07.05. Volume 5 cont'd
Quarrels among Christians! Is there not a contradiction here? Do Christians ever quarrel with one another? Does not Christianity, where it is really possessed and felt in its proper influence, imply all that is loving, and kind, and peaceable? Certainly! And if every professor of it really lived under its influence, there would be no such thing as brother trespassing against brother. Christianity is,
in every aspect of it—a religion of love. God is love. Christ is love. The law is love. The gospel is love. Heaven is love.
That one word "love," comprehends everything.
Perfect love not only casts out fear, but malice. In heaven there will be no quarreling, because every one of its inhabitants is perfect in love. The design of Christianity is not only to conduct us to heaven, but to fit us for it—and it does this by imparting to us the spirit of love.
The church of God in general has yet failed to exhibit in any considerable and attractive prominence, that spirit of holy love, by which it was intended by its
Divine Founder to be characterized. The ’wolf and the serpent’ are too often to be seen, where only the ’lamb and the dove’ should be found.
Christianity has not yet left the impression of its exceeding loveliness, as deeply stamped as it should be on the characters of its professors. Of all its graces, none is so faintly and imperfectly traced as Christian love. It has been found more easy, at any rate more common, to subdue the lustful disposition, than the irascible disposition. And yet it is as much the intention of Christ, that His people should be distinguished by meekness and gentleness—as it is by purity, justiceand truthfulness.
Love is pre-eminently the Christian grace. Equity, chastity, and veracity, have been found in the list of heathen virtues—but not charity. These other virtues have sometimes "shed their fragrance on the desert air" of paganism. But where has love been found—except in the garden of the Lord?
Alas, that even there this plant of Paradise,
We pray for the conversion of our children. What fervent petitions are breathed out for them! Well, and how are these prayers followed up? By the serious, regular, and devout maintenance of family prayer? By clear instruction, affectionate counsels, faithful warning, and above all, a consistent exhibition of the beauties of holiness in ourselves? Do our children see in us, and hear from us, all that can recommend true religion, and that is calculated to win them to piety? Or, on the contrary, do they not place our conduct and our prayers in contrast, and think, if they do not say, that
There is often a shocking inconsistency between our prayers, and our actions.
The religion of some people
True religion is life—and it is a vigorous life—not sickly, declining life.
Oh! how numerous are the machinations of Satan to keep God’s people from being happy—when he cannot keep them from being holy! How numerous and how subtle are the methods by which he causes the children of light to walk in darkness!
Many suppose that spiritual joy means something mystic, ecstatic, almost seraphic. They are not contented with the calm, sweet, serene enjoyment of peace.
Nothing spectral in appearance, nor sepulchral in tone, nor ascetic in habit, nor cynical in spirit, should characterize a Christian. He is a child of light, and should live, and act, and speak as such. He should be like one bending his way back to paradise, and bearing the trials of earth, with the recollection of his happy destiny, and the prospect of his future glory! He should have something of the
bliss of heaven—and much of its seriousness too.
By spiritual joy, I mean the joy produced by true religion. It is that holy peace which is the result of divine truth . . .understood, believed, and contemplated. It is not mere exhilaration of the animal spirits, the joyousness produced by good health, worldly prosperity, friendship, or gratification of taste.
It is true, that his spiritual delight may blend itself, and does, with his more common pleasures—sweetening, sanctifying, and elevating them all—but still it is of a different kind. It is the joy of faith, of hope, of love. It is joy in God, in Christ, in holiness, in heaven.
Spiritual joy is ordinarily a calm, unruffled feeling; a composed and serene state of mind. It is a tranquil river which flows through the soul, noiseless in proportion as it is deep. Spiritual joy is a sweet rest, diffusing a feeling of joyous repose over the heart.
been at the crystal stream, and were satisfied with it!
Mere ’religious professors’ do not desire this spiritual joy. They certainly would have some kind of enjoyment; they desire to be gratified. But it is only the joy . . .of friendship, of health, of success in business, of a comfortable home, and
a quiet fire-side that they long for. They do not desire . . .the peace of believing,
the pleasure of communing with God, the delight of holiness and hope, the felicity of a sense of pardoned sin, the gratification arising from the exercises of devotion.