Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

tise towards them the kindness which is enjoined as a duty in the Gospel, it is necessary that our own hearts should be endued with those excellent qualities, which are described by the apostle as constituting charity; this spirit should therefore be first cultivated in ourselves; as, if we wished to give light to others, we should trim our own lamp, and then of course the more brightly it burned, the more those who approached us would be benefited by the light. And what are these excellent gifts? Amongst them, we find a prominent place assigned to humility, selfrenouncement, a yielding of our own rights in favour of others, sympathy, a giving up of that foremost place which self is apt to claim for its own interests. Selfishness is too often the mainspring of human action; nor only so, but it is recognised by many moral systems as the proper principle of conduct: constantly by such reasoners upon social obligations is it enforced that we should be forbearing, generous, kind-what for? for our own advantage! and we are told that our love for our friends, and all other ties, take their rise in our love for ourselves. Not so indeed: truly the Bible teaches us another crced. Christian obligations are absolutely opposed to the spirit of selfishness. Selfdenial is one of the first lessons we are taught in the Christian school, and one of the first steps in the exercise of kindness towards others. In considering our obligations towards our family circle, it ought to be remembered that all duties are positive, not relative; if they are considered as relative, that is, to be regulated by the behaviour of others towards us, the standard is lowered to an unlimited extent. This principle was reprehended by our Lord, when he said, it shall be no longer "an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth." Our duties are founded upon the commands of God delivered to us, and are therefore positive: they do not depend upon the conduct of others towards us, and therefore are not, in that sense, relative. So far as regards family connexions, it has pleased God to drop into the heart of man that sweetening influence, which in some degree counteracts its usual selfishness, the blessed balm of natural affection. The objects of our love overshadow our hearts, and are to us what the palms of Elim were to the wandering Israelites: we sit contented under their pleasant shade, until we almost forget the promised land. But it is not always so: there are disunited families, and unhappy is the case of a child born to such an inheritance: they have lost a portion of one of the best gifts of God to man, which tends to console his mortal life, or can be reckoned among the list of his earthly treasures. Yet it may, perhaps, be redeemed: there is a tendency in the human heart to love those of the same family, not from any particular merit of their own, but from the all-powerful claim of kindred. No person will say that our love to others is measured by their merits; even out of the limits of the family, the judgment far oftener receives the law from the affections than prescribes it to them: our estimate of another's character is often measured, however unjustly, by the measure of our liking. When, therefore, there is a family circle, the root of attachment is implanted in the instinctive feelings of the heart: other friendship is like a beautiful building, the structure of which must be reared by patient endeavours through the course of years; this resembles the kingly oak, which springing from the self-sown seed, and nurtured by the rain and dew from heaven, asks but a little care, a little cultivation, to attain its rich maturity. But it does ask that; and family union, to outlast the years of childhood, requires something more than the instinctive feeling of kindred. "He who has friends," says the book of Proverbs, "must shew himself friendly:" this is true of friends at home, as well as of friends abroad; and when it is considered, what a barrier is raised by the tie of relationship against the selfish and narrowed feelings of the human heart, as

well as against the misfortunes and troubles of mortal life, surely of all the gifts which God has bestowed upon man, it deserves to be cherished and well used. But is it so? is home the first place where forbearance, kindness, and gentleness, are practised? Are our relatives the people in all the world we are most careful not to disoblige or annoy? whose esteem and attachment we are the most sedulous to cultivate? No; so far as natural affection prompts us to do so, it is done; but, further than that, home, which ought to be the first, is but too often the last place where patience, self-denial, and the endeavour to please, are displayed.

The great secret of all social kindness, whether in regard to the near or the distant claim, is sympathy: the putting ourselves into the place of others, feeling as they feel, and being able to understand those hidden emotions which do not display themselves on the surface of the outward conduct. This knowledge, when it is possessed as an intellectual faculty, constitutes one of the greatest charms of genius; but when our heart not only hears the voice which speaks from that of another, but returns an echo to the sound, this is sympathy. "Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you," is the law laid down for us by our Lord; that we may know what we should expect from them, were we circumstanced as they are, we must be able to put ourselves in their place and enter into their feelings. Sympathy will also enable us to make due allowance for that which remains concealed from us: there are various motives and emotions which govern and agitate the human soul, a portion of which must always remain hidden from the most discerning eye and the most sympathising heart, and which, if fully known to us, would often afford ample excuse for many things, which for want of this excuse irritate and provoke us. "There is an evil and a good

In every soul unknown to thee,
A darker and a brighter mood

Than aught thine eye can ever see:
Words, actions, faintly mark the whole
That lies within the human soul."

