66 extended, exalted, and perfected in those of corresponding susceptibilities, and attains its legitimate objects. It is from man, who is created in the image of God, that God himself desires reciprocal love! And if poignant the sting of anguish experienced when earth's weak love is unrequited, what must be the keen fatigue, and hunger, and temptation; to encounter contumely, ridicule, and scorn; to receive hatred for instruction, and ingratitude for kindness; to be "despised and rejected of men;" to be emphatically a man of sorrows," and one who was familiar with grief; and, finally, in all his innocence and unresisting gentleness, to be made to suffer the ignominiousness of the sense of ingratitude when death of the cross-reviled even in his agonies, and not only by the cruel throng, but by the faltering tongues of dying robbers, co-partners in shame and suffering-denounced by the vilest of men; and (oh, insupportable anguish!) while thus cut off from life as unfit for earth, forsaken by the Deity as unfit for heaven! Yet he suffered not for himself; he was not "stricken or smitten of God," or "afflicted" for his own offences. For surely it was our griefs he bore; it was our sorrows that he carried. He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities. It was the chastisement of our peace that was upon him; it was by his stripes that we are healed! Such are the wonderful facts which we are called upon to contemplate as the exemplification of the love of God. And certainly it is in the life and death of Jesus that we can best consider that love, and make the nighest approach to its apprehension. As Immanuel, he has brought God near to us; as the express image of the Father, he has truly revealed Him; as God manifested in the flesh, he is love impersonated. In all his acts, we observe the power of this divine love; we study it in all his words. We recognize it in all the social intercourse, in all the familiar incidents of his life, and in all the affecting associations and fearful agonies of his death. How proper that the Deity should desire this love to be reciprocated! Every emotion loves to reproduce itself, and to find a kindred sympathy in the bosom of another. It is thus the love of Heaven is rejected with disdain! A love of whose intensity we can form no adequate conception! A love that pervades the universe— that includes all within its fond embrace, and longs to impart its own ineffable joys to all who will receive them! Oh! may not even the angelic nature here feel a sympathetic pang May not the Son of God here shed bitter tears of anguish, as erst on Olivet? ? But, alas! how shall a man return a love of which he cannot even adequately conceive? It is as high as heaven; it is as vast as the universe; how can he attain to it-how can he compass it? Poor, indeed, must be his offering of a heart debased by the world and Satan, when all its purest and noblest feelings of undivided affection would bear no proportion to the love of God. But it is the nature of love never to be mercenary. It seeks not compensation; it requires not equal measure; it demands not more than can be given. A gentle word may requite a kind act; a smile of affection, the most precious favor. Man may not love as God loves, who is infinite in love as in wisdom and in power; but he may love as man can love, who is so limited and feeble in all his capacities. And when he loves the Lord with all his heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, he renders the least return that may be offered, and the greatest that can be demanded. Nor is man left to form, by imagination, faint images of the Deity on whom his affections are to rest. Jesus is the living image of the invisible God, and his manifestation in the flesh renders impossible that personality of attachment, that individualization of love so apposite and congenial to our nature. Nay, we are not even left alone with the sweet remembrances of the personal advent of the Lord Messiah, gleaned from sacred and ancient records; but as though to give scope and expression to this love, and quicken it by the active energies of life, he supplies a present, living, co-equal, and consentient object, and bids us prove our regard for him by our love for one another. "A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another: as I loved you, that ye also love one another." "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him." Transcendent thought, that man can become a temple for the Deity! That the glorious Being, of whom our unequal powers can form no adequate conception, and whose glory fills both earth and heaven, can yet find a dwelling-place in the human heart! Inscrutable and sublime mystery, that he who dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him!" "Yet hereby do we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit." And oh! how joyful the reflection, that however weak our powers, however imperfect our efforts, the Divine Comforter can shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, enlarge our capacities, transform all our feeble nature, render us partakers of the divine fulness, and sharers in the everlasting joys and effulgent glory of the divine presence! 66 REFORMATION.-No. V. IN endeavouring to present the basis upon which, in our judgment, the reformation of the existing reli -1. gious communities should rest, we have stated, by implication at least, two truths which we wish now to consider in their direct relations to each other. These truths are:That the Christian community should be united by the ties of a common Christianity; that there should be one faith, universally received as evangelical, and one all-pervading family affection-a bond of perpetual peace. In other words, that all who profess faith in Christ should be united together as one body, having Him alone as their head, and acknowledging a common standard of doctrine and of duty. 2. That, on the other hand, each individual member of that body must, for himself, at his own responsibility, and at his own peril, in the exercise of the right of private judgment, determine this faith, ascertain this doctrine, and render this obedience. When these truths are