THE NEPHEWS OF JUDAS, THE LORD'S BROTHER. "DOMITIAN, the Emperor, being informed that there were yet remaining some of Christ's kindred according to the flesh (the nephews of Judas the brother of our Lord; of the race and posterity of David, which the emperor sought utterly to extirpate) he sent for them, and enquired of them whether they were of the line of David: they answered they were; he asked what possessions and estate they had; they told him they had between them thirty-nine acres of land (to the value of about nine thousand pence) out of the fruits whereof they both paid him tribute, and maintained themselves with their own hard labour, whereto the hardness and callousness of their hands (which they then showed him) bore witness. He then asked them concerning Christ and the state of his kingdom; to which they answered, that his empire was not of this world, but heavenly and angelical, and what should finally take place in the end of the world, when he should come with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, and to reward men according to their works: which, when he heard, despising the men upon the account of their meanness, he let them go without any severity against them." -Dr. Cave. REV. W. GRIMSHAW. MR. NEWTON, in his "Life of Grimshaw," the justly celebrated minister of Haworth, in Yorkshire, mentions a circumstance which forcibly illustrates his care and influence over his people. He laboured hard to suppress the custom of walking in the fields, between the services, and in the evenings of the Lord's day. Not being fully able to do this in the pulpit, he himself would walk into the fields, to discover and reprove the delinquents. On one occasion, learning that a party were thus met near the village, he disguised himself, and ap peared among them. He charged them to stand still, took down their names, and ordered them to attend him on a day and hour which he appointed. They came as punctually as though they had been served with a judge's warrant. He led them into a private room, formed them into a circle, commanded them to kneel down, and prayed for them for a considerable time, with much earnestness, and then concluded the interview by an affecting lecture. He never afterwards had occasion to repeat this friendly discipline. THE BEST SERVICE WE CAN RENDER "There are times when the asser tion of great principles is the best service a man can render society. The present is a moment of bewildering excitement, when men's minds are stormed and darkened by strong passions and fierce conflicts; and also a moment of absorbing worldlimess, when the moral law is made to strict requirements are denied, or bow to expediency, and its high and dismissed as metaphysical abstractions or impracticable theories. such a season, to utter great principles without passion, and in the spirit of unfeigned and universal good-will, and to At engrave them is to do more for the world, than to deeply and durably on men's minds, open mines of wealth, or to frame the most successful schemes of po licy." W. E. C. NEWCASTLE: PRINTED BY J. BLACKWELL AND CO. THE CHRISTIAN INVESTIGATOR, AND EVANGELICAL REFORMER; For the Promotion of sound Religious Knowledge, and the Inculcation of Temperance and Peace, and of the whole Religion of Christ. No. 10. NOVEMBER 27, 1841. LUKEWARMNESS. VOL. 1. decline, and their zeal for God and for the salvation of souls, begins to languish. They find less pleasure in the means of grace, and they feel less energy and decision in resisting temptation, and in doing the will of God. Eternal things exert less influence over them, and their souls begin to cleave to the dust, and to lose themselves in worldly thoughts and cares. They still retain the outward form of godliness, but they have lost much of its power. They still have a regard for religion, but they feel that they are not properly under its influence. They have a clear recollection of their former state; they frequently lament that they are so much changed; and at times they labour to recover their former life and fervour; but their efforts are not successful, and they settle down at length into a state of habitual lukewarmness. They still have their names on the church's register, and they still continue to SCARCELY any thing is more common than for persons, after their conversion to God, to fall into a state of lukewarmness. When first brought "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God," their souls are all on fire, the fervour of their heavenly affections knows no bounds. They love God with their whole heart, and they love all mankind; and to labour for God, and to do good to their fellow-men, is the delight of their life. They come to the means of grace as to a feast, and their souls are fed as with marrow and fatness. The word of life, whether read in their closets, or heard from the pulpit, is sweeter to them than honey or the honey-comb. In the prayer meeting, in the class meeting, in the great congregation, or in their secret retirements, they still are happy, and the cup of their blessedness runs over. Scarcely any thing is difficult or painful to them, that comes in theo their usual round of observances, way of duty. They have a fulness of affection, an ardour of holy zeal, that makes hard things easy, and painful things pleasant. They can adopt the words of the poet with perfect propriety, but their souls are comparatively powerless, lifeless, religion has become much of a form with them, and they may be ranked with those who "have a name to live and are dead." This has been the case with professors of religion, more or less, from the beginning. At a very early period, some fell into a sickly and languishing state. This appears to have been the case with the Church of Laodicea, previous to the death of T the Apostle John. John was directed to write to the minister of the church, saying, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert either cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." Rev. iii. 15, 16. We have