No. 4.

DECEMBER, 1824.

VOL. V.

SERMON, NO. XIX.

[This discourse was delivered by the Editor at the funeral of Mrs. Sherwin, whose death was noticed in our last.]

St. John vii. 24.--Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement.

Our Lord addressed these words to the Jews, who were disposed to accuse him for healing on the sabbath day. They, like many other men in all ages of the world, had their peculiar notions of what is right.

The opinions of men in different ages and in different societies, are various. These opinions, with a variety of other incidents, are the offspring of different educations, and often continue to be supported by an equal number of prejudices.

We judge "according to the appearance," and often judge erroneously; so did the Jews. Their views of many things were different from ours; and as they were erroneous in some of their conclusions, we sometimes find ourselves equally so in ours. They from a scrupulous exactness of avoiding labor on the sabbath, considered the work of healing, at that time, a transgression of their holy day. But our Savior showed them that they were inconsistent with their own views; they judged according to the appearance, and did not judge righteous judgement. Their law of circumcision was, that a male child should be circumcised when it was eight days old; and this would be likely to fall as often on the sabbath as on any other day. "If a man," says Christ, "on the sabbath day receive circumcision that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the

sabbath day ?" Our Lord has condescended to the use of an argument, before he gave the reproof contained in our text. He showed them that in the censuring him for works of mercy on the sabbath, as a violator of its holy requirements, they condemned themselves as transgressors of the same requirements in circumcising a male child to fulfil the law of Moses.

He who knew what was in man, and needed not that any should testify of man, might have exercised in this case his own divine prerogative. He might have called upon them to yield implicitly to his superior knowledge. This proud but mistaken man often demands of his fellow man. But our Lord was not thus assuming. He often seems to divest himself of the high authority of his mission, and to meet his opponents as an associate and an equal. In this way he showed them the inconsistency of their complaints, from their own acknowledged premises.

Having offered these as introductory remarks, let us further pursue our subject, by noticing in the first place as a general head, that in the providence of God, there is much that is hidden from man.

The truth of this position is incontestible. The additional experience of every day does but manifest additional testimony of the fact. Do we pretend to see? It is only through a glass darkly. Do we say we know? It is no more than knowledge in part. We may trace many effects, on general principles, to their immediate causes, and still many springs of actions operate unseen. Causes, more or less remote, may have appendages, which may operate and influence in a manner altogether hidden from the keenest eye of human comprehension, and yet at a remote period show their effects. There are many occurrences in divine providence that seem altogether dark and inexplicable, which afterwards appear less objectionable and obscure. We are sensible

that we should ever yield our judgement to the wisdom of the divine Ruler of the world; but we are not able to explain to our own satisfaction, every disastrous occurrence that befalls the human family. We are not able to penetrate directly into the very nature of things; neither can we take a direct and open survey of the operations of the human mind. If we would judge of a tree by its fruit, we must wait till we see that fruit matured. "The appearance" of the tree may deceive us. Perhaps it may be good when the fruit will prove it to be bad; or its appearance may be bad, when the fruit will be good. Hence for us to judge according to the appearance, is not safe. We are in danger of erring, and judging that which is not righteous judgement. Time, the great revealer of secrets, will unbosom to us many attending circumstances to correct the erroneous impressions of "the appearance." But after wehave attended to our subject with caution; after we have waited the developement of attending circumstances, so far as we are able to note them; and after we have made our conclusions, that we are not deceived in the appearance, still a word of caution may not, even then, be untimely or improper. We should not forget that man is fallible; and that it illy becomes him to dogmatize; for he may mistake in some point where he thinks, there is no danger. An instance of this kind we have in the good old prophet Samuel, when he went to anoint a king over Israel from among the sons of Jesse. We have no reason to believe that rashness was a common trait in the prophet's character; but he was cool, deliberate, and wise. Notwithstanding, he was a man, and, like other men, was sometimes deceived by the appearance. When he looked on Eliab, the older of Jesse's sons, he said, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before him." He little thought with all his accustomed prudence, that there was

danger of mistake, when he had received the directions so exact as to anoint one of Jesse's sons, and when he saw the stately appearance of Eliab. No doubt, the universal sentiment of his day, that the eldest son was in a manner sacred to the Lord, and was entitled to a peculiar right of inheritance, had an influence on the prophet's mind. In patriarchal governments, the right of authority was usually his when the former patriarch died. All these circumstances appeared sufficient to confirm him in his mistaken conclusion. But after all, his judgement, in this case, was only according to the appearance. "The Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth: for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart," 1 Sam. xvi. 7.

It may not be amiss, under this head, to notice something of the principles of moral actions, in relation to human power or agency. We wish, however, not to run into metaphysical disquisitions on this intricate subject; but to offer a few suggestions, such as are suited to our subject and the solemn occasion of our present meeting. If in the general providence of our God, many things operate in a manner unseen to man, we may be fully persuaded, that in the exercise of human agency, there is much that we can neither measure nor trace. Its operations are too subtle for minute description. Tho we believe men are free in the exercise of their

agency, to the extent of their moral faculties; yet this extent, in no man, are we able to measure. In the same person it may be greater at one time than at another. And tho we believe men exercise their agency from a principle within themselves, a principle which God has given them, yet the plan of operation in this principle is altogether inconceivable. Those who have attempted to explain the principles of moral agency from the

irresistible influence of motives, founded on external objects, have usually run their descriptions to manifest absurdities, and have thereby sufficiently refuted what they wished to maintain.

The second head of discourse that I would offer at this time on our general subject is, that the moral character of men is not to be distinguished by their good or ill fortune in the world.

This position appears proveable from scripture, and common experience. We do not think, because a man is prosperous, that it is an incontestible proof of his righteousness; neither because he is unfortunate, would we pronounce him wicked. Have we any just reason to suppose that all men possess a reputation in the world, exactly in proportion to their moral worth? We have in many instances considered ourselves much mistaken in the characters of our fellow men. Some we have found much worse than we at first supposed; while others, for whom we have had no esteem, we have found by trial, worthy of our confidence. If, then, from these circumstances, we may make some general calculations, we may reasonably conclude that some great and good men have lived and died in obscurity. Others have shone for a time, and been crushed by the hand of the wicked.

In making these remarks, we would not say that virtue is unfavorable to prosperity, or that wickedness is calculated, in its nature, to promote it. Virtue, in its very nature, is salutary, and wickedness is unsalutary. But human society is so constituted, and must be so, unless man is made a different being from what he is, that the interest of individuals is much in the hands of their fellow-creatures; and their happiness, as it respects outward circumstances, is greatly dependent upon them. In relation to things, purely mental, men exercise over one another an influence that sometimes