, and give you a heart of
flesh.” Once I seemed to have no feeling; now, thank
God, I can feel. I have buried two wives and six children,
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>153]</a></span>
but I never shed a tear—I felt hard and unhappy; now
my tears flow at the recollection of these things.’ The
tears at that time wet the old man’s cheeks. It is not
probable that, since his conversion, there has been a single
week that he has not shed tears; before conversion he
had not wept since the age of manhood. An exhibition
of the love of Christ will, at any time, move his feelings
with gratitude and love, until the tears moisten his eyes.</p>
<p>4. Effect upon his life. Since his conversion he has
not ceased to do good as he has had opportunity. Several
individuals have been led to repent and believe in Christ
through his instrumentality. Some of these were individuals
whose former habits rendered a change of character very
improbable in the eyes of most individuals. One of them,
who had fallen into the habit of intemperance, is now a
respectable and happy father of a respectable Christian
family. He has been known to go to several families on
the same day, pray with them, and invite them to attend
religious worship on the Sabbath. And when some difficulty
was stated as a hindrance to their attendance, he
has assisted them to buy shoes, and granted other
little aids of the kind, in order that they might be
induced to attend divine service. Since the first edition
was issued, a most remarkable fact concerning this old
man has come to the knowledge of the author. When
converted, one of his first acts, although he had heard
nothing of any such act in others, was to make out a list
of all his old associates then living within reach of his
influence. For the conversion of these he determined to
labour as he had opportunity, and pray daily. On his list
were one hundred and sixteen names, among whom were
sceptics, drunkards, and other individuals as little likely
to be reached by Christian influence as any other men in
the region. Within two years from the period of the old
man’s conversion, one hundred of these individuals had
made a profession of religion. We can hardly suppose
that the old man was instrumental in the conversion of
all these persons, yet the fact is one of the most remarkable
that has been developed in the progress of Christianity.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>154]</a></span>
5. Effect upon his happiness. In a social meeting of
the church where he worships, I heard him make such an
expression as this: ‘I have rejoiced but once since I
trusted in Christ—that has been all the time.’ His state
of mind may be best described in his own characteristic
language. One day he was repairing his fence. An individual
passing addressed him: ‘Mr. ——, you are at
work all alone.’ ‘Not alone,’ said the old man, ‘God is
with me.’ He said that his work seemed easy to him,
and his peace of mind continued with scarcely an interruption.
I saw him at a time when he had just received
intelligence that a son who had gone to the south had
been shot in a personal altercation in one of the southern
cities. The old man’s parental feelings were moved, but
he seemed, even under this sudden and most distressing
affliction, to derive strong consolation from trust in God.</p>
<p>6. Physical effects of the moral change. As soon as
his moral nature had undergone a change, his body, by
sympathy, felt the benign influence. His countenance
assumed a milder and more intelligent aspect. He became
more tidy in his apparel, and his ‘thousand pains,’ in a
good measure, left him. In his case, there seemed to be
a renovation both of soul and body.</p>
<p>This case is not exaggerated: the old man is living, and
there are a thousand living witnesses to this testimony,
among whom is an intelligent physician, who, hearing
the old man’s history of his feelings, and having known
him personally for years, the obvious effects which
the faith in Christ had produced in this case, combined
with other influences by which he was surrounded, led
him seriously to examine the subject of religion, as it concerned
his own spiritual interest. By this examination he
was led to relinquish the system of ‘rational religion’
(as the Socinian system is most inappropriately called by its
adherents), and profess his faith in orthodox religion.</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Case 3.</span>—Two individuals, who had always been poor
in this world’s goods but who are rich in faith. Many
years ago, they lived in a new settlement where there
were no religious services. The neighbourhood, at the
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>155]</a></span>
suggestion of one of its members, met together on the
Sabbath, to sing sacred music, and to hear a sermon read.
Those sermons were the means of the conversion of the
mother of the family. She lived an exemplary life, but
her husband still continued impenitent, and became somewhat
addicted to intemperance. Some of the children of
the family, as they reached mature years, were converted;
the husband, and finally, after a few years, all the remaining
children, embraced religion. From the day of the
husband’s conversion he drank no more liquor, and, he
says, he always afterwards thought of the habit with
abhorrence. The old people live alone. The old woman’s
sense of hearing has so failed that she hears but imperfectly.
When the weather will allow, she attends church
regularly, but sometimes hears but little of the sermon.
She sits on the Sabbath and looks up at the minister, with
a countenance glowing with an interested and happy expression.
She has joy to know that the minister is
preaching about Christ. The minister once described
religion possessed as a spring of living water, flowing from
the rock by the way-side, which yields to the weary
traveller refreshment and delight; the old lady, at the
close, remarked, with meekness, ‘I hope I have drunk,
many times, of those sweet waters.’</p>
<p>Except what concerns their particular domestic duties,
the conversation of this aged pair is almost entirely religious.
They are devout, and very happy in each other’s
society; and sometimes in their family devotions and religious
conversations their hearts glow with love for God.
They look forward to death with the consoling hope that
they will awake in the likeness of the glorious Saviour,
and so ‘be for ever with the Lord.’</p>
<p><span class="smcap">Case 4.</span>—A female was early in life united with the
church, and conscientiously performed the external duties
of Christian life. She had for many years little if any
happiness in the performance of her religious duties, yet
would have been more unhappy if she had not performed
them. She married a gentleman who, during the last
years of his life, was peculiarly devoted. During this
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>156]</a></span>
period, in attending upon the means of grace she experienced
an entire change in her religious feelings. She
felt, as she says, that ‘now she gave up all for Christ.
