Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 11, 1858
THE STATE OF THE DEAD.
By John Milton
BY JOHN MILTON, AUTHOR OF "PARADISE LOST."
CHAPTER I.
THE visible creation comprises the material universe, and all that is contained therein; and more especially the human race. The creation of the world in general, and of its individual parts, is related in Gen. i. It is also described in Job xxvi, 7, &c., and in xxxviii, and in various passages of the Psalms and Prophets—Ps. xxxiii, 6-9; civ; cxlviii, 5; Prov. viii, 26, &c.; Amos iv, 13; 2 Pet. iii, 5. Previously, however, to the creation of man, as if to intimate the superior importance of the work, the Deity speaks like a man deliberating. Gen. i, 26, "God said, let us make man in our own image, after our own likeness." So that it was not the body alone that was then made, but the soul of man also, (in which our likeness to God principally consists,) which precludes us from attributing pre-existence to the soul which was then formed—a groundless notion sometimes entertained, but refuted by Gen. ii, 7. "God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; thus man became a living soul." Job xxxii, 8, "There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." Nor did God merely breathe that spirit into man, but moulded it in each individual, and infused it throughout, enduing and embellishing it with its proper faculties. Zech. xii, 1. "He formeth the spirit of man within him."
We may understand from other passages of Scripture, that when God infused the breath of life into man, what man thereby received was not a portion of God's essence, or a participation of the divine nature, but that measure of the divine virtue or influence, which was commensurate to the capabilities of the recipient. For it appears from Ps. civ, 29, 30, that he infused the breath of life into other living beings also: "Thou takest away their breath, they die . . . thou sendeth forth thy spirit, they are created;" whence we learn that every living thing receives animation from one and the same source of life and breath; inasmuch as when God takes back to himself that spirit or breath of life, they cease to exist. Eccl. iii, 19. "They have all one breath." Nor has the word spirit any other meaning in the sacred writings, but that breath of life which we inspire, or the vital or sensitive, or rational faculty, or some action or affection belonging to those faculties.
Man having been created after this manner, it is said, as a consequence, that "man became a living soul;" whence, it may be inferred, (unless we had rather take the heathen writers for our teachers respecting the nature of the soul,) that man is a living being, intrinsically and properly one and individual, not compound or separable, not, according to the common opinion, made up and framed of two distinct and different natures, as of soul and body, but that the whole man is soul, and the soul man, that is to say, a body, or individual substance.
animated, sensitive and rational; and that the breath of life was neither a part of the divine essence, nor was it the soul itself, but as it were the inspiration of some divine virtue fitted for the exercise of life and reason, and infused into the organic body; for man himself, the whole man, when finally created, is called in express terms, "a living soul." Hence the word used in Genesis to signify soul, is interpreted by the Apostle, 1 Cor. xv, 45, "animal." Again, all the attributes of the body are assigned in common to the soul—the touch, Lev. v, 2. "If a soul touch any unclean thing,"—the act of eating, Lev. vii, 18, 20, "The soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity;" "The soul that eateth of the flesh," and in other places—hunger, Prov. xiii, 25; Prov. xxvii, 7, "To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet,"—thirst, Prov. xxv, 25, "As cold waters to a thirsty soul."—Isa. xxix, 8,—capture, 1 Sam. xxiv, 11, "Thou huntest my soul to take it;" Ps. vii, 5, "Let the enemy persecute my soul and take it."
Where we speak of the body as a mere senseless stock, there the soul must be understood as signifying either the spirit, or its secondary faculties, the vital or sensitive faculties for instance. Thus it is as often distinguished from the spirit as from the body itself. Luke i, 46, 47; 1 Thess. v, 23; "Your whole spirit and soul and body"—Heb. iv, 12, "To the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." But that the spirit of man should be separate from the body, so as to have a perfect and intelligent existence independently of it, is nowhere said in Scripture, and the doctrine is evidently at variance both with nature and reason, as will be shown more fully hereafter. For the word soul is applied to every kind of living being: Gen. i, 30, "Every beast of the earth wherein there is life," (Hebrew "a living soul.") Gen. vii, 22, "All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, (Heb. living soul,) of all that was in the dry land, died;" yet it is never inferred from those expressions that the soul exists separate from the body in any of the brute creation.
On the seventh day God ceased from his work, and ended the whole business of creation. Gen. ii, 23.
It would seem, therefore, that the human soul is not created daily by the immediate act of God, but propagated from father to son in a natural order; which was considered the more probable opinion by Tertullian and Apollinarius, as well as by Augustine and the whole Western church in the time of Jerome, as he himself testifies, Tom. ii, Epist. 32, and Gregory of Nyssa in his treatise on the soul. God would in fact have left his creation imperfect, and a vast not to say a servile task, would yet remain to be performed, without even allowing time for rest on each successive Sabbath, if he still continued to create as many souls daily as there are bodies multiplied throughout the whole world, at the bidding of what is not seldom the flagitious wantonness of man. Nor is there any reason to suppose that the influence of the divine blessing is less efficacious in imparting to man the power of producing after his kind, than to the other parts of animated nature; Gen. i, 22, 28. Thus it was from one of the ribs of the man that God made the194mother of all mankind, without the necessity of infusing the breath of life a second time, Gen. ii, 22, and Adam himself begat a son in his own likeness after his image, Gen. v, 3. Thus 1 Cor. xv, 49, "As we have borne the image of the earthy," and this not only in the body, but in the soul, as it was chiefly with respect to the soul that Adam was made in the divine image. So, Gen. xlvi, 26, "All the souls which came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins." Heb. vii, 10, "Levi was in the loins of Abraham;" whence in Scripture an offspring is called seed, and Christ is denominated "the seed of the woman." Gen. xvii, 7, "I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." 1 Cor. xv, 44, 46, "It is sown a natural body . . . that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural."
But besides the testimony of revelation, some arguments from reason may be alleged in confirmation of this doctrine. Whoever is born, or shapen and conceived in sin, (as we all are, not David only, Ps. li, 5,) if he receive his soul immediately from God, cannot but receive it from him shapen in sin; for to be generated and conceived, means nothing else than to receive soul in conjunction with the body. If we receive the soul immediately from God, it must be pure, for who in such a case will venture to call it impure? But if it be pure, how are we conceived in sin in consequence of receiving a pure soul, which would rather have the effect of cleansing the impurities of the body; or with what justice is the pure soul charged with the sin of the body?
But it is contended, God does not create souls impure, but only impaired in their nature and destitute of original righteousness. I answer, that to create pure souls destitute of original righteousness,—to send them into contaminated and corrupt bodies,—to deliver them up in their innocence and helplessness to the prison house of the body, as to an enemy, with understanding blinded and with will enslaved,—in other words, wholly deprived of sufficient strength for resisting the vicious propensities of the body—to create souls thus circumstanced, would argue as much injustice, as to have created them impure would have argued impurity; it would have argued as much injustice, as to have created the first man, Adam himself, impaired in his nature, and destitute of original righteousness.
Again, if sin be communicated by generation, and transmitted from father to son, it follows that what is the original subject of sin, namely, the rational soul, must be propagated in the same manner; for that it is from the soul, that all sin in the first instance proceeds, will not be denied. Lastly, on what principle of justice can sin be imputed through Adam to that soul, which was never either in Adam, or derived from Adam? In confirmation of which Aristotle's argument may be added, the truth of which is, in my opinion, indisputable. If the soul be equally diffused through any given whole, and throughout every part of that whole, how can the human seed, the noblest and most intimate part of all the body, be imagined destitute of the soul of the parents, or at least of the father, when communicated to the son by the laws of generation?
