1ST. Let that new convert hearken! -- The remains of sin -- yea, the seed of every sin -- is within, till you are cleansed throughout spirit, soul and body. That was a good remark of one, "There is much of the old man in the new." Already have you been made sensible of the fact. Those seeds have taken root. They are rooted in that heart of yours, among the plants of grace, like weed-roots in a bed of vegetables. They must be uprooted, or they will destroy or dwarf the plants of grace within you.
Indwelling sin is Satan's capital. He who has a small capital will keep adding to it. It is Satan's investment and he will not neglect it; the devil's stock, and he will watch its rise and fall in the market close as any stock-jobber. Sin is, in itself, an accumulating principle. A slight cold is prone to additions. It is so with indwelling sin. Its nature is to render you cold to duty, and cold in your affections toward God and his people. It contracts the fine affections of your soul, as a cold the fine vessels of your body, -- rendering you chilly and shivering in the presence of a good Gospel fire.
It is just so with some old professors in this town. When we see a man shivering in the sunshine, or by a warm fireside, we suppose his ague is bad enough. To see a professor shiver in the warm sunshine of the Gospel or encompassed by the blaze of a glorious revival such as this, argues an inveterate spiritual ague. The devil has his eye upon such, to give them a hot corner in hell, by and by. It is to save you from such an ague I address you, young convert, while you have indwelling sin in you. You have the elements of this ague within; it has begun, in fact, in these incipient stages.
Get rid of it. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth of it. The medicine is ready, if your faith is ready. Why not now? All things are possible to him that believeth." May you have no rest till you are cured of these ague-fits, -- slight, indeed, at present; it would be a wonder were it otherwise, considering your present advantages. But it has a lodgment in your nature, and every exposure to "evil air," to bad company and bad influence, will add to it; your ague-fits will increase, until you will be ashamed to be seen in a class-meeting. Better you never had been converted, than enter the lists of these anguish professors.
2d. Let the "prone to wander" new convert listen. -- If so now, that proneness may increase ten-fold hereafter. Purity of heart is your remedy. Be not deceived. Are you clear in your conversion? If not, in all likelihood you will wander back to the devil. Some children stray away from their parents and return again. His eye is upon you -- he never took it off you in all your "ins and outs" among us. Forgive the apparent harshness. You understand me. I would fain probe your soul to the bottom. It will do you no harm, if a genuine convert; if otherwise, you may, peradventure, recover yourself out of the snare of the devil.
Be not deceived in your intentions regarding sin. You have put it away; surely you have, if regenerated. But have you parted with it forever, think you? Have you quite removed your eye off it? no treacherous inclination, towards it? no hankering after it? Do you hate sin? There was much in that remark of one, that many deal with their sins as the mother of Moses with her boy put him away, but provided for him; hid him in the ark of bulrushes, as if she had forsaken him quite, but her eye was upon him, and, at last, became his nurse. Thus many leave, but love, their sins. They hide them from the eyes of others, but their hearts go after them. At last they take their sins to nurse, and give them the breast. Can you detect anything of this in yourself? Then let me shout in your ear, PERIL. "Make a clean breast of it," as they say sometimes to criminals. Resolve upon heart purity. It is your only safety. The blessing is your spiritual birthright, if you are born from above. You will backslide, perhaps foully and fatally, without it. That was a wise prayer of Beza, "Lord, perfect what thou hast begun in me, that I may not suffer shipwreck when I am almost at the haven." Ay, that would make damnation what Aristotle said death was, "The terrible of terribles!" If ever you are to be saved from such a hell, you must follow after holiness with the same ardor that a hunter pursues his game.
Let some old Christians present look back upon past life. How near you were to falling, at such and such a time, perhaps did fall, altogether by your corruptions! How prone to step out of the order of God! How often has Providence formed itself into a hedge of thorns, or spears, to keep you back from ruin, as you were impelled on by your unsanctified passions! When about to be carried headlong into an ocean of miseries, it required an angel of the Lord with a drawn sword, between two walls, to keep you back, -- as in Balaam's case, -- forcing you to stand still, with a bruised foot, or a broken limb, or a disordered body, or deranged affairs, or wounded feelings.