ourselves seen numbers of persons who, so far as we could judge, were truly converted, who have sunk down into this state of lukewarmness. Their zeal for God, and for the salvation of their fellow· men, has declined, and they have lost much of their concern for the eternal welfare of their own souls. Eternal matters no longer excite in their minds those powerful emotions which they once excited; nor do they exert that powerful influence upon their conduct which they once exerted. They have not fallen into flagrant sins, nor have they broken off their association with the church, but they have lost their life and fervour. They are like Sampson, shorn of their strength, and, with the exception of the name and the form of religion, they are much like other men. We have reason to fear that a great portion of professing Christians of the present day are in this state of lukewarmness. Great numbers acknowledge themselves to be in this state; they acknowledge that the fervour of their holy affections is almost gone; they complain that instead of things growing better with them, they are worse with them at present, than when they first devoted themselves to the Lord. Lukewarmness has, in fact, spread itself through the church at large, and there are comparatively few, we fear, who have entirely escaped its influence. In many cases whole churches appear to be in a state of lukewarmness; and in some cases, whole denominations appear to have lost their first love. Those disciples of Christ who retain the fervour and-zeal of their best days, and who increase in love to God and man, are, we fear, comparatively few. This is a very serious matter. Lukewarmness is a very great evil. We are given to understand, by the passage already quoted, that lukewarmness is more offensive to God, than entire coldness; that God had rather that men should throw off their profession of religion altogether, than be half-hearted and lukewarm in religion. There are three kinds of characters placed before us, the hot, the cold, and the lukewarm. The hot are those who make religion every thing, who consecrate their time, their property, and all their powers to God without reserve, and who labour to promote God's cause, and to accomplish all God's will, with their whole soul. The cold are the unbelieving and profligate, who look on religion as a fable, or who carelessly and thoughtlessly trample its claims under their feet. They make no profession of religion; they live to please themselves, and their whole life and conversation are one mass of earthliness and folly. The third class are the lukewarm,—such as profess religion, and attend to its observances to some extent, but who live in ease and pleasure, and make religion give place to earthly interests and selfish pleasures. The most offensive to God of all, are the last. God is not pleased with the cold, the openly profane; he is angry with them every day: but his greatest displeasure is with the lukewarm; and the passage in Revelations, chap. iii. 15, 16, gives us plainly to understand, that if men continue in this state of lukewarmness, he will utterly reject them. "I will spue thee out of my mouth." 2. Lukewarmness is a very unreasonable thing. If God deserves to be loved at all, he deserves to be loved with all our heart: if religion deserves to be regarded at all, it deserves to be regarded above all things else. If religion be true, it is every thing, and deserves to engage our whole soul, and to controul and regulate our whole behaviour. 3. Lukewarmness in professors of religion is a hindrance to the conversion of sinners. Sinners cannot believe that religion is a matter of such great importance, when they see so many persons who profess to have experienced its influence, and who ought best to understand its character and its worth, so careless and half-hearted respecting it. They hear preachers say that it is a matter of infinite importance, but the lukewarmness of professors appears to say the contrary; and the influence of what professors do, is greater than the influence of all that preachers can say. 4. Lukewarmness in professors tends to confirm unbelievers in their infidelity. Infidels know, that if the religion of Christ "be true, it is the most important thing in the world: and they imagine that if they were heartily persuaded of its truth, they could do no other than make it their first and constant concern. And when they see professors treating it as a matter of secondary importance, when they see them preferring the interests of the world to the interests of Christ, and allowing the affairs of time to exert a greater influence over them than the affairs of eternity, they imagine that professors themselves are not satisfied of the truth of religion, and they next conclude that there is no sufficient evidence of its truth. I know that infidels are foolish in allowing themselves to be thus influenced by the inconsistencies of professors, and I know that their reasonings on the subject are altogether unsound; yet so it is and I have no doubt but that next to men's natural repugnance to what is good, there is nothing that does so much to harden unbelievers in their infidelity, as the lukewarmness of professing Christians. 