Coelebs In Search of a Wife Part 24

"'To the Lord our G.o.d belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him, neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our G.o.d, to walk in his laws which he set before us.'

"He evidently struggled with his own feelings; but his manly mind carried him through with an admirable mixture of dignity and feeling. He was so serenely cheerful the rest of the evening that I felt he had obtained a great victory over himself, and his heart was at peace within him. Prayer with him was not a beginning form, but a consummation of his better purposes."

The sweet girl could not forbear weeping again while she was giving me this interesting account. I felt as if I had never loved her till then.

To see her so full of sensibility without the slightest tincture of romance, so feeling, yet so sober-minded, enchanted me. I could now afford to wish heartily for Lord Staunton's reformation, because it was not likely to interfere with my hopes. And now the danger was over, I even endeavored to make myself believe that I _should_ have wished it in any event, so treacherous will the human heart be found by those who watch its motions. And it proceeds from not watching them that the generality are so little acquainted with the evils which lurk within it.

Before I had time to express half what I felt to the fair narrator the party came in. They seemed as much puzzled at the position in which they found Lucilla and myself, she wiping her eyes, and I standing by in admiration, as I had been at her mysterious interview with Mrs. Carlton.

The Belfields knew not what to make of it. The mother's looks expressed astonishment and anxiety. The father's eye demanded an explanation. All this mute eloquence pa.s.sed in an instant. Miss Stanley gave them not time to inquire. She flew to her mother, and eagerly repeated the little tale which furnished matter for grateful joy and improving conversation the rest of the evening.

Mr. Stanley expressed a thorough confidence in the sincerity of Carlton.

"He had always," continued he, "in his worst days an abhorrence of deceit, and such a dread of people appearing better than they are, that he even commended that most absurd practice of Dean Swift, who, you know, used to perform family prayers in a garret, for fear any one should call in and detect him in the performance." Carlton defended this as an honorable instance of Swift's abhorrence of ostentation in religion. I opposed it on the more probable ground of his being ashamed of it. For allowing, what however never can be allowed, that an ordinary man might have some excuse for the dread of being sneered at, as wanting to be thought righteous overmuch; yet in a churchman, in a dignified churchman, family prayer would be expected as a customary decency, an indispensable appendage to his situation, which, though it might be practiced without piety, could not be omitted without disgrace, and which even a sensible infidel, considering it merely as a professional act, could not say was a custom

"More honored in the breach than the observance."

CHAPTER x.x.xVII.

One evening, which Mr. Tyrrel happened to spend with us, after Mr.

Stanley had performed the family devotions, Mr. Tyrrel said to him: "Stanley, I don't much like the prayer you read. It seems, by the great stress it lays on holiness, to imply that a man has something in his own power. You did indeed mention the necessity of faith and the power of grace, but there was too much about making the life holy as if that were all in all. You seem to be putting us so much upon working and doing that you leave nothing to do for the Saviour."

"I wish," replied Mr. Stanley, "as I am no deep theologian, that you had started this objection before Dr. Barlow went away, for I know no man more able or more willing for serious discussion."

"No," replied Mr. Tyrrel, "I see clearly by some things he dropped in conversation, as well as by the whole tenor of his sermons, that Barlow and I should never agree. He means well, but knows little. He sees something, but feels nothing. More argument than unction. Too much reasoning, and too little religion; a little light, and no heat. He seems to me so to 'overload the s.h.i.+p with duties' that it will sink by the very means he takes to keep it afloat. I thank G.o.d my own eyes are opened, and I at last feel comfortable in my mind."

"Religious comfort," said Mr. Stanley, "is a high attainment. Only it is inc.u.mbent on every Christian to be a.s.sured that if he is happy it is on safe grounds."

"I have taken care of that," replied Mr. Tyrrel. "For some years after I had quitted my loose habits, I attended occasionally at church, but found no comfort in it, because I perceived so much was to be _done_ and so much was to be _sacrificed_. But the great doctrines of faith, as opened to me by Mr. _H--n_, have at last given me peace, and liberty, and I rest myself without solicitude on the mercy so freely offered in the gospel. No mistakes or sins of mine can ever make me forfeit the divine favor."

"Let us hear, however," replied Mr. Stanley, "what the Bible says; for as that is the only rule by which we shall be judged hereafter, it may be prudent to be guided by it here. G.o.d says by the prophet, 'I will put my Spirit within you;' but he does this for some purpose, for he says in the very next words, 'I will cause you to _walk_ in my statutes.' And for fear this should not plainly enough inculcate holiness, he goes on to say, 'And ye shall _keep_ my judgments, and _do_ them.' Show me, if you can, a single promise made to an impenitent, unholy man."

"Why," said Tyrrel, "is not the mercy of G.o.d promised to the wicked in every part of the Bible?"

"It is," said Mr. Stanley; "but that is, 'if he forsake his way.'"

"This fondness for works is, in my opinion, nothing else but setting aside the free grace of G.o.d."

"Quite the contrary: so far from setting it aside, it is the way to glorify it, for it is by that grace alone that we are enabled to perform right actions. For myself, I always find it difficult to answer persons, who, in flying to one extreme, think they can not too much degrade the opposite. If we give faith its due prominence, the mere moralist reprobates our principles as if we were depreciating works. If we magnify the beauty of holiness, the advocate for exclusive faith accuses us of being its enemy."

"For my own part, I am persuaded that unqualified trust is the only ground of safety."

"He who can not lie has indeed told us so. But trust in G.o.d is humble dependence, not presumptuous security. The Bible does not say, trust in the Lord and sin on, but 'trust in the Lord, and be doing good.' We are elsewhere told that, 'G.o.d works in us to will and to do.' There is no getting over that little word to _do_. I suppose you allow the necessity of prayer."

"Certainly I do."

"But there are conditions to our prayers also: 'if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me.'"

"The Scriptures affirm that we must live on the promises."

"They are indeed the very aliment of the Christian life. But what are the promises?"

"Free pardon and eternal life to them that are in Christ Jesus."

"True. But who are they that _are_ in Christ Jesus? The apostle tells us, 'they who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.' Besides, is not holiness promised as well as pardon? 'A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.'"

"Surely, Stanley, you abuse the grace of the gospel, by pretending that man is saved by his own righteousness."

"No, no, my dear Tyrrel, it is you who abuse it, by making G.o.d's mercy set aside man's duty. Allow me to observe, that he who exalts the grace of G.o.d with a view to indulge himself in any sin, is deceiving no one but himself; and he who trusts in Christ, with a view to spare himself the necessity of watchfulness, humility, and self-denial, that man depends upon Christ for more than he has promised."

"Well, Mr. Stanley, it appears to me that you want to patch up a convenient accommodating religion, as if Christ were to do a little, and we were to do the rest; a sort of partners.h.i.+p salvation, and in which man has the larger share."

"This, I fear, is indeed the dangerous creed of many worldly Christians.

No; G.o.d may be said to do all, because he gives power for all, strength for all, grace for all. But this grace, is a principle, a vital energy, a life-giving spirit to quicken us, to make us abound in holiness. He does not make his grace abound, that we may securely live in sin, but that we may subdue it, renounce it, live above it."

"When our Saviour was upon earth, there was no one quality he so uniformly commended in those who came to be healed by him, as faith."

"It is most true. But we do not meet in any of them with such a presumptuous faith as led them to rush into diseases on purpose to show their confidence in his power of healing them, neither are we to 'continue in sin that grace may abound.' You can not but observe, that the faith of the persons you mention was always accompanied with an earnest desire to get rid of their diseases. And it is worth remarking, that to the words, 'thy faith has made thee whole,' is added, '_sin no more_, lest a worse thing come unto thee.'"

"You can not persuade me that any neglect, or even sin of mine, can make void the covenant of G.o.d."

"Nothing can set side the covenant of G.o.d, which is sure and steadfast.

But as for him who lives in the allowed practice of any sin, it is clear that he has no part nor lot in the matter. It is clear that he is not one of those whom G.o.d has taken into the covenant. That G.o.d will keep his word is most certain, but such a one does not appear to be the person to whom that word is addressed. G.o.d as much designed that you should apply the faculties, the power, and the will he has given you, to a life of holiness, as he meant when he gave you legs, hands, and eyes, that you should walk, work, and see. His grace is not intended to exclude the use of his gifts but to perfect, exalt, and enn.o.ble them."

