business, trade or calling, according to Solomon, ever undertaken
or prosecuted by mortal man. Paul was fully aware of this, and
therefore had always in his eye a "triple crown"--"a crown of
righteousness," a "crown of life," a "crown of glory." And even in
this life he had "a crown of rejoicing," in prospect of an exceeding
and eternal weight of glory, imperishable in the heavens.
There is, too, a present reward, a present pleasure, a present joy
and peace which the wisdom, and the riches, and the dignity, and
the glory, and the honors of this world never did, never can, and
consequently never will, confer on its most devoted and persevering
votaries.
There is, indeed, a lawful and an honorable covetousness, which any
and every Christian, man and woman, may cultivate and cherish.
Paul himself justifies the poetic license, when he says, "Covet
earnestly the best gifts."
The best gifts in his horizon, however, were those which, when
duly cultivated and employed, confer the greatest amount of profit
and felicity upon others. We should, indeed, desire, even covet,
the means and the opportunities of beatifying and aggrandizing one
another with the true riches, the honors and the dignities that
appertain to the spiritual, the heavenly and the eternal inheritance.
But we need not propound to your consideration or inquiry the
claims--the paramount, the transcendent claims--which our
enjoyment of the gospel and its soul-cheering, soul-animating,
soul-enrapturing influences present to us as arguments and motives
to extend and to animate its proclamation by every instrumentality
and means which we can legitimately employ, to present it in all its
attractions and claims upon the understanding, the conscience and
the affections of our contemporaries, in our own country and in all
others, as far as our most gracious and bountiful Benefactor affords
the means and the opportunities of co-operating with Him, in the
rescue and recovery of our fellow men, who, without such means and
efforts, must forever perish, as aliens and enemies, in heart and
in life, to God and to His divinely-commissioned ambassador, the
glorious Messiah.
We plead for the original apostolic gospel and its positive
institutions. If the great apostles Peter and Paul--the former to
the Jews and the latter to the Gentiles--announced the true gospel
of the grace of God, shall we hesitate a moment on the propriety
and the necessity, divinely imposed upon us, of preaching the same
gospel which they preached, and in advocating the same institutions
which they established, under the plenary inspiration and direction
of the Holy Spirit? Can we improve upon their institutions and
enactments? What means that singular imperative enunciated by the
evangelical prophet Isaiah (Isa. viii.), "Bind up the testimony,
seal the law among my disciples?" What were its antecedents?
Hearken! The prophet had just foretold. He, the subject of this
oracle, viz: "The desire of all nations," was coming to be a
sanctuary; but not a sanctuary alone, but for a stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense (as at this day) to both the houses of
Israel--for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The Church, therefore, of right is, and ought to be, a great
missionary society. Her parish is the whole earth, from sea to sea,
and from the Euphrates to the last domicile of man.
But the crowning and consummating argument of the missionary
cause has not been fully presented. There is but one word, in the
languages of earth, that fully indicates it. And that word indicates
neither less nor more than what is represented--literally, exactly,
perspicuously represented--by the word philanthropy. But this being
a Greek word needs, perhaps in some cases, an exact definition.
And to make it memorable we will preface it with the statement of
the fact that this word is found but twice in the Greek original
New Testament (Acts xxviii., 2, and Titus iii., 4.). In the first
passage this word is, in the common version, translated "kindness,"
and in the second, "love toward man." Literally and exactly, it
signifies the love of man, objectively; but, more fully exprest, the
love of one to another.
The love of God to man is one form of philanthropy; the love of
angels to one man is another form of philanthropy; and the love of
man to man, as such, is the true philanthropy of the law. It is
not the love of one man to another man, because of favors received
from him; this is only gratitude. It is not the love of one man to
another man, because of a common country: this is mere patriotism.
It is not the love of man to man, because of a common ancestry:
this is mere natural affection. But it is the love of man to man,
merely because he is a man. This is pure philanthropy. Such was the
love of God to man as exhibited in the gift of His dearly beloved
Son as a sin-offering for him. This is the name which the inspired
writers of the New Testament give it. So Paul uses it, Titus iii.
and iv. It should have been translated, "After that the kindness and
philanthropy of God our Savior appeared." Again, Acts xxviii., 2,
"The barbarous people of the Island of Melita showed us no little
philanthropy.[3] They kindled a fire for us on their island,
because of the impending rain and the cold."
[3] So we have always translated this term, in this passage.
There are, indeed, many forms and demonstrations of philanthropy.
For one good man another good man might presume to die. But the
philanthropy of God to man incomparably transcends all other forms
of philanthropy known on earth or reported from heaven.
