Ir sometimes pleases God to disqualify min|isters for their work, before he takes them to their reward. Where he gives them wisdom to perceive this, and grace to acquiesce in the dispensation-such a close of an honorable life, where the desire to be publicly useful survives the power, is a loud AMEN to all former labors. and learning devotes himself to the publication A WRITER of sermons has often no idea how of classics and works of literature, if he can- many words he uses, to which the common not be prevailed on to turn his genius and learn- people affix either no meaning, or a false one. ing to a more important end. Enter into this He speaks, perhaps, of "relation to God;" kind of society, what do you hear?" Have but the people, who hear him, affix no other you seen the new edition of Sophocles?" idea to the word, than that of father, or brother, No! is a new edition of Sophocles under- or relative. The preacher must converse with taken?"—and this makes up the conversation, the people, that he may acquire their words and these are the ends of men who, by pro-and phrases. fession, should win souls! I received a most useful hint from Dr. Bacon, then Father of the University, when I was at College. I used frequently to visit him at his Living near Oxford: he would say to me, "What are you doing? What are your studies ?"-"I am reading so and so."-" You are quite wrong. When I was young, I could turn any piece of Hebrew into Greek verse with ease. But, when I came into this parish, and had to teach ignorant people, I was wholly at a loss; I had no furniture. They thought me a great man, but that was their ignorance; for I knew as little as they did of what it was most important to them to know. Study chiefly what you can turn to good account in your future life." And yet this wise man had not just views of serious religion: he was one of those who are for reforming the parish-making the maids industrious, and the men sober and honest-but when I ventured to ask, "Sir, must not all this be effected by the infusion of a divine principle into the mind? a union of the soul with the great head of influence ?"-" No more of that; no more of that, I pray !" On Infidelity and Popery. INFIDEL Writings are ultimately productive of little or no danger to the church of God. Nay, we are less at a loss in judging of the wisdom of Providence in permitting them, than we are in judging of many other of its designs. They may shake the simple, humble, spiritual mind; but they are, in the end, the means of enlightening and settling it. There are but two sorts of people in the world. Some walk by the light of the Lord, and all others lie in the wicked one in darkness and in the shadow of death. Where there is not an enlightened, simple, humble, spiritual mind, notions and opinions are of little consequence. A WISE minister stands between practical The impudent and refuted misrepresentations atheism and religious enthusiasm. A SERMON, that has more head infused into it than heart, will not come home with efficacy to the hearers. "You must do so and so: such and such consequences will follow if y you do not such and such advantages will result from doing it :"—this is cold, dead, and spiritless, when it stands alone; or even when it is most prominent. Let the preacher's head be stored with wisdom; but, above all, let his heart so feel his subject, that he may infuse life and interest into it, by speaking like one who actually possesses and feels what he says. of infidels may turn a dark mind to some other notions and way of thinking; but it is in the dark still. Till a man sees by the light of the Lord, every change of opinions is only putting a new dress on a dead carcass, and calling it alive. The grace of God must give simplicity. Wherever that is, it is a security against dangerous error; wherever it is not, erroneous opinions may perhaps less predispose the mind against the truth of God in its lively power on the soul, than true notions destitute of all life and influence do. with caution and fear. Yet the writings of infidels must be read There are cold, intellectual, speculative, malignant foes to ChrisFAITH is the master-spring of a minister. tianity. I dare not tamper with such, when I "Hell is before me, and thousands of souls am in my right mind. I have received serious shut up there in everlasting agonies-Jesus injury, for a time, even when my duty has Christ stands forth to save men from rushing called me to read what they have to say. The into this bottomless abyss-He sends me to daring impiety of Belsham's answer to Wilproclaim his ability and his love: I want no berforce ruffled the calm of my spirits. I read fourth idea!