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BY A PASTOR.
CHAPTER III.----"CALLED TO BE SAINTS."
In my last counsel to you,
I stated frankly the kind of men whom I thought would give me a hearing,
and listen, at least, perhaps kindly, to my words.
Assuming that I now address
such, my reader probably exclaims—"Well, what have you to say? Out with it
at once, that we may know what all this is about! The old story, I
suppose, of religion; and the old advice, that we young men being all
sinners ought to be saints, and look solemn, and talk cant, and go to
church, and read our Bibles, and be good boys, and give up everything
agreeable; deny ourselves whatever is pleasant to the body, and to the
soul, also, for aught we know —in short, make ourselves as miserable as
possible in this world, in order to secure happiness of some mystical kind
somewhere or other after we die ! Is this what you want ? Please, don't go
about the bush; but if so, speak it out like a man." Believe me, I have no
wish "to go about the bush;" as it seems to me no great compliment to your
sense or intellect to do so. I shall also endeavour to "speak out like a
man." Will you also endeavour to listen like one?
Now, I tell you at once,
that I would not spend precious time in addressing you, except for the
sole object of making you saints. Yes ! do not read the words with either
wonder or impatience, though you and I, doubtless, attach a very different
meaning to them; and what I mean shall be explained in due time. At
present, I merely express and repeat my most earnest desire to make you,
my reader, a saint; or, if you prefer another phraseology, to make you a
good man, in the true sense of the term. May I beg, therefore—the trouble
to you is very small-—not to lay aside this paper with dislike,
indifference, or an affected yawn, as much as to say, ''I think this will
keep cold," &c.; or, "I have pretty much made up my mind—and I suppose I
have a right to do so, without interference from other people — to leave
this subject alone at present. I don't wish, however, to trouble you or
others with my ideas on the point, nor do I wish to be bored about it
myself." I am sorry to "bore" you, or add to your cares ; but as I have,
during life, met many who once spoke just as you now do, but who
afterwards thanked God that others, who had their interests at heart a
great deal more than they themselves had, did trouble and "bore" them, I
shall not be dissuaded from addressing you. Yet let me here say that it is
this want of consideration—this determined recklessness as to what even
may be true, this dogged resolution not to think, this, what I must call,
abject moral cowardice— which is by far the most dangerous and deadly
feature in the character of many young men. Let me only find one who will
honestly and bravely think; who is not afraid to meet such questions as
are involved in this great one of "religion;" and I have every hope that
good and peace must come in the end; because a seeking spirit must find.
But I can discover no hope for the man who wilfully and obstinately shuts
his eyes to whatever, if true, would tend to make him give up his own
sinful way. Such a disposition is itself a wickedness that deserves to be
punished by moral blindness and hardness of heart.
Reader, will you think?
Will you think seriously and patiently on the subject I mean to bring
before you, and which involves your personal responsibility and duty to
God?
I have already stated that
my earnest purpose is to induce you to become "saints." Perhaps this seems
to some of you very extravagant, or even very amusing, from its apparent
absurdity; at all events, utterly impracticable. I am not the least
astonished if you think so; for had I the notions which some people, and
probably you yourselves, attach to the word "saint" I would acquiesce in
this judgment. What these notions are to which I allude, you already, I
daresay, conjecture with tolerable accuracy.
The Roman Catholic Church
boasts of saints without number. Their name is legion in her calendar. It
is a standing joke in Italy, how some families have been beggared from the
number of sinners, and others from the number of saints. In the one case
they had to pay heavy fines to the Church for crime; in the other, as
heavy fees for canonisation. The result in either ease was, that the
Church became more wealthy, and the families bankrupt.
The idea of what
constitutes saintship in the Popish Church has influenced our minds more
than we are aware of. This arises partly from the fact that the word saint
has, in latter ages, been used almost exclusively by the Roman Catholic
Church; while the Protestant Church, owing to the shocking abuse of the
name by Papists, has dropped it out of its ordinary vocabulary, though
seeking, under God, to realise its Scripture idea, expressed, however, by
a different phraseology, such as "good man," "pious man," "true
Christian," &c.
