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PeovieEhORTAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Rev. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
 
 IN 
 
 GROTON, CONN. 
 
 EDITED BY THE 
 Reve). DEFOREST, 
 
 MOUNT CARMEL, CONN, 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS, 
 762 BROADWAY. 
 

 
PRS EB ALC Re. 
 
 This book is not for the Public. There are abler 
 sermons, doubtless, in every library: there are men 
 whose influence is wider, whose story is more inter- 
 esting, and whose work was more public than Mr. 
 Tyler’s. 
 
 I have put in print this Sketch of his Life, and 
 a selection from his sermons, because his instruc- 
 tors, his classmates, his scholars, his hearers, and 
 his friends desire to have something of him in an 
 
 enduring form, 
 
 I have to thank those who have so kindly assisted 
 in this work, both by putting me in the way of in- 
 formation, and by their generous contributions of 
 
 money. 
 ob DEROREST: 
 
 wir Carmel, Dec. 1872. 
 

 
 
 
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GON ise Nek Ss. 
 
 PART I. 
 SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. PAGE, 
 PE DOVIOODEAND. GONVERSION =e c:naiis cin siance.ct weve ces amace 7 
 2, (COWES JLT aris ans On se OC TEN CCRC AEM Oe Ee Om Ore Che 12 
 EAP S AC EA GEER cies ios stereo aie ses sid vias slave wid s'eie aeamerets 20 
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 7. SICKNESS AAD aA HO Ge; (sds ci SHINS OUDUIO | Ea OSGOnOae 50 
 APPENDIX— | 
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 LES eMC rereT sre, Mersiecoeae ah ale ons awe PN ciel oda enc erasers alee pels 73 
 Cera assis syetetsie cr ai csial wie el arerig citiecaieuerd, sie: sls oe viaa's wis 79 
 De aaccns A IO esa Saleen wea orees SOUR SEs OR an peaesaG 93 
 PART II. 
 SERMONS. 
 I. Tue FaTHEeR REJOICING OVER THE PENITENT PRODIGAL 95 
 II, Two Sraczs tn CurisTIAN LIFE........... Heletaeeise sky LIQ) 
 PIRES ING GINRIST srateraicin.s:c ia v's, «(crale.c sie, claiaseia Hin dye Ser eratelonsiels BEISe 
 
 IV. Posirion oF Mosss’s LAW UNDER THE GospPEL Dis- 
 BENSA TION Aan oa dinic ofcne oe emia aiol ake eo palpicteate I59 
 
 Ve NSWERABILE RAVER. ..c uinsisterrmee ohare eeu 18x 
 

 
SKETCH OF THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 
 
 I. HIS BOYHOOD AND CONVERSION. 
 
 HE was born at Brainerd Station, in the 
 Island of Jamaica, W. I., March 23, 1842. His 
 parents returned to the States in June, 1843. 
 In November, 1843, they took up their resi- 
 dence in Danby, near Ithaca, N. Y., where he 
 remained until he was five years of age. In 
 September, 1847, they removed to New Ha- 
 ven—their home since that time. During his 
 early childhood, his mother was his almost 
 sole companion. Her cares being few, and 
 having little society, she spent much of her 
 time in entertaining him with stories and pic- 
 tures. His desire for learning to read stories 
 induced him to pick out letters and words 
 
8 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 from books, so that at the age of four he could 
 read children’s stories in an intelligent man- 
 ner. His thirst for knowledge was inherent. 
 His mind was never forced. He was never 
 idle. He spent a part of his time in obsery- 
 ing the habits of insects and of animals that 
 came in his way. He was naturally cautious, 
 but courageous and devoid of fear. From 
 early childhood he was in the habit of making 
 the best of his circumstances, and bore little 
 difficulties without complaining. Praise and 
 blame influenced him, but still more the prin- 
 ciples of truth and right. He was sensitive 
 to injustice in every form, and especially in- 
 dignant at the petty tyranny of the strong 
 over the weak. 
 
 After his removal to New Haven he was 
 sent to school, and fell in with boys of all 
 sorts. The strongest minds, whether of bad 
 or good, gained power over him by their sup- 
 posed superior knowledge. Between the 
 ages of seven and ten, he lost his desire for 
 knowledge gained by study, and often played 
 truant. For this fault he was several times 
 severely punished. 
 

 
 HEV. JAMES BRAINERD TVLER. 9 
 
 About the age of ten, his thirst for knowl- 
 edge returned, and he was sent to a boy’s 
 school, kept by an excellent man, a graduate 
 of college. Here he made rapid progress. 
 Hearing a class recite daily in Latin, he be- 
 sought his father to allow him to join them. 
 His father objected, on the ground that a 
 good English education was all he would 
 need. James did not think so; and so, for 
 his own recreation, borrowed Latin text- 
 books of the boys and kept up with the class, 
 though he did not recite. At last, by the en- 
 treaty of his teacher and his own promise of 
 faithfulness in his other studies, his father’s 
 consent was gained. 
 
 At one time, having been sent on an errand 
 in the vicinity of the college, and having seen 
 the students with their books, he came to his 
 mother and asked, ‘“ Ma, do you think I can 
 ever go to college?’ Her reply was, “ Keep 
 on studying till you are fitted, and then we 
 will see.’ He did keep on, with little in- 
 terruption, until he was graduated from the 
 Hopkins Grammar School as valedictorian of 
 
 the class of 1860, having taken several prizes 
 2 
 
IO MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 for excellence in his studies and in geometri- 
 cal drawing. 
 
 James, in his life among boys, was active, 
 wide-awake ; fond of fun, athletic sports, comic 
 scenes, andallsorts ofmnocent mirth. Hissense 
 of the ludicrous and the grotesque was great. 
 
 Much of his leisure was spent in drawing, 
 painting in water colors, sketching in pencil, 
 making comic pictures and caricatures. WNa- 
 ture, in every form, had peculiar charms for 
 him. Botany was a science in which he took 
 great delight; and he was perfectly familiar 
 with every locality in the neighborhood of 
 New Haven. He knew where to find the 
 earliest spring and the latest autumn flowers; 
 and his pleasantest recreations were the long 
 walks to gather them. 
 
 His religious life was, from the first, a quiet 
 and steady growth. His conversion itself was 
 characteristic of his own turn of mind. His 
 family attended the College-street church, 
 then under the charge of Rev. Mr. Strong. 
 The winter of 1854-55 was a time of deep in- 
 terest in that church. James attended some 
 of the evening meetings. At the close of one 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. II 
 
 those meetings, Deacon Amos Townsend in- 
 vited any of the young people who were will- 
 ing, to come to his house the next evening for 
 conversation. James attended the meeting. 
 Deacon Townsend made some remarks about 
 the kindness of our heavenly Father in giving 
 us all the blessings we have, and of His great 
 sacrifice in giving His Son to die for us all, 
 and closed with the inquiry, ‘‘ What have you 
 ever done for Him?” The family had retired 
 for the night when he got home, and he went 
 to his room without speaking. Next morning 
 he appeared as usual at breakfast. When left 
 alone with his mother, after breakfast, she said 
 to him, “‘ James, don’t you want to be a Chris- 
 fiane ~ said he, “ Ma, 1 think I am a Chris- 
 tian. Last night, Mr. Townsend spoke to us 
 about our ingratitude to God for all His kind- . 
 ness to us, and asked us what we had ever 
 done to please Him. I thought to myself, I 
 have never done anything to please Him. I 
 will begin now and do all I can. It is no 
 more than right, after all He has done for 
 me.” He never seemed to doubt the reality 
 of this change. 
 
12 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 In his temperament he was sensitive, and 
 often stirred to anger; but very affectionate 
 to friends, and very careful of their feelings. 
 “Be patient,’ and, “Govern your temper,” 
 were injunctions he often heard, and by which 
 he shaped his life. | 
 
 So that when he was ready to enter college, 
 he was fitted, not only in mind, but also in 
 character ; and the three things that’ distin- 
 guished him at this time, were reason, con- 
 science, and love. 
 
 2. HIS COLLEGE LIFE. 
 
 He now adopted a different plan of study 
 from that which gained for him the valedic- 
 tory of the grammar school. There he stud- 
 ied with an eye to rank; here his main en- 
 deavor was for information. “He studied 
 less from motives of ambition, than from the 
 wish to attain the power of using his talents 
 to advantage.” He deemed it a shame fora 
 young man to bea graduate and know noth- 
 ing but the regular studies; he determined to 
 inform himself outside of his lessons, and at 
 
 
 
KEV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 13 
 
 the same time to know enough of the course 
 to get the full benefit of it. Accordingly he 
 made science as primary as his text-books; he 
 could do a poor thing in recitations some- 
 times, and then comfort himself with the 
 thought, that if he had “ fizzled” his Greek, 
 he nevertheless had grasped the great idea 
 that all force is one; and while he was letting 
 himself settle below the first rank of scholar- 
 ship, he was losing nothing that he could not 
 hereafter recover, and was delighting in such 
 works as Tyndall's “Feat a Mode of Motion,” 
 and opening his mind to one of the great dis- 
 coveries of the present century—the mutual 
 relation and conservation of forces. If he fell - 
 below the Oration rank, he was still main- 
 taining a better scholarship than two-thirds 
 of his class, besides mastering Botany, and 
 thoughtfully reading the advanced thinkers 
 of England, of whom Herbert Spencer was 
 his favorite. 
 
 With such a broad course as this laid out, 
 it would seem as though there would be little 
 time left for anything else. Yet, living at 
 home, he was always subject to the home- 
 
EA Cy. MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 calls, and always willing to do work of any 
 kind, from keeping books in his father’s store 
 to running on errands. To be sure, he had 
 no time to devote to the mere formation of 
 friendships with the class ; and it is generally 
 granted, that, with few exceptions, they knew 
 him but little outside of the recitation room ; 
 his time was valuable; he felt it so; and if he 
 ever wasted it, it was when he was clear dis- 
 couraged at the vast field of knowledge he 
 wanted to explore and could not; or else when 
 he had thought, and thought, on the mystery 
 of life and of God, and felt his faith shaken, 
 though not broken. Then he was sad; then 
 he went to the woods; he walked over every 
 hill, and crossed every brook for miles around 
 the city, not merely to study Botany and Geol- 
 ogy, but to ponder alone upon the insolvable 
 things of existence. They only knew his 
 thoughts at these times who knew his inner 
 life. Says aclassmate,* ‘I have reason to be- 
 lieve, that while in college, the dark problems 
 of existence, the mysteries of Providence, and 
 the greater mystery of Godliness, were occu- 
 
 * Rev. James Hoyt, Sherman, Conn. 
 
 
 
KEV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 15 
 
 pying his attention and perplexing his mind; 
 and this constant effort to see the unseen, and 
 to know the unknown, doubtless gave to his 
 manner much of that coldness, and to his face 
 much of that sternness which for a long time 
 he seemed to me to have.” 
 
 But if he had doubts, he had faith too; he 
 believed in prayer, not because he had been so 
 educated, nor because he was not acquainted 
 with the attacks that ever have been made 
 upon the doctrine, but because he felt that 
 there was such a thing as answerable prayer ; 
 it he wanted to hear a valuable lecture, he 
 could pray that God would so plan it that he 
 might be relieved from store duties, and could 
 take the relief as a direct answer to his prayer. 
 Such an experience in prayer he never pa- 
 raded at all; he told it only to his dearest 
 riends; and then, not to show his own heart 
 so much as to give encouragement to another. 
 Attending to so many other things, he did 
 not neglect the prayer-meeting; but he al- 
 ways enlivened it by his earnestness and fer- 
 vor, which gave evidence of his devotion to 
 Christ. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
16 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 Now to the majority of his class this was 
 not Tyler at all. To them he was “a slender 
 boy, refined and delicate in his face;” “thor- 
 oughly honest in his studies, aiming at learn- 
 ing rather than standing ;” “a careful observy- 
 er, and a lover of truth for its own sake.” 
 His classmates regarded him as an original 
 thinker; and, contrary to the rule, his com- 
 positions always afforded the hearers a pleas- 
 ure. Everybody knows how tiresome it is 
 to sit in a recitation-room and listen to essays 
 too often written merely to satisfy a college 
 demand. Yet, when Tyler arose to read his, 
 everybody knew that he had neither “skin- 
 ned” it, nor carelessly put it together to es- 
 cape the penalty of failure. A classmate* 
 tells the result: “I remember how we used 7 
 to take our seats in the division-room witha 
 martyr-like air, expecting to be bored, but 
 resolved to endure the affliction stoically, 
 while the crude thoughts of young aspirants 
 after fame, or more likely the thoughts of 
 of others half-digested and only half compre- 
 hended, found inelegant expression; some of 
 
 * Rev. Jno. W. Teal, Cornwall Landing, N. Y. 
 
 
 
REV. YAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 17 
 
 those who were supposed to form the audi- 
 ence were in a semi-somnolent state, others 
 peeped into books or papers that had been 
 smuggled in. But when Tyler rose to read, 
 the sleepy ones roused themselves, and the 
 surreptitious reading ceased. He was sure to 
 give us something enjoyable, something worth 
 having; his sentences were forceful, humor- 
 ous, inspiring. The Division officer, whether 
 professor or tutor, listened with evident in- 
 terest. The room resounded with the fre- 
 quent applause. Yet those essays, so fresh in 
 thought, and so attractive in style, were, for 
 the most part, prepared in haste, at odd mo- 
 ments, when he could be spared from other 
 duties.”’ 
 
 That he was an able writer at this time, and 
 that his circumstances alone prevented his 
 getting a wider collegiate fame, is shown by 
 the fact that a prize essay of his gained this 
 statement from the judges: “Had you only 
 handed it in fifteen minutes earlier, you would 
 have taken a prize.” He had used all the 
 time he could command, and had written a 
 
 large part of the night previous to handing it 
 2% 
 
 
 
 
 
18 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 in; then he ran all the way to his officer’s 
 room, hoping to be in season; and when he 
 found out how close he had been to a prize, 
 though feeling badly over his failure, yet he 
 comforted himself, and threw off his disap- 
 pointment by saying, “ Well, I came within 
 fifteen minutes of a prize, any way.” 
 
 He was graduated in 1864. How he fin- 
 ished this part of his life may be gathered 
 both from the willing testimony of his class 
 and of the Faculty. 
 
 One* of the many letters speaks thas of 
 him: “ He was a delightful companion, fond 
 of enjoyment, and at times running over with 
 honest boyishness and humor. College life, 
 which so often leaves regretful pages in many 
 characters, made no spots on his. Vices 
 seemed to fall from him as from one that was 
 armor-proof. Kindly and winning in his 
 manners, honest in his scholarship, and earn- 
 est in devotion to duty, he bore with him, as 
 we separated, the respect of all.” 
 
 * Mr. Wm. McAfee, Vice-Prin., Claverack Col- 
 lege, NiCY, 
 
 
 
AEVe JAMES PRATNE RDS T VLER. 19 
 
 President Porter, of Yale College, also 
 writes of him: 
 
 “Of the many pupils whom I have instructed, 
 there have been but few in whom I have had greater 
 satisfaction, than I had in the late Rev. James B. 
 Tyler. He first attracted my attention by the uni- 
 form thoroughness with which he prepared his les- 
 sons, and the neatness and completeness of his 
 recitations. It was not long before I discovered 
 that his interest in all questions of intellectual and 
 moral philosophy was earnest and profound, and 
 that he could not rest satisfied till he had discussed 
 every such question in the most thorough manner. 
 He was independent in his judgments, and acute in 
 his analyses, and original in his methods of approach- 
 ing a subject. He was singularly neat and concise 
 in his statements. Everything which he thought 
 and said bore the stamp of ingenuity, acuteness, and 
 originality. His simplicity and modesty were as 
 striking as his philosophical ability. His persever- 
 ance was no less interesting. His love of the truth, 
 and his satisfaction in this truth when he had found 
 it, were strikingly contrasted with the habits of 
 many men, especially of many young men of decided 
 speculative genius. His modesty and self-deprecia- 
 tion were almost oppressive. 
 
 “ After instructing him in the studies of the Seniae 
 year in the Academical Department, I had the great 
 satisfaction of having him as a pupil in Natural 
 
20 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 Theology and the philosophical and ethical studies 
 introductory to Biblical Theology. The greater in- 
 terests of these studies, and the more favorable 
 opportunity for prosecuting them thoroughly, served 
 to develop more strikingly all those characteristics 
 which had already attracted my attention. The 
 very familiar intercourse into which I was brought 
 with him, in the freest interchange of inquiry and 
 discussion, greatly deepened my interest in his mind, 
 and heightened my admiration and love for his 
 ’ character. When he died, I mourned for him, not 
 only as a beloved pupil, but as a personal friend. I 
 could not but be sad at the disappointment of so 
 much promise, and sympathized with the family and 
 friends who were called to part with one who had 
 become so much the object of their pride and 
 love.” 
 
 3. AS A TEACHER. 
 
 Immediately after graduation, he took charge 
 of the Academy in Easton, Ct. He remained 
 there a year; and in the Fall of 1865, he went 
 to Millbury, Mass., as Principal of the High 
 School. There he stayed three years and a 
 term. 
 
 He endeavored to excite in his pupils habits 
 of labor, patient investigation, and independ- 
 
 
 
REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. BA | 
 
 ence; the mere getting of a lesson he did not 
 value nearly so much as the knowing something 
 about it. But his work did not end with the 
 intellect ; he taught them to value Duty as the 
 height of all virtues; he cared for the best 
 parts of his pupils—their souls—none the less 
 than for their minds. 
 
 What Mr. Tyler thought of Duty, is further 
 shown in a little conversation he had with a 
 class-mate, towards the close of the Seminary 
 Course : 
 
 “ Now, that [am a pastor,” said the mate, 
 “ what shall I teach my people ?”’ 
 
 “Teach them Duty,’ was the instant and 
 emphatic reply; “if you can do that, you will 
 have the best of success.” 
 
 And after he left his school, in the press of 
 the Seminary duties, he carried on by corres- 
 pondence the work he had begun. The hap- 
 py result was that many of his pupils ascribe 
 to him their choice of the Christian life. 
 
 The Pastor of the Millbury Congregational 
 Church speaks of this part of his life thus: 
 
 “On first acquaintance, I was impressed that he 
 
22 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 possessed an intellect of a very high order, and my 
 subsequent acquaintance with him but confirmed 
 and deepened my first impression. Fond of in- 
 vestigation, his intelligence was keen, penetrating, 
 analytical; in its methods following the Baconian 
 Philosophy; in its application severe, patient, per- 
 severing; pushing it, in all its ramifications, into the 
 tributaries of a well-rounded system. 
 
 : “Nature and Revelation he regarded 
 as two distinct parts of the oze Revelation of God,— 
 God revealed in Nature and in Christ,—and felt that 
 Science and Theology must harmonize when the two 
 parts of the One Book shall be rightly read. Yet, 
 when I first knew him, it would have been easy for a 
 dogmatic Christianity to drive him into scepticism. 
 Science, so far as demonstrated, he must accept; 
 narrow and bigoted interpretations of Scripture he © 
 could not brook. 
 
 “While he was progressive—almost bold—in in- 
 vestigation, he was evidently built on the maxim, 
 ‘In medio tutissimus. A sham he could not bide, 
 and nothing seemed to afford him more satisfaction 
 than to kick and explode a humbug. 
 
 “As a teacher, Mr. Tyler was sharp, thorough, 
 stimulating to accurate scholarship and clear con- 
 ception, rather than to polish and finical grace. A 
 laggard he could not tolerate, while indifference and 
 lawlessness excited his ire to a pitch of healthy fric- 
 tion on the part of the pupil. For the intellectual 
 and moral development of his scholars he worked 
 
 
 
REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 23 
 
 hard; and though at times severe, he was kind, and 
 loved his pupils most tenderly. 
 
 “As a man, Mr. Tyler won the esteem of the com- 
 munity, being simple in manner, elevated in thought, 
 upright, and self-sacrificing. 
 
 “As a Christian, he was humble, earnest, devoted, 
 daily consecrating his faculties to the service of the 
 Lord, and working to the extent of his strength and 
 opportunities in the prayer-meeting, in the Sabbath- 
 school, and in private, to serve the Master and save 
 souls. 
 
 “And when his labors as teacher ceased, his 
 zeal for the conversion of his pupils seemed to in- 
 crease; and by correspondence he sought, not only 
 their continued esteem, but their spiritual well- 
 being. The last time he visited Millbury, in the 
 March before his decease, he expressed deep solici- 
 tude for those of his former pupils who had not yet 
 given their hearts to Christ. He also expressed 
 much interest in, and was at pains to call upon, the 
 - poor and less fortunate of his former pupils, sharply 
 rebuking that factitious distinction which erects an 
 unchristian barrier between the so-called lower and 
 higher orders of society. 
 
 beeeetis pastor, i-toved him. . .. . And the 
 way of the Cross up to the Gate of Heaven seems 
 more beautiful and perspicuous to my feet, now that 
 he has passed through.” 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
24 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 4. IN THE SEMINARY. 
 
 Scattered from Kansas to Japan, there are 
 a dozen young ministers who will not soon 
 forget Tyler. He came among us after our 
 class was well started, and we well acquainted 
 with each other. The first impressicns of 
 him were hardly favorable; for his face, to a 
 stranger, always had a half-cross look, his 
 salutations were sharp and not very win- 
 ning, and his recitations were slow and labored, 
 though accurate. 
 
 But it did not take long for us to discover 
 that there was nothing cross in him, that 
 he had a large, warm heart, and that he was 
 an excellent scholar. The first time he won > 
 any especial notice, was in the Rhetorical 
 Exercise, on the question, ‘“ What is the posi- 
 tion of the Moral Law as given by Moses, 
 under Christianity ?”’ 
 
 He boldly took the ground that it was done 
 away with; “thrown overboard;” and the 
 effective speech he made then, was the seed 
 of a course of five sermons on Galatians, in 
 
 
 
REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 25 
 
 which he set forth, with all the nervous 
 energy of his last few months on earth, 
 what seemed to be the pet thought of his 
 life. 
 
 He loved theWednesday afternoon exercise ; 
 whatever question was posted, he was always 
 prepared to speak upon it, and always left the 
 impression of sincerity and maturity upon his 
 hearers. The room was full one day, when he 
 spoke on Eternal Punishment; we easily re- 
 call how he opened by insisting on the worth- 
 lessness of @ priori arguments here, and how 
 he closed by declaring that the only way of 
 settling the question was by exegesis—“ Find 
 out whether Jesus said the wicked shall be 
 punished eternally; if He sazd so, then it zs 
 SU. 
 
 On another occasion ‘“ The Book of Jonah” 
 was the topic. ~The appointed speakers had 
 dwelt mainly on the truthfulness of the story, 
 and the probabilities of the miracle ; but when 
 volunteers were called for, Tyler arose, and 
 gave an entirely different turn to the talk;— 
 ‘To me the book of Jonah is worthless in its 
 miracle; but it is unspeakably dear to me, in 
 
 
 
26 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 that it is a forerunner of the divine message of 
 the New Testament.” 
 
 At other times [though seldom] he threw 
 aside his seriousness, and brought down the. 
 house with a storm of applause at his wit. — 
 
 But the Rhetorical was not enough for him: 
 he always loved discussion, and courted criti- 
 cism: and after he had been in the class long 
 enough for us to find out his value, he propos- 
 ed a weekly class-meeting for the reading of 
 essays, and for the consideration of questions 
 that naturally came up in course of study. 
 As Tyler was the founder of this meeting, so 
 he was the life of it; and the hour we gave 
 up was one of the pleasantest we had in the 
 Seminary. Here we could debate freely and 
 with no fear of Professorial criticism: here 
 we had our pet names: Tyler was “The Pe- 
 ” a large-framed Westerner was “ The 
 Demiurge ;” a Methodist was “ The Armin- 
 ian ;”’ our thinnest classmate was ‘ The Sha- 
 dow ;” another was “The Pope: 
 
 lagian ; 
 
 ” 
 
 here we 
 told our stories, and compared notes after 
 preaching: and when the time came to hold 
 our last meeting, before going out into the 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 27 
 
 world, it was hard to part. To leave a life of 
 no especial responsibility, and to say as only 
 classmates can to each other, “ God bless you, 
 Old Fellow, Good-Bye,” to exchange such a 
 life for responsibilities under which strong 
 men have sunk—under which Tyler did sink— 
 and to have to bear the load with no daily 
 greetings from long-tried companions, we 
 felt that that was hard. 
 
 The influence of this class meeting was not 
 lost on the Seminary; it was patterned after 
 by succeeding classes, and exists now as one 
 of the fruits of Tyler's course. 
 
 The close friendships we formed, Tyler felt 
 that they should not be suffered to fall through : 
 nor should they be left to chance correspon- 
 dence, which so often is given up in the press 
 of pastoral labors. So he suggested that each 
 should write an annual letter to “ My Dear 
 Class-mates,”’ which should pass from one to 
 another, thus keeping each in intimacy with 
 the rest: the suggestion was adopted, and his 
 Encyclical was the first to go the rounds.* 
 
 * It is to be regretted that this Encyclical is not 
 at hand for publication; “it is Tyler all over.” It 
 
28 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 He was a keen lover of Exegesis. When 
 he found that the Seminary encouraged a 
 scientific study of the Scriptures, he was won- 
 derfully pleased: standing on the steps of the 
 old Seminary at the close of the first year, he 
 remarked, that when he came to the Semin- 
 ary, he feared he never could be a minister ; 
 he actually refused to sign his name to the 
 regular paper of enrolment: but when he 
 saw that he was “called to liberty,” and that 
 he could freely mention doubts, and that he 
 could take the facts of sczence just as though 
 no Bible existed, then was the brightest time 
 he ever had in the Seminary. He loved his 
 Bible then as he never had before: he could 
 not get enough of it: not content with the 
 regular lectures in Exegesis, which he always 
 studied and rewrote, he took other parts of 
 the Bible: he read most thoroughly in the 
 original two books of the Old Testament,— 
 Nehemiah and The Song of Solomon, and 
 several Psalms: he took parts of the New 
 
 would complete Dr. Daggett’s paper of the “ Preacher 
 and Pastor,” by giving us his own account of the 
 work. 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 REV. AMES BRAINERD TYLER. 29 
 
 Testament, and made Winer and Meyer throw 
 every possible light on them. Such was his 
 love for Exegesis that it amounted to almost 
 a passion. He formed a new society for the 
 sole purpose of Exegetical studies, and de- 
 clared that he should feel content to leave the 
 Seminary if he could see that society so firm- 
 ly established as to perpetuate itself; but he 
 was too far in advance of others; he failed to 
 inspire the rest with his enthusiasm, and the 
 society died. 
 
 The child-like character of Tyler ought not 
 to be passed over. He knew that he was 
 looked up to, yet he would receive sugges- 
 tions and criticisms from any body in the kind- 
 est spirit. He never closed his eyes to his 
 own faults; a classmate once hinted at his half 
 cross look and tone when he was debating. 
 He replied, “ I’m real glad you told me; I’ve 
 suspected it before, but I don’t believe it is 
 in my heart.” Nor did any one who knew 
 him: 
 
 So he went through the Seminary. While 
 showing the Scholar, he did not conceal the 
 Christian. While familiarizing himself with 
 
30 ‘ MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 every truth of science, he was as humble as a — 
 child. His prayers—well, after you knew 
 him, you knew that every word came from 
 the heart. Ever ready to speak for Christ, 
 yet he never did it blunderingly. He was a 
 silent teacher of duty—his light shone, not be- 
 cause he was trying to parade it, but because 
 he could not help it. 
 
