Christian aspects of faith and duty

Preface

This Volume is published in compliance with earnest and repeated request; and that is the proper apology for its appearance. Never indeed can the themes of which it treats lose their interest with the thoughtful and the serious : but there are few minds that can hope, by any originality of conception or freshness of illustration, to set in a new light and invest with a new attractiveness, those aspects of our relation to the great realities of the Universe, visible and invisible, which under some form or other are ever present to the human consciousness, and age after age have had the richest lights reflected on them from the most gifted spirits. Xo such presumptuous hope would ever have delivered these pages to the world. — But we may exact too much from ourselves; over-estimate our claims as well as under-estimate our powers; and omit to do good, from miscalculating our capacity of usefulness.

VI

PREFACE.

By aiming at too high an intellectual standard, we may let slip the more obvious and certain opportunities of moral influence, which ever wait on sin-= cerity and earnestness, the honest pursuit of truth and the ardent desire of human happiness. It is a comfort to feel that this Volume is put forth under circumstances which give it the promise ol some beneficial impression on the minds to which it is immediately addressed. It is committed to them in the full trust, that the remembrance of the friend will in some measure supply the defects of the writer ; that the mutual confidence and understanding of a long and happy intercourse will infuse a deeper significance into words that might else fail to interest or convince; and that many a passage, associated with the memory of the living sympathies that once took it to the conscience and the heart, will gather a light from affections which have been purified and brightened by the common sorrows and joys of many years, and are destined, it is hoped, to endure unchanged through the evening of life. — To those who share with the writer these grateful recollections and happy feelings- — this Volume is dedicated. — If it shall help to preserve in their hearts, while they tarry here, the living spirit of the Religion of Christ;— to cherish their enthusiasm for what is pure, and noble, and generous ; — to urge

PREFACE, vii them to a high and self-denying virtue ;— to give them the strength of faith under affliction and trial ; — and to fill them with a calm and holy trust in the expectation of the last great change : — it will have performed its task, and may pass contentedly to its rest with the generation which it has served in its day to comfort and instruct. The small drops that from endless sources instil a strengthening sweetness into the draught of life, cannot be counted and are soon forgotten; but their united influence leaves the world better and happier than it would else have been.

Should this Volume attract the notice of any minds unprepossessed by such friendly associations — their candid judgment is bespoken in behalf of some views that may be found not wholly in accordance with the received opinions of the Christian world ; and should the quarter whence it comes, raise a prejudice which repels examination, let them consider the words of the humble and pious a Kempis — 'Xon quseras quis hoc dixerit, seel quid dicatur attended

ADVERTISEMENT TO SECOND EDITION,

Although the Second Edition of this Volume appears under very different circumstances from the first, I desire to present it once more, as an expres- * sion of my unaltered attachment, to the dear friends of earlier years, for whose use its contents were originally prepared; — with the assurance, that change of scene and occupation has drawn after it no change of interest or affection ; and with a fervent prayer for myself and them, that the deep sorrows and irreparable losses of this earthly scene, which overtake us wherever we are, may daily infuse into our common trusts and sympathies, more of that divine strength which comes from a quickened consciousness of the awful but glorious realities of things unseen and eternal.

In one or two passages of this edition, the diction has been slightly altered, to make the sense clearer and more complete ; and after the example of the American reprint (New York, Francis and Co., 1851), the few notes have been transferred to the bottom of the page.

London, March 21, 1855,

Contents

Page

SPIBITUAL HUNGER AND THIRST . . . . . 1

IX m.

I. Spiritual Hunger And Thirst

Amos viii 11, 12.

" Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord :

" And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east ; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it."

In the childhood of the human race. Religion is a spontaneous sentiment and intuitive perception, in which, as in a surrounding atmosphere, the mind unconsciously draws its breath and has its being. In the broad sunlight and the drifting cloud — m the roar of cataracts and the roil of thunder — in the fitful whisperings of the forest-trees and in the monotonous dash of the surge on the ocean-beach — the tenant of the primeval wilderness recognized a presence and a power which thrilled and awed his soul, and overwhelmed him with emotions that are the germ of adoration and worship. Such is the origin of a natural piety. It is the mind's instinctive acknowledgment of a

B

.2

CHRISTIAN ASPECTS OF FAITH AND DUTY.

