regeneration. And if none need regeneration, there is no need that God should have determined to regenerate any by an act of sovereign grace. Thus all the doctrines of grace are virtually denied, and there is no radical distinction between saints and sinners. On this scheme, there can be no distinction between true and false experience. If a selfish experience is right, and there is no better, then, as all are naturally selfish, there is no false experience, and all religions are radically alike. L. S. That is just what I say; they are all radically alike. F. W. I say so too; only let us have feeling enough. I have no good opinion of a speculative religion.

Th. This condemns, as unnecessary and useless, all the warnings of Christ and his apostles, to beware of false prophets and of false teachers, and to take heed, lest we be deceived. It also condemns all that is said about the hope of the hypocrite, the tares and the wheat, the stony-ground hearers, the wise and foolish virgins; and pronounces unnecessary and useless all the exhortations to self-examination, and to pray God to search and try us. And I believe it is felt to be so; for I never heard an advocate of selfish religion discuss any of these subjects. Ard. I should think it would lead to a disregard of scriptural evidences of a change of heart, and lead to a dependence upon dreams, visions, impressions, and supposed revelations; or to a blind faith, without evidence, which is no other than presumption. All the scriptural evidences of a change of heart are the various expressions of disinterested love. Selfish religion leads to pervert or overlook these, and depend upon something else.

F. W. It leads me to depend upon the immediate witness of the Spirit. When the Spirit tells me that my sins are pardoned, and fills me with a rapture of love, I know by my feelings that I am a Christian. And I do not need to go so far round about to find something to call evidence.

Th. These immediate suggestions may be from another spirit, who wishes to deceive you. So he tells you a lie, and you believe it, and give yourself up to his guidance.

N. L. I believe that my sins are pardoned, that Christ and heaven are mine, without evidence from Scripture, sense, or reason. And it is written, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Th. But your faith, not being founded upon evidence, is presumption. It gives only an imaginary existence to the things hoped for by you, and is no proof of their reality. You misapply and wrest the Scripture to your own destruction.

Selfish religion is a fundamental error, because it leads to wrong views of all the Christian graces, and makes the whole

Christian character totally different. Selfish submission is conditional, true submission is unconditional. Selfish love to God is for his favors, true love to God is for the excellence of his character. Selfish repentance is sorrow for sin on account of its consequences, true repentance is sorrow for sin on account of its own evil nature. Selfish faith is an acquiescence in the way of salvation through Christ, because it is safe for the creature; true faith is an acquiescence in it because it is honorable to God. The selfish man loves the brethren because he considers them his friends; the real Christian loves them because they are holy. The joy of the selfish man is joy in himself; the joy of the real Christian is joy in God. The same difference exists in every thing belonging to the Christian character. Every true Christian grace is disinterested; but every true Christian grace has a selfish counterfeit, which, though called by the same name, is of a totally different nature.

A selfish experience leads to a selfish practice. The great object of the selfish man is to secure his own happiness. This is the burden of his prayers. If he asks for other things it is always in subordination to this. If he asks for temporal blessings, he can ask with submission, because he knows not whether they will promote his eternal interest. But when he asks for the promotion of his eternal interest, he can exercise no submission. He has no greater object beyond this, to which he can make this subordinate. He says, "Deny us what thou wilt, deny us not this."

Ard. Yes; how often have I heard that prayer.

Th. How much better it would sound to have men say, Father, glorify thy name."

CHAPTER LII.

Love-self. There is indeed a great difference between your views and mine in relation to Christian experience. But while yours appear narrow and selfish, mine appear large and liberal. My circle of charity is much larger than yours.

Thoughtful. If you mean that your views lead you to think well of a greater number than I can, that is doubtless true. But

if you mean that your principles lead you to seek the good of

a larger circle than mine, it is quite the reverse. I have been pleased with a comparison which a distinguished writer makes,

in one of his publications, between the laws of the material world and those of the moral world. Attraction is to the world of matter, the same that disinterested love is to the moral world. It belongs to every little atom on the surface of the earth to remain in its place, and in connection with its kindred atoms, to revolve around the sun, the centre of our material system, attracting and being attracted, according to its quantity of matter. But if a single atom were to take state to itself, and fly off from the surface of the earth high into the firmament of heaven, and claim to be the centre of the material system, and require suns and planets to revolve around it as the acknowledged centre of attraction,-this would resemble a rational creature who makes himself his supreme object, and who wishes the Creator and all his creatures to make his good their centre of attraction. But because we deny to this atom the place of a common centre for the system, has it therefore no appropriate place? Certainly, it had its proper place. It was the place of an atom; and it behooved it to cleave to the surface of the earth, and in connection with its kindred atoms, to attract and be attracted; and in a steady and orderly manner to revolve round the real centre of the system. If this atom is not acting in character, when it seeks to make all other bodies revolve round it, so neither is any man or angel who sets himself up as the supreme object, and seeks to make all other beings subordinate to him.