Nor is it always right or just to judge others by ourselves; there are many differences occasioned by natural temperament and by circumstances, where both ways of thinking may be equally right; and the attempt to make others view trifles in the same light that we do, would be to insist that every body should occupy exactly the same position; or to be like the Emperor Charles V., who spent a great part of the day during his old age in endeavouring to regulate a number of watches, so that they should keep exactly the same time.

Nor is it only towards those immediately connected with us, that we are called upon to practise the offices of kindness and benevolence. There are some dispositions, which expanding for a time in the warmth of natural affection, contract again the moment its influence is withdrawn. But we owe a duty of kindness to every human being who ever comes across us; a duty respecting which we have no choice, and in performing which no merit; but particularly we owe it to our friends-to those with whom, by habit, preference, or circumstances, we are more intimately concerned. It consists in promoting their interests, bearing with their weaknesses, and contributing our individual mite towards rendering the path of life more smooth and pleasant.

It is written, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." We are taught not to be selfish even in our prayers, but to pray for others as well as for ourselves, and to consider their happiness in every possible way in our dealings with them. The priest and the Levite did not wound the Samaritan; they only "passed by on the other side." This "passing by on the other side," this carelessness, this unwillingness to trouble our

selves about what does not immediately concern us, is strongly reprehended in the Bible. "Bear ye one another's burdens," we are told, "and so fulfil the law of Christ." It is our business to care for others, and not to stand on the other side when any opportunity presents itself of benefiting, helping, or consoling them, even if we are not directly called upon for our assistance; and besides being willing to bestow our attentions on them, we should also be careful not to expect too much for ourselves. The Israelites were commanded, if they had forgotten a sheaf in the field not to return and take it (Deut. xxiv.), and to leave the gleanings of their olive-tree and vine for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. It would be well if we were inclined to practise the same forbearance in the common concerns of life; if all were willing to yield a little of even their just rights; to forego the exaction of attention, the exaction of deference, the engrossing feeling which magnifies self to such gigantic proportions in the perspective of life, that the mighty image hides every other object. Leave, then, thy one sheaf, thy few olives, thy remaining cluster of grapes. If a friend has failed in giving that which was justly your due, or has withheld a service to which you were fully entitled, consider it as the sheaf left in the field, and do not return to seek it.

The world is one great family: far, far beyond the narrow circle of home and friends extends the lengthening chain of Christian love, which, having for its type the natural affections bestowed by God upon man, bids all its disciples "love as brethren," considering them all as children by adoption of the same heavenly Father.

"Be

The love of Christ to his disciples is expressed under the name of brotherly love. "Go, tell my brethren "-thus ran the last message he sent to them when on earth. In the epistle to the Hebrews, the glorious relationship is more fully explained: loved," says St. John, "if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." But in the family of grace, as well as in that of nature, there are variances, divisions, strife, and why? because men will judge one another, will condemn one another; although we are told that each to his own master standeth or falleth. It is astonishing that they, who must be so well aware of the temptations which encompass human nature, should not be better able to make allowances for its imperfections, even when the earthern vessel is full of the treasure of grace. One would think that all Christians might gather from their own daily reckoning abundant reasons why they should not be forward to condemn the faults of another: and so they would, were it not for the distinction of the mote and the beam; that we are apt to view the sin of another as a beam, while our own floats by, small as the little mote in the sun-light, and almost as unnoticed.

The chain has yet another link, which takes in all mankind: "add to brotherly kindness, charity." "Love the stranger, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." The stranger, nay even the enemy, are not without their claims upon us. In the circle of social intercourse there is generally a return, although we should not look for it; but to be kind where we cannot possibly receive any advantage; where it is nothing to us whether a person is pleased or displeased, content or discontent, to one whom we never saw before and may never see again, this is to fulfil the commandment of our Lord, to "do good and lend, hoping for nothing again Luke, vii. 34. It is also written, "Be courteous." Politeness is but the imitation, in the forms of society, of that spirit of benevolence which is supposed to dwell in the heart. Like every thing else which is beautiful in art, it is a copy only of that which is beautiful in nature; and true Christian benevolence, where it does exist, as much excels its counterfeit as the natural blossom surpasses in loveliness the artificial flower.

[ocr errors]

To the poor, and to those in any way dependent upon us, we are also under the most binding obligations: but a feeble and imperfect outline cannot even touch but a very small portion of the numerous topics suggested by duties, whose aim and extent are so widely diffused. May it be our constant endeavour to study them in that holy word, which teaches us to practise them without limitation, that we may be the children of our Father which is in heaven; "for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

The Cabinet.

