faith and practice, be the standard by which to regulate your belief, and to frame your lives and conversations. And for this end study much, and with much prayer and self-application, that holy Book, which is the treasury and storehouse of divine knowledge. Let it be your delight, morning by morning, to draw water, fresh and clear, from these wells of salvation. Let your souls be ravished with the love of the truth therein contained. Remember that truth will endure when every thing that is not true shall have passed away; that it is eternal as the throne of God. Remember that its importance is such, that on the keeping of the faith depends the finishing of your course with joy. Think too of the risk you run of losing it, and the manifold causes which, if you are not on your guard, may conduce to its loss. We have hearts which, if left to themselves, love darkness rather than light, falsehood rather than truth. Our course lies through a world in which errors abound; errors so various, that there is no disposition which may not find some or other among them which it is capable of assimilating. Each age of the world, moreover, has its own forms of error, to guard against which requires especial watchfulness on the part of those who live in it. Watch then, both generally and specially. Strive to maintain a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards man. Take heed of a false standard of morals as well a snare. as a false standard of faith. Beware of such a standard, whether in the one or the other, as serves to make the conscience easy under allowed sin, or even under a lower measure of holiness than might be reached and should be aimed at. Beware of pride. Watch against the love of the world. Beware of that fear of man which bringeth "Be not ashamed of the testimony of the Lord;" "for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Beware of indulging a habit of idle speculation, or a contentious and disputatious spirit. And while you watch against these and other causes which lead to the abandonment of the truth, see that you hold the truth in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Hold it in faith. Receive it into your heart of hearts. Hold it in love. Let it fill you with love to Christ, and in Christ with love to God and to man: and let it have its just influence on your lives and conversations. Take heed of allowing yourselves in evil of whatsoever kind, of suffering evil habits to grow upon you, evil dispositions to gather strength, a low standard of practice to be acquiesced in, lest you insensibly relax your grasp of the truth, giving up first one portion, then another, till at length you abandon the whole, not openly and avowedly perhaps,(worldly considerations may prevent this, though indeed the force of habit, apart from worldly considerations, may be sufficient to prevent it where no external force is applied,)-but inwardly and in reality, having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it; Christians and orthodox Christians in profession, but heretics, and it may be sceptics or infidels, in heart. Fateor Charitati tuæ, solis eis Scripturarum libris qui jam Canonici appellantur didici hunc timorem honoremque deferre, ut nullum eorum auctorem scribendo aliquid errasse firmissime credam. S. August. Epist. 82. Εἰ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν τῆς κτίσεως ἔνια μὲν ἀνάκειται τῷ Θεῷ, ἔνια δὲ καὶ εἰς γνῶσιν ἐλήλυθε τὴν ἡμετέραν, τί χαλεπὸν, εἰ καὶ τῶν ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς ζητουμένων, ὅλων τῶν γραφῶν πνευματικῶν οὐσῶν, ἔνια μὲν ἐπιλύομεν κατὰ χάριν Θεοῦ, ἔνια δὲ ἀνακείσεται τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ οὐ μόνον αἰῶνι ἐν τῷ νυνὶ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι· ἵνα ἀεὶ μὲν ὁ Θεὸς διδάσκῃ, ἄνθρωπος δὲ διὰ παντὸς μανθάνῃ παρὰ Θεοῦ ; S. Irenaeus ii. 28. Eye of God's Word! where'er we turn, Ever upon us, thy keen gaze Can all the depths of sin discern, Unravel every bosom's maze. Who that has felt thy glance of dread Thrill through his heart's remotest cells, About his path, about his bed, Can doubt what Spirit in thee dwells? CHRISTIAN YEAR. St. Bartholomew's Day. |
