.^^^Syofpr^^ 
 
 ^iOGlCM SEWV^ 
 
 BV A254 .F7 V55 1849 
 Vinet, Alexandre Rodolphe, 
 
 1797-1847. 
 Gospel studies 
 
GOSPEL STUDIES, 
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDER^ VINET, D.D., 
 
 TROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND ; AUTHOR OF " VITAL 
 CHRISTIANITY," ETC. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT BAIRD, D.D 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 M. W. DODD, No. 506 BROADWAY. 
 
jrri. 
 
 ^ APR 
 
 ^g/calSoT 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The author of the beautiful Discourses which follow, unde*- 
 the title of *' Gospel Studies," was the late Dr. Alexander 
 Vinet, of Switzerland — probably the most profound meta- 
 physician that the Continent, if not Europe entire, has pro- 
 duced in our times. But he was not only a distinguished 
 philosopher ; he was an able divine and an admirable 
 preacher. 
 
 Dr. Vinet was born on the 19th of June, 1797, in the 
 city of Lausanne, the capital of the Canton Vaud, one of the 
 finest portions of the country of William Tell. In this pic- 
 turesque old city, standing on the high bank of Lake 
 Leman, he passed his youth, prosecuting his studies in the 
 " Academy " (or University, as we should term it) founded 
 by Viret, the Reformer of Lausanne, and of the region 
 around, at that period (the 16th century) a part of the 
 Canton Berne. From an early age he displayed a great 
 taste for literature and for moral science, in both of which 
 he was destined to excel. 
 
 < • At the age of twenty, two years before the legal termi- 
 nation of his studies in that Academy, he was appointed 
 Professor of the French language and literature in the Uni- 
 versity of Basle, the capital of the Canton of the same name, 
 an old German city on the banks of the Rhine. This city 
 
IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was the scene of the labors of the good Pecolampaclius, one 
 of the mopt distinguished of the Reformers, of glorious 
 memory, as well as the residence during many years of his 
 life of Erasmus, and the place of his death. 
 
 Dr. Yinet resided about twenty years at Basle, officiat- 
 ing as Pastor of the Protestant French Church in that city, 
 whilst performing his duties as a Professor in the University. 
 During this period he wrote several of his excellent works. 
 
 In 1837, Dr. Yinet was invited by the government of 
 his native Canton to the Professorship of Theology in the 
 Academy of Lausanne. In that city he spent the last tea 
 years of his life. In the summer of 1847, he was called 
 by the Master to his everlasting rest and reward, and left 
 behind him a great circle of admiring and weeping friends, 
 to deplore the loss which the Church and the world have 
 sustained by his removal. 
 
 In 1830, Dr. Yinet published his first volume on reli- 
 gious subjects, consisting of two Discourses, one entitled. 
 The Intolerance of the Gospel; the other, The Tolerance 
 of the Gospel — a work which attracted no little attention. 
 In 1836 he published at Paris his Discourses on some Meli- 
 gious Subjects^ which was followed not long afterwards by 
 another volume entitled, JSFew Discourses, on the same 
 topic* 
 
 After these volumes succeeded, at intervals, some six 
 or eight others on Religious, Philosophical, and Literary 
 subjects, all of them possessing great merit, and some of 
 them displaying the very highest and noblest attributes and 
 qualities of the human mind. Besides these works, issued 
 in a more permanent form, Dr. Yinet wrote much for the 
 
 * It is from these two volumes that the Rev. Dr. Turnbull has se- 
 lected the Discourses which he has so well translated, and given to the 
 world under the title of Vital Christianity^ by Vinet. 
 
INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 Semeur^ a literary gazette published once a week in Paris, 
 since 1832 or '33, aa well as for other periodicals of that 
 day. All these articles bear the impress of his powerful 
 intellect and his exquisite taste. 
 
 But the great work of Dr. Vinet was one of the last 
 which came from his pen, and is entitled, The Manifesta- 
 tion of Religious Convictions and the Separation of the 
 Church from the State * — a work wj^ich has been translated 
 into German, and has produced a great sensation in France, 
 Germany, and Switzerland. Nor has its influence been 
 confined to those countries. It is manifest that the mind 
 of the Hon. and Rev. Baptist W. Noel has been greatly 
 enlightened by the profound argument which Dr. Vinet 
 has developed in that admirable volume. 
 
 In his last years, Dr. Vinet was greatly occupied with 
 the ecclesiastical afiairs of the Canton Vaud ; and one of 
 the last things which he wrote was the Confession and 
 Economy of the Free Church of that Canton, organized 
 but a few months before his death. This was a work 
 which he had greatly at heart. Alas ! he was called away 
 from that church just at the moment when it was com- 
 mencing its existence, and when, to the view of men, his 
 presence and his aid were so much needed to sustain and 
 guide in the lieavy persecutions which have since befallen 
 it, and of which we cannot yet discern the termination. 
 
 Respecting the volume which these brief remarks are 
 designed to introduce to the American reader, it may not 
 be amiss to say a word or two. It will be found to cor- 
 respond admirably with the beautiful title which it bears : — 
 Gospel Studies. It is at once simple and profound. The 
 mode of treating every topic is as different as it is possible 
 
 * Sur La Manifestation des Convictions Religieusea et sur La Sepa- 
 ration de I'Eglise de I'fitat. * 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to conceive, from that which an Anglo-American author 
 would pursue. It is emphatically French. On this ac- 
 count the work is the more valuable. The reader will be 
 struck with its fresh and interesting character at every 
 step. Every thought is presented under a garb novel and 
 striking. There is here nothing trite, nothing hackneyed, 
 nothing formal. Everything is new. The old theological 
 terms are dispensed with as much as possible. Dr. Vinet 
 was, like John Foster, a philosopher rather than a theolo- 
 gian. He presents the great truths of the Gospel in a 
 philosophical manner, and yet in a manner beautiful for its 
 simplicity. No one can read a page of this book without 
 being made to think. Every truth is revolved and reviewed, 
 till it gains a firm lodgment in the mind of the reader, and 
 with God's blessing, it cannot fail to do good to all, but 
 especially to those who are likely to be repelled by the 
 phraseology which they would certainly find in a work 
 written by an American or an English author. To His 
 blessing, this, the first edition of it in our country, is de- 
 voutly commended. 
 
 R. B. 
 New-York^ May., 1849. 
 
contents; 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Looking ^ 
 
 Love in the Spirit ^^ 
 
 The Believer completing the Sufferings -of Christ (0 
 
 Philosophy and Tradition "2 
 
 The Precautions of Faith 1^^ 
 
 Imaginary Perfection 1^' 
 
 The Stones of the Temple ^^° 
 
 One Nation and all Nations *. . . . ^ 188 
 
 Christian Utilitarianism 213 
 
 Jesus Invisible 237 
 
 Grace and Paith 261 
 
 Wrath and Prayer 279 
 
 Two Counsels of Wisdom: Counsel to those who are 
 
 Setting Out 297 
 
VIU CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Two Counsels of Wisdom : Counsel to those who 
 
 Walk in the Night 314 
 
 Simon Peter (First Discourse) 332 
 
 Simon Peter (Second Discourse) 348 
 
GOSPEL STUDIES 
 
 LOOKING. 
 
 " And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole ; and it 
 came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld 
 the serpent of brass, he lived." — Num. xxi. 9. 
 
 Though we walk by faith and not by sight, it is to a look 
 that our salvation is attached, and the faith which saves us is 
 nothing but this look. Our condition in the wilderness of 
 life resembles that of the Israelites in their wilderness. 
 Those were cured who looked to the serpent of brass, and 
 we rise to newness of life by lifting our eyes to the cross. 
 This look, brethren, will form the subject of my present 
 address. 
 
 God, who has given a subject^ to narrate, has given power 
 to look. This is the beginning,. the basis oi'His work, while 
 ours, (which, in one sense, is also His, because every thing, 
 without exception, comes from Him,) is to look ; at least this 
 is the beginning and basis of our work. All comes to thi^s, 
 and is reared on this ; on this all depends. We would reply 
 to those who, by the term faith, mean something less than 
 this, or imagine something more. We would make them 
 understand that men believe not if they look not, and that in 
 order to have life it is sufficient to look. May our discourse 
 prove, by the grace of God, as simple as the subject f 
 2 
 
a GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 To say, in absolute terms, that we are saved by a look, 
 would be to say that we save ourselves. Now, it is very 
 true that salvation is accomplished in us, and that even, ac- 
 cording to an emphatic expression of St. Paul, we accom- 
 plish it ; but all its roots are without us. First, there is an 
 act which belongs throughout to God, an act in which we are 
 as nothing : I mean pardon. God has pardoned ; God has 
 offered the hand of reconciliation, and Jesus Christ, who is 
 at once God and man, has come forward to be surety for God 
 in regard to men, and hostage for man in regard to God. 
 Jesus Christ is the Mediator of a new covenant, in which the 
 heart of God is fully manifested ; a covenant bearing for its 
 seal and motto words never heard before, God is Love. This 
 is pardon. It is not, however, salvation ; which, beginning 
 out of man, is performed in him. Man is saved by Jesus 
 Christ, inasmuch as Jesus Christ sanctifies him. Man lost in 
 the Jirst, would not be saved in the second Adam, did not the 
 second become a quickening Spirit, and cause him to rise to 
 newness of life. This resurrection properly constitutes salva- 
 tion, and is, moreover, the work of God, who is the finisher 
 of salvation, as he is the founder of it. Man does not resusci- 
 tate himself. It is true the work is not performed without him. 
 By the good pleasure of God he bears an active and important 
 part in it, but a part which is very simple. All he does is to 
 believe and look, to look and believe. Whoso sees the Son and 
 believes in him hath eternal life. There must be something to 
 look at, and this depends solely on God ; but it is necessary 
 to look, and this is the part of man. The object exhibited to 
 our view is of such a nature and of such virtue that when 
 looked at it gives us life, just as life was given to those who 
 looked at the serpent of Moses. 
 
 The quickening power of the eye of faith forms the sub- 
 ject of our remarks. 
 
 We might first speak generally of the virtue or power of 
 sight. We might say that it is a shorter and livelier method 
 
of acquiring knowledge : that knowledge, however, is not 
 the only result ; because affection is promptly and almost 
 irresistibly excited, when the object is worthy of inspiring it : 
 that, in short, the eye is the first, the readiest, the surest of 
 teachers. It exhorts, rebukes, amends, reforms, and gradu- 
 ally begets a likeness to the object which is contemplated. 
 Hence example, when it is uniform and well sustained, su- 
 persedes oral teaching, and constitutes of itself a complete 
 education. The man who is permitted to see only what is 
 true, and who sees it distinctly, is insensibly won over to the 
 truth. Of this we are assured by God himself, who has pro- 
 mised in his Word that in heaven we " shall be like him, for 
 we shall see him as he is." 
 
 On this principle God has founded his work of mercy and 
 restoration. It was a look that ruined us (Gen. iii. 6), and 
 it is by a look that he has been pleased to save us. 
 
 What, then, should be the object of this look by which 
 the divine life, extinguished by sin, is to be rekindled in our 
 bosoms ? Is it on man himself that man should fix his eye ? 
 Unquestionably he must look at himself, because he cannot 
 otherwise know himself; and when self-knowledge is want- 
 ing, all other knowledge is impossible or useless. But what 
 can a look, o^f which man himself is the object, avail for his 
 restoration ? If he sees himself as he is not, he is puffed 
 up ; if he sees himself as he is, he desponds. Now, the 
 divine life, which is unison of heart with God, cannot be pro- 
 duced in the bosom of pride, nor exist in the absence of hope. 
 Flence, if man is to find life, he must find it elsewhere than 
 in a deceitful or sterile survey of himself. 
 
 It would seem then (does it not ?) that man should fix his 
 eye on God. What is better fitted, or rather what else is 
 fitted to instruct, reprove, heal, and raise up the unhappy 
 son of Adam ? But God is vailed. From the thick clouds 
 which surround him, only thunders and lightnings burst 
 
4 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 forth. Above the sphere of man, nothing meets our eager, 
 anxious gaze, but impenetrable darkness, terrific flames. 
 
 We must not deceive ourselves. The mild, yet majestic 
 image, the very idea of Him whom modern ages have learned 
 to style a God of goodness, is not natural to the imagination 
 and the intellect of man. The Gospel introduced it into our 
 minds. A God of goodness is a God revealed. 
 
 The fact, however painful, must be avowed. It is not the 
 view of God that will engender a new life, since this view is 
 either forbidden to our eyes, or obliges us to shut them in 
 dismay. How, then, could man be saved by it ? 
 
 Accordingly, it is neither directly towards man nor to- 
 wards God that the Gospel invites us to look. It is indeed 
 
 -- towards God and towards man, but towards both as represent- 
 ed by Jesus Christ and united in Jesus Christ. 
 
 In Jesus Christ, in fact, we behold God in the fulness of his 
 
 - attributes and the accomplishment of his will ; and (wonder- 
 ful to tell !) we behold man at once as he is, and as he ought 
 to be. God, I have said, in the fulness of his attributes; for 
 it has pleased him that all the fulness of the Godhead should 
 dwell in Christ, in whom he has for the first time revealed to 
 the world the immensity of his love. Man, I have said, as 
 he is and as he ought to be ; the former intimated by the in- 
 
 *" dignities and sufferings of Christ, which furnish the measure 
 of man's guilt, and the latter realized in the holiness of Christ, 
 who, perfectly fulfilling the law in thought, word, and deed, 
 has far surpassed the innocence of the first Adam. Such, 
 brethren, is the object which the Gospel presents to our view. 
 But there is in this object a central point, a finishing stroke, 
 which exhibits the whole, gives it all its power over our 
 souls, and causes the look which we fix upon it to become 
 the principle and nourishment of a new moral life. This 
 central point, this finishing stroke, is the crucifixion. Accom- 
 panying you straight to this bloody centre, we understand the 
 feeling of St. Paul, when he declared his determination to 
 
LOOKING. 5 
 
 know nothing among his proselytes but " Jesus Christ, and 
 him crucified." 
 
 Jesus Christ may be compared to a mountain, from the 
 top of wliich the eye takes in the whole extent of the country, 
 and reaches to its utmost limits. At the very first platform 
 which you reach in your ascent, your eye carries you farther 
 than it did at the base, and every step enlarges your hori- 
 zon ; but if you would take in the whole view, you must 
 climb to the very summit. There you see all that you saw 
 from a lower level, and you see, moreover, what could not 
 be seen any where else. Now, the highest summit of Jesus 
 Christ, if we may so speak, is Jesus Christ crucified. From 
 the highest we see all that can be seen and know all that can 
 be known. The view which we enjoy at this high elevation 
 combines and comprehends the whole. If we would know 
 what man is, where can we learn better than from the 
 unutterable horror of that death in which extremity of pain 
 is aggravated by extremity of disgrace, while ingratitude 
 and treachery wring out their bitter draught into the cup of 
 sorrows ; that death to which both honor and commiseration 
 are denied, and from which God himself turns away and 
 withdraws his consolations ? If it is because of man that a 
 being perfectly righteous suffers all these things, say what 
 is man ; how desperate must be his disease, and yet how 
 great his dignity and primeval excellence ! Even in the 
 view of God what must that being be, for whom God himself 
 has consented to die ? Behold then and say. Here is man ! 
 
 If we would know man, not as he is, but as he should 
 and as he may be, where shall we learn better than from 
 that cross on which a righteous man, (a man, be it remem- 
 bered,) dies for unrighteous men ; and on which a human 
 soul displays all that man has ever been able to conceive, 
 but never able to realize, self-denial, magnanimity, meekness, 
 moral power — than from that death which contrasted with 
 the most generous deaths of which history makes mention, 
 
6 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 leaves them far behind, even those of them which it has 
 itself inspired ? Behold again, and say. Here is man ! 
 
 Is this enough ? No, it is God himself that you must 
 see and know. The sight of the cross has humbled you. 
 This I admit. It has elevated your moral sense, and given 
 you a perception of your primitive destination and reasona- 
 ble service. This too I admit. But these preparatory 
 stones would for ever have been stones on which nothing 
 could be built, had God continued to be an unknown God, a 
 God to whom you could not without hesitation have offered 
 your respect and love, and in seeking whom your respect 
 and love must have perished by the way. 
 
 But in the death of his Son He unvails a countenance 
 full of mercy and of majesty ; He exhibits himself as a 
 living God, into whose hand it is no longer terrible but de- 
 lightful to fall ; in one word, as a Father who was always a 
 Father, but now at length openly declares it. In like man- 
 man He was always holy ; but did you ever know, had you 
 ever formed even an idea of the holiness of God, up to the 
 moment when God, in order to secure men from sin, con- 
 sented that his spotless Son should suffer such contradiction 
 and indignity from sinful men ! Till then did you under- 
 stand that sin and suffering go hand in hand, cannot be sep- 
 arated, and are, so to speak, one and the same ? A look, a 
 single look, tells you all this, teaches 5^ou all that you ought 
 to learn, rids you of all fears but the fear of doing evil, gives 
 you at once a master and a father, assures you of a friend 
 and intercessor in heaven, dissipates all the mists of doubt, 
 unriddles the enigma of life, and enables you to cast the 
 anchor of a joyful hope beyond the grave. 
 
 This internal revolution penetrates to the inmost recesses 
 of the soul, removing that load of remorse and despair, the 
 weight of which was oppressive and almost stifling. The 
 Lord has said, " I will shake the heavens and the earth, and 
 the sea and the dry land ; and I will shake all nations, and 
 
LOOKING. 7 
 
 the desire of all nations shall come." Hag. ii. 6, 7. Yes, 
 he will shake the heavens that he may thereby ehake the 
 earth, that is to say the heart of man. Surely that which 
 subverts the heavens may well make a thorough subversion 
 in the heart of man ; and when God has recourse to violence 
 in order to conquer back his creature, we may rest assured 
 that the creature undergoes some violent and decisive change, 
 is brought to a dreadful yet blessed crisis which issues in re- 
 covery and life. Either say that the restoration of man is be- 
 yond the power, and that the very attempt to restore him is be- 
 yond the love of God ; or say that this was the heroic, the 
 infallible mean, in other words, that the redemption of man 
 was the sure and probably the only method of saving him : 
 if it is true, as we again repeat, that he cannot be saved 
 without being regenerated. And now in order that this may 
 be accomplished, what has he to do but look ? As Moses 
 lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of 
 man be lifted up. Every one which seeth the Son, hath 
 everlasting life. John vi. 40. 
 
 Such is according to Scripture, and such we may add is 
 according to the testimony of experience, the plan of God 
 for your salvation. Your salvation is not accomplished out 
 of you, or without you ; you cannot be saved if you are not 
 changed, and you cannot be changed, in other words, regen- 
 erated, without being thereby saved. Your salvation is not 
 your work. Begun in God, it is finished in you ; and it is 
 in regard to these two phases, these two grand acts of mercy, 
 that the Gospel calls Jesus Christ the author and finisher of 
 salvation, a salvation the completion of which consists en- 
 tirely in the moral effects which we have just been tracing. 
 
 If you remind us that another element must be taken 
 into account, viz., inward grace, that power of the Spirit 
 which acts upon the spirit of man, and is the active principle 
 of his regeneration, just as regeneration is itself the condi- 
 tion, not to say the very essence of salvation ; we reply that 
 
8 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 this is also our opinion, but that grace, a mysterious opera- 
 tion, the internal processes of which escape our view, accom- 
 plishes its end only by instilling into our hearts that joy, 
 gratitude, hope, and love, which together constitute the char- 
 acter of the new creature, and which though supernatural in 
 one sense, are natural in another, being in exact correspond- 
 ence with the facts which the cross reveals. How neces- 
 sary soever grace may be, it is nevertheless true that it does 
 not act alone, that it does not act without the co-operation of 
 those facts ; and that it is equally true to say, either that 
 these facts regenerate us through grace, or that grace regen- 
 erates us through them. Whatever may be said of grace, 
 it is certain that he only who sees the Son has everlasting 
 life, and that this sight to which we are led and determined 
 by Divine grace, is sufficient for salvation. Inasmuch then 
 as grace makes us capable of looking, we are saved by a 
 look directed to the cross. 
 
 Here we encounter two objections, bearing upon the two 
 principal terms of the proposition which has just been an- 
 nounced. Is the cross the only object to which we are to 
 look ? Is this look a simple act of looking, and nothing more ? 
 
 We mean not to say, brethren, that the only thing of 
 importance in Jesus Christ is his cross, and that we are to 
 look to it alone, to the neglect of every thing else. Christ 
 Jesus did not come into the world exclusively for the pur- 
 pose of dying. He taught, he performed miracles, he lived 
 in the different relations of human life : and the Gospel, by 
 not confining its narrative to his death, invites us to study 
 and venerate Jesus Christ in all his capacities. We know, 
 and are careful not to forget how it pleased the Father that in 
 him all fulness should dwell, and that he has been made of 
 God unto us, not redemption merely, but wisdom, and right- 
 eousness, and sanctification. Still Jesus Christ could not 
 have become our wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctifica- 
 tion, except by becoming our redemption. And what is the 
 
LOOKING. 9 
 
 connection between these and redemption ? In what way- 
 does redemption produce the others, or make them possible, 
 and become itself an effectual and complete redemption ? 
 The whole process, brethren, consists in fixing our eye upon 
 redemption, upon the Redeemer, upon Christ crucified. 
 
 Suppose you retain every thing of Jesus Christ but his 
 sacrifice : leave him all his purity, all his wisdom, and, in 
 so far as it is possible while excluding his sacrifice, leave 
 him all his love ; I maintain that even in regard to his 
 other properties it cannot be said when the cross is suppress- 
 ed that all fulness dwells in him, or that he has been made 
 unto us either wisdom or righteousness, or sanctification ; 
 and, on the contrary, that he will leave you essentially, and 
 to all intents, just as you are. t maintain that you cannot 
 avail yourself of these qualities ; that you cannot discern 
 and recognize them, except by the light of the cross, seeing 
 that it is this light alone which enables us to read the sacred 
 characters in which all these truths are imprinted in the 
 Gospel. I go farther, and maintain that this wisdom, 
 righteousness, and sanctification, indispensable conditions of 
 eternal life, and sacred earnests of our inheritance, are in 
 germ and principle included in faith in the work of redemp- 
 tion, or, if you will, in the look with which we fasten upon 
 this work. I maintain that they come forth from it sponta- 
 neously, just as the blade sends forth the stalk, and the stalk 
 the grain ; that in the soul whose look is fixed upon the 
 cross there exists a beginning of wisdom, a beginning of 
 righteousness, a beginning of sanctification ; and that in 
 proportion as the believer's work is so fixed, the spiritual 
 life, under the three forms which the above terms imply, 
 grows and is silently developed in his breast. I hold that 
 where this look is not, there is no Christian ; and that where 
 it is, it by itself alone constitutes the Christian. 
 
 He who looks not to this fact of Christ crucified, he who 
 neglects it in order to devote himself (so at least he imagines) 
 2* 
 
10 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 to what is primary and essential, makes it only the more 
 certain that he will miss the end at which he aims. He is 
 bent on the application ! The application of what, pray ? 
 His object is life, but where is life, except in believing in 
 Him whom the Father has sent ? He says, perhaps, that ha 
 is unwilling to dwell on a true but idle speculation. He will 
 quit mystery to secure perspicuity, doctrine to cultivate 
 morality. Is it his wish then to plant a tree without roots, 
 or is he contented that his vine though watered by the 
 purest blood of the universe, shall notwithstanding bring 
 forth only wild grapes ? What ! Is the incarnation an un- 
 important fact ? If this fact be suppressed, and it is sup- 
 pressed if we do not contemplate it, shall we have the same 
 morality, evangelical morality, the same spirit, the spirit of 
 holiness ? On the contrary, it is evident that in the Gospel 
 we shall only have a new, and that scarcely an improved 
 edition of the ancient systems of morality. I say scarcely 
 improved, for if it should appear in some respects more 
 correct, in others it would seem obscure, extravagant, and 
 impracticable. It would be like a book filled with myste- 
 rious allusions, for the interpretation of which it would be 
 necessary to have a key, and there is no other key but the 
 cross. What then could be done but throw aside all that is 
 obscure, all that is spiritual, all that appears eccentric, when 
 no centre is seen ; to discard the commands enjoining us to 
 bear the cross, to take the kingdom by violence, to hate 
 father and mother, to die to oneself, to pray without ceasing? 
 In a word, what could we do but sink down to the level of 
 natural morality, while uttering sacred names, appealing to 
 venerable recollections, and celebrating without understand- 
 ing, as without true heartfelt assent, and consequently 
 without true faith, rites in which, as our morality and our 
 lives would abundantly show, we were unable to perceive 
 any meaning ? 
 
 It will not do to say. This truth, like many others, is in 
 
LOOKING. 11 
 
 the Gospel. It will not even do to say, This truth is the 
 most important in the Gospel. What you must say is, This 
 truth is the Gospel itself, and all the rest of the Gospel is 
 only the form, the transcript, or the application of it. This 
 truth is present in every part of the Gospel, just as the blood 
 is present in every part of the human body. To him who 
 comprehends this capital truth, every thing recalls, every 
 thing reproduces it. Even where another person would 
 never suspect its presence, he sees and feels it. On what- 
 ever side he looks, into whatever details he enters, to what- 
 ever application he directs his view, he meets and recognizes 
 the cross. How indeed should he miss it in any part of a 
 book, or of a religion, of which the cross is the proper 
 subject ? 
 
 Jesus Christ came not merely to teach morality at the 
 risk of his life, at the price of his blood. He came not mere- 
 ly to preach practical truths, which we never would have 
 forgotten if we had not forgotten God, and which we shall 
 easily recover as soon as we return to God. These truths, 
 the truths I mean which characterize the morality of the 
 Gospel, are of such a nature that Jesus Christ could not 
 publish them to any useful purpose unless he counterbalanced 
 their fearful requirements by revealing God as a God of mer- 
 cy, and exhibiting a pledge of his willingness to pardon in 
 the humiliation and sacrifice of his beloved Son. It is not to 
 the publication of these moral maxims, nor to the attention 
 which we can give to them while isolating them from the 
 person and work of their great Promulgator that our salva- 
 tion is directly attached. It is attached, above all, to the in- 
 carnation of Christ, to his humiliation, and sufferings, and 
 death, and, consequently, to the believing look which places 
 all these wonders within our reach, and makes them, so to 
 speak, our own. 
 
 True, when once we have accepted the grand dispensa- 
 tion of the divine clemency, it is proper and it is useful to 
 
12 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 study those instructions of Christ and his apostles, of which 
 it is certain that we henceforth possess the key ; but at all 
 times it is necessary in reading these maxims to draw near 
 to a dying Saviour as to a torch, which enables us, the near- 
 er we approach it, to read the more easily. It is under the 
 active influence, in the presence, and as it were within the 
 immediate sphere of this great truth ; it is when surrounded 
 by its light, and warmed by its heat, that every thing addi- 
 tional which the Gospel contains should be studied. Is it too 
 much to say that this morality ought to be transcribed on the 
 very cross of Christ, so that we may be able to read the one 
 without withdrawing our eyes from the other? But has it 
 not been written there already ? Is not Calvary a new Si- 
 nai ? Is not the cross the new table of a new Moses ? And 
 without turning our view from that tree, at once cursed and 
 holy ; without taking our eye for a single instant off Him 
 whom our sins have nailed to it, may we not read, as in a new 
 decalogue, an abridgment and summary of that new law, 
 and the laws and constitution of that new people whom he 
 came to gather out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, 
 and nation ? 
 
 No, the cross is not only the torch by whose light we read 
 instruction which has been deposited elsewhere ; it is itself 
 full of instruction. Let us attend for a moment to the lessons 
 of the cross. 
 
 The Saviour had not waited till his crucifixion to teach 
 great truths. What sublime lessons had not he, in whom 
 are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. ii. 
 3), delivered in the course of his ministry ! What lessons 
 on the holiness and inviolability of the divine law, which 
 aims at nothing short of perfection, and of which not one iota 
 can fail ! What lessons on the misery of man in all those 
 solemn passages which declare, that unless a man be born 
 again he cannot see the kingdom of God, and that whoso be- 
 lieveth not the Son of God, in other words, does not cast him- 
 
LOOKING. 13 
 
 self on the free mercy of the Father, is by anticipation, is 
 already irremediably condemned, the wrath of the Father 
 abiding on him ! What a demonstration of this divine mercy 
 is the mere spectacle of the Mediator suspended on the ac- 
 cursed tree, offering a sacrifice which, to avail those who are 
 at once the objects and the authors of it, asks only to be 
 believed and accepted ! What would all these lessons be 
 without the corresponding facts ? Instead of saying that the 
 facts confirm the words, we should rather say that the words 
 confirm the facts. The instruction is in the facts, and there 
 only could it be. Who would ever have believed in the 
 holiness of the law but for this bloody satisfaction ? or in the 
 deep-seated disease of human nature, but for the violence of 
 the remedy ? or in the greatness of the mercy, but for such 
 a sacrifice ? Who, but for this, would ever have understood 
 our strict accountability to God ? — how completely we must 
 die to ourselves that we may truly live ? — how strongly we 
 are bound to all the creatures of God ? — how far we ought to 
 carry our devotedness and charity towards all men ? In re- 
 gard to all these subjects, how are we to be enlightened ? 
 By a ray of the sun, or by a clap of thunder ? By both at 
 once, for the cross is both. The flash of light, vivid and 
 terrific though it be, comes only from the cross. With re- 
 ference to all these truths, what man required was facts. 
 He needed not to hear but to see ; and, until he had seen, 
 there is nothing that might have been said to him which he 
 would have been able to understand. Jesus the victim be- 
 hooved to accredit Jesus the teacher : the priest behooved to 
 introduce the prophet. 
 
 In regard to lessons from example, the life of Jesus was 
 full of them ; and here I may take occasion to observe, that 
 his whole life was a passion, a prolonged death, of which the 
 cross was only the culminating point and consecration. But 
 if the life of Jesus, supposing it to have come to a natural 
 and peaceful end, must have appeared to us the fairest of 
 
14 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 lives, how noble is the crown which it receives from its con- 
 cluding scenes ! We formerly observed how greatly a con- 
 stant view of goodness and justice, when accompanied with 
 the arguments of reason and other influential motives, may 
 contribute to render us gradually good and just. Now all 
 the virtues of the holy life of Jesus are here carried to their 
 utmost height, and collected as it were in a single point under 
 a single view. Apart from all the circumstances which 
 render it sublime, and which brightly manifest a God in a 
 dying man, this death, formally announced, foreseen with all 
 its bitter ingredients, all its insults and all its sorrows, yet 
 calmly awaited and voluntarily endured, is the last and 
 lofliest expression of obedience, fidelity, devotedness. Hu- 
 man nature, which always possessed within itself the ideal 
 )f spotless love, still waited for the realization of it, but no 
 .onger waits since the day of the crucifixion. For, as an 
 apostle has said. Herein is love, that Christ laid down his life 
 for us. How will this generous death appear if, instead of 
 considering it as a kind of naked abstraction, we invest it 
 with all the circumstances which distinguish it from all other 
 deaths ; if we contemplate it in those inimitable features of 
 majesty and tenderness, of compassion and authority, which 
 convert this cross into a throne, a judgment-seat, an asylum, 
 and constrain us, after eighteen centuries, to exclaim with 
 the centurion, " Surely this was the Son of God !" Matt. 
 xxvii. 54. 
 
 Let us leave to our divine Mediator all that he cannot 
 communicate to us. His divinity belongs only to himself; 
 but his humanity is ours ! The virtues which he displays 
 upon the cross are in their perfection human virtues. They 
 are for our own use, and are proposed for our imitation. 
 These examples form part of our inheritance. But his whole 
 life bore the same character as his death. From the first 
 day when the Gospel narrative brings him before us he 
 was, without intermission, faithful, obedient, patient, charita- 
 
. LOOKING. 15 
 
 ble. But this was not enough. Even by way of example 
 this death, with all its peculiar features, was indispensable. 
 Without it the virtues of Jesus might have been supposed to 
 have limits. His example, though perfect in itself, remained 
 imperfect, if I may so express it, from want of a perfect 
 sphere of action. We knew not all the virtues which the 
 human soul is called to display, but we know them now. 
 Jesus Christ informs us. Without the cross, he could not 
 have done so. 
 
 Was it necessary, in fine, that in addition to instruction 
 and example, we should receive something else from Jesus 
 Christ ; or were instruction and example sujfficient ? You, 
 brethren, know well that they would have served only to 
 render our condemnation more inevitable, if, while fully 
 demonstrating the truth, they had not united us to the truth. 
 How could we have expected this union, this change of heart 
 and nature, from the mere influence of instruction and exam- 
 ple ? It would be to form a very feeble, a very false idea of 
 the conversion of the heart, to imagine that the finest exam- 
 ples, and the gravest lessons, are able to convert any indi- 
 vidual whatever. If conversion is at once a death and a 
 birth, the death of the old man, and the birth of a new man ; 
 if conversion is in principle and in fact a victory over the 
 world, over the pleasures, the opinions, the prejudices, the 
 wisdom, the virtues of the world, over what is honorable and 
 specious, as much as over what is ignoble and is disavowed by 
 the world ; if conversion, rendering us blind to things visible, 
 and giving us eyes to discern things invisible, makes us use 
 the world as not using it, and be of the world as not being of 
 it ; in one word, makes us strangers on the earth by con- 
 vincing us that so we are by origin and destiny : if conver- 
 sion is all this, and nothing less, it supposes so complete and 
 serious an abjuration of all the principles of the natural 
 man, an abjuration not merely of his vices, but of his vir- 
 tues ; it supposes such a general, unreserved, and unquali- 
 
16 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 fied sacrifice, without any expected recompense from God 
 excepting God himself, that it would be absolutely irrational 
 to attribute to any instruction and example, of what kind 
 soever, the power of producing a revolution so thorough 
 and fundamental. Now we cannot doubt that this revo- 
 lution has taken place in several individuals, and even in 
 a large number, if to those who are personally known to us, 
 we add those whose character and conduct has been attested 
 to us by irrefragable testimony. Society, moreover, has, 
 after its own manner, undergone this revolution. Not to 
 enter into further detail, the most civilized nations have as- 
 sumed the arms of Christ, sealed with them their treaties 
 and their laws, and stamped them on their customs and man- 
 ners. In good earnest, do you think that he in honor of 
 whom, and at whose call, the world changed its laws, its 
 manners, and spirit, and has for eighteen centuries, notwith- 
 standing the obstacles raised up by enemies and corrupters, 
 followed the same invariable direction — do you think that he 
 was in the eyes of the world only the first of sages, and the 
 first of virtuous men ? No ! he was the Crucified ! No ! he 
 was the Redeemer ! Before no less than He, could eighteen 
 centuries come in succession and offer homage. To depict 
 on their standards, to erect upon their palaces, to engrave 
 upon their public seals, the image of an infamous execution, 
 it was necessary that he who endured it should in their eyes 
 be something more than the devoted friend of man. He be- 
 hooved to be a Redeemer. More than a martyr, he behooved 
 to be a God. Efface from the Gospel, I say not the cross, 
 but the evangelical signification of the cross, and you render 
 those eighteen centuries absurd or impossible. But you will 
 not do so. For who among you, even though not com- 
 prehending it, even though not consenting to it, is not con- 
 strained to admit that nothing could have determined so 
 many successive generations to make a cross the symbol of 
 their faith and their civilization, but the fact that they saw in 
 
LOOKING. 17 
 
 it a Redeemer, and in the Redeemer, considered as such, all 
 religious truth ; the last communication from God in regard 
 to himself, and in regard to man ? We should not fear to 
 say it. It is long since but for this the Gospel would not 
 have been spoken of in the world, if indeed it would have 
 ever been. It is not so much the Gospel that has preserved 
 the doctrine of the cross, as the doctrine of the cross that has 
 preserved the Gospel. 
 
 As from the hand of God alone, the earth with all the 
 heavenly bodies could receive the primary inexhaustible im- 
 pulse which has caused it for thousands of years to circle 
 round the sun in an immense orbit, with a velocity which, 
 always uniform, measures out our years and ages ; so it was 
 by Christ, but by Christ dying, that man and man's nature 
 could be launched into those new orbits which make them 
 traverse beyond the sphere of the world, a sphere which is 
 spiritual and divine. All the might, all the reality of Chris- 
 tianity in each Christian, is there and only there. Even the 
 lessons and example of Jesus Christ, in order to become liv- 
 ing and fruitful, require a ray darted from the cross. Till 
 then their bearing is questionable, their meaning is uncer- 
 tain ; they signify only what we make them signify. Their 
 virtues become fixed, precise, and absolute, only from the 
 moment that this ray, or shall I say this luminous look of 
 Christ crucified, makes all his lineaments and features to 
 stand forth distinctly in relief. Above all, it is then only 
 that the soul proceeds resolutely to observe those lessons, and 
 follow those examples. When disembarking on the shore of 
 the land she is to conquer, then only, if we may so speak, 
 does she set fire to her ships, and so cut olT all means of re- 
 treat towards the country which she has left. Determination, 
 strength, and life, are only there ; because from the cross 
 only, and not from mere lessons or examples spring up peren- 
 nial streams of joy and love. I say joy and love, which, 
 like two currents of air from different points of the horizon, 
 
18 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 unite and form a single gale which wafts the soul to God. 
 But if it is not love without joy, neither is it joy without love. 
 For if joy is the conditionof activity, love is the condition of 
 divine activity and life. No doubt that which draws and 
 fixes our look on Jesus crucified is the joy of finding our sal- 
 vation in him ; but that which truly makes us find our sal- 
 vation in him, that which in this view accomplishes our sal- 
 vation, is not joy, but the love which meets our view in the 
 presence, or more properly at the feet, of divine love. 
 
 We do not come here, brethren, to preach up the con- 
 templative life ; we have better work to do. But we are en- 
 titled, by the example of Jesus Christ, to invite you to con- 
 templation. The joy of salvation is necessary, I admit, to 
 set enchained love at liberty in our hearts ; but the chain 
 once broken, what have we to do but leave it to take its 
 flight, and quench its thirst, and incessantly obtain new 
 vigor, by contemplating the most perfect form of love ? Ah! 
 would that man could but for once forget himself; that he 
 could for some moments, at least, find all his happiness in 
 admiration, enthusiasm, and tenderness! Would that he 
 could say to himself not only, Jesus saved me, Jesus loved 
 me, but Jesus is salvation, Jesus is love ! Would' that he 
 could sometimes, in this love which is salvation, forget that 
 it is salvation, and in love see nothing but love ! 
 
 After all, what is it that elevates the human soul to the 
 utmost height which it is permitted to attain ? What is it 
 that makes it, according to an Apostle, " partaker of the di- 
 vine nature?" 2 Pet. i. 4. It is not joy; it is love. Joy 
 reanimates and elevates it, joy conducts it towards love. I 
 say more, (for it were heresy not to take our weaknes into 
 account,) joy comes to the assistance of love in hours of faint- 
 ing, which would otherwise prove mortal. It is for this, and 
 nothing but this, that joy is good. Love is the end, the final 
 course of j'oy : love alone is life. You may judge by analo- 
 gy. What are the happy moments in a man's life ? The 
 
LOOKING. 19 
 
 sublime moments ! those I mean in which the soul eagerly 
 unites itself by admiration or sympathy to what is good, 
 great, and generous. It feels that these moments if prolonged, 
 that admiration if freed from all mixture, would have consti- 
 tuted supreme felicity. The soul is completely happy only 
 when in union with its principle it forgets itself; when merged 
 in its principle it becomes, in regard to the God whom it 
 loves, only a miror, an altar, or an echo. Too often the 
 gravest speculations, the speculations worthiest of a Chris- 
 tian, tend to occupy us too much with ourselves. Those me- 
 ditations, those discussions on free will, on assurance, on the 
 connection between faith and works, and even on the proper- 
 ties of faith, mix us too much up with our subject, and give 
 too strong a hold to that vivacious self-interest which catches 
 at and clings to every thing. The look directed towards Je- 
 sus, and this look only, has an opposite tendency. In propor- 
 tion as it is prolonged, it inspires our soul with a holy enthusi- 
 asm, a holy love. It makes those dispositions habitual or do- 
 minant in our heart. It becomes at once the light and the heat 
 of our life. It facilitates, simplifies, illumines all. It does 
 better than refute doubts, it absorbs them. In its brightness 
 all their equivocal or false glimmerings are quenched. It bids 
 away frivolous questions, discards subtleties, creates a tri- 
 umphant evidence, and transports us by anticipation into the 
 light of heaven, putting under our feet all the clouds which 
 hung over our heads. 
 
 That which creates and sustains this life, at the same 
 time regulates it. The feeling of strength ever fading and 
 imperfect, easily engenders pride and rashness ; but all the 
 treasures of wisdom are comprehended in this light of the 
 cross. It does not give us confidence in God, without giving 
 us distrust in ourselves. It makes even this distrust one of 
 the parts of our faith, one of the elements of our strength, 
 one of the pledges of our security. It, in a word, inspires 
 our humility with courage, by concentrating our looks and 
 
20 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 our hope upon the same object, and incessantly repeating to 
 us, by the mouth of the prophet, " Look unto the rock 
 whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye 
 aredi^o-ed." Is. li. 1. 
 
 It is impossible, brethren, to say or even attend to all 
 that might be said, nor is it necessary. We have said 
 enough, or rather you, by our mouth, have said enough to 
 yourselves in order to feel that Christ crucified is the princi- 
 pal objecjt of the Christian ; that his look, when directed to 
 this object, never fails to find in it all the other objects of 
 Christian truth ; that we cannot contemplate these objects 
 in themselves to any good purpose except by holding them 
 very near to the cross, which can enable us to see them 
 distinctly, and judge them correctly : in a word, that there 
 are other objects in religion, but that it is only in it and by it, 
 that we can have a real, accurate, profound, living, effica- 
 cious knowledge of them. Jesus Christ, we repeat, has been 
 made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, 
 only by having been made unto us redemption. 
 
 Accordingly, brethren, it was towards this last fact, to- 
 wards salvation by grace, towards reconciliation by Jesus 
 Christ, towards the mediation accomplished by the God-Man, 
 that the Apostles of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ himself, 
 directed and fixed the look of the rising Church ; knowing 
 well that the conscience of the Christian, when placed in the 
 centre of truth, would easily reach the circumference ; 
 whereas it could not, if placed at the circumference, see the 
 centre. What do I say ? It could not even place itself at 
 the circumference, because this is seen only from the centre. 
 The Jews placed themselves, in idea, on this circumference, 
 or within this circle, though truly impenetrable and invisible 
 from without, when they said to Jesus Christ, " What shall 
 we do to work the works of God ?" and Jesus Christ carried 
 them at once to this forgotten centre when he answered, 
 " The work of God is to believe in him whom God hath 
 
LOOKING. 21 
 
 sent." When Jesus Christ, moreover, was pleased to give 
 an epitome of his doctrine, and render it visible in a rite 
 which should express it, and preserve it in all its entireness ; 
 a rite where no one could mistake it, and where even in the 
 absence of instruction and oral teaching, it would be found 
 pure and intact — what did he do, brethren ? He instituted 
 the Supper, which clearly represents the body of Christ de- 
 livered for our sins, and his blood shed for our iniquities, and 
 which cannot represent any thing but this, so that to the end 
 of ages, wherever it will be celebrated, it will recall this 
 event, it will awaken this idea in all minds, the Supper being 
 nothing but the Gospel abridged, and the Gospel reduced by 
 an image to its fundamental idea. In the same way true re- 
 formers have at all times carried back the view of the 
 Church towards this centre ; and every Church, by looking 
 back towards it, has regained the life which it could not find, 
 nor even seek elsewhere. 
 
 Are the Apostles desirous to maintain life in their flocks ? 
 They, like Moses in the desert, lift up the serpent of brass, 
 and exclaim, " Look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of 
 our faith ; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured 
 the cross, despising the shame." Heb. xii. 2. Do they see 
 life, zeal, and love, languishing in their churches, they pro- 
 nounce the watchword of Christianity, they appeal to the 
 memory of Christ crucified, they exhibit him in accents of 
 painful astonishment and censure to their misguided followers : 
 " O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should 
 not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been 
 evidently set forth, crucified among you ?" Gal. iii. 1. It is 
 useless to multiply examples, and furnish superfluous proof 
 from the past. The present also demands our attention. 
 
 In the present day, what is it to preach the Gospel but 
 just to hold forth Christ crucified to the view of men ? Where 
 do you see the Christian life bud forth and expand itself, save 
 there only where the beginning and end of preaching is, "Look 
 
22 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 on him whom ye have pierced." What do I say ? Does 
 not the preaching which forms new converts consist entirely 
 of these words, just as the preaching which carries them on 
 and matures them comes incessantly to the same point, mak- 
 ing it the source of all its instruction, the aim of all its 
 lessons ? 
 
 Yes ! this ^ngle word, this single object, the cross^ 
 may suffice to make Christians, and without it nothing suf- 
 fices. 
 
 The proper object of the commission of the missionary, 
 as well as that of the pastor, is to announce Jesus Christ. 
 This is his first lesson, and it is the strength, the grace, the 
 mercy, the key of all the rest. Wonderful beyond expres- 
 sion ! A look, a simple look, (I mean not an argument, a 
 study, a toil,) a simple look converts the world ; and the es- 
 sential task of the apostle is to dispose sinners, those sufferers 
 in another wilderness, to lift their drooping heads from the 
 ground, and turn their eyes in a particular direction. What 
 direction ? That of a cross, a hideous object covered with 
 blood, an instrument of torture and symbol of ignominy ; 
 and which, if the sufferer had not made the instrument glo- 
 rious, would produce in our imagination the shuddering im- 
 pression of a gibbet or a scaffold ! Well ! the view of this 
 object realizes the salvation of the world, the whole price of 
 which has been paid by the divine goodness ; and all that we 
 have to do, not as the condition of our unconditional salva- 
 tion, but as a means of appropriating it, is to look at it ; not 
 that the look is all, but that it is a prolific, creative look, 
 which contains and produces all. 
 
 If the fastidious sentimentalists of the world, whose imagi- 
 nation has antipathies which are stronger than the wants and 
 instincts of their soul ; if the admirers of human perfection, 
 spurning the idea of a bloody satisfaction, and a salvation 
 which their pride will not allow them to accept gratis, turn 
 away from the spectacle at once fearful and humiliating 
 
LOOKING. 23 
 
 which we set before them ; if that which is gloomy in it 
 hides from them that which is sublime — we have a hope 
 founded on the experience of ages, that there will be found 
 spirits less proud (perhaps after the hammer of God shall 
 have broken their pride to pieces) ; spirits which will not ob- 
 stinately turn away their eyes, but will consent to behold and 
 look on him whom they have pierced. And whilst, O hea- 
 venly Brother ! whilst many are astonished because of thee, 
 because thy visage is more marred than that of any man, 
 while they exclaim, " What ! is this the person who is pro- 
 posed to our faith as its object, its author and finisher ? There 
 is no beauty nor comeliness in him, nothing to make him to 
 be desired !" there will be found in all ages, in all countries, 
 and in all conditions, O cruci^ed Redeemer ! admirers of thy 
 beauty, which will never have seemed to them so great and 
 so divine as under the sweat of Gethsemane, the spittings of 
 the prsetorium, and the blood as it trickled from the crown of 
 thorns down thy sacred brow ! In their eyes thou art fairer 
 than any of the sons of men ; and it is under thy cross, in 
 the view of thy ignominy, that with hearts deeply moved 
 they sing : 
 
 Beneath that vail which shrouds thy face, 
 
 Those thorns which form thy crown, 
 Shall I fail to discern thy grace ? 
 
 Shall I my Lord disown ? 
 
 My faith can penetrate the cloud. 
 
 All bloody though it be, 
 And there behold, without a cloud. 
 
 Unsullied majesty ! 
 
 Ne'er in heaven's mansions, calm and bright, 
 
 Did thy immortal brow 
 Send forth its pure celestial light 
 
 More gloriously than now. 
 
24 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 Ne'er in the abode which beauty keeps. 
 Did radiance from thy head 
 
 Beam brighter, than when thou the steeps 
 Of Golgotha didst tread. 
 
 To these humble souls Jesus Christ upon the cross is fair; 
 fair as salvation, as love, as truth, as hope, because Jesus 
 Christ upon the cross is all salvation, all love, all truth, all 
 hope ; fair with the beauty of grace, and the beauty of the 
 law, because upon the cross to which his love nailed him, he 
 represents to them at once all grace and all love, so that they 
 speak of glory in the view of this ignominy, of joy in the 
 view of those sorrows, of life irTthe view of that death. And 
 this cross on which Jesus hangs motionless, on which to ap- 
 pearance Jesus no longer acts, no longer teaches, and scarce- 
 ly speaks, shows them Jesus free, acting, speaking, teaching, 
 walking, coming to them in triumph and glory from the bo- 
 som of his high home ; so that no longer seeing what the 
 carnal eye sees, and seeing what that eye sees not, they pros- 
 trate themselves before the accursed tree, exclaiming, " How 
 beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bring- 
 eth good tidings, that publisheth peace ; that bringeth good 
 tidings of good, that publisheth salvation ; that saith unto 
 Zion, Thy God reigneth !" Is. Hi. 7. 
 
 Truly, brethren, when all these features are united in 
 thought, the astonishing thing is not that some look, turn, 
 and cling to Christ upon the cross, but that the eyes of all 
 mankind do not meet together upon him in common and fer- 
 vent contemplation. To speak only of what men are accus- 
 tomed to call fair, never was a fairer spectacle offered to 
 their admiration. According to ancient sages, a good man 
 opposing an unalterable countenance to the stroke of fortune, 
 is a spectacle worthy of God himself. And shall the specta- 
 cle of a God, the victim of man's wretchedness, finding in 
 each act of outrage which he suffers from them only an addi- 
 
LOOKING. ^ 2G 
 
 tional right to be exerted in their favor, shall this spectacle, 
 brethren, if the other was worthy of God, be unworthy of 
 man ? Has a charity all divine no more claim than a 
 merely human virtue ? Can God and mortal man be seri- 
 ously put in comparison ? And when God humbles himself 
 to look upon man, is it too much for ^man, I say not merely 
 to raise his ej'-es to God, but to contemplate him eternally, to 
 contemplate him on his knees, and supplicate as his highest 
 good, his only glory, that the sight which stirs and trans- 
 forms his whole being may never be withdrawn ? 
 
 I say stirs and transforms his ivlioJe being. Why do we 
 speak here of admiration ? the subject is conversion ! Why 
 do we speak of beauty ? the subject is salvation ! It is as 
 saving, as capable of making us pass from death unto life, 
 that we recommend this contemplation. We recommend it 
 first to those who believe not, that having looked they may 
 believe and live. Let them distinctly understand us. By 
 the term looking, we mean not an examination of the proofs 
 which establish the truth of the Christian religion, although 
 the testimony borne in its favor has been confirmed by won- 
 ders and miracles, and divers other effects of divine power. 
 Heb. ii. 4. We mean not by the term looking, the study of 
 the Scriptures, although the word of prophecy, which is most 
 sure, bears testimony throughout to Jesus. All this study 
 is commendable and necessary, and far be it from us to dis- 
 suade you from a study which is in the present day too much 
 neglected, and without which it is to be feared many will 
 never come to look at Jesus Christ. But still, all these 
 labors together are not worth and cannot supersede the look 
 for which we plead, whereas this look alone has often super- 
 seded them. No doubt " faith cometh by hearing ;" in other 
 words, hearing is the origin of faith, its starting point ; but it 
 belongs to the eye to finish the uncompleted work of hearing. 
 Where, in your opinion, is there a man who has heard much, 
 and read much, but not looked ? a man who has carefully 
 8 
 
26 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 examined the proofs of the divinity of Christ, a man who has 
 admitted them, and yet not looked at Christ ? a man whom 
 these proofs have convinced, that is to say vanquished, forced 
 to believe, but whose faith, wholly passive, though it receives 
 and yields to the truth, does not embrace it, and become 
 united to it by a proper movement, and to whom, strange to 
 say, the truth at once is and is not ? a man who, conducted 
 by his studies to the very foot of the cross, remains there with 
 downcast eyes, never raising them towards tlie cross, nor tOr 
 wards him whom it bears and whose adorable blood is run- 
 ning down this accursed tree ? Others have not been able 
 to believe till they lifted their eyes and looked at Christ. 
 Those, I admit, have believed but with a forced faith, on the 
 account of the whole world, and not on their own personal 
 account ; with a faith which is to them only a yoke and bur- 
 den ; a faith which they support, but which does not support 
 them until, passing beyond this terminated labor, this ex- 
 hausted spring, they begin to look simply at Jesus. Are 
 we rash in speaking of this look as a condition of true faith, 
 when Jesus Christ himself has said, " Every one which seeth 
 the Son, and believeth on him," (z. e. every one who, having 
 seen the Son, hath believed in him,) " hath everlasting life." 
 These words, brethren, decidedly annex life to a look ; not 
 indeed to every kind of look, but to an attentive, earnest, 
 prolonged look ; a look more simple than that of observation ; 
 a look which looks, and does nothing more ; a lively, un- 
 affected, childlike look ; a look in which the whole soul 
 appears ; a look of the heart and not of the intellect ; one 
 which does not seek to decompound its object, but receives it 
 into the soul in all its entireness through the eye. 
 
 Have you thus looked at Jesus, you who deny Jesus, or 
 who, without denying him, do worse, perhaps, since you re» 
 duce him to nothing ? Oh ! deny not, discard not this God- 
 Man, this man of sorrows, before having looked at him. A 
 single glance, simple, ingenuous, free from prejudice, has 
 
LOOKING. 27 
 
 sometimes united him to those who heard him spoken of for 
 the first time : the same grace will, perhaps, be granted to 
 you. This much is certain : it will not be refused, (in fact 
 has it ever been refused ?) to an assiduous and prolonged 
 look, such as this holy object claims, and such as it deserves. 
 When Jesus shall have been set forth, or rather, shall have 
 portrayed himself, as the apostle calls it, before your eyes; 
 when, as the result of this profound contemplation, he shall 
 have been crucified before^ you ; when you shall, for the first 
 time, have beheld all the glory of his martyrdom, all the 
 authority of his dying words, all the inconceivable love which 
 mingles with this incomparable authority ; when, penetrating 
 within the vail of his sufTerings, even into the secret of his 
 work, and the secret of his soul, you shall have seen God 
 himself humbled in the person of Jesus Christ to the level of 
 our miseries, and the infinitude of love revealing itself for 
 the first time in the infinitude of power; when you shall 
 have in some measure (and in one sense this is real) seen 
 with your eyes, and with your hands handled what we an- 
 nounce to you ; then, as naturally as light enters the eye, 
 and air enters the lungs (though the eye perceives not that 
 it has seen, nor the lungs that they have breathed), this great 
 and unfathomable mystery of a love, with which we can, 
 and without which we could not, form any proper idea of 
 God, will enter your mind, which respiring it, so to speak, 
 will not feel oppressed by it any more than the lungs feel 
 oppressed by the air which they breathe, — so natural is this 
 supernatural truth, and so much, without being foreseen or 
 suspected by the soul of man, is it unconsciously anticipated, 
 wished, and invited. 
 
 After having said Look ! to those who believe not, shall 
 we not say it to tliose who believe, I mean even those who 
 believe truly ? Did we not, we should have a very superfi- 
 cial and false idea of faith. Faith is not a state in which we 
 are placed, once for all, on admitting the proof of religious 
 
28 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 truth. To believe is an action, an action of the soul, over 
 renewing its acceptance of what it believed at first, and con- 
 stantly reuniting itself to it. If it is so, and if it is true that 
 we cannot believe without looking, is it not clear that from 
 the date of conversion, which had its commencement in a 
 look, we must look incessantly ? Others, perhops, will say, 
 It is not necessary to look incessantly, but to reflect inces- 
 santly on what has been seen. Certainly, brethren, we mean 
 not to exclude reflection ; there is even much of it necessari- 
 ly in the look which we recommend. However, we would 
 not be satisfied if the reflection did not come from the look, 
 or if the look did not follow in the train of the reflection. 
 After all, the object of Christianity is not an abstract truth. 
 It is a fact, a person, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ crucified. 
 These naturally ofTer themselves to the eye before oflering 
 themselves to the n)ind ; and that which acts on our soul 
 in the blessed way in which God has been pleased to appoint, 
 is this object itself. We believe not in Christianity, but in 
 Jesus Christ. Every Christian act done in the world is done, 
 not by Christianity (which is itself only an effect), but by 
 Jesus Christ. The relations which we bear as Christians 
 are not intellectual relations, relations between our mind and 
 a truth, but relations between person and person ; relations 
 between us men, and Jesus Cin-ist both man and God. The 
 object of our faith is invisible, but not impersonal. He is not 
 seen with the eye of flesh, but, nevertheless, he is seen. We 
 do not converse with him as with an idea, that is to say in 
 substance as v/ith ourselves, but as with a Being who is with 
 us even to the end of the world. Whoever then, being a 
 Christian, looks not, or looks little, is wanting to his faith, is 
 wanting even to his name. His first vocation, his first inte- 
 rest, is to look often and much. 
 
 If these reflections, brethren, appear to you superfluous, 
 and if you do not at first perceive any occasion for them, we 
 would say to you, that among convinced and sincere Chris- 
 
LOOKING. / 2$ 
 
 tians, in addition to those who look to Jesus Christ, I see a 
 great number who do not look to him, or do not look suffi- 
 ciently. I see some, moreover, who look, but who do not, so 
 frequently as they ought, carry their looks and all their 
 thoughts towards Christ crucified. 
 
 The former fail to behold Jesus Christ, because they give 
 too much to thought or action, or because instead of contem- 
 plating Jesus Christ they contemplate themselves. With re- 
 gard to believing thinkers, we would observe, that to think is 
 not always the same as to look ; and to think of Jesus, not 
 always the same as to look to Jesus. We may be withdrawn 
 from Jesus, estranged from Jesus, while thinking of him. It 
 is no longer the person, but the ideal representation of Jesus 
 that we have defore our eyes. We reason about him as 
 about an idea of which he is the name. We often name 
 him, but we take his name in vain. We have before our 
 eyes only the form of the object, not the object itself. We do 
 not like those who, in examining a fruit, its size, weight, shape, 
 and color, should forget that it is savory and nutritive, and 
 cast it away, after having measured, weighed, sketched, and 
 painted it. It is not thus, at least it is not thus principally, 
 that we ought to be occupied with Jesus Christ. To be oc- 
 cupied with him exclusively in this way, is not to be occu- 
 pied with him. It is to fill every thing with his name, his 
 idea, and in other respects leave every thing void of him. 
 Would you think usefully of your Saviour, look to your 
 Saviour. 
 
 As to the activity with which a sincere Christian devotes 
 himself to the name of Christ, it indeed implies that he has, 
 once at least, looked to Jesus Christ ; but continued action 
 does not imply continued looking. So far from this, it may 
 direct and detain the view elsewhere. Though setting out 
 from him (as I am willing to believe), it may not return to 
 him. His name may remain affixed to the work when the 
 work is his no longer. Doubtless action is necessary. 
 
dO GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 Doubtless, it may be said with certainty of him who acts 
 not, that he looks not, or even that he has never looked. 
 But action, even sustained, indefatigable action, does not im- 
 ply looking, at least in the same degree. The danger here 
 is in the illusion, so easy for others and for ourselves, and 
 more easy on the subject of action than of thought. For a 
 faith which acts not, cannot flatter itself with being sincere ; 
 whereas we easily persuade ourselves that we are in the 
 truth, when we are laboring in the name of the truth. But 
 be this as it may, action does not dispense with looking, and 
 is not a substitute for looking ; and though it should perse- 
 vere, and gain warmth by its own movement, I still repeat 
 what I have said : for its duration and progress are no proof 
 of a revival of life, or of intimate communion with him in 
 whose name we act. No, brethren ; without resorting to 
 any uncharitable or disparaging explanation, it is certain 
 that we very often act because we have acted ; we continue 
 because we have begun ; we devote ourselves to our work 
 because it is a work, or because it is ours. Our first impulse 
 is exhausted, but habit and preoccupation give us another ; 
 we no longer imitate Christ, but we imitate ourselves, we 
 obey ourselves. Custom, without the help of any principle, 
 links our present to our past; and those first works, so 
 earnest at the outset, become at length mechanical, and 
 almost involuntary works. Looking alone can render to 
 action, not that feverish vivacity which our passions will 
 always give it in abundance, but that calm force, that de- 
 gree, that delicate precision, that beauty which passion can 
 never give. 
 
 There are persons, in fine, who look, and even contem- 
 plate, but contemplate themselves. We have already said 
 how necessary this self-consideration is, and we need not 
 repeat ; but though it be impossible to contemplate our 
 misery without being urged towards Christ, or to contem- 
 plate Jesus Christ without being recalled to a sense of our 
 
LOOKING. 31 
 
 misery, this misery is not, however, the object of saving 
 faith, and the view of this misery cannot place in our heart 
 the elements of life and earnests of salvation. It must even 
 be confessed that, though powerless to save, it is able to des- 
 troy. It alternately discourages and sours ; it even does 
 both at the same time. It exhausts, and in barren regrets 
 enervates the soul which lives on joy and hope, but dies of 
 sadness ; and the only life which remains to it in this death, 
 the only life which springs from this death, is ill humor, 
 peevishness, murmuring, and envy. The knowledge of the 
 law of God serves only to aggravate the evil, by depriving 
 us not only of any delusive hopes entertained, but of all 
 remaining energy and strength. Thenceforth, strange to 
 say, the position of him who knows not the law of God is 
 more favorable than the position of him who knows it. The 
 law worketh death in every sense of the word ; for after we 
 have learned from it not only the full extent of its demands, 
 but also that, as the apostle expresses it, " the judgment of 
 God against those who commit such things is that they are 
 worthy of death," we are thereby dead already, because we 
 have ceased to trust in ourselves, or to hope in God. But 
 this, you will say, does not apply to the Christian who is 
 not subject to the law, and for whom the ministry of death 
 by Moses has been succeeded by the ministry of righteous- 
 ness by Jesus Christ. Yes, it does apply, when he does not 
 assiduously contemplate Jesus Christ. It does apply to him 
 when there is a principle of death, a partial death, in the 
 practice of tasting and relishing his misery, instead of tasting 
 and relishing the goodness of God. He does not, I admit, 
 fall into despair ; because, though on the brink of it, he is 
 held back by the remembrance of Jesus Christ, as by a chain 
 which becomes perceptible at the precise moment when it is 
 all drawn out and not another step could be made towards 
 the abyss, unless the chain were to give way. He falls not 
 into despair, but into deep despondency. The soul, not- 
 
32 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 withstanding of some glimmerings which ever and anon 
 come to it from the cross, is habitually sad, and so far 
 feeble. It deemed it sufficient to look at Jesus Christ once 
 for all ; but either he must be looked at incessantly, or we 
 must look incessantly at sin. The eye, at least if it is not 
 blind, has no alternative ; and if it is certain that we shall 
 not lose sight of our misery by looking at Christ crucified, 
 because this misery is, as it were, engraved upon the cross, 
 it is equally certain that in looking at our misery, we may 
 lose sight of Jesus Christ, because the cross is not naturally 
 engraved on the image of our misery. An apostle was 
 blamed for wishing to put his hands into the wounds of his 
 risen Master. We all concur in blaming him, and ask, 
 Why did he not rather put them into his own wounds, the 
 wounds of his soul ? But in another view, the example of 
 Thomas should furnish us with a rule ; for it is not into our 
 own wounds, but into those of Jesus, that we ought to put 
 our hands ; and it is in this sense that we say to the class of 
 believers whom we have in view. Look ; yes, look every 
 where ; look to the depth of your misery, but look more to 
 Jesus Christ, at least never consent to see yourself and your 
 sin, except through the medium of Jesus Christ, and his 
 triumphant love. 
 
 And to speak not merely of our misery, but generally of 
 attention to our impressions and successive states, we can- 
 not, brethren, be too much on our guard against giving to 
 this matter the time and interest which we owe, above all, 
 to the contemplation of our Saviour. Here, you understand, 
 there is no exclusive, no absolute system. We defend the 
 sacred cause of the contemplation of Jesus without condemn- 
 ing self-examination. To do so were to condemn the Gospel 
 which sanctions and recommends it. This sanction may be 
 seen in the words of St. Paul, " Examine yourselves, 
 whether ye be in the faith ; prove your own selves : know 
 ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you ?" 
 
LOOKING. 33 
 
 2 Cor. xiii. 5. These words would have no meaning if self- 
 examination was forbidden. It must also be admitted that 
 when St. John declares, " Hereby (by loving the brethren) 
 we know that we are of the truth," he authorizes, nay, he 
 obliges us to have recourse to that self-examination against 
 which we are apparently desirous to put you on your guard. 
 But in fact we only mean to guard you against the abuse of 
 it, and it is of importance to do so. The very principle 
 which leads to this tendency is suspicious; and since the 
 subject is self-examination, let us first examine ourselves in 
 regard to this examination. We will perceive that personal 
 feelings have always much to do with the practice which, 
 moreover, never fails to nourish these feelings and strengthen 
 them. When occupied with ourselves, should it even be in 
 condemning ourselves and hating ourselves, we feel a bitter 
 pleasure, a torturing delight ; and this pleasure is so danger- 
 ous that it becomes necessary to wean ourselves from it, 
 even although it should have been purchased at the cost of a 
 deep humiliation. 
 
 Another danger not less great, is gradually to make void 
 the cross of Christ, and subtilely substitute for the free pardon 
 of God something which at first sight appears not to be a work, 
 but, notwithstanding, is one; to deduct somewhat from the 
 absolute value of the work which has been done out of us, to 
 bestow it upon the work which has been done in us, and 
 which, because done in us, is readily believed to be done by 
 us ; to cease casting ourselves entirely upon the Divine 
 mercy ; and, to say all in a word, to convert salvation into a 
 matter and question of feeling. It is not, it cannot be so : 
 there are no degrees of less or more in that which is absolute ; 
 and as Jesus Christ has not died for some more, and for others 
 less, he has not died more or less for each of us in respect of 
 our state at any given moment." Far be it from me, brethren, 
 to encourage the fatal idea, that it is not necessary to take 
 heed to what we are, nor, consequently, to what we do ; an 
 3* 
 
a4 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 idea of which the ultimate but inevitable consequence would 
 be to make us feel a complacency in the contrast between 
 our faith and our moral state, to feel proud in proportion to 
 the strength of the contrast, and on the ground of its being a 
 more simple and sincere faith, to give the first place to the 
 faith which is the more confident, the fewer grounds it has for 
 confidence. And thus we would end by thinking ourselves 
 nearer to God, the farther our life was estranged from him. 
 When the Apostle spoke with approbation of those who hoped 
 against hope (Rom. iv. 18), this was not the class of Chris- 
 tians whom he had in view, although they certainly do hope 
 against hope. What would become of the exhortation to 
 vigilance, if the duty of self-examination were not recognized ? 
 How can we watch over the life, without watching over the 
 heart, out of which are the issues of life ? In fine, how can 
 we avoid judging, when all systems hold that salvation con- 
 sists in communion of heart and will with the Father of our 
 spirits, and that this communion, if impaired, would impair 
 the joys of heaven and salvation ? Does not St. Paul lend us 
 his authority, when he says that God has given us in his 
 Spirit (not in his word) the earnest (or a payment to account) 
 of our inheritance ; and that his Spirit (not his word) bears 
 testimony with our spirit that we are his children? Now 
 there is nothing magical in the agency of the Spirit. The 
 Spirit is known by fruits, inclinations, works, the whole life ; 
 and it is accordingly in this life proceeding from the Spirit 
 that we receive the earnest or foretaste of heaven. 
 
 But while admitting all this, and prepared, if necessary, 
 to defend it, we say, brethren, as the result of the preceding 
 remarks, that this contemplation of ourselves, if it be not un- 
 ceasingly purified by the contemplation of Jesus Christ, readily 
 becomes egotistical. If not subordinated to the contemplation 
 of Jesus Christ, it leads us step by step to our own righteous- 
 ness, to salvation by works, from thence to pride, if we forget 
 ourselves, or to listlessness and despondency, if we see our- 
 
LOOKING. 35 
 
 selves as we are ; so that at last the noble principle which 
 salvation by grace should have placed in our hearts, that 
 principle whose place cannot be supplied, and out of which 
 there is nought but falsehood, deceit, and rebellion ; that prin- 
 ciple, I say, slowly undermined by self and curiosity, fades 
 from our creed, which is then like an old tree standing with 
 its bark after the wood and pith have wasted away. 
 
 As to those of whom I have also spoken, who, looking to 
 Jesus Christ, do not look to him supremely, nor return to him 
 constantly, our language is : There is only embarrassment, 
 obscurity, anguish, sterile fatigue, in all the systems, with re- 
 gard to Jesus Christ, which are drawn successively from the 
 Gospel, while they are only systems. Speculation concern- 
 ing Jesus Christ, mere speculation, however sublime and 
 necessary, is withering and deadly. Not that we adopt the 
 view of those who say, " Look at the cross and look at nothing 
 more, speak of the cross, and of the cross only ; give your- 
 selves no concern with the fact that St. Paul, St. John, and, 
 before them, the Saviour himself, spoke of other things. It 
 is true that they have spoken of regeneration, without which 
 we cannot enter the kingdom of God ; and of holiness, with- 
 out which no man shall see the Lord. They had reasons 
 which to us are unknown, but don't you act so. For it is 
 very clear that if you speak of the ne-cessity of a new birth, 
 it is just as if you were ordering men to be born anew, and 
 that if you enter into detail on the subject of sanctification, 
 you open the door to a self righteousness, forming a species 
 of unhallowed traffic which Christ Jesus drove from the sanc- 
 tuary." 
 
 This, brethren, is not the language in which we will ad- 
 dress you. There is no choice in the Gospel ; every thing 
 must be taken, nothing left ; and if Paul, when speaking of 
 the productions of the natural world, could say, " Every 
 creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be 
 received with thanksgiving" (1 Tim. iv. 4), may not we say 
 
36 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 the same of the Gospel, that other creature, in which assur- 
 edly every thing is good ; only, with the apostle let us add, 
 *' if it be received with thanksgiving ;" words which, with re- 
 ference to our subject, we interpret thus : Provided that your 
 gratitude towards Jesus Christ, provided that your dependence 
 on the mere grace of God, provided that your confidence in 
 your Saviour, overrule and pervade the whole ; provided that 
 you combine this idea along with each of your other ideas, in 
 order to complete and explain them ; provided that, after 
 having learned many things, you are able to say. One thing 
 I know, and would know, ''Jesus Christ and him crucified." 
 Why, brethren, cannot we accustom your eyes and our 
 own to this simple looking towards Jesus which has been the 
 strength and unction of believers in all ages? Why cannot 
 we imprint on your soul, and primarily on our own, the salu- 
 tary impression, that all the trials, perplexities, and difficul- 
 ties of the Christian life of their own accord vanish away in 
 this blessed unity of the Chrfstian look. This look, so simple 
 that the humblest child is capable of it, suffices for all. It 
 is the cause of the most different effects, the cure of the most 
 opposite evils ; it is equally victorious over the difficulties of 
 systems, and the perplexities of doubt, the assaults of pride, 
 and the assaults of despair ; the temptations of covetousness, 
 and those of sorrow ; the bitterness of hatred, and the weak- 
 ness of natural affection. When we behold the cross, there 
 proceeds from it a light which disperses all darkness, and a 
 flame of love which consumes all hatred. " Who shall stand 
 when he appeareth !" exclaimed the last of the prophets, 
 with eyes upturned towards the east. And we too, say, 
 What anguish, what pain, what bitterness can there be when 
 Jesus Christ appears ; when love divine, love without mea- 
 sure, unconditional, unlimited, breaks forth upon us in the 
 mystery of the cross ! All reasonings, all combinations, all 
 counsels, all methods, are not as regards the heart or even 
 the understanding, worth a look directed to Jesus ; and though 
 
LOOKLNG. 
 
 37 
 
 all these means are useful, (who would deny that they are ?) 
 there is still need of the look, still need of the light to quicken 
 all, and give strength to all. Let it only appear; it has only 
 to be seen. "They looked to him," says the Psalmist, 
 " and were lightened " (Ps. xxxiv. 5), i. e. at once illumined, 
 warmed, quickened, consoled. 
 
 Meditate, brethren, on the idea (which perhaps too seldom 
 presents itself to your mind), that the view of the cross is 
 all-sufficient. We perceive certain uses of it ; we do not 
 comprehend all of them. We understand how it carries con* 
 solation into a soul bending under the burden of sin ; but do 
 we understand that it is equally good for distresses of the 
 flesh ? We comprehend how this view gives once for all a 
 general direction to our life ; do we also comprehend how on 
 every practical question that can be raised, it gives direct 
 counsel, and the means of solution ? Its light, like that of 
 the sun, is not only boundless and immense, but minutely 
 subdivided so as to penetrate into every fold, into every chink 
 which we open to it, in our life. We comprehend how, be- 
 ing offered as a cure to our wretchedness, it gives us the 
 knowledge and the measure of our wretchedness; but do we 
 also comprehend how well fitted it is to dissipate all doubts as 
 to the truth of the Gospel, and all the perplexity introduced 
 into our mind by the unfortunate complication of the systems 
 formed out of the Gospel ? We comprehend the benefit of 
 looking in times of trouble and darkness ; do we also com- 
 prehend the benefit of looking when the mind is clear, the 
 heart at ease, the life prosperous, — being not only brightness 
 in brightness, repose in repose, prosperity in prosperity, but 
 all of these in reality and perfection ? No, the uses of the 
 cross are not all equally known by all ; no, none of us make 
 (far from it!) all that might be made of it, because none feel 
 sufficiently that it is proper for all, and sufficient for all, that 
 it contains all, and is all, gives all on earth, and promises all 
 in heaven. 
 
38 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 Brethren, it is one of the wonders peculiar to the Gospel, 
 that when we would distinguish between the means which it 
 offers and the end which it proposes, between sacrifices and 
 their reward, the present and the future, earth and heaven, 
 we find a difficulty in doing it, so much oneness is there in 
 the destiny of man, so much oneness in truth, so much are 
 duty and happiness, though separated in our mind in con- 
 sequence of the fall, substantially one and the same. In the 
 Gospel, the reward of loving, is to love more ; the reward of 
 seeing, to see still better. We have exhorted you to look, 
 as a duty of wisdom and Christian prudence. Well, the 
 glory and happiness of heaven will consist in looking. Who 
 knows not that this is the term which the sacred writers most 
 frequently use to denote celestial blessedness ? Who knows 
 not that in their language to be saved, is to see God ? Wit- 
 ness him who declares that without holiness no man shall see 
 the Lord. Witness Jesus Christ himself, who proclaims. 
 Blessed are the poor in heart, for they shall see God. Wit- 
 ness St. John, who animates Christians to fidelity, by the 
 hope of one day seeing God as he is. But doubtless it is not 
 to the God of Sinai ; it is to Him who at Golgotha drew aside 
 the last vail which obscured his glory ; it is to Him, of whom 
 Job was thinking when, racked by affliction of every kind, 
 he exclaimed, " I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that 
 he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : and though 
 after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall 
 I see God : whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall 
 behold, and not another." It was of the same God that 
 David rapturously exclaimed, " As for me, I will behold thy 
 face in righteousness : I shall be satisfied, when I awake, 
 with thy likeness." Ps. xvii. 15. And certainly you have 
 no cause to wonder that eternal happiness has been repre- 
 sented to you under these figures, you who know the joy, 
 the incomparable joy, which is felt in contemplating Jesus 
 Christ. Of all the promises with which the prospect of the 
 
LOOKING. »9 
 
 heavenly mansions could be embellisiied, none give such 
 delight to your heart as this. You shall look on him whom 
 you have pierced. When one of our fellow-creatures has 
 by word and deed given us proof of his love and sympathy 
 we think that a sight of him could lend us nothing, tell us 
 nothing more. Of what consequence, we think, the features 
 of his countenance and the form of his person ? And yet we 
 long to see him. And when we have seen him, it seems to 
 us that from that moment only we know who he is, and that 
 we did not know before. The sound of his voice, and his 
 looks, give us quite a new impression, and this moment con- 
 stitutes a new period in our relation to him. This, brethren, 
 gives only an idea, but still an idea of the personal view of 
 Jesus reserved to believers in another life. He shall doubt- 
 less have been with them to the end of their course, as he is 
 with his Church to the end of the world. They will have 
 known and conversed with him. Some, even the favored 
 contemporaries of his ministry, will have seen him with the 
 eyes of their flesh ; but to see him with that eye which 
 pierces even to the centre of the soul, and which St. Paul 
 has characterized so emphatically when he says that '^ we 
 shall know even as we are known ;" to penetrate even into 
 the holiest of all, I mean to the very depth of this ineffable 
 love ; to feel it as we feel our own affections, to taste inces- 
 santly, and drink long draughts of this incomparable love ; 
 to take part in all the thoughts of the Beloved, to receive his 
 divine communications, to be one with him, as he is one with 
 his Father, to draw inspiration every moment from the 
 mysterious virtue of his look, and say " It was this glorious 
 Prince of eternity that I pierced ; He whom my eyes behold 
 is at once my victim, and my God !" Vain words, to ex- 
 press what is inexpressible, and yet sufficient to open to the 
 eye of hope a rapturous and boundless prospect ! May it 
 open upon each of us ! But in order that our unfaltering 
 look may not only pierce the clouds, but bear the splendor 
 
40 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 which seems to overpower it, let it long rest on Jesus cruci- 
 fied. Thus let it prepare to sustain the view of this dazzling 
 future. Thus let it have learned to see heaven on the earth, 
 before seeing heaven in heaven. 
 
lOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 
 
 Epaphras " declared unto us your love in the Spirit. — Col. i. 8. 
 
 A FEW lines before our text, the Apostle himself informs us 
 that he was delighted to hear of the faith of the Colossians, 
 and their love towards all the saints. He here returns to 
 what Epaphras had told him, but he names only one of the 
 objects which he mentioned at first. He here merely men- 
 tions, and seems to rejoice, in the love of the Colossians ; 
 only he adds to the word love another word which charac- 
 terizes it. " Your love," says he, '' in the Spirit," or ac- 
 cording to the Spirit. Our discourse, as it proceeds, will 
 explain why the Apostle, after having mentioned faith and 
 love, now mentions only love. But our text invites us, (and 
 for this we have chosen it,) to make ourselves distinctly ac- 
 quainted with the subject of Paul's joy, to inquire into the 
 nature of this love in the Spirit, which the Colossians pos- 
 sessed as an inestimable treasure. The better we know it, 
 the better will we comprehend the joy of St. Paul ; the bet- 
 ter we know it, we shall perhaps see cause for sadness, but 
 in return we shall know ourselves; important knowledge, 
 the possession of which, how vexing soever it may be, is 
 always ground for congratulation. 
 
42 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 In what, in the words of our text, does St. Paul rejoice ? 
 or at least, what great news has he learned ? Great news 
 certainly, and of great joy. He has learned that the Colos- 
 sians live, or to speak more correctly, he has learned that by 
 the power of the Spirit they have passed from death unto life. 
 This is our affirmation at the outset, this it remains for us to 
 prove. 
 
 Life is a profound mystery : what it is essentially is 
 known to none but Him who has life in himself. But if we 
 are unable to define it, we can recognize it. We know that 
 it is a superior mode of existing, and its principal charac- 
 teristic is this : the living being is endowed with a power of 
 motion which is proper to it, and the conditions of which are 
 within it, whether this motion takes place only among the 
 different parts of which it is composed, and, so to speak, from 
 itself to itself, or transports it as a whole from one place to 
 another. If we add that this motion, which we make the 
 characteristic of life, did not take place once for all on the 
 formation of the object, but continues incessantly ; that the 
 very continuation of this motion is life, and that its interrup- 
 tion is death, we have sufficient means of distinguishing liv- 
 ing beings from those which do not live. 
 
 Moreover, all lives are not the same life. There is one 
 life of the plant, another of the animal, another of man. 
 One being, as the plant, has only one mode of living ; an- 
 other, as the animal, has two ; man is more richly provided. 
 He has several lives. He has that of the animal, since he 
 has a body ; that of the intellect, since he thinks ; that of the 
 heart, since he loves. These are three sorts of proper motion 
 and internal activity, which exist united in him alone, at least 
 here below. 
 
 Let us stop here for a moment. No one surely will con- 
 tradict us when we say that the life of the intellect is thought. 
 These two things, I mean the faculty which is called intel- 
 lect, and the act which is called thought, are so clearly 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 43 
 
 united in the mind of every man, that the name of the act 
 is often substituted in discourse for the name of the faculty 
 which produces it; so that we say indifferently, that man is 
 distinguished from other animals by intellect, or is distin- 
 guished from them by thought. It would be as impossible to 
 conceive of an intellect without thought, as of a body without 
 extent ; in other words, a body which should not occupy any 
 portion of space, and yet be a body. Every one understands 
 that intellect, separated from thought, is nothing ; for, as the 
 intellect does not see itself, as we have no way of perceiving 
 it but by its acts, we could have no knowledge of the intellect 
 if we had not seen it in operation. It is not in regard to us a 
 substance, a thing, a being, but an agency. Now, what would 
 an agency be which should not act ? what an intellect which 
 should not think ? 
 