 When the end of our course drew near, the 
 Faculty wished him to prepare, for Com- 
 mencement, his views of the Relation of Sci- 
 ence to Christianity. He was well fitted for 
 the: work; but he had labored so hard through 
 his course, both summers and winters, that he 
 was in no condition for extras: he knew every 
 hypothesis of the scientists, and was wonder- 
 fully familiar with even the illustrations by 
 which scientific men had strengthened their 
 positions: yet in his tiredness, he lay upon his 
 lounge and dreaded to touch the paper. 
 
 Rousing himself at last, in three or four 
 days he had his views drawn up and commit- 
 ted ; and when he delivered it in the College- 
 Street church as a closing essay, the applause 
 of the audience, and the hearty congratula- 
 
 
 

 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER, 31 
 
 tions of scientific and scholarly men showed 
 that he was regarded outside, just as we in- 
 side looked upon him,—as a success.* 
 
 Then came the reaction; it would have 
 been bad enough of itself, but right upon that 
 came asad accident. As he was passing the 
 Marquand Chapel, which was then being com- 
 pleted, a large block fell from the scaffolding 
 upon his head: it came with such force as to 
 crush through his stiff hat, and gashed his 
 head, just over the temple, in an ugly manner. 
 Stunned for a moment, he recovered suffic- 
 iently to get to his room, where he bathed and 
 dressed the wound; then he endeavored to 
 conceal it; he even made fun of it; but it at 
 last forced from him the confession that he 
 had made up his mind not to be disappointed 
 if he never saw a well day again; henceforth 
 it was to be pain on awaking, and pain in 
 working. How much that blow had to do 
 with his death, no one can tell; that it hur- 
 ried it, and perhaps remotely caused it, no 
 one will deny, who has seen him, when in his 
 
 * His production was printed in the “ New Eng- 
 lander,” and it is reprinted in Appendix, C. 
 
32 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 pulpit, dip his finger into a glass of water to 
 bathe that spot; or, who knows how, in his sick- 
 ness, he constantly wanted the old wound rub- 
 bed or wet. 
 
 Thus disabled, he went to New Hampshire 
 to get the more bracing air, and to rest—not 
 by ceasing to work, but by a change of work. 
 
 As in college both his class and instructors 
 honored him, so in the Seminary his associ- 
 ates and teachers have sent their emphatic 
 statements. | 
 
 The class-feeling is well represented in these 
 sentences :* 
 
 “Possessed of rare and marked abilities, 
 thorough culture, varied and extensive know- 
 ledge, we ever looked upon him with pride 
 as the most gifted and scholarly member of 
 our class ; we fondly dreamed that he would 
 soon step into one of those highest places 
 which are occupied only by choicest gifts. 
 
 ‘““T see him as vividly as though he stood be- 
 fore me, with his bright keen eye, a slight, 
 though firm and erect figure, cool, dignified, 
 self-possessed, every inch the scholar and gen- 
 
 * Rev. E. P. Herrick, Middle Haddam, Conn. 
 
 
 
: 
 : 
 : 
 | 
 : 
 
 
 
 KEV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 33 
 
 tleman. I think of him as invariably patient, 
 kind, considerate, ever ready to answer the 
 many questions with which he was plied by 
 those who so frequently consulted him. His 
 room was the resort of those seeking counsel, 
 sympathy, direction; his advice was highly 
 prized by all; we had the utmost confidence 
 in his decisions and superior judgment. 
 
 “Fle became unconsciously the centre of at- 
 traction wherever he was; never forcing him- 
 self upon men’s notice, they yet felt his power ; 
 
 when he spoke, there was an unmistakable ac- 
 
 knowledgment of his superior gifts; we list- 
 ened as though unwilling to lose one of those 
 strikingly original sentences which fell short, 
 pointed, and crisp from his lips. * * * * 
 
 “Those long years of patient toil, unwearied 
 application, and great acquisition, are not 
 wasted years: the store of knowledge which 
 he gathered is not spilled, now that the gold- 
 en bowl is broken.” 
 
 Another letter finishes this section : 
 
 “Rev. J. H. De Forest: 
 
 “ Dear Sir,—I had no acquaintance with Mr. Tyler 
 
 3 
 
34 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 till I met him in the lecture-room, at the beginning 
 of the course of instruction in Revealed Theology. 
 But when I began to know him, I soon found my- 
 self charmed with his modesty and deference as a 
 learner, his perspicacity in apprehending the de- 
 finitions and distinctions of theological specula- 
 tion, his independence as a thinker, and the reverent 
 earnestness which expressed itself in his looks and 
 tones, while the high themes of Christian doctrine were 
 discussed, as you remember, between the teacher 
 and the class, in almost colloquial freedom. Thence- 
 forward, to the end of his course in the Divinity 
 School, and to the end of his brief work in the pas- 
 toral office, he grew continually in my regard and 
 affection. Nor can I now remember, without a pang, 
 how soon and suddenly his work for Christ, in this 
 life, was ended. 
 
 “While he was with us here, he seemed to me a 
 pattern student; so diligent was he, so punctual in 
 every duty of our collegiate life, so eager in the 
 pursuit of knowledge, so exact in logic, so work- 
 manlike in the details and finish of every perfor- 
 mance, so careful to know the truth, and so earnest 
 in his consecration of all knowledge and culture to 
 the service of Christ. I cannot but think how help- 
 ful he must have been to the spiritual life, as well as 
 to the intellectual progress of his associates in study. 
 Of course, you knew him, in that respect, much 
 better than I could know him. 
 
 “What he was asa son and a brother, I never knew 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 35 
 
 till since his death; nor can it be known, save as I 
 learned it, sitting down beside his mother in her 
 grief, and hearing from her lips the story of his 
 birth in her tropical home, at a missionary station— 
 of his bright and dutiful childhood—of his youth- 
 ful aspirations and struggles—of his loving ef- 
 forts and sacrifices for those whose love responded 
 in efforts and sacrifices for him—and of the joy and 
 glory which his success in study, and the promise 
 of his usefulness in life, brought into their home. It 
 is an eminent qualification for a pastor, or for any 
 minister of the gospel, to have been such a son and 
 such a brother as he was,—endowed with such ca- 
 pacity of affection, and trained with such discipline 
 of filial and fraternal love into habits of unselfish- 
 ness. I cannot doubt that, had he been spared to 
 the church which has been bereaved by his early 
 death, this element in his character would have con- 
 tributed largely to the efficacy of his ministry. The 
 pastor, full of affectionate sympathies, would have 
 loved everybody in the parish, and everybody in the 
 parish would have loved the pastor. 
 
 “May God accept and bless the service you have 
 undertaken in commemoration of a friend so dear 
 to you, and to all who knew him. 
 
 “ Yours truly, 
 
 “ LEONARD BACON, 
 
 “DIVINITY HALL, YALE CoLLEGE, Dec. 7, 1872.” 
 
36 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 5. VACATIONS. 
 
 We must now go back a little, and briefly 
 fill up the vacations in his Seminary life. It 
 is the custom for the junior students to spend 
 the four months’ vacation in the Home Mission 
 Service, in some of the Eastern States. His 
 commission in 1869 was for Montgomery Cen- 
 tre, Vt. Hewent there in good spirits, and 
 worked hard; did what junior students are 
 expected to do, yet never ought to do,—wrote 
 one sermon a week, and delivered an extem- 
 pore, besides doing the pastoral duties. Care- 
 ful in writing, he made harder work than was 
 necessary. His recreations were tramping 
 over the mountains, enjoying the scenery, and 
 botanizing. His own words describe his place, 
 his work, and enjoyments: 
 
 “* MONTGOMERY CENTRE, Yune 19th, 1869. 
 
 ‘“‘T don’t think this is going to be much of a 
 vacation. I’ve been as hard. at work this week 
 as if at Yale. Words seem to come hard. I guess 
 I have not what they call here delivering grace. 
 The scenery here is quite fine, where stumps 
 are out of the way; but it is really remarkable 
 
 
 

 
 REV, JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. aa 
 
 how a foreground of half-charred, half-rotten stumps 
 will destroy the charm of a landscape; and such 
 a foreground can be had almost anywhere about 
 here. I board about a mile from the church and 
 village, and perhaps 350 feet higher. By going as 
 much further and higher, you come to the foot of 
 Jay Peak, which rises above that place, I should 
 think 800 feet more. 
 
 “From our house you can see a good many clouds 
 below the mountain-top. Sometimes they merely 
 lower down in a thick sheet, with dim fringed edges, 
 and obscure the hills, and then they are hardly more 
 interesting than a New Haven fog. But when they 
 are distinct, they are very beautiful. Generally they 
 move slowly, as we have not had much wind. It is 
 very interesting to see how lazily they crawl about 
 over a mountain’s side. Sometimes they spin them- 
 selves out like a worm uncoiling, and drag themselves 
 up to and over the top; and sometimes, especially 
 towards night, they seem to /ounge about, in the 
 most tired and shiftless way, rolling down into the 
 hollows, and lying there helpless, or straddling a 
 ridge, and, as it were, going to sleep in the saddle, 
 and falling off.. The smoke from burning log-heaps 
 behaves much in the same way, but doesn’t often 
 rise high. Commonly, unless the wind is strong 
 enough to scatter it and make it disappear, it 
 stretches slowly along into a pale bluish, horizontal 
 layer, looking as if you had drawn a brush of thin 
 whitewash a mile or two across the landscape. 
 
38 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 ‘““T went into the woodsg@about twenty rods across 
 the road, the other day, and found four new 
 plants the first thing, and have found some others 
 Sinice, 
 
 “ MONTGOMERY CENTRE, Fuly 19th, 1869. 
 
 ‘‘ Sermonizing takes lots of time. Don’t have hardly 
 any for study outside of weekly duties, or any- 
 thing else. Did take a pleasure trip to Jay Moun- 
 tain, July 5th. On 4th, preached a politicalish ser- 
 mon. Written sermons are slow in making, but 
 seem to be hked by a few best people. Extem- 
 pore takes less time, don’t do me so much good, 
 but seem to be swallowed well. Thats just what 
 provokes me—sermons swallowed, not digested 
 afterward.” 
 
 Thinking that he would like the missionary 
 work again, and hoping it would be lighter 
 than before, at the close of the second year in 
 the Seminary, he applied for a commission in 
 Maine, and was assigned to Cherryfield. His 
 popularity there is shown by the beautiful 
 present he brought away, and by the desire 
 his friends there have manifested to secure 
 the publication of some of his sermons. A few 
 
 
 

 
 REV. ¥AMES BRAINERD TYLER. 30 
 
 extracts from his letters home best tell the 
 story :— 
 
 “CHERRYFIELD, Fume 27th, 1870. 
 
 “TI have had pretty good luck botanizing, having 
 found eight or ten new species. The ladies are start- 
 ing a botany class (of their own accord) to recite to 
 me. May be there’ll be a dozen. 
 
 “There are high rocky hills a few miles back, some 
 of which give a fine outlook; and ten miles off are the 
 Tunk Mountains, really a good-looking chain and 
 still further “Old Hunchback,” the highest in this 
 region. 
 
 “There is a minister who alternates between this 
 church and the one at Millbridge; but while I am 
 here he confines himself to Millbridge, and lets me 
 have this to myself. ~The Congregational church has 
 only fourteen members, one absent, three males. 
 They meet with the Methodists.” 
 
 “ CHERRYFIELD, ely 15th, 1870, 
 
 “No special religious news—interest as usual, only, 
 to judge (which is precarious) by apparent emotion 
 in the audience, the last two Sundays’ preaching 
 has hit better than most of it. 
 
 “T attended my first funeral last Sunday, after two 
 sermons, at short notice, with a bad headache, and 
 two miles to walk in the hot sun. ButI got along tol- 
 
A086 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 erably, and I am glad I went, for the poor people 
 who had lost their little girl seemed to get some 
 little comfort.” 
 
 ‘“‘ CHERRYFIELD, Aug. 7th, 1870. 
 
 “Yesterday I preached to the children. I hada 
 larger audience than ever before in this place—170. 
 I am pretty tired to-day, and shall be busy all the 
 week, (for I have got to go to writing sermons again), 
 and so you won’t get much of a letter this time. 
 
 “Tt seems my botany class thought I was going to 
 charge a regular tuition, of which I had no idea. 
 They ve found I won’t, and it has leaked out that 
 they are trying to find out what would suit me for a 
 present. I dqn’t want any, but perhaps they would 
 feel better to give one. But I guess I shall tell 
 them not to, and that I won't take any. 
 
 After he thought it had all blown over, 
 and the time of his departure had nearly come, 
 a fine illustrated edition of Shakespeare was 
 left at the door for him. 
 
 Towards the close of the third Seminary 
 year, after declining several larger churches, 
 because he felt that he could not do what 
 would be expected of him, he accepted a call 
 to Groton, Ct. But feeling the weariness that 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 4 
 
 has been mentioned, he declined being ordain- 
 ed until the fall; he hoped that he could recruit 
 in some Home Mission field, where he could 
 use in part the work of preceding summers, 
 and at the same time make better preparation 
 to enter his chosen place. So he accepted a 
 commission for Plainfield, N. H.; there, in 
 company with one of his sisters, doubtless 
 he would have gained rest and strength, had 
 it not been for the painful accident that had 
 weakened and halfisickened him. He wrote 
 home that he was well, while his words cor- 
 responded only to his wishes. 
 
 From Plainfield there is a splendid view of 
 Mount Ascutney, with the pretty village that 
 lies at its base: the mountain is over 3,000 
 feet high; and Tyler living ten miles from it, 
 loved to sketch it, and to take a day in going 
 to its top. 
 
 He writes home in his terse style :— 
 
 “ PLAINFIELD, fune 15¢h, 1871. 
 
 “Church members over twenty. About fifty 
 places to call, scattered over six square miles, Peo- 
 ple nearly all oldish. I’m well, with plenty to do. 
 
 x ; . 
 
 3 
 
42 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 The country is beautiful. Here is a sketch of ‘Old 
 Cutney,’ (Ascutney) that I took this afternoon.” 
 
 He spent much time in planning for the 
 betterment of that church; he thought that 
 if they and the Baptists would give and sup- 
 port one minister, it would be better for both 
 churches: he said that if he were not already 
 engaged at Groton, he would stay in Plainfield 
 a year or more, and try to do something to 
 unite the people in one church, with sucha 
 creed, baptism, and communion, that no Chris- 
 tian should be shut out. 
 
 The result of his summer’s work was this :— 
 he came back about as tired as he went up: 
 his head caused him much pain. Thus un- 
 fitted for work, he went to Groton for ordina.. 
 tion. It remains now to consider him— 
 
 6. AS A MINISTER. 
 
 Mr. Tyler made large and unnecessary pre- 
 paration for his examination. His written 
 Statements were full, but guarded. On all 
 great points he was in perfect harmony with 
 
 
 

 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 43 
 
 the teachings of the Church; but there were 
 some lesser points on which he did not wish 
 to be publicly questioned; not that he feared 
 to say what he thought, but because he feared 
 that, if he deviated from a narrow and un- 
 scholarly rut, he would awaken suspicion, and 
 so weaken confidence and prevent the good 
 he otherwise might do. 
 
 Hence, in his answers he was strong and 
 confident wherever he could be, and careful 
 to keep attention away from anything on 
 which there might be disagreement. 
 
 Moreover, he exceedingly disliked to arouse 
 great expectations among his people; in this 
 he was too careful; he wanted no enthusiasm, 
 lest it should grow cool; and the way he 
 passed his examination and began his ministry 
 comes out in the following letter: | 
 
 “GROTON, October 7, 1871. 
 
 
 
 “ DEAR 
 you about it. 
 “ Examination was about middling, lasting perhaps 
 forty minutes. Chief points quarreled over were 
 inspiration (any mistakes in the Bible?) and ézfant 
 baptism. It took a good while to make myself un- 
 
 at comply with your request to tell 
 
 
 
44 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 derstood on the last point, and I hear that one of 
 the examiners is afraid I may become a Baptist. 
 Think there’s much danger? They showed no dis- 
 position to rub me very hard, but Dr. Field asked a | 
 good many questions. In the main I tried to put 
 things very straight, and unmistakably. Iwas pretty 
 sure they would think I was an Arminian; but one 
 -of them asked, ‘ How would you answer an Arminian 
 who said [something that I do not agree to in the 
 Arminian doctrine]?’ I answered that straightway 
 and vehemently, so that they took it for granted that 
 I was a sound Calvinist all pate they ‘threw 
 themselves off the scent. 
 
 ‘The exercises in the afternoon were all good, 
 but none extraordinary—just as I would have it. 
 If there’s anything I dread it is great expectations, 
 or a brilliant starting where it can’t be carried 
 through so. House full. 
 
 ‘Last Sunday I disappointed everybody by preach- 
 ing the style of sermon they didn’t expect. The 
 audience was about two hundred and fifty, looking 
 for me to lay out my plans and tell what I was going 
 to do. So I hear. I preathed on the Scriptures 
 being the Rod of God for us, like Moses’ rod at 
 Rephidim; and that the preacher might hold it up 
 in vain if the people didn’t fight; and that the 
 preacher couldn’t hold it up persistently if some- 
 body didn’t hold up his hands. 
 
 “To-morrow I expect the novel sensation of 
 preaching a new sermon. I have hit on a new plan, 
 which I think will work well, though I have n’t tried 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 45 
 
 it but once yet. It is, before writing a sermon to 
 make out a deuble plan of it—the one logical, show- 
 ing the connection of thought; the other rhetorical, 
 showing what sort of an impression is to be attempt- 
 ed on the people’s feelings. I think that will ensure 
 the logic’s being rhetorical, and the rhetoric’s being 
 logical, and prevent dryness (logic alone) on the 
 one hand, and splurge (rhetoric alone) on the other. 
 Moreover, it will help one to make the leading of 
 the people’s feelings more successful, because in his 
 rhetorical plan he will see to it that feelings are ad- 
 dressed in a natural and practicable order, and not 
 first one emotion aroused, and then another at ran- 
 dom, till it becomes impossible to arouse any. I 
 inclose my first plan of this sort, not as a model, but 
 to help explain what I mean.* 
 
 “My room is on the south-west corner of a building 
 nearly opposite Mr. Erasmus Avery’s. Fine water 
 view, up and down and across. Row-boats when- 
 ever I wish. Haven't tried it yet. Large sitting- 
 room, and very small bedroom. 
 
 “I don’t know why I should not likeGroton. The 
 people show interest, but no great enthusiasm—their 
 style, I guess; and just what I like. 
 
 “My regards to Mrs. . Hope neither of you 
 have had any more shakes. My table has them— 
 ~ chronic. . 
 
 
 
 “ Yours heartily, 
 
 “Jas. B. TYLER.” 
 
 * See Appendix B.’ 
 
46 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 After his class-mates had gotten into their 
 work, they missed Tyler; they had been used 
 to carrying their questions to him and getting 
 his solution of them. And now, with more 
 important questions weekly coming to the 
 surface, they needed him more than ever. 
 Those who were near enough went to see 
 him whenever they could, but letters gener- 
 ally had to take the place of those long walks 
 and talks in New Haven. 
 
 Here is his reply to one: 
 
 “GROTON, Dec. 1, 1871. 
 
 
 
 * Dear :—Thanks for both your letters. Yes- 
 terday a Thanksgiving sermon. I can’t get up 
 another this week, so I shall use up my last old one 
 next Sunday. 
 
 “How I wish I could do your fashion !—but it 
 would be downright cheeky for me to attempt it. 
 I’m slowly getting acquainted here. There appears 
 to be some “latent” interest. We shall pray for 
 each other, and each other’s work. 
 
 “More particulars wanted about Drake. When, 
 where, to whom? Anything further about Foster? 
 Has my Encyclical reached you yet? Just like 
 the Middle Haddam Pope to put it in his pocket for 
 a month or two. 
 
 “I’ve had but one exchange yet; and, counting in 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. ny | 
 
 yesterday’s, I have averaged just one new sermon a 
 week since coming here. 
 
 “You say your comparatively unpremeditated ef- 
 forts work the best. I don’t believe it. Zz cases they 
 do, no doubt; but if it is a general rule that the more 
 you think the poorer is your success, there is some- 
 thing the matter with your mind that unfits you to 
 be a minister. Which sounds ugly—but it isn’t. 
 
 “You have given me a big job in answering ques- 
 tions. 
 
 ““ How explain to the average mind that Christ 
 died for me?’ By God’s omniscience, only not 
 put ina theological form, and let big words be avoid- 
 ed. If he died for all, he died for everybody; and 
 you are one of them. ‘The objection, when it is not 
 -a wilful one (as it generally is, I guess), is from the 
 fact, that a man can do something for a mass of peo- 
 ple, when he knows and cares little for any individu- 
 al in it; but that is because of man’s finite ability to 
 hold a great number of particulars in his mind—so 
 he lumps them into one general pile, and acts for 
 the pele. Notso God. Hairs are numbered. 
 
 ‘ But if it means that Christ died for me in dstinc- 
 tion from others,—he didn’t. It was for me distinctly 
 among others. A proud heart would like to have 
 it shown that Christ did it some special favor above 
 others; if it can’t see that, it will not come to Christ 
 (sometimes), because it hasn’t been sufficiently flat- 
 tered by Christ’s attention. As long as it holds 
 there, there is no help. That pride has got to break 
 first. 
 
 
 
 
 
48 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 “How deepen the truth that he is a personal 
 Saviour?’ The above will convince the mind that 
 he is—or it ought to. Then there will be different 
 obstacles in different minds. In many (unconverted) 
 persons the great hindrance is a stubborn unwilling- 
 ness to trust one’s-self to him as one’s own per- 
 sonal Saviour; and this unwillingness will make any 
 deep impression almost impossible. This unwilling- 
 ness is often a very subtle thing, deceiving first the 
 subject of it, and then deceiving his advisor. It 
 takes every sort of dodge imaginable. If I found 
 a person of whom I was not decidedly confident 
 that he was a Christian, and who was reluctant to 
 assent to the truth that Christ is Azs Saviour, I should 
 feel bound to take it for granted, in my own mind, 
 that the hindrance was in his perverse wilfulness,— | 
 to take it for granted, in spite of any inclination to 
 be lenient in judging, in spite of any pity, sympathy, 
 friendship or tenderness, that I might feel towards 
 him. A man must steel his heart like a physician 
 sometimes. Only his words need not be hard. Let 
 them be as tender at you will, but “let not thy hand 
 spare for his crying.” In the case of a Christian, 
 the truth of Christ’s being 472s Saviour, though ac- 
 knowledged from the first, deepens by experience, 
 and I don’t know that anything but experience can 
 deepen-it. Even the Holy Spirit works dy means of 
 a man’s experience.» But.an instructor can teach 
 men how to learn, by their experience, many things 
 they are in danger of missing—and so can, so to 
 speak, make their experience greater within a given 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 49 
 
 length of time—by calling attention to it in relation 
 to its connection with Christ as a needed, offered, ac- 
 cepted, efficient, sufficient Saviour. But every man 
 must be treated in his own way. And hence the 
 benefit of daily intercourse with men, besides weekly 
 preaching to them. 
 
 “* How much depends on the feeling that he is 
 [a personal Saviour|?’ Everything. If he is not 
 my Saviour, I can’t trust him as such; if I don’t trust 
 him, I am not saved by him. But perhaps here is an 
 ambiquity. To a true Christian he is a Saviour fo- 
 tentially and actually,—potentially because he is able 
 and willing to save if the man is willing, and actually 
 because he does save that man, because the man is 
 willing. A true Christian knows that Christ is pofen- 
 tially his Saviour, because of Christ’s work and pro- 
 mises; but he may not be so sure that Christ is 
 actually his Saviour, because he may be afraid that 
 his deceptive heart has beguiled him about his hav- 
 ing accepted Christ. My grandfather was an excel- 
 lent Christian, and he never was sure of the latter 
 point till the day of his death. As for myself, I feel 
 sure of Christ as my Saviour, not because I am bet- 
 ter than my grandfather, or than anybody else, but 
 for other reasons. I don’t mean that I am absolutely 
 and infallibly sure, but I am as sure as that you and 
 I are friends. It may turn out that I am mistaken 
 about it, but I don’t expect it. 
 
 “‘ Now in all this, as I am apt to seem, I seem ego- 
 tistical. Let me explain. I speak in a positive ex 
 cathedra style, because I have no time to put qualify- 
 
 
 
ra 
 
 50 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 ing expressions, as “seems to me,” “if I am not 
 
 mistaken,” into every sentence, and I know you have 
 sense enough to say to yourself, “That’s Tyler’s 
 opinion; he is mistaken sometimes: I will take it 
 for what it is worth.” And I mention my own assu- 
 rance of Christ’s salvation, merely because I know 
 more about myself than about anybody else.” 
 
 How thoroughly he answered the questions 
 his friends put to him, appears from the length 
 of his letters, which were sometimes twenty 
 pages long. And his sympathetic, Christian 
 heart crops out in such passages as this: 
 
 “T hope you will make it convenient to 
 
 
 
 come here 
 the better.” 
 
 “ And I pray God to comfort you, and teach 
 you, and make you able to teach Him with 
 
 whenever you please—the sooner 
 
 power.” 
 
 In his studies at Groton, nothing charmed 
 him so much as what St. Paul wrote to the 
 Galatians. One of his letters on this subject 
 says: 
 
 “T have finished my first sketch of my Ga- 
 latians sermon. And the people will say— 
 ‘Rather interesting. Mr. Tyler probably got 
 
 
 

 
 KEV. SAMES-BRAINERD TYLER. 51 
 
 pressed for time, and so gave us this because 
 he couldn’t write a regular sermon.’ There 
 is more work in this than in five regular ser- 
 mons. You will recognize Conybeare and 
 Howson in it, but I haven't followed anybody 
 blindly.” 
 
 That Mr. Tyler was considered a young 
 minister of unusual ability is not evident at 
 first. He was no sensational preacher; his 
 church was never crowded. But everybody 
 respected him, looked up to him, and believed 
 that he was thoroughly sincere; and, while 
 the impression he made was abiding, only a 
 few joined the church during his brief pas- 
 torate. 
 
 But older ministers saw worth in him. He 
 was invited to preach at different times in New 
 London; and it was rumored that he had 
 been selected to fill Dr. Field’s pulpit, while 
 the Doctor was abroad. 
 
 His qualities as pastor and preacher are best 
 brought out by the following paper from New 
 London :— 
 
 ““My first personal acquaintance with Mr. James 
 B. Tyler was at the time of his ordination in Groton. 
 
 
 
52 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 Coming late into the Council, I at once recognized 
 his face as one that I had met with in New Haven 
 without knowing his name, though I had heard him 
 commended by his instructors for his abilities and 
 attainments. I was impressed with his bright eye, 
 intent look, self-possession, and, in what remained of 
 the examination, his readiness and discrimination in 
 answering the questions propounded. It was evident 
 he had thought freely on the points presented, and 
 had reached positive conclusions, which he set forth 
 with precision. ‘There was no occasion for a dis- 
 play of scholarship, but a stranger could see the re- 
 sults of study. He was ready to give an answer when 
 asked the reasons of his faith and hope. One could 
 not but mark the freshness and clearness of his 
 thoughts, for which he found apt expression. He 
 showed independent, yet considerate habits of 
 investigation. On two or three points, which indeed 
 were not fundamental yet had their importance, 
 his opinions differed from those generally received, 
 but with no appearance of forwardness, and still less 
 of flippancy. He made the impression of holding 
 the great doctrines of the evangelic system intelli- 
 gently and firmly, on the authority of the Scriptures, 
 against modern forms of unbelief, and in view of 
 the most recent controversies. A certain maturity 
 in his judgments and expressions might be ascribed 
 in part to the fact that, besides the diligence of his 
 professional preparation, he was older than many 
 candidates for ordination. While the intellectual 
 and scholarly quality of the man was thus brought 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 53 
 
 out, it appeared also, in answer to another class of 
 inquiries, that his views of Christian character and 
 of the ministry were conscientious and earnest. 
 Particularly he expressed the conviction that he had 
 been divinely led in his religious history. He had 
 not left out of account the spiritual preparation for 
 his work. 
 