PRAYER.The soul of a Christian is the house of God; "Ye are God's building," saith St. Paul: but the house of God is the house of prayer; and therefore prayer is the work of the soul, whose organs are intended for instruments of the divine praises; and when every stop and pause of those instruments is but the conclusion of a collect, and every breathing is a prayer, then the body becomes a temple, and the soul is the sanctuary and more private recess and place of intercourse. Prayer is the great duty, and the greatest privilege of a Christian; it is his intercourse with God, his sanctuary in troubles, his remedy for sins, his cure of griefs; and those things which God intends for us, we bring to ourselves by the mediation of holy prayers. Prayer is the ascent of the mind to God, and the petitioning for such things as we need for our support and duty. It is an abstract and summary of Christian religion; prayer is an act of religion and divine worship, confessing his power and his mercy; it celebrates his attributes, and confesses his glories, and reveres his person, and implores his aid, and gives thanks for his blessings; it is an act of humility, condescension, and dependence, expressed in the prostration of our charity when we pray for others; it is an act of rebodies, and humiliation of our spirits; it is an act of pentance, when it confesses and begs pardon for our sins, and exercises every grace according to the design of the man, and the matter of the prayer. So that there will be less need to amass arguments to invite us to this duty; every part is an excellence, and every end of it is a blessing; and every design is a motive, and every need is an impulsive to this holy office. Let us but remember how many needs we have, at how cheap a rate we may obtain their remedies, and yet how honourable the employment is to go to God, and to fetch our supplies with easiness and joy; and then, without further preface, we may address ourselves to the understanding of that duty, by which we imitate the employment of angels and beatified spirits, by which we ascend to God in spirit, while we remain on earth, and God descends on earth while he yet resides in heaven, sitting there in the throne of his kingdom,— Bp. Taylor's Life of Christ.

IMPORTANCE OF RELIGION TO SOCIETY.-"Thou shalt teach these words which I command thee this day diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up," was a command of God, founded, like all his eternal commands, upon eternal principles; and this command formed also part of the daily prayer of the Jew. The Lord has here enlisted the strongest feelings of human nature in his own service, and not only to his own glory, but to the boundless aggregate of national improvement, and the unspeakable profit and comfort of the human heart. If there be one curse more bitter than another to man, it is to be the offspring of an irreligious home-of a home where the voice of praise and prayer ascends not to God, and where the ties of human affection are not purified and elevated by the refining influence of religious feeling-of a home to which, if the cares or the sorrows of life shall bring

religion to the heart in after-days, that heart cannot turn without bitterness of feeling, without anguish and vexation of spirit. If there be a curse to any country, where the truths of religion are known, the deepest and bitterest curse which can be inflicted on it is, a multitude of homes like that which I have supposed! Such homes send forth their sons unchecked in evil thoughts, unhallowed in their habits, and untaught in love to God -the name and cross of Jesus Christ stamped perhaps on their forehead, but not written in their hearts-and they send them forth to prey upon the land, and to become its curse and its destruction. But, on the other hand, there is a blessing to the religious home which no tongue can speak, no language can describe. The home, where in early years the heart is trained to a love of God, and to take pleasure in his worship and service, interweaves with the existence of man's holy affections which die not with the circumstances that gave them birth, which last long, even though they may for a season be forgotten and neglected, and which exercise at least some check upon the evil of the human heart, and often, nay commonly, recall it to hear again the voice of God, and to return to the paths of holiness and peace. How great, how unspeakable is the happiness of a land where homes like this are common, and such the Almighty had commanded every father of a family to make his house, in the passage of the Law which has just been read.-Rev. Henry John Rose's Hulsean Lectures for 1833.