 On this there is no dispute. But it is different with the 
 heart. Though we perceive at the first glance that the life 
 of the intellect is to think, it does not seem so clear that the 
 life of the heart is to love. And yet it is certain that if we 
 recognize the life of the heart as a separate life, which is not 
 to be confounded either with the life of the body or with that 
 of the intellect, the moment we should wish to say what the 
 life of the heart is, at once, without intending it, we should 
 name love. Any one may make ihe trial. Any one may 
 see if it be possible for him to give an idea of the life of the 
 heart into which love does not enter. What we call- the 
 heart can no more be seen, no more be known in itself, than 
 can the intellect. Without the acts which the heart pro- 
 duces, we should not even have an idea of a life of the heart. 
 We would never have invented the name. In regard to the 
 life of the heart, then, we must proceed as we did in regard to 
 the life of the intellect. We must ask, not what the heart is, 
 (to this there is no answer,) but what the heart does. Well, 
 if the heart does something, it loves. It is its property to 
 love, as it is the property of the plant to vegetate, and the 
 
44 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 property of the intellect to think. It loves, some one will 
 say, but it hates also. Certainly it does. How can it love 
 without hating ? How walk towards the east without turn- 
 ing your back on the West ? How love a thing without hat- 
 ing its opposite ? This hatred is the necessary counterpart 
 of love. This hatred is love reflected back on itself, unless, 
 indeed, you choose to say that love is the necessary counter- 
 part of hatred, or that love is reflected hatred. This would 
 place hatred in the front and love in the rear of our moral 
 life, and would be equivalent to saying that the life of the 
 heart consists, not as we said, in loving, but in hating. 
 There would be no alternative between these definitions, and 
 as no man would dare to say, or could even think, that the 
 life of the heart consists in hating, every one would be con- 
 strained to admit that the life of the heart consists in loving. 
 But why, then, do we not say that to live with the heart 
 is both to love and to hate ? We do not say it, because ha- 
 tred is not the true object of the heart ; because, as we have 
 said, the heart hates only by contrast, and because it loves. 
 Because it is impossible for an artist, in employing the power 
 of fire, to produce fire without making ashes, shall we con- 
 clude that the ashes which form the residuum of combustion, 
 are the object and the end of the artist's labors ? Hatred 
 forms the ashes of the fire which love kindles in our hearts, 
 but it is not on these ashes that the heart lives. Hatred is 
 only a form of love ; love only is real, love alone is some- 
 thing. Love leads, it is true, to a sort of hatred ; but no sort 
 of hatred can lead to love. He who begins with hatred will 
 end with hatred. Nay, more ; he who begins with hatred 
 does not, we may rest assured, hate what he ought to hate. 
 He perhaps imagines that he hates evil ; but if he loves not 
 what is good, he does not hate evil as evil, as sin, as enmity 
 with God. He hates it for some other reason (and there are 
 many different reasons), than because it is evil. Nothing, 
 but the love of goodness begets a true hatred of evil. 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 45 
 
 We repeat then, brethren, that as regar !s the heart, life 
 is nothing but love. The hatred which springs not from 
 love, the hatred which is not a form of love, hatred in itself 
 and for itself, is not a life, but on the contrary, a death of the 
 heart. It is no more the life of the heart than error is the 
 life of reason. If you insist that the reason which errs, and 
 the heart which hates, live notwithstanding, you must admit 
 that a life whose property is to destroy, strongly resembles 
 a death ; and we may say of persons by whom the heart 
 which was given them to love is employed in hating, that 
 they are dead while they live. 
 
 It will be admitted, brethren, that every action, to have a 
 meaning, must have an object. Thus, the action of the in- 
 tellect has an object, and this object is truth. The heart 
 also must have an object, and if this object is not the unison 
 of all moral beings and the happiness of all sensible beings, 
 what is it ? It must of necessity be the opposite. It is, in- 
 stead of unison, discord ; instead of the happiness, it is the 
 misery of all beings. There is no means of escaping from 
 this conclusion when once the other is rejected, unless by 
 saying that the life of the heart has no object. But to say this 
 were to say that this life has no existence, and that the heart 
 is no more than a word. 
 
 The life of the heart, then, if it has one, is love. And 
 this life has two opposites, or, if you will, it is subject to two 
 deaths, the one of wliich is called egotism, the other hatred. 
 If the life of the heart is to love, the heart is dead when it 
 loves itself only, the heart is dead when it hates. But these 
 two deaths, properly speaking, constitute only one. For, on 
 the one hand, hatred is not conceived without egotism. It is 
 impossible to form an idea of a man, whose heart, given up 
 to hatred, should at the same time be detached from his own 
 interests, and ready to sacrifice them. It is even probable 
 that those whom he hates are those who stand in his way, or 
 give him umbrage ; those in whom some of his appetites 
 
46 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 have encountered opposition. No man hates for the sake of 
 hating. On the other hand, it is impossible for the egotist to 
 confine himself to egotism ; that is, to love himself exclu- 
 sively, without hating others ; those, at least, whose preten- 
 sions or rights encounter his ; those who, by word or action, 
 have offended him in one or other of his interests. Hatred 
 is only egotism in its most decided form, its necessary deve- 
 lopment, the poisonous fruit of a poisonous root. If egotism 
 is a death, hatred is a living death. Might we not add that 
 the heart cannot be empty, and that egotism is not able to fill 
 it ; that hatred bears more resemblance to life ; that hatred, 
 though a depraved action of the heart, is still an action ; that 
 it gives the heart occupation, which it always needs, and 
 that for this additional reason if we do not love we must 
 hate? 
 
 Let us now return to the point from which we set out.- 
 There are in the world several kinds of life, of which that 
 of man is one. In man himself there are several kinds of 
 life ; and we have already distinguished them. Let us now 
 observe that no life, either in the world or in man, is equiva- 
 lent to any other life. The life of the plant is inferior to 
 that of the animal, the life of the animal inferior to that of 
 the man, and in man himself the life of the body is beneath 
 that of the intellect, that of the intellect beneath moral life. 
 This is because these three lives, portioned out among other 
 beings, meet together only in man, and correspond to three 
 worlds which have not the same value in our eyes, the mate- 
 rial, the intellectual, and the moral world. Ask the first 
 peasant you meet, and he will tell you without prompting 
 that to be intelligent is far better than to be handsome, and 
 that to be good is far better than to be intelligent. On this 
 point there is no hesitancy, no disagreement among mankind. 
 Matter and form are far inferior to knowledge, and knowledge 
 cannot be put on a level with love. Moreover, what is it 
 that constitutes the value of each of these lives ? Its rela- 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 47 
 
 tion with a superior life, the faculty which it has of reaching 
 it. Matter is of value only in so far as it is subordinate and 
 does service to intellect, and intellect is degraded when it 
 does not terminate in love. If love in order to find objects 
 and exercises has need of intellect and matter, love has in 
 itself dignity and beauty : we cannot, it is true, conceive it 
 separated from intellect, but it exists not for intellect while 
 intellect exists for it. Now may we not say of a being which 
 unites in itself several lives, that if it wants the principal 
 life, that for which it has received all the others, it lives not, 
 although it possesses the others ; because these others were 
 not its end, which must be sought in the life of which it is 
 destitute. It were different to be deprived of a life to which 
 one has not been destined, and for which one has not been 
 organized. Thus the plant lives although it does not feel, 
 for it has not been made to feel ; and the animal lives although 
 it does not think, because it has not been made to think : but 
 for man made to love, man whose destination is love, it were 
 vain to feel and vain to think ; if he loves not, he lives not. 
 Thus the higher life of each being is its true life, in the ab- 
 sence of which it may be regarded as dead. 
 
 Each of our subordinate lives, then, is something in rela- 
 tion to the higher or true life ; but in itself, and separately 
 it is nothing. When the higher life, which is the end, is 
 wanting, it is not correct to say that there is less of life ; 
 there is no half, nor third, nor two-thirds of life ; there is 
 either life or no life. No doubt we may love more or love 
 less ; here degrees are easily understood ; here the differ- 
 ences may be endless ; but between the being which loves in 
 any degree whatever, and that which loves not, there is all 
 the difference between something and nothing, existence and 
 non-existence, life and death. I say not only between that 
 which loves and that which vegetates, but between that which 
 loves and that which thinks, although there is also a consid- 
 erable distance between that which thinks and that which 
 
48 GOSPEL ST[JDIES. 
 
 vegetates ; but considerable as it is, it is as nothing in com- 
 parison with the distance between the being that loves, and 
 the being that loves not. Truth assuredly is a great thing, 
 and yet if you do not set truth above love, and, consequent- 
 ly, set it beneath, you say rightly, that without love truth is 
 useless. Go still further, and say boldly, that without love 
 there is no truth, since there is no unity or happiness. Does 
 this surprise you ? Think better of it. The word truth does 
 not designate merely an accurate view of the mind, it does 
 not designate an idea only, it has something more substan- 
 tial ; it designates a thing, a fact, a relation. Truth exists 
 in action before it exists in idea, in things before it is in 
 words. A thing is true when it is what it ought to be, as a 
 word is true when it says what it ought to say ; a thing, in 
 like manner, is false when it is not what it ought to be. If a 
 man, then, is not what he ought to be, and does not what he 
 ought to do, it would be in vain for him to know the truth, 
 he would not be in the truth according to the meaning of St. 
 John, who says that we know that we are in the truth by 
 loving our brethren. Truth, in the creation of God, consists 
 in a complete correspondence among things. Now he who 
 loves not does violence to this general correspondence which 
 constitutes truth, and, as much as in him lies, introduces 
 falsehood into the bosom of truth. There is no room, there- 
 fore, to draw the distinction and say. Such a one has not love, 
 but he has truth. No, if he loves not, he has not truth. 
 
 On this point the Gospel exhibits not the least indecision, 
 the least obscurity. It uniformly gives supremacy to the life 
 of the heart, or to love ; it makes every thing in man tend 
 or aspire towards love as the end and reality of human life. 
 Jesus Christ never proposed knowledge to his disciples as an 
 end, but as a mean. The end is that all may be made com- 
 plete in unity. Now unity is love. St. Paul declares that 
 knowledge puffeth up, but that love edifieth. Weigh well 
 these words. It does not say mistaken knowledge or error, 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 49 
 
 but knowledge in general, and, consequently, truth as well 
 as error. Love edifieth. Weigh this expression also. To 
 edify is to construct, to build, to erect a solid monument or 
 habitable abode ; in two words, to produce a positive result. 
 This is the true meaning of the word edify. Thus, then, in 
 truth (if it is only thought) there is inflation, wind, nothing ; 
 in love is the positive and the real. Such is the doctrine of 
 St. Paul. It is also evidently that of St. John, when he says 
 that he who loves God knows him. Besides, knowledge is 
 subordinate to love ; but here love is presented as the means 
 and condition of knowledge. This brings us back to what 
 we lately said, namely, that he who has truth, if he has not 
 love, has not even truth. And which of you, brethren, has 
 not at present in his mind the magnificent passage in which 
 St. Paul, humbling human and even angelical knowledge at 
 the feet of love, exclaims, " Though 1 speak with the tongues 
 of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am nothing. 
 Though I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, 
 and though I possess all knowledge, but have not charity, I 
 am nothing." 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2. 
 
 It is not even enough to oppose a whole life of thought to 
 a whole life of love. The things are not thus measured. 
 Here quantity, extent, duration, are nothing ; nature is all. 
 All the sublimest thoughts of all the profoundest philoso- 
 phers of all the ages of the world, when weighed in the 
 balance, are not worth one single movement of charity. If 
 it be objected that great thoughts come from the heart ; that 
 there are things which cannot reach the intellect without 
 coming througl) the soul ; and that there is, perhaps, some 
 love in some of the speculations of these great intellects, we 
 are far from gainsaying this. We joyfully place to the ac- 
 count of the higher and true life all the love which may exist 
 in their thoughts; but we, nevertheless, maintain that in 
 those fine thoughts in which there is love, it is love which 
 4 
 
50 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 constitutes life ; that thought, as thought, is not life ; that the 
 peasant who loves is superior in dignity to the philosopher 
 who loves not ; that a single act, a single movement of true 
 love, carries it over the most brilliant discoveries, and the 
 sublimest thoughts. 
 
 Now, if we are correct in the observations which we 
 have made, we are entitled to affirm again what we affirmed 
 at the outset. St. Paul, we said, is glad because the Colos- 
 sians live, or because they have passed from death unto life. 
 Truly life is love ; the Colossians live since they love. 
 
 But St. Paul does not say simply that they love ; he says 
 that they love in the spirit. Now, if he adds these words, if 
 he distinguishes between several kinds of love, it is not, un- 
 doubtedly, to point out the weakest and least excellent, but, 
 on the contrary, to point out the best. 
 
 Love in the spirit, says the Apostle. What is this 
 spirit? Is it spirit in general; spirit in opposition to matter; 
 spirit considered as the most excellent part of ourselves, so 
 that, instead of love in the spirit, it had been equally well 
 styled spiritual love ? We are persuaded that Paul meant 
 love in the Spirit of God, the love which the Spirit of God 
 teaches and inspires ; but we might, without danger, consent 
 to the former interpretation, well assured that, unconscious- 
 ly to those who propose it, it includes that which we pre- 
 fer; well assured that in the first we shall find the second. 
 
 What, in fact, is meant by the term sj^irit without the 
 addition of the name of God, as, for example, in the passage, 
 " The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak ?" 
 
 * It means that better part of us, which St. Paul terms 
 
 * The paragraphs with an asterisk', are mere notes from a first copy 
 which the Author had not been able to reduce into proper form. They 
 are introduced here to supply blanks, and indicate the train of his 
 ideas, the connection of which could not o^her^ise be perceived. 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 51 
 
 me, (Rom. vii. 14-16,) and which the Spirit of God has come 
 to set at liberty ; it is the part of our being by which we 
 hold communion with God. It is neither the body nor tho 
 soul ; it is the perception of the divine and eternal. To love 
 in the spirit then is, in every case, to love according to, or by 
 the Spirit of God, just as to love according to the Spirit of 
 God, is the same thing as to love spiritually. We are cer- 
 tain, then, to find the one interpretation in the other. 
 
 * Let us attend to the first ; to love according the Spirit 
 of God. Here again it will be said that the original signifies 
 to love by the Spirit of God. It is of little consequence. 
 He who loves by the Spirit of God, doubtless loves according 
 to the Spirit of God. Now the Spirit of God is first a spirit, 
 and secondly the Spirit of God. 
 
 * Love according to the Spirit is a spiritual love ; in 
 other words, that which loves in us is.no part of our carnal 
 being, but that new man, whose object is the true, the just, 
 the divine, the immortal. 
 
 * Love according to the Spirit then, is not that gross 
 love which produces or stimulates concupiscence, and of 
 which it is said, that the will of the flesh is death. And we 
 extend the meaning of this expression, (will of the flesh, 
 Rom. viii. 6,) to all the loves of simple taste, preference, 
 suitableness, community of party-spirit, community of fear 
 or hatred, custom. 
 
 * Neither is love according to the Spirit an interested 
 affection. These two words both apparently and really con- 
 tradict one another, and yet it is certain that we may delude 
 ourselves in regard to them. We love people (with a cer- 
 tain affection,) for the happiness which they give or promise, 
 for the respect which they secure us, for the pleasure which 
 we find in intercourse with them, and the indulgence which 
 they show to our tastes. Interest, egotism even mingle with 
 the purest affections — a mother's love. 
 
52 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 * Love according to the Spirit is not natural affection, 
 even detached from sense and egotism. Not that the Spirit 
 condemns natural affections ; on the contrary, it consecrates 
 and renovates them. Their absence proves his absence or 
 withdrawal, but their presence does not prove his presence. 
 These instincts are lovely with a beauty which is not per- 
 sonal to us, but with the beauty of God, as the azure of the 
 sky, the perfume of flowers, the melody of sounds ; it is the 
 beauty of God in the moral world. It is necessary that there 
 should be the idea of duty, obedience, principle, adherence to 
 universal order. This obedience is not love, but love with- 
 out this principle, is no more love according to the Spirit. 
 
 But this Spirit of which the Apostle speaks, is the Spirit 
 of God. And you imagine not that the Spirit of God can 
 inspire man with an affection in which God himself has no 
 part. For it is the Spirit of a jealous God, the Spirit of God 
 who created us only for himself, the Spirit of God who wills 
 to have us wholly ; the Spirit of God, who has commanded 
 us to love him with all our heart, with all our soul, with 
 all our mind, and with all our strength. If it is so, how 
 should there be in our life a single movement, in our soul a 
 single point, from which God could be absent, from which 
 God could be excluded ? If it is so, what portion will God 
 have in our affections? Do we give God a part? Does 
 God share with his creature ? And if he permits us to love 
 Another being than himself, can it be otherwise than in him, 
 and for him ? Will not God be present in every object of 
 our love ? Will he not be its sanction, its tie, its beauty, its 
 force, and also its limit ? Assuredly he does not forbid 
 these affections ; on the contrary, he commands them. The 
 second commandment like unto the first, is to love our 
 brethren, and observe that even in this commandment, all 
 God's rights are reserved. If he has a right to command us 
 to love our brethren, it is because in the first place he has a 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 53 
 
 right to be loved. But though he should not have com- 
 manded this love, though he should only have permitted it, 
 it would only be on condition of his ruling our affections, 
 and finding us always ready to sacrifice them to him, to tear 
 our hearts from them when they displease him, in fine, to 
 hate them rather than prefer them to him. Such is the 
 only mode of loving according to the Spirit of God. To love 
 otherwise, is to love according to the spirit of the world and 
 the devil, which are the enemies of God. 
 
 What did we say above of the object of this love ? This 
 object is unity, but doubtless a complete unity, a unity em- 
 bracing whatever is made to be united. True love ought to 
 tend towards this unity, and rest in it only. Do you believe, 
 then, that after having embraced all the creatures, it can stop 
 short of the Creator ? Do you believe that this love can em- 
 brace all, unite all, except Him who is the very principle of 
 all love, the author of all love, and who consequently must 
 be the first, the supreme object of all love ? Strange unity, 
 brethren ! or rather what rupture, what rending, what con- 
 tradiction ! The world on one side, God on the other ! Love 
 refusing to mount to the source of love ! Man refusing to 
 apply to God that strength of love which he has received from 
 God himself! Man withdrawing his love from the only Be- 
 ing perfectly lovely, and lavishing it upon what is only lovely 
 by him, lovely in him ! or rather man, with a mockery still 
 more insulting, consenting to love God, but after all others, 
 less than all others, as if to act thus were to love him ! as if 
 to throw to him the remains of our heart, (I tremble to think 
 how true this description is) were not to offer him our hatred 
 and contempt ! Once more, why do you speak of unity ? 
 No ! the unity which is not complete is not unity. No ; you 
 appear to unite yourselves to a particular order, only to se- 
 parate yourselves from general order. No ; your attach- 
 ment to the jsreatures, serves only to manifest your separa- 
 
54 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 tion from the Creator, and prove that you are out of order 
 and unity. 
 
 And what is this inferior unity on which you plume your- 
 self, and which you pretend to realize in your human affec- 
 tions ? How can it be real ? How can truth dwell with 
 falsehood ? How, incapable as you are of loving the only 
 Being perfectly lovely, can you be capable of truly loving 
 your brethren ? How, after such fearful injustice, can you 
 be just? How can hearts so unnatural flatter themselves 
 that they love? Admit that all love of a higher nature is 
 impossible to those who do not love God, and that all love 
 which is not according to the Spirit of God, cannot be a love 
 according to the Spirit. 
 
 The Gospel does not authorize us to conceive the idea of 
 two independent unities, each of which might be a unity. 
 They are unities only in virtue of their relation and natural 
 correspondence. Unity among men is only a continuation of 
 the unity between men and God. Jesus Christ asked his 
 Father that his disciples might be one, but he did not separate 
 this request from another, namely, that his disciples might be 
 one with him, and with his Father. He does not say to his 
 Father merely, " T pray that they may be one," but, " I pray 
 that they may be one in us." It is thus only, according to 
 the declaration of our divine Master, that this unity will be 
 consummated. John xvii. 23. 
 
 We now know what is meant by affection or love in the 
 Spirit. It is above and beyond all our attachments by the 
 senses, by interest, and by nature, which we have enumera- 
 ted. It is an affection of which God is the centre, which in- 
 cludes in it duty, which attaches itself to the soul, and aspires 
 to eternity. 
 
 To know what it is, it was only necessary for us, so to 
 speak, to name it. The name alone has informed us of all. 
 But could we have defined that which is not, and cannot be ? 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 55 
 
 Could we have developed only what is contained in a simple 
 idea ? Could we have described only an imaginary object ? 
 And in order to define love in the Spirit, have we no other 
 and better method than this cold analysis ? Ought we, in 
 one word, to confine our exposition to such words as these — 
 Such would be love in the Spirit if this love existed, if this 
 love was possible ? In truth, would we have made much 
 progress, and employed our_time and yours to good purpose ? 
 What would it avail you to know that which is not, which 
 never was, and which never will be ? But it is impossible 
 that it should be so. If this love was not in the nature of 
 things, if it had not a foundation in God and in us, rest as- 
 sured that we would not have even this idea of it. We could 
 not have described to you a thing which could not exist. 
 This love in the Spirit is possible, is real. I appeal to its 
 name. 
 
 Let us look for it then upon the earth in human hearts, if 
 the earth can offer us an example of it. Let us interrogate 
 history, our own recollections, and the facts which are pass- 
 ing around us. Let us ask from the past, from the present, 
 from ourselves, images in which we may contemplate it, not 
 as an idea, but as a reality. But could our eye long hesi- 
 tate ? Would it not, before fixing itself on any man, rise at 
 once to the Captain of our salvation ? Did he love according 
 to the Spirit or according to the world — he to whom the Spirit 
 was given without measure, he who, living in the world, was 
 not of the world, and would not pray for the world ? Of a 
 truth all the peculiar characteristics of love in the Spirit were 
 manifested in each of the affections of Jesus, and an easier 
 process of learning their nature would have been to seek them 
 in him, than even in the nature of spiritual affection ; for who 
 would not perceive that the glory of the Father was his first 
 object, and that the whole purpose of his life on earth was in-' 
 eluded in the great work of manifesting the name of God to 
 those whom God had siven him out of the world. 
 
56 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 What was the noblest and first of the ties between man 
 and man, according to him whose whole life exemplified the 
 memorable declaration, " Whosoever will do the will of my 
 Father in heaven, the same is' my brother, and sister, and 
 mother?" No doubt natural afl^ections, and, consequently, 
 particular attachments, were not unknown to him who wept 
 over the closed tomb of Lazarus, and the open sepulchre of 
 Jerusalem. But to what a height did he elevate these par- 
 ticular affections above their sphere of individuality, and in 
 the sphere to which he transports them with himself, who 
 could still recognize them ? Who could see in them only 
 private affections ? Who could suspect him of having for 
 one instant sought himself in the objects of his affection ? 
 Who could show us in any of these affections the mere im- 
 press of instinct or custom ? Who, on the contrary, is not 
 forced to acknowledge, that if instinct and habit had any in- 
 fluence in the ties which he formed upon earth, they both dis- 
 appear in the idea of holiness ; that with him love was a 
 virtue, and that, if we may so speak, he added charity to 
 each of his affections 1 To him it belonged, according to the 
 expression of St. John, to teach us what love is. It was he 
 who brought into the world both the name and the thing, by 
 dedicating to it, by his life and by his death, the principle of 
 a love, not obscure like instinct, but luminous like will; a 
 love in which neither sin, nor self-interest, nor nature, nor 
 accident, has any part ; a love in which the immortal spirit 
 seeks the immortal spirit ; a love wholly united and amalga- 
 mated with the love of God, and which, come from, rises 
 again to God ; a love, in fine, which is not a production of 
 nature, but a fruit of grace. It was he who, from his child- 
 hood at Nazareth until his last sigh at Golgotha, kept the 
 standard of charity at such an elevation that it has ever been 
 impossible to confound it with any other standard, or not per- 
 ceive that the love which was spit upon at the judgment-hall, 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 57 
 
 cursed upon the way to Calvary, and crucified between two 
 thieves, is-a love different from all other kinds of love. 
 
 However, if it is in Christ Jesus that we have known what 
 love is, it was manifested in him alone for no other purpose 
 than that it might be diffused. If not so, to what purpose 
 would it have been manifested ? This divine love became a 
 school. The Holy Spirit taught it to all to whom he taught 
 that Jesus Christ was the Saviour of the world. They did 
 more than announce, they reflected his virtues; and in those 
 living mirrors, that which appeared most clearly, that which 
 first struck all observers, was love in the Spirit. They were 
 not of the world, as he was not of the world. Hence their 
 affections were not of the world ; or, at least, what was mor- 
 tal in them was swallowed up of life. St. Paul, St. Peter, 
 St. John, thousands of others with them, and thousands of 
 others after them, loved in the Spirit. We may recognize in 
 them, through the veil of their humanity, this same heavenly 
 affection distinct and entire. The life of each of them, not 
 in virtue of any change or of any particular distinction, but 
 simply inasmuch as they were Christians, represented it 
 faithfully. Their life, like that of their Master, defines love 
 in the Spirit better than words. Their love, in crossing the 
 ocean, has left a luminous track behind, which cannot be 
 effaced, and which will to all ages point out their passage on 
 the road to sacrifice. Any one of them would suffice to un- 
 fold to us this new sense and new power communicated to 
 human nature. We might confine ourselves to St. Paul; 
 we might confine ourselves to the ^ew lines which precede 
 our text. Love in the Spirit is there shown in all its fulness. 
 Every word brings out some feature ; every word teaches us 
 that St. Paul loves those to whom he writes, and loves them 
 not according to the world, but according to the Spirit. From 
 that time, brethren, the inheritance of the love of the Son of 
 man was no more repudiated than the inheritance of his sor- 
 4* 
 
58 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 rows ; in other words, the people of God have always suffered, 
 always loved. That which perpetuates itself in the living 
 Church, in spite of all vicissitudes and all revolutions, that 
 which, so to speak, establishes its identity from age to age, 
 is love in the Spirit. 
 
 Facts thus combine with reason to teach us what is meant 
 by love in the Spirit. After all that we have said, would it 
 not be strange if we were called to prove that this love is 
 true love, and consequently true life ? We have seen that 
 every other affection, from the guiltiest to the most innocent, 
 is worldly affection, and consequently transitory and perish- 
 able as the world ; all remembrance and trace of which 
 must perish in the splendor of eternity, just as the stars of 
 night are lost in the first rays of the sun. All I now ask is, 
 can a true life have an end ? Has that which dies ever 
 lived ? If we admit that whatever is true is eternal, are we 
 not constrained to admit that whatever is not eternal is not 
 true ? These affections were lovely, you say. Yes, we 
 admit it ; lovely in divine beauty. But no doubt the sky 
 also is lovely, and the earth also is lovely ; yet this will not 
 prevent the hand which made the heavens from rolling them 
 up like a scroll ; this will not prevent this globe, with all its 
 magnificence and riches, from vanishing at last. Of all that 
 is according to nature, nothing will remain; for nature is 
 only the form of a divine idea, whereas of that which is ac- 
 cording to the Spirit, nothing will pass away ; for the Spirit 
 is God himself. " Charity," saith the Apostle, " never fail- 
 eth ;" but he is there speaking of love in the Spirit. We 
 might conceive how love might preserve our forms of love, 
 as amber preserves the patch of sea- weed around which it is 
 formed ; but we could not conceive how this patch of sea- 
 weed, how love, according to the world, should preserve 
 itself. 
 
 What exposes us to illusion in this respect is, that we see 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 59 
 
 shades of resemblance where there are none ; that we sup- 
 pose intermediate ties between the flesh and the Spirit, which 
 truth disowns. The Scripture nowhere speaks of any thing 
 which is neither Spirit nor flesh. Whatever belongs not to the 
 Spirit, or hag not been sanctified by the Spirit, is of the flesh. 
 Not, indeed, that there is no distinction between sinful affec- 
 tions and purely natural affections; but both, notwithstanding 
 their difference, if contrasted with the affections of the Spirit, 
 are reduced to a single class by one same character. Being 
 of the order of nature, or of the world, and not of the order of 
 the Spirit, they are perishable like the world. They perish 
 with it, that is with each of us, in proportion as in regard to each 
 of us the world perishes : so that if love in the Spirit has not 
 entered our hearts, either to replace them or to immortalize 
 them, there remains at our departure from this world, nothing 
 which we can carry away. Thus, then, without here bring- 
 ing together the severest denunciations of Scripture against 
 the flesh and the things of the flesh ; without attacking the 
 affections of the flesh, in their nature or their principle; and 
 without seeing in them for the moment any other character 
 than that to which we have just pointed, namely, mortality, 
 we apply directly to every affection which is not according 
 to the Spirit all the declarations of the sacred Book as to the 
 frailty of the flesh. So that when we read, " All flesh is 
 grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass," 
 we feel as if we were reading at the same time, All love 
 which God has not sanctified by his Spirit is as grass ; and 
 all that was graceful and lovely in it, all the charms which 
 it shed upon our life, and with which it fascinated our im- 
 agination, is as the flower of the grass. The wind of the 
 Almighty which blows upon the grass and the flower, may 
 as well blow upon this love, and wither it like them. When 
 we read that " He who soweth to tiie flesh shall of the flesh 
 reap corruption," the meaning we give it is, that he who 
 
60 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 seeks life in the natural affections cruelly deceives himself; 
 that after the enjoyment of a few years, that is, of a few in- 
 stants, he will find nothing but death ; and when the objects 
 shall have been torn from him, he will find himself absolutely 
 destitute. After this, I do not ask if God is not the true me- 
 dium of true friendship ; if friendships not bearing his im- 
 press can be very true or very pleasant ;* if even before the 
 death which carries the objects naturally away, they are not 
 exposed to a violent death ; if they do not carry in them a 
 germ of corruption, which makes them die long before us; 
 if the best are not troubled by storms and delusions ; and if 
 even after our death we do not die in the heart of our' dear- 
 est friends. Though I should have formed the most romantic 
 and extravagant idea of the purity and constancy of their 
 affections, 1 should only have added to the bitterness of this 
 reflection, namely — There is no place in eternity for the 
 sweetest and purest attachments, if the grace of God does not 
 transform them from the earthly affections which they were, 
 into spiritual and heavenly affections. 
 
 I have perhaps said enough to alarm you ; for hell, a 
 perfect hell, is in that empty heart, which has been violently 
 dissevered from its affections, and the very remembrance of 
 them,, without being united to God ; a heart which now lives 
 only to feel that it lives not; a heart which has need of love, 
 as the lungs have need of air and the body of food, and which 
 finds no object to supply this want, neither the perishable 
 beings of which it has lost the recollection, nor God whom it 
 cannot love. 
 
 But as too few understand that hell in effect is there, it 
 was necessary that Scripture should speak in distinct lan- 
 
 * Sine me non valet nee durabit amicitia, nee est vera et munda 
 dilectio quam ego non copulo. Without me no friendship is strong, or 
 will be lasting : neither is any affection, of which I am not the bond, 
 rue and pure. — Imitation of Christ. 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 61 
 
 guage, and pronounce a formal malediction against the flesh. 
 It has accordingly done so ; and here again, all that it says 
 against the flesh it says against purely worldly aflections. 
 Thus, when it declares that flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
 kingdom of God, we understand that a heart entirely filled 
 with earthly affections, were they free from every other fault 
 save that of being earthly, are thereby unworthy, and inca- 
 pable of heavenly happiness. And when it declares that the 
 will of the flesh is death, instead of confining this denuncia- 
 tion to the impure passions which human corruption has de- 
 corated with the name of love, we extend it to all the attach- 
 ments to which God has not been fully admitted, and we 
 interpret it ihus : all worldly friendship is death. Yes, 
 death, because every aff*ection of this description has carried 
 off* a heart from God ; a sin which deserves death, if ever 
 any did deserve it. 
 
 We must now clearly understand that if St. Paul rejoices 
 in the spiritual affection of the Colossians, as in a better life, 
 it is not as in a perfection short of which there is also some- 
 thing good in which we might rejoice. No, he does not re- 
 joice in the love of the Colossians as a better life, but as life ; 
 short of this life there is only death. His joy at the state of 
 the Colossians who love in the Spirit, supposes great sadness 
 on account of those who are not in the same state. If he 
 congratulates them on any thing, it is their having escaped 
 from death. Could he then have any congratulation in re- 
 serve, though it might be less lively, for those who love not 
 as they did ? Congratulation ! O, surely not ; but charita- 
 ble warnings, earnest entreaties to love God above all, to love 
 in him all that he permit^ them to love ; exhortations to 
 place their heart at length where their only treasure is, and 
 not deprive themselves of the only happiness which is possi- 
 ble after the eternal disappearance of all that here below 
 constitutes worldly happiness. St. Paul then will not say to 
 
62 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 them, and he says not to us, Love most what deserves most 
 to be loved, aspire to a superior love in order to lead a supe- 
 rior life, let your ambition be to secure the more exquisite de- 
 lights of a purer affection. No ; he speaks to them, as to us, 
 in more absolute terms. Love in the Spirit, and love in 
 truth, are in his eyes the same thing. Where the Spirit of 
 God is, there only is truth, and consequently life ; and just 
 as the Master had declared that God is a Spirit, and those 
 who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth, 
 the disciple, following out the same idea, declares in like 
 manner that God is a Spirit, and that those who worship him 
 must worship him in spirit and in truth ; that they must love 
 in spirit, in order to love in truth. 
 
 But the more absolute we perceive St. Paul to be in re- 
 gard to this absolute truth, and the more inflexible as to this 
 inflexible necessity, seeing on the one side only life, and on 
 the other only death, the better will we understand with what 
 feelings, with what fulness, with what exuberance of joy, he 
 wrote to a Church, a whole Church, "I have learned" — 
 What, brethren ? That the Church extends ? that it has 
 gained over the mighty of the world ? that it governs public 
 affairs ? that science makes progress in it 1 that men of 
 great genius have become its defenders ? Nothing of all this. 
 He is much less taken up with the world, and much more 
 with the view of God. "I have learned," says he, "your 
 love in the Spirit." A Christian author has compared the 
 joy of Paradise to the rapture of a mother's heart, when she 
 again beholds a beloved son whom she thought dead ; and he 
 adds that the joy which soon subsides in the mother never 
 quits the heart of the elect. The joy of St. Paul resembles 
 that of Paradise, for this joy is that of a mother again finding 
 the son whom she believed to be dead. 
 
 Such was the love of St. Paul for those who had been 
 born to God by his word, and for those on whose account he 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 63 
 
 himself tells us that he travailed in birth till Christ should be 
 formed in them. Not so much the father as the mother of 
 his disciples, it was right, doubtless, that he should have all 
 a mother's joys, having had all her pains ; and though 
 eighteen centuries have elapsed since he left this world, we 
 rejoice with him when we see him forgetting all the suffer, 
 ings of his long martyrdom in joy like that which a mother 
 has when a man is born into the world. O how well entitled 
 was he who so well knew love in the Spirit, to speak of it! 
 
 But do we, speaking after him, though too unworthily, 
 speak of a simple accident, of an effect without a cause, of a 
 tree without roots ? You might suppose it, brethren, from 
 our silence on the principle of this love in the Spirit ; you 
 might suppose it, if, on this subject, we did not previously 
 understand each other. But suppose that there are among 
 this audience individuals to whom the Gospel is unknown, 
 what will they say after having heard us discoursing so long 
 on love in the Spirit ? They will not say, perhaps, that we 
 have spoken of a chimera, since we have appealed to facts 
 and mentioned names. But they will not be the better in- 
 formed, or the less astonished, they will not the less ask how 
 such a love is possible ; and, in spite of all our reasonings, 
 and all our facts, will persist in regarding both it and them 
 as chimerical. ^ 
 
 St. Paul did not infuse spiritual affection into the hearts 
 of his disciples, merely by describing the beauty and proving 
 the necessity of it. Before sowing the grain, it was neces- 
 sary to open the furrow, and he had opened it. He had 
 published at once the year of the Lord's jubilee, and the day 
 of his vengeance. He had shown righteousness and mercy 
 kissing each other in the ministry, the lessons, and the suf- 
 ferings of the Son of God ; he had made mention of the un- 
 known God ; he had announced the Father; he had made 
 all hearts throb with joy at the sight of a reconciled God ; 
 
64 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 he had shown the God of heaven under an aspect at once so 
 mild, that one could no longer fear without loving him, and 
 so holy that he could no longer be loved without being 
 feared ; he had restored to the soul its natural impulse to- 
 wards heaven. No longer seeing happiness on one side and 
 duty on another, the soul was no longer necessitated to defeat 
 one of its aims while pursuing another, but could throw itself 
 entirely on the same side with its insatiable desires of felicity, 
 and its inexorable longing for perfection. It found every 
 thing on this same altar, on which it had been told that it 
 would be necessary to forsake every thing. It could thence- 
 forth give itself to God, give itself to him without reserve, 
 give itself to him from the heart. It became the end of its 
 life, the centre of its affections, the rule of its feelings, as 
 well as of its conduct. In gradual ^substitution for the old, a 
 new man was born, created in the image of God, in right- 
 eousness and true holiness. Eph. iv. *24. As that* which is 
 born of the flesh is flesh, so that which is born of the Spirit 
 is spirit. John iii. 6. This new man was the man of the 
 Spirit. He loved, acted, and lived according to the Spirit. 
 He did not feel the native ties which had united him to his 
 brethren either broken or loosened. On the contrary, he 
 loved them more, but loved them better. Charity, which is 
 love in the Spirit, had come and added itself to each of his 
 other affections. He no longer chose between his brethren 
 and his Father, for the more he loved his Father, the more 
 he loved his brethren ; the two affections being of the same 
 nature, and flowing from the same source. Out of him, in 
 himself, he again found the unity which he had so long lost; 
 and he saw, with indescribable joy, all his dearest attach- 
 ments stamped by the hand of God himself with the seal of 
 immortality. 
 
 Love in the Spirit, then, is not an unaccountable accident, 
 an effect without a cause ; neither is it an efl^ect, the cause 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 65 
 
 of which we cannot discern, nor an effect whose cause is 
 not in our power. This cause does not resemble a prescrip- 
 tion or a perfume, which evaporates, and is soon found, by 
 the mere lapse of time, to have lost its virtue. Jesus Christ 
 is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ; and the Spirit 
 of God has not grown weary of creating the faith and the 
 virtues of the primitive Christians. He who carries our 
 cure in his scars, has promised to be with us even to the 
 end of the world. Truth cannot cease to be truth ; can 
 man have ceased to be man ? And is that which produced 
 such powerful and decisive impressions on the Colossians to 
 find us impervious ? 
 
 No doubt Paul is no longer there, but Christ is always 
 there ; and from the very existence of the church of the 
 Colossians, it was not Paul but Christ who made converts. 
 Paul did miracles, but since the days of Paul how numerous 
 the miracles which the Colossians never saw, and which we 
 know ! How many encouragements to believe and love 
 which they had not, but we have ! Why, then, in the pre- 
 sent day, should not the men who have succeeded Paul have 
 the same causes of joy that Paul had ? And yet, brethren, 
 if any one of your pastors were to mount one of these pulpits 
 and say to you, as Paul did to the Colossians, " I give 
 thanks to God" for " your faith in Christ Jesus," and " the 
 love which ye have to all the saints ;" I have heard of 
 " your love in the Spirit :" were he to say this to a church 
 as a whole, including all its members, what astonishment 
 would he not excite, and among those at least who know 
 what is meant by charity and love in the Spirit ! And how 
 difficult would he find it to save himself from the charge of 
 gross delusion or base flattery ! He would encounter the 
 same charge from those who are the greatest strangers to the 
 spiritual life, however little their attention had been called, 
 as has been done in this discourse, to the characteristics of 
 
66 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 love in the Spirit. No, brethren ; a church or society, how 
 small soever its members may be, to which its guides are 
 entitled to say, "You love in the Spirit; true love, that 
 which sets out from God to diffuse itself among men, that 
 which has God for its primary object and supreme rule, that 
 which is humble, disinterested, independent of sense, supe- 
 rior to instinct, in a word, spiritual ; this love reigns among 
 you, distinguishes you as a society, characterizes you :" a 
 church whom one might thus address is an unheard-of pro- 
 digy. Almost every church might be addressed in such ^ 
 terms as these : " What reigns chiefly among you is the will 
 of the flesh, instincts good or bad, conventional arrangements, 
 customs, not principles. Now charity is a principle. Cha- 
 rity as a principle, as an element of holiness, charity as a 
 virtue, love in the Spirit, is the portion of a very small num- 
 ber, and even in these what difficulty does it find in sur- 
 mounting the will of the flesh ! You are civilized ; this is 
 most clear, and the religion of the greatest number is civili- 
 zation. But between a community which should profess no 
 other worship than sociability, and you who profess Jesus 
 Christ come in the flesh to rescue the world from condemna- 
 tion, there is no appreciable difference. Between honest 
 people of the world, and Christians such as you are, we can- 
 not say in which Christianity is more manifest. What they 
 have received from Christianity in spite of themselves, you 
 have doubtless likewise received ; but what more ? And by 
 what, unless some external customs, by what, unless by cer- 
 tain forms, can we distinguish you from them V 
 
 O strancre difference of times, and difference of which 
 there is no justification ! When in some one of the cities of 
 ancient times, at Rome, Ephesus, Colosse, some men and 
 women had embraced the doctrine of the cross, it was like 
 the appearance of human nature in a new form ; and as the 
 existence of humble flowers varied amoncr the turf is indi- 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 67 
 
 cated by their perfume, so an indescribable perfume of life 
 and eternity, an indescribable spiritual emanation powerfully 
 drew all eyes towards this new society, which otherwise 
 made no noise, and which, but for this pure and subtle per- 
 fume, would long have remained unknown ! By what 
 striking features was it recognized internally ? By what did 
 it force attention ? By this, among other things — it loved 
 according to the Spirit. O strange difference of places, dif- 
 ference of which there is no justification ! When in our 
 days the Gospel is carried to some savage horde, if they re- 
 ceive it they are suddenly transformed, and the most exqui- 
 site delicacies of Christian sentiment, those which we admire 
 as literary beauties in the works of Christian genius, are 
 substituted, so to speak, every succeeding day for those of 
 yesterday. Spirituality keeps pace with integrity of man- 
 ners. There are Marthas and there are Marys ; and from 
 the rock, scarcely cleft, the honey of Christian delight is 
 seen to flow. Among the less advanced, hatred gives place 
 to love ; love in the Spirit supplants instinct and custom. 
 Go and ask for such wonders in our churches, though rich 
 in liberty and all other resources, alas ! must we say it, too 
 many resources, too much liberty ! These churches are the 
 world, with all its good and all its evil, the world under the 
 name of the Church, the world with temples, rites, and sacred 
 names. No longer is it said, as formerly, See how they 
 worship, see how they pardon, see how they love ! for if 
 there was ground to say it, there would be nobody to say it, 
 all being within the precincts, and none without. Alas ! if 
 some particular community stands out from this vast com- 
 munity, and exhibits some distinguishing features, what are 
 they, and what shall we say ? Shall we say. See how they 
 love ! or rather, on seeing the party-spirit which decks itself 
 with the name of brotherly love, shall we be forced to say, 
 See how they flatter one another ? Assuredly there are 
 
68 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 spiritual Christians, but where are spiritual communities? 
 Where are those Colossians to whom we can say, if not to 
 every individual, at least to the whole as a body, You walk 
 in the Spirit, you love in the Spirit ? Let others answer this 
 question. For our part we feel forced to exclaim with the 
 prophet, " Is the hand of the Almighty " shortened" " that 
 it cannot redeem," has he " no power to deliver !" Is. 1. 2. 
 
 It serves little purpose to arrest, and, so to speak, im- 
 prison our eye to the contemplation of our wretchedness. 
 Our strength, like our duty, is to hope. God wills us to 
 believe that all is possible, that even in our antiquated world 
 we may have the glory and strength of ancient times ; God 
 wills that with all due regret for what we have lost, we do 
 not forget what we still have. It is no more suitable to our 
 weakness, than accordant with his pity, to break the bruised 
 reed, and quench the smoking flax. Let us still recognize 
 and gather up what the wreck has left. Let us concentrate 
 all the elements of life which are scattered in the midst of us. 
 Let us unite our efforts, our prayers, our repentance ; let us 
 ask no longer each for himself, but each for all, our squan- 
 dered patrimony. Let us ask life for the community, that 
 life which we want, and which doubtless comes only by in- 
 dividuals to the community; but which is reflected from the 
 community to individuals. Life in the Spirit, love in the 
 Spirit, the Spirit himself, that is truth in truth itself; life in 
 life, eternity in love, the Spirit, that is Jesus Christ within 
 us. This we must conquer on our knees, this we must ur- 
 gently beg, this energetically will. 
 
 The Spirit is the reality of our Christianity ; the reality 
 of pardon and salvation is the soul re-entering the body, God 
 returned to his forsaken temple. So long as we find in our 
 hearts, (I will not say hatred, although I might say it, for 
 hatred and love, according to the world, readily meet at the 
 same hearth,) so long as we find in our hearts only good in- 
 
LOVE IN THE SPIRIT. 69 
 
 stincts, good habits, yet always instincts and habits so long 
 as we do not distinctly recognize the Spirit in our affections, 
 we may well say that with gentle manners, an easy charac- 
 ter, benevolent inclinations, a delicate sensibility, a natural 
 generosity, a disposition to tenderness, we have only a de- 
 ceitful and derisory image of life, we have not life ; for 
 eternal life alone deserves the name of life, and none of those 
 things are eternal. Give us, then, O God, spirit and life; 
 permit us not to possess the Gospel in vain, or to remain 
 eternally bent over the brink of this living stream without 
 drinking; do not reduce us to a vain knowledge of the truth. 
 Give us love, which is the whole truth, the sole truth. 
 Chief of our faith, be its finisher; finish thy work, finish our 
 salvation ! Take us, keep us ever warm in thy paternal 
 hearf ; for thou art our Father in Jesus Christ, thy well-be- 
 loved. Amen. 
 
THE BELIEVER COMPLETING THE SUFFERINGS 
 OF CHRIST. 
 
 " And fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh 
 for his body's sake, which is the Church." Col. i. 24. 
 
 We fear not, brethren, to present the Apostle's thought to 
 you under its most accurate, but, at the same time, most ex- 
 traordinary form. After all, the preacher of the Gospel must 
 give offence, and it would therefore be very strange if that 
 which forms the characteristic of Christianity in general, I 
 mean the unexpected and the extraordinary, should not be 
 met with in its details. It must, however, be confessed that 
 the surprise produced by our text, is caused by something 
 which seems less to be derived from the principles of Chris- 
 tianity than to contradict and belie them. The true offence 
 here is our not finding the primitive offence, is our not feel- 
 ing, in all its bitterness, the unpalatable doctrine of the cross, 
 is our seeing man resuming in the work of his salvation 
 a part and a rank of which the cross of Christ seemed to 
 have divested him once and for ever ; it is, above all, our 
 hearing it said that the work of the cross, which was pre- 
 sumed perfect, is however not so, that something is wanting 
 to it, that it presents blanks which it belongs to us to supply. 
 
THE BELIEVER COMPLETING CHRISTS's SUFFERINGS. 71 
 
 It is evident, brethren, that this offence must not only be 
 taken away, but that this passing affront to Jesus Christ 
 must be extinguished in his brighter glory. With this view 
 our intention is not to erase or enfeeble the words of St. 
 Paul ; but, on the contrary, to extract their meaning, and 
 bring the Apostle's idea fully out. And it is our joy to feel 
 that the more we press them, the more glory will redound to 
 the Gospel. 
 
 Certainly if you consider the afflictions of Jesus Christ, 
 whether in the dignity of him who endured them, or in them- 
 selves, or in their redeeming power, nothing can appear to 
 have been wanting in them ; and you will conclude that 
 neither men nor angels, and, we venture to add, not even 
 God himself can add to them. 
 
 Even had he who is holiness and innocence itself, suffered 
 only a single one, and that the least of the afflictions to which 
 humanity is subject, we might not have said that any thing 
 was wanting to his afflictions, since the one affliction which 
 he would have endured was not merited. Had he, whose 
 abode from eternity was in the bosom of the Father, been 
 invested with human nature only for one instant, and, if that 
 were possible, without submitting to its humiliation and suf- 
 ferings, it would have been necessary to say that Jesus Christ 
 had suffered infinitely more than was just. If, then, he 
 accepts our body of sin entire, even to the necessity of dying, 
 if he chooses among all deaths that of the cross, what 
 will we say, what terms will remain to express what is inex- 
 pressible, I mean holiness attached to an accursed tree, and 
 God himself undergoing the punishment of the worst criminal 
 among men ? 
 
 Consider the sufferings of the Son of man in themselves. 
 He did not suffer all that a son of man may suffer, since 
 hatred, envy, confusion, remorse, were unknown to his holy 
 soul j but he suffered what no son of man can suffer, at least 
 
72 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 in the same degree, since the sight of evil could not produce 
 the same impression on any one as on him whose eyes were 
 too pure too look upon it, since no one has experienced or can 
 experience such revolting injustice, or be the object of such 
 odious ingratitude. How then would you add any thing to 
 the sufferings of Jesus ? Make him endure those of sin ? 
 That cannot be. Augment, in idea, his own peculiar suf- 
 ferings ? No more can this be done. There may have been 
 bodily torture still more excruciating ; but besides that we 
 could never be sure after having indefinitely augmented them, 
 that there might not be others more excruciating, still it is into 
 the soul of Jesus Christ that we must look for the true passion 
 of this God-man. And what human soul could ever have 
 suffered what he suffered ? 
 
 However, it is not from this side that we ought to approach 
 the question ; nor even is this the question. No doubt the 
 capacity of suffering was in Jesus Christ as great as any 
 other capacity, and in this respect also all fulness dwelt in 
 him. No doubt he whose substitution was to outweigh all 
 our offences, suffered with an intensity, a depth, an internal 
 agony, beyond compare. His sufferings, like his love, are an 
 abyss into which angels themselves vainly try to look. The 
 question, if there still be a question, is whether in this same 
 sphere of suffering any thing remains to be done after Jesus 
 Christ, and if we can give a proper and literal acceptation to 
 these words of St. Paul, " Fill up that which is behind of 
 the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which 
 is the Church." 
 
 Let those who have the courage to do so, dispute as 
 much as they please as to the degree in which Christ has 
 suffered, and as to the absolute possibility of suffering more. 
 Let them refuse as much as they please to comprehend how 
 the affliction by which he was consecrated the Author of our 
 salvation, must have been ineffable as his love, ineffable as 
 
THE BELIEVER COMPLETING CHRIST's SUFFERINGS. 73 
 
 his works. We dispute not with them. Whether or not 
 something was wanting to make the affliction of Jesus Christ 
 the greatest of imaginable afflictions, is not the point which 
 engages our attention. What we say, brethren, and we say 
 it in concurrence with the whole Gospel, is, that nothing 
 was wanting to the sufferings of Jesus Christ, in regard to 
 the end for which they were destined. Not that the mere 
 death of Christ accomplished our salvation. The author of 
 our salvation is Jesus Christ as a whole, and therefore St. 
 Paul in one of the verses preceding the text, after having 
 said that we are saved by the Hood of the cross, justly adds, 
 hy him. It is not by the mere sufferings endured between 
 Gethsemane and Calvary, or by suffering properly so called, 
 that Jesus Christ saves us, but by all the sufferings of his 
 life, which constituted throughout one entire passion. For 
 he was delivered for our offences, as soon as he opened his 
 eyes to the pale light of our sun, and long before he was 
 subjected to the contradiction of sinners. In bearing our 
 body of sin, he bore his cross. It was not merely by the 
 sufferings of his life, but by his whole life. His work forms 
 an indivisible whole. He could not save us without suffering 
 and dying ; but he did not accomplish the work merely by 
 suffering and death. He accomplished it by all that he was, 
 and by all that he performed ; by his actions and by his 
 words ; by what he did, and what he suffered ; by his life, 
 as by his death. But, in fine, his sufferings, and the painful 
 death which was its last act and crown, without which -he 
 could not, according to the expression of a prophet, turn the 
 hearts of the fathers to the children, and of the children to 
 the fathers, and the question which the passage of St. Paul 
 raises is this: It being admitted that nothing was wanting to 
 the example and instructions of Christ, both of which were 
 necessary for the work of our salvation, was any thing want- 
 ing to his sufferings? and docs his body, which is the Church, 
 
74 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 c ill for a complement of affliction and pain on the part of 
 Jesus Christ, or on the part of any other ? 
 
 No, brethren, no. All that sufferings could perform for 
 our salvation, those of Christ pei'formed. In this respect 
 they are complete, and to say that ours are necessary in the 
 same sense, would be to do more than derogate from the 
 work of Christ, it would be to annihilate it. If th&re is 
 upon the earth any other name by which, were it only in 
 part, we can be saved, and if this name is ours, we are not 
 absolutely lost, and Jesus Christ, who thenceforth becomes 
 our associate, or if you will, our fellow-laborer, is no longer 
 our Saviour. Neither the depression nor the elevation can 
 be partial. If we are not devoid of all glory before God, we 
 have still all our glory before God. If we have any, we 
 have all merit. If we are not absolutely lost, we are not lost 
 at all ; if Jesus Christ is to us any thing less than a Saviour, 
 he is nothing. If he leaves us any thing to suffer, he him- 
 self had no cause to suffer ; for to say that our sufferings can 
 do any thing for our redemption, is to say that they can do 
 every thing. Man is quite ready, and he is entitled, to draw 
 all these inferences ; and you may depend upon this, that 
 when you have admitted him to a share, it will no longer be 
 a share ; give him a part, and he will take all ; take part 
 from Jesus Christ, and man will leave him nothing. But 
 the Gospel, brethren, does not understand it so. The Gos- 
 pel on this subject is as strict as absolute ; as exclusive as it 
 is possible to be. What importance soever it attaches to our 
 afflictions, it never attaches to them the virtue of expiating 
 our faults, and saving us. Jesus Christ is, by his sufferings, 
 the only, the perfect Mediator. What he came to seek and 
 to save, was lost, not partially, but absolutely lost. It is by 
 his stripes, and not by our own, that we are healed. It 
 alone, and apart from us, is the propitiation for our sins, and 
 for those of the whole world. Upon him, and not upon us, 
 
THE BELIEVER COMPLETING CHRIST's SUFFERINGS. 75 
 
 was laid the chastisement of our peace. But why multiply 
 quotations ? The Gospel is wholly composed of them, and 
 did our text say the contrary, it would stand solitary among 
 a thousand which we might quote from the writings of St. 
 Paul alone. 
 
 As there could be no error more palpable, so there could 
 be none of sadder consequence ; and there is doubtless some- 
 thing astonishing, though by no means inexplicable, in the 
 eagerness with which so many persons found a title upon 
 their sufferings. But do they know, can they know how 
 many of those sufferings will be necessary to complete those 
 of Jesus Christ ? But can they, in sober earnest, calculate 
 upon the virtue of their personal afflictions, and, in the re- 
 membrance of their misery, discover the smallest particle of 
 confidence and peace ? Gr, if they are able to do this, will 
 it not be shortly after to discover the internal trouble of which 
 they thought to disencumber themselves, since how little in 
 earnest soever they may be, they will infallibly experience 
 a gradual decay within themselves, both of absolute confi- 
 dence in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, of affection for him, 
 and of the principle which prompts to disinterested obedience 
 to him. I say their affection for Jesus Christ : for though 
 he suffered neither more nor less on the one supposition than 
 on the other, he is not their benefactor in the same degree ; 
 he is not their Saviour so absolutely, nay, he is not their 
 Saviour at all. I add the principle of disinterested obedience, 
 because this principle is nothing else than gratitude. But 
 gratitude shared between Jesus Christ and themselves leads 
 them back, step by step, towards the freezing, deadly prin- 
 ciple of self-righteousness. A generous life must have a 
 generous principle ; and whoso believes himself to be half 
 the author of his salvation will soon believe himself the 
 principal, and at last the only author. This downward tend- 
 ency is irresistible. Jesus Christ will now appear only in 
 
76 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 the second place, and his sufTerings will be only a fund in 
 reserve, to which application will not be made except when 
 better cannot be done to fill up the deficiencies which cannot 
 but be seen, and those which possibly may not have been 
 seen. Do we not thenceforward, or rather, do we not from 
 the very first step in this progress, feel the deadly influence 
 of this idea ; which, making ourselves the cause or the 
 means of our salvation, turns aside our gratitude from its 
 true object, and precludes the ascent of that disinterested 
 love which is the only life of the soul ? 
 
 As to those who, annoyed, so to speak, with what is mys- 
 terious in salvation by the intervention of the Son of God, 
 might have flattered themselves that they could make this 
 mystery more transparent, and the yoke of faith more light, 
 by dividing the merit of redemption between the sufferings 
 of Christ and those of men, they would labor, you will ad- 
 mit, under a strange delusion. Will the knot thereby be 
 more easily loosed, will the mystery be less impenetrable ? 
 And what matters it, under this point of view, whether the 
 sufferings of Christ be all, or whether they only bear a part 
 in the excellent work to which in all cases we are indeed 
 willing that they be applied ? Is not this part, how little so- 
 ever it be, inconceivable ? Will men ever comprehend how 
 the Holy and the Just either behooved or could have been 
 able to suffer ? And is it not necessary, in order to remove 
 the mystery, to remove the sufferings of Christ from every 
 species of participation ; yes, even the least participation in 
 the accomplishment of the designs of the Divine mercy ? 
 There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to be gained by this 
 division ; and if it is only a question of mystery, it is just as 
 well to keep the mystery entire. 
 
 How then, once more, can any thing be wanting to the 
 sufferings of Christ ? Here it is, brethren. Christ is still 
 here below. Christ is still detained in mortal flesh. His 
 
THE BELIEVER COMPLETING CHRIST S SUFFERINGS. 77 
 
 glorious resurrection rescued him from the power of the 
 grave ; his glorious ascension has withdrawn him from 
 earthly eyes ; every thing is accomplished, for what he has 
 done is all-sufficient. But Christ is in the person of the 
 Church, his own successor. The Church is a body whose 
 Head is in heaven. The Church militant has inherited the 
 condition of Christ, humbled and suffering. Here below, it 
 represents its Divine chief as Son of man, and will repre- 
 sent him as such to the end of the world. It is doubtless to 
 Jesus Christ what the body is to the head, which communi- 
 cates motion to it, and determines all its acts ; but it is not 
 less closely united to Christ Jesus than the head is to the 
 body. It does nothing by itself, but does by him whatever 
 it does upon the earth. It continues his work, but by him 
 and for him. It is the whole body, but it is not the head. 
 And while Jesus Christ, the head or chief, reigns in the 
 peace and glory of heaven, the body, which is the Church, 
 remaining upon the earth, suffers upon the earth all that 
 Jesus Christ would suffer if he were still upon the earth ; 
 for, having the same spirit, invoking his name, waging the 
 same combat with error and sin, it must have the same ene- 
 mies, encounter the same obstacles, arouse the same hostility, 
 endure the same passion. It must endure all that, otherwise 
 it is not the Church. The agony of Jesus Christ must con- 
 tinue in the person of the Church,* otherwise there is no 
 Church. The Head, being living, the body must live, and 
 living upon the earth, lead an earthly life ; that is, suffer. 
 This it is that is ivanting or that remains to be suffered, since 
 Jesus Christ has sufTered. Here is a sign that his work is 
 being done upon the earth ; here the flaming but glorious 
 
 * Jesus Christ will be in agony until the end of the world ; in the 
 meantime there must be no sleep. — Pascal's Thoughts. Edit, of Fau- 
 gere, II. 339. 
 
78 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 seal which the Master stamps on those who are his ; here 
 the mean which the Church has of corresponding with its 
 Head. 
 
 This is the proper place to observe that the term which 
 St. Paul employs signifies not only to faiish but also to corres- 
 pond. It is by continuing Jesus Christ to render to him what 
 has been received from him. Christ is the victim of the 
 Church, and the Church is the victim of Jesus Christ. The 
 Church, moreover, is the servant of Jesus Christ. If she did 
 not suffer, she would not act, for she cannot act without suf- 
 fering ; and if she did not act, she would not correspond to 
 her Chief, she would not serve her Master ; who, on his part, 
 would appear to disavow her. In all these respects there 
 wants, and to the end of the world will want, there will be 
 something to be added to the afflictions of Christ ; not doubt- 
 less to his personal afflictions, which are in every sense com- 
 plete, but to those which he has resolved, if we may so speak, 
 to endure to the end of the world in the persons of believers. 
 
 Do not attribute to the body any thing which belongs not 
 to the head. Do not impute to the afflictions of the body the 
 merit and redeeming virtue which belongs only to the suffer- 
 ings of the head ; certainly not : but allow the body, which 
 is the Church, to enter into a fellowship of love and suffering 
 with the head, which is Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to prove to you, brethren, that all 
 which we have just said of the Church necessarily applies to 
 the believer ; in other words, that the believer is called to 
 suffer like the Church. A member of a suffering Church, 
 how should he not suffer ? And what in reality are the suf- 
 ferings of the Church but the sufferings of her members ? 
 Where can she suffer if not in her members ? And how 
 can we conceive a sorrow of the Church of which her true 
 members should not be partakers ? Let us not stop to prove 
 what is evident; let us pass on. The believer, with respect 
 
THE BELIEVER COMPLETING CIIRISt's SUFFERINGS. 79 
 
 to Jesus Christ, bears in himself all the 'characters of the 
 Church. He is a complete epitome of it, so that if by a 
 decree of God mankind were suddenly reduced to two indi- 
 viduals, the one a believer, the other an unbeliever, nothinr]:; 
 would be changed but the number, and these two individuals 
 would completely represent, in regard to Jesus Christ, the 
 world and the Church. For if the Church, in [her actual 
 condition, is in the eye of Jesus Christ a single person whom 
 he calls his spouse, there would in this respect be no change ; 
 there would still be a person in whom FJesus Christ would 
 make his abode, and whom he would continue to call his 
 spouse. The only thing which should have disappeared 
 would be association, community ; but all the rest would 
 remain. Does that which should then be manifested, that 
 which should then be evident, exist at present, though wrapt in 
 obscurity ? At present the believer holds the same relations 
 with Jesus Christ as the Church ; at present the believing 
 soul, as well as the whole Church, is the spouse of Jesus 
 Christ. And all which was imposed on the Church in her 
 quality of Church, her whole destiny and vocation, we trans- 
 fer to each Christian. We say of him, as of the Church, 
 that he succeeds to Jesus Christ in his humiliation, and 
 represents him upon the earth. We say of him, as of the 
 Church, with the exception of merit and intrinsic power, that 
 he has the same work to do as Jesus Christ. We say of him, 
 as of the Church, that he has the same enemies to combat as 
 his Master, and the same obstacles to surmount. We say 
 that if the Church of which Jesus Christ became the victim 
 is in her turn the victim of Jesus Christ, the believer is not 
 less so. For once more this contia-uation, this complement 
 of which our text speaks, is not a simple continuation, a 
 simple complement, but a correspondence ; it is human 
 nature sacrificing itself for Jesus Christ, as Jesus Christ 
 sacrificed himself for it ; and this immolation, this perpetual 
 
80 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 sacrifice, which is consummated at large and in a striking 
 manner in the body of the Church, is accomplished in par- 
 ticular and obscurely in each of the members of which the 
 great body is composed. 
 
 We lately made a supposition, brethren, which appeared 
 to you extreme ; we supposed mankind reduced to two indi- 
 viduals, of which one should represent the Church, and the 
 other the world : it did not seem in fact that fewer than two 
 individuals could suffice to represent two worlds. We did 
 not however go far enough, and we may without changing 
 any thing essential, reduce the two individuals to one. The 
 Church and the world will still be there, and the occasion, 
 the subject of the combat, will not have disappeared. This 
 man left alone after the disappearance of the human race, 
 this man whom I suppose a Christian (for if he were not, 
 there would be no room for the continuation of the sufferings 
 of Christ), this man carries a world in his flesh. This man 
 who exclaims at every moment, " Who shall deliver me 
 from the body of this death ! When will that which is 
 mortal in me be swallowed up of life !" this man is a single 
 man only in appearance ; it is only in appearance that he is 
 delivered from every adversary and every enemy. He has 
 always one ; he has him under his feet, I admit ; since he is 
 a Christian, he is always victorious ; but victory the most 
 complete and least contested, supposes an adversary and a 
 combat. I do not speak to you of that invisible enemy who 
 was visible to Jesus Christ in the desert, and whose inex- 
 haustible hatred is most bitter against the most faithful, I 
 attend only to the world. 
 
 The world exists entire in that flesh infested by the first 
 sin, and the impulse of which the holiest among Christians is 
 obliged not to ibllow, but repress. Thus, then, in the same 
 way as the Church in the world, this man also in his flesh 
 continues, and on his part completes the sufferings of Christ; 
 
THE BELIEVER COMPLETING CHRIST's SUFFERINGS. 81 
 
 for the enemies which Jesus Christ found only around him, 
 this man finds in himself. 
 
 We are astonished at being called to complete the suffer- 
 ings of Jesus Christ, but we might at first be astonished that 
 those whom he came to save were not immediately relieved 
 from all suffering, and that their felicity is postponed. For, 
 in fine, whether believers suffer to complete the sufferings 
 of their Saviour, or suffer for any other reason, still they 
 suffer. This we cannot deny, and cannot explain without 
 entering fully into the thought of St. Paul. Why in fact 
 should they suffer, if nothing M'ere in any sense wanting to 
 the afflictions of their Saviour ? Now what evangelical wis- 
 dom teaches on this subject, is as follows : 
 
 Christ did not come to dispense by his sufferings with 
 our sufferings, nor to dispense by his death with our death. 
 We could not, we ought not to claim this. What are the 
 light afflictions of the present tiine, if they are besides 
 necessary for us, when compai'ed with the eternal weight of 
 infinitely surpassing glory ? No, Christ came not to deliver 
 us from suffering and death, but to teach us to suffer and die. 
 He has done more than suppress suffering and death ; he 
 has rendered them useful, when they were useless. Why 
 do I say useful ? How feeble this term is ! He has ren- 
 dered them so precious that their preservation is, as regards 
 the believer, one of the mercies of God. Whether or not 
 Jesus Christ had come in the flesh, one thing is certain, 
 namely, that without being divested of our own will, without 
 dying to ourselves, we could not revive ; being such as sin 
 had made us, we could not attain to joy except by suffering, 
 to life except by death. He who doubts of this, very greatly 
 mistakes himself, and no less mistakes the laws of the moral 
 world. Man would not be fallen, would not be Separated 
 from God, would not be incorporated with the world by his 
 second nature, if he could without disseveration be brought 
 5* 
 
82 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 back to his ancient relations with God. Suffering and death, 
 introduced into the world as the symbol and consequence of 
 the fall, formed two extremes ; and they were destined to 
 contribute in the hands of Jesus Christ, but in his hands 
 alone, to the purification of fallen man. Jesus Christ conse- 
 quently, was careful not to suppress them. He seized upon 
 this evil to convert it into a good. Impotent and unfruitful 
 without him, suffering has become by him a germ of life. 
 And in fact, brethren, after liaving accepted Jesus Christ, ima- 
 gine all suffering suppressed ; suppose that with Jesus Christ 
 death itself had died ; introduce the believer without transition 
 into peace and security ; were not this to take from faith all its 
 exercise, all means of establishing and developing itself, and 
 were it not to wish that the germ should never become a 
 tree ? How will you prove it not to be as necessary after as 
 before the advent of Christ, for man to pass through suffering 
 in order to arrive at joy, and through death in order to arrive 
 at life ? There could be no change of this necessity, a ne- 
 cessity as inviolable as the justice which nailed the Saviour 
 to the cross ; no, there could be no change in this necessity. 
 Jbsus Christ then has not abolished it, but he has given a 
 meaning to our sufferings and our mortality, and he has made 
 them, what they never could have been witliout him, a bitter 
 dew which develops and matures in our souls the blessed 
 germ of faith. 
 
 Those who have not accepted the hope of the Gospel do 
 not suffer less, but they suffer uselessly and servilely, as slaves 
 and not as children. Those, on the contrary, who hope and 
 trust in Jesus Christ, present us with a strange and wondrous 
 spectacle — that of weak, frail, mortal men, for whom suffer- 
 ing and death are no longer a necessity endured involuntari- 
 ly, but iif some sort an act of the will, because by consenting 
 to those chastisements they transform them into sacrifices. 
 The Christian does not suffer or die in spite of himself. He 
 
THE BELIEVER COMPLETING CHRISt's SUFFERINGS. 83 
 
 wishes beforehand all that his Master wills, and thus neces- 
 sity is in his case changed to liberty. He knows that he must 
 be despoiled ; hence he desires that God should assist him in 
 despoiling himself. , He knows that he must die ; hence he is 
 beforehand with death by dying daily to himself, and daily 
 withdrawing from himself. Member of Jesus Christ, humbled 
 and suffering, he knows that if one is dead then all are dead; 
 that in order to be united to Jesus Christ living, it is neces- 
 sary to be united to Jesus Christ dying. He therefore re- 
 ceives humiliation and suffering as a pledge of communion 
 and adoption, and he has never a livelier feeling of this com- 
 munion and adoption, than when he is afflicted and humbled. 
 He understands, nay more, he sees that in proportion as the 
 strokes of adversity fall upon him, the old man whom he ought 
 to put to death, dies in him more and more, and he ends by 
 discerning the meaning of those astonishing words of an Apos- 
 tle, viz., that he " who has suffered in the flesh, has ceased 
 from sin." Thus affliction and death are, in his eyes, only 
 the natural consequence and necessary complement of the 
 afflictions and death of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Let the path of the believer be sown with so many thorns, 
 as to make it rougher even than that of the unbeliever, there 
 is. no room to be astonished at this. And though it should 
 please God to smooth bis path, it will always be necessary 
 for him to find at its extremity that death which, by the con- 
 fession of candid philosophers, is the bitterest of our afflictions, 
 which, so to speak, casts its ominous shadow before, and 
 stretches over our happiest days. " How beautiful soever all 
 the rest of the play may be," said a Christian sage, " the last 
 act is always bloody." Happy still, happy he whom the di- 
 vine arrow often warns of the presence of the Master ! And, 
 on the other hand, how rough in its unruffled appearance, 
 how fearful in its pleasantness, the life of the Christian whom 
 no calamities forewarn ! The effect of temporal prosperity is 
 
84 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 to lull and blind. How difficult, while enjoying external 
 peace, to keep awake ! What exertion is necessary to move 
 forward on a sea whose waters have been rendered heavy as 
 lead by a fatal calm ! And if we sleep not, if we still ad- 
 vance, do you know at what price ? Know you what inter- 
 nal combats must supply the place of those external combats 
 which God denies us ? Know you what chastisements will 
 be self-imposed by that soul which God seems to persist in 
 not chastising ? Know you with how much sweat and blood 
 this flowery path is bathed, as you pass along it ? For suf- 
 ferings are necessary, in order that Christ Jesus may profit 
 us, just as Christ Jesus is necessary in order that we may 
 profit by suffering. And if peace arrives, if the day comes 
 on which we can with impunity be happy, it is after the com- 
 pletion of the trial has not left in the believer's soul as much 
 leaven as will leaven the mass. 
 
 Thus, dear brethren, the Church suffers; and the Chris- 
 tian, wrapt up in the destiny of the Church, the Christian, 
 subjected to the same law, suffers with the Church, and as 
 the Church. 
 
 But St. Paul, you will perhaps remark, does not say, I 
 suffer with his body, which is the Church ; he says, I suffer 
 for his body, which is the Church. It is because every be- 
 liever, and especially every minister, is to the Church what 
 the Church herself is to Jesus Christ ; it is because he cor- 
 responds as member to the whole body, as the whole body 
 corresponds to the head ; not that he himself is not in imme- 
 diate relation to the head, not that the believer can only 
 receive from the hands of the Church the nourishment which 
 God destines for him. This fundamental error of a commu- 
 nion from which we are separated because of this very error, 
 we repel with all our might as pernicious in itself, and the 
 mother of all other errors. But it nevertheless remains true, 
 that the believer, while remaining attached to the head, who 
 
85 
 
 is Jesus Christ, resorts to the Church, and while he receives 
 from her a thousand blessings, serves her without ceasing to 
 be the servant of Christ. For, properly speaking, he serves 
 him in serving the Church. What in fact is meant by 
 serving the Church ? It is to edify her in every sense of the 
 term, whether in doing all we can to communicate strength 
 and light, or in bringing new members to her, and taking part 
 so far as God gives strength in the meetings of the saints, or as 
 our Apostle says expressly, aiding the edification and construc- 
 tion of the body of Christ. Now in regard to such services, 
 is it the Church that receives them, or is it Jesus Christ ? 
 Both the Church and Jesus Christ, he being the supreme 
 and ultimate object. For the final result is devotedness to a 
 Church which devotes herself to Jesus Christ. The object 
 is to lead souls in captivity to the obedience of Christ, and 
 therefore to aid the Church, is to aid Jesus Christ. 
 
 And here, brethren, we have to guard against two errors. 
 The one is that any single believer cannot, except in very 
 particular cases, serve the Church directly as the Church ; 
 the other, that the Church is served really only when she is 
 served in the character of the Church ; two opinions equally 
 unfounded, although perhaps not equally dangerous. No- 
 thing in the Gospel authorizes us to believe that any Christian 
 is less entitled by birthright to watch over the interests of 
 the Church, as such, than is the citizen of a iree country to 
 watch over the interests of the republic. The history of the 
 finest periods of the Church abounds in examples which con- 
 tradict this opinion, and confirm the principle which regards 
 the Church as a nation of ministers and apostles. Gifts are 
 different, ablities are unequal, but every Christian, as such, 
 is provided with a certain measure. On the other hand, we 
 should be greatly mistaken as to the interests of the Church, 
 and its very nature, were we to count nothing on those indi- 
 rect services which are at once within the reach of all, and 
 
86 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 are the most important. What are those indirect services, 
 dear brethren ? Just an upright conduct, a life of divine 
 and habitual charity. In the absence of, or rather more 
 than all other means, it is necessary to calculate upon these. 
 And how can we employ them, or, to say all in one word, 
 how can we be Christians without accepting, in addition to 
 the sufferings common to all mankind sufferings of a higher 
 order, the pains of that spiritual birth which Christ forms in 
 us ? These pains, endured in the simple excercise of Chris- 
 tian virtue, are classed with those which benefit the Church. 
 And without doubt St. Paul also had these sufferings in view, 
 as well as contradiction and resistance from without, when 
 he said of himself in our text, I '• fill up that which is behind 
 of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, 
 which is the Church." 
 
 Yes, it is at the cost of these sufferings, general and in- 
 dividual, involuntary or voluntary, of body or soul, that the 
 Church remains united to her Head ; that the Church is the 
 body of Christ. She is strengthened by all these sufferings; 
 she draws honor from all this shame ; she lives by all these 
 deaths. This is so essential to her, that when she shall have 
 ceased to combat and to suffer, she shall have ceased to live ; 
 unless, indeed, the whole of mankind shall have entered her 
 bosom, and the world have become the Church. But so long 
 as in Christendom itself (I leave the heathen out of view,) 
 true believers will be a minority, there will be struggling 
 and suffering. The Church has not struck her roots into 
 the soil of this world's interests. To them, it is true, she is 
 most useful. She serves them while they know it not; 
 but she proceeds from the Spirit, not from the flesh ; from 
 heaven, not from the earth ; from God, not from man. She 
 does not present herself ~as the ally and accomplice, but as 
 the enemy of human passions ; and the first design which 
 she announces is not to clothe, but to unclothe us. There 
 
87 
 
 is enmity between her and the vices of the world, between 
 her and the virtues of the world. The wise who are not 
 wise with her wisdom, hate her no less than the foolish ; they 
 hate her as if she were foolish. Ever a stranger in this 
 world, notwithstanding her appearance, (for it is not to 
 herself, but a phantom, that the homage of the multitude is 
 paid,) she is incessantly obliged to fight for the place which 
 she occupies. She lives, if we dare say so, not on a certain 
 income, but on the booty which she seizes from day to day. 
 She is not established in the world, but encamped ; her 
 existence is always a question ; and while every man com- 
 ing into the world belongs to society, no man belongs before- 
 hand to the Church. She has no citizens but those whom 
 she snatches from the world. Scarcely can it be said that 
 she lives. Her life is a perpetual resurrection. She is in- 
 cessantly coming forth from the tomb. By means of truth, 
 and consequent congruity with the nature of things and the 
 nature of man, she has compelled modern nations to adopt 
 several of her maxims, giving them a new civilization, and 
 even her name. The nations who call themselves Christian 
 really form a single nation when contrasted with those who 
 are not so named ; and the time, perhaps, is not distant 
 when in a certain sense the whole world will be Christian ; 
 but even then it will not be the fundamental principles but 
 the secondary ideas, the application of Christianity, which 
 the world will have adopted. It is not the world that will 
 give a firm hold to the roots of the tree whose fruits the 
 world is very well pleased to gather. These roots (I mean 
 the truths which lie at the foundation of the faith of the 
 Church.) will be not less contrary and hateful to the natural 
 man than before ; and so long as this natural man, of whom 
 the Christian ever feels the remains within himself, shall 
 form a majority in the world, it is clear that the Church will 
 behoove to combat, to struggle for her life, and consequently 
 suffer as her Captain has suffered. 
 
88 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 What idea do they form of the condition of the Church ? 
 What understanding have they of its principles ? How do 
 they represent the relations of the body with the Head, and 
 the members with the body — they, I mean, who of their own 
 sovereign authority banish to the first times of Christianity, 
 as a kind of heroic and almost fabulous age, every thing in 
 Christianity and the profession of it which is of a tragical 
 nature ? Would they, (since, in short, there is no other 
 alternative,) would they say that Christianity commenced 
 with tragedy, and continues with comedy ? For, alas ! would 
 not Christianity be indeed a dull comedy, if, from unwilling- 
 ness to continue Jesus Christ in his sufferings, it should be 
 unwilling to continue him in his virtues, and refuse to under- 
 stand how in the present day, as at all times, to be a Christian 
 is to do like Simon the Cyrenian, to share with Jesus Christ 
 in bearing the burden of the cross ? Not to know this were 
 to know less of Christianity than was known respecting 
 human life by those sages of all times who have declared 
 that life is a combat. And, in fact, it is only to the man who 
 is absolutely sold to the flesh that life is not a combat. All 
 life which seeks its principle somewhere else than in material 
 interests must be a combat. And what is Christianity but 
 life, properly so called, and therefore combat in the highest 
 sense ; combat, with all its importance and all its dangers, 
 all its agonies, all its inveteracy, all its bloody horror ? Let 
 us speak frankly. You are Christians only in so far as your 
 Christianity is all that I have said ; only in so far as you 
 can say with some truth like St. Paul, though in different 
 circumstances, I " fill up that which is behind of the afliic- 
 tions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the 
 Church." 
 
 It is with this, brethren, that I conclude ; for my object 
 has not been merely to explain the meaning of St. Paul's 
 words, and remove the offence which a first view of them 
 
THE BELIEVER COMPLETING CHRISt's SUFFERINGS. 89 
 
 might occasion. If you have understood that in one sense 
 nothing is wanting p the afflictions of Christ, and that in 
 another sense something will always be wanting ; that there 
 will always be a residue to suffer until the end of the ages 
 which are reserved to the Church and to mankind ; if you 
 have understood that the Church is nothing else than the 
 Man of sorrows, perpetuated in the persons of those who are 
 united to him, you must distinctly ask yourselves if, like St. 
 Paul, you fill up in your flesh for the Church of Jesus Christ 
 the residue of the sufferings of Jesus Christ. For I cannot 
 suppose you so little acquainted with your own religion as to 
 come forward and say, St. Paul was an apostle, and I am 
 not so ; St. Paul, was set apart, and I have been left in the 
 mass. In what mass, pray ? Has not that mass itself been 
 set apart ? Is not that mass the Church ? Is not the Church 
 a society of apostles ? Are there some in her bosom who 
 have only the privilege of suffering for her? Is any one 
 excluded ? Is it not the duty and the privilege of all to 
 fight and die for her, were it only in that hidden and ran- 
 corous struggle between the spirit and the flesh, the regen- 
 erated and the corrupt will ? No, no ; you have all been set- 
 apart, and in consequence every one of you ought to ask 
 himself. What have I voluntarily suffered for Jesus Christ, 
 and for his body, which is the Church ? What battles have 
 I fought for the Head and for the body ? With what bloody 
 remains of that old man whom I must put to death have I 
 impurpled my path through life ? 
 
 If this view of Christianity appears at the first glance 
 melancholy and frightful, have you not within you the 
 means of combating this natural impression ? Ah ! if the 
 objection seems to you unanswerable, you have not learned 
 the first elements of the religion which you profess, and you 
 do not possess Jesus Christ in any manner. If you loved 
 Jesus Christ, the objection, supposing it ever could have been 
 
90 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 raised, would fall of its own accord. If you do not love him, 
 the objection subsists, and we cannot answer it. For with 
 this love you will perceive that these sufferings are at once a 
 necessity, a blessing, a glory ; and without love you will per- 
 ceive nothing of the kind. With love you will perceive that 
 blood and life are sacrificed for the Church in the same way 
 as the love of country has perhaps made you understand how 
 all things are joyously abandoned for the safety of the Com- 
 monwealth ; but without love you cannot understand it. 
 With love you will look forward and see all these afflictions 
 transferred into joy, because in proportion as the outward 
 man decays, the inward man is revived in proportion also ; as 
 outward happiness diminishes, internal happiness is strength- 
 ened and increased at the same moment, sending down its 
 roots, and tiirowing forth its branches. Without love all this 
 seems to you chimerical. With love you will find that God 
 still leaves you a remnant of happiness, and that all things 
 rightly considered, godliness has the promise of the life that 
 now is, as well as of that which is to come. Without love 
 the largest portion of the goods of this life which God might 
 give you, would seem small and niggardly. The whole is 
 to love : if you love you will comprehend ; if you love, you 
 will say with St. Paul, " I rejoice in my sufferings." And 
 have you not, over and above all this, the ineffable consola- 
 tions which love imparts, the prospect of that repose, that 
 heavenly glory, the sure promise of which is the very root 
 of your love ? 
 
