long, and is kind; charity hopeth all things, gard to right, he may, and he often does believeth all things, endureth all things. complain in his word, as if he was disappointYet it must be acknowledged that candoured and surprised at the conduct of his prohas its difficulties as well as duties. It has fessing people. And is there not a cause? its bounds, beyond which it cannot pass. We You would think it strange if a husbandman must not be induced, by any tenderness of should expect fertility from the dry sand or judgment, to violate the express decisions the barren rock: but it would be otherwise of the word of God. There are many, and, if he had a vine planted in a rich soil, and perhaps, never more than in our day, of whom, attended with every kind of culture. Then, as the Apostle says to the Galatians, "We surely, his expectation of fruit would be nastand in doubt." They keep our hopes and tural; and he would have reason to complain our fears equally awake through life. When if nothing was produced. And is not this, at we pray for them, we are at a loss whether least in an awful degree, true of many of us? to consider them as in the flesh or in the Spi- Estimating our proficiency by our advantages, rit. We receive them to the Lord's table, ought he not to have found in us what he not because we are convinced of their state, has yet sought for in vain? Ought he not but know not how to refuse them: and we to have seen something in our tempers and continue them in communion upon the same lives much more perfect; something in our principle. But, my brethren, these things conduct so unequivocal, something in our ought not so to be. Your ministers and your exertions and sacrifices so decisive, as to lead fellow-members are entitled to satisfaction him to say, Now I know that thou lovest concerning, if not the degree, the reality of me; as God said to Abraham, " Now I know your religion. that thou fearest me, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." LOVEST THOU ME? Thirdly. Is there nothing to render it doubtful to yourselves? "indeed," say some of you with a sigh, "Indeed there is." Hence I go mourning all the day. How happy should I be, if I could but make out this awful case. ""Tis a point I long to know; Oft it causes anxious thought; Am I his? or am I not?" 66 IV. The question ADMITS OF SOLUTION. It is not only possible, but comparatively easy to know whether we love another. And here it will be in vain for you to allege, that though this is generally true, the case before us is a peculiar one, because the object is invisible. For this furnishes no objection to our remark. Who knows not what it is to "I am a wonder as well as a grief to my-love a being he never saw? Many of us self. If there are things that sometimes never saw Howard: but who does not feel make me hope I am not in a state of nature, veneration at the mention of his name? there are others--and these, alas! are far Who does not glow at the perusal of his more numerous-that make me fear I am not journeys of mercy? Who does not melt in a state of grace. O my soul, surely this at the sight of his statue. I envy not the state implies much more than I have expe- heart of that man who can enter St. Paul's rienced surely there is a secret that has not Cathedral, and view, unmoved, the mild been revealed to me. If I loved him-could I ever read without pleasure the book that through the cold marble image. I never compassion that beams and breathes even unveils his glories? If I loved him-could I ever fear to die, and shrink back from the this celestial spirit; can I read his matchless saw Cowper; but can I think of this amiable, only event that can bring me into his pre- Letters, and his immortal Task, and not feel sence? If I loved him-could I feel so im- a thousand tender sympathies that attach me patient under those reproaches and afflictions to him, and render inviting that part of the that make me a partaker of the fellowship of universe in which his piety and his genius his sufferings? range undepressed and uncontrolled? With regard to those with whom you are familiar, that which you love them for is not that which you see, but that which you cannot "Could my heart so hard remain; Prayer a task and burden prove; If I knew a Saviour's love? "If I sing, or hear, or read, Sin is mix'd with all I do : Tell me is it thus with you?" see. It is their mind, their heart, their intellectual qualities, their moral principles. Honesty, virtue, dignity; these are all invisible it is true you have seen their actings, and their effects; but you never saw themYet we hope you love them. It is also useless to urge, as an exception to the justice of our remark, that the love of which we have been speaking is a principle, and not a passion. We readily acknowledge the propriety of the distinction, and hope it will always be remembered. Had it been duly considered, many things would never have been published that have caused the way of truth to be evil spoken of: and many Christians would have escaped the despondency into which they have been plunged by judging of their state, not by the habitual and prevailing bias of their soul, but the flow and rise of their animal spirits. While, however, we allow the distinction, we deny the inference that might be supposed to result from it. For if we call this love esteem, rather than attachment-still it is esteem: if we call it a principle, and not a passion, still it is a principle-a principle that has a real being-and with whose operations and effects we are all acquainted. How then will this love show itself? It will show itself by our thoughts. These naturally follow the object of our regard, and it is with difficulty we can draw them off. The current may be diverted by force; but the prevention removed, it soon flows in its wonted