The chart of life ...

Front matter

THE

CHART OF LIFE:

INDICATING THE DANGERS AND SECURITIES

Preface

This work was originally designed to have been much smaller, and to have related to a particular class of persons and interests. But in carrying this plan into execution, the author found it difficult to limit himself a3 he had intended. The dangers, duties, and interests of men are remarkably similar. As a family, we Tire in a common calamity, and can be extricated only by the same general means. Steering for the same port, and having to traverse the pathway of rocks and shoals, amid contending winds and currents, the Chart which is appropriate to one, must be useful to all who will regard its monitions. We have not, therefore, written for any one class, but for all voyagers to eternity. Our aim has been to mark the rocks on which

IV PREFACE.

others have been wrecked, and describe the deep and narrow channel in which alone there is safety. No one part may interest all classes of readers, but we hope none will fail to find something in each chapter which shall contribute to augment his usefulness, and the felicity of his final destiny.

To all, therefore, who wish to navigate the sea of life successfully, this work is affectionately inscribed.

J. PORTER.

Boston, Jan. 1, 1855.

Chapter I. Influence Of Correct Principles

A dangerous sentiment — Our duty to believe God — Howpractice is affected by faith — Our principles to be guarded

— Their power — Should cover all relations, and extend to all places — The claims of the Creator — Morality insufficient — The ladder that did not reach heaven — Morality good, but not the whole of duty — One who had not on the wedding garment — The chilled serpent

— Claims of the Bible — How assaulted, yet unmoved — Voltaire's boast — His printing press, how used — The true standard of principle.

Chapter II. Danger From Skepticism

Skeptics and skepticism defined — The most dangerous form of infidelity — Why — The point to be guarded — The love of error — Charge sustained — Deists love God

— In what sense — Vanity, how concerned — Influence

VI CONTENTS.

of pride — Wilful unbelief — Happy illustration — Skeptical taunts dangerous — Disposition to disprove the Bible — Old and new systems — Skeptics mighty to believe what is against the truth — Facts stated — Indisposed to examine the grounds of faith — A fact of Xelson — Respectability of infidels — Their pretensions — Recent accessions to their ranks — The net spread — Caution.

Chapter III. Our Susceptibilities And The Moral Forces Of The Gospel

The adaptation of the Bible to man's character — Fear, a useful principle — Its influence — The grand police of the universe — Appealed to in Scripture — Difficult passages hereby explained — Magnanimity insufficient — Fear leads to God — Should not be neutralized — Principles opposing it false — Deism, Universalism, &c, do this — Facts from the right source — Other errors — Conscience an incentive to duty — How impaired — Self-love — How underminded — God resisted on all sides — Our position defined — Means of security — Truth judged by the company it keeps — Known by its fruits — How does the new system effect your heart and life — What is the difference — Striking contrast.

CONTENTS. VH

Chapter IV. Necessary Precautions

Prevention better than cure — Skeptical books, company, lectures — How to detect the poison — Errors of good men — Lyceums the hotbeds of infidelity — Read the Bible — New lights — God and truth are unchangeable — The testimony of great men — Effect of infidel principles — Catholicism and Protestantism — How distinguished — The Bible vindicated — Other books recommended — The evidence of experience — Influence of infidelity and religion contrasted — Religion a personal business — Its terms to be fully embraced — God is thus to be proved — No new method — Advantages of the old, manifest.

Chapter V. Social Hinderances

Intellectual believers restrained from duty — Fear of persecution — A fact of Romanism stated — Children of unbelievers — Their duty — Evils often less than we ap prehend — An adopted daughter — A faithful child — Obedience to parents limited — The father conquered — Faithful children, angels of mercy — An affecting illustration — Tyranny of husbands — Their authority limited — A trifling spirit — Object aimed at — The influence of it — The truly great — Covetousness keeps many from

Vlll CONTENTS.

