Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1836-11-15

The present Privileges Of Christians
iYs sometimes hear it said by Christians OF
thdpresent day, that if it had been their
privilege to have lived at the time when
Cf&tistand his. Apostles soiourned on earth;
10 have seen his imposing miracles, wines.
sed his lovely and attractive example, and
to have heard the counsels which fell from
his living lips, it would have had most
powerful influence upon their character, en-
forcing implicit obedience, and soitening
every feeling into unison with holy love-
But such an observation only shows how
little we know of ourselves-how little we
understand the sophistry by which the hu-
man mind dcccives itself.
The privileges certainly were great Of
those favored disciples who were the con-
slant attendants upon our Saviours per-
sonal mnistry-who heard from his living
lips the heavenly instructions which were
so rich, so we'll calculated to teach the lg-
norant and encourage the timd and hesta-
tng-who beheld nature and natures laws
instantly submissive to his word-the ever
ready instruments to effect his purposes
But great as these privileges were, we are
mistaken if we suppose that they conferred
any higher ability, or greater inclination to
conform to the requirements ofthe Redeem.
er. We know that the generation to which
he preached heard with Indifference his
warnings and resisted all his exhortations,
and the hearts which were thus insensbleto to
the heavenly admonitions Of the Son of God,
were but the faithful representation of what
the heart Of man everhas been & ever will be,
until subdued and renovated by divine grace.
1t was not to the preaching Of the Saviour
himself that any remarkable success was
granted.
But what arc the privileges of Christians
of the present day which may be compared
with those ofthe apostolic times! We may
not hear with our corporeal ears his living
voice, such as rcbuked with divine ener-
gy the vices of thei Jews, or in softer ca
dences poured the balm Of sympathy and
comfort into the soul of the afflicted; we
may not see with our natural eyes the blind
and withered, the halt and manned forget
ting their infrmities and leaping with Joy, to
throw themselves at the feet of their benc-
factor, but to the eye of faith-for all the
purposes acknowledge and piety we may be
with Christ now, as trul y as were his first
disciples. We have the doctrines and
counsels which he delivered permanently
secured to US, which may no. be lost, as
doubtless they were liable to be to those
who only heard them and for whom they
were not aDritten. The influence Of the
Gospel upon US should therefore be less
transicnt-we should live perpctually under
the power of that example the features OF
which are faithfully represented and con-
stantly before US, in the sacred volume.
The most important privilege ofthe pr.
mitive disciples was, that they were made
partakcrs of the renewing grace ofthe Holy
Ghost. But that privilege was not restrict
ed to them. 1t is a blessed influence of
which every believer is the subject. If 1t
imposed upon them, as it certainly did, the
duty of serving God in newness ofspirlt and
purity of life, not less imperiously does the
same distinction require ofus a similar char
acter.
Corresponding to that special intercourse
and co,nnrD;o9 which the disc!n n!eS Of!