Behold that solitary backslider who sits over yonder. He has a history. Would that you could hear it, new convert, -- that he would think aloud! What a commentary upon my remarks would be his experience! Backslider, what has been the root of all thy sins and sorrows? Anything else than indwelling sin? You were cleansed from outward sin in the days of your first love; but, alas! you were not cleansed from inward sin. As streams may be traced to their fountain-head, so may the troubled and polluted streams of thy wickedness and backslidings to the fountain of a corrupt heart. O backslider, I will take up for thee Martha's lamentation over her dead brother, "Lord, f thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Lord Jesus, if holiness had been in my brother's heart, he had not died; for it was unholiness drove thee from his heart, and then he died. New convert, let his case be a warning to you. "Christ in you the hope of glory," says St. Paul. And again, "That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith." Yes; but reflect. Will Christ dwell in an impure heart? Does he esteem a clean heart less than you do a clean home? You cannot suppose any such thing. "What concord hath Christ with Belial?" -- 2 Cor. 6:15. An unholy heart is a Belial.
3d. A few words to another, -- to "one but newly found in Christ." -- Yes, you find some professors who speak lightly of holiness, and of those who enjoy it. They seem to glory in the fact that they are not of the number -- just as if it were a merit to be unholy. I wish I could shout those words of an old author into their ears, with the voice of a trumpet: "Some thank God they are not of this holy number; those who thank God for their unholiness had better go ring the bells for joy that they shall never see the Lord!" As to yourself; study well that declaration of St. Paul: "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Besides, let me advise, keep out of the company of such despisers of holiness. They will shear you of your strength; will rob you of all your desires after this great blessing; will prejudice you against those who profess and enjoy it. No man's heart can be right with God who speaks lightly of holiness. Dying Jacob said of some, "O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honor, be not thou united." -- Gen. 49:6. It seems they had slain a man in their anger, and in their self-will they digged down a wall. They would slay your hopes of heaven, -- would encourage that within your heart that has slain its thousands and its tens of thousands. In their self-will they would dig down the wall of holiness from around you, and leave you exposed to the roaring lion of hell that is going about seeking whom he may devour. A longing desire after holiness is as a wall of fire around your soul. Their company is not safe for you now; at least, their thoughts are not the Lord's thoughts. God is not in all their thoughts; but such as have God in all their thoughts should be your companions.
With respect to the other parties, your duty is imperative; -- abstain from their company. They will injure you. Polished metal never polishes rusty metals by mingling with them; no, but it is sure to catch their rust. A well person will not add to his health by sleeping with one who is sick. Do you understand me? It is equally true in spiritual things.
Ponder well St. Paul's declaration, "Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." -- Titus 1:15. What a sad state! How unwholesome their atmosphere! How perilous! Like the leper of old, everything they touch is unclean. Their souls are leprous; they are unclean. Their words leave their mark. Their breath is contamination. The atmosphere around them is unholy. They have never yet found the philosopher's stone, that turns all to gold -- "the faith that works by love, and purifies the heart." The Satanic tincture, that would turn the gold of the sanctuary into dross, is no secret to them. A stream pure as ever sparkled in the light of day is defiled and changed in passing through a foul swamp. A thought pure as sparkles in an angel's mind would be polluted in passing through such minds. Foul hands sully linen; an unclean mouth stains snow; a foul foot soils the mountain spring; -- so does an impure heart all it touches. One of the seraphim noticed by Isaiah is needed, with a live coal to lay upon such mouths, ere they shall cease to stain the word of God in the utterance. -- Isaiah 6:6, 7. They are as unfit for heaven as the devil. The golden streets would groan under them. Their breath would mildew the jasper walls, or taint the air of glory. The fire of God would check, banish or consume them; war would be in heaven once more. This is severe. But, as David said to his brother Eliab, "Is there not a cause?" Be warned, therefore. "Evil communications corrupt good manners," is a hint of Scripture.
4th. Let "a young beginner" hearken. -- You must learn to discriminate; that is, to distinguish, or make a difference, between religious characters. Professors differ. Make distinctions. Do not jumble them together as if they were all cast in the same mold, or were animated by the same spirit; else you will be tempted to think as I did when reading "Mosheim's Church History," that for Centuries there was not a real Christian in the church. That was an error. The church was in the wilderness. Historians did not live in the wilderness; but in "the city full," rather than in "the void waste." They were not familiar with God's secret ones, -
"Whose warfare was within. There, unfatigued, Their fervent spirits labored. There they fought, And there obtained fresh triumphs o'er themselves, And never-withering wreaths, compared with which The laurels that a Caesar reaped were weeds."
