lievingly and devotedly to receive it! Then will the love of this heavenly Friend constrain us. Then shall we "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Him." Then," although in tribulation, we shall have peace;" nay, then may we learn at length, like his apostle, to “ take pleasure in infirmities and distresses for Christ's sake," feeling in life and death the truth and emphasis of his own sacred words, "Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me."

1

།་

7

II.

ON STRAINED INTERPRETATIONS OF THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH OR CONVERSION, WHICH MAY INDUCE A DESPONDENT IMPRESSION THAT WE ARE AND SHALL BE DESTITUTE OF IT.

THAT "the gospel of Christ," when believed, has a signal adaptedness and power to produce the greatest moral effects, I suppose you-amidst whatever painful doubts as to your own vital reception of itclearly to discern: so as to be little moved by the objections of those confused or cavilling opponents who decry faith, as if it were a delusive substitute for morals, instead of being, what it really is, their very root or basis.

It has been no doubt a ground of hesitation and even of repugnance to many, although but a superficial fallacy if examined, that when we affirm Christian conversion to consist in a cordial reception, by faith, of "the glad tidings" revealed, our all is thus made

dependent on one simple act of the mind, or even on a passive state of it. Simplicity, to many, appears weak, and is distasteful. It was hard even for many of the "wise and disputers of this world," to receive the one law of gravitation, in place of the vortices and fluid medium of Descartes. There is much shrewd insight of human nature implied in the query of his attendant to the Syrian captain, which has been often alluded to by divines in this connexion," My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it ?"*

Yet, while the simplicity of any principle or means, and therefore of faith, will often contribute to excite prejudice, the power or tendency of this cannot, to any acute and understanding mind, be as latent, or appear as arbitrary as that of the ablution in Jordan. On the contrary, one would think there should need little or nought of reasoning, or explanatory developement, to apprize rational persons, that to "believe the gospel," though it be a simple thing, and in the world's eye an indifferent or immaterial thing, is yet in fact, and in a very lofty sense, the "great thing." A Naaman may scorn it for its supposed commonness, and a Hume for its supposed unreasonableness; a Julian may tauntingly tell us "I believe, is the sum of your wis

* 2 Kings v. 13.

66

dom;"* and they who "talk of morals," may still ask, why so constantly keep in view this one thing, this "faith," when, in the scripture itself, a variety of precepts and examples are so much urged on our attention and regard. But in treating of your difficulties, I have happily no need to vindicate this great principle from the contempt of some, or the depreciation of others. You are well aware that belief is the main-spring of conduct; that this" one thing," (whatever be its simplicity,) like gravitation, or air, or light," is needful" and all-important; that if it were but a point, it would yet be the " turning point;" that were it but the affair as of a "moment," it would yet also be (so to speak)" the twinkling of an eye"-resembling, spiritually, that very small and slight corporeal change, which lets in upon the mind a new creation. When an oculist couches the first eye for a patient immersed in blindness, he does but one thing—and this a very slight and simple thing; he merely removes a small thin film: but that 66 one thing" was "needful;" and the removal of this little obstacle lets in at once a hemisphere.† He who was in darkness (even though it were not total) is as "a new

* As cited in Gregory Nazianzen, and from him by Bullet, Hist. du Christianisme, p. 117.

+ Or rather, would do so, if it were not requisite to guard (in some cases at least) against the sudden and full influx of sun-light: a circumstance which should not be wholly overlooked in the spi ritual analogy.

creature," "born again," as into a new world; to him there are "new heavens and a new earth;" he walks abroad and admires, and is transported with grateful gladness. And although the restoration of sight should in such a case be very imperfect, which it frequently is, so that the patient sees men only as "trees walking," or the ocean but as a misty plain, and the moon but as a glimmering lamp, still is there a great and happy change, which arose from one exceedingly slight and simple process. A physical conversion of the eye and of the man was in that small process effected. He turns toward the sun, whereas till now he knew not the place of its rising or its zenith; he moves to embrace a silent friend, whom but lately he knew not where to seek, and indeed, while silence lasted, was unconscious of his presence. Nay, the conversion is far more than physical. New feelings are awakened; and a new practice commences. He learns to do the works and fulfil the offices for which light is essential, and thus his life of privation and unprofitableness is converted to a new life of activity and comfort. Those who refuse to expect, or expect with hesitation, that so common and simple a thing as faith in the gospel can amount to moral and spiritual conversion, or to what the scriptures describe as a being born again," might surely with more reason refuse to expect that so trifling and slight a change as the oculist effects on his patient, can involve