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THE CHRISTIAN'S PURITY OF DISPOSITION.

FEBRUARY 12.

51

What doth the Lord thy God require of thee; but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

A DISTINGUISHING attribute of every follower of Christ should be, a studious concern to approve himself to God, by the purity of his heart. He has a much nobler and higher aim than the hypocrite or the mere moralist. They both can be satisfied with a freedom from gross offences, and think God's authority sufficiently regarded, if the practice of all outward wickedness is carefully avoided. The work and labour of a Christian, on the contrary, is within; to prevent the deadly fruit of sin in the branches, by opposing and mortifying it in the root. Though he cannot totally suppress the pruriency of evil thoughts, nor eradicate the perception of bad impressions from outward objects or inward corruptions, he is alarmed at their intrusion; and with such an emotion as a sovereign feels at the first appearances of rebellion in his kingdom, he cries unto God to rise to his succour, and immediately to expel his enemies. What was at

first an involuntary motion in his mind, he will not suffer to grow more exceeding sinful by cherishing it or by being at peace with it. For this he regards as a plain mark of remaining love for sin, though motives of selfish fear or convenience restrain him from the commission of it.

To illustrate this excellent disposition still more distinctly the Christian, in youth and health, does much more than avoid the brothel or the cup. He is promptly offended at wanton jesting and indecent manners; he loathes the pictures a corrupt imagination would be painting before him, and resists every impure impulse of his heart. In business and merchandize, he does more than renounce the bag of deceitful weights and the frauds of villany; he renounces the immoderate love of money, as one who is indeed a stranger upon earth, and adopted into the family of God. In his behaviour towards his competitors and his enemies, he does not content himself with abstaining from vilifying them by slander, or assaulting them with railing. He condemns and watches against silent envy, secret animosity, and injurious surmises. He appears vindictive and malicious in his own eyes, whenever he detects himself listening with pleasure to others who are speaking evil of his foes, though the charge is founded on truth. He bewails so plain a proof of the power of irregular self love and uncharitableness in his heart. To mention no more instances, the Christian is not satisfied in refraining from speaking vainly and proudly of his own accomplishments and advantages-this good sense will check, and good manners teach to be irksome to others-but he maintains an obstinate conflict with self admiration and self complacency in his own breast; not desisting till he has put these grand enemies to the glory of God and his grace to flight. In each of these, and many other instances, he ascribes unto God the honour due unto his name, as the Lord of conscience, as the God who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins, and requireth truth in the inward parts.

Seach, gracious God, my inmost heart,
And light and hope and joy impart ;
From guilt and errour set me free,
And guide me safe to heaven and thee.

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And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things which shall befall me there: save that the holy spirit witnesseth in every city, saying, that bonds and afflictions abide me-but none of these things move me.

We need christian fortitude to resist with promptness the allurements of evil-we need it to bear with firmness the sufferings of life, and we need it to support with self possession the pains of death. And is it not needed also to guard our hearts against the attacks of unforeseen temptations? We may be safe now; but we know not what calamities of grim and horrid aspect, what severe and iron events may be lurking for us, in the dark ambush of the impenetrable future. Religious fortitude will prevent our fall from the elevations of hope, to the depths of despair. Many a cell would have wanted its tenant, had christian courage been near to break the blow of misfortune. How often has the ball of death been employed, to appease the throbbing of that burning brain, which virtuous principles would have preserved from phrenzy :-how often has the impious drug of oblivion been lifted to lips, which religion would have taught to bless the name of the Lord, whatever it was that he had taken away :-how many eyes have been frightfully fixed in the updrawn glare of self inflicted death, which wisdom would have directed to bow with looks of reliance on its rectitude. As we would avoid a fate like this, and avoid too the more common evils which follow a surrender of ourselves to unexpected temptation, let us secure the support of religious and moral principles. The most prosperous and happy among us know not how soon they may have need of them.

