Pure gold

Front matter

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Chapter I. Inteoductory

" MAN PRIMEVAL." WHAT HE WAS, WHAT HE IS, AXD MUST BE,

GENERAL UXHAPPINESS. TRUE RELIGION THE GREAT WANT OF

THE WORLD. DESIGN OF THE SUBSEQUENT CHAPTERS.

" Eternal Spirit ! God of truth ! to whom All things seem as they are ; thou who of old The prophet's eye unsealed, * * * ******

My eye unscale ; me what is substance teach,

And shadow what, while I of things to come,

As past rehearsing, sing the course of time,

The second birth, and final doom of man."— Pollok.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." It was the glory of "man primeval" that he was created in the likeness of God. This consisted in spirituality, intellect, knowledge, purity, and power. There was also such a moral relation between the Creator and creature, that the former became of right the supreme object of worship, and the latter possessed a constitution exactly suited to his condition,—^ adapted to feel the force of moral obligation — and

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capable of responding to the high claims of Divinity.

Being created under moral law and government, all the posterity of Adam have their existence under the same condition and arrangement, and, by virtue of their nature and relations, possess a moral character from and after the first moment of earthly being. But the stamp w^hich Divinity placed on humanity was not ineffaceable ; nor was it so stereotyped and changeless, as to be susceptible of no increase, or higher degree of perfection. It was held contingently : " If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door."

As the mind of man unfolds its powers and advances in knowledge, his perception of God, and of what is true and right in respect to him, and his consciousness of moral character, good or bad, attain to a corresponding precision and maturity. If the facilities are perfect, and perfectly improved, there will be perfection in his knowledge of God, his conformity to the divine law, and in his moral and religious character. Under such conditions, and with such facilities and capacities, .our race was first created, and with proper attention to the dictates of God and duty, an uninterrupted and ever-increasing perfection, would have been the condition and inheritance of humanity. But our present business is not so much with man as he was, and would have been, had sin never disarranged his relations, perverted and misdirected his powers, and corrupted his character, as with man as he is, as he may be, and must be, if he would harmonize with God, and possess the endless and felicitous destiny allotted to holy beings.

What he is by constitution we need not particularly inquire. There is little room for dispute or speculation here. It is generally conceded that he possesses a threefold constitution, physical, intellectual, and moral ; and thus marked and distinguished, he is the highest and most perfect link in that chain of being, whose existence is adapted to this world, while beyond him, and as allied to a higher life, the chain reaches onward still, until lost in the infinite nature of God.

What he is in his moral and religious character as distinguished from the holiness and rectitude with which he came from the hand of God, will be particularly and thoroughly discussed in a subsequent chapter. For the present, we need only say, it is obvious, the race of man as a whole,

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has fallen far below the original standard, — has removed itself to a position morally distant from God — and is in a state of depravity, and alienation from the life of heaven. It is also obvious, that there is a natural and constant tendency to jfly off still farther from the fountain of holiness, and source of true bliss. Dispossessed of holiness and love, there is no admiration of these elements of moral character in God. The power of mutual attraction is lost, and like moving bodies deprived of the centripetal force, they are ever removing to a greater distance from the centre.

What men may be, fallen as they are, is foreshadowed by their aspirations and hopes. A constitution, which, amid prevailing ignorance and depravity, desires, hopes for something better, is susceptible of improvement, and if fallen, may be restored. There may be no power in itself to retrieve misfortune, remove guilt, or atone for sin ; but the fact that there is a consciousness of moral imperfection and unhappiness, — a desire for such a change as will forgive guilt, relieve conscience and better the condition, is proof of capacity to enjoy an improved state, could such state be acquired.

What men must be, that union with God may be restored and maintained, and their nature be fed with the bliss for \Yhich they were formed, is plainly inferable from the character of God, the perfection of his law, and the exalted objects of his government. The first is holy, the second like its author, and the third designed to confer the highest good upon intelligent beings.

Though God created all men for happiness, (and he cannot be impeached either in creation or government,) yet it is a fact that all are not happy ; indeed there is felt to be a general lack of true, satisfying enjoyment. We see much of what claims to be happiness ; but if it be analyzed it will be found undeserving the name. The most of it may be resolved into a sprightliness or vivacity, worn upon the surface for sinister ends, or to conceal from public view, a sad and bleeding heart. The smile that appears upon the face of society is no proof that its heart is at ease, or that it rests upon a solid substratum of happiness.

This vacuum, this desideratum, cannot be filled, or supplied, by human devices or conventional arrangements. Men may succeed for a while in killing time, and driving away dull care, but in the end the disease is neither cured nor mitigated. The artifices resorted to have no power to expel 2

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the demon — the unsubstantial pleasures indulged in soon pall upon the taste, and a feeling of deep disgust fills the mind with horrible sensations.

*' Vanity of vanities, — all is vanity."

To a mind not at rest upon the true moral basis, the largest gifts of the world betray their own emptiness,

" as the vapor flies,

For this sad, unhappy condition of humanity, there is a remedy ; it is found in the knowledge and enjoyment of God. As God is the sum of all possible perfection, he is the only source of real, imperishable good to his creatures. To seek this good elsewhere, is the sure road to disappointment and misery. Moreover, the deficiency, the vacuity, does not relate so much to the physical and intellectual nature, as to the moral ; and this is that department of the man, most intimately allied to the Deity. The natural world supplies the physical wants of men, with little or no regard to moral principle or character ; and though God be the highest subject of thought, yet the intellect finds in the physical and intelb'gent universe, manylofty themes exclusive of Jehovah. But without God, the moral nature is an anomaly. Its wants are unsupplied : its susceptibilities exist without a sphere of action, without the power of susception. We conclude, then, that the great want of the world, the want of society, the want of individual man, is, True Religion.

In the following pages, we shall aim to present a correct portraiture of true religion, in its relations to God, its adaptation to men, and its selfharmony and unity. We shall also show how it is distinguished by infallible tests from that which is false and counterfeit.

" So artists melt the sullen ore of lead, By heaping coals of fixe upon its head ; In the kind warmth the metal learns to glow, And pure from di'oss, the silver runs below."