While we were sinners, in positive and actual rebellion against our
Father and our God, He freely gave up His only begotten and dearly
beloved Son, as a sin-offering for us, and laid upon Him, or placed
in His account, the sin, the aggregate sin, of the world. He became
in the hand of His Father and our Father a sin-offering for us. He
took upon Himself, and His Father "laid upon him, the iniquity of us
all." Was ever love like this? Angels of all ranks, spirits of all
capacities, still contemplate it with increasing wonder and delight.
This gospel message is to be announced to all the world, to men of
every nation under heaven. And this, too, with the promise of the
forgiveness of sins and of a life everlasting in the heavens, to
everyone who will cordially accept and obey it.
IRVING
PREPARATION FOR CONSULTING THE ORACLES OF GOD
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
EDWARD IRVING was born at Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1792.
He was an early friend and lover of Jane Welsh, who afterwards
married Thomas Carlyle. He showed ability at school, but had also a
taste for the preaching of extreme Presbyterian seceders from the
Church of Scotland. After graduating at the University of Edinburgh,
in 1809, he began life by teaching school, but obtained a license
to preach in 1815. He became assistant to Chalmers at Glasgow in
1819, where, great preacher as he was, he felt himself eclipsed by
Chalmers, and in 1822 accepted the pulpit at a chapel in Hatton
Garden, London. Here he leapt into fame. His melodious and resonant
voice, his noble presence and the beauty of his features, enhanced
the eloquence of his language. Eventually he became unbalanced
by the adulation of the aristocratic and intellectual crowd that
listened to him. They, however, grew tired of his prophecies and
denunciations, and his eccentricities of judgment finally led
to disruption, and "after a few years of futile but splendid
evangelization, he died a broken-hearted man, tender and true to the
last, altho the victim of unsubstantial religious vagaries." Carlyle
wrote a touching memoir of his life. He died in 1834.
IRVING
1792-1834
PREPARATION FOR CONSULTING THE ORACLES OF GOD
_Search the scriptures._--John v., 39.
There was a time when each revelation of the word of God had an
introduction into this earth, which neither permitted men to doubt
whence it came, nor wherefore it was sent. If at the giving of each
several truth a star was not lighted up in heaven, as at the birth
of the Prince of Truth, there was done upon the earth a wonder, to
make her children listen to the message of their Maker. The Almighty
made bare His arm; and, through mighty acts shown by His holy
servants, gave demonstration of His truth, and found for it a sure
place among the other matters of human knowledge and belief.
But now the miracles of God have ceased, and nature, secure and
unmolested, is no longer called on for testimonies to her Creator's
voice. No burning bush draws the footsteps to His presence chamber;
no invisible voice holds the ear awake; no hand cometh forth from
the obscurity to write His purposes in letters of flame. The vision
is shut up, and the testimony is sealed, and the Word of the Lord is
ended, and this solitary volume, with its chapters and verses, is
the sum total of all for which the chariot of heaven made so many
visits to the earth, and the Son of God Himself tabernacled and
dwelt among us.
The truth which it contains once dwelt undivulged in the bosom of
God; and, on coming forth to take its place among things revealed,
the heavens and the earth, and nature, through all her chambers,
gave reverent welcome. Beyond what it contains, the mysteries of the
future are unknown. To gain it acceptation and currency, the noble
company of martyrs testified unto the death. The general assembly of
the first-born in heaven made it the day-star of their hopes, and
the pavilion of their peace. Its every sentence is charmed with the
power of God, and powerful to the everlasting salvation of souls.
Having our minds filled with these thoughts of the primeval divinity
of revealed wisdom when she dwelt in the bosom of God, and was of
His eternal Self a part, long before He prepared the heavens, or
set a compass upon the face of the deep; revolving also how, by
the space of four thousand years, every faculty of mute nature did
solemn obeisance to this daughter of the Divine mind, whenever He
pleased to commission her forth to the help of mortals; and further
meditating upon the delights which she had of old with the sons of
men, the height of heavenly temper to which she raised them, and the
offspring of magnanimous deeds which these two--the wisdom of God,
and the soul of man--did engender between themselves--meditating, I
say, upon these mighty topics, our soul is smitten with grief and
shame to remark how in this latter day she hath fallen from her high
estate; and fallen along with her the great and noble character of
men. Or, if there be still a few names, as of the missionary martyr,
to emulate the saints of old--how to the commonalty of Christians
her oracles have fallen into a household commonness, and her visits
into a cheap familiarity; while by the multitude she is mistaken
for a minister of terror sent to oppress poor mortals with moping
melancholy, and inflict a wound upon the happiness of human kind.
For there is now no express stirring up the faculties to meditate
her high and heavenly strains--there is no formal sequestration
of the mind from all other concerns, on purpose for her special
entertainment--there is no house of solemn seeking and solemn
waiting for a spiritual frame, before entering and listening to
the voice of the Almighty's wisdom. Who feels the sublime dignity
there is in a saying, fresh descended from the porch of heaven? Who
feels the awful weight there is in the least iota that hath dropped
from the lips of God? Who feels the thrilling fear or trembling
hope there is in words whereon the destinies of himself do hang?
