The wise man prepares for eternity today; the foolish man puts off his preparation for eternity till tomorrow. The wise man has his eye always on the day of his death; the foolish man shuts his mind to the obvious fact that death, and what follows death, must soon be experienced by everyone.
“Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord; curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”– Judges 5:23. In these deeply solemn words two things claim our attention – the sin of the inhabitants of Meroz, and the judgment of the Lord against them because of it. Let me rapidly touch on this sentence; on the judgment; with one or two practical lessons arising out of both.
The circumstances which led to this statement were briefly as follows. For some time past the writer’s mind was much drawn towards foreign missionary work. The knowledge of this circumstance led the Committee of the General Assembly on Missions to inquire into his willingness to enter upon their missionary service in India. This communication from the representative body of the Church, as a Presbyter he laid before his brethren for counsel: and after full procedure, in the course of which his Congregation presented a Memorial expressive of their interests and feelings, and the Presbytery delivered their mind both on the Call and the Memorial, he was led to the decision recorded in the following document. In a day when, on the one hand a carnal fanaticism would counterfeit, and on the other an earthly intellectualism would supplant, the self-evidencing and personal operations of the Holy Spirit, Christian men, however timid, ought not to shrink from avowing their grounds of spiritual judgment.
We may often pray for things, the possession of which would prove really hurtful to us, and the denial of which things, therefore, is the most gracious answer to our prayer. God alone can tell what is really good for us, and graciously reserves to himself the prerogative of determining whether the petitions which we offer be fit to be granted.
My eldest son, Robert Stockton Green, died the very close of this year 1813. He died at Boston, on Tuesday the 28th of September, and the next day his corpse was deposited in Mr. Dexter’s cemetery;—the very day of our annual commencement, eight years after taking his degree in this College. He was born July 30th, 1787; and was, of course, twenty-six years and two months of age when he died, wanting two days.
Experimental religion, which once was a vital part of the Reformed tradition of preaching and spirituality, has in a large measure been lost sight of in our day. Even use of the term experimental in connection with religion is no longer customary, it being more commonly associated with the natural sciences, where a method of probing and investigation leads to an understanding of reality. The older Reformed writers used the word to indicate that we not only read and confess what Scripture teaches, but also are enabled by the Holy Spirit in our own experience to prove and enter into those truths. The propositions of Scripture are true regardless of our experience of them. But in those who belong to Christ, there is a work of the Holy Spirit to persuade them of those truths, so that they taste and feel the power of them in their own souls.
It is almost overwhelming for a minister to consider the likeness of the people to the priest, to see his own image reflected on them for good or for evil, himself multiplied a hundredfold. No doubt the absence of this likeness is often very observable. You may see a member, an elder, a deacon, a precentor or doorkeeper in a church, sittting for twenty years under a ministry of a very marked character, without a single feature transferred from the pulpit to the pew; and over many of his hearers, the most faithful pastor must often complain, “I have laboured in vain, and spent my strength for nought.” But on the other hand, the minister is very commonly reflected in many of his people, and his cast of thought is frequently exaggerated in its reappearance among them.
I fear the time is approaching when those gates shall be wide opened through which unprepared souls must pass into the horrors of the second death. Our utmost endeavours to improve the present interval of tranquillity are loudly called for; but we can do nothing without power from on high.
Mr. Milne kept back nothing from his people, but spoke freely and boldly of all current events and controversies. He was one of the few who could, without awkwardness or difficulty, introduce any subject into the pulpit, either in prayer or discourse. His first morning prayer in church was always very remarkable for the minute fulness with which it entered into the various cases that had come before him; it might be sickness, or pain, or losses, or bereavements, or anxieties, or spiritual trouble; every one was specially indicated and prayed for. This was one of the tenderest and closest of his pastoral bonds; for thus, while his affections were flowing out towards his flock, theirs were drawn towards each other. In many other ways did his ready sympathies get vent to themselves, far beyond his own people. Wherever he heard of sorrow, thither a note from him found its way, or a call was made; and if the parties could not be seen, his card was sent in with John 14:1, or some such text, pencilled on it, and “love and sympathy” written above or below his name.
My dear christian friends, you have been witnesses this day of one of the most solemn scenes presented to view on this sinful earth—the ministerial induction of a servant of Jesus Christ into a congregation of his church. Nay more, ye yourselves have been this day parties in this very transaction, and sharers in all its awful responsibilities. Even as your pastor, so ye also will have to give account in this matter; and as he has received the usual address, stirring him up to the diligent fulfilment of his duties, so do ye now receive the word of exhortation, which, by the appointment of my presbyters, I am delegated to address unto you. May the Lord help us all to improve this solemn occasion!