 “The two sermons* I heard from Mr. Tyler, after 
 his installation, gave me still more favorable impres- 
 sions of his various qualifications. He might not be 
 called eloquent, as his voice, though distinct, was not 
 rich or expressive, and there was not much emotional 
 fervor; yet I have seldom heard sermons more remark- 
 able for originality, unity, clearness, and the satisfac- 
 tory analysis of the principal theme. There was more 
 of careful, happy illustration, too, than would be ex- 
 pected from so young a preacher. The one was on 
 the two stages in Christian character, first of careful 
 obedience to the law of God, and then a more loving 
 devotion to his will, or the predominance in the one 
 case of conscientiousness, and in the other of love,— 
 neither, however, excluding the other. He main- 
 tained that, commonly, there is such a gradual pro- 
 gress in real piety, while conceding that it ought to 
 be, and may be, much more rapid than it is in most 
 Christians; and I noted his considerate moderation 
 in saying, that if any claimed to have reached the 
 higher stage sooner than others, or even at once, he 
 would not deny it. The transition was illustrated 
 
 TT) and [VJ in Part i. 
 
 
 
54 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 from the experience of a young pupil who diligently 
 studies the prescribed lessons, first from a sense 
 of obligation, and then from regard for the teacher. 
 The other sermon was on the parable of the Prodigal 
 Son, and could not have been more freshly conceiv- 
 ed or wrought out, if it had been on the most novel 
 subject. In the introduction he insisted on the rule, 
 so often as he said violated, of interpreting a parable — 
 with reference to its one principal idea or lesson, il- 
 lustrating his meaning at length, by the unity requir- 
 ed in a work of art. This passage was so elaborate 
 and minute as to be relatively too long, as he after- 
 wards pleasantly acknowledged; but the body of the 
 discourse brought out, under the imagery of the 
 parable, the quality of true repentance and of the 
 divine forgiveness with admirable distinctness, and 
 even at some points with dramatic vivacity. These 
 two sermons plainly showed more than acuteness and 
 culture: they showed, in a rare degree, principal 
 elements of the excellence of proper preaching. One 
 could not but notice that, scholarly man as he was, 
 by his singular clearness and concentration he adapt- 
 ed his work to common minds, as well as to the more 
 discerning. 
 
 ‘My impressions of his classical and scientific cul- 
 ture are drawn from others, his instructors and as- 
 sociates, who will not fail to do him justice. His 
 hearers bear ample testimony to the interest and 
 profit of his public services, the fulness of. his in- 
 formation on such subjects as came under his notice, 
 and his skill in imparting knowledge. Particularly 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 55 
 
 one of his most intelligent parishioners, speaking 
 from the advantage of personal intimacy and strong 
 attachment, gratefully commemorates his own in- 
 debtedness to such instructions, referring for exam- 
 ples to one of his addresses at the communion-table, 
 in which he unfolded the symbol of the vine and its 
 branches, and to his account of China at a missionary 
 ‘concert.’ His experience for several years as a 
 teacher had ripened his natural gifts and acquired 
 knowledge for similar duties in the ministry. “ He 
 was by nature and practice a teacher.” A like testi- 
 mony is borne as to his influence in personal inter- 
 course, and the improvement derived from his 
 conversation. It would not have been strange if, 
 with his mental activity, independence, and candor, 
 conversant as he was with the controversies of the 
 day, had he lived to pursue such lines of inquiry as 
 interested him, he should have adopted some opin- 
 ions not common among his brethren. I have re- 
 ferred to some divergence of this kind appearing at 
 his examination, and he is said to have advanced 
 some views in his later sermons that, either from 
 their novelty or from being imperfectly understood, 
 disturbed some of his more conservative hearers. 
 But his grasp of Christian doctrine was too strong 
 to be capriciously loosened, and in matters of such 
 moment, he was not the man to run after novelty or 
 affect originality, or court distinction. He might 
 have felt some temptation to ‘ pride of intellect ;’ but 
 he was sober and conscientious, both as a student 
 and a teacher. 
 
 
 
636 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 “The friends who had most admired him intellec- 
 tually might have doubted how far he would adjust 
 himself to the various duties of the pastoral office; 
 but here, as really as in any department, was a sphere 
 of his ambition and success. His aptness in teach- 
 ing, and his purpose to do good, gave the right 
 direction to his powers. In the brief time allowed 
 him, as if to make the most of it, he gave himself 
 with enthusiasm to the proper work of a pastor. He 
 seemed to have a passion for the people of his 
 charge. To facilitate his work, he drew maps of 
 his rural parish, indicating the several residences. 
 He was assiduous in caring for the aged, the infirm, 
 the sick, the afflicted, and the poor. His scholastic 
 habits and studious preparation for the pulpit did 
 not interfere with the zeal of an earnest minister’s — 
 first love for the flock committed to his care. And 
 thus bestowing affection, he won it in return. ‘One 
 of the last acts of his life’-—I cite an account given 
 to me—‘ was to visit a sick woman, who was very 
 poor. When she heard of his death, she was much 
 moved; and then she told how kind he had been to 
 her. ‘‘ He always left a dollar or two when he went 
 away.” This woman had just come into the place, 
 and had no special claims upon him.’ I cite another 
 testimony from the same informant: “As a pastor, 
 he was pious, he was sincere, he was faithful, he was 
 untiring. He loved his people with an unchanging 
 love, and almost his last words were, “ You are very 
 kind to me; I love you all, I love you all.”’ And 
 while even so short a pastorate was not without 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. oF 
 
 differences of opinion and debates among them, it is 
 added, ‘There is no doubt but that the people loved 
 him.’ Indeed, it must be said that in those few 
 months he was overtasked by his work, not taking 
 due care of his health, and keeping mind and body 
 under too much tension. Being obliged to spare his 
 eyes, he took ‘the evenings for walking and calling;’ 
 and, between in-door studies and out-door duties, he 
 was so ill fitted to resist disease, that at last, young as 
 he was, his condition seemed to a physician ‘like the 
 exhaustion of old age.’ 
 
 “And, at last, after hastening back to his work 
 from the Seminary Anniversary in New Haven, when 
 his activity was suddenly arrested, and the end drew 
 near, as he well knew; even in the wanderings of his 
 mind he brooded over the sacred themes of his call- 
 ing; and, in the intervals of consciousness, though, 
 with all his gifts and promise, he was to desist so 
 soon from that work which he had scarcely more 
 than begun, and to give up all that he had projected, 
 and for which he was so qualified and ready, yet 
 his predominant sentiment was a cheerful acquies- 
 cence in his Lord’s will, with the desire that his 
 parents and sisters, losing in him an only son and 
 brother, might feel, as he felt, that all was well. The 
 details of his illness and death, as of his life, will be 
 recorded by other pens. The ministers and Chris- 
 tian people in the vicinity were moved to sympathy 
 with the bereaved family and the bereaved church, 
 in view of so marked an instance of the recurring 
 
 mysteries of Providence, that such a life should be 
 4 
 
 
 
58 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 cut short, even before its prime. From all.that I 
 have learned of him, he is most fitly associated in 
 my thoughts, not so much with the admiring regards 
 of his former associates, or even the affectionate 
 tributes of his parishioners and kindred, as with the 
 sentence he is believed to have won— Well done, 
 thou good and faithful servant.’ | 
 
 “ Oc BADAGGETI.: 
 i “NEw Lonpon, Conn.” 
 
 7» SICKNESS AND DEATH. 
 
 Mr. Tyler left Groton on Monday, May 
 13th, to visit his house in New Haven, and to 
 attend the closing exercises of the Seminary 
 Year. His face lighted up as he met his old 
 friends and mates, and he was delighted to 
 grasp again the hands he had not felt for 
 months. But after the smile of greeting was 
 over, there was evident a more anxious and 
 careworn look than belonged to him in the 
 seminary. His burden came out little by lit- 
 tle as he talked with his friends, though he 
 never mentioned it in his home. He was dis- 
 appointed in his prospects for life; had work- 
 ed hard to be what he was; and now that he 
 
 
 

 
 REV. SAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 59 
 
 knew his health was worthless, it saddened 
 -him. He told a friend that he believed he 
 had seen his best days, and was now on the 
 decline. He took a long night-walk with an- 
 other, and the conversation was on God's 
 dark ways; he showed a most beautiful faith. 
 “T have sometimes felt,” said he, “as though 
 there were nothing but a Blind Force over 
 us; and, when all adrift, have prayed, ‘O God, 
 if there de a God,’ but now I &xow it.” And, 
 as he made light of his large troubles of 
 severe bodily pain and broken health, and 
 thought how all his life had been one chain 
 of struggles, he remarked, “I used to care 
 little for Heaven; | thought Duty was every- 
 thing. But I’ve had so many little disap- 
 pointments all through life, that now I begin 
 to look upon Heaven as a place where there 
 never will be another trial—but Rest.” And 
 the emphatic repetition of the word “ Rest” 
 in one of his sermons on “I will give you 
 rest,’ shows how he longed for cessation from 
 what he could not bear. 
 
 During his visit he complained of headache, 
 lameness, and chilliness; yet he kept about as 
 
 
 
60 : MEMORIAL OF THE — 
 
 usual, visiting friends and entertaining com- 
 pany. He returned to Groton on Friday, 
 May 17th. From this time his health rapidly 
 declined. He had arranged an exchange for 
 Sunday, but a storm prevented the plan; so 
 he took to church an old sermon on John viii. 
 42 and 43. The introductory exercises were 
 gotten through with difficulty; and, while 
 reading the sermon, he was seized with such 
 a severe pain in his leg that he was forced to 
 sit and finish his discourse. “Every word 
 was emphatic under such circumstances, and 
 those who heard can never forget the words 
 he spoke. He seemed inspired to plead for 
 the 7ruth. After service the people clustered 
 about him, and charged him to undertake no 
 further labor until he was entirely well. He 
 went to his room and never left it again.” * 
 On Thursday, May 23d, his mother was 
 sent for and reached him about 2 P.M. When 
 left alone with him, she said, ‘“‘ James, you are 
 very sick, and will have a long time of it, if 
 
 * I am indebted to Mr. J. J. Copp, Groton, Ct. 
 not only for help in writing this paper, but for as- 
 sistance rendered in many other ways. 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV, JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 61 
 
 you ever do get well. We must be submis- 
 sive and take it as God gives it.” He replied, 
 “Oh, yes; I have no choice to live or die; 
 but I did want to preach a little more.” 
 
 Then he told her about the last Sunday: 
 “1 was to have exchanged with the Ledyard 
 minister; but it was too stormy for him to 
 come; so there was no other way but for me 
 to preach an old sermon. I went to church 
 in a pouring rain, and when I got there felt 
 so ill that I made the exercises very brief, and 
 commenced my sermon. My knee pained 
 me, and I felt faint. I drew the chair to the 
 front of the platform and finished the sermon 
 sitting ; and oh, Ma, I did enjoy that sermon.” 
 
 When he was himself “he was patient and 
 courteous, and smiled upon his friends who 
 came to see him. Gifts of flowers pleased 
 him ever so much, and he had them placed 
 where he could see them. He noted every- 
 thing that was done for him. ‘ You are all 
 so kind to me,’ he repeated over and over 
 again; and added: ‘I love you all; I love 
 you all.’”’ 
 
 ‘“‘His physician told him that he must re- 
 
 
 
62 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 sign his pastorate, and take a long rest from 
 all mental labor. This weighed heavily on 
 him, and he referred to it with regret.” 
 
 His sisters came on Saturday. He was 
 pleased to see them; tried to joke a little, and 
 wanted them to care for him while his mother 
 rested. Indeed, he revived so, that hopes 
 were entertained of his recovery. 
 
 At other times he was delirious; and then 
 he seemed to feel, as before, the great truths 
 he had spent his winter in preaching. ‘Justi- 
 fication by Faith,” and the “ Law of Love” 
 were the constant thoughts of his mind. “It 
 was as if he had said, ‘I have loved you, abide 
 
 > 99 
 
 in love. His delirium grew wilder, and 
 every time he came out of one, he was weak- 
 er. “On Monday his father came; but the 
 sick one was too weak to be informed of it; 
 and on Tuesday at 10.15 A.M., he passed qui- 
 etly away to that perfect rest prepared by 
 Him whose service had been the joy of his 
 
 lifes? | 
 
 As soon as the silence of the room could be 
 broken, every attention was offered to those 
 
 
 
REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 63 
 
 whose loss was so heavy. ‘“ What will you 
 have prepared?” was asked the mother. ell 
 “Something simple,” said she ; “for that would 
 be Azs wish.”’ But his people wanted to honor 
 the dead. They laid him in a beautiful casket, 
 heavily handled the entire length. Flowers 
 shaped into the Cross and Crown and in 
 wreaths, were brought in love. 
 
 At the appointed time, brief services were 
 held at the church, which was full to over- 
 flowing ; then a large number accompanied 
 the body to New Haven; the funeral was at 
 his home. Rev. Mr. Hubbel, of the College- 
 street Church, read the Scriptures. A hymn 
 was sung by a quartette. Dr. Bacon, not 
 concealing his sorrow, told the story of .his 
 life, and how he had loved him asa son. Dr. 
 Dwight offered prayer. Three young minis- 
 
 
 
 . ters and a former friend were the bearers. 
 
 There was one place in Groton that Mr. 
 Tyler loved to drop into often—the Stone 
 Works. The Groton granite is noted for the 
 fineness of its texture and for the beautiful 
 finish it is capable of receiving. Mr. Tyler 
 
 
 
64 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 often admired it, and watched the workmen 
 as they shaped a huge urn or polished a slab. 
 
 His people asked permission to place over 
 him a simple heavy stone of polished Groton 
 granite, on which is cut in block letters this 
 inscription : 
 
 a 
 
 PASTOR 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, 
 
 GROTON. 
 
 May 28th, 1872. 
 
 #. 30, 
 
 
 
 On Mr. Tyler’s death, his church was heav- 
 ily draped. The pulpit and gallery were 
 edged, and posts wreathed, with crape. And 
 his portrait hangs in the lecture-room, seem- 
 ing ever to say— 
 
 “Life is real—Life is earnest, 
 And the grave is not its goal.” 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 65 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 vn 
 
 Mr. TYLER was especially useful to his 
 friends by his letters: they could question 
 him with the certainty that he would spare 
 no pains to answer, in the fullest way, any- 
 thing in his power. And the following letter, 
 though not a reply to questions, shows how 
 carefully he wrote, and how willing he was 
 to help, even where it was not expected. 
 
 New HAvEN, AZril 20, 1870. 
 
 
 
 DEAR Mrs. 
 Our little conversation last winter about the re- 
 newing of friendships in heaven, set me to thinking 
 more particularly on the subject, which I have con- 
 tinued at intervals since returning here; and now I 
 have taken it into my head to put my thoughts to- 
 gether and send them to you, knowing that you are 
 interested in the subject. 
 To begin with, we should fix it in our minds that 
 all our religious belief about the future, with the ex- 
 ception of a few points of fundamental importance, 
 
 tts 
 
 
 
66 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 is not a belief in what is certazz to us, but in what is 
 more or less probable. A few things—that righteous- 
 ness shall finally prevail, and Christ’s perfect king- 
 dom be established upon the earth; that the earth in 
 its present form shall be destroyed and give place to 
 a better world; that after death come resurrection, 
 judgment, blessedness and glory for the righteous, 
 and shame and misery for the wicked; and perhaps 
 one or two things more like these—are known with 
 the greatest confidence by all who receive the reve- 
 lation of the Bible; but, as soon as we descend into 
 particulars, we find probabilities taking the place of 
 certainties. Certainly Christ will set up his king- 
 dom here—but when? and by what means? and in 
 what manner? Is he to appear in visible form? Will 
 his reign essentially change the natural characteris- 
 tics of our world? Certainly there is to be a resur- 
 rection—but ‘“ How are the dead raised up? and 
 with what body do they come ?” what sort of thing 
 is the “spiritual body”? Certainly there is to be a 
 . judgment of the souls of men—but can anybody 
 tell surely whether it will be in a great visible as- 
 sembly, or for every man and his acquaintances in 
 their own hearts only? Certainly there is a hell— 
 but who can-inform us just what itis? Certainly 
 there is a heaven—but is it a place, or only a state? 
 and are the songs and harpings of the saints literally 
 such, or are they the harmonious gladness of love 
 and obedience? and the heavenly Jerusalem, with 
 all its splendor, and the pearls, and gold, and precious 
 stones, and the “sea of glass’ and the “tree of life” 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD: TVLER. 67 
 
 —will anybody say with certainty just what they 
 are? ‘The answers to all these questions must be 
 uncertain. If aman says the statements of the Bible 
 are to be taken literally, and not figuratively, how 
 does he know it? If another says they are figura- 
 tive, not literal, where did he find out that? 
 
 ‘The truth is, that upon many of these matters the 
 Bible is entirely or almost silent; that on many oth- 
 ers it speaks at greater length, but not in language 
 which is by any means unmistakable in its interpre- 
 tation; and that the opinions of men concerning 
 such matters cannot therefore be infallibly true. But 
 that is not saying that) all our opinions about them 
 are mere guess-work, not to be at all confided in, A 
 number of beliefs may all be lacking in complete 
 certainty, and yet some may be immensely more 
 probable than others, so as to be the basis of a rea- 
 sonable and strong confidence; while others may 
 be so improbable as to be worthy of no confidence 
 at all. 
 
 We must not expect, then, to arrive at an abso- 
 lutely certain conclusion concerning friendships in 
 heaven; and yet we may obtain a result which shall 
 justify a confident hope of seeing our departed 
 friends again, or a confident despair of ever doing 
 so. Which it shall be, will appear below. 
 
 In order to avoid confusion of ideas, we should 
 separate the inquiry into two parts: rst, What would 
 be our conclusions on this subject, if the Scriptures 
 were entirely silent about it? and, 2dly, How do the 
 Scriptures modify these conclusions? 
 
 
 
68 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 Shall we in heaven renew the friendships formed on 
 earth? is the question in hand. 
 
 rst, Unless the Scriptures contradict it, it is very 
 probable that we shall renew them. It should be 
 taken for granted that things will remain as they are, 
 unless it can be shown that they probably will not. 
 If, therefore, any one predicts that the state of things 
 will change in such and such a way, it is for him to 
 undertake to prove it, before we need to trouble our- 
 selves to dsprove it. This is the principle of com- 
 mon sense which we use every day. If I amcon- 
 scious‘ of loving a friend to-day, I take it as a mat- 
 ter of course that I shall love him to-morrow. To | 
 be sure it is posszble that I may not; but if any one 
 says that I will not, I don’t believe him till he shows 
 good reasons why I will not. So, too, if I love my 
 friend now, common sense makes me believe I shall 
 love him in heaven, unless there are good reasons to 
 the contrary. Merely to say that it is posszble that I 
 may not, is of no consequence. . 
 
 But ave there not good reasons to suppose I shall 
 not continue to love my friend in heaven? Let us 
 see. Some one may say that death changes our af- 
 fections. Whose death? The death of my friend 
 does not do it; for every one knows that our love 
 to the deceased continues. Will the death of my- 
 self do it? A few persons may say it will, but that 
 is their mere say-so, without any proof; and I have 
 never heard of any proof of theirs (except from — 
 Scripture, which it is not yet time to consider), 
 which was worthy of the slightest attention. It is 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 69 
 
 settled therefore for the present (be reminded that 
 we are now inquiring what we should believe if the 
 Scriptures were silent), that we must believe that 
 friendship is not broken off by death. 
 
 It is not necessary to add another argument to 
 the above, but yet I will do it, and so still further 
 strengthen the conclusion arrived at. It is this— 
 that kindred tastes and desires, by their very nature, 
 tend to form friendship and to continue it; and 
 these, if they existed to make friendship on earth, 
 will still make it in heaven. The same is true of 
 memory: for we may often observe how the mere 
 fact of two persons remembering the same events 
 creates a tendency to friendship; and the more so, 
 the further off those events were. How, then, will 
 it be, if we meet in heaven a person whose tastes and 
 desires, being similar to our own, were the cause of 
 an earthly friendship between us, especially if also 
 we can recall the memory of temptations, troubles, 
 sorrows, joys, which we experienced together long 
 ago on earth? 
 
 This argument, as I said, gives greater strength to 
 our conclusion; but it is not necessary, and there- 
 fore our conclusion would still remain unshaken if 
 this argument could be set aside. But can it be set 
 aside? I think not. For the only way to do that 
 would be to prove (not merely to say) that we shall 
 not recognize one another in heaven, so that these 
 similar tastes and common memories cannot be dis- 
 covered, even if they exist. But nobody can prove 
 that. On the contrary, we are to be the same indah- 
 
70 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 viduals there that we are here (only purified and fur- 
 ther enlightened), and individuality is the very thing 
 by which recognition is made possible. _ 
 
 And now, it may be added, not as a direct proof, 
 but as further corroboration of the doctrine I am ad- 
 vocating, that the belief in the recognition of friends 
 and the continuation of friendship in the future 
 world is so natural that it has been accepted by all 
 sects of every religion, in every age of the world, ex- 
 cept by those who do not believe in a future life of 
 ourselves as persons, and by a scattering few here and 
 there among Christians. In view of these things, we 
 ought to consider it firmly established as exceedingly 
 probable, that friendship is to remain in the heavenly 
 life, wnzless the Scriptures say differently. So we 
 come to consider,— 
 
 2ndly, What do the Scriptures teach about it? If 
 they are silent, our former conclusion remains unaf- 
 fected; if they speak for it, that conclusion is made 
 still more nearly certain; if they seem to speak 
 slightly against it, that conclusion becomes some- 
 what less probable; if they speak clearly against it, 
 that conclusion must be rejected. 
 
 Now let us see how they do speak. | 
 
 But in the first place, to clear the ground for ac- 
 tion, let us notice three texts which do not apply at 
 all to this subject, though they may at first sight 
 seem to. 
 
 1 Johniu. 2. “It doth not yet appear what we 
 shall be,” may seem to teach that we cannot know in- 
 this life what our condition in heaven will be. But 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 71 
 
 the true sense is that, although we even now are 
 “sons of God,” yet that perfect sonship, which will 
 some time be ours, “ doth not yet appear” in us. 
 
 1 Cor. il. 9. “ Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into heart of man, the things 
 which God hath prepared for them that love him.” 
 This verse has been thought to teach that the things 
 of heaven are to be different from those of earth. 
 But by reading the verses before and after, we find 
 that there is no reference to this subject. The apos- 
 tle is speaking of “the wisdom of God,” “ which 
 ‘none of the princes of this world knew,” though 
 “God hath revealed” it “unto ws’ Christians. The 
 contrast that he has in mind, therefore, is not be- 
 tween the earthly and the heavenly state of the 
 saints, but between the worldly men and those “ that 
 love God”’ on the earth. 
 
 Feb? xi1y23.)- Butsye afexcome sins. to the gen- 
 eral assembly and church of the first-born, which are 
 written in heaven,’ does not speak of our recognizing 
 persons in heaven (as having belonged to the church 
 on earth), but says that, on becoming Christians, we 
 have joined ourselves to that company, to that party, 
 rather than the Jewish—whether in heaven or earth 
 is of no consequence. 
 
 These texts have nothing to do with our question: 
 now we will consider those that do apply. 
 
 1. Weare to retain our individual peculiarities (that 
 is, of course, as far as they do not belong to the sin- 
 ful or earthly part of our nature.) This is included 
 in the idea of resurrection—which is the rising again 
 
 
 
 
 
72 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 of the same individual, not of somebody altogether 
 different. Do the apostles comfort the early Chris- 
 tians with the thought that, if Christians die, God 
 will raise up the same zumber of perfect souls instead 
 of a given number of imperfect ones? Not at all. 
 Their encouragement is that he will raise up the 
 same souls. And again. God is the “ God of Abra- 
 ham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; 
 for he is not a God of the dead, but of the living.” 
 (Luke x. 37, 38). Does that look as if Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob were in heaven merely three perfect 
 souls precisely alike, so that either one might be 
 taken for another? Or does it look as if Abraham 
 was that same Abraham, and nobody else; and that 
 Isaac was Isaac; and Jacob, Jacob? And still again, 
 “To him that overcometh will I give..... a white 
 stone, and in the stone a new name written, which 
 no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” (Rev. 
 ii. 17). Either the “white stone,’ with its secret 
 name, means the sense that a man has of what Christ 
 is and has been to himself in particular, and to none 
 other, and so points clearly to the intense zzdiv7du- 
 ality of each Christian in heaven; or else this text 
 means nothing that has to do with the present dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 2. We shall be able to recognize Christ in his per- 
 sonal form... See. John xvii. 24 and Sivjee soe 
 Thess. iv. 17. (“ The Lord” is Paul’s very common 
 expression for Christ). Now this recognition of 
 Christ is a recognition of him in his glorified body, 
 which is visible and distinguishable (it was seen, Acts 
 
 
 
KEV. FAMES BRAINERD. TYLER. 73 
 
 i. 11), and like which our bodies are to be after the 
 resurrection. (Phil. iii. 21). We shall therefore also 
 be able to distinguish each other. 
 
 3. We shall be able to distinguish persons in the 
 future life as being the ones of whom we have known 
 on earth. ‘Thus, in the parable, Abraham, Lazarus, 
 and the rich man recognized each other (Luke 
 Xvi. 23-25). 
 
 Moreover, if we are to know nobody but God 
 in heaven, the rest being indistinguishable, what rea- 
 son could there have been for rousing the contrary 
 expectation in the pious Jews by telling them of 
 sitting down “with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob” 
 (Matt. viii. 11), when he might just as well have 
 said “with Tom, and Dick, and Harry”? It must 
 have been a deception on the part of Jesus, if he 
 knew they could not know Abraham from any one 
 else when they were sitting down with him. 
 
 4. We shall retain our interest in the persons we 
 have left behind on earth. The rich man did so in 
 regard to his relatives. (Luke xvi. 27, 28). 
 
 5. Lf this earth (renewed and purged from the 
 effects of sin) zs to be the place of the glory of the risen 
 dead, then it 1s almost certain that there will be the 
 usual relations between man and man, except as far as 
 they belonged to the old mortal and sinful state. I 
 do not, however, insist very strongly on this argu- 
 ment, because it is not quite settled in my mind 
 whether we shall dwell on a rejuvenated earth; but 
 some passages seem to teach that we shall (2 Pet. 111. 
 
 
 
 
 
74 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 12, 13; Rey. xxii. 1; Rom. viii. 18-23), where the 
 creature, the irrational creation, is spoken of as ex- 
 isting in a hopeful expectation of being delivered 
 from perishableness); and a good many, and (I think) 
 a constantly increasing number of good and learned 
 men hold this belief. If they are right, our whole 
 question may be considered as decided. If they are 
 not, then these texts have no bearing on the subject 
 any way. 
 
 The above are all the Scripture teachings that 
 bear on this point, as far as I know. If I have 
 omitted any, it will be a favor to inform me of it. 
 
 _ But two objections to my view may perhaps be 
 made, which I will consider now. 
 