 The Church has need of your sufferings, because it has 
 need of your services. The Church is not more than sup- 
 plied by all her children, and by all their love. You must 
 see with what painful effort she is struggling against ene- 
 mies, both from without and from within. You must see 
 with what bitter tears and bloody sweat, she bathes her 
 Gethsemane. You have heard the sound of the lash that 
 
THE BELIEVER COMPLETING CIIRIST's SUFFERINGS. 91 
 
 is scourging her, and the derisive cries of the men who, after 
 blindfolding her, (for in the present day she scarcely knows 
 her friends from her foes,) insultingly exclaim, " Prophesy 
 who struck thee." You perhaps hear not the ancient shout, 
 •' Away, away ! crucify !" In certain places she has her 
 crucitixion in the contempt, the disdainful tolerance of some, 
 and the insulting homage of others. In other places, far 
 from being nailed upon a cross, she is upon a throne ; but 
 go near, examine closely, and you will see that she is 
 chained. Under all forms, that of respect included, she un- 
 dergoes her irrevocable destiny. Did your eyes present her 
 to you tranquil, honored, consolidated in public institutions, 
 the danger would only be the greater, and your zeal the 
 more necessary ; you would have less cause to fear for her 
 if she was crying aloud for help. Say not then within your- 
 selves, Let us employ this momentary time in taking a little 
 repose. There is no time for repose, and there never will 
 be ; you will repose in heaven. Alternately, or rather at 
 the same moment, the Church attacks and defends. The 
 Church advances to her frontiers to protect, and then goes 
 forward to conquer. Go with her wherever she goes. For- 
 tify her on the ground which she occupies, add new pro- 
 vinces to her empire ; unite with her in fulfilling the com- 
 mand which she received from Jesus Christ, to preach the 
 Gospel to every creature. Architects of the divine mansion, 
 builders of another Jerusalem ! take the trowel in one hand 
 and the sword in the other ; destroy error, propagate truth ; 
 above all, diffuse the perfume, the life-giving odor of the 
 Gospel, by a pure, holy life ; a life honorable in the sight of 
 God and man, full of charity and good works, to the glory of 
 Jesus Christ. Amen. 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITION. 
 
 " Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, 
 after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not 
 after Christ." — Col. ii. 8. 
 
 St. Paul, in the verses preceding our text, has celebrated 
 the mystery of the threefold fulness of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 namely, fulness as God, fulness as Saviour, and fulness of 
 communion through faith with the soul of the Christian ; and 
 he concludes with saying that in this mystery of the fulness 
 of Jesus Christ are contained all the treasures of wisdom and 
 knowledge. 
 
 St. Paul, in these last words, throws down the gauntlet to 
 human wisdom, which insists on owing alJ to itself, and 
 nothing, or the least possible, to the great mystery of the 
 Gospel. He bids defiance to the heresy which had for some 
 time been endeavoring to undermine the doctrine of Paul, as 
 delivered by Epaphras to the Church at Colosse. Or rather 
 (as these terms, gauntlet and defiance, are too little accordant 
 with St. Paul's humility), he protests, in the name of truth, 
 against all those who, at Colosse, or elsewhere, presumed to 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITION. 93 
 
 know of something superior to the mystery of Christ and the 
 fulness of Christ. 
 
 Here, brethren, the ruling passion of St. Paul is re- 
 vealed ; here we perceive that his mind is occupied not with 
 the interest of an idea, but a more affecting interest, that of 
 souls. Here the joy of having seen this great mystery an- 
 nounced to the world, of being himself the bearer of it among 
 all nations, gives place for a moment to a lively and tender 
 solicitude. One would say that joy has awakened fear, and 
 that the more St. Paul appreciates the glory, beauty, and 
 value of this mystery, the more he becomes alive to the pang 
 he should feel in seeing the believers of Colosse deprived 
 of it, and regrets that he does not possess all imaginable 
 means of confirming them in the faith which they had em- 
 braced. 
 
 One very important mean is wanting to him, that of being 
 in the midst of them, so as to speak, instead of being obliged 
 to write to them. How feeble is a letter, however eloquent, 
 in comparison with actual converse, which, being prolonged 
 or renewed, gives to mere thought the inexplicable force de- 
 rived from the living voice, the look, the personal presence, 
 enabling the listener to question the speaker, and by questions 
 guide his address, so as more effectually to meet the wants of 
 the occasion. And even though the writer should be weighty 
 and eloquent only when he writes, though his speech, to use 
 St. Paul's words, should be contemptible, has he not the means 
 of giving power to this contemptible, and eloquence to this 
 mute presence ? Has not action a language ? Are there no 
 arguments in example ? St. Paul, it would seem, did not 
 plume himself on being a great orator; and when, with 
 touching humility, he repeats the remarks of his opponents, 
 who said of him, " His letters are weighty and powerful, but 
 his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible," he 
 does not childishly undertake the defence of his despised elo- 
 
94 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 qiience, perhaps unjustly despised ; he simply answers, '' Let 
 such an one think this, that such as we are in word by letters 
 when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we 
 are present." 2 Cor. x. 10, 11. 
 
 I need not remind you, brethren, of the deeds of St. Paulj 
 his energy, his decision, the wisdom of his measures, his abil- 
 ity, if one is permitted so to speak, in the government of the 
 Church ; in fine, his zeal, ardent though meek, for the wel- 
 fare of his disciples. In the danger with which he saw the 
 faith of the Colossians threatened, he might well deplore his 
 captivity, which prevented him from going to their assistance. 
 But did he not thereby do injustice to his letters, which even 
 his enemies allowed to be powerful and weighty ? Are they 
 not the very letters Avhich, transmitted by the first believers 
 to their neighbors, and through them to their descendants from 
 age to age, and from country to country, have converted the 
 world ? Are not we ourselves the living proof; we who, af- 
 ter so many generations goiie by, still assemble, like the pri- 
 mitive converts, to read and meditate on the writings of Paul ? 
 And yet, brethren, Paul was right, and the immense success 
 of his epistles proves that the regret which he here expresses 
 was not unfounded. It was not by his epistles alone that the 
 world was converted, but by the men who have, in a sense, 
 unceasingly addressed them anew to the whole Church, by 
 the men who have spoken what St. Paul had written, and by 
 their conduct and personal example confirmed the truths con- 
 tained in these immortal writings. We may say literally (at 
 least when including the whole body of believers) that " faith 
 Cometh by hearing," and not by reading merely ; and that 
 if in some way which it may not be easy to conceive, the 
 first messengers of the Gospel had confined themselves to the 
 circulation of the epistles of St. Paul and the whole Bible 
 throughout the world, without mingling their spoken with this 
 written word ; and if those whom this reading had converted 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITION. 95 
 
 (for we admit that it might have converted many) had there- 
 after in like manner interdicted themselves from preaching 
 otherwise than hy this silent communication of the sacred 
 volume, the flame kindled for an instant would soon have 
 grown feeble, and ere long have been extinguished. Such, 
 generally, is the importance of personal presence and oral 
 communication ; so closely has God connected the agency 
 and gifts of the Spirit that quickeneth, with the influence 
 which is derived from direct intercourse between man and 
 man. 
 
 Not being able to transport himself to the Colossians and 
 appear to them as a living epistle of Jesus Christ, St. Paul 
 seeks to supply the want by the earnestness and heartfelt 
 warmth of what he writes. He, so to speak, does all he can 
 to make himself present by the power of his love ; the im- 
 pulses of his heart annihilate space ; he brings the Colossians 
 near to him by the very expression of his regret; he draws 
 them to his bosom and embraces them by thoughts full of 
 tenderness ; he is determined not to be absent, and says he 
 is with them in spirit. He has not only heard of the impos- 
 ing order, the battle array, (for this seems to be the idea,) 
 which the Colossians oppose to the enemy of their faith, he 
 sees all this, and rejoices at it. He is at their head, or rather 
 in their ranks ; and, if they here engage in a struggle or 
 combat, he, an invisible companion in arms, toils and com- 
 bats by their side. 
 
 How deep must be the vexation of a patriot warrior not 
 to be able to take part in a battle which is to decide the fate 
 of his country! While the Israelites were fighting, Moses 
 was far off on the mountain ; but there he fought along with 
 them. St. Paul knows the secret of being present every 
 where. It is not his fault if the Colossians do not perceive 
 his presence in the midst of them. He is there in effect, he 
 is fully there by love ; and not from a distance, but close at 
 
96 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 liand lie cries to them, " ' This I say lest any man should 
 beguile you with enticing words.' Col. ii. 4. I hear the 
 words, I see the deceivers, I feel the danger. Soldiers of 
 Jesus Christ, whose goodly order and compact phalanx I ad- 
 mire, Be on your guard, yonder is the enemy !" 
 
 The enemy of whom St. Paul speaks is the great enemy, 
 the enemy of Jesus Christ, the enemy of souls; in other 
 words, the world and the prince of this world. 
 
 The aim, the constant effort of that enemy, is to destroy 
 Jesus Christ in order that he may escape being destroyed ; 
 for not only is there no fellowship, there is no compatibility 
 between Christ and Belial. The impious, the insensate war 
 which the spirit of the world has declared against Christ is 
 a war of death, though the world cares not fully to announce 
 the fact. It is not always good policy to take up the position 
 of open hostility to Jesus Christ. Although his true friends 
 have not, in any age or country formed the majority, there 
 is in all the countries of Christendom a prejudice in favor of 
 Jesus Christ; or, shall I call it, a species of faith which, 
 though it is not true faith, and does not imply love, fails not 
 to produce dismay at the first rumor and the mere idea of 
 waging mortal war against him. There is a general con- 
 fused feeling that Jesus Christ is required ; and that in a 
 world without him there would (one knows not how, but the 
 thing is certain) be a great and dreadful blank. Thought 
 has its knights-errant as it has its heroes, and never, perhaps, 
 were they more numerous than in the present day. Have 
 you observed, however, that they dare not while attacking 
 Christianity by argument to separate themselves absolutely 
 from it, and that the war which they wage against Jesus 
 Christ is waged in his own name ? The sneering infidelity 
 of the last century is no longer in season. Christianity, it is 
 true, is merely a phantom, a vain name ; but it is necessary 
 to keep terms with this name, this phantom. Not only in 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITION. 97 
 
 the present day, but at all times, have the enemies of Jesus 
 Ciirist tbund it a more profitable attempt to disparage than to 
 annihilate it. The former seems less outrageous than the 
 other, and this is a great point. It gives no "umbrage at all 
 to the greater number ; and provided there is no talk of 
 destroying Jesus Christ, provided there is no absolute denial 
 of him, they may curtail, and exterminate, and reduce him 
 to a mere name, without giving any offence to the multitude 
 to whom the name of Jesus Christ, and the name alone, suf- 
 fices. The effect meanwhile will be not only to disparage, 
 but to destroy him. Jesus Christ cannot be either degraded 
 or aggrandized. To lessen is to annihilate him ; and if he 
 is only part God or part Saviour, if he only communicates 
 himself to us in part, or his communion is only partly certain, 
 he is neither God nor Saviour ; in short, he is not in us the 
 hope of glory in any degree or any manner. 
 
 It is true, that a man who believes more in Jesus Christ 
 than he is aware, may detract from him in word without 
 detracting in his heart ; but the inflexible law which declares 
 that Jesus Christ is annihilated when he is lessened — the 
 law which, though it seems to fail in particular instances 
 never actually does so, is clearly exemplified in the multi- 
 tude. Jesus Christ and the fulness of Jesus Christ are one 
 and the same mystery, one and the same truth ; and wher- 
 ever Jesus Christ has been robbed of a single ray of his glory, 
 the disappearance of this single ray produces a complete 
 obscurity, from the bosom of which you, as it were, hear 
 humanity exclaiming in accents of grief, " They have taken 
 away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him!" 
 
 What joy must it give to the enemy of our salvation tQ 
 have discovered a method of making war on Jesus Christ 
 without exciting suspicion, and even while appearing to do 
 him homage ! It is, however, very easy to see why he has 
 at all times preferred heresy which disparages Jesus Christ, 
 6 
 
98 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 to infidelity whicli denies him. I say, brethren, heresy which 
 disparages Jesus Christ, because, notwithstanding the in- 
 finite diversity of forms and creeds, all heresies have this 
 tendency ; all' without exception go to disparage Jesus Christ. 
 What else, pray, could they do since they cannot magnify 
 him ? And be not deceived. The heresies spring not from 
 without, except to this extent, that the prince of error 
 awakens them in our heart. They have their germ there. 
 The human heart is the great heresiarch ; and just as it has 
 been said that there is no temptation which is not human, 
 there is no error which is not human. An angel of darkness 
 comes, and with his hand stirs the pool ; but the pool was 
 previously in our heart. We are thus the chief accomplices 
 of our enemy, his chief auxiliaries, unless it be deemed more 
 correct to say that he is the chief accomplice, the chief 
 auxiliary of a heart always ready for rebellion. For the 
 great interest, the ruling passion of the human heart before 
 the truth has entirely vanquished it, is to reduce Jesus Christ 
 to a mere name. Doing the very opposite of John the Bap- 
 tist, who felt such joy in saying, " He must increase, but I 
 must decrease ;" our heart, even after confessing Jesus 
 Christ, is continually whispering, " Let it be our utmost 
 endeavor that he may decrease and we increase." 
 
 But be this as it may ; whether the initiative belong to 
 our heart, or to the great adversary, the fact of being ac- 
 complices is not avowed by either. Neither our heart with 
 its passions, nor the adversary with his malice, appears 
 openly in the arena. They do not measure weapons with 
 the great mystery of godliness — the Gospel. They send in 
 their place other adversaries seemingly disinterested, and 
 free (at least they pretend so,) from any other interest than 
 that of truth, and it is in their name that the battle is waged. 
 Of such enemies are two with candid look, unruffled brow, 
 and venerable mien, and bearing on their shield the sacred 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TFiADITION. 99 
 
 names of truth and duty. The one of these enemies, St. 
 Paul calls philosophy, the other tradition. " Beware lest any 
 man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the 
 tradition of men ;" or rather by a philosophy full of vain 
 impostures, and by human tradition. Such are the auxiliaries 
 of the world in this impious war ; adversaries which in a 
 great measure owe their strength to our passions, and without 
 which our passions would not be very strong. For on the 
 one hand, no one is willing, in total disregard of appearances, 
 to give himself up to evil ; and on the other hand it would 
 be difficult to find arguments for evil, if we were not strongly 
 predisposed to find them. Thus alternately we aid them, 
 and they aid us ; we receive their inspirations, and they re- 
 ceive ours ; they are our auxiliaries, and we become theirs ; 
 and their efforts united to ours, are directed to a common 
 end, namely, to weaken Jesus Christ, to derogate from his 
 fulness, to persuade ourselves that the mystery of this fulness 
 does not, as St. Paul affirms, contain all the treasures of wis- 
 dom and knowledge, in other words, that this mystery is not 
 perfectly wise, is not perfectly true. 
 
 Philosophy, brethren, taken in its simplest acceptation, is 
 only a higher degree of good sense, which, not pretending to 
 know all things, desires to have a thorough knowledge of 
 those objects, the knowledge of which has been placed within 
 our reach. It sets no value on names and appearances ; 
 prejudice is not the basis of any of its judgments; neither 
 number nor time has the effect of transforming error into 
 truth. It believes not, denies not, affirms not, at hazard, or 
 on slight grounds. Not trusting to a first look, it searches 
 for differences under resemblances, and resemblances under 
 differences ; alternately uniting what the vulgar separate, 
 and separating what they unite. While all facts are isolated 
 to the inattentive eye, they are connected and linked together 
 by the eye of philosophy, which does what it can to trace 
 
100 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 the chain vvhicli unites them. In every case fixing on what 
 is essential, and throwing aside what is merely accidental, it 
 comes at last to recognize a common nature, a common prin- 
 ciple, a common origin, in ohjects which seemed at first to 
 have nothing in common. It thus reduces the innumerable 
 facts of the moral and physical world to a small number of 
 ideas, and these to a smaller number still, always gravitating 
 towards the unity which it will never reach, but to which a 
 mysterious power constrains it always to aspire. To say all 
 in one word, philosophy differs from vulgar reason, in apply- 
 ing itself to penetrate from the exterior of things or their 
 envelope, to their principle, or at least to the idea which ex- 
 plains the greatest number of possible facts, and before which 
 it is constrained to stop as if out of breath. When shall it 
 stop ? What is it's legitimate sphere ? This question is of 
 more importance than any other. Philosophy does not gain 
 more honor by extending its search, than by recognizing its 
 limits. It reigns in this apparent dethronement. It is its 
 glory to know how to restrict itself, just as in the domain of 
 morality it is the glory of the will to stop in proper time and 
 make an effort upon itself But in order to know what it is 
 able and what unable to do, it takes account of its processes 
 and instruments, compares its means with its end, and not 
 being able to place all its greatness in knowledge finds part 
 of it in confessing its ignorance, and so to speak, in knowing 
 certainly that it does not know. 
 
 St. Paul did not repudiate this philosophy, and could 
 have no intention to repudiate it. He knew as well as we, 
 that in matters of religion, and even of revealed religion, 
 there may be either a good or a bad philosophy, but that at 
 all events there is philosophy. We cannot condemn philo- 
 sophy without condemning ourselves to silence on the sub- 
 ject of religion which presupposes it, and guides it, and 
 would create it if it did not previously exist. Accordingly, 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITION. 101 
 
 St. Paul has not condemned it ; and wlien he warns his dis- 
 ciples against a science " falsely so called," his words imply 
 the existence of a science that is true. Now philosophy is 
 a part of science, or rather is itself the science of science. 
 Nor, moreover, could he have condemned it, without con- 
 demning himself who has made such happy and frequent 
 use of it. It were vain to deny that the writings of St. Paul 
 and of St. John are full of the highest philosophy. Let us 
 be understood. We do not say full of sublime truth, but of 
 that philosophy which we have endeavored to characterize, 
 which rises from appearances to reality, from accident to 
 essence, from the particular to the general, from variable 
 facts to immutable principles. 
 
 No more did St. Paul despise tradition, by which must 
 be understood the communication of a fact or a truth by a 
 person entitled to credit. Philosophy teaches us on what 
 ground a person is entitled to be believed, but the conditions 
 which she prescribes being fulfilled, it is philosophical to 
 believe. Then tradition comes at the bidding of philosophy 
 to fill up the void left by philosophy, which, however she may 
 reason upon facts, cannot invent them. Revelation in this 
 sense is tradition in its highest form, the tradition of God 
 himself. But the succession of holy lives in the history of 
 human nature, is also the tradition of God, or divine tradi- 
 tion. These lives are Christianity itself. For Christianity, 
 though it flows from doctrine and be written in a book, is not 
 essentially either a doctrine or a book, but a life springing 
 up eternally from the very bosom of God. In this life, per- 
 petuated from believer to believer, is a revelation, a tradi- 
 tion, a divine testimony. The perfect sameness of Christi- 
 anity, continued through all the extreme diversities of time 
 and places, is also a divine tradition ; and the philosopher 
 himself, struck with this marvellous agreement of ages, 
 nations, and races, cannot avoid seeing in this intimate and 
 
102 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 involuntary agreement between the savage and civilized man, 
 between the Christians of the first century and those of the 
 nineteenth, a fact which ought to have great weight in favor 
 of the Christian religion. In another sense still, tradition is 
 of importance ; namely, when going back to the very sources 
 of our belief, it shows them to us in a state of purity and 
 simplicity, which they quickly lost in the discourses and 
 writings of succeeding ages. For although the diamond of 
 truth is always pure in itself, and although the moment the 
 outer covering is removed it sparkles as at first, still this 
 covering, this crust, must be taken away ; so that it may be, 
 as in the hands of the Master and his immediate disciples, 
 with nothing to envelope, nothing to tarnish it, but pure dia- 
 mond throughout. It is to this return towards our original 
 sources that the words of the prophet apply : " Stand ye in 
 the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the 
 good way, and walk therein." Jer. vi. 16. 
 
 It is neither against this tradition nor this philosophy that 
 St. Paul wishes to guard the Colossians. He speaks of a 
 vain philosophy, and a human tradition. The former is 
 natural reason proceeding without rule, and working on in- 
 complete or false data ; the latter is stupid prejudice, which, 
 in estimating any opinion, throws in the dead weights of 
 number and time. St. Paul wishes to guard the Colossians, 
 and us also, against sophistry in the garb of philosophy, and 
 against custom claiming the authority of proof. 
 
 He calls this philosophy vain, or full of imposture. Thus, 
 brethren, we think the original ought to be rendered, and it is 
 in fact by imposture or appearances that this philosophy de- 
 ceives us. It does not lay down any thing as a principle 
 which we do not admit, and admit willingly. The truth 
 which it wishes to destroy, it opposes by truths, but partial 
 truths, which, being separated from those which were de- 
 signed to complete them, become thereby grave errors. The 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITION. 103 
 
 world acts in regard to the truth as it does in regard to Jesus 
 Christ. It does not deny it absolutely, it detracts from it. 
 This is its imposture. It is by this that it dazzles the greater 
 part of men, especially those who are willing to be dazzled. 
 Accordingly, it requires not to evoke phantoms, and create, 
 if we may so speak, factitious errors. Truth is sufficient. It 
 breaks it down into fragments, and out of one of them forms 
 an error, an error all the more dangerous from its resemblance 
 to truth. Its falsehoods are fractional parts of truth, and 
 would be far less dangerous, or absolutely without danger, if 
 they were mere falsehoods. 
 
 It is thus, for example, that it appeals to common sense, 
 a kind of mole whose eye sees well what it does see, but sees 
 only at the distance of a yard or two, and then sneeringly 
 asks on what part of the horizon are situated the wonderful 
 objects which others have pretended to see, but which in truth 
 they have only dreamed. It takes care not to let out that this 
 weak eye, if provided with a telescope, would see all that 
 others have seen. It accustoms it to judge of the things of 
 heaven by the analogies of the earth, teaching it to consider 
 nothing real that it does not touch, and nothing true that it 
 does not comprehend. It does not bid it deny the existence 
 of what is invisible or infinite, of pj'ovidence, or grace, or in- 
 tercourse with God by prayer ; but it whispers away all these 
 truths, because none of them lie within the reach of common 
 sense, which, if interrogated as to each, would answer. No ! 
 Do you see that man who was employed to kindle a blazing 
 beacon on the top of a tower, to guide the unhappy mariner 
 amid storm and darkness to the haven, and instead of doing 
 so, is, as if in mockery, substituting the little lamp which 
 lately glimmered in a corner of his narrow dwelling ? Such 
 is the philosophy of common sense. Must not a man have 
 fallen very low, must not his soul be smothered or quite dead, 
 before he can seriously apply the narrow principles of com- 
 
104 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 mon sense to religious questions ? Well ! a whole age may 
 come to this, (we have seen it,) and what does Jesus Christ 
 become for such an age ? We have seen this also. Some 
 deny him and blaspheme ; others, more timid, or less consis- 
 tent, or more skilful, disparage him, detract from his fulness. 
 For the latter, as for the former, Jesus Christ no longer exists, 
 for Jesus Christ is not in accordance with this common sense. 
 
 Another delusion, of an entirely opposite description, se- 
 parating us from common sense, (which, though we ought 
 not to rest satisfied with it, we aught never to abandon,) car- 
 ries us away into boundless regions where nothing arrests the 
 eye, where nothing can be compared or measured, because 
 there is nothing in this space but space itself — where ideas do- 
 not represent things, nor words, ideas — where the existence 
 of the thinking being is confounded with that of the subject 
 of thought — where the last point to support or fix thought, the 
 certainty of our own existence, the right of saying 7, has be- 
 gun by losing itself in a substance which is no more capable 
 than ourselves of saying /. To persuade the mind that thus 
 to beat about in vacuo is really to think, that to connect for- 
 mulce wiih formuIcB is really to know, is not so difficult as one 
 might be led to believe, or as the philosophy of common sense 
 would have it to be believed. And when sacrifice has been 
 offered to this idol, which is larger but nrore hollow than the 
 other, what remains of Jesus Christ ? His name, perhaps. 
 For those systems which plume themselves on being vast 
 enough to take all systen>s into their embrace, have one also 
 for Jesus Christ. 
 
 But what is this place ? or rather, what is this Jesus 
 Christ ? Do you expect to meet the Jesus Christ of Bethle- 
 hem or Calvary, the living, personified Jesus Christ, who wept 
 over Lazarus, looked round on Peter, and loved St. John ? 
 How poor ! how mean your conceptions ! The cross itself is 
 only a symbol, of whose meaning you have no proper idea ! 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITION. 105 
 
 And as for the eternal Son in uniting his divinity to our hu- 
 manity — and as for our Advocate who stands beside the Fa- 
 ther, and lives continually interceding for us — and as for that 
 heavenly Friend who is in the midst of us when we meet in 
 his name — we must no longer think of them. Jesus Christ 
 is not a person, but a fact. The person who appeared under 
 the name of Jesus Christ, did no more than give a visible 
 shape at that particular moment to an idea previously exist- 
 ing in the world. It was this idea that was crucified, rose 
 again, and ascended to heaven. There is no other Jesus 
 Christ. Yours, he at whose feet you have prayed so much, 
 suffered so much, loved so much, was several persons, none 
 of whom was Christ, or thought he was; but one of whom 
 has appropriated to himself all that the others have been, and 
 merged their memory in his own. Go now, pray and weep 
 on this deserted Calvary ; seek there for a cross which was 
 never erected ; seek in the heavens for a Christ who is not 
 there, and instead of a God adore a system. Your Christ 
 has been lost in a much greater Christ. Go not then to say 
 that he has been lessened to you ; on the contrary, he has 
 been aggrandized. No, brethren ; say boldly that he has 
 been lessened to you, lessened to the extent of all his person- 
 ality, which was the support of your hope, the principle of 
 your religious life, and the charm of your pains! 
 
 The philosophy of which St. Paul speaks, has other de- 
 lusions in store. Always faithful to its principle, it lessens 
 man in order to lessen Jesus Christ. It designedly forgets 
 some one or other of the principal elements of human nature, 
 and so eflectually, that man being no longer the entire being 
 he was, no longer needs an entire Jesus Christ. Sometimes 
 it makes religion an argument, a system, all the parts of 
 which it skilfully balances ; and so completely does it ab- 
 sorb all the parts of our intellect in the study of it, that what 
 it gave to us for a system remains in effect nothing but a 
 6* 
 
106 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 system, so that we think our religion without feeling it, 
 reason of love without loving, and of salvation without being 
 saved ; in one word, know, to a wondrous nicety, how all 
 these things ought to take place in us, while none actually 
 does take place. Sometimes at a single stroke it lops off one 
 of the doctrines of the Gospel, and one of the wants of our 
 nature ; for there is not a doctrine in the Gospel but corres- 
 ponds to one of our wants, nor in our nature a want which 
 does not correspond to a doctrine of the Gospel. It will be 
 satisfied, for example, 1 do not say with our denying, but 
 with our dissembling, our being silent both as to this want 
 of our nature and those words of the Gospel which unite in 
 exhibiting perfection both as the limit of our exertions and 
 the end of our lives. Hence, I mean from a mc^rality 
 without heroism, to a trivial morality, there is not even 
 a single step ; we pass without transition from the one to the 
 other. We are trivial when we are not sublime. And if 
 viewed from the cross of the God- man a vulgar morality 
 is absurd, the cross of the God-man is equally absurd when 
 viewed from a vulgar morality. What have we to do with 
 Jesus Christ, and how superfluous must his cross be, the 
 moment it is understood that we are not called to perfection ? 
 Jesus Christ is then degraded. How far? I know not; 
 but what you ought to know is, that if Jesus Christ is no 
 longer necessary, he is no longer even useful to you. 
 
 There is another deception, another truth transformed 
 into error. Philosophy invokes the idea of progress ; and as 
 this idea is profoundly true, as progress, in whatever way 
 we understand it, is the instinct of every man, it readily 
 finds an echo in our heart. To give the whole truth, it 
 would be necessary to tell man that immutability like pro- 
 gress is the characteristic and the beauty of true religion, 
 the work of a God in whom there is no variableness nor 
 shadow of turning, and that St. Paul has said of his Master 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITION. 107 
 
 with perfect truth, that he is the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 for ever : it would be necessary to tell him that this immu- 
 tability which forms the glory of the Gospel, (since, while 
 remaining the same, it has sufficed for all ages, and supplied 
 all the wants to which progress has given birth,) is at the 
 same time, and above all, the consolation and joy of the be- 
 liever who no longer fears that he will be carried about with 
 every wind of doctrine : it would be necessary to tell him 
 that without this immutability the Gospel, which would be 
 to him only a human idea, continually modifying itself, 
 would not be sufficient for him either in life or in death : in 
 fine, it would be necessary to tell him that the progress 
 which he loves and desires is found in the Gospel, which, 
 without admitting any change on its eternal foundation, 
 adapts itself to all the most diversified movements of human 
 nature, dilates with it, so to speak, and, after each revolution 
 of society, shows itself adapted to the state which produced 
 the revolution ; what do I say ? carries in its bosom the 
 germ of all happy revolutions, and has instigated or paved the 
 way for all. Yes, it would be necessary to tell all this. But, 
 by not telling it, we produce in man a feeling of impatience 
 against this immovable religion which seems to keep lagging 
 b^hipH his thoughts and his hopes. Thus then Christ Jesus is 
 diminished by taking from him, if I dare so speak, a part of 
 his humanity, since, in his character of man, he should sub- 
 scribe and give his concurrence to all developments and to 
 all true progress. 
 
 Such are some of the stratagems of a false philosophy. 
 Here many others might be mentioned ! Let us be con- 
 tented with having put you on the way o£ detecting them ; 
 and let us now with St. Paul attend to the other accomplice 
 or ally oi: the world, human traditmi. Must not the world be 
 very determined to succeed, and at the same time very dubious 
 of success, when it associates in one same design two such 
 
108 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 declared enemies to each other as philosophy and tradition ? 
 I mean delusive philosophy, and human tradition. Philosophy 
 styles itself the independence, the sovereignty of the human 
 mind, and tradition is in its eyes servitude and degradation ; 
 but they are aware, it would seem, that their united force is 
 not too much to insure success to the mighty task of rooting 
 up this great tree, or even lopping its branches. Hence 
 they easily overcome their mutual repugnance ; philosophy 
 willingly leans upon tradition, and tradition willingly defers 
 to philosophy. I mean that philosophy disdains not to enter 
 into the prejudices of the multitude, and the multitude refuse 
 not to borrow some arguments from philosophy. At Colosse 
 heresy had this double character : it was a compound of subtle 
 reasonings and unauthorized traditions ; and the fulness of 
 Jesus Christ was charged with being at once contrary to a 
 pretended nature of things, and to the opinions of the doctors. 
 The effect of tradition in this discussion was directed not 
 so much against the divine nature of Jesus Christ, as against 
 the all-sufficient and perfect virtue of his work as Redeemer. 
 Tradition labored to bring back the Colossians towards the 
 law, not certainly towards that spiritual law, which, like a 
 sage preceptor, would have brought them to Jesus Christ, 
 but towards that law of works and observances which was 
 far more fitted than any other thing to replace the idol of 
 self-righteousness upon its pedestal. We have not the same 
 traditions, brethren ; perhaps we have none, unless it be 
 in some sort one to have none, and to be able to say. What 
 is proposed for our belief our fathers did not believe ; what 
 is proposed for our belief is not believed elsewhere. This 
 negative tradition of unbelief and indifference is assuredly 
 not less powerful than the other ; and we know how, to the 
 disgrace of many, advantage has been taken of it to impair 
 he Gospel and lessen Jesus Christ. We may indeed derive 
 rom tradition quite an opposite result. This also lias been 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITION. 109 
 
 seen, and, up to a certain point, we may rejoice in it ; but, 
 since it is necessary here to speak the whole truth, we would 
 not be astonished should the great enemy rejoice to see human 
 tradition, even in the direction of truth, substituted for the tes- 
 timony of God, and men continuing or beginning to believe in 
 Jesus Christ, not because they have recognized in him the 
 way, the truth, and the life ; not because in beholding him 
 they have been internally constrained to render glory to him ; 
 but principally because their fathers believed in him. It is 
 a snare which the prince of darkness lays for the most faith- 
 ful. Perhaps he would prefer that the name of Jesus Christ 
 should not be pronounced at all, this name alone being a 
 power ; but, after all, it does not matter very much to him 
 whether faith have this object or that, provided that, reduced 
 to a lifeless form, it have nothing more of faith but the form 
 and the name, and Jesus Christ be lessened or restricted, if 
 not in the plenitude of his nature or of his work, at least in 
 our heart, and in the homage which we owe to him. Thus, 
 at all times, whatever be the purport of the tradition, the 
 enemy employs it to the prejudice of Jesus Christ, or much 
 rather to our prejudice ; and the exhortation of the apostle, 
 coming to us across eighteen intervening centuries, has lost 
 none of its truth or its seasonableness. 
 
 And let us not forget that in the Church of Colosse, these 
 two adversaries both laid claim to JesUs Christ : they dared 
 to pronounce his name, and even set themselves up as heralds 
 of his glory, and preachers of his doctrine. It is necessary 
 to remember this, in order to comprehend St. Paul's decla- 
 ration to the Colossians, that their new teachers taught them 
 " according to the elements of the world, and not according 
 to Christ." Would it have been worth his while to say, that 
 these teachers did not teach according to Christ, if they had 
 not pretended to preach according to Christ? No; but, so 
 far were they from teaching according to Christ, that they at- 
 
110 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 tacked the fulness of Christ, a fundamental doctrine of the 
 Gospel ; and moreover did not teach (this is clear without 
 mentioning it,) according to the Spirit of Christ, which is 
 heavenly, but, says St. Paul, according to the elements of 
 the world. It was the world in fact, the world which has a 
 divided heart, the world which aspires not to perfection, the 
 world which is contented with an insipid, middle course ; the 
 world which neither hungers nor thirsts after righteousness, the 
 world to which all that is divine in human life appears folly. 
 It was the world which furnished these teachers with the 
 materials of their arguments, arguments always sufficiently 
 specious to the natural man. Setting out from the world, 
 they arrived at the world : it is necessary to set out from 
 God, to arrive at God. They were self-condemned in their 
 efforts to lessen Jesus Christ ; for whatever might be their 
 design, they had not announced that it was to lessen the obli- 
 gations of man, to lower his destiny, to lower his nature, to 
 lower religion. They would have been very sorry that this 
 should have been thought, they would have protested against 
 the charge. They deserved it, however, and could not but 
 deserve it ; for it is an eternal law, confirmed by the experi- 
 ence of all ages, that we cannot detract from the fulness of 
 Christ, without detracting to the same extent from the per- 
 fection of the Christian law ; and, in like manner, that we 
 cannot try to curtail this perfect law, without feeling imperi- 
 ously urged to depose Jesus Christ from the throne on which 
 our faith had placed him. 
 
 Strange, yet true ! the tradition of the truth has some- 
 times conveyed the tradition of falsehood. Under the shelter 
 of an important doctrine, clearly evinced and loftily pro- 
 claimed, and presiding over all other doctrine, a train of 
 human inventions calculated for the consolation of the natural 
 man have embodied themselves and swelled the current of 
 tradition. In this unhallowed train there is no error which 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITION. HI 
 
 has not found a place, there is no gross superstition, no 
 degrading idolatry, no shameful paganism, which has not 
 walked with head erect, proud at being seen in the company 
 of a truth universally honored. Thus the national flag is 
 sometimes seen floating over the vessel of the pirate. He 
 who, yielding too much to time, space, and custom, does not 
 constantly go and draw anew at the fountain head, is in great 
 danger of being, as St. Paul expresses it, drawn into bondage 
 by this false tradition. When a community claims for itself 
 to be the depository of the truth, when it makes this claim 
 and the duty of maintaining it a leading dogma, or rather 
 tlie whole religion of its adherents, it may one day, in the 
 name of tradition, which to the greatest number is reason, 
 have the greatest number in its favor. Indeed the followers 
 of its principles will far exceed the members of its com- 
 munion. For a great number of those who profess to be its 
 opponents are, as well as its adherents, the slaves of tradi- 
 tion ; and therefore, so far as the abstract principle of tradi- 
 tion is concerned, it may boldly claim them as supporters. 
 Who believes the truth for the truth's sake ? Who is not to 
 a certain extent the slave of tradition ? It is "not always 
 necessary that ages and generations should conspire to form 
 a tradition. A single man is sufficient; the authority of one 
 is the tradition of many. Idleness and servility enter into 
 agreement with presumption, and the attraction, the empire 
 of tradition, is so great, that the religion which breaks at 
 once with tradition and philosophy (I have explained what 
 philosophy,) is by that very act a heroic religion, the most 
 energetic appeal to all that is powerful, or valuable in the 
 human mind, the most formidable task that has ever been 
 imposed on the pride and indolence, but at the same time the 
 most honorable prospect that has ever been opened to the 
 dignity of our nature. What is proposed to our hope is the 
 advantage, the rare glory of being able to say in all truth, 
 
112 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 " I know in whom I have believed." But it is not our glory ; 
 it is the glory of the Gospel ; it is our salvation. It is in 
 the name of our salvation, of our eternal communion with 
 God, that St. Paul seeks to put us on our guard against false 
 philosophy and vain tradition. 
 
 Paul saw these two dangers at once, these two evils com- 
 bined, and thus seeing, exclaims anxiously, but energetically, 
 " Beware, beware, beware lest those enemies lead you into 
 bondage !" for this is the meaning and force of his expres- 
 sions. They are lively and touching. Does it not seem as ^ 
 if you saw the inhabitants of a fortunate island wandering 
 fearless on their native shore, too near doubtless to that ocean 
 which is the highway of their enemies 1 Their eye, unable 
 from the low and level shore, to reach far over the sea, per- 
 ceives not the fatal ships which are freighted with their chains. 
 But a vigilant sentinel standing on the top of a rock, (it is 
 the rock of salvation,) a vigilant sentinel, (it is Paul,) gives 
 a signal to his companions of the approaching danger. No 
 sooner has he seen these ships upon the horizon, than with 
 true presentiment, he sees servitude and desolation on these 
 happy shorfes, and from the height of this rock reaching to 
 the sky, he sends forth the timely alarm, " The enemy ! the 
 enemy ! Take heed, imprudent men, that they do not lead 
 you into bondage. Take heed, Christian novices, that they 
 do not mislead you by specious discourses ; that they do not 
 rob you of the glorious liberty of the children of God, a 
 liberty scarcely conquered, scarcely tasted. Take heed that 
 they do not deprive you of him, who is liberty itself, that Jesus 
 before whose look have fallen all the chains with which you 
 were loaded by an alarmed conscience, by habitual sin, the 
 power of the flesh, the fear of suffering, the fear of death. 
 Take heed ; for soon, and without your perceiving it, nothing 
 of this mighty, living Christ will remain to you, but instead 
 of him, a dead and useless Christ. Take heed ; others who 
 
PHILOSOPHY AND TRADITION. 113 
 
 had received him like you, now wander without light and 
 without a guide, without God and without hope, in the dark 
 valley of this mortal life. Take heed, for the greatest evils 
 have often been the work of an imperceptible moment, and 
 equally in the spiritual as in the temporal life, shall " poverty 
 come as one that travelleth, and want as an armed man.*' — 
 Prov. vi. 11. 
 
THE PRECAUTIONS OF FAITH. 
 
 " Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, 
 after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not 
 after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily."— Col. ii. 8, 9. 
 
 The Apostle has singled out two enemies of the mystery of 
 Jesus Christ, philosophy and tradition. We may believe that 
 this was not the first time he had met with them, and that he 
 had been engaged with them in personal combat. He knew 
 perhaps by experience, how dangerous are their approaches, 
 and how deadly their grasp. They perhaps had made a 
 persecutor of the Gospel of him who at a later period was 
 its Apostle. It was they that had made him take a part in 
 the death of Stephen, almost as odious as that of the execu- 
 tioners of that martyr. For tradition and philosophy have 
 their fanatics ; they can persecute and they can hate. 
 Christian faith itself until it has become love, being only a 
 system of tradition, gives no security against such shameful 
 excess. How much must the remembrance of having him- 
 self been under such a bondage have increased Paul's anx- 
 iety, on seeing the danger of the Colossians; and in a personal 
 
THE PRECAUTIONS OF FAITH. 115 
 
 interview, how penetrating and expressive must his accent 
 have been in pronouncing the simple words, " Take heed !" 
 Be this as it may, he speaks of the danger as a man who 
 knows and has measured it ; there is not in the passage 
 under consideration, a single word which does not attest this. 
 Observe his touching endeavor to counterbalance the disad- 
 vantage of his absence, his urgent exhortation to remain firm 
 in the faith, rooted and grounded to abound in this faith, and 
 always thank God for it anew. All this should have engaged 
 the Colossians, and should engage us to take heed according 
 to the Apostle's exhortation. But what is it to take heed ? 
 This remains for us to consider. 
 
 Does take heed mean simply, be distrustful, fear, trem- 
 ble ? Evidently not, dear brethren. There would be no 
 meaning in the words, if that was all. To distrust and fear 
 is to take heed to little purpose, or rather is not to take heed 
 at all. To take heed, means literally to be on our guard ; 
 but we cannot be so, if we have not the means. To take 
 heed, then, is to surround ourselves with certain precautions, 
 certain safeguards, certain means of defence. What are 
 these in the case in question ? 
 
 Many will think that to take heed, is to take flight ; in 
 other words, where doctrine is concerned to refused to listen, 
 to stop our ears. It would be necessary in the first place, 
 that the thing was possible, but it is not. The sources of 
 objections are too numerous, the forms which they may as- 
 sume too various, the means and opportunities too easily 
 renewed, and their address in introducing themselves too 
 crafty, they have too many secret spies within the fortress, 
 to allow us to flatter ourselves that we shall meet them sel- 
 dom, still less that we shall not meet them at all. It would 
 first of all be necessary to know them by their appearance. 
 But how ? they have sometimes been long at our side, when 
 we think them far off. Who can guarantee that in the hum- 
 
116 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 blest station, and the nnost profound retreat, we shall never 
 be assailed by them ? And what, pray, will you do, if they 
 come from yourselves, if they are formed within you ? Be- 
 sides, did they all come from without us, nothing is more 
 subtle than the miasma of infidelity and doubt. Whenever 
 they exist, they diffuse themselves through the air, and we 
 inhale without seeing them. Objections hardly require to be 
 articulate in order to be heard. They attach to all subjects, 
 impregnate all discourses, they enter at every pore, we are 
 invested before we think ourselves assailed. 
 
 The persons who believe it so easy to avoid these rencoun- 
 ters suppose the objections of error to be exactly similar to 
 the temptations of sin, against which we certainly ought to 
 shut the door of our heart ; and do we not ask God daily not 
 to lead us into temptation ? But it is easy to see, brethren, 
 that the analogy does not hold, or at least that while the law 
 which enjoins us to shun temptation is absolute, that of shut- 
 ting our ear to the objections of infidelity, or of heresy, is 
 subject to exceptions. As it is impossible not to find persons 
 either disposed or compelled to hear these objections, and 
 nevertheless incapable of refuting them, some at least must 
 undertake to listen, in order that they may be able to answer 
 for the rest. This the writers in defence of Christianity 
 have done at all times. This St. Paul himself did with a 
 force and prudence which have never been surpassed. Be- 
 sides, we do not see that believers are absolutely safe, in 
 obstinately declining to combat, and shutting themselves up 
 in their creed, as in a fortress. It will not be long a fortress. 
 For just as when a country is invaded, and all passes are 
 seized by the enemy, the citadel must surrender ; so the 
 faith which has not ventured to descend into the plain, which 
 has refused discussion while enveloped on all sides by infi- 
 delity, unless it receive miraculous support from on high, is 
 obliged at last to capitulate. It lived only on general con- 
 
THE PRECAUTIONS OF FAITH. 117 
 
 sent, and when this fails, it falls. Before it fell, much evil 
 had been already done in uncertain wavering minds; for on 
 seeing it retire behind the high walls of its tradition, (in fact 
 all it does is to oppose one tradition to another,) it might have 
 been said to it, and has been said, if your reasons for believ- 
 ing are so feeble that they cannot make head against the rea- 
 sons for not believing, why do you believe ? and if they are 
 strong, why are you afraid to enter the lists with your adver- 
 saries? It is certain, brethren, that an infidelity which the 
 least sound awakens, was not dead, and that a religion to 
 which the least shock is mortal, was scarcely alive. The 
 enemies of Christianity would have at least the appearance of 
 reason, and a sufficient excuse for their infidelity, if they saw 
 religion placing itself on regimen, like a patient who owes 
 the prolongation of his sad existence to endless precautions, 
 and renounces life in order to keep him from dying. Chris- 
 tians so acting would have calumniated Christianity, and, I 
 fear, not calumniated it in vain. 
 
 It is admitted that the Christian is called to give an ac- 
 count of his faith, and that one method of giving honor to 
 the Gospel, is to show that it is " a faithful saying, and wor- 
 thy of all acceptation." If so, must we not admit that the 
 Christian ought not absolutely to avoid meeting objections, 
 since to answer the objections of infidelity, is to give account 
 of our faith ? Those who present objections to a Christian, 
 should not be allowed to part with him with the unhappy idea 
 that he believes without proof, and that his faith is only a 
 stupid prejudice. My meaning is not that he should consider 
 himself bound to expose the weakness or falsehood of every 
 argument ; it is enough, if to the reasons on which their infi- 
 delity rests, he respectfully and meekly opposes the reasons 
 on which he grounds his faith. Of some more may be re- 
 quired than this, but of none less ; for the most ignorant, as 
 well as the most learned, have reasons for believing, reasons, 
 
118 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 if not similar in nature, perhaps equal in value to the rea- 
 sons of the learned. 
 
 Let us halt here, brethren. The case which we have 
 just supposed, that of the unlearned Christian encountering 
 the learned infidel or heretic, deserves our best attention ; not 
 only because in the world, and consequently amon^ Chris- 
 tians, the ignorant are more numerous than the learned, but 
 also because what we have to say as to the ignorant, is of in- 
 terest for all Christians. I have said ignorant. Do I mean 
 those who know absolutely nothing ? If this ignorance, im- 
 plying complete stupidity, could exist among intelligent be- 
 ings ; if there were intelligent beings who know nothing, and 
 could learn nothing, it is too clear that they would have no- 
 thing to say, and that consequently we could have no direction 
 to give them in regard to their conduct towards unbelievers.. 
 Under the name of ignorant, therefore, we must understand, 
 in general, those who on any one subject, or on several sub- 
 jects, are less knowing than others. It is necessary also, in 
 order to embrace all the cases under the same head, to in- 
 clude among the ignorant, the simple ; that is, not those who 
 have absolutely no intellect, but have it in an inferior degree. 
 In this way any man, however learned, is ignorant in respect 
 of some other, and however able, is simple in respect of one 
 who is abler. The ablest or most learned in one matter, be- 
 comes simple or ignorant in another, so that he who was for- 
 merly inferior, becomes superior. Supreme rank in know- 
 ledge, or intellect, is probably not possessed by any individual, 
 at least no one has a universal and absolute superiority over 
 the rest of mankind. Even if such a mortal prodigy existed, 
 he would be ignorant and simple in comparison with angels, 
 at all events in comparison with God, before whom all wis- 
 dom and knowledge vanish away. 
 
 What is the result of all we have said ? Nothing else, 
 or at least nothing more clearly than this : That if the cer- 
 
THE PRECAUTIONS OF FAITH. 119 
 
 tainty of faith, the privilege of being a Christian, depended on 
 knowledge and intellect; if one could not be a Christian 
 without being able to answer all the objections which science 
 may suggest, or intellect put into shape, the number of Chris- 
 tians would be infinitely small, or strictly speaking, there 
 would be neither Christians nor Christianity. For after you 
 have solved all the objections which are presented, how do 
 you know that there may not be others more specious, of 
 which you have never heard, and which you are not in a 
 state to answer ? And though you should know, and have 
 refuted all which have arisen in your time, is this enough ? 
 Would it not be necessary to have refuted all which will yet 
 arise ; and you know that they will arise to the end of time. 
 Might it not be said, at a later period, that it was fortunate 
 for you, that you had lived before these objections, since you 
 could not have disposed of them so easily, as you disposed of 
 those of your own time ? You feel surprised at my language ; 
 but you feel little surprise when you hear it said of your fore- 
 fathers, or of the early Christians, that they believed at a cheap 
 rate, and that they would have believed less easily, or would 
 even have been infidels, in a critical and inquisitive age like 
 ours. And if this is said of your forefathers, may not pos- 
 terity say it of you ? When then on this view will it be per- 
 mitted to believe ? Will it be when there are no more ob- 
 jections, no more opponents ? when the last Christian gets the 
 last word in discussing with the last infidel 1 This in truth 
 is the utmost that can be said ; for it may always be supposed 
 that were a new infidel to appear, he might propose some 
 difficulty which had never been considered before. 
 
 But without pushing matters to this extreme, let us confine 
 ourselves, brethren, to actual facts, and to what is passing 
 under our eye. It is certain that if to be a Christian it is 
 necessary to be able to answer every objection, there are 
 few, very few Christians. In the case supposed, there would 
 
120 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 not be many, even though all Christians were to become 
 profoundly learned, for nothing hinders infidels from acquir- 
 ing the same advantages ; and hence on any given subject, 
 the learned Christian might find his master. And how- 
 would you make all Christians profoundly learned ? How 
 would you give all of them the faculties, the leisure, the ne- 
 cessary dispositions ? The supposition is absurd. You may, I 
 love to think it, you may place within the reach of the great 
 majority the proofs, the simple and luminous proofs of the 
 truth of Christianity, so that each may for himself possess the 
 title-deeds of the great family of which his profession makes 
 him a member. But this is not the thing required ; it is to 
 be able to elude the snare of a subtle argument, or to be able 
 on sufficient grounds to deny a fact which is affirmed, or 
 affirm a fact which is denied. When will you be able to 
 bring the simple and ignorant, the great majority, such a 
 length as this ? 
 
 I know not the counsels of God, but I doubt whether it 
 be one of the purposes of his wisdom, altogether to stop the 
 mouth of Infidelity, and make his religion in all its parts 
 evident, like a truth in arithmetic ; thus leaving nothing for 
 good inclination, seriousness, and meditation to do in em- 
 bracing the truth, in the search of which all the powers of 
 the mind have to our day been so usefully exercised. 
 
 Suppose, however, brethren, that this miracle were per- 
 formed, and that by the natural course of things, and the 
 progress of human knowledge, infidelity was struck dumb in 
 presence of Jesus Christ, one thing is certain : it is not yet 
 dumb, nor was it dumb in the days of our fathers, and there- 
 fore it might always be said of us, and of them, that we 
 believed by anticipation, and on insufficient grounds, in- 
 asmuch as the difficulties were not then exhausted, and 
 infidelity had not by silence confessed its defeat. Once more 
 then, if St. Paul's exhortation, when he says to us '' Take 
 
THE PRECAUTIONS OF FAITH. 121 
 
 heed." means that we ought always to hold ourselves ready to 
 give a peremptory answer to all objections, no Christian is enti- 
 tled to the name, and Christianity itself cannot be said to exist. 
 
 Neither good sense, nor the conviction we have of the 
 wisdom of God will allow us to suppose that our faith, after 
 being founded on proofs which have satisfied our reason, 
 must ever be kept in suspense, or incessantly brought into 
 question by the sophistry with which infidelity may, to the 
 end of time, be pleased to assail it. Though such objections 
 should be raised in regard to matters into which our mind 
 has not penetrated, and a science to which we are strangers ; 
 though, while capable of saying in general why we believe, 
 we are not capable of solving every unexpected difficulty 
 which may be presented, it follows not that we must defer 
 our faith and our hope. What ! are we to be always disputing 
 and never acting ? eternally building our house, and never 
 inhabiting it ? It is absolutely necessary either that we be 
 able to believe although not able to solve all objections, or 
 that God give to his Revelation an instantaneous, overwhelm- 
 ing evidence. In this case faith might be said to be destroyed 
 by its apparent triumph. It would be no longer faith, but 
 sight ; and all that generous activity which terminates in 
 belief, or which developes itself in the train of faith, would be 
 absolutely suppressed. The Christian would know, he would 
 not believe. If so, would he still be a Christian ? 
 
 We are not then obliged, as Christians, and in order to 
 be Christians, to refute all the objections which tradition or 
 philosophy may be pleased to urge. At this rate we should 
 never be Christians ; for infidelity will never exhaust her 
 store of specious arguments and plausible assertions. The 
 old mines are exhausted, but other veins will be discovered. 
 In search of poison, it will dig down to hell. It is not 
 desirable that it should be otherwise. Science, in its endless 
 evolutions, alternately brings to light and dispels difficulties 
 7 
 
122 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 which the iinnest believers cannot but observe, and which 
 they are sometimes the first to discover. 
 
 And now, brethren, be pleased to observe that, in this 
 discussion, we have not availed ourselves of all our ad- 
 vantages ; we have set before you infidelity, properly so 
 called, and not heresy. From age to age, infidelity has 
 found its master ; and, perhaps, were she to take account of 
 the battles which she has lost, or were she to consider the 
 fact that a religion which has been more contested than ever 
 any other religion was, is still standing erect, full of life and 
 full of hope, she would consider it her best course to keep 
 silence. If she is not silent, it is because she cannot be ; 
 and we may expect that she will continue speaking to the 
 end of the world. Be this as it may, it is certain that the 
 infidelity which denies religion is a far less powerful opponent 
 than the heresy which corrupts it. We need not tell you 
 that, in the latter case, the adversaries are far more numer- 
 ous, since they include not only the adherents of pure 
 Christian doctrine, but several of the enemies of this purity, 
 the followers of heresy ; but we will tell you that there 
 has always been more success against the arguments of 
 infidelity than against the subtleties of heresy ; that it has 
 always been easier to defend the truth of the Christian re- 
 ligion thken as a whole, than to defend the individual truths 
 of which it is composed. Heresy is more specious in its 
 language, and more tempting in its delusions than infidelity ; 
 one of its worst deceptions is, that it is not infidelity. In- 
 fidelity, however, it is, though in another manner and on a 
 different ground ; infidelity in the livery of faith, under the 
 semblance, and it may be with the reality of love and zeal, 
 since heresy has often been seen as eager in defending 
 Christianity as it was busy in corrupting, or, as we have 
 said, disparaging it. Yes, heresy is infidelity. The apostles 
 have never hesitated nor varied on this subject ; and it is 
 
THE PRECAUTIOr^S OF FAITH. 123 
 
 doubtless not to infidels properly so called, but to audacious 
 heretics, that it is necessary to apply the words of St. John, 
 " They went out from us, but they were not of us ; for if 
 they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued 
 with us." 1 John ii. 19. But heresy does not thus present 
 itself. It raises, often sincerely raises, the standard of Jesus 
 Christ ; and, perhaps, appears all the more Christian that it 
 believes itself to be so ; and announces no other intention 
 than to purify and simplify traditional dogmatism, or to dis- 
 cover in the words of Scripture a more intimate and exquisite 
 meaning than the vulgar are wont to find in it. That alone, 
 brethren, gives it a great advantage ; but a still greater is, 
 that the matter of which it treats is more delicate, and less 
 palpable, that the facts which it brings under discussion are 
 less material, and less precise. Here deceptive appearances 
 are multiplied, and imposture becomes more easy ; and here, 
 consequently, in order not to be dazzled, a keener perception 
 a more intimate knowledge of religion is required, a spiritual 
 tact not often met with, and above all, a single eye which 
 sees objects as they are, not in consequence of superior pene- 
 tration, but superior candor. Herein lies the great advan- 
 tage which our fickleness, or our want of simplicity, or the 
 secret connivance of our heart gives to heresy. This it is 
 which makes it so difficult to untie the knots which she 
 weaves, and will enable her to the end of the world to perplex 
 a commencing faith ; so that should the time come when in- 
 fidelity, confounded or destroyed, shall no longer lift her 
 voice, this other infidelity which we call heresy will still be 
 heard, and be able to find in philosophy or in tradition spe- 
 cious arguments and embarrassing objections. 
 
 And, brethren, if we cannot prevent objections from 
 being raised, no more can we prevent them from causing 
 embarrassment ; we can neither anticipate nor limit their 
 influence upon the mind of any particular believer. How 
 
124 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 Strong however his conviction, we cannot answer for his not 
 being shaken ; we cannot be sure that by repetition and 
 combination with each other, and by forming a secret 
 alliance with the interests of the natural man, they will not 
 obscure the clearness of his views, or weaken his hopes. 
 Then, in the same individual a confused intellect may be 
 united with a well-disposed heart, a tendency to doubt with 
 great moral integrity ; in fine, there may be too little infor- 
 mation to avoid being perplexed, and, as it were, confounded 
 by a specious display of erudition. In such a case, on what 
 will the result depend ? On the nature of the encounter. 
 Ah ! all this makes it desirable that faith have some addi- 
 tional foundation ; that it be founded, as the Apostle says to 
 the Corinthians, not on the wisdom of man but on the power 
 of God. The thing thus desired has been granted. God has 
 granted it by anticipation. We are bold to say it was im- 
 possible that God should not grant it. 
 
 God evidently intended that his religion, which is a his- 
 tory, should have proofs like those of any other history. To 
 overlook this design would imply that we had not opened the 
 Bible, and to despise it would be to despise God himself. 
 Accordingly we do not despise it. We bless God for having 
 given this support to our faith, and fed each of us with 
 children's meat before giving us strong food. We say of 
 this proof what St. Paul said of the word of the prophets, 
 that it is sure ; that the study of the proof has contributed 
 much to the spread and preservation of Christianity in the 
 world, and led many souls to the portal of their heavenly 
 Father's house. Our wish is that these proofs, unjustly 
 despised by some, and rashly neglected by others, should 
 be studied ; we even desire that they should be reduced 
 to their elementary principles, and placed within general 
 reach. But after all, brethren, three things remain cer- 
 tain. First, these proofs have not silenced, and for a long 
 
THE PRECAUTIONS OF FAITH. 125 
 
 time to come will not silence infidelity, which still finds, as 
 it did in the time of St. Paul, specious arguments to assail 
 our faith. A second thing equally certain is, that after we 
 have acquiesced in the proofs, a more important work 
 remains — to identify ourselves in spirit with the truths which 
 we have received by the intellect ; and this is faith properly so 
 called. The third is, that very happily, in the case of many 
 persons, this last work not only completes the first, but suffices 
 by itself alone, and renders all other proof unnecessary. 
 
 Be not surprised, brethren ; this work is -the principal, 
 the other is only preliminary. 
 
 Yes, dear brethren ; the truth has proofs in itself; and 
 when we furnish ourselves with external proofs in support 
 of this truth, it is to all intents as if we were li^htins: a 
 candle to see the sun. There are such proofs, however ; 
 and since there are, it cannot be doubted that they were 
 necessary. In compassion to our weakness, God has placed 
 at our disposal that body of historical proof, which, in its 
 combination and details, deserves our admiration as much 
 as the most exquisite arrangements of the organic world. 
 These proofs lead as far as the door of the sanctuary, leaving 
 it to us thereafter to remain outside or to enter. We may re- 
 main upon the threshold, and remain for ever, holding in our 
 hand the title-deeds which give us right of entrance ; but if a 
 last step, (and this decisive step is a thousand-fold better than 
 all the journey we have previously made,) if a last impulse 
 which is divine makes us enter, (I mean, brethren, if we 
 place ourselves in personal and intimate relation with the 
 truth which has just been certified to us,) then we believe 
 with a new faith and on new evidence ; then, to express 
 it more properly, we believe truly, and, in so far as 
 concerns ourselves, have no more need of the external 
 proofs which prepared our faith, as we feel no more anxiety 
 in regard to the external difficulties by which an attempt 
 
126 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 might be made to shake it. Our faith had, till then, been 
 founded in some measure on the wisdom of men : for though 
 God himself had prepared the elements on which we rea- 
 soned, the demonstration resulting from it did not differ from 
 any demonstration by which we assure ourselves of an ordi- 
 nary fact. Our faith was then founded on the wisdom of 
 man, but now it is founded on the power of God. 
 
 God so willed it, brethren, and Jesus Christ expressly 
 enjoined it. It is true, he has not excluded external demon- 
 stration, or that furnished by outward facts which surround 
 the object of faith, but are not themselves that object, but 
 still he has assigned the first place to the internal proof with 
 which we ought to begin ; and with which, at least, it is ab- 
 solutely necessary to end. " Believe my words," said he to 
 the Jews, " or if not," (if you cannot believe with that faith 
 which attaches itself without the aid of external proof to the 
 very object of faith), '' if not, believe me for the works' 
 sake." Truth, then, according to Jesus Christ, is entitled 
 to be believed on its own account, and is itself the light by 
 which we see all other things. Must there still be means 
 employed to see the light ? This procedure, however, is not 
 enjoined on all men alike, although, in strictness, it might 
 be. But we become really Christian only in so far as we at 
 least end where we ought to have begun. In regard to each 
 individual, the moment must arrive when faith will no longer 
 be founded on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God, 
 and when it will separate itself without regret from the ar- 
 guments with which it was at first contented ; just as a con- 
 queror who, assured of his conquest, fearlessly sends away 
 the ships which had brought him to the port the moment he 
 has disembarked. 
 
 This faith the apostle characterizes by saying that it is 
 founded on the power of God ; because, in fact, it is not by 
 any ordinary means of which we can give account, but by 
 
THE PRECAUTIONS OF FAITH. 127 
 
 the power of God that this evidence is made complete. 
 Truth comes to us quite alone ; it does not adduce any for- 
 eign testimony, it appeals to no authority but its own ; it 
 shows itself, and we believe in it as we believe in the light 
 of the sun, as we believe in ourselves. Here, however, 
 there is nothing mystical or inconceivable in the principle ; 
 the fact is at once supernatural and natural. Truth must 
 produce this impression upon a heart which naturally loves 
 it ; and which, on its being presented, does nothing more 
 than recognize it. It must appear to it with an evidence of 
 which no idea can be formed by him who, though it also 
 presents itself to him, has no eyes to behold it. Here it is 
 with truth as with those halves of souls which, according to 
 the idea of an ancient sage, seek their other halves in life, 
 recognize each other before they have well met, and, when 
 recognized, at once unite so closely that they cannot after- 
 wards be distinguished from each other. Truth, indeed, may 
 not have produced this effect all at once even upon the best 
 disposed ; but, when by the gradual union of the heart with 
 truth, the old man with his lusts has been put off, when we 
 are born again ; when we have been clothed with another 
 nature, and with affections of another order ; when we feel 
 drawn towards things invisible as instinctively as we for- 
 merly were towards things visible ; when we repent, obey, 
 love, and feel the tie which attaches us to goodness drawn 
 closer and closer every day ; in one word, when we feel the 
 contradictions of nature reconciled, all its enigmas solved, 
 all its discrepancies explained, when the truth is miracu- 
 lously re-established in the soul, how can we avoid appealing 
 to the truth which has produced this miraculous result 1 how 
 question the reality of the relations which have been formed ? 
 how doubt the existence of what we feel, or speak evil of 
 what we love ? 
 
 A belief thus formed, is never lost, can no more be lost 
 
128 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 than an animated being can lose its instincts ; for this belief 
 has become one of the instincts of the soul. 
 
 Brethren, if all those who sincerely profess the mystery 
 of the fulness of Christ believed in this internal and living 
 faith, this faith which, so to speak, is changed into sight, and 
 of which we have endeavored to give an idea, it would be 
 unnecessary (at least in so far as they are concerned) to 
 warn them against the wiles of philosophy and tradition, and 
 to cry to them with St. Paul, " Take heed !" But this faith 
 to which it is necessary to aspire, is not, at the outset, the 
 portion of all believers. There are many to whom the staff 
 of external proof will long be necessary, and for whom this 
 staff must as far as possible be preserved ; there are even 
 few who have tasted the heavenly gift, and the powers of a 
 world to come, to such a degree as to be beyond the reach 
 of the arrows of infidelity. Do those of sin never reach 
 them ? There were doubtless, if proportion is considered, 
 as many living Christians in the Church of Colosse as in 
 ours, and yet it is to this Church, and all its members with- 
 out exception, that St. Paul cries in our text, " Take heed 
 that no one lead you into bondage, by a philosophy full of 
 deceit, and by the tradition of men." What St. Paul wrote 
 to the Colossians, may not we, brethren, say to you ? 
 
 We say then to all, " Take heed." And this means 
 first : Place yourselves above the necessity, and far above 
 the peril of combat, by acquiring this precious faith of which 
 we have just been discoursing, or, which comes to the same 
 thing, by " holding the mystery of the faith with a pure con- 
 science." I Tim. iii. 9. For this faith is acquired, and 
 is acquired by the act of the will. We do not order our- 
 selves to believe ; no, but we order ourselves to do the works 
 of faith ; or rather the faith which we already have, orders 
 us to do works. Do then these works ; not only external, 
 but internal works ; not only works which have other per- 
 
THE PRECAUTIONS OF FAITH. 129 
 
 sons for their objects, but works of mortification, self-denial, 
 vigilance, spiritual discipline, works of which you are your- 
 selves the subjects. Do the works of the faith which you 
 have ; do, if I dare say so, the works of the faith which you 
 have not. You have not yet, perhaps, that deep-seated faith 
 which is the union of the whole being with the truth ; you 
 have perhaps only that preliminary faith which has its point 
 of support without your soul. No matter ; as to the object, 
 (I mean as to what you believe, if not as to the manner in 
 which you believe,) it is one same faith. In the one case as 
 in the other, you believe that God is a jealous God, you be- 
 lieve that God loved you with an everlasting love, you be- 
 lieve that his Son came upon the earth to seek and to save 
 that which was lost, and consequently to seek you ; you be- 
 lieve that this loving friend continually intercedes for you 
 with the Father. This is enough; your duty is assigned, 
 your course is traced, enter on it and proceed. If belief is 
 necessary to action, it is equally true that action is necessary 
 to belief. An incessant faith produces action, and action 
 produces a better faith. The secret of the Lord is with 
 them that fear him, and those, says Jesus Christ, who will 
 do the will of my Father, will know (those who know already 
 will always know better) whether my doctine be of God, or 
 whether I speak of myself. It is the virtue of the Christian 
 life to rivet and seal Christian faith in the depth of the soul. 
 Truth becomes clearer and dearer the more sacrifices we 
 make to it. What we do for it renders it more proper to us, 
 unites it more and more closely to our soul. We prove this 
 by experience in proportion as we apply it to our life, be- 
 cause a life of obedience, holiness, and love, is a life of order 
 and truth ; and we cannot call that faith deceptive in which 
 we see all the fruits of truth budding as upon their proper 
 stem. It is very difficult for error to shake a faith which 
 already has so many monuments in our life, and to which 
 7* 
 
130 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 graces, unequivocal graces, are evidently annexed. The 
 certainty which results from such experience, must be above 
 all assaults. Give this answer, then, brethren, to the warn- 
 ing voice of the apostle ; hold the mystery of the faith in a 
 pure conscience, from which neither philosophy nor tradition 
 will ever more be able to dissever it. 
 
 We attach still another meaning to the expression, " Take 
 heed," by applying it to a great part of believers. It be- 
 longs not to all to hazard or seek such rencounters. No doubt 
 each must know in whom, and why he believes, and we have 
 been pointing out the best manner of knowing it. Each 
 must be ready to give the reasons of his faith, whether they 
 be comprehended or not ; and without doubt, if these reasons 
 are experimental and deep-seated, it cannot be pretended 
 that the natural man comprehends them, for they are spir- 
 itual. But it belongs not to every one to engage in all kinds 
 of discussion. Unless it be pretended that each is bound to 
 be ignorant of nothing, it must be admitted that it is not the 
 duty of each to accept every challenge. A Christian may 
 say, that with more knowledge than it has been permitted 
 him to acquire, an objection which seems to him embarrass- 
 ing, might appear very frivolous. He may say, I will be 
 annoyed perhaps by an objection which at bottom is nothing, 
 at which an abler man would laugh, and which an infidel 
 would take good care not to urge in presence of one better 
 informed. Is it reasonable that I should allow myself to be 
 overcome by a phantom, and that I should stake my peace, 
 my strength, mj spiritual life, against an adversary who 
 risks nothing with me, and who plays a winning game ? No 
 brethren, no ; but I hasten to add, that there ought here to 
 be neither cowardice nor sloth. If we refuse one combat, it 
 must be to accept another. He who turns about in presence 
 of one enemy, must show front to another. He must justify 
 to himself this apparent want of courage. He must put 
 
THE PRECAUTIONS OF FAITH. 131 
 
 himself in a condition to oppose internal evidence to external 
 objections. When he wants words, his life must become a 
 refutation of heresy, so that heresy seeing his actions may 
 begin to feel doubtful of itself, and to ask whether Jesus 
 Christ, from whom this man evidently receives grace upon 
 grace, does not really possess the glorious fulness which it 
 has hitherto refused to admit. 
 
 But, in fine, whether or not you have a calling to discuss 
 objections which tend to disparage Jesus Christ, they have 
 reached you, and you have been forced to hear them. You 
 have comprehended them, you have judged them worthy of 
 examination, you feel yourselves capable of this examina- 
 tion, you feel obliged to make it, perhaps, for yourselves and 
 for your brethren. So far well ; but at this critical moment, 
 examine yourselves. On meeting with an objection which 
 tends to disparage Jesus Christ, and with him Christianity, 
 examine whether it makes your heart tremble with alarm, 
 or beat with sympathy. See whether there is not something 
 in you which is secretly in intelligence with the enemy, and 
 makes you wish that Jesus Christ be lowered ; for the lower- 
 ing of Jesus Christ is that of your obligations, your sacrifices, 
 your religion. I do not say that even on discovering in 
 yourself such secret connivance, you ought to refuse the 
 combat which is offered, or decline the examination which is 
 proposed. No; but in every case it is necessary that you 
 know yourself. 
 
 It is necessary at the moment of rencounter to put your 
 heart in safety. It is necessary to reserve in your inner man 
 certain principles which no discussion is permitted to en- 
 croach upon, or even bring into question. Be the case with 
 all the rest and be the result of this discussion what it may, 
 it remains irrevocably fixed in your conscience — God is God, 
 I must live for him, love him above all, do his will, nothing 
 but his will, his whole will. You have arrived at these con- 
 
132 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 victions, I admit, by the very path by which it is pretended 
 that you ought not to pass ; these convictions have taken 
 root in the very mystery which they are obliging you to 
 discuss. But this is nothing at all to the purpose ; they are 
 true in themselves, they are henceforth evident to you ; the 
 lessening or the destruction of the mystery of your faith 
 would doubtless do them a mortal injury, by uprooting them 
 from your heart, though they cannot be uprooted from your 
 mind. After all and in spite. of all, they are truths. You 
 know this. Well, you say to yourselves : Before as after 
 discussion this is true, this is necessary ; all that contradicts 
 it, all that weakens it, is necessarily false ; I will admit 
 nothing at variance with these immutable truths; if I cannot 
 make them a touchstone to recognize truth, they will be a 
 touchstone to discern error. And as it is still true that God 
 is the natural protector of all truth, this adds to all your con- 
 victions one conviction more, and it is that you may pray with 
 confidence, and even ought to pray that he would maintain 
 the belief of these truths in your heart. Well, if by his pro- 
 tection this faith is put beyond danger, we say to you as was 
 said to the knights in the tournaments of the middle ages, 
 On ! gallant combatants ! We feel at ease. This faith will 
 be the guardian of the other. 
 
 Take heed, nevertheless, the apostle continues to say ; 
 the ground is covered with snares. It is necessary to know 
 them and see them. If you had to do only with infidelity, 
 its name would warn you, and perhaps a strong feeling of 
 duty would be necessary to make you risk the encounter. 
 It insults or at least denies your creed, and however 
 little your faith may be, you feel a stronger repugnance on 
 its approach. But heresy does not insult, does not deny, or 
 at least if it denies, it is while affirming. It honors religion, 
 it only wishes to perfect it, or rather it wishes to bring it 
 back to its primitive purity. It is a respectful infidelity. 
 
THE PRECAUTIONS OF FAITH. 133 
 
 Let this homage not deceive you. Be not so simple as allow 
 yourself to feel secure. Charitable to the intentions which 
 must always be supposed good, and which are so oftener than 
 is supposed, show no favor to error itself, and look to its acts, 
 not its professions. Above all, do not allow yourself to be 
 led away by any self-evident truth, which may appear 
 amidst errors which tend to diminish the fulness of Christ, 
 or the fulness of his grace, or the fulness of his wisdom. If 
 because of this p artial truth you admit the error, you will 
 admit all errors ; for they all have truth, and indeed are only 
 truths misplaced. Do not therefore consider merely whether 
 there is truth in the opinion which is proposed to you. There 
 is truth necessarily, truth always, but the question is, 
 whether some other truth which ought to be the complement, 
 or counterpart of that which you perceive, has not been sup- 
 pressed. Ask your opponent what he makes of that truth in 
 the system which he proposes ; insist upon his giving it a 
 place, and see what effect the restoration of this suppressed 
 truth will have, with reference to the mystery of Christ. 
 Hold fast this principle, this legitimate and incontestable 
 principle, and you will see many phantoms disappear. 
 
 We have not said all that might be said on this important 
 subject, and how can we ? But instead of saying too little, 
 we should have said too much, if the end of all these pre- 
 cautions, and if Paul's exhortation were indifferent to you, 
 and if, instead of addressing persons who believe in the ful- 
 ness of Jesus Christ, and who feel the fulness of this mystery, 
 we were speaking in presence of men who have not received 
 this truth, or who, having received it from mere complais- 
 ance, do not cling to it so much as to many less certain 
 truths, which relate to temporal or social order. We have 
 not supposed, and we do not suppose that this is your case. 
 Without being able to affirm that all in this assembly believe, 
 with a personal and living faith, in the mystery of which St. 
 
134 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 Paul here treats, we are entitled to presume that the greater 
 part would be sincerely alarmed at the idea of seeing Jesus 
 Christ destroyed or impaired. Even where a very clear 
 account is not given of the reasons of one's faith, there may 
 be something more than a faith of prejudice. We may 
 know, we may feel that Jesus Christ is the key to all the 
 enigmas which perplexed human nature, the only hope of a 
 troubled conscience, the only name not only by which we 
 can be saved, but by which this earthly existence has a 
 meaning, and is not a cruel mockery. Who amongst us, 
 though daily separating himself from Jesus Christ, would 
 wish to see Christ taken away ? Who amongst us has not, 
 according to the expression of the apostle in the text, in one 
 sense or other, received Jesus Christ ? received him with 
 more or less respect, treated him with more or less regard, 
 cultivated him with more or less assiduity, but at all events 
 received him ? Be this as it may, it is to those I speak, to 
 my companions in sin, misery, and exile, who out of Christ 
 see nothing which could accord with their destiny, or fill up 
 the immense void in their heart, or console them in all the 
 sorrow of their soul, and dissipate all its terrors ; to those 
 who, having met Jesus Christ and contemplated him, have 
 exclaimed, Certainly this is the. Desire of nations! Certainly 
 this is the way, the truth, and the life ! and who, after having 
 thus found Jesus Christ, if they happened to lose him would 
 no longer find any thing, no longer seek any thing but him, 
 being deeply and truly convinced that whosoever has not 
 embraced him by faith, remains without God and without 
 hope in the world : To those I speak, and I say to them : 
 Do you repent of having embraced Jesus Christ, or do you 
 congratulate yourselves on having met with him ? Are you 
 happy to know him ? Do you feel, at least, that it would 
 make you unhappy not to know him ? Well ! take heed 
 that he be not taken from you ; for however little you enjoy 
 
THE PRECAUTIONS OF FAITH. 135 
 
 the possession of him to-day, to-morrow you will be misera- 
 ble at the loss of him, and to allow him to be disparaged is, 
 (doubt it not,) to lose him. 
 
 After having received Jesus Christ, you wish doubtless 
 to walk in him ; after having believed, you wish not only to 
 continue to believe, but to believe more and more. Alas ! 
 that so many things should oppose each other in your heart, 
 that your unbelief should lie in so many directions, and 
 assume so many forms, and that the ordinary temptations of 
 life should make so many breaches in your faith ! Will it 
 still be possible for dexterous sophisms, for a few high-sound- 
 ing expressions, perhaps even devoid of meaning, to sport 
 with your convictions, and dissipate this treasure which it is 
 so difficult to guard ? The thing is only too easy, only too 
 probable. May this faith grow within you by the exercise 
 which you give it, and in tears and joy acquire that tri- 
 umphant brightness which puts all darkness to flight ! iVIay 
 you thus quickly gain the victory over that false philosophy 
 and human tradition, which you must sooner or later encoun- 
 ter ! But while waiting for the happy day which will shelter 
 you for ever, watch over this treasure which is still imper- 
 fectly secured; keep your heart, keep your mind. Employ 
 for your defence all the noble means which God allows you, 
 and commands you to use, those noble and loyal arms which 
 are carried, as St. Paul says, on the right hand and on the left, 
 but which in whatever hand carried, must, as he also says, 
 be, "the armor of righteousness." 2 Cor. vi. 7. Now 
 the combat in question is not one of those which may issue 
 in a dubious result, and allow both sides to claim the victory. 
 You will come forth vanquished or triumphant, weaker than 
 before or stronger ; if you come not off with a better, it will 
 be with a weaker faith ; if your faith is not lessened, it will 
 be improved. This must be the issue. You must be more than 
 ever rooted in Jesus Christ by faith ; if formerly you were 
 
136 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 poor, you must now be rich in faith ; if formerly you thanked 
 yourselves for believing, you must now joyfully give thanks 
 for it. " As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the 
 Lord, so walk ye in him ; rooted and built up in him, and 
 stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding 
 therein with thanksgiving." Col. ii. 6, 7. Such is the 
 exhortation of the apostle, and in a manner the sum of his 
 address, and such is the wish which we form for you and for 
 ourselves, entreating our heavenly Father to have pity on his 
 children, to guide them in this darksome world, and make 
 them walk among those rocks and briers as on a level path, 
 to the glory of his goodness. Amen. 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 
 
 " Why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, . . . 
 after the commandments and doctrines of men 1 Which things have 
 indeed a show of will-worship and humility, and neglecting of the 
 body ; not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh."— Col. ii. 20, 
 22, 23. 
 
 The law of the Gospel, my dear hearers, is a law of perfec- 
 tion. It is so by its very principle. For, in making the 
 object of our faith to consist in the personal and intimate 
 union of our nature with God, in the humiliation and volun- 
 tary death of , Him in whom, by whom, and for whom are 
 all things, in heaven and on earth, it demands our whole 
 heart and life for this God manifest in the flesh. God hav- 
 ing been made one with us, we ought to be one with him. 
 But acknowledging this, do we not acknowledge that we are 
 called to perfection ? It is true that the law of the Gospel is 
 a law of liberty ; it is true that before it the minute and 
 numberless precepts of the old law have disappeared like 
 shadows before the sun ; but this is merely because it is 
 perfect. All those particular precepts which seem to extend 
 the sphere of obedience really impose limits upon it, for this 
 
138 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 simple reason, that when a particular thing is commanded 
 another is forbidden. How numerous soever the precepts, 
 they are not innumerable ; however remote the limit, it lies 
 somewhere. This law may be oppressive without being 
 infinite. Well then, there is another law which is infinite 
 without being oppressive : it is the law of liberty ; in other 
 words, the law of love, which is the liberty of the soul. 
 Love receives, knows no limit. " The love of Jesus," says 
 Thomas A' Kempis, " always stimulates to what is most 
 perfect. He who loves, runs, flies. He is joyful and free, 
 and nothing stops him ; he gives all for all. Love often 
 knows no measure. Its fervor makes it boil over beyond all 
 measure. It never alleges impossibility, because it believes 
 all things possible and lawful."* 
 
 Hence, brethren, it is to those who have accepted the law 
 of the Gospel as a law of liberty or love that such language 
 as the following is addressed : " Be perfect." 2 Cor. xiii. 11. 
 "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in 
 heaven is perfect." Matt. v. 48. At least it is to them 
 only that these precepts have an obvious meaning ; it is to 
 them that the entire sacrifice of their persons appears simply 
 a reasonable service. Romans xii. 1. And as to those who 
 are not yet under the government of this holy liberty of love, 
 precepts like these warn while astonishing them. Just as 
 the former class proceeded from the principle to the conse- 
 quence — in other words, from perfect love in God to perfect 
 obedience in man — the latter, on encountering this precept, 
 are, as it were, forced to go back from the consequence to 
 the principle ; in other words, from perfect obedience in man 
 
 * Amor Jesu ad desideranda semper perfectiora excitat. Amor 
 liber est et non tiencetur. Dat omnia pro omnibus. Amor modum 
 saepe nescit, sed super omnem modum fervescit : de impossibilitate non 
 causatur, quia cuncta sibi posse et licere arbitratur. — Imit. iii. c. 5. 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 139 
 
 to perfect love in God. In taking account of the precept 
 they have been led to take account of the motive. They go 
 from the law to the lawgiver, from man to God ; and, if we 
 may so speak, from the cross of the Christian to the cross of 
 Jesus Christ. In one word, the law of perfection found in 
 the Gospel has made them again find this law within them- 
 selves. Whatever surprise it may have occasioned them, 
 they perceive that their conscience consents to it, and that 
 their best idea was then expressed by anticipation. They 
 feel that even independently of the Gospel they are called 
 to perfection ; that the commandment, according to the ex- 
 pression of St. John, is both old and new ; and that the new 
 law has done nothing more than re-engrave, by the help of 
 a divine chisel, a primitive and eternal law. 
 
 This law of perfection, which the Gospel calls also the 
 law of the Spirit, (because the Spirit tends naturally to per- 
 fection,) is opposed by the law of our members, or the law of 
 the flesh, which we might call the law of imperfection, be- 
 cause incapable of denying the law absolutely, it necessarily 
 contents itself with weakening it or changing its nature. 
 Practically, it goes further than to lower the view we take 
 of our duties and our destiny ; it furnishes arguments, it 
 teaches a system for the use of our unbelief; it traces ideal 
 limits where love sees none ; it distinguishes arbitrarily 
 between precepts and counsels. It marks out a point some- 
 times further off and at other times nearer — a point at which 
 it is indeed necessary -to arrive, but at which each is at 
 liberty to stop. It finds in Christian morality, with much 
 that is necessary, something that is superfluous. Perfection 
 it regards only as a specialty which is not binding without a 
 particular vocation, and which is cultivated rather from taste 
 than duty. It indeed does not condemn those who cultivate 
 it ; occasionally it admires them. Its language is, The 
 beautiful for them, the good for me. Now it is well known 
 
140 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 that the beautiful is only the ornament of the good, and that 
 no man is bound to be sublime. But its views are not 
 always so moderate, and it would only be necessary to 
 contradict it on this point, to insist upon the necessity of what 
 appears to it a work of supererogation, to force from it an 
 avowal that, according to its final conclusion and fundamen- 
 tal idea, every thing beyond the limits which it has traced is 
 mere fancy and chimera. 
 
