Part 7 (1/2)
Either he had no ideas on the subject, or he failed to convey them to me
--I see no mystery in John's doctrine that God dwells in those in whom love dwells, for God is love And I see nopartakers of the divine nature; for the Divine nature is purity, wisdom and love We share the common human nature and the common animal nature; that is, we have certain qualities or properties in coenerally, and with the inferior orders of living things So we share the divine nature, e have the sa And the properties of the divine being are purity, knowledge, love
--I have just been listening to another antinomian sermon The preacher contended that we are justified and saved solely on account of what Christ has done and suffered for us, and that the only thing we have to do, is to believe this, or trust in the merits of Christ, and be at rest as to our eternal destiny But if we are saved _solely_ on account of what Christ has done and suffered, why talk as if our _believing_ this, or _trusting in Christ's_ o a step further and say, that neither believing nor trusting has anything to do with our salvation? But the whole theory is as anti-scriptural and false as it is foolish and mischievous The preacher said, ”We are not under the law,--Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law” Very true; but we are under the Gospel; and the Gospel requires a more perfect life than the law required The law of Christ is much stricter than the law of Moses He said, ”By the works of the law no flesh living can be justified” But we ive, and ye shall be forgiven” ”By thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned” ”With what ain” ”Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain s, I will s: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” ”Repent and be converted, that your sins ment, because as He was so are we in this world”
He said circu; and it is true that ”the circu under the Christian dispensation: but that which is inward, na a holy life, availeth much
Then followed a lot of unscriptural and unwise talk about our own righteousness and Christ's righteousness But the truth is, e love God and keep His commandments,--e love Christ and do as He bids us, and believe, in consequence, that we are approved of God, and in a fair way for heaven, we trust in _God's_ righteousness, or _Christ's_ righteousness, and not in a righteousness of our own The righteousness of God hteousness of _Christ_ means obedience to His precepts, and conformity to His mind and character True, if I obey the Gospel, hteousness _prescribed_, is Christ's It is when men make a law of their ohen they set aside God's law, and put so in consequence of obeying that, that they trust in their _own_ righteousness And in all such cases s”
But hearty, loving obedience to God's _own_ law is never regarded by Hioodness is, in the sight of God, ”of great price”
”Than gold or pearlsstar”
Christian obedience is a sacrifice hich God is well pleased: ”To do good and to coet not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” He alone trusts in the righteousness of Christ who hears Christ's words and does them,--who cultivates Christ'sso, expects, according to Christ's pro and eternal life The idea that God looks on any persons as having lived like Christ when they have not done so; or that He supposes any persons to be righteous, or treats thehteous, when they are not so, is foolish and anti-scriptural in the extreme And it is unmethodistical too Yet here is a Methodist preacher so-called, dealing out this mischievous and miserable folly And alas he is not alone And these are the ood done where preachers preach theology is not done by the preaching, I fancy, but by stray truth from the Gospels, and by the Christian lives and Christian labors of siical members of the church God bless theion, and they allto do good Wesley was always sensible in proportion as he got away froy
--Soious education can never be the means of a child's conversion,--that, do for your children what you will, they will still, like others, require a distinct and full conversion when they co to her child fro with it as it kneels by her side, or the good exa of a pious father, radual conversion of a child as the preaching of a pastor froradual elevation of a child to the higher spiritual life should not be as possible and as probable as the sudden elevation of a hardened and inveterate sinner 'You cannot give your children grace,' it is said: but it is easy to answer, 'God can give children grace through the h public preachers and teachers' I encourage people to bring up their children in Christian knowledge and goodness, by telling them that God may be expected to bless their labors to the sanctification and salvation of their children from their early days Baxter used to thank God that he was led by his good parents to love God so early that he could not recollect a time when he did not love Him
--Churches exist in this world to remind us of the eternal lahich we are bound to obey So far as they do this, they answer their end, and are honored in doing so It would have been better for all of us--it would be better for us now, could churches keep this their peculiar function steadily and singly before them Unfortunately, they have preferred in later tis to the practical
--There is a tendency in e it from an aid and incentive to a holy life, into a contrivance to enable men to sin without fear of punishment Obedience to God's law is dispensed with, if ently profess certain opinions, or practically take part in certain rites However scandalous the moral life, the profession of a particular belief, or attention to certain forms, at the moment of death, is held to clear the soul
--It would be easy to give a hundred instances of doctrines to be heard in serht in Scripture And sohty influence for evil on the church and the world They check the spread of Christianity They strengthen the cause of infidelity They keep people away froulf between the church and the mass of huh to talk about if they were to give up all the doctrines or notions for which I say there is no scriptural authority One preacher told me I had already spoiled some of his best sermons He said he had never been able to preach thean to listen to my conversation The truth is, preachers will never knohat great, good things there are to be talked about, till they get rid of their foolish fancies Nor will they know the true pleasure of talking till they come to feel that their utterances are the words of eternal truth And so far will they be froive themselves in a Christian spirit, to study the truth as it is in Jesus, they will never have tis that will present themselves to their h to say all that I get gliious subjects as presented in nature and in the Scriptures Every subject I take in hand requires ten tienerally allowed for a sermon And the subjects are numberless We live in an infinite universe of truth
”I rejoice,” says one, ”that I have been led, in the course of God's providence, to do sorevelation from those doctrines and practices which were discordant with its teachings, and prevented its reception within this way? God help me If I could make the Church and the ood, what a blessing it would be What a world of ants doing, both in the church and in the world Save reeable spirit Perhaps I see the needs of othershly Christian spirit and behavior in myself
How many words and phrases one hears in sermons and in prayers, and what heaps of expressions one ious works, that are not warranted by Scripture or common sense!
--Some of the words and phrases that are more frequently used by Christians than any other, are unscriptural ones Some of thes that have no existence Both the words and the ideas for which they stand are anti-christian Many of the things said froible The people strain their , but to no purpose It is Latin or Greek to them They listen, but do not learn They hear sounds, but catch no sense They reverence, they worshi+p, but they do not understand They believe, they feel, that there are great spiritual realities, but they are not made clear to their minds The devouter portion of the people still pray, and on the whole, live sober, righteous and Godly lives; but ed, and take thery sheep look up and are not fed”
They hear words, but get no ideas Religion does not come to them from the pulpit as a reality It does not make itself felt as truth Books and lecturers on science treat of realities, and treat of theion, and many preachers, seem to deal only in words And the consequence is, ion is a delusion, a fanaticis in it, but they cannot conceive what it is Yet teachers and preachers appear not properly to understand why so ious books Let the but what has soious books will be the s on earth
--I would never sacrifice Christian truth to conciliate the world; but I would sacrifice everything at variance with Christian truth; and I would present Christian truth itself in as intelligible and taking a fory has had a terribly corrupting effect on many members of churches I meet proofs of it every day God help me to do my duty Some of my hearers say to me, 'We come to church to be comforted, and not to be continually told to do, do, do' I do not wish people to be comforted unless they will do their duty; and they will never _lack_ comfort if they _do_ do it Comfort is for those who labor to comfort and benefit others, and not for those who care only for the, indolent and selfish professors miserable: and in some cases I succeed But I ive themselves heartily to Christian work
--Here are a few ood words froeneral, but reject and persecute its various portions The _name_ of truth they honor, but the truth itself they despise'
'Passion is a great seducer of the understanding, and strangely blindeth and perverteth the judg and the heart is cooled, and leaveth the judgment to do its ithout clas will appear to you to be quite of another tendency than in your frenzy you esteemed them'