The Christian Library: A Reprint of Popular Religious Works

unto us, but unto thy name, give glory, for thy mer-life madness, and their end to be without honor! cy and thy truth's sake. By the grace of God I am Now are they numbered with the saints, and their what I am. Not I, but the grace of God which was lot is among the children of God." with me."

The

-Contemplate him WHERE he is, and inquire Behold him THERE, and see the conduct of God to- whether you will be a partaker of the same blessedness. wards him in this world explained and vindicated. Is it not astonishing that you can put such a quesIt will be acknowledged that though God does much tion from you, as if it was the greatest impertinence, for his people here, yet the relation in which he has from week to week, from year to year, though in the been pleased to place himself, implies and requires midst of life you are in death, and after death is the far more than he now performs. A future state of judgment? And is it not strange that others can munificent liberality is therefore necessary. To remain in a state of indecision, with only such a this he appeals, and by this his promises are to be peradventure as this to support their peace-Perestimated. Hence says the apostle, "Wherefore haps I am in the way to heaven, and perhaps I am God is not ashamed to be called their God, seeing in the way to hell! What is your real condition he hath prepared for them a city." Here, while the with regard to that eternity, on the verge of which wicked prospered, and had more than heart could you are? Have you a title to glory? This results wish, the righteous were poor, and oppressed, and from relationship: "If children, then heirs; heirs afflicted; plagued every morning, and chastened of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Have you every moment. And you were ready to ask, If they any meetness for the inheritance of the saints in are his, why are they thus? You were so perplexed light? Without this you cannot see the kingdom at the strangeness of his providence towards them, of God-not only for want of permission, but for that your feet were almost gone, and your steps had want of capacity. Threatenings are not necessary well nigh slipped. But even then, he told you that to exclude your disposition bars you out. his ways are not our ways; he told you that his excellency of the state cannot make you happy withpeople were under an economy, a very small part out an adaptation to it: your contrariety of temper of which falls within your inspection; he told you and taste would make you miserable. "God has that the dispensations you complained of were not wrought us," says the apostle, "for the self-same yet terminated: he said, "Judge nothing before the thing." Has he done this for you? Have you any time, until the Lord come." But here is the full thing in you that is congenial with heaven? Heaanswer. Look at them Now. All that was dark- ven is a holy place. Are you hungering and thirstness, is now illuminated; all that appeared disor- ing after righteousness? It consists in the presence derly, is now arranged: all that seemed evil, is now and adoration of Christ. Are you at home now acknowledged good. Now we have the clue, and when you are saying-"Unto him that loved us, the difficulties are loosened. Now we have the end, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, be and this justifies the means. We now see by what glory and dominion. There all religious distinchis dispensations towards them were regulated, and tions will be done away; and the question will be, in what they have resulted. They were chastened not where you have worshipped, but only how. Can of the Lord, that they might not be condemned with you now rise above a party and say, "Grace be with the world. The trial of their faith was much more all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sinceprecious than that of gold that perisheth, because it rity?" Many of you do not hope for heaven; do was to be found unto praise, and glory, and honor, not desire it. You cannot hope for it, you cannot at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The light afflic-desire it-unless you can love and enjoy its ingretions which were but for a moment, have worked dients now. out for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. They themselves are more than satisfied. They acknowledge that he hath dealt well with his servants. They exclaim, He hath done all things well. "Marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are all thy ways, O thou King of saints."

-Behold the GLORIFIED Christian, and see the justification of his choice. Here, his fellow-creatures despised him, or affected to pity. If they allowed him to be sincere, they reproached him as weak, and considered his life a system of restraints, and privations, and sacrifices. Even then wisdom was justified of all her children. Even then they were conscious that reason itself bore them out in their preference. Even then they were not ashamed of their self-denial or sufferings, for they knew whom they had believed; and were persuaded that he was able to keep that which they had committed unto him against that day. Even then they rejoiced in the testimony of their consciences, and the secret smiles and whi ers of their Lord and Saviour. But the world knew them not. They were princes in disguise. Their titles were refused, and their honors and riches were turned to scorn. And they bore this with firmness and patience-for they saw that their day was coming. And lo! now it is arrived. Now they shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Now is the manifestation of the sons of God, Now their enemies return and discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not. And oh! how changed their sentiments and their language now. "We fools counted their

-Let the CONTEMPLATION bring you upon your knees, and be this your prayer: "Remember me, O Lord, with the favor thou bearest unto thy people. O visit me with thy salvation, that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, and glory with thine inheritance." O! how shall I plead with you for this purpose? By what motives can I urge you to make it your immediate and prevailing concern?

Need I remind you of the importance of the object? Glory! Honor! Immortality! An eternity, an infinity, of blessedness!

-Need you to be told that it is placed within your attainment-that you are allowed, invited, commanded to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, with an assurance of success? And if you perish, what an aggravation of your misery will this produce! When an event is unavoidable, you may lament, but you feel no self-reproach. When you suffer innocently, conscience even commends you; you feel a little of the spirit of a martyr; you claim on your side a God of judgment, and believe that in due time he will appear on your behalf. But here you will be speechless. You will feel that you have destroyed yourselves. Your misery will be your greatest sin. Every mouth will be stopped; and you will be found guilty be fore God. Guilty of what? Of transgressing his law. Yes-but still more of neglecting so great salvation, of rejecting the counsel of God against yourselves, and judging yourselves unworthy of everlasting life.

