PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
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 _3 V 230 .S65 1 852 
 
 Spring, Gardiner, 1785-1873. 
 The mercy seat 
 
 K.^, 
 
THE 
 
 MERCY SEAT; 
 
 THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY 
 
 S;t)e Cork's prager. 
 
 BY 
 
 GARDINER" SPRING, D.D. 
 
 PASTOa OF BRICK PEESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE CITY OF NEW TO&X. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD, 
 
 BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL, CITY HALL SQUARE, 
 
 (OPPOSITE THE CITY HALL.) 
 
 1852. 
 
CRAIGHEAD, PRXNTEl, 
 
 53 Vesej- Street. 
 
\thso 
 
 €)ur Iat\)tx, 
 
 u)l)D art in ^eauen, 
 
 ^allotDtir be 3[l)g name* 
 
 €l)B kingdom come. ®1)b toill be irone 
 
 on eartl) 00 it 10 in ^eat^en. 
 
 (&m U0 tl)i0 ha^ our bailg breair- 
 
 '^.nb forgitje U0 our bebt0, 
 
 a0 rue forgit)e our &ebtor0- 
 
 3.n& lea& U0 not into temptation, 
 
 but &eliuer U0 from eoiU 
 
 iTor t\)xnt xb i\)t kingdom, anb tl)e 
 
 poroer, an& tl)e glorg, 
 
 foreoer, ^men. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER, 1 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE BIBLE AS TO THE MATTER AND 
 
 MANNER OF PRAYER, ... 31 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 GOD A FATHER, 5l 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE NAME OF GOD HALLOWED, 87 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THE EARTH, 112 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE MEANS OF EXTENDING GOD's KINGDOM, 139 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 THE WILL OF GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH, 164 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS, l77 
 
yf CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 rxam 
 PRATER AND PAINS, . 201 
 
 CHAPTER X, 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS, . 221 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS, 23& 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 A FORGIVING SPIRIT, 255 
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 A MARTIAL SPIRIT NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANlTT, . .275 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 TEMPTATION DEPLORED, 308 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE DREAD OF SIN, 329 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT BY WHICH PRAYER IS ENFORCED, . . . 355 
 

 THE MERCY SEAT 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER. 
 
 The Mercy Seat was the covering of the 
 ark of the covenant. At each end of this over- 
 shadow^ing oracle was a cherub of pure and 
 massive gold, stretching out its wings, each to- 
 ward the other, and forming a sort of throne. 
 There was the visible emblem of the divine 
 presence, and "God appeared in the cloud." 
 There the high priest took of the blood of the 
 bullock of the sin-oifering, " and sprinkled it 
 with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward, 
 seven times." The book of the Law was there, 
 protected by the ark of the covenant, and bear- 
 ing the marks of atoning blood. It was God's 
 throne of grace, and where the thrilling words 
 were often addressed, " O thou who art seated 
 between the cherubim V It was the place of 
 prayer: "There will I meet thee," says God 
 
8 THE MRRCY SEAT. 
 
 to Moses, "and I will commune with thee from 
 between the two cherubim which are upon the 
 ark of the testimony." 
 
 We wish the reader to go with us to that 
 mercy seat. We doubt not he has often been 
 there, and listened to the instructions, as w^ell 
 as been comforted by the hopes uttered from 
 the holy oracle. We are not introducing him 
 to new scenes, nor do we profess to interest 
 him with novel truths. There is nothing new 
 on the subject of prayer. How can there be ? 
 It is addressed to the same Being, by creatures 
 of the same fallen character; it is expressive 
 of the same affections, and under the influence 
 of the same Spirit ; it utters, for the most part, the 
 same precious thoughts, and for the same ends. 
 
 There are men who have questioned the 
 propriety of prayer; but they are those who, 
 though they need the most, are most slow 
 to ask. There are those who feel insuper- 
 able objections to it; but they are only the 
 objections of a prayerless heart. There are 
 those who feel strong temptations to neglect 
 it ; but it is because Satan, that great deceiver, 
 is well aware that the man whose home is the 
 mercy seat is no longer the victim of his delu- 
 sions. And there are those who have no com- 
 fort in it, and therefore restrain prayer before 
 God. Yet is there no duty the Scriptures more 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER. 
 
 explicitly enforce; no source of consolation 
 which they more abundantly magnify. 
 
 Prayer is the language of desire ; it is " the 
 offering up of our desires to God." It is the 
 devotional thoughts and affections of the soul 
 expressed in words. No spiritual emotions en- 
 ter more intimately into the experience of the 
 Christian, or more truly form the character of 
 his piety, than those which are felt and ex- 
 pressed in his habitual intercourse with God. 
 If he has adoring views of his Maker, and hum- 
 bling views of himself; if he hungers and thirsts 
 after righteousness ; if he has strong confidence 
 and joy; if his desires go out toward the en- 
 largement and beautifying of the church of God 
 on the earth, and the salvation of men ; no- 
 where do these internal emotions and desires 
 find utterance so truly as in prayer. Where 
 these devout affections exist with anything 
 like ardor and intensity, they are uttered by 
 a sort of necessity. Such persons cannot help 
 praying. It is not possible that emotions thus 
 deep and spiritual, thus high-born and heaven- 
 imparted, should remain silent and smothered 
 within the bosom. The heart is too deeply af- 
 fected by them not to seek this relief. 
 
 Prayer is the language of nature, because it is 
 the language of desire and want. Even the 
 "young lions, when they wander for lack of meat, 
 
 1* ^ 
 
10 THE MERCY SEAT, 
 
 cry unto God !'^ The veriest infidel, the vile athe- 
 ist, in seasons of great public calamity, or per- 
 sonal danger and suffering, forget their infidelity 
 and atheism, and pray. Emphatically then is it 
 true of the Christian, that he is a man of prayer. 
 Though he knows that his neglect of prayer will 
 not prevent t4ie Father of mercies from causing 
 his sun to shine upon the evil and upon the good, 
 nor his rain from descending on the just and the 
 unjust ; his own heart will not alloAV him to live 
 in that neglect. The divine bounty may still 
 deck the earth with verdure and clothe it with 
 fertility, and he may be a partaker of this, God's 
 impartial goodness, while it is unsolicited ; yet 
 is there something within his own heart that 
 constrains him to pray. He has wants which 
 nothing but prayer can supply ; spiritual neces- 
 sities, wants of the soul, which without prayer 
 feeds on husks. Just as the plant strikes 
 its roots into the ground to draw thence its 
 vigor and nutriment ; just as the flower opens 
 its bosom to the sunlight and the dew ; so the 
 soul, by prayer, has communication Avith the 
 God of all grace, and places itself under the 
 kind influences of his love. It is like the stream 
 cut off from its fountain, when it ceases to pray. 
 It is like the plant that grows in the shade, pale 
 and sickly ; the sport of the winds, and blown 
 about by the tempests of passion and the storms 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER. ll 
 
 of earth, because it seeks not this heavenly pro- 
 tection and aliment. 
 
 Those who know most of the power of prayer, 
 are themselves the witnesses of the strength and 
 fervor of its dosires. None have felt more deeply 
 than they, that they cannot break the bondage of 
 sin, nor, when once broken, can they enjoy the 
 liberty of God's children, without strong crying 
 and many tears. " Having escaped the pollutions 
 of the world, through the knowledge of God their 
 Saviour," they are sure to be again " entangled in 
 them and overcome," if they live without prayer. 
 Those periods of their history in which their 
 faith has been the most weak, their love cold, 
 their zeal relaxed and wearied ; when their rel- 
 ish for heavenly contemplation becaoie dull 
 and insipid, and they " savored not the things 
 that be of God, but the things that be of men;" 
 und when they cast their eye backward upon 
 the world and its pleasures; were seasons in 
 which their lukewarmness, if it did not shut 
 them out of their closets, shut them out from all 
 communion with God. The degree of interest 
 which men take in this religious service, may 
 be uniformly looked upon as a sort of moral 
 barometer by which they may ascertain the 
 elevations and depressions of their spiritual 
 state. The mercy seat is the place where the 
 Shekinah dwells, and where, beholding as in » 
 
12 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 glass the glory of the Lord, the suppliant is trans- 
 formed into the same image, from glory to glory. 
 It is the mountain-top, which catches the last 
 rays of the sun when it no longer shines on the 
 vale below. 
 
 The examples of prayer furnished in the Bi- 
 ble are exemplifications of true, sincere, and 
 strong desire. The only rebukes to prayer ever 
 uttered in the sacred volume are against those 
 supplications in which the desires of the soul 
 have no part, where the heart is wanting, and 
 w^here the most solemn offerings are but " vain 
 oblations." 
 
 Every gracious affection has both its aliment 
 and expression in prayer. Its adoring love is 
 there uttered, sometimes breaking out in the 
 ecstacy of joy, and exclaiming, " Whom have I 
 in heaven but thee, and there is none on the 
 earth that I desire beside thee !" There too 
 are the expressions of its penitence, weeping at 
 the feet of mercy, sorrowing for the past, cover- 
 ing its face, and in prostration of soul before the 
 offended majesty of heaven, uttering its pur- 
 poses of new obedience. There are the actings 
 of its confidence, the simplicity of its trust in 
 God, as w^ell as the frequent renewal of that 
 endearing and joyful submission to the divine 
 claims which was the turning point in the sin- 
 ner's progress from darkness to light. There 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER. 13 
 
 too are the more abundant utterances of his 
 gratitude. A thankful acknowledgment of 
 God's mercies forms no small part of prayer. 
 No man has received so few mercies, that he 
 has nothing to thank his Maker for when he ap- 
 proaches his throne in acts of worship. A sin- 
 ner has reason for songs of praise as long as he 
 is out of hell. Not returning thanks to God, is 
 one great reason why our prayers are not more 
 frequently answered. Christians sometimes pray 
 as though they had nothing to do but mourn. 
 Ministers sometimes appear before God as the 
 mouth of his church, as if she was in a state of 
 condemnation. This is unwarranted, and char- 
 acterizes a spirit of bondage. " Be careful 
 for nothing," says the Apostle, "but in every- 
 thing, by prayer, and supplication, with thanks- 
 giving, let your requests be made known unto 
 God." We w^ould not offend against the gen- 
 eration of God's children, much less would we 
 depreciate the sighs of a broken, contrite heart, 
 when we say, that grief and mourning are not 
 the only emotions which become the mercy 
 seat. There is no fear of our ever being too 
 penitent and humble. " The sacrifices of God 
 are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart 
 he will not despise." The prayer of the publi- 
 can when he stood afar off and smote upon his 
 breast, and said " God be merciful to me a sin- 
 
14 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 ner," is a strong rebuke to the spirit of self- 
 rigliteousness and Pharisaic self-complacency in 
 prayer. There are seasons when the heart is 
 so burdened with a sense of sin, that it can do 
 little else than mourn. But, while these things 
 are true, and important truths, we are not to 
 forget, that " the fruit of the spirit is love, peace 
 and joy/' There may be self-righteous tears, as 
 well as hopes of self-righteousness. It is not 
 unfitting in a sinner to call upon God " with 
 joyful lips." The meek and subdued cheerful- 
 ness, the holy joy of piety, greatly honor the 
 God of our salvation. If I mistake not, those 
 are the most acceptable offerings, and those the 
 most profitable seasons of prayer, and the most 
 invigorating for duty and trial, when the soul 
 most rejoices in God through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Prayer is an humble, but not a servile spirit. 
 There is more cheerful thanksgiving in the 
 heart of a praying man, than in all the men 
 of the world put together. '' I will bless the 
 Lord," says the Psalmist, '' at all times ; his 
 praise shall be continually in my mouth. My 
 soul shall make her boast in the Lord ; the 
 humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O 
 magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his 
 name together !" 
 
 Prayer is a very different thing from say- 
 
g|:neral observations on prayer. 16 
 
 mg a prayer. As the language of desire, it is 
 marked by great tenderness, great sincerity, 
 and great simplicity. God who searches the 
 heart has said, that he acknowledges not the 
 worship of the lips. One great reason why the 
 divine presence is so little felt in our devotional 
 exercises is, that our hearts are not in our prayers. 
 Prayer brings the soul of man into contact with 
 his Maker. How unlike that cold, formal, list- 
 less manner in which both those who pray, and 
 those who concur in this service, often draw 
 nigh to the mercy seat, and practise their mock- 
 eries before God, even in his sanctuary ! 
 
 The object of prayer is the living God. Nor 
 let this be deemed too common-place a thought; 
 would that it had a place more common in the 
 mind of every worshipper. There is no truth 
 the Scriptures teach more frequently than that 
 God is the onli/ object of religious worship. To 
 no mere creature on earth, or in heaven, may 
 men bend the knee in prayer. " Thou shalt 
 have no other gods before me." It is written, 
 " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and 
 him only shalt thou serve." The Bible knows 
 nothing of the idolatries of that anti-Christian 
 system of worship, which justifies the use of 
 images, and prayers offered to saints and angels. 
 Notwithstanding the frivolous distinctions in- 
 sisted on by the advocates of this system, as to 
 
16 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 the different kinds and degrees of religious hom- 
 age thus paid to creatures, the minds of the great 
 mass of the people are unaffected by these re- 
 finements. The practical influence of such wor- 
 ship is a positive encroachment on the honors 
 of the Supreme Being, who is a jealous God, and 
 wdll not give his glory to another. It is difficult 
 to see how any mind, however constituted, can 
 preserve the simplicity of its devotion and de- 
 pendence unimpaired, amidst these external 
 symbols and multiplied objects of adoration. 
 
 Such is not the worship of the only living and 
 true God. Of ail this bowing at the shrines of 
 departed saints, this reverence of the conse- 
 crated wafer, and this adoration of the host, 
 these votive offerings, and fervent, solemn invo- 
 cations addressed to the Virgin, this entire ma- 
 chinery of the crucifix, the statues, the paint- 
 ings, and all the apparatus by which theatrical 
 effect is produced, and the imagination and 
 senses captivated and enslaved, w^e may well 
 say, " What meaneth this device ?" The voice 
 of God demands of all such idolaters, '' Who 
 hath required this at your hands V Prayer is 
 an act of worship. " Hearken unto the voice 
 of my cry, my King and my God ; for unto thee 
 will I pray." God only is omnipresent to see 
 the worshippers, and to hear their worship. 
 "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER. 17 
 
 and his ear is open to their cry." He only can 
 accept and answer their prayers. " The Lord 
 is nigh unto all them that call upon him; that 
 call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire 
 of them that fear him ; he will also hear their 
 cry, and will save them." 
 
 But if God is the only object of prayer, wiiat 
 is the w^ay of access to him ? Is it through 
 men ? or through the ministration of angels ? or 
 by martyred saints ? or by our own merit and 
 righteousness ? These inquiries suggest solemn 
 and affecting thoughts. 
 
 The character of the suppliants is sufficiently 
 humbling; the Being they address ineffably great 
 and exalted. It is a most wonderful fact that ab- 
 ject man, man that is "fallen by his iniquity," 
 should have intercourse with the high and holy 
 One. On the lips of a sinning creature, that fear- 
 ful name, the Lord thy God, is a name of solemn 
 import. O weigh the vast meaning of these words ! 
 Well may a holy fear take possession of the heart, 
 and awe it into reverence as it approaches the 
 King Eternal, Immortal, and Invisible. His 
 greatness know^s no bounds ; his perfections are 
 infinite ; his spirituality is unmingled and pure ; 
 his existence has no beginning and will have no 
 end. He is all-seeing, yet unseen; the most 
 distant^ yet the most near; comprehending all, 
 and comprehended by none ; containing all. 
 
Ig THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 while nothing contains him. There is nothing 
 but he controls by his power; nothing but what 
 lives and moves within the compass of his im- 
 mensity. Spotless cherubim, when they wor- 
 ship him, cover their faces with their wings, 
 and " say one to another. Holy, holy, holy is the 
 Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of his 
 glory !" " The wicked shall not stand in his 
 sight, he hateth all the workers of iniquity.'^ 
 The nearer the sinful and polluted come to him, 
 the nearer do they come to " a consuming fire." 
 To the perverse, rebellious, and guilty children 
 of an apostate race, his throne might well be 
 overshadowed with clouds and darkness, and 
 made repulsive and inaccessible. The glory of 
 man is fallen ; he is sunk in the dust ; he has 
 no wings to soar to the high privilege of com- 
 muning' with a holy God. 
 
 Yet even man, fallen, aspires after this ; his 
 desires, corrupted as they are, have a sort of 
 inbred tendency toward something above and 
 beyond this narrow world. He is not satisfied 
 without God ; nor can he ever be happy, until 
 he returns to the bosom of his aggrieved and 
 forsaken Father. x4nd, wondrous fact, men thus 
 polluted and vile, instead of cringing as slaves 
 before his throne under the terrifying expres- 
 sions of his omnipotent justice, are drawn to it 
 as sons, and by the attractions of his love. 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER. 19 
 
 There is " a new and living way into the holiest 
 of all by the blood of Jesus Christ." Access to 
 God as the hearer of prayer is the effect only of 
 that great work of redeeming mercy in which 
 the second person of the ever-blessed and ador- 
 able Trinity came to seek and save those which 
 were lost, and advance them to the privileges of 
 children. We have nothing of our own to 
 plead ; yet in his name may our prayer go up 
 as incense, and the lifting up of our hands as an 
 acceptable sacrifice. Humbling and prostrating 
 as the consideration is, we have not a rag of 
 righteousness left us, in which we may appear 
 before the throne. The worthiness is not in us. 
 Christ's name, Christ's sacrifice, Christ's right- 
 eousness, Christ's work, Christ's entire media- 
 tion as the atoning, interceding High Priest, 
 form the centre and channel of all God's com- 
 munications with apostate men, and the medium 
 of their access to God. ''For through him we 
 have access by one Spirit unto the Father." It 
 is not possible for a sinner to find any other way 
 of access. In the religion of a sinner, the medi- 
 ation of the Son of God is the great elementary 
 principle. Natural religion is of no use to him, 
 and only leads to the neglect of that which is 
 revealed. Natural religion is only for beings 
 that are sinless. As sinners, we can have noth- 
 ing to do with God, except through Christ. We 
 
20 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 have freedom of access only in that way which 
 he has consecrated by his blood. We have no 
 other. " I," saith he, " am the way, and the 
 truth, and the life ; no man cometh unto the 
 Father hut hy me'' He is the altar whence the 
 hallowed incense arises which is expressive of 
 the purity and ardor of a true devotion. We 
 have " an altar," says the Apostle, " whereof 
 they have no right to eat which serve at the 
 tabernacle :" an altar that abolishes all other 
 altars ; a sacrifice that abolishes all other sacri- 
 fices ; a name that is above every name. " The 
 altar sanctifies the gift." And well it may 
 sanctify it. It was erected not by the hands of 
 men; the invisible God erected it on holy 
 ground, in the centre of this perishing world. 
 There, " without the gate" of the Holy City, 
 where God laid on him the iniquity of us all, 
 and the fires of eternal justice consumed the 
 priest, the altar, and the sacrifice, that way to 
 the mercy seat was opened, without which all 
 amicable intercourse between heaven and earth 
 had been forever suspended. 
 
 We dwell on the thought, that prayer is of- 
 fered in the name of Christ, because, obvious as 
 it is, it is both in theory and in practice a very 
 important thought. Men have no more access 
 to God than the devils have, save in this "new 
 way which he hath consecrated through the veil, 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER. 21 
 
 that is to say, his flesh." It is no small matter 
 for a man whose conscience is burdened by a 
 sense of guilt, to find access. He who has 
 never experienced this embarrassment, has yet 
 to learn that he is a sinner. We may be al- 
 most certain, that if our prayers are put up in 
 the name of Christ, and not answered, there is 
 soniething wrong about them ; and we may be 
 quite certain there is everything wrong about 
 them, if they are not offered in the name of 
 Christ. The promise is absolute, '' Whatsoever 
 ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give 
 it you." Yet to pray in the name of Christ, is 
 not simply to use the words. There is no spirit- 
 ual spell in the mere words. They cannot 
 charm away guilt, nor charm answers to our 
 supplications. To pray in the name of Christ, 
 comprises a heart-felt acknowledgment of him 
 as the only appointed and accepted way to the 
 throne. The mere intellectual perception of 
 this truth, is not enough. It must be believed 
 and felt ; with all its humbling, encouraging im- 
 port, it must be received into the heart. The 
 soul must have an immediate and direct refer- 
 ence to it in all her prayers; it must be confided 
 in, and carried into the chamber of audience. 
 
 Prayer has power and influence. The spirit of 
 prayer and the blessing of God have ever stood 
 abreast, and gone hand in hand in his govern- 
 
22 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 ment of the world. " For all these things I will 
 be inquired of by the house of Israel," says he, 
 " to do it for them." A prayerless man is an 
 unblest man ; a prayerless Church is languid, 
 inert, and unblest. Those portions of God's 
 heritage w-hich have been most distinguished 
 for the spirit of prayer, have know^n most of the 
 power and presence of God, and been most dis- 
 tinguished for the effusions of his Spirit. When- 
 ever he is about to do great things for his peo- 
 ple, he rouses them from their lukewarmness, 
 and stirs them up to prayer. There is no surer 
 criterion by which to judge if God is about to 
 do great things for them, than an unusual spirit 
 of prayer. It was so in the days of the Old 
 Testament dispensation, and it is so under the 
 New. It w^as so on the day of Pentecost, and 
 it will be so when the scattered families of that 
 same people are gathered in. " I will pour 
 out upon them," says God, ''the spirit of grace 
 and supplication, and they shall look on him 
 whom they have pierced, and mourn." He 
 " hath not said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye 
 my face, in vain." O thou that hearest prayer, 
 is one of the usual appellations by which he is 
 addressed in the Holy Scriptures. This is one 
 of the names by w^iich he is known, and this is 
 his memorial to all generations. 
 
 No small part of the Scriptural history is em* 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER. 23 
 
 ployed in recounting the achievements of prayer. 
 A selection of the prayers recorded in the Scrip- 
 tures, with a detailed account of the manner in 
 which they were answered, would form an in- 
 structive and edifying volume to the people of 
 God. He has pledged his faithfulness as the 
 hearer of prayer, both to his Son and to his peo- 
 ple ; and facts there recorded show, and facts 
 hereafter to be recorded will show also, that he 
 is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of 
 man that he should repent. There is perhaps no 
 more impressive proof of the power of prayer than 
 the fact that God represents himself as embar- 
 rassed by the prayers of his people when he is 
 about to make bare his arm in judgment against 
 his enemies. " Let me alone," said He to Moses, 
 " that I may destroy this people." " I do not 
 say that he shall pray for it," is a limitation con- 
 fined to the unpardonable sin. It is indeed a 
 marvellous truth, which God himself has re- 
 vealed, that " the effectual fervent prayer of 
 the righteous man availeth much." The men 
 of prayer look for answers to their supplications, 
 and they are warranted in so doing. One of the 
 differences between the prayers of Christians 
 and the prayers of other men, is that the latter 
 pray without minding the answers, while the 
 former wait for an answer, and in substance if 
 not in form, and in God's own time, they get it. 
 
24 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 Prayer, therefore, is an unspeakable privilege. 
 For a creature, like fallen man, to be allowed 
 to draw nigh to the Holy God, and express all 
 the desires of his heart, in the name, and plead 
 the full merits of Him in whom the Eternal 
 Father is well pleased, is indeed the privilege 
 of sons. Abject man, man that is fallen by his 
 iniquity, enjoys this privilege. The hour of 
 prayer is the appointed hour of this communion. 
 Here the Father of mercies meets his offending 
 creature with the smile of reconciliation ; and 
 here the creature, with a heart sprinkled from 
 an evil conscience, meets his offended, but gra- 
 cious and reconciled Father. There are few 
 declarations in the Bible, which, in the entire 
 range of their instructions, are more richly 
 fraught w^ith the consolation which a sinner 
 needs, than the declaration made by God to 
 Moses, when he said, " And thou shalt make 
 the mercy seat above upon the ark ; and in the 
 ark shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. 
 And there will 1 meet thee, and I will commune 
 with thee from above the mercy seat J" It is the 
 communion of the created, with the uncreated 
 mind ; a creature of yesterday holding converse 
 with him who is from everlasting ; a creature 
 who knows nothing, in intimate and unembar- 
 rassed intercourse with him who knows all 
 things ; one, who for his abjectness is as a worm. 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER. 25 
 
 and who for his sinfulness might make sackcloth 
 his covering, tranquil and comforted in the pres- 
 ence of that holy Lord God, 
 
 Nor is there any longer any one appointed 
 place of prayer. '' In all places where I record 
 my name," says He, " I will come unto thee, 
 and I will bless thee." Territorial divisions, 
 secular and ecclesiastical demarcations, earthly 
 distinctions, are all banished here. It is God's 
 communion with the king and the beggar, with 
 those who are near on the land, and those who 
 are afar off upon the sea. True piety is the 
 same thing everywhere, because God is every- 
 where the same object of worship, and the same 
 hearer of prayer. To diiferent climes, and all 
 the different classes of men, to men of the vari- 
 ous habits of thought, to men of manual toil 
 and men of intellectual study, to the cool and 
 tranquil philosopher, the patient historian, and 
 the imaginative and ardent poet, the throne of 
 grace brings substantially the same consolations, 
 and calls forth the same warm emotions of grate- 
 ful and adoring love, melting penitence, and im- 
 plicit faith. 
 
 The duty of prayer is itself a delightful 
 duty. It ordinarily presents the most lovely 
 assemblage of those spiritual graces, and those 
 intellectual perceptions and moral qualities of 
 soul, in which true religion has been universally 
 
26 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 found to exist. There is no sweeter assemblage 
 of gracious affections ever presented to that all- 
 seeing eye which looketh on the heart, and of 
 which the renewed nature of man is conscious. 
 And for this reason it presents the most lovely 
 and most enviable assemblage of spiritual joys. 
 If there is true blessedness anywhere, it is in 
 the indulgence of such affections. They give 
 pleasure to the mind; they are happy feelings 
 so long as they exist, and afford the purest, the 
 highest satisfaction of which sinful man is capa- 
 ble. There is additional joy, too, in the discov- 
 ery of them; for though all may not be alike 
 conscious of them, nor the same persons equally 
 conscious at all times, there is a discovery of 
 them at the throne of grace which is ordinarily 
 made only there. 
 
 If there are good men who do not always 
 enj.oy the delightful conviction of their own 
 gracious state in prayer, there are none who 
 do not sometimes there enjoy it. No man 
 should depreciate it because he cannot come 
 so near the throne as Abraham came; or be- 
 cause he cannot converse vvith God face to 
 face, as Moses did; or because he cannot, like 
 John, lean on the bosom of his Divine X-orci ; or 
 because he may not, like Paul, be caught up 
 .*nto the third heavens. It is pvooi of the reality 
 of his faith, if he mav there but lament its weak- 
 
GENERAL OBSERVx\TIONS ON PRAYER. 27 
 
 ness. And if it is Cieiightful to feel gracious af- 
 fections at the tiirone of heaven's mercy; if it 
 is delightful to be conscious of them; still more 
 delightful is it to express them. It were bond- 
 age and misery to express them unfelt ; but to 
 feel and express them, to be conscious of them 
 and offer them to God, to make the offering in 
 the name and on the merits of the Great Aton- 
 ing High Priest, poor and humble as the offering 
 is, it is itself adapted to gratify and invigorate 
 these affections themselves, to increase and ac- 
 cumulate them. It is thus they become the con- 
 secrated conductors of spiritual blessings from 
 God's high throne to many an otherwise de- 
 pressed and mourning spirit on this low earth. 
 
 Secrets may be committed to God that cannot 
 be committed to another. It is relief which the 
 world knows not of, if but to spread before Him 
 the secret wants of the soul ; to tell them one 
 by one ; to tell them all. The conscience, 
 wounded by a sense of sin, finds healing there. 
 Want there finds supply; distrust finds confi- 
 dence, and depression praise. Ignorance is en- 
 lightened there ; poverty is enriched, and weak- 
 ness becomes strong. Darkness is there dissi- 
 pated, and trembling hopes encouraged. The 
 bruised reed is not broken there, nor is the 
 smoking fiax quenched. Grace there cherishes 
 what it bestows, and completes what it begins. 
 
28 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 Spiritual enemies are there disarmed, or if not 
 disarmed, there is the armor for renewed and 
 successful conflict. Not like angels' visits, that 
 are few and far between, the promises there 
 habitually visit and refresh the soul, cheer its 
 gloom, and comfort it when it is weary. 
 
 There are no broken cisterns at the mercy 
 seat ; it is all a fountain of living water, where 
 streams fiow from it, without which this earth 
 were a desert. They who are most engaged 
 in the duty of prayer, have tasted most of its 
 consolations. In the hour of trouble especially, 
 it brings the soul near to the only source of 
 comfort. That man is truly wretched, who, 
 when earthly enjoyments fail, has no other to 
 which he can resort; while he who can come 
 to the footstool of God's mercy is never wretch- 
 ed. It is no barren land, but one where the 
 heavens are opened, and waters are poured 
 upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry 
 ground. It is no place of storms and tempest; 
 but a hiding from the vStorm, and from the tem- 
 pest a safe covering. The region is pure, be- 
 cause it is elevated ; it is quiet and serene, 
 where faith, soaring in its flight, looks down 
 upon earth and upward toward heaven. It is the 
 sanctuary of God and where angels dwell. It is 
 the rest of the soul. Ten thousand times ten 
 thousand tongues, in approaching it, have given 
 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PRAYER. 29 
 
 utterance to the thought, " Return to thy rest, O 
 my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with 
 thee !" Like the disciples on the Mount of Trans- 
 figuration, they have often exclaimed, " Lord, it 
 is good to be here !" 
 
 If. the reader is living in the neglect of 
 prayer, he knows not his loss — he knows not 
 his danger. Many a man w hose bosom is not a 
 stranger to hope in God's mercy, can say. But 
 for this one privilege, I should long ago have 
 perished, and gone down to the sides of the pit! 
 Men know not the power of the vsin that dwell- 
 eth in them who neglect to pray. Be admon- 
 ished, O ye thoughtless ones, who " restrain 
 prayer before God !'' " Their Rock is not as 
 our Rock ; even our enemies themselves being 
 judges." Men may have resources that are out 
 of God ; -but they lean upon the same broken 
 reeds which have pierced others through with 
 many sorrows. Everytliing else will deceive 
 you ; they are " lying vanities, and cannot 
 profit." They are snares, and accomplish noth- 
 ing more certainly than entice the soul away 
 from God, and deceive it to its undoing. 
 
 Be ye admonis.hed also, w^ho are careless and 
 remiss in the exercise of prayer. However dis- 
 satisfied you may be with yourselves in this ex- 
 ercise, and however little you may have of the 
 gift of prayer, " be faithful in that which is 
 
30 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 least." However little comfort you have in it, 
 without it you will be left to a far more melan- 
 choly abandonment. Though your prayers may 
 seem not to be answered, it is no proof that 
 they are not answered, because it is not in the 
 time and way you prescribe. The old En- 
 emy tempts you when you little think that he 
 is tempting you ; and God is teaching you, 
 when you yourself are not always conscious of 
 his teaching. Prayer is the proper business of 
 a man who is a sinner. He will never know 
 how to live, nor how to die, if he is not a man 
 of prayer. God giveth liberally; he giveth 
 without upbraiding. He is as free to give the 
 best gifts, as the meanest; and to the most 
 needy, as to the least needy. He has no par- 
 don for the sinless, no wisdom for the wise, no 
 courage for the resolute, no strength for the 
 strong, no hope for the presumptuous. " To 
 this man," says he, " will I look, even to him 
 that is of a poor and contrite spirit, and that 
 tremblethat my word." " This poor man cried, 
 and the Lord heard, and saved him out of all 
 his troubles." " When the poor and needy 
 seek water, and there is none, and their tongue 
 faileth for thirst ; I the Lord will hear them, 7 
 the God of Israel will not forsake them." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE INSTRUCTIONS OP THE BIBLE AS TO THE MATTER 
 AND MANNER OP PRAYER. 
 
 The incident is an interesting, and even a 
 most beautiful one, which led the disciples of 
 Christ to request him to " teach them to pray." 
 He himself had been praying ; there was a sim- 
 plicity, a propriety, a comprehensiveness, a fer- 
 vor and spirituality in his prayer, that so in- 
 structed and affected them, that they desired to 
 sit at his feet, if it were but to learn how to 
 pray. " And it came to pass, that as he was 
 praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one 
 of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us 
 how to pray, as John also taught his disciples." 
 Every Christian has an interest in knowing how 
 the Saviour would pray. The best of men 
 need direction in prayer. Who may not adopt 
 the language, " Teach us what we shall say 
 unto him : for we cannot order our speech by 
 reason of darkness ?" 
 
 How then shall we be instructed in the mat- 
 
32 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 ter and manner of prayer ? how shall an igno- 
 rant and guilty creature learn to address him- 
 self to the great Creator, who is God over all, 
 blessed forever ? The Bible is a sufficient rule 
 of conduct in all things pertaining to life and 
 godliness. The subject matter for prayer is to 
 be found in the word of God. There is not 
 one of its doctrines, in all their richness and va- 
 riety, that does not contain truths which the 
 lips of prayer may make use of, and turn to good 
 account at the throne of grace. What God is, 
 what he has done, and what he has purposed 
 and is disposed to do ; w^iat we are, and what 
 we need, are not less guides in prayer, than 
 they are principles of truth. '' He that cometh 
 to God must believe that he is, and that he is 
 the rewarder of them that diligently seek him." 
 His love to the world in giving his Son to die, 
 the condescension of his Son in laying down 
 his life as a sacrifice for sin, and the work of 
 the Holy Spirit in applying the truths of the 
 gospel to the soul, furnish not only the appropri- 
 ate, but the indispensable aliment to the spirit 
 of supplication. " Hov*^ shall they call on him 
 in whom they have not believed V^ The point is 
 too plain to require either illustration, or proof, 
 that the mind must be fmriished with the truth 
 of God, in order to be furnished with matter for 
 prayer. Nor need we any more painful convic- 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OF PRAYER. 33 
 
 tion of this, than the absolute sterility and 
 barrenness of thought, and worse than chilling 
 coldness of those prayers, which it may have 
 been our unhappiness to listen to from men who 
 deny the essential truths of Christianity. Soc- 
 rates, or Seneca, dwelling on the barren truths 
 of Natural Religion, w^ould have offered a richer 
 prayer to the "Unknown God," than I have 
 heard from the hesitating and embarrassed lips 
 of an unchristian ministry. 
 
 The precepts of the Bible also teach us how 
 to pray. They describe the spirit of prayer ; 
 while they teach us what graces to ask for, and 
 for what duties we need strength. 
 
 The promises of the Bible are revealed for 
 our instruction and encouragement in prayer. 
 They teach us what blessings God is willing to 
 bestow, and how willing he is to bestow them. 
 They are *' exceedingly great and precious ;" 
 they are wonderfully various, adapted to all 
 cases of want, and all the varieties of Christian 
 experience. They are promises for health, 
 strength, food and raiment ] they are promises 
 of peace, safety, success, courage, comfort. 
 They are adapted to seasons of temptation, 
 sickness, poverty, persecution, calumny, dark- 
 ness, and fear. They are promises of light, of 
 regeneration, of repentance, of faith, of peace, 
 of joy, and of the indwelling witness of the 
 
 2* 
 
34 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 Holy Spirit. They are promises of obedience, 
 of perseverance in holiness, of the coming of 
 God's Kingdom on the earth, of calmness and 
 hope in death, and of eternal glory. Nor is 
 there one of them that does not give a fresh im- 
 pulse to the soul that wrestles at the throne, 
 and that may not be used as an argument in 
 prayer. 
 
 The threatenings of the Bible teach us what 
 we have reason to fear and deprecate ; while 
 the very si7is that are there recorded teach 
 wdiat we should pray against and deplore. " All 
 these things," says the Apostle, '' happened 
 unto them for ensamples ; and they were written 
 for our admonition upon Avhom the ends of the 
 world are come." 
 
 God has also recorded a multitude o{ facts 
 in his word, that are comments upon its truths, 
 its promises, and its threatenings, of which he 
 condescends to permit his people to remind him, 
 and which furnish them with powerful consid- 
 erations in pleading at his mercy seat. They 
 are facts which belong to the history of his deal- 
 ings both with good and bad men, with nations 
 and individuals, with the church and the world. 
 
 There are instances of 'prayer, too, there re- 
 corded, which show us its spirit, its comprehen- 
 siveness, its appropriateness to times, and places, 
 and circumstance and men, as well as its fruit 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OF PRAYER. 35 
 
 and power ; and which show us for what it is to 
 be offered, and God's readiness to hear and 
 answer. The Bible tells of Moses, of Ellas, of 
 Daniel, of Job, who ''set their face to seek the 
 Lord God by prayer and supplication." God 
 has there recorded also a great variety of the 
 experience of his people, and of his own conduct 
 toward them, and of their supplications under 
 the dealings of his hand. Of all the books in 
 the Bible, the book of Psalms is the one which 
 is fitted to teach men how to pray, and how 
 they do pray when influenced by his Spirit. In 
 this book the Spirit of God has delineated his 
 own operations on the hearts of his people. 
 The book, generally, is nothing more nor less 
 than a diagram of a good man's heart — "the 
 inside section of a believer's soul." 
 
 More than this; the Bible teaches us where 
 to go for assistance iii prayer, " For through 
 him, we have access by 07ie spirit unto the Fa- 
 ther." In every act of true devotion, there is a 
 concurrence of the Spirit's influence. No man 
 is wise enough or holy enough, or sufliiciently 
 acquainted with his own wants, or with the 
 mind and will of God to pray as he ought 
 to' pray, unless directed and assisted by the 
 Spirit of God. With the most guikless sincer- 
 ity, Apostles themselves acknowledge, " Fof 
 <?e know not- what we should pray for as we 
 
36 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 ought ; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession 
 for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. 
 And he that search eth the heart, knoweth the 
 mind of the Spirit, because he maketh interces- 
 sion for the saints according to the will of God." 
 Men are ignorant, forgetful and erring ; but the 
 Spirit " helpeth their infirmities," by enlighten- 
 ing their understandings, assisting their memo- 
 ries, warming their hearts, and directing their 
 desires in prayer after right objects. It is no 
 marvel that men who pray without feeling their 
 dependence on God's Spirit, and seeking his aid, 
 offer disconnected prayers, random prayers, and 
 prayers that have no object. Prayers they may 
 be that are fluent, but they mean nothing — 
 wordy prayers, destitute of thought and emo- 
 tion, because those who offer them have forgot- 
 ten that " they are not sufficient of themselves 
 to think anything of themselves." It is the 
 work of the Spirit to teach men to pray. The 
 heart and the tongue must be under his influ- 
 ence. " Open thou my lips, and my mouth shall 
 show forth thy praise," The prayer that reaches 
 heaven must come from heaven. It is " the Com- 
 forter" alone who imparts the spirit of adoption, 
 whereby we say " Abba, Father." " The prep- 
 aration of the heart in man, and the ansAver of 
 the tongue, is of the Lord." The Spirit of God 
 himself is called *' The Spirit of supplication." 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OF PRAYER. 37 
 
 It is he that prays in the people of God; and 
 when he teaches them to pray, it is " with all 
 prayer and supplication in the Spirit." 
 
 On every page of the Bible there is matter for 
 prayer; and he who would pray with intelli- 
 gence and with fervor, must study his Bible. 
 The best instruction we can give on this sub- 
 ject is to refer you to the Bible. Let the Spirit 
 of God impress you with a sense of your wants, 
 and direct your desires. Let your mind be 
 richly furnished with»-all God's truth, and let 
 your bosom be filled with devotional emotions, 
 and then freely utter your requests before God. 
 There is thought in prayer ; strong thought, and 
 often close, compact, and connected thought. 
 There is emotion, too, heavenly emotion. There is 
 memory, too, in prayer; and there is conscience 
 and even imagination. There is the argument 
 of Moses and the piety of Isaiah and David in 
 prayer; and the fittest combination of them all, 
 directed by God's Spirit, uttered with simplicity 
 and fervor, and with no burdensome restrictions 
 iipon the heart, constitutes the sweetest, hum- 
 blest, most grateful and heavenly devotion. To 
 aim at eloquence in prayer, is of all abomina- 
 tions one of the greatest ; to affect singularity 
 in it, the strangest of all affectations. There is 
 a copiousness of diction in the prayers of some 
 Christians, which is not found in others; and 
 
38 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 there is an unusual copiousness in the same 
 Christian at different seasons and under the 
 power of different thoughts and emotions. All 
 this is natural. " There is a diversity of gifts, but 
 the same spirit." 
 
 But this is not all the instruction the Bible 
 gives in relation to the matter and manner of 
 prayer. While it contains the principles by 
 which w^e are to apply the matter of prayer, 
 there is a special rule of direction, in w^hat is 
 commonly called The Load's Frayer, I cannot 
 help thinking it is a mistake to call it so, be- 
 cause it is a prayer which our Lord himself 
 could not use ; it contains confessions of sin 
 which he could not make. If there be a prayer 
 in the Bible which may be properly called the 
 Lord's Prayer, it is contained in the 17th of 
 John; a prayer which no other than he could 
 ever offer. This formula, commonly called the 
 Lord's Prayer, contains the suhstajice of prayer 
 for his disciples. In no other part of the Bible 
 is the service of prayer so methodically specified. 
 It reduces the matter of prayer to certain great 
 subjects ; under one or other of which all lawful 
 requests may be presented. It is distinguished 
 for great tenderness, great sincerity, great sim- 
 plicity and precision, giving us the different 
 heads of prayer, and at the same time giving us 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OF PRAYER. 39 
 
 the whole range of the Bible for matter to put 
 under these heads. 
 
 A question arises here, if we may not use this 
 form in our supplications at the throne of grace ? 
 Most certainly we may; most certainly we do; 
 most certainly we ought; though there is no 
 evidence tliat we ought to do so uniformly and 
 always. The Christian ought not to be so much 
 the enemy of forms, as to depreciate this most 
 beautiful form of prayer; nor so much of a for- 
 malist, as not to pray without it. That we must 
 use it as a form, not to depart from, as if there 
 was some charm in the words, is not conceded. 
 
 We are naturally led in our inquiries on the 
 general subject of prayer, to a consideration of 
 the question of praying with or without a pre- 
 scribed form. There has been, and is still, a 
 great variance in the belief and practice of pro- 
 fessed Christians in the manner of addressing 
 the throne of grace in this particular. Some 
 churches have set and stereotyped forms, pre- 
 scribed by ecclesiastical authority- even upon 
 their Archbishops, their Bishops, their Presby- 
 ters, and their Deacons. It has never before 
 fallen in the writer's way to speak extensively 
 upon this subject ; nor does he do it now with- 
 out some misgivings — misgivings not of truth 
 and principle, but misgivings arising from the 
 fact that, as a general axiom, it is no part of 
 
40 THK MERCY SEAT. 
 
 true religion to find fault with the religion of 
 other people. 
 
 He Avould preface what he is about to say, 
 with a single remark, and that is, in this matter 
 *' Let every man he fully persuaded in his own 
 mind." If there are those who, from con- 
 scientious convictions of duty, give an honest 
 preference to forms of religious worship, they 
 may well say to us, who honestly differ from 
 them, "Who art thou that judgest. another 
 man's servant ; to his own Master he standeth 
 or falleth.'' Since, however, our own principles 
 and practice are dear to us, we hope it will not 
 he deemed unfitting, or uncharitable, to advert 
 to some of the considerations by which they 
 may be defended. This we shall do without 
 embarrassment, though without designing to 
 give offence to those who differ from us, unless 
 they be offended by God's truth. 
 
 Jesus Christ has ?ioivhere authorized a restric- 
 tion to any set form of praijer. The only pas- 
 sage in the New Testament which has the sem- 
 blance of this authority, is the declaration made 
 by him in relation to what is called the Lord's 
 Prayer: " After this manner pray ye." Our po- 
 sition here is, that the Saviour gave his disciples 
 this prayer, not as a form in ivords, but in sub- 
 stance and manner. He does not say after these 
 words ; his object was to furnish his disciples 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OF PRAYER. 41 
 
 Jiints on the subject of prayer ; nor could they, 
 from the nature of the case, be entitled to ex 
 pect anything more. The most rigid advocates 
 of forms do not profess to believe that by the in- 
 structions here given, the Saviour designed to 
 limit his church to these words, or even to these 
 thoughts; because they themselves have with 
 great care and pains presented other and more 
 amplified forms. To us it seems that a fair 
 mind must confess that the Great Teacher here 
 designed to furnish his people with the great 
 outlines of prayer, without attempting to draw 
 out the whole system of devotion, and filling up 
 all the parts of it. Men of prayer will readily 
 class these several topics, and naturally remem- 
 ber and resort to them when they pray. There 
 is not one of them that is extraneous and foreign 
 to the subject of prayer, nor any one of them 
 which, when prayer is oflfered upon a large 
 scale, may be omitted. The order is natural, 
 and the transition from one thought to another 
 is such that it is not abruptly made ; nor is the 
 mind at all embarrassed in perceiving the asso- 
 ciation of thought which connects the whole. 
 It covers the common w- ants of man ; so far as it 
 goes, it is adapted to all the stages of Christian 
 experience, and not less fitted to the babe in 
 Christ, than to those of mature age. 
 
 The Sacred Scriptures nowhere speak of 
 
42 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 reading prayers, or make any allusion to a Lit- 
 urgy. Would they not have done this, if estab- 
 lished Forms of Prayer were indispensable to 
 the prosperity of the church, or the comforl; and 
 beauty of her worship ? The prayers of Abra- 
 ham were not written prayers. Nor was the 
 prayer of Eleazar at Haran ; nor the prayer 
 of Jacob, at Peniel ; nor the prayers of Moses 
 and Aaron for Egypt and Israel. The prayer of 
 Joshua at the defeat of Ai, the prayer of Ma- 
 noah, of Samson, of Hannah, of Samuel at Miz- 
 peh, of Elijah at Mount Carmel, of Hezekiah 
 against Sennacherib, of Jabez, of Ezra, of Ne- 
 hemiah, of Job, of Daniel, of Jonah, and of Ha- 
 bakkuk, were none of them dictated by the pen. 
 Nor was the prayer of Zacharias, nor that of 
 the Publican, nor that of the disciples in any one 
 exigence of their history. The prayers offered 
 by the disciples of Christ subsequently to the 
 period when he thus taught them, that are re- 
 corded at length in the Acts of the Apostles, 
 grew out of the peculiar condition in which 
 they were offered, and were offered under the 
 impulse of their peculiar exigences; yet, in not 
 one of them is there one word of the Lord's 
 Prayer, nor the remotest allusion to it. The 
 prayer of the Apostles on the appointment of 
 Mathias to the Apostleship ; their prayer on 
 the release of Peter and John from the Jewish 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OF PRAYER. 43 
 
 Council ; and Paul's noble supplication, as re- 
 corded ill the third chapter of his Epistle to the 
 Ephesians, have not the slightest reference to 
 the Lord's Prayer, but in method and thought 
 are entirely different from it throughout. They 
 were prayers for special occasions, called for by 
 the occasion itself, offered Avithout the l.east re- 
 striction by this prescribed form, and under cir- 
 cumstances in which this form of prayer would 
 have been altogether inappropriate. There are 
 also instructions on the subject of prayer scat- 
 tered throughout the Epistles, in addition to 
 those given in the Lord's Prayer, and which 
 this form does not include. We are taught to 
 offer all our supplications *' in the name of 
 Christ," which this prayer says nothing about ; 
 evidently teaching us that there are other and 
 superadded revelations on this subject, and that 
 this form, excellent as it is, is not the sole di- 
 rectory. Jesus Christ, therefore, has nowhere 
 authorized a restriction to any set form of prayer. 
 In the next place, forms of prayer invert the 
 order of prayer ; they make the words lead the 
 heart, and not the heart the ivords. True prayer 
 flows from the heart ; the heart is the seat of 
 supplication. This truth is, indeed, so obvious 
 that the best waiters who are the strenuous ad- 
 vocates of forms, contend for them only as aids 
 to the worship of the heart. But in doing this, 
 
44 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 they do no more, even by their own showing, 
 than make the lips affect the heart; whereas, 
 the nature of the case, the meaning of the terms, 
 and the uniform teachings of God's w^ord, make 
 the heart in prayer affect the lips. It is in 
 prayer as it is in speaking, before a man speaks 
 he must have something to say, his thoughts 
 must first give an impulse to his tongue. Before 
 he prays, he must have thoughts and emotions 
 to utter; his heart must move first, his lips af- 
 terwards. This is the true order of prayer. 
 God first gives the heart to pray, and then the 
 words ; he does not give the words first, and 
 afterwards the heart. In every instance, in the 
 beginning, during the progress, and at the close 
 of prayer, the heart goes before the lips, and 
 not the lips before the heart. A man's mind 
 and affections may be excited by the sound of 
 his own voice in prayer, and one sentence of 
 supplication may thus prepare the way for an- 
 other ; but the incitement is produced by the 
 utterance of thoughts and emotions already ex- 
 istinsr within his own mind. They are not vain 
 words which move him, but thought acting upon 
 thought, emotion upon emotion, each and every 
 one of them taking precedence of the utterance 
 of his lips. No man begins prayer with mere 
 words, as forms teach him to do. We do not 
 deny but the heart may follow the words, and 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OF PRAYER. 45 
 
 only affirm the words ought to follow the heart. 
 When we read in the Scriptures of men " stir- 
 ring up themselves to take hold on God/' who 
 does not see that this is an intellectual and spir- 
 itual stirring up, and not a rhetorical effort ? It 
 is not an effort of the lips to affect the heart, but 
 an effort of the heart to affect the lips. And 
 hence it is that an habitual reliance upon forms 
 of prayer encourages spiritual sloth, and an idle 
 mind, and tempts men who read or repeat a 
 prayer, to be careless of self-examination, and 
 too little solicitous of exciting grace in the heart 
 to pray. We do not say men are hypocrites 
 whose religious worship is restricted by forms; 
 on the other hand, we have no doubt of the 
 piety of many of them ; while of the piety of 
 not a few, we have evidence of the most con- 
 vincing and delightful kind. But this we say, 
 that the natural tendency of their system is 
 to encourage hypocrisy. There may be hyp- 
 ocrites who pray without a form ; but they are 
 more exposed to be hypocrites who are indu- 
 ced to believe that saying the prescribed words 
 of prayer is prayer. 
 
 With regard to secret prayer, the true and nat- 
 ural idea of it is, that it is a man's own mind and 
 heart that prays ; while the one who uses the 
 prayers that are made for him by another, 
 makes use of the mind and heart of another, 
 
46 THE MERCV SEAT. 
 
 and not his own. There is danger of hypoc- 
 risy, and still more of honest self-deception, 
 everywhere ; but the danger is greatly increased 
 where the words professedly lead the heart, and 
 not the heart the words. We judge not other 
 men ; we know not the influence of habit on 
 their own minds; but to us it appears a very 
 strange thing that a Christian man, much more 
 a Christian minister, should wish to find his 
 prayers written in a book. 
 
 Another objection to forms is, that they check 
 the teachings, of the Holy Spirit. If what has 
 been said in relation to the work of the Holy 
 Spirit in prayer, in a previous paragraph, be 
 true, we know not how to get over this diffi- 
 culty ; it is absolutely fatal to the whole system 
 of forms of prayer, save in those cases where 
 they are necessarily imposed as leading-strings 
 in childhood and ignorance. God has promised 
 to give the spirit of prayer and supplication. 
 For what ? To indite our own petitions at his 
 throne. Does the man need this influence who 
 finds them already indited in a book ? Is it 
 said, he needs this inliuence to enable him to 
 enter into the import of the prescribed form? 
 It is nowhere promised for this purpose. He 
 has no certain evidence that the original authors 
 of the form he uses were influenced by the Spirit 
 of God ; for while God has promised to give tlie 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OF PRAYER. 47 
 
 Spirit of prayer to those who pray, he has no- 
 where promised to give his Spirit to any man, 
 or any set of men, to enable them to write pray- 
 ers for other people. And what is still more to 
 our purpose, the Apostle Paul, in giving an ac- 
 count of the work of the Spirit on the Christian's 
 heart in prayer, says, " Likewise the Spirit also 
 helpeth our infirmities, /or tve know not what we 
 should pray for as loe ought. ^^ Now if we use pray- 
 ers that are made for us, it is not true that we 
 do not know what we should pray for as we 
 ought. We do know, because we have all our 
 requests before us in the book. Either we do 
 know, or we do not. If we do not, then in 
 using forms, our own requests are not offered. 
 If we do, the Apostle is in a sad mistake. But 
 the mistake is not Paul's; it is in the book of 
 prayer, which professes to know what we should 
 pray for as we ought, which the Spirit of God 
 says we do not know, and which he himself 
 teaches us when we ourselves pray. 
 
 Retired, and sometimes sweet and awful, are 
 the secrets between the soul of man and God. 
 " What man knoweth the things of a man, save 
 the spirit of a man which is in him ?" And who 
 searches and develops them in prayer, but the 
 Spirit of God, whose influence forms of prayer 
 supersede, and who himself alone " searcheth 
 the deep things of God ?" 
 
48 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 Still another objection to forms of prayer is, 
 that no set of prayers is, or ever can he, adequate 
 to the necessities of the church. Who does not see, 
 that however excellent any Liturgy may be, and 
 however great the variety of its forms, it is a 
 simple impossibility, without the aid of a new 
 revelation, and without the spirit of prophecy, 
 to form a set of prayers that shall suit a church 
 at any period of time hereafter ? Hence we find 
 that new editions of the Book of Common Prayer 
 are continually making their appearance. By 
 common consent and authority it has been al- 
 tered, abridged, enlarged, amended, and other- 
 wise disposed of according to the various exi- 
 gencies of times and occasions. The Church of 
 England has, in the reign of several princes, 
 since the first compiling of her Liturgy in the 
 time of Edward the Sixth, not only made unes- 
 sential alterations, but alterations in the main 
 body and essential parts of it. And she must do 
 so again, if she cuts off occasion of complaint in 
 her own members. 
 
 Yet with all this libertv, no form can meet 
 their exigencies. When events take place in 
 the providence of God, for which the prescribed 
 forms of prayer furnish no appropriate and ade- 
 quate supply, the whole church must stand still, 
 and wait until the constituted authorities pre- 
 pare a new form of prayer, and publicly author- 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OF PRAYER. 49 
 
 ize the use of it. Not one, even of her ministers 
 or bishops, may go beyond the prayer written in 
 his book, however unexpected and extraordinary, 
 and urgent the demand may be for some marked 
 and strong pecuharity in their devotions. 
 
 If from public and social prayer, we go to the 
 devotions of the family and the closet, the em- 
 barrassment is increased a thousand-fold. Every 
 family, and every individual has mercies of its 
 own to be thankful for, sins of its own to con- 
 fess, wants to be presented before God, which 
 no prescribed form can reach ; and to be limited 
 by such a form is an encroachment upon Chris- 
 tian liberty and privilege, to which no heart, no 
 conscience ought to be subjected. The primi- 
 tive Christians and churches did not know any- 
 thing of such a restriction ; nor would they have 
 submitted to such bondage, " no not for an hour." 
 And hence no small part of the devotions of the 
 Papal and Episcopal churches, consists of ''vain 
 repetitions," of disjointed prayers, of " shreds 
 and fragments" of prayer, which have no con- 
 nection with each other, and which are far from 
 presenting anything like a continuous address 
 to the throne of grace. 
 
 We may add that forms of prayer are in their 
 nature absurd and prepostei'ous. The spirit of 
 prayer never requires men to pray in any set 
 form of words. Its emotions are so various that 
 
 8 
 
50 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 it must necessarily seek its own way of express- 
 ing them; they are often full, and such as can- 
 not he suppressed, hut must ^ve themselves 
 utterance in a way adapted to their own strength 
 and tenderness. A hungry beggar does not 
 ask alms, nor a drowning man cry for relief 
 only by a set form. The idea were preposter- 
 ous. No more does a perishing sinner plead for 
 mercy and grace to help in the time of need by 
 a set form. The great controversy between God 
 and his visible people, in every age, has arisen 
 from the strong tendency of the human heart to 
 satisfy itself with mere forms. It relates to a 
 spiritual religion on the one hand, and a forma! 
 religion on the other. From the corrupt state 
 of the church in the days of the prophet Isaiah, 
 down to the Pharisaic formality, which w^as so 
 severely rebuked by the Saviour, and from that 
 time to the present, this is the great subject mat- 
 ter of controversy. Is it not safe to be on the 
 right side of this great question ? 
 
 Such are our objections to Forms of Prayer. 
 Let us not, however, do the injustice to advert 
 exclusively to the considerations against them, 
 but give all due weight to the considerations 
 which have been suggested iu their favor. 
 
