Library of the Theological Seminary 
 
 PRINCETON o NEW JERSEY 
 
 Donation of 
 
 John M. Krebs 
 
 1860 
 
 BR52.5 -A6 1859 i 
 
 Alexander, James W. (Janies Waddel), 
 1804-1859. i 
 
 Revival and its lessons : a collection of fuj:' 
 
THE 
 
 EEYIYAL AND ITS LESSONS 
 
 A COLLECTION OP FUGITIVE PAPERS, 
 HAVING REFERENCE TO THE GREAT AWAKENING 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES W. ^ALEXANDER, D.D. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 ANSON D. F. KANDOLPH, 683 BROADWAY. 
 
 1859. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1S5S, by 
 
 ANSON D . F. RANDOLPH, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New- York. 
 
 JOHN A. GRAY, 
 PRINTER AND STEREOTYPE!: 
 
 16 & IS Jacob Street, N. Y. 
 
coisrTEisrTS. 
 
 Preface. 
 I. — The Revival. 
 IL — Seek to save Souls. 
 III. — Pray for the Spirit. 
 rV. — The Una wakened. 
 y. — Harden not tour Hearts. 
 YL— Varieties in Anxious Inquiry. 
 VII. — Looking unto Jesus. 
 YIII. — God be merciful to me a Sinner I 
 IX. — FOR more Feeling ! 
 X. — Have I come to Christ? 
 XL — My Teacher — My Master. 
 XXL — My Brother. 
 XIII. — Sing Praises. 
 XrV.— The Harvest of New-York. 
 XY. — Compel them to come in. 
 XYL — Help the Seaman. 
 XYIL— To Firemen. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The short papers here for the first time gathered, 
 had a certain measure of acceptance, less from their 
 ovm merit, than from their having been struck off 
 during the prevalence of an unusual interest in divine 
 things. For the most part they were penned in the 
 intervals of a hurried life, with the hope that scrip- 
 tural instruction of the simplest kind might gain a 
 hearing, at a time when every one's attention was 
 drawn to the work of God in the land. 
 
 The occasion may be fitly seized for a brief retro- 
 spect of the scenes through which we have been led, 
 and which, to a certain extent, surround us still ; for 
 we would fain speak of this Revival of Religion, not 
 as past, but as present. 
 
 The greatest commercial alarm which our country 
 ever experienced took place in the summer and autumn 
 of the year 1857. It is unnecessary to rehearse what 
 is imprinted on the hearts of thousands, or to open 
 wounds which are still bleeding. Besides the great 
 numbers who were utterly ruined, there were ten times 
 as many whose earthly destinies seemed to be in libra- 
 tion. If we were to look no further than to the wear 
 and tear of mind and brain, caused by pecuniary ap- 
 prehensions and troubles in business, such as drove 
 some to despair and madness, the evil could not be 
 leckoncd at the rate of millions of gold and silver. 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 The writer returned to his native country after a short 
 absence, to find as it were a pall of mourning over 
 every house. Visitations of this kind — the remark is 
 common concerning pestilence — often produce a hard- 
 ening eflfect. In the present instance, it pleased God, 
 in his marvellous loving-kindness, by the ploughshare 
 of his judgments to furrow the ground for precious 
 seed of salvation, and to make distresses touching 
 worldly estate to awaken desire for durable riches and 
 righteousness. Out of the eater came forth meat and 
 outr of the strong came forth sweetness. From the 
 very heart of these trials emerged spiritual yearnings, 
 thirstings, and supplications after the fountain of living 
 waters. We can not always trace the sequence of 
 events, but it is certain that the meetiDgs for prayer, 
 which noted the dawn of this great Revival, had their 
 beginning while we were still amidst the throes of our 
 commercial distress. 
 
 It is believed that the first of those daily prayer- 
 meetings which have now become general, was held 
 on the twenty-third day of September, in the year just 
 named. The place thus honored was the Consistory- 
 room of the North Dutch Church at the corner of Wil- 
 liam and Fulton streets. The simple pious thought of 
 Jeremiah Lamphier, and a few like-minded servants of 
 God, was to gather a handful of business men, at the 
 hourt)f noon, to confer, to read the Word, to sing, and 
 to cry unto God for the outpouring of his Holy Spirit. 
 But Revival was already begun. God had already 
 poured out the Spirit of grace and of supplications. Vro 
 doubt not there was a simultaneous efi'usion, on other 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 groups and in other places. Prayers long treasured 
 up were beginning to receive copious answer ; prayers, 
 of which some, we have thought, may have been offer- 
 ed by those venerable ministers of Holland, whose 
 portraitures still adorn the walls of the Consistory- 
 room. It has been questioned who first conceived the 
 project of these meetings. The problem is unprofit- 
 able ; human plans looked forward to no such results ; 
 let God have the glory ! 
 
 It is not the place for a history, nor shall any thing 
 of the kind be now attempted.* Suffice it to say, this 
 meeting so grew in numbers and interest as to de- 
 mand increase of accommodation. Daily prayer-meet- 
 ings had not been altogether unknown, during periods 
 of unusual awakening; but here was a large congre-, 
 gation of worshippers, almost all men of business, 
 near the very centre of trade, day after day, and — as ' 
 the event has proved — without abatement for a twelve- 
 month. The great attraction was Prayer. The great 
 business was intercession. This, as springing fi-om 
 the "love of the Spirit" seems especially pleasing to 
 God, who answers us more signally when we seek 
 the good of others. As the meeting went on, solicitude 
 for the conversion of sinners unto God became more 
 apparent. Requests bearing this character were great- 
 ly multiplied. From curiosity, from inward anguish, 
 from vague alarm, from the mingled motives in which 
 religious concern has its beginnings, numbers of 
 worldly visitors entered the doors. Conversion after 
 
 * Ample histories of the Revival may be espected from the com- 
 peteat pens of the Rev. Dr. Prime and the Rev. Dr. Chambers. 
 
8 TREFACE. 
 
 conversion was reported. Men who had felt the empti- 
 ness of earthly things, and smarted under losses, came 
 hither for consolation. Ministers of the Gospel often 
 embraced the opportunity to address the words of 
 truth to assemblies singularly prepared to drink in 
 every syllable. Other similar prayer-meetings were 
 established in New- York, of which some are continued 
 till this day. During a brief period, Burton's Theatre, 
 opposite to the City Hall, and capable of holding three 
 thousand persons, was converted into a place of prayer, 
 and was crowded. Other cities and towns speedily en- 
 tered into the same labor of love, until the daily prayer- 
 meetings of the land might be numbered by hundreds. 
 The longest continuance of devotional interest, in im- 
 mense assemblies for prayer, has probably been wit- 
 nessed in the city of Philadelphia. There also has 
 been seen the phenomenon of a widely-spread awaken- 
 ing among the Firemen, so that the houses occupied by 
 their engines and associations have not unfrequently 
 resounded with the voice of prayer and praise. The 
 attention of the churches of Christ throughout the 
 land was naturally attracted to the spectacle of thou- 
 sands, including the busiest and hitherto the most 
 worldly, flocking to the most imadorned exercises of 
 devotion. It ought not to be withheld that many of 
 these services are maintained without diminution of 
 vigor to the moment of this writing. Meanwhile 
 churches of every religious denomination received re- 
 markable increase. The statistics of conversion are 
 sometimes unsafe ; where there is so much room for 
 mistake and exaggeration, it may be wisest to venture 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 no figures. " The Lord thy God add unto his people, 
 how many soever they be, an hundred fold !" The 
 report of this gracious visitation has gone abroad to 
 other Lands, where true Christians have been led to in- 
 quire with avidity into the origin, nature, and sequel 
 of a reformation so unprecedented. 
 
 The Church of Christ, and our American portion 
 of it, can not be unmindful of frequent refreshings in 
 former days. Each of these, if the means of studying 
 them were at hand, would doubtless be found to have 
 peculiarities of its own; arising from acknowledged 
 diversities in the sovereign dispensation of the Spirit. 
 The present revival of religion has some characteristics, 
 which ought not to escape our observation. 
 
 The work of grace, in which we rejoice, was not the 
 result of any human project, concerted arrangement, 
 or prescribed plan. It was not an excitement foreseen, 
 predicted, and made to order. So far from this, it 
 stands out among kindred reformations, as differing 
 from them all. No man pretends to have ever seen 
 the like. And this it is of the greatest importance to 
 record, for the silence of such as stigmatize the entire 
 proceedings as the creations of ingenious artifice work- 
 ing upon overheated fancy. 
 
 Equally incontestable is it, that this great interest in 
 things divine and eternal, did not "come with observ- 
 ation." There had been no pomp of preparation. In- 
 deed the foregoing season was one of remarkable 
 aridity and dearth ; so that multitudes of the younger 
 professing Christians had never seen what is called a 
 Revival. And even when the holy elevation of feeling 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 was at its height, it was, in the circle open to our sur- 
 vey, entirely free, on one hand, from the machinery 
 of religious manoeuvre, and, on the other hand, from 
 manifestations of an unruly enthusiasm. An excep- 
 tion here and there, out of thousands, lamented, sup- 
 pressed, and never propagating itself, in no degree 
 impairs the force of the assertion just made. Decorous 
 stillness, reverent waiting upon God, and a tender 
 sense of the heavenly presence, have marked many 
 of these delightful assemblages. 
 
 Very striking is the truth, that this was an awaken- 
 ing of graces, primarily among the people of God. In 
 this view it is most properly denominated a Revival. 
 The influence began in the heart of the Church. Even 
 after conversions were greatly multiplied, this charac- 
 teristic was prominent. The daily meeting was of 
 disciples. Those who came together were in the first 
 instance, believers. Experienced pastors have observed 
 that in the progress of this work of grace. Christians 
 of long standing have had the inward growth remark- 
 ably quickened, have renewed their first exercises, re- 
 considered their evidences, ascertained the foundation 
 under them, and attained to new sorrows and new 
 
 joys. 
 
 It was, eminently, a revival of Prayer. Desires to 
 approach God, jointly, in importunate supplication, 
 were awakened. This was perhaps the leading charac- 
 teristic. It was repeatedly noticed, that assemblies 
 were more interested in the prayers than the address- 
 es. They came together, not to hear learned, elegant, 
 or eloquent appeals, but to unite in prayer. Even 
 
PREFACE. 11 
 
 addresses to impenitent sinners, though often inter- 
 mingled, did not constitute the business in hand ; it 
 was prayer. Never was this so strikingly the case. 
 Never have we known such honor conferred upon 
 God's ordinance of prayer. And the mode oi prayer 
 which prevailed, as has already been hinted, was In- 
 tercession. Every relation of life has appeared in 
 tender, touching request. The applications for such 
 intercessory address have been numberless ; and if not 
 always seasonable or judicious, they have generally 
 been affecting. They have been transmitted hundreds 
 of miles, and from all parts of the land. 
 
 Perhaps no fact, among all those by which this re- 
 vival manifested itself, is more encouraging than that 
 Christians of different names were in visible union. 
 That fraternity which had been sought with less suc- 
 cess by separate means, was here seen to flow naturally 
 from concert in prayer, under the influences of the 
 Holy Spirit ; thus indicating it may be the source from 
 which we are to expect the sublime unity of a coming 
 day. Except where some unscriptural and exclusive 
 pretensions have been trampled on, it has not been 
 heard that any branch of the Christian Church has 
 uttered complaint. There has been no compromise of 
 tenets, except as to the utterance of disputed points 
 upon the common ground. In our country at least 
 there has never been so open an acknowledgment of 
 varying Christians by one another ; it is indeed second 
 only to that joint participation at the Lord's' Table, 
 which bigotry still resists, but which is the true and 
 appointed sign of the Communion of Saints. 
 
12 PKEFACE. 
 
 From the beginning of these gracious communica- 
 tions, ministers of the Gospel have cheerfully stood by 
 and seen the principal share of labor in the hands of 
 their lay brethren. The meetings for prayer were 
 instituted, and to a great extent have been conducted, 
 by laymen. It can never be alleged that this has 
 been an enthusiasm stirred up by the clergy. That 
 feelings of jealousy should ever arise between the two 
 classes of laborers, is earnestly to be deprecated. 
 Among any leading minds, we rejoice to believe that 
 it does not exist. 
 
 The observation has been often made, and with the 
 greatest truth, that among the instruments of this 
 awakening no prominence has been given to particular 
 men, or distinguished gifts of learning and eloquence. 
 It is true, the stated ministrations of the sanctuary 
 have gone on as heretofore, perhaps with less increase 
 of preaching than h&s sometimes been known ; diver- 
 sities existing however even on this poinj;. But there 
 has not been the slightest tendency, so far as appears, 
 to magnify any special human agency, or to lean upon 
 what is often alleged to be the inordinate strength of 
 public exhortation. This is stated in the way of sim- 
 ple narration, without comment or inference. 
 
 In connection with preachers and preaching, it is 
 proper to add, that the present revival of religion has 
 been singularly exempt from what may be called a 
 dogmatical aspect, and especially from a controversial 
 spirit in regard to doctrine. Seasons of religious ex- 
 citement have been known to us, in which great stress 
 has been laid on certain tenets, as well the false as the 
 
PKEFACE. 13 
 
 true ; and in which these have even been regarded as 
 inseparable from the gracious influence. Nothing of 
 the kind has been whispered in the late period of 
 serious inquiry. Doctrines, as held by believers of 
 different persuasions, have been set forth and incul- 
 cated in preaching and catechising, but not we believe 
 in the spirit of the Shibboleth. 
 
 Two great truths have been made exceedingly pro- 
 minent, in every stage of the revival ; the influence of 
 the Holy Spirit, and free salvation through the right- 
 eousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The former of 
 these has been recognized by every act of prayer, in 
 those meetings which chiefly revealed the general in- 
 terest of Christian people. The other has stood forth 
 in vivid illumination, in all addresses to convinced 
 souls. If any one formula, above all others, can be 
 said to convey the spirit of the teaching which has 
 prevailed, it is this : Come to Christ. And it is a 
 fact worthy of note, that no single publication has had 
 wider currency than Mr. Newman Hall's " Come to 
 Jesus." 
 
 When we consider how extensively the hearts of 
 professing Christians have been moved, in every part 
 pf the country ; how densely the volume of prayer has 
 gone from this body of saints ; how in many of them 
 there has been a renewal and deepening of experience, 
 by the opening of hidden fountains within tl\em ; we 
 can not resist the persuasion that all this great work 
 is after all one of preparation. The Lord appears to 
 be preparing his armaments and marshaling his hosts 
 for new conquests. Instead, therefore, of sitting down, 
 
 9 
 
14 PREFACE. 
 
 as if the season of blessing had come to an end, it 
 would be more consonant with the divine dealings, if 
 we should regard it as only begun. The summons is 
 unquestionably to renewed faith, intercession, and 
 labor. 
 
 The rumor of what God has done for us has gone 
 into other lands, and believers there have inquu-ed 
 with eagerness into the state of the facts, the means 
 which have been used, and the likelihood of benefit 
 from adapting our means to their condition. Our 
 brethren abroad have probably been prone to ascribe 
 to our churches an absolute advancement in piety 
 much beyond the truth. The principle should never 
 bo forgotten, that while the great laws of the divine 
 government and the dispensation of grace remain the 
 same, the Supreme Giver varies his modes of bounty, 
 with reference to differences of country and period. 
 Apostolic awakenings were in some things unlike 
 those of the Reformation day. The quiet, spring-like 
 renewal of vital godliness, under Spener, Francke, and 
 the Pietists, bore little external resemblance to the 
 prodigious revolution under the Wesleys, Whitefield, 
 Edwards, the Tennents and the Blairs. The very 
 remarkable awakenings in which Dr. Nettleton and his 
 friends were instrumental dififer again from the times 
 of refreshing in which we live. Let us not limit the 
 Holy One of Israel. 
 
 When the writer of these lines — before any tokens 
 of our American awakening had appeared — was in 
 Great Britain, he was made aware of a most remark- 
 able movement in the religious world. The increase 
 
' PREFACE. 15 
 
 of endeavors to carry the Gospel to the poor, in their 
 most abject retreats — the continual use of open-air 
 preaching — the rise of several evangelical ministers 
 upon vrhose words the multitude were disposed to 
 hang — the services in Exeter Hall, and even the open- 
 ing of Westminster Abbey, spoke of zeal on one hand, 
 and roused attention on the other. And when he sur- 
 veyed an assembly of ten thousand souls giving rapt 
 attention, at the Surrey Gardens, to the great evange- 
 list of our age, and discerned evidence that these mul- 
 titudes, continually filling anew that vast receptacle, 
 were drawn together, not more by the remarkable gifts 
 of that young man, than by the fearlessness with which 
 he declares the vengeance of God against sin, and the 
 freshness and fullness with which he offers an accom- 
 plished salvation through Jesus Christ — the conclusion 
 was irresistible, and was repeatedly expressed, that 
 England also was enjoying a Revival of Religion. Ac- 
 cidents may vary, but the essence is the same. And, 
 all the world over, whenever God chooses to smile 
 upon his work, instruments will be forthcoming, in 
 free abundance and beautiful diversity. Enlarged 
 prayer for the spread of the Gospel among the whole 
 human family is especially demanded at the present 
 time, when God has touched so many hearts with de- 
 sire, and manifested so great a readiness to answer. 
 
 The papers which follow, in respect to whatever 
 concerns authorship or literature, are the merest trifles ; 
 the truths which they contain, however, are of infinite 
 importance. It is hoped that none will be repelled by 
 
16 PREFACE. • 
 
 the great plainness with which some of the lessons are 
 conveyed. 
 
 The articles respecting Seamen, Firemen, and our 
 City Population, though apparently local in their in- 
 terest, concern large and important classes, and will 
 possibly be useful in this more permanent form. 
 
 The compositions in verse, a few of which are not 
 original, will not, it is hoped, interrupt the continuity 
 of the serious instruction. A single article, contri- 
 buted to the series by a brother in the ministry, has 
 been allowed to retain its place ; and the lines entitled 
 The Doomed Man, hitherto published without their 
 author's consent, and sometimes erroneously, are here 
 given in their true text. 
 
 Republication in a volume was not thought of, still 
 less suggested by the author ; but if endeavors so un- 
 pretending can be turned to good account, in the 
 spu-itual benefit of any, he will rejoice; and he adds 
 his prayers that this may be the result. 
 
THE REVIVAL. 
 
 When many souls are coming to Christ at 
 one time, we call it a Kevival of Eeligion. 
 There is no impropriety in this, even though 
 the obvious effects are in converting sinners. 
 This is always preceded by the refreshing of 
 the Church, and just as God reneweth the 
 face of the earth,i j^ the spring, by calling 
 forth grass and flowers, so he revives the 
 wintry places of his Church by bringing to 
 light thousands of hitherto darkened souls. 
 From Pentecost onwards, the Holy Spirit has 
 been frequently sent in effusion so copious as 
 to add multitudes simultaneously to the Church 
 of such as shall be saved. O reader I a time 
 of refreshing from the presence of the Lord is 
 also a time for great " searchings of hearts."^ 
 "Will you give a few moments to certain 
 solemn and tender inquiries ? 
 
 1 Psalm 104 : 30. ^ Judges 5 : IG. 
 
 17 
 
4 THE REVIVAL. 
 
 1. Are yoit an eaemy of the Revival f You 
 shudder at the thought! yet enemies there 
 are ; an arch-enemy, a liar, a murderer, the 
 old serpent, is still the foe of Christ and all 
 his works. His aids and emissaries seek to 
 hinder the arousing of saints, and the conver- 
 sion of sinners. Perhaps you have heard 
 them sneer and rail at the work of grace ; 
 which they deride as a disease or an infatua- 
 tion. " These people are insane." " These 
 riien are full of new wine."^ Perhaps you 
 have joined in the laughter of the sons of 
 Belial; or have been afraid or ashamed to 
 break silence. Consider with which party 
 you then ranked yourself. " Who is on the 
 Lord's side?""^ is still the question. To mock 
 at the operations of the Holy Spirit, ascribing 
 them to lower causes, is not unlike the sin of 
 the Pharisees, who dishonored the miracles 
 of Christ.3 
 
 Men may fight against God,^ and oppose 
 his work of grace, by denying or disparaging 
 it ; by dwelling on every person or incident 
 which has a ludicrous side ; by repressing the 
 feelings of awakened souls ; or by encouraging 
 
 I Acts 2 : 13. 2 Exod. 32 : 2G. 
 
 3 Mark 3 : 22. Luke 11 ; 15. "» Acts 5 : 3D. 
 
 18 
 
THE REVIVAL. 5 
 
 frivolous and distracting conversation, reading, 
 or amusements, when the Spirit of God is 
 clearly and mightily moving the community 
 to solemn consideration, bitter grief for sin, 
 and earnest turning from the world to Christ. 
 2. Do you rejoice in the Revival? The Church 
 cries to God: Wilt thou not revive us again, 
 that thy people may rejoice in thee? The 
 Church has no greater joy on earth ; yea, the 
 Church in heaven rejoices over one sinner that 
 repenteth;^ God and Christ rejoice over mul- 
 titudes renewed and forgiven. Is this your 
 joy, reader? When the mighty awakening 
 took place in the region of Samaria, "there 
 was great joy in that city."^ One converted 
 family is cause of joy; when a whole church, 
 when a whole neighborhood, when multitudes 
 in a city, turn unto the Lord, how exceedingly 
 great should be the gladness of all who love 
 Christ and love souls ! Are you conscious of 
 such joy ? Can it be a matter of indifference 
 to a truly renewed soul, even to hear a report 
 of hundreds brought to confess the Lord Jesus? 
 Feel as Christ and holy angels feel, and you 
 v/ill possess a joy in the salvation of fellow- 
 
 J Luke 15 : 7. ^ Act3 b : 8. 
 
 19 
 
6 THE REVIVAL. 
 
 creatures and the glorj of your Lord. But 
 possibly you know nothing of all this. 
 
 8. Are you a subject of the Revival f The 
 kingdom of God has come nigh unto you; 
 but are you of it ? You hear, perhaps you 
 speak^ of the great revival ; but have you 
 been yourself revived? Has your cold heart, 
 dead in trespasses and sins, been made alive 
 by the Spirit of the living Grod? "Dost thou 
 believe on the Son of God?"^ Have old 
 things passed away, and have all things be- 
 come new?^ Have you that love to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, without which your sen- 
 tence is Anathema Maranatha?^ Have 
 you crucified the flesh, with the affections and 
 lusts? 
 
 These are very serious questions, to which 
 you have long since given a deliberate answer, 
 if you have been faithful to your own soul. 
 Believe me, dear reader, it is not enough to 
 be a communicant in the church. Thousands 
 have been such, who are now in hell. A 
 revived church possesses revived members. 
 Are you such a one ? Lay the hand on the 
 breast and say, has the pervading influence 
 
 JJoliul9:L!5 ^ 2 Cor. 5 : IT. MCor. 1G:22. 
 
 20 
 
THE EEVIVAL. 7 
 
 of the blessed Spirit kindled your soul to new 
 faith, hope, love, devotion, and duty ? K not, 
 you are still outside of this shower of grace. 
 
 4. Do you pray for the Revival f Many 
 thousands are so praying. It began in prayer. 
 Thiai^fresh gifl of the loving Saviour was 
 born amidst the cries and tears of his people. 
 While they were speaking, God was near, to 
 bless. Thus he came upon the gathered 
 Eleven, and thus upon the pentecostal meet- 
 ing for prayer.^ The precept is still in force. 
 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ; the promise 
 still holds good, "They shall prosper that love 
 thee."^ As revivals begin in prayer, so are 
 they maintained by prayer. The minister of 
 the Word is but a fainting Moses, if Aaron 
 and Hur cease to uphold his hands.^ If we 
 would see many thousands converted to God, 
 we must pray. "For thus saith the Lord 
 God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the 
 house of Israel to do it for them ; I will in- 
 crease . them with men like a flock ; as the 
 holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her 
 solemn feasts.""* In the house of God, in the 
 converted meeting of brethren, in the Sunday- 
 
 » John 20 : 19, 26. Acta 1 : 14 ; 2 : 1. ^ pgaka 122 : C. 
 •3 Exod 17 : 10, 12. ^ Ezek. 36 : 37. 33. 
 
 21 
 
& THE REVIVAL. 
 
 school, m the family, in tlie closet, pray, pray, 
 pray I 
 
 .5. Are you helping forward the Revival? 
 There fs much, work to be done among saints 
 and sinners. Almighty Grod is the only ef- 
 fectual power. Paul and Apollos are noMing, 
 till God give the increase. Yet men are co- 
 workers with God; humble instruments to 
 convey his truth and promote his glory. 
 Say not you are weak. He hath chosen the 
 weak things of this world to confound the 
 mighty. Say not you have no influence; 
 you have already exerted too much, on the 
 wrong side. Go forward in the name of the 
 Lord, with light and love, and you shall be- 
 hold the fruit of your labor. You have a 
 relative, a partner, a friend, a dependant, a 
 neighbor, whose soul you have neglected. 
 You have an hour in the week, or five min- 
 utes in the day, which you have failed to 
 devote to saving an immortal being. You 
 may conduct one to a religious meeting ; you 
 may bless another by rebuke. You may lend 
 a book, give a tract, write an affectionate let- 
 ter. Especially you may plead with some 
 fellow-creature, that he would be reconciled 
 to God. Peradventure your working-time is 
 
 short. 
 
 22 
 
THE REVIVAL. 9 
 
 6. Does your heart care for the fruits of the 
 Eevivalf There is a duty to the golden sheaves 
 after the ears have fallen before the sickle. 
 Folded sheep must be watched and fed. Kew 
 converts are endangered creatures, lambs 
 amidst wolves. Christ cares for them, and 
 wills that his servants should care for them. 
 It is not the will of the Father that one of 
 these little ones should perish.^ Beware how 
 yoTi offend, that is, betray into sin, one of these 
 little ones. Seek to prevent their straying. 
 Seek to imbue them with sound doctrine. 
 This ductile condition is the very one in 
 which to receive the mould of truth.^ Earn- 
 estly endeavor to bring them to an intelligent 
 and sincere profession of faith, and then to 
 useful labors. Half the benefit of revivals is 
 lost from neglect of those who have been con- 
 verted. Might not classes of instruction for 
 such persons, after the primitive model, be 
 found valuable? Dear Christian reader, if 
 your heart has ever felt true penitence and 
 love to Jesus, feed his sheep, feed his lambs ! 
 7. Have you sought to honor God in ike 
 Revival f The glory of God the Saviour is 
 the chief endto be regarded, in the salvation 
 
 1 Man. IS : 14. ^ Rom. 6 : 17. 
 
 23 
 
10 THE REVIVAL. 
 
 of the perisliing. Every true conversion adds 
 splendor to Messiali's crown. By every true 
 revival of religion, glory redounds to tlie Lord 
 God Almighty. But this declarative glory is 
 lessened by every thing in the work which 
 overclouds divine grace, or exalts poor, sin- 
 ful man, and his doings and deservings. Oh I 
 how careful should he be, in every meeting, 
 in every devotion, in every word, to maintain 
 a reverence and godly fear for that Holy One 
 whom we profess to believe present! "For 
 our God is a consuming fire."^ The young 
 Levite, who unwarily touched the ark, was 
 zealous but not reverent. When dealing 
 with or for souls, we can not be too gentle" 
 and tender, even as a nurse cherisheth her 
 [own] children; we can not be too humble 
 and meek. Pray for the 'love of the Spirit.'^ 
 Shun all that is censorious, or savoring of 
 spiritual pride. All religious experiences are 
 doubtful, which leave the soul arrogant, un- 
 teachable, harsh, and denunciatory. Let the 
 awe of God's presence affect us, as it did the 
 seraphim ; and when our exultation is highest, 
 let us most deeply cry : Holy, Holy, Holy F 
 How tenderly we should fear lest any uncru- 
 
 > Heb. 12 : 29. ^ Rom. 15 : 30. 3 Isa. G : 1-6. 
 
 24 
 
THE REVIVAL. H 
 
 cified tempers of ours, should 'eat as dott a 
 canker,' and spread contagion tlirougli the 
 blessed work.1 So live, beloved brother m 
 the Lord, that you may be able to say of al 
 around you, as did Paul, "And they glorified 
 God in me."^ 
 
 I 2 Tim. 2: 11 'Gall: 24. 
 
 25 
 
12 THE REVIVAL. 
 
 FOB BE V I VAL. 
 
 Behold thy drooping vine, God ! 
 And shed thy quickening grace abroad ; 
 Our graces faint, our joys decline. 
 Yet still, Redeemer, we are thine. 
 
 Awake to help us from on high, 
 And let deUvering power be nigh. 
 Hear our bewaUings and complaints, 
 And grant revival to thy saints. 
 
 As in the times of old come down. 
 And cease in just rebuke to frown : 
 Far we have wandered from thy way. 
 Arrest us lest we further stray. 
 
 By thy convincing power reprove. 
 And wake the sleepers into love, 
 Cause us again to hear the sound 
 Of anxious moanings all around. 
 
 We suppliant plead in that great Name, 
 Which saves thy heritage from shame ; 
 For Jesus' sake display thy power. 
 In this our dark and sinking hour. 
 
 26 
 
SEEK TO SAVE SOULS. 
 
 God only can save a sou], in the liigli and 
 proper sense. It is He wlio converts the sin- 
 ner. Yet in Scripture human instruments are 
 said to convert and save.^ ^ The motives to 
 attempt this, are regard for the glory of God, 
 and love to the souls of men. In seasons of 
 religious- revival, both principles are operative 
 in numbers of believers., Eeader, pause and 
 ask yourself, how it is with you ? 
 
 To be the instrument of converting a single 
 soul, is so great a blessing and honor, that if 
 there were no other way to accomplish it, any 
 true Christian would be willing to lay down 
 his life. "He which converteth the sinner 
 from the error of his way, shall save a soul 
 from death, and shall hide a multitude of 
 sins. "2 Think thus : With God's blessing, I 
 
 ' James 5 : 20. 2 james 5 : 20. 
 
