obliged to do my work in a great deal of pain from day to day. "Thus I lived near a year and a half. One Monday morning my master, as usual, had made my fellow-slaves tie me to a shade-tree in the yard, after stripping my back naked to receive the cowhide. It was a beautiful morning in the summer time, and the sun shone very bright. Everything around looked very pleasant. He came up to me with cool deliberation, took his stand, and looked at me closely, but the cowhide hung still at his side. His conscience was at work, and it was a great moment in his life. "Well Jack,' said he, 'your back is covered all over with scars and sores, and I see no place to begin to whip. You obstinate wretch, how long do you intend to go on in this way?' Why, master, just as long as the Lord will let me live,' was my reply. 66 6 "Well, what is your design in it?' 66 6 Why, master, in the morning of the resurrection, when my poor body shall rise from the grave, I intend to show these scars to my heavenly Father, as so many witnesses of my faithfulness in his cause.' "He ordered them to untie me, and sent me to hoe corn in the field. Late in the evening he future to a Christian mind--endless, boundless fruition! Repose your thoughts a moment on the strong language of the Scriptures: “A good hope," "a lively hope," " a blessed hope," "rejoicing in hope," "abounding in hope," "full assurance of hope." Choose any other attribute essential to the mental frame of the Christian, and you will find it in contrast with gloom; as much so as the star is with the darkness in which it shines. Assuredly there can be found nothing in the practical system of Christianity which is repugnant to a happy temper. How pure are its ordinances; how simple and tranquil its worship; how befitting, and coincident with our daily cares, its duties! Christianity is indeed a discipline; it imposes self-denial. It has its "burden," but its burden is " light;" it has its "yoke," but its yoke is "easy." What, then, are the causes of the not unfrequent depression met with among Christians? It may be remarked in reply, first, that physical causes often contribute to it. Let not this be deemed an unimportant observation. We are not assured that it is not the chief cause of mental sufferings among those who are genuine It should be borne in mind that a the moral laws of our being does Christians. conformity not supersede obedience to the physical and organic laws and that while we reap the rewards of obedience in the one case, we may be suffering the penalties of transgression in the other. The Christian should aim at perfection in all respects. Some of our strongest temptations are connected with physical circumstances. We should therefore include our bodily health among our moral duties. Again: no doubt much of the depression of the Christian arises from the remains of sin. Every drop of gall has its bitterness. The only resource here is, to seize St. Paul's remedy, "Go on to perfection." Holiness is essential to happiness. There never was a truer and loftier maxim. Even what you may consider small sins, must ever interfere, while they are indulged, with your peace. Needles can pierce deeper than larger instruments. A secret sin is often more injurious to the soul than an overt or gross crime. It has a character of concealment, of hypocrisy, that makes it more degrading. Are you habitually or occasionally unhappy, Christian reader? Look now deliberately into your heart, and see if the cause is not obvious. Perhaps the greatest curse your heavenly Father could inflict upon you would be a happy frame of mind, while you are omitting, it may be forgetting, his command that you "be perfect, even as he is perfect." How amazing is the undoubted fact, that many Christians shrink from this command, because they fear that the higher responsibility and minuter fidelity of a sanctified state will form a servitude in which they will be unhappy! Young Christian, bethink you! Is such a fancy found on the page of God's word? Is the shadowy twilight more brilliant than the full glory of the day? How superlatively wretched heaven must be, if you are correct! Christian perfection is indeed a high state, and its watchfulness and fidelity are correspondently great; but it is a state of extraordinary grace, as well as of extraordinary duty. It is perfect love that "casts out fear." Is it not, then, on the mere score of enjoyment, preferable to an inferior degree of piety? Would you be glad with joy? Would you triumph over care and anxiety, and sin and death; and, above all, over yourself and the devil? Would you have the perfection of all the happiness to be enjoyed in this world? Abandon sin. Fly from sin. Abhor it; shudder at it. Look upon its smallest stain as upon a plague spot. Again. Are not we Christians wondrously thoughtless? Do we not walk amidst the outstanding, the blazing glories of our blessed region, like the blind man beneath the starry grandeur of the firmament, or amid the effulgence of the sun? Does not the want of a meditative habit lead to that vacancy and cheerlessness of mind which we often feel? When we open God's word in an hour of gloom, it ought to be to us like a sun outbursting from the heaven in midnight. How full of clear counsel, and happy words, and radiant doctrine, and sweet assurance, and bounding hope, is it! O, it is indeed the gospel-good and glad tidings. How every passage dilates and palpitates with unutterable mercy and love! "Glory in the highest," shouted the angels when they announced it over Bethlehem; and so should we respond, whenever we look at it. Young Christian, try to think as well as to feel. What mind, not absolutely in a state of fatuity, can habitually meditate upon the great topics of revealed religion, and be miserable and driveling? Select any one of its essential doctrines, and you have what might be the text of an angel's study, and that study protracted through eternity. What a conception is the character of its God! What a topic the atonement! How full of confidence and assurance the truth of a special providence! How relieving and consoling the fact of justification |