PARTICULARLY THAT WHICH IS USUALLY TERMED LOWNESS OF SPIRITS.
1. WHEN physicians meet with disorders which they do not understand, they commonly term them nervous; a word that conveys to us no determinate idea, but it is a good cover for learned ignorance. But these are often no natural disorder of the body, but the hand of God upon the soul, being a dull consciousness of the want of God, and the unsatisfactoriness of every thing here below. At other times it is conviction of sin, either in a higher or lower degree. It is no wonder that those who are strangers to religion should not know what to make of this; and that, consequently, all their prescriptions should be useless, seeing they quite mistake the case.
2. But undoubtedly there are nervous disorders which are purely natural. Many of these are connected with other diseases, whether acute or chronical. Many are the forerunners of various distempers, and many the consequences of them. But there are those which are not connected with others, being themselves a distinct, original distemper. And this frequently arises to such a hight that it seems to be one species of madness. So, one man imagines himself to be made of glass; another thinks he is too tall to go in at the door. This is often termed the spleen, or vapours; often, lowness of spirits; a phrase that, having scarce any meaning, is so much the fitter to be given to this unintelligible disorder. It seems to have taken its rise from hence: We sometimes say, “A man is in high spirits;” and the proper opposite to this is, “He is low spirited.” Does not this imply, that a kind of faintness, weariness, and listlessness affects the whole body, so that he is disinclined to any motion, and hardly cares to move hand or foot? But the mind seems chiefly to be affected, having lost its relish of every thing, and being no longer capable of enjoying the things it once delighted in most. Nay, every thing round about is not only flat and insipid, but dreary and uncomfortable. It is not strange if, to one in this state, life itself is become a burden; yea, so insupportable a burden, that many who have all this world can give, desperately rush into an unknown world, rather than bear it any longer.
3. But what are the causes of this strange disorder? One cause is, the use of spirituous liquors. This is one of the horrid effects which naturally follow the swallowing of that fashionable poison. That liquid fire lays the foundation of numberless diseases, and of this in particular. It is amazing that the preparing or selling this poison should be permitted (I will not say in any Christian country, but) in any civilized state. “Oh, it brings in a considerable sum of money to government.” True, but is it wise to barter men’s lives for money? Surely, that gold is bought too dear, if it is the price of blood. Does not the strength of every country consist in the number of its inhabitants? If so, the lessening their number is a loss which no money can compensate. So that it is inexcusable ill husbandry, to give the lives of useful men for any sum of money whatever.
4. But a more extensive cause of this disorder than the use of drams, I apprehend, is the use of tea; particularly where it is taken either in large quantities, or strong, or without cream and sugar. “Nay, weak tea is far more hurtful.” This is a senseless, shameless falsehood. I long drank hot water and sugar instead of tea; and it did me no hurt at all. But three cups of strong tea will now make my hand shake, so that I can hardly write. And let any try the experiment; if any tea make his hand shake, it will not be weak tea, but strong. This has exceedingly increased the number of nervous complaints throughout the three kingdoms. And this furnishes us with a satisfactory answer to the common question, “Why are these complaints so general now, which were scarce heard of two or three centuries ago?” For this plain reason: two or three centuries ago, no tea was drank in either Britain or Ireland.
5. But allowing both tea and spirituous liquors to have contributed largely to the increase of nervous disorders, yet it may be doubted, whether one or both of them are the principal causes of them. The principal causes of them (particularly among those who do not work for their living), are, as Dr. Cadogan justly observes, indolence, intemperance, and irregular passions.
First. Indolence, the not using such a degree of exercise as the constitution requires. To illustrate this: Our body is composed of earth, water, air, and fire; and the two latter are as necessary as the two former. To supply these, that curious engine, the lungs, continually takes in the air; to every particle of which a particle of fire is attached, which, being detached from it, is mingled with the blood. Now, exercise quickens the motion of the lungs, and enables them to collect from the air a due quantity of fire. The nerves are the conductors of this ethereal fire, vulgarly called the animal spirits. If this is duly diffused through the whole body, we are lively and vigorous; if it is not, (which without exercise it cannot be,) we soon grow faint and languid. And if other disorders do not ensue, those termed nervous surely will, with that whole train of symptoms which are usually comprised in what is termed lowness of spirits.