 It has been said that tJte example of the prim- 
 itive Christians is in favor of For ins. Much has 
 been written to prove the antiquity of Liturgies, 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OF PRAYER. 51 
 
 and Bishop Bull has strongly urged the proba- 
 bility of their being of Apostolic origin. The 
 Church of England has preserved in her Book 
 of Common Prayer some prayers of ancient 
 date, to which she attaches great importance 
 from their mere antiquity. But were the ex- 
 ample of Christians, even from the days of the 
 Apostles to the present hour, in favor of Forms, 
 so long as there is no warrant for them in the 
 word of God, it lays no obligation on our con- 
 sciences. The statement itself, however, that 
 the example of the primitive Christians is in favor 
 of Forms, is not true. The posture of the prim- 
 itive Christians in prayer was such as to render 
 it impossible to read prayers. They stood with 
 their arms crossed on their breasts, their heads 
 back, and their eyes often closed. It is confi- 
 dently asserted by those who have made close 
 r-earch, that there is not such an expression as 
 '' reading prayers," to be found in the history 
 of the first four centuries. " The most eminent 
 ritualist the Church of England has produced 
 for a hundred years, confesses that the public 
 services of the primitive church were ail per- 
 formed extempore, or memoriter, and that no 
 one ofliice was reduced to writing until the 
 fourth century." After this, we know there 
 were set forms of prayer ; but it was an age of 
 remarkable degeneracy and corruption ; and it 
 
52 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 was superinduced and came on by a punctilious 
 and superstitious regard for modes and forms of 
 worship. There is no fact better established, 
 than that for several centuries after the resurrec- 
 tion of Christ, prescribed forms of prayer were 
 unknown. When strict inquisition was made for 
 " the books" of the Christians by their persecu- 
 tors, it was a singular fact that their Bibles w^ere 
 demanded, and not a word is said of their 
 Prayer Books. So when the Emperor Constan- 
 tine, in his zeal for Christianity, directed the 
 Christians to be supplied with the Bible, he 
 said not a word about Prayer Books. In early 
 ages, too, very many of the clergy, and not one 
 of the common people, could read; and what 
 good could Prayer Books do ? The Christian 
 families of that illiterate age must either have 
 worshipped God without forms of prayer, or not 
 worshipped him at all. We have also the ex- 
 pressed testimony of the early Christian Fathers 
 on this subject. " When Justin Martyr is de- 
 scribing the worship of the second century, he 
 says, that the officiating minister offers up prayei' 
 and^ thanksgiving, according to his ability, an 
 expression which would be unmeaning if he 
 had read prayers from a book." Tertullian too, 
 in the same century, says, " We pray without a 
 monitor, because we pray from the heart." 
 In favor of forms, it is also said, that it is im- 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OF PRAYER. 53 
 
 portant to have matter to ponder upon, to pray 
 with inteUigeiice, We have only to reply, most 
 certainly it is so; but then there is more matter 
 in the Bible than in a Book of Common i rayer. 
 It is further iir;;ed, and we confess the objec- 
 tion 1ms some weight, that in extempore prayers, 
 too much latitude is give7i to the speaker — that, on 
 the one hand, his vrai/^rs may often he barren and 
 dry ; and on the other, they may he redundant, and 
 sometimes filled even loith icild and extravagant 
 notions. This is true ; it is an evil to be guarded 
 B^ainst : and we have only to say, that we expect 
 too much, when we expect perfect prayers from 
 imperfect men. And nve there no such imper- 
 fections in the reading of forms of prayer ? are 
 they never recited with chilling coldness and 
 school-boy negligence ? In order to remedy 
 these evils, I have heard them cha?ited / But 
 what would the Saviour and his apostles have 
 tiiought of setting their prayers to music? Be- 
 sides, are there no imperfections in the forms 
 themvselves ? Is the extravagant praise so gra- 
 tuitously bestov/ed upon the Liturgy of the 
 Episcopal Church, the praise that is due to it ? 
 Foes it insist upon no arrogant pretensions? 
 does it inculcate no supej-stilious rites ? does it 
 teach no errors in doctrine ? has it no defects, 
 and no redundancies ? " I have no hesita- 
 tion in saying," says the late Dr. Dick, of 
 
64 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 Glasgow, "that in other churches, prayers far 
 superior are offered up every Sabbath ; and I 
 have frequently heard a prayer poured out, by a 
 man of God, with the asrluntice of the Holy 
 Ghost, which, in my judgmeiv:;, was more valua- 
 ble than the whole of the Liturgy." Carry out 
 the principle of the ohjectior., and it militates 
 equally against the vvhole Gospel dispensaticni. 
 A minister has the same liberty in preparing hi ' 
 sermons, as in uttering his pmyers. On the 
 principle of the objection, we must have a set of 
 sermons prepared, as well as pniyers. And the 
 Church of England has, in former days, acted 
 upon this principle, and prepared her Books of 
 Homilies, or discourses for her ministers. But 
 they were "days of ignorance, which God 
 winked at," and which the church vrinked at, 
 because the clergy were not then qualified for 
 their office. She discontinues this latter usage, 
 because she has, to a very considerable extent, 
 an intelligent and devout clergy : and the rea- 
 son is equally applicable for discontinuing her 
 prescribed form of words in prayer. 
 
 Public prayer, like every other exercise, is a 
 matter of habit, and grows out of the habit of 
 secret prayer. It requires a mind well furnished 
 with divine truth, and a heart that is right with 
 God. Where these two qualifications are pos- 
 sessed, the habit of public prayer, for the most 
 
THE MATTER AND MANNER OP PRAYER: 55 
 
 part, makes the service pleasant and profitable. 
 There are, it is true, mournful exceptions to this 
 fact in the history of every minister — seasons in 
 which he himself feels confounded before God 
 and the people. But there are other seasons, in 
 which he is favored of God — seasons gratefully 
 remembered, when his devotions are poured 
 foi'th from the fulness of his heart, and much 
 njore to edification than any set form of prayer. 
 
 Once more, it is objected to prayers that are 
 not thus formed, that the people cannot join in 
 them, I might here reply. Let the experience 
 of the christian world, who have never embar- 
 rassed themselves with forms, answer this objec- 
 tion. Is it so, that there is among us no such 
 tiling as joining in prayer? The objection 
 assumes what is not true in fact. It assumes, 
 also, what is not true in the philosophy of the 
 human mind, and that is, that its operations are 
 sloiv. Men as easily follow the suppliant in 
 prayers, as they do the preacher in his preach- 
 ing. So rapid are the movements of the mind, 
 that in a praying assembly there are hundreds 
 of digressions from the prayer that is put up by 
 the speaker, without the loss of a single thought 
 that he utters. The petitions of the speaker 
 are made the petitions of the hearers; while 
 every man of prayer among them is secretly 
 putting up his own requests, all the while, sug- 
 
66 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 gested by the thoughts of the speaker, and all of 
 them ascending as sweet incense to the throne, 
 through the great High Priest of their profession, 
 to his Father and their Father, to his God and 
 their God. 
 
 We say no more; perhaps we have already 
 said too much. Beware of a state of heart in 
 which you feel the want of a book to teach you 
 to pray. It may be advisable in cases of need, 
 to use a form at the family altar ; better pray 
 with a form, than not pray at all. Yet never 
 use a form, unless, after patient effort, and long 
 seeking the Spirit of God to teach you to pray, 
 you find that you cannot do without it. Trust 
 no council, or bishop, or pope, to make your 
 prayers for you. Look at all the Bible, and 
 learn how to pray. Pray as you want. Feel 
 your wants, and then let your heart utter them 
 without embarrassment. When God says, 
 " Seek ye my face," let your heart reply, " Thy 
 face, O Lord, will I seek." Alas! that there 
 should be a prayerless heart in such a world as 
 this, where the God of heaven has erected his 
 mercy seat, and where he dwells on purpose to 
 hear the supplications of sinful men ! 
 
Cfl AFTER III. 
 
 GOD A FATHER. 
 
 ''(Dnr /atljBr, mljirlj nrt in MnmuJ' 
 
 It is said to have been a remark of the late 
 Madame De Stael, that the prayer, of which this 
 is the first sentence, was itself sufficient proof of 
 the truth of Christianity. No fair mind can deny 
 that the prayer itself is a remarkable production. 
 The amount of truth it embodies, its high moral- 
 ity, and deep, touching devotion are such, that 
 no mere philosopher, or sage, could have been 
 its author. 
 
 "Have we not all one Father," saith the 
 prophet, " hath not one God created us ?" If 
 not the minutest atom exists without the first 
 great cause ; that wondrous and complex being, 
 man, could never have been the production of 
 chance, or accident. If the form and features 
 cannot be even transformed to the painted can- 
 vass, without the skill of the cunning artist ; 
 much less is the living original the production 
 
 3* 
 
THE MERCY SEAT 
 
 of a blind fatuity. '' Fearfully and wonderfully 
 made," is the high disunction enstamped on tiip 
 creature man. The eye, the ear, Ihe ton^gr.e, 
 the hand, — nay, every organ, and ujscle, ar/fl 
 nerve of his material frame, »J1 indicate an in- 
 telligent and designing Creator. That single 
 organ, the heart, repeating, with such wondrous 
 regularity, its lequable pulsations, some sixty 
 times every minute, for three score years and 
 ten, has not its equal within the whole compass 
 of mechanical invention : nor is it in the power 
 of language to express a greater absurdity, than 
 that it does not indicate the hand and agency of 
 a wise and almighty designer. The meanest of 
 the race, too, is invested with an intellectual, 
 moral, and accountable nature ; the flame of un- 
 dying thought is lighted up within him, and 
 wondrous susceptibilities have a dwelling in hh 
 warm bosom. The great and Almighty Parent 
 breathed into the cold clay the breath of life, 
 " and man became a living soul." 
 
 It has often been questioned, if a speculative 
 atheist ever existed. It is a remark of Cicero, 
 that " there never was a man who constantly 
 and absolutely denied a God." Pure atheism, or 
 the absolute denial of an intelligent first cause, 
 is rarely to be met with ; but that there have 
 been, and still are, modifications of atheism, mav 
 hardly be denied. Gross thoughtlessness; eager 
 
QOD A FATHER. 59 
 
 inspection of the apparent inequalities in the di- 
 vine government; extreme depravity of manners; 
 the enormous absurdity of vulgar superstitions ; 
 the affectation of singularity, and the desire of 
 seeming wiser than others; scepticism on other 
 moral subjects ; and the refinements of false sci- 
 ence, as well as the weak and inconclusive argu- 
 ments which have sometimes been employed to 
 prove the being of a God ; have, there is reason 
 to fear, shaken the faith of men in this fundamen- 
 tal truth of all natural religion. But whatever the 
 forni5j, or the causes of this radical error, it has no 
 apology in the reason, or even the prepossessions 
 of the human mind. " I had rather believe," says 
 Lord Bacon, '' all the fables in the Legend, the 
 Yalmud, and the Koran, than that this universal 
 frame is without a mind." The fool hath said 
 in his heart, there is no God. 
 
 A strong and practical belief of the Divine 
 being and presence, lies at the basis of all true 
 dovotion. An atheist cannot pray. " He that 
 cometh to G^d, must believe that he is, and that 
 he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek 
 him." Men sometimes utter the words of 
 prayer, without seriously thinking of him to 
 vv liom they pray ; and though they believe there 
 is a God, they pray as if there were none. They 
 do not deny, but they disregard his being. 
 They are '' without God in the w^orld." '' God 
 
60 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 is not in all their thoughts." For all they love, 
 or fear, or hope for, God might as well not be. 
 Such prayer is " an abomination." Prayer is 
 the language of nature, because it is the language 
 of want ; it is the language of a creature to his 
 Creator, of a child, dependent, helpless, be- 
 nighted, to his unearthly Parent. The pagan 
 poet, referred to by Paul, in his appeal to the 
 philosophers of Greece, made no unnatural 
 avowal, when he said, '' ¥oy we are also hrs 
 offspring." Without distinction of age, char- 
 acter, condition, or faith, the enlightened and 
 vhe ignorant, Jews, Mahometans, Pagans, and 
 Christians, those who dwell on thp land and 
 those who are afar off upon the aca, may all 
 look upward, and say, '* Our Father, who art in 
 heaven !" There is not one of them that is not 
 the object of his paternal care and bounty ; 
 whom he does not instruct with a father's coun- 
 sel, restrain and govern with a father's author- 
 ity, and whom his hand has not been ten 
 thousand times reached forth to keep from 
 falling into destruction. From whatever station 
 in human life, or portion of the world, or de- 
 graded state of human society ; from whatever 
 throne, or dungeon ; from whatever liberty, or 
 whatever servitude, any one of the vast family 
 of man may affectionately and dutifully address 
 his. thoughts to heaven, he shall find a father's 
 
GOD A FATHER. 61 
 
 ear, and the heart of a father. His family is 
 large and widely dispersed ; it is composed of 
 millions upon million, scattered over every con- 
 tinent and island, every sea and shore, every 
 mountain and valley, every palace and every 
 log-cabin ; nor is any one of them denied the 
 relation of children. They are his property; 
 he made them for himself; he owns and cares 
 for them. 
 
 One of the obligations of piety is founded on 
 this natural relation which men sustain to God 
 as the parent source of their being. There is 
 indeed a higher claim ; but we need look for 
 none that is more imperative in order to origi- 
 nate our obligations to filial love and obedience. 
 "If I be a father," says he, "where is- mine 
 honor ? if I be a master, where is my fear ?" 
 Wliat rights of sovereignty are comprised in 
 this single relation ! The potter has power 
 over the clay of the same lump, to make one 
 vessel unto honor, and anothei unto dishonor ; 
 yet the clay is not the potter's creature. Men 
 in authority say to one, go, and he goeth, and 
 to their servants, do this, and they do it ; yet 
 thcfee are but conventional claims, and have no 
 such deep and immutable foundation as those 
 which result from the relation of man to his 
 Maker. These are bonds which, however vio- 
 lated, cannot be dissolved, but must remain in 
 
62 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 full force and obligation as long as God and 
 creatures exist and are what they are. Time 
 cannot alter them ; no condition of suffering, or 
 of joy, can alter them ; they remain unaltered 
 to all eternity. Men will not pray, unless they 
 acknowledge them ; nor is it any unusual thing 
 for them to " cast off fear and restrain prayer," be- 
 cause this very service of prayer itself strength- 
 ens and confirms their obligations to him in 
 whom they live, and move, and have their be- 
 ing. There is value in this relation. Men feel 
 it in the hour of danger and distress, even though 
 at heart they know not God. They look to 
 him and are lightened. His tender mercies are 
 over all his works. It is not a matter of indif- 
 ference to him whether they live, or die. He 
 who hears the young ravens when they cry, and 
 supplies the young lions when they wander for 
 lack of meat, hears the cry of distress. It is 
 not in his heart of tenderness and love to turn 
 a deaf ear to the sighs of human misery, come 
 they from whose bosom they may. He who 
 commendeth his love toward us in that w hen 
 we were enemies Christ died for us, and who 
 when w^e were dead in siii quickened us, vitli 
 all his just hatred of their character, has a heart 
 of pity. When agitated by fear, and depressed 
 by despondency, from the ends of the earth 
 even mavsuch sinners crvunto him. Tliei*e is 
 
GOD A FATHER. 63 
 
 no promise in the Bible which entitles them to a 
 hearing, while there is the tenderness of the 
 Divine compassion, that rebukes their despair 
 and urges them to penitence. 
 
 I have said there are higher claims than these. 
 When we adopt the language, " Our Father 
 who art in heaven," we are also reminded of 
 the still more endearing relation which exists between 
 their Heavenly Father, and those loho constitute his 
 spiritual family. God has a family of his own 
 on the earth, a "peculiar people," in distinction 
 from the rest of mankind. To the earlier in- 
 vitations to incorporate themselves with this 
 spiritual family, men turned a deaf ear; they 
 made light of them, and all began to make ex- 
 cuse. It is only when they fall in with these 
 gracious overtures, that men become the children 
 of God. They are more than creatures ; they 
 are affectionate and dutiful children. They are 
 no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow- 
 citizens with the saints, and of the household 
 of God. From the far wandering w^here they 
 perish with hunger, they come home to their 
 heavenly Father's house, where there is bread 
 enough and to spare. This is a high and holy 
 relationship. To be God's creatures merely, 
 does not constitute it. Birth in a Christian land 
 does not constitute it. Descent from a pious 
 am^estry does not constitute it. Holy baptism 
 
64 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 does not constitute it ; nor is it constituted by 
 any mere outward forms, or professions, or ser- 
 vices. Many a man sustains an outward and 
 visible relation to God's family, enjoys all the 
 immunities which such relation furnishes, and 
 passes under the external bond of God's cov- 
 enant, to whom none of these things give a pass- 
 port to his kingdom, and who is in the end an 
 outcast. 
 
 The Scriptures and facts instruct us that every 
 son and daughter of Adam is by nature alienated 
 from God, and a child of wrath. He is destitute 
 of holiness, unpardoned, unblessed, and has no 
 natural rights but the just reward of his iniquity, 
 and the inheritance of the fallen. When w^e 
 speak of a child by adoption, we do not mean a 
 child by nature. We speak of adopting a stran- 
 ger, an orphan, an outcast; and this is the adop- 
 tion to which Ave refer wiien we would indicate 
 the spiritual family of God. It is the free, gra- 
 cious adoption of an unworthy, guilty, and con- 
 demned, but now reconciled and pardoned sin- 
 ner. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh, 
 and that which is born of the spirit is spirit ;" 
 there is a first birth, and there is a second, and 
 one that is spiritual and from above. It is this 
 new birth which is the starting point in the spir- 
 itual career, and which draws the dividing line 
 between those who are aliens and those who are 
 
GOD A FATHER. 65 
 
 children. Born of earth only, they havn the 
 image of the earthly ; it is not until they are 
 " born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
 nor of the will ofman,butof God,'' that they "beai 
 the image of the heavenly." It is not more the 
 law of nature that children resemble their parents, 
 than it is the law of grace that the children of 
 God resemble their heavenly Father, It is by 
 no natural agencies, and no common method, 
 that men thus become God's children. '' Ye 
 are the children of God," saith the Apostle, *' bi/ 
 faith in Jesus Christ.'' He is the honored One 
 in this gracious arrangement. '' God sent forth 
 his Son, born of a woman, made under the lav/, 
 to redeem them that were under the law, that 
 we "might receive the adoption of sons." Tiie 
 great object of his advent and sacrifice was, '^ to 
 take out," from the mass of men, " a people to 
 his praise ;" to separate from this ruined race a 
 family, redeemed by his blood, sanctified by his 
 Spirit, and bearing the resemblance and name 
 of their Father who is in heaven. He thus de- 
 scended, that they might ascend. He became 
 an obscure child of one of the families of earth, 
 that they, through him, and through faith in his 
 name, might become allied to the families of 
 heaven. Though the Son of God, he became 
 the son of man, that they, though the sons of 
 men, might become the children of God 
 
66 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 There is a great difference between the crea- 
 ture of God, coming to God as his Creator, and 
 with no other encouragement than the flickering 
 hopes that are warranted by the lights of reason 
 and nature, and coming to God in the new and 
 living way opened up by Jesus Christ. There 
 is a crreat difference between the sinner under 
 condemnation, coming to the Judge of all, and 
 the Christian thus coming to his heavenly Father. 
 
 Even under the old dispensation, the people 
 of God were not denied the hopes and consola- 
 tions of this filial relation. The language of 
 Jvloses to the people of Israel is, " Ye are the 
 children of the Lord your God." " Doubtless 
 thou art our Father y" is the language of the 
 prophet. " Though Abraham be ignorant of 
 us, and Israel acknowledge us not; thou art 
 our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from 
 everlasting." In the same strain of pensive con- 
 fidence, he goes on to say, " But now% O Lord, 
 thou art our Father; behold, see we beseech thee, 
 we are all thy people !" And again, in the 
 v.'ords of another prophet it is w^itten^ " Wilt 
 thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, 
 thou art the guide of my youth ?" But this is 
 not the ordinary language of that less illumined 
 age. Under the old dispensation, the Holy 
 Spirit in believers was, to no small extent, the 
 spirit of bondage ; under the new, it is that of 
 
GOD A FATHER. 67 
 
 adoption. The privilege of calling God their 
 Father was not so fully known ; because '* the 
 new and living way into the holiest of all was 
 not yet made manifest." Those ancient saints 
 had beheld fearful exhibitions of the Deity; to 
 them he was " fearful" even " in his praises ;" 
 he had " said that he would dwell in the thick 
 darkness." The Christian's view, in approach- 
 ing the throne of grace, is, that God is his Fa- 
 ther. Abba, Father, is his cry. However great 
 his un worthiness and ill-desert, it is his privilege 
 to come as a child, an heir of God, a fellow-heir 
 with Christ his Son. The truth cannot be too 
 frequently inculcated, that there is but one w^ay 
 of access unto God in any of his institutions. 
 Every other way is but some modification of 
 Deism. The punishment of sin is necessary be- 
 cause of sin. When a sinner approaches God 
 with the confidence of a child, he honors the 
 great propitiation made by his coequal Son. 
 The eternal Father is well pleased to have this 
 effective mediation thus put to the test by all 
 who call upon him. He would have us address 
 him by this new name, " Our Father" — a name 
 so entwined with the dearest associations of the 
 human heart. And it is in delightful keeping 
 with his nature, " who breaks not the bruised' 
 reed, and quenches not the smoking fkx," to 
 teach his disciples thus to pray. Never was 
 
68 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 sight more interesting and lovely on earth than 
 this ; and many a miniature of it, though faint 
 indeed, I doubt not is engraven on the memory 
 of millions. Who first taught us to pray, as 
 Christ taught his disciples ? Who can forget 
 the time, or the place, w^hen he buried his face 
 in liis mother's bosom, or knelt at her feet, and 
 repeated the words from her lips, " Our Father 
 who art in heaven !" 
 
 The eccentric, but remarkable man, John Ran- 
 dolph, once was heard to say, that he should 
 probably have been an atheist, but for his tender 
 remembrance of the scene where a devout 
 mother bade him kneel by her side, and taking 
 his little hands in hers, taught him to say, " Our 
 Father, who art in heaven." And would not 
 many of us have been atheists, had we not, in 
 the gracious providence of God, thus been 
 taught to pray ? Our Father — blessed relation ! 
 Thrice blessed Saviour, thus to instruct the 
 guilty children of men ! That he should ap- 
 propriate such language as this, is not strange ; 
 but that he should instruct us to appropriate it, 
 may well lead us to exclaim, " Behold, what 
 manner of love is this, that we should be called 
 the sons of God !" 
 
 The beautiful language of his prayer is, " Our 
 Father." There are two thoughts of interest 
 in this emphatic phraseology. " Thou art my 
 
GOD A FATHER. 69 
 
 God/' says the Psalmist, " and I will exalt 
 thee." Elsewhere he says, " God, our own God, 
 shall bless us." There are the actings of an ap- 
 propriating faith in words like these. When tlie 
 Saviour showed Thomas his wounded hands and 
 feet, he exclaimed, '' Mij Lord and my God !" 
 Faith is an humble grace, a self-renouncing 
 grace ; but it is a trusting confidence. God is 
 in Christ, reconciling the world to himself; 
 when the believer receives him, he receives him 
 for his own soul. He is his own God. It is a 
 privilege to call him Father, but a greater priv- 
 ilege to be enabled by his Spirit to say, in the 
 language of this prayer. Our Father. 
 
 ** We would no longer lie 
 
 Like slaves beneath the throne ; 
 Our faith shall Abba, Father, cry, 
 And thou the kindred own." 
 
 Whatever is expressed by that comprehensive 
 word, the faith of the suppliant receives as his 
 own, and for his own benefit. God's fatherly 
 love is his; his, his power and faithfulness; his, 
 all the perfections of the Godhead, pledged for 
 his security and ultimate salvation. Sucli is the 
 privilege of faith, and of all the children of 
 God. No unbeliever can thus use the words of 
 this prayer. Every such man is a stranger to 
 this filial relation, because there is not a trace 
 
7D 
 
 THE MERCV SEAT. 
 
 of filial affection toward God within his cold, 
 suspicious, and hostile bosom. He has not the 
 adoption of sons; and they are sons only who 
 can thus say, Our Father! 
 
 But tliis is not all which these cheering words 
 expretiS. The social character of this prayer may 
 not be passed over in silence. It is " Our 
 Father." The social character of religion is too 
 little known by the men of the world, and ap- 
 preciated too little by Christians. It is an egre- 
 gious error, into which many have fallen who 
 know nothing of Christianity but its name, that 
 it is a morose and cheerless thing ; that it is 
 made up of useless sacrifices, and joyless self- 
 denial ; and that, instead of being welcomed to 
 the very bosom of human society, its proper 
 place is the solitary mountain, the lonely cham- 
 ber, the sequestered grove, or the cold monas- 
 tery. True piety has indeed much to do with 
 fij dividual character and obligations. It cannot 
 eiiist without secret meditation, and solitary 
 coiprnunion with God. It becomes rank and 
 poisonous, Avithout the retirement of self-inspec- 
 tiou and secret prayer. It withers and dies, 
 without those hallowed feelings and affections 
 that are unseen by mortal eye, and those unut- 
 tered breathings of the soul that are unheard by 
 mortal ears. Yet is it designed to call into ex- 
 
GOD A FATHER. 7l 
 
 ercise and consecrate all the social principles of 
 our nature. 
 
 There are common interests, and there 
 are individual interests, to be prosecuted in 
 joint supplication. God is not only the hearer 
 of prayer, but the hearer of social prayer. There 
 can be no family wisely constituted that is with- 
 out it. Wherever God records his name, there 
 will he meet his people, and bless them socially. 
 No two individuals can be connected together, 
 who have not some common interest as the 
 ground of joint supplication. The same maybe 
 said of larger bodies of men. Every Legislature 
 that is convened for the enacting of laws and the 
 purposes of government, should unitedly and 
 daily seek the guidance and blessing of Heaven. 
 Every ship that floats on the ocean, should be 
 vocal with prayer. But especially is this the 
 social privilege of the church of God. All her 
 prayers are founded on the principle, that as an 
 associated community, she is composed of God's 
 children, and approaches his throne as accept- 
 ed in the Beloved. Those w^ho oppose social 
 prayer, do not love prayer at all. Social prayers, 
 for things that belong to the social relaticrns, are 
 heard and answered. It is as much the constitu- 
 tion of God's moral government, that bodies of 
 men, wdio have a common interest, offer prayers 
 for common wants, as it is the constitution of his 
 
72 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 providence that individuals offer them for indi- 
 vidual wants. The author of this prayer was 
 divine, yet a man like ourselves ; and because 
 he waz no stranger to our sympathies, he has left 
 the reviving promise, " Where two or three are 
 met together in my name, there am I in the 
 midst of them." The primitive Christians were 
 eminently spiritual, but their religion was 
 strongly marked by its social character. It con- 
 sisted in their " walking together in all the com- 
 mandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless- 
 ly," in refreshing one another in their languor 
 and fati.<rue — cheering one another in their de- 
 pression — inspiriting one another in their thorny 
 and often sanguinary way. 
 
 Why should it not always be thus ? Is it that 
 there are any necessary elements of dissension 
 in the society of Christians, or that those who 
 love God, and whom God loves, have not the 
 strongest inducements to love one another ? Men 
 v/ho have accepted the offers of the divine mer- 
 cy, as sinners ; who have been renewed by the 
 divine Spirit, and reconciled to God by faith in 
 his Son ; who are the purchase of his blood, the 
 subjects of his kingdom, the children of his 
 family, the heirs of his glory — strangely forget 
 tlie bond that constitutes them one society, 
 when they do not " love as brethren." That 
 sublime address, " On?' Father, who art in 
 
GOD A FATHEK. 73 
 
 heaven," is an everlasting- rebuke to all such 
 Christians. Numbers unite in this act of worship. 
 All have virtually united in it for eighteen cen- 
 turies; and all will unite in it to the end of 
 time. '' Our Father" binds all Christians in one. 
 It leaps every external barrier; surmounts the 
 obstacles of birth and station, w^ealth and 
 talent ; disregards the shades and colors of de- 
 nomination and difference; nay, it overlooks in- 
 firmities and faults; and asks only, before it 
 gives the right hand of fellowship to the '* par- 
 taker of its own apostacy and hopes," Is he a 
 Christian ? does he love Jesus Christ ? does he 
 believe in the Son of God ? does he do the will 
 of his Father who is in heaven ? 
 
 The social relations flourish only under the 
 genial influence of Christianity. They have 
 never been known in their purity in Pagan 
 lands, however elevated by science, and refined 
 by the courtesies of life. Those sentiments of 
 predilection, those principles of elective afiinity, 
 and those laws of association wiiich govern 
 men and bodies of men, who are themselves 
 ungoverned by the gospel, are for the most part 
 false and treacherous, impure in their origin, 
 sinful in their nature and designs, and melan- 
 choly in their consequences. The gospel alone 
 purifies and elevates them, and gives them prin- 
 ciple. '^ Our Father, who art in heaven" — how 
 
7i THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 strong the bond ! Here the worst affections are 
 subdued, and the best called into exercise. 
 Here every principle of truth and goodness is 
 confirmed, every devotional feeling strength- 
 ened, and piety becomes invested with new 
 attractions. The powers of earth and sin are 
 here subdued, suspicion and jealousy, envy and 
 hatred. Here the motives to mutual forbear- 
 ance and confidence acquire increased force; 
 and common hopes, hopes full of immortality, 
 become the foretaste and earnest of holier and 
 happier associations in a more holy and happy 
 world. 
 
 Nor may the thought be lost sight of, that 
 union is the soul and strength of prayer. If 
 *' united action is powerful action," so is united 
 prayer powerful prayer. That one word. Our 
 P'ather, is a voice from heaven calling upon all 
 the children of God to cultivate more assiduously 
 the spirit, and practise more faithfully the duty 
 of united prayer. " If two of you shall agree on 
 earth as touching anything they shall ask, it 
 shall be done for them of my Father who is in 
 heaven." Why should the social principle be 
 pressed into every other service, save the ser- 
 vice of God ; and why, while men associate for 
 the purposes of business, pleasure, literature, ac- 
 complishments, science, and the arts, are there 
 su few associations for prayer ? Shall every other 
 
GOD A FATHER. 75 
 
 society be sought, rather than the society of 
 God's children ? Shall men be ambitious of 
 fellowship with those who occupy a large place 
 in this world's consideration, and shall they be 
 ashamed of those, who have no higher honors 
 than that they are the disciples of Jesus ? There 
 is something unutterably delightful, sweetly 
 subduing, universally humanizing, in the bond 
 which thus has its origin far above this low 
 earth, which survives the changes of this world, 
 which receives solidity from its afflictions and 
 sufferings, becomes the stronger from all that 
 threatens it, is indissoluble to the ravages of 
 death, and grows purer and brighter forever ! 
 
 There is also in this brief address, a suhlime 
 ascription. Our Father who art in heaven ! The 
 Divine Being is not confined either to the heav- 
 ens or the earth. He " filleth all in all." There 
 is no height so lofty, and no depth so unfathom- 
 able; no place so unoccupied, and no void so 
 empty and extensive, that he does not occupy 
 it. *' Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar 
 off, saith the Lord ? Do I not fill heaven and 
 earth, saith the Lord?" Neither land, nor sea, 
 nor heaven, nor hell, nor light, nor darkness, 
 contains the place where He does not dwell. 
 
 But though this great and universal Parent 
 is everywhere, there is strong propriety in fixing 
 our thoughts upon him in prayer, as a being 
 
•b THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 rvery way exalted, and far above all creatures. 
 We m^y not think of our Father who is. in. 
 heaven, as we think of any other being in the 
 universe, nor address him as we address another. 
 He Is in heave?!; highly exalted as God over all; 
 reigning there in invisible majesty, and dwell- 
 ing in light that is inaccessible and full of glory. 
 He is venerable for his greatness. He decks 
 himself with light as with a garment, and is 
 arrayed in majesty and excellency. He stretch- 
 eth out the heavens as a pavilion ; he layeth the 
 beams of his chambers in the waters ; he maketh 
 the clouds his chariot, and walketh upon the 
 wings of the wind. The alternations of day 
 and night, cold and heat, and all the varieties 
 of the seasons, are determined by him. He 
 commandeth the sun and it riseth not, and 
 he sealeth up the stars. He maketh Arcturus, 
 Orion, Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. 
 He doeth great things, past finding out, yea, and 
 wonders w ithout number. He maketh his an- 
 gels spirits, his ministers a flaming fire. Clouds 
 and darkness are round about him, justice and 
 judgment are the habitation of his throne. A 
 fire goeth before him, and burnetii up his ene- 
 mies round about. His lightnings enlighten the 
 world ; the earth sees and trembles. The hills 
 melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at 
 the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 
 
GOD A FATHER. T( 
 
 The heavens declare his righteousness, and < 
 the people see his glory. We call him rui 
 Father, while angels bow before him, and be- 
 fore the splendor of his glory cover their faces 
 with their wings. With what sacred emotions 
 ought such a being to be approached ! and how^ 
 wondrous the condescension that he should 
 point us to his mercy seat, and say. There will 
 I meet thee, and there will I commune with 
 thee ! O let us lift up our hands with our heart 
 to God who dwelleth in the heavens! Be not 
 rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be 
 hasty to utter anything before God ; no thought- 
 lessness, no impertinence, no irreverent famili- 
 arity may be indulged with the great God. 
 The nearer the soul approaches to him, the 
 more profound the reverence. There is rever- 
 ence in the more familiar and confiding exer- 
 cises and expressions of filial love. We rever- 
 ence earthly parents ; but he is our Father who 
 is in heaven. Heaven is the place he has 
 chosen for the seat of his glory ; where the 
 splendor of his divinity shines; whence he is- 
 sues forth the decrees of his providence; ord 
 where he proclaims himself, and the myriads 
 that stand in his presence proclaim him, the 
 King eternal, immortal, and invisible. 
 
 Thoughts like these are searching thoughts. A 
 child may deceive an earthly parent, but " God 
 
S THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 cannot be deceived, and he will not be mocked.'' 
 " All things are open and naked to the eye of 
 him with whom we have to do." Lost, indeed, 
 were that child to all virtuous and honorable feel- 
 ing, who, amid scenes of folly and wickedness, 
 would not shrink from the inspection of a father's 
 eye. We have a Father, whose inspection of our 
 every thought is minute and constant; who asks 
 no informer to acquaint him with our wicked- 
 ness, no testimony to confound us before him, 
 and clothe us with shame, if we come to his 
 throne with disingenuousness and insincerity. 
 
 But they are also comforting thoughts. There 
 is great imperfection in earthly parents com- 
 pared with God. Earthly parents know not 
 how to adapt their bounty at all times to the 
 w^ant*' of their children. They give when they 
 ought not to give, and withhold when they 
 ought not to withhold. There is no such de- 
 fect, and no such mistake with God. Earthly 
 parents, when they would fain give to their chil- 
 dren, are not able. The poor cannot give of 
 their penury ; and where competence, and 
 wealth even, fall to the lot of parents, there are 
 wantvS which no opulence can supply. But 
 nothing restricts God's power to give : giving 
 does not impoverish, withholding does not en- 
 rich him. The love of earthly parents is strong ; 
 it survives separation, annihilates distance, for 
 
GOD A FATHER, 7% 
 
 gives disobedience, rebellion, and neglect. It 
 does not perish even with the infamy of its ob- 
 jects, nor will it yield its claims to the stern and 
 inevitable demands of the grave. It outlives 
 life ; feeds on recollected joys and hopes, and 
 lavishes on the marble and on the turf that 
 tenderness of w^hich the dead are unconscious. 
 It is self-sacrificing and uncomplaining, coveting 
 even weariness, and w^atchings, and pain for 
 those it loves. But it is not indestructible. 
 Other objects sometimes supersede its claims. 
 Coldness has extinguished it ; desertion and 
 neglect have quenched its glowing embers ; it 
 has often yielded to prejudice, and perished un- 
 der the power of lust and superstition. " Can a 
 woman forget her sucking child ? Yea, they 
 may forget," says our Father who is in heav^en. 
 " yet will I not forget thee !" " Whom he 
 loves, he loves to the end." Heaven and earth 
 shall pass away, but this faithful w ord of love 
 and mercy shall never pass away. L'-'rthly 
 parents die ; they dwell in " houses of clay , 
 their foundation is in the dust, and they are 
 crushed before the moth." The brow that 
 bears the marks of care and toil, becomes pale 
 and cold ; the hands that minister to the wants 
 of those who are most beloved, must be para- 
 lyzed in the grave ; the tongue of wisdom must 
 be silent in that narrow house where there is 
 
80 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 "no work, nor wisdom, nor device;" and the 
 heart that beats for us, must soon beat its last 
 throb, and sleep beneath the clods of the 
 v^alley. 
 
 Not so with our Father who is in heaven. 
 Around the grave of the fondest earthly parent, 
 the children of God may exclaim, " The Lord 
 liveth, and blessed be my Rock, and let the God 
 of my salvation be exalted." Time passes, but 
 shortens not his duration. Years roll away upon 
 years, while he still lives in the bloom of his 
 eternity. The expressions of parental love can- 
 not follow those on whom they are lavished to 
 the grave, and protect them from corruption and 
 the worm ; nor go with them up to the bar of 
 judgment, and shield them from the sentence of 
 a violated law. It is a corruptible inheritance 
 only which they can leave to their children, to 
 be divided among them for a brief period, in this 
 transitory world. Their Father, who is in hea- 
 ven, distributes to his children honors that are 
 unwasting — an inheritance which is incorrupti- 
 ble, undefiled, and thatfadeth not away, a build- 
 ing of God, an house not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens. In their Father's house 
 are many mansions. Their home is above the 
 clouds. God himself is the heritage of his 
 people— their heaven^ and their exceeding great 
 reward. • ^*- 
 
GOD A FATHER. M 
 
 And they are also grateful thoughts. It has 
 been objected to the Lord's Prayer, that it con- 
 tains no ascription of thanksgiving. But is there 
 no feeling of tender love — of grateful, subduing 
 remembrance, when from the heart w^e say, 
 " Our Father, who art in heaven ?" Is there no 
 recognition of inexhaustible bounty, boundless 
 beneficence, rivers of love, oceans of mercy, a 
 generosit}^ so disinterested and noble, and a ten- 
 derness so touching, that it were impos?ibie to 
 give utterance to our deep sense of them in any 
 language half so compendiously and forcibly as 
 in these few words ? This great and good 
 Being, this King eternal, immortal, invisible, 
 writes his name, " Our Father ;'' gives us access 
 to Him as his children ! The condescension is 
 his ; the privilege, ours. What have we to be 
 thankful for, compared with this ? What has all 
 this world to offer, compared with the privilege 
 of calling God our Father ? 
 
 Let the spirit of this first sentence in the 
 Lord's Prayer counsel us to cherish more befit- 
 ting impressions of the God we worship. He is 
 no unbending tyrant, no hard master; but the 
 best and kindest of fathers. Vengeance is not 
 the attribute he delights in; he delighteth in 
 mercy. Oh, how little do they know of God, 
 who clothe him only with terrors, and refuse to 
 hope in his mercy ! He is terrible only to incor- 
 
 4* 
 
S2 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 rigible wickedness ; to the penitent, gentle ana 
 mild, as a nurse toward her children. Away with 
 this jealousy and suspicion, this distrust, fear, and 
 aversion, when contemplating the character of 
 your Father which is in heaven. There is no 
 sternness and repulsiveness in that Holy One, 
 who teaches his children to call him Father. It 
 is not witli the frown of wrath upon his brow, 
 nor with menaced damnation on his lips, nor 
 with the thunderbolt of vengeance in his hand, 
 that he invites sinners to his throne. There are 
 other discoveries of the divine nature than 
 these. There is the heart of love ; there is the 
 infinitude of love, " not willing that any should 
 perish, but that all should come to repentance." 
 There is not one among all those to whom his 
 Gospel is known, who has not the warrant to 
 accept these great provisions of their heavenly 
 Father's love. Those who are afar off, may draw 
 nigh ; those who are aliens and enemies, may 
 become children, and be adopted into his divine 
 family. '' Behold," saith he, *' I stand at the 
 door, and knock ; if any man hear my voice, and 
 open the door, I will come in and sup with him, 
 and he wi%^h me." Though unworthy of the 
 privilege, though we cannot acquire it by any 
 works of righteouvsness, though the gold ofOphir 
 cannot purchase it, it is a privilege that he gives, 
 give«; ns in affectionate father gives to his son. 
 
GOD A FATHER. 83 
 
 as a wealthy, bountiful prince adopts some poor 
 orphan, and makes him the inheritor of his 
 crown. 
 
 Come, then, ye who are young ! no longer de- 
 spise the bounty and grace of your Father who 
 is in heaven. Come and enter into his family, 
 whose faithful love will guard you from the sins 
 that embitter, and the woes that await all who 
 are strangers to the living God. Now, while 
 conscience is yet tender, and memory and heart 
 are open to impressions that will leave their 
 trace upon many a passing year; now, " while 
 the evil days come not," remember your Crea- 
 tor in the days of your youth. He utters no 
 stronger and no more affectionate claim, than 
 when he says, " My son, give me thy heart." 
 He would have those wayward and wandering 
 thoughts, those dissipated, and vain, and idola- 
 trous affections weaned from others, and con- 
 centrated on himself. Child of promise and 
 of hope, of solicitude and prayer ! thought- 
 less and gay, and never more in need of a fa- 
 ther's care, '' wilt thou not, from this time, say 
 unto him, My Father ! thou art the guide of my 
 youth ?" 
 
 Ye, too, who are absorbed in earth, infatu- 
 ated by its pleasures, burdened with its busi- 
 ness, or grasping after its wealth and hoaors ! 
 come ye, and seek the repose, and set your af 
 
?{4 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 fections on the inheritance which earth has not, 
 and which pertains only to tht family of God. 
 " Wherefore spend ye your money for that 
 which is not bread, and your labor for that 
 which satisfieth not ?" Powerless as this world 
 is to make you happy, it is mighty to destroy. 
 Why, pilgrims and strangers on the earth, give 
 ye to that world, the fashion of which passeth 
 away, the affections which are due only to Him 
 who liveth forever and ever ! " Wherefore 
 come ye out from among them, and be ye sepa- 
 rate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean 
 thing ; and I will receive you, and will be a Fa- 
 ther unto you, and ye shall be my sons and 
 daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." 
 
 Ye children of sorrow ! to you the voice of 
 mercy declares that the man is never comfort- 
 less w4io has God for his Father. Trials are no 
 longer trials, when the burden is cast on the 
 bosom of his paternal love. Sorrow loses its 
 name, when his own soft hand wipes away the 
 tear. Consolation in the woes of earth is not in 
 forgetfuhiess, nor in gaiety, nor in braving the 
 ills which it is impossible to avoid. Miserable 
 comforters are they all ! 
 
 Ye whose earthly parents have descended to 
 the tomb, and left you to prove the chilling neg- 
 ligence and selfishness of this cold world, how 
 unutterably precKvim for ywi to learn the lesson, 
 
GOD A FATHER. 8^ 
 
 " When my father and mother forsake me, then 
 the Lord will take me up !" Let not your heart 
 be troubled. He will not leave you orphans. 
 Think not that your last hope lies buried among 
 the dead. Weep not in such bitter anguish at 
 that grave. Say not, "O that I were resting 
 with thee, beneath that tranquil clod!" Your 
 Father who is in heaven shall never die. " He 
 hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake 
 thee r 
 
 Ye, too, who are disappointed and mortified 
 in the world ; who are sick of men because they 
 have so often deceived you, come, make the 
 eternal God your refuge. Ye whose hopes have 
 leaned on earth, only to learn that in one sad 
 hour the bright vision may vanish, come and 
 lean on an arm that is never weary, and partake 
 of bounty that is never exhausted. Ye, too, who 
 may peradventure complain of earthly parents, 
 come ye and make the God of heaven your Fa- 
 ther. There is One of whose care and tender- 
 ness you shall never complain ; of whose libe- 
 rality you shall indulge no suspicion ; and who, 
 while all the objects of love and expectation 
 here below prove broken cisterns that hold no 
 water, himself remains the fountain of living 
 waters. 
 
 And ye who liave no God ! O return ye to 
 the God from whom yp have revolted, the heav- 
 
86 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 enly Parent you have so ungratefully forsaken, 
 and who by so many and such various means, 
 would fain induce you, prodigal as you may be, 
 to look toward your Father's house. What a 
 void — what a chasm in that bosom that has no 
 God — no Father ! How true to nature is such a 
 prayer ! how dear to nature are the precious 
 truths it reveals ! Return, poor exile, to thy 
 forsaken Father. Come, thou wanderer, thou 
 long-lost spirit, come back at thy Father's bid- 
 ding. Here is his letter missive to thee, in- 
 viting thee to come. Here is his name and 
 seal. Are they not your Father's ? In the secret 
 of thy closet, then, return to him. In the si- 
 lence of thy heart, return to him. In mourning 
 and penite:"ce, in confidence in his Son, in peace 
 and joy, come back to him. And then, when 
 you die to sin and earth, you will live unto God 
 and heaven ; you will go to your Father's house, 
 and where he is, there shall you be also. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE NAME OF GOD HALLOWED. 
 
 This formula of prayer bears the same rela- 
 tion to the subject matter of prayer, as the ten 
 precepts of the Decalogue do to the whole sub- 
 ject of obedience. As the latter, under some 
 one or other of its precepts, comprehends wliat- 
 ever is man's duty in any situation, so the for- 
 mer, under some one or other of its petitions, 
 contains every request that a man need offer to 
 the throne of grace. ''Hallowed be thy name" is 
 the first of these comprehensive petitions. 
 
 The order in which the desires of a devout 
 mind are here directed to be expressed, cor- 
 responds with the object of the Deity in crea- 
 tion, providence, and redemption. There is no 
 truth more clearly revealed, or more consonant 
 to reason, than that God should have the glory. 
 Wherever we look around his works, they are 
 marked with excellence ; not with the excel- 
 
SS THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 lence of the creature, but of the Creator, who 
 is '• God over all, blessed for evermore." When 
 you compare all created excellence with his, it 
 is as notlung. It is great to us, but we are 
 small. Put all the excellence and all the en- 
 joyment which appear in the manifestations of 
 his goodness in the balance with himself, and 
 they are as the dust of the balance. That 
 which is finite can bear no assignable propor- 
 tion to that which is infinite. So that whether 
 we stand on the basis of Scripture, or sober 
 reason, no end should be so steadily pursued as 
 the glory of God. 
 
 Such weald be the religion of nature, had not 
 man fallen by his iniquity. Such is the relig- 
 ion of the Bible, and of man fallen, man re- 
 deemed, man glorified. There is but one ob- 
 ject that is enthroned in the heart of piety, and 
 that is the infinitely blessed and adorable God. 
 Everything else occupies a place second and 
 subordinate to his honor and glory. The first 
 promptings of prayer, therefore, are uttered m 
 the language of reverential piety toward God. 
 Above ourselves, above all creatures, above all 
 that is in earth, or in heaven, we approach his 
 throne to express our supreme regard for him. 
 And how do we express that regard. ''Hal- 
 lowed be thy name,'' is the first desire of a believ- 
 er's heart* Let us analyze this great request* .v 
 
THE NAME OF GOD HALLOWED. 
 
 " Name" is that which distinguishes a partic- 
 ular object, or person, from all others. This is 
 universally its meaning, whether applied to 
 classes of men, or to individuals. When ap- 
 plied to God, it denotes all that distinguishes 
 him from anything that is created. Whatever 
 is peculiar to the Living God, belongs to his 
 name. Its most correct, simple and comprehen- 
 sive definition is, '' all that wh*. reby he maketh 
 himself known." 
 
 He says of himself, '' I am that I am, that is 
 my name." He assumes the name, Jehovah ; 
 this is properly the incommunicable name of 
 God. The Jews had such a reverence for it 
 that it was with them an unuttered name ; and 
 it is worthy of remark that there are no epithets 
 associated with this name more than two or 
 three times in the Scriptures. Every peculiar 
 appellation which God assumes, belongs to that 
 name, because by that appellation he makes 
 something known. If he speaks of himself, as 
 " The Only Wise," he teaches us his perfect 
 and unerring wisdom ; if as Almighty, he teaches 
 us that he acts without constraint, and that he 
 can do all things. Whenever the distinctive 
 name of Jehovah is given as the ground of con- 
 fidence for some good being performed to the 
 church, it has reference to that proclamation 
 made to Moses when he covered him by his 
 
THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 hand in the rock of Horeb, and passed by and 
 proclaimed his name in the fulness and ampli- 
 tude of his wondrous and adorable attributes. 
 
 There was no appeal to God's name by the 
 church, prior to this, as ground of her confidence. 
 It is in view of this proclamation that she ex- 
 claims, " Do not abhor us for thy name's sake ;" 
 and that David prays, " For thy name^s sake, O 
 Jehovah, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. 
 There was a proportion between God's great 
 pardon, and his great name. 
 
 The name of God expresses great and won- 
 drous thoughts. It is a name of solemn, of aw- 
 ful, yet of blessed import. It points to the in- 
 finite, eternal, and unchangeable One. It points 
 to the father of mercies and the God of all grace. 
 It points to our Father who is in heaven. O, 
 weigh the vast meaning of his name, who is able 
 to save and to destroy, whose favor is life, whose 
 frown is death ! 
 
 We pray that his name may be hallowed. To 
 hallow is to sanctify. But as God cannot be sanc- 
 tified, or made more holy than he is, we must use 
 the term with some restriction. To hallow 
 God's name, is to magnify, to honor, to glorify 
 it; as it is witten in the prophecy, '' Sanctify the 
 Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear, 
 and let him be your dread." When we use 
 the expression, it denotes our ascribing to him 
 
THE NAME OP GOO HALLOWED. 91 
 
 all holiness, goodness, justice, mercy, and truth, 
 forever enriching and adorning his great and 
 glorious nature. It denotes our esteem of him, 
 our conviction that he is worthy of our confi- 
 dence ; and when we thus sanctify him, he will 
 not only be our fear and our dread, but our 
 Sanctuary in the day of trouble. 
 
 It denotes, too, the spirit with which we 
 should worship him. Its language is, '' Give 
 unto the Lord the glory due unto his name ; 
 bring an offering, and come into his courts. Oh, 
 worship the Lord, in the beauty of holiness ; 
 fear before him, all the earth." The Scriptures 
 often speak of the glory of God, and of glorify- 
 ing his name. Here the word is hallowed, 
 because his holiness comprises the beauty and 
 excellence of his nature, and constitutes the 
 true glory of his attributes. The Seraphim 
 over the mercy seat covered their faces with 
 their two wings, and cried one to another and 
 said, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts , 
 the whole ^arth is full of his glory." 
 
 In expressing this first and greatest desire ot 
 every devout mind, it is of some importance to 
 institute the inquiry. How is so desirable an e?id to 
 he brought about ? We confess our inability to 
 honor God aright. We ask that he would make 
 us fit to honor him, and to give him the glory 
 which is due. This is done, in the first place. 
 
92 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 "by our hecoming acquainted with God. Many a 
 man fails of receiving due honor from bis fellow- 
 men, because be is not known. It needs but to 
 become acquainted witb his excellences, in order 
 to love and respect him. His excellences may 
 be unpresuming and retired, and need searching 
 out; or they may be obscured by his humble 
 condition or covered by a veil of prejudice, and 
 require to be inspected by an impartial eye, that 
 they may be appreciated. No man honors God, 
 while he remains ignorant of him. Paul repre- 
 sents it as the crime of the heathen, that " they 
 did not like to retain God in their knowledge ;" 
 and so far from hallowing his name, they " wor- 
 shipped and served the creature." It is the sin 
 of all ungodly men, that " there is none among 
 them that understandeth, none that seeketh after 
 God." Pharaoh, in his pride, said, '' I know not 
 the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." It was 
 the Saviour's reproach of the Jew^s, that " they 
 knew not Him that sent him." No other know- 
 led •.e, however extensive and minute, will 
 qualify us to respect and honor God, where the 
 knovvledire of God himself is wanting. Let the 
 profoundest philosopher examine the whole cir- 
 cle of human knowledge; let him study every 
 art and science; let him penetrate the bowels 
 of the earth, and the caverns of the ocean; let 
 him number the stars, and trace the revolution 
 
THE NAME OP GOD HALLOWED. 93 
 
 of the planets ; and if he dives not deeper, and 
 ascends not higher than this, the humblest 
 peasant, whose devout study is to become ac- 
 quainted with God, better honors and hallows 
 his great and holy name. 
 
 Mournful to confess, the religious worship of 
 not a few is degrading to the Deity ; on their 
 very altars is found the inscription, " To the tm- 
 knoivn God/" The knowledge of Gad opens to 
 the mind the only honor which He will accept, 
 the only honor the creature is capable of express- 
 ing, and the only way of expressing that honor. 
 We respect the Deity, from a consideration of 
 his divine excellence; nor can we fail, at least, 
 to respect him, if we know him. To dishonor 
 him when we know what he is, were impiety 
 bordering on the hardihood of devils. 
 
 The name of God is also hallowed by a rever- 
 ential treatment of Him in our thoughts, words, and 
 actions. " As a man thinketh in his heart, so is 
 he." Low, unworthy thoughts of God, will lead 
 neither to complacency, gratitude, nor honor. 
 Whence is it that multitudes who once had low 
 and unworthy thoughts of God, now regard 
 Him with solemn and affectionate reverence, 
 but that they do justice to Him in their own 
 reflections, and that of all beings in the universe. 
 He stands the first in their esteem? 
 
 With such thoughts of God, we must reverence 
 
94 THK MEKCY SEAT. 
 
 liini v» ith our lijjs. Our words must be words of 
 deep reverence, sincere piety, and grateful love, 
 whether we speak to him or of him. The care- 
 less and frequent mention of his name in our fa- 
 miliar intercourse with our fellow-men ; occa- 
 sional exclamations, however heedless, which 
 contain that great name, and which are the 
 effect of sudden passion or surprise; as well as 
 solemn appeals to Almighty God, under no sense 
 of his majesty and purity; are plain violations 
 of the true import of this prayer. 
 
 There is one way of dishonoring God, of which 
 I need say nothing, except to bring it to your re- 
 membrance. I mean profane swearing. God 
 will judge the swearer, and '' will not hold him 
 guiltless." It is terrible to think of a man who 
 learns to swear before he learns to pray. Curs- 
 ing and blaspheming are the employment of 
 devils. The profane swearer will have enough 
 ofitinhell. When the worm gnaws and the 
 fjre rages, he will " curse God and look up- 
 ward." 
 
 A reverential treatment of God in our thouglits 
 and words, will lead to the same treatment in 
 our conduct. If we would venerate God, we 
 should be watchful not to offend him ; nor dis- 
 honor him by our deportment ; nor bring his 
 cause into contempt, and cause his name* to be 
 evil spoken of A dutiful child will avoid those 
 
THE NAME OP GOD HALLOWED. 95 
 
 courses of conduct which bring reproach and 
 dishonor upon his parents ; so ought the chil- 
 drcn of God to be afraid of sin fci* his name's 
 sake. God is honored when our d^'ponnienL 
 exhibits every mark of respect and honor ; he I i 
 venerated when our conduct venerates him; 
 and his name is hallowed when " our light so 
 shines beforu men, that others, seeing our good 
 works, glorify our Father who is in heaven." 
 
 There are not wanting those who accost the 
 Deity under the most respectful titles ; they 
 call him God — Lord God — G^'eat and Glorious 
 God — yet they disobey his laws, and mean to 
 disoi/iy them. The Saviour animadverted upon 
 this inconsistency when he demanded of such 
 persons, " Why call ye me Lord, Lard, and do 
 not the things which I say ?" There is no 
 greater inconsistency than to acknowled^-e hi?? 
 rightful authority, and at the same time pr'^cti- 
 cally disown his claims. To pray that liis name 
 be hallowed, yet not hallow it by our own obe • 
 dience, is an indignity whicli reason, const lenco, 
 and decency instinctively revolt at. Men may 
 be better in their own view, they may ap- 
 pear better in the sight ot their fellow-men, 
 and they may think they appear boker in tli-^ 
 sight of God, by an ostensible acknowleclgment 
 of his claims, while they practically tlisavow 
 them ; but it is an expression of homage which 
 
^O THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 God does not regard ; nor do men regard it, 
 when once they discover its disgraceful incon- 
 sistency. The name of God is hallowed before 
 the world, only as his claims are practically 
 honored, and their excellence exemplified. Un- 
 friendly as the world is to these claims, it will 
 no longer hiss and wag its head in derision and 
 contempt of them, when it sees them exhibited 
 and acted out in the deportment of those who 
 profess to regard them. 
 
 God's name is hallowed by a suitable regard 
 to all his institutions and ordinances. The 
 knowledge and worship of God are preserved 
 in our world by a watchful and zealous regard 
 for his own institutions. Under the .Mosaic 
 economy, these were greatly multiplied ; under 
 the Christian dispensation, tbey are less numer- 
 ous, and more simple. Men liave added to 
 them by their own traditions, but they are ad- 
 ditions subversive of Christianity and of tie 
 simplicity that is in Christ. Christianity weeps 
 over this perversion of her rites, and in the «aul- 
 titude and confusion of these outward ceremo- 
 nies, may well adopt the lamentation of Mary, 
 when she said, " They have taken away my 
 Lord, and I know not where they have laid 
 liim." They are the mere outward defences of 
 *' another gospel," from which the indwelling 
 Spirit of Christ has retired, and his glory departed. 
 
THE NAME OP GOD HALLOWED. 97 
 
 Just as '' truth is iu order to goodness," insti- 
 tutions are for the sake of principles. And such 
 are all the institutions of a pure Christian- 
 ity. The institutions which the Great Founder 
 of religion has appointed, coincide with the 
 great end for which the entire system of Chris- 
 tianity itself was revealed. They are the visi- 
 ble symbols of great and important principles, 
 and the means by which they are advanced and 
 perpetuated. The gospel cannot live without 
 them. Prostrate these, and you exterminate 
 true religion from the earth. They are the bul- 
 warks which its enemies never fail to attack, 
 in order to bring it into neglect and contempt. 
 Men who would honor the name of God, and 
 render it a hallowed name, will have a care 
 neither to neglect, pervert, or corrupt these sa- 
 cred institutions. The more punctually and 
 constantly they are observed, the more are they 
 rendered amiable and honorable in the eyes of 
 the world, and the more do they gi\e honor to 
 that Great Being who is their Author. When 
 the soul is elevated with a view of his grand- 
 eur, rapt in the contemplations of his glory, 
 melted under impressions of his love, and gives 
 utterance to its admiration, its gratitude, its con- 
 trition, its hope, its confidence, and joy, in those 
 varied acts of worship which the institutions of 
 the gospel require ; she sympathizes with the 
 
 5 
 
98 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 homage paid to him by higher worlds, and adds 
 her testimony to theirs that his name is above 
 every name. 
 
 Tlie name of God is also hallowed hy the ex- 
 hibitions which he himself makes of his own excel- 
 lence. It is impossible to add to the immeasur- 
 able plenitude of God. It is not for creatures 
 to make him greater, or better than he is ; nor 
 can God himself do this, because his essential 
 perfections are every way infinite. 
 
 But though the perfection of the Divine nature 
 admits of no accessions, there may be accessions 
 to those manifestations of the Divine nature which 
 are made in the works of providence and grace. 
 There is an intrinsic excellence of the Deity, 
 w hich admits of no augmentation ; and there is 
 a manifested excellence which admits of aug- 
 mentations that are boundless. From the rich- 
 ness, the fulness of the Divine cliaracter, there 
 may issue streams, emanations, a diffusion and 
 resplendency which may refresh and enlighten 
 the world, and make the name of God great 
 and glorious in the eyes of angels and men. 
 
 When we pray that God's name may be hallow- 
 ed, we pray that he himself would make it holy 
 and venerable, by more and more extended 
 and refulgent exhibitions of his iclory. He can 
 impart to those exhibitions continual growth and 
 enlargement, and all that perpetually progress- 
 
THE NAME OF GOD HALLOWED. * 99 
 
 iv^e augmentation of which they are susceptible. 
 He can do it by his providence ; directing and 
 governing, and overruling ail the affairs of men, 
 and so bring himself into view, that they shall 
 see his hand, and acknowledge and honor him 
 as God over ill. He can do it by his Spirit; 
 enlightening the minds and subduing the hearts 
 of those who are strangers to the power of his 
 grace, and sanctifying and comforting his own 
 people, so that they shall everywhere rejoice in 
 Jiim, and " exalt his name together." He can 
 do it by his mercies ; he can do it by his judg- 
 ments ; he can do it by his ministers ; he can 
 do it by his friends ; and he can do it by his 
 enemies; making all their designs and purposes 
 and efforts, either a voluntary or involuntary 
 instrumentality in promoting his own ends, and 
 magnifying his great name. 
 
