their punishment, the mitigation of selfishness, the humiliation of pride, the resistance of greed and avarice, are pre-eminently labors of love, and not of wrath. Hatred will never reform any thing. It may destroy, but Love is the only architect. 5. Hence all philanthropies are partial and imperfect that do not grow out of this same root. As all hatred of evil is dangerous that is not inspired and accompanied by the love of Christ, so that philanthropy, or the attempt to organize positive good in human life, is lacking, which does not spring from the same organizing centre, and which is not inspired by the same influence. But when philanthropy springs from this centre, and is inspired by this influence, it becomes, not a mere sentimentalism, but a vivid and veritable power in human society. There are no true philanthropists, it seems to me, but those that take man in his whole nature; that look upon him as a creature of God's just government, as a child of immortality, a subject of divine rewards and penalties; and that attempt to build up in him that which is good, according to the largest pattern of spiritual truth. Philanthropy without religion becomes meagre. It is the love of man uninspired by the love of God! 6. All public questions of justice, of liberty, of equity, of purity, of intelligence, should be vitalized by the power which is in Christ Jesus. There are other motives that may press men forward a little way, but there is nothing that has such controlling power as the personal influence of the Lord Jesus. When, therefore, in such a time as this, we are crowding along great subjects, or, rather, when they are crowding us along, and we are swept onward in the current of great national agitations, let us remember that there is but one way in which we can deal with all such subjects, and be thorough, and at the same time certain and safe, namely, by making every one of them religious subjects, Christian subjects, inspired by direct contact with the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we bring secular matters into this re lation, there is wholesomeness introduced into them, as well as into us in the management of them. And now, my dear Christian friends, are not these views in accordance with the repeated teaching of the whole New Testament Scriptures - that every thing which belongs to human life must in some way be connected with the grand redemptive centre of moral government, Christ Jesus? "Because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again." "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." In our personal character, in our enthusiasms, in our imaginations, in our enjoyments, in all the amenities of social life, there is to be the presence of this divine love. In all that we attempt to do to abate evil, in all that we attempt to do to establish good, in our sympathy and concurrence with the great movements of the age in which we live, our power to do good will be in proportion to the strength and purity of our spiritual life. Jesus Christ, and him crucified, is still the wisdom of God, and the power of God unto salvation, not only of the individual heart, but of civil societies. If there be those, then, that are ambitious, and that have felt with reference to themselves substantially as the mother did respecting her two sons, of whom she said, "Lord, grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom;" if there are any that have been desirous of obtaining influence and power, I would say to them, Beware of the upswelling of natural pride; beware of an over-active vanity! Remember that the road to power is not through self-elevation and self-aggrandizement, but through humiliation. You are to come to power by the abasement of yourself; by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ; by having your life hid with Christ in God; by learning to look at all things in the light of eternity. Power and goodness are synonymous. The secret of true power is in self-denial, disinterestedness, an unwearied love, a faith that pierces the invisible, and a hope that appropriates it! But those that go hither and thither, seeking a great name, and place, and influence; wishing to do great things; seeking their own good and not another's, and still less God's glory-all these must needs come short of the highest power. The burying of self; the enthroning of Jesus; the living, not for the visible and the transient, but for the invisible and the eternal; the might of God manifest in Christ, and made known to us through our own experience -these are the ways and methods of power-the secret of power not alone in the individual, but in the ministry, in the Church, in communities, and in the world. Whether we know it or not, God, blessed be his name! is overruling our ignorance, and guiding our very mistakes. He is pressing forward this wonderful moral power to its consummation. The day lingers, but shall not linger forever, when he shall take to himself his almighty power, and come and reign in myriads of now darkened hearts; in churches that are now Christian only in name; in institutions that, though they were established under the benign influences of Christianity, no longer represent it; in civil councils and in warlike camps; and then the whole earth shall see the salvation of our God. Even so, Lord, come quickly! And now, ye praying, weeping, pleading Christians, that seem to have but a small sphere, remember that every single Christian aspiration which you have, every vital and God-inspired Christian experience that is wrought out in you, no matter when or where, becomes a part of the riches of God in the world. Money is money, and, though locked up in the deepest and darkest vault, every coin is one more coin of the world's wealth. The heart is God's mint, and every single evolution of true Christian feeling is an addition to the greatness of God's power in this world. Do not think that you must be in some public position. Fulfill in secret the will of Christ Jesus. Let the mind that was in Christ be more and more completely in you. Let the spirit of Christ dwell in you richly in all things; and thus you will be preachers of Christ, and faithful witnesses; and ere long you shall hear that voice, sweeter than all conceivable music, saying, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." |