"*>'' -•;^.! Mi f PRINCETON, N. J. Shelf.. Divi Section r.. I;-. 5^."i, .« ,• >.,>'.' By JOSEPH CROSS, D.D., LL.D. KNIGHT-BANNERET: Sermons. 12mo, cloth $1.50 EVANGEL, : Sermons for Parochial Mis- sions. 12mo, cloth 1.50 EDENS OF ITALY. Profusely illustrated. 4to, cloth, extra, gilt edges .... 5.00 Tree calf 12.00 Morocco antique 12.00 COALS FROM THE ALTAR: Sermons for the Christian Year. Volume I., from Advent to Ascension. Volume II. , from Ascension to Advent. 12mo, cloth, each . 1.50 PAULINE CHARITY: Discourses on THE Thirteenth Chapter of Saint Paul's First Epistle to the Corinth- ians. 12mo, cloth 1.50 THOMAS WHITTAKER, Publisher, 2 AND 3 Bible House, New York. ^ " PAULINE CHARITY DISCOURSES ON" THE THIRTEENTH CHAPTER OF SAINT PAUL'S FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS BY THE REV. JOSEPH "cross, D.D., LL.D. AUTHOR OF " EVANGEL," " KNIGHT-BANNERET," " COALS FROM THE ALTAR," AND " EDENS OF ITALY." NEW YORK THOMAS WHITTAKER 2 AND 3 BIBLE HOUSE 1883 Copyright, 1883, By JOSEPH CROSS. jTranfilin "^nss: RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY, BObTON. TO HER WHOSE UNSELFISH DEVOTION, RADIANT, SERENE, AND HOLY, HAS PROVED THE iSbening Star of a STroubleti 2Ltfe, THIS LAST PRODUCT OF MY BRAIN AND HEART, AS A TRIBUTE TO HER NOBLE QUALITI ES, INTELLECTUAL AND SPIRITUAL, IS WITH MUCH TENDERNESS, GRATITUDE, AND PRAYER FOR HER PERFECTION In Pauline Cfjarftg, CORDIALLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. V PREFACE. The discourses contained in this volume — the last probably that the author will ever publish — were preached to his parishioners on twenty consecutive Sunday even- ings after Trinity. However they might have been im- proved by careful revision with a view to their better adaptation to private reading, for reasons which need not here be stated it has been deemed inexpedient to alter their structure or change their dress, and just as they were spoken from the pulpit they are now given to the printer. On a subject so often treated, any attempt at originality would savor of affectation ; and the reader is faithfully forewarned that in these old-fashioned homilies he is to look for nothing new. During their preparation, the preacher availed himself freely of such aids as fell in his way ; sometimes, with due acknowledgment, quoting the thoughts of others in their own words ; oftener con- densing, expanding, or otherwise modifying, and then presenting them in a new verbal costume, simply indicat- ing their origin in foot-notes ; and as to the rest, some- what difficult it were at this date for him to say what or V VI PEEFACE. how much of any particular discourse was originally the product purely of his own excogitation, and what in sub- stance, at least, has been borrowed from books. At a time when sectional antipathies are so strong, and party animosities are so bitter, and religious controversies are so i)revalent, and a hundred rival sects are everywhere striving for the mastery, and in many quarters the bonds of Christian brotherhood are sadly weakened if not rudely sundered, what subject could be more suitable for paro- chial instruction than the nature and obligation of the supreme virtue so finely portrayed by St. Paul? May the heavenly unction fall on all our hearts, copious as the holy oil on Aaron's head, welcome as the manna in the wilderness, reviving as the river from the cloven rock, refreshing as the former and latter rains to Israel's thirsty heritage, gentle yet invigorating "as the dew that de- scended upon the mountains of Zion, where the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore ! *' J. C. "Whitsuntide, 1883. CONTENTS. DiscouBSE. Page. Text. 1 I. Charity Defined 3 II. Chaeity and Miracles 22 III. Charity and Almsgiving .... 36 IV. Charity and Martyrdom 50 V. Charity Long-suffering .... 64 VI. Charity Benignant 77 VII. Charity not Envious 88 VIII. Charity not Proud 104 IX. Charity not Vain 115 X. Charity not Uncourteous ]^4 XI. Charity not Selfish 136 XII. Charity not Irritable 151 XIII. Charity not Censorious .... 163 XIV. Charity True to Eighteousness . . . 176 XV. Charity Magnanimous and Invincible . 193 XVI. Charity Unfailing and Everlasting . . 207 XVII. Charity surviving Knowledge . . . 223 XVIII. Charity in Relation to Faith and Hope . 239 XIX. Charity Suggestive of Important Lessons, 254 XX. Charity enforced upon Christian Practice, 268 vii PAULINE CHARITY, TEXT. 1 Cor. xii. 31-xiv. 1. Authorized Version. But covet earnestly the best gifts : and yet shew I unto you a more excel- lent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tin- kling cymbal. And though I have the gift of proph- ecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowl- edge ; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mouutaiss, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suflfer- eth long, and is kind; charity envieth not ; char- ity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, eeeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoi- ceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believ- etb all things, bopeth Revised Version. But desire earnestly the greater gifts. And a still more excellent way shew I unto you. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cym- bal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to re- move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give ray body to be burned, but have not love, it proiiteth me noth- ing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself un- seemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil ; rejoiceth not in unright- eousness, but rejoiceth with the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth ; but wheth- Version of Cont- bear^ and howson. But I would have you delight in the best gifts; and moreover, beyond them all, I will show you a path wherein to walk. Though it were given me to speak in all the tongues of men and an- gels, if I have not love, I am no better than sound- ing brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And although I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all the mysteries, and all the depths of knowledge ; and though I have the fulness of faith, so that I could remove mountains; if I have not love, I am nothing. And though I sell all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, if I have not love, it profits me nothing. Love is long-suffering; love is kind; love envies not; love speaks no vaunts; love shows no vanity; love is never un- courteous; love is never selfish ; love is not easily provoked; love bears no malice; love rejoices not in the punishment of PAULINE CHARITY. all things, endureth all things. Charity never fail- eth : but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail ; whetlier there be tongues, they shall cease ; ■whether there be knowl- edge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child : but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to face : now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. Andnowabideth faith, hope, charity, these three ; but the greatest of these is charity. Follow after charity. er there be prophecies, they shall be done away ; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part : hut when that which is per- fect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child : now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face : now I know in part ; but then shall I know even as also I have been known. But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three ; and the greatest of these is love. Follow after love. wickedness, but rejoices in the victory of truth; forbears in all things ; be- lieves all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love shall never pass away; though the gift of prophecy shall vanish, and the gift of tongues shall cease, and the gift of knowledge shall come to naught. For our knowl- edge is imperfect, and our prophesying is imperfect. But when the fulness of perfection is come, then all that is imperfect shall pass away. When I was a child, my words were childish, my desires were childish, ray judgments were childish ; but being grown a man, I have done away with the thoughts of childhood. So now we see darkl}', by the reflec- tion of a mirror, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know God, even as now I am known by him. Yet while other gifts shall pass away, these three, faith, hope, and love, abide forever; and th greatest of these is love. I beseech you to follow earnestly after love. CHARITY DEFINED. Covet earnestly the best gifts; and yet show T unto you a more excellent way. — 1 Cor. xii. 31. A WISE and worthy custom, adopted from the Jewish synagogue, was that of the earliest Christian teachers — selecting for text a large portion of some one of the sacred books, which they expounded and applied Sunday after Sunday in consecutive order, so that the hearers soon obtained a complete exposition of that part of the Word of God, and after a longer season an oral commentary of the entire book, and at length in some instances of the whole volume of Divine Scripture. This homiletical method, commonly called the expository, was especially well adapted to those times when — the art of printing being as yet unknown — books were laboriously mul- tiplied by the pen, and copies of the Holy Writings were very rare, and few were able either to purchase or to peruse them. But even in the present age, when printed books are abundant and the masses everywhere can read, the primitive practice has many advantages over the more popular style of modern preaching ; in which a single sentence — often a mere phrase — wrested from its connection, is made the 3 4 PAULINE CHARITY. motto of a learned essay or an elaborate oration, and man speaks much and God but little. With other evils not less deplorable, this perversion of the pulpit is our inheritance from the mediaeval schoolmen, wofully exaggerated by the great French masters — Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Massillon, and the Protestant Saurin ; and a pity and a shame it is, that heaven's gracious evangel should be so mangled and muti- lated in its communication, its richest revelations buried beneath the rubbish of human theories, locked up in logical formulae, or smothered with flowers of rhetoric. In the Eastern Church, however, the an- cient custom, so grandly exemplified in the Homilies of St. Chr3^sostom, is still very generally observed; and I am glad to say it is becoming more common in the Anglican and American, many of our most emi- nent preachers being largely indebted to it, under the divine blessing, for the success of their ministry. Following in such worthy footsteps, as God may give me ability, I begin to-night a series of discourses on the thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians — Chaeity accokding to St. Paul. The subject is one, and I shall endeavor to observe unity in its treatment, so that each successive homily will be closely connected with the preceding, rendering it desirable that those who would profit by this presentation of apostolic teaching should hear the whole series to its close. The most distinguished intellectual endowments — native, acquired, or miraculous — may unquestion- ably co-exist with great moral defects and infirmities CHARITY DEFINED. 5 The Corinthian Christians, by the Holy Ghost "en- riched in all utterance and in all knowledge," so that they "came behind in no gift," but excelled their brethren of all other cities and provinces, were nev- ertheless sadly wanting in that which is far more important to the complete exemplification of Chris- tianity — the spirit of brotherly love. Very severely in this Epistle the Apostle animadverts upon their partisan jealousies and contentions, and most ear- nestly remonstrates against the turbulent acerbity with which they maintain the respective claims to pre-eminence of their several favorites in the apos- tolate. Having explained the nature, origin, utility, mutual relations and dependences, of the amazing spiritual manifestations which were the occasions of so much envy and strife among them ; he proceeds to tell them how charity, in these absorbing ques- tions so neglected and forgotten, by these unseemly controversies so injured and outraged before the world, immeasurably transcends them all. Their miraculous and inspirational powers he neither doubts nor depreciates, but commends to their prac- tical attention something of vastly superior moment. To "covet earnestly the best gifts " — not the most showy, but the most useful — is his advice ; but not dwelling upon a matter comparatively unessential to their Christian edification, he turns immediately to point out to them " a more excellent way." If in the division of the Scriptures into chapters and verses — a modern expedient chiefly for con- venience of reference — this last verse of the twelfth chapter had been made the first of the thirteenth, it b PAULINE CHARITY. would have been better, since here the Apostle intro- duces the subject of which he there treats with so much beauty and powc^r. Let us read : — "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tin- kling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind ; charity envieth not ; charity vaunteth not it- self, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly ; seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never f aileth : but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail ; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part ; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to face : now I know in part ; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three ; but the greatest of these is charity." For moral elevation, there is nothing equal to this in any human literature. No Plato or Seneca ever uttered a sentiment of such transcendent beauty. Even in the word of God, I know of no parallel to the passage — even in the Epistles of St. John, who wrote so much upon the subject, and learned his lesson on the Saviour's heart. It is the highest encomium of the Queen of Graces that genius ever CHARITY DEFINED. 7 indited ; and what more could man, however inspired of God, say in her praise ? Yet here is no exaggera- tion, no distortion of the virtue commended, nor depreciation of any other Christian quality or duty. All is just, exact, proportionate, because all is divine. Charity, in whatever aspect regarded — whether in its abstract principle, or in its relative importance, or in its enumerated attributes, or in its immeasur- able duration, or in its asserted superiority to faith and hope — is manifestly worthy of its apostolic designation — The moke excellent way. That we may understand the nature of this virtue — which ought to be our first inquiry — it is neces- sary to begin with a definition of the term. The Greek word ayaTrr; means love. In the Revised Version of the New Testament, as also by Conybeare and Howson, it is uniformly so translated. Even in our Authorized Version this is the common render- ing ; as, " Faith worketh by love " — " The fruit of the Spirit is love " — " Love is the fulfilling of the law." Frequently, however, the translation here is charity ; as, " The end of the commandment is charity " — " Add to brotherly kindness charity " — " These are spots in your feasts of charity" — "Timotheus brought us good tidings of your charity " — " Charity covereth the multitude of sins." And a dozen other instances might be adduced, besides those compre- hended in the Pauline passage of which we discourse. Throughout this chapter the word used is tlie same, and the thing so highly eulogized is love. But love to whom? to God, or to man? To man 8 PAULINE, CHARITY. certainly — to man only — not to God. Sometimes, indeed, the term is used for love to God, but not in this place, for in every instance the properties here ascribed to charity relate to man alone. Love to man, therefore — to man good or bad, just or unjust, saved or unsaved, in the Church or out of it — to man the neighbor, the brother, the fellow-pilgrim, fellow-soldier, fellow-sufferer, sharing our common nature, redemption and destiny — love to universal man — is the charity thus described by St. Paul. But what kind of love to man? Such as nature may prompt or culture develop? No, but a purer and nobler affection, inspired by the Holy Spirit in the regenerate heart — divine in its source, its rule, and its end — its source the love of God, its rule the law of God, its end the glory of God. The first and greatest commandment, our Saviour tells us, is that of supreme love to God ; and the second, which is like it, that of disinterested love to the neighbor. St. John reiterates the statement when he says: " This commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also ; " and again ; " He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" The person who supremely loves God cherishes a supreme regard for God's revealed will ; and when God requires him to love his neighbor as himself — to love his enemies, and requite their curses with blessings, their hatred with kind offices, their despite and persecution with prayers for their well-being — casting himself upon the gracious aid of the Holy Spirit, he strives to restrain the selfish and malevo- CHARITY DEFINED. d lent tendencies of his nature, carefully cultivates a friendlj and fraternal feeling, forgives the injuries he receives, relieves the miseries he beholds, and does whatever he can to reform, improve and save. And the chief impulse to such action is an intense desire to glorify God, seeking the good of the crea- ture only as subordinate to the glory of the Creator, striving for the welfare of the human brotherhood always by such means and in such manner only as shall honor the perfections and magnify the preroga- tives of the Father who is in heaven. As the water "^ exhaled from the sea falls in refreshing rains and reviving dews upon field and forest, meadow and mountain, thirsty soil and withered herbage, and then by a thousand channels flows back again to the sea ; so charity, coming' forth from God, scatters its bless- ings among the children of men, and with its gath- ered revenue of love and praise returns to the bosom of God. God is its Alpha and Omega — the fountain whence it issues, and the ocean where it empties. " He poorly loves God," writes a revered father of the Church, " who loves any thing beside him that he does not love for him." Again : " We love any thing the more truly and rightly, the more explicitly we acknowledge and love God in it." ^ Love to God is the tree ; love to man is the delicious fruit it bears. Love to God is the mountain spring ; love to man is the fertilizing stream it sends singing through the landscape. We love God for his own sake, man for God's sake ; the child, because we love the Father ; 1 St. AugustiDe. IC PAULINE CHAKITY. the subject, because we love the Sovereign ; the crea- ture, because we love the Creator; the redeemed, because we love the Redeemer; the sanctified, be- cause we love the Sanctifier; the bride of Christ, because we love her divine Beloved. Our kindest feelings, warmest affections, deepest sympathies, ten- derest compassions, most magnanimous endeavors, and most munificent donations, do not amount to Christian charity after the Pauline ideal, unless they spring from the love of God, with the law of God for their rule, and the glory of God for their end. And the principle is the same, however diversified in manifestation by the varie.ty of its objects. Rich or poor, high or low, free or bond, civil or savage, spiritual or sensual, strong in faith or utterly unbe- lieving, in recognized covenant with Christ or practi- cally alienated from the life of God, charity looks upon all as the proper objects of her tender regard and beneficent agenc}^ She loves the righteous in God, and the wicked for God ; the former with holy complacency, the latter with gracious commiseration. In these she beholds the divine image, once lost, but now by the Spirit of holiness restored ; in those she discerns some faint traces of the same divine image, sadly marred and blurred by sin, but susceptible of perfect restoration through the mercy and the merit of Christ. This image of God, these traces of God's image, are the appeals in humanity to her love ; and in both cases the principle is identical, produced by the same Divine Spirit, subject to the same divine impulse, aspiring to the same divine result, though CHARITY DEFINED. 11 modified in its phases by the difference of character in the objects to whom it is directed. And thus it is easy to see that charity is no capri- cious and inconstant emotion — no vacillating thing i affected by every veering wind of fortune ; but a stable principle, a steadfast character, a uniform habitude, unchanged by the tide of human muta- tions, neither discouraged by difficulty nor conquered by hate — like its divine Author and Exemplar, " the same yesterday and to-day and forever " — pardoning the offender, blessing the re viler, turning the other cheek to the smiter, and praying for its crucifiers from the cross. And being the product of the grace of God, it may exist where there is very little consti- tutional geniality or tenderness of heart — where the natural temper is cold as the arctic winter and sterile as the ocean strand ; flourishing like the mountain cedar upon the face of the naked rock ; blossoming like the rhododendron upon the margin of the al- pine snows ; diffusing its fragrance like the rose of Psestum through an atmosphere of miasma and death. In short, a religious and holy affection, beau- tiful as the love of angels, beneficent in its measure as the love of God, of his grace begotten, by his word governed, and with his glory crowned, charity most unquestionably merits its apostolic title. — The more EXCELLENT WAY. Few things in morals or religion have been more misapprehended than the nature of this grand Chris- tian virtue ; and some of the popular mistakes about it our preliminary survey will enable us now to correct. 12 PAULINE CHARITY. One of these makes charity mere ahnsgiving. He who feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, houses the homeless, and doles out dimes to mendicants, is deemed a charitable man. If on a larger scale he provides relief for pauperism, furnishes a rest and a refuge for aged indigence, devises support and educa- tion for helpless orphanage, freights a ship with corn for starving Egypt or Ireland, builds a hospital or a cathedral in his city, founds a college or endows a professorship, leaves a rich legacy to some public institution from the treasure he can enjoy no more, he is lauded as a marvel and model of charity. And charity all this may be, or something very different from charity. It may be pure love. Christlike love ; or it may be vanity, ambition, ostentation, unmixed and unmitigated selfishness. For similar deeds the Pharisees were famous ; but in charity they were sadly deficient. Publicly they dispensed their bounty to their needy brethren, and displayed their pompous offerings to the altar and the synagogue — all to be seen of men, to obtain glory of men ; but charity, content with the approval of conscience and the com- mendation of Heaven, quietly distributes its alms in secret, and lets not the left hand know what the right hand doeth ; and one might give all his goods to feed the poor, making himself as poor as the poverty he feeds, and yet be more destitute of charity than his pauper clients ever were of bread. Another common mistake confounds Christian charity with natural benevolence. There is a cer- tain generosity, magnanimity, amiability, patriotic sentimentality — a high sense of honor, a regard CHARITY DEFINED. 13 for public virtue, a concern for the interests of one's own neighborhood, a constitutional tenderness of heart, a ready sympathy with human suffering — which go far to make the good neighbor, the good citizen, and beautify all the relations of social life. These are qualities which all must admire and ap- plaud. Pictures of charity we may call them, statues of charity, corpses of charity; but they want its divine life, its genial warmth, its spiritual reality and power. Innate tendencies, modified by culture and circumstance, and finding their highest motive often in utility, and their strongest impulse in self- gratification, they are equally void of moral worth and of Christian principle. Charity is an evangelic virtue, a divine implantation, one of the chief fruits of the Spirit, the distinctive evidence of a renovated and purified heart. God is love, and in entering the human soul he fills it with love. He restores it to his own image, and that image is love. He imparts to it something of his own nature, and that nature is love. Without the new creation in Christ Jesus, the cleansed heart and rectified spirit for which the peni- tent Psalmist prays, there can be no charity after the Pauline pattern. Such charity is not natural good- ness, but practical Christianity; not a generous in- stinct, but the powerful constraint of redeeming love ; not a spontaneous outgrowth of the human heart, but a vine of God, indigenous only to Calvary, clinging to the cross and blossoming beneath its crimson dew. There is a third error, which credits with this lofty virtue any generous estimate of a neighbor's good qualities. We have all met with instances, 14 PAULINE CHARITY. more or less remarkable, of that human "kindness which puts the best construction it can upon the objectionable words and actions of others, over- looking their slighter faults and infirmities, and mak- ing large allowance for errors and delinquencies of a more serious character. To such favorable judg- ment, within the limits of truth and justice. Chris- tian charity does indeed very strongly incline the heart ; but when heretics and schismatics — profli- gates and blasphemers — men void of faith and hos- tile to religion — are recognized as Christians and taken into Christian fellowship, what is it but moral indifference that is dignified with the name of this noble virtue ? Charity is enlightened and discrimi- nating; rejoicing in the good, the pure, the true; while it grieves over error, pities all delusion, and hates iniquity with the hatred of God. It is valiant for the truth as it is in Jesus, because that truth is the basis of all Christian virtue. It contends earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, because that faith is the channel of salvation to all them that believe. To that which is hostile to men's highest and holiest interests, it can no more be reconciled than light to darkness or God to Satan. To make sincerity in error and unbelief one with the firm grasp of the great catholic verities — to make the superstitious devotion of the heathen one with the pure service of the Father of our spirits — to make obedience to the false prophet and prayer to the Blessed Virgin one with loyalty to the living God and reliance upon Jesus Christ whom he hath sent — to make an utterly ungodly life, without church or CHARITY DEFINED. 15 ministry, without prayer or sacrament, without any aspiration after heavenly fellowship, any recognition of religious obligation, any habitual outlook toward an eternal hereafter, one with that personal consecra- tion within the blessed bond of the covenant, which feels itself a pilgrim and stranger on earth, having its conversation and citizenship in heaven, living only to the Lord and glad to die for his glory — what is it but to confound truth with falsehood, good with evil, Christ with Belial — to disregard all moral dis- tinctions, and degrade the gospel which it is the office of charity to honor? Who has not heard the popular outcry of the day ? " Down with your creeds ! Away with your dogmas ! Have done with your theology ! Out upon the Church that has so long enslaved her children and tyrannized over the world ! Let us at length have liberty of thought and of conscience I A man ought to be held no more responsible for his religious opin- ions than for the color of his eyes and hair. What matters my belief or unbelief, if I am honest and virtuous ? Not what I think, but what I do, makes me what I am. Call me heretic if you will — call me sceptic, infidel, reprobate ; but my difference with you in these matters involves no guilt, and cannot imperil my eternal fate." Such is the cant of the illogical liberalism of our age, and its callow dis- cipleship hail it as the voice of an oracle, and applaud it in the name of charity. But with these puerile absurdities charity has no more to do than they have to do with reason. To charity, truth is dearer than the daylight, furnishing the impulse to duty, the 16 PAULINE CHAEITY. basis of virtue, the means of regener?tion, and the mould in which character is cast for eternity. If Christ is the light of the world, to discard his doc- trine is to plunge into darkness. If Christ is the way to the Father, to reject his gospel is to alienate the soul more utterly from God. Opposite causes produce opposite effects; and if truth purifies, error must pollute ; and if truth vivifies, error must dead- en ; and if truth edifies, error must destroy. Indif- ference to error, therefore, is no part of charity ; but zeal for the truth is one of its essential elements. Charity requires us to avoid false teachers, and to warn their deluded followers of their danger. When the apostle of charity,^repairing to the public baths, found Cerinthus there, he said to his friends : " Let us hasten to depart from this place, lest we perish with the apostate from the faith ! " And the same gentle and loving disciple writes to his brethren to receive no man, nor bid him God-speed, who brings not the doctrine of Christ, lest they be partakers of his iniquity. And the inspired author of the glori- ous encomium of charity on which we discourse would anathematize any man, or even an angel from heaven, who should come preaching another gospel than his own. And if the Christian faith is a matter of no moment, and the denial of it imperils not the issues of redemption, why does he charge Timothy so solemnly to take heed to the doctrine, and hold fast the form of sound words, that he may save both himself and them that hear him? And think you the Son of God descended into our planet to teach what no man is bound to believe, and sent forth his CHARITY DEFINED. 17 apostles to proclaim what all men are at liberty to reject? And if I may discard one article of the Christian faith and be guiltless, why may I not be guiltless in discarding all ? Error innoxious ? Un- belief innocent and safe ? Nay, it is rebellion against the King of truth, and contempt of his royal bride. I cannot be indifferent to faith, without being false to her sister charity. If my neighbor cherishes a deadly delusion, does this angel of God on earth lay her hand upon my lips and breathe a paralyzing frost upon my heart? No ! She touches my mouth with a living coal from the altar, and bids me lift up my voice like a trumpet. And the more I love my neighbor as myself, the more prompt will be my obe- dience and the more earnest my remonstrance. And so with regard to morals. Some, indeed, would have us believe that charity consists in allow- ing the largest liberty to human conduct, and over- looking or extenuating the faults and follies of mankind. Professing the charity of Christ, you are expected to let others live as they like, and never interfere with their indulgence of guilty passion, nor interpose any barrier to arrest their progress toward the pit, nor dash from their lips the chalice charged to the brim with the wormwood and gall of the second death. You must give things gentle names, and speak politely of vice and villany, and blindfold with silken bandages the sinner whose footsteps are taking hold on hell. If out of purest love you faith- fully reprove the transgressor, you are called unchari- table ; and if for the sake of the public health you ostracise the moral leper, it is denounced as an out- 18 PAULINE CHARITY. rage upon charity. Is not the bare statement of such sentiments sufficient proof of their unsound- ness? Are they not to be attributed to a defective view of moral obligation, or an utter insensibility to the terrible evil of sin ? If charity is the end of the commandment, how can it connive at that which antagonizes the commandment? If charity is the fulfilling of the law, how can it be friendly with that which ruthlessly violates the law ? Charity proceeds from love to God ; but how can we love God, who is essential holiness, and not hate iniquity? Charity is the outgrowth of a ^pure heart ; but how can the heart be purified, and not abhor the abominable thing at which all purity revolts? If one undertake to burn your barn, poison your well, or stab you in your bed, would you call it charity in me to encour- age him with my favor and my flattery ? What sort of charity is it, then, to look with good-natured in- dulgence upon deeds which are hostile to all your higher interest^, and allow you to cherish unchecked those evil passions and practices which peril your blood-redeemed inheritance in heaven? To think lightly of offending God and grieving his Holy Spirit — to excuse or extenuate deeds that angels might weep over, and holy men cannot contemplate with- out tears — to lull the guilty conscience into a fatal lethargy by gentle complacency toward that which slew the Son of God, and is daily blotting out the immortal hopes of men — this is not charity, but cruelty to the soul — closing the eye which charity would open — concealing the pit which charity would uncover — hushing the warning voice which charity CHARITY DEFmED. 19 would swell to thunder-tones — removing the blessed barrier which charity has thrown athwart the sinner's path to hell. Though charity is very tender and very tolerant, never searching for faults, nor exagger- ating them when found, nor subjecting them to too rigorous a censorsliip ; always making due allowance for the weakness of the flesh and the strength of temptation, and rejoicing in the exercise of pardon to the penitent; yet is it keenly alive to the evil which the transgressor is bringing upon himself, and anxious by every means at command to avert the incalculable consequences of his misdoing — saving him with fear, pulling him out of the fire. Never denunciatory, nor unnecessarily severe in judgment ; it will not court the favor of the wicked, nor encour- age their self-deception, by unjust indulgence to their vices, or practical disregard of their impending pun- ishment. Was David wanting in charity ? yet with perfect hatred he hated the workers of iniquity. Was St. Paul wanting in charity? yet like a bolt from heaven he launches his anathema against the man that loves not our Lord Jesus Christ. Are the angels wanting in charity? yet how terribly does the fate of Sodom, of the Egyptian first-born, and the Assyrian besiegers of Jerusalem, indicate their feelings toward the guilty ! Is our Redeemer want- ing in charity ? yet with what appalling words does he denounce the wicked, with what awful solemnity declare their everlasting condemnation, with what unparalleled imagery describe their immitigable doom in the world to come ! Not to the person, but to the character, is the repugnance so strongly expressed. 20 PAULINE CHARITY. Not to the creature, but to the transgressor, is the punishment so terribly foretold. The evil-doer it is, the rebel against God, the enemy to the cross of Christ, who is so frightfully menaced with retribu- tion ; and the severity of rebuke and the urgency of admonition are prompted less by the anger of aven- ging holiness than by the meek and melting heart of charity. Very pleasant, indeed, to those who love their sins, and will not renounce their idols, and wish not to be disturbed in their indulgence of guilty passions, must be the voice of the false prophet assuring them of-' safety and beguiling their fears with a song of peace ; " and yet show I unto you a more excellent way." Of all that we have thus far said, this is the sum. Charity is love to man in its purest, noblest and divinest form — the transcendent fruit of the Spirit, the incomparable virtue of Christianity, the epitome of all social morality, the characteristic beauty of holiness, the native element of angels, and the per- fect image of God. For sweetness and majesty, nothing can compete with love — nothing in earth or heaven can contest the palm with love. No other perfection of the Supreme is so often mentioned in his word, or so largely displayed in his works. Love is his favorite name, and the only single term in which he ever defined his moral nature to man. He first created worlds that he might have objects to love, and still he lavishes all the wealth of his love upon the worlds which he has created. Love clothes the forest, and paints the field. The breeze is bur- CHAEITY DEFINED. 21 dened with its melody, and the sunbeam is but the shadow of its splendor. Love is the light of all the unsmitten orbs of space — the beauty of their home- bloom, and the glory of their remote effulgence. God is the source of love, heaven is the home of love. Scripture is the record of love, Christianity is the religion of love, the incarnation of the Logos is love's visible embodiment, and Christ's ministry upon earth is love's divinest labor, and his unparalleled suffering is love's sublimest sacrifice, and his resur- rection from the dead is love's triumph . over man's last enemy, and his ascension to the right hand of the Father is love's enthronement and investiture with the royal glories of redemption ; and in every revelation of God, and every manifestation of his character, throughout all the illimitable range of his operations, especially in the one great achievement of human restoration to his favor and fellowship, "omnipotence is lost in love," and infinite intelli- gence and wisdom are eclipsed by love's superior splendor, and all that seems most worthy of our wonder and our worship depreciates in comparison with the " MOEB EXCELLENT WAY ! " 22 PAULINE CHARITY. II. CHARITY AND MIRACLES. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all myste- ries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. — 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2. More than eight hundred years had elapsed since the prophet Joel uttered the prediction — "It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your j^oung men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams ; and upon my servants and upon my handmaidens will I pour out of my spirit, and they shall prophesy." The time was now come for the beginning of its fulfilment — the earnest of the glorious gifts which were to signalize the epoch of the world's regenera- tion. The Messiah had appeared on earth, had suffered in the flesh, had returned victorious over death and hell to the right hand of the Father, whence he had promised the heavenly Comforter with his miraculous manifestations for the edification of the Church. Still at Jerusalem, in obedience to the Master's order, the disciples awaited the promised CHAEITY AND MIRACLES. 23 endowment with power from on high. The day of Pentecost finds them "all with one accord in one place." Suddenly, "a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind," indicates the presence of a celestial agency ; and " cloven tongues of lire," sit- ting on all their heads, are the symbol and assurance of their inspiration. And straightway, all unlearned as they are, they begin to speak various languages and dialects; and the men of many nations, who have come up to the great Jewish festival, stand amazed to hear themselves addressed each in his own vernacular ; and Moses, the man of God, looking forth from his seat in Paradise, beholds in these humble followers of the Prophet like unto himself the incipient realization of his own great wish uttered fifteen centuries before — " Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that God would put his Spirit upon them ! " Hitherto, only a few favored individuals, one or two at a time, and they generally of the Hebrew race, had received any of these powers of inspiration and miracle. Now they become common to the saints, the Gentiles sharing as largely in them as the Jews; male and female, wise and simple, old and young, prophesying in the name of the Nazarene, speaking unknown tongues, and doing many mighty works. Upon the Corinthian church, especially, is poured forth an astonishing profusion of spiritual gifts ; spiritual gifts of all kinds, and shared by all the members ; some exercising one and some another. Enter the assembly, and witness the unparalleled wonder ; peasants, shepherds, fishermen, artisans, dis- 24 PAULINE CHARITY. puting with sages and philosophers, and putting all their learning and science to shame ; one predicting a famine, a pestilence, an imperial persecution ; an- other discovering at a glance the inmost thoughts of his neighbor, and rebuking the sin he has carefully concealed from all ; a rustic, whose lore is scarcely sufficient to enable him to pronounce the names of half a dozen of his country's most famous authors, artists, warriors, or patriots, discoursing fluently and beautifully, in a tongue of which he has been hither- to totally ignorant, on the sublimest matters of revealed religion; while his fellow rustic, equally ignorant of that tongue, and in all respects equally illiterate, with the utmost readiness and the greatest accuracy translates every word that is uttered into the vernacular of the audience ; the sick, the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the leper, the lunatic, the paralytic, by a touch, a word, a look, a mere voli- tion, or a passing shadow, instantly cured of their several maladies; demons, adjured in the name of Jesus, quitting the human breasts they have long tenanted and tormented; and the shrouded corpse suddenly relaxing its rigid muscles, and warming into life, under the sweet soft breath of prayer. Verily, this is the power of God ! What controver- sies of the schools or declamations of the forum were comparable with the wisdom and eloquence of these untrained disciples of the Crucified? What awful Eleusinian mysteries, or oracular responses from the fountains of Dodona or the sacred shades of Delphi, could match these divine manifestations ? Nay, what burning bush, or thundering mountain, or pillar of CHARITY AND MIRACLES. 25 fire upon the tabernacle, or glory of the resident God between the cherubim, could rank with these gifts of the Holy Ghost? Yet St. Paul here tells those who enjoyed them of something far more de- sirable — of something so important that, though a man possessed them all at once, without that greater blessing he were nothing better than "a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." The Jews had many strange traditions about the wonderful wisdom and transcendent endowments of their rabbins, sages and seers. They told of one who spoke all the languages of the earth, and of another who conversed with angels in their own celestial vernacular, and of others again who were endowed with intuitive universal knowledge, under- standing all human arts and sciences and all the mysteries of religion. And then there were their prophets, actually inspired of God, speaking of future events as though they were the historic records of the past, and achieving marvels equal to the removal of mountains by a word. To these stupendous powers, supposed or real, in addition to the extraor- dinary spiritual gifts exercised by his converts at Corinth, the apostle perhaps refers, pronouncing them all vain without charity. " What though I spake with the sweetest eloquence in all the languages and dialects of the world ; and though to these I added the burning words and thrilling tones of the seraphim and the cherubim ; and though I could so foresee the future as to predict every important event of coming ages down to the end of time ; and though I could 26 PAULINE CHARITY. fathom all the mysteries of theology, and explain all the types and figures of the Mosaic Law, and inter- pret infalUbly every prophecy of the Old Testament, and comprehend intuitively all human science and literature ; and though my faith were equal to Abra- ham's or Elijah's, able to solve the greatest difficul- ties and surmount the greatest obstacles, bringing fire or rain from heaven according to my desire, even making the mountains skip like rams and the little hills like lambs ? Know ye not that there is one gift immeasurably greater, without which all my divine endowments would avail me nothing, constituting no merit in the sight of God, pleasing him as little as the noisy dissonances of the heathen in their idola- trous worship, and proving as useless as the blast of the brazen trumpet or the inharmonious clangor of the cymbal ? " Yet these were glorious gifts, accrediting the heavenly commission of prophets, heroes and martyrs of whom the world was not worthy. Contemplate some of them, as shown forth in the history of those holy men of old who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. See Enoch, "the seventh from Adam " — the blessed sabbath-man — standing amidst a multitude of giants — giants alike in stature and in sin — unmoved by their mockery and their menaces, witnessing against their wickedness, foretelling their fearful doom, and then ascending unsmitten of the mortal shaft to God. Behold Noah, preaching right- eousness to his ungodly generation, while the heavens around are darkening with the deluge tempest, and the thunder from afar enforces the prophetic warn- CHARITY AND IMIRACLES. 27 ing ; and then entering his ark, shut in by an invisi- ble hand, and floating over the wide waste of waters, amidst the mingled roar of the elements and the wail of a drowning world. And there is Moses, working his wonders in the presence of the royal oppressor, leading his brethren through the divided sea, talking face to face with God amidst the lightnings of Sinai, surveying from Pisgah with more than prophet's ken the long-sought land of promise; and dying there, more blessed than he could have died on the couch of the Pharaohs, soothed by sweetest perfumes and softest melodies ; and buried with honors a thousand times sublimer than if embalmed with precious spices, and enclosed in a sarcophagus of sculptured marble, and deposited in the proudest of the pyramids, amid the lamentations of Mizraim and the memorial hom- age of the world. Then comes Joshua, arresting the rush of the Jordan and the revolutions of the spheres ; and Elijah, bearing credentials written with fire from heaven, and ascending to heaven with horses and chariot of fire ; and Elisha, whose prayer recalls the departed spirit of the young Shunammite, and whose mouldering skeleton quickens the dead by contact; and David, whose inspired psalmody still charms our solemn assemblies; and Solomon, whose proverbial philosophy still instructs our sages and senators; and Isaiah, with his noble Messianic strain ; and Jeremiah, with his melting patriotic wail ; and Ezekiel, gazing upon the living chariot-throne of Jehovah ; and the beloved Daniel, sitting serene among the lions ; and his three princely companions, walking unharmed in sevenfold flames ; and the mis- 28 PAUUNE CHAEITY. sionary prophet of Zebulon^ spreading with peniten- tial sackcloth the imperial city of the Tigris; and the voice crying in the wilderness, the morning star that heralds the dayspring from on high; and the twelve apostles of the Lamb, the twelve foundation- gems of the New Jerusalem, the twelve heralds sent forth to announce the kingdom of heaven upon earth, the twelve plenipotentiaries of the Prince of peace going to and fro like angels among men, negotiating an everlasting amnesty between heaven and earth, eliciting from mute Nature articulate testimony to the authority of their mission and the divinity of their message, and by imposition of their hands com- municating to their converts and brethren the same sublime prerogatives, till all lands ring with the rumor of their fame, and tyrants tremble on their thrones before them, and the vanquished spirits of darkness haste muttering to their native hell. What celestial credentials are here ! what an investiture of living splendors ! ^ And yet, saith St. Paul, with all these amazing powers — with all these indubitable heavenly sanctions — "if I have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal — if I have not charity, I am nothing." Spiritual gifts may be bestowed without any ac- companiment of saving grace. Sinners may proph- esy, and hypocrites may work miracles. Generally, it is true, such endowments have been granted only to the pure and good, and those who have exercised them have usually been the most eminent saints of 1 Thomas H. Stockton. CHARITY AND MIRACLES. 