channel, and finds its former destination. Where the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. David could say, "I love thee, O Lord, my strength." And what was the consequence? "How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! if I should count them, they are more in number than the sand when I awake, I am still with thee." If, then, I love the Saviour, I shall surely think of him. I shall reflect upon his character, his glory, and his grace. I shall dwell much upon his humiliation and sufferings. My thoughts will cling and cluster around his cross like bees around the hiveand my "meditation of him will be sweet." Even when my hands are employed in the common affairs of life, my mind will often ascend, and take a view of the Lamb that was slain and I shall feel the refreshing and enlivening influence of these thoughts-for they are not thoughts of speculation, but of affection. So great are the Saviour's charms: so powerful are the impressions of his grace! "One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever." It will show itself by desire after intimacy. Do we love another? We long to be with him. Separation is a grief. Distance is a torture. We wish to annihilate the space that intervenes. We meet him at the time appointed, and feel a pleasure in the interview that words can no more express than paint can do justice to light or heat. Our Lord and Saviour has promised to be found of them that seek him; in his word, in the assemblies of his people, on his throne, and at his table. To these, therefore, if I regard him, shall I repair, and with a disposition expressive of this language, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" Is he withdrawn from me? I shall "lament after the Lord.” And turning to those who are better acquainted with him, and know his resting-places, I shall anxiously ask, "Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?" Once more. This love will show itself by devotedness to the service and glory of its Master. And here, my brethren, I wish to lay a peculiar stress. Nothing, be it ever remembered, can authenticate the existence of this principle in our hearts, detached from this regard to his will. It is in this way that he himself requires us to place our love beyond all dispute: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. If ye love me, keep my commandments." An I then an enemy to his enemies? Am I a friend to his friends? Do I 66 This love will show itself by our speech. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." When Peter and John espouse his cause? Do I pray for the exwere ordered by the council to speak no more tension of his empire? Do I rejoice in the in the name of Jesus, what was their reply? success of his affairs? Do I weep over the "We cannot but speak the things which we dishonours of his name? Am I sorrowful for have seen and heard." How was it with a the solemn assembly, and is the reproach of certain woman in the company when his it my burden? Do I daily and hourly inquire, preaching had touched her heart? "She"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Do lifted up her voice, and said, Blessed is the I present myself at his footstool, saying, womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked." When the multitude cried, "Hosanna, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," the Pharisees besought him that he would rebuke and silence them. What said the Master? "You are strangers to their views and feelings, or you would know that you require an impossibility: for if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.' "All that I have, and all I am, 'Yet if I might make some reserve, I love my God with zeal so great, -When God had addressed David, and given him the choice of war, pestilence, or Men, Brethren, and Fathers! Allow me to close with a similar demand. What answer shall I give to Him in whose name I have addressed the solemn question-LoVEST THOU ME? or, What answer will you give? For I would rather you should deliver it yourselves. It would distress every feeling of my soul to return a negative answer-How could I tell him, on your behalf, "No, I do not love him?" And yet, what other reply could many of you make; at least, if you made a true one? And to what purpose would it be to return a falsehood? He is not mocked. No: me. -What would you say-you love him?: you dare not. You know that his love is not in you. You know that you daily prefer a thousand objects to his favour, and image, and service. You know that you constantly ask with the world, "Who will show me any good?"-But you never pray, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon O remember me with the favour thou bearest unto thy people. O visit me with thy salvation." You love him!" What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and this lowing of the oxen which I hear?"-Your whole lives contradict your avowal, and render it your folly as well as your guilt. Actions speak louder than words; and these are the exceptions they compel you to make. "Yes, O Lord, I love thee-but I never think of thee. I love thee-but I can- | not endure the conversation that turns upon thy praise. I love thee-but I wish to shun thy presence: depart from me, I desire not the knowledge of thy ways.' I love thee but thy law is not my delight; and I resolve to follow the way of my own heart." And what-if this be your answer, what are we to think of you? What are we to think of your taste? What are we to think of your temper? How low! How vile! What a compound of stupidity and depravity is thy wretched soul, to be even capable of indifference towards greatness and goodness so infinite! If you had no love to the creation, no love to the beauties of spring; if you had no love to him that begat you; no love to her that bore you; no love to her that lieth in thy bosom: it would be infinitely less disgraceful than to declare, you have no love for Him who died for you, and rose again. And is this your answer?