salvation of the soul; to anxiety about that regarding which he is not at all anxious-the miseries of eternity. Oh! that we could hear him, like Ephraim, bemoaning himself and saying, "What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Who can dwell with devouring fire? who can dwell with the everlasting burnings? How shall I come before the Lord? How shall I stand before this holy Lord God? Oh! how shall I escape, or how shall I endure the wrath to come? What, what must I do to be saved?" Then when he is beginning to despair we should begin to hope of him. Then should we say, with all the intensity of earnestness we could throw into our language and voice,-for however desirable such anxiety is, in comparison of stupid inconsideration or presumptuous confidence, its continuance is not a desirable thing; the sooner it is removed, if aright removed, the sooner it is got quit of, if safely disposed of, the better,-then we should say, Poor overburdened one, cast thy care on God, the God of salvation. He cares for thee, he alone can release thee. In the belief of the truth respecting his gracious character, manifested in consistency with, in glorious illustration of, his immaculate holiness and infinite justice in the atoning death of his Son, the just One, in the room of the unjust, you may obtain, you shall obtain relief at once, from a burden of guilt, which will certainly, if unremoved, sink your soul to hell, as well as from a burden of anxiety, which, if unremoved, may lay your body in an untimely grave. And in getting relief from that anxiety, a foundation is laid for getting relief from all anxieties; and henceforward we could with unfaltering voice address to him the words of the text, in all the blissful immeasurable breadth and depth of meaning which belongs to them. "Cast all your care on God, for he cares for you." Oh! that it may be so with some poor thoughtless sinner, anxious about everything but that about which, above all other things, he has cause to be anxious. Amen. NOTE A, p. 715. The following views of affliction, in a work not likely to come into the hands of many of my readers, discover so deep and accurate an acquaintance with human nature, scripture doctrine, and religious experience, that I count on thanks for giving them a place here: "That supposed greatness of soul which considers suffering as a plaything, upon which one should throw himself with manly courage, is not to be met with on the territory of Scripture; upon that, everywhere, appear faint, weak, and dissolving hearts, finding their strength and consolation only in God. This circumstance arises from more than one cause "I. Suffering has quite another aspect to the members of God's church than to the world. While the latter regard it only as the effect of accident, which one should meet with manly courage, the pious man recognizes in every trial the visitation of an angry God, a chastisement for his sins. This is to him the real sting of the suffering, from which it derives its power to pierce into the marrow and bone. Rightly to feel sin,' says Luther, 'is the torture of all tortures.' He who considers suffering in that light cannot, without impiety, attempt to cast it to the winds. He must regard it as his duty to allow it to go to his heart, and if this is not the case, even that must become again the object of his pungent sorrow. To make light of tribulation is all one, in the reckoning of Scripture, with making light of God. "II. The tenderer the heart, the deeper the pain. Living piety makes the heart soft and tender, refines all its sensibilities, and, consequently, takes away the power of resistance which the world possesses from the roughness of its heart. Many sources of pain are opened up in the Christian, which are closed in the ungodly. Love is much more deeply wounded by hatred than hatred itself; righteousness sees wickedness in a quite different light from what wickedness itself does; a soft heart has goods to lose which an hard one never possessed. "III. The pious man has a friend in heaven, and, on that account, no reason to be violently overcome by his sorrow. He permits the floods of this quietly to pass over him, gives nature its free spontaneous course, knowing well that, besides the natural principle, there is another also existing in him, which always unfolds its energy the more, the more that the former has its rights reserved to it, that according to the depths of the pain, is the height of the joy which is derived from God-that every one is consoled after the measure in which he has borne suffering-that the meat never comes but from the eater, and honey from the terrible. On the contrary, whosoever lives in the world without God, he perceives that for him all is lost, when he is lost himself. He girds himself up, gnashes at his pain, does violence to nature, seeks thereby to divert himself, and to gain from nature on the one side what it abstracts from him on the other, and thus he succeeds in obtaining the mastery over his pain, so long as God pleases. "IV. The pious man has no reason to prevent himself and others from seeing into his heart. His strength is in God, and so he can lay open his weakness. The ungodly man, on the other hand, considers it as a reproach to look upon himself in his weakness, and to be looked upon by others in it. Even when smarting with pain inwardly, he feigns freedom from it so long as he can. "What is the proper place of sufferings, is manifest from the consequences to both classes. The pious man, while he regards all suffering as a punishment, takes that as the means of leading him to repentance, and derives from it the fruit of righteousness. He, on the other hand, who looks upon suffering merely as the sport of accident, thereby deprives himself of all blessing from it; and while, in this respect, he is not the better for his