ving religiously, have
from time to time truths they did not know before, or had no need to
consider, brought before them forcibly; truths which involve duties,
which are in fact precepts, and claim obedience. In this and such-like
ways Christ calls us now. There is nothing miraculous or extraordinary
in His dealings with us. He works through our natural faculties and
circumstances of life. Still what happens to us in providence is in
all essential respects what His voice was to those whom He addressed
when on earth: whether He commands by a visible presence, or by a
voice, or by our consciences, it matters not, so that we feel it to be
a command. If it is a command, it may be obeyed or disobeyed; it may
be accepted as Samuel or St. Paul accepted it, or put aside after the
manner of the young man who had great possessions.

And these Divine calls are commonly, from the nature of the case,
sudden now, and as indefinite and obscure in their consequences as in
former times. The accidents and events of life are, as is obvious, one
special way in which the calls I speak of come to us; and they, as we
all know, are in their very nature, and as the word accident implies,
sudden and unexpected. A man is going on as usual; he comes home one
day, and finds a letter, or a message, or a person, whereby a sudden
trial comes on him, which, if met religiously, will be the means of
advancing him to a higher state of religious excellence, which at
present he as little comprehends as the unspeakable words heard by St.
Paul in paradise. By a trial we commonly mean, a something which if
encountered well, will confirm a man in his present way; but I am
speaking of something more than this; of what will not only confirm
him, but raise him into a high state of knowledge and holiness. Many
persons will find it very striking on looking back on their past lives,
to observe what different notions they entertained at different
periods, of what Divine truth was, what was the way of pleasing God,
and what things were allowable or not, what excellence was, and what
happiness. I do not scruple to say, that these differences may be as
great as that which may be supposed to have existed between St. Peter's
state of mind when quietly fishing on the lake, or Elisha's when
driving his oxen, and that new state of mind of each of them when
called to be Apostle or Prophet. Elisha and St. Peter indeed were also
called to a new mode of life; that I a