thus placed side by side, they may appear irreconcileable with each other, at least to a mind disturbed and hesitating, in view of the endless dissensions and bitter controversies of the religious world. This contrariety, however, can only be apparent; for there can be no real inconsistency or incompatibility between any two truths in the universe: and that these are truths, is admitted clearly and definitely, at least in theory, by the whole Protestant community. The first, indeed, is an express declaration of scripture; and the second is a necessary implication: for no one can act for himself, unless he first think for himself. And Christianity itself is denuded of all its sanctions and obligations, when man, to whom it is individually addressed, is denied permission individually to believe and obey it. We candidly confess, indeed, that if the history of Protestantism were to be taken as an exemplification of the true nature and tendency of these principles, which, as we have stated, are among the original and essential convinced that the course which has features of this portion of Christen- been pursued results in religious disdom, we should be constrained to ad- sensions, there is also another fact of mit them as fallacious. For how which the same experience may conwould it be possible to reconcile with vince them, viz. that all this sectarian these truths the sectarian antipathies, animosity and prejudice has failed to discords, feuds, and animosities that prevent entirely a spiritual unity have prevailed among Protestants amongst the truly enlightened, liberal, the divisions, heresies, and endless and pious of opposing parties. This wars and fightings that have charac- fact, fortunately, stands forth in bold terized every portion of this wide- relief, and while it demonstrates that spread reformation from Popery? It unity is not incompatible with liberty would seem, almost, at first view, as of judgment, it proves, still further, if, in seceding from Rome, and reject- that the real tendencies of heartfelt ing that union which the latter boasts religion are to produce peace and under the Sovereign Pontiff, Pro- unity, and that whatever creates or testants had plunged into a hopeless perpetuates division, must be opposed state of division; and that the very to Christianity. When men who, in claim of private judgment itself had the deliberate exercise of judgment, been the means, in practice, of placing have attached themselves to different unity of faith, or any other unity, for religious bodies, are able by the eleever beyond their reach. Could it vating influences of divine truth and be shown that such a result was the love, to rise above the narrow limits natural effect of these principles, in of sectarian prejudice, and to embrace their just and legitimate application, each other as children of a common there would be no longer any question Father, and heirs of a common inof their fallacy, or that a blind sub-heritance, the power of these divine mission to human dictation in matters principles is shown to be such, that of religion and conscience, should be they require but a fair and open field regarded as the only safeguard of of action to gain a complete and gloChristian faith and Christian unity.rious triumph. This, however, cannot be shown. On the contrary, it is not difficult to perceive that these divisions have originated from unlawful restrictions of the rights of conscience, and from an intolerant bigotry which sought, under false pretences, to wrest from the people the privileges of which we speak. And it must surely, by this time, be evident to the whole Protestant world, that it is utterly impossible to attain Christian unity by persisting in the course heretofore pursued. This method has produced," What doest thou here?" indeed, nothing but discord from the time of Carlstadt until now, so that the history of Protestantism is really but the history of partyism-a sad detail of religious strifes-a sickening record of endless litigation at the bar of undecided opinionism. But if the Protestant world can be There is, then, through the influence of divine truth, and in direct opposition to the genius of sectarianism, a union of heart between the pious. Amidst the conflict of parties, the shock of contending creeds, the theological thunders of anathemas, and the fires of persecution, there have been always found some who have alike distinguished with trembling reverence the still small voice of God himself, and have each pondered in doubt and solicitude the inquiry, Amidst the interminable debates of partizans, there have been some who have felt as Christians, and recognized the image of the divine object of their affections, even amongst the opposing hosts, and with the tender cares of charity, have sought to heal the wounds which bigotry had inflicted. But this is merely a spiritual union—a secret sympathy. It is an invisible union, while there is, at the same moment, a most visible disunion. It is a star of hope, however, amidst the clouds of the tempest. It is the Spirit of God moving upon the face of chaos. It is Christianity itself, struggling amidst the discordant elements of human passion, to bring order out of confusion, and create anew the heavens and the earth. But is not this mighty spirit to throw off the burden of human crimes and follies? Must it struggle for ever in an unequal conflict? However unjustly it may have been once shorn of its strength, is not its power increasing in the prison-house of its foes? And may we not hope to see a visible, as there is an invisible unity in the family of God? There are many who regard such a unity as impracticable. Discouraged with the prospect, they are disposed to "bear the ills they have," and seek to convince themselves that no visible union was ever contemplated in the Christian system. They even seek to justify the schisms of Christendom on the ground that they induce greater vigilance, and serve to maintain purity of doctrine and discipline, and greater activity amongst the religious community. But evil is never justified because it may, by an over-ruling hand, be made productive of good. Nor is it possible for any one to consider