suffering, he is decidedly the worse in another. He, therefore, only throws himself on his own resources, only raises himself above his suffering, awakening as much as possible the fancy of his own worth, dignity, and excellence, and, in the same proportion that he calls pride into exercise, his love decays-hardness becomes his inseparable companion, so that he, in reality, feeds upon his own fat, and quenches his thirst with his own heart's blood; and the question here also is applicable, What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? But suffering, when borne with faith, serves to free the heart of its natural hardness, to make it soft, and open it to love. "Finally, it is possible, eyen at so dear a cost, to find consolation out of God only for smaller sufferings. While nothing can happen amiss to the righteous, however much may befall him of evil-for he strengthens himself in God, whose power is infinite-the man who trusts in himself bears up only so long as 'fate,' or in truth, he who sends the affliction permits. Every moment he may be precipitated into the abyss of despair. He who never fainted, who used to mock at the faintings of believers, and to speak in a contemptuous tone of the plaintive psalms,' must then feel utterly undone. Human strength, and whatever besides he can summon to his aid, is still but a limited resource; it finds its proper antagonist only in what wounds the heel, and gives way when the resistance is too strong and violent to be contended with on feigned ground. Nothing is better fitted to show the insufficiency of all human power, in the struggle against suffering, than the valuable confession of King Frederick II., who spared no cost to elevate this power, and whose great and mighty soul certainly did the utmost that can generally be accomplished in that field. He says, among other places in the Ep. to D'Alembert, sec. 12, p. 9: It is unhappy, that all who suffer must flatly contradict Zeno; as there is none but will confess pain to be a great evil.' P. 12: 'It is noble to raise one's self above the disagreeable accidents to which we are exposed, and a moderate stoicism is the only means of consolation for the unfortunate. But whenever the stone, the gout, or the bull of Phalaris mix in the scene, the frightful shrieks which escape from the sufferers leave no doubt that pain is a real evil.' Again, p. 16: When a misfortune presses us, which merely affects our person, self-love makes a point of honor to withstand vigorously this misfortune; but the moment we suffer an injury, which is forever irreparable, there is nothing left for us in Pandora's box which can bring consolation, except, perhaps for a man of my advanced years, the strong conviction that I must soon be with those who have gone before me (i. e. in the land of nothingness). The heart is conscious of a wound. The stoic freely confesses, 'I should feel no pain, but I do feel it against my will; it consumes, it lacerates me; an internal feeling overcomes my strength, and extorts from me complaints and fruitless groans.'"-HENG STENBERG'S Commentary on the Psalms. Vol. i. p. 90-92. DISCOURSE XXIII THE CHRISTIAN'S GREAT ENEMY--HIS DUTY IN REFERENCE TO HIM, AND HIS ENCOURAGEMENT TO DISCHARGE IT. 1 PET. V. 8-11.-Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a little while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you: to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. THERE is, perhaps, no article of revealed truth which has been more generally ridiculed by infidels, and probably, for that reason more frequently attempted to be explained away by philosophizing Christians, than the doctrine of the existence and agency of evil spirits. That among professed Christians highly absurd notions on this subject have been entertained, and to a certain extent, are still entertained, I am not disposed to question: but surely revelation cannot be fairly charged with the errors and absurdities of those who profess to believe it, unless it can be satisfactorily proved that it gives sanction to these errors and absurdities. In the present instance it will be no difficult task to show that no such sanction is afforded, and that in the doctrine of the existence and agency of evil spirits, as taught in the Holy Scriptures, there is nothing irrational or ridiculous. For what is their doctrine on this subject? It may be thus briefly stated: There exists a numerous race of unembodied intelligent beings, occupying a higher place than man in the general scale of existence, who have lost the moral integ. rity in which they were created, and who, though under the control of the supreme Providence, are constantly engaged in an attempt, by a variety of methods, and particularly by influencing, in a malignant manner, the minds of men, to uphold and extend the empire of evil in the universe of God.' Now, what principle of reason, what appearance in nature, what well-established fact, what declaration of Scripture, is contradicted by this doctrine? I know of none. Let us look at the subject a little more closely. That there should be morally imperfect, that is, wicked, creatures, in a world which owes its origin and continued existence to an all-perfect Being, infinite in power and wisdom, holiness and benignity; and that a being, capable of moral judgment, and possessed of free agency, should refuse the greatest good, and choose the greatest evil, are mysterious facts, for which no man can fully account, but of which surely no rational man can seriously doubt. Every man has their evidence, alas! but too abundant, around him and within him. Man certainly is a depraved intelligent being; and if it be certain that there are depraved embodied spirits, it would be difficult to prove that there cannot be depraved unembodied spirits. The mode in which these immaterial agents influence human