It was probably by some such considerations as these that Augustine was led to confess that he could neither discover by study or prayer, nor by any process of reasoning, how the doctrine of original sin could be defended on the supposition of the creation of souls. The texts which are usually advanced, Eccl. xii, 7; Isa. lvii, 16; Zech. xii, 1, certainly indicate that nobler origin of the soul implied in its being breathed from the mouth of God; but they no more prove that each soul is severally and immediately created by the Deity, than certain other texts, which might be quoted, prove that each individual body is formed in the womb by the immediate hand of God. Job x, 8-10, "Thine hands have made me . . . hast thou not poured me out as milk?" Ps. xxxiii, 15, "He fashioneth their hearts alike." Job xxxi, 15, "Did not he that made me in the womb, make him?" Isa. xliv, 24, "Thus saith Jehovah . . . he that formed thee from the womb." Acts xvii, 26, "He hath made of one blood all nations of men." We are not to infer from these passages, that natural causes do not contribute their ordinary efficacy for the propagation of the body; nor on the other hand, that the soul is not received by traduction from the father, because at the time of death it again betakes itself to different elements than the body, in conformity with its own origin.
With regard to the passage, Heb. xii, 9, where "the fathers of the flesh" are opposed to "the father of spirits," I answer that it is to be understood in a theological, not in a physical sense, as if the father of the body were opposed to the father of the soul; for flesh is taken neither in this passage, nor probably anywhere else, for the body without the soul; nor "the father of spirits," for the father of the soul, in respect of the work of generation; but "the father of the flesh," here means nothing else than the earthly or natural father, whose offspring are begotten in sin; "the father of spirits," is either the heavenly father, who in the beginning created all spirits, angels as well as the human race, or the spiritual father, who bestows a second birth on the faithful; according to John iii, 6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." The argument, too, will proceed better, if the whole be understood as referring to edification and correction, not to generation; for the point in question is not, from what source each individual originated, or what part of him thence originated, but who had proved most successful in the employment of chastisement and instruction. By parity of reasoning, the apostle might exhort the converts to bear with his rebuke, on the ground that he was their spiritual father. God is as truly the father of the flesh, as "of the spirits of the flesh," Num. xvi, 22, but this is not the sense intended here, and all arguments are weak which are deduced from passages of Scripture originally relating to a different subject.
With regard to the soul of Christ it will be sufficient to answer that its generation was supernatural, and therefore cannot be cited as an argument in the discussion of this controversy. Nevertheless, even he is called "the seed of the woman," "the seed of David according to the flesh," that is, undoubtedly, according to his human nature.
There seems, therefore, no reason why the soul of man should be made an exception to the general law of creation. For as has been shown before, God breathed the breath of life into the other living beings, and blended it so intimately with the matter, that the propagation and production of the human form were analogous to those of other forms, and the proper effect of that power which had been communicated to matter by the Deity.
SPEAK KINDLY.
SPEAK kindly, speak kindly! ye know not the power
Of a kind and gentle word,
As its tones in a sad and weary hour,
By the troubled heart are heard.
Ye know not how often it falls to bless
The stranger in his weariness;
How many a blessing is round thee thrown
By the magic spell of a soft, low tone.
Speak kindly, then kindly; there's nothing lost
By gentle words—to the heart and ear
Of the sad and lonely, they're dear, how dear,
And they nothing cost.
Speak kindly to childhood. O do not fling
A cloud o'er life's troubled sky;
But cherish it well—a holy thing
Is the heart in its purity.
Enough of sorrow the cold world hath,
Enough of care in its later path;
And ye do a wrong if ye seek to throw
O'er the fresh young spirit a shade of woe.
Speak kindly, then kindly; there is nothing lost
By gentle words—to the heart and ear
Of joyous childhood, they're dear, how dear—
And they nothing cost.
Speak gently to age—a weary way
Is the rough and toilsome road of life;
As one by one its joys decay;
And its hopes go out 'mid its lengthened strife.
How often the word that is kindly spoken,
Will bind up the heart that is well nigh broken.
Then pass not the feeble and aged one
With a cold and careless and slighting tone;
But kindly, speak kindly; there is nothing lost
By gentle words—to the heart and ear
Of the care-worn and weary, they're dear, how dear—
And they nothing cost.
Speak kindly to those who are haughty and cold,
Ye know not the thoughts that are dwelling there;
Ye know not the feelings that struggle untold—
Oh, every heart hath its burden of care,
And the curl of the lip, and the scorn of the eye,
Are often a bitter mockery,
When a bursting heart its grief would hide
From the eye of the world 'neath a veil of pride.
