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NOTES.

FEW WORKS ON CHARITY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

We have not in the English language any elaborate work on Christian Charity. A great many beautiful things have been said and written on this subject, which it would be at once profitable and pleasant to collect and compare. How many charity sermons have been preached in English since the Reformation! How many essays, how many touching passages, poetical and prosaic, might be brought together by a diligent search! How far all these might go to vindicate Protestantism in Great Britain and America from the reproach of having produced no great work on Charity we cannot conjecture. Whether these choice extracts would be found most abundant in sacred or profane literature we cannot tell. We trust the work will be done by some thoroughly industrious explorer, whom nothing worthy of notice shall escape. If the collection shall prove too extensive for publication, let us at least have a descriptive catalogue, indicating the localities and the nature of these hidden treasures. When this task is to be performed, we trust that our religious literature will be especially examined; that every system of theology, every guide to piety, every book of daily meditations, every work descriptive of the divine life, every volume that professes to set forth Christianity in general, and every one that professes to point out the paths of a Christian life in particular, shall be diligently searched, to discover what any and all may yield on the great subject of Christian Charity. Enough may be found perhaps to encourage some competent person to wipe away our reproach, and furnish in our language a great and adequate work on Christian Charity-on the leading instructions of Christ, on the more prominent acts of Christ's life, on the duties that Christian ministers owe to the ignorant poor, and on the obligations of Christian people to all that require their aid, sympathy, and protection.

Our inquiries have furnished us in English religious literature with only one work on the subject of Christian Charity, which, though far from being comprehensive or thorough, is nevertheless a very good

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book. The author is one who was capable of doing better justice to this vital topic, but unfortunately, it did not come within the scope of his undertaking to embrace its whole range. He gives frequent proofs in its pages of having felt the importance and pressure of the subject. We trust he may yet return to it and furnish a systematic treatise, covering the whole ground of love to God and love to man. We refer to "CHRISTIAN CHARITY EXPLAINED, &c., in an Exposition of the Thirteenth Chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians," by John Angell James.

The mode of treatment suggested by the weekly duty of furnishing a lecture was unfavourable to system and shut out elementary and comprehensive views, whilst perhaps it gave earnestness and pungency to his exhortations. We offer a few extracts, which, whilst they confirm many of our author's positions, show that the writer fell short of a full conception of the subject.

"Our Lord has resolved all piety and all morality into LovE. This shows us at once that religion has its seat in the heart, and is of a free, and noble, and generous nature. From a persuasion that this view of it is too rarely taken, too little understood, and too imperfectly felt, I was induced to enter upon the exposition of Paul's most interesting description of Christian Charity."

"It is impossible to read this chapter without being convinced that the religion of Jesus Christ has excellences and beauties in its nature, which, in consequence of the depravity of our hearts, have been yet but very imperfectly developed to the world. Unfortunately for the reputation of Christianity, it has been generally looked at, not as it appears, in mild but unclouded effulgence, in its own hemisphere, the Bible, but as it is feebly and dimly reflected from the dull surface of what is called the Christian world."

"Were this rule of conduct accurately and universally conformed to by all who bear the name of Christ, what a scene would the church of God present! how striking would it appear, when thus exhibited as the dwelling-place of love, amidst a region of selfishness and cruelty,―a verdant oasis in this desert world."

"Religion, in the present day especially, is too exclusively a public business-a thing of times and places-an observance of forms, and an enjoyment of public means: its efforts are confined to the hearing of sermons, and a voluptuous enjoyment of devotional seasons."

"The religion of the age is all bustle, and hurry, and flutter; the consequence is, that many really know not what manner of spirit they are of."

"The mode of doing business, also, in the present day, is often shockingly at variance with the "whatsoever things are true, and just, and honest." It has been said by some, that trade is a lie from beginning to end. This is an extravagant expression, but it is partially true; so that what with the bad practices which custom too easily reconciles to the conscience of even pious prople,

and what with the time which is usually employed, even where there is no departure from the strictest integrity,-personal religion is in imminent peril."

"Miracles were but the credentials of Christianity, but CHARITY is its essence; miracles but its witnesses, which, having ushered it into the world, and borne their testimony, retired for ever;-but CHARITY is its very soul, which, when disencumbered of all that is earthly, shall ascend to its native seat-the paradise and the presence of the eternal God."

"This is love, blended with all our living habits, diffused through all our conduct, forming our character, breathing in our desires, speaking in our words, beaming in our eyes; in short, a living part of our living selves. And this, be it remembered, is religion-practical religion."