"I can produce a mult.i.tude of texts to prove that Christ has done every thing, and of course has left nothing for me to do, but to believe on him."

"Let us take the general tenor and spirit of Scripture, and neither pack single texts together, detached from the connection in which they stand; nor be so unreasonable as to squeeze all the doctrines of Christianity out of every single text, which perhaps, was only meant to inculcate one individual principle. How consistently are the great leading doctrines of faith and holiness balanced and reconciled in every part of the Bible! If ever I have been in danger of resting on a mere dead faith, by one of those texts on which you exclusively build; in the very next sentence, perhaps, I am aroused to active virtue, by some lively example, or absolute command. If again I am ever in danger, as you say, of sinking the s.h.i.+p with my proud duties, the next pa.s.sage calls me to order, by some powerful injunction to renounce all confidence in my miserable defective virtues, and to put my whole trust in Christ. By thus a.s.similating the Creed with the Commandment, the Bible becomes its own interpreter, and perfect harmony is the result. Allow me also to remark, that this invariable rule of exhibiting the doctrines of Scripture in their due proportion, order, and relative connection, is one of the leading excellences in the service of our Church. While no doctrine is neglected or undervalued, none is disproportionately magnified, at the expense of the others. There is neither omission, undue prominence, nor exaggeration. There is complete symmetry and correct proportion."

"I a.s.sert that we are free by the gospel from the condemnation of the law."

"But where do you find that we are free from the obligation of obeying it? For my own part, I do not combine the doctrine of grace, to which I most cordially a.s.sent, with any doctrine which practically denies the voluntary agency of man. Nor, in my adoption of the belief of that voluntary agency, do I, in the remotest degree, presume to abridge the sovereignty of G.o.d. I adopt none of the metaphysical subtilties, none of the abstruse niceties of any party, nor do I imitate either in the reprobation of the other, firmly believing that heaven is peopled with the humble and the conscientious out of every cla.s.s of real Christians."

"Still I insist that if Christ has delivered me from sin, sin can do me no harm."

"My dear Mr. Tyrrel, if the king of your country were a mighty general, and had delivered the land from some powerful enemy, would it show your sense of the obligation, or your allegiance as a subject, if you were to join the enemy he had defeated? By so doing, though the country might be saved, you would ruin yourself. Let us not then live in confederacy with sin, the power of which, indeed, our Redeemer has broken, but both the power and guilt of which the individual is still at liberty to incur."

"Stanley, I remember when you thought the gospel was all in all."

"I think so still; but I am now, as I was then, for a sober consistent gospel, a Christianity which must evidence itself by its fruits. The first words of the apostle after his conversion were, 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' When he says, 'so run that ye may obtain,' he could never mean that we could obtain by sitting still, nor would he have talked of 'laboring _in vain_,' if he meant that we should not labor at all. We dare not persist in any thing that is wrong, or neglect any thing that is right, from an erroneous notion that we have such an interest in Christ as will excuse us from doing the one, or persisting in the other."

"I fancy you think that a man's salvation depends on the number of good actions he can muster together."

"No, it is the very spirit of Christianity not to build on this or that actual work, but sedulously to strive for that temper and those dispositions which are the seminal principles of all virtues; and where the heart struggles and prays for the attainment of this state, though the man should be placed in such circ.u.mstances as to be able to do little to promote the welfare of mankind, or the glory of G.o.d, in the eyes of the world; this very habitual aim and bent of the mind, with humble sorrow at its low attainments, is in my opinion no slight degree of obedience.

"But you will allow that the Scriptures affirm that Christ is not only a sacrifice but a refuge, a consolation, a rest."

"Blessed be G.o.d, he is indeed all these. But he is a consolation only to the heavy laden, a refuge to those alone who forsake sin. The rest he promises, is not a rest from labor but from evil. It is a rest from the drudgery of the world, but not from the service of G.o.d. It is not inactivity, but quietness of spirit; not sloth, but peace. He draws men indeed from slavery to freedom, but not a freedom to do evil, or to do nothing. He makes his service easy, but not by lowering the rule of duty, not by adapting his commands to the corrupt inclinations of our nature. He communicates his grace, gives fresh and higher motives to obedience, and imparts peace and comfort, not by any abatement in his demands, but by this infusion of his own grace, and this communication of his own Spirit."