Mv

i %ihl*, fnft'g femaM fatji.

DISCOTJKSE,

PKEACHED IN TIIE

Southbridge, Mass. march 18, 1849.

BY EBER CARPENTER.

Published bt bequest.

' We have not followed cunningly devised fables."
2 Peter, 1 s 16.

WEST BROOKFIELD.
POWER PRESS OF OLIVER S. COOKE &, CO,.
1849.

<Q«

southbbidge, march 20, 1849.
Rev. and Dear Sie,
The undersigned believe that the publication of the Sermon
preached by you on Sabbath morning last, in a form accessible to all,
will materially aid the cause of truth ; and that many, who had not
the pleasure of hearing it delivered, will be much gratified and in
structed in reading it, as were the undersigned in listening to it.
They therefore, respectfully request of you a copy of that Sermon
for the press, — hoping that its circulation in this community may lead
to the study of that Woed which is Teuth ; and to the belief of its
own declaration, that " all Scripture is given by inspiration of God."
Very Respectfully Yours,
MANNING LEONARD.
Rev. E. Caepentee. S. M. LANE.
S. a MASON.
OLIVER MASON.
S. L. MORSE.
O. PLIMPTON.

DISCOURSE.

€§t 38iMj, <£rir** Emalii fetlj.

JOHN 17: 17.
" THY WORD IS TEUTH."

There seldom has occurred a period in the history
of the world, which affords so many subjects of deep
and extraordinary interest, as the present. If we ex
cept the time when the Lord Jesus Christ visited this
eartb, and exhibited a display of Almighty power over
the elements of nature, and of divine wisdom and grace,
in the instructions he gave, and the redemption he
wrought out ; or that time when, after a night of deep
darkness, the sun of learning and religion arose at the
era of the Reformation, can we mention any in the
history of the world, more calculated to awaken as
tonishment, admiration, and gratitude to God, than the
days in which we live. The philosopher must behold
with, wonder that rapid march of intellect which out
strips, almost in a few years, the attainments of past
centuries, which shows us the grown men of antiquity
to have been but children in ihe arts which embellish
life, or the sciences which dignify human character.
The politician and, moralist may dwell with admiration

4 THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH.
on the growing spirit of civil and religious liberty, the
emancipation from the slavery of ignorance, the wane
of popedom, the crumbling down of despotic thrones,
the triumphs of education, the elevated tone of moral
feeling, the extinction of many pernicious habits, the
substitution of sound principles, and active industry for
visionary theories or destructive idleness, the eager de
sire of men for social and moral blessings. And the
christian contemplates the eventful scene with mingled
feelings of the most anxious solicitude and warm thank
fulness to God, who has cast his lot in times when his
eyes behold what many prophets and righteous men
have desired to witness, but could not. He discerns,
at this moment, a mighty contest between Immanuel,
leader of the heavenly hosts, and the powers of dark
ness. He sees the predictions of prophets, and of
Christ, the Lord of holy prophets, already receiving
their incipient accomplishment ; his word going forth
swiftly, and subduing all opponents, the idols of Egypt
trembling in their shrines, Dagons falling powerless
before the ark of God, the fables of Rabbins, the re
veries of the false prophet, the wild mythologies of the
Brahmins, and the Boodhists, the Veda and the Shas-
ter, bowing to the superiority op the Bible. He
recognizes, in the Christianity of the Bible, that consti
tution, which secures his liberty, his property, his life ;
the very soul and spirit of just and wholesome laws ;
that which regulates and tempers their severity of pe
nalty, and gives sanction and vigor to their obligation.
He perceives, that Christianity neither dreads nor
shrinks from investigation, as its enemies have falsely
affirmed, but, established in the hearts of a grateful peo
ple, it will not suffer the rude and unhallowed approach

THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH. 5
of ignorance and impiety. It will be addressed with
reverence, it will be treated as an embassy from heaven,
it will not withhold its credentials from any, whether
high or low, who seek them in a becoming spirit ; and,
in this country, where it has infused its benignant spirit
into the code which regulates the community, it claims,
and has found protection, in the usages of society.
It is, indeed, an eventful period, a time when no
faithful follower of Christ can retire from the field, or
lay aside the armor. These results are in accordance
with what might be reasonably anticipated from the
sentiment in the prayer of Jesus Christ, " Thy word
is truth." The Bible is God's revealed truth, with
which he is graciously pleased to bless and sanctify
men. This has been so ably made the subject of public
addresses from the pulpit and elsewhere, by the best
minds and hearts, that it may now seem almost super
fluous to notice the objections of infidelity ; yet when
an alarm is sounded in this Community, as an humble
member of it, I would not be suspected of indiffer
ence to its welfare, but would desire to be understood
as actively employed on the side of truth. I would,
therefore, assert ihe divine origin and the authenticity
of the Christian system, and adduce such evidence as
may satisfy your minds, that the Bible is truly what
it purports to be, a revelation from God.
We have no way of ascertaining in general, whether
that which purports to be a revelation, is really so or
not, except by the accompanying evidence of miracles,
performed by the persons who assume the character of
inspired teachers ; or prophecies, delivered by them
at the time, which prophecies are miracles to the per
sons who in after times witness their accomplishment.
1*

6 THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH.
And when we see, or are assured upon credible testi
mony, that a human being like ourselves in every other
particular, has done something which exceeds the ordi
nary powers of nature, or has uttered distinctly, with
great miputeness of time and circumstance, predictions
of events, the most unlikely to happen, and, at such a
distance of time and place from the scene of these
events, as that no human wisdom could possibly foresee
and guard against all intervening contingencies ; and
when amongst these predictions it is foretold that mira
cles should in future times be performed by others ;
and when we see that all these events did actually take
place as they were predicted, then we have the strong
est evidence which the mind is capable, of receiving,
that those persons were not false claimants to inspira
tion, but delivered to us an exposition of the real will
of God ; and more especially so, if the truths which
they delivered were such as men stood in absolute need
of knowing, yet could not possibly devise by human
wisdom. Applying these observations to the case of
Moses, and the Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles,
we may lay down as a demonstrable theorem, That
if the facts mentioned respecting them in the
Bible be true, they were inspired teachers ; and,
¦consequently, their testimony must be received
as paramount to all others in matters of religion
and morality.
I. The Bible, in common with all other books, is
liable to errors in transcribing, and to mistranslations.
Yet it is remarkable, that no book whatever has de
scended through a long lapse of ages, with so few of
these blemishes. The Old Testament contained the

THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH. 7
political, as well as the religious constitution of the
Jews ; and was therefore necessarily exposed to the
most vigilant and jealous scrutiny of every member of
the community, each feeling an individual interest in
preserving the purity pf that text, which determined
upon matters essential to his well-being in society.
Each was enjoined and privileged by the constitution
under which he lived, to have a copy of these laws, to
read them diligently, to teach them to his children, and
to speak of them in his social intercourse with his
fellow-men. Moreover, they were the ground-work of
all public instruction, they formed a part of religious
worship, they were read in the service of the temple
and the synagogue, and in later times, the veneration
for the text, amounted to superstition, giving rise to the
sect of Masorites, who actually numbered the letters
of the sacred volume. So that there was a moral im
possibility that the text of the Old Testament should
have been materially corrupted. And with respect to
the New-Testament, the enemies of Christianity were
unwittingly instrumental of preserving the general purity
of the text, as well as increasing the number of its
copies. So early as the first century, numberless
heresies sprang up, the votaries of each appealing to
the Scriptures, in support of their peculiar opinions,
and thus serving as mutual guards against the adultera
tion of the sacred text. And while no book has been
translated into so many different languages, none has
suffered so little by the errors of translators, or gener
ally preserved so much of the spirit of the original ; so
that it has been said with truth, that " the *worst trans
lation ever yet made, is capable of teaching all the prin
cipal facts and doctrines of Christianity, so far as the

8 THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH.
knowledge of them is necessary to salvation, or even
to some considerable degree of edification in piety."
II. There is no question of the great antiquity of
the Pentateuch. It is allowed to have been antece
dent to any existing records of any nation on the globe.
Nor is it denied, that on a comparison of it with those
compositions, which are most nearly cotemporary, it
is, as a history, not only more credible, and confirmed
by a greater number of concurring testimonies, in the
appearance ofthe earth, and the early traditions of na
tions, but far exceeds all others in beauty of style, and
language, and sentiment ; and in some parts, breathes
a spirit of sublimity and eloquence, which does not
yield to the most renowned productions of antiquity.
Now, as a narrative of facts, it is authentic, because
these facts are of that nature, that men's senses were
capable of judging whether they really happened or
not ; and they were publicly transacted in the pres
ence of multitudes ; and not only were public monu
ments kept up, but several ordinances and outward ac
tions of a peculiar nature observed in memory of them ;
which monuments, actions and observances were insti
tuted, and did commence from the very time when
these matters of fact were said to have happened. By
the first of these considerations, it will appear impossi
ble that the miracles ascribed to Moses, could have
been imposed upon the Jewish people at the time when
they were said to have happened, as they were appeals
to men's senses, and were publicly performed, and,
therefore, altogether of a different description from
those ascribed to the impostor Mahomet. His reputed
miracles, being, at the best, visions and conversations

THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH. 9
with the angel Gabriel, were not generally cognizable
by the senses, and were performed without the pre
sence of witnesses. If the Pentateuch then were pub
lished at the time when these actions were said to have
happened, or while the witnesses were alive to whom
it was addressed, it is impossible they could have re
ceived it as true, unless it really was so, because it says,
that the facts it records, happened in the presence of
the persons to whom it was addressed. And if at any
future time, it was attempted to be imposed upon
men, then the other considerations would equally pre
vent its reception ; for it states, that monuments of
these miraculous acts were then iu actual existence,
such as the budding rod of Aaron, the golden pot of
Manna, the brazen serpent ; and that several extraordi
nary observances and actions were performed, com
mencing at the time of these asserted miracles ; for
example, the celebration of the passover, and the feast
of tabernacles ; and that certain municipal and politi
cal laws, which governed them, had been, from the
days of Moses, acknowledged as the standing laws of
their nation. Now no man could have imposed this
book upon a whole nation, unless he could also have
persuaded them that they had actually received it from
their fathers, had been instructed in it while children
themselves, had taught it to their children ; for the
book asserts all this ; and certainly no persons could
have been so persuaded, unless the facts were truly
stated, the book itself a true book.
There were two very remarkable political regula
tions among the Jewish people, which were in them
selves standing miracles, and to which nothing is found
parallel in the history of any other nation. One was,

10 THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH.
abstaining from the cultivation of the soil every seventh
yeair ; the other was, leaving all the borders of their
land defenceless three times every year, when all males
capable of bearing arms were compelled to attend at
Jerusalem. Now the former regulation could never
have been, adhered to,, in a country naturally almost too
small for the support of its population, and altogether
without commerce, nor the latter, by a people sur
rounded by inveterate enemies, some of whom they had
despoiled of their territory, and reduced, in some in
stances, to the condition of servitude. Their receiving
these regulations, proved that they regarded their legis
lator as a messenger of God ; and the fact of their
continuing to observe them,, proves that he really was
an inspired teacher ; for they could not have been ob
served, unless there was a continual recurrance of a
double harvest every sixth year, and a freedom from
hostile invasion at the period of their festivals ; and
these two things could only have fiaken place by divine
interference ; and, therefore, the man who foretold that
they should take place, was a divinely inspired person.
III. It is obvious, that whatever applies to the facts
of the Mosaic history, does equally so to those of the
New-Test ament. The miracles of Christ and his
Apostles were all appeals to men's senses ; they were
done publicly ; it was impossible that they could have
resulted from fraud or collusion, or have been decep
tions of sense ; they were not denied at the time by
Jews or heathens ; and the supposition of their having
been wrought by the agency of the evil spirit, was in
itself an acknowledgment that they were miracles.

THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH. 11
We have two remarkable testimonies to the existence
and miraculous deeds of Christ and his Apostles,
namely, Josephus amongst the Jews, and Tacitus
amongst the heathens. Josephus lived within forty,
and Tacitus, within about seventy years, after the death
of Christ. They were both capable of examining into
the truth of the matters of fact asserted concerning
Christ and his Apostles ; and they wanted neither roai-
ice nor prejudice to dispute them. Yet they admitted
these facts ; and so did Lucian, and Celsus, and
Porphyry, and Julian the Apostate, and even Mahomet
himself ; forming altogether an undeniable attestation
to the truth of these matters of fact. It is notorious,
that the several writings, especially the historical books
of the New- Testament, existed early in the first cen
tury, and are quoted and alluded to by a series of chris
tian writers, beginning with those who were co-tempo
rary with the Apostles, or who immediately followed
them, and proceeding in close and regular succession
from their time to the present. They appealed to insti
tutions then in existence, such as Baptism and the
Lord's Supper ; they speak of miracles performed by
their writers in the presence of the persons to whom
they were written ; and they never could have been re
ceived, as they were received, unless such institu
tions, in commemoration of these facts, actually did
exist, and that these facts were actually performed be
fore competent witnesses.
IV. If, then, the books of Moses, and the New-
Testament, be truly the oracles of God, the same
must be asserted of the Histories, the Proverbs,