Yet, after all, we cannot
get quit of the word. It is enshrined in our English translation of the
Scriptures, and lives among our most sacred associations. It is familiar
to our ears in sermons, and to our eye in works of piety. Let us retain
it, then, but endeavour to have such an understanding of its meaning as
the apostles had.
Is such the understanding
of the Popish Church regarding it ? Ought its saints to be our models? In
asking every young man to become a "saint" in whatever walk of life he may
be, and whatever lawful trade or profession he may follow, can we direct
him to the "Lives of the Saints," or to those of the Christian heroes of
Rome, and say, "Such persons you ought to imitate?" Now, we all know how
saintship in the Church of Rome is associated with the wildest
extravagances and peculiarities; with separation from the world and the
business of life in monasteries or nunneries, caves and dens of the earth;
or with bodily tortures, starvations, scourgings, and every species of
ingenious agony—unequalled, except among the degraded and superstitious
fakirs of India. And is this, or anything like this, to be our standard of
moral excellence? Even Protestantism is not free from this tendency. Good,
sensible men and women in every section of the Church often manifest a
decided tendency to associate saintship with something essentially outre,
out-of-the-way, peculiar, in dress or manner; in coat or beard, in cant
phrase or look, shaven crown or sandal foot, emaciated cheek or cast-down
eyes—something, in short, that marks an exclusive caste, as wide apart in
outward appearance and manner from other good men, as the material church
fabric in the street differs in appearance from the busy shops with which
it is surrounded. Accordingly, if the idea is suggested that a cabdriver
or huxter, a waiter or boots, a railway guard or engine-driver, an
able-bodied sailor or boatswain's mate, a commonplace tradesman or
chimney-sweep, a bustling salesman or plodding merchant, a gallant officer
or high-bred country gentlemen, a young clerk or young student, may be a
saint—a saint in the sight of God and angels—a "Saint James," or "Saint
John," or " Saint Peter," in the real sense in which these very apostles
themselves were saints, or those persons in the Churches to whom the
apostles addressed their several epistles,—I believe there are many
intelligent Christians who would deem the very supposition almost
irreverent or profane. "What!" methinks I hear some pious man or woman
exclaim, ''a cabdriver a saint! a waiter or boots at an hotel a saint! a
dashing officer a saint! Shocking! it seems like the mockery of
infidelity!" Now, can anything prove more clearly than this the kind of
notions which possess people's minds regarding saintship? Yet their
absurdity is the element in them least to be feared or regretted; for they
are in the very highest degree detrimental to true religion, and most
injurious to the spread of genuine piety. For what is it which you, who
have these ideas of saintship, practically deny to the vast mass of
society? On the one hand you open the Bible, and tell them, in apostolic
language, that they and all men are "called to be saints," and prove from
its pages, as you may certainly do, that there is no distinction in kind
recognised in Scripture between saints and true Christians of every degree
of goodness; that all who hear the gospel must be saints, or for ever
lost; that, in short, they must be saints or devils; and, on the other
hand, you turn round to the multitude, and say to them, "While it is
ordained of God that, as long as the world lasts, millions of men and
women must fulfil certain callings in society, and be busily occupied in
the hard work of life, yet you cannot be true 'saints' while so engaged,
unless you separate yourselves from the mass of mankind, by becoming
priests or bishops, ministers or missionaries, and wear a 'saintly' dress,
follow some 'saintly' occupation, or assume a 'saintly' manner; at all
events, cease to drive coaches, or brush boots, or sweep chimneys, or to
buy and sell, plant or build, fight as brave soldiers or sailors, or
labour in such 'worldly vocations.'" Could the devil's work on earth be
better helped than by such intensely false ideas of saintship? Young men!
if you have been impressed by them, I wonder not that you should protest
vehemently against them!
