“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit when it leaves the body: thou hast redeemed it—I have waited for thy salvation.”
ALMIGHTY GRACE.
—There is much in the life of men whose home is chiefly in the Market-place, to deaden and secularize their spirits; ALMIGHTY
GRACE. but examples like that of Hardcastle tell that grace is almighty even there—even there, were men to honour God, he would honour them. It would be made manifest to all, that even the life of a merchant prince may be spent in the ways of God, and conduct to his eternal home.
CHAPTER V.
RELIGION IN THE MARKET-PLACE CONTINUED.
Enough has been said to show that there is no incongruity between the religion of Jesus and the most comprehensive enterprise, if that enterprise be characterised by wisdom, as well as extent. The Bible may reign in the counting-house, as well as in the church; nay, where its power is felt at all, its most signal triumphs are not found amid the scenes where only the Omniscient is our witness, but amid those public proceedings where dangler is rife, because the current of the world sets in against the soul at once with the greatest rapidity and the greatest volume. By example after example, it is proved, both in the Word and the providence of God, that His truth embodies the religion of activity. One man, for example, is raised up to take possession of the promised land. He has seven nations to conquer, as well as a numerous people to guide, and amid the manifold engrossments of that position, how is Joshua employed? Had he adopted the maxims merely of the world, he would have drawn the sword, he would have thrown away the scabbard, and in the common language of mortal boasting, he would have determined to conquer or die. But the first sword which Joshua drew was the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The verse which directed his steps was this, “Thou shalt meditate on this book day and night ... for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” That was the secret of Joshua’s victories—amid the cares of a camp, he had his God to guide him.
JOSHUA—DAVID.
JOSHUA—DAVID. And the man after God’s own heart acted in the same spirit. Monarch as he was, and compassed about with all the cares of a kingdom, David made the Word of God a lamp to his path. He could picture no greater self-deception than to suppose that man can find a better guide in difficulty than God—a better Counsellor in doubt—a better Defence in danger. He could not even invent a more flagrant kind of folly than to set aside the wisdom of God, and prefer the wisdom of man; to adopt some human device for remedying man’s ills, for soothing man’s sorrows or lifting him from his degradation, while we despise the sovereign specific of the eternal God. The climax of all that is irrational is found in superseding God’s revealed will, and substituting for it the opinions, the speculations, the dreams of mortal man. David, therefore, placed the Word of God upon his throne beside him. Guided by it, the king was steadfast and unmoveable: Forsaking it, he became one of the chief of sinners; he sullied one of the fairest names.
LUTHER.
LUTHER. Or turning from inspired men, to those who had to spread the sacred page before them, and pray to God to shed light upon it, we may glance at the man whom God raised up, about three hundred years ago, to emancipate a large portion of Europe from Popery, that dark superstition which ever crushes man to the dust. Luther stands alone before the crowned, the mitred, and the lordly. A bigoted emperor holds that solitary man’s life in his hand; and had he doomed him to die upon the spot, millions would have rushed to applaud him for the deed. “Recant,” that is, deny the Word of God, was in substance the demand made from Luther; and was the demand conceded? Nay; the Bible was to him something better than a collection of syllables and words. The Spirit had made it a power, a life, a soul to that man’s soul; and, “I cannot recant, so help me God,” was in substance his reply to the crowned, and the lordly before him.