CHAPTER V. INDICATIONS OF AN INCREASE OF MORAL POWER IN THE CHURCH. HAVING seen that conversion to holiness is the specific object of the gospel plan of reform-that moral power, as combining the ordinary influence of one man with another, the word of truth and the Spirit's agency, is the sole efficiency for its accomplishment;-and having contemplated, also, the increase of this power in the church, as the great end which all its members should have in view, together with some things tending to divert them from it-let us now attend to the prospective fact of such increase, or the evidences that it will take place, before the great enterprise of christian philanthropy, is fully accomplished. Thus far, we trust, our thoughts are of a charac ter, to enlist in their favor the convictions of every judicious mind. That they are not new or original, but accord to our every day's observations, will give the greater security of this fact. We aspire not at presenting new things, so much as to separate, analyze and weigh those which are old and familiar; that we may ascertain the practical value of each, and in this way be saved from a useless expenditure of effort. As doing good, in the gospel sense, consists primarily in bringing men into conformity with the will of God, as revealed in the Bible, how manifest is the duty of doing our utmost for this object, instead of laboring at points which are foreign to it! Brethren, shall we expend our efforts upon the abstruse question, whether motives in the view of the understanding are the sole means of conversion, or whether some influence adscititious to motive is demanded in effecting it; whether the sinner is in a condition of activity or passivity, while the work is going on in his soul, or others of a like character? Alas, how many will die and go to hell, before it will be possible to settle these questions to the satisfaction of all! How much reason have we to mourn over the waste of talent, which we witness, on every hand, in consequence of turning aside to questions and things, which are really unimportant to the great point! Brethren espousing both sides of these questions, and even those who know nothing of them whatever, have still great power in prosecuting the evangelical enterprise. So far as matters of this kind throw obstructions in the way of that enterprise, and we have a fair hope of obviating them by turning aside to reason them, so far we are at liberty to do it; but no further. God help us to feel in all things, as we felt the day of our conversion to Christ, that we must not, that we cannot live for any thing, but to increase the purity, the power and the prevalence of true religion among our dying fellow men! As the desire of doing our utmost, to promote the glory of God in the work of salvation, is the strongest enkindled in us by the Holy Spirit, why should it be extinguished through the pursuit of inferior ends? Let us, therefore, attend to a few considerations, establishing the fact of a future increase of Christian efficiency, that we may be invited to exertion towards this great result, by the incentives of a consistent hope. 1. To begin, then, how much do we find in the analogy of increased physical and intellectual power, to encourage expectation of the same, in that of turning the convictions of men in favor of truth and holiness. It matters not how it is to be effected; this we shall consider in another part of our work; the prospective fact is all with which we have at present any concern. And when we consider the march of the human mind in every thing else, how can we doubt that here its experience will be the same? We can hardly anticipate an end of the cultivations, to which man may yet extend the faculties of his own nature, or the circumstances of his being. In what art or occupation is our mode of procedure so perfect, as to preclude amendment? What science has received its last possible contribution? Our expectation and zeal of discovery and invention, were never greater than at this The men of no calling, are content to pursue the beaten track of their predecessors, but are plying every faculty and effort at advance moment. ment. Now the mysteries of magnetism are unfolded to perfect navigation and commerce-now the art of printing dawns upon the world to aid the cause of science and letters and to impart to all the interests of human life a fresh impetus-now philosophy despoils the cloud of its dreaded thunder bolt causing it to fall innoxious at our feet-now the expansive power of heat acting upon water is converted into an agent of locomotion, enabling us to withstand the violence of tide current and storm, in passing trackless seas and threading the serpentine course of mighty rivers, and, by its increased facilities of intercommunication, melting distant nations into oneand now again, improvements in all the departments of effort and enterprise, too numerous for recapitulation, and too important in their results to be duly estimated, start into being as at the touch of the magician's wand, to produce aston ishment and break up all the old channels of industry and wealth. Those most interested to perpetuate the former mode of doing things, may raise their remonstrances against innovation; turnpike companies may preach a crusade against railroads, as the certain ruin of the nation; packetship masters may cry out against the innovations of steam; and all the sticklers for antiquity, may do their utmost to obstruct the car of improvement; but it has acquired a momentum too powerful for resistance, and must speed its way onward to the distant goal. How, therefore, should these signs of improvement show themselves in every thing, but the act of doing good to the souls of men? Does religion preclude enterprise? Does it throw over our faculties a leaden incubus, to repress their lofty aspirings, and to discourage the hope of greater efficiency, in accomplishing the appropriate ends of Christian philanthropy? For shame to our guilty imputations on the character of Heaven's own economy! Shall we limit the Holy One of Israel? Shall we pretend that he has denied an increase of power in that cause, where power is most needed-the cause of man's salvation? Let the dupes of party plead for the perfectibility of their sectarian, or anti-sectarian schemes-let them cry out against innovation |