Chapter V: Part 5

May those who have been so far misled as to become either hostile or indifferent to their Church now do tardy justice to her, which, through good report and evil report, is still true to her righteous and holy cause, and dispenses through the land the light and blessing of the Gospel of peace: may those who love, cherish, and venerate the religion of their fathers—the Church of their God—approve themselves zealous and faithful sons; our Zion requires active, stanch, vigilant, and experienced defenders: her enemies are numerous, persevering, powerful, malignant, implacable; their attacks are sometimes open, sometimes insidious, but always skilfully planned, and ably conducted; still, whilst the Church continues true to God and His Christ, she has nothing to fear, for “greater is He who is for her than he who is against her.” “The Lord is her shield and buckler,” and Christ has promised to be always, even unto the end of the world, with his Church, which is founded on the rock of faith, and against which “the gates of hell shall not prevail:” in humble, but firm reliance, therefore, upon Him, of whose mystical body she forms a portion, the Church of England, amid the strifes of political changes, amid the distractions of civil contentions, amid the storms of popular clamour and fury, remains stedfast through faith, and joyful through hope:

“As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,
Tho’ round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.”

Whilst, however, we rely with firm and holy confidence upon the Great Author and Finisher of our Faith, for the protection and preservation of His Church; zeal, energy, and discretion, in defence of religion, are not the less requisite in believers, who labour under their Heavenly Master for the furtherance of His Gospel. As the Almighty is pleased to employ human agents for the accomplishment of His gracious designs towards His creatures; His faithful servants hoping to prove instruments, in His hands, of good to their fellow men, must use every means in their power to frustrate the evil designs of the enemies of the Lord; and to induce a sinful nation, suffering under a Divine visitation, to put away from them “the evil of their ways,” which has called down the Divine displeasure; and humbling themselves before God to implore His mercy, “that the plague may be stayed from the people.” {154} Let, then, all the servants of the Lord, at this alarming and awful crisis, “be very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts;” {155} and pray and labour incessantly for the defeat of the devices of unbelief; which, whether under the form of an irreligious spirit seeking to do without Christianity, or under the bolder aspect of open infidelity, striving to subvert Christianity, is the main cause of the evils which now endanger the safety of the civil and religious institutions of the kingdom. We have seen that, in the case of the lower classes of society, the tide of profaneness has been setting in with a force and fury which threaten to overturn all the defences of religion, morals, and laws, which have long withstood their fierce assaults—their destructive ravages. Can it be that the emissaries of Satan shall be found more zealous and indefatigable in disseminating the poison which is to destroy both body and soul, than the servants of God are vigilant, active, and unwearied, to prevent the bane or supply the antidote? Can it be that the slaves of sin and darkness, under the galling yoke of him who is a hard master, will manifest a more willing and prompt obedience, than the servants of God, in the cause of their blessed Lord, whose “burden is light,”—“whose service is perfect freedom?” We have seen, also, that in the middle and higher classes of society there appears to be an equally effective, though less conspicuous, agent at work—a deep and silent current, which is gradually, though secretly, undermining that great foundation of Christianity, that the law of God is to be the rule of life. This great engine of evil, as more insidious, is, in reality, more dangerous than the noisy turbulence of infidel assemblies, or the open circulation of blasphemous publications; the power of the spirit of darkness, when, “as a roaring lion he walketh about seeking whom he may devour,” is less to be dreaded, than when he employs the noiseless gliding of “the serpent,” which discovers itself only by the sting of death. Can it be that any of the friends of religion will shut their ears against these representations of great and alarming danger—delude themselves with the groundless anticipations of unjustifiable hope—deceive themselves with the distant plans of culpable procrastination—or shroud themselves beneath the covering of indolent supineness and heartless indifference? Too long palliatives have been employed instead of remedies, expediency has been substituted for principle, and worldly wisdom has encroached upon the province of Divine Revelation. As a Christian nation our laws and institutions should be all essentially Christian; the foreign and domestic policy of the State, and the public and private conduct of individuals, should be all animated by a Christian spirit, and guided by Christian rules and precedents.

Let us, therefore, enquire by what means is the predominance of Christianity to be restored, when it is threatened with still further depression; when it has great and powerful enemies all plotting its destruction in this country?

There is one mean—to which reference has been already made, as being the great object the believer should have in view—which would, with the blessing of God, upon whom alone dependence must rest for success against His enemies, be effectual in accomplishing this great end, and that is the zealous and unanimous co-operation of all Christians for the general diffusion of true religion, sound learning, and useful knowledge. A very brief examination into the cause which has contributed largely to the present state of things, so unfavourable to the interests of genuine Christianity, may suffice to place this in a clear point of view.

