Page images
PDF
EPUB

tears are so frequently recorded. “What "mean ye to weep and break my heart?" is an interrogatory as intelligible to us in the character of Paul, as the heroic declaration, "I am ready not to be bound

ct

only, but also to die for the name of "the Lord Jesus." What ground, then, is there for that charge so frequently brought against persons of eminent piety, that they are destitute of natural feeling? The Old Testament saints were striking examples of domestic tenderness. history in the world exhibits such touching instances of paternal affection.

No

When Paul exhorts his converts" to "stand fast in the Lord," he declares his own participation in the blessings of this stedfastness in terms the most endearing

[ocr errors]

dearly beloved and longed for, my "crown and joy, so stand fast in the Lord "my dearly beloved;" -as if he would add to the motives of their perseverance, the transport it would afford to himself.

[blocks in formation]

His very existence seems to depend on their stedfastness in piety " for now

[ocr errors]

"we live if ye stand fast in the Lord." Again, as a proof how dear his converts were to him, he was desirous of imparting to them not only the Gospel of God, but also his own soul.

[ocr errors]

The spirit of Christianity is no where more apparent than in the affectionate strain in which he adjures his Roman friends only to consent to save their own souls. One would suppose it was not the immortal happiness of others, but his own, which so earnestly engaged him, How fervently tender is his mode of obtesting them!" I beseech you, bre"thren, by the mercies of God."-" I "Paul by myself beseech you' by the "meekness and gentleness of Christ *." As the representative of his Master he implores of man the reconciliation for which it would be natural to expect that

*Romans, ch. xii. 1.

man

man himself, whose own concern it is, should be the solicitor.

Saint Paul's zeal for the spiritual welfare of whole communities did not swallow up his ardent attachment to individuals; nor did his regard to their higher interests lead him to overlook their personal sufferings. He descends to give particular advice to one friend* respecting the management of his health. In his grief for the sickness of another †, and his joy at his recovery, he does not pretend to a feeling purely disinterested, but gratefully acknowledges that his joy was partly for his own sake, "lest he "should have sorrow upon sorrow." These soft touches of sympathy for individuals particularly dear to him, in a man so like-minded with Christ, in the instances of Lazarus and John, are a sufficient refutation of the whimsical assertion of a lively genius, that particular

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

friendships are hostile to the spirit of Christianity. *

The capacious heart of this blessed apostle was so large as to receive into it

all who loved his Lord.

The salutations

with

* It is however a debt of justice due to a departed friend to observe, that no suspicion could be more unfounded than that Mr. Soame Jenyns was not sincere in his profession of Christianity. The author lived much in his very pleasant society, and is persuaded that he died a sincere Christian. He had a peculiar turn of humour; he delighted in novelty and paradox, and perhaps brought too much of both into his religion. Ingenious men will sometimes be ingenious in the wrong place. If he lays too much stress on some things, and underrates others; if he mistakes or overlooks even fundamental points, so that some of his opinions must appear defective to the experienced Christian; yet the general turn of his work on the Internal Evidence of Christianity may render it useful to others, by inviting them by the very novelty of his manner, to consult a species of evidence to which they have not been accustomed. A sceptical friend of the writer of these pages, who had stood out against the arguments of some of the ablest divines, was led by this little work to examine more deeply into Internal Evidence; it sent him to read his

Bible

with which most of his Epistles close, and the affectionate remembrances which they convey, include perhaps the names of a greater number of friends, than any dozen of Greek or Roman heroes, in the plenitude of success and power, ever attracted; if we may judge in the one case by the same rule as in the other, the narratives of history, or the writings of biographical memoirs.

But his benevolence was not confined to the narrow bounds of friends or country. He was a man, and nothing that involved the best interests of man was indifferent to him. A most beautiful comparison has been drawn by as fine a genius as has adorned this or any age, between the learned and not illaudable curiosity which has led so many inge

Bible in a new spirit. He followed up his enquiries, consulted authors whose views were more matured, and died a sound believer.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »