And the consequences of this crime did not terminate with Dr. Dodd himself. He had married a Miss Perkins of Durham, but, left in sorrow, poverty, and disgrace, by her husband, reason forsook her, and she died a wretched maniac at Ilford in Essex. Is it not true that unthinking men, in pursuit of the wages of sin, scatter firebrands, and arrows, and death, though they say, Am not I in sport?
THE ONLY GUIDE.
THE TRUTH OUR SHIELD.
THE
ONLY
GUIDE. Here, then, is a case which thoroughly exhibits the necessity of enthroning the Bible in the heart, and keeping it enthroned. There is some reason to fear that the minister whom Dr. Johnson describes as having “lived a life of great voluptuousness,” had never felt the power of the truth, even before he fell into the habits which ended in his ruin. But, however that may be, it is manifest that after Dr. Dodd had entered on his downward career, the truth was discarded, and the deceitful heart consulted—not the Wonderful, the Counsellor. THE TRUTH
OUR SHIELD. The truth could have kept him steadfast. It could have taught him to dash temptation from him, as Paul shook off the viper from his hand into the flames at Melita. But Dodd forgot the Bible, he tampered with temptation, and he fell. We say nothing of the extravagance which the need of so large a sum as £4,200 on the part of a clergyman betokens. We only glance at what was most probably his purpose, to pay the sum for which he had forged, before it became due. These and other things might be pled in palliation, but looking simply at the act, who does not see that neither professional punctilio, nor external barriers, nor a thousand earthly bonds can prevent man from sinning, when the lamp to our path is extinguished—the Word of God set aside even in a single transaction?
GIFTS WITHOUT GRACE A SNARE.
Further: Dr. Dodd is known to have continued his professional employments after his felonious transaction. Conscious as he must have been of what he had done with his own right hand, he yet continued to lead the devotions of his flock, and act as if no crime had been committed. We do not refer to the feelings of a minister of Christ amid such things; GIFTS
WITHOUT
GRACE
A SNARE. but we do say that the whole transaction proclaims, in a way the most solemn and the most cogent, that no secondary restraints will keep man from iniquity; they are all like sand before the torrent, or flax before the flame. The Bible, and the Bible alone, laid up in the heart, and blessed by the Spirit there, can either make man right, or keep him so. In a word, this example tells aloud that every human influence, every earthly appliance, is weak against the heart of man, unless the truth of God control it. Conscience will be warped. Reputation will be risked. Professional standing will be presumed upon. Life will be hazarded. The hearts of those whom we love will be broken; and only when the Word of God is permitted to rule the soul, is the heart kept as the fountain of the issues of life. Men regard such cases as that of Dr. Dodd as doing injury to religion, and the infidel hails them as a disproof. They are in truth confirmations of it, and prove that only that truth admitted into the heart, enthroned and maintained in the conscience as it demands to be, can rescue man from self-degradation and moral death. Dr. Dodd fell because the Bible was not his guide. He deserted religion and was ruined.
Another example points in the same direction, and may deepen the impression of that of Dr. Dodd. At a recent period, a preacher of great popularity gathered crowds around him in London; thousands heard the truth at his lips; and he filled a large place in the public eye. Accomplished as a scholar, eloquent as a preacher, and graceful as a man, he wielded no limited power within a considerable sphere. To his influence as a minister of religion he added that of an author; and what he published was read by thousands. Not a little originality of thought, and vigorous powers rendered him, in short, an able advocate of the truth.
Here, then, is another man who seems to be fenced off from the world by much that should have been constraining; that in this case also, we may see how futile every subordinate influence proves against the wayward heart of man.
A FELON.
THE GAMBLER’S END.