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النشر الإلكتروني

WISDOM OF SOLOMON'S PRAYER.

MAY 23.

Lo! I have given thee a wise and understanding heart.

151

THE question always was, and always will be deeply interesting to thoughtful men, What is the chief good? It is too general, to answer happiness-this furnishes us with no information, with no rule of action, and with no means of obtaining the end. It rather increases our discontent, by placing the temple of our wishes in sight, and hiding in mist, the avenues, which can alone conduct us hither.The true answer is given in the prayer and response of our text— the chief good is not in long life, nor in riches, nor in death of our enemies, but in a wise and understanding heart. Mind is the chief good.-Mind, by which we mean all the faculties and properties, which permanently and of right, belong to the percipient, conscious, affectionate, reasoning, judging, acting, pious and benevolent soul. Under God, mind is the mean of all means, the directing cause of all causes. He who has mind in its sound and proper state, has all that God can give him, consistent with man's moral state, nature, and the divine moral government. To ask for mind, is to ask for all that mind effects and obtains. This then, is the chief good, because it is mind, which is the subject of all cultivation, virtue and glory, because it is mind which directs and controuls all else, that God has made; because it is mind, which perceives, pursues, acquires and enjoys happiness; because among all our earthly possessions, mind alone is eternal; and because it is mind alone, which exalts man to the image of his Maker. What, then, is a real loss to the human family, what diminishes the amount of worth, wealth and power? The loss of mind. Every other loss can be restored, but who can recall the mind which has once entered on its upward flight, through progressive spheres ?-Let fire consume your dwellings, let confiscation seize your treasures, let the storm wreck your ships, let the earthquake sink, and war desolate your country, and when all is done, if mind remains, or if in the agitations of this multiplying calamity, mind is produced or restored, you are still victorious. You are still rich, powerful and prosperous; for riches, power and prosperity are all before you, and within your grasp. Let a tornado, prostrate a forest in the wilderness, and we feel no loss; but the loss of a single house, formed by a few of its pines, whose absence can hardly be discerned, and which has become the residence of a virtuous and intelligent family, fills our hearts with sympathy and distress. Annihilate a mountain of marble, and what is it, to the destruction of a statue, the consecrated genius and labour of years. As a community, then, when ought we to mourn ?-when mind is gone; not an infant, or an old man, not the creature of fashion, or the devotee, not the demagogue or the bigot, but, the man of intellectual vigour and effectual benevolence, the man whose power and designs are the dependence and hope of society, the man who is in the maturity of his faculties and his usefulness, and more especially, the man of not yet middle age, who, after having already made extraordinary efforts and attainments, is yet, and for a long period to come, in the ascending series of rapid improvement; whose perceptions embrace the innumerable objects around him, and have generated an active and effectual philanthropy. In his death, the capital of mind, on earth, suffers a shock, which years cannot repair-a chasm is made which few attempt to measure, much less to fill up.

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THE CHRISTIAN SCHOLAR.

MAY 24.

Add to your faith-knowledge.

By the christian scholar I mean him who has added various knowledge to his faith-who believes a profession of Jesus Christ as the Messiah, to be the gospel term of communion; who embraces as brethren, all who make the same avowal; and who considers himself bound by eternal obligations, to use his time, talents and wealth, for the advancement of learning, justice, humanity, devotion and beneficence. He must feel that he cannot escape from these sacred requirements, any more than from the atmosphere which envelopes him. Whatever his profession calling or business, the same great principles bind him. No imaginable situation can warrant his pandering to a corrupt taste, or concealing the open features of truth, or giving plausibility to prevalent bad customs, or imparting the hue of benevolence to criminal selfishness. When the scholar does these things, he throws poison into the waters of life.

Newton, Locke, and Milton, were christian scholars.-To the first we yet look up as to some superhuman genius sent forth to shed a revealing light over the works of God. His three great discoveries constituted the brightest era in the progress of human knowledge, and were destined to work an entire revolution in the received system of things. He penetrated the hiding places of nature, and made familiar to mortals the mysterious workings of omnipotence. These majestic powers of mind were brought, with concentrated force to the study of theology-and the spirit and principle which gave all its stability and all its sereneness to his philosophy, shone visibly in his moral researches. Religion filled the inner temple of his soul; and he felt as humble as a little child in the presence of his Saviour. He thought all his labours nothing, if they did not teach him to number his days, and to apply his heart to religious wisdom.