-every fourth idea is contempti-it over while at Bath, in the autumn of 1798 ble-every fourth idea is a grand impertinence!" THE meanness of the earthen vessel, which conveys to others the Gospel treasure, takes nothing from the value of the treasure. A dying hand may sign a deed of gift of incalculable value. A shepherd's boy may point out the way to a philosopher. A beggar may be the bearer of an invaluable present. I waked in pain, about two o'clock in the morning. I tried to cheer myself by an exercise of faith on Jesus Christ. I lifted up my heart to him, as sympathizing with me and engaged to support me. Many times have I thus obtained quiet and repose: but now I could lay no hold on him: I had given the enemy an advantage over me: my habit had imbibed poison: my nerves trembled! my strength was gone! "Jesus Christ sympathize with you, and relieve you! It is all enthusiasm! It is BURKE has painted the spirit of democracy to the life. I have fallen in with some democrats, who knew nothing of me. They have This temptation besets me to this day, and been subjects of great curiosity, when I could I know not that I have any other which is so forget the horrid display of sin that was before particular in its attacks upon me. I am some-me. I saw a malignant eye-a ferocity-an times restless in bed: and, when I find myself intensity of mind on their point. Viewed in so, I generally think that the parenthesis can- its temper and tendencies, Jacobinism is Devilnot be so well employed as in prayer. While ism-Belialism. It takes the yoke of God my mind is thus ascending to Christ and com- and man-puts it on the ground-and stamps muning with him, it often comes across me-on it. Every man is called out into exertion "What a fool art thou, to imagine these men- against it. It is an inveterate, malignant, blastal effusions can be known to any other Being!pheming, atheistical, fierce spirit. It seems a what a senseless enthusiast, to imagine that toss up with these men, whether Satan himself the man who was nailed to a cross can have shall govern the world. Before such men, I any knowledge of these secrets of thy soul!" say not a word. Our Master has commanded On one of these occasions it struck me with us not to cast pearls before swine. I am vastly great and commanding evidence-"Why might delighted with character-true and original not St. John, in the Isle of Patmos-imprison-character: but this is an awful and affecting ed perhaps in a cave-why might not he have display of it. said so? Why might not he have doubted whether Christ the crucified could have knowledge of his feeling, when he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day? He had no doubt communion with Christ in the Spirit, before he had those palpable evidences of his presence which immediately followed." THE church has endured a PAGAN and a PAPAL persecution. There remains for her an INFIDEL persecution-general, bitter, purifying, cementing. Ir is, perhaps, impossible, in the very nature of things, that such another scheme as Popery IN the permission of certain bold infidel could be invented. It is, in truth, the mystery characters and writings, we may discern plain of iniquity, that it should be able to work itevidences of that awful system of judicial self into the simple, grand, sublime, holy instigovernment, with which God has been pleased tution of Christianity, and so to interweave to rule the world. Where there is a moral in- its abominations with the truth, as to occupy disposition, where men are inclined to be de- the strongest passions of the soul, and to conceived, where they are waiting as it were for trol the strongest understandings! While Pasa leader-there he sends such men or such cal can speak of Popery as he does, its inwritings, as harden them in their impiety: fluence over the mass of the people can excite while a teachable and humble mind will dis-no surprise. Those two master principlescern the true character of such men or wri- That we must believe as the church ordainstings, and escape the danger. and, That there is no salvation out of this I can conceive a character much more per-church-oppose, in the ignorance and fear nicious in its influence, than the daring and | which they beget, an almost insuperable barimpudent infidel. A man-in the estimation rier against the truth. of all the world modest, amiable, benevolent -who should, with deep concern, lament the obligation under which he feels himself to depart from the religion of Europe, the religion of his country, the religion of his family; and should profess his unfeigned desire to find this religion true, but that he cannot possibly bring his mind to believe it, and that for such and such reasons: when he should thus introduce all the strongest points that can be urged on the subject. I HAVE not such expectations of a millennium as many entertain: yet I believe that the figures and expressions of prophecy have never received their accomplishment. They are too grand and ample, to have been fulfilled by any state which the church has hitherto seen. Christianity has yet had no face suitable to its dignity. It has savored hitherto too much of man-of his institutions-of his prejudicesof his follies-of his sin. It must be drawn But God governs the world. It is not in his out-depicted-exhibited-demonstrated to the world. Its chief enemies have been the tion. If God has sent his Son, and has demen by whom, under the professions of Hail,clared that he will exalt him on his throneMaster! it has been distorted, abused, and vilified. Popery was the master-piece of Satan. I believe him utterly incapable of such another contrivance. It was a systematic and infallible plan for forming manacles and mufflers for the human mind. It was a well laid design to render Christianity contemptible, by the abuse of its principles and its institutions. It was formed to overwhelm-to enchant-to sit as the great whore, making the earth drunk with her fornications. The infidel conspiracy approaches nearest to Popery. But infidelity is a suicide. It dies by its own malignity. It is known and read of all men. No man was ever injured essentially by it, who was fortified with a small portion of the genuine spirit of Christianity-its contrition and its docility. Nor is it one in its efforts: its end is one; but its means are disjointed, various, and often clashing. Popery debases and alloys Christianity; but infidelity is a furnace, wherein it is purified and refined. The injuries done to it by Popery will be repaired by the very attacks of infidelity. In the mean time, Christianity wears an enchanting form to all, who can penetrate through the mists thrown around it by its false friends and its avowed foes. The exiled French Priest raises the pity and indignation of all Christians, while he describes the infernal plots of the infidel conspirators against Christianity, and shows them in successful operation against his church. We seem, for a while, to forget her errors: and we view her, for the moment, only so far as she possesses Christianity in common with ourselves. But when he charges the origin of this infidel conspiracy on the principles asserted by the Waldenses or the church of Geneva, the enchantment dissolves. We see that he is under the influence of a sophism by which, having imposed upon himself, he would impose upon others. With him, Christianity and his church mean one and the same thing. A separation from his church, is a separation from Christianity; and proceeds on principles which lead necessarily, if pursued to their issues, to every abomination of infidelity. But let him know that the church of Geneva protested against the false friend of Christianity; and that, if the avowed enemy of Christianity had then elevated himself, she would have protested with equal zeal against HIM. Let him know, that, if his church had listened to the voice of the Reformer, the enemy of Christianity would have wanted ground for footing to his attacks. The Papist falsely charges the Reformer as the father of infidelity: the infidel maliciously confounds Popery and Christianity: but the true Christian is as far from the licentiousness of the infidel, as he is from the corruption of the Papist. I am not inclined to view things in a gloomy aspect. Christianity must undergo a renova the earth and all that it inherits are contemptible in the view of such a plan! If this be God's design-proceed it does, and proceed it will. Christianity is such a holy and spiritual affair, that perhaps all human institutions are to be destroyed to make way for it. Men may fashion things as they will; but, if there is no effusion of the Spirit of God on their institutions, they will remain barren and lifeless. Many Christians appear to have forgotten this. On a Christian's Duty in these eventful times. OURS is a period of no common kind. The path of duty to a Christian is now unusually difficult. It seems to me, however, to be comprehended in two words-Be QUIET and USEFUL. The precept is short; but the application of it requires much grace and wisdom. Take not a single step out of a quiet obscurity, to which you are not compelled by a sense of utility. Two parties have divided the world. The JACOBINS are desperadoes:-the earth's torment and plague. Bishop Horsley said well of them lately from the pulpit-"These are they who have poisoned Watts's Hymns for children. These are they who are making efforts to contaminate every means of access to the public mind. And what is their aim?-What are their pretensions?-That they will have neither Lord nor King over them. But, verily, one is their King;-whose name, in the Hebrew tongue, is Abaddon; but, in the Greek tongue, he is called Apollyon; and in plain English-The Devil.' My soul, come not thou near the tents of these wicked men!" "But the ANTI-JACOBINS ?" Their project, as a body, leaves God out of the question. Their proposal is unholy. I cannot be insensible to the security, order, and liberty, with which these kingdoms are favored above all other nations; but I cannot go forth with these men, as one of their party. I cannot throw up my hat, and shout " Huzza!" Wo to the world, if even THEY prevail! The world is a lying, empty pageant; and these men are ensnared with the show. My part in it, as a Christian, is to act with simplicity as the servant of God. What does God bid me do? What, in this minute of time, which will be gone and carry me with it into eternity-what is my path of duty? While enemies blaspheme, and friends are beguiled, let me stand on my watch-tower with the Prophet, listening what the Lord God shall say to me. In any scheme of man, I dare not be drunken. We, who are of the day, must be sober. Churchman or dissenter, if I am a true Christian, I shall talk thus to my connexions. The sentiment of the multitude is ensnaring: but the multitude is generally wrong. I must beware of the contagion. Not that I am to push myself into consequence. The matter is between me and my God-Not one step out of a holy quiet and obscurity, but in order to * Alluding to Barruel's Memoirs of Jacobinism. J. P. | utility. Yet we must be active and bold, whenever | The minds of the young are pre-occupied. duty calls us to be so. My own conduct, with They will not listen. Yet a crisis may come. respect to the religious world, is too much They will stop and bethink themselves. formed on my feelings. I see it in what I deem a lamentable state; but I seem to say, "Well! go on talking, and mistaking, and making a noise: only make not a noise here:" and then I retire into my closet, and shrink within myself. But had I more faith, and simplicity, and love, and self-denial, I might do all I do in my present sphere, but I should throw myself in the midst of them, and entreat and argue and remonstrate. But then such a man must give