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Christians, instead of employing Christians as instruments to operate on sinners. Still the church is the great instrument in the hands of God of saving souls. For this purpose, God has furnished his church with the ministry, and the ordinances, and spiritual influences, and great moral power. And these powers and influences must be exercised before we can expect to see sinners converted. Christians must wake out of sleep, they must take hold of the work and be active in the service of Christ, or we need not expect that much impression will be produced on those who are hardening their hearts in sin. If Christians will return from their wanderings, and confess their sins, and humble themselves before God, and pray, and consecrate themselves anew to the work, we shall soon see the effect; the Holy Spirit will come down and bless their efforts, and sinners will be converted.

Then let Christians awake. They are sleeping under an awful responsibility, under a tremendous load of guilt. Sinners are perishing around, and stumbling over them into the bottomless pit. O, then, let the Church rouse from her slumbers; let Christians call upon the Lord, that he may pour out his Holy Spirit into their hearts, that they may see their own state, and feel for those who are perishing in consequence of their indifference, and want of feeling, and neglect of duty. Let every Christian awake; let every parent who has children out of the ark of safety, awake, lest his children die in their sins, and their blood be required at his hands; let every head of a family awake, lest the unconverted members of his own household rise up in the day of judgment and say, "You were a professor of religion; I looked to you for instruction and example; but you neglected your duty, you cared not for my soul, and you suffered me to perish when you might have saved me." Let every Christian who has impenitent friends, awake, and labor with renewed diligence, that the souls of those friends which are so precious, and every moment ready to perish, may not be lost for ever.

2. We see that nothing is so much needed, in the present state of the Church, as the influence of the Holy Spirit. We often speak of the low state of religion, and seem to feel that something is necessary to be done, to rouse Christians from their lethargy, and elevate the standard of religion in the Church. We use means, and resort to many expedients, to interest the minds of the people in religion, and in the worship of God; we build churches, engage ministers, and improve our houses of worship, and in every way seek to accommodate the people, with a view of drawing out large congregations; but all this alone will not do. It will not bring out the people as long as they have no hearts to worship God. We need something more than beautiful churches, and eloquent preachers, to produce a right impression on the minds of the people. We need the Holy Spirit to engage their hearts in the worship of God. We need the influences of the Spirit to wake up the Church, to excite an interest in the minds of the people, bring them 10

VOL. XX.

out to church, assemble them in the prayer meeting, and inspire them with feelings of devotion. The Holy Spirit only can awaken Christians; He only can convert sinners, give power and efficacy to his word, destroy the works of Satan, and build up the kingdom of Christ. And we must ask the Holy Spirit to do these things for us. Christians must pray for the Holy Spirit, that they may be awakened, that they may be convinced of their sins, be induced to humble themselves before God, and repent; for this is what they need, they need the influence of the Spirit to show them their sins, and reclaim them from their wanderings; pardon their sins, take away their guilt, and restore them to the favor of God and the joys of his salvation.

Let us pray for this influence. Let us pray with a deep sense of our depravity and wickedness with an humble confession of our sins, with an meek and fervent spirit, with hearts full of love and compassion, yearning over sinners who are destroying themselves. Let us pray earnestly and perseveringly; and while we pray, let us look up to God, through faith, for the accomplishment of our desires, and God will hearken to the voice of our supplication. He will pour out His Holy Spirit, restore unto us the joys of His salvation, and we shall "teach transgressors His way, and sinners shall be converted to Him."

SERMON CCCCXXIII.

BY REV. WILLIAM T. SAVAGE,

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONG. CHURCH, HOULTON, MAINE.

CHRISTIAN TOLERANCE.

"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."-MATT. VII 12.

THE discipline of life is various, and under the Providence of God adjusted to the state and liabilities of our common nature. We are surrounded by circumstances that constantly act upon us as tests and trials of our characters, the great object of which is to train and educate the spirit to a higher faith in God, to nobler effort, and to a full and consummate happiness. Yet our tendencies are downward, our views are naturally partial, our wills perverse, and our conduct opposed to the law of right. Conscience, which commands us to resist whatever would debase, and to pursue those things which are above, is easily overborne.

In the liability of man to yield to his downward tendencies, and to extinguish, by sinful indulgence, the inner light of the soul, God has been pleased, in order that man might not wander in eternal darkness, to give an external light-the Holy Bible-by which the inner light is to be rekindled, and man is again to be illumined by the knowledge of the truth. An illustration of these remarks you may find in the text. There is no rule of duty more fully prescribed by reason and conscience than the command, "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do even so to them." And yet so great is our liability to pervert this law, written on the heart, that God has placed it conspicuously in the statute book of His moral kingdom, adding, as an expression of its deep import and binding authority, "this is the law and the prophets."

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The signification of the text is this: In your treatment of others, place yourself in their situation, and as in their circumstances you would wish them to do to you, even so do to them.

If this rule, authoritatively enjoined by the conscience of every one, and announced by the Lord Jesus, held full sway over the hearts and conduct of men, O how changed would be the face of the community! Social trials and sorrows would fly away, like the mist before the morning's sun, and heaven's own loveliness would rest upon the bosom of society.

In bringing to your attention the truth uttered by our Savior in the text, my purpose is not to consider it as furnishing a rule for the general conduct of man, but to make an application of it to

one particular aspect or condition of social life-to consider it as inculcating the duty of Christian tolerance. Let us

I. Inquire for the true idea of Christian tolerance, and
II. Consider some reasons for the exercise of this virtue.

In endeavoring, then, to gain a true idea of Christian tolerance, the remark, I apprehend, will be found true, that it consists in a forbearing and kind treatment of the persons and the motives of those of our fellow-beings with whom we feel obliged to differ.

If men thought, felt, and acted alike on all subjects, the world would indeed be more harmonious than at present; but there would be no room for tolerance, and we are far from thinking that mankind would be improved by such a change. It would take away the wind from the atmosphere, the tide from the ocean, the life and energy from all nature. Human society would be breathless, currentless, and inanimate. The soul would slumber, and a death-like palsy would seize upon the human powers. We have good reason, then, to be content with the present constitution of things, and even to rejoice that each mind is left to think and feel, to decide and act for itself. This imparts animation and a purifying energy to the whole mass of human society. But suppose a community of men, with minds diversely constituted, and of various endowments and degrees of knowledge, each arriving at different conclusions, and each bent upon forcing his views upon the others, what would be the result? The jarring sound of Milton's infernal doors, grating harsh thunder, would present no unapt emblem of the spirit of their abode. Universal discord, strife and warfare, must follow. And how will you send peace into that community? Let all unite upon the things in which they are agreed, and let them tolerate one another for the rest. Each has a perfect right (as between man and man) to his own opinions and his own course of conduct, provided he do not infringe upon the rights of others. Let each treat the others in such a way, as in an exchange of circumstances, he would wish them to treat him. This will bring harmony, and a noble spirit of humanity, and Christian forbearance, into that community, and, at the same time, there will remain the spirit of activity and mutual improvement.

In this case, it will be found that each has tolerated the persons of the others. There may have been qualities of repugnance and dislike, but each has treated the others in a kind and forbearing

manner.

The highest point of resemblance in men lies in their common humanity. They are alike an emanation from God. His image is enstamped upon their intellectual and moral nature. They are alike partakers of immortality, aud alike they have untold interests at stake, which are to be secured or lost by their conduct in this life. That such points of concord, combining the elements of the exalted and the infinite, should be merged in any little personal pique, or that they should be permitted to lie in the background, and the conduct suffered to be controlled by the antipathies and re

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sentments that disfigure common life, we pronounce to be a high manifestation of the spirit of intolerance. It is neither Christian, humane, nor kind. Tolerance regards with sympathy the immortal man, and exercises forbearance and pity for his faults. This spirit, while it ennobles him that possesses it, cannot fail to tranquilize and bless all whom it may reach.

True toleration will be found to include also kind treatment of the motives of others. A good motive should be ascribed to the conduct of every individual when possible, and due credit should be given therefor. This treatment, which we rightfully expect from others, we should accord unto them. "Every one shall be held innocent in the eye of the law until he be proved guilty," is a maxim of common justice. And we sometimes hear it announced from the bench, and at the bar, "It were better that ninetynine guilty persons go unpunished than that one innocent man suffer." These sentiments, under the law of charity, should have a full application to the motives of men. No motive should be pronounced unworthy until it be proved to be so. And it were better to allow ninety-nine that are impure or equivocal to escape condemnation, than consign to the post of dishonor one that is worthy and pure. Such are the dictates of justice, Christian charity, and tolerance.

But some one of you, perhaps, is ready to ask, "Are there not some persons so vicious and debased that nothing worthy in motive or deed is to be expected of them? And in their case, may we not properly set it down that no good thing can come out of Nazareth?" Whether there are such men, my brother, as those respecting whom you inquire, I do not know. It is to be hoped there are not. The highest motive is supreme love to God. There are those, doubtless, who are not influenced by this motive. Nazareth is reputed to have been a very vile place, yet from it proceeded the Savior of the world. Can you tell me, my brother, whether unto those hearts which you deem so graceless and unpromising, some celestial visitant hath not approached and called forth unwonted desires and aspirations therein? Can you tell me that the act which, from past analogies, you judge to be bad, is not the first outward manifestation of a new life within and that its motive is not the inspiration of the spirit of Jesus him, self? If you cannot discern the spirit of your brother with the eye of the Omniscient, and answer these questions in the negative, then let charity have its perfect work. Despite of past character, let the motive be unto you a good one, and think more kindly of your brother. Can you not attain unto this? Then you have not attained unto the clear sunshine of Christian tolerance. You have yet to struggle up to this region of true dignity and spiritual

repose.

But it is very important here to set up a way-mark, to deter my hearers from wandering on to dangerous ground that lies in this vicinity.

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