Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 4, 1856
ON KEEPING THE HEART. No. 7.
By Flavel
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.—Proverbs iv, 23.
VI. THE sixth season requiring this diligence in keeping the heart, is the season of duty. Our hearts must be closely watched and kept when we draw nigh to God in public, private, or secret duties; for the vanity of the heart seldom discovers itself more than at such times. How often does the poor soul cry out, O Lord, how gladly would I serve thee, but vain thoughts will not let me: I come to open my heart to thee, to delight my soul in communion with thee, but my corruptions oppose me: Lord, call off these vain thoughts, and suffer them not to prostitute the soul that is espoused to thee.
The question then is this: How may the heart be kept from distractions by vain thoughts in time of duty? There is a two-fold distraction, or wandering of the heart in duty: First, voluntary and habitual, "They set not their hearts aright, and their spirit was not steadfast with God." This is the case of formalists, and it proceeds from the want of a holy inclination of the heart to God; their hearts are under the power of their lusts, and therefore it is no wonder that they go after their lusts, even when they are about holy things. Secondly, involuntary and lamented distractions: "I find then a law, that when I would do good, evil is present with me; O wretched man that I am," &c. This proceeds not from the want of a holy inclination or aim, but from the weakness of grace and the want of vigilance in opposing in-dwelling sin. But it is not my business to show you how these distractions come into the heart, but rather how to get them out, and prevent their future admission.
1. Sequester yourself from all earthly employments, and set apart some time for solemn preparation to meet God in duty. You cannot come directly from the world into God's presence without finding a savor of the world in your duties. It is with the heart (a few minutes since plunged in the world, now in the presence of God) as it is with the sea after a storm, which still continues working, muddy and disquiet, though the wind be laid and the storm be over. Your heart must have some time to settle. Few musicians can take an instrument and play upon it without some time and labor to tune it; few Christians can say with David, "My heart is fixed, O God, it is fixed." When you go to God in any duty, take your heart aside and say, O my soul, I am now engaged in the greatest work that a creature was ever employed about; I am going into the awful presence of God upon business of everlasting moment. O my soul, leave trifling now; be composed, be watchful, be serious; this is no common work, it is soul-work; it is work for eternity; it is work which will bring forth fruit to life or death in the world to come. Pause awhile and consider your sins, your wants, your troubles; keep your thoughts awhile on these before you address yourself to duty. David first mused, and then spake with his tongue.
2. Having composed your heart by previous meditation, immediately set a guard upon your senses. How often are Christians in danger of losing the eyes of their mind by those of their body! Against this David prayed, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way." This may serve to expound the Arabian proverb: "Shut the windows that the house may be light." It were well if you could say in the commencement, as a holy man once said when he came from the performance of duty: "Be shut, O my eyes, be shut; for it is impossible that you should ever discern such beauty and glory in any creature as I have now seen in God." You must avoid all occasions of distraction from without, that imbibe that intenseness of spirit in the work of God which locks up the eye and ear against vanity.
3. Beg of God a mortified fancy. A working fancy, (saith one) how much soever it be extolled among men, is a great snare to the soul, except it work in fellowship with right reason and a sanctified heart. The fancy is a power of the soul, placed between the senses and the understanding; it is that which first stirs itself in the soul, and by its motions the other powers of the soul are brought into exercise; it is that in which thoughts are first formed, and as that is, so are they. If imaginations be not first cast down, it is impossible that every thought of the heart should be brought into obedience to Christ. The fancy is naturally the wildest and most untameable power of the soul. Some Christians have much to do with it; and the more spiritual the heart is, the more does a wild and vain fancy disturb and perplex it. It is a sad thing that one's imagination should call off the soul from attending on God, when it is engaged in communion with him. Pray earnestly and perseveringly that your fancy may be chastened and sanctified, and when this is accomplished your thoughts will be regular and fixed.
4. If you would keep your heart from vain excursions when engaged in duties, realize to yourself, by faith, the holy and awful presence of God. If the presence of a grave man would compose you to seriousness, how much more should the presence of a holy God? Do you think that you would dare to be gay and light if you realized the presence and inspection of the Divine Being? Remember where you are when engaged in religious duty, and act as if you believed in the omniscience of God. "All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Realize his infinite holiness, his purity, his spirituality.