12 THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH?.
the Psalms, and the Prophecies of the Old Testa
ment ; because these are invariably quoted and appealed
to by the Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles, as the
productions of men inspired by the Holy Ghost.
V. Infidels object to the Old Testament, especially,
that it gives us unworthy ideas of God, as the Creator
and moral Governor of the world. Let us try whether
more exalted conceptions of that great Being are, or
ever have been propounded or discovered by unassisted
reason. The popular creed of the most polished na
tions of antiquity presents nothing but a series of pue
rile and absurd fables in mythology. The God whom
they adored was neither one nor spiritual. Every part
of creation-* every element in nature, had its peculiar
and appropriate deity, and the supreme dignity amongst
this rabble crowd was not even supreme in power.
The Jupiter of Hesiod and Homer,: who were at once
the poets and theologians of Greece, was a being sub
ject to every vice and infirmity of the worst of men ;
and the only distinction, in fact, between their gods and
men, was, that the former had more power to accom
plish every base and detestable purpose, which they
equally followed with the human race. Their worship
of these deities was conformable with those gross con
ceptions. Like that of their ancestors the Phoenicians
or Canaanites, the religion of Greece, the nurse of
arts and literature, as also of imperial Rome, the mis
tress ofthe world, was a tissue of impure, abominable
and sanguinary rites, degrading equally to the worship
ers and the adored. And what did their philosopers,
who affected to despise the vulgar, attain by their ab-

THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH. 13
struse speculations ? What did they learn of God ?
Anaximenes says, that God is air ; Archelaus, that he
is air and mind ; Democritus, that he is mind in a
spherical form. There was in fact a vacuity in their
minds upon this subject, which they gladly filled up
with fortune, necessity, accident, or fate, just as each <
fell in their way. — Are we better informed when we turn
to the boasted theology of the Hindoos, or the arro
gant disciples of Confucius ? No ! We find their
God is a being who undergoes perpetual transmigra
tion, at one time, immersed in slumber, at another, ab
sorbed in meditation, at another, sailing over the waters
of the wide abyss. Compare what Elijah says, 1
Kings 18, 27. — And how do his worshipers adore
him ? Not as a pure etherial spirit, but as abiding in
rude idols of stone, or shapeless blocks of wood ;
delighting in self-murder, or the unutterably impure ges
tures, and attitudes, and actions of his suppliants.
Nor are we better informed by the cannibals of Asia
and , Africa. Their God is, literally, the devil!
whom they worship because they fear, and whom they
appease by tortures and self-inflictions, from the batfe
mention of which, humanity recoils.
Let us turn hence to the God of the Bible, a PURE
Spirit, who will be worshiped " in spirit and in truth ;"
a Being to whom sin is hateful, and who yet regards
the sinner with compassion, and willeth not his destruc
tion ; who manifests his abhorrence of evil in extirpat
ing the accursed nations of Canaan ; who selected a
peculiar people as depositaries of his revealed will, as
an eternal beacon to the world against the rocks of
idolatry, infidelity and vice ; who furnished them with a
code of laws, the admiration of every reflecting mind,
2

14 THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH.
and the very source and spring of all just principles of
legislation ; who ordered a system of worship, sublime,
solemn and instructive even in its obscurest rites ; aDd
these explained as typical and emblematic of his future
purposes, by a succession of men eminent for their
piety and magnanimity of soul, and gifted with a pro
phetic spirit, awfully clear to us who live in latter
times ! a God, who compassionates the ignorance of
man, and provides him an unerring guide in the volume
of inspiration ; who pities his infirmity and offers the
gracious assistance of the Holy Spirit to correct the
weakness and purify the defilements of his nature ; who
in the fullness of time sent forth an accredited messen
ger on the grand purpose of mercy, bearing the stamp
of divinity in every feature ; who resigned that glorious
Being to the rage of men and devils, and glorified him
by a triumphant victory upon the cross at Calvary ;
who made there by that " one offering," a full, per
fect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction
for the sins ofthe whole world. And is this the»God
and Saviour, whom we are called to surrender for Ju-
piters, Molochs or Juggernauts of infidelity ?
Infidels reject the Bible because it states the doc
trine of eternal punishment, which they cannot recon
cile with the idea of a benevolent Being. Evil we
know exists. Why was it introduced ? why suffered
to continue ? When every difficulty which attends this
inquiry shall have been removed, then, but not till then,
may we question the doctrine of eternal punishment,
not only less clogged with difficulties, but perfectly an-
olagous to the established chain of causes and effects in
the natural world. The happiness of heaven is holi
ness. It cannot then be heaven to an impenitent sin-

THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH. 15
ner. Remove him there, with all the sinful passions
and propensities of his lower nature, and heaven would
become his hell. Leave him to himself ; as he dies,
so shall he awake at the resurrection. His crime is
its own punishment, and, from their nature, both must
be progressive and everlasting.
VI. Infidels scoff at the credulity of the christian.
But let us fairly state the case, and see whether of all
beings in existence the infidel is not the most weakly
credulous. What is the infidel's creed ? He believes,
that the whole world united in a conspiracy to impose
upon themselves about the era of the introduction of
Christianity ; that they invented an universal persuasion
of the coming of some great personage, and that by
mere accident their conjecture was verified in the birth
of Christ ; that verses or poems, the productions of
men who lived several hundred years before, acciden
tally happened to apply to that extraordinary person,
and things the most contradictory did accidentally con
cur in him ; that he was a deceiver, and an enthusiast,
and a false claimant to a divine commission, and yet,
that be was, without exception, the purest and most
amiable of beings ; and that he succeeded in his object
without any of the means usually employed by similar
characters, for without money, without troops, without
power, he convinced multitudes of his divine authority.
He believes, that after Christ was openly crucified as a
malefactor, twelve illiterate fishermen took up the ex
traordinary tale that he had risen from the dead, al
though these fishermen must have known the contrary
if he was a deceiver, and without any assignable mo-
ijye, in the face of danger and death, they formed the

16 THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH.
bold design of converting the whole world to a belief
of this strange story ; that although aware of the ca
lamities which they must thus occasion to mankind,
and therefore men of unfeeling and cruel disposition,
their writings and actions exhibit the purest morality
and the most benevolent spirit ; that without education
or literature they composed several works, in which the
leading character or subject of their memoirs, if a fic
titious personage, is unquestionably one of the most
wonderful creatures of imagination that the range of
literature can furnish ; a character altogether unlike that
of any being who ever dwelt on earth, sustained
throughout with the most exact consistency, and the
most minute and apparently unnecessary particularity of
dates and times and places ; that they traveled over
the greater part of the world, every where successful,
though every where persecuted ; and that they were
eventually the means of subverting the religious estab
lishment of the most powerful nation on earth. Yes,
and the infidel believes, that all this was chance ; these
men impostors ; the whole story a fable and a forgery ! !
If it be so, then the case is without a parallel in his
tory : and the man who receives the creed of the infi
del, betrays a credulity so capacious, a faculty so pro
digious of overlooking difficulties, that we cannot but
suspect there is something wrong in the ordinary pow
ers of his understanding. But the case is otherwise.
Infidelity is not so much a derangement of the head as
of the heart. Believing as we do, that the words of
Christ are words of eternal truth, we maintain that it
is impossible for any man to disbelieve the Bible, who
searches it with a right spirit. " If any man will do

THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH. 17
his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of
God."

VII. Pride and evil passions are the main springs of
infidelity. " How can ye believe, which receive hon
or one of another, and seek not the honor which com
eth from God only." "Ye love darkness rather than
light, because your deeds are evil." " Every one
that doeth evil, hateth the light." " A man's wicked
ness sets Christianity against him, before he can have
any temptation to set himself against Christianity."*
No wonder that the profligate and the libertine should
hail the temporary triumphs of infidelity, which anni
hilates the salutary dread of future retribution, and sub
stitutes crime with impunity, or the vain and fantastic
salvo of purgatory, that most successful device ever
yet employed by Satan to open the floodgates of licen
tiousness, and break down every barrier which would
oppose individual or national profligacy. No wonder
that the haughty, cold and calculating philosopher, who
comes to dictate to his Maker, and cavil at the coun
sels of Omniscience, should be abandoned to the sense
lessness of his boasted wisdom. " God taketh the
wise in their own craftiness." " He filleth the hungry
with good things, but the rich he hath sent empty
away." When sinners proclaim war against the Holy
Bible, they find it impossible to make good their
cause ; they may, and often do, put on the airs of de
fiance and triumph ; they may affect to laugh at their
enemy ; but such men find the arms of their own reason
often against them, and their own conscience forms vio-
#President Davies,