She felt averse to everything which she believed to be
contrary to his will.—To the will of Jesus she could now
submit for ever, with joyful and entire confidence.—She
now loved to pray, and found happiness in obeying the
Saviour.’ She made, as she believes, at that time an entire
surrender of all her interests, for time and eternity, to
Christ, and since then her labours in his service have been
happy labours. Before they were constrained by conscience,
now they are prompted by the affections. She
does not think she was not a Christian before. She had
repented in view of the law, but she had not, till the time
mentioned, exercised affectionate faith in Christ.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> She
now often prays most solicitously for the conversion of
sinners and the sanctification of the church. She loves to
meet weekly in the female circle for prayer, and labours
to induce others to attend with her. Her little son, nine
years of age, is, as she hopes, a Christian; and her
daughter, just approaching the years of womanhood, has recently
united with the church. Two years since her husband
died under circumstances peculiarly afflicting. She prayed
for resignation, and never felt any disposition to murmur
against the providence of God. She sometimes blamed
herself that she had not thought of other expedients to
prolong, if possible, the life of one that she loved so
tenderly; but to God she looked up with submission,
and said in spirit: ‘The cup which my Father hath
given me, shall I not drink it?’ Her husband she views
as a departed saint, whom she expects to meet in a better
world. She cherishes his memory with an affection that
seems peculiarly sacred, and the remembrance of his piety
is a consoling association connected with the recollections
of one now in heaven.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a>
Are there not many in all the churches who have been convicted
of sin, and who have perhaps repented, but have not
exercised full faith in Christ? <a href="#FNanchor_43_43">Back</a></p>
</div>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a>
That the marriage bond becomes more sacred, and the reciprocal
duties of affection more tender, between two hearts that both love
Jesus, I have no doubt. The feelings of this pious widow favour
the supposition; and the facts recorded in the biographies of
Edwards, Fletcher, and Corvosso, fully confirm it. <a href="#FNanchor_44_44">Back</a></p>
</div>
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>157]</a></span>
A single incident develops the secret of that piety which
gives her peace, and makes her useful. One of the last
times that I saw her she stated, in conversation upon the
subject, that a short time before she had read a Sabbath
school book, which one of her children had received, in
which was a representation of Christ bearing his cross to
Calvary. While contemplating this scene, love and gratitude
sprang up in her heart, which were subduing, sweet,
and peaceful beyond expression. How is it, reader, that
the contemplation of such a scene of suffering should
cause such blessed emotions to spread like a rich fragrance
through the soul, and rise in sweet incense to God? It is
the holy secret of the cross of Christ, which none but the
saints know, and even they cannot communicate.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a>
Thomas à Kempis endeavoured to give expression to the consciousness
of the Divine life in the soul—‘<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Frequens Christi visitatio
cum homine interno, dulcis sermocinatio, grata consolatio, multa
pax,</span>’ etc. [‘The frequent presence of Christ in the inner man is
sweet converse, grateful consolation, much peace,’ etc.] <a href="#FNanchor_45_45">Back</a></p>
</div>
<h2><a name="conclusion" id="conclusion"></a>CONCLUSION.</h2>
<p>Allow the author to say, in closing, that it is his
opinion that, in view of the reasonings and facts presented
in the preceding pages, every individual who reads the
book intelligently, and who is in possession of a sound and
unprejudiced reason, will come to the conclusion that the
religion of the Bible is from God, and Divinely adapted
to produce the greatest present and eternal spiritual good
of the human family. And if any one should doubt its
Divine origin (which, in view of its adaptations and its
effects as herein developed, would involve the absurdity
of doubting whether an intelligent design had an intelligent
<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[<span class="hidden">Pg </span>158]</a></span>
designer), still, be the origin of the gospel where it
may, in heaven, earth, or hell, the demonstration is conclusive
that it is the only religion possible for man, in
order to perfect his nature, and restore his lapsed powers
to harmony and holiness.</p>
<p class="endmark">THE END.</p>
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<div class="figcenter" style="width: 419px;">
<img src="images/backcover.jpg" width="419" height="700"
alt="Decorated back cover of the book" />
</div>
<div class="bbox">
<p><b>Transcriber's Note</b></p>
<p>Variations in spelling are preserved as printed.</p>
<p>Minor punctuation and typographic errors have been repaired.</p>
<p>The Hebrew text of the footnote on page <a href="#Page_51">51</a> has an
error where it appears that a samech has been used instead of a mem (final).
On the assumption that this is a printer error, it has been fixed:
<span lang="he" xml:lang="he" dir="rtl">שס</span> amended to
<span lang="he" xml:lang="he" dir="rtl">שם</span>.</p>
</div>
<div class="bbox">
<b><a name="translit" id="translit"></a>Transliterations</b>
<p><span lang="he" xml:lang="he" dir="rtl">קדש</span><br />
qadosh or kadosh (or perhaps implied kodesh)<br />
<a href="#translit1">Back</a></p>
<p>ἅγιος<br />
hagios<br />
<a href="#translit2">Back</a></p>
<p><span lang="he" xml:lang="he" dir="rtl">שם קדשי</span><br />
shem qodshi<br />
<a href="#translit3">Back</a></p>
<p>With thanks to the members of Distributed Proofreaders who checked the Hebrew
text and provided transliterations.</p>
</div>
<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44644 ***</div>
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