Strive to obtain such apprehensions of the greatness of God as shall suitably affect your heart; and remember his jealousy over his worship. "This is that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified." "A man that is praying (says Bernard) should behave himself as if he were entering into the court of heaven, where he sees the Lord upon his throne, surrounded with ten thousand of his angels and saints ministering unto him."—When you come from an exercise in which your heart has been wandering and listless, what can you say? Suppose all the vanities and impertinences which have passed through your mind during a devotional exercise were written down and interlined with your petitions, could you have the face to present them to God? Should your tongue utter all the thoughts of your heart when attending the worship of God, would not men abhor you? Yet your thoughts are perfectly known to God. O think upon this scripture: "God is greatly to be feared in the assemblies of his saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are round about him." Why did the Lord descend in thunderings and lightnings and dark clouds upon Sinai? why did the mountains smoke under him, the people quake and tremble round about him, Moses himself not excepted? but to teach the people this great truth: "Let us have grace, whereby we may serve him acceptably, with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire." Such apprehensions of the character and presence of God will quickly reduce a heart inclined to vanity to a more serious frame.
5. Maintain a prayerful frame of heart in the intervals of duty. What reason can be assigned why our hearts are so dull, so careless, so wandering, when we hear or pray, but that there have been long intermissions in our communion with God? If that divine unction, that spiritual fervor, and those holy impressions, which we obtain from God while engaged in the performance of one duty, were preserved to enliven and engage us in the performance of another, they would be of incalculable service to keep our hearts serious and devout. For this purpose, frequent ejaculations between stated and solemn duties are of most excellent use: they not only preserve the mind in a composed and pious frame, but they connect one stated duty, as it were, with another, and keep the attention of the soul alive to all its interests and obligations.
6. If you would have the distraction of your thoughts prevented, endeavor to raise your affections to God, and to engage them warmly in your duty. When the soul is intent upon any work, it gathers in its strength and bends all its thoughts to that34work; and when it is deeply affected, it will pursue its object with intenseness, the affections will gain an ascendancy over the thoughts and guide them. But deadness causes distraction, and distraction increases deadness. Could you but regard your duties as the medium in which you might walk in communion with God in which your soul might be filled with those ravishing and matchless delights which his presence affords, you might have no inclination to neglect them. But if you would prevent the recurrence of distracting thoughts, if you would find your happiness in the performance of duty, you must not only be careful that you engage in what is your duty, but labor with patient and persevering exertion to interest your feelings in it. Why is your heart so inconstant, especially in secret duties? why are you ready to be gone, almost as soon as you are come into the presence of God, but because your affections are not engaged?
7. When you are disturbed by vain thoughts, humble yourself before God, and call in assistance from Heaven. When the messenger of Satan buffeted St. Paul by wicked suggestions, (as is supposed,) he mourned before God on account of it. Never slight wandering thoughts in duty as small matters; follow every such thought with a deep regret. Turn to God with such words as these: Lord, I came hither to commune with thee, and here a busy adversary and a vain heart, conspiring together, have opposed me. O my God! what a heart have I: shall I never wait upon thee without distraction? when shall I enjoy an hour of free communion with thee? Grant me thy assistance at this time; discover thy glory to me, and my heart will quickly be recovered. I came hither to enjoy thee, and shall I go away without thee? Behold my distress, and help me!—Could you but sufficiently bewail your distractions, and repair to God for deliverance from them, you would gain relief.
8. Look upon the success and the comfort of your duties, as depending very much upon the keeping of your heart close with God in them. These two things, the success of duty and the inward comfort arising from the performance of it, are unspeakably dear to the Christian; but both of these will be lost if the heart be in a listless state. 'Surely God heareth not vanity, nor doth the Almighty regard it.' The promise is made to a heart engaged: 'Then shall ye seek for me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your hearts.' When you find your heart under the power of deadness and distraction, say to yourself, O what do I lose by a careless heart now! My praying seasons are the most valuable portions of my life; could I but raise my heart to God, I might now obtain such exercise as would be matter of praise to all eternity?'