Not many Sauls among the prophets -- not many historians among those hidden warriors. How could they judge or write of those they knew not or heard not of; except to their prejudice? Mosheim gathered his "facts" from such. History admits of animadversions, [animated discussions] censures or criticisms, of the writer. He may be right, or he may be wrong or prejudiced. Study-life is apt to be speculative life, which often differs widely from real life and active life. People who always live in the city know little of the country; those who are always cloistered in the study know little of men -- books are studied more than men. Historians, like history, must be taken and judged in the historical sense; that is, in the circumstances of time and place under which they wrote. Church historians, as already hinted, knew little or nothing of the "hidden ones" of God. -- Psalm 83:3. They only MARKED the surface of society, and the upheavings of error, and the stream of church contentions, with its froth and its scum, and the prominent actors therein, who were more distinguished for their fiery zeal than for their personal piety. They did not see the seven thousand who had never bowed the knee to Baal, -- 1 Kings 19:18, -- a circumstance St. Paul took care to remember. -- Rom. 11:4 But all historians were not Pauls -- far from it. Nevertheless, the Lord has reserved to himself such thousands in all ages of the Christian church; and he has frequently hidden them, for a time, from the eyes of the multitude. The poet struck a chord which vibrates through all the past, as well as the present, and onward through time:
Believers have a silent field to fight, And their exploits are veiled from human sight: They, in some nook, where little known they dwell, Kneel, pray in faith, and root the hosts of hell; Eternal triumphs crown their toils divine!"
Ay! after weeping, praying and mourning, in secret, over the sins of their times, but living a life of faith, and purity, and love, they fell asleep in Jesus, successively, and escaped to paradise, leaving those who knew them best to write the sentiment on their tombs, or to engrave it on the tablet of their own affectionate memories:
"Laurels may flourish round the conqueror's tomb, But happier they who win the world to come; Eternal triumphs crown their toils divine, And all these triumphs, Christian, now are thine."
These remarks may guard you against wrong conclusions in your "Church History impressions." Similar views would have saved me from a temptation; but I was young and inexperienced. The same principles are applicable to the present age. Use them as your safeguards in the facts you relate. "All are not Israel who are of Israel." And all who are of Israel have not equal light on the subject of sanctification; with those who have had light, and improved it not, but retained it for speculation, it has spoiled on their hands, and bred worms of doubt, like the misused manna of old. -- Exodus 16:20.
You say, "Some doubt whether such a blessing is attainable until death. But by far the largest number admit its attainability in life and health; they seem to know all about the theory of holiness, and speak well of it, but when I ask whether they enjoy it, they say nothing, or confess that they do not. This discourages me, and holds me back. Why should I outstrip them? When I am equal with them in knowledge, then I may venture to surpass them in holiness." But is that a business principle? Do you intend to carry this modesty into your business operations? It would ruin you, most likely. There you must depend upon your own judgment, mainly -- must act from the individuality of your own character. Your neighbor's rule and habit will not do for you. Some, besides, know how business should be done, but are too indifferent or slothful to do it, while procrastination is the bane of others.
Your knowledge might be inferior to theirs, but it would be very foolish in you to follow their example; nor would you. No, indeed; you would plan and act for yourself; risk mistakes, and bid good-bye to modesty, and "go ahead," as they say on the other side of the waters, rather than risk the consequences of their procrastination. Why not do so in your religious matters? O my young brother, fall not into the folly which St. Paul shuddered at and condemned, when he said he dare not be of the number of those who measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves among themselves. Hew out for your own self your spiritual fortunes, according to the Scripture rule, regardless of the paltry rules of others. "What is that to thee? -- follow thou me," is the call of thy risen Lord. "Be ye holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy," should weigh more with you than the sentiments, example and experience, of millions such as you mention. There is much "head-knowledge" among our professors, regarding sanctification. The head has gone further than the heart with many of them. The experience of the heart has not kept pace with the knowledge of the head. They know more than they have ever enjoyed. The atmosphere of such is not healthy, unless they are rare persons indeed.
An old mathematician demonstrated of him who performed a journey round the world, that his head traveled several thousand miles more than his feet, as his head performed much the widest circle. He proved, also, that had his journey been to heaven, instead, his feet would have out-traveled his head.
This is no new problem in theology. I have often seen it demonstrated, and so have you, in the characters you mention. We meet with such every day, who, for years, have gone the circuit of theology, but it has always happened, somehow, that their heads have traveled faster and further than their hearts, -- their knowledge has out-gone their experience, especially in holiness.