himself up as a sacrifice. He would be misrepresented and calumniated from many quarters. But he would make up his account for such treatment. How would St. Paul have acted in such a state of the church? Would he not have displayed that warm spirit, which made him say, O foolish Galatians! who hath bewitched you? and that holy self-denial, which dictated, I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more exceedingly I love you, the less I be loved? It is not to be calculated how much a single man may effect, who throws his whole powers into a thing. Who, for instance, can estimate the influence of VOLTAIRE? He shed an influence of a peculiar sort over Europe. His powers were those of a gay buffoon-far different from those of HUME, and others of his class-but he threw himself wholly into them. It is true these men meet the wickedness or the imbecility of the human mind; but there are many right hearted people, who hang a long time on the side of pure, silent, simple religion. Let a man, who sees things as I do, throw himself out with all his powers, to rescue and guide such persons. On Fortifying Youth against Infidel Principles. I NEVER gathered from infidel writers, when an avowed infidel myself, any solid difficulties, which were not brought to my mind by a very young child of my own. "Why was sin permitted?"-"What an insignificant world is this, to be redeemed by the incarnation and death of the Son of God!"-"Who can believe that so few will be saved?"-Objections of this kind, in the mind of reasoning young persons, prove to me that they are the growth of fallen nature. The nurse of infidelity is sensuality. Youth are sensual. The Bible stands in their way. It prohibits the indulgence of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. But the young mind loves these things; and, therefore, it hates the Bible which prohibits them. It is prepared to say, "If any man will bring me arguments against the Bible, I will thank him: if not, I will invent them." As to infidel arguments, there is no weight in them. They are jejune and refuted. Infidels are not themselves convinced by them. In combating this evil in youth, we must recollect the proverb, that "a man may bring his horse to the water, but cannot make him drink." One promising method with them, is, To APPEAL TO FACTS. What sort of men are infidels? They are loose, fierce, overbearing men. There is nothing in them like sober and serious inquiry. They are the wildest fanatics on earth. Nor have they agreed among themselves on any scheme of truth and felicity. Contrast with the character of infidels that of real Christians. 66 It is advantageous to dwell with youth on the NEED AND NECESSITIES OF MAN. Every pang and grief tells a man that he needs a helper: but infidelity provides none. And what can its schemes do for you in death?" Impress them with A SENSE OF THEIR IGNORANCE. I silence myself, many times a day, by a sense of my own ignorance. "Why is it APPEAL TO THEIR CONSCIENCES. that you listen to infidelity? Is not infidelity a low, carnal, wicked game? Is it not the very picture of the Prodigal-Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me?"-The question why infidelity is received, exposes it, and shows it to the light. WHY-WHY will a man be an infidel? Your children may urge difficulties: but tell them that inexplicable difficulties surround you: you are compelled to believe, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, whether you will or no; and shall you not be a believer in the hundredth instance from choice? DRAW OUT A MAP OF THE ROAD OF INFIDELITY. It will lead them to such stages, at length, as they never could suspect. Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing? The SPIRIT AND TONE OF YOUR HOUSE Will have great influence on your children. If it is what it ought to be, it will often fasten conviction on I have felt the truth of this in my own case: I their minds, however wicked they may become. said, "My father is right, and I am wrong! Oh, let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!" The by-conversations in a family are, in this view, of unspeakable importance. On the whole, arguments addressed to the heart press more forcibly than those addressed to the head. When I was a child, and a very wicked one too, one of Dr. Watts's Hymns sent me to weep in a corner. The lives in Janeway's Token had the same effect. I felt the influence of faith in suffering Christians. The character of young Samuel came home to me, when nothing else had any hold on my mind. On the Management of Children. GREAT wisdom is requisite in correcting the evils of children. A child is bashful, perhaps : but, in stimulating this child, we are too apt to forget future consequences. "Hold up your head. Don't be vulgar." At length they hold up their heads, and acquire such airs, that, too late, we discover our error. We forgot that We we were giving gold, to purchase dross. forgot that we were sacrificing modesty and humility, to make them young actors and old is such, that, were one person present, who tyrants. CHRISTIANS are imbibing so much of the cast and temper of the age, that they seem to be anxiously tutoring their children, and preparing them by all manner of means, not for a better world, but for the present. Yet in nothing should the simplicity of faith be more unreservedly exercised, than with regard to children. Their appointments and stations, yea, even their present and eternal happiness or misery, so far as they