The rock

Introduction

Through the courtesy of the Publishing Committee of the American Sunday-School Union, I have had an opportunity of looking over the sheets of the following work in advance of its publication. It is their w r ish that I should say what I think of it. If I do this, I must say, first of all, that it is, in my opinion, a work which stands in no need of an endorsement from any quarter.

Without adverting to the lucid and vigorous style in which it is written, it is remarkable for several characteristics which cannot fail to arrest the attention of the thoughtful reader. Among these, not the least conspicuous is its comprehensiveness. I can recall no book of moderate

4 INTRODUCTION.

size in which a greater number of important topics pertaining to personal religion are discussed. The wide range of subjects lying between such fundamental questions as these, " Is there a God?" "What am I?" "Why am I placed in this world?" and the sublime consummation of the Christian life, here pass in review before the reader. He will find in these pages just that kind of information respecting the Bible, the necessity of a revelation, its evidences, the Canon of Scripture and its paramount authority, which every reflecting person desires to have. The true ends of life, the nature of real religion, and the reasonableness of its claims, with the perplexities and dangers, the duties and privileges, of the believer, are considered in a way which cannot fail to impress the candid mind.

For this book is not more remarkable for the extent and variety of its topics, than for the ability with which they are discussed. In the first sentence of the first chapter we have a key to the peculiar style in which the author conducts

INTRODUCTION. 5

his argument : — " It has been my privilege to be engaged for nearly fifty years in the religious instruction of young persons in Sunday-schools, and for nearly three-fourths of that time to have charge of one or two weekly Bible-classes of young ladies." Precisely so. It required just such a training in order to write " The Rock." No vigour of intellect, no amount of learning, no ordinary pastoral experience even, could have qualified a man to write this book. It could have come only from the pen of one who, endowed with ample intellectual and moral gifts, had spent a score or two of years in the faithful religious instruction of intelligent young persons, carefully observing their various tempers and temperaments, noting the effects of different modes of domestic training, watching the diversified impressions produced upon them by the imperative demands of Scripture, analyzing their skeptical doubts, recording their cavils and their subterfuges, and employing the resources of a w T ell-

furnished mind in removing their difficulties and

1*

D INTRODUCTION.

pressing home the truth upon their consciences. Regarded in this view, I am quite sure that the book will be found a useful study, not merely to those for whom it was specially written, but to teachers and pastors also. It were well if we could all command the skill in casuistic morality, which is displayed in these pages.

To describe this feature of " The Rock" in a single sentence, I should say that it has a reality about it, which constitutes its highest value. The late venerable Dr. Archibald Alexander, of Princeton, was accustomed to say that he preferred "Jenks' Prayers" to any other collection of the kind, because they were evidently "prayers which had been prayed!' So with this book. The personages introduced are real. The conversations actually took place. The doubts and fears, the cavils and complaints, were all expressed. One of the most touching narratives presented here (pages 124-131) recalls to my recollection a young friend whose death was mourned with a true sorrow by many hearts. The author has said

INTRODUCTION. 7

very little, where he might have said much, about her personal charms and her rare intellectual gifts. Nature and grace conspired to form her to a mould of singular excellence and loveliness. And during the long months of fluctuating health which preceded her summons home, she was manifestly ripening for her change. No one could doubt that she passed from her cross of suffering to her crown.

Perhaps too little notice is taken, in most sermons and religious books, of the skeptical misgivings and complaints of earnest minds. There are many persons, many young persons even, whose bosoms are filled with murmurs,

"Unutter'd or express' d,"

against the Deity. They feel that their lot is a hard one; that the Creator ought not to have placed them in such a world with such a nature ; and that if they perish, it will not be their fault. These persons have not been forgotten by the author. The candour and ability with which he

8 INTRODUCTION.

has considered their difficulties will commend to them his wise and faithful counsels.

Again, young Christians are frequently perplexed with questions of duty respecting books, amusements, methods of doing good, and other practical matters. The author's knowledge of the world, and large experience, have made him a competent teacher on these points, and they will have reason to thank him for his suggestions.

But it is not necessary to extend this Introduction. If this book is read in the spirit in which it has been written, it cannot fail, by God's blessing, to lead many persons to the " Rock ;" and thus it will have accomplished its mission.

H. A. B.

THE ROCK! THE ROCK!