 27 
 
4 SEEK TO^SAVE SOULS. 
 
 shall save tliis soul from death ; I shall glorify 
 God by hiding all this sinner's transgressions. 
 At times, when the hearing ear is given to 
 many ; when your neighbors are accessible ; 
 when inquiry is wide-spread ; and when the 
 very rumor of wonderful conversions startles 
 the once careless, oh I be up and doing I 
 The greatness of the work can not be over- 
 rated. K you have done nothing yet towards 
 saving a soul, you have that before you which 
 exceeds in glory all that you have hitherto 
 accomplished in your whole life. And if 
 every professing Christian in our churches 
 were rightly affected on this subject, we might 
 expect to see efforts beyond all that the world 
 has witnessed. Such awakenings and har- 
 vests would come, as in our present unbelief 
 we hardly dare to pray for. If great and un- 
 exampled ingatherings of souls ever bless our 
 world, as Christians pray and hope they may, 
 these will doubtless be preceded by a spirit 
 of individual earnestness in bringing sinners 
 to Christ. Such a temper is inseparable 
 from the new nature. ISTo sooner does a be- 
 liever taste that the Lord is gracious, than he 
 desires, yea longs, to make his excellency 
 known to others. His language to all around 
 28 
 
SEEK TO SAVE SOULS.. O 
 
 is : " Come and hear, all ye that fear God, 
 and I will declare what He hath done for my 
 soul."^ Such is the law of progress in the 
 kingdom. "When Andrew hears John, and 
 follows the Eedeemer, see how he instantly 
 goes in pursuit of his brother Simon, and 
 brings him to Jesus. "When Philip, the towns- 
 man of these disciples, has b^ called by the 
 Lord, he instantly seeks to bring in Nathan- 
 iel.^ Christian reader, whom have you 
 sought and found? "What straying sheep, 
 lost among thorns and wolves, have you ever 
 brought back ? Is it not high time to consi- 
 der this duty and privilege ? 
 
 A soul — a soul — an immortal soul ! Think 
 of its capacity, its duration, its value I Think 
 of the hell it must endure, if impenitent ; of 
 the heaven it shall possess, if pardoned. Think 
 of the price laid down by the incarnate Son 
 of God. " What shall it profit a man if he 
 gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ; 
 or what shall a man give in exchange for his 
 soul ?"^ These considerations will incite you 
 to new efforts towards convincing and per- 
 suading sinners. my brother I though 
 
 Psalm 66 : 16. ^ John 1 : 43-51. ^ j^fark 8 : 36. 
 
 29 
 
6 ^ SEEK TO SAVE SOULS. 
 
 your endeavors sliould Jbe blessed to tlie sav- 
 ing of only one, what will be the reward of 
 meeting that one in heaven I 
 
 There is powerful motive in the peril of the 
 unconverted. Eeflect, that the very argu- 
 ments by which we try to work conviction 
 in sinners, are equally valid to work in us 
 zeal for theirHklvation. Do preachers and 
 friends urge on them that they are under 
 God's awful wrath and curse? The same 
 reason should impel us to pluck them as 
 brands out of the burning. Are they every 
 moment exposed to the damnation of hell ? 
 Then not a moment should we leave them in 
 this jeopardy. Is it a horrible thing for sin- 
 ners to be at enmity with God, and devoid of 
 all love for our blessed Jesus ? This is an un- 
 answerable reason why we should pray and 
 speak and labor, that they may be reconciled 
 and saved. K we strongly believe the truth, 
 and ardently love our fellow-men, we shall 
 let no opportunity slip, of throwing divine 
 lessons into their minds ; nay, we shall devise 
 and make opportunities, if such do not offer 
 themselves. 
 
 Dear fellow-disciples, how far we fall below 
 that law of souls which glowed m the Apostle 
 30 
 
SEEK TO SAVE SOULS. 7 
 
 of the Gentiles I He longed to win men to 
 Christ. "I have made myself servant unto 
 all," says he, "that I might gain the more."^ 
 And again: "I am made all things to all 
 men, that I might by all means save some." 
 Few of Tis sympathize, with his tears, shed 
 while he wrote of the impenitent. "Many 
 walk," so he addressed the Philippians, " of 
 whom I have often told you, and now tell 
 you even weeping, that they are the enemies 
 of the cross of Christ. "^ Can we really be- 
 lieve what we say of our unconverted friends ? 
 Are they truly " strangers from the covenants 
 of promise, having no hope, and without God 
 in the world "?^ Surely, there is some secret 
 skepticism which palsies the sinews of our 
 exertion. Did we inwardly and heartily be- 
 lieve what we profess, we should be calling 
 upon the ungodly all around us, to turn to 
 God. The heathen mariners exclaimed to 
 Jonah: "What meanest thou, O sleeper? 
 arise ! call upon thy God I"^ Much more, if 
 convinced that they are perishing, should we 
 strive to alarm the guilty conscience of care- 
 less companions. What would be our course 
 
 » 1 Cor. 9 : 19, 22, « Phil, 3 : 18. 
 
 3 Eph. 2:12. * Jonah 1 : 6. 
 
 31 
 
8 SEEK rO SAVE SOULS. 
 
 if a neighbor were discovered to be in danger 
 of losing his life? Suppose a case. One 
 whom jou esteem is sleeping in a bouse 
 wbicb you know to be in flames. Or a be- 
 loved young friend is embarking on a vessel 
 wbicb you know is net seaworthy. Or a per- 
 son near and dear to you is about to be way- 
 laid by assassins. You know what would be , 
 your acts in such a juncture. But, oh! in- 
 consistent brother! you behold an infinitely 
 greater danger; yet you do nothing! You 
 are as uncertain of this friend's life, as of your 
 own. The death of either will frustrate the 
 plan now proposed to you. Before he is 
 summoned to the awful bar of God, make 
 some attempt to save his soul. Of such ac- 
 tivity as this, we may say without hesitation : 
 *' Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it 
 with thy might; for there is no work, nor 
 device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the 
 grave, whither thou goest."^ All exhorta- 
 tions and entreaties, to ungodly fellow-crea- 
 tures, must be during the present life. And 
 as you have sometimes feared for yourself, 
 lest the Spirit of God should be quenched. 
 and your day of grace overclouded, so ought 
 
 ^Eccks. 9 :10. 
 32 
 
SEEK TO SAVE SOULS. 9 
 
 joii to fear for them. How knowest thou, O 
 Christian ! but that the intercession has been 
 only for a year, a month, or a day, in the case 
 of your friend ; and that even Jesus has said : 
 * 'After that, thou shalt cut it down "?i Per- 
 adventure, while you linger about this obvious 
 piece of faithfulness, the just Judge is saying 
 to the sinner : " Thou fool, this night thy soul 
 shall be required of thee !"^ 
 
 How solemn is the reflection, and how 
 should it press you forward to instant act, 
 that many whom you might have addressed 
 on this topic, are now beyond your reach. 
 Sit down and ponder, as you recall the past. 
 'There was M., who lived months in my 
 house, yet to whom I never recommended my 
 Lord. She is now in a foreign land, afar 
 from all evangelical means. There is IST., who 
 was misled by my worldliness and fashionable 
 folly. She has died without hope. There is 
 young P. ; my lips were half-opened to warn 
 him ; but it is too late ; he has been driven 
 away in his wickedness.'^ Shall such events 
 be occurring every day, and yet shall disci- 
 ples of Jesus refrain from seeking to save 
 souls? reader! bring the claim home to 
 
 1 Luke 13:9. "- Luke 20 : 20. s Prov. U : 32. 
 
 33 
 
10 SEEK TO SAVE SOULS. 
 
 jour own conscience I Can you sleep to- 
 night, without having tried to save a soul 
 from death ? Who is he, to whom you will 
 address yourself ? Go to your closet, and cry 
 mightily unto God for his blessing on the 
 weak endeavor. Then set about it, in tender 
 love. It may be only a sentence, broken 
 with sobs, yet it may go to the heart. It 
 may be a book, a tract, a passage of Scripture, 
 a hymn ; each of these has proved the arrow 
 from God's bow. Above all, an affectionate 
 and fiithful letter to an unconverted acquaint- 
 ance is often the very message to be owned 
 of the Spirit. 
 
 You have neglected souls I Your conduct 
 has said: "Am I my brother's keeper?"^ 
 You have practically avowed the principle : 
 " Go I serve other gods 1''^ Many there are, 
 who are tempted to exclaim : " No man cared 
 for my soul."^ ."W^at words can depict the 
 horrors of the case, where the impenitent per- 
 son, thus neglected and thus liable to God's 
 wrath, is bone of your bone, and flesh of your 
 flesh I^ Shall a man allow the wife of his 
 bosom to hear no more from him concerning 
 
 » Gen. 4:9. 5 1 Sam. 26:19. 
 
 3 Psalm 142 : 4. 4 Gen. 2 : 23. 
 
 34 
 
SEEK TO SAVE SOULS. 11 
 
 salvation than if lie were a corpse ? har- 
 dened soul I shall thy husband perish without 
 a word from thy lips ? And who shall care 
 for the souls of children, if their parents do 
 not ? There is not a family, a bank, a ship, 
 a counting-house, a factory, a shop, a place of 
 business, a school, in which these counsels 
 have not direct application. He or she, whom 
 you see every day, who is next to you, and 
 who doubtless wonders at your cowardly si- 
 lence, is the very person to whom you should 
 speak. 
 
 Thousands of thousands are yet to love 
 Jesus, and reflect his image. If some of these 
 shall have been brought to glory by your 
 means, what an honor and delight ! Emi- 
 nently faithful men and women have been 
 the instruments of rescuing many. "And 
 they that be wise, shall shine as the bright- 
 ness of the firmament; and they that turn 
 many to righteousness, as the stars forever 
 and ever."^ 
 
 1 DaiL 12 : 3. 
 
 35 
 
12 SEEK TO SAVE SOULS. 
 
 UTTER AJICE. 
 
 If God the Lord will show to me 
 
 The glory of his grace, 
 My lips shall speak the promise free 
 
 Out in the holy place. 
 
 Let the live coal my lips refine, 
 
 And love inspire my heart, 
 Then my glad voice shall loudly join, 
 
 The blessing to impart. 
 
 When guilt lies heavy on the soul, 
 The preacher's voice is weak, 
 
 But joy can gush without control, 
 And bursting love can speak. 
 
 'Tis utterance from within that finds, 
 
 Its way to hearts of stone. 
 And Christ's own Spirit melts the minds 
 
 When mercy breathes the tone. 
 
 36 
 
PRAY FOR THE SPIRIT. 
 
 Ix order to miglitj and unexampled re- 
 vival, what we especially need is for the 
 whole Church to be down on its knees before 
 God. Past redemptions should make our 
 cravings great. "lam the Lord thy Grod, 
 which brought thee out of the land of Egypt ; 
 open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it."^ 
 Thousands have already been seen gathered 
 in one place for prayer, but when "the Spirit 
 of grace and of supplications " is poui-ed -out 
 on the great body of Christians, touched with 
 pity for the desolations of the spiritual Jeru- 
 salem, that word will come true: "Thou 
 shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the 
 time to favor her, yea, the set time is come; 
 for thy servants take pleasure in her stones, 
 and favor the dust thereof. ''^ Oh ! that God's 
 
 1 Psalm 81 : 10. 2 Pgalm 102 : 13, 14. 
 
 37 
 
4 PRAY FOR THE SPIRIT. 
 
 people were awake to tlie privilege of crying 
 aloud for his great gift ! 
 
 Open your mind, believing reader, to the 
 extraordinary truth, that God has an infinite 
 willingness to bestow in answer to prayer 
 that which, since the sending of his Son, is 
 the greatest of all his possible gifts. ^" If ye 
 then, being evil, know how to give good gifts 
 unto your children, how much more shall 
 your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit 
 to them that ask him ?"^ parent I ponder 
 on this blessed verse ; there is that within thy 
 heart which will reveal its meaning! And 
 what is it that God is so ready to give ? It is 
 that which secures and appHes all the benefits 
 of Christ's mediation ; that which makes re- 
 vivals here, and heaven hereafter ; it is the 
 Holy Spirit ! Ought not aU disciples, all 
 over the world, to be prostrate before the 
 throne of grace, beseeching God for Christ's 
 sake to communicate this all-comprehensive 
 boon? To him only do we look, because 
 with him is " the residue of the Spirit. "^ But 
 we ask in the name of Christ, for the yery 
 name means Anointed, and the anointing, 
 
 lLukoll:13. 2 Mai. 2:15. 
 
 38 
 
PKAY FOR THE SPIRIT. 5 
 
 whicli flows from him as Head, to all tlie 
 members, is this very gift, the Holy Ghost, 
 " for God giveth not the Spirit by measure 
 unto him."^ He hath it immeasurably, and 
 for his Church, and they draw for it in his 
 name by prayer. Occupy a few moments 
 upon this great gift ; it will aid your prayers. 
 1. There is such a thing as the pouring out of 
 the Holy Ghost. As Moses *' poured of the 
 anointing oil on Aaron's head," so God pours 
 the unction of his Spirit on the head of our 
 Great High Priest.^ And as the ceremonial 
 fragrance flowed down to " the skirts of his 
 garments,"^ so the gift of the Spirit comes on 
 all behevers. " The anointing which ye have 
 received of him," says the Apostle John, 
 *'abideth in you."** But the effusion is some- 
 times uncommonly great, even to outpouring. 
 Some have found fault with the term, which 
 nevertheless is intensely biblical, and conse- 
 crated in the Church. Among promises to 
 Israel in the latter day, the Lord says : " Nei- 
 ther will I hide my face any more from them ; 
 for I have poured out my Spirit upon the 
 
 lJohn3:34. 2 Lev. 8 : 12. 
 
 3 Psalm 133 : 2. 4 i John 2 : 27. 
 
 1* 89 
 
6 PRAY FOR THE SPIRIT. 
 
 house of Israel, saith the Lord God."^ Apos- 
 tolic comment applies to New Testament 
 times the words of another prophet : "I will 
 pour out my Spirit upon all flesh."^ So in 
 another place: "Behold, I will pour out 
 mj Spirit unto you."^ The idea necessarily 
 presented is that of bountiful effusion. Let 
 us ask for it. The Lord Jesus comforted his 
 sorrowing .disciples by the promise of this 
 gift, as the result of his ascension. " If I de- 
 part, I will send him unto you."^ This Com- 
 forter he did send, 0! how graciously and 
 gloriously, at the first Christian Pentecost. 
 " Having received of the Father the promise 
 of the Holy GhostJ'' said the Apostle Peter, 
 " he hath shed forth this which ye now see 
 and hear."^ There had just been suddenly a 
 sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty 
 wind, filling all the house where they were 
 sitting; "and they were all filled with the 
 Holy Ghost." Do not fail to observe, that 
 believers had been in union of prayer for this 
 very gift, thus complying with the Lord's in- 
 junction that they should " wait for the 
 
 1 Eze. 39 : 29. 2 Joel 2 : 28. 3 Prov. 1 : 23 
 
 4 John 16 7. 5 Acts 2 : 3.'.. 
 
 40 
 
, PRAY FOR THE SPIRIT. 7 
 
 promise of the Father."^ The gift was con- 
 tinued, under early preaching; and ^'the 
 Holy Ghost fell on them that heard the 
 "Word."^ The same Apostle, many years 
 afterwards, refers to the known fact of "the 
 Holy Grhost sent down from heaven."^ Every 
 great awakening and plentiful harvest of souls 
 has proceeded from the same Spirit, sought 
 by the same importunity of beseeching prayer. 
 Therefore, pray for the Spirit ! 
 
 2. The influence of the Holy Spirit of God is 
 exceedingly powerful We ask something 
 mighty and revolutionizing. It is Omnipo- 
 tence that we are praying for. A wicked 
 city, a wicked world, will yield to no inferior 
 strength. What an encouragement that 
 " with the Lord Jehovah is everlasting 
 strength!" It is as applicable to revival of 
 the Church as to the rebuilding of the Temple. 
 *' ISTot by might, nor by power, but by my 
 Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."^ Let Christ- 
 ians no longer despair of the conversion of 
 high-handed sinners, even the vilest of the 
 vile, in our filthiest and bloodiest dens ; as if 
 
 1 Compare Acta 1 : 4, 5, U ; 2 : 1. 2 Acts 10 : 44 ; II : 15. 
 3 1 PetcT 1 : 12. 4Zecb. 4: 6. 
 
 41 
 
8 PRAY FOR THE SPIRIT. , 
 
 we expected in answer to our prayers only 
 some weak, half-way operation. "Our gos- 
 pel," says the Apostle of the Gentiles, *'came 
 not unto you in word, only, but also in power^ 
 and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance."^ 
 This is our ground of hope when the ministers 
 of the Word proclaim the glad tidings ; that 
 the preaching may be "in demonstration of 
 the Spirit and of power."^ God grant us deli- 
 verance from our unbelief, as to the power of 
 the Holy Spirit in giving eJficacy to the- truth I 
 8. The Spirit, whom we seek, is the Author 
 of Begeneration and Sanctification. If God 
 vouchsafe us these, in wide extent, our revival 
 will be indeed complete. "That which is 
 bom of the Spirit is spirit."^ All believers 
 shout the same praise: "According to his 
 mercy he saved us, by the washing of regene- 
 ration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost."'* 
 Look at thousands, utterly blind as to spiritual 
 realities, and say, what can we ask for them 
 so indispensably important, as that Spirit of 
 Truth, who will "reprove," or convince 
 " the world of sin, and of righteousness, and 
 
 1 Thess. 1:5. a i Cor. 2 : 4. 
 
 3 John 3 : 6, 6, 8. 4 Titus 3 : 8. 
 
 42 
 
PRAY FOR THE SPIRIT. 9 
 
 of judgment'?"^ He is just as able to convert 
 the ruffian, or the fallen woman, as the church- 
 going Pharisee ; just as able to renew a thou- 
 sand as one. Who is sufficiently awake to 
 the necessity of imploring God to convert a 
 multitude of sinners ? 
 
 All revival of the Church is increased 
 sanctification ; and all reclaiming of the im- 
 p enitent is sanctification begun. For both we 
 need the gift of the Spirit ; and we need it 
 now. We need it to break the power of sin 
 in professing Christians, and to nail their lusts 
 to the cross ; for it is by this influence that 
 we " do mortify the deeds of the body."^ Some 
 of the primitive behevers had been atrocious 
 sinners ; " but," says the Apostle Paul, *' ye 
 are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are 
 justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and 
 by the Spirit of our God."^ Hope, Joy, Love, 
 and consequent activity and success, are fruits 
 of the same Spirit.'* Li a word, the Spirit of 
 God is the Spbrit of Eevival. Earnest, daily, 
 united prayer of the people of Christ for this 
 high gifb puts honor upon God in a remark- 
 
 1 John 16 : 8. 3 Rom. 8 : 13. 
 
 3 1 Cor. 6:11. ^ Rom. 5 : 5 ; 1 Thess. 1 : 6. 
 
 43 
 
10 PRAY FOR THE SPIRIT. 
 
 able degree ; and we already haVe cause to 
 note how signally lie blesses endeavors whicli 
 were openly begun in prayer. Beloved breth- 
 ren, let us not mistake the token, nor fail to 
 go in the path pointed out by'Providence and 
 the Spirit. 
 
 4. The Holy Spirit sends those gifts luhich are 
 necessary for successfu I work. "When miraculous 
 gifts were necessary, they were not withheld. 
 All inspiration, wisdom, and ministry are 
 from the same source. So also are the com- 
 mon qualifications for service demanded in 
 the daily walk of an earnest Christian, who 
 seeks to save souls. " There are diversities of 
 operations, but it is the same God which 
 worketh all in all ; but the manifestation of 
 the Spirit is given to every man to profit 
 withal."^ The Lord promised that the Spirit 
 should prompt his disciples when arraigned.^ 
 Equally does the blessed Monitor fill their 
 hearts and lips for common service. Apostles 
 themselves sought for " utterance" by means 
 of prayer f and a praying Church will have a 
 ministry and members, bold and loving in 
 owning and recommending their Lord. The 
 
 iCor. 12:6, 7. 2 Luke 12 t 12. 3 Eph. 6 : 19. 
 
 44 
 
PRAY FOR THE SPIRIT. 11 
 
 supplications, whicli bring down such influ- 
 ences, are themselves wrought of Grod, when 
 believers, keeping themselves in the love of 
 Grod, are at the same time "praying in the 
 Holy Ghost."^ See thus how completely de- 
 pendent we are for all upon the Holy Spirit 
 of God. Grace manifestly began the work ; 
 grace keeps it alive ; grace must carry it on 
 and give it extension. 
 
 Brethren, we must pray as we have never 
 yet prayed. Our want of success is due to 
 our coldness of desire and niggardliness of 
 request. We are not straitened in God, but 
 in our own low, slender conceptions and 
 hopes. We have no?, because we ask not. 
 K we were under a deep and solemn impres- 
 sion of the Divine power, bounty, and faithful- 
 ness, " how should one chase a thousand, and 
 two put ten thousand to flight I"^ The lesson 
 which the Eevival should teach us is the duty 
 of being instant in supplication for the larger 
 and more glorious effusion of the Holy Spirit. 
 Acting on this, we shall behold new marvels 
 of love in the place of prayer. 
 
 1 Jude 20. 2 Deut. 32 : 30. 
 
 45 
 
12 PRAY FOR THE SPIRIT. 
 
 FOB SINCEKITY. 
 
 Master, when I attempt thy work, 
 
 A thousand vexing cares are nigh, 
 A thousand base corruptions lurk, 
 To make me linger, fall or fly : 
 More than thy orders, Lord, I need, 
 For constant strengthening grace I plead. 
 
 When I should seek thy only praise, 
 
 Wretch ! I am seeking oft my own ; 
 Nor can I hymns of glory raise 
 Devoutly at thy sacred throne, 
 But that the self-exalting strain 
 Intrudes to make my worship vain. 
 
 Oft when my lips express a care 
 
 For what concerns thy work alone, 
 Among the musings, cluster there 
 Some little troubles of my own ; 
 Self still has place, alas ! I fear 
 'Tis self that speaks and governs here. 
 
 Yet if thy glory thou reveal — 
 
 If Christ in full effulgence shine— 
 If heavenly rapture o'er me steal — 
 And love, and joy, and zeal combine- 
 The new emotions shall expel 
 The retinue of sin and hell. 
 46 
 
THE UNAWAKENED 
 
 Unawakened I Alas, sinner ! unless 
 thou be awakened, thou must perish I 
 
 Not long ago, a house containing many in- 
 mates was burned down at night. Several 
 persons perished in the flames. Would you 
 know the reason ? They were awakened too 
 late. So the finally impenitent sinner will 
 awake; but too late I Those are dreadful 
 words, even in some earthly conjunctures. 
 Too LATE I TOO LATE ! You Stand by the 
 brink of a deep and rapid river, and see a 
 youth fall into its waters. He sinks, strug- 
 gling, and then rises. Boats put out ; gallant 
 fellows pull to his rescue; they seize his 
 tangled hair as he rises once more, and bear 
 his drenched and flaccid body to the bank. 
 It is too late I The breath of life has fled. 
 So in many conceivable instances of earthly 
 peril, in some of which the perishing creature, 
 47 
 
4 THE UNAWAKEXED, 
 
 a suicide for example, awakes to tlie direful 
 truth of his catastrophe ; but awakes too late ! 
 Sinner, you will assuredly awake, either in 
 time or in eternity. 
 
 Sooner or later, a man's sins find him out."^ 
 Perhaps in temporal disgrace and retribution. 
 Perhaps at the hour of death. Beyond all 
 peradventure at the bar of God. The rich 
 man was not awakened in his pui-ple and fine 
 linen. In his lifetime he received his good 
 things ; but " in hell he lifb up his eyes, being 
 in torments." He was then fully awake. Can 
 you endure the thought of being aroused by 
 your sins, where no pardons are vouchsafed ? 
 
 " There are no acta of pardon past 
 In the cold grave to which we haste ; 
 But darkness, death, and long despair 
 Reign in eternal silence there." 
 
 " It is high time to awake out of sleep." 
 These words are as applicable to this case, as 
 to that intended by the Apostle. Oh I for a 
 trumpet-blast, loud enough to startle the care- 
 less reader of these words into a salutary fear 
 of death, judgment and eternal wrath ! You 
 
 1 Num. 32 : 23. 
 48 
 
THE UNAWAKENED. 5 
 
 ■walk on the brink of a precipice, and God's 
 holiness, justice, and truth are all against jou. 
 Yet it is your offended Judge who continues 
 to pursue jou with the cry: "Behold, now 
 is the accepted time : behold now is the day 
 of salvation."^ The time is auspicious. It is 
 God's time. *' To-day, if ye will hear his 
 voice, harden not your hearts."^ To-morrow 
 has no promises. To-morrow you may be in 
 eternity. Death has surprised thousands at 
 the very time when they were procrastinating, 
 repentance. The foolish virgins were not 
 awakened till they heard the midnight cry : 
 "Behold, the bridegroom cometh!" The 
 voice of the archangel and the trump of God 
 will wake every sleeper, for " all that are in 
 the graves shall hear His voice, and shall 
 come forth ; they that have done good, unto 
 the resurrection of life, and they that have 
 done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."^ 
 Is it not astonishing that you can hear such 
 things from the lips of Him who so loved the 
 world as to die for it, and that you should 
 still remain unmoved ? 
 
 Be convinced, careless reader, that there is 
 
 1 2 Cor. 6:2. 2 Psalra 95 : 8. 3 John 5 : 28, 29. 
 
 49 
 
6 THE UNAWAKENED. 
 
 nothing so unreasonable as to remain un- 
 awakened, wlien called by Almighty God. 
 Awakening truths come near on every side, 
 sounding from heaven, earth, and hell. There 
 are cases in which fear is unreasonable, but 
 this is not one of them. No man can ration- 
 ally despise the " wrath of the Lamb." He 
 who dies in his sins, dies in rejection of the 
 only sacrifice for sin. The dread of so dying 
 ought to take hold of your heart while you 
 read. Those terrible denunciations against 
 sinners, from which they turn away, lest con- 
 science should be shaken from its slumber, 
 proceed not from the mouth of a harsh, malig- 
 nant being, but from the meek and lowly 
 Jesus, who weeps over lost souls. It ought 
 to prove a pungent consideration that of all the 
 expressions which Scripture contains concern- 
 ing everlasting wo, the most fearful are those 
 which fell from the gentle lips of Jesus. A 
 little searching of the sacred volume will show 
 this to be true. The Eedeemer spake these 
 threatenings in love, and the thought of this 
 should break the dream of indolent security. 
 Christ's terrors are meant to alarm you out 
 of your sins and your false confidence, and so 
 to make way f^r His tender mercies. But 
 50 
 
THE UNAWAKENED. 7 
 
 Lis mercies are exhibited to the unreconciled 
 only in the present life ; and your tenure of 
 human existence, fellow-sinner, is very slight 
 and precarious. 
 
 To remain unawakened is madness itself, 
 unless the Omniscient can be evaded, and the 
 Omnipotent set at nought. " Be not deceived ; 
 God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man 
 soweth, that shall he also reap."^ Beware, 
 lest God, long put off and thrust aside, swear 
 in his wrath that you shall not enter into his 
 rest. The downfall of the secure is sometimes 
 precipitous. " He that, being often reproved, 
 hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be de- 
 stroyed, and that without remedy." This hard- 
 ening is produced by a continued process of 
 .hearing God's call without heeding it. How 
 knowest thou, sinner ! but that the sentence 
 hath already gone forth against thee : " Cut it 
 down ; why cumbereth it the ground ?" 
 There is a point at which Mercy, after many 
 pleadings for the impenitent soul, stands 
 aside and suffers Justice to take its course. 
 Continu^ed and obdurate resistance to the 
 blood of the Lord Jesus, is no venial sin in 
 
 1 Gal. G : '7. 
 51 
 
t THE UNA WAKENED. 
 
 the sight of God. Thej who reject this Me- 
 diator need look for no other. " Let us there- 
 fore fear, lest, a promise being left us of en- 
 tering into his rest, any of you should seem 
 to come short of it." That measure of con- 
 cern for sin, of which you are conscious while 
 you read these words, is caused by the Spirit 
 of God. Take heed how you trifle with this 
 monition. The sacred fire within may, by 
 your neglect or transgression, have been re- 
 duced to a single coal ; a single beam of light 
 touching your ruined state may glimmer 
 within. *' Quench not the Spirit." There 
 are critical moments in every biography ; in- 
 stants on which are suspended heaven and 
 hell. Every lost soul has had a dast call. 
 There is a possibility that this is yours. . 
 Therefore resist not the Holy Ghost.^ How 
 awful the moment in which an immortal 
 spirit is left of God I The victim of impeni- 
 tent procrastination may be as little aware of 
 his doom, as was Samson when "he wist not 
 that the Lord was departed from him." What 
 though no cloud of holy angels be seen with 
 averted faces slowly to return from their watch 
 
 1 Acts (f : 51. 
 52 
 
THE FNAWAKENED. 9 
 
 beside the sinner ? What though no mutter- 
 ing thunder rolls its portentous signal of wo 
 along the horizon ? What though no gigan- 
 tic scales, held out from high heaven, bear 
 the inscription : " Mene, thou art weighed in 
 the balances and art found wanting." The 
 deed is nevertheless done ; the book of divine 
 offers is closed ; the last whisper of gospel 
 persuasion has died awaj. For some, this 
 epoch coincides with the instant of dying.- 
 WTio shall say, that for others it may not fall 
 in with some earher moment of life ? The 
 very hint of such a possibility might well 
 electrify the stupid heart. Do not say there 
 ' need be no haste, but go, lingerer ! to thy 
 knees I and, bewaiHng thy impenitent mind, 
 yield thyself to God. 
 
 To be unawakened, is the more sinful and 
 hazardous, at a time like this, when the com- 
 munity is moved, even the heart of the peo- 
 ple, " as the trees of the wood are moved 
 with the wind." Is the Great King among 
 us, of a truth? Then is it time for every 
 living soul to be up and doing. Think you 
 the blind, the halt, the maimed, the palsied 
 and the leprous lay asleep, when the Son of 
 David was passing through the highways of 
 53 
 
10 THE UNAWAKENED. 
 
 G-alilee and Judea on liis errands of mercy ? 
 As little should the ungodly be sunk in apa- 
 thy when the Lord, by His Spirit, is putting 
 forth awakening energy in our churches. 
 He who slumbers through such sh^ikings, 
 dishonors God and endangers his own soul. 
 To go untouched through an extensive re- 
 vival of religion, is to be distinguished in a 
 fearful way. Thus we have seen the tall 
 "trunk blackened and scathed by lightning, 
 rearing itself among the trees of the forest. 
 Is it your case, dear reader ? You have list- 
 ened cold and hard to the "Word of God, 
 which has been to others " as a fire, and like 
 a hammer, that breaketh the rock in pieces."^ 
 You have been present during devotions, in 
 which the hearts of believers have flowed like 
 molten gold. You have been singled out for 
 the prayers of the church ; but you have 
 wrought mightily against those prayers, by 
 your hard and impenitent heart. If you 
 perish after all, it will not be by the common 
 lot of the lost. 
 
