Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

never faileth. Nations in their counsels, and individuals in their conduct, avow submission to her precepts, and claim the sanction of her motives. Hence the asylum, the hospital, and the school, to relieve the distressed, to heal the sick, and instruct the poor. From the day that the first Christians held their goods in common, and the seven deacons were ordained to distribute to every man as he had need, it has been an acknowledged duty of the faithful," to deal his bread to the hungry, and to bring the poor that are cast out to his house; when he sees the naked to cover him, and not to hide himself from his own flesh."1

"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, and do unto all men, as you would they should do unto you." Hence, among those who value the Gospel of salvation as the first of blessings, from the days of the Apostles, new messengers have not been wanting, to bear the cross as

1 Isaiah, lviii. 7.

they did, into all lands, and reclaim the sheep which had gone astray, and bring them back to the fold of Christ. The corsair of Barbary has seen the messenger of ransom,' with a breviary and staff to confront lawless power, and the purse of charity in his hand to redeem the Christian captive. The Indian of the new world has heard ministers of the Gospel, corrupt as may have been their church, the intercessors nevertheless for his freedom, protesting at home and abroad against the cruelties and slavery which his ruthless conquerors imposed. Nay! in these days the very African is freed from his bonds. Christian charity has rescued the outcast of prejudice from the oppression that debased him. Christian charity has invited him to improve his intellectual and moral condition in the world; to participate in the equal ministrations of a holy faith; and to cultivate the happiness,

1 Père de Redemption à Alger, &c.

2

2 Las Casas. Vide Robertson's "America."

In

temporal and eternal, which it is the natural right of every man to pursue. unalloyed benevolence she renews the lesson so hard to be understood, that what is best is also most wise, and that the relief of suffering humanity is the most grateful as well as the most noble duty, however degraded and prostrate may be the sufferer, however debased in the eyes of the world may be the object of generous interference.

Such is sometimes the triumph of God's commandment even over the selfish passions-over the avarice of man that would create a property in his fellowmen-over self-will, self-indulgence, and the love of arbitrary power. The limits of these are self. Self is their whole object, and a man under their control lives for himself alone. Would you then be freed from their tyranny? Open your heart in sympathy for your fellow. Let that love which you have for self go free, and expand into charity, which shall love your neighbour as your own soul. That

captive, which was confined to the narrow bounds of your own advantage, shall walk abroad more happy, more elevated, more strong in holy aspirations, when he consults the world's happiness, as he would his own.

Strive, then, to regulate your lives, not by any rule, which self may have a share to dictate, but by those tables of the written law, the end of which is love toward God, and toward mankind. This will promote your happiness in the present world, as well as in the world to come. Many there are, it is to be hoped, who have been protected by God's grace in the ways of holiness, from the day of their baptism to this hour-meek and anxious souls, ever struggling to obey, though conscious of the imperfection of their obedience, ever strengthened by the consolations of the Comforter, though humbled by a sense of their infirmities. In examining themselves they will doubtless find much to regret, much to confess, much to amend: but they will also find

much for which to be grateful. They will be spared the trying process of conversion; from Christian infancy their heart has never been unconverted at all. They will be spared the pangs of sudden conviction, of fearful compunction, and stinging remorse amounting almost to despair; the struggles, and inward conflicts, which the obstinate sinner knows full well. That troubled conscience, those bitter stings of memory, that trembling recoil from the prospect of the future belongs to the wicked, when reflecting on their state, and called on to reform. But habitual righteousness sits more easy on true Christians, as Christ's yoke is easy, and God's service is perfect freedom. They have come to their Redeemer that he "may give them rest :" that he may "feed them in a green pasture," and " lead them forth beside the waters of comfort." "Yea, though they walk through the valley of the shadow of death, they will fear no evil; for his rod and his staff supports them."

« EdellinenJatka »