After quoting a number of the leading passages in the New Testament on the subject of Charity, the author bursts forth as follows:"What encomiums are these! what striking proofs of the supreme importance of the disposition now under consideration! Who has not been guilty of some neglect of it? Who has not had his attention drawn too much from it? Who can read these passages of Holy Writ, and not feel convinced that not only mankind in general, but the professors of spiritual religion also, have too much mistaken the nature of true piety? What are clear and orthodox views-what are strong feelings-what is our faith-what our enjoyment-what our freedom from gross immorality,—without this spirit of pure and universal benevolence ?"

"Some conclude, that because they are regular in their attendance upon the services of religion they are true Christians; they go punctually to church or to meeting-they receive the Lord's supper-they frequent the meetings for social prayer-they, perhaps, repeat prayers in secret, and read the Scriptures. All this is well, if it be done with right views, and in connection with right dispositions: but it is the whole of their religion; a mere abstraction of devotional exercise; a thing separate and apart from the heart, and temper, and conduct; a business of the closet, and of the sanctuary; a sort of composition paid to the Almighty, to be released from all the other demands of Scripture, and obligations of piety; an expression of their willingness to be devout in the church, and on the Sabbath, provided they may be as earthly-minded, as selfish, as malicious, and as unkind as they please, in all places and all times besides. This is not religion."

"Doctrine is every thing; clear views of the gospel are the great desideratum: and in their zeal for these things, they suppose they can never say things extravagant enough, nor absurd enough, nor angry enough, against good works, practical religion, or Christian temper. Puffed up with pride, selfish, unkind, irritable, censorious, malicious,-they manifest a total want of that humility and kindness which are the prominent features of true Christianity. Let it be known however, that clear views, even where they have no resemblance to the monstrous caricatures and frightful deformities of modern Antinomianism, are of themselves no evidence of religion, any more than right theoretical notions of the constitution are the proofs of loyalty; and as a man with these notions

in his mind may be a traitor in his heart, so may a professor of religion be an enemy to God in his soul, with an evangelical creed upon his tongue. Many profess to be very fond of the lamp of truth, grasp it firmly in their hands, admire its flame, pity or blame those who are following the delusive and me. teoric fires of error; but after all, make no other use of it than to illuminate the path that leads them to perdition; their religion begins and ends in adopting a form of sound words for their creed, approving an evangelical ministry, admiring the popular champions of the truth, and joining in the reprobation of fundamental error. As to any spirituality of mind, any heavenliness of affection, any Christian love,-in short, as to any of the natural tendency, the appropriate energy, the vital, elevating influence, of those very doctrines to which they profess to be attached-they are as destitute as the veriest worldling; and like him, are perhaps selfish, revengeful, implacable, and unkind. This is a religion but too common in the present day, when evangelical sentiments are becoming increasingly popular; a religion but too common in our churches: a religion, cold, heartless, and uninfluential; a sort of lunar light, which reflects the beams of the sun, but not his warmth."

"It is to be feared that many, in the present day, satisfy themselves that they are Christians, because of their zeal in the cause of religion. Happily for the church of God, happily for the world at large, there is now a great and general eagerness for the diffusion of knowledge and piety. Throwing off the torpor of ages, the friends of Christ are labouring to extend his kingdom in every direction. Almost every possible object of Christian philanthropy is seized upon; societies are organized; means adapted to every kind of instruments are employed; the whole levy en masse of the religious world is called out; and Christendom presents an interesting scene of benevolent energy. Such a state of things, however, has its dangers in reference to personal religion, and may become an occasion of delusion to many. It does not require genuine piety to associate us with these movements: from a natural liberality of disposition, or regard to reputation, or a desire of influence, or by the compulsion of example, we may give our property; for all these motives are, no doubt, in partial operation, when giving is in fashion. And as to personal exertions, how many inducements may lead to this, besides a sincere and an ardent love to Christ! An inherent fondness for activity, a love of display, the spirit of party, the persuasion of friends, may all operate, and unquestionably do operate in many cases, to produce astonishing effects in the cause of religious benevolence, where there is a total absence of genuine piety. The mind of man, prone to self-deception, and anxious to find some reasons to satisfy itself in reference to its eternal state, short of the true evidence of a renewed heart, is too apt to derive a false peace from the contemplation of its zeal. In proportion as the cause of the delusion approximates to the nature of true religion, is its power to blind and to mislead the judgment. If the mind can perceive any thing in itself, or in its operations, which bears the semblance of godliness, it will convert it into a means of lulling the conscience and removing anxiety. To many persons the fatal opiate, the soul-destroying imposture-is their activity in the cause of Christian zeal: none are more diligent in their devotedness to the

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