29 their times; but exceptional cases are recorded, in which, for wise and special purposes, men of very questionable character, or even of character unques- tionably bad, have been invested with some of these divine prerogatives. Balaam seems to have been an instance, and the old prophet of Samaria, and the royal persecutor of the anointed son of Jesse ; and, up to a certain point, the magicians of Egypt matched the miracles of Moses and Aaron; and does not St. Paul himself give us reason for believing that tliere were corrupt and wicked teachers in his- day, false apostles, who exhibited such powers and performed such wonders as might deceive the very elect ? Who shall say that God never employed bad men as his messengers and instruments, and granted the distinct testimony of prophetic gifts and miracu- lous works to the divinity of their commission ? But charity is the grace of his favorites, the peculiar mark of liis children, the family likeness by which they are known on earth and recognized in heaven. These extraordinary gifts are "outward and visible signs ; " charity is an " inward and spiritual grace." These are divine favors conferred upon the Church ; charity is a living principle infused into the hearts of her members. These are the royal robes and jewels with which the King adorned his Bride in the day of her espousal ; charity is the inspiration of a new and heavenly temper, whereby she is assimi- lated to himself and prepared for the fellowship of his throne. Charity is "the mind that was in Christ," and Christ is the embodiment and incarna- tion of the charity of God. Charity makes men 30 PAULINE CHAEITY. more like God, therefore, than all the unknown tongues, prophetic powers, supernatural knowledge, and miracle-working faith, ever enjoyed by his most honored servants. Noah in the deluge, Moses in Mount Sinai, Joshua on the field of Gibeon, Elijah in his splendid rapture, Ezekiel by the river Chebar, Daniel amid the courtiers or the lions, the Baptist in the desert or the dungeon, St. John in the vis- ions of Patmos, and St. Paul in the third heaven, were less like God in the revelations they received and the wonders they wrought, than in the divine love — the transcendent charity — which filled and ruled and sanctified their souls. And all these astonishing endowments one might have, with all the success which they insure, and aL. the reverence which they attract, and all the popu- larity which ought to follow from their exercise, and still be a very unhappy man ; but if love reign in his heart, and every thing else is subordinate to love, he must be happy ; for love is a perennial fountain of peace and joy, involving the approbation of con- science, and affording the highest satisfaction to the sensibilities. The truest happiness springs from holiness, and of all personal holiness love is the cen- tral element. Love it was, not the gift of tongues or prophecy, that inspired the midnight song of Paul and Silas in the Philippian dungeon. Love it was, not the power of knowledge or miracle, that made Polycarp rejoice in the flames and Ignatius tri- umph among the lions. Heaven is perfect blessed- ness because it is perfect love, and perfect love on earth would render earth itself a heaven. Love is CHAEITY AND MIRACLES. 31 capable of making men happy withaut any thing else; but every thing else without love must only enhance their misery. And so Jesus bade his dis- ciples rejoice, not that the spirits were subject to them, but that their names were written in heaven ; not that they could cast out devils, but that they could love like angels ; not that they imitated his mighty works, but that they possessed his loving spirit. For what grace is there, what assurance of salva- tion, what meetness for the heavenly inheritance, in tongues or prophecy, in knowledge or miracle? Does not our blessed Lord tell us that many who have exercised these glorious gifts will in the last day be rejected as " workers of iniquity " ? and must not their divine endowments increase their condem- nation and intensify their torments ? Was not Judas one of the twelve ? and was it not his participation of their extraordinary powers and privileges that aggravated so fearfully the turpitude of the betrayal, and swelled the traitor's guilt beyond the limits of God's forgiveness? And has not St. Paul assured us, concerning those apostates from Christianity who had been " made partakers of the Holy Ghost and of the powers of the world to come," that "it is impos- sible to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame " ? And was it not because they fell from such a height of privilege and prerogative, that "the angels who kept not their first estate " sank to such an irredeemable depth of doom, " reserved in chains under darkness to the day of judgment to be punished" — sentenced with 32 PAULINE CHAEITY. the prince of reprobates, and all whom he has allured from their allegiance into rebellion against the Al- mighty, to "the lake that burnetii with fire and brimstone, which is the second death"? But charity is the image of God, which none possessing can per- ish. Charity is God enthroned in the human heart. " The universe is but the vestibule; The soul, the temple of Divinity." Here is the test by which we shall be tried at the Master's coming, and love to his saints shall be requited as love to himself. This is meetness for heavenly glory — is heaven itself in embryo — the bud which blossoms in time and fructifies in eter- nity ; and our attainments in grace during this pro- bationary season must determine the proportion of our future reward, an d he t hat loves most sh all / ^ y shrne brightest amon^_thfi_&aints_j n light and _siflg- ^)C.VE l oudest around the sapphire throne. ^ |\T ? And be it observed that these excellent gifts and mighty works of the Holy Spirit are only the means employed by the Divine Wisdom for the promotion of charity ; being bestowed and exercised chiefly for the authentication and effectual enforcement of Christianity, which is characteristically and pre-emi- nently the religion of charity. St. Paul tells us that the end of the Christian ministry, with all its primi- I tive endowments of inspired eloquence, prophecy, i knowledge, wisdom, and faith, is the perfecting of the saints, the edification of the Church in charity. And is not the end more excellent than the means? And what excellence have the means, except as CHARITY AND MIRACLES. 33 they are promotive of the end ? The former, there- fore, ceased with the apostolic age ; but the latter has an intrinsic value, which insures its immortality. They were the supernatural auxiliaries of Christi- anity, continued only so long as they were necessary for the establishment of the new religion among the nations ; but this, being of the very essence of Chris- tianity, must be commensurate in duration with that religion and with its imperishable fruits. In a higher sense than is applicable to the past, "prophecies shall fail, tongues shall cease, and knowledge shall vanish away ; " for the themes of prophecy shall be- come matters of history, and unknown tongues can have no utility to those who possess the transcend- ent powers of immortality, and what we now call knowledge must fade and vanish before the superior certainties of a more perfect economy as the stars be- fore the rising sun ; while charity, for whose sake they all exist, to whose triumph they all minister, and from whose importance they all -derive their value — char- ity, the reward of faith, the fruition of hope, the moral image of God, and the essential paradise of the soul — can never be superseded by any thing more need- ful, more useful, more excellent, than itself ; and no greater gift, no richer endowment, no sublimer mani- festation of the Holy Spirit, will ever bless the con- dition of redeemed humanity in the "new heavens and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." *' Beyond this vale of tears, There is a life above, Unmeasured by the flight of years, And all that life is love." 34 PAULINE CHARITY. We come then to this inevitable conclusion, that charity immeasurably transcends in importance all natural endowments, all acquired abilities, and all the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, that can be known or named in this world or the world to come. And if one could speak all tongues, earthly and heavenly ; if he understood all science, physical and mental ; if he were familiar with all literature, ancient and modern ; if he had an intuitive percep- tion of all truth, human and divine ; if he were constantly inspired of God, and infallible in all his opinions and decisions; if he were gifted with the most winning eloquence, the most cogent argumenta- tion, and unbounded influence over the popular mind ; if he were invested with all the wealth, and all the splendor, and all the authority, of all the mon- archs that ever ruled mankind ; were he preserved alive like Noah from the watery ruin of the world, or led forth like Lot from the fate of an accursed city ; were he called as Moses, anointed as Aaron, and more magnificently attested than Joshua ; could he indite psalms like David, construct proverbs like Solomon, predict wonders like Isaiah, compose dirges like Jeremiah, pray like Jacob at Peniel, and preach like Peter at the Pentecost; were angels sent to guard him as they guarded the pilgrim patriarch, and fight for him as they fought for the beleaguered prophet, and sing to him as they sang to the shep- herds of Bethlehem ; had he, with the proto-martyr, seen heaven open, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God ; or, with the beloved disciple, leaned upon the bosom of the Incarnate God, and gazed CHARITY AND JMIRACLES. 35 upon the splendid panorama of the prophetic future in Patmos ; or, with the great Apostle of the Gentiles, been converted by the personal revelation of the glorified Redeemer, and afterward caught up in sweet bewildering rapture to the third heaven; or, with the heroic and holy Tishbite, been charioted over the everlasting hills by the cherubim, escorted by flaming squadrons of the seraphim, till his steeds of fire stood still within the jasper walls of Jehovah's magnificent metropolis ; oh ! what were it all without the spirit of Christ, the temper of angels, the perfection of redeemed humanity, the chief element of the new and everlasting kingdom, the all-including and all- sustaining grace of charity? 36 PAULINE CHARITY. III. CHARITY AND ALMSGIVING. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, . . . and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. — 1 Cob. xiii. 3. To achieve one great thing, may be much easier than to accomplish many smaller things. To perform an extraordinary act one day, may be much easier than to practise ordinary duties every day. To lavish our substance upon suffering poverty, may be much easier than to watch habitually over our evil hearts and bring a rebellious will into subjection to the law of Christ. Influenced by any one of a great number of worldly or selfish considerations, the rich man may scatter his bounty over those that are beneath him as the sun scatters his beams over the face of the rejoicing earth ; and yet he may be quite incapable of subduing his passions, controlling his temper, conquering his vices, renouncing his idols, or correcting any of the errors of a careless and sinful life. Roused by some eloquent discourse or stimu- lated by some brilliant example, we are ready to challenge the most formidable difficulties, and almost to attempt the impossible ; while, perhaps, we cannot brook the slightest insult, or forgive the smallest injury ; cannot help envying one who, in the revolu- CHARITY AND ALMSGIVING. 37 tions of fortune, from a lower position has been raised above us ; cannot avoid being inflated with, our prosperity or success, as if it were purely the reward of our own merit; cannot learn to treat with be- coming courtesy our inferiors, or behave with suitable modesty and deference toward our superiors ; cannot observe a proper moderation in asserting our invaded rights and prerogatives, or in vindicating ourselves against the assaults of the slanderous tongue ; can- not cordially wish good to an enemy, treat him kindly, judge him candidly, or generously interpret an act not well understood; in short, know not how to exemplify any of the amiable and excellent qualities of that charity which, as shown in former homilies, is the very essence of Christianity, the one all-containing virtue, man's highest perfection, God's noblest image ; and of which the apostle, adding to what he has already said concerning its superiority to all supernatural endowments, thus strongly ex- presses the importance : — " And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." No duty is more constantly enjoined and more cogently enforced, in Holy Scripture than that of contributing of our abundance to the necessity of others; and cases there may be, though infrequent and extraordinary, in which we ought to be willing to part with every thing we possess for the relief of suffering indigence around us. Our blessed Lord said to the rich young ruler who came to him inquiring what he must do to inherit eternal life, "Sell that 38 PAULINE CHAEITY. thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure m heaven, and come follow me. " His wealth was his idol, and he was required to part with it all for the benefit of his needy neighbors, and make himself as poor as Christ in order to be Christ's disciple. Such were the difficulties and dangers attending the Christian life in the beginning as to render necessary the disinthralment of those who undertook it from the care and burden of worldly possessions ; and the followers of Jesus were frequently called upon to make large contri- butions to the relief of their suffering brethren de- spoiled by persecution. The faithful were often reduced to utter destitution, their goods plundered by the mob or confiscated by authority; and when thus impoverished and straitened, they had no earthly resource but the beneficence of their less unfortu- nate brethren. At Jerusalem, they sold whatever they possessed, and put the avails into a common treasury, out of which distribution was made con- tinually as every man had need. When St. Paul wrote this Epistle, they were in a suffering condi- tion, partly from persecution, and partly from the effects of a famine which prevailed throughout Ju- daea and seriously afflicted the surrounding countries. In the sixteenth chapter he thus advises his Corinth- ian brethren in regard to sending them relief: — " On the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gathering when I come; and when I come, whomsoever ye shall approve by letters, them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem ; CHAEITY AND ALMSGIVING. 39 and if it be meet that I go also, they shall go with me. " In the Second Epistle he resumes the ex- hortation, and throughout two chapters urges it by the example of their Macedonian brethren, by the commendation of their own former liberality, by the unspeakable grace of Jesus Christ toward them, the relief and comfort they might thus impart, the spiritual profit they might realize, and the glory that would redound to God. Yet here he informs them that, though they should bestow all their goods to feed the poor, without charity it should profit them nothing. A recent German writer, in a work on " Christian Beneficence in the Ancient Church, " has called the old heathen world of Greece and Rome, with all its profound philosophy and lofty culture, "a world witiiout love." 1 Without friendship, generosity, mu- tual helpfulness, and large contributions in many ways to the public welfare, certainly it was not. With open hand princes and patricians dispensed their bounty and provided popular entertainments for the multitude. On special occasions feasts were spread for hundreds of thousands, and free as water flowed the royal wine. At immense cost in all cities were erected baths, theatres, circuses, aqueducts, porticos, marble statues, monumental columns, mag- nificent triumphal arches, and other ornamental structures for the pleasure and improvement of the public. But in these vast expenditures the poor were never thought of, and bribery with its gains 1 Dr. Uhlhorn. 40 PAULINE CHAEITY. furnished a stronger motive than charity. Of charity, indeed, in the Christian sense, the Greeks and Romans knew nothing, and their most renowned sages and teachers had never conceived the idea. The Stoics talked of a common humanity and the brotherhood of the race; but in their system pride was more prominent than love, and sympathy with individual suffering was deemed an unworthy weakness. '' Old women sympathize," says Seneca; "the wise man helps the weeper, but weeps not with him." Plato's Utopia has no provision for poverty and no place for beneficence to the needy. " Even in giving," writes Lactantius, " it was not the individual that was con- sidered, but the state, the city, the body of citizens." Thus it appears that in the old pagan world there was nothing like that disinterested love which pities and rescues the poor and the perishing. God descended upon Mount Sinai, and gave his chosen people a law, the spirit of which contrasts very strongly with that of the old philosophy. It enjoins compassion for the poor, helpfulness for the weak, and sympathy for the suffering. Christ came, and reiterated the commandment with an emphasis, with amplifications and illustrations, which astonished all who heard him. He taught his disciples that in feeding the hungry they were feeding him, that in clothing the naked they were clothing him, that in receiving the stranger they were receiving him, that in visiting the prisoner they were visiting him, that in ministering to the sick and needy they were minis- tering to their Lord and Saviour. Thus he furnished a new motive to works of mercy, and a nobler than CHARITY AND ALMSGIVING. 41 the world had ever known. He established on earth a kingdom of regenerate souls, of which one of the primary principles was a tender care of the poor and the unfortunate. By his followers, from the first, a weekly offering for the relief of the needy was laid every Lord's Day upon the altar, acquiring a special sacredness from its association with the eucharistic memorial of their Redeemer's death. The faithful often fasted to feast their starving brethren, and stripped themselves to clothe their shivering nakedness. Constrained by the love of Christ, sometimes they gave away large estates, and gladly spent the rest of their days in poverty. Marciana dispensed a vast fortune in alms to the poor. Olympia, the constant friend of Chrys- ostom — young, rich, clever, beautiful, and much admired — devoted all her wealth and energies to the aid of her suffering brethren. Nonna, mother of Gregory Nazianzen, reduced herself to absolute desti- tution by her munificence to the exiled and perse- cuted ; and expiring in prayer before the altar, left nothing to her friends but the sweet savor of her name. Her daughter Gregoria inherited her mother's spirit ; and Gregory says of her, " She was eyes to the blind, feet to the • lame, and a mother to the orphan." Paula, a noble Roman lady, when remon- strated with on the profusion of her alms, replied that she desired to die a beggar and be buried in a pauper shroud. Accompanied b}^ her daughter Eus- tochia, she went to Palestine, established in Beth- lehem a house of entertainment for pilgrims, and ended her days in good works near the spot where 42 PAULINE CHARITY. her Saviour was born. Another daughter, married to the senator Pammachius, followed the maternal example ; and after her death, her husband devoted himself and his wealth to the cause of the poor, and built a hospital in Pontus, which St. Jerome calls " a twig from the terebinth of Abraham transplanted on the Ausonian shore." The first institution of this sort in Rome was founded by Fabiola, a rich widow; who often sought the sick, bore them thither herself, and ministered to them with her own hands. Paulinus, a man of high culture and vast possessions, with his wife The- resia, provided a similar asylum at Nola, to which resorted crowds from all quarters; and when all his means were exhausted, to ransom a Christian brother taken captive by the Vandals, he voluntarily took the place of the prisoner, and was carried away to Africa. At Csesarea Basilius reared a larger, equal in dimensions to a small town; having porticoed streets, lined with long ranges of buildings, diverging from a grand central church. Others arose in An- tioch, Ephesus, Edessa, Alexandria, Constantinople, wherever Christianity found a footing. St. Augus- tine calls them "new things in the world." They were the natural products of the new religion, conse- crated with the blood of the cross, and sustained chiefly from the revenues of the Church. When Italy became the hunting-ground of the Northern barbarians, and multitudes were carried off into miserable captivity, the Church spent immense sums in ransoming them and bringing them back to their native land. The redemption of two Sicilian CHARITY AND ALMSGIVING. 43 bishops cost a sum equal to thirty-five thousand dol- lars; and for about the same amount Candianus, bishop of Sergiopolis, restored to home and freedom twelve thousand persons at once. For such purposes private Christians often contributed largely ; and sometimes, when other means failed, the precious vessels of the Lord's house were sacrificed. That all this was at first the fruit of pure brotherly [, love, there can be little doubt ; but how much of it afterward was attributable to other causes acting upon this, it is not easy to determine. Certain it is, at least, that early in the fourth century the merit of almsgiving was greatly exaggerated in Christian esti- mation, and it was said that gifts to the poor pro- cured pardon, purified the soul, and opened the gates of paradise. And equally certain it is, that if any gave from such an impulse, they sought their own good in giving, not that of the receiver ; and how- ever munificent the gift, and however frequent its repetition, being void of charity, it profited them nothing. A man may bestow much with little charity, may bestow all with no charity. The motive for giving may be purely selfish, the very opposite of charity. Giving from emulation or ostentation — from fear of punishment or hope of reward — to quiet an uneasy conscience or obtain indulgence for sin — many no doubt have acquired great reputation for munificence. Very far in pecuniary liberality men may be carried by motives such as these ; and if what they do were any compensation for what they leave undone, vastly 44 PAULINE CHAHITY. profitable would it be to their souls. But the exte- rior act can never supply the place of the interior virtue. It may make friends among men, but can never secure the friendship of God. It may win the praise of the world, but can never elicit the commen- dation of Him who searcheth the heart. All the alms and tithes of the Pharisee in the parable could not obtain acceptance for his prayer, and from the temple he went down to his house unjustified. If you had at your disposal the treasures of a kingdom, and if you lavished the whole upon surrounding poverty, without charity it would profit you nothing. All this might be a mere outward show of good- ness, without any corresponding principle within. But what is the visible act to Him that looketh' upon the heart and judgeth the deed by the motive? The movement of the hand in giving, if it be not impelled by a loving heart, has no more virtue in it than the stroke of the hammer or the revolution of the wheel. The heart is the moral agent; the hand is only the physical instrument. The act of the hand is no sure index of the feeling of the heart. If the motive be wrong, how can the deed be good in the sight of God ? Or can the stream be pure that flows from a filthy source, or the fruit wholesome that grows on a poisonous tree ? Nor does the amount bestowed affect the quality of the act; for if the right motive be wanting, the largest donation must be as void of merit as the smallest, and the more one gives the greater the hypocrisy of the giving. The prince by his munificence might reduce himself to beggary, his abundance to famine, his palace to a CHARITY AND ALMSGIVING. 45 hovel, and his royal attire to a suit of rags ; nay, if you possessed them, you might give mountains of gold and continents of silver to remove or amelio- rate the sufferings of humanity — you might pour out rivers of oil at the feet of the poor, and drive forth the cattle of a thousand hills to furnish their festival; yet as a mere external act there were no moral virtue in it, and without charity it should profit you nothing. No love in the giver, nothing is really given. If a man give for glory or reward, to appease his con- science or expiate his offences, what is the motive but a selfish one? He gives for his own sake, for his own benefit, not for another's. Not to another, therefore, but to himself, the gift is made, — to his own vanity, ambition, or interest. It is a mere mockery of charity, an attempted imposition upon God and man, and often the most successful imposi- tion upon the giver. The very sin it is of Ananias and Sapphira — lying to the Holy Ghost. At the best, it can be nothing more than the picture or the statue of charity, as void of life as the dull canvas, as destitute of soul as the cold marble. And what is this short of idolatry — the very essence of idolatry? Is it not substituting something else for God — some selfish object or end? Whatever takes God's place in the heart is an idol. Any selfish good, real or imaginary, allowed to supplant God in our affections, is as much an idol as the stock or the stone worshipped by the savage. And is it possible, think you, to make amends for withholding due sacrifice from God by offering sacrifice to an idol ? 46 PAULINE CHAKITY. Is it possible to make amends for neglecting what God hath commanded by doing what he hath for- bidden? ''The wife," says Jonathan Edwards, " might as well attempt* to make amends for lack of love to her husband by loving another man and a stranger." Nay, my brethren; all such almsgiving is a cheat, a false and worthless show ; and whatever you may do to diminish the sufferings and increase the comforts of your fellow-creatures, if you have not charity it shall profit you nothing. If love, as we have shown, comprehends the whole duty of man — if that branch of love which we call charity constitutes one half of practical Christianity — then how absurd it is to suppose that any mere external act, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and housing the homeless, can supply the place of this divine principle ! If you cannot can- cel one debt by paying another, how can you cancel all by paying none ? If you cannot make the per- formance of one duty counterbalance the neglect of another, how can you make a deed which is the very opposite of duty counterbalance the neglect of all that is required of you? Is the end of the command- ment charity ? Then no mere donation of goods or money will answer its demands. Is love the fulfilling of the law ? Then the law cannot be fulfilled without love ; and he who yields whatever else the law exacts, while he is found delinquent in this one point — this supreme point — is guilty of all. God saith : — " My son, give me thy heart;" and if you give only gold and silver, food and raiment, house and shelter — though you give very freely, very frequently, very CHAKITY AND ALMSGIVING. 47 bountifully, and even impoverisli yourself by giving — your munificence will be no proper response to the requisition ; for after the utmost given, the one thing needful is withheld — the one thing most highly valued in heaven; and your liberality to the poor and the suffering is the casket without the jewel, the body without the soul, which shall profit you nothing. The Jews, according to an old authority, reckoned eight degrees of charity in almsgiving. The first was, to give, but with reluctance or regret. The sec- ond was, to give cheerfully, but not in proportion to the need of the recipient. The third was, to give pro- portionately to the need, but not without solicitation and entreaty on the part of the poor. The fourth was, to give unsought and unsolicited, but putting the gift into the hand of the receiver, and that even in the presence of others, exciting in him the painful feeling of shame. The fifth was, to give in such a way that the beneficiary should know his benefac- tor without being known of him, as those did who folded money in the corners of their cloaks that the poor as they passed might take it unperceived. The sixth was, to give knowing the objects of the giver's bounty, but remaining unknown to them, after the manner of those who conveyed their alms by some secret agency to the dwellings of the indigent, mak- ing it impossible for them to ascertain the source of their relief. The seventh was, to give both unknow- ing and unknown, like those benevolent persons who deposited their gifts privately in a place prepared for that purpose in the temple and in every synagogue 48 PAULINE CHAEITY. as you are supposed to do in the alms-boxes at the door, from which tlie most respectable poor families were regularly supplied without ostentation or obser- vation. The eighth and most meritorious of all was, to anticipate charity by preventing poverty, to help the worthy brother by satisfying the claims of his creditors, assisting him to redeem some forfeited por- tion of his inheritance, furnishing him remunerative employment, or putting him in the way of obtaining it, so that he should be able to secure an honest live- lihood without the hard necessity of holding out an empty hand to the rich.^ These were the eight steps in their golden stairway of charity, but the highest of them does not rise to the level of the Pauline platform ; for a man might give all his goods to feed the poor, and yet have no charity ; and wanting this, his utmost alms, showered from the top of the ideal stairs, shall profit him nothing. Here, then, is the great question for us all. We could not ask a more practical or a more important. Let us consider it carefully and answer it honestly. Have we charity ? Do we indeed love one another with a pure heart fervently ? Do we furnish to the world this divinest evidence of our following and our fellowship with Christ ? Who lives for others as for himself? Who esteems it a blessed privilege to labor for their good, to suffer for their comfort, to sacrifice himself for their salvation ? Who makes it his habitual endeavor to shed blessings on all around him, rendering their homes brighter, their hearts 1 Maimonides. CHARITY AND ALMSGIVING. 49 purer, their lives happier, and their eternal well-being sure ? This is the spirit of Jesus, and the charity of his great Apostle. Oh that it may transfuse and consecrate us all ! What angels of mercy would it make of us among our sinful and suffering fellow- men ! How would it sweeten every bitter draught, and lighten every heavy load, and brighten every gloomy vale, and fill our whole being with peace and joy ineffable ! Believe me, dear brethren ! love is the blessed life, the only real blessedness this side the gates of heaven. The world passeth away, and soon all that now delights and deludes its votaries shall be as a dream when one awaketh ; but charity abideth, a fountain that never fails, a light that no storm can extinguish, an angel guide through all our mortal pilgrimage, forsaking us not at the dark river of death, but leading us still onward and upward to our mansions in the city of the Great King. What- ever else you esteem and honor in others, or desire and pursue for yourselves — whatever else is lovely in sentiment, lofty in principle, or praiseworthy in devotion — whatever else may beautify character, elevate intellect, ennoble humanity, attract public confidence, and sweeten the relations of social life — after having commended all in the strongest language and urged it upon your practice with the utmost elo- quence, the preacher may point to the apostolic por- traiture of the supreme virtue and say : " If you have not charity, it shall profit you nothing ! " 50 PAULINE CHAEITY. IV. CHARITY AND MARTYRDOM. And though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. — 1 Cor. xiii. 3. Men ordinarily make much of their doings, but more of their sufferings. To peril life for one's coun- try, is deemed a noble and magnanimous thing. To submit to pain and death for the rescue of a dearest friend in danger, is regarded as the very acme of the moral sublime. But, for the honor of Christ, the interest of his kingdom on earth, and the salvation of souls ransomed by his blood, to yield one's self up to devouring flames — the most terrible mode of death ever devised by human cruelty — immeasurably transcends all other forms of mere physical self-sac- rifice of which disinterested devotion among men is capable. When the Christian has given all his goods, what else has he to give but his life ? Yet the act of martyrdom, wanting the martyr's spirit, may come short of the martyr's reward. Unquestionably, there may be great suffering, as well as much giving, without any charity; as the battle-fields of the world bear witness, and the self- imposed penances and habitual austerities of clois- CHARITY AND MAKTYRDOM. 51 tered monks and caverned hermits testify. Rare indeed are the instances in which men have yielded themselves up to imprisonment, torture and death, from pure disinterested love to their fellow-men; though they have sometimes done so from patriotic motives, from the desire of freedom and the dread of oppression, from the impulse of a noble friendship or the strength of domestic instincts; oftener per- haps from the force of mere natural courage or bru- tish obstinacy, connected with a low estimate of life and an irrational desire of notoriety ; in many cases, from nothing better than national animosity, politi- cal malice, and partisan revenge ; in many others, from the fury of religious fanaticism, from the blind bigotry of sectarian championship, from a rash and reckless zeal for traditions unworthy of trust, ecclesi- astical customs unauthorized by Christian antiquity, or the mere formalities of godliness unaccompanied by the principle and the power. And instances there are on record, in which men have suffered as mar- tyrs, ostensibly in the cause of Christianity, without any thing like that Christian charity which is so essential to the Christian spirit. The earliest of our ecclesiastical historians tells of one who, condemned to death for his faith, was led forth to the fiery ordeal ; when a deeply offending brother, who from dread of the flames had rashly abjured his Saviour, touched now with penitence for his fault, and ready to share the martyr's fate, came and fell down at his feet, with many tears imploring his pardon, and conjuring him by the love of Jesus to be reconciled to him before his death ; but the dying 52 PAULINE CHARITY. champion for Christ withheld the solicited absolution, and showed no sign of compassion for his broken- hearted brother.^ Can any one imagine that, in a case like this, the tortures endured, or the fortitude that endured them, or the zeal that led to their endur- ance, or the love of Christ that shone so brightly in the devouring flames, could be accepted of God as a perfect and well-pleasing sacrifice, when the victim was so sadly wanting in love to the contrite delin- quent at his feet? Such an instance of heroic endurance might result from that self-righteousness which substitutes its own sufferings for those of the Redeemer, or from that fierce desire of fame which dares to snatch the martyr's crown from out the fire ; but, in the one case or the other, it has nothing of the Christian temper, and cannot reasonably hope to obtain the Christian reward ; especially, if there be manifest with it that cruel implacability, that merci- less hardness of heart, which seems more suitable to a fiend in the flames of hell than to a saint in the flames of martyrdom. " Do we not see many persons," says one of the most famous of French preachers, " devoted martyrs of penance and self-mortification, who are neverthe- less most lively in their resentments and animosities ? Let us apply this, and say to ourselves : — Though I may pass all my life in prayer and other holy exer- cises, though I should immolate myself as a victim upon the altar of God, yet all my labors, devotions, austerities, and self-sacrifices, would be useless with- out charity. Great lesson for us, and suited to make * Eusebius. CHARITY AND MARTYRDOM. 53 thousands tremble, both in the world and in the Church, who, suffering to excess in other points of morals and self-discipline, live very loosely, or rather give themselves great license, with regard to charity ! " ^ In the mere sufferings of his creatures, God takes no pleasure. It is the spirit in which they suffer, the meek endurance, the sustaining charity, that renders the sacrifice acceptable in his sight. By their pain and death he is neither profited nor glorified; nor hath he in these any pleasure or complacency, except only in so far as they are expressive of noble and magnanimous principles. What value can he set upon the death of a Guiteau, or upon the tortures endured by Balthazar Gerard, the assassin of William of Orange ? In such cases the motive is wrong, and the spirit evinced is the very opposite of love. We may sometimes need that others should suffer for our good, but with God there can be no such necessity. Independent of men and angels, his blessedness is perfect, and his glory is infinite ; and from no earthly or heavenly sacrifice can possibl}^ issue any improve- ment of the one, or any additional revenue of the other. Not suffering, but charity, is his comprehen- sive requirement ; and however intense or continued, no amount of suffering can supply the place of charity. Apart from the motive which prompts the endur- ance, the utmost that we can endure is nothing. In suffering, as in giving, a man may be entirel}^ selfish. His suffering, like his giving, may be mere hypocris}'- J Bourdaloue, 54 PAULINE CHARITY. and idolatry. He may consent to bear the severest tortures from others, or may even inflict the severest tortures upon himself, merely to appease an angry conscience, to win the rewards of virtue, or make an immortal name ; but if so, he suffers for himself, and his suffering is no act of charity. On the other hand, charity is perpetual martyrdom — in will, if not in deed; charity is a constant readiness to surrender every thing — even life itself if necessary — for the benefit of the brethren and the rescue of ruined souls. Such a spirit sanctifies all suffering; and even when there is nothing suffered, constitutes in itself a sacrifice well-pleasing to God. Had you a thousand bodies to give, and gave them all to be burned, with- out charity it would profit you nothing. In the " Te Deum Laudamus " we sing of " the noble army of martyrs." Could we see the fire- crowned host, in their heavenly panoply, following the Captain of their salvation, as they march through trial to triumph, how much might we find to admire and imitate in the love that gave such power of meek endurance and heroic fortitude as made them more than conquerors ! There falls the head of the holy Baptist at the feet of a dancing damsel. There kneels St. Stephen beneath a shower of stones, and dies praying for his murderers. There plunges St. James from a lofty parapet, to be brained by a full- er's club below. There hangs St. Andrew on a cross shaped like the letter X for the more exquisite tor- ture of its victim. There marches St. Peter from the Mamertine Prison across the Tiber, to his cruci- CHAEITY AND MARTYRDOM. 55 fixion head downward on the Montorio. There passes St. Paul through the Ostian Gate along the Ostian Way, a noble sacrifice, "now ready to be offered." There sails St. John toward the dreary isle of Patmos, bearing into exile a life so charmed with love, that the deadly chalice could not quench it, nor the bath of boiling oil dissolve it. There goes the brave Ignatius, carrying the Crucified in his heart, caressing his chains and calling them • his jewels, to meet the lions in the Flavian Amphitheatre. There stands the aged Polycarp unbound in the flames, chanting his " Gloria in Excelsis " with as much exultation as if the element of his torture were the horses and chariot of Elijah returned for another passenger. But the time would fail me to tell of Linus, roast- ed by a slow fire — of Lawrence, broiled like a fish upon a gridiron — of Irenseus, heading a column of eighteen thousand martyrs in Gaul — of Pothinus, a hundred years old, starving amidst the stifling filth and darkness of his dungeon — of Sanctus, answering every demand of his judges with his Christianus sum, and maintaining the same good confession at the stake till his power of utterance is gone — of Stephen and Amnianati, cut down by the sword of imperial ven- geance while celebrating with their brethren the com- memorative feast of redeeming love in the sunless crypts of the catacombs — of Perpetua and Blandina, the one enclosed in a net to be tossed and gored by a wild buffalo, the other encouraging her little brother to faith and fortitude while enduring herself every indignity that hate and cruelty could suggest, before 56 PAULINE CHARITY. the final stroke releases both from the tormentors — of Origen and Chrysostom, with many thousands more, of whom the world was not worthy, driven into exile, wandering in desert solitudes, perishing of ex- posure and famine, falling a prey to ravenous beasts, hunted like partridges among the mountains, walled up to sufi'ocate or starve in the caverns where they have taken refuge — whole congregations of men, women, and little children, burned in the churches where they have assembled for worship — others sewed up in sacks with fierce and venomous creatures, and cast into the sea — others enveloped with bear-skins, to be torn by savage dogs for the amusement of more savage men — others wrapped in cotton and smeared with pitch, to be ignited as torches for illuminating the nightly revels of Nero with the Roman popu- lace. And, but for the holy faith and charity which sus- tained them, how wretched had been the lives of those who in time of persecution betook themselves to the dismal catacombs, where they could enjoy freedom of worship — where they labored, and suf- fered, and died — where their children were born and baptized, married and buried, many of them, without ever seeing the open sunlight, or breathing the free air of heaven ! The tourist of to-day, as he threads those narrow labyrinthian passages, sees three tiers of tombs — sometimes four or five — in the walls on either hand, where myriads of saints sleep in Jesus awaiting the blessed resurrection. In some of these subterranean cemeteries, especially that of Sant' Alessandro, where the graves have been opened, are CHAEITY AND MARTYRDOM. 57 beheld skeletons and fragments of human forms lying just as they were placed here by living friends so many centuries ago, with the little amphorce of solidi- fied blood, the Christian monograms and sacramental symbols, and the precious records of faith and hope rudely engraved upon rough slabs of stone. One of these inscriptions informs us of a stranger, perchance from Jerusalem or Antioch, who had come to visit his Roman brethren; and, being accused of Chris- tianity, magnanimously confessed the fact, and hero- ically suffered for the faith. Another, after a some- what similar notice, concludes with these touching words : " O miserable days ! when we can no longer worship the Lord securely even in caverns, and dying enjoy not the hope of burial by our friends ! " Martyrs without charity, think you, were these? Nay, it was the love of Christ and those who called him Lord, that thus surrendered all, even life itself, with songs of joy and praise. It was the great love of humanity perishing in ignorance of its redemption^ that led them, as in triumphal procession, garlanded and applauded, to the dungeon, to torture, and to death. This divine unity of spirit it was, this holy fellowship of kindred souls, this sublime sympathy with all that is pure and good, this self-sacrificing compassion for those who were living and dying in their sins, that gave Paul and Silas a hymn at mid- night in the Philippian jail, made Perpetua prefer a prison to a prsetorian palace, and prompted Cyprian when condemned to the block to exclaim — " God be praised ! " Wanting charity, all their heroic endur- ance had profited them nothing. 58 PAULINE CHARITY. Sufferings such as those of the early Christians for righteousness' sake none of us have ever known, nor to the superficial observer does it seem very likely that any of us will ever be called to these sad expe- riences. To-day we see not the bride of Christ and mother of saints weeping in sackcloth and ashes at the graves of her slaughtered children; nor fear, either for ourselves or for our offspring, proscription or confiscation, prison or exile, the rack or the burn- ing. No imperial city rings to-day with the shout of a bloodthirsty populace — " Christiani ad leones ! " nor huge Coliseum roars with the wild applause of eighty- five thousand murderers, under the gloating smiles of a diademmed Domitian or Maxentius, at seeing the lambs of the Good Shepherd, " Impurpled in tlie flood Of their victorious blood," gladly yielding up their lives for Him who loved them unto the death. A little scorn or contempt, a few silly reproaches or senseless calumnies, here and there the pointless sarcasm of some brainless unbeliever, or the abortive malediction of a Balaam whom his very beast rebukes — these are about all we now know of persecution for the love of Christ and his kingdom. To a feeble faith, however, some of these things may be more difficult of endurance than the severest forms of martyrdom; and many a gentle and tender spirit that would, if called to the test, have sprung to pluck the prize from the flames, has quailed at the scoff of the sceptic or yielded to the solicirtations of the tempter. But days of distress and tribulation CHABITY AND MARTYRDOM. 59 there yet may come to the Church, equal to the worst of which I have spoken. The times are ominous, and none but He who knoweth the hearts of men and seeth the end from the beginning can certainly foretell the future.^ The volcanic mountain, quiescent for many centu- ries, may be clothed with stately forests and fruitful vineyards ; but those who dwell about its base some- times hear prophetic mutterings and feel premoni- tory tremors, betokening the presence of baleful forces within, which shall some day shatter the solid strata above them, and flood the fair campagna for many a league with lava. Under the surface of society throughout the civilized world, are now at work elements hostile to all religion and morality, as well as to all orderly government and intellectual culture — agencies which seem waiting only for opportunity and competent leadership, to produce a convulsion that shall rock to ruin whatever is most precious and conservative in your Christian institutions. Let communism, socialism, nihilism, spiritualism, agnostic atheism, science without a Saviour, speculative phi- losophy without a personal God, have free course for a few years ; and we shall see guillotines erected at our church-doors, and flames bursting forth beneath our pulpits and altars. Unless God arise and plead his own cause, these hills and vales may yet redden with the blood of martyrs, and some of you who now hear me may be called to testify for Jesus at the tribu- nal, in the dungeon, and on the scaffold. Who is ready for the ordeal ? Where is the love 1 Dr. Arnold. 60 PAULINE CHAKITY. that shall bear our Israel triumphant through the Red Sea ? Nothing will stand the test but Pauline charity. That is inyincible because it is divine. That must be victorious, for it is the mind that was in Christ. It can give Daniel better company in the den of lions, than he ever found at the court of Darius ; and furnish his three heroic Hebrew brethren far more delightful fellowship in the fiery furnace, than any of their enemies enjoy among all the assem- bled thousands on the plain of Dura. Charity is sweeter than life and stronger than death; and to suffer with the Prince of sufferers, and like him to be made perfect through suffering, is an honor for which kings might cast away their crowns, and all the votaries of the world abandon the deities of their idolatry. For proof and purification the gold must be submitted to the fire ; and the discipline of sorrow is necessary to the development and perfection of Christian character. " God's nightingales have ever learned to sing Pressing the bosom on some secret thorn." Well may we rejoice in those tribulations which are the pledges and preparatives of future blessed- ness. Well may we bear up bravely under the light and momentary affliction which worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Where- fore, "beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you : but rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." CHAEITY AND JMAETYEDOM. 61 " Suffering, when it weighs severely, Stamps the Saviour's image clearly On the hearts of all his friends ; In the form his hands have moulded, Is a higher life unfolded, Through the suffering which he sends. Suffering curbs the wayward passions. Childlike tempers in us fashions, And the will to his subdues ; Thus his touch, so soft and healing. Each disordered power and feeling By a blessed change renews. Suffering keeps the thoughts compacted, That the soul be not distracted By the world's beguiling art ; 'Tis like some angelic warder, Ever keeping sacred order In the chambers of the heart. Suffering tunes the heart's emotion To eternity's devotion. And awakes a warm desire For the land where psalms are ringing. And with palms the martyrs singing Sweetly to the harpers' choir." Hail, heroic spirits ! who, having finished your course with joy and nobly won your crowns, are now resting in hope of a glorious coronation with your King ! As from your lofty bowers in paradise you look back upon the steep and rugged path along which with bleeding feet we toil after you through the brier and the thorn, how does the mem- ory of past sorrows sweeten the thrills of your pres- 62 PAULINE CHARITY. ent bliss, and every trial recalled swell the loud song of your triumph ! But let us not deceive ourselves, my dear brethren. Even martyrdom, as well as miraculous endowments and the utmost profusion of alrasdeeds, profiteth nothing without charity. Let us learn to distinguish what is essential in religion from what is merely extraneous and auxiliary. Apostolic endowments, munificent donations, and corporeal sufferings, are neither elements of religion nor infallible signs of grace ; and all may be found where there is no pure faith, nor right spirit, nor conscious pardon, nor re- newal of the inner man after the image of God. A loving heart is worth more in the sight of Heaven than all the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost enjoyed by the church of Corinth ; and the meek- ness and gentleness of Jesus Christ — the all-endur- ing, all-sustaining, all-forgiving temper so sweetly described and strongly commended by St. Paul — is more pleasing to the Lord than the treasures of an empire distributed in alms among the poor, and rightly esteemed a more glorious sacrifice than the bodies of a thousand saints devoted to the flames of martyrdom. At the very best, these external things are only the expressions, the auxiliaries, and befit- ting accompaniments, of the holy and heavenly prin- ciple of which we are discoursing. Let us not rest in them for salvation, nor in any thing else external to the spirit of true religion ; but see that we possess that love to God and man which constitutes the very essence and sum-total of practical Christianity — CHAEITY AND MAETYKDOM. 63 the copy of tlie mind of Christ — the seed of life eternal — without which all our privileges, perform- ances and self-sacrifices, however great in human esteem, will leave us in a state of spiritual death and hopeless moral ruin. In short, dearly beloved brethren, let us carry home in our hearts these awful words of a wise man inspired of God, and meditate on them when we sit in our houses and when we walk by the way, when we lie down at night and when we rise with the morning, in the busy occupa- tions of the day and the solemn stillness of the night-watches, in the ensnaring intercourse of socie- t}^ and the sacred solitude of devotion : — " Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal; and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge ; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing ; and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." 64 PAULINE CHARITY. CHARITY LONG-SUFFERING. Charity suffereth long. — 1 Cob. xiii. 4. Pliny, a Roman writer of the first century, an avowed enemy of Christianity, says: — "I esteem him the best among good men, who forgives faults as though he were daily guilty himself, yet abstains from faults as though he never forgave any." Whence did a heathen derive such a sentiment? Perhaps from the very religion which he affected to despise. No mere human philosophy ever inculcated a doctrine so divine. The wisdom of Greece and Rome looked upon meekness as meanness of spirit, regarded forgiveness of injuries as a culpable weak- ness, and maintained the justness of resentment and the virtuousness of revenge. Spontaneous dictates of the natural heart are these, and higher the natu- ral heart has never risen. Seeing and feeling the difficulty of meeting the requirements of the Law on this subject, the Jewish teachers lowered the standard by a false interpreta- tion of the precept, and made the word of God of none effect by their traditions. The Law said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" the rabbi said, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate CHABITY LONG-SUFFEEING. 65 thine enemy." Christ restored the standard by re- iterating and amplifying the command, and insisting upon its strict construction, while he exposed the folly and absurdity of its rabbinical glosses. " But I say unto you. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use and persecute you." Of all the Christian requirements, this is confess- edly the most difficult of observance,. Our pride opposes it. Our selfishness objects to it. All the feelings of the natural man rise up against it. Its spirit is quite incompatible with the prevalent max- ims and current customs of the world. No one, not created anew in Christ Jesus and led by the Spirit of God, is competent to its performance. The pro- foundest sages of pagan antiquity, deeming it utterly impracticable, would have laughed such a precept to scorn. And now, even in Christian communities, and among those who have been baptized into the new life, few comparatively obey the blessed man- date ; while the great mass, and many who profess to follow the meek and merciful Saviour, live in the habitual indulgence of the malevolent and revenge- ful passions.^ "The Golden Rule is altered," says an English writer, " and it is deemed right to do unto others as they do to us. Only in the more violent measures is the retaliation of wrong condemned and disallowed ; while private animosities, personal ren- contres, and the most dishonorable affairs of honor, if they do not too seriously impair the peace and good order of society, are tolerated, justified and 1 Leighton. 66 PAULINE CHARITY. applauded. Often, indeed, assassins are character^ ized as chivalrous gentlemen, and murderers are canonized as men of noble and magnanimous princi- ples ; wliile he who, from sympathy with God's incar- nate charity, disdains to resent a wrong, or declines a challenge to mortal combat, is looked upon as a poor craven-spirited wretch, unworthy of association with these saints of the world's calendar." ^ How different is all this from the doctrine of St. Paul ! " Charity suffereth long " — literally, hath a long mind — that is, a loving spirit, which outlasts all its injuries, and overmeasures all the malice of its enemies. Long-suffering is that mild and merciful temper, which is opposed to resentment and re- venge; which, so far from retaliating, generously overlooks or excuses the fault, and pardons and still loves the offender. Charity grieves, but does not hate. She rebukes, but does not denounce. She seeks to avert the evil, but not to avenge the in- jured. She remonstrates earnestly with the adver- sary, but in no angry mood, and with no reproachful words. She pities him for his unhappiness, and would fain save him from the consequences of his error, and prevent the mischief he has originated from falling upon his own head. Charity has spirit, but no asperity ; ardor, but no acrimony. No mali- cious feeling can the charitable man cherish ; no malevolent design can he indulge. Amidst all trials and persecutions, he maintains a calm and unruffled temper. He bears, not a few wrongs, but many ; 1 John Acgell James. CHAEITZ LONG-SUFFERING. 67 and forgives, not seven times, but seventy times seven. However long the evil may last, his love outlasts the evil — it never wearies. Until the necessity becomes extreme, he resorts to no meas- ures even for his own vindication, lest by so doing he should injure the offender. Rather than bring evil upon another, though that evil were the just reward of the other's misdoing, he prefers to suffer in silence, and leave all judgment to Him who claims the supreme prerogative of vengeance.^ Such is the long-suffering of charity. For the exercise of this amiable disposition, every Christian must have frequent occasion. The world is full of selfishness, and selfishness is the source of all unkind feelings and unfriendly actions, and the very best of men is exposed to a thousand inju- ries and provocations from his fellow-men. Where is the saint — in what age or what land did he live — that never suffered from unkindness or jealousy, from suspicion or censoriousness, from cold neglect or dishonest dealing, from the infirmity of a friend or the malice of an enemy, from the arrogance of those above him or the envy of those beneath him, from the furious rage of an angry spirit or the insid- ious poison of a detractive tongue ? And who can hope for exemption from those lesser annoyances, intentional or unintentional, which result from in- congruities of taste and diversities of custom, and like a continual dropping wear away the heart — the rough manners, the hasty speeches, the little dis- 1 Jolrn Wesley. 68 PAULINE CHAKITr. courtesies, tlie inconsiderate judgments, the unrea- sonable surmises, the accidental misunderstandings, the occasional collision of opinions, the irreconcilable views of religious truth, the frequent levities of trivial or humorous discourse, and the thousand petty forms of selfishness everywhere encountered in the social intercourse of mankind ? ^ " The discretion of a man," saith Solomon, " defer- reth his anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression." And the apostle of a greater than Solomon saith: — "Recompense to no man evil for evil; if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with allmen ; avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto WTath ; be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Precepts these, though difficult of observance, quite easy of interpre- tation; simply forbidding the retaliation of wrong, and enjoining benefit in return for injury. But the act, of course, presupposes the feeling. The heart must be the prompter, and love must be with- out dissimulation. No counterfeit affection will suffice for the duty. You have to subdue your euemy by making his own conscience your ally ; to ashame him out of his sin by bringing your love into contrast with his hatred, and forcing him to admire your temper while he cannot help abhorring his own. This is Christian revenge. Thus you turn your face to the foe, and wither him into repentance at your feet. By rendering good for evil, you heap coals of fire on his head, which can scarcely fail to melt away the icy incrustation of a selfish heart. 1 Leighton. CHARITY LONG-SUFFERING. 69 But there is no lieat in painted flame. No human philosophy, nor artificial control of temper, were adequate to such a conquest. It needs the reno- vating and purifying grace of God, the implantation by the Holy Spirit of a new and heavenly principle. The natural heart can never transcend its natural impulses. The wrong within must be righted. The root of bitterness must be eradicated. • Christ must come into the heart, and every thing must submit to his gentle rule. You must welcome him as your King, commune with him as your Friend ; and, sit- ting daily at his feet, and lying frequently in his bosom, must become partaker of his nature, and learn to love like him. Then the work will be easy, the duty delightful, and long-suffering its own reward.^ Few words are less understood, though scarcely any is more common, than the term "revenge." By most people, nothing is deemed deserving of that name, short of malicious and violent assault upon person, property, or character, in return for some injury suffered by the assailant. But are there not a thousand petty acts of spite and ill-will, which fall as properly under this designation as the most fla- grant deeds of wrathful retaliation? If I refuse to speak to my offending brother, but pass him by in silent scorn, is it not revenge ? If I take pleasure in talking of his faults and infirmities, and delight in depreciating his character and abilities in the esteem of others, is it not revenge ? If I watch for oppor- 1 Frederick Faber. 70 PAULINE CHARITY. tunities to annoy him, rejoice in having caused him any inconvenience or pain, or cherish on his account any unkind feelings toward his family or his friends, is it not revenge ? Revenge is rendering evil for evil, and delighting in doiog so.; and the guilt of the act is determined, not by the amount of the mischief done, but by the motive that prompts the measure. If it proceed from ill-will and aim at injury, though the actual evil resulting be very slight or none at all, is it not the very opposite of that religion whose Author is the incarnation of mercy and whose gos- pel originated in love to' his enemies? Revenge is the temper of hell, and the Furies shriek in its train. It has turned men into tigers, and women into fiends; has crimsoned the earth with blood, and burdened the air with wailing and lamentation. Nothing can be more hostile to the spirit of Chris- tianity ; and one has well said, that " revenge is a word which the Christian ought to blot out of his vocabulary with his own penitential tears, or with the drops of his gratitude for the pardon he has received from God." " But may I not defend my person, property, or reputation, from the malicious assault of an enemy ? " With certain restrictions and qualifications, unques- tionably you may. Is your person in danger from ruffian violence? Then resistance is not revenge,, but lawful self-preservation. Is your property in peril from fraud or dishonest dealing ? Then, with- out any infringement of the law of love, you may resort to disinterested mediation, or even seek legal redress. Is your reputation wounded by the wanton CHAKITY LONG-SUFFEHING. 71 tongue of gossip or the deadly venom of calumny? Then, from a variety of measures involving no viola- tion of the rules laid down by our blessed Lord and his holy apostles, you may select the means of self- protection, or of reparation for the injury you have already sustained. But in every instance you are bound to suppress all unkind feelings, to restrain all wrathful ebullitions, and refrain from all retaliatory demonstrations ; and that, not from pride or policy, but because you love the offender as you love yourself. Weakness endures injuries because revenge is im- practicable. Prudence endures injuries because re- venge is impolitic. Pride endures injuries because revenge is undignified. In such instances, however, the desire of revenge still rankles in the heart; and nothing is wanting in order to its gratification, but present power, prospective impunity, and indem- nity against disgrace. Charity eradicates the very wish, and melts the heart in sweet compassion over the erring brother. Innumerable minor offences, it passes by unnoticed, or with only a sigh for the offender ; and those which require confession, retrac- tion, or reparation, it treats with the most courteous consideration and the most delicate tenderness. It kindly opens the way for explanation, and makes apology an easy matter. No imperious demands does it put forth, no needless menaces of prosecution and punishment ; but sweetly invites to conference, and gently wins to penitence and reparation. Thus the spark is. quenched before it kindles into flame, setting on fire of hell the whole course of nature. But if you suffer your feelings to get the better of your reason 72 PAULINE CHARITY. and your conscience ; if you become incensed against your brother, and disregard all the milder remedies of love ; if like Achilles you retire in disgust from the field, to nurse your sullen wi-ath in secret and meditate revenge; then is your spirit not that of the meek and lowly in heart, then is your temper the very reverse of that charity which suffereth long. How calm and peaceful the soul that entertains this heavenly guest ! and how ought its influence to harmonize the whole Christian community ! The members of a parish may differ no little in natural endowments, in intellectual culture, in social position, in political preferences, in all matters of mere taste and opinion, and even in the minor points of religious belief and ceremonial ; but whatever their differences, if charity rules their hearts, there will be such candor, and ingenuousness, and kind consideration, and mu- tual forbearance and condescension — such love of truth, and such yielding to conviction, and such care- ful avoidance of offences, and such scriptural allow- ance for infirmities, and such honesty and simplicity of purpose, and such opportunity of cool reflection and calm discussion, and such readiness for the Christian adjustment of all accidental disagreements that may arise — as cannot fail to render all bitterness and contention alien to the society, and bind the whole brotherhood together in the sweetest and strongest sympathy. In such a community, few hasty words will be spoken, fewer reported, and none delighted in; no disingenuous insinuations indulged, no mali- cious aspersions of character, nor wanton exaggera- CHARITY LONG-SUFFERING. 73 tions of faults and infirmities.^ Zeal will not be wanting ; but it will be zeal for truth and righteous- ness. Knowledge will not be wanting ; but it will be knowledge sanctified to purposes of edification. Wisdom will not be wanting ; but it will be wisdom from above, and as peaceable as it is pure. Power will not be wanting ; but it will be power directed by benevolence, and seeking the comfort and pros- perity of the whole body. There will be much lib- erty of opinion ; for meekness is very tolerant, and gentleness is very indulgent; and within the great outlines of the Christian faith, there is room for varie- ty without heresy. And there will be much patience toward the perverse and intractable, and much for- bearance with those who are ignorant and out of the way, and much sweetly persuasive effort to lead them back to the path of truth and duty. And the con- stant interchange of kindly offices and friendly min- istries, with calm content, and holy contemplation, and scenes of eucharistic fellowship, and the heaven- ward soarings of hope, and the pervading influence of an untroubled joy, will make th% parish a para- dise, teeming with all things beautiful, inviting celes- tial converse, never visited with rude and disastrous storms, and no basilisk lurking among the roses. And what power of usefulness would there be in such a parish ! what victory over the world, and the various forms of evil with which the world abounds ! For the more command men acquire over themselves, the more influence they are capable of exercising over others ; and the more gentle they are in spirit, 1 Edward Irving. 74 PAULINE CHAEITY. the more energetic and efficient they are found' in action. And from such men, if they are intellectual, streams of sanctified thought will flow forth in dis- course and written books, like the living waters in the prophet's vision ; and if they are fond of enter- prise, heroic achievements in the cause of Christ, and movements of philanthropy quite new and un- expected, confounding all the prudential calculations of worldly expediency, will reveal themselves like the angelic forms in the pilgrim-patriarch's dream ; and if God hath granted them riches, sheltering arms will be thrown around the friendless and homeless, missionary establishments will spring up in neglected neighborhoods, the gospel will be carried to the houses of the humble poor, famishing souls will bless the hand that breaks to them the bread of life, and the sound of Christian footsteps on the garret-stairs will quicken with joy the pulsations of hearts that are growing still in death. For the long-suffering of charity is not feebleness, nor cowardice, nor indiffer- ence, nor indeciswn, nor imbecility ; but a principle perfectly consonant with the largest mental endow- ments, with the loftiest aims and the noblest endeav- ors, with great freedom of speech, and firmness of purpose, and unwearied perseverance in well-doing ; while it is totally oj)posed to all those temporizing expedients so common among men of the world, and to the vacillating policy and inconstant endeavors so often characteristic of secular associations.^ Christ is our example of long-suffering charity ; yet witness how he clears his Father's temple of the sacrilegious 1 Bishop Wilberfoice. CHAEITY LONG-SUFFERING. 75 throng, and rebukes the wickedness of the scribes and Pharisees — rulers of the religions ascendant in his day ! And how uncompromising with sin, schism, heresy, apostasy, infidelity, and every anti-Christian spirit, were his meek and lowly followers in the primitive times of the Church! It is the depth of the river, not its shallowness, that makes it so smooth and gentle in its flow; and the mountain stream, which in the drought of summer went brawling from rock to rock and from pool to pool, with a thousand disturbances of its surface and misdirections of its course, now, when the autumn rains have fallen, or the winter snows have melted, and tributary torrents have swollen it to full flood, glides with an evenness and beauty between its green banks, with a placid- ity of strength and a unity of might which, while pleasant to behold, is terrible to withstand. Even so charity, subordinating all the feelings and faculties of the soul to one divine impulse, and consecrating all to one holy and benevolent purpose, flows on with a mild and gentle majesty, undisturbed by the rude speeches and unkind actions of erring or wicked men, and never diverted from its aim by the annoy- ing accidents of society, straight forward to the vast ocean of blessed being, its destined union with God in Christ, and all that is great and good and happy in the universe. The tranquil meekness of charity, therefore, is perfectly consistent with true grandeur of soul, and of all true grandeur of soul is itself an essential element ; even as the most perfect harmony consists with the mightiest tones in music, and the nicest cultivation of plants contributes to their most 76 PAUUNE CHARITY. stately forms and most luxuriant fruitfulness, and the careful discipline of domestic animals results in the de- velopment of superior stature, with more strength of muscle, and greater fleetness of course, and whatever else belongs to the utmost perfection of their nature.^ In conclusion, therefore, beloved brethren, I hearti- ly commend to your most earnest attention the state- ment on which I have now discoursed. It will do for a domestic motto, or a maxim in business. The lawyer needs it at the bar, the witness upon the stand, the juror in the box, and the judge upon the bench. The statesman wants it in the senate, the general in the field, the mechanic in his shop, the farmer at his plough, the merchant with his customers, the pro- fessor with his pupils, the master with his servants, and the pastor with his flock. Let ladies have it printed upon their visiting-cards, students write it upon the fly-leaves of their text-books, and every occupation and profession emblazon it in their public advertisements. Think of it when you go forth in the morning to encounter the thousand unknown provocations that await you ; and recall it when you return in the evening, weary and jaded in spirit with the annoyances and vexations of the day ; and when you lie down to your needed rest, let it mingle with your last waking thoughts, and flow like an angel melody into the dreams of the night. Inscribe it upon the doors of your dwellings ; record it upon the walls of your churches ; engrave it upon the living tables of your hearts : " Charity suffereth long." 1 living's Last Days. CHAKITY BENIGNANT. 77 VI. CHARITY BENIGNANl Charity is kind. — 1 Cor. xiii. 4. Love is a fair tree, having two great branches ; one of which rises directly toward the Creator, while the other reaches forth on all sides toward the creature ; each sustaining its several minor ramifications, with their respective foliage, flowers, and fruits; and both together constituting the per- fect tree of life, the entire substance of practical Christianity, the whole duty of man. In these homilies we are occupied only with the latter — charity; and the particular attribute of it to which I now ask your attention is benignity ; not the benignity of unregenerate and unsanctified nature, but the benignity of the new creation in Christ Jesus ; that cordial good-will which the Holy Spirit of God produces in those whom he renovates and purifies by his grace, not toward the Christian brotherhood of the baptized exclusively, nor merely toward the larger fraternity of mankind in general, but toward the whole vast family of the , infinite Father, through all its orders and gradations, from the mightiest archangel to the minutest insect. "Charity is kind" — literally, full of goodness. 78 PAULINE CHARITY. She is courteous and obliging, gentle and conde- scending, tender-hearted and compassionate, mildly persuasive to the erring, warmly sympathetic to the suffering, sweetly affectionate and generously self- sacrificing to all. "And what is most wonderful," says a French author before quoted, "is that she inspires with the same spirit those who are naturally of a rude, sour, savage, and altogether impracticable temper. Whence it comes, that according to the world even, there are no persons more gentle and sociable, more civil and accommodating, as far as it is permitted by the law of God, than those who are truly virtuous and devout. And if, on the contrary, one sees in them a peevish and irritable disposition ; if one finds them cold, stern, and inaccessible, rough and barbarous in their manners ; it is to themselves, to their own fallen and corrupt nature, and not to devotion, that the fault must be attributed. For true devotion is charitable; and what the world does from a profane spirit, charity does from a Christian spirit; which is, to soften the manners, and to polish them."^ Who among you all, in his intercourse with man- kind, has not often encountered a rigid and uncom- promising disposition, which consults nothing but its own selfish and capricious humor, and never yields at all to the taste or the convenience of others — walking with arms akimbo through the crowd, or with dangeous weapons in both hands, annoying or injuring all with whom it comes in contact? Of 1 Bourdaloue. CHAEITY BENIGNANT. 79 this uncompliant and unaccommodating spirit, char- ity is the very reverse ; as far as it honestly and innocently can, adapting itself to the manners and customs of its neighbors, and not willingly grieving or wantonly offending them even in the smallest matters. In things lawful and things indifferent, it bends to the partialities and predilections of others, studying to please all for their good to edification. It would not needlessly crush the wing of an insect, much less inflict upon a rational and immortal being an evil remediless and everlasting. It is eminently pacific and conciliatory; as far as possible without any compromise of the Christian law, endeavoring to live peaceably with all men, and laboring in many ways to promote the harmony of human society. As the sea is composed of drops, and the earth is com- pacted of atoms, and the daylight is only a profusion of inappreciable rays, and forest and field are re- freshed and beautified by millions of imperceptible particles of dew, so it is the aggregate of little things that makes the happiness or unhappiness of domestic and social life ; and charity is attentive to the minutest circumstance that can affect the comfort and welfare of mankind, planting here a lily and there a rose where she cannot convert the whole desert into a paradise, pouring in a thousand tiny rivulets to swell the great ocean of human blessed- ness, and thus impressing the universal conviction of her kindness.^ There are some people so selfish and unsocial, that 1 J. A. James. 80 PAULINE CHARITY. it is impossible to elicit from them any sympathy, to draw them into any congenial fellowship, or to enlist their interest in the affairs of others, except in so far only as those affairs are influential of their own. Like so many statues of ice, each in its house of ice, looking forth with fixed and beamless eyes upon frozen vacancy, they live in cold and dreary isola- tion of spirit, with no genial impulses, no fraternal sentiments, no philanthropic outgoing of the heart. The very opposite of this chilling selfishness is Chris- tian charity, and quite incompatible with so repul- sive a spirit is the benignity which she breathes on all around. Social, genial, generous-hearted, full of mercy and good fruits, she is always planning and projecting something for the benefit of mankind. Claiming kindred with all, she enjoys the good of all, and rejoices in the blessedness of universal being. She has a sort of property in the interest of gthers, a personal share in the vast fund of crea- ture felicity ; beholding with benevolent satisfaction, not only the joy of men and angels, but also the humbler gratification of beast, and bird, and fish, and fly, and crawling worm. But especially is she alive to all that may influence for weal or woe the condition of our fallen race ; listening with tender emotion to the tale of sorrow, and weeping for others' misfortunes as if they were her own ; pitying their faults as well as their infirmities, and rather extenuating than exaggerating their most serious delinquencies ; instead of reporting to their prejudice the peccadilloes and shortcomings she cannot help observing, seeking for redeeming qualities, and conn- CHAEITY BENIGNANT. 81 tervailing the evil with the good; with no feigned sorrow or counterfeit lamentation, deploring the miseries which sinners are bringing upon themselves, and bewailing with woful tears their foreseen calam- ity as Jesus bewailed the anticipated doom of Jeru- salem. Nor is her sympathy with human suffering and compassion for perishing souls a feeling of unmingled pain, for her tears are holy, her pity is divine, and love is peaceful as the heart of God.^ Not seeking her own gratification, she enjoys it un- sought, and with it a far superior pleasure. The intelligence is obeyed, the conscience is satisfied ; and in full sympathy with the mercy that gave the unspeakable gift to man, charity justifies in the eyes of the moral universe the apostolic statement of its kindness. There may be sensibility without benevolence, lively emotion without corresponding action, a ten- der concern for human wretchedness without the least effort toward a remedy ; or the will may be so influenced by the feeling as to lead to some practical issue, and yet that issue may be marred by a selfish motive, aiming more at its own gratification than the good of others. Such kindness is wholly void of vir- tue, and nothing but a specious and imposing form of selfishness ; and when tried, it will be found infirm as the sand, inconstant as the wind, and as little capable of bearing the blasts of adversity as the marsh-reed is of withstanding the fury of the tem- pest. But the kindness of Christian charity, rest- 1 Saurin. 82 PAULINE CHARITY. ing upon the solid rock wliich forms the basis of all virtue, rising no less from holy volition than from emotional impulse, and following the light of sanc^ fied reason rather than the ignis fatuus of capricious feeling, is a stable and unvarying principle, which never wearies in well-doing, and cannot be content for a single day without contributing in some way to the stock of human happiness. It does not wait for Lazarus to be laid at its gate ; but, like the kind- ness of the God Incarnate, goes about doing good, walking the earth like an angel from heaven, and everywhere scattering its blessings as the sun scat- ters his beams. Sublime indeed is the daring of charity, aspiring to the emulation even of the divine beneficence ! Charity is the mainspring that moves all the machinery of Omnipotence, keeps in constant revolution the manifold wheels of Providence, and marshals every attribute of the Eternal Father in behalf of his militant and suffering children. It spreads the wing of every courier seraph, and bares the arm of every guardian cherub. The Universal Monarch it brought down to the manger, and the Prince of Life it led forth to the felon's cross. And still it stirs the utmost depths of Christian thought to devise means and methods of benefiting those for whom Christ died; quickens every mental faculty, and consecrates it to the blessed work of benevo- lence ; feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, comforts the mourner in sackcloth, pours a cheering light into the dungeon, bends like a blessing over the couch of sickness, watches the stars out by the side of the wasted sufferer, visits the widow and the fatherless CHARITY BENIGNANT. 83 in their affliction, vindicates innocence from the ruthless aspersions of malice, and binds up the bleed- ing wounds of virtue fallen among thieves. Like the angel that confronted the covetous prophet in the way of the vineyards, it stands with drawn sword in the sinner's path to hell, and seeks — but often ineffectually — to turn him back from his fatal course. By furnishing the instructions and sacra- ments of the Church — God's means for man's sal- vation — to those who are perishing without them, it confers upon them a greater benefit than if it laid at their feet the material wealth of worlds. Freely it has received, freely it gives ; gives, not grudgingly or of necessity, but with cheerful heart and bounteous hand ; always ready to distribute, always willing to communicate ; carefully accumulating that it may be able to scatter, and practising economy and self- denial that it may be thoroughly furnished unto every good work ; deliberately calculating how much it can afford to bestow upon the several objects which solicit its aid, with wise discrimination disbursing all it can to each, and wishing it had more to disburse. And its liberality is not the result of sudden impulse, under the appeal of present suffering, or the persua- sion of public eloquence ; but a spontaneous foun- tain within, a well of living water pouring forth per- petual streams. Unambitious in its motive, it has no affinity with the ostentatious benevolence of a heartless world, which aims only to make a show, acquire a name, and win the applause of men. Sounding no trumpet beforehand, nor afterward vaunting its noble deeds, it does its alms in secret, 84 PAULINE CHARITY. conceals the hand that confers the favor, and avoids if possible impressing the beneficiary with a painful sense of obligation to his benefactor. Regarding the imperishable spirit as far more precious than the perishing body, it labors mainly for the welfare of the world to come. Returning whence it came, it would take the redeemed race with it, and enthrone humanity with its glorified Redeemer. It instructs, rebukes, exhorts, with all long-suffering and doc- trine ; toils to waken the sleeper, recover the fallen, and shield the young and inexperienced from the fiery shafts of temptation ; mourns with David, and with the divine Son of David, over those who will not return from the error of their ways; and by every means which God's good providence and ample grace have furnished, saves men with fear, pulling them out of the fire. For this it fasts, and weeps, and prays ; for this it thinks and speaks, writes and prints, lives and dies ; for this it sends forth the mis- sionary, co-operates with the clergy at home, strives to give efficiency to the work of the Church, lays hold of every agency and every facility to forward its heavenly enterprise; counting no sacrifice too great, no suffering too painful, no effort too arduous, by which it. may possibly find the lost sheep and bring back the wanderer to the fold ; pursuing him through the drought of the desert, the perils of the forest, the miasma of the morass, the tempests of the ocean, and the fires of martyrdom; mightily resisting the tide of moral evil which has set in upon the world, and stemming the strength of creation's drift away from the living God, like some strong CHARITY BENIGNANT. 85 swimmer that with broad breast and brawny arm braves the force of the flood and bears aside the billow to rescue the shipwrecked and the perishing. St. Paul states the whole sum of its impulse when he says, " Charity is kind." The kindness of Christian charity — " whereunto shall I liken it, and with what comparison shall it be compared ? " It is like the teeming cloud, emptying its copious blessing upon the thirsty soil. It is like the swelling stream, overflowing its banks to enrich the plantations of the valley. It is like the fruitful field, pouring its golden harvest into the exhausted granary. It is like the generous oak, shaking the genial dew from its branches upon the humbler herbage at its roots. Nay, it is like God's Incar- nate Love, walking the sinful world, chasing sorrow from the abodes of men, shedding the light of im- mortality into the valley of the shadow of death, and amidst the dissonances of human selfishness singing a melody which charms the angels down from heaven ! Endless are the praises of charity. Would that some drops of the heavenly dew were scattered over this arid and infertile ground! Would that the blessed influence might descend on all our souls, like the small rain upon the tender herb and the showers upon the grass ! Then how soon would cease all bitter and unbrotherly feelings, all reproach- ful and calumnious speeches, all unreasonable preju- dice and disingenuous behavior ! And the heritage of the Lord would flourish with all the flowers of 86 PAULINE CHAEITY. Eden ; and believers in Jesus would seem a brother- hood of angels, eliciting the admiration and compel- ling the encomiums of the world. And what zeal, what power, what enterprise, what self-sacrifice, would be witnessed in the Church! what heroic feats of mercy ! what new and startling measures of reform ! what strange and unheard-of endeavors to reclaim the erring and intractable, to barricade with Bibles and sermons and sacraments the teeming way to destruction, to curb the headlong course of vicious passion, and wheel the bacchanal's chariot hard on the brink of the unsounded gulf! And the univer- sal prevalence of this divine principle would soon exterminate the greatest evils that vex human soci- ety, and by the moral renovation of the race would convert the earth into the counterpart of heaven. Domestic feuds would cease, and religious contro- versies would expire, and political contentions would disappear, and national animosities would pass away ; and we should need no foreign ministries for the preservation of international harmony, no congress of rival governments to settle war-treaties and adjust the perilled balance of power ; and our navies would be manned with missionaries, and no sword would be drawn but the sword of the Spirit, and the last monument of "man's inhumanity to man" would be swept from the face of the planet. Then the Divine Mercy would anticipate " the set time to favor Zion," and the noontide of gospel grace would break at once upon the midnight of the nations, and the spirits of darkness that so long have ruled the earth would flee to hide them in the bottomless pit, and CHARITY BENIGNANT. 87 paradise restored would bloom around us with more than its pristine beauty ; and over this renaissance of the universe the heavenly host would descend once more with a song so sweet that the chiming spheres might pause to hear ; and all liappy creatures, taking up the grand refrain, would send it tlii^illing from star to star, from heaven to heaven — " Glory to God in the highest! on earth peace! good-will toward 88 PAULINE CHAEITY. VII. CHARITY NOT ENVIOUS. Charity envieth not. — 1 Cob. xiii.. 4i St. James asks — " Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, that the spirit that dwelleth in us lust- eth to envy ? " whence we are to learn, if I mistake not the apostle's meaning, that envy is the offspring of lust, or evil desire ; and that lust, or evil desire, is the property of that fallen and corrupt nature which we all inherit from Adam. Desiring, and not obtaining, we envy those who are more successful than ourselves. Envy is malignant discontent at another's good fortune, and its objects and occasions are as numerous as the shades of human character and the varieties of human condition. People are envied for their worldly goods, their personal attrac- tions, their intellectual endowments, the reputation they have won by their talents, the position they occupy in society, the influence they exercise over others, and indeed for all sorts of superiority except superiority in virtue. For whatever else men may be envied for, for their virtue they are never envied. They may be envied for the rewards of their virtue, but not for their virtue itself. The fallen archangel is represented in our great English epic as envying CHARITY NOT ENVIOUS. 89 onr first parents, not for their innocence and purity, but for the honor and blessedness which these quali- ties bring them, and which he has lost by his guilty rebellion against God. Envy is too depraved a dis- position, to see the beauty of holiness, and to covet it on its own account ; but every thing else, as Dr. South observes, "will make a man to be envied, which shall set him above being pitied." This base and wicked passion is one of the earliest developments of human depravity, and one of the last demons cast out of the regenerate heart. All the original passions of our nature are in themselves innocent, and when duly directed and regulated they contribute to the good of man and the glory of God ; but envy is a spirit of unmingled and unmitigated evil, a compound of selfishness and malignity, utterly incompatible with the unfallen state of humanity, and so unworthy of the sons of God that one is never willing to acknowledge himself actuated by so vile an impulse. Often, however, it is discovered where it is least suspected — in persons of polished manners and ami- able deportment, and apparently of the most noble and magnanimous dispositions. Ah! could we pene- trate the secrets of official and professional life, and of the several literary and aesthetic occupations, where we find the highest culture and the greatest degree of refinement, how often should we discover the serpent creeping among the fairest lilies and coiled beneath the sweetest roses ? Of these lofty pursuits, indeed, envy is the ordinary and easily besetting sin ; and if 90 PAULINE CHAEITY. it is to be traced anywhere, it is in statesmen, and men of letters, and men of science, and the makers of many books, and the inspired masters of the pencil and the chisel, and those who can sway the grave judgment of senates by lucid and persuasive speech, or soar heavenward on the wings of genius, charm- ino: all ears with their melodies. Envy is everywhere. It is the moral epidemic of the world. Like the spider, it weaves its snare alike in the palace and the cottage, in the halls of learning and the chambers of legislation, in the warrior's tent, the artist's studio, the gay saloons of fashion, and around the very altars of God. The city merchant, the rustic laborer, and little children in their sports, are subject to its baleful influence. It is the great sectarian sin, the pestilent schismatic, that has rent again and again the body of Christ, and lacerated the Redeemer with many a wound in the house of his friends. And sad it is to see how different religious societies hate and malign one another, what plans of circumvention they employ, what unworthy trickery of perversion, beguiling unstable souls, compassing sea and land to make one proselyte, lest they should be eclipsed by the superior success of their neigh- bors; whence arise calumnies, controversies, bitter contentions, as if they were striving to furnish a sort of gladiatorial entertainment for a gazing world. And in church choirs and Sunday schools may we often discover the same hateful spirit, among sweet children, and fair virgins, and youthful saints, like a toad in a bed of tulips, a buzzard in a bevy of doves, a demon among the adoring Serapliim. And in our CHARITY NOT ENVIOUS. 