صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

by concealing the sorrows of life, enhance its anguish when they arrive. You will meet with many troubles; many temptations; and many enemies; as you pass onward towards the grave; and, before you have gone far, may end your course in that melancholy mansion. Sooner or later you must die. Your souls must take their flight into eternity; must appear before the bar of God must be judged and rewarded. Think of the amazing nature of this trial; of the infinite importance of this reward.

;

Who, amid all these distresses and dangers, this troubled and difficult progress of an immortal mind towards its final destiny, can be a guide, on which it may safely rely; a friend, on whose bosom it may repose with consolation and hope? Who can direct, support, comfort, and deliver you, amid the perils and sufferings of the present life? Can your earthly friends? They will be far from you. Can your parents? They will be in the grave. Can the multitude? They will not even know your calamities: and, if they should, will disregard them. Can the great? Alas! their hands are ice, and their hearts adamant.

But were all these present; were they affectionate; were they friends indeed; how little is the relief, which they would be able to give. Where is the balm, with which they could sooth a wounded spirit; blunt the stings of conscience; and charm to peace the fears of an approaching retribution?. What physician can heal the last sickness? Who can redeem his brother, and give to God a ransom for him, that he should live forever, and not see corruption? Who can console the poor, departing spirit, when it stretches its wings for the final flight? Who can accompany it to the last tribunal? How mighty, how acceptable, how prevailing, ought to be the Advocate, who shall there plead its cause: a cause of more importance than all those which have been decided in this world from the beginning; and on the issue of which more will depend than on the fate of all the empires, which have risen beneath the These things, infinitely interesting to every one of you, He only can perform, who speaks in righteousness, and who is mighty to save; who hath said, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth: for I am God; and there is none else." To him, therefore, give up yourselves with the whole heart, in that covenant, which is ordered in all things, sure, and eternal.

sun.

[blocks in formation]

Fear not. He will in no wise cast you out. He will never leave you nor forsake you. His eye, before which the night shineth as the day, will watch over you with unceasing care; and his hand, which nothing can resist or escape, guard you with infinite tenderness. In every sorrow he will comfort; in every danger he will deliver. The bed of death he will spread with down. The passage into eternity he will illumine with the light of his own countenance. In the judgment he will acquit you of all your guilt; and in his own house, the mansion of eternal light, and peace, and joy, he will present you to his Father as trophies of his cross, and monuments of his boundless love. There he will raise you to a distinction, which no ambitious mind ever conceived, or coveted. I say, a distinction, which no ambitious mind ever conceived, or coveted. What comparison can be formed, not by a Votary of Ambition; a mere worldling; a creeping thing, whose path through life has been made in mire and dirt; but by a sanctified mind; whose thoughts wander, daily, into the regions of bliss; between robes of state and the fine linen which is the righteousness of the saints, between a wreath of laurel and a crown of immortal glory, between an earthly monarch and an heir of God, between a hero, and him who has triumphed over sin, and death, and the grave? What likeness can you find between earth and heaven; time and eternity; frail, sinful, dying, worms of the dust, and the spirits of just men made perfect, purified from every stain, informed with endless life, and lovely in the sight of God? If you covet distinction let it be the glory, honour, and immortality, of angels. Let the name, for which you sigh, and toil, be that, which is written in the Lamb's book of life. Let the praise, to which you aspire, be the approbation of Jehovah.

SERMON XXVIII.

ON INDEPENDENCE OF MIND.

PREACHED TO THE CANDIDATES FOR THE BACCALAUREATE IN 1815.

JOSHUA i. 6, 7.

Be strong, and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers, to give them. Only be thou strong, and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses, my servant, commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left; that thou mayest prosper, whithersoever thou goest.

THESE Words were addressed by God to Joshua, the great captain of Israel, who led that nation into the promised land. He was now immediately to enter upon this mighty undertaking; and was promised the most absolute success. "Every place," said God to him, "that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. There shall not be any man, that shall be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee."

To these promises, however, was inseparably annexed the condition expressed in the text; which immediately follows the last of them. "This book of the law," says God to him, in the eighth verse, "shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do accord

516

ing to all, that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."

The importance of fulfilling this condition is evident from the words, in which the injunction is conveyed. It is, also, forcibly impressed by numerous repetitions. It is thrice repeated, in the 31st chapter of Deuteronomy; in the 6th, 7th, and 23d, verses; where the duty was enjoined directly by Moses. It is also thrice repeated in the first of Joshua by God himself; in the 6th, 7th, and 9th, verses. The import of the repetition needs no explana

tion.

The duty of Joshua was to obey all the law of God, as revealed to Moses. The strength and courage, which he was required to possess and exercise, were to be wholly employed in performing his duty; and to possess these attributes, and to exercise them practically, was a primary part of his duty. It may be thought, that Joshua needed the character formed by them in a peculiar degree, on account of the arduous nature of the enterprise which he That he needed it in a high degree, was about to commence. and that it was eminently demanded by this enterprise, cannot be questioned. No more can it be questioned, that it is indispensably necessary to every child of Adam, in order to the performance of his own duty. Every man, indeed, is not the Chief magistrate, nor the Military leader, of a great people. Every man is not summoned to the sufferings of a military life, nor to the dangers of battle. But every man, who is willing to do his duty, will be called to encounter much opposition, many difficulties, and what he, at least, will apprehend to be dangers. For these he will need firmness and resolution as truly, as they were necessary to Joshua: and without the exercise of them his duty will not be done.

Firmness and resolution, united, constitute what is commonly called Independence of mind; a character, challenged, and boasted of by most men, but rarely possessed, and very little understood. Probably there is nothing more frequently mistaken by our race at large, or even by men of superior intelligence. Various false opinions concerning it I shall have occasion to expose in the progress of this discourse.

My design in choosing this subject, as the theme of discussion at the present time, is

1. To explain its Nature;

2. To show its Importance ;

3. To unfold the Difficulty of acquiring, and exercising, it ; 4. To exhibit several Motives to the assumption of it, especially in early life.

All these subjects I shall address directly to the Youths, for whom this discourse is particularly intended.

1. I shall explain the Nature of this attribute.

Various definitions may be given of mental Independence, and all of them be just. Of several which are obvious, any one may, perhaps, be selected without material disadvantage. I shall consider it as that state of mind, in which a man firmly resolves to do his duty, without any anxious regard to consequences. When his duty is involved in the reception of Truth, which is one of the two great divisions of our duty, the man, who is independent, will search for truth with a diligence and perseverance suited to its value; will weigh with candour whatever evidence he may obtain; and will form his conclusions agreeably to that evidence, unbiassed by any private interest or any sinister view, and uninfluenced by the authority of others, their opinions, their wishes, their friendship, their enmity, the advantages which he may hope to gain by according with them, the disadvantages which he may expect to suffer by opposing them, their applause, or their obloquy. Truth he will consider as inestimably valuable and all these objects, so operative on the minds of most men, will, in comparison with it, be, to his eye, less than nothing, and vanity.

When Action becomes his duty, he will act as his Conscience dictates; with a determined opposition to all the objects which I have specified. Truth he will declare, however his own private interest may be affected by the declaration, and however others may be disposed to treat him. Virtue he will practice, in the face of opposing friends, an opposing party, or an opposing world. Like the intrepid Baxter, he will separate himself alike from the Royalists, and the Parliament; and will censure, or commend, both as censure or commendation may be merited by either. Like the still more intrepid Paul, he will boldly meet the frowns of the Pharisees, the formidable hostility of the Sanhedrim, and the bigotted violence of the whole Jewish nation, and will still possess the exalted character, disclosed in this memorable declara

« السابقةمتابعة »