 1. It may be said that we shall be so overwhelmed 
 in the admiration and love of Christ and God, that 
 we shall have left no capacity for special love of any 
 other being. But how do we know that that will be 
 the effect of the perfect love of God? The nature 
 of that love can be judged of by our experience 
 here. It does not decrease our friendship for any 
 one who is worthy of friendship. If the perfect love 
 of God is to destroy other friendship, then we ought 
 to find other friendship decreasing just in propor- 
 tion as our love to God increases; but, on the con- 
 trary, we observe that as love to God increases, 
 other friendship widens and deepens and grows 
 richer with it, and still more so if our friend also is 
 growing in the love of God. What, then, should 
 we expect to find, when our own love to God, and 
 
 
 
 
 
REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 75 
 
 that of our friend to God, both become perfect at 
 once? Anything but a decrease of loving fellowship 
 between ourselves ! 
 
 2. It may be objected that marriage is the state of 
 the closest friendship in this world, so that if that is 
 not to continue, probably no other friendship can; 
 and that Christ expressly said that marriage does xot 
 continue in the other world (Matt. xxii. 30). But 
 Christ did not say that; He denied that there would 
 be in the future life any marrying or géving in mar- 
 riage,—that is, any contracting of new marriage,— 
 not that marriages already formed would be broken 
 up. But supposing he did say even this, still he 
 would not have thereby overthrown my doctrine. 
 For marriage is a doudde thing; including, rst, a union 
 of such a kind as must cease when we are freed from 
 a material body; and, 2dly, a spz7ztwal union of two 
 souls, drawn together by similar tastes, feelings and 
 desires, by common interests and experiences, and 
 by a habit of intimate communication one with an- 
 other. This second element of marriage is friend- 
 ship; the other is not. It may therefore be true that 
 the first element is done away at death, and so that 
 marriage is destroyed by being reduced to spiritual 
 friendship; and that is the most that can be made 
 of this saying of Christ. The matter of friendship was 
 not what he was discussing with the Jews. See what 
 the case was which they brought before him. It 
 had reference entirely to that peculiar relation be- 
 tween two persons which makes them man and wife, 
 
 
 
 
 
76 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 rather than merely friend and friend, and which is 
 to be known, not by the growth of friendship, but by 
 the bearing of children (as shown by verse 25, “ hav- 
 ing no issue.”) 
 
 Now let us review what we have done. We first 
 learned that it was not necessary to reach absolute 
 certainty on this subject in order to have ground for 
 a reasonable confidence. Then we found that if the 
 Scriptures taught nothing about it, we should be ob- 
 liged to consider it very probable indeed that in the 
 future life we shall recognize and renew friendship 
 with the friends of earth. Then we saw that the 
 Scriptures do not speak at great length or very 
 strongly about the matter, but that their testimony is 
 never unfavorable to our former conclusion, but 
 rather, as far as it goes, favorable. We have, then, 
 a very strong probability from natural reason, slightly 
 strengthened by Scripture. And that is as good 
 ground as we have for almost any belief concerning 
 the future, except on a few points of the most ex- 
 treme importance. 
 
 The true doctrine, then, as far as it can be dis- 
 covered, is one which encourages, rather than damp- 
 ens, the natural tendency of every heart that is set 
 on heaven, to look forward to it as a condition where 
 all noble friendship may have its most perfect fruit 
 beneath the constant smile of an approving God. 
 The afflicted need not, therefore, at the bedside of a 
 companion and friend always bid farewell for all 
 eternity; and the mourner need not try to harden 
 
 
 

 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. vy; 
 
 his heart into forgetfulness, but may find dear com- 
 fort in the hope of another meeting in joy without 
 the sorrow of another parting. 
 We are all as usual. Remember me to all your 
 household. 
 Respectfully and affectionately, yours, 
 
 ‘Laon Deol VER 
 
 P.S.—I am licensed to preach at last. When I 
 came here from Millbury, I had doubts whether I 
 ever could be; but you see I’ve turned out more 
 orthodox than I expected. 
 
 
 
78 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 B. 
 
 THE manner in which Mr. Tyler planned _ 
 some of his sermons will be of interest, es- 
 pecially to his class. He speaks of this plan 
 on page 45. . 
 
 2 PETER, i., Tr. 
 ‘* For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the 
 
 everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 
 
 LOGICAL. 
 1. Salvation is different to differ- 
 ent people. 
 Prove it. 
 Answer objection from justifica- 
 tion by faith. 
 
 2. Therefore, obtain the best 
 kind. 
 
 3. How to do it. 
 a. How so many fail. 
 &. How avoid failure. — 
 
 _4. Recapitulation and conclu- 
 sion, 
 
 RHETORICAL. 
 
 rt. Make them feel the difference 
 between Christians and the differ- 
 ence between their rewards. 
 
 Impress upon them what the 
 difference is. 
 
 2. Create a longing for the best. 
 
 3. Impress upon them whence 
 the difference is. Incidentally— 
 a. Stir up the old to see their 
 failures. : : 
 é. Stir up the young to the de- 
 termination not to fail. 
 
 4. Combine the force of the im- 
 phase by already made. End with 
 opefulness of abundant entrance. 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 79 
 
 Ce 
 
 THE question of Evolutionism in Natural 
 History (for of Evolutionism as a general sys- 
 tem of philosophy we shall not speak) is essen- 
 
 tially a question of the Origin of Species. 
 Now there is no man who can tell with com- 
 
 plete precision what the term sfeczes means. 
 A species is merely a product of the classify- 
 ing faculties of the mind; and yet it must be 
 faithfully conformed to the facts of nature. 
 Again, it is generally agreed that whenever 
 the common offspring of two sorts of individ- 
 uals constantly exhibits a partial or entire 
 barrenness, such a fact is sufficient ground for 
 regarding those two sorts as distinct species ; 
 and yet this test cannot be universally applic- 
 able, because the peculiar mode of propaga- 
 tion among some of the lowest animals and 
 plants makes it in their case unmeaning. More- 
 
 * Delivered in College Street Church, May, 1871, at the 
 Anniversary of the Theological Seminary. See p. 33. 
 
 
 
 
 
80 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 over, even with regard to the organisms 
 whose propagation is more or less bisexual, 
 our knowledge of the facts is so defective that, 
 out of the whole number of acknowledged 
 species, it is only a small percentage whose 
 limits are actually determined by the phenom- 
 ena of hybridism; but the classification has 
 to be guided almost wholly by structure and 
 the more obvious functions. And still further, 
 in many cases where there is no dispute as to 
 what the known facts are, there is a wide dif- 
 ference of opinion as to the true boundaries of 
 the species. 
 
 But it should not be thought, because such 
 obscurities and disagreements exist concern- 
 ing the definition of species, that the question 
 of their origin is too ill defined to be worth 
 discussing. With regard to the boundaries 
 of most of them, all naturalists are now of one 
 mind, and let us leave out of account all cases 
 but these. Then the question will be, Is it a 
 general law that the individuals of what we 
 all agree to call one species, are descended 
 from the same ancestors as the individuals of 
 what is acknowledged now to be a different 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV, JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. SI 
 
 species? To answer Yes, is to be an Evolu- 
 tionist; to answer No, is to reject Evolu- 
 tionism. 
 
 Now it is not the purpose of this Article to 
 prove either that the Evolutionists are right, 
 or that they are wrong; and therefore the 
 writer may be excused from describing the 
 divers forms which their theory takes in the 
 hands of Spencer, Darwin, Wallace, Mivart, 
 and others. It is proposed only to say a few 
 words concerning two questions :—(I.) Wheth- 
 er Evolutionism necessarily contradicts Christ- 
 ianity, andif so,in what points? And (II.) [fit 
 is found to be inconsistent with Christianity, 
 what course of argument will it then be prop- 
 er to follow? 
 
 I. Does Evolutionism necessarily contradict 
 Christianity? Our polemics should have 
 paid more attention to this question before 
 they attacked the naturalists so fiercely with 
 theological arguments. The contrary course 
 was quite natural, to besure, when we saw the 
 whole tribe of shallow and blatant opposers 
 of Christianity flocking over to the new theory, 
 as they always do, for reasons quite other than 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
82 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 scientific. But it is unfair to confound with 
 them the truly philosophic minds which have 
 in no small numbers advocated Evolutionism. 
 
 The popular idea that Evolutionism in any 
 direct manner destroys the proof of the exis- 
 tence or attributes of God, seems to be a 
 mistaken one. 
 
 The chief arguments which are now sup- 
 posed to afford satisfactory proof of God’s ex- 
 istence are of four kinds :-— 
 
 In the first place, it is said, that since each 
 event is caused by something, and that by 
 something else, and so on, the tracing back of 
 any series of events in the line of their causa- 
 tion will bring us ultimately to a first cause, 
 which is God. Now this argument depends 
 not at all on the belief that we have heretofore 
 been accustomed to ascribe the true cause to 
 any event, but only on the general truth that 
 all events are caused,—which Evolution does 
 not pretend to deny. Yet we frequently hear 
 a deprecating cry that the new theories will 
 push God further back in the line of causes,— 
 as if that would in the least weaken the argu- 
 ment for his existence. Why, the argument 
 
 
 

 
 REV. ¥AMES BRAINERD TYLER. 83 
 
 itself affirms that he is the /zrst Cause, not a 
 recent one; and if now we insert more means 
 between the extreme terms of the series, what 
 difference will that make with the first ex- 
 treme ? 
 
 Again, men argue that the order and adap- 
 tations which we see in nature, show design ; 
 that design implies a designer, and that the 
 designer of the universe is God. All this (so 
 far as natural history can affect it) depends 
 upon our discerning adaptation and order in 
 the realm of nature ; which things Evolution- 
 ism emphatically affirms: so that the worst 
 that it can doin this matter is to make obso- 
 lete certain popular illustrations of adaptation, 
 —a thing that has been done a hundred times 
 already without shaking any man’s faith in a 
 God. 
 
 Again, some prefer to put the argument in 
 this form :—That the existence of God is the 
 hypothesis which best explains the facts of the 
 universe. This will remain soif Evolutionism 
 should prove tobe true. Indeed, if blind mat- 
 ter, following out its own nature, so uniformly 
 works towards internal harmony and _ benefi- 
 
 
 
 
 
84 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 cence, then (unless it was all by the barest 
 chance, and so inexplicable on any theory), 
 what intelligence was required to plan the ~ 
 original nature of matter so well? 
 
 Again, there are others who say that the 
 human mind is necessitated, or that it is com- 
 manded, by its essential constitution to believe 
 in God. If so, then it will be as possible for 
 Evolutionism to do away with the regulative 
 authority of our natural constitution as it has 
 been for metaphysical speculations to do the 
 same. In attempting it, they break the ice 
 under their own feet, and fall into a sea with- 
 out bottom. 
 
 Neither will Evolutionism directly affect 
 the doctrine of the attributes of God. His self- 
 existence and conscious intelligence are de- 
 duced by theologians from the arguments we 
 have just considered ; and these two of the so- 
 called “natural” attributes being given, all 
 the rest of them will follow. And: it is from 
 these, taken in connection with God’s works, 
 that his moral character and government are 
 proved. The works which are taken into ac- 
 count for this purpose are the facts that we 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 85 
 
 find existing now and during the time of au- 
 thentic history; and Evolutionism meddles 
 with none of these, unless it denies the exis- 
 tence of a soul. 
 
 The objections customarily urged against 
 God’s moral character are, (firstly) the exis- 
 tence of evil in the world; in regard to which 
 Evolutionism does nothing to affect the old ar- 
 guments, except to show that what we have 
 been wont to call physical evilis on the wholea 
 physical good : and (secondly) it is urged that 
 the righteous and the wicked are not reward- 
 ed according to their deserts; against which 
 Christians reply that there is a future life 
 where that matter will be set right: and it is 
 yet to be seen what the theory of the natural- 
 ists will say to that. 
 
 It, appears, then, that it is only in a very in- 
 direct way—viz: by first disturbing the Chris- 
 tian belief about the nature and destinies of 
 the human soul—that Evolutionism can be dan- 
 gerous to the doctrine of God,—a fact which 
 cannot be emphasized too much, since it so 
 commonly escapes attention. Of this now 
 more particularly. 
 
 
 
 
 
86 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 Firstly. If the Evolutionists deny that there 
 was a time during the progress of organism, 
 when ¢he soul, as an entity, and not merely asa 
 mode of action, began to exist, they do come in- 
 to irreconcilable conflict with Christianity. It 
 may be that the soul began in some lower 
 animal than man, from which it went on de- 
 veloping till it became human; and it may 
 be either that the soul was directly created ; 
 or that it was generated out of matter (if 
 they can tell how that could be) ;—these points 
 are not essential: but if Evolutionism is forced 
 by real consistency with itself, (and not merely 
 by some fallacy of its advocates) to deny the 
 objective existence of the soul, then either 
 that doctrine or Christianity is false. 
 
 Secondly. If Evolutionism by logical necés- 
 sity denies any attribute of the human soul 
 which is indispensable to a moral nature.in man, 
 there is no reconciling that theory with Chris- 
 tianity. It may deny the freedom of the will, 
 if it can still accept moral responsibility ; it 
 may show that “the right” and “the useful ” 
 have been developed by natural selection from 
 one common idea, if it will admit that these 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD.TVLER. 87 
 
 are now distinct ideas; it may hold that the 
 rules of objective morality have come. by na- 
 tural selection, if it will still allow that there 
 is independently a quality of rightness in love 
 and of wrongness in hate; but if it destroys 
 morality, it destroys Christianity. 
 
 Thirdly. If Evolution denies that at some 
 time during the development of the substance 
 called soul—no matter when, no matter how 
 —a capacity for zmmortality was bestowed 
 upon it, or will be bestowed; there can be no 
 peace between such doctrine and Christianity. 
 
 Does Evolutionism deny these things? To 
 this the answer is,— 
 
 Firstly. That Evolutionism, as. a doctrine 
 of natural history, can have nothing to say 
 about immortality, except by denying that the 
 soul has an existence even in this world. 
 
 Secondly. Evolutionism must respect facts; 
 and sin is a fact as well known asthe existence 
 of fossils. Our knowledge of it does not de- 
 pend on natural history so much as our know- 
 ledge of fossils depends on psychology. Now 
 a theory belonging to inductive science is not 
 called upon to make or unmake facts, but to 
 
 
 
 
 
8g MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 explain them if itcan. &. g, if the naturalist 
 holds that men are descended from apes, he 
 must not from that infer that men have hands 
 on their lower limbs, for the fact is otherwise. 
 So, too, the Evolutionist must not use his 
 theory to prove that men, like apes, have no 
 moral nature, or are not sinners; for the fact 
 is known to be otherwise. He must either 
 not touch this fact, or else explain it. But his 
 science does not require him to touch it at 
 all; or perhaps he will be able to explain it. 
 So then Evolutionism can be held in sucha 
 form as not to contradict Christianity on this 
 point—at least, if it will let us believe in a 
 soul. : 
 Thirdly. We come to the point upon which 
 all our difficulties have been concentrating. Js 
 there a soul? Does Evolution necessarily say 
 there is none? Plainly not, we think. The 
 existence of the soul is a fact codrdinate with 
 the existence of matter, and known by the 
 same kind of knowledge, namely, by the sim- 
 plest consciousness. Now if men will deny the 
 trustworthiness of this sort of knowledge, let 
 them do it, and they deny matter as well as 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 89 
 
 soul, natural history as well as psychology, 
 Science as well as religion. But Evolution 
 confesses what we call matter, confesses there- 
 fore the mode of knowledge by which we 
 know of matter, confesses therefore the mode 
 by which we know of soul. The utmost that 
 Evolutionism can do, is to acknowledge itself 
 unable to explain how there comes to be a 
 soul. But there is an unmeasurable gulf be- 
 tween that and proving that there is no soul. 
 Therefore the doctrine that there is but one 
 substance—call it matter, soul, or what you 
 will—existing in the universe, though many 
 Evolutionists hold it, is not essential to Evolu- 
 tionism. It would be consistent to hold that 
 the body of man is descended from a shell-fish, 
 if they like, and even to explain some things 
 about the soul itself by evolution, and yet to 
 leave us a substantial soul, with morality and 
 immortality ; and, having these, we can show 
 that there is a divine revelation, and an in- 
 spiration of the Scriptures; for our argument 
 for the supernatural remains unchanged till 
 they deny the soul. And after inspiration 
 follows the whole train of doctrines essential 
 
 oe 
 
 
 
90 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 to Christianity. To be sure, Evolutionism, if 
 adopted, may modify the old belief in non- 
 essentials, such as the interpretation of certain 
 books or passages of the Bible: but Geology 
 has already done as much without weakening | 
 Christianity at all; while, on the other hand, 
 it has added corroboration to certain passages, 
 as Evolution also will. And Evolutionism 
 may yet do great service to religion by break- 
 ing up a chronic skepticism among the ortho- 
 dox, which deprecates any increasing our 
 knowledge of the internal completeness of the 
 mechanism of the universe, lest forsooth 
 Divine Providence should prove incompetent 
 to manage a machine so vast. 
 
 I]. We have now answered the first inquiry, 
 Whether Evolutionism necessarily contradicts 
 Christianity. This question properly comes 
 first; and it has been by too often neglecting 
 such inquiries, and taking it for granted that 
 every new and startling scientific theory is 
 dangerous, that theologians have gained their 
 reputation for meddling where they ought 
 not, and for being defeated. If Evolutionism 
 is not hostile to Christianity, then it is purely 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. gI 
 
 a matter of natural science, to be settled by the 
 principles of natural science, and all theologi- 
 cal arguments against it are impertinent. But 
 when Evolutionism is shown to be irreconcil- 
 able with Christianity —and this is exactly 
 what some of its friends pretend to show— 
 then the claim of its advocates to be let alone 
 by theologians will be no less. impertinent. 
 When there are two systems radically at 
 variance, the contest between them cannot 
 be settled by first establishing one upon 
 grounds which would be sufficient, provid- 
 ed the other had never have heard. of, and 
 then taking this system as an unquestion- 
 able basis from which to destroy the opposing 
 one. That method cuts as fairly one way as 
 the other, and never can come at.the truth. If 
 we would have an everlasting wrangle with- 
 out progress towards right thinking, let it 
 first be admitted that Evolutionism is essen- 
 tially hostile to Christianity, and then let 
 naturalists refuse to consider any theological 
 arguments concerning Evolutionism, and the- 
 
 -ologians refuse all scientific arguments about 
 
 Theology. No, but if the two systems of be- 
 
 
 
 
 
92 ; MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 lief are indeed foes without possible recon- 
 ciliation, this is the question that comes before 
 us,—W hether the whole mass of reasons which 
 support the one system is of greater weight 
 than the whole mass of those which support 
 the other. All sorts of arguments, then, from 
 every source, for and against either theory, 
 are in order. Each party must listen in pa- 
 tience and make answer as best it may; and 
 thus, by a gradual elimination of fallacies from 
 both sides, the kindled atoms of verity scatter- 
 ed through the confused mass will seek each 
 other, till, where chaos was, there will stand 
 a crystal ;—on which side of the old contested 
 line, who should care ?—since it will be the 
 truth. That is an evolution deeply to be 
 desired. 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 93 
 
 D. 
 
 Atameeting of the Churchin Groton, Conn., 
 held Thursday evening, June 7th, the follow- 
 ing resolutions with reference to the death of 
 
 | their pastor, Rev. James B. Tyler, were passed 
 
 by the whole audience rising: 
 
 RESOLVED, That in the death of our young 
 pastor, Rev. James Brainerd Tyler, who died 
 May 28th, 1872, aged 30 years, after a ministry 
 of only eight months, we would submissively 
 recognize the dealings of the great Head of 
 of the Church. While we wonder that one so 
 highly cultured, so keen in intellectual percep- 
 tions, so masterly in thought, and withal so 
 true, pure, self-sacrificing and pious, should 
 be removed from the work into which he had 
 entered with all the powers of his mind and 
 the affection of his heart, we thank God that 
 his precious ministrations were among us, and 
 pray that He, by His Holy Spirit, will lengthen 
 
 
 
04. MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 them out, to the good of this people and the 
 glory of His own great name. This was a 
 workman that needed not to be ashamed—a 
 teacher of the way of God in truth, who, by 
 the manliness of his character, the sweetness 
 of his temper, and the Catholicity of his faith, 
 won the confidence, the affection, and the ad- 
 miration of all who came in contact with him, 
 assuring them that he had been with Jesus 
 and learned of him. . 
 
 RESOLVED, That we sympathize with the 
 parents and sisters of our beloved friend and 
 pastor in their sore bereavement, and com- 
 mend them in our prayers to the tenderness 
 of Him who has said, “ Blessed are they that 
 mourn.” 
 
 RESOLVED, Thata copy of these Resolutions 
 be furnished the parents of the deceased, and 
 copies be sent the “ Norwich Courier” and the 
 “ Boston Congregationalist,” for publication. 
 
 Joun J. Copp, Clerk of the Church. 
 
 
 
 
 
REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 95 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 THE FATHER REJOICING OVER THE 
 PENITENT PRODIGAL. 
 
 LUKE Xv. 20, 21. 
 
 “But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, 
 and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and 
 kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have 
 sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more 
 worthy to be called thy son.” 
 
 Ir I were admitted into a gallery to study 
 a masterpiece of landscape painting, and if I 
 had determined to know that painting thor- 
 oughly, to understand, if possible, the artist’s 
 full meaning and enter into all his thoughts, I 
 should not put an end to my research until I 
 had separately traced out every brush-stroke 
 upon the whole canvas and learned the pur- 
 pose of it, and become acquainted with the 
 subtle characteristics of the master’s hand, 
 
 
 
96 MEMORIAL OF THE — 
 
 and discerned the composition and effect of 
 every tint of color. But I would not do this 
 at first. 1 would not begin with these details, 
 lest after I had learned them all I should not 
 know what the whole picture was: The first 
 things observed should be the few great masses 
 of matter, of light, of shade, of color —and 
 where they lie, and how they are related one 
 to another—these towering cliffs casting cold 
 shadow across the foreground, that broad 
 midland at rest in golden light, those moun- 
 tains blue and capped with snow, those beds 
 of clouds—what are they? why are they? to 
 what effect lie all these where they do? How 
 do they affect each other? and, above all, 
 what unifying idea makes the picture, not a 
 mere collection of interesting things, but the 
 embodiment of a single thought, that speaks 
 to my heart and makes it wiser? These are 
 the questions that I should consider first; and 
 not till afterwards do I step nearer, to study 
 that human figure in the shadow gazing 
 thoughtfully out through the brightness of 
 the earth into the blue beyond the moun- 
 tains; and not till still afterwards do I come 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 97 
 
 close and study little lines and spots of pig- 
 ment. . 
 
 In like manner should I study a book, a po- 
 em ora parable—the masses first—the great 
 points and leading thoughts, their unity and 
 relative subordination ; and not till afterwards 
 the little suggestions, embellishments, and 
 delicate turnings of the expression. These lat- 
 ter may be just noticed as we read, but they 
 must not be searched for or dwelt upon at 
 first. A person who takes a parable word by 
 word, beginning at the first verse and follow- 
 ing through in order to the last, dissecting, 
 weighing, commenting at length on each, is 
 like one who should begin the study of a pic- 
 ture by dividing its surface into little squares, 
 numbering them in order, and completely ex-_ 
 
 “amining each with a microscope before going 
 to the next. He would know a great deal 
 about the picture, but he never would know 
 the picture. Minute and painstaking study is 
 necessary before one can say he fully under- 
 stands; and his close examination perhaps 
 will help him in correctly viewing the great 
 
 features, provided he has appreciated before- 
 
 
 
98 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 hand which are the great features and what — 
 their power is; but otherwise it will only lead 
 his thoughts off into a maze of tritles. 7 
 Perhaps no class of writings have suffered 
 so much by this mechanical, unappreciative 
 mode of study as the books of the Old and 
 New Testaments; and perhaps no passages 
 have suffered more than the parables of our 
 Lord. One sentence is taken and pressed into 
 service to teach everything that such a sen- 
 tence under any circumstances could teach; 
 then the next sentence is treated in the same 
 manner, and so on, until, when we ask, after 
 it is all done, “‘ What does this parable teach ?” 
 “Why, it teaches everything.” ‘ And what 
 does that other parable teach?” “ That 
 teaches everything too.” The consequence 
 is that each picture of the great Artist is un- 
 derstood as being, not a composition, but a 
 mere mustering together within one frame of 
 a multitude of objects, each well painted, per- 
 haps, but having no principle of arrangement 
 or subordination, no perspective, no one great — 
 idea served by the rest, and therefore of but 
 little interest—though perhaps we make the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 KEV. FAMES BRAINERD, TYLER. 99 
 
 parable more “instructive” (after our sort) 
 even than its Author meant it to be. 
 
 The so-called “Parable of the Prodigal 
 Son,” to the first part of which we sball soon 
 turn our attention, has suffered in this way 
 less than most others, but it has suffered se- 
 verely. Its meaning was too plain to be en- 
 tirely lost through the ingenuity of commen- 
 tators, and men have not been heartless 
 enough quite to explain away its touching 
 lesson. 
 
 During one of our Lord’s journeys, he was 
 continually in company with publicans and 
 sinners: rascally tax-gatherers, thieves, black- 
 guards, prostitutes, and all sorts of outcasts 
 from respectable society, went with him to 
 hear his words. The excellent scribes and 
 Pharisees murmured, saying, “This man re- 
 ceiveth sinners and eateth with them.” Here 
 was their accusation—that he was encour- 
 aging the vilest classes by associating with 
 them. He answers his accusers. By three 
 parables he defends his conduct, not by call- 
 ing his accusers hypocrites, which in this par- 
 ticular case perhaps they were not; nor by 
 
 
 
 
 
100 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 showing that these outcasts were not after all 
 any worse than those who loathed them so, 
 which perhaps would not be true; but by 
 showing that their lost estate was the very 
 reason why God was desirous to save them. 
 This is the key-note of all the three parables. 
 If it is not, they are not an anwer to the Phar- 
 isees, and were not worth the speaking. 
 
 Christ’s first answer is by the parable which 
 tells of a shepherd who, having lost one out 
 of his flock of a hundred sheep, seeks the lost, 
 finds it, and rejoices over it more than over 
 the ninety-nine, not because it was a better 
 sheep, but for the mere reason that he had 
 found a Jost one. Here, then, is his answer to 
 the scribes—that God is glad to save the lost, 
 for the very reason that they are lost and 
 need him. And then, as a second part, or ap- 
 pendix to the parable, he delicately reproves 
 them by saying that the angels in heaven 7e- 
 jowe rather than complain, over the saving of 
 a sinner, being in sympathy with God in his 
 rejoicing, as the Pharisees are not. 
 
 His second answer is the same, only pre- 
 sented by a different illustration. A woman 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. IOI 
 
 loses one out of her ten pieces of silver, lights 
 a candle, sweeps the house, finds the coin, 
 and rejoices over it more than over the nine, 
 not because it is a better coin, but for the 
 mere reason that she has found a lost one. 
 The point of the answer is just here again— 
 That God is glad to save the lost, for the very 
 reason that they are lost and need him. And 
 then, as a second part to the parable, he re- 
 proves them as before by telling how the an- 
 gels sympathize with God in this feeling, as 
 the Pharisees do not. 
 
 His third answer is the same, only present- 
 ed by a different illustration. A man loses 
 one of his sons, but when he finds him again, 
 he rejoices more over him than over his 
 brother, not because it is a better son, but for 
 the mere reason that he had found the lost 
 one. The point of the answer is just here 
 again—that God is glad to save the lost, for 
 the very reason that they are lost and need 
 him. And then, as an appendix, or second 
 part to the parable, Jesus reproves the Phari- 
 sees as before, but this time more distinctly— 
 for he draws out at length before them the 
 
 
 
 
 
102 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 conduct of the son who remained so dutifully 
 at home. ; | 
 
 The great leading thought, then, in each of 
 these parables is the gladness of God to save 
 the lost. That is the key to the unity of each; 
 —lose it, and you can only understand the 
 parable in bits, you cannot understand it as a 
 whole. 
 