 It is true that it would not be easy for it to show us the 
 place where the great river of Christian truth divides and 
 begins to run in two channels, the one with a flood which 
 continues flowing on toward the ocean of God, and the other 
 in a sluggish stream which becomes stagnant, and is lost in 
 the sand long before it reaches the place of its destination. 
 It would be very difficult to find two Christianities in Chris- 
 tianity, two distinct races in the spiritual posterity of the 
 second Adam, two degrees of obligation in an equal grace, 
 two Spirits in the same work. It would be difficult to make 
 out, contrary to the declaration of Christ himself, that some 
 may come after him without denying themselves and taking 
 up their cross ; that by some the kingdom of heaven must be 
 taken by force, while by others it may be gained without 
 striking a blow ; and that in regard to a certain number of 
 Christians the Gospel modifies the absolute terms in which it 
 declares that "he who saveth his life shall lose it." Accord- 
 ingly, brethren, without having given any proof of all this, 
 the law of the flesh tramples the Gospel itself under its feet, 
 and establishes a system which is alike unfounded and inde- 
 finite. Indefinite, for by supposing that obedience has limits, 
 we must, whether we will or not, hold that disobedience has 
 limits. We thus, by anticipation, grant every thing to the 
 flesh when we withhold any thing from the Spirit. 
 
 But the law of the flesh, (I believe, brethren, you are too 
 familiar with the language of the Gospel to be ignorant that 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 141 
 
 what it calls the flesh is the entire natural man, including 
 his intellect and moral powers), the law of the flesh has 
 raised up another opponent to the law of perfection. 
 
 Observe, that the object of the natural man is not to 
 escape in one way rather than another from the just autho- 
 rity of Godj the only object is to escape. When the prod- 
 igal son left his father after claiming his patrimony, he had 
 not perhaps any intention to waste his substance in dissipa- 
 tion, to which he may not even have been particularly 
 inclined. What determined him was his longing for inde- 
 pendence, his impatience of paternal restraint. Perhaps 
 when he gave himself up to excess his only motive was to 
 prove that he was free, and get a better taste of his liberty. 
 We too, all of us, wish to be free, but the liberty we wish 
 is not that of love. It is the desire of this false and improper 
 liberty that makes us quit our father's house. The giving 
 way to this desire was man's first sin, and it is a sin of 
 which all others are only different forms or different results. 
 But an astonishing circumstance, and one which shows how 
 deeply-rooted in our nature this propensity to separate our 
 will from that of God is, that often, after having embraced 
 the Gospel, and consequently offered ourselves to God as a 
 living and perpetual sacrifice, without reserving any thing 
 to ourselves, we secretly take back what we had given, and 
 resume possession of ourselves in the very sacrifice which 
 we make to him, and even by means of this sacrifice. Nor 
 is this all. Under pretence of giving a better sacrifice, of 
 separating ourselves more completely from ourselves, we, 
 while apparently exceeding the fervor of the most zealous, 
 and the submission of the most obedient, secure a successful 
 resistance to the absolute authority of God. This is the most 
 subtle and refined form of rebellion. Success would be less 
 certain if the thing were premeditated, or rather, it is a 
 thing which would never be undertaken if it was premedi- 
 
142 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 tated. We could not seriously propose to ourselves an act 
 of hypocrisy so detestable, perhaps painful ; we would not 
 take such a circuitous route to regain possession of our will. 
 There is no room for calculation here, the thing is-^n impos- 
 sibility. The moment we begin to calculate, we should cal-. 
 culate very differently. The most common would be pre- 
 ferred to this extraordinary way, and we would proceed to 
 do the thing at once by the course that was easy and simple. 
 No deception is more sure of success than that which begins 
 by deceiving the deceiver himself, no snare more infallible 
 than that in which he who sets it allows himself to be caught. 
 And this is the cause why the insubordination of the heart, 
 under the form of a more absolute and perfect submission, 
 proves so seductive, and has so many involuntary followers. 
 Those who furnish examples of it are, in some sort, sincere 
 in their imposture. Before deceiving others, they are them- 
 selves deceived. But by whom ? By their own heart. 
 Our heart is our first seducer : the heart, says the prophet, 
 is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who 
 can know it ? No one ; not even does each know his own. 
 And because our heart, given up to itself, is continually 
 deceiving us, it was necessary that God should give it a 
 monitor, a censor who is never deceived. This censor, this 
 monitor is his word. It was not enough that this word should 
 once for all open the eyes of the natural man, who is a kind 
 of savage that must be taught true dependence, and in this 
 dependence, true liberty. Even in man, when freed from 
 his wild nature, and disciplined by the Gospel, there is still 
 to be conquered a more interior and hidden principle of re- 
 volt ; there still remains to be extirpated a root of bitterness, 
 which, if we do not guard against it, will find a soil for itself, 
 and draw nourishment from the bosom of religion itself; there 
 remains an infidelity to be guarded against, an infidelity 
 which dares to charge fidelity itself with being unfaithful, 
 
' IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 143 
 
 and whose language and deportment bear the impress of an 
 extraordinary sanctity, which, if that were possible, " would 
 deceive the very elect." Matt. xxiv. 24. 
 
 The apostles were not slow in denouncing an enemy who 
 had busied himself in sowing pernicious tares in the bosom 
 of the Church, and the distinct instructions which St. Paul 
 has left us will serve at all times to detect, under his most 
 diversified disguises, this false friend of the Gospel, who, in 
 presenting us with the image of an elusory perfection, has 
 no other object than to make us despise, and consequently 
 neglect, the true perfection of the Christian life. 
 
 In doing this, brethren, St. Paul does not enter into 
 lengthened discussion. He seldom employs argument against 
 the partisans of this false perfection. He seldom does more 
 than intimate by what pretexts and false semblances this 
 subtle enemy of perfection will cover his pernicious design. 
 He warns us like St. John not to believe every spirit, not to 
 take up a new path on the credit of certain words which may 
 be used alike by truth and error. He reminds us that there 
 is a false obedience, a false humility, a false mortification as 
 well as a true. He tells us that imperfection may easily as- 
 sume the mask of a higher perfection, and that infidelity can 
 easily pass itself off for fidelity, and fidelity in its highest 
 form. He thus leads us to search in the Gospel, and in our 
 own consciences, for the characteristics of true faithfulness. 
 This which satisfies St. Paul, is sufficient for us : for, if he 
 does not tell us what these characteristics are, all that he 
 wi'ote and spoke, all that his colleagues and Jesus Christ 
 himself taught, the whole tenor and body of the Gospel, give 
 full and clear explanations of what is not told here, or is 
 only hinted at. 
 
 What are the seductive appearances in which error will 
 clothe itself in order to induce us to neglect true perfection, 
 and embrace in its place a phantom of perfection ? We 
 
144 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 have ihem here, and they are — The appearance of a volun- 
 tary worship, the appearance of humility, the appearance of 
 a holy contempt for the wants of the body. 
 
 The reality of each of these things is essential to Christi- 
 anity. Is it voluntary worship ? God declared from the 
 days of old, that he was preparing a people of ready mind, 
 and this people is none else than the Christian Church. Is 
 it humility ? Has not God said that he will teach his way 
 to the humble ? and has not Jesus Christ said, " Learn of 
 me, for I am meek and lowly in heart ?" Has not St. Paul 
 said, " Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low 
 estate ?" Is it mortification of the flesh ? It is written, 
 *' He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corrup- 
 tion." It is written, " Do not the will of the flesh to fulfil 
 the lusts thereof." St. Paul, joining example to precept, 
 acts so as to be able to say, " I keep my body under ;" and 
 before him Jesus Christ, to whom of right all the riches of 
 the earth belonged, denying himself what the Creator's liber- 
 ality has not denied to the foxes and fowls of the air, 
 had not where to lay his head. But you do not suppose, 
 brethren, that we are going to quote all the passages which 
 prove directly or indirectly that a willing mind, humbleness 
 of heart, and the suppression of carnal lusts, are essential to 
 the Christian. It would be necessary, in that case, to quote 
 the whole Gospel ; and to what purpose, since you are al- 
 ready convinced of this truth of which we only wished to 
 remind you in passing ? 
 
 Yes, doubtless, the obedience of the Christian is a volun- 
 tary obedience, since it is the obedience of love ; and in no 
 other way could it be so. Whether we love or not the obli- 
 gation is the same, we must obey ; if we love not, the obe- 
 dience is painful, because the law is not lovely to him in 
 whose eyes the lawgiver is not lovely. The choice is not 
 between obeying and not obeying, and St. Paul has well ex- 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 145 
 
 pressed it in speaking of himself: "For although I preach 
 the Gospel," (and the humble believer will say, although I 
 serve God) " 1 have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid 
 upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel !" 
 " For if I do this thing willingly I have a reward," (undoubt- 
 edly, the reward is already in his heart,) " but if against my 
 will, a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me." 
 1 Cor. ix. 16, 17. You see the choice is not between 
 obeying and not obeying, but obeying sincerely, unless in- 
 deed it be said (and we subscribe to it) that there is no true 
 obedience without love ; or, in other words, that obedience 
 is fulfilled only in love. But I entreat you, brethren, to re- 
 member that love fulfils obedience, and does not abolish it 
 any more than faith abolishes the law ; that he who loves 
 obeys joyfully, but still obeys ; that he obeys better than 
 before, but still obeys ; that if the good which he does has 
 become a pleasure to him, this good has not thereby ceased 
 to be a duty. Of this last fact he will be made too sensible 
 in the intermissions or faintings of his love ; for then he will 
 acknowledge, that the good which yesterday he did joyfully, 
 he must to-day do, though without joy. Nothing, no attain- 
 ments of the spiritual life, however sublime, can abolish 
 obedience ; and the spiritual life cannot be advancing when 
 obedience is on the decline. The proof of progress is better 
 obedience. The willing mind is a characteristic of the 
 Christian ; obedience is another ; they walk together and 
 run together, they grow with the same growth ; the willing 
 mind increases with obedience, and obedience with the wil- 
 ling mind ; for they have the same principle, and are only 
 two forms of the same life. 
 
 It is this intimate union, this entire oneness, so to speak, 
 of the willing mind and obedience that the prince of evil 
 would destroy. He tries to persuade us that the one ele- 
 ment excludes the other, or that, at least, they can only erj- 
 8 
 
146 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 feeble each other. Your mind, he seems to say, will be 
 willing only when you shall forget that you obey, or rather 
 when you shall lose the feeling of obedience. Strange idea ! 
 as if he who follows his chain willingly had no chain ; (ah ! 
 will he not feel it the moment he stops ?) as if love, which 
 is represented as the enemy of obedience, were any thing 
 else than a mediator, a means of reconciling obedience and 
 liberty ! But still, in i;)is way we are seduced. The prin- 
 ciple of obedience is taken from us in the name of love ; 
 and, under the pretext of teaching us to render God a ser- 
 vice more worthy of him, we are taught only to obey our- 
 selves. As well might we be told once more, " Ye will be 
 as gods." For, if we obey not, or if we only obey ourselves, 
 what are we ? It is at least certain that we are no longer 
 men ; and since angels obey, we are no longer, as Scripture 
 says, a little lower than the angels ; we are far superior to 
 them. After this it were vain to talk of service and wor- 
 ship ; there is no worship without obedience. Profusion of 
 acts, diversity of observances, largeness of sacrifices, are not 
 obedience ; we do not employ our will to obey ; we find 
 ourselves entire where all idea of ourselves ought to have 
 been lost ; we protest on our knees against our dependence, 
 and elevate ourselves thus high not to be nearer to our prin- 
 ciple, but to be beyond the reach of the law ; we do more 
 than the law asks in order to escape from what it asks. 
 Every thing is good, every thing easy to us compared with 
 obedience. 
 
 I know well, brethren, that with quite an opposite inten- 
 tion, with the view of yielding a better obedience, we may 
 impose upon ourselves imaginary duties, and allow them to 
 take the place, and occupy the time, belonging to more real 
 duties. But besides that such an error is not common, since 
 he who is eager to obey is not so easily misled, it is one of 
 those \o which God himself is indulgent. It is the stubble 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 147 
 
 or wood which the fire will consume, but without injuring 
 the foundation on which these ephemeral works have been 
 built. The vow of the sons of Rechab, who interdicted 
 themselves and their posterity from using wine, was not in 
 accordance with any precept, or even any principle of the 
 law of God. Perhaps the vow was injudicious ; perhaps 
 there was little wisdom in laying an obligation not only on 
 the living, but on posterity yet unborn. Yet the children of 
 Rechab were blessed, and the Almighty declared " Jonadab 
 the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me 
 for ever." Jer. xxxv. 19. The thing which the Lord 
 blessed on this occasion is one which he always blesses, and 
 without which nothing can be blessed — obedience. The 
 Rechabites thought that they were fulfilling a duty. The 
 Rechabites had obeyed. It seems as if God was unwilling 
 to look farther ; the principle of obedience is so precious, so 
 fundamental, so easily neglected, that God, when he meets 
 with it, does not inquire too strictly into the form in which it 
 has been realized. He does not quarrel captiously, if I dare 
 so speak, with regard to the garb of the principle, for in his 
 eyes, as in those of sound sense, " the body is more than 
 raiment ;" and as the abstinence which the Rechabites pre- 
 scribed to themselves had nothing bad in itself, he blesses it, 
 judging that obedience cannot be too much encouraged, nor 
 the scruples of obedience handled too tenderly. 
 
 But to do what God does not ask, and just because he 
 does not ask it, to enter a certain path because he has not 
 pointed to it, to go beyond his commandment in order to be, 
 if possible, no longer under his jurisdiction, to prescribe to 
 one's self difficult duties in order to have the pleasure of obey- 
 ing one's self; this will-worship, as St. Paul designates it, is 
 not the worship of God, but that of an idol. This idol is the 
 human self; which, broken in conscience by the cross of 
 Jesus Christ, persists, broken as it is, in raising itself, and 
 
148 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 rises the higlier the lower its fall. Perfidious suggestions of 
 the indestructible enemy ! how many souls have ye not carried 
 back to the world by the path of an extraordinary devotion 
 and refined piety ; led back to the world merely by your 
 having subjected them to the illegitimate empire of self ; 
 but led back to the world in all senses, be it ever remember, 
 ed, because it is impossible to place self again upon the 
 throne without suffering all the consequences of this unhappy 
 restoration ; because it is impossible for him who wishes to 
 do only his own will ever to do any other will than that ; 
 because it is impossible for the natural man, when renewed, 
 to content himself with the food with which a fantastical 
 and arbitrary devotion presents him ; because it is impossible 
 for the ordinary passions of the animal man to be vanquished 
 in a soul which is not submissive ; because, in fine, the in- 
 terests of a spirituality which may suffice for a soul united 
 to God by an obedience full of love, or by a love full of obe- 
 dience, cannot suffice for an " unregenerate soul, which in 
 these severe practices of devotion, and this assiduous service 
 of God, has really sought only itself. This soul, however it 
 may seem, has not come out from the world ; and perhaps 
 the only difference between it and souls confessed to be 
 worldly is, that though as near danger as any of them, it 
 thinks itself much farther off*. 
 
 To pass now to the second watchword of the partisans of 
 imaginary perfection — Humility. There is a true and there 
 is a false humility. By the latter we understand not hypo- 
 critical humility, or a voluntary disguise of pride, but a 
 humility which deceives itself in making a wrong choice of 
 its object. For though it is true that we cannot humble our- 
 selves too much, this does not hold true of every kind of 
 abasement ; and he who humbles himself, but not before 
 God, or in the name of God, humbles himself unseasonably. 
 I say more ; it is due to God himself, it is due to the princi- 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 149 
 
 pie which leads us to humble ourselves before him, not to 
 humble ourselves to any other. If every Christian is ready 
 to acknowledge himself the " chief of sinners;" if every 
 Christian, looking upon each of his brethren as more excel- 
 lent than himself, seeks the lowest place more willingly than 
 the first, no Christian will prostrate his dignity of man and 
 Christian before a title, a fortune, or a name. On the con- 
 trary, we may recognize the Christian by the modest noble- 
 ness of his mien and the meek freedom of his speech in pres- 
 ence of the noble and powerful of the world. He who is 
 intimidated by the show of grandeur, the lustre of human 
 glory, or even sjjperiority of talent and knowledge ; he who 
 sees in a man, without being able to say what, any thing 
 else than a man ; he who in presence of one of the favorites 
 of nature or fortune demeans himself by the demonstration 
 of a servile obsequiousness ; he, if he is a Christian, con- 
 ceals it very carefully ; or rather, to speak correctly, what 
 he conceals so carefully is nothing. You have no difficulty 
 in admitting this, brethren. But you are perhaps saying to 
 yourselves that this is not the question, for how could you 
 mistake the voluntary abasement of man before man for 
 religion, far less for the perfection of religion ? No, cer- 
 tainly ; but the principle which places a man at the feet of a 
 man may place him at the feet of an angel, a saint, a martyr, 
 or her whom " all ages will call blessed." By means of 
 an ill-advised humility, you may transfer to others that glory 
 which God has declared that he will not give to another. 
 Because some one among the children of men appears to 
 have been made more excellent than ourselves, and has, per- 
 haps, in fact been so, we place him, by our homage, by the 
 side of that jealous God beside whom none should be placed. 
 Is this a simple error ? Do we gain nothing (at least ac- 
 cording to the natural man) by thus humbling ourselves? 
 Are these pretended middlemen, whom we place between 
 
150 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 ourselves and God, a means of communicating or a means of 
 dispensing with him ? Is it for the sake of the Spirit or the 
 sake of the flesh that, not content with the only Mediator 
 who has been given us, we place between ourselves and him 
 other mediators, not only less powerful, (of this we are well 
 aware,) but also less holy ; who, if they do not represent to 
 us all grace, cannot represent the whole law, and in dispar- 
 aging Jesus Christ as a Saviour, disparage him as a Law- 
 giver and King ? But methinks, brethren, I hear you saying. 
 Go and tell this to our brethren of the Romish Church ; it 
 is not applicable to us, who, like yourself, look with pity on 
 all that mythology which they have ingrafted upon the Gos- 
 pel. Though it should apply directly only to them, it applies 
 indirectly to you as men ; for this error is a human error, 
 which your fathers shared, which you yourselves would 
 share if you had been born in the bosom of that church, and 
 which she has derived from the very source from which you 
 derive all your errors. But is it true that you are perfect 
 strangers to this false or mistaken humility ? We must allow 
 you to judge. 
 
 As we are speaking only of those who afTect a perfection 
 superior to that of which the Gospel has traced the image, and 
 not of those who seek pretences for falling short of this mo- 
 del, we have not to discourse to you of that perfidious and 
 fatal humility which leads some to refuse the grace of the 
 Gospel, because they say they are unworthy of it ; as if any 
 one could be worthy of a favor, and as if the very idea of 
 grace did not imply unworthiness ! We speak here, with 
 St. Paul, of those who wish to bid upon Christianity, and 
 who, as if Christianity did not humble them sufficiently, 
 look curiously around them for some other subject of con- 
 trition, or some other means of self-abasement. In truth, if 
 St. Paul was entitled to say to the Athenians that he found 
 them too superstitious, we might say of those persons that 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 151 
 
 they are too humble ; for the lowest degree of abasement 
 does not satisfy thom, and one might say that they seek a 
 place lower than the lowest. But do they know, or do they 
 not know, that beyond every thing there is nothing, and there 
 cannot be a void in a void, and that any thing beyond hu- 
 mility is not humility, but falsehood or meanness ? Without 
 insisting on the last epithet, let us fix on that of falsehood ; 
 and be it, if you will, falsehood altogether involuntary. If 
 it is humility to confess " that we are conceived and born in 
 sin, inclined to evil, incapable in ourselves of any good," is 
 it also humility to persuade ourselves that we are mere no- 
 thing before God, not only in works and feelings, but even 
 in nature; and that God absorbs us incessantly, just as we 
 at each inhalation absorb the air which surrounds us? If it 
 is humility as well as reason to acknowledge that God's 
 ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts, is it 
 also humility to interdict ourselves from judging of his dis- 
 pensations according to the ideas of goodness and justice 
 which he has placed within us, and thereafter, notwithstand- 
 ing, exhort one another to admire those very dispensations ; 
 as if we could admire them without applying some kind of 
 measure to them ? If it is humility to declare that we are 
 saved by grace, absolutely by grace, and that whatever 
 goodness is in us is implanted by God ; is it also humility to 
 look as with indifference on all that passes within us and on 
 all we do that we may be able, we say, to maintain the doc- 
 trine of free grace unimpaired ? If it is humility to depend 
 only on the strength of God, and acknowledge that " when 
 we are weak, then are we strong," is it also humility to in- 
 terdict ourselves from every voluntary act, to lose ourselves 
 in a passive and beatific contemplation, and to wait till God 
 impels us to do his will ; when it must be acknowledged that 
 the first impulse from God is that which urges to seek his 
 will? If it is humility to believe ourselves as blind as weak^ 
 
153 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 and to expect from God counsel as well as strength, is it also 
 humility to renounce the use of our reason, to ask for signs 
 in the heavens and on the earth, as if conscience were not 
 the first of signs ? Are we, in fine, to employ the word of 
 God, if I may so express it, as a kind of divination ? If it is 
 humility to acknowledge that this human intellect, which, 
 according to Scripture, is a divine lamp, penetrating to the 
 greatest depths, is at the same time, as regards salvation, 
 blind, and incapable of finding the true path ; is it also 
 humility to despise it where it is not to be despised, and, 
 under pretext of the abuses which have been made of them, 
 to neglect talents of which, like all others, we shall be re- 
 quired to give account ? If it is humility to acknowledge 
 that " that which is highly esteemed among men is abomina- 
 tion before God," if it is humility to acknowledge that in the 
 kingdom of God the first will be last, is it also humility to 
 confide without discernment to ignorant or feeble intellects, 
 only because they have faith, the most delicate spiritual 
 interests, and the government of the Church of Christ ? It 
 is by making us in all these things outrage humility that the 
 enemy, in order to lay waste our field, introduces into it a 
 thousand other enemies, and among them even pride. And 
 even pride ! Should we not say, and more especially pride ? 
 For no qualities harmonize more than false humility and 
 pride. Add spiritual indolence, sectarianism, and fanaticism, 
 and you will still have an incomplete list of the evils which 
 follow in the train of this dangerous illusion. 
 
 The absence of all indulgence towards the flesh is the 
 last of the traits which give to false perfection an appearance 
 of Avisdom. No pretext, it must be acknowledged, is more 
 specious. That instrument with which our soul was pro- 
 vided in order to manifest itself to others, and also to itself, 
 and in order to correspond with the sensible world, which is 
 at once the object and the theatre of its activity j this instru- 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 153 
 
 ment, I say, for the body is nothing else, has failed to fulfil 
 its purpose. And while in all other beings obedient and 
 docile matter reproduces exactly the idea of which it is the 
 form, the human body seems to have violated the stipulations 
 of the contract which associated it with the soul. It seems, 
 I say, for in itself it is neither docile nor indocile. The 
 soul, when it ceased to be united to the Father of spirits, 
 rushed down a declivity, at the top of which it previously 
 stood, God alone detaining it. It slid down, if we may so 
 speak, from the world of spirit to the world of matter ; from 
 the sphere of principles, or of reason, towards the sphere of 
 instinct ; the external sense becoming more active in propor- 
 tion as the perceptions of the internal sense (which may be 
 called the sense of divine things) became less frequent or 
 more confused. And no one, brethren, no one knows to 
 what degradations it would descend, did not divine pity, 
 alas! did not pride detain it in its descent. For it must not 
 be forgotten that the first sin was a sin of pride ; and pride, 
 inimical as it is to God, does not consent to every species of 
 abasement. On the contrary, it often produces a shuddering 
 abhorrence of abasement. In fine, however, the equilibrium 
 has been destroyed ; the body, our ancient servant, is now 
 only an enemy which conquers or is conquered, but it is still 
 an enemy. Or rather, the body has changed its master. 
 It always serves, but instead of serving the mind it serves 
 the flesh. Yes, the hody serves the fiesli^ for the flesh and 
 the body are not the same thing. They are often dis- 
 tinguished from each other in the Gospel ; they are so in our 
 text, in which St. Paul shows us the partisans of a fictitious 
 holiness, treating the hody with harshness for fear of flatter- 
 ing the Jlesh. The body or the members which we ought, 
 according to St. Paul's expression, to make the servants of 
 righteousness and holiness, (Rom. vi. 19,) are, under the 
 orders of the flesh or animal principle, the servants of im- 
 8* 
 
154 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 purity and unrighteousnes. The body, then, is a servant to 
 be restored to its true master, who is the Spirit ; but the true 
 enemy of the Spirit is the flesh ; and, accordingly, in the 
 Gospel it is not the body but the flesh which is condemned ; 
 for, as St. Paul says, it is with the flesh, not with the body, 
 that we serve the law of sin. Rom. vii. 25. Jesus Christ, 
 clothed mysteriously with this thoroughly and universally 
 tainted flesh, has condemned sin in the flesh, (Rom. viii. 3,) 
 although he had overcome it, although, as he himself has 
 said, the world had nothing in him. John xiv. 30. On the 
 cross he ratified the malediction of the flesh, by giving to de- 
 struction his pure and innocent body united to this same 
 flesh or animal principle, to which he never granted any 
 thing. It was because he represented the whole body of 
 mankind, whose flesh has been cursed, and who never could 
 have known, or have been willing to believe, that in order 
 to live to the Spirit it is necessary to die to the flesh, had not 
 Jesus Christ, as man, proclaimed the universal and irre- 
 vocable malediction of the flesh. 
 
 After this, all was clear. It was known that the flesh 
 must die ; on no other terms could a man be a Christian. It 
 was known that those who are Christ's have (both by antici- 
 pation and in principle) crucified the flesh, with its affections 
 and lusts, (Gal. v. 24,) and that they are bound to be always 
 sacrificing it anew. But a class of men arose, who, wishing 
 to be better Christians than Jesus Christ, extended to the body 
 what ought to be understood only of the flesh, and inferred 
 the destruction of the body from that of the flesh. Here, 
 brethren, mistake was easy. The flesh is united to the body, 
 and it is impossible, in certain cases, to assail the flesh with- 
 out wounding the body. They confounded them, and be- 
 cause Jesus Christ had condemned the flesh they condemned 
 the body. This mistake was not new, and is not even pecu- 
 liar to the Christian Church. It, on the contrary, belongs to 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 155 
 
 all times, and is universal. The voice of conscience and ex- 
 perience had denounced the flesh as a great enemy, but it 
 was not seen that behind it is a greater enemy, of whom ac- 
 count should be taken ; it was not seen that the soul was the 
 true culprit, and the body, the organism attached to the ser- 
 vice of the spirit, was unjustly accused of being the principle 
 and author of the evil. Many sects declared inveterate war 
 against it, and saw no remedy for the great evil which they 
 were forced to confess, except in a suicide more or less pro- 
 longed. Christianity, although it has been assailed by this 
 error, is far from sanctioning it ; if you compare it with 
 other religions you will find that it has restored the body to 
 its proper place. Christianity has never represented the 
 body as a tyrannical and troublesome appendage to the mind, 
 but as an essential part of man. Christianity has honored 
 the body by inviting it to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. 
 Christianity has honored our members by destining them, as 
 I have already observed, to be instruments, and, so to speak, 
 weapons of righteousness and holiness. Christianity, in fine, 
 admits the glorified body to share in the destiny of the glori- 
 fied spirit, and therefore cannot have declared war against it. 
 What it has done is this : it has condemned the flesh as a 
 principle of sin ; but not being able to separate the flesh from 
 the body, these being both two and one, it behooved to consent 
 that the body should in certain cases suffer what the flesh 
 suffered. The sword of the executioner, in beheading the 
 martyrs, condemned sin in their flesh, but at the same time 
 destroyed their body. The zeal of faith, another sword, an- 
 other flame, prematurely in the Apostle's case, wears out the 
 bodily strength which a more moderate activity and longer 
 intervals of repose might have maintained some years longer. 
 But in these cases the destruction of the body is not sought 
 on its own account, is not the end in view, and truly never is 
 the aim of the Christian. He preserves his body to employ 
 
156 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 it, and how often even does he preserve it by employing it ! 
 If the Christian spares it not, it is because God so wills ; if 
 he in general treats it rigorously, if he keeps it in subjection, 
 it is because in this body there is a sinful flesh, which it is 
 necessary to treat harshly and keep under ; but he does not 
 go beyond this, for it is not permitted him to destroy the 
 temple of the Holy Spirit ; and the harshness, or rather se- 
 verity, more or less strict, with which he treats his body, 
 never, except in the extraordinary cases of which we have 
 spoken, goes so far as to destroy, or even weaken the bodily 
 strength, of which, as of other gifts, he must give account. 
 As the result of the whole, we conclude that worldlings de- 
 stroy their bodies, and Christians preserve them. 
 
 This is a distinction which those whose error is reproved 
 by our text, do not know or will not make. And it is true 
 that if they wished to go beyond the spirit of evangelical 
 mortification, they had no other method. In confining them- 
 selves to the exact terms of the evangelical principle, which 
 was the mortification of the flesh, and not the destruction of 
 the body, it was impossible for them to go further than the 
 Gospel in the applying it. They could have said nothing 
 which it had not said, and practised nothing which it at least 
 had not suggested. If, according to the Gospel, the Chris- 
 tian is called to nothing less than to crucify tlie flesh, what 
 more would these Christians have ? We cannot conceive it. 
 But, on quitting those limits, they have an open field before 
 them. There is neither end nor truce to bodily and mental 
 suffering. We may, according to the degree of exaltation 
 to which we have attained, rise to the horrible, or, as such 
 Christians will have it, to the sublime ; and as perfection is 
 the common rule, it is clear that if this perfection is real, 
 the Church will, in its proper state, be only an establishment 
 of tortures as unmeasured as unmeaning, a true field of car- 
 nage ; and the infidel will for once be entitled to reproach 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 157 
 
 the Christian with his religion of blood. But what matters 
 it? In this perpetual and general immolation, a single vic- 
 tim will have been forgotten ; the will of the natural man, 
 self, alone will have been spared. It alone will live in the 
 midst of this death, it alone will triumph in this field of de- 
 struction ; and this great battle, waged apparently against it 
 alone, will have left it alone unscathed. 
 
 You will not surely refer to the example of your Master, 
 as giving his innocent flesh to his murderers. You will 
 leave this quibble to the enemies of the Gospel ; but when 
 they say that the religion of Jesus Christ is an enemy to life, 
 society, and nature, beware of giving them ground to say it 
 by your conduct. They would be wrong, but you would be 
 responsible ; it would be you who had fastened this deplora- 
 ble conclusion on the leading fact of the Gospel. Or would 
 you, in fact, reason thus; would you think that because 
 Jesus Christ left his life in the hands of the wicked, or be- 
 cause Jesus Christ sealed with his blood the letters of pardon 
 which he came to deliver you, you ought, without an object, 
 (for not having his, you have none,) you ought to fill your 
 life with idle privations and fruitless pains ? Is not this the 
 opposite of what you ought to think ? Ought you not to 
 consider that what may apply to Jesus Christ is not applica- 
 ble to you, and that your task is confined to these two things 
 — to crucify the flesh of sin, and offer your body to God a 
 holy and living sacrifice ; in other words, to devote them to 
 his service for all that the interest of his kingdom and the 
 welfare of your brethren may demand ? This, says the 
 Apostle, is your reasonable service ; but beyond it is there 
 any thing reasonable, any thing evangelical, any thing use- 
 ful, any thing holy ? What can you say in favor of your 
 practices, unless you say that you wish to expiate your sins ? 
 So be it ; but if you would expiate them, know that after all 
 the sufferings to which your flesh may be subjected, you will 
 still be far from gaining your point. 
 
15® GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 On seeing you multiplying works of supererogation, one 
 is tempted to think that you must have got over the field of 
 your more immediate obligations at a rapid pace. Will you 
 allow me to say it ? — If you had been careful not to enter 
 the second field before you had well ascertained the extent 
 of the first, you would never have entered it at all ; if you 
 had known that the first task is infinite, you would never 
 have once thought of a second. Now, rest assured that the 
 first is infinite. Ignorance of this is the source of your 
 error, or the cause of your persisting in it. And if you are 
 ignorant of this, it is because you have not yet understood 
 this Gospel which you wish to perfect. Yes, the crucifixion 
 of the flesh and its lusts (without adding to it destruction of 
 the body, which is only a suicide,) is of itself alone an infi- 
 nite task ; and as love only can measure it, so love only 
 dares to undertake it. To love, it is fair and attractive, and 
 of thrilling interest ; for the sacrifices of which it consists 
 have for their result glory to God and love to man. At the 
 same time, it is infinite. If you knew this you never would 
 have gone farther. You would not have been seen running 
 after those painful refinements, those cruel attempts at pre- 
 tended perfection, while grossly neglecting duties of which 
 you are capable, and sacrifices placed within your reach. 
 For it has been observed a hundred times that simple men, 
 who do not even understand the technical terms of your 
 spirituality, discharge their nearest and most essential duties 
 more regularly and more completely than you do. You can 
 do the greatest, and cannot do the least ; you can fly, and 
 yet you cannot walk ! 
 
 Who bids you run so far in search of your cross ? It 
 stands at your door. Why prosecute the innocent when the 
 criminal is in your power ? This innocent is your body, this 
 criminal your flesh, I mean the old man with all his passions. 
 Such is the victim which is delivered to you, and whom you 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 159 
 
 ought to be always immolating. No one bids you seek for 
 torments. In this you are not following the spirit of the 
 Gospel, in which you read that the Son of man came not 
 to destroy men's lives but to save them. Luke ix. 56. 
 Without seeking suffering, you will find it the task which is 
 laid upon you. To subdue, in a single instance, any one of 
 your favorite passions, to eradicate a single darling habit, to 
 renounce, from humility or disinterestedness, the employment 
 of any one of your powers, to allow others to pass you or to 
 intercept occasions which natural inclination disposes you 
 eagerly to seize ; in a word, to trample upon sin in propor- 
 tion as it seeks to rise, to press vvith all your force and all 
 your weight against the doors which that prisoner is attempt- 
 ing to force, to have your eye, your arm, your mind, inces- 
 santly intent on this sole end — has this single act, though 
 wholly negative, silent, and defensive, has this immovable 
 energy of a slave who grasps in his chains and, after a long 
 struggle, strangles a slave of his own who was incessantly 
 revolting, — has it any known limit ? has it any other end 
 than that of life ? Your choice is the best in a natural point 
 of view. For, supposing that you suffer as much, and even 
 more than ordinary Christians, your sufferings are of your 
 own choice. To suffer in this way is to act ; and who knows 
 not what secret enjoyment there is in action and liberty ? 
 Those, on the contrary, whose example I propose to you, 
 always accept and never choose ; they do not go purposely 
 to meet any useless pains, but they submit to all useful 
 pains ; they never command, they always obey ; and when 
 the world, which knows them not, imagines, on seeing their 
 struggles, that they seek suffering, it is mistaken. No ; they 
 sought only duty, and have found suffering in the path of 
 duty. Their suffering, then, is not action, but suffering 
 merely ; and how much does this single circumstance raise 
 their sufferings above yours ! Once more, do you seek suf- 
 
160 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 ferings ? Try this latter kind. Do you seek your cress? 
 It is at your door. 
 
 You will tell me that love transforms every thing, makes 
 every thing supportable. I was going to say so. God forbid 
 I should see the whole truth in the mournful picture which I 
 have just drawn ! God forbid I should forget that the joy of 
 the Christian revives and flourishes again like the palm 
 amid those waters of bitterness ! Yes, love transforms every 
 thing ; but forget not that so far from sparing a single one of 
 those sacrifices, it multiplies them. Love transforms every 
 thing, it is true ; but pride also transforms every thing. 
 Think well of this, and fear lest pride be the true charm of 
 your pains. How just this fear is in regard to courted chosen 
 sufferings, where self triumphs by annihilating itself, and 
 dies, so to speak, only to rise again more lovely and strong ! 
 Allow us, by a single example, to explain our whole thought. 
 Which of the two, think you, suffers most in his pride — he 
 who makes publicly, particularly, and repeatedly, a humili- 
 ating confession which was not asked of him, or he who, 
 aside and in private, allows himself to be reproved by one 
 of his equals, by one of his inferiors, one of whom he 
 perhaps thought himself the natural guide and censor ? 
 Which of the two do you think more humble — he who anti- 
 cipates censure by inflicting it on himself, or he who endures 
 it without anticipating it ? Well, in these two men you have 
 the representation of these two classes of Christians ; the 
 one accepting all trials but seeking none, and the other seek- 
 ing a thousand and a thousand trials but accepting none. 
 The former has a just idea of Christian perfection, the latter 
 pursues an imaginary perfection ; the one is within the terms 
 of the Gospel, and the other not. Moreover, they have each 
 their recompense and their consolation ; the one pride, the 
 other love. Omnes acceperunt mercedem suam : vani vanam. 
 
 After all that we have said, may you still expect (suppos- 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 161 
 
 ing you have not read the Gospel) to find precepts in it en- 
 joining this pretended and spurious mortification ? Not at all, 
 brethren; and in order that this silence may not deceive you, 
 St. Paul, so to speak, gives it a voice and makes it articulate 
 in the words preceding the text, when he says, that such or- 
 dinances (he means the prohibition of certain meats) are 
 founded only on the doctrines and commandments of men. 
 Nay, more, even if these observances had a better principle, 
 St. Paul is not more favorable to them, for he says that they 
 perish in the using. Not that he condemns certain abstinences 
 which our Lord himself seems to have authorized, when 
 these are used as exercises, or as a means of finding more 
 leisure for the duties of worship ; but seeing in all selected 
 sufferings a pretext for avoiding sufferings enjoined, and a 
 kind of hidden path by which the new man may return to- 
 wards the traditions of the old, he rather warns us of 
 the danger, than establishes the legitimacy and advantages 
 of them. What Jeremiah, in the name of the Lord, had said 
 of an idolatrous worship, St. Paul seems not to hesitate to 
 say of this other idolatry : " I commanded not, nor spake it, 
 neither came it into my mind." Jer. xix. 5. Paul was well 
 entitled to speak thus. It was with him as with the brave 
 soldier who, covered with honorable wounds, may decline a 
 challenge. He might tell his companions in arms, to reserve 
 their blood for the fields of battle on which he had bled. 
 From the bosom of a comfortable and indolent life, he might 
 not have been able with a good grace to decry those pious 
 excesses. He might have been personally wrong, though 
 theoretically right. But with what authority were not these 
 warnings invested by a life wholly consecrated to struggles 
 against sin, and against the world ; a life full of sacrifices, 
 useful sacrifices, a life of fatigue, of privation, of peril, of 
 opprobrium and bitterness, each of which had its reason and 
 object ; a perpetual crucifixion, not only of the lusts of the 
 
162 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 old man, but of the affections which are not forbidden to the 
 new man ; a painful travail from the world to the Gospel, a 
 daily death, an hourly cross ! Ah ! how few since his day 
 have treated the same subject with the same authority ; and 
 well may his successors in the ministry have a blush on their 
 foreheads, when they come like him to protest against ex- 
 cesses of which they are only too innocent. Nevertheless it 
 is necessary to do so ; but it is necessary to say to one's self, 
 and to say to all, that if a false mortification is dangerous, 
 the want of mortification is still more so ; that if temerity is 
 culpable, still more culpable is laxity. 
 
 Brethren, we have condemned the fantastic perfection of 
 the Christian life, in the principles on which it is founded. 
 But it has been careful by its manifestations to condemn it- 
 self. Its works and efforts condemn it. The history of the 
 different schools which it has created is intimately associated 
 with the most distressing trials and the worst affronts which 
 the Christian Church has undergone. Follow its destination, 
 trace it over a series of ages, and see what ruins it leaves 
 behind. 
 
 And first, under the pretext of raising Christianity above 
 itself, if I may so speak, it has always lowered and degraded 
 it. This behooved to be. As beyond all there is nothing, as 
 no addition can be made to what is infinite, it inevitably fol- 
 lows that whatever pretends to add to the truth does not 
 unite with it but oppose, does not augment but diminish it. 
 For inasmuch as the law is complete, inasmuch as God has 
 commanded all that was worthy of himself and good for man, 
 we may boldly conclude that whatever he has not command- 
 ed, he has forbidden. If under the old dispensation, con- 
 demnation fell equally on him who took away from the 
 commandment of God, and him who added to it, (Deut. xii. 
 32,) this was only a sign and warning to the. members of 
 the new covenant. The error which we combat was fore- 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. WB 
 
 seen : the same principle which carried imperfect obedience at 
 one of its poles, must have carried at the other fantastic per- 
 fection, or human invention. If this perfection were not 
 according to truth, it must be contrary to truth ; if it added 
 nothing to true perfection, it could only diminish it ; if it did 
 not complete Christianity, it could only mutilate it. The 
 principle being a principle of infidelity, the results behooved 
 to correspond and be similar to the principle, and a false per- 
 fection makes way for too many real imperfections. And 
 this is what has been seen. Christ has been disparaged in 
 all manners by this infidel fervor, disparaged in his nature, 
 his dignity, his necessity, his purity, and holiness. There is 
 not one of those schools which, by stretching certain cords to 
 excess, have not in an equal degree slackened others which 
 ought to have been kept stretched. There is not one of 
 those schools whose progress has not been marked by the 
 destruction or weakening of some one of the fundamental 
 truths of religion or morality. So that were it true that the 
 partisans of these schools had, in so far as they are person- 
 ally concerned, found in their ideal perfection the true per- 
 fection of Christianity, yet as a smaller circle is contained 
 within a greater, and as less is contained in more, (we do 
 not admit that this applies to them,) so it is true that the su- 
 perfluity thus enjoyed by them, would have deprived the 
 multitude of their necessary subsistence, that their luxury, 
 like that of avaricious despots, would have been the result of 
 public misery. For if it is not possible for them to carry up 
 the people to their sublime heights, it is only too possible to 
 make the people embrace errors which are as much akin to 
 laxity as to elevation ; it is but too easy for them to accredit 
 heresies which, appearing compatible with the highest degree 
 of fervor, are still more compatible with the avowed medio- 
 crity to which the great body of Christians are reduced. 
 Yes, those enervating, stupefying, nauseating errors, which 
 
164 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 gradually bring down Christianity to the level of worldly mo- 
 rality, are, whatever may seem to the contrary, the errors 
 which have been propagated by these wrong-headed, fervent 
 enthusiasts. Advantage has been taken of their zeal to em- 
 brace convenient errors, while their zeal itself, well or ill 
 understood, has been allowed to remain with them. The art 
 has been discovered of extracting lax doctrines from their 
 devotion. The poisonous fruit has been appropriated, but its 
 outer covering has been thrown away. 
 
 And it is not merely the truths of the Gospel that these 
 sectaries have altered ; they have done violence to truths 
 which, though not taught verhatim in the Gospel, are not less 
 sacred, because the Gospel presupposes them, in the same 
 way as in a house the foundation is not seen just because it 
 is the foundation, and gives support to the whole. These 
 first affections, these eternal instincts of nature, without 
 which life is not human life, and man not man, and which, 
 in indulgence to our weakness, if we may so speak, portion 
 out the invisible scale by which our soul rises to its 
 supreme object into spaces of moderate dimensions, — these 
 affections, these instincts they have denied, and, as much as 
 in them lay, have destroyed. That in this way immense 
 damage has been done to religion, considered in itself, is a 
 fact which cannot be doubted by true philosophers, who 
 have at all times recognized two truths of equal importance, 
 the one that the Gospel and the Gospel alone brings us back 
 to nature, and the other that the Gospel deals with actual 
 complete men, not with phantoms under the name of men — 
 that it is impossible to be truly a Christian without being 
 truly a man — and that faith produces real and good fruits 
 only in souls unsophistically human. No service therefore 
 is done to Christianity by denying man or a part of his 
 nature, as these theological systems do ; for this is to make 
 a change in his essence, and moreover to degrade him. 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 165 
 
 The world, brethren, is only too much indisposed to receive 
 the Gospel in its simplicity, but still when it is exhibited 
 to them as it really is, they cannot help perceiving and 
 acknowledging its beauty and excellence, in other words, 
 involuntarily admitting that it is true. How culpable or 
 how unfortunate then are those whose arbitrary inventions 
 mar this distinct feature, and who, by disfiguring the truth, 
 furnish its enemies with a means of mistaking, and a pre- 
 text for denying it ! Will it not be dreadful one day for 
 each individual, when his eyes are opened, to be obliged to 
 say to himself, " By reason " of me " the way of truth " 
 was "evil spoken of?" 2 Pet. ii. 2. By covering it up 
 either with briers or flowers, I hid it ; and men, no longer 
 discerning it, pretended that it did not exist. Because the 
 enemy could say as he pointed to the phantom of my im- 
 agination, Behold the Gospel ! how many simple souls have 
 been turned aside from the Gospel, and after a longer or 
 shorter time have finally pined away, and perished far 
 from this stream of living water ! Is not this a most deplor- 
 able result of my rashness and presumption, and though 
 I find in the heart of God mercy enough to wipe away 
 my fault, how shall 1 find in my eyes tears enough to weep 
 for it ! 
 
 In fine, brethren, we must say that these systems of ar- 
 bitrary perfection have spoken loudly against themselves by 
 the lapses of their followers. St. James says, " In many 
 things we ofiend all ;" (James iii. 2 ;) every being does, even 
 the Christian ; for, until the end of his days he travels in 
 company with the enemy ; and were the moral infallibility 
 of those who profess a doctrine an indispensable mark of its 
 truth, Christianity itself would not be true. But it is with 
 eternal truth as with eternal necessity, pride goes before de- 
 struction, and the higher a man exalts himself, the more will 
 he be abased. Let the height to which these rash spirits 
 
166 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 rise, be the measure by which you anticipate the depth of 
 their fall. The worldling may fall as low, but the height 
 being less, he is not so completely shattered, and his bruises 
 may be cured. The Christian who, as St. Paul expresses 
 it, wishes not to " think of himself more highly than he 
 ought to think," (Rom. xii. 3,) rather sinks than falls, and 
 has not reached the ground when his Father's hand lifts him 
 up. But it is not so with him who, persisting in making 
 perfection perfect, and interrogating his Creator, dares to ask, 
 " What makest thou ? He hath no hands :" with him " that 
 saith unto his Father, What begettest thou ? or to the woman, 
 What hast thou brought forth ?" Isa. xlv. 9, 10. It has 
 been maintained, not without good cause, that the spirit of 
 evil takes up his abode most readily with the lover of the 
 extraordinary in religion ; and the wicked spirit which had 
 gone out, returns with seven other spirits more wicked than 
 himself into a house thus richly furnished. Mattliew xii. 
 44, 45. None have ever produced more deplorable scan- 
 dals in the Church than those fantastic, heady spirits ; no 
 road ever led to a more profound abyss. This, dear brethren, 
 is so true, that the dignity of this place, and the pulpit, abso- 
 lutely prevents us from giving full proof of the assertion, 
 proof as overwhelming as it is disgraceful. What a power- 
 ful motive to value and respect the Apostle's recommenda- 
 tion, " Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low 
 estate !" Rom. xii. 16. 
 
 In order to escape the perils of a false elevation, as well 
 as answer to the designs and gifts of your Creator, to avoid 
 falling either into the snares of the flesh or the snares of 
 pride, aspire to things higher than all those to which the 
 world or sectarians unjustly give the name of high things. 
 Neither to the right nor to the left, but upward ! upward ! 
 I mean, in the practice of all the duties which God has given 
 you to fulfil. Upward ! in simple love to him who has loved 
 
IMAGINARY PERFECTION. 167 
 
 you, diligently seeking his glory while despising your own. 
 Upward ! in the exactness, not the scrupulous and legal, but 
 the tender and zealous exactness of Christian obedience, in 
 humility truly humble, and that childlike simplicity which 
 accords, so admirably accords, with enlightened reason in 
 the intelligent but docile acceptance of the gifts which God 
 has given, and the truths which he has taught you. Do not 
 seek a mean between two extremes in discriminating truth 
 from error, but raise yourself to a height from which you no 
 longer perceive any middle, any intervening space between 
 two errors, which thus become, in your eyes, only one error, 
 or one sin under two forms. Look down upon both from the 
 high vantage-ground of Christian simplicity. And first, ask 
 of God that invaluable simplicity from which some are so 
 remote, and others are kept away by so many conspiring 
 causes. O, how beautiful ! O, how rare and difficult this 
 simplicity ! O, how difficult it must in fact be, since it is 
 nothing else than faithfulness, nothing else than faith. O 
 how we ought to ask and continue asking it of God, in order 
 that at last, as regards both Him and ourselves, we may 
 have no thoughts but his thoughts ! May we at least have 
 the simplicity to ask, since it has been so solemnly promised, 
 that he who asks shall receive, and he who seeks shall find ! 
 
THE STONES OF THE TEMPLE. 
 
 " As for these things which ye behold," or (according to the French 
 translation,) " Is it this you are looking at ?" — Luke xxi. 6. 
 
 These words contain a reproof, a reproof which, from 
 having no bitterness in it, thereby becomes only the more 
 serious and impressive. The disciples had gone with Jesus 
 Christ into the temple, where, struck with the splendor and 
 magnificence of the edifice, which however was no novelty 
 to them, instead of being contented with silent admiration, 
 addressed their Master and called upon him to join in their 
 admiration by exclaiming. What stones! What buildings! 
 Jesus merely replies, " Is it this you are looking at ?" the 
 day will come when it will be thrown down, and not one 
 stone will be left upon another. 
 
 Were any one of you tempted to make an excuse for the 
 disciples, he might say : If those who built this temple, and 
 adorned it with beautiful stones and ornaments were not to 
 blame, no more were the disciples to blame for admiring 
 their work. The first point is to determine if it was proper 
 that such an edifice should be beautiful ; but, if so, it is 
 
THE STONES OF THE TEMPLE. 169 
 
 certain that beauty is designed to be felt. It is a natural 
 impression which, to those who are properly organized, is 
 irresistible; and the builders of this edifice had neglected 
 nothing by which the eye, on entering the threshold of this 
 sanctuary, might be at once surprised and delighted. We 
 might also be reminded that this temple, built by Herod on 
 the site of that of Zerubbabel, in grandeur if not in mao-ni- 
 ficence and glory surpassed the second, and even the first 
 temple. We might be called to view it from the highest of 
 three terraces connected with each other by magnificent 
 steps, and formed into courts by a double and treble row of 
 pillars. We might be shown above those peristyles rising 
 one over the other a last peristyle, which was properly the 
 court of the sanctuary. Beyond this last forest of pillars we 
 might be introduced into the temple itself, whose walls, a 
 hundred cubits high, and broad in proportion, were through- 
 out covered with precious marble, and shining with the lustre 
 of pure gold. We might be made to traverse in thought 
 those lateral buildings, those vast courts, raising their treble 
 stories around the sacred inclosure, and arranged like the 
 first temple, but in enlarged proportions, the better to dis- 
 guise, shall I say, or to render more impressive the desola- 
 tion of the holy of holies, now absolutely naked and empty, 
 and no longer mysterious. How could such grandeur, such 
 lustre, the mere description of which stirs our imagination, 
 fail to produce an effect on the imagination of the disciples, 
 and shall we not excuse them when they exclaim, Master, 
 what stones ! what buildings ! what magnificence ! 
 
 Is there any one Christian, however austere, who, on 
 entering the body of our cathedral, not for the first time but 
 the twentieth, and allowing his eye to wander along its 
 avenue of columns, or into the depth at once so mysterious, 
 and so impressive of the distant choir; or towards those 
 arches, at once light and bold^ which, like a vigorous vege- 
 9 
 
170 GOSPEL ST[JDIES. 
 
 tation on each pilaster, throw out and intertwine their stems 
 at the centre — is there any one who has not said to himself, 
 How beautiful this is ! what harmony ! what unison among 
 all these stones ! what music in this architecture ! what 
 poetry in this edifice ! Those who reared it are dead, but 
 though dead they still speak to us ; and their conception, full 
 of adoration, their conception, a species of prayer, is so united 
 to their work, that we think we feel it and breathe it as we 
 advance within these walls, which carry us over a vista of 
 ages. Such is our feeling ; and if we are not alone, we can 
 scarcely help giving it utterance. Thus, doing what the 
 disciples did when they exclaimed, What stones! what 
 buildings! might we not hear ourselves addressed by our 
 Lord in words of reproof, " Is it this you are looking at ?" 
 
 And why should we not be reproved if our soul goes no 
 farther than our eye, if it stops where our eye is obliged to 
 stop ; if symbols, appearances, visible things, hold it captive ; 
 if the splendors of art chain down our heart to the earth in- 
 stead of raising it to heaven ? This is the censure which 
 Jesus Christ passes on his disciples. He had looked into 
 their souls, and there detected that lust of the flesh, that lust 
 of the eye, and that pride of life, which are the three con- 
 necting chains by which the enemy of God links us closely 
 to outer darkness. The man and the Jew were equally re- 
 vealed by that involuntary exclamation ; man, dazzled by 
 whatever is seen, and filled with contempt for what is not 
 seen ; the Jew, proud of the exterior pomp of a worship, the 
 deep meaning and internal idea of which had long escaped 
 him, and attaching himself obstinately to the law — in other 
 words, a shadow, at the very moment when this law was 
 more than ever a shadow. Is it this you are looking at ? 
 What ! these few grains of dust, which are large only be- 
 cause you are little ? What ! these gifts extorted by fear, 
 vanity, and custom, from individuals who refused to begin 
 
THE STONES OF THE TEMPLE. 171 
 
 by giving themselves to God ? What ! the gorgeous false- 
 hood of these marbles and gildings, of all those ornaments, 
 the pious import of which has long since been forgotten ? 
 Is it this you are looking at ? 
 
 Besides, a circumstance to which T scarcely require to 
 call your attention, gave a special seasonableness to our 
 Lord's reproof He also, on coming out of the temple, had 
 looked at something, and mentioned it to his disciples, who 
 otherwise would have given no heed to it. What was it that 
 attracted the eye and fixed the attention of our Master ? It 
 was a poor woman putting her mite into the alms-box : in 
 other words, giving of her necessity to relieve the necessi- 
 tous. Jesus Christ had called the attention of his disciples 
 to this act of liberality — a liberality greater in his estimation 
 than the most abundant donations of the rich. It was when 
 he had brought under their view this touching example of 
 charity, and when by an expression as simple as striking he 
 had opened this fine subject for meditation ; it was then, as 
 if to answer one observation by another, that the disciples 
 invite their Master to join them in admiring the magnificence 
 of the temple. It was as if they meant to say, That is what 
 you judged worthy of your attention, and this is what we 
 judge worthy of ours. You looked at a simple individual 
 making a sacrifice, we are looking at buildings. Moral 
 grandeur and beauty are the spectacle which you love ; 
 material grandeur and beauty the spectacle which pleases us. 
 A single act of this worship, which you have called worship 
 in Spirit and in truth, withdraws you from the splendor of the 
 external worship performed within these precincts, while this 
 visible splendor carries our eye far away from the worship 
 in Spirit and in truth, which alone our Father honors. And 
 not only does our instinct lead us in a different direction 
 from you, but even your admonition does not bring us back. 
 You have told us what ought to be admired, and we answer, 
 this is what we admire. 
 
172 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 To these words, or at least to these thoughts, Jesus 
 replied, " Is it this you are looking at ?" Might he not have 
 added something more ? Had he deemed it proper, on how 
 many grounds might he not have rebuked both the inattention 
 and prejudice of the disciples ? But our Lord was sparing 
 of words, and did not argue. Usually one word, one reason 
 for all, sufficed him, but it was a peremptory, decisive word, 
 reaching, as has been said of the Divine word in general, to 
 the last division of the soul and spirit, the joints and marrow. 
 He makes only one observation, and it is this : " The days 
 will come when there will not be left one stone upon another 
 which shall not be thrown down." 
 
 He is obviously speaking of an instantaneous, violent, 
 forcible destruction, and not that which years and ages insen- 
 sibly accomplish. This destruction is to be the work of an 
 enemy more impatient than time ; and as no person can 
 imagine that this temple is to be demolished by the people 
 who reared it, who glory in it, and regard it as the centre of 
 their nationality, he must be speaking of another people, of 
 an invasion, a conquest. This single expression thus opens 
 to the minds of the disciples a perspective of disgrace, ruin, 
 and desolation. This expression perhaps contains a predic- 
 tion of the total extermination of the Jewish people and 
 Jewish name. The Divine prophet is silent only on one 
 point : he does not say when these things will happen. 
 " The days will come," says he, but soon after giving full 
 scope to the prophecy which is thrilling in his breast, he 
 clearly reveals to their agonized hearts that the period is not 
 distant, that they are personally interested in it, and that this 
 temple, though still recent among monuments, having been 
 built within fifty years, will not see fifty more. 
 
 But though the destruction of the temple should not imply 
 the ruin of the country and extermination of the people, and 
 though nothing of all this might be imminent, the reply of 
 
THE STONES OF THE TEMPLE. 173 
 
 Jesus would not be the less full of meaning and force. Let 
 us admit that the destruction of the temple was to be the 
 slow and silent work of years, it is nevertheless true that in 
 mentioning to his hearers a circumstance which they already 
 knew too well, namely, that one day not a stone of this mag- 
 nificent edifice will remain upon another, our Lord fully 
 justifies his equally grave and mild reproof, " Is it this you 
 are looking at ?" 
 
 An admirable and most comprehensive argument ! Truth 
 and eternity are inseparable, and so are error and frailty. 
 Whatever is true, is eternal ; whatever is not eternal, has 
 only a semblance and a name. God has made all that ap- 
 pears out of that which appeared not. Spirit, of which God 
 is the centre, existed before matter, without matter ; matter 
 existed only to serve as an instrument to the created spirit, 
 as a form to its life, an object to its activity. But it has no 
 intrinsic absolute value ; it derives all that it has from its 
 end, and employment. The spirit alone, offspring of God, 
 like to God, capable of uniting itself to God, the spirit alone 
 is immortal, because worthy of being so. A single spirit is 
 worth whole worlds : or rather all worlds, actual and possi- 
 ble, cannot be compared or measured with a single spirit. 
 The spirit alone deserves of itself the chief attention of man, 
 because it has obtained the chief attention of God, and inas- 
 much as the spirit and all which pertains to it is invisible, it 
 may be said with truth, that invisible things only deserve to 
 be looked at, and that in a certain sense we should be blind 
 to every thing else. 
 
 And this is the reason why this widow's mite, which had 
 noiselessly dropped into the alms-box, deserved more attention 
 than the stones and ornaments of the temple. It was not a 
 mite, but an invisible act of the mind which the alms had 
 made visible. There was something great in this action, 
 greater than the temple, with its stairs, its peristyles, its 
 
174 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 arches, and colossal walls. And indeed all comparison is 
 injurious. The disciples may if they please compare the 
 idea which raised the temple, with that which made the mite 
 drop from the widow's hand. But this is far from their 
 thoughts, and though they were to do so, we would admit the 
 comparison only as a means of exalting the widow's con- 
 duct ; for between the luxurious prince, who built this house 
 out of the superabundance of his treasure, or the sweat of 
 his subjects slowly transformed into gold, and this poor 
 woman, stealthily throwing in the treasury a tribute levied 
 from her misery, " her whole living," says our Saviour, what 
 a difference ! How great the poor woman ! how little the 
 monarch ! 
 
 That in the soul of each individual must be sought the 
 proper measure and true name of each of his actions, or in 
 other words, that the acts of the soul are the true actions, is 
 one of those ideas towards which the dominion of sensible 
 objects makes it difficult for us to climb, and to which, how- 
 ever, we must rise, if we would see God and truth from the 
 proper point of view. We confine the name of action ex- 
 clusively to every employment which makes use of our cor- 
 poreal powers in order to effect some change without us, and 
 we give the name, not of actions, but thoughts, feelings, de- 
 sires, to what takes place in our souls, or rather to what our 
 soul does without the concurrence of our corporeal faculties, 
 and without any change in the external world ; so that when 
 we have had some well-defined intention, and obstacles 
 wholly independent of our will have hindered us from real- 
 izing it, we do not think that we have acted. And yet not 
 only are these intentions actions, (this is proved by the re- 
 morse we feel when they are bad,) but they are even real 
 actions. Our external acts are only the evidence and exter- 
 nal manifestation of them, and are in the eye of the Judge 
 of hearts, to whom external changes are of little moment, 
 
THE STONES OF THE TEMPLE. 175 
 
 only gestures more or less expressive. It is not for what we 
 will have done (taking the word in its literal meaning) that 
 we shall be judged, but for what we have wished, in other 
 words, done internally, that is, for the actions of our soul. 
 It is not said that we shall receive according to what we have 
 done with our body, but according to what we shall have 
 done being in the body. Our external actions will then ap- 
 pear as symbols, or evidences. It will not be equally the 
 same whether we have done or not done any particular act. 
 For, in the first place, it will prove whether we have with- 
 held such an act, and in the second place, these actions 
 originating within will have reacted for good or evil on our 
 inner being ; for good if they were good, and for evil if they 
 were evil. But in every case it is the internal action which 
 will be judged, the heart which will be sifted. Otherwise it 
 would be necessary to admit, that he who, while retaining 
 his internal faculties, had been deprived of all means of ac- 
 tion, would not be liable to be judged, and that where one 
 should not have done all the good or evil which he really 
 wished to do, neither this good nor evil will be placed to his 
 account ; a supposition which goes no less a length than to 
 abolish all responsibility, and annihilate all morality. Man 
 judges the outward, God judges the inward act ; and this is 
 ordinarily expressed by saying that God judges the heart, or 
 looks at the heart. And do not we poor creatures look into 
 it as far as we can ? Has it not happened to us a hundred 
 times to correct in ourselves the judgments of a criminal 
 court, by deciding internally, that an individual convicted of 
 a grave crime, is really less guilty, considering the state of 
 his will, than another convicted of a trivial delinquency ? 
 Hence, while continuing to give the name of action to that 
 to which the world gives the name, and to distinguish in or- 
 dinary language between action and thought, we are author- 
 ized to say, that essentially our voluntary thoughts are our 
 true actions, and that our actions are only symbols. 
 
176 - GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 Let us dwell on this idea. Whatever is external, visible, 
 material, is only a symbol ; there is no true action, except 
 in mental acts ; the mind alone performs true actions, and 
 the changes which it produces without in the world of sense, 
 only serve to express it. These also, 1 admit, are actions, 
 but they are purely symbolical actions, signs of what we 
 feel and what we will, or also means of exerting our inner 
 man ; and herein lies their importance. What we say of 
 our actions must be said of our productions. They do not 
 make us what we are, they merely express it ; they testify 
 it to others and to ourselves. Here their importance stops ; 
 but in order that we may not confound the symbol with the 
 reality, the sign with the thing signified, time successively 
 destroys all these symbols, and whatever they may have ex- 
 pressed. None is spared ; matter follows the laws of matter, 
 dust returns to dust. And this body which is not ourselves, 
 but our form only, this body which is to us the first part of 
 the world of phenomena, the first object as it is the first in- 
 strument of our external action, this body changes, perishes, 
 gives way, and reminds us every moment by this continuous 
 decay, this incessant death, that it has in our existence only 
 a subordinate rank and relative importance. 
 
 Far from us be the extravagant dreams of those who 
 have called the existence of matter and the reality of the ex- 
 ternal world into doubt ; far be it from us to treat the phe- 
 nomena of the universe as mere illusion. Still there is in 
 the conscience of man something which constrains him to 
 unite the idea of being indissolubly with that of immortality ; 
 " what must end," said a great orator, " has scarcely ceased 
 to be nothing." In what way, by what title does any thing 
 exist, that is not to exist always ? Is Scripture mistaken 
 when it says, that " man walketh in a vain show," and are 
 your preachers in like manner mistaken when directing your 
 eye toward the invisible world, they urge you to fix it on the 
 only realities ? 
 
THE STONES OF THE TEMPLE. 177 
 
 No, let US say it boldly : In the religious acceptation of 
 the term, nothing is real that is not eternal. All that we see 
 perish and crumble around us and near us, (and our body is 
 one of the things which are near us,) was not absolutely 
 nothing since even a shadow is something, though after all 
 only a shadow ; all this was not absolutely nothing since a 
 symbol is something, though still only a symbol. God would 
 not have us to be deceived, and therefore the law of change 
 silently consumes or at once openly destroys all these sym- 
 bols. The holiest perish in their turn ; that temple whose 
 magnitude and splendor the disciples admired, that temple 
 behooved to perish ; an avenging dispensation only accele- 
 rated the inevitable catastrophe. And how should this 
 temple, reared by the hand of man, not have perished, seeing 
 that God destines desolation to the temple which he himself 
 has built ? 
 
 The universe is the first, the holiest, the most magnifi- 
 cent of temples. To call it so, is to give it its name, is to 
 give a reason of its existence. For if the universe is not 
 a temple, what is it, I ask ? Now this temple, of which God 
 himself is the founder and architect, must perish. God has 
 said it. Profaned as it is, how does it still subsist ? Might 
 not he who, like a new Samson, (but with all the holiness 
 which Samson had not,) fell into the cruel hands of the 
 enemies of the people of God — might not he with his mighty 
 arm have shaken the pillars of this vast edifice, and perished 
 only under the ruins of the universe ? This he did not. 
 After passing symptoms of destruction, destined to give note 
 of warning that the earth itself with all its inhabitants subsists 
 only by mercy, the earth and the heavens, reassured, have 
 continued to see an uninterrupted series of day succeeding 
 night, and night day, the sea ebbing and flowing under the 
 gravitation of the heavenly bodies, and these again perform- 
 ing their wonted orbits in the heavens. But the sentence is 
 9* 
 
178 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 only delayed. The earth, like an unfortunate ship burnt in 
 the open sea, must, in the course of its boundless voyage 
 disappear in flame and tempest, become itself dust and ashes 
 after having ingulfed so much dust and ashes, and subsist 
 only as an eternal and melancholy recollection in the me- 
 mory of the celestial intelligences who were present at its 
 birth and are to see its death. What do I say ? This 
 temple itself, with its movable architecture, amid which the 
 earth occupies so small a spot, must sink into an ocean of 
 fire in order that the catastrophe, by its easy and sudden 
 accomplishment, miay establish in all created minds this 
 eternal principle of the Divine government — matter is made 
 for mind, and mind for truth and God. 
 
 Thus, of this temple likewise, not one stone shall remain 
 upon another. " Is this then what you are looking at ? " 
 But, in fact, if we should not look at what is to perish, 
 should we look at this world more than any other thing ? 
 
 Patient inquirers into the mysteries of nature, do we 
 mean to condemn you ? No, certainly ; if it is the Spirit 
 that you are seeking in matter ; if across the visible, it is to 
 the invisible, and in this world to the world's Author that 
 you look. But, if it is not so, Jesus Christ says to you as to 
 the disciples, " Is it this you are looking at ? " I admit that 
 your admiration is more rational, and your curiosity more 
 learned, but what avails it if your curiosity stops by the way, 
 and your admiration mistakes its object ? I am willing that 
 you should look ; but it should be from above and not from 
 below. All that is not seen in God is seen ill, or to no 
 purpose. What do you admire in all these wonders if you 
 admire not an idea, and consequently an idea of God ? 
 Explain yourself: leave us not in doubt as to the accuracy 
 of your meaning. Till then we will continue to ask, " Is it 
 this you are looking at ? " A funeral pile, a mysterious 
 tomb, are ready to ingulf the world of astronomers, the 
 
THE STONES OF THE TEMPLE. 179 
 
 world of naturalists, the world of geologists. In the abode 
 of reality, at the sources of being, there will no longer be 
 any question as to changing phenomena ; every thing will 
 have been consumed save the mind which gave them birth 
 and dictated their laws. If this mind has not been the object 
 of your regard, what have you looked at? 
 
 " It is not phenomena," you say, " that you have looked 
 at, but laws, and a law is a thought." This is the answer 
 we expected. Tell us then positively that it is the thought 
 of God : if not, we will say that it is your own thought, your 
 own sagacity, your own penetration, your own spirit of 
 discovery, and that consequently it is yourselves that you 
 have looked at, so that all nature has only been a mirror for 
 the pride of your intellect. Worthy subject of regard, a 
 wisdom which will not rise to God ! Fit subject of admi- 
 ration ! man detached from God ! But, in fact, I mistake, 
 there is much to look at. Monsters as well as prodigies are 
 entitled, at least for a mojpent, to fix our astonished regard. 
 Thus then, after having looked on this world without seeing 
 God in it, look upon this look. It is no less worthy of your 
 attention than the wonders of the universe. The universe 
 itself might look at it. Creation, if it had a soul and a voice, 
 would cry out at the sight of so fearful a prodigy. Nature, 
 which contains prodigies in such numbers, has none equal to 
 this ; for even its monsters exemplify some law, whereas the 
 monster we are speaking of, the horrible prodigy of man 
 without God, no law can explain. 
 
 This brings us as near as possible to an important appli- 
 cation of the words of Jesus Christ. There are many who 
 despise material grandeur and visible lustre. They at least 
 plume themselves on this, and that is something. But on 
 what do they turn their look ? What is the object of 
 their admiration ? If it is intellect, or what it has been 
 thought appropriate to term spirity (that is, life,) the repri- 
 
180 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 mand of Jesus Christ still pursues them, "Is it this you are 
 looking at ? " 
 
 Intellect, whatever be its dignity, is not so far above nnat- 
 ter as it is beneath charity. In making these distinctions, 
 and measuring their distances, we mean not to put asunder 
 what God himself has joined. We know that holiness, or as 
 some would rather call it, morality, cannot exist without in- 
 tellect, and that the being which thinks not is not a moral 
 being. We must equally believe that created intellect is 
 necessarily united to organs, since it will be so even in the 
 abode of perfection, so that man, considered as a whole, is a 
 being at once material, intellectual, and moral. Reduced to 
 any one, or even two of these elements, he would no longer 
 be a man. But if, notwithstanding the intimate union be- 
 tween intellect and body, one may affirm that there is no 
 comparison between the body and the intellect, you will not 
 be surprised at our saying that the moral though inseparable 
 from the intellectual principle, is far superior to it. A rela- 
 tion between superior and inferior may very easily be con- 
 ceived ; only it is a relation or union of subordination. Now, 
 the relation of intellect to morality is the same as that of the 
 body to the intellect ; the body is the organ of the intellect, 
 and the intellect is, in its turn, the organ of morality, unless 
 indeed we choose to say (and why not ?) that the body and 
 the intellect, though unequal, are together, the one by means 
 of the other, the two organs of morality. This then is the 
 end, those are the means ; necessary means I admit, but 
 still only means. In speaking thus I do not even go so far 
 as Scripture, which says, " Fear God and keep his com- 
 mandments, for this is the whole man.^' If this is the whole 
 man, what is all the rest ? But we understand Solomon's 
 meaning. The whole man is his whole destination, the 
 whole reason of his existence, his whole glory before God. 
 
 The price which divine love paid for our salvation be- 
 
THE STONES OF THE TEMPLE. 181 
 
 hooved, doubtless, to ransom or save our intellect as well as 
 our heart. What then was the object of our Saviour's mis- 
 sion ? Whether did he come to expiate the errors of our 
 judgment or the sins of our will ; to teach us to reason well 
 or to act well ? Whether did he mean to make us philoso- 
 phers or saints ? This fact alone is sufficient to establish the 
 truth which I set before you, and, independently of this fact, 
 I am sure that your conscience establishes it. The glory of 
 man is in the rectitude and proper employment of his will ; 
 and the glory of the intellect is to contribute to the triumph 
 of the moral principle. 
 
 Now there is no occasion, even in the present day, to 
 spend much argument in establishing the superiority of in- 
 tellect over matter, although matter triumphs in many hearts, 
 and even in many theories. But there is occasion, perhaps, 
 to repress the enthusiasm of knowledge, and pride of intel- 
 lect. It is necessary to tell men that if their subjection to 
 matter is a degradation, the subordination of morality to in- 
 tellect is another degradation ; that the most intellectual man, 
 if nothing more, is only an intelligent brute; that the tri- 
 umphs of a demoralized intellect are not essentially different 
 from the triumphs of brute force, and that the excessive 
 admiration of genius proceeds from the same principle as that 
 lust of the eye which is included by an apostle in the same 
 condemnation as the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. 
 
 It is a fact which cannot be disputed or'justified, that in 
 every country, but in certain countries more especially, in- 
 tellectual talents have procured pardon for the gravest errors 
 in conduct ; and that, when these talents have been superior, 
 transcendent, they have thrown a thick veil over every thing 
 else. Such a man would have been considered in society as 
 a contemptible wretch if he had wanted talent; but with 
 much talent he is never considered contemptible. Without 
 talent every body would have shunned him ; but he has 
 
188 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 talent, and every body coul'ts him. At least he is seen with 
 a different eye from another man who does not display worse 
 morals, nor adopt worse maxims. Some will even go so far 
 as to say that a certain moral regularity is incompatible with 
 genius, and that it would be too much to expect at once great 
 talent and great virtue. 
 
 There is another fact which cannot be either contested or 
 justified : it is, that simplicity of mind, even involuntary ig- 
 norance, or a certain foible in judgment, exposes a man to a 
 contempt sometimes amounting to insult, whatever be the 
 purity of his manners and excellence of his conduct. His 
 good qualities will perhaps be admitted, and be even men- 
 tioned, but only as extenuating circumstances. It will per- 
 haps be confessed that he is a man according to God's own 
 heart, but none will seek to warm themselves at his hearth, 
 to borrow from him that wisdom among the perfect, which, 
 according to Scripture, enlightens the most simple, and which 
 the most simple teach to the most learned. He has no talent, 
 and therefore he goes for nothing. That he should not be 
 courted for his conversation ; in other words, that he should 
 not be asked for what he cannot give, is plain enough. But 
 this is not all. He is wrong in not having talent, just appa- 
 rently as a man is wrong for not having added one cubit to 
 his stature, or another, I presume, is wrong for being poor. 
 You protest, but first reflect. Is it true or is it not true that 
 poverty exposes us to the contempt of certain persons, as 
 riches recommend us to their respect ? The thing is unac- 
 countable, absurd, and still true. Now, has the contempt of 
 intellectual poverty any thing more absurd, more unaccount- 
 able than the other kind of contempt ? And if vulgar souls 
 are capable of despising a man because he is poor in this 
 world's goods, will not other souls, one degree higher, be ca- 
 pable of looking with contempt, or at least with disdain, on 
 men devoid of the advantages of intellect? 
 
THE STONES OF THE TEMPLE. 183 
 
 Modern idolatry has raised two altars, to which a crowd 
 of idolaters press forward. One of these is the altar of 
 matter, the other that of intellect. Upon both, human victims 
 are offered ; for all idolatrous worship is murderous worship. 
 The adoration of intellect has its barbarity as well as the 
 adoration of matter. The man of intellect finds his account 
 in sparing nothing. He who despises most passes for having 
 the most sagacity. It has been said that the heart often has 
 intellect, but that the inlelle?)t has no heart. In the unre- 
 strained pleasures of the intellect, as in the unrestrained 
 pleasure of the senses, the heart dries up ; the man becomes 
 cruel. The whole truth must be told ; he becomes even 
 stupid. There are so many things of which we can only 
 judge with the heart, that whenever the heart happens to 
 fail, reason goes astray. To know to what degree the heart 
 gives intelligence, to what degree also the worship of the mind 
 lowers the intellect, set a man of intellect and a man of piety 
 to decide a case of conscience. " Thy law, O God, gives 
 wisdom to the simple ; they looked, and were lightened." 
 
 And this is the reason why in our day the intoxication of 
 intellectual triumphs gives me almost as much fear as the 
 general tendency to material enjoyments. It is for this I 
 would wish to turn your eyes and my own in the same 
 direction towards which our divine Master sought to turn 
 those of his disciples. Poor widow of the Gospel ! humble 
 female ! whom our Saviour has, by a single expression, ren- 
 dered for ever celebrated, still let fall your mite, your labori- 
 ous toil mingled perhaps with your tears, into the treasury ! 
 Tell us, if your humility permits you, or rather, since our 
 interest demands it, tell us what emotion of your soul made 
 your indigent hand let fall for others as indigent this part of 
 your substance — or, as you might tell us, this part of your 
 flesh ? Our eyes are satiated with the splendors of the sym- 
 bolical sanctuary ; open to us the sanctuary of your soul, 
 
iM GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 and unfold other splendors. Show us your sufferings traris- 
 formed into pity ; your misery giving you eyes to see the 
 misery of others ; make us read, in this generous soul 
 applying to itself precepts which, poor as you are, perhaps 
 did not concern you. Tell us what gratitude you feel be- 
 cause God has furnished you with a mite to give. Communi- 
 cate to us the secret of the surplus from labor which gained 
 it : the prayer, perhaps, which procured it ; your whole life, 
 at once happy and painful, of fatigue and self-denial. Admit 
 us to share in that glorious fellowship which you hold in the 
 bosom of your obscurity with the God of all consolation. 
 O, I have need to rest my eye after all this passing show, 
 and my ears after all this useless noise ; the pomp of power, 
 the pomp of intellect, (another power more haughty and 
 more tyrannical,) stun and fatigue me ; my heart, empty 
 and famished, has need of substance, reality, and reality and 
 substance are there with you, poor female, forsaken of man 
 and visited by God ; but with thee, above all, O my divine 
 Saviour ! in whom there is neither form nor comeliness ; 
 with thee, who hast said, " I am a worm, and no man," and 
 who art nevertheless Lord to the glory of God the Father ! 
 
 For it is there, in fact ; it is in Jesus Christ that the 
 Spirit triumphs in the annihilation of the flesh. There, in 
 the absence of all grandeur appears true grandeur, grandeur 
 of mind. " When we shall see him, there is no beauty that 
 we should desire him." But who speaks of seeing ? Feel- 
 ing is the object. Shut the eyes of the body, open the eyes 
 of the soul, and you will say with Pascal, " O, with how 
 great pomp and magnificence has he come in the eyes of the 
 heart, and of those who see wisdom !" Behold for once, 
 behold the true temple of the true God ! A temple of marble, 
 glittering with gold, keeps your eyes far away from the living 
 temple, in which the fulness of the Godhead dwells. " Is it 
 this you are looking at ?" Can you look at any thing else 
 
THE STONES OF THE TEMPLE. 165 
 
 when love is there ? Now, love is the glor}-- of the intellect ; 
 it is even the glory of God. He in whom supreme love 
 resides thereby represents supreme grandeur. This is what 
 we should look at, and look for aye. 
 
 Ah ! if you do not approve you will at least comprehend 
 those who, having with the eye of faith seen Jesus Christ (i. 
 e. love) living and personified, have no longer wished to look 
 at any thing else. They were here in error, but all errors 
 are not equal. Between him who looks at Jesus Christ and 
 nothing else, and him who looks at every thing but Jesus 
 Christ, which of you could hesitate to choose ? But what 
 you will understand, and what you will approve, is that they 
 who have seen Jesus Christ feel pity for those who do not 
 look at him. To those whose view is alternately engrossed 
 by material and intellectual grandeur, they ask as he did, 
 " Is it this you are looking at ?" In the view of eternity, 
 the herb of the field is equal in duration, equal in grandeur, 
 to all these monuments, or even to the highest conceptions of 
 intellect ; for in the universal wreck all things will perish 
 which are not united to God, who alone is above all wreck. 
 All things, I say ; your very thoughts. Pyramids or sys- 
 tems, no matter ; towering Alps, or dreams higher than the 
 highest mountains, ye will perish together! God alone is 
 immortal, and communicates his immortality only to that 
 which is conformable to him, is united to him. Obedience 
 in humility, obedience by love, never perish. The gifts of 
 nature are revocable ; the gifts of grace are immortal. 
 
