SINS OF OMISSION. JUNE 18. These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 177 WHAT We call generosity, we are apt to consider as a quality, in morals, similar to what we mean by grace, in language, or in arts; an excellence beyond the strict requisition of rules; a striking, but an unnecessary ornament; by which the piece is improved, but without which it would have had no fault. This is not the view of virtue to which reflection leads. Properly speaking, the absence of any of those beneficences, which we are capable of performing, is not merely the absence of so many beauties and graces in the character, but is to be considered as so much breach of duty; so much fracture in the frame of the character; so much deformity in the figure of the mind; so much blot and stain upon the purity of honour. The want of such acts as these, in the life of man, is not to be compared to the want of that exquisite finishing, which a piece of art receives from the last touches of the master's hand, by which it is made more perfect, but without which it would discover no defect; but is to be considered as positive, and pointed blemish. In the eye of strict and sober reason, what we call exalted goodness, eminent generosity, is but the perfection of decency, and the summit of decorum. We have made a distinction between crimes of omission and crimes of commission. In the eye of imagination, the former appear to be of a more airy, and less real nature, than the latter. Crimes of omission, however, are as substantially crimes in the sight of reason and of God, as those of commission. In the eye of reason and of God, he that refuses to a fellow creature what he wants, and what he has to communicate, is a robber. In those eyes, the misery which a man might remove, and neglects to remove, he inflicts in the oppression which he could redress, and refuses to redress, he is an accomplice. : This consideration of the strictly obligatory nature of virtue, in its utmost practicable extent, is a necessary, and it is an effectual preservative of our moral humility; and will, if perpetually present to our minds, prevent whatever virtuous actions we perform from raising in us the faintest emotion of pride. When we have done all we can to increase the sum of happiness in the creation of God, "we have done no more than it was our duty to do " we are only not dishonest. Accustomed to contemplate such multitudes, in all ages of the world, embezzling the bounty of heaven; disobeying the law of God; introducing disorder, and spreading mischief among his works; we regard the few we see, that decently discharge their duties; that do, what the sun and the moon, and every thing in nature does, but man; that move in the orbit marked out by the finger of rectitude for them; that merely avoid the mad eccentricity and lawless motions of vice; as something unspeakably illustrious, and celestially sublime! In the midst of so many who act so very far beneath their obligations, who fall so very short of their duties, to those who rise above beings who are sunk so low, we lift up our eyes as to lofty spirits, as to soaring minds: we call them exalted characters, and lavish eulogiums upon their elevation, which is but escape from the dust! 178 THE GOSPEL, THE COPIOUS FOUNTAIN of life. JUNE 19. A well of water, springing up into everlasting life. IF in the place of that spiritual instruction, which nourishes the soul with wisdom and piety, which at once inspires the hope and qualifies for the enjoyment of an un-ending existence, our Saviour had literally discovered and pointed out, a spring of sovereign virtue to restore the bodily frame, and to protract this earthly and mortal being beyond all example of former ages; what interest, and what amazement, would have been excited throughout the habitable earth ! How rapidly and widely would the rumour have spread; and how eagerly would the aged and infirm have listened those who were trembling for their own lives, or lives still dearer! What pilgrimages would have been undertaken from distant lands! What multitudes gathered around the fountain! What efforts to approach it! The rich would offer their estates-kings give up their crowns-the feeble, by entreaties; the strong, perhaps, by force, attempt a passage through half mankind, till war and carnage at length had begun to rage, amongst unhappy mortals, contending for the well of life! Yet if, by any powers of art or nature, this brief existence could be prolonged, for ages, in a capacity of vigorous enjoyment, the full prospect of a barrier, which hope could not pass, would spread a gloom over the whole !