Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

266 IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE.

from the north-east they spread the most horrid gloom over the island. Immense islands and fields of ice, brought down from the northern regions, fill up and freeze every bay and harbour, and block up the coast to the distance of several leagues into the ocean. The wind blowing over this immense surface, is full of frozen fogs of frost smoke, arising from the ice, in the shape of an infinite number of icy spiculæ, visible to the naked eye, penetrating into every pore and into the smallest apertures of the wooden houses, and rendering exposure to the open air disagreeable and painful.

IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE.

THE morality of the Gospel is not more strenuous on the side of the duty of giving of this world's goods when it is needed, than it is against the desire of receiving when it is not needed. "It is more blessed to give than to receive," and therefore less blessed to receive than to give. For the enforcement of this principle among the poorer brethren, did Paul give up a vast portion of his apostolical time and labour; and that he might be an ensample to the flock of working with his own hands, rather than be burdensome, did he set himself down to the occupation of a tent-maker. But there is no more striking indication of the whole spirit and character of the Gospel in this matter, than the example of him who is the author of it and of whom we read these affecting words, that he came into the world "not to be ministered unto, but to minister." It is a righteous thing in him who has of this world's goods, to minister to the necessities of others: but it is a still higher attainment of righteousness in him who has nothing but the daily earnings of his daily work to depend upon, so to manage and to strive that he shall not need to be ministered unto. Christianity overlooks no part of human conduct; and by providing for this in particular, does it, in fact, overtake, and that with a precept of utmost importance, the habit and condition of a very extended class in human society. And never does the Gospel so exhibit its adaptation to our species, and never does virtue stand in such characters of strength and sacredness before us.

GLORY OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST.

267

as when, impregnated with the evangelical spirit, and urged by evangelical motives, it takes its most direct sanction from the life and doings of the Saviour.

1

GLORY OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST.

THE Cross of Christ is an object of such incomparable brightness, that it spreads a glory round it, to all the nations of the earth, all the corners of the universe, all the generations of time, and all the ages of eternity. The greatest actions or events that ever happened on earth, filled with their splendour and influence but a moment of time and a point of space; the splendour of this great object fills eternity and immensity. If we take a right view of its glory, we will see it pervading with its influence, times past, present, and to come, heaven, earth, and hell, angels, saints, and devils! We will see it to be both the object of the deepest admiration of the creature, and the perfect approbation of the infinite Creator. We will see the best part of mankindthe church of God-for four thousand years, looking forward to it before it happened; new generations yet unborn rising up to admire and honour it, in continual successions, till time shall be no more; innumerable multitudes of angels and saints looking back to it, with holy transport, to the remotest ages of eternity. Other glories decay by length of time; if the splendour of this object change, it will only be by increasing. The visible sun would spend his beams in process of time, and as it were grow dim with age: this object hath a rich stock of beams, which eternity cannot exhaust. If saints and angels grow in knowledge, the splendour of their object will be still growing; it is unbelief that intercepts its rays, and unbelief takes place only on earth-there is no such thing in heaven or in hell. It will be a great part of future blessedness, to remember the object that purchased it; and, of future punishment, to remember the object that offered deliverance from it. It will add life to the glow of love in heaven, and will make the flames of hell burn fiercer. Its beams will not only adorn the regions of light, but pierce the regions of darkness. It will be

4

268

GLORY OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST

the desire of the saints in light, and the great eye sore of the prince of darkness and his subjects. Its glory produces powerful effects wherever it shines. They who behold this glory are transformed into the same image. An Ethiopian may look long enough to the visible sun before it change his black colour; but this does it. It melts cold and frozen hearts; it breaks the heart of stone; it pierces adamant; it penetrates through thick darkness. How justly is it called "marvellous light!" It gives eyes to the blind to look to itself, and not only to the blind, but to the dead; it is "the light of life”- -a powerful light. Its energy is beyond the force of thunder; and it is more mild than the dew upon the tender grass. But it is impossible fully to describe all its effects, unless we could fully reckon up all the spiritual and eternal evils it prevents, all the riches of grace and glory it purchases, and all the divine perfections it displays. It has this peculiar to it, that as it is full of glory itself, it communicates glory to all that behold it aright. It gives them a glorious "robe of righteousness." Their "God is their glory." It calls them to glory and virtue." It gives them "the spirit of God and of glory." It gives them "joy unspeakable and full of glory" here, and "an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory" hereafter. It adorns all other objects, according as they have any relation to it. It gives a lustre to nature. It is the greatest glory of this lower world that its Creator was for a while its inhabitant. A poor landlord thinks it a lasting honour to his cottage that he has once lodged a prince or an emperor; with how much more reason may our poor cottage, this earth, be proud of it, that the Lord of glory was its tenant from his birth to his death, yea, that he "rejoiced in the habitable parts" of it from everlasting! It is the glory of the world, that he who formed it, dwelt on it