 It is also in this sense that Jesus Christ has brought life 
 and immortality to light, and the glory of Christianity is to 
 have reduced visible things to their true value, and assigned 
 them their place in contrast with things invisible. This 
 characteristic is even so prominent, that it seems impossible 
 to understand and receive Christianity except as the reign of 
 intellect, and the triumph of what is invisible. But Christi- 
 
1S6 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 anity has taken a form in the world ; it has become visible. 
 Travelling over ages, and propagating itself in the world, it 
 has assumed a place among the things to which the world 
 pays regard ; and besid_es this grandeur of space and dura- 
 tion which procures it a species of respect on the part of the 
 most indifferent, it has, by its intellectual grandeur (I mean 
 by the grandeur of the ideas which it expresses, and those 
 which it suggests,) captivated the regard and admiration of 
 thinkers. Thus is it great after the fashion of the world. 
 Beware of admiring it most of all for that grandeur. Let 
 us fear lest its true grandeur escape our notice. Let us not 
 allow our eye to be misled, and oblige Jesus Christ to say to 
 us again, " Is it this you are looking at ?" How great our 
 misfortune if we should have entered the empire of the in- 
 visible only to link ourselves more securely to the visible, 
 and if in the kingdom of spirit we should have been able 
 only to find the world ! How miserable, if trusting to those 
 vain and hollow words, " The temple of the Lord, the temple 
 of the Lord, the temple of the Lord," we should neglect, as 
 the prophet says in the same place, thoroughly to amend our 
 ways and our doings. Jer. vii. 4, 5. To look only to this 
 twofold greatness of Christianity, the material and intellec- 
 tual, is truly to do like the first companions of Jesus Christ, 
 to fix our look upon stones. Vast thoughts, secular tradi- 
 tions, splendid recollections, all these are stones ; cold mate- 
 rials, hard and dead. There are other stones, living stones, 
 which form together a spiritual building, a holy priesthood. 
 1 Peter ii. 5. Of the number of those living stones was 
 probably this woman, whose generous charity Jesus Christ 
 had observed ; of this number are all those sincere and 
 humble souls who by repentance have been born to the new 
 life which is hidden with Christ in God ; souls, some of whom 
 perhaps have not been able to give God any thing but them- 
 selves, but given unreservedly. Here are the beautiful 
 
THE STONES OF THE TEMPLE. 187 
 
 Stones and splendid gifts at which we ought to look. Let us 
 seek them ; let us seek, beneath this noisy world, which is 
 carried away by vanity, as well as beneath the external 
 majesty of worship, beneath the forms, it may be imposing 
 forms, of religious establishment — let us seek this secret, 
 and, in some measure, subterraneous world, those catacombs 
 of humility in which is silently celebrated the worship in 
 spirit and in truth, and in which is practised a religion pure 
 and undefiled. There, a spiritual spectacle, whose beauty 
 will fill our hearts with rapture, awaits us. Humility, for- 
 giveness, alms, patience, prayer, devotedness to God, thirst 
 after righteousness, zeal for the Divine glory, — these are the 
 splendors of this sanctuary ; splendors rendered still more 
 striking by contrast when it is a poor man, a slave, an igno- 
 rant man, a child — what do I say ? — a penitent malefactor, 
 who exhibits them in his own person. O, how far is a sin- 
 cere love of true grandeur still removed from our heart ! 
 How readily does the obscurity, sometimes sadness, which 
 shrouds this beauty, repel us ! how willingly do we keep 
 company with noise and pride ! how carnal we still are ! 
 how little prepared for this kingdom of God, which is the 
 kingdom of spirit ! how much we require to change and 
 grow, if not to be born ! A power higher than our own, 
 higher than all human power, can alone raise us to that 
 point of view from which whatever is little appears little, and 
 whatever is great appears great. But cannot we even now 
 ask of Him who disposes of this power to exert it in our 
 behalf, and give at length to us, as he has given to others, 
 " those eyes of the heart which see wisdom ?" 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS.' 
 
 •' Salvation is of the Jews." — John iv. 22. 
 
 The whole pride of modern wisdom may be summed up in 
 one sentence, and this sentence, a very different one from 
 that which I propose for your meditation, is : The salvation 
 of man is from man. Men love to persuade themselves, and, 
 by dint of repetition, come to believe that human nature 
 draws every thing from its own proper resources. At all 
 times has this been said, but not always in the same sense. 
 Human nature formerly was each man taken individually. 
 Each man by his own strength and spontaneous development 
 accomplished his own salvation, or to express the idea in a 
 manner still more conformable to human pride, each man 
 provided for his own destiny, and made himself secure of the 
 greatest possible sum of holiness, both in this world and the 
 next, provided there be a next. How these individual and 
 independent attempts could lead to the collective salvation of 
 mankind, the fulfilment of his destiny on the earth, the reali- 
 
 * This discourse, perhaps too abstruse for the pulpit, appears to have 
 been delivered as a professional lecture. 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS. 189 
 
 zation even of the idea of human nature, was not said, and 
 was not explained. The fact is that it was seldom thought 
 of. At a much later period, and under influences of which 
 we shall afterwards have to speak, was formed the great idea 
 now so widely diffused, which considers human nature as 
 one person, or at least as a society. The very idea, the 
 word humanity, (human nature,) scarcely existed, at least 
 as a collective name for the human race. It must not then 
 be imagined that there could have been any question as to 
 the future prospect, the destiny, and still less the salvation of 
 humanity. 
 
 However, at no time, and still less in ancient times than 
 in the present day, could man have considered himself 
 merely as an individual being. Facts did not allow it, nor 
 were his powers in any case adequate to it ; for man comes 
 into the world under the law of collective being, and society 
 is to man what the soil is to the plant. Moreover, the idea 
 of individual existence in regard to all that is moral and sub- 
 lime in it, had long been too high for him. If he had not 
 the idea of a humanity, which out of all human beings forms 
 one whole, a unit, a person, so he must have been incapable 
 of forming an idea of individuality, in virtue of which each 
 man belongs to himself, is a true person, and depends imme- 
 diately on God. In other words, he was incapable of 
 entertaining two opposite ideas, or to speak more exactly, 
 incapable of uniting in his thought the two forms of one 
 single and same idea, which is that of man, an idea which 
 is not complete, and not even accurate, unless it embraces 
 and combines the two notions of individuality and humanity. 
 It was between the two, perhaps at the middle, between these 
 two poles, that the human mind sought, and we may even 
 say, found a resting place. In this twofold impossibility of 
 being truly one, and at the same lime uniting in thought and 
 in heart with humanity as a whole, nationality came to its 
 
190 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 aid; nationality, a true idea in so far as it is not exclusive, 
 a just and beneficent idea, when we place it in the same line 
 where the two ideas of individuality and humanity meet, 
 and are merged into one. But so far from this, nationality 
 was the negation of both. The former individuality was 
 absorbed, or at least rendered lifeless. It immediately lost 
 its finest character and most excellent application, I mean 
 personal religion, immediate communication with God, in- 
 ternal liberty of conscience and of thought ; because nation- 
 ality, proceeding on a principle of appropriation with a view 
 to public utility, declared the religion of individuals to be 
 natural property, and merged it in the community, insomuch 
 that all which remained of human individuality, as an impure 
 residue and coarse refuse, was only selfishness. In regard 
 to the idea of humanity, (which is as old as that of individu- 
 ality, and may be said to have been born on the same day 
 with man,) it had become almost entirely effaced, and all 
 that nationality, that collective egotism, that personality with 
 a thousand heads, did, was to cause the least vestiges and 
 even last remembrance of it to disappear. 
 
 I dare claim your fullest attention for this important fact 
 which pervades all history, or rather whose successive 
 manifestations constitute all history. What is called history, 
 is in fact, in a merely human point of view, only the chrono- 
 logy of nationalities. And how has God treated this fact, 
 which, though true and legitimate when kept within due 
 bounds, is false and fatal when exaggerated ? Has he re- 
 jected and disowned it because it was abused ? No ; God 
 while rectifying has accepted and consecrated it, and has 
 made the greatest use of it, for he has made it contribute 
 (admirable arrangement !) to the restoration of the two ideas 
 whose reconciliation and harmony constitute the true nature 
 of man, and the truth of human existence. God has made 
 nationality subservient to the double and simultaneous tri- 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS. 191 
 
 umph of the principle of individuality, and the principle of 
 humanity. 
 
 It is impossible for a Christian not to concur in what we 
 say, when he casts his eye on the words of Christ, " Salvation 
 is of the Jews." But I cannot repeat these words of our 
 Master, without thinking at the same time of the impression 
 which they must produce on one who is not a Christian. 
 Allow me to stop here for an instant. I am willing to omit 
 what is strange and offensive in the word salvation to an un- 
 christian ear. Every one wishes to be happy, none wishes 
 to be saved. And yet the word would not be objected to, 
 would we consent to give it a purely temporal meaning, and 
 employ it to designate the triumph which man has painfully 
 obtained, dearly purchased, over all the elements hostile to 
 his happiness which creation contains. Well ; for the mo- 
 ment be it so. But how offensive to hear it declared, that 
 salvation, whatever be its nature, is of the Jews ! Some, who 
 would not be astonished were we to tell them that salvation 
 is of the French, and who have perhaps in different terms a 
 thousand times declared it, are indignant when the happiness 
 of the world is said to have originated with a wretched people, 
 bent for a thousand years under the weight of universal 
 contempt. But others, and probably the greater number, 
 are merely astonished at our presuming to make a particular 
 people the depositary, and so to speak, the dispenser of the 
 common felicity. Each people, or at least, each great 
 people, would willingly adjudge to itself the emphatic title 
 of middle empire, but each obstinately refuses it to all the 
 rest. They refuse to acknowledge either an individual or a 
 nation as their saviour. All individuals, it is said, all nations 
 are complete in themselves. There is only one real per- 
 sonality, there is only one idea, and it is that of the whole 
 world combined without distinction of individual persons. 
 Persons, individual or national, are only like the innumerable 
 
192 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 and transient ripplings which appear on the ocean, when it 
 is stirred in its lowest depths. They do not agitate its mass, 
 but it produces them by its agitation. The author of the 
 salvation of humanity is humanity itself, nothing more or 
 less than all humanity, which, however, I presume has never 
 been convoked to deliberate on the subject. Nations have 
 hitherto acted separately without concert, without knowing 
 one another, each for itself. There is indeed, I am per- 
 suaded, a convocation, a "gathering" of nations, (Gen. xlix. 
 10,) but one that is silent, mysterious, and superintended by 
 Providence. If we one day come to act in concert from one 
 extremity of the world to the other, it will not be without 
 having desired, or without having foreseen it. We do not 
 assemble, but are assembled ; humanity, whose exploits we 
 would at present relate, is still creating itself slowly, is 
 gradually being formed like a blessed fruit in the bowels of 
 the Divine mercy. We are assisting at the birth : let us- 
 wait till it takes place ; we will be able afterwards to tell 
 what it has accomplished. 
 
 But be this as it may, and whatever be the diversity of 
 opinions as to the salvation of the world, no one wishes it to 
 come from a nation, (unless perhaps it be his own,) in par- 
 ticular no one wishes it to come from the Jews. I mean 
 none except Christians. They no doubt subscribe respect- 
 fully to the declaration, " Salvation is of the Jews," though 
 perhaps ihey do not all enter into the meaning and force of 
 the expression. 
 
 With regard to the meaning of the first of the terms, 
 there is no dispute. This salvation is eternal salvation, and 
 consequently individual salvation, since neither nations nor 
 human nature are eternal. At most, it is necessary to 
 observe, that this salvation comprehends both the welfare of 
 human nature as such, and the fulfilment of its destinies in 
 whatever way we are pleased to understand it. If it is of 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS. 193 
 
 importance not to reverse the terms, not to make human per- 
 fection the very end of the Gospel, the object of the mediation 
 of Christ; it is of importance also to remember that the one 
 blessing carries the other in its train ; that the greater, if we 
 may so speak, includes the less ; that in the divine creation, 
 which is one and perfect, there are intimate and necessary 
 relations between individual and general welfare, between 
 religious truth and social truth, between the interest of time 
 and the interest of eternity ; that the happiness of humanity 
 in this world, its temporal redemption, is as it were the 
 counterpart and seal of that other redemption, which will 
 only be fully realized in the society of the elect, and in the 
 abode of all perfection ; in fine, that when we read that 
 Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost, 
 we must understand that he came to seek and to save not 
 only every man, but also man as a whole ; consequently all 
 his faculties, all his capacities, the man of the earth as well 
 as the man of heaven, in other words, human nature as well 
 as man. The Gospel is thus, we frankly admit, a humani- 
 tary work, inasmuch as it is a work for behalf of man. In 
 all senses, the Gospel has the promise of the life that now is, 
 as well as of that which is to come. 
 
 But this salvation, whatever it be, is of the Jews. With- 
 out referring further to temporal blessings, to social advan- 
 tages, to humanitarianism, we say that the reconciliation of 
 the soul with its Divine Author, the right to call him Father, 
 the regeneration of the heart, the sanctification of the life, 
 the privilege of drawing freely on the treasures of the Divine 
 Spirit, peace and hope here below, and glory and immortality 
 in the heavens, and to say all in one word, the participation 
 of man in the Divine nature, (for so an apostle has expressed 
 it,) all this for each man, for all men, for the men of all 
 countries and all times, is of the Jews. No one assuredly 
 will mistake the channel for the source ; and to use the 
 IQ 
 
194 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 terms in their fullest extent, each will repeat with the multi- 
 tude of the redeemed in the Apocalypse, "Salvation to our 
 God ! " Rev. vii. 10. But still the Jews are the channel : 
 if not properly of them, it is by them that salvation comes to 
 us ; and salvation is heaven ; salvation is God himself. 
 
 In the simplicity of its ignorance, ancient poetry repre- 
 sented certain countries as the abode or cradle of the rising 
 sun, as if the sun ever stopped, or any spot in the world 
 could be the witness of its birth and departure. The aurora 
 has no country, the east is every where ; and the countries 
 from which the sun comes to us have seen him come from 
 some other country to which it had in like manner come. 
 But in the world of truth and of grace the rising sun has an 
 abode, and every country is an east. Salvation is of the 
 Jews. Yes, disinherited land, where the smoking flame of 
 the divine wrath alone illumines frightful darkness, thou 
 wast the abode of the rising sun ! yes, unhappy people, pos- 
 terity of another Ham, race so humbled that the most con- 
 temptible think themselves entitled to contemn thee, people 
 sunk in disgrace, from thee our glory comes, we are upstarts 
 loaded with thy spoils and the treasures of thy opulence. 
 Salvation comes from thee. O may salvation return to thee, 
 and may this West which thou hast enlightened become in 
 its turn thy East ( 
 
 "Salvation is of the Jews." But how ? Is it only be- 
 cause the Saviour of men and Shepherd of humanity was 
 born among this people, and in his marvellous infancy drew 
 nourishment from the breast of a. Jewess ? Is it because 
 thirty-three years of his earthly existence were spent in 
 Judea 1 because eternal truth proceeded from his lips in the 
 language of the descendants of Jacob ? because the first 
 disciples of the Master belonged also to this extraordinary 
 people ? because the first germ of the Christian Church and 
 the niodern world was thrown among that dust which the 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS. 195 
 
 blood of Jesus was to dye and fertilize ? Is it because Geth- 
 semane is Jewish, and Calvary Jewish, and because a Jew- 
 ish tree furnished the accursed wood to which the Divine 
 Champion of humanity was nailed ? Is it. in fine, (Oh, 
 dreadful !) because the sons of Abraham, with their own 
 hands, planted this tree of death, attached the beneficent 
 hands of Christ to its horrible branches, and under the blood 
 which fell from it drop by drop, placed their own heads and 
 those of their children ? Is it only in such senses as these 
 that salvation is of the Jews ? This is the question before 
 us, and we will now endeavor to answer it. 
 
 I have already said, and I now repeat, that if " salvation 
 is of the Jews," it is not, it cannot be in the same sense in 
 which "salvation cometh from the Lord." Two declara- 
 tions of the Gospel cannot contl-adict each other ; and the 
 elect speaking in heaven cannot belie Jesus Christ speaking 
 on the earth. Salvation is of the Jews, as the water of a 
 stream comes from a hollow basin in the rock at the top of a 
 mountain. There the water is collected, and from thence it 
 flows. The Jewish people is this basin, this reservoir, this 
 immense cup in which the living waters of salvation were 
 gradually collected. But these waters are the waters of 
 heaven, which have slowly distilled them into this cup or 
 basin. We all understand this : let us proceed. 
 
 This truth being established, and the word is being re- 
 duced to its true meaning, we might begin by availing our- 
 selves of an idea which is pretty generally diffused, and of 
 which our age boasts the discovery ; I mean, that each 
 people is the bearer or representative of an idea ; and that 
 each idea, in order to fix itself in the world, in order to be- 
 come in the course of time a blessing to humanity, has need 
 of a people. It is true that the individual actings of some 
 eminent person, prophet, captain, or legislator, are discerned 
 in the history of each idea, and often even to such a degree 
 
196 GOS 'EL STUDIES. 
 
 that the idea takes the name of that individual. But we 
 must not deceive ourselves : the individual did not invent but 
 find ; he has not so much taught his people as been taught 
 by them ; all become his disciples, but he began by being 
 the disciple of all. It is their own peculiar thought that he 
 has unfolded. What is peculiar to him is his having pro- 
 nounced the magic word, and while giving to his contempo- 
 raries a consciousness of their instincts, to have given them 
 a will — an immense gift, for to give a will is to give life, is 
 to engender and become a parent. But still it holds true in 
 this case as in every other of a similar nature. If there is 
 a father, there is a mother also : the father is the thought of 
 an individual, the mother is the instinct of all. Thought 
 has converted instinct into a determinate will, a firm purpose, 
 and from that moment the'nation has lived. 
 
 Be this as it may, each people has found its idea, and 
 each idea its people. This means that, in order to cultivate 
 and bring to perfect growth an idea, which elsewhere exist- 
 ed only in the bud, there has been found a people or race, 
 and in this race or this people an individual. Nations, in 
 their intercourse, have bartered their ideas as they do the 
 products of their soil. No people produces all ideas, just as 
 no soil produces all plants : each may be said to bring only 
 some one to maturity, and so long as it is in the course of 
 being formed and located, it allows no other to take place 
 beside it : it is intolerant and exclusive. Human weakness 
 seeming to require that it should be so, it becomes imper- 
 ative. 
 
 Now it cannot be doubted that an exclusive or merely 
 exaggerated idea is an error. In a certain point of view, 
 therefore, each people seems destined to cultivate an error. 
 Deplorable, but too true conclusion ! Let us never forget, 
 however, that error in matters of idea never is, and never 
 can be any thing but a fragment of truth ; and looking from 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS. 197 
 
 another point of view, let us say that each people cultivates 
 a truth at the expense of all other truths, but it is always to 
 a people that the adnninistration of this truth is intrusted. 
 Thus considered with reference to humanity at large, each 
 people is the head of a school, and so to speak, a system. 
 
 Such is the uniform law. And now, if each partial truth 
 has had a people to represent it in the world, might not the 
 whole truth, the truth which contains all truth, and by which 
 alone, properly speaking, other things are true, in conformity 
 to this great law, also have a people for its apostle ? This is 
 the question. 
 
 This people, apostle, prophet, and pontiff, this people, 
 teacher of all other nations and of humanity, some will with- 
 out much difficulty admit, while others will absolutely deny. 
 I say that some will admit, namely, those who, regarding 
 the truth as the result of a juxtaposition or a judicious com- 
 bination of all partial truths, will consider it possible, and 
 even, in the course of ages inevitable, definitively to concen- 
 trate all the elements of which, in their opinion, truth is 
 compounded. To ascertain whether this concentration has 
 already been effected ; whether the time has come for clos- 
 ing accounts, is a question of fact : but, as regards them, the 
 principle is not in question, and it will be seen immediately 
 that they grant us more than we ask. Moreover, there is in 
 the world a powerful and numerous body, with whom the 
 question of fact has long been settled. What is that which 
 is improperly called the Church, and ought to be called the 
 Roman Hierarchy, but a people, or at least a tribe, who pre- 
 tend to possess the truth, and arrogate to themselves the ex- 
 clusive right of dispensing it? Now to possess the truth is 
 to possess salvation, provided there be such a thing as sal- 
 vation. 
 
 I have said that others will absolutely refuse what these 
 grant. They will say that the truth is not the successive 
 
198 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 juxtaposition of all partial truths. They will say that truth, 
 like the seamless robe of our Lord, is one and indivisible. 
 They will say that it cannot be obtained by sewing all truths 
 together. They will say that in order thus to see them, it 
 would be necessary to possess them, and that we possess 
 them not so long as we have not the supreme truth from 
 which they proceed. They will say that that which makes a 
 nation fit for cultivating a particular truth, unfits it for culti- 
 vating all truths at once, or, which comes to the same thing, 
 the truth of truths, seeing that it is precisely this exclusive- 
 ness that determines the character of a people, determines 
 the bent, and consequently the power, of its will. Thus the 
 supposition, that a nation might be the depositary of supreme 
 truth, fails. According to the nature of things, then, there 
 is nothing common between nationality and truth ; and, 
 though it may have been said with reason, that each great 
 people has been the representative, or if you will the prophet, 
 of an idea, we cannot say of any people that it is, or will be, 
 the prophetical people in the absolute sense of the term. No 
 people, then, considered as a people, is the people of truth, 
 and consequently salvation, which is closely united to truth, 
 cannot come from any people. 
 
 Our opinion lies between these two extremes, or rather 
 adopts the second under modification. We do not see any 
 thing common between a people as such, and truth. Truth 
 can only take up a position, can only dwell in the individual, 
 inasmuch as the individual alone is organized, I say not to 
 create, but to perceive the truth. Nationality, left to itself, 
 is not qualified for the part which some would make it play. 
 But I do not say this of nationality pldfced, by an extraor- 
 dinary dispensation, in extraordinary circumstances. Such 
 may communicate to a people, not the nature and properties 
 of an individual, but aptitude to receive, preserve, and trans- 
 mit the deposit of truth. God takes this people to himself. 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS. 199 
 
 and makes it his in the strictest acceptation of the term. 
 First, he raises it from the dust as he raised the first man; 
 he creates, fashions, and appropriates it in a special sense, 
 and in an effectual manner. He speaks to it as one man 
 speaks to another, he makes it at every moment feel his pre- 
 sence, which he evinces by miraculous signs ; he governs 
 and directs it immediately ; in one vi^ord, in regard to this 
 people, he substitutes evidence for conviction, and sight for 
 faith, could such a substitution take place absolutely without 
 annihilating both human morality and faith, which is, in all 
 cases and in ail senses, the principle of morality. This ex- 
 traordinary government is what is called Theocracy, or the 
 personal government of God. All primitive nations have 
 pretended to enjoy it. Theocracy is the universal claim of 
 ancient nationalities, k lies at the foundation of all forms 
 of government. A chimera, no doubt it is, but one which 
 once at least has been a reality. There has been a people 
 who were the people of God, and who, in circumstances in 
 which there was no room for deception, distinctly heard the 
 voice of God himself; thus becoming the depositary of his 
 divine oracles, and exemplifying sovereign truth in its insti- 
 tutions and its laws. 
 
 Observe, that to make it the people of God it is sufficient 
 that it has heard the voice of God, and been well assured 
 that it was his voice. This idea leaves no room for more 
 particular ideas. It necessarily becomes the characteristic 
 idea of this people. Theocracy is necessarily the governing 
 and guiding principle of a theocratic people ; and you will 
 see that when God reigns personally, when the people exists 
 not only by him but for him, when, in fine, his will is reason, 
 and his glory the end of all things, when civil life at every 
 instant and under all forms is legally only a worship, no idea 
 stands prominently forth among other ideas. All the ele- 
 ments of which in very different proportions the moral life 
 
200 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 of a people can be composed, balance each other under the 
 empire of a sovereign principle which puts every thing in 
 its proper place, and arranges while overruling all. 
 
 Observe again, that, in the case which has been supposed, 
 there is nothing tending to consecrate the false and dangerous 
 principle which arbitrarily fixes a relation between national- 
 ity and truth. Here in fact we have not a nation which con- 
 ceives an idea, but a nation which receives it. The nation 
 cannot even in this case be likened to a mother who may say 
 to the child to whom she has given birth, This being is part 
 of myself. No, the nation is here completely passive, like 
 the basin which receives the waters of heaven, or the chan- 
 nel in which they flow. It is a locality for truth, a haven, 
 an asylum, and, moreover, this asylum is temporary. This 
 rule of theocracy, which is true, and alone true, if we look 
 only to the idea of which it is the symbol, the sovereign 
 authority of God, is, however, in regard to application and 
 detail, only a symbolical and preparatory rule, since man 
 does not rise to his full ^dignity without liberty, which theo- 
 cratic rule checks and suspends. 
 
 But still, you will say, why curb, why suspend it ? It 
 is proved to us that a people may become the depositary of 
 truth, God making it capable of being so : but will God do 
 all that he can ? Why this halting of truth in nationality ? 
 Why, instead of those preliminaries and delays, not proceed 
 at once to the worship in spirit and in truth, which ceases to 
 attach the truth to a particular spot, and confine it to a 
 nation ? Was it then necessary that truth should lay aside 
 its wings, and, instead of reaching each soul like a ray 
 across space, humbly plod along our dusty roads, and follow 
 the path which human thought has pointed out ? In two 
 words, why was it necessary that truth should be at first 
 national, the aflfair of a people, or race, or tribe ? 
 
 Another objection is made j it is asked if in fact sovereign 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS. 201 
 
 truth, all truth, was confided to the Jewish people, and not 
 rather a particular truth, a part of truth. 
 
 It is asked, in fine, if salvation does not resolve itself into 
 the free and candid acceptance of salvation ; if salvation is 
 not wholly included in the person and work of Jesus Christ, 
 and consequently if the Jewish people is not here a mere 
 supernumerary. If so, how could Jesus Christ say that 
 salvation is of the Jews ? 
 
 We will not answer these objections in the order in which 
 they may naturally present themselves to our mind. The 
 examination of the last will gradually give that of the other 
 two. 
 
 Salvation, it is said, is nothing else than Jesus Christ 
 received into the soul. Let Jesus Christ and the soul but 
 meet ; this circumstance alone constitutes salvation. What 
 then has the Jewish people to do in a case so simple and in- 
 dividual, and how can it be said that salvation isof the Jews ? 
 
 Yes, you say well, — Let Jesus Christ and the soul meet, 
 it is enough. But how, at what cost has your soul obtained 
 this meeting ? I suspect you do not know. 
 
 When under the burning heat of a mid-day sun your 
 strength and even your life are fainting away from oppressive 
 thirst, should you happen to fall in with a river, and a little 
 of its water, a drop, perhaps, restores and revives you : you 
 bless the drop of water, for it was it, not the stream, that 
 refreshed you. You did not drink from the stream. But 
 did not the stream furnish the drop of water, and but for the 
 stream could you have drank at all 1 But for this would 
 not the sand have absorbed it perhaps twenty leagues off? 
 This volume of water from which you were not to drink was 
 necessary to carry along the drop which you drank ; thus, 
 every thing considered, it was the river that saved you. 
 
 In the same way, in a spiritual sense, it is the Church 
 which saves you, because it gives you Jesus Christ. Far be 
 10* 
 
202 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 from us the Popish error according to which the Church 
 believes in God, and each Christian in the Church. We 
 joyfully maintain that the relations of the believer with the 
 living water, which is Christ, are immediate ; and that the 
 Church, in other words, the Christian commcStiwealth, during 
 successive ages, is the torrent or river which brings to us the 
 name, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and so to speak, Jesus 
 Christ himself. Without the Church there is no Christianity 
 and no Christians. Unless those tears of heaven find a bed 
 to collect them, unless all these drops of living water become 
 a stream, the ground absorbs and retains them, and the truth 
 does not reach you. The very book which contains them is 
 altered, forgotten, or perishes ; and without an entirely new 
 revelation, without a miracle incessantly repeated, you 
 remain in ignorance and death. The Church, by its volume 
 and its weight, forms a current which carries it forward, and 
 bears to each of you that word, that name, that invisible 
 element which, incorporating itself with you, renews your 
 whole being. And in what condition has this current been 
 formed ? Do you not know ? Look well at those waves, 
 red with human blood, and darkened by the ashes of funeral 
 piles. The perpetuity of truth ! A thousand combats have 
 paid for it. Suffering goes before prescription, pain is the 
 mortar of this everduring edifice. You say that a Christian 
 word pronounced by friendly lips, a single passage of the 
 Bible, less perhaps than that, has converted you. But what 
 formed around you that Christian atmosphere which you 
 have not been able to avoid breathing 1 what created in your 
 heart those spiritual wants of which before the Gospel there 
 was no idea ? what prepared for this hour of silence and 
 reflection the mysterious agency, the hidden influence to 
 which you yielded ? Though you knew it not it was the 
 Church ; and if you believe me you will understand, perhaps 
 for the first time, the importance which the Apostles and 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS. 203 
 
 Jesus Christ himself attach to the idea of the Church, that 
 living and continual personification of the whole body of 
 believers, and the remarkable prepossession which so often 
 leads the sacred writers to speak of the Church where you 
 would have spoken only of the soul. In fact, your Christi- 
 anity, how individual soever it may be, (and in my opinion 
 it never can be too much so,) is extracted from, is stamped, 
 so to speak, by the Christianity of sixty generations ; the 
 Christian as well as the physical man carries in his veins 
 the blood of tens of thousands, whose successive and com- 
 bined alliances issue and terminate in him. Ages and 
 nations have labored for each of you ; each of you is an 
 heir of antiquity, and the work of a whole world. 
 
 This prepares us for listenin<r, without surprise, to the 
 words of my text, " Salvation is of the Jews." Why, since 
 each of us proceeds from the Church, should not the Church 
 itself proceed from the Jews ? Why should not the Church, 
 for which each of us has been prepared, have been also 
 prepared ? If it is not too much for a whole world to 
 give birth to one of the elect, would it be too much for a 
 people to give birth to all the elect, or to the great body from 
 whom all the elect are taken ? But, admirable circum- 
 stance ! as every thing ends with the individual, every thing 
 proceeds from the individual. For if before being spiritually 
 born each of us is in the bowels of the Church, and the 
 Church herself in the bowels of the Jewish nation, this 
 whole nation was in the loins, or rather, in the heart of the 
 father of the faithful. Abraham is the father of us all. 
 
 Yes, I admit, the work of salvation resolves itself into a 
 fact strictly individual ; and this fact, multiplied by the 
 Divine mercy, is properly the object of redemption. For, 
 though the righteous must form a society in heaven, the ex- 
 cellence of this society consists in the individual holiness of 
 its members, and has no other measure. For, if the work 
 
204 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 of salvation is a fact strictly individual, it depends on general 
 causes ; it connects itself with a vast body of facts, in such 
 a way that every individual who believes he has received 
 the gift of salvation can and must say. My salvation is of the 
 Jews. 
 
 Salvation consists, it is said, in the acceptance of an un- 
 conditional pardon. It should rather be said that it is summed 
 up or terminates in it, just as lines proceeding from the four 
 corners of the immense base of a pyramid meet in a single 
 indivisible point at its apex. Salvation, after all, includes 
 and presupposes many different things ; and it is thus that 
 the ancient posterity of Jacob find a place in the work of in- 
 dividual salvation. 
 
 This proposition would be too easily defended if we could 
 say, as many perhaps would say, that Jesus Christ, the 
 author of salvation, is only the last expression and final de- 
 velopment of the wisdom of the Jewish people ; so that this 
 people becomes our saviour in the person of the most perfect 
 representative of the Jews, Him who is by way of eminence 
 the ideal Jew. But we will not speak thus. It is not by 
 the wisdom of his people, nor even his personal wisdom, that 
 Jesus Christ is the Saviour of those who attach themselves 
 to him. He is so by himself individually and by his whole 
 person. It is not because he is a Jew, but because he is 
 God manifest in the flesh, the Word become incarnate, the 
 ineflTable union of human nature with the Divine essence. 
 His wisdom is his own ; and, far from having been taught it 
 by his people, he himself, the divine Word, has at all times 
 taught his people by the mouth of the prophets. And yet it 
 is impossible to mistake the spirit of the Divine government. 
 His uniform method is not to do any thing precipitately, not 
 to leave gaps in history, and suppress means and prepara- 
 tives. His miracles, when he performed them, served only 
 to widen a path which had been already opened. Jesus 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS. ®0& 
 
 Christ, who acted by the Spirit of God, is a proof of this. 
 He did no miracles, except to encourage faith ; and did few 
 where little faith was found. Matt. xiii. 58. 
 
 Although, in one sense, nothing can serve as a prepara- 
 tion to the incarnation of the eternal Word, the instruction 
 contained in the books of the ancient covenant is neverthe- 
 less a progressive instruction, which, from epoch to epoch, 
 leads us gradually forward towards the Gospel. The law 
 in the letter you see succeeded by the law in the Spirit, a 
 ritual worship by the religion of the heart, legislation by 
 prophecy, justice by love, bondage by freedom, the idea of 
 salvation by works by the idea of salvation by faith. As 
 prophet follows prophet, who sees not how the horizon is 
 streaked with light, how the east is kindling up, and the first 
 rays of the star of day darting from behind the hills ? Sac- 
 rifice, to him who sees not in it a symbol of the future, is, 
 as it were, abolished in the mind before being abolished in 
 itself. Moses intervening, had, so to speak, interrupted Abra- 
 ham. Abraham reappears ; the spirit of Abraham is seen 
 across the anathemas of the law, and the law itself, by 
 causing sin to abound, is preparing men to desire and re- 
 ceive grace. The sole object of grace is still absent, but he 
 is already designated and characterized by prophecy. This 
 new prophet is not yet called by his name. An articulate 
 description is not yet given, either of all the circumstances of 
 his advent or all the clauses of his covenant, but at length 
 he is revealed as the prophet of grace, of love, and of free- 
 will : as the deliverer, the founder of worship in Spirit and 
 in truth ; as, moreover, the messenger, the Son of God. He 
 is heir av once of the miseries of man and of the love of 
 God. The religion of love furnishes a foretaste ; the air of 
 liberty is already breathed ; the depths of mercy are stirred, 
 and the human heart begins to cherish unknown hopes. 
 Every thing in these successive revelations is compact, logi- 
 
206 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 cal, and regular ; the progress of opinion among a people 
 left to themselves, would not be more so, would perhaps be 
 less ; so that when the king arrives, there is a people ready 
 to receive and proclaim him. He is born in purple, and 
 reigns from his cradle. 
 
 This people which waits for the Saviour, which bears 
 testimony to him, and will be the first fruits of the great 
 people which he is to gather out of every tribe, and tongue, 
 and nation, could only be drawn from the bosom of the 
 Jewish people. He is its chosen one, its pure essence ; he 
 is the ideal Jewish people, the Israel of God. Israel accord- 
 ing to the flesh is to this Israel according to the spirit what 
 the tree is to the blessed branches which will be divinely 
 ingrafted into it. Into what then, if not into the tree, will 
 the branches be ingrafted ? With what care and sage 
 lingering precaution has this people been prepared ! How 
 miraculous, and at the same time how natural its formation 
 and growth ! What travail in mind accompanies the travail 
 of God in his word ! During all the dispensations, all the 
 vicissitudes of which the history of the Jewish people is 
 comprised, how do the religious ideas of the chosen people 
 become matured, strengthened, and purified ! How well 
 Divine Providence has guarded against precipitation, and 
 adapted its pace to that of the human mind ! How carefully 
 it allows each experiment to finish its course, each idea to 
 take its time, each error to exhaust itself. How completely 
 dead is the old economy when the new commences, and how 
 completely the whole necessary circuit has been compassed 
 when Jesus Christ arrives ! 
 
 But let us speak not only of that spiritual people in which, 
 from the most ancient times, Jesus Christ recognized his 
 Church. The Jewish people, taken as a whole, received of 
 God the education necessary to be the forerunner of Christ 
 amonor the nations. It is true indeed that a fatal division is 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS. 207 
 
 about to break forth in its bosom on the appearance of the 
 Saviour: the thoughts of many hearts are about to be re- 
 vealed ; those will be known who under the name of friends 
 of God were in their hearts only the enemies of the human 
 race ; they will crucify the Friend of the human race. As 
 others will at a later period turn the grace of God into licen- 
 tiousness, so do these the law of God. The one fact is 
 neither more nor less astonishing than the other ; but it 
 matters not. This people, to whom were intrusted the 
 oracles of God, carries in its mind, solemnizes in its rites, 
 reflects in its manners, the elementary ideas on which the 
 Gospel is founded ; alone among the nations it believes, seri- 
 ously and effectually believes, that God is, and that he is the 
 rewarder of them that seek him. These truths, which are the 
 patrimony of this people, it has in its different dispersions car- 
 ried with it over the world. It has sown them in the land of 
 the heathen. Despised as it was, it has succeeded in accus- 
 toming the nations to the idea, the unheard of idea, of one 
 living and holy God. This was essentially to prepare them 
 for Jesus Christ. And when Christianity, after having 
 collected in Judea all that belonged to it, after having 
 gathered around it the elite of the Jewish people, or rather 
 the true Jewish people, makes ready to conquer Europe, 
 beginning with the ancient kingdom of that Alexander who 
 conquered Asia, it finds over the whole Roman world ad- 
 vanced posts, citadels, intrenched camps in those portions of 
 Israel, in those Jewish colonies which Divine Providence 
 had scattered up and down upon the earth, and which uni- 
 formly became the first Christian Churches. Thus, in the 
 full truth of the expression, the Jewish people, even with- 
 out counting the apostles who were all Jews, becomes the 
 prophetical people, and proclaims to the world the praises 
 of Him who has called it out of darkness into his marvellous 
 light. Legal Jews, Pharisees, followers of John, all become 
 
208 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 the first conquest of Jesus Christ, and in his name the first 
 conquerors of the world which is given him. 
 
 But it is not enough to carry into the world the name of 
 Him whom their fathers have pierced, they also do much in 
 carrying their history into it. This history is the heritage 
 and treasure of the human race j it is the first of the two 
 revelations of which Jesus Christ is the second. That the 
 convert to Jesus Christ should only see, should during a time 
 only know the second revelation, that he should not in a man- 
 ner know what to make of the first, may be conceived ; but , 
 it is nevertheless true, that the second revelation is incom- 
 plete without the first ; that not only because the first reve- 
 lation contains the titles of the second, because the types and 
 the oracles of the Old Testament speak clearly of Jesus 
 Christ, because a whole people and a whole history prophesy 
 of him aloud, because in the dispensations of which this 
 people is the object every thing converges, aspires, leads to 
 him. All this although important is not suflicient to give an 
 account of the whole history of this people. But if God 
 had never taken to himself a people, as he took the Jews ; if 
 he had never exemplified in a human society the idea of his 
 absolute, direct, exclusive sovereignty ; if once at least, or 
 at least in one place, the empire of God, the law of God, the 
 providence of God, had been displayed untrammelled, and 
 manifested without obscurity ; in other words, if while pos- 
 sessing the New Testament we had not possessed the Old, 
 (Jesus Christ being present in the Old Covenant as in the 
 New, whatever some may say to the contrary,) Jesus Christ, 
 the Word of the two dispensations, would not teach us all 
 that he now teaches. The Old Testament is the first chapter 
 of the history of man and the history of God. The experi- 
 ence of the Jews is our experience. It is for us that we see 
 this people alternately gathered together and forsaken, 
 scourged and^blest. Not that they are not loved for them- 
 
ONli NATION AND ALL NATIONS. 209 
 
 selves, and for the fathers' sakes, as St. Paul says ; but in 
 the marvellous guidance of this people, God was preparing 
 an immortal lesson for the whole human race. Not only the 
 doctrine preached to the Jewish people, but more especially 
 their history constitutes the treasure of all ages and nations; 
 because as history, it not only teaches, it estahlishes what 
 God is, and what man is, to what extent God's authority is 
 absolute, and his law sacred ; and, in fine, it establishes the 
 active, determinate, and paternal manner in which God con- 
 stantly interposes in human affairs. It will not be denied 
 that the knowledge of the truth is an element of salvation. 
 Now the truths to which I have just referred, are at the 
 foundation of evangelical truth, and form part of it. Chris- 
 tian truth forms a whole, just as Biblical truih forms a whole. 
 Neither the one nor other is divisible ; the whole must be 
 taken, or the whole left ; and when once we understand that 
 the Jews are the types of mankind ; that they have been 
 taken like a specimen among plants, to explain the nature, 
 the condition, and the laws of the whole species ; when each 
 one of us shall consider what has been done to the Jewish 
 people as if it had been done to himself; when we shall be 
 able to see ourselves in the person of Israel, delivered from 
 Egypt with a strong hand, crossing the Red Sea, miracu- 
 lously fed in the desert, introduced by force of arm into 
 Canaan, alternately rebellious and penitent, humbled and 
 elevated, at war with the inflexibility of a perfect law and at 
 the same time the object of ineffable solicitude, it will no 
 longer be possible for us to believe that this people has ex- 
 isted in vain, or that we owe nothing to this people, or that 
 we could have dispensed with it. And then collecting in 
 our mind all these truths at once, each saying to himself: 
 The history of this people is my liistory, the history of this 
 people is the history of God ; this people carried in its bosom, 
 as a mother does, that other chosen and blessed people whom 
 
210 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 Jesus Christ on coming into the world found ready to receive 
 him ; the Jewish people foretold the great truths which pre- 
 pare for receiving Gospel truth ; the Jewish people was the 
 first and necessary propagation of the Gospel ; the Jewish 
 people at the commencement of Christianity could alone bear 
 witness to Jesus Christ ; the Jewish people, choosing or re- 
 jecting him, is the immortal witness of the Saviour ; — I say 
 that a Christian after having considered all these things will 
 have no repugnance to repeat. Salvation, my own salvation, 
 is of the Jews ! 
 
 People who murdered their God ! we sometimes exclaim 
 in sorrowful indignation ; prophetical people, let us more 
 willingly say, symbolical people, destined to consecrate even 
 while resisting the principles of the Divine government, and 
 to preserve, while concentrating and bringing near to each 
 other, the blessed germs from which the happiness of the 
 world was to spring ! The wisdom of God is infinitely 
 varied, but his work is one ; and because it is divine, it con- 
 tains nothing but what is necessary and essential. It was 
 necessary in order that this individual, lost apparently in the 
 abyss of time and the mass of humanity, should know, adore, 
 and serve Jesus Christ ; and in order that in an obscure and 
 perhaps unperceived existence, he should contribute to the 
 glory of his Creator, it was necessary that there should be a 
 Jewish people. Without this people the waters of grace, 
 shed at hazard on the earth, and every where absorbed and 
 lost, would never have formed that deep, limpid, and irre- 
 sistible current which, flowing at a later period in a new 
 channel, has formed the current of the Christian Church. 
 The first people was necessary to form the second, of which 
 you form part, and without which you could not exist. 
 Thus the whole is linked together; thus, alternately, the 
 great proceeds from the little and the little from the great, 
 the general from the particular and the particular from the 
 
ONE NATION AND ALL NATIONS. 211 
 
 general. Thus from the individual was born the people, and 
 conversely, from the people will be born the individual. At 
 the outset Abraham, at the end yourself, and between, so 
 as to unite you to your origin, a nation and a Church, the 
 Jewish people and the Christian people. Such is the provi- 
 dence of God, who, from heaven, as the Psalmist says, 
 beholds all things, the highest and the lowest, the atom and 
 the universe, all and each, worlds and me. 
 
 Here I cannot help turning your attention to another text 
 of Scripture : " The diminishing of them," says St. Paul in 
 speaking of the Jews, "is the riches of the Gentiles." Rom. 
 xi. 12. If there is an offence in these words, it is easy to 
 remove it. As a people, that is, as a political society or 
 race, the Jews could not become the new people, the wholly 
 spiritual people. Under the rule of complete liberty, which 
 is that of complete truth, on the individual resuming his 
 rights, nationality loses its privilege. The new economy 
 behooved to open by an appeal to individuality, and this 
 appeal necessarily led to a diminution. Alas ! a diminution 
 so considerable, that St. Paul at the same place terms it a 
 falling aivay of the Jewish people. If this diminution is not 
 in itself the cause of the riches of the world, it is at least an 
 inevitable condition of them. The new people could not be 
 enlarged, or even formed, except at the cost of the diminution 
 of the old people ; the world could not be enriched except by 
 the poverty of Israel. Thenceforward the prophetic people 
 appears to me as a victimized people. But it is not so for 
 ever. It must be gathered anew, and is gathered every 
 day ; but it is after the manner of the new people, according 
 to the principle of individuality, and according to the law of 
 liberty. This illustrious race, to which pertained the adop- 
 tion, and the glory, and the covenants, the ordinance of the 
 law, divine service, and the promises ; this race from which 
 Christ is descended, is not destined to be for ever among the 
 
212 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 nations a deplorable monument of the Divine anger. After 
 having seen its diminution, tiie world will see its fulness. 
 If their diminishing, says the Apostle, is our riches, what 
 will their fulness be ? When the fulness of Israel shall have 
 returned to the fold, will not Israel again be a prophetic 
 people ? Will not the accomplishment of this promise be to 
 itself as a testimony of the Divine faithfulness, an admonitor 
 to all nations, and a powerful call upon all to faith and 
 obedience ; and will not this people, as marvellous in its 
 restoration as in its fall, be again, and more than ever, a 
 powerful leaven to leaven the mass of humanity ? In every 
 case, its fulness will be our joy and consolation. None of 
 us acquiesce in the idea that God has for ever rejected the 
 instrument of the world's deliverance ; and we have no 
 difficulty in entering into the spirit of those passages, as 
 explicit as numerous, in which, long before the falling and 
 diminution, fulness was prophesied, and in which the God of 
 Abraham sheds on the descendants of Abraham all the 
 treaures of his immortal tenderness. The meaning of the 
 prophecy still remains vailed to the unhappy posterity of 
 Jacob ; but the time will at length come when, the vail 
 being taken away, they as well as we will clearly compre- 
 hend the following affecting words : " Behold, I have graven 
 thee upon the palms of my hands ; thy walls are continually 
 before me. Thy children shall make haste. ... As I live, 
 saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, 
 as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. 
 For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy 
 destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the 
 inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far 
 away." Isa. xlix. 16-19. 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIANISM. 
 
 " Mercy and truth are met together." — Psalm Ixxxv. 10. 
 
 Among the charges which have been brought against Chris- 
 tianity, (and what charges have not been brought ?) there is 
 one which in our day seems to be specially insisted on : it is 
 that Christianity appeals too exclusively to the love of happi- 
 ness, and is in open league with the selfishness of the human 
 heart. No charge can be more grave, since, if it is well- 
 founded, it leaves Christianity destitute of the highest merit 
 to which all religion lays claim, namely, that of rendering 
 us better, this being possible only by detaching us from our- 
 selves. Christianity would thus have aggravated the evil 
 which it was its business to cure; and, instead of merely 
 saying that it does not fulfil its end, we should be obliged to 
 say that it runs counter to its end, the very end of all reli- 
 gion, and there is no mere human morality which is not pre- 
 ferable to it, since all human morality, the most elementary 
 and least elevated, means at least what Christianity on this 
 view has not meant. 
 
 It must also be observed, that the men who bring this 
 charge against Christianity are not generally infidels of a 
 
214 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 low class, mere vulgar beings. Some seem to be men of 
 gravity, and the greater part of them men accustomed to re- 
 flect ; the very nature of their objection seems to speak favor- 
 ably of their character. The charges which the mass of 
 unbelievers bring against the Gospel are of quite a different 
 nature ; and prior to discussion, we feel disposed to give the 
 preference to those to whom Christianity seems deficient in 
 spirituality and disinterestedness, over those who object to it 
 because it does not gratify carnal sense and worldly incli- 
 nations. 
 
 But, in fine, brethren, whatever be the character of each, 
 and however unequally our esteem may be divided between 
 them, it is no less strange that Christianity should have en- 
 countered two charges so opposite to each other — that of ex- 
 acting too much self-denial, and that of exacting too little. 
 Might we not answer the charge of the latter by the com- 
 plaint of the former, that old complaint which began with 
 Christianity, and has been heard ever since ? And might we 
 not afterwards meet the former with the complaint of the lat- 
 ter, and ask those who charge religion with harsh require- 
 ments, how it happens that others charge it with conniving 
 at our selfish inclinations ? Is it not probable that a religion 
 against which two contradictory charges are made, does not, 
 in fact, deserve either of them, and that these charges by 
 their contradiction only prove one thing, namely, that Chris- 
 tianity, in regard to its demands and its concessions, has stop- 
 ped at the very point at which it ought to have stopped. 
 This were only to reason and conclude as all the world does 
 in a similar case. When we hear two contradictory charges 
 brought against an individual, our first impression is, that 
 neither charge is well-founded, and that he is equally remov- 
 ed from both the excesses of which he is accused. On 
 stronger grounds might we thus judge of Christianity. For 
 after all, the same man may, at different times and with dif- 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIANISM. 215 
 
 ferent persons, be prodigal or avaricious, lethargic or pas- 
 sionate, and alternately merit the charges which could not 
 be applicable to him at the same time. But Christianity is 
 not a man, who may at different times differ from himself. 
 It is a doctrine, which changes not with times, or more pro- 
 perly it is a fact, performed once for all, and which cannot 
 from epoch to epoch be invested with a different character. 
 So that, always similar to itself, it could not deserve to be 
 censured for one thing to-day, and for its opposite to-morrow. 
 Therefore, when it is attacked on both grounds, we must be- 
 lieve one of two things — either that an institution composed 
 of two principles which contradict and destroy each other, 
 may long exist and prosper contrary to the old maxim, " that 
 a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand;" or, that the 
 two charges brought against Christianity are equally un- 
 founded, and that between the two extremes alleged, it has 
 kept the proper medium. You will judge, brethren, which 
 of these two suppositions is the more reasonable. 
 
 But shall we confine ourselves to this reply, or even have 
 recourse to it ? No, brethren ; for so far from repelling these 
 two charges in the name of Christianity, we in its name ac- 
 cept both of them. We even go farther than they do. In our 
 opinion, it is not going far enough to say that Christianity 
 gives too much to interest, or too much to duty. Too much, 
 a little too much, greatly too much, are vague terms ; for these 
 we substitute absolute terms. We say, (because it is true,) 
 that Christianity gives every thing to interest, and every thing 
 to duty. And we say that this must be, because Christianity, 
 if it is true, must correspond with human nature in whatever 
 in it is essential and ineffaceable. Against this nature, not 
 against Christianity, ought the charges to have been made. Of 
 the former may it be truly said that it contains two opposite 
 principles, each of which is absolute, and claims possession 
 of the whole soul. It indeed wishes always, and at every 
 
216 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 moment, two contrary things. Observe that we are not here 
 speaking of any individual man, but of human nature. Alas ! 
 how many are there who seem ever to wish but one thing — 
 their interest ! How few who wish at once, or conceive that 
 any union exists between two things so different in appear- 
 ance as their interest and the interest of God ! But what the 
 individual wills not, usually, universally, and uniformly, hu- 
 man nature wills; in other words, there is something in man 
 which urges him at once to seek his happiness, and to make 
 sacrifices; something which tells him at once that he is made 
 to be happy, that he exists for himself and yet belongs not to 
 himself. There is no person who does not find these two 
 feelings, more or less distinctly, at the bottom of his heart. 
 Who wishes to be half happy ? Who thinks he can give half 
 obedience ? Who does not bear within himself an inextin- 
 guishable thirst for happiness, and an inexorable longing for 
 perfection ? And how can we belong equally to these two 
 principles ; in other words, entirely to ourselves, and entirely 
 to duty ? 
 
 Brethren, if we are to be astonished or offended at any 
 thing, it should be first of all at this. Yet no one thinks of 
 upbraiding human nature with this contradiction, because hu- 
 man nature is a fact in which nothing can be changed, and 
 which must be taken as it is. But then, why feel astonished 
 when that which is in man is found also in religion ? Why 
 should religion be suspected for reproducing a phenomenon, 
 and not rather for not reproducing it ? Why should this fact, 
 instead of making us judge it false, not make us presume it 
 true. No doubt it ought not to be satisfied with reproducing 
 contradiction ; no doubt it ought to solve it. But in order to 
 solve it, it must recognize it ; and when you see it, so far from 
 distinguishing these two ineffaceable features in our nature, 
 namely, the need of happiness and the law of sacrifice, avow, 
 ing them boldly and openly, how great is the probability that 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIANISM. 217 
 
 it has found the secret of reconciling them without weaken- 
 ing either the one or the other, or offering the least violence 
 to them ! 
 
 A false religion would escape from the difficulty by deny- 
 ing it ; the true religion recognizes it and avows it. Its task, 
 its triumph, its glory, is not to obscure the terms of the prob- 
 lem, but to harmonize them, to convert into one feeling two 
 feelings hitherto diverse and contradictory. All colors agree 
 in darkness which destroys them all, but all colors melted 
 together form the pure light which is only a union of all col- 
 ors without being itself a color ; for every particular color 
 is a commencement of darkness, and every color carried to 
 the extreme becomes darkness. Well ; there are two facts in 
 human nature which we have singled out as if they were two 
 colors which religion undertakes to melt into one pure light. 
 If religion is true, the second of these elements will under 
 its influence absorb the first and the first absorb the second, 
 holiness resolve itself into happiness, the desire of happiness 
 be satisfied by holiness, the two principles become one same 
 principle, and the two men who are in each of us be no long- 
 er more than a single man. For it is the same being who in 
 each of us aspires to these two things, refuses to be divided, 
 and wishes to find in the two objects of his pursuit, himself, 
 one and entire. They are not two wants, but two names for 
 one same want, which, having at the fall doubled itself, has, 
 so to speak, made us double, created in each of us two dif- 
 ferent men, and given to our life a false character, because 
 the change of our will has not been able to make any change 
 in the nature of things, because every thing in regard to that 
 which is without us has been calculated in accordance with 
 our first condition and not our second, and the change which 
 has taken place in us has not been able to make us find hap- 
 piness in any thing but holiness. 
 
 Thus far, brethren, we understand the matter. Religion 
 11 
 
218 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 finds the love of happiness and the principle of duty separated 
 in us ; and its mission, its masterpiece, is to reunite them. 
 Religion, in other words, God only can do this; but we do 
 not say that religion only can conceive or give us the idea. 
 The idea is not beyond the power of reason. 
 
 The law, you know, is fulfilled in love. Man is what he 
 ought to be, and has fulfilled his destiny, when he loves. Now, 
 setting out from this point that the law is fulfilled in love, we 
 ask if the love of ourselves or happiness is essentially opposed 
 to love, and consequently to the law ? How can this be, see- 
 ing it is the condition and starting point of all love ? How 
 can we love others without loving ourselves ? How can we 
 be alive to what touches them, if nothing touches ourselves? 
 How could we comprehend their situation, their wishes, their 
 hopes, if every situation was indifferent to ourselves, and we 
 were incapable on our own account of forming any wish, or 
 conceiving any hope ? How would there be room for devo- 
 tedness and sacrifice if we did not attach ourselves to any 
 thing, and were indifferent whether we possessed it or not? 
 How could we desire the happiness of others, if the desire of 
 happiness was a stranger to our nature ? How could we en- 
 joy the happiness of others if we did not know what it is to 
 enjoy ? How, in fine, could we be separated from ourselves, 
 which is the property of love, if we were not previously uni- 
 ted to ourselves ? In other word-*, how can we live in others, 
 which is the property of love, if we do not first live in our- 
 selves ? You see, then, that this love of ourselves, so profound, 
 so indestructible, so inseparable from ourselves that we could 
 not ourselves exist without it, and it could not be destroyed 
 without our own destruction, is the prop of all our sentiments, 
 and lies at the foundation of all our affections. But this is 
 not saying enough. It is not only at the foundation of our 
 affections, it mingles with them and penetrates them ; they 
 are full of it. How will you prevent love, love the most gen- 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIANISM. 219 
 
 erous and most pure, from being an interest and attraction ? 
 Does not attraction presuppose some soui'ce of pleasure or of 
 happiness in the object towards which it feels attracted ? Does 
 it not necessarily find happiness in what it loves by the mere 
 act of loving ? Do not these two ideas so correspond that it 
 is impossible to conceive of love without happiness, since an 
 object which did not give any sort of happiness it would be 
 impossible for us to love ? On the other hand, it is very true 
 that there is a contradiction between a premeditated search 
 after our happiness and love. To love from interest is not 
 to love. The terms cannot even be associated. Nevertheless 
 this happiness, without being sought, is found ; what do I say ? 
 was possessed beforehand and resided within. Happiness is 
 not the recompense of love ; it is love itself. Love is full of 
 happiness, is happiness. And now, if you suppose the soul 
 attached, not to some special and passing object which may 
 give it a special and passing happiness, but attached to its 
 law (and which moreover, whether loved or not loved, would 
 nevertheless be for ever its law ;) if you suppose the soul 
 loving its duty, loving holiness, loving God in whom alone all 
 these are contained ; if you make what was its law to become 
 its love, will you not have made its law become its happiness, 
 will you not have ended the war between the two elements 
 of its nature ? will you not have reconciled the love of self 
 with the love of goodness, and happiness with holiness .? And 
 does not this mere supposition make you comprehend that 
 between the love of ourselves, taken in general, and the in- 
 ternal law of duty, there is no essential contradiction, and 
 that there is no necessity of destroying, or even of restricting 
 one of the two elements in order to make way for the other, 
 seeing they are fitted and destined to form in our soul one 
 single and common sentiment ? 
 
 While we say this of the love of ourselves, we do not say 
 it of that other affection which, derived from self-love, is only 
 
220 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 the abuse and corruption of it ; we mean, brethren, selfishness. 
 The distinguishing characteristic of this affection is to seek 
 its satisfaction in the isolation of the individual. And in 
 fact the love of ourselves, in its purity, does not hinder us from 
 uniting with the rest of the sensible creation, whereas selfish- 
 ness separates us. The former expands, the latter contracts ; 
 the former has its limits in all the beings of the world, the 
 latter in ourselves alone ; the former allows us to multiply our 
 existence by sympathy, the latter reduces us to an individual 
 life, which thus reduced, is a death ; the former is a harmony, 
 the latter a discord in the universal concert ; the former is 
 truth, the latter falsehood : in one word, the latter is an abor- 
 tion of the former. Such, brethren, is selfishness, to which 
 every thing is an instrument, and nothing an end but itself. 
 This bastard son of self-love is the father of a numerous 
 and abominable family. Vanity, avarice, voluptuousness, all 
 the passions which carry us back upon ourselves, which im- 
 prison and bury us in ourselves, are the detestable eldest sons 
 of this impure race. But it is not here only that selfishness 
 is reproduced and multiplied ; it is present in all merely na- 
 tural affections. There it easily gains the ascendency, and 
 often exists alone. Alas ! the affection which on earth has be- 
 come the type of love itself, maternal affection, is not always 
 free from selfishness, a selfishness which is sometimes cruel. 
 Brethren, after these considerations we can no longer make 
 it a question whether religion is permitted to make a man 
 happy. It is clear not only that it can, but that it ought ; 
 that if it is true, it cannot but give happiness, and that this is 
 one of the principal evidences of its truth. But while ad- 
 mitting this to be its inevitable result, several will ask if it 
 ought to announce it ; and, if it is worthy of it, to begin by 
 offering it. Is not this, they ask, to appeal to the least noble 
 part of our nature, and to fix our eye on the very point from 
 which it ought to be diverted ? Ought it not first to speak of 
 holiness, and leave happiness to follow in its train ? 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIANISM. 221 
 
 Those who speak thus, brethren, forget what they have just 
 admitted, namely, that happiness is necessarily united to holi- 
 ness, that the tree has long borne its fruits, and that the lives of 
 thousands of Christians have verified the words of our Saviour, 
 *' Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness ;" 
 and that this happiness, or at least peace, which true Chris- 
 tians enjoy, has conducted numbers towards the Gospel which 
 must give them the same experience. So that though the 
 Gospel should not speak of happiness, the happiness of Chris- 
 tians would speak of it. 
 
 But to those Christians themselves whose happiness makes 
 us envy them, and who have become so without having seen 
 or heard other Christians, must not religion have spoken of 
 happiness ? We know it is only too common for men when 
 they invent theories, moral or political, to set out with supposing 
 man as he ought to be rather than as he is. It seems to us, 
 brethren, that something better should be expected from reli- 
 gion, and that sound sense must, if any where, exist in God. 
 Now what is it that characterizes our actual condition ? It is 
 the loss of any relish for holiness, but certainly not the loss of 
 a relish for happiness ; it is not to feel strongly and distinctly 
 enough that happiness is inseparable from holiness, but not, 
 certainly not, to feel strongly and distinctly enough the pro- 
 found and unalterable need of being happy. This is not a 
 sentiment which our fall has enfeebled ; here we are sure of 
 being found, here we are sure of being captivated. Holiness 
 is the goal : and is it from the goal that religion must start? 
 The idea is absurd. By what then can it attract man, or se- 
 cure his attachment without announcing happiness ? Consider 
 well what it is we speak of when we speak of religion. We 
 do not understand by it a knowledge or sentiment which man 
 receives and brings with him into the world at his birth ; we 
 understand a covenant between God and man, superinduced 
 afterwards in order to repair the vice or imperfection of our 
 
222 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 natural condition, and fill up a void in our existence. But 
 how should avoid which God alone can fill up not be felt? 
 And how should this feeling not be one of pain ? How then 
 should not relifrion announce itself as a separation or a rem- 
 edy ? And if it is a manifestation of the love of God toward 
 us, and a medium of this love, how can it be supposed that 
 with such a design God addresses himself* in preference to 
 the least accessible part of our being, and knocks in prefer- 
 ence at the door which we will opeji to him with the greatest 
 difficulty ? Is it not far more probable that his goodness will 
 make him choose as a means of penetrating to our heart that 
 door constantly and widely open of which we have spoken — 
 the need and the love of happiness ? 
 
 To make this innocent attraction a ground of charge 
 against religion would be truly strange. Would it be better 
 to abstain from using the only means which it has at its dispo- 
 sal, and in order to procure suffrages perfectly unimpeachable 
 to be careful to conceal whatever in it is lovely and touch- 
 ing ? Were you to say so, I know not whether you would 
 be more severe on man or on God himself Severe on man, 
 to whom you seem to say, '' It is of no consequence that you 
 require to be counselled ; it matters not that the whole crea- 
 tion, of which you form a part, and whose pains are felt in 
 your bosom, ' groaneth and travaileth,' — It is of no conse- 
 quence that you feel yourselves deprived of true peace, and 
 for ever incapable of all true joy ; your wants are nothing, 
 and your duties every thing, — In the first instance, receive 
 the law ; thereafter let the rest come or not come ; with this 
 religion has no concern." Severe, we said, to God himself, 
 to whom you seem to say, " O infinite love, curb, restrain 
 thyself! Thou only desirest diffusion ; but learn contrac- 
 tion. Thou wishest to speak to man of thy love, speak to 
 him only of thy rights ; thou desirest to win him by mercy, 
 do not win him. Thou mightest inclose him in the meshes of 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIAxMSM. 223 
 
 compassion, allow him to escape. Thou wishest to touch 
 his feelings, touch them not. Do not offer him what he asks, 
 offer him what he asks not. Infinite goodness, be only infi- 
 nite holiness ! Love, be not love !" 
 
 But, my dear hearers, if religion does not address hu- 
 manity in those words of consolation which humanity 
 expects, what will it say ? What in fact is a religion, or 
 what is religion? It is consolation. The most complete 
 collection of the most elevated moral precepts is not a reli- 
 gion. Morality only becomes a religion by hope. To give 
 us a morality, even the most perfect, is not to give us a reli- 
 gion. Religion ought no doubt to contain a pure morality, and 
 a perfect morality ; but morality, taken in itself, and confined 
 to itself, the more perfect it is, is the less a religion. To 
 make us better acquainted with the precepts of the law, is only 
 to enlarge our responsibility and complete our distress. Thus 
 God should have spoken only to produce despair. It is not 
 enough that religion thus offers no attraction, it must as a 
 consequence inspire terror. In fact you must come to this, 
 you cannot stop half way. Not wishing it to be amiable, 
 you must make it dreadful. 
 
 Examine the condition of the human race still more at- 
 tentively. It requires not merely to be consoled but to be 
 reassured. You are aware that the misery of man consists 
 not merely in feeling himself far beneath the idea which he 
 forms of his destination ; it consists, moreover, (though this 
 is akin to the former,) it consists in feeling that he is justly 
 and irrevocably deprived of the favor of the God whom he 
 has offended ; in other words, in being obliged to figure to 
 himself under different forms (and here how great the force 
 of forms, images, and words !) his God as an angry God 
 alienated from him ; it consists in acknowledging that with 
 God, the sovereign good, true life and eternity will be lost; 
 in feeling himself, though alive, the prey of death ; in expe- 
 
224 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 riencing here below the gnawings of the worm that dieth 
 not, and the fire that never shall be quenched. It is vain to 
 disguise or extenuate the fact ; such is the situation in the 
 horrible reality of which conscience is continually placing 
 us. Such is the subject of the first question which man puts 
 to religion, and, not to disappoint his expectation, religion 
 must at the outset either offer or promise reconciliation. We 
 say, brethren, that it must, and that a religion which does 
 not do so, which does not begin with this, is not a religion. 
 We say that, supposing man not to know, it would be useless 
 to acquaint him with the truth in regard to his destiny and 
 his duty, without having previously assured him that God 
 receives him into favor, that his life will be judged with a 
 father's tenderness, and that the sins of the past and the im- 
 perfections attaching to all his works will not render his ex- 
 ertions and his zeal unavailing. A true religion ought 
 therefore to be good news, a Gospel ; all religions have more 
 or less pretended to be so. 
 
 Brethren, we have spoken boldly in the name of all ; we 
 have supposed this feeling of condemnation and this need of 
 reconciliation present in the hearts of all who are listening 
 to us. Now we admit that, if there are any whose conscience 
 tells, them that they have never been separated from God, 
 that they have always loved what he loves, and willed what 
 he wills ; if there are any who have never been in arrears 
 with God, and (how do I know ?) to whom God on the con- 
 trary is in debt ; in one word, if there are here men who are 
 not men, men of another race than that of Adam, the argu- 
 ment which we have just employed is not applicable to them, 
 and it is natural that they should not feel the force of it. 
 But if their unalterable security has not rendered them in- 
 sensible to a situation which is not theirs, we dare appeal to 
 themselves, and ask them to say whether this religion, which 
 cannot be theirs, is not such as the rest of mankind require ; 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIANISM. 225 
 
 and if in the wonderful condescension of God which it un- 
 folds, there is nothing unworthy of God and unworthy of 
 man. Ah ! I admit it. If the prospect opened to man by 
 religion was that of an earthly happiness ; if God attracted, 
 shall I venture to say enticed him by the allurement of carnal 
 enjoyment and vanity; if it guaranteed to him in this world, 
 I will not say pleasures and riches, but a peaceful, pleasant, 
 and honored existence ; if, even deferring the effect of its 
 promises beyond the grave, it filled eternity with a worldly 
 happiness, and transported earth to heaven, such a system 
 might be so unworthy of man, (mark this, brethren,) that he 
 would not choose to have it. At least none but degraded men 
 and nations can to this extent allow their wants to be disap- 
 pointed, and their hopes materialized. The misery of man 
 is a sublime misery, and there is something holy in his suffer- 
 ing. What he seeks in religion is heaven and eternity, and, 
 under the name of heaven and eternity, God. His heart 
 and his life feel the want of God, it is after God that he 
 hungers. But were this longing after God and eternity far 
 less spiritual than we hold it to be ; were it reduced, as in 
 the case of most men it seems to be, to a longing for immor-, 
 tality and the fear of falling on their departure from the 
 world into the hands of an angry God, do you consider even 
 this longing to be unworthy of man ? Do you think that 
 his disinterestedness should go so far as to make him feel no 
 concern about eternal reprobation ? When you impose such 
 self-denial, do you not make him more or less than a man, ' 
 do you not make him a god or a demon ? Is it not even 
 probable that he who would cheerfully renounce all claim 
 to eternity, and all prospect of possessing God, would be a 
 demon rather than a god ? And are you come the length of 
 making it criminal in man not to love himself too much, but 
 to love in general ? 
 
 The thing unworthy of man would be not the acceptance 
 11* 
 
226 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 of these terms, but the rejection of them. There is no merit, 
 I admit, in laying hold of an offered favor; and for that 
 purpose no great effort seems requisite ; but though the con- 
 sent merits no praise, do we think that the refusal would not 
 deserve blame ? The whole question is whether pardon 
 is really offered. If it is, we are not only infatuated, we 
 are culpable in not accepting it. To repel a favor offered 
 by God himself; to tell him by the refusal either that wo can 
 dispense with him, or that we are strong enough to defy his 
 anger ; to tell him that we will not have him for Master, 
 Father, guide, or light ; to tell him when he offers us the 
 only means of union with him, that we set no value upon it ; 
 what is thisi brethren, if it is not a crime, and the most 
 dreadful of crimes ? Say, then, whatever you please of the 
 selfish aim of the Christian life, how can this aim be un- 
 worthy of man if its opposite would be so very unworthy ?* 
 
 But if there is nothing unworthy of man in the offer of 
 reconciliation, how can there be any thing in it unworthy of 
 God ? However, brethren, let us take up this question as if it 
 had not been already decided by the solution of the former. 
 
 It is necessary, no doubt, if this offer be worthy of God, 
 that the happiness which is offered us in his name befitted to 
 unite us to him, that it do not concentrate us upon ourselves, 
 but make us diffusive and communicative ; in one word, that 
 our happiness tend to contribute to the happiness of all, and 
 the glory of God. Our happiness would be unjust, I say 
 
 * " Art thou under the tyranny of sin, a slave to vicious habits, at 
 enmity with God, and a skulking fugitive from thy own conscience ? O 
 how idle the dispute, whether the listening to the dictates of prudence 
 from providential and self-interested motives be virtue or merit, when 
 the not listening is guilt, misery, madness, and despair ! The best, the 
 most Christianlike pity thou canst show, is to take pity on thy own soul, 
 the best and most acceptable service thou canst render, is to do justice 
 and show mercy to thyself." — Coleridge's Aids to Reflection. 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIANISM. 
 
 227 
 
 more, it would be false, precarious, and ruinous, if it did not 
 take us out of ourselves, if it did not teach us to give ourselves 
 to all, if it did not make us in some measure the prey of all ; 
 in one word, if it did not become love, and if of this love 
 kindled in our soul, God were not the primary object. For 
 if we did not love God, the only being who deserves to be 
 loved absolutely and for himself, we should not love any 
 person with a true love, a love of charity. If we did not 
 love God, we should not love those among men whom it is 
 impossible for us to love otherwise than in God, and because 
 of God. This is well expressed by St. John : " By this we 
 know that we love the children of God, when we love God ;" 
 (1 John V. 2 ;) in other words, we are sure of truly loving 
 our brethren, and even our nearest friends, only when we 
 love God ; or rather, we are sure we do not truly love our 
 brethren, or even our nearest friends, when we do not love 
 God. In fine, if we did not love God, who is holiness itself, 
 we would not love holiness, we would not love the law of 
 God ; since the love of God is a vague unmeaning term if 
 we do not love what is essential to God and makes him to be 
 God. Hence an indispensable condition of the happiness 
 which religion gives, is its disposing hs to love holiness. Did 
 it fail in this, it would, we repeat, be an unjust and false happi- 
 ness, seeing it is not just that we should be happy out of order ; 
 a false happiness, seeing that man out of the order for which 
 he was created and organized, could not be happy except in 
 appearance, and only for a time. 
 
 Now, what can be feared, or rather, what may not be 
 hoped for the holiness of man, and consequently for the glory 
 of God, from a religion which exhibits God as holy as he is 
 lovely, as lovely as he is holy, and which, in expounding 
 the law in all its purity and all its beauty, takes from it only 
 what is dreadful and overpowering ? No doubt the promise 
 of salvation does not and cannot do every thing, but when 
 
228 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 this promise comes from the very God from whom we could 
 only expect a sentence of condemnation, when a benefit im- 
 mense and unmerited links us by gratitude to a Being whose 
 eyes are too pure to look upon sin without abhorrence, will 
 this gratitude, how little capable soever we may be of it, 
 have no tendency to sanctify ? And if there were in us, in 
 the very midst of our sins, some longing for purity and 
 virtue, which should spring up from time to time in our 
 heart and sink down again from not being sustained by hope; 
 if a servile and icy dread had till then suppressed the im- 
 pulses of our soul towards the spiritual world and the things 
 of God, will not the suppression of this fear, by the promise 
 of grace, make new furrows in the soul, and deposit in them 
 the blessed seeds of love and joy ? Will not the soul, thus 
 sown and prepared by consolations from on high, become a 
 fruitful soil in which every divine plant will henceforth grow 
 spontaneously and to perfection ? Ah ! brethren, if it is so, 
 the promise of salvation introduces into our soul an innocent 
 and holy happiness. This happiness is worthy of God ; this 
 good news, more than a forerunner, is an essential part of 
 the truth; and the remainder, I mean the rule of sanctifica- 
 tion, although very important and well deserving of a con- 
 tinual study, flows from it spontaneously, proceeds from it 
 like the branches from the trunk which bears and nourishes 
 them. 
 
 Moreover, under what features has this salvation, whose 
 good tidings have given it the name of Gospel, been presented 
 to us ? We find in the Gospel, indeed, some sensible rep- 
 resentations of the misery of the reprobate ; but do we find 
 in regard to the happiness of the elect, any thing resembling 
 the coarse pleasures of the present time ? Beyond the ex- 
 clusion of the afflictions of the world, (a temporary exercise 
 which comes to an end because the trial is accomplished,) 
 what do ye find in this happiness of heaven ? Of what is it 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIANISM. 229 
 
 composed ? What is its principal element and essential fea- 
 ture ? Is it not communion with God ? is it not the free 
 life of the spirit ? is it not love ? And is it not under these 
 immaterial features that all true Christians represent it to 
 themselves ? Is it not in this character that they desire it 
 and hope for it ? Is it not in the possession of God that they 
 rejoice ? Do they aspire or lay claim to any thing else ? 
 And even now, as the object of their hope, is heaven any 
 thing but love ? What, in fact, would all the rest be ? 
 What can be desired by him, who, withdrawn for ever from 
 the pains and wants of life, knows himself to be for ever 
 united to God by the tie of a mental communion ? Now, 
 such being, in a Christian point of view, the character of 
 the heavenly happiness or of salvation, this happiness being 
 love itself, love being thus given to love in hope and prospect, 
 how can we reproach the Gospel with having compromised 
 the dignity of God by speaking to us of happiness? 
 
 After all this, brethren, we have no objection to hold that 
 these properties of the Gospel do not give a sufficient guaran- 
 tee, and that all our reasonings being held null and void, we 
 be demanded to give facts. But, on our part, shall we not 
 be permitted to demand from those who set no value on rea- 
 soning, and yield only to the evidence of facts, that when we 
 produce facts they will be satisfied and desist from reasoning, 
 and not attempt to argue against what is, by appealing to 
 what they think ought to be ? Christianity accepts the 
 question as thus stated. By promising and offering happi- 
 ness has it secured love ? or rather, by offering happiness, 
 has it closed the soul against love ? This is now the whole 
 question. 
 
 But, in truth, is it a question ? Must we now commence 
 a process which was decided eighteen centuries ago ? And 
 when during the whole of this time, friends, neutrals, ene- 
 mies even, have admitted with one voice that the true Chris- 
 
230 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 tian is essentially a man of love and devotedness ; when the 
 subliniest instances of self-denial and renunciation must be 
 traced back to Christianity ; when all the lives expended in 
 the ministry of charity have been, without exception, Chris- 
 tian lives ; when a thousand institutions, a thousand monu- 
 ments, still present to our eyes striking evidence of the mer- 
 ciful spirit which Jesus Christ has deposited in his religion ; 
 when, in order to make the pure and fresh sap of love cir- 
 culate in the withered veins of the social body, recourse 
 must uniformly be had to Christianity — can it be necessary 
 for us to prove that the principle of happiness which it em- 
 ploys, so far from hurting, turns to the advantage of love ? 
 Prove it ! Should we do so ? Are those who require such 
 a proof, worthy of it ? Are they not jesting with us when 
 they say they require it ? Should we not, by complying 
 with their demand, be taking part in this foolish jesting, and 
 becoming, to a certain extent, accomplices in its strange in- 
 justice ? Is not silence the only suitable answer, tlie only 
 one which accords with the dignity of our cause ? 
 
 We leave the answer to those other enemies of Christi- 
 anity who have been complaining so loudly and so long that 
 Christianity consists entirely of moi'tifications and sacrifices, 
 and by foolishly withdrawing us from ourselves, leaves us a 
 prey to the first comer. These persons, brethren, to do them 
 justice, have drawn their accusation from facts, and facts 
 alone ; and the injustice of their charge consists in their not 
 having looked into the spirit of the doctrine, which would 
 have shown them a secret and superabundant compensation 
 for the enormous sacrifices which amaze them, while the in- 
 justice of the others consists in having looked only at the 
 interior of the doctrine, the abstract religion, and taken no 
 account of the external facts which are the consequences of 
 the doctrine. Is it not just, brethren, to leave the first to reia 
 fute the second ; and these, in their turn, to refute the first ? 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIANISM. 231 
 
 In particular, is it not just that tliose who charge the Chris- 
 tian religion with selfishness be called upon to explain to 
 each other, and afterwards explain to us, why there should 
 have been so old a clamor and so general a charge against 
 the Christian religion of a nature the very opposite of that 
 which they bring against it ? I admit that when they have 
 solved the difficulty we shall be bound to answer them. 
 
 But if the effects being recognized, if the presence of 
 love in the heart and the life of the disciples of Jesus Christ 
 being established, if the generous and tender character of 
 Christianity being put out of the question, the charge be still 
 insisted on, the charge that Christianity in order to produce 
 these glorious and striking results has recurred to this instru- 
 ment of happiness, or personal interest ; if the scrupulous 
 purity, we would say the puritanism of those with whom we 
 aredebating is still ashamed and scandalized at it, what will 
 remain for us but just to send them away to do better, what 
 will remain for themselves but just to try ? 
 
 It is vain, therefore, to attempt to separate happiness 
 from virtue, or, which comes to the same thing, to exclude 
 the element of happiness from religion. Do as we may, it 
 will find a place, and the only question is what that place 
 will be. Whether it will follow in" the train of obedience, 
 or precede it. There is no other alternative. Mark this 
 well, brethren ; will you obey God in order that he may love 
 you, or will you obey him because he loves you ? Will you 
 obey him in order to be saved, or will you obey because you 
 are saved ? 
 
 This choice God has not left to us. He knows well that 
 if we were to be saved by obedience, we should never be 
 saved. This is the reason why without regard to our first 
 disobedience, and without waiting till we have become obe- 
 dient, he first loved us, came to us, announced " Peace on 
 earth," gave free pardon to all, after having pronounced the 
 
*232 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 sentence of condemnation upon all ; has concluded all under 
 sin, that he may show mercy to all. Christ, the messenger 
 of these glad tidings, was also their guarantee ; his incarna- 
 tion, his sufferings, the shedding of his innocent blood, have 
 stamped it with an immortal seal. A degraded race, which 
 from generation to generation transmitted the curse, and was 
 perpetuated upon the earth only to perpetuate disorder and 
 rebellion ; a race which seemed to have preserved some 
 traces of its primitive dignity and some remains of its do- 
 minion over creation only to disturb the designs of God, and 
 by its presence and conduct interrupt the universal harmony ; 
 this unhappy race in the dark wilderness of its exile has 
 seen the paternal hand of God extended toward it. On its 
 sunless horizon a bright and pure luminary has arisen ; a 
 second Adam has become the head of a second humanity, in 
 order that as in Adam all die, so in Christ Jesus all may be 
 made alive. The Mediator, the distant hope of whom had 
 cheered the men of ancient times on their passage to the 
 tomb, has come in the fulness of the times to accomplish his 
 mysterious mission, and claim from the height of the cross 
 the fulfilment of the divine promise, " Ask of me, and I 
 shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the 
 uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." Ps. ii. 8. 
 The nations belong to him, he to humanity ; he is prince and 
 pastor, for his sceptre is a crook, and his subjects are sheep 
 whom he feeds and carries in his bosom with a tenderness 
 as great as the power with which he defends, and the author- 
 ity with which he governs them. His reign is a reign of 
 persuasion and love ; he wishes none but free subjects, he 
 wishes only to reign over hearts ; he acknowledges for sub- 
 jects those only who are united to him by faith, and are de- 
 sirous to be enlisted to him only for peace, comfort, joy, 
 and strength. He acknowledges for subjects only those who, 
 acknowledging themselves to be sinners devoid of all glory 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIANISM. 233 
 
 before God, and incapable of entering by their own strength 
 and their own merits into communion with the Father of 
 spirits, cry for grace and mercy at the foot of his cross, and 
 expect nothing in earth or heaven except from his powerful 
 mediation. 
 
 I readily admit that man could not have invented this 
 system, and that it transcends our highest conceptions ; but 
 after all, brethren, is not the system upon which, if we 
 abandon this, we fall back, I mean salvation by works, too 
 high for human nature and for every individual man ; is 
 there an individual of our species who can embrace it seri- 
 ously without embracing condemnation, and follow it out 
 without arriving at despair ? And on the contrary, does not 
 the other system which St. Paul has denominated in express 
 terms foolishness, but the foolishness of God, give to man 
 along with joy and peace a strength that was unknown to 
 him ; does it not form in his heart that which he was 
 searching for in vain, and which constitutes all his strength, 
 that which is by way of eminence the work containing in 
 itself all other works, I mean confidence in God and love to 
 God ? Is not this foolishness which inspires holiness itself 
 reason, and on the other hand is not the reason which pro- 
 duces neither holiness nor peace no better than foolishness ? 
 And what although the element of happiness superabounds 
 in Christianity, if this superabundance of happiness produces 
 a superabundance of love ? In short, which of the two things 
 is the more noble and the more generous : to work with a 
 view to a reward, as in the system of natural religion, or to 
 work in return for favor obtained, in other words, from 
 gratitude, as in that system of supernatural religion which 
 we term the Gospel ? 
 
 Were we to be told that very few accept these strange 
 and sublime conditions, that very few obey from gratitude, 
 alas ! we have told ourselves the same thing. Still those 
 
234 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 who do obey, obey in Spirit and in truth ; and where are 
 those who by another principle, whether duty or fear, have 
 been brought to heartfelt obedience ? Who is it that obeys, 
 if it be not he that loves? Who loves, if it be not he who 
 believes himself to be loved ? Number does not constitute 
 truth, and were there only one individual upon the earth 
 who had embraced the Gospel, in that one we should see 
 humanity restored, the party of truth, the race of God. 
 The question is not whether the conditions of salvation are 
 accepted, but whether they are in fact conditions of salvation, 
 and whether there is any other name upon the earth, any 
 other principle, any other system by which men may be 
 saved. Let us leave to God, then, the mystery of his ways, 
 and the secret of his counsels; let us no more doubt his love 
 than his holiness ; where we cannot comprehend let us adore 
 designs of which the great day will disclose to us all the 
 excellence ; and let us content ourselves with accepting and 
 blessing a dispensation, which, if not useful to all, was 
 designed to be so ; which in the intention of God brings 
 " salvation to all men," and to which nothing is wanting to 
 make it so, both in reality and principle, than the will of 
 those very persons in favor of whom God conceived and 
 executed it. 
 