are influenced by their states and conditions in life, may be decided by the most minute and trivial events, all of which are in God's hand, and not in ours. An unbelieving spirit pervades, in this respect, too intimately the Christian world. WHEN I meet children to instruct them, I do not suffer one grown person to be present. The Moravians pursue a different method. Some of their elder brethren even sit among the children, to sanction and encourage the work. This is well, provided children are to be addressed in the usual manner. But that will effect little good. Nothing is easier than to talk to children; but, to talk to them as they ought to be talked to, is the very last effort of ability. A man must have a vigorous imagination. He must have extensive knowledge, to call in illustrations from the four corners of the earth; for he will make little progress, but by illustration. It requires great genius, to throw the mind into the habit of children's minds. I aim at this, but I find it the utmost effort of ability. No sermon ever put my mind half so much on the stretch. The effort The reader cannot but admire the sentiments which Bishop Hurd has, on this subject, put into the mouth of Mr. Locke, one of his supposed interlocutors in the Dialogue on Foreign Travels. "Bashfulness is not so much the effect of an ill education, as the proper gift and provision of wise nature. Every stage of life has its own set of manners, that is suited to it, and best becomes it. Each is beautiful in its season; and you might as well quarrel with the child's rattle, and advance him directly to the boy's top and span-farthing, as expect from diffident youth the manly confidence of riper age. was capable of weighing the propriety of what I said, it would be impossible for me to proceed: the mind must, in such a case, be perfectly at its ease it must not have to exert itself under cramps and fetters. I am surprised at nothing which Dr. Watts did, but his Hymns for Children. Other men could have written as well as he, in his other works: but how he wrote these hymns, I know not. Stories fix children's attention. The moment I begin to talk in any thing like an abstract manner, the attention subsides. The simplest manner in the world will not make way to children's minds for abstract truths. With stories I find I could rivet their attention for two or three hours. CHILDREN are very early capable of impression. I imprinted on my daughter the idea of faith, at a very early age. She was playing one day with a few beads, which seemed to delight her wonderfully. Her whole soul was absorbed in her beads. I said "My dear, you have some pretty beads there."-"Yes, Papa!"-"And you seem to be vastly pleased with them."--"Yes, Papa!”—“Well now, throw 'em behind the fire." The tears started into her eyes. She looked earnestly at me, as though she ought to have a reason for such a cruel sacrifice. "Well, my dear, do as you please: but you know I never told you to do any thing, which I did not think would be good for you. She looked at me a few moments longer, and then-summoning up all her fortitude-her breast heaving with the effort-she dashed them into the fire.-"Well," said I; "there let them lie, you shall hear more about them another time; but say no more about them now." Some days after, I bought her a box full of larger beads, and toys of the same kind. When I returned home, I opened the treasure and set it before her: she burst into tears with ecstasy. "Those, my child,” said I, 66 are yours: because you believed me, when I told you it would be better for you to throw those two or three paltry beads behind the fire. Now that has brought you this treasure. But now, my dear, remember, as long as you live, what FAITH is. I did all this to teach you the "Lamentable in the mean time, I am sensible, is the meaning of FAITH. You threw your beads condition of my good lady; who, especially if she be away when I bade you, because you had faith a mighty well bred one, is perfectly shocked at the in me, that I never advised you but for your boy's awkwardness, and calls out on the tailor, the dancing-master, the player, the travelled tutor, any lieve every thing that he says in his word. good. Put the same confidence in God. Bebody and every body, to relieve her from the pain of so Whether you understand it or not, have faith in him that he means your good." disgraceful an object. "She should, however, be told, if a proper season and words soft enough could be found to convey the information, that the odious thing which disturbs her so much, is one of nature's signatures impressed on that age; that bashfulness is but the passage from one season of life to another; and that as the body is then the least graceful, when the limbs are making their last efforts and hastening to their just proportion, so the manners are least easy and disengaged, when the mind, conscious and impatient of its perfections, is stretching all its faculties to their full growth." See Bishop Hurd's Moral and Political Dialogues, Ed. 6th. Lond. 1788, vol. 3. pp. 99, 100, 101. J. P. On Family Worship. FAMILY religion is of unspeakable importance. Its effect will greatly depend on the sincerity of the head of the family, and on his mode of conducting the worship of his household. If his children and servants do not see his prayers exemplified in his tempers and manners, they will be disgusted with religion. Tediousness will weary them. Fine language will shoot about them. Formality of connex |