kindred spirit in the outward universe. It is not the product of reasoning, for it is found strong and active, where the faculty of reasoning is hardly developed : but it lies deeply imbedded in those primitive tendencies of our nature, which all reasoning tacitly assumes and acts upon. Here is the hidden fount of Faith, which must gush up within the man, and cannot flow into him from without. It is the interior sentiment which all religious teachers must appeal to and awaken, or their instructions will remain simple formulas — a mere rind of words without any core of vitality. It is the material, out of which the domestic affections, the moral sense, and the usages of society, blending with the influences of external nature and stimulated by the inspirations of holy men and prophets — have elaborated the various religious systems that have ever existed in intimate union with civilization — strengthening it with an energy of good, so long as any genuine faith subsisted at the heart of them— but withering, as soon as faith was gone, into hollow observances and senseless dogmas, the retreats of hypocrisy and corruption, prolific only of delusions that poison and cramp the soul. It has been the problem of ages — not yet completely solved — how to uphold this primitive faith — this faith in spiritual realities and omnipresent mind — in free and living harmony with the irresistible conclusions of science and the encroaching influences of material wealth.

All our instinctive tendencies become in time the subject of reflection and analysis — the religious among the rest. This power of self-observation is the privilege of man ; but it has its inconveniences as well as its advantages. Reason is an instrument confided to our discretionary use. It is long before we learn to handle it wisely, or perceive the limits within which it can be profitably employed. If we ask for proofs which the nature of the subject does not admit, we plunge into helpless scepticism. If we insist on rendering logically clear, that which from its very infinity eludes the grasp of a finite intellect, we only thicken the natural darkness which envelopes us. If we attempt to determine that, which from the condition of the case is indeterminable — we sow the seeds of endless subtleties which choke the mind instead of fructifying it. If we aim at producing unity of opinion, where variety of conception is inevitable — we necessitate the existence of sects whose interminable warfare diversifies the forms of error without multiplying in an equal degree the chances of truth. These mistakes have been committed age after age by the religious mind. We have overlooked the primitiveness and superiority to all logical proof, of that fundamental feeling, out of which faith in a ruling mind and a divine government, is naturally evolved in the development of the human faculties ; while the secondary doctrines constructed on this hidden basis by the activity of the speculative intellect, have been assailed and defended on grounds equally unsatisfactory, because not reduced to those primary data whence faith has its origin and where only conviction finds its ultimate repose. From this misdirection of inquiry, religious controversy becomes, as it proceeds, predominantly intellectual, and retreats at every step fur-

b 2

4 CHRISTIAN ASPECTS OP EAITH AND DUTY,

ther and further from the inner source of Faith, out of which all vital results must issue. The devout fervour which was so strong in the early stages of the religious life — waxes faint and chill. The streams of inspiration which once bathed the soul in a flood of holy joy — run low, and leave it arid and barren. Dry and intellectual natures, unable to behold any vital principle at work, begin to look on all theological questions as thorny disputes about words, and yielding to the reactionary impulse of their time, turn away with absolute indifference from Religion itself.

Collaterally with this inner decline of the religious life, it will often happen, that either the sciences of pure intellect, or such as investigate the properties of matter, with the arts that are founded on them — receive extraordinary stimulus, and make rapid progress; and in both directions draw away the strength of thought from those spiritual elements of humanity, in the profound consciousness and earnest culture of which Religion finds its nourishment and vigour. The accumulation of riches — the taste for luxury — the sense of elegance — the spirit of commercial enterprise — so constantly associated with great scientific developments, and productive, like them, of many virtues — have also the effect of weakening for a time the spiritual tendencies and aspirations of the soul. The high tone of ancient reverence is lowered. Self becomes too predominant in human aims. The ambition of personal distinction and social elevation takes the place of faith and a simple purpose of duty, as the guiding impulse of multitudes. Devout surrender of the heart to God is overpowered by the lust

SPIRITUAL HUNGER AND THIRST.

of human sympathy. Clouds of gold, rich, palpable and gorgeous, curtain round this little life of earth, and shut out the view of that distant shore, deepbosomed in eternity— to which the immortal spirit, when these pageantries are all dissolved, must take its silent and mysterious way.

Meanwhile, that great truth of Scripture retains all its force — e Man cannot live by bread alone/ Neither the solicitudes of wealth nor the fascinations of voluptuousness can always banish the thought of that dread Infinitude, in which as in a fathomless ocean our atom of conscious being finds itself plunged. It is a sure sign of the indestructible root of Religion in our nature, that man is unable for any considerable period to subsist without it. He may profess infidelity, but a secret faith is gnawing at his heart. He may give himself up to the world, and laugh at all religious systems ; but ever and anon passing moods of inexplicable sadness will warn him, that he wants the solace of an inward peace. Through the veil which he has drawn over his mind, strange gleams of light will at times break in, and startle his fatal repose. He will be conscious of a vacuity which outward things do not fill. In the absence of faith, he will be the prey of a mysterious disquietude and unaccountable apprehensions. If he be of a reflective turn — in the vast silence of a speechless Universe he will feel himself lonely and desolate — terrified at the solitudes which stretch around him on every side into boundless space. Yea, there are moments when he will become a worshiper in spite of himself. Alone among the hills, with their solemn stillness floating round