Speak kindly, then kindly; there is nothing lost
By gentle words—to the heart and ear
Of the proud and haughty they're often dear,
And they nothing cost.
Speak kindly ever—oh, cherish well
The light of a gentle tone;
It will fling round thy pathway a magic spell,
A charm that is all its own.
But see that it springs from a gentle heart,
That it need not the hollow aid of art;
Let it gush in its joyous purity,
From its home in the heart all glad and free.
Speak kindly, then kindly; there is nothing lost
By gentle words—to the heart and ear
Of all who hear them, they're dear, how dear—
And they nothing cost.
No Compromise
By T. Hardcastle
No Compromise.—God does not allow us to part with an inch of his ground, though we might thereby gain the peaceful possession of all the rest.—T. Hardcastle.
What I Am, and what I Will Try to Be.
1. WHAT I FIND.
I FIND I can build up no firm and stable hope, unless I can lay my foundation on the naked rock of such a word of God as that "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."
I find I can get no abiding peace unless "being justified by faith, I have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
I find I can obtain no strength against sin for duty, or towards holiness and heaven, except as those divine words are graven upon my heart, (and oh, how often do the fading characters need to be renewed!) "I have no sufficiency of myself to think anything as of myself, but my sufficiency is of God." In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. "Surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength."
O the unutterable depth of the depravity and wickedness of this heart! One moment I am sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and the next hovering over the bottomless pit One moment occupied with thoughts and joys of heavenly purity and sweetness—the very next, feeling "the fiery darts of the wicked one," rankling in my tortured heart. "In me there dwelleth no good thing." "The thoughts of the imaginations of my heart are only evil, and that continually!"
How naked is my soul of true virtue! How destitute of holy strength! Had I not, blessed Saviour, the spotless robe of thy righteousness to cover myself withal, and that sure word of thine to lean upon, "My grace is sufficient for thee," I would give up this long-waged and always renewing conflict in despair.
Depart, O my soul, from the sandy region of thine own works, merits and resolutions! Often hast thou "begun to build" there, but wast never "able to finish." As soon as the structure began to rise to a promising hight, the streams of recent depravity undermined it, the storms of passion and temptation smote it, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof! Why renew so hopeless and useless a labor? Be it thy whole care to win Christ and be found in him, not having thine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."
2. WHAT I WILL DO.
I will fear God; for then "it shall be well with me."
I will delight myself in God; for then will he give me the desires of my heart. Ps. xxxvii.
I will seek God; for then "I shall live;" [Amos v.] then shall I find him, [Luke xii.] and possessing him, what is there or can there be which I shall not have? "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."
I will hope in his mercy; for then will he take "pleasure in me."
I will try in every possible way to "continue with Christ in his temptations;" for then will he "appoint unto me a kingdom, even as the Father hath appointed unto him."
I will abound in those services and works for which no recompense can be made me in this world; for then "great shall be my reward. I shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." And I had rather be recompensed then. I had rather be paid off in God's measure than in man's—rather on the scale of eternity and immensity, than of time and of this little and crumbling world.
The gold of this world I may lose; but the "true riches" I cannot. The gold and silver of this world are often cankered, and the rust thereof doth eat their possessor's flesh as it were fire. But no such corruption is possible in the pure gold of the kingdom of God. The garments of this world are often moth-eaten. But the white robes in which the blood washed and redeemed of Christ shall be arrayed, shall be of heavenly fabric, and undecaying as the "incorruptible body" which they shall clothe. The crowns of this world—if God would give me one of them, I could not be sure of it for an hour. How many of these crowns have fallen from the heads of their wearers, and in fact borne down these heads into the blood-stained dust along with them! Who would wish to put on the crown of the Czar or the Sultan this day, if even a wish could win them? See the vast energies of Napoleon exerted to gain a crown and transmit it to his family—and with what reward but a rocky isle as the prison of his last years, a life of confinement and misery, and an early death to his only son, and a cup of calamity not yet exhausted, to his descendants! But "a crown of glory that fadeth not away," "a crown of life," "a crown of righteousness,"—that is something worth striving for. Fix thy steady gaze on it, O my soul, and leave all, lose all, in order to win it.