9. Regard your carefulness or carelessness in this matter as a great evidence of your sincerity, or hypocrisy. Nothing will alarm an upright heart more than this. What! shall I give way to a customary wandering of the heart from God? Shall the spot of the hypocrite appear upon my soul. Hypocrites, indeed, can drudge on in the round of duty, never regarding the frame of their hearts; but shall I do so? Never—never let me be satisfied with empty duties. Never let me take my leave of a duty until my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
10. It will be of special use to keep your heart with God in duty, to consider what influence all your duties will have upon your eternity. Your religious seasons are your seed times, and in another world you must reap the fruits of what you sow in your duties here. If you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption; if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap life everlasting. Answer seriously these questions: Are you willing to reap the fruit of vanity in the world to come? Dare you say, when your thoughts are roving to the ends of the earth in duty, when you scarce mind what you say or hear, Now, Lord, I am sowing to the Spirit; now I am providing and laying up for eternity; now I am seeking for glory, honor and immortality; now I am striving to enter in at the strait gate; now I am taking the kingdom of heaven by holy violence! Such reflections are well calculated to dissipate vain thoughts.—Flavel.
DESIRING TO BE GIVEN UP TO GOD.
By Augustus Toplady
O THAT my heart were right with Thee
And loved Thee with a perfect love!
O that my Lord would dwell with me,
And never from his seat remove!
Jesus, remove th' impending load,
And set my soul on fire for God!
Thou seest I dwell in awful night,
Until thou in my heart appear;
Kindle the flame, O Lord, and light
Thine everlasting candle there:
Thy presence puts the shadows by;
If thou art gone, how dark am I!
Ah! Lord, how should thy servant see,
Unless thou give me seeing eyes!
Well may I fail if out of Thee;
If out of Thee how should I rise?
I wander, Lord, without Thy aid,
And lose my way in midnight shade.
Thy bright, unerring light affords
A light that gives the sinner hope;
And from the house of bondage, Lord,
O bring the weary captive up;
Thine hand alone can set me free,
And reach my pardon out to me.
O let my prayer acceptance find,
And bring the mighty blessing down;
With eye-salve, Lord, anoint the blind,
And seal me thine adopted son;
A fallen, helpless creature take,
And heir of thy salvation make.
[Toplady.
THE SCRIPTURE AUTHORITY AND OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH EXAMINED.
By Rev. W. M. O'Hanlon
BY REV. W. M. O'HANLON, BURNLEY, LANCASHIRE.
(Continued.)
But let us now advance to what the author deems the account of "the first actual institution of the Sabbath." And, employing a just analysis, it will be found, if we do not greatly err, that the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Exodus implies that the Sabbath was known to the Israelites before the period which it describes; and if so, then it could have been only in consequence of its original appointment at the creation, for we certainly read of no other promulgation of it, antecedent to the solemn and august enthronement it received on Sinai.
This chapter, as we understand it, might seem to have been written for the express purpose of meeting the objections which would, in after times, be preferred against the primitive establishment of the sacred day. It will be observed, that it records events which transpired a month after the exodus, and some short time, probably a fortnight, before the people came to Sinai. We learn that they murmured for want of bread. "Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no." A certain test of obedience is here proposed, and a law or standard of obedience indicated. But what law? and in reference to what? The answer will be found in a subsequent portion of the chapter. Verses 27-30. Now, surely the hardest opponent of the primeval appointment of the Sabbath will not venture to say that Moses inserted all this, in anticipation of an ordinance to be afterwards established. The only question is, Was there anything in the previous communications of God with Moses, and of Moses with the people, which might be fairly regarded as the proclamation of a sabbatic law, now for the first time introduced? In vain do we explore the narrative for a shadow of foundation for such a thing. All that the Most High had said, in addition to the words quoted, was, "And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day, they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily." Not a word is here uttered respecting the Sabbath, although this is the place where, if this "transaction in the wilderness" marks the era of its commencement, we might have expected to find the statute of institution. But the very absence of any direct reference to the Sabbath here, taken in connection with what precedes and follows, is full of meaning. In these divine words, there is an evident implication as to some existing and recognized law; one so well known to Moses as to require no more explicit notice. The double provision of the sixth day being stated, there is no reason assigned for this exceptional case; and that simply, as it would seem, because the reason was so patent to him as to require no formal announcement. The hiatus, if it could be thought such, would be filled up by the instantaneous remembrance of the ancient custom of dedicating the seventh day to hallowed repose. And thus silence is here more expressive than words; and we are thrown back upon the primeval law as that which alone can solve the enigma, and explain the grave and otherwise unaccountable omission.
Then, the progress and sequel of the narrative will be found to harmonize with the view now taken. We read, that "on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said: To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over, lay up for you, to be kept until the morning." Now, in reading these words, we must beware of the error into which Paley has fallen, whether from inadvertence or (for we are unwilling to attribute it to anything approaching disingenuousness) from the secret and almost unconscious influence of preconceived views. When Moses observes, "This is that which the Lord hath said," he evidently points back to the communication which God had made to him respecting the double-gathering of the sixth day (the circumstance now reported) and what follow, are his own terms of direction, in which he announces the bearing of this event upon the duties and obligations of the morrow. Paley, from the mode in which he has put the quotation (and others, as Hengstenberg, adopt the same method,) would have us to understand, that the words, "To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord," were God's words. But this seems a false and unwarrantable construction of the passage; for we do not find that He had anywhere spoken thus, or that He had spoken of the Sabbath at all, in the previous communication, which he had made to his servant. Moses is not, so far as we see, announcing a new statute, with a "thus saith the Lord," as this writer would insinuate; but simply recording a fact, ancient and established, and setting forth the mode in which the copious supply of manna should be more available, so as to secure the undisturbed repose of the sacred day.
It may not be very easy to determine with what idea the rulers addressed Moses on this occasion; nor indeed is it, probably, of much importance to investigate this matter, while we have so much, besides, to guide us in our conclusions upon the specific question. It is impossible to suppose that, if any Sabbath law had been recently announced for the first time, they, holding such a responsible position, could have been ignorant of the fact. The explanation of their conduct may be found, in all likelihood, in the course of preceding events. It does not appear that Moses had extended his instructions beyond the ordinary rule of gathering an omer each, for daily consumption, no part of which was to be left "till the morning." All further direction was reserved for the fitting occasion. To imagine that more was supplied at this time, is to go beyond the record, which we have no right to do, either for the construction or support of a theory. But now, on the sixth day, something extraordinary had occurred. The people had not been, at any time, careful as to the quantity of manna they collected. They "gathered some more, some less; and when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack." This was the ordinary state of things. But here is something new and unexpected—a double supply—two omers instead of one. We cannot think the people had purposely gathered this two-fold quantity, all combining to act in entire opposition to the only direction they had, as yet, received on the subject. Nor can we think, with some (however it would appear to favor our views,) that this was done deliberately and systematically and in concert, in prospect of the approaching Sabbath, supposing it to have been known to them, as we believe it was. This seems a gratuitous assumption; and, while it is needless in the argument, it attributes to the people, at large, a measure of piety which their history in the wilderness will not authenticate. The thing cannot be explained, we think, without resorting to the supernatural. Whatever may be alleged about the manna having been a natural production of Arabia, it is clear, if from nothing else, at least from the fact of its not falling on the seventh day, that the divine hand so controlled and governed the entire phenomenon, as to bring it, to all intents and purposes, within the class and category of miraculous events. And the very manner in which God made known to Moses the fact, now realized, and now reported by the rulers, strengthens our conviction that the result was, on the part of the people, undesigned and unanticipated. They were to "prepare" that which they brought in on the sixth day, and it would be "twice as much as they gathered daily." This seems to have been the statement of a fact, not the utterance of an edict. Had it been an edict, how could we justify Moses in withholding it from the people, as he did, if we take the record for our guide?35The Most High had commanded the people to gather a certain rate daily, without then fixing the rate. Subsequently, Moses, doubtless under divine direction, had assigned the exact quantity, one omer, not so much to be gathered, as to be kept for use.
But while, as yet, no direction had been issued respecting the sixth day, the people find, when they have prepared and measured what they have brought in on that day, that it amounts to two omers; and this is the case throughout the entire camp of Israel.
Here, then, is the finger of God; and the rulers seek an explanation from their leader. That explanation is at hand, and this is the opportune period for making it known. The whole has fallen out according to the divine declaration; and all this is preparatory to the sabbatic rest. Long had the Sabbath law fallen into desuetude, partly from criminal neglect, and partly from the enslaved and oppressed condition of the people in Egypt. It was fitting that God should revive its observance in a manner that would signalize its importance; and nothing could do this more effectually among a people in their condition, than the stupendous miracle that had now spread itself through every household in the camp of Israel. We can easily imagine with what peculiar force the voice of Moses would be now heard, saying, "To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord." But while all this is most intelligible, if his object was simply to reinstate a neglected ordinance in its original glory, and to invest it with its rightful authority, it is impossible to regard this as actually the first announcement and proclamation of the Sabbath law. And if it originated in the wilderness, this is its first announcement and proclamation; for here, for the first time, do we find any mention of the Sabbath.
