re. He made all the passages about
bringing forth fruits meet for repentance,--hearing Christ's words and
doing them,--denying ourselves and taking up our cross,--using our
talents, working in His cause, &c., of no effect. He said, "Come just as
you are. If you tarry till you are better, you will never come at all;"
which seems to me, neither Scripture nor common sense. To come to
Christ, in the proper sense of the words, is to become better;--it is to
cease to live to ourselves and sin, and to live to God. Hence Christ, in
connection with Mr. Batty's text says, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of Me, for I am meek, and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto
your souls." The meaning of this is, give up the service of self and
sin, and serve me. Take me for your pattern, and be as I am, and live as
I live. But he never noticed the latter part of the passage.

--What a blessed thing it is to have so many good books! They are a
world of comfort to me, as well as a means of ever-increasing spiritual
good. And they are evermore startling and delighting me with striking
oracles of Christian truth. Here is one from Baxter. "Every truth of God
is appointed to be His instrument, to do some holy work upon your
heart! _Charity_ is the end of _truth_." Here is another: "The Gospel is
a seal, on which is engraven the portrait, the likeness of Christ. Our
hearts are the wax, on which the seal should be impressed, and to which
the likeness should be transferred. The duty of ministers and of all
religious teachers is to apply the seal to men's hearts, that all may be
brought to bear the image, the likeness of Christ."

--I always placed the moral element of religion above the doctrinal;
charity above faith; good living above any kind of opinions.

--This afternoon Mr. Burrows preached on Mary's choice, but he left the
matter in a mist. He talked about sitting at Christ's feet, but did not
say what it meant. We cannot do that literally now; but we can do what
amounts to the same thing. We can _read_ Christ's words in the
_Gospels_, as Mary _heard_ them from His _lips_; and we can do as He
bids us, and look to Him for all we need. And this, in truth, is the
"one thing needful." But he did not put the matter in this light. He
probably did not see it in this light. He would have been afraid perhaps
to receive or to give so simple an explanation of the matter.

I had a talk with Mr. Woodhouse last night, about man's natural state.