Christian fortitude pretends not to consider external sufferings, as matters of mere indifference, as was inculcated by the Stoical philosophy, but allots to them their due import-acknowledges them to be real distresses to a being endued, as man is, with a corporeal frame -and prepares the mind for avoiding or repelling them by every legitimate means. She views them with firmness and composure, and in allowing them their due weight, is not disconcerted by their approach nor agitated by the terrors of a cowardly imagination. She can survey them with calmness, and deliberately take those measures which are most adapted to repel them. If they assail, in spite of every precaution, the true Christian is free from that ostentatious courage, and that Stoical pride, which pretend to brave pain, and to view misfortune with contempt. He divests not himself of humanity, for he is interested by whatever affects our common nature. But his sufferings neither induce him to murmur against God, nor sour his temper, nor shake his resolution. Disengaged from the world, he supports with composure the privation of what he considers as merely adventitious to his real happiness, and places his chief concern in his eternal state. His equanimity arises from his being taught, in the gospel, to view the evils of life, not only as appointed in the order of nature, but as trials ordained by Providence, to detach him from this world, to exercise his piety, and to lead him to perfection by the road which his Saviour trod before him.

Amid the trials of my path,

O shield me, Power divine!

THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES INTELLIGIBLE.

FEBRUARY 14.

Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

53

THE powers and perfections of God are incomprehensible, that is, they cannot be wholly taken in or embraced by the human mind. But because God is incomprehensible, is he therefore unintelligible? Certainly not. We do not pretend to know the whole nature and properties of God, but still we can form some clear ideas of him, and can reason from these ideas as justly as from any other. The truth is, that we cannot be said to comprehend any being whatever, not the simplest plant or animal. All have hidden properties. Our knowledge of all is limited. But have we therefore no distinct ideas of the objects around us, and is all our reasoning about them unworthy of trust? Because God is infinite, his name is not therefore a mere sound. It is a representative of some distinct conceptions of our creator; and these conceptions are as sure, and important, and as proper materials for the reasoning faculty, as they would be if our views were indefinitely enlarged. We cannot indeed trace God's goodness and rectitude through the whole field of his operations; but we know the essential nature of these attributes, and therefore can often judge what accords with and opposes them. God's goodness, because infinite, does not cease to be goodness, or essentially differ from the same attribute in man; nor does justice change its nature, so that it cannot be understood, because it is seated in an unbounded mind. God's attributes are intelligible, and we can conceive as truly of his goodness and justice, as of these qualities in men. In fact these qualities are essentially the same in God and man, though differing in degree, in purity, and in extent of operation. We know not and we cannot conceive of any other justice or goodness, than we learn from our own nature; and if God have not these, he is altogether unknown to us as a moral being; he offers nothing for esteem and love to rest upon. It is asked on what authority we ascribe to God goodness and rectitude, in the sense in which these attributes belong to men, or how we can judge of the nature of attributes in the mind of the creator? We answer by asking, How it is that we become acquainted with the mind of a fellow creature? The last is as invisible, as removed from immediate inspection, as the first. Still we do not hesitate to speak of the justice and goodness of a neighbour; and how do we gain our knowledge? We answer, by witnessing the effects, operations, and expressions of these attributes. It is a law of our nature to argue from the effect to the cause. By these processes, we learn the invisible mind and character of man; and by the same we ascend to the mind of God, whose works, effects, operations, and ends, are as expressive and significant of justice and goodness, as the best and most decisive actions of men.

Eternal themes to human pow'rs are brought;

And God seeks worship from the springs of thought.

O thoughts ineffable! O visions blest!

Though worthless our conceptions all of Thee,
Yet shall thy shadowed image fill our breast,
And waft its image to thy Deity.

54

THE CHRISTIAN'S AIM AND CHARACTER.

FEBRUARY 15.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

DEFILEMENT is inseparable from the world. A man can no where rest his foot on it without sinking. A strong principle of assimilation combines the world and the heart together. There are, especially, certain occasions, when the current hurries a man away, and he has lost the religious government of himself. When the pilot finds that the ship will not obey the helm, he knows that she is within the influence of that attraction which will bury her in the whirlpool. We are to avoid the danger, rather than to oppose it. This is a great doctrine of Scripture. An active force against the world' is not so much inculcated, as a retreating, declining spirit. Keep thyself unspotted from the world.

