e season we shall reap, if we faint not.
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,
especially to those who are of the household of faith." He would have
spoken of the love of God, and of the death of Christ, and of all the
great moving facts and doctrines of the Gospel; but, like the sacred
writers, he would have turned them all to practical account. His aim in
everything would have been to bring men into subjection to God's will,
and into full conformity with the teachings and character of Christ.

My eldest brother was a minister, and this was the character of his
preaching. His favorite books were Baxter's works and the Bible. His
favorite minister was William Dawson, one of the most practical,
earnest, and common-sense preachers that ever occupied a pulpit. Like
his father, he kept scrupulously to the simple teachings of the
Scriptures, and he was once charged with unsoundness in the faith,
because he would not be wise above what was revealed, nor preach more
than the Gospel committed to him by Christ.

It was the same with myself. I looked on Christianity, from the first,
as a means of enlightening and regenerating mankind, and changing them
into the likeness of Christ and of God. In other words, I regarded it as
a grand instrument appointed by God, for making bad men into good men,
and good men always better, thus fitting them for all the duties of
life, and all the blessedness they were created to enjoy. And I
considered that the great business of a Christian minister was to use it
for those great ends. And I think so still.

The Bible is the most practical book under heaven, and I cannot conceive
how any one can read it carefully, with a mind unbiased by prejudice or
evil feeling, without perceiving that its great object is to bring men
to fear and love God, and to make them perfect in every good work to do
His will. How any one can study Christianity without perceiving that its
design is to bring men into harmony with God, both in heart and action,
and to make them steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord, is a mystery to me. Antinomianism is Antichrist. The preaching
which tends to lessen men's sense of duty, or to reconcile people to a
selfish, idle, or useless life, is contrary both to Christianity and
common sense. And all interpretations of Scripture which favor the
doctrine that men have nothing to do but to believe and trust in Christ,
are madness or impiety.