Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1836-02-04

sors of religion Afraid to reprove sinnersi
When God commands, not prepared to o.
bey How will they answerit to- od2
Now, beloved, will you practice this duty2
VIII you reprove sin faithfully, so as not to
bear sin for your neighbors2 Will you make
your whole life testimony against SIM
Will you clear your souls, or will you hold
your peace and be weighed down with the
guilt of all transgressors around you, and
says, "Thou shalt in any wise rebuha thy
neighbor, and not bear sin for him."
THE AUTHORITY OF OUR LORDS TEACH
ING. E5@ -
Its greatness-The pervading style of
our Lords teaching is that of assertion
and testimony. While it pre-supposes
the laws of reason, it does not, nor could II
without manifest incongruity, make an
appeal to them. His disclosures of truth
are necessarily dogmatic. But since man,
! If he is to be treated as rational being,
must have adequate grounds on which to
! rest his belief our Lord, in the stead of
arguments, constructed basis of miracles.
! He claimed to be believed for his works
sake They were the hand of God, en-
Gorsing and attesting as true whatever he
revealed. Having thus acquired right
to dictate, he could not have submitted
the principles he announced to the ordna-
ry process of augmentation, without i'm
plying that human reasoning, our present
impaired perceptions oftruth, was surer
ground for reliance than the purest rea-
son he would have been expunging
faith from the christian virtues, exalting
human reason, or that which stands for It
above the wisdom of God and treating it
as though in the sphere of religion it were
perfect, and at home whereas he found
| it PROSTATE and lost, and had to rekindle
its extinguished torch with the very first
elements Of sacred knowledge Surround
ed with divine credentials, he took his
stand as living oracle, and demanded
the credence of all who heard his unrea-
soned verities He spake as one having
authority, addressing himself to humility,
obedience, and implicit faith. Every SCI
ence has its data fundamental principles
assumed to be true, on the unquestioned
authority of which all its deductions and
applications rest in the science of theoIo-
gy, the savings of Christ are ultimate
truths. From these, as from first princi-
plies, all our reasoning in religion must
proceed; to call in question their authori-
! ty, would be to disturb and subver the
foundations oftruth His dictates consti-
tute the rudiments of sacred science; and
they are to be acquiesced in, as the rea-
sons of duty, and the laws of faith
*: Ia
call to our recollection the unbroien Sc
ries of pregnant woes which he denounc-
ed during his last visit to the temple
Long had he walked, like an incarnate
conscience, through their guilty land and
often had they beentroubled, and tremhled
at the rebuke Of his sacred presence
Having nearly filled the capacious meas
ure ofthcir iniquity by rejecting him, they
were about to make it overflow by his
crucifxion. Undeterrcd by the appalling
prospect, he came with unfaltering step to
;, the scene of his suferings, to flush the
work which was given him to do. Find
ing himself surrounded in the temple by
a large .assemblage Of Jewish doctors,
scribes, and lawyers and pharlsecs the
very elements and essence Of the nations
guilt; he assaulted and demolished the
enormous fabric Of sanotimonious hypoc-
risv. which their laborious impiety had
reared, and with the fidelity and fearless
ness of the king of martyrs, denounced
and delivered his final protest against the
pride and the power which " held it
They had occasionally heard his fearful
combinations before, and trcmbled for
= their security, for every word was weap-
on but now, having regularly invested
and approached their fortified guilt, he
opened on them the dreadful artillery OF
, his divine malediction. An occasional
fash had before apprized them that a
| storm might be near; but now having
collected together all the materials often
$ pest into one black and fearful mass, and
e having awed them to silence as nature is
f hushed when awaiting a crisis, he dis
Y CHARGED its tremendous torrents, in one
|; vollc2ed and prolonged explosion, on
Il their guilty and unsheltered heads. He
i arraigned them as though he had already
{ assembled the seat of doom. and laid open
!, all the sepulchral reccsses of their iniqui-
ty, as though he read from the book Of
l. Gods remembrance. Hypocrisy was IN
able to conceal itself in the clouds Of In
It cense which it offered The proud, the
e covetous, the intolerant, he confounded
$ and covered with the shame Of detection
- and conscious guilt As they came up