Even should any one still prefer to regard these as the words of God, still it is incredible that He should, in the first instance, proclaim in this cursory manner a law of this order, affecting as it does, so materially, all the arrangements of life, and entering so deeply and vitally, into the entire scheme and economy of religion. In reality, however, it does not come before us as the proclamation of a law, but as the statement of a fact: "To-morrow is the rest," &c. And we cannot look upon it in any other light than as a solemn declaration, upon the part of Moses, under divine guidance, of a well known, established, but greatly neglected ordinance. And how else can we understand the words that follow: "Six days ye shall gather it, (i. e., the manna,) but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none?"
And this is the place to mark the close and important connection between the commencement and close of this interesting but much contested narrative. Before anything whatever had been announced respecting the Sabbath in any form, the Most High, speaking of the gathering of the manna, had said, "that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no." Verse 4. And now we read in the sequel, that, notwithstanding the prohibition of Moses, "there went out of the people on the seventh day for to gather and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?" Verses 27, 28. The experiment, so to speak, was made, and here is the result. We cannot fail to identify the language of the 28th, with that of the 4th verse. And should any one be inclined to suppose that, when God had spoken of his "law" (verse 4,) he referred to some statute about to be enacted, and not to one already in existence, the idea is set aside by the very manner in which He now addresses Moses. For what force or propriety could attach to the words "how long" in such a connection, if the law had been originated only the day, or, at the very farthest, the week before? We put it to the candid inquirer, anxious to know the truth upon this question. Is this the language in which God would refer to the violation of a statute (if statute it could be called,) so recently issued as, on the supposition, to have had hardly time to circulate among the people thus severely rebuked for their violation of it? We submit that the whole transaction is in perfect keeping with the process of resuscitating an ancient and well known, but not with the establishment of a new institution. Admit this, and all is clear and intelligible; but if this be denied, then the whole appears to sink into hopeless obscurity, and we are compelled to feel that it finds no parallel in the entire history of God's dealings with his people, either before or afterwards.
Paley, as we have seen, adduces two passages of Scripture, one from Ezekiel, the other from Nehemiah, as corroborative of his views. In the former, God is represented as giving his Sabbaths to the Israelites in the wilderness; and our author considers this equivalent to the statement, that they were then "first instituted." But, in the very same passage, God is represented as giving to them his statutes; yet, surely, no one will assert that these were "first instituted" in the wilderness. The ceremonial might be so described, but the more important branch of the divine statutes, the moral, were in one form or other taught from the beginning. The truth, however, is that Paley has strangely overlooked the real spirit and tenor of the prophet's language. It is not said that God gave his Sabbaths, but that he gave them "to be a sign" between himself and the people. And this no more implies that they were now, for the first time established, than Gen. ix, 13 implies that the bow was never seen in the clouds, before it became a sign or token of the covenant which God then made with Noah. Elsewhere, this writer remarks: "It does not seem easy to understand how the Sabbath could be a sign between God and the people of Israel, unless the observance of it was peculiar to that people, and designed to be so." But for a thing to become "a sign," it is not necessary that it should be either novel or exclusive. The reference made to the covenant with Noah in part proves this. And in Deut. vi, 8, it is written, in regard to the precepts of the decalogue, "Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes;" yet, even if for the sake of argument we omitted the fourth commandment, these statutes, in their essence and principles, instead of being new and restricted, were, and are, as ancient and wide spread as human relations and human responsibilities.
In all this, we have proceeded upon the supposition, that the passage in question has respect to the Sabbath in the sense which it bears in the present discussion. This, however, is an assumption. And, from the plural form employed by the prophet, we are inclined to think that the word has here a far more extensive signification, including various appointed seasons of rest, to which the epithet was applied; such as the commencement and close of the great national Jewish festivals, and the periodic Sabbatic years, ordained as part of the peculiar social economy under the Theocratic government. These were all "signs," and some of them, of course, pertained exclusively to the Israelitish people. But, in whatever way we understand the term employed by Ezekiel, the phraseology upon which Paley rests, utterly fails to help his argument.
