A FEW SERIOUS THOUGHTS.
By J. M. F.
WHY is it so often said of certain members of the church, "We have no confidence in them?" The people of the world do not say this of all churchmembers. Of some they say, "If there are any good ones, that man or that woman is one of them." Those in whom they place such strong confidence are neither wiser nor more intelligent in this world's affairs than others, but there is something in their conduct that inspires confidence. They are sent for if a dying person is to be prayed for. If inquirers are to be instructed, their advice is acceptable. Would that this advice were true of all. It is sad to think that there some whose course of life is calculated to discourage and repulse the inquirer after the way of life. Friendly reader, are you one of this description? Let me say, if you have no share in the confidence of the world as a religious person, you may know it. You may know how you stand both before God and before men; if you can know it, you ought to know it. If you "have not a good report of them that are without," you ought to know the reason why. Having discovered the cause, you ought to remove it at once. Reasons the most momentous and weighty that can be conceived can be given for this. 1. Self-love requires it. You sin against your own soul unless you do it. Self-preservation is said to be the first law of nature, and certainly no one has a right to trifle with his own welfare. Rewards in heaven are in proportion to faithfulness on earth. Will you then dim the lustre of your crown in glory, even peril your eternal interests, by living in a loose, hap-hazard way? 2. Love to man also demands it. Will you take your neighbor by the hand and lead him down to pedition? Will you bar heaven's gate against him? If not, then do remove the obstacles which your unguarded life has thrown in his way. He has noticed that in a bargain you did not walk straight up to the golden rule, and do as you would have them do to you. He has been shocked at your loud laughter and shameful jests. He has heard you slander your neighbor when it was manifest that prejudice and not reason moved your tongue. With these and other facts before him, he has said in his heart you have no religion. He has felt and knows that he ought to serve God, but when he thinks of joining a church in which there are members in whom he has no confidence, he shrinks from the duty. 3. But more than all, the love which you say you bear to Christ, should prompt you to be a living epistle, known and read of all men. You are here to witness that the religion of Christ makes men holy. The King of Israel had trouble in his family all his life, because by misconduct he gave occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme. O, how can you wound your Master; crucify him afresh; cause his kind heart to bleed at every pore? Come back to the fold, and humble yourself at the feet of your injured Lord, and serve him in truth. J. M. F.—Golden Rule.