Ard. What further proofs have you that selfishness is wrong?

Th. The common sense of mankind condemns selfishness as wrong. Every man blames others for exercising it contrary to his interest. If a man is kind to us, and performs many services for us, and professes great regard for us, and we discover that it is all to accomplish some selfish scheme of his own, we never fail to despise him for so doing. The professions of friendship and esteem, which men of the world think politeness requires them to make to each other, are all professions of disinterested and impartial regard. If understood otherwise, they would be considered an insult. The common sense of mankind decides that every interest and every object ought to be regarded according to its real worth. There is an inherent worth in some things above that of others. The good of a whole community is of more importance than that of any individual of that community. The life of a man is worth more than the life of an insect. The happiness of God is worth more than the happiness of Satan. These things are self-evident. And it is therefore self-evident that the inherent worth of these things, so far as it can be discovered, is the proper measure of my

regard. But so far as I am selfish, I wholly disregard the inherent worth of things, and regard them only so far as I think it for my advantage.

There is no obedience to God in selfishness. He says: "Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Whatsoever we do-whether for this world or the next-whether we eat, or drink, or labor; whether we seek to promote our own comfort, or the comfort of those around us; whether we seek to secure the salvation of our own souls, or the souls of others-there is one rule-there is one ultimate end- -we must "do all to the glory of God." But selfishness makes self the supreme object. There is no true love to man in selfishness. Some deny their obligation to seek the glory of God, and yet admit their obligation to love their neighbor as themselves. To do that, is to regard his good as our own, to regard each for its own sake, and in proportion to its real worth. It is to be disinterested or impartial in our regard to each. But if we are selfish, the good of another is viewed as of no importance to us, unless it can be made subservient to our own. His holiness, his happiness, his life here and forever, are regarded as nothing, unless they contribute to our advantage. Such feelings are odious and wicked.

Selfishness is opposed to the supreme good, and would sacrifice it. It sets up a private good as the supreme object, and regards the public good, when it comes in competition with it, as worth nothing. Place the greatest good of the universe in opposition to this private interest, and selfishness would sacrifice it all. It has been said to an individual, "If your eternal happiness must be given up, or that of all others, God himself included, which would you choose ?" and the answer has been, "Let my happiness be secured, whatever becomes of the happiness of all others. Let God be dethroned, and the happiness of the whole universe besides be given up, rather than mine.” This has shown the supreme selfishness of the heart in its true colors. Such indeed it is. And if a worse temper than this can be found in any part of the universe, let it be shown in what it consists.

It needs no other temper than selfishness to account for any sin that ever was committed. What prompted Satan to rise in rebellion against God, but the desire of exalting himself? What argument prevailed with our first parents to join in that rebellion, but the promise of great advantage? What occasions all the wars among men, with their attendant crimes, but the selfish passions of men? Self gratification, in various ways, is evidently the object aimed at, by all the wicked, in all their various transgressions of the law of God. And if all moral evil con

sists essentially in selfishness, and nothing worse needs to be supposed, in order to account for all the crimes that have ever been committed, it is plain that selfishness is wrong.

The Scriptures condemn selfishness, and require the contrary temper. The apostle speaks of it as a great evil, that "all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." And in warning Timothy of the perilous times which were to come, he said, "for men shall be lovers of their own selves." Our Saviour condemned those who followed him from selfish motives. Satan could bring no greater accusation against Job than that of being selfish in his regard to God; and our Lord says: "If ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners love those that love them." The divine injunction is: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." And if we ask what kind of love is required, the Scripture informs us: "Charity (love) suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own.' This is the opposite of selfishness. To the same purpose are other declarations: "Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth, (or welfare). Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."

These considerations sufficiently prove that selfishness is wrong. It is condemned uniformly by the Scriptures; and it is condemned by the common sense of mankind, and by every enlightened conscience. All selfishness is sin. Selfish religion is the religion of the unrenewed heart; and if trusted in, it will destroy the soul. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." He may be greatly changed, without being born again. He may be changed from one degree of selfishness to another, or from one modification of selfishness to another, and yet be selfish still. He may be turned from seeking the things of this world to seeking the salvation of his soul. He may embrace a kind of religion which makes his own happiness his supreme object, and leads him to seek it because it is his own. He may be much engaged in this religion, and yet be wholly selfish in it all. And if his religion is wholly selfish, it is wholly sinful, and will not stand in the great day.

You have, then, the grounds of our fears in relation to the converts of the protracted meetings, and the new-measure revivals, which have been so triumphantly proclaimed. We fear that a large part of them are the subjects of a false experience, made up of animal feeling and selfish affection. And we fear