Religious error generally receives its distinguishing features from the literary character of the age: and an age which abounds with sciolists is very fertile in sceptics. For it has been always found that the effect of superficial knowledge is rather to unsettle, of profound knowledge to confirm, belief in Revelation; as was well observed by that mighty master in philosophy, Bacon, who says, “a little philosophy inclines us to atheism, and a great deal of philosophy carries us back to religion.” And the reason of this is obvious; there are certain difficulties of every subject which lie upon, or nearly at, the surface; slight labour and research, therefore, put the enquirer in possession of little more than those difficulties; whilst if the spirit of patient and accurate investigation had carried him further, he would have found them gradually disappear before the light of truth breaking by degrees upon his mind, and leading him to just and certain conclusions, drawn from a long series of proofs. Now the present age appears to be characterized by a wide diffusion of elementary knowledge amongst all classes of society; by a preference of an extensive, though necessarily superficial, acquaintance with general literature and the elements of modern science, to an accurate and profound knowledge of a few leading branches of study; and by a tendency to elevate the pursuit of physical above that of moral and religious truth. From the proposition laid down, of the ordinary effects of superficial knowledge upon the mind in the investigation of religious truth, we should conclude, that such a system of popular instruction is calculated to indispose towards the full reception of a Divine Revelation; that the mind, either bewildered by a variety of pursuits, or dissatisfied by diversity of opinions, will consider all knowledge uncertain, and all theories unsatisfactory; or influenced by that intellectual pride and presumption which are amongst the most bitter fruits of defective knowledge, deem itself competent to decide summarily upon whatever passes under its observation. For if it has been found—as it has been too often found—that minds, otherwise highly gifted, but destitute of religious principles, when long accustomed to demonstration, are apt to underrate the value of moral proof; and when long familiar with natural causes, sometimes forget the great Architect, who formed and put in motion our globe; sometimes forget the great First Cause, which gave nature her powers and properties, and now preserves and directs them to a beneficial end: what must we expect when far inferior minds, without mental discipline and profound knowledge, those happy results of laborious and patient study; but with vanity flattered by appeals made to its judgment, and with pride fostered by the acquisition of a poor modicum of science, deem themselves competent not merely to decide upon the most difficult questions of government and legislation, but upon the most profound truths of natural and revealed religion? The result may be easily anticipated; if this empty vanity, this presumptuous pride of intellect, reject not Christianity at once, it ordinarily takes an heretical direction, and assuming the specious guise of love of investigation, and value for the powers of reason, it makes the deep and awful mysteries of our holy faith the subject of crude theories and daring speculations; and with powers confessedly unequal to the explanation of some of the lowest wonders of the material world, seeks to penetrate within the veil drawn around the Godhead, and reduce to the level of human comprehension the very nature of the Divine essence. Should it, however, take one step further, and that an easy step, it rejects the truths it had long distorted, it resigns the shadow of which it had never known the substance, and declaring Christianity to be “a cunningly devised fable,” it becomes the advocate of heartless, hopeless infidelity.

This is no imaginary picture, but one, of the reality and fidelity of which the present state of society affords too abundant proof. Not that superficial acquaintance with science is a thing of new occurrence; not that pride of intellect—ever a luxuriant weed in rich but ill-cultivated soils,—is a growth peculiar to our times; not that heresy and infidelity, its bitterest fruits, never till now spread their poison through our land; but never before was the field so large, the weeds more rank, and the crop so abundant. Formerly, science flowed in a few deep and noble rivers, of whose copious waters the nation at large sparingly drank; we still have many rich streams which fertilize the land, but in addition to them there is an infinity of small rivulets, some of which, like mountain torrents, after a thunder-storm, are brawling and turbulent, covered with much foam, mixed with much impurity, often rising over their banks, and spreading havoc and barrenness, where all was fertility and beauty. Such streams may serve to illustrate the effects, upon society, of the violence and turbulence of those, whose imperfect acquaintance with science has first shaken their own belief, and has then been made instrumental to the spread of infidel doctrines, amongst those who had lived in happy ignorance of “science, falsely so called.” But would any one, therefore, be so unwise as to endeavour to keep these turbulent brooks pent up? The destruction would be only wider and heavier when they at last burst over the mounds that restrained them: but it is at once the course of wisdom and of humanity to confine them within their banks, and give them a due direction, and then, as they descend towards the plain, gradually the brawling ceases, the froth disappears, the mud subsides, and you have a pure and quiet stream diffusing the riches, refreshment, and beauty of science over the land. No calumny has, perhaps, been more frequently repeated in the present day than that those who expose the perversion, are the enemies of science. But in spite of interested clamour and unjust censure, the Christian is bound to maintain, that knowledge is valuable in the degree in which it makes men not merely wiser but better: and that however he may approve of literary and scientific pursuits, however ready he may be to extol their value, for great indeed is their value, still their highest value is in proving subsidiary to the acquisition of Christian knowledge. Whilst, therefore, he recommends their attainment, because they are calculated to enlighten and invigorate the mind, correct and refine the taste, exalt and dignify the character, to supply a rational and unfailing source of relaxation and enjoyment, he must ever maintain, that unless hallowed with some portion of that “wisdom which is from above,” they will be useless to their possessor, and may, by a mischievous perversion, not only be fatal to his present and future happiness, but injurious to the best interests of a community.

