want of such stirrings, would have languished, is resuscitated ; and oil is poured, as it were, upon the flame.]
But these things are rather matters of experience than of abstract discussion : to be known and understood, they must be felt.]
3. To the Church at large —
[Where these amiable feelings are displayed in full force and activity, the cause of Christ is greatly promoted. The beauty and excellence of Christianity is seen. Men cannot, or will not, judge of it from its principles; but they cannot help judging of it from the effects which they behold. The persons who beheld our blessed Lord at the tomb of Lazarus, were struck with his sympathy in this particular view : " When Jesus saw Mary weeping, and the Jews also weeping who came with her, he groaned in his spirit, and was troubled : and, on his coming to the grave, Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold, how he loved him^V So, when persons behold Christians participating with others freely in their joys and sorrows, they are constrained to say, Behold how these Chris- tians love one another; yea, and not one another only, but all around them, strangers and enemies, as well as friends ! The prevalence of such dispositions goes further to silence gain- sayers, and to win souls, than all the most laboured arguments of learned theories : religion speaks to them here in a language which they cannot but understand and feel.]
Here, in conclusion, we are constrained to observe,
1. How poor and inefficacious is the religion of the world !
[The world's religion consists almost entirely of forms, of forms without either life or power. Certainly Christianity, even as professed by the world, has advanced the cause of general benevolence : but that benevolence extends not to the concerns of the soul. A worldly Christian can see thou- sands perishing in their sins, and not stretch out a hand to their relief, nor utter one sigh on their account : and, as for all experimental religion, whether of joy or sorrow, he derides it as the fruit of a weak or distempered imagination. The character of such persons may be seen in the elder brother in the parable, who, when solicited to join in the festivities occa- sioned by his brother's return, vented his spleen in unkind reflections, both on the prodigal who had returned, and on his father who had received him to his arms. The most benevolent of worldly men has not a string in his heart that is in unison with one who is cast down with penitential sorrow, or that is exalted with the joys of faith. No : his principles rise not so
i John xi. 33—36. VOL. XV. K K