 It is now necessary to say, brethren, that if all this dis- 
 cussion, which might have appeared idle and vain in other 
 times, has seemed called for in the present day, it is not 
 merely because some enemies of Christianity, or, more pro- 
 perly, some men who do not understand it, urge the com- 
 plaint which we have endeavored to obviate ; it is also be- 
 cause the conduct and language of several Christians in our 
 day gives too much plausibility and force to the objection 
 founded on the complaint. Yes, brethren, we say it with 
 sorrow, there has gradually risen up under the very shade 
 of the vital doctrines of the Gospel, and under the form of a 
 
CHRISTIAN UTILITARIANISM. 235 
 
 severe and vigilant orthodoxy, a Christianity which is only a 
 theory of happiness and a system of personal safety. There 
 are Christians who have mistaken the starting point in Chris- 
 tianity for the goal, and the means for the end ; and who, in- 
 stead of going from happiness to love, stop at happiness, 
 interpreting, to the dishonor of Christianity and their own 
 shame, the declaration of Jesus Christ, that " the work of 
 God" (or the work according to God) " is to believe in him 
 whom he hath sent." These are the persons who by their 
 unjust happiness and presumptuous peace offend the weak, 
 embolden the enemies of Christianity, and give a color to the 
 rashest and worst founded charge which ever has been 
 brought against this holy religion. 
 
 We were anxious that this deplorable theology, this utili- 
 tarianism under the disguise of religion, should not turn to 
 the confusion of Christianity ; and this is the reason why we 
 have, to the best of our ability, shown on the one hand that 
 the element of happiness contained in the Gospel, has nothing 
 contrary to love, which is according to St. James, " the end" 
 or sum " of the commandment;" and, on the other hand, 
 that Christianity, in developing treasures of love in the hu- 
 man heart, has fully proved that it carried in itself along 
 with happiness, and in happiness itself, a principle prolific 
 in benevolence and charity. Let us do our utmost to an- 
 nounce, reiterate, and prove this great truth ; let us show in 
 Christianity happiness and love united and agreed ; but let 
 not our example contradict our language ; let it be felt that 
 even in internal sorrow and tears those who speak of the 
 happiness which Christianity gives, have really tasted it; 
 let it be felt, above all, that this happiness is religious, spi- 
 ritual, free from selfishness, pervaded with love ; let it be 
 felt that a first happiness has produced a second, that the 
 happiness of deliverance has given rise to that of charity, 
 that they have so melted down into each other that it has 
 
236 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 become impossible to draw the distinction between being 
 happy because we have escaped from the wrath to come, 
 and happy because we have entered into communion with 
 Abnighty God our Father, who is at once all happiness and 
 all love. Amen. 
 
JESUS INVISIBLE. 
 
 '* It is expedient for you that 1 go away ; for if I go not away, the Com- 
 forter will not come unto you : but if I depart, I will send him 
 unto you." — John xvi. 7. 
 
 At the idea of the persecution and sufferings which Jesus 
 Christ had just set before his disciples in endless perspec- 
 tive their heart is overwhelmed. Amazement closes it against 
 love. Taken up entirely with themselves, they think not 
 of their Master. He himself, though present and close to 
 each of them, requires to remind them of his presence, 
 and putting into their mouth a question which they them- 
 selves ought to have asked, he says, " None of you asketh 
 me, Whither goest thou ?" And then anticipating, or fol- 
 lowing their thought, he himself answers the question which 
 he had thus suggested, or rather another question which he 
 perceives to be included in the first. " Whither goest thou" 
 has doubtless this meaning : Why do you go away ? Why 
 do you not remain in the midst of us ? Why do you leave us 
 alone upon the earth ? A question, brethren, implying great 
 trouble and anxiety ; a question which will appear very na- 
 tural if we can put ourselves in the place of the disciples, 
 
238 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 and which our Lord answers even before he has heard it, 
 apparently without any expression either of reproof or sur- 
 prise. 
 
 The disciples were not then what they afterwards be- 
 came. Jesus Christ had constrained them, so to speak, to 
 believe in his bloody death as an event certain, necessary, 
 and near. But Jesus Christ was to come forth from the 
 tomb, to re-appear among the living ; and why, when he 
 had resumed possession of life, should he not prolong his 
 stay in the midst of them in the bosom of his Church ? How 
 could this Church dispense with him ? What was to become 
 of it, or rather must it not be annihilated by the absence of 
 its Head ? They find not in themselves any answer to these 
 questions ; or, to speak more properly, they do find one ; 
 they find in the feeling of their feebleness and unbelief the. 
 most -disheartening of answers, and they are obliged to say 
 that if the future prospects of the Church depend only on 
 them, frail and shaking reeds, the Church has no future. 
 
 Such was their weakness that Jesus Christ could not, at 
 least at this time and with his own mouth, fully solve the 
 difficulty which rises in their breasts. His r^ly, though 
 complete in itself, is to them necessarily incomplete and 
 temporary. It calms and re-assures rather than gladdens 
 and edifies them. The Master has spoken. That is some- 
 thing. Tlie Master has explained that a great advantage is 
 to result from his departure ; this is much, if they have re- 
 gard to the authority of him who speaks, but it is little for 
 persons in such a situation as theirs, and (remarkable cir- 
 cumstance !) before they have received or enjoyed the com- 
 pensation which is promised them, I mean the mission of the 
 Comforter, they are not in a condition either to appreciate 
 this compensation, or form an idea of it. It is for the Com- 
 forter himself to make them know the Comforter; it is for 
 the benefit promised to furnish them by actual enjoyment 
 
JESUS INVISIBLE. 239 
 
 with the proper measure of its value. The words of Jesus 
 are no doubt precious, precious as instruction, precious as a 
 prophecy, the accomplishment of which will gloriously dis- 
 play the infallibility of the divine Prophet, but it is at a later 
 period that its full value will be felt. At the time of deli- 
 very it is to the apostles like many other prophecies, " a 
 light shining in a dark place." 
 
 Let us do justly, brethren ; all of us would, like them, 
 have been apt to ask Jesus, " Lord, why goest thou away ? 
 Remain with us, Lord ! for without thee we are nothing, and 
 far from thee we perish !" And perhaps we are tempted to 
 ask even in the present day ; perhaps the absence of Jesus, 
 and of every visible sign of his invisible presence, alarms our 
 faith, and this longing to see, which suggested to the heart 
 of the disciples the mournful question, " Whither goest thou ?" 
 perhaps this longing agitates ourselves, and dictates to us on 
 different occasions many objections, it may be many mur- 
 murings, analogous to the question put by the disciples. 
 
 Let us suppose, then, that the question is ours, and that 
 the answer is given to us, the only difference being that we 
 do not say like the disciples, '' Whither goest thou, Lord?" 
 but " Lord, why hast thou gone away, and why dost thou not 
 remain amidst us till the end of time ?" Let us listen to the 
 reply of Jesus. 
 
 But no : before Jiis reply let us listen to our own. He 
 alone will tell us the whole truth, and even any answer which 
 we might give ourselves comes from him. We are wise 
 only with his wisdom. There can be no question of conceal- 
 ing any thing from him; but it may be proper to see whether 
 before knowing the proper answer of Jesus Christ to the 
 question of his disciples, we and they also might not have 
 some means of accounting for the departure and disappear- 
 ance of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Let us suppose, then, that the Son of man, in condescen- 
 
\ 
 
 240 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 sion to the weakness of his disciples, and our secret wish, 
 had consented after his resurrection to remain upon earth 
 until the last day of the last age reserved for its existence. 
 He could not thus remain except to die daily, or to be for 
 ever triumphant. On which of these two alternatives must 
 we fix ? You know too well, brethren. Jesus Christ, al- 
 ways equally entitled to be loved, will always be equally 
 hated. The same thirst for his blood will exist in all places 
 and at all times ; so that were Jesus Christ to appear succes- 
 sively in different countries, each of them would in its turn be 
 moistened with his precious blood. Horrible to think, and 
 horrible to say ! Jesus, each time he sprung again from the 
 bosom of the earth, (become his mother,) would again yield 
 up his innocent and hallowed flesh to the wicked ; all forms 
 of execution would alternately be tried on his adorable body; 
 all the fearful varieties of human corruption would be exer- 
 cised, and, if possible, exhausted in this eternal parricide, and 
 the Church called, according to the words of St. Paul, to fill 
 up what is wanting in the sufferings of her Head ; in other 
 words, to represent and continue him in this part of his work, 
 the Church would suffer with him, unless indeed she were, 
 as the example of the first disciples might lead us to suppose, 
 to flee far from his cross, leaving there at most some St. 
 John to whom Jesus, more a stranger upon the earth than 
 before, would not be able to give the charge of another 
 Mary. 
 
 If it accords with piety to believe that the Son of God 
 died once, the just for the unjust, if that is the very basis and 
 foundation of the mystery of godliness, it is impious to believe 
 that the Son of God could more than once be clothed with 
 mortal flesh, and that the blessed seed of the woman was 
 more than once to allow his heel to be bruised by the angel 
 of darkness. Let us hasten then to reject this first alterna- 
 tive, though the most probable and the only one admissible. 
 
JESUS INVISIBLE. 241 
 
 and Jesus, as we have supposed, continuing to honor the 
 earth with his presence, let us conceive that, instead of en- 
 during an eternal passion, he is to enjoy an everlasting 
 triumph. 
 
 He has conquered ; while living and clothed with our 
 humanity, he has put infidelity completely to flight. The 
 hosannah of some hundreds of Israelites on the road to Je- 
 rusalem has become the cry of all nations. Jesus reigns ; 
 he is the King of all the earth ; he is the King of kings. His 
 peaceful dominion is absolute. He has no more enemies, no 
 more rivals, and what has been emphatically said in the 
 Jewish book of an earthly king is strictly true of Jesus : 
 " The earth is silent before him." His kingdom, whatever 
 he may have said to the contrary, is of this world. Still this 
 kingdom, glorious as it appears, is but a place of exile. For 
 if humanity before it attains to glory in the heavenly places 
 is an exile for the just, how much more must it be so for the 
 Prince of the just ? Jesus Christ is not in his proper place, and 
 therefore methinks I hear Him exclaim as in the days of his 
 ministry, " How long shall 1 be with you ?" The subjects 
 of this King of the world have here an advantage over him, 
 and it is found, though in contradiction to the very words of 
 Jesus, that the servant is more than his Master. For Jesus 
 Christ having suffered once, what can those around him have 
 to suffer ? A single look from him crowns them with glory ; 
 to have been seen and noticed by him, to have received from 
 him an order, a question, a sign merely, is enough to be in 
 the eyes of all other men something more than a king ; fidel- 
 ity always recompensed, always sure of being applauded, no 
 longer costs any thing ; the idea, and even the name of diso^ 
 bedience have disappeared from all minds ; there is no long- 
 er, on the part of the friends of Jesus, either difficulty to be 
 surmounted or struggle to be maintained. It is no longer by 
 fire that men are saved, nor by much tribulation that they 
 12 
 
242 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 enter into glory. The sacrifice is no longer salted with salt, 
 or rather, there is no longer a victim. Religion is no longer 
 a sacrifice ; the blessing of the narrow way, and the king- 
 dom of heaven taken by violence, are henceforth only empty 
 sounds. After having asked what Jesus Christ is doing here 
 below, it only remains to ask what his disciples are doing, 
 and why, if we may so express it, earth is not already trans- 
 formed into heaven ? 
 
 Such are the replies which the most superficial know- 
 ledge of the Gospel at once suggests. Let us now listen to 
 Jesus Christ. His reply alone is complete, and goes to the 
 very bottom of the question. His answer alone can be called 
 an answer. The question of the disciples had reference to 
 themselves. " Why dost thou go away ?" meant, Why dost 
 thou leave us alone ? what will become of us without thee ? 
 This is only part of the question which we have not already 
 answered. We have omitted to place ourselves in the 
 position of the disciples. The first thing which Jesus Christ 
 does is to place himself in it, as is clearly shown by the very 
 first words of his reply ; '•' It is expedient for you that I go 
 away." Let us see in what this expediency consists ; an 
 expediency not confined to the first disciples, but applicable 
 to our case also. 
 
 " If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto 
 you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." 
 
 Remain with Us, Lord, and we will be comforted. Such, 
 brethren, would perhaps have been our answer; for we 
 indeed feel a general need of consolation. Alas ! in their 
 unhappiest moments it is for being alive and existing that 
 -many would wish to be consoled. But who can console 
 better than Jesus ? Jesus absent is only one misery more, 
 and who can console us for the absence of Jesus ? 
 
 Jesus might have answered. Are you consoled ? does my 
 presence suffice you ? is the void of your heart filled ? ^g 
 
JESUS INVISIBLE. 243 
 
 the disquietude of your spirit calmed? have you peace? 
 No ; and yet I am in the midst of you. You can every day 
 see me, speak to me, and hear me, and after your manner 
 you love me ; how is it, then, that while I am alive and 
 present, something within you still cries for peace and com- 
 fort ? Thus it appears you still require to ask, still to 
 receive the Comforter. 
 
 Here the words following the text remind us that we 
 must not give a strict interpretation to the term Comforter. 
 The comfort in question is not merely that which compen- 
 sates for a lost good, or makes it be forgotten. It is that 
 which puts an end to the soul's solitariness, unites it to its 
 object and its end, and puts it in possession of its true good. 
 It implies all the light, strength, and life, of which it is 
 susceptible ; new eyes, a new heart, a second birth ; the om- 
 nipotence of God in the feebleness of man. The Comforter 
 is the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The signs or effects of his presence are numerous and 
 varied. But as the object is to prove that the departure of 
 Jesus is the condition of this Supreme grace, and that it is 
 necessary for him (remarkable circumstance !) to go away in 
 order to give place to the Holy Spirit, let us ascend from 
 mere particular acts of grace which may seem to be com- 
 patible with the personal presence of Jesus Christ, to the 
 more general acts which are the principle and source of all 
 the rest. We shall then have no difficulty in understanding 
 how these, and consequently all others, could only be formed 
 and developed after the departure of the Son of man, and we 
 will conclude with saying to this Divine friend, Yes, Lord, 
 thy departure was necessary ; it has been good for us that 
 thou didst go away. 
 
 Two consolations of the Comforter, two gifts of the Holy 
 Spirit, compose the whole new man. The one is faith ; the 
 other is that love in the Spirit of which St. Paul has said that 
 
244 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 it gives life. Jesus Christ is the object of both, but it is on 
 condition of becoming invisible to us. 
 
 The first of the gifts of the new covenant is faith. The 
 property of faith is to attach itself before all and above all 
 to what God has said, be it conamand, instruction, or promise, 
 and whether written on some material substance or engraven 
 on the tablet of our heart. To believe is to repose entirely 
 on the infallibility and faithfulness of God ; it is to place his 
 testimony above all kinds of certainty or guarantee ; it is to 
 regard every word proceeding from his mouth as more 
 substantial and real than the reality itself; it is in practice 
 to regard duty in the form in which God has enjoined it as 
 the clearest and most imperative of all obligations ; it is, 
 consequently, to go forward with unflinching eye, and meet 
 coming events as we would meet God himself; it is not to 
 ask for sight, but to consider sight either as the special re- 
 compense of faith, or as a merciful solace which God, when 
 he deems it necessary, may concede to our weakness ; it is, 
 in terms still more general, to live in the Spirit, which is the 
 best part of ourselves ; to renounce the tyrannical domina- 
 tion of the senses, and uniformly look to the foundation, the 
 very essence of the truth, instead of looking to external 
 accidents or signs'; it is to prefer the invisible, which is 
 eternal, to the visible, which passes away, and the possession 
 of the sovereign good to the sensible signs of its presence ; 
 in fine, in regard to what especially concerns Jesus Christ, 
 it i^ to bless God that the Word was made flesh, and that 
 eternal Wisdom dwelt with the children of men, but not to 
 regard Jesus Christ, although perfect man, as an ordinary 
 individual, whose presence is indissolubly attached to the 
 body which represents him, as if he would be less present, 
 less near, and less united to us when our eyes should cease 
 to behold him. Now, such was the disposition of the dis- 
 piples, and such, brethren, is human nature in general, that 
 
JESUS INVISIBLE. 245 
 
 had Jesus Christ remained upon the earth, faith, the divine 
 principle of a new life, would have remained for ever in an 
 infant state. Its case would have been that of a young bird 
 whose parent will not permit it to try its wings. Men would 
 have reposed on the corporeal presence of Christ ; not upon 
 his spiritual, which is his real presence. Even with a 
 Jesus Christ, poor and humble, we would have walked by 
 sight ; the man would have obscured the God ; the pure 
 idea would never have been entirely disengaged from the 
 external fact ; all the thoughts of the Christian would have 
 remained contracted and temporal ; never would he have 
 risen to that glorious liberty of the spirit which was to be the 
 glory of the Gospel economy. In fine, the natural weakness 
 of the disciples would have made them at every moment fall 
 back upon this visible and present Jesus, who behooved, as 
 such, to suffice for all our wants, and whose presence must 
 therefore have made our state of minority perpetual. In 
 regard to the present day, moreover, it would not be we who 
 believed, but he who believed for us, who would live for us, 
 and be the Christian while there were no Christians. The 
 magnificent developments of the Christian Church would 
 thus be strangled in the birth ; or, to speak more properly, 
 there would be no Christian Church ; if by the Church we 
 mean the assembly of those who walk by faith, and live in 
 the Spirit. 
 
 After faith, I have named love in the Spirit. This is the 
 second characteristic of the new man. He loves ; but the 
 essential difference in this respect between him and other men 
 is, that he loves spiritually. All human afTection is carnal in 
 its principle. The soul, which is of the earth, is the seat of 
 this love ; it does not go the length of the spirit, which is the 
 sense of divine things. To love spiritually, is to love as 
 God loves and wishes to be loved. All in love that is only 
 nature, instinct, taste, self-complacency, all that in love is 
 
246 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 made in the image of the world and of time, disappears or is 
 subordinate. Love, purified and made divine, rises and 
 attaches itself to what is invisible and immortal ; it becomes 
 at once more tender and more holy, more intimate and more 
 respectful ; it loves God in every soul, and loves every soul 
 in God. The believer who sees all things with the very eye 
 of God, loves, if we dare so express it, with the very heart 
 of God. And, to quote an example which brings us near 
 our subject, almost all the world loves Jesus. Even the en- 
 emies of Christianity have a kind of love for Jesus. How is 
 it possible not to love him who was meek and lowly in heart ; 
 who loved little children, and loved the poor ; who chose to 
 lead their life, and used his power only to succor and bless ? 
 In fine, how is it possible not to love him whose gentle name, 
 for the eighteen centuries during which it has been pro- 
 nounced, awakens in all minds ideas of clemency and peace, 
 justice and mercy ? But none of these men of the world, 
 who after their manner love Jesus Christ, could have more 
 love for him than the son of Jonas ; and do we not know 
 that Jesus deserved to be loved otherwise than he was by St. 
 Peter ; that though doubtless affected by his simple-hearted 
 attachment, he however repulsed it, or at least restrained it ; 
 and felt indignant at this disciple when he was unwilling 
 that his Master should taste of death ? The affection of 
 Peter was not spiritual ; that of the world for Jesus is, if 
 possible, still less so. It is a human attachment which Jesus 
 does not count sufficient, and which he cannot accept ; for 
 this attachment does not contain any of the principles of the 
 new life which he came to confer upon men, no spark of that 
 fire which he hastened to kindle on the earth. This attach- 
 ment does not lead to God. And how should it lead those 
 whom, in the day when Divine wrath was threatened and 
 pardon offered, it could not lead to the foot of the cross? But 
 this attachment remained human so lonoj as Jesus himself 
 
JESUS INVISIBLE. 247 
 
 remained in a human condition. It could not take wings 
 and fly away into heaven till Jesus himself should have 
 ascended. Till then, Christ was only a person, and not the 
 way, the truth, and the life. He was not loved as the way, 
 the truth, and the life are loved ; but loved as a person is 
 loved. The visible, corporeal, limited person, behooved to 
 disappear, in order to make room for the idea which it repre- 
 sented, and at the same time concealed. It was necessary 
 that the love of Christ should not be liable in any way to 
 division or change. In one word, it was necessary that in 
 Christ men should truly love Christ. Human weakness in 
 some measure demanded this salutary privation of Christ ; a 
 privation resembling that which the child suffers when the 
 milk of its mother is withheld, in order to accustom it to 
 more solid nourishment. The disciples at first did not under- 
 stand this necessity, and how should they have understood it ? 
 But shortly after they saw it as if it had been transparent. 
 " I know no man after the flesh ;" exclaims the Apostle of the 
 Gentiles, " yea, though I have known Christ after the flesh, 
 yet now henceforth know I him no more." Do you hear ? 
 He congratulates himself on the fact, and glories in it. 
 Another man would have gloried of having seen Christ. St. 
 Paul, who probably had seen him, sets no value on his bodily 
 presence. He considers it far more important to inform us 
 that he does not know him according to the flesh ; and this, 
 doubtless, in order that he might teach us also to know and 
 love him, not in that bodily way, but spiritually. 
 
 If faith and spiritual affection are the life of the Church, 
 it was for the advantage of the Church that Jesus, instead of 
 remaining in the midst of her, should go away. This has 
 been well proved by fact. Where was the Church before 
 the departure of Jesus ? Nowhere ; not even in the bosom 
 of that college of Apostles who we have reason to believe 
 knew Jesus far less, and loved him less completely than a 
 
248 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 poor Christian peasant now k'^ows and loves him. If, as we 
 are too naturally inclined to believe, corporeal presence is 
 of great moment, and far superior to remembrance, the 
 Apostles, having Jesus in the midst of them, must have been 
 stronger than the Apostles separated from Jesus. And then 
 we ought not to forget that the Spirit (for we are speaking of 
 ihe Spirit,) had not been given to Jesus by measure, and that 
 he had full power to take of his own, and to give to his 
 friends. Why did he not do so ? Why had his lessons less 
 effect on the Apostles than those of the Apostles themselves 
 afterwards had on others? Why was not his mere presence 
 equivalent to an abundant and perpetual effusion of the gifts 
 of the Comforter ? Why is it that we may say of Jesus 
 what at a later period was said of St. Paul, "His bodily 
 presence is weak, but his letters are powerful." For, indeed, 
 the facts cannot be disputed. Before the departure of Jesus 
 Christ there is no Church, but there is one immediately after. 
 Those men who after a long residence with their Master, 
 put questions to him, and start doubts which almost make us 
 blush for them, are after his departure enlightened, intelli- 
 gent, resolute men. This Church, in which he leaves only 
 his remembrance, and in which the visible signs of his power 
 lasted only a very short time, still subsists, and even now, 
 amid the decline of all belief and the overthrow of all 
 systems, is the only thing which has strength, life, and a 
 future. It is at least evident that the existence of the Church 
 did not depend on the visible presence of its Head, and Jesus 
 knew well what he was saying when he declared to his 
 disciples^ that it was expedient for them that he should 
 go away. " What ! shall we suffer less ? Shall we be less 
 despised ? Will our task be more easy ?" Methinks I hear 
 them putting these questions, which, however, Jesus had 
 already answered by anticipation. So far from suffering less 
 they were to suffer much more, and suffer with joy. Such 
 
JESUS INVISIBLE. 249 
 
 is the advantage which they derived from their Master's 
 departure. Facts thus afford a striking confirmation of what 
 our Saviour foresaw, and prove that his departure was ex- 
 pedient. 
 
 But it is said that we suppress the miracle of Pentecost. 
 We do not suppress it. Then it is said we overlook the 
 meaning of the words, "I will send you another Comforter." 
 We do not overlook it. We have not pretended that God is 
 not the Master of his gifts, that he cannot withhold them, and 
 that this one has no date. We believe that the manifestation 
 of divine power on the day of Pentecost was necessary, and 
 that nothing superfluous was then done ; for the wonderful 
 magnificence of God always restricts itself to what is neces- 
 sary. But we have an important observation to make; it is, 
 that God never forces any thing, never attacks our liberty, 
 and that his grace is nothing but an eloquence altogether 
 divine, a spirit speaking to a spirit, the Spirit of God to the 
 spirit of man. He knocks at the door, but does not force it ; 
 he knows too well how to make it open. Though every 
 thing is mysterious, there is nothing magical in the work of 
 conversion ; the laws of our nature are observed, and we 
 cease not for one instant to be men. We apply this to the 
 great revolution which took place in the heart of the dis- 
 ciples. It was the work of God, but this work God had 
 himself prepared. God had rendered it naturally possible, 
 by withdrawing his Son from the earth and reducing his 
 disciples to mere faith and love. From him alone could 
 they receive what they in fact received, but they could not 
 receive it before their Master had exchanged his residence 
 upon earth for the mansions of heaven : then only could 
 their human confidence become faith, their human affection 
 become love in the Spirit. This is all that we wished to 
 establish, and we think that our trouble has been well 
 bestowed. 
 
 12* 
 
250 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 The view of Christ risen, was decisive alike in regard 
 to the calling of the disciples, and their future prospects. 
 Without this view, nothing is possible ; and the Lord's tomb, 
 empty though his friends knew it not, buried for ever both 
 their hope and the Church. This event may suffice to ex- 
 plain their joy, their first ardor and devotedness. But let 
 us not lose sight of the ideas which have been occupying 
 our attention. What is Christianity when realized in the 
 heart, but just the triumph of the invisible over the visible, 
 and the reign of faith ? What is the new life which attaches 
 itself to this principle, but just a love superior by its purity 
 and spiritual character to all earthly loves ? The only ques- 
 tion is, whether the germ of these two virtues, which consti- 
 tute the whole of Christianity, could have been developed in 
 a Church in which Jesus should have been personally present, 
 even to the end of the world ? We have tried to prove the 
 contrary, and our only remaining question is: If this is not 
 the meaning of our Lord's words, what do they mean ? 
 Apart from those ideas, how can we understand that it would 
 have been advantageous for the disciples to see their Master 
 go away, and that it can be advantageous to us to be depriv- 
 ed of his presence ? Without dwelling on the fact that the 
 earth could not retain Jesus Christ beyond the term fixed by 
 eternal prescience, do we not perceive that his presence 
 prolonged, (we mean his corporeal presence,) might be an 
 obstacle to the accomplishment of some of the ends for which 
 he had come in the flesh ? Was not his departure the na- 
 tural signal for the advent of the Holy Spirit ? And was it 
 not when the earth should possess spiritual men, who are the 
 people of the new covenant, when the works of the Spirit 
 should be manifest, and its fruits abundant on the earth, that 
 this same Spirit should be able, in the words of our Saviour, 
 to convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judg- 
 ment ? We leave you, brethren, to answer these questions, 
 
JESUS INVISIBLE. 251 
 
 being impatient to arrive at the practical lessons which flow, 
 as it were, spontaneously from our text. 
 
 Could we venture to maintain, brethren, that is was good 
 for the disciples that Christ should go away, and that what 
 was necessary and expedient for them is useless and bad for 
 us ? None of us certainly will say so. It is too evident 
 that the situation, the wants, are still the same, and that we 
 cannot any more then the Apostles dispense with the painful 
 privation which their Master imposed on then. 
 
 No Christian whoever consents to it willingly. The re- 
 solution to do so depends on the measure of his spirituality, in 
 other words, in proportion as Jesus Christ is possessed by the 
 heart, is the distinctness of vision belonging to the eye of faith. 
 But nothing is more universal or more natural than regret 
 for not having seen Jesus Christ, than the desire of one day 
 seeing him, I would almost say a feeling of envy in regard 
 to the privileged persons who beheld him in the form of a 
 servant. Forgetting how weak these persons were during 
 the lifetime of their Master, and that all their strength dates 
 from a period when their divine Head was no longer present 
 on the earth, excepting by his Spirit, many imagine that 
 they could do all with Jesus Christ were he to become 
 visible, that there would then be neither doubt nor fear, that 
 tliey would thenceforth be all ardor for the service of their 
 great Master. That on a first impression man should think 
 and speak thus, is conceivable, and may be pardoned ; but 
 after reflection how can they continue to use this language ? 
 and when they do use it, how far must they be from a full 
 understanding of the Gospel ! 
 
 What is the human body ? A living statue. The body 
 is an image, a memorial of the existence and presence of a 
 moral being, to which through the body, so to speak, are ad- 
 dressed all the feelings which this being can inspire. That 
 the soul never is without the body, and that their indissolu- 
 
252 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 ble union is an essential condition, an ineffaceable character- 
 istic of human nature, we entertain no doubt, and we have 
 even the sanction of the Gospel itself, which does not speak of 
 the immortality of the soul, as philosophers do, but of the re- 
 surrection of the flesh. This flesh, however, this organiza- 
 tion, though necessary to enable man to manifest himself and 
 filfil his destiny, does not constitute the man. This we all 
 admit when we refuse to estimate a man's worth by his 
 body, or any thing apparently dependent on his body, and 
 make it wholly depend on his intellect and will. How can 
 the element which we refuse to take into account in the 
 valuation be the man himself, the whole man? On the 
 other hand, is not the man, the whole man, in that intellect 
 and will, which alone we introduce into the account ? 
 
 Moreover, in our attachments we rise superior to the im- 
 pressions which body can produce upon body ; the more we 
 rise (if I may so express it) above the statue to the man 
 whom it represents, the more we feel satisfied with ourselves. 
 An affection on which neither the external decay of the ob- 
 ject loved, nor its absence, nor death, would have any pow- 
 er, such an affection would justly be entitled to the highest 
 honor. It would not, I admit, be love in the Spirit in the 
 gospel acceptation, but nothing would more strongly resem- 
 ble it, nothing be more proper to give the idea of it, or even 
 according to circumstances originate the desire or presenti- 
 ment of it. 
 
 If any being should be loved purely, it is undoubtedly the 
 Son of God. The worship in spirit, which he has recom- 
 mended and rendered possible, is nothing less than the spi- 
 ritual adoration addressed to the Spirit. If the Son of God 
 appeared in the flesh, it was not to make us adore his flesh 
 or corporeal presence, but to dwell among us, to be man 
 ike us, to lead a human life, and submit to death. He has 
 given this as a support to our love ; but our love should at- 
 
JESUS INVISIBLE. 253 
 
 tach itself to that in him which thinks, invites, and loves. If 
 it is not eternal truth and the eternal God that we love in 
 Jesus Christ, we do not yet love him as he desires to be 
 loved. 
 
 But since we are at this moment considering not so much 
 principles as consequences, let us reply to those who ex- 
 claim, " O how strong we would be if we could only see Je- 
 sus Christ !" Alas ! how many saw him, saw him at full 
 leisure, and remained weak ! So would it be with you, 
 brethren, were Jesus Christ to appear and converse with 
 you, if he did not at the same time communicate the Holy 
 Spirit, which, as you know, was given to the first disciples 
 only under the condition of his own absence. No doubt it 
 was a high honor, as well as a great comfort to have seen the 
 Son of man under the form of a servant, which is the foun- 
 dation of his own glory. The first Apostles had so seen him ; 
 it was necessary for the execution of the apostolate ; and 
 we hear St. Paul, when misapprehended by a portion of the 
 primitive Church, exclaiming, ^' Have not I too seen Jesus 
 Christ ?" But that has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do 
 with the question which we are considering. The question 
 is this : The Spirit having been able to supply the place of 
 Christ, and complete his work, could Christ, by his presence, 
 have supplied the place of the Holy Spirit ? Could his pre- 
 sence produce in us what the Holy Spirit might not have 
 produced in us, or could not produce ? Nothing, absolutely 
 nothing, authorizes us to think so. Any analogy would be 
 deceptive. The mere aspect of a great personage, the mere 
 report of his presence, has sometimes, on grave emergencies, 
 exercised a decisive influence. But however great the re- 
 sults might be, they were human. The means and the ef- 
 fect were not disproportioned to each other. But spiritual 
 effects demand a spiritual cause, and the fact of Christ's cor- 
 poreal presence, considered in itself, is not so. There is no- 
 
254 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 thing spiritual in it. If it did not absolutely exclude the 
 agency of the Spirit, it could not supply its place ; but we 
 are satisfied that the establishinent of the reign of the Spirit 
 in the Church is dependent on the presence of Jesus Christ 
 at the right hand of his Father, and not on his presence in the 
 midst of us. 
 
 This absence of a visible and corporeal Christ is regarded 
 as a privation, a loss. But it is the flesh itself, it is the 
 charna of the present life that makes us deem it so. Jesus 
 Christ absent is not diminished, or rather, though absent, is 
 not absent. His Spirit is himself. He is wholly present in 
 the presence of his Spirit. It has been said of a great cap- 
 tain, that his ghost could have gained battles ; but the Floly 
 Spirit is not the ghost of Jesus Christ, who left us more than 
 his portrait when he left us the Comforter. And if it is true 
 that a perpetual warfare is allotted to Jesus Christ on the 
 earth ; if, as we doubt not, he is ever engaged in fighting 
 battles, it is not his shade, but himself, that fights and wins 
 them. In giving us his Spirit, he does more than take of his 
 own to give it to us, he gives himself; yes, just as person- 
 ally, just as effectually as on that memorable day when the 
 sun was extinguished in the heavens. He still gives him- 
 self, though without shedding of blood, in glory and in power, 
 invisible to the eyes of the flesh, but visible to the eyes of 
 the soul, and immediately and personally apprehended by 
 faith. 
 
 It is true that the hope of Christ's return must have some 
 value. Whatever may be the form of that return, in what- 
 ever manner Christ may manifest himself on the great day, 
 it has been promised to our faith, and will make that day 
 differ from those whose fleeting hours compose the period of 
 our pilgrimage. There will be a manifestation, a sight. 
 Sight has always been the recompense, the encouragement 
 of faith. But the first thing necessary was to believe. 
 
JESUS INVISIBLK. 255 
 
 Jesus Christ did few miracles, in other words, granted little 
 to sight, when he met with much unbelief. After all, faith 
 is life. Sight is royalty ; but in order to reign, and before 
 reigning, it is necessary to live ; and sight is glory and fe- 
 licity only to him to whom long before seeing it has been 
 given to believe. 
 
 " Enough of this," you say, " perhaps too much. None 
 of us have the idea, far less the hope, of withdrawing the 
 Son of man from the blessed light of heaven to make him 
 dwell a second time In the sad darkness of this life." I be- 
 lieve it, brethren ; but do you not claim something which, 
 in effect, is the very thing which you disavow ? 
 
 If you presume not to claim the visibility of Jesus Christ's 
 personal presence, you wish it in some other manner; in 
 other words, you wish visible signs of his invisible presence. 
 
 If the signs for which you call are only those fruits of 
 the Spirit, those good works, that holy activity which consti- 
 tutes and manifests Christianity in the heart, assuredly you 
 are right. These signs, and many of them, are required, 
 and we have only one observation to make in regard to them, 
 and it is, that these signs of the presence of Jesus Christ 
 you ought in the first instance to ask from yourselves. 
 
 But it is not of this holy desire that we speak. There is 
 another less pure, that which suggested to the Israelites the 
 rash demand. Make us gods to walk before us. There is 
 not a man who does not, at the bottom of his heart, ask gods 
 who may walk before him, nor a Christian who, at certain 
 moments, would not ask them if he dared. 
 
 What is asked is not (God forbid) something like the 
 golden calf; it is not even the ark of the living God, nor 
 even the cloud. We are no longer in that position. What 
 is it, then ? I will tell you. It is any thing which will give 
 a distinct form and tangible shape to the spiritual kingdom 
 which Jesus Christ came to establish on the earth. 
 
256 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 In the first rank are the institutions and customs which 
 time has consecrated in the bosom of the Christian Church. 
 These circumstances, which are wholly external and are 
 not the Church itself, we so overvalue that we mistake them 
 for the Church : if certain barriers, certain words, certain 
 sounds, happen to fail, we think it is the Church herself that 
 fails ; it seems as if the strength of our communion, or Jesus 
 Christ himself, is attached to these means or symbols, and 
 that the event which has substituted for these other means, 
 other symbols, has thereby deprived us both of that spiritual 
 communion whose seat is in the heart, and of Jesus Christ 
 himself, who is present in the midst of us only in so far as 
 he dwells in our heart. We then feel, as it were, buried in 
 darkness and lost in vacuity. We no longer know how to 
 act ; the earth seems to give way under our feet, our heart 
 melts within us, and we can scarcely help exclaiming, with 
 the woman at the sepulchre, " They have taken away my 
 Lord ; and I know not where they have laid him !" 
 
 Sometimes we consider Jesus Christ to be represented by 
 men who are devoted to his service, and whom we believe to 
 be penetrated with his Spirit. Every Christian, in a certain 
 sense, represents Jesus Christ, and represents him the better 
 the more implicitly he submits to him. The error lies in 
 making a mere man the object of feelings which are due only 
 to our Lord, and in regarding any instrument of whatever 
 nature as necessary. This error is common, and alienates 
 from Jesus Christ while it appears to pay him an homage of 
 which he ought to be the sole object. How often in this 
 manner is our adoration misplaced and led astray ! How 
 often do we make the altar of the living God the pedestal of 
 an idol ! And when the righteous hand of God throws down 
 this idol and breaks it to pieces, when this man, supposed 
 necessary, has disappeared, all has disappeared with him. 
 He was the god who walked before us ; his inspirations 
 
JESUS INVISIBLE. 257 
 
 were all our wisdom, his voice, in spite of us, perhaps, had 
 silenced the voice of the Spirit within us. Has he forsaken 
 us ? The silence is complete and the darkness profound. 
 He had become to us unconsciously Jesus present, Jesus vis- 
 ible ; and death, or absence, or some other dispensation, by 
 removing away this man, has left us alone with ourselves, 
 even after we had received the words of Christ, " I am with 
 you to the end of the world." 
 
 The success, the internal prosperity of Christianity are 
 also a kind of visible Christ to us. We are willing not to 
 believe him absent so long as we see his religion honored, 
 multitudes thronging his churches, society at least tacitly 
 recognizing him as its head, infidelity blushing to avow itself, 
 and hatred (for we cannot be ignorant that he has enemies,) 
 blaspheming only in secret. Our faith takes courage at the 
 sight ; alas ! this sight is all the faith possessed by the greater 
 number. How readily our hope fails, and our faith is shaken, 
 how soon we fall away, when, in consequence of any great 
 change in the condition of society, enmity grows bold, and of 
 a sudden " the hearts of many are revealed !" In all this, 
 however, there is nothing new. Jesus Christ has no more 
 enemies than he had ; those who are hostile to-day were so 
 yesterday ; the only difference is that they are now known, 
 and know themselves. But the very circumstance of its 
 being believed that Jesus Christ has more enemies, diminishes 
 the number of his friends. What do I say ? It seems as if 
 this host of enemies had carried Jesus Christ away. Like 
 Enoch, he disappears and is not. It seems as if he had 
 never appeared, as if he had never been, and as if, dreadful 
 to say, his removal from the earth took away not a real 
 being, but a name ! After hearing and hearing again that 
 the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, that the 
 kingdom of Christ is not of this world, that the Church is not 
 the world, that the doctrine of the cross is to the natural man 
 
258 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 foolishness, that the truth is always offensive, and that to 
 the end true believers will be a small and select number, 
 that humiliation and contempt are the inheritance of the 
 Church upon earth, all this fades away from the memory, 
 and it plainly appears that these expressions had hitherto 
 been used without being understood or believed. All are not 
 shaken in an equal degree, but the firmest feel their knees 
 bending, and more than one of those who still believe, (be- 
 cause faith cannot die,) more than one cries to Jesus, as the 
 disciples once did, " Abide with UvS, for it is toward evening, 
 and the day is far spent !" Luke xxiv. 29. 
 
 But Jesus Christ, who cannot permit us either to serve 
 him as an idol, or to put idols in his place, or to seek indubi- 
 table evidence of his presence any where but in ourselves ; 
 Jesus Christ, as on that day when the multitude erroneously 
 wished to make him a king, " withdraws to a mountain." 
 By this new retreat he extinguishes the bright light which 
 he had kindled ; he obliges us to seek him on the mountain, 
 in other words, in our faith, and constrains us to look at him 
 with other eyes than those of flesh. Those days, strongly 
 resembling nights, are days of trial, but thereby days of 
 blessing. True faith is astonished, we admit, but it recovers 
 itself, or rather recovers the invisible Saviour from whom it 
 had allowed itself to be drawn far away towards reflected 
 objects and symbols. A similar day has been given to us. 
 The darkness is gathering. The lights are being extin- 
 guished. The world is more completely than ever the world, 
 and Christians are again in its eyes a peculiar people. It is 
 not the substance but the aspect of things that has changed. 
 The respective amounts of faith and unbelief have doubtless 
 somewhat varied ; but unbelief has with many changed its 
 character ; it is serious, it aflirms, it believes, it removes 
 mountains. These mountains will crush it to pieces, for it is 
 strong only in denying, and when it rises to aflirmation, it 
 
JESUS INVISIBLE. 259 
 
 calls forth a unanimous and crushing denial from facts and 
 from nature. Be this as it may, what grounds have we not 
 for saying to the power of falsehood, " This is your hour and 
 the power of darkness." Luke xxii. 53. This is one of 
 those evenings, those gloomy evenings, in which the Church 
 requires to be illumined by the light which she carries within 
 her, but it is also one of those evenings whose darkness, so 
 to speak, kindles a thousand fires in the sky of the Church. 
 Do you not see them one after another start up and illumine 
 the darkness ? Do you not see life and motion springing up 
 on every side, a reviving interest in the works of which the 
 glory of Jesus Christ is the object, the spirit of enterprise 
 and conquest again becoming the spirit of a Christian people 
 so long a stranger to the divine impatience which sees the 
 fields already white, though others think there are still three 
 months till harvest ? Who would dare to say that the 
 Church, the true Church, ever dies ? None, not even its 
 proudest enemies. What although the flame burns flickering, 
 and on a narrow hearth ? What matters it if it is as pure, 
 as vigorous, as devouring as ever ? 
 
 Brethren, let us, with all the strength which God has 
 given, resist the dangerous temptations of that " lust of the 
 eye," which, from our carnal nature, we carry even into the 
 purest of religions. Majestic power, ancient memorials, 
 space and number, brilliant actions and fascinating talents, 
 are all so many modes in which we would have Jesus Christ 
 to become visible to our eyes. Notwithstanding his glo- 
 rious ascension, we insist on clothing him in mortal flesh, in 
 order that we may be able to know, according to the flesh, 
 him who desires to be known and loved only according to 
 the Spirit. We invest him with a mortal flesh, and thereby 
 make him mortal. Yes, we render him subject to death a 
 second lime, and for ever ; and when he does come to die in 
 that flesh with which we have against his will invested him, 
 
260 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 alas! is there not ground to fear that he will also die in our 
 hearts ? Bible Christians, we look with pity on the believers 
 in the real presence, and yet we differ from them only in 
 form, since, like them, we call up a Jesus Christ in flesh, 
 in order to secure his dying still more certainly on the altar 
 of our hearts. A taste, a love, a reverence for the invisible, 
 is still rare among the very men who are always repeating 
 that they must set their affections on the invisible realities of 
 eternity, and that their true life is hid with Christ in God. 
 Brethren, we have all, in this respect, much progress to 
 make. May we desire it ! May we ask it ! This were 
 almost to have accomplished it. 
 
GRACE AND FAITH. 
 
 " By grace are ye saved, through faith." — Ephesians ii. 8. 
 
 St. Paul addresses these words to the Ephesians, who had 
 formerly been idolaters, without God and without hope in the 
 world. There was no need of any particular circumstance 
 to determine him to speak to them in such terms. In doing so 
 he simply announced to them the Gospel, whose doctrine, 
 vast though it be, is all summed up in the words which we 
 have read. It is probable, however, that in this place they 
 have a special emphasis. The new converts, surrounded by 
 Jews and intermixed with Jews, were in danger of receiving 
 the most pernicious influences even from those Jews who 
 had, like themselves, embraced Christianity. The Jews, 
 with their traditions and their legal spirit, might intercept 
 the rays, or at least some of the rays, of Gospel light. For, 
 even in accepting Jesus Christ, the ancient disciples of Mo- 
 ses were desirous to owe somewhat to their works, and to be, 
 up to a certain point, saved by their works. In this way the 
 glad tidings were no sooner proclaimed than they were in 
 danger of being altered and denaturalized. It is to this dan- 
 
262 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 ger, or perhaps already flagrant abuse, that St. Paul opposes 
 the authority of his word. Whatever others may say to you, 
 (he seems to cry to the Ephesians,) whatever others may 
 allege, be assured that you are saved not by your merit, but 
 merely by grace ; not by your works, but by means of faith. 
 This same voice administers rebuke at all periods to those 
 Jews (Jews, not by birth, but in heart,) who persist in inces- 
 santly speaking of righteousness when there is room only for 
 grace, in pluming themselves upon works instead of leaning 
 upon faith. For in the error of the Jews the Apostle has 
 discovered two errors, to which he opposes two truths. The 
 Jews pretend to save themselves. This, when properly un- 
 derstood, means that they have no need of being saved. Sal- 
 vation, for which their merits will pay, is in their eyes a 
 matter of strict right, and pure justice. The answer to 
 them is. No; but grace alone will bear the expense of your 
 salvation. The Jews rest in their works, (that is, in works 
 properly so called.) in an external display of their own pow- 
 ers. No, says St. Paul, your works, be they what they may, 
 your works, as works, will not be imputed to you ; your 
 faith only will be imputed. Only by grace and by faith can 
 you be saved. Does this mean, brethren, that there are two 
 methods of salvation ? Does grace perform one half of the 
 work and faith the other half? The very words of St. Paul 
 forbid such an idea. They evidently ascribe the whole of 
 our salvation to grace, or to God. " You are saved by 
 grace," says he, and shortly afterwards, " that not of your- 
 selves." And yet he also says, *'Ye are saved by faith." 
 What has faith to do here ? In what relation does it stand to 
 grace ? How does it allow grace to subsist in all its ful- 
 ness ? How can a man be saved by his faith, (for the faith 
 spoken of is certainly his faith,) and yet owe his whole sal- 
 vation to grace ? It is this, brethren, that we wish to ex- 
 plain. In general, it is of importance to every Christian, 
 
GRACE AND FAITH. 263 
 
 and to every man, to have a full understanding of that part 
 of theology which treats of grace and faith. Let whatever 
 in it is impenetrable remain impenetrable, but let that which 
 is made to be understood be well understood. Let us be- 
 ware of supplying the place of ideas by vain words. Let us 
 have the key of our treasury, and venture to open it. Let 
 us learn from the Gospel, and from experience, what are the 
 true, natural, and inevitable relations between faith and 
 grace. Let us thus avoid those misunderstandings which 
 freeze or irritate the heart, and usually do both. 
 
 You are saved, says the Apostle ; consequently, you 
 were lost. This last is not a simple idea. The loss of man 
 is compounded of two elements, or presents itself under two 
 aspects. Man is condemned, and he is dead in trespasses 
 and sins. But are these two facts merely in juxtaposition ? 
 Have they no more intimate relation ? They have one so 
 intimate, dear brethren, that the real difficulty is, not to con- 
 nect them, but to discriminate between them. Wherein 
 does condemnation consist ? What is, so to speak, its sum 
 and substance ? Is it not, before all and above all, our spir- 
 itual separation from God ? To what punishment more se- 
 vere than the interruption of all communication with God 
 could a being be subjected who is made for God, and can no 
 more live without God than the bird without air, or the fish 
 without water ? Now, this perpetual paralysis of the moral 
 being is nothing else than that death which we lately men- 
 tioned in the words of St. Paul, that spiritual death into 
 which sin has plunged us, and to which we had doomed 
 ourselves before God had condemned us. Condemnation 
 may include more, but it certainly includes this death ; and 
 this death is necessarily the principal part, the very founda- 
 tion of condemnation. However, brethren, in a certain point 
 of view condemnation anfl death are really two, as God and 
 man are two. If, in considering the lost estate of man, we look 
 
264 GOSPEL STUDIES^. 
 
 at the justice of God, that loss is condemnation ; if we look to 
 man, the chief part of the loss is death. Man is lost in two 
 senses, in denying God, and in being denied by God ; lost by 
 this t\<^ofold abandonment, this reciprocal repulsion — the 
 flight, if we may so express it, of the Creator away from the 
 creature, whose wickedness offends his holy eye, and of the 
 creature from the Creator, of whom he cannot think without 
 mingled feelings of terror and hatred. This is what is 
 called the lost estate of man, and such is the abyss out of 
 which the Apostle saw the Ephesians delivered when he 
 said to them, " Ye are saved." 
 
 You were lost. Is the whole meaning of these words 
 merely that you were exposed to danger, seriously com- 
 promised, eclipsed, though not extinguished ? No ; these 
 words, in regard to punishment, signify condemned finally, 
 without appeal, and without resource ; while, in regard to 
 moral degradation, they signify dead, a term to which nothing 
 can be added. When you shall have seen a tree which was 
 rooted up and cast away from its place, return, replant itself, 
 and take an erect position, you may believe, though without 
 comprehending it, that man, equally rooted up, may by himself 
 plant himself anew in the land of reconciliation and life, and 
 resume his ancient place and ancient honors in the garden 
 of God. In this passage, then, the meaning of the word lost 
 is complete, absolute, irrevocable. There is no resource, 
 now at least, which any man can imagine or foresee. 
 
 And now, says the Apostle, you who were lost are saved. 
 I do not stop to inquire whether in the eyes of St. Paul the 
 Ephesians were in the state or the way of salvation at the 
 moment when he said to them, " You are saved." The 
 words certainly mean that the whole cost of their salvation 
 had been paid ; that all which could be done without them 
 had been done ; in a word, that it depended only on them to 
 be saved. But we do not even insist on this interpretation 
 
GRACE AND FAITH. 265 
 
 of the apostolic declaration, however probable it may be. 
 We are willing only to find a single idea which every person 
 will surely find in it as well as we, namely, that there is a 
 salvation, a means of escaping from condemnation, and being 
 delivered from death. This means is called grace, and it is 
 also called faith. 
 
 No, brethren; we express ourselves improperly. The 
 means invariably lie between the effect and the cause, and 
 connect them together. Now, before grace can be a means, 
 there must be something beneath and something above it, 
 whereas there is certainly nothing. Grace, therefore, is not 
 the means of our salvation ; it is the principle, the source, 
 the reason, the cause of it. Our salvation proceeds entirely 
 from the grace or merciful will of the Father of spirits, just 
 as the bird proceeds entirely from the egg, and the fruit 
 entirely from the branch, though heat is necessary to hatch 
 the egg, and a hand necessary to gather the fruit. Grace 
 is therefore the cause, the source of salvation ; faith is only 
 the means, or if you will, there are two graces ; one which 
 is performed out of us, and which the Apostle calls simply 
 grace, and another which is accomplished in us, and which 
 the Apostle calls faith. In principle, grace is one ; but 
 it has different moments, different places, different forms. 
 There are several gifts, but the whole is gift. Grace out of 
 us, grace in us ; such is the Gospel. 
 
 Thus, then, the terms of the text do not designate either 
 two means, since grace is not a mean, nor two halves of a 
 whole, since grace is the whole. Grace is the whole, of 
 which faith is a part. You are saved by grace ; this is the 
 general truth. You are saved by faith; this is the particular 
 truth. In other words, it is necessary for the completion of 
 salvation that grace produce faith. 
 
 But since it is evident that in grace all is not faith, it is 
 natural to ask, prior to and independently of faith, when faith 
 13 
 
26a GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 as yet does not exist, what is there ? Or, in other terms, 
 before giving us faith what has God given us ? what has 
 God done for us ? 
 
 He has pardoned. Here the terms and even our con- 
 ceptions fail ; for the eternal God must have pardoned from 
 all eternity. He remitted the debt before it was contracted. 
 Before striking the blow he was appeased. Let us bow our 
 heads before this mystery, and freely speak the language 
 which God permits us to speak. God has pardoned. The 
 term does not seem to need explanation. Every one under- 
 stands that to pardon is to remit the punishment which an 
 offence had merited, is to restore the offender to the position 
 in which he was before he offended. Such is the intention 
 of pardon ; and if we consider pardon only in its intention, 
 the idea of a man who pardons, is sufficient to make us con- 
 ceive the idea of a God who pardons, and to say the truth, 
 it is only by the former that we can rise to the latter. But 
 if we look to pardon as a completed act, to pardon made 
 effectual, an important difference presents itself. A sover- 
 eign who grants pardon, an individual who renounces ven- 
 geance, have not less conferred a full and effectual pardon, 
 that the object of their clemency remains the same absolutely, 
 and the same in respect to them, or that he experiences the 
 effect of their generosity without knowing the source of it. 
 Changed, or not changed, he is nevertheless pardoned. Such 
 is the case in regard to this world's affairs. But we have 
 not yet forgotten what is meant by man's being lost. To be 
 lost is not only to be condemned, it is to be dead in trespasses 
 and sins, and this spiritual death of itself constitutes his 
 condemnation. To remain in this death, is to remain in 
 condemnation. Condemnation unaccompanied by this death 
 would be impossible ; it would no longer be condemnation. 
 For there is no real condemnation to him who enjoys that 
 communion of thought and will with God, which is the lif^ 
 
GRACE AND FAITH. 267 
 
 of our soul just as a separation from him is its death. From 
 this you doubtless perceive that this change of heart, the 
 absence of which does not nullify a pardon granted by man 
 to man, is essential in the work of mercy by our heavenly 
 King. This change is not a previous condition of pardon or 
 of grace, the characteristic of which on the contrary is to be 
 unconditional. This change of heart, thought, and life, this 
 change of the whole man, this new birth, is the realization, 
 or, as we might call it, the very substance of pardon, just 
 as spiritual death is the essence of condemnation. And it is 
 in this sense that an Apostle has expressed the fact of redemp- 
 tion in the following terms, " You were . . . redeemed 
 
 from your vain conversation received by tradition from 
 your fathers." 1 Pet. i. 18. And another Apostle, setting 
 before the view of his disciples the final recompense of their 
 fidelity and accomplishment of the promises of God, tells 
 them that God " did predestinate " them " to be conformed 
 to the image of his Son." Rom. viii. 29. 
 
 The two ideas of pardon and regeneration are thus united 
 as closely as the two ideas of condemnation and spiritual 
 death. I do not say, be careful to observe that this spiritual 
 death, this living death, is the wJioIe of condemnation, or that 
 this regeneration, or this, new life, is the whole effect of 
 pardon ; T only say that spiritual death is the principal 
 element of condemnation, and that the regeneration of the 
 heart is the consummation of grace, and the very foundation 
 of salvation. 
 
 This does not oblige us to confound what is distinct, and 
 requires to be distinguished. The remission of sins, the 
 abolition of our debt, the declared purpose to regard sinful 
 man as innocent, in one word, pardon sealed and guaranteed 
 by the greatest of sacrifices, all this is something else than 
 the gift of the new birth ; but after making these reserva- 
 tions, we may be permitted to make a supposition. Let us 
 
268 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 suppose that the merciful desire of our Creator had remained 
 concealed in his own bosom, or rather let us suppose that the 
 amnesty had remained a secret between the eternal Father 
 and the eternal Son ; let us suppose that in order to procure 
 this pardon, and these letters of pardon, the well-beloved of 
 the Father had shed his blood, either in some other world far 
 beyond our ken, or if you please on the earth, but without 
 our knowing it. Every thing is finished ; only we are not 
 aware of the fact, we do not even know that any scheme has 
 been devised. Are we saved ? You might tell me that in 
 virtue of these great measures, although they are unknown 
 to us, we shall not on quitting this world be subjected in the 
 other to the punishments with which we thought we were 
 threatened. This I admit ; but I again ask. Are we saved ? 
 Are we saved even though our ignorance should not then 
 cease, nor the good will of God be revealed to us, though, in 
 a word, the Gospel be not preached to the dead ? Though 
 the Gospel should not have given you any light on this sub- 
 ject, you would reply. No ; we cannot be saved by a grace 
 which does not change us, and we cannot be changed by a 
 grace which has not been revealed to us. 
 
 None of you I believe will controvert me, none will even 
 call for a proof of my averment. I suppose for a moment 
 that some among my hearers are not Christians, but that all 
 have a sincere respect for the principles of the moral law. 
 I shall thus have two classes of hearers, and I shall have the 
 assent of both . Those who are Christians will not maintain that 
 true happiness, and consequently eternal happines, (for it is 
 eternal only because it is true,) can be the portion of creatures 
 whose heart is still separated from God, and hostile to God. 
 They know, they feel the contrary, and though their faith for- 
 bids them to make any human merit the legal condition of sal- 
 vation, they are fully convinced that holiness is an integral and 
 essential part of salvation. And as to the other class, the mo- 
 
GRACE AND FAITH. 269 
 
 ralists, (if they will allow us to call them so,) it would be to 
 abjure their principles, and abjure them gratuitously, to sup- 
 pose it possible that there could be happiness beside God with- 
 out being happiness according to God. Both might readily 
 admit that the amnesty of which we speak might have taken 
 ofFsome material inflictions ; but this amnesty being unknown, 
 and therefore incapable of acting upon the heart, (where, 
 notwithstanding, impious hostility would subsist,) could not 
 secure the blessedness of heaven ; it could not prevent man, 
 while remaining the same, from being inexpressibly and 
 eternally miserable. To prove the contrary would be to 
 prove that God is not holy, that God is not God. 
 
 Now, it being once admitted that the work of redemption 
 is illusory if it is not revealed to us, and that " my righteous 
 Servant," as Isaiah speaks, will justify many by the know- 
 ledge which they shall have of him, (Is. liii. 11,) we have 
 only to advance a single step in order to establish the neces- 
 sity and determine the office of faith. There is this common 
 between him to w'hom the pardon has not been revealed and 
 him who does not helieve in it, that they are both ignorant. 
 The unbeliever is ignorant like the other. Not believing he 
 knows not, and all the advantages which may result from 
 knowledge are lost to him as much as to the other who is 
 simply ignorant ; and in so far as a supreme happiness is 
 attached to those spiritual advantages, which, to say the 
 truth, are the basis and foundation of this happiness, neither 
 the ignorant nor the unbelieving is fit to enjoy it ; or, as our 
 divine Master expresses it, neither of them is fit for the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 But it is only in one respect, and for the time, that we 
 have been able to place the unbelieving and the ignorant in 
 the same position. The former, who has received an offer 
 of pardon and rejected it, is certainly in the worse condition. 
 No man has a right to the amnesty, but one may be doubly 
 
270 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 unworthy, and this is the case of him who has refused it. 
 What will be the final condition of involuntary ignorance I 
 know not, and seek not to know ; but one thing I know well, 
 and it is, that as he who knew the will of his Master and did 
 it not will be beaten with many stripes, so will it be with 
 him who knew the good will of the Father and did not accept 
 it. In so far as the amnesty which invites offenders to pro- 
 vide themselves with their letters of pardon against a certain 
 term has been clearly and regularly promulgated, in so far 
 as he who has not availed himself of it will not be able to 
 plead ignorance, the amnesty in regard to him justly falls, 
 and leaves him to return to the unhappy condition in which 
 he was before its promulgation. He was not excluded from 
 pardon, but he has excluded himself; he has relapsed, and 
 his last condition is worse than the first. There is pardon 
 for all sinners, but not for the sinner who remains impenitent. 
 But, brethren, instead of digressing let it simply be our 
 object to consider positively what the relations are between 
 faith and grace. We say truly that grace is complete in 
 itself; it is the gate of the paternal mansion again opened 
 wide, and the riches within are given without distinction to 
 all who will enter. Grace is the guilty regarded as innocent. 
 Grace is the abolition of the past, and a new starting point 
 given to human life and human nature. Grace — it is chil- 
 dren again finding their father, and a father again finding his 
 children! But in order that this grace may be realized, 
 it is absolutely indispensable that he who gives it should 
 also give the knowledge of it. This is necessary, unless 
 indeed we insist that the happiness of heaven is altogether 
 material, in which case undoubtedly previous knowledge 
 would be useless, the heart of man not requiring to be 
 changed in order to enjoy a material happiness. But a 
 happiness of this kind would be unworthy of God, and even 
 if the whole truth must be told, unworthy of man. Now 
 
GRACE AND FAITH. 271 
 
 what is the happiness of heaven ? A spiritual happiness. 
 We need only see how the Scriptures designate it. To see 
 God, to see him as he is, to be conformed to him, to know as 
 we are known, to possess the inheritance of the saints in 
 light, the external peace of this new state where there are 
 no more tears, nor crying, nor toil, only completes the idea 
 of this felicity, but does not constitute it. Now, who can 
 enjoy this happiness save he whose heart has been changed? 
 and what hearts can be changed, save those who learned 
 upon the earth how far the Saviour loved them, and in what 
 manner he has assured them of his love ? And this is the 
 reason why faith forms part of the grace which saves, and 
 why St. Paul said to the Ephesians, " By grace are ye saved, 
 through faith." Faith is the hand by which we seize the 
 pardon, the promises, the love of the Father ; and the pro- 
 viding us with this spiritual hand forms the second act of 
 divine charity, the second miracle of grace. Faith is the 
 mysterious ingrafting which makes us to become branches of 
 the Vine, which is Jesus Christ, from whom, in consequence 
 of our union with him, we thenceforth derive all our nourish- 
 ment, his life becoming ours. It is sufficient to know him in 
 order to understand how faith saves. 
 
 It is true, dear brethren, that I have hitherto spoken more 
 of knowledge than of faith, and that I have not distinguished 
 them from each other. It is heca.use faith is knowledge ; and 
 it is under this point of view that I wished at the outset to 
 present faith. But if knowledge and faith resemble each 
 other, inasmuch as knowledge is included in faith, it is how- 
 ever of importance to discriminate them. All knowledge is 
 not saving. It might even be said that it is not knowledge 
 which saves, but faith ; and that it is necessary for the ac- 
 complishment of our salvation that knowledge should become 
 faith. Two things are necessary ; knowledge itself, and a 
 certain manner of knowing. How many are there who 
 
272 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 know, and yet are not in the way of salvation ! It is because 
 their knowledge is passive or inert, a knowledge in which 
 will, morality, and the soul, pass for nothing. It is be- 
 cause they have seen, but not tasted that the Lord is gra- 
 cious ; it is because they have not taken the proper measure 
 of their misery so as to enable them to measure the extent of 
 his love ; it is because they have taken up their belief with- 
 out either repugnance or affection, just as they would have 
 accepted any thing that happened to be first presented ; it is 
 because, in the acquisition of this treasure, they have em- 
 ployed the paltriest faculties, the mere surface of the soul ; 
 it is because, borne aloft on the shoulders of the slaves 
 called prejudice, authority, and custom, or carried along in 
 that rumbling chariot called logic, they have performed a 
 journey which they ought to have performed barefoot, or ra- 
 ther on their knees, over cutting flints, thorns, and briers. 
 In other journeys the end is the important matter, here it is 
 the road. When the truth is known only as they actually 
 know it, it is not known at all. We cannot handle a deli- 
 cate substance with a hand of iron or wood. Death cannot 
 appropriate life. The act destined to bring us into unison 
 of thought, will, and habit with Jesus Christ, must be a moral 
 act. Faith is a desire, a homage, a promise, almost a love. 
 It is at once all these, and at the same time is all that is 
 most simple, a look of the heart towards the God of mercy, 
 " an earnest and intent consideration of Jesus Christ cruci- 
 fied," the committal of all our interests into his Divine hands, 
 tranquillity of mind and heartfelt peace in the assurance of 
 his love and power, our hand placed with childlike confi- 
 dence in his as in that of a protector and guide. Such is 
 faith. It may set out with historical certainty, but this cer- 
 tainty is not faith. It may remain in the state of opinion, 
 but this opinion is not faith. It may be reduced to a popular 
 prejudice, but this prejudice is not faith. To believe is to 
 
GRACE AND FAITH. 273 
 
 confide ; to believe is to rely upon God. Thus Abraham be- 
 lieved, and it was this faith and this alone that was imputed 
 to him for righteousness. Who does not perceive that such 
 a manner of knowing is the principle, the imperishable germ 
 of a new life, and that we are in fact saved by knowledge ? 
 
 Christianity has excluded works as a ground of our as- 
 surance. I mean external works ; for St. James could not 
 have deviated from the true path when he said that we are 
 ''justified by works, and not by faith only." Ah ! who sees 
 not that it will be necessary for us at the last day to be able 
 to produce works as the evidence of our faith, and that, at 
 least in this sense, works justify ? Accordingly, it is written, 
 " Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord ; for they rest 
 from their labors, and their works do follow them !" But if 
 it has been justly asked, What kind of faith is that which 
 produces no works ? may it not be as truly asked. What kind 
 of works are those of which faith is not the principle ? what 
 kind of works are those of unbelief? what kind of works 
 are those done by a proud and impenitent sinner ? what kind 
 of works are those of a being who has rejected the love of 
 God ? what kind of works are those which are not offered to 
 God ? True faith, then, will produce works, and the works 
 of faith will be true works. But, indeed, it seems to me that 
 those who cry loudly for works, and works to the exclusion 
 of faith, are very fastidious on the subject of works if they 
 do not recognize in that very faith which includes so many 
 efforts, presupposes so many struggles, and employs so many 
 powers or works, the first of works, and, so to speak, the 
 work of works ; the profoundest, richest, most pregnant, and 
 most fruitful work of which a human being is capable ; an 
 act which includes every thing which ought to be done, and 
 excludes every thing which ought not to be done, and which 
 prepares the human soul for the encounter of all difficulties 
 and the accomplishment of all duties. Some persons must 
 13* 
 
'274 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 be very fastidious in the matter of works. Those which 
 they despise and reject will one day, in the presence of God, 
 absorb all the works of which they boast, just as the serpent 
 of Moses swallowed up those of the magicians. 
 
 When I represented faith as a life of the soul, I told you, 
 by anticipation, that faith admits of degrees. Between be- 
 lieving and not believing, in other words, between possessing 
 and not possessing God, there is doubtless an abyss as be- 
 tween life and death ; accordingly, we cannot be more or 
 less saved. But though we cannot be more or less dead, we 
 may be more or less alive. We may believe more or less, 
 we may know more or less, feel more or less, enjoy more or 
 less, be more or less in health. There is progression in the 
 life of faith, as in every life ; and this progress is even the 
 condition ^nd the sign of life. Faith may increase in cer- 
 tainty, clearness, vivacity, and energy. It was probably this 
 that the disciples asked of Jesus when they said, " Increase 
 our faith." It was in one or other of these respects, perhaps 
 in all these respects, that St. Paul desired to add to what was 
 wanting in the faith of the Thessalonians. It was this pro- 
 gress that St. Peter had in view when he said, " Grow in 
 knowledge." For in religion, to believe and know are one 
 and the same thing. The measure of faith is to each the 
 measure of peace, charity, liberty and life. We are bound 
 always to desire more than we possess, and if any one is not 
 anxious about the measure of his faith, that is, his union 
 with God, it may be said that he is not anxious about salva- 
 tion, and that he has not yet, to use the emphatic expression 
 of St. Paul, laid hold of eternal life. 
 
 It is thus, my beloved brethren, that we understand the 
 relations between grace and faith. Grace is the object of 
 faith ; faith is the completion of grace. But will we be al- 
 lowed to conclude without meeting with any objection ? 
 Will nobody be found to tell us that the object of faith is not 
 
GRACE AND FAITH. 275 
 
 a disembodied fact, but a person, even Jesus Christ ; and not 
 a part of Jesus Christ or of his work, but of Jesus Christ as 
 a whole ? The question which the first preachers of the 
 Gospel addressed to their hearers was, Do you believe in 
 Jesus Christ ? and every one who answered in the affirma- 
 tive was from that instant held to be a Christian. We feel 
 the weight of this objection, and we admit the principle of it. 
 God forbid that we should divide Jesus Christ ! Yes, it is 
 indeed Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ entire, who is the ob- 
 ject of faith ; and we forget not that he has been made of 
 God wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and re- 
 demption ; all of these jointly, and none of them severally. 
 But all these together constitute grace ; and it is grace, en- 
 tire grace, that we have made the object of faith. To have 
 faith is to believe all those things of which the focus, the 
 centre, and the source, is Jesus Christ crucified. The faith 
 which would not believe in all these things, and would not 
 receive them all as grace ; the faith which would divide or 
 diminish Jesus Christ, would not be faith ; and from not em- 
 bracing its whole object, we might in all truth say that it 
 did not exist. We have sufficiently shown that whosoever 
 would believe in the grace of pardon without believing in 
 the grace of regeneration, would not really believe in pardon, 
 which is illusory, without regeneration. Complete faith in- 
 cludes the conviction that He who spared not his own Son, 
 but delivered him up for us all, will with him freely give us 
 all things ; in other words, will not repent of his first gift, 
 nor withdraw it. Under the name of grace, therefore, it is 
 Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ wholly, that we have set forth 
 as the object of faith ; not merely his Godhead, but his 
 humanity ; not merely his death, but his life ; not merely 
 his doctrine, but his example ; not merely his sacrifice, but 
 his glory ; for it is by all these things united, without except- 
 ing any or diminishing any, that Christ Jesus is our Saviour, 
 
276 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 But because pardon stands at the head of this work, because 
 this work in all its parts is only the development of pardon, 
 because it is under the aspect and the name of pardon that 
 this work, which is one and indivisible, first, presents itself to 
 our view, because pardon is the sap which circulates in all 
 the branches of this immense tree, the savor diffused 
 throughout the minutest particles of this bread of life — we 
 have said, and we say again, that pardon, taken with all its 
 consequences, and all its developments, is the object of Chris- 
 tian faith. This is not to turn the eye away from Jesus 
 Christ, who guarantees pardon, who himself bestows (Matt, 
 ix. 6) and completes it. 
 
 I know not, brethren, if afler all we have said there will 
 still remain some scruple in those respectable adorers of 
 Divine grace, who take alarm at the very idea of seeing 
 any thing withheld from it. At all events, it would not be 
 to St. Paul that they would object, but to us, as erroneously 
 interpreting him. St. Paul, indeed, declares that we are 
 saved by faith, or by means of faith. What more have we 
 said ? How could we even say more ? Nothing can be 
 more distinct, more precise ; nothing less admits of being 
 extended or restricted than the words. You are saved by 
 faith. This is the clearest point in the Gospel. It may be 
 examined more or less profoundly, but it cannot have more 
 than one meaning. However we may understand it, faith is 
 not the cause of salvation, and faith is the condition of it. 
 In order to participate in the benefit of the pardon, in the 
 fruits of the Saviour's sacrifice, it is necessary to believe ; 
 and faith is a moral fact which takes place in man. We 
 have said all this, but we have said no more, and we do not 
 see how our exposition can be repudiated without repudiating 
 St. Paul. What if we had said, That which is wanting to 
 faith, grace supplies ? Well, St. Paul has said something 
 very like this. " I fill up that which is behind of the afflic- 
 
GRACE AND FAITH. 277 
 
 tions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake." Col. i. 24. 
 Now then, in the same way, something is wanting to grace 
 so long as we have not faith ; in other words, God has not 
 yet done all that he intends to do for us. Just as the afflic- 
 tions of Christ continue in each of his members, who form 
 only one body with him, the grace of God continues in each 
 believer by the faith which is also grace. Christ is in each 
 of his members who suffer ; grace is in the soul of each 
 sinner who believes. Why should faith, which is a work of 
 man, not be at the same time a work of God ? Why should 
 not he who has granted pardon not also give faith ? Should 
 not all that leads to God come from God ? Where is the 
 difficulty of admitting this, and how do those zealots for grace 
 not see that they would give him the glory more entirely by 
 ceasing to regard faith as a merely human work, and by 
 doing homage for it, as for every thing else, to the Divine 
 liberality. Under this reservation, which secures the honor 
 of grace, they may frankly admit the necessity of faith ; 
 they may, without fear, term it a condition of salvation, 
 recognize it as a work, as a moral work; in one word, think 
 on the subject of faith as it is impossible not to think. 
 
 No, brethren ; there is not in this Divine system either 
 difficulty or obscurity, snare or scandal. There is only 
 solidity, harmony, ' and luminous perspicuity. But God 
 forbid that it should be to us nothing more than a system, 
 though a Divine system ! God forbid that we should remain 
 satisfied with admiration ! Let us mutually warn each other 
 of the danger of converting that which was given us for life 
 into matter of mere speculation, and, so to speak, of pillaging 
 the truth for the gratification of our curiosity. Let us ad- 
 mire, but let us bless; let us admire, but let us humble 
 ourselves ; let us admire, but let us ask, not so much for 
 the knowledge as for the love which edifies. But let us 
 
278 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 cease not to say to ourselves, and every where proclaim, 
 that the Gospel is divinely rational, that it is wisdom among 
 the perfect, that it is equally fitted to give to the simple wis- 
 dom, and to the wise simplicity. 
 
WRATH AND PRAYER. 
 
 ** I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, 
 without wrath and doubting [French, contestations, disputing]." — I 
 Tim. ii. 8. 
 
 Prayer is represented in the Gospel as a holy and solemn 
 act, which we cannot surround with too many safeguards, in 
 order to prevent any thing of a profane and worldly nature 
 from interfering with the reverential freedom of this converse 
 "between the creature and its Creator. If prayer is most 
 frequently represented by the sacred writers as the means of 
 the Christian life, their language at times almost seems to 
 imply, that prayer is the end, and that it is necessary alter- 
 nately to pray in order to live like Christians, and live like 
 Christians in order to be able to pray. Prayer prepares for 
 acts of self-denial, courage and charity, and these in their 
 turn prepare for prayer. No one should be surprised at this 
 double relation between prayer and life. Is it not natural 
 that we should retire to be with God, that we may renew 
 our sense of his presence, draw on the treasures of light and 
 strength which he opens to every heart that implores him, and 
 afterwards return to active life, better provided with love and 
 wisdom ? On the other hand is it not natural that we should 
 
280 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 prepare by purity of conduct to lift up pure hands to God, 
 and carefully keep aloof from every thing that might render 
 this important and necessary act either difficult, or formida- 
 ble, or useless ? Still, brethren, though it is scarcely possible 
 to have one of these convictions without having the other 
 also, we may say that the former of these truths is less felt 
 than the second ; that to make prayer an end, and regulate 
 our life by the thought of that solemn moment, supposes a 
 progress in the paths of piety and a delicacy of Christian 
 sentiment which can only be attained by degrees. However, 
 when prayer has become a habit, and we set apart certain 
 portions of the day when we are to be alone with God, the 
 near prospect of a meeting which is always formidable even 
 in its mildest form, is well fitted to keep vigilance awake, 
 and suppress the movements of passion or concupiscence ; 
 and, provided this act of prayer has not degenerated into 
 Pharisaical observance, nothing, unquestionably, is more 
 proper to exercise a mild discipline over our whole life in its 
 minutest details. It is with this conviction, and probably 
 from this experience, that the venerable Apostle St. Peter 
 recommends parents to use meekness and indulgence in their 
 domestic relations in order, he says, that their prayers be not 
 hindered ; and when St. Paul, in our text, exhorts men 
 every where to lift up pure hands without wrath and dispu- 
 tation, his meaning certainly is not that wrath and disputation 
 ought ever to mingle with the act of prayer, (that is self- 
 evident,) but he means that a disposition which is too natural 
 to all persons, and too habitual to some of them, and which 
 opposition from without tends always to awaken in the 
 calmest and most moderate minds, that this disposition to 
 wrath and disputation ought to be watched over and repressed 
 with the greatest care, in order that when the moment for 
 prayer arrives, we may be able to lift up pure hands to 
 heaven. 
 
WRATH AND PRAYER. 281 
 
 But, dear brethren, we cannot help seeing something 
 more in the apostle's mind. The words introduced at the 
 end of the verse so unexpectedly, and which we believe, for 
 a moment, excite surprise in every reader; these words, 
 *' without wrath and doubting," contain a very marked and 
 impressive allusion to the circumstances in which Christians 
 were then placed. It would perhaps require us to be in a 
 situation similar to theirs to feel all the force and beauty of 
 the recommendation which the apostles are continually giv- 
 ing to their disciples to pray for all men, and especially for 
 the powerful of the earth, in other words, their natural ene- 
 mies. When St. Paul says to the Philippians, " Let your 
 moderation be known unto all men," he gives a precept of 
 charity which the malevolent, if it came to their knowledge, 
 might mistake for a counsel of prudence. But if being made 
 acquainted with the secret correspondence of the Apostles 
 they find these words, " I exhort, therefore, that first of all 
 supplications, prayers, and intercessions," (see how the 
 Apostle repeats from the overflowings of charity,) " and giv- 
 ing of thanks be made for all men," (nothing is forgotten, 
 God must be thanked for his favors to them as if they had 
 been granted to ourselves,) for kings and all that are in au- 
 thority ; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all 
 godliness and honesty ;" if in addition to this motive so ra- 
 tional and pure they find this other motive so elevated and 
 impressive, " for this is good and acceptable in the sight of 
 our God and Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, 
 and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one 
 God and one Mediator between God and man, the man 
 Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all :" if, then, 
 men learn from these noble words that Christians, behold in 
 all men, even in their persecutors, only brethren, whom we 
 must encourage on their way to heaven, and carry along 
 with us by the effort and holy violence of our prayers even 
 
282 - GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 to the footstool of our Father who is willing to be also theirs ; 
 if they see that in the fearful struggle in which the disciples 
 of the Redeemer are engaged with the world the highest 
 rule of their conduct is charity, the deepest secret of their 
 policy is intercession, O, brethren ! what will they say ? 
 what can they say ? They nnay still accuse them of folly, 
 but that is all ; and what an eulogium, or rather, what 
 homage is such an accusation ! Now, beloved, this grand 
 idea, intercession for enemies and persecutors, is that which 
 occupies St. Paul in this passage, is that with which his 
 mind is filled when he says to Timothy in our text, " I will, 
 therefore, that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, 
 without wrath and doubting." We must now understand 
 the meaning of the concluding words ; they are replete with 
 prudence and delicacy. The Apostle has not said that these 
 kings, these mighty, and in general, all these men not con- 
 verted to Christianity, will be, and already are, the enemies 
 and persecutors of Christianity. He has no wish to enlarge 
 or envenom the sore ; he scarcely even alludes to it ; and 
 instead of mentioning the causes of wrath and disputation 
 which believers may meet within the opposition of the world, 
 it is merely of this wrath and disputation that he speaks ; 
 these dispositions only he attends to and attacks. His chief 
 business is not to judge those who give trouble to the souls 
 of Christians ; it is this trouble that he condemns, be its 
 cause or pretext what it may, and suppressing or neglecting 
 superfluous explanations, he seems to say to his disciples, 
 " All that you may experience on the part of man may pro- 
 duce in you, according as you have or have not the Spirit of 
 God, two very different results : either irritate you and dis- 
 pose you to disputation, or excite to prayer ; kindle in you 
 the flame of hatred, or that of charity ; give food to the old 
 man, or exercise to the new ; make you advance or fall 
 back on the path on which God has made you enter. The 
 
WRATH AND PRAYER. 283 
 
 question is anew brought before you at every new attack of 
 your enemies ; in other words, every new attack will neces- 
 sarily tempt you to wrath and disputation as you are men, if 
 it do not urge you to prayer as you are Christians. You 
 cannot escape from wrath except by prayer, nor from hatred 
 except by love ; and not to be a murderer, since hatred is 
 murder, you must as much as in you lies give life to him to 
 whom you wished to give death. At least it is necessary to 
 ask it for him, it is necessary by your prayers to beget him 
 to a new existence ; it is necessary in all cases, while pray- 
 ing for him, to exert yourselves in loving him. It is ne- 
 cessary that wrath 'end disputation be extinguished and die 
 away in prayer." 
 
 Brethren, in applying to your varied circumstances the 
 precept which Paul addressed to the first Christians in cir- 
 cumstances which ours do not in all instances resemble, I 
 would now, agreeably to the words of the holy Apostle, insist 
 on the obligation under which we all lie, whatever be our 
 situation, whatever our relations in life, to substitute interces- 
 sory prayer for wrath and disputation. I will endeavor to 
 prove that it is, as St. Paul expresses it, good and acceptable 
 to God. 
 
 Two classes of men may excite in us wrath and disputa- 
 tion. The former are the enemies of our persons, those who 
 from interest, envy, or revenge, are opposed to our happiness, 
 and more generally all those who have done us wrong, or 
 against whom we have ground of complaint. The latter are 
 those who become our enemies from the opposition of their 
 views and opinions to ours, or the opposition of their conduct 
 to our wishes. Both are to us occasions of wrath and dispu- 
 tation. The Gospel requires that they be to us occasions of 
 prayer. 
 
 In regard to the former, I mean our personal enemies, I 
 might simply observe that God does not know them as our 
 
284 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 enemies. God does not enter into our passions, or espouse 
 our resentments. He sanctions and approves all the rela- 
 tions which he has himself created, those of parent and child, 
 husband and wife, sovereign and subject. But the impious 
 relation of enemy to enemy is entirely our work, or rather 
 the work of the devil. God knows it only to denounce it. 
 Besides, in his eye the whole body of mankind are only men, 
 and some, in the relation which they stand to each other, only 
 brethren. He has no ear, therefore, for our presumptuous 
 distinctions when we say, or seem to say, This is my friend, 
 I will pray for him ; that is my enemy, he shall have no part 
 in my prayers. In your enemies he sees only brethren, and 
 therefore you ought not to see any thing else. Has he not 
 said by the mouth of his Apostle, that supplications should be 
 made for all men, and do you think he has excepted your 
 enemies ? Do you not think that if the Apostle had devel- 
 oped his thought, and enumerated all the classes of persons 
 for whom you ought to pray, he would have given your ene- 
 mies a first place in the enumeration ? Has he not done so 
 without saying it, when he exhorts the first Christians to in- 
 tercede for the very persons from whom they had the greatest 
 cause for fear and the strongest grounds of hatred ? In fine, 
 and this doubtless suffices, and is better than all arguments, 
 has not Jesus Christ himself recommended you to pray for 
 them that despitefully use you and persecute you, and has he 
 not actually furnished you with the example ? You wish, 
 however, to draw a distinction, and remain in what you call 
 the common path ; but the extraordinary is the rule in the 
 kingdom of God. You would wish to pray for your friends 
 alone ; but this very prayer is forbidden, and remains im- 
 possible, if you do not extend it to your enemies. And if you 
 persist in excluding them from your prayers, be assured that 
 God will not even accept those which you offer to him in be- 
 half of the persons whom you love. Your supplications will 
 
WRATH AND PRAYER. 285 
 
 be rejected ; the smoke of your offering will fall back upon 
 your offering ; your desires will not reach that paternal heart 
 which is ever open. What do I say ? With such feelings 
 could you even, pray ? Could a heart hardened and con- 
 tracted by sin send forth those ardent sighs of which the poet 
 speaks, sighs which 
 
 " Sacr^s pour Dieu lui-meme, 
 
 Vont flechir dans le ciel la charite supreme." 
 