-You could not help dwelling upon the thought; and you could not dwell upon it without sensations of melancholy, still deepening with the lapse of time: "Could you, so rich in rapture, fear an end, That ghastly thought would drink up all your joys, But we have no centuries here to boast checked in every pursuit and desire, by our limited duration, we are carried, "as with a flood," to the verge of a cataract. In this awful situation-while the anxious soul casts around a trembling, supplicating, despairing look for any succour, any consolation from earth or heaven-behold, the hand of mercy is stretched out for our deliverance, a joyful harbour is opened to receive us, and a fountain of living waters, of which "whosoever drinketh, shall live forever.” As to the Arabian traveller, spent with toil and thirst and heat, amidst burning deserts of sand,--the cool spring, the pleasant breeze, and waving shade--or to the exhausted mariner, amidst the swelling deep, the signal that guides him to his home; so welcome to the children of mortality, should be this life-giving spring; this sovereign remedy of guilt, of sorrow, and of death. Sweet as light to the captive entombed in darkness; sweet as liberty to him that is bound in affliction and iron; or returning health to nature sinking in decay; such to the ear of mortal man should be the glad tidings of life eternal. If such be the love of God towards us; oh! let our whole lives be an unbroken stream of filial gratitude to him. When shall the blissful period arrive-the glorious era, when God shall wipe all tears from his children's eyes; and Jesus Christ shall lead his followers to ever-springing fountains of living and life-giving waters. TRUTH PROMOTIVE OF PURE DEVOTION. JUNE 20. 179 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.-The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him; to all that call upon him in truth. TRUTH is the first great support of the human mind, and leads directly to its great source, God. Emanating, in every direction, from the throne of Jehovah, it leads the soul, on which its rays fall, back to its parent fountain. That is the most perfect of religions, considered with reference to man-in whom, just rising above the animal creation, sensible impressions predominate-which uses these lower principles, not to supersede, but to enforce, the dictates of the understanding; and uses the understanding, not to deaden, but animate as well as enlighten, the sentiments and feelings of the heart. For it is the religion of the heart alone, and neither of the senses nor of the understanding merely, whence proceed the acts and issues of life. "Knowledge puffeth up; Love edifyeth." Never was the corruption of religion and of morals more truly deplorable, than at that era when they borrowed aid of all the subtilty of philosophy, with all the splendour of the fine arts in her train. Music, and painting, and architecture, and poetry, and eloquence-an abstruse metaphysics, and a profound logic-conspired, for a while, with gigantic efforts, to prop the monstrous fabric of papal power, and policy, and corruption, till overpowered by the weight of its own absurdities, it fell-while through the broken arches and columns of superstition, truth began to shine; christianity came forth like pure gold out of the furnace; and philosophy, no longer falsely so called, blended her purest ray with the genial beams of religion. May those arts and sciences, which so long assisted to sustain antichristian tyranny, at length adorn and be subservient to christian liberty, and christian virtue; that, while displaying their highest refinement, they may attain their sublimest end. Disdaining to become panders to errour, luxury and vice, may they aspire to be handmaids and auxiliaries to righteousness, to charity, to piety, to the best interests of man. While the eye and the ear awake to the charms and harmonies of nature, may the soul feel the superiour majesty of truth, the excelling beauty of wisdom, the purer harmony of minds consenting in amity and kindness; and as the understandings of men are enlightened and refined, may they be enabled to reach a loftier pitch in the praise of the great Creator, in the imitation of the Father of Mercies, the God of Jesus! Free from gloom and from levity; from presumption, and negligence, from the corrosion of worldly cares, and from the agitation of the passions-amidst the calm of reason, the serenity of innocence, the consolations of integrity, may we bow down together, "with one heart and soul," before God, humbly adoring his perfections, acknowledging his paternal goodness, imploring his guidance through the mazes of this earthly pilgrimage, to a better country! And thus, may we be finally prepared to join that great multitude of celestial spirits, who, having been victorious over the sufferings and allurements of mortality, are described--as with the voice of many waters and mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, Salvation and Glory, and Honour, and Power, be unto the Lord our God: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, King of kings, and Lord of lords, for ever and ever. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation. DEVOTION is the ascent of our souls to God-the going forth of our inmost affections and heavenly devoted wills. We must engage in it with spirits unembarrassed; with a reverent, humble, submissive, and at the same time, a serene, cheerful and thankful frame of mind. If in private devotion our thoughts are less diverted by the world, they are more animated by sympathy and example. If when alone, our feelings are more personal; when with others we unite benevolence with piety. Every outward aid is desirable. Sacred history, illustrated by appropriate paintings, may greatly move the religious affections. Notwithstanding God is acknowledged to be, though unseen, at all times, and every where present, we do not and cannot be, at all times and every where alike awed and affected by him. When, for instance, we have filled our mind with the contemplation of his firmament, or