The Sheepfold and the Common; Or, Within and Without. Vol. 1 (of 2)East, Timothy
Religion
The Sheepfold and the Common; Or, Within and Without. Vol. 1 (of 2)
East, Timothy
Christian life; Christian life -- Pictorial works
Thus, while the sons of science pour contempt on the gospel as
beneath their notice, and the patrons of ecclesiastical order
condemn all departures from the restrictions and limitations of
human authority, yet its history demonstrates that the God of all
grace will employ it as the means of converting sinners, even when
it is preached by men who have not studied theology within the walls
of a college, and also when it is preached in places which have not
been invested with the charm of human consecration.
From the garden in which I was walking I had an extensive view of
the surrounding country, and watched with peculiar delight the
people advancing in every direction towards the house of prayer. It
indeed was a lovely sight! The old and the young, the healthy and
the infirm, the poor, and a few of the rich, were pressing onward,
with eagerness and decorum, apparently conscious that they were
going to worship the Lord of hosts.
The children commenced the service by singing a hymn, composed for
the occasion; and such was the effect which it produced on the
crowded congregation, that many wept--not tears of grief, but of
joy. The Rev. Mr. Morris preached a very judicious sermon, from the
words of Solomon: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and
when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. xxii. 6). When
enforcing on parents the importance of training up their children
in the way in which they should go, he said, "You may be denied the
gratification of seeing any immediate advantage resulting from your
labours; but you ought not, therefore, to conclude that they will
prove useless. The religious principles which you instil into their
minds may lie concealed for a long time without being destroyed, as
the seed which the husbandman casts in the ground remains inactive
till called forth into expansion and growth under a mild and genial
influence. They may be striking root, and shooting up into active
life, at the time when you are despairing of ever reaping the
reward of your labour." He illustrated and confirmed these remarks
by a quotation taken from Cecil's _Remains_. "Where," says Cecil,
"parental influence does not convert, it hampers. It hangs on the
wheels of evil. I had a pious mother, who dropped things in my way.
I could never rid myself of them. I was a professed infidel; but
then I liked to be an infidel in company, rather than when alone.
I was wretched when by myself. These principles and maxims spoiled
my pleasure. With my companions I would sometimes stifle them; like
embers, we kept one another warm. Besides, I was here a sort of a
hero. I had beguiled several of my associates into my own opinions,
and I had to maintain a character before them. But _I could not
divest myself_ of my better principles. I went with one of my
companions to see the _Minor_; he could laugh heartily, but I could
not. The ridicule on regeneration was high sport to him--to me it
was none; it could not move my features. _He_ knew no difference
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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