There are seasons when a Christian's distinguishing character is hidden from man. A Christian merchant on 'Change is not called to shew any difference in his mere exterior carriage from another merchant. He gives a reasonable answer if he is asked a question. He does not fanatically intrude religion into every sentence he utters. He does not suppose his religion to be inconsistent with the common interchange of civilities. He is affable and courteous. He can ask the news of the day, and take up any public topic of conversation. But is he, therefore, not different from other men? He is like another merchant in the mere exterior circumstance, which is least in God's regard; but, in his taste !-his views !-his science !—his hopes !-his happiness! he is as different from those around him as light is from darkness. He waits for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who never passes perhaps through the thoughts of those he talks with, but to be neglected and despised!

The Christian is called to be like Abraham, in conduct; like Paul, in labours; and like John, in spirit. Though, as a man of faith, he goes forth not knowing whither, and his principle is hidden from the world, yet he will oblige the world to acknowledge: "His views, it is true, we do not understand. His principles and general conduct are a mystery to us. But a more upright, noble, generous, disinterested, peaceable, and benevolent man, we know not where to find." The world may even count him a madman; and false brethren may vilify his character, and calumniate his motives: yet he will bear down evil, by repaying good; and will silence his enemies, by the abundance of his labours. He may be shut out from the worldcast into prison-banished into obscurity-no eye to observe him, no hand to help him-but it is enough for him, if his Saviour will speak to him and smile on him!

Behold, where in a mortal form,

Appears such grace divine;

The virtues all in Jesus met,

With mildest radiance shine.

Be Christ our pattern and our guide;

His image may we bear:

O may we tread his heavenly steps,

His joy and glory share.

RELIGIOUS ANXIETY NEEDFUL.

FEBRUARY 16.

55

Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?-Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

HOWEVER We might reason about the propriety of being anxious, the fact is that we are anxious, about every thing on earth that affects our happiness. If religion is excluded from our solicitude be it remembered that it is the only subject of any practical concern that is So. There are anxieties, there are fears and tremblings about every thing else in life, if not about this. Surely anxiety is not so uncommon, so alien to our hearts, that it must be rejected for being unnatural or monstrous. Oh! no our hearts tell us that there are anxieties for our possessions, our comforts, our friends, our children and every thing that we call ours. Now, amidst all the fears and cares and solicitudes that form a portion of our daily experience, are there none that turn to the perfection and safety of the immortal part within us? Are we forever solicitous about the phantoms of life that we pursue, and does it never occur to us to reflect, what we ourselves are that pursue them, and whither this pursuit-whither this progress of life is conducting us? Or, is it of no consequence what we are, and what is our destination? Who will risk his sense and intellect on the credit of such a proposition? Who does not know that his happiness, and his worth, depend, not upon what he gets, but upon what he is; not upon his possessions, but upon his virtues; not upon what he has in this vanishing state but upon what he SHALL have, in the eternal allotments of his being; in the enduring qualities of his mind ?—You can find nothing in the instructions of the New Testament more striking than their adaptation to awaken in us the very feeling of which I have been speaking; to awaken in us a solemn anxiety about our duties, and dangers, and prospects, as religious beings. It would seem impossible to mistake the tenour of our Saviour's teaching on this point. Indeed he came into the world to save that which was lost, and he acted and taught as if the object was infinitely interesting and our danger unspeakably affecting. There are epochs in the history of the mind as well as of nations. There is a harvest season in the moral as well as the material creation.

Whenever you are anxious about your religious welfare, and every one is so at times, you know not how much of the great futurity depends on this state of mind. Strive, at such a moment, would the moral teacher say, strive as if it were perdition to fail. Open and deliberate crime has its victims. But religious indifference it is that destroys its millions. The only antidote, the only redeeming power, is religious solicitude. If you have any portion of it now, if you feel any tenderness of spirit, any solemn anxiety, any gracious fear; Oh look upon this state of mind as the kindest visitation of heaven to you; cherish it; cling to it; and never let it go till it has fulfilled the work of its commission. Death will soon teach us, and eternity will reveal, that we have not done too much nor indulged too many anxieties, for the immortal part of our nature. God grant that it may reveal also that we have not laboured in vain!

Let fear and trembling mark my anxious way!
I'll follow Christ-he leads to heavenly day.

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