91 Bible societies, missionary anniversaries, and other organized efforts of Christian philanthropy ; in con- ventions and conferences, where we discuss questions of vital interest to the kingdom of Christ, and adopt measures for the promotion of Christianity at home and abroad ; the fiend is sure to play his part, mar- ring our noblest schemes, and spoiling our best per- formances. And whenever the sons of God assemble themselves together, Satan comes also among them, setting brother at variance with brother, imbittering faction against rival faction, converting Christian zeal into a kind of prize-fight competition; and so loving hearts are divided, and sacred terms are per- verted, and prudent counsels are defeated, and the gospel of our salvation is dishonored, and charity is driven weeping out of the world. To see that envy is utterly incompatible with charity, we need but glance at some of its character- istic qualities and fruits. Charity is disinterested goodness ; envy is unmin- gled and unmitigated selfishness. It would grasp all riches, absorb all enjoyment, engross all admiration and esteem. Every superior and every rival would it destroy, and live alone in an impoverished or depopulated universe. Alexander the Great, who could bear no greatness but his own, would carp at the valorous deeds of his captains, as if whatever praise was bestowed upon them were taken from him- self; "a great weakness certainly," says Dr. South, "and enough to make the conqueror as much an object of pity as his conquests could be of envy." 92 PAULINE CHARITY. "The envious man," observes Bishop Hall, "feeds on others' evils, and hath no disease but his neighbor's welfare." Such a one, if rich, would have all others poor ; if poor, would reduce the rich to his own con- dition. If he occupies an elevated position, he would thrust down all aspiring rivals ; if his station is a humble one, he would drag those who have risen above him back to his own level. Like Gideon's fleece', he would absorb every particle of moisture that falls from heaven, and leave all around him dewless as the desert. Charity is the brotherhood of the heart ; envy is as malicious as it i:^ selfish. Joseph was hated by his brethren because he was beloved by his father, and they could not speak peaceably unto him because he had dreamed a dream which made him their superior. And Haman was full of indignation against Morde- cai because he held a high place in the favor of the king. And the same evil spirit inflamed the wrath of Saul against the victorious shepherd-boy, and made him seek to slay his own son-in-law. The envious man resents the good of others, as if it were an injury to himself. He hates you because another loves you, curses you because you are blessed of God. Rather than see you wafted along by the breeze of fortune while he lies becalmed, he would have you shipwrecked beyond remedy. All who are above him he regards as dark clouds obscuring his day and deserving his displeasure. Envy is like the ocean, which, because it cannot shine as the firma- ment does, would shroud the starry lustre of the latter with its vapory exhalations. Nay, in order to CHARITY NOT ENVIOUS. 93 enjoy the glimmer of its own rushlight, it would ex- tinguish the sun and leave the world in darkness. Charity is a meek and gentle spirit ; envy is as outrageous as it is malicious. One of God's secre- taries tells us it is " cruel as death and insatiable as the grave." There is in its hate an inhuman fierce- ness, in its action a diabolical fury, which respect no dignity, reverence no sanctity, pause abashed at no splendid array of virtue. What stirred up Satan against the perfect man of Uz, and brought the for- midable bands of the Sabseans and Chaldoeans, and marshalled the wrathful elements of nature, to do such terrible execution upon the patriarch, and upon his children, and upon ail that he possessed? what but envy of his large estate, vast revenues, increas- ing honors, and flourishing family, all watched over by the wakeful eye and protected by the powerful hand of Him who gave them? And what but the Sclat of his valor and the glory of his achievements drew upon the son of Jesse at once the applause of the kingdom and the murderous wrath of its mon- arch ? And why did Ziba accuse Mephibosheth to his master? And why did Ahab shed the blood of Naboth? Full well we know the animus of these traitors and butchers — the fierceness of their hate, the fury of their revenge. And was it not by the instigation of the same cruel and ruthless spirit, that the noble and self-denying men of former times — illustrious patriots, public benefactors, servants of the living God, of whom the world was not worthy — were so often persecuted, falsely accused, deprived of their possessions, chased from home and country, 94 PAULINE CHARITY. thrust into horrible dungeons, subjected to lingering tortures, or hurried forth to a violent death ? Supe- rior worth was their crime, and envy the execu- tioner. And what slew CiEsar, and banished Cicero, and put out the eyes of Belisarius, but a merit too great for wealth to reward or envy to endure? Envy murdered Abel at his altar, and nailed the Son of God upon the cross. Envy first blighted the bloom of paradise, and breathed a curse over God's fairest creation ; and ever since it has raged through the scene of its ruin, filling the earth with diie con- fusion, and wasting carnage, and every evil work ; and well saith the wisest of ancient monarchs, " Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous, but who can stand before envy ? " Charity is ready unto every good work ; envy is as mischievous as it is outrageous. There is no injury it would not inflict upon its happier neighbor. It would make you an object of shame and sorrow to your friends, of mirth and mockery to your foes. It would poison your peace and blacken your fame, depriving you of what is worth more than mountains of gems and gold, and sending you forth like Cain — but without his crime — a hopeless wanderer through a blighted world. What is the fairest repu- tation, but a mirror reflecting its ugliness, which its foul breath therefore delights to sully, and its rude hand is ready to shatter ? With an angel's face and an angel's voice it comes, to strike down private character and public virtue, array itself with the spoils of its victims, and feast and fatten on what it has destroyed. While you are quietly pursuing CHARITY NOT ENVIOUS. 95 your honest calling and suspecting no ill from any quarter, it is treacherously working its mine under your walls, kindling its fire in your cellar, dropping its poison into your well, inflaming your enemies by its falsehoods, alienating your friends by its calum- nies, with a whispered suspicion blasting your good name, before you are aware of the tongue that hurt you or the hand that smote you. And who shall set bounds to its wickedness, or limit its baleful power ? Has it not rifled the richest treasuries, thwarted the shrewdest policies, conquered the mightiest warriors, and subverted the proudest thrones? Naboth may deem himself secure in the possession of his vineyard, but envy shall never want a Jezebel to alter the title and take it away ; and Mordecai may sit daily at the king's gate quite unsuspicious of evil, but there is a wicked Haman in every court ready to slaughter a whole race in order to get rid of a rival. If there is any exemption from the inflictions of envj^ it is only in the case of those who have nothing for which they can be envied, whose obscurity is their fortress, whose poverty is their panoply .^ The tornado may spare the willows in the valley, but woe to the oaks upon the mountain ! The very beggar pines for the gains of his brother beggar, and dies of envy on his dunghill ; and he who imagines himself by any ele- vation of greatness or goodness bej^ond the reach of the fiend, is " like him that lieth down to sleep upon the top of a mast." Never pitying, never relenting, envy follows its victim to the very grave, and tram- ples upon his ashes, and desecrates his memory, and 1 Dr. South. 96 PAULINE CHARITY. persecutes his posterity, making his children to inherit all the vengeance which death — more merci- ful — would not allow it to inflict upon the father. Charity is free from dissimulation and deceit; envy is as hypocritical as it is mischievous. Pride, anger, gluttony, drunkenness, cupidity, prodigality, all other vices, are ordinarily frank and open ; boldly avowing their names, abodes, qualities, purposes; borrowing no mask, assuming no disguise, speaking no language but their own. But envy, conscious that it is an unnatural disposition, having more the rancor of a fiend than the temper of a man, and branded by common consent with a stigma deep and foul, disclaims its name, denies its nature, conceals its habitation, calls itself a love of truth, a sense of equity, a power of discrimination, an enemy to osten- tation, a concern for the public welfare, a regard for the good of the Church, a zeal for the glory of the gospel, and in one form or another the very charity it would destroy. To borrow the sarcasm of a writer already quoted, "It is indeed a most repu- table and orthodox vice, a regular church-going sin, dressing like virtue and talking like piety. It has a great zeal for religion, a keen sense of public justice, and is much shocked at the inconsistencies of good people. It exults when the hypocrite is unmasked, and exclaims — ' Ah ! I told you so ; I always sus- pected him.' It is also most benevolent ; and when adversity overtakes a brother, prays devoutly that it may be the means of promoting his humility and other Christian graces." ^ What is all this, but the 1 Bishop Hall. CHARITY NOT ENVIOUS. 97 vilest hypocrisy of envy, concealing its malice under a mask of friendship, disguising its devilishness with the robe of an angel, and stabbing its victim through the very mantle of charity ? This despicable spirit professes to know how rich you are in the treasures of which it would rob you, and then tries to sicken your enjoyment of them by telling you how full they are of snares and dangers. It hates flattery, it loves you too well to flatter you ; and its constant warn- ing is, " Beware of pride, beware of vanity, beware of popular applause, beware of unholy ambition, suffer not yourself to be puffed up by your prosper- ity ! " Oh ! but it is the cant of the traitor, it is the song of the siren, it is the decoy of the fowler, it is the false flag of the pirate, it is the murderous sub- tlety of that old serpent the Devil ! Of all the men- tal vices, of all the evil passions that rule the hearts of men, no other is so deceitful as envy, no other so despicable in the measures which it adopts to secure its wicked ends.^ It will hire servants to betray their masters, and inveigle one friend to supplant another. It will creep about under the cover of the night, watching at windows and listening at keyholes. Whenever it can do so without defeating its own purposes, it will lie and calumniate witli the audacity of the Devil ; but generally, finding such measures impolitic, it coils adder-like by the foot-path, and snaps at the heel of the passenger. Under the veil of seeming respect and affection, it hides a thousand malicious devices. It hears you commended, and joins with apparent cordiality in 1 Robert Hall. 98 PAULINE CHARITY. tlie commendation, and heightens it by additional instances of excellent qualities and virtuous deeds ; but immediately expresses a profound regret that so fine a character should be marred by such and such faults and infirmities — faults and infirmities of which all present were utterly ignorant, and igno- rant would still have remained, had not its malicious compassion made the reluctant disclosure, or its well- concealed wickedness invented the contemptible slander. Oh ! its love is that of the father of lies, its sanctimonious sighs are blasts from hell, and its message from God is a dagger ! Charity is fraught with divine peace and content- ment; envy is as miserable as it is hypocritical. Miserable it must be, for guilt is always miserable, and no other misery is so much like that of Satan as the misery of an envious spirit. Hating and hated, can it know any thing of a good conscience and a cheerful mind? Deceitful and treacherous, musit it not be like the troubled sea that cannot rest? Baf- fled and chagrined, will it not become desperate, and turn its fangs upon itself, and devour its own vitals ? " There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." The envious man makes himself wretched because another is happy, casts himself down because another is lifted up. He is a hopeless Saul, falling upon his own sword because he cannot thrust it through a Philistine ; an ill-natured dog, losing his own portion by snapping at that of another. His neighbor's rest breaks his repose, and the sight of his neighbor's paradise makes his own home a hell. He consumes himself, and delights in pining, till he seems no more CHARITY NOT ENVIOUS. 99 a man, but a lean and hungry carcass quickened by a fiend. The wine of your cup is the wormwood of his, and the songs of love and joy that ring out from his rival's dwelling jar the chords of his unconge- nial nature like hoarse dissonances of the damned. " Envy," writes Bishop Hall, " is a source of endless vexation, an instrument of self-torture, a rottenness in the bones, a burning ulcer of the soul, a crime which, partaking of the guilt, partakes as largely of the misery of hell." And it is the more wretched because it is incapable of reconciliation. Its object has committed no offence, and can offer no satisfac- tion ; has inflicted no injury, and can make no repa- ration. The evil is all in the breast of the envious person himself, therefore beyond the reach of any of the ordinary remedies of society. The wound bleeds on forever because there is no balm for its healinsr. It is the gnawing of a worm that can never die, the raging of a fire tliat can never be quenched, the revel of fiends in the human heart whom no power but charity can expel. Were I required to construct a hell of absolute and most exquisite suffering for the punishment of lawless passion, I would sink no bottomless pit, forge no everlasting chain, make no instruments of physical torture ; but I would fill the guilty soul with unmingled and unmitigated envy^ and take away all means and opportunity of wreak- ing its Satanic hate upon any human victim, and remove all counteractive agencies, all alleviating in- fluences, all hope of reversion or remedy, and leave the reprobate spirit alone with its baffled lust for- ever. Were not this a sufficient hell even for the 100 PAULINE CHAEITY. Devil and his angels? Oh! who can but pity the man that is under the despotism of this cruel and accursed spirit — a spirit that is essential enmity to the God of love, hating holiness, quarrelling with Providence, warring against human welfare, and striving to defeat the glorious issues of redemption? Such a one carries a living hell in his heart ; and the tyranny of this foul tormentor, confirmed by invinci- ble habit, must be the immortal sting of the second death, more terrible than any outer darkness, or ex- ternal torture, or surging lake of fire, or taunt and fury of triumphant fiends ! " Charity envieth not." Charity and envy are as much opposed to each other as light and darkness. Charity is from above ; envy is from beneath. Char- ity is the fruit of the Spirit ; envy is the work of the flesh. Charity is the outgrowth of the new heart; envy is the product of the carnal mind. Charity is as pure as the mountain stream ; envy is as foul as the city sewer. Charity is as harmless as the gentle dove ; envy is as deadly as the viper's fang. Charity is as tranquil as the summer evening; envy is as restless as the troubled sea. Charity is as tender and pitiful as an angel ; envy is as heartless and cruel as a demon. Charity is the spirit of Christ and the temper of heaven; envy is the rankling selfishness which makes the immitigable woe of the lost, the wormwood and gall transfused through all the facul- ties and feelings of a reprobate immortality. No two principles could be more antagonistic and irrec- oncilable. Where charity resides, envy must be a CHARITY NOT ENVIOUS. 101 stranger. Love cannot grudge the beloved object any thing that he enjoys. The charitable man cannot be grieved at another's good, nor entertain toward him any ill-will on account of it. Sooner might life wed death, or noonday embrace midnight. Content with his own lot and thankful for his own comforts, such a one is pleased with the disposition which the Divine Providence has made of its bounty and blessing to all. He rejoices in his neighbor's welfare as if it were his own. Joy and gladness flow into his heart from all the happy objects around him, and every blessed thing within the range of his obser- vation becomes to him a benediction. Like the bread and fish in the hands of the chosen twelve, the good is multiplied by distribution ; and the more there are to share, the larger the supply. If I possess this heavenly principle, my interest is identified with that of my brother ; and the more brightly his lamp burns, the more easily mine is lighted. By the light of charity we see the evil of envy. How hideous a thing it is ! how hateful to holy eyes ! how unworthy of a rational and redeemed nature ! how inconsistent in those who profess a religion of love and look for their reward in heaven ! Ah ! with what unseemly rancor does it not fire the hearts of warring sectaries and schismatics, with what deceiv- ableness of unrighteousness, what bitterness of con- troversy, what fierceness of revenge I How deplorable is this spirit in the Church of Christ, when the tide of partisan feeling runs high, and the contention of noisy factions is like the roar of conflicting waves ! Oh! this is the sin that dispossessed the seraphim, 102 PAULINE CHARITY. and fired the flaming gulf! Born in heaven, but soon cast down to hell, to heaven it still aspires, making the vaults of hell ring with the doleful clamor of its discontent. The vilest offspring of Satan, it inherits its father's ambition; and while it spurns not the lowest place nor scorns the meanest breast, it would storm the celestial temple, and inflame the second seraph at the altar with ill-will toward the first, and make the happy millions hate the God of love be- cause they are not higher than the Highest I ^ And what plea can the culprit make for its auda- city ? How will it vindicate its invasion of Jehovah's rights, and its war upon the welfare of his creatures? Other vices have their palliations ; but what pallia- tion can be found for envy ? Anger pleads its prov- ocation; but what provocation has envy, except another's prosperity? Intemperance pleads an impe- rious appetite ; but what appetite has envy, except for mischief and for misery? Sensuality pleads the frequency of powerful temptation ; but what tempta- tion has envy, except the malevolence of unmiti- gated selfishness ? Even robbery, burglary, forgery, perjury, and murder, may plead their necessity and their profits; but what necessity has envy, except the prompting of its own depravity ? and what profit, except the wages of unrighteousness ? Nay, it is a sin without defence, excuse, or reason — speechless as the unrobed intruder at the marriage feast; and its portion must be the outer darkness, with the weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth ! But charity, while it reveals the evil, also suggests 1 Bishop Hall. CHARITY NOT ENVIOUS. 103 the remedy. Charity is itself the remedy. To cure envy, we have only to acquire charity. Envy is the strong man armed, in peaceful possession of his pal- ace ; charity is the stronger, that casts him out and spoils his goods. Invoke we charity, then, to redeem our souls from the baleful power of envy ! And let us remember that charity is not a human virtue, to be developed and matured by mere culture ; but a germ from paradise, implanted by the Holy Spirit, and watered with heavenly dew. And let us never forget that, while we can do nothing without this divine agency, God is more ready to grant the ines- timable gift to them that ask him than the best of fathers to give bread to his hungry children. O Thou most mighty and most merciful! at thy feet, helpless and self-despairing, we cast ourselves down, imploring thy all-sufficient grace to renew our sinful nature, and transfuse our selfish hearts with the power and blessedness of the charity which " envieth not " I 104 PAULINE CHARITY. VIII. CHARITY NOT PROUD. Charity vaunteth not itself. — 1 Cob. xiii. 4. The great intellectual sin, which is the parent of many other sins, is pride. Pride is that undue esti- mate of self, that exaggerated opinion of one's own virtues and advantages, attainments and perform- ances, which makes him odious in the eyes of God and man. To every enlightened Christian, it must be quite obvious at a glance, that such a disposition can have no place in charity. For that lowliness of mind, that poverty of spirit, that moderate estimate of our own abilities and excellences, which we com- monly call humility, and which is the very opposite of pride, is set down by the apostle as the fourth of the eleven attributes of charity which he here de- scribes. " Charity vaunteth not itself." To vaunt is to boast, to make an ostentatious dis- play, to express by word or act our good opinion of our own qualities or achievements. Vaunting, then, is the language of pride ; and this is the vice which is now, for the glory of charity, to be sacrificed at the shrine of humility. A little attention to the nature and effects of pride will be sufficient to show its repugnance to charity, and a very slight acquaint- CHARITY NOT PKOUD. 105 ance with charity itself will convince us that it cannot exist without humility. "Love speaks no vaunts." 1 Now pride is not to be confounded with that courtly demeanor, that stateliness of bearing, which is so natural to some people, and so suitable to cer- tain ranks and conditions in society. This is the use of our dignity, not the abuse of it. But pride is an over-valuing of self, and its proper expression is the vaunting of one's own real or imagined good. Was there ever a time when this hateful vice was more prevalent than it is at present, or a people among whom it was more ruinously rife than it is among ourselves? Does not the age vaunt its en- lightenment and its progress? Do not the sects vaunt their several distinctive excellences of doctrine and of discipline ? Do not persons of all classes and descriptions vaunt their superiority to their neigh- bors in one respect or another? The shades of hu- man character and the conditions of human life vary not more than the forms and manifestations of pride, for the differences of the former are the grounds and occasions of the latter.^ There is a pride of birth, a pride of wealth, a pride of power, a pride of knowl- edge, a pride of learning, a pride of genius, a pride of authorship, a pride of heroism, a pride of accom- plishment, a pride of morality, and even a pride of humility. Into this snare of Satan often fall the most reli- gious and devout, arrogating to themselves the spe- 1 Conybeare and Howson. 2 Bossuet. 106 PAULINE CHAEITY. cial privileges of God's elect, and regarding all who differ with them in the minutest matters of ritual or regimen as 'ignorant and out of the way." The scribes who sat in the seat of Moses, and the Phari- sees who were the strictest religionists of their da}^ occupied the highest places in the synagogue, and looked with sanctimonious scorn upon their humbler brethren; and the Jewish people in general, being the seed of Abraham and children of the covenant, despised the Gentile world around them as strangers and aliens, having no part in the promised Messiah, no inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. So we, who are registered with the great host of baptized believers in Jesus, are apt to value ourselves, on the one hand, for our primitive catholic churchmanship, our lirm adherence to the canons and customs of the fathers, and our uncompromising zeal for the faith once delivered to the saints ; or, on the other hand, for what we deem our more evangelical principles, our profounder Christian experiences, our greater simplicity and spirituality of worship, and our free- dom from patristic traditions and mediaeval corrup- tions ; or, going a little farther, for our escape out of the fetters of dogmatic theology and narrow prejudice, into the broad fields of free inquiry and independent thought, where we may range without restriction, every man the author of his own gospel, glorying in his privilege of doubt and disbelief. If pride is the fault of a novice, consisting in self- exaltation, who knows not where it is to be sought? If pride is comparing ourselves with others, and cast- ing the scale in our own favor, who knows not where CHARITY NOT PROUD. 107 it is to be found? If pride is that haughty self- complacency, which can see no evils at home, and will bear the mention of none — which gives lessons to every one, and receives no lessons from any — which regards all things according to their bearing upon itself, and favors them only as they favor it — which allows no passing beyond its own condition, and deems every thing higher than itself as wrong and ruinous — then who knows not its haunts and its home, even in the house of God and among his consecrated servants — in those who lay claim to superior sanctity, who are constantly vaunting their humility and making their humility the minister of their pride ? ^ But is pride less hateful in itself and in the sight of Heaven because it assumes a spiritual character and dwells in holy places? or is it less productive of strife, and contention, and every evil work, because it disguises itself in the white robe of religion, and conceals its features behind a well- wrought mask of humility ? Is Satan a less danger- ous enemy when he comes in an angel's guise and speaks with an angel's accent, deceiving if possible the very elect? Believe me, dear brethren! of all the forms of pride, spiritual pride is the worst, the most subtle work of the Devil in the hearts of men ; with the banner of a sect or the shibboleth of a party waging war against the true spirit of religion, and laying waste the heritage of the Lord. And there is a sort of schismatical vaunting, a pride which sets itself above the one catholic and apostolic Church of Christ. A shrewd device of the 1 Edward Irving. 108 PAULINE CHARITY. old deceiver it is, to draw simple-minded Christians away from that divine organization which God hath constituted "the pillar and ground of the truth," and make them despise its authority and its ordi- nances, its unity of faith and worship, its primitive order and discipline, under the delusion that they are thus honoring th^t spiritual and invisible Church which they speak of as the real body of Christ ; as if one should honor universal humanity by dishonoring his own mother; as if the invisible communion of saints could exist for ages without any visible sign or symbol of its existence ; as if Christians were to be but so many coins struck with the same die, in- stead of so many members belonging to the same body and animated by the same spirit. Pride can- not brook superiority, and therefore it sets up its own individual preference and independent judgment against ancient precedent, and apostolic authority, and the consentient voice of ages, and discards the ministry and the sacraments which Christ hath or- dained as the channels of communication between himself and his people and the means of spiritual edification to the faithful ; and I greatly err, if this contempt for the ordinances of the heavenly Bride- groom is not the chief underlying and actuating principle of the several sectarian and schismatical systems of the evil times on which we are fallen. For why are they shocked and offended — these fanatical repudiators of the Lord's Anointed — why are they shocked and offended, when we speak of the Church as the living body of the Redeemer, perpetu- ating the divine incarnation upon the earth? Why CHARITY NOT PROUD. 109 are they grieved and offended, when we speak of baptism as a real death unto sin and a new life unto righteousness? Why are they startled and amazed, when we speak of confirmation as a real strength- ening and establishing with heavenly grace for the Christian work and warfare ? Why are they fright- ened or disgusted, when we speak of the holy commu- nion as a real eating and drinking of the sacrificial flesh and blood once offered for all, whereby we become partakers of our Saviour's life and sharers of his immortality? Why do they hold up their hands in horror, when we speak of ordination as a real endowment with spiritual gifts for a legation sublimer than that of Moses and a priesthood holier than that of Aaron, "that the man of God may be perfect — thoroughly furnished unto every good work " ? Is it not the very pride of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, spurning the sanctions and sacraments of the new theocracy, the kingdom of heaven upon earth ? And who requires any proof of the repugnance of such a spirit to the charity here set forth by the apostle? Charity is unselfish; pride is one of the many forms of selfishness. Charity concerns itself for the good of others; pride concentrates all its cares and solicitudes in self. Charity yields to its neighbor due honor and respect; pride claims all respect and honor for its own dignity. Charity accords to every man his proper place and merit; pride aims to impress its brother with a mortifying sense of his inferiority. Charity tenderly regards 110 PAULINE CHARITY. your sensibilities, and carefully avoids giving you offence ; pride tramples upon all courtesy, and cares not whom nor how deeply it wounds. Charity sheds a benign influence over the heart, expanding it to all that is noble and magnanimous ; pride folds the soul in upon itself, freezing up the genial springs of sym- pathy and affection. Charity is the spirit of those who veil their faces before the throne of God, and the temper of Him who for our sake humbled him- self to the death of the cross ; pride, is the spirit of rebellion which of old, seeking to exalt itself against the God of love, plunged headlong into hell. Char- ity knows something of angelic blessedness, pervad- ing the scene of its dominion with peace as of paradise, and filling the heart in which it dwells with tranquil joy ; pride shares the misery T)f Satan and his accursed confederates, fraught with all dis- quieting and tormenting passions, and making this redeemed earth the counterpart of its destined ever- lasting home. Day is not more opposed to night, harmony to dis- cord, purity to pollution, than charity is to pride. The charitable man can no more be the proud man, than good can be evil, than truth can be falsehood, than holiness can be sin. Humility is an essential attribute of his charity, a fundamental element of his character, pervading all his virtues, adorning all his actions, and sanctifying all his conversation. As self-love makes other men set an undue estimate upon their own good qualities and despise those of their neighbors ; so charity makes him appreciate highly his neighbor's excellences, and think very CHARITY NOT PEOUD. Ill little of his owii.^ The selfish man esteems himself better than others ; the charitable man esteems oth- ers better than himself. Love enables him to per- ceive and admire in his brother, those gifts and graces which the pride of selfishness either overlooks or undervalues. He does not magnify himself at the expense of another, nor wish to shine by eclips- ing another's light ; but humbles himself in dust and ashes for his manifold faults and infirmities, and imi- tates the winged charity that veils its radiant glory before the sapphire throne. " Be clothed with humility," saith St. Peter ; and what apparel could be more suitable for sinners saved by grace alone and dependent for all good upon the blessing and bounty of Heaven? "Put on humbleness of mind," saith St. Paul ; and what habit more becoming to those who walked so long in the shame of their nakedness and knew it not, who are still constrained to confess that all their righteous- ness is as filth}^ rags ? Did the wisest of men ever write a wiser maxim than when he penned the prov- erb — " It is better to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud " ? Does not the Holy Book mention pride as the first of the "seven things which the Lord hateth," and speak of humility as "an ornament of very great price " in his sight ? Is it not written — " He resist- eth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble " ? Is it not written again — " He that exalteth himself shall be abased, but he that humble th himself shall 1 Dean Hook. 112 PAULINE CHARITY. be exalted " ? And hath not He who dwelleth " in the high and the holy place " assured us of his dwell- ing " with him also that is humble and of a contrite heart " ? Who can read such declarations as these, and not be impressed with Jehovah's strong repug- nance to pride and his special delight in humility ? The heathen wisdom of antiquity deemed humility a vice and pride a virtue ; but Christ and his in- spired servants make the former one of the fairest gems in the Christian diadem, while they visit the latter with the very " condemnation of the Devil." What could be sweeter than the encomiums which they breathe over this amiable poverty of spirit, or more terrible than the denunciations which they hurl at its haughty antagonist? Having learned of Je- sus, the true disciple is " meek and lowly in heart." " He sitteth alone and keepeth silence," because he hath borne the yoke of the Lord. He thinks moder- ately of his own talents and attainments, dwells upon his defects more than upon his perfections, and speaks oftener of his delinquencies than of his well- doing. Instead of being inflated with grand ideas of his own importance and usefulness in the Church of Christ, he is painfully aware of his inferiority in these respects to many of his brethren, and of his shortcoming in reference to the divine standard erected for all. Instead of comparing himself with others, and valuing himself highly for his virtues and fine performances, he mourns before God that his religious character is so imperfect and his life so fruitless of good to the souls of men. The empty branch stands erect and lifts its head on high, while CHARITY NOT PROUD. 113 its fruitful fellow bends gracefully beneath the bur- den of its blessing.! Compare thyself then, O my brother ! I will not say with the high and holy One that inhabiteth eternity, nor with the stainless moral beauty that veils itself in his presence, nor with the original per- fection of unfallen humanity in the garden of its probation — but with the spirit and requirements of that blessed Law Divine which is given for thy guidance, the essence of which is perfect purity and perfect love ; and see if thou canst find any ground for pride. Contemplate the dreadful depths of thy guilt and misery; count up thy crimes and cata- logue thy iniquities ; look into the darkness and cor- ruption of a naturally wicked and deceitful heart; and tell me what room thou canst find for auHit but self-abasement and penitential shame. Go gaze upon the manger in Bethlehem, muse in the garden of Olivet, and kneel before the cross of Calvary ; go see the Son of God clothed with thy dishonored nature, agonizing in blood for thy salvation, and bowing himself to a death the most awful and igno- minious ever inflicted upon the vilest criminal ; and then say how pride can accord with the spirit of Christianity, how vaunting can consist with that charity which is of Christianity the vital essence and the royal crown.^ Ah me ! how this amazing mystery has stained the pride of all human glory, and excluded boasting forever from the ranks of the redeemed ! And how sweetly does the experience of 1 John Summerfield. 2 Thomas Raffles. 114 PAULINE CHAEITY. every pardoned soul, sitting with Mary at the Sav- iour's feet, and loving much because he hath much forgiven, respond to the promise — " Thou shalt remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God " ! Whatever its excellence or distinction, its privi- lege or advantage, its reputation on earth or its fel- lowship with heaven, " Charity vaunteth not itself." CHARITY NOT VAIN. 115 IX. CHARITY NOT VAIN. Charity is not puffed up. — 1 Cok. xiii. 4. The Siamese Twins seem to have been two per- fect human beings, each possessing all the functions of life complete, though so bound together that the sundering of the ligament would probably have been fatal to both. Thus, pride and vanity are two vices so closely related that they are seldom found apart, yet so dis- tinct that we ordinarily have no difficulty in their identification and discrimination. Like two plants springing from the same root, they are both the products of selfishness, alike partaking of its quali- ties, but differing in form and aspect. Pride is an undue estimate of self; vanity is an inordinate de- sire of the esteem of others. The former makes a man odious ; the latter renders him ridiculous. Charity is equally opposed to both. Humble, it is opposed to pride ; modest, it is opposed to vanity. Humility and modesty, though as intimately related to each other, are as perfectly distinct as pride and vanity. Humility is opposed to pride; modesty is opposed to vanity. The former is the iuAvard feeling of lowliness; the latter is its outward expression. 116 PAULINE CHARITY. The one makes a man sensible that he merits but little ; the other renders him moderate in his de- mands and expectations. 1 Both, therefore, are essen- tial attributes of charity. Notwithstanding their distinction, it is difficult to separate them ; for they run into each other, like the blending of two shades in painting, or two tones in music. Of humility we treated in our last lecture ; in this we have to deal with modesty. Conybeare and Howson's translation of the text is — " Love shows no vanity ; " and this, doubtless, is the exact meaning of the original — "Charity is not puffed up." Few vices, if any, are more prevalent than vanity. Everywhere we see a disposition to make a show, in order to attract attention, excite admiration, and ^ elicit the encomiums of the world. Men love to display their wealth, their knowledge, their genius, their eloquence, their honorable connec- tions, their official investiture, the power they pos- sess, the influence they exercise, or any advantage whatever they may have over others. And authors court celebrity, and statesmen seek popularity, and orators drink in with eager delight the adulation of the multitude, and men of noble deeds and noble daring desire to see their names emblazoned as heroes, patriots, philanthropists, and public benefactors. And why do the flaunting children of fashion and society array themselves so gorgeously or so deli- 1 Adam Clarke. CHAEITY NOT VAIN. 117 3ately, and practise so many ridiculous airs, and make such a study of etiquette, as if the welfare of the world depended upon their personal decoration, or the eternal salvation of their souls Avere condi- tioned on their appearance and deportment in the presence of others? And could we but truly read their hearts, many a blustering politician, and many a glorious military chieftain, and many a zealous supporter of public charities, and many an active reformer of prevalent abuses, and many a liberal patron of worthy poverty or misfortune, and many a generous contributor to the work of the Church and the illumination of the world, would be found to act from no higher motive than the love of human praise. ^ But if men are what they pretend to be, what they would have us believe them to be, why are they not satisfied with being it, and having the testimony of a good conscience and the approval of Heaven? Or, if they must have something more, what need of so much effort to advertise their excellent qualities and secure from others a proper estimate of their most estimable selves ? " The tree is known by its fruit ; " true greatness and goodness are obvious enough to all observers; and the proclamation of them with so much art and effort, as an old author has well remarked, is "no more necessary than send- ing the bellman about the town to inform the people that the sun is shining."^ Scarcely anywhere is vanity more conspicuous 1 Saurin. 2 Thomas Adams. 118 PAULINE CHARITY. than in matters of religion, and here it is the more glaring because of the incongruity. Sect asserts its superiority to rival sect, and bids loudly for the world's preference and patronage ; advertising itself by its larger and costlier house of worship, which perhaps is not yet paid for, and has been formally given to God by those to whom it did not belong; or by its more numerous congregation of intelligent and fashionable people, whose faith of course is of much less consequence than their money, and whose spiritual state is not half so important as their social respectability; or by its learned and eloquent minister, more laborious and successful than another, more popular and influen- tial, however questionable his creed, his measures, the motive of his zeal, or the authority of his com- mission. And even within the enclosure of what we call the Catholic and Apostolic Church, parish loves to dis- play to neighboring parish its more abundant wealth, its more artistic music, its more splendid ritual, its more frequent communion, its more numerous con- firmations, its more evangelical system of teaching, its more manifest prosperity in every way. And in our Sunday-school labors, our missionary reports and speeches, and the ostentatious proceedings of our popular anniversaries, how does party strive to eclipse party, and society magnify itself against society, commending the zeal of its laborers, applaud- ing the liberality of its contributors, and drowning the praise of God in the praises of man ! Ah me ! how are we beguiled by the sophistries of CHARITY NOT VAIN. 119 a selfish heart ! how befooled by the pleasing fancies which mingle with our purest spiritual delights I how betrayed into the hands of Satan by the sill}^ self- gratulations so imperfectly concealed in the public excitements of our ostentatious philanthropy and far- trumpeting zeal ! ^ We build a church, we found a Sunday school, we endow a foreign mission, we con- tribute to a Bible society, we furnish a refuge for orphanage, we pour our bounty into the baskets of poverty, we provide a comfortable home for indigent age and infirmity, we throw our sheltering arms around penitent vice to shield it from the renewed assaults of temptation ; and we persuade ourselves that we are thus doing something to raise a fallen world from its ruin, when we are only rearing a pedestal ou which to exalt ourselves. We imagine that we are lifting up the cross of Christ as an ensign to the nations, when we are only climbing to the top of it that the nations may see and admire us. We think we are investing with some additional rays of glory the very throne of God, while we are actually displacing the universal Lord to seat ourselves on high. We pray constantly that his way may be known upon earth, his saving health among all na- tions ; but we labor much more to make known our own zeal and beneficence, and the pure gold of our devotion bears small proportion to the blended alloy of our vanity .^ Do I exaggerate the matter with these metaphors ? Would that I could exaggerate what indeed I can- 1 R. W. Hamilton. 2 South. 120 PAULINE CHARITY. not adequately describe ! For when we make such efforts to attract attention to the good we are doing ; when we parade our offerings with such ostentation through the press before an admiring public ; when we endeavor to make others talk of us as a people of extraordinary activity in every good work ; when we feast and fatten on human praise, or pine for it more than a starving family for bread ; when we look up with eiiYy to those who have excelled us, and become unhappy because we cannot be first and foremost in the race ; when we cast a jealous eye down upon those who are struggling up to our own level, and experience a fresh stimulus from the competition of another sect, another party, or another parish; when we seek to depreciate the efforts of our rivals by dis- dainful epithets, invidious comparisons, imputation of unworthy motives, or any other uncharitable meas- ures, while we exaggerate our own by arrogant and unjust assumptions; — then indeed do we make the gospel of Christ subservient to our own glory, and desecrate the temple of God by our self-idolatry, and render our contributions nothing better than a costly sacrifice to our own vanity, and by our vanity prove sadly enough to the world our want of charity.^ These acts of beneficence are indeed to be prac- tised as a religious duty; and when we do them according to Christ's direction, regarding in their performance the will and the glory of God, without seeking to appear to men, we make them most reli- gious. Our Lord requires us so to let our light shine before men that they may see our good works and 1 Pw Watson. CHARITY NOT VAIN. 121 glorify, not ourselves, but our Father who is in heaven. Your works of mercy cannot well be con- cealed from others, but see that you do them not to be seen of men ; and when the act is necessarily pub- lic, remember that He who seeth in secret discerneth all the hidden weights and springs that move the wheels of charity. Though in some cases you must be seen to do, yet in no case do to be seen. Though often you will be praised by men, yet never make men's praise your end. What is human applause but perishing breath ? and is not that the hypocrite's reward ? He does the work ; but when he comes to look for his reward, lo ! he has it already. He sought to be seen, and seen he was. He sought to be praised, and praised he was. He sought glory of men, and men glorified him. Verily, he has received his reward. What further claim can he make ? What more can he demand from God ? ^ Charity endeavors to conceal its good works as the \ sea conceals its pearls and the earth its gold. It is / not the ambitious sunflower, that lifts its gaudy head on high, and expands its inodorous petals to the broad light of the noon; but the unobtrusive violet, that hides its delicate beauty in the bank of a shady brook, and from its green seclusion perfumes the dewy twilight.^ Intent only on doing good, it cares nothing for the applause of the world, and seeks to build no temple to its own fame. Aiming only at blessing others, it is comparatively a small matter whether it win another's blessing or incur another's curse. It sends no herald to announce its advent, 1 Leighton. 2 Stimmerfield. 122 PAULINE CHAEITY. blows no trumpet to proclaim its purpose, unfurls no banner to catch the eye of the world, saith to no son of Rechab — " Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord ; " but, like its Divine example, goes about doing good, without causing its voice to be heard in the street, or letting the left hand know what the right hand doeth; and like those holy and blessed creatures who minister to the heirs of salvation and shed a thousand blessings from wings unseen, it con- ceals its beneficent agency even from its beneficia- ries.^ Oh! had we the charity of the divine Nazarene, how would it bring down every lofty look, and seal up every arrogant tongue, and lay us prostrate in the dust with shame of our best performances, pray- ing the great Heart-searcher to forgive the iniquity of our holy things ; content with our Master to be "despised and rejected of men," and with his blessed apostles to be " esteemed as the filth and off-scouring of all things," if we might but have some share with him and them in making humanity better and bring- ing many sons to glory ! ^ King Hezekiah lost his royal treasures by an os- tentatious dispiay of them to the Assyrian embassy ; and Chrysostom tells us that virtues, like precious stones, must be concealed to be kept ; for if we dis- play them publicly, we lose them ; and vain-glory is the one thief that has robbed many of their treasure laid up in heaven. But this celestial visitant in the abodes of men carries her jewels in a safe casket — hides them in her own heart ; while she herself lies 1 J. A. James. 2 Frederick Faber. CHARITY NOT VAEST. 