from heaven to earth, it brings down no sure intelligence! I ask, 'Wanderer, whither? Wanderer, whence?' But there comes to my ear the answer, 'I know not, but I see the heaven full of stars and the heart of man full of foreboding,'-yea, foreboding, longing; this is the only relic which man has saved from the great apostacy, in which he lost the primitive nobleness of his nature. And all his wise men and learned men, they can excite this longing still more keenly, but they can never satisfy it. And shall it actually remain unsatisfied? No. He who hath made the heart with such ceaseless cravings, he will appease them, he will appease these cravings in the kingdom of grace; and the wonders in the kingdom of his grace are even greater than those in the kingdom of nature." Vol. IV. pp. 3-7. NOTE W. p. 65. The paragraph to which this note refers alludes to several topics which Tholuck very frequently introduces into his sermons. He often mourns over the degeneracy of the present age, and yet indulges no morbid and sickly distrust in the future prospects of the church see in particular vol. II. pp. 226-7. He often insists on the importance of sacred meditation, of retirement from the world, and yet does not encourage that merely sentimental piety, which characterizes so many of his evangelical countrymen. The following are specimens of the mode in which he recommends the habit of secluded thought; of habitual private reflection upon our own sins, and God's paternal love. In a sermon upon Christian Truth, from Eph. iv. 25, he says,— "The first instance of a want of truth toward ourselves and toward God, is seen in this, that we purposely forbear to examine ourselves in the presence of our Maker, that we do not seek the still hour. Of this want of truth some perhaps are almost altogether unconscious; it may be the result of an entirely thoughtless levity, which leads a man to live as if he would never die; but we, who live within the precincts of the Christian church, are in some measure, and in a majority of instances, conscious that we are in this respect untrue to ourselves. Do not the most of us well understand, that if they would often, in the still hour and before the eye of God, examine themselves, they would appear in an entirely different light from what they now do? You know how that brilliant jewel, that sparkling ornament, which ravished the eye by lamp-light,-how it often grows pale, when the morning sun shines upon it, because it is a mere imitation. Oh my beloved, in the same way do many of you bear about with you the consciousness, that you are moving through life under this deceitful shining of a lamp. But you are resolved to remain in this false light, because you fear that your jewels, if the rays of the sun should fall on them, would prove themselves to be but imitation-trinkets. Poor, deluded souls! You now congratulate yourselves that you are able to shut out from you the light of day; but when the day of decision shall arrive, and its morning sun shall come forth in its splendour, can you then hold it back, and say, Sun, shine on me no more?' This is that sun, rising directly upon you, chasing away all darkness; this is the thief in the night. before which you are dismayed, and by which your peace of conscience is destroyed, because it will one day rob you of all your fair appearances." Vol. III. pp. 45, 46. In a sermon preached by Tholuck, Nov. 10, 1833, in commemoration of the birth-day of Luther, is a brief description of Luther's conversion. The heavenly voice, which once cried out to the apostle, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?" is represented as having, in a similar and almost miraculous manner, arrested Luther in his course of sin, and as having cried out, Martin, Martin, why seekest thou me not? The discourse proceeds as follows: "Luther began at this time to seek God. It was the time when every one. who would seek and serve the Lord, must resort to the stillness of the cloister.Flee far from me, ye joys of the world,' so the new convert cried from his very soul; where the melodies of the world are heard, there the instrument of God shall make music for me!' So he withdraws himself into the cloistered cell; he seeks the approval of Jehovah; in daily, severe self-denial he seeks it. With every new step that he takes in the divine life, he perceives the image of perfect holiness rising higher and higher above him. On all sides it is cried out to him, be holy, heart, be holy;' but le, the goadings of passion and of evil desire do not cease. Overpowered with severe sickness, he sinks into a state of deep disquiet of soul. When even his beloved music ceases to console him, then does he hear a more glorious music. An old cloister-brother repeats to him, from the Apostle's creed, which you hear every Sunday before the altar, the words, I believe in the forgiveness of sins.' Innumerable times had he, as have you also, listened to these words; but, brethren, the declaration of the forgiveness of sins is one which will be first understood, when the need of the soul and the thirst after divine grace have opened the intellect. With many such words does the sacred Scripture come to men, as to the deaf and dumb: they learn to utter the words, but the meaning of what they utter they understand not. If the deaf mute could acquire the power of hearing, he would be obliged to learn anew all that he has artificially repeated. The wants of the soul, the thirst after divine grace, must first open the understanding for every divine truth.' 6 And now "brother, a voice from God rings in thine ears, my child, why hast thou not sought me? Yea from infancy up,--first, when thou wast sitting in thy mother's embrace, while she told the story of the dear Redeemer; and then in thy boyhood, when in starry nights thou gazedst on the grandeur of thy heavenly Father's mansions, and thine eyes shed drops of thankfulness, that among all his millions of worlds he forgot not thee, poor child; and then in thy youth, when sin conflicted sorely with thee, and thou learnedst the truth, he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool;'-everywhere and all the way has thy Father's voice cried out to thee, wherefore seekest thou me not, my straying child, for I am still thy Father?'-Art thou then awakened, brother, by this voice; then confer not with flesh and blood; bid farewell to the world. What! you ask, shall we fly from the relations in which God has placed us, shall we seek the cloistered stillness, and the cloistered garments? No, my friends, We are indebted to our Luther, that we have learned another mode of separation from the world, than that by monkish garments; and another mode of living in the cloister, than that of living between four narrow walls. He it was who taught the Christian what is that evangelical separation from the world, that evangelical mode of living in the cloister, which is thus described by Paul, they have as though they have not, they enjoy as though they enjoyed not. Vol. I. pp. 6, 7, 8. NOTE X. p. 68. The allusion to Francke in this passage will perhaps appear forced and inapposite, unless we consider that the name of this remarkable man is associated, in a peculiar degree, with faith in God, with earnestness in prayer, and with very surprising divine interpositions in his behalf; unless we also consider that he was a resident, for more than forty years, at the place where this sermon was delivered, that he was one of the first theological professors in the University, that he was the original founder of the orphan-house, for which Halle has been so long distinguished, and that his name is remembered throughout Germany with the profoundest veneration. His orphan house, to which Tholuck more particularly alludes, was in an emphatic sense built by prayer; was undertaken without any resources except the prospective and unpledged contributions of the benevolent; and often when the devoted founder had not a farthing to pay his workmen, he could do nothing but fall on his knees, and entreat the overruling Providence for the needed supplies. It was singular, that individuals, known and unknown, frequently sent him, by the post, at these fearful emergencies, the very donations which he had just implored from heaven. |