JUSTIFICATION.-Justification is the office of God only, and is not a thing which we render unto him, but which we receive of him; not which we give to him, but which we take of him, by his free mercy, and by the only merits of his most dearly beloved Son, our only Redeemer, Saviour, and Justifier, Jesus Christ: so that the true understanding of this doctrine,—we be justified freely by faith without works, or that we be justified by faith in Christ only,-is not, that this, our own act to believe in Christ, or this our faith in Christ, which is within us, doth justify us, and deserve our justification unto us, (for that were to count ourselves to be justified by some act or virtue that is within ourselves), but the true understanding and meaning thereof is, that, although we hear God's word, and believe it, although we have faith, hope, charity, repentance, dread and fear of God, within us, and do never so many good works thereunto, yet we must renounce the merit of all our said virtues of faith, hope, charity, and all our other virtues and good deeds, which we either have done, shall do, or can do, as things that be far too weak, and insufficient, and imperfect, to deserve remission of our sins and our justification: and therefore we must trust only in God's mercy, and that sacrifice which our High-priest and Saviour, Christ Jesus, the Son of God, once offered for us upon the cross, to obtain thereby God's grace and remission, as well of our original sin in baptism, as of all actual sin committed by us after our baptism, if we truly repent and turn unfeignedly to him again. So that as St. John Baptist, although he were never so virtuous and godly a man, yet, in this matter of forgiving of sin, he did put the people from him, and appointed them unto Christ, saying thus unto them, "Behold, yonder is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world," (John i.), even so, as great and as godly a virtue as the lively faith is, yet it putteth us from itself, and remitteth or appointeth us unto Christ, for to have only by him remission of our sins, or justification. So that our faith in Christ, as it were, saith unto us thus: It is not I that take away your sins, but it is Christ only; and to him only I send you for that purpose, forsaking therein all your good virtues, words, thoughts, and works, and only putting your trust in Christ.-The Homily of Salvation.

[blocks in formation]

If there shall be no dreary space
Between thy present self and past,
No dreary miserable place

With spectral shapes aghast;

But the full graces of thy prime
Shall in their weak beginnings be
Lost in an unremember'd time
Of holy infancy.

This blessing is the first and best;

Yet has not prayer been made in vain For them, though not so amply blest, The lost and found again.

And shouldest thou, alas, forbear

To choose the better, nobler lot, Yet may we not esteem our prayer Unheard or heeded not;

If, after many a wandering,

And many a devious pathway trod ; If, having known that bitter thing, To leave the Lord thy God;

It yet shall be, that thou at last,
Although thy noon be lost, return
To bind life's eve in union fast

To this its blessed morn.

Miscellaneous.

SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE JEWS.-A very ancient tradition among the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, attested also by grave and celebrated Spanish historians, informs us that the Jews of the Peninsula have been established in those countries from the most ancient time, even from the time of the destruction of the first temple of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar: they say that this conqueror, having led captive the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to Babylon, and dispersed them among all his kingdoms, caused a part of the family of David to be transported in Phoenician vessels to Spain, where they founded cities that bear to this day Hebrew names, and thus attest their Hebrew origin; such as Toledo, Hebrew, generation; Maqueda, which is also mentioned in Joshua, &c. See Marianais' History of Spain, first book; Salome Ben Virga, Shebet Jehoodah, Orobio de Castro, Comte de Limbourg, and letters from some Portuguese Jews to Voltaire. However this may be, the great antiquity of the Jewish nation in Spain is an incontestable fact. They have flourished there in all times and in all situations, not only in wealth, as in other countries, but as learned men, physicians, and statesmen. The kings and clergy of Spain have in all times (long before the introduction of the Inquisition) laboured for the conversion of the Jews. And in all times since the Visigoths reigned in Spain, there have been frequent conversions among them, and sometimes whole synagogues of Jews have turned to the Christian faith. Among these converts there were many whose sincerity could not be doubted, who have given indubitable proofs of it, and who also have distinguished themselves by writing in defence of Christianity against the Jews, Muhammedans, and heretics. Amongst these we may mention the cele brated Paulus, of Santa Maria, bishop of Carthagena, who was baptised in 1390, after having been a distinguished rabbi. Converted Jews were shewn much respect, and enjoyed great privileges in these countries. According to an ancient law of the Goths, they were incorporated among the nobility from the moment they embraced the Catholic faith. Those Catholics did not think, as many Protestant Gentiles foolishly