 And the principal among the ideas subor- 
 dinate to this leading one is in each of the 
 parables the same—a reproof to the spirit of 
 the complaining Pharisees—which reproof is 
 added in each case as a subordinate second 
 part at the end. 
 
 Let us now drop the consideration of this 
 second part and confine ourselves to the por- 
 tion which contains the master-thought of all. 
 And, in this section, again let us be true to our 
 principle and look for the ruling ideas first, 
 leaving particulars till later. 
 
 Now the son’s wayward spirit, his dissi- 
 pated living, his misery, his penitence, and 
 his father’s joy at his return—these, at a glance, 
 are seen to be the most prominent points; 
 and the last of them—the father’s joy—has al- 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 103 
 
 ready been seen to be the chief of all. Under 
 this chief how are the rest arranged in rank? 
 They are all preparatory, in their order, to 
 bringing out the climax of the whole—to the 
 showing of the father’s joy. The son’s way- 
 ward desire to be his own master prepares us 
 for his period of dissipation; this in turn pre- 
 pares us for his destitution and misery; these 
 again prepare us to see his penitence, and this 
 brings us naturally to the crowning point of 
 the narrative, the father’s joyful reception of 
 him. Now, the thought that is introduced to 
 prepare for a following thought, is itself of 
 less importance than the one which it pre- 
 pares us for. So, then, we know the order of 
 emphasis and of importance which the parts 
 of this passage have ;—chief above all, the 
 father’s joy ; second, the son’s penitence; 
 third, his misery; fourth, his dissipation, and 
 lastly, his waywardness in youth. 
 
 Now I have opened the subject in the way 
 I have, partly for the purpose of mentioning 
 the method which we should generally pursue 
 in studying the parables, but more particu- 
 larly for the purpose of making it evident that 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
104 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 the truths which I shall set forth are not those 
 of my own contriving, but are based upon the 
 words of Christ ;—and upon those words, not 
 taken in some fanciful and far-fetched sense, 
 but in the very sense in which they were ac- 
 tually spoken, and with the very same ideas 
 made prominent which our Lord himself 
 made prominent. I shall invite your atten- 
 tion to the two features in the picture which 
 the Artist meant to be the chiefest in rank,— 
 the rejoicing of the father, and the penitence 
 of the son. | 
 But let us review the story itself. A man 
 had two sons. The younger takes it into his 
 head that it would be a fine thing to live for 
 himself and take care of himself, without the 
 restrictions that a wise. father puts around 
 him. His imagination pictures the pleasant 
 times he would have if he could do as he 
 pleases. His father, when asked, gives him 
 the power to do so, and he willingly goes 
 forth to enjoy the world. He seeks a coun- 
 try far out of reach of home. There he gives 
 himself up to following his own inclination 
 whithersoever it might lead him. He hada 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 105 
 
 good time of it, and spent his property in it. 
 « And when he had spent all, there arose a 
 mighty famine in that land; and he began to 
 be in want.” His pleasures were over, and 
 now he must look out for his necessities. He 
 joined himself to a citizen of that country, 
 who sent him into his fields to feed swine. 
 The independence which he imagined he 
 could gain by leaving home, was done with, 
 and now for the most abject dependence. His 
 appetite became so sharp that he ate with 
 relish the carob-pods that the swine did eat, 
 yet no man gave him any food. Then his 
 thoughts went homewards—‘ Why, the very 
 servants in my father’s house have more than 
 they can eat, and J am perishing with hun- 
 ger.’ (Now there are various ways in which 
 the story might have been told). He thought 
 the matter over and over again, and finally he 
 said to himself, ‘I will arise and go to my 
 father, and say, Father, this life that I have 
 chosen is a failure; I thought it would prove 
 a pleasant one, and I find it is not; I see that 
 I have made a mistake, and so I have come 
 home again to live with you as formerly; 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
100 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 
 
 for here I know I shall be comfortable at 
 last.’ 
 
 That is a way in which the story might 
 have been told; but not so did Jesus tell it. 
 The son was not so hardened as that. He 
 did not approach his father with a cool as- 
 surance that, since he had found his other 
 mode of life unhappy, he had come home to 
 make himself happy in another way. That 
 would have been the word of a purely selfish 
 heart, disappointed in one experiment and 
 now ready to try a more hopeful one, seeking 
 self only, without a breath of honorable feel- 
 ing or even of common human shame. Men 
 often seek God in just that way—or still more 
 often calculate that they will some day seek 
 him in that way. They say to themselves, 
 ‘This life of pleasure will not last forever, we ~ 
 suppose. Well, we expect to have something 
 better some time. When the pleasures of this 
 world begin to grow stale, or when they sud- 
 denly leave us, we are happy to know that in 
 our Father’s house even the servants fare 
 well; we shall return there, then, and live 
 with him; then we shall have enough, and 
 

 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 107 
 
 shall enjoy the close of life, die at peace and 
 respected by our neighbors, and have a joyful 
 eternity besides.” Shame upon the thought! 
 —dishonor to think that plan possible !—to 
 serve our selfishness in the earth expecting to 
 change in the nick of time to serve our selfish- 
 ness in heaven. If a man’s idea of worldly 
 life is to use God’s blessings for his own pur- 
 poses, let not his idea of religion be to use 
 God for his own purposes. When a person 
 says, “Il am not ready to leave my unchristian 
 course just now ; but, indeed, I hope to become 
 a capital Christian some time,’’—he belongs 
 to the class we are now describing. Let him 
 not deceive himself; that saying of his means 
 nothing else than this,—‘‘ I have not yet spent 
 all my substance in sin; but when I have, or 
 perhaps before I have spent all, I hope to go 
 and get fresh pleasures to myself in God’s 
 house.” And God’s mercy is so great that 
 he does sometimes allow that hope to be real- 
 ized !—though not so frequently as men think, 
 and never until that despicable feeling has 
 been bitterly repented of. But suppose that 
 we might have our way, take pleasure in 
 
 
 
108 “MEMORTAL. OF. THEE, 
 
 worldliness as long as that can last, and 
 then slip into heaven without caring for any- 
 thing in it higher than our own comfort— 
 suppose this were possible, can it be that we 
 are so blinded by our sin as not to see that — 
 it is contemptible ? 
 
 But let us go back to the prodigal son. 
 He said, “ How many hired servants of my 
 father’s have bread enough and to spare, and 
 I perish with hunger.” ‘I will arise and go 
 to my father, and will say, Father, I have 
 done wrong: and yet receive me ‘back, for, 
 believe me, I have not been so very bad; I 
 have respected thy name and memory, I 
 have not ceased to recall thy kindness to me; 
 the money that I spent—I remembered that 
 it was from thee. I ought to have been more 
 prudent—yes, I ought to have been more up- 
 right, but I am not so lost to decency that 
 thou canst not rightly receive me. Forgive 
 me, then, | pray thee; and let me be thy son 
 again.’ 
 
 That is a way in which the story might 
 have been told; but not in that way did our 
 Teacher tell it. The son did not come con- 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TVLER. 109 
 
 fessing some faults and assuring his father 
 that his faults were few. That would have 
 been the way of a heart not entirely hardened 
 and yet entirely selfish—not quite deadened 
 to all honorable considerations, and yet not 
 _ esteeming them so highly as his own comfort 
 and self-esteem. Men often stand thus before 
 God. They know that they are wrong, they 
 will not be offended if you. tell them so, and 
 
 they will readily confessit. But not so very 
 wrong, they think—‘‘ No worse than So-and- 
 so, whom every body likes; no worse than 
 that other man who makes loud pretensions 
 to religion.” They are ready to confess thus 
 much to God, and ask him to forgive their 
 shortcomings with the understanding that 
 their shortcomings are not great. Sometimes | 
 they do not quite see why God cannot pardon 
 them, since there is so much good in them 
 which he could have for his own simply by 
 overlooking a little evil. But such men have 
 no idea what sin is—or what their own sin is. 
 Theirs is not repentance, but only an easy re- 
 gret, and that half-smothered by their pride. 
 It does not make them uncomfortable, be- 
 
 
 
 
 
1IO MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 cause whenever they think of their faults, they 
 can at once console themselves with their — 
 good qualities. To remind them of their 
 faults is likely to be of no benefit, because it 
 in the end only sets them to thinking how 
 good they are for all their faults. In order 
 that people may waken to reform, it is neces- 
 sary that they feel their deep need of it; but 
 what hope of reform in those whom every at- 
 tempt to show them their need only makes 
 them more pleased with themselves ? 
 
 But again let us return to the prodigal son. 
 ‘I will arise,’ said he, ‘and go to my father, 
 and say, Father, I have sinned; I have been 
 very bad, 1 will not try to deny it; I have 
 been worse than I had any idea a son could 
 be; and now I pray thee pardon me; for re- 
 member what my temptations were—l was 
 young, and thou knowest how hot one’s blood 
 is then; I was unacquainted with the world, 
 I supposed its pleasures to be greater and 
 cheaper than I have found them; this steady 
 life at home is best, I know, and now I long 
 for it again; but then I thought I could do 
 better; I did not believe in thy wisdom, I 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. Let 
 
 wronged thee, | wronged heaven, I wronged 
 myself; but now I have returned again, will- 
 ing to do thee service and so atone for my 
 shortcomings; I am not all broken down; 
 give me the opportunity, and I can earn 
 enough to pay off all that I have taken from 
 Eee.’ 
 
 That is a way in which the story might 
 have been told; but not in that way did our 
 Saviour tell it. The son did not try to bring 
 a partial excuse for his sin, by pleading his 
 ignorance and strong temptation; nor did he 
 profess himself able, if time were given, to 
 pay off his debt. If any excuse existed, he 
 was not in the mood of mind to plead it; if 
 he was able to do good service, his thoughts 
 were not upon that, but on his wickedness. 
 But thus men often do come before God— 
 often ?—nay, almost every sinner that ac- 
 knowledges his guilt, at first wants to excuse 
 - alittle of it; and when he has given up that, 
 he wants to have God understand that noth- 
 ing will be lost by pardoing him,—for he will 
 work and pay for his deficiency, he will work 
 in advance of pardon, and cancel part of the 
 
LIZ MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 debt, so that there need not be so much 
 forgiven. It is man’s pride that speaks so, 
 though it seems to be the honest desire of 
 making amends. There is something more 
 than a debt to be paid off—there has been a 
 wrong done—a flagrant, deep and crying 
 wrong. Make a clean breast of it, bring no 
 excuses, say nothing about settling for an in- 
 sult by paying money or by doing service, 
 confess it from the bottom of your heart, it 
 shall be forgiven promptly; afterwards, if you 
 wish to make amends, do what you can; but 
 your Father will never mention any old debt 
 for you to pay. 
 
 But let us look at that prodigal son. 
 “When he came to himself,-he said)... 21 
 will arise and go to my father, and will say 
 unto him, Father, I have sinned, against heav- 
 en and in thy sight, and am no more worthy 
 to be called thy sou; make me as one of thy 
 hired servants.” | 
 
 That was repentance—and that is the way 
 our Saviour told the story. Not a word of 
 self-justification, not a thought of making up 
 for the past—but “I have sinned, and am no 
 
 
 

 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 113 
 
 more worthy to be called thy son.” Yet he 
 does not forget his pressing need—he is per- 
 ishing with hunger, and must have the neces- 
 sities of life; he will not ask his wronged fa- 
 ther to give them to him; if he may only 
 have a chance to earn them, he feels that his 
 father will have done for him more than he 
 deserved. 
 
 But though it was his forlorn condition that 
 first awoke him to see his wickedness, now 
 the sense of his wickedness and need of par- 
 don is become the most prominent of all— 
 howbeit the gnawings of his hunger will not 
 let him forget that he must ask his father for 
 something more than pardon. Nor is it to 
 one of his old friends that he will go; but, 
 as a true penitent always does, he will go 
 straight to the person whom he has wronged, 
 and his first sentence will be one of confes- 
 sion. Such was his determination. 
 
 And he arose and came to his father’s 
 house, told who he was—for in ‘his filth and 
 rags he was not recognized by the servants— 
 asked to see his father, and was left standing 
 at the door while the servant carried the mes- 
 
 6* 
 
114 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 sage in. “Take my son with you,” was the 
 father’s bidding, “ wash him and clothe him, 
 and when he is fit to appear, bring him to 
 me.’ And when they brought him, his father 
 met him very calmly, but not without kind- 
 ness in his voice, took him by the hand, led 
 him to a seat, and said, “ My son, I am glad 
 to see you at home again,—but in what a 
 plight! How is it?—tell me.” “Father, I 
 have sinned, against heaven and in thy sight, 
 and am no more worthy to be called thy son; 
 make me as one of thy hired servants.” “ But 
 tell me where thou hast been, and what hast 
 thou been doing?” So the son recounted 
 briefly the history of his wandering. Then 
 after a pause his father answered, “ My son, I 
 forgive thee all thy wrong; and I heartily de- 
 sire to restore thee—but can I trust thee p— 
 dost thou not see that I ought to require pro- 
 bation of thee first?” So the father proposed 
 to receive him on trial for three months; after 
 which, if the son seemed to be fixed in his 
 good determination, he should be restored to 
 the fulness of his father’s favor. But at the 
 end of the first month, the father, whose affec- 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. I15 
 
 tion could wait no longer, called the house- 
 hold together, and in the presence of them all 
 restored his son to his place of honor, and for- 
 bade that his wandering should be mentioned 
 any more. 
 
 That was a kind father, and that was a hap- 
 py son. But it is not in that way that our 
 Saviour told the story. When that returning 
 son “was yet a great way off, his father saw 
 him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on 
 his neck and kissed him. And the son said, Fa- 
 ther, I have sinned, against heaven and in thy 
 sight, and am no more worthy to be called 
 ’ But he could go no further—in the 
 presence of such a father’s love he could not 
 
 thy son.’ 
 
 add anything about being a hired servant. 
 The thought of earning anything, or even of 
 having his hunger supplied, faded out of his 
 heart in the fulness of his pardon. We might 
 expect him to be glad, but his father was 
 more glad than he. We led him home. He 
 called to the servants, ‘‘ Bring forth the best 
 robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on 
 his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring 
 hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us 
 
116 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 eat, and be merry ; for this my son was dead, 
 and is alive again: he was lost, and is found.” 
 
 My friends, our Father is more glad to re- 
 ceive us than we are to be received. His 
 eagerness is the thing that the parable teaches 
 above all else. Indeed, he is not so foolishly 
 eager as to receive those who, unrepenting, 
 come home merely to make something by it; 
 but those who return in hearty sorrow for 
 their wandering, he will run forth and meet a 
 long way off. And then the feast,—it is not 
 made simply to please the son, but to express 
 the father’s joy at finding him. If, by some 
 not so very strange bewilderment, the son 
 does not himself enter into the gladness of the 
 occasion, it is but little matter; he is his Fa- 
 ther’s son, returned and reinstated. It is his 
 father’s feast. 
 
 Now see a point of difference between that 
 son and us. He did not know the father’s 
 gladness to receive him until he came and 
 tested it; he did not know but his father 
 would meet him with a frown, give a beggar’s 
 portion and send him on his way; and yet 
 that son trusted himself to his father, and 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV, AMES BRAINERD TYLER. 117 
 
 found him forward to be merciful. But we 
 know beforehand that the Father will receive 
 us; and yet we will not trust him ! 
 
 Or, do you say that the son trusted his 
 father only because he could do no better— 
 he must either starve or be received at home? 
 Can you do better?—can you do better than 
 to do right? Do not treat this as a mere 
 matter of trade. If you do, you make the 
 worst sort of a bargain when you take the 
 world instead of your Father. But this isa 
 matter of honor—and of right. Even if the 
 prodigal had not been hungry in that foreign 
 land, it would have been dishonorable to stay 
 there. But come and say, ‘Father, I have: 
 sinned; I am not worthy.’ Make no ex- 
 cuses; you shall be welcomed. 
 
 Or, will you wait to be starved to it? That 
 is not necessary. Repentance is necessary, 
 but not famine. Yet some men are so stupid, 
 and most men are so stubborn, that they will 
 not confess their wrong until fright or dire 
 calamity enforces them. Let it not be so with 
 you. But come and say, “Il am no more 
 worthy to be called thy son.”’ You shall not 
 

 
 
 
 not venturing to think of having a son’s plac 
 yet a son’s place was given him. sa 
 
 And more than all, your Father does not _ 
 even wait for you to be starved and come; — 3 
 he calls you! “He that hath an ear, let him ~ 
 hear.” . } ag 
 
 re — 
 
 oe 
 
 
 

 
 KEV, FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 119g 
 
 TWO STAGES IN CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 PSALM i. 1; 2. 
 
 “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of 
 the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor ,sitteth 
 in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law ot 
 the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” 
 
 In other words, ‘“ Blessed is the man who 
 obeys the law of God, and not only obeys it, 
 but delights in it.” 
 
 For there can be two different stages of the 
 godly lfe—that where duty rules, and that 
 where love -rules—or, rather (since duty and 
 love are but different phases of the same 
 thing), there is a stage where the ruling prin- 
 ciple is considered in the light of a duty, 
 binding the man’s will like a debt—a debt 
 willingly contracted and paid—and there is a 
 stage where the ruling principle is felt as love, 
 sweeping the will and the deeds of a whole 
 man along before its overwhelming current. 
 
 Theoretically, I say, there can be these two 
 stages; for I will not now speak of them as 
 
120 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 something in fact appearing. Let that.come 
 later, and let me first more particularly ex- 
 plain my meaning, by an illustration from 
 what does in fact take place. 
 
 A boy enters a new school with a deter- 
 mination to be faithful and observe the rules. 
 He knows nothing of the teacher, except 
 that she is the teacher, and has a right to be 
 obeyed. He cares nothing for the rules, ex- 
 cept that they are the rules, and ought to be 
 obeyed. So he scrupulously attends to duty. 
 The teacher’s commands and the require- 
 ments of the rules he tries to keep, though it 
 is a great hardship, and though he sometimes 
 fails. If the natural playfulness of a boy’s 
 mind tempts him towards fun in the place of 
 study, he resolutely, and by force, sets his 
 mind upon his book. — If difficulties discour- 
 age him, he keeps his crying to himself, and 
 sets his teeth, and pounds his way through 
 them. If he is too tired or ill to work well, 
 he does not offer even the excuse that he 
 might fairly offer, but stands by his work like 
 a soldier. His school days are not quite so 
 happy as some boys’, because he learns with 
 
 
 

 
 KEV. FAMES BRAINERD TVLER. 121 
 
 difficulty, and is almost a stranger to the 
 teacher, and hardly dares to ask the help he 
 needs ; he often gets down-hearted ; and now 
 and then he breaks a rule, which makes him 
 sorry, when most of the boys would not have 
 cared, except for being found out. He makes 
 some progress, and that encourages him; but 
 it is slowly, and that discourages him; and 
 sometimes he finds himself at the point of 
 wishing he could leave the school; but he 
 stops that thought by reminding himself that 
 it is his duty to remain. Duty, duty, duty— 
 that is the word that he keeps repeating to 
 himself—not because it is a pleasant word— 
 he does not delight in it—but because he has 
 made up his mind to do his duty because it is 
 duty, and that’s enough. Yet duty is a bur- 
 den; and though his days are happy on the 
 whole, the oppression of this thought of duty 
 keeps one sad note sounding drearily straight 
 through all the music of his life. He knows 
 it is all his own doing that it is so; that is, he 
 can throw duty away any time he will; but 
 he will not. He will drudge along, Jet come 
 of it what may. 
 
122 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 But after a time a different state of things 
 commences. By steady attention to his les- 
 sons, the lessons themselves begin to be a lit- _ 
 tle more interesting ; by constant observance 
 of the rules, the rules not only grow easier, 
 but he begins to like them pretty well, or at 
 least he does not dislike them, as at first; and 
 by yielding to the teacher’s wishes because 
 he ought to, he gradually gets to yielding be- 
 cause he likes to. And the teacher, too, be- 
 gins to take more notice of the boy who is so 
 faithful—she oftener goes by his desk to see 
 how he is getting along, and help him through 
 his trouble, and speaks a cheering word ; and 
 on the street she bows to him just a little 
 more smilingly than to some others, not be- 
 cause she means to, but because she cannot 
 help it. Now the rules become a good deal 
 easier to obey ; and his mind doesn’t require 
 so much will-power to keep it on the lesson; 
 and the lessons become, first, pleasanter, and 
 then easier because pleasanter, and then fast- 
 er and better learned because easier; and 
 when the boy comes against a difficulty, he 
 feels freer to ask about it ifthere is need, [and, 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 123 
 
 more ashamed to ask when there is no need, 
 and he can break through it himself]. Keep- 
 ing the rules and studying well and becom- 
 ing better acquainted with the teacher, make 
 him keep the rules and study better and like 
 the teacher more. And the more he likes 
 her, the more he catches her enthusiasm and 
 deep interest in the work of the school. 
 Why, when he first came, he did not even 
 notice that she had any such interest, but 
 supposed her activity was only because it 
 was her duty to make the boys study, and 
 to enforce the rules. But now her very pre- 
 sence and manner seem to throw new life © 
 into him and light upon his lessons. And so 
 on continually ; his success in study and his 
 good behavior, and his love for the teacher, 
 and his happiness, grow up side by side, and 
 make each other grow—till, by-and-by, this 
 is the happiest boy in school, and the sound- 
 est scholar, and the best behaved, and the 
 heartiest at his play, and the best friend of 
 the teacher; and he can’t help obeying the 
 rules and learning his lessons—and he hasn't 
 thought of duty for a whole term. 
 
124 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 Now, I say there are two quite different 
 stages in that boy’s school life—the duty- 
 stage and the love-stage. Both are good, 
 but the second is by far the better. In the 
 second stage, his love for the teacher makes 
 duty easy and pleasant and well performed, 
 though it is not thought of as duty; and it 
 enables the teacher’s influence, with unseen 
 power, like a magnet, to rouse up strength in 
 him, and to lead him in the best way, not as 
 a moping servant, but as a cheerful friend. 
 In the earlier stage, the boy followed duty 
 willingly and drearily, courageously and sadly, 
 like a hero suffering martyrdom without mur- 
 muring, rather than like a hero bursting vic- 
 toriously through obstacles for love’s sake. 
 
 The same two stages are in a Christian’s 
 life. In the lower one, doing right seems a 
 duty, and he calls it a privilege only by way 
 of compliment; in the higher, doing right is 
 a privilege, and he names it duty only when 
 speaking for others’ sake, and then the word 
 “duty” means “ privilege” in his own mind. 
 During the period of duty-service, rules are 
 the prominent things before him; during the 
 
 
 

 
 KEV. JAMES BRAINERD, TYVLER. 125 
 
 period of love-service, he does’nt see many 
 rules, but he sees Christ. During the former 
 he wills to do right, and does it, on the whole; 
 during the latter he relishes to do right, and 
 does it almost entirely. The former state is 
 one of drudging labor according to a law, 
 with patient endurance, dogged resolution, 
 and not much joy; the latter state is one of 
 still more perfect behavior, out of love to 
 everybody, and loyalty to the person of 
 Christ, hearty and full of cheer. In the 
 former, a man is willing to submit to God’s 
 wishes, in the latter, he wishes just what God 
 does. Inthe former he keeps the law, “ walk- 
 ing not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor 
 standing in the way of sinners, nor sitting in 
 the seat of the scornful;’ but in the latter, 
 his word is, “Oh, how love I thy law! it is 
 my meditation day and night.” 
 
 _ These, therefore, being the two stages of a 
 Christian’s life, of course the state of love- 
 service is the higher, and comes not till after 
 that of duty-service. A boy does not fully feel 
 the power of the teacher’s personality on the 
 first day. Such interest in a lesson as comes 
 

 
 126 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 from its novelty, and such liking for a teacher 
 as one takes at first sight, cannot be depended — 
 on to carry the pupil through the tempta- 
 tions to unfaithfulness, and the perplexities, 
 and the temporary defeats that are to come. 
 
 But the interest in study that grows with the 
 
 growth of understanding, and the love that 
 close acquaintance and hard service bring, 
 
 furnish that power that will not faint at 
 evil. | 
 
 And, furthermore, these qualities cannot be 
 
 genuine unless they begin their growth at 
 
 duty. Let no one attempt to learn the higher 
 
 service by skipping over the lower. It will 
 
 result in wretched failure. It would be like 
 
 entering college before learning to read. Let 
 no one think that, because duty is not much 
 
 thought of when one gets above it, therefore 
 
 he can get above it by not thinking much of 
 it. The only way to go above it, is to go up 
 
 through it. ‘The only way to feel the steady 
 
 power of God’s love, so that we can scarcely 
 
 do anything but right, is to begin by doing 
 
 right w2lfully—forcing ourselves to it, if need 
 
 be, in spite of weariness, or ill success, or pain. 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 127 
 
 Learn first to reverence duty above pleasure, 
 or possessions, or friends, or life itself; and 
 then you shall be free from it while still 
 conformed to it. How soon would the boy 
 come into those close and quickening per- 
 sonal relations with his teacher, if he began 
 by disregarding duty and trying to admire 
 the teacher while neglecting the rules, and 
 gazing upon her fervently instead of studying 
 his lesson? He would be sent away from 
 school first. How soon will you become so 
 filled with loyalty to God as not to need the 
 thought of duty, if you begin by disregard- 
 ing duty while you try to raise yourself into 
 communion with Him by some mystic gazing 
 or artificial exaltation? God will repudiate 
 you from his kingdom first. 
 
 I know a man who has a great deal to say 
 abcut his nearness and love to God; his lofty 
 experiences above most other men; his meet- 
 ings, and his dear brethren who feel like him; 
 but he will not hesitate to slander you behind 
 your back, or to stir up a quarrel in his 
 church, or to abuse his family with a stinging 
 tongue. Let a man first be brought under 
 
128 MEMORIAL OF THE - 
 
 
 
 the rule of duty, and then we will hear about ~ 
 his love. The path to the higher Christian — 
 experience, is through the lower Christian 
 experience. We get free from the bonds of 
 duty only by serving a good apprenticeship 
 under duty first. But the short-cut to per- 
 fection is like the short-cut to ‘Serna it 
 does not bring you there. 
 
 Now, this apprenticeship to duty arate 1S. 
 it but a process of self-consecration? It is 
 the practice of duty, without regard to plea- 
 sant or unpleasant consequences. That in- 
 cludes a constant giving-up of one’s natural 
 preferences for the sake of higher considera- 
 tions—a setting of one’s self apart from the 
 pleasing of self to the pleasing of God, and 
 from the pleasing of the world to the blessing 
 of the world. Self-consecration is a prime 
 condition, without which there can be no 
 higher Christian life—or any Christian life. 
 But there is a difference between a mental 
 and a practical consecration. I may fully de- 
 termine now to give up my hopes and life to 
 God and duty, making no reservations or 
 conditions. That is mental consecration, and 
 

 
 
 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 129 
 
 by it we enter the Christian life. But still 
 my thoughts and-doings may, in fact, not all 
 be according to the law of God and duty. 
 If they were, that would be practical conse- 
 cration, which belongs to the higher grade of 
 life. And this, like all other practical things, 
 must be learned by practice. That practice 
 is the apprenticeship to duty. It is going on 
 during my days of hard struggling with sin 
 and troubles. I am learning by actual prac- 
 tice, what I have already learned the theory 
 of—to avoid all evil deeds, to do good deeds, 
 and to endure hardships, injuries, and all sor- 
 rows, with manly patience, as required by my 
 divine Master. In proportion as this work 
 becomes complete—in proportion as my con- 
 secration becomes practical, so as to include 
 all my thoughts, and all my acts, and all my 
 hopes and wishes, I become free from my 
 apprenticeship, and enter the higher grade of 
 life. 
 
