themselves on what they call their knowledge of the world and of life.
There are men, alas not a few, who look upon acquaintance with evil as
if a part of their education. Instead of shunning vice and sin, they
try it, if for no other reason, simply for this--that they may have
knowledge of it. They mix with various classes of men, and they throw
themselves into the manners and opinions of all in turn. They are
ready-witted perhaps, prompt and versatile, and easily adapt themselves
so as to please and get acquainted with those they fall in with. They
have no scruples of conscience hindering them from complying with
whatever is proposed; they are of any form of religion, have lax or
correct morals, according to the occasion. They can revel with those
that revel, and they can speak serious things when their society is
serious. They travel up and down the country perhaps, or they are of
professions or pursuits which introduce them to men of various
languages, or which take them abroad, and they see persons of opposite
creeds and principles, and whatever they fall in with they take as so
many facts, merely as facts of human nature, not as things right or
wrong according to a certain fixed standard independent of themselves.
Now whatever of religion or truth remains in our fallen nature is not
on the surface: these men, then, studying what is uppermost, are in
fact but studying all that is evil in man, and in consequence they have
very low notions of man. They are very sceptical about the existence
of principle and virtue; they think all men equally swayed by worldly,
selfish, or sensual motives, though some hide their motives better than
others, or have feelings and likings of a more refined character. And
having given in to sin themselves, they have no higher principle within
them to counteract the effect of what they see without; all their
notions of man's nature, capabilities, and destinies, are derived from,
and are measured by, what goes on in the world, and accordingly they
apply all their knowledge to bad purposes. They think they know, and
they do know too truly on the whole, the motives and inducements which
will prevail with men; and they use their knowledge to overreach,
deceive, seduce, corrupt, or sway those with whom they have to do.
4. Another very different class of persons who study evil, and pride
themselves upon it, and are degraded by it, are those who indulge
themselves in contemplating and dwelling on the struggle between right
and wrong in their own minds. There have been from time to time men of
morbid imaginations, of any or no religious creed, who have so
exercised themselves. Indeed there has been a large school of writers
in very various departments, for years, I may say centuries past,
though happily they are diminishing now, who delight in bringing out
into open day all the weaknesses and inconsistencies of human nature;
nay worse, take pains to describe bad men, and how they feel, and what
they say; who interest the mind in bad men, nay in bad Angels, as if
Satan might be thought of otherwise than with shuddering. And there
are others, men of mistaken religious views, who think that religion
consists in dwelling on and describing the struggle between grace and
corrupt nature in the soul. Christ has brought us light and life, and
would have us put off what we are, and follow Him, who knew no sin.
But these men, far from rising even to the aspiration after perfection,
do not advance in their notion of spiritual religion beyond the idea of
declaring and lamenting their want of it. Confession is with them
perfection; nay, it is almost the test of a Christian, to be able to
discourse upon his inward corruption. It is well to confess sin in
detail with shame as an act of penitence; it is a snare to speak of it
vaguely and in public.
5. Lastly, even when used rightly, the knowledge of sin is not without
its danger. As mediciners would not exist were there no illness or
disease, so it is mental disease which gives rise to casuists. Pain
leads us to think of our bodies, and sin of our souls. Were our souls
in perfect harmony, they would act like an instrument in tune; we
should with difficulty divide the sounds, even if we would; but it is
the discordance, the jar within us, which leads us to a serious
contemplation of what we are. The same remark obviously applies to a
great deal of theological knowledge, on which men who have it are
tempted to pride themselves; I mean exact knowledge of heresies and the
like. The love of God alone can give such knowledge its right
direction. There is the danger lest men so informed find themselves
scrutinizing when they should be adoring, reasoning when they should be
believing, comparing when they should be choosing, and proving when
they should be acting. We know two things of the Angels--that they cry
Holy, Holy, Holy, and that they do God's bidding. Worship and service
make up their blessedness; and such is our blessedness in proportion as
we approach them. But all exercises of mind which lead us to reflect
upon and ascertain our state; to know what worship is, and why we
worship; what service is, and why we serve; what our feelings imply,
and what our words mean, tend to divert our minds from the one thing
needful, unless we are practised and expert in using them. All proofs
of religion, evidences, proofs of particular doctrines, scripture
proofs, and the like,--these certainly furnish scope for the exercise
of great and admirable powers of mind, and it would be fanatical to
disparage or disown them; but it requires a mind rooted and grounded in
love not to be dissipated by them. As for truly religious minds, they,
when so engaged, instead of mere disputing, are sure to turn inquiry
into meditation, exhortation into worship, and argument into teaching.