However, we have something to set off against this fact. We have some, and they have increased to hundreds in this town within the last six weeks, whose hearts have kept equal pace with their heads in holiness. Nor would I undertake to prove that there are none among them whose hearts have not out-traveled their heads. St. Paul speaks of "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." -- Ephes. 3:19. There are few who experience full salvation who do not find the enjoyment of it to exceed the anticipation. And what is that but experience surpassing previous knowledge? -- the heart becoming tutor to the head? "There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." -- Job 32:8. There is an inspiration in PERFECT LOVE which gives lessons to the understanding, seldom, if ever, learned otherwise. What a change the soul undergoes when the body dies! Who among the living comprehends or conceives what it is? that surpasses knowledge, also. How great the change when the whole "body of sin" dies, and the soul is free from its influences! I never saw any one who allowed that his previous information upon the subject was equal to the actual experience.
The admission has been made; the heart of some out-travels the head. I like the idea. The heart is apt to prove deceitful, if the head leave it too far behind; like Peter, who followed his Lord afar off, and a woman involved him in trouble; his head was right, poor soul, but his heart failed him.
We have those among us who are not remarkable for "theological accuracy," -- the head may be at fault, now and then, nor does it offend them to hear of it; and the tongue, perhaps, unable to marshal its words in the exact theological order desired; but the heart, ay, the heart quite out-travels both head and tongue in the deep things of God. Their motions are not circular, like him who traveled round the world. They may never have gone, in abstract theology, the segment of a circle, as they say in geometry; nevertheless, Christianity, in its saving and purifying influences, has taken the entire circuit of their nature, subduing the whole to itself. Their hearts have gone further than their heads, but both are traveling heavenward; both will be equal by and by, and wiser than the wisest philosophers below, when they gain their crown above. Hallelujah!
However, let us praise the Lord, there are those among us whose head and heart travel together. They traverse the whole circle of theology, -- all that lies within the horizon of theological investigation, -- but the heart is never left behind. As one remarked, "Sanctification in the soul is a living spring, running with a kind of central force heavenward." Yes, and head and heart move together with the living spring! They are as familiar with the straight lines of holiness as with the circle of obedience. They have one direct aim, -- to glorify God; one desire, -- to be always happy in him; one endeavor, -- to please him who has called them from darkness to light, to please him in everything; one object, -- entire devotion to his will; one ambition, -- to be pure as he is pure, and holy as he is holy, and to love him with all their heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves; one absorbing desire, -- to sink as deep in pure, loving humility as the grace of God can sink them, and to rise in the joy of faith in perfect love and holiness, as the grace of God can exalt them; fully resolved to
"Urge their way through grace forgiven, To scale the mount of holiest love, And seize the brightest crown to heaven!
A noble ambition this! to obtain one of the first seats in glory. To use an idea of Mr. Fletcher, -- a constant, evangelical striving to have ministered unto them an abundant entrance into the heavenly kingdom, and a throne among the peculiarly redeemed, who sing the new song which none could learn save those who were without fault, and who followed the Lamb whithersoever he went. -- Rev. 14:1, 5.
They belong to that succession, the true succession of holy souls, of which our poor earth has never had a superfluity, but which it has never entirely lacked.
They are "the regular liners," to use a sea-phrase; which steer straight for the port of heaven, over the ocean of life, as the New York and Liverpool line of packet-ships cross the Atlantic straight to the destined port, and having nothing to do with the coasting trade.
To alter the figure once more: like Abraham, they walk up and down in the length and breadth of the Canaan of perfect love. -- Gen. 13:17. Caleb-like, they said, long ago, "Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are able to overcome it." And so, like him and a host of others, they passed over this Jordan, and possessed the land." And, like them, true to their principle, -- faith in the immediate power of God, in accordance with his promise, -- they took no round-about way to enter the land of holiest love, but went straight forward through the swellings of Jordan, undaunted by difficulties and perils. They were not submerged nor overwhelmed; opposition gave way, the obedient waters divided before them, like Jordan, and they passed over dry shod unto the land that flowed with milk and honey, and thus possessed their promised rest. There they abide to this day. Their numbers are increasing in this town daily. More than four hundred purified souls have joined them within a few weeks. Hundreds more are all in readiness to leave the wilderness side of Jordan to enter the promised land,
"Where dwells the Lord our righteousness, Who keeps his own in perfect peace, And everlasting rest."