 Consent to meditate, to consider, and to re- 
 turn. Our hope of this result leads us to ad- 
 
 1 Jer. 23 : 29. 
 54 
 
THE UNAWAKENED. H 
 
 dress even the hardened : "If perad venture 
 God will give them repentance to the acknow- 
 ledging of the truth; and that they may 
 awake themselves out of the snare of the 
 devil, who are taken captive bj him at his 
 
 There is a time, we know not when, 
 A point, we know not where. 
 
 That marks the destiny of men 
 To glory or despah-. 
 
 There is a hne, by us unseen, 
 
 That crosses every path ; 
 The hidden boundary between 
 
 God's patience and his wrath. 
 
 To pass that Hmit is to die, 
 
 To die as if by stealth ; 
 It does not quench the beaming eye, 
 
 Or pale the glow of health. 
 
 The conscience may be still at ease, 
 
 The spirits light and gay ; 
 That which is pleasing still may please, 
 
 And care be thrust away. 
 
 But on that forehead God has set, 
 
 Indehbly, a mark, 
 Unseen by man, for man as yet 
 
 ■ Is blind and in the dark. 
 
 1 2 Tim. 2 : 26, margin. 
 55 
 
12 THE UN AWAKENED. 
 
 And yet the doomed man's path below, 
 Like Eden, may have bloomed ; 
 
 He did not, does not, will not know 
 Or feel that he is doomed. 
 
 Ho knows, he feels, that all is well, 
 
 And every fear is calmed : 
 He Uves, he dies, he wakes in hell, 
 
 Not only doomed, but damned. 
 
 Oh 1 where is this mysterious bourae, 
 By which our path is crossed ; 
 
 Beyond which God himself hath sworn 
 That he who goes is lost ? 
 
 How fivr may we go on in sin ? 
 
 How long will God forbear ? 
 Where does hope end ? and where begin 
 
 The confines of despair ? 
 
 An answer from the skies is sent : 
 " Ye that from God depart ! 
 While it is called to-day, repent I 
 And harden not your heart" 
 
 50 
 
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 
 
 1. There is sucli a tiling as vaguely ad- 
 mitting a statement to be true, and yet not 
 receiving it so as to act upon it. This is 
 practical unbelief. A man is in the babit 
 of using intoxicating drinks without restraint. 
 His medical adviser lays before his eyes an 
 old age of decrepitude, pain, or palsy. His 
 spiritual adviser points out to him the im- 
 pending evil of drunkenness. He is to a cer- 
 tain extent convinced, but his practice re- 
 mains the same. One who labors under an 
 insidious disease, is told that unless immediate 
 means be used, it will probably prove fatal. 
 He half believes, but flatters himself, and goes 
 on as before. A rash adventurer in merchan- 
 dise is warned that his speculation will end 
 in bankruptcy ; yet he pushes forward and 
 runs upon the catastrophe. These are fami- 
 57 
 
2 HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 
 
 liar instances. But still more common and 
 still more deplorable is the same blindness in 
 regard to eternal realities. The sinner admits 
 that he is unprepared to die and in peril of 
 eternal wrath ; and if he believed this with 
 the power of his mind, he would be convulsed 
 with agony. But there is nothing influential 
 in his vague persuasions, and therefore they 
 do not deserve the name of faith. Thus he 
 hardens his heart. 
 
 2. Men are kept from beheving by their 
 supposed interests, prejudices, and passions. 
 This is an admitted principle in the philosophy 
 of evidence, recognized in alL legislation and 
 jurisprudence. Why is a man deemed in- 
 competent to decide in a case which involves 
 his own interest ? Not merely because it is 
 feared he will deliberately judge against his 
 sincere convictions of the truth ; this were a 
 shallow and superficial explanation ; but be- 
 cause his bias will actually influence him to 
 believe what is untrue. Twelve men in a 
 jury-box hear precisely the same evidence ; 
 yet one of them, who is secretly but deeply 
 concerned, hears all at a disadvantage, and 
 comes to a conclusion adverse to the truth of 
 the case. Which of us is able with perfect 
 58 
 
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 3 
 
 candor to credit testimony against his own 
 cliild as freely as against a stranger ? Here 
 is a wide field for the operation of our inborn 
 depravity, in hardening the heart against the 
 truth of God. By a perverse abstraction, we 
 hear all on one side. We lend an ear to that 
 part of the evidence and argument which is 
 favorable to what we have predetermined. 
 We are deaf to reasons on the other part, 
 which, to a mind not preoccupied, would be 
 demonstrative. 
 
 8. Closely connected with this is the power 
 which the mind has of turning itself awajj^ 
 from that which is unpleasant. The edge of 
 the thoughts may be averted, first from the 
 testimony or the reasons, and then from the 
 partially admitted truth. We may withhold 
 our attention, or bestow it upon something 
 else. It is not enough that truth be held be- 
 fore the mind for an instant. There must be 
 consideration, in order to influence the will 
 and the life. Momentary flashes of belief are 
 ineffectual. The seal must not only touch, 
 but for a season abide upon the waxen sur- 
 face. Eeligious truth is robbed of its power 
 when the mind refuses to ponder on it ; and 
 then the heart is hardened. Many an urgent 
 59 
 
4 HAKDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 
 
 message of God's Word strikes with a ray of 
 conviction, but the mind shrinks and, as it 
 were, closes its eyes. For this voluntary ex- 
 clusion the soul is of course deeply responsi- 
 ble. These acts are repeated thousands of 
 times during an impenitent life. 
 
 4. But perhaps the most common method 
 of hardening the heart, and that to which the 
 words of the text are most specially directed, 
 is that of procrastination. The mind for a 
 moment admits the truth and puts it off. 
 This is precisely the same in its effects as de- 
 gjiberate rejection. Often repeated, it becomes 
 a habit of the soul, and effectually prevents 
 salvation. The resolution not to hear God 
 now is involved in the resolution 'to hear at 
 some other time. What is postponed to-day, 
 will be more easily postponed to-morrow, and 
 so life slips away. Old age is more enslaved 
 by the evil habit than childhood and youth. 
 Thus the arch-enemy gains his point; the 
 heart is hardened and the door of mercy is 
 allowed to close. And it is the destructive 
 influence of this treacherous temper, which is 
 opposed by the words of the Holy One crying 
 in our ears : " To-day, if ye will hear his voice, 
 harden not your hearts !" 
 60 
 
HAKDEN. NOT YOUR HEART. 5 
 
 Let me call the reader's attention to this 
 part of the solemn admonition. 
 
 1. To-day then is the best time for opening 
 the heart to divine impressions, because iti^ 
 GocVs time. He is a sovereign, and it is won- 
 derful that he should treat with us at all ; but 
 when he does so, we must surely admit his 
 authority to fix his own time. Especially 
 when the communication to which he asks 
 our response is one of abounding mercy. He 
 demands the heart noio ; he offers pardon and 
 renewal noic. If it is ignominious to disre- 
 gard the entreaties of a /HencZ, how guHty are 
 those who turn away from the beseechmgs of 
 their God and Saviour 1 If we were to treat 
 the proposals of a fellow-mortal in this man- 
 ner he would leave our doors and shake off 
 the' dust of his feet against us. Is there no 
 malionity then in the sin of asking God, our 
 offended Lord, to await our good pleasures* 
 He knocks, but the hard heart will not admit 
 
 him. 
 
 2 To-DAY is the time, because U)-morrow 
 the heart will he harder. Delay increases the 
 indisposition to return. The conscience ac- 
 quires armor, and becomes skilkd to ward 
 off the sword of the Spirit. The history of 
 61 
 
6 HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 
 
 every soul shows this to be true ; your own 
 case shows it. There have been days, and 
 memory recalls them well, in which you had 
 no peace by reason of your sins. You thought 
 of little else for a season ; you read and prayed 
 and strove. Those days are far away in the 
 distant past. Scripture and sermons and 
 providential warnings find you less penetra- 
 ble than you were. Should not this warn 
 you against further procrastination? You 
 complain that it is difficult to yield yourself 
 unreservedly to God. Oh ! betray not your 
 souls by the belief that delay will make it less 
 difficult. There are those in whom the dis- 
 position to defer divine subjects has become 
 from habit almost a part of their nature. 
 They are steeled against every weapon, for 
 long continuance in an evil way has made 
 the heart hard, and there is nothing they re- 
 gard so little as the voice of God. 
 
 3. Harden not the heart TO-DAY, because to- 
 morrow the number and aggravation of your 
 sins loill he increased ; and they will go on 
 increasing. Are they not sufficiently numer- 
 ous ? and is not their crimson hue sufficiently 
 deep ? If you could bring yourself to call 
 them up in order, you would soon be over- 
 62 
 
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 7 
 
 whelmed. Is it not the exquisite painfulness 
 of this survey which causes you to resist the 
 light? Be not deceived. Eemorse will over- 
 take you, either in this world or in that which 
 is to come. You do but act the part of an 
 unthrifty debtor, who avoids settlement and 
 plunges yet more deeply towards his ruin. 
 Every new page in the book of God's account 
 adds to the wrath and terror of your future 
 reckoning. Most who read this have already 
 lived the greater part of their time on earth, 
 and some are very near the great tribunal. 
 During all this period there has been an ac- 
 cumulation of guilt — mountains of unpardoned 
 sin. Why should you add to the dreadful 
 mass ? To-day, God comes with offers of par- 
 don. To-day, if ye will hear his voice, he 
 is ready to be reconciled. Though you have 
 repeatedly refused him, yet to-day he is 
 willing to enter into your heart. Why should 
 he find it locked against him? Why will 
 you continue to offend, and add transgression 
 to transgression ? Consider, moreover, from 
 this time forward your acts of disobedience 
 acquire an additional quality of turpitude ; for 
 they will be committed against clearer light 
 and newer mercies, after fresh strivings of the 
 63 
 
8 HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 
 
 Spirit, and with deeper wounds of conscience. 
 And the oftener you have been ineffectually 
 wrought upon by divine considerations, the 
 more direct will be your opposition to the 
 truth, and the more heinously culpable the 
 hardening of your heart. 
 
 4. To-day is the only safe time, for to-morrow 
 you may he in eternity. Life is uncertain. 
 " Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou 
 knowest not what a day may bring forth." 
 " He that being often reproved hardeneth his 
 neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that 
 without remedy." Behold now is the accepted 
 time ; behold now is the day of salvation. 
 Can you reasonably expect God to wait the 
 movements of an impenitent heart, which per- 
 petually renders him nothing but denials for 
 all his proposals of grace? How dreadful 
 would be the narrative, if I could unfold it, 
 of those who have been summoned away in 
 the midst of these procrastinations ! The 
 moment when they vainly promised them- 
 selves that they would open their hearts to 
 the divine visitant, found them beyond the 
 reach of hope. You are conscious that you 
 stand in dread of death, and yet you madly 
 refuse the only gift which can disarm death 
 64 
 
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 9 
 
 of his horrors. The part of wisdom is to leave 
 nothing to hazard. The argument is so con- 
 vincing that none can seriously persevere in 
 considering it, without an increase of feeling, 
 and hence you turn away from it — ^in other 
 words, you harden the heart. Yet I press it, 
 earnestly and affectionately, once again, know- 
 ing that in the hand of God it has been used 
 to bring many a rebel to his right mind. 
 This dream of tD-morrow^ if unbroken by an 
 unusual effort, will wrap you in its delusions 
 until your last breath. 
 
 5. Eepent to-day, because refusal so to do 
 is inconsistent luith a desire to repent. Uncon- 
 verted persons never more deceive themselves 
 than when they plead that they have a sin- 
 cere wish to return to God. If you credit 
 their assertions, there is nothing which they 
 so strongly desire as to have experience of 
 true religion. But such a desire, if genuine, 
 would instantly break up all these habits of 
 indolent lingering. He who desires to be 
 healed, flies to the physician. He who means 
 to escape shipwreck, loses not a moment in 
 lashing himself to some buoyant material. 
 He who craves deliverance from conflagration, 
 instantly rushes from amidst the flaming tim- 
 65 
 
10 HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 
 
 bers. And lie who longs to be saved, puts 
 aside every other interest and engagement as 
 unimportant, and devotes all the energies of 
 his soul to this single point, that he may es- 
 cape from the wrath to come. How remark- 
 ably do we see it exemplified, when any man is 
 under conviction of sin. Away with all in- 
 difference or carnal waiting, at such an hour. 
 He reads, he prays, he looks in every direc- 
 tion for help, he uses every means, he thinks 
 of nothing else. Here is a case of real desire 
 to return to God. And the absence of all this, 
 especially the deliberate purpose to adjourn 
 the whole inquiry and remain longer under 
 condemnation, is demonstrative that there is 
 no reality of desire. Let not this hollow fal- 
 lacy delude you. These are not the fruits 
 and tokens of strong desire, and if you can 
 plan a postponement of your greatest concern, 
 you must have learned to harden the heart. 
 There is no remedy but immediate acceptance 
 of God's word. 
 
 6. Eepent to-day, O my hearer! let me 
 finally urge, because rejoeiitance is the gift of 
 God. You sometimes plead the difficulties 
 of the work and your own helplessness as a 
 reason for delay. But surely this should be 
 GO 
 
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 11 
 
 mightily operative in the other direction. If 
 God, whose voice is heard saying, To-day^ to- 
 day, is the only Being who can effect the great 
 change, then -you are in his sovereign hands 
 and at his absolute mercy. If he were un- 
 willing to receive your returning soul, he 
 surely would not limit a certain time as the 
 accepted period. To-day, we may assure you, 
 he is ready to give repentance and remission 
 of sins. For future days he makes no pro- 
 mises. Your sins are great, but he desireth 
 not the death of the wicked. Cast yourself 
 in absolute surrender before him whom you 
 have offended. Throw your guilty soul into 
 the arms of his beloved Son. Myriads now 
 in heaven owe their salvation to this very 
 course. Why should he urge you with his 
 messages, and plead with you to make this 
 the blessed moment, if there were not mercies 
 in his heart ? Why this unwonted serious- 
 ness, and this weight of solemn thought, ex- 
 cept from influences of the Holy Spirit, who 
 will not allow you to remain unreproved? 
 Eemember, I beseech you, that all who have 
 become believers were once in the condition in 
 which you now are. They felt the difficul- 
 ties which you now feel. They suffered your 
 C7 
 
12 HAEDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 
 
 perplexity and groped in your darkness. 
 They were tempted to put off the day of sub- 
 mitting to the righteousness of God, as you 
 are now tempted. But mark it well, they 
 were brought to a point where further delay 
 was impossible. And had they not been 
 brought to this, they had never been saved. 
 The pressure was momentous and irresistible. 
 They were driven to this yielding. Sin was 
 intolerable. "Wrath was overhanging and in- 
 supportable. They saw before them a yawn- 
 ing gulf. The gleam of light on their heart 
 and their path was so dazzling that they felt 
 that any procrastination would be an impious 
 abandoning of God. To remain in the plain 
 of condemnation any longer they saw to be 
 ruin. Nothing was left to them but the one 
 determination — and they made it. 
 
 It is the voice of God your Eedeemer 
 which is sounding in your ears. Think 
 not of him as an austere Judge, but as 
 a compassionate Father, offering you the 
 tender mercies of his Son. The whole work 
 of Christ is made over to you in the offer of 
 the Gospel for your cordial acquiescence, and 
 that cordial acquiescence is saving faith. All 
 is yours upon your believing. Abandon your 
 68 
 
HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART. 13 
 
 own works and duties, your own innocence 
 and morality, your own merits and righteous- 
 ness, your own strivings, emotions, and tears. 
 Abandon forever the vain effort to render 
 yourselves more acceptable. Come in the one 
 character which belongs to you, that of a 
 corrupt, lost, and helpless sinner. Come out 
 of yourselves, and find all in Christ. Now, 
 while the Word is near you ; now, while the 
 seal of truth is pressed upon the somewhat 
 yielding heart, give way to the impression 
 and yield yourself to God. Why should not 
 this be the happy moment, since all things are 
 ready except your unrelenting soul ? To-day^ 
 if ye will hear His voice, harden not your 
 hearts ! There will never be a freer access ; 
 there will never be a more present Saviour. 
 The work, so long delayed, may be accom- 
 plished here and now, and your weight of sin 
 will thenceforward be taken away wholly and 
 forever. 
 
 69 
 
VARIETIES IN ANXIOUS INQUIRY. 
 
 There are family traits in those who are 
 born into tlie kingdom, but great diversity 
 marks the individual features and expression. 
 THs may be profitably studied during a 
 Eevival of Eeligion. This sameness and di- 
 versity are in nothing more remarkable than 
 in the way of coming from Satan to Grod ; 
 and even more particularly in the anxiety, 
 fear, and grief of the approach. The Male- 
 factor on the Cross and the Philippian Jailer 
 both had their convictions, but how unlike ! 
 Saul of Tarsus and the Ethiopian courtier of 
 Queen Candace are aroused amidst unlike cir- 
 cumstances. Solitary Cornelius, and the 
 thousands at Pentecost, have remarkable re- 
 semblances and differences. The same is true 
 of Lydia, Timothy, and other subjects of con- 
 version named in Scripture. Inexperience 
 
 would have all converts to bear its own favorite 
 10 
 
VARIETIES IX AXXIOUS IXQUIRY. 
 
 Stamp ; but the Spirit of God works with a 
 lavish, manifold, and magnificent variety, 
 which it is our province devoutly to admire. 
 So also it is in modern awakenings. 
 
 If we love to contemplate the unity in va- 
 riety which beautifully illustrates Divine skill, 
 power, and bounty in the kinds and species of 
 the animal kingdom, much more should we 
 gaze with intensity of interest upon the strange 
 but gracious examples of spiritual operation 
 in the saving of souls. While what is said 
 holds good of all such operations, we may 
 profitably confine our view to the diJfferent 
 aspects of anxiety among inquirers. 
 
 There are some things present in almost 
 every case of awakening. In whatsoever 
 place, time, or circumstances you were brought 
 to consideration, you had a consciousness of 
 being wrong and of being wretched. You 
 felt yourself in danger, and believed you must 
 do something to escape. The thought of the 
 glorious God overhung your path, and caused 
 you to meditate on your sins. But the de- 
 grees of this solicitude vary exceedingly ; from 
 slight ruffling of the sensibilities to utter des- 
 peration. 
 
 The man may be named, who went careless 
 71 
 
VARIETIES IN ANXIOUS INQUIRY. 
 
 f 
 
 into a religious meeting, and came out with 
 an arrow in his heart. Another has been 
 deeply pierced by a question from a child's 
 lips. The bare tidings of the conversion of such 
 or such a person may bring sudden conviction 
 to the hearer ; and the report of great num- 
 bers seeking God in one place often stimulates 
 attention, and so prostrates the sinner. No- 
 thing is oftener blessed to this end than some 
 sentence of the preached Word. The opening 
 of the Bible at an unexpected place may sting 
 a man into anguish. The word Eternity, at 
 the head of a tract, is said to have smitten a 
 fashionable sinner. One of the most eminent 
 and long-tried saints we ever knew was 
 brought to serious consideration in a ball- 
 room. The late eminently pious Francis 
 Markoe was led, not to conviction only, but to 
 salvation, on one and the same day, in his 
 solitary apartment; having up to this time 
 been without any religious impressions. The 
 convictions of St. Augustine may be read in 
 his ' Confessions/ or in Milner. Thousands 
 have owed theii awakening to the simplest 
 accost of a loving friend, uttered with prayer 
 and love. 
 
 The views taken by awakened souls are 
 U 
 
VARIETIES IN ANXIOUS INQUIRY. 
 
 different. Some are struck down as was 
 Saul ; others come gradually to a simple judg- 
 ment, by no means strong at first, that they 
 are in a wrong way of life. If a shaking, 
 wavering conviction, the chronic trouble of 
 common days, does not rise to acute distress 
 in the time of Kevival, it will be likely to de- 
 part without good results. 
 
 It is a great error of ignorant and inexperi- 
 enced persons, to predetermine how much or 
 how little shall be the terror and grief of a 
 convinced soul. To determine this, is the 
 prerogative of God. He may come in the 
 great and strong wind, the earthquake, the 
 fire, or in the stiU, small voice.^ "Some," 
 says the venerable annalist of the ^' Great Ke- 
 vival," in New-England, *' are from the be- 
 ginning carried on with abundantly more en- 
 couragement and hope than others. Some 
 have had ten times less trouble of mind than 
 others, in whom yet the issue seems to be the 
 same. Some have had such a sense of the dis- 
 pleasure of God, and the great danger they 
 were in of damnation, that they could not 
 sleep; and many have said that when they 
 lay down, the thoughts of sleeping in such a 
 
 1 1 Klny,^ 20 : 11. 12 
 70 
 
VAEIETIES IN ANXIOUS INQUIRY. 
 
 condition have been £riglitf\il to them, and 
 thej have scarcely been free from terror while 
 they have been asleep, and have awakened 
 with fear, heaviness, and distress, still abiding 
 'on their fepirits. It has been very common, 
 that the deep and fixed concern that has been 
 on persons' minds has had a painfril influence 
 on their bodies, and given disturbance to 
 animal nature." 
 
 The Law of God, applied to the mind and 
 conscience, is that which works conviction. 
 Hence the preaching of the Law precedes the 
 preaching of the Gospel, and is indispensable. 
 Views of the infinite Justice of God are never 
 wanting, in sound convictions, although as to 
 accessories and degree, these views may diJBfer. 
 Many who are in truth brought very low, by 
 the convincing Spirit, are under an illusion 
 and go about lamenting that they can not feel 
 In others, there is a silent, but profound and im 
 movable self-judgment, in regard to the abid- 
 ing state of sin and consequent anger of God. 
 
 If we examine the direction of that wind 
 which "bloweth where it listeth," we shall 
 find it uniformly setting towards self-remincia- 
 tion. " I am in the hands of a sovereign God," 
 is the language of the sinner. The blasts of 
 74 
 
VARIETIES IN ANXIOUS INQUIRY. 
 
 the law are driving liim away from self-de- 
 pendence to reliance on God. " They that be 
 whole need not a physician, but they that are 
 sick."i ^He is becoming "sick" by the law; 
 yea he is becoming " dead."^ Hear the groan- 
 ing of such a one, in his secret chamber : O 
 Lord ! help, or I perish ! Without a Medi- 
 ator, I am lost, lost forever. By the beams 
 of thy holy and immutable law, I see myself 
 depraved and guilty. The stirring up of en- 
 mity within me shows me to myself as worse, 
 rather than better. Once I felt only my out- 
 ward sins ; now the rule is apphed to my se- 
 cret sins, my sins of purpose, sentiment, and 
 thought, my habits and principles of sin, nay 
 my inmost state of sin I God be merciful to 
 me a sinner I 
 
 While to some favored souls the Lord Jesus 
 is revealed in his plenitude of saving com- 
 passion, from the very beginning of their 
 inquiring state ; to others he seems long inac- 
 cessible. The sufferer cries: "Oh! that I knew 
 where I might find him !" Kenewed convic- 
 tions lead to renewed struggles. There are 
 prayers, tears, and groans, with abundant en- 
 
 1 Matt. 9 : 12. 2 CoL 3 : 3 ; Rom. T : 9. 
 
 75 
 
VARIETIES IN ANXIOUS INQUIRY. 
 
 deavors to make tlie heart better, whicli all 
 the while seems to grow worse. Those exer- 
 cises, in which perhaps there was a certain 
 complacency at first, lose all power of quieting 
 the conscience. Thej have no merit ; they 
 give no security. So far jfrom thinking that 
 they are in a better way on account of these 
 impressions and struggles, convinced souls are 
 deeply persuaded that every additional mo- 
 ment of unbelief adds to the aggregate of 
 guilt. Never before, it may be, had they such 
 self-abhorrence and despair of self-salvation 
 as amidst the boiling corruptions and revealed 
 impenitence which first precedes faith and 
 rescue. " Once," says the sinner, "I thought 
 I had a certain amount of guilt, and I tried to 
 wash it away. Now I see my sins innumera- 
 ble, and their turpitude immeasurable. Unfit 
 to go the fountain, I lie here on the earth, and 
 cry, Unclean, unclean !" These are troubles 
 out of which only Christ can deliver. 
 
 Anguish like this can not be cured by any 
 legal performances. Indeed, the chief misery 
 of a convinced sinner is, that he finds himself 
 culpably unable to do the works of the law. 
 " I have seen many," says Luther, " who have 
 painfully travailed, and under stress of mere 
 
VARIETIES IN ANXIOUS INQUIRY. 
 
 conscience liave done the utmost -that was 
 possible, in fasts, prayers, hair-shirts, vexing 
 and punishing the body with sundry penances, • 
 sufficient at length to destroy a frame of 
 iron ; and all to this end, that they might gain 
 quietness and peace of conscience. Neverthe- 
 less, the more they wrought, the more were 
 they stricken down with dread. Especially 
 on the approach of death, some such persons, 
 though they had lived holily, have departed 
 with less courage than I have seen many mur- 
 derers and other criminals. Therefore, it is 
 most true, that they which do the law, do it 
 not." But despair of help by the law con- 
 ducts to the free grace of the Grospel. 
 
 The gross error of limiting the Holy Spirit 
 to one or a few methods of working in impen- 
 itent hearts, is more common than some sup- 
 pose. Among its evil consequences one is 
 realized by inquirers themselves. Instead of 
 following the intimations of Divine Wisdom 
 in the Word, in respect to what are proper 
 views and affections, they not unfrequently 
 prescribe some way in which they are to be 
 converted. They will hear of no other. 
 Their predilection for this way has been de- 
 rived from tradition, from uninspired books, 
 77 
 
VARIETIES IX ANXIOUS INQUIRY. 
 
 or from common talk. All sucli expectations 
 God is able to disappoint. The patlis by 
 whicli He leads to the Strait Gate are num- 
 berless. He who looked to be struck dumb 
 with terror, is melted all at once by love ; 
 while, perhaps, he who meant to advance ra- 
 tionally, deliberately, and gradually, is trans- 
 ported into paroxysms of terror, which make 
 him tremble for his reason. But all the vari- 
 eties of conviction leave the soul deeply im- 
 pressed with the insufficiency of every sacri- 
 fice but one. " Thou desirest not sacrifice, 
 else would I give it ; thou delightest not in 
 burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a 
 broken spirit : a broken and a contrite heart, 
 God I thou wilt not despise."^ 
 
 1 Psalm 51 16, 17. 
 
 r& 
 
VARIETIES IN ANXIOUS INQUIRY. 
 
 The Sinner's Only Hope. 
 
 "Wherewith, Lord ! shall I draw near, 
 And bow myself before thy face ? 
 
 How in thy purer eyes appear ? 
 
 "What shall I bring to gain thy grace ? 
 
 "Will gifts delight the Lord Most High? 
 
 Will multiphed oblations please? 
 Thousands of rams his favor buy, 
 
 Or slaughtered hecatombs appease ? 
 
 Can these avert the wrath of God ? 
 
 Can these wash out my guilty stain ? 
 Rivers of oil, and seas of blood, 
 
 Alas I they all must flow in vain. 
 
 "Who would himself to Thee approve. 
 Must take the path thyself hast showed ; 
 
 Justice pursue, and mercy love, 
 
 And humbly walk by faith -svith God. 
 
 But though my life henceforth be thine, 
 Present for past can ne'er atone : 
 
 Though I to thee the whole resign, 
 I only give thee back thine own. 
 
 Guilty I stand before thy face ; 
 
 On me I feel thy wrath abide ; 
 'Tis just the sentence should take place ; 
 
 'Tis just— but oh 1 thy Son hath died I 
 10 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 
 
 The "words wliicli here follow are not for 
 tlie careless hardened sinner, who feels no 
 burden; but if tbej should fall under the 
 eye of one who groans beneath the weight of 
 unpardoned iniquity, and strives to find de- 
 liverance from his pollution, then they have 
 reached the very end for which they were 
 destined. Let me, as it were, sit down beside 
 this comfortless one, and, Bible in hand, point 
 out some of its teachings concerning the way 
 to be saved ; for to the Scriptures must we 
 go directly if we would relieve a convinced 
 soul, who can rest in nothing short of a thus 
 SAiTH THE Lord. 
 
 When Philip joined himself to a certain 
 
 chariot, in which the Ethiopian courtier was 
 
 busied over a scroll of the prophets, he found 
 
 the place of Scripture to depict a suffering 
 
 80 
 
LOOKING UXTO JESUS. 
 
 Messiah} To this very point must we bring 
 every solicitous inquirer. Beginning at that 
 very place in Isaiah, Philip " preached unto 
 him Jesus." It is still the only preaching 
 which can quiet conscience and give peace. 
 Isaiah's single prophetic picture of the Cross 
 holds up the saving object. Look at it, as 
 the dying Hebrew looked at the serpent on 
 the pole ! Behold the Only-Begotten, in the 
 Garden and on the accursed tree, for thy sake. 
 For thee, He is " a man of sorrows and ac- 
 quainted with grief." He hath borne thy 
 griefe and carried thy sorrows. See Him 
 wounded for thy transgressions, bruised for 
 thy iniquities, laid under the chastisement of 
 thy peace, lacerated with stripes for thy heal- 
 ing. Behold Him taking thy place. "He 
 was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet he 
 opened not His mouth ; He is brought as a 
 lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before 
 her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His 
 mouth." See and acknowledge with faith 
 that " the Lord hath laid on Him the iniqui- 
 ties of us all." " It pleased the Lord to bruise 
 Him," to put Him to grief, to " make His 
 
 Isa. 53; Acts 9 : 27-39. 
 81 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 
 
 soul an offering for sin." All this and more 
 is in the single chapter which Philip expound- 
 ed in the chariot. It was enough for the 
 Ethiopian ; sinner, it is enough for thee ! 
 Eeject all other refages, and come at once to 
 the Cross. 
 
