Nor the bright wreath of riches twine, No; twine for me the Christian's crown, REDEMPTION. BE humble, ye high hills; bow your lofty tops, ye towering cedars; hide your heads, ye dwellings of the proud; peace, ye winds; be still ye waves; silence, ye roaring tempests, and rocking whirlwinds! Doth not awful silence well become you, while we speak of the wonderful agony of our God? Silent and abashed ye were when he suffered; now attend, while a sinner hears the glad tidings, while the voice of great joy breaks into his heart and into the house of mourning. Behold that cross! lift up thine eyes and wonder-son of man, behold and adore. Was ever goodness like the goodness of thy God? was ever mercy like his mercy-was ever sorrow like his sorrow? Listen and be silent; abominate thyself and cleave to thy Redeemer. Lo, yonder he is stretched!-lo, yonder he bleeds!-lo, yonder he hangs on the accursed tree!-the Son of God! the meek, the mild, the blessed Jesus! a horrid spectacle, between earth and heaven! Even the holy angels hide their heads and weep, What then shall man! for whom the Son of the Almighty is thus raised aloft on the tree of infamy! thus stretched out! thus bleeding! thus expiring in tortures inconceivable, and far above the reach of human thought? His stony heart should melt-his melting heart should weep great drops of blood. Behold, no diadem of gold adorns his Saviour's head; no costly jewels sparkle round his brows! his crown is only a sharp crown of thorns-his jewels, crimson rubies of his own most precious blood. Oh canst thou contemplate, and be cold? canst thou survey such sufferings and not pity? art thou a man? art thou not a sinner? canst thou reflect-oh, canst thou remember, all, all, is for thee-and still be ungrateful? See! through the crashing sinews of thy benevolent Redeemer's tender hands, the hardy executioner hath driven the piercing, sharp-pointed nails! The blood springs forth at each barbarous blow, and the triumphant sufferer, amid such agony, complaineth not! child of affliction, wilt thou ever dare to complain! Blessing and health fell from those hands-they dropped comfort as the honeycomb. Why, O man, art thou an enemy to thyself? Why hast thou prevented the hours of thy own felicity? why are those hands transfixed and confined? why nailed to yon ignominious tree, the feet, which, unwearied, went about doing good? See how the Sovereign Healer of mankind-see how the love of God and man hangs on those four great wounds! his whole body's weight horribly supported by the acute agony of those afflicting lacerations! How can I, sinful dust and ashes, how can I, O my Lord, dare to contemplate thy wounds and sorrows, without the lowest prostration of soul and body? how can I behold thee thus suffering, and my heart not burst at the sight, and rivers of tears not gush from my eyes? (Oh! I will love thee-I will adore thee above all things! yea, thy love shall be the constant meditation of my soul. Hear, my soul! for it is the last voice of thy expiring Redeemer. Hark, for all nature is silent! and make a solemn pause. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani! Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani! what words can utter that distress, or who can express thy agonies? My God! oh! wast thou forsaken of thy Father? why, ah why, unsearchable depth of anguish ? "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold and see, if ever sorrow was like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger!" Thus long the prophetic voice-here was the full completion; here sin and death were triumphant, and here were. poured forth the last struggles of mine, and every condemned sinner's soul. My God, it is finished: it is finished! O my Saviour, why that last piercing groan? I see thy head falling upon thy sacred bosom. I see and tremble to behold the wondrous mystic stream flowing from thy precious side! I hear thy expiring groan: universal nature heareth it and standeth aghast; the affrighted sun veils in thick darkness his extinguished splendor; the earth shaketh exceedingly; the mountains tremble with fear and astonishment: the rocks are rent, the graves are opened, the dead arise, and the day is turned into night, for the light of the world ceaseth. Sinner! it was thy God who thus suffered in thy nature, that thou mightest partake of his, and not die the death eternal. Sinner! his name is Jesus. For thee he took that name, that he might save thee from thy sins, that he might redeem thee from the wrath of the Father, and become thy propitiation and ransom. (Adore and wonder; be humble and fear; so shall thy bosom feel the divine ray, and thy heart burn with new comforts.) Sinner! his name from all eternity is Jehovah; for thee he submitted to be called Saviour. Oh rejoice, that Jehovah is thy strength and support: sing with the voice of sweetest melody, "Jehovah is my Jesus and Redeemer." Meditate hereon, and be meek; look on that cross, and learn, if thou canst fathom its depth, whence such love to thee.) Let the name of Jesus obtain a place and dwell in thy heart. Thy fears will then vanish, as the early dew before the sun; thou shalt find peace. INDIVIDUAL CIVILISATION. BY REV. B. F. TEFFT. THE great aw of the human mind is expansion. Expansion, growth, advancement, is the characteristic fact of the human race. Both philosophy and history establish the truth of these assertions. Reason teaches us to anticipate, and experience confirms the conviction, that man is destined to unlimited and endless improvement; that, as an individual, he is incessantly, perhaps insensibly, progressing; and that, as a race, he is gradually approaching that ultimate goal of perfection-for there is a sense in which this term is applicable to the mass-which marks the anterior boundary of that ideal life, to which humanity looks forward with buoyant hope, and which sheds its light upon the dull or painful realities of each passing hour. We have reason to trust