Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

a friend in any sphere of influence, BECAUSE he is his son or his friend; when a single or a strong eye would shew him, that the interests of Religion and Truth required him to prefer some other person. The mind must be raised above the petty interests and affairs of life, and pursue supremely the glory of God and the Church.

SOME minds are so diseased, that they can see an affair only in that light, in which passion or predilection first presented it, or as it appears on the surface. The essence, the truth of the thing, which must give character to the whole, and on which all just decision must depend, may lie beneath the surface, and may be a nice affair. But such minds cannot enter into it. It is as though I should try to convince such personsallowing me that the pineal gland is the seat of the soul-that however fair and perfect the form, the man wanted the essence of his being, in wanting that apparently insignificant part of his body. Such men would say, "Here is a striking and perfect form-all parts are harmonious-life animates the frame-the machine plays admirablywhat has this little, insignificant member to do with it?" And yet this is the essential and characterizing part of the man.

EVERY man has a peculiar turn of mind, which gives a colouring and tinge to his thoughts. I have particularly detected this in myself with respect to public affairs. I have such an immediate view of God acting in them, that all the great men, who make such a noise and bustle on 'the scene, seem to me like so many mere puppets. God is moving them all, to effect His own designs. They cannot advance a step, whither He does not lead; nor stand a moment, where He does not place them. Now this is a view of things, which it is my privilege to take as a Christian. But the evil lies here. I dwell so much on the view of the matter, to which the turn of my mind leads me, that I forget sometimes the natural tendencies of things. God uses all things, but not so as to destroy their natural tendencies. They are good or evil, according to their own nature; not according to the use which He makes of them.

THE mind has a constant tendency to conform itself to the sentiments and cast of thinking with which it is chiefly conversant, either among books or men. If the influence remain undetected, it grows soon into an inveterate habit of obliquity. Even if it be detected, it is the most difficult thing in the world to bring back the mind to the

standard, especially if there be anything in its constitution which assimilates itself to the error. I was once much in the habit of reading the mystical writers: a book of Dr. Owen's clearly convinced me that they erred: yet I found my mind ever inclining toward them, and winding round like the biassed bowl. I saw clearly the absurdity of the notions in their view of them, and yet I was ever talking of " self-annihilation" &c.; and am not even now rid of the thing.

[blocks in formation]

ON THE

CHARACTER OF ST. PAUL.

I DELIGHT to contemplate St. Paul as an appointed pattern. Men might have questioned the propriety of urging on them the example of Christ: they might have said that we are necessarily in dissimilar circumstances. But St. Paul stands up in like case with ourselves-a model of ministerial virtues.

We consider him, perhaps, in point of character, more the immediate subject of extraordinary inspiration, than he was in reality. And this mistake affects our view of him in two different ways.

We suppose, at one time, that his virtues were so much the effect of extraordinary communications, that he is no proper model for us; whereas he was no farther fitted to his circumstances than every Christian has warrant to expect to be, so far as his circumstances are similar.

At another time, perhaps, though we acknowledge and revere his distinguished character, yet our view of his virtues is exalted beyond due measure. We should remember, that, as he was

fitted for his circumstances; so he was, in a great degree, made by them. Many men are, doubtless, executing their appointed task in retirement and silence, who would unfold a character beyond all expectation, if Providence were to lead them into a scene where the world rose up in arms, and they were sent forth into it under a clear conviction of an especial mission. The history of the Church seems to shew us that the effects of grace, ordinary or extraordinary, have been the same in all ages.

IN speaking of St. Paul, it has been usual to magnify his learning, among the many other great qualities which he possessed. That point seems never to have been satisfactorily made out. He was an educated Pharisee; but, farther than this, I think we cannot go. His quotations from the Greek Poets are not evidences of even a schoolboy's learning in our day: for we forget, when we talk of them, that he was a Roman quoting Greek. Nor do I see anything more in his famous speech in the Areopagus, so often produced as evidence on this subject, than the line of argument to which a strong and energetic mind would lead him. If we talk of his talents, indeed, he rises almost beyond admiration; but they were talents of a certain order; and the very display which we have of them seems a strong corroborative proof, that

« FöregåendeFortsätt »