THE SOCIAL CHRISTIAN LIFE.
“THEN they that feared the Lord spake often one to another.” This affords us a topic of thought, rich in its aspect of duty, and full of delightful Christian fruitage. We mean the social Christian life. An utterly unsocial Christianity would be a solecism—as much related to a true brotherhood as a sandy desert would be to “a field which the Lord hath blessed.” And not alone the exercises of the social principle on the church, but also on the impenitent world. It is here that the delinquency of church members is most palpable. Among themselves there is professional character enough to give some savor of social, Christian life. Necessity, habit and choice, all conspire to some Christian intercourse; but outside of this, our male membership is, in many cases, little better than negative quantities in algebra, which to the unmathematical eye, look like numbers; while the more there is of them, the less is the sum total. It is here, most signally and disastrously, for the spread of religion, that Christian activity is transferred by our male constituency to the ministry; a proxy system which met, often and faithfully, to some extent cannot be fulfilled—thus leaving a measure of personal effort unaccomplished. The reserve of Christian men in regard to religious matters towards the irreligious, impresses the latter unfavorably both towards religion and the character of professors. Every other thing in which men take an interest, they talk about; but this is ignored. If the heart be fully sensible of the value of piety to itself; if it have any appreciation of its value to others; if it have any generous promptings toward the spiritual well-being of others; if it have any sense of their danger without it—then out of the abundance of such a heart the tongue will speak. Even the woman of Samaria, in the newness of her knowledge of Christ, could run with alacrity among her fellow citizens, crying, “Come see a man who told me all that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?” And if the testimony of such a one led many of the Samaritans to believe on him, are there not trophies of grace to be won from the enemy, for Christ, by those who have long tasted that the Lord is gracious? Who will go abroad in the fullness of their experience, and in the earnestness of their love, like David, saying, “Come all ye that fear the Lord, and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul?”—Ob. Evan.