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be the result upon my heart and life, of a reasonable operation of the Gospel upon them? What manner of person should I be in all holy conversation and godliness, if my example were a just transcript of the great truths of the Gospel? That religion has been thought by some to be the most enlightened and reasonable, which has least to do with the affections of the heart; but never was there a more manifest mistake. Reasonableness in religion, is absorption of mind and heart-the whole man ruled and overborne by the transcendent importance and glory of the objects of religion. For a man to pretend to be religious, and yet be cold and backward in the concerns of religion, and contentedly uncertain whether the infinite objects which it discloses may not be adverse to his eternal happiness-this is not reason, but the supreme of inconsistency and stupidity.

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"In the second place, it is spiritual religion alone, in which the human mind can find sensible and satisfying enjoyment. True religious enjoyment consists in heartfelt complacency in God and Divine things. There is indeed a feeling of quietude arising from the regular discharge of moral duties, and the routine of religious observances, which is not spiritual joy or peace; but the fruit of predominant self-righteousness and fatal delusion. It implies a great, abiding, spiritual apathy and thoughtlessness; for if sensibility were awake, and thought intelligently exercised on the person's habitual course of life, a general worldliness of spirit would be seen to pollute and vitiate the services of religion; and then these services, instead of yielding hope and comfort, would conspire with other things to work fear and doubt and misery, in the heart. There is, however, a hope of heaven different from that of the self-righteous, which springs from reflection on

the general tenor of our conduct, regarded as an evidence of our spiritual character and state. This probably is the hope of the mass of professed Christians. We speak not against it except by lamenting, that it should be made so generally the measure of spiritual enjoyment. What is the amount of positive happiness that a hope of this kind yields? It is not the assurance of hope-the living, refreshing, soul-elevating, hope of the first Christians. It does not preclude doubt, but only despair. It leaves its subjects uncertain of their state. They are not sure of their calling and election. The Spirit does not so witness with their spirits' but that they remain halting, hesitating, trembling, in respect to their final sentence; or if not trembling, wondering that they do not, amidst their want of satisfying evidence. Such is the general feeling of professed Christians, in respect to their character and prospects for eternity-and such, or worse than this, must necessarily be the feeling of all who do not cultivate and exercise. a spiritual religion. Nothing but a sensible, living, joyous intercourse with God and Christ and the things of the Spirit, can wholly displace anxiety or even torment from the heart. Without this there may be self-complacency, there may be delusion, there may be negative hope mingled with fear; but a soul-satisfying evidence of present acceptableness in the sight of God, and of ultimate admission into the joys of His kingdom, there cannot be, without the pleasurable consciousness of the reality and excellency of heavenly things. This consciousness is a witness that cannot be resisted: it is itself the earnest and foretaste of eternal life, and can no more co-exist with doubt, than the consciousness of an outward world can co-exist with hesitation as to the reality of such a world. Let a man feel habitual love to God-let him feel

the peace of God in his heart-let him feel the Spirit of Christ living in him-let him feel pleased and delighted with the truths and promises of the Gospel, and he will then enjoy evidences of his state, which will displace every doubt, and yield him 'glory begun below.' If therefore our readers would have

a religion full of comforts and pleasures, a religion which will yield them solid satisfaction, let them fix their minds, not on that customary religion, which rests in periodical services and outward strictness, but on a religion of intimate, sensible, living communion

and intercourse with God."

(To be continued.)

QUERY ON THE INCREASE OF
DISSENT.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I AM anxious to inquire of your correspondents generally, if the vember Number, is correct, "That statement of B. C., in your Nowherever the pastoral duties are well organized lay-agency introconscientiously attended to, and duced into the parish, under the is not only arrested in its progress, auspices of the clergyman, dissent but rapidly declines." I have been informed, that in some large towns, clergy are almost all distinguished which I might name, where the for their piety, and the exemplary discharge of their pastoral duties, dissent is spreading. Is this a fact? And if so, what are the causes, and what the remedies?

E. S. L.

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

REVIEW OF MEMOIR OF
DR. WAUGH.