These are the things which I mean to do, whatsoever else I leave undone. Not one of them can I fulfill, O Lord, without thee. Work in me the firm resolve, the steady hope, the fearless courage, the unfaltering perseverance. Thou hast implanted the desire; for once I had it not, even in the smallest degree. O give that desire strength, purity, constancy! I cannot err in asking that which thou hast often promised, which thou hast even commanded me to ask, and in giving which thou art greatly glorified and I am sanctified, redeemed, exalted195to thee. O blessed be God, who has permitted me to aspire so high as to be a brother of angels, a son of God, a king in eternity; and who accounts it no sin in me to be ambitious, provided only my ambition reaches after objects divinely great and eternally enduring—but on the contrary, makes the exalted and most glorious objects after which I can aspire, the wisest of all attainments.—Sel.
Giving.
By Editor
[THE following presents a good standard in reference to giving. How many of our readers have ever come up to it? how many will?—Ed.]
“We must close this article by relating an anecdote. Mr. A., one of the ‘Lord’s collectors,’ once applied to Esq. B. for a subscription to a highly meritorious object. After explaining it fully the esquire replied, ‘It is a noble plan; I can give you $100 without feeling it.’ ‘Without feeling it!’ exclaimed Mr. B., ‘I do not wish you to give in that way, for although it may do us good it will not do you any. True benevolence is giving until the giver does feel it, until he practices self-denial. Such giving is acceptable to the Lord.’ The esquire assented, and doubled his subscription. ‘Can you give $200 without inconvenience?’ asked Mr. B. ‘O yes,’ said the esquire, ‘I shan’t feel it at all.’ Mr. B., who cared for the soul of the gentleman more than he did for his money, replied, ‘You have not come up to the mark yet. This giving without feeling it is not the giving that is well-pleasing in the sight of God. Would $500 to such an excellent charity be felt by you?’ ‘Why, no,’ said the other, ‘not at all.’ Mr. B., with a respect and kindness that won upon the heart of the esquire, asked him to name the sum that he would feel, were he to give it. ‘I think’ said he, ‘$1000 would make me feel it; nothing short of it would.’ ‘Well,’ said the collector, ‘that is the right sum then; such giving will be pleasing to the great Proprietor of all. It will do the object I present immense good, and do you a great deal of good, too.’ ‘You shall have it,’ said the esquire, ‘it is the first time I ever gave to a good object and felt the pressure.’—Am. Missionary.
RICHES.
By S. Bernard
O you sons of Adam, you covetous generations, what have ye to do with earthly riches, which are neither true nor yours; gold and silver are real earth; red and white, which only the error of man makes, or rather reputes, precious. In short, if they be yours, carry them with you.—S. Bernard.
Humility
By S. August
HUMILITY.—The sufficiency of my merit, is to know that my merit is not sufficient.—S. August.
CHRIST THE CENTRAL GLORY.
By Maclaurin
It is the glory of the world, that he who formed it dwelt on it; of the air, that he breathed in it; of the sun, that it shone upon him; of the ground, that it bare him; of the sea, that he walked on it; of the elements, that they nourished him; of the waters, that they refreshed him; of us men, that he lived and died among us; yea, that he lived and died for us; that he assumed our flesh and blood, and carried it to the highest heavens, where it shines as the eternal ornament and wonder of the creation of God. It gives also a lustre to Providence. It is the chief event that adorns the records of time, and enlivens the history of the universe. It is the glory of the various great lines of Providence that they point at this as their center; that they prepared the way for its coming; that, after its coming, they are subservient to the ends of it; though in a way indeed to us at present mysterious and unsearchable. Thus, we know that they either fulfill the promises of the crucified Jesus, or his threatenings; and show either the happiness of receiving him, or the misery of rejecting him.—Maclaurin.
ENVY
By Augustine of Hippo
Envy is the hatred of another's felicity; in respect of superiors, because they are not equal to them; in respect of inferiors, lest they should be equal to them; in respect of equals, because they are equal to them. Through envy proceeded the fall of the world, and the death of Christ.—S. Augustine.