 From what has now been said, it becomes 
 evident that the higher life, as here defined, 
 overlaps the lower—or, in other words, that 
 the transition from the lower to the higher is 
 
 Vi 
 
130 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 gradual. That boy did not go to school some 
 morning a dull scholar and a slave to duty, 
 and then, just as the clock struck eleven, 
 suddenly transform himself into an enthu- 
 siastic lover of his teacher and his books. 
 Almost from the first day there were mo- 
 ments when he took pleasure in his lessons, 
 and, forgetting duty, obeyed the teacher by 
 an impulse of loyalty. These irregular occa- 
 sions became more frequent, until glad and 
 spontaneous doing right was easier than any- 
 thing else; and the cases where hedid it asa 
 painful duty, became the exception, and grad- 
 ually became rare ones. No one can name 
 the week, or the month—and, perhaps, not 
 the term—when the change in him took place. 
 It was taking place all the time. Neither can 
 we say with certainty when the change was 
 perfectly complete, nor is it important that 
 we should. The change is none the less real 
 because we cannot draw the line. Is day, 
 night ?—but you cannot draw the line be- 
 tween them. wall 
 
 The same with Christian hfe. From the 
 first, there are times when one is dwelling on. 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 131 
 
 the higher grade—short times, rare times; 
 but if we hold faithfully to duty, these blessed 
 seasons, like spots of clear blue in a cloudy 
 sky, will become more numerous and larger, 
 until they run together; and soon the heav- 
 ens, from zenith to horizon, will not be dark- 
 ened by a cloud. Practical consecration is 
 built up by repeating actions, as character 
 always is; and that is why it is attained to 
 gradually. Each action of the mind _ sin- 
 cerely renewing its vow of self-denial, each 
 pious thought or desire, each act of right- 
 eousness (the costlier the better), helps on the 
 growth of the higher life as surely as the 
 learning of each lesson helps to make a 
 scholar, or the laying of each stone helps to 
 build God a temple. 
 
 But now let me present a caution. Do not 
 suppose that gradual means slow. It does 
 not follow, because the higher life grows out 
 of the lower by degrees, that it, therefore, 
 must take a long time to reach it. It does 
 not follow, because we ascend to an upper 
 story one stair at a time, that we need to be 
 amonth ascending. It doesnot follow, because 
 
132 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 the stage of love-service cannot be reached 
 by a leap, that we need to be thirty or fifty 
 years attaining it. It is our own fault if it 
 takes any such length of time. It need take 
 little, if we are diligent. How long, I could 
 not say—a few years at most, a few months, 
 perhaps, might be sufficient ; and if one says 
 it can be in a few days, I would not contra- 
 dict him, but I should want the strongest evi- 
 dence of it. I only insist on this—that the 
 change, being a thing of spiritual education, 
 must take some space of time for growth, but 
 I do not say a long time. I will not now deny 
 that there may be an instantaneous “ sanctifi- 
 cation;” I express no opinion on that point: 
 but anything instantaneous is not an educa- 
 tion, and does not belong to the subject of 
 the present discourse. A gradual change 
 may be very rapid, and seem: almost instan- 
 taneous, because you do not observe it accu- 
 rately. In a bright day, it seems that the 
 passage out of a shadow into the sunlight is 
 not gradual; but when you look closely at 
 the edge of a shadow, you find that it is not 
 marked off by a distinct line, but fades out 
 
 
 
 | 
 

 
 REV. JAMES. BRAINERD. TYLER. Les 
 
 gradually. I will not, therefore, deny that 
 the entrance upon the higher stage of living 
 may, in some cases, be very quick; and I will 
 not try to decide what is the shortest or the 
 longest time that it will take, or to settle any 
 other such delicate and useless questions. 
 But I will declare, with emphasis—and none 
 of you will say that | am wrong in this—that 
 no one who has been a Christian twenty years, 
 has any right to be a “babe in Christ.” Why 
 have they not been growing up? Must it 
 take longer for some to rise than for others? 
 Truly it must, but not so long as that. What 
 then ?. does any Christian reach perfection in 
 this world, be it in twenty years, or one, 
 or sixty? I do not say that he does; but 
 he who does not in a score of years, or in 
 a quarter of a score, make great advances 
 into that higher service, stands convicted of 
 shameful negligence. But have the. majority 
 of Christians made such advances ?—and _ has 
 
 the speaker himself, who is pressing the mat- 
 
 ter sor—no matter about that: suppose that 
 they have not; but can the multitude of the 
 unfaithful furnish excuse for you unfaithful ? 
 
134 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 for remember that in an old Christian the fail- 
 ure of the higher life proves years of failure 
 in that lower life of duty. 
 
 Brethren, there may be a difference of opin- 
 1on concerning the reality of such a higher 
 life as comes in a moment, and is supported 
 in some way that cannot be explained ; but if 
 I have made clear what is the nature of that 
 higher Christian experience that | am advo- 
 cating, I do not believe there is but one opin- 
 ion among you about its possibility and its 
 blessedness. But if you do not believe in it, 
 the result will be the same, if you follow zeal- 
 ously in the way that you do acknowl- 
 edge right. Be faithful in duty, be conse- 
 crated to duty—keep nothing back from con- 
 secration—and by the practice of duty you 
 will surely arrive at that same higher expe- 
 rience concerning which you are now in 
 doubt. As fast as you have learned to keep 
 the law, you will have a hearty and whole- 
 souled delight in the law, and it will no longer 
 be a law to you. 
 
 But do not study duty as a mere abstract 
 thing; for then you will not be successful in 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 135 
 
 it, nor learn to love it. Duty is personified 
 in God, and embodied in Christ. It will 
 make a great difference if we leave that idea 
 out. It is not merely duty, but it is our God’s 
 command; and not only our God’s command, 
 but our Father’s pleasure. Omit this view 
 of the relations of duty to a personal being, 
 and duty becomes more of a drudgery, more 
 of a mystery, and leads one towards the high- 
 er life more slowly. It would be as if the boy 
 found only his books, and his rules framed on 
 the wall, and no living teacher to inspire him. 
 If we are to inspire ourselves, when shall we 
 reach the higher life? Duty carried out 
 with glad alacrity as beneath the eye of God 
 our King, as a willing service to Christ our 
 Friend and Saviour, by the inspiration of a 
 personal nearness to our Teacher, the Holy 
 Spirit, is a very different thing from duty un- 
 _dertaken barely as duty, with a regretful 
 groan even when we do it willingly. 
 
 You never heard a lover say with regard 
 to some service to his best loved one, “ Well, 
 I suppose I must do it for her, for it is my 
 That is not the way: but does she 
 
 9 
 
 duty. 
 
136 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 want it done ?—then he wants to doit. He 
 pleases himself by pleasing her. 
 
 We please ourselves by pleasing Christ. 
 Out of love to Him we do that which is duty, 
 without caring to think whether it is duty; 
 for if we were not bound to do it, we should 
 do it just the same, for his sake. That is the 
 feeling of him who does love-service ; for love, 
 without offering any violence to duty, covers 
 duty out of sight. 
 
 It is only in proportion to our love that we 
 can have a personal communion with our Sa- 
 viour. It is only through that pupil’s affec- 
 tion that the personality of the teacher takes 
 effect upon him. Without that communion, 
 we may learn some truth of Christ, and be- 
 lieve it with all our mind and half our heart; 
 but a union of ourself to Himself, so that His 
 life flows into our life, there cannot be. Wa 
 may be his true followers, but we follow him 
 too far off. The opposite extremes of the ex- 
 perience possible to a real Christian are very 
 far apart—very high and very low. Be too 
 ambitious, brethren, to stay contentedly in the 
 dust. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 ~ 
 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 137 
 
 Yet before our Father’s face, and at the 
 meetings of his saints, and at the table where 
 they gather, all grades are welcome, poor 
 scholars and good, if only they are deter- 
 mined, without regard to consequences, to 
 work in Christ’s service, and to stand on his 
 side in the face of all the world. 
 
138 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 REST IN CHRIST, 
 
 MATTHEW xi. 28. 
 
 “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
 and I will give you rest.” 
 
 WHEN Noah’s ark had floated forty days 
 upon the flood and nothing could be seen but 
 waters far and wide, he opened his window 
 and sent forth a dove; and she, flying for rest 
 over the broad face of the world, found no 
 place for the sole of her foot, and wearily re- 
 turned for shelter to the restless ark. Much 
 like that, sometimes, we send our thoughts 
 forth to seek repose for us; and over monoto- 
 nous waters they fly, they fly, safe for a time 
 upon their wings, but comfortless, because no 
 solid standing-place appears in all this tumult 
 of toils and perplexities—no rock or firm-set 
 tree ;—and so they return to us to rest upon 
 a support which is itself afloat and tossing. 
 Such is all the repose of self-trust; and to 
 those who cannot rely upon themselves, and 
 
 
 
 
 
REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 139 
 
 yet have not found a foothold in Christ, their 
 
 rest is like the dove’s rest on her wings in 
 
 wind and rain, leaning on the gale among the 
 scudding clouds, with only a surging of waves 
 beneath her. But to such a one the voice of 
 Christ speaks out of the distant gloom, ‘“‘Come 
 MALONG!.-.. ss and I will Pine, yOu rest, 4 Fle 
 
 speaks not loud, but clearly, through the roar- 
 
 ing of the storm; he speaks from the repose 
 of his own steady spirit, calmly (but with no 
 lack of earnestness), ‘Come unto me, all ye 
 that labor and are heavy laden, and I[ will 
 give you rest’’—rest !—“and I will give vou 
 rest.” 
 
 How many of us confessedly, and how many 
 more than will confess it, are searching anx- 
 iously for just this thing! And now the invi- 
 tation is to come and partake of it,—rest for 
 our wandering thoughts, not in their fainting 
 wings, nor in our drifting selves, but in a 
 place unmoved by gales or billows. 
 
 It seems to me that if there were a soul toa 
 sea-beaten rock, it must take a grim pleasure, 
 lifting its head above the waves, without com- 
 plaint allowing them to pound and thunder at 
 
140 MEMORIAL OF THE — 
 
 ~. eR 
 
 its sides, and crush themselves and swallow 
 up each other attempting to break through, 
 while on its top a man may sit in peace and 
 watch them, or read his book, or talk with his 
 
 companions. What a deep, happy rest down 
 
 in its inmost heart the rock must have !—the 
 
 truer for the very reason that the waves are 
 
 raging so, and the truer still because its rest 
 
 is lent to the people who stand uponit. Firm 
 
 like that rock, safe like that rock, peaceful 
 
 within like it, our Saviour is, to whom we fly 
 
 for rest; but not hard and grim lke the rock; 
 
 he has a human heart, and divine understand- 
 
 ing of our case. It is his own peace that he 
 invites us to take part in; it is the peace of 
 God; and he invites with official authority as 
 
 the messenger of the Almighty Father, the 
 
 Author of rest. 
 
 This is not only true, but it is the truth 
 which the Saviour himself brings out in the 
 passage before us, as will be discovered if we 
 examine the line of thought in the chapter. 
 The: question is raised in the third verse, 
 which after some delay and preparation is 
 answered in the closing verses. The question 
 
 
 

 
 REV, JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. [AI 
 
 is, ‘Art thou the appointed messenger of 
 God ?—‘ Art thou he that should come, or 
 do we look for another? The answer is, 
 ‘Yea, and I am he that giveth rest.’ The 
 question was sent by John the Baptist from 
 the prison where he lay. He had preached 
 Jesus as the Messiah, but now began to doubt 
 whether there might not be some mistake, 
 when he heard that he was healing and teach- 
 ing, rather than setting up the kingdom of 
 God as a political and military power. Jesus 
 sent back the answer by pointing to these 
 very works of his which John had stumbled 
 at, and by the word, “ Blessed is he whoso- 
 ever shall not be offended in me.” It was as 
 if he had said, ‘ Yes, John; my works are just 
 such as thou hast heard of; but do not be 
 disappointed, for these are the proper works 
 of the Messiah.’ 
 
 And when the messengers had departed, 
 he again implied that he was the Messiah, by 
 showing that his forerunner John was the 
 last and greatest of the prophets. Then he 
 accused the Jews of their captiousness and 
 of their wicked indifference. Then he thanked 
 
142 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 God that the truth was revealed to simple 
 minds; then he comes to his answer who he 
 was ;—“ All things are delivered unto me of 
 my Father; and no man knoweth the Son, 
 but the Father; neither knoweth any man the 
 Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever 
 the Son will reveal him.” Thus claiming the 
 lofty position of Son and Revealer of the Fa- 
 ther, he urges them to receive his revelation 
 and to receive rest, by sharing his own rest. 
 Imagine the greatest of the apostles saying 
 such words, and so by contrast see how great 
 Christ’s claim is. Imagine Peter or Paul or 
 John saying, ‘Come unto me, all ye that la- 
 bor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of 
 me; for lam meek and lowly in heart; and 
 ye shall find rest unto your souls.” 
 
 Who is it, then, that invites? It is the Son 
 of God in God’s name. Whom does he in- 
 vite? All who need,—not some, but all who 
 are in trial and need rest. In what sort of 
 trial? In every sort; the rest he promises is 
 from all the misery of acting—which is ex- 
 pressed by the term “all that labor,’—and 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 143 
 
 from all the misery of enduring tribulation 
 from without, which is expressed by the term 
 “all that are heavy laden.’ The people in- 
 vited are all who have trouble, from whatever 
 source, within them or without. He invites 
 those pressed with poverty and forced to a 
 desperate struggle for food and clothing. 
 He invites those apprehensive of the future, 
 whose mind furnishes itself with present 
 trouble by fearing trouble yet to come. He 
 invites those disappointed in their worldly 
 plans, or those pursuing worldly enterprises 
 with féverish excitement. He invites the 
 tired, the overworked, and those overloaded 
 with cares manifold and unremitting. He in- 
 vites us who are pestered by swarms of in- 
 numerable annoyances, each one of which is 
 
 too contemptible to speak of, but all which 
 | together amount to an affliction that cannot 
 be derided. He invites those distressed with 
 bodily pain and sickness; and those who, 
 either at an advanced age or earlier in life, 
 are conscious of powers beginning to abate 
 and the fresh vigor of other years now slowly 
 waning. He invites those downtrodden un- 
 
144 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 der tyranny by the civil power, and those op- 
 pressed by selfish men who happen to hold 
 them at a disadvantage, or by petty tyranny 
 at home. He invites the bereaved, the wid- 
 ow, the fatherless, all mourners, and the 
 friendless. He invites those who are be- 
 trayed by false friends and scheming advisers 
 to the loss of their goods, or their reputation, 
 or their honor. He invites the persecuted 
 and the abused. He invites those harassed 
 with doubtings and hard questions that worry 
 them. He invites the tempted, the spiritually 
 weak and unstable, and all who tremble with 
 the fear of sinning. He invites them who feel 
 their sinfulness and are disquieted by it,— 
 who are ashamed of it, or frightened by it,— 
 or sorry for it. He invites those conscious 
 of the power of sin within them, irresistible, 
 little by little dragging them under lke a 
 quicksand, in spite of their struggles and cries, 
 —“ Who shall deliver me from the body of this 
 death!” He invites those who long for right- 
 eousness, and have no peace without it, and 
 those who thirst for communion with God, 
 and will not be satisfied without it. To all’ 
 
 
 
REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 148 
 
 these, and to every one who is not at rest with- 
 in himself, the invitation is directed,—‘‘ Come 
 unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy la- 
 den, and I will give you rest.” 
 
 Sirs, we are all invited; we need rest, and 
 here it is held out to us. Shall we-now in- 
 quire more particularly what this is that we 
 are invited to? It is not to the explanation 
 of doctrines merely for doctrine’s sake (there 
 is no rest in knowledge); it is not to easy and 
 pleasant earthly circumstances (for a rock has 
 rest, not depending on the waves remaining 
 quiet); it is not to idleness that we are called 
 (that most unrestful state); but it 1s to res¢t—the 
 relief from toil and burden,—that is, from la- 
 bor and from heavy lading. That this is the 
 meaning is evident from the manner in which 
 the word “rest” is contrasted in the sentence 
 with the words “labor” and “heavy laden.’’ 
 And, since these words denote all active and 
 passive misery, as we have seen, the promised 
 rest is relief from all the misery that comes of 
 acting and being acted on. It is relief from 
 poverty, anxiety, disappointment, sickness, 
 tyranny, distracting doubts, fear, sin, spiritual 
 
146 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 dissatisfaction, and every form of unrest that 
 can be named. 
 
 Now this will lead us perforce to under- 
 stand that the rest that Christ here so dis- 
 tinctly promises is not, exactly the sort of 
 thing that shallow and earthly minds call by 
 that name. And this the following words set 
 forth more clearly still;—‘“ Take my yoke” 
 (‘to. take the yoke’ is a well-known Jewish 
 expression meaning ‘to come under one’s in- 
 structions,’ ‘to attend his school’)— Enter 
 my school and learn of me,’ our Teacher says, 
 ‘“‘and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Now 
 we see how he can speak so confidently. It 
 is not alone because he has the power of God 
 upon his side, but it is for the same reason 
 that a teacher can confidently promise to im- 
 part what he fully knows himself—it is be- 
 cause Christ has within himself that rest 
 which he would give us. ‘“ My peace give I 
 unto you;—not as the world giveth give I 
 unto you.” The world promises to give rest by 
 making matters smooth outside and leaving 
 our hearts as they are; Christ means to settle 
 our restless hearts; the world would try to 
 
 
 
REV, JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 147 
 
 make the waves stop rolling, which cannot 
 be; Christ would make us firm enough to be 
 at peace even when they dash clear over us. 
 Their tumult shall be music to us, while we 
 stand still in cheerful mood. 
 
 Real rest must always be internal. Why 
 does the sick man find no rest? Give him 
 the softest of pillows and the most luxurious 
 bed, let air be pure, and warmth most suit- 
 able, and light tempered with the most deli- 
 cate tact; tread softly, let the voice be hush- 
 ed; yet he will toss and groan, and wish a 
 thing changed and then changed back again, 
 and he will pettishly complain, perhaps, of the 
 very things that you have arranged at the 
 greatest pains to please him,—and all because 
 the unrest is within him. And why does the 
 conscience-stricken have no rest? He may 
 be thought in all things fortunate, and may 
 be highly honored, his prosperity may bring 
 him troops of friends and showers of compli- 
 ments; every enterprise may turn out well, 
 and every means of pleasure be within his 
 reach; but, while remorse is gnawing like a 
 worm within him, though he put on a con- 
 
148 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 tented look and speak with cheerful voice, 
 there is no rest, and there can be given him 
 no rest by any way of arranging circum- 
 stances. " | 
 
 But “ Take my yoke upon you and learn of 
 me, ; the. Saviour, says 2s. -yr “and ye shall 
 find rest unto your souls.” A restful heart ye 
 shall receive; and then ye shall be like a 
 room all cheerful within, with a bright fire 
 burning and a table stored with good things, 
 while the storm singing without and the rain 
 upon the windows only increase the comfort. 
 True comfort must be within. Such was the 
 peace that Christ carried in himself about the 
 world, through hunger and slander, and men’s 
 wilful misunderstanding, and the persecutions 
 of the Jews and the folly of his disciples, feel- 
 ing himself to be alone even when multitudes 
 were shouting ‘“ Hosanna” in his honor, and 
 having ever in his view the cross with its ag- 
 ony and its obloquy. Christ’s central calm- 
 ness is nowhere more remarkable than in the 
 scenes which would try a person most. No- 
 tice it at the last supper, when he prophesied 
 that one of his friends would sell him for 
 
 
 
REV. JAMES BRAINERD: TVLER. 149 
 
 money and another would deny him. In the 
 words with which he distributed to them 
 the emblems of his death, notice that sim- 
 plicity united with deep significance, and that 
 lack of passionate expression and so-called 
 eloquence, by which was revealed a heart fix- 
 ed and calm to its very depths. Then grief 
 began; but who is it then ministers the con- 
 solation? Not they to him, but he to them! 
 “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe 
 in God, believe also in me’’—in me, the suffer- 
 ing and the dying one. Then that prayer be- 
 ginning, “ Father, the hour is come,’’—the 
 undertone of confidence sounds through the 
 sadness of it, and soon that wonderful utter- 
 ance—“ That they might have my joy fulfilled 
 in themselves.” Afterwards, for once his heart 
 seems to have failed him; but not so: “ My 
 soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death ;” 
 but what steady trust still in his Father was 
 that which spoke, “ Nevertheless, not what I 
 will, but what thou wilt.” And when, a short 
 time after, Peter was for defending Christ by 
 force, the Master spoke again from his calm 
 heart, “ Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray 
 
I50 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 to my Father, and he shall presently give me 
 more than twelve legions of angels ?”’ 
 
 Now if it is Christ’s own rest that he has 
 promised us, take note of a few things con- ~ 
 cerning it. 
 
 In the first place, then: He gives rest from 
 sin by taking sin away; and with it goes the 
 disquiet of a guilty conscience and a fear of 
 penalty. “ Love casteth out fear.” “ Beloved, 
 if our heart condemn us not, then have we 
 confidence toward God,” and not unquietness 
 before him any longer. This is too evident 
 to be dwelt upon, and is a thing that stands 
 upon the very face of our text. But because 
 this is so plainly true, we must not, by gazing 
 at it too exclusively, let another thing escape 
 attention :-— 
 
 For, in the second place, the rest of Christ. 
 is rest from other things besides sin, a guilty 
 conscience and the dread of punishment; it is 
 a rest from all toilsome labor and heavy bur- 
 dens. Do not doubt this, because you do not 
 see that Christians are less afflicted than oth- 
 ers with the trials of life; for thus to doubt 
 would show that the meaning of rest 1s not 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. I51 
 
 understood. Cessation is not promised us, but 
 rest—not a taking away, but a relief—not a 
 stopping of the waves, but ability to endure 
 them,—not rest external, which is no rest, but 
 rest internal, which is rest. To give the sick 
 man a thorough repose, we need to cause a 
 changein #zm, and not merely to remake his 
 bed; and so Christ gives rest from the unto- 
 ward circumstances of our life—not chiefly, 
 and sometimes not at all, by making circum- 
 stances pleasanter; but always by imparting 
 his peacefulness of mind, which turns evil to 
 good; or if not, still it cannot be hurt by the 
 evil. Take one example and let it stand for 
 many. Here is a person who by a seemingly 
 cruel work of Providence loses him. who has 
 been at once her best beloved, her trusty 
 counsellor, her helper in the labor of rearing 
 a family, and the furnisher of their support. 
 Her love, her courage and her ability are all 
 bereaved at once. Where shall she find rest 
 from sorrow, and from dejection, and from 
 want? She goes to Christ for it, and learns a 
 little of his rest. His rest did not consist in ~ 
 being devoid of sorrow, or in the assurance 
 
152 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 that all things would turn just as he would 
 like, or in a plentiful supply of physical com- 
 forts; neither probably will hers—at least, that 
 is not the promise. But she “shall find rest into 
 her soul,” as Christ did; then these sore afflic- 
 tions, really felt, shall dwell only in the outer 
 part of her mind, while in the centre calm- 
 ness and courage, and a fixed happiness shall 
 be, so bracing the whole fabric that it cannot 
 fall to pieces or be shaken from its place; and 
 this solid rest shall grow, as a fruit ripens 
 from the centre outwards, and shall drive the 
 unrest further and further towards the sur- 
 face and finally outside the soul; and then 
 what have we? a soul beset and struck at on 
 every side, and yet in perfect peace within. 
 ‘Have we not known a few who were not far 
 from being what I say ?-—invulnerable to ex- 
 ternal troubles, and that not by a shell-like 
 hardness, but because those souls are made of 
 such material as troubles cannot mingle with. 
 
 If we really need to be saved from want, 
 sickness, loneliness, and the other grievous 
 things that this world offers us, God will take 
 them from us; but in most cases we do not 
 
 
 

 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 153 
 
 need that (however much we may desire it), 
 but we need a restful heart. The promise is 
 to give us this; it does not say that all exter- 
 nal difficulties shall be done away. “In the 
 world ye shall have tribulation: but be of 
 good cheer; I have overcome the world.” 
 “These things have I said unto you that ye 
 Misntenave peace... “Be of good cheer” in 
 the midst of tribulation; that is better than to 
 live at ease. 
 
 Moreover, the thought that it is peace like 
 Christ’s, will remind us that we are not called 
 to be stoics. Though Jesus was at rest dur- 
 ing continued tribulation, he was very far 
 distant from stoicism, which teaches a man to 
 make himself callous to pain and pleasure, 
 counting them as things indifferent, and to 
 sustain himself in a sort of noble moral pride 
 near to his ideal. A philosophic view of 
 troubles and delights, steadiness, self-com- 
 mand, self-respect, and unswerving obedience 
 to the duty that philosophy points out, are 
 the lofty characteristics of true stoicism. It 
 is the sublimest rule of living that the human 
 mind without the aid of revelation has been: 
 
 8 
 
154 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 able to frame. But Christ has something still 
 better and quite different. Instead of estab- 
 lishing a form of pride—even this noblest form 
 of it—as the foundation of a good man’s char- 
 acter, he leaves him to be as prideless asa 
 child: instead of calling upon us to exterm1- 
 nate the natural emotions of the heart, he 
 leaves them in full force; he will not mangle 
 us in order to make life tolerable. He teaches 
 us to go as steadily through good and evil as 
 the stoic does, but to go with warm hearts 
 and simple, as the stoic cannot; for the stoic’s 
 calmness is by a cultured coldness, while the 
 Christian’s calmness is by an internal wealth 
 of peace and life, derived from Christ. How 
 hopeful it renders us, where stoicism only 
 makes one contented; how full of “good 
 cheer,” ‘‘overcoming the world” in spite of 
 tribulation, our Master’s peace brings us to 
 be; how tall it makes us grow above the en- 
 tangling briers at our feet! 
 
 And notice now a thing that probably has 
 been coming to your thoughts repeatedly as 
 I was speaking,—that this rest from labor and 
 burdens shall sometime become complete. I 
 
 
 

 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 155 
 
 have not made this prominent, because it oc- 
 curs of itself to every one at the mention of 
 the text, and because there is more danger of 
 overlooking the fact that the rest of Christ 
 belongs in this world as well as in the world 
 to come, and is rest from every sort of trial as 
 well as from sin and spiritual afflictions. But 
 the time will come—it will not be long hence, 
 will it? 
 cheer amid the storm, but the storm itself 
 
 
 
 when not only may we be of good 
 
 shall pass away, and the sun shine out from 
 the clear blue, and we shall be standing in- 
 side the gate towards which we have been 
 laboriously plodding, and rest shall be not 
 only within us, but all around us. 
 
 And then, “© feeble, faltering feet, 
 
 Methinks ’twill be so wondrous sweet 
 
 To tread the pavement’s golden gleams, 
 
 And rest beside the crystal streams, 
 
 In that dear city where all tears 
 
 Are wiped away, and all our fears, 
 
 And all our weary wanderings cease ; 
 
 There shall you rest, tired feet, in peace.” 
 
 “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 
 
 Heavy Jaden ..... Take my yoke upon you, 
 and Jearn of me; for I am meek and lowly of 
 
156 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” 
 Meekness and lowliness cannot help giving 
 rest of themselves. Yet Christ does not say, 
 ““meekness and lowliness will give you rest,” 
 but “I will give” it. Does it not point to the 
 fact that there is rest for us desédes that which 
 these qualities themselves can give ?—rest in 
 a person, rest in Christ’s love, rest in com- 
 munion with him, to be enjoyed on condi- 
 tion that we learn his meekness and lowliness, 
 and so be able to enter into his mind and 
 thoughts ? 
 