G

CHRISTIAN ASPECTS OF FAITH AND DUTY.

him — or as tie marks from the mountain-side the calm glory of the sun sinking down into a flood of ocean-light — he will recognize the invisible Presence that consecrates the universe, and the yearning for sympathy will burst in unbidden accents from his lips, "Thou wondrous Unknown' — he will exclaim — ' tell me, what Thou art. Answer the earnest questionings of my spirit. Remove the film that hath hidden Thee from the eyes of my soul. Let me embrace Thee as a kindred Spirit — not unconscious of thy creature's aspirations, nor spurning the trustful heart that seeks its peace in Thee/

Periods of indifference and scepticism are followed at length, through that conservative reaction which controls human affairs, by a revival of religious interest and fervour. But the change does not take place at once, nor can it be artificially accelerated. The earlier ties which bound men to faith and duty, have been dissolved. They are out of harmony with themselves and with the world. They experience a want which they know not how to supply. They begin to regret the faith which cheered and guided their simpler forefathers ; and many would fain throw themselves back into it, if they could. This, however, cannot be. The solutions of one age do not meet the difficulties w r hich perplex another. Life has lapsed once more into a moral and spiritual chaos — and needs some higher influence to unravel its intricacies, and draw out its latent tendencies, and direct its vague aspirations. Men are suffering from a spiritual famine, and catch eagerly at every semblance of spiritual food. They languish for the word of God \ they

SPIRITUAL HUNGER AXD THIRST.

run to and fro to seek it, and cannot find it. This is a state of things which occurs at intervals in all cmlized communities. The language of the prophet in the text refers immediately to the effects of protracted wickedness and infidelity in the latter days of the Israelitish kingdom — now turning again in questvof a faith which could not be found, because men's iniquities had blocked up the access to it. But it is a representation applicable to the corresponding period of every human history. It describes a want which at this clay is felt throughout society — the craving after spiritual rest and contentment — going up. and down the earth in search of it, without knowing where to look for it, or how it is to be obtained. 1 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord : and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east ; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it/

The present age, though deficient in clear, definite, and stable faith, can hardly be called an irreligious age. It is wholly unlike the latter half of the last century. It has no contempt for religion as such. It makes no war on its existing forms. It tolerates all which give evidence of an indwelling spirit of earnestness and sincerity. It will not accept the impressions of sense as the only possible realities. Its tendencies are rather towards mysticism than materialism. It is in quest of something which it cannot find. There is an affection, as yet uncertain of its object. There is an appetite, but without food which it can relish or digest. It is a spirit of hungering and thirsting for the "Word of God. From every side comes forth the cry, — c Who will show us any good V In its willingness to admit every plausible show of truth — in its eclectic and conciliatory tendency (for this is its tendency, despite the counteracting efforts of hierarchies) — our age has some resemblance to the commencement of the Christian era, when the dissolution of old faiths had broken down the former barriers of opinion, and opened a free passage to many a disordered soul, for the restorative influences of the Gospel.

Various are the expedients of unsettled minds, to still this inward craving for peace. — To and fro they go in all directions, like the troubled spirit of the wilderness, seeking rest and finding none. — Some imaginative natures fondly retreat into the past. There they recognize a world of faith, and think they can make it their own. — Reverently they shake off the dust from old dogmas and old usages ; and dragging them out of their dark retreats, set them up amidst the brilliant novelties which the sharp light of modern science shines upon, and expect by the mere contrast of their antique and mouldering aspect, to inspire again the worship and the trust of which they were once the object. And doubtless under these old forms there was hidden in their day a spirit of divine beauty and immortal life. — But of what avail is the corpse, when the breath has gone out of it ? ' Why seek we the living among the dead V It is the risen Jesus that we long to behold — not the cold, sepulchral stone that received his bier, nor the cerecloths that wrapped his

SPIRITUAL HUNGER AND THIRST.

mortal clay. — No authority is lodged with the past, but what comes from principles that abide with us equally in the present, and in ever-changing forms will attend the human race through all the phases of its destined development. Forms wither and pass away; but principles endure.— We have done little in evoking the vanished form from the grave, if the conviction that once dwelt in it and gave it vitality, cannot be breathed into it anew.