6. Intemperance is another principal cause of this;—if not intemperance in drink, which is not quite so common, yet intemperance in meat; the taking more of it than nature requires. Dr. Cheyne well observes, it is not so generally the quality, but the quantity, of what we eat which hurts us. What hurts the nerves in particular, is the eating too much animal food, especially at night; much more the eating one meal food of several different kinds. If we consider how few observe this, we shall not wonder that so many have nervous disorders; especially among those that have an opportunity of indulging themselves daily in variety, and who are hereby continually tempted to eat more than nature requires.
7. But there is another sort of intemperance, of which I think Dr. Cadogan does not take the least notice. And yet it is the source of more nervous disorders than even intemperance in food; I mean intemperance in sleep; the sleeping longer than nature requires. This alone will account for the week nerves of most of our nobility and gentry. Not that I would insist upon the old rule,—
*Sex horas quivis poscit, septemque scholaris;
Octo viator habet; nebulo quisque novem.*
[Every person requires six hours, a student seven; the traveler is allowed eight, and every lazy knave nine.]
I would allow between six and seven hours, at an average, to a healthy man; or an hour more, between seven and eight hours, to an unhealthy man. And I do not remember, that in three score years I have known either man or woman who laid longer in bed than this, (whether they slept or no,) but in some years they complained of lowness of spirits.
The plain reason of which seems to be, while we sleep all the springs of nature are unbent. And if we sleep longer than is sufficient, they are relaxed more than is sufficient, and of course grow weaker and weaker. And if we lie longer in bed, though without sleep, the very posture relaxes the whole body; much more when we are covered up with clothes, which throw back on the body whatever perspires from it. By this means it is stewed in the moist vapor; it sucks in again what nature had cast out, and the flesh is, as it were, parboiled therein, and becomes more and more soft and flabby; and the nerves suffer at least as much hereby as any other part of the habit. I cannot therefore but account this, the lying too long in bed, the grand cause of our nervous disorders.
8. And this alone surely answers this question, “Why are we more nervous than our forefathers?” Because we lie longer in bed; they, rich and poor, slept about eight, when they heard the curfew bell, and rose at four; the bell ringing at that hour (as well as at eight) in every parish in England. We rise (if not obliged to work for our living) at ten, eleven, or twelve. Is it any wonder then, were there no other cause, that we complain of lowness of spirits?
9. Yet something may be allowed to irregular passions. For as long as the soul and body are united, these undoubtedly affect the body; the nerves in particular. Even violent joy, though it raises the spirits for a time, does afterward sink them greatly. And every one knows what an influence fear has on our whole frame. Nay, even “hope deferred maketh the heart sick;” puts the mind all out of tune. The same effect have all foolish and hurtful desires. They “pierce us through with many sorrows;” they occasion a deep depression of the spirits; so, above all does inordinate affection: whereby so many, refusing to be comforted, sorrow even unto death.
10. But is there no cure for this sore evil? Is there no remedy for lowness of spirit? Undoubtedly there is; a most certain cure, if you are willing to pay the price of it. But this price is not silver or gold, nor any thing purchasable thereby. If you would give all the substance of your house for it, would be utterly despised; and all the medicines under the sun avail nothing in this distemper. The whole materia medica [entire class of medical substances] put together, will do you no lasting service; they do not strike at the root of the disease; but you must remove the cause, if you wish to remove the effect.
But this cannot be done by your own strength; it can only be done by the mighty power of God. If you are convinced of this, set about it, trusting in him, and you will surely conquer.
First. Sacredly abstain from all spirituous liquors. Touch them not, on any pretense whatever. To others they may sometimes be of use; but to nervous persons they are deadly poison.
Secondly. If you drink any, drink but little tea, and none at all without eating, or without sugar and cream. “But you like it without.” No matter; prefer health before taste.
Thirdly. Every day of your life take at least an hour’s exercise, between breakfast and dinner. If you will, take another hour before supper, or before you sleep. If you can, take it in the open air; otherwise, in the house. If you cannot ride or walk abroad, use, within, a dumb-bell, or a wooden horse. If you have no strength to do this for an hour at a time, do it at twice or thrice. Let nothing hinder you. Your life is at stake. Make everything yield to this.