We have an authentic account of a person who was afflicted with a very singular calamity. In the midst of apparent health, activity and cheerfulness, he would suddenly lose all consciousness and fall like one dead. In the paroxysm which ensued, he would often reach out his arms convulsively, as if feeling for something which he could not see. As soon as the spasm had passed, his eyes were opened slowly and fixed intently on the ceiling, as if he would pierce it and the sky beyond it. When consciousness was fully restored, he would always ask to have the sixty-first Psalm read to him :- —

"Hear my cry, God; attend unto my prayer: From the end of the earth I will cry unto thee. When my heart is overwhelmed, Lead me to the Eock that is higher than I."

" Stop there ! stop there I" he would exclaim, and then, clasping his hands, repeat, with solemn earnestness, —

" Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."

10 the rock! the rock!

"When a favourable opportunity occurred/' says an intimate friend, "I drew from him the following brief story.

"It was his privilege to have the example and teachings of a godly mother, who used to make him read to her, every morning, from the Bible; and she was accustomed to select, from the passage read, one verse, to be his motto for the day. He was naturally very passionate, and one morning was betrayed into a violent fit of temper. His mother called him, and he very sullenly obeyed, when she took his two little hands in hers, and with inexpressible tenderness and affection said, —

" ' My dear son, this is your text for the day : — " Lead me to the Eock that is higher than I." You have been very wicked in the indulgence of such a temper. You have grieved me, and (what is much worse) you have sinned against God, who has kindly given you all you enjoy. You know you always feel sorry after these wicked fits of ill temper, and you have often promised to amend, but you have as often failed to do so. It is high time you were convinced that your unaided efforts will not avail, and you well know there is one who will give you all the help you need. Jesus, who was once a child like yourself, was tempted as you are; but he did not sin, and he is able to succour all who are tempted. He is the Hock spoken of in your daily text.

the rock! the rock! 11

And now, whenever you feel these sinful tempers rising in your heart, let that short prayer fill your heart and go up from honest lips: — "Lead me to the Bock that is higher than I" Never ^est till you feel yourself firmly fastened there.

"They then kneeled together, her arm clasping his waist, and with great fervour she commended him to God's grace and protection. Her words, and even the tones of her voice, were indelibly impressed on his memory.

" Not long afterwards his mother died ; and so strongly was his perverse will allied to a licentious world that he again indulged in folly and sin ; but when sober sense and reason were ail-but discarded and the faithful voice of conscience ail-but silenced, these very words, 1 Lead me to the Eock that is higher than 1/ rushed upon his memory and revived a sense of his guilt and infatuation. At length they became as the handwriting upon the palace-wall; and when temptation assailed him, the remembrance of them, instead of calming and soothing his perturbed and desponding spirit, filled him with inexpressible terror and awe. . The thought that he had hardened his heart against the tender remonstrances of his blessed mother and refused to submit himself to the guidance of his heavenly Friend overwhelmed him with pungent sorrow, which the Spirit of God ripened into true penitence. He con-

12 THE rock! the rock!

secrated himself to the service of his gracious Kedeemer ; but his conflicts with the tempter were at times terrific, subjecting his bodily frame to a severe shock; and when the fearful struggle came upon him, as it did at intervals in the way described, and completely prostrated his nervous system, he instinctively reached forth to lay hold of ' the higher Bock/ where, and where only, he found safety and peace."

It is the humble hope of persuading some vexed and troubled soul to feel for that Rock until it is found, that prompts the preparation of this volume.

Chapter I

What Christianity is — Relations of every human being to this world and the next — The Bible: whence is it, and what is its authority? — Epitome of its doctrines — As a rule of faith — Is it reliable? — General proofs — What ends it ansivers — Its peculiarities — Moral qualifications needful in judging of its claims to our faith.

It has been my privilege to be engaged for nearly fifty years in the religious instruction of young persons in Sunday-schools ; and for nearly three-fourths of that time to have charge of one or two weekly Bible-classes of young ladies. These opportunities to become acquainted with the modes of thinking, or the reasons for not thinking, on religious subjects, which prevail in such circles, have been very favourable. The educated, refined and intelligent, the daughters of luxury, affluence and fashion, have been among my most

interesting and (not unfrequently) my most trac-

2 13

14 PLEASANT ASSOCIATIONS.

table pupils. And, on the other hand, there are few, if any, more degraded and hopeless in moral or social condition than many hundreds of those to whom I have attempted to impart an elementary knowledge of revealed truth.

Between these extremes of external condition I have found, of course, a large variety of habits, capacities, dispositions and susceptibilities; but in none of them have I discovered that settled repugnance to the whole subject of religion which I have often found in adult minds. So that in this attempt further to aid my young friends " to seek the Lord, if haply they may feel after him and find him, though he is not far from every one of us," I persuade myself that I already have their sympathies; and with this confidence I connect the hope that I may be instrumental in making the path of duty and happiness plain before them.

It is pleasant to enter a cheerful, well-lighted apartment in the quiet hour of a Sunday evening and see a group of intelligent girls, full of life and hope, and not indisposed to listen to whatever may be appropriately and seasonably said to them. All the associations of the place and time invite

SYMPATHY. 15

to thoughtfulness. It is not merely as a teacher that I have been accustomed to mingle in such a group, but as a friend who feels with them that the world is very beautiful and its promises very fair. I am a partaker of their joy, though I may not have the flush and buoyancy of earlier days. I can share in their bright visions of the future, though I know how many of them wdll prove delusive. I can anticipate their sad disappointments, while my predominant desire is that they may attain to the full measure of happiness of which their nature is susceptible. Nor have I any monkish, morbid views of life, its pleasures or pursuits. If Christianity — that is, the religion of Christ — does not cheer the spirits, sustain the hopes, give courage to the hearts and vigour to the minds of men, its promise is not redeemed. Its professed office, in the striking language of Oriental imagery, is " to preach good tidings unto the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to comfort all that mourn, to give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

16 CONSCIOUS WANTS.

That there should exist in any intelligent mind a positive aversion to the whole subject of religious faith and duty, which, in some form, interests every human being, can be explained only upon the hypothesis that the moral perception has been obscured ' or perverted, so that darkness is put for light and light for darkness. We say " every human being;" for, except in those who are destitute of the natural faculties of men, there must needs be a consciousness, more or less distinct, of an immaterial nature ; and for the wants of that nature, a moment's reflection must convince. us, something is required which the material world cannot supply.

That I am a living being is a matter of consciousness. I did not create myself. My life is a gift. I am allowed to live. Whether such a being should ever have a place here at all, no one could have told one hundred years ago, unless it were supernaturally revealed to him. The Creator must be greater and wiser than the creature. He that build ed the house hath more honour than the house. I was made for some end. The involuntary exercises of my mind and the emotions of my heart; my passions of love and fear and joy

CONDITIONS OF OUR BEING. 17

and hope and anger, are part of myself. I can think with pain or pleasure upon what I heard or did or saw yesterday, last week, or years ago; and though I know not what shall be on the morrow, yet my plans are formed for days and weeks to come, and I anticipate with pain or pleasure what (if it occurs at all) may not occur for months or years.

What is my condition here ? I am not an isolated creature. I am surrounded with beings like myself, — creatures of God, passing through life as across a stage and disappearing by thousands upon thousands every day. Surely it cannot be

" all an empty show, For man's illusion given."

I cannot be blind to the evidences of the power, wisdom and love of God in my own frame and faculties and the stupendous works of his hands which stand out above, beneath and around me. In the right use of his gifts, I am capable of exquisite but not unmingled enjoyment; while the abuse of them brings with it intense and various pain. And, moreover, with all these tokens of divine benevolence that meet my eye, there are evidences of a blight and a curse. Labour and

18 THE GRAVEST OF QUESTIONS.

toil, sickness, sorrow and death, chagrin, disappointment and despair, discontent and poverty, crime and wretchedness, are spread all over the earth. If I ask the cause of this, I am told it is sin, and that I am infected with it, as are all my fellow-creatures. One trait can be stereotyped as part of the biography of every child of Adam : — He was a sinner.* A moment's reflection upon my own motives and conduct convinces me that it is so. The quick perception of right and wrong, of which I am conscious, presupposes a law which is given by my Creator to be a rule of my life ; and sin is a transgression of this law.

What are the consequences of transgressing a divine law ? One consequence is present disquiet and fear; and this starts that gravest of all questions of universal interest and universal appropriateness, How shall man be just with God ?

In our intercourse with our fellow-men, this question often occasions the deepest solicitude. He who has been betrayed into some violation of law, for which reparation must be made by fine or imprisonment, asks, with inexpressible emotion, How shall I meet the requirement?

** Dr. Chalmers.

THE FUTURE. 19

The debtor is harassed by the constant thought of his creditor's power over him and by the continual anxiety lest his means of payment should prove inadequate.

What is before me ? The only certain thing is death. If I live another hour or day, it must be by some power above and independent of myself. I can end my present life instantly, but I cannot prolong it a single moment. If I live, life must be a ceaseless conflict with the evil inclinations of my heart and with the outward temptations of the world. Many joys may attend my path; but, like the impatient prophet's gourd, they may grow up and wither in the same night.

And is such a life a gift of love? Yes, of infinite love. . But not if we leave out of view its relations to another and a better.

" Were it the whole of life to live, Or all of death to die,"

human existence would be not only a mystery, but a mockery and curse. What gives our present transient being its incomprehensible value and interest, is that, if wisely improved, it introduces us to our true life, — our immortality;

20 * THE BIBLE.

and it is the anticipation of this true life that mitigates the sorrows, purifies the joys and brightens the hopes of our brief pilgrimage here ;

" Beyond this vale of tears There is a life above, Unmeasured by the flight of years ; And all that life is love."

What knowledge have we of such a life, and whence is it derived? Which is the way to it, and what do we need to prepare us for its enjoyment?

We have in our hands a familiar volume, which Ave call the Bible, and this is said to be a revelation from God, and to contain all that we need to know respecting his character, laws and government as well as concerning our own condition and destiny. We are, however, told of other sacred books and pretended revelations. There are the Shasters, or divine books of the Brahminical religion, whose disciples embrace more than an eighth part of the human family. These books reveal three times as many objects of worship as there are worshippers ! There is Buddhism, " the number of whose votaries far exceeds that of any other religious system on the globe, though it places its disciples

AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE. 21

in the marvellous position of worshipping an extinct being!"* There is the Koran, or the Bible of the Mohammedans, containing exactly three hundred and twenty-three thousand and fifteen letters, which is received as of divine origin by about one-sixth of our fellow-men. Then there are the Jews, who hold to the divine authority of the Old Testament, but reject the New; while the believers of the Greek and Papal churches, embracing more than another sixth part of the world, receive the Scriptures as of divine origin and authority, but receive, as of equal authority, the interpretation which "the church" (meaning their church) puts upon them. Indeed, apart from such interpretation, they regard the sacred oracles as a source of error and confusion.

It is the popular impression that Protestants generally hold the Scriptures to be of themselves the only and the sufficient rule of faith and practice, so that " whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation."

* Princeton Review, July, 1859.

22 RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.

It may be doubted, however, whether the faith of any person rests exclusively on his own original conceptions of what is taught in Holy Scripture. A religious doctrine is announced and advocated, and the attempt is made to show its consonance to divine revelation. The disciple is referred to that acknowledged standard of truth, and resorts to it to determine whether the new doctrine is "read therein or may be proved thereby." He is supposed to accept or reject it according to the response of this sacred oracle. But how many influences, too subtle for analysis, may have perverted his apprehension or warped his judgment! It may be that education, social relations, or fortuitous circumstances of residence and association have given a strong bias to the mind before the appeal is made to the acknowledged standard.

It cannot be denied that those who are supposed to have formed their religious opinions under the teachings of Holy Scripture do greatly differ in what they believe and teach ; and hence the almost endless diversity of creeds, denominations, sects and schools. But a close examination will show that in a very large majority of cases these differences relate to points not involving human salvation.

THE APOSTLES' CREED. 23

We know of no Protestant communion that denies the possibility of salvation out of its pale; and ninety-nine hundredths of the real and nominal disciples of Christ would readily agree that what is familiarly known as the Apostles' Creed contains the essential doctrines of Christian faith. Beyond this they would not insist upon any belief as necessary or requisite to salvation. Less than this would not be consistent with submission to the Scriptures as a rule of faith.

Some are disposed to plead the diversities of sects as an excuse for keeping themselves aloof from a connection with any of them; and they even go so far as to call in question the genuineness of religion itself, because its disciples differ so widely in respect to its doctrines. But they forget that each of these systems of faith is nothing more than the expression of an opinion as to what the Scriptures teach, and upon us is laid the obligation to "search the Scriptures, to see if these things are so." In a free country like our's there are different political parties, and the views of public policy which distinguish them, one from the other, are investigated by intelligent citizens, and as their opinions coincide with or differ from this

24 AUTHORITATIVE STANDARDS.

or that party or school, so they enrol themselves among its advocates or opponents.