 When men have dishonored him, when his 
 cause and glory have been lost sight of, and for- 
 gotten ; when his name has been profaned, his al- 
 tars demolished, the ark of Israel's God carried 
 captive and setup in the temple of idols; when 
 his church has been covered with sackcloth, and 
 his ministers have stood between the porch and 
 the altar to bewail her desolations; many a time 
 has he thus plucked his right hand out of his bo- 
 som, made his arm bare, and '' remembered his 
 holy name." And notwithstanding all that he has 
 
100 THE MERCY SEAT 
 
 done, there will yet be brighter illustrations of 
 his glory, and his name be more universally ex- 
 alted ; '' endure forever ; be continued as long 
 as the sun ; and men shall be blessed in him, 
 and all nations shall call him blessed." 
 
 There is another general inquiry, the answer 
 to w^hich may serve still further to illustrate the 
 import of this petition : JVJiy does this petition 
 hold so high a place m this summary of prayer ; 
 and lohy is it so desirable and important that God's 
 name should he hallowed ? 
 
 We cannot answ^er these inquiries as they 
 deserve to be answered. They bring us near 
 the ineffable glory, and make us veil our faces, 
 as in the presence of the God w^ho is invisible. 
 There is nothing of which He himself is so jeal- 
 ous, nothing which He regards so sensitively, as 
 the glory of his name. We w^ould not have our 
 poor name suffer reproach ; much less will the 
 God of heaven allow" his honors to be sullied. 
 The rather is he immutably resolved to secure, 
 defend, and advance them, and by all means, 
 and at every sacrifice. The Lord God is a jeal- 
 ous God ; he w ill not give his glory to another. 
 He knows himself. He forms a just estimate of 
 his owm character and station. He cannot but 
 treat himself according to the just conceptions 
 he has of his ow^n greatness and excellency. He 
 cannot deny himself, nor be indifferent to the 
 
THE NAME OP GOD HALLOWED. *101 
 
 manner in which his creatures are affected to- 
 ward him. Great and eternal interests depend 
 upon the honors of his name. We shall dwell a 
 few moments upon the reasons which justify 
 these general remarks. 
 
 Ou7' Heavenly Father's name and honor are 
 justly great and endeared. It is the greatest, 
 most endeared name in the universe. Angels 
 cannot bear to see it dishonored, because he is 
 God their Maker and Sovereign; his children 
 cannot, because he is their Father, and they have 
 all the honorable, honored sentiments of children. 
 The Eternal One, the Mighty God, the Ever- 
 lasting Father — he who is himself the beginning, 
 and measure, and end of all that exists, and 
 from whom every creature has received all that 
 it is, and has — deserves the homage he claims. 
 The Being whose nature, purposes, will, and 
 word, are such as his, is worthy the hallowed 
 exaltation for which his people are taught to 
 pray. The immense and infinite Deity, who is 
 everywhere, and whose being and presence are 
 separated by no distance, and confined by no 
 space, is worthy to dwell in the thoughts, have 
 a throne in the heart, be extolled by the lips, 
 and*shine forth in the life of creatures who are 
 enfolded in the arms, and carried in the bosom of 
 his infinity ! The holy Being, the splendor of 
 whose purity dazzles the sun, and renders heaven 
 
102 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 itself impure, compared Vvitli Him, is worthy to 
 be liallowed, not only by man that is born of a 
 woman, and unclean, but by ail the angels of 
 God. The all-powerful God may well command 
 the respect and fear of creatures whose founda- 
 tion is in the dust, and who dwell in tabernacles 
 of clay. He whose watchful eye equally discerns 
 whatever passes in the thickest darkness, and in 
 the clearest light, who knows intuitively all that 
 can be known, and who " destroys the wisdom 
 of the wise, and bringeth to naught the under- 
 standing of the prudent," ought not in vain to 
 look down from heaven upon the sons of men, to 
 see if they respect his intelligence, and bow 
 humbly before the dictates of his wisdom. The 
 good and gracious God, who loves the weak and 
 guilty inhabitants of this lower world, who bow- 
 ed his high heavens, and took their nature, in 
 that complex nature suffered and died, that they 
 might not suffer and die, may well challenge, for 
 his own sake, every expression of grateful hom- 
 age. Sovereign honors belong, too, to the just 
 God ; and earth and heaven should resound 
 with " the song of Moses, as well as the song of 
 the Lainh.'' 
 
 Why should not his character and conduct 
 appear, as well as he, without a stain ? What tur- 
 pitude and imperfection will be disclosed in the 
 unfoldings of his nature ? Why should his excel- 
 
THE NAME OF GOD HALLOWED. 103 
 
 lence be obscured, his giory fade in retirement, 
 his exalted nature wither in solitude, and never 
 shine forth in their appropriate splendor ? In a 
 world that lieth in wickedness, his holy name 
 has been subjected to the foulest stains ; nor 
 will it ever appear in cloudless glory, dissipating 
 the darkness by which it has been enveloped by 
 the ignorance, misconception, and wickedness 
 of men, until it is seen as it is, and everywhere 
 hallowed as the greatest, and best, and most en- 
 deared name. 
 
 That God's name should be hallow^ed, is also 
 demanded hy the great interests of holiness in our 
 world. Holiness consists in conformity to God. 
 This was the character and image in which man 
 w^as first created ; this the character from which 
 he fell ; this the character in which he is re- 
 newed by the Holy Spirit, and in Avhich, when 
 once renewed, he perseveres to life eternal. 
 This is the character of heaven. Heaven and 
 earth have but one and the same religion, though 
 they differ in degree ; and that religion consists 
 in conformity to the moral character of God, as 
 the fruit of his Spirit. 
 
 In the economy of nature and grace, there are 
 established laws and uniform connections. Upon 
 nothing does the holiness of creatures so much 
 depend, as its instrumental cause, as the knowl- 
 edge of God. There can be no more conform- 
 
104 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 ity to God in any mind, than there is a knowl- 
 edge of his true character. Truth is the ofreat 
 instrument of conversion to men who are dead 
 in sin, and the great means of sanctiiication to 
 the converted. And it is by those very means 
 by which men hallow the name of God, and by 
 which he hallows his own name, that the truth 
 is brought home to their own bosoms, and 
 achieves its greatest conquests. It is in the in- 
 telligent and devout utterance of the petition, 
 " Hallowed be thy name," that the soul catches 
 a portion of that heavenly spirit which she as- 
 cribes to her great heavenly Parent, and which 
 she thus desires may be everywhere exhibited 
 and made known. It is thus that she rises to 
 the character of that favored and hallowed so- 
 ciety, W'ho " all come in the unity of the faith, 
 and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into 
 the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
 Christ," and '' with open face, beholding as in a 
 glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the 
 same image, from glory to glory, even as by the 
 Spirit of the Lord." As well might we enjoy 
 health without aliment, or vigor without exer- 
 cise, as spirituality of mind, in the neglect of the 
 means of spirituality. We become enriched by 
 the communications of heavenly grace, only as 
 the storehouse of our spiritual perceptions and 
 thoughts is receiving new accessions. Not until 
 
THE NAME OF GOD HALLOWED. 105 
 
 the " good treasure of the heart" is supplied from 
 these divine sources, does it become a sacred 
 repository of " good things." It is here we find 
 the materials and excitements of holy and de- 
 vout affections. Here is the intimacy and de- 
 light of intercourse with God. Here w^e bewail 
 and mortify our worst, and give scope to our 
 best affections. Here we become acquainted 
 with ourselves, our state, our temper, our dispo- 
 sitions, our character, and, under the influence 
 of the sanctifying Spirit, become more humble, 
 more watchful, more sensible of our dependence 
 on the grace of God, and more devoted to his 
 glory. How many millions among the perfected 
 spirits of the just, and millions more on their way 
 to that world of bliss, who connect their purest 
 recollections, and their most purifying hopes and 
 anticipations with hallowing and seeing hallowed 
 the great and endeared name of their Father who 
 is in heaven ! 
 
 It is in, and by these contemplations, that the 
 holiness of heaven itself is progressive and per- 
 petual. Take away from the bosom of those 
 celestial inhabitants, those strong affections 
 which arise from their perceptions of the divine 
 nature ; separate from their present character 
 those deep and adoring, and grateful emotions 
 which flow forth from their perpetually enlarg- 
 ing views of the adorable Godhead ; and most 
 
106 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 sensibly do you abate their intense and high ad- 
 miration of his infinite excellence, and the grow- 
 ing ecstacy of their everlasting song. 
 
 Inseparable from these suggestions also is the 
 thought that the happiness of creatures requires 
 that God's name should be hallowed. The time 
 ■was, when there was nothing in existence save 
 the infinite God. Not more is he the beginning 
 and source of all creatures, than of all created 
 good. He has assigned to every one of the hu- 
 man family his sphere, his mode, his period of 
 existence, till they all return to their final des- 
 tiny — the dust to the earth whence it Avas taken, 
 the spirit to God who gave it. When his period 
 of existence on the earth is ended, then that 
 great day of eternity will begin, when all the 
 holy will be gathered together, and return to 
 him who made and redeemed them, to rest foi*- 
 ever in the bosom of his love, '* the seat of bless- 
 edness, the centre of repose." He is the su- 
 preme happiness and end of man, the source 
 and fulness of all his joy. The world is made 
 for man, but man himself is made for God. The 
 soul which God has given him, no sensual de- 
 lights can content or satisfy ; it breathes after 
 purer joys, and happiness more enduring. Nor 
 can it be satisfied except w ith God himself. To 
 know God, to love God, to possess and enjoy 
 God, is the end to which his immortal existence 
 
THE NAME OP GOD HALLOWED. 107 
 
 &sp.i«w-,i.^ unci without vvhicli, it is impossible for 
 it to bf a happy, joyous existence. It is rest- 
 less, untd it rests in him; joyless, until it be- 
 comes p;irtaker of his joy. 
 
 And hoiv do we become partakers of his joy, 
 except by seeing his nature and perfections un- 
 folded, his name hallowed, and ourselves de- 
 lighted and happy in these manifestations of his 
 glory ? There is something in the divine nature, 
 not merely for the employment of our intellec- 
 tual powers, but for the gratification of our most 
 exalted and spiritual affections. Let God be 
 brought into view, and a holy mind will be 
 happy ; let God be withdraw n, and it is miser- 
 able. The happiest moment of the Christian's 
 life, is when he enjoys the most enlarged and 
 most impressive views of God, and dwells with 
 adoring wonder on his boundless and unsearch- 
 able perfections. Nothing can make him miser- 
 able, while the glory of the divine character, and 
 *" the light of the divine countenance," is lifted 
 up upon him; everywhere without this, there 
 remains a fearful blank, a chasm which the cre- 
 ated universe cannot fill. Here the understand- 
 ing is satisfied ; conscience is at peace, through 
 atoning blood ; and the heart finds repose and 
 joy. The understanding is gratified with truths 
 into which angels desire to look ; the heart is 
 attracted by love that is above all other love; 
 
108 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 the conscience, though more sensitive, is at the 
 same time more tranquil ; and the very imagi- 
 nation feeds on all that is sublime and beautiful, 
 because it is great and lovely. The tear of af- 
 fliction is wiped away. Sorrow and sighing 
 there find their true solace. Darkness is chased 
 by light, and the streams that embitter, are for- 
 gotten in the joys that flow. 
 
 Just in the measure in which God's name is 
 hallowed by us and by our fellow-men, are these 
 sources of happiness found within our own 
 bosoms, and diffused around us. The Christian 
 is greatly comforted with the thought, that his 
 Heavenly Father's name will be hallowed, be- 
 cause he discovers in this assurance the pleni- 
 tude of joy to himself, and this barren and oth- 
 erwise joyless creation. When worn out with 
 pains and labors, when sick with the agitating 
 excitements of earth ; he forgets his cares and 
 griefs, as he goes to bow before the throne and 
 say, '•' Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed 
 he thy name /" It is quietude to his fears, balm 
 to his bleeding heart, peace to all its strifes, 
 and hope and joy amid all its depressions, if 
 that name may but be hallowed. If created 
 happiness is to be estimated from the purity^ 
 sublimity, and sufficiency of its source, from the 
 greatness of its joys, and from the extent of its 
 duration, here its source is the infinite God, its 
 
THE NAME OF GOD HALLOWED. 109 
 
 joys the delights which flow from seeing him 
 and being like him, its duration his own bound- 
 less eternity. 
 
 Thus dear are the name and honor of God to 
 his people. Thus true is it that holiness is the 
 creature's greatest glory ; sin his shame and 
 everlasting disgrace. Thus true is it that God 
 himself is the soul's highest good, and that those 
 who glorify, will enjoy him forever. They will 
 enter into and rejoice in his joy, shine in his 
 splendor ; and in a little while, unspeakably more 
 than they have honored him, be honored by him, 
 and receive from his hands their unfading crown, 
 their robes of immortality. It should be our 
 desire above all things, that his name should 
 have the glory ; come what will, that his name 
 stand forth in untarnished, augmented lustre. 
 
 Wo be to the man who cannot say from the 
 heart, " Hallowed be thy name !" And wo be 
 to him who utters this request, yet makes no 
 scruple of dishonoring the name of God, pro- 
 faning it at heart, and bringing his contempt of 
 it to God's altars ! Let it be the reader's concern 
 that his heavenly Father's glory be the object 
 dearest to his heart. Let his name be hallowed, 
 beloved, and declared, and its sacred impulse 
 felt. There is no end so worthy of God to des- 
 ignate, or man to pursue. Honored he will be ; 
 and amid all the disorder of this world, he will 
 
110 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 bring light out of darkness, and make crooked 
 things straight. His ardent and mighty affections 
 concentrate in this great end, and " the zeal of 
 the Lord of hosts "will perform this." Jehovah 
 hath sworn by himself, " As I live, the whole 
 earth shall be filled with my glory !" Creation, 
 providence, and redemption shall honor him. 
 All his purposes shall be unfolded ; all his char- 
 acter shall be made know n ; and his glory shall 
 never cease to shine, till it fill the earth as the 
 waters fill the sea. 
 
 Delightful, inexpressibly delightful thoughts 
 are these, as we look over this disordered world. 
 Everything was made for God, And was not 
 man made for him ? Were the pebble and the 
 worm made for him ; were the mountains, the 
 seas, and the rivers made for him ; were the at- 
 mosphere, and the light and the cattle upon a 
 thousand hills, and all the fowls of the moun- 
 tains, and summer and winter, and seed time 
 and harvest made for him, and do they all ful- 
 fil their destiny ; and will not men fulfil a des- 
 tiny so much more exalted than theirs ? Reader, 
 you were made for God. Why then will you 
 not acknowledge him as the great All in all, 
 and welcome his reign in you, and over you for- 
 ever ? Why shall not his honor be your honor, 
 his kingdom your kingdom, his riches your 
 riches, his joy your joy ? There is a silent elo- 
 
THE NAME OF GOD HALLOWED. Ill 
 
 quence in the heavens and in the earth, as they 
 fulfil their courses and praise their mighty Ma- 
 ker, making its appeal to you to glorify God in 
 your bodies and spirits, which are his. There 
 is affecting solicitude revealed in that sacred 
 volume, above the eloquence of nature, when 
 it says, " O that men would praise the Lord for 
 his goodness, for his wonderful works to the 
 children of men !" There is a tenderness from 
 the cross that says, " Father, I will, that they 
 also whom thou hast given me, may be with me 
 where I am, that they may behold my glory 
 which thou hast given me." And there is a 
 universal appeal, like the voice of many waters, 
 and as the voice of mighty thunderings, from 
 " every creature which is in heaven and on the 
 earth, and under the earth, and vsuch as are in 
 the sea, and all that are in them," themselves 
 saying, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and 
 power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, 
 and unto the Lamb, forever and ever," and giv- 
 ing utterance, and emphasis to the demand, 
 " Who shall not fea?' thee, O Lord, and glorify 
 thi/ name ? for thou only art holy /" 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THE EARTH. 
 
 ''€^]\ lingkm €mt:' 
 
 There is a wisdom to be consulted beyond 
 our wisdom, a glory beyond our glory, an inter- 
 est beyond our interest. Hence the petition, 
 " Hallowed be thy name." The next great ob- 
 ject is the accomplishment of God's purposes 
 of mercy to our world — purposes as far exceed- 
 ing our thoughts as his capacity exceeds our 
 own. In the same measure in which we desire 
 that his name should be hallowed, will the prayer 
 of our hearts be, " thij kingdom come." 
 
 The solitary Christian, when he enters into 
 his closet, shuts his door, and prays to his Father 
 who is in secret, utters no request more fervent- 
 ly than this. The dwelling-places of Mount 
 Zion, on which God creates a fire and a smoke, 
 everywhere offering up their thousand sacrifices, 
 repeat no petition mpre uniformly. The labori- 
 ous minister of the Gospel in Christian lands, 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THE EARTH. 113 
 
 and the faithful missionary of the cross among 
 the heathen, amid all that is alternately encour- 
 aging and disheartening in their prospects, find 
 no nearer or more exalted communion with God 
 than when they bow^ at his footstool, in the true 
 purport and comprehensiveness of the request, 
 and say, "thy kingdom come." The church of 
 God on the earth, in all her prayers, in all her 
 songs, and in all her instructions and ordinances, 
 utters the spirit, and urges the importance, of 
 this petition. Nay, the great atoning, interced- 
 ing Saviour, ascended to his Father and our 
 Father, to his God and our God, is still uttering 
 these words, and with the same tenderness and 
 emphasis with which he taught them to his 
 disciples, " thy kingdom come." And blessed 
 be his name, " he which testifieth these things 
 saith, Surely I come quickly ; amen, even so, 
 come. Lord Jesus !" 
 
 It is of some consequence to have just con- 
 ceptions of the import of the phrase, ''The king- 
 dom of God!' The whole universe is the empire 
 of Jehovah; the range of his government is 
 limited by nothing but the vast circle of uni- 
 versal existence. " The Lord hath prepared his 
 throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth 
 over all." "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, 
 and the glory, and the majesty ; for all that is 
 in the heaven and earth is thine." "Thine is 
 
114 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 the kingdom, O Lord ! thou art exalted above 
 all ; thou reignest over all !" 
 
 This universal empire has not been maintain- 
 ed vrithout a struggle. There have been, and 
 still are, rivals for the throne — to some extent, 
 successful in their rivalship. The time was, 
 when the King of the Universe, not only control- 
 led this earth and ail the planetary worlds, but 
 ruled in the hearts of every order of intelligences ; 
 angels and man cheerfully recognized his authori- 
 ty, and celebrated his praise. No records inform us 
 how long this universal dominion continued thus 
 undisturbed. One mournful fact we have ascer- 
 tained. In the far-distant ages of the past, there 
 w^as a revolt — a revolt in heaven — a revolt among 
 the angels of God. Great multitudes combined 
 in this treasonable enterprise, " left their first hab- 
 itation," and w ere cast out on some remote con- 
 tinent, some lower region of the universe, w^iere 
 they set up a kingdom of their own, w^hich still 
 exists, and is the great rival pow er to the throne 
 and monarchy of God. 
 
 Anions: the earlv successes of this revolt, was 
 the fatal seduction of the human family. Placed 
 as our first parents were under a law, the penal- 
 ty of which was death to themselves and theii 
 posterity, the Prince of Darkness did not fail to 
 see, that if he prevailed in enticing them from 
 their allegiance to the Most High, he would, by 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THE EARTH. 115 
 
 this act, bring sin and ruin upon their descend- 
 ants. He did entice them ; and the penalty for 
 this first offence has been visited upon this 
 fallen race. The deed was done, that hoisted 
 the flood-gates of iniquity, and poured its desola- 
 tions through every successive generation of 
 men. Henceforth, men began their existence 
 in the moral likeness of their fallen parents, and 
 were the children of disobedience and wrath. 
 A kingdom was established, and grew, that 
 breathed nothing but rebellion against the Most 
 High. The Great Adversary seemed to triumph. 
 From that hour, he has been pushing his con- 
 quests, from age to age, and from one end of the 
 world to the other, in some minds holding a 
 partial sway, in others absolute and entire do- 
 minion ; in some lands, with repulsed, in others, 
 with unrestrained power. 
 
 In such a world, and amid these conflicts, the 
 God of heaven has set up a kingdom, in which 
 he feels the deepest interest, because his own 
 honor is staked upon its successes, and because it 
 is identified with those high interests of moral 
 rectitude of which he is the vindicator and 
 guardian. In the purpose and grace of its 
 Founder, this kingdom " was set up from ever- 
 lasting, or ever the earth was." It began in fact 
 to exist immediately after the fall of our first 
 parents ; its beginning was small ; but here 
 
116 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 and there a few enlisted under its banners, 
 "vvhile the great mass of men remained the vas- 
 sals of the Prince of darkness. In this state of 
 depression, sometimes more, and sometimes less 
 comprehensive, it continued during the patri- 
 archal. Mosaic, and prophetic ages. Other 
 kingdoms rose and fell ; but this, small as it was, 
 held on its way, and though its glory was ob- 
 scured, it was still a light amid surrounding 
 darkness. 
 
 But the time had come when an important 
 epoch was to give greater character and promi- 
 nence to this kingdom. During that long and 
 humiliating exile of the ancient church in Baby- 
 lon, a distinguished prophet was raised up, who 
 predicted the overthrow of her captors; fore- 
 told the rise and fall of the Grecian and Per- 
 sian empires ; and in his anticipations of the 
 extent and durability of the Roman power, uses 
 this remarkable language, " In these days, shall 
 the God of heaven set up a Mngdom, which shall 
 never be destroyed ; and the kingdom shall not 
 be left to other people, but it shall break in 
 pieces, and consume all these kingdoms, and it 
 shall stand forever." After the Roman empire 
 was established, and amid the glory of the Au- 
 gustan age, the distinguished Personage on 
 whose shoulders the government of this king- 
 dom was to rest, made his appearance in our 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THE EARTH. 117 
 
 world ; the predicted Messiah was born. About 
 thirty years after, and under the reign of Tibe- 
 rius Caesar, he was crucified and slain, rose 
 from the dead, ascended up into heaven, estab- 
 lished his kingdom on the earth upon a broader 
 basis, and began to reign in the power of his 
 own truth and grace. And this is what is 
 meant in the Scriptures by the phrase, " The 
 kingdom of God." It is the reign of Christ, 
 the empire of the Messiah as David's Son and 
 Lord, on the earth. 
 
 We shall have still clearer views of this 
 kingdom by specifying some of its great feat- 
 ures. It possesses very remarkable character- 
 istics, and is unlike every other kingdom. 
 
 It is emphatically distinguished by the char- 
 acter and authority of its Great Prince, " Unto 
 us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and 
 his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 
 the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the 
 Prince of Peace." In every view, he is truly 
 styled Wonderful. He is the mysterious 
 Word who was in the beginning "with God, 
 and was God ;" who '' created all things," both 
 visible and invisible, w^hether they " be thrones, 
 or dominions, or principalities, or powers." He 
 possesses inherent and high-born honors; his 
 personal glory shines forth as " the glory of the 
 only begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
 
 5* 
 
118 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 truth." He is the Seed of the Woman, and yet 
 the Son of the Highest. He stood before the 
 bar of earthly Princes, and yet had all the king- 
 doms and empires of this world at his disposal. 
 He " came not to be ministered unto, but to 
 minister ;" yet '' hath he on his vesture and on 
 liis thigh, a name written, King of kings, and 
 Lord of lords." His palace w^as a stable ; his 
 court and retinue a few fishermen and tax-gath- 
 erers ; yet angels were his attendants, and the 
 heaven of heavens his dwelling-place. His 
 crown was a wreath of thorns, his sceptre a 
 reed, his throne a cross; yet in his hand is the 
 sceptre that rules the nations, on his head are 
 many crowns, and his throne is thef right hand 
 of majesty on high. 
 
 Nothing can be more absolute than the authority 
 which Christ exercises in this his own kingdom; 
 nor will he consent to exercise any other than 
 that which is perfectly uncontrolled. At all 
 times, under all circumstances, and in its whole 
 procedure and administration, this kingdom is 
 subjected to him as its great and sole Monarch. 
 Its common law and its positive statutes, may 
 be prescribed by no earthly and secular power. 
 In no one particular may his decisions be de- 
 parted from. No alliance with any of the em- 
 pires of earth may be arranged and determined 
 on, that shall call in question, or in the least de- 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THE EARTH. 110 
 
 gree limit his exclusiv^e rio^lit to rule in his own 
 house. Its form, its officers, its Avorship, its 
 powers and privileges, are all derived from him, 
 exist through him and for him, and are all to be 
 exercised in accordance with his will. No in- 
 difference on the one hand, nor bitterness of 
 persecution on the other; no rich endowment 
 and no depressing poverty; no human tradi- 
 tions, however venerable for age, or consecrated 
 by usage and custom ; no decisions of councils, 
 or of popes, however arrogant their claims to in- 
 fallibility ; no Christian fathers, no daring pre- 
 tensions of an aspiring priesthood in any one 
 department of this kingdom, may release its 
 members from his param^ount authority, impair 
 his right to be heard as their Prophet and Guide, 
 and to be obeyed as their King and Head. No 
 revolutions of time, no change in the relations 
 this kingdom sustains to the kingdoms of this 
 Avorld, can modify its relation to him who alone 
 has the keys of the house of David, and sits 
 upon his throne. It is more than all human 
 thrones, and councils, and laws, and decisions 
 are worth, to bind w hat the Lord Jesus has not 
 bound, or loose what he has not loosed. The 
 community over which he reigns is a kingdom, 
 because it is a monarchy ; it has but one ruler, 
 and no^vicegerents; its ruler is God in the per- 
 son of the Lord Jesus. 
 
120 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 Another peculiarity of this kingdom will be 
 found in the princijjles by ivhich it is administered. 
 '' Justice and judgment are the habitation of 
 God's throne ;" these are the great principles 
 on which it is built and stands firm ; they are 
 the place, the basis, the foundation on which it 
 rests. Yet is there a wondrous combination 
 and assemblage of the divine attributes in the 
 administration of divine justice, as dispensed in 
 this kingdom. " Mercy and truth are met together; 
 righteousness and peace have kissed each other." 
 These apparently jarring perfections of the di- 
 vine nature are here reconciled, and brought 
 into a state of most endeared harmony. Man's 
 redemption from sin and hell by Jesus Christ, 
 presents to the contemplation of the universe 
 the union of principles which seem to be abso- 
 lutely irreconcilable. That perfect and uner- 
 ring rectitude which is an essential perfection 
 of the divine nature, wliich is without blemish 
 and without change, which by its love of holi- 
 ness and hatred of sin, is the strong support and 
 unsleeping guardian of lioliness in the universe, 
 and which is armed with such terrors against 
 the guilty; instead of driving its rebellious sub- 
 jects from the face of the throne into the lake of 
 fire, is here made to combine with that heavenly 
 mercy which stoops to sinners, and pardons, jus 
 tifies, sanctifies, and advances them to the adop- 
 
THE KINGDOM OP GOD ON THE EARTH. 121 
 
 tion of sons. In the administration of this king- 
 dom, there are no divine attributes that are 
 sustained at the expense of others; ail are 
 equal, and have equally honored claims,, and 
 give unequalled beauty and lustre to the whole 
 character of its reigning sovereign. His justice 
 receives new honors from his mercy ; his mercy 
 receives exaltation it never could have received 
 had it not been thus exalted by his justice. 
 And in this pre-eminently consists the force and 
 excellence of his claims upon the hearts of his 
 subjects. His very law is clothed with new 
 power by the grace that bringeth salvation, be- 
 cause it here has demands that are beyond the 
 demands of a purely legal administration — de- 
 mands of grace — laws of love and mercy. This 
 is the great principle of the divine kingdom, 
 and to this great instrumentality must be at- 
 tributed its successes and triumphs. Nay, this 
 was its origin ; it never had existed but for 
 the condescension of the '' Word made flesh,'' 
 and his mediatorial office in bringing into one 
 the justice that punishes and the grace that 
 saves. The principles by which this kingdom 
 is administered, therefore, are altogether pecu- 
 liar. They have no sympathy with the princi- 
 ples of earthly princes. It is a kingdom not 
 of this world ; its laws evince how widely dif- 
 ferent it is from all earthly kingdoms. It speaks 
 
 6 
 
122 . THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 the same language to all its subjects, and it is 
 alike adapted to them all, whatever their differ- 
 ent shades of character or outward condition. 
 
 Principles which thus originate with the heart 
 of the Deity, are fitted to address themselves to 
 the hearts of men. Hence one peculiarity of the 
 laws of this kingdom is the fact that they are spir- 
 itual, and go beyond the exterior man. They aim 
 at the heart. They require more than an outward 
 respect and submission ; their object is to secure 
 a heartfelt, an affectionate, and cheerful obe- 
 dience. They enthrone the Prince and Saviour 
 over the thoughts ; they make him the God of 
 the affections, the Lord of the will. That great 
 law, so endless in its ramifications, " Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
 thy neighbor as thyself," is the standard of char- 
 jicter, the great rule of action in the divine king- 
 dom. It is one which never changes, and is in 
 full force and obligation through illimitable ages. 
 The service it requires is a reasonable service, 
 the offspring of an enlightened faith, and such as 
 is becoming man to offer, and God to accept. 
 No right-hearted man ever complained of the 
 laws of the divine kingdom as being too strict, 
 too extended, or too spiritual. Rather does he 
 acquiesce in them, gives them ! is warmest at- 
 tachment, and though they may do violence to 
 flesh and blood, and urge to laborious dxHies and 
 
THE KINGDOM OP GOD ON THE EARTH. 123 
 
 painful sacrifices, yet is it no part of iiis charac- 
 ter to impugn their excellence. 
 
 Another peculiarity of this kingdom is found 
 in the character of its subjects. The subjects of 
 this kingdom are they who are redeemed by the 
 blood of its Prince, and sanctified by his Spirit; 
 they are those who have diligently weighed and 
 pondered his precepts; who have habitual ref- 
 erence to his rule, and give it a place in the 
 ordinary current of their thoughts ; who are im- 
 pressed W'ith a deep sense of their obligations, 
 accompanied with a sincere resolution of implicit 
 and unreserved obedience, and who are inspired 
 w^ith a love to his law, after the inner man. 
 They possess a congeniality of mind with the 
 spirit and tenor of God's w^ord ; w bile their prac- 
 tical compliahce with it, is the effect of the love 
 of God shed abroad in their hearts, and of that 
 inward, vital principle of faith in Jesus Christ 
 imparted by the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures 
 describe them as " born of God." This work 
 of the Spirit is the seal of God on the heart of 
 his servants, and the distinguishing feature in 
 their character. Their life is hid w ith Christ in 
 God. This union to him is the source of their 
 holiness, the secret of their strength, the glory 
 of their hopes. This character possesses all the 
 subjects of this kingdom, in all ages of the 
 world, and throughout all its extent it is essen- 
 
124 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 tially the same character everywhere. Wher- 
 ever this character exists, there are the subjects 
 of this kingdom. They are patriarchs, prophets, 
 apostles, martyrs, confessors ; they are Christian 
 men. Christian women, Christian children, all 
 over the earth. Though naturally destitute of 
 holiness, and under the entire dominion of a de- 
 praved heart, their internal views and affections 
 ave so essentially changed, that old things are 
 passed away, and all things are become new. 
 They have a spiritual discerning of spiritual 
 things, love what they formerly did not love, 
 and hate what they* did not formerly hate. 
 They are those who place God on the throne, 
 and take their proper place at his footstool ; and 
 though they have no reason for self-exultation, 
 and cause for glorying only in the cross of Christ, 
 yet are very many of them men " of whom the 
 world is not worthy," the " excellent of the 
 earth," the " glory of the nations." They form 
 a distinct community, amid this world's vast pop- 
 ulation ; often "a little flock;" bvit they are 
 the "salt of the earth," the "light of the 
 w^orld," a " peculiar people," that show forth the 
 praises of Him who bought them, and because he 
 bought them, brought them forth from the king- 
 dom of Satan into the kingdom of his dear Son. 
 Another peculiarity of this kingdom, therefore, 
 consists in its henevolent and hallowed influence. 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THE EARTH. 125 
 
 Depraved as the world is, its great security, un- 
 der God, is in the practical influence of this 
 divine kingdom. But for this, there would be 
 no reverence for the truth of God among men. 
 The subjects of this kingdom are his witnesses; 
 their hearts, their families, and their altars, are 
 the selected depositaries of his truth. They 
 themselves are living epistles of it, known and 
 read of all men. Exterminate this kingdom, 
 and the nations would go back to the night of 
 paganism, with none to guide their feet in the 
 way of peace; this earth would again be im- 
 merged in darkness, and in the shadow of death. ^ 
 But for this kingdom, there Avould be no rever- 
 ence for God himself, and none for his law. 
 Errors, infidelity, and ungodliness, would become 
 everywhere so rife in the earth, and the corrupt 
 propensities and passions of men would so throw 
 off their wonted restraints, as to call for the inter- 
 posing judgments of the insulted majesty of 
 heaven. The times would be calamitous ; be- 
 cause men would become degenerate, and God 
 would be angry. Occupying the hills, and en- 
 trenched by the strongholds of Zion, this kingdom 
 forms the only barrier against the swelling, men- 
 acing tide of human wretchedness ; plants firm 
 and lifts high its standard for truth and right, for 
 religion and virtue, for order, safety, and happi- 
 ness. It stands alone ; and has the courage to 
 
126 THE MERCV SEAT. 
 
 do SO, in view of opposition however formidable, 
 and sacrifices however great. 
 
 Another of the distinctions of this kingdom 
 is, that it is a happy Mngdom. Those Avho are 
 out of it are in a state of rebellion against their 
 rightful sovereign ; they are contending with 
 God Avho is mighty to save, and mighty to de- 
 stroy ; and reason, conscience, and all the prin- 
 ciples of that government which its mighty 
 monarch has established, forbid that they should 
 be happy. On the other hand, those who are 
 \yithin it, though they may be no favorites witli 
 Jthe world, are the favorites of heaven. What- 
 ever else they forego, they do not forego the 
 favor of God, nor their enjoyment of him, 
 nor any of the sources of true blessedness. 
 Nothing earthly can give them the happiness 
 tliey seek. The kingdom of God has come to 
 them as suffering, perishing men, with the abun- 
 dance of its light, the plenitude of its pardons, 
 the redundancy of its grace. The malady and 
 the misery which consisted in their departure 
 from God, are healed by their being restored. 
 They have now peace with God, with whom they 
 were once at war ; peace with his government, 
 to which they were once hostile ; peace with 
 themselves, whose bosoms were once like the 
 troubled sea ; peace with their fellow men, once 
 hateful and hating one another; and all made 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THE EARTH. 127 
 
 sure by him who is the God of peace, and 
 through him who is the Prince of peace. Peace 
 is one of the great characteristics of this king- 
 dom. Prince of Peace is the name of its King, 
 Under his reign the " mountains shall bring 
 peace to the people, and the little hills by 
 righteousness." He '• maketh w^ars to cease 
 unto the ends of the earth." He is that Sun of 
 righteousness that rises with " healing in his 
 beams." He shall " come down like rain upon 
 the mown grass; as showers that water the 
 earth ; all nations shall call him blessed ; all 
 people shall obtain joi/ and gladness, and sorrow 
 and sighing shall flee away." 
 
 " scenes surpassing fable, and yet true ! 
 Scenes of accomplished bliss ! which, who can see 
 Though but in distant prospect, and not feel 
 His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy." 
 
 The only remaining characteristic of this king- 
 dom on which I shall dwell, is its pepetuitij. It 
 is a kingdom which " shall never be destroyed ;" 
 it shall " not be left to other people ;" it shall 
 " stand forever." " Of his kingdom," said the 
 angel Gabriel to Mary, " there shall be no end." 
 The "gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 
 The " heavens and the earth shall pass aw^ay,'* 
 but the words of its Divine Founder " shall never 
 pass away." Other kingdoms may be celebrated 
 
125 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 for their Avealth and splendor, for the fame of 
 their emperors, and the extent of their con- 
 quests ; but they live only on the page of his- 
 tory. Other kingdoms are immortalized in song, 
 because they may have been the birth-place of 
 freedom, or the favored habitations of genius ; 
 yet in a little while you look in vain for one re- 
 maining trace of their proud glory. Their 
 princes " die like men ;" while the vast empires 
 over which they reigned, carry within them the 
 elements of their own destruction. The king- 
 dom of God shall outvie, and outlive them all ; 
 it carries within it no elements of destruction, 
 but rather the secret of its own perpetuity. Its 
 origin and the method by which it was acquired, 
 the principles by which it is administered, and 
 the immortality and universal presence of its 
 Founder, are the sure pledge of its eternal pro- 
 gress. Its great Founder himself promises to 
 be with this society of his redeemed to the end 
 of the w^orld. The kingdom which he founded 
 by his humiliation, he will not abandon now 
 that he is exalted to the right hand of majesty 
 on high. " He must reign until all enemies are 
 put under his feet." His empire has been ad- 
 vancins: for ei^fhteen centuries in defiance of all 
 the powers of darkness ; and though its enemies 
 may be many, and subtle, and powerful : and 
 though the work to be accomplished in carrying 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON THE EARTH 129 
 
 it forward is great; yet shall it advance to the 
 utter subversion and ruin of the powers com- 
 bined against it, till " the kingdoms of this w orld 
 become the kingdoms of our Lord and his 
 Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." 
 
 Such is the kingdom of our Father who is in 
 heaven. Lift up your eyes, ye w ho are the chil- 
 dren of God, and survey its glories. They are 
 not the wealth, and honors, and pleasures of this 
 exterior universe which it brings to you, but 
 inward blessedness, holier joys, an imperishable 
 inheritance. It " is not meat and drink, but 
 righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost." The full glories of that kingdom are 
 indeed, '' yet to be revealed." You have the 
 earnest of them in actual possession. '' The 
 kingdom of God is within you;" and though the 
 crown and the sceptre as yet await you in eter- 
 nity, the day is not far distant, when, w ith the 
 spirits of just men made perfect, and the un- 
 fallen and immortal princes of this kingdom, you 
 shall take your place with cherubim and sera- 
 phim, and stand in the presence of God. Though 
 still in your minority, and even the infancy of 
 your adoption, yet are you heirs of God, and 
 joint-heirs w^ith Jesus Christ, Many a weary 
 day may be appointed you of conflict with your 
 enemies, and the enemies of your Prince; but 
 the contest will ere long be over, and the victory 
 
130 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 won. Let, then, the expectants of such a king- 
 dom demean themselves in a way befitting their 
 inheritance, and worthy of their allegiance to 
 such a Prince. 
 
 Those there are who are still in a state of re- 
 bellion against this King of Zion. Such persons 
 cannot from the heart say, " thy kingdom come.'^ 
 They are as yet under the dominion of another 
 master, and belong to a kingdom that must be 
 subverted and destroyed. The exalted Messiah, 
 in terrible majesty, is even now executing judg- 
 ment upon his enemies, thereby imparting a new 
 impulse to his own glorious reign. Be wise 
 now, therefore, be instructed, ye kings and peo- 
 ple of the earth. '' Serve the Lord w ith fear, 
 and rejoice w ith trembling. Kiss the Son, lest 
 he be angry, and ye perish from the way, wdien 
 his wrath is kindled but a little." An awful 
 state is that of an unconverted sinner. He is a 
 rebel against the best kingdom; he is Satan's 
 subject and servant. Think of this, ye that forget 
 God; think of it, while it is called to-day. If 
 the Prince and Saviour has no throne within your 
 heart ; if his Spirit does not influence, nor his 
 laws govern you ; if you have no holiness and 
 no peace in his salvation ; you are still under 
 the power of the Prince of Darkness, and god 
 of this world. Yet is it an unspeakably precious 
 truth, that you are still a prisoner of hope ; that 
 
THE KINGDOM OP GOD ON THE EARTH. 131 
 
 preparatory to the kingdom of glory hereafter, is 
 the day and kingdom of grace here. Be ye sure 
 of this, then, that the kingdom of God is come 
 nigh unto you. Whosoever will, may enter in. 
 The gates are not shut, either night or day. 
 The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. They 
 open wide its portals, and point you to its treas- 
 ures and its throne. Come, enter in. Every 
 subject is a king, in that kingdom ; every head 
 wears a crown of righteousness ; in every heart 
 there is fulness of joy. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE MEANS OF EXTENDING GOD'S KINGDOM. 
 
 ''€^^ linginin CmtJ' 
 
 The kingdom of God, as we have exhibited 
 its nature and characteristics in the previous 
 chapter, is his spiritual reign over the minds of 
 men. Occupying, as it did, the thoughts and 
 counsels of the Eternal Mind, before the heavens 
 were stretched out, or the foundations of the 
 earth were laid, it still forms his great master 
 purpose. It is destined to advance ; but the in- 
 quiry is one of interest. How and by what 
 means is its advancement to be secured ? 
 
 Its conquests are not physical, nor political, 
 nor military conquests; but spiritual victories, 
 and are achieved by a spiritual armor. There 
 are preparatori/ measures by which the minds of 
 men are rendered accessible to its influences. 
 There is an intimate connection between the 
 system of providence and the method of grace. 
 One of the selected and ordained means of ad- 
 
THE MEANS OP EXTENDING GOD'S KINGDOM. 133 
 
 vancing the kingdom of God, ever has been the 
 revolutions and conduct of his own mighty prov- 
 idence. It is the purpose of infinite love that 
 this kingdom shall ultimately absorb every other 
 interest, and in accomplishing this purpose, he 
 must necessarily extend bis government beyond 
 those established laws of nature which consti- 
 tute a general providence. He must exercise a 
 particular providence over all human affairs ; 
 without this prerogative, his mediatorial office 
 would be incomplete. If the nations are given 
 to him for an inheritance, the arrangements of 
 his providence must be such as to give his truth 
 access to their minds ; and w^hen they have be- 
 come identified with his kingdom, these arrange- 
 'ments must be such as to render him their effec- 
 tual guardian. 
 
 His providence, in ways unseen, as well as 
 seen, prepares the way for his gospel, and is the 
 appointed precursor to herald its approach. The 
 history of the past, as well as events that are tak- 
 ing place under our own observation, abundantly 
 show how the many overturnings in the affairs 
 of men, subserve the purposes of his mediatorial 
 reign. The enterprises of those thus employed 
 as God's instruments, may be unhallowed enter- 
 prises ; they may originate with pride, and be 
 prompted by love of power ; they may aim solely 
 at wealth, conquest, or revenge ; but though *' they 
 
134 THE MERCY SEAT 
 
 mean it unto evil, God means it unto good.*' 
 Even the sword of the conqueror receives its 
 commission from him who purposes to follow it 
 W'ith the sword of his Spirit. Wails that have* 
 rendered millions impervious to his truth, have 
 been battered down by men whom he has raised 
 up, and qualified, and directed, and prospered 
 for his own ends. His providence has many a 
 time riveted chains upon the necks of his ene- 
 mies, that his people might go free ; and on the 
 other hand has knocked off those chains, that 
 his people may enjoy the common liberty of his 
 enemies. When science has been pursuing her 
 researches ; w hen the arts have been follow- 
 ing up their improvements on the sea and on 
 the land, and amid all the elements of nature ; * 
 when men of wealth and men of toil have been 
 pushing their enterprises through the rocky and 
 mountainous wilderness, and have joined sea to 
 sea and shore to shore ; an unseen, but almighty 
 hand has been guiding their bold and hazardous 
 undertakings, so that '' his way may be known, 
 and his saving health among all nations." 
 
 As it has been, so it will be. Many a valley 
 is to be exalted, and many a mountain laid low ; 
 many a crooked way is to be made straight, and 
 many a stream to be dried up, that the way for 
 the Redeemer's conquests may be prepared, and 
 the ransomed of the Lord may pass over. Em- 
 
THE MEANS OF EXTENDING GOD'S KINGDOM. 135 
 
 pire after empire is yet to be overturned; the 
 lofty are to be brought low, and the lowly are 
 to be lifted up ; great and mighty movements 
 are to be looked for in the world, and periods 
 of disastrous revolution to the powers of dark- 
 ness, that the God of Israel may make to him- 
 self a name, and the ark of his strength be ex- 
 alted in the earth. The providence of God is 
 the expositor, as well as the precursor and the 
 executor of his purposes of mercy. The origin and 
 progress, the decline and fall of nations and 
 governments, are all under his control, who 
 '^ worketh all things after the counsel of his own 
 will." His councils record their history ; in his 
 calendar are marked the hours of their advance- 
 ment and their pride ; he opens the seals of the 
 book, where the time is noted when he shall 
 overturn them, in order to give place to that 
 kingdom for which all other ^things were made. 
 " He shall remove the diadem, and take off the 
 crown ; exalt him that is low, and abase him 
 that is high ; he shall overturn, overturn, and 
 overturn, and it shall be no more until He come 
 whose right it is, and he will give it him." 
 
 In addition to these preparatory arrangements, 
 there are moral instrumentalities by which this 
 kingdom is to be advanced. In those move- 
 ments of Divine Providence that are directed 
 and overruled to the coming of Christ's kingdom, 
 
136 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 men, so far as regards the ends God is aiming at, 
 are, for tlie most part, the passive, and even the 
 unconscious instruments. Yet has man an active 
 part to perform, in advancing the interests of this 
 kingdom. He is a subaltern in this spiritual war- 
 fare ; he is to occupy the post assigned him ; he 
 has the means both of aggression and defence. 
 They are not unhallowed principles w hich he 
 is warranted to make use of, nor are they sus- 
 tained by unhallowed motives. They are not 
 the power of the secular arm, enforcing the 
 edicts of the church. They are not fines and 
 forfeitures, fire and sword, racks and chains, 
 banishment and the dungeon. Nor are they en- 
 tangling alliances between the church and the 
 state, the civil establishments of religion, the 
 wisely-invented checks and balances of the w ily 
 politician. Nor do they partake of the nature of 
 those human devices in the worship of God, 
 which have been so abundantly superadded to 
 the " simplicity that is in Christ." They are 
 not the intercession of departed saints, nor the 
 flames of purgatory, nor the merit of penitence, 
 nor works of supererogation, nor the celibacy of 
 the clergy, nor the scarlet robes of the priesthood, 
 nor any of the endless superstitions whereby the 
 Man of Sin has deceived the nations. Nor are 
 they the subtilties of philosophy, the speculations 
 of reason, the pride and ostentation of unsanci^i- 
 
THE MEANS OF EXTENDING GOD'S KINGDOM. 137 
 
 fied learning and eloquence. Nor are they the 
 disingenuousness and crooked policy of a faith- 
 less ministry, that would please men. The 
 means are few and simple, efficacious, and of 
 divine appointment. They are the truth and 
 love of the Gospel ; the light, the power, of 
 truth ; the ardor, the fire of love. 
 
 They are the word of the living God, jniblished 
 to all nations, and sustained hij the institutions, ex- 
 ample, and influence of his church. These are, in- 
 deed, means w^hich seem inadequate to the end ; 
 because they are so simple, and so few. " The 
 kingdom of God cometh not with observation." 
 The stone spoken of by the Prophet Daniel, 
 w^hich w^as emblematical of this kingdom, was 
 " cut out of the mountain without hands." Like 
 the temple at Jerusalem, " neither hammer nor 
 axe, nor any tool of iron, is heard in the house 
 while it is building." They are means which 
 address themselves to the intellectual and moral 
 nature of man ; which make their appeal to his 
 reason, his conscience, and his heart ; which 
 speak to the soul, on the authority of their Au- 
 thor; which are silent in their influence, as the 
 de-w of heaven ; balmy as the droppings of 
 mercy from the wings of the angel flying 
 through the midst of heaven; diifusive and life- 
 giving as is the Sun of Righteousness, when he 
 rises with healing in his beams. 
 
138 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 The simple preaching of Christ and him cru- 
 cified, occupies the first place among the great in- 
 strumentalities by which the kingdom of dark- 
 ness is to be overcome, and men are to be 
 brought into the kingdom of God. 
 
 " Tbe pulpit 
 Must stand acknowledged, Aviiile the world shall stand. 
 The most important and effectual guard. 
 Support, and ornament of virtues cause." 
 
 *' The words that I speak unto you," saith the 
 Saviour, "they are spirit and they are life." 
 Whatever that word contains — ^whatever of God 
 in his glory and his humiliation ; whatever of 
 man, fallen and redeemed; whatever of the pity 
 of heaven for the apostasy of earth ; whatever of 
 glad tidings of great joy there' is in his obedience 
 unto death, and in a gratuitous justification by 
 faith in his blood — intelligently, faithfully, and 
 affectionately exhibited, and urged upon the con- 
 science by all the sanctions of the eternal world 
 — this is the instrumentality by which the won- 
 derful changes spoken of in the Scriptures are yet 
 to be effected in the world, and the kingdom of 
 God to gain its decisive victories. Heavenly 
 truth and heavenly love are to accomplish these 
 conquests; — heavenly truth, because true piety 
 is everywhere conformity to the truth of God, 
 nor can it exist save where that truth is per- 
 ceived and loved — heavenly love, because there 
 
THE MEANS OF EXTENDING GOD'S KINGDOM. 139 
 
 is no other way of carrying a hostile world, 
 than by drawing it with " cords of love/' those 
 " bands of a man." In pourtraying the suc- 
 cesses of his empire, the Spirit of God addresses 
 the King of Zion in the following language: — 
 *' Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, 
 with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy maj- 
 esty ride prosperously because of truth, meek- 
 ness, and righteousness : and thy right hand 
 shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows 
 are sharp in the hearts of the king's enemies, 
 whereby the people fall under thee." Mark 
 the means of his conquests- — the weapons by 
 which his foes become a conquered, yet a will- 
 ing people, and while they submit to his power, 
 cheerfully and gladly bow at his footstool ! 
 They are truth, meekness, righteousness. This 
 is the " rod of his strength" which he sends out 
 of Zion ; these the arrows which perforate and 
 transform the heart. 
 
 Another of the means by Avhich this kingdom 
 is advanced, is the i^eligious education of the 
 young. There is no greater evidence of the 
 importance to be attached to this means of ad- 
 vancing the reign of God in the hearts of men 
 than the fact, that in the dispensations, both 
 of his natural and moral government, God has 
 so closely connected the character and destiny 
 of the child with that of the parent- The cov- 
 
140 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 enant with the first father of our race in Para- 
 dise, the covenant with Noah as the father of 
 the new world, the covenant with Abraham as 
 the head of the Hebrew nation and the father 
 of all them that believe, confirmed by its im- 
 pressive seal, furnish affecting proofs of the 
 reality and importance of this great principle, 
 pervading all the varieties of administration in 
 the kingdom of grace. 
 
 The Scriptures explicitly teach us that the 
 great design of heavenly wisdom in the institu- 
 tion of the domestic relations, and the organiza- 
 tion of the social state, protected as they are by 
 so many sanctions of the most solemn kind, is 
 the moral and religious culture of the rising 
 race. Alluding to the origin of the human fam- 
 ily from one pair, the prophet demands, " Did 
 he not make one ? And wherefore one ! That 
 he might seek a godly seed'' There is nothing 
 in which the interests of piety have a deeper 
 stake, than these hallowed relations. The whole 
 face and character of human society, and the 
 condition of the church, receive their impres- 
 sion from the character of the rising generation. 
 The religious training of the infimtile and youth- 
 ful mind, though not the exclusive, constitutes 
 the selected channel in which the grace of God 
 is wont to flow. The neglect or careless per- 
 formance of this duty is an unfailing token fb» 
 
THE MEANS OF EXTENDING GOD'S KINGDOM. 141 
 
 evil. Give the adversary the education of the 
 rising generation, and the world will be overrun 
 with " a seed of evil doers." There is no time 
 for sowing the seeds of knowledge and grace 
 like the spring-time of human life. If the child 
 is neglected, unless some Unpromised and un- 
 looked-for interposition sever the effect from the 
 cause, the man is lost. It is comparatively easy 
 to purify the fountain; but when the streams 
 become diffused and extended, they are beyond 
 your reach. 
 
 Confirmed obduracy in sin belongs not to the 
 earlier periods of life ; a seared conscience is 
 seldom, if ever found in the bosom of the 
 young. A little child is never the creature of 
 sensuality ; nor do care and perplexity so em- 
 barrass and enchain the youthful mind as to 
 choke the word. Faith, hope and prayer hover, 
 w^ith the deepest interest and highest promise, 
 not over the aged, but the young. The Holy 
 Spirit, the gentle Dove of Heaven, forsakes the 
 rugged bosom which has long been the seat of 
 stormy passions, to dwell in the more peaceful, 
 and tranquil heart of the devout child. 
 
 In those portions of the earth, and in those 
 periods of the world, in which the kingdom of 
 God has been most, and most rapidly extended, 
 it began its advances in the hearts of the young. 
 The great mass of those whose piety has been 
 
142 THR MERCY SEAT. 
 
 eminent in the world, as well as the great mass 
 of those who have been most eminent as preach- 
 ers of the gospel, together with those whom 
 God has honored as the reformers of a corrupt 
 and degenerate age, and the successful missiona- 
 ries of the cross among the heathen, have sprung 
 from a godly ancestry, and have been "trained 
 up in the way in which they should go." There 
 is no more cheerino- indication of the advance- 
 ment of God's kingdom in the earth, than when 
 youthful converts are multiplied as the drops of 
 the dew. It is a delightful prospect, as the 
 older, and more withered trees of righteousness 
 die away, to behold the younger and more vig- 
 orous plants shoot up and occupy their places. 
 Blessed is that youthful generation by whom 
 the kingdom of God is thus advanced; and 
 blessed also is that risen generation which is 
 preparing a righteous seed to perform this 
 blessed work ! 
 
 We do not depreciate other agencies in this 
 great work. We honor the press and the in- 
 stitutions of learning ; but they owe their eleAa- 
 ting and purifying influence to the Bible, the 
 ministry and the church of God. They have ac- 
 complished little else than to mislead and corrupt, 
 where they are not under a Christian influence. 
 But while these are means of God's appoint- 
 ment, and correspond with the nature of that 
 
THE MEANS OF EXTENDING GOD'S KINGDOM. 143 
 
 kingdom which they are designed to promote ; and 
 while they possess an evident and strong adapta- 
 tion to secure its advancement ; there is another 
 power by which its advancement is secured : I 
 mean the effectual worMng of the Holy Spirit. 
 There is no natural tendency in the individual 
 mind, nor in larger associations of minds, to 
 yield to the influences of God's truth, however 
 clearly and impressively exhibited. His truth 
 furnishes but the material, the instrument, the 
 medium by which a superadded and higher 
 power operates on the understanding and heart. 
 Iq relation to all the means that are adopted for 
 the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom, it 
 may never be forgotten, that it is " not by might, 
 nor by power, but by the Spirit of God." Truth 
 enlightens the understanding, and thus presents 
 before the mind the objects of gracious affection; 
 it convinces the conscience, and thus awakens 
 fear and apprehension ; it imparts a sense of 
 obligation, and thus leaves men without excuse 
 in their alienation from God ; it fixes powerful 
 associations and presents the strongest induce- 
 ments to piety in the minds of men, who see it 
 as it is, and thus supplies the motives to holiness : 
 but more than this, it cannot perform. " Neither 
 is he that planteth anything, neither he that 
 watereth, but God that giveth the increase." 
 Our confidence in the advancement of the Re- 
 
144 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 deemer's kingdom, is in the promise, " The 
 Comforter, the Holy Ghost, sliall abide with 
 you forever." He alone gives the truth its 
 saving efficacy. " We have this treasure in 
 earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power 
 may be all of God and not of us." 
 
 Much is indeed gained by those overturnings 
 of divine providence by which the way is pre- 
 pared for the gospel to have access to the minds 
 of men ; more is accomplished by the actual 
 diffusion of the Scriptures in every land, and 
 the dispersion of an instructive and faithful 
 ministry, everywhere dispensing to listening 
 millions the words of eternal life. Still more 
 is effected by the faithful and devout efforts of 
 the church for the rising generation. Effects 
 like these present scenes of great beauty and 
 hope ; yet are they in reality scenes of great 
 barrenness and desolation, until the hearts of 
 men are opened by the Spirit of God to receive 
 the truth in the love of it. "Upon the land of 
 my people shall come up thorns and briers; 
 yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous 
 city: because the palaces shall be forsaken; 
 the multitude of the city shall be left ; the 
 forts and towers shall be for dens forever, a joy 
 of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; until the 
 Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the 
 wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful 
 
THE MEANS OP EXTENDING GODS KINGDOM. 145 
 
 field be counted for a forest." No such effect- 
 ive and beneficial changes will take place in 
 the moral condition of men, as shall give success 
 to the kingdom of God, until tliis sacred influ- 
 ence descends, now in drops, noNV in more copi- 
 ous shoAvers, giving fertility and gladness. Then 
 it is that the great Husbandman " plants in the 
 wilderness the cedar tree, the shittah tree, and 
 the myrtle, and the oil tree ;" and sets in the 
 desert *' the fir tree, and the pine, and the box 
 tree together ; that they may see, and know, and 
 consider, and understand together, that the 
 ban a of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy 
 One of Israel hath created it." 
 
 A glorious day will that be, when after ages 
 of darkness and long periods of spiritual desola- 
 tion, the cheering words shall be again heard 
 from heaven, "And I will no more hide my face 
 from them; for I have poured out my Spirit 
 upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God." 
 The kingdom of Satan, that subtle and malig- 
 nant Spirit who dwells in the children of dis- 
 obedience, and who has with so much success 
 organized a regular system of opposition to the 
 kingdom of God, shall be brought within nar- 
 rower, and still more narrow limits, until it is 
 ultimately subverted and overthrown. Apostate 
 men shall be withdrawn in great numbers from 
 their allegiance to his empire, and introduced 
 
146 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 into the kingdom of God, and kept in it, and 
 the kingdom of glory shall be hastened. We 
 may not look for the successes of the gospel 
 and the triumphs of truth, without a divine 
 agency. They are but instruments which we 
 make use of, and never effectual save when 
 wielded by an omnipotent arm. It were but a 
 state of complete hopelessness to call upon men 
 to forsake their sins, and to wait for the Son of 
 God from heaven, without confidence in some- 
 thing beside an arm of flesh. 
 
