A Book of Christian Sonnets

by William Allen

Concerning the Holy Spirit the creed of the ancient Council of Nice, A. D. 325, says nothing except "we believe in the Holy Spirit." Of Christ it declares, that he was "the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, God of God,—begotten, not made, &c." Soon after that council a learned father, Eunomius, who was made bishop of Cyzicum A. D. 360, advanced the doctrine, that after God had created his Son before the universe was formed, giving him divine dignity and creative power, he next created the Holy Spirit, the first and greatest of all spirits, by his own power indeed but by the immediate agency also of his Son, giving him power to sanctify and teach. Afterwards he created all things in heaven and earth. More modern creeds, which adopt much the same faith with Eunomius, use the word "proceed" instead of "create," as the New England Confession of Faith of 1680, which says, "the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son." But Milton, in his learned Treatise on the Christian doctrine, has shewn that "proceedeth" in John 15:26, relates to the mission,—the sending from God to the earth, not to the nature, of the Spirit: yet his own faith was, that "the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as he is a minister of God, and therefore a creature, was created or produced of the substance of God, not by a natural necessity, but by the free will of the agent, probably before the foundations of the world were laid, but later than the Son, and far inferior to him." Dr. Samuel Clarke of England has taught the same doctrine.—But the reader is requested to form his opinion on the chief subject of this note, not from any human creed or learned man's teaching, but from his own study of the Bible with his own endowment of reason. The practical application of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit has claims to our earnest attention.

In the judgment of Dr. Cotton Mather it is through the Spirit of God, that Christians find such affections as the following working in their minds:—a flaming love towards God and men; a lively faith in God and in the Savior, the Mediator; a longing desire and hope of spiritual blessings; a mighty hatred of sin; a bitter sorrow for sin and its miseries; a noble courage; a total despair of help in creatures; a fear of the judgments of wickedness; a triumphant joy in God and in his Christ; a rapturous admiration of the Maker and Ruler of the world and of his glories. "All true piety," he says, "is begun by the enkindling of these affections in the soul:" and the Spirit, enkindling them, should be sought from God in the constancy of prayer.

[Sonnet 68.] The monument to the pilgrim forefathers, whose corner was laid Aug. 2d, is designed to consist of a pedestal 80 feet high, supporting a colossal female figure of Faith; her feet rest on Plymouth rock, her left hand is to hold an open Bible, and her right points to heaven. On the pedestal are to be Morality, Education, Law, and Liberty.

[Sonnet 72.] Since this sonnet has passed through the press, I have been glad to read a description of Donati's comet and to see a telescopic view of it in the Family Christian Almanac for 1860. The comet is named after Donati, the discoverer, who first saw it at Florence, June 2, 1858. It was seen several months in great splendor in our country until about Oct. 20th, when it disappeared. When first observed, it was 200 millions of miles distant from the sun. Its curved train extended 60 degrees or 51 millions of miles. When nearest the earth it was 52 millions of miles distant, moving at the rate of 123 thousand miles an hour. Its greatest distance from the sun is supposed to be 143 thousand millions of miles; and astronomers have calculated its period of revolution at nearly 2,000 years, so that its last previous visit to the earth was before the Christian era. Yet from the extreme point of its journey to the nearest fixed star who can measure the distance? Who will not say, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty?"

It is worthy of remark, that in respect to the inhabitants of the various worlds, with which our skies are filled, the revealed word of God, communicated to man upon the earth, gives us no information. If beyond a doubt the sun, the moon, the stars, and the comets are inhabited by intelligent beings; yet of what rank and in what condition we know nothing. But as we are taught, that there is a world of "fire," prepared "for the devil and his angels," it may be that comets are the destined abodes of the wicked and lost.

[Sonnet 73.] It is a false and pernicious charity, of which some men boast, that for no crime would they touch the life of man. But God is smiting every day the life of guilty man by a thousand diseases; and in his revealed word he has commanded, that the murderer shall be put to death in the administration of public law. In this way not only the divine justice but the divine wisdom is manifested by this protecting shield of terror spread over man's life.

[Sonnet 77.] The name of John Hooper will ever be held in the highest honor in England. Born in 1495, and educated at Oxford, he was appointed bishop of Gloucester; but was a martyr to the truth under the popish reign of queen Mary in 1555 at the age of 60. With most wonderful fortitude he endured the flames at the stake for three-quarters of an hour.

[Sonnet 78.] To an old man the recollection of a youthful brother preacher in the far-back period of fifty or more years, who still preaches the gospel, is replete with interest. It is attended with the memory of men, who at that period were the fathers in the ministry,—as Rogers, Livingston, Mason, and Miller of New York; Dwight of New Haven; and S. Spring, Morse, Eckley, and Griffin of Massachusetts.

[Sonnet 80.] The leading truth of the gospel, dear to my heart since I first began to preach it 56 years ago, is that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, by whom God made the worlds, and who came down from heaven and in human flesh was himself the sufferer on the cross for the sins of men. I use language as men of reason should use it. I dare not, on the peril of my soul, explain it away by saying, that the Son of God from heaven united himself to another spirit or intelligent being, which latter spirit or mind bore the suffering, ascribed to the Son from heaven. That Christ had two spirits is the teaching of human theory but not of divine scripture.