 Are you still doubting ? What can satisfy 
 you, if God's own method, in God's own mes- 
 sage, is not enough? The entire Gospel is 
 only a variety of ways in which to say : "Be- 
 hold the Lamb of God which taketh away the 
 sin of the world."^ Believe that God sincerely 
 offers to you this atonement ; acquiesce in it; 
 receive it as your own ; rest and rely on it — 
 and you are saved I 
 
 Why, halting sinner ! this delay? Why, 
 teside the very fountain, do you proudly re- 
 fuse to stoop and drink? Ah! methinks I 
 hear you say in bitterness : *' Wo is me, I am 
 lost I" Hearken to the Word : " The Son of 
 Man is come to seek and to save that which 
 was lost."^ Believe that He came to save 
 thee. Again you cry: "I am chief of sinners." 
 Again hear the Word : " This is a faithful 
 saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
 
 1 John 1 : 29 2 Luke 19 : 10. 
 
 82 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 
 
 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin- 
 ners, of whom I am chief."^ Come, as chief 
 of sinners, and accept that which the Apostle 
 declares worthy of all acceptation, and there- 
 fore worthy of thine. " I am ungodly !" you 
 rejoin; "how can God receive the ungodly?" 
 Learn from His own answer : " Christ died 
 for the ungodly."^ But I am under just con- 
 demnation and curse : " Christ hath redeemed 
 us from the curse of the law, being made a 
 curse for us."^ Cast your wretched soul on 
 this truth of God, that Christ has borne your 
 curse, when he bore your sins " in his own 
 body on the tree." Do you still urge: "I 
 am already doomed, as well by conscience as 
 law, and bound over unto condign punish- 
 ment?" I answer, that you are redeemed, 
 and that God's word ought to satisfy you ; 
 redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, 
 as of a lamb without blemish and without 
 spot."** Look to Jesus, " who His own self 
 bare our sins in His own body on the tree."^ 
 "But how can I be justified in the sight of a 
 righteous and inflexible Judge ?" Bead the 
 
 1 1 Tim. 1:15. 2 Rom. 5:6. 3 GaL 3 : 13. 
 
 4 1 Pet. 1 :19. 8 1 Pet. 2: 24. 
 
 83 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 
 
 answer in that precious word : " Being now 
 justified bj His blood."^ No sacrifices, even 
 of your body and life, could do it ; but it is 
 done by the blood of the Cross. Believe this. 
 O relenting reader I turn not away from 
 this scene of Divine compassion, until you 
 have taken in the full idea of what God freely 
 offers you. There, in the Gospel of His Son, 
 the Almighty Father makes over for your 
 acceptance Christ and his salvation. 
 " What I" you say ; " and are all my works 
 of legal endeavor worthless, in regard to my 
 justification ?" Yes, utterly worthless ; and 
 the sooner you reject them the better. All 
 your doings, outward or inward, are of no 
 merit. Such is the humbling persuasion 
 when we receive the true Gospel ; " knowing 
 that a man is not justified by works of law, 
 but by the faith of Jesus Christ." And if you 
 deny this, you nullify the Cross; "for if right- 
 eousness come by the law, then Christ is dead 
 in vain."^ Once more you ply us with objec- 
 tions, such as this : "After all, the glory of 
 Justice requires either righteousness or pun- 
 ishment ; the righteousness I can not produce, 
 
 IRora. 5: 9. 2 Gal. 2 : 16, 2L 
 
 84 ■ 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 
 
 the pimislimeiit I can not endure. Wretch 
 that I am, I can neither obey nor propitiate I" 
 Listen to God, rather than Satan, and receive 
 the whole Gospel in this epitome ; every word 
 is fragrant with free grace. "Being justified 
 freely by His grace through the redemption 
 that is in Christ Jesus ; whom God hath set 
 forth to be a propitiation, through faith in 
 His blood, to declare His righteousness for 
 the remission of sins that are past, through 
 the forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, His 
 RIGHTEOUSNESS, that He might be just, and 
 the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus."^ 
 How much better is one Divine saying, than 
 all the sayings of men I 
 
 Here is a saying, O sinner I strong enough 
 to bear the weight of thy immortal soul. 
 True, thou art ungodly, thou hast no right- 
 eousness ; but here is His righteousness, by 
 which without ceasing to be just, that is, 
 without ceasing to demand perfect righteous- 
 ness, God can justify thee in believing. Be- 
 lieve, beheve, then ! " Believe in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 
 
 But will so simple a thing give peace with 
 
 1 Rom. 3 : 24. 25, 26. 
 85 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 
 
 God ? Paul shall answer : " Therefore being 
 justified by faith, we have peace with God, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ."^ " And 'is 
 my condemnation then reversed?" Let the 
 same Apostle answer: *' There is therefore 
 now no condemnation to them that are in 
 Christ Jesus. "2 Believe the testimony of God, 
 and you are in Christ. Divine Justice be- 
 holds you in the Mediator. " K any man sin, 
 we have an Advocate with the Father," who 
 hath never sinned, even "Jesus Christ the 
 righteous."^ Think well of this verse : you 
 have sinned, and deserved death, but Christ 
 has never sinned, and has been " obedient 
 unto death." This is ^''His righteousness," 
 and may be yours^ if appropriated by your 
 faith. One glorious Kedeemer has taken the 
 place of many souls. They have no sound 
 obedience to be righteous in, but " by the obe- 
 dience of one shall many be made righteous."^ 
 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and his 
 righteousness is yours. 
 
 You are still reluctant, as if Jesus would 
 not receive you, a sinner. *'This man re- 
 ceiveth sinners."^ " Seek from one end of the 
 
 1 Rom. 5:1. 2 Rom. 8 : 1. 3 iJolm 2 : 1. 
 4 Rom. 5 : 19. 5 Luke 15 : 2. 
 
 86 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 
 
 heavens to tlie other," says Hooker, *' turn all 
 the Bible over, and see if the words of Christ 
 be not true. Him that cometh unto me, 1 will in 
 no wise cast outy " Ah ! there is the point," 
 say you ; " If I were only sure that I did 
 come /" Make sure of it, then, by believing. 
 To "come" is to "believe." Different terms 
 are used, but all mean one and the same taking 
 of Jesus Christ as your Saviour, on God's free 
 offer, which constitutes your warrant to take 
 it. This " receiving" is explained to be the 
 same as " believing," thus: "As many as re- 
 ceived him, to them gave he power to become 
 the sons of God, even to them that believe on 
 his name."^ When by believing you are 
 joined to Christ, you have authority to be a 
 child of God. Therefore, lay every thing else 
 aside, in order to come to Christ. 
 
 The anguish of soul experienced by Martin 
 Luther, enabled him to understand the case 
 of anxious inquirers. To such a one he says : 
 " When thy conscience is thoroughly afraid 
 with the remembrance of thy sins past, when 
 the devil assaulteth thee with great violence, 
 going about to overwhelm thee with heaps, 
 floods, and whole seas of sins, to terrify thee 
 
 1 John 1 : 12. 
 
 87 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 
 
 and draw thee from Christ, then arm thyself 
 with such sentences as these : ' Christ the Son 
 of God was given, not for the holy, righteous, 
 worthy, and such as were his friends ; but for 
 the wicked, for sinners, for the unworthy, and 
 for his enemies.' Wherefore if the devil say. 
 Thou art a sinner, and therefore must be 
 damned ; then answer thou and say : ' Because 
 thou sayest I am a sinner, therefore will I be 
 righteous, and saved.' And if he reply, Nay, 
 sinners must be damned, then answer and 
 say : ' jN'o, for I flee to Christ, who hath given 
 himself for my sins. And therefore, Satan, 
 in that ttou sayest I am a sinner, thou givest 
 me armor and weapons against thyself, that 
 with thine own sword I may cut thy throat, 
 and tread thee under my feet.' " 
 
 88 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 
 
 TO CHRIST. 
 
 When I see thee hanging, bleeding, 
 
 Dying, on the cruel tree. 
 Pale in°voe, yet interceding 
 
 For the men that murdered thee ; 
 How can I refrain from giving 
 
 Life and soul and all away, 
 On thv promise ever living. 
 Thee adoring night and day ! 
 
 When I see thee upward breaking 
 
 From the grave, on high to stand, 
 And thy rightful empire taking 
 
 At the Father's blest right hand ; 
 Can I longer doubt thy favor, 
 
 Or thy willingness to bless ? 
 No, my interceding Saviour, 
 
 Words can ne'er my hope express. 
 
 When I feel the fresh bedewing 
 Of thy spirit on my heart, 
 
 All the Father's mercy viewing, 
 In the gifts thy pangs impart; 
 
 Faith accepts the heavenly seahn 
 Tenderness and joy combine 
 
 o ' 
 
 Peace o'er all my soul is stealing, 
 I am Christ's, and Christ is mine ! 
 
 Thus, when life's short day is ending. 
 
 And this mortal yields its power, 
 May thy Spirit condescending 
 
 Cleanse and arm me for the hour ! 
 At the river's brink arriving, . 
 
 In thy smile I lose my fear,^ 
 Victory then crowns my striving. 
 
 Death is gain, for Christ is here ! 
 89 
 
GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER! 
 
 Several comments may be made on this 
 familiar prayer. 
 
 I. It is a signer's prayer. K tlie Bible 
 gave us the prayers only of great saints, we 
 might be at a loss ; it gives us the prayers of 
 great sinners. This man is a Publican ; and 
 a Publican is prima-facie a sinner. Our Lord 
 evidently means it to be so understood. 
 
 The proper place for the sinner is the place 
 of prayer. The very best thing a Publican 
 can do is to go direct to God in prayer. 
 Thus the sinful Zaccheus placed himself in 
 the way. He was perhaps a laughing-stock 
 in that tree by the wayside ; but he knew 
 every thing depended on his seeing Christ. 
 It is a blessed thing for a sinner to have words 
 put into his mouth mth which to go to God. 
 If the worst malefactor living could come to 
 90 
 
GOD BE MERCIFUL 
 
 the point of turning, here are the words with 
 which to turn. 
 
 There was a horrible wretch suspended on 
 the cross at Golgotha ; in his agonies he re- 
 solved to pray. He saw dying beside him 
 the Saviour of the world. He poured out his 
 sinful, breaking, expiring soul in one great 
 but short petition: "Lord, remember me I" 
 and in a few moments he was in the arms of 
 that Lord in Paradise. What a blessed cheer- 
 ing lesson, that sinners may pray I 
 
 IL It is a SIMPLE PRAYER. It is very 
 short ; far shorter than the Pharisee's, though 
 his was short for a Pharisee. Perhaps we 
 have not all he said, in ampHfication of his 
 righteousness. This has but a single petition. 
 There is no multiplication of request. When 
 a man goes to God in earnest, he will usually 
 dwell on the one ^Am^ which is his burden; this 
 will swell within him — this will overflow — this 
 will break into language. There have been 
 times, O reader ! when all our wishes seemed 
 condensed into one, and we could ask of God 
 only that one thing. Such prayers go from 
 the heart. Infinitely better are they than 
 whole inventories of vain, heartless requests. 
 The message of the heart — that is what God 
 91 
 
TO ME A sinner! 
 
 looks at ; what the soul pants, wrestles, and 
 longs for, can not live without, y^, almost 
 dies for ; this is the prayer God hears. As a 
 man prays, when all is at stake — when a first- 
 born is at the brink of the pit — when he is in 
 extreme peril — as you will pray when God 
 shall stand over you, saying, " Thoushalt die 
 and not live !" This is praying in earnest, 
 and it is always simple. All great things are 
 simple. Mighty heavings of desire break 
 away over conventional forms. Like Paul 
 he could say, " One thing I do ;" one thing 
 I want. He summoned all his powers to give 
 impetus to one vast petition ; it was for a 
 simple good, and that good was, Mercy. 
 
 " Mercy, good Lord, mercy I crave, 
 This is the total sum : 
 For mercy, Lord, is all my suit, 
 Lord, let thy mercy come !" 
 
 (SlERNnOLD.) 
 
 m. It is a LOWLY PRAYER. Every thing 
 m his posture and carriage evinces this ; but 
 the words still more. He gives himself one 
 title only, and that the lowest, " a sinner J ^ 
 Has he heard what the Pharisee has just been 
 saying of him to God ? Ah ! he cares not. 
 92 
 
GOD BE MERCIFUL 
 
 ' God, he knows full well, ngeds not tlie infor- 
 mation ; naj, he needs it not himself. Others 
 can not think worse of him than he thinks of 
 himself The sense of God's all seeing eye, as 
 ■upon Tis, and of his spotless holiness as against 
 us, makes the judgment by men of very little 
 value. It is then a small thing to be judged 
 by man's judgment. This is the true source 
 of humility. Looking at oureelves as God 
 looks at us tends to cut down our high 
 thoughts. "Pride was not made for man." 
 It is abomination to God. Above all, spiritual 
 pride is an inward sin of a deep dye ; because 
 it is a vaunting of ourselves in that which, if 
 indeed possessed, we have received as beggars 
 from the hand of God. And pride on our 
 knees, self-complacency in sackcloth, conceit 
 of our own goodness in prayer — what are 
 these but so many insults to Jehovah ! " The 
 rich hath He sent empty away." These boast- 
 ers, and carnal self-pleasers are they, whom 
 infinite purity and holiness loves to crush. 
 For see the moral of the parable, (v. 14,) " For 
 every one that exalteth himself shall be 
 abased." How often is it said! how con- 
 stantly do we need the repetition ! Perhaps 
 the very man who is now saying, '-/need it 
 93 
 
TO ME A sinner! 
 
 not," needs it most. (Matt. 23 : 12,) " Whoso- 
 ever shall exalt liimself shall be abased." 
 (James 4 : 6,) *' God resisteth the proud, but 
 giveth grace unto the humble." We must 
 come in prayer, as the culprit comes, as the 
 leper comes, "or even as this publican." 
 
 TV. It is a PENITENT PRAYER. This above 
 all things it is. The voice of true compunc- 
 tion breaks through, as in a sob of grief. A 
 sinner ! a sinner I just as the leper, under the 
 law, was to stand afar, and cry: "Unclean ! 
 unclean." O ye hardened sinners ; ye 
 unhumbled Pharisees ; how little do ye know 
 of the grief of a soul pouring itself out to God 
 under a sense of the turpitude, magnitude 
 and multitude of sins ! To you, how much 
 of the prayers of the church, and of the pray- 
 ers of David, must be a dead letter ! How 
 little conception have ye of the solitary moan- 
 ings of one who loathes himself on account 
 of sin, and smites his breast on account of his 
 impotency, and acknowledges his utter vile- 
 ness and un worthiness ! God's law laid 
 closely to the conscience, and God's holiness 
 beaming on the sinful heart, work such a con- 
 trast and conflict that the best expression 
 is often that of Job : "I abhor myself and 
 94 
 
■ GOD BE MEECIFUL 
 
 repent in dust and ashes." And thotigli you 
 now think this whole matter an exaggeration, 
 and flatter yourself in your own eyes until 
 your iniquity be found hateful, it is because 
 your eyes have never been opened, and " ye 
 must be born again !" In the hour of true 
 repentance, there is such a justifying of God 
 and such a condemning of self as sometimes 
 dissolves the soul into a penitential sorrow 
 which bedews and kisses the feet of Christ ; 
 which will not forgive itself even when He 
 forgives ; which exclaims, '' To me who am 
 less than the least of all saints " — to me *' the 
 chief of sinners." Nay, what can be more 
 full of pathos, than this gush of heart from 
 the convinced Publican : " God be merciful 
 to me a sinner !" 
 
 Y. It is a PRAYER OF FAITH. This wa 
 might argue from the effect. Without faith il 
 is impossible to please him : but this did 
 please him. He that cometh to God must 
 believe that he is, and that he is a re warder 
 of them who diligently seek him. The Pub - 
 lican so believed, and so came, and so sought, 
 and was so rewarded. He that is in need is 
 to ask of God; "but let him ask in faith," 
 says the Apostle James. Many a man has 
 95 
 
TO ME A sinner! 
 
 liad a ddfep, and despairing, and almost damn- 
 ing sense of his guilt, so as to be driven to 
 tlie cries of Cain and tlie suicide of Judas, and 
 yet lias never uttered this prayer; for this 
 reason, that he has had no belief in God as a 
 justifier of the ungodly, and no sight of Christ 
 as a sufficient and willing Saviour. It is a 
 lesson we are slow to learn, yet most true and 
 important, that true sorrow for sin never begins 
 till there is some sight of grace. The Law, 
 in its manifold agency of alarm, conviction, 
 remorse, fear, horror, crushing of soul, can 
 only harden. Increase this, until it reach 
 utter despondency, like that of the lost, who 
 have legal awakening in its extreme, still it 
 • has no tincture of gracious affection. But let 
 the Gross appear; let God be revealed as 
 jready to pardon ; let the gift of his Son at- 
 pract the love of the heart ; let the blood of 
 Calvary trickle warmly over the obdurate 
 bosom ; and these morose, proud, and relent- 
 less habits give place to childlike sorrow and 
 melting contrition. Then the soul can pray. 
 " Behold he prayeth !" Then the sinner can 
 pray to God^ as no longer vengeful and unfor- 
 giving ; and can call on him by his chosen 
 name, " The Lord, the Lord God merciful and 
 06 
 
GOD BE MERCIFUL 
 
 gracious." Then he can utter the petition 
 which Christ has honored, " God be merciful 
 to me a sinner I" 
 
 YI. It is an accepted prayer. Often, 
 alas ! we praj, and never afterward concern 
 oSrselves, as to whether we have b^en heard 
 or not. The Pharisee is so sure of his own 
 merits that he scarcely needs to ask. The 
 Publican, whether he knows it or not, is heard 
 and answered : "I tell you, this man went 
 down to his house justified rather than the 
 otber." Eeader, it is a blessed thing to go 
 from the sanctuary to the home^ with a justi- 
 fied soul : many have so gone ; and you 
 might so go. The whole need not a physician ; 
 the Pharisee sought no pardon ; but they 
 that are sick — ^the Publican — the sinner — such 
 as you and I, make this the burden of prayer, 
 and earnestly beseech God to show us this 
 favor. Could you, as you now read, under a 
 pressing, poignant sense of your own unwor. 
 thiness, and transgression, and defilement, 
 abandon all your good works, good intentions, 
 and good feelings ; and as a sinner, empty of 
 all good, of all power, and of all preparation, 
 could you, just as you are, look away from 
 that dark chaos within you, on which you 
 
TO ME A sinner! 
 
 have been gazing, to the Lamb of God who 
 taketh away the sin of the world ; could you 
 be all on a sudden withdrawn from looking 
 self- ward to looking (7Am^ward, so as to be 
 absorbed in the contemplation of an excellen- 
 cy, a love, a mercy, a grace, a forgivendfes, 
 which ask no condition, and brook no bounds ; 
 and could you, in all your present sense of 
 hardness, impenitency, and unpreparedness, 
 flee forever from all your own deservings, and 
 your own strivings, and cast yourself head- 
 long into the ocean of divine love in Jesus 
 Christ, crying, God be merciful to me a sin- 
 ner ! you would go down to your house jus- 
 tified. And how great a blessing would this 
 be ! for I have further to say of this petition. 
 
 Yir. It is the PRAYER OF A SAVED SOUL. 
 
 Has it not been heard ? Has it not been an- 
 swered? Has not Christ spoken the whole 
 parable to teach this very thing ? Has not 
 the Publican gone down to his house justified? 
 Has not God been merciful to him a sinner ? 
 Then of a truth he is forever saved I His 
 sins, which were many, are forgiven, and he 
 loves much and goes on his way rejoicing. 
 Can any thing be more just cause of joy to a 
 human soul than a consciousness of pardon 
 
 9S 
 
GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER ! 
 
 and divine acceptance ? It is salvation be- 
 gun. The assurance may not ensue upon tlie 
 prayer. One may be in darkness and yet be 
 a true believer. Those are not the safest 
 Christians who boast of the most unchanging 
 frames. Their comparisons of themselves with 
 weaker brethren savor of the Pharisee's grat- 
 ulations. But the soul is safe, which has 
 even once fled for refuge to lay hold on the 
 hope set before it in the Gospel. Being joined to 
 Christ it can not be disj oined. It is as pure from 
 guilt as the blood of Christ can wash it. It is 
 as righteous in the sight of law, as the right- 
 eousness of Christ can make it. He that spared 
 not his own Son, can not withhold lesser gifts. 
 "Whom he called, them he also justified; 
 and whom he justified, them he also glorified." 
 To be justified, then, is to be saved. This 
 must be admitted, unless you can produce 
 some power able to effect a separation between 
 the Head and the members : and what power 
 shall this be ? Tribulation, distress, persecu- 
 tion, famine, peril, sword, death, life, angels, 
 principalities, powers, things present, things 
 to come, height, depth, any other creature ? 
 nay, in all these things we are more than con- 
 querors, through him that loved us ! 
 90 
 
PAUL GERHARDT'S HYMN. 
 
 sacred Head 1 now wounded, 
 
 With grief and shame weighed down ; 
 Now scornfully surrounded 
 
 With thorns, thy only crown ; 
 sacred Head I what glory. 
 
 What bliss till now was thine I 
 Yet, though despised and gory, 
 
 I joy to call thee mine. 
 
 noblest brow, and dearest I 
 
 In other days the world 
 All feared when thou appearedst ; 
 
 What shame on Thee is hurled 1 
 How art thou pale with anguish. 
 
 With sore abuse and scorn ; 
 How does that bosom languish 
 
 Which once was bright as morn. 
 
 The blushes late residing 
 
 Upon that holy cheek, 
 The roses once abiding 
 
 Upon those lips so meek ; 
 Alas I they have departed ; 
 
 Wan Death has rifled all ! 
 For, weak and broken-hearted, 
 
 I see thy body fall. 
 
 What thou, my Lord, hast suffer, d 
 
 Was all for smners' gain ; 
 Mine, mine was the transgression, 
 
 But thine the deadly pain. 
 Lo I here I fall, my Saviour I 
 
 'Tis I deserve thy place. 
 Look on me with t'ly favor, 
 
 Vouchsafe ti mc thy grace. 
 100 
 
Receive me, my Redeemer, 
 
 My Shepherd, make me thine ; 
 Of every good the fountain. 
 
 Thou art the spring of mine. 
 Thy lips with love distilling 
 
 And milk of truth sincere. 
 With heaven's bliss are filling 
 
 The soul that trembles here. 
 
 Beside thee. Lord, I've taken 
 
 My place — forbid me not 1 
 Hence will I ne'er be shaken, 
 
 Though thou to death be brought. 
 If pain's last paleness hold thee, 
 
 In agony opprest — 
 Then, then will I enfold thee 
 
 "Within this arm and breast. 
 
 The joy can ne'er be spoken, 
 
 Above aU joys beside, 
 When in thy body broken 
 
 I thus with safety hide. 
 My Lord of life, desiring 
 
 Thy glory now to see. 
 Beside the cross expiring 
 
 I'd breathe my soul to thee. 
 
 What language shall I borrow 
 
 To thank thee, dearest Friend, 
 For this, thy dying sorrow, 
 
 Thy pity without end I 
 make me thine forever 1 
 
 And should I fainting be, 
 Lord, let me never, never 
 
 Outlive my love to Thee, 
 101 
 
PAUL GERHARDT'S HYMN. 
 
 Be near when I am dying, 
 
 show thy cross to me I 
 And for my succor flying, 
 
 Come, Lord, to set me free. 
 These eyes new faith receiving, 
 
 From Jesus shall not move, 
 For he who dies believing, 
 
 Dies safely through thy love. 
 
 Note. — The author of this translation, from Paul Ge'r- 
 hardt, desires to say that it has been frequently republished 
 with changes and mutilations, which do great injustice to 
 the German original. — A. 
 
 102 
 
OH! FOR MORE FEELING! 
 
 What language is more common among 
 awakened sinners tlian tliis : "I can not feel 
 that I am a sinner. And yet I know that I 
 have broken God's holy law. I acknowledge 
 that I am justly condemned. I am deeply 
 distressed at times with the thought that I 
 must surely perish. But my great burden is 
 that I can not feel this. I have no deep sense 
 of my own sinfulness. My constant and ago- 
 nizing prayer has been for months, ' 
 Lord ! break this hard unfeeling heart !' " 
 
 There are unhappy souls, we must admit, 
 whom God has deserted, who do not and can 
 not feel their lost condition ; and who are desig- 
 nated by the Apostle as " past feeling." Do 
 you, afflicted reader, class yourself among 
 these ? You know that you can not. You 
 are in distress; and what distresses you? 
 That you are calm and unmoved in the midst 
 103 
 
4 on! FOR MORE FEELING I 
 
 of your sins ? That the awfal position of 
 your soul is unnoticed by you ? That you have 
 no desire to return to God ? 
 
 " Ko, this is not my condition," you instant- 
 ly answer. "I do feel ; yet it is not because 
 I am a sinner, but because my heart is so 
 hard and unfeeling." 
 
 Now suppose you transfer this experience 
 from your soul to your body, and see how un- 
 founded are your troubles. You are afflicted 
 with a deep-seated malady ; it is invisible, it 
 gives no pain ; and yet its effects are appar- 
 ent, in the wasting of your body. Suppose 
 you were to argue thus : "I know that there 
 is a deadly disease preying upon my vitals, 
 and I desire to be cured ; but I feel no pain — 
 I do not see the loathsome seat of evil. If I 
 could only feel and see this, I would call for 
 the physician." 
 
 You do know that the disease is there, and 
 you do know that you are a sinner. The 
 Spirit and the law of God have been work- 
 ing this conviction, and your deceitful heart 
 is only shrinking into this refuge of lies 
 in order to delay its flight to the city of 
 refuge.^ 
 
 1 Heb. 6 : 13, 
 104 
 
OH ! FOR MORE FEELING I 6 
 
 The word of God gives us no intimation as 
 to the precise amount of feeling which we are 
 to have before we approach Christ for heal- 
 ing. Bartimeus knew that he was blind. 
 This was enough to lead him to the waj-side, 
 where Jesus was to pass. There is no evi- 
 dence that he thought of searching into the 
 nature or origin of his blindness. He knew 
 that he was bhnd, and that was enough to 
 force from him the crj, "Jesus, thou Son of 
 David, have mercy on me I" The Israelites, 
 who were bitten bj the fiery serpents, were 
 not required to trace the effects of the subtle 
 poison as it entered the circulation, or to mark 
 the symptoms of its deadly progress, before 
 they looked at the brazen serpent for healing. 
 The moment they felt the venomous fang 
 they might look and be healed. Since it was 
 so with th^ types of the sinner and the cross, 
 is it not equally so with the antitypes ? 
 
 Where has God said. Produce so much con- 
 viction, feel so and so, in regard to your sin, 
 humble your soul to that particular point of 
 anguish and grief, and then you may have 
 Christ and his free grace ? Nay ; on such a 
 plan no inquiring soul could ever know his 
 warrant to believe, because he could never as- 
 105 
 
6 OH I FOR MORE FEELING I 
 
 certain whether his conviction, grief, and 
 anguish were enough. 
 
 " Let not conscience make you linger ; 
 Nor of fitness fondly dream : 
 AU the fitness he requireth 
 Is to feel your need of him." 
 
 It was truly said by President Edwards, 
 " that those who are partly convinced of sin 
 are not apt to think themselves greatly con- 
 vinced ; and the reason is this : men judge of 
 the degree of their own convictions of sin by 
 two things jointly considered, namely, the 
 degree of sense which they have of guilt and 
 pollution, and the degree of cause they have 
 for such a sense, in the degree of their real 
 sinfalness. It is really no argument of any 
 great conviction of sin for some men to think 
 themselves to be very sinful, be/ond most 
 others in the world ; because they are so 
 indeed very plainly and notoriously. And 
 therefore a far less conviction of sin may in- 
 chne such a one to think so than another ; he 
 must be very blind indeed, not to be sensible 
 of it. But he that is truly under great con- 
 viction of sin, naturally thinks this to be his 
 case. It appears to him that the cause he has 
 lOG 
 
OH I FOR MORE FEELING I 7 
 
 to be sensible of guilt and pollution is greater 
 than others have, and therefore he ascribes 
 his sensibleness of this to the greatness of his 
 sin, and not to the greatness of his sensi- 
 bility." 
 
 This difficulty as to a want of feeling arises 
 wholly from a wrong view of what salvation 
 is. We fail to see in it a perfect gratuity to 
 sinners. To sinners I say, for the whole effort 
 of the soul, in all its struggles, is to make some 
 preparation, to be in some pecuhar state of 
 mind, before it can receive the free gift. But 
 Christ came to call not the righteous, but sin- 
 ners; the invitations of the Gospel are to 
 SINNERS. No one, indeed, will come to the 
 physician who has not a sense of want ; but 
 there is no merit, nor any proper preparation, 
 in such sense of want. It is only hungering 
 and thirsting. If you hunger after salvation, 
 come ; if you are athirst, come ; if you are 
 heavy laden because you can not feel your 
 sins, come. 
 
 Let us, however, suppose this difficulty to 
 be removed. You are satisfied that certain 
 convictions of sin are not prescribed as neces- 
 sary to your acceptance of Christ. Satan 
 and your own deceitful heart have not yet 
 107 
 
8 OH ! FOR MORE FEELING I 
 
 exhausted their subterfuges. You now are 
 troubled because jou feel no love, nor joy ; 
 and the soul often complains that it has even 
 no desire for salvation. It seems to be your 
 determined purpose to obstruct the way by 
 every possible impediment. Can you con- 
 ceive of a drowning man refusing to seize the 
 rope which is thrown to him, because he 
 doubts whether he feels gratitude enough to 
 the friend who has thrown it ; or because he 
 is not certain whether he rightly -wishes to 
 be saved? Surely Satan has blinded the 
 minds of them that believe not, when he can 
 thus prevent them from simply accepting 
 eternal life. 
 
 There are two grand errors upon which all 
 these difficulties of the inquiring soul rest. 
 The first is that there is some work, prepara- 
 tion, or experience demanded previous to a 
 surrender of the heart to Christ. The second 
 is, that salvation is an emotion, or a feeling, 
 or a series of these, instead of a new life besrun 
 in faith. All the thoughts, emotions, or acts 
 of the soul, before it rests upon Christ, are 
 utterly worthless in the sight of God. ^' Lord, 
 I BELIEVE," is the first utterance of the 
 new-born soul. Preceding exercises, if they 
 
• oh! fok more feeling I 9 
 
 have any value, only lead the soul to this 
 confession, and then the feelings are the 
 fruits of that new life derived at the cross. 
 
 You may have been weeks or months wait- 
 ing for these feelings to come — wrestling with 
 God in prayer that he would send them — and 
 deeply disturbed because the prayer was not 
 answered. Did you ever go to the Word of 
 God, and put your finger upon the command 
 that you must have this feeling or that feeling, 
 before you could believe on Christ ? Did our 
 Lord tell Mcodemus to go home and wait 
 until his heart was broken, and then come 
 again and receive life? No, He told him to 
 helieve. Did the apostles tell the thousands 
 who were awakened by Peter's sermon on 
 the day of Pentecost, to wait for farther light 
 or further conviction? No, the command 
 was, repent. It was an act to be performed 
 then ; and among the three thousand who did 
 receive Christ there, must there not have been 
 an infinite variety of experience ? Some felt 
 as you feel — perhaps some delayed as you de- 
 lay — ^but the three thousand, without waiting, 
 received the proffered salvation. Did Paul 
 advise the trembling jailer to wait until he 
 was better prepared to come ? No, but out 
 100 
 
10 oh! for more feeling I • 
 
 of the very jaws of suicide to believe in that 
 Saviour who received him. A young man 
 came to the writer of these pages a few weeks 
 ago under great concern, asking what he must 
 do to be saved. He was directed to the Cross 
 and its Divine Victim, and to a simple receiv- 
 ing of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Way 
 of life. A few days after he came rejoicing 
 in hope, saying : " I did not know how easy a 
 thing conversion was. I thought there would 
 be some great and wonderful change in my 
 feelings before I came to the Cross." This is 
 but the old story of Naaman, or rather of the 
 human heart, refusing to receive a free salva- 
 tion ; looking at its own corruptions and its 
 amendment, instead of the great object of faith 
 which is so prominently set before us in the 
 Word of God. 
 
 Let the reader look at the sum of these errors 
 and disheartening delays. You are unwilling 
 to be saved by grace. You do not confess it, 
 but your posture proves it ; you are waiting, 
 waiting, waiting, months or even years, to be 
 borne away into some griefs or raptures, which, 
 it may be, God has no purpose of bestowing 
 upon you. The effect is preposterously put 
 before the cause, feeling before faith. If you 
 110 
 
oh! for more feeling I ll 
 
 could only feel hope, grief, terror, love, you 
 would believe. God's declaration of mercy 
 would then be true -to you. Ah I sinner, it is 
 true to you now, whether you feel or not. 
 Feeling becomes self-righteousness, if it takes 
 the place of the righteousness of Christ. 
 "Would you feel now ? Only believe. It is 
 at the Cross (that is, believing) that the burden 
 falls from the back, and tears of genuine feel 
 ing from the eyes. 
 
 The Lord will happiness divine 
 
 On contrite hearts bestow ; ^ 
 
 Then tell me, gracious God, is mine 
 A contrite heart or no ? 
 
 I hear, but seem to hear in vain, 
 
 Insensible as steel ; 
 If aught is felt, 'tis only pain 
 
 To find I can not feel 
 
 I sometimes think myself inclined 
 
 To love thee if I could ; 
 But often feel another mind 
 
 Averse to all that's good. 
 
 ily best desires are faint and few — 
 I fain would strive for more ; 
 
 But when I cry, " My strength renew," 
 Seem weaker than before. 
 Ill 
 
12 OH ! FOR MORE FEELING ! 
 
 Thy saints are comforted, I know, 
 And love thy house of prayer ; 
 
 I therefore go where others go, 
 But find no comfort there. 
 
 Oh 1 make this heart rejoice or ache, 
 Decide this doubt for me ; 
 
 And if it be not broken, break, 
 And heal it if it be. 
 
 ir 
 
HAVE 1 COME TO CHRISTY 
 
 There is notliing wliicli should awaken sur- 
 prise in the statement, that behevers bear cer- 
 tain marks by which they may discover them- 
 selves to be snch ; for religion works a real and 
 important change, which admits of being ascer- 
 tained. Many are the treatises which have 
 been written on this sabj^t, and it would be 
 easy to add to their nndfber, because every 
 fruit of grace might in a sense be called an 
 evidence, and the recital of all these would fill 
 a volume. It is not intended now to enter 
 upon so large a field, nor to treat the whole 
 round of Christian evidences. It will be 
 more expedient to contemplate the subject 
 only as it stands related to our proper topic ; 
 in other words, to examine the evidences of a 
 gracious state under this single aspect, as evi- 
 dences of having come to Christ. 
 
 Before proceeding to indicate any marks of 
 faith, it will be desirable to state a few princi- 
 ples,' the neglect of which has given rise lo 
 113 " 
 
2 HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 
 
 much confusion; these principles have a 
 direct bearing on all that is to be said in the 
 sequel. 
 
 The evidences which are to to be proposed 
 are not for the world, but for the inquirer. 
 On the world there can be no marks but those 
 of external conduct, and these are often falla- 
 cious. He who would know his own state 
 must go deeper than this ; for as the vener- 
 able Stoddard observes : " All visible signs 
 are common to converted and unconverted 
 men ; and a relation of experiences among 
 the rest." Not onbr the world, but the most 
 pious and experienced church officers may be 
 deceived, and take chaff for wheat ; the sin- 
 cere believer will therefore aim to push his 
 search more to the root of things. 
 
 These marks must he of divine authcnnty. 
 Hundreds of rules have been laid down, and 
 pressed with great earnestness, which have 
 nevertheless no foundation in the Word of 
 God, but are barely the inventions of men, 
 sometimes of imprudent and erroneous men. 
 In times of unusual awakening, and times 
 when there is earnestness for particular doc- 
 trines, it is common for many new tests to be 
 proposed. Thus, for example, the day has 
 lU 
 
HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 3 
 
 been when a man would not be reckoned a 
 true Christian, unless lie abandoned all his 
 goods ; or unless he was fully prepared for 
 martyrdom ; or unless he was dehvered from 
 all self-love ; or unless he was willing to be 
 damned ; or unless he professed full assurance 
 of hope ; or unless he had attained sinless 
 perfection. By setting np such tests, weak 
 and trembling believers have often been cast 
 into needless despondency, while presump- 
 tuous zealots have triumphed. ISTo discrimi- 
 nation has the slightest value here which is 
 not founded on clear declarations of the Scrip- 
 ture ; and these are so abundant as to cut off 
 every pretext of arrogant inventors. " To 
 the Law and to the Testimony." 
 
 The marks of Christian character go together^ 
 as parts of an undivided whole. There is such 
 a unity and symmetry in the religious life, as 
 proceeding from " one and the selfsame Spi- 
 rit," that we can no more have a half-Christian- 
 ity than a half-life. For, first, since there is a 
 total depravity in the unrenewed, and since 
 there is no grace, even apparently the small- 
 est, which is not the fruit of regeneration, it 
 follows, that any one undeniable evidence ivould 
 ascertain a soul to he renewed. If, for example, 
 
 115 
 
4 HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 
 
 any one could be absolutely certain of his 
 having genuine faith, or holy love, or gospel 
 humility, he would need to look no further. 
 Just as in a case of suspended animation, 
 when anxious friends surround the body, not 
 knowing but that it is a corpse; there are 
 many signs of animal life, but one breath, 
 or one opening of the eyes, or one voluntary 
 motion settles the question. But lest this 
 should render any presumptuous, let it be 
 added, that for the same reason, secondly, the 
 total absence of any one essential mark ivoidd 
 ascertain the soul to he unrenewed. All graces do 
 not indeed blossom and bear at once ; there are 
 seasons for particular exercises, and stages in 
 Christian growth ; so that this rule is not to be 
 hastily applied. But of its general truth no 
 one can be in doubt, who will reflect, that the 
 absolute and undeniable want of humility, or 
 of brotherly kindness, if it could be ascertain- 
 ed, would as-'certainly stamp a man an enemy 
 of God, as perjury or murder. In a word, 
 the Christian life, though not always acting 
 in the same manner, or the same degree, is 
 always fully present in renewed minds. 
 
 It is the recdity^ and not the degree^ of these 
 evidences^ ivhich is the present object of our search, 
 IIG 
 
HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 5 
 
 In another connection we ouglit to be deeply 
 concerned about the small measure of our 
 piety, and ought daily and with tears to strive 
 for its highest degrees ; but when the inquiry is 
 whether we have any piety whatever, it is not a 
 question of degree ; and many a humble soul 
 needs the suggestion. There maybe life where 
 there is little strength and little development. 
 The new-born child is as truly alive as the 
 giant. This should not make us willing to 
 remain children, but it should keep us from 
 pronouncing that there is no renewal, because 
 its evidences are small in degree. At the 
 same time it is to be acknowledged, that the 
 principal reason why any real Christians are 
 in doubt as to their acceptance, is that the 
 degree of their evidence is so small ; the fire 
 burns so low that it can not be perceived 
 among the ashes ; and the obvious method 
 for such persons is to desist from the search 
 for that which is so small, and to strive that 
 it may become greater. 
 
 The evidence of our conversion is not he sought 
 in any one moment^ hut in the luhole tenor of the 
 life. Eegeneration itself indeed is not gradu- 
 al ; the transition from death to life is instan- 
 taneous ; but we arc not competent to judge 
 117 
 
6 HAVE 1 COME TO CHRIST? 
 
 of that single instant. Too great stress has 
 undoubtedly been laid on the marked charac- 
 ter of the first exercises supposed to be sav- 
 ing ; and the error has operated in twofold evil, 
 by darkening the views of the desponding, 
 and making the self-deceiver more presump- 
 tuous. It is not by any single moment, even 
 though it were the best, that we can judge of 
 the genuineness of piety. Judged thus, the 
 stony ground hearers, believing and rejoicing. 
 Matt. 13 : 20, would have been unblamable. 
 In applying tests, we must look at tendencies 
 as well as frames and states, and must consider 
 the constancy no less than the ardor of feel- 
 ings and acts. Take into view the whole of 
 your religious life for years, if you would 
 arrive at a sound conclusion. 
 
 The last of these preliminaries is not the 
 least important; it is, that the difficulty lies^ 
 not so much in laying down marJcs, as in discov- 
 ering their existence in the said. Marks there 
 are, and those infallible, as founded on clear 
 Scriptures, which are nevertheless obscure in 
 some true believers, and seemingly present in 
 some hypocrites. It would be a sad mistake to 
 come with any formula, expecting to apply it 
 as one docs a chemical test for the discovery 
 118 
 
HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 7 
 
 of a given ingredient in a mixture. The best 
 treatises may be abused in tliis -way. We 
 may say with truth, for example, that true 
 religion proceeds from the Holy Spirit; is 
 accompanied with spiritual views and relish, 
 and supreme love to God ; but the problem 
 is to ascertain the existence of these very- 
 marks. Still it is important to have in the 
 mind a few unquestionable tokens of the new 
 nature ; if for no other reason, that we may 
 be always trying to realize them in our expe- 
 rience. 
 
 Since the question is, whether we have 
 come to Christ or not, it may serve a useful 
 purpose to recur in thought to the time when 
 it was possible to come to Christ by a bodily 
 approach, that is, the days of his ministry. 
 In those days he often uttered the words of 
 invitation, such as, ^' Come unto me," " Fol- 
 low me ;" and these in the first instance were 
 obeyed literally. Many came to him, and 
 remained with him. This, their external 
 coming, was only in order to a more import- 
 ant and spiritual coming, by means of faith ; 
 but one throws light upon the other. Those 
 who so came to Christ forsook all their previ- 
 ous associations; tliey henceforth were present 
 
8 HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 
 
 with him ; they were found in possession of 
 those things for which they s^ came; and 
 they stood in new relations to Christ and to 
 his people. In all these respects their case 
 may guide in the inquiry how any soul in 
 our day may be known to have come to 
 Christ. Disavowing, as above, any attempt 
 to exhaust this subject, let me point out a few 
 evidences of this great change. 
 
 I. He who has come to Christ has forsaken his 
 former associations. When Jesus called dis- 
 ciples on the sea of Tiberias, he said, " Come 
 ye after me;" upon which Simeon and 
 Andrew straightway " forsook their nets and 
 followed him." James and John " left their 
 
 father und went after him." 
 
 (Mark 1 : 16-20.) In reference to which, one 
 of the persons here named, said afterwards : 
 "Lo, we have left all, and have followed 
 thee." (Mark 10 : 28.) That comiog to Christ 
 involves the abandoning of what comes into 
 rivalry with him, is apparent from his own 
 words in Luke 14 : 33 : " Whosoever he be of 
 you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he can 
 not be my disciple." And when an inquirei 
 pleaded that he must first attend to the funeral 
 of his flither, "Jesus said unto him, Follow 
 120 
 
HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 9 
 
 me; and let tlie dead bur j their dead." (Matt. 
 8 : 22.) This separation from former ties is 
 represented as a death, nay, as a crucifixion : 
 " The world is crucified unto me, and I unto 
 the world." (Gal. 6 : 14.) It is a divorce 
 from the law, as to its curse and penalty and 
 slavish fear : " Wherefore, mj brethren, ye 
 also are become dead to the law, by the body 
 of Christ." (Eom. 7 : 4.) It is no less a 
 divorce from sin: ''they that are Christ's, 
 have crucified the flesh, with the affections 
 and lusts." (Gal. 4 : 24.) That which is to be 
 forsaken for Clirist's sake, might all be sum- 
 med up in this particular, it is sin. When 
 we renounce, the world, the flesh, and the 
 devil, and the pomps and vanities of the 
 world, it is really the sin that is in these 
 things which we renounce. The very intent 
 of Christ's coming was, "that he might destroy 
 the works of the devil ;" and those who come 
 to Christ have ceased from these works. The 
 gift of the Holy Spirit has for its object the 
 renewal of the soul in holiness; or, what 
 is the same thing, its restitution to spiritual 
 health. Keligion is only another name for the 
 normal condition of the soul, and in its com- 
 ]^lete state the balance and jierfection of all 
 121 
 
10 " HAVE I COME TO CHKIST? 
 
 the faculties. For this cause it is that sancti- 
 fication becomes evidence of justification. 
 Sin can not reign in a renewed soul. The 
 believer makes great use of this in judging of 
 his state. He hates those things which he 
 once loved. The empty pleasures of the 
 world, forbidden indulgences, sensual joys, 
 imrighteous gains, every form of falsehood, 
 deception, selfishness, pride, malice, revenge, 
 and whatsoever God condemns, have become 
 as odious to him as some of them may once 
 have been delightful. 
 
 The question is then appropriate: What 
 have you forsaJcen f Sins will exist, and may 
 for a time prevail, in truly regenerate persons, 
 "for there is no man that sinneth not ;" but 
 they are objects of abhorrence, and do not in- 
 dicate the character. The seventh chapter 
 of the Epistle to the Komans merits close 
 study in this connection ; for it records the 
 experience of a renewed soul, yet of one 
 who cried, as the reader may possibly have 
 done : "0 wretched man that I am 1 who 
 shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 
 (v. 24.) Yet this regenerate soul could also 
 say, in regard to this very sin, and in terms 
 which no ungodly man could adopt : " That 
 122 
 
HAVE I COME TO CHKIST ? 11 
 
 whicli I do I allow not ; for wliat I would that 
 do I not ; but what I hate that do I ;" "To will 
 is present with me ;" " The evil that I would 
 not, that I do ;" " For I delight in the law of 
 •God, after the inward man." As to the abiding 
 temper of his mind, the true Christian has aban- 
 doned his ancient country, and entered on a 
 new. The tide in his affections, under some 
 temporary influence may run the wrong way, 
 but the main stream ^ill flows away from sin. 
 If then you would judge of your state, ask 
 how you are affected towards the things 
 which you profess to have left for Christ. 
 Have you bidden farewell to sin ? Do you 
 hate it ? Do you loathe it ? Your past sins ; 
 are they still bitter and humbling, so that you 
 are made to posses's the iniquities of your 
 youth ? Your present sins ; into which you 
 have been plunged, as if in spite of yourself ; 
 do you groan under them, as within the coils 
 of a serpent ? Your future sins ; is the 
 thought of yet further offending Christ horri- 
 ble to you ? Have you abandoned the world ? 
 Do you shun the road to sin, by avoiding and 
 deprecating temptation ? Are you endeavor- 
 ing to mortify sin, and has God granted you 
 some success in the work ? These questions, 
 123 
 
12 HAVE I COME TO CHKIST ? 
 
 and such as these, may properly be suggested to 
 those who persuade themselves that they have 
 become disciples. And if it truly appear that 
 in these respects old things have passed away, 
 there will be good reason to believe that all 
 things have become new. 
 
 n. He who has come to JJhrist is actually 
 with Christ. Does not all personal coming 
 imply this ? He is brought into the presence 
 of Christ ; or to vary the expression, Christ is 
 present to him. This includes several parti- 
 culars, which may be noticed with profit. 
 
 1. Believing makes Christ present. We have 
 already seen that this is the very essence of 
 coming to Christ : it is by believing that we 
 come : " Faith is the evidence (the eknchics 
 or conviction) of things not seen." (Heb. 
 11 : 1.) Nature would prompt the wish that 
 we had lived in the days of Christ's bodily 
 presence on earth, but faith reveals a Saviour 
 " whom having not seen ye love, in whom 
 though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye 
 rejoice, with joy unspeakable and full of 
 glory," He is the same to faith, in heaven 
 and on earth, " Jesus Christ, the same yester- 
 day, to-day and forever." Now is Christ 
 present to your apprehension? Have you 
 
 121 
 
HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 13 
 
 come to him in tliis sense? As the question 
 is concerning your own mental state, you may 
 fairly appeal to consciousness ; do you then 
 believe ? Has the Lord Jesus become to you 
 such an actuality, that your soul has come to 
 deal with him personally, individually, and 
 really, as though he were beside you in bodily 
 presence, and as if his sacred hand was locked* 
 in yours ? Are you conscious of being near 
 to Christ, and present with him, in such a 
 sense, as to rely on him habitually, yea, this 
 very moment, with all the might of your 
 soul, so that if you were to miss him, or even 
 suspect his absence, you would feel that all 
 the prop of your salvation was gone ? The 
 question as to faith is best answered by essay- 
 ing the acts of faith, that is, by looking at the 
 great object of faith. The best way of remov- 
 ing all dubiety as to whether you have come 
 to Christ, is to come now. And doubtless 
 much of the time which we exhaust in search- 
 ing for evidence of faith would be better 
 spent by actually believing. 
 
 2. Union makes Christ present. Nothing can 
 
 be more truly with us, than that which is one 
 
 with us. Faith is the bond which unites us 
 
 to Christ, and thus compacts us into the glori- 
 
 125 
 
14 HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 
 
 OTIS body of wliicli he is the head. So far as 
 this is a divine transaction, beyond the sphere 
 of experience, it is too transcendent for our 
 cognizance, and can not be summoned as evi- 
 dence ; but this union has its visible fruits, 
 and it is these, after which we must inquire. 
 These fruits coincide with justification, adop- 
 *tion, and sanctification, and may be treated 
 of under the following head : 
 
 3. He ivho is with Christ has communion 
 with him. Those who hearkened to his voice 
 and came to him, when he was on earth, en- 
 joyed converse with him, and delighted in 
 his society ; in the days of rejoicing, when 
 the "children of the bride-chamber" were 
 too happy to fast. 
 
 Nor are such condescensions altogethier 
 wanting now. He still knocks at the door, 
 and to him who hears and opens, he comes in 
 and sups. Our views are habitually too low, 
 in regard to the possibility of enjoying Christ's 
 presence on earth. It is to be the joy of our 
 heaven hereafter, but God pours out to us 
 some prelibations on earth. The reality of 
 spiritual enjoyment, -^here the soul goes forth 
 to Christ in his holy spiritual attributes, 
 affords bright evidence of having really come 
 12G 
 
HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 15 
 
 to him. Ask the question of your closet, 
 your church, and your sacraments. 
 
 in. He who has come to Christ has some pos- 
 session of that for which he came. For what 
 did you come to Christ ? The answer is easy, 
 for SALVATION". It is too common to speak 
 of salvation as a remote or even a contingent 
 blessing. The believer is already saved. His 
 sins are pardoned. He can never come into 
 condemnation. He is united to Christ, and 
 nothing can separate him from God's love. 
 He has a new life, and a new nature, being 
 regenerated and restored to God's image, and 
 conformed by sanctification to his nature. 
 He has the peace of God begun in his soul. 
 In these brief but comprehensive statements, 
 which none can deny, is included salvation ; 
 and it is for this that the soul comes to Christ. 
 
 All this is admitted and incontestable ; but 
 the difficulty is to derive from these truths 
 such practical marks as shall enable us to try 
 our own state. As to pardon, it is the very 
 thing of which we desire to be assured ; it 
 can not, therefore, be the medium of proof 
 This is true, yet pardon is coordinate with 
 some other blessings for which we approach 
 
 127 
 
16 HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 
 
 the Lord, and which are cognizable in our 
 experience. Two of these shall be meiltioned. 
 1. The filial disposition. He who comes to 
 Christ for pardon, and obtains it^ receives a 
 salutation like that in Luke 7 : 48 : " Thj 
 sins are forgiven." Faith and justification are 
 followed by peace, (Rom. 5 : 1,) as is abund- 
 antly shown in those glowing chapters. Were 
 there more of simple affiance in the word 
 of promise, there would be more of this evi- 
 dence of having obtained pardon. Though, 
 like the '' white stone," it is incommunicable 
 to man, I am disposed to believe it is in the 
 most rejoicing Christians the chief ground of 
 their comfortable persuasion that God is 
 reconciled. They feel him to be so. His 
 love (to them) is shed abroad in their hearts, 
 and they cry Abba, Father. * Examine, my 
 reader, whether this be in you and abound. 
 Is the spirit of servility and fear cast out? 
 Is the blood of Christ so sprinkled on your 
 heart and conscience as to purge it from dead 
 works, and release it from a sense of wrath ? 
 When you kneel in prayer, is there any flow- 
 ing of the affections in a deep channel towards 
 God, as a beloved Father in heaven ? Unless 
 you mistake here, there is reason to trust, if 
 128 
 
HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 17 
 
 sucIl are your exercises, that your pardon has 
 been sealed. But the obscurity of single evi- 
 dences makes it desirable to gain the con- 
 firmation of concurrent tokens ; hence remem- 
 ber that 
 
 2. Holiness is a part of salvation, and a prin- 
 cipal blessing for which believers come to 
 Christ. The subject is too wide to be dis- 
 cussed in a ^paragraph. Its difficulties how- 
 ever are not theological but practical. All 
 agree that sanctification is good proof of justi- 
 fication; but am I sanctified? Here is the 
 critical question, into which, indeed, all the 
 others might be resolved. As long as we live 
 we ought to be daily pressing this inquiry, 
 whether we are growing in conformity to God. 
 
 Under this head, the subject of sanctifi- 
 cation may be viewed in another aspect. 
 He who has come to Christ resembles Christ. 
 The principle is obvious. Kow holiness is 
 resemblance to Christ. If the Christian 
 graces and fruits of the Spirit are found in us, 
 they show that we have been with Christ, and 
 have caught some traits of his character. 
 The subject is vast, so as not to allow details. 
 There is not a virtue, grace, habit, act, feeling, 
 thought, enjoined or approved in Scripture, 
 129 
 
18 HAVE I COME TO CHEIST? 
 
 whicli may not come in for a sliare in this 
 examination; and hence the topic must be 
 dismissed with a simple recommendation to 
 practice. 
 
 8. Peace — beautiful, heavenly word — ^is a 
 part of salvation ; it has already gained our 
 attention. In quest of peace we ventured to* 
 seek Christ, even before we had a spiritual 
 relish for holiness, and he graciously vouch- 
 safed not to cast us off for preferring the effect 
 to the cause. But true peace is a divine 
 quality, and where it prevails shows that the 
 soul has been brought to Christ. There is a 
 false peace, and the chief task is to distinguish 
 this. Eecourse must be had to the characters 
 of true peace, which have been frequently 
 indicated ; the chief of these being that gen- 
 uine peace is founded on Christ, is consistent 
 with high activity, is inseparable from earnest 
 endeavors to maintain universal holiness. If 
 the tranquillity which followed your supposed 
 believing has left you easy in conscience and 
 less scrupulous about offending ; if you have 
 less veneration of God's majesty, and less fear 
 of offending, and less sense of your need of 
 attoning blood, and less hatred of corrupt 
 habits and motions, then be assured it is a 
 130 
 
HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 19 
 
 spurious, and is likely to be a destructive calm. 
 But if in connection with a persuasion of par- 
 don, and an increasing purity, you grow hap- 
 pier and happier, there seems to be ground to 
 think that you are saved ; in other words, 
 that you have possession of that for which 
 you sought Christ. 
 
 IV. He who has come to Clirist stands in new 
 relations to Christ and to his people: and of 
 this he has some inward feeling, which enables 
 him to use it as a testimony. 
 
 1. A relation of friendship. Those who com- 
 panied with Jesus as disciples were his friends, 
 and as such they loved him. To be without 
 this affection is to be under the curse : " If 
 any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let 
 him be Anathema Maranatha." If you could 
 only ascertain beyond a doubt that you love 
 the Lord, you would at once possess the high- 
 est evidence of faith, and, so far as this inquiry 
 is concerned, might desist from seeking other 
 testimony. Here we are authorized to inquire 
 of our own consciousness, by the example of 
 the Lord Jesus himself, who thrice said to 
 Peter, after his denial : " Simon, son of Jonas, 
 lovest thou me ?" And this instance shows 
 us that even an imperfect disciple may some- 
 131 
 
20 HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 
 
 times have such witness as to exclaim with a 
 burst of humble, affectionate confidence: 
 "Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou know- 
 est that I love thee I" Though the great cri- 
 terion of love is its fruit, we are not to de- 
 spise its actual motions in the soul. As no 
 man can be the subject of a high affection 
 without some knowledge of it, we may justly 
 expect to have some direct cognizance of 
 strong love to Christ. Those who are so 
 affected towards him, have his sacred person 
 much in their thoughts, and prize all those 
 means, such as meditation, prayer, and sacra- 
 ments, which bring him to the thoughts ; and 
 have a consciousness of something more than 
 a dull, neutral approbation and respect, being 
 drawn out towards his adorable character and 
 person with a tenderness and warmth as real 
 and unmistakable as what they experience 
 towards friends or offspring. Friends think 
 much of one another ; deliberately call up the 
 beloved image ; seek correspondence and 
 mutual tokens and messages ; ardently press 
 towards society and intimate fellowship; 
 lament over absence; seek the honor and 
 advantage of one another ; and ascribe to the 
 most indifferent objects a preciousness if they 
 132 
 
HAVE I COME TO CH^ST ? 21 
 
 stand related to the cherished object. Let 
 each of the tests here condensed into a sen- 
 tence, be expanded in the secret examination 
 of your heart. 
 
 2. The relation of service. " If ye love me, 
 keep my commandments." There is no love 
 which does not work obedience. No labor, 
 sacrifice, or suffering is too great for love; 
 thus it fulfills the law. The " love of Christ," 
 says Paul, " constrains us." The whole 
 Christian service of the Church is only love 
 in act. " In this the children of Grod are 
 manifest, and the children of the devil ; 
 whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of 
 God." (John 3 : 10.) The principle is plain 
 and too familiar to need a word more, but its 
 application demands unremitting care. Look 
 inward on your heart and, backward on your 
 life, and see whether love has wrought per- 
 formance. " My little children, let us not love 
 in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and 
 truth." (1 John 3 : 18.) The scope of the 
 inquiry is hence as wide as the entire field of 
 divine command and human obedience, and 
 must be dismissed with a recommendation to 
 make scrutiny as to the fact. 
 
 3. Relation of f rater nily to those who are 
 133 
 
22 HAV^ I COME TO CHRIST? 
 
 Christ's. Nothing can be more obvious than 
 the operation of the principle. That which 
 draws men to Christ draws them to one 
 another. The Apostle John, who had learnt 
 the nature of love from lying on the bosom 
 of incarnate Love, declares this mark to be 
 infallible : " This is the message that ye heard 
 from the beginning, that we should love one 
 another. We know that we have passed 
 from death unto life, because we love the 
 brethren." (1 John 3 : 11, 14.) And his argu- 
 ment is that hatred between brothers is hell- 
 ish : " Whosoever hateth his brother is a mur- 
 der," and a Cain ; (vv. 12 and 15.) '' If a man 
 say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is 
 a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, 
 whom he hath seen, how can he love God 
 whom he hath not seen?" (1 John 4 : 20.) 
 Even though treatises upon the evidences of 
 piety may not give prominence to this mark, 
 it occupies a high place in Scripture, and 
 admits of more easy application to our expe- 
 rience than many others. Are you then in 
 charity with those who profess to be Christ's 
 friends? Do you freely forgive them, even 
 as you look for forgiveness yourself ? even to 
 the seventy times seven ? Are you not only 
 134 
 
HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 23 
 
 forgiving, but prompt to be reconciled, and 
 resolute, at every hazard, to remove the scan- 
 dal of livinsr in alienation ? These are amons 
 the most ordinary demands of Christianity ; 
 we must look further. In respect to those 
 who give evidence of being not only professed 
 but real believers, do you love the image of 
 Christ as reflected in them? Have you so 
 much of the reality of religion as to have 
 risen above the haughty pharisaism of gilded 
 vulgarity, in those who sit doiun at the Lord's 
 table ivith a brother to-day^ and deem him 
 uniuorthy of a salutation to-morrow? Have 
 you been long enough with Jesus to have 
 learnt that connection with him is the great- 
 est of distinctions ; greater than the difference 
 between one quality of honor and another, or 
 once degree of fortune and another, or one 
 branch of trafl&c and another, or one profes- 
 sion and another; and that " Christian is the 
 highest style of man" ? If you have not, 
 " Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and 
 are become judges of evil thoughts?" (James 
 2 : 4.) The disregard of this duty is perhaps 
 the most prevalent form of unfaithfulness 
 now existing in our churches, especially in 
 commercial cities ; nor do I suppose there is 
 135 
 
24: HAVE I COME TO CHRIST? 
 
 an individual among us wHo is not guilty of 
 it every day. It is offensive to the Lord 
 Jesus, and diametrically opposed to the whole 
 course of his lovely example. It is not pa- 
 tronage, but respectful love, that we demand 
 in the name of Christ for his poor members, 
 forewarning the rich that the day will arrive 
 when lie will say : " Inasmuch as ye did not 
 to one of the least of these, ye did it not to 
 me." (Matt. 25 : -iS.) 
 
 136 
 
MY TEACHEE-MY MASTER. 
 