- -Deliver it yourselves. Look up, and if you have courage, tell him; tell him, by your lips, what you have constantly told him by your lives"No: I do not love thee. I deem thee unworthy of my regards. Whoever becomes thy follower, I will not." And is this your language?--If we lived in a period of temporal judgments, I would instantly desire this congregation to withdraw: I would say, Flee from the tents of these men, lest the earth open its mouth, and swallow them up. But you believe that no such doom awaits you; and therefore you imagine yourselves secure. But spiritual judgments are much more dreadful than temporal; and wrath, the longer it is delayed, becomes the larger in the aggregate, and the heavier in the fall. "If," says the Apostle, "if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha." Oh! to be excluded, when the Lord comes, from his favour, from communion with his people: to be sealed up, under his curse, in hopeless misery, when he appears! Who can describe the horrors of such a scene! Who can dwell upon it!We are not going to attempt it-it is too awful for declamation. But let me observe-There is no unrighteousness in the sentence. The very victims of this justice will be compelled to feel, if not acknowledge, its equity; and hence they will be speechless. Neither is there any uncertainty in the execution of it. If the word of God is true, this will be the portion of every man, whatever be his condition or character, that dies a stranger to the love of Christ. Such a disposition of mind must terminate in perdition. There is no other part of the universe to which you are suited: and there will be the same propriety in shutting you up in hell, when you die, as in confining a madman in Bedlam, or a rebel in prison. Were you even allowed to enter heaven, the state of your mind would destroy all the happiness of the place. And if you would consult, in religious concerns, the same common sense that guides you in secular life, you could not withstand the conviction for a moment. For could you be happy in being for ever the companions of those with whom you now feel no congeniality, and whose intercourse you now so anxiously shun? Could you be happy in being for ever in the presence of One you always disesteemed; and in hearing for ever the praises of a Being you never loved? Yet I will not, I cannot conclude such a subject as this with the language of terror. While I feel a horror at the crime, I would gladly save the criminal. While I condemn, I pity. And if there is an object worthy our compassion in this assembly-Who claims it? -It must be-not the man that is stripped of his substance, that is bereaved of his friends, that has been through life saying, "I looked for light, and behold darkness"-No-He may be dear to Heaven, and the valley of Achor may be given him for a door of hope. But it is the man that sits yonder, and in whose soul there is not one sentiment of love to him whom all the angels adore! "Ah!" art thou saying, "this is my condi tion-What is the duty of a wretch like me?" | ter; LORD, THOU KNOWEST ALL THINGS, -It is, to get a full conviction of the fact. It THOU KNOWEST THAT I LOVE THEE. is, to reflect with shame and sorrow on the All hail, ye highly favoured of the Lord! fault. It is, to guard against despair, which This is your distinction; this is your priviwill only harden thee into enmity, while a lege-your noblest distinction, your richest hope of mercy-after all!-will tend to soften privilege,-that you love him! But there and allure. It is, to pray that the heart of are two things which you ought to remember: stone may be turned to flesh, and the promise the one, to hide from you pride; the other, to accomplished-"I will pour upon them the excite in you diligence. spirit of grace and of supplications: and they Though you love him now, you did not love shall look upon him whom they have pierced, him always. There was a time (and with and they shall mourn for him as one mourn- some of you it was a long time) before you eth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness saw any form or comeliness in him, or beauty "Ah!" says for him, as one that is in bitterness for his that you should desire him. first-born." Augustine, "ah, my Lord, I began to love thee too late!" But there are some here who ought to be able to answer the question in the affirmative. Though you love him really, you do not love Come forward, Christians, and let us hear him sufficiently. Your love is nothing, comyour reply.-Why do you draw back? We pared with the zeal of many of your brethren, are called upon to fear, "lest, a promise be- less indebted to him than you. It is nothing, ing left us of entering into his rest, any of us considering how long you have known him. should seem to come short of it." It is true: It bears no proportion to your means, your but the Scripture justifies confidence, as well obligations, your professions. Yet this love is as awakens caution.-Why are you afraid all the return he expects; all he requires to speak? "O, it is an awful thing to de- from us!-Let us, therefore, sing the words termine; and if, after all, I should be mis- of Dr. Watts: taken!" The very apprehension is a good evidence in your favour.-"I have nothing to boast of."-Acknowledged.—" I ought to be very humble." And ought you not to be very thankful too? And is not this impossible, while you refuse to own what he has done for your souls!" I would then hesitate no longer. I hope-I may-I can say, with Pe "Dear Lord, and shall we ever live At this poor dying rate; "Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove, 33 THE END OF SHORT DISCOURSES. |