when He suffered Adam to fall, and en- | worthy of Himself, when He exposed tailed a heritage of woe on myriads our first parents to temptation, and, havwhich had no share in his transgres- ing suspended on a single act the intersion. There is so much of mystery ests of countless myriads, interfered not round the permission of evil; it is ap- to prevent the universal shipwreck. We parently so strange, that, for a single care not whether the feeling be openly fault, calamity and death should have avouched, though that is far from rare been made the portion of successive and enough that it is secretly cherished; mighty generations; that, reason how and so long as any man, viewing the we will, and prove what we will, num-condition of the world, and tracing that bers secretly cherish the thought that there was injustice with God, or, if not injustice, a defective benevolence. condition to its cause, is disposed to accuse God of a want, whether of equity or of benevolence, in regard of his first dealings with our race, so long may it be said that an apparition would be suitably employed, if employed to deliver only such words as those which the affrighted Eliphaz heard. I know that you would expect, and very justly, that, if the silence of the midnight is to be broken by an unearthly voice, it must be for the announcement of some very great truth; that, if you are to be startled by a boding form, gliding to the We are not afraid of putting it to your own consciences to attest the truth of this. We are sure that many amongst you will secretly acknowledge, that, when they look on a world overrun with sorrow, and, yet more, when they think on the fire and the worm which must constitute the future portion of those who obey the evil passions roused in them through the apostasy of Adam, they feel as though there were something harsh and inexplicable in the dis-bedside, it must be on some extraordipensation, something not to have been expected from such a being as God, but more or less at variance with the presumed attributes of his nature. And we are not now about to expose the thorough falseness of the opinion. We have often done this. We have often shown you, that, forasmuch as God had all along determined the redemption of man, it consisted as much with goodness as with justice that He permitted his fall-there having been provision, in the mediatorial arrangement, for the bestowment of far greater happiness on the race than it lost through the original sin. But it is not our present business to vindicate the equity of the dealings in question we have simply to do with the suitableness of sending an apparition, when that equity might be the burden of the message which it bore. The point which lies for our inquiry, is merely, whether such a supernatural agency as was employed towards Eliphaz be, or be not, disproportioned to the communication with which the spectre was charged. And our belief is, that there is no disproportion; that, even now, with all the aids which revelation can supply, and with the glorious things of redemption thrown open to our view, there is frequently harbored a feeling that God's ways were not nary occasion, and for some momentous purpose. But we should find such an occasion, and such a purpose, wheresoever there was a disposition to arraign God's dealings with mankind, to doubt, if not to deny, their thorough consistence with the alleged attributes of his nature. It is nothing to say that there is already sufficient information, if there be still a secret and lingering infidelity. The sufficiency of the information may be a reason against expecting a supernatural visit; but the fact of the infidelity is proof of what would be the suitableness of the visit. And though I know of any one of you, that he has in his hands the Bible, that amazing register of God's gracious purposes and arrangements on behalf of the fallen and lost, and that he attends the ministrations of the Gospel, through which is laid before him a scheme of restoration far more than commensurate with the ruin wrought by sin, yet I should not be surprised, I should not, that is, feel as though there were an agency disproportioned to the need, were I to hear of this man, that he had been visited by such a form as that which stood before Eliphaz, and, nevertheless, that this form had uttered only the questions which Eliphaz heard. Ĭ know too well how possible, how common, it is for men to be staggered by THE SPECTRE'S SERMON A TRUISM. 35 35 nies of revelation, so that numbers cher- the permission of evil, notwithstanding | say that we overstate facts, if we now what is revealed to them as to the final turn from the general dealings of God prevalence of good. I know too well to the individual, or personal, and conwhat secret misgivings there are, what tend that the main of our foregoing arquestionings, what doubtings, what sus-gument is applicable without the change picions: and with what a distressed and of a letter? We have hitherto reasonapprehensive look many survey the ed on a disposition towards questioning aboundings both of iniquity and of the equity of those dealings of which our whole race is the subject, as sprung misery, as though they feared that on so troubled a sea there could not sit of a rebellious ancestry. We have conmajestical the righteousness of the Lord. tended that such a disposition is comAnd could I then think that an appari-mon, notwithstanding the full testimotion had been commissioned for a necessarily insufficient end, if commissioned only to declare the pre-eminent and immutable attributes of the Most High? Not so: the means would, in no sense, be disproportioned to the end, and the end would be in every sense worthy of the means. It might be that the cham-sufficient cause that an apparition passed ber, which the spectre invaded, was that of one whose mind had long been harassed by the common doubts, and who, despite the testimony of Scripture, was wont to argue upon human principles in respect of the fall, and to reach conclusions derogatory to the Divine perfections. There are thousands such in every division of Christendom-I doubt not there are some, whether few or many, amongst yourselves. Single me out such an individual. I dare not predict, that, at some coming midnight, the spectre will be at his side. I do not say that he has right to expect a supernatural visit, when the ordinary means of instruction are so ready to his hand, and so abundant in themselves. But this I say that I should see nothing to wonder at, nothing to persuade me that God had used extraordinary agency where it was not required, if that individual came to me, and told me, with all the indications of one who still quailed at the remembrance, that, in some deep silence, and in some dark solitude, there had hovered before him an indistinct form, forcing itself to be felt as from the unseen world, by the creeping of the flesh, and the standing of the hair; that there had come forth from it a voice, such as never issued from human thing; and, nevertheless, that the only utterances thus syllabled in fearfulness and mystery, "Shall these simple questions, mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his Maker?" were My brethren, will you be disposed to and the boundary line between the visible Now we do not mean to say that there one kind or another has made way into your families; and you will hardly, we think, be able to deny, that, in seasons of affliction, there is a tendency, in the face of all the testimony of Scripture and experience, towards disbelieving the fundamental attributes of God, or re with his perfections. Ah, if you want evidence that the apparition, in bringing the very simplest and most elementary of messages, brought what was worthy of a supernatural conveyance, you might often find that evidence in the chamber of some mourner who is weeping for the dead. It may be that yonder mother, as she looks on the rigid pale face of her child, imagines herself resigned, and professes her persuasion that God hath smitten her in love. But doubts are struggling in her mind; the affliction seems to her inexplicable: she cannot understand why she should have been thus visited: the Bible, indeed, assures her of the compassion, the tenderness, of the Almighty; but she turns from comforting texts to the sad spectacle before her-so young, so beautiful, so gentle, would not a merciful being have spared awhile that sweet flower? can, therefore, in no case be actually surprising that affliction should come, because even the most righteous are so far from perfect, that, to their dying day, they will need corrective discipline. Where then, in strict truth, is the mysteriousness of a dispensation, if we can always see the designed advantageous-garding his dispensations as at variance. ness? There is something of contradiction here. The Christian tells me that the death of his child is a dark dealing -wherefore dark, if himself confesses that he is not yet refined, as he should be, from the dross of this earth, and, therefore, has further need of passing through the furnace? He may not be able to trace a connexion between the particular sorrow and some particular sin: he may not, that is, be able to assign any one special reason for any one special affliction-and so far there might be mystery, were it, indeed, his business to affix to every stripe an individual cause-but he can see clearly enough that he requires chastisement in the general; and how then can it be mysterious that chastisement should come? And we cannot but feel, that, in a variety of instances, this speaking of the mysteriousness of a common dispensation, indicates a secret doubt as to the goodness or fitness of the dispensation: men would not be so ready to call a thing inexplicable, if, all the while, they felt that it was wisely and benevolently ordered. We do not mean to say that a Christian may not, at one and the same time, regard a dealing as mysterious, and feel it to be good: but where mysteriousness is ascribed to that for which there is evidently reason in abundance, we have ground to suspect that there is no real persuasion of there being such reason at all. And judge ye yourselves, ye to whom God has been pleased to allot much of sorrow, whether ye have not cherished a secret suspicion that ye were dealt with in a manner not to have been looked for from One who knew your frame, and remembered that ye were dust; whether ye have not used what ye have called the darkness of the dispensation, to cover a doubt, if not a denial, of its goodness? We would have you call to mind your misgivings, when some beloved object has lain dead in your houses, or your rebellious questionings when trouble of and then the tears, which the light of revelation had almost dried, break forth again, and, though taken for the gushings of nature, are rather the flowings of unbelief. Now is it not certain that this distracted and sorrowing parent requires to have impressed upon her the most elementary of truths, that God cannot do wrong, that He cannot do other than the best? Whatever her theory, it is practically this truth of which she wants persuasion; it is this truth in which she has no thorough belief. And if, then, it were to please God to vouchsafe her a supernatural communication, would it not be worthy of God, would not the supernatural machinery be fitly employed, if the message were nothing more than that sent to Eliphaz? She has the Bible: she has the revelation of the Gospel: but, notwithstanding these, she is secretly distrustful of God, and inclined to arraign the goodness of his dealings. Then I do not know, that, as she sits there, and wails over the dead, a shadowy thing will pass before her, and bring words from above. But this I know-that, if an apparition were to need the being supernaturally taught, if employed to enforce so elementary a proposition. enter, and stand, in its unearthliness, at the side of the coffin where her child lies so still, the most appropriate message which the spectre could deliver, And there is one general inference would be the simple one which was which we wish to draw from the appabrought so thrillingly to Eliphaz. Ay, rent, though not actual disproportion. that mother might rush from her cham- It is this-that truths, which we never ber with the scared and wan look of think of disputing, may be those which one who had gazed on the being of practically we are most in the habit of another sphere; and she might relate forgetting. It is of well-known things to me, circumstantially and convincingly, that a spectre must speak to us, if it how, in the darkened room, and amid would speak of what it is important that that silence which