 I remark then once more, there is an appro- 
 priate place for another powerful agency in ad- 
 vancing the kingdom of God : I mean the power 
 of prayer. Prayer in the closet, prayer in the 
 domestic circle, prayer in the sanctuary, concert 
 in prayer, everywhere, at all times, and with 
 one accord, is the great means of securing the 
 needed influences of the Spirit, and of realizing 
 the hopes of the church for his coming and 
 kingdom who is her adorable Head. '' Prayer 
 touches the only spring that can possibly ensure 
 success. By speaking, we move man ; by 
 prayer we move God. It is through the me- 
 dium of prayer that the littleness and mean- 
 ness of man prevail with omnipotence. The 
 prayer of faith is the only power in the universe 
 to which the great Jehovah yields; he looks 
 upon every other power as more or less opposed 
 
THE MEANS OF EXTENDING GODS KINGDOM. 147 
 
 to him; but he looks upon this as a confession 
 of man's dependence, as an appropriate homage 
 to his greatness, as an attraction which brings 
 down his divine agency to the earth." The 
 voice of prayer is a voice which God hears ; it 
 suggests reasons which he weighs ; it is the ex- 
 pression of affections which he delights in ; it 
 is the utterance of desires which he honors, and 
 is honored in gratifying. "If ye, being evil, 
 know how^ to give good gifts to your children, 
 how much more shall your Father which is in 
 heaven give his Holy Spirit to them that ask 
 him.'' 
 
 Men may prosper without other gifts, but they 
 cannot prosper without God's Holy Spirit. Other 
 gifts are for the body; this is for the soul. Other 
 gifts are for time ; this is for eternity. Earthly 
 parents can bestow other gifts ; this they cannot 
 bestow. This is a gift purchased at a dear rate ; 
 but our heavenly Parent gives it freely, and only 
 for the asking. Everything else may fail, but 
 prayer has irresistible power, and in the hour 
 of the direst extremity. Prayer pleads in his 
 name, and for his sake and kingdom who bowled 
 liis heavens to dwell with and suffer for men, 
 and whom eternally to honor is the peculiar 
 office of the Spirit of all grace. Jesus himself 
 dictated the request "Thy kingdom come!" 
 because that kingdom, under his own conde- 
 
148 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 scending and gracious arrangement, needs the 
 impulse of prayer. It solicits it now, from the 
 reader, from the writer, from '' men every- 
 where." It is now in the midst of its conflicts, 
 and in many portions of the earth under the 
 cloud. Its priests, its ministers are often clothed 
 in sackcloth ; its prophets prophesy in heaviness 
 upon valleys of the slain ; its subjects weep be- 
 cause the enemy hath spread out his hand over 
 her pleasant things. And not until more are 
 found who cease not day nor night to bow their 
 knees before the great Hearer of prayer, that 
 the " Holy Ghost may be sent down from 
 heaven," will this dejection pass away, Zion 
 become clothed with garments of beawty and 
 salvation, and her hopes and expectations be 
 measured no longer by her own resources, but 
 his who is " wonderful in working." The higher 
 we ascend the mount of prayer, the more ex- 
 tended and the brighter is the prospect. A bright 
 streak skirts the horizon, and after long nights 
 of ignorance and sin, the day dawns, not upon 
 a desert and barren world, but one already 
 watered with the dews of heaven, and to be 
 yet more refreshed with copious showers. The 
 view brightens as we still ascend. It is no 
 longer a little cloud that we see, betokening 
 an abundance of rain, but the descending show- 
 
THE MEANS OF EXTENDING GOD'S KINGDOM. 149 
 
 ers, the vales beneath green as the garden of 
 the Lord. 
 
 ** Rivers of gladness water all the earth. 
 And clothe all climes with beauty." 
 
 " Thy kingdom come !" This is a great re- 
 quest, not merely on account of the objects it 
 has in view, but the practical duties it involves. 
 The spirit of prayer is the spirit of correspond- 
 ing exertion ; the noblest, most self-denying, 
 and successful efforts for the coming of God's 
 kingdom originate at the mercy seat, and find 
 their strongest and most unwearied impulse in 
 prayer. The suppliant who goes to the throne 
 with this request on his lips, if he is true- 
 hearted, possesses a strong attachment to the 
 kingdom which the God of heaven has set up in 
 our world, and a willingness on his part to do 
 all in his power to promote it both in his own 
 heart and in the hearts of his fellow-men. 
 There is nothing for which such a man feels so 
 much concern as for the honor of his redeeming 
 God and king ; nothing he so fervently desires 
 as that his character should be loved and vene- 
 rated, his laws obeyed, and his claims enthroned 
 in the hearts of those who know not God. "If 
 I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand 
 forget her cunning; if I do not remember thee, 
 let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; 
 
150 THE MERCV SEAT. 
 
 if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy!" 
 He who possesses this spirit, complains not if 
 God makes demands upon his thoughts, his time, 
 efforts, and property, to extend this kingdom in 
 the world ; it is his privilege and honor to conse- 
 crate them. He will not offer to God that which 
 costs him nothing. He is habitually jealous of 
 himself and watchful of his own heart and life, 
 lest he should be betrayed into the inconsistency 
 of praying for the advancement of that kingdom, 
 for the prosperity of which he does nothing, and 
 in which he himself has no part. 
 
 If the reader sympathizes with the writer of 
 these pages, he has often felt rebuked and con- 
 demned by his of/n prayers. The achievements 
 of prayer ought to be more in keeping with its 
 subject and its matter. They will be so, when 
 we possess its true spirit. Would that this en- 
 couraging fact were set in its true light, and 
 were more deeply felt by the Christian world ! 
 As certainly as effects follow their causes, in 
 any of the visible operations of nature, " the ef- 
 fectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avail- 
 eth much." It is but for the spirit of the closet 
 and the sanctuary to be more deeply felt, and 
 uniformly acted out in the life, and the kingdom 
 of God will come with power. 
 
 Far too weak and limited are our conceptions 
 of the work to be done, and the agencies to be 
 
THE MEANS OF EXTENDING GOD'S KINGDOM. 151 
 
 employed, in extending the kingdom of God 
 over this lost world. Yet is there one thought 
 I desire to impress on the mind of the reader, 
 before I close the present chapter. It is the re- 
 lation which those who alreadij belong to this king- 
 dom hear to those who are out of it. The wicked 
 are to be converted to God through the instru- 
 mentality of the righteous. Salvation was 
 originally "of the Jews," because they were the 
 only visible people of God. The rod of God's 
 strength goes '* forth out of Zion." So far as 
 human instrumentality is concerned, the re- 
 sources of the w^orld are found in the church of 
 God. Her Scriptures and her ministry, her Sab- 
 baths and her ordinances, her religious training 
 of the young, and her prayers, her bounty, her 
 example, and her self-denying efforts and cour- 
 age,' are the hope of benighted and lost men. 
 The church of God constitutes a great *' Chris- 
 tian corp jration," for extending the boundaries, 
 and beautifying the character of God's kingdom 
 among men. It is not for her own sake alone, 
 that she was thus incorporated, but for the snke 
 of others, and that this divinely incorporated 
 body of the professed children of the kingdom 
 might take a deep and effective interest in the 
 conversion of the world. She holds her high 
 imrr unities and hopes in trust for a world that 
 lieth in wickedness. The conscience of the 
 
162 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 church has been slow in feeling this obligation ; 
 where it is felt and acknowledged, it has not al- 
 ways been responded to by a willing heart and 
 consecrated effort. Did the church of God now 
 on the earth possess the self-sacriticing spirit of 
 the churches established in the Apostolic age, 
 we might say with Apostles, " Now thanks be 
 to God, which always causeth us to triumph in 
 Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his 
 knowledge by us, in every place." There has 
 been a declension in the missionary spirit, ever 
 since the memorable age of which we are speak- 
 ing. Persecution checked it, and then contro- 
 versy, and then the corruption of prosperity and 
 power, and then a chivalrous enthusiasa, and 
 then severer persecutions, and th^n again the 
 spirit of controversy; till the world extended 
 its ascendency, and the church sf nk in a most 
 universal apathy and indifference. The lighting 
 up of the past fifty years has been a delightful, 
 yet a faint reflection of that Apostolic spirit 
 which poured its light on Jewish and Gent 'e 
 lands. It is a narrow sphere which the church 
 occupies, compared with that which she was or- 
 ganized to occupy, and for the occupation ot 
 which she possesses such augmented means, in- 
 fluence, and facilities. We want an exercised 
 conscience, in this matter ; we want the love of 
 Christ \ we want the strong and healthy pulsa- 
 
THE MEANS OF EXTENDING GOD'S KINGDOM. 15S 
 
 tions of glowing piety. The stream has set in; 
 it is flowing on silently; but it must have a 
 wider and deeper channel. Much do we need 
 to prove the preciousness and power of the 
 heart-searching, wrestling, effectual prayer, "thy 
 kingdom come." 
 
 Where there are professions of piety, but no 
 genuine piety at heart, there is no interest ex- 
 cited for the coming of God's kingdom. The 
 spiritual welfare of men, the honor and glory of 
 tlie King of Zion, have no place in the bosom of 
 the man who '' liveth to himself" The phi- 
 lanthropy that terminates in the temporal w^ell- 
 being of men, is not the noble and disinterested 
 charity of the Bible. The charity of the Bible 
 is stronger than the ties of humanity; it draws 
 closer than all other ties. It attracts soul to 
 soul. It forms a bond of attachment to those 
 who are far off, as well as those who are near. 
 It is a sympathy which includes men of every 
 class and clime, and will never be fully gratified, 
 until that bright day when the Son of David 
 shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from 
 the river to the ends of the earth. 
 
CHAPTER VIL 
 
 THE WILL OF GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH. 
 
 ^ill k hm m (Bnrtjr us it is iu fmmn.'^ 
 
 There is no higher or more absolute author- 
 ity, than that one being should claim the right 
 of governing another by his oivn will. Yet such 
 is the government of God. It is monarchy ; ab- 
 solute monarchy. He is the sole governor, and 
 makes his loill the rule of action to all creatures. 
 His views of right and wrong, his thoughts of 
 propriety and impropriety, are the rule. In a 
 universe like ours, there must be a monarchy 
 as absolute as this, or there is no government 
 at all. 
 
 God's right thus to give law, is founded on his 
 original and underived supremacy. The eter- 
 nity of his existence, the supremacy of his wis- 
 dom, powder and goodness, so infinitely above 
 those of all creatures, give him the throne, and 
 make him the monarch. It is a monarchy which, 
 however unsafe in other hands, is safe in his. It 
 
THE ^VILL OF GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH. 155 
 
 is a moiiaichy hi which all holy beings delight, 
 and would not exchange for any other form of 
 government. Hence Ave are taught to pray, 
 " Thy ivill be done on earth as it is in heaven !" 
 There can be but one opinion as to the import 
 of the phrase, the will of God, as it is here used. 
 The phrase itself is taken in the Scriptures in a 
 double sense; sometimes denoting that which 
 shall be, and sometimes that which ought to be. 
 The former is the will of God in his providence, 
 or that which he has purposed; the latter is the 
 will of God in his law, or that which he requires. 
 This distinction should be clearly stated and 
 understood, ¥/hen tlie Saviour says, "For 
 whosoever shall do fJt^^ ivill of God, the same is 
 my brother, -uid my sister, and mother;" the 
 meaning oi* the phrase is the laws and command- 
 ments of God. So wlicn we read of those who 
 •' do the ivill of God from the heart;" of standing 
 perfect and com pinto in all the will of God; of 
 '' living not in tlic? lusts of men, but to the will of 
 God; in these ai:d similar passages the import 
 of the phiasc is the same with that just men- 
 tioned. But, v> e find the same phrase frequently 
 u^ed in a diirereni sense. Paul says, " For who 
 hath resisted his will;'' '' Who w^orketh all things 
 after tlie counsel of his own loilir The Saviour 
 says, in view of the cross, "• Not my will, but 
 thine be done V And John says, "If we ask 
 
156 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 anything according to his will, he heareth us/^ 
 In these last mentioned passages, the phrase 
 signifies not the iaws and commands of God, but 
 the divine purpose or decree. 
 
 These two are very different things. The di- 
 vine purpose extends to the irrational and ma- 
 terial, as well as to the rational and spiritual 
 creation ; the divine law extends only to that 
 which is spiritual and rational. The divine pur- 
 pose includes all that God means should take 
 place ; the divine law^ only that which he re- 
 quires and forbids. The divine purpose ex- 
 presses no authority, and no moral obligation, 
 and is, therefore, never a rule of action ; the 
 divine law expresses both, and is a rule cf ac- 
 tion to all to whom it is revealed. The divine 
 purpose has respect to events, and is concerned 
 with the consequences of human conduct, while 
 the divine law respects the conduct of intelli- 
 gent agents as such, and has nothing to do with 
 its events and consequences. 
 
 That it is the perceptive will of God to which 
 this prayer refers, cannot admit of a question. 
 An object obtained, cannot be the object of pe- 
 tition. This request cannot relate to God's pur- 
 pose, because his purpose is accomplished as well 
 on the earth as it is in heaven. " His counsel 
 shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure." But 
 it is not so with his law. His perceptive will is 
 
THE WILL OF GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH. 157 
 
 accounted as a strange thing; it is transgressed, 
 abused, and vilified ; and however venerated in 
 higher and purer worlds, is despised and tram- 
 pled on, on earth. It is this great moral code, 
 therefore, to which this prayer refers, and the 
 precepts and prohibitions of which w^e are taught 
 to pray, may be as sacredly regarded on earth, 
 as they are in heaven. 
 
 How then is the ivill of God done in heaven 1 
 The answer to this inquiry is the key to this re- 
 quest. Heaven is a section of the divine em- 
 pire, and as really under the binding force of the 
 moral law, as any other part of God's dominions. 
 The same God exists and governs there, that 
 exists and governs here. Essentially the same 
 moral relations, and the same laws founded on 
 those relations, exist there, which exist in this 
 lower world. And these obligations are not 
 only acknowledged and felt, but obeyed there, 
 as in no other world. 
 
 The will of God is there done in all its parts. 
 All the obligations of the law are there fulfilled; 
 every precept and every prohibition is regarded 
 with reverence and love. Where God's com- 
 mand is known, the thing commanded, what- 
 ever it be, is done. There is no government 
 there but the government of the divine will. 
 All those affections of mind which are due from 
 creatures to their Creator, from subjects to their 
 
158 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 supreme Lord, from pensioners upon the divine 
 bounty to the first and the greatest of all givers, 
 and from redeemed sinners to their all-sufficient 
 and gracious Redeemer, are there enkindled 
 and sustained. All that is elevating in compla- 
 cency and confidence in the divine character ; 
 all that is amiable and lovely in that lowliness 
 and sweetness of mind, that are the fruits of the 
 divine Spirit ; all that is peaceful in resignation, 
 joyous in gratitude, and adoring in praise, is 
 there mingled and blended in the beauties of 
 holiness. 
 
 There are no rival deities there, and no idol* 
 atry to subvert the throne of the Most High. 
 There is no profanity or irreverence ; but every 
 expression of filial fear. There is no violation 
 of the Sabbath ; that glorious world is one vast 
 temple, and its revolving ages one everlasting 
 day of holy rest. There is no form, or modifica- 
 tion of holy affection toward God, w^hich does 
 not there exist, and is not acted out. 
 
 Nor are there any violations there of the 
 great law of love to fellow intelligences. There 
 are no infringements upon the claims of social 
 piety ; no mutual relations inverted ; no ties 
 torn asunder ; no principles of subordination 
 destroyed; no envious, or cold, unfeeling heart. 
 There is no murderous hand, or malignant in- 
 tention; no furious and revengeful passion ; no 
 
THE WILL OP GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH. 159 
 
 harshness or cruelty; no unkindness, or even 
 inattention and negligence. There are no re- 
 volting scenes of impurity, no liaunts of licen- 
 tiousness, and no lascivious eye. There are no 
 locks, nor bars, nor prisons, nor courts of justice, 
 nor pilfering, nor plunder, nor any species, or 
 suspicion of fraud. There is no lying tongue, 
 or covetous desire. Truth, that strong bond of 
 society, that firm foundation of confidence and 
 intercourse, remains inviolate ; while all those 
 inordinate desires after earthly objects and en- 
 joyments, which so disturb the tranquillity and 
 repose of earth, are subdued and extinguished 
 by the charity that seeketh not her own. 
 Heaven presents the purest, noblest, loveliest 
 character, because it is implicitly subject to the 
 will of God. It asks for no reason of its con- 
 duct but God's will. And therefore its obedi- 
 ence is perfect in all its departments. It has 
 no blemishes ; no cloud in its hemisphere ; no 
 shadow in its horizon ; no spot on its disk ; no 
 waxing and waning light ; but a steady, pure, 
 and full-orbed splendor. 
 
 The will of God is there obeyed also by all 
 its inhabitants. In that immense family, there 
 are diversities of rank, different orders of intel- 
 ligence, and various measures of moral rectitude, 
 as " one star differeth from another star in glory." 
 There are the angels who never fell, with all 
 
160 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 their different degrees of excellence. There 
 are the unnumbered millions redeemed from 
 among men, from all the climes and languages 
 of earth, from the little infant to the tried piety 
 of hoary years, and from the thief on the cross 
 to the aged and martyred Paul. But with all 
 this varied extent and degree of excellence, 
 and all this differing splendor, the same spirit 
 pervades the whole ; all possess the same ele- 
 ments of excellence. There is no jar in their 
 society, and no discord in their song. Within 
 the vast compass of this immense population, 
 throughout all these unexplored regions, amid 
 the whole of this vast assemblage of existen- 
 ces, from the highest to the lowest, there is not 
 a bosom that does not glow with holy ardor to 
 do the will of God, One sinning mind would 
 poison these sources of joy. There is no law- 
 less planet there ; no unsubjugated province ; 
 no land of darkness ; no pagan island ; no hab- 
 itation of cruelty — not a dwelling of wicked- 
 ness, nor even a revolting heart. 
 
 In heaven the will of God is also done with 
 sincerity and cheerfulness. There is no hypocrisy 
 there ; no formal sacrifice is offered on that al- 
 tar. The outward conduct is there governed 
 by first governing the willing and warm affec- 
 tions. Obedience is not a yoke at which pure 
 and sinless spirits reluctate, but in every view 
 
THE WILL OF GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH. 1^1 
 
 a pleasant, agreeable, delightful service. Th :;re 
 is no pensiveness, no depression, no gloom, in that 
 blessed society, but all that is buoyant and cheer- 
 ful. It is not the abstract sense of duty, the 
 heavy bond of obligation, the solemn and fearful 
 sanction of law, and the cold and cheerless im- 
 pression of necessity merely, that constrains tlieir 
 acquiescence. It is the sweeter, stronger c<^rd 
 of love, irresistibly fascinating them with its 
 charms, and drawing their willing, gratified minds 
 as " with the bands of a man." In this low world, 
 true religion is an exotic ; an unnatural and un- 
 indigenous plant, confined and stinted in its 
 growth, and sometimes a meagre, dwarfish, and 
 ungainly thing. It partakes of the cold soil and 
 cheerlessness of this low earth; never arrives at 
 maturity, and sometimes blooms to fade. But 
 what pencil can paint, or what poetry describe 
 its beauty and fragrance, when transplanted to 
 the skies ? No longer some depressed and 
 drooping floweret, it is like Sharon's rose, unfold- 
 ing its leaves on its native bed. No longer weak 
 and sickly, it is like a vigorous, heatthy scion from 
 the Tree of Life, fair and luxuriant, fragrant witli 
 blossoms, and yielding its fruit every month. 
 It is the joy, I had almost said it is the 7nirth of 
 heaven to obey the statutes of its King. Obe- 
 dience is an employment which nourishes, and 
 draws toward it all their ardor and sensibility. 
 
t62 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 The perception, the reason, the judgment, the 
 memory, are all joyfully employed in such a 
 service. Even the imagination, that ungoverned 
 and wandering faculty, which here on the earth 
 is so often the sport of temptation, and the play- 
 thing of the arch Deceiver, there exerts its 
 magic and hallowed influence, ever supplying 
 the materials of some ne-w^ service, some new 
 purpose of devotement, some new scene of still 
 more gratified holiness and exquisite joy. 
 Their obedience is indeed the obedience of 
 thought, and deliberate purpose ; but it is also 
 the obedience of love. It has the wdngs of 
 emotion and desire. Love is the element in 
 which pure spirits breathe. Love is the soul of 
 heaven — strong and urgent, " swift to do his 
 will, barkening to the voice of his w^ord." 
 
 In heaven, the will of God is likewise done 'per- 
 fectly, and forever . Its holy inhabitants are like 
 Him, because they see him as he is. Everything 
 there is so full of God ; creation, providence, and 
 redemption, are there displaying forth such per- 
 petual exhibitions of the divine nature, that 
 they cannot but be discerned and enjoyed; and 
 because discerned and enjoyed, transform the 
 soul into their own likeness. The flow of holy 
 affections is there constant and resistless, and 
 " clear as crystal ;" and their strength and vigor 
 remain forever unabated. There are no seasons 
 
THE WILL OF GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH. 163 
 
 of languor and declension, and no apostasy and 
 backsliding. No wandering thought, no Aain 
 desire, no unperfected emotion, there creeps into 
 the soul. There is no backwardness, no unfruit- 
 fulness, but all the activity and fervor which the 
 soul is capable ot exercising. There is no wea- 
 riness, nor satiety. Ten thousand times ten 
 thousand, and thousands of thousands, cease not, 
 day nor night, from their active service, or their 
 anthems of praise. There, the soul eagerly 
 cleaves to, affectionately admires, and constantly 
 rests on God. Its thoughts and desires are con- 
 centrated ill this single object; pleased and 
 satisfied with God as its portion, " acting from 
 him as its Author, for him as its Master, and to 
 him as its End." Eternity rolls on ; and he that 
 is holy, is holy still. 
 
 Thus is the will of God done in heaven, in 
 all its parts, by every individual, sincerely and 
 cheerfully, perfectly and forever. And is there 
 not a reason for the prayer that it should be thus 
 done on earth ? For this Christ has taught his 
 disciples, in every age of the world, to pray, 
 *' thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven,^'' 
 Why ought we to pray thus ? Let us give an 
 answer to this inquiry. 
 
 It is not out of place to submit the remark, that 
 the law of God is no less binding on the earth than it 
 is in heaven. Its obligations are real, throughout 
 
164 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 the whole rans^e of God's dominions. Wherever 
 intelligent beiflgs exist, they are bound by it. If 
 angels are bound by it, so are men; and if one 
 world of intelligent agents is bound by it, so are 
 all worlds. There is no more excuse for violat- 
 ing it on earth, than for violating it in heaven. 
 Nothing can dissolve, suspend, or at all impair the 
 obligations of men to do the will of God, as uni- 
 versally, sincerely, fully, and perfectly, as it is 
 done in heaven. As it alters not the nature of 
 transgression, that it is commitied in secret, or 
 in the light of day, at home or abroad, in the 
 eastern or western hemisphere of this terra- 
 queous globe; so it alters not its nature, that it 
 were committed in the terrestrial, rather than 
 the celestial sphere. The binding force of thv. 
 divine law depends on the nature of the Law- 
 giver, and on the relations which exist between 
 Him and his subjects ; and not until these are 
 destroyed, or altered, can there be any change 
 in the law. This is the only true doctrine of 
 moral obligation. The will of the superior binds 
 the inferior everywhere. And much reason 
 have we to pray that this rebellious world may 
 recognize, both in theory and in practice, the 
 principle that there is no virtue, but in obedi- 
 ence to the will of God. 
 
 But this is not all. While every man should 
 obey the law of God, merely because it is law^ 
 
THE WILL OF GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH. 165 
 
 and an expression of his will, it is a right rule to 
 which he is subject. It is as reasonable that the 
 will of God be done on earth, as that it should be 
 done in heaven. Though its reasonableness does 
 not augment his obligations to obedience, yet is 
 it one of the motives for it. All the considera- 
 tions which show the reasonableness of doing 
 God's will in heaven, also show that it is reason- 
 able it should be done on earth. Wickedness is 
 unreasonable, always and everywhere ; nor is 
 there anything so reasonable, so beautiful, so 
 lovely, in the universe, as obedience to God. 
 Whatever is right, the will of God requires ; it 
 forbids nothing but wickedness. It is impossi- 
 ble that too much rectitude be required of any 
 order of intelligences, nor can they be governed 
 by a law that is too holy. The inhabitants of 
 earth are no more dependent for holiness, than 
 are the inhabitants of heaven ; and if they vx^re, 
 we have not now to learn, that the dependence 
 of men does not render it less reasonable that 
 they should do what is right. Why is it \\A 
 reasonable that the will of God should be done 
 on earth, as it is in heaven ? Is it reasonable 
 for those immortal princes to obey their sove- 
 reign, and is it unreasonable for man ? Shall 
 those bright partakers of the divine glory, thjse 
 favored attendants at the heavenly court, con- 
 sent to the law that is good ; and shall men, ab- 
 
166 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 ject and fallen, contend with their Maker, and 
 complain that his ways are not equal ? 
 
 Obedience to God's will vjoiild produce a high 
 degree of happiness in the earth, as well as in heaven. 
 The foundation on which the happiness of think- 
 ing beings rests, is their obedience to the divine 
 will. Individually and relatively, as parts and 
 as a w hole, this earth would be supremely happy, 
 did it possess the character of heaven. We 
 know^ the happy effects even of the very imper- 
 fect holiness which good men possess in the 
 present life. Where that moral transformation 
 which results in the sinless purity of the heav- 
 enly world is but begun, what new affections 
 and hopes, what divine peace and joy are im- 
 jMirted to the soul ! When first the heart is dis- 
 solved with the mild influences of the Spirit of 
 grace, and imbued with the love of God and 
 man, what sweet repose possesses it ! Its strug- 
 gles for a while seem to be over ; the alarms of 
 conscience are still. And not until the w^ork- 
 J! gs of iniquity revive, are this tranquillity and 
 joy disturbed. And when in his progressive 
 tivreer of sanctification the regenerated man be- 
 comes more holy, and the power of indwelling 
 corruption is broken and prostrate, how does his 
 lij^ht break forth as the morning, and his joys 
 become like the spring-tide, when it overflows 
 its banks! Witness the blessedness of David 
 
THE WILL OF GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH. If/ 
 
 and Paul, and others in later days, when their 
 transported spirits could not utter their ecstacy, 
 because clogged and fettered in this prison- 
 house of clay. Even this were a prelibation of 
 heaven. Extended over all the habitations of 
 men, it would nnake this earth an exquisitely 
 happy world. How^ pure and transporting the 
 joy, if, instead of this, the will of God w^ere 
 obeyed on earth as it is in heaven ! Over all 
 the regions of the globe would every pulse beat, 
 every heart throb, and every tongue respond to 
 the claims of holy love. Disorder and tumult 
 would be unknown, the oppressor's rod would 
 be broken, and injustice and war would no 
 more ravage the habitations of men. Individual 
 quietude and social joy Avould change the face 
 of every land ; and nothing would be seen but 
 spectacles of loveliness and beauty, while every- 
 Avhere would be heard the voice of thanksgiving 
 and praise. How serene and clear the light 
 that w^ould then be diffused over the creation ! 
 How rapturous the glow of every heart ! llovv 
 thrilling every song ! What a picture of the 
 bosom of angels! Like what a " sea of glass" 
 would the minds of men become, everywhere 
 placid and unruffled, and without a ripple o its 
 surface ! What a world were this, when God 
 shall thus create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her 
 people a joy ! and when, compared with this 
 
168 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 new, spiritual creation, the first heavens and 
 earth shall not be remembered, nor come into 
 mind! 
 
 Still further: God would he as truly honored 
 and glorified by the obedience of earth, as he isby 
 the obedience of heaven. He is eminently exalted 
 by the sinless perfe-ction of the heavenly world. 
 Every tongue there speaks well of God; every 
 mind sees him as he is ; every object reflects 
 bis glory; every heart loves and exalts him; 
 and the only emulation is to ascribe the high- 
 est honors to his name. There is no other way 
 of honoring and ex?? king God, but by doing his 
 Tvill. When the s.* me spirit glows in the bosom 
 of men, as in the Losom of angels, the same hon- 
 ors will be paid him from the altars of this world 
 that now ascend from the heavenly sanctuary. 
 Anticipate this delightful spectacle. Behold 
 the«c creatures of God, in all their varieties of 
 habitation and name, and in all the gradations 
 of their intellectual endowment, never varying 
 from tJie standard of rectitude ; failing in no 
 prbcept ; unceasingly devoted to their duty, and 
 from the best spirit ; chargeable with notliing 
 that C4\n be condemned or reproached ; all 
 doi.ig the will of God as it is done in heaven ; 
 and what a field of light, what a sea of glory 
 were presented by such a renovated creation ! 
 No longer would his name be dishonored, who 
 
THE WILL OF GOD PKRPORMED ON EARTH. IfiO 
 
 calls himself our " Father that is in heaven ;" no 
 longer would his government be defamed, his 
 designs impeached and opposed, and his honors 
 taken from him; but everywhere w^ould he ]*e 
 acknowledged as God over all, blessed forever. 
 Princes and subjects, young men and maidens, 
 old men and children, would give him the 
 honor which is his due. His name would be 
 great among the heathen, and in every place, 
 incense and a pure offering* would be offered on 
 his altar. 
 
 Nor is this all. In some respects, God is 
 even more honored by the obedience of earth, than 
 by the obedience of heaven. The planet on which 
 we (iwcJl is a peculiar world. It has proper- 
 ties and relations altogether peculiar to itself. 
 There are no such expressions of the divine 
 goodness made to any other world, as are made 
 to this. Nowhere does it assume the form of 
 favor to the guilty^ except to men. No\diere 
 else does it flow through the channel of a Sav- 
 iour's blood ; and nowhere else does it cost '-o 
 many efforts of wisdom and power, throughout 
 all the dispensations of a widely extended prov- 
 idence. When men on the earth become holy, 
 they are a peculiar people, and "show forth the 
 praises of him who hath brought them out of 
 darkness into his marvelous light." They differ 
 from all other beings in the universe. They 
 
170 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 sustain a relation to the once atoning and now 
 reigning Saviour, which otlier beings and other 
 worlds do not sustain. Others have gained the 
 heavenly inheritance by their own righteousness; 
 inhabitants of earth are the purchase of the 
 Saviour's blood, and the reward of his obedience 
 unto death. Others have been created and pre- 
 served ; these have been redeemed and sancti- 
 fied. Others are beautiful in themselves ; these 
 are beautiful through the comeliness which he 
 puts upon them, and on that account, have 
 moral perceptions, and emotions, and joys to 
 which others are strangers, and a song in which 
 others can never unite. God is glorified by the 
 obedience of the unfallen ; but their love"* and 
 admiration flow forth in none of the forms pecu- 
 liar to redeemed sinners. We are told, " there is 
 joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, 
 more than over ninety and nine just persons 
 Vvho need no repentance." And who does not 
 see, that when such a population becomes holy; 
 such rebels become children; such outcasts 
 heirs of God ; there is glory to God in the high- 
 est decree ? When it is seen and known to 
 " principalities and powers in heavenly places," 
 that in defiance of the machinations of the 
 Prince of darkness, and the invincible deprav- 
 ity of man, the kingdom of Chiist and the em- 
 pire of mercy are triumphant ; what honors will 
 
THE WILL OF GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH. 171 
 
 be recovered to the Great Supreme — in what 
 unequalled beauty will the reflected excellence 
 of his nature cover the earth, as the waters 
 cover the sea — and how will holy ones look 
 down from heaven to say, " The whole earth is 
 full of his glory !" How will the mountains 
 echo it to the valleys, and the valleys roll it b/ick 
 again to the mountains, that " the Lord God 
 omnipotent reigneth !" How will continent 
 proclaim it to continent, and ocean waft it to 
 the main, that " the kingdoms of this worhl are 
 become the kingdoms of our Lord and his 
 Christ !" And what ascriptions of honor. That 
 thunderings of praise, in one mighty concert of 
 the fallen with the unfallen, like the sound of 
 many waters, w^ill pour forth their sublime and 
 unceasing Allelujahs to God and the Lamb ! 
 
 Such is the import, and such some of the rea- 
 sons for the petition urged in the text. In view 
 of the preceding thoughts, who may not with 
 strong propriety lay his hand upon his mouth ? 
 Mou7'7ifuIhj affecting to every Christian mind, is 
 the present condition of the church and the world, 
 I say of the church, as well as the world ; be- 
 cause even in her fairest and holiest portions, 
 the will of God is so imperfectly done. When 
 we consider how much more holy the people 
 of God might become; how much more happy 
 and exalted ; how much more conspicuous the 
 
172 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 spiritual kingdom of God might be among the 
 r.utions, and how much more subserv^ient to the 
 glory of its great Prince and Saviour; we feel 
 condemned before God and man. 
 
 If from the church, we look at the world, our 
 '* eye ailecteth our heart." It is a world fallen 
 by Its iniquity, and under the wrath and curse 
 cf God. O how vile, how abject it is! — how 
 dish >nored ! What indifference to God, what 
 practical atheism, what subversion of religion 
 and moral order, what sottish ignorance, what 
 depraved passions and shocking immoralities 
 disGgure the aspect, and mar the form of human 
 society. 
 
 And when we look beyond the pale of Chris- 
 tian lands, wiiat do we see, but men sunk still 
 deeper in pollution and sin, prostrated in wretch- 
 edness, corrupted and loathsome, and covered 
 with the pall of sin and death. 
 
 Can this be the world where men have been 
 taught to pray, " Thy will be done on earth, as 
 it is done in heaven ?" How desolate ! How 
 bewildered ! What gloom and terror ! " Dark- 
 ness covers the earth, and gross darkness the 
 people." Three-fourths of the world in which 
 we dwell do not as yet know that they may call 
 God their Father, and approach his throne in the 
 new and living way. Not a ray of light from 
 the cross has ever descended on their path. 
 
THE WILL OF GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH. > 173 
 
 Over what vast regions does the Prince of dark- 
 ness extend his dominion ! With the exception 
 of a few bright spots, or at best, a few narrow 
 zones, this dark and iron-hearted empire en- 
 wraps the globe. Alas, that such a picture should 
 ever be realized in the world where the Savioui^ 
 died, and where he has left on record such a 
 prayer ! 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding this, does this very 
 prayer suggest a ground of hope. The Saviour 
 would not have instructed his disciples to pray, 
 as he has here instructed them, had he not de- 
 signed to bring men extensively to the know- 
 ledge and obedience of his truth. He has pre- 
 dicted that '' all the ends of the earth shall 
 remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all the 
 kindreds of the nations shall worship before 
 him." Dark as is the prospect, therefore, the 
 rays which already, like the pale twilight of the 
 morning, pierce the gloom, are destined to shine 
 more and more unto the perfect day. He who Ims 
 taughtus this prayer is "God manifest in the flesh." 
 He is the author of that Gospel which is the 
 wisdom of God, and the power of God to salva- 
 tion, and whose mighty agency, like the Spirit 
 of God moving upon the face of the waters, is 
 destined to give form, order, and beauty to 
 this moral chaos, and create all things anew. 
 
 Yes, there is hope for the recovery of this apos- 
 
174 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 tate world. Our Emanuel is on the throne ; and 
 his hc'm't of love is bound up in this glorious 
 coni5unimation. From the top of Calvary, these 
 clouds that settle upon the earth are seen pass- 
 ing away. Just as certainly as Jesus died and 
 rose again, " the glory of the Lord shall be re- 
 vealed, and all flesh shall see it together." 
 Whose heart shall not be inspirited with this 
 confidence ? To secure this predicted end, 
 Qod gave his Son to die ; sends his Spirit to 
 dwell with men ; reveals his word ; and lays on 
 his church the responsibility of sending his 
 Gospel to every creature. I blush to ask, how 
 little have we done that the will of God might 
 be performed on earth, as it is in heaven ? How 
 little have we suffered ! and in how few respects 
 have we denied ourselves, that these designs of 
 Heaven's mercy may be accomplished ! 
 
 Who, then, will not make frequent use oi^ this 
 great petition ? Whether we look to Pagan or to 
 Christian lands, in what tones of solicitude may 
 these blood-bought churches hear the cry. Pray 
 fw us, pray ybr us ! and who will not respond, ''thy 
 kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is 
 in heaven ? There wanders some poor Pagan, 
 who never heard a sermon, nor vSaw a Bible, 
 and knows not that the blood of Jesus Christ 
 cleanseth from all sin. He is intelligent and 
 thoughtful, but he is the victim of a dark 
 
THE WILL OF GOD PERFORMED ON EARTH. i<5 
 
 and dreadful idolatry. His mind is merged 
 in the shades of impenetrable night. Over his 
 prospects for eternity, are collected heavy and 
 dense clouds of unappeased indignation. And 
 even here, where we ourselves dwell, whit 
 darkness covers large portions of the land. 
 Cities, villages, colleges, schools, families, the 
 rich and the poor, old and young, in almost un- 
 told numbers, are strangers to the hopes of the 
 Gospel. Some of them are thoughtless, and 
 some of them are anxious, and struggling for the 
 assurance of a happy immortality. We do not 
 count them, either in Pagan or Christian lands, 
 by hundreds or by thousands, but by millions — 
 millions living without God, and soon to dir 
 without hope! 
 
 Approach and see them one by one, as ihey 
 drop into eternity. It is a melancholy chamber, 
 and a dark hour. That face is pale. That eye is 
 dim with tears. That bosom is torn with anguisli. 
 Those lips quiver with agony, and the despond- 
 ent sufferer draws his last breath in despair! 
 One by one, these millions are sinking into such 
 a death. Yet, through our mercy, they might 
 obtain mercy ; immortal as they are, they may 
 gain a happy immortality. 
 
 O for more of the spirit of this precious 
 prayer ! The Saviour would have his people 
 utter it, every day they live. His word gees 
 
176 THE MERCV SEAT. 
 
 forth in vain, without the prayer for his 
 accompanying grace. The most dishearten- 
 ing, the most overwhehning obstacles oppose 
 it at every step. It is not in Paul, nor 
 Apollos ; it is not in ministers, nor means to 
 arouse the lethargy, or disturb the deeply- 
 embedded depravity of the human heart. If 
 men are ever led to do God's will, those who 
 Live an interest at the throne of grace must be 
 often on their knees. They must stretch out 
 their hands unto God. They must lie on their 
 faces at his feet. With hope and confidence, 
 and not unfrequently with strong crying, and 
 many tears, they must carry the souls of men to 
 his throne. We cannot hope too much from 
 him. We shall enjoy for ourselves copious 
 showers of divine grace, as soon as the spirit of 
 supplication is copiously poured upon us from on 
 high. The world will enjoy them, as soon as 
 the churches have more of the spirit of prayer. 
 When we come nearest the throne, then let us 
 remember this precious request. If ever we 
 lean on Jesus' bosom, and feel that we have in- 
 tercourse with him ; if ever we enjoy seasons of 
 enlaigement in prayer, and have the sweet con- 
 sciousness that we are allowed to have power 
 with God, let us fill our mouth with arguments, 
 and plead fervently and importunately, that his 
 will may be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 
 
CHAPTER VII r 
 
 DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 
 
 When the Great Teacher undertakes to sum 
 up, in seven short sentences, the whole matter 
 of the sinner's prayer, we are to expect that 
 every one of them is of great importance. If 
 wise and good men, or even holy angels, had 
 had the forming of this prayer, while they would 
 not have overlooked temporal blessings, it is not 
 probable they w^ould have given so prominent a 
 place to the request, " Give us this (hay our dailij 
 bread.'' We cannot too often call to mind that 
 all the dispensations of God are cor^astent with 
 one another. Although he has made man a 
 creature destined for immortality, he has made 
 him to partake of blessings that are mortal. He 
 must have food and raiment, with numberless 
 other attendant mercies, in order rightly to pur- 
 sue the great ends of his immortality. *^ Your 
 heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of 
 
 8* 
 
ITH THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 all these things." It is because he has con- 
 nected the highest principle of happiness with 
 the lowest gradation of that happiness, that in 
 this summary of petitions the Lord Jesus has 
 put so high an estimate on the good things of 
 the present world. True religion neither idol- 
 izes, nor overlooks these things. It gives them 
 their proper place ; and while it reproves and 
 condemn:s the avarice and sensuality of a world- 
 ly mind, it at the same time rebukes the stiff 
 severity, the studied abstemiousness, the pro- 
 fessed indifference to worldly good, which are 
 equiiily at war with the promptings of our na- 
 ture, and the claims of duty to God, to our- 
 selves, and to our fellow-men. Our object is 
 to present some expansion of this request, and 
 to select and enforce the great principles it 
 contains. 
 
 One of these is, that for the supply of 
 
 THK2R TEMPORAL WANTS, MEN ARE DEPENDENT 
 
 ON God. Prayer is a distinct recognition of de- 
 pendence. When the Saviour puts the petition 
 into our n-ouths, " Give us this day our daily 
 bread," he not only teaches the abstract doc- 
 trine of our dependence, but that we should be 
 in the habit of acknowledging it. Just in the 
 proportion in which men lose sight of this 
 thought, or live in the neglect of this duty, are 
 they sinking into blank atheism. Temporal en- 
 
DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 179 
 
 joymeiits are no more the result of chance and 
 contingency, than the beautiful and wondrous 
 world in which we dwell. Natural causes may 
 be the means and instruments of their produc- 
 tion, but they are not the authors of them. 
 They form no constituent part either of the fir- 
 mament above us, or of the earth beneath us ; 
 nor are any of the numerous physical combina- 
 tions which give form and substance to them 
 under the control either of angels or men. The 
 industry of man may be employed in procuring 
 them ; but his very toils furnish affecting admo- 
 nitioQS of his dependence. 
 
 We are prone to stop at second causes in our 
 survey of the entire range of temporal good; 
 but the spirit of genuine piety stops not short 
 of the great First Cause. Not all the second 
 causes in the universe ever gave fertility to the 
 haxvest field, or clothed the silk worm, or called 
 into being the humblest flower. " Beware," 
 said God to his ancient people, '* lest when thy 
 herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver 
 and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou 
 hast is multiplied; lest thy heart be lifted up, 
 and thou forget the Lord thy God, and thou 
 say in thine heart, My power, and the might of 
 my hand hath gotten me this vrealth." This 
 were neither sound philosophy, nor true reUgion. 
 ** The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest 
 
18U THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 them their meat in due season." The provi- 
 dence of God inweaves and immingles itself 
 with all the affairs and circumstances of men. 
 It extends itself alike to the drop of a bucket 
 and to the ocean, to the small dust of the bal- 
 ance and to the whole material universe, to 
 every individual of the human family and to 
 the entire race. The goodness that visits the 
 greater, also visits the less. If the meanest of 
 the human family were too insignificant to be 
 noticed, he would be too insignificant to be 
 heard, and would be alike absolved from the 
 duty and debarred the privilege of prayer. 
 The children of poverty and want may have 
 deeper impressions of their dependence than 
 the sons and daughters of opulence ; while in 
 sober verity, the imperial purple, the splendid 
 palace, and the sumptuous fare of princes, are 
 as truly from God, as the coarse garb, the shat- 
 tered tenement, and the scanty fare of the beg- 
 gar in his rags. The latter may be more ready 
 to disclaim all reliance on other sources; be- 
 cause their daily bread must be dealt out to 
 them, and they must beg it at God's hand. 
 But the rich are not less dependent on the same 
 Almighty Parent. Their abundant resources, 
 their uide domains, their splendid edifices, their 
 costly equipage, their gold and credit, are all in 
 his hands who gives, and takes away, wiien and 
 
DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 181 
 
 where he pleases. It is not necessary for him 
 to work a miracle, in order to disappoint the 
 expectations of the most confident; defeat their 
 proudest hopes ; and overturn the loftiest edi- 
 fice their pride has reared. 
 
 Nature herself teaches us that our insufficiency 
 is absolute, while God's sufficiency is houndiess. 
 How many secondary causes, not one of \vhich is 
 under any human control, must be preserved in 
 successful operation in order to secure his daily 
 subsistence to a single individual of the human 
 family ! What a delicate and nice adjustment 
 of all t^ie laws of nature, in order to furnish him 
 food to eat and raiment to put on ! What a 
 multitude of bodies in the planetary system 
 must be constantly and wisely directed, in order 
 to shelter him from the summer's heat and the 
 winter's cold ! What masses of matter must be 
 arranged and propelled ; what orbs must s^xiine, 
 and what clouds obscure ; what vapors must 
 be arrested in mid-air, or gently distil their 
 moisture ; what springs must be filled, and what 
 rivers must flow; what tempests mus;t agitate, 
 and what zephyrs must breathe ; what unnum- 
 bered processes in the vast laboratory of the uni- 
 verse must all be preserved in their due and 
 fitting action, and how many intelligent agents 
 sustained in their course of plodding industry, 
 in order to furnish those blessings which make 
 
\S2 THE MERCV SEAT. 
 
 human r^e cheerful and happy ! Nay, all this 
 is needful even to furnish the wardrobe of the 
 humblest cottager ; or to procure a cup of cold 
 water, or a loaf of bread, or one poor barley-corn. 
 Had we an angel's eye and wing, to follow 
 out and trace the ten thousand influences of that 
 great First Cause, and mark his unwearied care 
 and offices of love, how should we discern his 
 almighty and all-pervading providence, and how 
 deeply should we feel that " in his hand is the 
 soul of every living thing!" 
 
 To instructions like these, we may also add the 
 lessons of personal experience. You be^an the 
 world poor; and God has not only taken care of 
 you, but given you unexpected prosperity. Every 
 shower and every drought, every storm and every 
 calm, every revolution in human affairs at home 
 and abroad, every year, and it may be every day, 
 while frau;rht with calamity to others, has only 
 served to heap up riches to yourselves. Or it 
 may be that it has been your lot to experience 
 sad and melancholy reverses. Your resources 
 have failt d ; your riches have taken to them- 
 selves wings, and passed away ; your industry 
 and contrivance have all been in vain ; calamity 
 after calamity has invaded your comforts, iind 
 everything has seemed to be against you. And 
 is there no overruling Providence in these 
 things ? Is there no dependence of the creature 
 
DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 183 
 
 upon the Creator ? " Who knoweth not, in aU 
 these, that the hand of the Lord hath wrought 
 this ?" What we ourselves seem to procure, is 
 from Him ; what we receive from others, is from 
 Him ; what comes to us we know not whence, 
 we know not how, is from Him. What, in the 
 Adew of man, is most contingent, is designed by 
 Him. His providence is daily employed in this 
 wonderful provision. Our dependence is as 
 absolute and unceasing as His superintending 
 care and bounty. 
 
 Another principle contained in this request is, 
 
 that WHAT IS THUS SUPPLIED TO THE CHILDREN OF 
 MEN, IS TO THEM A MERE GRATUITY. From men 
 
 we can often claim temporal good; it is ours 
 by contract, and for services rendered ; we have 
 a right to it by the decision of law, and can en- 
 force that right by legal process. But we have 
 no such claim on God. He owes us nothing. 
 We may use the language of suppliants, '^ Give 
 us this day our daily bread ;" but we have no 
 claim of merit or of right. It is all of his mercy, 
 and not of our own deserving. Man's depend- 
 ence renders his daily bread God's gift'. It be- 
 longs to God; and our lives themselves are his. 
 Gabriel himself cannot say of the smallest and 
 obscurest gem that adorns his crown, that it is 
 of his own procuring. For who hath first *' given 
 to the Lord, and it shall be recompensed to him 
 
184 THE MERCV SEAT. 
 
 a^aiii; for of him, and to him, and through him, 
 are all things." He is not indebted to the 
 hoiicst of them; nor may one among them all, 
 either among the fallen or unfallen, take from a 
 thread to a shoe latchet, unless he first asks it of 
 God. Earthly good becomes ours only as we 
 ask, and God gives it. The most laborious may 
 not touch the fruits of the ground he has culti- 
 vated, and which he has gathered and garnered, 
 without first asking leave of his heavenly Father. 
 God requires us to ask; it is promised only to 
 those Vv'ho ask. We have the prospect of God's 
 blessing with our daily mercies, only as we ask 
 for them. They become a curse, rather than a 
 blessing, when we take them without asking. 
 To those who will not lay it to heart to give 
 glory unto his name, God says, " I will curse 
 your blessings ; yea, I have cursed them alrea- 
 dy; because ye do not lay it to heart." When 
 the haughty King of Babylon pillaged the ves- 
 sels of gold and silver from the Temple at Jeru- 
 salem, He who dwelleth not in temples made 
 with hands held him responsible for the sacri- 
 lege. And He would have men know, that this 
 ricli and beautiful earth is his temple; that these 
 nnfathoiiied stores of wealth gathered from its 
 recesses, or harvested from its surface, all belong 
 to him, and that when bestowed, they are a mere 
 gratuity, given freely, and without any remune- 
 
DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPO' L BLESSINGS. 185 
 
 ration to their Author. The rich and great have 
 as little to give for them as the humblest poor. 
 They themselves are nothing, they have nothing, 
 they can do nothing, and enjoy nothing, without 
 Him. 
 
 And if man's dependence renders his daily 
 bread God's gift, much more does his sinful- 
 ness render it so. As a sinner, he has no right 
 to divine blessings of any kind. As to the 
 creature's right to claim anything from the Cre- 
 ator, it is simply this : so long as he remains in- 
 nocent, he has a claim upon Him for protec'^k)]i. 
 It would be wrong not to exempt him from 
 punishment, because he does not deserve pun- 
 ishment. But when man, by sin, forfeited 
 his life — the greater blessing — his claim to every 
 smaller blessing was forfeited also. Had tl>ere 
 been no forfeiture, there had been no such thhig 
 as suffering for want of the necessaries of life ; 
 and this is one form in which God has written 
 this forfeiture, on man's actual condition. 
 
 Fallen, sinful, and sinning man ; man \vho not 
 only owes God all that he is and has, but v/ho 
 has forfeited all by his transgressions ; man who 
 has become so deeply indebted to the divine 
 justice, that but for the timely interposition of 
 sovereign mercy, nothing had awaited him but 
 the w orm and the flames ; may well understand 
 that, so far from having any claims on God, 
 
^86 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 whatever he receives that is better than the 
 equitable recompense of his iniquity, is gift, is 
 bounty, is the " gift of God through Jesus 
 Christ.'' 
 
 it is not a thought to which the minds of 
 Christian men are strangers, that their daily 
 bread is conveyed to them in channels opened 
 at the cross. This otherwise barren and desert 
 earth has become fertile, its clouds surcharged 
 with blessings, and its revolving seasons, and 
 the patient toil of its inhabitants, have become 
 fruitful in mercies only through the mediation 
 of that Great Sufferer, who arrested the sen- 
 tence that would otherwise have consigned it 
 to destruction. God might w ithhold their daily 
 bread, and treat them better than their deserv- 
 ings. And when bestowed, it is without any 
 equivalent or compensation. It is a daily pres- 
 ent ; it is a donation from Him w hose eye never 
 slumbers and whose goodness is never weary. 
 
 Many a man who disclaims all right to the 
 bounties of God's providence in theory, has a 
 false and secret sense of his worthiness of tem- 
 poral good. We should be disabused of this 
 ensnaring thought, if we would rightly ask for 
 our daily bread. It diminishes our impressions 
 of the divine bounty, and weakens our sense of 
 grateful obligation. If we are made to differ 
 from others, it is God w^ho makes us to differ. 
 
DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 187 
 
 God is everything to us ; but what are we to 
 him? If it is a proof of an ungenerous and dis- 
 honorable mind to be indifferent to the accepted 
 bounty of men ; and human liberality becomes 
 a thankless and irksome service, where it is im- 
 periously claimed rather than gratefully ac- 
 knowledged. Still more ungenerous and dis- 
 honorable is it to complain that heaven's bounty 
 is scantily, or grudgingly bestowed, or when be- 
 stowed liberally, that it is no more than we had 
 a right to expect. It contributes not a little to 
 our enjoyment of God's goodness to dwell upon 
 it as his gift, and to think of him as the greatest 
 of givers. To know and feel this; to feel it 
 when we pray, is the cheered and grateful sen- 
 timent of true piety, the blessedness of angels, 
 the joy of heaven. 
 
 There is also another principle of great prac- 
 tical import contained in this request. It 
 strongly inculcates an implicit reliance on 
 
 THE DIVINE GOODNESS AND BOUNTY FOR ALL THAT 
 
 WE NEED. It is a great privilege to trust with 
 undisturbed tranquillity on the bountiful provi- 
 dence of our Father who is in heaven. lie has 
 encouraged us to do this by the very privilege 
 of prayer. " In all thy ways acknowledge God ; 
 so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy 
 presses burst out with new wine." " What 
 man is there of vou that is a father, who if hijs 
 
188 THE MERCV SEAT. 
 
 son ask of him bread, will he give him a stone ; 
 or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent ? 
 or ii he ask an egg, will he give him a scorpion ? 
 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good 
 gifts to your children, how much more shall 
 your Father which is in heaven give good things 
 to them that ask him ?" 
 
 Nothing can be more touching than such an 
 appeal as this. We are needy ; we are un- 
 worthy ; infants are not more dependent : yet 
 may we spread our wants before him as a child 
 before a frither. '' The young lions do lack, and 
 suiTer hunger ; but they that seek the Lord shall 
 not want any good thing." He gives his chil- 
 dren '' things present," as well as " things to 
 come ;" he assures the poorest of them all, that 
 " bread shall be giv en him, and his waters 
 shall be sure." There is no other to whom we 
 maj with entire confidence commit all our tem- 
 poral concerns ; " casting all our care upon him, 
 because he careth for us." He will not trifle 
 with our wants, nor " turn away our prayer, nor 
 his mercy from us." He who fed Israel in the 
 desert, and Elijah at the brook; he who decks 
 the lily and beautifies the rose, will much more 
 clothe those even of little faith. "Behold the 
 fowls of the air ; for they sow not, neither do 
 they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your 
 heavenly father feedeth them : are ye not much 
 
DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 189 
 
 better than they ?" '' The Ijfe is more than 
 meat, and the hodij than raiment T' Life he has 
 already given ; and he who bestowed the greater 
 will not withhold the less. He who first gave 
 these mortal and perishing bodies, and breathed 
 into them the breath of life, unsolicited and be- 
 fore they were asked for, will not, unless w^e 
 trifle with the laws of his providence, and sin- 
 fully neglect the appointed means, deny that 
 which is necessary to preserve the life he gave. 
 Nay, we have stronger grounds for confidence. 
 " He who spared not his own Son, but delivered 
 him up for us all, how shall he not with him, 
 also freely give us all things V After such a de- 
 monstration of his goodness, who will question his 
 readiness to supply minor wants, now that there 
 is a free and unimpeded channel opened by which 
 the divine goodness may flow to the guilty ? 
 
 There is not only no reasonable desire, for 
 the gratification of which the means are not 
 provided, but the God of providence looks 
 beyond the circle of actual want, and is sump- 
 tuous in his provision for the comfort of men, 
 for their convenience, and even for thuir lux- 
 ury. ^'Marvellous are thy works. Lord, God, 
 Almighty, and that my soul knowcth right well I 
 How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God ; 
 how great is the sum of them ! If I should 
 count them, they are more in number than the 
 
190 THE MERCV SEAT. 
 
 sand." There is a richness, a munificence and 
 constancy in God's goodness which rebukes dis- 
 trust. Long, very long has it been continued, 
 without any intermission, to this rebellious and 
 ungrateful world, extending itself from year to 
 year, from century to. century, from age to age. 
 It nev^er slumbers, and never sleeps; never relap- 
 ses into a state of insensibility, or forgetfulness. 
 Wo distrust the bounty of creatures. It is 
 one of the deepest trials to which humanity 
 is subjected, to be dependent on creatures. 
 Men feel the bitterness in the uncertainty of 
 tills dependence, not only because it is hum- 
 bling to their pride, but because it defeats their 
 expectations. But the divine bounty need not 
 be distrusted ; it is never bestowed capriciously, 
 because it takes its rise from unfailing, overflow- 
 ing sources; — its sources are neither sealed up 
 by the demerits of its objects, nor exhausted by 
 their poverty. Disquietude and distrust, there- 
 fore, are out of place in creatures that have ac- 
 cess to God. Perplexing uneasiness, carking 
 cares, corroding solicitude, are worse than use- 
 less, because they render us the less fitted to 
 ask, to receive, to labor and to enjoy. They are 
 at war w ith piety ; with the reliance the Bible 
 wan ants, and the confidence God will not dis- 
 appjint. The fault will be our own if he give 
 us not our daily bread, and if we live not secure- 
 
DEPEND ENCi: FOll TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 191 
 
 ly under his care ; if his sun shine not upon us 
 all the day, and his dew be all night upon our 
 branch ; if we sing not with the sweet Psalmist 
 of Israel, " I will both lay mc down in peace 
 and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell 
 in safety !" Men who profess to trust in the 
 promise of God for their eternal salvation, are 
 often slow of heart to trust him for the things 
 of time. It were well that they bring their faith 
 to this practical test. They give themselves 
 credit for more faith than they have, who can- 
 not trust him for temporal favors. . 
 
 There is yet another great principle involved 
 in this request : it is that our desires for tem- 
 poral GOOD SHOULD BE 3IODERATE. " GivC US 
 
 this day our daily hread^ This prayer regulates 
 the amount of our wants, and the measui-^ of 
 our desires. They are limited to a competency. 
 If God's will so decide our destiny, " having 
 food and raiment," w^e should '' learn therew- ith 
 to be content." We should be w'illing to live 
 from day to day, fed by God, and from his table. 
 Where our own duty is faithfully performed, we 
 may not be anxious for to-morro.»^'s bread; God 
 w^ould have us ever coming to him. We are 
 not sure of to-morrow ; we may not need his 
 bounty then ; for " what is your life ; it is even 
 a vapor that appeareth for a little while, and 
 then vanisheth awav." Time flies, the stream 
 
192 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 of life is ebbing away. Tiiat distant, uncertain 
 thing, to-morrow, would have crowned the most 
 ardent hopes, but for the gravx*. When it came, 
 it brought only a cypress wreath. While we 
 covet the good things of this world, the al- 
 mond tree flourishes on our head, the shroud 
 is weiving for us, and the dark and narrow 
 house becomes our home. Whatever other 
 Scriptures may justify a prudent forethought for 
 the things of this world, the petition which we 
 are amplifying obviously gives no countenance 
 to the spirit, of hoarding up. If a Christian 
 man were to make the experiment, he would 
 find it a very difficult thing to prmj for great 
 wealth. The spirit of covetousness and of 
 prayer do not dwell together in the same bosom. 
 ¥/e are instructed to ask only as we need ; 
 there is danger in asking more. God may give 
 more, but it is not safe to ask for more, lest he 
 should say of us as he did of his restive and 
 grasping people of other days, " I gave them 
 their request, but sent leanness into their 
 souls." 
 
