صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

the Spirit employs the word as a hammer, with resistless power, to break the stony heart,-in others, it is the fire, gradually to melt it into penitence and love.

Christiana and Mercy are both represented by Bunyan, as setting out together on the heavenly pilgrimage, both true pilgrims, but how different the manner of their conversion. Christiana could tell of visions and dreams. But as for poor Mercy, because she had no such experience, she stood trembling at the wicket-gate, and "crying for fear that she was rejected," and when the keeper opened the gate, "she was fallen down in a swoon, for she fainted, and was afraid that no gate would be opened to her;" and when asked respecting her coming there, all she could say was (and how touchingly simple), "My Lord sees I am come: and if there is any grace and forgiveness of sins to spare, I beseech that thy poor handmaid may be a partaker thereof." Then, it is added, the Lord "took her again by the hand, and led her gently in, and said, I pray for all them that believe on me, by what means soever they come unto me." Mark this, ye doubting, trembling saints, and see how Jesus himself is justly represented as removing the stumbling-block out of the way.

But, in concluding this article, will pastors, deacons, and church-members, kindly allow us to urge upon them the imitation of their compassionate Lord, who "will not break the bruised reed ?" Let us be careful not to set up a standard of experience to which we require all to conform. We execrate the memory of the ancient robber, of whom it is said, he stretched all his victims on a bed, to the dimensions of which they were elongated if too short, and shortened if they were too long. There has been, it is feared, too much of this Procustean torture inflicted on those for whom Christ died. A much-honoured minister of Christ, now gone to his rest, used to say, "so early and so gradual was the work of grace on his heart, that he could not remember the time when he did not love Christ." Yet we have known churches, before which such an assertion from a candidate for communion would have been well nigh fatal to his admission! at any rate, some would have said, "Let him wait a little longer, that will do him no harm." Is it, then, the right way to treat a tender infant, to leave him to himself, to see whether he will live or die? Surely, to nurse and feed him are the ordained means of nourishing and preserving his life. Remember, God sees not as man sees, for He may see weakness in the strongest faith, and strength in the weakest. Only let the same mind be in us which was in Christ Jesus our Lord, and may we have grace to be disciples of Hin, who "giveth power to the faint," "who taketh the lambs in his arms, and carrieth them in his bosom," till we arrive where "there is one fold and one shepherd." Bury St. Edmunds.

AN APOSTOLIC REQUIREMENT.

BY THE REV. JAMES SMITH.

"Ye ought to be teachers."-Heb. v. 12.

Many persons are not what they ought to be, either in state, qualifications, or practice. Some deny this, and, therefore, we cannot expect them to improve; others admit it, but they make no effort to alter it, and, consequently, are none the better for the admission. Truth is to spread through human instrumentality; and by the spread of truth, Christ is to be made known, sinners converted, and God glorified. For the spread of truth, teachers are required; and the church of God is to furnish the

required instructors. In many quarters we hear the complaint that teachers are wanted; and in many congregations we see professors sitting idle who "ought to be teachers." Let us, therefore, look very seriously at this declaration of the apostle.

Some of you ought to be qualified to teach who are not. You have long professed Christ. You have had plenty of means at hand. You have had time to spare for other pursuits. Others, with no more talent, no more means, no more time, are qualified, and why should not you be? Are you so very dull? Is it so very difficult for you to acquire knowledge, or to acquire the ability to communicate what you know? Or, rather, is it not the love of ease, the indulgence of the flesh, and the prevalence of a selfish disposition that has prevented you? You ought to be teachers, because you might have been qualified to teach. Why are you not? Let conscience answer this question as before God, and in the light of eternity.

You ought to be willing to teach. Many have the ability, but they have not the will:-they are educated;-they profess Christ;-they are members of the church;-they are respectable in society;-they have a good degree of influence; but they are not teachers. Why? Ah! why? The Lord Jesus has commissioned his church to go and teach the nations. The commission is to the whole church, and applies to every member, according to his station, talent, and ability. Every christian should teach You are entrusted with the truth to preserve it, to spread it, to practise it, and to enjoy it. You ought to teach it, why do you not? Just because you want the will. There are persons ignorant of the truth to whom you could communicate it. They cannot be sanctified or saved without it. If they live and die ignorant of it, are you guiltless? Can you be guiltless? You ought to be a teacher. By your daily conduct, by your general conversation, by your special efforts, you ought to teach. And you ought to hold yourself responsible, up to a certain point, for the ignorance that is in the world. Does not the apostle teach this, when he says, "Some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame" (1 Cor. xv. 34) ?