THE WORLD
By Saint Augustine
O you that dote upon this world, for what victory do ye fight? Your hopes can be crowned with no greater reward than the world can give; and what is the world, but a brittle thing full of dangers, wherein we travel from lesser to greater perils? O let all her vain, light, momentary glory perish with herself, and let us be conversant with more eternal things. Alas! this world is miserable; life is short, and the end is sure.
The Power of Religion.
By Horace Bushnell
We shall never have done hearing, I suppose, of Regulus and Curtius, and such like specimens of the Roman virtue, great in death; but the whole army of the martyrs, comprising thousands of women and even many small children, dying firmly in the refusal to deny the Lord Jesus, are a full match and more, by the legion, for the bravest of the Romans. What but the mighty mastership of religion has ever led a people up through civil wars and revolutions, into a regenerated order and liberty? What has planted colonies for a great history but religion? The most august and most beautiful structures of the world have been temples of religion; crystallizations, we may say, of worship. The noblest charities, the best fruits of learning, the richest discoveries, the best institutions of law and justice, every greatest thing the world has seen, represents, more or less directly, the fruitfulness and creativeness of the religious talents. The real summit, therefore, of our humanity, is here.—Dr. Bushnell.
CONVERSATION
By Harris
The most casual remark lives forever in its effects. There is not a word which has not a moral history. And hence it is that every “idle word” which men utter, assumes a character so important, that an inquest will be held on it in the general judgment.
How to Use the Flesh
By S. Greg.
How TO USE THE FLESH.—If we give more to the flesh than we ought, we nourish an enemy; if we give not to her necessity what we ought, we destroy a citizen; the flesh is to be satisfied so far as suffices to our good; whosoever alloweth so much to her as to make her proud, knoweth not how to be satisfied. To be satisfied is a great art; lest, by the satiety of the flesh, we break forth into the iniquity of her folly.—S. Greg., Hom. iii, secund, Parte Ezech.
The Two Cities
By Augustine
Two several lovers, built two several cities; the love of God buildeth a Jerusalem; the love of the world buildeth a Babylon. Let every one inquire of himself what he loveth, and he shall resolve himself, of whence he is a citizen.
GOD.
God is a light that is never darkened; an unwearied life that cannot die; a fountain always flowing; a garden of life; a seminary of wisdom; a radical beginning of all goodness.—Alunus, de Cong. Nat.
The Devil
By Peter Rav.
THE DEVIL.—The Devil is the author of evil, the fountain of wickedness, the adversary of the truth, the corruptor of the world, man’s perpetual enemy; he planteth snares, diggeth ditches, spurreth bodies, he goadeth souls, he suggesteth thoughts, belcheth anger, exposeth virtues to hatred, maketh vices beloved, soweth error, nourisheth contention, disturbeth peace, and scattereth affliction.—Peter Rav., in Math.
Weeping with Those That Weep
By Macar.
WEEPING WITH THOSE THAT WEEP.—Let us suffer with those that suffer, and be crucified with those that are crucified, that we may be glorified with those that are glorified.—Macar.
THE LOVE OF THE WORLD.
Behold, the world is withered in itself, yet flourisheth in our hearts, everywhere death, everywhere grief, everywhere desolation. On every side we are smitten; on every side filled with bitterness, and yet with the blind mind of carnal desire, we love her bitterness. It flieth and we follow it, it falleth, yet we stick to it; and because we cannot enjoy it falling, we fall with it, and enjoy it fallen.—S. Gregory.
THE TRUE CHURCH.
By William Ellery Channing
By this church our Saviour did not mean a party, bearing the name of a human leader, distinguished by a form or opinion, and, on the ground of this distinction, denying the name or character of Christians to all but themselves. He means by it the body of his friends and followers, who truly imbibe his Spirit, no matter by what name they are called, in what house they worship, by what peculiarities of mode and opinion they are distinguished, under what sky they live, or what language they speak. These are the true church—men made better, made holy, virtuous, by his religion—men who, hoping in his promises, keep his commandments.—William Ellery Channing.
