may almost raise a doubt, whether the benefit which the world receives from government, be fufficient to make amends, for the

calamities, which it suffers from the follies, mistakes, and maladministrations of those that manage it."

IN a former number of the Disciple,* I attempted to expose, what I thought was an erroneous opinion, on the subject of religious experience. Will you permit me, within as narrow limits as I can, to suggest what I believe to be other mistakes upon this subject?

1. It is thought by some, that religious experience consists in a particular set of feelings, which are, and can be excited, only by particular doctrines of religion. Such for example as the doctrines of original and total depravityor in other words, a guilt derived from Adam;-of the consequent condemnation of the whole human race in Adam, to the misery of eternal fire;-of the eternal purpose of God, of his mere good pleasure, to save a part of the creatures, who, he knew, would descend from Adam; that Christ suffered, in their stead, all the indignation of God, which would otherwise have been suffered by these objects of his election; that the righteousness of Christ is imputed, by faith alone, to the elect; and that they to whom this righteousness is imputed, can never fall from grace. These are supposed to be fundamental principles of the gospel. To experience religion then, is to feel this guilt derived

No. 14.

from Adam;-to feel that, for it, we deserve the eternal wrath and curse of God;-that of his mere good pleasure, he has elected us to eternal life;-that Christ has borne the guilt of all our sins;— that we are clothed with his righteousness;--and that for his righteousness, and not at all for our own obedience, we are to hope for the final rewards of heaven. If these are doctrines of our religiou, then our experience of their efficacy in making us better, is religious experience. But an experience of the efficacy of any other doctrines, or principles of the gospel, by which good affections and habits are exercised and confirmed, and evil dispositions and propensities are checked and overcome, is as certainly christian experience. I do not inquire, whether these which we have enumerated, are doctrines of the gospel. But though I am not so happy, as to have known their power by my own experience, yet may I not have felt the truth and efficacy of the presence, the wisdom, and the goodness of God? I do not know, by my experience, the guilt of Adam's sin. Or rather, I neither feel accountable, nor deserving of punishmeut, for it. But I am sensible of my own transgressions; and I hope, in the conviction of them,

that I feel deeply humble and penitent before God. I feel that God is love, in giving his Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life. I feel that God has inseparably connected duty with the best happiness, and vice with the greatest misery. I feel that in God I live, and move, and have my being; that He should be the highest object of my love, my trust, and my devotion; that in every violation of a law of his gospel, I violate at the same time ⚫ a law of my nature; and that, as an accountable being, my happiness, both in time and in eternity, can be secure, only while I possess his approbation. Is not this religious experience? Do I not indeed experience the power of religion in every instance, in which I experience the efficacy of a religious doctrine, principle, or sentiment? I am obliged to recur again to the definition of experience. It is knowledge derived from practice. It is obvious then, that the particular feelings which are excited by the peculiar doc trines to which we have adverted, cannot be all which is properly comprehended in christian experience.

2. Some of the truly pious are so very unhappy as to believe, that they have never felt the power of religion, because they have never felt assurance and rapture. They have felt godly sorrow; love and reverence of God; the grace of God in the gospel, constraining them to his service; and have found the best happiness of their lives, in obeying his will. But they have never felt a perfect confidence that their own

salvation is sure. They have never felt the raptures of heaven.

To such persons I would say, that as far as my reading and observation have extended, the most truly devout and pious, have. ever been the most deeply sensible of their unworthiness, and the least inclined to indulge this undoubting assurance. I would remind them of the warnings of the gospels-"give all diligence to make your calling and election snre;" and "let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall."-I would refer them to the example of Paul-"I count not myself to have apprehended;-I do not reckon myself to have laid hold on the prize. But one thing I do. Not minding the things behind me, but exceedingly stretching myself to the things before me, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." "I so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that, by any means, when I have preached to others, I MYSELF SHOULD BE A CAST-AWAY."-But if Paul, after all his labors, and sufferings, and successes, and evidences of divine favor towards him, still felt that he might fall from christian piety and virtue, and might still be rejected-have we a right to assurance? The experience of repentance; of confidence that the allotments of God, whatever they are, will be right; of humble hope of the divine acceptance; and of fear lest, a promise being left of entering into rest, we should thro' negligence, or grosser vice, fall short of it, is far more consistent,

I think, with the spirit of the gospel, and will conduce far more to our final acceptance and happi

ness.

3. I will refer to only one more mistake on this subject. It is, that a death bed experience is an assurance of the acceptance of God.

The number is great of those, who are looking to this experience, as the basis of their expectations of the rewards of pieety and virtue. Hence, in a great measure, the eager curiosity which is felt, to know every expression and feeling of the dying. It is common to have expressions of peculiar religious sensibility on a sick and dying bed, from those who have been the most indifferent concerning religion, or even the most vicious, in the days of their health and vigor. They feel then, that they are sinners, and that they need a Savior; and they believe and trust in the promise, "whosoever cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." They die therefore, as they affirm, with a good hope of mercy. Hence it is thought to be safe to trust to the feelings the experience of a dying bed; and the great work of life is deferred to the hour of dissolution. This is an error, against which every one, who is disposed to its indulgence, should be warned with the greatest solemnity; for as it may lead to every vice, it may be fatal to the best interests of the soul of him who fosters it.

A death bed experience! What is it, in such circumstances, but a deliberate rejection of the service of God, to the very last moVol. III.