 After our blessed Saviour had washed 
 his apostles' feet, he uttered this memorable 
 saying: "Ye call me Master and Lord; 
 and ye say well, for so I am."^ All careful 
 students of Scripture know that in this, and 
 many parallel places, the word "Master" 
 is old-English for Teacher; and that the 
 word "Lord" is equivalent to Kuler, Com- 
 mander, Prince, or Master. Without chang- 
 ing our excellent translation, we may then 
 regard Jesus as saying : "Ye call me Teach- 
 er and Master, and ye do well ; for so I 
 am." In every revival of religion, in every 
 sound^ conversion, the repentant soul takes 
 Christ as his Teacher and his Master. Eeader, 
 is it so with thee ? 
 
 At a time when thousands are openly con- 
 fessing Christ, it is of infinite moment that 
 
 1 John 13: 13. 
 137 
 
4 MY TEACIIBR — MY MASTER. 
 
 every one should see to it tliat lie receives the 
 Lord just as he is offered in the Gospel. Do 
 not here mistake the drift of the caution. In 
 order to justification, remission of sins, abso- 
 lution, or acceptance with God, you receive 
 the Lord Jesus in his character of Substitute, 
 Vicarious Sacrifice, Lamb of God, and Atoning 
 Priest. But Christ is not merely Priest, he 
 is also Prophet and King. Christ means 
 Anointed; and there are three anointings; 
 mark them well. The Prophet is anointed, 
 the Priest is anointed, the Ejng is anointed. 
 The Christ whom you have received, at your 
 believing, is all three at once. This is no 
 nice point of the theological schools, but a 
 plain, simple lesson of Scripture. You think 
 yourself converted; do you receive Jesus, 
 saying to him from the heart: " My Teacher, 
 my Master ?" 
 
 My Teacher I 
 
 " Mary I" said the risen Lord to his weep- 
 ing disciple.^ " She turned herself, and saith 
 unto him, Eabboni, which is to say. Master," 
 (or in the original Greek,) MY Teacher I Have 
 
 1 John 20 : IG. 
 138 
 
MY TEACHER — MY MASTER. 5 
 
 you, sinful, but hopeful soul ! taken this 
 great teaclier, as such, to you? Formerly, 
 you were blind. If you have been made to 
 see, it is He who opened your eyes. He is 
 the " true light." Predicted in the Old Tes- 
 tament as the great Prophet of His people, 
 He is . the giver of all their spiritual know- 
 ledge. Until He touched your eyes, you were 
 in gross darkness as to the very elements of 
 saving truth. This ignorance did not appear 
 so great, till the time when the Law entered 
 your soul and made you tremble. Then, al- 
 most wildly, you went to and fro, asking : 
 " Men and brethren, what must I do ?" Yoitr 
 former knowledge was now turned into fool- 
 ishness. You were willing to be taught as a 
 babe. The language of your thoughts was : 
 "Who will tell me the meaning of these 
 rnysterious words : ' Kepent,' ' Believe,' ' Come 
 to Christ,' 'Look unto Christ,' 'Yield your- 
 selves to God' ?" At length you were illu- 
 minated, as to the import ^f these terms, by 
 being made to experience the blessed reality. 
 Old things passed away, all things became 
 new. You learned what repentance is, by 
 repenting ; what faith is, by believing ; and 
 what coming to Christ is, by casting your 
 139 
 
6 MY TEACHER — MY MASTER. 
 
 guilty soul upon his propitiation. In all 
 tliis, it was your Prophet who enlightened ; 
 and he must enlighten still. 
 
 '' Never man spake like this man ;" so they 
 said during his ministry on earth. His fol- 
 lowers were called "disciples," that is, schol- 
 ars or learners. He was a condescending 
 teacher. "Learn of me, for I am meek and 
 lowly."^ Tens of thousands were taught by 
 him then ; millions have been taught by him 
 since ; for his school is open to this day. 
 
 Your blessed Teacher, disciple I in- 
 structs by the Spirit and the Word. These 
 two, which God hath joined, let not man put 
 asunder. Seek not light of the Spirit with- 
 out the "Word. Eely not on the letter of the 
 Word without the Spirit.^ Come to Jesus for 
 both. Though in his humanity Christ is in 
 heaven, he is on earth in his divinity, and 
 by his Spirit ; as he promised : " When he, 
 the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide 
 you into all truth^'^ Delay not, amidst the 
 excitements of early love, to place yourself at 
 the feet of Jesus, and to learn holy wisdom 
 from his gracious lips. 
 
 1 Matt. 11 : 29. 2 Read Isaiah 59 : 21- 
 
 3 John 16 : 13. 
 
 140 
 
MY TEACHER — MY MASTEE. 
 
 My Master! 
 
 If your supposed turning to God has made 
 you easy in your sins, your conversion is 
 counterfeit. " Why call ye me Lord, Lord, 
 and do not the things which I say ?"^ The 
 very instant that you took Christ for your 
 Kedeemer, you took him for your Lord and 
 Master. Faith and Obedience, it is true, are 
 not the same. Faith, and not Obedience, is 
 the instrument of justification.^ Neverthe- 
 less, Faith and Obedience are sisters who al- 
 ways walk hand in hand. When your pained 
 heart, looking to Christ bleeding on the cross, 
 said, My Saviour ! it said equally, My Mas- 
 ter I This 13 obedience in the bud. Faith 
 worketh by love, and love realizes itself in 
 obedience. 
 
 There is something inexpressibly dehghtful 
 in exchanging that old legal bondage, under 
 which duties were rendered to an unreconciled 
 God, amidst groans and weakness, for a will- 
 ing service, a gospel liberty, in which obli- 
 gation is swallowed up in grateful, admiring 
 acquiescence. Who that beholds, by faith, 
 
 1 Luke G : 'IG. 2 Rom. 3 : 20-28. 
 
 141 
 
8 MY TEACHER — MY MASTER. 
 
 the loveliness of such a Lord, can fail to obey 
 him ? Precious is the relation to Jesus, by 
 which we receive the law out of his hands. 
 Thus the tables of stone were sacredly laid 
 away under the golden propitiatory !^ "Ye 
 serve the Lord Christ."^ ISTever can you 
 obey so sweetly as when you render even the 
 smallest service of menial life to him ; as if 
 you said in your heart. Though working late 
 with axe or needle, in factory or kitchen, " I 
 do this for my Master P Is not the very title 
 welcome to' thine ear, O converted soul ? 
 "Where wouldst thou go to find a better 
 service I 
 
 "How sweetly doth My Master sound; my MASTEi. ] 
 As ambergris leaves a rich scent 
 Unto the taster | 
 So do these words a sweet content, 
 
 An oriental fragrancy : my Master I 
 My Master, shall I speak ? Oh ! that to Thee, 
 My servant were a little so, 
 As flesh may be ; 
 That these two words might creep, and grow 
 
 To some degree of spiciness to Thee 1 
 For when My Master (which alone is sweet 
 And e'en in my un worthiness pleasing) 
 Shall call and meet 
 
 1 Deut 10: 5. 2 CoL 3: 24. 
 
 142 
 
MY TEACHER — MY MASTER. 9 
 
 My servant, as Thee not displeasing; 
 
 Thy call is but the breathing of the sweet 
 This breathing* would with gains by sweet'ning me, 
 
 (As sweet things traffic when they meet,) 
 Return to Thee ; 
 And so this new commerce and sweet 
 
 Should, all my life, employ and busy me." 
 
 So sang tlie liol j poet, of wliom Izaak Wal- 
 ton writes thus : " He seems to rejoice in the 
 thoughts of that word Jesus, and say that the 
 adding of these words, 'My Master,' to it, and 
 the often repetition of them, seemed to per- 
 fume his mind, and leave an oriental fra- 
 grancy in his very breath." Distrust that 
 sort of experience, dear reader, which is 
 unaccompanied with a fresher purpose to 
 please Christ. Kejecting, with indignation 
 and loathing, all works of your own, con- 
 sidered as the procuring cause of your justifi- 
 cation, at the same time perform all the works 
 you can, as a service of love to Him whom 
 you call Master and Lord. 
 
 There are those who dream of being saved 
 in their sins. By a horrible abuse, they talk 
 loudly of being washed in the blood of Christ 
 and placed in gospel liberty, "while they 
 themselves are the servants of corruption."^ 
 
 1 2 Pet. 2 : 19. 
 14:3 
 
10 MY TEACHER— MY MASTER. 
 
 What is tliis but to cast defilement over the 
 sacred tree on which the immaculate Jesus 
 died? By this name is he called, because 
 he saves his people ''''from their sins^ 
 Though, therefore, you trusted in his right- 
 eousness, and not in jour own, for acceptance 
 and pardon, you accepted him as your com- 
 mander and king, to obey him forever. At 
 the blessed moment when you received him 
 as your satisfying Priest and bleeding sacri- 
 fice, you uttered with one and the same 
 breath, if we may so speak, the aspiration, 
 "Lord, I give myself to thee to be justified ;" 
 and, "Lord, I give myself to thee to be 
 sanctified." I believe — I love ! My new life, 
 of trust and obedience, begins here. My Sav- 
 iour — my Master ! 
 
 My Teacher I My Master I 
 
 Let us take them both together, for the 
 Lord Jesus is both. In both characters let 
 us draw nigh to him. We are both ignorant 
 and sinful, and the ignorance and sin act and 
 re-act on each other. The connection between 
 light and love, between truth and holy living, 
 is often set forth in Scripture : " If we say 
 111 
 
MY TEACHER — MY MASTER. 11 
 
 that we tave fellowship in him, and walk in 
 darkness, we lie, and do not the truth."^ Be 
 it our daily business to resort to the Lord 
 Jesus, as a present Saviour, for spiritual in- 
 struction and commandments to be obeyed. 
 O young Christian ! enter at once into this 
 confidential relation to the Lord. Ask him. 
 for teaching, ask him for hohness. Who 
 was it that said to Paul : " My grace is suffi- 
 cient for thee?" It was ''the Lord," it was 
 Jesus. For, hear the apostle's boast : " Most 
 gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my 
 infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest 
 upon me."^ 
 
 Adorable Jesus [ I am dark with sin ; I 
 am laden with iniquity. Be thou my light 
 and my salvation. Teach me truth ; teach 
 me duty. For thine am I forever. Amen. 
 
 1 1 John 1:6. 2 2 Cor. 12:9. 
 
 145 
 
12 MY TEACHER — MY MASTER. 
 
 Entire Consecration. 
 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 One in Three, and Three in One, 
 
 As by the celestial host, 
 
 Let thy will on earth be done ; 
 
 Praise by all to thee be given. 
 
 Glorious Lord of earth and heaven. 
 
 Vilest of the sinful race, 
 
 Lo 1 I answer to thy call : 
 Meanest vessel of thy grace, 
 
 Grace divinely free for all ; 
 Lo 1 I come to do thy will, 
 All thy counsel to fulfiU. 
 
 If so poor a worm as I 
 
 May to thy great glory live, 
 
 All my actions sanctify. 
 All my words and thoughts receive : 
 
 Claim me for thy service, claim 
 
 All I have, and all I am. 
 
 Take my soul and body's powers ; 
 
 Take my mem'ry, mind, and will j 
 All my goods, and all my hours ; 
 
 All I know, and all I feel , 
 All I think, or speak, or do ; 
 Take my heart, but make it new 
 
 146 
 
MY BROTHER. 
 
 All men, of all ages, climes, and complex- 
 ions, have a common parentage; all are in- 
 volved in a common fall ; all are regarded by 
 a common salvation. Wherever he comes 
 within the range of our help, every human 
 creature is entitled to our beneficence. It is 
 the law of the Old Testament and of the 
 New. Second only to the love of God, is the 
 love of man. The true maxim of philanthropy 
 is : Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself 
 The Spirit of Grace awakens and perpetuates 
 this disposition in every subject of renewal. 
 
 But while the Law of Love enjoins this 
 temper of helpful kindness towards all the 
 children of Adam, it nowhere commands a 
 chimerical and impracticable regard for all 
 alike. It has no levelling philosophy, to 
 equalize affection for all objects, and thus dif- 
 147 
 
2 MY BROTHER. 
 
 fuse emotions so thinly as to reduce them to 
 an inefficient indifference. The Gospel recog- ' 
 nizes degrees in the outgoings of the heart. 
 It owns the names of husband and wife, pa- 
 rent and child, brother and sister, friend and 
 neighbor, coeval and countryman. It lays on 
 us the duty — rather it confers the privilege, 
 of loving some more than others, and brethren 
 in Christ more than all. And as if for a guide 
 and permission in all ages, even among the 
 apostles there was one disciple whom Jesus 
 loved, preeminently, and with'a singular glow 
 of melting affection. So that the way is pre- 
 pared for us to consider yet more nearly the 
 lesson of the Scriptures. 
 
 1. In our little analysis of this Christian 
 love, it may be well to begin with one of the 
 lowest, and therefore most intelligible princi- 
 ples of the attachment. We find that affec- 
 tion springs up among those who have inter- 
 course^ association^ and community of thoughts 
 and interests. The inquiry becomes abstruse 
 if we push it too far into recondite sources ; 
 but the fact is open to all the world. You 
 have — unless you are the most forlorn of 
 men — 2^ friend. You carry him often in your 
 wilhng thoughts; you crave his presence, 
 . 1-tS 
 
MY BROTHER. 6 
 
 and are drawn toward bim bv an irresistible 
 fascination ; you are complacent when be is 
 near you, even in silence and inaction ; you 
 sigb wben long separated ; you plan wbat 
 sball give bim pleasure ; you reproacb your- 
 self wben be is pained. In tbe degree of 
 your regard, you are willing to labor, to dare, 
 to suffer for bis sake. You take fire wbeiiMfc 
 is calumniated ; you are bappy wben be''*Is 
 praised. But I will not rebearse tbe mani- 
 fold operations of fiiendsbip. Wbehce came 
 all tbis ? As bas been admitted, some of tbe 
 springs are remote and obscure ; but some of 
 tbem are fully in view. Tbere bas been some 
 companionship. Without tbis tbere may be 
 respect, admiration, even distant love ; but 
 oh ! how different from the fervors which 
 kindle after delightful society, and the long 
 commerce of heart with heart ! Tbis indeed 
 would scarcely exist for so long a time, unless 
 there were some congeniality of views and 
 tempers, some opportunities of interview, some 
 community of pursuit and aim. But day by 
 day the band of wreathed attachments acquires 
 new strands, till tbe fondness of youth becomes 
 the sober but inviolable friendship of old age. 
 Now all tbis finds its place in tbe association 
 149 
 
4 MY BROTHER. 
 
 of Christian minds. Not, however, in the 
 same degree, and therefore the amount even 
 of religious love must vary. In a certain 
 humbler sense, I may love the whole Church, 
 as the unknown follower of Christ in Eussia 
 or Hindostan ; but not as I love the companion 
 of prayers and tears and sacraments. The 
 
 •panionship of Christian service, devotion, 
 daily life tends directly to the increase of 
 this peculiar tie. And hence the most im- 
 portant practical rule — that if we would love 
 the brotherhood we must cultivate Christian 
 society. There is such a thing as a too insu- 
 lated experience. That disciple must be 
 crippled ii^ his growth, who knows nothing 
 of spiritual communion, "We are not to make 
 our pilgrimage as solitaries, nor to live out 
 our days as hermits. Evangelical piety is 
 eminently social. The constitution of the 
 Church and all the means of grace evince 
 this. What are our Sabbath assemblies, our 
 social meetings for devotion, our common 
 prayers, our mingled songs of praise, above 
 all our sacramental communions, but so many 
 ministries of holy fellowship ? Despise them 
 not; neglect them not; nor yet those more 
 frequent and more informal interviews of 
 
 150 
 
MY BROTHER. 5 
 
 friend with friend, in which the Christian 
 character acts itself out, in the confidential 
 flow of unstudied converse and tender recip- 
 rocal affection. If we have unfortunately 
 allowed our emotions to be pent up, and our 
 religion to become recluse and hidden, let us 
 own the fault, and endeavor to flow together 
 with at least one kindred mind, which seeks 
 and prizes the same great objects with our- 
 selves. 
 
 2. The principle is much the same, though 
 operating in a higher plane, where we per- 
 ceive, further, that Christian brotherhood is 
 promoted by a common object of affection. 
 Disciples agree in loving the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and this increases their love to one 
 another. We see the effect of this cause, in 
 common life. Attachment to the same friend 
 or superior, knits hearts together. There are 
 cases, indeed, where the result seems to be op- 
 posite, and where pursuit of the same object 
 engenders rivalship, jealousy, and hate. It 
 will be readily observed, however, that these 
 are cases where the object is limited, and 
 where only one can^ave possession. Not so 
 with the great centre of the believer's hope. 
 As milHons may bask in the vivifying rays of 
 151 
 
6 MY BROTHER. 
 
 • 
 
 the natural sun, so all believers, without col- 
 lision or envy, may look towards the same in- 
 finite God and Saviour. Thus it is in many 
 a domestic instance. Who can doubt that the 
 mutual affection of children is cemented by 
 regard for the same parents ? On the other 
 hand, where unnatural divisions arise between 
 one parent and the other, the httle common- 
 wealth falls into factions, or draws asunder in 
 cold dislike. Soldiers of the same favorite 
 commander, subjects of the same beloved 
 sovereign, are by this very community of aim 
 drawn into one. It were strange if this should 
 not hold good in religion ; where all adore and 
 serve the same God, and all unite in devotion 
 to the same Lord and Kedeemer. Every dis- 
 ciple is a lover of the Lord Jesus Christ. The 
 affection is characteristic and influential. 
 Pervading great numbers with a common 
 glow, it can not but fuse them together. They 
 must grow in likeness. As crowds that press 
 towards some one central object thereby are 
 compacted together, so Christians come nearer 
 to one another by coming nearer to Christ. 
 That congeniality, which is inseparable from 
 all friendship, is secured by the tender and 
 awakened contemplation of the " one Medi- 
 152 
 
MY BROTHER. 7 
 
 ator between God and man, the man Christ 
 Jesus," especially when holy love, heightened 
 by the sympathy of multitudes, gazes on his 
 dying compassion, and gathers around the 
 sacrifice of the Cross. Then it is, that " our 
 fellowship is with the Father, and with his 
 Son Jesus Christ." 
 
 3. Love of the brethren is promoted by the 
 consideration that all the brethren are objects of 
 Christ^ s love. I am naturally predisposed to 
 love him whom my friend loves. All Christ- 
 tians are children of God, through Jesus 
 Christ ; and hence their relation is that of 
 fraternity. The more we value the mercy and 
 grace of the Eedeemer, the more shall we 
 cherish those who are its objects. Ascertain 
 that any human creature belongs to Christ, 
 and you have made him near to you ; though 
 he were an Indian barbarian, whose language 
 you could not comprehend. Therefore we 
 can not love God and Christ without loving 
 the brotherhood. Hence the apostle who re- 
 posed on Jesus' breast, makes it a test of sin- 
 cerity. " He that saith he is in the light, and 
 hateth his brother, is in darkness, even until 
 now." "Whosoever loveth not is not of 
 God, neither he that loveth not his brother." 
 153 
 
8 MY BROTHER. 
 
 " He that loveth not his brother abideth in 
 death." And, referring it to the very princi- 
 ple of the text, he adds : " For he that loveth 
 not his brother, whom he hath seen, how 
 shall he love God, whom he hath not seen?" 
 It ought forever to drive away our selfish in- 
 difference toward fellow-Christians, that there 
 is not one of them whom the tlessed Lord has 
 not loved even unto death. Can any paltry 
 reason of self-interest be pleaded, in compari- 
 son with such a claim as this ? Whatever the 
 poor, contemned creature may be in earthly 
 respects, . . Christ loves Tiiin^ . . . that should 
 be enough. But this cause becomes greatly 
 more operative, when numerous believers con- 
 sciously join at the same moment in acts of 
 homage and affection, towards the Chief among 
 ten thousand. Then, when all eyes have one 
 direction, when all pulses swell with one 
 sacred passion, when all voices flow together 
 in concordant utterance of one name, when 
 all tears combine to celebrate one feast of 
 sacriffce, the sense of brotherhood is stronger 
 than any where on earth. And this is the 
 true glory of church-assemblies. For this 
 the panting disciple longs to be gathered with 
 the great congregation ; to meet his Lord^ and 
 154 
 
MY BROTHER. 9 
 
 to meet his hretkren. Even the neglected, un- 
 known, and depressed servant of Christ, feels 
 at such a time that his sohtude is broken by 
 the fellowship of adoring saints, and believes 
 anew in the unity of the Lord's body. From 
 which we learn how much brotherly love is 
 cultivated by a diligent, hopeful and ar- 
 dent attendance on acts of common worship, 
 first in the sabbath assembly, and then in the 
 more select and fraternal associations of piety. 
 Either way then, by our love to Christ, by 
 Christ's love to us, we are made to grow to- 
 gether in the bond of perfectness. 
 
 4. The hroiherhood all hear the resemblance of 
 the Lord Jesus^ and therefore are dear to one 
 another. The principle is thus stated by the 
 apostle John : " Every one that loveth him 
 that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of 
 him." The love of Christ is essentially the 
 same with the love of infinite moral perfection, 
 or the beauty of holiness of which he is the 
 highest impersonation. Every true believer 
 is joined to Christ, receives his Spirit, and has 
 the beginnings of a spiritual resemblance, 
 which shall go on to perfect assimilation, ac- 
 cording to the measure of each. The new 
 nature craves this holy beauty, and loves it 
 155 
 
10 MY BROTHER. 
 
 •wherever descried. This is the chief source of 
 Christian attachment. It is the affection for 
 Christ, as mirrored in his members. "We hang 
 with interest over the miniature of one who 
 is beloved ; and we value the living portrait 
 of Jesus, even faintly drawn on the tablet of 
 a fellow -saint. Christian love is determined 
 to be such, when the attraction is something 
 spiritual, and not any thing adventitious and 
 earthly. The statement is simple, and can 
 not now be dwelt on, but it is matter for re- 
 flection, and might penetrate the conscience, 
 and reveal us to ourselves. It is obvious that, 
 on this ground, a general increase of piety 
 throughout the Church, or any part of it, will 
 directly tend to the growth of mutual affection. 
 That which is most for a lamentation is, that 
 we bear so little of Christ's image, as to hold 
 out scarcely any thing on which the strong 
 regard of brother Christians can fasten. And 
 this affords another motive for growth in 
 grace. Yet we must not, on this account, ex- 
 cuse ourselves from the great social duty of our 
 profession, nor indulge a censorious turn for 
 detecting blemishes in our neighbor, as a rea- 
 son for our own churlish apathy. Let it suf- 
 fice that Christ receives a brother; let us 
 156 
 
MY BROTHER. 11 
 
 beware how we reject him. None will affirm 
 that all holiness has vanished from the Church ; 
 and wherever it is, even in the slightest de- 
 grees, and with the greatest admixture, it 
 ought to be amiable in our eyes. We should 
 search for it, cherish it, and admire it. He 
 who is inhabited bj the Spirit can not be an 
 object of indifference to the spiritual man. It 
 is beautifully related of Origen, a great 
 Christian author among the Greeks, that 
 while he was yet an infant, his father used 
 sometimes to approach his cradle, and uncov- 
 ering his little bosom, would kiss it, saying, 
 ^' Here is a temple of the Holy Grhost ! " Some- 
 what similar should be our reverence for the 
 work of Grod in every human soul. We should 
 feel a profound awe in regard to that secret 
 energy which goes forward in all saints. And 
 wherever we discover the slightest lineament 
 of our beloved Lord, we should be attracted, 
 and won over. that the day were come, 
 when each of us might see in every other the 
 infallible marks of that new life, ''which 
 after God is created in righteousness and true 
 holiness !" 
 
 5. The love of brethren is peculiarly becom- 
 ing to those ivho expect to share the blessings of the 
 157 
 
12 3rY BROTHER. 
 
 future world. In the way of similitude or 
 parable, we might represent to ourselves a 
 company of persons fighting their passage 
 through an enemy's country to their beloved 
 home. Could any thing be more natural than 
 that they should cling to one another ? The 
 Christians of the present state are to be" 
 gathered in one glorious community, in that 
 which is coming. Unless we have persuaded 
 ourselves of the eventual salvation of all 
 mankind, we know that from all but true 
 Christians, there must be a final separation. 
 Those who shall be our companions forever, 
 may reasonably engage our affections now. 
 On this point, as on all that respects the future 
 glory, there is a sad skepticism among the 
 professed followers of Christ. If we had 
 more lively apprehensions of that state towards 
 which we are tending, we should conform 
 ourselves to it in affection and life. The 
 brotherhood of Christ's people would so grow 
 in our estimation, that we should never be- 
 come weary of cultivating their friendship, 
 and enjoying their society. 
 
 158 
 
SING PRAISES ! 
 
 How joyfully does David cry, " Sing 
 praises to Grod, sing praises ; sing praises unto 
 our King, sing praises ; for God is tlie King of 
 all the earth, sing ye praises with understand- 
 ing."^ Be exhorted, beloved brethren in 
 Christ, during this season of gracious revival, 
 to employ God's appointed method of psalm- 
 ody, for setting forth the glory of his name, 
 power and love. It may be a question whether, 
 in the reception of such gifts, our silence has 
 not been guilty. 
 
 I. Sing Peaises. Praise does not add to 
 God's glory, but it glorifies him. " He that 
 offereth praise, glorifieth me," saith the Lord of 
 Hosts. To show forth the honor of his majesty 
 and his love in Jesus Christ, is the chief bur- 
 den of Christian song. 
 
 n. Sing to God and Cheist. The two 
 are not separate. Behold God in Christ; 
 
 1 Psalm 47 • 6, 7. 
 159 
 
4 SING PRAISES I 
 
 praise God tlirougli Christ. The soul looks 
 out in this particular direction in praise. It 
 is God and not man, who is generally ad- 
 dressed. PJinj writes to Trajan, that early 
 Christians used to "to sing hymns to Christ, 
 as God." 
 
 in. Sing of Grace and Glory. You have 
 noble themes, and enough to carry you up in 
 song. The Church in all ages has had the 
 same, and has celebrated them ; but every new 
 display of condescending love, and every new 
 effusion of the Spirit, shoTild lift and gather 
 more sublime praises. If you have been con- 
 verted, if your friends have been converted, 
 then sing of grace and power. 
 
 lY. Sing in the great Congregation. 
 The swell of a thousand voices is magnificent ; 
 and where they utter the high praises of God 
 with the heart and soul, it is "the beauty of 
 holiness." Even short of this, it is delightful, 
 elevating, and edifying, to join with many 
 voices. Let not yours be silent. The great 
 meetings for prayer and praise, during this re- 
 vival, are tending to restore to the churches 
 the joint and mighty praises of congregational 
 psalmody. " Let every thing that hath breath 
 praise the L)rd I" 
 
 160 
 
SING praises! 5 
 
 V . Sing in the Meeting of BRErHREN. 
 Whetlier the gathering be small or great, 
 " sing ye praises." Why not have meetings 
 for praise, as well as meetings for prayer f 
 The Hebrew Church sang ; the Temple wor- 
 shippers sang, the Lord Jesus sang} 
 
 YI. Sing in the Social Group. Young 
 Christians should begin to learn this method 
 of helping one another and honoring Christ. 
 In the days of our ignorance how often have 
 we prostituted our voices to worldly songs ; 
 and have we no praises at the fireside for our 
 Eedeemer ? Henry Martyn was noted for 
 this way of doing good. " He had an un- 
 commonly fine voice, and fine ear ;" says Mrs. 
 Sherwood, who knew him in India; "he 
 could sing many fine chants, and a vast vari- 
 ety of hymns and psalms. He would insist 
 upon it that I should sing with him, and he 
 taught me many tunes, all of which were af- 
 terwards brought into requisition ; and, when 
 fatigued himself, would make me sit by his 
 couch and practise these hymns." If any 
 think of EiCHARD Baxter as stem, let them 
 read these words of his : " It was not the least 
 
 1 Matt. 26 : 30. 
 161 
 
6 SING PRAISES ! 
 
 comfort that I had in the converse of m j late 
 dear wife, that our first exercise in the morn- 
 ing, and the last in bed at night, was a psalm 
 of praise, till the hearing of others interrupted 
 it. Let those who savor not melody leave 
 others to their different appetites, and be con- 
 tent to be so far strangers to their delights." 
 
 yn. SixG IN Family Worship. Take 
 time for it. Eob yourself of ten- minutes* 
 slumber, or of ten morsels of food, but rob 
 not God of his praise. The family is the 
 school of praise, as well as of prayer and doc- 
 trine. 
 
 YIII. Sing in Private Devotion. Why 
 not ? The voice comes back with effect upon 
 the heart. Solitude has witnessed your utter- 
 ance of love-songs, comic-songs, idle, foolish 
 songs ; why should you not sing forth your 
 love to Jesus ? The whole book of Psalms 
 may be profitably chanted in the closet, even 
 by one who boasts no musical culture. 
 
 IX. Sing when the Soul is joyful. 
 Psalmody is the appointed channel for the 
 outlet and utterance of joy. " Is any merry," 
 says the Apostle James, " let him sing psalms." 
 When young converts meet together, they are 
 sometimes liable to fall into light and unpro- 
 162 
 
SING PRAISES I 7 
 
 fitable talk ; nothing is better suited to pre- 
 vent this, and otherwise edify their souls, than 
 to unite in spiritual and fervent hymns. 
 
 X. Sing amidst the Eevival of Keli- 
 GION. " There is a time to mOurn and a time 
 to dance," that is, to rejoice in God. When 
 should the children of the bridechamber 
 rejoice, if not when the' Bridegroom is with 
 them? Now it is, that we go " to the house 
 of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with 
 the multitude that keep holy day." It is the 
 joy of harvest. There is joy in heaven, over re- 
 pentant sinners ; let there be joy on earth ; 
 and let it have its rightful expression in high 
 praises. The lofty anthem of united hearts 
 and humbly exultant churches should now 
 glorify our redeeming God, with the swell of 
 harmony. 
 