 It is a beautiful remark of Lord Bacon, bad 
 as he was, ''Seek not proud wealth ; but such 
 as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute 
 cheerfully, and leave contentedly." W^ealth is 
 desirable, not for its own sake, not merely for 
 the wants it supplies. In itself, it is an abstract, 
 
DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 193 
 
 imaginary thing, and where it is possessed, not 
 unfrequently creates more wants than it grati- 
 fies. It is desirable, mainly, to augment influ- 
 ence, and extend the facilities of doing good. 
 That accomplished statesman and jurist, the late 
 William Wirt, a name that will be long illus- 
 trious and venerated in American history, on 
 this topic makes the following touching observa- 
 tions : " Excessive wealth is neither glory nor 
 happiness. The cold and sordid wretch who 
 thinks only of himself; who draws his head 
 within his shell, and never puts it out, but for 
 the purpose of lucre and ostentation ; who looks 
 upon his fellow-creatures, not only without sym- 
 pathy, but with arrogance and insolence, as if they 
 w^ere made to be his vassals, and he to be their 
 lord; as if they were made for no other purpose 
 than to pamper his avarice, or to contribute to his 
 aggrandizement; such a man may be rich, but, 
 trust me, he never can be happy, nor virtuous, 
 nor great. There is in a fortune a golden mean, 
 wdiich is the appropriate region of virtue and in- 
 telligence. Be content with that; and if the 
 horn of plenty overflow, let its droppings fall 
 upon your fellow-men; let them fall like the 
 droppings of honey in the wilderness, to cheer 
 the faint and weary pilgrim." 
 
 It is a sad thought, that w^ealth is essential 
 to distinction. It is not so. The voice of con- 
 
 9 
 
194 ' THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 science, the voice of reason, the voice of God, 
 announces it is not so. Wealth alone is not 
 worth living for. Sigh not for wealth. Envy- 
 not the splendor and ease of the affluent. The 
 most wealthy are often the most in want. '' A 
 man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the 
 things which he possesseth." Where wealth is 
 the most eagerly sought after, it is the least 
 satisfying. No wise man will ever venture to 
 pray that he might be rich. Let a man be 
 thankful, if by exemplary diligence he can pro- 
 cure a comfortable living ; if with this he can 
 be cheerful and happy, he has the earnest of 
 more, and what is of much greater consequence, 
 he has the pledge that more will not be his 
 ruin. An eminent merchant of this metropolis, 
 distinguished not less for his liberality than his 
 integrity and success in business, and who was 
 a most exemplary ruling elder in one of the 
 churches, remarked to the writer of these pages, 
 many years ago, '' Sir, God has been pleased to 
 give me a large share of this world's goods ; but 
 I have never dared to ask for more than my 
 daily bread."* 
 
 It is no common attainment, rightly to reg- 
 ulate our desires for temporal blessings. There 
 is nothing in regard to which a izood man may 
 be more easily beguiled and blinded, or iu 
 
 * Tho late Jojiathnn T.ittle. 
 
DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 195 
 
 which he may trust his own heart less. All 
 our desires and requests for temporal mercies 
 should be constantly and implicitly referred 
 to the ivill of God. He only knows what is 
 best to give, and He only is able and willing 
 to dispense his bounty in that measure which is 
 dictated by unerring wisdom. This should 
 satisfy us. Not to be satisfied with this, is to 
 have the heart of a rebel. 
 
 Our desires for this world should also all be 
 regulated by desires still more earnest for spirit- 
 ual blessings. This is the great object for 
 which we should live and labor. "Seek ye 
 first the kingdom of God, and his righteous- 
 ness.'^ "Whether ye eat or drink, or what- 
 soever ye do, do all to the glory of God." We 
 ought to be deeply anxious, and the prayer 
 should ofxn be on our lips, that we may not be 
 among those to whom God gives all their portion 
 in this life. Better, a thousand fold, to live and 
 die like Lazarus, than like Dives, and hear the 
 affecting admonition at the last, " Son, remem 
 ber that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy 
 good things." It was the prayer of Agur, " Give 
 me neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with 
 food convenient for me : lest I be full, and deny 
 thee, and say, Who is the Lord ; or lest I be 
 poor, and steal, and take the name of God in 
 vain." Abject poverty may be best for us; 
 
196 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 when it is so, God will send it ; when he sends 
 it, it becomes us to submit to his providence, 
 without repining; and when we are thus sub- 
 missive, he will give grace to preserve us from 
 its snares. 
 
 Still less can the human heart be trusted with 
 overgrown riches. Christian men who make it 
 an object to be rich, even under the expectation 
 of being more useful, are very apt to impose upon 
 themselves. " They that will be rich, fall into 
 temptation and a snare." " He that maketh haste 
 to be rich shall not be innocent." Great wealth 
 is very apt to breed forgetfulness, and contempt 
 of God. In giving the power, it is very apt to 
 induce the habits of self-indulgence and luxury. 
 It cherishes that " pride of life" which is so un- 
 friendly to the claims of the gospel. It fosters 
 that feeling of personal independence which 
 leads the soul to lean on earth, and make not 
 God its refuge. It strengthens that natural at- 
 tachment to the things that are seen and tempo- 
 ral, which renders it so " hard to enter into the 
 kingdom of God," and which it is one of the 
 great objects of Christianity to subdue. " Cov- 
 etousness is idolatry." There is little room in 
 the heart for God where it is preoccupied by the 
 w^orld. The love, worship, and service of God 
 are excluded by another deity; the loyalty 
 which ought to be felt to the Great Supreme is 
 
DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 197 
 
 transferred to another sovereign. True piety 
 itself is very apt to be stinted in its growth, and 
 to wither away under the burning sun of pros- 
 perity ; it loses its strength and healthfulness 
 when nursed in the lap of pride and luxury. 
 The unction perishes from the heart, where it is 
 overwhelmed by the cares and perplexities of 
 opulence. Good men, when once they become 
 rich, find themselves insensibly attached to their 
 gold and their merchandise, their territory and 
 their enterprises, their influence and the splen- 
 dor of their name. They become avaricious 
 and grasping ; and before they are aware of it, 
 feel embarrassed in their spiritual course, and 
 find that they have new enemies to contend 
 with, and mountains of difiiculty to travel over 
 in their heavenward career. They have little 
 time for reading, prayer, reflection, and Chris- 
 tian intercourse. It is not often that you find a 
 wealthy Christian a burning and shining light. 
 I have often wondered why it is, that so many 
 who in their youth were distinguished for Chris- 
 tian fervor, meekness, devotion and activity, 
 should in middle life become so cold and lan- 
 guid. The simple truth is, they have become 
 rich. Thorny cares have sprung up, and over- 
 power-.d, and choked the word, so that it has 
 become unfruitful. There may be instances in 
 which such persons become more bountiful ; but 
 
198 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 it is a mistake to suppose that their liberality is 
 an offset for their deficiencies in piet} . 
 
 I would not have these remarks misunder- 
 stood. Men may be rich and yet be pious ; nor 
 are there wanting lovely exemplificationo of un- 
 ostentatious and active piety among those who 
 are the most successful in the world. iVnd they 
 may be pious and yet be poor — poor even to in- 
 disrence. Grace can surmount the obstacles of 
 both these extremes. But this is no evidence 
 that our desires after the good things of this 
 w^orld ought not to be moderate ; nor that the 
 medium between riches and poverty is not the 
 safest condition for fallen man. The Saviour 
 has taught us, in this prayer, to seek a compe- 
 tency in the wisdom and bounty of his provi- 
 dence ; to seek more is neither pious nor wise. 
 *' Godliness, with contentment, is great gain ; 
 for we brought nothing into this world, and it is 
 certain we can carry nothing out." God ap- 
 proved the prayer of Solomon, because he de- 
 sired a wise and understanding heart, rather 
 than riches or long life. The happiest man is 
 he who most gratefully enjoys and makes the 
 best use of whatever God is pleased to bestow. 
 The " providence of God is his surest estate ;" 
 his bounty his best treasure ; his fatherly care 
 his most certain and comfortable supply. He stays 
 himself upon God, and his cheerful language is. 
 
DEPENDENCE FOR TEMPORAL BLESSINGS. 199 
 
 ^' The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want. 
 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ; 
 he leadeth me beside the still waters. He 
 anointeth my head with oil ; my cup runneth 
 over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow 
 me all the days of my life !" 
 
 Such are some of the principles involved in 
 the petition, "Give us this day our daily bread." 
 We may well cherish the spirit of this request. 
 It becomes us as God's creatures, and as his 
 children. Though we may have felt his scourge, 
 we have much to be thankful for, which we 
 should never forget. Would that our hearts 
 were more truly touched with a sense of his 
 goodness ! Man's ingratitude is affecting proof 
 of his alienation from God. I had well nigh 
 said, it is difficult to account for it, even upon 
 the principles of his apostasy. Men feel deeply 
 in seasons of trial; they dwell upon their losses; 
 they magnify their afflictions ; but how rarely 
 do they dwell intensely on their mercies, and 
 magnify the expressions of the divine bounty ! 
 How soon they forget them; what weakness 
 and inconstancy of heart do they betray in 
 those recollections which ought to be the most 
 grateful and permanent ! Scarcely have they 
 received one favor but they are looking for an- 
 other, and complain if it is not given. They 
 may be slow in admitting the abstract thought 
 
200 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 that God is indebted to them; yet they too 
 often feel and conduct themselves as though, in 
 Avithholding his bounty, he were actually doing 
 them an injury. A grateful mind is a happy 
 mind. It is a peaceful, a joyous mind. It is 
 the zest of joy. 
 
 How little do we know of the emphasis and 
 urgency of the request, "Give us this day our 
 daily bread !" The stress of want compels men 
 to pray. That prodigal who is famishing with 
 hunger, knows how to crave the crumbs that 
 fall from the table of the divine bounty. That 
 daughter of sorrow and want, who has wept over 
 her last loaf^ and knows not, after all that her 
 ingenuity can devise, where she is to look for 
 the supplies of the passing hour, knows the im- 
 port of the words, " give me this day my daily 
 bread." The time may come when, if you have 
 never prayed before, you too may feel the im- 
 port of such a request as this. Your children, 
 too, may learn its import, and kneeling at your 
 feet, be taught to say, " Our Father, who art 
 in heaven, give us this day our daily bread.'* 
 And shall nothing but dependence thus realized 
 drive you from all other resources, to God alone ? 
 .nothing but poverty and want lead you and 
 them thus to pray '? 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PRAYER AND PAINS. 
 
 In exhibiting", as we have done in the pre- 
 vious chapter, some of the great principles 
 recognized in the request, " Give us this day 
 our daily bread," we have endeavored to mag- 
 nify the creature's dependence, and God's 
 bounty. We would not so represent either, as 
 to overlook the fact that God deals with men as 
 rational and active creatures, and that, as such, 
 they are bound to make use of their reason and 
 their uctivity. 
 
 The law of reason and nature, and the law 
 of grace are in this respect perfectly coincident. 
 Just as there ever has been a difficulty in the 
 method of redemption by Christ Jesus in recon- 
 ciling the activity of man with his dependence, 
 has there been a difficulty in reconciling the 
 dependence of men on God for their daily sub- 
 sistence with the necessity of effort on their 
 
202 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 part to procure it. But the oracles of God 
 teach and insist on both these truths ; they call 
 upon men to " work out their own salvation 
 with fear and trembling, because it is God who 
 worketh in them to will and to do, of his good 
 pleasure ;" and they call upon them, if they 
 would have their daily bread, not to look for it 
 in the neglect of those well-known laws of his 
 providence, which he has established for their 
 conduct in the common affairs of human life. 
 
 Man's dependence on God for his daily sub 
 sistence, leaves all the motives and all the in- 
 fluences of human activity and enterprise pre- 
 cisely where it found them. No man may ex- 
 ercise a presumptuous confidence in the divine 
 bounty — a confidence w hich gives him hope in 
 the neglect, or violation of his known duty. 
 God is the giver of his daily bread ; but he him- 
 self has a part to act in procuring it. God's 
 blessing is to be sought and hoped for only in 
 the due and proper use of his own powers. 
 
 The purposes of God, be they what they 
 may, are never carried into eflfect without th 
 means by which they were intended t*^ be ac- 
 complished. The means, in every instance, 
 form an integral part of the purpose itself; they 
 sustain, in the original arrangement of the divine- 
 mind, an indissoluble and necessary connection 
 with the end; and without them, there is no 
 
PRAYER AND PAINS. 203 
 
 purpose formed, no end to be attained. There 
 is the existence and influence of the great pri- 
 mary Cause of all thing\s; but this does not 
 supei-sede the existence and influence of nume- 
 rous proximate and instrumental causes; be- 
 cause these latter are the selected means and 
 instruments by which the great overruling Cause 
 himself has ordained the accomplishment of his 
 purposes. 
 
 Although he is the great Giver of ail temporal 
 blessings, yet if it be by wisely-appointed 
 means and instruments that he gives, the appli- 
 cation of these means and instruments is indis- 
 pensable to tlie gift. It is so for every gift 
 which Gocl bestows. Men, in the common 
 affairs of human life, never think of acting upon 
 any other principle. There are things which 
 God has to do, in furnishing his creatures with 
 food and raiment ; and there are things which 
 his creatures themselves have to do. The place 
 which he occupies i^s one which if he do not fill, 
 it is in vain that they occupy the place which he 
 assigns to them ; while, if they occupy not the 
 intermediate places assigned to them, the series 
 of his operations is left incomplete. With his 
 work of beneficence they have nothing to do, 
 save gratefully to acknowledge that it is his 
 work; while, in their own sphere, they have 
 everything to perform, else they may not hope for 
 
204 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 his blessing upon the labor of their hands, What^ 
 then, are the appointed means by which a benefi- 
 cent Providence supplies the temporal wants 
 of men ? These are mainly the following : 
 
 In the first place, there is nothing in man's 
 dependence that dispenses with his oton industry. 
 His dependence does not destroy the obligations 
 under which he is placed by the law of nature ; 
 and one of these is diligence in his calling. It 
 is so employing his time, and the talents com- 
 mitted to him, as to turn them to good account. 
 He owes it to his Maker, to society, to himself, 
 to put forth his exertions to some valuable end. 
 He who so richly endowed man with such diver- 
 sified powers of body and mind, and rendered 
 him capable in so many ways of benefitting him- 
 self and his fellow-men, has not denied him a 
 wide and varied field wherein he may exert the 
 powers so freely bestowed. Useful occupation 
 is his appropriate employment ; without it, he 
 will never answer the great end of his existence. 
 Exertion, vigorous, persevering exertion^ com- 
 mends itself to the texture and constitution of 
 his body and mind. An unoccupied and idle 
 man countervails all the laws both of his animal 
 and intellectual frame, and wages war upon 
 every organ of his material, and every faculty of 
 his immaterial being. He is like children 
 
PRAYER AND PAINS. 205 
 
 among men ; he is like the dead among the 
 living; he buries himself alive. 
 
 If there are those who so pervert the instruc- 
 tions of the Bible, in regard to man's dependence 
 and God's bounty, as to rest satisfied with pray- 
 ing that God would give them their daily bread, 
 without themselves working for it, there is one 
 very ready way of rectifying their error; and 
 the Bible furnishes it, when it deliberately de- 
 clares, " He that will not work, neither let him 
 eat." It is the published law of the Redeemer's 
 kingdom, that work a man must, or he shall 
 starve. Religion offers no bounty to idleness; 
 her bounty is for those who would, but cannot, 
 labor. If Christian liberality were regulated by 
 the Bible, men who are able to labor, and can 
 get anything to do, would be constrained to ex- 
 ertion by necessity. It is a law of Christianity, 
 as well as nature, that " drowsiness shall cover 
 a man with rags." And it is both an equitable 
 and a benevolent law. It is equitable, because 
 there is no equity in imposing a burden upon the 
 industrious, which is not borne by their more 
 idle companions; it is benevolent, because in 
 relieving men from the necessity of labor, you 
 take from them their best heritage, and sink 
 them in irreclaimable degradation. If they would 
 live above want, they must pay the price for it 
 in corresponding effort ; if that may be called a 
 
B06 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 price which, where the habits of industry are im* 
 bibed and cherished, is itself a pleasure. 
 
 There is no relief from the operation of this 
 wise and healthful, this equitable and benevo- 
 lent law. Labor and success, effort and attain- 
 ment, without some special countervailing influ- 
 ence, are rarely dissevered ; while the few in- 
 stances in which they are so, form such obvious 
 and striking exceptions, that they only evince 
 the importance of the rule. Though " the race 
 is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," 
 yet is it a law which no man may trifle with, 
 that men attain their ends by the laborious and 
 steady pursuit of them. It is a dream of the 
 imagination to look for a competent portion of 
 the good things of this life without effort. 
 
 I have said that the law^ of labor is a benevo- 
 lent law\ An idle man is always a disappointed 
 man ; he is ever complaining of his misfortunes; 
 he sinks in despondency, because he is sunk in 
 negligence and sloth. There is nothing in his 
 eager hopes and vivid expectations that encour- 
 ages and charms him. He lives only for the 
 present, and has none of that bright impulse 
 which carries him forward to halcyon days to 
 come. In this respect he scarcely differs from 
 the inferior animals ; but, like them, is envi- 
 roned with a dense w^all, beyond which he can 
 catch but a glimmering light. His prospect is 
 
PRAYER AND PAINS. 207 
 
 scarcely brighter or wider than theirs. The ac- 
 tual scenes of human life never present them- 
 selves to him in their true coloring, but are 
 tinged with many a dark and melancholy hue. 
 That absorbing sentimentalism, that morbid sen- 
 sibility, which is so often the bane of manly and 
 energetic qualities, find no welcome in the bo- 
 som of the man whose high aims are gratified in 
 the prospect of responsible exertion. The pri- 
 meval paradise was not sufficiently fair to make 
 its inhabitants happy without occupation. Man 
 could not be deprived of a greater blessing than 
 useful employment. If you would make him 
 miserable, let him have nothing to do. The 
 moral virtue of men depends, in no small degree, 
 upon their industry and enterprise. Idleness is 
 the nursery of crime. It is that bitter and pro- 
 lific germ of which all rank and poisonous vices 
 are the fruits. It is the source of temptation. 
 It is the field where *' the enemy sows tares 
 while men sleep." Could we trace the history 
 of a large class of vices, we should find that they 
 originate in the want of employment, and are 
 brought in to supply the place which some use- 
 ful employment would otherwise supply. There 
 are others which take their rise from mere re- 
 luctance to labor, and are resorted to, because 
 those who practise, and those who patronize 
 them, are too indolent to work. Idleness has 
 
208 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 slain its thousands. It is the corrupter of men 
 and nations. It corrupted Sodom. It corrupted 
 Nine V eh. It corrupted Babylon. It corrupted 
 Greece and Rome. The greatest, I had almost 
 said the only barrier against vice is the habit of 
 industry. Industrious habits render vice un- 
 necessary and disagreeable, and prevent the 
 opportunity of indulgence. An industrious man 
 is the companion of industrious men, and has 
 neither time nor temptation to be vicious. 
 There is no other possible way of preventing 
 and restraining vice in our families, in our com- 
 munity, in our land, in our young men, and in 
 all ranks and orders of human society, than by 
 promoting industry. Few men know how to 
 make the most of human life. Time is the most 
 valuable of all the talents entrusted to them. 
 It is of more importance to improve human life, 
 than to extend it unimproved ; to live w ell than 
 to live long. No man can promise himself 
 twenty years ; yet may he live twenty in ten. 
 
 Nor are these unchristian thoughts, nor be- 
 yond the instructions of the Bible, or in any way 
 removed from the legitimate sphere of its influ- 
 ence. '' In the sweat of thy face, shalt thou eat 
 thy bread until thou return to the ground." 
 " Seest thou a man diligent in his business; he 
 shall stand before kings ; he shall not stand 
 before mean men." " The hand of the diligent 
 
PRATER AND PAINS. 209 
 
 maketh rich," and " shall bear rule." '' Be 
 thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks 
 and thy herds." " Diligent in business, fervent 
 in spirit, serving the Lord." " Six days shalt 
 thou labor, and do all thy work.'' While, 
 therefore, in all their industry, men must de- 
 pend on the blessing of God, they may not ex- 
 pect his blessing except upon their industry. 
 The Scriptures nowhere countenance an inac- 
 tive reliance upon God, save where the oppor- 
 tunity and power of action are taken away. 
 Men do not live by miracles. They have no 
 w^arrant to throw themselves upon divine provi- 
 dence without any efforts of their own, until 
 God constrains them so to do. They should be 
 slow to believe that such necessity exists; nor 
 until it does exist may they cast themselves 
 upon God without concern, and feel that they 
 themselves have no active responsibility. 
 
 Another of the means, without which we 
 may look in vain for temporal good to God as 
 the gi^'er, is econoyny. It is scarcely less a perv^er- 
 sion of the laws of divine providence, to rely on 
 that providence for our daily bread in the disuse 
 of the powers and faculties which God has given 
 us, than in the perversion and abuse of the boun- 
 ties he bestows. I know not how a wasteful 
 and extravagant man can ever, with good con- 
 science, repeat the Lord's Prayer. He who 
 
210 THE MERCr SEAT. 
 
 wastes what God gives him, may not complain 
 if he ceases to give. 
 
 Nature and providence are constantly read- 
 ing us this lesson. One law is made to sub- 
 serve a thousand purposes, and acts every- 
 where. Nothing is thrown aw^ay ; nothing lost ; 
 nothing but accomplishes its appropriate end. 
 The accuracy of the divine arrangements is as 
 truly wonderful as their bounty. In all that 
 God does there is a place for everything, and 
 everything is in its place ; nor may this eco- 
 nomical arrangement be disturbed by human 
 recklessness, or even human thoughtlessness 
 and improvidence, without suffering. This is 
 the universal law of nature. Accurate philo- 
 sophical investigations have discovered that 
 every substance in the natural world that does 
 not retain its original form, passes into some 
 other equally important in its place. The ves- 
 sel of water which is converted into vapor and 
 steam, is again condensed, and loses not a 
 scruple of its original weight. The billet of 
 wood that is consumed in the lire, or the trunk 
 that decays in the forest, gives out the whole 
 of its substance, either in the matter it depos- 
 its, or the gases it emits. There is no example 
 of the entire destruction of anything in the uni- 
 verse. Changes are indeed taking place in 
 countless variety ; but the most penetrating 
 
PRAYER AND PAINS. ^ll 
 
 observer has not been able to discover that 
 anything has been absolutely destroyed. 
 
 If then such is the wise economy in the king- 
 dom of nature ; if the most worthless mineral, 
 or the meanest vegetable, when decomposed, is 
 resolved into elements which immediately en- 
 ter into new combinations, and in other forms 
 assist in carrying on the designs of providence ; 
 surely nothing was given to men to destroy. 
 The voice of this frugal arrangement is, that no 
 man may innocently overlook this divine consti- 
 tution, and either slight the gifts of providence, 
 or profusely scatter them, as if they were made 
 only to be thrown away. And such is the voice 
 of the Bible. " Godliness is profitable to the life 
 that now is." It gives even the lowest moral 
 duty a place in its system of instruction. " The 
 disciple is not above his Lord." The Saviour 
 was standing in the midst of abundance miracu- 
 lously created by his command, and he chose 
 this opportunity to give utterance to the injunc- 
 tion, *' Gather up the fragments, that nothing be 
 lost." He did not deem it dishonorable and 
 mean to be frugal; dishonor and meanness are 
 more justly chargeable to waste and prodigality. 
 He that is regardless of little things, will be 
 very apt to be careless of those that are greater. 
 The foundation of wealth is laid not merely in 
 habits of industry, but in habits of wise and 
 
212 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 persevering economy. Property is not usually 
 acquired by a few bold, successful operations, 
 but by a slow and prudent, though always ad- 
 vancing process, and by minute and careful ac- 
 cumulations. " A good man," says the Psalm- 
 ist, " will guide his affairs with discretion." 
 Men must themselves not only plant and water, 
 but watch and spare, if they expect God to 
 give the increase. The man who makes the 
 best use of what God gives him, takes care of 
 it that he may use it to the best advantage. 
 His economy becomes the welcome handmaid of 
 his benevolence ; and though he may sometimes 
 complain that it is taxed to relieve wants occa- 
 sioned by the extravagance of others, he spares 
 that he may give ; the great sources of his char- 
 ity are found in his retrenchments. He spares 
 that he may spend; he lives not for the luxury 
 of wasting. 
 
 Nor do we hesitate, in the next place, to 
 specify among the means of temporal prosperity, 
 a sacred regard to the hordes Bay. The com- 
 mand, " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
 holy," is so consonant to the law of nature and 
 of providence, and is so adapted to the wants 
 of man as an intellectual, moral, and physical 
 being, that he who trifles with it usually pays 
 the penalty in temporal suffering. To rest 
 from secular and worldly employment one sev- 
 
PRAYER AND PAINS. 213 
 
 enth part of every week, and to devote this 
 season to the cultivation of personal, domestic, 
 and public piety, has been found by experience 
 to exert a benign eifect on the temporal inter- 
 ests of men. Health of body, cheerfulness and 
 activity of mind, cannot be long enjoyed with- 
 out this repose. The statistics have been greatly 
 accumulated which show the fearful waste of 
 human comfort in communities and employ- 
 ments, where there is no such suspension from 
 care and toil. If a man would make the most 
 of human life for this world, to say nothing of 
 the world to come, he will charge himself to be 
 a conscientious observer of this consecrated 
 day. 
 
 A little reflection will show even the most 
 worldly men, that the appointment of such a 
 day of rest is founded in great wisdom and good- 
 ness, and that it is the interest, as well as the 
 duty of men, to preserve it inviolate. If you 
 look over this extended metropolis, and mark 
 the history of those whom God has prospered 
 in the world, you will find them, for the most 
 part, among men who were early educated in 
 communities and families that were taught to 
 fear the Lord of the Sabbath. And though 
 many of them may not at heart be pious men, 
 yet are they men whose consciences and con- 
 duct are controlled by strong impressions of the 
 
214 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 sacredness of this holy day. There is very little 
 hope for the prosperity of a young man, who 
 tramples upon this great institution. Had I the 
 control of an important mercantile establish- 
 ment, or a responsible pecuniary institution, I 
 would say to a man who habitually profanes 
 the Lord's Day, " Sir, we do not want you. 
 There is something rotten in the character 
 of the man who despises the Sabbath day." 
 The parent who would see his child prosper 
 may not fail to instil into his mind a due regard 
 to the fourth commandment. If there be no 
 other lesson of business which he teaches him, 
 let him teach him this. Let a young man habit- 
 ually remember the Sabbath day to keep it 
 holy, and into what a sphere of moral influences 
 is he at once thrown ! by what a circumvalla- 
 tion is he surrounded, that separates him from a 
 multitude of causes that are ruinous to his tem- 
 poral prosperity ! 
 
 Another of the means of worldly good is a 
 sacred regard to truth. Truth between man and 
 man, is the only solid basis of human inter- 
 course. Without it there can be no confidence 
 in the transactions of business; no order, no 
 happiness in human society. Men scarcely 
 know the value it gives to their character as 
 men of the world, to have it known that they 
 speak the whole truth when it ought to be 
 
PRAYER AXD PAINS. 215 
 
 spoken ; that they speak it fully and without 
 concealment ; that they speak it freely and 
 without fear ; without mincing and obscuring it, 
 and without sinister and selfish ends, and im- 
 partially. A lying tongue is fatal to all hope of 
 advancement in this world, as well as all hope 
 of the life that is to come. It is in vain for a 
 man to say, that he means no harm when he 
 utters that which is false ; he does harm, and 
 probably more than all others, to himself. Let 
 him once imbibe the habit of uttering that 
 which is untrue, and he will find that the dis- 
 honor cleaves to him, nor can the stain easily be 
 wiped away. There is not one, even among 
 those Avho love him best, and would fain con- 
 tribute to his welfare, who does not esteem and 
 love him less, and less confide in him for every 
 instance of falsehood. A liar has no confidence 
 in himself, because he has no consciousness of 
 an inward principle of truth and integrity in his 
 own heart. His word is doubted ; he is a sus- 
 pected man ; he has lost caste ; he has inflicted 
 unspeakable injury on himself; and if his daily 
 bread is but scantily supplied, the fault is his 
 own, the unkind ness his own, the cruelty his 
 own. The thought may well be deeply im- 
 pressed, especially on the minds of the young, 
 that a lying tongue throws insurmountable bar- 
 riers in the way of their temporal prosperity. 
 
216 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 Love, confidence, and honor, or detestation, dis- 
 trust and disgrace, will follow them, as they 
 are, or are not observant of the claims of truth. 
 Every unfounded statement, every misstate- 
 ment, every evasive, equivocating statement, 
 where truth is called for, every low art of con- 
 cealment and dissimulation, every broken prom- 
 ise, serves to shut up the avenue to advance- 
 ment. While on the other hand, truth, pure 
 truth with all its simplicity, loveliness, and 
 transparency, is so usually attended with the 
 other great moral virtues, that, with God's bles- 
 sing, it is the sure road to comfort, usefulness 
 and distinction. 
 
 Another means of temporal prosperity is that 
 genuine rectitude and integrity of character which 
 secure honesty in our dealings with one another. 
 Dishonesty is one of those deliberate and sober 
 vices, the effects of which cannot often be sur- 
 vived even by a thorough reformation. Some- 
 times it is the result of inconsiderateness; some- 
 times of passion ; but more usually it is a calm 
 and premeditated sin, which, if it does not al- 
 ways indicate an advanced stage of wickedness, 
 indicates a mind that is reckless of ultimate 
 success in the world. A single act of indiscre- 
 tion, in this sensitive department of morals, 
 is very apt to demoralize the mind of the perpe- 
 trator, and lead to perpetuated wrong. " He 
 
PRAYER AND PAINS. S17 
 
 that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful 
 also in that which is much ; and he that is un- 
 just in the. least, is unjust also in much." Dis- 
 honesty is a sin too destructive to the well-being 
 of society, not to be ruinous to the individual 
 who pmctises it. He who is willing to be poor 
 rather than dishonest, by honesty may become 
 rich. 
 
 One more thought deserves consideration, as 
 connected by the divine appointment with tem- 
 poral prosperity : it is, di filial, respectful, and du- 
 tiful deportment toward parents, " Honor thy 
 father and thy mother, that thy days may be 
 long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth 
 thee." That this arrangement was not exclu- 
 sively applicable to the Israelites, is evident 
 from the fact, that the Apostle refers to it as the 
 " first commandment with promise." For one act 
 of dishonor to parents, the race of Ham was 
 doomed to subjection and servitude. Where 
 the obligations under which a child is to his pa- 
 rents are disregarded, there is little reason to 
 confide in the influence of any of those moral 
 principles which are the ordinary pledge of sue- 
 cess in secular pursuits. There are few more 
 certain proofs of a fearfully depraved heart. 
 This is, probably, one reason why a duty which 
 has no proximate relation to worldly prosperity, 
 is prescribed as one of the conditions of it. But 
 
 10 
 
218 THE 3IERCY SEAT. 
 
 however this may be, it is one of the conditions 
 which God himself has established, and which 
 none will disregard who hope to prosper. 
 Youthful indiscretions his providence may over- 
 look ; but where this undutiful spirit and deport- 
 ment are persevered in, even though repented 
 of in after life, they are very apt to carry along 
 w ith them the forfeiture of the promise contain- 
 ed in the fifth commandment. There stands the 
 dreadful and unrepealed, though figurative de- 
 claration, " The eye that mocketh at his father, 
 and that refuseth to obey his mother, the ravens 
 of the valley shall pick it out, and the young 
 eagles shall eat it/' 
 
 Such are the ordinary means of procuring tem- 
 poral blessings. Where these are faithfully 
 adopted and pursued, men may consistently 
 pray, ''Give us this day our daily bread!" 
 Where, in defiance of these, they are poor, God 
 will take care of them. His hand may be upon 
 them ; sickness, infirmity, age, misfortune, may 
 invade them; and they may be cut off from all 
 other resources, except his immediate care ; and 
 then he will care for them. They are then 
 God's poor; and though manna may not be 
 rained for them out of heaven, nor water gush 
 from the rock; though their Injuls may not be 
 like Gideon's fleece, nor their supplies furnished 
 by the same miraculous Power that replenished 
 
PRAYER AND PAINS. 219 
 
 the widow's cruise of oil and barrel of meal ; the 
 promise shall not fail, " No good thing will He 
 withhold from them that walk uprightly/' 
 
 I have not presented the preceding thoughts, 
 seemingly upon a topic of purely temporal inte- 
 rest, without some hesitation. If any of my 
 readers feel that they have too much to do with 
 time, and not enough w ith eternity ; if they are 
 repelled by them, as by a cold and heartless mo- 
 rality, and as " savoring not the things that be of 
 God, but the things that be of men;" I entreat 
 them to guard their own minds against all such 
 unhallowed impressions. Nothing is further from 
 the heart of him who pens the present chapter, 
 than thus to justify a worldly mind, I seem to 
 hear a voice, as if from heaven, as I draw to a 
 conclusion these secularizing thoughts, saying to 
 the reader and the writer, " Labor not for the 
 meat that perisheth, but for that which endureth 
 unto everlasting life." If God and nature require 
 care for earthly things ; if they may have a place 
 even in our daily prayers at the throne of grace; 
 what is not required for the things that are hea- 
 venly ? Oh ! let us seek the bread of life ; let 
 us strive to enter into the kingdom of God. God 
 has done much to provide temporal enjoyments ; 
 but to provide those that are heavenly, the hea- 
 vens themselves have bowed, and emptied them- 
 
220 ' THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 selves of their choicest treasure. After all their 
 industry and economy, men may fail of attaining 
 earthly treasures ; and they will disappoint them, 
 if attained. Heavenly treasures are unfading and 
 eternal. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 
 
 To overlook our wants as sinners in the all- 
 absorbing solicitude for our wants as creatures, 
 were as though the sentenced criminal should 
 be mainly anxious for the conveniences and 
 comforts of his dungeon, while he neglects to 
 seek pardon from the Sovereign to whom he has 
 been recommended for mercy. " What shall it 
 profit a man to gain the whole world and lose 
 his own soul ; or what shall a man give in ex- 
 change for his soul ?" Of how little avail are 
 all the luxuries of this earthly pilgrimage com- 
 pared with a pacified conscience, and a tranquil 
 hope of pardon ! God is the hearer of prayer to 
 the full extent in which the suppliant is a man 
 of prayer. The request that he would '^ give 
 us day by day our daily bread," may be an- 
 swered in the supply of every temporal want; 
 while amid all the bounty and munificence of 
 
222 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 his providence, the sins of nature and of practice 
 may be registered against us, and we remain 
 strangers to the riches of that grace which con- 
 signs them to oblivion. 
 
 Those who are equal sharers in the enjoy- 
 ments of the present world, are also equal shar- 
 ers in the common nature of a fallen humanity. 
 Amid the higher distinctions of wealth and 
 the lower degradations of poverty, neither the 
 children of opulence nor of want are exempted 
 from that sweeping declaration, "There is none 
 righteous, no not one." When they come into 
 the presence of that Being who levels all dis- 
 tinctions, the rich and the poor meet on com- 
 mon ground, and under a deep sense of their 
 necessities as sinners. The day will come when 
 they will no longer have need to ask for their 
 daily bread. Now they are tenants of time, and 
 prisoners of hope. They have wants, and may 
 seek supply ; they have sins, and may crave for- 
 giveness. The gracious and condescending Sa- 
 viour has put the request into their lips, " For- 
 give us our debts!" 
 
 The lost condition of men as sinners, as it is the 
 melancholy fact which makes forgiveness neces- 
 sary, so is it necessary to be understood in order 
 to a right understanding of the doctrine of par- 
 don. All that men are and have, belongs to 
 God. From him they receive their existence; 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 223 
 
 for all things they are dependent on him. To 
 question his claims is to do him wrong; to re- 
 sist them is rebellion. Sin is the act of robbing 
 God, Men have taken from him that which 
 does not belong to them ; they are his debtors ; 
 they owe him ample reparation for the wrongs 
 they have done, and are in debt to his equal 
 justice. Every sinner is an infinite debtor, 
 God is under no obligation to him ; he is under 
 all obligations to God. " Who hath first given to 
 the Lord, and it shall be recompensed to him 
 again ; for of him, and through him, and to him 
 are all things," It is impossible for the offender 
 to make any satisfaction ; he has nothing to pay ; 
 the debt must be freely forgiven, or he must 
 meet the rightful exactions of the avenging 
 penalty. 
 
 Some are greater sinners than others, but all 
 are debtors to God's justice, and stand in need 
 of forgiveness, " If thou, Lord, shouldest mark 
 iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand ?" The man 
 does not live, who can deny the charge of guilt 
 which a righteous God records against him ; 
 who can excuse or palliate it ; who can make 
 any amends for it ; who can escape, or resist, or 
 endure his wrath. 
 
 " By one man," says Paul, " sin entered into 
 the world, and death by sin ; and so death pass- 
 ed upon all men, for that all have sinned," 
 
224 THE MERCV SEAT. 
 
 '' By the offence of one, judgment came upon all 
 men to condemnation." " By one man's dis- 
 obedience, many ^vere made sinners." " In 
 Adam, all die." The fact may not be denied, 
 that the character and condition of the race 
 were materially affected by this first apostasy. 
 The ground was cursed, on account of it. Man 
 was doomed, in all following ages, to toil and 
 sorrow; woman to be a sufferer and the race mor- 
 tal; and everything human to come into exist- 
 ence under the frown of an offended God. Just 
 as the heir is ruined by the father's debt, was 
 the posterity of Adam brought in debt to divine 
 justice by the fault of their common parent. 
 Just as the citizens of a state are ruined by one 
 false step of their rulers, or O'f the legislators 
 who represent them, was the posterity of Adam 
 ruined by their divinely appointed representative. 
 No principle is more radical to all social or- 
 ganization than this, nor is there any one that is 
 more universally recognized. Men are respon- 
 sible in law for the acts of their legal represen- 
 tatives. A false step in tlie conductors of a cor- 
 porate institution, is visited upon every membe^r 
 of the body corporate. A national debt descends 
 from generation to generation, and their posteri- 
 ty are rightfully bound to fulfil the obligations 
 of their ancestors. There are also crimes of 
 such enormity, as to extend their legal forfeiture 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 226 
 
 to the children of the criminal, and cut them off 
 from honorable titles and large estate. 
 
 If we look around us, we shall see individuals 
 and whole classes of men, acting not for them- 
 selves only, but for others, and those who come 
 after them. Their acts are not the acts of others, 
 any more than the act of Adam, in eating the 
 forbidden fruit, is the act of his descendants; 
 yet are others legally bound by them, and the 
 effects of them are as truly theirs as if they 
 themselves had performed them. 
 
 The posterity of Adam did not appoint him 
 to act for them ; that appointment had a higher 
 origin, and is indicative of the wisdom and good- 
 ness of its divine source. If the wisdom of hu- 
 man laws may not be impugned for such ar- 
 rangements; if men deem it essential to the 
 interests of good government to hold one portion 
 of society responsible for the conduct of another; 
 why may not God, in his wisdom, legislating for 
 all men and all ages of the world, thus throw 
 the character and destiny of the race into the 
 hands of their first father ? The ground on 
 which men adopt this arrangement, is the com- 
 mon good ; the best interests of the community 
 require it. It is the best system of government; 
 nor would it be possible for government other- 
 wise to exert an extensively pi'ospective influence. 
 And the ground on wliich God adopts it is the 
 
 10* 
 
226 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 same. It is not an arbitrary measure, but a 
 most wise and benevolent one, and consults his 
 own honor, and the best interests of his extend- 
 ed and eternal empire. When he issued the 
 law of Paradise, he was not legislating for the 
 localit}^ of Eden, nor for an individual, nor for a 
 day ; but for the earth on which we dwell, for 
 the race of man, and in all the successive ages 
 of his history. So far from finding fault with 
 this divine arrangement, it is no easy matter to 
 see how it could have been different from w hat 
 it was, and have been either so equitable or so 
 wise. <- = 
 
 Had God placed every successive individual of 
 the race on trial for himself, w hat a world were 
 this which we should have occupied ! What 
 numberless solicitudes would have gathered 
 around the destiny of every new-born infant — 
 nay, what painful unccM'tainty, what agony inde- 
 scribable till the question were decided whether 
 he would stand or fall for eternity. And if he 
 fell, how would those solicitudes have been aug- 
 mented in view of the problem, whethei; there 
 were or were not any method to be revealed for 
 his recovery ! How much more wise, how much 
 more expressive of the divine goodness, that both 
 these questions should be decided in the person 
 of him who was " the figure of Him that was to 
 come;" and by whose fall, the way was pre- 
 
THE DOOTRINE Ot^ FORGIVENESS. 227 
 
 pared for the revelation and introduction of 
 that method of mercy which had a simultaneous 
 and prospective relation to the entire race, be- 
 cause though not practically, yet in the eye of 
 law, they '' sinned in him and fell with him in 
 his fii-st transgression." It is easy for the mind 
 to involve itself in webs of perplexity by con* 
 sidering the fall of our first parent as an isolated 
 event in the divine government, and the law 
 of Paradise as a mere local statute ; but when 
 we regard them as the germ, and foreshadowing 
 of another and more comprehensive dispensa- 
 tion, both based upon the same principle of vi- 
 carious responsibility, short-sighted and fallen 
 as we are, we may see enough in this peculiar 
 economy not to silence our murmurings only, 
 but to secure our admiration. 
 
 The sin of their first parent, therefore, is the 
 first debt which stands charged to his posterity. 
 It isnota personal, but an imputed offence. They 
 did not, they could not commit it ; because it was 
 perpetrated before they were born ; yet the legal 
 forfeiture of it entails to them, because the Sov- 
 ereign Lawgiver appointed him to act in their 
 place. And though his act was not their act, 
 nor can they repent of it, because they did not 
 commit it, yet are they all ruined by it — made 
 bankrupts by the defalcations of their first 
 father. 
 
228 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 Unsevered from the respor sibility of this 
 original sin, tliere is in all men the inheritance of 
 a morally corrupted nature, constituting their na- 
 tive depravity. All agree that there is a fearful 
 and tremendous visitation of the iniquity of the 
 parent upon the children, call it by what name 
 you will. Adam '' begat a son in his own like- 
 ness;" not in the likene.^s of his unfallen, but 
 his fallen nature. There is not merely an utter 
 want of original righteousness in ev^ery new-born 
 child of the human family ; there are tendencies 
 to evil which no second causes can control ; evil 
 desires and evil dispositions which indicate that 
 the mind is dead in sin. There are no instances 
 of exemption from them by virtue of any natural 
 tendency to what is right ; and to whatever ex- 
 tent it may be counteracted, whether by provi- 
 dential restraint, or by gracious influence, that 
 counteraction is always in opposition to the nat- 
 ural bias of the mind. The history of man in 
 all ages shows that good is not natural to the 
 human heart; individual consciousness shows 
 it. The mind is not even indifferent io good 
 and evil ; its predilections are in favor of evil. 
 No child needs to be taught, or persuaded, or 
 coerced to what is wrong*; while in the adop- 
 tion and imitation of what is right, instruction, 
 persuasion, the coercion of law, the authority of 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 229 
 
 motives, are not only requisite, but defective and 
 inefficient. 
 
 The language of revelation on this subject is 
 clear and decisive. '' Who can bring a clean 
 thing out of an unclean ?" " Behold, I was 
 shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother 
 conceive me !" " The wicked are estranged 
 from the womb ; they go astray as soon as they 
 be born, speaking lies." " The imagination of 
 man's heart is evil from his youth." " Who 
 were by nature the children of wrath even as 
 others." 
 
 However the mind may be improved by moral 
 culture, this is its wretched condition until it is 
 " born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
 nor of the will of man, but of God." Born of 
 man, it is human, and because human it is im- 
 pure and sinful; " that which is born of the 
 flesh, is flesh." Born of God, it partakes of 
 another nature, a nature that is spiritual and 
 divine ; for " that which is born of the Spirit is 
 spirit." If men were not by nature totally 
 sinful, this change would not be necessary. 
 The fountain head is polluted, and the streams 
 are impure. There is no moral conformity of 
 soul to the pure image of its Maker. The un- 
 derstanding is darkened ; the conscience has 
 become a perverted and erring guide ; the heart 
 is corrupt ; and the passions are like a stormy 
 
230 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 sea whose waters cast up mire and dirt. The 
 thoughts are ungoverned and ungovernable ; 
 the imagination vain and corrupt ; the memory 
 reposes with gratified complacency on scenes 
 of wickedness ; the whole mind is alienated 
 from the Author of its being and the true 
 sources of permanent and virtuous joy. And, 
 what is most melancholy proof of this deep- 
 seated wickedness, these evil propensities, this 
 antipathy to good and proneness to sin, are 
 never entirely eradicated this side the grave, 
 even in the best of men. When we pray, 
 " Forgive us our debts," we acknowledge that 
 we have incurred this forfeiture. There is a 
 concession in this request that we have no 
 righteousness inherent. How humbling, how 
 prostrating the consideration that we are thus 
 vile ! 
 
 Inseparable from this corrupt nature, there 
 are unnumbered deeds of wickedness, and overt 
 violations of the divine law, by which men 
 have incurred the still more fearful obligations 
 to punitive justice. We have but to read its 
 precepts and prohibitions and compare our 
 character and conduct with these high claims, 
 in order to be convinced that the amount of ur 
 forfeitures is such as to throw us at the footst jol 
 of mercy, and make us the merest beggars for 
 forgiving grace. Everywhere men have otbei 
 
THE DOCTRINE OP FORGIVENESS. 231 
 
 gods beside the living and true God ; they set 
 up idols in their hearts even where they do not 
 worship gods which their own hands have made. 
 They take the name of God in vain ; their lips 
 glow with curses and imprecations of evil ; they 
 '* set their mouth against the heavens, and their 
 tongue walketh through the earth." They dis- 
 honor that holy Day which God has ordained 
 and blessed ; are cold and lukewarm in its du- 
 ties, and neglect them for their own pleasures. 
 Parents are unmindful of their duty to their 
 children, and children are disrespectful and dis- 
 obedient to their parents. Rulers are tyrants, 
 and subjects are rebels against good and whole- 
 some laws. Indifference, anger, hatred, and 
 envy, in all the forms of outward unkindness 
 and malignity, take the place of the charity 
 that believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
 beareth all things, and never faileth. Wars 
 and fightings, intemperance and impurity, prod- 
 igality and idleness, fraud and falsehood, ava- 
 rice, cruelty and ambition, all hold a wide place 
 in the character and conduct of men. Added 
 to these are all the forms of ingratitude ; the 
 various shades of unbelief; the rejection of the 
 great salvation ; the resistance of the Holy 
 Spirit, and the abuse of the divine forbearance ; 
 all and every one of them long continued, often 
 repeated, multiplied as the stars of the firma- 
 
232 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 ment, and persisted in with great perseverance 
 and obduracy. 
 
 If every sin deserves God's wrath and curse, 
 sins like these give the divine justice impera- 
 tive and resistless claims upon their perpetra- 
 tors. They are righteously devoted to punish- 
 ment. Sin tends to usurp God's government ; 
 he only knows the demerit of it ; nor does he 
 ever mistake in appointing the punishment to the 
 crime. No matter how low a man may set the 
 mark of transgression ; every sin, ev en the 
 smallest, involves the nature and essence of all 
 other sins. It is a world of sin in miniature, and 
 only wants time and opportunity to unfold its 
 dark imagery. 
 
 Nor is the bond that connects sin with pun- 
 ishment a doubtful one ; it is inviolable, and 
 full of wrath. The sentence is past; the death- 
 warrant is gone forth ; and if there be no for- 
 giveness, the transgressor must " depart ac- 
 cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
 devil and his angels." It is not sovereignty 
 that punishes, but justice ; a justice, which, 
 while it never inflicts more than is deserved, 
 may not inflict less. It is not revenge that pun- 
 ishes, but principle ; otherwise it might change 
 its purpose. It is not malice, for then it might 
 be satiated ; it is pure, unchanging rectitude, 
 which may not be satisfied until the transgressor 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 233 
 
 n^ceive the full reward of his deeds, or take 
 refuge in some accepted atonement. Not only 
 i:, he in debt to justice, but his arrears are 
 continually augmented and augmenting. And 
 it is this which unfolds to us the momentous 
 character of the request, ''Forgive us our debts." 
 For if the claim is enforced, the offender has no 
 other way of liquidating it than by sinking un- 
 der the burden in that world where the worm 
 does not die, and the fire is not quenched. 
 
 Such is man's need; and it suggests substan- 
 tially the only true illustration of the doctrine of 
 forgiveness, God is willing to forgive; he is dis- 
 posed to pardon, from the infinite benevolence 
 of liis nature. Who can doubt this, that knows 
 " that he is good and does good, and that his 
 tender mercies are over all his works?" Who 
 can doubt it, who has heard that his name is 
 " Love ?" Yet it may not be affirmed, that in 
 his mere benevolence we have any assurance 
 of his pardoning mercy. Goodness may punish ; 
 nay, it must punish the ill-deserving. A good 
 law punishes; a good judge punishes; and the 
 more certainly because they are good. How- 
 ever inclined to forgive the divine Lawgiver 
 may be, and however strongly moved to acts of 
 mercy by the tenderness of his own kind nature, 
 justice has claims as well as clemency and com- 
 passion. And what shall countervail these right- 
 
234 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 ful demands ? Reason cannot; conscience dare 
 not. The whole history of the divine govern- 
 ment is proof that sin cannot go unpunished. 
 The nature of the Deity forbids it ; because he 
 is just and righteous, as well as good and kind. 
 His law forbids it, and stands forth a pledge to 
 the universe that it knows no such thing as im- 
 punity for crime. It is essential to the character 
 of God as Lawgiver, that w herever the claims 
 of his law are violated, his authority be enforced 
 by the infliction of its penalty; otherwise it is no 
 longer law, and he no longer Lawgiver. 
 
 The inquiry recurs, therefore, with redoubled 
 emphasis. Is there forgiveness with God? Is 
 there any such method of mercy as does not 
 overlook, but satisfies and honors the demands 
 of justice ? Is it possible to indemnify justice, 
 and yet pardon the transgressor ? The problem 
 is a dark and diflicult one ; yet, glory to God in 
 the highest, there is a solution of it. It is possi- 
 sihle. There is peace on earth, and good-will to 
 men, in the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 The adorable God, in his unsearchable w-isdom, 
 had discovered that the infliction of the punish- 
 ment upon a competejit substitute is, in his gra- 
 cious method of reckoning, an equivalent to 
 the curse due to transgressors. As such, it is 
 accepted by justice in full satisfaction of all her 
 demands; so that the repentant and believing 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS. 235 
 
 transgressor is in this way restored to the divine 
 favor, and pardoned through this vicarious sac- 
 rifice. 
 
 The selected system of representation, com- 
 menced under the first Adam, is thus completed 
 under the second, the Lord from heaven. The 
 eternal Son, in human nature, " the just for the 
 unjust," is " set forth a propitiation, through 
 faith in his blood." On the revealed and simple 
 condition of receiving him as their Saviour and 
 Lord, his death avails for the pardon of sin. 
 This is God's method of pardon. Because the 
 w^ondrous provision for its payment originated 
 with the clemency of the divine Creditor, and 
 flowed from his own exhaustless treasury, the 
 debt is very properly said to be forgiven. To 
 us it is gratuitous; to him it was costly. To us 
 it is grace ; to him it was justice. To us it is 
 gift ; to him it was ransom — a gift purchased by 
 his own blood. The procuring cause of it is found, 
 not in the sinner, not in what he has done, or can 
 perform, but in what has been done and suflfered 
 by another. 
 
 So far as it respects the divine law, and the 
 wrath of God as its great guardian and pro- 
 tector, the forgiveness of the offender is com- 
 plete from the moment he repents and believes 
 the Gospel. " Being justified by faith, we have 
 peace with God, through our Lord Jesus 
 
236 THE xMERCY SEAT. 
 
 Christ;" "there is, therefore, now no condem- 
 nation to them which are in Christ Jesus." But 
 it is not a forgiveness that frees him from the 
 temporary chastisements of paternal discipline, 
 nor from many a frown of his angry Father. He 
 is not exempted from these even by the law of 
 grace. " If his children forsake my law, and 
 walk not in my judgments; if they break my 
 statutes, and keep not my commandments; then 
 will I visit their iniquity with the rod, and their 
 transgression with stripes." 
 
 Nor yet is it a forgiveness of which the believ- 
 er is always conscious. The Mary that washed 
 the Saviour's feet with her tears, was pardoned 
 before her pardon was declared ; she did not 
 know it until it was said to her, " Woman, thy 
 sins are forgiven thee ; go in peace !" Pardon does 
 not necessarily imply the assurance of pardon. A 
 pardoned sinner may labor under doubts and 
 fears ; and because his faith is weak, he may not 
 have the sense of pardon, and the comfortable 
 intimation of it to his own soul. And this, in ad- 
 dition to his daily sins, is a reason why he daily 
 prays for pardoning mercy. He would have the 
 evidence of pardon, the pledge, the healing 
 power of atoning blood. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that in this prayer, the 
 Saviour says nothing of the ground of pardon, or 
 of asking forgiveness in his name. Socinians 
 
THE DOCTRINE OP FORGIVENESS. 237 
 
 and Unitarians have not been backward in mak- 
 ing use of this circumstance as indicating that 
 there is pardon for the sinner without any atone- 
 ment for his sins. Yet is there a concession in 
 the petition itself, not only that we have no 
 merit of our own, but that of ourselves we 
 cannot procure it ; we are sinners and have 
 nothing of our own to plead. The Socinian the- 
 ory must contradict one part or other of God^s 
 word ; either the representations of his grace, 
 or his righteousness. With this system, Chris- 
 tianity has not one principle of faith or hope 
 in common ; it has neither part nor lot with 
 them. It was of right that God exacted the 
 penalty of his law; of grace that he provi- 
 ded a substitute. To Christ the pardon of his 
 people is a debt ; he can claim it as the stipu- 
 lated compensation for his obedience to the 
 death of the cross. To them it is a debt forgiven, 
 cancelled ; it is pure grace. In this petition we 
 cast ourselves upon the mercy of God in Christ. 
 In no one instance in all God's word is there 
 any promise of forgiveness, either in princi- 
 ple, or fact, except for Christ's sake. The 
 Saviour at the time he taught them this prayer, 
 left his disciples with the previous teachings, 
 mainly of the Old Testament. The time had 
 not come for clearer and more explicit instruc- 
 tions. It was subsequent to giving them this 
 
238 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 model of supplication, that he said, " Hitherto 
 ye have asked nothing in my name." They 
 had never yet come into the divine presence 
 upon the merit of that Sacrifice actually offered, 
 the blood of that Atonement actually shed, and 
 already fresh and flowing on the altar of justice. 
 This is our privilege; but it was not then theirs. 
 To us the veil of the temple has been rent in 
 twain from the top to the bottom. Our access 
 is indicated by the soldier's spear, when it rent 
 the divine humanity and perforated the heart of 
 God's only son. We come, not with the blood 
 of bulls and of goats, but with the blood of his 
 great sacrifice, which never loses its efficacy, 
 which is always as it were newly shed, assuring 
 us that we ask not in vain, when we pray, '' For- 
 give us our debts as we forgive our debtors !" 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS. 
 
 "/nrgiDB n ni BrhtS; m mt /nrgiDB nut BBhta/' 
 
 Such is the doctrine of forgiveness ; and it 
 lays the foundation for prayer for forgiveness. 
 When a guilty sinner addresses himself to the 
 God of pardons, with the language on his lips, 
 " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debt- 
 ors," the matter for prayer is to be found in the 
 instructions of God's word in regard to the prin- 
 ciple, the encouragement, and great object of 
 this request. If men are the sinful and ill-de- 
 serving creatures which the word of God repre- 
 sents them to be ; if Jesus Christ condescended 
 to lay dow n his life as a sacrifice for their sins ; 
 and if for his sake God is the God of pardons ; 
 these are good reasons why they should repair 
 to the throne of grace, that the effects of this 
 sacrifice may be applied, and thus may in all 
 its healing powers be conveyed to their own bo- 
 soms. These great truths are not only a suffi- 
 
240 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 cient warrant for the request, but also intimate 
 the manner and spirit in which it should be 
 offered. 
 
 The most superficial view of the nature and 
 objects of prayer cannot fail to teach us that 
 such a request as this should be offered with 
 great seriousness of mind. We would not go into 
 the presence of an earthly prince, even though 
 it were to solicit an ordinary favor, without fore- 
 thought and preparation ; much less would we 
 come as culprits to his throne to beg the inter- 
 position of royal prerogative in the exercise of 
 the pardoning power, without respect and rev- 
 erence. In prayer, we go into the presence of 
 our Maker, to solicit audience of Him whose 
 word spake worlds into existence, and before 
 whom '^ all nations are as nothing, and are 
 counted to him less than nothing and vanity." 
 We go to entreat him to condescend to hear 
 and pardon a human rebel ; to plead at the 
 throne of the " King eternal, immortal, and in- 
 visible," for the deliverance of the soul that will 
 never die, from chains of darkness and vials of 
 wrath. It is no trilling matter to hold commu- 
 nion with the God of heaven on such an errand 
 as this. He is mighty to save and to destroy. 
 If before him angels bow and devils tremble, no 
 sinner niay take his name upon his lips, without 
 feeling that it is a word of solemn, of awful, of 
 
PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS. 241 
 
 gracious import. If ever the soul ought to com- 
 mand itself into veneration and awe, it is w^hen 
 she comes to cast herself upon the mercy of 
 God in Christ, for the pardon of sin. To go in 
 a careless, unprepared manner, with trifling and 
 disrespect, or without great consideration and 
 seriousness, or without unaffected tenderness of 
 conscience and heart, were to offer the prayer 
 that is emphatically an abomination. Such re- 
 quests are worse than " vain oblations ;" they 
 are gross insult, insolence not to be endured, 
 were not the divine patience lengthened out 
 even to long-suffering. 
 
 There is also an honesty of intention, a simpli- 
 citij and godly sincerity in the man who offers 
 this request, without which he may not hope to 
 find access. A cold, formal, listless mind when 
 the transgressor pleads for mercy, is in ill keep- 
 ing with the object of his prayer. It is a guilty 
 and sinful worm who has sinned against heaven 
 and before God, and is no more w^orthy to be 
 called his servant, much less to be accounted 
 his child, who sues for mercy from the dread 
 Lord of heaven and earth, and the compassion- 
 ate Father of all mercies . Surely, if the heart 
 ought ever to respond to every sentence the lips 
 utter, it is when he is thus employed. Such a 
 suppliant may well fill his mouth with argu- 
 ments, and urge his request by all those consid- 
 11 
 
242 THE MERCr SEAT. 
 
 eralions which a reflecting mind and a burdened 
 conscience can draw from the fountains of God's 
 truth and the riches of his grace. He will not 
 satisfy himself with the words of prayer, but 
 from a burdened heart will say, " I am poor and 
 needy ; O God, help me ! Thou art my helper 
 and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my 
 God !" The soul itself is at such seasons 
 brought near to Him who is a Spirit and must 
 be worshipped in spirit and in truth. 
 
