Page images
PDF
EPUB

daughters, and much care to prepare them for usefulness, and I hate to throw them away."

"The last time that I saw Mr. Haynes," says a respected correspondent, "was at the General Convention at Charlotte, in the fall of 1825; when, taking my hand, he said, "They say you are making a book-be you?' 'Trying to do a little something at it,' I replied. 'Well,' said he, 'you have just as good a right as those that know how.""

Mr. Haynes being invited to solemnize a marriage in a neighbouring town, and having completed the ceremony, the young and rather ignorant bridegroom said to him, "What, sir, is your usual compensation?" Mr. Haynes humorously replied, "This depends entirely upon the parties; if they are promising and respectable, we of course receive a liberal reward; but if they are what we call poor things, but little is expected." A munificent marriage fee was instantly presented.

As Mr. Haynes was travelling in the State of Vermont, he fell in company with a person of infidel principles. He soon discovered himself to be an unprincipled scoffer at religion. In the course of conversation he demanded of Mr. Haynes what evidence he had for believing the Bible. "Why, sir," answered Mr. Haynes, "the Bible, which was written more than a thousand years ago, informs me that I should meet just such a man as yourself.”—“But how can you show that?" returned the caviller. "Why, sir, the Bible says, 2d Pet. iii., 3, 'In the last days scoffers shall come, walking after their own lusts.""

CHAPTER IX.

INGENIOUS REMARKS ON PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE.

Matt. xxiii., 35.-"That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar."

Some think that Christ refers to that Zacharias mentioned 2 Chron. xxiv., 20; others to a Zecharias, son of Baruch, who, Josephus says, was killed in the temple a little before the destruction of Jerusalem.

The point presented in this text seems to be thisthat every impenitent sinner is, in a sense, concerned in, or accessory to, all the sin that ever was committed, or ever will be, to all eternity.

JOHN iii., 8.-"The wind bloweth where it listeth," &c.

The wind is a strange, mysterious thing. Why it blows from one quarter, and then from another-sometimes powerfully, and then gently, or why it blows at all, cannot be accounted for, or what becomes of it. So it is as to the manner of the Spirit's operation.

Hos. xi., 9. "Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness."

However wicked men may waste and embezzle Divine property, God will recover the whole at their hands, and not, finally, lose a single farthing by them. Great prosperity in this life as to outward things, and eternal misery in the world to come, are consistent

with each other. We may all examine how we have used Divine property.

LEV. xx., 5.-" Then will I set my face against that man, and against his family," &c.

There is a sort of impropriety for people to complain of God for not saving their children, while they use no means for their salvation, but to the contrary.

By our opposing God's taking away our children by death, we may actually oppose their eternal salvation, and encourage their going to hell.

2 Cor. xii., 15.-... "Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved."

The more Christians express their love to sinners, it is commonly the case, the more they are hated by them.

1 SAM. viii., 19.-... "And they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us."

Let God do or say what he will, by moral suasion, to deter men from sinful ways, yet they will go on to destruction.

MATT. xxvi., 15.-" And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver" [$14 79].

J

Why does Christ go so cheap? Men have a great love to worldly objects-esteem them high, like Judas. They have no relish for the good Christ promisesfrom the characters men sustain-blind-mad-beside themselves easily cheated.

ROM. xiv., 8.-"For whether we live, we live unto the Lord," &c.

Life, in the present state, is one of the most important things of which we can conceive. Should we

compare living on earth with existing in eternity, how much does it exceed it? One hour of our present life is of more consequence to fit for future scenes than all eternity.

PROV. ix., 18.-" But he knoweth not that the dead are there-and that her guests are in the depths of hell."

The wicked on earth make up a part of the family in hell.

Matt. xxvii., 61.—“And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre."

Whence is it that Jesus Christ had so few to attend his funeral?

JOB XX., 14.-" Yet his meat in his bowels is turned —it is the gall of asps within him.”

Though sinners delight in sin, it will prove death in the end, and that very soon. "The bite of an asp," says Burder, "kills in four hours."

ROм. xvi., 3.—"Greet Priscilla and Aquila," &c. Priscilla is first named, because she was more active than her husband in the cause of religion.

JOHN Xviii., 38.-"Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?"

Some people inquire for the truth when they do not wish or wait for an answer. Like Pilate,

[blocks in formation]

EXOD. X., 9.-"And Moses said, We will

go with

our young and with our old," &c.

It is going to heaven will bring us there. Observe this. We may use great boldness in the cause of God: like Moses, We will go.

JOHN XX., 13.-"Woman, why weepest thou?" If saints on earth were wise as saints in heaven, they would not weep as Mary did.

COL. iii., 1.-"Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."

The thought of Christ's being in heaven should raise our affections there.

JER. ix., 5." And weary themselves to commit iniquity."

Sinners weary and tire out themselves in the service of Satan.

1 SAM. xiv., 6.- "There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few."

God can save by small means.

GEN. XIX., 22.-"Haste thee-escape thither-for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither."

Sometimes calls away the righteous to bring destruction on the wicked.

GEN. iii., 18.-"Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee."

We see the pernicious nature of sin-one sin spoiled six days labour of God.

M

« PreviousContinue »