 Ah ! lov^ can only be understood by love ; there is no fel- 
 lowship between love and hatred. Love ! love ! and you 
 will be able to pray. 
 
 But this is not all, brethren. Not only ought we to pray 
 for our enemies, although they be our enemies; but we 
 ought to pray for them because they are our enemies. As 
 soon as they again become to us like the rest of mankind 
 another distinction takes place, and a new right arises in their 
 favor. They are confounded for a moment with all our 
 other fellows, in order afterwards to stand forth from the 
 general mass as privileged beings, with a special title to our 
 prayers. An enemy ! In regard to the Christian, then, is an 
 enemy nothing ? May he be confounded with the rest of the 
 world ? And is nothing more due to him than to a stranger? 
 What is our enemy but a wretched man like ourselves, 
 whose misery we know better than we know that of any 
 other man ? Far from deluding ourselves with a favorable 
 idea of his state, we probably exaggerate his danger. In our 
 eye his faults are increased by all the evil which he has done 
 us, and all which he wishes to do. And on this ground is 
 not this man, whose misery and wants we know so well, one 
 of the first whom we ought to recommend to the love of our 
 heavenly Father ? The more he has hurt us, the more he 
 must seem deserving of pity, and consequently the more in- 
 terest he ought to excite in our heart, the more is he entitled 
 
286 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 to a place in our prayers. Think well of this and you will 
 see that it is not an ingenious idea, but the truth. You ad- 
 mit that the Christian may not hate ; how then can you re- 
 fuse to admit that an enemy is only one whose misery is 
 better known to him, and who thereby has a special claim 
 on his assistance ? 
 
 When we meet with an opposition which frets and irri- 
 tates us. Christian prudence counsels us to pray that the 
 temptation may be removed ; and, in particular, that our 
 self-love and injured feelings may not weaken our love for 
 our neighbor. But this prudence, dear brethren, if it coun- 
 sels nothing further, is not prudent enough. If the same 
 feeling which disposes us to pray does not dispose us to pray 
 for our enemies or opponents, it is difficult to believe that it 
 is a movement of charity. Charity cannot be thus arrested. 
 Its nature is to overcome evil with good, and this means not 
 merely that it does not render evil for evil, but that in return 
 for evil it renders good. It would not be charity if it did 
 less. Its first step overleaps the imaginary limit which it 
 does not even see or know. It does not restrict itself to not 
 hating ; it loves. It would not do enough if it did not do 
 more than enough. To pardon truly it is necessary to do 
 more than pardon. Evil must be overcome by good ; and 
 after the example of God himself, where the offence has 
 abounded, grace must much more abound. Is not this to 
 say, brethren, that pardoning, sparing, loving, all these du- 
 ties are secured in the person offended only when he prays 
 for the offender ? Can we admit that a soul is truly impelled 
 by the love of Christ, and that it has pardoned in a spirit of 
 true charity, while the noble desire which it feels does not 
 seek to satisfy itself by the means most within its reach, the 
 means which are surest and most perfect ? that while able to 
 speak to God, it speaks not to Him of the enemy whom it 
 pities and loves ? that this movement is not confounded, so to 
 
WRATH AND PRAYER. 287 
 
 speak, with the jEirst movement of charity, and that for fear 
 of again falling into resentment and hatred, it does not hasten 
 to give a sacredness to its enemy by recommending him to 
 God, and thus attaching him to itself by a new and sublime 
 relation '? Can we renew our hatred for one for whom we 
 have prayed ? Does not every desire, every request which 
 we send up to God for him endear him to us the more ? 
 Does not each prayer set him more beyond the reach of our 
 passions ? And if we did less, could we be sure that we 
 would not again begin to hate ? No, brethren ; not till 
 then is the work of mercy accomplished. We have no 
 evidence of having pardoned an enemy until we have prayed 
 for him. 
 
 After this, I ask, what could imprison or suppress in our 
 heart that intercession, without which we are not sure of 
 having pardoned our neighbor, or rather without which we 
 are sure that we have not pardoned him ? For to allege the 
 gravity, the extent of the offence which we have received, 
 has no plausibility. If we have brought ourselves to pardon 
 him who has committed it, we might surely bring ourselves 
 to pray for him ; and if we cannot pray for him we have not 
 pardoned him. An offence ! But think well of it ; can we 
 really be offended ? The term is too lofty, too grand for us. 
 The offence may have grated very painfully on our feelings, 
 or thwarted our interests, but it has gone no farther. What- 
 ever injustice may have been done us, whatever cause we 
 may have to complain, that is not the real evil. What evil 
 absolutely is there in having our faith tried and our patience 
 exercised ? Because our fortune has been curtailed, our re- 
 putation compromised, our affections thwarted, does the world 
 go on less regularly than it did ? Not at all. The evil, the 
 only real evil is the sin of that soul, the infraction of the 
 eternal law, the violence offered to divine order; and if any 
 Other evil is to be added to this, it will be by our murmur- 
 
288 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 ings, since the effect of them will be to make two sinners in 
 place of one. Do you then seek a reason for refusing your 
 intercession, and consequently your pardon to your adversa- 
 ries ? I have found one, and it is a fit ground for resentment : 
 God your Father was insulted in the insult which you expe- 
 rienced. But show me, pray, the extraordinary man who, 
 quite ready to pardon on his own account, cannot resolve to 
 pardon on God's account ! Ah ! this man never has been 
 met with, and never shall ! For, if he is in a state to pray for 
 an enemy, he knows God ; and if he knows God, he knows 
 that vengeance belongeth unto him, and that men are not per- 
 mitted to be angry on his account, any more than their own. 
 If we know God we also know ourselves, and we are too 
 deeply penetrated with the feeling of our own unworthiness, 
 we have too recent a remembrance of having been the ene- 
 mies of God, to feel in regard to other enemies, or other re- 
 bellious children of God, any other sentiment than that of 
 pity. It may belong to God to be angry with them ; us it 
 becomes only to pity them, and pity them the more, the more 
 grievously God has been offended. This God, moreover, 
 who has exhorted and taught us to pardon, is undoubtedly a 
 God who pardons. Punishment is his strange work. His 
 anger, all divine, takes nothing from his love. Were he 
 man, he would pray for these enemies of his will. Jesus 
 Christ, his Son, whom zeal for his Father's honor devoured, 
 prayed for the enemies of his Father. So far, therefore, is 
 God from forbidding our intercession, that he himself by his 
 Spirit forms within us in behalf of his enemies, groanings 
 which cannot be uttered. Thus, brethren, if in a certain 
 sense we say with David, " Do I not hate them that hate 
 thee V (Ps. cxxxix. 21) like David also we pray for them. 
 Ps. ix. 4. Ah ! so far will the view of God as offended at 
 our offence be from stifling in our heart a rising prayer, that, 
 on the contrary, this holy sorrow will draw us away from 
 
WRATH Ai\'U PIIAYEK. 289 
 
 our selfish and carnal sorrow. I mean, brethren, that the 
 more our personal resentment is effaced in the sadness of 
 seeing our Father offended, the weak scandalized, the seeds 
 of sin multiplied, the empire of darkness extended, the more 
 will our heart be free to pardon, to love, and to pray. When 
 the first cry of nature within us shall have been suppressed 
 by the sighing of that grief which made the prophet exclaim, 
 '' Rivers of water run down mine eyes, because they keep 
 not thy law ;" " My zeal hath consumed me, because mine 
 enemies have forgotten thy words," (Ps. cxix. 136, 139,) 
 then shall we be so much the more sensible of the misery of 
 that enemy whom God has taught us to love, and whom he 
 himself loves; then our first desire after having cried unto 
 God, " Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name , 
 give glory," (Ps. cxv. 1,) will be to exclaim, after the ex- 
 ample of St. Stephen, " Lord, lay not this sin to their 
 charge!" (Acts vii. 60,) and after the example of the divine 
 Redeemer, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
 they do !" Luke xxiii. 34. 
 
 But alas ! (and here, brethren, give us all your attention.) 
 instead of seeing in the injury which we have received only 
 an injury done to God, we insolently appropriate to ourselves 
 the offence of which he alone is the object. In what hurts 
 him we feel ourselves offended, and consequently become 
 angry, instead of being grieved. It will be well, if instead 
 of praying, we have not cursed ! Yes ! this religion, to 
 which God has condescended to attach us, we regard as our 
 own property, as the subject of our self-love, our earthly 
 heritage ; it is an opinion which we have espoused, a posi- 
 tion which we have taken up. We ought to belong to it, not 
 it to us ; and when we see it insulted or menaced, it is not so 
 much our piety that grieves, as it is our self-love that storms 
 and rages. The very certainty of our faith only serves to 
 put Qur passions naore at ease. We feel happy in giving full 
 14 
 
290 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 scope to our hatred or our pride under the cover of our zeal. 
 We even go the length of rejoicing in injustice, not that we 
 have been counted worthy to suffer for the cause of God, but 
 because it is injustice, and injustice from which we are exempt. 
 An injustice, good God ! Injustice to us! What shall we 
 think of it if we one day see it as it is, or as it was ? What 
 will we think of all those precipitate and rash judgments, of 
 that eagerness to believe evil, those refusals of all explana- 
 tion, those anathemas ill disguised under expressions of pity, 
 that criminal industry which we have exerted in fanning the 
 flame which, though we might not be able to extinguish, we 
 might certainly abstain from fanning ? What will we think 
 of all this when our eyes will be opened ? And which of the 
 two positions will appear worse, that of the unhappy beings 
 who attacked the truth, or that of the men who defended it 
 with poisoned weapons ? Ah ! if the attacks of the enemies 
 of religion is not a signal for our charity as well as a call 
 upon our zeal, if we do not then feel the love of Christ con- 
 straining us, if our compassion is not doubled for the unhappy 
 adversaries of the truth, if we do not feel a sincere desire to 
 view their conduct in the least unfavorable light, and excuse 
 them to ourselves ; if these men, of whom, perhaps, till then 
 we have made no mention in our prayers, do not from that 
 moment become the special and privileged object of them, it 
 is certainly high time to look within, and ask whether till 
 now we have truly believed, and whether, under the name 
 of religion, we have ought else than a system or an opinion. 
 Enough has been said, brethren, to establish the duty 
 which we have in view. But to the consideration of the duty 
 is added that of a near and important interest. Even when 
 we do not hate, the idea of an enemy fills us with bitterness ; 
 and whether or not he inspires us with fear, there is some- 
 thing repulsive both in the memory of his past offences and 
 in the idea of those which he may be preparing to commit, 
 
WRATH AND PRAYER. 291 
 
 We stand so much in need of love and esteem, that the 
 thought of a single being withholding it from us is felt by 
 the soul to be a gnawing worm, resembling remorse. But 
 when we have prayed for him we no longer regard him 
 as the same man ; he is no longer our enemy, he is our 
 protege ; and as it is natural to feel attached to the good we 
 do, we henceforth feel pleasure in thinking of him ; we feel 
 pleased in following up our first favor, and consolidating it 
 by new prayers. This idea elevates without producing 
 pride. It gives us strength to bear the new attacks of his 
 hatred without murmuring and resentment. If we are 
 forced to have relations with him, it instils a meekness into 
 our proceedings, of which he will, perhaps, ultimately be- 
 come sensible. It disposes us to recognize any faults we 
 may have committed, to confess them candidly, and repair 
 them ; and though such a conduct should not mitigate his 
 enmity, how much will it not contribute to set our soul at 
 rest? 
 
 Contrast the ordinary fruits of wrath and debate with 
 these results of prayer. In yielding to the former, not only 
 do you place yourself in opposition to the holy law of God, 
 but you destroy the peace of your life and the peace of your 
 soul ; you aggravate the evils of a situation already de- 
 plorable ; you kindle up hatred in the heart of your enemy; 
 you render reconciliation on his part, as well as on yours, 
 always more difficult ; you run from sin to sin in order to 
 lull your pride, and this pride gives you only a bitter, 
 poisoned, and criminal enjoyment. How much better, then, 
 is prayer than wrath and strife ! 
 
 But personal enemies are not the only ones who are to 
 us the occasion of wrath and strife. The class of enemies, 
 as we have already said, includes all those whose opinions, 
 views, and conduct are in opposition to our interests or our 
 principles. How little does the impatience which they 
 
292 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 excite differ from hatred ! That produced by our personal 
 enemies is often less vivid. Look to the mutual exaspera- 
 tion of parties and sects. Look to those wars of opinion, 
 the most cruel of all, and which death alone terminates. 
 Certainly, if this is not hatred, if these are not enemies, 
 there is neither hatred nor enmity in the world. 
 
 With regard to such enemies, our usual method is to 
 hate in silence if we feel ourselves weak, or to dispute 
 obstinately if we believe ourselves strong. The Gospel 
 proposes another method. It approves neither of hatred nor 
 strife. Not that it authorizes a careless indifference ; not 
 that indignation may not become the Christian as it became 
 our Lord himself, when the fearful epithets ofyboZ* and hypo- 
 crites escaped from his lips ; not that it is not proper to stand 
 boldly up in defence of truth and righteousness, and become 
 spiritually the foe of their foes. To act otherwise were to 
 disavow our fathers, condemn the apostles, and deny Christ. 
 But the wrath of man and the spirit of strife, which pride 
 enkindles, have nothing in common with those noble com- 
 bats. Zeal, courage, perseverance, indignation itself, must 
 all be pervaded with charity, or rather, proceed from charity. 
 Indignation and prayer must spring from a common source; 
 the former from love to God, the latter from love to men, 
 and consequently both from love. 
 
 How widely different is this conduct from that which is 
 commonly pursued in the world ! Let Government commit 
 an error, it is greedily laid hold of and bitterly commented 
 on ; and this is all that is done. Let a religious teacher pro- 
 fess a system which is judged dangerous; his minutest ex- 
 pressions are laid hold of, and isolated so as to distort their 
 meaning ; his life is boldly explained by his opinions, or his 
 opinions by his life, and there the matter rests. Let an in- 
 dividual, who by his position and mode of thinking has fixed 
 attention, hazard an imprudent step, but perhaps imprudent 
 
WRATH AND PRAYER. 293 
 
 from excess of candor, the alarm is sounded, the public is 
 deafened with insulting clamor, the whole passions are aroused 
 against an insignificant fact, often against a Avord ; the mi- 
 croscope of hatred is placed before the eye, and kept there. 
 In this burst of indignation he is considered moderate and 
 clement who substitutes for wrath cool and insulting derision. 
 Let one of our kindred, or only one of our acquaintance, 
 setting too little value on our counsel or our example, proceed 
 in the education of his children, or the conduct of his affairs, 
 or the habits of his life, on another system than that of which 
 we had shown him the advantages ; let him presume to think, 
 speak, and act differently from us ; this is often quite enough 
 to make him more odious to us than the man by whom we 
 have been directly and voluntarily offended ; a humiliating 
 weakness more common than is believed, a hidden and pro- 
 found source of the most bitter hatred ! This deadly poison 
 is fostered in silence and intoxicates in secret ; the error 
 makes us unhappy, but not from compassionating it. It is 
 hated not as an error, but as an opinion opposed to our own. 
 Were it truth, it would be hated all the same, and for the 
 same reason. This is all that we feel, and all that we be- 
 think ourselves of doin§ in behalf of this brother, though we 
 think that he is much to be pitied. His condition made an 
 appeal to our charity, and the appeal has been answered by 
 our self-love. Thus in the errors of our brethren, which are, 
 however, misfortunes, every thing supplies food to the spirit 
 of wrath and the desire of strife. To pray, brethren, to en- 
 treat the Lord to shed his enlightening Spirit on this govern- 
 ment, on that teacher, on that individual ; to wrestle for them 
 in presence of the Divine mercy, ah ! this is what is seldom 
 thought of And how should we do this if we do not love ? 
 How should we do it if we rejoice in unrighteousness rather 
 than in truth ; if that abuse, that vice, that error, with which 
 we seem angry, is in reality only a mine which we take- 
 pleasure in explodini? ; if so far from hastening to apply a 
 
294 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 remedy, we would rather prolong the disease as a perennial 
 source of complaint and declamation? 
 
 Where are those friends of Divine truth on whom every 
 irregularity in regard to the law of God inflicts suffering ? 
 Where are those charitable hearts whom the sins of their 
 brethren seriously afflict, and who, with the same sincerity 
 and the same solicitude with which they would pray for 
 themselves, present the miseries and wants of their enemies 
 at their heavenly Father's footstool ? There are such per- 
 sons undoubtedly, thank God ; there are persons who silently 
 and modestly perform this office of charity every day. Un- 
 known benefactors of the world are those who obtain from the 
 goodness of God that immortal balm which calms resentment, 
 mitigates hatred, extinguishes wrath. To them, without 
 knowing it, society owes the reparation of injustice, the cor- 
 rection of error, the triumph of truth. It is they whose 
 hands, stretched towards heaven, procure protection to a 
 world which perhaps misrepresents them, or at most knows 
 them not. It is by them that the kingdom of God, trammel- 
 led by so many obstacles, gradually makes way upon the 
 earth which it will one day completely overrun. To this 
 obscure power, to this unknown influence, are due the nu- 
 merous blessings of which a restless and turbulent activity ap- 
 propriates all the glory. One man, usefully pursuing a 
 course at first beset with thorns, another from whom painful 
 trials have suddenly been removed far away ; a third, who, 
 apparently shunned by truth and peace, has at last found 
 them, owe it all to the obscure intervention of a man whom 
 they never saw, or whom they pass without noticing or sus- 
 pecting that by him they are noticed ; of a man in such mean 
 circumstances that it seems impossible they can ever owe him 
 any thing. Such is the efficacy of prayer, and if the num- 
 ber of these benevolent petitioners were increased, what evils 
 would be removed from the earth, what errors eradicated, 
 what abuses spontaneously reformed ! 
 
WRATH AND PRAYER. 295 
 
 Brethren, you will bear me witness that I have not said 
 too much. Either prayer is nothing or it is without excep- 
 tion all that I have said. And if, casting your eyes over the 
 world, and appealing to experience, you ask, Where, tlicn, is 
 this power ? where are all these effects ? we answer by ask- 
 ing, Where are those who pray ? I see in the world abun- 
 dance of people who dispute, and murmur, and accuse ; but 
 where are those who pray ? And, not to look further, where 
 in this audience are those who pray habitually for their ene- 
 mies ? Where are those, I do not say who prescribe to them- 
 selves a rule in words, and add to their acts of devotion a pe- 
 tition of forgiveness to their enemies, but who, moved with 
 tender compassion, tremble for the fate of their erring breth- 
 ren, and affectionately recommend them to the goodness of 
 the Father of lights ? Where are those whom a benevolent 
 solicitude prostrates at the feet of the King of the universe, en- 
 treating him to save those also who know him not ? O, Spirit 
 of prayer and love, where are you ? where shall we find you ? 
 where recognize you ? Do we know those who pray for their 
 enemies ? Alas ! we know those who do not pray. How, 
 in fact, can the same spring send forth sweet water and bit- 
 ter ? How can we believe that those who curse before men 
 can bless before God ? Can those whose mouth is ever open 
 to the expressions of wrath find in the secret of the closet 
 meek words in which to recommend to God those whom out 
 of the closet they count it a pleasure to condemn '? 
 
 Ah ! brethren, the divine Intercessor must have fully es- 
 tablished his abode in the soul before the spirit of intercession 
 can dwell there ! Each of us flatters himself with feeling the 
 force of all that is touching in the ministry of Jesus Christ, 
 who before his appearance in the flesh, who in Gethsemane, 
 upon the cross, and in heaven, interceded and continually in- 
 tercedes for the humanity which he has redeemed. Yes, 
 each of us flatters himself with feelinjr it! But be not de- 
 
290 GOSPEL STUDIES. ^ 
 
 ceived. Jesus Christ, and with him generous compassion, 
 indefatigable love, universal charily, are, to use St. Paul's 
 expression, ybrmed within us only gradually and laboriously. 
 Jesus Christ, the Saviour, enters all at once into the soul, and 
 completely fills it ; but Jesus Christ, who is love, the genuine 
 new man, grows up there slowly and painfully. We may, 
 indeed, imagine that we love as we believe, because, in fact, 
 we begin to love in beginning to believe ; and so long as our 
 love is not subjected to difficult trials, we judge it as great as 
 our faith. But how soon will we be undeceived if we are 
 sincere^ and willing to know ourselves ! How difficult is it 
 for the old leaven to lose its sourness ! What seeds of hatred, 
 what homicidal germs are in the heart which has received 
 Jesus Christ ! How much of Cain still remains in this pre- 
 tended Abel ! And what avails it to believe much if we love 
 little, or to believe if we do not love ? And truly, what have 
 we believed, in whom have we believed, if we do not love ? 
 In Jesus Christ, you say. In what Jesus Christ ? Not cer- 
 tainly in him of Bethlehem, or Bethany, or Sychar, or Geth- 
 semane, or Calvary ! It is in an imaginary Jesus Christ, who 
 has nothing of the reality but the name ; a Jesus Christ who 
 has neither loved, nor prayed, nor died ; a name, not a be- 
 ing ; a phantom, not a man and a God. In our eagerness to 
 be saved we have only embraced a shadow. O God, bestow 
 upon us a real and living Christ ! He alone saves, since he 
 alone is loved and teaches to love. O God, unite more and 
 more closely, not our spirit to a name, but our soul to a soul ; 
 to the soul of Jesus Christ, thy Son, and the Son of man, our 
 God and our Brother ! In this intim>ate and living union may 
 this soul gradually become our soul, and may we learn of 
 him, by virtue of living with him, to love as he loved, bless 
 as he blessed, and pray as he prayed ! Amen. 
 
TWO COUNSELS OF WISDOM. 
 
 TWO DISCOURSES ON LUKE, XII. 35. 
 
 FIRST DISCOURSE. 
 
 COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO ARE SETTING OUT. 
 
 " Let your loins be girt about, and your lamps burning." — Luke xii. 35. 
 
 The words of our Lord, taken in their first obvious meaning, 
 bring before us men who may at any moment receive notice 
 to depart, and men whom the darkness may at any moment 
 overtake. To the former it is said, Get up, and gather 
 under your girdle the long folds of your flowing robes, in 
 order that when the moment of departure comes nothing 
 may render it too difficult, nothing may embarrass or retard 
 your step. To the latter it is said, Instantly, against the 
 hour when day will close, kindle a lamp whose flame will 
 disperse or cheer the gloomy darkness of the night. 
 
 Taken in their spiritual sense, these words are addressed 
 to all men, and imply, Take the necessary measures, that 
 when the moment comes nothing may hinder you from com- 
 14* 
 
298 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 mencing your journey, or at least from setting out resolutely 
 and willingly in whatever path God may choose you to go, 
 and provide yourselves beforehand with a consolation which 
 may refresh you in all your afflictions. For the darkness 
 spoken of in the text is not that t)f ignorance, error or doubt, 
 but that of anguish and tribulation, and Jesus Christ here 
 opposes the lamp of joy to the night of woe. 
 
 This exhortation was. peculiarly appropriate to the first 
 disciples, and especially to the Apostles. For whom was it 
 more requisite than for them to have their loins girt and 
 their lamps burning ? They were called by Providence to 
 lay the foundations of the Christian Church amid the keenest 
 opposition, and in face of the most formidable obstacles. 
 They were sent unarmed on the conquest of the world. 
 They were going, according to the expression of Jesus 
 Christ himself, like sheep in the midst of wolves. To them 
 the future was dark, and the only thing which they clearly 
 discerned across the darkness was crosses planted from sta- 
 tion to station: "You shall have tribulation;" such was 
 the first promise which their Master had given them. The 
 least of these tribulations was, like Abraham, to leave their 
 country and their kindred ; a greater was to remain in the 
 bosom of a country and a family which hated them neces- 
 sarily because they loved Jesus Christ. Be this as it may, 
 they were placed under orders, and at the disposal of their 
 Master. They knew that the servant is not greater than his 
 Lord, that the world would do to them what it had done to 
 Jesus Christ, that the Shepherd being smitten the sheep 
 would be scattered: and Peter had from the lips of Jesus 
 heard this declaration, applicable to all his colleagues, 
 "Another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou 
 wouldest not." What would have become of the first 
 Christians, where would the Christian Church now be, had 
 Peter and his companions not attended in earnest to the 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO ARE SETTING OUT. 299 
 
 exhortation of our Lord : " Let your loins be girt about, and 
 your lamps burning." 
 
 But if the servant is not greater than his master, neither 
 is one servant greater than another servant. All have, in 
 general, the same vocation. Circumstances may differ ; the 
 obligation is the same for all. I go further. There is no 
 man, whether Christian or not, who has not some grounds to 
 address himself in these terms : " Let your loins be girt 
 about and your lamps burning." I address them to you all, 
 dear hearers, and, combining the features of the natural with 
 those of the Christian life, say to you after the Sovereign 
 Teacher, and on his part, "Let your loins be girt about, and 
 your lamps burning." 
 
 " Let your loins be girt about ;" in other words, be ready 
 to set out. Now, the spirit of Christianity, which expresses 
 the true destiny of man, and the true relations of man with 
 God, consists, in this respect, in granting nothing to necessity, 
 but every thing to the order of God ; so that each of our in- 
 voluntary privations is transformed into a voluntary sacrifice, 
 and we at last find we have given what apparently we had 
 lost ; given, I say, freely, and from a principle of faith, 
 obedience and love. To have this disposition, is what the 
 Gospel calls being ready to set out. There are other ways 
 of being so, but none having the character of liberty and 
 religion of which we have just spoken, we do not say of any 
 of them that it realizes the idea of our Saviour's expression, 
 " Let your loins be girt about." Neither thoughtless gid- 
 diness, nor insensibility, nor pride, can be, in the sense of 
 Christianity or of absolute truth, the girdle of our loins. 
 
 " Let your loins be girt about." For you are called to 
 set out, even precipitately, and for the most part to go where 
 you would not. Some are required suddenly to quit the 
 place of their birth and their kindred. Who, in fact, can 
 promise himself to die where he was born ? How many 
 
300 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 have terminated under a foreign sky and in real exile a life 
 begun in the country of their fathers, and amid all the objects 
 of their affection ? Necessity, duty, honor, command these 
 separations. The pain which they give to tender hearts is 
 admirably expressed by Jeremiah in the following terms : 
 " Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him ; but weep 
 sore for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, 
 nor see his native land." What do I say ? Were this 
 separation voluntary, and the accomplishment of it our most 
 eager desire, the moment which consummates it never passes 
 without a struggle or regret, and many a one feels astonished 
 when the hour is come, at having ever been able to wish for 
 it. He who goes away, be assured, seldom goes joyful ; he 
 requires to dream of return. If we are not quitting our 
 country, at least we are leaving our family, we are going to 
 live under another roof, and in other relations, often less free 
 and less pleasant. However short way we go, we suffer a 
 kind of exile ; for the paternal hearth is also a country, to 
 many the true, the only native country. Such is the law of 
 nature and the will of God himself: " A man shall leave his 
 father and his mother." And what shall I say of those who 
 are left ? They do not depart, you say ? No ; they re- 
 main, but alone. This also is one mode of departing. They 
 too are exiled, exiled in their solitude. The place where 
 they remain is no longer the same. For what is a place 1 
 It is nothing. What is it that attaches us to it but just those 
 whom we have seen and possessed there ? Loved objects 
 are the light and beauty of the place which we inhabit. In 
 their absence it is no longer the same, so that without stirring 
 we have changed our place ; without making one step, we 
 remove from them we love. We too, then, fathers, mothers, 
 brothers, friends who remain, when our children, or our 
 sisters, or our friends are no more ; v/e, too, have set out, 
 and may apply to ourselves these words of Jesus Christ : 
 ' Let your loins be girt aliout." 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO ARE SETTING OUT. 301 
 
 But setting out is not only a change of place, it is a change 
 of position. It is to quit the known for the unknown, to 
 exchange relations for other relations ; from the present 
 which flies away to pass into the future. To understand it 
 thus, life is full of these departures, the whole of life is only 
 a departure. The fashion of this world passeth away. 
 Many of these departures or changes may appear advanta- 
 geous. The poor man who becomes rich thinks he has made 
 a good change, having substituted fertile plains for barren 
 moors. This may be a great mistake. Nothing is happy 
 or unhappy in itself; the heart gives every thing its value 
 and significancy ; and sinners as we are, prosperity sits ill 
 upon us, security is the greatest of our dangers. But let us 
 pass over this, and admit that there are changes or departures 
 which, in themselves, may be looked on as happy. Let us 
 speak only of those which are galling to the flesh, and say, 
 while continuing to compare a situation to a place, a change 
 of whatever kind to a departure, that the loss of fortune 
 is one of the most painful departures, and that nothing more 
 resembles poverty than exile ; for poverty isolates. In fact, 
 no crowd gathers around him who has nothing to give, and 
 it is much for him if his indigence does not convert the world 
 into a desert. Now who can flatter himself with always 
 enjoying the fortune which he has inherited from his fathers, 
 or amassed by his industry ? And (let this be well con- 
 sidered,) poverty is tolerable to a certain point to those who 
 have never been rich, obscurity to those who have never 
 been conspicuous. With difficulty, however, do we resolve 
 to be nothing when we have been something ; and how much 
 is poverty, which all the world hates, detested by those who 
 have not been always poor ! How insupportable do they 
 feel it to be, and how difficult is it, at least without having 
 become really new men, to rise, if I may so express it, to 
 the full height of such a situation ! It was, then, in view 
 
302 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 of such a departure also, that Christ Jesus may have said, 
 " Let your loins be girt about." 
 
 There is, however, a more painful one. The death of 
 our kindred and our friends is more difficult to bear. Kin- 
 dred and friends are the riches of our heart, riches in poverty 
 making the most intelligent objects of envy to the richest, 
 from whom this wealth is so often withheld or withdrawn. 
 Well ! our inferior riches are more faithful to us than the 
 other. More than one man has preserved his fortune, and 
 even seen it continue increasing till the day of his death. No 
 one has so preserved all those whom he loved. A man or a 
 woman who reaches twenty without having worn mourning 
 is a miracle. The thing is never seen. It is a rare happi- 
 ness to possess till forty, I do not say both father and mother, 
 but one of them. And what shall I say of the many sudden 
 blows which death strikes without respect for what we call 
 the order of nature, and without other care than to find in 
 one's soul the place that is most sensitive, and will yield the 
 keenest pang ? If there is in society or in the church a 
 public-spirited man, apparently necessary, one would say 
 that our esteem and our gratitude point him out, recommend 
 him to the stroke of death. Through a crowd of what seem 
 to us insignificant beings, whom he spares from disdain, he 
 proceeds direct to this man and lays him in the dust. I 
 know very well that in all this death obeys God, and does 
 not strike at hazard ; but that its blows are unexpected, that 
 the thought of Him who sends it and directs it is, in this 
 respect as in every other, beyond all our calculations and 
 foresight, is too evident. Life is a field of battle, where 
 death passes over the front ranks to reach the last, spares the 
 common soldier to throw down the captain, and where, from 
 caprice or indifference, he favors the coward above the 
 brave, the recruit more than the veteran. This appearance 
 of hazard, this variety of chances, this powerlessness of all 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO ARE SETTING OUT. 303 
 
 guarantees, this sword suspended over all heads, has some- 
 thing very alarming ; and, did not our desires make us 
 forget our fears, what life should we, fathers, husbands, 
 wives, children, what lives should we lead while thinking 
 that no one instant can answer for the next, and that the 
 morrow of the day which has seen us at the head or in the 
 bosom of a prosperous and flourishing family may see us 
 orphans, widows, without posterity, without any worldly 
 prospect, without any object of life ? Now, in all these 
 dead, we ourselves die. A part of our life, and of our heart, 
 is buried in each of these tombs ; or, if you will, each of 
 those deaths transports us from a sweet and flowery district 
 into a more inclement region. Life is a voyage from the 
 south towards the north, from summer into winter, and the 
 decline of life finds us placed upon a bare and ungrateful 
 soil which scarcely gives the means of life to our poor heart, 
 and whose only ornament is the tender and sad remem- 
 brance of a happier home. Gradually, or rather stroke after 
 stroke, our life is despoiled. We ought to foresee this, but 
 we do not. Each loss is more grievous, each sacrifice more 
 difficult to make, and the obedience we yield to God be- 
 comes more imperfect, less loyal. With how much reason, 
 then, might the Divine Teacher say in my text, " Let your 
 loins be girt about." 
 
 One thing at least we might know, that in our turn it 
 would be necessary to die, and that to young and old death 
 seems always premature. What more serious than the 
 certainty of dying, and the uncertainty of the last moment ! 
 What better fitted continually to fix our whole attention ! And 
 it is true, that at these moments when the thought comes upon 
 us our very bones tremble. For of all events death is the 
 greatest, of all separations it is the most absolute, of all 
 losses it is the most painful, since it includes all others ; of 
 all departures, in fine, it is the most formidable, since, apart 
 
804 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 from the light of Christian reflection, it is a departure 
 towards a country of darkness and terror. But these mo- 
 ments of reflection and alarm are rare. The usual course 
 is not to think that we shall die. We know it, however, 
 and we every day see it light on some one near us. We 
 know that we must die, but we feel that we are alive. We 
 have the habit of life, but we have not that of death. Life, 
 with its bustle, its various impressions, its joys, its pains, 
 ever fills our whole soul. By dint of forgetting death we 
 cease to believe it, and when it at length arrives its presence 
 astonishes us like the arrival of the least expected as well as 
 least wished for guest. But be this as it may, it must be 
 received. We must, I do not say abandon life to death, 
 which claims it, but restore it faithfully to God, who asks it 
 back. It is necessary to die, and die well. Is this an easy 
 matter? Is it not, on the contrary, the most difficult in the 
 world ? Do not those who have found strength to yield to 
 necessity or to God their goods, their health, their country, 
 nay, the life of their friends, do not they usually find that to 
 yield their own life, however ^despoiled, poor, unenviable 
 it may appear, is a very different thing ? Do the old die 
 nriore willingly than the young, the unhappy more willingly 
 than the happy ? Is not life dear in itself, independently 
 of every thing else ? Does not every condition, every for- 
 tune, seem preferable to death ? And when the better part 
 of us has gone before us to the tomb, do we not eagerly 
 cling to a miserable fragment, even while conscious how 
 little it deserves it ? 
 
 But after all, brethren, the different departures of which 
 we have spoken, and even this last departure, which is called 
 death, are only the consequences (when they are voluntary,) 
 or the images (when the will does not interfere,) of another 
 departure, or another death ; with reference to which, above 
 all, Jesus Christ has said, " Let your loins be girt about." 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO ARE SETTING OUT. 305 
 
 Let us not distinguish, brethren, when the distinctions are 
 useless. In all the departures, in all the separations which 
 we have enumerated, the thing always implied is separation 
 from one's self. It is from ourselves that we are separated in 
 exile, in the loss of goods, and the death of friends ; for all 
 that we love becomes a part of ourselves ; much more is it 
 from ourselves that we are separated in death, since none of 
 the blessings of life are so near to us, or can be so dear, as 
 life itself. What ! to be torn from one's self, divided in one's 
 self? Will our nature and our will, to which this division 
 is so very repugnant, be completely disposed to it after we 
 have employed all our time in rendering it difficult, odious, 
 and impossible ? For be not deceived. So long as we do 
 nothing to facilitate the departure we increase the difficulty ; 
 the knot which we have been unwilling to loose always be- 
 comes the harder. Between dominion and bondage there is 
 no alternative. The world and the flesh take possession of a 
 heart in which the Spirit is not established and fortified. 
 How do you expect, after having passed a whole life in forg- 
 ing your chains, that when the hour of trial comes, you will 
 at once get rid of them ? As well might we say that a man, 
 in passing from an inferior office for which a slight degree of 
 knowledge suffices, to an eminent charge requiring the most 
 extensive requirements, will find himself fully provided by 
 the mere effect of this sudden and unexpected promotion, and 
 that science will spring up in him when wanted, like the hair 
 upon his head. When did the art of arts, the great art of 
 living, become the only one that can be known without learn- 
 ing it ? You who shrug up your shoulders when you are 
 told of prodigies, can you suppose a greater one, one more 
 inconceivable ? You whom we see always ready to oppose 
 the invisible laws of nature to the announcement or the mere 
 idea of a miracle, what, pray, do you make of nature and 
 her laws? Rome, you often repeat, was not built in a day. 
 
306 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 Every great result strikes its roots deep into the past ; and 
 yet you will have it that conversion, the new birth (for noth- 
 ing less is in question,) is the work of an instant. Ah ! Rome 
 would be far more easily built in a day than a man convert- 
 ed in a day. This marvel is possible to God, but we may 
 safely say it is a thousand, ten thousand to one, that he will 
 not do it. By what incomprehensible fascination, by what 
 strange enchantment have you come to believe in the exist- 
 ence of knowledge without previous study, a masterpiece of 
 art without previous practice, and, to say all in one word, 
 effects without causes ? Think the matter over with your- 
 selves, and admit that the means must correspond to the ob- 
 ject, the beginning to the end ; and that to be in a condition 
 to separate freely from one's self, in the different cases in which 
 separation is enjoined us, we must have spent our life in se- 
 parating ourselves, I mean, before any external circumstances 
 has made it necessary for us to do so. In two words, which 
 you will doubtless comprehend, to be able to separate from 
 ourselves, we must be separated beforehand. We must have 
 outstripped the event ; the signal for departure must have 
 found us already departed. 
 
 Does not this, which I say in general of all departures, 
 apply in a striking manner to the departure which is called 
 death ? Of it, at least, you would not venture to say that it 
 requires no preparation. 
 
 Death being to all the most fearful of departures, and to 
 each the strangest and most novel event, we must especially 
 have death in view in repeating those words of the Master, 
 "Let your loins be girt about." 
 
 Jesus Christ is not the only person, nor the first, who has 
 said so. The sages of the world have also had the same 
 thought. Of the science of life and that of death, they have 
 made only one single science. They have taught that life 
 should be an apprenticeship of death. It is true that life 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO ARE SETTING OUT. 307 
 
 by itself, all the partial deaths of which it is composed, (for 
 each separation is a death,) seems arranged so as to train us 
 to die. But universal experience proves that this is not 
 enough. It is necessary to add our v^ill. It is necessary to 
 train ourselves to die. Now, this is not a trivial science ; 
 it is the greatest of all ; and I do not comprehend how he 
 who has not by long practice learned to die should learn it 
 suddenly, all at once, at the moment when it becomes abso- 
 lutely necessary to know it. All men are not allowed to die 
 with the insensibility of the brute. Even those who have 
 lived like beasts do not die like beasts. Nature assists some 
 in doing so, but not all. Who would envy those who do ? 
 Does the whole then consist in resolving from any motion 
 whatever to perform this sad step with a good grace ? He 
 who dies thus knows not what it is to die. That is all. To 
 know what it is to die, and be willing for it, is the point. It 
 is not to be merely dragged along, but to follow ; not merely 
 to yield, but to obey. Now, this surpasses the power of nature 
 or temperament ; and here, therefore, I say once more, is a 
 departure which we know not without having learned, which 
 we learn with great difficulty and slowly, and which must 
 be constantly in our mind in order not to be constantly for- 
 gotten. To whom, then, in regard to this great voyage of 
 death, may we not apply our Saviour's words, " Let your 
 loins be girt about?" 
 
 The just and clear image which our divine Master em- 
 ploys may be stated in a single word : Be detached. What 
 hinders us from departing, or departing willingly, or walking 
 with a firm and rapid step when the signal is given, is the 
 attachments which, like the foldings and refoldings of a 
 flowing robe, embarrass and retard us. I say our attach- 
 ments, and I might add, our cares ; but we are anxious only 
 in proportion as we are attached. What inspires no interest 
 cannot be the object of any care, so that in attachments every 
 thing is included. 
 
308 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 To obey the signal of departure in spirit and in truth, it 
 is necessary, then, at the outset to be detached. 
 
 This, brethren, will be conceded subject to a distinction. 
 Some would distinguish between the attachnaents whose 
 objects are things, and those whose objects are persons. ■ The 
 former are given up, at least in theory, the latter are reserv- 
 ed ; not, perhaps, from thinking that the latter are entitled 
 to dispute the call of God, but perhaps from its being sup- 
 posed that between these attachments and this call there can 
 be no conflict, that they are always in accordance, and that^ 
 therefore, there is no use in anticipating a case which will 
 never occur. The supreme sage, Jesus Christ, has judged 
 otherwise. In the parable of the feast, when we hear one of 
 the persons invited replying to the invitation, I have pur- 
 chased a field, I pray thee have me excused ; another, I 
 have bought a pair of oxen, and must go to prove them, T 
 pray thee have me excused ; a third, who has just married, 
 thinks he has no need of excuse, and simply answers, I have 
 married a wife, and cannot come. We have here, in few 
 words, an excellent description of the insolence of our idola- 
 tries. But are we not at the same time taught that conflict 
 between our natural affections and the call of God is a pos- 
 sible event ? There is a man who refuses — what ? To go 
 to God. Why ? Because he has married. This surprises 
 you, and you doubt if the parable says so. It does say so, 
 brethren ; it shows us a man who will not obey the call of 
 God because he is married. To a second call he will answer, 
 I have a son, and so cannot go ; to a third, I have a country, 
 and so cannot go. This is always without one word of 
 excuse, without the shadow of a scruple. He thinks it so 
 great a matter to love something or some one, he thinks there 
 is such prodigious merit in these attachments, of which some 
 are perhaps common to man with the beasts, that he does not 
 suppose that there can be any thing beyond or above them. 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO ARE SETTING OUT. 309 
 
 In other words, because he has a family there is no heaven, 
 because he has a wife and children there is no God. 
 
 I grant, brethren, that few persons, since there has been 
 a Gospel in the world, dare to speak thus. What we require 
 to remove is not an argument which can scarcely be used, 
 but a fact which is unfortunately too common. One who 
 would blush at the idea of preferring perishable riches to the 
 Author of every good and perfect gift, quietly rears the altar 
 of his natural affections above the altar of the living God. 
 It does not follow that these affections gain any thing there- 
 by. On the contrary, they lose much ; and I wish much 
 time would allow me to show you that every attachment 
 which does not become, according to the expression of St. 
 Paul, a love in the Spirit, generates and falls into the class 
 of instincts which man shares with the lower animals. No; 
 the man of whom I am speaking does not love his children 
 and his wife more from loving them exclusively, but he loves 
 Him less who ought to be loved above all. He is less faith- 
 ful in obeying him, less prompt in answering his call. He 
 has stolen himself from God and from duty, in order to give 
 himself to the world. For those affections which the Spirit 
 of God has not sanctified, that love which has not become 
 cliariUj, is, be assured, the world ; or, if a stronger love, is 
 nature. It is in effect beautiful as the verdure of the earth 
 and the azure of the heavens, but God will destroy both the 
 earth and the heavens. 
 
 It is not because we love, but because we love in a 
 worldly carnal manner, because in this love we secretly seek 
 the satisfaction of our selfish nature rather than the good of 
 those we love. We say to God, We have attachments, and 
 therefore I cannot come. Here, no doubt, is a duty to per- 
 form, a testimony to give, a sacrifice to offer, but it is not 
 compatible with our love ; and, at all events, the heart is 
 elsewhere. We have not two religions, and the religion 
 
310 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 which we have is entirely in these natural attachments ; we 
 have not two Gods, and our god is this creation that God has 
 given us. Given, did we say ? God gives nothing abso- 
 lutely but himself; all the rest he lends or trusts. Nothing 
 is given to you but God ; you yourselves belong only to God, 
 and yet, most cruel of follies ! you are not willing either to 
 belong to him or have him belong to you. 
 
 After this, brethren, I have nothing to say of grosser at- 
 tachments. If those of which I have spoken carry us away 
 from God, hinder us from following his call, what will the 
 case be with avarice, ambition, and voluptuousness ? Let 
 us not honor impossible errors by repeating them. Let us, 
 however, make an observation on a species of attachment so 
 much the more dangerous that we do not suspect it. Breth- 
 ren, 1 mean habits. 
 
 If the term attachment seems too good to be applied to 
 habits, let us, if you please, call them ties. Habits, in fact, 
 are ties, chains. We contract them unawares, often without 
 feeling any pleasure in them ; but we cannot break them 
 without pain. It costs us something to cease to be what we 
 have always been, to cease doing what we have always done. 
 Life itself, in its least attractive form, the life least deserving 
 of the name, is dear to us from the mere habit of living ; and 
 we are seen carefully hanging upon the walls of our dwell- 
 ings frames without a picture in them. The most intimate at- 
 tachments, and still more, the most incontestable duties, have 
 often given way before the power of habit. To have the 
 loins girt about, then, is not merely to distrust our attach- 
 ments ; it is to prevent our habits from striking their roots 
 too deep within. For at the moment of any of those depart- 
 ures of which we have spoken, one of these habits would 
 suffice to keep us, as it were, chained to the place which 
 God desires us to quit. Nothing, therefore, which is habitual 
 should you regard as indifferent or trivial. The most in- 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO ARE SETTING OUT. 311 
 
 visible ties are not the weakest, and at all events their num- 
 ber renders them indestructible. We must remember that 
 a cable is composed of threads. It is impossible to dispense 
 with habits ; a life without habits is a life without a rule. 
 But in regard to these, as in regard to every thing else, it is 
 necessary to say with the Apostle, " All things are lawful 
 unto me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." 
 We ought every moment to be at the disposal of the Lord, 
 and guard against fixing our place here as if we were to be 
 here for ever. Bear in mind that we are really and of ne- 
 cessity strangers and pilgrims. And yet let us not do any 
 thing slightly or negligently. Let us labor as diligently as 
 if we and our labors were to endure always. Though we 
 endure not, let us do enduring works. Let us employ all 
 our faculties in every thing we have to do ; let us employ to 
 the best advantage our leisure, our resources, the life which 
 God gives us ; let us not live by halves, live with regret, 
 but let us be always impressed with the conditions of our 
 existence. While staying, let us be ready to depart ; let 
 us be continually departing in spirit ; 'Met us have our loins 
 girt about." 
 
 If he who has received the Gospel thinks that this in- 
 junction does not apply to him, seeing, as he imagines, that 
 in receiving the Gospel he bade adieu to the world, he is 
 mistaken. In one sense the separation of which we speak 
 takes place once for all, and is not renewed ; in another 
 sense it takes place at different periods of life, and with more 
 or less frequency. Without the first separation the others 
 are impossible, but on the other hand this first separation is 
 never so perfect and absolute that we may after its date 
 cease to concern ourselves about others ; or, in other terms, 
 say to ourselves. My heart being previously won, works will 
 follow of themselves. No, no ; the first impulse must be 
 kept up, the first separation be always anew confirmed. 
 
312 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 We must, in separating ourselves, incessantly employ the 
 same principles, the same Qonvictions which produced our 
 first separation. 
 
 And yet, brethren, the wisdom which we preach would 
 be sad folly if we were obliged to stop here. We preach 
 detachment, but man lives on attachment. He must love 
 some thing or other. As soon as he has ceased to love he is 
 dead. It would be as easy to remain for ever suspended in 
 the air or to breathe in vacuoj as live without attachment. 
 Should you bring yourself to love nothing, would you be 
 better? Assuredly you would be worse, and God would 
 have ill served the interest of his glory in making you, 
 if I may thus express myself, dead before your death. 
 To detach one's self is nothing if an attachment is not at the 
 same instant formed. Attachment is even the first duty ; 
 detachment comes after. The cell in which the butterfly is 
 imprisoned does not burst and crumble away until the wings 
 formed on the insect expand and open its dark dwelling. 
 We begin ta detach ourselves from the world only when we 
 have learned to know something better. Till then, we are 
 only capable of that disgust and ennui which do not consti- 
 tute detachment. Hence, when we preached to you de- 
 tachment, when we said to you, " Let your loins be girt 
 about," we in other words said to you, " Set your affections 
 on things above." And what are those things, brethren ? 
 Are they things merely ? Do they not also include at the 
 outset a person, and one most worthy of your love ? " Set 
 your affections," says the Apostle, "on things above, where 
 Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." Why are these 
 things which are on high lovely but just because there sits 
 Jesus Christ who loved us, and God who gave him to us ? 
 Our religion is not merely a religion of detachment, for 
 then it would not be a religion ; it is a religion of attach- 
 ment or of love. A fit object has been proposed to our 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO ARE SETTING OUT. 313 
 
 heart. God, as manifested to us in the order of nature, was 
 doubtless very lovely. Yet we did not love him, and 
 scarcely understood that he could be loved. Such was the 
 depth of our fall that we were no longer capable of loving 
 what is not seen, nor of seeing what is invisible to the eyes 
 of flesh. Our language to each of the sages who came to 
 speak to us of God was like that of Philip, " Show us the 
 Father." To God himself we said, " Make us gods to go 
 before as." We have been magnificently heard by Him 
 who interprets for good what we think is error. He has 
 shown us the Father ; he has given us a God to walk before 
 us. We have known upon the earth, and we again find in 
 heaven, One whom we can love without measure, without 
 end, and without fear ; One who can fill our whole heart, 
 and who in filling pacifies, purifies, and ennobles it; a God 
 alike lovely and venerable, a God of happiness and holiness, 
 a God whom we cannot know and contemplate without be- 
 coming at once both happier and better. To know him, to 
 be united 1o him, must be our aim, if we would detach our- 
 selves more and more from the world. By learning to love 
 him we will gird up our loins, and be ready to set out joy- 
 fully, or at least resolutely, for any place, any position, any 
 fortune, to which in perfect wisdom he may be pleased to 
 call us. 
 
 l^ 
 
TWO COUNSELS OF WISDOM, 
 
 TWO DISCOURSES ON LUKE XII. 35. 
 
 SECOND DISCOURSE. 
 
 COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO WALK IN THE NIGHT. 
 
 '" Let your loins be girt about, and your lamps burning." — Luke xii. 35. 
 
 In making the Second Part of my text the subject of a sepa- 
 rate discourse, I mean not to deny that it is to treat the same 
 subject twice ; for, in the second part of the verse, the duty 
 which Christ enjoins on his disciples is not different from that 
 in the first. In other words, two things are not required to 
 be done in obeying him ; to have the loins girt about is the 
 same thing as to have the lamps burning, to have the lamps 
 burning the same as to have the loins girt about. The thing 
 always required is to be ready for any thing, to put ourselves 
 in a condition to face all difficulties, and provide as far as in 
 us lies, that none of them surmount or overwhelm us. It 
 would seem, then, that in explaining the first claim we have 
 explained the second ; but, brethren, the same subject may 
 have two aspects, or may be looked at from two points of 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO WALK IN THE NIGHT. 315 
 
 view. The idea of our text is that of preparation. The ob- 
 ject is to provide for the future, but this future is at once a 
 duty to perform, and an ill to endure, a duty requiring 
 strength, an ill demanding patience. Where is the principle 
 of this strength ? We have already seen. Where is the 
 source of this patience ? This it now remains to see. 
 
 We are never patient under an evil except from the con- 
 sideration of a good. God alone can enable us to support, 
 and, what is better, welcome evil. We are patient, because 
 beforehand we are consoled ; so that to say to any one, Act 
 so that evil supervening you may be patient, is to say to him 
 in other words. Provide consolation ; fortify yourself with 
 joy ; have a happiness to oppose to your misery. 
 
 Now, such is the meaning of our Lord's recommendation, 
 "Let your lamps be burning." For, in the language of 
 Scripture, afflictions often take the name of darkness, light 
 is another name for prosperity : " He has led me," says Jere- 
 miah, " into darkness and not into light," so that to have our 
 lamp burning is to lay up a provision of happiness against 
 the days of adversity. 
 
 In a burning lamp three things are observable : the lamp 
 itself, the oil, and the flame. The lamp is the soul, with all 
 its natural faculties. This lamp every man at birth receives 
 from the hand of his Creator, some a larger one and more 
 ornate, others smaller and simpler, but all alike fitted to re- 
 ceis^e the holy oil of truth. For this truth, I mean the ex- 
 cellent tidings of the Gospel, is the oil which this lamp is 
 destined to contain. The flame is the life which the Spirit 
 of God communicates to this truth, which flows unto us from 
 the vessel of the Gospel. Then the lamp is in its perfection; 
 for it gives light not only in that it illuminates our under- 
 standing, but also, as indicated by our text, in that it shines 
 gladly in the darkness of affliction, and even in the valley of 
 the shadow of death. This flame, which we are enjoined to 
 keep alive, is that of faith, hope, and love. 
 
316 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 I say, brethren, keep alive, for Jesus Christ says in my 
 text, '' Have," or keep " your lannps burning." But this very 
 precept implies another, " Kindle your lamps;" and another 
 still, " Have oil in your lamps." Why then should we not 
 turn first towards those who have not kindled them, towards 
 those whose lamps are still empty, I mean without oil, for, 
 alas ! our lamp is never empty. Have oil in your lamps, 
 kindle your lamps, let us say to them, for darkness is com- 
 ing, darkness is near, and the lamp of the Christian alone can 
 dissipate it. 
 
 The darkness is near, the night comes. It comes at every 
 period of life. It comes to many in the morning, scarcely . 
 allowing the sun as he rises time to throw into space a pale 
 and gloomy ray. To a great number, life is less day than 
 night, pierced here and there merely by some livid flashes 
 which serve only, according to the expression of the poet, to 
 make "darkness visible." For all, without exception, there 
 are in life moments of deepest gloom, days of anguish and 
 sorrow, which make even those who are most gently dealt 
 with understand the grievous exclamation of Job, "Why has 
 light been given to the miserable, and life to the sick at 
 heart ?" From the very sources of our happiness spring 
 forth bitter sorrows. Our most tender attachments arm death 
 with some of his sharpest darts ; for although St. Paul has 
 said with truth that the sting of death is sin, it is true that 
 this sting multiplies itself and makes sharp points of all the 
 flowers with which we deck our heads. Every crown of 
 flowers, sooner or later, becomes a crown of thorns. I wish 
 not, brethren, to give you here a tragical parody of human 
 life, nor conceal from you the visible and numerous traces of 
 the Creator's benevolence. But the happiest of mortals, he 
 who, by an unexampled privilege, should at the end of his 
 career have to recall only recollections of prosperity, (1 mean 
 of happiness,) would be a man who had never loved. Had 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO WALK IN THE NIGHT. 317 
 
 he loved he would have suffered, suffered in others. Even 
 the general aspect of human life would necessarily have sub- 
 jected him to the most painful reflections. At all events, it 
 would be necessary for him to die, to quit this abode of de- 
 light, and plunge down the slope of death into a darksome 
 future. In the foresight of this inevitable conclusion, not 
 once only, brethren, but daily would he die ; yes, daily 
 would he die amid joy ; and the liveliest feelings of delight 
 which could thrill his heart would be a kind of wakening to 
 that everlasting sadness which, in a human being, may sleep 
 but never die. 
 
 Such is the immutable condition of human life. Inces- 
 sant warfare is ordained for man here below ; we are born 
 to trouble as the sparks fly upwards. On whatever destiny 
 we fix our eye, we see it covered with wounds or bruises. 
 As if from envy, every thing reminds us of our inevitable 
 decay. I admit it is impossible for the most unhappy not to 
 see in the world and in his own life, proofs of paternal be- 
 nevolence, traces of a first design, which was nothing less 
 than the happiness of all. But the unhappiness of man's con- 
 dition is, nevertheless, an oppressive burden for the heart 
 and mind. This uncertainty of the next moment, those 
 sorrows entwined with all our joys, death always ready to 
 avenge or sport with our passing felicities, all this not merely 
 affects, it astonishes us. Unhappiness seems to us disorder, 
 and in one sense we are right, but this very conviction adds 
 to our unhappiness. We know, besides, that against those 
 numerous and obstinate enemies of our happiness, there is 
 no asylum, that the general law admits of no exception, and 
 that if there is some kind of inequality between man and 
 man during life, the last moment makes all equal. We have 
 then even now, or shall soon have, need to be consoled. If 
 1 may so speak, we shall require some happiness to oppose 
 to the inevitable unhappiness. On the approach of darkness 
 
318 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 mere human prudence seems to cry, To your lamps, if you 
 have any ! 
 
 We may try to console ourselves by the idea of our in- 
 nocence ; we may say to ourselves that the dreadful blow 
 we have just received is not caused by any fault of ours, or 
 even any imprudence. But besides that this salve cannot 
 be applied to the wounds we have made with our own hands, 
 our conscience interdicts this consolation. Though we have 
 not deserved such or such a suffering we have deserved to 
 suffer, and our most insolent murmurings cannot absolutely 
 close our ears against the voice of truth which cries, '• Why 
 should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of 
 his sins ?" Now, then, if you can forget all this, deck your- 
 selves for some instants in an imaginary innocence. If the 
 fault is not on your part, it is on the part of God. God is 
 unjust if you are not so, and as there cannot be injustice 
 with God, your saying this is as much as to say that God 
 exists not. Is this what you call a consolation ? Is it not, 
 on the contrary, gall added to the vinegar, and affliction to 
 the afflicted ? 
 
 Against the ills of life we may invoke philosophy. But 
 here philosophy is only the sounding name of a very vulgar 
 thing. After turning it in a thousand shapes all it can say 
 is, that the world is so made that our complaints will not 
 make it different, that it is far better to bear what we cannot 
 change, and that our cries only increase our sore. Here 
 habit knows as much as philosophy, and it is not very honor- 
 able to human wisdom, after many windings of a less or 
 greater length, to end at a stupid resignation. All true con- 
 solation is joy ; here there is not, there cannot be joy. All 
 true consolation should elevate, but this degrades us. Ought 
 we not, in the name of our dignity, as well as on behalf of 
 our happiness, to seek other consolations ? 
 
 We may say to ourselves that all is not lost, and exhort 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO WALK IN THE NIGHT. 319 
 
 ourselves to draw relief from what still remains of happi- 
 ness. This is still philosophy. The mind may thus calcu- 
 late, but it does not. Until man, in another school than that 
 of philosophy, has recognized his utter unworthiness, he sets 
 no value on what is left to him, but thinks only of what he 
 has lost. Each of us has only to consult his own experience 
 to learn how far in this direction the injustice, ingratitude, 
 and presumption of man can go. I have no wish to blazon 
 its incredible excesses. I confine myself to say, To whom 
 is the consolation sufficient ? To whom is it any consola- 
 tion ? All consolation is joy ; here, then, where is the joy ? 
 All consolation should fill up the vacuity which is made in 
 the life and in the heart ; where is this vacuity so filled ? 
 Go and say to the man of the world, " This friendship lost 
 is only one friendship less ; this child of whom death has 
 just bereaved you is not your only child ; or, if the only- 
 one, you have still friends ; or, if ail is gone, you have still 
 yourself; think not of what is gone, but of what remains, 
 for you might have nothing, others have nothing, and you 
 might fall to their level." You are aware, brethren, how he 
 will answer. Besides, how does this consolation apply to 
 life as a whole ? Life, so taken, satisfies nobody ; nobody, 
 I mean, among those who are reduced to the mere light of 
 philosophy. Will you go and say to them, " Come, here in 
 place of the lost life is another ?" Where is this life in 
 exchange ? Where is it for any one who has not received 
 the lamp of hope from the hand of God his Saviour ? 
 
 We may, moreover, steel ourselves against misfortune, 
 we may brave it. But this is not consolation ; for sorrow, 
 in one way or other, ends by resuming its rights, or rather it 
 never loses them for an instant. The resistance of pride is 
 only one sorrow more ; besides, every one is not capable of 
 it. The greater part of men cannot barter away their need 
 of consolation. Nothing supplies its place, nothing can be 
 
320 GOSl'EL STUDliJS. 
 
 taken in exchange. To blunt the sting of grief, time is 
 better than pride ; for time wears out every tiling. But it 
 wears out the soul as well as all the rest. The power of 
 forgetting is only a weakness. Life thus becomes less sor- 
 rowful, but it also becomes less serious, less noble. And al- 
 though we have in a measure forgotten all that we have 
 suffered, life has nevertheless lost its charm. The illusion 
 is gone for ever ; we know what value to set on the promises 
 of life, and whatever events do, they will no longer make us 
 hope for an impossible felicity. 
 
 Jesus Christ, the divine Wisdom, has anticipated this 
 conviction ; and on his part we say to you. Mortals, who 
 know what life is, put oil in your lamps, and light them. 
 Let your lamps become, according to the expression which 
 we have used, lamps of faith, hope, and love. The light of 
 life is not happiness, but consolation ; not what we see, but 
 what we do not see; and, to tell the whole truth, not what 
 we receive, but what we give. According to the full mean- 
 ing of our Lord's words, " It is more blessed to give than to 
 receive." The brightness of our life consists in believing, 
 hoping, loving. In believing ; that is, in feeling assured of 
 the Father, amid the manifestations of his anger. In hoping ; 
 that is, in laying hold, amid the ruins which gather around 
 us, of the kingdom which cannot be moved. In loving ; that 
 is, in substituting for the care for our own happiness a care 
 for the happiness of others, or, more generally, to place the 
 centre of our life without us ; for, properly speaking, it is 
 only in this that life consists. 
 
 And beware of abstracting from this treble flame any 
 one of its rays ; above all, think not that the strongest faith 
 and hope would suffice for happiness without love. The 
 Gospel, which has said that faith and hope are nothing with- 
 out love, nothing either for happiness or for perfection, the 
 Gospel would contradict you ; your own conscience, your 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO WALK IN THE NIGHT. 321 
 
 -own experience would contradict you. What have been the 
 true moments of happiness in your life ? Are they not those 
 in which you have forgotten yourselves for others ? On 
 these occasions has not the intimate relation between happi- 
 ness and love been instantaneously revealed to you ? What 
 your too sure recollections thus disclose to you, does not your 
 reason also disclose ? Love, which is the happiness of God 
 himself, must also be the supreme felicity of the being whom 
 God has made in his own image. Every other happiness is 
 unworthy of this being, and does not satisfy him. Selfish 
 enjoyments leave a void ; love alone fills and nourishes. 
 Vulgar happiness requires to receive, and has never received 
 enough ; love requires to give, and has never given enough. 
 Sacrifices exhaust the one and maintain the other, and while 
 the first would gain nothing by gaining the world, the second 
 grows rich upon its very losses. Faith and hope are of value 
 only because they conduct to love, and the soul would dis- 
 pense with believing and hoping, if without hoping and be- 
 lieving it were possible to love. Even the happiness of being 
 loved would be incomplete without the happiness of loving ; 
 and if the love of God is infinitely precious to man, it is, be 
 assured, by giving place to it, and constraining it, so to speak, 
 to return love for love. The crowning grace of God, the 
 last expression of his love, the sum of the Gospel, the end of 
 the work of redemption in regard to us, is not to be loved 
 but to love. It is when we love that all is accomplished ; it 
 is when we love that our salvation is realized. Love is the 
 sovereign good, and therefore in affliction it is also the sover- 
 eign consolation. Still more than faith, still more than hope, 
 does it lend to the light of our lamp its liveliest and brightest 
 beams. But, on the other hand, faith and love open the 
 heart to Divine love. By virtue of faith and hope our heart 
 becomes a new heart, becomes at once capable of loving 
 with a pure love all that ought to be loved, and of not suc- 
 15* 
 
322 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 cumbing under the ills which spring from our condition and 
 from love itself. Let us not separate that which is insepa- 
 rable, let us not abstract any of the elements of consolation ; 
 let us repeat that in this world as it has become, in life as it 
 is now constituted, the light of our darkness, the happiness 
 of our woe, consists in a faith founded on God himself, in a 
 hope which looks to him, in a love which ascends to him, 
 that it may thence descend again on mankind and take them 
 all into its embrace. 
 
 What ought to delight you, dear brethren, in the con- 
 solations, or rather in the joys of the Gospel, is, that they 
 have no need of the aid either of pride or of time, and that 
 they combine in the soul of the sufferer both strength and 
 mildness. When I see mildness without strength, I say to 
 myself. The man is nullified, his internal springs are broken ; 
 these are not the proper results of religion. When I see 
 strength without mildness, I say. Here is no consolation, no 
 joy, for joy softens ; truth, therefore, is not here. But he 
 who has embraced Jesus Christ by faith, he who in desert 
 climes has again found a Father, he will in grief be at once 
 mild and strong. For what is at once milder and stronger 
 than faith, hope, and love ? In the hour of trial expect not 
 from him either lifeless submission or haughty rudeness. 
 He is what man ought to be, armed with courage and 
 adorned with humility ; erect before fortune, on his knees 
 before God. 
 
 With the oil of the word, with the flame of the Spirit, 
 make the lamp of your soul illuminate your darkness. This 
 I address to you who yet know not the dispensation of God 
 in the Gospel, to you who know it to no purpose, because 
 your heart is not yet touched. Equal to each other in mis- 
 fortune, subject to the same vicissitudes, you appear in 
 another point of view very different, since there is between 
 you the difference between ignorance and knowledge, or as 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO WALK IN THE NIGHT. 323 
 
 we should perhaps say, between faith and unbelief. Is this 
 difference as great as it appears ? Neither of you believes 
 this, if faith is nothing less than the life in the soul. What, 
 it will be said, is the lamp without the oil ? But what is the 
 oil without the flame ? Does he who has oil without flame 
 see better than he who as yet has neither oil nor flame ? And 
 cannot the Supreme Giver give at once both oil and flame ? 
 I thus see better what it is that unites you than what it is 
 that separates you, and I commend you both to the Father 
 of the spirits of all flesh, praying that in pity to your wants 
 he would give to both of you wl)at is necessary ; to the one 
 the knowledge of his Gospel and Christian convictions, to the 
 other that life of the Spirit which alone converts the con- 
 victions of the intellect into a true and effectual faith. 
 There will you, for the first time, find light, in other words, 
 joy and happiness ; for in Jesus, embraced by faith, resides 
 abundance of consolation, fulness of happiness, to supply the 
 future as the past. To say the whole in two words, you 
 will there receive the assurance of being loved and the 
 power of loving. What more is necessary ? What is be- 
 yond ? What more can be desired, or what more will be 
 vainly desired either by him who is loved or him who loves ? 
 What void can remain in the heart or life where there is 
 intimate communion, unchangeable intercourse with the 
 heavenly Father ? What darkness will not disappear before 
 so pure and bright a day ? What doubt, what fear, what 
 regret, what desire, can tyrannize over a heart which has God 
 in its favor, and which, to speak more properly, possesses 
 and carries him within ? When you say that God has raised 
 it to love, do you not say every thing ? Love which is 
 stronger than death is stronger than the whole world. 
 
 Light this lamp ; light it whilst it is day. When dark- 
 ness after the day is set penetrates your dwellings, you pro- 
 cure an artificial day by lighting a fire ; but you take care 
 
324 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 not to wait till the darkness is complete, for then it would be 
 difficult to procure what you need in order to dispel it ; a 
 very just though feeble image of what prudence demands of 
 you in regard to another light. It is in open day, at noon, 
 in the morning, that you ought to light this lamp. In the 
 full sunshine of prosperity must you provide for the hours of 
 trial. These times of agitation and trouble are ill suited to 
 so great a work. We droop, we struggle, we sink in our 
 sorrow. Leisure is wanting ; the mind is no longer free. 
 Scarcely capable of providing against the necessities of the 
 time, it is far less capable of forming principles and giving a 
 new basis to its whole life. For, brethren, no less than this 
 is required. A work of examination^ internal observation, 
 and profound meditation must be undertaken and finished 
 amid the most poignant emotions ; miracles of peace must 
 be performed amid the horrors of war. Reflect well upon it. 
 How are you to learn ail at once, (and when the whole soul 
 is carried in another direction,) the great science of faith, 
 hope, and charity ? How renew all your convictions, all your 
 principles, all the habits of your mind, all the tendencies of 
 your soul, in a word, all your being, when imperious grief 
 claims all your thoughts? Were we assured that an artist 
 had put the finishing touch to an exquisite painting, or an 
 astronomer succeeded in making observations of the greatest 
 nicety, on the deck of a vessel, at the very time when the 
 raging storm had thrown down its masts and sprung a dan- 
 gerous leak, we should not be more astonished. No doubt 
 these great storms of life may have blessed results. Anguish 
 teaches many things ; without it what should we know ? 
 But without speaking of all the cases in which we suffer 
 uselessly or grow worse by suffering, let us merely observe 
 that we are here speaking of the resources of the soul 
 against sorrow, of the consolation which it requires to find 
 within itself in the hour of trial. Where are those consola- 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO WALK IN THE NIGHT. 325 
 
 tions, those gladdening beams, for him who whilst it was 
 day did not kindle his lamp ? How many unfortunate 
 beings, wandering in the gloom of sorrow, have gradually 
 approached the abyss, I mean despair, and fallen into it ! 
 How many others, sunk in sleep by the same darkness, (for 
 the darkness causes sleep,) have lost all courage, have 
 ceased to provide for themselves, and by this despairing 
 negligence have rendered their misfortune irreparable or 
 boundless ! Of how many others has not sorrow unmitigated 
 soured the temper, envenomed the feelings, corrupted the 
 judgment ; in fine, spoiled the whole life, not only for them- 
 selves, but also for those whose happiness was confided to 
 them ! Nothing can weaken, every thing, on the contrary, 
 enforces the exhortation of our Lord, " Let your lamps be 
 burning," that is. Let the approaching night find your lamps 
 burning. 
 
 In the climate in which we live the twilight precedes and 
 announces night, and we may, during this interval, prepare 
 torches or lamps. But there are zones in which night, in- 
 stead of climbing up to the heaven gradually, seizes on it at 
 once, and envelopes all living creatures in sudden darkness. 
 It is with life as with these regions. In human life misfortune 
 comes even more suddenly than darkness in the countries of 
 which I speak. It is for the most of the time an evening 
 without a twilight. The splendor of day falls at once into 
 the dark gloom of night. We suffer without having fore- 
 seen it, without having been prepared for it by a decline of 
 happiness, and hence naturally suffer more. Without any 
 thing to break the fall, we tumble to the bottom all bruised 
 and broken. O what bitterness, what trouble, what internal 
 tempest, when the greatest felicity and the deepest misfor- 
 tune were the one yesterday and the other to-day ! What 
 magic words will communicate at once mildness and strength 
 to him whom glory enveloped yesterday and shame to-day, 
 
326 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 to another who was yesterday the most envied and to-day is 
 the most wretched of fathers ; to another whom all hopes yes- 
 terday intoxicated, and against whom to-day a sudden and 
 incurable infirmity closes all the avenues to future fame ? 
 Will he learn to-day what he knew not yesterday ? Will it 
 be possible to console him if previously unfurnished with 
 consolation ? 
 
 Therefore we have reason to say, Light your lamps. 
 But if the Spirit of God himself is the flame of our lamps, 
 does it belong to us to light them ? Who can light them but 
 God only ? This objection is refuted by its own conse- 
 quences. For it would extend step by step to all our duties, 
 and there being no longer any power there would no longer 
 be any duty. Let us not distinguish between what we can 
 and what we cannot do. For if any thing is above our 
 strength, every thing is above our strength ; and if any 
 thing is within our reach, all things are. Let us say frankly 
 and boldly that man can do nothing, and that he can do 
 every thing; nothing without God and every thing with God. 
 All the morality of the Gospel rests upon these two founda- 
 tions. Without God I am insufficient for the least of my du- 
 ties, with God I am capable of all, even the greatest, even of 
 the duty which includes all others ; I mean the duty of light- 
 ing the lamp. And this is the reason why Jesus Christ, 
 who might have said, The Spirit of God will light your 
 lamps, has gone farther, and said, "Light your lamps." In 
 speaking in this way, apparently he knew that we could 
 light them. We can before as after believe on his word, 
 but after as before we say with St. Paul, " I did so, yet not 
 I, but the grace of God that was with me." The Christian 
 soul unites inseparably the feeling of responsibility with the 
 feeling of dependence. 
 
 We say then, without scruple, to you whose lamps are 
 not yet burning. Kindle your lamps ; and in order to kindle 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO WALK IN THE NIGHT. 327 
 
 them we commend you to the Gospel, interpreted by your 
 conscience, to your conscience enlightened by the Gospel. 
 But you who have kindled them, have you nothing to do ? 
 Are you henceforth sheltered from trial ? Have you not, on 
 the contrary, in your character of Christians, particular af- 
 flictions to foresee ? Or perhaps you think that your lamps, 
 once kindled, will burn of themselves, and never possibly be 
 extinguished. It is written, however, " Quench not the Spi- 
 rit;" your lamps then may be extinguished. It is written, 
 "Stir up the gift that is in you ;" it is thus necessary to 
 keep this flame constantly alive. It is necessary inces- 
 santly to lay up a store of happiness for the days of misfor- 
 tune, and of joy for the hours of sadness. It is necessary to 
 nourish at the bottom of your hearts faith, hope, and love. 
 
 For this, under the Divine blessing, three means are at 
 your disposal ; namely, contemplation, prayer, and good 
 works. Might I not add, " and these three are one V By 
 contemplation, I understand the contemplation of Jesus 
 Christ. It is not an effort of thought, though thought is in- 
 separable from contemplation. No ; it is a simple, filial, 
 assiduous look to Jesus Christ; I say not to his doctrine, but 
 to Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ, and not Christianity, is 
 our object, our good, our life. To contemplate Jesus Christ, 
 to live with Jesus Christ, to keep society with Jesus Christ, 
 to withdraw to Jesus Christ ; to be accompanied by his me- 
 mory and encircled by his presence, to look to him as the 
 faithful spouse looks to her husband, to refer to him all our 
 thoughts and all our designs, and fill with him our mind and 
 our soul ; this is the primary means, or rather the whole 
 means, for it carries with it all the rest. 
 
 To pray, that is, to expect nothing except from God ; 
 and to expect every thing of God ; to keep our soul inces- 
 santly open before him ; to lay open before the Father, 
 whom Jesus Christ has restored to us, our wants, our fears, 
 
328 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 our difficulties; to place ourselves continually in his hands; 
 to accept, by anticipation, whatever it may please him to 
 dispense ; to groan before him under a sense of our weak- 
 ness ; to deposit at his feet the burden of our sins; to sigh in 
 his presence after the gift of a new heart; to place ourselves 
 under the rays of his light, under the dew of his grace ; with 
 all the humility of indigence to solicit an asylum under his 
 roof, a place at his hearth ; to take shelter under his mercy, 
 and gain warmth upon his heart ; such is the grace of graces. 
 No wind, no storm will extinguish the lamp of him who 
 prays. 
 
 In fine, to act, to abound in works of righteousness and 
 charity, without intermission to fill both our heart and our 
 life into which the world persists in wishing to penetrate, 
 and by this constant and happy preoccupation in well doing 
 to leave no place, no moment, no occasion for evil ; to unite 
 thus more and more with Jesus Christ by resembling him, to 
 breathe the air of heaven beforehand, and have a foretaste 
 of the pure joys of eternity ; to feel as with the hand the re- 
 ality of that moral order, that kingdom of God invisible to so 
 many eyes ; to walk in some measure by sight in the dark- 
 ness of this world ; in one word, to obey in order to know, 
 and serve in order to love : such is the third means that is 
 proposed to you. So long as you use it, fear not lest the 
 flame of your lamp become feeble or extinct, lest consolation 
 fail you in the hour of affliction. " By this," says St. John, 
 speaking of the works of love, " by this you shall know that 
 you are of the truth, and shall assure your hearts before 
 God." 
 
 Shall you come gradually to find in suffering all the 
 savor of a blessing ? Why not ? Since the time when St. 
 Paul said to the Colossians, " I rejoice in my sufl^erings," 
 the Lord's hand is not shortened. If every Christian regards 
 the diflTerent trials to which he is exposed as a ground of 
 
COtJNSEL TO THOSE WHO WALK IN THE NIGHT. 329 
 
 perfect joy, the grace of God may raise him higher, and put 
 him in a state to feel the joy. But is it not a great matter 
 that he already knows what they are worth, and that with a 
 free and sincere movement he blesses God for them ? Wait 
 firmly for this grace, you who have carefully maintained the 
 flame of your lamps. You knew long ago that you are loved, 
 but the hour of affliction will come and teach you how much 
 God loves you. For it is for that hour that God has reserved 
 the most abundant effusions of his grace, and for this even 
 has he prepared that hour. Be assured there is nothing he 
 will refuse to make your days of mourning days of shining 
 light. Thousands have experienced this before you, and 
 thousands more are ready to tell you that never so much as 
 in hours of anguish have they experienced how good the 
 Almighty is. It is the wretched who are grateful. To hear 
 them one would say that prosperity caused their gratitude to 
 fall asleep, and that adversity has awakened it. There is, 
 in fact, a spiritual supernatural joy which rests at the bottom 
 of the Christian soul in tranquil days, and which affliction stirs 
 up and causes to boil over, and which reserves every thing that 
 it has most impressive and thrilling for those very moments 
 when joy seems impossible. This joy of the Spirit does not 
 cause the sorrow of nature to disappear, but neither does this 
 sorrow extinguish that joy. They subsist beside each other, 
 the sorrow furnishing occasion and nourishment to the joy, 
 the joy preventing the excess of sorrow. 
 
 God would not hesitate to work wonders in order to turn 
 your sorrow into joy. When in your Gethsemane (for each 
 in his turn enters this garden to sweat blood like the Prince 
 of the just,) you shall in your agony have uttered the mourn- 
 ful cry, "Father, let this cup pass from me," the Father 
 might send angels to your assistance as he did to our gener- 
 ous representative. But Christ needed this assistance, and 
 thanks to him we need it not. The angels who in those 
 
330 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 dread times will come with a compassionate hand to support 
 our declining head, and wipe the sweat from our b^'ow, are 
 invisible angels, who will not then come for the first time, for 
 they have long been there, and have never quitted us. These 
 invisible angels are faith, hope, and love, if we have detained 
 them beside us by contemplation, prayer, and good works ; 
 or rather he whom we have detained beside us is God him- 
 self; God whose Spirit, as he himself has said, " is in dis- 
 tress in all our distresses." " Though we walk through the 
 valley of the shadow of death we will fear no evil, for God 
 is with us, his rod and his staff comfort us." Yes, in this 
 very darkness, the blackest of all darkness, in the approaches 
 of death, Thou thyself, O Lord ! wilt come to comfort thy 
 poor creatures ; Thou wilt defend our couch from those 
 visions of terror which ominous appearances and the remem- 
 brance of our sins gather around us. Did it seem good to 
 thy wisdom to leave us alone, and without immediate conso^ 
 iation, to perform a part of the journey in the darkness of 
 our cavern, it would be on its issue to give a purer and more 
 brilliant light to the sacred day of redemption. The radiant 
 face of our Saviour will enlighten this darkness ; we shall 
 not be long in discerning his mild and beneficent counte- 
 nance ; and, from this moment, assured and enraptured, we 
 shall feel a sublime joy rise and expand in our soul over our 
 fears, our regrets, and it may be our remorse. Beside him 
 what can we fear, what can we want ? Shall we not be 
 well wherever he is ? Can we be perfectly satisfied wher- 
 ever he is not ? Was not the hope which supplied the place 
 of happiness here below, the hope of possessing him ? And 
 if it was sweet in this place of exile to suffer with him, what 
 will it be in heaven to reign with him ? O revelations, 
 glor}^, marvels of a Christian death, how great you are and 
 ravishing ! Will it ever be possible for us to pay too 
 dearly for them ? Is it to pay too much for the death of 
 
COUNSEL TO THOSE WHO WALK IN THE NIGHT. 331 
 
 the righteous to die beforehand, and die daily to ourselves, 
 and hide our life with Christ in the bosom of God ? O Lord, 
 teach us this death, in order that we may be capable of the 
 other ! O Lord, disrobe us of ourselves, and clothe us with 
 thyself! Make us poor in order that we may be rich! 
 Be our only treasure! Be our only light in the days of 
 happiness, so that thou mayest also be our light in days of 
 mourning, and at the hour of final departure 1 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 TWO DISCOURSES ON JOHN I. 42; MATT. XVI. 13-18. 
 
 " And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona : 
 thou shall be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, A stone." — 
 John i. 42. 
 
 " When Jesus came into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his 
 disciples, saying. Whom do men say that I the Son of man am 1 
 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist ; some 
 Elias ; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto 
 them, But whom say ye that I am ? And Simon Peter answered 
 and said. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, And Jesus 
 answered and said unto him. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona ; for 
 flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which 
 is in heaven. And I say also unto thee. That thou art Peter, and 
 upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against it." — Matthew xvi. 13-18. 
 
 FIRST DISCOURSE. 
 
 A FiSHEKMAN named Andrew, having heard of Jesus, rose up 
 and followed him. Believing that in him he had found the 
 Messiah or Christ, he imparts the glad tidings to Simon, and 
 takes him to Jesus. " And Jesus," says the Evangelist, 
 " having looked upon him, said. Thou art Simon son of Jonas ; 
 thou wilt be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, a 
 
SIMON PETER. dtJd 
 
 Stone." And as Jesus is not a man, to lie, nor to utter vain 
 words, the expression, "Thou shall be called a stone," 
 means, thou shalt be a stone, thou shalt be a rock. And 
 this name thereafter attaches to Simon, whose original name 
 is gradually effaced, or seldom appears without being united 
 to his new name. Familiarly, ordinarily, almost without 
 thinking of it, the disciples of Jesus give their fellow disciple 
 the name of stone or rock. To us, too, he is now known, so 
 to speak, only under this solemn mystical name. God, in his 
 eternal decrees, had called him beforehand by his name as 
 he called Cyrus. Peter he was before he was born to mortal 
 life, Peter he is in the Church to the end of ages, Peter he 
 shall be in eternity. 
 