 And in this connection is something that 
 seems strange to me—that is, that men who 
 read the life of Christ, understand that meek- 
 ness means tameness, and lowliness means 
 servility. Tameness and servility afford no 
 rest; nor are they found in Christ. What 
 was almost the last thing that he had uttered 
 before this call to meekness? It was a most 
 terrible upbraiding of Chorazin and Caper- 
 naum. And what was the last word before 
 this invitation to be lowly in heart? It wasa 
 claiming to be the only knower and revealer 
 of God. A selfish pride or an unrighteous 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 157 
 
 anger is as far from Christ as anything that 
 can be imagined; but a fearless rebuke where 
 rebuke is necessary, or a plain announcement 
 of his glorious office where that is called for, 
 he does not shrink from uttering. 
 
 It is not, then, upon a weak or puny mind 
 that we are called to rest, but on one whose 
 repose itself is but a form of power. His easy 
 yoke he offers us; and instead of our burden, 
 his burden, light, and lifted from above. Thus 
 he stands amid the crowd with welcoming 
 words in cheerful’ voice: ‘Come, get rest; I 
 will give it you; wait no more.’ 
 
 Great rest is yours, all you who come to 
 Christ. Have you yet realized that portion 
 which you can in this world, and which you 
 are in need of now? In some degree I know 
 you have; in greater degree you may. In all 
 the toils and enduring all the burdens of your 
 lot, have you learned .to pass through the 
 world as a boy wades through an impetuous 
 torrent, his feet among cutting and slippery 
 stones and rushing waters, but his head and 
 heart calm in the sunlight above? That is 
 our Master’s peace. 
 
158 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 And you who have no peace, why will you 
 not hear his gracious voice? He does not 
 quite yet say, ‘‘ Depart from me;” but for the 
 present his bidding is, ‘Come unto me.” To 
 -each toiling soul, to each burdened spirit, 
 comes his breath; with healing power for 
 every bruise, promising relief from every sor- 
 row, saying, “Come unto. me, all ye that 
 labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
 you rest”’—rest! Now may God give you 
 rest! 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. I59 
 
 THE POSITION OF MOSES’ LAW UNDER 
 eee GOL EI, DISPENSATION, —TT’ Is 
 ABOLISHED. 
 
 COLOSSIANS 2:14. 
 
 “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was 
 against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the 
 way, nailing it to his cross.” 
 
 EPHESIANS 2:14, 15. 
 
 “THe] hath broken down the middle wall of partition 
 between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even 
 the law of commandments, contained in ordinances.” 
 
 THESE two sayings explain each other, and 
 are abundantly explained by other passages 
 in St. Paul, and elsewhere in the New Testa- 
 meet. their meaning is, that Christ by 
 his death destroyed the separating barrier 
 between Jews and Gentiles, by abolishing the 
 Law of Moses. That code of written ordi- 
 
160 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 nances he took out of our way, and crucified 
 it when himself was crucified. 3 
 
 So, then, let us direct our minds upon this 
 topic :—what position does the Law of the 
 Old Testament take, and what sort of au- 
 thority has it, under the new dispensation of 
 Christ >—what shall we do with the Law of 
 Moses? 
 
 First of all, let us illustrate by a parallel 
 case. The law of England used to have au- 
 thority over this country: is it over us now? 
 Of course we say No; but let us see. The 
 law of England forbids stealing. May I steal, 
 then, because I think that law is abolished for 
 Americans? I may not steal. Then is not 
 the law of England still in force, so far as steal- 
 ing is concerned? I think anybody can an- 
 swer that the law of England is not in force ; 
 but stealing is forbidden by American law. 
 But suppose our State had neglected to pass 
 a law against stealing, would it then be right 
 to steal? Of course not. Why?— because 
 the English law forbids it? And if so, is not 
 the law of England partially in force among 
 us? It is not partially in force: it has nothing 
 
 
 
REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 161 
 
 to do with the matter. Stealing is wrong by 
 the law of nature, which isthe law of God. If 
 our government does not make laws against 
 it, still it is wrong; and whether England has 
 a law against it or not, has nothing to do with 
 the matter. 
 
 We must carefully distinguish between the 
 bare authority of a law and the intrinsic right- 
 ness of the things commanded by it. The 
 authority of a law, strictly speaking, is derived 
 from the authority of the author, the lawgiver, 
 and continues only as long as the lawgiven 
 will; the intrinsic rightness of a command 
 depends upon the reasonableness of it, as 
 judged by the needs of human nature and by 
 conscience. Stealing, and lying, and blas- 
 phemy, are wrong, whether any government 
 has forbidden them or not. They are pro- 
 hibited by conscience. A governing authority 
 may add its own law to that of conscience if 
 it will; but when that government’s law is 
 done away, still the law of conscience remains. 
 But take a different case. It is neither right 
 nor wrong for me to shoot game at a cer- 
 
 tain season of the year: I may do as | please. 
 8* 
 
162 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 Conscience has no general law here. Now 
 the government comes in and says, I shall not 
 shoot during such and such months. If that 
 government has no rightful authority over 
 me, its law about shooting counts for nothing ; 
 the right and wrong remain just as they were 
 before. Z. g,if England forbids me to shoot 
 in Connecticut, I don’t care a pin; she has 
 no authority here; I will shoot as I please. 
 But if the government which has rightful 
 authority, forbids me to shoot, shooting at 
 once becomes a sin. The authority of the 
 government makes that wrong which was 
 not wrong before. Here it is then: If an 
 action is neither right nor wrong by the na- 
 tural law of conscience, the rightful govern- 
 ment can make it right or make it wrong by 
 its own authority expressed in law: but when 
 that law is repealed, matters go back to their 
 former state, and the action is neither right 
 nor wrong. 
 
 And again, if an action is in itself either a 
 duty or a sin by the natural law of conscience, 
 then the government cannot make right wrong 
 or wrong right; but it can add its own law 
 
 
 
 
 
KEV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 163 
 
 to that of conscience: and when this govern- 
 ment law is repealed, still the right action 
 remains right, and the wrong remains wrong. 
 
 The law of England used to forbid Ameri- 
 cans to steal. That law of England was abolish- 
 ed for us; yet then it was wrong to steal. The 
 American law came in and forbade us to steal, 
 and still it is wrong to steal; for stealing is 
 wrong at any rate. Again, the law of Eng- 
 land used to require Americans to pay their 
 taxes by a certain) rule; and then it was their 
 duty to doso: the law of England was abol- 
 ished, and then it was not our duty to pay taxes 
 by that rule: but the law of America comes 
 in and says we shall pay them by a different 
 rule, and then it becomes our duty so to do. 
 
 What shall we say then? Is the law of 
 England abolished only in part? Is it abolish- 
 ed in the matter of taxes, and does it still stand 
 in the matter of stealing? No, it is abolished 
 every whit ; there is not a particle of its author- 
 ity remaining over us. Stealing remains wrong, 
 as it always was; and taxes are now regulated 
 by a new government, under whose authority 
 we are. 
 
 a 
 
164 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 - What then would be the result if the Mosaic 
 Law were abolished every whit—Decalogue, 
 ceremonies, customs, taxes, and all the rest of 
 it? Stealing would remain wrong as it al- 
 ways was, and so would every other act which 
 is wrong by nature; but ceremonies, taxes, 
 and everything not right or wrong by nature, 
 would be regulated by a new government, or 
 else would remain indifferent. And that is just 
 the actual state of things. The law of Eng- 
 land can make nothing right or wrong for 
 Americans, because we are not subjects of 
 England any longer: the law of Moses can 
 make nothing right or wrong for Christians, 
 because we are not subjects of that law. But 
 what is right by nature remains right, and 
 what is wrong by nature remains wrong; and 
 as to the rest, we have a new government, the 
 Lord Jesus, who can regulate matters as he 
 sees fit. 
 
 What shall we say then? Is the Mosaic law 
 abolished only in part, because we still are 
 bound not to steal, or bear false witness, or 
 commit adultery? It is abolished wholly: it 
 is swept clean away: it has not a particle of 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 165 
 
 authority left. It will not do to separate it 
 into three portions—the moral, the ceremo- 
 nial, and the civil,—and to say the moral re- 
 mains while the rest is done away. It is all 
 done away; and the moral precepts remain 
 on their own authority, with the authority 
 of Christ added. They were in force before the 
 Decalogue was published ; they were in force 
 after it was puvlished; they are in force now 
 that it is abolished. This distinguishing the 
 law of Moses into three parts is something 
 not recognized by Moses himself, or by the 
 writers of the New Testament: it is a contri- 
 vance of theologians of later times. It may 
 be a useful distinction, and I do not doubt 
 it ¥%; but it is a mischievous distinction, when 
 it mnrevents our seeing the fact that the old 
 law is blotted out entirely. 
 
 Is this now a conclusion that we arrive at, 
 only by studying the analogy of the abolition 
 of the English law? No: it is a truth insisted 
 on by the Apostle; and we use the analogy only 
 by way of explanation. ‘ The law was our 
 schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ, that we 
 might be justified by faith. But, after that 
 
166 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 faith is come, we are no longer undera school. 
 master.’ In another place the same apostle 
 argues, that a woman is bound to her husband 
 only as long as he is alive. When he dies, she 
 dies to him, and may marry again. In like 
 manner Moses’ law is dead, and we are dead 
 to it—that we might be “ married to another, 
 even to him who was raised from the dead,” 
 the Lord Jesus. And again he says, “If I 
 build again the things which I destroyed,’ — 
 if I set up Moses’ authority again after having 
 thrown it down,—“‘I make myseif a trans- 
 gressor; for I, through the law, am dead to 
 the law, that I might live to Christ.” And 
 yet again he speaks of certain Mosaic obser- 
 vances asa shadow of coming things: but now 
 that the body itself, of which they were a shad- 
 ow, 1S come, what care we for the shadow? 
 The body is Christ: and he “blotted out the 
 handwriting of ordinances that was against 
 us, which was contrary to us, and took it out 
 of the way, nailing it to his cross.” He 
 ‘abolished * * * the law of commandments 
 contained in ordinances, * * * so making 
 peace.” And yet another inspired writer says, 
 
 
 

 
 KEY SfAM ES BRAINERD TYLER. 167 
 
 that Christ is the Priest now, in stead of the 
 tribe of Levi, and “The priesthood being 
 changed, there is of necessity a change also 
 of the law.” “There is verily a disannuliny 
 of the commandment going before, for the 
 weakness and unprofitableness thereof.” We 
 conclude, then, that ‘Christ is the exd of the 
 Law, for righteousness, unto every one that 
 believeth.” 
 
 Let me dwell a little longer upon the pre- 
 sent matter, that) there may be no need of 
 proving it over again next week. Paul 
 gives great emphasis to the truth that in 
 Christ the law is done away. That he means 
 the law of Moses, I think, will not be doubt- 
 ed by any one who has given intelligent at- 
 tention to the course of thought in the epistles, 
 or to Paul’s customary use of this term Law. 
 This isa well-known proper name fora certain 
 book—the book of the Pentateuch, or the law 
 of Moses,—and it would be so understood by 
 every Jewish reader. But does the apostle 
 mean that it is done away as a method of jus- 
 tification? or as an authoritative rule of ac- 
 tion? One or the other he must mean. He 
 
 - 
 
168 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 does not mean that it is done away as a method 
 of justification ; for he vehemently denies that 
 it ever was a method of justification. At An- 
 tioch he preached tiat believers “are justified 
 from all things, from which ye could not be 
 justified by the law of Moses ;” and indignant- 
 ly reminded Peter that “ By the works of the 
 law shall no flesh be justified.” The Mosaic 
 law, therefore, is done away as an authorita- 
 tive rule of action. Allofits authority, though 
 not its usefulness, is gone. 
 
 The Mosaic law was a national law, given 
 to the Jews. It has not been abolished for the 
 Gentiles, for it never had authority over them ; 
 for the same reason that the law of France 
 has no authority over me,—I never was a 
 citizen of France. Moses’ law was Jewish 
 law: it never had authority over me, for I 
 never was a Jew. The Jewish nation, how- 
 ever, once was God’s church on earth, and 
 then the Mosaic law was the law of the ° 
 church; but it was repealed long ago, and by 
 that means it became possible for Gentiles to 
 come into the church without becoming Jews: 
 z.e, the “middle wall of partition” between 
 
 
 
! 
 | 
 | 
 ' 
 
 ! 
 ; 
 \ 
 
 
 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 169 
 
 Jew and Gentile, was broken down thereby, 
 as our text declares. Either the law has 
 
 ‘been abolished, or else the Gentiles cannot 
 
 come into God’s church, or else the Gentiles 
 must become Jews when they come in. The 
 Gentiles may come in without becoming Jews: 
 therefore the Jewish law must have been 
 abolished. 
 
 Abolished partly? No; abolished wholly, 
 as we have seen. 
 
 Neither is this the meaning,—that the law 
 seems abolished to the Christian, because he o- 
 beys it, and so does not feel its authority weigh- 
 ing down upon him. It is true that such is the 
 result of obeying the law heartily, and for the 
 love of it. But that is not the thing that is being 
 spoken of in all these passages about the re- 
 pealing of the Law; for it is a thought which 
 would be outside of the line of argument in 
 every one of them. 
 
 I hope that now the thing I wish to say is 
 not left ambiguous. My meaning is, and the 
 apostle’s meaning is, in the plainest sense of 
 these words, that the binding authority of the 
 law of Moses, in all parts of it, is, under the 
 
170 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 Christian dispensation, as completely null and 
 void as if that law had never been given. 
 
 And furthermore, the Old Testament follow- 
 ing Moses’ time, is in the same manner done 
 away. It is but a part and development of 
 Judaism, of which Moses’ law is the founda- 
 tion ; they are both of one piece. Their unity 
 is so well recognized, that the term law was of- 
 ten used among the Jews, and in the New Tes- 
 tament, as the name of the whole Old Testa- 
 ment together, and not of the first five books 
 alone,—as, e.g, where Paul says, “ In the law 
 it is written, with men of other tongues and 
 other lips will [ speak unto this people,”’—the 
 quotation being from Isaiah. No distinction 
 is ever intentionally made between the Penta- 
 teuch and the other parts of the Old Testa- 
 ment, except with the idea that the Pentateuch 
 is the basis of the whole; so that the later 
 books stand or fall with the books of Moses. 
 In company with Moses, their authority as 
 commandments is done away. 
 
 Observe, however, that abolishing the old 
 law does not declare it to bea bad one. The law 
 of England is not declared to be bad when we 
 
 
 
 
 
KEV. GFAUMLS DRAINERD? TYLER. Dal 
 
 say that it no longer has authority over us. 
 Good or bad, it was done away: and yet in 
 truth it was a good law—far better than most 
 nations have. The Mosaic law is not declared 
 to be a bad one by being abolished: but it had 
 done its work, and become obsolete, and a 
 better government, with a new law, took its 
 place. The summary of Moses’ law is the 
 same as the summary of the perfect law ;— 
 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with 
 all thy mind ;” and, “Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbor as thyself’ “Wherefore the law 
 is holy and just, and (therefore) good.” 
 In that age of the world there was no code 
 of morals worthy to stand in comparison 
 with it; and for that Jewish nation, in their 
 peculiar circumstances, with their peculiar 
 qualities, and with their peculiar work to do 
 in the history of the world, the Mosaic law 
 was fitted by divine wisdom for its temporary 
 purpose. When it had accomplished this, it 
 became useless and was set aside, that a “ bet- 
 ter dispensation” might come in. “ For there 
 is verily a disannuling of the commandment 
 
172 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 going before, for the weakness and unprofit- 
 ableness thereof: for the law made nothing 
 perfect; but [there was] the bringing in of a 
 better hope.” And all of that abolished law, 
 which is good for us under our circumstances, 
 still remains—not, however, on the authority 
 of Moses, but on its own authority, and by the 
 command of Christ. 
 
 Now notice, if you please, another thing. 
 The Law of England has not the slightest 
 authority over this country ; and yet, because 
 our law is founded upon it, it is of great value 
 to help us to understand our own law, and to 
 cuide the practice of our courts,—so much so, 
 that no one is fit to be a lawyer here who has 
 not given considerable attention to the law of 
 England. In like manner, the law of Moses, 
 and the Old Testament generally, are of great 
 value to aid the understanding of the New — 
 Testament and the law of Christ. By saying 
 that its authority is gone, we are far from 
 teaching that it need not be studied or heed- 
 ed. On the contrary, the Old Testament is 
 the most valuable commentary on the New; 
 and not only so, but it also throws light upon 
 
 
 
Ee eeereoOw —- -- 
 \ 
 
 ! 
 
 
 
 Kein Pati Ea DKAINE RIOT VLE R. 174 
 
 many of our duties, which are less distinctly 
 mentioned in the New. It throws light upon 
 them, and it may show them to be binding ; 
 but it cannot make them binding. To take a 
 single example, the requirement that one-tenth 
 of the yearly income should be set apart for 
 religious and charitable uses, will go far to 
 guide us in framing our own rules of charity; 
 but it is not itself a rule to us, for its bare 
 authority is utterly destroyed. 
 
 2nd. Now, in view of all that has been said, 
 the inquiry arises;—What then was the law 
 of Moses for ?—what purpose was it meant to 
 serve, if its authority was meant to pass away ? 
 
 Of course, a part of its design was to rule 
 the nation of the Jews asa social body, and 
 do the offices of acivil law: but, besides this, 
 the New Testament points out two purposes 
 for which the law was given,—namely: to 
 awaken men toa sense of their helpless con- 
 dition in sin, and to point out to them the 
 true way of redemption. It wasasort of John ~ 
 the Baptist, crying, “ Repent!” It was not 
 the Light, “but was sent to bear witness of 
 that Light.” 
 
174 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 “The law entered that the offence might 
 abound.” The law came in that the sinfulness 
 of human nature might be brought into a defi- 
 nite, and conscious shape, by transgressing 
 express commands. 
 
 The law did not make men sinful, but it took 
 the first step towards curing their sinfulness ; 
 “For by the Law is the knowledge of sin.” It 
 did not make them greater sinners, but it 
 brought their sin to view. The evil of their 
 heart, and the error of their life were scarcely 
 understood by themselves, till a definite com- 
 mandment came and said, ‘Thou shalt do 
 this.’-.* Thou :shalt -not-do etiam 
 they roused themselves in opposition to the 
 command, or else they learned how hard it 
 was to keep it, and accused themselves of 
 definite transgressions against a clearly-stated 
 law; and in either case they came to a knowl- 
 edge of the sin that just as really had ex- 
 isted formerly, only hidden from themselves. 
 The sacrifices and other rites of the Old 
 Testament kept constantly before them the 
 thought of guilt, and the need of atone- 
 ment. Conviction and sorrow was the law’s 
 
 
 

 
 LEV GAMES DRAINERD TVLER. 175 
 
 chief work for sinners — as sense of bond- 
 age, of discord within themselves, of ill-de- 
 serving, of helplessness. But not without 
 hope, were men in prison under the law. 
 There was a better expectation forward. ‘We 
 were kept under the law, shut up, awaiting 
 the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 
 Wherefore the law was our guide to Christ, 
 _ that we might be justified by faith.’ With one 
 hand, the law held men in its painful grasp, 
 with the other it pointed to the coming Christ. 
 Christ came; the law let go its hold; we 
 went to Christ ; and we are free. 
 
 Such is the teaching of St. Paul. Such is 
 the law, such was its purpose; and it did not 
 fail. The law was ordained by God to do 
 this temporary work for the race of man, as 
 the law of conscience does it for the indi- 
 vidual soul. As one wishing to leaven a great 
 mass of dough, first prepares a little leaven 
 separately, and at the right time adds it to 
 the mass, so God prepared the education of 
 our sinful race, by setting apart a little na- 
 tion, giving them the law to drive them to- 
 wards Christ, then giving them Christ; and 
 
176 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 at last, through their efforts, sending forth into 
 the wide world, the gospel-leaven, to infect 
 the whole with life and holiness. 
 
 3rd. Finally, observe one thing more. That 
 law which is abolished is fulfilled. The ful- 
 filment of it abolished it. It was made on 
 purpose to be abolished,—as the blossom is — 
 made on purpose to produce the fruit, and in 
 the act of fruiting is itself at once fulfilled and 
 done away. So plainly did St. Paul perceive 
 this, that during the very argument where he 
 is proving the law to have been repealed, 
 he says, ‘Do we then make void the law 
 through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish 
 the law.” | 
 
 For we must remember that the Mosaic 
 law is different from the law of England in 
 certain respects. The law of England was 
 brought to an end in this country by a force 
 hostile to its authority ; but not so the law 
 of Moses. That law and the new one are from 
 the same Lawgiver, who, from the beginning, 
 intended that the one should give place to the 
 other. It was not because some new light, 
 and a better plan, came into God’s mind at a 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 KEV JAMES DRAINERD TVLER., L77 
 
 later time; but he understood both plans from 
 the first, and purposely set up one as a pre- 
 paration for the other. There is no conflict, 
 then, but harmony, between the old and the 
 new, As John the Baptist willingly gave way 
 to Christ, the Law of Moses willingly perish- 
 ed when the gospel came. And thus it ful- 
 filled its destiny. Why, the very same Greek 
 word means both to be fulfilled, and to be 
 brought to an end. As the same workman 
 makes first the mould and then the image cast 
 within it; and makes the mould, expecting to 
 destroy it in the process of casting; and as 
 the purpose of the mould is fulfilled in the very 
 act which destroys it; so God first made the 
 law of Moses to shape the Gospel in, and ex- 
 pected both to fulfil it and to destroy it in 
 perfecting the Gospel: and in that act the 
 law has passed away; but not a jot or title 
 of it has failed. “Think not,” says our Lord, 
 “that 1 am come to destroy the Law or the 
 Prophets: I am not come to destroy but to 
 fulfil.” Neither does that workman work 
 to destroy that mould which he has made, but 
 to fulfil its purpose; yet in fulfilling it he does 
 9 
 
178 “MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 of necessity destroyit. Just so, our Lord, after 
 saying that he is not come to destroy the 
 law, goes on to quote Moses’ commandment, — 
 “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” and then shows 
 how to fulfil the command, in doing which he 
 destroys it. So not a tittle of the law has 
 failed, but all its authority as a mere rule has 
 passed away in being fulfilled. 
 
 I have now given an outline of the teachings 
 of the New Testament concerning the binding 
 power of the commandments of the Old. But 
 is it of any practical use to know all this? 
 Truly it is; and this I hope to show some 
 other time. But just now I will barely men- 
 tion some mischiefs that have resulted from 
 ignoring the truth set forth to-day. One class 
 of people, seeing clearly that the epistles 
 prove the law to be abolished, but not notic- 
 ing that it is the Mosaic law, have concluded 
 that Christians are not bound to perform the 
 works of morality: another class, recoiling 
 from the direful effect of such a doctrine, have 
 ventured to deny that any law of God has 
 been repealed by him; and, consequently, have 
 explained away this teaching of the New 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. AMES BRAINERD TYLER. 179 
 
 Testament by subtle methods of interpretation, 
 which would, if thoroughly applied, subvert 
 the whole doctrine of the apostles; and, fur- 
 ther, they have enslaved the conscience of 
 many good people to certain groundless scru- 
 ples taken from the Jewish law: then a third 
 class, learning their art of interpretation from 
 the last-mentioned, have contrived to wrench 
 the whole Bible to suit their own prejudices, 
 or lust: and, finally, a fourth class, disgusted 
 with the absurd or the immoral conclusions 
 of the others, have thrown the whole Old 
 Testament overboard as a worthless book, 
 and at the next step thrown the New Testa- 
 ment over too. The truths that we have now 
 been contemplating will serve asa powerful 
 corrective to all these evils, as well as to many 
 others. [ For God hath not given usa spirit 
 of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a 
 sound mind.’’] 
 
 Those who are seeking excuses fora lax 
 morality, will find no comfort from our doc- 
 trine. Those who would reintroduce the whole 
 or apart of that Judaism which St. Paul ex- 
 purgated from the church, will find them- 
 
180 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 selves confuted by our teaching. ‘For ye are 
 not come unto Mount Sinai, and fire, and 
 darkness, and tempest, and trumpet-sounding, 
 and that intolerable voice of words; but ye 
 are come unto Mount Sion, *) *s*eandete 
 Jesus, the Mediator of a mew covenant.’ * * * 
 “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh: 
 for if they escape not who refused him that 
 spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, 
 if we turn away from him that speaketh from 
 heaven; whose voice then shook the earth: 
 but now he hath promised, Yet once more I 
 shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 
 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the 
 removing of those things that are shaken, that 
 those things which cannot be shaken may 
 remain.” 
 
 
 

 
 HEU JFANGE SeBRAINERD-TV LER. 181 
 
 ANSWERABLE PRAYER. 
 
 MATTHEW vi. 10.—‘ Thy will be done.” 
 
 A RELIGION without prayer is a body with- 
 out breath. Every organ may be perfect, 
 each cell and fibre faultless, its form may sur- 
 pass Apollo’s, the beauty of its internal struc- 
 ture may fill the anatomist with admiration; 
 yet what is it all, but a cold, dead clod? The 
 very fly buzzing about its head knows more, 
 enjoys more, can do more. Men may, by dis- 
 secting, learn much of what the corpse could 
 do, if it had life—of how its parts might act, 
 if it had life,—but it is dead. 
 
 A religion without prayer is a drama with- 
 out progress. Let it be full of pretty senti- 
 ments in neatly flowing phrases, let choicest 
 canvas, choicest costumes, choicest actors rec- 
 ommend it; but there is no accumulation, no 
 aim, no power; the greatest of actors cannot 
 play it well; the interest that rose with your 
 
182 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 earliest expectation, faints into disappoint- 
 ment; you cannot hear it through. 
 
 _Men have always found it as I say. Some 
 have framed for themselves a system of relig- 
 ious philosophy, symmetrical, compact, well- 
 organized, in most things true; but, not ad- 
 mitting of real prayer, it has always proved 
 useless for the soul’s life. It looks well, it 
 sounds well, it is a fine subject for analysis, 
 that one may see what it would be if it were 
 alive; but it is a corpse. If carefully pre- 
 served, it becomes a dried mummy; if not, it 
 melts into corruption. Such has been the 
 history of all the prayerless philosophers that 
 are old enough to have run their course. 
 
 Some men, on the other hand, caring less 
 for philosophy, have contrived a religion for 
 themselves which consists only of the culture 
 of fine sentiments towards God and upright 
 action towards men, but all, either in theory 
 or at least in practice, without prayer. But 
 it has turned out to be a drama without prog- 
 ress. The sentiment may be good enongh, 
 the morals may be good enough; but when it 
 comes to acting the drama on the stage of 
 
 
 
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 REY, JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 183 
 
 life, there is found to be no vigor in it; some- 
 how there is felt to be an emptiness, a lack of 
 definite, sturdy purpose, the acting loses spir- 
 it, the morals themselves degenerate to mere 
 correct forms of doing, and the sentiment into 
 a vague luxury of feeling. 
 
 This need of prayer in order that religion 
 may be deep, real and living, seems to be per- 
 ceived almost instinctively by all kinds of 
 men, however false or incomplete may be 
 their ideas of God. With the savage’s first 
 notion of an unseen being who has to do with 
 human affairs, comes invariably an impulse to 
 prayer. No matter how wretched a thing his 
 god may be—a tree, a stone, an image rudely 
 fashioned out of mud—no sooner does he begin 
 to believe that there dwells in it a power who 
 claims his service, than he addresses his wishes 
 to it. He is right in this feeling that he must 
 pray, and only wrong in thinking that wood 
 or stone or clay is worthy of his petitions. It 
 is but the same natural instinct that prompts 
 the infant to ask whenever an object of desire 
 is beyond its reach. Asking is as natural] as 
 desiring ; and prayer is simply asking God. 
 