Who feels the swelling tide of gratitude within his breast, for
redemption and salvation, instead of flat despair and everlasting
retribution? Yea, that which is the guide and spur of all duty,
the necessary aliment of Christian life, the first and the last
of Christian knowledge and Christian feeling, hath, to speak the
best, degenerated in these days to stand, rank and file, among
those duties whereof it is parent, preserver, and commander. And,
to speak not the best, but the fair and common truth, this book,
the offspring of the Divine mind, and the perfection of heavenly
wisdom, is permitted to lie from day to day, perhaps from week to
week, unheeded and unperused, never welcome to our happy, healthy,
and energetic moods; admitted, if admitted at all, in seasons of
sickness, feeble-mindedness, and disabling sorrow. Yes, that which
was sent to be a spirit of ceaseless joy and hope within the heart
of man, is treated as the enemy of happiness, and the murderer of
enjoyment; and eyed askance, as the remembrancer of death, and the
very messenger of hell.
Oh! if books had but tongues to speak their wrongs, then might this
book well exclaim: Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! I came
from the love and embrace of God, and mute nature, to whom I brought
no boon, did me rightful homage. To men I come, and my words were
to the children of men. I disclosed to you the mysteries hereafter,
and the secrets of the throne of God. I set open to you the gates
of salvation, and the way of eternal life, hitherto unknown.
Nothing in heaven did I withhold from your hope and ambition; and
upon your earthly lot I poured the full horn of Divine providence
and consolation. But ye requited me with no welcome, ye held no
festivity on my arrival; ye sequester me from happiness and heroism,
closeting me with sickness and infirmity: ye make not of me, nor use
me for, your guide to wisdom and prudence, but put me into a place
in your last of duties, and withdraw me to a mere corner of your
time; and most of ye set me at naught and utterly disregard me. I
come, the fulness of the knowledge of God; angels delighted in my
company, and desired to dive into my secrets. But ye, mortals, place
masters over me, subjecting me to the discipline and dogmatism of
men, and tutoring me in your schools of learning. I came, not to be
silent in your dwellings, but to speak welfare to you and to your
children. I came to rule, and my throne to set up in the hearts of
men. Mine ancient residence was the bosom of God; no residence will
I have but the soul of an immortal; and if you had entertained me,
I should have possest you of the peace which I had with God, "when
I was with Him and was daily His delight, rejoicing always before
Him. Because I have called you and ye have refused, I have stretched
out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my
counsel and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your
calamity, and mock when your fear cometh as desolation, and your
destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh
upon you. Then shall they cry upon me, but I will not answer; they
shall seek me early, but they shall not find me."
From this cheap estimation and wanton neglect of God's counsel,
and from the terror of the curse consequent thereon, we have
resolved, in the strength of God, to do our endeavor to deliver this
congregation of His intelligent and worshiping people--an endeavor
which we make with a full perception of the difficulties to be
overcome on every side, within no less than without the sacred pale;
and upon which we enter with the utmost diffidence of our powers,
yet with the full purpose of straining them to the utmost, according
to the measure with which it hath pleased God to endow our mind. And
do Thou, O Lord, from whom cometh the perception of truth, vouchsafe
to Thy servant an unction from Thine own Spirit, who searcheth all
things, yes, the deep things of God; and vouchsafe to Thy people
"the hearing ear and the understanding heart, that they may hear
and understand, and their souls may live!"
Before the Almighty made His appearance upon Sinai, there were
awful precursors sent to prepare His way; while He abode in sight,
there were solemn ceremonies and a strict ritual of attendance;
when He departed, the whole camp set itself to conform unto His
revealed will. Likewise, before the Savior appeared, with His
better law, there was a noble procession of seers and prophets, who
decried and warned the world of His coming; when He came there were
solemn announcements in the heavens and on the earth; He did not
depart without due honors; and then followed, on His departure, a
succession of changes and alterations which are still in progress,
and shall continue in progress till the world's end. This may serve
to teach us, that a revelation of the Almighty's will makes demand
for these three things, on the part of those to whom it is revealed:
A due preparation for receiving it; a diligent attention to it while
it is disclosing; a strict observance of it when it is delivered.