character, and conduct, and destiny, may safely be acknowledged to be inexplicable; but the fact that they do possess and exert such influence, is not on this ground, if supported by appropriate and adequate evidence, incredible. The mode in which one human mind influences another, though no sane person can doubt of the fact, is involved in equal mystery. It is not more wonderful, nor on sufficient evidence more difficult to be believed, in some points of view it is less so, that one spiritual being should act on another, without the intervention of bodily organs, than that by certain conventional sounds. conveyed to the ear, or certain arbitrary characters presented to the eye, the thoughts and feelings of one embodied spirit should be communicated to another embodied spirit, and become the instruments of altering opinion, exciting desire, stimulating to action. The agency of the evil spirits on the human mind is no more inconsistent with the freedom of human action, than the influence exerted by objects presented to the mind by the senses, or by the reasonings and persuasions of our fellow-men; and to him to whom nothing can be difficult, since the resources of his power and wisdom are infinite and inexhaustible, there can be no more difficulty in overruling the agency of devils, than in overruling the agency of wicked men, to the promotion of the great ends of his righteous and benignant government. These remarks go no farther, and were intended to go no farther, than to show that the doctrine of the existence and agency of evil spirits is not, abstractly considered, an absurd tenet; that the attempt to put it down by ridicule, is altogether unworthy of men who lay claim to the honorable appellation of philosophers, lovers of wisdom; and that there is no necessity to have recourse to metaphor and allegory to explain away those passages of Scripture which, in their obvious and literal sense, explicitly teach this doctrine. The evidence of the existence and agency of evil spirits is to be sought for in the Holy Scriptures. It is entirely a matter of supernatural revelation; and I have no hesitation in asserting, that such evidence is to be found there in such abundance and explicitness, that an unprejudiced reader, who believes the authenticity and inspiration of the sacred volume, and interprets its declarations on the principles which he applies to written language generally, will find it as difficult to doubt of the existence and doings of such a being as Satan or the devil, and his subordinate agents, as of the existence and doings of such men as Moses and Samuel, Peter or Paul. The passage before us is one, out of a multitude, which clearly proves the existence and wide extent of malignant spiritual agency; and, in common with the most of such passages, shows that this doctrine is, like the doctrines of revelation generally, not a mere matter of curiosity or speculation, but calculated and intended to exert a powerful and a salutary influence, in forming the character and guiding the conduct of Christians during their present disciplinary and preparatory state. The fact is distinctly asserted, that the "devil, their adversary, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." This assertion is made, that they may be induced to resist him; and, that in order to their successfully resisting him, they may be sober, and watchful, and steadfast in the faith; and they are encouraged, under the sufferings in which the attempts of their powerful, and crafty, and cruel, and active adversary may involve them, by the consideration, that such sufferings have been the common lot of the faithful in all ages, that they have been enabled to endure them, and in due season have been delivered from them, and by the promise of a divine support under, and a glorious triumph over, them. To these interesting topics, then, it is my intention to turn your minds, in the remaining part of the discourse. The Christian's adversary; the Christian's duty in reference to this adversary; and the Christian's encouragement while engaged in performing this duty. I-THE CHRISTIAN'S GREAT ENEMY. Let us first, then, consider the statement made respecting the Christian's adversary. "Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." There are two questions which here require attention. Who is this adversary? and what is here stated in reference to him? CHAP. L-WHO IS HE? THE DEVIL. To the first question, who is this adversary? the answer is, he is "the devil." The word translated devil, properly signifies accuser, slanderer, calumniator, and is given to the chief of evil spirits as an appropriate designation. The same being is termed "satan," a word of similar meaning with devil, signifying enemy or accuser; "the wicked one," to mark his depravity generally, and especially his malignity; "belial," a term signifying low, abject, describing both his character and situation; "the tempter;" "the god and the prince of this world;"" the chief of the demons ;" "beelzebub," the lord of the flies, "the prince of the power of the air;" "apollyon," the destroyer; he that hath the power of death;" "the great dragon;" and "the old serpent." 1 66 With regard to this very remarkable being, our information, all of course derived from revelation, though very limited, is abundantly distinct. He is a being of the angelic order, formed, as all intelligent beings were, and must have been, in a state of moral integrity, who, at a period anterior to the fall of man, in consequence of violating the Divine law, in a manner of which we are not informed, was, along with a large number of other spirits, who, it would appear, in consequence of being seduced by him, were partakers of his guilt, cast out 1 Chron. xxi. 1. Job i. 6. 2 Cor. iv. 4. John xii. 31. Rev. xii. 3, 9. Eph. vi. 16. 2 Cor. vi. 15. Matt. iv. 5. 1 Thess. ii. 5. |