CHAPTER XV.

THE REFORMER.

1. It is a very common remark, that this world abounds with mystery. The remark is perfectly just, if by mystery we mean what we do not fully understand, or cannot fully account for: since in this sense of the word we may ask, What is there which is not more or less mysterious?

2. Is it not mysterious, we may ask, that man should be miserable when he is invited to be happy, and has within his reach the means of being so? We assume that man is miserable: we assume that he might be happy, since God has provided every thing that is needful for his well-being. How shall we solve the problem?

3. The problem is to a certain extent one of easy solution. There is a moral disorder in man which causes him to choose and to reject in an improper manner. We say nothing about visible and outward things of any kind: we go deeper: Man's happiness and man's misery depend on moral causes. If he chooses and pursues good he cannot be miserable; and if he chooses and pursues evil he cannot be happy.

4. The moral disorder of man's nature is an undeniable fact. We repudiate all distorted and ex

aggerated statements about moral evil: but man, as all men do and must feel, is a sinful creature; so far sinful that he is averse to good and prone to evil.

5. What is essential to man's happiness, therefore, is, a moral or spiritual revolution or change, by which such aversion and proneness shall be inverted; that is, the aversion shall be to evil, and the proneness shall be to good. Man never will be, never can be, happy, until, and as, he is the subject of such a revolution or change. If his heart be made good, his life is made happy.

6. We want Reformation; even that which is, individually, a transformation of the heart, leading to, and proved by, living "soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." But who or what shall work out such Reformation? We may be assured, that if we transform the inner man, we shall reform the outward life: and when, and as, this is effected, man is a happy being.

7. Who shall reform us? Is it the politician with his laws; or the philosopher with his abstractions; or the poet with his splendid imaginations; or the moralist with his maxims; or the sentimentalist with his morbid effusions? We have such teachers and reformers: and what shall we say of them? "But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.”

8. We repeat our question, Who shall reform us? And we answer without any hesitation, God's word and God's Spirit. The Spirit does not work without

the word; and the word is only a dead letter with

out the Spirit.

"The transformation of apostate man

From fool to wise, from earthly to divine,

Is work for Him that made hlm."....

"He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,

And all are slaves beside."

9. We turn to the Bible; and we have in that book the one, true, and only effectual reformer. Philosophy will never be able to say, that it "converts the soul, makes wise the simple, and rejoices the heart." But we say, that if all men truly believed as the Bible teaches them to believe, felt as it teaches them to feel, and acted as it teaches them to act, all men would be happy. We do not say that they would not have much to endure; but we may say, that they would know how to endure, and be happy in endurance: for God comforts those whom He afflicts.

10. How is the Bible treated in Christian nations? A clear and full reply to this question would be painful and awful. But how is the Bible very commonly treated in our own land? Some despise and reject it; some approve and commend it; some heedlessly neglect it: but how few, comparatively speaking, love it, search it, delight in it, and pray and strive to be more and more conformed to it in mind, heart, and conduct? What a mystery of folly and evil is here! If we may use such bold language, we would say, God (by His word) is in men's houses, but they refuse to listen to His voice.

11. We may look abroad: and then we may ask, How is the Bible regarded by the sovereigns of the nations; by statesmen and legislators; by the masters of science and literature; by the great, and opulent, and influential in society, and lastly, by the busy and laborious multitudes of mankind? We have no wish to answer such a question: and yet we may ask, Is it not undeniable, that all, in general, act according to their own secular principles, rules, and maxims, wholly apart from religion, and very often quite contrary to it? They seem to forget, that man is a moral being, and an eternal world.

born for another

12. Suppose the religious principle to be the first and pre-eminent principle; and the religious rule to be the leading rule: and what would the result be? Kings would rule in righteousness: statesmen would legislate as men who feared God: sages would speculate and reason as humble believers: the great and opulent would use their wealth and influence as responsible beings: and the busy crowd would live in joyful submission to the divine will.

13. Fill the world with religious truth; with justice, love, benevolence, humility, purity, prudence, and industry: and would not the world be filled with happiness? But these are the very things that the Bible inculcates, and that would abound in all lands if it were rightly regarded. We utter, therefore, nothing chimerical when we that the Bible is the only true reformer, and

вау,

that the means of being transformed, reformed, and happy are within our reach.

14. We do not ascribe any magical sort of influence to the book, to the mere letter of it, or to the reading of it: but we go upon the idea that if the Bible were duly regarded, it would be read with earnest and persevering prayer for the illuminating and renewing influence of the Holy Spirit: and then we say, that the most blessed consequences would be the result of our wise and pious conduct.

15. "You may circulate the Bible; but you will never get men to regard it as they ought"-Be it so. And here we see the mystery of mysteries, as we might call it. God has given us the true light; and men prefer darkness, or sparks of their own kindling. God has planted in our world the tree of life, abounding with wholesome fruit and healing leaves; and men turn in preference to husks and chaff, or even to fruit of poisonous quality.

16. Here is man's folly; and here is the cause of his misery. Instead of looking to himself he looks abroad; and now he rails at one man, or extols another; commends one enactment, or bitterly censures another; welcomes some new. doctrine, or vilifies some established opinions. Experience soon proves the vanity of his expectations. But experiment follows experiment; dream succeeds to dream; thus life advances, and what is it found at last but vanity and vexation of spirit? Wild dreams of happiness only produce misery.