 XI. Sing with Intelligence of the 
 Truth. " God is the King; sing ye praises 
 with understanding," cries David ; which Paul 
 re-echoes thus : " I will sing with the Spirit, 
 I will sing with the understanding also." 
 Psalmody includes instruction. To reject all 
 hymns which are didactic, were to reject some 
 of the noblest inspired hymns. Thirteen 
 psalms have for their title Maschil, that is, 
 
 163 
 
8 SING praises! 
 
 "didactic." The Divine Word flows from 
 mind to mind in fraternal instruction by means 
 of psalmody. " Let the word of Christ dwell- 
 in you richly in all wisdom ; teaching and ad- 
 Tnonishing one another in psalms and hymns 
 and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your 
 hearts to the Lord."^ 
 
 XTT. Sing with all the Heart. Empty 
 indeed are all songs and praises which do not 
 carry up the affections. The words which 
 holy hymns suggest to iis do often, by the in- 
 fluences of the Holy Spirit, produce or awaken 
 the very graces which they express. But 
 this is more especially done by the influence 
 of melody and harmony, and the electric cur- 
 rent to and from numerous worshippers. Yet 
 only the adorable Spirit of God can preserve 
 us from taking mere natural elation for that 
 "joy of the Lord" which is our " strength !"^ 
 
 Xin. Sing in the Church below, so 
 that you may sing in the Church above. 
 When we think of heaven, it is with the idea 
 of perfect adoration, love, and praise. This 
 glorious outgoing of soul expresses itself best 
 in song. There, in the world of perfection, 
 " they sing the song of Moses, the servant of 
 
 i Col. 3: 16. 2Xeh. 8 : 10. 
 
 164 
 
SING PRAISES ! 9 
 
 God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great 
 and marvellous are thy works. Lord God Al- 
 mighty; just and true are thy ways, thou 
 King of saints." The ascriptions of rapt souls, 
 throughout the Apocalypse, take the form of 
 musical utterance. Those vocal acclamations 
 of palm-bearing and harp-bearing saints must 
 be regarded as psalms, songs, hymns, or an- 
 thems. Thus must we judge of the Four, and 
 the Four-and-twenty.^ They smg a "new 
 song," saying, "Thou art worthy," "for thou 
 wast slain!" The subsequent voice of the' 
 " ten thousand times ten thousand, and thou- 
 sands of thousands," is the voice of song. The 
 angels, and elders, and four living ones, who 
 fall before the throne on their faces, and wor- 
 ship God, can not but utter the voice of celes- 
 tial psalmody when they say : " Amen, Bless- 
 ing and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, 
 and honor, and power, and might, be unto 
 God forever and ever. Amen." 
 
 The nearest approach which we can make 
 on earth to the joy of worship in heaven, is 
 when we unite in hymning God and the 
 Lamb. Oh ! let us seek to engage in this service 
 with heart and soul, as feeling that our powers 
 
 1 T.ev. 4: S-12; 5:8. 
 165 
 
10 SING praises! 
 
 nave no more honorable and exalted use, than 
 when we devote them to the praise of the 
 Almighty Eedeemer. This, we believe, is 
 sometimes felt in a humble measure, during 
 those delightful melting seasons, when at sacra- 
 ments, or the concourse of thousands to hear 
 the Word, or, as has recently been the case, 
 in prayer-meetings of unexampled size, the 
 hearts of believers experience the mysterious 
 ardors of love, and rise in joy, swelling with 
 high praises, for the gift of Jesus, and the con- 
 version of multitudes of souls. May God 
 grant us nearer and nearer likeness in our 
 worship to the song of the redeemed I 
 
 166 
 
SING PRAISES I 11 
 
 Kev. 5 : 6. 
 
 Behold the glories of the Lamb, 
 Amidst his Father's throne, 
 
 Prepare new honors for his name, 
 And songs before imknown. 
 
 Let elders worship at his feet, 
 
 The Church adore around, 
 "With vials full of odors sweet. 
 
 And harps of sweeter sound. 
 
 Those are the prayers of all the saints. 
 And these the hymns they raise ; 
 
 Jesus is kind to our complaints, 
 He loves to hear our praise. 
 
 Eternal Father, who shall look 
 
 Into thy secret will ? 
 Who but the Son shall take that book, 
 
 And open every seal ? 
 
 He shall fulfil thy great decrees ; 
 
 The Son deserves it well : 
 Lo 1 in his hand the sovereign keys 
 
 Of heaven, and death, and hell ! 
 
 Now to the Lamb that once was slain, 
 
 Be endless blessings paid : 
 Salvation, glory, joy, remain 
 
 Forever on thy head. 
 167 
 
12 SING praises! 
 
 Thou hast redeemed our souls with blood, 
 Hadt set the prisoners free, 
 
 Hast made us kings and priests to God, 
 And we shall reign with thee 1 
 
 The works of nature and of grace 
 Are put beneath thy power, 
 
 Then shorten these delaymg days, 
 And bring the promised hour. 
 
 108 
 
THE HARVEST OF NEW-YORK 
 
 Theke are some evils wTiicli belong to all 
 great cities as sucli. The vastness of popula- 
 tion brings ignorance and irreligion into 
 greater proximity, and so to speak, congests 
 them within narrow compass. Hence we find 
 poverty, sickness, sloth, intemperance, mendi- 
 city, and fraud, on a larger scale, and with 
 less surprise, than in other localities. De- 
 pravity is the same, indeed, " in the void 
 waste or in the city full ;" but in a metropohs 
 sin is more crowded and more overt. The 
 love of money, which is a root of all evil, 
 operates more actively where so much wealth 
 is in perpetual, large, and rapid circulation. 
 Cupidity, fraud, and violence exist wherever 
 man is found ; but in cities they have a wider 
 field, and come up to our notice every day of 
 our lives. This familiarity with evil clearly 
 tends to its propagation. It is just as true of 
 169 
 
2 THE HARVEST OF NEW- YORK. 
 
 vice as of contagious disease. The forced and 
 unnatural nearness of man to man, renders it 
 more easy for evil principles and practices to 
 diffuse themselves, by precept and example. 
 Crime and its provocatives are kept in coun- 
 tenance by the number and consequent bold- 
 ness of transgressors. The same density of 
 human actors renders easy every sort of asso- 
 ciated action and combination. Idleness and 
 luxury and love of pleasure are evil every 
 where ; but who does not know how violent 
 a stunulus they receive in cities ? For ex- 
 ample, the wealth and voluptuousness of the 
 great are continually working downwards, 
 and corrupting the humbler classes. No man 
 needs to go in search of means of intemper- 
 ance ; the invitation is at every corner. Few 
 are the great towns in which the example of 
 Sabbath desecration is not held out, almost 
 ostentatiously, thus producing its like in the 
 careless and the young. The public amuse- 
 ments of cities are not rare and occasional ; 
 their flames are kept up, night after night, as 
 a perpetual sacrifice. Their invitations arc 
 blazoned on every wall, and that is a happy 
 parent who can keep his children from 
 coveting the forbidden gratification, almo-t 
 170 
 
THE HAEVEST OF NEW- YORK. 3 
 
 before they have left the nursery. The streets 
 may be called an^ ever-open school of vice ; 
 and there are hundreds of errant children of 
 both sexes, whose whole education may be 
 said to be that of the kennel. It is in cities 
 that we naturally go to look for the extremes 
 of pauperism, filth, and domestic misery ; for 
 cellars and garrets unventilated, unwashed, 
 and overstocked with human inmates ; for 
 lofty buildings, swarming at each new flight 
 with improvident, noisy, unhealthy creatures. 
 Nowhere but in cities does the phenomenon 
 occur, of scores, hundreds, thousands, and tens 
 of thousands, who seem to be totally unre- 
 cognized out of their narrow circle, who live 
 as they list, and who sink with every succes- 
 sive year into a more malignant corruption. 
 In London, for example, the recent labors of 
 Mr. Mayhew have revealed what may be 
 called an underground population, numbering 
 its hundreds of thousands, of whom multitudes 
 know no marriage-tie ; and of whom the great 
 majority attend no place of worship. There 
 would seem to be a nation growing up in the 
 heart of Christendom, within daily sound of its 
 church-bells, utterly destitute of the first rudi- 
 ments of Christian instruction. And of these 
 171 
 
4 THE HARVEST OF NEW-YORK. 
 
 a large number, already mature and inveterate 
 in evil, find their way to ^ur shores, and to 
 our very thresholds. 
 
 It is truly wonderful how many comfort- 
 able and well-doing persons live and die with 
 scarcely any knowledge of these things. 
 They sit in their drawing-rooms, or roll in 
 their coaches, with scarcely a thought of the 
 masses of ignorance, misery, and vice, which 
 are almost touching them. Amidst purple, 
 fine linen, and daily sumptuous fare, we for- 
 get the Lazarus at our gate, who is chiefly re- 
 cognized by the dogs that lick his sores. 
 These things are in all populous cities, but 
 men of comfort see it not, or see it with vacant 
 and abstracted gaze. To learn the details of 
 this frightful reality, citizens must begin to 
 observe and enumerate the squalid creatures 
 that cross their path ; must diverge into shaded 
 and obstructed streets and alleys; must follow 
 the mendicant and the chifPonnier to his attic 
 or his hovel, and comprehend the nights of 
 those who lurk about our thoroughfares by 
 day. There is not a great city in Christen- 
 dom, in which it is not true, that a large pro- 
 portion of these classes is absolutely uncared 
 for, in regard to true reli^-ion. And it adds 
 172 
 
THE HAKVEST OF NEW-YORK. 5 
 
 to our alarm, that we need not go so far down 
 in the scale of society, to find hundreds who are 
 heathenish in their repudiation of all Christian 
 observances, on Sabbaths or other days. All 
 that has thus been said of cities in general, 
 applies with full force to the city of our abode ; 
 while there are other considerations, somewhat 
 peculiar to ourselves, which point us out as 
 beyond question a ripe and suffering harvest- 
 field. 
 
 It is to be expected that the largest city of 
 the Western world should hold forth promi- 
 nently those characteristics on which we have 
 touched. Its very greatness just so far mul- 
 tiplies the occasions for religious endeavor. 
 We begin to talk again and truly of the spring 
 and buoyancy of our trade, the expansion of our 
 commerce, the rise of property, the accumula- 
 tions of capital, the magnificence of dwellings 
 and equipage. These things should make us 
 humble and thankful. But what if these 
 blessings should be accompanied with increase 
 of sins and famine of the word of God ? 
 Wealth breeds luxury, pride, and forgetful- 
 ness of the things of eternity. I was just now 
 speaking of the poor; but here are causes 
 which operate upon the rich, and in some cases 
 173 
 
6 THE HARVEST OF NEW-YORK. 
 
 upon ourselves. Eead what the propliecies 
 say of great cities in the old world ; of Tyre, 
 of Sidon, and of Damascus. In a very ob- 
 servable degree, the unparalleled growth of 
 our city has tended to moral and religious de- 
 cay, by change of residence and rapid fluctu- 
 ation of people. We appear to live in a per- 
 petual tide, which sweeps away in its course 
 not only the mansions of former times, but 
 the very sanctuaries where our fathers wor- 
 shipped. Justifiable, nay, inevitable, as these 
 mutations may be, they can not be accom- 
 phshed without leaving large spaces more or 
 less destitute of the means of grace. And al- 
 ready the whole southern portion of our Island 
 presents a spiritual desolation, which affects 
 the hearts of God's people, and in regard to 
 which every one of us has a responsibility 
 and an obligation. It is not enough that we 
 secure the means of grace for ourselves and 
 our happy children, who could obtain them 
 even if suddenly left unsupplied; what is to 
 become of the myriads who care for none of 
 these things ? Shall we say to them, from 
 out these established houses of worship, '• Go, 
 serve other gods" ? Many of our churches 
 present the appearance in a great measure of 
 174 
 
THE HARVEST OF NEW-YORK. 7 
 
 repositories for sliQaves already garnered ; while 
 on every side of us tlie fields are covered with 
 luxuriant crops, which no husbandman is cut- 
 ting down. 
 
 The influx of strangers from remote regions, 
 and of emigrants from abroad, is giving a pe- 
 culiar character to our city population. Gf 
 these, the great majority are without evange- 
 lical religious means. I am persuaded that 
 very few among us are awake to the trans- 
 formation which is passing upon us, from this 
 single cause. The living cargoes, which are 
 poured in upon us day by day, from Ireland 
 and the European continent, and of which the 
 worst dregs and sediment are arrested just 
 here, and abide among us, are increasingly 
 making their influence felt, on our manners, 
 our morals, our religion, our elections, our 
 municipal government, our police and prisons, 
 our hospitals and our bills of mortality. We" 
 are in the midst of a gradual and silent, but 
 tremendous revolutionary movement. Of 
 Grermans alone, the accession has been such, 
 that you may walk through whole streets, if 
 not wards, in which their type and signature 
 stand out with all the colors of transatlantic 
 towns. Eomish churches, convents, and 
 175 
 
8 THE HARVEST OF NEW-YORK. 
 
 schools are rising with incalculable rapidity. 
 A nation of people owning spiritual, if not 
 temporal allegiance to a sovereign beyond the 
 seas, is consolidating itself in the midst of us. 
 Kot to assault or abridge their religious rights 
 do I say this, but to indicate the greatness of 
 the home-field, which calls for our zealous ex- 
 ertions. But we are not sure that this is the 
 worst part of the foreign immigration. Pro- 
 testantism has lost its glory in the land of 
 Luther. Those subtle but dreadful forms of 
 infidelity, which were broached by philoso- 
 phers in their closets and professors in their 
 chairs, became popularized, and worked their 
 way downward through the strata of society, 
 until they at length became intelligible to the 
 lowest minds, and popular among the turbu- 
 lent rabble. As in the French Eevolution, so 
 in Germany, these doctrines of the '' Friends 
 of Light " connected themselves with a passion 
 for liberty, and with reformatory agitation. 
 Ever since the outbreak of 1848, the con- 
 vulsed masses have been heaving with equal 
 violence against the altar and the throne. In 
 any great movement towards emigration, it is 
 obvious that none will be so ready to forsake 
 their country, as those who after entertaining 
 17G 
 
THE HARVEST OF NEW-YORK. 9 
 
 STicli sentiments have been disappointed. 
 Many of the ringleaders in these commotions 
 have reappeared in our land. 
 
 Turning to the indigenous population, with 
 which we are more familiar, we find untold mul- 
 titudes of the laborious as well as the unthrifty 
 classes, who never enter a place of worship. 
 "We find a juvenile throng, growing up with- 
 out the knowledge of morality and salvation. 
 We find large tracts of closely settled people, 
 wholly unsupplied with the means of grace. 
 And here I may let the curtain fall ; for we 
 have observed enough to demonstrate, that in 
 whatsoever direction we turn our eyes, the 
 fields are white already to harvest. 
 
 My beloved fellow-Christians, the theme is 
 too grave, and the affair too urgent, for me to 
 use any circuit in arriving at the practical 
 conclusion. We must do something, and 
 that without delay, or these evils will increase 
 beyond our power of control. " The King's 
 business requireth haste." While we slumber 
 the enemy is coming in with fearfal strides. 
 And what are we doing, in our staid, respect 
 able, and wealthy churches? What break- 
 water are we erecting against such a flood ? 
 Are we meeting the demands of our responsi- 
 177 
 
10 THE HAKVEST OF NEW-YOKK. 
 
 bilitj, of OTir very safety, by maintaining the 
 proper and decorous service of God in our 
 several sanctuaries ? No man will pretend it. 
 Yast harvests require extraordinary and im- 
 mediate labor. But where is it put forth 
 among us ? At what point, or on what day 
 have the united Christians of New- York arisen 
 in their strength, jealous for the Lord of hosts, 
 and determined to carry the torch of light in- 
 to these dark places ? "Where is the concerted 
 effort of evangelical laymen, to set up Gospel 
 means in the deserted lower wards of this 
 city ? This harvest will not come in of itself, 
 but must perish on the open field. To meet 
 this exigency is our appropriate business as 
 Christian churches. Life is short; and 
 when after a few years some wanderer 
 shall pick out our names, upon the marbles 
 of a cemetery, what traces shall we have left 
 behind us of our zeal for Christ and souls ? 
 It is for such efforts, and such self-denials, and 
 such sacrifices, that God has bestowed on us 
 our talents, our influence, and our means. Let 
 me take it for granted without argument that 
 the Christian Church was not founded solely 
 for itself, and for promoting its own spiritual 
 comfort and advantage ; and further, that 
 178 
 
THE HARVEST OF XEW-YORK. 11 
 
 every particular clmrcli is called upon to dif- 
 fuse blessings around its limited circle. This 
 is especially true of churclies which, have out- 
 lived the precarious and struggling period of 
 existence. There is a stage in church-life, 
 when every effort is needed to fill up its va- 
 cancies, sustain its service, and secure its con- 
 tinuance. But when this is past, and provi- 
 dence smiles upon its temporalities, assuredly 
 it has arrived at the crisis of outward activity. 
 The genius of Christianity is not simply that 
 of conservation, but of aggTession. It must 
 not merely live, but increase and cover the 
 earth. It is not an outpost garrison, fixed and 
 stationary in its defenses ; but an army, burn- 
 ing for conquest and going on by rapid 
 marches and increasing victoiies. And this 
 has been most signally manifest in every age 
 of Church history, in which believers have 
 evinced the true life of the body. Equally 
 true is this of particular churches. They 
 must break forth in action and increase, or 
 they must dwindle and die. And let me af- 
 firm it with emotion, when any religious so- 
 ciety has reached the point in which its com- 
 plement has been made up, its forces oi'gan- 
 ized, its seats filled, and when accordingly it 
 179 
 
12 THE HARVEST OF NEW- YORK. 
 
 can not longer hold forth wide invitations to 
 the multitudes to come in, the conjuncture is 
 solemn, I had almost said alarming. ISTor is it 
 matter of doubtful speculation, what a church 
 in such circumstances should do. It should 
 break out on the right hand and on the left. 
 It should enter into the Lord's harvest. It 
 should go out into the highways and hedges, 
 and compel men to come in. It should have 
 compassion on the ignorant and the outcast, 
 who surround it. It should provide the 
 means of grace for those who are destitute. 
 There is work enough to be done, and there 
 are means to do it. Let me add with pro- 
 found satisfaction, experience has shown 
 in New- York, that so far as the contribu- 
 tion of worldly means is concerned, there has 
 never been any backwardness. But there is 
 a want of enlightened zeal, as to the special 
 mark of evangelizing the suffering population 
 amidst which we dwell. And there is a want 
 of concert and cooperative endeavor, in the right 
 application of instruments. The case is this : 
 the harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few. 
 The Gospel must be preached by more voices 
 among the ignorant and needy. They will 
 not supply this want themselves, but will in- 
 180 
 
THE HARVEST OF NEW- YORK. 13 
 
 falliblj go from bad to worse. • Here our in- 
 tervention is needed. The cliurcli must be 
 carried to those who will not come to the 
 church. It never was the intention of Christ, 
 that his word should be sustained among 
 people of competency alone. Wher^ Christ- 
 ianity is vital, the poor have the Gospel 
 preached unto them. A wise and vigilant 
 survey must descry the points in our great 
 city, from which as centres the assault may 
 best be made on the forces of unrighteousness 
 and error. The message of life must at such 
 points be proclaimed at once ; freely at first, 
 until men shall have learnt the necessity, the 
 economy, and the delight of sustaining the 
 church for themselves and their children. 
 One such station, well manned, will become 
 the ipoint d''aip]}id for successful operations all 
 around. The best nucleus for a church is 
 often the Sunday-school. It naturally con- 
 nects itself first with smaller meetings, and 
 then with the services of the Sabbath. It 
 may be new to many, that in carrying out this 
 simple and effective plan, the greatest difS.- 
 culties sometimes insuperable have arisen 
 from the want of a 'place in which to gather 
 the uninstructed youth. Scholars teem, in 
 181 
 
1-i THE HARVEST OF NEW- YORK. 
 
 our overcrowded tenements, by hundreds and 
 thousands. Teachers, upon due summons, 
 are not found altogether wanting. The purse 
 of religious beneficence has been found con- 
 stantly open to every well-judged summons. 
 And yet our schools have been known to 
 knock in vain at the doors of every sufficient- 
 ly capacious public edifice. Now, I desire my 
 readers to show cause, why it would not be 
 a proper outlay of our ample means, for 
 liberal Christians to secure ground before it 
 is too late, and erect substantial and fitting 
 edifices, with ample apartments for Sunday- 
 schools. These might be occupied, during 
 the week, by good schools, in which the 
 Bible and religious doctrines should be taught. 
 They would resound with the voice of prayer 
 and praise, in social meetings, to which the 
 surrounding poor would be invited. They 
 would imperceptibly grow into places of Sab- 
 bath-service, where the Gospel should be 
 preached to the perishing. In process of time 
 they would be organized, and perhaps self- 
 sustaining. But this is only one of many 
 means which might be employed. That some 
 means should be speedily used, is as clear as 
 day. Let us pray to the Lord of the harvest, 
 
 182 
 
THE HAE7EST OF NEW- YORK. 15 
 
 that he would thrust forth laborers into his 
 harvest. But while we pray, let us not for- 
 get to labor ourselves. The times are favor- 
 able for Gospel effort. The mighty mass is 
 as yet unformed and ductile. Souls are per- 
 ishing every hour. The evil is not in India 
 or Africa, but at our doors. And our time 
 of action is very soon to have an end. 
 
 183 
 
COMPEL THEM TO COME IN. 
 
 The worst and vilest may be saved. 
 Miglitj awakenings do not stop short of the 
 leprous and abandoned sinner. "When the 
 Master of the house was angry, because all 
 his invited guests began to make excuse, and 
 refused to come to the Great Supper, though 
 all things were ready, he thus gave orders 
 to his servant : '' Gro out quickly into the 
 streets and lanes of the city, and bring in 
 hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, 
 and the bhnd." As this was not enough, he 
 gave a second order : "Go out into the high- 
 ways and hedges, and compel them to come 
 IN, that my house may be filled."^ "Who are 
 these but the extremest outcast sinners? 
 Such abound in our city, and perish for want 
 of Christ. 
 
 ' Luke 14 : 23. 
 184 
 
COMPEL THEir TO COME IN. 
 
 There is in grace a wonderful power of 
 growth, which, under Grod, is our hope in re- 
 gard to society. It is salt, it is leaven, it is 
 seed, it is light ; these are Scriptural figures, 
 all importing diffusion. In revivals of reli- 
 gion we observe this very remarkably exem- 
 plified. From one individual, we see the 
 spark kindling upon a whole family, and from 
 one family, reaching a church or neighbor- 
 hood. But what we desire to witness, and 
 what we should pray for, is, that Christianity 
 in its vital power should reach far and deeply 
 into the worst layers of society. brethren I 
 what must become of these self-destroying 
 masses, unless they receive the truth ! 
 
 "When the Lord Jesus was engaged in his 
 ministry on earth, he did not limit his regards 
 to those who call themselves the better classes. 
 *'The common people heard him gladly." 
 Eemark was often made upon his tolerance 
 of the wicked : " This man receiveth sinners 
 and eateth with them." He was a '^friend of 
 publicans and sinners." Of the multitudes 
 who went out after him, thousands were 
 doubtless poor, and thousands were blind and 
 vicious. Sons of affliction and daughters of 
 infamy heard his gracious words. People of 
 185 
 
COMPEL TilEM TO COME IN. 
 
 til is sort have not only sense of misery but 
 consciousness of guilt. They are often stung 
 and lashed by remorse. In a sort of despera- 
 tion they sometimes cry to God. They are 
 frequently more ready to be impressed by 
 the glad tidings than church-going formalists. 
 Jesus spake to their hearts, and his gospel is 
 still suited to such. In the great awakenings 
 under Wesley and "Whitefield, there was 
 nothing more, remarkable than the degree in 
 which the Gospel was carried home with 
 power to the souls of the very lowest. " My 
 rule," said John Wesley, " is to go not only to 
 those who need me, but to those who need me 
 most." The wretchedness which drove peo- 
 ple to Christ was not altogether spiritual in 
 the first instance, though in the Divine provi- 
 dence it had spiritual consequences. He who 
 came for loaves and fishes found the bread of 
 life ; she who brought her vessel to the well 
 of Sychar, received living water. So now, 
 the sullen anguish of poverty, discontent, and 
 disease, in cellars, garrets, and over-crowded 
 and pestilential tenements, engenders longings 
 which only the Gospel can gratify. Alas ! 
 alas ! how slender are the means as yet em- 
 ployed for carrying the Gospel to these ex- 
 
 isa 
 
COMPEL THEM TO COME IN. 
 
 treme points I Yet to these very points tlie 
 Gospel may be carried with the best hopes of 
 success. It were a dangerous error to pre- 
 sume that the inmates even of the odious re- 
 sorts, noted and watched by the police, are 
 necessarily devoid of thoughts about religion, 
 and gnawing though vague consciousness of 
 sin. Could we unroof dense portions of this 
 great city, and look into the dens of drink, and 
 play, and debauchery, we should behold the 
 undeniable signs of wounded spirits, without 
 hope, without God. The Gospel is made for 
 such, and has saved such. Amidst the re- 
 iterated and increasing prayers which go up 
 for the outpouring of the Spirit, surely there 
 ought to be importunate supplicatioti for in- 
 fluences to penetrate these lowest strata. 
 Awakening is incomplete unless it go deeper, 
 far deeper down, than our well-dressed- 
 throngs. Blessed be God, that these have 
 the privilege ; but oh ! we crave it for the ab- 
 ject and abandoned. ISTor will the victorious 
 progress be complete till it reach the felon, the 
 drunkard, and the ' strange woman.' In re- 
 gard to these dangerous and desperate classes, 
 a voice seems to issue from the holy place : 
 
 18V 
 
COMPEL THEM TO COME IN. 
 
 *' Whom shall we send, and who will go for 
 lis?" 
 
 Although places of instruction and worship 
 are greatly needed for the miserable and vi- 
 cious, and although all wealthy Christians 
 should feel guilty until such be established, it 
 is not enough to provide these means. Expe- 
 rience proves that good houses may remain 
 empty, and able preachers unheard. We need 
 a shock, to rouse these benumbed souls ; an 
 impulse, to urge them toward inquiry; a 
 mighty drawing, to bring them to the Word. 
 Their chief want is that of interest, awaken- 
 ing, motive ; something to make them go to 
 church, and care for their own souls. Popu- 
 lar reformations, under the truth, have this 
 effect in some measure. Indeed we can think 
 of nothing more likely to compel the atten- 
 tion of base, violent, and blasphemous men 
 and women, than a mighty tide of revival, 
 pressing its repeated waves into their misera- 
 ble homes and hearts. Bad influences are 
 propagated thus, why not good influences? 
 All throuQjh the "electric circle of a certain 
 class,^ one hour will suffice to thrill the morbid 
 passionate excitement of a prize-fight, a mur- 
 der, or a rising mob ; why should not the 
 188 
 
COMPEL THEM TO COME IN. 
 
 same human conductors bear such, impulses 
 as have driven multitudes to hear a Luther, 
 a "Whitefield, or a Spurgeon? Would 
 to God that we could see the day in which 
 the messages of salvation and the meeting for 
 prayer should be crowded by the very class 
 who now fill drinking-shops, dance-houses, 
 caverns of lawless pleasure, and jails ! Noth- 
 ing will effect this but great unexampled 
 awakening ; and for this we are to pray. If 
 we carefully read what our blessed Lord 
 spake in parable concerning the two sons, we 
 shall see that these are the people who not 
 only need the truth, but who are accessible to 
 its power. "Jesus saith unto them, Yerily I 
 say unto you. That the publicans and harlots 
 go into the kingdom of God before you"^ 
 
 When in so remarkable a manner God is 
 displaying his readiness to convert great num- 
 bers to himself, all who fear his name and 
 love the souls of men, ought to be prostrate 
 before him, in beseeching cries, that he would 
 vouchsafe to urge the work of grace more 
 widely and profoundly through the depraved 
 multitude. As certainly as faith and love 
 
 iMalt. 21 : 28-32. 
 180 
 
COMPEL THEM TO COME IN. 
 
 beget prayer, so certainly will prayer beget 
 action ; and means will be used to evangelize 
 the lowest and vilest. Means are already at- 
 tempted, but they will be better sustained. 
 The blind and vicious, from whose ranks the 
 levies are made for riots and prisons, will not 
 flock to the preached "Word, until some fresh 
 and irresistible influence, affecting the whole 
 population, find its way to the very scenes of 
 their nocturnal orgies. Prayer for such an 
 influence is clearly laid before us as a duty. 
 While we pray we must work. These child- 
 ren of the wicked one will not come to the 
 light ; it must be carried to them. By terri- 
 torial division ; by canton^ of labor not too 
 large to be manageable; by turning on a 
 force of godly men and women large enough 
 to visit with frequency ; by making the effort 
 in concert and exhaustively, so as to leave no 
 nook or corner untouched ; and by giving to 
 the miserable some tidings of that rich gospel 
 feast which awaits their acceptance, we shall 
 instrumentally "compel them to come in." 
 Unbelief as to the power and willingness 
 of God to do this, is at the bottom of all our 
 neglect and wrong action in this matter. If 
 for a moment we fancy such an event as the 
 190 
 
COMPEL THEM TO COME IN. 
 
 conversion of our degraded and dangerous 
 classes, the incredulous principle replies : 
 "Behold, if the Lord would make windows 
 in heaven, might this thing be ?"^ An awa- 
 kening which should shake the dry bones in all 
 the lowest populations, rousing them from 
 filth and drunkenness, and raising up an ex- 
 ceeding great army to fight the good fight of 
 faith, is more than we dare ask of God. 
 And yet, brethren, it is not more than we 
 may reasonably expect on Scriptural grounds, 
 nor more than the eyes of the Church shall 
 joyfully see, in the day when, by the Spirit, 
 she shall rise to the height of faith and en- 
 treaty. Such a glory will be like that in re- 
 spect to which the Lord comforts Zion in pre- 
 diction: ''Light up thine eyes round about, 
 and behold: all these gather themselves to- 
 gether and come to thee. As I live, saith the 
 Lord; thou shalt surely clothe thee with them 
 all, as with an ornapient, and bind them on 
 thee, as a bride doth."^ 
 
 1 2 Kiii-s '7:2. 2 jgaiah 49 : 18. 
 
 191 
 
COMPEL THEM TO COME IN. 
 
 THE PENITENT'S HYMN TO CHRIST. 
 
 My Saviour, canst thou welcome back 
 A wanderer gone so far astray — 
 
 Whose heart ten thousand terrors rack, 
 Ten thousand sins to wrath betray? 
 
 Fain would I come, fain would I fly 
 
 To lay my burden at thy feet ; 
 And in abasement ever lie 
 
 Tearful before thy mercy-seat. 
 
 But feebleness and guilt and shame 
 Restrain me, and I sink oppressed : 
 
 There is no favor I can claim. 
 No place in Jesus' spotless breast. 
 