Reflections such as these, followed up, show us how different is our
state from that for which God made us. He meant us to be simple, and
we are unreal; He meant us to think no evil, and a thousand
associations, bad, trifling, or unworthy, attend our every thought. He
meant us to be drawn on to the glories without us, and we are drawn
back and (as it were) fascinated by the miseries within us. And hence
it is that the whole structure of society is so artificial; no one
trusts another, if he can help it; safeguards, checks, and securities
are ever sought after. No one means exactly what he says, for our
words have lost their natural meaning, and even an Angel could not use
them naturally, for every mind being different from every other, they
have no distinct meaning. What, indeed, is the very function of
society, as it is at present, but a rude attempt to cover the
degradation of the fall, and to make men feel respect for themselves,
and enjoy it in the eyes of others, without returning to God. This is
what we should especially guard against, because there is so much of it
in the world. I mean, not an abandonment of evil, not a sweeping away
and cleansing out of the corruption which sin has bred within us, but a
smoothing it over, an outside delicacy and polish, an ornamenting the
surface of things while "within are dead men's bones and all
uncleanness;" making the garments, which at first were given for
decency, a means of pride and vanity. Men give good names to what is
evil, they sanctify bad principles and feelings; and, knowing that
there is vice and error, selfishness, pride, and ambition, in the
world, they attempt, not to root out these evils, not to withstand
these errors;--that they think a dream, the dream of theorists who do
not know the world;--but to cherish and form alliance with them, to use
them, to make a science of selfishness, to flatter and indulge error,
and to bribe vice with the promise of bearing with it, so that it does
but keep in the shade.
But let us, finding ourselves in the state in which we are, take those
means which alone are really left us, which alone become us. Adam,
when he had sinned, and felt himself fallen, instead of honestly
abandoning what he had become, would fain have hid himself. He went a
step further. He did not give up what he now was, partly from dread of
God, partly from dislike of what he had been. He had learnt to love
sin and to fear God's justice. But Christ has purchased for us what we
lost in Adam, our garment of innocence. He has bid us and enabled us
to become as little children; He has purchased for us the grace of
_simplicity_, which, though one of the highest, is very little thought
about, is very little sought after. We have, indeed, a general idea
what love is, and hope, and faith, and truth, and purity, though a poor
idea; but we are almost blind to what is one of the first elements of
Christian perfection, that simple-mindedness which springs from the
heart's being _whole_ with God, entire, undivided. And those who think
they have an idea of it, commonly rise no higher than to mistake for it
a mere weakness and softness of mind, which is but its counterfeit. To
be simple is to be like the Apostles and first Christians. Our Saviour
says, "Be ye harmless," or simple, "as doves." And St. Paul, "I would
have you wise unto that which is good, and _simple concerning
evil_[2]." Again, "That ye may be _blameless_ and _harmless_, the sons
of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse
nation[3]." And he speaks of the "testimony of" his own "conscience,
that in _simplicity_ and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but
by the grace of God," he had his conversation in the world and towards
his disciples. Let us pray God to give us this great and precious
gift; that we may blot out from our memory all that offends Him;
unlearn all that knowledge which sin has taught us; rid ourselves of
selfish motives, self-conceit, and vanity, littlenesses, envying,
grudgings, meannesses; turn from all cowardly, low, miserable ways; and
escape from servile fears, the fear of man, vague anxieties of
conscience, and superstitions. So that we may have the boldness and
frankness of those who are as if they had no sin, from having been
cleansed from it; the uncontaminated hearts, open countenances, and
untroubled eyes of those who neither suspect, nor conceal, nor shun,
nor are jealous; in a word, so that we may have confidence in Him, that
we may stay on Him, and rest in the thoughts of Him, instead of
plunging amid the thickets of this world; that we may bear His eye and
His voice, and know no knowledge but the knowledge of Him and Jesus
Christ crucified, and desire no objects but what He has blessed and bid
us pursue.
[1] for Innocents' Day.
[2] Rom. xvi. 19.
[3] Phil. ii. 16.
END OF VOL. VIII.