God — State Street principles in religion — Pride — Its influence on the serious — Prejudice — How it acts — - Doctrinal differences, no objection to religion — Less disagreement among Christians than infidels — Less than our agreements — Christians peculiarly one — The fear of man a moral nightmare — The argument enforced.

Chapter VI. The Great Concern

A momentous question — The inquiry of the jailor explained — Points to be gained — Forgiveness of sins — The wisdom of the divine plan — Holiness of character — The new birth, its necessity, what it does, a radical change. The hope begotten by it — How it differs from other hopes — The change sudden — This view supported by Scripture and experience — The new birth the only solid basis of morality — The source of Christian sacrifice and usefulness — A new life — The first step toward perfection — But too many stop short, die in infancy — Sad experiences — Spiritual advisers to be found near the cross — Prayer, the Christian's vital breath.

Chapter VII. Social Relations

New associations required by new tastes — The Church

CONTEXTS. IX

famishes the best society, compared with the world

— Reasons for joining the Church — Not to do so is to take sides with the world, destroy the Church, and abandon the ordinances — Church privileges invaluable

— Opportunities of usefulness — Church connections necessary to perseverance — Reasons why — Objections considered — What branch of the Church to be preferred

— Improper motives exposed — The true principles of action — The object to be sought — The relation continued — Letters of recommendation.

Chapter VIII. Influence Neutralized

Christians the representatives of Christ — Their agency in conversions — An exception considered — The endowments necessary — How lost — A common failing — What Christians should be — Defective classes — Extravagance — Levity, its baleful influence — The opposite extreme a less evil — The use of Alcohol — Political movements embarrassing — Our proper position — Worldly pleasure — How patronised — Business habits often deleterious — Cases specified — Looseness in respect to the Sabbath — Personal appearance to be guarded — Idleness destroys confidence — Bigotry — Our conduct in relation to the other sex — Irritability — Christian forbearance necessary — Symmetry of character — Error of parents, how corrected — Error of children — The erring husband and mother — The right way.

X CONTEXTS.

Chapter IX. Christian Activity Directed

The divine claims — Knowledge necessary, how obtained — The philosopher's stone — A blind man looking :it the sun — A libel on God — A safe test — Faith necessary — The twenty-four letters — Power of faith — Courage, an element of strength — Luther an example — Fixed purpose important — Nothing achieved without it — Opportunities to be made — Iron made hot by striking — Sympathy necessary — Why — The success of small talents explained — An element of power — - Speech, how to be improved — Improvement demanded — Encouraging examples — Patient endurance in well doing — It's advantages — Prayer a means of usefulness

— Singing — The power of music — Singing Schools when to be avoided — Union of effort — Sabbath School facilities — " Helps " — - How to sustain the ministry — A fact of Asbury — St. Paul encouraged by lay sympathy

— Other illustrations — Sleeping in meeting — Faultfinding — Conduct toward Ministers.

Chapter X. The Duty Of Benevolence

Systematic benevolence — The proportion to be given — . The Patriarchal and Mosaic arrangements — The requirements of the gospel — Cases illustrative — Vain excuses

CONTENTS. XI

for covetousness — Economy a duty — Accumulating for children — Old age an argument for giving — Losses charged to benevolence — A case — We should give by rule — Advantages many — The plan scriptural — The plan of John Wesley — Of N. R. Cobb — The motives of benevolence — Benevolence a grace — A source of strength — Effects of covetousness — Benevolence a source of happiness — It is financially safe — An interesting fact — The divine promise.

Chapter XI. Obligations Of The Few

The object of preceding chapters — The Ministry ordained of God — To whom its duties belong — Difference of opinion — The call of God necessary — The scarcity of Ministers chargeable to men, not to God — Effects of disobedience — Responsibility of parents, wives, young ladies — The manner of the call — Differences and agreements — Providential intimations — The Spirits help — F acts stated — Personal qualifications — Some called who have not these outward evidences — Cases given — False standards of qualifications — The evils resulting from them — Want of qualifications no argument against a divine call — The proper method of improvement — Self educated men in the State — Mode of testing the question — Appeal to young men — Suggestions to licensing authorities.