 There is earnest^iess in the man, who, touched 
 w^ith his lost condition as a sinner, comes in 
 sober verity to the foot of the throne, to crave 
 pardon from a forgiving God, that bespeaks the 
 struggles that are within. " Out of the depths," 
 says the agonizing Psalmist, " have I cried unto 
 thee, O Lord. Lord hear my voice ; let thine 
 ears be attentive to the voice of my supplica- 
 tions !" The horror of the deserved curse is 
 that w^hich he deprecates; and if he prays as 
 he ought, a dying man cannot be more sincere 
 and in earnest. " Have mercy upon me, O 
 God, according to thy loving kindness ; accord- 
 ing to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot 
 out my transgressions !" Yes, there is honesty, 
 there is interest, there is awakened attention 
 and steady thought, there is eagerness of desire, 
 that not unfrequently express themselves in 
 ^' strong crying and many tears," when lips of 
 
PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS. 243 
 
 clay plead for mercy from the God of mercy. 
 Many a deep emotion agitates the bosom then. 
 To be in an unforgiven state, is to be in a fear- 
 ful state. Wo to the man whose thoughts were 
 never engrossed by this great concern ! and to 
 w horn pardon and peace, through the blood of 
 Jesus, do not appear more important realities 
 than all the phantoms ever crowded within the 
 compass of this perishing world ! 
 
 To be offered either in seriousness or in sin- 
 cerity, this request must also be offered in peni- 
 tence. Arrested attention and awakened sensi- 
 bility, earnestness and agony in prayer, may not 
 always be the sure and unfailing indices of a 
 broken and contrite heart. Thousands have no 
 doubt cried for mercy, amid the convulsive ago- 
 nies of death, who died in impenitence and 
 despair. A man may tremble under the rebukes 
 of a terrified conscience ; he may weep and turn 
 pale at the fear of hell, without shedding one 
 tear of contrition, without one pang of godly 
 sorrow. 
 
 Penitence implies a sense of sin, mourning on 
 account of it, hatred of it, and turning from it 
 unto God. The Gospel is no " glad tidings of 
 great joy" to those who do not feel their need 
 of pardon. Pardon and a sense of sin that is 
 humbling to the soul, stand indissolubly coupled 
 in the Scriptures. There is something absurd 
 
844 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 in the idea, that an obdurate and impenitent 
 mind ever truly, and in the Scriptural use of the 
 word, 'pray for forgiveness. There is r^o such 
 thing as an impenitent prayer for God's mercy. 
 There may be the words, the agony, the " ex- 
 ceeding great and bitter cry" of Esau; but 
 there is no sprayer. It were an insult to the God 
 of heaven for a man to pray for pardon, and yet 
 continue to walk in the ways of sin and perdition. 
 Such a petition would be implicitly asking God 
 to deny himself. Men may regret that they are 
 sinners, because they are afraid of the recom- 
 pense of their wickedness ; but this is sorrow for 
 the consequences of sin. It is the sorrow of 
 Ahab and of Judas ; not the sorrow of David and 
 Peter. It is the " sorrow of the world, that 
 worketh death." It is such a sorrow as the 
 devils have, who still love sin. There is no 
 greater penitentiary in the universe than hell it- 
 self; yet is there no godly sorrow there. A 
 sense of sin consists not in a bare rational specu- 
 lation, or intellectual perception of the nature 
 of sin, nor in the bitterness of grief for its conse- 
 quences, but in the honest feeling of its base- 
 ness, a feeling of its base and hateful evil, and 
 not an evil in its consequences only. Nor is it an 
 abstract view, but a sense of our ow7i wicked- 
 ness, that becomes us when we approach Him, 
 who is " of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." 
 
PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS. 246 
 
 Nor may the truth be overlooked, that external 
 acts are but a small part of that over which the 
 penitent weeps. He is humbled on account of the 
 sins of liis heart, as well as the sins of his life. 
 Deep humiliation of soul for his past offences, and 
 for the present and internal power of sin are insep- 
 arable from his every prayer for pardoning mercy. 
 
 There can be no pardon granted where this 
 spirit is not in exercise. "He that exalteth 
 himself, shall be abased; and he that humbleth 
 himself, shall be exalted." " He that covereth 
 his sins, shall not prosper; but he that confess- 
 eth and forsaketh them, shall find mercy." It 
 is not befitting the great and holy God, even for 
 the sake of his Son, to grant pardon to a man 
 who has no true relentings of soul for his 
 offences. This would be to make his Son " the 
 minister of sin." Men would sin, that his grace 
 might abound. The dispensing power of his gov- 
 ernment does not extend acts of pardon to 
 such a man ; nor has any man a right to ask for 
 them, on any such terms. 
 
 Reason, and conscience, and common sense, 
 all confirm these teachings of the Bible. They 
 teach us that there is a spirit of self-abasement, 
 which is founded on a sense of personal sinful- 
 ness, and which throws the sinner at the feet of 
 mercy. And all the experience of godly men 
 does but establish these wholesome teachings. 
 
246 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 They " look on Him whom they have pierced, 
 and mourn ;" they are '' ashamed and confound- 
 ed, and know not how to lift up their faces any 
 more." They have such a humiliating convic- 
 tion of their defilement as urges them to cry, 
 " Unclean, unclean !" and such a sorrowful sense 
 of their guilt and unworthiness, as constrains 
 them to cry out, " Behold, I am vile ; what shall 
 I answer thee ?" 
 
 It is not an inappropriate employment of the 
 soul, before she goes thus to the mercy seat, to 
 call herself to an account, and look into the sins 
 whereby she has offended God. The most hon- 
 est and enlightened are in the dark as to the 
 number and magnitude of their offences, and 
 have reason to say w ith the Patriarch, '' Make 
 me to know^ my transgressions and my sins ;" 
 and to acknowledge and pray with the Psalmist, 
 " Who can understand his errors ? Cleanse 
 thou me from secret faults !" The life of the 
 honest suppliant is a life of habitual penitence ; 
 but nowhere does he exercise so true, so godly, 
 and so deep a sorrow, as when he comes near 
 to a forgiving God, and contemplates both his 
 majesty and mercy. There at the throne of 
 grace, his heart breaks ; at those fountains of 
 mercy, his tears flow. Clad with deformity, 
 covered with filthiness, defiled with the abomi- 
 nations of sin that draws after it everlasting 
 
PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS, 247 
 
 unworthiness and ill-desert, he asks "to be 
 washed and made clean. 
 
 There may be those who know njothing of 
 these impressions; there may be those who 
 scoff at them ; but they are far from the king- 
 dom of God. Wo to the man whose sense of 
 sin never disturbs his tranquillity; never puts a 
 check on his worldly amusements and gay di- 
 versions ; never drives him to his knees to say, 
 " God be merciful to me, a sinner V 
 
 It is no small matter to know how to find the 
 way to the throne of grace with the prayer for 
 forgiveness upon our lips. The man who has not 
 felt this difficulty has yet to learn that he is a 
 sinner. If, as we have already seen, all our de- 
 votions of whatever kind, must be offered to 
 God in Christ's name, and he himself is the al- 
 tar on which every acceptable offering is laid ; 
 there is still a stronger propriety in the appoint- 
 ment that our supplications for pardon be offered 
 in his name, because it is only by redemption 
 through his blood, and forgiveness of sin through 
 the riches of his grace, that such a request 
 could ever have been thought of Other mer- 
 cies flow through the blood of Christ ; but they 
 flow indirectly, and as the consequence of his 
 Propitiation ; while the remission of the pen- 
 alty of the law for sin is the immediate and di- 
 rect object of his death, and that which made 
 
248 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 it necessary. The appropriate work of Christ 
 is to take away sin, and by his bitter passion 
 and ignominious death to dissolve the bondage 
 of its curse. True penitence has a living ap- 
 prehension of the Lord Jesus as the mediatoi 
 and the procurer of pardon ; it takes hold of the 
 Lord Jesus as the divine and mighty sufferer ; it 
 pleads his agony and bloody sweat, his scoffs and 
 ignominy, his thirst and abandonment, his crown 
 of thorns, his shame and spitting, his bitter 
 cry and his bloody cross. Here it rests its plea. 
 '' It is Christ that died." This is the sacrifice 
 which the law honors and w ith wiiich justice is 
 satisfied. O it is an inexpressible relief to the 
 soul burdened with sin, and bowing to the jus- 
 tice of the sentence that condemns it, to have 
 the confidence that in extending pardon to the 
 guilty there is no sacrifice of righteousness. 
 This great atonement he does, as it w^ere, carry 
 with him to the Mercy Seat. He offers what 
 divine justice requires ; and only wonders that 
 infinite love should have stooped so low as to 
 provide itself the sacrifice, and permit him to 
 offer another's life instead of his own. 
 
 The faith of prayer is the prayer of faith. 
 Faith is reliance upon testimony, and is founded 
 on the veracity of the witness. " This is the 
 testimony of God that he hath given us eternal 
 life, and this life is in his Son." And it is " of 
 
PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS. 249 
 
 the operation of God." There is no natural 
 principle in the carnal mind that can produce it. 
 It is " given" to the suppliant " in the behalf of 
 Christ, to believe in his name." Sin is a con- 
 tinual and unmingled lie, and has no affinity to 
 God's truth. The faith which the sinner exer- 
 cises in prayer honors the truth of God, and in 
 that truth finds a sufficient warrant to deposit 
 all his solicitude and all his burden on the Lamb 
 of God. He has confidence in his atoning 
 blood. Even under his greatest doubts and 
 distress, he will not quit his hold on the God- 
 man Mediator, nor discard his faith. Lord, 
 none but Thee ; none but Thee ! 
 
 It is a delightful thought, too, that associated 
 as this request is with the name of Christ, it is 
 offered in hope. Despair cannot pray. Despair 
 has no language but its sullen and expressive 
 silence, or its maddened shriek of agony. It is 
 impossible to pray for pardon, where pardon is 
 hopeless. The mercy seat is the throne of 
 grace, and the emblem of hope. No good 
 comes of despairing of mercy. The adversary 
 would drive the soul to despair, that it may 
 seal its lips of supplication : he would seal the 
 lips of supplication, that he may drive it to de- 
 spair. Take away all hope of mercy, and the 
 throne which is now so attractive to the guilty, 
 would repel them by its forbidding thunder and 
 11* 
 
250 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 its flaming fires. It is only when the suppliant 
 looks to God, not as the Holy God merely ; not 
 merely as the Lawgiver and avenger ; but as 
 the God of love and the Father of mercies, 
 that he comes near even to his seat, points to 
 the sin-atoning Lamb, and says. My Father, 
 who art in heaven, forgive thy rebellious, thy 
 guilty child ! There is '' a rainbow^ around 
 about the throne" then, and he looks up with 
 hope. There is balm in Gilead, and a physician 
 there. The Spirit of adoption descends upon 
 him, and he cries, Abba, Father! God will 
 abundantly pardon. High as the heavens are 
 above the earth, so great is his mercy toward 
 them that fear him. Human conception, human 
 conjecture, human iniquities cannot measure it. 
 " I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy trans- 
 gressions for my name's sake, and will no more 
 remember thy sins." It is not the voice of 
 creatures which cheers the suppliant thus bow- 
 ing at the throne, when it says, " Neither do I 
 condemn thee ; go and sin no more !" 
 
 Such is the spirit with which this request 
 should be offered. " Forgive us our debts, as 
 we forgive our debtors." It is in the exercise 
 of this seriousness of mind, this honesty and 
 simplicity of intention, this penitential sense of 
 sin, this faith in the Mediator, and this hope in 
 abounding mercy, that the sinning and guilty 
 
PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS. 251 
 
 ^ons and daughters of men are encouraged to 
 seek forgiveness from God, They need for- 
 giveness, and they need it daily. Vain is the 
 attempt to silence the voice of conscience, much 
 as her remonstrances may be suppressed, and the 
 strength of her rebukes impaired by sin. No 
 man can practise this deception on himself with 
 ultimate success. The God of heaven is able 
 at any moment to fasten a sense of guilt upon 
 him that is greater than he can bear. He can 
 do it on the bed of languishing, or under the 
 pressure of external calamity, or in the flush of 
 health, and in the heyday of cheerfulness and 
 folly. There are a thousand ways in which he 
 can take off the covering from the secret 
 thoughts of men, refresh their memory in view 
 of sins long past and long forgotten, and incite 
 their sluggish conscience and sleeping fears. 
 And they shall have no means to prevent reflec- ^ 
 tion, or divert their thoughts from the gloomy 
 retrospect ; but their wickedness, in all its forms 
 of ugliness and horror, shall be present to their 
 minds, and haunt their imaginations like so 
 many ill-boding messengers of avenging justice. 
 It were the part of wisdom in impenitent and 
 unpardoned men to treat conscience as a friend; 
 to throw no obstructions in the way of her faith- 
 ful scrutiny ; to invite her unsparing rebuke, 
 though she scourge them with her vituperating 
 
252 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 tongue, and lash them with her whip of scorpi? 
 ons. Better suffer all this, than grieve the Spirit 
 of God, become hardened through the deceitful- 
 ness of sin, and be overwhelmed with still more 
 insupportable convictions when the day of re- 
 pentance, and prayer, and pardon is past. 
 
 There is hope for the man who feels that he 
 is a sinner. Delightful thought, that to the wri- 
 ter and the reader, there is a mercy-seat, and an 
 open way to it by the blood of Jesus Christ. It 
 is good news from heaven, that " the Son of Man 
 came to seek and to save that which was lost;'' 
 that he wounds in order to heal ; that he 
 " breaks not the bruised reed, nor quenches the 
 smoking flax." There are no higher, no greater 
 goodness and mercy, than the contrite and sup- 
 pliant offender finds at this mercy seat. They 
 are the highest goodness and mercy in the uni- 
 verse, there treasured up in Jesus Christ, and 
 freely dispensed by him to whoever will ask and 
 take them. 
 
 Let none be surprised to learn, that there is 
 no forgiveness for those who do not ask it. A 
 prayerless man is an impenitent man; and the 
 decree never will be altered, ''Except ye re- 
 pent, ye shall all likewise perish." There 
 would be no meaning in prayer, if men could be 
 saved without it. The light of heaven would be 
 obscured ; the mercy seat, its( If the beauty and 
 
pivAYER F(jh forgiveness. 253v 
 
 glory of heaven, would be tarnished ; could 
 a prayerless sinner enter into the kingdom of 
 God. It would be a contempt of justice, an out- 
 rage on the very sanctuary of mercy. 
 
 Is the reader, then, familiar with the spirit of 
 this request ? does he know the relief of pardon 
 and grace ? does he know the preciousness of 
 such a prayer ? Where a sense of sin has taken 
 hold of the conscience, much more where divine 
 grace has bruised the heart, and made it con- 
 trite, the mercy seat is indeed a covert from the 
 tempest. Here, there is redemption through 
 the blood of Jesus, forgiveness of sins according 
 to the riches of his grace. Let those who 
 have not accepted this redemption, be admon- 
 ished that there is not the least ray of hope from 
 any other quarter. Where the waves and bil- 
 lows of God's wrath go over the soul, it must 
 take refuge in this sure and safe retreat, or 
 suffer shipwreck for eternity. 
 
 It is the God of mercy who has taught us to 
 pray for mercy. It was not in vain that he so- 
 journed here on earth, if it had been only to in- 
 struct us to say, " Forgive, as we forgive." 
 Having left his cross, and ascended to his 
 throne, his language is, " Him that cometh 
 to me, I will in no wise cast out.'^ You will 
 stand speechless and condemned before his 
 throne of judgment, if you find not forgiveness 
 
^54 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 at his throne of grace. Think not that such a 
 privilege may be regarded with indifference, or 
 such a duty deferred to a more convenient sea- 
 son. Talk not of such a season. You may de- 
 lay in other matters, but not here. Delay — 
 what ? Delay becoming a man of prayer ! delay 
 becoming a pardoned sinner ! Belay deliverance 
 from the burden of sin, and the terrors of the 
 law ! Belay a pacified conscience, and the 
 sweet intimations of your heavenly Father's 
 love ! Belay going and clinging to the ark of 
 the covenant, as your only hope ! Millions of 
 worlds were no recompense for the delay of one 
 poor hour. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A FORGIVING SPIRIT 
 
 In speaking of the spirit with which the partic- 
 ular request for the forgiveness of sin should be 
 offered, we have reserved for a separate chapter 
 the possession of a forgiving spirit in our own 
 bosoms. " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive 
 our debtors.'' As Christianity would leave no 
 hopes for the guilty, did it not reveal the truth 
 that there is forgiveness with God for men, so it 
 w^ould lose its lustre, did it not reveal the duty 
 of forgiveness from men to one another. A par- 
 doned sinner is never more justly obnoxious to 
 reproach, than when he expresses an unforgiving 
 spirit toward those who have injured him; and 
 he never appears more in his true, heaven- 
 imparted, and heaven-resembling glory, than 
 when he forgives even as he himself is forgiven 
 of God. 
 
 The language, " as we forgive our debtors," 
 
266 THE MERCY SEAT, 
 
 cannot mean to institute a comparison between 
 God's mercies and our own ; for the dispropor- 
 tion is immeasurable and infinite. The injuries 
 we receive from our fellow-men, in nature, in 
 magnitude, in number, form the extreme con- 
 trast, rather than any just and rational compari- 
 son with those which God has received from us. 
 Forgiveness in creatures is the same in kind with 
 forgiveness in God ; while, in measure and de- 
 gree, his pardon as far exceeds our own as the 
 heavens are above the earth, and the ocean ex- 
 ceeds the drop of dew. 
 
 The forgiveness of injuries inflicted on our- 
 selves, is not any equivalent for the mercy we ask 
 of God, nor does it render us in any way deserving 
 of his pardons; for this would countervail the 
 whole spirit of the Gospel, and displace the work 
 of Christ as the only foundation of pardoning mer- 
 cy. There is a very obvious distinction between 
 the foundation of forgiveness, and the revealed 
 condition of forgiveness. Without the work of 
 Christ, 720 man may be forgiven, whatever maybe 
 his own personal character ; w hile, in view and 
 on account of his great and meritorious work, for- 
 giveness is imparted only to a well-defined class 
 of men. The Scriptures sometimes specify one 
 Christian grace as the condition of forgiveness, 
 and sometimes another. The sum and substance 
 of their instructions on this subject are, that while 
 
A FORGIVING SPIRIT. 257 
 
 no man is entitled to acceptance with God, save 
 for the Redeemer's obedience to the death of the 
 cross, those and those only are thus entitled who 
 are Christian men, who possess a religious and 
 spiritual character, and are radically diiferent 
 from what they once were, when " dead in tres- 
 passes and sins." As one of the exemplifications 
 of this general principle, ?i forgiving spirit holds 
 a high and distinguished place. Other truths 
 may be taught more frequently in the Bible, but 
 none is taught more plainly than this, that a for- 
 giving spirit to those who have injured us, 
 though not the meritorious condition of forgive- 
 ness from God, is that without which none ob- 
 tain forgiveness. " For if ye forgive men," says 
 the Saviour, " their trespasses, your heavenly 
 Father will also forgive you ; but if ye forgive 
 not men their trespasses, neither will your hea- 
 venly Father forgive your trespasses." Else- 
 where he says, " When ye stand praying, for- 
 give, if ye have aught against any ; that your 
 Father also which is in heaven may forgive your 
 trespasses." Again, he says, " Blessed are the 
 merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Again, 
 it is written, " With the merciful, thou wilt 
 show thyself merciful." And again, as though 
 the Spirit of God would sound the note of alarm 
 on the conscience of every severe and unforgiv- 
 ing man, it stands recorded, " He shall have 
 
258 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 judgment without mercy, that hath showed no 
 mercy." 
 
 We may be in debt to men as w^ell as to God, 
 and men may be indebted to us. They may 
 have done us injury, unprovoked and flagrant 
 injury; as we ourselves have done, in forms so 
 varied, in numbers so countless, in enormity so 
 aggravated, to our Father who is in heaven. The 
 spirit of forgiveness toward them is not a Sto- 
 ical insensibility to wrong, nor a careless indif- 
 ference to the injuries inflicted upon us. This 
 forms no part of God's character toward those 
 who have sinned against Him. There is no 
 being in the universe so sensitive to evil, so 
 alive to the indignity which men have done to 
 his nature, authority and goodness, as that pure 
 and holy Being to whom all sin is " that abomi- 
 nable thing which his soul hateth." Not to be 
 so were connivance at iniquity — a spirit which 
 dwells in no virtuous and honorable mind. 
 
 Nor is the spirit of forgiveness merely a 
 restraint laid upon the angry passions ; a smoth- 
 ering of our resentment; a mere forbearance 
 of the outward acts of retaliation while yet 
 the heart prompts to revenge. There is noth- 
 ing like God in this ; nothing Christ-like ; noth- 
 ing like the spirit of holy love, and the kind- 
 ness and charity of heaven. Many a mind 
 of lofty bearing retires as it w^ere within itself, 
 
A FORGIVING SPIRIT. 259 
 
 and indulges in moody silence the bitterness of 
 its awakened and suppressed emotions of anger. 
 This may be a dignified self-complacency in the 
 soul's powers of endurance ; it may be deceit 
 and hypocrisy ; but it is not a forgiving spirit. 
 Many a proud and unforgiving spirit demeans 
 itself thus, which treasures up injury in long 
 and revengeful remembrance ; wishes evil to 
 those who have injured him ; and if he is not 
 ready to do them evil, rejoices in their calamity. 
 - Still less is a forgiving spirit a haughty and con- 
 temptuous disregard of those who have wronged 
 us, as if they were beneath our notice. There 
 may be as much malignity and revenge in the 
 heart of such a man, as in the bosom of one who 
 demands the courtesies of social life from his 
 equals at the mouth of a pistol, or at the point 
 of his sword. " Proud and haughty sinner is 
 his name who dealeth in proud wrath." 
 
 A forgiving spirit is something of loftier ori- 
 gin; it is a noble, generous. Christian virtue. 
 It takes its rise in that love of God and man 
 which is the fruit of the Spirit and the fulfilling 
 of the law ; it is made up of love and forbear- 
 ance, united with the tenderness of compassion 
 toward those who have injured us, and fortified 
 by some just sense of our own sinfulness and 
 need of forgiveness from God. In the full sense 
 of the thing itself, it consists in the inward spirit 
 
260 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 of forgiveness and the outward act of reconcili- 
 ation. It belongs to the heart, just as every 
 other grace has its seat in the inner man. In 
 tliis view of it, it is the opposite of revenge, 
 which angrily seeks redress for injuries by in- 
 flicting injuries in return. It is the inward ex- 
 ercise of kindness and good will toward our 
 enemies and those who have wronged us. It is 
 an abhorrence of their wrong, yet a kind regard 
 for the wrong-doer. It cannot be genuine un- 
 less it be accompanied with these benevolent 
 emotions, and at a great remove from all bitter- 
 ness and wrath. God requires that we forgive 
 from the heart. Anything short of this is hy- 
 pocrisy, and is accounted as such in the judg- 
 ment of Him who seeth not as man seeth. The 
 language of the Saviour settles this point. '' So 
 likewise," says he, "shall my Heavenly Father 
 do also unto you, if ye from your heart forgive 
 not every one his brother their trespasses." 
 The requisitions of the Bible stop nothing short 
 of the complete concurrence of the soul in these 
 benevolent emotions. This inward spirit ought 
 to be always in exercise, w hatever may be the 
 character of those who have injured us, and 
 whatever their present and future conduct. 
 We may feel benevolently toward them with- 
 out at all committing ourselves in favor of their 
 conduct, or character. They may repeat the in- 
 
A FORGIVING SPIRIT. 261 
 
 jury they have done us every day of their lives, 
 but this does not warrant in us the spirit of ma- 
 Hgnity, or unkindness. We should love them 
 still, and do them good as we have opportunity. 
 It is not our place to avenge the wrong they 
 have done; "it is written, vengeance is mine, 
 I will repay, saith the Lord." 
 
 In addition to this inward spirit of kindness, 
 this constant disposition to forgive, there is also 
 the outward act of reconciliation. Of this we 
 must speak with more caution and discrimi- 
 nation, because a forgiving God here discrim- 
 inates. He himself is the "great and essen- 
 tial charity;" and we have no desire to be 
 more lavish in outward acts of reconciliation to 
 our enemies than he toward his. His inward 
 spirit of kindness toward his enemies never 
 ceases ; nor should ours cease toward our ene- 
 mies. AH the while they remain his enemies 
 he is doing them good ; and so should we to our 
 enemies as we have opportunity. But he is not 
 reconciled to them; he does not adopt them 
 into his family ; give them his complacency and 
 confidence, and acknowledge and treat them as 
 his friends, until they have become so. Nor 
 ought he to do this. Nor ought we thus to re- 
 store those who have injured us to our compla- 
 cency and confidence, and be outwardly recon- 
 ciled to them, and treat them as friends so long 
 
262 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 as they conduct themselves like enemies. The 
 spirit of forgiveness does not require this ; Jesus 
 Christ does not require it. '' If thy brother sin 
 against thee, and return and say, 1 repent, forgive 
 him." Forgiveness then, will, from its own kind 
 promptings, become outward reconciliation. It 
 will not be the reconciliation of words ; it w ill 
 not be any mere outward semblance of friend- 
 ship ; it will be frank, full, unfeigned. In fos- 
 tering such a spirit thus expressed, no man can 
 go too far. " If thy brother trespass against 
 thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a 
 day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt 
 forgive him." This is Christian forgiveness ; 
 this is forgiving in some faint measure as God 
 forgives ; this is placing forgiveness upon true 
 grounds — ground corresponding with the work 
 WTOught in the heart of every Christian man by 
 the Holy Spirit. Such forgiveness as God ap- 
 proves is alike the expression and the evidence 
 of a disposition produced by the power of his 
 grace in the soul that is itself forgiven. 
 
 Our task is comparatively easy, therefore, as 
 we proceed to show why the spirit of forgive- 
 ness in men is made a revealed condition of 
 their obtaining forgiveness from God. The rea- 
 son wiiy a man of an unforgiving spirit cannot 
 obtain forgiveness is, that he is destitute of all 
 true and genuine piety. The force of this re- 
 
A FORGIVING SPIRIT. 263 
 
 mark may perhaps be the better perceived by 
 something like the following observations. 
 
 Such a man has no true sense of his own sins. 
 It is not necessary, after what has been said in 
 the two previous chapters, to show that the 
 cure of sin must be preceded by a sense of the 
 malady, and with a humiliating conviction of 
 personal defilement. Those who are sensible 
 that they themselves have done so much to pro- 
 voke God's displeasure, and who constantly 
 stand in need of forgiveness, will be slow to 
 demand retribution for the petty injuries they 
 have received from their fellow-men. The 
 measure which an unforgiving spirit would 
 mete out to others, would bear hard upon their 
 own character. A due consideration of their 
 own indebtedness w ould make them placable, 
 if not suppress all desire of retaliation. The 
 hard-hearted creditor Avho had just been for- 
 given the ten thousand talents, and who yet 
 rigidly exacted from another the one hundred 
 pence, and in default thereof cast his debtor into 
 prison, justly excited the indignation of his Lord, 
 and the grief of his fellow-servants. Those 
 cannot think very often, nor reason very justly, 
 nor feel very deeply for their own liabilities, 
 who are thus rigorously severe. It is the most 
 lamentable of all sights to see a man who has 
 received injury from his fellows-worm, so forget- 
 
264 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 ful of his multiplied and aggravated offences 
 against God, as to go to the throne of grace and 
 plead for the pardon of his own sins, in the spirit 
 of revenge toward his offending brother ! A 
 sense of his own sins never could have rested 
 with w^eight upon the mind of such a man ; nor 
 could he ever have felt serious and lasting solici- 
 tude for his own soul. When one fellow-worm 
 displeases another, the latter is cold and dis- 
 tant ; he sw ells in self-importance ; he looks 
 big; there must be negotiation upon negotia- 
 tion ; and after all, there is no heart in the rec- 
 onciliation. But who art thou that thus judgest 
 another man's servant ? What w^onder if the 
 God of justice should say to such a man, " Pay 
 ME that thou owest !" 
 
 Nor do we see how such a man can have any 
 true sense of the divine mercy. That he must 
 have made a devout and humble application to 
 the Lord Jesus for mercy; must have succeeded 
 in his suit; and must have some grateful re- 
 membrance of those solemn transactions be- 
 tween the God of mercy and his own soul, in 
 order to be a Christia.i, all will allow. 
 
 We do pray for mercy ; 
 
 And that same prayer should lead us all 
 
 To render deeds of mercy. 
 
 How shall those hope for mercy, rendering none ?' 
 
A FORGIVING SPIRIT. 265 
 
 How do you forgive your fellow-men who tres- 
 pass against you ? This is the test by which 
 the Scriptures determine our own estimate of 
 the boundless mercy in which God hath caused 
 us to hope. It is horrible for a man, malignant 
 against those who have offended him, to come 
 and ask free forgiveness from God. Satisfaction 
 to the utmost farthing is insisted on by the 
 rebel, who, if he enjoys peace at all, must have 
 a free pardon from Him whose mercies are great 
 unto the heavens ! An unforgiving spirit has 
 never tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious ; 
 it is utterly inconsistent with the Christian hope. 
 Unforgiveness belongs to the unforgiving; it 
 belongs to those who are '' hateful and hating 
 one another." Its true and primeval residence 
 is tbe region of hate — the region of hell. The 
 devil's malice is more excusable, because he 
 gets no forgiveness. The pardoned sinner can 
 afford to forgive, for he knows what forgiveness 
 is. If others will have revenge, it belongs not 
 to him. He has what no otherspossess — pardon 
 from the God of pardons — forgiveness from him 
 whom he has provoked more than it is possible 
 for his fellow-men to provoke him. And he has 
 too the consolation that the approving and vigi- 
 lant eye of the Lord is upon him, and that he 
 has a refuge at his throne which is more than a 
 counterbalance for all that he can endure from 
 
266 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 his enemies. The throne of grace is accessible 
 to him ; but the face of the Lord is against the 
 revensreful, that he may cut them off. 
 
 It is equally true that a man of an unforgiving 
 spirit has no love to God in his heart. There is 
 no surer mark or criterion by which men may 
 determine whether they are in a state of accept- 
 ance or condemnation, than love to God. And 
 it must be owing to delusion, or the want of im- 
 partial inquiry, if any man, w ith the Bible in his 
 hands, can persuade himself tliat love to God is 
 compatible with an unforgiving spirit. For '' he 
 who loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, 
 how can he love God whom he hath not seen ?" 
 The only thing of God which he can see and 
 love, is this creature of God whom he hates. 
 The only thing of God which bears his image, 
 and which God requires him to love, and to for- 
 give, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven 
 him, is his brother against whom he is treasur- 
 ing up the long arrears of malignity and revenge. 
 "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his 
 brother, he is a liar." Thus summarily do the 
 Scriptures treat the man who professes to love 
 God, yet has an unforgiving spirit. Never was 
 man more baptized w^th the love of God, than 
 the disciple who made that unissierably tender 
 appeal, '' Beloved, if God so lovfd us, we ought 
 also to love one another." This is the 2:reat 
 
A FORGIVING SPIRIT. 267 
 
 principle of forgiveness. If God can see any- 
 thing in men to love, men may surely see some- 
 thing to love in one another. If He can love 
 creatures thus vile and abject, surely we, if we 
 know anything of the love of God ourselves, can 
 love them also. If He can overlook their faults, 
 we can cast the mantle of heavenly charity over 
 them, and forgive and love them still. If God's 
 love to us, and ours to him, were the ruling prin- 
 ciple of our conduct toward our fellow-men, we 
 should not find so wide a place in our hearts for 
 suspicion and wickedness, for jealousy, hatred, 
 and revenge. We should not find men rejoicing 
 in the calamity of their enemies, aggravating 
 their calamity and their offences, and holding 
 their persons in abhorrence. Much less should 
 we find men in the church of God, who will not 
 speak to each other for a whole year, dare to 
 come and sit down together at the table of 
 Christ, and commemorate that love to which 
 they are strangers. To injure our fellow-men, 
 is no proof of the love of God in the heart ; nor 
 is it any proof of that love, to treasure up the in- 
 jury. 
 
 Nor may we overlook the thought, that where 
 the spirit of forgiveness is wanting, there can be 
 no honest regard for the interests of human society . 
 The laws of Christ's kingdom do not allow any 
 man to live for himself alone. He who does this. 
 
268 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 is universally despised and condemned. " Israel 
 is an empty vine ; he bringeth forth fruit to him- 
 self." The man of an unforgiving spirit is gov^- 
 erned too much by a regard to himself, and too 
 little by a regard to the happiness of others, to 
 be a Christian man. He attaches no importance 
 to that course of conduct which tends to -make 
 the world in which he lives the holier and the 
 happier. The warmth of his benevolence is 
 chilled by too keen a sensibility to his private 
 interests. He cares not to heal the festering 
 sores that are breaking out, and spreading their 
 baleful infection. His is not the chanty which 
 " suffereth long, and is kind," which " is not 
 easily provoked," and " meditates no evil," 
 which " beareth all things, believeth all things, 
 hopeth all things," and *' seeketh not her ovv^n." 
 Men who, for want of a spirit of kindness, can 
 alienate themselves from the affections of those 
 around them ; who are so sensitive and irritable, 
 that they do little else than multiply enemies; 
 who give up all the sweets of human kindness, 
 for the sake of remembering and revenging some 
 worn-out injury, and who forego all the love of 
 friends, because they will not forgive their ene- 
 mies ; cannot be Christians. Animosity between 
 man and man will never cease, acrimony will 
 never be softened to the charity of the Gospel, 
 and men united in fraternal affection, until they 
 
A FORGIVING SPIRIT. 269 
 
 learn to '^ love their enemies, and do good to 
 them that hate them." This view of the influ- 
 ence of an unforgiving spirit is overlooked by the 
 unforgiving. It is not easy for them to estimate 
 the happiness of that community where all is 
 kind and placable, forgiving and merciful. 
 
 " The quality of mercy is not strained ; 
 It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven, 
 Upon the place beneatli. It is thrice blessed ; 
 It blesseth him who gives, and him who takes. 
 'Tis miprhitest in the mightiest ; it becomes 
 The sceptred monarch better than his crown." 
 
 How soon w^ould the remembrance of injuries 
 be effaced, and how surely followed by peni- 
 tence on the one part, and tenderness and gen- 
 erosity on the other, were this spirit to predomi- 
 nate ! And even if " it must needs be that 
 offences come," how w^ould their number be 
 lessened, and their obtrusiveness and malignity 
 mitigated ! Retaliation provokes. Enmity can- 
 not stand before love. 
 
 It were easy to multiply illustrations of the 
 truth that an unforgiving spirit is not the spirit 
 of Christianity, and that a spirit of revenge is 
 not the spirit of prayer. It is a trite saying, but 
 has much point, that '' to render good for evil, 
 is Godlike ; good for good, manlike ; evil for 
 evil, beastlike ; evil for good, devil-like." It 
 
270 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 is the Godlike we should strive after. Not all 
 the wrath of man, nor rage of fiends, could pro- 
 voke one revengeful look, or angry emotion, in 
 that bosom of love and mercy. Earth and hell 
 did their best to provoke him to the unchanging 
 purpose of destruction; but they could not pre- 
 vent his sun from rising " on the evil and on the 
 good/' nor his rain from descending '' on the 
 just, and on the unjust." The earth brings 
 forth her increase, though the foot of rebellion 
 stalks upon it. Nor could all the fury of fiends, 
 nor the malignity of men, prevent him from giv- 
 ing his Son to die, the just One in the place of 
 the unjust. His prayer for them that " hated 
 him without a cause" was '' yet in their calami- 
 ties." Even while he was stretched on the 
 cross, amid their murderous cruelty and in- 
 sulting mockeries, the last breathings of his 
 heavenly spirit found relief from its own agonies 
 and a palliative for their sins, in the prayer, 
 *' Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
 they do." Well has it been said, ^^ Socrates 
 died like a Philosopher ; Jesus Christ like a 
 God." This is the true glory of our common 
 Christianity. It would make forgiven man for- 
 giving and happy. It would dry up the sources 
 of his bitter wrangling, his poignant remorse, 
 his corroding self-reproach, his stinging shame. 
 It would chase from his pillow those dreams of 
 
A FORGIVING SPIRIT. 271 
 
 violence and blood which haunt the man on 
 whose wrath the sun goes down ; while it would 
 fain bring angels of mercy to keep their watch 
 over the head of the peaceful and forgiving. It 
 would crush the scorpion within the bosom of 
 the unforgiving, that stings him to madness. It 
 would quench the fires that consume him, that 
 he may no longer fan tliem with his own breath. 
 It has made the only provision for the peace of 
 men — for the peace of the world. It contem- 
 plates the universal brotherhood of man as one 
 of its great objects ; nor will its legitimate in- 
 fluence be duly felt until the nations " learn war 
 no more." No man can read the New Testa- 
 ment without being struck with its pacific char- 
 acter. The visions of the Golden Age would 
 soon return, did men obey its injunctions and 
 cease to be the avengers of wrong. A dishon- 
 est Christian, a debauched Christian, a drunken 
 Christian, a lying Christian, is not a greater ab- 
 surdity than a contentious, unforgiving Christian, 
 Men of contention cannot be men of prayer. 
 Men whose professional calling exposes them to 
 stormy discussion with their fellow-men ; men 
 whose habits of life call them upon the arena 
 of political strife, find within them, too often, 
 such a state of mind as unfits them for fellow- 
 ship with God. Much less can a man pray with 
 the spirit of revenge rankling in his bosom. 
 
272 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 His conscience hesitates, his lips falter when 
 he says, " Forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
 give those who trespass against us ;" lest he 
 should be using the prayer against himself, and 
 invoking a curse rather than a blessing. God 
 will take the unforgiving at their word. The 
 denunciations of the Bible should fall on the 
 ear of such a man like the knell of the second 
 death. " O thou wicked servant ! shouldest thou 
 not have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, 
 even as I had compassion on thee V^ Not satis- 
 fied with having inculcated the duty of forgive- 
 ness in a didactic form, he has put a daily prayer 
 into our lips, which, if we ourselves possess not 
 a forgiving spirit, invokes him to say to us as he 
 does to the slothful servant, *' Out of thine own 
 mouth do I condemn thee I" 
 
 History furnishes an affecting illustration of the 
 need of a spirit of forgiveness, in order to the re- 
 taining of our evidence of forgiveness from God, 
 There was in the church at Antioch, in the third 
 century, a minister by the name of Sapricius, and 
 a layman by the name of Nicephorus, who after 
 long intimacy had fallen into an unhappy quarrel, 
 and carried it so far that they would not speak 
 t- eacn other when they met. After a while 
 ^Nicephorus relented, and took every measure 
 for reconciliation, but in vain. He even threw 
 himself at the feet of his former friend, and en- 
 
A FORGIVING SPIRIT. 273 
 
 treated forgiveness for the Lord's sake, but 
 ■without effect. About this time, a new storm 
 of persecution arose, and Sapricius was marked 
 out as one of the victims. The magistrates 
 ordered him to obey the Emperor, and sacrifice 
 to the heathen god. But he appeared ready to 
 witness a good confession, and replied in an ex- 
 pression of his higher allegiance to the King of 
 kings, " Perish idols, which can do neither harm, 
 nor good V The torture was applier'^ and he 
 bore it firmly. The magistrate then commanded 
 him to be beheaded, and while he was led out 
 to execution, Nicephorus followed him, entreat- 
 ing his forgiveness. But it was in vain ; Sapri- 
 cius' unforgiving temper remained to the last. 
 At this juncture did the Saviour make good his 
 word, " If ye forgive not men their trespasses, 
 neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your 
 trespasses." For at this trying period, all Sa- 
 pricius' firmness forsook him ; the fear of death 
 overpowered him, he recanted, and saved his 
 life, while seemingly on the point of seizing the 
 crown of martyrdom. While at the same time 
 the Saviour's faithfulness was remarkably ex- 
 pressed toward the individual who had mani- 
 fested a forgiving spirit. Nicephorus, annoyed 
 at so unexpected a change in Sapricius, exhort- 
 ed him to adhere to the faith, but in vain. And 
 then himself flaming with zeal for the Christian 
 
2^4 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 cause, so dishonored, turned to the executioners 
 and said, '' I believe in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus, whom he has renounced." This was re- 
 ported to the Emperor, and Nicephorus received 
 the crown of martyrdom ! We cannot rely 
 upon the divine* mercy for ourselves, w hile in- 
 dulging an unforgiving and unchristian spirit 
 toward others. 
 
 O that the divine pattern of our blessed Mas- 
 ter were more constantly before the eye of his 
 own followers ! That meek and forgiving spirit 
 of his, like '' the angel standing in the sun/' was 
 the brightest of that bright assemblage of ex- 
 cellencies that were his vmequal adornment. 
 The impressions which men receive of his re- 
 ligion are, to no small extent, derived from the 
 spirit and conduct of his disciples. Hatred, 
 ill will, and revenge, are not the most convinc- 
 ing evidence of the power of Christianity; and 
 in giving way to them his disciples obstruct the 
 influence of those truths w hich are the power 
 of God to salvation. While on the other hand, 
 the kind and conciliatory spirit of the Gospel, 
 expressed especially in the forgiveness of inju- 
 ries, wins upon the suspicion and jealousy of its 
 opposers and extorts a tribute of respect, if not of 
 admiration, for principles of such efficacy over 
 the turbulent passions of men. 
 
CHAPTER XJII, 
 
 A MARTIAL SPIRIT NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 ''./nrgm m m ^Mb, m m /argiBB stir BBtem'' 
 
 Whatever may be our refinements in reason- 
 ing, on the question, Whether war in any 
 instance is justifiable ? we cannot be mistaken 
 when W€ say, that a martiol spirit is not the 
 spirit of Christianity. '' From whence come 
 wars and fightings among you V^ says the Apostle 
 James; "come they not hence, even of your 
 iusts that war in your members ? Ye lust and^ 
 have not ; ye kill, and desire to have, because ye 
 €annot obtain ; ye Jight and voar, yet ye have 
 not." This is a true account of the origin, the 
 nature, and ends of well nigh all the wars that 
 have convulf^ed the world. 
 
 If we were called upon to write an elaborate 
 dissertation, in defence of the Scriptural doctrine 
 of human apostasy, and the entire and unmixed 
 sinfulness of the human heart, as it is by nature, 
 one of our strong defences would be the whole 
 
276 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 subject of war. We would have a chapter en- 
 titled, Wa?', a proof of total depravity. 
 
 It is beyond measure surprising", to see how the 
 minds of benevolent and virtuous men have been, 
 for centuries, perverted and blinded, on a subject 
 -which, but for maxims sanctioned by time, and 
 customs handed down from generation to gener- 
 ation, one would suppose were among the plain- 
 est subjects in the world. The causes, the 
 nature, and the objects of war, cannot be justi- 
 fied by any one principle of the Christian faith^ 
 or any one of those gracious affections which are 
 the fruit cf God's spirit. 
 
 We repeat the Apostle's question, Whence 
 come ivars and fightings! In a multitude of 
 cases, the great question of peace or war is de- 
 tei mined by caprice or passion. The causes of 
 war are often to the last degree trivial, and de- 
 pend little on the magnitude of the injury 
 received. Even as judicious a writer as I>r. Pa- 
 ley obsen^es, that " in a larger sense, ever}' just 
 war is a defensive war; inasmuch as ever}/ just 
 war supposes an injury perpetrated, attempted^ 
 or feared." Is not this a remarkable declara- 
 tion? and does it not present to a belligerent 
 world a cloak large enough to cover all the 
 blood that is ever shed in war I Much as some 
 of the writings of this accomplished author are 
 to be respected^ we do not hesitate to say, tha< a 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 277 
 
 more corrupt, pestilent, atrocious sentiment has 
 rarely been advanced than this. It is an indeli- 
 ble blot on the page of Archdeacon Paley's 
 Moral Philosophy. If an injury be either perpe- 
 trated, attempted, or even feared., there is just 
 cau'^e of war ! The injured, or suspicious, or 
 ambitious nation is, of necessity, the sole judge 
 of the injury perpetrated, attempted, or feared. 
 This wide range of " precaution, defence, or re- 
 paration," w^ould have better suited the " Moral 
 Philosophy" of such a man as Robespierre or 
 Napoleon. No wonder the nations go to war. 
 
 It would be an amusing chapter, to specify 
 some of the causes of war, though it would 
 not be a short one. The Roman ambassador 
 once received an insult in the city of Corinth; 
 and the consul, Mummius, w^as immediately 
 sent with an army, and the city was destroyed 
 An idle jest of Philip, the King of France, utter- 
 ed against William I., of England, sent fire and 
 sword into the kingdom of the heedless offender. 
 In the reign of Edward I., a bitter conflict was 
 carried on between France |^d England, which 
 originated in a personal quarrel between two 
 seamen at Bayonne. The reign of Edward II., 
 of England, was one of continual warfare, and for 
 causes which brand the tyrant's name with exe- 
 cration. Sir W. Moles worth stated in the 
 British Parliament, last year, that the war 
 
27S THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 with the Kaffirs, in India, which cost the British 
 nation §12,000,000, was occasioned by the loss 
 of one axe and two goats, which were alleged to 
 have been stolen by the Kaffirs. 
 
 Dr. Paley did not seem to perceive, that the 
 views he has published to the world would 
 amount to a justification of most of the wars, and 
 many of the vilest and wickedest, that ever 
 scourged the human race. Powerful and ambi- 
 tious rulers, and restless and avaricious people, 
 often wish for war. Furnished with so wide a 
 limit of permission, they could not wish for more. 
 The object of Cyrus was to free the world from 
 the tyranny of the Assyrian empire, and to 
 avenge the injuries of the Medes and Persians. 
 Alexander sought to revenge the several Persian 
 invasions, and expecially the death of his father. 
 The Peloponnesian war w^as to free the States of 
 Greece from the haughty domination of Pericles, 
 and the alarming ascendency of Athens. The 
 Punic war was to redress innumerable injuries, 
 real and great. The Macedonian war had much 
 of " reparation and precaution" at bottom. 
 Csesar's wars on Gaul were, on the same princi- 
 ple, just wars, from causes as ancient as Porsen- 
 na and Brennus. And as to Csesar and Pompey's 
 w^ar, their object was to free Rome from an 
 odious tyrant, evidently aiming at sovereign 
 power. The wars of Charles and Francis were 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 279 
 
 very just, as they were designed to redress all 
 manner of injuries. Napoleon's wars, too, were 
 all very just, for their object was to break down 
 the despotism of Europe. England's war with 
 Napoleon was just, for she feared his power. 
 
 The immense latitude given by some writers 
 to the definition of defensive war enables it 
 to embrace most of those wars which are 
 properly and strictly offensive, unwarrantable, 
 and odious in the sight of God. It amounts to a 
 vindication of all w^ars whatever, as full and com- 
 plete as the most sanguinary and despotic tyrant 
 could desire. 
 
 The phrase defensive ivar, when stripped of the 
 cobwebs in w hich the subtleties of political cas- 
 uists have entangled and enwrapped it, when 
 narrowed down from those almost unmeasured 
 limits, given it for the purpose of an equitable 
 pretext to justify every project of ambition, 
 means, a war made to meet and repel an invading 
 foe. The sound of a word leads to a radical error 
 on this subject. A war whose prime object is 
 the defence of something or other, is not cer* 
 tainly, therefore, a defensive war. Never was 
 greater perversion of language. A war to de- 
 fend the honor of a king, a minister, an ambas- 
 sador, or even a kingdom, is no more a defensive 
 war than a war to defend the honor of a cour- 
 tier's mistress, or a lady's lap-dog. The diplo- 
 
280 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 matic science is easily capable of changing right 
 into wrong and Avrong into right, on the most ex- 
 tensive scale. The presence of invading ene- 
 mies or armies, is the true and only cause of 
 defensive war. The nation that w^ages offensive 
 w^ar — that first throws down the gauntlet — that 
 first falls upon its neighbor with fire and sword, 
 ought to weigh well the causes in the balance of 
 the sanctuary. For there is not a life taken in 
 war that is not as truly chargeable to some one 
 as the premeditated murder. Men, alas ! lose 
 themselves in the splendor of vain and pompous 
 theories, and forget that the value of human life 
 cannot be thus done away by the momentary and 
 artificial structure of civil government, to be dis- 
 solved by the stroke of death, when every soul is 
 handed over to the immutable retributions of 
 eternity. God no further approves of human 
 governments, than as they exert their influence 
 for the security of life and the promotion of 
 sound morality and true happiness. 
 
 Admit that one nation injures another. Per- 
 haps the injury is trifling, and had better be en- 
 dured than resort to war for redress. It is also 
 altogether uncertain whether redress can be 
 obtained by war, the events of which cannot be 
 foreseen. In the history of most, if not all the 
 wars ever undertaken for redress of injuries, it 
 will be found that few terminated with com- 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 281 
 
 plete success. They have sometimes termi- 
 nated in the ruin of one, and sometimes of both 
 belligerents. When the injured nation was the 
 weakest, she has generally fought to redress in- 
 juries, and then made peace to avoid greater. 
 Generally speaking, the nation w'hich makes war 
 to obtain the redress of injuries, is infallibly cer- 
 tain of sustaining more injury in the progress of 
 the war, than she w^ould by the injury continued. 
 She will lose more than she will gain, and 
 perhaps fail of redress at last. As to the na- 
 tion who is the aggressor, the war made by her 
 will plunge thousands in misery, who are no 
 more accountable for the aggression than the 
 people of another world; — it may chiefly fall on 
 those who are most innocent and most deserv- 
 ing. The aggression, too, may be of a very 
 doubtful nature. The charge may be abated 
 by the plea of right on the part of the supposed 
 offender ; and it may be a case about which the 
 ablest civilians and jurists may differ in opinion. 
 And in most, if not in all cases, the whole con- 
 troversy may be adjusted by amicable negotia- 
 tion or arbitration, without recourse to the shed- 
 ding of blood. 
 
 "Who can reflect on the evils of war itself, 
 and on the motives and causes which, with very 
 few exceptions, produce it, and not be filled 
 with horror at the immense weight of guilt 
 
THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 which must attach to the authors of it ? Is the 
 divine government so feeble, short-sighted, par- 
 tial, and absurd, as to justify the destruction of 
 cities, the death of millions, the exterminating 
 of nations, on account of some supposed or real 
 indignity offered to some crowned and sceptred 
 wretch, perhaps a greater villain than any one 
 of the millions over w hom he reigns ? Is this 
 Christianity ? How will the righteous and al- 
 mighty Judge one day determine these ques- 
 tions ? 
 
 What is ivar ? To many this may seem an 
 unnecessary question. War, as understood by 
 the mass of mankind, is a state of conflict be- 
 tween two nations, in which battles are won, 
 towns taken, men wounded and slain; bringing 
 glory and profit to the victor, and dishonor and 
 loss to the vanquished. This however is but ■ 
 an imperfect definition of war. The favored 
 land where a kind providence has determined 
 our residence, has, with the single exception 
 of the short conflict with Great Britain, and the 
 recent and more bloody war with Mexico, for so 
 long time enjoyed the blessings of peace, that 
 there are a few now living among us who know 
 anything of the stern realities of a state of war- 
 fare. Europe, also, exhausted by the wars of 
 the French Revolution, the consulate and the 
 empire, has, until her recent internal agita- 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 283 
 
 tion, for a period of thirty years, rested on her 
 arms. It has been our allotment to live in a 
 most wonderful period of the world, a period of 
 rapid improvement in arts and sciences, of grow- 
 ing population, enterprise and wealth ; of almost 
 undisturbed tranquillity and joy. Few genera- 
 tions of men have been born to such a period, 
 or under such radiant skies. The great mass 
 of our citizens have never witnessed the scenes 
 of havoc. We glean our knowledge of this 
 scourge of the world from the glowing pages of 
 history, where its fairest and boldest lineaments 
 are depicted ; and where, fascinated by the 
 brilliant qualities of its heroes, we are borne 
 along upon the swelling tide of the narrative, 
 and do not note the dire details of its devasta- 
 tion. The fire and eloquence of the historian 
 inspire us w ith emotions kindred to those which 
 move the combatants themselves. The chances 
 of battle, — the shock, the retreat, the rally, the 
 rout, are delineated before our eyes; but the 
 clash of arms, the roar of cannon, the shout of 
 victory, drown the cry for mercy, the groan, the 
 death-struggle. Eager to follow the current of 
 victory, we do not pause upon the field of battle 
 after its terrible splendor has passed away. 
 Nor do we linger in the ruined town or deso- 
 late hamlet; nor walk the feverish hospital, 
 crowded with the wounded and dying. It is 
 
284 THE MERCr SEAT. 
 
 but the mask, the outside show, that we con- 
 template ; its deformities escape us. 
 
 Let us draw near to yonder field, canopied 
 with smoke, as if, conscious of its horrors, it 
 would fain hide itself from the light of day. Let 
 us enter the veil where at every step the foot 
 stumbles against a corpse — heaps upon heaps 
 they lie, son and sire, horse and rider, the dead 
 and the dying. These are War's victims — all 
 prostrate, broken, and shivered to pieces under 
 the stroke. Here, still breathing, is the youth 
 giving his last thoughts to his mother and his 
 home. Yonder is the gray-haired veteran, mur- 
 muring the names of wife and children. Groans 
 here ; curses there ; there supplications ; every- 
 where agony and desolation. The living have 
 marched on ; the dead and the dying are left 
 where " the eagles are gathered together," and 
 the hungry beasts of prey are roaming. No 
 kind hand is there to staunch the flowing blood, 
 to bathe the hot brow. They are far from 
 home ; their burying-place is the plain where 
 they have fallen. 
 
 Look at the field of Borodino after the dread- 
 ful battle fought there by the French and Rus- 
 sians ; a surface of nine square miles covered 
 with killed and wounded ; eighty thousand 
 men lying dead on the field ! Fifty thousand 
 cumbered the ground after the battle of Ey- 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 285 
 
 Jau ; at Fontenoy, a hundred thousand ! The 
 " Thirty Years' War," it is computed, reduced 
 the population of Germany from sixteen millions 
 to four millions, thus taking twelve out of every 
 sixteen of the inhabitants. Thirty thousand vil- 
 lages and hamlets were destroyed during the same 
 w ar, w ithout numbering cities and larger tow^ ns. 
 At the close of the w^ar of 1756, commonly call- 
 ed " The War of the Succession," twenty 
 neighboring villages w ere found utterly destitute 
 of man or beast. 
 
 But to count those who fell in battle is to 
 number but a trifling portion of the victims. 
 Hardship, disease, and famine, destroy more 
 than the engines of battle. " War has means of 
 destruction," says Dr. Johnson, " more formi- 
 dable than the cannon or the sword. Of the 
 thousands and tens of thousands who perish, a 
 very small part ever feel the stroke of the en- 
 emy." It has been computed by Edmund 
 Burke, that thirtij-five thousand millions of the 
 human family have fallen by war and its attend- 
 ant evils — more than one-fifth part of the entire 
 race. And this computation was made almost a 
 century ago. The collected ruins of all the vic- 
 tims which, in different lands, and climes, and 
 ages, have fallen before this dreadful scourge, 
 would form a pile raised to the heavens. 
 
286 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 " Each valley tells that thousands cease to breathe ; 
 Death rides upon the sulphury Siroc, 
 Red battle stamps his foot, and nations feel the shock." 
 
 This scourge wears new horrors, when she 
 draws nigh the abodes of men. The bursting 
 shell is hurled amid the dwellings of peace; the 
 devouring fires run from roof to roof. Night and 
 day pour unceasingly the " iron shower/' start- 
 ling the babe, the mother, the aged. Famine 
 stares those in the face, who till now never knew 
 want. The hungry roam about the streets, cry- 
 ing for food. The ties of nature and of love 
 are rent asunder; hunger knows no mercy. 
 
 The infuriate foe, maddened by resistance, 
 and drunk with victory, forces his way into the 
 devoted city, plundering and murdering its 
 inhabitants, and changing it into one vast 
 theatre of lust and carnage. Crimes, dreadful 
 to think of, too horrible to name, are perpetrated 
 where, a few weeks before, citizen walked 
 peacefully with citizen, husband with wife, 
 youth with maiden. The bonds of military dis- 
 cipline are then unloosed. The very officers 
 then dare not put their authority to the test. 
 Often, inspired with the basest passions them- 
 selves, they do not care to do it. " Come again 
 in an hour," replied Count Tilly, the Bavarian 
 general, to some officers who endeavored to per- 
 suade him to check the cruelties of his soldiers, 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 287 
 
 after the storming of Magdeberg, *' come again in 
 an hour, and I will see what I can do. The soldier 
 must have some reward for his danger and his 
 toil." In less than twelve hours, this populous, 
 strong, great city, one of the finest in Germany, 
 lay in ashes, with the exception of two churches 
 and a few hovels. More than six thousand 
 corpses were thrown into the Elbe, merely to 
 clear the streets for the general's entrance. The 
 whole number of slain was computed at thirty 
 thousand. Napoleon, speaking of himself, says, 
 " Pavia is the only place I ever gave up to pil- 
 lage. I had promised it to the soldiers for 
 twenty-four hours ; but after three hours, I could 
 bear it no longer, and put an end to it." 
 
 The waste of property in war is not easily 
 estimated. The swords of soldiers reap the 
 harvests; their horses' hoofs leave not an ear of 
 corn nor a blade of grass for those w^ho sowed 
 and planted, and Avho might have reaped 
 in peace. The physical strength of a nation — 
 its young men and men in the vigor of life — 
 is "cbstracted from useful and profitable em- 
 ployment, and devoted only to augment the 
 r-v-ouiii of human suffering. The direct ex- 
 penses of war would civilize, evangelize, and 
 enrich the world. An able writer in the eastern 
 .'tates remarks, that '' the wars of the American 
 P evolution cost England six hundred millions of 
 
288 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 dollars; tliat in the wars occasioned by the 
 French Revolution, she spent more than jive 
 thousand millions;'' and that '' the wars of Chris- 
 tendom, during only twenty-two years, cost, 
 merely for their support, not much less than^^- 
 teen thousand millions of dollars.'' 
 
