CHAPTER VII. THE DUTY OF PROFESSORS TO AVOID THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL. "GOD hath called us unto holiness."-1 Thes. iv. 7. Impressive idea! It is our very vocation to be holy. Holiness was the image of God in which man was created, against which the envy and malignity of Satan were directed, and which he dashed at and destroyed, when he found himself unable to reach the divine original. Holiness is the end of all God's dispensations towards his people, whether of Providence, of Grace, or of Glory. Holiness will constitute the perfection of man's moral nature in heaven; it is the spotless garment in which the seraph ministers before the throne of the Eternal; it is more, for it is the beauty of the Divine Being himself; not so much a separate attribute of his nature, as the perfection of all his attributes. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all;" and from the midst of his excellent glory, he is ever calling to us and saying. “Be ye holy, as I am holy." True religion is conformity to God, and God is holy. Herein is Christianity distinguished from idolatry, and its infinite superiority above the classic paganism of antiquity demonstrated. Some of the philosophers, especially of the Stoic sect, delivered many fine sentiments and even beautiful maxims of a stern and rigid morality, but their ethics had no connexion with their theology. The 9* 66 66 gods of the Pagan heaven were little better than men's own evil qualities exalted to the sky, to be thence reflected back upon them, invested with Olympian charms and splendours. A mighty labour of human depravity to confirm its own dominion! It would translate itself to heaven, and usurp divinity, in order to come down thence with a sanction for man to be wicked." So that while men in Christian lands become wicked for want of religion, those that dwell in heathen countries become wicked by religion. The moralist and the priest are in opposition to each other, and the former, if he would succeed in making men better, must caution them against allowing the latter to bring them within the precincts of a temple, or introduce them to the presence of a God. But it is the excellence and glory of Christianity, that its refined morality is founded upon, and arises from, its pure theology; which contains every possible motive and every necessary means to holiness. Our great business then in this world is to be made and kept holy. Our whole life is to be one incessant struggle against that moral evil, which is all around us and within us. "We are called," I repeat the expression, "to holiness." How emphatic, how comprehensive, is the apostolic admonition which is the subject of this chapter, "abstain from all appearance of evil."--1 Thes.. .v. 22. Some expositors render the expression thus, "abstain from every sort or kind of evil." In this sense, it is a most important precept. Evils are of various kinds and degrees, and it is a Christian's duty to avoid them all. He must not reconcile himself to any one thing that is contrary to God's word. He must declare war, and maintain irreconcilable hostility against every sin. But, probably, the true meaning of the text is the commonly received one, that we are not only to abstain from those things that are really and manifestly evil, but from such as are only doubtfully and in appearance such. We must avoid not only the identical thing itself, but all shows and resemblances of it. 1. Professors should abstain from the smallest beginnings of evil, the first buddings of sin; those things which would not be noticed in others, and are made apparent, like faint stains upon cambric, only by the white ground of their profession; and which after all, in the estimation of many, are so small and insignificant, as to be rather appearances than realities. Little sins lead on to greater ones, and if they did not, and were not feared on account of what they may lead to, should be shunned for their own sakes. A female, vain of her beauty, is annoyed not only by sores upon the countenance, but by freckles. A professor is not to be vain of the beauty of holiness, but still he is to be watchful of it, and must therefore avoid the smallest disfigurement of it by sin. 2. We must not venture to the extreme verge of what is good, nor try how near we can come to evil, without actually committing it. The boundary, as I have elsewhere remarked, between right and wrong, is an invisible line, which many rash adventurers have passed, ere they were aware they were approaching near to it. Besides, though it may be quite perceptible, and avoided by those who are near, yet persons who are close to it may appear to others, who look from a distance, to be gone over it. It is a most dangerous thing for ourselves, to go as near sin as we can without committing it; and as to observers, there are many to whom we are certain, in such a position, to seem to be committing it. All sober, serious, conscientious, and considerate Christians, try to keep far within the territory of holiness, being aware that the border country is generally disputed ground, and much infested by marauders from the opposite land, who are lying in ambush to make captives of those who adventure beyond the line of their defence. But there are many of an opposite description, who have so little circumspection and tenderness of conscience, that if they can but keep themselves from that which is intrinsically and notoriously evil, make no scruple of venturing upon the borders and edges of sin. 3. We must take care not to "let our good be evil spoken of:" for even virtues may be sometimes so exercised, or exercised in conjunction with such circumstances as to give them the appearance of evil. There is, in some instances, as great a want of judgment in the doing of what is good, as there is in others a want of conscience in the doing of what is evil, and, in the end, with much the same result; I mean, the disparagement of religion. It is truly painful to think how much of real and even eminent holiness has, in some cases, been witnessed, not only without admiration, but with disgust; and has been spoken of rather with contempt than applause, merely in consequence of the 'encrustations of folly by which it has been disfigured. A professor, eminent for her earnest solicitude about her soul, in her anxiety to grow in grace, and keep up the vitality of religion, will, perhaps, neglect all the duties of her household, and leave a sick child to servants, in order to attend à prayer-meeting or a sermon. A second, in his zeal for the cause of Christ, will give that property for its support which belongs to his creditors. A third, in his hatred of sin, will be guilty of all kinds of rudeness in reproving transgressors. Mercy sometimes degenerates into a pernicious weakness, justice into harshness, spirituality into cant, humility into meanness, devotion into superstition, and a tender conscience into a diseased one. If it be injurious, and most injurious it is, to the cause of holiness, to give the names of virtue to vice, and thus reconcile men to a bad thing by the potent spell of a good word, it is not much less so, perhaps, to disgust men against what is really good, by affixing to it the appearance of what is evil. Names have a mighty influence in human affairs. Hence the wo denounced against those who call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!-Isaiah, v. 20. 4. The rule commands us to abstain from what appears to ourselves of doubtful propriety. There are many things, of which the sinfulness is so manifest; which have so much of the palpable substance as well as the appearance of evil, that they are shunned without a moment's hesitation, by every one who has the least regard to the authority of God. But there are others, the criminality of which is not so clear, and of which, therefore, even a good man may stand in doubt. We oftentimes meet with such things, and are in much and painful indecision whether we may carefully venture upon them or not. This is the state of mind, which has been called "a doubting conscience." The apostle has laid down rules for guiding us safely out of this dilemma, and which are sufficiently plain for all ordinary cases. "He that doubteth is damned (condemned) if he eat, for whatsoever is not of faith (that is, which a man does not believe he may lawfully do) is sin."-Rom. xiv. 23. Doubts about the propriety of an action are strong presumptive evidence that it is unlawful, for they must have their origin in the perception of some appearance of evil. Still there are persons of such a timid and nervous constitution, of such a physical incapability of coming to any conclusion that shall be free from all scruples, that if they never acted till they had got rid of all doubts, they would never act at all. The following rules may, perhaps, be of service to such persons, and indeed to all. When in the proposed actions all the doubts lie on one side there need be no hesitation. When one action will promote our interest, and the other oppose it, the probability is, that the way of duty lies in the course which is disadvantageous to us. It is always best, in doubtful cases, to take the safer side; that which, as far as we can judge, will involve least |