FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173  
174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   >>   >|  
ces but slowly, too often he finds reason to fear that he has fallen backward in his course. Now he is cheered with hope, and gladdened by success; now he is disquieted with doubts, and damped by disappointments. Thus while in nominal Christians, Religion is a dull uniform thing, and they have no conception of the desires and disappointments, the hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows, which it is calculated to bring into exercise; in the true Christian all is life and motion, and his great work calls forth alternately the various passions of the soul. Let it not therefore be imagined that his is a state of unenlivened toil and hardship. His very labours are "the labours of love;" if "he has need of patience," it is "the patience of hope;" and he is cheered in his work by the constant assurance of present support, and of final victory. Let it not be forgotten, that this is the very idea given us of happiness by one of the ablest examiners of the human mind; "a constant employment for a desired end, with the consciousness of continual progress." So true is the Scripture declaration, that "Godliness has the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come." Our review of the character of the bulk of nominal Christians has exhibited abundant proofs of their allowed defectiveness in that great constituent of the true Christian character, _the love of God_. Many instances, in proof of this assertion, have been incidentally pointed out, and the charge is in itself so obvious, that it were superfluous to spend much time in endeavouring to establish it. Put the question fairly to the test. Concerning the proper marks and evidences of affection, there can be little dispute. Let the most candid investigator examine the character, and conduct, and language of the persons of whom we have been speaking; and he will be compelled to acknowledge, that so far as love towards the Supreme Being is in question, these marks and evidences are no where to be met with. It is in itself a decisive evidence of a contrary feeling in those nominal Christians, that they find no pleasure in the service and worship of God. Their devotional acts resemble less the free-will offerings of a grateful heart, than that constrained and reluctant homage, which is exacted by some hard master from his oppressed dependents, and paid with cold sullenness, and slavish apprehension. It was the very charge brought by God against his ungrateful peo
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173  
174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Christians

 

nominal

 

character

 
evidences
 
constant
 

patience

 
labours
 

Christian

 

cheered

 

charge


disappointments
 

question

 

obvious

 

language

 

conduct

 
examine
 

assertion

 

persons

 

speaking

 
pointed

investigator

 
incidentally
 

superfluous

 

establish

 

endeavouring

 

affection

 

proper

 
Concerning
 

fairly

 

candid


compelled

 

dispute

 

feeling

 

master

 

exacted

 

homage

 

constrained

 

reluctant

 

oppressed

 

dependents


brought

 

ungrateful

 

apprehension

 

sullenness

 

slavish

 

grateful

 
offerings
 

decisive

 

evidence

 

contrary