Year: 1859




. standard, and demand that ever
man shall go through just that sam
kind Of experience. and that in al
cases the same results shall flow from
it.


Indeed, the New Testament say
much less about the circumstances O
the beginning of religion. than the eff
fects Of Christian life after it is begun
and it insists more upon right dispo
sitions. right feelings. right emotions,
than upon any particular way Of be.
ginning them.


One man receives the divine innu.
ence in one way, another man in an,
other way, and another man in still
another way. In the cases of som,
this influence is accomplished by al
overt and an outbnrsting experience
and in the cases of others it is accom-.
panied by quiet, calm experience
The Bible. therefore. says very littl,
with reference to those romantic kinds
of experience in the beginnings Of re.
ligion which are so disclosive and i'm.
pressive to the senses, and about which
sectaries say so much.


Whenever a mans soul has freed
itself from the bondage of selfshness,
and begun to love according to the
law of benevolence, that man has en-
tered upon Christian life. whether he
can tell the precise time when he be-
came a Christian or not.


Let man feel every day aid hour
that his life is governed by a spirit Of
benevolcnce, and he need not trouble
himself to be able to give the time
when he got religion. The date is oi
no account, if the life is only right.


You say, "Is there not an instanta-
neous change in that person when he
gets religion?" Yes. there necessarily
is; but the fact there is such change
is one thing. and the power to recog-
nize the precise time when that change
takes place is another thing. There is
a moment, a second, when the sun be-
gins to come north, but you may not,
pehaps, be able to tell when that mo-
ment or second is.


The evidence of religion is in the
fruit which the life brings forth. If a
man lives a Christian life, he is a
Christian; and if he does not live q
Christian life, he is not Christian. no
matter what his experiences may have
been.


The sccts, while in terms they all
recognize this great central fact that
love is religion, go on and add great
many collateral things as indispensa-
BILE evidences Of it; and it may almost
be understood that In the administra-
tion of the churches there is not only
religion, but also a great second evil
dence of religion. both Of which man
must have in order to be Christian.
1t would seem from the teachings OF
many. that they regard this evidence
of religion as no less essential than re-
ligion itself. Now l teach on the
other hand, that Gods sovereignty. in
all cases of mems conversion, proceeds
as it will; that there is no such thing
as evidence preceding active Christian
life; and that. according to the teach
ings of God himself. the only evidence
of religion we have right to require,
o., look for, is the fact that man is
living a godly life. that he is in the
exercise of Christian dispositions
in a word. that he is living as aChris-
tian man should live. Such is the
evidence Of religion in a man accord
ing to Scripture but men have their
theories on this subject.


One school have their theory of the
doctrine of conversion. and they de-
SC. ibe their way in which man comes
up to religion, saying. "He begins
down in such state; and then his
path runs in such a direction; and
then he passes through such class OF
experiences; and when he arrives at a
certain gate. he is obliged to ring OF
knock; and at last he is admitted by a
porter. After he has gone through all
this he is converted. and there is evi-
.lence of his conversion" There is
over against this school another, and
they describe their way by which a
man comes up to religion. They tell
how he goes through the Slough oi
Despond; how he encounters dangers
and achieves victories on the road,
enumerating all the experiences he
has. from first to last And so there
are ten or twenty different theories,
more or less modified. in respect to
the mode by which a man may obtain
religion. and the evidences by which
he may determine whether he has it oil
not,


One chnrch rest ricfs all soaring and