123 hidden in the secret place of the Most High, and abides secure under the shadow of the Almighty. Such, my brethren, is the modesty of charity ; such its opposition to the accursed spirit which first un- seated the seraphim, and sunk the bottomless pit, and kindled the unquenchable fire ; and afterward poisoned the air of paradise, and blighted its fairest flowers, and drove forth the fallen pair to wander through a ruined world; and has ever since been planting thorns and briers in the path of their wretched progeny, filling human life with cruel war- fare and bitter sorrow, and making our atmosphere everywhere vocal with malediction and lamentation and woe. May God mercifully save us from this odious vice and all its baleful fruits, by planting in our hearts that heavenly grace which " shows no vanity " ! In- flated with no vain notions, and making no vain dis- plays, may we sit at the feet of Jesus and learn to be meek and lowly in heart ; by the beauty of a modest demeanor adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour, and by the influence of a quiet and unobtrusive char- ity anticipating " The time when sun and song shall flood forever A world renewed by Christ " I 124 PAULIKE CHAKITY. CHARITY NOT UNCOURTEOUS. Charity doth not behave itself unseemly. — 1 Cob. xiii. 5. On the last two Sunday evenings we discounted of humility and modesty. These qualities imply a chastened and subdued condition of the feelings, which cannot fail to refine and polish the manners, correcting those faults which are so offensive to good taste and good breeding, and producing that genuine politeness and propriety of deportment which distin- guish from mere pretenders the true gentleman and the perfect lady. Humility and modesty are the wedded parents ; courtesy is their legitimate off- spring; and the three are not more nearly related to one another than they all are related to charity. Neither proud nor vain, "Charity doth not behave itself unseemly." For the Authorized Version, Conybeare and How- son read — "Love is never uncourteous." In both renderings, the meaning is much the same ; and the quality thus described is what we call courtesy or urbanity — the sixth attribute of charity. In a general summary of social virtues, St. Peter mentions unity, sympathy, compassion, brotlierly love, and that meekness which forgives injuries and CHARITY NOT UNCOUPvTEOUS. 125 renders good for evil ; inserting courtesy, as no less important than the rest, in the midst of the cat- alogue. Of unseemly or uncourteous behavior there are many varieties, alike the fruit of selfishness, and equally alien to the spirit of Pauline charity, which is the most effectual conservator of good manners. There is a forward and officious behavior which is unseemly ; but charity is not forward and officious. She keeps within her own sphere, and never meddles with matters beyond her province. It is not charity that makes men obtrusive and troublesome, " busy- bodies in other men's matters ; " but pride and van- ity, which are the very opposite of charity. It is not charity that thrusts women into the pulpit, the political arena, the professions of medicine and law, and prompts their aspirations for public office ; and a little of the characteristic humility and modesty of charity would make all sensible women revolt at such outrages upon decent custom and the manifest order of nature. There is an uncivil and disrespectful behavior which is equally unseemly; but charity is not un- civil and disrespectful. Who has not met with those who affect "what they call an honest bluntness of manner, who feel themselves above all the conven- tional forms of propriety, and care not how many they disgust by their brusquery? What could be more opposed to that gentle and loving spirit, which considers the tastes and customs of society, and re- 126 PAULINE CHARITY. strains from all that is offensive to the best culture ? Dr. Clarke, in his comments on tliis chapter, has well said, that no ill-bred or unmannerly person can be a Christian, that a boorish and brutish behavior is the very opposite of Christianity. If charity is an element of Christianity, no Christian can claim an exemption from the canons of decorum and pro- priety. Every disciple of Christ is required to please his neighbor for his good to edification. Christian love produces the most genuine politeness, and the best Christian is the most perfect gentleman or lady. There is an invidious emulation and ambition which is not less unseemly ; but such behavior also charity carefully avoids. Content with her own position, caring little for the honors of the world, seeking for herself no high-sounding titles, not loving salutations in the market-place, nor aspiring to the loftiest seat in the synagogue, she practically heeds the words of her divine Master and Pattern: — "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister ; and whosoever will be chief, let him be your servant." The lust of power and pre-emi- nence is one of the worst passions of the human heart, being the very essence of the selfish principle ; often as unjust as it is ungentle, and as cruel as it is unscrupulous; spurning every tender feeling, tram- pling upon every human interest, and doing despite to every divine obligation.^ Why did Diotrophes cast his worthier brethren out of the church, and prate even against the apostles with bitter words? 1 F. W. Eobertson. CHABITY NOT UNCOURTEOtJS. 127 Simply because he loved to Lave the pre-eminence. See the same accursed ambition, and its terrible pun- ishment, in the case of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. With such a spirit, charity can have no communion. There is a noisy and blustering ostentation which is altogether unseemly ; but such behavior must be confessed irreconcilable with charity. Nothing is farther from this heavenly virtue than an intentional display of one's fair qualities and good works. If gifted with eloquence or artistic genius, she exhibits no anxiety to impress the world with the superiority of her' endowments. If amply furnished with knowl- edge and accomplished by the highest culture, she makes no effort to parade before the public her intel- lectual advantages, her literary and scientific attain- ments, or her distinction in the sesthetic arts. If she achieves any thing for the Church of Christ, or the improvement of humanity, she is influenced by no desire to be observed and applauded of men, but is content with the conscious approval of her Father who seeth in secret. If she has soared to unusual altitudes of faith and joy, or cast her spiritual sound- ing-line into the deep things of God, she does not labor to make it known in order to set the world a-stare, nor affect eminent saintship for the sake of admiration and honor ; but still owns, with him who was not a whit behind the very chiefest of the apos- tles, " I am less than the least of all saints." There is an arrogant and supercilious deportment which must be branded as unseemly; but charity, 128 PAULINE CHARITY. minding not high things, condescends to men of low estate. The disciple of the lowly Man of Nazareth does not deem himself the best and greatest in the community, affecting the strut of a captain, or the dignity of a monarch, and claiming uncommon defer- ence for his judgment and his counsel. He is not always seeking to make a display of his superiority, and force all others to feel themselves inferior ; nor is there any offensive exhibition of his own conse- quence, regardless of the rights, the opinions, and the sensibilities of his brethren. If conscious of greater mental resources, he is tenderly careful that others in his presence shall not feel a painful sense of their intellectual poverty. Without desiring to sacrifice his own proper position, or destroy the just distinctions of social life by reducing all to a common level, he conceals his rank, his office, his dignity, his authority, so far as duty will permit, and unites his advantages with such affability and gentleness as shall render them attractive to all. The honest say- ings and doings of his humbler neighbors he never treats with ridicule, nor looks down with mingled pity and contempt upon men of a lower sphere or minds of a narrower range. Such conduct were as discourteous as it would be uncharitable. Among the most unseemly attributes of selfishness is an obstinate and imperious will; but there is nothing more averse than this to the manner and mien of charity. Some people are always setting up their own judgment as the standard, and their own decision as the law ; insisting that every thing CHAEITY NOT UNCOUETEOUS. 129 shall go according to their own preference or pro- posal; bent on carrying their own point, whatever the consequences ; determined that all shall be done to suit themselves, or nothing shall be done at all ; and if other measures are adopted without their consent and approval, and any thing great or good results from the effort, they seek to annoy and injure the successful party ; as if they were the con- stituted oracles of wisdom and justice, and heaven and earth were obliged to submit to their sway. On the contrary, he who is under the blessed influence of Christian charity yields gracefully to the opin- ions and preferences of his brethren, except where such compliance involves some dereliction of truth and duty. In matters of truth and duty, indeed, charity shows the stability of adamant, and the integrity of tempered steel. Where the law of God says, " Be steadfast and unmovable " — where the welfare of the universe requires a firm and unflinch- ing course — there charity can make no compromise — must go forward, though it be to the dungeon, or through the fire. But in matters of smaller moment or mere private interest, she is gentle toward all, easy to be entreated, doing nothing through strife or vain glory, every man esteeming others better than himself ; and if they are unreasonable and self-willed, showing only the sweeter compliance and condescen- In our intercourse with the world we must often have witnessed an unseemly self-confidence and self- 1 Jonathan Edwards. 130 PAULINE CHARITY. reliance ; but this is to charity what night is to day, poison to wholesome food, and Satan to angelic pu- rity. Charity looks to a higher wisdom for guidance and a higher power for strength ; and feels itself, in the presence of God, as less than nothing and vanity. The man of charity is always the man of humility, sensible of his infirmities and delinquencies, with ingenuous shame and sorrow acknowledging his in- numerable errors, and exclaiming with the patriarch — "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercy and truth Thou hast shown unto thy servant." He contrasts his own vileness with that Infinite Purity in whose sight the heavens are not clean ; and with Job, abhors himself, and repents in dust and ashes ; or with Isaiah, when he beheld the glory of the Lord, cries out — " Woe is me ! for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts ! " If providentially afflicted, he confesses that he deserves more than he suffers, and commits himself without murmuring into the hands of a faithful Creator. If admonished or reproved, he says — " Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness ; and let him rebuke me, it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head." True charity knows nothing of that lordly self-reliance and self-confidence so much valued in the world's policy and lauded by the infidel philoso- phy of the age. And have we not frequently me-t with an unseem- ly haste and impetuosity of spirit, which it is the CHARITY NOT UNCOUKTEOUS. 131 tendency of charity to moderate, and one of its chief offices to control ? Naturally inclined to evil as we are, and disinclined to good, a quick temper is to be greatly guarded, and all precipitate action carefully avoided. How often, from this very infirmity, did St. Peter subject himself to mortifying rebuke and bitter sorrow ! and how sternly did our Saviour chide the same spirit in those who would have called down vengeance from heaven upon his enemies ! and what an excellent lesson of unruffled dignity did he give his disciples, when he was assailed by the vio- lence of the populace, or by the insidious malice of the wily scribes and Pharisees ! " First thoughts," says a great Scotchman, " are, like the scum of any mixture, fullest of impurities, especially in minds of an unquiet temper ; and all such particularly should be on their guard, not to speak or act on the spur of the moment." ^ Do we not all know that fear, tem- per, evil passion, and personal worldly interest, are the things in a man most readily roused by any provocation? But the worst possible counsellors are these ; for fear magnifies a matter out of all pro- portion; temper agitates the mind, and disqualifies for calm consideration ; evil passion either infatuates beyond all control of reason, or infuriates beyond all restraint of prudence ; while personal worldly interest blinds the eye of faith, and casts a dark eclipse over things spiritual and eternal, weakening the consciousness of moral obligation, and divesting the law of God of its sublimest sanctions. By none of these, therefore, will Charity consent to be gov- 1 Edward Irving. 132 PAULINE CHAKITY. erned ; but sitting like a judge above the confusion of contending lawyers and clients, she consults her associates — Truth, Justice, Equity, — and looks into the royal law, and invokes the counsel of the Holy Spirit, who for his quietness is likened to the gentle dove.i Full of that mild and peaceable wisdom which is from above, she clothes her rebukes with softest words and utters them in sweetest tones, mingling honey with the wormwood,- and training her tongue to the law of kindness. And is there not sometimes an unseemly incon- sistency and incongruity of deportment, a want of harmony between the manners and the profession of the Christian, which is quite foreign to the spirit of charity, and utterly incompatible with her gra- cious sway? Charity in the heart is the temper of Christ. Charity in the action is the imitation of Christ. Charity in the character is Christ's unmis- takable image. As Christians, we profess to have put on Christ, and to have become his followers. What is it, then, to conduct ourselves in a manner suiting such profession? What ought that man to be who professes to furnish to the world a living miniature likeness of the Incarnate Perfection? Verily, he should be harmless and blameless, holy in all manner of conversation, a specimen of all that is pure, true, faithful, generous, compassionate, and disinterested. This is what the gospel requires and the world demands of all who have been baptized into the life of Christ. Our profession is the meas- 1 Chrysostom. CHAEITY NOT UNCOUETEOUS. 133 Tire of the world's expectation, and the least devia- tion from rectitude is apparent in those who proclaim themselves the disciples of Htm who did no evil and knew no guile. Followers of such a leader, we can- not escape the scrutiny and animadversions of man- kind. In so clear a light, the slightest faults are perceptible. On so fair a ground, the faintest stains are conspicuous. At so lofty an elevation, whatever is disproportionate or incongruous stands out to public observation. Failings which might escape detection in others, cannot be concealed in those who wear the badge of Christ. Of immense impor- tance it is, therefore, that we maintain a consistent character by living an exemplary life. Otherwise, our good will be evil spoken of, the Christian name will be dishonored, the noblest virtues will be dis- credited, the faithful stigmatized as hypocrites, the Church subjected to unmerited obloquy, the gospel blasphemed, sinners hardened, and souls undone.^ A holy life, therefore, is the part of Christian urbanity ; and charity pursues whatsoever things are pure, true, honest, lovely, honorable, or of good report; and all that is opposed to these in the deportment of such as profess the fellowship of saints and fre- quent the altars of God, is a violation of that charity which is of the very essence of their religion. Finally, charity manifests always a suitable regard for the various relations and reasonable convention- alities of social life, practical indifference to which is far from being one of the least unseemly things in a 1 F. W. Robertson. 134 PAULINE CHARITY. Christian man's behavior. United in the Church, as are the several members and organs in the body, no one can be removed from his proper place or sphere without occasioning uneasiness and inconvenience to the rest. Charity preserves all in their just connec- tions and dependences, and so promotes the harmony and well-being of the whole .^ Thus also in the mani- fold relations of civil society, charity renders to all their due — " tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, honor to whom honor, fear to whom fear." In parents, teachers, masters, and governors, it is neither tyrannical nor too indulgent ; while in children, pupils, servants, and subordinates, it is docile, dutiful and deferential. In the aged, it is sober without sourness, and serious without severity ; while in the young, it avoids all unbecoming obtru- siveness, and all offensive pertinacity. In every superior position, it maintains a dignified affability, connected with a gracious condescension; while in every inferior relation, it suppresses presumption, irreverence, and indecorous familiarity. Under its benign influence, the clergj^man will be meek, gentle, tender-hearted, apt to instruct, faithful in reproof, and watchful over the interests of his flock; while the people will obey those who have the rule over them and admonish them, esteeming them very highly in love for their work's sake, and preserving peace among themselves.^ At once softened and ennobled by its power, man will observe toward woman all appropriate gentleness and affection, without either abdicating to her the throne which 1 F. Faber. 2 j. w. Fletcher. CHAEITr NOT UN COURTEOUS. 135 the Creator hath assigned to him, or reducing the fair dependent to the condition of a crouching menial at his feet ; while woman will be content with her proper place in the domestic economy and the social circle, seeking by no bold obtrusiveness to attract attention and admiration, and making herself a thou- sand times more interesting by her modesty than she could ever become by the greatest gifts of intellect or eloquence. Such, dear brethren, is the beautiful urbanity of this royal grace. In proportion as men are charita- ble, they will be gentle, genial, courteous, generous, obliging, amiable, and inoffensive. The mind will infallibly stamp itself upon the manners; and the heavenly principle, seated in the heart, " Will speak and sparkle in the eye, And vibrate on the tongue," and shape the life to virtue, and issue in all that is worthy of a redeemed and regenerate nature. Suavity without sycophancy, compliance without duplicity, politeness without hypocrisy, amenity without servility, generosity without prodigality, magnanimity without mdifference to moral distinc- tions — all that is exemplary in Christian practice, attractive in the highest culture, and becoming in the best society — whatever can adorn character and elevate the soul — is comprehended in the quality of which we discourse. Where charity reigns, there cluster the graces like angels ; and to make us per* feet men, we want but perfect charity .^ 1 Robert Newton. 136 PAULINE CHAKITY. XI. CHARITY NOT SELFISH. Charity seeketh not her own. — 1 Cor. xiii. 5. The divine Author of Christianity announced many a truth, enjoined many a duty, quite new and strange to those who heard him ; and the startling novelty of some of his doctrines, and the natural repugnance of an evil heart to the purity of his precepts, were sufficient to rouse all their latent ani- mosity and marshal them in fierce hostility to his teaching. When he required in his disciples a love of enemies, a forgiveness of injuries, a requital of unkindness with good offices, a disinterested devo- tion to the welfare of others, an absolute renun- ciation and sacrifice of self for their salvation, he inculcated a benevolence such as no Jewish rabbi had ever named, and no heathen sage had ever dreamed of as possible. So when St. Paul wrote that he sought not his own profit, but the profit of many, that they might be saved — that he could even wish himself accursed from Christ, for the benefit of his brethren, the sal- vation of his kinsmen according to the flesh — he set down a declaration never equalled by any utterance of Socrates or Plato, by any theory of Cicero or CHARITY NOT SELFISH. 137 Seneca, by any hypothesis of Zoroaster or Sakya Mouni, by any speculation of the most renowned moral teachers of antiquity. This sublime unselfishness, this self-abnegating and self-annihilating beneficence, is the seventh feature in the apostle's vivid portraiture of the queen of graces. " Charity seeketh not her own ; " or, according to Conybeare and Howson, " Love is never selfish." Some things are best seen in the light of contrast ; and, that we may the better appi^eciate this beautiful attribute, we will look at the opposite principle so often displayed in human life and character. St. Paul, in his Second Epistle to Timothy, has recorded it as one of the darkest features of the perilous times which are to come in the last days of the current dispensation, that " men shall be lovers of their own selves." He manifestly intends to con- vey the idea, that self-love shall be the predominant affection, the controlling impulse of the world. Whether this woful indication of the end is not already widely prevalent among us, dear brethren, judge ye. When was the love of self, in all its various phases, with all its evil fruits, more rife throughout the several ranks of society than it is to-day? Do we not see it everywhere, in commer- cial life, in political life, in professional life, in the higher walks of genius, in the pursuits of science and literature, in legislative halls and senate cham- bers, in plebeian cottages and patrician palaces, at the head of the army and on the imperial throne, among the most enlightened as well as the most igno- 138 PAULINE CHARITY. rant, the most cultivated as well as the most bar- barous, the most virtuous and devout as well as the most profligate and degraded? Human nature, we call it; but it is not human nature in its normal state ; it is human nature apostate, perverted and ruined. It is the noble vine, which the Lord planted wholly a right seed, turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine. It is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed. Man's original sin was selfishness, and selfishness is its fruit in all the first sinner's progeny. This is the universal hereditary disease of the race, which nothing but grace divine can cure. Wherever we find any thing truly generous and disinterested, it is doubtless attributable to the ex- pansion of the soul by the infusion of a new affection. It is the stronger, disarming, despoiling, and casting out the strong. It is the victorious Seed of the woman, hurling forth, with bruised head, the old serpent that even in paradise insinuated himself into the very citadel of our nature. It is the Spirit triumphing over the flesh ; charity, the fruit of the Spirit, triumphing over selfishness, the work of the flesh. Without this antagonizing, renovating, puri- fying power, the human heart were as greedy as the sea, and morally as barren as its sandy shore.^ It is as true now of mankind in general as it was of the apostle's inconstant companions when he wrote from his prison in Rome, " All seek their own." Why do so many practise the degrading sensual 1 Baffles. CHARITY NOT SELFISH. 139 vices, regardless of the effect upon their families and friends? Why do they mar the noblest work of God, blighting the blooming hopes of youth, break- ing the trusting hearts of women, destroying the peace of happy households, and hurrying to the grave those who love them best? It is because the lower nature in them has overmastered the higher, binding them to evil as with bands of iron ; while the golden chain that held them to the throne of God is sundered, and the cords of sympathy which connected them with their fellow-men are attenuated to gossamer threads scarcely to be seen in the sun- shine. The desire of indulging their baser animal appe- tites renders them indifferent to all that is noble in virtue and all that is glorious in religion, and the fear of God and the love of man have alike yielded to the despotic power of selfishness. So fascinated are they by the serpent that infolds them, or so stupefied by its deadly sting, that they have no eyes to see the ruin they have wrought, no ears to hear the wailing they have caused, no hearts to feel for the hearts that throb beneath their feet. And how much better is it, often, with the intel- lectual man, the man of science and lotters, the man of cultivated taste and lofty genius ? He seems to be doing no harm ; he seems to be obeying his better instincts, and developing the nobler parts of his nature; and the pursuit of truth, and the love of beauty, and the discovery of God in his works, we are apt to imagine, ought to refine his sensibilities, 140 PAULINE CHAEITY. elevate his moral principles, and improve and purify every element of his character. But how frequently are we forced to confess the very opposite result ! How frequently do we find men of sujDerior mind and rich aesthetic culture cold-hearted and alto- gether selfish ! For knowledge is not benevolence, and genius is not generosity; and a man may pursue the one with the greatest ardor, and indulge the other with the utmost enthusiasm, for no higher end than self-gratification or self-aggrandizement. Yes, and the author may write you a library, and the poet may sing you into Elysium, and the logician may bind you with the welded links of his argument, and the orator may chariot you away to the third heaven in the whirlwind of his eloquence, and the astronomer may lead you up the galaxy to the very gates of the city of God, and the geologist may con- duct you down through the rocky strata till yo^ feel the central fires of the globe, and the architect may rear you gorgeous palaces and fill your city with im- posing public structures, while the sculptor peoples them with statues of classic mould and the painter adorns their walls with the richest hues of heaven ; but each pursues his chosen path, not for your sake, but his own — not for the good he does to others, but the pleasure he enjoys in it, the profit he realizes, or the glory he hopes to gain ; and we state the lof- tiest motive of his labor and the noblest inspiration of his genius, when we say he seeks his own. One of the most obvious and most odious forms of this selfish habit is cupidity or covetousness. St. CHARITY NOT SELFISH. 141 Paul denounces it as idolatry; and idolatry it un- doubtedly is of the most degrading sort. It is setting Mammon upon Jehovah's throne, and falling down before him. It is worshipping gold instead of the living God. And many among us, I am sure, are guilty of this most irrational homage ; and to such extent is it often carried, as to exclude justice, hu- manity, and every nobler sentiment ; and so general is its prevalence that we scarcely know where to look, even among baptized believers, for any prac- tical exemplification of the unselfishness of charity. On all sides, in all classes, from the- highest to the lowest, what a feverish pulse prevails, what detesta- ble greed of gold, what unscrupulous efforts to obtain it, what criminal profusion in expending it, and then what hungering and thirsting after more ! Hasting to be rich is almost universal ; and some there are who are not satisfied with the acquisition of a fortune that in former times would have sufficed for a hun- dred families, but they must count their gains by millions, and " Stretch their arms like seas To grasp in all the shore," while multitudes around them are famishing for bread, and unable to purchase ground for a grave. And they are as careful to keep as they are anxious to accumulate ; and if ever they do a generous deed to the needy, it is not difficult to traoe it to some purely selfish motive. Habitually they embezzle and pervert the gifts which God hath placed in their hands for the good of others ; acting, not as the trus- 142 PAULINE CHARITY. tees, but as the proprietors ; not as the almoners, but as the beneficiaries; not as the channels through which the streams should flow, but as the pools in which they are to settle and stagnate.^ To what purpose do they live, but to make money and to enjoy it, to hoard it up or squander it away ? To these noble objects all their energies are applied ; for these worthy ends every faculty of mind and body is kept in constant tension. During the day, they grind as much as they can out of every one that falls into their rapacious hands ; and at night they lie down to rest, thanking God for their freedom from the accursed covetousness which has impelled some poor starving wretch to theft or forgery. Their highest literature is that of the ledger, and the acme of all their science is the alchemy that transmutes every thing into money. They know how to distil silver from the poor man's sweat, and coin the wid- ow's tears into current gold. Their accumulations and investments constitute the unfailing theme of their discourse, their study by day and their dream by night; filling them with innumerable cares and disquietudes, taking all the sweetness out of social life, and mingling in the cup of domestic joy the very gall of bitterness. Rather than part with a little of their pelf, they would let a thousand Lazaruses per- ish at their gates, would see your churches closed, your missions abandoned, your hospitals demolished, your asylums swept away, every agency of mercy paralj'zed, every Bethesda-fountain dried up, the whole machinery of the gospel stopped in its benefi- 1 John Harris. CHARITY NOT SELFISH. 143 cent revolutions, and the river of the water of life arrested as it gushes from the throne of God. They have fixed upon their treasures a grasp which no solicitations of want can loosen, and nothing but the touch of death can dissolve. For gold they would curse the Israel of God ; and for silver sell the God of Israel. Living and dying, they seek their own. The history of the world's vaulting ambitions, in the lives and achievements of its rulers* and con- querors, may furnish other pertinent illustrations of the principle. Suffice it to cite a single instance, the most remarkable of modern times. From amidst the chaotic debris of the French Revolution, arose a genius of such brilliancy that men shaded their eyes to look at him. He brought light out of darkness, order out of confusion, beauty out of deformity, harmony out of wildest dissonance. Over the ghastly and gory corpse of his country he threw the mantle of his glory, and she became the wonder of the nations. Into the putrid and per- ishing organism he breathed a new life, and through every vein and artery went dancing once more the gay and gladsome blood ; and in the joy of the na- tional renaissance, men soon forgot the despotism of the old dynasty and the oppressions of the ancient noblesse. Against the rotten thrones of Europe he set his foot, and they fell thundering to the ground; while amid the dust and din arose, and not in vain, the cry of " Rights ! Liberty ! Constitution ! " The depths of the Inquisition were explored, and its hideous iniquities were brought to blush in the light 144 PAULINE CHARITY. of noon, and its sanguinary ministers requited with the fate of their victims. Blessings, doubtless, were shed upon the world by this man, and all his acts were germs of future bless- ings; and his constant aim and endeavor was to make France more powerful and more splendid than she had ever been ; and when this was accomplished, he was, to use the nervous expression of Madame De Stael, "not the emperor, but the empire." His was not the little greatness that sought the ease, the comfort, the luxury, which his officers and soldiers might not share ; but he so identified them with himself in every thing, that they felt his glory to be their own, while they honored him as something more than man and little less than God. And such to this day is the witchery of his name, that myriad hearts everywhere leap at its utterance, and " Vive VEmpereurf' is ready to burst from the lips of him who reads the history, as it burst from those of his veterans sent forth against him on his return from Elba. Yes, Napoleon was France, and he sought to be Europe, and claimed even to be Providence. He made kings of his brothers, and queens of his sis- ters ; and his wife's relations, as well as his own, he raised to the highest honors. But all others were puppets in his hands, and he the mighty magician at whose beck they danc^ed — his single will the power behind the machinery that moved every thing, from the Atlantic to the Adriatic, and from the Mediter- ranean to the North Sea. Valor he rewarded in the most princely way, for it had illustrated his own CHAKITY NOT SELFISH. 145 idea and executed his magnificent scheme. That scheme cost thousands of lives, and millions of tears, and annual hecatombs of broken hearts, and years on years of wide-spread anguish and despair ; but no matter, his will must be done, his ambition gratified ; and against these, what were all human sufferings, but the small dust of the balance ? Does a sister stand in his way ? the most sacred of all earthly ties must be sundered. Does a Louis raise his voice for the rights of his people? he must be deprived at once of all power to protect or aid them. Does a Bourbon occupy a position in which he may pos- sibly prove troublesome? a bullet at midnight re- moves the Due d'Enghien from the conqueror's path. Is she whom he has loved above all others, and who seems necessary to his very existence, supposed to be an impediment to his further progress? the mar- riage bond is broken, and the gentle and devoted Josephine is thrust from the stage of empire ; and her children, fainting with anguish, are forced to grace the triumph of her rival. Was the Emperor, then, a cold and heartless mon- ster? No, indeed! He had a warm and sympathetic nature, and his mighty brain was the engine of a majestic soul. But his conscience was blinded, and all his higher instincts were perverted. He was his own end and his own idol. In himself concentred all his schemes, terminated all his aims; and "the man without a model and without a shadow," how- ever admired as a genius, applauded as a hero, and glorified as a conqueror, was manifestly supremely selfish. And all who follow in his course are sharers 146 PAULINE CHABITY. of his sin. His acts may be bolder and grander; their guilt is as great, and their punishment as sure. The draught that stimulated the elephant proves fatal to myriads of insects. History comes, and writes upon the tombs of earth's abortive ambi- tions — " They sought their own ! " We might carry out the principle into many other particulars. Selfishness despoils of all good whatever it touches. Even natural affection is tainted with it, and ordinary friendship is not often free from its hereditary virus, and a man's regard for his imme- diate family and remoter relations is ordinarily only the expansion of his self-love over those who are in a manner but parts of himself. And the pecuniary relief which we give sometimes to suffering indigence, and the larger contributions which we make occa- sionally to some of the chief objects and enterprises of Christian philanthropy, what are they, in many instances if not in most, but offerings to our own interest, ambition, or vanity ? And I appeal to you, dear brethren, who know the world and its crooked ways so well, whether self is not generally the con- trolling consideration in all its vaunted charities. And how can it be otherwise in trade, politics, liter- ature, professional life, the sesthetic arts, the offices of state, the high places of government, where op- portunity is so frequent and temptation so strong ? Where, among worldly men who have not been with Jesus and learned of him, shall we find real, self- denying, disinterested beneficence ? Ah ! it is but an empty name with them, or the mockery of brainless CHARITY NOT SELFISH. 147 scoffers ; while all ears are open to the voice of the tempter, gainsaying the word of God, and offering them in reward of their worship the wealth and glory of the world. But is there any thing else so unworthy of a ra- tional and immortal nature, and so debasing to its noblest faculties — any thing so contrary to the love of Christ, so repugnant to his spirit, so regardless of his precepts, so opposite to his example, so hostile to his gracious rule, or so reckless of his proffered rewards — as this all-absorbing selfishness ? The eagle will not eat his prey alone, the lion shares Ids feast with the jackal, and the jackal leaves some rem- nants for the vulture. Even the overloaded cart will scatter as it goes, and nature with a thousand voices preaches beneficence to man.^ For what is there, of all the Creator's teeming works, that does not min- ister in some way to the welfare of his rational crea- ture? Does not the sun give him light, the field yield him bread, the stream afford him drink, the flower regale him with fragrance, the song-bird fur- nish him with music, the tree and the vine load his table with luxuries, and every object and every ele- ment contribute something to his sustenance or his comfort? And shall man, to whom all things min- ister, be the solitary exception, the anomaly of the universe, — " The wretch concentred all in self " — like the Dead Sea, always receiving, but never im- parting — like the hungry grave, always devouring, 1 John Harris. 148 PAULINE CHARITY. but never satisfied — like the bottomless pit, forever filling, and yet never full? Nay, let him come out of his shell, and look abroad upon his brethren, and remember that all mankind have claims upon their fellow-men, and that in so far as God hath blessed him with his bounty He intends to make him a bless- ing to others. Let him "be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for himself a good foundation against the time to come" — allying himself to infinite wealth — acquiring an interest in all that belongs to Christ — sending his treasure before him into the heavenly. Jerusalem — converting his gold and silver into an imperishable diadem upon his brow — holding forth to the admiration of men and angels an exemplifica- tion of that charity which " seeketh not her own." But why these remonstrances and lamentations? Is there no more any charity left upon earth ? Has the heaven-born spirit of love, grieved at the hard- ness of the human heart, fled like Astrsea to the sky, and left this wretched sphere to the dominion of the arch-demon selfishness ? No, thank God ! the foot- prints of Him who eighteen centuries ago "went about doing good " still shine over the surface of this redeemed planet, brightening and multiplying amidst the darkness like the stars of the evening twilight. For there are those who, having received his spirit, rejoice to copy his example. Charity carries them quite out of themselves, makes them forget them- selves in their interest for others. It is something supernatural and divine — the love of God shed CHARITY NOT SELFISH. 149 abroad in the heart, and overflowing on all around. From heaven it came, and to heaven it tends, as the water from the ocean returns thither again. De- lighting in God as the supreme good, it establishes with its neighbor an identity of heart and soul. It teaches us to love others as Christ hath loved us, making his love to us both the motive and the measure of our love to them. It is love, not in word nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth. It saith not to the needy brother or sister — " Depart in peace I be warmed ! be filled ! " while it giveth them not those things which are needful for the body ; but esteems it a real privilege to contribute to their relief and comfort, and for their good regards no sacrifice of its own. This is the charity of St. Paul. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of its messengers I How lovely, walking in her own light, and shedding a gracious radiance on all around, is this heavenly vision of peace and power, as she goes forth to her work of mercy — seeking out the needy that she may supply their needs — inquiring after the chil- dren of misfortune that she may wipe away their tears and heal their broken hearts — giving beauty for ashes, the oil of ]by for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness — driving before her all the dragons of hell, and making the wilder- ness rejoice even with joy and singing, and the desert bud and blossom as the rose I Fall we into her train, and become partakers of her blessedness ! Cast your bread upon the waters, and you shall find it after many days. God is not unrighteous to forget your 150 PAULINE CHARITY. work and labor of love. Sowing in tears, you shall reap in joy. Every generous and noble deed plants a germ in some human heart which shall here- after produce the plentiful fruits of righteousness. Charity, like the banyan-tree, throwing out branches which touch the ground and taking root shoot forth again in many a goodly form, has a wonderful fecun- dity and power of self-propagation, with endless ages for its growth and infinite fruitfulness for its glory. The undulations you produce in the waters of mercy must go on extending over the universe and through eternity. And the effect upon your own spirits shall be like that of harmonies from higher spheres ; and under its hallowing and tranquillizing power, life shall be to you as a perpetual summer eve, with all things calm, and fragrant, and divinely restful, be- tokening the eternal morrow of your hopes.^ And when like David you shall have served your own generation by the will of God, like him you shall fall asleep and be laid unto your fathers: and the dreams of paradise shall be but echoes of the melodies with which you filled the world in pass- ing through it; and others, whose being you have made a blessing, shall come and breathe their bene- dictions over your dust, and write upon your monu- ments — " Charity seeketh not her own ! " 1 Frederick Faber. CHARITY NOT lEKITABLE. 151 XII. CHARITY NOT IRRITABLE. Charity is not easily provoked. — 1 Cor. xiii. 5. Bishop Burnet says of Archbishop Leighton: "After an intimate acquaintance with the arch- bishop for many years, and having been with him by night and by day, at home and abroad, in public and private, I must say I never saw him in any temper in which I myself would not wish to be found at death." Beautiful testimony ! Admirable character ! Who of us can hope ever to attain to such perfection of moral virtue, to such complete subjugation of our evil nature, to such thorough habitual mastery of our own spirits ? Beloved brethren, the possession of the charity described by St. Paul would justify the same state- ment concerning any one of us, and the divine prop- erties of charity exhibited in this chapter would produce the same character in all Christians. Charity is here personified as some bright angelic being, shedding a balmy influence over the hearts of men, healing their wounds and soothing their sor- rows, expelling the demons of discord and mischief, harmonizing the aims and interests of society, and 152 PAULINE CHARITY. bringing all beautiful and heavenly things in her train. The eighth of her eleven attributes, which now claims our attention, is placidity of temper, implying the conquest and suppression of those irascible and fiery elements of our nature which sometimes give us so much trouble, and the acquisition and putting- on of that "ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of very great price." " Charity is not easily provoked." Now the temper is unquestionably constitutional and hereditary. It is something born with us, and sharing with all our moral faculties and affections the sad effects of the fall. Therefore it is too often erroneously regarded as beyond our control, beyond the jurisdiction of religion, even beyond the reach of the renewing grace of God. " Our temper," it is said, "being natural to us, must be irresistible and ineradicable ; it is as much a part of ourselves as any of our personal qualities, and we are no more responsible for it than for the color of our eyes or the conformation of our brains." But this is the sophistry of a corrupt and deceit- ful heart, which would subvert the whole system of moral obligation, and justify the worst crimes that men are capable of committing. For where there is no powe? of moral restraint, there can be no just or reasonable imputation of guilt, whatever a man may do, or whatever he may leave undone. Under the Christian economy, especially, that cannot be con- sidered a duty which we have no power to perform, CHARITY NOT IRRITABLE. 153 nor can that be deemed a crime which we are no- wise able to avoid. If we cannot possibly curb an irascible temper, then a merciful God can impute no guilt to its indulgence. But constitutional tend- ency is not irresistible constraint; natural incite- ment is not absolute compulsion. If we have no power of ourselves to overcome the evil, yet is it not invincible to the grace of God. And for this very purpose the grace of God is given, to enable us to subdue our sinful tempers, and bring our fractious- and rebellious nature under effectual discipline. Therefore we are exhorted to mortify the flesh, with the affections and lusts ; to cast off and crucify the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man that after the image of God is created in righteous- ness and true holiness. And why should this be deemed an unattainable victory? Shall not the stronger eject the strong? Shall not the dawn dispel the darkness ? Shall not Charity subdue and control an angry and irritable spirit? Have not the most imperious natural pro- pensities and the most tyrannous evil habits, with the aid of divine grace, been a thousand times ef- fectually resisted and overcome? Did not Saul of Tarsus, fierce as the eagle and furious as the tiger, breathing out threatening and slaughter against the disciples of Jesus, in a short time become mild as the lamb, gentle as the dove, meek and lowly of heart as the most Christlike of those whom he had lately persecuted unto the death ? If Socrates by his philosophy conquered his intemperate and libidinous propensities, how much more should the Christian, 154 PAULINE CHARITY. with the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, helping his infirmities, and filling his heart with the charity of God, be able to bring his whole nature into captivity to the obedience of Christ ! A certain famous divine of the Church of Eng- land, one of the brightest theological luminaries she has registered among her clergy since the Refor- mation, was originally of an irritable and violent temper, which gave him great trouble and mortifi- cation ; but he wrestled for the mastery, often spending whole nights in prayer and sometimes whole weeks in fasting, till at length he was so thor- oughly renewed in the spirit of his mind that for many of the later years of his life no one, friend or foe, ever observed in him on any occasion, under any provocation, the slightest degree of anger or impa- tience. According to his own account, the same is true of Francis de Sales; and the late Dean Hook testifies of himself that the quick and fiery spirit of his boyhood, under the discipline of divine grace, had given place to a placid and gentle disposition which appeared to himself miraculous, and people who saw how easily he kept his temper and how freely he forgave an injury could hardly believe what he told them of his former irritability ; and a like triumph seems to have been achieved by the Duke of Wellington, though attributed by others to the force of his own will — a will no doubt assisted and sustained by a higher agency, for God often works in men to will and to do of his good pleasure while they are quite unconscious of his gracious co- operation. CHARITY NOT IRRITABLE. 