MAN’S RUIN AND RISE.
Such, then, is another instance of philanthropy, in one of the humblest of mankind. After this, why wait for some costly apparatus for doing good? Why delay the attempt to make the world better, however humble our sphere may be, when we see one so lowly, yet so honoured—so poor, yet making so many others rich? Nay, with the grace of God in the heart, and love to souls as its invariable attendant, be it the felt duty, the privilege, the resolute vow of all, even in the workshop, to seek to convert some sinner from the error of his ways, and thereby hide a multitude of sins.—As one wanders over the Seven Hills of Rome, he may often pick up a marble fragment of a frieze, a portion of a capital, a volute, or a triglyph, telling of the grandeur which once was there, when the palace of the Cæsars crowned more than one of the hills, and the “Golden House” of Nero formed the glory of the whole. MAN’S RUIN
AND RISE. And, in like manner, amid the ruins and the debris of our fallen nature, we sometimes find what reminds us of its primal glory, and of the depth to which it has fallen; and yet assuring us, that fallen though it be, it may not have fallen for ever. Benefactors to humanity, like Harlan Page and John Pounds, occupy that rank among men.
SERVING THE LORD.
SERVING
THE LORD. There is no weariness to him who works for Christ: he is willing to spend and be spent. No sullen drudgery is his, as if work were only a doom—nay, rather cheerful work from a glad, emancipated spirit, and joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That sweetens toil; that braces the arm; that nerves man’s spirit for all that can ever come; and even his daily work, as a husbandman, or an artizan, is thus spiritualized into a service to his God.
CHAPTER IV.
RELIGION IN THE MARKET-PLACE.
Let not the design of these chapters be forgotten.
There are few opinions more prevalent among men, than that religion is to be attended to only at certain places or on set occasions. While some entirely neglect it, and live from day to day without one solemn thought of God or the soul, others would attend to it only at fixed seasons, or when established usage calls them. At other times, religion is reckoned an intruder. It interferes with the pursuits, or it interrupts the pleasures of men. It must therefore be kept in its proper place, without venturing to appear in the ordinary business or the common intercourse of life.
The Romanist, accordingly, hurries to Mass; and that over, he hastens away to his holiday, his folly, and his sports. The formalist, whether Protestant or Romanist, complies with his routine, appears at church, or tells his beads, and then dismisses religion from his thoughts. The young leave religion to the old. The old often postpone its claims, till attention to it is useless, unless it could operate like a charm; and thus the one thing needful is the last thing that some will permit to obtain any ascendency over their minds.
THE ALIMENT OF THE SOUL.