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ment in which we can enjoy the service of sin? What is it, bnt an offering to God of the dregs of life, which we give, only because we can no longer withhold them?

And is this repentance to salvation?" Is this adding to our faith virtue, knowledge, temper ance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity? Is this that "holiness, without which no flesh shall see the Lord?

A death bed experience! And is it always delusive? O, no. It is precious indeed, when it is the experience of a soul which, in its best days, has consecrated its best faculties and services to God. To him who has been accustomed to this devotion, it is an experience of the truth of the promise, "my grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." It is an experience of the salutary tendencies of all the principles by which it has been actuated, extending themselves over the mind and heart with increasing power, in the time when their encouragement and consolation are most eagerly demanded. It is an experience, that in keeping God's commandments, there is a great and sure reward.-O how different from the death bed experience of him, who repents of his sins, only because he fears the anger of God, against whom they have been committed; who dedicates himself to his Maker and Savior, only because he can no longer devote himself to vice; and who cries for mercy and heaven, because that, every hold upon this world being lost, he can no longer feel impunity in

transgression! I have seen this false, this most delusive repent'ance. I have been a witness too of the dangerous confidence, with which it has inspired those, who were disposed to defer reformation. In endeavoring to persuade a man to pray, I have received the answer, "I cannot pray. But my neighbor, who died a few weeks since, never could pray, till he was upon his death bed; and before I die, I too hope to be able to offer my prayers." And do you not know that of the opportunity even of this experience, a sudden death, or a disease attended with delirium, or with excessive weakness, or with very acute pain, may entirely deprive you? Does not a moment's serious reflection convince you, that if this experience is all which you have to offer, for compliance with the terms of the gospel, most awful must be your condition in judgment? O be persuaded to live the life of the righteous, that

like him yon may die; and that your future condition may be with his forever!

To have experience of religion, we must believe its doctrines, not with our understandings only, but with our hearts. We must have that faith in them, which will engage the service of our wills and our affections. We must obey its precepts.-Genuine religious experience can be no greater, than this conformity of our tempers, affections, and lives, to the faith and principles of the gospel. If any man will thus do his will, he shall know of the doctrines of our religion, by his own experience, whether they are from God. But if we had eaten and drank in his presence, and in his name cast out devils, and in his name done many wonderful works, yet if we have not obeyed his laws, our Judge will at last say to us, "depart from me, for I know you not, ye workers of iniquity."

ONE year has just past, and another is commencing its revolution; and this fair sun will only rise and set a few times, and again a year will have elapsed And what is this strange and awful consummation, to which the lapse of another year has brought us nearer? What is it which is included in that little word death, which thrills the nerves and curdles the blood of thousands and tens of thousands?

In the first place, there is an air of awful uncertainty, always

surrounding the event. We look forward, and cannot assign it to any particular period. Every instance of mortality which occurs tends to enhance the uncertainty. One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at case and quiet; another cometh to the grave mature in years and virtues, or with infirmities and vice drops rotten into the tomb. Yet though the exact moment when we shall be summoned hence can never be ascertained, the certainty of the event itself amounts to a degree

of assurance, which no other subject can possibly acquire. But can death be sudden to him who knows that there is nothing more certain than the event, and nothing more uncertain than the time?

Another cause of our dread is to be found in the idea which is entertained of the exquisite pangs of dissolution. But who has issued from the chambers of the tomb, who has uttered an audible voice from the coffin, to tell us the pangs through which he has just been passing? Do we gather this from supposing that what terminates a series of pains and calamities, of sickness and sorrows, must be more painful, more agonizing, than any, because it is the last? Those who have recovered from severe disorders, have passed through perhaps worse than the pangs of death without dissolution; and the crisis of any acute complaint is as painful when it leaves us alive, as when it extinguishes forever our sensibility. It is not then pain which we fear, for martyrdom has seen its thousands encircled in flames, and slowly consumed, but it is death, that comprehensive word, in which so many terrors combine and coa lesce.

Another source of our fear of death is to be found perhaps in the idea, that it is not only the last event in the series of those acts and feelings which constitute life; but that it is also something peculiarly new and extraordina

ry.

But there is no reason why an event should be encircled with terror merely from its relative position in the order of time, or of number, or of place; and the

novelty alone is no more a reason of alarm, than it would be to a blind man to dread the sudden recovery of his sight, because it would open to him an utterly new and unimagined train of sensations and ideas.

But we proceed to another and fruitful source of apprehensionthe circumstances and appearances which belong to this dreadful figure of our mortality. Death is mentioned, and instantly there occurs to our imagination a long train of melancholy images, the lifeless and bloodless corpse, the altered features, the dead and sunken eye. Our fancy then flies instantly to the tomb and finds it cold, and comfortless, and silent, and dark; she sees there the shroud which wraps the dead, the close imprisoning coffin, and innumerable images, offensive and horrible to living curiosity. But these are all terrors of the imagination, to which education and habit have given an ascendancy, but which the understanding may easily surmount, and of which the mind ought to be divested.

I have thus hastily mentioned the principal sources of that inexplicable dread of death, which is almost an universal sentimentthe whole world bows tremblingly at the footstool of this monarch of corporeal existence. We paint his course with darkness, his guards are spectres of despair, his sceptre touches us with cruel dismay, his sway extends not only through the cold realms of forgetfulness, which are his hereditary dominions, but his future subjects close their eyes, alarmed at the imaginary