dispassionately, the express objects and tendencies of Christianity, without perceiving at once that partyism and discussion are as remote and distinct from these designs and tendencies as earth from heaven. It is in direct opposition to such alienations and divisions, that the Apostle has declared there is ONE BODY, as there is one spirit, one Lord, and one faith ; and that he has so earnestly besought Christians to be "of one mind," to speak the same things," and to have no divisions among them. It is in reference to the same matter, that 66 the Lord prays the Father to keep the disciples whom he had given him, that they might be ONE. Neither," adds he, " pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one ; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." It is by a visible union among Christians alone, that the world can be convinced of the divine mission of Jesus Christ. Christianity, though a spiritual religion, is not such a religion disembodied. It rules the body, as the soul. It has its externals as its internalsits form as well as its power. It must be recognized by its results, and among these there are none more characteristic than unity, peace, and goodwill among men. In the present effort at reformation, it is this unity which has been chiefly urged upon the religious community. Christian union and intercommunion were the original and ruling thoughts with those with whom this movement began. To produce another schism to add a new party to those already existing, was abhorrent to their feelings and their principles. It was, indeed, for the very purpose of avoiding this, that they in the beginning united with one of the principal denominations of the day, after a candid statement of their actual position, and of the basis of the union which they approved. Nor did they ever desire to assume a distinct or sectarian name or character, or to separate themselves from the denomination to which they were thus attached; but rather, in connection with that body, to labor for Christian union, and the restoration of the simple faith and institutions of the gospel. The reformers separated themselves, therefore, in no case. They were in some cases separated by that body; in others they outgrew the covert of its sheltering wings. Through the whole progress of this religious movement, it has ever been maintained that sects and parties are the great obstacles to the ultimate triumph of the gospel, and that there is a basis of union upon which all true believers may be united as one body, while, at the same time, there need be no retrenchment of Christian liberty. In short it has been the great design to urge the importance of the two great truths which we have now under consideration, that there should be unity of faith, and at the same time liberty of private judgment. To reconcile these is a problem which Protestants have been endeavouring to solve for the last three hundred years. It is believed that in the principles of the present reformation its solution has been found. The circumstances in which this movement originated gave to it its character, and directed it almost exclusively to this very question. It was provoked at first, by a manifestation of the most obstinate sectarian prejudice on the part of several leading denominations; and the virulence with which it has been opposed by the various parties during its progress has only served to augment the proofs of its necessity, and to continue it in its original direction against the ramparts of sectarianism. Every thing derives its characteristics from that which gives it birth. This reformation was born of the love of union, and Christian union has been its engrossing theme. Amidst all the vicissitudes to which it has been subjected, this alone has been its end and aim. Amidst all the storms of sectarian controversy in which it has been cradled and nurtured, it has sought for itself, and proposed to others, as a peaceful shelter, no other home than a common faith, founded upon the rock of divine truth, and embosomed in the graceful foliage of liberty of opinion. The Lutheran reformation, on the other hand, was occasioned by gross corruptions of the most important doctrines of the gospel, as in the traffic of Tetzel and the bold assumptions of Leo, and hence a restless zeal for purity of doctrine possessed the early reformers, and spent its energies in theological debates, and in the elaboration of creeds and formularies. The same feature has remained prominent in Protestantism to the present hour. There is no question of anything but doctrine. It is a theory of religion that justifies or condemns. It is a creed or a confession that makes the saint or the sinner. There has been, however, in the present effort for union, no desire to depreciate the value of purity of doctrine. But while it has been duly urged that there can be no Christian union, except it be a union in gospel truth, there has been a freedom from that morbid sensibility upon the subject of doctrinal views, which has led to so many fine-spun theological abstractions, and created so many divisions by unprofitable and unauthorised inquiry. In adopting the scriptures as the only source of religious knowledge, there is an ample, and the only security, for purity of doctrine. In the reception of the simple gospel of Christ there is true evangelical faith; and in the confession of the great fundamental truth of Christianity, there is a divine basis of union, which can be neither overthrown nor controverted. It is in urging these, as the great fixed principles of union and co-operation, that the present reformation has sought to restore to the church the true foundation laid by Christ and the Apostles; and while securing an essential unity of faith, to grant a just and scriptural liberty of opinion. But we postpone some further remarks upon this topic to the following number. R. R. UNION. NOW, brethren, I beseech you, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that ye be perfectly united in the same mind, and in the same judgment.-A pure lake reflects the beautiful sky, the clouds, and the overhanging trees; but when it is ruffled it reflects nothing that is pure. |