Page images
PDF
EPUB

of mercy during the remainder of life. Cheerful and refreshed, they rise in the morning, and go forth to the labours of life, chanting the carols of pious gratitude. Here is enjoyment of existence; this is life indeed,' with a perpetual relish; not attended with the tumultuary ardours of a fever, but the gentle, pleasant warmth of sound health.

You, therefore, who, blessed by Providence with profusion of wealth, are enabled to make pleasure your constant pursuit, try the experiment, whether pleasure of the purest kind is not to be drawn from the fountains of piety and divine love. Amusements and pleasures, commonly so called, are not to be rigidly renounced. They are not only allowable, but desirable and useful; solacing poor human nature in its sorrows, and promoting, by temporary relaxation, the energies of virtue. But surely it is possible to retain religious principles inviolate, and to be uniformly actuated by religious sentiments, in a life occasionally diversified by cheerful, and moderate, and innocent amusements. Only keep your heart with all diligence.' Let your imagination be pleased; your thoughts occasionally diverted; but let your heart be unseduced from the love of him who first loved you. Let your affections still point, like the needle to the north, wherever the vessel is blown by the winds, towards God. Your hands may be employed, your tongue employed, your feet employed, in the avocations of social life and civil society; but let your heart be at leisure for the things which belong unto your

Hoc est vivere.

peace; which will render your life constantly cheerful, and your death as little painful as the struggles of nature will admit.

It is never improper to caution the Christian, who seeks the peace of God, against such a degree of impassioned religion as tends, by its violence, to destroy all true devotion, or to abbreviate its continuance. There certainly are religious persons, who, through the disorder of their imaginations, and weakness of judgment, seem not to enjoy that tranquillity, or peace of God, which religion is calculated to produce.

Gentleness and moderation contribute to the increase as well as duration of our most refined enjoyments. We see nothing of extreme rigour, nothing of unnatural austerity, nothing of intemperate ardour, in the devotion of our Saviour or his disciples; so that they seem to be no less repugnant to the gospel, than to reason and philosophy. Nothing violently passionate is durable; no, not even the ecstacies of religion. Violent passion is like a flood after great rains. However it may rush in torrents for a day, it will exhaust itself, and dwindle to the shallow stream, scarcely creeping within the banks of its natural channel.

The passions are the chief destroyers of our peace; the storms and tempests of the moral world. To extirpate them is impossible, if it were desirable. But to regulate them by habitual care, is not so difficult, and is certainly worth all our attention. Many men do evidently acquire a wonderful command of their passions, in the presence of their superiors, or when their temporal

interest is concerned. it in the presence of God dwelling in us, and for an everlasting interest?

And shall we not attempt

[ocr errors]

The task is facilitated by the grace of God, which certainly co-operates with man in every virtuous endeavour. To Jesus Christ, then, let us have recourse, as to the best philosopher. He who said to the sea, "Be still,' will calm our passions, as he smoothed the waves. Peace was the legacy which he left to his followers. Hear his bland and soothing words: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth give I unto you.' The work of righteousness,' says Isaiah, is peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever.' Grace and peace be multiplied unto you,' says St. Peter, through the knowledge of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

'Not as the world giveth,' says our Saviour, 'give I peace.' The world speaks peace, when there is no peace. Dissipation, variety of worldly business, worldly cares, worldly company, riot, noise, intemperance, produce a tumult, which banishes reflection, but cannot cause serenity, selfpossession, and composure. The sick man, who has recourse to opium and strong drink to lull his malady in a deceitful oblivion, increases his pain and his danger.

The Christian seeks peace, by seeking pardon of

God by repentance. 'Acquaint thyself with God, and be at peace.' He seeks peace, by keeping a watch on those great destroyers of it, his passions. On these tumultuous waves he pours the oil of Christian love, and they are calm.

Thus he

lives; at peace with himself, at peace with his neighbour, and at peace with his God.

2

Thus he lives; and when he quits this earthly scene, (like a river, whose banks are flowery, and whose waters limpid and smooth,) he glides, unruffled, into the ocean of eternity. Go, then, gentle Spirit, to the realms of peace, and enjoy the peace of God !-in the bosom of thy Father, and our Father.' 'Very pleasant hast thou been unto us,' during the time of thy sojourning here. Dove-like were thy manners; for the Spirit, which descended like a dove, inspired thee with every amiable disposition, and above all with the love of peace, national and public, as well as internal : and blessed are the peace-makers; theirs shall be the peace of God which passeth all understanding, in the kingdom of heaven.

In the kingdoms of the earth, indeed, there is seldom any lasting peace. What Christian but must drop a tear over the fertile realms of Christendom crimsoned with human blood; shed at the instigation of the spirit of Apollyon, or the destroyer, taking his abode in hearts which have rejected the Holy Ghost, the spirit of love, the God of peace! May the rulers of the world receive the Spirit of Christ,' and heal the wounds of the people; so shall they experience, in the hour of their own distress, the peace of God which passeth all understanding, and their crowns shall be immortal. 22 Sam. i. 26.

1 John, xx. 17.

SECTION LVII.

General Reflections on Happiness-Errors in the pursuit of it-No sublunary Happiness perfectChrist's Invitation to the wretched-Christian Philosophy affords the highest earthly SatisfactionIts Summum Bonum is a State of Grace, or the Enjoyment of divine Favour.

To what purpose are laboured declamations on the misery of man? He can want no studied proofs of a wretchedness which he sees in others, and feels in his own bosom. To expatiate on the symptoms of a disease, without pointing out a cure or an alleviation, is only to add to the pain, by increasing the impatience of the sufferer.

After all the melancholy pictures of human life, it must be allowed, that there is much comfort in the world, blended with its misery. Look abroad, from the library into real life, and you will see a general appearance of cheerfulness. Though clouds intervene, sunshine predominates. The labourer and mechanic chant over their daily toil; and though they pause to wipe the sweat off their brow, return to their work, after a short but hearty meal and the sweetest slumbers, not only without a murmur, but with alacrity.

The prospect of reward at the close of a laborious day, the vicissitudes of rest and labour, the succession of ideas in active employment, the warmth and agitation of the animal spirits consequent on exertion, superinduce a delightful obli

« PreviousContinue »