Mr Robert Bruce

The instant a man becomes a Christian, he de-
votes himself to the service of Christ in all that he is,
and has, and hopes to possess. He is, in the strong
language of Scripture, a living sacrifice, and whether
bethinks of the eternal God coming down from hea-
ven, and, in human nature, enduring such agonies,
that he might be raised to glory — or reflects that
Christ is now in heaven again, waiting till many souls
be brought to glory, till all his enemies be made his
footstool — or looks upon the countenances of the
men that pass along the streets, and remeinbers
that they must all live throughout a long eternity,
and that for that eternity few of them are pre-
pared — or upon the changeless glories of heaven
or the dread solemnities of a judgment day — the
endless torments of the regions of woe — upon
waiting expecting angels — upon the zeal of his
fellow- Christians — upon the cold indifference of
others — upon all the objects of the spiritual world
around him, and all the hurrying objects of a
quickly coming eternity — he sees a thousand in-
ducements to be up and doing whilst it is day ;
and his zeal will not expend itself in feeble efforts
within his own little circle, but he will rejoice
in every institution whose object it is to bring
perishing men to see the King in his beauty and
the land that is afar off ; — he will love as his own
soul the men by whom such institutions are pro-
moted, he will regard all who oppose them as his
own enemies.

This is no exaggerated description of genuine
Christianity in its practical exhibitions, and if we
have never been conscious of any such feelings,
we have in the strongest possible way, before
angels and men, denied the faith, God has posi-
tively commanded us all to do good and to com-
municate — to save the souls of our brethren from
death, that thus we may cover a multitude of
sins, — to walk in the steps of our great Redeemer,
who was always pointing the views of men to-
wards heaven. This is not left to our volition,
but has all the authority of a positive command,
and to refuse obedience to it, is to turn our backs
upon Christianity, and to break away from under
the authority of God. It is as much to disobey the
Almighty, in whom we profess to trust, as if we vio-
lated the second, or third, or any other of the com-
mandments — as if we set up an idol in our dwelling-
places to worship— or appropriated to ourselves our
neighbour's wealth, or violated the Sabbath-day.
To be convinced of the truth of these statements,
let us only conceive how we ourselves would regard
such conduct in one of the high intelligences of
heaven. If, when a mandate went forth from
the eternal throne of God, commanding Gabriel
to fly to the uttermost ends of the earth on some
mysterious and lofty enterprise, instead of being
off with the speed of lightning, he turned sullenly
away and attempted to find his own pleasure
amongst his companion spirits. This would be
at once an open revolt against God and it
would be vain for such an angel to say, that he
believed the right which God had to utter such a
command — his conduct would condemn him, and
would be a breaking up at once of all the harmonies
of heaven. And if the earth is only a nursery for
that glorious place above, and if Christians are to
be trained here to the same implicit and rejoicing
obedience which angels display, it is plain, that if
they turn away from obeying a commandment, as
plainly revealed in Scripture, as if a voice from
the eternal Sanctuary had proclaimed it in their
bearing, their conduct is exactly that of the re-
bellious spirits of God. And how can they hope
to be suffered to mingle with angels, when they
die, or how can they dare to go down on their
knees when none but the eternal God is a wit-
ness, and pray that the Almighty's will may be
done on earth as the angels in heaven perform it ?
how can they dare to do this when that Omni-
scient Being knows, and their own consciences tell
them, that they are the very persons who stand
in the way of the fulfilment of their prayer,
and that they do what they can by their ne-
glect to frustrate the great and holy purposes of
Jehovah? They are worse than infidels who
ar« in such a case — for they are traitors with-
in the camp — they profess to acknowledge their
obligations to a Saviour, only to show how they
can treat them with contempt — to realize a great
eternity only to prove to all men that they can
despise its amazing vastness — to believe in the
existence and authority of a God, only that they
may prove with what daring hardihood they can
trample that authority under their feet.