beheld his wonders in the great deep, or surveyed with delight his bounty in the rich and varied stores of the creation-these sensible effects, these palpable and striking effusions of goodness and of power, will naturally excite more vivid emotion, than any mere abstract contemplation of the divine attributes can be expected to do. But the noblest monument of the Creator, here below, is man. When we worship God in the midst of our fellow men, we worship him amidst the most exalted manifestations, to which we have access, of his wisdom, power and goodness. If the lofty mountain, the great and wide sea, the beauteous firmament, suggest to the intelligent beholder, the hand of the Almighty, and impress the cultivated mind with religious feelings-how much more should an assembly of rational beings, of devout worshippers, humble imitators of God, disciples of Christ and candidates for heaven! When amidst such an assembly, celebrating with united hearts and voices, the Eternal Benevolence-you are led, by the presence of those most dear, to blend, with more general feelings of respectful sympathy, the tender ties of private friendship, of family love, and all the charities of the more intimate relations and dependencies of social life-who can deny that it forms one of the most interesting as well as solemn scenes in this visible world-and presents, perhaps, the most exalted image that mortals can conceive of the invisible and immortal state? Wouldst thou have the temper of thy soul raised above the temptations and the cares of life, to that region where God and virtue and endless peace and happiness dwell-go not, my brother, into the wilderness, climb not the steep rock, seek not the gloom of the forest, or the resounding shores of the ocean-but enter, with the train of devout worshippers, the house of prayer: there, with thy children, thy household, thy kindred, friends and neighbours, bow down before the High God. If the general countenance of this place do not tend to calm the passions of the soul, to allay its feverish anxieties, and infuse into it sensations of peace and piety, of duty and benevolence, how strangely must we all have forgotten every thing which it most behooves us to regard and to remember! This is the climate of devotion. It is the atmosphere of praise and thanksgiving that we breathe here; and we are not purely intellectual, but sentient, impressible beings. And after these things, I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying Hallelujah, salvation and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God! How grand, how affecting is this final close of the dispensations of the Almighty, the All-wise, the All-merciful-this universal triumph, this everlasting jubilee, of all his faithful servants, collected from every region of the world, every period of time-and pouring forth, with unanimous consent, the fulness of their joy and thankfulness around the throne of heaven! "And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. If then the praise and worship of the Almighty constitute an essential part of the happiness of the heavenly world, it must hold a distinguished place among those holy exercises which are to qualify us for joining that blessed community, and sharing in their delightful employments. Congenial to celestial natures, as a source of sublime mental enjoyment. Devotion is, moreover, the cherisher of all personal and social duties: it is the keystone that sustains and crowns the broad arch of christian virtue. Consequently, whenever we enter a christian assembly, engaged in the worship of the Creator, we have ground to say, "surely this is no other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven !" The grand description, in the text, of the triumphant hallelujahs of men and angels, in the realms above, leads us to advert, especially, to that part of divine worship, in which almost every individual either does or may join vocally with the rest of the assembly; and which, by combining sublime sentiments with solemn sounds, and enforcing them by the inspiring influence of sympathising numbers, touches some of the most powerful springs whereby the soul may be attuned to heavenly piety and goodness. Among all nations, the first public use of music has been, in the celebration of religious rites. The hymns or psalms of the Hebrews were not only composed in regular measures, and sung in the synagogues and in the temples, but were accompanied with great variety of musical instruments; among which David particularly enumerates the trumpet, the psaltery, and the harp, the timbrel, the cymbal and the organ; these were in that early age, associated with the most ardent and solemn feelings. As to the singing of hymns, in christian assemblies, we can trace it through the first years of the christian church, to the very apostles, in the presence of their Master, at his last supper-"having sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives ;" and we find it a subject of exhortation to the private converts, in the apostolical epistles. "Is any man afflicted, let him pray; is any merry, let him sing psalms."-"Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts unto the Lord, giving thanks always, for all things, unto God even the Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." House of our God; with cheerful anthems ring, |