is the more oppres- we know. The apparition is not needsive because it makes every sob so dis-ed to impart new truth, but to impress tinct, she had been confronted by a form old. O strange but actual condition of whose very mystery proved it an inhabi-man-that, if a spirit were sent to him tant of the invisible world. But when with a message for his good, it would she had collected herself sufficiently to tell me what the spectre had said, I should expect to hear nothing of new revelation, nothing as to the state of the departed, nothing as to the happiness of heaven. I should expect, as most precisely what she needed, and therefore as most likely to be thus strangely transmitted, that the apparition, which had made the hair of her flesh stand up, would have left these words printed on her mind, "Shall mortal man be more just than God shall a man be more pure than his Maker?" be only of things with which he has long been familiar. The apparition enters the chamber of the man of pleasurewhat says it to the terrified voluptuary? "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." Why, he knew this before; he has heard it a thousand times-yes; but this is what he practically disbelieves he lives as though he were not to die, and, therefore, what he needs from the apparition is the being told his mortality. The gliding spectre goes stealthily to the side of a miser; as the wealthy accumulator cowers and quails before the phantom, in what words is he addressed? And thus we may, perhaps, have done something towards removing the appearance of disproportion between the ve-"We brought nothing into the world, hicle employed and the message conveyed the vehicle supernatural, the message the most simple, and apparently not needing the being delivered at all. I do not know whether you may have been used to observe the disproportion; but, certainly, to my own and it is certain that we can carry nothing out; "-why, this is no news: must the sheeted dead come back to tell a man this? no news, indeed-yet this is what the covetous practically disbelieves; he hoards as though his riches were to go with him into eternity; and therefore would the apparition be employed to the most necessary end, if employed to give impressiveness to the very tritest of truths. mind it is very striking. I I almost tremble at the description which Eliphaz gives of the spirit. I feel sure that this dim and awful visitant must have come for a momentous and extraordinary pur- It is the same in every other instance. pose. I prepare myself, accordingly, With every one of us there is some simto hear from his lips some deep, ple truth about which there is no dismajestic, and perhaps inscrutable, pute, but to which there is no power; truth-when, lo, there is nothing ut- and if a spectre were sent with a mestered but what every child knows, what sage, it would be this truth which it every one believes, in believing a would be most for our advantage that it God. Our great object has been to should deliver; the delivery being needshow you, that, simple as the truth ed, not to increase our knowledge, but is, and unhesitatingly acknowledged, to make the knowledge influential. it is nevertheless one in regard of Alas! alas! is not this true in regard which there is a prevalent, though of all the uncontroverted in the present secret unbelief, so that an apparition assembly? Spirits of the dead, appear would not be employed on what did not amongst us. Rise as shadowy, vapory things, and preach, in the name of the living God, to the men and the women who yet care nothing for their souls. What will they say? "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Why, I have preached this to you a hundred times: ye have heard it, till ye are wearied by the repetition. And yet, if we want spectres at all, we want them only to deliver this commou-place truth it might be effectual, as breathed by their wild strange voices, though of ten uttered without avail by mine. So that, it is not to tell you what is new, but to make you feel what is old, that we would invoke the phantoms, and beseech them to arise. But they come not-why should they? ye must be self-condemned, if your remaining in danger of everlasting death be only through your not acting on your knowledge. It is not a revelation which you need and therefore must you not ex pect that God will depart from ordinary rules, and send ærial beings to make revelation more impressive. The spirits will not appear now, to force you to accept what you make light of when offered through the ministrations of your fellow men. But the spirits shall appear hereafter. "Ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands ” shall be around the Judge. They shall attest the equity of the sentence which dooms to destruction those who have put from them pardon through Christ. I hear the words that were heard by Eliphaz-if, for a moment, those appointed to the fire and the shame attempt to arraign the justice of their portion, a voice like the voice of many thunderings, or of mighty waters, bursts from the throng, the countless throng, of spirits, "Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall man be more pure than his Maker?" "Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hith not the Scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?"-ST. JOHN vii. 40, 41, 42. We often speak of the great changes | principles have pervaded God's mora! and revolutions which have occurred in government: amid all changes and the world history is considered as little else than the record of the rise and fall of communities, families, and individuals. But, throughout the long series of vicissitudes, there may be traced much of what is permanent and perpetual; so that, probably, sameness or uniformity is as truly the characteristic of human history as variety or diversity. It may, for example, be always ascertained by a careful observer, that the same chances, it can be seen that an overruling providence has been at work, guiding the complicated instrumentality, and directing it to the futherance of certain fixed purposes and ends. It may also be perceived that the elements of human character have throughout been the same: man has changed in his fortune and position, but not in himself: you find him in the most opposite conditions, according as civilization is advanced or |