Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

great end in view, defeat my own purpose. Let me beseech you, then, not to wait for any given degree of knowledge before you discharge the primary duty of making an unreserved surrender of yourself to Christ. Clear and full perceptions of divine truth are indeed necessary to evangelical and substantial peace. But you know enough to understand that God demands your whole heart at once. While you withhold this, all else is a fruitless form. Renounce, then, yourself, and all that is of human expectation: and while you do so, be it your prayer-" enlighten thou mine eyes to behold the wonderful things contained in thy Law!"

Very truly,

Yours, &c.

LETTER IX.

The folly of expending time in attempting to reconcile difficult passages The duty of diligence in examining the proper application of the Truth -The question, "what part of the Bible shall I read?"-QuotationsApplication of a Parable-A personal appeal to Christ directed in Scripture-Conclusion.

MY DEAR SIR,

In order to obtain a right understanding of the Word of God, it is by no means necessary that you should engage your mind in endeavouring to elucidate its difficult passages, or to reconcile its apparent contradictions. This were an employment very distinct from your present purposes; and not unlikely to throw hindrances in your way. The mind of that man has a strong bias to skepticism, who insists on having every difficulty satisfactorily explained, before he will apply the sacred truths to himself. There is very little sincerity in his desires for spiritual peace, and no very deep sense of either his guilt or his danger. Thousands are partakers of the Hea

venly blessing, who are far from being versed in these matters, and have very little curiosity about them. The convinced sinner has not time for such an occupation; and if he had, its influence is unsalutary. He whose peace is made with his God, might indeed employ a portion of his leisure in such a pursuit; but even then, the engagement should be secondary to the study of practical and spiritual truths, or the plan of salvation, as unfolded in the Gospel. But until that great end is completed, it is a wide departure from the line of duty to exercise our diligence in any thing not closely connected with matters of the heart. And you know that it is very possible to engross our attention with portions of the Bible which may have no tendency to furnish spiritual light, and which can in no way illustrate the important question before us. True conviction of sin, and evangelical repentance, arise from another quarter. And I should entertain as much hope,-and indeed more,-in the attempt to convince an infidel by the simplest truths of the Gospel, than by the best chain of reasoning, to establish its authenticity: for even the highest success in such an effort may bring him very little nearer to its

saving doctrines. I am equally sure, too, that the most complete success of the Inquirer, in his attempt to reconcile the difficult passages of the Bible-whatever self-complacency or pleasure may follow-will end in little or no moral good upon his mind. In the meanwhile, this diversion of his thoughts from the grand object of inquiry, is attended with a chilling and deleterious influence on his affections: And thus is the Sacred Book rendered an instrument, not of deepening his impressions, but of erasing them altogether.

The following direction may be of some importance: Whenever, in the course of reading a practical or spiritual part of the Bible, you discover any thing which appears to convey an imperfect meaning, or presents no defined idea to your mind, ponder it well. Do not suffer it to escape your recollection, without extracting something from it. Never discard, as too abstruse, what on a little reflection may appear rich in meaning. It is attention to such a rule as this, which comprises a profitable reading of the Word. And a single sentence made the subject of deep thought, and rendered part of the materials of prayer, is worth

U

whole chapters of that more general attention, which we commonly give to other books.

All opposition, or repugnance, which the Inquirer may feel to the language or ideas of Scripture, should constrain him to greater importunity in prayer, while it proves, more fully, his need of divine assistance. Depend upon it, there is nothing in the whole progress of the Awakened Sinner's experience, which is not adapted, if he fairly consider it, to teach him the evils of his unrenewed state, and the duty of his entire dependence on God. Instead, then, of disheartening him in his pursuit, all the difficulties he may find, ought, by demonstrating to him the necessity of a radical change, to conduct him to that acceptable frame of mind, with which he can not approach a throne of grace in vain:-But of this, more hereafter.

The question which you ask—" what part of the Sacred Volume do you recommend to my particular attention?" is one which is very often proposed; and occurs very naturally to the mind of an Inquirer who is eager to reach some defined point, on which he desires to reflect with fixedness of thought. But it is a question not easily answered. Nor am

« FöregåendeFortsätt »