165 And have we not ourselves witnesed similar trans- formations, though perhaps less remarkable because in characters less conspicuous, effected by the sub- duing and sanctifying touch of the finger of God? True, after this mighty renovation of the inner man, this new creation in Christ Jesus, there may be, in unguarded moments, or under special temptations, some sad ebullitions of an evil temper — some roots of bitterness springing up and troubling the sincer- est Christian ; but these will be only occasional, not habitual — exceptional, not characteristic — sins of infirmity, not of deliberate volition — surprises of an enemy in ambush, from which the captive hastens to escape, and against which he afterwards guards with the greater vigilance. Betrayed by a quick temper, the best of men have sometimes fallen into sudden anger; but the sin, neither frequent nor dominant, was no sooner discovered than it was bewailed with godly sorrow and washed away with penitential tears. Such instances are but the desperate strug- gles of a conquered foe, the expiring spasms of the old man upon the cross. The work of renewal and sanctification, already begun, is going on in every child of grace ; and with diligence and fidelity on our part, the victory will soon be complete. But if, with all the aids of the Holy Spirit, and the word of God, and the sacraments of the Church, and the incitements of good example, and the allurements of the love of Christ, we make no progress in the gov- ernment of the temper ; if, after years and years of religious culture and self-discipline, we find our- selves still the slaves of anger, annoyed by every 156 PAULINE CHARITY. little incident, enraged by every greater provoca- tion, by our habitual petulance disturbing the peace of the family, or by our occasional violence afflict- ing the household of faith ; then have we reason to fear that we have received the grace of God in vain, that we are wofuUy wanting in the Christian charac- teristic so highly commended by the apostle. " Charity is not easily provoked." Some say she is not provoked at all. And, indeed, there is nothing in the original of the text answering to the adverb in the translation ; which is therefore omitted in the Revised Version. Yet is it not all anger that is incompatible with charity, and there is even a char- itable anger. The father may be angry at the mis- conduct of his child, and yet retain toward the child all his paternal tenderness. His anger may be but the expression of his concern for the child's wel- fare, of his benevolent opposition to that which is injurious to the child. In this case, anger is charity itself. But if the father have any ill-will toward the child ; if he wish him evil, or desire to do him harm ; then his anger is malevolence, the very oppo- site of charity. The only proper object of our anger is sin ; God is angry at nothing else ; and at sin we may well be angry, so great an enemy is it both to God and man.^ Who, that retains any love of truth, is not angry at deceit and hypocrisy? Who, that has any regard for the rights or compassion for the weaknesses of others, can be blamed for showing anger at injustice, 1 Jonathan Edwards. CHAKITY NOT lEKITABLE. 157 oppression, or cruelty? Was not Christ, our perfect Example, the personal revelation of the divine char- ity, angry at the hardness of heart vrhich rejected his heavenly teaching, at the sacrilegious traffic which made his Father's house a den of thieves, and at the blind and bigoted selfishness which forbade little children to come to him for a blessing? Was not Jehovah angry with his chosen people about the golden calf and the matter of Baal-peor, and angry with Moses and Aaron for their sin at Meribah Kadesh, and with Uzzah when he touched the ark, and with David when he numbered the people, and with Solomon when he became a worshipper of idols ? And what was all this but the concern of Infinite Love for those who were ruining themselves and bringing unspeakable injury upon others by their evil deeds — the anger of an affectionate father for a wilful and wayward son — the chidings and the chastenings of the Eternal Charity ? Anger, then, is not always sinful, and charity is opposed only to sinful anger. Anger is sinful when it is unjust in its occasion, or when it is immoderate in its measure. It is unjust in its occasion when it is without cause, or when it is excited by a wrong cause, or when the cause is a trivial and unworthy one. Such was Cain's anger at Abel, and Saul's anger at David, and Jonah's anger at Jehovah, and Herod's anger at the Eastern sages, and that of the laborers in our Lord's parable at the impartiality of their employer, and that of the elder son in another parable at the father's forgiveness of the younger. And if we are 158 PAULINE CHARITY. angry at our brother without a cause ; if we are angry at that which is a misfortune, and not a fault ; if we are angry at an involuntary error, or an accidental occurrence ; if we are angry at virtues, good deeds, and duties done to ourselves; if we are angry at words of Christian counsel or reproof, faithfully uttered in brotherly kindness; if wc are angry at smaller faults in others than those of which we are often guilty ourselves ; then is our anger unjust in its occasion, and so opposed to charity. It is immoderate in its measure when it is more violent than the nature of the offence will warrant ; when it discards the dictates of reason, and spurns the admonitions of prudence ; when it becomes the blind fury of a beast, rather than the rational affec- tion of a man ; when it casts off all restraint, and rages like a demon, and cares not what it does ; when it is continued till it becomes a confirmed habit, and degenerates into malice, and takes the character of revenge, souring the whole spirit of the man, and envenoming every faculty and affection of the soul. " Anger may surprise thee as an enemy ; let it not lodge with thee as a guest." ^ Some excitable per- sons there are, of generous and noble impulses, who are liable to sudden irritations, and who at first resent an injury warmly ; but the storm is soon over, and they are as ready to forgive as they were to take offence, and profoundly grieved and ashamed for having suffered themselves to be surprised into an unseemly passion. Solomon tells us that " anger resteth in the bosom of fools ; " and that " he that is 1 Leighton. CHAEITY NOT IRRITABLE. 159 slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his own spirit than he that taketh a city." St. Paul gives us this excellent advice : " Be ye angry, and sin not ; let not the sun go down upon your wrath." An ecclesiastical historian informs us of two Christians of the early days of the Church who had quarrelled in the morning, and at evening one of them sent word to the other, saying — " Brother, the sun is going down." What anger could with- stand such an appeal ? Even the heathen Pythago- reans had a rule which bound them, whenever there was any matter of difference among them, to fur- nish one another some token of reconciliation before the setting of the sun. And shall the followers of Jesus lie down to sleep with anger rankling in their bosoms? Nay, let them cast out the fiend, and quench the fire with the sweet waters of charity ! " A quick and fiery temper, easily excited and irrit- able under small provocations," writes one whose own experience remarkably verifies his words, " ought to be regarded as a misfortune and a disadvantage. By such a temper, ungoverned and unchecked, a man may be driven to acts of violence, and even to deeds of blood ; partially restrained, it will hurry him into acts of indiscretion, and involve him in controversies and disputes ; but let such a temper be brought under the dominion of grace, and it is precisely the temper which creates zeal, which rouses the soul to the gra- cious self-denyings of noble doing for the sake of God and his truth, to a bold resistance of what is wrong, and an enthusiastic pursuit of what is good." ^ 1 Deau Hook. 160 PAULINE CHARITY. Some people are constitutionally irritable, possess- ing a morbid sensibility which the slightest word or act is sufficient to kindle into anger. The powder is always there, and needs but a chance spark to pro- duce the explosion. A single sentence, a gesture, a look, will set the soul ablaze ; and then every little circumstance adds fuel to the flame, and the result is a mighty conflagration. Such passionate persons are never happy ; they cherish a serpent in their breasts, which is always stinging and tormenting them. Nor can others well be happy in their company; the wormwood of their cup is ever overflowing into that of their friends and neighbors. There is no cause of misery more prolific than an irascible temper, as an old English divine has told us a little better than any other I recollect to have read on the subject : — " Anger sets the house on fire, and all the spirits are busy upon trouble, and intend propulsion and defence, displeasure and revenge. It is a short mad- ness, and an eternal enemy to discourse, and sober counsels, and fair conversation. It is a fever in the heart, and a calenture in the head, and a fire in the face, and a sword in the hand, and a fury all over. It hath in it the trouble of sorrow, and the heats of lust, and the disease of revenge, and the bodings of fear, and the rashness of precipitancy, and the disturbances of persecution. If it proceed from a great cause, it turns to fury ; if from a small cause, it is peevishness ; and so it is always terrible or ridiculous. It makes a man's body deformed and contemptible, the voice horrid, the eyes cruel, the face fiery, and the gait fierce. It is neither manly CHAEITY NOT IRRITABLE. 161 nor ingenuous, and is a passion fitter for flies and wasps than for persons professing nobleness and bounty. It is the confluence of all irregular pas- sions. There is in it envy and scorn, fear and sorrow, pride and prejudice, rejoicing in evil and a desire to inflict it." ^ " Charity is not easily provoked." Its very nature is " good- will toward men." To all selfish and ma- levolent feelings, it is as much opposed as water is to fire. It cannot be irritated without sufficient cause, nor exasperated beyond the bounds of reason. Long- suffering, it bears meekly all insults and injuries. Full of kindness, it deals gently and generously even with the unthankful and the evil. Humble in spirit, it thinks very little of its invaded prerogative and its wounded honor. Modest in demeanor, it exacts from others no undue deference nor unreasonable esteem. Courteous toward all men, it labors to correct the natural asperities of temper, and soften the manners into the sweetest amenity. Curbing all impetuous tendencies, it gives Reason time to interpose her counsels, and Conscience to assert her sovereignty. Aiming to promote the glory of God, it elevates the soul above all selfish, narrow, grovelling, and unwor- thy ends. Concerning itself for the welfare and hap- piness of others, it will not willingly do them a wrong, nor afflict them by the exhibition of an un- lovely temper. Judging alwaj^s ingenuously and magnanimously, many things offensive it never no- tices at all, and others it deems too trivial for its 1 Jeremy Taylor. 162 PAULINE CHARITY. resentment. Destroying in the heart the very germs of suspicion and censoriousness, kind thoughts and generous estimates become natural and easy ; and when it can no longer suggest palliations and apolo- gies for those who have done us harm, it whispers us like an angel to pity their weakness and pardon their wickedness. Therefore saith the great Hebrew sage, "Cease from anger, and forsake wrath ; fret not thyself in any wise to do evil." Nay, listen to an inspired Christian counsellor: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; and be ye kind one to another, pitiful, tender-hearted, forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any — even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." What beautiful advice ! What heavenly wisdom ! Well says the greatest literary genius of Germany : " The angel who has never felt anger has reason to envy the man who subdues it. When thou forgivest, he who has pierced thy heart is to thee as the sea-worm that perforates the shell of the mussel, which straight- way closes the wound with a pearl ! " i 1 Jean Paul. CHAEITY NOT CENSOEIOUS. 163 XIII. CHARITY NOT CENSORIOUS. Charity thinketh no evil. — 1 Cor. xiii. 6. Some of you may have read a somewhat popular work of Mrs. Charles, entitled " Kitty Trevylyan." If so, you cannot fail to have remarked the character of Kitty's Aunt Henderson, — a very suggestive and instructive one, but also a very defective and faulty. Aunt Henderson's conversation consisted chiefly in compassionate animadversions upon the foibles and infirmities of her neighbors. In this, of course, she was perfectly conscientious ; thinking it a matter of much importance, that we should observe the follies and errors of others, in order to learn wisdom and prudence from them. Now Aunt Henderson is scarcely an imaginary personage. The world is full of just such people, who seem to regard the rest of mankind as a set of defective specimens expressly designed to teach them moral perfection, just as children at school have un- grammatical sentences placed before them to teach them grammar. But I cannot help thinking, with Kitty, that the children may learn more from the correct sentences than from the incorrect, and that it is far more pleasant to have the beautiful right 164 PAULINE CHARITY. thing before one than the failure ; nor can I believe, any more than she, that others are sent into the world to be a sort of example of error and imperfection, even to make Aunt Henderson and other conscien- tious people of the same kind quite perfect by the contrast. Aunt Henderson and her followers seem to be the very opposite of St. Paul's charity in this chapter ; for they enjoy a sort of selfish gratification in the mistakes and misdoings of their neighbors, and dwell upon them with a malicious self-complaceney of which they are scarcely conscious ; while it is among the most conspicuous qualities of charity, and by no means the least beautiful of the portraiture, that she " thinketh no evil ; " or, according to the Revised Version, " taketh not account of evil." What is here denied of charity is usually called censoriousness. No vice is more common ; and few, if any, are more mischievous. We are guilty of it when we rashly condemn the motives of others, offi- ciously blame what we do not understand, suspect evil intentions where none are manifest, or judge unfavorably of character upon false or insufficient grounds. We are guilty of it when we impute crimi- nality to mere mistake or error ; when we reprobate a person's conduct because we dislike his friends or his party; when we take a^single act, which is not habitual but exceptional, as the sure evidence of a corrupt and wicked heart ; when, like Job's three visitors, we denounce a man for an evil-doer on account of his misfortunes, interpreting God's gra- CHARITY NOT CENSOEIOUS. 165 cious discipline into the condign punishment of sin ; or when, by the bitter memory of some injury he may formerly have done ourselves or others, we are blinded to his present good intentions, and made in- capable of perceiving the virtuous aims and impulses of a life in the main well-pleasing to God. Clearly, in such cases, we go beyond our province, and assume the awful prerogatives of the omniscient Searcher of hearts. And undertaking what we are incapable of, we fall into great errors, wronging our neighbors and doing immeasurable harm. And with all this, has malice nothing to do? So much, indeed, that censoriousness is ordinarily the very essence of malice ; and Conybeare and Howson's rendering of the text is — " Love bears no malice." For such a spirit, who will seek any justification, or plead any necessity ? Were it not better to think kindly of our neighbors, and judge them more in- genuously ? Why arraign their conduct without cause, and condemn their action without evidence ? Why not rather suspect the imperfection of our own understanding, and question the righteousness of so hasty a decision ? Why not suppose that the deed we disapprove was the issue of an unintentional mistake? Why not impute the error more to the head than to the heart ? Why not believe the per- son honest and sincere till we certainly know to the contrary ? And when shall we arrive at that certain knowledge ? Never, perhaps, till the dread disclosures of the last day. " Therefore," saith the apostle, "judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who shall both bring to light the hidden things of dark- 166 PAULINE CHAKITY. ness and make manifest the counsels of the heart." In the present imperfect state of our knowledge, and with our present infirmities and uncertainties of judgment, to impute to another an evil motive or a wicked heart, when there is any possible chance of purity and uprightness, is to commit a very serious breach of that charity which "thinketh no evil." Some censorious people go so far as to pronounce upon the state of a man's soul in the sight of God, reprobating the living and damning the dead. But who can read his neighbor's heart? Are not the wisest and shrewdest observers often misled by out- ward appearances? Do we not all know that a man may talk lucidly of personal religion while he is living an utterly irreligious life — may speak beautifully of Christian humility while he is full to overflowing of spiritual pride — may descant eloquently on the fruits of the Spirit while he is practising the most abominable works of the flesh — may seem to de- spise his own righteousness as filthy rags while he is puffed up well-nigh to bursting with self-compla- cency — may emphasize the confession of his sins every Lord's-day morning in the Litany without one emotion of true contrition or purpose of practical reformation? The more one sees of the so-called religious world, the more must he be convinced of the impossibility of judging with any certainty of another's spiritual state from his discourse, profes- sion, or other external manifestation. And if we may err by forming too favorable an estimate, are CHARITY NOT CENSOEIOUS. 167 we not more likely, from the evil tendency of our own hearts, to err in the opposite direction ? If we are liable to be too lenient in our opinions and too generous in our judgments, do we not oftener fail, from the habitual indulgence of a censorious spirit, to make due allowances for our brethren ? And being unable to decide with any certainty upon the real character of the living, how shall we presume to determine the condition of the dead? How impious, to intrude into the province of the omniscient Judge, and pronounce the doom of the departed soul ! God has expressly prohibited all speculations in this direction; and of the many wicked people mentioned in Holy Scripture, noth- ing is distinctly revealed of their state in the other world; and of the vilest of them all, it is only vaguely said he died " that he might go to his own place ; " and Christ has given us but one terrific picture of a hopeless reprobate " lifting up his eyes in hell." Between us and the dead hangs an im- penetrable veil; and the abode of those who have left "this house of clay " is truly a terra incognita — " A land of deepest shade, Unpierced by human thought " — from whose bourn no messenger has come to tell us who are saved and who are lost. Therefore, when we undertake to judge the heart of the living and pronounce the doom of the dead, we are invad- ing the sovereign prerogative of Almighty God, as well as violating that charity which "thinketh no evil." 168 PAULINE CHARITY. Sad indeed it is to know that these explanations and arguments are rendered necessary by so many melancholy facts. What one of my hearers is not acquainted with people who are always forming un- favorable opinions of others, and often expressing those opinions without any apparent concern about the consequences of their own indiscretion? They look upon everybody with suspicion, as if they deemed the world nothing but a concourse of dis- guised scoundrels. A very small circumstance is to them a sufficient indication of insincerity, and the slightest inadvertency is set down as a demonstration of radical wickedness. The soundness of your faith they question because you happen to differ with them in some matter of opinion quite unimportant to Christiatiity. Your worship may be as hearty and as spiritual as their own ; yet, because you do not conform perfectly to their ritual, you are de- nounced as a Romanizer or a schismatic. They judge all by their own standard, measure all by their own iron bedstead, and make no account of the modifying influences of education and society. Even the fatherl}* chastisements of Divine Provi- dence they ignorant.ly or perversely misinterpret; and, like Job's miserable comforters, pronounce the metal spurious because it has been submitted to the furnace. If the motive of an act is not perfectly obvious, they are apt to give it a bad construction, though a good one were quite as easy. A general remark is made in company, and some one present thinks it applicable to himself, and forthwith angrily appropriates it, though the speaker had no more CHARITY NOT CENSORIOUS. 169 thouglit of him than of Julius Csesar. Absorbed in meditation or conversation, you unconsciously pass an acquaintance in the street without speaking to him, and the casual oversight is set down against you as an intentional incivility. I recollect once to have given lasting ofPence by failing to recognize on the instant an old friend whom I had not met for many years, though I was never in my life more innocent of unfriendly intention. On another occasion I in- curred the displeasure of a lady by my inability to identify her behind, a veil, which rendered her face as invisible as the moon in a total eclipse, and the crime I believe was never forgiven. Censorious people commonly see motes in others' eyes through beams in their own, and none are more to be suspected than those who are always suspect- ing their neighbors. Their knowledge of human nature is obtained at home, and their fears of you are only the reflected images of their own evil hearts. They resemble the surlj^ mastiff, that sidles growling toward the mirror, mistaking his own like- ness for a foe. Full of evil surmisings, they cannot afford to suspend their judgment and wait for ex- planation or evidence ; but, impelled by the bad spirit within them, they rush blindly to the bench and thunder forth their anathema against the sup- posed delinquent. How eagerly they take up an evil report, and how industriously they circulate it ! Hearing a vague rumor, than which nothing is more uncertain in such a world as this, they believe without a particle of evidence, and never take the trouble to inquire into the grounds of the suspicion ; 170 PAULINE CHARITY. but roll the delicious slander as a sweet morsel under their tongues, and feed on the imaginary imperfec- tion of their neighbors with the zest of a vulture upon the slain. Among the prohibitions of the Mosaic code is this — "Thou shalt not curse the deaf." But why the deaf, and not the blind, the lame, the maimed, the de- formed, the leprous, or the lunatic? Because the deaf cannot hear what is said against them, and therefore cannot defend or exculpate themselves. To attack a defenceless person is as unjust as it is cowardly and cruel. But is not this generally the manner of the vice in question*^ Censoriousness ordinarily assails the absent, who can neither vindi- cate himself nor silence the slanderous tongue. It is the part of the traitor. It is the adder biting the heel of the passenger. It is the house-dog barking bravely at the traveller he has not the courage to pursue. Were the injured person present to speak for himself, the villanous tongue had doubtless ob- served an exemplary silence, or praised the very thing it has so unsparingly denounced. To a woman who had been doing no little of this devil's-work, her confessor gave a quantity of thistle- seed, bidding her go out and scatter it on the wind, and then come back to him for further penance. When she returned and reported her execution of the order, he told her to go and gather it all up again and bring it back to him. " Oh ! but that is impossible," replied the fair penitent: "it is gone; it can never be recovered." " Let this teach you, CHARITY NOT CENSOEIOUS. 171 then," rejoined the faithful priest, " that the words you have spoken can never be recalled, and the in- jury they have done can never be repaired." Let us profit by the lesson, and correct a censorious habit, which may easily destroy the best reputation, but can never restore what it has ruined. As the magi- cians of Egypt, it is said, imitated Moses and Aaron in turning their rods into serpents, but were not able to turn the serpents again into rods ; so a censorious spirit can make an evil thing out of a good, but can- not recover the good again out of the evil. It can make an honest man look like a villain, a sober man like a drunkard, a modest man like a libertine, a devout man like a hypocrite ; but what power has it to revive the fair fame it has blasted, and undo the terrible mischief it has done ? The poison once poured upon the wind can never be recalled. Your evil surmise is readily received by others as censo- rious as yourself ; your whispered suspicion is taken up by a hundred willing tongues, and confirmod and magnified by a thousand more, till it becomes a com- mon report which no one dares to doubt ; but when, convinced of your error and sorry for your impru- dence, you wish to retract or modify your statement, you speak to averted ears and minds already preju- diced. The remedy comes too late ; the poison has done its work. You have made the serpent ; you cannot remake the rod. The injury inflicted upon the censured person, however, is not the greatest 3vil resulting from cen- soriousness. That which is done to the listeners is often much greater. A stumbling-block is placed in 172 PAULINE CHARITY. the way of their Christian progress, or an impetus is given to hurry them on to hell. If they are good people, though disgusted at the despicable censor, the poison will produce its baleful effect upon them — suspicion, alienation, active hostility, resulting in incalculable and incurable mischief. If they are bad people, they are encouraged and strengthened in their wickedness, and their unruly tongues are set on fire of hell ; and for the dishonor thus done to religion, Philistia will rejoice and the uncircum- cised will triumph; and the scattered thistle-seed will multiply its evil harvest year by year, defa- cing and encumbering the heritage of the Lord, till the angels of vengeance descend to bind the hateful product for the burning. Thus the shaft aimed at one inflicts a fatal wound upon many; the torch applied to your neighbor's barn devours the bread of a thousand families. Nor is this the worst. Who shall describe the harm the censorious person does to himself, draw- ing upon his own head from eYexj quarter distrust, hatred, infamy, and retribution? For who will not dread the venom of his tongue, and avoid him as one would avoid a viper ? And how can God toler- ate what is so repugnant to his nature, his precepts, and the spirit of the gospel? How can he look but with anger upon that which is so hostile to the interests of his kingdom, so destructive of the peace and good order of his family, so ruinous to myriads of immortal beings redeemed with the blood of his beloved Son ? And has not the offender reason to fear that, in judgment for his wickedness, he will be CHARITY NOT CENSORIOUS. 173 left to fall into the very sins he has so mercilessly denounced, or others which are still greater? Nay, who can say that he is not already quite as bad as the person whose faults and infirmities constitute the theme of his hateful animadversions ? Are not they who, like frogs in the mire, lie buried in their own habitual uncleanness, usually the loudest croakers and clamorers against jothers, as if they delighted in casting upon every passer-by the reproach of their own dishonor ? The good are ever most inclined to think well of their neighbors; while the vile and the vicious, not satisfied with the faults they see, ima- gine others which have no existence. They observe every thing, suspect everybody, and will be per- suaded of their neighbors nothing but the worst. Never bridling the unruly tongue, but making a jest of human infirmity, and often scourging virtue in- stead of vice, they burden their conscience with a fearful accumulation of guilt. And shall those who thus unjustly judge others escape the righteous judg- ment of God? Have they not reason to fear the punishment of the impious men who, in the camp, spake against Moses and Aaron? A sad, sad thing it is, to be so busy with the faults of others as utterly to forget our own ! Is life so long that we can afford to waste so much of it in this uncharitable way? Shall we be like wandering Esaus, spending the live- long day abroad, with quiver and bow chasing some- body's rumored or imagined sins? Let us rather tarry with Jacob at home, in all godly simplicity exemplifying the apostle's declaration — "Charity thinketh no evil," 174 PAULINE CHAKITY. Of the fault against which I preach there is, I fear, far too much among some people who are in most other respects very good Christians. To decide on human character is the prerogative of Jehovah, and requires Jehovah's attributes; and the imputa- tion of bad motive or intentional wrong, without good and sufficient evidence, is a sin equally against God and man. Tl:iere may be much wheat in the flour, though we see only the chaff. The diamond lies hidden in the sand, and the pearl in the depths of the sea. We cannot know the heart of our neigh- bor; let us look more carefully into our own. A fearful thing it is, to erect our own opinion and expe- rience as the standard and test for others, and deny all true religion to those who fall short of our meas- ure. Nothing could be more repugnant to charity, and every one of the amiable qualities of charity set forth in this chapter stands opposed to such a prac- tice. As self-love makes us think well of ourselves, so charity makes us think well of our brethren. Judge unkindly it cannot ; condemn officiously it never will. Upon every thing said or done, it puts the best construction possible in the case. No evil report will it believe without evidence ; no test of character will it accept but that which God hath ordained; no folloAver of Christ will it discard be- cause his views and feelings do not quadrate in all respects with its own. To mere surmise and rumor it will not listen for a moment ; and from the mali- cious whispers of the tale-bearer it averts its ear with a holy disgust. When forced to believe evil of another, it accepts the fact with manifest reluctance, CHARITY NOT CENSORIOUS. 175 takes no pleasure in reporting it, finds many a pal- liation for the offence, and spreads its broad mantle over the multitude of sins. To talk of the good of its neighbors is its special delight, to set forth their virtues and commend their worthy deeds. In every opportunity of communicating pleasure it rejoices with unfeigned JDy, and with instinctive horror slirinks from inflicting needless pain. The counsels of avarice and ambition it opposes with all its might; and by every mild and gracious means at its command counteracts the deadly influence of pride, envy, anger, malice, and revenge. Stemming the torrents of vice and error, it seeks to rescue the perish uig and edify the faithful — to make the mis- erable happy, and the happy happier still. In the closet it originates schemes for blessing humanity, and goes forth into society for their execution. At night it devises deeds of mercy upon its bed, and in the morning rises radiant as the dawn to perform the benevolent purposes with which it sank to rest.^ By every act, and every word, and every look, and every exhibition of its character, at home and abroad, in public and in private, surrounded by friends or men- aced by foes, without limitation or qualification, it sustains the apostle's statement — "Charity think- eth no evil." 1 J. A. James. ^ 176 PAULINE CHARITY. XIV. CHARITY TRUE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. — 1 Cor. xiii. 6. "But what has charity to do with joy? What room is there for rejoicing in that meek and lowly spirit, that gentle and forbearing temper, that patient and much-enduring virtue, which has already been described as utterly forgetful of self and wholly occupied with the griefs and burdens and interests of others? That we ought, indeed, to lead such a life, there can be no doubt. The law of Christ re- quires it, and the several social relations strongly enforce the obligation. But what is there in it of enjoyment, what lofty exhilaration of spirit, what thrills of pleasurable emotion, to repay the heavy task of duty, sympathy, and habitual self-denial ? " So might the carnal and selfish man inquire — so might the cold-hearted and un spiritual-minded rea- son — on reading these words of the apostle. Of the love here portrayed he practically knows nothing, and cannot appreciate its action in others. To him, unquestionably, its law would be a burden ; and an attempted conformity to its requirement, an intol- erable slavery of the soul. CHARITY TRUE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. 177 But here lies the special mystery of love. This spirit of holy sympathy and brotherly helpfulness, caring so tenderly for others, and weeping with them that weep, affords a refined joy, a noble satisfaction, a sustaining consciousness of the pure and the good, which has in it more of heaven than of earth, and like the new name in the white stone is known only to its possessor. What charity is, in its essence and some of its chief qualities, we have already seen ; and now, if we consider what iniquity is, and what the apostle here intends by the truth, it will be easy to under- stand how charity must rejoice in the latter, but cannot rejoice in the former. The Latin word iiiiquitas is from in — the negative particle, and aequus — which means even or equal. The term expresses, therefore, unevenness or ine- qualit}^ — a want of rectitude or moral principle. It is the equivalent of injustice or wickedness — that which is wrong in itself and injurious in its effects. In its ordinary acceptation, iniquity is dishonesty, hypocrisy, unfair dealing, deceitful practice, whether toward God or man. In its largest comprehension, as here used by St. Paul, it is the great falsehood brought in by the father of lies, antagonizing the goodness of the Creator and working infinite evil to his creatures. Warring against the love of God, it tends to subvert his authority and spread disorder and anarchy throughout his empire. Left to work out its legitimate effect without restraint or remedy, it would stanch effectually the fountain of being 178 PAULINE CHARITY. and of blessing by terminating the reign of infinite wisdom and benevolence. How, then, can charity- rejoice in iniquity? Desiring the welfare of an intel- ligent univei'se, how can she rejoice in that which must result only in wretchedness and ruin? Sym- pathizing in the gracious purposes of God's good will to man, how can she rejoice in that which aims to thwart his merciful designs and curse his human family ? Devoting her energies with self-sacrificing zeal to the highest good of others, how can she re- joice in that which disturbs their peace, pollutes their consciences, desolates the happiest households, infects with fatal maladies the very heart of society, and turns the paradise of our probation into a des- ert, a charnel, and a hell ? Now the truth, in this apostolic use of the term, is the exact opposite of iniquity, and therefore the legitimate object of charity's rejoicing. Our English word "truth" is a modification of the Anglo-Saxon treowe^ corresponding to the German treu and the Danish ti^o ; all indicating that which is fixed, set- tled, solid, certain, constant, according to fact or reality, to be confidently believed and relied upon. The truth by pre-eminence is God's gracious revela- tion to man contained in his written word. The truth in human practice and human character is conformity of heart and life to the principles and requirements of that revelation. In the broadest and sublimest significance of the term, then, the truth is moral virtue, obedience to the supreme Will, the image of the Divine excellence reflected in the creature. It is the antagonist of iniquity, which CHAEITY TRUE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. '179 shall ultimately drive it out of the universe ; the dayspring from on high, which must dispel the dark- ness that covers the earth and the gross darkness that envelopes the people. It is an efflux of the wisdom, the goodness, the mercy, the justice, and the holiness of God; the spirit of heaven walking the earth, and scattering its blessings like the dews of the niglit or the beams of the morning. And if charity is love, must she not necessarily rejoice in that which is so manifestly promotive of the welfare of mankind — which ennobles and purifies their spir- its, and secures for them the Divine approval and complacency — which effects their deliverance from evil passions and vicious habits, their escape from the despicable tyranny of sin and Satan, and their return to the primeval innocence and blessedness of their being — which must issue in the perfect dis- inthralment of millions upon millions of the human race, the ultimate establishment of Jehovah's taber- nacle with men, the extermination of sin with its in- numerable train of sorrows and calamities, and the conversion of this guilty and gloomy planet into the redeemed kingdom of the Prince of peace ? Charity, therefore, " rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." Conybeare and Howson read — "Love rejoices not in the punishment of wickedness, but rejoices in the victory of truth." Generally, throughout the chapter, the translation of these critical and scholarly commentators sheds no little light upon the Authorized Version by bring- ing out the more delicate shades of meaning in the original. In this instance, however, I am not sure 180 PAULINE CHARITY. tliat they have made the matter any clearer. The Revised Version gives us — "rejoiceth not in un- righteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth." What the apostle intended to say seems to be this : Charity neither takes pleasure in doing wrong itself, nor ex- ults in the wrong-doing of others ; but sympathizes with the truth in its triumphs over iniquity, rejoi- cing with it in its holy and benevolent joy. There are those — and we all know them — men of fair repute, not generally regarded as great sin- ners against society, but much admired and ap- plauded for their shrewdness and success in business enterprise, who certainly are not too scrupulously just in the methods by which they amass their mil- lions, and build up a fortune for themselves on the financial ruin of others. Congratulating themselves and one another on the cleverness with which they have achieved their purposes, they seem utterly in- different to the evils they have inflicted — perhaps quite unconsciously — upon multitudes of their fel- low-men. Not gratified at these sad results, they are insensible to them ; they see them not, nor care to see them ; so absorbed in their own plans and inter- ests, that they never think — will not allow them- selves to think — about the consequences to their neighbors. But is this insensibility an apology for them? Is it not rather their special condemnation and their shame? For what right have rational beings to be thoughtless, social beings to be heart- less, moral beings to be reckless, conscious beings to be habitually unconscious of their own iniquity ? CHARITY TRUE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. 181 Very delicate indeed are the moral sensibilities of charity. Very acute is the power of conscience in the heart that truly and divinely loves. To such a spirit the slightest shade of injustice becomes pain- fully apparent. Too fine it is — too pure and too noble — to take pleasure in any thing bearing the least taint of perversion and corruption. The truth, the fundamental contrary of iniquity, the inspiration and strength of all goodness, the chosen oracle through which heaven communicates with earth, the divine agency ordained for quickening and purifying the world — this is that which charity rejoices in, because of its fitness, congruity, inestimable value to mankind, as the prime organ and energy of the su- preme Will for curing the disorders of this apostate planet; for what is the truth, in its ultimate tri- umph, but God displayed, humanity restored, and redeeming love reigning over a happy universe ? Of Gyges, king of Lydia, it is fabulously related, that he wore a ring which enabled him to become invisible at pleasure, so that he could commit any crime without shame or fear. Some sinners might envy Gyges such a power, and wish at any price to purchase his magical ring ; but there are others, no doubt, who care nothing for the former, and would give little for the latter, just because they have no desire to conceal their evil deeds. So hardened are they in their vicious practices, that they are neither afraid nor ashamed to indulge in them before all Israel and the sun ; talking about them, jesting upon them, glorying in them, making a public exhibition 182 PAULINE CHAEITY. of them, as if they thought it a fine thing to be wicked and an honor to be infamous. Of such a one the Psalmist demands : " Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man ? " or as the Vul- gate has it, " Why boastest thou thyself in thy wick- edness, who art so mighty in iniquity ? " But is not this passing strange, that men should glory in that which is so fraught with shame, and rejoice in that which is so full of sorrow? Search through all the occupations and pursuits of the world, and where will you find one proud of hav- ing committed an error in his business or failed in the practice of his profession, or fallen short of an honorable aim? Herodes Atticus, the first Athen- ian orator of his day, making a speech before the Emperor Marcus Antoninus, became confused in thought, lost the thread of his argument, and ab- ruptly left the rostrum, which so affected him that he fell sick and came near dying of sheer mor- tification. Labienus, having written some books which were criticised and condemned by the senate, sought to escape from society, and fled to hide him- self in the catacombs. Sophocles, having produced a tragedy which the people failed to applaud, went and inflicted upon himself a severe corporeal pun- ishment. The son of Emilius Scaurus, having de- serted his post in battle, deemed himself unworthy to appear before his father and plunged a dagger into his heart. But what are such failures, compared with sin against God? And shall sin against God be the only thing of which men are not ashamed ? Shall they be so overwhelmed with grief and mor- CHARITY TRUE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. 183 tification at a mere mistake or accident, or a single dereliction of duty under the strong instinct of self- preservation, that they cannot bear the presence of their friends nor endure to live any longer ; and yet feel no shame, no sorrow, no remorse, at that which is infinitely more odious and more terrible ; and re- joice in that which has nothing in it but misery, and infamy, and ruin ? ^ Judas, having betrayed his Lord, was so stricken of conscience that he went and hanged himself; but we now see multitudes betraying him continually, and boasting of their baseness. Peter, having denied his Master, was so heart-broken about it that he retired and wept bitterly ; but these sinners deny him daily for many years, and are proud of the falsehood which they practise before the world. Esau, having sold his birthright and forfeited his father's blessing, cried with an exceeding bitter cry; but these laugh aloud and jest amain at having cast away their title to the blood-bought inheritance in heaven. David lamented his transgressions with melodious sighs upon his harp, and turned all his hallelujahs into doleful wailings; but these, as Solomon saith, "de- light to do evil, and rejoice in the frowardness of the wicked." Alas! that men should value themselves on their very worthlessness, and pride themselves upon their offensiveness to God ! What other proof is there, equal to this, of the desperate depravity of the human heart? And will Jehovah suffer them with impunity to be proud of their vileness, who hurled Lucifer from 1 Segneri. 184 PAULINE CHARITY. his heavenly seat for being proud of his perfections? If he punished Goliath because he vaunted of his strength, and Absalom because he plumed himself upon his beauty, and Sennacherib because he gloried in his military achievements, and Haman because he was puffed up with the partialities of the king, and Nebuchadnezzar because he exulted in the grandeur and magnificence of his capital, and Hezekiah be- cause he made an ostentatious display of his treas- ures to the Assyrian deputies, and Herod because he was vain of his splendor and his eloquence and gave not God the glory, and the boastful Pharisee in the parable because he paraded before the Lord in the temple his fasts and tithes and alms-deeds, how shall those escape who rejoice in their falsehood, their treachery, their double dealing, their trickery in trade, their shrewdness of deceit, their successful schemes of villany, and all those still more shameful practices which render them a terror to innocence and a curse to society ? Ah ! could they but once see themselves as others see them, as God and his angels see them — could they for a moment be disenchanted of the foul sor- cery of sensualism and vicious habit — would they not instantly dash away their cups and their cards, tear themselves indignantly from the scenes of profli- gate dissipation in which they have long delighted, and retiring to their secret chambers make the soli- tude of the night doleful with lamentations and self- reproaches, and in sackcloth and ashes keep such a Lent as once for more than half a century averted from Nineveh the threatened wrath of Heaven ? CHARITY TRUE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. 