Others take up some fashionable philosophy, and try to compound a religion out of its doctrines. But no purely intellectual process can generate a faith. — We cannot lay down a plan of observation to detect a religion, and coolly await the result. Eeligion is no dim star hidden in the depths of speculation, of which when we suspect the quarter, we can calculate the attractions and predict the place. — It is a light, native to the soul, and must arise on us within, if it arise at all. — If such faith as we have, be genuine — and if the philosophy that we follow, have in reference to man's nature, any truth at all — so far as religion and philosophy can properly intermix, they will unite of themselves without any compulsion from us. All our faculties and affections work in perfect harmony, when they healthfully develope themselves, and one is not allowed to tyrannize over the rest.

Some again throw themselves into the fervours of fanatical excitement ; dissolve reason in dreams and ecstasies ; and exhibit to the contemptuous pity of sounder minds, the revolting phenomena of fakirs and schamans. — Some scrupulously tie down their belief to a literal acceptance of the mitten word; translate

b 3 the history and literature of ancient Palestine into a modern fact ; and waste their spiritual strength in fruitless efforts to accomplish the impossible and reconcile contradictions. — Others of a freer spirit have recourse to eclecticism; and picking out of all religious systems, whatever they like best and think most true, make up a patchwork of faith, harmonized by no strong pervading hue of individual conviction — at peace with all, but sympathizing profoundly with none. — Others flutter about in a thin atmosphere of hazy sentimentality, through which they see nothing clearly, though not without some perception of the cheering warmth of the Source of Day,

Such endeavours to lay hold of Religion are often made with sincerity ; but they do not satisfy the conditions of the case, and cannot issue in a perfect peace. — Neither antiquity, nor philosophy, nor fanaticism, nor mere scripturalism, nor eclecticism, nor a mystic sentimentality — are Religion : they may afford an access to it, but they are not Eeligion itself. What course, then, must we take, to gain and secure this precious good? — TVe must abandon all artificial expedients to force a faith. — We must submit ourselves to the order, indicated by Providence and displayed in the manifold experiences recorded by Scripture. — Every one must, in the first instance, go back to his own soul. There he may have direct communion with God. There is the source and centre of all spiritual vitality. There only he can break up the living fountain of Religion. Three simple rules furnish our best guidance .

First, be true to yourself. Look through your na-

SPIRITUAL HUNGER AND THIRST.

ture with the single eye of conscience. Disguise no evil that von find lurking there. Own it for what it is, and resolve to expel it. In aspiration and endeavour aim at the highest good which you can conceive; however alien to many tendencies yet unsubdued and strong, your unperverted judgment will tell you, that it is the proper end and true glory of your being. Purified by this moral effort, call out into action those first principles of faith which you will find at the bottom of your soul — buried it may be under the rubbish of human systems — vast heaps of theological conventionalism or the grosser accumulations of philosophical sophistries. Be not anxious, impatient, over-inquisitive — but thoughtful, serious, calm. — Be still, and wait for God. Expect Him, and in his own time He will come to you. All is not error in the quietism inculcated by some religions writers. Bustle, excitement, scrupulous questionings about words and phrases, disperse the gathering elements of a religious life, and repel the silent affluxes of the Spirit of God. Feel yourself in the mysterious embrace of a Father's love. — In your solitary wanderings — in the secret communings of your heart — when you meditate on your bed in the night-watches — cherish the thought which will often arise within you then, that man could not be happy in the consciousness of perfect isolation — that he was not designed for one moment to live alone — that he dwells in the presence of a Spirit with which his own spirit has affinities, and may at all times and in all places have intercourse. — In the light of beauty that floats over the changing aspects of the material universe — in the grand interpreting thought which pervades the broken story of the ages, and translates it into coherency — in the spirit which comes to you from the smiles of gladness and the tears of sorrow, and softens your heart in genial sympathy with human weal and human woe — in the interchange of ideas which kindles enthusiasm, and draws a higher meaning and purpose out of life — acknowledge realities which transcend the limits of sense — own a spiritual world whose mysteries encompass you on every side, by whose laws you are bound, and in whose issues of endless unfolding you are yourself perhaps destined to be involved. Admit these feelings — which at times with more or less power visit all men ; let them have free and unquestioned passage through your soul, and at length settle quietly on its silent depths : — and you will have begun the religious life ; you will have prepared and spread the soil ; and the seed which you cast into it, will henceforth grow.