(Continued from p. 53.) AMONG the engagements which, as before stated, drew Dr. Waugh daily from the bosom of his beloved family, was his connexion with the London Missionary Society, of

which he was one of the founders and most zealous advocates. He travelled much in England, Scotland, Ireland, and France, to promote its interests; and for twentyeight years he presided as chairman of the committee for the examination of missionary candidates. His friendly offices and conciliating manners were often of great service in this and other institutions. He would strongly remonstrate against the illiberal system of treating missionaries very much like menials.

"He could not endure to hear any thing said that tended to detract from that spiritual dignity with which Christ has in

vested the missionary office. He wished all the servants of the society to go forth under the high and sacred feeling that they were the ministers of the Lord Jesus, patronized by their attached brethren and equals. 'Let not,' he would often say, the poor lads be cowed; for who ever knew a cowed man do any good in this world?' Of their personal, domestic, tenderly careful; and in all cases he was and ministerial equipment he was most

a friend to liberal measures.' 301.

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pp. 300,

"Some of the most faithful of the society's missionaries have been known to counsels to the close of their earthly pilspeak with lively feeling of his parting grimage; and, indeed, that must have been an unfeeling heart upon which a lasting impression had not been made. The entire scene was one of the heart, and bore a striking resemblance to the parting interview of Paul with the elders of the church at Ephesus." pp. 302, 303.

And indeed what missionary, or friend of missions, could withstand such appeals as the following?

"Could I this day remove the veil that covers the heavenly world; could I place you upon the summit of one of the lumi nous hills of paradise; could I impart

vigour to your visual faculties, and extend their power to the almost interminable regions of the blessed; could I raise your eyes to the Lamb in the midst of the Throne, from whose countenance beams the felicity of the redeemed; could I open your ears to the songs of the conquerors, and the acclamations of the martyrs, which, swelling in the majesty of thunder, ascend through the expanse of heaven, and fill with acceptance the ear of God; could I cheer your hearts with the sight of multitudes entering, in blessed succession, through the mediation of Jesus, from Hindostan, from Africa, and the islands of the Southern Sea, the trophies of Divine power, the purchase of the Saviour's blood, the gems that shall ever sparkle in the Mediator's crown, the first fruits of missionary labours; what inspiration would the glorious objects impart to your souls! Work, O work while it is day!" p. 307.

The following incident, which occurred at the missionary board over which he presided, will shew the general spirit of the man; and it may also read a useful lesson to those members of committees who use their delegated authority in a harsh and overbearing spirit, opposed to the meekness of Christ. We have known a tender and ingenuous mind deeply wounded at a public board by some coarse unfeeling remark, which the speaker perhaps intended to pass for plain dealing and Christian faithfulness. It did not, however, occur to him to change situations with the candidate, and to ask how he should

have felt under the same circumstances. Our remark applies to boards of inquiry of all kinds, from the interrogation of a widowed pauper at a parish vestry, to a court of justice, a house-of-commons committee, or a collegiate or episcopal examination. An exa

miner is bound to exercise scrutiny, but he ought never willingly to give pain except for moral offences.

"A pious young man, who was desirous of devoting himself to the work of the ministry among the heathen, stated that he had one difficulty: he had an aged mother entirely dependent upon an elder brother and himself for maintenance; and in case of that brother's death he should wish to be at liberty to return to this country, if his mother were still living, to

contribute to her support. Scarcely had he made this ingenuous statement, when a harsh voice exclaimed: If you love your mother more than the Lord Jesus Christ, you will not do for us.' Abashed and confounded, the young man was silent. Some murmurs escaped the committee; and he was directed to retire while his proposal was taken into consideration. On his being again sent for, the venerable chairman, in tones of unaffected kindness, and with a patriarchal benignity of mien, acquainted him that the committee did not feel themselves authorised to accept of his services on a condition involving uncertainty as to the term; but immediately added: We think none the worse of you, my good lad, for your dutiful regard for your aged parent. You are but acting in conformity to the example of Him whose Gospel you wished to proclaim among the heathen, who, as he hung upon the cross in dying agonies, beholding his mother and the beloved disciple standing by, said to the one, Woman, behold thy son! and to John, Behold thy mother! My good lad, we think none the worse of you. p. 298.

