MOTIVES TO EARLY RELIGION. JANUARY 23, 31 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. My young friends-The world before you seems the beautiful garden of God. But it is an unexplored landscape. It is bright and glorious-but, you will believe me when I tell you that there are rough paths and hidden dangers. I would guide you through the one, and save you from the other. Your comfort through life depends on the resolutions you now make. If you will exercise the wisdom of experience, you will now take to yourselves the principles of cheerful piety and enlightened benevolence. Since there is a God, you should worship and love him; since there is a Redeemer, he should have your affectionate obedience; since life is given you for important ends, you should diligently pursue those ends; since you are born for another world, you should anxiously prepare for its judgment and its glories. Your condition in the next stage of being depends on the character you form in this; and remember you are capable of endless improvements. There are strong motives. You need religion to guide and restrain you; to keep all your powers in vigorous and innocent action. When passion rolls its impetuous tides, and desires clamour for gratification, then you need the monatory voice of wisdom. You are not Religion is easily engrafted on your minds now. broken by care, deceived by falsehood, torn by ambition or contaminated by dissipation. The tablet of your soul is pure and white; -engrave on it therefore the everduring characters of celestial truth. Your hearts too are susceptible now. The fetters of habit are not yet bound around you. Habit may be brought to aid you to enthrone religion forever in your breast. Wo to that young mind, which has become callous to all the messages of judgment or of grace, which cannot reflect, as a mirror, the image of Deity. Some young persons give themselves to indulgence, with the resolution of returning at a future day. Wretched philosophy this! Why will you not spare yourself the anguish of being obliged to review a long course of transgression; of remembering through life, wasted hours; of seeing obligations slighted, conscience abused, goodness contemned and mercy rejected?-Do you think God will accept a few tears at last, instead of a life of holiness? Will he admit you to the rewards of heaven, when you have given him only the remnants of your activity, only what age and feebleness have left you? You should be good for your parent's sake. They have dedicated you to God. Redeem their pledge. Your virtue will constitute their happiness, your vice will make them wretched. You can comfort and prolong their days by your piety, and you can hasten them in sorrow to their graves by your ingratitude. : Your life is precarious and this should teach you to be prepared for death. The flowers fade, and the young branch is cut down from its very tenderness. Be ready, then, whenever you shall be called for; because virtue alone is safe. To thee, Almighty God! to thee Our hearts we now resign; "Twill please us to look back and see That our whole lives were thine. 32 DIVERSITY OF CHARACTER. JANUARY 24. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit: and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord, and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. MEN are to be estimated by the mass of character. A block of tin may have a grain of silver, but still it is tin and a block of silver may have an alloy of tin, but still it is silver. The mass of Elijah's character was excellence; yet he was not without the alloy. The mass of Jehu's character was base; yet he had a portion of zeal which was directed by God to good ends, Bad men are made use of as scaffolds, employed as means to erect a building, and then broken down. There is a great diversity of character among real Christians. Education, constitution, and circumstances will explain this diversity. We all feel how strongly fastened to our minds are the lessons we received from our mothers. : As to constitution-look at Martin Luther: we may see the man every day his eyes, and nose, and mouth attest his character. Look at Melancthon: he is like a snail with his couple of horns: he puts out his horns and feels-and feels-and feels. No education could have rendered these two men alike. Their difference began from their birth. Luther dashes headlong in saying his things: Melancthon must go round about-he must consider what the Greek says, and what the Syriac says. Some men are born minute menlexicographers-of a German character: they will hunt through libraries to rectify a syllable. Other men are born keen and penetrating they have a sharp, severe, strong acumen : they cut every thing to pieces: their minds are like a case of instruments; touch which you will, it wounds: they crucify a modest man. Such men should aim at a right knowledge of character. If they attained this, they would find out the sin that easily besets them. The greater the capacity of such men, the greater their cruelty. They ought to blunt their instruments. They ought to keep them in a case. Other men are ambitious-fond of power: pride and power give a velocity to their motions. Others are born with a quiet, retiring