Introduction

One of the most encouraging signs of the times is, that the press teems with publications of a healthful moral character. It is prolific of evil as well as good, and we mourn for the desolations which it produces. But it furnishes, also, its own antidote, and scatters widely those leaves which are for the healing of nations. In fact, the press is a mighty lever, either to upheave society from its foundations, and plunge it in the abyss of vice and irreligion, or to uplift it into the higher and joyous region of holiness.

Evidently, the public conscience and the public taste are becoming purified and exalted. Rapid successions of healthful literature find a ready market. And those works which have a decidedly religious tone, meet with extensive demand. No ambition can be more lofty and more useful than that of making deep and permanent impressions upon the race, by well written, well adapted works of this class. The Providence of God is opening a wide door of usefulness in this direction. Books, like the present volume, instinct with an earnest purpose of usefulness, with instructive, practical wisdom, are so cordially received by the public, as to encourage the pen of our best writers. Readers will always abound ; and new books, properly written, will always meet with special favor. "We hail with pleasure this new contribution to the cause of popular religious literature.

INTRODUCTION. xiii

A felicitous peculiarity of the author of the following pages, is the adaptation of his writings to the actual want of society and of the times. Another special recommendation is his genial common sense, which captivates the heart as Well as the understanding of the reader. Not one of the literary efforts of the author has been ill-timed, or ill-adapted. In a didactic work, like the present, it is especially desirable that it should suit the existing and varying phases of life. What are the dangers, and demands, and duties of the present exigency • what are the permanent, and what the variable elements of character and conduct ; how may one best use his powers and resources now, to effect the future welfare of his being and of society, are considerations connected with the responsibility and happiness of every individual. These considerations are fruitful of important suggestions in the volume before the reader. It is not a volume of dry., antiquated dogmas and precepts. Still, while it does not ignore new social relations and duties, it points attention to the only course conducting to a glorious immortality. One would be safe to follow this friendly Chart.

To the serious inquirer after the highest style of character, and t\ie loftiest destiny, this volume will be exceedingly welcome. And the individual of careless life will find it by no means uninviting. No reflecting mind will rise unprofited from its perusal. It deals with home-felt truths and interests. It appeals to the deepest and holiest sensibilities, and tends to awaken the keenest solicitude, and the noblest aspirations. The task which, amid painful emo-

XIV INTRODUCTION.

tions at the sight of human suffering, nevertheless hastens to rescue the shipwrecked from their terrible fate, is sublime and Godlike. But could one offer to the trembling voyager a safe-conduct, not merely from the rocks and shoals, but even from the storms which threaten destruction, bow would the anxious heart rejoice. Reader, you are on the dangerous voyage of life, bearing the inestimable freight of immortal destiny ; all your hopes of endless joy depend upon the course you steer. Shall the merchant, the mariner, the common passenger, inwardly quake at the thought of ocean perils, and will 3 r ou, with infinite interests involved, not earnestly seek a sure guide to a heavenly home ? Are the dangers of human life less dreadful than those of the angry deep? Look around you, look within you, and behold the melancholy wrecks which strew the shore • — vast, vast numbers stranded on many a strange and desolate coast, or floating aimless waifs upon the stream of time. Reader, what are you, and whither are you tending ? Let me earnestly commend you to the volume before us • learn there your position and your course ; learn there the true, the safe direction to a happy home above.

