SIR MATTHEW HALE.
Sir Matthew Hale was one of those upright men whom all the good delight to honour. SIR
MATTHEW
HALE. With his conscience quickened by habitual contact with the Word of God, and his whole soul familiar with the heavenly standard, he repudiated all that was disreputable in his profession. Pure religion presided over his practice; and while honouring God, he was honoured by him. As soon as Hale was convinced of the injustice of any cause, he immediately declined to advocate it, and utterly refused to plead against the truth. He at least frowned upon all that was false and unfair. As a judge, he repressed every attempt to ensnare or mislead a witness. He felt that, when such things are done under the very shadow of the judge’s bench, where the great ends of truth and justice should be inviolably promoted, gross guilt may be expected to reign in other spheres. He, therefore, shunned as a sin all that savoured of finesse; and, braced for duty by the truth of God, no influence, no entreaty, not even a monarch’s smile, could induce him to swerve from the path in which a good man ought to go. In short, his pleadings as an advocate were characterized by the same integrity, and the same Christian consistency as the other actions of his life. Indeed, to act otherwise, or to be one thing as a lawyer and another as a man, is one of the numerous conventional snares laid for conscience which tend to meanness as surely as they encourage immorality. It seems a truism, “It is as great a dishonour as can be inflicted, for man to say otherwise than he knows to be true, for the love of a little money;” and yet what crowds are thus degraded!
Need we add, religion repudiates all these fetches? Common as it may be to sacrifice conscience for gain or for professional success, the man who has sat down at the Saviour’s feet, and is taught by the Saviour’s Spirit, will be ready with the cry: “Into their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united.”
SIR WILLIAM JONES.
SIR
WILLIAM
JONES. Side by side with Sir Matthew Hale we may place Sir William Jones, who was as eminent for personal religion as he was for his profound acquaintance with the Oriental and other tongues. Lawyer as he was, his was a mind of decided godliness, and a life of much consistency. The atonement of the Saviour was the anchor of his hope, and the Word of God a light to his feet and a lamp to his path. He said of it: “I have carefully and regularly perused the Holy Scriptures, and am of opinion that the volume, independently of its divine origin, contains more sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever other languages they may have been written.” Now, that is much—but not too much—from one who had mastered eight-and-twenty languages, and was familiar with the riches of them all. It stands in instructive contrast with the flippant ungodliness of those who never devoted one earnest hour, or poured forth one earnest petition, to know the mystery which was hid for ages, but which is opened up in the revelation of Jesus. It shows that there is nothing essentially or necessarily godless in a lawyer’s profession; and it leaves the unprincipled men who sell their very consciences for gold, without excuse, amid their systematic violations of honour, of integrity, and truth.
MINISTERS OF RELIGION.
SPIRITUAL DEATH.
MINISTERS
OF
RELIGION. III. It may appear strange to occupy a sentence in saying that Ministers of Religion should be Christian men; and yet the dark history of the past makes it necessary to say it. Nay, so necessary is it, that Luther made no over-statement, when he averred that religion is never in such danger as among reverend men. Habituated, as they are, to handle divine things, they are scarcely less habitually in danger of doing so deceitfully. To be called upon professionally to engage in sacred duties at all times and in all states of mind—to be constantly contemplating truth in some of its countless forms for professional uses, without applying it to the heart, and life, and practice of the person contemplating it—to expatiate upon the glories of redemption and the Redeemer, topics on which the most phlegmatic heart may glow, without taking any personal interest in them at all;—these, and countless other dangers, beset the ministers of religion; these account for their frequent falls, and the disgrace which is thereby brought upon the holy name they bear. SPIRITUAL
DEATH. To urge conversion while we are not converted—to commend the love of Christ when we do not feel it—to preach repentance which we do not practise, and faith which we do not hold—to tell of a Saviour whom we know only by rumour—of a Spirit whom we habitually grieve—of a heaven to which we are not going, and an immortality which is to be only one of woe to us;—to what can all that lead but self-deception of the direst kind—to searedness of conscience—to hearts hardened, and salvation rendered hopeless? Of all dangers, those of an irreligious minister must rank among the greatest. We do not limit the grace of God; but he who has learned to preach about a Redeemer whose power he never felt, about a Prophet who does not teach him, about a Priest who does not atone for him, about a King who does not rule him, seems not far from destruction. At the same time, constant exposure to that danger lessens the sense of it; and consciences which were uneasy at first, gradually settle quietly down, like a ship which has foundered at sea—and all is peaceful, because all is death.
Moreover, ministers of religion are not usually exhorted, warned, or unmasked, as other men are; and hence their dangers are enhanced. Professional devotion is apt to be all that they have; and they may thus pass through life with a lie in their right hand. They can at last tamper with truth without compunction or alarm; and the most solemn functions have often furnished materials only for mirth.