Fourthly. Take no more food than nature requires. Dine upon one thing,—except pudding or pie. Eat no flesh at supper; but something light and easy of digestion.
Fifthly. Sleep early and rise early; unless you are ill, never lie in bed much above seven hours. Then you will never lie awake. Your flesh will be firm, and your spirits lively.
Sixthly. Above all,—
*Give not your passions way;
God gave them to thee under lock and key.*
Beware of anger; beware of worldly sorrow; beware of the fear that hath torment; beware of foolish and hurtful desires; beware of inordinate affection; remember the kind command, “My son, give me thy heart!” Then shall there be no more complaining of lowness of spirits! But “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,” shall keep thy heart and mind in Christ Jesus!—John Wesley, Melville House, May 20, 1784.
An Acknowledged Test.
By Editor
THE lecture of Col. Ingersoll on the “mistakes of Moses,” has called forth many good things, among which we class the following, being the closing sentences of a lecture by Hon. George R. Welding:—
“To my mind, hypocrisy in the church means infidelity in the church. I do not say that infidels outside of the church are hypocrites, but I do say that your deliberate hypocrite inside the church is an infidel. Hold fast the thought, then, when the great apostle of infidelity comes into your midst and denounces the bad men inside the church, hold fast to the thought that hypocrisy in the church means infidelity in the church, and then let all the people say, God speed Ingersoll in scouring his own disciples. Every rule of reason drives us irresistibly to the conclusion that the man who deliberately uses Christianity for no other purpose than as a cloak for evil deeds is necessarily an unbeliever in disguise. Let the war go on, then, until public sentiment shall brand as worse than a thief the infidel who steals the livery of Christianity, and Ingersoll's secret worshipers be dragged by the force of public opinion from the sacred altars they disgrace. Gentlemen, have you ever thought of it—a good man is to-day a good man only as he approaches the standard of Bible-taught morality.
“Grant that an infidel may be a good man too, and many of them are exemplary citizens, yet it can come about only by his approaching in action a standard which he repudiates in words. Ingersoll personally and Ingersoll theoretically are two beings as wide apart as civilization and barbarism. The world may well believe the one to be a good citizen. The most notorious outlaw known in the criminal annals of the West, Frank Rande, stood a few months ago at the bars of his cell in St. Louis, the very impersonation of every crime, and with the air of a braggart, said to preachers, priests, and policemen, to throngs of men and women, “I am a Bob-Ingersoll man,” and every man and woman in the land believed him. Had this or any other such criminal declared himself a religious man, every infidel in the land would have declared the man a hypocrite and his assertion false. It is no answer to tell us that perhaps in the cell adjoining his lay a man who for five and twenty years was prominent in the church, and was at last detected in a series of gigantic thefts and forgeries, for let him but step to his prison door and say, “I am a Christian man,” and all the civilized world cries out, “The man is a liar!” . . . As citizens loving the country bequeathed to us by the men and spirit of ’76, as business men striving for success by honorable endeavor, as men who love home and household, no matter whether we be in the church or out, we cannot afford to let the infidelity of Ingersoll supplant Christianity.”
WHAT MAKES A MAN?
By F. L. Smith
A TRUTHFUL soul, a loving mind,
Full of affection for its kind;
A helper of the human race,
A soul of beauty and of grace;
A spirit firm, erect and free,
That never basely bends the knee;
That will not bear a feather's weight
Of slavery's chain, for small or great;
That firmly speaks of God within,
And never makes a league with sin;
That snaps the fetters despots make,
And loves the truth for its own sake;
That trembles at no tyrant's nod—
A soul that fears no one but God,
And thus can smile at curse and ban;
That is the soul that makes the man.
F. L. SMITH.
Leaves from a New Shorter Catechism
By C. L. Dana
What is God? The effectual cause of the phenomena of the universe; an entity whose existence it is scientifically unpleasant to assume, but logically impossible to deny.
Note.—Whereas, God was once very much of a man, now man is very much of a God.
What is Man? The supreme product of the development forces acting on organic forms.
Note.—Originally man was simply a cell, now he is a complex one.
Of What is Man made? Of protoplasm.
Note.—Formerly organisms were supposed to be made of dust, now we know dust to be made of organisms.
