192 GRACE AND TRUTH, CHRIST IN THE AFFECTIONS. it will do, what is its stay and assurance, when everything seems to fail. The experience of the Christian soul is beautifully expressed by Cowper. When darkness long has veiled my mind, And smiling day once more appears, The folly of my doubts and fears. O let me then at length be taught What I am still so slow to learn, Nor knows the shadow of a turn. But when my faith is sharply tried, Unskilful, weak, and apt to slide. But O my Lord, one look from Thee Thou therefore all the praise receive, Be shame and self-abhorrence mine. WINDINGS OF THE RIVER, CONTINUED. CHAPTER XVIII. Illustrations of the Life of Faith in Christ's Apostles.-The Life of Faith a Missionary Spirit at the very outset, and a life of Love continued. THE first instances of faith, of conversion, and of the commencement of the Christian life in the New Testament, are recorded in the first chapter of the gospel of John. We there behold John the Baptist introducing to Christ the earliest among his chosen disciples, and there also we find the first instance of that beautiful and comprehensive designation of the life of faith, as following Jesus. Instead now of going into a speculative tracery or calendar of the various virtues in the life of faith, or attempting to compose in essays a directory of religious ethics, we shall just, for the present, contemplate the life of faith, or Christ in the life, as illustrated in the experience of John, Peter, Andrew, Philip, and Nathaniel. The previous training of these disciples, the evidence before them, the decisiveness and results of their faith, the manner of its working and ruling in their life, the experience and trials of Peter, the creed of doubt, and the creed of faith, as by himself manifested, with the reproof and instruction of the Saviour's mercy, are points which may occupy us with more of novelty, and possibly more of profit, than an enumeration of rules or precepts for the Divine life, whether after the manner of the antique or modern religious guide-books or philosophers. Indeed, what are all things that do not bring us to Christ, and throw us upon him, but vanities? There are three things in the Life of Faith, and they all begin and end with Christ, COME UNTO ME, FOLLOW ME, ABIDE IN ME. Whatsoever there be without these three things, there is nothing of regeneration, nor of Christ. There may be a coming to the Church, and a following of the Church, and an abiding in the Church; there may be a coming to the sacraments, and a following of endless genealogies, and an abiding in the rubrics of form, after the commandments and traditions of men; but if Christ be not the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, there is nothing of true religion. God pronounces a woe upon those, whose fear towards him is taught by the precepts of men; and Christ says, In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. There were three sayings of that noble martyr and saint of Jesus Christ, Bishop Hooper, that are worthy to be written in gold. "The Church of Christ," said he, "the more it was and is burdened with man's laws, the further it is from the true and sincere verity of God's Word." And again he said, "It is mine opinion unto all the world that the Scripture solely, and the Apostles' Church, is to be followed, and no man's authority, be he Augustine, Tertullian, or even Cherubim or Seraphim." And again, "I had rather trust to the shadow of the Church which the Scripture teaches, than to all the men's writings since the death of Polycarp." But now we are to look for a moment at the Apostles' lives, the example of their faith and obedience. It is recorded that on one occasion John stood and two of his disciples on the banks of the Jordan, in the midst of his baptizing ministry introductory to Christ. And looking |