Sometime since, while travelling by steamboat, I fell into conversation with a young man in the following circumstances. This young man and another were talking together near the gunwale, using profane and vulgar language. I was near by, reading a newspaper, and heard them. Shortly they separated. I approached the one remaining, and in as gentle and fervent a tone as possible, said to him,

INTRODUCTION. XT

My young friend, did you ever think what is the great purpose of life ? I paused ; and, after hesitating a minute, and then almost choking with emotion, he replied, while the tears started, No, sir. I endeavored to explain the import of my question, and found a ready and eager listened. Have you a praying mother ? I asked. Yes, said he, but, he continued, I have been off and on shore here for eight years, and no one ever mentioned these things to me before. I gave him good advice and tracts, and left him. How many an immortal spirit is equally heedless of its destiny. Reader, are you aware for what end you live ? Are you so living as to secure life's great purpose, the honor of your Maker, the welfare of society, the salvation of your soul ?

One consideration should render this volume generally acceptable, — it studiously avoids sectarian teaching. As a religions being, man feels not merely the obligation and necessity of social morality, but, also, the promptings of a higher, a spiritual nature. His condition of spiritual weakness, guilt and danger ; his wondrous capabilities of high spiritual purpose, effort and enjoyment, ar$ admirably met by the teachings, the provisions and the resources of revealed religion. Truths of universal adaptation to the experience, the conscience, and the heart of man, exist alike in both religious systems, natural and revealed j though as is reasonable, fully developed in the latter. Hence it is, that in a popular government like our own, education, extended to every child in the Commonwealth, is expected to furnish religious as well as moral instruction. There is a

XVi INTRODUCTION.

broad platform of unsectarian truths upon which, as accountable, dependent beings, we may stand, and say to each other, "Know the Lord." We may teach "Jesus and the resurrection" as " the way, the truth and the life," alid no one will reasonably or lawfully object. This volume adopts the broad, catholic view of true religion, as adapted to all ages, classes and conditions of men. Following its guidance, you will become, not a sectary, but a saint j not a polemic, but a Christian.

" Names, and sects, and parties fall, Thou, Christ, art all in all."

We will not direct attention to any particular portion of this volume, because the whole is so worthy of careful consideration. Without designing to defend the facts and positions affirmed in it, we still heartily commend the scope, spirit and method of the -work. We may be allowed further to remark, .that one of its main objects is to guard against infidelity and kindred errors, and to direct its readers to the attainment and maintenance of evangelical piety. Another grand aim is to advocate aggressive measures for "the furtherance of the Gospel," specifying various hinderances and facilities in the prosecu'ion of this object.

We cordially bid our author "Godspeed" in the truly philanthropic and Christian efforts of his pen, and trust it will be long thus vigorously and earnestlyjemployed. May he

" Leave no line which, dying, he would wish to blot."

Chelsea, Oct, 25, 1S54.

THE CHART OF LIFE.

Chapter I. • Influence Of Correct Principles

The trite assertion, " that it is unimportant what one believes, if he only conduct properly," involves a most false and dangerous sentiment. It overlooks two fundamental facts, namely :

First, that it is as much our duty to believe the truth, as to practice it. Our heavenly Father will be credited as well as obeyed. He has revealed certain great truths which he requires us to embrace, and which we can no more reject and be religiously good, than we can steal and be honest. " He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the re warder of them that diligently seek him." " This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." " He that believeth on him is not condemned : but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life : and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." "If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."

Now, with these and other similar Scriptures before him, how can one imagine that it is unimportant what we believe. As well might he assume that it is immaterial what we do. The truth is, it is aZZ-important. If we believe not God, we are under the divine displeasure, notwithstanding any personal qualities of which we may boast. The position of those who reject the Gospel as t'he standard of faith, is therefore unequivocal ; and those who retail indulgencies to unbelief, stand exactly on a par with Romish venders of indulgencies to other sins.

The second fact overlooked in the assertion under consideration is, that our practice is greatly affected by our belief. It often falls below, but rarely rises above it. " This is the condemnation that light has come into the world, and men love

INFLUENCE OF CORRECT PRINCIPLES. 19

darkness rather than light." They generally come short of their own standard. If they approach it, it is only by doing violence to their prejudices, and by the aid of the most powerful incentives to duty. To lower the standard, therefore, will naturally lower the practice. In proportion as the ■motives to duty are neutralized, will it be neglected.