In the whole book of the Lord's revelations you shall search in
vain for one which is devoid of these necessary parts. Witness the
awestruck Isaiah, while the Lord displayed before him the sublime
pomp of His presence; and, not content with overpowering the frail
sense of the prophet, dispatched a seraph to do the ceremonial of
touching his lip with hallowed fire, all before He uttered one word
into his astonished ear. Witness the majestic apparition to Saint
John, in the Apocalypse, of all the emblematical glory of the Son of
Man, allowed to take silent effect upon the apostle's spirit, and
prepare it for the revelation of things to come. These heard with
all their absorbed faculties, and with all their powers addrest them
to the bidding of the Lord. But, if this was in aught flinched from,
witness, in the persecution of the prophet Jonah, the fearful issues
which ensued. From the presence of the Lord he could not flee. Fain
would he have escaped to the uttermost parts of the earth; but in
the mighty waters the terrors of the Lord fell upon him; and when
engulfed in the deep, and entombed in the monster of the deep, still
the Lord's word was upon the obdurate prophet, who had no rest,
not the rest of the grave, till he had fulfilled it to the very
uttermost.
Now, judging that every time we open the pages of this holy book, we
are to be favored with no less than a communication from on high,
in substance the same as those whereof we have detailed the three
distinct and several parts, we conceive it due to the majesty of Him
who speaks, that we, in like manner, discipline our spirits with a
due preparation, and have them in proper frame, before we listen
to the voice; that, while it is disclosing to us the important
message, we be wrapt in full attention; and that, when it hath
disburdened itself into our opened and enlarged spirits, we proceed
forthwith to the business of its fulfilment, whithersoever and to
whatsoever it summon us forth. Upon each of these three duties,
incumbent upon one who would not forego the benefit of a heavenly
message, we will discourse apart, addressing ourselves in this
discourse to the first-mentioned of the three.
The preparation for the announcement.--"When God uttereth His
voice," says the Psalmist, "coals of fire are kindled; the hills
melt down like wax; the earth quakes; and deep proclaims itself
unto hollow deep." These sensible images of the Creator have now
vanished, and we are left alone, in the deep recesses of the
meditative mind, to discern His coming forth. No trump of heaven
now speaketh in the world's ear. No angelic conveyance of Heaven's
will taketh shape from the vacant air; and having done his errand,
retireth into his airy habitation. No human messenger putteth forth
his miraculous hand to heal nature's unmedicable wounds, winning
for his words a silent and astonished audience. Majesty and might
no longer precede the oracles of Heaven. They lie silent and
unobtrusive, wrapt up in their little compass, one volume among
many, innocently handed to and fro, having no distinction but that
in which our mustered thoughts are enabled to invest them. The want
of solemn preparation and circumstantial pomp, the imagination
of the mind hath now to supply. The presence of the Deity, and
the authority of His voice, our thoughtful spirits must discern.
Conscience must supply the terrors that were wont to go before Him;
and the brightness of His coming, which the sense can no longer
behold, the heart, ravished with His word, must feel.
For the solemn vocation of all her powers, to do her Maker honor and
give Him welcome, it is, at the very least, necessary that the soul
stand absolved from every call. Every foreign influence or authority
arising out of the world, or the things of the world, should be
burst when about to stand before the fountain of all authority;
every argument, every invention, every opinion of man forgot, when
about to approach to the Father and oracle of all intelligence.
And as subjects, when their honors, with invitations, are held
disengaged, tho preoccupied with a thousand appointments, so, upon
an audience, fixt and about to be holden with the King of Kings, it
will become the honored mortal to break loose from all thraldom of
men and things, and be arrayed in liberty of thought and action to
drink in the rivers of His pleasure, and to perform the mission of
His lips.
Now far otherwise it hath appeared to us, that Christians as well
as worldly men come to this most august occupation of listening
to the word of God; preoccupied and prepossest, inclining to it a
partial ear, and straitened understanding, and a disaffected will.
The Christian public are prone to preoccupy themselves with the
admiration of those opinions by which they stand distinguished as
a Church or sect from other Christians, and instead of being quite
unfettered to receive the whole counsel of the Divinity, they are
prepared to welcome it no further than it bears upon, and stands
with opinions which they already favor. To this pre-judgment
the early use of catechisms mainly contributes, which, however
serviceable in their place, have the disadvantage of presenting
the truth in a form altogether different from what it occupies
in the world itself. In the one it is presented to the intellect
chiefly (and in our catechisms to an intellect of a very subtle
order), in the other it is presented more frequently to the heart,
to the affections, to the emotions, to the fancy, and to all the
faculties of the soul. In early youth, which is so applied to
those compilations, an association takes place between religion
and intellect, and a divorcement of religion from the other powers
of the inner man. This derangement, judging from observation
and experience, it is exceedingly difficult to put to rights in
afterlife; and so it comes to pass, that in listening to the
oracles of religion, the intellect is chiefly awake, and the
better parts of the message--those which address the heart and its
affections, those which dilate and enlarge our admiration of the
Godhead, and those which speak to the various sympathies of our
nature--we are, by the injudicious use of these narrow epitomes,
disqualified to receive.