185 St. Jerome, who spent a large portion of his life in the Holy Land, has left us a vivid picture of the wailing of the Jews once a year amidst the ruins of their lost Jerusalem. They were strictly prohibited, he informs us, from entering the city, except on this appointed " day of weeping ; " and even on this day, the anniversary of their unspeakable woe, they were forced to pay for the melancholy privilege, so that the children of those who had bought the blood of Jesus with money must now give money for their own tears. From every quarter they came, and even from distant countries, and pitched their sorrowful camps upon the surrounding hills at some distance from the shattered walls. Early on the woful morn- ing many different companies might be seen, of men and women, old and young, with rent robes, dishev- elled hair, and heads covered with ashes, moving slowly and silently toward the gate of entrance, where the several columns met and closed their ranks ; and as they passed in, remembering how the Roman legions had passed the same way before them and laid waste the fair city with fire and sword, with one voice they broke forth in bitterest lamentation ; and their harps and trumpets, no more as formerly of pleasant sound, swelled the vast threnody of despair ; and so' they went from place to place and from quarter to quarter, howling over the ashes of the temple, over the fallen towers, and palaces, and porticos, and all the glory of God's terrestrial throne in ruins. And when the time came for their depart- ure, unable to tear themselves away from the dear memorials of their lost heritage, many fell down at 186 PAULINE CHAEITY. the feet of the rude soldiers, piteously craving a little longer indulgence of the luxury of grief; which was either cruelly denied them, or granted only on their payment of a second and larger fee.^ A very affecting spectacle it must have been — many thousands of God's ancient covenant people, now reprobate and ruined beyond all hope of remedy, thus bewailing the national disaster on the sacred spot where their fathers worshipped and perished, regardless of the taunts and jeers of a hostile j)opu- lace, and all the insolent reproaches of the vile mob of idolaters ! And what was their great calamity, but the fruit of sin? Sin it was — tJie abominable thing which God hateth — that had disinherited them and laid their holy place in ruins. And shall sinners now make mirth over that which has lost them heaven, redemption, immortality ? Will they laugh at the anger of the Almighty, and defy his thunders hurtling through the fiery cloud? Let them make ready, then, and stand forth to meet their God! Let them harden their nerves to steel, their bones to brass, their muscles to adamant, and come up to the battle ! You have read how the servants of the fugitive David were enraged at the insolent mockery of that wicked Benjamite at Bahurim, and one of them said, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head ! " So, methinks, all the elements of nature, which are the household troops of Jehovah, incensed at the dis- honor done their Sovereign, are impatient of his tardy 1 Segneri. CHAEITY TRUE TO KIGHTEOUSNESS. 187 vengeance; the earth crying — "Let me go, and I will ingulf them as I did Korah and his company ! " the sea crying — "Let me go, and I will devour them as I did Pharaoh and his army!" the fire crying — " Let me go, and I will fall upon them as I did upon the Syrian captain and his fifty!" the wind crying — " Let me go, and I will sweep them away with my tornadoes as I did the feasting sons and daughters of Job!" the pestilence crying — "Let me go, and *I will blast them with the breath of my nostrils as I did the impious Assyrians under the walls of Jerusa- lem ! " earthquake and volcano shouting in muffled thunder — "Let us go, and we will rock their cities to ruin, and bury the guilty populace beneath rivers of lava, so that their place shall no more be found ! " and every winged minister of wrath waiting impa- tiently for his commission to avenge the Most High upon these insolent despisers of his truth, these reck- less merry-makers in iniquity ! ^ And if thus it is with those who glory in their own shame, and sport themselves with their own de- ceivings, how is it with those who, like Satan, tempt others to evil, and enjoy a satanic delight in the ruin they have wrought — who put the maddening cup to their neighbor's lips, and amuse themselves with the tears of widows, the cries of orphans, and the anguish of breaking hearts — who practise the vilest arts of hypocrisy to mislead unsuspecting innocence, and sully the white robes of virtue, and raise on earth the prelude of the eternal lamentations? Is 1 Segneri. 188 PAULINE CHARITY. it necessary to say theirs is not the part of charity ? Is Satan more opposed to God, cruelty to kindness, pollution to purity, Gehenna to Paradise, than their character and conduct are to charity ? Tenderness ? compassion? sympathy? humanity? There is as much of these in a block of granite — in the heart of a fiend — as in these children of the Wicked One ! It is written, " Fools make a mock at sin ; " and who but fools could indulge in such mockery? Folly? Mere folly ? It is madness, inspired of malice, and inflamed to fury ! It is the spirit of a demon in the brain of a lunatic ! It is hell emptied into Bedlam ! To rejoice in that which dethroned some of the heav- enly principalities, and drove man out of the blessed garden — to rejoice in that which severed the great human family from its loving Father, and cut the ingrates off from all angelic fellowship — to rejoice in that which once deluged with water one of the fair- est provinces of creation, and shall hereafter whelm it with all its works in consuming fire — to rejoice in that which is daily turning souls capable of heaven into fire-brands of hell, robbing them of an inherit- ance procured for them by blood divine, and banish- ing them accursed and irrecoverable beyond the dominion of mercy — is surely a moral insanity which no words can adequately express — a sight to make saints stand aghast, and strike angelic powers into mute paralysis ! But why should I break the spell? Is there any possible deliverance for such deluded wretches out of the snare of the Devil ? Nay, let them revel a little longer in their shameful mirth ! Why should I rouse CHARITY TRUE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. 189 the slumbering conscience to torment them before the time ? Rejoice, ye fools, in your folly, for soon will it be over and ended ! Vengeance is God's, and the day is at hand! Behold, he cometh ! Now laugh at the last trump, the opening graves, the flaming mountains, and the world on fire ! Now defy the enthroned Judge, and scoff at the sentence of doom, and regale your ears with the wailings of your victims, and brace your desperate hardihood for the endurance of an eternal fate ! For it is come at last — the clay of recompense ; and justice without mercy shall vindicate the insulted majesty of truth, and anguish without hope shall succeed your mad rejoicing in iniquity ! To these earnest remonstrances with open profli- gacy and undisguised impiety, some who hear them may raise no objection, while they deem nothing that has been said appropriate to themselves. Yet many who hold respectable positions in society, practise an outward morality quite unexceptionable, and often mingle with the faithful at the eucharistic feast of redeeming love, are scarcely less culpable in these matters than the most degraded wretch among the godless multitude. Satan loves to array himself in the robes of religion in order the more effectually to accomplish his cruel purposes ; and those who have sold themselves to his service often imitate their master's hypocrisy, concealing the assassin's dagger beneath the cloak of charity. They are full of good works, and every tongue is eloquent in lau- dation of their devotion to the Church, their liber- 190 PAULINE CHARITY. ality to the poor, and their tender care of the aflflicted and the unfortunate ; but this is only the outside whitewash of the tomb that is rank with inward rot- tenness and alive with hissing serpents. Within that fair exterior lurk envy, jealousy, dark suspicions, and malicious purposes, ready to assail every thing pure and beautiful that walks in God's sunlight above them. They are never content — these foul and fierce spirits — till they have arrested somebody's career of usefulness, or hedged up some one's way to honorable success, or cast a blight over some un- blemished reputation, or marred the peace of some harmonious and happy family, or inflicted a wound upon some guileless and unsuspecting heart. For these ends they pry into your business matters, your social relations, your domestic concerns, the sacred privacy of your chambers, with a diligence worthy of the highest virtue, and an impertinence not un- worthy of the lowest vice.^ They whisper a scandal- ous surmise, and enjoin the strictest secrecy; well knowing that they are giving it to every bird of the air, and sowing it broadcast on the winds of heaven. With a baseness of which Satan himself might be ashamed, they write an anonymous letter, rank with the poison of false kindness ; making the postmaster an unconscious partner in their despicable enterprise, and converting the ever-welcome letter-carrier at your door into a messenger of hell. In their cow- ardly ambuscade they sit concealed, and by proxy play their masked batteries upon their victim, who knows not whither to turn, nor which way to escape, 1 Dr. South. CHARITY TRUE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS. 191 nor whose the hand that wounds him. With what a fiendish satisfaction do they enjoy the mischief they have done ! with what an under-chuckle of in- fernal glee watch the writhings of the anguish they have caused ! and with what refinement of malevo- lent delight gloat over the mournful sight which makes good angels weep, and breaks anew the loving heart of Jesus ! Oh ! when I come in contact with one of these human reptiles — when I look upon the face and form which suggest angelic qualities, but turn out to be the spawn of the old serpent — my soul recoils with unutterable horror and disgust ; and I know not whether I ought to bewail with Jeremiah the degenerate daughter of my people, or scourge the villanous tongue with words of indigna- tion that well-nigh blister my own ! ''Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? and who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity ? " Trample into its native dust the viper that lurks by the path and snaps at the passer's heel I Lash beyond the pale of Christian society the wretch that tries to asperse with his vile suspicions the spot- less robe of virtue ! Frown into merited annihilation the miscreant that seeks to assassinate a reputation which ten times his own talents could never attain ! Trust not the man that whispers in your ear a calumny against his neighbor ; he will pick your pocket to-morrow! Have nothing to do with the woman that ventilates her uncharitable spirit in an anonymous letter : she will cut your throat at mid- night ! The Comanche is more humane in his war- fare ; the rattlesnake is more honorable in its attack. 192 PAULTKE CHAEITY. Such a one could laugh at chains, dance in dungeons, jest over guillotines, amuse himself with inquisitorial engines, enjoy his orgies on battle-fields reeking with blood, and with his boon companions — as my own eyes have seen — make a gambling-table of his brother's grave I He could trifle at the death-bed of a Paine or a Voltaire, frolic merrily around the Saviour's cross, and find his sweetest music in the dirge of ruined souls. God forgive me, if I express myself too vehe- mently ! But I hate the liar and calumniator, as I hate the Father of lies and calumnies. With unutter- able detestation I spurn the sinuous slippery reptile, because I honor the Lamb's redeemed Bride and desire to see her walking with her Lord in raiment of the unsullied snow. Does not the very heart of mercy abhor the vampire that sucks the life of vir- tue, the hyena that with reeking jaws laughs over the charnel of slaughtered innocence ? And yet against the hateful crawling thing we must not bring a railing accusation ; but say, as the archangel did to Satan, " The Lord rebuke thee ! " and pray, with the expiring Saviour upon the cross, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do ! " O God, most merciful and gracious ! absolve us, we beseech thee, from all our guilt, and wash our leprous souls in the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, and by thy Holy Spirit inspire us with that divine charity which " rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth I " CHAKITY JMAGNANUyiOUS AND INVINCIBLE. 193 XV. CHARITY MAGNANIMOUS AND INVINCIBLE. Charity beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. — 1 Cor. xiii. 7. The community of Christian graces, like the so- ciety of Christian souls, is animated by a common spirit and governed by a common principle. The subject being one and indivisible, the properties must be perfectly homogeneous. For charity is not like some material thing, which by mechanical or chemical means may be separated into many parts. All these attributes are only so many modified exer- cises of the same generic virtue ; even as judgment, memory, imagination, and the rest, are so many dif- ferent operations of the same mental agent. They resemble a harmony, where the several sounds sweetly melt into one another ; or a rainbow, where all the colors meet and blend in one magnificent arch. They are not a heterogeneous concourse of strangers at a watering-place ; but a loving family at home, dwelling together in unity. They are not a grove of different sorts of trees, or a garden of independent plants ; but the interlaced branches of a vine, all sustained by the same stock, nourished by the same sap, and bearing similar fruit. 194 PAULINE CHARITY. Four clusters of this vine we present you to-night, from which may every cup be filled with the wine of the kingdom ! '' Charity beareth all things, believ- eth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things " — that is, beareth all things that can be borne, be- lieveth all things that ought to be believed, hopeth all things good con^cerning others, and endureth whatever of evil they may inflict or occasion to our- selves. These four we regard as so many manifesta- tions of invincible magnanimity, which we call the eleventh and last of the attributes of charity as here set forth by the apostle. If we take the first of these four items to mean the same as the last, we in effect accuse St. Paul of a very awkward tautology. Bearing and enduring are not identical. The word here translated " bear- eth," Conybeare and Howson render " forbeareth ; " and the apostle's meaning may be, that charity exer- cises great patience toward offenders, restraining her righteous anger, and never punishing till it is abso- lutely necessary. The same Greek word sometimes signifies to sustain or support ; and perhaps the writer intended to express the idea that charity is the sus- taining or supporting principle of all other virtues, or that it sustains or supports the needy or suffering brother, according to his own precept to the Gala- tians — " Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." But the verb has been rendered also " containeth," " concealeth," " covereth," or " ex- cuseth," which seems to be the preferable version in this place — containeth as a vessel, concealeth as a CHARITY MAGNANIMOUS AND INVINCIBLE. 195 secret, covereth as a mantle, and excuseth as a friend. If the reference is to self, the meaning must be that charity contains or conceals its own feelings under trial and suffering; as in the twelfth verse of the ninth chapter, where the apostle, using the same Greek verb, says, " We suffer all things " — we bear all in silence, without complaining or divulging. If the reference is to others, the meaning must be that charity does not judge them unjustly, censure them severely, or speak unnecessarily of their errors and delinquencies ; neither raising an evil report against its neighbors, nor taking it up readily when origi- nated by others ; holding in the unruly tongue as with a bridle, saying nothing to mar a good reputa- tion or blemish the slightest appearance of virtue. Indeed, as already shown in previous discourses, there is nothing more characteristic of charity than this covering or concealing of a neighbor's faults. It is like God's love, which hides the sins of all his children.^ It does not search for evil ; and when evil is obtruded upon its observation, it grieves and would gladly veil it from the view of others. All officious arraignment of another's motives it avoids; and when duty demands its judgment, the adverse sen- tence is pronounced with sorrow. Garnering the wheat, it is not careful to ascertain the exact am.ount of chaff and straw. In quest of diamonds, it can- not stay to analyze the rock in which they are em- bedded. Exploring the stellar fields, it has no eye for the flitting exhalation that gleams over the stag- nant lagoon. Such glory and beauty it sees in moral 1 Leighton 196 PAULINE CHAKITY. goodness that it cannot be diverted from the study and admiration of it by any infirmities with which it may be associated. Where disclosure or reproof is not a manifest duty — where no good is to be gained by publicity, and no evil is likely to result from secrecy — it spreads a veil over its neighbor's imper- fections, and conceals them from the knowledge of the world. And if any one undertakes to defend or exculpate a suspected or calumniated brother, faith is not wanting to receive candidly and joyfully whatever is said in his favor — "Charity believetL all things." Faith in the beloved object is the natural fruit of love. Any thing to the injury of those for whom we entertain a strong affection we can scarcely credit at all, but every thing good and praiseworthy that is said of them we receive with glad avidity. Go tell an affectionate mother of the faults of her absent son. Does she readily accept your testimony? Is there no hesitation, nor incredulous shake of the head? You must adduce the clearest evidence, and your single word must be corroborated by other witnesses, before she will yield her reluctant credence to the accusation ; and even then it is not yielded without many misgivings, and motherly surmisings, and con- jectural qualifications, in favor of her child. She demands whether you yourself witnessed the things of which you speak, or whether 3^our infoimant were a truthful and unprejudiced person, or whether the report ma}^ not have originated in some unfriendly motive, or whether there be not some circumstance CHARITY J^IAGNANIMOUS AND IXVINCIBLE. 197 in connection with the facts that would give them a different aspect, or whether after all it were not some other child instead of her own. Her heart commands her judgment, and will not permit her to receive the injurious representation without the clearest and most unquestionable proof. Some mis- take, she thinks, there must be about the matter. Rather than credit the report of her darling's cul- pability, she would believe a dozen persons in error, or even guilty of malicious falsehood. But, on the other hand, tell her of the good and noble conduct of her boy; tell her of his prudence and discretion, his fine manners and unexceptionable deportment, his studious habits and proficiency in learning ; and in- stantly you see the glad conviction beaming in her eye, and mantling all her features with sunny joy; and perhaps she adduces many confirmations of your encomium, and tells you the finest things concerning her son, and expatiates enthusiastically upon his rare and noble qualities. What is it but love, that ren- ders her so incredulous to what is said against him, and so ready to receive without abatement or quali- fication all that is uttered in his praise?^ And Christian love, operating in another sphere, differs nothing in this respect from natural maternal affec- tion, powerfull}^ inclining the heart to faith in the moral excellence of its object. The apostle tells us that " faith worketh by love ; " is it not equally true, that love worketh by faith? The fact is, that the two principles are co-operative and inseparable, both in their exercise toward God I Jldw^rd Irving, 198 PAULINE CHARITY. and in their exercise toward man acting reciprocally, each strengthening and promoting the other. The more we trust God, the more shall we love him ; and the more we love him, the more inclined are we to trust him. And thus it is with love to our brethren in Christ. Loving them sincerely, we cannot easily distrust them. Esteem is an important element of love, and we esteem highly only that which we be- lieve to be good. Charity, therefore, is not independ- ent of faith; and she is kindly disposed to credit whatever is said in favor of her object. Not with cautious hesitation, as if afraid of believing too much, does she receive the favorable testimony concerning a Christian brother ; but listens with evident delight to every word, and gives conviction gladdest wel- come. Instead of acting on the villanons Machi- avellian maxim that we ought to regard all men as knaves till they are proved to be otherwise, she pre- fers to trust them as honest and virtuous till she has unquestionable evidence that they are unworthy of her trust. With great caution and manifest re- luctance she receives any statement or suggestion injurious to another's good name, but cordially as- sents to every thing said in his favor, and rejoices to hear him commended. He may be a stranger or a foreigner; he may be a rival or an adversary; he may be of another party in religion or another school in politics; but charity, neither a bigot nor a partisan, can imagine that some good thing may come even out of Nazareth. She will not prejudge, but will open her heart to the entertainment of evi- dence, and weigh candidly every circumstance, that CHARITY MAGNANIMOUS AND INVINCIBLE. 199 she may be able to approve things that are excellent. When your fair fame is tarnished by the evil tongue, when your Christian character is wounded by the dogs of slander, she still adheres to her good opinion of you, and maintains her faith till its very foundations fail. But perhaps the matter is investigated, the report confirmed, the accused convicted. What will char- ity do now? She ''hopeth all things." May not some palliation or excuse yet be found, something transpire to relieve the case of its darker features, some favorable development give the whole affair a very different phase? First appearances are often deceptive, circumstantial evidence is frequently fal- lacious, and even direct testimony cannot always be relied upon ; and charity hopes that, though many things now look suspicious, some future discovery or explanation will make the innocence of the accused perfectly clear to all. People often form an unfa- vorable opinion of others from some error of their own, or from an ex-parte statement by a third per- son; and charity hopes that, when the other side comes to be heard, the opposing testimony may be sufficient to obliterate the false or partial impression already thus produced. Some speakers are always using superlatives and magnifying whatever they relate ; and charity hopes that the affair, having passed from tongue to tongue, a lit le embellished or exaggerated by every, repetition, will be found less flagrant than at first represented. The world is largely given to lying, and defamation is one of the most prevalent vices of society, and envious tongues 200 PAULINE CHARITY. can never rest till they have blasted some overshad- owing reputation or checked the career of some am- bitious rival ; and charity hopes that the allegation may tnrn out in the end to be altogether groundless, the despicable work of one of those depraved souls who are always trying to put out another's light that their own may shine the brihgter. Wrong- doing sometimes originates in ignorance or infirmity, in misinformation or misjudgment, where there is no evil motive, where the intention is even friendly and benevolent ; and charity hopes that, while the deed itself wears a somewhat questionable aspect, it may yet be made to appear that the error was more in the head than in the heart, that it was rather an involuntary mistake than an intentional wrong, and that better information in the future will prevent its repetition. The sinner is not always incorrigible, the worst offenders have occasionally been reformed, and no one ought to be delivered over to Satan for the first or second act of indiscretion or even of more serious delinquency ; and charity hopes that, if the accused is really guilty, and guilty to the full extent of the finding, he is not yet quite past all power of recovery, but may by proper means be brought to repentance and plucked as a brand from the burning. In short, amidst all that is unfavor- able and discouraging, charity hopes on, hopes ever ; unwilling to abandon her efforts in behalf of the beloved delinquent, still pursuing him with prayers, and tears, and tender remonstrances ; striving, "By winning words to conquer willing hearts, And make persuasion do the work of fear." CHAEITY MAGNANIMOUS AND INVINCIBLE. 201 "Who has not seen the Christian mother, patiently bearing with the irregularities of a wild and way- ward son, hoping to reclaim him from his wicked ways, even when all others have given him up in despair ? Who has not seen the meek and long-suf- fering wife, after years of cruel annoyance and guilty provocation, planning, toiling, watching, night and day, in hope of recovering a debauched and aban- doned husband out of the snare of evil habit and vicious companionship', and raising him up from his moral degradation to the dignity of a virtuous and sober life? But why dwell on these illustrations? Examples of the same spirit, sufficient to confound all human philosophy and set the heathen world a-stare, challenge our admiration in the patient la- bors of apostolic saints and the heroic hopefulness of martyrs, preaching love to their persecutors, pray- ing for their conversion in dungeons, and breathing benedictions from the flames. Nay, let us lift our thoughts to the charity of God, giving his beloved Son for the ransom of a ruined world ; offering eter- nal life to those who have spiked their Saviour to the cross; commissioning the embassy of mercy to nations long debased by all manner of idolatry, im- piety and impurity ; sending forth the angel of the everlasting gospel, with wing that never droops and voice that shall not fail, till every continent has heard, and every island has answered, and every inch of our atmosphere thrills to the melody ! But some poor sinner, abandoned of all virtuous principle, has sold himself to commit iniquity and 202 PAULINE CHARITY. work all manner of uncleanness with greediness. He moves among men, a loathsome embodiment of vice, a walking pestilence, a living malediction. The fatal hour is come. The horrors of retribution thicken around him. He is dying in his sins. His last breath is blasphemy ; his last look is agony ; his last heart-throb is despair. But charity, hoping against hope, still kneels at his couch, like an angel at the gates of hell; bathing his cold hands with blessed tears, mingling the precious dew of compas- sion with the clammy perspiration on his brow, sobbing incessant prayers for the departing soul, hov- ering in anguish over the abysmal gloom whither it has plunged forever, and then returning to fold her trembling wings upon the bosom of Eternal Love ; and, reluctantly bidding farewell to hope, as the last melancholy possibility, she "endureth all things." She covered and excused the fault as* long as she could, believed the good while any ground of faith remained, hoped the best when faith was no longer possible, and now silently endures what she could not avert and cannot remedy. " Charity," says an eloquent Englishman, " is not a frivolous and volatile affection, relinquishing its object from mere love of change ; nor is it a feeble virtue, which weakly lets go its purpose in prospect of difficulty ; nor a cowardly grace, which drops its scheme and flees from the face of danger : it is the union of benevolence with strength, patience, cour- age, and perseverance. It has feminine sweetness and gentleness, joined with masculine energy and heroism. To do good, it will meekly bear the in- CHARITY MAGNANIMOUS AND INVINCIBLE. 203 firmities of the meanest, or brave tlie scorn and fury of the mightiest." ^ Like the storks of Delft that when the city was b'arning, having vainly tried to carry off their callow 3^oung, resolutely remained and perished in the ef- fort to protect them ; ^ charity first exhausts all her energies in the service of miserable men, and then sacrifices herself for those she could not save. Rather, like the Roman soldier who kept his place at the Herculanean Gate of Pompeii till the fiery storm entombed him where he stood, she maintains her position steadfastly to the last, and will be found erect in full armor at her post when the world's catastrophe shall fall. Her labors may seem fruitless ; but the end is too important to be abandoned for a few failures, and she continues to plough and sow though there be no hope of harvest. Her clients may prove ungrateful ; but like her heavenly Father she is kind to the unthankful and the evil, and no want of apprecia- tion can damp her ardor or divert her aim. Her motives may be misunderstood; but remembering that this is not her home, and that the selfish world is alien to her spirit, sh« is content to fulfil her mission and be esteemed in heaven. Men may de- spise her efforts and deride her measures; but as long as God approves and good angels sympathize she can afford to treat with dignified indifference the bitter irony of unbelief, undisturbed in her blessed work by the fiery shafts of wit and raillery which are ever raining upon her firm helmet and 1 John Angell James. 2 De Amicis, 204 PAULINE CHARITY. ample shield. And what though she be opposed by ignorance and persecuted by malice? She has counted the cost, and rejoices to suffer for the good of others. Hers is a heavenly flame, which many waters cannot quench, neither can the floods drown. "Her energies increase with the difficulty that re- quires them," says the writer just quoted ; " and, like a well-constructed arch, she becomes firmer by what she has to sustain." Charity is not a spark falling into the ocean, nor a snowflake descending into the volcano ; but a mass of gold cast into the furnace, and surviving the flame by which it is purified.^ See how its all-enduring patience triumphed in its divinest Pattern. The earthly life of Jesus was filled with deeds of mercy, and his path from the manger to the cross was strewn with blessings for his enemies. Yet never was goodness treated with such ingratitude. Nearly the whole period of his public iHinistry was an unbroken scene of sorrow and trib- ulation. Indignity after indignity and cruelty after cruelty did he receive from the perishing creatures he came down to redeem. Not alone the vulgar herd conspired against him, but men high in authority and powerful in influence led them on — the revered teachers of the law and the consecrated ministers of religion. Without cause they hated him, and by craft and violence sought to take away his life. Yet he went meekly on in his labor of love, with fre- quent expressions of immeasurable pity for his perse- cutors, and tears of ineffable compassion wept over the city that clamored for his blood. And when 1 Massillon. CHARITY MAGNANIMOUS AND INVINCIBLE. 205 they condemned the mnocent to death, and led hun forth to his cruel fate with every circumstance of torture and ignominy that could signalize the ex- ecution of the basest criminal ; and when they stretched him on the prostrate tree, and a human fiend on either side extended his arms upon the transverse beam and held his hand in the assigned position, while another placed the sharp spike upon the open palm and wielded the hammer whose heavy fall forced it through shivering muscle and shrink- ing nerve ; and when the horrid engine, bearing its blessed victim, was reared upon the shuddering earth toward a frowning sky, and its base was suf- fered to fall into the excavated rock with a force which rent his reeking wounds and almost tore his joints asunder ; oh ! he called no angelic legions to avenge his anguish, nor fire from heaven to consume his crucifiers; but with a compassion which none but himself could feel, and an emphasis which none but himself could utter, he poured forth the won- drous prayer — "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do ! " And his apostles, impelled by the same spirit, re- joiced for the elect's sake to fill up what was behind of their Master's sufferings, singing hymns at mid- night in dungeons, whence they went forth in the morning to the martyr's ordeal with gladder heart than ever bridegroom went forth to his nuptials, or victor to his triumph, or monarch to his coronation. The charity of Jesus was the inspiration of their zeal and the secret of their strength. And still un- changed and unchangeable as her Lord, charity is 206 PAULINE CHAEITY. superior to all adversity, to all hostility, to all the powers of earth and hell. Censures, slanders, curses, threatenings, cannot daunt her heroic spirit; nor losses, exiles, prisons, scourges, crosses, wear out her energies. She lies calm among the lions, and walks unharmed in flames. She smiles at the inquisitor's engine, and triumphs at the martyr's stake. Wear- ing her fetters more proudly than royal lady ever wore her jewels, and glorying in her wreath of thorns more than oriental princes in their diadems, she lives on through a thousand tribulations, invin- cible to the last hour of life, exulting in the last agony of death, and serenely falling asleep on the bosom of her Beloved, to awake satisfied with his likeness in the glory of immortality ! CHAKITY UNFAILING AND EVERLASTING. 207 XVI. CHARITY UNFAILING AND EVERLASTING. Charity never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then, face to face. — 1 Cor. xiii. 8-12. Immortality is the crown of virtue. Riches per- ish, and hiurels wither, and the light of beauty fades, and the fires of genius burn out, and the proudest monuments of human art and valor crumble down to dust. Change is the universal law of earth -and time, and death is stamped upon man's physical nature and all his present environments. Even in Christianity there are many things which are only of temporary utility, and destined to disappear upon the introduction of the superior economy to come. Already, indeed, the oracle of prophecy is hushed, the gift of unknown tongues is withdrawn, inspired knowledge of the mysteries of religion is no more, and all that splendid array of miraculous powers that distinguished the Apostolic Church is numbered with the things that were. For these were only the instruments and auxiliaries of that divine system of 208 PAULINE CHARITY. which charity is the vital principle. These were only the furnished demonstrations of that gracious gospel of which charity is the pervading spirit. These were only the gorgeous appendages of that heavenly law of which charity is the end and the fulfilment. These were only the temporary scaffolds of that spiritual temple of wliich charity is the precious material and the imperishable cement. These were only the necessary credentials of the Christian reve- lation, accrediting its claims upon human reverence and belief, and laying the firm foundations of the kingdom of heaven upon earth. As in tlie oriental countries came the former and latter rains, the one to prepare the soil, the other to mature the harvest ; so came these special manifestations of the Holy Spirit when the apostles went forth to sow, and shall come again more copiously just before the angels descend to reap. The means are valuable only for the sake of the end, useful only as promotive of the end, and therefore dispensed with as soon as the end is attained ; but the end itself is intrinsically good, the chief honor and interest of our being, the one essential element of our well-being in time and eter- nity. " Charity never faileth." We may change many of our opinions and prac- tices, and yet be Christians. The Church may change much of her regimen and her ritual, and yet be holy, catholic, and apostolical. But this great central principle of our religion cannot be sacrificed, with- out the shipwreck of Christian character and the subversion of Emmanuel's throne on earth. It was proverbially the spirit of the first believers, and will CHARITY UNFAILING AND EVERLASTING. 209 be equally the temper of the last. The dispensations of divine truth and grace are successive, the patri- archal giving place to the Mosaic, the Mosaic to the Christian, the Christian to the millennial, the millen- nial to the ultimate and everlasting; but charity, immutable alike in its essence and its obligation, must constitute the spiritual life of God's elect throughout all the vicissitudes of time, and the beauty of holiness in w^hich when time is no more the Bride shall walk with her Beloved upon Mount Zion. One after another, and generation after generation, the saints pass away to the fellowship of their de- parted brethren ; but whatever they leave behind, their charity they carry with them, and that which characterized them on earth is still their chief quality in paradise. There cometh a day to which the fairest that ever dawned upon this dark and troubled sphere is as midnight, and its highest noon as the shadow of death ; but the greatest glory of that day, and the fountain of all its glories, will be the universal prev- alence of a charity that " never faileth." For the Authorized Version, allow me to substitute Conybeare and Howson's reading of the text: — "Love shall never pass away, though the gift of prophecy shall vanish, and the gift of tongues shall cease, and the gift of knowledge shall come to naught. For our knowledge is imperfect, and our prophesying is imperfect; but when the fulness of perfection is come, then all that is imperfect shall pass away. When I was a child, my words were childish, my desires were childish, my judgments were childish ; 210 PAULINE CHARITY. but being grown a man, I have done away with the thoughts of childhood. So now we see darkly, by the reflection of a mirror ; but then, face to face." Having mentioned knowledge in contrast with charity, the apostle strikes off into this pleasant side- path ; taking an interesting view of the present imperfection of our knowledge, and of its destined perfection in the life to come. His reasoning re- quires him to state simply the superiority of charity to knowledge, because knowledge in its present modes and media is necessarily transitory, whereas charity is from its very nature permanent and unfailing. But having stated this, he proceeds to assign the reason of the transitoriness of human knowledge — its partial and defective character, and then draws this fine comparison between its imperfection in this world and its promised perfection in the next ; which comparison he illustrates by the difference between the mental operations of childhood and of manhood, and the difference between the image of an object in a mirror and the same object seen clearly in direct vision. The digression is not less instructive than natural, and we will follow the apostle ; for wherever he leads, the scene is fair, and fragrant, and full of melodies ; and if our path diverge for a season, we shall soon find it returning to the "more excellent way." The term " knowledge " here seems not to be re- stricted to that extraordinary and supernatural sort of which we have already spoken, but appears to comprehend all our present knowledge of every kind, CHARITY UNFAILING AND EVERLASTING. 211 which is pronounced transitory because it is partial and imperfect. And with certain obvious qualifica- tions, the apostle's declaration is evidently thus broadly applicable. For all our present knowledge is limited in its range, defective in its evidence, incrmplete in its nomenclature, and inadequate in its current media of communication ; and these must be exchanged for clearer conceptions, ampler compre- hensions, fuller demonstrations, better forms of expression, and easier methods of acquisition; and that which we value ourselves so much for possess- ing will vanish away in the superior revelations of eternity, as vanish the stars in the light of the rising sun.i The practical sciences, the mechanic and aes- thetic arts, and the teeming literature of the world — what wiir be their utility in the glorious life to come? If they were not necessary to man in the innocence of Eden, how can they be necessary to him in his "paradise regained"? If it was his "disobe- dience and the fruit of that forbidden tree " that first occasioned their necessity, why should he any more require their aid when he has risen far above his original condition to an elevation which, had he never fallen, he might now have occupied after six thousand years of improvement, with no moral cause to obstruct or retard his progress? What need of your agricultural, horticultural and botanical sys- tems, when the earth is restored to its original fertil- ity, adorned with flowers that never fade and fruits that never fail, among which wander all animals in the perfection of their strength and beauty ? What 1 Dr. Chalmers. 212 PAULINE CHAEITY. demand for your theories of political economy and the science of government, when " a king shall reign in righteousness and princes shall rule in equity" — when God the Father shall set his own King upon his holy hill of Zion, and the blessed saints shall share the prerogatives of his throne, or go forth as the ministers of his court and the messengers of his counsels throughout his rejoicing realm ? What call for architectural skill, and the arts of the sculptor and the painter — of the lapidary, the jeweller, and the chemist — amid the perfect forms and faultless hues of the New Jerusalem, with its masonry of pre- cious stones embedded in transparent gold, reflect- ing no solar radiance and gleaming in no earthly gas-light, but ablaze everywhere with the glory of God and the Lamb? How shall your lame and limp- ing poetry and your feeble and faltering music sur- vive the thrill of the archangel's trump, discoursing such melody as never before saluted the ear of earth or heaven ; or how presume to lift a note or strike a string, amid the joyous minstrelsy of the redeemed and the unfallen, rolling forth as the sound of many waters and mighty thunderings? And what work shall be found for the legal profession where all obey the royal law of love ? and what service for the med- ical faculty where "the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick " ? and what business for those who build and decorate the tomb where "there shall be no more death " ? And what use will there be for your geo- graphical and astronomical books — your maps of the earth and charts of the sky — when men shall be as angels, with glorious spiritual bodies, quick as the CHARITY UNFAILING AND EVERLASTING. 213 light and discursive as tlionght ? And how shall the historian and the philologist employ their ample lore, when the confluent streams of history are lost in the ocean of eternity, and all the languages and dialects of the babbling earth have given place to the one tongue of the universal kingdom? And how will the teacher of youth occupy his powers when immeasurable knowledge is inhaled with the first breath of immortality, and the latest born of the blessed community is wiser than all the ancients of the world that was ? And the author and the orator — what will they do when there is no more error to be corrected nor vice to be overcome — when truth requires no further apology and virtue no further vindication ? And the statesman and the warrior — where shall their vocation be when all power and authority are given to the glorified Son of man — when nation shall never again lift up sword against nation, but " the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assur- ance forever"? And the preacher, the theologian, and the critical commentator — what shall become of their functions when " the tabernacle of God shall be with men and he shall dwell amonor them" — when " the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the world as the waters cover the sea " — when '' all shall know him from the least even unto the greatest " ? And all your catechetical works, your conflicting confes- sions of faith, and books of religious controversy^ and plethoric bodies of divinity, and voluminous expositions of Scripture, and ponderous tomes of biblical criticism, and costly collections of rare and 214 PAULINE CHAEITT. ancient manuscripts, with all your learned discus- sions and elaborate discourses, your quarterly re- views, and monthly magazines, and weekly and daily newspapers, and other popular channels of literature — what shall be the utility of these when knowledge, if not immediate and intuitive, shall be attained with a celerity almost inconceivable, accompanied with indubitable evidence, characterized by unquestiona- ble certitude, and free from all possibility of error ? And all your schools, colleges, universities, theologi- cal institutes, scientific and literary associations, with all their philosophical apparatus, chemical laborato- ries, astronomical observatories, cabinets of curiosi- ties, museums of antiquities, and a thousand other means by which knowledge is acquired and commu- nicated — what place will be found for these in the original fatherland and everlasting dwelling of truth? And which of your myriad volumes shall escape the conflagration which is to burn out the curse that occasioned their necessity, or what vaunted produc- tion of human skill or gigantic monument of human genius shall not be abandoned and forgotten in the dawn of the better dispensation as the toys of the nursery in the maturer age of man? Yea, and the very Bible — " the Book of books divine " — " The fountain-light of all our day, The master-light of all our seeing" — which one has designated as " God in print," and another has characterized as " the brightest efflux of the uncreated mind," and another has pronounced " worth more than all other volumes ever written " CHARITY UNFAILING AND EVERLASTING. 215 — tlie revelation which ''hath brought life and im- mortality to light," the teachings of which are " able to make men wise unto salvation," a single sentence of which has sometimes imparadised the departing soul in the very jaws of hell — what is it but a primer for children, a spelling-book for saints in their in- fancy, a catechism for the primary department of the school of Christ, an elementary treatise for those who have just entered their novitiate and begun their studies for eternity, to be laid aside when we gradu- ate into the higher spheres of intellectual and moral perfection ; or, if you please, the metallic mirror which dimly reflects the object seen, or the semi- transparent medium which obscures what it reveals, hereafter to be superseded by the clear and open vision in the effulgence of a never-waning noon? " For our knowledge is imperfect, and our prophesy- ing is imperfect ; but when the fulness of perfection is come, then all that is imperfect shall pass away." This passing away of the imperfect and coming in of the perfect to occupy its place, the apostle pro- ceeds to illustrate by two striking similitudes. The first of these is drawn from the difference between the intellectual operations of childhood and those of manhood. " When I was a child, my words were childish, my desires were childish, my judg- ments were childish ; but being grown a man, I have done away with the thoughts of childhood." What does this mean, but that the future knowledge of the saints shall as far transcend their present attainments as the processes of the maturest mind transcend the 216 PAULINE CHAEITY. simplest fancies of infancy ? " We are now " — to use the words of a late English divine — " in the minority — the very infancy — of our powers; our notions are the opinions of children, our discourses the prattlings of children, our controversies the rea- sonings of children." ^ And what are your great philosophers and scholars but children with faculties a little quicker and conceptions a little clearer than their fellows ? And what are your ablest reasoners, your finest orators, and your sweetest poets, but pre- cocious infants, who have outstripped their compan- ions in the alphabet of truth, or excelled them in the facility of utterance? And Moses with his divine teaching, and Ezra with his varied learning, and David with his melodious psalmody, and Solomon with his "proverbial philosophy," and Isaiah with his Messianic inspiration, and Ezekiel with his sublime prophetic symbolism, and Daniel with his wondrous sagacity and godlike wisdom, and the beloved John whose apocalyptic panorama of the world to come exceeded the visions and raptures of all the rest, — what were these but more favored youths to whom their heavenly tutor granted some special anticipa- tions of future developments in advance of the pro- ficiency of their classes ? Yea, and St. Paul himself, trained in the philosophic school of Tarsus, taught by a famous doctor of the law at Jerusalem, con- verted by the personal revelation of Jesus Christ, inspired by the Spirit of God, caught up to the third heaven, and allowed to explore the secrets of the unseen and eternal — when he had sounded such 1 Robert Hall. CHARITY UXrAILIXG AND EVERLASTING. 