18 THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH.
lent insurrections in favor of religion, which they can
not entirely suppress ; so that they are like their father ;
whatever they pretend, they believe and tremble. " Mr.
Hobbes, the celebrated infidel, in bravado, would
often say very unbecoming things of God and the Bible,
yet when alone, he was haunted with the most torment
ing reflections, and would awake in great terror if his
candle happened to go out in the night. He never could
bear any discourse about death, and seemed to cast off
all thoughts of it. Notwithstanding all his high preten
sions to learning and philosophy, his uneasiness con
strained him to confess, as he drew near the grave,
that he was about taking a leap in the dark."* Anoth
er well known infidel said, " there is one thing which
mars all the pleasures of my life ; I am afraid that
the Bible is true ! If I could know for certain,
that death is an eternal sleep, I should be happy —
my joy would be complete ! But here is the thorn
that stings me, this is the sword that pierces my very
soul. If the Bible is true, I am lost forever."
Cheerless, and disheartening, and void of all con
solation, are the mere discoveries of reason, unassisted
by the Bible ; worse, far worse, the delusions of infi
del philosophy. Hear the celebrated Quintilian, hi the
absence of the cheering light of the gospel, when death
had deprived him of- a beloved son : "> What affec
tionate parent," said he, " would pardon me if I
could any longer give myself to study ? Would he
not hate that strength of mipd, if I, who have survived
all my family, could make any other use of my voice
than to blame the gods, and to testify that no provi-
*Arvjlns

THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH. S.9
dence looks down upon the earth." How different
the sweet submissive language of the most patient
man ! " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away. Blessed be the name ofthe Lord."
What was the remedy devised by the celebrated in
fidel, Hume, for the afflictions of life ? It is found
in his " Essay on the Propriety and Lawfulness of
Suicide;" a publication so monstrous, that his ad
mirers and friends were absolutely ashamed of it, and
endeavored, in the face of positive evidence, to deny
that he was the author. The vaunted discoveries of
this despiser of the Bible, afford no better refuge than
SELF murder to the broken-hearted sinner ; while that
blessed Book, points to " a blood that speaketh better
things," and will at once purify and set the guilty
conscience at peace.
VIII. Are you, my brethren, infidels ? You shud
der at the very question. O, let not your abhorrence
of such impiety, or pity for such folly, conceal from
your view a much more important subject — I mean
the real nature and effects of the faith which you
profess. Tn proportion as you discern the evidences
for the divine origin and truth of the Bible, is the re
sponsibility which attaches to your profession. Faith
is a matter of deep personal concern. The gospel is
a scheme of redemption in which you must have a
personal interest, or worse than none at all. To be
lieve that Jesus is the Christ, includes much of which
the world of mere nominal Christianity knows but little.
Is yours a faith which has purified your hearts, which
has rescued you from the trammels of the world, and
caused you to live superior to its blandishments, and

20 THE BIBLE, GOD'S REVEALED TRUTH.
unawed by its frowns, a life of holy devotedness to
your Redeemer ? Has it subdued your evil passions,
and substituted the mind of Christ ? Has it regulated
your vain imaginations, and induced that^calm sobriety
of temper and demeanor, that affectionate zeal for the
welfare of souls, that tender solicitude for the spirit
ual good of all around you, which glowed within
the heart, and shone forth in the spotless life of
your Redeemer ? Has it exalted to you, as " the
chiefest among ten thousand," that once despised,
but now highly honored Messiah, " in whom we have
redemption through hisblood," and " SANCTIFICATION
through his Spirit ?" Is he your WISDOM, and your
righteousness, your friend and intercessor, your
Saviour and the Lord of your worship ? O, my
brethren, if this, or something like this, be not your
faith, beware, lest you have "a name to live and are
dead." " Be watchful, and strengthen the things that
remain, which are ready to die," lest you should be
" weighed in the balances and found wanting."