Thus "by faith Noah, being warned of God, prepared an ark to the saving of his house." His principles saved him, in that they prompted him to make the appointed provision for the great emergency which he saw approaching. Had he adopted the philosophy of his times, he would have shared the fate of his countrymen. So, by faith Abraham was led in a way he knew not, and secured lasting advantages to his posterity. By the same great principle, Moses was prompted to decline the honors and emolument of the Egyptian Court, and suffer affliction with the people of God. These facts, with their corelatives, clearly show that good principles tend to good habits, while those of an opposite character lead to ruin and corruption.

20 THE CIIA11T OF LIFE.

We say then, dear reader, look to your principles. They are to guide your future deportment and determine your destiny. If defective, they will mar your character. Temptation will overcome and consign you to an inglorious fortune. Considerations of danger, reputation, social propriety and the fitness of things, will not suffice to restrain you. There are times when all these motives are inoperative. It may seem that you can indulge your inclination with entire safety, and you will venture unless fortified by higher motives. But settle it in your heart that honesty, truth, justice, mercy, and goodness are great moral principles which cannot be neglected with impunity, and adopt them as permanent landmarks by which to direct your course, and you will never fall. When the temptation comes you will repel it with indignance, as did a young man of old, saying, " how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God ! " — Gen, 39 : 9.

And allow me to suggest that you should not limit these virtues. They should be made to cover all your relations, and take in your entire being. Some men who maintain the strictest in-

THE C 11 ART OF LIFE. 21

tegrity in certain circles, are reckless in others. They seem to think that moral obligation is a creature of circumstance. Hence, they are not the same abroad as at home, and take liberties with people of other climes and conditions, which they would not take with their own associates.

But this is a great error. Right is right, irrespective of persons or places, Its foundations lie back of all external circumstances, in the nature and will of God. It is no less binding abroad than at home, and equally binding in relation to all classes. I have no more right to injure a poor Indian than I have to injure a European — to become intoxicated and break the Sabbath in Italy, than I have in America. The social consequences might be less injurious, but the crime would be the same, because equally a violation of the law of God.

Nor should you restrict the application of these principles to mex. God has claims upon you. You owe it to society to be truthful, honest, kind, and benevolent ; and in all ways to contribute to the virtue and happiness of others to the full extent of your ability. This is what we call morality, and it is obligatory upon all. But it is not the

22 INFLUENCE OF COUIIECX PRINCIPLES*

whole of your duty, and should not form the boundary of your principles. Our Creator has claims which take precedence of all others. We are indebted to him for our existence, for our faculties, for our multiplied privileges and pleasures. He requires that we acknowledge, reverence, love, obey and worship Him. His command is, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might," and " walk in all his ways, and serve him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, for thy good." This command, reiterated and developed by Christ and his apostles, is equally binding on every man as the command, " Thou shalt not steal," or any other command of the sacred decalogue. It is not enough, therefore, that we be honest towards our fellow men ; nor that we be kind and benevolent.

We must be honest with God, and discharge our obligations to him, or he will say to us, as he did to his ancient people, " Ye are cursed with a curse : for ye have robbed me."

Young people, especially, cannot be too careful on this point. The natural heart demands a religion which has as little to do with God as possible. Morality commends itself to all, and has nothing to fear from reproach or persecution. It is a pleasing idea to the anxious moralist that morality is religion, — that nothing more is necessary, so that he need not repent, nor take up his cross, nor make any religious ado that shall bring upon him the stigma of piety. But, be assured my friend, morality is not enough. While you cannot be properly religious without morality, it is also true, that morality falls short of your obligation. Your principles must take a wider scope, or you will be found wanting. They may lead you towards heaven, so far as good citizenship goes, but they will not bring you quite there.