And then, with regard to the language in Nehemiah, we cannot see how the slightest shadow of support can be drawn from it, in favor of the hypothesis in question. Here the Most High is represented as making known his holy Sabbaths to the Israelites. But this surely cannot be construed into anything tantamount to the proclamation of them for the first time. In 1 Chron. xvi, 8, David exclaims in the language of thanksgiving, "Make known his deeds among the people." In Ps. cxiv, 12, God is described as "making known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom." In Eph. vi, 19 Paul entreats the prayers of the disciples, that he may be enabled to "make known the mystery of the gospel." But in none of these instances—and they are but a specimen of what might be adduced—does the phraseology convey the idea of a first announcement. We can indeed perceive enough, in the previous degraded condition of a people just issuing from "the house of bondage," to require on the part of Jehovah, the proclamation, the making known, and that in the most solemn and august manner, of the great maxims and principles of religion and morality, including the formal republication of the Sabbatic Law. But we cannot allow the consideration of this, to set aside the evidence derived from other quarters, that this institute existed and was recognized in the world before the transactions in the wilderness, to which Paley traces its rise and origin.
(To be Continued.)
Better Trampled Than Trample
Better be trampled in the dust than trample on a fellow creature.
Bible Example—Domestic Worship.
The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, wherever, in the pilgrimages, they fixed on a place of residence, erected an altar to God for family devotion, and called on the name of the Lord.
Joshua resolved that as for him and his family, they would serve the Lord, that is, worship him.
Job practiced family worship. He sent and sanctified his children, and rose early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings, according to the number of them all. "Thus did Job continually."
David, having spent one day in bringing the ark from the house of Obed-edom to the place he had prepared for it, and in presenting peace-offerings before the Lord, returned at night to bless his household, that is, to pray for a blessing upon his family, or to attend upon family devotion.
Cornelius, it is said, "feared God with all his house," meaning, worshiped him with his family.
The apostle speaks, in his epistles, of churches in private houses. By this phrase, he means families where religious services were observed.
In the Lord's Prayer, we have a command for family devotion. "After this manner, therefore, pray ye: Our father who art in heaven." The form of prayer is plural. It must, therefore, mean social prayer, and, if social, then family prayer—for a family is the most proper society to engage in this devotion.
Paul, in his epistle to the Colossians, having pointed out the duties of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, adds, "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving." The subject upon which he was speaking, and the manner of his speaking, leads us to conclude he meant family prayer.
In his epistle to the Ephesians, he enjoins it as a duty, to "pray always with all prayer;" that is, to offer prayer of every kind, and in every form, and at every proper season. Family prayer must, therefore, be included in this injunction.
The apostle Peter exhorts husbands and wives to live together in the discharge of the duties of conjugal affection and Christian obedience, that "their prayers be not hindered;" that nothing may occur to indispose them to social or family devotion.
I was sitting by Coleridge's bedside when he said, "I do not reckon the most solemn faith in God as a real object, the most arduous act of the reason and will. Oh, no! it is to pray as God would have us; this is what at times makes me turn cold to my soul. Believe me, to pray with all your heart and strength, with the reason and the will, to believe vividly that God will listen to your voice, through Christ, and verily do the thing he pleaseth thereupon, this is the last, the greatest achievement of the Christian warfare upon earth: 'Teach us to pray, O Lord!'" And then he burst into a flood of tears and asked me to pray for him. O! what a sight was there!
DRUNKENNESS IN THE PULPIT.
A novel case has been decided in England in favor of a clergyman of the Established Church, which has excited some comment in the public journals. In the Court of Arches, a clergyman pleaded guilty of gross acts of intoxication and the use of profane and indecent language. It even appeared that on one occasion he took with him to church, when about to officiate therein, a bottle of spirits, of which he drank a considerable portion, so as to render him unfit to decently perform the service. Yet, notwithstanding he had already been suspended for a similar offense, and reinstated in his curacy, the Court refused to deprive him of his office.
Baptist Theological Seminary in the South
By Editor
The Baptists have raised two hundred thousand dollars for the establishment of a theological seminary in the South. They are determined to have a theology untainted with fanatical notions of human rights and human freedom.
Co-operating with the Creator
Man possesses the great privilege of co-operating with his beneficent Creator.
The Soul and Its Creator
"There is but one object," says St. Augustine, "greater than the soul; and that one is its Creator."