And allow me to ask, for what is it that you are determined to sacrifice this attainable and infinite

merely intellectual. Wisdom indeed excelleth folly, as much as light excelleth darkness. Money is a defence; but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. But what wisdom? It was a fine reply of the converted astronomer, who, when interrogated concerning the science which he had been idolizing, answered, "I my way." How humiliating is it to reflect, that the treasures of learning and science depend upon the brain; that an accident of disease may abolish them; or that, at most, they are limited to the life that now is, and which we spend as a shadow.Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away Christ Jesus our Lord-for this life is eternal.

boon? Are you not spending your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? You condemn the folly of Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birth-right. You reproach Adam and Eve, who lost the_garden of Eden for a taste of the forbidden tree. But you are making a far worse, a far viler exchange. You are sacrificing all the glory of God and the Lamb-am now bound for heaven, and I take the stars in I again ask, for what? You would be losers if you gained the whole world. But are you gaining empires? provinces ? estates? Are you gaining reputation? The esteem of the wise and good? Health? Peace of mind? Support in trouble? Freedom from fear? Sin ought to yield you much, for it will cost you dear. But the way of transgressors-unless it be the excellency of the knowledge of is hard. There is no peace to the wicked. When you lie down in sorrow, how will you answer the question, "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of these things is death." Remember also the alternative. -For missing this, there is nothing but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation to devour the adversary. If you are not with the sheep at the right hand, you must be with the goats at the left. If you hear not the sentence, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," you must hear the doom, "Depart ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."

In much wisdom also, there is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. Some of the most expansive and cultivated minds are the most miserable. Nor is it difficult to account for this. Genius implies a sensibility which strangers intermeddle not with. It is attended with a keenness of feeling, that renders the possessor like a sensitive plant, that shrinks at every touch. He lives in a world of imagination, as well as a world of reality. He views nothing simply and purely. Every thing is dressed up to his conceptfons; the beautiful in preternatural tints, and the evil in preternatural horrors. His thoughts are sentiments. He feels intensely and nothing very Lastly. Let us LOOK and hail those who can make intense can continue. Then follows a void which the prospect their own. We talk of happiness! Can is irksome, and a listlessness which is intolerable, any thing equal the state of those who can humbly and which are sometimes productive of fatal effects. and confidently say, "Being justified by faith, we In Madame de Stael's Memoirs of her father, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, have the following remark: "I have a proof," says by whom also we have access by faith into this Mr. Necker, "of the immortality of the soul in this; grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the that it is at least after a while desirable; and essenglory of God?" Many are in adversity and tribu- tial to our happiness. By the time we have reached lation; and yet have no such prospect. All is fight-threescore years and ten, we have looked around ing against them, and they have no refuge. Their us, and become familiar with the whole scene: and thoughts are broken off; even the purposes of their though not satisfied, we are sated. Then we feel hearts, and their earthly schemes, laid desolate; our need of a new residence; a new sphere of acyet they have nothing better before them. Yea, tivity; and new sources of employment and enjoyconscience tells them, this is only the beginning of ment." This is a striking remark; and we may sorrows; the short preface to a long roll written observe, that if at such a period, religion with its within and without, with lamentation, and mourn-motives and promises is not present to the mind, the ing, and wo. But to the upright there ariseth light in the darkness. He sees the storm beginning to clear up and he knows that no cloud shall return after the rain. "I reckon," says he, "that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Soon, want will be followed with fulness. Soon, the wormwood and the gall will be succeeded by the cup of salvation.

"Yet a season, and we know

Happy entrance shall be given;
All our sorrows left below,

And earth exchanged for heaven."
With this prospect, how superior is he to the
envied, the indulged, the successful man of the
world. He has his portion in this life; but, says the
Christian, "As for me, I will behold thy face in
righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness." His good things are temporal;
mine are eternal. He is leaving his; I am advanc-
ing to mine. Every hour diminishes the value of
his hope; but every moment adds interest to mine.
Nor need the Christian envy the man of claims

man wearied of existence, and feeling every thing here to be vanity, is likely to become the victim of an insupportable oppression, and in a moment of rashness may welcome self-destruction. Have we had no instances of this?

-Here the Christian is guarded; here he is provided for. As this world palls upon him, an other opens to his view. This prospect enlivens the solitudes which bereavement and decays of nature have produced. This prospect becomes a substitute for the scenes and charms which have faded and fled. This prospect entertains and engages, now the days are come in which he says, I have no pleasure in them. The outward man perisheth, but the inward man is renewed day by day. His heart and his flesh fail; but God is the strength of his heart and his portion for ever. He departs; but he leaves what is not his rest, what is polluted, what is nigh unto cursing, and whose end is to be burned-while he enters a creation where every thing that is new, and marvellous, and pure, and attractive, and beautifying, says, Arise, and come away. And the hour that obscures and quenches for ever all other glories, immortalizes him.

THE END.