EXTRACTS FROM TILLOTSON
Nobody is so weak but he is strong enough to bear the misfortunes that he does not feel.
No man’s religion ever survives his morals.
That is not wit which consists not with wisdom.
No man shall ever come to heaven himself who has not sent his heart thither before him.
That man will one day find it but poor gain who hits upon truth with the loss of charity.
Christ saves the world by undeceiving it, and sanctifies the will by first enlightening the understanding.
If we justly look upon a proneness to find faults as a very ill and mean thing, we are to remember that a proneness to believe them is next to it.
This happiness does Christ vouchsafe to all his, that, as a Saviour, he once suffered for them, and that as a friend, he always suffers with them.
A blind guide is certainly a great mischief; but a guide that blinds those whom he should lead is undoubtedly a much greater.
Thoughtlessness of the Future
By Pugo
THOUGHTLESSNESS OF THE FUTURE.—I eat secure, I drink secure. I sleep secure, even as though I had passed the day of death, avoided the day of judgment, and escaped the torments of hell fire: I play and laugh as though I were already triumphing in the kingdom of heaven.—Pugo.
No Security but in Righteousness
By S. Bernard
No Security but in Righteousness.—Security is nowhere; neither in heaven nor in paradise, much less in the world. In heaven the angels fell from the divine presence; in Paradise Adam fell from his place of pleasure; in the world, Judas fell from the school of our Saviour.—S. Bernard.
THE NECESSITY OF STRUGGLE.
By Suvanar
If there be no enemy, no fight; if no fight, no victory; if no victory, no crown.—Suvanar.
The Cross of Christ
The cross of Christ is the key to paradise; the weak man’s staff; the convert’s convoy; the upright man’s perfection; the soul and body’s health; the prevention of all evil, and the procurer of all good.
—Damascen.
Satan’s Persecution Before the End
By how much the nearer Satan perceiveth the world to an end, by so much the more fiercely he troubleth it with persecution; that knowing himself is to be damned, he may get company in his damnation.
Lust
By Ambrose
Lust.—Lust is a sharp spur to vice, which always putteth the affections into a false gallop.—S. Ambrose.
The World’s Pleasures and Luxury
The World's Pleasures.—What profit is there in vain glory, momentary mirth, the world's power, the flesh's pleasure, full riches, noble descent, and great desires? Where is their laughter? Where is their mirth? Where their insolence? their arrogance? From how much joy to how much sadness! After how much mirth, how much misery! From how great glory are they fallen, to how great torment! What hath fallen to them, may befall thee, because thou art a man; thou art of earth; thou livest of earth; thou shalt return to earth. Death expecteth thee everywhere! Be wise therefore, and expect death everywhere.—Hugo de Anima.
Luxury.—Luxury is an enticing pleasure, a bastard mirth, which hath honey in her mouth, gall in her heart, and a sting in her tail.—Hugo.
MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS.
By Editor
It is of no use to attempt to discuss Bible doctrines with those who do not believe the Bible. The first question to be settled with such is the authenticity of the Scriptures themselves. But in all the doctrinal questions which arise in the theological world, there must be some ground upon which we can anchor; there must be some standard by which to test and decide conflicting opinions. Such a standard is the word of God. It is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. That those who do not believe this, should become confused and bewildered by the infidel vagaries of these last days, is not strange; but that they should be thus betrayed from their integrity who do receive all scripture as of the inspiration of God, is strange. It is also strange that any with this belief, should offer such sentiments, and bring up such objections to the truth, as the following:
1. “It is only your hobby. The Catholics have their hobby, the Methodists theirs, the Baptists theirs, and you have yours.” Well, what if this is so? What if each one has a particular point on which he specially dwells? Does this alter the word of God? Does this prohibit its teachings from being definite and infallible on points of truth essential to the salvation of man? By no means. Well then, our hobby is, “To the law and the testimony.” We only ask men to take the word of God, take it as it is, read it, believe it, obey it. Wherever we find its teachings particularly disregarded, there, as consistency demands, we are particularly tenacious for reform.
