Our common prosperity, is, indeed, unexampled, but it is not out of the reach of injury. While it lasts, it is the duty of every man, to contribute what he can to preserve it. If you would advance the glory of your age, and make it worthy of being remembered by those who shall come after you, beware of the encroachments of luxury. Nothing will so much tend to make you insensible to the best gifts of Providence, and callous to the purest pleasures of life, as the love of noisy and frivolous distinctions, the pursuit of vicious pleasures, and the tyranny of fashion. Consider whether you do not contribute to the corruptions of the age, by an immoderate pursuit of amusement. Consider how easily the minds of those, who are coming into life, are enfeebled and deluded by the doubtful examples of those whom they are taught to consider as giving the tone to the manners of the age. То preserve our social pleasures in any good degree of purity, nothing will so much contribute as the cultivating a taste for domestic life and the quiet and affectionate pleasures which it affords. In such a state of society as ours, also, there is danger, lest the love of money, or of merely sensual pleasures, should overwhelm the rising generation. To obviate these evils, it is much to be desired, that the love of literature and of intellectual pursuits should be greatly encouraged; for, though the passion for knowledge is no proof of a principle of virtue, it is often a security against the vices and temptations of the world. Everything, which you contribute to the institutions of sound learning, and to promote a correct and pious education, you contribute to the peace, the purity, and the glory of the age. Once more, my friends, what a treasure of felicity you have in keeping! And by you it is to be bequeathed to those who are to be your successors, in a long posterity. Let your thoughts run on a few years in prospect, and can you endure to see those whom you have brought into life, whom you have trained up to fill your places, and whose destiny you now influence, can you endure to see them spoiling this rich inheritance, and then reproaching your memories? Can you look, without remorse, and see them taking their places in society, depraved by your example, lost to virtue, to peace, and to heaven? Do not think you have discharged your obligations, when you have laid up for them a perishable inheritance on earth, when you have given them a customary education, and set them up in life. Oh, no! God, who watches over our employment of his gifts, demands of you, not only that you dedicate your children to him, but that you implant in them his fear and love, that you furnish them with the only sure sources of happiness, by your lessons of piety, by your example at home and in public, and by your prayers with them and for them. Without this you may leave them the wealth of the world, and it will only curse them; you may leave them the rank, the glory, the reputation of their fathers, and it will only render them the decorated victims of the indignation of Heaven. Consider, then, what obligations to others your privileges impose upon you. Walk within your houses with a perfect heart. Make them the nurseries of godliness. Resolve, that, from this day, you will not neglect this most solemn of your duties; and then, with a grateful heart, tell your friends what great things God has done for you. SERMON XVII. HEBREWS I. 1. OF THE HEAVENLY WHEREFORE, HOLY BRETHREN, PARTAKERS WHEN We rise from the contemplation of the character of Jesus, it is with a mixture of transport and of despair; of transport at finding that such immaculate excellence was embodied and exhibited in a human form, and despair lest it should be impossible to imitate it in the present mixed condition of human life. I know not how any man can take up any one of the Gospels and read it through, without feeling that there is something supernatural about the character of Jesus, without catching, at intervals, a glimpse of that divinity which seems to encircle him, or perceiving the truth and nature of the Centurion's exclamation, when he heard the last expression which escaped from the lips of the dying Savior, "Truly, this was the Son of God." The moral character of Jesus is distinguished from that of every other teacher upon record by this peculiar circumstance, that it united excellences which are usually thought irreconcilable, or which are very rarely found conjoined in any individual. Endowed, as he was, with power which was calculated to impress beholders with the most reverential awe, he united with this a familiarity which admitted, on easy terms of communication, all the grades and classes of society. He knew how to effect, also, that rare union of zeal with candor, which we seek in vain in other celebrated reformers. He combined, too, the utmost activity with a prudence which never deserted him, and irresistible power with unassuming gentleness. Look at his character from one point of view, and you would think he was formed only to suffer; from another, and he appears destined only to act. He was sensible of his high character and pretensions, yet meek and gentle and unresisting. Though he abated not from the rigor of his Father's requisitions, yet he was the preacher of a religion which offers relief to the burdened and succor to the miserable. In one word, he brought together in his eharacter the utmost perfection of opposite, I might almost say, incompatible excellences. To dwell upon the character of Jesus is the delight of every Christian, not merely because it confirms his faith, but because it has a salutary effect upon his own character and disposition; and those advanced Christians, who have satisfied themselves of the historical truth of Christianity, repose afterwards upon their original convictions, while their faith is continually strengthening itself, not merely by time and habit, but by those irresistible impressions which are made by a frequent and diligent reading of the New Tes tament. It was no small part of the great design of God, when he interposed to reveal himself among men by his Son, to give us a living, visible specimen of human nature, such as it may become, when the operation of the gospel has its full influence. Hence it is a remarkable circumstance in the character of Jesus, that, though he was so intimately united with God, and had power committed to him in heaven and in earth, his example is, in every moral respect, strictly practicable. It is an example to men in every condition. It teaches us how to live on earth, as well as to prepare ourselves for heaven. In every useful point of view it is accommodated to the imitation of com mon men. It is my intention, in this discourse, to consider what may be called the practicableness of our Lord's example; that is, its practicableness as an example of social virtue held up to the imitation of such beings as we are. In the first place, consider how completely this example would be marred and rendered ineffectual, or even dangerous, if the most piercing scrutiny had discovered a single stain in the character of Jesus; I do not say if such a stain had really existed, but even if it had seemed from the narrations, that there was anything which wore the appearance of immorality. The difficulty would be insuperable, even supposing it to arise merely from some defect in our knowledge of the circumstances of the case. We should labor under a burden which nothing could remove; because it might be said, that no Christian was obliged to follow a master, as divine, who had discovered a deficiency in that purity which he had made the object of his religion. In this respect, as in many others, the character of Christ remains eternally distinguished from that of any other teacher in the history of the world. It is not merely from the accounts of his friends, that we venture to make this assertion, but it is conceded even by his enemies. In all the busy murmurs of history about the characters of men, not a whisper can be distinguished which calumniates the Founder of our faith. Compare with this the character of Socrates, who, 19 VOL. II. |