The Evangelical System.

35

Most High entirely to dispense, in his intercourse with men, with all appeals to the senses? We do not believe it. The Apostle says that these things were only "a shadow" of the coming dispensation. Of course, there must be as much substance in the antitypé, as in the shadow; but according to the book before us, Christianity itself is only a shadow, a spirit, no tangible shape, all etherealized, airy, beautiful, and sentimental. But where is that principle of human nature, which craves impressions from sensible objects? This religion overlooks it, and therefore it is not a religion suited to human nature. Is it asked, what have you in your system which marks it as superior in this respect to ours? We reply, "The word BECAME FLESH." This is the grand central truth of our religion: God in Christ. It is not God, the Infinite Spirit merely, pervading heaven and earth, whom no man hath seen at any time it is God in Christ, wearing human nature like a soft cloud on the brightness of his Godhead, and putting forth before his awful majesty the sympathies and feelings of a man to attract our feeble and sinful spirits. An unbeliever must certainly acknowledge, this

36

Its Effect upon the Feelings.

to be a wonderful provision of Jehovah for our benefit, if it were only true, and to us it is all true. Christ comes to us as a friend and brother of whom we are not afraid; and still when we commit the keeping of our souls to him, we feel that the fulness of the Godhead is in him; so that God comes to us, not as a "Divine Idea," or a Great spirit, but as the man Christ Jesus. We have been rebuked so often for making a parade (as it is called) of our religious feelings, that we shall not attempt to describe the joy which fills the soul, when the character of God is presented for the first time to a sinner in this light. If, however, the reader is one who is dissatisfied with that faith which provides no Saviour, (except as the word is used metaphorically) we can assure him that God (literally) in Christ, affords a consolation for which he will seek elsewhere in vain. We cannot be dispossessed of our belief, when it is incorporated with our consciousness. We read Greek quotations from Justin Martyr and Plato, and books upon (against) the Logos, intended to shew us the folly of our faith-with an assurance that " we know whom we have believed." This faith meets the wants of our

True Dignity of Human Nature. 37

see

whole nature by addressing us, not as pure, intellectual, spiritual substances, but as men, with feelings and passions which cannot be satisfied, as God has constituted them, without an incarnation of religion, something brought near to the senses, which we can, as it were, 66 with our eyes, and look upon, and our hands handle.* The other system goes back to Aristotle, and makes God like the vast, secret power, which gives motion to a machine; and judging from many of their most accomplished writers, they love Him, not personally, but through his works, and are obliged "to look through nature up to nature's God ;"—whereas by worshipping and loving "God in Christ," we become acquainted with God first of all, and look through Him to His works. When we think of heaven, there is Christ wearing our glorified nature in union with the divine: and how is it possible for man to be brought nearer to God? Let those who talk so emptily of the dignity of human nature come and learn this great truth, if they would see how truly great man is. Then we remember that this exalted Saviour is not only our example, teacher; but, "he

* I John i. 1.

38

Superficial Views of the Saviour.

died for us," and "delivered us from the wrath to come." His blood, His stripes, His cross, His dying agonies mean something with us; they go to our hearts; they fill our souls with joy which is unspeakable and full of glory. When we speak of his sufferings, we are not obliged to slip the word in merely because the Bible uses it, and pass over it hastily; we dwell upon those sufferings, and rest all our hopes there, and are not ashamed of the cross. serve the following allusion to Christ in the book before us.

Ob

“And it is not to the example alone of the Saviour that you are to have reference in your prayers. You are also to regard him as the Mediator through whom they are to be offered. It belongs to the system of our religion, that the thought of its Founder should be associated in the minds of its disciples with all that they are and do; with their sense of obligation, and their sentiments of piety."

It chills the soul, to think that when we come to God in prayer, we are directed to ask for blessings because Christ was the Founder of our religion. This is like feeding on dew. It is indeed a beautiful thought to carry with us in prayer, that Christ was the great Founder

Power of Evangelical Preaching. 39

of our religion,--but if we are not wholly ignorant of human nature, no one is capable of deriving pleasure from it, but those who can also understand and relish Alison on Taste, or Burke on the Sublime and Beautiful; and how large a proportion does such a class bear to the community? This religion is too scholastic and subtile to reclaim a lost world to God. Could you make a poor heathen in his ignorance love God by such means? No wonder that the plan for missionary enterprise among the promoters of this system, has been to make civilization and the arts and sciences the pioneers of their religion; but then it would take years of 66 moral culture" to make a Hottentot sufficiently sentimental to understand it. See the power of the opposite faith. A heathen in India had driven nails into his sandals, and had walked several miles on the sharp points to appease his conscience. Faint with the loss of blood and exhausted with pain, he drew near to a little group who were listening to one of our missionaries beneath a tree. He was preaching from these words' And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.' The heathen leaned upon his staff, in fixed atten