that the doctrine of individual perfectibility commends itself to the most judicious and intelligent readers. We certainly have a personal interest in it. How gloomy is the future, if man is not advancing! How bright, how glorious, if the world is continually and for ever progressing! In the estimation of many of the strongest minds of the age, the sentiment is stamped with the impression of reason; nor can it be denied, that it is the most constant topic of prophetic inspiration. Indeed, it is the key, the nucleus, the radiating point, of Scripture. It is the burthen of the old dispensation, and the glory of the new. It is by revelation, in fact, that we have acquired a knowledge of this principle; and, therefore, it is worthy of the utmost confidence. It is a doctrine of great practical infiuence. It possesses and should exercise, unlimited power on the employment of our mental and physical faculties. It is the object of our hopes, the image of our destiny. Faith should lend us the magic of its sway, and push us onward to the prize. Let this destiny, reader, stand fresh before you in every situation of life. It should visit you in the night season. It should follow you into the secular occupations of the world. It should meet you in your retirements, and form the subject of your profoundest and holiest meditations. It is the inviting angel that precedes you in your course; that incites you to the best and noblest of your undertakings; that will continually point you to the object of your purest and highest aspirations. How satisfactory, how captivating is the fact, that, amidst all the changes and turmoil of the world, society has never suffered a retrogression! Onward, upward, onward! In the darkest periods, when truth and virtue did appear to sleep, when science had dropped its telescope and philosophy her torch, when the world would seem to have been standing still, the inscrutable wisdom of divine Providence was preparing new agents, and evolving more powerful principles, to co-operate in the work of individual and social improvement. It would appear as if the world, like the year, has its seasons; and that the seed disseminated in spring, must first die, before it can vegetate and produce the rich harvests of autumn. History has marked out such cycles; and we are disheartened by the necessary and successive periods of darkness, because the revolution is so vast, or our own position so humble, that we cannot look beyond the shade that surrounds us, and behold the distant and gradual approaches of another day. The great agents in the work of individual civilisation are science, philosophy and religion; and the constant and wonderful growth of these agents is a clear indication of the intellectual and moral progress of the world. The function of science, properly defined, is to acquaint us with the distinct objects and existences, material and immaterial, by which we are surrounded. Its theatre is the universe. Its objects are innumerable, if not infinite. Mind and matter, substance and quality, things visible and invisible, temporal and eternal, are embraced within the compass of its mighty attempts. Philosophy, on the other hand, transcends the region of isolated facts and abstract existences, and essays to demonstrate the multiplied relations, connections and dependencies which this infinite variety of objects mutually sustains. It places man in the centre of the natural world, and exhibits the manner in which all beings bear a necessary relation to him. To all purposes of simple philosophy, he is regarded as the chief existence. His mind is the focus to which all the properties of spirit and matter, and all the truths of reason and revelation, converge. It is the radiating centre, from which their blended light is subsequently diffused. It is from the human mind that all truths receive their peculiar character and complexions. It is the relations of man to all other existences, material, animal and spiritual, from which are deduced those unalterable and eternal principles, which constitute the ground-work of all philosophy, natural, political and moral. Religion covers a broader field than is occupied by either of the other agents in civilisation. It is both science and philosophy. It teaches us facts inaccessible to reason, whose magnitude and importance are quite inconceivable,-facts, the influence of which extends "from everlasting to everlasting." It discovers the origin, the history, and the conclusion of all things. It rolls up the curtain of individual and social life, and displays the infinite drama of existence in all the variety of its acts and scenes, with all the perfection of coincident characters and parts, attended by the powerful influence which can be exerted by the respective merits of truth and nature, reason and revelation, combined. It institutes relations the most sublime in their nature, and draws comparisons the most overwhelming in their tendency. The sanction it extends to duty is as broad as eternity. The motives it imparts to the noble and untiring exertion, in the acquisition of truth and the practice of the highest virtues, are as mighty as reason, as enduring as immortality, as inviting as heaven, as sublime, as terrible, as the wages of crime, or as the shadows of the grave! The history of science is a continual record of intellectual triumphs. Yet, there are sober and otherwise judicious men, who are disposed to doubt the correctness of its annals, and still more the justness of what they denominate its flattering conclusions. They point you to Egypt, intersected by canals, heightened to superior beauty by the charms of agriculture, and crowned with the most magnificent temples and monuments. They conduct you to the pages of classical history, or to the scenes of the modern panorama, and exhibit the splendor of former cities; or to the studio of the ancient artist, and surround you with the speaking canvass and the breathing marble. The Roman empire. |