truth is important, so is love. If truth ought not to be It were well if in this controversy as in all others, the opposing parties would in imagination sometimes change places, and each look at the subject of contention with his opponent's eyes. If the Dissenter were to borrow the Churchman's eyes, and endeavour to see how the question of establishments appears to him: and the Churchman were to borrow the Dissenter's eyes and see how the voluntary principle appears to him, how differently would the matter appear; and when each laid down his neighbour's spectacles and took up his own, much reason would both find, if not to alter their opinions, yet to maintain them, not, indeed, with less firmness, but certainly, with greater charity. It is also forgotten by many that, from the very constitution of our nature, we are much more in danger of offending against love, than we are against truth. Men are far more proud of their intellect than of their affections, and therefore are far more jealous of what would impugn the credit of their understanding, than of what would disparage their hearts. Hence, they are far more likely to trench upon what concerns the latter Our chief solicitude, therefore, on than the former. account of this very tendency, should be, not to neglect the meekness and gentleness of Christ. There is no great danger of our being lukewarm about our creed, but the danger is imminent of our being careless about our Christian temper. Nor ought the importance and pre-eminence of love, according to the apostle's decision, to be forgotten. From the moment when the blessed Paul established the superiority of love over faith, men have been trying to invert the order and to establish the pre-eminence of faith over love. The least article of faith, though it relate to the mode of a sacrament, or what is far less, the form of a clerical habit, or the posture of a devotee, has been thought of sufficient importance, and felt to be of sufficient power, to interrupt the exercise and destroy the very existence of love. Men forget that zeal for truth, unmixed with love, is the very essence of persecution. The thirteenth chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, had it been universally studied, understood, and practiced, would have kept all persecution out of the world. We should never have heard of the inquisition, the prison, the scaffold, or the stake as a punishment for error, and a support of truth, if that beautiful portion of God's word had been constantly borne in mind. Just in proportion, therefore, as men in the support of their opinions indulge in malice, wrath, and all uncharitable ness, they cherish the spirit and evince the character of persecutors. They are persecutors in a small way, and would deal in it more largely if the law did not prevent. Whoever, I repeat, seeks to degrade an opponent as well as to confute him—to insult him by scorn as well as to answer him by reason-to make him appear ridiculous as well as erroneous-to wound his feelings by irony and sarcasm, as well as to convince his judgment by argument and persuasion-who, in short, is not T' satisfied with demolishing the system he upholds, but aims to crush him personally to the earth: such a man may be a conqueror, but he must be content at the same time to add to this, the character of a persecutor. Let us, then, while we all contend for truth, contend for it in the spirit of love. The weapons of our warfare cannot be laid up like the sword of Goliah, by the side of the ark, but must be in constant use. That man is an unworthy member of any church who is not prepared in a right spirit to contend for it against those who would seek its destruction. He who has not love enough for the truth to defend it, has not, whatever he may say, a true and proper love of any kind. The smallest particle of truth has a value not to be estimated by gold or diamonds. I should be sorry, indeed, if it should be imagined from anything written in this volume that its author was indifferent to sound doctrine. Truth and charity stand related to each other, as the foundation and the superstructure; charity without truth is baseless, and truth without charity is but a foundation. I hold the importance of right sentiments, and that man is responsible for his belief. Pope's hacknied couplet, in the sense he intended it is a dogma of unbelief, soaked with infidelity to its very core. "For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, His can't be wrong whose life is in the right." My deliberate belief is, that the essential characteristic of Christianity is PARDON for sinful man, through a divine Mediator, and GRACE renewing him by the Holy Spirit, subduing yet exalting him; piercing yet comforting him; humbling him as nothing before God, yet making him mighty against all evil-first, within his own bosom, and then in the wide world around him. So I read THE BOOK. I judge not others; to their own master they stand or fall. I presume not to limit the mercy of God, or to ascertain how far beyond the boundary line of truth it may extend to the votaries of error, it is enough for me to say that, without a belief of essential truth, I should not feel that, in the scriptural sense of the term, I could lay claim to the character of a Christian, or that I was safe for eternity. With these views, therefore, I hold it to be as important to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints as it is for charity, but at the same time to maintain the contest with "the meekness and gentleness of Christ." The law of Christianity requires not only that truth should be spoken in love, but heard in love; charity is as obligatory upon the respondent as upon the appellant. If there are some who violate charity by the manner in which they oppose any given system, there are others who equally violate it by the manner in which they defend it. They cannot endure to have their opinions called in question in ever so mild, candid, and courteous a manner. Even the voice of charity, however soft and mellifluous her tones, offends them, if she venture to speak against their favourite system. This betrays a weak head and a weaker heart, and indeed betokens a conviction so slightly rooted as to be in danger of being blown down by the faintest breeze. He is a man of feeble virtue, who cannot bear to be told, however kindly, of his faults. To account a man our enemy because he calls in question the correctness of our views, though he do it ever so respectfully and candidly, is as much a breach of charity as it is to speak against opinions in bitterness and wrath. How are the jarring sentiments of mankind to be harmonized? How is the divided church to be made one? Only by this speaking to one another in love-by this discussion in friendly controversy of our differences-by this willingness to have our errors exposed and refuted, if errors we have. Away, then, with that morbid spirit which makes us waspish, petulant, and implacable, when our opinions are controverted. The Church of Christ can never be tuned to other musie as long as this spirit prevails. It is the prevalence of love that in fact must prepare us for the prevalence of truth. The best way to harmonise all minds is to reconcile all hearts. When men have placed their hearts under the government of charity they are best prepared to discuss the question "What is truth?" And admitting, as all must do, that it is desirable that men should be brought into more consentaneousness of opinion on religion, we must at the same time believe, that while he does something towards this, who controverts error, and shews what is truth, he also does something who keeps down the heats of party, thus scattering the clouds of prejudice and the mists of passion, and producing that serene and transparent atmosphere of charity in which the sun of truth most brightly shines, and can be most clearly seen. I cannot more appropriately or more impressively close this volume than by the following quotation, from the works of Mr. Robert Hall : “That union among Christians, which it is so desirable to recover, must, we are persuaded, be the result of something more heavenly and divine, than legal restraints, or angry controversies. Unless an angel were to descend for that purpose, the spirit of division is a disease which will never be healed by troubling the waters. We must expect the cure from the increasing prevalence of religion, and from a copious communication of the Spirit to produce that event. A more |