That the extension of education has contributed to the production of such evils is true, but it is not less true, that education is not fairly chargeable with accidental and separable consequences. The fault has been, that the provision for the religious instruction of the age, notwithstanding the zeal and activity shewn to accomplish this great object, has not increased in the same ratio with that for its advancement in literature and science. The supply of the mental wants of the middle and lower classes of society, which have received this powerful impulsion towards knowledge, has been too much in the hands of those who avowedly exclude religion from their system of popular education. Thus, a much neglected soil has been broken up, and prepared for cultivation, but “whilst men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares in the field;” the Lord’s labourers, however, are not therefore to desert the field, but to employ, for the future, more watchful vigilance, more earnest zeal, and more assiduous labour. There is no benefit nor blessing which is not capable of perversion and abuse; but it would be a strange act of folly to refuse a manifest advantage, through fear of contingent evil, both the prevention and correction of which are in our own power. “The almost universal diffusion of elementary knowledge furnishes the enemies of revealed religion with abundant materials to work upon: but then it also furnishes the friends of truth with the obvious means of counteracting the influence of erroneous doctrines, and of instilling sounder principles into the bulk of the community. Any attempt to suppress, or even to check, the spirit of inquiry, which is abroad in the world, would not only be a vain and fruitless attempt, but a violation of the indefeasible liberty of the human mind, and an interference with its natural constitution. To impart to that spirit a right direction, to sanctify it with holy motives, to temper it to righteous purposes, to shape it to ends which lie beyond the limits of this beginning of our existence, will be the endeavour of those who desire to make the cultivation of intellect conducive to moral improvement, and to establish the kingdom of Christ at once in the understanding and affections of mankind.” {164}

Let, then, all the friends of religion employ some portion of their time, their influence, and their wealth, in zealously labouring to promote a general diffusion of true religion, sound learning, and useful knowledge. Let them be assured that the mental cultivation of the population of a country, when properly conducted, will, by elevating the moral character, always have a beneficial influence upon society; that it can only be properly conducted when religion forms the basis of the system of instruction; and that the present ardent thirst for knowledge will be productive of lasting evil or good to the best interests of England, accordingly as it is, or is not, directed as to an object of paramount importance, to that fountain of “living water” which floweth for our salvation.

When religion has been made the basis of education, and the principles of revelation have been clearly understood, and cordially embraced, a slight acquaintance with science not only ceases to have any injurious effect upon the mind, but benefits it, as the acquisition of useful knowledge must always do: in the humility, faith, stability, and knowledge of true religion, there is a safe-guard against the evils usually attendant upon a superficial acquaintance with natural philosophy in minds ill-disciplined and ill-informed. Nor is it only that physical science benefits minds early imbued with religious principles; a knowledge of many of its departments opens a new and unfailing source of high and pure enjoyment; it supplies, as it were, a new sense: before, Creation presented a beautiful and varied picture, delighting the eye, and filling the heart with gladness. But it was in a degree like the picture of a great master, to one unacquainted with painting; the general beauty, and happiness of effect, were discoverable, but there was not the full satisfaction which the connoisseur derives from his knowledge of the art; upon the former, the general effect principally makes an impression; with the latter, not only the general effect, but all the variety of details, all the happy combinations, which have united to produce that effect, are seen, understood, and appreciated; and there results the high gratification felt by a cultivated mind, when the eye is pleased, the understanding exercised, and the judgment satisfied. However inadequate every illustration, drawn from art, must be to convey any just conception of the impression which the works of nature are calculated to make upon the enlightened mind; still this may afford a faint parallel of the advantage which scientific men possess over those who have never studied the book of nature. For physical science improves the perception of the beauties, whilst it unfolds the wonders, of creation: not only do the great results of nature’s works become, through it, better understood; but the causes and modes of operation, by which those results are accomplished, are discovered: and the student becomes more full of delight and admiration, the further his researches extend; he traces the nice connexion, which every where exists between causes and effects; and surveys, with wonder and praise, the beautiful contrivances, the admirable adaptations, the perfect harmony, which reign throughout the creation of God. His mind thus becomes deeply and powerfully impressed with the uniform perfection visible in the works of the Deity: if he observe with his telescope a planet,—one of those bright bodies which gem the canopy of heaven,—or examine with his microscope an insect,—one of the minutest beings which sport in the summer’s sunshine,—he still sees the same perfection; “those rolling fires on high” perform their appointed revolutions, in their several orbits, directed by unvarying laws; and the tiny insect, equally complete in its organization, exercises, with an instinct as unerring, its allotted functions.

The whole material universe supplies the student of nature with a rich field, at once, of investigation and enjoyment: the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms, all disclose their treasures to his inquiring mind; which is not, however, limited by the narrow bounds of our terraqueous globe, but ranges through the fields of ether, far as the eye can penetrate into the distant regions of illimitable space. Throughout he is delighted to trace the hand of the Creator; to observe every where design and arrangement; nothing superfluous, nothing in vain, but the mighty machinery of a stupendous system; in the great principles of which there is sublime simplicity, in their operations unvarying accuracy and matchless contrivance, in their details endless variety and infinite combinations, and in their effects utility, beauty, grandeur, and magnificence. The works of the Almighty far exceed the full comprehension of finite intelligence, but much further do they transcend adequate description in uninspired language: man feels all his feebleness of intellect and of expression, when he attempts to penetrate deeply into, or to describe accurately, the mighty works of God; he is then constrained to confess, “such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me; I cannot attain unto it.” {167} “Oh Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches; so is the great and wide sea also.” {168a} “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handy-work.” {168b} “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together, as it were upon an heap, and layeth up the deep, as in a treasure-house. Let the earth fear the Lord: stand in awe of Him, all ye that dwell in the world. For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” {168c} And he breaks forth in the devout hymn of the Psalmist; “Praise the Lord, oh my soul: oh Lord my God, Thou art become exceeding glorious: Thou art clothed with majesty and honour. Thou deckest Thyself with light, as it were with a garment: and spreadest out the heavens like a curtain. Who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters, and maketh the clouds His chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind.”

When philosophy is thus sanctified by Christianity, the volume of nature presents, after the volume of inspiration, the most instructive and delightful study of man; in both he can read, as if written by a sun-beam, the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of the Most High. Would, then, any wish to debar others from the high intellectual feast which nature bountifully spreads before all, and of which she pressingly invites all to partake? Such would be to limit or to divert the streams of Divine bounty, whilst flowing in their proper channels: such would be to make a monopoly of one of heaven’s best and freest gifts to man, whilst a pilgrim in this world of woe,—the admonitions which nature addressing to the enlightened and thoughtful mind,

“Leads it upward to a brighter day.”

Would any say, Gaze as long as you like upon the beauties and wonders of nature, but attempt not to explore its hidden secrets—to examine the latent springs of its vast and complicated machinery? Such would be, as if a man possessing a curious and exquisite piece of mechanism were to direct the observers to remark the beauty of the material, the regularity of the movements, and the certainty of the results, and yet to forbid them to examine into the principle of construction and the mode of operation, on which those movements and that certainty depend. For the proportion, in which he who has studied the structure of the globe, the wonderful mechanism of the universe, as far as Revelation and reason have enabled men to go, derives from its contemplation greater enjoyment and instruction than he who treads the earth, traverses the seas, and gazes upon the heavens, ignorant of all philosophy can teach, is the same as that in which he who understands mechanics receives greater pleasure and information, than he who understands them not, from examining the process of a masterly application of the powers of that science.

Let, therefore, the knowledge of physical science be widely diffused, but let the basis of Christian principles be first laid; for thus not only may the evil of scepticism be provided against, but the field of moral and intellectual enjoyment and improvement will be enlarged to the student; for never does the study of the material universe more elevate the mind, and expand the heart, than when we are accustomed to refer every thing to a great and gracious Creator,—to look habitually

“Through nature up to nature’s God.”

“We know that there is a superficial philosophy, which casts the glare of a most seducing brilliancy around it; and spurns the Bible, with all the doctrine and all the piety of the Bible, away from it; and has infused the spirit of Antichrist into many of the literary establishments of the age: but it is not the solid, the profound, the cautious spirit of that philosophy, which has done so much to ennoble the modern period of our world; for the more that this spirit is cultivated and understood, the more will it be found in alliance with that Spirit, in virtue of which all that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God is humbled, and all lofty imaginations are cast down, and every thought of the heart is brought into the captivity of the obedience of Christ.” {171}

The first great principle, therefore, which all must steadily keep in view and strenuously advocate, is that _the Bible should form the basis of education_. It is not sufficient to say, that education is to be conducted on religious principles, for on the subject of religion there exists, in this day, a most unfortunate and mischievous variety of opinions, which would be much diminished if the Holy Scriptures were made the real, as they are the professed, groundwork of every system of Christian instruction. Two other great principles, which the true servants of God should strongly recommend and enforce, as being intimately and necessarily connected with the first—that the Bible is to be the basis of education,—are, that _the Bible is to be the rule of faith_, _and the guide of public and private life_. From a neglect of these three great principles of Christian conduct, it is hardly too much to say, that almost all the evils which afflict society have arisen: for they all reciprocate, and mutually contribute to their common perpetuation. The man of the world educates his son in the way best calculated to promote his temporal advancement: and that son, in his turn, when he becomes a father, is regardless of the eternal interests of his child, which he has never been taught to value. For the system begun in childhood is continued through all the stages of life; and “the spirit returns unto God who gave it,” having been occupied almost to the last moment of human existence with the pursuit of worldly advantage and enjoyment. Here we have, consequently, only the name of Christianity; for neither do its motives influence, nor its rules guide the conduct: there may be the external form, but there is not the power of godliness; there may be the cold and lifeless statue, there is not the living Christian, possessed of intelligence, volition, and motion, and animated by faith and hope,—the origin, exercise, and direction of which belong to the Spirit of God. This is a necessary consequence of that neglect of the Bible, which has been already noticed as being such a prolific source of error. There is very general in the world a standard of faith and morals, which Scripture does not recognize, and a reliance upon Divine mercy, which Scripture does not sanction. Thus the world calls vices venial, which Scripture says shall exclude from heaven; and the world speaks peace, where Scripture pronounces woe. Take, however, the life of a large body of men, trace it from the cradle to the grave; observe in childhood its toys, in boyhood its sports, in youth its pleasures, in manhood its occupations and enjoyments, and in age its employments; all in succession deemed of supreme importance, and the excessive indulgence of which has never been considered criminal: then take the Bible, and compare the survey you have made with what it reveals of the nature and object of man’s probation; and the conclusion will force itself irresistibly and painfully upon you, that as life is to be a state of moral discipline to fit the heir of immortality for his bright inheritance, the life, which has been depicted, is not that which will lead to the blessed mansions of heaven.

Against this spurious Christianity, let the friends of true religion every where raise their voice, for like a currency of base coin, it is not only without value in itself, but deludes its possessor with the false idea of possessing wealth. Let them point out the folly and the danger of receiving religious opinions from the world, instead of from God’s book; for as the light of the sun is coloured by the stained glass through which it passes, so the rays of Divine truth, being tinged by the perverted medium through which they are received, may deceive those who imagine they are enjoying the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. And let them warn all against walking by another’s light,—though he may appear “a shining and a burning light”—instead of searching for themselves the lively oracles of Scripture; it may be, as in the case of a party in a dark and dangerous cavern, where few only possess lamps, that the whole may proceed in safety; but surely the security is not so great as if each possessed his own lamp; and great would be the folly of him, who warned of the danger, and assured of the necessity of having a lamp of his own, rejected the friendly offer of assistance, which would guide him in safety, and trusted to the uncertain light of another, which, falling on broken and uneven ground, deceived the eye, and risked his precipitation into some deep abyss, from which extrication was impossible.

Let them every where teach and impress, as a duty of paramount importance, that not only the education of all classes, from the prince to the peasant, should be conducted on the principles of the Bible; but that all should acquire that knowledge of the evidences as well as doctrines and duties of Christianity, which may fit them in their several stations to overcome, through the grace of God, the temptations to unbelief or immorality, which are likely to assail them. It is a painful reflection, how many youths of bright prospects, great talents, and amiable dispositions, have made shipwreck of their present and eternal hopes, from a want of early religious instruction. How many are less ashamed of being found ignorant of the Bible than any other book, and whilst they would blush not to be acquainted with some new, though unimportant, discovery in science, feel no shame in never having learnt the important discoveries made by Revelation to man. And how many, in an evil age, want courage to admit a knowledge of the Bible, with the great truths of which they have been made imperfectly acquainted, but have neither learnt their value nor imbibed their spirit.

Let, therefore, the true servants of the Lord labour diligently to counteract the rationalizing spirit in theology, the neglect of Divine Providence, the ascription of every thing to natural causes, the endeavour, in short, to do without Christianity in the affairs of life, which so extensively prevail. And let them discountenance and repress, and, when fitted by previous education and study, refute the objections which scepticism and infidelity now advance in society, not only unblushingly avowing their unbelief, but attempting to spread its poison in private families. It would not be for the advantage of religion to commit to inexperienced hands the weapons of controversy, for the great strength of infidelity lies in perplexing subtilities and ingenious sophisms, which are calculated to puzzle an ill-read and illogical disputant. But every Christian should “know the certainty of those things wherein he has been instructed.” {175} “And be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that is in him, with meekness and fear.” {176} The neglect of instruction in the evidences, in the general system of religious education, is at once most unwise, and most calculated fearfully to promote the spread of unbelief: in the first place, it is like attempting to build a house without laying a good foundation: the winds and floods of infidelity assail it, and it falls, because built on sand: in the second place, the fall of one house generally more or less injures those adjoining: thus the cause of unbelief is advanced, not only by the accession of every new convert, but by the shock which his fall occasions to the faith of his friends and acquaintance. Let, therefore, the friends of religion at once secure to the evidences their proper place in every system of education, and also take care that their own principles be fortified by that sound “knowledge which maketh not ashamed.” Let them never suffer the cause of God to be blasphemed, or the truth of religion denied in society, without entering, at least, their protest; and let them never suffer the questions and doubts of scepticism to be propounded in their families, without at once silencing the dangerous inmate, who seeks to spread his secret poison, by inviting enquiry and provoking discussion. It is true many of the objections urged in society are of a nature which little learning, in addition to good common sense, may suffice to answer. As, for instance, the existence of mysteries in Christianity; whilst, in truth, the absence of mysteries in a Revelation would be a strong argument against its Divine origin: the terms employed in creeds and articles, the form of worship and the discipline of the Church; for all of which Christianity is not strictly liable, as, though in perfect conformity with, some of them have been engrafted upon, Revelation: and the sins into which believers, who disgrace their profession, are betrayed; for which Christianity cannot be to blame, as it would be most manifest injustice to visit upon a Revelation, the offences of unworthy members, of which their own sinfulness is the sole cause. But such is the mode of warfare of the light troops of the infidel host, who dare not attack directly the evidences, doctrines, and precepts of the Gospel; and yet from their numbers, activity, and malignity, have deeply injured the cause of religion, by insinuating doubts, and instilling suspicions into ill-informed and inexperienced minds.

If those who bear the Christian name and believe the Christian faith would unite against this legion of evil spirits, and employ their rank, influence, talents, and learning, in bringing them into subjection to Him, whose easy yoke they have thrown off, for the service of Satan, the cause of religion would be immensely benefited. Not only because many unbelievers would probably be converted, but because the work of proselytism would be checked: at present, from the culpable supineness and indifference of many Christians, even in private families, infidelity is sometimes heard, unblushingly, to avow its detestable principles; but if the ban of proscription was placed upon its creed, the ears of believers would not be shocked, and the principles of the inexperienced endangered by direct or indirect attacks upon the great truths of our most Holy Faith.

To effect a general co-operation of the great body of Christians, in the cause of religion, would be, necessarily, a work of immense difficulty and labour. Much, however, might be accomplished, if more of those, whom God has blessed with power and influence, set an example of labouring zealously to promote His glory and the advancement of His kingdom. How often, amongst the higher and middle classes of society, has the influence of a single individual, of talents and learning, but of still more eminent piety, been employed with the most beneficial effects. “A word spoken in due season, how good is it,” {178} has been fully proved, in the case of many, who, vibrating, as it were, in such perfect equipoise between good and evil, that a feather would almost suffice to incline the balance, have been led to “choose that good part, which shall not be taken away from them;” {179a} by having books recommended or supplied, by receiving friendly advice and encouragement, or by that most eloquent and attractive of the modes of conveying instruction—the winning grace and beauty of Christian example. If, therefore, even a few individuals or families, in any place, resolved that, by Divine grace, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord;” {179b} I will not be “unequally yoked with unbelievers;” {179c} as far as in me lieth, no one shall blaspheme the Holy Name by which I am called, nor malign the holy cause which in baptism I have sworn to defend; infidelity would be much put to shame and silence. And it is the duty of all sincere Christians to adopt this course, for they are bound to use every means in their power, to discourage infidelity; they must not admit it into the intimacy and confidence of domestic life; the sacrifice may sometime be painful, but it must be made; there may not be any compromise of Christian obligations, which forbid every unholy alliance: “for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth, with an infidel?” {179d} Believers must warn, exhort, entreat, and, if in their power, instruct the unbeliever; but, if in vain, then the divine command applies, “come out from among them, and be ye separate:” if both parties be sincere, the contrariety of habits, feelings, sentiments, and even of enjoyments, which exists between them, must render familiar intercourse little agreeable or profitable to the servant of God; who, if he be a weak or wavering disciple, may receive much injury, where he cannot benefit; and, if he be a firm and established disciple, when he finds his efforts to convince the gainsayer fruitless, however ready he may still continue to be to lend assistance, to admonish, and to observe all the courtesies of life; yet he cannot assign a place in his heart, or receive as a chosen and favoured associate, one who is not united with him in the sweet bonds of Christian fellowship: there exists a bar, for the present, insuperable, why such may not be addressed in the affectionate language of the Psalmist, “thou, my companion, my guide, and mine own familiar friend;” and that bar is, they cannot “take sweet counsel together, and walk in the house of God as friends.” {180}

To defeat, however, the devices and to frustrate the labours of the emissaries of infidelity amongst the labouring population of the country, religious associations should be formed: for an evil of such magnitude will never be remedied, until there are the more extensive and effective results of well concerted and combined operations, in the place of the desultory movements of partial or individual zeal. This it may be said is already done by societies, amongst which the venerable Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge has stood forward with the most praiseworthy zeal and activity to stem the tide of infidelity, which has been, during the last year, spreading poison and death. But increased efficiency would be given even to the labours of this valuable Society, by associations of the nature proposed; the object of which would be, not only the present remedy, but the prevention of evils so dangerous to the best interests of society. And how great might be the blessed effects, in checking the secret and open enemies of the Gospel, if its true friends stood forward, and united heart and hand with their appointed pastors—giving them all the aid of their rank and influence, and acting, under their superintendence and direction, in the discharge of duties, which may with propriety be delegated to laymen!

A writer, who has been already quoted at considerable length, to shew the deep devices, the bold effrontery, the unwearied zeal, and the alarming success of infidel teachers in the metropolis, asks the important question, “what is to be done in a state of things like this? Shall we look calmly on, and say, let them alone; the authors and propagators of the mischief are profligate and worthless men, whom nobody will trust; and, therefore, too contemptible to be noticed. Alas! we should only deceive ourselves, and be led to neglect others, by taking this flattering unction to our souls.—It is clear, therefore, that some active and present remedy must be brought to meet the evil; and there is none which presents itself so readily and so naturally, as that which may be derived from the arguments, and the testimony, and the advice of the true friends of Christianity, particularly of the ministers.” But the whole labour must not devolve upon the clergy: not from any wish to spare them, whose duty it is ever to be found in the van, in every attack upon the enemies of the Lord,—and ever to bear the brunt of the battle; but because the active co-operation of the laity is essential to the success of the undertaking. It has been the artful policy of the infidel teachers to endeavour to persuade their ignorant auditors that our holy religion is a system of priestcraft; in the preservation of which its ministers will always, necessarily, be actively engaged, because they are deeply interested. The deluded followers, therefore, of this satanic school, may look with more than a suspicious eye upon the anxious labours of their pastor to undeceive them; they may read in it a direct confirmation of what they have heard, and ascribe solely to self-interest what emanates from the pious zeal and sense of duty of him who “watches over them as one that is to give account.” But when they see associated with the minister, in the work of Christian charity and instruction, laymen, whom they know to have no inducement to support a system of fraud, and whom they may believe to be too honest and honourable to promote the cause of error, they are more likely to banish the suspicion of unworthy motives, which, in the present distempered state of their minds, opposes an insuperable bar to the reception of religious truth.

We have had in all our towns, and even in many large villages, boards of health formed to visit and enquire into the state of the poor; let similar religious boards be established under the direction of the parochial clergy, to promote their spiritual health. Numerous and great are the evils which have arisen from the population of many parishes having increased beyond the means of accommodation in the parish churches and almost beyond the personal visitation and superintendence of the parochial clergy. It has given rise to much almost compulsory secession from the Church, has weakened the influence of the Clergy, and has been productive of the still greater evils of immorality, irreligion, and impiety. Plans, therefore, have been drawn up and acted upon with the most happy effect in some places, for the formation of visiting societies. These have already received the sanction of two prelates, who preside over populous dioceses, the Bishops of London and Chester, who have both recommended them in their Charges to their Clergy. “The vastness of the field,” observes the Bishop of London, “which demands their exertions, and their own insufficiency to meet that demand according to the promptings of their conscience, and the impulse of a truly Christian charity, are matters which lie heavily upon the mind of many faithful zealous clergymen. In the discharge of those duties which, in a populous parish, far exceed the physical abilities of the strongest and most devoted minister, great assistance may be derived from parochial visiting associations, acting in subordination to the Clergy. By kind, yet not intrusive enquiry into the wants, both temporal and spiritual, of the poor; by well-timed aid, by encouragement, and counsel; by exhortations to the duty of reading the Scriptures, of public worship, of sanctifying the Lord’s Day, of regulating the behaviour of their children; by directing them, in cases of sickness, or of ignorance, or of troubled conscience, to their appointed pastor, such an association may work incalculable good, and become powerfully, though indirectly, instrumental in preaching the Gospel to the poor. But it is incumbent on me to caution the parochial Clergy against relinquishing the superintendence and direction of these auxiliary labourers; and against delegating to them their own peculiar functions and duties, as the commissioned interpreters of Scripture, as the Lord’s remembrancers for his people, and as the appointed guides of their devotion. There is a special promise of blessing annexed to ministerial service; and the sense of that specialty ought not to be effaced from the minds of our flocks, by the permitted intrusion of laymen, however pious and zealous, into that which belongs to our own peculiar office. If this be not attended to, you must expect that tares will spring up in the wheat, and that your visiting societies will become so many nurseries of schism.” {185}

The Bishop of Chester, after giving a striking description of the transforming power of Divine grace, thus continues—“And can these things be? ‘O Lord God thou knowest.’ Earnestness, disinterestedness, simplicity, godly sincerity, patience in teaching, watchfulness in seizing the favourable moment for counsel, are known to overcome even that which seems most hopeless; the effects of natural corruption, inflamed by evil example, and strengthened by habits of wilful disobedience.

“It will be asked, however, ‘Who is sufficient,’ physically ‘sufficient for these things? Certainly in our larger parishes it is not possible for the strength or activity of the Clergy alone to provide for such individual instruction. But, there is a resource at hand: when the population is moderate, nothing is wanting but resolution and contrivance; and in the case of a denser population, the bane and the antidote, the evil and the remedy are found together. The same population, which presses so heavily, affords also that variety of ranks and degree of superior education, that many fellow-workers may assist the minister, and diminish his labours. In this manner the Apostles were enabled to execute the manifold concerns which lay upon them.”—“They have left us an example. Let the minister of a populous district, using careful discrimination of character, select such as ‘are worthy,’ and of ‘good report,’ and assign them their several employments under his direction: they may lessen his own labour by visiting and examining the schools, by reading and praying with the infirm and aged, by consoling the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and pursuing the many nameless ways by which it is in the power of one Christian to benefit and relieve another. Such charity, even more than any other charity, is useful to the giver as well as to the receiver: it occupies minds, which, for want of engagement, might otherwise prey upon themselves: and it occupies them in a way which better fits them for eternity: in religion, as in worldly matters, we often learn our best lessons by teaching. What image more exemplifying the reality of pastoral care, what more truly Christian picture can be presented to our contemplation, than that of a minister uniting with himself the best disposed and the most competent portion of his parishioners, and superintending counsels, and directing plans which have God for their object, and the eternal welfare of his people for their end; seizing every opportunity of general and individual good, correcting mischiefs at their first rising, providing for the spiritual wants of every different age and class, and thus striving, as far as may be allowed, to ‘present every man perfect in Christ Jesus?’”—“Nor is this any visionary notion; pleasing in idea, but impracticable in reality. Numerous parishes, of different degrees of population, have been brought under such discipline with more or less success. And I feel convinced that whoever is anxious to promote the glory of God, to assist the most important interests of his fellow-creatures, to confirm the security of his country, or maintain the stability of his Church, can ensure none of those great objects more effectively than by means like these. Without them, in some of our crowded districts of dense and extended population, the Church is lost sight of, parochial distinctions are obliterated, and the reciprocal charities and duties of the pastor and the flock are forgotten by the people, because it is physically impossible that they should be satisfactorily discharged.”

The awful visitation which has fallen upon the country renders such societies at this time of increased value and importance. They are calculated powerfully to assist the labours of the Clergy in endeavouring to improve, to the religious advantage of their flocks, the apprehension which is so general. Seasons of alarm and affliction are often peculiarly favourable for the reception of Christian instruction: “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;” and when men look around them and see or hear of death under its most terrible forms, and discover the insufficiency of human means to prevent or remedy the evil they dread, they may “fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell;” {188a} and thus be led to flee to Him who is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. {188b} Immense might be the benefit, which would, through the blessing of God on their labours, accrue to the cause of religion, if parochial visiting associations were established generally throughout the kingdom, under the direction of the Clergy. They might form channels through which the valuable tracts against vice and infidelity, which the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is now circulating, might be more widely distributed; through which short addresses, and strong appeals to the conscience, and earnest calls to repentance, in direct reference to the pestilence, might be brought home to every family. They might constitute a medium through which the parochial Clergy might communicate with every part of the most populous and extensive parishes regularly and frequently; through which they might diffuse much bounty, kindness, instruction, and exhortation to their poor and ignorant parishioners. It is impossible not to see at once that such associations might be so framed as to be productive of the most extensive and beneficial results to the Church and people of England; they are calculated to restore the influence of the Clergy, and extend their sphere of usefulness amongst their flocks. Notwithstanding all the arts of the enemies of our Establishment, the people of England always have loved, and still love their Church: wherever a contrary feeling subsists, it may be always traced to a local or temporary cause; but still it must be admitted, that the immense population of some parishes, under existing circumstances, is likely to produce estrangement from the appointed pastor; an evil, which the visiting societies are admirably adapted to remedy. Some may object to such associations as being likely to encroach upon the separate and peculiar duties of the ministerial character: such would be an evil of the most serious nature, for no one must presume to intrude himself uncalled upon the priest’s office: but, though it is true every good is capable of abuse, this is an abuse which may be always especially guarded against by the clergyman who selects and controls the visitors, receives their reports, and superintends their operations: whilst as a further security against the perversion of such associations to party or sectarian views, it might be made a standing rule, that no tract should be circulated in any parish, which had not received the sanction of the incumbent or his curate. To arrange the machinery and frame the laws of a general system of parochial visiting societies, must be a work of time; but experience has already proved that they may be so framed and conducted as to be productive of great and unmixed advantage. And never could such aid come more opportunely than at the present time: we have already seen the number, fierceness, and malignity of the enemies, who beleaguer our Zion, “and cry, down with her, down with her, even to the ground.” The assistance of the laity, who are faithfully attached and devoted to the cause of true religion, will, therefore, be invaluable, at such a time, in defeating the designs of those who seek to alienate the minds of the flock from their regular pastors, to corrupt their principles, and make them ready instruments for the execution of their deep and wicked schemes: nor will the co-operation of pious laymen, with the clergy, in using every means to bring the great bulk of the people to humble them selves before God, in the day of their visitation, be a less important service. The Christian minister resembles a beacon on a dangerous coast, which warns against sand-banks, sunken rocks, and precipitous shores: in fair weather, its single bright and steady light, which, shining through the darkness, guides in safety the passing vessels, is alone sufficient; but when the tempest rages, when fogs obscure its brightness, when some vessels, having struck on sunken rocks, are foundering; when others have grounded on sand-banks, and others are stranded amid—

“The impervious horrors of a lee-ward shore;”

then other, and most prompt assistance, is required; signal guns are to be fired, the life-boat launched, and the various life-preserving apparatus prepared. God has seen fit to cast our lot on troublesome times; the storms of passion howl around our Church, and her light cannot penetrate the mists of prejudice: the barks of thousands, therefore, committed to the stormy ocean of life,—

“Youth at the helm, and Pleasure at the prow,”