CONSISTENCY OF CONDUCT A TEST OF
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER.

BY THE REV. JOHN AYRE, M.A.
Minister of St. John's Chapel, Hampstead.

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OUR blessed Saviour came into the world to deliver men, by his obedience unto death, from the penalty of the law, to which, as transgressors, they were exposed. Those who believe in him are 66 justified from all things" from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses." So that "there is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Yet though our Lord destroyed the condemning power of the law, he did not intend to remove its binding obligation from his people as a rule of life. Indeed, he distinctly tells us, and his apostles reiterate the same truth, that, if we love him, we must keep his commandments (John, xiv. 15). Obedience is to be the fruit and proof of genuine faith. And it will be observed, that the standard of obedience fixed by the word of God is perfect. For no law ever was enacted which did not require an exact compliance with every tittle of its commands. And Christ, in the instructions he gave his disciples, laid it down as a rule, that they must copy the example, and imitate the excellencies of God himself: "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. v. 48). The believer, in striving to fulfil the commands of God, is not brought again beneath the yoke of bondage; but rather pays the willing service of a grateful and affectionate child. He has had much forgiven; therefore he loveth much.

VOL. II. NO. LVI.

PRICE 14d.

Still, to reach the full measure of the stature of Christ will always be his aim and to fall short in his attempts will be grief and selfreproach to his heart.

I freely acknowledge that no man in this. sinful world ever has attained, or will attain perfection. Pressed by the infirmity of the flesh, the good that he would he does not; and the evil which he would not, that he does. But though we have not But though we have not "already attained," neither are 66 already perfect," it is not too much to say that we must "follow after" in one consistent path; we must, if we would have a well-grounded hope that our profession is not in vain, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before," continually press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

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There is a great difference between an inconsistent and a merely imperfect man. that is inconsistent is, if I may revert to the apostle's metaphor, like the racer, who, allured by the golden fruit which a subtle enemy casts down before him, either stops or strays altogether from the course. that is but imperfect has the goal continually in view he is often breathless, but he ceases not to run; he stumbles, it may be, yet he recovers his footing; his strength nearly fails him, still he strains every nerve; and though too slow, too wearied, he finally secures the prize. The character of St. Paul is a beautiful exemplification of Christian consistency. He was a man, by his own confession, falling far short of the attainments at which he aimed; and, as his history evinces, of passions and infirmities like his brethren: yet there was an unwearied zeal, a consistent

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wisdom, a love which flagged not, a keeping, if I may so speak, in his whole life of laborious self-devotion, which exhibits him as eminently a pattern for us to follow as he followed Christ. His faults, as far as we can discover them, sprung rather from natural infirmity, unable fully to work out principle, than from a departure from principle itself. His too zealous rebuke, for instance, for which he was immediately ready to correct himself, of the unjust high-priest, stands forth as the result of a naturally ardent temperament, essentially distinguished from the incongruous shrinking of Peter from the avowal of what his conscience sanctioned, through fear of the Jews (Gal. ii. 11, 12, 13). In the one apostle we here detect infirmity; in the other, though he was soon mercifully restored, inconsistency.

Our Saviour has delineated, in awful contrast, imperfection and inconsistency, when the latter runs its length of final apostacy, in his parable of the sower. There was seed, he there tells us, which, falling upon stony places, sprung up quickly; but by and by, when the sun was risen, it as quickly withered. He meant to designate persons with a high profession, but whose conduct was little in conformity with that profession; who for a time ran well, and perhaps appeared to outstrip their more humble brethren, but who, when temptation came, departed from the principles they had avowed, and by their conduct proved that they had no living spring of action, no deep and vigorous root. Inconsistency does not always, I allow, reach this fatal catastrophe; but this, it is well to see, is its natural tendency. By the gradually growing, ripening, fertile corn, our Saviour meant the consistent believer, who keeps on steadily advancing; yielding, he will himself confess, too little fruit, nevertheless maturing, through the orderly successive stages of increase, even to the harvest. We may learn, hence, to be very fearful of any departure from principle, as it goes to destroy the evidence of our being at all the servants of Christ.