 Were it not of itself very clear that Jesus Christ says 
 nothing, does nothing, without a serious meaning, we might 
 find proof in another place that it was of set purpose and 
 very seriously that he had conferred on his disciple this name, 
 at once impressive and imposing. He confirms it on a 
 solemn occasion. The people are at once moved and divided 
 on the subject of the man of Nazareth. On one point only 
 are they agreed : that certainly he is a great personage, so 
 great indeed that they cannot believe he belongs to the pres- 
 ent generation (for it is to the things and the men of the past 
 that our regards are preferably given) ; he is doubtless one 
 of the great men whom God has taken to glory ; either John 
 the Baptist, who has just perished, or Elias, or Jeremiah, or 
 some one of the prophets. Jesus asks his disciples, " Whom 
 say ye that I am ?" Simon Peter, says the historian, Simon 
 the rock, (for thus only was he now called,) takes speech, 
 and answers, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
 God." Jesus immediately replied, " Blessed art thou, Simon 
 son of Jonas ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto 
 thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say unto 
 thee (just as if he had said. Thou hast named me, I name 
 
334 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 thee,) thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my 
 Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 
 Thus, then, at the beginning and towards the end of his 
 ministry Jesus solemnly imposed the name of Peter on the 
 son of Jonas, first when Simon had neither done nor said any 
 thing to furnish Jesus Christ with any occasion for it, and a 
 second time on the utterance of a sentence or profession of 
 faith by this same apostle. 
 
 We propose, brethren, to lay before you some reflections 
 on what Jesus did on these two occasions ; we wish to speak 
 to you on this sovereign substitution of a new name to that 
 which the son of Jonas had received at his birth. But it is 
 necessary to begin with explaining the new name, the 
 eminently significant name which Jesus Christ bestows on 
 Simon. 
 
 I speak, brethren, of the new name only. We might try 
 to explain the old one. You are probably aware that even 
 among ourselves there is not a name without a meaning, but 
 with regard to most names this meaning has gradually dis- 
 appeared from successive changes on the words. It was not 
 so among the Hebrews. Every name signified something, 
 because they did not wish, did not admit any name which 
 did not awaken some idea. The wishes, the hopes, the af- 
 fections, the recollections, of a family were openly expressed 
 in the name which a child received. In this respect, how- 
 ever, it would not be worth while to explain the name of 
 Simon, and that of Jonas his father. But more than once, 
 perhaps, in choosing the name of his child the father was 
 unconsciously directed by Providence, and it sometimes hap- 
 pened also that God explicitly pronounced his will in this 
 respect. Thus the name of John, which signifies the grace 
 or gift of the Almighty, was brought by an angel to Zacharias, 
 father of the forerunner ; and the very common name of 
 Jesus, or Saviour, was by the express will of God, the human 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 335 
 
 name of Jesus Christ. There are cases in which a very- 
 striking relation between the name of a personage and his 
 character or life, scarcely permits us to doubt that God did 
 interfere with the determination of the family. How can 
 we but admire the arrangement by which he to whom the 
 Anointed of the Lord exclaimed on the road to Damascus, 
 " Why persecutest thou me V bore during the first period of 
 his life the name of Saul or Saiil ; in other words, that of the 
 unhappy prince who also persecuted an anointed of the 
 Lord in the person of David 1 As to the individual spoken 
 of in our text, without going further, we simply say that 
 Simon signifies listenings and Jonas, dove. What lovely 
 names, as applied to the Gospel ! how exact the expression 
 of what was in fact the character of the Apostle, as amiable 
 as he was venerable ; and how easily will every Christian 
 understand that he who worthily bears the name of listening 
 and dove deserves also that of rock. 
 
 But what we have to do with here is the new name 
 which Simon received. Jesus on two occasions called him 
 Cephas, that is, stone. This name has no appearance of ob- 
 scurity, and yet wo would not be sure of properly seeking 
 and entering fuUy into our Saviour's idea if we were con- 
 fined to the text. Jesus Christ becomes his own interpreter, 
 in the words of St. Matthew, which we place beside those of 
 St. John. We might have believed (and who knows not but 
 the son of Jonas also believed?) that the name of Peter was a 
 pre-announcement of the immovable firmness which charac- 
 terized him as an apostle of Jesus Christ. If he thought so 
 it was a great error, and the subject of great humiliation ; 
 and a moment was to arrive when this name which attaches 
 to his person, and by which his Master and his companions 
 continued to designate him, was to seem to him, shall I say, 
 a cruel mockery ? Without speaking of his unhappy denial, 
 and of his flight with the other disciples, was it truly the 
 
330 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 firmness of conviction, the firmness of charity, that appeared 
 in those acts of presumption, those extravagances, which 
 were generous, no doubt, but in which the flesh and the 
 blood performed so great a part ? It was, therefore, under a 
 different idea that Jesus Christ called him Peter ; and this 
 idea he has himself declared, " On this rock I will build my 
 Church." 
 
 There is no reference, then, directly at least, to the cha- 
 racter of St. Peter, but to his calling and his work. The 
 Church of the Lord was to be built upon him. Not as if St. 
 Peter was to be the foundation of the Church, since there is 
 only one Foundation, one Corner-stone, namely, Jesus Christ. 
 Peter himself was to be laid on this foundation, from which, 
 like all the other stones of the building, he derived his 
 strength ; but he was after Jesus Christ, in the name and on 
 the part of Jesus Christ, a stone on which the Church of Je- 
 sus Christ, like a living temple, would arise. 
 
 The Church, in a certain sense, existed before this was 
 said. As soon as some individuals believed in Jesus Christ 
 and followed him, there was a Church ; and this little con- 
 gregation, still wholly passive, seated in silence at the feet of 
 Jesus, carried in their hands, in their heart, in their faith, 
 the destinies of the world. In this view, perhaps, our Sa- 
 viour said to this handful of obscure individuals, " Fear not, 
 little flock ; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you 
 the kingdom." However, in another sense, the Church did 
 not yet exist. The active spontaneous Church, representing 
 and continuing Jesus Christ, the Church, the fulness of Him 
 who filleth all in all, dates only from the death of Jesus 
 Christ, who was to draw all men unto him only after he 
 should be lifted up ; or, to speak still more precisely, it 
 dates from the communication of the Holy Spirit, which was 
 to the disciples of our Lord the expected and wished for sig- 
 nal. The history of Christianity has an earlier date; the his. 
 
SIMON PETER. 337 
 
 tory of the Church opens on the day of Pentecost. On that 
 day, with the ministry of the Word, begins the erection of 
 the new temple. 
 
 What then, in this great work, is the work, the part, the 
 character of Simon ? Does what he was, and what he did, 
 justify our Saviour's words, " Thou art Peter, and on this 
 rock I will build my Church ?" 
 
 Let us agree here, brethren. If in order to justify these 
 words it was necessary (as many have supposed) that Peter 
 should have been, not only for the whole body of the faithful, 
 but for his companions in the apostleship, the supreme autho- 
 rity in matters of doctrine, the source of truth, the final judge 
 in all questions, Peter has not justified the imposing title 
 which his Master gave him. The whole apostolic Church, 
 which did not recognize these attributes, must then have 
 been unbelieving ; and so must Peter have been, since he 
 has not claimed them. Neither did the apostles submit to 
 Peter, nor did Peter ever assert his right to it. Parties, each 
 of whom gave themselves a chief among the apostles, appear 
 in the first churches. Peter, without wishing it, had his own 
 party in the church of Corinth ; where several gave him an 
 exclusive preference over Apollos and Paul. This party, if 
 Peter had in fact had the supreme authority with which he 
 is invested in spite of himself, was necessarily the good par- 
 ty, or rather, was not a party, wa^s the Orthodox Church. 
 Yet St. Paul calls it a parly, and blames those who attach 
 themselves to Cephas, or Apollos, or himself, instead of at- 
 taching themselves simply and directly to Jesus Christ. Paul 
 rebukes St. Peter for a practice closely connected with doc- 
 trine. Paul counts it an honor to have so acted, and Peter 
 does not protest. Nowhere does Peter either exercise or af- 
 fect an authority superior to that of the other apostles ; no- 
 where is he, as regards them, the supreme and final appeal, 
 and when he is consulted along with others, who like him 
 16 
 
338 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 are called pillars, (because they had been with the Lord,) 
 aye, on the very occasion when, if ever, it would seem he 
 ought to have shown himself pope in the full meaning of the 
 term, his only distinction is that he speaks first. He gives 
 his opinion, does not impose it. He is not even the president 
 of this assembly, nor the moderator of this discussion. He 
 throws into it no other weight than that of a wisdom full of 
 humility. In fact, on this truly singular occasion, nothing 
 exhibits in him the pretensions which at a later period, and 
 on the very tomb of this humble apostle, have been reared up 
 in his name. What remains to be extracted from the Gos- 
 pel in favor of these same pretensions ? Nothing; unless we 
 choose to say that Peter is named oftener than the other 
 apostles, and usually first ; that he more frequently is spokes- 
 man, sometimes as a worthy organ of his fellow disciples, 
 but sometimes also, in his haste, organ of a carnal wisdom 
 and an indiscreet zeal ; so much so, that in the very chapter 
 in which Jesus Christ confirms his name of Peter, he also, a 
 few lines further on, calls him Satan, on account of his words. 
 If then on saying to Simon, " Thou art Peter," Jesus Christ 
 transformed the Christian republic into a monarchy, if Jesus 
 raised his disciple to a throne, Jesus spoke in vain ; for 
 Simon never was what on this supposition he ought to have 
 been. 
 
 Simon was a rock on which the Church of Christ was to 
 be built. Whatever be the meaning of these words, they do 
 not signify, they do not express that Peter was to be the 
 apostle of apostles, and alone invested with infallibility 
 among those first disciples who were all witnesses like hini 
 of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, all partakers like him of 
 the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. And if^ without 
 claiming for Peter himself what the history of the apostolic 
 Church too evidently denies him, it is claimed for his See, for 
 his successors, (supposing him to have had a See and suq- 
 
SIMON PETER. 339 
 
 cessors,) if the simple declaration, " Thou art Peter, and on 
 this rock I will build my Church," has this interpretation 
 given to it, not Peter himself, but, him excepted, all who 
 have been bishops of Rome, have the benefit of the promise 
 which was made to him alone, and have by themselves alone 
 succeeded to the authority of all the sees and of all the 
 apostles ; if the words of Jesus Christ, null as regards Peter 
 himself, signify all this in behalf of those who have suc- 
 ceeded him in the government of a particular community, 
 then right is founded upon fact instead of fact upon right ; 
 in other words, the texts giving no authority to a human 
 establishment, recourse is had to the interpretation of the 
 texts after the establishment. The meaning of the Divine 
 expressions is sought in the institution, instead of the institution 
 being judged by the words. By this monstrous perversion, all 
 the principles of interpretation, the basis of all belief, are 
 shaken, and the meaning of Scripture is left to arbitrary de- 
 cision. All landmarks are removed, and the field of truth is 
 thrown open to the fury of the most extravagant doubts. In 
 one word, by a presumptuous affirmation, right has been 
 given beforehand to all negations. We are not going too 
 far, brethren. Owing to affirmation without proof, to con- 
 tradictions without evidence, the simplest minds have been 
 rendered suspicious, the firmest mind wavering and uncer- 
 tain, and skepticism has forced its way both into the Church 
 and society. 
 
 Thus then, brethren, the promise of Jesus Christ to Simon 
 has not, cannot have the extravagant meaning which has 
 been given to it. On the other hand, our Lord's words 
 have certainly some meaning ; shall we go far to seek it, 
 brethren ? Does it not offer itself to the first glance ? 
 
 Though the Evangelist and the historian of the Acts had 
 left St. Peter on the same level with all the rest of the 
 apostles, there would be no ground for astonishment at the 
 
340 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 prediction of our Lord with regard to him. The edifice of 
 the Church would not have rested principally upon him, but 
 it would have rested on him in some degree, and we would 
 always be able, after eighteen centuries, to regard Simon as 
 the rock out of which we have been hewn. Had Jesus 
 Christ, calling him by a different but equally true name, 
 said to him, Thou art bread, and with this bread I will feed 
 my Church, or, Thou art living water, and with this water 
 I will refresh my Church, none of us would conclude that 
 Paul, and John, and James, and Apollos, and Timothy, have 
 nothing to claim in this significant appellation. Has not 
 Jesus Christ, who is properly the bread and the living water, 
 transformed his apostles into bread and living water ? And 
 how can we deny them to have been rocks, and parts of the 
 rock on which the church has been built ? Thus, then, 
 though Simon had remained in the shade or twilight in which 
 other apostles remained, the expression of Jesus Christ in 
 regard to him would find its justification in the mere fact 
 of the apostleship of Simon, and the general certainty we 
 should have of his having labored with all the others for the 
 progress of the Gospel upon the earth. It would still, no 
 doubt, require to be considered why he alone among all the 
 apostles should have his name changed by his Master, why 
 he alone was surnamed Peter ; but in whatever way we 
 should explain this specialty, or even should we be obliged to 
 give up the attempt to explain it, the name assigned him by 
 Jesus Christ should, nevertheless, appear appropriate and 
 true, and the declaration of the Master should still find its 
 full confirmation in the services which Simon, concurrently 
 with others, should have rendered to the cause of the Gospel. 
 As in some respects St. Peter is evidently raised above the 
 level, we are accustomed, brethren, and very properly, to 
 attach to the words of our Lord a more special idea ; but 
 this implies not that on inferior ground, I mean without dis- 
 
SIMON PETER. 941 
 
 tinction, the activity of Peter would not have fulfilled the 
 promise. Erase in idea every thing that distinguishes him, 
 every thing in the Gospel history that assigns to him a 
 special importance, and you will not find, I venture to assure 
 you, that the words of the Master were pronounced in vain. 
 They might mean more, but might also mean less. Only 
 the facts have proved that more was meant. 
 
 But verily it did mean more, and the fulfilment has not 
 merely been exact, but rich, superabundant, striking. Not 
 only has Peter formed part of the living rock on which the 
 Church has been slowly reared, but Peter has been in him- 
 self alone a rock ; Peter has, in a certain sense, been the 
 rock on which our Lord has built. We must explain. 
 
 In every work, brethren, if we ascend to the principle, 
 we find that God does all, and shares not his glory with any 
 other. But if we lower our view we discover helps. Men 
 are workers with him because he has so pleased. To him, 
 no doubt, belong their works as well as themselves whom he 
 has created and fitted to do the work. Nevertheless they 
 have worked with him, and the work which comes from him 
 has been done by them. Now God, when consenting to let 
 a work be human, subjects it to all human conditions, and 
 particularly to this one, that all who are employed under 
 his eye have not, in this work, a part either exactly equal, 
 or exactly alike. In all works in which several men concur 
 together, even were all equally devoted, there is a kind of 
 drama in which all do not perform the same part. There 
 always are, there must always be, men who take the initia- 
 tive, men made for beginning undertakings, paving the 
 road, setting the example. Their character is a character 
 apart, which, with an equal degree of devotedness and fidel- 
 ity, some have received, others not. When any important 
 step is to be taken, every society, however free, looks out for 
 some individual better qualified than others to perform it ; 
 
342 ♦ GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 and in works, the object of which is the establishment of the 
 heavenly kingdom, God never fails to raise up similar indi- 
 viduals. So long as human nature is what it is there will 
 be men on whom the initiative devolves, there will be such 
 men in the domain of religion as every where else. In any 
 of the great movements which have renewed the face of the 
 world, or the condition of the human intellect, the multitude 
 have never dispensed with a head. They look out for him 
 not to get ideas, but because they have them ; for, if they 
 had not, they would not look for him. They seek him that 
 he may act in accordance with these ideas, in order to 
 realize them. Rather they have no difficulty in finding 
 him. The keenest, the strongest, not always the best or 
 the most enlightened, advances ; sometimes advances quite 
 alone and on his own account, but the standard which he 
 raises soon gives him an army. Thus Luther advanced at 
 first with a dubious and yet uncertain step. He carried 
 within him, but in a more profound and distinct form, the ob- 
 cure idea of a multitude. He spoke it aloud, and the multi- 
 tude recognized it, recognized themselves, and through the 
 perils of a dangerous war followed him who, so to speak, by a 
 word made them acquainted with themselves. The renewed 
 Church found its man of action in Luther, as the infant 
 Church found hers in St. Peter. St. Peter, with miraculous 
 gifts, is the Luther of the primitive Church, as Luther, con- 
 fined to more ordinary gifts, is the St. Peter of the Reforma- 
 tion. And it is on considering what this Apostle was to the 
 rising Church, and consequently to the Church of all times, 
 that we feel obliged to attach a special and very personal 
 meaning to our Saviour's declaration, " Thou art Peter." 
 
 Already in this Church not yet constituted, in this 
 Church still under a kind of tutelage, which Jesus Christ 
 had gathered around his person, Peter above others attracts 
 and fixes our regard. His Master has not assigned to him 
 
SIMON PETER. 343 
 
 the first place ; for the first place belongs to no one, and we 
 remember that an indiscreet question, not of Peter but of the 
 mother of two other disciples, called forth from the lips of 
 our Lord the memorable declaration, "Let him who would 
 be greatest among you be the servant of all." Still less has 
 St. Peter been invested by his Master with any species of 
 authority over his colleagues. Not one word of such a 
 meaning proceeded from his Master's lips. But whose is 
 the name which occurs most frequently if it is not Peter's ? 
 Who is it that acts as organ to the disciples when they apply 
 to Jesus Christ but this same Peter ? To whom does our 
 Lord more frequently address his discourse than to Peter ? 
 For it must be carefully observed that this attention, which 
 Peter involuntarily attracts to himself by his mere character, 
 by a more active zeal, a more conspicuous affection,* Jesus 
 Christ contributes to procure for him. Jesus Christ has, if 
 not greater intimacy, (we know the contrary,) at least more 
 external relations with him than with the rest of the apostles. 
 He gives him more of his attention, he makes him the object 
 of special solicitude ; he prepares him, exercises him, tries 
 his fitness, so to speak, for a future situation. He is an 
 instrument which he tunes, a metal which he refines, a 
 weapon which he sharpens. To no other does he give such 
 particular care, and one would say that Peter being formed 
 beforehand for the apostleship, all others will be formed of 
 course. Thus, then, the character of Peter carries him 
 always like a valiant soldier in the van, and the will of his 
 Master keeps him there. It keeps him there so evidently, 
 that uniformly in the Gospel his name begins the list of the 
 disciples, and when the leading ones only are mentioned, he 
 stands there first also. So strongly is this distinction or pre- 
 
 * Emicat ardens. This expression of an ancient poet gives the 
 sum of Peter's character. 
 
344 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 eminence averred and recognized, so incontestable is it as a 
 fact. Was it then without an end, was it without a regard 
 to the future, that Jesus Christ, who was better understood, 
 better known by another of the disciples, enters thus into the 
 character of Simon, and allows him to fill so great a space 
 in the history of those times ? 
 
 Thus even before action, the man of action was revealed. 
 Thus we know beforehand who will be the advance guard 
 when the army begins to march. And in fact when the 
 signal was given, when amid the rushing of a mighty wind 
 the apostles, met to celebrate the last Jewish Pentecost, 
 heard the grand hour of departure sound, there was no inde- 
 cision, no division among them as to the great captain who 
 was to march at their head. For a long time this part 
 devolved on Peter, and it was only on his failure that another 
 could take it up. When the disciples were still waiting for 
 the Comforter, when a hundred and twenty persons, the first 
 fruits of the thousands and thousands still contained in the 
 Divine hand, wrestled in prayer with a view to other wrest- 
 lings that must soon arrive, Peter, pre-occupied with action 
 and government, called for the election of a twelfth apostle 
 as a substitute for him who, according to the fearful expres- 
 sion of Scripture, " had gone to his place." After the effu- 
 sion of the Holy Spirit, manifested all at once by the gift of 
 tongues, when the multitude of Jews who had come to the 
 festival, and whose priests had not yet had time to poison 
 their minds ; when this multitude, deeply moved, solicit an 
 explanation, or rather a direction, it is Peter who answers, 
 it is Peter who proclaims the advent of the worship in spirit 
 and in truth. It is he who invites these first fruits from 
 among the nations to be baptized, he whose powerful words 
 in a few instants creates and constitutes a Christian Church 
 of three thousand souls in the heart of the city which has 
 just slain Christ. Some days elapse. Peter, sustained by 
 
SIMON PETER. 3 45 
 
 that faith, a single grain of which removes mountains, per- 
 forms in presence of the people a miraculous cure. This 
 furnishes him with the text of a new sermon for which he is 
 put in irons, but which calls five thousand souls more to the 
 profession of the new faith. Thus Jesus Christ, by the 
 ministry of Peter, has already a whole people in that very 
 city where so short a time ago some few friends were se- 
 cretly encouraged by the remembrance of his words. The 
 captivity of Peter neither annuls nor suspends its influence, 
 and we see one during his absence occupying the place 
 which he leaves vacant. His liberty had brought him be- 
 fore the multitude ; his captivity, so to speak, brings him 
 before the members of the Jewish priesthood. To them, as 
 to the multitude, he announces the merciful counsel of the 
 Father of men ; and John, the companion of his captivity, 
 breaking silence for the first time, joins him in that declara- 
 tion whose calmness and simplicity carry dismay into the 
 soul of the priests, and condemn them to inaction: "Whether 
 it be right in the sight of God to obey you rather than God, 
 judge ye." Set at liberty, he resumes his place amid the 
 apostles ; and, in decisive and solemn circumstances, it is 
 still he whom we see appear. The first of the two miracles 
 of terror performed under the Gospel belongs to Peter. At 
 his voice Ananias and Sapphira expiate a hypocritical lie 
 by a sudden death. Instruction belongs equally to all, for 
 all as well as he have received the Holy Spirit, but action, 
 the initiative, are proper to him ; until the centres having 
 multiplied, and the first church having engendered several 
 churches, each gradually becomes what the first was, and 
 receives equally the impulse of some man of action, who 
 will be, as it were, the Simon Peter of this new community. 
 However, until they are consolidated, and in order that they 
 may be so, Peter interposes and shows himself every where. 
 The teaching of Philip has caused a new harvest to spring 
 16* 
 
346 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 up in Samaria. St. Peter, who did not sow it, goes to bind 
 it up in bundles. This Church required only to be consti- 
 tuted and organized, and it is Peter who constitutes and 
 organizes it. This he does every where ; for it is said, 
 " Peter visited all the churches." Is this enough ? No, 
 brethren ; another task is committed to Peter. It is the 
 formal introduction of the Gentile world into the Church. 
 Here, again, instruction is less apparent than action. Peter 
 has neither discovered, nor conceived, nor reasoned, on the 
 universaUty of the gift of God ; only a vision, the purport of 
 which at first escapes him, prepares him for unexpectedly 
 meeting with a new truth, or a new development of the 
 great evangelical truth. It is not so much he that teaches 
 as he that is taught, when an order from God having taken 
 him to the house of the centurion Cornelius, he there finds 
 his vision explained ; and when, seeing the Holy Spirit be- 
 stowing his gifts and stamping his seal on men who are 
 neither Hebrews nor descendants of Hebrews, he has now 
 only to proclaim the surprising tidings of the calling of the 
 Gentiles, and exclaim with the prophet, " Sing, O barren, 
 thou that didst not bear ! . . . Enlarge the place of thy tent, 
 and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations ! 
 . . . For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the 
 left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles." Is. liv. 
 What are the old prejudices of Peter against such a mani- 
 festation ? Who (as he himself expresses it,) can forbid that 
 those who have received the Holy Spirit should be baptized 
 with water ? Will this frank and resolute man hesitate ? 
 He hesitates not. He throws down the barrier which till 
 this hour he had thought immovable. He ceases to be a 
 Jew at the same time that these neophytes cease to be 
 heathens. He pours the water of baptism on all those pro- 
 fane heads, and under the roof of the centurion Cornelius 
 the greatest promise is fulfilled, and a boundless prospect 
 opens. 
 
SIMON PETER. 347 
 
 Till now, brethren, your eye encountered only the name 
 and traces of Peter. You continue to look for him. He 
 appears no more. The shadow covers his person ; silence 
 shrouds his name. His work is not ended. He will still 
 labor much, till his last and fruitful labor of martyrdom ; 
 but since he has given to the evangelization of the world an 
 impulse which will never be arrested, his part is no longer 
 the same. In fact, and silently, he abdicates the primacy 
 with which the force of circumstances and the will of his 
 Master had invested him. Like the dictator of ancient Rome, 
 he returns to his plough ; and if henceforth any thing dis- 
 tinguishes him, if any pre-eminence can be claimed for him, 
 1 think it is that of humility. Who can read, who has ever 
 read the letters of this holy apostle, without being struck 
 with this character above all others ? Where is the impetu- 
 ous Simon who strikes the high priest's servant ? Where is 
 the presumptuous Simon who dares to say to his Lord, 
 " Though all should deny thee, yet will not I deny thee V 
 Where is the rash Simon, who, opposing the fulfilment of 
 the ministry of Jesus Christ, exclaims to him, " God forbid ! 
 that will not happen to thee." He has disappeared, brethren, 
 and his place knows him no more. But where also is the 
 Simon who denied his Master and his Friend ? I now find 
 only a man emptied of himself, and wholly full of his 
 Saviour ; effacing, annihilating himself, not only before Him, 
 but before those whom he himself led to battle ; a grave, 
 meek, pious, modest servant of God and man ; an admirable 
 model of humility and candor. 
 
SIMON PETER. 
 
 TWO DISCOURSES ON JOHN I. 42 ; MATT. XVI. 13-18. 
 
 "And when Jesus beheld him, he said. Thou art Simon the son of 
 Jona : thou shah be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, A 
 stone." — John i. 42. 
 
 •' When Jesus came into the coasts of Cesarea Philippi, he asked his 
 disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am 1 
 And they said. Some say that thou art John the Baptist ; some, 
 Elias ; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. Ke saith unto 
 them, But whom say ye that 1 am ? And Simon Peter answered 
 and said. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And 
 Jesus answered and said unto him. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar- 
 jona ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my 
 Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee. That thou 
 art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates 
 of hell shall not prevail against it." — Matthew xvi. 13-18. 
 
 SECOND DISCOURSE. 
 
 Brethren, now that we know in what sense Jesus Christ 
 gives the name of Peter to the son of Jonas, it remains to 
 consider what instruction we ourselves may derive from this 
 remarkable fact. Will it be necessary to go far in searching 
 for it ? Will it be at all necessary to search for it ? Is it 
 nrobable that the conduct of our divine Master, in so grave 
 
, SIMON PETER. 349 
 
 a conjuncture as the solemn calling of one of his apostles to 
 a post of such importance to the destinies of the Church, 
 that among the sayings of our Saviour, one which brings out 
 in highest relief the supreme authority with which he was 
 invested, is it probable that all this, which had such mighty 
 consequences on the future prospects of the world, has no 
 instruction for us ? No ; that is not probable, nor even pos- 
 sible. These things, like all others, have been written for 
 our instruction, that we may believe, and believing, have 
 eternal life. Let us, then, begin anew to study the fact 
 which furnished the materials of the former Discourse ; now, 
 however, to instruct ourselves in the ways of the Lord, and 
 penetrate as far as we can, or may be useful to us, into the 
 secrets of his Providence. 
 
 The first thing which strikes us in our text is, that Jesus 
 Christ gives Simon a significant and prophetical name before 
 Simon has done any thing or said any thing which ^an give 
 a presage of what he is afterwards to become. This we have 
 seen. It was a first meeting, and nothing gives ground to 
 suppose that Jesus Christ had gathered the least information 
 respecting Simon. He fixes on this new-comer one of those 
 penetrating looks which doubtless went from the features to 
 the inmost soul, and without questioning, without having 
 made him speak, he says to him, " Thou art Simon, son of 
 Jonas ;" (thus telling him his first name, which perhaps he 
 had never heard pronounced,) " Thou art Simon, son of Jo- 
 nas ; thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, 
 a stone.'' If you suppose that he spoke thus without regard 
 to what Simon was ; if you suppose that Jesus said to him- 
 self, I mean that the man whom they are going to bring to 
 me, or are bringing to me this moment, shall be the rock, 
 the stone on which my Church will be reared ; and if this 
 man has actually become so, how shall we sufficiently ad- 
 mire the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, to whom all instru- 
 
350 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 ments are good, because his power becomes their power, and 
 his light their light ! How can we sufficiently admire his 
 having been able to make the first comer, by the mere power 
 of his word, by a single act of his will, the indispensable 
 promoter of so difficult a work ! If it may be said that the 
 Gospel is a second Genesis, it may also be said that the call- 
 ing of the son of Jonas is a true creation. Jesus Christ is 
 then indeed the Son and the image of Him who speaks and 
 it is done, of Him who calls things which are not as if they 
 were. You are perfectly entitled to abide by this first sup- 
 position, which certainly is to the glory of Jesus Christ, but 
 I do not dwell upon it. Jesus Christ, before saying to Simon 
 " Thou art a stone," fixed his eye upon him. This could 
 not be in vain. With a single look he penetrated Simon ; 
 from this moment Simon was known to him. Brethren, shall 
 we admire this Divine penetration less than we just now ad- 
 mired tljis Divine power ? Is it less strange, is it less won- 
 derful, to say of a man on first sight what he is and what he 
 will be, and to change his name on this foresight, than to 
 prepare him, whatever he may be in himself, to become one 
 day what it is meant he should be ? You may choose. For 
 ourselves, we are in both cases equally struck with the au- 
 thority, the -majesty of Jesus Christ. In both cases we recog- 
 nize in Jesus Christ him to whom all power has been given 
 in heaven and on earth, him to whom the Spirit has been 
 given without measure. But we believe he knew St. Peter, 
 and chose him for what he was. We go further : we believe 
 that the conduct of Jesus Christ on this occasion exhibits the 
 ordinary conduct of God. 
 
 God, who of stones could raise up children to Abraham, 
 can manifest his sovereignty by producing an effect from a 
 cause apparently contrary to it. I say, brethren, apparently 
 contrary, for in reality how do we know that it is really so ? 
 If you except miracles, properly so called, (which, rightly 
 
SIMON PETER. 351 
 
 understood, are manifestations of creative power, partial cre- 
 ations subsequent to the general creation,) what is the work 
 of God in which we can say with certainty that God inter- 
 poses as Creator ? When he employs an object according 
 to the perfect knowledge which he has of it, he draws from 
 it effects which we, who have infinitely less acquaintance 
 with the object, cannot expiscate. This power is no less di- 
 vine than the other ; and we must never forget that he him- 
 self at first made the beings whom he chooses, and prepared 
 the instruments which he employs. We ought not, then, to 
 be afraid of lowering the idea of God by supposing that in 
 the accomplishment of his designs he has regard to the na- 
 ture of objects, though he probably takes pleasure in con- 
 founding our thoughts by seeking his means where we should 
 only have found obstacles. No more ought we to fear lest 
 this supposition should bring us into contradiction with Scrip- 
 ture. For if Scripture tells us that God has chosen the weak 
 things of the world to confound the mighty, and things which 
 are not to bring to nought things which are, (1 Cor. i. 27, 
 28,) it is necessary to understand that the weak things of 
 this world are not things absolutely weak, and that the things 
 of which it is said that they are not, on the contrary, are or 
 exist in the strongest sense of the term. If, as Jesus Christ 
 teaches us, what is great in the sight of man is abomination 
 in the sight of God, we are entitled to reverse the proposi- 
 tion, and say that what is little in the eyes of man is full of 
 glory in the eyes of God ; that what in the eyes of man is 
 nothing or is not, is real and even important in the view of 
 God, the only infallible valuator. Under the term nothing, 
 as opposed to being, or littleness, opposed to greatness, what 
 are we often to understand but spirit, which is invisible, op- 
 posed to matter, which is seen ? We must not, then, be 
 hasty in our judgment. We must not confound the wonder- 
 ful and the miraculous, nor make the latter the law of Di- 
 
352 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 vine government. The works of God are too perfect, the 
 knowledge which he has of them too intimate, the power with 
 which he determines their relations too sovereign, that it 
 should be habitually necessary for him (unless for the purpose 
 of confounding our unbelief or encouraging our faith) to recur 
 to absolute creation, which is, as we have said, the charac- 
 teristic of miracle. Generally speaking, what he has done 
 is sufficient for what he wishes to do ; and to this all the 
 spheres of creation bear testimony. Newton predicted that 
 after the lapse of an immense period it would be absolutely 
 necessary for the Creating Hand to interpose anew. What 
 a Christian philosopher judged indispensable, an infidel phi- 
 losopher has proved superfluous. La Place has proved that 
 the Supreme Arranger of the universe has provided for all, 
 and that an element overlooked by Newton guarantees the 
 peace of the firmament to the last limits of the existence of 
 worlds. Certainly when the Almighty calls forth Moses 
 from the recesses of the desert and the midst of his flocks to 
 found an independent nation, and prepare from afar the great 
 gathering of nations reserved for the Son of David, he makes 
 use of weakness to confound strength, and brings what is out 
 of what was not. Nevertheless when Moses, astonished at his 
 mission, alleges his slow tongue and embarrassed utterance, 
 what does the Almighty, while rebuking the unbelief of Mo- 
 ses, and reminding him that he, the Almighty, made the 
 mouth of mail, makes the deaf and the dumb, the seeing and 
 the blind, what does he ? He says to Moses, " Is not Aaron, 
 the Levite, thy brother ? I know that he can speak well. 
 And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth, 
 and 1 will be with thy mouth and his mouth.'' Thus the 
 Almighty, who might have given Moses an eloquent tongue, 
 leaves him as he is ; but gives him for companion and organ 
 a man naturally eloquent. 
 
 St. Peter was chosen in the same spirit as Aaron was. 
 
SIMON PKTER. 353 
 
 We have seen in the former discourse a part at least of what 
 pointed out the son of Jonas to the choice of Jesus Christ, 
 and to the special mission which was to be his lot. We will 
 not go back to this. But what it now becomes necessary to 
 say is, that when God has begun he continues ; that nothing 
 comes incomplete from his mighty hand ; that when he has 
 chosen an instrument he perfects it ; he, so to speak, cultivates 
 it so as to render it entirely fitted to the use which he means 
 to make of it ; he conducts it step by step, sometimes by 
 difficult and mysterious paths, which are afterwards recog- 
 nized with admiration. Jesus Christ having chosen the son 
 of Jonas, thenceforth, if I may so speak, engaged in his. 
 education. How much had to be done to discipline that 
 wild energy, to regulate that impassioned vivacity, to purify 
 that too carnal zeal, to humble that presumptuous ardor ! 
 Parents, teachers, pastors, come and study in the divine 
 school of Jesus Christ. Come to this normal school, and 
 learn perseverance, skill, that inexhaustible indulgence, and 
 that courageous charity which does not spare a beloved 
 pupil any of the conditions of a painful novitiate. Jesus 
 Christ directly or indirectly educated all his apostles ; but 
 with what special solicitude did he educate the Apostle, on 
 whom, as on a rock, his Church was to be built ! You 
 might perhaps have thought that the disciple whom Jesus 
 loved, that St. John would be the object of his greatest care. 
 Assuredly he did provide for the education of St. John. It 
 was given, if we may so express it, on the bosom of Jesus. 
 St. John was nourished in silence by the words of his Master, 
 was penetrated with his spirit, appropriated his divine 
 secrets. For a period still distant he treasured up remem- 
 brances and inspirations of infinite value. A pure and 
 peaceful star, he was not to rise on the horizon of the 
 Church ; he was not to shed the full light of his instructions 
 upon it until all the other apostles had acted and spoken ; 
 
354 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 and his word, like the last fruit of the season, was to 
 be the magnificent, new, unexpected complement of the 
 lessons of a St. Peter, a St. James, a St. Paul. It was for 
 this future that he warmed himself, that he ripened silently 
 in that intimacy, at once glorious and humble, with a Master 
 whom it was given him above all the other disciples well to 
 know and understand. His education, began by Jesus Christ, 
 was to be finished slowly in the solitude and meditation of 
 old age. But Simon's hour was less distant. It was about 
 to strike. The first blows in the war which was preparing 
 were to be struck by him. His was moreover a mighty 
 -nature, but rude, full of roughnesses, formed of the strongest 
 contrasts ; and there was such a connection between his 
 qualities and his defects, that it would perhaps have been 
 impossible for any other instructor to lop off the defects 
 without impairing the qualities. The highly privileged and 
 sometimes apparently exclusive attention of which St. Peter 
 was the object on the part of Jesus Christ, may enable us to 
 estimate at once both the difficulty of the task and its high 
 importance. Questions, addresses, reprimands, nothing is 
 spared ; every thing is lavished. Jesus Christ teaches St. 
 Peter by facts as by words. He dwells with him, he makes 
 him his agent and representative ; he puts him beforehand 
 into contact with his future part, and makes it habitual to 
 him. In fine, he, in his providence, exposes him to a trial 
 under which St. Peter falls ; but it is to raise him humbler, 
 meeker, stronger. After all the vicissitudes of a necessary 
 novitiate, he consecrates him personally and apart from all 
 the other disciples to the apostleship which he is to exercise 
 along with them ; and, strange to say, this consecration to 
 the holy ministry has the character of an absolution. 
 
 We have learned by the example of St. Peter, that when 
 God destines an individual to serve as the instrument to his 
 designs, still more when he means to place him as a rock in 
 
SIMON PETER. 355 
 
 the foundations of his Church, he has regard to his natural 
 qualities, and afterwards with admirable art forms him gra- 
 dually for the employment with which he means to invest 
 him. Must I now add that he gives him the essential con- 
 dition of such a ministry in all its stages, the quality without 
 which all others are nothing, consequently that which God 
 cultivates with the greatest care, namely, faith ; I mean 
 faith in the great mystery of godliness which the Gospel re- 
 veals, God manifest in the flesh ? It were strange and con- 
 tradictory if, while the kingdom of God on earth consists 
 precisely in this faith, is founded on this faith, we could 
 without this faith, without the profession of this faith, take an 
 active, direct, and leading part in the establishment of the 
 reign of God upon earth. No ; all natural gifts are little in 
 comparison with this spiritual gift ; all talents are vain, and 
 their culture lost pains, if this faith does not purify, trans- 
 form, sanctify them. This is the twofold observation which 
 we have to make on the son of Jonas. On the one hand, his 
 natural qualities could not have made him the head of the 
 rising Church, unless in so far as he was by his faith a living 
 member of it ; and on the other hand, his natural qualities 
 themselves could only from his faith have received this ma- 
 turity and form which might render them profitable to the 
 Church of God. 
 
 Can it be necessary, brethren, to prove the first of these 
 truths ? How can one without being a member of a so- 
 ciety become its leader or conductor ? And how can one 
 be a member, without having espoused either its principles 
 or its interests ? This may be applied to every society, 
 even to political societies. The man who would govern it 
 without understanding it would be its tyrant. He would 
 never be its leader. But how much more true is this of a 
 society wholly spiritual ? Such a society being founded in 
 the view of certain principles, and having no other end than 
 
356 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 their promulgation, can only choose for leader a man who 
 loves them, and consequently professes them. Now the 
 principle of Christian society is, that Jesus Christ is the Son 
 of the living God. Away from this principle, this society 
 has no principle. This truth falling, it falls. For it has no 
 longer any end, any reason to exist, and even its name is no 
 more than a name. It is this which authorizes us to say 
 that the rock of Christ is not Peter personally, but the word 
 which he addresses to Jesus, " Thou art the Christ, the Son 
 of the living God." At different periods, however, attempts 
 have been made to rear the edifice of the Christian Church 
 on another foundation. As the centre of this Church has 
 been assumed a Jesus, who is not the Christ, not the Son of 
 the living God. This fictitious, false society, had stolen the 
 name of Church, and we cannot help wondering with fear at 
 the fatal dexterity which, in proscribing the thing, takes care 
 to preserve the name. By this means alone, by imposing on 
 the minds of men, could the enemy obtain any success. Be 
 this as it may, the declaration of St. Peter being suppressed, 
 the Church and Christianity became only vain words, the 
 ministry only an usurpation, the sacraments a sacrilegious 
 sport. The meaning, the truth of all these things is only in 
 these words of Peter, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
 living God !" thou art the Christ, the anointed of the Lord, 
 possessed of that threefold unction, which, under the ancient 
 law, was shared between kings, priests, and prophets. Thou 
 art the king of mankind, thou art the sovereign prophet to 
 whom the Spirit was given without measure, thou art the 
 eternal priest, offering to God in thy life and in thy death 
 the reparation of which sacrifice is only the emblem. Thou 
 art the Son of the living God, of that God, who is not a 
 pure conception of our intellect and, so to speak, a longing 
 of our reason, but of that God who, distinguishing himself 
 or detaching himself from his creation, has produced him- 
 
SIMON PETER. 357 
 
 self to us as a person, has manifested himself within the 
 circle of time, has mingled his history with our history, 
 has shed his remembrance over ages ; and, in regard to 
 man, has ceased to be a thought or a necessity to become 
 a being, a personal God, a true God. To say all in one 
 word. Thou art the Mediator, uniting in thyself all the 
 fulness of divinity, and all the fulness of humanity, the living 
 tie between God and man ; in whom, by fact and substan- 
 tiality, are reconciled the eternal Creator, and the creature 
 formed in his image. Thy death has consummated, has 
 consecrated this reconciliation ; but, Oh, only Son of the 
 holy God, by assuming our flesh and our condition, thou 
 hast effected this already ; already was human nature re- 
 stored in thy person, and thy death authorized every indi- 
 vidual to whom this humanity belongs, to share in this ge- 
 neral restoration ! Yes, thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
 living God ; thou art so, since thou art not a meteor of his- 
 tory, a delusion of fancy, a phantom, a dream of the hu- 
 man mind. Thou art nothing, less than nothing for con- 
 science and salvation, or thou art indeed the Christ, the Son 
 of the living God. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
 living God, or there is no Church. What do I say ? No 
 Church ? No hope, no future, no heaven, no God ; and a 
 little dust moistened with a few tears, expresses the whole 
 destiny of poor human nature ! 
 
 What semblance is there that without believing, without 
 loving, without proclaiming this truth, one can be the minis- 
 ter, far less the rock of the Churcli ? But it must be added 
 that this faith alone can raise the natural gifts of an apostle 
 of the Gospel to the highest of their distinction. This faith 
 which is religious truth, includes also moral truth. It is the 
 centre and link of all the virtues. To speak more properly, 
 by it, and it alone, each quality becomes a virtue. Without 
 
358 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 it the most precious qualities become obstacles, and what 
 seemed the safest shores, become dreadful rocks. It alone 
 appropriates, tempers, accords, conciliates, animates without 
 agitating, elevates without troubling, develops with harmony. 
 What is carnal and passionate in our best feelings is rejected 
 as impure dross by this divine flame, and the metal washed, 
 so to speak, by fire, is thereafter fit for all the uses of the 
 sanctuary. Prudence becomes zealous, and zeal becomes 
 prudent ; rashness is formed into courage, conviction no 
 longer borrows its strength from the spirit of contention, 
 enthusiasm learns patience, devotedness accustoms itself to 
 dispense with glory, and even with success ; so much so, that 
 he who has only sown, frankly rejoices with him who reaps. 
 In fine, severity detracts not from tenderness, nor tenderness 
 from severity. Thus, at once fervent and subdued, obedient 
 and free, the believer carries to his work both the advantages 
 of the natural man, that grace, ease, and spirituality which 
 are indispensable, and the prerogatives of the new man, just- 
 ness, proportion, rectitude, consistency, and authority. Happy, 
 divine temperament! which is given only those who from 
 the bottom of their heart can say to Jesus, " Thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God !" 
 
 Hence, brethren, let us not doubt that when Jesus Christ 
 gave the name of Peter to him who had not yet said to him, 
 "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," it was 
 because he saw in him the germ of that faith, or had resolved 
 to give it to him. But in order that there might be no mis- 
 take, he renewed this same act in new circumstances ; he, a 
 second time, says to Simon, " Thou art Peter," when Simon 
 had publicly said to him, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
 the living God." What had at first been a gratuitous gift, 
 a sovereign concession, took in some sort the character of a 
 recompense or an exchange ; " Blessed art thou, said Jesus 
 to Simon, for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, 
 
SIMON PETER. 359 
 
 but my Father which is in heaven ; and I in my turn say unto 
 thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my 
 Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 
 No more ambiguity, no more possibility of mistake. These 
 words display at once the sovereign freedom of God and his 
 sovereign reason ; his sovereign freedom, in that among all 
 who confess the same faith as Simon, Simon alone is chosen ; 
 his sovereign reason, in that he gives the leadership of the 
 Church to a man in whom the faith of the Church and the 
 system of Christianity are entire and living. 
 
 In fine, brethren, facts have proved that Jesus Christ did 
 right in naming Simon ; and this leads us to our last reflec- 
 tion : that it pertains to God alone to name rightly, because it 
 pertains to him only to try the hearts and the reins. This 
 is a glory which must be left to him, a right which we must 
 not attribute to ourselves. Doubtless, brethren, you under- 
 stand me. I mean not to interdict you, under pretext of the 
 respect due to God, from all judgment, and consequently 
 from all decision. This were, in one word, to declare hu- 
 man life impossible, and give the lie to the Gospel itself, of 
 which numerous important precepts presuppose the exercise 
 of the right which I should have denied. To quote only a 
 single example : how could we absolutely refuse to a man 
 the faculty of knowing his fellow, and, up to a certain point, 
 of judging him, when Jesus Christ himself, speaking of the 
 teachers of religion, says to his disciples, '* Ye shall know 
 them by their fruits ?" What a person is at a given mo- 
 ment, what he is with regard to another person or object, 
 and even what he is as to his character, which is not his 
 soul, but the manifestation of his soul, we can know, or at 
 least presume ; for in these difl?erent respects, we seldom go 
 beyond a strong probability. But, dearly beloved brethren, 
 to presume or even to know all this, is not to know absolute- 
 ly what an individual is. What he is is properly and only 
 
360 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 what he may he ; what he is is what he will become. The 
 profound and invisible germ of his future course constitutes 
 his personality. But who knows this germ ? When a man 
 becomes something else than we imagined, or even the con- 
 trary, what do we say 1 that we know him not ; that the 
 event has revealed in him an element which had escaped us. 
 For we never think of supposing that he has suddenly be- 
 come essentially different from what he was. Now this 
 happens to us very often to be a lesson to us. Since in 
 certain cases an element, thus essential, has escaped us, we 
 ought to think that in each individual the lowest depth is 
 hidden from our view. Who, besides, knows to what extent 
 circumstances modify a man's character and whole moral 
 being ? How often, under tHe force of circumstances, do 
 two individual existences essentially alike appear different, 
 how often alike, though essentially different ! In order to 
 appreciate them, would it not be necessary to be able to 
 separate the person from the circumstances which surround 
 him ? And who would presume to attempt this ? Who 
 could flatter himself with exactly calculating the influence 
 of circumstances ? None but God. Who, moreover, could 
 separate a man from his opinions, which very often come to 
 him from without, which often are no more to his soul than 
 clothes to his body, and nevertheless seem part of himself? 
 Who will make this separation ? None but God. With 
 great reason has a father of the Church declared that " each 
 man in reality is only what he is in the eyes of God, nothing 
 less and nothing more." Thus, then, strictly speaking, 
 God alone can name ; but the name which he gives is the 
 true name, the name which exhausts the idea, the irrevoca- 
 ble name, the eternal name. Let us name, however, since 
 after all it must be done ; but let it be with reserve. Let 
 us remember that our truest appellations are never pene- 
 trating, never complete. Let us fear, above all, to name in 
 
SIMON PETER. 361 
 
 the way of contempt or blame ; and since it is our destiny 
 to be often deceived, let our errors bear the stamp of that 
 charity which believeth all tilings, excuseth all things, 
 beareth all things, hopeth all things. 
 
 Dear brethren, it was not necessary for us perfectly to 
 name each of our fellows, but it was of infinite importance 
 for us properly to name God ; and God has not denied us 
 what was thus most important. He has told us his name 
 in the gospel ; and henceforth we know that God is holy, 
 that God is love. To know this is to know all. It is to 
 know the true name of all things. It is to know that this 
 world is not a chaos, but a world. It is to know that our 
 earthly career is not without reason nor without end. It 
 is to know that man, even in the depth of his fall, is a 
 being whose nature God honors. It is to know the true 
 name of prosperity, which is grace ; and of distress, which 
 is trial. It is to know that life is not what we call by this 
 name; but that our true life is hid with Christ in the 
 bosom of God. It is, in fine, to know our true name ; we 
 are the children of pardon, after having been the children 
 of wrath. All this good, new, and sublime nomenclature 
 has been proclaimed from the height of the cross, and 
 transcribed in the Gospel, where the most ignorant among 
 us can spell it with the most learned. In naming himself, 
 God has named all. O divine nomenclator, divine instruc- 
 tor of human nature, lead all men to thy school ! Fill all 
 hearts with a keen, insatiable, holy curiosity ! Teach some 
 seriously to inquire by what name thou art pleased to be 
 called ! Turn others aside from seeking thy name only in 
 the laws of their mind, in those of the world and of society, 
 in the wants of human nature, instead of seeking it in that 
 utterance of the cross in which are hid all the treasures of 
 wisdom and knowledge. Let the adorable name with 
 which thou wast named in the humble inn of Bethlehem, 
 17 
 
362 GOSPEL STUDIES. 
 
 in tlie garden of Gethsemnne, and on the rock of Golgotha ; 
 let this majestic and consoling name become thy name for 
 ever in our conscience and our heart. Let our life, O God, 
 name thee as thou art named ! Let our life correspond to 
 the name at once glorious and mild, with which thou hast 
 named thyself. Let all our endeavors be to bear it worth 
 ily upon the earth ! let all our ambition be to see it for 
 ever confirmed to us in the eternal mansions I 
 
 THE END 
 
CATALOG.UE 
 
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 BUNYAN.— GRACE ABOUNDING TO THE CHIEF 
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 Those famihar with the life of Luther will remember Dame Ursula 
 Cotta, in Eisenach, who, when he was a lad singing from door to 
 door to support him at school, took him to her house and ever after 
 befriended him. The author of this book, for the purpose of repro- 
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 period, finds in the above fa6l a suggestion on which to improve. 
 The authoress manages her ingenious plot in the most skilful manner. 
 One can scarcely persuade himself that these are not genuine docu- 
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 catholic spirit will render it equally attradlive to the Protestant and Romanist." — 
 Albany Times. 
 
 " In this work we seem almost to meet the great men of the Reformation face to 
 face, and to be actually present in the thrilling scenes in which they participated." — 
 Afei&odisi. 
 
 " The family history which it contains, if read by itself, would be regarded as one 
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 character being delineated and preserved with striking distindlness, and some of 
 the charadlers being such as the reader will love to linger over as he would over 
 some beautiful portrait drawn by a master's pencil." — JVew York Observer. 
 
 " The story from first to last is remarkable for its artlessness and tenderness, and 
 it chains the reader's attention to the close." — Avt. Tfuo. Revieto. 
 
 *' The prominent scenes, from the time of Huss to the death of Luther, are 
 painted before us, and we read them with such interest as even D'Aubign6 caa 
 scarcely create. The book has all the fascination of a romance." — Evaneelicai 
 Repository. 
 
M. W. Dodd's Catalogue. 3 
 
 By the Author of "The Schonberg-Cotta Family." 
 
 THE EARLY DAWN ; oil, Sketches of Christian 
 Life in England in the Olden Time. By the 
 author of the Schonberg-Cotta Family. With Introduflion 
 
 by Prof. H. B. Smith, D.D. i2mo $i 50 
 
 . Fine edition. Crown 8vo, tinted paper .... 2 00 
 
 Cabinet edition, 16 mo, tinted paper i 50 
 
 Sunday-school edition, 18 mo, illustrated ... i 00 
 
 The Christian Life of England in the Olden Time is here depi6ted, 
 through several centuries, from its earliest dawn, in its contrasted 
 lights and shadows, down to '* the morning star of the Reformation." 
 The Druid is fiist introduced in converse with the Jew and the Chris- 
 tian. The Two Martyrs of Verulam fall within the period of the 
 Roman domination, full fifteen hundred years ago. The fortunes of 
 an Anglo-Saxon Family are briefly sketched through three genera- 
 tions. The contests of the Saxon and the Norman, and their different 
 traits, are vividly portrayed, in the time of the Crusades. And few 
 tales are more interesting and instru6tive than that in which Cuthbert 
 narrates his experience in the Order of St. Francis and his illumina- 
 tion by the " Everlasting Gospel " of Joachim, and Cicely relates 
 how Dr. WyclWfe, of Oxford, ministered to her spiritual needs and 
 insight. 
 
 " The undeniabla charm of these sketches consists in their simple, truthful adhe- 
 rence to the spirit and traits of these olden times. The autiior has been a diligent 
 student of the literature, and through the literature, of the very life of the epochs. 
 This is revealed in many skilful touches of art, in incidental allusions, apt citations, 
 and graphic descriptions of scenes and persons. But more than this is her rare gift 
 of tracing the workings of the human soul in its needs and aspirations, its human 
 'love, its divine longings. The permanent religious wants, which remain the same 
 under all varieties of external fortune, are so truthfully set forth that the Past be- 
 comes a mirror for the Present." — Dr. Smii/t's httrod^iction. 
 
 " The various facfts and legends of Christianity are told in this book in a style of 
 romantic fascination. It is an unusually entertaining and readable work." — New 
 York Evening Post. 
 
 "The author carries us back into the midst of events and scenes, wakes up the 
 dead a.flors and makes them live again, and we see not the history, but the living 
 men that made the history." — Evangetiral Repository. 
 
 " We do not know where to look for a book that combines such beauty of style. 
 • ich charming simplicity and variety of expression, with such sv/eetness of spirit 
 It is full of beauty, and everywhere pervaded with a loving, catholic 5pirit."--//ar^ 
 fcrd Press. 
 
D 
 
 M. W. Dodd's Catalogue, 
 
 Bv the Author of "The Schonberg-Cotta Faml /.'' 
 lARY OF MRS. KITTY TREVYLYAN. A Story 
 OF THE Times of Whitefield and the Wesleys. 
 By the author of the Schonberg-Cotta Family. With a 
 Preface by the author for our edition. I2m( . $15° 
 
 Fine edition, crown 8vo, tinted paper 2 00 
 
 Cabinet edition, i6mo, tinted paper i 50 
 
 Sunday-school edition, i8mo, illustrated . . . i 00 
 
 The diary begins in 1745 and gives us a charming pidlure of rural 
 life and simplicity in Cornwall. At the date the story opens the 
 " mischievous fanatics," Whitefield and Wesley, begin to disturb the 
 parish with their plain preaching. Kitty very soon goes up to Lon- 
 don to pay a visit to the family of her uncle, who is a dissenter, and 
 there she meets those reformers, who are turning the kingdom upside 
 down with their new doctrines. The main interest of the book is 
 religious, yet the state of the country at that time, the habits of so- 
 ciety, the dangers of travelling, and the faithful pi6lures of the dress 
 and manners of that age will interest all who are not attracted by the 
 graver matters of the story. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the immense popularity of the Schonberg Cotta Chronicle, we 
 should not be surprised if Mrs. Kitty Trevylyan completely rivals them in popular 
 favor. All the good qualities that gained so much success for the writer's previous 
 books are found in this, while the subjedl undoubtedly offers superior advantages to 
 those where the scene is laid in remote times or in a foreign land. The family group 
 in the old homestead, on the storm-vexed shores of Comwall, becomes, from the 
 author's skilful painting, and fine perception of character, a reality from henceforth to 
 her readers ; and when the heroine leaves it to gain the glimpses of the great world 
 that form the historical portion of the book, she carries v/ith her the good wishes of 
 all."— A^. }': TUmes. 
 
 " The beauty of the ' Diary ' is its homelike simplicity, its delicate portraits, and 
 powerful, because so perfectly natural, sketches of life and xn-s.x\\\&x%y— Hari/or^ 
 Post. 
 
 " The book is redolent with religious feeling, fresh, pure, and sensible ; it abounds 
 in kind but keen thrusts at the follies and mistakes of conventional piety : it pushes 
 aside human creeds that fetter and conceal the Bible's plain, clear pages ; and it is 
 quite remarkable for its nice dete6tion of the starting-points of error, the places where 
 divine doclrines have been spliced with human ones." — Vermofii Record. 
 
 "We think this decidedly the author's best work, better even than the * Cotta 
 Family.' It sparkles on aln.ost every page with gems of thought, while the v \rrativ« 
 »s one of absorbing interest." — .5*. S. Times. 
 
M. IV. Dodd's Catalogue. 5 
 
 By the Author of "The Schonberg-Cotta Family." 
 
 WINIFRED BERTRAM; and The World she 
 Lived in. By the author of the Schunberg-Cotia 
 
 Family, i vol. i2mo $i 75 
 
 Fine edition, crown 8vo, tinted paper 2 50 
 
 Cabinet edition, i6mo, tinted paper i 75 
 
 Sunday-school edition, i8mo, illustrated .... i 00 
 
 Unlike the author's previous works, it is not historical, but a story 
 of modern life, with its scene laid in the heart of London. Winifred 
 is a bright child, who very early in a naive way begins to be blast^, 
 having nothing to do but gratify her own childish desires. The lesson 
 of the book is that one can only live happily and profitably by sym- 
 pathy with others, and in exertion to benefit others. The chara6lers 
 are all ordinary and natural people, and the plot is without one sen- 
 sational incident, but the author's genius for irradiating the common, 
 her simple, pure spirit, her delicate humor, her faculty of seizing upon 
 and representing chara6ler with fidelity, and the lovely spirit of mo- 
 rality and religion, make the book a delightful one. The whole story 
 is suffused with vivacity and grace. 
 
 " George Elliot, whom we regard as the sjeatest female novelist of the age, never 
 exceeded the terseness and epigrammatic force of expression of some passages in 
 
 Winifred Bertram The allegory of the expanding and contradting 
 
 chamber is one of the most exquisite things iu modern literature." — Round Table. 
 
 " A charming and quickening story, as w« might anticipate from the author."— 
 Congregationalist. 
 
 " Delightful and charming are not properly descriptive of it, for while it is both, it 
 is more than both ; it is of the kind of books tliat one cannot read without growing 
 better." — Indianapolis State Jaiirnal. 
 
 *' It differs from its predecessors in that it is a story of our own time, but it is like 
 them in its felicitous portraiture of charadler, its life-likeness in narrative and dia- 
 logue, and its exquisite illustrations of precious gospel trxKh." — Christian Times. 
 
 " In her previous works it might have been supposed that some part of their suc- 
 cess was due to the happy choice of her subjedls, or to the quaintness and novelty 
 of the form in which they were presented. But here ther« is no gentle illu?ion of 
 the kind, and the effedl is to place her clearly foremost among thi living writers of 
 religious stories. It is altogether the best and ablest book oi the accomplished 
 author. " — Sunday-School Times. 
 
 " A succession of pictures of conversations, scenes, and corpments. which k1m>w % 
 wonderful memsure of shrewd common sense and genuine knowledge ot humat na 
 ture." — National Baptist. 
 
6 M. VV. Dodd's Catalogue. 
 
 By the Author of " The Schonberg-Cotta Family." 
 
 THE DRAYTONS AND THE DAVENANTS. A 
 Story of the Civil Wars. By the author of the Schon- 
 berg-Cotta Family, i vol. i2mo $i 75 
 
 Cabinet edition, i6mo, tinted paper i 75 
 
 Sunday-school edition, i8mo, illustrated .... i 00 
 
 This work, the opening scene of which is in New England, is asHO- 
 dated with a period of English history in the 17th century, involving 
 political and religious questions in which Americans are deeply in- 
 terested. In its vivid and truthful impersonations of character, its 
 great historic interest, its inimitable pidures of domestic life, min- 
 gled throughout with an unaffe6ted tone of religious sentiment, the 
 author has fully equalled in this volume her Cotta Family, which has 
 delighted so many thousands. 
 
 " On the whole, we are inclined to assign to this a higher position and greater 
 merit than to any of Mrs. Charles' works." — Independent. 
 
 *' If this work had preceded in its publication the Schonberg-Cotta Family, we are 
 not sure that it would not have rivalled it in popular favor." — Neiv York Evangelist. 
 
 "The quaint antique style of the volume gives it a strong flavor of those eventful 
 times, while the ta(5l and fidelity with which the prominent historical circumstances 
 are interwoven with the ficftitious incidents of the plot impart to it an air of natural- 
 ness hardly inferior to that of a cotemporary chronicle. With a curious instindt she 
 seizes upon the heart of different epochs, incorporating it in her descriptions with 
 equal faithfulness to the truth of history and of human nature." — New York Tribune. 
 
 " The volume starts with the first agitation of Protestantism as a political element 
 in Great Britain, and proceeds through the civil wars that followed. The two fami- 
 lies whose names afford a title to the volume were on opposite sides of the great 
 question of the day, and the story is well wrought out in the well-known style of the 
 author. Since the Schonberg-Cotta Family, Mrs. Charles has written no book 
 which compares so favorably with the former as this." — Methodist Protestant. 
 
 " It is a living book, full of tender sympathies, holy thoughts, and devout quick- 
 eners, yet with sharp, clear-cut delineations of charadter. The roistering cavalier, 
 the Christian reformer, and, more than all, the womanly women of the time, gather 
 around us, and we know and love them." — Christian Register. 
 
 " To the descendants of the Puritans and those who respe<5l their memory, thia 
 admirable volume will have a charm which even sympathy and interest rarely give." 
 — New Haven Palladium. 
 
 " All through the story there is evidence of that earnestness of feeling and refine- 
 ment of thought that have given such a charm to this lady's writings, and have touched 
 the popular heart so effectively while instrudling and elevating the reader's tastei 
 and moral and religious aspirat'ons." — Roxlmry Journal. 
 
M. IV. Dodd's Catalogue. 7 
 
 By the Author of " The Schonberg-Cotta Family. " 
 
 ON BOTH SIDES OF THE SEA. A Story of the 
 Commonwealth and Restoration. Being a Sequel to 
 " The Draytons and the Davenants." By the author ot 
 The Schonberg-Cotta Family, i vol. i2mo . . . $1 75 
 
 Cabinet edition i 75 
 
 Sunday-school edition, i8mo . . i 00 
 
 While this work is complete in itself, yet its historical value and 
 mterest are very much heightened by reading it in conne6tion with its 
 companion volume, " The Draytons and the Davenants," where many 
 of the leading characters are first placed before the reader. These 
 two families are in this volume, as in the preceding, made the warp of 
 the story, into which is woven the history of a most eventful period. 
 Opening with the tragic scenes of the execution of Charles L, we have 
 presented in the highly dramatic style of the author — the establishment 
 of the Commonwealth under Cromwell, its brilliant career, the death 
 of the Protedor, the restoration of the Monarchy, and the forcible 
 emigration to America of prominent a6lors in its previous overthrow. 
 
 " The house life, the public teaching, the political relations and partisanships of 
 these times (1637 to 1691) are depi6ted with consummate power and impressiveness 
 in this volume and the Draytons and the Davenants, to which it is a sequel." — 
 Brooklyn Gazette. 
 
 " This work will be found to be a vivid reprodudlion of the scenes of those stirring 
 days, wliich more than any other in profane history have an interest for us, and which 
 all Americans need to understand." — Christian Advocate. 
 
 " The scenes of the period to which this volume refers are depidled with consum- 
 mate skill and rare beauty, and with such perfecft naturalness that the reader almost 
 forgets that he is not in acflual contadl with the impressive realities." — Albany 
 Express. 
 
 " It has all the varied interests and the peculiar charm which attach to the author's 
 ideal and yet historic narratives t^iat are now so familiar to the reading world. No 
 writer of the present day has more deservedly won a place in the hearts of all who 
 love the truth, and who can appreciate that which is pure in sentiment and in domestic 
 life." — IVeru York Observer. 
 
 " It blends history^with romance, and interweaves most charmingly lessons of the 
 richest moral instrudlion and the deepest experiences of the Christian life." — 
 National Baptist. 
 
 "'On Both S;des of the Sea ' has certainly a charming flavor of the quaint spirit 
 of the time it describes, while as a story merely it is of exceeding interest." — New 
 York Mail. 
 
a M. W, Dodd' s Catalogue, 
 
 By the Author of "The Schonberg-Cotta Family." 
 
 MARY, THE HANDMAID OF THE LORD. By 
 the Author of the Schonberg-Cotta Family. i6mOj 
 tinted paper. Cloth extra $i 25 
 
 This work is intensely devotional in its nature. The subje6l is 
 Mary, the Mother of the Lord. Out of her life history the author 
 has drawn a series of seven essays, all of which are pure as the water 
 of life. The book is not historic, as are the other literary produc- 
 tions of the same lady, but its talent is none the less marked than 
 that which is displayed in the Schonberg-Cotta Family. This fa6l is 
 enough to recommend it to all lovers of truth and piety. 
 
 ** It IS v.ritten with all the accomplished author's charm of style, and breathes a 
 devotion and fervor which cannot fail to kindle corresponding emotions in the heart 
 of the reader " — Christian Times. 
 
 " Novelty of incident of course is not the charm of this beautiful book. It is the 
 reverent and thoughtful tone of mind that the author biings to the contemplation ol 
 one of the most deeply interesting characflers of holy v/rit." — New York Titties. 
 
 POEMS. By the author of the Schonberg-Cotta Family. 
 Comprising " The Women of the Gospels," " The Three 
 Wakings," etc., with other Poems never before published. 
 I elegant vol., i6mo $1 75 
 
 The book is divided into three parts ; the first composed of a 
 series of Poems on the Women of the Gospels (Mary the Mother of 
 the Lord, Mary Magdalene, etc.) ; the second made up of miscella- 
 neous pieces ; and the third comprising Llymns and Religious 
 Poems. 
 
 " They are religious in charadler and earnest injcxpression, and will prove a very 
 acceptable addition to our devotional books." — Congregatiottalist. 
 
 " The same clearness of expression, delicacy of sentiment, and purity of English, 
 which mark her prose works, enrich these verses also." — Southern Presbyterian. 
 
 "We have not found in this coUedtion a single poem which' is not marked with 
 »ome striking thought, while the correcflness which is conspicuous in her prose com- 
 positions equally follows her through the mazes of her somev.'hat various verse."— 
 S. S. Times. 
 
 " Some of them are very sweet, evincing not only much poetical talent but grea' 
 devotional feeling." — Ills. State J(mrnal 
 
M. W. Dodd's Catalogue. 9 
 
 By the Author of "The Schonberg-Cotta Family." 
 
 WATCHWORDS FOR THE WARFARE OF LIFE. 
 From Dr. Martin Luther. Translated and arranged 
 by the Author of the Schonberg-Cotta Family, i2mo. 
 Elegantly printed on tinted paper. Cloth. Extra bevelled 
 boards, $1 75 
 
 "An appreciative mind has explored the rich storehouse of 
 Luther's writing, and gathered with loving hand the most valuable 
 gems, and has so arranged them that each cluster refle6ls some 
 phase or event of his a6lual life." These sele6lions are most sug- 
 gestively arranged under appropriate headings. The Author calls 
 it "a most appropriate pendant to the Schonberg-Cotta Family." 
 
 " We have learned more of Luther's personal history from the a?ta in this 
 volume than from the most labored biography." — Phila. Press. 
 
 *' We cannot help thinking that this is the most valuable of the works of the 
 Author, as it is certainly as interesting as any. It gives us a betJ^er idea than 
 volumes of history can of the strength, and vigor, and originality of Luther's 
 mind." — Young Men's Quarterly. 
 
 "They show us the heart of the great Cliristian warrior in the midst of his 
 warfare. Those relating to the death of his little daughter, Magdalena, are won- 
 derfully beautiful and touching." — .5". 6". Times. 
 
 THE SONG WITHOUT WORDS. Leaves from a 
 very old book, dedicated to Children. By the author ot 
 the Schonberg-Cotta Family. Beautifully illustrated, and 
 exquisitely printed and bound. Square i6mo. . . $i oo 
 " A truly wonderful little allegory, in which a solitarv child by the 
 sea hears the song without words of the natural obje6ls around him, 
 which are described in the most charming manner, and finally, dis- 
 covers the words through the aid of his sister, wrecked and thrown 
 ashore near his lonely sea-side home." 
 
 " This httle story for children reads like a tender and exquisite j-Joem. It is at 
 once a fairy tale, a lesson of pure religion, and a charmingsea-idyl in prose." — In- 
 drpcndcut. 
 
 *' This is a sweet little allegory, poetical in its prose, and heavenly in its teachings." 
 ~— Indianapolis State yournal. 
 
 " It is beautifully printed and illustrated, and the story, which is written in that 
 simple yet elegant style which in former works has gained the author so many ad- 
 mirers, is one of the most beautiful child stories we have ever read." — Daily IV/s- 
 
lO M. W. Dodd's Catalogue, 
 
 C RUBEN'S COMPLETE CONCORDANCE TO THE 
 HOLY SCRIPTURES; OR, A Dictionary and 
 Alphabetical Index to the Bible. By Alexander 
 Cruden, M. a. 
 
 IV. — A Concordance to the Proper 
 Names of the Bible, and their meaning 
 in the original. 
 
 V. — A Concordance to the Books called 
 the Apocrypha. 
 
 To which is appended an original life 
 of the Author, illustrated with an accurate 
 Portrait from a Steel Engraving, 
 
 By which, I. — Any verse in the Bible 
 may be readily found by looking for any 
 material word in the verse. To which is 
 added— 
 
 II. — The significations of the principal 
 words, by which their true meanings in 
 Scriptures are shown. 
 
 III. — An account of Jewish customs 
 and ceremonies illustrative of many por- 
 tions of the Sacred Record. 
 
 I vol. royal 8vo, cloth $4 oo 
 
 Sheep ■ . 5 CO 
 
 Half morocco 6 50 
 
 This is the only gemiine and entire edition of the complete work of 
 Cruden — the only one embracing those features which Cruden him- 
 self and the Public, for more than a hundred years, have regarded as 
 esse?ztial to its completeness and inestimable value. 
 
 It is believed to be the most accurate edition now in existence of 
 the original work, as it came from the hands of the author ; and is 
 the only American edition having any fair claim to his name. In its 
 complete form it has ever been regarded as immeasurably superior to 
 any other work of the kind. 
 
 " Cniden's Concordance, in its unabridged and complete state, is invaluable to 
 the biblical student, and the abridgments which have been made of it furnish no 
 idea of the thoroughness and fulness of the original and complete work." — Rev. 
 Thomas De Witt, D. D. 
 
 " Cruden's Concordance has been the companion of my whole life, both as a 
 theological student and a minister ; and it is the last book, with the exception of the 
 Bible itself, that I would consent to have pass out of my hands." — J?ev. IVm. B. 
 S Prague, D.D. 
 
 " In reply to yours, I can only say, that if I possessed but two books in the world, 
 they should be God's Bible and Cruden's Concordance." — Jiev. Gardiner Spring, 
 LL. D. 
 
 " Cruden's Concordance, in its original state, I consider above all price to the 
 student of the Scriptures." — Rev. Francis Waylatid, LL.D., President of Brawn 
 University. 
 
 " The value of Cruden's Concordance, unabridged and entire, I consider as in- 
 comparable and indispensable." — Rev. Samuel H. Cox, D.D. 
 
 " We have often been surprised to find intelligent Christians who are daily 
 students of the Divine Record, but who had never had this volume. It ought to be 
 in every household, where every Sabbath-school teacher and scholar and every rcadei 
 eould hive access to it." — New York Observer. 
 
14 M. IV. D odd's Catalogue. 
 
 MIMPRISS.— GOSPEL TREASURY AND TREAS 
 URY HARMOiNY OF THE FOUR EVANGE 
 LISTS : having the Text in parallel columns. With Scrip- 
 ture Illustrations, Pra6tical Refle6tions, and Addenda 
 Geographical, Biographical, Topographical, Historical, and 
 Critical, illustrating manners, customs, opinions, and local- 
 ities of the Sacred Narrative, with analytical and historical 
 tables, and a very copious index : also a chart, with every 
 event numbered and localized. By Robert Mimpriss. 
 Crown 8vo., over 900 pp. Cloth extra, red edges, . $3 50 
 Quarto edition, large type, cloth extra, . . . . 12 00 
 
 It will be found to supply an amount and kind of information not 
 found in any other volume, and to fill an unoccupied place in the 
 literature of Bible Helps. Its value to Sunday-school teachers and 
 private students of the Bible especially, is inestimable. 
 
 The Harmony is according to Greswell, and ia the words of the authorized 
 version. 
 
 An important feaUcre is the arrangement of the Four Evangelists in parallel 
 columns, and in juxtaposition. This is cairied out with great minuteness, giving 
 a comparison of verses and lines, and even words for consultation at sight. The 
 arrangement also admits of the Harmony being read as a continuous narrative. 
 
 The Notes have been carefully seledled from the best sources. 
 
 The Geographical noUces are from the most reliable authorities. 
 
 The A ddenda supply a great variety of matter for consultation, illustrating the 
 text. 
 
 The Scripture Illustrations are very full, and are calculated to lead to an intel- 
 ligent knowledge of the Old and New Testaments. 
 
 " It is not easy to state in a few words the merits of this extraordinary book. To 
 say that it is useful, excellent, valuable, and the like, is tame, and far below its 
 merits. It is in all respefts a most unusual book, and the labor in its preparation 
 must have been immense. It is in its own department without a parallel in the 
 language, and stands many degrees at the head of its cXd^s.''''— Primitive Church 
 Magazine, England. 
 
 " For us who have so earnesdy approved the work, and urged it upon the atten- 
 tion of Sunday-school teachers, it is quite unnecessary to add another word. It 
 ranks among the very first companions of the Bible in bible study. It is a con- 
 densed commentary of commentaries, a right-hand helper in the preparation of New- 
 Testament lessons." — S. S. Times. 
 
 " No circulation can ever repay in money value the time expended on it. Should 
 I ever be permitted to g« over the same ground- again, I expe<5t to derive great 
 assistance from it." — Rev. James Hamilton, D.D. 
 
 " The Gospel Treasury prepared by Robert Mimpriss I consider one of the most 
 valuable helps to a Sunday-school teacher that I have ever seen."— /?«^. Stephen 
 H. Tyng, D.D. 
 
 " Anything like an adequate idea of the immense amount of information upon 
 the New Testament incorporated within the compass of this handsome volume, it 
 is difficult to convey. Within its portable compass we find matter compressed 
 sufficient to fill ten ordinary demy octavos." — Sunday-School Teacher""! Magazine, 
 
M. IV. Dodd's Catahgtie. 27 
 
 Q*IMMONS' SCRIPTURE MANUAL. Alphabetically 
 ^ and Systematically arranged. Designed to facilitate the 
 finding of Proof Texts. By Charles Simmons. i2mo. %\ ys 
 More than 50,000 copies of this ivork have beeji sold. 
 
 A reference to the list of subje6ts which the work contains will 
 show that the author's researches have been extensive, while a com- 
 parison of the work with others of the same general chara(Ser cannot 
 fail to give it pre-eminence. While the track pursued is not new, it 
 is more thorough and more easily followed than that marked out by 
 any previous compiler known to myself. The work contains not 
 merely the proof texts on the subje6l to which it refers, but, what 
 appears to my own mind one of its excellences, the texts that illits- 
 trate these subjedts. Though the arrangement of the subjects is 
 alphabetical, in the illustration of the subje6ls themselves, the author 
 has observed that conne6tion between one truth and another which 
 gives to each its proper place. — Dr. Spj'ing's Introdudlion. 
 
 " This is a rich, copious, well-seledled, and well-arranged text-book, exhibiting the 
 results of great labor, in bringing together numerous proof texts, striflly allied in 
 their meaning, on a very large number of subjecfls— so formed as to present in their 
 beautiful symmetry the features of evangelical truth. It is justly regarded as the 
 most valuable work of the kind ever published in our language, and we commend it 
 to the attention of ministers, Sunday-school teachers, and all persons who desire the 
 aid of a manual in acquiring the most important knowledge." — Christia?t Observer, 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 " It is incomparably supei'ior to anything of the kind with which I am acquainted, 
 and its extensive circulation and use cannot but have a happy influence. I have no 
 doubt tliat the work will soon supersede every other of the kind, as I am clearly of 
 the opinion that it should." — Rev. Albert Barties. 
 
 " The arrangement of the topics is so logical, and the citations from Scripture are 
 so numerous, so emphatical, and in the main so pertinent, as to make the general 
 impression of the Bible obvious even to the cursory reader." — Rev. Dr. Park, An- 
 dover Tlieo. Seminary. 
 
 " I consider your text-book to be remarkably suited to the objecfl in view, and likely 
 to be tJie book which will satisfy not only common people, but ministers, and all men 
 of logical mind and cultivated taste. It is my opinion that it will take the place of 
 all other works of the kind, and that nothing else will be called for or attempted foi 
 a great while to come." — Rev. Leonard Woods, D.D. 
 
 " As a help in the selecftion of proof texts on almost any subjedl in the Bible, 1 
 know of nothing of equal value." — Rev. Enoch Pond, D.D. 
 
 " It is far more copious and reliable than any work of the kind. A better help ii 
 the study of the Bible is not accessible." — Congregationalist. 
 
 "The v/ork is the best of the kind within our knowledge." — New Englander. 
 
28 M. IV. Dodd's Catalogue. 
 
 SPENCER.— A PASTOR'S SKETCHES ; OR, Conver- 
 sations WITH Anxious Inquirers, respecting the 
 Way of Salvation. By I. S. Spencer, D.D., late 
 Pastor Second Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. 2 
 
 vols. i2mo, cloth %?i S^ 
 
 Either volume sold separately. 
 
 It is believed no stri6lly religious work of the present century has 
 had so wide a circulation, or excited a deeper interest than this. 
 
 The following titles of a few of the sketches will give an idea of 
 their chara6ler : — Business Hindrance — Writing for Convi6lion — 
 The Whole Heart— The Welsh Woman and her Tenants— The 
 Arrow Driven Deeper — Human Resolves — Easy to be a Christian — 
 The Brown Jug — My Old Mother ; or, Conscience m Trade — Family 
 Prayer — I can't Feel. 
 
 " We can convey no idea of the exceedingly happy and triumphant logic often 
 displayed in this volume. As an intelledual work, it is of surpassing interest. But 
 in a spiritual point of view, the earnest, absorbing desire to open plainly the vvfay to 
 Christ, and the tender religious feeling pervading all these discussions, give the 
 work an interest and value which we feel in no danger of exaggerating.'.' — N. Y. 
 Evangelist. 
 
 " The picflures are true to life, and are sketched with such graphic skill as to 
 forbid the possibility of their having been the produdl of mere fancy. We earnestly 
 hope that the work will have a very wide circulation." — N. V. Observer. 
 
 " This is a book of remarkable interest. It is one of pastoral experience ; and the 
 thrilling interest it gathers about many of the scenes and incidents which it describes, 
 justifies the comparison whicii has been m.ade of it in this respeft to the well-knowc 
 'Diary of a Physician.' " — Independent. 
 
 " Nothing like it exists." — American Bible Repository. 
 
 " This is a remarkable book. The work is written in a bold, clear, straightforward 
 style, that carries the idea diredl to the heart." — N. V. Recorder. 
 
 " We have rarely read a book of religiously didaftic character that has abounded 
 with so much strong pradlical good sense, or so much interest to us, as this volume.' 
 — Co?n. Advertiser. 
 
 " To those who are fond of lending good books, we would vehemently commend 
 this as one that will be very sure to be x&diA."— Puritan Recorder. 
 
 " The book is in the dramatic form, and so vividly drawn that the reader becomes 
 not merely a spectator, or a listener, but an a6lor in all that is described. Few wiU 
 be able to leave it until they have read its last page." — Literary Messenger. 
 
 The Young Irishman. The First Sketch in vol. i., by it- 
 self. Paper |o 20 
 
32 M. IV. Dodd's Catalogue. 
 
 ^ riNET'S MISCELLANIES. Embracing " Vital Chris- 
 * tianity," "Review of Montaigne," "The Endless 
 Study," etc. By Alexander Vinet, D.D. Translated, 
 with an Introduction, by Robert Turnbull. i2mo. A 
 new edition, cloth extra $i 75 
 
 " Vinet was one of the most distinguished divines and preachers in Switzerland ; 
 and, unlike most in that country, thoroughly evangelical in sentiment. The prm- 
 cipal essays in the volume are : Montaigne on Morality — The Endless Study — Man 
 Created for God — Centre of Moral Gravitation — Mysteries of Christianity — Natural 
 Faith — Christian Faith — Pracftical Atheism — Foundation of Christian Morality — 
 Claims of Heaven and Earth Adjusted — Grace and Law — Man deprived of all Glory 
 before God — Pursuit of Human Glory incompatible with Faith." — Christian Advo' 
 cate and jfournal. 
 
 " His writings abound in the seeds of things, and possess a remarkable power to 
 quicken and expand the mind of the reader." — Columbian and Great West. 
 
 VINET'S GOSPEL STUDIES. With an Introduaion 
 by Robert Baird, D.D. i2mo $i 50 
 
 " Such is the title of one of the best books on the subjecfl of religion that we have 
 seen for many a day. In the introducflion of a few pages. Dr. Baird gives a short 
 notice of the life of Dr. Vinet, whom he pronounces the greatest philosopher that the 
 continent, if not Europe, has produced in our time. He has been called the Chal- 
 mers of Switzerland, but not very correClly. He was rather the John Foster. But 
 he had a mind far more clear and discriminating than that of the great British essay- 
 ist just named. It has a freshness about it, and is so removed from the usual style 
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 of Commerce. 
 
 MARRIAGE CERTIFICATES. From an elegant 
 Steel Engraving, adapted to any State in the Union. 
 Printed on plate paper for framing, or bank-note paper for 
 folding. Per dozen $1 00 
 
 The design is particularly neat and chaste, and is much admired 
 for its simplicity and convenience. 
 
 THE LORD'S PRAYER, Cabinet size. From an elegant 
 Steel Engraving. The design represents our Saviour in 
 the foreground, teaching this Prayer to his disciples and the 
 multitude $0 25 
 
 A most appropriate reward or present to Sunday-school scholars. 
 
on Theological Spminary Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 01035 0470 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 GAYLORD #3523PI Printed in USA