At Death, to what does Man return? To gas.
Note.—Spiritualism would make this a verb in the infinite; science shows that this supremest product of cosmic forces drops at once into its first element.
What is the Chief End of Man? To attain "sweetness and light."
Note.—This only applies to the upper classes.
What is true Morality? Complete adaptation to one's environment.
Note.—This rule makes up by its universality for the limitations of the previous one. It reaches from man to the polype.
What is Religion? A form of sensibility, the expression of a class of emotions (affecting especially women) developed by the desire to know our origin, destiny, and moral nature.
Note.—Religion is universal, and will always be indispensable, except to those who have attained sweetness and light.
What is Faith? Faith is an emotion clinging to the high things which reason has not yet demonstrated.
Note.—There are two kinds: (a) Religious faith, the belief in an ennobling supernaturalism; (b) Scientific faith, the belief in an alluring hypothesis.—C. L. Dana, in January Scribner.
The Poor Children.
SOME accounts of the sufferings of poor little children are heart rending. The Christian Herald says:—
“The value of Dr. Barnardo's Homes in London is shown in the instance of an orphan. His father, a sailor, was drowned at sea about nine years ago, and his mother, a charwoman, died of consumption nearly six years ago. At this time he was about ten years old, and was left in the charge of an aunt. This woman treated the poor lad so heartlessly as to drive him out upon the streets, much to the indignation of the neighbors. For some years he led a miserable life, picking up a few halfpence for running errands, carrying parcels, washing pewter-pots for a publican, etc. At night he slept out as a rule, but sometimes in a lodging-house. He applied to get into a Boys' Home, but was refused admission, as he had no relative or friend to vouch for his story, or any subscriber's letter to recommend his case. At length he got to London on board a schooner, but seems to have fared very poorly for a year. He earned a very scanty livelihood by pushing costermongers' barrows, and carrying boxes of fish at Billingsgate Market, sometimes sleeping out, or walking about the streets all night, for three or four nights consecutively. At last he was accidentally directed to Dr. Barnardo's Homes where, after battling with so many hardships, he will be safely sheltered, till he is better fitted to launch out into the ocean of life.”
The Oneida Community.
By Editor
AN interesting bit of modern ecclesiastical history has recently come to light. The question has been discussed in the New York Independent of the origin of the Oneida Community. Mr. Noyes, the founder of the Community, volunteers some information from which we extract the following:—
"If it were proper for me to express my private opinion as to the pedigree of the Oneida Community (meaning by that the main human influence on my mind which was the antecedent of my conversion to Perfectionism), I should point to Andover as my birthplace. It was there that I got in love with the independent spirit of German hermeneutics. It was there that I learned from Moses Stuart that the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew relates wholly to events connected with the destruction of Jerusalem, from which I inferred that the Second Advent took place 1800 years ago. It was there that I learned from the same beloved instructor that the seventh chapter of Romans relates only to the experience of a carnal man under the law, and is no standard of Christian experience."
We have always respected the ability and learning of Prof. Stuart. In questions of fact, we refer to him with pleasure. His criticisms were learned and just, unless his theological opinions interfered. As a theologian he was probably as unsafe to follow as any man of ability of his generation.
It will be remembered that he had much to do with introducing novel views of the prophecies, to counteract the influence of Mr. Miller's lectures on the coming of Christ. His system of "hermeneutics" frittered away the book of Revelation, making it an epic poem,—an overwrought or semi-tragic account of things transpiring in the days of the writer, but not extending beyond his days.
Mr. Noyes graduated at Andover, and he claims that his theory of "perfectionism" as well as his "antinomianism," is the legitimate offspring of Andover theology, and especially of Prof. Stuart's views of Matt. 24 and the second advent. These speculative or mystical views of the advent, so widely introduced by Prof. Stuart, are yet spreading and becoming more popular as the prophecies are being preached, and as opposition to the truth grows among the proud and worldly. And as these views extend there will be a corresponding vagueness, or perhaps looseness, of belief and life, tending toward the position of Mr. Noyes and his Community, but showing itself mostly in the form of modern spiritualism.
The Black Plague.