 But this is not all. The immoral tendency, 
 and demoralizing effects of war, more than all 
 things else, show that it is one of the great 
 engines of ruin employed by that subtle and 
 revengeful Fiend who goes about to deceive 
 and destroy the nations. What multitudes, 
 during a single campaign, surrender themselves 
 to a state of license which is destructive of vir- 
 tue and morality, and baneful to the souls of 
 men ! The sacred stillness of God's day of holy 
 rest is disturbed, churches are broken up, families 
 scattered, schools dispersed, and courts of justice 
 not unfrequently dissolved. Conquered nations 
 are not wont to receive their religion from their 
 conquerors ; rather do they imitate their vices. 
 Falsehood, rapacity, cruelty, sexual pollution, 
 and every form of irreligion and immorality, are 
 the acknowledged characteristics of an army of 
 soldiers. " We cannot," says Lord Clarendon, 
 " make a more lively representation and (rmblem 
 to ourselves of hell^ than by the view of a king- 
 dom in war." " I abominate war," says Lord 
 Faulkland, "as unchristian. I hold it to be the 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 289 
 
 greatest of human crimes. I deem it to include 
 all others — everything which can deform the 
 character, alter the nature, and debase the 
 name of man." " War," says Robert Hall, 
 *' reverses, with 'respect to its objects, all the 
 rules of morality. It is nothing less than a tem- 
 porary repeal of the principles of virtue. It 
 is a system out of which almost all the virtues 
 are excluded, and in which nearly all the vices 
 are included. Whatever renders human nature 
 amiable, or respectable, w hatever engages love, 
 or confidence, is sacrificed at its shrine." Nor 
 are these enormities limite^l to the camp, or the 
 field of battle ; they survive actual warfare and 
 desolate the abodes of returning peace. *' War 
 makes villains, and peace brings them to the 
 gallow^s." War introduces, in a single year, a 
 series of evils, and those habits and customs of 
 wickedness, which the gospel cannot rectify and 
 remove in half a century. 
 
 Nor should it be forgotten, that while war is 
 the greatest, it is the most unblushing scourge 
 inflicted upon humanity. Other crimes shun the 
 light, and creep into holes and corners. This, 
 almost alone, walks proudly abroad at noonday, 
 parades its " pomp and circumstance" before the 
 eyes of the world, blazons its deeds, and boasts 
 of its victims. It invites the gaze, as if it were 
 the benefactor of the human race, and with 
 
 13 
 
290 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 a front of brass and a tongue red with blood, 
 claims the honors due to virtue alone : as if to 
 ruin were better than to save ; to destroy, than 
 to build up ; to lay waste the earth, than to peo- 
 ple it, and to till and clothe it with verdure ! If 
 war has its glories, they are fearful glories. To 
 one who does not look beyond the surface, it 
 may be a thrilling and inspiring spectacle, to be- 
 hold a band of warriors advancing, in compact 
 and serried column, against the foe, closing up 
 their ranks as comrade falls, marching fearlessly 
 through the storm of musketry and cannon, and 
 amid flowing blood and the crashing of human 
 bones, looking death in the face with indiffer- 
 ence. We see here a semblance of heroism: 
 the calmness of a resolved devotedness and self- 
 sacrifice meets the eye. We do not see their 
 fury, their thirst for slaughter. Just as the re- 
 finement of polished intercourse covers many a 
 crime with the veil of grace, hides bitter hatred 
 behind a smile, and scorn with the form of cour- 
 tesy and compliment, so the discipline of warfare 
 has measured the soldier's step, regulates his 
 every motion, and restrains that impetuous fury 
 which is the natural expression of his cruel 
 trade. A smile glances from eye to eye, a jest is 
 upon the lip ; but the purpose of their heart is 
 butchery. Their bright arms aiid decorations 
 flash in the sun ; their plumes wave to the 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 291 
 
 wind; but they are about to bathe them in hu- 
 man blood. Strip them of these masks, clothe 
 them in a garb suited to their fearful mission; 
 and the eye is turned from the scene in disgust. 
 We have but removed the outside show, which 
 covers the reality, and behold them in their true 
 deformity. War is not the beating drum, the 
 clashing cymbal, the plume, the scarf, the em- 
 broidered garment. • War is the blow", the 
 wound, the agonizing cry, the butchery. 
 t Modern w arfare has the art to cast a garb of 
 grandeur, and beauty, and science, over those 
 who perpetrate her cruel deeds. The foul- 
 est deeds are varnished by the fairest names. 
 " One murder makes a villain ; millions a 
 hero.'" The skill that w inds the huge arms of 
 w^ar around a negligent foe is baptized by the 
 scientific name oi strategT/ ; the effective energy 
 that strangles him in their grasp, and that falls 
 crushing like a ponderous hammer upon a band 
 of human beings, is military tactics; the butch- 
 ery of thousands is an exploit. But from every 
 reeking battle-field a voice comes to heaven 
 protesting against the glories of war. When 
 the blood there shed is demanded at man's 
 hand, it is in vain for him to answer, " Am I my 
 brother's keeper ?" And sad and sole benefit 
 of war! the grass grows more luxuriantly over 
 tbe mouldering victims. As the peasant ploughs 
 
292 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 up the bones of the slain, he smiles and thinks 
 of his harvest — the richer for the blood of battle. 
 
 With strong propriety also the question forces 
 itself upon us, Where will it end? A child may 
 unchain a wild beast; but the strength of many 
 men will not bind him again. It is easy to com- 
 mence war, but it is beyond the power of man 
 to guide its course, restrain its outrage, or bring 
 it to a^successful issue. The voice of reason 
 makes but a faint impression on minds infatu- 
 ated by a war spirit. Ambition is easily ripened 
 into anger, anger easily becomes malevolence, 
 and is executed in revenge. No mind can cal- 
 culate the next blow, no forethought predict the 
 extent, the progress of the carnage, when the 
 dark deed is perpetrated that first sheds human 
 blood. We cannot say, "Thus far shalt thou 
 go, and no further." Once loose this demon of 
 desolation, and his ravages are beyond control. 
 We may weep rivers of sorrow for conjuring up 
 the destroyer, but our regrets will not banish him. 
 
 It has been said by one of the most distin- 
 guished men in Great Britain, that in the event 
 of a war between that country and the Uni- 
 ted States, " it will be a short war;" mean- 
 ing that the whole strength of that mighty na- 
 tion would be exerted to crush us in the outset. 
 He who utteied these words is the most re- 
 nowned and indomitable warrior of the age, 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 293 
 
 and one whose opinion, in matters which con- 
 cern the military art, is entitled to great weight. 
 Yet he must have strangely forgotten the teach- 
 ings of history, or he never would have ex- 
 pressed a sentiment so presumptuous. Others 
 before him have thought as arrogantly as he, 
 and have dreamed of easy victories and short 
 wars, when they were doomed to experience 
 defeat and disaster from an enemy they de- 
 spised. Thus thought the Emperor Leopold; 
 thus thought Charles of Burgundy, when with 
 their numerous hosts they advanced to attack 
 the ill-armed Swiss. But the battles of Sem- 
 pach, Granson, and Marat, laid the pride of 
 their chivalry in the dust. When Prussia and 
 Austria united to force revolutionary France to 
 replace her king upon his throne, they imagined 
 that the war would be a short one. But the 
 flame then kindled ravaged Europe a quarter of 
 a century. England, Russia, Spain, Italy, Hol- 
 land — nay, every country in Europe became in- 
 volved in the conflict. Egypt and America felt 
 the shock of battle. 
 
 No man may presume to say, that any war will 
 be of short duration. The delusion is extreme. 
 The error lies in miscalculating the power of the 
 war spirit. Men will make every sacrifice and run 
 every hazard, when once the hearts of a whole 
 people are in the conflict. It is not for the pal- 
 
294 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 try interests of ambition or gain, that they con- 
 tend. What motives of national advancement, 
 or individual profit would have induced Holland 
 to open her dykes, and submerge her fields with 
 the waters of the ocean ? Yet, to resist the 
 haughty Lewis, she called in the raging sea to 
 stay the progress of the invader, and freely gave 
 up her harvests and the homes of her peasantry 
 to be pillaged by the waves ; while her metrop- 
 olis stood an island in the midst of the surround- 
 ing desolation. Once arouse the w^ar spirit, and 
 there is no sacrifice that is not made readily, 
 cheerfully; no danger that is not braved with 
 joy. Private convenience and profit, life itself, 
 are cast freely into the scale in which hangs 
 trembling the questions of victory or defeat. If 
 overthrown, like Anta3us, the combatants fall 
 upon their mother earth, and rise invigorated 
 from the contact; if defeated, they retire to the 
 fortresses of the hills, and rocks, and forests; 
 there they weep awhile, and then descend 
 affain to the strife. The march of war is not 
 to be confined to the wishes and plans of men. 
 Nations may be convulsed, thrones and repub- 
 lics overturned, institutions long dear and cher- 
 ished may be levelled with the dust, ere peace 
 return, by her tardy process to undo what war 
 has done. " The beginning of strife is like the 
 letting out of water." Universal desolation may 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 2^% 
 
 cover the fairest land, crush its growing ener- 
 gies, unhinge the whole frame-work of society, 
 and cast it centuries backward in the path of 
 civilization, before what many a sanguine tem- 
 perament deemed would be a short war, is ter- 
 minated. 
 
 It may be the peculiar province of tne poli- 
 tician and the statesman to instruct his fellow- 
 men in matters of political moment, and so far as 
 it concerns their expediency and equity accord- 
 ing to the code of nations ; but to weigh them in 
 the balance of Christian justice, to test them by 
 principles of expediency which concern the rela- 
 tions of man to his Maker, cannot be considered 
 as lying out of the sphere of Christianity itself. 
 They belong to Christianity, and to Christianity 
 alone. 
 
 And what is Christianity ? It is the system of 
 doctrines and precepts taught by Christ, and 
 recorded in the Sacred Writings. What is a 
 Christian, but a true disciple of this divine 
 Teacher ; one who believes these truths, obeys 
 these precepts, imbibes the spirit, and studies to 
 follow the example of his divine Master? Is 
 w^ar consistent with these teachings, this spirit, 
 this example? Can it be that* we have mistaken 
 the nature of Christianity, when we say that its 
 mission is a pacific mission, universally pacific ; 
 so that just in the proportion in which its spirit 
 
^6 
 
 THE MEKCr SEAT, 
 
 is imbibed, and its principles acted out, will 
 wars '' cease unto the ends of the earth ?" 
 
 The appropriate influence of Christianity, 
 upon all the g'reat questions of peace and war, is 
 a subject in which even monarchical and despot- 
 ic governments have an interest; still more is it 
 one in which those lands ou^ht to feel an in- 
 terest, whose government is of a popular charac- 
 ter. Government is the ordinance of heaven; 
 but the w^ay and form in which it is administer- 
 ed, is of man's selection. The right of the 
 strongest is a right only when it is that of the 
 best, and belongs but to one Being in the uni- 
 verse. The American people are not only a 
 free, but a Christian people. They are not Pa- 
 gan, nor Mahomedan, nor Jewish, nor Infidel. 
 Our laws, and the common consent of our citi- 
 zens, recognize Christianity as the religion of 
 the land. Our Sabbaths, our Bibles, our 
 churches, the course of public instruction, the 
 form of our judicial oath, all proclaim, that as a 
 nation, we reverence the dictates of Christianity, 
 and acknowledge their excellence and sanctity. 
 Our national prosperity, and the influence w^e 
 exert on other lands, depend on our maintaining 
 a Christian character. It emphatically becomes 
 us, in consulting the interests of our common 
 country, and the higher interests of the great 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 297 
 
 family of nations, to take counsel concerning 
 them as a Christian people. 
 
 With the broad teachings of Christianity be- 
 fore me, I do not see how a belligerent nation 
 can be a Christian nation. It is a foul blot 
 upon the otherwise fair escutcheon of some 
 professedly Christian lands, that they are dis- 
 tinguished for their martial spirit, and their 
 love of conquest. God forbid that the American 
 people should ever be ambitious of such su- 
 premacy ! 
 
 Christianity is the law of nations, because it 
 is the law of God for the government of the na- 
 tions, because it is the law of individual man. 
 Never was there a greater delusion, than that 
 what is wrong for men, is right for nations. No 
 collective numbers of men may disclaim their 
 dependence on God, or their responsibility to 
 him, any more than a single individual ; nor 
 have they a right to consult their own influence 
 and aggrandizement, any more than a single in- 
 dividual has to do the same thing. Yet the in- 
 dividual who allows this to be his ruling passion, 
 is universally despised and condemned; while 
 there is something so great and imposing in the 
 spectacle of a nation thus exalting itself, and at 
 any hazard, that it is too apt to be commended 
 even for its most grasping ambition. In the sight 
 of God, "all nations are as a drop of a bucket," 
 
 13* 
 
298 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 and he " taketli up the islands as a very little 
 thing." The many may not do wrong, where 
 the few may not do it. God is the Governor of 
 the nations ; he holds them in his hands, as clay 
 is in the potter's hand; and just as they make 
 his laws the rule of their policy, or tread them 
 under their feet, shall they become the specta- 
 cles of his goodness and care, or read to the 
 world the lessons of his just vengeance. 
 
 We cannot implicitly subscribe to the views 
 of many excellent and philanthropic men, who 
 are persuaded that no emergencies may arise, 
 when it is right for Christians to make the 
 solemn appeal to arms. It may not be forgotten, 
 that we cannot have a particular and explicit 
 declaration in the Bible for every kind or 
 degree of national intercourse, any more than 
 for the regulation of every circumstance of life. 
 It is the property of every rational proposition 
 to lead to deductions, and to be answerable for 
 them. The Holy Scriptures become bound for 
 every inference fairly drawn from them; be- 
 cause it is an essential part of truth, that what is 
 deduced from truth, is really so. Purely aggres- 
 sive war is murder, and subjects the perpetrators 
 to the penalty, " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, 
 by man shall his blood be shed." I need not 
 say, that Christianity will be slow to perform 
 this work of death. She will kneel long at the 
 
A MARTiAL SPIRIT. 299 
 
 mercy seat, before she dashes the last tear from 
 her eye, puts her helmet on, and makes bare 
 her arm for war^ Her appeal to the God of bat* 
 ties will be made with fear and trembling; 
 while the arm that ti-embles before heaven, will 
 not be the weaker in sight of the foe. 
 
 But this is not the law of Christianity; it 
 is the exception which the Author of Christian* 
 ity has made to his own law. The spirit and 
 tendencies of Christianity are all on the other 
 side of the question. ^^ God hath made of one 
 blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of 
 Che eartk" Born and nurtured they may be in 
 different climes, governed by different laws, 
 speaking different languages, possessing different 
 i-eligions, and occupying different ranks among 
 the nations of the earth; yet are they the 
 children of the same common parent, brethren 
 of the same common family. The great God has 
 given to them all, the endowments, the charac- 
 ter, the susceptibilities, wants, and responsibili- 
 ties of men. He has made them mortal, and 
 clothed them with immortality. He has consti- 
 tuted their social relations, and is himself the 
 Author of their mutual dependencies. He has 
 given them this wide and beautiful earth, as the 
 place of their common habitation; and the law 
 by which he requires their intercourse to be 
 regulated is, that they shall love and treat one 
 
800 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 another as brethren. Not more certainly are 
 the members of the same individual family 
 under obligations to express this fraternal spirit^ 
 than the gi-eat family of nations. The bond is 
 the same under all the varieties of their exist- 
 ence, and in all the outward circumstances of 
 their history, in prosperity and adversity, in 
 peace and in war. " A brother is born for ad- 
 versity." The more afflictive and trying the 
 condition in which our fellow-men are placed by 
 a w^ise Providence, the more emphatic is the ap- 
 peal they make to the sympathy and affection of 
 kindred spirits, and the more authoritative their 
 claims upon kind offices and kindly intercourse. 
 Events often occur in the history of nations 
 and of individuals, in which one is the injuring 
 and the other the injured party. And Chris- 
 tianity makes an intelligible and well-defined 
 provision for this exigency. Her mandate is^ 
 "Forgiving one another, even as God, for 
 Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." The spirit 
 of this mandate is widely extended; ft is ex- 
 tended to man, as man — even to the worst of 
 men, and those who bitterly persecute us. It 
 is not limited to trivial offences ; nor to those 
 that are inadvertently committed : nor to those 
 that are few\ " Seventy times seven" if our 
 brother offend us, " and turn again, and say, I 
 repent;" so far from retaliating the injury, we 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 
 
 are to suppress every malevolent emotion, de- 
 sire his welfare, and treat him w^ith kindness. 
 Circumstances often occur in which individuals 
 and communities become avowed enemies ; and 
 Christianity makes an expressed provision for 
 such an exigency when she says, " Love your 
 enemies ; bless them that curse you ; do good 
 to them that hate you." This is the great 
 characteristic of Christianity ; and where it is 
 possessed and acted out, is a most edifying and 
 beautiful exemplification of its power. " A 
 brother offended is harder to be won than a 
 strong city, and their contentions are like the 
 bars of a castle." But bad as the world is, the 
 man, or the nation that conducts itself thus be- 
 nevolently, meekly, generously, disarms the op- 
 position of its fiercest foe. 
 
 Nor is it simply by such implications as these, 
 that Christianity reveals itself as the religion of 
 peace. Does it speak of the great God ; he is 
 " the God of peace :" of the gracious Redeemer; 
 he is " the Prince of peace :" of the holy Sancti- 
 fier; he is "the Spirit of peace:" of its own 
 great ends and objects; they are ** glory to God 
 in the highest, peace on earth, and good will to 
 men." Its doctrines are doctrines of peace ; 
 its precepts are precepts of peace ; its promises 
 are to the peacemakers, its penalties for the 
 proud, the malicious, and the revengeful. It 
 
302 THfi MERCV Sl^AT. 
 
 does not form men of contention; the essential 
 elements of contention must be sought for else- 
 where. It is not the febrile, agitating, angry 
 spirit of war ; this spirit comes from another 
 quarter. It is not an overweening jealousy of 
 our own rights, nor the wrangling and violence 
 which maintains them. It is not a rigid exac* 
 tion for every wrong. It is the spirit of amity, 
 conciliation, and mutual forbearance. War has 
 but a narrow space in such a code ; its lessons 
 are lessons of peace. And the glory of them all 
 is their universal adaptation to man ; to man in 
 his social, as well as his individual relations; to 
 man all over the world. What a remedy for 
 all the malevolence, envy, love of conquest, 
 pride, contention, sullenness, revenge, and all 
 the arts, and subtleties, and sophistry of war- 
 like diplomacy, is the pure, honest, affectionate, 
 and forbearing spirit of Christianity ! 
 
 War is a subject on which Christianity has 
 thoughts which she cannot conceal, and words 
 which she may not suppress. She has tears 
 which she sheds in secret places for the pride 
 of man, and for the honor of God. She had fondly 
 hoped that the barbarous and iron age of the 
 world had gone by, and that his reign under 
 whom " the mountains shall bring peace to the 
 people, and the little hills by righteousness" 
 would effectually hold in check the warlike 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 303 
 
 passions of men. Nor is this a hope she will 
 easily relinquish. The aspect of the world has 
 changed during the present century. Civiliza- 
 tion has advanced with rapid strides, and almost 
 every relic of barbarism is disappearing from the 
 face of the earth. The Bible is dispersed over 
 the nations; the glorious gospel of the ever 
 blessed God is being proclaimed to every crea- 
 ture ; science and the arts are uniting with 
 Christian philanthropy in the noblest and most 
 successful efforts to meliorate the condition of 
 mankind, and everything seems pointing for- 
 ward to the true ''golden age." Christian 
 men, with exceptions that rarely occur, have 
 nothing to do with war. Why should they 
 have ? Has its nature changed ? Is it less ter- 
 rible ? Is it no longer the monster whose path 
 lies across ruin and desolation, whose breath is 
 pestil^ice, and whose glance is death ? Is it no 
 longer merciless, iron-hearted ? Is it no longer 
 a lapper of blood ? Would to God that it 
 were so ! Even in our age, of every acquisi- 
 tion in science, war appropriates some part to 
 herself She has become cunning and curi- 
 ous in the art of destruction. Deadly engines 
 are framed, clothed with terrors hitherto un- 
 known, vieing with each other in their aptness 
 for extermination. Furnished with these, war- 
 like nations will contend with new fury, the 
 
304 THE MERCV SEAT. 
 
 victims will be more numerous, the work more 
 thorough and sure. 
 
 I look upon the Christian church as a divinely 
 organized society for the promotion of peace. 
 She is, or rather she ought to be, the most ef- 
 fective Peace Society in the Avorld. Let her 
 cultivate the spirit of peace, and show by her 
 own spirit, and prayers, and deportment, and 
 influence, that she has no sympathy with that 
 love of conquest and false honor which have 
 filled the world with carnage. If it must be so, 
 let her rather consent to be dishonored, than 
 cease to be humane. Let her be callous rather 
 to disgrace, than to human suffering. "Them 
 that honor me, I will honor." The church of 
 God has nothing to fear by her firm and invinci- 
 ble attachment to peace. Even a conquered 
 nation may be the most honored, while her con- 
 queror is most despised. " After much occasion 
 to consider," says Benjamin Franklin, "the iolly 
 and mischiefs of a state of warfare, and the 
 little or no advantage obtained even by those 
 nations who have conducted it with the most 
 success, 1 am apt to think there never has been, 
 nor ever will be, any such thing as a good war, or 
 a bad peace. ^^ 
 
 It may be arrogance in the writer of a religious 
 Book to address himself to those whom the 
 providence of God has elevated to power. " Be 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 305 
 
 wise, O ye kings ; be instructed, ye judges of 
 the earth !" Be admonished of the vast inter- 
 est which the God of heaven has trusted to your 
 hands. Trifle not with the sacred pledge your 
 country has committed to your care ; nor peril 
 its prosperity from motives that will not bear 
 the scrutiny of impartial justice. The fearful 
 reckoning must be paid to the utmost farthing. 
 You " must die like men, and fall like one of 
 the princes." Nor will it be any grief of heart 
 to you to be able to say on your bed of death, 
 " I have made few orphans in my reign; I have 
 made few widows; my object has been peace! 
 This has been the Christianity of my throne, 
 and this the gospel of my sceptre." •' Blessed 
 are the peacemakers ; for they shall be called 
 the children of God." 
 
 To men of ambition and blood, the Lord's 
 Prayer must be a senseless service. These hum- 
 ble pages will not fall in the way of such men. 
 Eternity alone can make a full disclosure of 
 their guilt and baseness who do not hesitate to 
 advance their own political, or private ends by 
 war. Men who would raise the sluice through 
 which a torrent of blood may flow, that upon 
 the deluge of gore the paltry bark that bears 
 their interests and ambition may settle upon the 
 high places, deserve to be the execrated of 
 their race. Let them renounce the name of 
 
306 THE MERCV «EAT. 
 
 men. Let them wander out with the Savage, 
 who owns no common law of humanity, to whom 
 cruelty is a virtue, and the scalps of their fel- 
 low-beings badges of distinction! Let them 
 go with the first murderer, '' fugitives and vaga- 
 bonds in the earth !" 
 
 On no subject does the tone of public senti- 
 ment need to be changed, more than on the 
 subject of war. I verily believe, that on this 
 matter, the minds of men have for ages been un- 
 der the power of the Prince of Darkness. His 
 throne is on the battle-field : glory and dishonor, 
 victories and defeats, are alike the conquests of 
 his empire. There his power is felt, and his au- 
 thority acknowledged; and they are no other 
 than the power and authority of " that old ser- 
 pent, the devil, and Satan, who decciveth the 
 whole worlds The maxims of war are his max- 
 ims; the laws of war are his laws. War has 
 become the custom of the nations, because he is 
 " the god of this world." It were difficult to ac- 
 count for the inveterate force of such a custom, 
 upon principles of mere unincited and undirect- 
 ed wickedness. Man is not naturally cruel. 
 This arch Enemy well knows, that the habits 
 of a nation are its laws, and how hopeless is the 
 task of attacking them. 
 
 Yet shall this antiquated custom pass away. 
 Supreme dominion is with the " God of peace;? 
 
A MARTIAL SPIRIT. 307 
 
 and therefore this hideous custom of war, with 
 the superstitions and corruptions of all false 
 religions, shall pass away. His Gospel aims 
 a blow at the root of all those passions and lusts 
 of men, whence '' wars and fightings" come. It 
 is not less true that it has mitigated the horrors 
 of w^ar, than that it is destined to exterminate this 
 prolific and bitter root of evil from among men. 
 Let the men of peace, then, take courage. The 
 proclamation is gone forth, "Why do the heathen 
 rage, and the people imagine a vain thing ? I 
 have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." 
 " Of the increase of his government, and peace, 
 there shall be no end." " The righteous shall 
 flourish, and abundance of peace, so long as the 
 moon endure th." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 TEMPTATION DEPLORED. 
 
 "Irnir us imt intn imjitntinn/' 
 
 There are not wanting those who impugn the 
 doctrine of pardon, as relaxing the obligations to 
 practical godliness. To say nothing of the ab- 
 surdity of this slander, upon other grounds, it is 
 an interesting fact, that in immediate sequence 
 to the request for pardoning mercy, the Saviour 
 puts into the lips of his disciples another, grow- 
 ing out of and dictated by the spirit of the former, 
 the object of w hich is to quicken and sustain 
 their tenderness of conscience, and excite un- 
 sleeping vigilance in view^ of enticements to evil. 
 " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debt- 
 ors : and lead us not into temptation ! "The sup- 
 pliant is not to expect pardon, aside from his 
 desires after holiness. The stronger the assur- 
 ance he has of his own gracious state, the more 
 earnest are his supplications for preventing 
 grace. Just in the measure in which he clings 
 
TEMPTATION DEPLORED.* 309 
 
 to the Lord Jesus, as his only hope, is he con- 
 scious of this hallowed work of the Spirit in his 
 own heart. Admitted to the divine fellowship, 
 and with an open door into the holiest of all set 
 before him, it is most congenial to all the affec- 
 tions of his renewed nature, to distrust himself, 
 and take refuge in the watchful care, the pre- 
 venting providence, and the restraining grace, 
 of his Father who is in heaven. 
 
 "He knoweth our frame; he remembereth 
 that we are but dust." He who included the 
 request, " Lead us not in*o temptation," in the 
 compend of prayer to be daily offered by his 
 disciples in every age of the world, must have 
 known w hat is in man. It is a request indited 
 with wonderful wisdom ; a request so constantly, 
 so universally needed, and comes home so 
 closely to every man's " business and bosom;" 
 that we know not which the more to admire, 
 its matchless wisdom, or its ineffable sympathy 
 and tenderness. 
 
 Plain Christians, as well men of a more philo- 
 sophical turn of mind, have, as it appears to us, 
 been sometimes perplexed by the language of 
 this request. The Holy God is no tempter. He 
 never corrupts men ; never flatters ; never de- 
 ceives ; never acts the part of a seducer ; never 
 entices to evil. He makes no promises, and 
 offers no bribes with the view of inducing them 
 
310 THE MERCY SKAT. 
 
 to do wrong. The word tempt has two signifi- 
 cations ; one is to entice to evil, the other to 
 try, or put to trial. The latter he does, the 
 former is abhorrent to His nature. That pure 
 and holy mind has no art, no craft, or cunning ; 
 but the most perfect and transparent honesty. 
 He everywhere forbids sin, condemns, reproves, 
 and punishes it; nor do his purposes or his 
 providence, w hen rightly understood, ever hold 
 a different language from this uniform spirit of 
 his moral government. Nor is he in any way 
 " the author, or approver of sin." '' Let no man 
 say, w^hen he is tempted, I am tempted of God ; 
 for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither 
 tempteth he any man." Ever since sin entered 
 into the universe, he has done everything com- 
 patible with his own perfections to restrain and 
 suppress it ; to reclaim and restore fallen man. 
 
 But while he never tempts men in the sense 
 of seducing them to evil, he tries them, and 
 throws them into circumstances in which their 
 character is put to the test. His government 
 is universal, and extends to everything. " He 
 worketh all things after the counsel of his own 
 will." His providence, which is nothing less 
 than " his most holy, wise, and powerful preserv- 
 ing and governing all his creatures and all their 
 actions," is the counterpart of his purposes, and 
 the agency by which they are accomplished. 
 
TEMPTATION DEPLORED. 311 
 
 He has, therefore, a control over all those events 
 that exert an influence on the character and 
 conduct of men. He is concerned in their sin- 
 ful conduct, in that for wise and holy ends he 
 jyermits it, " suffering all nations to walk on in 
 their own ways ;'^ in that he limits and restrains 
 it, as it is written, " The wrath of man shall 
 praise thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt 
 thou restrain;'' and in that he ^o governs and 
 directs it, in order to make it subserve great and 
 important results, so that while its perpetrators 
 " think it unto evil, God means it unto good J" 
 
 Nor could we have any consolation in view 
 of the wickedness of man, but for the precious 
 truth that the providence of God is thus con- 
 cerned in it all. Nor is there any evidence that 
 the designs of God, either in regard to the 
 church, or the world, could be accomplished, 
 nor that the wickedness of man would not 
 ultimately prevail and triumph ; had we not 
 the assurance that the Lord God omnipotent 
 thus universally reigns. This every good man 
 knows and feels, and recognizes in his prayers ; 
 and it is his happiness and joy so to do. There 
 is a controlling power above him, which nothing 
 else controls ; a supreme and universal provi- 
 dence over all his course ; one at whose disposal 
 are all creatures and all events, and in whose 
 hands are all those alternations and varieties of 
 
312 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 incident and circumstance which exert such 
 prodigious power in forming his character. 
 
 These principles and facts show us how God 
 may tempt men, without seducing them to sin, 
 and without compromising his own rectitude and 
 goodness. He may tnj them ; he may put their 
 integrity to the proof. He may even permit 
 others to seduce them ; and he himself may 
 place them in circumstances which shall devel- 
 op their true character, show them and others 
 what is in their hearts, make them feel their de- 
 pendence, and lead them, by unexpected dis- 
 coveries of their sinfulness, to " go softly all 
 their years." 
 
 Nor is there any doubt that he does this, and 
 in various ways. Some he tries by the vigor, 
 and others by the imbecility of their physical 
 constitution and intellectual capacity. Some by 
 health, and others by sickness; some by Avealth, 
 and others by poverty. Some by tlie adulation 
 of their fellow-men, and some by their neglect 
 and reproach. Some by those exposures which 
 address themselves to an ardent and sanguinary 
 temperament, and some by those that assail the 
 more dull and phlegmatic. Some by the office 
 they hold, the titles they bear, and the services 
 they render to their fellow-men. Some by the 
 place of their residence, the usages and habits of 
 the society which surrounds them, the counsel 
 
TEMPTATION DEPLORED. 313 
 
 of their advisers, and the varied success of their 
 secular enterprises. These things bring out mo- 
 tives, and discover secret springs of action. 
 They bring to light easily-besetting sins ; and 
 though many of them seem to be of very trivial 
 moment, they show the utter uncertainty of all 
 human calculations, and how absolutely the 
 character, as well as the destiny of men, is in the 
 hands of God, 
 
 All the changes that men meet with are trials 
 of their character. Nero was a very diflerent 
 man while the pupil of Seneca, from what he 
 was as the Emperor of Rome. Solomon was a 
 very different man in the early part of his reign, 
 from what he was in those voluptuous periods 
 of his history, during which he brought such re- 
 proach upon the throne. Men do not know 
 ♦hemselves. Hazael the subject was a very 
 iifferent man from Hazael the prince. Who 
 would have thought the youthful Mary, the 
 Queen of England, the translator of the Gospels, 
 w^ould ever have deserved the appellation of the 
 " bloody Mary ?" Who would have supposed 
 that Robespierre, once so sensitive to the suffer- 
 ings of his fellow-men, that he resigned a lucra- 
 tive office under the government, rather than 
 condemn a culprit to the scaffold, would have 
 filled Paris with blood ; or that William Dodd, 
 once so celebrated for his usefulness as a minister 
 
 14 
 
314 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 of Christ, would have been executed at Tyburn, 
 for forgery ? Sometimes a mere change of 
 place, an unexpected conflict with an individual 
 or a party, an unhappy alliance in business, or 
 an unlooked-for alteration in public aflfairs, 
 proves a touchstone to the character, before, 
 which truth and integrity wither, and gives 
 a blow to the spirit of self-confidence, which is 
 never so renewed that the sufferer can lift up his 
 face before the world. Sometimes these very 
 incidents result in a well-tested integrity and 
 honor, prepare those who endure the trial for 
 still severer conflicts, and furnish them for exem- 
 plary toil and sacrifices. They had this effect 
 upon Abraham, Joseph, Nehemiah, Job, Jeremi- 
 ah, Daniel, Paul, and thousands of others in later 
 times. 
 
 The entire providence of God, and the history 
 of every man in the world, if minutely inspected, 
 Avill be found to be a series of temptations pe- 
 culiarly adapted to his character. " I have led 
 thee," says God, to the generation of Israel in 
 the desert, " I have led thee these forty years in 
 the wilderness, to prove thee, and to humble thee, 
 and to see what is in thine heart, and whether 
 thou wouldest keep my commandments, or no." 
 He well knows how thus to try nnd prove men, 
 and bring out their whole hearts. They see the 
 objects, and witness the scenes and changes hv 
 
TEMPTATION DEPLORED. 315 
 
 which he is trying them; hut they are not al- 
 ways sensihle of his design, nor, indeed, melan- 
 choly to confess, do they always acknowledge 
 his overruling hand. " Thou art a God that 
 hidest thyself, O God of Israel the Saviour!" 
 Some of these tests are more severe than others, 
 and men are on their guard against them; while 
 of most of them they seem to have no ap- 
 prehension, and therefore walk on in darkness. 
 This searching process is all the while going on, 
 but they are unconscious of it. The trial 
 may be designed to bring into exercise, im- 
 prove, and make manifest rare graces and 
 virtues, so that " the trial of their faith" may be 
 to praise, and honor, and glory ;" and it may 
 show them their weakness, and cover them with 
 shame and sackcloth. 
 
 No one can truly adopt the language, " lead 
 us not into temptation," who does not possess 
 the fear and hatred of sin. The world in which 
 we live abounds with seductiv^e influences. It is 
 no sin to be tempted, unless we solicit the temp- 
 tation. Good men are afraid of it, because they 
 are afraid of sin. This deep and inwrought sen- 
 timent is one of the great incentives to this par- 
 ticular request; for if the enticements to sin 
 were not likely to lead us astray, there would be 
 no use in the petition. 
 
 There are those who are greatly exposed to 
 
316 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 sin, and who have strongly besetting sins, who 
 never pray that they may not be tempted to 
 commit them; and the reason is, they have no 
 abhorrence of these sins. It gives great em- 
 phasis to such a request as this, to have deep 
 impressions of the evil and odious nature of all 
 sin. If we make light of sin, we shall make 
 light of temptation. One of the most subtle 
 temptations is that which would fain induce us 
 to believe that it is a small matter to sin against 
 God. An enlightened and tender conscience, 
 and much more a heart renewed by grace, 
 looks upon sin as deadly poison. However 
 small, it is the " cockatrice's ^gg'' and w4ll 
 " break out into a viper." Every man is tempt- 
 ed when he " is drawn away by his own lusts 
 and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, 
 it bringeth forth sin ; and sin when it is finished, 
 bringeth forth death." And it is no abortion, 
 but vigorous, full-grown death. Just as one w'ho 
 has experienced the agony of bodily suffering, 
 prays as no other man can pray, to be delivered 
 from pain, so does he who knows by experience 
 the evil of sinning, pray as no other man can 
 pray, that he may not be led into temptation. 
 Such a man is afraid of the opportunity of sin- 
 ning ; his daily prayer is that he may not be 
 thrown in the way of it. There is no surer 
 sign of a man's ignorance of himself, than his 
 
TEMPTATION DEPLORED. 317 
 
 unwillingness to admit the power of temptation. 
 A cautious Christian has lost his self-confident 
 courage, and seeks rather for preservatives from 
 sin, than for occasions to prove his steadfastness. 
 He solicits rather that God would circumvent 
 him by his providence, and on every side mul- 
 tiply and increase the obstacles and difficulties 
 in his way of sinning, than suffer him to fall 
 into temptation. 
 
 The man who offers this request with a be- 
 coming spirit, contemplates his exposure. The 
 world is full of those who have been led away 
 by temptation, who, before they were led 
 astray, would have said that it could have had 
 no influence upon them. Most of the boasting 
 among men proceeds from the want of being 
 tried. " He that trusteth to his own heart is a 
 fool." The spirit of self-confidence runs into 
 temptation ; it even tempts God. It should 
 never be forgotten that a pardoned sinner is not 
 past all peril. " Watch and pray," says the 
 Saviour, "that ye enter not into temptation; 
 the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is 
 weak." 
 
 This exposure to sin arises principally from 
 the .following sources. In every human being 
 this side the grave, there is a melancholy ten- 
 dency to evil. To w hatever extent this innate 
 tendency to wickedness may be counteracted. 
 
318 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 it is always in opposition to the strong natural 
 Lias of the mind. His own heart is his strong- 
 est tempter. The system is a false one, that it 
 is as easy for a man to do right as to do wrong. 
 Left to himself, he is " wise to do evil, and to 
 do good he has no knowledge." Even after 
 every restraint and every influence, every in- 
 ducement presented in the word of God, and 
 even large measures of his grace, he utterly 
 fails to subdue the power of " sin that dwelleth 
 in him." He may feel that sin is a burden, and 
 yet commit it. His conscience may be wrung 
 with anguish in view of past sins, w hile this is 
 no security that he may not commit them in 
 time to come. He may form resolutions of 
 new obedience every day he lives, and still live 
 to groan under the body of sin and death. His 
 very desires and efforts to mortify and subdue 
 his corruptions, furnish him w ith affecting indi- 
 cations of their power. Rarely does he go to 
 the throne of grace, but he feels the severity of 
 the conflict, and complains of his moral corrup- 
 tion. It is a mournful truth, that '' the heart is 
 deceitful above all things, and desperately 
 wicked" — wicked to project and perpetrate 
 evervthino: that is vile, w hen once all restraints 
 are removed and strong temptation is present 
 to the mind. No man knows what he may be 
 left to do; nor what " earthly, sensual, devilish'' 
 
TEMPTATION DEPLORED. 319 
 
 device may find a place in some of the secret 
 folds of his deeply imbedded wickedness. 
 
 The source of his exposure is not a blinded 
 understanding merely; nor a faithless con- 
 science, nor a treacherous memory, nor a per- 
 verted judgment, nor a wild, polluted, and in- 
 cited imagination, nor the want of experience ; 
 but a corrupted heart. This is the weak spot, 
 the sore spot, the deadly plague in the human 
 character. He knows little of himself that does 
 not know this melancholy truth. 
 
 Nor is this all. With such a heart as this, 
 he is destined to live in a world of sin and 
 snares, where, w^hatever his condition may be, 
 he is tempted on every side. He is exposed 
 from the men of the world and the things of 
 the w^orld; from friends and foes; at home and 
 abroad ; from the untender walk of Christians, 
 and from the bolder corruptions of the wicked ; 
 from what he sees and hears, enjoys and suf- 
 fers. He is exposed sometimes from too retired, 
 and sometimes from too social a spirit, and 
 amid communications that are as contagious as 
 they are unavoidable. He is exposed, where 
 he least suspects it, and from his very insensi- 
 bility to exposure, insensibly and deceitfully 
 conducting him from one sin to another, till he 
 stands on the brink of the precipice, and won- 
 ders he has not made the fearful leap into the 
 
32(1 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 abyss below. His mind becomes familiarized 
 with evil ; and before be is aware of it, his 
 principles become shaken, his faith shivers in 
 the wind, and his frail bark is tossed on the 
 dark, angry sea. 
 
 Just as matter acts upon matter, so mind acts 
 upon mind. Disastrous revolutions are effected 
 in the moral world by the contact of minds; 
 nor is it at all to be wondered at, that spiritual 
 life should be jeoparded in a world that " lieth 
 in wickedness." 
 
 There is a Great Deceiver, too, who is not 
 only permitted to have the power, but is long 
 practised in the arts of seduction. We *' are 
 not iofnorant of his devices." He knows where 
 and when the people of God are most vulner- 
 able. There is no dark chamber in the under- 
 standing, no unguarded outpost in the con- 
 science, no defective spot in the heart, which 
 he has not his eye upon, and to w hich he is not 
 fertile in expedients to find access. He sports 
 with the understanding, and would fain tempt 
 to the belief that there is no religion revealed 
 from heaven, no hereafter, no God. He sports 
 with the conscience, and would fain tempt to 
 the belief that sin is a little matter; that the 
 threatenings of God are unduly severe ; that 
 nothing is jeoparded by a single deviation from 
 duty ; that others have sinned and found mercy ; 
 
TEMPTATION DEPLORED. 32 
 
 and that there can be no great peril in sinning 
 if such transgressors as Noah and Lot, David 
 and Solomon, Peter and the thief on the cross, 
 were pardoned offenders. He sports with the 
 imagination, painting in gaudy colors the delights 
 of the ambitious in the hope of elevation, of the 
 avaricious in their anticipations of wealth, of 
 the voluptuous in the revelings of their impur- 
 ity. He sports with the heart, adapting his se- 
 ductions to every age, every constitutional in- 
 firmity, every condition and exigency, every 
 employment and relation in life, every hope and 
 fear, every opinion and prejudice, every expos- 
 ure, every season of rashness, and every former 
 sin. There is no form of sinning which he fails 
 to exhibit in its most alluring attractions. It is 
 " fruit greatly to be desired and pleasant to the 
 eye ;" the deed is soon forgotten, and never de- 
 tected ; it is the best if not the only means of 
 realizing expectations to which have been devo- 
 ted years of otherwise fruitless toil. 
 
 There are three things, among others, which 
 strongly mark the temptations of this crafty ad- 
 versary. One is the untiring patience by which 
 he would persuade men to hearken to his sug- 
 gestions ; the indomitable perseverance by 
 which he employs himself with their thoughts 
 by day and by night, pursuing and worrying, 
 hunting and dogging his victims year after year. 
 
 14* 
 
322 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 until he has planted his barbed arrow so deep, 
 that they despair of escaping his fury. The 
 other, inconsistent as it may be, is the suddenness 
 dfhis assaults ; the unexpected fury of his on- 
 sets, giving his victims no time to deliberate, 
 entering into no discussions with them, but 
 summoning all his artifice and energy to carry 
 them by surprise. And the third is, to keep 
 himself out of sight ; to secrete himself from ob- 
 servation, from suspicion even, until the " bird 
 is taken in the snare, and knoweth not that it 
 is for his life." 
 
 Such are some of the more ordinary expo 
 sures to sin which this request contemplates 
 The world, the flesh, and the devil, these three 
 mighty kingdoms, in all the strength and sub- 
 tlety of their unhallowed alliance, are, ever and 
 anon, directing their assaults against the men 
 of prayer, against all men, and with an unwea- 
 riedness and success that are surpassed only by 
 him whose eyes never slumber, and who is 
 stronger than the strong man in his armor. 
 
 Here then we may discover what it is a Chris- 
 tian prays for when he says, '^ Lead me not into 
 temptation." He would be delivered from the 
 severity of this conflict; and if he may not be 
 free from it, he asks that he may be supported. 
 "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice," 
 says Paul, " that it might depart from me ; and 
 
TEMPTATION DEPLORED. 323 
 
 he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee !*" 
 This petition more especially contemplates as 
 great an exmnption from this exposure as is con- 
 sistent with the designs and 'will of God. In the 
 wide range between sinless perfection and ab- 
 solute apostasy, some degree of exposure is un- 
 avoidable ; nor does he know how much may 
 be needful for the " trial of his faith," for the 
 proof of his integrity, for his usefulness in the 
 world, for the conquests of divine grace, and for 
 ultimately securing his everlasting crown. It is 
 well that the history of the people of God in 
 this particular is an unknown history, and that 
 it never will be fully known till the day when 
 the promise is made good, " To him that ovei'- 
 Cometh will I gmnt to sit with me on my throne, 
 even as I overcame, and am set down with my 
 Father on his throne." 
 
 John in the vision of the Apocalypse heard 
 the voice, " What are these which are arrayed 
 in white robes, and whence came they ?" It 
 was the inquirer himself who rejoined, " These 
 are they which came out of great tribulation^ 
 and have washed their robes, and made them 
 white in the blood of the Lamb." Tl^y had 
 labored and suffered for the gospel. They had 
 stood firm and fast in a persecuting and degen- 
 erate age. They had not fallen, nor fainted in 
 tlie '' hour of temptation that came upon all the 
 
324 THE MERCY SEAT 
 
 earth," but sealed their testimony with their 
 blood. God has thus tempted thousands of his 
 people, to whom he has given grace to be 
 *' faithful unto death," and to whom he has 
 awarded " a crown of life." He tempted Abra- 
 ham by a command filled with all the emphasis 
 of terror; he tempted Job and he tempted PauL 
 " Beloved," says the Apostle Peter to the dis- 
 persed people of God, " think it not strange con- 
 cerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as 
 though some strange thing had happened unto 
 you." It is no new thing that temptations 
 should beset them; nor is it any phenomenon 
 in the divine government, that they should be 
 turned to good account. " There hath no temp- 
 tation overtaken you," says Paul to the Corin- 
 thians, " but such as is common to man ; but 
 God is faithful who will not suffer you to be 
 tempted above that ye are able ; but will with 
 the temptation also make a way to escape, that 
 ye may be able to bear it." I have known 
 those who, from a sinful confidence in their 
 own powers of endurance, and from a self-right- 
 eous desire to express their own meekness 
 and submission under trials, actually desired this 
 conflict with themselves and the powers of dark- 
 ness. And I have seen them most bitterly be- 
 wail their presumption. Tliough good men may 
 come unscathed from temptations, they are not 
 
TEMPTATION DEPLORED. 325 
 
 to be sought. It is time enough to " glory in 
 tribulation," when it comes. If God bring it, 
 he will deliver. It is not in piety then to be a 
 rebel; she may not then resist and oppose the 
 will of God, but " rather count it all joy when 
 she falls into divers temptations, knowing this, 
 that the trial of her faith worketh patience," 
 and that it is no loss when " patience has her 
 perfect work, entire, wanting nothing." Nor is 
 it any strange thing that piety, when thus un- 
 avoidably exposed, should be the gainer by 
 every seduction successfully resisted, every trial 
 patiently endured. There is honey even in the 
 carcass of the lion ; " out of the eater comes forth 
 meat, and out of the strong comes forth sweet- 
 ness." Thus tempted, the child of God has 
 many a promise to sustain and comfort him. 
 He who came from the bosom of the Father to 
 '* destroy the works of the devil," was himself 
 exposed to the impudent assaults of this Spirit 
 of all evil. If he did not escape the assault, 
 much less may we escape. Like a brave prince, 
 he not only commands his followers, but places 
 himself at the head of his embattled hosts, and 
 himself breasts the first onset of the enemy. It 
 is not unfrequently with them, after sore temp- 
 tations, as it was with him, when behold, " the 
 devil leaveth them, and angels come and minis- 
 ter unto them." 
 
326 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 While the petition, " lead us not into tempta- 
 tion," therefore, does not contemplate an entire 
 exemption from temptation, it contemplates as 
 great an exemption as is consistent with the will 
 of our Father who is in heaven. In such a 
 world as this, and with such a heart as dwells in 
 man, who feels not the strong propriety^ the ur- 
 gent need of such a request ? Nothing is more 
 helpless than a Christian unprotected by the 
 providence, unsupported by the grace of his 
 heavenly Father. He is as a sickly plant, under 
 the withering tempest. He is like the lost 
 sheep, bleating in the lone and dense forest, or 
 trembling on the cragged rock, pursued by sav- 
 age beasts and savage men, and never secure, 
 save when He who " gathers the lambs with his 
 arm, and carries them in his bosom," maketh 
 him to " lie down in green pastures, and leadeth 
 him beside the still waters." It is not so much 
 in resisting temptation, as in not being led into 
 it, that his safety lies. 
 
 Be this, then, the reader's prayer, " lead me 
 not into temptation." Tread not too closely on 
 the borders of evil, when there is a " highway 
 of holiness." Make no treaty with the foe. 
 Beware of scenes and objects, of places, employ- 
 ments, and men, of feelings and fancies, which 
 ensnare. 
 
TEMPTATION DEPLORED. 32? 
 
 " My soul, be on thy guard, 
 Ten thousand foes arise ; 
 And hosts of sin are pressing hard 
 To draw thee from the skies." 
 
 If a man is doubtful of the moral rectitude of 
 any course of conduct, let him bring it to the 
 test, by asking the question, Is it not ensnar- 
 ing ? Of this one thing he may be assured, that 
 it is more than doubtful, if he cannot enter upon 
 it with the petition on his lips, " lead me not into 
 temptation." Listen to the counsels of heavenly 
 wisdom, when they say, " Be sober, be vigilant; 
 for your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, 
 goeth about seeking whom he may devour." 
 Be vigilant, because your foes are subtle, and 
 aim their most envenomed arrows in the dark. 
 Be sober, because levity and folly tempt the 
 tempter. These days of temptation will soon 
 be over ; therefore " be strong in the Lord, and 
 in the power of his might." It is not against 
 flesh and blood alone that you are wrestling; 
 wherefore "put on the whole armor of God, 
 that ye may be able to withstand in the evil 
 day." 
 
 " Alas ! what hourly dangers rise ! 
 What snares beset my way ! 
 To heaven, O let me lift my eyes, 
 And hourly watch and pray ! 
 
THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 keep me in thy heavenly way 
 
 And bid the tempter flee. 
 And let me never, never stray 
 From happiness and thee V 
 
 ■//-SB* 
 
CHAPTER XV, 
 
 THE DREAD OF SIN. 
 
 ^^aSnt Mimt m ixm €mW' 
 
 Men may be tempted to sin, while they may 
 foil the tempter, and not only remain unhurt, but 
 come forth from the furnace like purified gold. 
 The evil they most fear is, yielding to the sug- 
 gestions and incentives of the adversary, and 
 suffering the bitter consequences of their folly 
 and wickedness. It is one of the most natural 
 expressions of piety in the world, therefore, for 
 them daily to present the request at the throne 
 of grace, '' Deliver us from evil." 
 
 It is not necessary to occupy much time, in 
 unfolding the true meaning of this request. It 
 may not be supposed, that in offering it, the 
 child of God prays to be delivered from all evil, 
 of every kind and degree. A measure oi^ suffer- 
 ing is what he expects. He never prays, nor 
 should he even venture to desire to be delivered 
 from that measure of it which his Heaven Iv 
 
330 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 Father sees best for him. The prayer to be 
 wholly delivered from it were an implicit, if not 
 expressed and direct revolt against the revealed 
 purpose of God, as well as against his wise and 
 holy providence, and the discipline of that 
 covenanted faithfulness and grace, by which he 
 is weaned from the world, and fitted for his 
 heavenly inheritance. 
 
 The design and scope of the passage show 
 that the " evil" alluded to in this request is sin. 
 " Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us 
 from evil,'' The emphasis of the request lies in 
 the obvious antithesis. Men are not tempted 
 to suffering, but to sin. The original word, 
 here translated evil, is indeed of more co-mpre- 
 hensive import, but it is quite as frequently used 
 to denote moral evil, as that which is merely 
 physical. The Saviour, in praying for his disci- 
 ples, says, " I pray not that thou wouldest take 
 them out of the world, but that thou wouldest 
 keep them from the evil'' He was not unwil- 
 ling that they should live, and labor, and suffer ; 
 he had forewarned them of this allotment ; suf- 
 fering was their vocation and honor; tribulation 
 was that in which they had been taught to 
 glory ; but he prayed most fervently that they 
 might be kept from sin, and from the power of 
 their spiritual enemies. 
 
 So, when, in this formula and compend of 
 
THE DREAD OF SIN. 331 
 
 prayer, he instructs them to supplicate their 
 Father who is in heaven, that he would " de- 
 liver them from evil'' he means the great evil, 
 the ruthless enemy, the deadly plague of sin. 
 This is the evil to which they are most exposed, 
 which they most hate, and which they are most 
 afraid of. This is the evil which most easily 
 besets them ; which they find the most difficult 
 to restrain and resist ; and which has the earli- 
 est, the deepest, and the most enduring lodgment 
 within them. This is the burden of w hich they 
 most bitterly complain ; heavier than losses, 
 more distressing than sickness, more mournful 
 than sorrow, severer than persecution, more 
 withering than reproach, more galling than 
 chains. This is the enemy with which they 
 are called to maintain a sleepless and perpetual 
 warfare, because it contends for the throne in 
 their hearts; because if it is let alone, it will 
 live and reign in the soul forever; and because 
 it never dies, save a lingering, painful, and ex- 
 cruciating death. This is the sea of trouble 
 whose dark waters roll over them, and which, 
 though often buffeted and repelled, may return 
 from some unexpected source and in some new 
 channel, and sink them in the depths. They 
 can welcome anything rather than this. There 
 is nothing that is the source of so much de- 
 pression and discouragement as this great evil. 
 
332 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 It costs them tears, and groans, and prayers. 
 " Mine iniquities/' says the Psalmist, " are gone 
 over my head ; as an heavy burden, they are 
 too heavy for me. I am troubled, I am bowed 
 down greatly ; I go mourning all the day long. 
 I am feeble and sore broken ; I have roared by 
 reason of the disquietude of my heart!" Many 
 a time are they constrained to exclaim with 
 Paul, "O wretched man that I am! Avho shall 
 deliver me from the body of this death V 
 
 One of the most effective means of deliver- 
 ance from this great evil, is prayer. There are, 
 it is true, other means. Temptation must be 
 avoided ; evil pursuits, evil associations, and all 
 corrupting influences must be put far away. 
 We must realize more deeply our obligations to 
 God. We must labor for a deeper sense of the 
 vanity of this world, and more abiding impres- 
 sions of the world to come. We must dwell 
 often and tenderly on the love and sufferings of 
 our great atoning and interceding High Priest. 
 We must acquaint ourselves more with God, 
 habitually feel that we are always in his pres- 
 ence, be cheerfully employed in our duty, and 
 make it our high ambition always to do those 
 things which are well pleasing in his sight who 
 sees us everywhere, and from whose presence 
 none can flee. But the great encouragement, 
 and stimulus, and relief in all these efforts is 
 
THE DREAD OF SIN. 333 
 
 derived from prayer. Sin cannot be mortified 
 without prayer, because it cannot be mortified 
 without a power superior to our own — the 
 power of God's gracious, condescending, and 
 omnipotent Spirit. " If ye, through the Spirit, 
 do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." 
 
 No man ever engaged in a successful conflict 
 with his corruptions, without feeling his depend- 
 ence on God, and his need of the Holy Spirit, to 
 give him the victory, even over any one form of 
 sinning. Without this, nothing is accomplished ; 
 the besetting sin gains strength; all sin has 
 augmented power; and instead of being deliver- 
 ed from evil, the most holy men, so far from 
 making any advances in the divine life, would 
 wax worse and worse. 
 
 We frequently read in the Scriptures of the 
 throne of grace, as the refuge of God's people in 
 the time of trouble. And what a refuge ! when 
 from the storms of earth, they hide themselves 
 in his pavilion. Nor is it more a refuge from 
 their sorrows and privations, and tribulations, 
 than a refuge from their sins. If true believers 
 in Jesus had a more intimate acquaintance wi^t.h 
 one another's experience, it would probably be 
 found, that there is no one blessing for which 
 they prize the throne of grace more than this. 
 Multitudes are found among them who can say, 
 *' Sin had been a pleasure, and religion a burden, 
 
334 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 but for the privilege of prayer. I had been among 
 the vilest of men, but for a throne of grace. 
 Long ago, had I been in hell with the damned, 
 but for a throne of grace." It is here that the 
 soul not only finds pardon for the past, but 
 strength for the present, bright kindlings of hope 
 for the future. It is here that she is brought into 
 contact, not with things that are evil, but things 
 that are good. It is here that she perceives the 
 beauties of holiness, takes hold of the divine 
 strength and the divine promises, feels that her 
 life is hid with Christ in God, and while she 
 goes on her way, rejoices as she goes. 
 
 There are important reasons for this special 
 request, " deliver us from evil." True religion 
 is as reasonable as it is lovely. Though with 
 every child of God, such a request is in no small 
 degree a matter oi feeling, yet are its w^eight 
 and importance enforced by every dictate of 
 reason and conscience, as well as every emotion 
 of piety. Let us direct our thoughts, in the sub- 
 sequent part of this chapter, to a consideration 
 of the question. Why do the children of God thus 
 fervently pray to be delivered from sin ? 
 
 Sin is itself " exceedingly sinful." It is " an 
 evil thing and bitter." It is the poisoned 
 arrow; the dart that most bitterly wounds the 
 soul. One of the points of difference between 
 those who are Christians, and those who are not 
 
THE DREAD OF SIN. 335 
 
 Christians, will be found to consist in their 
 different views of sin. Good men view it in 
 some measure as God himself views it. The 
 reason why God hates and forbids it, is that it is 
 wrong. It is opposed to his nature, and a viola- 
 tion of his law. It is eminently the " accursed 
 thing,'' and that which " his soul hateth." He 
 is of "purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot 
 look on iniquity." He is not opposed to it be- 
 cause he is afraid it will injure himself, though 
 it is enmity against him, and all its tendencies 
 are to frustrate his designs, and subvert his 
 throne. ''If thou sinnest, what doest thou 
 against Him? or if thy transgressions be mul- 
 tiplied, what doest thou unto Him?" His nature' 
 remains spotless, and his blessedness undisturb- 
 ed ; his counsel shall stand, his throne endure 
 forever, and he will even " make the wrath of 
 man praise him." Yet is there nothing moie re- 
 pugnant to him, as a being of perfect rectitude, 
 than this abominable, odious thing. He has a 
 quick, instinctive, and unchanging sense of what 
 is right. It is a matter of principle with him, 
 nor can it be otherwise than that he should be 
 the everlasting enemy of sin. 
 
 When men are born of God, and become his 
 children, they imbibe a portion of his nature and 
 spirit. Because sin is odious in itself, and hate- 
 ful to him, it is hateful to them. The time was 
 
3^6 THE MERCY SLaT. 
 
 when they regarded it otherwise ; but that time 
 is gone by. All the sensibilities of their renew- 
 ed nature are now^ wounded by it, and it is their 
 earnest prayer that they may be delivered from 
 its power. It is all evil ; they see no good in it. 
 It is the fountain of corruption. It makes the 
 devil evil; it makes the human heart evil; it 
 makes the world evil. They themselves know 
 the pain, the grief, of being brought under its do- 
 minion ; they have a painful sense of its turpi- 
 tude. Many a time have they been subdued to 
 tenderness and tears, have wept and bled, on 
 account of it. 
 
