Practical religion recommended and enforced in a series of letters...

Preface

The following work is the fruit of a few weeks' leisure in the winter of 1836-7. It will be perceived at once, that the personages by whom the correspondence is supposed to be maintained, are fictitious ; and the reader will not be surprised to find some allusions and incidents, that are given with no other design than to keep up that appearance of reality, which the nature of such a work demands. There is, however, no connected story, in the form of the religious novels of the age. The writer has given his opinions on various important subjects ; and the exhortations and counsels are of a general character, adapted to large classes of men. He has chosen the form of letters, as most favourable to the freedom and variety of views, which he wished to introduce.

One of his motives in undertaking the work, was the desire of occupation. No being is more wretched than the man who has nothing to do, or whose efforts are guided by no rules, and directed to no useful object. The charms of indolence exist only in the imagination. However his book may be regarded by others, the writer has been rewarded for his labour in preparing it, by the intellectual and moral employment which it has afforded him, during many a tedious wintry hour. Sweet are meditations on subjects connected with the glory of God, and the everlasting interests of man ; for these are themes which will engross the thoughts and awaken rapture in the bosoms of the ransomed, in that vast eternity which is their promised inheritance.

Another, and, he trusts the leading motive of the wi-iter was, the hope of doing good. "Will not the pious reader offer one prayer, that this little volume may be honoured by the Redeemer as one of those instrumentalities, by which he will build up his kingdom on earth, and people the mansions of glory.

This book is designed to aid, however feebly, the cause of scriptural, practical Christianity ; the unspeakable importance of which, none but infidels will presume to deny. Religion, rightly understood, is the great concern of man, to which all his earthly occupations and purpo-

ses should be subordinate ; and without which he degrades himself below the level of the mere animal, formed only for the present world. The sinner is destined to exist forever. Could he cease to be, with the brute, his sottishness would be less evident ; — but despise religion as he will, he must meet the consequences of his conduct in the endless retributions of a future state. What madness can equal that, which trifles with eternal damnation, which throws away, as of no value, the incorruptible glories of paradise !

Some intimations of immortality are given by enlightened reason. Is it credible that the Most High has formed us with faculties, fitted to the attainment of the knowledge of himself, to excursions through the immensity of his works, and to endless improvement — with the design, that we should employ our minds for a few years here, encumbered with a load of animated clay — and then cease to be ? Has that reason, which is a spark of the Divinity itself, been kindled only that it might glow for a moment to little purpose, and then be extinguished forever? The stars continue to twinkle for ages. The rocks and the hills endure, while thousands of our generations successively enter on the stage of their mortal existence, and disappear. But what is an unintelligent planet, or a sun, glorious though they be, to a thinking soul, capable of yielding obedience to the moral law of God ? Is a being of such majestic attributes a mere ephemera, compared with piles of granite, and heaps of earth ? If there be wisdom in such an economy, it is a wisdom which we cannot trace, a wisdom wrapped in the profoundest mystery.

It is one of the most essential facts, connected with the idea of a Creator, that he is impartial and just in his providential distributions. The proofs of his impartiahty and justice, however, are much obsciired by his dealings towards mankind in this world. Innocence suffers, and oppression triumphs. The votary of religion and virtue, who would not sacrifice principle to interest, is excluded from the light of day, loaded with chains, and reduced to emaciation, and the utter loss of all that the world can give, for righteousness' sake. His tears, his prayers, his uncomplaining patience, touch not the flinty hearts of his persecutors. Behold them in their stately palaces, where music, and painting, and statuary, and gay associates, and numerous attendants, and feasting, and every form of voluptuous indulgence, conspire to steel their breasts against all the impressions of pity, all the fears of dying. Shall it be always thus ? What a reflection does the very question seem to cast on the righteousness of Him, who judgeth in the earth ?

Nor is the conscience of the guilty always silent. Stifle its reproofs as they may, it will sometimes speak in a voice of thunder. It meets

PREFACE.

the ingrate, the adulterer, and the assassin, in the midnight hour, when all the world is still, and shouts in their ear, "Awake, awake ; furies are near ; there is a bar of judgment ; there is an eternal hell."