217 depths of science, and measured such heights of wis- dom, and traversed such ample fields of truth, and enjoyed such glorious disclosures of what human eve had never seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived — deemed all that he had hitherto learned, whether by his own application or by God's revelation," the mere acquisitions of childhood, and believed that his knowledge in the world to come would be as far superior to his present attainments as the maturer views of his manhood were to the puerile conceits of his infanc}'. The other illustration, according to Conybeare and Howson, is in these words : — " Now we see darkly, by the reflection of a mirror ; but then, face to face." Better this than the common version. The ancient mirrors were not of glass and quicksilver, but of polished metal, reflecting dimly the image of an object. Some critics, however, insist that the apos- tle refers rather to those semi-transparent substances which were then used for windows, such as horn and diaphanous stones ; through which could be discerned only the outline of an object, and that outline but imperfectly; while the minuter portions and fea- tures, with the colors and shading, were not per- ceived at all — a striking illustration, certainly, of the present imperfection of our knowledge. And this interpretation seems the more probable from the other Greek word, here translated "darkly," properly signifying an enigma — that is, a verbal puzzle, a mystical form of speech, intentionally so constructed as to tax the mental powers in its solution — one thing being used to represent another on account of 218 PAULINE CHARITY. some slight resemblance or scarcely traceable anal- ogy. And thus we have the double idea of a dim vision and a dark saying to symbolize the meagre and unsatisfactory character of our present intel- lectual attainments. But in the better life hereafter, the metallic mirror or the translucent medium shall be removed, and we shall see face to face ; the riddle shall be solved, and the open secret shall be read of all. No obscuring intervention then; no clouds to veil the blessed day and muffle up the everlasting light ; no eclipse of " the Sun of righteousness," nor occultation of " the bright and morning Star ; " no doubt or uncertainty, arising from the abstruseness of the subject, or the inadequacy of the evidence, or the feebleness of the faculties, or the influence of the senses, or the impulse of passion, or the fatigue of study, or the heat of controversy, or the confusion of argument, or the delusion of sophistry, or the vagueness of terminology, or the variety of human opinions, or the multiplication of vain words to darken counsel. No more walking in the dubious twilight, or by the faint glimmer of the evening stars, or the oblique moonbeams alternating with long lines of sombre shade, when the second day- spring from on high shall visit us, and the unsetting sun shall rise — " FuU orbed in his whole round of rays complete," and we who have long groped in the valley of the shadow of death shall enjoy the blissful effulgence of an eternal noon. Clearly, then, shall we discern, and accurately discourse, and infallibly reason, on every CHARITY UNFAILING AND EVERLASTING. 219 subject that may occupy our powers. Large draughts shall we drink from the pure fountain of truth, and no more seek to quench our thirst at the shallow and turbid streams which flow through these terrestrial vales. New conceptions, new revelations, shall visit us, not like nightly dews or summer showers ; they shall burst upon us like the alpine deluge ; they shall surround us like the amplitude of the ocean; they shall invest us like the profusion of the daylight and the all-pervading air. Just how our knowledge will be acquired in that other and higher life — whether by study, or by testimony, or by verbal revelation, or by a sort of inspired intuition — it were idle at present to specu- late. Whatever the means or the method, quite sure we are that there shall be no fatigue of effort, nor flagging of interest, nor fallacy of reasoning, nor fatuity of comprehension, to discourage the noble inquiry ; and no vague conjecture, nor false conclu- sion, nor feeble evidence, nor doubtful alternative, nor torturing vacillation, to mar the joy of discovery .^ Knowledge will flow into the soul, like sunbeams into the eye, with an ease and a pleasure infinitely superior to all present facility and luxury of learn- ing. The mind will have attained the full maturity of its powers, and no unfriendly environment will cramp its action or circumscribe its range. Its chain broken and its ophthalmia healed, with more than eagle pinion it shall soar to the very fountain of splendor, and with more than eagle vision sustain the full blaze of its glory. And if it require leisure 1 Bossuet. 220 PAULINE CHARITY. for thought and investigation, lo I eternity is before it, with no possible interruption from the claims of inferior interests, the need of rest, the urgency of appetite, the demands of domestic relationships, the responsibilities of official investitures, or any of the numerous burdens of care and toil which now make the pursuit of knowledge so difficult and its acquisi- tion so doubtful. And thus conditioned, how delight- ful the occupation ! and thus facilitated, how amazing the celerity of advancement! and what grand dis- coveries, what transporting revelations, what new affluence of science, what noble endowments of wis- dom, what immeasurable expansion of faculty, shall mark the progress of the soul through all the succes- sive periods of a blissful immortality ! But let not these sublime anticipations be mis- understood. When we say that our knowledge shall be perfect, we do not mean that we shall possess a power of comprehension equal to that of God, or even to that of any superior order of created intelli- gences. We mean that our attainments shall be limited only by our capacities, and with our capaci- ties shall be ever enlarging; that our knowledge shall be free from all admixture of error and delu- sion, and from all painful experience of fallacy and incertitude. Doubtless, there will be gradations of mind, no less distinctly marked than now; but all will be filled with the treasures of truth, and ravished with its ineffable delights. And there must be con- stant progression, expansion, and upward tendency ; for the rational creature can never rest in its attain- ments, and we find more pleasure in a new mental CHARITY UKFAILmG AND EVERLASTING. 221 acquisition than in all that we possessed before ; and as fresh thoughts and fresh truths come flowing in from every quarter of the blessed universe, from the teeming objects of every department, and the suc- cessive events of every period, the mind must be always enlarging to receive them, and the growth of the intellect must keep pace with the influx of ideas.i Lift your thoughts, my brethren, to this sublime destiny ! eternal advancement — everlasting accumu- lation — progressive perfection, without period or pause — God's intelligent creature continually beau- tifying in his sight, and continually drawing nearer to himself— the glorified spirit of man, by succes- sive degrees of resemblance, still approximating the uncreated Excellence, ascending from strength to strength, from splendor to splendor, without ever ariving at the limit of its progress! What heart does not glow with the thought that there is a point marked in the calendar of eternity when the man shall be what the angel now is, and the humblest of the Lord's redeemed shall occupy the eminence from which celestial powers and principalities shall have gone forward to superior altitudes of intellectual glory, and that this illimitable improvement is to proceed with still increasing rapidity for ever and ever ! 2 Verily, " it doth not yet appear what we shall be." Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, heart hath not conceived, the power of the human mind and the vastness and splendor of its attainments when ultimately enfranchised with the glorious lib- erty of the sons of God. But yet more stimulating I Thomas Dick. 2 Dr. Chalmers. 222 P'^ULINE CHAKITY. and transporting is the assurance that our knowledge shall be a quickening and transforming agency — that the intellectual shall act upon the moral, and the more we learn of God the more we shall be like him — that the mental acquisitions of the cherjib shall still kindle the spiritual ardors of the seraph — that every new idea shall add fuel to the holy fir^ upon the altar — that every fresh breath of truth shall brighten the living flame in the bosoms of the blessed — that "God is light" and "God is love" shall be demonstrated identical propositions in the logic of heaven — that Knowledge and Charity, twin sisters of the sky, redeemed from the captivity of time and perfected in the glory of immortality, hand in hand, and charming the ear of the universe, shall go sing- ing their glad duetto " Through the sweet groves of bliss 1 ** CHAEITY SURVIVING KNOWLEDGE. 223 XVII. CHARITY SURVIVING KNOWLEDGE. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known. — 1 Cor. xiii. 12 One has well said, and few sayings are oitener quoted — "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy." And I will add, what none can deny — There are more than are suggested even by our theology. The death-bed sometimes develops a wisdom that amazes the witnesses, and one of the last utterances of Sir Isaac Newton is remarkable alike for its sa- gacity and its humility. To a friend who congratu- lated him on the grandeur of his scientific discoveries, the dying philosopher replied : — "I have only been walking as a boy upon the shore, and have perhaps picked up a pebble or two of larger size and greater value than others, but the vast ocean lies all unex- plored before me; my profoundest disquisitions on the laws of nature may very possibly appear to the Almighty as the merest trifles of a puerile imagina- tion." Such is the modesty of true science ; such the humility usually attendant . upon vast attainments. The more we learn, the more we discern how much 224 PAULINE CHARITY. remains to be learned. The farther we proceed in knowledge, the farther we see into the immeasur- able regions beyond. As we ascend the mountains, new peaks and new ranges rise to view, and every summit gained reveals a more distant horizon. As we gaze out over the sea, we behold only the surface and a few objects floating upon the waters, with here and there a landmark along the far-reaching shore ; but what eye hath measured its vastness, or fathomed its awful depths, or discovered the wealth of its sun- less caverns, or classified the thousandth part of its teeming productions and disportive life ? ^ " The wisest of mortals," says Plato, "would appear but an ape in the presence of God." After all our in- quiries and speculations, probably there are truths of which we can at present form no more conception than one who has never seen can form of colors, or one who has never heard can form of musical sounds ; and periods equal to the present age of the earth multiplied by millions may roll away before our en- franchised and renovated powers shall be able to analyze or comprehend them.^ "Now I know in part." Many things there are which I know not and cannot know till mortality shall be swallowed up of life. Portions only of the truth are revealed, and portions only can I perceive and understand. I know something of nature, for every star is -an inspired minstrel, and every flower is an instructive lecturer, and every atom infolds a volume of science. I know something of providence, 1 Thomas Dick. 2 Thomas H. Stockton. CHARITY SUKYIYING KNOWLEDGE. 225 for the invisible hand which holds the winds, and pours the floods, and rolls the spheres, also scatters the crumbs for the sparrow, and fills my cup with blessing, and numbers the hairs of my head. I know something of redemption, for I hold in my hand the divine record of the incarnation and crucifixion of God's beloved Son, and I behold upon the altar the consecrated symbols of his suffering flesh and flow- ing blood, and I draw near -with faith, and eat and drink, and so become partaker of his spiritual life and feel within me the pulse of immortality. " Lo, these are parts of his ways ; but how small a por- tion is heard of him ! the thunder of his power who can understand ! " How many matters remain to be developed! how many untra veiled paths to be explored! how many uncharted coasts to be sur- veyed ! And what we do know, we know but very imper- fectly. On a variety of subjects, indeed, it is justly deemed presumption for one to say, " I know." We can scarcely say with confidence, "I believe." We conjecture, we imagine, we speculate, we theorize; and this commonly is what we call knowledge. Ed- ward Irving once remarked that he loved to see the truth looming through a mist. Alas ! it is only thus we ever see the truth at all. It reveals itself often in as vague and shadowy a manner as the midnight ghost in the chamber of Eliphaz the Temanite. We hear a voice, but discern not the form. We gaze into the gloom at something which we faintly perceive, a wavering outline which we cannot trace, a dubi- ous apparition which excites our fears; and when 226 PAULINE CHARITY. it speaks, the sound is low and faint, and the ear receiveth but a little thereof. We catch occasional glimpses of remotest glimmerings, and hear half-ar- ticulate mutterings of most mysterious things. " We walk," says a popular British essayist, " through a narrow valley, shut in by mountains, whose summits pierce the clouds, whose shadows obscure our path, and whose dark masses stand between us and the prospect that lies beyond. On what theme shall we meditate, and not be mortified, to find how little prog- ress we can make in any direction before we are arrested by insurmountable obstacles? How must angels wonder at the limitation of our faculties ! and what delightful astonishment must seize the dis- embodied spirits of the just, at the mighty bound they make by that one step which bears them across the threshold of eternity ! " ^ Very painful, sometimes, seem to have been the questionings of that powerful mind. "I often fall into profound musings," he writes in one of his essays, " on the state of this great world, on the nature and destiny of man, on the subject of the question — ' What is truth ? ' The whole hemisphere of contemplation appears inexpressibly strange and mysterious. It is cloud pursuing cloud, forest after forest, and Alps upon Alps. It is vain to declaim against scepticism. I feel, with an emphasis of con- viction, and wonder, and regret, that almost all things are covered with thickest darkness, that the number of things to which certainty belongs is ex- ceedingly small. I believe the truth of Christianity 1 John Foster. CHAEITY SUKYIYING KNOWLEDGE. 227 in general ; I hope to enjoy the sunshine of the other world." 1 The sunshine of the other world — at least its incipient dawn — let us believe that great thinker is now enjoying. Who can tell what illustrations of the obscure he has already realized, what demonstra- tions of the dubious and uncertain, what revelations of the mysteries which on earth he agonized to solve ? But for us, alas ! how little do we know of that " other world " ! The sun is not yet risen ; we see only the moon, sailing through misty clouds, which cover the landscape with shadows, and trouble with incertitude the heart of the traveller. We hear not yet the carol of the lark as he soars to meet the day ; it is the melancholy hooting of the owl through the dismal solitude of the night. We look wistfully into the future, and walk slowly and solemnly, gathering up questions for eternity. Like dim curtains, painted with shapes of gloom, and terror, and weird gran- deur, that hang around some dusky hall, waving fit- fully in the uncertain light, the great truths of human destiny encompass the inquisitive and specu- lative mind, shrouding all things with twilight, till the dayspring from on high shall shine through them, or the hand of the Crucified One as he cometh shall fold them up forever.^ In this imperfect and preparatory stage of our existence we have just light sufficient to command our belief in matters essential to our salvation, to direct us in the discharge of our duties to God and to one another, and conduct us to a home where 1 John Foster. 2 Coleridge. 228 PAIJLmE CHARITY. we shall see clearly and know perfectly the sublime truths which have so often baffled and perplexed our reason. This is all we need, and all that God hath given. He would have us walk by faith, which is opposed alike to open vision and to perfect knowl- edge. The Bible stands like a waymark, pointing the pilgrim to the celestial city, but furnishing him no needless information concerning either the coun- try of his sojourn or the scenery of his destination. The full disclosure of that which is unseen and eter- nal, at present, we could bear no better than the infant of an hour could bear the unsoftened splen- dors of the noontide sun ; nor could we possibly grasp the ample sphere of truth, any more than the arms of a child could embrace the moon it so much admires, or than the ken of a cricket could sweep the solar system and comprehend the stellar universe. Truth is infinite, and its study is to occupy the redeemed intellect forever, and its discovery or de- velopment is to constitute one of the chief elements of our endless felicity ; but what must be the vast- ness and variety of that knowledge which is con- stantly to afford fresh interest to the employments of eternity ! and how can we hope to attain unto it in this brief infancy of our being ? ^ The human intellect toiling in the domain of truth has been likened to a child trying to empty the ocean with a shell found in its sands ; but the ocean has its limits, while truth is unlimited and illimita- ble ; and with eternity for a lifetime, all the efforts of men and angels must fall infinitely short of its 1 Bossuet. CHARITY SURVIVING KNOWLEDGE. 229 exhaustion. Poor finite creatures, restricted on all sides, and embarrassed with a thousand difficulties, we stand upon our little planet and cast out the sounding-line of our tiny reason into the abysmal depths ; we trace it for a little space, a faint and wavering thread amidst the darkness ; but soon it is " swallowed up and lost in the infinite hollow of the night." ^ There are subjects yet to be known, which would have baffled the powers of the most illustrious philosophers, as much as their sublimest reasonings, noblest discoveries, and grandest intellectual acqui- sitions, would have baffled the babe or the idiot. In the great mountain ranges of truth, we see here and there a snowy peak, whence gleams the blessed sunlight; but all around and below is veiled with impenetrable clouds. More of 'the other world we long to know, of its mysterious modes of being, of the condition and occupation of its inhabitants, and many other matters of which we are utterly ignorant ; but if all the knowledge we could possibly receive on these subjects were actually communicated, the current activities of men would cease, and society would stagnate. Amidst the absorbing glories of the heavenly vision, the highest concerns of earth and time would seem quite insignificant and worthless ; the sweetest enjoyments and noblest pursuits of life would cease to attract us ; and man, disqualified for all his duties to his fellow-man, would be no longer a fit denizen of this terrestrial sphere. For our own good, therefore, for the accomplishment of our pres- ent mission, and the realization of God's benevolent 1 T. Carlyle. 230 PAULINE CHARITY. design concerning us, it is necessary, as another has observed, " that something of the magnitude of truth should be concealed, something of its effulgence shaded, something of its beauty veiled." ^ But such necessity is only for a season; a better day shall dawn, a better economy shall come ; and " then shall I know even as also I am known." The apostle's reference is not to the intermediate state of the departed spirit ; but to the resurrection state, when the shattered tenement shall be restored, and the purified spirit shall return to occupy it for- ever. Till then there can be no perfection of knowl- edge ; but then all knowledge shall be perfect — perfect in kind, but not in degree — faultless in quality, though finite in comprehension — forever finite, yet forever advancing toward the infinite.^ This is "the fulness of perfection," before which "all that is imperfect shall pass away." Now we see the truth, as the old Jewish teachers phrased it, by means of an obscure specular, as one might see his own image reflected from a metallic mirror, or the dim outline of another through a plate of horn or a translucent stone inserted in an aperture of the wall ; but then we shall behold it as clearly as we behold our own form and features in the most perfect look- ing-glass, or the form and features of a friend when we meet him face to face. When these gloomy clouds are dissipated by the rising Sun of righteous- ness, and the dubious twilight gives place to the everlasting day ; when the stern embargo which the 1 Dr. Chalmers. 2 Dr. Croly. CHAEITY SURVIVING KNOWLEDGE. 231 fallen spirit has laid on the finite intellect shall be removed, and the redeemed man shall stand forth reconstructed and immortal ; when from the deep sleep of the sepulclire, summoned by the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, we shall awake in the likeness of Him who is the resurrection and the life, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven; then shall we know the truth as we are known of higher and holier intelligences — then shall we know God even as we are known of him — with the same infallible assurance, though not with the same infi- nite comprehension. What amazing developments shall we then enjoy of what now seems so mysterious and inscrutable ! How easily may we understand the laws which gov- ern the material universe ! How plain and simple may seem to us the most abstruse and occult prin- ciples of physical nature, concerning which a single inquiry has sometimes been the life-study of a great philosopher ! How far above all the earthly attain- ments of Linnaeus, La Place, Cuvier, Bacon, New- ton, Davy, Herschel, Humboldt, or Agassiz, will the humblest redeemed soul ascend in this interesting department of knowledge, rising to the contempla- tion of the highest mysteries of matter and of motion, travelling with the orb and analyzing the atom, everyAvhere in His works tracing the wisdom of the divine Worker and admiring the wonders of his love ! And then shall the secrets of providence be dis- closed — that amazing scheme, so vast, so profound, so complicate, and so inscrutable — comprehending the moral government of God, the annals of other 232 PAULINE CHAKITY. worlds, the history of men and angels, the whole range of events, from the formation of the first par- ticle to the last vicissitude of matter, from the constitution of the first created mind to the final adjustment of all creature destiny, with all their re- lations and tendencies and their manifold reasons and results — the separate existence of each individ- ual, the continuity of the complex series, and the harmony of the mighty whole. Providence is at pres- ent a great enigma — rather, a congeries of innumer- able enigmas — utterly confounding to our reason and beyond all human power of solution ; and even an inspired man, standing upon the brink of the abyss and looking down into the infinite darkness, ex- claims — " Oh ! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God ! how un- searchable are his judgments, and his ways past find- ing out ! " And when Jehovah shall at length lay open to us the arcana of his empire, with what de- lightful wonder and rapturous admiration shall we witness the grand disclosure, and learn that those parts of his plan now so paradoxical and so perplex- ing to our faith were dark only from excess of splendor, and that the very events which to-day baf- fle our sagacity and sometimes lacerate our affections yield ultimately the clearest instances and richest demonstrations of his wisdom and his goodness ! ^ And each one of us shall then be able to read that most interesting page. in the volume of providence which records his own personal history. It is writ- ten chiefly in characters that none but the Wiiter 1 Bossuet. CHARITY SURVIVING KNOWLEDGE. 233 can now understand. We gaze upon the mystic hieroglyphics, and we know that they contain a secret whose development shall send a new sunshine through a thousand worlds, but we cannot interpret the record till heaven shall furnish us the key. In our impatience we ask for reasons, we seek explana- tions, but Providence is silent as Isis. '' God giveth none account of any of his matters." He gathers the clouds about him, and pavilions his presence in the thick darkness. We hear the sound of his goings, but '' his paths are in the great deep, and his foot- steps are not known." Even the good man is some- times tempted to exclaim, "All these things are against me." But faith hears him saying — "What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Faith grasps his hand and follows him trusting through the night, well assured that in the light of the morning she shall look back upon the path by which he hath led her, and see all things clearly, and rejoice in the wisdom of all. God him- self shall interpret for us the mysterious scroll ; and every one shall perceive the connection of his indi- vidual life with the general scheme of the divine administration; and with unspeakable satisfaction shall understand how all the diversified events of his probation were combined and overruled for his good ; and how, amidst the brier and the thorn, in a way that he knew not and by a hand that he could not see, he was led to the place of rest; and how, in unfathomable depths of grief and gloom, " light was sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart," and the full harvest of celestial blessedness 234 PAULINE CHAEITY. and glory grew upon fields which he tilled in sorrow and watered with frequent tears. Revelation itself is a mystery that waits to be revealed. Eternity must furnish the school for the effectual study of the Infinite. "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ? it is high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canst thou know? the measure thereof is longer than the earth and broader than the sea." The mystery of the Divine Essence, the mode of the Divine Subsistence, the tri-personality of the uncreated Life, or any of his natural and incommunicable perfections, who is able to comprehend ? The recorded fact of the incarnation, the complex person of the Mediator between God and man, the perfect harmony of holi- ness and justice with mercy in the mighty sacrifice of the cross, and the precise relations of the gospel economy to the destinies of humanity and the moral fortunes of the universe throughout all the everlast- ing future, who is competent to explain ? We seize a few statements of the wonderful Book, and imagine that we understand their meaning; but, "without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness." We have found the Ararat whereon may rest the ark of our salvation ; but till the deluge subside all else must remain unknown. We cling to the Rock of Ages; but we have no bark in which we may go forth to explore the surrounding sea, and no line suflQcient to measure the depth of the waters. Pil- grims of the night, we walk forward till our little lamps burn out, and then we grope a little farther in CHARITY SURVIVING KNOWLEDGE. 235 the gloom, become bewildered, lose our way, and sit down to wait for the returning '' Light of the world." Our polar winter-night of six thousand years, or sixty thousand, shall be succeeded by an unsetting sun, and the antiphrases of time shall become the axioms of eternity. Then we shall have as clear a view of the divine character and government as angels now enjoy, and shall go on forever improving in our knowledge of revelation revealed. The cross we shall behold, not as the first Christian emperor be- held it in the clouds of heaven — the mere symbol of truth and pledge of victory ; but as it is in reality — the central point in the divine economy, bright with unborrowed radiance, and sending out its beams to all the extremities of the moral system ; and in this development of the manifold wisdom of God, saints and seraphim alike shall find new matter for adoring wonder, blending the harmonies of both in one eter- nal song. Then " the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun; and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days;" and no cloud shall ever flit across the sky ; and no shadow shall stretch over the landscape ; and the obscurest object of faith shall be clear as the crystal gold at our feet ; for the glory of God and the Lamb, which illumines the jewelled walls, shall shine through every soul ; and as we have heard, so shall we see in the city of our God ; and blessed beyond all power of language and of thought shall he be who has be- lieved the record and waited for the reward ! What an interesting view is thus suggested of the 236 PAULINE CHAEITY. intellectual pursuits and pleasures of the world to come ! In that nobler life all the mental powers must find full employment, and no small portion of our happiness must arise from our endless advance- ment in knowledge. Very different, we are well aware, are the common notions of mankind. To construct for themselves an everlasting habitation, they naturally collect their materials from the various objects in which they most delight. The Elysium of the Greeks and Ro- mans, the Walhalla of the Scandinavians, the para- dise of the Mohammedans, the fantastic heaven of the Hindoos, the celestial carousals of the Africans, and the happy hunting-grounds of the American Indians, are all suggested by their own corrupt im- aginations and adapted to their depraved appetites and passions. Beyond the pleasures of the seraglio, or the crimson field of glory, or the hall resounding with hilarity, and cities, and temples, and mansions, and gardens, and sylvan scenes, replete with all the accumulated delights of sense, the human mind, unaided by divine revelation, and left entirely to its own resources, never looked for the elements of its future bliss. And little more worthy of a rational nature, we are sorry to say, is the ordinary conception even of the Christian heaven. Sensuous souls love to think of it as a great festival, where there is plenty of wine, and sumptuous viands, and delicate condiments, in endless variety and profusion. And persons of re- finement and aesthetic culture love to think of it as a grand concert, with full orchestra, and the blended CHARITY SURVIVING KNOWLEDGE. 237 rmisic of many voices, ringing through lofty galleries and magnificent colonnades, and reverberating from arches of fretted gold and domes that flash with the diamond and the amethyst. And those whose reli- gion is all emotion and rhapsody love to think of it as a scene of perpetual w^orship in the immediate presence of the manifest glory of God, where spirits are lost in transports of joy and unimaginable rap- tures of song — a better sort of camp-meeting in the skies, all tongues forever pouring most vociferous praise, all hearts forever thrilling with unknown delights. And softer and gentler spirits talk of ten- der re-unions and eternal friendships ; while soaring and ambitious minds picture to themselves thrones and diadems, nobilities and hierarchies, and all the glories of sovereign dominion ] and such as are fond of ease and self-indulgence — indolent souls, as unfit for heaven as they are for earth — dream of downy repose and blissful inaction, lulled by gentle breeze, and murmuring brook, and strains of softest melody, in regions of perpetual peace. Few are those, indeed, who are accustomed to con- template the future life as an intellectual condition. Occupied with mere sensations, the greater part are but little acquainted with the higher pleasures of thought and the purer joys of knowledge. The ac- cumulation of riches, the gratification of appetite, and the achievement of wordly renown, constitute with the majority the supreme good and chief end of man. Only those who have devoted themselves, in some degree at least, to intellectual occupations and pursuits, can appreciate those enjoyments which 238 PAULINE CHAEITY. knowledge alone inspires. Evidence to the mind is like light to the eye, and the apprehension of truth is like the discovery of a fountain in the desert. Even the barren sciences of number and quantity have an indescribable charm to him who seeks the solid ground of certainty, and can repose nowhere in the cloudy regions of conjecture and hypothesis. What exquisite satisfaction has often resulted from a demonstration after a long course of reasoning! And if the development of a principle in physics made the grave philosopher so far forget himself as to leap exulting from the bath and run naked through the streets proclaiming the discovery; if the great mathematician found such delightful occupation of his powers in a mere geometrical amusement that, when the city was taken and a soldier presented him- self with drawn sword in his chamber, he requested only permission to finish his problem ; if now, when the subjects of our inquiry are often so insignifi- cant and unworthy, and our mental acquisitions are achieved with such exhaustion of our energies, such sacrifice of health, such abbreviation of life — when our knowledge is limited by so much ignorance, ob- scured by so much incertitude, and blended with so many deteriorating errors — the pleasure of the pur- suit has such an overmastering fascination and the results obtained such an unspeakable satisfaction ; — how will it be "when the fulness of perfection is come," and we "know even as we are known "?i 1 Thomas Dick. CHABITY IN EELATION TO FAITH AND HOPE. 239 XVIII. CHARITY IN RELATION TO FAITH AND HOPE. And now abideth faith^ hope, charity — these three; but the greatest of these is charity. — 1 Cor. xiii. 13. At Domo d'Osola, twenty-five years ago, I visited a convent seated on the apex of a steep conical mountain. The path by which I ascended wound to and fro, in a most picturesque manner, up the rug- ged acclivity ; and at every turn stood a little chapel called a station, containing an artistic representation of some passage in our Saviour's passion, at which the devout pilgrim might pause and worship as he toiled upward to the more sacred edifice at the sum- mit. There were, in succession, as I now recollect, the Last Supper, the walk to Olivet, the agony in the garden, the weary disciples asleep, the soldiers com- ing with torches, the fateful kiss of the traitor, the scene in the high priest's hall, the shameful denial by Peter, the examination before Pilate and Herod, the cruel mockery and scourging, the holy Victim fainting beneath his cross, and last of all, in a spa- cious and splendid hall above, where a priest was saying mass, and acolytes were swinging censers, and the fratti were chanting litanies, a touching portrayal of the crucifixion — the crowning act of redeeming love. 240 PAULINE CHARITY. Thus, following St. Paul through this wonderful chapter, we ascend from one view of charity to another, each successive aspect more interesting and more impressive than the preceding, till we find it at length, adorned with all its graces and complete in all its perfections, enthroned in royal supremacy over all other virtues, amidst the glories and harmonies of its native heaven. As there is a Trinity of divine Persons in the God- head, so is there a trinity of Christian virtues in the regenerate and sanctified soul. The three Divine Persons, however, are consubstantial and co-equal — one in essence, power and glory ; whereas the three Christian virtues, though of the same origin, differ in rank and quality, charity being superior to faith and hope. The apostle, having spoken of miraculous endow- ments as temporary and all human knowledge as transitory, thus, according to Conybeare and Howson — preferable perhaps to our Authorized Version — concludes his magnificent account of the imperial virtue : — " Yet, while other gifts shall pass away, these three — faith, hope and love — abide forever ; and the greatest of these is love." We shall ex- haust the subject, if we consider first the correla- tions of the three, and then the supremacy of the third. Miraculous and inspirational powers were long ago withdrawn from the Church ;■ but faith, hope and charity still remain, as her permanent endowment and inalienable inheritance. The former, coming as CHAKITY IN RELATION TO FAITH AND HOPE. 241 witnesses to the gospel, retired as soon as they had delivered their testimony ; but the latter, being of the very essence of the gospel, co-operate to bless mankind to the end of time. Those were the royal insignia of Christianity, attesting its heavenly origin and commending its beneficent mission ; but these three are the most vital elements of _jQhristianity, abiding as now related and associated, till their" blessed work is consummated in the introduction of a more perfect economy, and the Church enters into her millennial rest. They are all products of the same Holy Spirit, and alike essential to the Christian character. Differing widely in their nature, they unite their several offices for the production of a common beneficent result. Faith believes, hope ex- pects, charity enjoys. Faith grasps the unseen, hope waits for the future, charity appropriates the infinite. Faith brings "the peace of God," hope exercises "the patience of saints," charity opens the gates of heaven and imparadises the soul upon earth. Faith saith, " There are good things prepared for me ; " hope cries^ " I see them, and shall soon enjoy them as my own;" charity, as joint-heir with the Divine Be- loved, stretcheth forth her hands exclaiming, " They are mine already, and I have within my heart the conscious earnest of their possession." Faith touches hope at the point of expectation, for it has something of the expectation of hope ; hope touches charity at the point of desire, for it has something of the desire of charity; while charity embraces them both, re- joicing in their fellowship with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And thus, like the colors of the rain- 242 PAULINE CHARITY. bow, the}^ maintain their distinction, shading^off into each other by insensible degrees.^ But mark the difference. Faith is belief and trust, founded upon testimony ; hope is the desire and ex- pectation of some good, real or imaginary; charity is disinterested love to man, arising from supreme love to God. Faith relates to things both good and bad ; hope and charity, only to things good. Faith relates to the past, tlie present, and the future ; hope, to the future only; and charity, to the present. There may be faith without hope ; but there can be no hope without faith ; and both faith and hope min- ister to charity. Devils believe, but they neither hope nor love; angels love, but strictly speaking they cannot believe because they know, neither can they hope for that which they already enjoy. Faith and hope are proper to fallen beings only ; charity, both to the fallen and to the unfallen. Faith and hope belong to this world ; charity, to this world and the next. Faith may be mingled with doubts, and hope may be clouded with fears ; but charity, secure in the possession of an everlasting good, triurpphs over both. We are to be " strong in faith," and to " abound in hope ; " but in charity alone are we "made perfect." Faith is our shield, and hope is our helmet ; but charity is the victor's crown. Faith overcometh the world, and hope reacheth to that within the veil ; but it is charity that identifies us in sympathy -with heaven, and unites us to the fellow- ship of those who walk in the glory of God. But when it is said these three abide, are we to 1 Thomas H. Stockton. CHARITY IN RELATION TO FAITH AND HOPE. 243 understand it of these three alone? St. Peter, in the first chapter of iiis second epistle, mentions eight Christian graces ; and St. Paul himself, in the fifth chapter of his letter to the Galatians, enumerates nine. Why then does he here speak of only three ? Are all the others superfluous, or can any of them well be spared? Nay, verily; but they are all so connected with these three — so dependent upon them and involved in them — that where these are i the others must be. These are the three princes /I // the others are their retinue. These are the three ^ primary colors ; the others are their various combi- nations and modifications. These are the three trees of righteousness ; the others are their numerous branches, with their diversified flowers and fruits. The continuance of all, therefore, is implied in the continuance of faith, hope and charity. Are we to infer, then, that these three maintain their present correlations forever, faith and hope entering with charity into the more glorious dispen- sation to come ? This cannot be. Charity, of course, is imperishable ; but faith and hope belong only to the present imperfect state, and must disappear with the incoming of the promised perfection. Faith, relating to things unseen and unknown, rests upon report or testimony ; but when testimony is super- seded by actual vision, faith must give place to per- fect knowledge. Hope, relating to some good yet in the future, relies upon the infallible promise of God ; but wlien the future becomes the present, and the infallible promise is fulfilled, the saints, entering upon their inheritance, can no longer hope for what they 244 PAULINE CHAEITY. possess and enjoy. Throughout this preparatory dis- pensation, charity leads faith with one hand and hope with the other; but when that which is per- fect is come, she shall leave her two companions behind, as Elijah left Elisha when he " went up by a whirlwind into heaven." Having finished their work and attained their end, faith and hope shall cease ; but charity's work is never done, charity's end is never reached, and so charity must abide forever, and therefore "the greatest of these is charity." Certainly, no one will suspect the apostle of an intentional depreciation of faith and hope; for throughout this epistle, as everywhere in his writ- ings, the finest things are said of both. Faith is constantly presented as the one comprehensive con- dition of our salvation ; and hope, as our chief con- solation in the house of our pilgrimage. Through ^all the dreary night of time, faith is the staff on which we lean, and hope is the star to which we look. Our faith is "precious," "most holy," productive of "all good works," and the perennial spring of "joy unspeakable ; " while " we are saved by hope," and "hope maketh not ashamed," for it is the "anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, which entereth to that within the veil." Nor are we to conclude that charity is in all respects their superior. On the contrary, faith and hope are in some respects superior to charity. The prince may excel the peasant ; but the latter is the better man at the plough, or in the harvest-field. The philosopher may excel the mechanic ; though he CHARITY IN RELATION TO FAITH AND HOPE. 245 cannot build a house, nor shoe a horse, nor manage a locomotive. A man is certainl}^ better than a beast ; but who will say that he can outrun a hound, draw more than an ox, or bear a heavier burden than an elephant? So faith and hope, in their respective offices, perform what were impossible to charity. Each of the three has its own particular sphere, in which it excels both the others ; but the sphere of charity is nobler than the respective spheres of faith and hope, and therefore "the greatest of these is charity." Let us look a little more closely into this asserted superiority. First, faith and hope are the means ; charity is 4f . the end to be attained. The former are the streams ; ^^^ the latter is the ocean where they empty. The ' 'i . former are the tillage ; the latter is the harvest in ' -^ which they issue. The former are the weapons ; the latter is the glorious victory which they achieve. Faith and hope look beyond themselves to some- thing better; charity is itself the sweetest and no- blest thing in earth or heaven. Faith "justifieth," hope " purifieth," charity " edifieth." Faith has its "work," hope has its "patience," but "the end of the commandment is charity." Faith toils through the wilderness, hope waits on the brink of Jordan, ^ but charity already inherits the land of promise. A/^^^*^^ Faith and hope are ancillary graces ; charity is tlie ->^ supreme virtue. They are the maids of honor be- side the throne ; charity sits a queen between them. They are the ministers of salvation ; charity is the salvation itself. P^urther, faith and hope may be selfish ; charity is / 246 PAULINE CHARITY. essentially disinterested. The former regard chiefly the good of their possessor; the latter delights in benefiting others. The former bring healing and consolation to my own heart ; the latter rejoices to pour the oil and wine into my brother's wounds. They are God's beneficiaries ; this is man's benefac- tress. They are the two hands which receive the gift ; this is the winged messenger that goes forth to scatter it over the earth. They are the planets, shining with borrowed beams ; this is the sun, kin- dling their opacity into splendor. They are the thirsty acres, imbibing the blessing of the clouds ; this is the perennial fountain, sending its fertilizing streams over the landscape. Faith makes us heirs of salvation, and hope enables us to rejoice in the earnest of the inheritance; but charity lives for others, an angel visitant in prison-houses, and a ministering seraph at the couch of death.^ Faith and hope are two beautiful stars, cheering with their beams the pilgrims of the night ; charity is the rising sun, that throws his vivifying light over the world, and forbears not to bless even the soil that bears pnly briers and thorns. faith and hope are simply human virtues; also a divine perfection. There is nothing alogous to the former ; for how can he believe or hope, whose knowledge is infinite and whose happiness is perfect ? But " God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Love is the sum of all God's moral perfec- tions, and by no other single term has he ever de- 1 Thomas Adams. / ft j,!E»ily briers ^Jyfi Again, fo J