But there are remarkable differences in the two cases. The instrument by which, under a government like our's, the right or wrong of public measures is determined, is of human origin, and of course imperfect. It was formed in ignorance of what time might effect in the condition and circumstances of the people. And, besides, the consequences of the most erroneous interpretation of its essential principles cannot reach beyond the bounds of time. It is therefore of little moment, comparatively, to what party one is attached, if he discharges the duties of a good citizen. And yet there are few persons who have not more sympathy with one party than with another.

In the religious world we claim to have an instrument of divine origin by which to determine what is right and wrong in opinion and practice. It was formed with the most perfect knowledge of all possible contingencies and all possible conditions of those who should live under it. To misinterpret an essential principle of it involves fearful hazards for this world and the next; and not to recognise it as a guide and rule of life is to prefer darkness to light.

THE CHURCH. 25

Instead, therefore, of rejecting the oracles of divine truth because their responses are variously construed by those who profess to rely on them, we should give the more earnest heed to them, in order that our own views may be governed by them. And when, with the best light we can obtain, these views are definitely settled, we should join ourselves to those whose conclusions correspond most nearly with our own. .

As already intimated, there are some who maintain that, from ignorance or incompetency, people in general cannot be expected, of themselves, to form correct opinions of the teachings of the inspired volume ; and hence (says one) " the church, in various ages, has given them an interpretation which is to be received as of binding authority." This claim may perhaps present a question of precedence. Much of what we receive as a divine revelation relates to the foundation and progress of "the church of the living God, the pillar and ground (stay) of the truth," and to the means of extending the kingdom of its founder and supreme head to the ends of ^ the earth. We may not be able to fix the d£te or describe the constituents of the earliest community which could properly

26 PRIVATE INTERPRETATION.

be called a church. But from the earliest existence of such an institution under the gospel dispensation there is a contemporaneous declaration of the divine will, directing its offices and ordinances with minute particularity ; and a divine authority, in the person of its founder, to oversee and conduct its administration. His personal teaching and example were enjoyed by his immediate apostles; and, after them, at no subsequent period could any judgment have been formed which should have any authority except that which a concurrence of opinion on a given question among a body of fallible men (large or small) is supposed to carry. Each of them has an individual judgment, founded on evidence presented to his own mind; and their determination of any question, whether expressed in the form of a law, a decree, or a creed, is but an aggregate of private opinions. So that we are thrown back upon the right and duty of every human being who has the opportunity and means to examine the records of divine truth and draw from them precepts, doctrines and promises for the government of his own life and the foundation of his own hopes.

"The possibility — nay, the probability — of a

AN INQUIRY. 27

divine revelation is one of the first and simplest instincts of reason." True philosophy inquires if there is any positive declaration of the will of the Almighty; and, finding what claims to be such, it is received and obeyed, and leads the humble disciple up to its divine and incomprehensible Author. There are various systems of false philosophy, all resting on certain conceptions of the Supreme Being supposed to be consistent with reason; and thence are inferred the attributes of a divine character and a scheme of divine government.

" Has the Almighty given any messages to his creatures ? If so, how can we know them from all delusions and counterfeits ? Not by their agreement with perfect goodness and infinite wisdom; for this is a standard beyond our reach. If we knew perfect goodness and infinite wisdom, a revelation would be superfluous. Is the message or messenger accompanied by such tokens of divine wisdom, power and goodness as could not be derived from mere natural means at the time, and could not proceed from an unseen power of evil ?"

Perhaps you are surprised that I should raise any inquiry among persons educated, as you have been, under Christian influences, as to the credi-

28 NEGATIVE FAULT.

bility of Holy Scripture. But I fear it may be much more pertinent than you suppose. There are multitudes of persons in your position whose faith is purely negative. They do not deny the^ truth, nor do they embrace it. There is a superficial impression that to be a Christian is very right and proper, if persons are inclined that way. But no personal, inexorable obligation to submit to the claims of the gospel is recognised, or even considered.

"What religion has to fear is not the most searching criticism of the contents of Scripture, not any fundamental inquiry into the laws of physical phenomena, not the fullest examination of every vestige upon the field of nature left by the footsteps of time."* The supposed discrepancies between the theories of philosophy and speculation and the Scripture account of the creation, of the unity of the race and of the diversity of tongues, have been found to have no real existence. Whenever science has vaunted itself upon some new discovery which seems to involve the credibility of sacred history, it has so turned out that another step in advance or in some other