mind. Some are naturally fierce, and others naturally mild and placable. Men often take to themselves great credit for what they owe entirely to nature. If we would judge rightly, we should see that narrowness or expansion of mind, niggardliness or generosity, delicacy or boldness, have less of merit or demerit than we commonly assign to them. Circumstances, also, are not sufficiently taken into the account, when we estimate character. For example-we generally censure the Reformers and Puritans as dogmatical, morose,systematic men. But, it is easier to walk on a road, than to form that road. Other men laboured, and we have entered into their labours. In a fine day, I can walk abroad; but, in a rough and stormy day, I should find it another thing to dare all weathers. These men had to bear the burden and heat of the day; they had to fight against hard times; they had to stand up against learning and power. A man of that school was, of course, stiff, rigid, unyielding. Let us be faithful to our talents, our circumstances and our education. Help me, O God! my cross to bear, That I may Jesus' triumphs share. RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF THE TABLE. JANUARY 25. $3 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ir is greatly to be feared that the ancient good custom of giving thanks at meals, is passing into disuse. There is no reason why it should be done at one meal and not at the rest. Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we should do all to the glory of God. If any wish to begin and end each meal, by looking up to heaven,this wish is ample authority for so doing. The custom among the Jews and early christians was to begin each meal by a religious service. Talmudists and commentators tell us, from the rabbins and from Philo, that the Jews were accustomed to take neither meat nor drink without having first given praise and thanks to God, with invocation of his blessing-esteeming it profane before it was thus consecrated. The practice may have had its origin among them in their public religious services, being transferred from their sacrifices to their social meals. See 1 Samuel x. 13, where the people are mentioned as waiting at the sacrifice until Samuel came, "because he doth bless the sacrifice; and afterwards they eat.' The custom is frequently mentioned in the New Testament. Thus, our Saviour, when he fed the five thousand, "took the five loaves and two fishes and looking up to heaven, blessed and brake," and distributed them among the multitude. And when he fed the four thousand, "he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them." At a common meal at Emmaus, Luke xxiv. 30, he took the bread and blessed it, and brake and gave to those who supped with him. He attached this familiar ceremony to his sacramental supper,-teaching his disciples that as they gave thanks to their Heavenly Father for their daily bread, so especially should they bless him for this bread which was his body, and this cup which was his blood. Paul among his shipwrecked companions at Melita, "took bread and gave thanks to God in presence of them all." He alludes to this custom, 1 Timothy iv. 4, and 1 Cor. x. 30. If the reader wishes to consult other passages, those already cited, with the help of a reference Bible, may point them out to him. The words rendered blessed and gave thanks are used interchangeably, and therefore synonymously. Compare Matthew xiv. 19 and John vi. 11, also Mark xiv. 22, and 1 Cor. xi. 24; or if the words had some different shades of meaning, each implied the other, and both suggested the idea of praise and thanksgiving. From an examination of the Scriptures it appears that the Jews and early Christians, and our Lord himself, were accustomed to perform only one service at the table, and that before eating. I believe no instance is mentioned of a second service, except at the communion supper, and here it was a different thing from our returning thanks. It was a distinct blessing of the cup after supper, as the first service was of the bread. This second service was not used by the Saviour when he fed the multitudes, nor when he supped at Emmaus, nor by Paul on ship-board at Melita. 34 TWO GREAT BRANCHES OF ENLIGHTENED RELIGION. JANUARY 26. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. THE question, What is religion? cannot fail to interest reflecting men, not only because of its intrinsic importance, but because of the variety of answers which it has received. This question can only be resolved by proposing another, namely, What is God? for by religion we understand the service which is due to the Supreme Being, and this service must of course correspond to his nature; so that our views of religion will be true or false, in proportion as we understand or mistake the divine character. The religions of heathenism, amidst their vast variety, were generally built on ideas of the Divinity borrowed from earthly sovereigns. It was supposed that the gods were swayed by a principle very similar to the love of praise, homage, distinction in human nature; and of course the worshipper aimed to win their favour by gifts, outward honours, and forms of submission, and to soothe their anger, by means not very