184 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 And prayer becomes the more important, 
 _ the greater the God is in whom we believe. 
 Prayer is felt to be a necessity by him who 
 does not suppose his god can do more than 
 give him success in fishing, or turn away from 
 his painted body the arrows of his foe. Still 
 more, if Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, be our di- 
 vinities ; for though they are not almighty or 
 all-wise, they rule great departments of the 
 universe, they are our kings, not always just, 
 or pure, or kind, but as good, at least, as the 
 human kings to whom we present our peti- 
 tions, and far more powerful. Still higher, 
 then, is the necessity of prayer, and still more 
 pervading its influence on his life, to one- 
 whose God is Abraham’s; for in his power 
 are not some things, but all; he framed the 
 world out of chaos, and created chaos out of 
 nothing; he set the sun his course, he raised — 
 the barriers of the sea; he taught the plant to 
 bloom, the worm to crawl, the fish to swim, 
 the bird to fly, the lion and the ox to love 
 their diverse ways of life; he made man in 
 image of himself, he knows each child of 
 Adam through and through, he claims men’s 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. (185 
 
 service, he plans men’s life, he punishes or re- 
 wards according to his own unspotted rule 
 of justice, he invites men’s prayers, and an- 
 .swers them. Shall not his creatures kneel to 
 him? If the believer in Jupiter does well to 
 pray to Jupiter, much more shall not Abra- 
 ham pray to Jehovah? 
 
 Then higher yet is the Christian’s duty and 
 privilege of prayer; for our God is the God 
 of Abraham, with this still further revelation 
 of himself, that he is a Father, overflowing 
 with love to all whom he has made. Through 
 his Son and through his apostles he urges us 
 by every persuading motive freely to make 
 known our requests to him with confidence 
 that they shall not fail. If, then, the idolater 
 must pray to such a god as his, if the more 
 refined paganism finds religious lfe impossi- 
 ble without prayer to the creatures of its fancy ; 
 if the patriarch more truly livesby prayer tothe 
 Almighty God; then, yet more truly, because 
 the God of our thoughts is loftier than any of 
 these, must the Christian find his soul’s life 
 and earnestness prompting to, and promoted 
 by, prayer to ‘Our Father who is in heaven.’ 
 
 HX 
 
186 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 ‘So we all say, brethren. We exhort each 
 other, as Christ and his messengers exhorted 
 us, to “pray without ceasing,’—in every mo- 
 ment of difficulty, of tribulation, of danger, of 
 prosperity, of distress, of coldness, of longing 
 for better things for the soul, or of wishing 
 for any good, whether great or small, whether 
 for ourselves or for others, to approach boldly 
 the throne of him who desires to bless even 
 more than we desire to be blessed. We re- 
 mind each other that prayer brings answer ; 
 but do we find it so? Yes, every one will 
 reply. But how often?—how many of our 
 prayers are answered? When I ask you this, 
 does not your mind seek a reply by looking 
 back a few days, a few weeks, even years may 
 be, and saying to itself, “ There, on such and 
 such a day, in such and such a matter, my 
 prayer was not in vain?” Backward—search- 
 ing along the path far behind, amid the ruins 
 of a thousand fruitless prayers, do you not go 
 to find a few instances of assured success? I 
 believe that is a common way. What? Were 
 you not answered to-day? Were you not 
 answered where you sit? Why not? Why 
 
 
 

 
 Mi Vea BRAINERD TYLER, 187 
 
 must we seek old times to find when God 
 kept his promise? The promise is not for a 
 few prayers—one of a hundred—but for all 
 right prayer. “All things whatsoever ye 
 shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall re- 
 ceive.” 
 
 But we have asked and not received? Is 
 God, then, false to his promise? Who will 
 not rather say that we have not truly prayed, 
 or that we have not perceived the answer 
 really given? 
 
 But if this is so, itis of great import that 
 we set things right here; for not to pray, or 
 not to receive the answer to prayer, is the 
 same as not to live the Christian life. It must 
 be that there are mistaken ideas abroad in 
 respect to prayer; for we will not say that all 
 can be explained by affirming that nearly all 
 Christians are indifferent to the matter. On 
 the contrary, is it not one of the commonest 
 things for a person to be in an agony of de- 
 sire to receive the object of his petition, and 
 at the same time in an agony of disappoint- 
 ment that he does not receive it? But false 
 views (easily adopted on any subject) are rife 
 
“188 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 in respect to this; and false views, always 
 dangerous, are most of all so in a matter of 
 such vital importance. : 
 
 I invite your attention now to two ques- 
 tions, hoping that in our study of them some 
 of these false views will come to the surface, 
 and, being detected, will be abandoned : 
 
 First, What is an answer to prayer? 
 
 Second, What sort of prayer is answered ? 
 
 First, What is an answer to prayer ?—I re- 
 ply, in the first place, It is not sufficient to say 
 that its answer consists merely in the natural 
 effect of the act upon the praying soul. It may 
 be that, but often it must be more. The charac- 
 ter of the mind is educated in good by fre- 
 quently repeating good emotions until they 
 become deep-rooted habits. In the act of 
 prayer the mind comes into a state of contem- 
 plation of spiritual things, of tenderness to- 
 ward holy thoughts and motives, of humility 
 before God, of sorrow for sin, of longing for 
 goodness and for the good of men,—indeed, 
 the time of prayer is the time of all the high- 
 est aspirations and resolutions of which the 
 soul is capable; and by their repetition these 
 
 
 

 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 189 
 
 become easier and more constant. In other 
 
 words, the soul thus grows in holiness as the 
 
 effect of praying ;—and this, some people say, 
 is the answer tothe prayer. That is, If I pray 
 for humility, in that very act I take on humil- 
 ity, and so my prayer is answered; if I pray 
 to be delivered from a certain sin, in that very 
 aete)) cetermine anew to resist the sin, and 
 that determination is the true means of resist- 
 ing it; so that the tendency to commit it be- 
 comes the weaker thereby, and my prayer 
 brings its own answer. Now it is true that 
 such is one of the natural and unavoidable 
 benefits of genuine prayer—and this we ought 
 not so often to forget ;—but it is no less true 
 that this is not all of the answer. Let your 
 Own experience decide. These persons say 
 that the effect of prayer in aiding us to for- 
 sake a sin is due merely to the fact that in 
 praying we firmly resolve to forsake it. But 
 have. you not repeatedly resolved with all 
 your might (but forgetting to ask God’s aid) 
 to resist a certain temptation, and yet fallen 
 again and again beneath it; and at another 
 time when it assailed you, have you not made 
 
190 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 the same resolve with earnest prayer to God 
 for help, and been triumphant? Did that di- 
 vine help, when aiding your own resolve, 
 ever fail? 
 
 Or test these people’s idea by the Scrip- 
 tures. Elisha’s prayer for the restoration of 
 the Shunamite’s dead son, no doubt, was very 
 beneficial in its reflex influence on the proph- 
 et’s own soul, but how should that bring back 
 the child’s life? Or, if one says that was a 
 miracle, and so out of the order of the events 
 of our day, take another instance. “I beseech 
 you, brethren,’—so writes Paul to the Ro- 
 mans—“ for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and 
 for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive to- 
 gether with me in your prayers to God for 
 me; that I may be delivered from them that 
 do not believe in Judzea: and that my serv- 
 ice which I have for Jerusalem may be ac- 
 cepted of the saints.” Evidently he thought 
 that their prayers were somehow to be an- 
 swered, not only in their own hearts, but in 
 far-distant Jerusalem. 
 
 Again, it is not sufficient to say that the an- 
 swer of prayer consists in its influence on the 
 
 
 

 
 REV FAMES BRAINERD- TYLER. IQI 
 
 soul of him that prays, together with the natu- 
 ral outward effects of that influence, in his 
 acts and in their various consequences. It 
 may be this, but oftenit must be more. Your 
 prayer for the welfare of a church, by its in- 
 fluence on your own mind, makes you more 
 thoroughly willing to do all you can for the 
 church ; and your doing, both directly and by 
 exciting others to lke works, accomplishes 
 the result designed. Thus the prayer an- 
 swers itself; and that is all (so some people 
 say) that there is of answer to prayer. But 
 how do the Scriptures speak? In the case 
 already mentioned did Paul expect the church 
 at Rome to accomplish anything at Jerusalem 
 by their own efforts, that he might be deliv- 
 ered from the Jews and be accepted by the 
 saints? But he urges them to pray for just 
 these things, as if he expected their prayers 
 would have some effect. 
 
 Again, the true answer to prayer is an event 
 brought about by God in consideration of the 
 fact that the prayer is offered. If that is not 
 it, then the Bible-writers speak of prayer ina 
 way which must destroy all our confidence in 
 
192 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 their truthfulness and respect for their hon- 
 esty. What is the motive continually urged 
 in their exhortations to prayer?—that prayer 
 will by its very nature do us good? That 
 would be true, but itis not mentioned. The 
 great motive is not that prayer has naturally 
 a tendency beneficial to the mind, but that 
 God will answer it. The encouragement is 
 that “ Your heavenly Father knoweth what 
 things ye have need of before ye ask him,” 
 and “If ye, being evil, know how to give ~ 
 good gifts unto your children, how much 
 more shall your Father which is in heaven 
 give good things to them that ask him.” 
 The Scriptures always understand that the 
 prayer moves God, and that he brings about 
 the effect. Loosely speaking, then, it may be 
 said that a prayer is not answered unless 
 some event takes place in consequence of it 
 which would not have happened otherwise. 
 This statement, however, though calculated 
 to give a true impression, might not be en- 
 tirely correct in every case, because God 
 might have seen sufficient reason to accom- 
 plish the event prayed for, even if the petition 
 
 
 

 
 KEV.) JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 193 
 
 had not been offered; so that the offering of 
 the prayer changed nothing except the mind 
 of him who prayed. But even here, there is 
 truly an answer to prayer; for though the 
 event would have taken place at any rate, 
 the prayer is an added inducement to God to 
 bring it to pass; while in many cases, per- 
 haps in most, it is one without which he would 
 not have brought it to pass at all. Nor should 
 any one be offended at this word zxducement, 
 as ifit abated anything of the free sovereignty 
 of God to do what he sees fit: for if we deny 
 that God’s action is at all influenced by men’s 
 requests, we must deny all power of prayer, 
 and say that, except by superstition, prayer 
 cannot be offered; since it is impossible for a 
 man heartily to ask for anything when he is 
 assured that God will be no likelier to give it 
 than if the prayer had not been made. 
 
 But it is common nowadays to declare that 
 modern science has established one thing be- 
 yond a doubt; and that is, that the laws of 
 nature, in matter and in mind, act uniformly 
 and without exception; so that prayer, being 
 unable to change any of these laws, cannot 
 
194 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 make any event different from what it other- 
 wise would be. Well, we do not claim that it 
 can, by its own force, without the will of God. 
 And let us not confound what science has 
 proved with what she has not. She has shown 
 that natural laws are permanent and uniform, 
 but she has not shown that God may not 
 modify their workings, as you and I do every 
 day, without either destroying or suspending 
 them. It might as well be claimed that it 
 was of no effect for me to make up my mind 
 to read a certain chapter this afternoon, be- 
 cause, forsooth, the laws of nature are uniform ; 
 and if they caused it to be read it would be 
 read, and if not, it would not be, and my de- 
 termination would make no difference. I 
 know it does make a difference. If I de- 
 termined to read it, it would be read; if not, 
 not. But I do not break any natural law in 
 reading it, 1 merely modify the action of those 
 laws. If, then, science has not shown that my 
 action cannot modify events, how do men say 
 it has shown that God’s action cannot? 
 
 But I need not even have given this an- 
 swer to them. I might have admitted, to 
 
 
 
 
 
REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 195 
 
 please them, that all laws work invariably ac- 
 cording to their original design; and then will 
 they tell me, that in forming that design, God 
 could not foresee each prayer and make am- 
 ple provision therefor? Science says nothing 
 to that question. 
 
 The same suggestion also will furnisb an 
 answer to those who say that by affirming 
 prayer to be an inducement to God to do so 
 and so, I make him to be changeable, design- 
 ing first a certain thing, and then when he 
 hears a prayer, altering that design. We do 
 not make him changeable. If God once de- 
 termined to do a thing, he always will be de- 
 fermned to do it till itis done. But that 
 original determination— might it not have 
 been made in view of a prayer? ‘“ What?’ 
 returns the objector, “in view of a prayer not 
 yet offered ?” Certainly, we reply, for though 
 not yet offered, God always knew whether it 
 would be. 
 
 But even this explanation is not necessary 
 for one who believes the Bible. He does not 
 require that God should untold to him all the 
 whys and hows and whens of his universal 
 
196 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 government. The Scriptures teach that pray- 
 er is answered, and that the answer is a solid 
 reality, not an illusive trick. Then what if 
 we cannot tell ow it is? Can we tell how it 
 is that certain chemical elements form oil of 
 lemon, and also the very same elements, in 
 the very same proportion, make oil of turpen- 
 tine? We cannot tell how it is so, but we 
 know it is so. We have no quarrel with sci- 
 ence—she and religion are sisters. Only we 
 say that when science can explain the difficul- 
 ties of her own raising within her own proper 
 domain, it will be early enough for her to 
 come over into the realm of religion, and tell 
 us whether God says the truth. | 
 
 Second, Our second inquiry is, What sort 
 of prayer is answered? | 
 
 To sum up all the reply in one word, we 
 may say itis the prayer of faith. That only 
 has the promise, for that only is true prayer. 
 ‘‘All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, 
 believing, ye shall receive.” 
 
 Now that is a very simple thing in itself, 
 but it implies a good many others which we . 
 are apt to cast out of the account. Faith isa 
 
 
 
REV, JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 197 
 
 simple entrusting of our interests to God, as 
 being just what he ought to be, and doing 
 just what he ought to do. 
 
 Then the first and greatest characteristic of 
 the prayer of faith is that it is offered ina 
 spirit of submission to the divine will. We 
 shall find no more perfect example of it than 
 that most memorable one of Christ’s, “O my 
 Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
 from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as 
 thou wilt.” And ‘‘ He went the second time, 
 and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup 
 may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy 
 will be done.” There are two elements in 
 such a prayer; an earnest desire on the part 
 of the petitioner—‘“‘Let this cup pass from 
 me’’—and at the same time this proviso to the 
 desire—‘ Nevertheless, not as I will, but as 
 thou wilt.” There must be the desire, else it 
 would not be prayer; there must be the pro- 
 viso, else it would not be the prayer of faith. 
 For suppose I go to God with my request, 
 wishing that he should do, not what he thinks 
 best, but what I think best; is that faith in 
 him, or is it faith in myself, as able to judge 
 
198 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 better than he?—or rather is it not bare self- 
 ishness, determined to have my own way and 
 make God serve me, whether it be best or 
 not? The spirit of him who goes to God in 
 faith is the spirit that puts God’s glory in 
 front and a man’s own wishes behind; and 
 that is why in the model prayer our Lord 
 teaches us to say first of all, “‘ Hallowed be 
 thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be 
 done,” and not till afterwards, ‘‘Give us this 
 day our daily bread.” 
 
 It appears, then, that we seriously mistake 
 when we understand that faith in prayer re- 
 quires us merely to make up our minds what 
 we will have, and then force ourselves to be- 
 lieve that we shall beyond a doubt have just 
 that thing. We are permitted to believe that 
 we shall have just that, provided God sees 
 best; but except on that condition, we are 
 not to desire it. If we pray for a friend’s re- 
 covery from sickness, and expect precisely 
 that, without conditions; God, being wiser 
 than we, may perceive, for reasons beyond 
 our knowledge, that it is better to refuse our 
 request. The consequence is that our prayer 
 
 
 

 
 KEV ES CRANE AD TV LER. 199 
 
 is not answered, our expectation is disap- 
 pointed, and we are discouraged, and shaken 
 in our belief in the efficacy of prayer. But in 
 such a case God has broken no promise, for 
 ours was not the prayer of faith. If, on the 
 other hand, we prayed for the friend’s recov- 
 ery with this proviso (expressed or under- 
 derstood), ‘‘ Nevertheless, not my will, but 
 thine ;’’ our prayer is certainly answered ;— 
 the friend does recover, if that is God’s will,— 
 and that is what we prayed for ;—or the friend 
 does not recover if God’s will is so,—and that, 
 too, was what we prayed for,—‘ Thy will be 
 done.” So, then, it is impossible that the 
 true prayer of faith should not be answered. 
 But I suppose some think that if that is the 
 whole of it, the prayer amounts to nothing ; 
 for would not God have done his own will if 
 we had not prayed? and now that we have 
 prayed, has he done any differently from his 
 will? No, he has not; but perhaps his will is 
 different on account of our prayer. He has 
 certainly taken our request into the account, 
 and perhaps his own determination is differ- 
 ent from what it would have been but for the 
 
200 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 prayer. God does what is wisest under the 
 circumstances, and our prayer is one of the 
 circumstances. If it had been wanting, the | 
 circumstances would have been different: very 
 likely a different event would have been the 
 wisest, and if so, that different event would 
 have taken place. 
 
 But may be you do not like that word 
 “perhaps.” 1 say “perhaps” the event would 
 have been different. But I also said that cer- 
 tainly our petition was taken into account by 
 our Father: and now I say, certainly the event 
 is different, if itis wise and right that it should 
 be; but if it were not wise and right, then do 
 we desire it? If we do, ouriprayeraam tem 
 prayer of selfishness, not of faith. “ Ye ask 
 and receive not, because ye ask amiss.” 
 
 Then how do we know whether our pray- 
 ers are answered? Let us remember what 
 the answer to prayer is. Itis that God really 
 takes due account of our petition when he 
 decides what to do, and if it be not wrong or 
 unwise under the circumstances, does what 
 we ask. How then do we know that he has 
 answered? We know he always answers— 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 201 
 
 there is no exception to that, and there ap- 
 pear to be exceptions only because we misun- 
 derstand what the answer is, or because we 
 have not truly prayed. We have his promise, 
 and our confidence is in that. 
 
 And here is, after all, the main obstacle— 
 not a difficulty in doctrine, but a lack of the 
 spirit of faith. Probably some have thought, 
 as | was showing what true prayer is, ‘“ That 
 is a hard statement: that makes prayer hard 
 to offer, if we must be content not to receive 
 the precise thing we ask, and yet believe that 
 God has answered us.” Sure enough, to 
 many of us prayer zs a hard thing, because 
 submission to God’s will is a hard thing. It 
 is easy enough to say good words without 
 meaning; it is easy even to do better than 
 that, to direct to Ged our real desires; but 
 genuine prayer is more. It has the condition 
 always tacitly understood, if not expressed in 
 language, “‘ Nevertheless, thy will be done.” 
 But zen, the statement that we do not receive 
 exactly what we ask, is not correct; for we 
 ask, as Christ did, that God’s will take pre- 
 cedence of ours in the matter, and it does. 
 
 10 
 
202 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 In the last chapter of John’s first epistle are 
 two verses that will well repay the closest 
 study. They explain what faith in prayer is. 
 ‘And this is the confidence that we have in 
 him, that, if we ask anything according to his 
 will, he heareth us; and if we know that he 
 hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we 
 have the petitions that we desired of him.” 
 What, then, shall we do if we would be an- 
 swered? ‘Try to electrify ourselves into a 
 state of enthusiastic fervor, coax ourselves to 
 weep, force ourselves to groan, as the priests 
 of Baal yelled loud and cut themselves with 
 knives to make him hear? Shall we try to 
 make ourselves believe by mere power of will, 
 against our better sense and observation, that 
 our prayer will always be rewarded by a di- 
 rect and remarkable granting of our wish, 
 whether it be wise or not, precisely in the 
 form in which our imagination pictures the 
 event beforehand? No, none of that. But 
 let our minds be fully submissive to the will 
 of God, fully trustful of his wisdom to design, 
 his kindness of desire and his truthfulness to 
 his promise that no true prayer shall be un- 
 
 
 

 
 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 203 
 
 heard; and not only will our prayer certainly 
 
 be answered, but we shall be assured that it 
 is, even though we may not see precisely 
 how. Believe that ye receive, and ye do re- 
 ceive. ‘For verily I say unto you, that who- 
 soever shall say unto this mountain, be thou 
 removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and 
 shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe 
 those things which he saith shall come to 
 pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 
 Therefore I say unto you, whatsoever things 
 ye desire, when ‘ye pray believe that ye re- 
 ceive them, and ye shall have them.” 
 
 Let us notice also a few other ways in 
 which the faith of true prayer reveals itself. 
 
 It reveals itself in perseverance. ‘ Contin- 
 uing instant in prayer.” “ Pray without ceas- 
 me Our Lord “spake a parable... .'. to 
 this end, that men ought always to pray and 
 not to faint.” In that parable God is not com- 
 pared with the unjust judge as being like him, 
 but as contrasted with him—the very oppo- 
 site. ‘And shall not God avenge his own 
 Plecuirsts .:2°: I tell you that he will avenge 
 them speedily.” Then do not faint, for God is 
 
204 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 working fast, however slow it may seem to 
 you who cannot see all things that he sees,— 
 he is working fast: so do not be disheartened 
 or give up. He is not like the judge who put 
 off the wronged widow as long as he could, 
 but God answers as speedily as he wisely 
 may. True faith trusts him in this, and nei- 
 ther complains of delay, nor ceases her peti- 
 tions through discouragement or the fading 
 of desire. 
 
 Faith also is a worker. The man of faith 
 does not kneel in a dry place praying God to 
 lift his wagon-wheel out of the mire. He goes 
 down into the slough, and puts his own shoul- 
 der to it. When he prays against sin, he 
 grapples with sin himself. When he prays 
 for prosperity, he labors for prosperity. When 
 he prays God to show him the way, he looks 
 keenly forward to descry it. When in his 
 earthly race he looks “unto Jesus” he also 
 runs with all his might. “The effectual 
 fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth 
 much.” The word “effectual” there means 
 operative, working. This shows why answers 
 to prayer are especially promised to the right- 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 REV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 205 
 
 eous. They are the ones who not only pray 
 against evil, but work against it. If they did 
 not, their faith would not be true faith, nor 
 their prayer true prayer. “If ye abide in 
 me,” says the Lord, “and my words abide in 
 you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be 
 done unto you.” ‘“ And whatsoever we ask, 
 we receive of him, because we keep his com- 
 mandments, and do those things that are 
 pleasing in his sight.” ‘“ The Lord is far from 
 the wicked; but he heareth the prayer of the 
 righteous.” Those who would make prayer 
 to God a substitute for their own efforts, will 
 find little comfort trom such passages as those. 
 ‘““Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, 
 Lord, shall [have his best prayer answered, ] 
 but he that doeth the will of my Father.” 
 
 * The prayer of faith also is (in the case of all 
 those who know of Christ), offered in the 
 name of Christ. ‘‘Whatsoever ye shall ask 
 of the Father zz my name, he will give it you.” 
 That does not mean merely to repeat, as if 
 they were a magic charm, the words, “In 
 Clirists nameé,”’ or; “For -Christ’s sake.” “It 
 means that we are to ask as Christians, not as 
 
 10% 
 
206 MEMORIAL OF THE 
 
 Jews pra pine to Jehovah, nor simply as hu- 
 man beings praying to the God of nature; 
 but to ask in the spirit taught us in the gos- 
 pel—in humility, in sincerity, in obedience to 
 Christ, in trustfulness through Christ: for 
 otherwise it is not in faith, and can claim no 
 promise. 
 
 We should also notice that there are cer- 
 tain things for which we may pray with a pe- 
 culiar faith, because they have a peculiar 
 promise. I may pray for health in faith, as 
 already explained; but I cannot be certain to 
 receive health, though I may be certain that 
 my prayer is answered. But I may pray for 
 the Holy Spirit, with a certainty of receiving 
 it. “Ifa son shall ask bread of one of you 
 that is a father, will he give him a stone? or 
 if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a 
 serpent ? or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer 
 him a scorpion? If ye, then, being evil, know 
 how to give good gifts unto your children, 
 how much more shall your Heavenly Father 
 give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” 
 Here, then, is the Spirit’s presence certainly 
 promised; and, having that, we may pray for 
 
 
 

 
 eM NIIAMESIDRAINERD TYLER: 207 
 
 other objects in such a way that the prayer 
 shall be in accord with the will of God. 
 
 It seems then, brethren, from what we have 
 considered, that the answer to prayer is a re- 
 ality, and that the prayer which God answers 
 is that offered in faith. 
 
 We have also contemplated some of the 
 signs and effects of this faith, that we might 
 be the better able to distinguish it from its 
 counterfeit. Other of its effects we might 
 well examine, if there were time; but these 
 are the most essential ;—Entire submission of 
 our will to God’s, willingness to persevere, 
 and willingness to work out for ourselves the 
 thing prayed for, so far as it is within our 
 power. Submission, perseverance, working. 
 
 We have not found that all the effect of 
 prayer is through its natural good influence 
 upon our own souls; and therefore we may 
 pray with confidence for results beyond us,— 
 for events in the natural world, for events 
 among the nations, and for the good of indi- 
 viduals. 
 
 We have not found that prayer has any 
 magical power of its own to bring God to our 
 
208 REV. JAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 
 
 terms against his own better judgment. Let 
 that idea go with the similar ones in the “ Ara- 
 bian Nights.” We need not, then, be afraid 
 of the prayers of good men ina bad party. 
 We heard talk a few years ago as if prayers 
 were like votes, and the majority carried the 
 day. Men were afraid because honest Chris- 
 tians at the South were praying and fasting 
 for the success of the Confederacy. As to 
 the effect of that upon their own minds, in 
 making them more loyal and devoted to a bad 
 cause which they thought good, it was to be 
 deplored; but as to its effect upon God asa 
 ruler of the destinies of nations, each one of 
 those prayers which was indeed a true prayer, 
 was on our side,—for such prayers always had 
 beneath their surface the condition, ‘ Never- 
 theless, thy will be done;’ and it was God’s 
 will that slavery, and not freedom, should go 
 down. Let us, then, never be afraid of true 
 prayers, even if uttered by mistaken men— 
 unless we are on the wrong side; then we 
 may well fear them. 
 
 Again, we have not found that it is neces- 
 sary to lift ourselves into a belief that the 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 KEV. FAMES BRAINERD TYLER. 209 
 
 very form of event which we desire will 
 surely come to pass; but we must believe it 
 will happen if God sees it good; and desiring 
 it only on that condition, we may be sure we 
 shall have our desire. I suppose a great part 
 of our discouragement as to the power of our 
 prayers, comes from this very mistake. Let 
 it be our labor to become reconciled to the 
 will of God, knowing that it is best; not to 
 gain a groundless confidence, and make that 
 the ground of a claim on divine favor. In- 
 deed, most persons who attempt that, fail, 
 even when they think they are successful. 
 We have found, moreover, that such faith 
 as leaves God to do our work for us, or that 
 which faints after a trial or two, may be 
 named faith, but is not. Faith takes hold, and 
 holds on. But not with the idea that our God 
 delays because he is too busy to hear us—like 
 Baal gone a hunting—or too indifferent, like 
 the unjust judge. Shall he not avenge his 
 
 ownelect? “Itell you he will avenge them 
 
 speedily.” 
 And we have found that there is one re- 
 quest which is at the foundation of all, and 
 

 
 
 210 MEMORIAL, 
 
 which will never be refused—and tha ; ae 
 the Holy Spirit. He does not always co: e "e 
 just as we expected, or work just as we im. si 
 agined ; but he always willingly comes. 
 
 In this at least, O Lord, “Thy will be 
 done!” ae i 
 

 

 
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