It will readily be conceived that a man of Dr. Waugh's character was ever welcome in the chamber of sickness, and in scenes of bereavement and affliction. How he spoke and wrote on such occasions the following detached passages from his letters and funeral addresses will shew:

"We are now scattered and separated; but the Apostle speaks of a gathering day, when we shall meet with godly friends in the perfection of knowledge, goodness, and felicity. On that day let us fix our eye, and hold on in those paths which alone will conduct us to heaven. Let us not be discouraged by the length Leaning on our Divine Guide and Guarof the way, or the roughness of the road. dian, we shall gather strength every day; and let me entreat your prayers that I may finish my course with joy, and, through the abundant mercy of God, be admitted to the humblest place in his heavenly kingdom.'

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I will not sleep till I have carried the condition of my friend to the place where mercy dwells, and dwells in a Father's bosom."

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ers than the dearest earthly friends. Let them read the xiith chapter of the Hebrews, 2 Corinthians vth chapter, and the xivth chapter of John's Gospel, and suppose the Apostles of Christ sitting on the chair or couch which departed friends last occupied, and addressing to you these words in season; nay, behold Jesus Christ himself standing by your side, and saying to you as he did to mourners when he was on earth, Weep not.'" p. 359.

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"Happy is it for us that God is so patient that he can bear with our inconsistencies, and so gracious that he can forgive them.'

"Melancholy will grow into a disease unless we check its progress. It enfeebles the mind to bear, while it adds to the burden.'

"Exercise in the open air, cheerful but holy conversation with Christian friends, a habit of dwelling on the luminous spots of our life, by which our gratitude to God is enlivened, and our own joy augmented, intercourse with God in reading his blessed word, and in the devotion of the closet, all conduce to the support and strength of the mind under suffering."" p. 360.

"Let us turn to objects which will afford relief to our minds. We know that they who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.' We look forward to that bright morning when God will change our mortal bodies; we anticipate the future grandeur and dignity of our renewed natures, bodies glorified-souls ennobled. The present is but the infancy of our being. We spring from the dust, but we sink that we may rise again. After a long and moonless night we shall awake to enjoy the light of a day that will be without a cloud and without a close. The blessing we anticipate is stupendous. The eye hath seen nothing like it in the treasures of earth, or on the mountains of vision; the ear hath heard nothing like it from the voice of history or the more excursive flights of imagination. The glory of paradise is light inaccessible to mortal eyes; the songs of the blessed are sounds not audible to mortal ears. The intercourse of heaven is in words which cannot be uttered; its joys are joys unspeakable. Our friend has gone to share in them. They are worth dying for. It was a good report,' he can say, that I heard of them in my own country, but the half was not told me; their blessedness far exceeds their fame.'" pp. 365, 366.

Long as are our extracts, we must give a specimen of his powers of conversation.

"It was impossible,' says Dr. Philip, to have been in the company of Dr. Waugh, and not have felt an irresistible and all-subduing charm in his conversation, which instantly attracted you to the

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man. I never met a man of genius who had been introduced to him, even though he had seen him but once, who did not, when his name was mentioned, recur to the interview with a glow of heartfelt delight. An illustration of this, furnished me at the Cape of Good Hope, suggests itself to my mind at the moment. A gentleman of eminent talents and acquirements, in speaking of Dr. Waugh, remarked: I never saw that gentleman but once, and I shall never lose the impression which that interview made upon my mind. On delivering an introductory letter to him, which I had received from a mutual friend, his first question was, Where do ye come frae, fad?' I replied, like a Scotchman, in the same interrogative style, D'ye ken Earlstoun and Leader Water? Ken Earlstoun and Leader Water! he exclaimed,-Ken Earlstoun and Leader Water! Oh! my dear laddie, the last time I was in Scotland, I went alone to the top of Earlstoun hill, and looked along the valley; and there wasna a bend o' the water, nor a hillock, nor a grey stane, nor a cottage, nor a farm-onstead on Leader Water that I didna ken as weel as my ain hearth-stane. And I looked down the side o' Earlstoun hill, and I saw there a bit green sward inclosed wi' a grey stane dyke, and there wasna ane o' a' I had ance ken'd o' the inhabitants of that valley that wasna lying cauld there.'While the above may furnish a slight specimen of Dr. Waugh's conversation, no one not acquainted with him will be able to form an adequate idea of the impression such an address must have made upon the mind of a young stranger, when aided by the force of circumstances, and the eloquence of the speaker's eye.'