You ought to be anxious to teach. Not perhaps in the pulpit; you may not be qualified for that. Not to teach your pastor, or the aged members; ten to one if you have any fitness for that. But to teach the young, the ignorant in your own neighbourhood, and in the villages near where you reside. You should never see a person ignorant of the truth, if it is at all probable that you can instruct him, or if it is consistent to endeavour to gain access to him, but you should be anxious to teach him. How can you be a christian, and not be anxious to make known the Saviour? How can you be a consistent member of the church, and not be anxious to add to its numbers? How can you be a patriot, and not be anxious to instruct your fellow-countrymen in the things which belong to their peace? How can you observe the law, which says, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," and not be anxious to lead your neighbour in the good and the right way? How can you obey the gospel, which says, "Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled," "preach the gospel to every creature," if you are not anxious, by teaching, to bring every soul under its influence? If you are not anxious to teach, there is something radically wrong; and if you are anxious to teach, you will seek qualification, grace, and opportunity to do so.

You ought to be employed in teaching. There need not be a child in Great Britain uneducated, or a person left without an acquaintance with the gospel, if the members of the church of Christ would only do their duty. We ought seriously to think of this; and I am sure, that the more

seriously we think of it, and the more closely we examine it, the more thoroughly shall we be convinced of its truth. Why are children left in ignorance, or handed over to the teaching of Puseyites and Papists, or persons ignorant of the gospel? Just because those who ought to be teachers are not. Why are our villages in darkness, and thousands in our crowded towns strangers to the gospel? Because the members of the church of Christ love ease, indulge the flesh, and many of them are too respectable, that is, too carnal, to be teachers. . From every pulpit, from every religious periodical, the sound should be heard, addressed to every professor of religion, "ye ought to be teachers," until the drowsy are awakened, and the flesh-loving professor is made ashamed of his course. Beloved, your Saviour speaks to you, he speaks in the accents of ag grieved love, he speaks from the throne of his glory. He says, "I would thou wert either hot or cold." He tells thee, "It is high time to awake out of sleep." You ought to be teachers, and you ought to be teaching. Souls are perishing. Error is spreading. Popery is working. Satan is deceiving the nations. Hell is filling. Earth and hell seem to be moved, and stirred to their very depths, and shall "we sit still?" In vain do you cry out against error, if you do not teach the truth. you protest against the aggressions of the Pope, if you do not spread the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In vain do you complain of crime, ignorance, or cruelty, if you are not teachers, and if you are not teaching. Teach, then, "every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord" (Heb. viii. 2).

In vain do

Teachers are wanted in many of our Sunday-schools, and you could teach, but will not. What shall we say to you? Rather, what will your Lord say? Teachers are wanted in many of our villages, and, perhaps, you could speak of Jesus acceptably, if you would try, but you will not, and what shall we say? Teachers are wanted in the cottages, cellars, garrets, and other residences, in the courts, lanes, alleys, and streets of our towns, and you could gain access to them, and set Christ before them, if you would, but you will not, and what shall we say? Shall we not

say that you are verily guilty concerning your brothers. They are bone of your bone, they are flesh of your flesh,-they inhabit the same place, -they speak the same language, they need the same Saviour,—they are travelling to the same dread eternity, they must, with you, appear before the same awful judgment-seat, they are in gross ignorance, they are labouring under a fearful delusion, they sit in darkness and in the shadow of death: you could visit them, you could carry the light of the gospel to them, you might be the means of snatching them as brands from the everlasting burnings, and be instrumental in their everlasting salvation, but you will not. Where is your hatred to sin? Where is your love for souls? Where is your zeal for Christ? Where is your opposition to Satan? Ah, where!

"You ought to be teachers." You have been long enough in the church, you know more than thousands around you; many would willingly be taught by you; God, in his word, commands you; and the Holy Spirit would work by you. Awake, then, and arise, and go to work in right earnest. Infidels are in earnest spreading infidelity. Jesuits are in earnest spreading Popery. Puseyites are in earnest spreading Puseyism. The devil is in earnest ruining immortal souls. All appear in earnest but the church of Christ. All are active but those who should be. Let us, brethren, cast away the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. Let us begin the new year as we never began one before. Let us go right up to the cross, and there entirely and for ever consecrate ourselves to God.

Let us draw near to the throne, and seek special grace from God for special service in the cause of God. Let us begin teaching in every way, up to the extent of our power, saying, by our conduct, if any perish in ignorance, it shall not be my fault. Let tracts be circulated by thousands; but let not the tract be a substitute for the living voice; but let the tongue, the hand, the pen, the press, the purse, the head, the heart,-let all work, and all work together, and then, when our sincerity, perseverance, and purity of motive, have been tried, great and glorious results will follow. Churches of Jesus, awake, arise, and teach! Believers in the Son of God, go forth, everywhere preaching the word! Trust alone in the sacrifice of Jesus, exercise confidence in God, invoke the assistance of the Holy Spirit, and yet work as if all depended on your working, and a glorious revival will soon be realized and enjoyed. Byrom-Street, Liverpool.

[ocr errors]

THE TIME TO DIE.

"Let me die in the Spring," said a sweet young girl,

As she looked on the vallies green;

"Let me die in the Spring," and her cheek grew bright,
As she gazed on the joyous scene;

"Let me die when the flowers are opening fresh,

When the zephyrs in music sigh,

When the birds sing sweetly on every hill,

And the sunlight gleams on the laughing rill,—
In the Spring-time let me die."

