Page images
PDF
EPUB

jority of real Christians would be found to be truly happy; not only as compared with worldly men in similar circumstances, but beyond all worldly men in any circumstances. I know those whose very aspect is enough to tempt one to be religious ; whose bosoms seem cheered by unvaried sunshine, the regions of eternal spring, like the fabled mansions of the blest ;

Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old,
Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales;
Thrice happy isles!

But these are they who stand upon the very verge of heaven, and are arrived within prospect of the New Jerusalem. Such are rarely to be found among young Christians; and religious gloom is most frequently visible in our younger brethren.

Many persons," it has been said, "especially young persons, enjoy few, if any, of the consolations of religion." I am inclined to think that the observation may be qualified still further. Religious melancholy will, I believe, principally be discovered in young men, and among them most frequently in young converts. The reason of this (if the fact be true) will appear in the course of our inquiry. I state it, however, only as theoretically probable. My own knowledge of particulars is too confined to warrant any experimental inference.

2. I am apt to think that we are deluded in estimating the happiness of others, by outward appearances; just as we are in estimating their worth. If

[ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

a man laughs loud, and overflows with animal ac2 tivity, and boisterous merriment, we cry, happy fellow! But without denying that such coarse ebullitions may indicate constitutional joyousness, surely this turbulent vivacity is not a necessary element or evidence of gladness. The bounding kitten may be happy, and is not the purring cat? Are the gambols of the dolphin upon the ocean more enviable, than the complacency of the steer ruminating beneath the shade of the British oak? Yet mankind in general seem to have no idea of composed felicity. It must be active and tumultuous; and this occasions their mistakes as to the happiness of Christians. They cannot value, for they can hardly comprehend, the placid enjoyments of religion. The pious aspirations, the holy joy, the heavenly peace, which are fountains of celestial gladness continually springing up in the bosom of the good man, produce no bustle, and therefore excite no observation. I doubt not but many of the happiest of mortals are to be found among those children of God who pass on unnoticed in their pilgrimage, and are viewed by their worldly neighbours, sometimes with pity, and sometimes with contempt. It is natural, therefore, that men should underrate the happiness of Christians, from their imperfect knowledge of its real marks. They infer melancholy, wherever they see unobtrusive quiet and composure. But it is not so

"The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears, Less pleasing far than virtue's very tears."

If I can judge at all from my own experience, laughter is a very bad criterion of gladness. Nay we know that the most comical productions of Swift and Cowper were written while their authors la boured under an afflictive constitutional dejection. Philosophers take a distinction between the beautiful and the picturesque; and I believe it is a just one. The pleasure (they say) which we feel in stealing along a sunny vale, soothed by the concert of the woods and murmuring waters, is of a different kind from the delight enjoyed in coursing over an open champaign, keen in the chase, and braced by the wintry gales. The two kinds of happiness alluded to, admit, I believe, of the same distinc. tion, and for myself, I must confess a decided partiality to the beautiful*.

3. In attempting to account for the frequency of religious gloom, I shall not meddle with those cases in which melancholy evidently arises from an erroneous practice or unhappy opinions. These sufficiently explain themselves. If (as too commonly happens) men, who have strong religious impressions, will indulge themselves in some favourite, but vicious habits; or if they cherish their negligence in religion, from wilful blindness, because

* See Pascal's Thoughts. That sublime writer considers all restlessness as the effect of our degenerate nature dissatisfied with itself, and complacent satisfaction as evidencing the remains of our original perfection. Indeed, it may be observed, that contentment is called true happiness. Now contentment implies repose; an easy and cheerful acquiescence in the present state of things.

To be

they are afraid to contemplate the real terms of salvation; it is no wonder they are gloomy. They must be uneasy; they ought to be uneasy. happy in such a case is to be miserable. But their gloom obviously "is owing not to their religion, but to their deficiencies in religion. While they continue to be the servants of sin, they must expect the wages of sin*." To such we can only say, "Turn ye unto the Lord with your whole. hearts; for the fruit of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever; but "there is no peace," saith my God, "to the wicked."

So likewise if a man unhappily thinks some of the miserable penances of the Romish Church necessary to his acceptance, or is involved in that extreme darkness of predestinarian fantasy, which is full of" fearful shapes and sounds of woe:" so that he apprehends an irreversible decree of reprobation to have passed against him; it is very natural he should be dejected. Such cases fall not within our present inquiry, for they carry with them their own solution. They may move our compassion, but cannot excite our surprize. They imply not the slightest reproach to Christianity, because they are the known consequences of adequate causes. Those causes, indeed, may afford some triumph to the ir

* Mr. Gisborne. See the admirable discourse which closes his first volume of Sermons.

religious, but it is beside the question to shew its emptiness.

However, after all proper deductions, it must be owned there still remains much of real or apparent melancholy among religious persons unaccounted for. Christianity is a religion of Cheerfulness. How is it that so many of its worthiest professors seem to bear a living testimony against its excellence; that while they practise its precepts, they cannot enjoy its privileges? The causes I believe are various; to be found in the tempers of those who embrace Christianity; their peculiar situations; and the nature of the world around us. Perhaps after examining into these causes, their effects will appear less extraordinary.

In the first place, let us consider who are they who at all times are the most likely to accept the offers of covenanted grace. What said our blessed Lord "Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Christianity offers rest to the weary, and consolation to the hopeless. Surely it is not wonderful, if some at least of the children of woe accept the proffered mercy. Yet such Christians, it is obvious, will be melancholy; for religion, though undoubtedly it corrects, does by no means destroy our feelings. The widow and orphan, the childless parent and distracted husband, will fly to their Saviour for refuge; and they shall find him to be a Saviour indeed: "a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the

« PreviousContinue »