do now, that one ought to keep down a converted Jew, and not, as they express themselves, spoil him. The fact is, that though Gentile Christians are often glad when they can be the means of bringing over a Jew to their creed, and even sincerely rejoice that a Jew is converted, still a kind of unholy envy and jealousy is brooding in their hearts; and it is with them, as the Jews say that it was with Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, who, though glad that the Lord had made Moses an instrument for the salvation of the Jewish nation, was in some measure mortified at it; and therefore they translate the 9th verse of the 18th chapter of Exodus, "And Jethro was half glad, half mortified, at all the goodness which the Lord had shewn to Israel." These indulgences, however, were the occasion of a multitude of false conversions, which in nowise could be avoided, and kindness always remains kindness, though it may be abused. From thence also arose the perpetual disputes between the old and new Christians, and from thence also sprung up the Inquisition in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Jews were banished from Spain and Portugal in the years 1492 to 1560. The greater part of them spread themselves in Africa and the East. The more distinguished settled in France, Denmark, Hamburgh, and afterwards in England, during the protectorship of Cromwell. But to Holland they came in 1596; and in the year 1646, the Jews from Germany, called Ashkenasim, joined them. In the year 1800, the government offered to the Jews of Amsterdam the same privileges as the Christians enjoy. One party said they would not accept them, for Palestine was their country, and to that they must return; others were willing to accept the privileges granted to them, and therefore a schism took place. The party who accepted the privileges nominated a rabbi, independent from the rest. His name was Isaac Ger, who was the son of a Swedish nobleman, a Gentile, bred up a nominal Christian, and converted to the Jewish religion at Amsterdam, when seven years of age; he made wonderful progress in the Talmud, and became one of the most learned rabbis of his time. He died in the year 1807; his children were living at Amsterdam at the time we were there. The Portugese or Spanish Jews are very lax in their religion; but though they do not express the same hatred towards Christ that the bigoted German Jews do, they feel the same aversion to his precious name, and sneer as much at his Gospel as the Ashkenasim.— Wolff's Journal.

QUIETNESS. I am weary with the noise and opposition of this place; and indeed God and nature did not intend me for contention, but for study and quietness. I shall never be able to finish what I have begun, unless I be removed to some quiet parsonage, where I may see God's blessings spring out of my mother earth, and eat my own bread in peace; where I may without disturbance meditate my approaching mortality, and that great account which all flesh must give up at the last day to the God of all spirits.Hooker to Whitgift.

• We cannot let these sentences pass without saying that Dr. Wolff should have been the last man to write them. His last work is filled with passages which his best friends must wish expunged.-ED.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have just received two articles for insertion on the New Year. Can we not prevail on our correspondents to remember that papers must be forwarded at least two months beforehand, or they will be too late?

London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country.

PRINTED BY

ROBSON, LEVET, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

[merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

of the poet's fancy with the historic records. of inspired truth. All that the Bible tells us in plain terms respecting the original apostacy and expulsion of the evil angels is, that " they

ST. JOHN (Rev. xii. 7-12) gives an account kept not their first estate, but left their own

of a war carried on in heaven between Michael and his angels on the one side, and the dragon, together with his angels,

on the other.

Various opinions have been entertained respecting the period and event to which the description properly applies. Some have regarded it as a representation made to the inspired apostle of the expulsion of Satan and his adherents from heaven on their original apostacy. Our great poet Milton has made much use of this passage, and has enlarged upon it in this particular view of it. In all the glowing colours of poetic fancy, he has described what he imagines may have been the circumstances attending the first revolt of the evil angels from their allegiance to God. He speaks of

"The infernal serpent... whose pride

Had cast him out of heaven, with all his host

Of rebel angels: by whose aid aspiring

To set himself in glory above his peers,

He trusted to have equall'd the Most High,

If he oppos'd; and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God
Rais'd impious war in heaven, and battle proud
With vain attempt."t

He tells us that

"Millions of fierce encountering angels fought On either side."

And he mentions

"The discord which befell, and war in heaven
Among the angelic powers, and the deep fall
Of those too high aspiring, who rebell'd
With Satan."t

habitation" (Jude, 6); that " God spared not the angels which sinned, but cast them down darkness, to be reserved unto judgment" to hell, and delivered them into chains of (2 Pet. ii. 4). In these plain statements there is nothing said of Satan's ever having aspired to equal the Most High, or of his ever having raised war in heaven; and it may, therefore, be fairly doubted whether the figurative representation made in the assertion of St. John can be justly considered as describing, in any degree, the historical circumstances of Satan's original apostacy.

Besides, it does not seem to fall in with the plan and design of this prophetic book to give such a description of an event supposed to have occurred long before,-the object of it being rather to detail, in a series of visions and emblematic representations, the future. events, which would affect the state and condition of the Christian Church from the period when the revelations were disclosed unto John, even unto the end of the world. It is, therefore, most consistent with the scope of this wonderful book to consider the contest mentioned between Michael and the dragon as having reference to some event in the history of the Church, which would display in a remarkable manner the opposition of Satan against the kingdom of Christ,

We must not, however, confound the fictions the fruitlessness as well as the fury of his

Dean Woodhouse, &c.

+ Book i. line 34, &c. Book vi. near the end.

VOL. VIII. NO. CCV.

malice, and the signal defeat of his projects and attempts.

[London: Robson, Levey, and Franklyn, 46 St. Martin's Lane.]

E

« FöregåendeFortsätt »