"Let me die, let me die in the Summer-time,"
Said the youth as he looked around

On the verdant leaves, and the shades that lay
So still on the cool, damp ground.

"Let me die when the birds are filling the air
With their rich and varied chime,

When the waves are raising their loudest notes,
And the breeze o'er the flowers in music floats,-
Let me die in the Summer-time."

"Let me die, let me die in the Autumn-time,”
Said the strong man, as he stood

On a leaf-strewn isle, and gazed far down
Through the shade of the lonely wood;
"When the leaves are falling upon my way,
When the flowers are dying fast,

When the winds sweep by with a solemn sigh,
And the clouds float, dream-like, along the sky,-
Oh, then let me breathe my last."

"Let me die, let me die in the Winter-time,"
The way-worn pilgrim said,

As he pressed his hand to his withered brow,
And bowed his whitened head;

"Let me die when the storm is raging loud,
And clouds obscure the sky,-

I have wandered long in this wintry way,
My step is weak, and my head is grey,
It is time for me to die."

The christian stood on the Jordan of death,
And smiled as the waves swept by:
Father!" he said, "if thou willest it,
Let thy suffering servant die;

Let me pass away from the ills of life,

To a fairer and brighter clime,

Let me find a holier place of rest,

Let me lean my head on thy loving breast,
Let me die in thine own good time."

M. C. Smiley.

Our Frontispiece.

The beautiful engraving, which appears as the frontispiece to our present number and volume, is a view of an old baptismal font in the church at Inverkeithing, Scotland.

It is very doubtful whether there is a single perfect example of a baptismal font remaining in any church in Scotland, but this. The circumference of the basin of this beautiful font is 10 feet 8 inches; its height 2 feet 1 inch; circumference of the stem 5 feet; length 1 foot 8 inches; total height of the font exclusive of the plinth, which is modern, 3 feet 9 inches. The basin is hexagonal, carries a kind of embattled cylindrical shaft terminating in a corbal head or angels, and has its panelled faces respectively filled with an angel, holding a blazoned shield. The orifice is spherical, and has a drain aperture in the bottom; and the stem is formed of a cluster of six filleted rolls, alternating with a small triangular-shaped member between.

Mutilated examples, however, are sometimes to be met with, of which there is one in the chantry of Seton, and another was removed from the church of Fowlis, some years ago, to deck a cockney's plot, in front of the shooting lodge, near the Glen Turrit, Perthshire. Another, similarly dislocated, stands in the garden of Rosehall mansionhouse, near Bothwell; it belonged to the church of Old Monkland, in the same neighbourhood; the stem is wanting, but the font itself, a plain octagon, 8 feet 1 inch in circumference, is quite entire. There is also lying among the rubbish of the ruined church of S. Munge, Dumfrieshire, a small fragment of a baptismal font, which was entire not many years since, when the present place of worship was built. It was then, Scotch fashion, broken up, and, as is said, partly used in the construction of the new edifice. Another example is said to be buried among the huge foundations of a deal pulpit in Dumblane cathedral.

From the very large size of the basin of this ancient font, it was obviously intended for immersion, and shews, as all fonts older than the Reformation do, that immersion was retained by the church long after personal faith and repentance were dispensed with. It is pertinent to remark, however, that our appeal in this illustration is not to

tradition but to history. We do not regard the historical fact, that immersion was the regular church practice in every century of which any records alluding to the mode of baptism exist, as an authority for our practice, but it is, we think, collateral and corroboratory evidence that we interpret aright the New Testament word which prescribes the initiatory rite of christianity.

The friend who has presented our readers, with the beautiful engraving which appears as our frontispiece, very appropriately enquires, "whether the Puseyites, who, with the Bishop of Exeter, are now laying such stress on a right understanding of the Baptismal formula, who have even harassed Mr. Gorham to the uttermost, on account of his asserted misunderstanding of the baptismal service,-whether they are not themselves, on their own grounds, in a very inconsistent position, in departing from the ancient mode of baptism,-a mode, too, to which their own church requires them to adhere, except in cases of sickness." Even allowing to them their dogma (which all consistent Protestants must deny), that "the church hath power to decree rights and ceremonies;" yet, first, it may well be questioned by them, whether their church, or any church, has power to alter an ordinance confessedly established by Christ and his apostles, and which was, save in cases of sickness, always administered by immersion during their infallible "three first centuries;" and, secondly, it is clear that their "Anglican church" does, in all possible cases, require immersion. Believers as they are in the efficacy of sacraments, they ought surely to fear lest such an important alteration in the mode of the ceremony should evacuate it completely of all efficacy. Especially, since no liturgical service was given by Christ himself, while the ceremony itself was, even they must in candour own, that a mistake respecting the mode of a ceremony appointed by Christ, must be, at least, of more consequence than a mistake regarding the meaning of formularies and creeds devised by the "Anglican church."

If Christ "tied regeneration to baptism, i.e. immersion," or if even the church did so, it is, at least, very doubtful whether it can be "tied" to sprinkling at all.

« السابقةمتابعة »