2. “Every one can find enough in the Bible to substantiate his belief.” Is it possible that any believer in the Bible should make such a statement? It is the “old fiddle” argument of infidels. We deny its correctness. Doctors of divinity, to be sure, by their earth-wise, but heaven-foolish subtleties, by their spiritualization, and mystification of the word of God, by the multitudes of their religious creeds, and the fierceness and animosity of their contentions, have paved the way for this objection. But the Bible is not responsible for the course of doctors of divinity. Whatever of truth any man or any body of men may possess, may be defended by the Bible. Nothing else can be. To say otherwise is to cast upon this wonderful book the worst of imputations. This no believer can do; for against this he is effectually guarded by his confidence in its divinity.
3. “I do not think that all that I can do, will entitle me to eternal life.” Who does, friend? Not we, to be sure. Have we ever so taught; that man in his present condition could by obedience merit eternal life? We do not so believe. Some people will persist in either misunderstanding, or misrepresenting us, on this point. When we endeavor, with every consideration at our command, to urge upon men the necessity of obeying the holy law of God in all its particulars, they meet us with the exclamation, Oh, you believe we are to merit reward by our good works, to purchase eternal life by obedience? No, sirs, we do not. The apostle Paul assures us that all the world are subject to the law of God; that all have transgressed, and are consequently all become guilty before God. Perfect obedience is all a person can in anywise render. All this the law demands; and hence should we live from this time forward in unexceptionable obedience, it can do nothing towards removing the guilt of past transgression; for we do nothing, in this case, but our duty; and we do not hold, with the Catholics, to works of supererogation. All our guilt of transgression, therefore, past, present or future, can only be removed through faith in Christ. Hence eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now let us ask a question. Do you believe it possible to obtain justification through faith in Christ, while living in disobedience to the requirements of God? Because it is through faith in Christ that we obtain pardon, are you therefore freed from all restraint and authorized to transgress at pleasure? Will you continue in sin that grace may abound? The Apostle lays his emphatic “God forbid,” on all such reasoning. Rom. vi. 15. Let no more be said, then, either of our hinging redemption on the merit of good works alone, or of your thinking to obtain salvation through faith alone without obedience. Obedience and faith can no more be separated in the plan of salvation, and the sinner obtain life through either alone, than a man can sustain his being with oxygen gas, or nitrogen, alone, though these are the component parts of atmospheric air. In their separate state they are deadly; united, they form air and sustain life. So faith or works alone depended on, will land us in the second death; united, they will secure us a right to the tree of life, and an entrance through the gates into the city.
4. “What I feel to be my duty may not be the duty of another; and I am not to judge him for that.” In some particulars this may be true. But it cannot be urged as touching the commandments of God; for we all owe the same duties to God and to each other. And whoever does not feel it his duty to obey the plain requirements of God, had better change his disposition, and that speedily.
5. “Well, I believe in having charity.” So do we. But what do you mean by charity? Do you know that the term is grossly abused? Do you know that it is made to cover mountains of trash which do not come at all within its province? What do you mean by charity? Do you mean fellowship? Perhaps you answer, Yes. Then we understand that those you have charity for, you fellowship? Yes. And you believe in having charity for people, if they don’t see it their duty to keep the Sabbath? Yes. Then we will try it on another commandment. A man steals. Do you fellowship the thief? Oh, no. I do not fellowship the action, but I have charity for the man. But stop. A man’s actions are an index of his character; and character is inseparable from the man. If you fellowship a thief, you fellowship his theft. If you fellowship the Sabbath-breaker, you fellowship Sabbath-breaking. And so of every sinner, and every sin.
5. “Well, I hold to living peaceably with all men.” Yes; and so do we—as far as in us lies! The Apostle elsewhere gives a standard on this point; namely, first pure, then peaceable. No peace till there is first purity. No peace with corruption; no peace with sin; no unholy compromise on the part of the child of God; no shutting of the lips to let impiety go unrebuked; eternal war with wickedness; for what communion hath light with darkness, or what concord hath Christ with Belial! First pure, then peaceable.