Secondly, cultivate the domestic and social affections. These will give richness and strength to the finer elements of religious veneration, and take a higher purity from it in return. Selfishness is the poison of a true devotion : love is its only fitting nutriment. From the bosom of our homes ascends that ineffable sentiment which finds its loftiest object in God, and its final rest in Heaven. Not in the cells of anchorites or the joyless celibacy of the priest — but in the cheerful stir of the family life — in the generous charities which bind neighbours and fellow-citizens in one wide community of interest and endeavour — must we seek the discipline of that, healthful piety

SPIRITUAL HUNGER AND THIRST.

which is the blessing and the consecration of our earthly lot. Bound to others by endless ties of affection and sympathy, our being is made one with theirs : and their joys and sorrows — their successes and misfortunes — their sicknesses and trials — their births, their marriages, their deaths — peryade life with thrilling and ceaseless interest, and far more than anything which touches ourselyes alone, keep up strong and actiye within us the essential feelings of Religion . The heart which glows with human charities, cannot in its depths be indeyout.

Thirdly, give yourself earnestly to duty. Scepticism often has its source in the torpor of the active powers. The dreamer comes at length almost to doubt his own existence. Resolve to work out faithfully what you perceive to be the Sovereign will, and a more lively sense of God's presence will spring up within you. You will taste His blessing, and feel His strength; and your supplications for guidance, sustained by renewed endeavours to do right, wall bring an answer of quiet trust and steadfast faith to your heart. There is a fierce conflict of good and evil throughout the universe ; but good is in the ascendant, and must triumph at last. It is the vital principle of things, in w r hich we believe God to be more immediately present and operative. Ally yourself with this principle. Put yourself in harmony with the grand order of Divine Providence. Grapple with evil in all its forms. Make war with all your energies, on falsehood, ignorance, oppression and vice. Uphold against them the cause of truth, and freedom, and justice, and humanity. Throw yourself heartily into this great and noble warfare — never doubting to what issue it must come : — and every cloud of distrust and fear that may have darkened for a moment over your mind; will pass away; you will now see all things plain in the light of God ; you will be strong in that faith which gives man a giant's power for the achievement of the highest good.

Thus attuned by inward and outward discipline to the true feeling of Religion — the influences of holy men and prophets will now tell with marked effect on the spiritual condition of your soul. Your own experience will give a meaning to their words, which before you could not comprehend. The mystic chain is now laid, along which the life of God may pass from some gifted spirit, richly charged with its power and its truth, into your spirit which still feels its deficiencies and craves to have them supplied. The religious life which you have called forth by your own efforts, constitutes the inward revelation of the Divine Word ; and this is a condition of outward revelation, though it does not supersede it. Every wise man's instruction and every good man's example feeds it with a holy oil, and causes it to send up a brighter flame.

But the completest embodiment of a Divine Word in its external manifestation, — is that Holy Record, unfolding the progressive development of a monotheistic faith — which exhibits at its point of culmination, the unparalleled reality of a sinless Manhood in perfect harmony with God. Here is a stimulus, to rouse the lowest depths, and take in the whole compass, of the religious principle in man. Here is an Ideal, to shape its course and attract its aspirations. From this

SPIRITUAL HUNGER AND THIRST.

realization of a perfect Humanity goes forth, to every believing soul, the transforming influence through which it is fashioned into the likeness of Christ and God, and becomes a partaker of that divine nature whose home is in Heaven. Thus the inward and the outward Word coalesce, and furnish mutual evidence of a common origin from God. The spirit of Christ shining through the outward Word, pours his own strength and fulness into the inward Word, and brings it out in clearer and brighter characters on the tablets of the individual heart : while the inward Word, thus quickened into a distincter consciousness, and with firmer reliance on its intuitive perceptions, becomes a sure guide for the mind through the tangled maze of Scripture lore, — enabling it at once to single out and appropriate amidst the perplexing redundancy of national legend and ancient song, of popular instruction and prophetic enthusiasm — those great principles which contain the eternal truth of God — that bread of life and those waters of salvation, which can alone appease the hunger and thirst of man's immortal soul.

II. Man's Ascent To God

James iv. 8.

" Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto you."

Physically — we cannot separate ourselves from God ; for in tlie language of tlie Psalmist, He ' has beset us behind and before, and laid his hand upon us and in the still more decided words of Paul, ' in Him we live and move and have our being/ Morally — we feel ourselves at an infinite distance from Him : an impassable gulf seems to lie between Him and us. Scripture in various forms gives utterance to this solemn consciousness of every religious mind, — i God dwells in light which no man can approach unto/ (1. Tim. iv. 16.) The greatest prophet cannot 'see Him, and live/ (Exod. xxxiii. 20.) Even Abraham, the father of the faithful — distinguished as the friend of God — thought it a presumption, in the days of patriarchal communion, that he 'who was but dust and ashes, should have taken upon him to speak unto the Lord/ (Gen. xviii. 27.)