And yet remember that
saints we must be, and therefore, thank God, saints we 'may be. We are
"called to be saints," and nothing lower than this in character or
dignity. We are to be " made meet for the inheritance of the saints in
light;" for no other inheritance, unless that of sin and misery, can be
ours. There is but one kind of character which can be called "good"—one
kind for earth and heaven, for men and angels—because there is but one
kind of moral perfection in that God whose image we all bear, and to hold
fellowship with whom we are all created. As sure as He is One in all
worlds and in all ages, so is moral excellence one. We must, then, I
repeat it, be saints—not must as a "sad necessity," but as a glorious
necessity, which springs out of the immense love of God in creating us for
the perfection of character and of happiness which He Himself possesses.
Let us, then, briefly consider in what saintship consists.
From what I have said, it
is clear that it may be defined as likeness to God—being one with Him in
character, or, what is the same thing, "having the mind that was in Christ
Jesus," who is one with the Father. But, to make this more clear to those
who have not considered it seriously hitherto, and who therefore may
possibly think this definition too abstract or "mystical," I shall
describe saintship as consisting in right being, right doing, and right
enjoying.
(1.) It is right being, or,
if you prefer the expression, being right. This describes the true
condition of the inner man, the moral life and health of the soul, which
must precede all outward action. It is the good quality of the tree which
is essential to its bringing forth good fruit, the purity of the fountain
ere its streams can be pure.
If you ask me what is
"right being," or "being right," I reply that the phrase has primary and
special reference to the relation of our being to God—to what we think and
know of Him, and how we feel towards Him. If this is wrong, all is wrong.
If this is right, all is right in principle, and comes right in fact. God
has made us and redeemed us, that we might for ever possess the highest
good and joy possible for a creature; in other words, that we might
possess that which is His own good and joy. And what is this but to know
and love Himself! This is the realisation of the highest perfection. I
know how dimly we see this, how little we feel it, how indifferently we
seek after it, because sin has blinded us, degraded us, robbed us of our
birthright, and made us almost insensible to our loss. Heirs to a throne,
we prefer, like beggars, our rags and our hovel; "king's sons embrace
dunghills." Like prodigals, we prefer the swine and the husks to our
father's home. Like criminals to whom vice is an ingrained habit, we may
see no beauty, no happiness, in a life of pure and high moral character.
Like those accustomed to bad society, the thought has no charm, and fires
no ambition, of our being brought into the most exalted society, and made
capable of enjoying the true, the beautiful, and the good, with the
interchanges of perfect social love for ever!
And yet God never so leaves
Himself without a witness in the soul of man, but that it will respond in
some degree to the declaration that man's right being must consist in
friendship towards the Perfect One—in looking up to Him in peace as to a
reconciled father—in perceiving with our own spirits how good and glorious
He is in Himself, in all He is and does—in sympathy with His mind and
will—in rejoicing in Him and with Him—. and in being able to say truly,
because feeling it truly, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven!"
I shall not discuss here
the practical and all-important question as to how this right state of
mind towards God can be produced. Let me rather press home the preliminary
point at issue on my reader—the absolute necessity of the existence in him
of this state of mind towards God, before he can possibly have true peace.
I do not ask when, or where, or how this is to be obtained. Were it so
that, not in this present evil world, but in some different, as yet
unknown, region of the universe—that not now, but in some future
millennial age—that not by any moral discipline which earth affords, but
by some untried process in another state of belief—this love to God is to
become an abiding, living power in the heart; yet, nevertheless, as true
as there is a God, and an eternal, unchangeable right and wrong for all
responsible beings, and for all worlds, so true is it that love to God,
whenever or however obtained, is the only right condition of the soul, the
only realisation of the end for which it was created, and the only
conceivable source of its true, enduring happiness. Love alone is
salvation and heaven; because love alone is right. Were it possible,
therefore, to demonstrate the falsehood of the alleged facts of the
Christian religion, even this would not destroy the eternal necessity of
religion itself, so long as God and man existed in the universe. The
extinction of Christianity, if that were conceivable, would, no doubt,
annihilate the only means hitherto known to us by which this religion of
love to God has been actually realised by all who have availed themselves
of its power. Yet this would not alter the constitution of the moral
universe, which has for ever linked, by indissoluble chains, happiness to
right, and misery to wrong. Destroy the bridge, if you can, which spans
the moral gulf separating us from God, yet the gulf separating us from God
must be crossed, if we are ever to meet. Destroy the lifeboat which can
alone bring us to the shore of love and rest, yet the shore must be
reached, or we perish in the unfathomable abyss! Let this necessity,
therefore, of being "saints," become only a deep conviction, and thi3 will
invest the question of "how?" with tenfold interest. It will prepare your
mind to receive the teaching of Christ, not as a series of dead doctrines
printed on the page of a dead book, to be accepted as dead opinions, but
as a teaching of life and death ; as that which, if received in faith and
love, will produce in you the very state of being which you cannot but
recognise to be right in truth, even when you fail to realise it in fact.
The revelation of Jesus will flash upon you in demonstration of the
Spirit, and with power. A personal Saviour, and not a myth or an
abstraction, presenting Himself to you as the object of your love, because
one worthy of it from His perfect character and supreme dignity;—a Saviour,
revealing His love to you personally as a lost sinner, and irrespective of
anything attractive in your character, or anything in you except your
wickedness, and misery, and need, calculated to excite His deepest
interest;—a Saviour, dying for you, the chief of sinners, on the cross,
and in that, above all, revealing a matchless love which freely pardons
sin, and reconciles every man who will believe in it to God;—a Saviour,
who will give to all who ask Him the Holy Spirit, to be their instructor
in spiritual things, and to teach them, above all, to know and to love God
as their Father in Christ;—this Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, will
become your light and life, if you sincerely desire to be right towards
God as He Himself was ; for Jesus died and lives for evermore, to make us
partakers of this His own blessedness. What is there mysterious, or
mystical, or unreasonable, or hard in this ? Again and again we repeat it,
and force it on your conscience, as your very life—-you must be right
towards God. If you are not so, you must ''repent" of the wrong, and be
"converted" to the right; you must give up the ''unregenerated" heart of
enmity, which, though "natural," is yet so unnatural, and have the
"regenerated" heart of loving as a little child. This is the religion
which is necessarily demanded from every man, whatever be his rank or
employment in life, and whatever be his country or his clime. The poor
negro, and the high-born peer; the prelate before the altar, or the
peasant '' sweating in the eye of Phoebus;" Lazarus among the dogs, or
David on the throne; the young man in the heyday of his health, or the old
patriarch, blind and tottering, must all be saints, by loving God, and,
therefore, being right towards Him, or perish, by remaining, as they are,
under the fearful doom of a heart without genuine and abiding love to God
and to one another: For this is hell. Reject Christ and His Spirit, and
your responsibility remains unchanged, and unchangeable, of becoming
saints. But by what other method or instrumentality this is to be produced
I know not, for I know of no other name, or power, by which men can be
thus saved, but the name of Jesus.
(2.) It is needless here to
illustrate at any length the second point, or that of right doing towards
others. Our being right towards our fellow-men, will follow necessarily
from our being right towards God. The life which expresses itself in the
higher relationship must do so in the lower. A loving soul cannot possibly
love God only, though supremely. Truly to love justice, mercy, truth,
goodness, as seen in God, is one and the same thing with ourselves being
just, merciful, truthful, good. If so, our fellow-men will be treated by
us in accordance with our character and likings. When we are right towards
God, the centre, we are thereby brought into a right relationship to every
other point within it, or in the vast circumference of universal being.
''He who loves God, loves his brother also." A certain kind and degree of
morality may exist without religion, but no religion can exist without
morality. ''This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." |