"In general society he was distinguished by an urbanity and kindliness which drew all hearts to him: he was the life of every company into which he came ; not by forgetting the decorum due to the sacred office, but simply by the Christian amenity of his manners, by his frank and playful disposition, and by the condescending regard which he paid to the comfort and wishes, and even supposed feelings, of all around him." pp. 398, 399.

"He had a happy talent of interposing a jocular anecdote to terminate a debate that was kindling irritation, or to divert into a strain more agreeable to the company the conversation that was maintained by two disputants, to the disgust or annoyance of others. Thus, in a party some one was objecting to church establishments, that there was nothing in them specially to attract those spiritual influences which were the objects of all Christian institutions. Dr. Waugh was friendly to establishments; but not wishing to engage in the controversy, in the circumstances in which he was then placed, he put an end to it by the following jocular anecdote, which set all in good humour.

Weel, it may be so,' he said. 'I remember when I returned home at the

vacation of Earlstoun school, I frequently went out to the muir to have some talk with my father's shepherd, a douce, talkative, and wise man in his way; and he told me, a wondering boy, a great many things I never had read in my schoolbooks. For instance, about the Tower of Babel, that

Seven mile sank, and seven mile fell,
And seven mile still stands, and evermair

sall.

And about the craws, (there were aye plenty of craws about Gordon muir, and I often wondered what they got to live on), that they aye lay the first stick of their nests on Candlemas-day; and that some of them that big their nests in rocks and cliffs have siccan skill of the wind, that if it is to blaw mainly frae the east in the following spring, they are sure to build their nests on what will be the bieldy side; and mony a ane that notices it can tell frae that the airth the wind will blaw. After expressing my admiring belief of this, I thought, as I had begun Latin, and was therefore a clever chield, that I wadna let the herd run away wi' a' the learning. It was at the time when the alteration of the style had not ceased to cause great grief and displeasure to many of the good old people in Scotland; and I knew the herd was a zealous opponent of the change, so I slily asked him, Do the craws count Candlemas by the new or the auld style? He replied, with great indignation, D'ye think the craws care for your acts of parliament?'” pp. 389-391.

We are glad to find from this last passage that Dr. Waugh, though a Presbyterian in London, and a Seceder in Scotland, was not so from any unfriendliness to church establishments.-So submissive was he practically to the authorities of the religious community with which he was connected, that he would not, much as he wished it, introduce hymns into Divine worship, but confined himself to the version of the Psalms, till the synod was at length induced to supply the want of devotional strains adapted to NewTestament themes, and other subjects not so clearly unfolded in the compositions of David, by adopting the General Assembly's book of Paraphrases and Translations. In our own church the want of a suitable selection of hymns set forth by authority, has been long felt;

and to supply it, hundreds of clergymen have formed collections, we fear somewhat to the infringement of ecclesiastical unity. We say not that the practice is either illegal or, under all the circumstances, unjustifiable; but it is at best a necessary evil. Whatever may be the requisite exceptions, the general rule laid down by Dr. Waugh in the following passage cannot be too closely adhered to in every ecclesiastical community, and most of all in a national establishment.

"Your memorialists do not hold them

selves warranted to make any alteration whatever in the doctrine, the discipline, or the worship of the church, without the knowledge and approbation, explicit or understood, of the reverend Synod; or to introduce even any scriptural songs, without first submitting them to the eye of that venerable court. It is their privi

lege, and they duly prize it, to enjoy a form of church order which is equally distant from spiritual domination and from popular confusion, and which is calculated to promote the unity of the church, and secure at the same time the sacred rights of individual Christians." p. 140.

The name of Dr. Philip, in one of the last extracts, reminds us of the interest which Dr. Waugh took in the great work to which that excellent man has devoted himself, in connexion with his zealous missionary labours, and which has identified his name with the future history and best welfare of Africa. Dr. Waugh, as a man averse to hostile conflicts, seemed inclined, at first, to act as the Moravian missionaries have done, by passive quiescence, rather than endanger, as it might appear, the spiritual services of the mission to the natives, by bearing a bold public testimony against the civil oppressions under which they laboured. But it was only while he was ignorant of the real circumstances of the case that he wavered as to his decision. Let Dr., Philip relate the story.

"When the éclaircissement took place, we were seated in his study. His attention was rivetted from the commencement of my narrative, and he never once interrupted me during the whole of my details; but I could easily perceive from his ex

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