Weekly Clarksville chronicle. [volume] (Clarksville, Tenn.) 185?-1857, 1857-03-20
THE RELIGION OF THE CLOSET
THE BEST AND pUREST.

From DIR. Tuck's Selections for Sabbath Reading
The following is from the pen of most
able and eloquent writer. The sentiments
are excellent and the style cannot be sur
passed. Let every one read it attentiycly,
and impress it deeply upon the memory;
for the subject is of the very highest i'm
portance, and the considerations here pre-
sented to the youthful mind cannot but DO
attended with salutary effect:
'The influence of christianity is per-
petuated and extended in no small degree,
by the public offices of piety, by the visi-
BILE communion Of saints But it is still
true that the public means of religion are
not its chief means. Pricdte helps 10 pietA1
are the most e6fcacious. The great work Of
religion is to be done, not in society, but
in secret, in the retired soul, in the silent
closet. Communion with God is eminent
ly the means of religion, the nutriment
and life of the soul, and we can commune
with God in solitude as nowhere else.
1t is by the breathing of the unrestrained
soul, by the opening of the whole heart to
"9im who seeth in secret" it is by review
ing our own spiritual history, by search
ing deeply into ourselves, by solitary
thought and solitary, solemn, conseora-
tion of ourselves to a new virtue; it is by
these acts, and not by public gatherings
that we chiefly make progress in religious
life. 1t is common to speak of the house
of worship as a holy place, but it has no
exclusive sanctity The hoiiest spot on
earth Is that iohcre the soul breathes its
purest ro,cs, and forms or executes as nobIess
purposes, and on this ground, were 1 to
seek the holiest spot in your city, / would
not go to your splendid sanotuaries, but to
closets of private prayer. Perhaps the
holy of holies' among you, is some dark,
narrow ROOM from which most of us would
shrink as unfit for human habitation; but
God dwells there. He hears there music
more grateful than the swell of your
organs; for there He meets, and secs, and
hears the humblest, most thankful, most
trustful worshipper sees the severest trials
serenely borne--the deepest injuries for
given; sees tolls and sacrifices cheerfully
sustained, and death approached through
poverty and lonely illness, with trium-
phant faith. The conservation which such
virtues shed over the obscurest spot, is not
and cannot be communicated by any of
those outward rites by which our splendid
structures are dedicated to God.
"The doctrine here inculcated is plain.
Inward sanctity, pure love, dsinterestcd
attachment to God and man, obedience Of
heart and life---this is the one thing need
ful--this the essential thing in religion;
and all things else, ministers, churches, or
dinances, places Of worship, are but the
means, helps, secondary influences, and ut
terly worthless when separated from this
To imagine that God regards anything but
this, that He looks at anything but tho
heart, is 10 dishonor Him, to express
mournful insensibility to His pure charac-
ter. Goodness, purity, virtue, this Is the
only distinction. in Gods sight. This il,
intrinsically, essentially, everlastingly, aud
by its own nature, lovely, beautiful, glori-
Gus, divine 1t owes nothing 10 time, to
circumstance, to outward connections. IL
shines by its own light Ii IL the sun Of
the spiritual universe. 1t is God Himself
dwelling in the human soul. My friends,
one of the greatest truths Of religion is,
the supreme importance of character, of
virtue of that divine spirit which shone
out in Christ, The grand heresy is to sub
stitute anything for this, whether creed, on
form, or church. One ofthe creates. lerongs
10 Christ is, 10 despise HIS character, His ca
the, in disciple icho happens 70 eo1r dI'
tercnf adme from glnr o,ea.