The forms of inconsistency are varied it may not be unuseful to enumerate some of them. We occasionally meet with persons who in their own homes are apparently faithful, devoted Christians. They are always to be seen in their place at church; they are of forward zeal, self-denying liberality. Let these same individuals be met with elsewhere, and their nature seems altogether changed. Inconstant at public worship, sanctioning, it may be with their presence, scenes they at home discountenance, worldly in manner, censorious in disposition-those who are one while thought "pillars," become at another the veriest reeds, shaken with every wind of

circumstance. Similarly, some men present a very different face when seen in private society and in their business. Become an inmate in their houses, and you will think them devoted spiritual believers: transact business with them, and you will find them as intent on their own interest, as ready to take every advantage, as slippery, as grasping as the most fettered slave that Mammon rules. There are persons, also, who make a creditable profession of religion as far as their own practice goes, but who feel no compunction in exposing their children to the snares and allurements of the world; nay, perhaps, they take pains to introduce them to those vanities and maxims which they presented them at the baptismal font to renounce. I might enumerate many other examples. I might dwell on the various ways in which the love of money induces those, who, today, are inviting others to set their affections on heavenly things, to descend tomorrow to the most sordid means of heaping to themselves treasure on the earth: but perhaps enough has been said to exhibit the fearful prevalence of inconsistency among us. For in all these cases there is, I repeat, inconsistency, not mere infirmity; there is not simply the falling short of a standard, but the actual abandonment of a principle.

If this be properly reflected on, it will be seen to be a state of extreme danger. To be remedied, it is needful that men take a larger and more comprehensive view of principle itself, and surrender themselves more fully to its influence. A habit must be formed of bringing all the details of life to the test of the inspired word; there must be a concentration of purpose and effort, that the love of Christ may in every thing constrain us. This will undoubtedly require much self-denial; it will demand many sacrifices: but surely the gratitude we ought to feel to Him who has so loved us, should prevail to make us cut off the right hand, and pluck out even the right eye. Above all things, the aid of that divine Spirit must be sought, through whose guidance alone we can enter in the right path, through whose power we can persevere in it. He only can enable us to adorn the Gospel of God our Saviour in all things.

The effects of a consistent walk are eminently beneficial. The man of the world readily espies and harshly judges the faults of the Christian professor. He takes them as a sufficient proof that there is no solidity in religion, and confirms himself thereby in his opposition to the truth. Whereas by a consistent course of well-doing, we may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. We cannot, indeed, by our own power or example, savingly convert them to God; but we may

the man whom God correcteth (Job, v. 17). And for this reason, because his merciful chastenings, though righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby not joyous but grievous, yield the peaceable fruit of (Heb. xii. 11). God's ways are not as our ways. The children whom we love we are apt to treat with all the soft blandishments and fond caresses of profuse

cometh."

A LETTER TO ONE IN AFFLICTION.*

"Does each day upon its wing
Its allotted burden bring?
Load it not besides with sorrow
Which belongeth to the morrow.
Strength is promised, strength is given,
When the heart by God is riven;
But foredate the day of woe,
And alone thou bear'st the blow.
One thing only claims thy care-
Seek thou first, by faith and prayer,
That all-glorious world above,
Scene of righteousness and love;
And whate'er thou need'st below,
He thou trustest will bestow."

I TRULY commiserate your variegated calamity, and heartily wish I could suggest any thing which might be the means of administering some ease to your afflicted mind, and of assisting you to reap ample benefit from your distressed situation.

You well know that all afflictions, of what kind soever, proceed from God. I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things (Is. xiv. 7). They spring not from the dust; are not the effects of a random chance, but the appointment of an all-wise all-foreseeing God, who intends them all for the good of his creatures. This, I think, is the fundamental argument for resignation, and the grand source of comfort. This should be our first reflection, and our sovereign support. He gave me my being, and gave his own Son for my redemption; he has assigned me this suffering. What He ordains, who is boundless love, must be good: what He ordains, who is unerring wisdom, must be proper.

This reconciled Eli to the severest doom that ever was denounced. It is the Lord, and though grievous to human nature, much more grievous to parental affection, yet it is unquestionably the best; therefore I humbly acquiesce. I kiss the awful decree, and say from my very soul, Let him do what seemeth him good (1 Sam. iii. 18). This calmed the sorrows of Job under all his unparalleled distresses: The Lord gave my affluence and prosperity; the Lord has taken all away; rapacious hands and warring elements were only his instruments: therefore I submit, I adore, I bless his holy name. This consolation fortified the man Christ Jesus at the approach of his inconceivably bitter agonies: The cup, which, not my implacable enemies, but my Father, by their administration, has given me, shall I not drink it?