 It is not like other evils which come upon 
 them, and which they mourn over, but which 
 have no moral turpitude. Sickness and poverty, 
 pain and death, are evils, but they are not sins. 
 The consuming flame, the desolating flood, grim 
 famine, the withering thunderbolt, are evils; but 
 they are not sins. They never sting the con- 
 science. There is some relief in contemplating 
 these ; but, save in the blood of Christ, there is 
 none in contemplating sin. It has no excuse, no 
 palliation. Whatever it touches, it corrupts and 
 makes it evil. It has no resemblance to what is 
 right ; no one element of purity and loveliness. 
 In its best forms, and least enormity, it is crime, 
 dire and direful crime. With all its meretri- 
 cious adornment, it is an evil which conscience 
 
THE DREAD OF SIN. 337 
 
 revolts at, from which every virtuous mind 
 shrinks, and from which He who once bore its 
 mighty burden and shame has well taught his 
 disciples to implore deliverance. 
 
 There is also debasement and shame in si/i, 
 as well as moral turpitude. The soul of man 
 was originally pure and holy ; it was the most 
 amiable and beautiful object in this lower 
 world ; but little lower than the angels, formed 
 in the image of its Maker, lofty, lovely, and 
 justly beloved. It was endowed with high in- 
 tellectual faculties, with a sound and healthy 
 conscience, with affections pure as the crystal 
 stream. All its parts were fitly joined together, 
 and all its separate functions maintained that 
 due subserviency and subordination Avhich con- 
 stituted it an harmonious spiritual existence. 
 If the love of the beautiful, the admiration for 
 the sublime, could be gratified with perceptions 
 of what was pleasing and grand in the newly 
 completed material creation, much more were 
 they gratified with this highest, noblest, and 
 honored work of God. 
 
 It is among the basest and worst features of 
 sin that it defiles and pollutes the soul, once so 
 pure and honored. When man fell, this pure 
 and lofty existence became deteriorated and 
 depraved ; its faculties were deranged, its har- 
 mony disturbed, and its beauty defaced, its 
 
 15 
 
338 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 glory turned into shame. It became diseased 
 and defiled; a pale, sickly, debased existence. 
 When through matchless grace, it is born of 
 God, and created anew in Christ Jesus, it be- 
 gins to assume its primeval beauty, to put on its 
 vestal robes, and to shine forth in its original 
 loveliness. Its symmetry is restored, and its 
 disjointed and jarring faculties once more act 
 in harmony. It makes progressive advances in 
 holiness; habitually, though inconstantly, it is 
 tending upward, till ultimately it attains to that 
 unblotted excellence which was once its high- 
 est glory. 
 
 To this upward progress sin opposes the most 
 humiliating obstacles ; it acts upon the mind 
 just as a stupefying, or inflammatory disease 
 acts upon the body. To a greater or less ex- 
 tent, every sin does this; while habitual and 
 aggravated sin does it to an alarming degree. 
 The heart, the great moral principle, the master 
 impulse of the wondrous machinery, itself dis- 
 ordered, throws into disorder all the natural 
 faculties. The understanding becomes dark- 
 ened, the judgment confounded, and reason 
 itself no longer compares, compounds, and ar- 
 ranges as a well-balanced mind is wont to do, 
 but plunges into the deepest and most foolish 
 absurdities. The beauty, excellence, and glory 
 of God and divine things, fade from the mind, or 
 
THE DREAD OF SIN. 339 
 
 are seen through a false medium. Spiritual 
 things are no longer compared with spiritual; 
 natural things are no longer seen in their moral 
 relations ; the views of the mind are hlind and 
 partial, and it is warped to conclusions that are 
 false and unrighteous. Memory too becomes 
 most treacherous where it ought to be most 
 faithful ; and instead of being the repository of 
 thoughts that are true and heavenly, becomes 
 the store-house of all that is earthly, and not a 
 little that is sensual and devilish. And con- 
 science becomes misinformed, misled, bribed, 
 and stifled ; or where it rises above these er- 
 rors, brings the soul into terror and bondage. 
 
 This view of the evil of sin may not impress 
 the minds of all good men alike ; but there are 
 those to whom it is a most humiliating view. 
 They are conscious of the defilement of sin ; it is 
 a melancholy, debasing consciousness. It de- 
 spoils them of their glory, and leaves them in 
 their nakedness and shame. It is like the 
 plague of leprosy ; it covers the soul ; it is too 
 polluting and contagious to go abroad without 
 some badge of its unclean ness. There is noth- 
 ing in it that is pure and honorable. It is a 
 loathsome, filthy disease ; and the man who is 
 polluted by it, does well w^hen he covers his 
 face and clothes himself with sackcloth. 
 
 When the children of God are conscious of 
 
340 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 having fallen into sin, even after their gracious 
 healing, they feel oppressed with that humilia- 
 ting sense of their vileness which extorts from 
 their bosoms the confession, " unclean ! un- 
 clean !" The prophet's acknowledgment was, 
 '' O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up 
 my face to thee, my God !" " O Lord, righteous- 
 ness belongeth unto thee ; but unto us confusion 
 of facer It is no marvel that the daily prayer 
 should go up to the throne, " wash me thorough- 
 ly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my 
 sin !" The pollution of sin is often felt to be 
 deeply odious and degrading ; in no words is 
 the humbling sense of it more fully expressed 
 than in the short sentence, " Behold I am vile /" 
 However prosperous their outw^ard condition, 
 and however many and expressive the tokens of 
 confidence they receive from their fellow-men, 
 nothing satisfies the people of God, but to be 
 "delivered from the evil." They have no 
 stronger desire, no prayer more importunate 
 than that " the body of sin might be destroyed, 
 that henceforth they should not serve sin." 
 Their daily application is to the blood that 
 cleanseth, and their daily request that God 
 would " heal their backslidings." 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that amid all the phi- 
 losophical theories in regard to the ultimate 
 good which sin is made to subserve, men of 
 
THE DREAD OF SIN. 341 
 
 prayer are not embarrassed with theories on so 
 plain a subject. They do not stop to ask, if God 
 may not glorify himself by their wickedness ; sin 
 is too odious to allow of any such palliations. 
 In defiance of all theory, the Spirit of God has 
 taught them its exceeding defilement, and they 
 cannot help praying to be delivered from its 
 pollutions. Every emotion of piety prompts 
 them thus to pray ; the mere impulse of right 
 aflfection overpowers all their nice metaphysical 
 distinctions and subtleties, and constrains them 
 to implore, " Lead us not iato temptation, but 
 deliver us from evil." 
 
 There is also suffering in sin, as well as evil 
 and shame. In piety there are joys. Angels 
 find them in the pure and devout affections 
 of their own minds ; in their delighted con- 
 templations of their adored Author and Sov- 
 ereign ; in their admiring views, of his works 
 and providence ; in their growing conceptions 
 of his great work of redeeming mercy; in their 
 fellowship with God, and in his favor and love. 
 The lowest and meanest seraph is indeed hap- 
 pier in these sources of joy than the highest 
 and most exalted child of God on earth ; yet 
 has the lowest and meanest child of God on 
 earth spiritual enjoyments such as " no man 
 taketh from him." 
 
 True religion, wherever it is felt in purity 
 
342 THE MERCY 8EA'J 
 
 and power, always produces the most liappy 
 effect upon the mind that embraces it. It is 
 the Sun of righteousness arising upon the soul 
 after the darkness of a long and gloomy night. 
 It is like the returning spring, melting the ice 
 and dispelling the chill frosts of winter, giving 
 life to the buried seed, clothing it with verdure, 
 and spangling it with flowers. It spreads seren- 
 ity and joy over the very countenance, lights 
 up the languid eye, and fills the lips with praise. 
 Not more certainly is it the life of God in the 
 soul of man, than it imparts a portion of the very 
 blessedness of God to the soul itself '' To be 
 carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually 
 mindedis life and peace." There is a love of God, 
 a confidence and hope in God, a communion and 
 fellowship with God, which not only lead the 
 soul to stay itself upon him, and feel safe and 
 tranquil, but which fill it with triumph. " Thou 
 hast turned from me my mourning into danc- 
 ing," saith the Psalmist ; " thou hast put off my 
 sackcloth and girded me with gladness, to the 
 end that my glory may sing praise unto thee, 
 and not be silent." 
 
 Nor is there anything that preventeth these 
 joys from being constant, unless it be the chil- 
 ling, withering influence of sin. Sin is the at- 
 mosphere of death. It is like returning winter 
 to the soul when sinful thoughts, sinful passions, 
 
THE DREAD OF SIN. 343 
 
 and sinful pursuits agitate it. They sweep over 
 its calm surface, and upturn the deep founda- 
 tions of its joy. They make it restless and un- 
 happy ; and if their influence is permanent, ren- 
 der it like a frozen ocean, where the ice of cen- 
 turies has been accumulating, and every current 
 of air that comes from it chills and freezes. 
 The light of the divine countenance is with- 
 drawn from it by day, and God its Maker no 
 longer gives it songs in the night. Gloom and 
 darkness hang over it. Its garments of glad- 
 ness are laid aside, and it puts on its weeds. It 
 has no longer that comfortable evidence of its 
 interest in the divine favor w hich made it joy- 
 ful in the house of prayer. Deserted of all but 
 unbelieving doubts, cruel fears, a guilty con- 
 science, and bitter lamentations, it is w ell nigh 
 abandoned to its invisible enemies, and sinks 
 into morbid dejection and melancholy. 
 
 The Christian w^ho is even surprised into sin, 
 linds it difl[icult to return to his w^onted enjoy- 
 ment of God. They are suppressed aspirations 
 of heart toward him which he feels rising in 
 his bosom ; he is embarrassed in his fellowship ; 
 his access in the new and living way is ob- 
 structed ; he feels for a time like a stranger and 
 foreigner, an outcast, rather than like the hap- 
 py child of God. He has no comfort in prayer; 
 no light shines upon the sacred pages of God's 
 
344 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 word when he opens that sacred volume ; no 
 promise meets his iincomforted heart ; ordinan- 
 ces are barren ; and in the bitterness of his 
 soul, he is ready to exclaim, " God has forgotten 
 to be gracious ; he hath in anger shut up his 
 tender mercies !" 
 
 A wicked man, a self-deceived man, a vile 
 hypocrite, can live in such a state of mind as 
 this, so far as he knows what such a state of 
 mind is; but it is a state of mind which no 
 Christian can long endure. Things seen and 
 temporal cannot make him happy while thus 
 shut out from things unseen and eternal. He 
 cannot live thus abandoned of God ; he would 
 welcome death in the assured peace with his 
 heavenly Father, rather than life under the sor- 
 rows of this spiritual desertion. 
 
 It is not without reason, therefore, that he 
 prays against the invasions of sin from without, 
 and the indulgence of sin within, '' Cast me not 
 away from thy presence; take not thy Holy 
 Spirit from me." His very sorrows and griefs 
 find their consolation in the prayer to be deliver- 
 ed from evil. 
 
 Sin also diminishes, if it does not destroy the 
 Christianas usefulness. True piety is efficient 
 and operative. The great object of every Chris- 
 tian is to " live not to himself, but to Him who 
 died for him, and rose again." But it should 
 
THE DREAD OF SIN. 345 
 
 never be forgotten, that the value of his re- 
 ligious character is derived from its moral influ- 
 ence. Nowhere is this unquestioned influence 
 more exerted than in those humble eflforts, those 
 cheerful acts of self-denial, those unreluctant 
 sacrifices, and that unnoticed toil and patient 
 perseverance in well-doing, which have the 
 promise of reaping in due season. 
 
 Sin, more especially indulged sin, is ruinous 
 to his influence and usefulness. If even the 
 heaven-born Paul complained that his sins inter- 
 rupted him in the performance of his duty, who 
 and w^iere is the saint that discovers not reasons 
 for the prayer, " Deliver me from evil ?" " I a^m 
 carnal,'' says this peerless Apostle, " sold under 
 sin. For that which I do, I allow not; for what 
 I w^ould, that do I not ; but what I hate, that do 
 I. I find, then, a law that when I would do 
 good, evil is present with me." He was con- 
 scious of a conflict, the severity of which some- 
 times unfitted him for those arduous and self-de- 
 nying duties, and those wondrous enterprises of 
 Christian heroism which w^ere the objects of his 
 high-wrought and holy zeal. He was afraid of 
 sin, because he well knew^ its tendency to para- 
 lyze his usefulness. Those who possess most of 
 the spirit of Paul, for the same reason, " groan, 
 being burdened." It is an afllictive thought to 
 them, ever to be in a state of mind in which 
 
 15* 
 
346 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 their duty is irksome, or their courage prostrated 
 by self-reproach, or the reproach of their fellow- 
 men. " Then shall I not be ashamed," says the 
 Psalmist, " when I have respect to all thy com- 
 mandments." When good men, by their own 
 folly and backsliding, have brought opprobrium 
 upon the sacred name by which they are called, 
 when they have throw^n stumbling-blocks in the 
 way of those that are without, and not only 
 given occasion to infidels and scoffers to triumph 
 over their fall, and to speak even more lightly 
 than they are w^ont to do of the religion of the 
 Bible, but have also furnished reason for the 
 friends of God to suspect their sincerity ; they 
 know not how^ to lift up their faces, they are 
 humbled and distressed, and not unfrequently 
 court retirement and solitude, rather than 
 spheres of active usefulness. Even if their sins 
 are secret, they feel a shrinking reluctance at 
 occupying places of consideration and influence. 
 Christian usefulness is a plant of slow growth ; it 
 spreads itself gradually ; yet if there creep in a 
 w^orm at the root, it w ithers more rapidly than it 
 grew. The usefulness of a good man is insepar- 
 ably connected with the views which men have 
 of his religious character. Their respect for him 
 gives energy to his efforts. Men of no great 
 strength of purpose, or vigor of effort, are 
 not unfrequently in no common degree useful ; 
 
THE DREAD OP SIN. 347 
 
 because they are, confessedly, very good men. 
 Where a good man has palpable and glaring 
 sins ; where his character is such that, though 
 his fellow-men do not deny him the credit of 
 being a Christian, those who know him best re- 
 spect and love him least ; he may not hope to 
 be eminently useful. 
 
 Though every true Christian desires more to 
 he a child of God, than to seem to be such, it is not 
 unbefitting the truest sincerity and the truest 
 humility, that he should desire so to conduct 
 himself, that his fellovv*men may have confidence 
 iKi his piety. Nothing less than this is required 
 of him by the Saviour, when he utters the 
 injunction, " Let your light so shine before men, 
 that they, seeing your good works, may glorify 
 your father who is in heaven." He should 
 be watchful that nothing he says or does, and 
 nothing he leaves undone or unsaid, shall 
 destroy, or even diminish, the good influence he 
 might otherwise exert. 
 
 And is it any marvel tiiat such a man should 
 ^sometimes feas- and tremble ? Is it wonderful 
 that he should often employ his thoughts in 
 faithful self-inspection ; that he should sit in 
 severe judgment upoii his own heart and char- 
 acter ; that his daily prayer should be, *' Hold 
 thou me up, and I shall be safe I" '' Deliver 
 me from evil !'' 
 
348 THE MERCr SEAT. 
 
 Another reason for this request is found in the 
 fact, that sin is so universally destructive in its 
 tendencies upon the happiness and best interests 
 of the world in which we dwell. We may only 
 glance at this prolific and mournful thought. 
 The ravages of sin may be traced in all the 
 course it has trodden from the fall of angels to 
 the present hour. There is no form of happi- 
 ness that has not withered at its approach; 
 none of misery and wo, be they eve^' so varied 
 and hideous, that have not followed in its train. 
 It has made the human bosom, otherwise tran- 
 quil and unruffled, the seat of conflict, and agi- 
 tated it by storms. It has drowned the hopes^ 
 of men in an ocean of fesrs. Throughout the 
 length and breadth of this wide world it haj^ 
 dug its valley of tears, and overhung it by 
 the shadows of death. Its emblems are hung- 
 round the dungeon and the stake, the prison 
 and the gallows; they are suspended over 
 every battle-field, and immingled with every 
 convulsion that lias p^assed with confused noise 
 over the earth. 
 
 Go to the bowels of the earth and the chan- 
 nels of the sea, and there are its triumphs ; it 
 has made sea and land a world of graves. It 
 kills the body and damns the soul. It created 
 the walls of that gloomy prison, whose broad 
 gateway bears the inscription, " Where the 
 
THE DREAD OF SIN. 349 
 
 worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." 
 There it confines the rebel angels ; there it con- 
 ducted Sodom and Gomorrah ; there it hurled 
 Pharaoh and Babylon ; and there its burning, 
 malignant fury remains unquenched. Ruined 
 legions emit thence the memorable warning, 
 *' Beware of sin!" and were they still prisoners 
 of hope, would say, " Deliver us from evil !" 
 
 There is still another reason for this request ; 
 it is found in the claims of redeeming love. 
 The suppliant is one who addresses the God of 
 pardon. He has become reconciled to him 
 through that mighty Sufferer who hung upon 
 the cross. God is his Father now; he would 
 not wound that heart of paternal love. More 
 powerful than the obligations of the law, the love 
 of God, the love of the cross attracts him. It is 
 not fear that moves him so much as love. 
 *' Perfect love casteth out fear ;" and though his 
 love is far from perfect, yet is it stronger than 
 those chains of darkness at which he once trem- 
 bled ; more potent than the fiery walls of that 
 eternal prison which once filled him with terror: 
 and by its resistless bands, draws him every day 
 to his Father's mercy seat, to supplicate, " De- 
 liver me from evil." His heart is burdened 
 with the desire that he may have no fellowship 
 with the cruel, accursed thing that tore the 
 much-loved One from the tranquil bosom of 
 
560 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 heaven, dragged him down to the degradation 
 of a creature, the servitude of a slave, and 
 shamelessly nailed him to the cross. Sin was 
 the crime perpetrated in the holy empire of the 
 Most High, that could not be atoned for, save 
 by the eternal agonies of the perpetrator, or the 
 crucifixion of the eternal Son of God ; and shall 
 he not hate it ? shall he not pray to be delivered 
 from its power ? Thousands of rams, and ten 
 thousand rivers of oil could not make amends 
 for it; and shall he not bewail its malignity? 
 Go forth, O my soul, and see what sin has done ! 
 Look away to Calvary, and there read and learn 
 the never-to-be-forgotten lesson. Go on those 
 bended knees before the throne of mercy, and 
 when, in the peaceful and heaven-imparted 
 spirit of adoption, thou canst say, " My Father 
 who art in heaven ;" say also, " Deliver me from 
 evil !" 
 
 Something like the preceding views are those 
 of every true believer, in giving utterance to 
 this emphatic request. The conflict of such 
 a man with sin is very diflferent from the mere 
 struggles of natural conscience. Wicked men 
 are not strangers to this conflict, in some sort; 
 but while their conscience struggles against 
 it, they do not feel it to be their burden, but are 
 «till controled by the love of sinning. The 
 strufi^ffles of natural conscience are occasional 
 
THE DREAD OP SIN. 351 
 
 and partial : while the Christian's conflict with 
 sin is habitual. His warfare is with the whole 
 body of sin ; nor does he cease from the conflict, 
 until at last he gains the victory. Natural con- 
 science wages war, mainly, with outward sins, 
 while true piety watches, with eagle eye, the 
 secret evils of the heart, and contends with sins 
 known only to the all-seeing Witness and Judge. 
 The believer hates sin ; the unbeliever fears it, 
 and only with the servile fear of punishment. 
 The believer resists it from principles unknown 
 to mere natural conscience. He contends with 
 it by faith and prayer, and in humble depend- 
 ence on his Father who is in heaven ; while 
 natural conscience leaves out of sight the '' grace 
 to help." When a good man sins, his conscience 
 ultimately becomes more sensitive and faithful ; 
 he dreads the approaches to sin, as the '^ burnt 
 child dreads the fire ;'^ while experience and ob- 
 servation show, that the more a wicked man 
 sins, the more does his conscience become cal- 
 lous and seared. Judas felt the scorpion sting 
 of a wounded conscience ; Peter, the pangs of a 
 broken and contrite spirit. 
 
 This petition in the Lord's Prayer, therefore, 
 furnishes one of the criteria by which every man 
 may judge of his spiritual state. Could you 
 listen when a thoughtless sinner prays, you 
 might hear professions of thankfulness, requests 
 
352 THE MF^RCr SEAT. 
 
 for the divine bounty, deprecations of tlie coming 
 wrath; but few, if any, supplications to be de- 
 livered from sin. Could your ear be open, when 
 the child of God enters into his closet, and shuts 
 the door, you would hear what, in the ears of the 
 men of the world, might seem some strange 
 requests. You would, indeed, hear the song 
 of thanksgiving, and the pleadings of a broken 
 heart for pardoning mercy ; but you would hear 
 solicitations still more fervent, to be " delivered 
 from evil." Nay, in the seasons of his greatest 
 fervor and spirituality, such a man might rise 
 from his knees, without once uttering the re- 
 quest, " Give us this day our daily bread;" while 
 he would never forget to implore that God would 
 keep him from sin, and make him more and more 
 conformed to the image of his Son. Another day 
 will show if the reader has this spirit, and thus 
 indicate whether he is or is not a child of God. 
 I have said, that the Christian's struggle with 
 sin is no momentary conflict. Nor is it an unsuc- 
 cessful one. He may not gain every battle; he 
 may, indeed, sometimes fall, and be found bruis- 
 ed and maimed, and bleeding, on the field; but 
 he shall at last come oflf more than conqueror, 
 through Him that loved him. " In the world ye 
 shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I 
 have overcome the world." Spiritual affections 
 may languish and decline, but they shall not die. 
 
THE DREAD OF SIN. 353 
 
 It were a dark sign, if the Christian were satis- 
 fied with his present attainments. Let him take 
 courage in the thought, that " iniquity shall not 
 be his ruin." He is " not of them that draw 
 back to perdition, but of them that believe 
 to the saving of the soul." Let him study to 
 prove himself a " good soldier of Christ." Let 
 him seek to know, not how he may cover his sin, 
 but how he may detect it, and how it may 
 be subdued. " He can do all things, through 
 Christ strengthening him." 
 
 There are those who trifle with sin. They 
 trifle with it in their thoughts ; they speak light- 
 ly of it; they excuse and extenuate it; they 
 commit it without remorse ; and they rejoice 
 and triumph, when they discover it in them- 
 selves, and in their fellow-men. Never was 
 there a deeper infatuation than this. " Fools 
 make a mock at sin." Nothing remains for such 
 a man, but " indignation and wrath, tribulation 
 and anguish." Sin is his enemy. It will be a 
 miracle of mercy, if it do not give malignity to 
 the undying worm, and ignite the fires that nev- 
 er shall be quenched. 
 
 Should these pages fall into the hands of any 
 one thus insensate and infatuated, let him stop in 
 his mad career, before he makes the fearful 
 plunge into the world of retribution ; let him 
 " look on Him whom he has pierced, and mourn." 
 
354 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 Even now, the throne of grace invites him to 
 bow at its footstool, in self-abasement and tears. 
 No prayer is more befitting such a man, than 
 this last request, in that form of prayer which 
 Christ taught his disciples, '' Deliver me from 
 evil." Let him " break off his iniquity by right- 
 eousness, and his transgressions by turning 
 to God.'' Let him repair to the fountain open- 
 ed for sin and un cleanness, and say, " Purge me 
 with hyssop, and I shall be clean ; w ash me, and 
 I shall be w hiter than snow." Let him go at 
 once ; let him fill his mouth with arguments ; let 
 him urge his way through obstacle and snare ; 
 let him boldly and fearlessly come near the 
 throne. — Oh, what is this I am saying? Let 
 him rather, like the Publican, w ho, " standing 
 afar off, durst not lift his eyes to heaven," 
 smite upon his breast, and say, " God be mer- 
 ciful to me a sinner !" 
 
CHAPTER XVL 
 
 THE ARGUMENT BY WHICH PRAYER IS ENFORCED. 
 
 We feel no small degree of reluctance in dis- 
 missing our contemplations upon this inimitable 
 prayer. In bringing our meditations upon it to 
 a close, our emotions are not unlike tliose the 
 Christian feels in the more favored seasons when 
 he has '' climbed the mount of prayer," and 
 with lingering and tardy steps turns again to 
 mingle with the noisy and bustling w^orld. 
 Thought crowds upon thought in his supplica- 
 tions; emotion swells upon emotion; and his 
 suppressed, yet reiterated A?nen, while it speaks 
 the satisfaction of his heart at the throne of 
 grace, also tells its sadness that he must mingle 
 with other and less hallowed scenes. 
 
 Our regret at arriving so soon at the close of 
 these meditations, is, however, not a little re- 
 
356 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 lieved by the richness and variety ol' the topics 
 on which we are allowed to dwell in these 
 closing thoughts. When Christ undertakes to 
 teach us, the instruction is complete. He will 
 not have our petitions abrupt in their beginning, 
 nor altogether unceremonious in their conclu- 
 sion. We should approach the mercy seat re- 
 cognizing his kindness, his tenderness, his great- 
 ness ; and leave it acknowledging our depend- 
 ence upon him for all we desire and expect. 
 " For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the 
 glory, forever. Amen." 
 
 In attempting to unfold and impress the spirit 
 of this concluding sentence, we may not over- 
 look the force of the conjunctive \\'ord,for, with 
 which it begins : this is the true key to the 
 whole passage. '* Fo?^ thine is the kingdom, 
 and the power, and the glory." This is the 
 reason urged by the suppliants why the request 
 so comprehensively set forth, and embodying 
 objects of such magnitude, should be granted. 
 In offering them, they solicit no common favors ; 
 they " open their mouth wide, that God may fill 
 it." They ask for nothing less than that the 
 name of their Father who is in heaven may 
 be hallowed — that his kingdom may come — that 
 his will may be done on earth, as it is in heaven 
 — that he would furnish them with the daily 
 supply of all their w^ants — that he would pardon 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 357 
 
 all their sins — that he would not lead them into 
 temptation — that he would deliver them from 
 evil. There is great compass of thought and 
 desire in such requests. What encouragement, 
 what warrant even, have sinning men for offer- 
 ing them ? By what arguments can they urge 
 such petitions, and what reason have they to 
 look for favorable and gracious answers to the 
 voice of their supplication ? 
 
 They are weighty reasons, effective reasons : 
 The kingdom, and the power, and the glory, he- 
 long to the great and gracious Being addressed, 
 and belong to him forever. They do not pray to 
 the idols of the heathen, who are the work of 
 men's hands ; nor to men who are as powerless 
 as themselves ; nor to saints, nor angels, nor yet 
 the highly favored mother of the incarnate Jesus, 
 who have neither kingdom, nor glory, nor any 
 power save such as God is pleased to give them. 
 The object of their supplications is their Father 
 who is in heaven. It is not merely to all that is 
 affectionate, and kind, and condescending in his 
 paternal character, that they make their appeal ; 
 but to all that is great and glorious. It is to the 
 " King eternal, immortal, and invisible ;" to the 
 "Lord God Almighty;" to the "Father of 
 glory," as well as the Father of mercies, and 
 " their Father who is in heaven." 
 
 Prayer is not the unmeaning utterance of the 
 
358 THR MERCY SEAT, 
 
 lips, nor the effort of an unthinking mind. 
 There is strong propriety, there is even importance 
 in urging our requests at the throne of grace, hij 
 reason and argument. We are taught by the 
 Apostle James that " the effectual, fervent prayer 
 of a righteous man availeth much." With 
 whom does it avail ? Not with the suppliant, 
 for he is the person who prays, and not the per- 
 son to whom prayer is addressed. It has been 
 more generally believed that the true and proper 
 design of prayer is to produce an effect on the 
 suppliant, by bringing into exercise the graces 
 of his renewed nature, and securing such a state 
 of mind as God shall approve, and to which he 
 will grant that expression of his approbation 
 implied in answers to prayer. No doubt that 
 this is one of the effects of prayer; but the 
 very idea of p)rayer carries with it the idea that 
 its design is to act upon the Mind of the Being 
 to whom it is addressed. Nor, so far as I can 
 recall the instructions of the Bible, is there a 
 single sentence, or suggestion, that the great 
 o^>c^ of prayer is to produce a fitting state of 
 mind in the suppliant to receive the blessing 
 he solicits. The Being prayed to is God him- 
 self; nor is the language too strong, to say that 
 the design of praying to him is to influence and 
 induce him to give what we ask for. It is not to 
 inform, or change the Deity ; for there is " no 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 359 
 
 variableness, neither shadow of turning" with 
 him; he "is of one mind, and who can turn 
 him, and what his soul desireth that he doeth." 
 It is not inconsistent with the doctrine of the 
 divine immutability, that one of the unchanging 
 properties of his nature is that he is the hearer 
 of prayer, and that he is not less immutably a 
 prayer-hearing God than he is a God of recti- 
 tude and truth. It is true that his counsels 
 never change ; but it is equally true that no 
 small part of them were formed in the fore- 
 knowledge of all those supplications by which 
 He had previously resolved to be influenced, 
 and which were regarded by him as the ap- 
 pointed means by which his purposes are car- 
 ried into effect, and which as truly enter into, 
 and form a part of his purposes, as the ends 
 themselves which his purposes secure. 
 
 The duty and the privilege of prayer, there- 
 fore, are not embarrassed, but sanctioned and 
 encouraged by the immutability of the divine 
 purposes. There is no mysticism about this 
 plain subject. Prayer itself is just what it pur- 
 ports to be ; its object is just what it purports 
 to be. It is.to move the Deity, who from eter- 
 nity determined to be thus moved, to bestow 
 what the suppliant solicits. The whole field of 
 reason and argument is therefore open to the 
 mind of the petitioner when he goes to the 
 
360 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 throne of grace ; it is his privilege, with heart- 
 felt sincerity, humility, and urgency, to suggest 
 all those considerations which, in the view of a 
 devout mind, may operate as reasons for obtain- 
 ing his request. 
 
 No reasonable man expects to receive a favor- 
 able answer to an unreasonable request. We 
 ought not to solicit either of God or man, that 
 which is not fit and proper to be bestowed. 
 Such a request were an insult to him to whom 
 it is presented ; it were a reproach to him who 
 offers it. When a child requests a favor from a 
 parent, or a subject makes a request to his 
 prince, they are interested in making their 
 cause good, and may be expected to set forth 
 the grounds and reasons of their petition. God 
 regards the supplications of men as neither an 
 unnatural nor arbitrary means of procuring the 
 good they crave. He never acts without rea- 
 son, and has good reasons for requiring them to 
 pray. He is the most reasonable Being in the 
 universe ; and therefore the most easily and 
 certainly influenced by considerations which 
 have weight with a wise and benevolent mind ; 
 so that when requests axe urged at his throne 
 by befitting considerations, they are sure to 
 meet with favor unless there are other and 
 stronger considerations known to him why it 
 should be denied. 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. * 361 
 
 It is true that men sometimes pray without 
 making use of argument in prayer ; when tliey 
 do so, it is more generally to be attributed to 
 one of two causes. Either they are^'shut up and 
 have no enlargement of thought, and no such 
 spiritual perceptions and sensibility as enable 
 them to seize upon and amplify the grounds of 
 their requests ; or they are too full to utter 
 them, and can only comprehend them in those 
 brief and compendious ejaculations which are 
 expressive of intense desire, and those pithy 
 and importunate entreaties which, while they 
 forbid amplification, are instead of volumes of 
 argument. 
 
 In almost every other state of mind, they sug- 
 gest the reasons why they pray, and why God 
 should answer. Did they worship an idol god, 
 they might rest satisfied with the unmeaning 
 repetition of their requests, as did the priests of 
 Baal, when " from morning to evening," they 
 cried out, " O Baal, hear us ! O Baal, hear us !" 
 This was monotonous, senseless vociferation, and 
 had none of the properties of prayer. The 
 " man of God" who stood by, and listened to 
 this noisy, tumultuous worship, offered a brief 
 and ardent supplication, every word of which 
 was full of thought. " And it came to pass at 
 the time of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah came 
 jqiear and said, Lord God of Ahrahaniy Isaac, a?id 
 
 W 
 
302 THE MERCY SEAT, 
 
 Israel! let it be known this day that thou art 
 God in Israel, and that / am thij servant, and that 
 I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, 
 O Lord heSr me, that this people may know that 
 thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast 
 turned their hearts hack again /" The argument 
 is perfect. If God would be known as God in 
 Israel ; if he would be honored for the faithful- 
 ness of his promises to Abraham and his seed ; 
 a he would publicly confirm the mission of his 
 own prophet, and reclaim his backsliding peo- 
 ple ; the appeal is one which could not be 
 resisted. 
 
 The power of prayer consists not in vapid and 
 vain repetitions, but in affecting thoughts, pre- 
 sented in all the fervency of desire, and all the 
 simplicity and humility of faith. Such was the 
 prayer of Abraham, when he interceded for So- 
 dom ; such was the prayer of Jacob, when, " fis 
 a prince, he had power with God and with man, 
 and prevailed ;" such was the prayer of Moses, 
 when he entreated that the divine anger might 
 be turned away from the congregation of Israel; 
 such was the prayer of Hezekiah, w^hen he re- 
 ceived the menacing message of the proud King 
 of Assyria ; such was the prayer of Nehemiah 
 and Daniel, when they interceded for the resto- 
 ration of the exiled Jews ; and such was that 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 363 
 
 wonderful prayer of the Saviour with, and for 
 his disciples, uttered just before his crucifixion. 
 If the reader will turn to these supplications, 
 and analyze them, he will be surprised to find 
 how replete they are with thought and argu- 
 ment. They are remarkable for their energy, 
 as well jis for their simplicity ; nor is it possible 
 for a devout mind to repeat these impressive 
 and earnest pleadings with God without feeling 
 their force, and perceiving that reason and ar- 
 gument are not out of place in prayer. " O that 
 I knew^ where I might find him! I would come 
 near even to his seat ; I w^ould order my speech 
 before him, and fill my mouth ivith arguments /" 
 Here lies the power of prayer. It is to plead 
 with God as a man expostulates with his friend. 
 Who will question that prayer has power with 
 God, when he hears the voice to Moses, as he was 
 about to intercede for idolatrous Israel, " Let me 
 alone, that my w^rath may w^ax hot against them !" 
 And how has it power ? Not by any mechan- 
 ical force or physical impulse, but by its moral 
 energy ; by its spirit, by its reasons and argu- 
 ments, by the force of all those considerations 
 by which a benevolent mind is moved to ex- 
 press its bounty, a gracious mind the tenderness 
 and riches of its compassions, and the immutable 
 mind to evince itself the prayer-hearing and 
 prayer-answering God. 
 
364 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 The strong arguments, the prevalent reasons 
 in prayer are drawn from God himself, " For 
 thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory." 
 This shuts out all arguments drawn from the 
 creature ; from any merit we have, as well as 
 any in those around us. The best of men have 
 no worthiness to plead. " We do not," says 
 the captive suppliant in Babylon, " present our 
 supplications before thee for our righteousness- 
 es." They are rebel men who pray. They 
 may plead their own misery, their wants, their 
 wretchedness, their vileness ; but the fulness on 
 which they rely is his fulness ; the merit they 
 plead is his merit; the bounty and grace they 
 ask are his bounty and grace ; and the glory of 
 giving is his, and will redound to him forever. 
 All the divine perfections harmonize in bestow- 
 ing blessings on the guilty and ill-deserving. 
 " Mercy and truth have met together ; right- 
 eousness and peace have kissed each other.'* 
 The medium of communication between heaven 
 and earth is one. " Let no man," says the Apos- 
 tle, "glory in men. For all things are yours; 
 w hether Paul, or Apollos, or the world, or life, 
 or death, or things present, or things to come ; 
 all are yours, and ve are Christ's, and Christ is 
 God's." 
 
 The man w^ho '' orders his cause" wisely, 
 most honors the God of heaven. He makes his 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 365 
 
 appeal to the divine nature, to the divine Provi- 
 dence, to the redemption by his Son. His argu- 
 ments are drawn from the knowledge and love 
 of God, and from the revealed principles of his 
 government and grace. The divine kingdom 
 and glory furnish him with arguments. His re- 
 liance on the promises, furnishes him with argu- 
 ments. When tempted not to pray, because he 
 himself is so vile ; w^hen his heart is shut up, and 
 his lips are well nigh sealed in silence, by the 
 humbling sense of his own ill-desert and shame ; 
 when most depressed and most discouraged, and 
 almost crushed to hopeless despondency, because 
 he can find nothing in his past history, or his 
 present character, that can give him courage and 
 hope ; then it is that the boundless all-sufficiency 
 and illimitable grace of the great Hearer of 
 prayer inspirits his otherwise discouraged heart, 
 and his language is. Give, O Lord; for thine it is 
 to give. I have nothing; but all is thine. I am 
 nothing ; but thou are all in all. I am poor, and 
 miserable, and vile ; but thifie is the kingdom, 
 and the power, and the glory. All is thine; 
 thou hast all authority. All that is beautiful and 
 great is thine, and from thee. 
 
 No matter how great the boon we seek, or 
 how undeserved, or how far above our reach ; 
 no matter how urgent the necessity, or how won- 
 derful the relief, we pray and hope for; if the* e 
 
^^ THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 are reasons for giving it to be found in the wis- 
 dom, goodness, power, mercy, rectitude, and 
 glory of the great God, or in any of the forms of 
 his boundless sufficiency, or in any of the mani- 
 festations of his great and glorious name, and if 
 they can be perceived and felt, and presented at 
 the mercy seat, of this one thing we may be 
 assured, that the suppliant shall not be sent 
 away empty. 
 
 When Abraham interceded for Sodom, his ar- 
 gument rested on the moral rectitude of God. 
 This was the only consideration he urged. It 
 prev'ailed. God " could not destroy the right- 
 eous with the wicked." 
 
 The prayer of Jacob, on his return to the land 
 of his fathers, when met by his enraged brother, 
 Esau, rested on the divine faithfulness. God 
 had said, " Return to thy country, and to thy 
 kindred, and I will deal well with thee." The 
 " best he could say to God in prayer, was what 
 God had thus said to him in promise." He 
 turned the promises of God into petitions, and 
 was emboldened to say, " I will not let thee go, 
 until thou bless me." 
 
 The intercession of Moses for the idolatrous 
 Israelites was founded on the divine honor and 
 glory. " If thou smite this people, then the 
 Egyptians shall hear of it, and tell it to the 
 inhabitants of this land." Such, too, was the 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 367 
 
 argument of Joshua, when he rent his clothes, 
 and fell to the earth upon his face, before the 
 ark, and said, " Alas, O Lord God ! what shall I 
 say when Israel turneth their back before their 
 enemies? For the Canaanites, and the inhabit- 
 ants of the land, shall hear of it ; and what wilt 
 thou do unto thy great name?'' 
 
 That memorable prayer of Jehoshaphat, when 
 the Israelites were invaded by the allied powers 
 of Moab, Ammon and Edom, rested its expostu- 
 lations upon God's supremacy and power, his 
 grant of the Holy Land to Israel, his promise to 
 deliver them out of the hand of their enemies, 
 and upon the patient hope and expectation of 
 his people upon him alone. 
 
 These are but specimens of the supplications', 
 recorded throughout the entire Scriptures, all of 
 which partake of the same high and disinterested 
 character. One cannot read them w^ithout see- 
 ing, that the urgency and energy of every 
 request rests upon some appeal to the glory 
 of the divine name. Not only are they replete 
 with reason and argument, but with considera- 
 tions drawn from this high source. They do not 
 consist of rhetorical flourishes, but of weighty 
 and solemn thoughts, uttered in the simplicity, 
 tenderness, and solemnity of true devotion; and 
 while they are expressive of the spirit of adop- 
 tion, are also expressive of sacred awe of the di- 
 
368 THE MERCr SEAT. 
 
 vine majesty; and while they disclaim reliance 
 on other helpers, take hold of God's strength, 
 because it is the object and the encouragement 
 of prayer, to honor him. It is not the strength 
 of the creature, that gives prayer its energy, but 
 his weakness; nor is it the creature's authority, 
 but God's; nor is it the work or the w^orthiness 
 of man, on which it rests, but the work of God; 
 nor is it man's glory that it seeks, but God's 
 glory; nor are any of its resources found in man, 
 but in God alone. 
 
 It is delightful, also, to observe the strong 
 confidence of praxjer, when it rests its pleadings on 
 such arguments as these. While it becomes us to 
 call upon God with an humble and submissive, 
 it is not less our duty and privilege to call upon 
 him with a confiding mind. Requests as large 
 and comprehensive as those expressed in the 
 Lord's Prayer, demand strong confidence in God. 
 We approach his throne as creatures, and as sin- 
 ners — in all dependence and poverty — in all 
 emptiness and ignorance — in ail weakness and 
 pollution — for blessings which we ourselves can 
 neither deserve nor procure, and which no cre- 
 ated being can deserve or procure for us. 
 
 To approach with holy and joyful confidence, 
 we must acquaint ourselves with God — must 
 ascertain the foundations for confidence that are 
 realized in his all-sufficiency and fulness ; and 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 369 
 
 while we turn away with suspicion and distrust 
 from all others, look beyond them all, to Him, 
 with that affectionate and confiding spirit that is 
 warranted by his infinite and unchanging perfec- 
 tions, and the Sacrifice which has opened a new 
 and living way to his throne. " They that trust 
 in the Lord, shall be as Mount Zion, which can- 
 not be moved, but abideth forever." " Though 
 He slay me, yet will I trust in him." " How 
 great is thy goodness toward them that fear 
 Thee, to them that trust in thee before the sons 
 of men !" " Hath He said it, and shall he not 
 do it ?" Such is the confidence of prayer. 
 
 The people of God have sometimes strong 
 confidence and great boldness in this exercise, 
 because " great grace is upon them." There 
 are three things which invigorate and inspirit 
 this confidence. "For thine is the kirigdom, the 
 power ^ and the glory T 
 
 Thine is the kingdom. What we solicit, be- 
 longs to God, and he has it to give. We can- 
 not ask too much, we cannot hope too much 
 from him, because universal sovereignty belongs 
 to him ; the essential kingdom of the universe, 
 extending itself over the worlds of matter and 
 of mind, of nature and of grace, is his unbor- 
 rowed, underived, eternal prerogative. He is 
 "God over all, blessed forever." He stands 
 supreme among the whole intelligent creation ; 
 15» 
 
370 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 the ascendency of his nature, and the infinite 
 superiority of all that belongs to it, give him a 
 right to all things, make him their owner and 
 proprietor, and invest him with the natural and 
 moral right, the sovereign and uncontrollable 
 right of giving. This is a reason, alike for our 
 asking, and his giving. 
 
 If men claim the right of disposing of what 
 belongs to them, much more has He the " right 
 to do w hat he will with his own." He has it 
 to bestow in plenteousness which no thought 
 can limit. " Giving does not impoverish him, 
 neither does withholding enrich him." He can 
 satisfy the amplest wishes. His encouraging 
 language is, " Ask and it shall be given you." 
 Let all your wants be upon me. " I am God, 
 all-sufficient." The greater and more valuable 
 the blessings we desire, the more confident 
 may we be of receiving them in answer to 
 prayer. It is related of Alexander the great, 
 that on one occasion he told the philosopher 
 Anaxarchus to go to his treasurer and ask what 
 he wanted. The treasurer was surprised at the 
 greatness of the sum, and refused to pay it 
 without consulting his Prince. "It seemed," 
 said he, " too much for one man to receive." 
 The reply of his sovereign was, " It is not too 
 much for Alexander to give. He does honor to 
 my riches and liberality by so large a request." 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. '371 
 
 " Thine is the kingdom /" The princely liber- 
 ality of the King ^^ the universe can no more 
 be exhausted, than his inexhaustible fulness and 
 all-sufficiency. He is not more a boundless 
 ocean of blessedness, than of munificence. He 
 is the great Benefactor, as truly as the great 
 King. He takes a Godlike pleasure in answer- . 
 ing the supplications of his people ; his king- 
 dom itself is extended and promoted by it ; the 
 greater the blessing, the more does his benevo- 
 lent and liberal heart express itself, and the 
 more is it gratified and honored by the gift. 
 
 Thine is the power. His too is the power, 
 as well as the kingdom. That which he is 
 pleased to will he is able to bestow. If his 
 power to bestow were more limited than his 
 right, or his disposition to give, there would be 
 no strong foundation for confidence in prayer. 
 If there were a single blessing he could not ^ 
 give, our confidence in him would be shaken 
 for every blessing. Should his power fail in 
 one instance, it were impossible for us to know 
 that it would not fail in ten thousand instances, 
 and in those in which the spirit o^ prayer feels 
 the deepest interest. 
 
 The confidence of the father of the faithful 
 was encouraged by the declaration, " I am the 
 Almighty God ;" Job was comforted with the 
 thought, " I know that thou canst do every- 
 
372 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 thing ;" and the devout Psalmist gioried in the 
 truth, "Our God is in the heavens; he hath 
 done whatever he hath pleased.'' 
 
 The omnipotence of God hath not a little to 
 do with the spirit of prayer. " Strong is his 
 hand, and high is his right hand." He has a 
 Godlike arm, as well as a Godlike heart. Be 
 the good we crave what it may — spiritual, or 
 temporal — relating to ourselves, or others — be 
 it ever so retired and hidden from the eye, or 
 beyond the reach of creatures — lie can bestow 
 it with infinite ease. " He speaks, and it is 
 done ; he commands, and it stands fast." Noth- 
 ing can hinder, nothing disappoint, nothing 
 weary him. " Whatsoever his soul desireth^ 
 that he doeth." Difficulties, enemies, unworthi- 
 ness, ill-desert, and the constant recurrence 
 of our wants, form no obstacle to his bounty. 
 If the good we crave be found anywhere in the 
 wide universe, he can lay it at our feet ; or if 
 it is not in being, his all-powerful word can 
 create \i, and give existence to what had no 
 existence before. '* He can do all things.'' 
 What an argument for prayer, to say, "Thine 
 is the power .'" 
 
 And the result is. Thine is the glory ! Here 
 the argument and the ground of confidence be- 
 come firm and invincible. His is the glory of 
 being the hearer of prayer ; for " this is his 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 373i 
 
 name, and this is his memorial to all generations." 
 His is the glory of this wondrous condescension 
 and grace ; for he stoops to man who is a worm, 
 and to sinful man who has provoked his wrath. 
 His is the glory of giving; of giving where there 
 is no merit and no recompense ; of so giving 
 —so variously and so largely. His goodness, 
 wisdom, power, justice, faithfulness, mercy, 
 and sovereignty, all appear in their love- 
 liness, beauty, and divine splendor in answer- 
 ing prayer. He gives what spotless inno- 
 cence cannot claim ; what a world could not 
 buy ; and by so doing his glory is both secured 
 and advanced. 
 
 It is great glory which he spreads over the 
 w^orks of his hands ; but in giving what his peo- 
 ple pray for, there is glory beyond all the glories 
 of the natural world. Such a mind as New- 
 ton's, looking out on the fields of space, sprin- 
 kled w^ith suns for other systems as a meadow 
 is decked with flowers, beholds in these won- 
 drous works a glory which intelligence and 
 piety delight to contemplate. But the glory of 
 God as the hearer of prayer, as the greatest of 
 all givers, as the author and sustainer of the 
 new creation in the hearts of men and in this 
 apostate world, with all its holiness, all its 
 hopes, all its joys, surpasses it all, shines when 
 
374 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 the sun has gone out, and the cycles of time 
 have come to a close. 
 
 " Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and 
 the glory forever !" The spirit of prayer is a 
 far reaching spirit ; it looks into eternity. The 
 kingdom, and the power, and the glory are 
 thine always; forever shall they shine in grow- 
 ing and augmented splendor. Hereafter and 
 throughout ceaseless ages, " as it was in the be- 
 ginning, is now, and ever shall be, world with- 
 out end," the God of heaven is exalted as the 
 hearer of prayer. 
 
 The three great arguments in prayer are 
 therefore the three strong grounds of the sup- 
 pliant's confidence. The God we worship com- 
 mands that confidence for what he is ; sustains 
 it by what he has said and done; perpetuates it 
 by what he is still able and willing to do, and 
 will have the glory of doing, in answer to the 
 supplications of his people. 
 
 Nor is it any reason why that confidence 
 should be shaken, that sometimes he defers our 
 requests, or withholds the solicited blessing. 
 If we ask for what is best, we know that he 
 heareth us ; while, if through ignorance, infir- 
 mity, or sin, we fail in doing this, we still know 
 that he will not be unmindful of our highest 
 good, though he exercises his own wisdom and 
 discretion in declining, as well as granting our 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 375 
 
 requests. There is no ground for discourage- 
 ment in prayer, where the Christian casts all his 
 care on God; nor, on the other hand, is there 
 any motive to prayer, or any comfort in this de- 
 lightful duty, where these divine resources are 
 lost sight of We become wise in his wisdom, 
 mighty in his power, comforted in his all- suffi- 
 ciency ; when his wisdom guides us, when we 
 take hold of his everlasting strength, and when, 
 worms as we are, his all-sufficiency influences 
 our prayers and actuates our conduct. 
 
 There is no place for discouragement, no 
 room for despondency, so long as the kingdom, 
 and the power, and the glory are the Lord's. 
 Thinking of ourselves only, and of our sins, and 
 wants, and dangers, we have good cause for ap- 
 prehension. But there is One who is God over 
 all, who has all hearts in his hands and all 
 events under his control, whom heaven and 
 earth and sea obey, who is able to save and to 
 destroy, before whom angels bow and devils 
 tremble ; and though we are perfect weakness, 
 yet is his grace sufficient, and his glory our 
 rearward. 
 
 Prayer terminates in praise. The Father of 
 mercies and the God of all grace is worthy to 
 be exalted. Those excellencies of the divine 
 nature we most dwell upon in prayer, and those 
 considerations we make use of as our strongest 
 
376 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 arguments at the throne of grace, the more we 
 contemplate them, become expressive of reve- 
 rence and honor, kindle into gratitude and joy, 
 and are the themes of admiring song. While 
 we take encouragement in our prayers because 
 the kingdom, power, and glory are the Lord's, 
 we necessarily desire that he may be exalted 
 and glorified, and ascribe to him the glory due 
 to his holy name. 
 
 On that great occasion, when the princes and 
 people of Israel offered so willingly for building 
 the Temple, " David blessed the Lord, before all 
 the congregation. And David said. Blessed 
 be thou, Lord God of Israel our father, forever 
 and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and 
 the power, and the glory, and the victory, and 
 the majesty; for all that is in the heaven 
 and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, 
 O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. 
 Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou 
 reignest over all ; and in thine hand is power 
 and might, and thine it is to make great, and 
 to give strength unto all. Now, therefore, O 
 God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious 
 name !" Paul's ascription was, " Now unto the 
 King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise 
 God, be honor and glory, forever and ever!" 
 " Whoso offereth praise," saith God, " glorifieth 
 me." Praise engages him to hear. " Sing 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 377 
 
 praises unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth ; oh, 
 sing praises unto the Lord ! Talk of him, speak 
 forth his name ; say of him, Thine is the king- 
 dom T^ — the unbounded, universal kingdom, of 
 nature, providence, and grace, is thine ! The 
 visible and the invisible, the kingdom above, 
 and the kingdom below, the kingdom of grace 
 and the kingdom of justice, are thine. " Thy 
 kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and of thy 
 dominion there is no end." Above the heavens, 
 beyond the earth, below the ocean, thy kingdom 
 is prepared, O God, and thou reignest forever. 
 The kingdoms of this world are but little spots 
 of earth, compared with thy vast dominions, O 
 thou sovereign Lord; and the princes of this 
 world are but vanity, compared with thee. 
 Thine, too, is the power. " Who, O Lord, is a 
 strong Lord, like unto thee, or to thy faith- 
 fulness round about thee ?" What wonders hast 
 thou done, O thou who art very great, and 
 art clothed with majesty ! " Thou layest the 
 beams of thy chambers in the mighty waters ; 
 thou makest the clouds thy chariot, and walk- 
 est upon the wings of the wind.'" The " Lord 
 God omnipotent reigneth, and let the earth 
 rejoice !" And the glonj is thine. The glory of 
 creatures is fallen, and their memory forgotten. 
 The flower of Lebanon, and the beauty of 
 Bashan and Carmel languish; but thy glory 
 
378 THE MERCY" SEAT. 
 
 is above the earth and the heavens. *' Glorious 
 art thou in holiness, fearful in praises, doing 
 wonders." As a great God, and a great King, 
 decked as he is with light as with a garment, 
 and arrayed in majesty and excellency, we 
 may hope in him, and we may praise him. 
 The kingdom, the power, and the glory, are 
 his forever, " The Lord shall reign forever and 
 ever." What a word is that one word *' for- 
 ever !" Nothing can increase, nothing diminish, 
 nothing terminate the kingdom, power, and 
 glory of God. Always glorious, always reign- 
 ing in the fulness of his glory, he is God over 
 all, blessed for evermore. 
 
 And to these ascriptions, the spirit of prayer 
 adds its hearty and emphatic Amen! This is a 
 term of great emphasis. The original word sig- 
 nifies solidity — not to be shaken ; truth that 
 stands firm. " He which testifieth these things 
 saith, I come quickly ; amen. Even so, come. 
 Lord Jesus !" We utter this emphatic term, in 
 testimony of our desire to be heard, and of our 
 assurance of being so. '' Lord, thou hast heard 
 the desire of the humble; thou wilt prepare 
 their heart, for thou wilt cause thine ear to 
 hear." The desire and prayer for blessings 
 always has some measure of assurance of them, 
 in God's own time and way. Let the kingdom 
 be the Lord's; let the power and the glory 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 379 
 
 be his forever. Let him be exalted, and all 
 creatures lie low at his footstool ! Prayer and 
 praise may not be given to earth and creatures. 
 We pay no such homage to the painting of the 
 artist, the statuary of the sculptor, nor to any 
 image graven by art or man's device, nor to hero 
 gods, nor to martyred saints. To God alone 
 give glory. " Blessed be the Lord God, the 
 God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things! 
 And blessed be his glorious name forever! and 
 let the whole earth be filled with his glory, 
 amen and amen !" 
 
 Thus it is that '' in our prayers we praise him." 
 The spirit of the closet and the sanctuary are 
 closely allied to the spirit of heaven. " At his 
 throne of grace, we are but a little distance from 
 his throne of glory." The nearer we come 
 to God, the more evidence have we that we 
 shall dwell with God. He that would be fitted 
 for heaven, must be much in prayer, w^hile on 
 the earth. 
 
 Alas! how little account do even God's own 
 people make of prayer ! The pulse of spiritual 
 life would never become low in the bosom 
 of Christians, did they know more of the power 
 of prayer. The dews of mercy would not be 
 so often and so long restrained, nor the rain of 
 heaven withheld, nor its clouds shut up, did they 
 know what may be so easily known of the 
 
380 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 power and preciousness of prayer. God would 
 remember his covenant, his church would 
 flourish like the cedar in Lebanon, and grow as 
 the vine, were she more faithful and diligent in 
 thus proving the faithfulness and love of her 
 divine Lord. Come, oh, " come thou north 
 wind, and blow thou south, and breathe upon 
 thy garden, that the spices thereof may flow 
 forth !" 
 
 How marvellous, too, is it that wicked men 
 never pray, or pray so little ! What a w^onder- 
 ful foundation is laid for prayer in the nature 
 of the Deity, and at the mercy seat where the 
 blood of Jesus pleads for the chief of sinners ! 
 O that the thoughtless, impenitent reader of 
 these humble pages might be allured by them 
 to the throne of the heavenly grace ! He must 
 live a life of prayer, that would die a death of 
 praise. 
 
 They are those who love to pray, to whom the 
 author takes leUve to address this last paragraph. 
 Let the Christian reader call to mind what and 
 where he would have been w ithout prayer ; let 
 him value the privilege more than the gold of 
 Ophir. If in his more favored seasons of fel- 
 lowship with his heavenly Father, he seems 
 sometimes to leave these earthly regions behind 
 him, and take his flight almost within the veil ; 
 let him *' thank God and take courage." The 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 381 
 
 earthly house of his tabernacle will soon be 
 dissolved, and those who here truly call God 
 their Father, will bow with the great multitude 
 which no man can number, and ascribe bless- 
 ing, and honor, and glory, and thanksgiving, 
 and power, and might, to him who is seated on 
 the throne and to the Lamb. Nothing: is more 
 certain, than that the affectionate appeal, " Our 
 Father who art in heaven," will terminate in 
 the holy ardor of the everlasting song. Won- 
 drous wisdom, wondrous goodness, wondrous 
 grace, are they which are the themes of their 
 song. Wonders still greater must remain untold, 
 uncelebrated. The piety of heaven is progres- 
 sive, though sinless ; their love is a constant, 
 bright and glowing flame ; their joy unspeakable 
 and full of glory. The thoughts they utter and 
 the emotions which swell their song are the most 
 delightful, the most tender, the most pure and 
 elevated, and rapturous. Creatures are forgotten 
 there, and God alone is exalted. Created 
 grandeur fades ; the glory of all creatures van- 
 ishes. What a joyous, what a ravishing song, 
 when ten thousand times ten thousand, and 
 thousands of thousands, " as the voice of many 
 waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, 
 and as the voice of harpers harping with their 
 harps," unite in the ascription, " Unto him that 
 loved us, and washed us from our sins in his 
 
382 THE MERCY SEAT. 
 
 own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
 unto God, even his father; to him be glory and 
 dominion, forever and ever!" 
 
 The more the reader is imbued with the spirit 
 of heaven, and the nearer he draws to that un- 
 seen world, the less will he think, and feel, and 
 speak of meaner things and meaner joys, and 
 the more will his heart and tongue be filled 
 with praise. O that men would praise the 
 Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works 
 to the children of men ! " To thee all angels 
 cry aloud ; the heavens and all the powers that 
 are therein. To thee Cherubim and Seraphim 
 continually do cry. Holy, holy, holy Lord God 
 of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of the 
 majesty of thy glory ! The glorious company 
 of the Apostles praise thee, the goodly fellow- 
 ship of the Prophets praise thee, the noble army 
 of martyrs praise thee." The holy church 
 throughout all the world doth praise thee. Let 
 everything that hath breath praise the Lord ! 
 
 Praise is the appropriate employment of the 
 heavenly w^orld. Or rather, it is the employ- 
 ment which is there inwoven with all other 
 employments. The day is not far distant when 
 those who truly offer this prayer will have less to 
 ask for, than to enjoy ; nothing daily to confess, 
 because they will sin no more; no wants, no trials 
 to spread before the throne of infinite mercy, be- 
 
PRAYER ENFORCED. 383 
 
 cause every want shall be supplied, and all tears 
 shall be wiped from every eye. His name shall 
 then be everywhere hallowed ; his kingdom 
 shall have come in its glory ; they themselves, 
 " clothed in white robes and with palms in their 
 hands," shall " bow before the throne of God, 
 and serve him day and night in his temple." 
 They shall hear the voice of much people in 
 heaven, and with them shall cry " Hallelujah, 
 glory, salvation, honor and power to the Lord 
 our God !" And again they shall say, Halle- 
 lujah ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
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