5. Lukewarmness tends to destroy the usefulness of the church in every way. When men are lukewarm, they are wanting in the desire to be useful. When men are lukewarm, they are more forward to give their time and strength to the world than to the cause of God, and to employ their property in obtaining more property, than in promoting the conversion and salvation of souls. When men are lukewarm they have not the spirit for pious and benevolent enterprizes. They love ease; they shrink from opposition; they fear reproach; and they are unwilling to risk either their property or their reputation in the case of Christ. If lukewarm persons attempt to do any thing good, they seldom succeed to any great extent. They are fearful, and are not attempt any thing great. They are wanting in liberality, and are unwilling to make a free use of their property. They do not go about their work with determination and energy, and the world and satan will not give way before them. There is little to be done in the cause of God, without God's special. blessing; and God does not take pleasure in blessing the efforts of the lukewarm. There is nothing to be done in the work of regenerating the world, without patience and perseverance; and the lukewarm are not the persons to persevere patiently under repeated disappointments and discouragements. The character and conduct of the lukewarm tend to render their advice and exhortations ineffectual. When they would persuade their neighbours to turn to God, their neighbours are in danger of saying in their hearts, if not with their lips, Physician, heal thyself." If they lead a class, they are in danger of being stumbling blocks to their members, rather than helps; and if they turn not their members out of the way, they are in danger of damping their ardour, and reducing them to a state of incurable luke warmness. The lukewarm are not likely to do much good in their own families. Even children frequently know, that if persons profess to be religious, they ought to be religious indeed. And when they see their parents treating religion as a matter of secondary moment, and spending the strength of their warmest affections, and the fulness of their vigour and resources, on the world, we cannot wonder if they should fail to be favourably influenced by their example. A lukewarm preacher can do little good; it need not be wondered at if he does much harm. What can be more inconsistent, than for a person to stand up to preach the Gospel, whil he himself is but little excited and influenced by it. Every doctrine in the Gospel, almost every precept of the Gospel, and the whole Gospel history must condemn such a preacher. It is impossible that such a person can preach with power; it is impossible that what he says should go to the heart with unction and authority. A lukewarm person cannot preach the Gospel. If he were to preach the Gospel fully, he would himself become another man, or else hold himself up to his hearers for their general rebuke and reprobation. Many parts of the Gospel are of such a nature, that a lukewarm person must either overlook them and refuse to think of them, or be covered with shame and filled with remorse. How can a lukewarm minister preach the whole truth respecting the boundless love of God and of Christ in the redemption of the world? How can he preach on the tremendous evil of sin, of the terrors of God's displeasure, of the miseries of guilt and of perdition, of the unspeakable importance and blessedness of religion, of the shortness and uncertainty of life, of the nearness of death and eternity, of the solemn and terrible proceedings of the last day, and of the wonders and mysteries of blessedness that await the saints in heaven? What can the lukewarm minister say about the example of Christ, the example of the Apostles, the example of the first Christians, or even of the examples of John the Baptist, and of the saints of God under the Old Testament dispensation? There was not much of lukewarmness in them. They were all zealous; and many of them exceedingly zealous for the Lord of Hosts. What can he say of Moses and Elijah, who preferred the honour of God and the prosperity of his cause, to life itself, and who felt life itself a burden, so long as God's cause seemed to languish ?What can he say of the whole multitude, whose names we cannot mention, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises,stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens; who were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others who endured trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment; who were stoned, sawn asunder, tortured, and slain with the sword: who wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; who wandered in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth, and who, under all these trials, still proved faithful to God, and burned with unquenchable zeal for his glory? What can the lukewarm preacher say of zeal, of diligence, of perpetual growth in grace, of going on to perfection, of stretching with all his might forward to the mark for the prize of his high calling,—of doing good as he has opportunity,-of being zealous of good works,-of being stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,—of working out his salvation with fear and trembling,-of giving diligence that he may be found of God in peace, without spot and blameless,-of giving all diligence, to add to his faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness charity, and that these things may not only be in him, but abound, that he may abound in every good work? What will he say of these things, I say, and what will he say o a hundred other things, all equally opposite to his character and proceedings? We cannot wonder if he altogether pass these subjects by without notice; and if he should not pass them by, if he speak of them, we may expect him to put them in such a light, and to speak of them in such a manner, as to rob them of their force and meaning. This is the case with lukewarm preachers: they suffer the principal part of the Gospel to fall into forgetfulness, and even those parts of the Gospel which they continue to notice, they treat in such a way as to make it nothing more than much empty, useless talk. The lukewarmness of ministers has this effect at this time, and it has had this effect for ages past. Take pulpits generally, and there is not one half of them, we fear, from which the full ́ Gospel is preached. That which generally passes for the Gospel, and that which by general consent has come to be termed, for matter, Gospel or Evangelical preaching, is little more than two or three of the "first principles of the doctrine of Christ ;" a few limbs, cruelly and unna. urally severed from the great body of Gr pel truth, and which, by being thus 75 |