The passions of man tell us that he was formed for immortality. He feels the earth to be too narrow a field for his enterprises ; and his life too brief a duratiort for the appropriate cultivation of his powers, and the acquisition of that immense good which he covets. Was he whose desires can be satisfied with nothing less than the knowledge and enjoyment of the infinite God himself, made only for this world ! Have I been created to long for a glory, greater than eye has ever seen in all the fields of nature, and brighter far than all its ten thousand voices have ever reported in my ear, for the purpose of dashing my hopes to the ground ? Is this a mode of action, such as I should expect from Him, who is at once unequalled in greatness, and boundless in mercy ?

What to reason is strong conjecture, faith establishes with unerring certainty. Life and immortality are brought to light, with a clearness of evidence which scarcely admits of addition, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel assures us, that in the last day, "all who are in their graves shall hear his voice, and come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." " What," it asks with a thrilling emphasis, " what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? Or, what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? "

No errors can be retrieved, no new character can be formed, when once we have passed the narrow boundary, which separates eternity from time. The first disclosures beyond the tomb, be they joyous or terrific, are but the pledge of all that are to follow. If I am welcomed to my Saviour's presence, it is that I may never depart ; — if I find myself encompassed by fiends, it is that I may be their associate in guilt and misery forevermore. " He that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still ; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him be holy still."

Our future and eternal state will depend on the character we form in this life. " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The divine purpose here proclaimed, is irreversible. "For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ ; that every one may receive the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."

How brief is the term of human probation ! " The days of our years are three-score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be four-score years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow ; for it is soon

PREFACE.

cut off, and we fly away." It has been thus for ages. The slumiDerers beneath the ground were short-lived, like ourselves. Seventy was the date of their old men. Their legislators, their heroes, their orators, their artists, their authors, achieved their greatest doings, and most of them were numbered with the dead, at an earlier age. How rarely do we find a survivor of those who lived a century ago, to tell us of his contemporaries! Not only the mounds of the dead, and their mossgrown tomb-stones, but the most enduring works of art they have left, preach to us of the shortness of man's journey from the cradle to the grave. Our most valuable books and improvements are, with few exceptions, but the epitaph of those who lived before us. Of most of the volumes which compose my library, I know that the minds that produced them have long since been gathered to the assembly of departed spirits ; and not a few of my valuable articles of furniture were formed by hands that now lie motionless in the dust. Standing on a narrow isthmus which, on each side, is continually sliding away to deceive the foot of him who seeks security upon it ,• how can I be reckless of consequences ? — how can I neglect the most earnest preparation for that shoreless ocean, on which I am soon to embark, and where, if I do not enjoy the kindliest breezes, and skies perpetually glowing with stars, I shall be eternally tossed by the fiercest tempests, and wrapped in the blackness of darkness forever ?

Let the reader enter upon the perusal of this volume with great seriousness. However imperfect may be the manner of treating them, the subjects which it brings before him, are of everlasting importance. May it appear at last that some sinner has been reclaimed, some believer advanced in knowledge and holiness, by means of this little book, which the writer would now affectionately commend to the blessing of that God, who, while he pours contempt on the proudest productions of the human mind, can render so small a contribution to the cause of " Practical Religion," the means of adding to the happiness of the human family on earth, and awakening new songs of praise in heaven.

Letter I. To The Careless Sinner

As we were riding together the other day on our way to G — , by the side of that beautiful copse, where the sound of the waterfall and the song of the bird conspired to allay every disquieting passion, and prepare the mind for " solemn musing," the thought of that life to come, where my warmest affections centre, rushed upon my soul with a sweetness and power which I cannot express. You may recollect, that I suddenly dropped my discourse ; perhaps, too, you noticed the silent tears which trickled down my cheeks. Then it was that I understood the apostle's meaning, when he said, " I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is farbettei";" and also, "We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swalloAved up of life." If this lower creation, thought I, marred as it is by the sin of man, is invested with so much loveliness, what must be the attractions of that heaven of heavens, where God, my Saviour, unfolds all his glories to the ravished eyes of his saints? Thus I meditated — and I conversed in Httle else than monos341ables, till we came to the junction of two roads, where we were to separate.

I was scarcely alone, before my thoughts were turned towards you. " By his own acknowledgment," said I, mentally, "my friend is yet unregenerate ; he seems to be insensible to his obligations, guilt and danger; he has no title to the happiness which 1 anticipate ; retaining his present character a little longer, he must everlastingly perish." I felt towards you such pity as I had never before known ; I severely upbraided myself for my want of faithfulness, in the interview with you which had just closed ; I confessed my sin ; I wept afresh before God ; it was my fervent desire and prayer for you, that you might be saved. With these feelings, I resolved in dependance on divine grace, that I would speedily write to you from the overflowing compassion of my heart. In comphance with the resolution so formed, I now take my pen ; I cannot but hope, that, while you do justice to my motives, you will yield to the voice of anxious friendship, on a subject involving your present welfare, and your eternal destiny.

That there is a God, all-powerful, wise, just and good, you will not dispute ; or, should you call in question the existence of such a Being, your unbelief would be rebxiked by myriads of voices, from every region of his works. That there can be no contrivance, without a designer — no effects, without a cause adequate to their production — areiirst principles, on which are based all the elements of our knowledge, and whence are derived all our motives to hope and fear, and the exertion of any of our faculties. He who denies these principles is a maniac, or a, hypocrite, to discourse with whom were as idle as to talk fluxions with a savage, or to hold argument with a tornado. The variety, the vastness, and the harmonious design of the creation, tell of attributes in the Framerand Goyernour, illimitable as immensity, and enduring as that eternity, which an inspired Theologyaffirms to be his habitation.

" These are thy glorious works, Parent of

Almighty ! thine tl)is universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair : thyself how wondrous then !

Unspeakable, who sitt'st above these heavens.

To us invisible, or dimly seen,

In these thy lowest works ; yet these declare

Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine."

'' The heavens," cries the holy psalmist, '' declare the glory of God ; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." ^' Nevertheless," said Paul and Barnabas, to the inhabitants of Lystra, " he left not himself v/ithout witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filHng our hearts with food and gladness." The apostle, speaking of the heathen who are destitute of a written revelation, says, in Rom. i. 19, 20, " That which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead ; so that they are without excuse."

To this great and venerable Being, you owe your supreme love and allegiance. His intrinsic worthiness is infinite ; and the relations towards you which he sustains, are of the most tender and sacred character. He is your Creator ; and may he not justly claim the grateful services of his own creatures ? He is your constant Preserver, Benefactor and Father ; and what must be your guilt, if you can requite his unwearied kindness with indifference to his will and glory ? His goodness breathes all around you— from the hills and the valleys.

from the ground you tread upon, and from the blue expanse over your head ; in the whispering breeze, and in the majestic roar of the t;mpest ; his food sustains your frame ; his air heaves your lungs ; his heat and his showers refresh you : and his eye that runs to and fro in the earth, and never sleeps, watches over you in your midnight slumbers. Every moment, from the earliest dawn of your being until now, has come to you, laden with unnumbered blessings ; and while your eye is passing over these lines, all your hmbs, and organs, and faculties, and enjoyments, unitedly bear testimony to his long-suffering, ceaseless care, and boundless liberahty.

That Bible which lies, or ought to lie by your side, is his gift, bearing on every page the impress of its divine origin. By what miracles has it been attested ! How wonderful has been the fulfilment of its prophecies, forming a concatenation of strange events, which none but the Infinite Mind could have foreseen or conjectured ! The wastes of Ninevah, Babylon and Tyre ; the rains of Judea, Greece and Rome ; all times past, and present time, are the vouchers to its truth and authority. What are all other books which have philosophized on religion, or claimed inspiration ; the reveries of Plato, the speculations of Tully, the Vedas, the Shasters. the Koran — to that volume, written by Jewish prophets, tentmakers and fishermen — the holy Scriptures? What purity, what simplicity, what wisdom, what gentleness, what benignity, what majesty, what unity of purpose, what unearthly harmony, distinguish that peerless volume — proving to every unprejudiced mind that its Author is the same Being who formed the human soul, and drew the plan of the universe !

This book reveals a law in every respect holy, just and good ; extending no less to the thoughts and affections than to the overt acts ; and guarding by proper sanctions, the rights and interests of all beings. That law you have broken, deliberately, constantly, without any provocation ; and you are of course exposed to the infliction of all its threatened plagues.

Are you not conscious of your rebelHon ? The law requires you to love God with all the heart ; have you in this manner loved the greatest and best of beings? 'What are those objects which you have most highly valued, and which you have pursued with the most intense eagerness ?

Compare, I beseech you, the tenor of your life with the requisitions of the decalogue, especially as they are explained by our great Teacher in his sermon on the Mount ; where the secret desire of what is forbidden is declared to be sin. By laying his interdict on the incipient movements of impure inclination, Jesus obviously designed to teach us that all the prohibitions of the law extend to the inner man, in the very commencement of its tendencies to disobedience. Thus, as one observes, the Saviour evinced a profounder knowledge of human nature than Socrates, who comparatively overlooked, in his rules of virtue, the necessity of that internal principle which gives it birth. It has been the common fault of uninspired moralists to aim at lopping off the branches, instead of killing the root of depravity, in the fruitful soil of the heart.

It was a discovery of the spiritual character of the moral inculcations of the ' law, which destroyed the Pharisaic conceit and self-righteous hopes of Saul of Tarsus, " I had not known sin but by the law : for I had not known lust, except the law had said. Thou shalt not covet. For I was alive without the law," or without a knowledge of its spirituahty, '' once ; but

2* when the commandment came, sin revived and I died."

What, my dear friend, have you done ? Scrutinize your motives, as well in your most specious actions ag in those instances of your conduct which have been most manifestly sinful ; and will you not be compelled to acknowledge, that you have been a transgressor from the beginning of your existence ? Has not selfishness, in some of its forms, been the governing disposition of your life ? Have you ever acted from supreme love to God, and respect for his glory? What then, when judged by that unerring standard, the divine law, however useful they may be in the present life, are your apparent amiableness, your temperate habits, your social affections, your boasted integrity, and your generosity, but the exterior decorations of a sepulchre— the gilding and ornaments of a coffin, hiding deformity and putrefaction ] You remember the story of him, whose boast it was, " All these things have I kept from my youth up ; " who nevertheless went away sorrowful, from the Saviour, and, for aught we know to the contrary, perished at last an incorrigible enemy of holiness and of God.

However unwilling you may be to submit to the searching scrutiny of the law, and own yourself a rebel, He who knows your heart has decided that you, in common with the rest of your species, previously to regeneration, are destitute of holy affections, and dead in trespasses and sins ; " God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continualJy." Almost every word in this awful description of the human character, is emphatical. Man, meaning the whole race, is the subject of whom all this is affirmed. His hearty the spring of all his moral actions, is evil;

it is only evil ; all its thoughts^ all the imaginations, the first Jigmefits of its thoughts are evil ; and they are evil continually. Will you say, that this delineation had reference to antediluvian sinners only ; and has, therefore, no applicability to you ? On what principle will you attempt thus to evade the charge, which your Maker has preferred against the whole human family ? Is man an essentially different being now from what he was before the flood ? Hear then the testimony of the psalmist, " The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were an}^ that did understand and seek God : they are all gone aside ; they are all together become filthy : there is none that doeth good, no, not one." This dark picture is exhibited by the apostle, in the third chapter of Romans, as a graphic representation of the human heart, in all ages and in all places.

The Bible declares that the moral corruption of man commences with his being : '• Behold," says David, speaking by inspiration, " I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me;" and Paul tells Christians that they '• were by nature children of wrath, even as others."

It is most certain then — I should contradict the word of God were I to say otherwise — that you, my dear friend, so long as you continue impenitent, are utterly estranged from Him, '' in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways." Pause, I conjure you, and seriously ponder your character and situation. Is it a light thing to be utterly disobedient in spirit to the glorious God, whose service is the perfection of freedom, and the supreme joy of all holy creatures in all worlds ? How can you carelessly trample under foot his authority and the overtures of his love, for one moment ?

God willing, I will soon write to you again. O that the Spirit of truth and power would convince you of sin, righteousness and judgment, and bring you a weeping, yet happy penitent, to the feet of Jesus. Yours affectionately,

Epsilon.

LETTER 11.

TO THE CARELESS SINNER.

Do you think me unkind because I charge you with utter moral depravity and rebeUion against God ? I speak in love ; I am also covered with conscious shame when I reflect, that in portraying your natural character, 1 am describing my own. If I am not to this day an enemy of my Maker, I ascribe my conversion to no inherent goodness in myself, but wholly to the power and boundless liberality of his grace. To him be all the glory forever.

You will, 1 trust, pardon my "great plainness of speech," when you recollect the importance of the interests at stake — the worth of your soul, its peril, and my tender solicitude for your eternal well-being. You will not doubt m}^ sincerity when 1 tell you, that could it be of any avail, I would most gladly throw myself at your feet, and beg you, as if I were pleading for my own life, to consider your ways, and not precipitate yourself into everlasting burnings.

What more shall I say? I have already reminded you of your countless temporal mercies, of which each is a tender monitor for the God who made you. There are mercies of far greater value, without which all the common bounties of Providence would only serve to insure to you a more insupportable doom. What, but for the interposition of a Redeemer, had been your condition ? You have the answer in the threatenings of the law, and in the melancholy history of " the angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation," whom the Most High "hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." The giving of an almighty Saviour to become man, and make an atonement for human guilt, was such an act of marvellous love as the universe never before saw. It is the great theme of the Church below, and the all-inspiring subject of the heavenly world. Does not your heart dissolve in penitence and thankfulness, as you think of so rich a donation provided for you, a rebel and a wretch, who have ten thousand thousand times forfeited all the kind regards of your God ? Let this subject fix your attention.

" See from his hands, his head, his feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down ; Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown ? "

The earth quakes, the rocks rend, all nature is arrayed in mourning when Immanuel dies — dies for ^ou. Through his blood, the offers of gratuitous pardon, and of eternal life, are made to a revolted world ; and the most solemn, moving, melting considerations are set before men to induce them to accept the provisions of the Gospel and be happy. Here is food for the hungry soul, clothing for the naked, medicine for the diseased, and a Father's house for the friendless and lost. How have you treated these invitations, emanating from the very heart of your injured God? Have you not coldly, obstinately, turned your back on all the Redeemer's calls, warnings, expostulations, entreaties? What instructions from parents, from teachers, from pious friends, have you disregarded ? How many sermons have you heard to no good purpose ? How many Sabbaths, how many

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opportunities of social worship during the week, have you worse than wasted ? Alas ! sir, how have you employed yourself in your closet, where you should have confessed your sins with deep contrition, and earnestly, daily, communed with '' your Father who seeth in secret ? '' At times, too, the Holy Spirit has moved upon your conscience, like a mighty wind upon the surface of the deep ; but where are your compunctions, your fears, your resolutions now? One would think that you reckoned it a praiseworthy achievement to steel yotir bosom against the arrows of the Almighty's quiver, and defy his vengeance. 1 tremble when I reflect on your guilty course ; I feel constrained to ask, " Can there be hope for so great a sinner ? " Do the Scriptures answer, " Yes !" The assurance inconceivably aggravates the baseness and ill desert of the creature who can persist in slighting the authority, and provoking the wrath of so merciful a God. What a heart must that be which can take occasion from the very depth and potency of the divine tenderness to si a the more ! Observe the contrast: " As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way and hve : turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel ? " Hear now the language of sinners : ^' What a weariness is it; depart from us, O Lord, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways."'

You see how God has treated you, and how you have treated him. And shall it be always thus? God of grace, touch the sinner's heart ; smite the rock, and the waters shall flow. Without the exertion of thy resistless power, men and angels may strive to overcome his obstinate rebellion, but it will be all in vain. But if thou afford thine aid, the feeblest exhortation of a worm of the dust will prove sufficient to vanquish the resistance of thy stoutest foe.

In the name of God I beseech you to harden yourself against him no more. Is he not worthy of your obedience ? And can your heart endure, and your hands be strong in the day when he shall deal with you? He is mighty to punish, as well as to deliver. Will you not fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell? Will you not fear him, who will by no means clear the impenitently guilty ? Hear his own words, and remember that God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it ? — hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? " The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." — " Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup." — " These shall go away into everlasting punishment." — " Where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched." — " And again they said Alleluia, and her smoke rose up forever and ever." — " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Shall these thunders of the wrath of God pass by you like the idle wind which you regard not? Shall Sinai roar, and even Mount Zion cry, " Cursed is the unbelieving sinner," and will you stop your ears, and fold your ai ms, and coolly say, " I shall have peace, though I walk after the imagination of my heart?" Be assured, God does not mock you with unmeaning words. What possible motive can he have to deceive you ? It is indubitably certain that you must be converted, or know, by bitter experionce, all that is intended by the dreadful words, the second deaths the damnation of hell, everlasting destruction, from the 'presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power.