unlike to those which were used to appease the irritated pride of man. Religion founded on these views had comparatively little power to purify men's minds; although even in the darkest ages, natural conscience taught them to regard the Divinity as the avenger of great crimes. The views of God given us by revelation and confirmed by reflection, are incomparably more honourable. According to these, He is a perfect being, infinite, sufficient to his own happiness, and needing nothing from his creatures. He gave being to the universe, not that he might have slaves to remind him of his superiority, but children to know and enjoy his perfections, to receive happiness from his fulness, to partake and testify his benevolence here and hereafter. The communication of good, of present, future, and endless good, is represented in revelation as the purpose and delight of God; and from these views it is plain, that true religion, which corresponds to his nature, must consist chiefly of two parts; first, in cherishing those sentiments of love and gratitude which are due to infinite goodness, and secondly, in actively promoting the purposes of this goodness, that is, in promoting our own and others present and future welfare. Affectionate and grateful veneration toward God, considered as a being of unmixed and unbounded benevolence, and exertion to secure for ourselves and others all the variety and extent of happiness for which his benevolence created us, these are the two great branches of enlightened religion, the first constituting more particularly its inward part, the last its operation and expression in the life.-Religion is, to be good and do good; and as God is the author and friend of society, the recognition of him must enforce all social duty; and enlightened piety must give its whole strength to the cause of domestic virtue. Love God and man-this great command Doth on eternal pillars stand: This did the ancient prophets teach, This did the great Messiah preach. DIVERSITY OF STYLE IN THE SACRED SCRIPTURES. JANUARY 27. 35 35 For to one is given by the spirit, the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge, by the same spirit. ALL the sacred writers, inspired by the same Spirit, treating the same subject, acting under a divine influence uniformly-each exemplifies in the peculiarity of his style, the character of his mind. Who can fail to perceive that the character of the mind of Isaiah was sublimity! He is always an eagle in his flight-never losing sight of the sun-never stooping in his majestic career. Stripped of his poetical garb, and arrayed in the plainest dress, by a literal translation into another language than his own, his book retains its grandeur, allayed, yet easily distinguishable; and he moves with a princely port under all the disadvantages of an humble investment. The mind of Jeremiah was cast in the mould of tenderness. Far less sublime than the prophet whose writings preceded him, he is much more pathetic; and it is impossible to read the language in which he deplores the ruin of his country, without feeling our hearts melted, and mingling our tears with those of the patriot. A sagacious discerner would think every letter of the Lamentations, and part of the prophecy of Jeremiah written with a tear; every word, the sound of a breaking heart; and the writer a man of sorrows, who scarce ever breathed but in sighs, or spoke but in groans. Ezekiel, possessing neither of these qualities to the same extent as the others, is distinguished for the force and fire of his appeals. If we observe the creeds or symbols of belief that are in the New Testament, we shall find they strikingly illustrate the diversity of style of which I speak. "Lord, I believe that thou art the Son of God, who was to come into the world;"-that was Martha's creed. "Thou art Christ the Son of the living God;"-that was Peter's creed. "We know and believe that thou art Christ the Son of the living God;"-that was the creed of all the apostles. "This is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God; and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent ;"-that was the creed which our blessed Lord himself propounded. And again, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, yea, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and he that liveth and believeth in me, shall not die for ever;"-that was the catechism that Christ made for Martha, and questioned her upon the article, "Believest thou this?" and this belief was the end of the gospel, and in sufficiently perfect order to eternal life. For so St. John, "These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. For this is the word of faith which we preach, namely, if you with the mouth confess Jesus to be the Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved."That is the Christian's creed. "For I have resolved to know nothing amongst you, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified; that in us ye may learn not to be wise above that which is written, that ye may not be puffed up for another, one against another."-That was St. Paul's creed, and that which he recommends to the church of Rome, to prevent pride, and faction, and schism. Brightly creation shews God's praise ; |