Locke, the father of mental philosophy, has laid every succeeding age under obligations to his wonderful genius and astonishing works. With a mind unchecked by the force of prevalent sentiments on the clogs of early education, he was willing to pursue any consequences in the course of theoretical abstraction. He seemed a visitor from an invisible world, returning to narrate what he had seen, and to sketch a map of the before untravelled region. This great and good man felt he must devote to God the energy of that mind which emanated from him. This he considered his great act of consecration. Milton, whose name is synonymous with sublimity, having gathered up the glories which God has impressed on his works, and measured the height and depth of inventive genius, turned to pour light on the sacred pages. We thank God that a new record of his christian faith has lately sprung forth into day, though it should be but to witness, at this late hour, an improvement it was intended, a century ago, to promote. We hail it as a cheering voice from another age, as the resurrection of one of our fathers, to inspirit us in the onward march of improvement.

How ennobling the sight, to see the most exalted intellect, after carrying the line and compass to the boundaries of science and literature, returning to sit a humble, anxious disciple at the feet of Jesus! What a delightful tribute to the dignity of the human mind, that after its fullest developement, it returns as by a natural tendency, to the great centre of light and power.

GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THE APOSTLES.

MAY 25.

153

God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the holy Ghost, according to his own will.

GOD bestowed his spirit upon the immediate disciples of our Lord, ten days after the ascension of Christ.

The gift of tongues shewed that christianity was intended for all nations. The first step towards spreading it was, to qualify its propagators to speak fluently in the languages of the different nations to which they should be sent. As this gift was seen to have been bestowed at once upon uneducated men, the inevitable inference was, that God would use it to declare his truth. He would not miraculously furnish men with words to declare doctrines contrary to his will.

The gift of knowledge, by which they were led into all necessary truth, taught them, what before they seemed not to understand, the nature of Christ's kingdom. It also brought all needed sentiments so to their remembrance, that succeeding generations can rely on their authority. It also gave them courage to stand, unaided by friends, eloquence or power, to defend the truth against prejudice, ignorance, malice and ambition. Thus they understood religion to consist in righteousness, and peace, and joy in a holy mind; and they became fearless in rescuing men from the slavery of sin, and bringing them into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

The gift of working miracles, enabled them to prove what they asserted. Great effects were to be produced. The Jewish religion was to be new moulded, and that of the Gentile changed. But the Jew had prescription on his side, and the Gentile antiquity and the protection of the state. Both religions were more indulgent to the passions of bad men than the gospel of Christ. If the apostles, therefore, had reasoned ever so justly, without a divine testimony, they would not have been heard. The Jew would still have held fast to Moses, and the Gentile to his idol. But when the gospel was proved by miracles, then unbelief was compelled to yield.

Similar extraordinary gifts, no christian has any necessity to receive, or right to expect. He who supposes God will now so furnish his ministers, does an injury to christianity, by thus decrying human learning. He injures it no less who supposes religion an instantaneous and irresistible bestowment; rather than a reasonable principle, to be daily sought, gradually acquired, and carefully cherished. Apostolic endowments have ceased with their great design, which was, the promulgation of christianity. With respect to these gifts, it may be remarked, that as by possessing them no man was made a better christian, so no man by wanting them was the worse; these extraordinary powers being given, not for the benefit of those on whom they were conferred, but for the conversion and salvation of others.-The influences of the spirit now, are gospel motives, the means of grace, the word and providence of God, public and private prayer, the ordinances of religion and the moral events of life. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. To be "led by the spirit," and to be "full of the spirit," is to believe what the apostles preached, and to do what they have commanded. Doing otherwise, is grieving the holy spirit.

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Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

REPENTANCE does not mean sorrow and tears-but, thorough moral reformation. It is a hard process; for, it is plucking out our right eye and cutting off our right hand. There is no salvation to the sinner without it. Momentary compunction is worth nothing,the sinner must be deeply conscious of his guilt, and effectually exchange it for holiness. Let it cost us what uneasiness it may, we must resolve to examine our ways, to become acquainted with the state of our consciences, to enter with the candle of the Lord into the inmost recesses of the heart, and the chambers of imagery, whatever disorder or defilement they may conceal, or whatever alarm the knowledge of ourselves may excite; since to be apprised of danger is the first step to safety, and it will be infinitely better for us to judge and accuse ourselves now, than to be judged and condemned hereafter. Happy those to whom a seasonable alarm shall suggest the means of a perpetual security.

Repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, was the sum of the apostolic instructions. It is not an occasional mention of the name of Christ, or a transient recognition of his authority, that fills up the measure of the terms, believing in Jesus. It includes a living, operative, practical faith. It includes repentance; and repentance is to know our sin, and our God-it is to know the miserable state of our soul, and the compassion of our God-it is to forsake the one and embrace the other without delayit is to mourn over our sins, and to seek the pardon of them with tears. As soon as the "woman who was a sinner" knows that Jesus is in the house of the Pharisee, she runs thither-she does not wait till he is alone, till he is at prayers, or in the temple. Wherever she can find him she presents herself before him. She weeps,and her tears are more powerful than words. She reflects on what she has done, and under the influence of sincere regret for past offences, resolves now to employ in the service of her God, what was formerly employed in dishonouring him.

With this design she hastens to discharge her duty. As soon as she discovers that Jesus is in the feast chamber, there she appears. How different from you, who consider, who hesitate, who deliberate, who wait till this pleasure be exhausted, till that accident impel you to form more determined resolutions, till the world no longer please, or to speak more plainly, till you no longer please the

world!

Do you forsake the world?-Often do you look back to see if it will regard you, and if fortune will again favour you with its smiles. Often you feign to quit it, that you may afford it a stronger wish to retain you; and though it may have many times deceived you, as Laban did Jacob, yet you consent to give it some years of further service, Go to that repentant woman for a loud reproof.

Happy penitent-for I call you no longer sinful woman-happy penitent, come and teach us what it is to repent and to be converted; -that it is not simply to promise, to deliberate, and to resolve : but that it is to hasten like you, to discharge what we have promised.

Like Mary kneel, like Mary weep,

"Love much," and be forgiven !

ERRONEOUS JUDGMENTS CONCERNING OTHERS.

MAY 27.

155

How long will ye judge unjustly ?-Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous jugdment.

SPIRITUAL pride blinds a man to his own defects. Free from open immorality, he conceives himself faultless. Being certain that no deep stains appear on the surface, he concludes all is pure and white within. Erroneous judgments concerning others are most common among persons of this class. It is from these the notoriously wicked receive the loudest reproaches. The severest censures fall from their lips, whose situations secure them from the faults they condemn. Who most declaim against fraud? the rich-who against avarice? the poor-who against pride? the unobserved-who against profusion? the parsimonious. Who flings on the memory of the self destroyer the heaviest curse, and regards his grave with such an angry eye, as to say, "Let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon it"? the gay, prosperous and contented. How eloquently they talk of the impiety and cowardice of deserting the post in which providence places us! All that they say, is true: they cannot paint the crime they condemn, in darker colours than it deserves but he whom they thus upbraid, he also could have talked as they do and once perhaps he did. To declaim is an easy thing; to declaim eloquently, is an easy thing; but to act well, is a more arduous task. And many a one, I doubt not, has censured another's fatal despair; has approached with horror the unconsecrated ground where he lay, and called the place accursed as he passed it, who was not himself possessed of a single particle more of piety to God, or regard to society, to arrest the hand of self destruction, had similar distresses tempted him to lift it up. Many have harangued upon the pusillanimity of sinking under distress, without possessing any more fortitude than those that have fainted in the day of adversity. Any man may stand upon the shore and deride the shrieks of the terrified wretches whom the tempest is tossing.

It is one thing to condemn what is ill done, and another to do better. We can all of us be very virtuous in our closets; we can all of us be very heroic, in the safe and easy field of speculation; and rise into the heights of moral sublimity, as we recline in the chair of moral criticism. We can all explain with the nicest propriety, how the situations, we do not fill, ought to be filled; how the burdens, we do not bear, ought to be borne. We can be very

patient under the pressure of another's sorrows; we can be very brave, in the face of another's dangers; we can be very generous in the disposal of another's property. We can sit by the side of a broken hearted sufferer, and tell him, that it is unbecoming a christian to "sorrow as others that are without hope," with a firm and intrepid tone we can go to the opulent, and point out to them, very clearly, the many benevolent plans which it is in their power, and which it is, therefore, their duty, to prosecute but actually to perform, what we can thus accurately explain, and sagely advise, requires more exertion than that of the breath.

Some persons of good reputation are not chargeable with sins, which others have committed, because they have not had equal temptation; and the self ignorance arising out of this situation, is a frequent and fruitful source of spiritual pride.

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