A fact related in a public discourse a few days since, places this subject in its true light. "A young man of great excellence of character, who depended entirely on his morality for salvation, had a dream. He dreamed that he was building a ladder from earth to Heaven. One side of it he called justice, and the other mercy. The rounds he made of good tvorfcs. So, when he performed a deed of justice or of benevolence, he added a round

24 INFLUENCE OF CORRECT PRINCIPLES.

at the foot. Thus it rose day by day, till the top had gone far out of his sight. Still he toiled on, adding new rounds and hoping to prepare himself a successful way of escape from the abodes of the wicked. At length he died and resorted to his ladder to make his ascent to the skies. There it stood, looking precisely as when he left it, and promising all that he had hoped. With firmness he planted his foot upon the lower round and commenced to rise. Gradually he ascended. Everything appeared much as he expected. The earth r3ceded from his view, and mounting higher and higher in his lonely way, he fancied heaven to be near. Hope ripened into full assurance. He thought of the folly of those who insist on something more than morality as the condition of salvation. He thought also of that alarming saying of Christ, " He that entereth not by the door into the sheep fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.' ' Here he encountered a mist which fully enshrouded him ; but his courage failed not. Dragging on still a little farther, his progress was suddenly arrested by having reached the top of his ladder which, to his

INFLUENCE OF COEBECT PIUNCIFLES. 25

great surprise, fell short of heaven, though distant from the earth.

Ah ! thought he, as he scanned the impenetrable darkness above him, which he had no means of traversing, I am undone. My work is good so far as it goes ; but it does not reach the object. Just at that moment, while he stood surveying the boundless expanse, his ladder crippled beneath his feet, and with its disappointed builder came tumbling to the earth, a heap of ruins."

Reader, see that your principles, carried out, will bring you to heaven. Remember some went o it to meet the bridegroom, but were not permitted to enjoy the marriage feast. They had not the necessary oil. Another had entered into the guestroom, when the master ordered him to-be cast out. He had not on the " wedding garment." Possibly he was a " reformer " and knew too much to follow in the steps of his predecessors. Perhaps he saw no reason for the requisition, that all the guests should be clad after a certain style. Others might follow Moses, or Zoroaster, the prophets or Jesus ; but he would follow his own intuitions, reason,

philosophy. " He was not going to be gulled by the 3 priesthood, or by the populace," and thus, striking out for himself a new system of principles which implicated the inspired authorities in doltish ignorance and stupidity, he prepared himself for " outer darkness." Be careful, my friend, that you do not adopt principles which will befool your conscience, abrogate the laws of God, and charge his servants with folly. Though you may calculate to hold them only till you reach a given period, or a particular emergency, they are dangerous. The chilled serpent you take into your bosom, becoming warm and vigorous by your fostering care, will dart the fajal venom into your veins, and send you lamenting to a doleful doom.

If there be a God, (and you do not doubt it,) he has spoken. And if he has spoken to us intelligibly any where, it is in the Bible. This is generally conceded by infidels, themselves. The Koran, Shaster and other books, claiming divine authority, bear no comparison with it. Its history is nearly as miraculous as the events which it records. Hunted, belied, threatened, mutilated, proscribed as an incendiary, burned and hated by kings and potentates supported by other dignita-

INFLUENCE OE CORRECT PRINCIPLES. 27

ries, both of church and state, wielding the keenest logic, sarcasm, wit arid eloquence, that have ever been brought to bear upon any subject, it still lives and moves with the majesty and might of a God, leaving its foes confounded and vanquished upon a field of their own choosing.

I say, therefore, base your principles on the word of God. The multiplied systems which have been invented to undermine this holy standard have utterly failed. If they have had the fortune to create doubts at their first announcement, the touch of criticism has blasted their influence. The Bible has withstood the hostility of Romanism and the different systems of infidelity which have hitherto cursed the world ; and it will stand in spite of the blasphemy of the vulgar crowd, supported by the hypocrisy and literary tinsel of a gowned and gloved aristocracy.