THE MONTHLY RELIGIOUS MAGAZINE AND Endependent Journal. PROF. F. D. HUNTINGTON, D.D., EDITOR. Single copies 66 TERMS. $3.50 a year, or $3.00, if paid in advance. Six copies to one address for 15.00, payment in advance. 66 66 25.00, N. B. Clergymen furnished with two copies for $5.00. Any person procuring five subscribers shall receive a sixth copy gratis. No subscription discontinued until all arrearages are paid. New subscribers can commence from the beginning of a volume,― January or July, and be furnished with the back numbers accordingly. For sale, complete sets of the work from the commencement, neatly bound, in eighteen volumes. Subscribers furnished with the back volumes in exchange for the numbers, by paying the cost of binding. CAMBRIDGE: METCALF AND COMPANY, PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 275 287 "I WANT to be a Christian, but I don't know how to begin," said a friend not long since, with every apparent mark of sincerity and earnestness. The remark betrayed a state of mind not altogether strange or individual, but which, we believe, would be the honest utterance of many seemingly indifferent to religious truths, even among those of education and discernment, who might readily be supposed to be acquainted with the fundamental realities of faith. How many such confessions of yearning and want, and of ignorance of the simplest truths of a really practical faith, might be heard in many of our congregations, were there the open revelation of the heart's deep secrets, as from Sabbath to Sabbath we meet for worship and communion! How many restless longings and unsatisfied desires, how many surgings of remorse and throbbings of conscience, how many glimpses of a purer, better inward life, and longings for a truer peace and reconciliation! O, were the deep yearnings and struggles and aspirations of one single immortal soul, awakened to a consciousness of its own individual being, clearly opened to view, what fiction of poet or 19 VOL. XX. novelist, what delineation of painter or artist, could compare with that revelation in intensity of interest? The conflicts of nations would seem like mere child's play, in comparison with the battles of conscience and will and inclination, and all the glories and honors of the outward world, that so attract and win, would quickly fade into utter nothingness as the clear light of the Divine Holiness shone into the deepest recesses of the spirit, revealing all its secret windings and needs! "I want to be a Christian." There is, then, a consciousness of need in your soul,- that you are not all that you ought to be, that there is something higher and holier to which you can aspire and reach. There is a hunger of the spirit that craves satisfaction, a restlessness that asks for peace, a dim but never-ceasing yearning for something not yet attained. "I want";- have you realized the deep significance of these words? Have you, in the secret chamber of your soul, uttered them unto God alone? Are you sure that it is no worldly longing, no mere discouragement as to the attainment of outward possession, no momentary excitement of feeling alone, no desire of ambition, that prompts the utterance? Or is it, in truth, the cry of the soul's immortal nature, seeking after God, if haply it may find him? But your own words give the answer, "I want to be a Christian";-yet you "know not how to begin." You feel as if some mysterious influence must come over you, as if some mighty change must be wrought upon you, ere you take the first steps in the Christian life. You are waiting for something, you hardly know for what. You expect some sudden light to shine into your soul, that will at once make all clear and bright within; and until this comes, you feel as if you had nothing to do, as if there were no accountability on your part for any amount of indifference or self-indulgence. But we would ask, Does not this very self-indulgence render you more and more uneasy? You know you are not right, and is not every day of indifference rendering you colder and more selfish? Are you gaining aught in the course you are now pursuing? Are you taking any resolute steps to satisfy the want you feel and acknowledge? "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," saith the Apostle, adding the blessed promise," for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure." The very consciousness of your need shows that His Spirit has been and is pleading with you, and now it is yours to work, no easy, holiday task,—but to labor, to strive, to agonize, with the whole energy and resolution of your soul, for the satisfying of your soul's wants. Begin, then, just where you are. Wait for nothing, but begin this very hour to act as Jesus bids you, and begin to pray, and thus you will begin to be a Christian. Read the Saviour's own words, and trait by trait compare your character with his life and teachings. Before going forth to the active duties of the day, let the morning hour be consecrated by sincere prayer and the study of God's word, and the influence of that hour will sanctify the busy scenes of daily life. Are you tempted to impatience and anger? Remember Him who endured all reproach meekly and patiently, who when reviled reviled not again, and check the hasty utterance. Do sloth and indolence lay their iron grasp upon your energies? "Be diligent in business," because "fervent in spirit." Think of the great work of life to be accomplished, - how little has been done, and of the heights of attainment yet possible for you to reach; and so meditate on these themes until the soul is fully aroused to put forth its energies, and to seek and strive with diligence and earnestness. Are you tempted by the cunning whispers of pride and the vain insinuations of human praise and flattery? Ask yourself truthfully the one question, How do I stand in God's sight, before Him who alone really knows me? — and the tempter will depart. Are you inclined to restless - |