 Thus do I tremble, yet once more 
 My flowing eye looks up and sees 
 
 The griefs thy sacred body bore, 
 Thy scars, and blood, and agonies. 
 
 " Ah! not for me, these pains were borne !'* 
 
 Such is the guilty spirit's cry : 
 " Ah ! not for me /" the soul forlorn 
 
 Reiterates with many a sigh. 
 
 For thee! lost sinner, yes, for thee! 
 
 Such answer from that marred face : 
 For thee, though sunken in guilt's sea, 
 
 This sacrifice hath purchased grace. 
 192 
 
COMPEL THEM TO COME IN. 
 
 All crimsoned over with thy sin, 
 Welcome, lost sinner, welcome now ; 
 
 These arms were spread to take thee in, 
 This head for thee in death did bow 
 
 Melted by love, by pity won, 
 I yield me. Saviour, to thy love, 
 
 The streams that from thy heart have run 
 Shall every spot of guilt remove. 
 
 193 
 
HELP THE SEAMAK 
 
 We read, "And tlie sea gave up the dead 
 which were in it." 
 
 I. Consider the number of the dead who 
 are in the sea. Both the small and the great 
 are there. From remote ages it has been the 
 receptacle of mortal bodies. Keflect on the 
 whole generation which sank like lead in the 
 mighty waters, when the fountains of the 
 great deep were broken up, and the flood- 
 gates of heaven were opened, and all the high 
 hills that were under the whole heaven were 
 covered ; and every living substance was de- 
 stroyed which was upon the face of the 
 ground. These millions shall yet be given 
 up. The early navigation of the renewed 
 earth did but fill the devouring chasm of seas 
 and oceans. K the commerce of that day was 
 less adventurous and large, it was more full 
 of peril. "Without our compass or our science, 
 the daring sailors of olden time threw away 
 their lives more lavishly. The Eoman poet 
 104 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 had reason to exclaim at tlie temerity of him 
 who first trusted himself to a perishable plank. 
 The ships of Tarshish went down by thou- 
 sands. The early Phoenician navigators add- 
 ed hosts of corpses to the ocean cemetery. 
 
 The Mediterranean, or Great Sea, was the 
 chief field of ancient seamanship, and its 
 waters were an ever-gaping sepulchre. Age 
 after age beheld a large portion of mankind 
 consigned to these depths. Dreadful as it is 
 to be suffocated in the tempestuous waves, no 
 single mode of death has had so many tri- 
 umphs. To this must be added the vast fleets 
 of warring nations, which were dashed to- 
 gether in battles, and driven asunder by 
 storms ; as in the conflict between Xerxes 
 and the Grreeks, in which hundreds of vessels 
 were destroyed. But it is to modern naviga- 
 tion and commerce that the destructive ele- 
 ment has looked for its most numerous vic- 
 tims. The seamen of the world of Christian 
 nations are reckoned at more than two mil- 
 lions. The perils of human life are made the 
 subject of accurate calculation ; and those 
 who are familiar with life-annuities know 
 that, while ship-masters are allowed to insure 
 at a double rate, common seamen are not 
 195 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 allowed to insure at all. This significant fact 
 affords a glimpse of the fatality which is at- 
 tributed to the calling. Some have believed 
 that the majority of sea-faring men die upon 
 the waters. Scarcely a day passes without 
 its loss; and our shipping-lists are records of 
 disaster. It is not merely by dozens, or by 
 scores, but sometimes by hundreds, that the 
 remains are swallowed up; as when some 
 lordly Indiaman goes down in the mid ocean. 
 Perhaps this moment witnesses, amidst dark- 
 ness and tumult, the cry of expiring agony. 
 Thus, year after year, and century after cen- 
 tury, the ocean has been receiving its tribute 
 of corpses by thousands and by millions, until 
 the great basins of the earth have become the 
 receptacles of a large portion of those who 
 have lived. The consideration of their nmn- 
 her then should awaken our interest in those 
 who go down to the sea in ships ; for each of 
 the dead has an immortal destiny, and every 
 such soul cries to us to be in earnest, in ex- 
 pectation of that day when the sea shall give 
 up the dead which are in it. It will give 
 them up, in overwhelming magnitude of 
 array, at the inevitable summons. 
 
 19G 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 11. Consider the manner of death which 
 befalls those ivho are in the sea. 
 
 Those corpses, ancient or recent, floating or 
 at rest, whole or dismembered, and even dis- 
 solved to atoms, are now motionless. Bnt 
 they each went down with a separate gasp 
 and struggle. Each wrestled with the gi- 
 gantic element ; each cried out in the impo- 
 tent shriek for help. It is not to appall the 
 imagination that this harrowing picture is 
 presented. It is to call on you for Christian 
 provision against such a death. Benevolence 
 labors, in Gospel lands, to prepare men for 
 the awfal hour of departure, even though 
 hoping it may take place in the arms of 
 friends, upon beds of ease, perhaps with lin- 
 gering succession of warnings. And shall we 
 have no kind forecast for the hour when the 
 mariner is summoned, all at once, to his cold 
 death-struggle ? For here is death in a form 
 which demands great grace for its support. 
 Against such terrors, there should be the pro- 
 vision of unusual faith and trust. No princi- 
 ples of religion can be too strong for a shock 
 so tremendous. The call is usually sudden. 
 It is alarming. It comes amidst confusion, 
 uproar, hunied exertion, desperate struggles 
 197 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 for safety. K a multitude suJBfer together 
 their faces do but reflect blackness on each, 
 other, and society here affords no solace. 
 Who has not read of the frenzy of such an 
 hour, or (horrible to relate) of the rush of 
 dying men, in the mania of hopelessness, to 
 Ijie spirit-room ? If^ on the other hand, the 
 solitary wretch, exhausted and no longer 
 clinging to his plank, clenches his powerless 
 hands and sinks into his dark, cold, lonely 
 depths, he needs not less the inward breath- 
 ing of hope in Christ, when far from every 
 voice, of mother, sister, or pastor, that ever 
 whispered to him of salvation. Who in such 
 a juncture can hope that the careless and it 
 may be profligate one shall be able to gather 
 his broken thoughts sufficiently to regard the 
 object of faith ? It is too late in such a mo- 
 ment of horror to collect the fragments of a 
 neglected or forgotten creed. We speak often 
 of the doubtfulness of such repentance as oc- 
 curs on a death-led; but what shall we say of 
 a departure in the paroxysms of the strang- 
 ling tempestuous sea ! The fear, the delirium, 
 the pain, of this- crisis may even obliterate 
 every thought of mercy. Let me then, by all 
 the dreadful pangs that hover over the manner 
 198 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 of this death, beseech you to lose no time in 
 seeking to prepare for "heaven him who may 
 be thus summoned. For how unspeakably 
 glorious the privilege of him, who, howsoever 
 sudden his last alarm, can serenely, even 
 when all human hope is gone, fold his arms, 
 and raise his dying eyes, and from amidst the 
 very gulf exclaim : "I know whom I have 
 believed— death! where is thy sting? 
 SEA I where is thy victory?" Among con- 
 verted seamen there have been many such. 
 Their number, we trust, is daily increasing, 
 by means of Christian exertions. Such we 
 doubt not are in our port. Nay, such may 
 be among the readers of this page. And it is 
 to provide against a trial so common, and 
 yet so fearful, that our efforts should be di- 
 rected. For when the sea shall give up its 
 dead, the difference will be marked, between 
 those who have been driven away in their 
 wickedness, by the storm that wrecked their 
 hopes, and those who have had hope in their 
 death; even though that death was in Jjie 
 surges of seeming destruction. Let the man- 
 ner of this death, conjoined with its innum- 
 erable subjects, call you to new exertions for 
 the soul of the mariner. 
 199 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 m. Consider the CHARACTER of those who 
 hecome the dead of the sea. 
 
 If these were all men of God, neither their 
 number nor their mode of departure would 
 demand our intense sympathy. However the 
 silver cord might be loosed, or the golden 
 bowl be broken, they would have emerged in 
 spirit from the waters of death into the joy of 
 their Lord. But we have painful reason to 
 believe that they are, in a vast proportion, 
 unacquainted with these hopes: and "the 
 ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff 
 which the wind driveth away." Let us praise 
 God that there are deHghtful exceptions j 
 mariners who have learned the grace of the 
 Gospel ; who have praised the Eedeemer and 
 prayed to him amidst the storms of every sea ; 
 men whose voices have joined in the praises 
 of God's people ; and who have rallied under 
 the most blessed of all flags, on which they 
 •have loved to read, in the language common 
 to all saints, BETHEL, "the house of God." 
 Btt these are the very persons who will most 
 readily acknowledge, in all sadness, that the 
 majority of their brethren are of a different 
 stamp. The character of the seaman is more 
 marked than that of most other classes, be- 
 200 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 cause the influences whicli go to form it are 
 more exclusive, constant, and uninterrupted. 
 The very disposition whicli leads the youth- 
 ful mind to seek the adventures of the sea is 
 not unfrequently one of hazardous excitability. 
 And no sooner has he bid adieu to his native 
 land, than he falls under the concentrated in- 
 fluence of causes which, in ninety-nine out a 
 hundred instances, mould the nature. Absence 
 from homej for such long periods, and during 
 the better part of life, is a potent agency. 
 The sea has no firesides ; no quiet evenings ; 
 no domestic charms ; no smile of the sister, 
 the daughter, the mother; none of the hu- 
 manizing influence of the gentler sex. Man 
 is a foe to man when these kindly agencies 
 are wanting. I do not believe it possible for 
 a great number of our sex to be thrown to- 
 gether for long periods, whether in a convent, 
 a prison, or a ship, without some moral hard- 
 ening. Seamen may be said to receive all the 
 formative influences from one another; and 
 this at a distance from all the varied methods 
 of instruction which, even unobserved, are 
 perpetually operating at home. And then, 
 who can estimate the power of this single 
 peculiarity in their situation — that they have 
 201 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 no Sabbath/ "When the ten thousands of 
 Israel are going np, one day in seven, to ap- 
 pear before God, in the beauty of holiness, 
 the mariner on the waste ocean, even though 
 he be a disciple, lacks all memorial of holy 
 time. With the greater part this sacred day 
 has dropped out of the calendar. To measure 
 the operation of this single cause, it would be 
 necessary to consider all the unspeakable 
 blessings of the Lord's 'day, the solemn wor- 
 ship, the ministry, and the sacraments. In 
 the absence of that which is good, the human 
 heart without grace preys on itself. Devotion 
 needs these stated props and aids ; hence di- 
 vine wisdom and love has appointed them. 
 Even private intercourse with heaven is apt 
 to be forgotten, in the total absence of public 
 means: which, indeed, is one of the great 
 arguments in favor of the efforts for which 
 I now plead. But seamen are not left in 
 this innocent neutrality. They influence one 
 another, and that sometimes after a fearful 
 sort. The young sailor sometimes finds him- 
 self, on his earliest voyage, admitted to a 
 school ef vice, with adepts and veterans for 
 his instructors. And when he sets foot on a 
 foreign shore, after the labors, and perhaps 
 202 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 disasters, of a voyage — after the weariness 
 and disgust consequent on his exposure and 
 duress — ^it is no wonder that he runs riot in 
 his brief liberty, and yields to the extreme 
 seductions of foreign ports. "We have but to 
 open our eyes and ears to know the mode of 
 life adopted by sailors in our port after return 
 from long voyages. The avails of long labor 
 are sometimes squandered in a night. The 
 wolves that raven for them are on the watch, 
 prowling for the moral prey. Hence drunk- 
 enness, gambling, revelling, and debauchery. 
 How often do these outbreaks call for the muni- 
 cipal force ! How often does the wronged and 
 deluded wretch cry for justice on his destroyers ! 
 How often are our ears rent by the unusual 
 and heaven-daring profaneness of the throng 
 of mariners ! In many foreign ports all the 
 influences are disastrous. There is every 
 bait to vice, while there are no aids to virtue. 
 The sharper and the seducer are there, but 
 no preacher of righteousness, no flag of gospel- 
 peace. Hence it is by no means wonderful, 
 that, with the exceptions which we delight to 
 admit, the character of seamen, as a class, is 
 not such as to give us comfort in the expect- 
 ation of the day when the sea shall give up 
 203 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 the dead wliich are in it. Multitudes have 
 gone down to that death with all their sins 
 upon their heads. Having lived contrary to 
 God, and brutalized themselves hj passionate 
 indulgence, they have sunk without hope. 
 And oh ! is there not a reason here why we 
 should be using renewed exertions to cover 
 the dangerous seas with Christian seamen ? 
 
 lY. Consider the neglect with which the 
 dead that are in the sea have been allowed to 
 go down into its depths. Neglect of indivi- 
 duals or classes is to be measured with some 
 reference to their importance and value. 
 "Were the seamen who are daily perishing in 
 the waters an idle, unprofitable, burdensome 
 generation, we might perhaps let them drop 
 away with less blame. But they sustain the 
 trade of the world. Whatsoever is meant by 
 that pregnant word, Commerce, involves the 
 toils and dangers of thousands of mariners. 
 To neglect them is to cast from us the very 
 instrument by which the gains of merchandise 
 are acquired. The useful products, and the 
 almost necessary luxuries, which are ex- 
 changed between continents and islands, are 
 borne on their arms. The sails that fan all 
 climates are guided by their sinews. There 
 204 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 is not a delicacy or an ornament of commerce, 
 tliere is not a wonder of art, there is n'ot a 
 transmarine medicine, tliere is not a transport- 
 ation of Christian mercy, nor a visit of holy 
 friendship and affection, which is not in some 
 sort intrusted to the hardy seaman whom we 
 neglect. And when he cfe, far from sight 
 of land, he dies in the hard service of a civil- 
 ization and refinement which use him, and 
 abandon him. The soldiers of the earth are 
 many; but we can do without them. The 
 day, we trust, is hastening on, which shall 
 render obsolete their trade of blood. But the 
 sailor we can not do without. The more 
 peace, the more commerce. The progress of 
 every science and art tends to bring a greater 
 throng into this highway of nations. And 
 the Gospel itself, as it begins to expand itself 
 more largely over the earth, will claim for 
 itself a Christianized seamanship, to disperse 
 the word and the ministry of God among all 
 nations. Mariners are then indispensable ; 
 yet these are they whom we have neglected. 
 The sin lies at the door of Christendom. The 
 son who leaves the maternal threshold to 
 traverse the earth, is the one who should be 
 famished with means of life. But the Church 
 205 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 has seen her children going abroad over all 
 waters, and yet has done but little, and even 
 that little but lately, for the spiritual good of 
 the seaman. How long was it before Christ- 
 ian watchmen even missed the sailor from 
 church-assemblies ? - How long before means 
 were used to furnish his sea-chest with the 
 Bible ? How long before a Bethel-flag was 
 hoisted, or a Bethel-chapel built ? While we 
 bless God for what has been done, and for 
 the encouragement we have to proceed, we 
 can not but bewail the absolute destitution of 
 the vast body of mariners. Immense portions 
 of the Christian world take no cognizance of 
 them as immortal beings. Congregations 
 send up prayers, for years, without remem- 
 bering those whose business is in the great 
 waters. And the consequence is, that, al- 
 though no field of effort has yielded more 
 fruit in proportion to labor bestowed, yet so 
 vast is the amount to be compassed, that the 
 great mass is not reached. Neglected mortals 
 continue to plunge unprepared into eternity. 
 It would be a consolation to the pallid, shiv- 
 ering seaman, as he spends his few last mo- 
 ments on the parting timbers, before the final 
 plunge, to remember some word of promise — 
 206 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 some hour of communion — some message 
 fi'om Christ's ministers — some precious sacra- 
 ment — alas ! what multitudes have none such 
 to remember! They have come and gone 
 for years to and from Christian ports, but 
 they have found no Christian privilege there ; 
 for none has taken them by the hand, or led 
 them to the house of prayer. A poignant 
 sense of this neglect moved the founders of 
 Bethel Societies to begin and prosecute their 
 work. They were willing to snatch, if possi- 
 ble, from the double destruction of soul and 
 body in shipwreck, at least here and there one 
 among the thousands who mount up to the 
 heaven and go down again to the depths, while 
 their soul is melted because of trouble ; all this 
 being but the beginning of sorrows. Neglect 
 of such will appear in its true light when the 
 sea shall give up the dead which are in it. 
 
 Y. Consider our meeting in judgment 
 with the dead who are in the sea. That hour 
 is coming, and we should draw from it mo- 
 tives for our daily conduct. There are things 
 which may or may not befall us in the future ; 
 but we must all stand before the judgment- 
 seat of Christ. What a day of revelation will 
 that be of all our neglects and transgressions! 
 207 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 and how little, in tlie retrospect, will many 
 of those things seem, which now occupy all 
 our thoughts and passions! There is One 
 coming who will say to some : '' Inasmuch as 
 ye did it not unto one of the least of these 
 my brethren, ye did it not to me." The hour 
 hastens. Behold He cometh, and every eye 
 shall see Him! Hear the beloved disciple: 
 "And I saw a great white throne, and Him 
 that sat on it, (the shadowy vagueness of the 
 representation only makes the approaching 
 cloudy tribunal more fearfully sublime,) and 
 Him that sat on it, (no name is needed, for 
 there is one object now for every eye ; and 
 one sound reverberates in every ear and 
 through every cavern of earth and sea,) from 
 whose face the earth and the heaven fled 
 away; and there was found no place for 
 them." This judgment-bar is awful, is real, 
 is approaching, is for us — you and I shall be 
 attracted by irresistible fascination to that 
 burning centre, and form part of that count- 
 less assemblage. Sinner ! sinner ! prepare to 
 meet thy God ! "And I saw the dead, small 
 and great, stand before God" — before God ! 
 before Him from whose presence heaven and 
 earth just now fled. The dead, in all their 
 208 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 races, are there ; of all tribes and nations ; of 
 every age, a ghastly multitude whom no man 
 can number. All graves and sepulchres re 
 lease their prisoners, of all times and ranks, 
 from Abel downwards, to stand before God. 
 "And the books were opened; and another 
 book was opened, which is the book of life : 
 and the dead were judged out of those things 
 which were written in the books, according 
 to their works. And the sea gave up the dead 
 which icere in itP Now is the time of revela- 
 tion frtm the mighty waters. Here are the 
 deposits of solitary disasters, of thousands of 
 shipwrecks, of vast fleets, and this through 
 centuries of years. The faithful sea shall 
 give them up at the voice of the archangel 
 and the trump of God. The voice that awoke 
 Lazarus and the youth of ISTain, and which 
 unseals all sepulchres, shall find obedience in 
 the seas. Ko matter what the variety of life 
 or death, there shall be one rising again, to 
 look upon the face of God. How gladly 
 would some call on rocks and mountains to 
 cover them ; or seek a deeper plunge into the 
 concealment of the ocean ! but no — 
 
 " Seas cast the monsters forth to meet their doom, 
 And rocks but prison up for wrath to come.'-' 
 
 Young. 
 209 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 LORD, HEAR THE SEAMAN'S CRY I 
 
 Awaked from gentlest midnight sleep, 
 
 I hear the howling blast, 
 The chamber rocks, the murmur deep 
 
 Of ocean rises fast. 
 The lurid flash, the thunder's roar, 
 
 Proclaim the tempest nigh, 
 And wavering hghts are off our shore — 
 
 Lord, hear the seaman's cry ! 
 
 This hour, perhaps, the sailor thinks 
 Of wife or mother far. 
 
 As, drenched and spiritless, he shrinlf> 
 At some portentous bar. 
 
 The cresting foam betokens death. 
 The breaker's rage is nigh, 
 
 He prays— with quick, redoubled breath- 
 Lord, hear the seaman's cry 1 
 
 Ah ! many a youth now lost in sin, 
 
 And many a hoary sire, 
 "Who never prayed, this night begin 
 
 To dread Almighty ire. 
 In headlong fury, while the bark 
 
 Pierces the billows high, 
 They learn to pray in anguish — Hark ! 
 
 — ^Lord, hear the seaman's cry I 
 
 Though sinking in the whelming flood 
 
 In sohtary woe. 
 Saviour, thy ever precious blood 
 
 Can reach thy hapless foe. 
 210 
 
HELP THE SEAMAN. 
 
 Catch the faint, smothered voice of him 
 
 Whose penitential sigh 
 Rises amid the terror grim ; 
 
 Lord, hear the seaman's cry I 
 
 Pray for the sailor, ye who rest 
 
 Upon your curtained bed ; 
 Pray to the Power at whose behest 
 
 The fearful storm hath sped. 
 And when, released from fear and care, 
 
 S weet hours of night ghde by, 
 Be sometimes this your fervent prayer, 
 
 Lord, hear the seaman's cry I 
 
 J. W. A. 
 
 211 
 
TO FIREMEN!' 
 
 * Hark I One — two — ^three — ^four — five ! 
 Yes, it is our district I Here it goes — tkrow 
 mj cap after rae — tliere is not a moment to be 
 lost I' So cries tlie stout and gallant young 
 American, as lie dashes from liis door at dead 
 of night, wliile tlie street resounds with " Fire, 
 fire, fire I" In less time than jou have taken 
 to read these lines, thousands have poured out, 
 joined their respective machines, and choked 
 with living masses the avenues leading to yon- 
 der column of black smoke and towering 
 flame. There is scarcely on earth a scene of 
 greater excitement. The valiant and youthful 
 soul is stirred as the war-horse with the sound 
 of the trumpet. Amidst the thick of the en- 
 counter, the din, heat, smoke, shock, and 
 shouting, there is all the excitement of a bat- 
 tle-field without its blood, and all the peril of 
 an assault without its wrath and malice. The 
 212 
 
TO firemen! 
 
 true-liearted fireman, lie who is urged on not 
 by fame, or pride, or drink, but bj honor, 
 duty, and humanity, is a soldier of peace. 
 His perils, darings, and achievements some- 
 times equal those of Waterloo or Lucknow ; 
 but he seeks to save not to destroy life. 
 
 Hence it is, that we honor the fireman, and 
 look to him as the brave protector of our 
 hearths and our children. When we contem- 
 plate a procession of these stout-hearted men 
 and youth, careering through our streets on 
 some gala day, with gay appointments and 
 brilliant equipage, we seem to behold the mus- 
 cle and sinew of our commonwealth, the de- 
 fenders of our homes, the sons, and brothers, 
 and husbands who would fly at a moment's 
 warning to resist invasion or quell intestine 
 violence ; and we involuntarily exclaim, Grod 
 forbid such hearts should be the prey of infi- 
 dehty, drunkenness, or lust I 
 
 It is a noble sight to behold a well-built, 
 stalwart, symmetric human form flushed 
 with health and vigor. And it is melancholy 
 to see such a figure rendered partially useless 
 by the loss of an eye or an arm. But the 
 beautiful balance and proportion of the bodily 
 frame is not so much marred by the loss of an 
 213 
 
TO FIREMEN I 
 
 eye or an arm, as tlie inward man, tlie spirit- 
 ual and immortal part, is disfigured by moral 
 evil. For what can be more hideous and re- 
 volting than to hear words of lying or pro- 
 faneness from Hps of manly grace ; to see a 
 powerful arm prostituted to unlawful vio- 
 lence ; or to ^witness the downfall of a fine, 
 graceful form into the kennel of intoxication ! 
 Hear, O young man, hear the voice of a 
 friend I The counsel of the loving mother, 
 sister, or wife, in such a case, is safest and 
 wisest. Flee from the snares which would 
 weaken and cripple your powers of manhood. ' 
 You would scorn a man who should deny 
 that Honesty is the best policy ; but do you not 
 yourself reject the equally undeniable truth, 
 that Holiness is the highest happiness f Listen 
 to the voice within ; the voice of reason, of 
 conscience, and of the Word ; the voice of 
 God calling you to true blessedness. 
 
 "Why may not even a worldly man, as yet 
 irreligious, be made to admit that there is a 
 happiness in noble impulses ? Why shall he 
 not acknowledge that there is something more 
 exquisitely pleasurable, than the dance, the 
 play-house, the tavern, or the debauch ? You 
 know what we mean by noble impulses. See 
 214 
 
TO firemen! 
 
 yonder, where the walls of that burning 
 house are trembling towards their fall, while 
 timber after timber plunges crackhng and 
 flaming into the steaming furnace within. 
 Look, where, in that lofty corner, unreached 
 as yet by the consuming element, a figure in 
 white madly stretches forth imploring hands, 
 and seems to shriek, though all voice is swal- 
 lowed up in the clamors of the terrible hour. 
 There ! after baffled attempts, the ladders are 
 set and braced. A brave fellow, amidst 
 showers and clouds of smoke, mounts, enters, 
 seizes that fainting daughter, bears her on his 
 shoulders, just in time to clear the sinking 
 ruin that thunders with a crash, and among 
 acclamations of sympathy and praise, gives 
 the rescued maiden into a father's arms. Such 
 events are the glory of the fire department ; 
 and for one who actually achieves such a dis- 
 tinction, there are a hundred who would at- 
 tempt it or desire it. Now, who hesitates for 
 a moment to pronounce the delight and trans- 
 port of this generous and heroic young man 
 to be immeasurably greater than that of a 
 hundred gains, and a hundred frohcs ? This is 
 what we mean by noble impulses. And it 
 shows how much soul-pleasures, heart -pleas- 
 215 
 
TO FIREMEN! 
 
 sures, true manlj pleasures, surpass the joys 
 of the body and of sense. But there are 
 other, and even higher impulses of the noble 
 
 soul ; AND THEY ARE TO BE FOUND IN EeLI- 
 
 GION. Yes, that Christianity from which you 
 have perhaps turned away as from a dull, sour, 
 long-faced, wearisome thing, wakes up souls 
 to these higher impulses and joys. If there 
 are some who would rather seek money and 
 amusement than go to church ; so there are 
 some who would rather sit at low revels, with 
 beer and cards, than risk life and limb to save 
 a fellow-creature. But your soul despises 
 them; and you say: "Give me the nobler 
 pleasure." Ay, say further: "Grive me the 
 noblest I Give me the love of a divine Sav- 
 iour, and the love of my fellow-men for His 
 sake !" 
 
 The other day a fireman, who fell at his 
 post, was carried forth to burial. Sudden 
 death is no unusual event in these ranks. But 
 men who walk so near the flaming brink of 
 danger should be prepared. Every stroke of 
 the fire-bell, when it booms through the still- 
 ness of night, should syllable these words: 
 Prepare to meet thy God I Cast from you 
 the unreasonable and unscriptural belief, that 
 216 
 
TO firemen! 
 
 all men go straight to glory when they die. 
 It was not the priests, but the blessed Jesus, 
 meek, and lowly, and loving, who spake of 
 the " unquenchable fire."^ Take up your ne- 
 glected Bible, and see if this is not so. Do 
 not rush on blindly, in voluntary ignorance, 
 but place yourself in the light. On this 
 topic, as on others, respect the judgment of 
 those who have given it most attention. Seize 
 the first opportunity of going to the house of 
 God, and keep up the habit. Compare what 
 is there taught with what you read in the 
 Bible. Try to find out whether there is not 
 something real in the attractions which have 
 urged into a religious life some of the purest, 
 loveliest, and bravest of the human race. 
 Brother fireman, do not be duped by men who 
 say that religion is for women and cowards ; 
 but read a little about CoL. Gardiner, and 
 IIkdley Yickars, and Henry Havelock. 
 Can any of your scoffing friends live more 
 bravely or die more happily ? Oh ! if you 
 would have their prize, follow their foot- 
 steps. 
 
 You have, it may be, enjoyed the instruc- 
 tions of a pious mother. The memory of a 
 
 1 Matt. 3 : 12 ; Mnrk 9 : 43 ; Luke 3 : 17. 
 217 
 
TO firem:en" I 
 
 mother comes with power over a brave man's 
 heart ; it is a manly tear which he sheds over 
 her grave. Do yoa believe she was sincere ? 
 Then follow the path which her gentle wis- 
 dom long ago pointed out. Let her Saviour 
 be your ' Saviour,' and her God your God. 
 Dread an everlasting separation from her, and 
 from all the holy, aud from Jesus Cuxist, at 
 the Day of Judgment. 
 
 Eeader I Despise not this gentle pressure 
 of a friendly hand. Eeceive the affectionate 
 advice of these pages. You are a guilty and 
 perishing sinner ; and you know it. But Je- 
 sus Christ offers you pardon and salvation. 
 Eepent and believe the Gospel. Accept the 
 message of one who had been before a blas- 
 phemer, and a persecutor, and injurious : 
 " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all 
 acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the 
 world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief." 
 
 -218 
 
TO FIREMEN". 
 
 THY FATHER SEES. 
 From the Germa i of Ch. K. L. von PfeiU 
 
 TiiY Father sees ! Be on thy guard : 
 Tliy Father hears ! Be still : 
 
 Thy Father conies, oh ! stand prepared 
 To learn his holy will. 
 
 The Lord of Liglit tliou canst not see, 
 Thougli day and night most near ; 
 
 Keep thou his Word perpetually, 
 And say, " My God is here !" 
 
 Whatever word thou wouldst not say, 
 Whatever work wouldit shun, 
 
 If God were by thee, clear as day — 
 Leave thou unsaid, undone. 
 
 And if in danger or distress, 
 Thy youthful heart be brought, 
 
 Believe, with constant hopefulness. 
 That God forsakes thee not. 
 
 Know that whatever can displease, 
 And what thy joy has marred, 
 
 Each care and want and woe he see3 
 With fatherly regard. 
 
 To him in faith forever cleave. 
 
 As if thou saw'st him nigh ; 
 In trust that he will never leave 
 
 The souls that to him fly. 
 
 Say to him, child, " My Master, see 
 
 Us children, in distress; 
 To thee, Father, we our plea 
 
 In life and death address." 
 
 219 
 
IN COMPLIANCE WITH CURRENT 
 
 COPYRIGHT LAW 
 
 OCKER & TRAPP INC. 
 
 AND 
 
 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 
 
 PRODUCED THIS REPLACEMENT VOLUME 
 
 ON WEYERHAEUSER COUGAR OPAQUE NATURAL PAPER, 
 
 THAT MEETS ANSI/NISO STANDARDS Z39.48-1992 
 
 TO REPLACE THE IRREPARABLY 
 
 DETERIORATED ORIGINAL 2000 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 
 
 1 1012 01245 7422 
 
 J^«l3rf^TEDUE 
 
 
 ^^ T 
 
 
 
 dUL^U 
 
 m 
 
 
 T^^ 1.^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD #3523PI Printed in USA