It is your Father, dear sir, your heavenly Father, who loves you with an eternal love, that has mingled some gall with your portion in life. Sensible of the beneficent hand from which your visitation comes, may you always bow your head in patient submission; and acknowledge with the excellent but afflicted monarch Hezekiah, Good is the word of the Lord concerning me (2 Kings, xx. 19).

All afflictions are designed for blessings, to do us good at the latter end, however they may cross our desires or disquiet our minds at present. Happy (says the Spirit of inspiration, and not wretched) is

By the Rev. James Hervey.

hurt, if not to their ruin. But the Father of spirits is wise in his love, and out of kindness severe. Therefore it is said, whom he loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth (Heb. xii. 6). Would you not, dear sir, be a child of that everlasting Father whose favour is better than life? Affliction is one sign of your adoption to this inestimable relation. Would you not be an heir of the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away?" Affliction is your path to this blissful patrimony. Through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of heaven (Acts, xiv. 22). Would you not be made like your ever-blessed and amiable Redeemer? He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and every disciple must expect to be as his Master.

Perhaps you may think your affliction peculiarly calamitous; and that if it had been of some other kind, you could more cheerfully submit, more easily bear it but you are in the hands of an all-wise Physician, who joins to the bowels of infinite love, the discernment of infinite wisdom. He cannot mistake your case. He sees the remotest events; and though he varies his remedies, always prescribes with the exactest propriety to every one's particular state. Assure yourself, therefore, the visitation which he appoints is the very proper recipe in the dispensatory of heaven any other would have been less fit to convey saving health to your immortal part, and less subservient to your enjoyment of the temporal blessings which may perhaps be yet in store for you.

Should you inquire what benefits accrue from afflictions? Many and precious. They tend to wean us from the world. When the paths are strewed with roses, when nothing but music and odours float around, how apt are we to be enamoured with our present condition, and forget the crown of glory, forget Jesus and everlasting ages! But affliction, with a faithful though harsh voice, rouses us from the sweet delusion. Affliction warns our hearts to arise, and depart from these inferior delights, because here is not our rest. True and lasting joys are not here to be found. The sweeping tempest, and the beating surge, teach the mariner to prize the haven where undisturbed repose waits his arrival. In like manner, disappointments, vexations, anxieties, crosses, teach us to long for those happy mansions where all tears will be wiped away from the eyes (Rev. xxi. 4), all anguish banished from the mind, and nothing, nothing subsist but the fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore.

Affliction tends to bring us to Christ. Christ has unspeakable and everlasting blessings to bestow : such as the world can neither give nor take away; such as are sufficient to pour that oil of gladness into our souls which will swim above the waves of any earthly tribulation. But are we not, dear sir, are we not most unhappily indolent and inattentive to these blessings in the gay hours of an uninterrupted prosperity? It is very observable, that scarce any made application to our divine Redeemer, in the days of his abode with us, but the children of affliction. The same spirit of supineness still possesses mankind. We undervalue, we disregard the Lord Jesus, and the unspeakable privileges of his Gospel, while all proceeds smoothly, and nothing occurs to discompose the tenour of our tranquillity. But when misfortunes harass our circumstances, or sorrows oppress our minds, then we are willing, we are glad, we are earnest, to find rest in Christ.

In Christ Jesus there is pardon of sins. Sin is a

executions." And so I was come to the end of my pilgrimage, and to a place of much note; for, during the Marian persecution, more suffered in Kent, I believe, for their religion than in any other county in England; and of those the large proportion in Canterbury. And the very last martyr-fires that scared England, and that within six days of its deliverance, blazed on this very memorable spot. Memorable! yet how little it is remembered. It is called the Martyrs' Field; yet the shepherd thinks nothing probably of the meaning of the words as he passes to and fro with his few sheep. The children play here, and in the dry summer run races up and down this hollow; and the grown boys try strengths in leaping across it, and little care that once it streamed with blood instead of water-the blood of those of whom "the world was not worthy ;" and so the little ones can reach the fair maythorn-boughs from the hedge, and find daisies and dandelions enough for their chain-few care to teach them how every flower and herb there was withered once with hotter fire than the midsummer sun's heat that flashed and sparkled here as it bore the living sacrifice up to God. Ought these things to be so forgotten? Are we, then, so degenerate, so unworthy of our forefathers, that a senator has dared to speak of martyrs' records as "old almanac stories?" "They are old almanac stories," it was well answered; "but they are redletter stories-they are written in blood." Come, then, let me do my part; let me express my feelings of gratitude to God for the grace bestowed on these blessed servants of his; and let me own the veneration with which I trod this ground. It may be that even I may awaken some like feeling; it may be, that one who has as yet thought but little of the mighty debt due to our blessed martyrs, may in these latter days thank God, and take courage to follow their good example, at least in sincerity of intention. It may be, that some young person (for there were those who had the fair prospect of long and prosperous life before them-I speak from the authority of living witnesses-who here gave themselves unblemished offerings to God) may feel their energy, and their activity, and their warmth of heart, all worthy to be consecrated to the Almighty Giver. It may be that some delicate woman- for I can tell of the weak and fragile lifting themselves up in the hour of trial to shew how strength is made perfect in weakness-may learn from my record to look in faith to Him who, to them that have no might, increaseth strength. "In the beginning," Fox tells us, "of the persecution there were lying in the castle," there, yonder, within those very walls,-" fifteen godly and innocent martyrs, of whom not one escaped with their lives;" and this is the remarkable observation he makes, Though certain swerved a little in the number of sacraments-some more and some less-yet in the principal matter, the doctrine of salvation for faith to stay upon, and in disagreeing from the dreaming determinations of the popish Church, they most agreed." O wise should we be, if in the principal | matter, the doctrine of salvation for faith to stay upon, once again we could all agree!

I was much struck with the variety of characters which I met with in the account of those martyrs

concerning whom I had opportunity to consult Fox's history; and it is truly beautiful to observe how the religion of the Gospel supplies every want; how it gives strength to the weak, calmness to the irritable, nay, supplies even natural deficiencies. Concerning one of the martyrs, Fox remarks, This good woman was somewhat thick of hearing, but yet quick of understanding in the Lord's matters; his name therefore be praised." Of another, the account is very touching from its extreme simplicity. Perhaps it particularly affected my mind, because I knew more than one for whom the character might pass; yet it is not such a character perhaps that fancy would grace with the energy of a martyr; but He" shall give strength and power unto his people"-yes, even to his feeble handmaidens: blessed be God. "She was as simple a woman to see," says the old martyrologist, "as any might behold: she had a lively cheerful countenance; most patient in her words and answers; sober in apparel, meat, and drink, and would never be idle; a great comfort to as many as would talk to her; good to the poor; and, in her trouble, money, she said, she would take none; for,' she said, 'I am going to a city where money bears no praising; whiles I am here the Lord provideth for me."" And it was from this very spot, I thought again, as I looked round the narrow boundary, that the last English martyrs ascended to God: here that the bold Corneford, with almost the feeling, and all the firmness of a prophet, denounced the wrath that was preparing for a persecuting and apostate Church. My fancy pictured his manly countenance, and his lofty bearing, as he stood there, just in view of the thousands who thronged this steep hillside; and I felt how many a heart amidst that multitude (for it was not only enemies who came together on such occasions, but many a true and faithful, though perhaps secret, friend, was there whispering, "Be strong in the Lord," to the sufferers, and encouraging them in their last extremity by word and sign)—I felt how many a heart bounded almost to bursting at his words, as he hurled back the impious sentence of excommunication pronounced against him and his blessed companions, and ended with a prayer, "That, by thy just judgments, O most mighty God, against thine adversaries, thy true religion may be known, to thy great glory and our comfort, and to the edifying of all our nation." And did not the words come back to many a heart with an awful feeling that the prophecy was fulfilled, when the unhappy queen died within six days after; and with her, as the historian observes, the tyranny of all English papists? But there stood one in this field, on that same day, very different indeed from the undaunted Corneford, though in faith, and hope, and patience, the same. There was

a weak, aged woman, who had learned from her own son the saving doctrines of the Gospel, and that it is idolatry to creep to the cross, St. John saying, "Beware of images ;" and to confess that "we should not pray to our ladye, nor to the other saints, for they be not omnipotent." What but the power of Divine grace could have supported so weak and failing a frame to such extremity! and what varied feeling of grief and triumph must have agitated that son's mind, who, having been the means of bringing an aged parent to the The Virgin Mary.