of the air, that he breathed in it-of the sun, that it shone on him—of the ground, that it bore him-of the sea, that he walked on it-of the elements, that they nourished him-of the waters, that they refreshed him

of us men, that he lived and died among us, and for us; that he assumed our flesh and blood, and carried it to the highest heavens, where it shines as the eternal

21

IMPORTANCE OF BEING RELIGIOUS IN YOUTH. 269

ornament and wonder of the creation of God. It gives also a lustre to Providence. It is the chief event that adorns the records of time, and enlivens the history of the universe. It is the glory of the various great lines of Providence that they point to this as their centre, that they prepared the way for its coming, and that, after its coming, they are subservient to the ends of it, though in a manner to us at present mysterious and unsearchable. Thus we know, that they either fulfil the promises of the crucified Jesus or his threatenings; and show either the happiness of receiving him, or the misery of rejecting him.

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

If

IMPORTANCE OF BEING RELIGIOUS IN YOUTH.

T

THE young are extremely apt to think that religion is not necessary at their period of life, and that, when they advance in years, it will be time enough then to attend to religious exercises and religious duties. No opinion can be more erroneous and more dangerous than this. It is wholly unscriptural." Remember thy Creator," says Solomon," in the days of thy youth." An apostle exhorts parents to "train up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." And our Saviour himself said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God." These, and many other passages of Scripture show, that young persons, children, and even little children, are deeply concerned in the truths and the ways of religion. on. It should also be observed, that the only sure means of being religious in mature age, is to be religious in the season of youth; and that, if sacred knowledge is not acquired, good principles, implanted, and holy habits formed in early life, there cannot be much hope of any serious attention being paid to piety and virtue in manhood or in old age. All this is founded in nature; it is demonstrated by experience; and it is embodied in the precept of the wise man, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Nor should it be forgotten that those who care so little for God, as to defer his

270 THE CHRISTIAN'S PROSPECTS AT DEATH.

service to a future period, show a state of mind which, if cherished and indulged in, must every day render their repentance more difficult, and their salvation more hopeless. But what security have they that they shall be permitted to live so long as they imagine, or that they shall enjoy an opportunity of doing afterwards, what they are now neglecting? My young friends, you neither have nor can have any such security. You know that the time of your departure from this world is uncertain. You know that many, as young, and as healthful, and as little expecting death, as any of you, have been called into eternity. You know that the same fate may befal yourselves, and that soon, very soon, you may be required to give in your account to the great Judge of all. And knowing these things, why should you delay devoting yourselves to your God and Saviour, and thus doing what you acknowledge must be done at last? O be wise, by being religious. "Now is the accepted time." Improve the present hour, and if you be spared to see many days and years, they will be days and years of established faith, of tried goodness, and of settled peace. And if it pleases your heavenly Father that your abode on earth shall be short, or your departure from it sudden, you have the comfortable and delightful assurance that he is taking you into that everlasting habitation from which all sin, temptation, and sorrow are excluded, and in which you shall attain a degree of knowledge, of purity, and of happiness, which the oldest and most experienced of his saints upon earth have never been able to reach or to conceive.

THE CHRISTIAN'S PROSPECTS AT DEATH.

AT death, the Christian feels that he is entering on a state where every care will cease, every fear vanish, every desire be fulfilled, every sin be done away, every grace perfected; where there will be no more temptations to resist, no more passions to subdue, no more insensibility to mercies, no more deadness in service, no more wanderings in prayer, no more sorrows to be felt for himself, nor tears to be shed for others. He is

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »