who was too wise to err, and too good to be unkind." The same friend remarks, "The last visit I paid him was on the Friday evening previous to his death. I found him, as I thought, much better; his looks more natural, his speech considerably improved, and his mind very cheerful and happy in God. When I quoted those lines, 'Thankful I take the cup from Thee, Prepared and mingled by Thy skill; Powerful the wounded soul to heal; ' he wept, and said, 'It's not my Saviour's cup. His was a bitter one, He drank it to the very dregs; but mine is a mixed one; I have my sweets as well as my bitters, mercies as well as trials.' He was soon exhausted, and wished me to read some portion of Scripture to him. I read the 103d Psalm, and prayed. He was truly happy in God." During the last few days of his life, he was unconscious and unable to speak. He lay apparently free from pain, gradually becoming more feeble, and breathing with increasing difficulty. A mortal paleness at last stole over his face; the mandate came,— "Depart in peace, soul beautiful and blessed;" and, without a sigh or groan, "he fell on sleep," Saturday, September 22d, 1860. Surely, the young Christian may derive instruction and encourage. ment from the character and career thus imperfectly described. Look at Thomas Cox at Bilston, beginning life with humble means and lowly prospects; and then look at him at the close of his course, the battle of life bravely fought and nobly won; his hoary head a crown of glory; sustained by living faith in Christ; cheered by the recollections and results of long and happy toils; soothed by the loving assiduities of a large circle of godly relatives and admiring friends; and animated with the hope of endless life. Have we not here a confirmation of the word of God?" The righteous hath a sure reward." "Them that honour Me, I will honour." "I think it is not often," writes the Rev. W. Williams, that God puts more honour upon one man, than He has put upon your beloved father. To have three sons in the ministry of the Gospel, to maintain an unblemished character during a long life, to obtain the admiration and affection of so many good men, to be the means of saving many souls, to train multitudes of the young for eternity; and, above all, to preserve a warm and simple piety amidst worldly prosperity and honour in the Church, so as to exhibit the full maturity of Christian graces in the decline of life, surely, there is something in all this worthy of record, and especially worthy of praise to God." 591 THE PARTIAL DIFFUSION OF CHRISTIANITY, NO VALID OBJECTION TO ITS DIVINE ORIGIN AND CLAIMS. BY THE REV. PETER M'OWAN. CHRISTIANITY, as delineated in the Scriptures, is perfect, pure, glorious. It is wisdom, power, holiness, and grace, embodied and revealed. Like the light of day, it illustrates itself and all things else, which concern life and death, time and eternity, the attributes and government of God, the duties and destinies of man. It has no weak side; no vulnerable point; no untenable dogmas. It owes nothing to unthinking credulity, unreasoning apathy, blind superstition, or fiery fanaticism. It invites scrutiny, challenges refutation, and rewards with spiritual freedom and life those who, upon conviction of its truth, admit its claims, and believe on Christ its great Author. Such, probably, is the estimate which the great majority of our readers have formed of the Christian religion. It is, however, possible that others may have been perplexed with queries such as the following: "If Christianity be so entirely worthy of God, and has been so manifestly attested by Him, as its advocates assert, how comes it to pass that it has effected so little good in the world; that it exerts such slender influence on so many of its professors; that it has not, long ere this, become the religion of the entire race ?" To answer these queries is the design of the following pages. It may be necessary to observe at the outset, that we regard Christianity" as synonymous with "revealed religion," and the Gospel as the perfected form of revealed religion. It suits the interests of infidelity to assume that the state of our race, and the circumstances of the world, would have been precisely what they were at the time of Christ's appearing, though no Divine revelation had been previously given, and though the plan of redemption had never been framed. But when the claims of Christianity are impugned, on the ground of its comparative inefficacy and partial spread, the interests of truth require that the results of the entire scheme of reconciliation should be brought into view, and incorporated in the defensive argument. It has been the unvarying endeavour of infidels and deists to exalt human reason, and to minify and circumscribe the benefits of revealed religion. They ascribe to nature what is due to grace, and to reason what belongs to revelation. After lighting their taper at our altar, they boast as if the light, so obtained, were inherent in man; and as if the truths it reveals were the discoveries of their own intellect : and, to cover the fraud, they endeavour to overturn the altar to which they are indebted, and extinguish its heaven-kindled flame. It is ground of regret that the advocates of truth have not always been on their guard against these deceits; and that they have failed, in some instances, to give those expansive views of the benefits of redemption which the oracles of God warrant; and which, by ascribing whatever is good in man, or gracious in providence, or felicitous in social life, to the mediation of Christ, take from the deifiers of human reason their pretexts for self-glorying. It is a great mistake to suppose that none of the blessings of redemption existed previously to the appearing of Christ, or that they are now exclusively confined to those who enjoy Gospel ordinances. As the sun was placed in the centre of the solar system to illumine, and otherwise benefit, all its dependent planets, though in different degrees, so the scheme of redemption was framed and executed to bless our race, in all the ages of its existence. Men frequently speak as if the blessings of Providence had no connexion with the economy of redemption, as if we possessed either a natural or an acquired right to life, and its means of support; and as if the eternal Father could have bestowed these upon us irrespective of the mediation of His Son. But in speaking thus they both proclaim their ignorance, and betray their pride. The penalty annexed to the first transgression was "death:"-a death which extended to the soul, as well as to the body; to eternity, as well as time. Had no Mediator been found, that penalty would have been executed on the first transgressors as certainly as God is "faithful and just;" and had it been executed on them, the race would have become extinct. But a Mediator was found, for whose sake they were spared, and we consequently exist. It is partly on this general account that Christ is called "our life," the "second Adam ;" as, indeed, with regard to the universe at large, it is said, " By Him all things consist." As our natural life is thus a direct result of Christ's mediation, so its comforts and means of support are traceable to the same source. The providential government under which we live is vested in the hands of Him who is "King of kings, and Lord of lords;" (John v. 22; Matt. xxviii. 18; John xiii. 3;) it is based upon propitiated justice; and its blessings are as truly, though not so strikingly, the fruits of our Lord's intervention, as are the institutions of the Gospel, or the operations of the Holy Ghost. The Scriptures teach us to regard our spared lives as a gracious reprieve, an evidence of the longsuffering of God, and a proof that He has no pleasure in our death. (Luke xiii. 7-9; Ezek. xviii. 31, 32; 2 Peter iii. 9.) The Apostle Paul represents the blessings of Providence as witnesses, by which God evidenced His paternal care and government over the Gentile nations, before they were visited by the Gospel: "Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." (Acts xiv. 17.) our The gracious connexion which exists between the blessings of Providence and the scheme of redemption is manifest from the fact, that our Lord has taught us to pray for “ daily bread" at the same throne, and under the same sanctions, as we ask for the ballowing of the name of God, the coming of His kingdom, the forgiveness of our sins, and deliverance from evil in its widest extent. The Scriptures uniformly teach that the good things of this life are bestowed to promote our happiness and excite our gratitude; that the allictions and trials of life are disciplinary dispensations, designed to correct our errors, reprove our sins, and secure our submission to the authority of God; that our mental powers, religious privileges, and worldly possessions, are talents committed to our care, by our sovereign Proprietor, to be improved to His glory, and our personal salvation; and that the good or evil use to which we apply them will decide our eternal destiny. Taking the word of God as our rule, it is thus manifest that our commonest mercies, as well as our highest privileges, are the grants of mercy; and as mercy has been manifested to man only through the one Mediator, Christ Jesus, we are justified in claiming as the results of Ilis meritorious undertaking the continued existence and salvability of our race, together with whatever is wise in counsel, just in legisla tion, correct in morals, pure in sentiment, exalted in motive, amiable in temper, disinterested in action, or blissful in the social relations of life. It is also to His mediation we owe the Sabbath rest, the institution of marriage, the Christian ministry, and the canon of Scripture, with its sublime views of God, pure precepts, heavenly motives, glorious doctrines, "precious promises," and its awfully impressive views of eternity, its infinite bliss or woe. Take away the benefits of the Redeemer's mediation, and you make man as wicked and miseraable, according to his capacity and opportunities, as the fallen angels; you transform our world, still so beautiful, into a waste howling wilderness; you render our towns as Sodom, and our cities as Gomorrah; you extinguish liberty and equal laws; you establish tyranny, or you introduce anarchy; you destroy the defences which guard life and property; you proscribe and banish truth, religion, and virtue; you enthrone error, superstition, and crime. Nay, more! If you do not strike man out of existence, you render his eternal salvation impossible for, without a Mediator, there could neither have been a resurrection for his sinful body, nor a blissful immortality to his polluted soul. But as God made the world by His Son, so He governs it through His Son, and blesses it for His sake. Its "uttermost parts" are given to Messiah for a "possession;" it is the dwelling-place of His people; it is full of the goodness of the Lord; and, to the eye of faith, each form which goodness wears is associated with the blood of the covenant. The scheme of redemption, therefore, has taken effect, on a large scale; and the mediation of Christ has produced glorious VOL. XI.-FIFTH SERIES. 2Q and multitudinous results,-results, not only beyond what infidels admit, but beyond what men or angels can express. Those who object to Christianity on the ground of its partial diffusion and limited efficacy, delight to represent it as only one of the many local and temporary systems of superstition with which the world has been cursed, and man's progress encumbered. Whereas it is stamped, in the estimation of all candid thinkers, with characters of originality, benignity, universality, and permanency, which no other system ever did or ever can exhibit. It originated neither in human policy, craft, ambition, or poetic fancy; but in the fathomless depths of infinite wisdom and love. Its scheme was laid in the counsels of eternity, and its results will exist when time shall be no more. It not only displays and illustrates the Divine goodness, but it guards the rights and meets the claims of immutable justice. It not only saves man, but it glorifies God; and while it pardons human guilt, it marks sin as an infinite evil. Whilst it offers life to all to whom it comes, on terms which they may embrace, it leaves those to perish who perversely prefer error to truth, unbelief to faith, and sin to holiness. Its insti tutions and ordinances are few and simple, are fitted for every clime, and are adapted to benefit man in all the peculiarities of his external circumstances. Its precepts are "holy, just, and good;" its promises, "exceeding great and precious;" its evidences, demonstrative; its spirit is love; its provisions ample as the wants of humanity; and its doctrines present the only consistent and satisfactory view the world possesses of the attributes of God, the relations He sustains to our race; the state, duties, and destinies of man; the way of salvation, the nature of true religion, the rewards of the righteous, and the punishment of the wicked. To compare Christianity with any of the systems of superstition which have waxed and waned in centuries past, is to compare light with darkness, beauty with deformity, order with anarchy, holiness with sensuality, wisdom with folly, and truth with falsehood. And to infer that because Mohammedanism, Heathenism, and Infidelity are tottering to their fall, and at most can only reproduce old and oft-refuted arguments in their defence, after having failed to work any deliverance in the earth, therefore Christianity in its turn must wane and pass away in like manner, is to adopt premises in ignorance, and to employ the logic of fools. No! what the rock is to shifting sand, what wheat is to chaff, what gold is to dross, that has Christianity shown itself to be, as compared with each and all of the opposing systems which have ever obtained currency among men. Those who object to Christianity on the ground of its slow progress and limited efficacy, cannot deny that its early triumphs were both rapid and glorious. The chief ends for which the blessings of the former dispensation were confined to the Jews having been accomplished in the Saviour's incarnation, life, and death, He gave His disciples a commission to preach His life-giving Gospel, co-extensively |