By Editor
WE have been carefully watching the reports concerning this terrible scourge, but have deferred speaking on it particularly until we had a more definite understanding of its present progress and the prospect in the future. It seemed to abate for a season in Afghanistan, which rendered it somewhat uncertain whether it would spread greatly at the present time; but the latest reports are of the most alarming nature, and it appears to be placed beyond doubt, that it will scourge the nations in spite of all precautions.
The New York Times says,—"This is the same disease which, in the fourteenth century, desolated the globe, and it gets its name from the black spots, symptomatic of a putrid decomposition, that show themselves at one of its stages, on the skin of the sufferer. It is thought to have had its origin in China in 1333, some fifteen years before its outbreak in Europe, and it raged for twenty-five years, while drouth, famines, floods, earthquakes that swallowed towns and mountains, and swarms of locusts spread devastation everywhere."
But an article in the Cincinnati Commercial gives a much earlier date to its origin, relating it to a plague which devastated many countries long before the Christian Era.
It is not like any other epidemic in this respect, that it moves in utter disregard of climatic influences. It has been known to exist for a considerable time in very cold parts of Russia. Sometimes it travels very slowly. In the 14th century it was three years from the time of its first appearance in Constantinople before it spread in the Russian Territories, reaching them in a round about way. It is estimated that in China alone 13,000,000 people died, and in the remainder of the East 24,000,000, while in Europe 25,000,000 souls perished, making a grand and terrible total of 62,000,000. But as statistics were not obtainable then, it is probable, judging from the fatality in Europe, that this estimate of the loss in China and the East was too low.
The article in the Cincinnati Commercial says, "The present plague is attended with alarming fatality. Nearly all that are attacked die. The official reports say ninety-five per cent. In the Russian village of Vietlianka, out of a population of 1700, not a soul is left. Four hundred corpses were left unburied in the streets; the rest of the population fled, spreading the disease broadcast. In Prischibe, 520 died in two weeks, out of a population of 830. Sometimes the disease appears simultaneously at different points ten miles distant from each other. Its advance is rapid."
In view of its terrible fatality we are not surprised that the fear which spread over Europe amounts almost to a panic. The intercourse of nations, is now greater than ever before, by the moving of armies from continent to continent, but especially by the increased facilities for travel and traffic. The plague is supposed always to exist, in some form, in Central Asia. But emigration from China is of recent origin. This, and the late movement of English and Russian armies, and the war in Afghanistan, all conspire to render a general spread of the plague highly probable. Under date of Feb. 10, from St. Petersburg, come the following dispatches. We give them only as samples of the news continually sent out.
"Advices from the interior state that a general unhealthiness and predisposition to epidemics exists.
"The government of Saratoff complains of the foul condition of Kamishin.
"Typhus fever and smallpox are increasing in an alarming manner in the Government of Tver.
"The Siberian plague has appeared in another village.
"The cattle plague in the vicinity of Ekatermoster has spread to twenty-seven neighboring localities. Of 2000 head attacked, half perished.
"The plague has appeared at a village on the Kieff railway.
"There is great mortality at Orsk from smallpox and another unknown disease.
"An unknown epidemic has appeared in two villages of Tamboo, and the plague is at Rastor."
The following concerning precautionary measures, are dispatches but for two days, as will be seen by the dates.
"ST. PETERSBURG, February 7.—General Melikoff has left for Astrachan to superintend measures for arresting the plague.
"PARIS, February 7.—The French Government is taking measures to prevent the introduction of the Russian plague.
"MADRID, February 7.—Quarantine against the plague has been ordered in all Spanish ports.
"LONDON, February 7.—A dispatch from Vienna states that from fifteen to twenty fresh cases of a disease resembling the plague occur daily near Xanthi, Thessaly, and there is great mortality from the same cause at Raslog. It is believed that the infection was introduced by Kurd Redifs.
"VIENNA, February 7.—The Hungarian Government will dispatch a commission to report upon the state of the public health in Rumania, Bessarabia, Bulgaria, and Rumelia. The Hungarian and Rumanian Governments have agreed to adopt protective measures on a large scale on the Bessarabian and Transylvanian frontiers, and to shift the Russian line of magazines in Rumania eastward behind a double cordon.
"ST. PETERSBURG, February 11.—General Loris Melikoff has proposed to the Governments of Astrakhan, Samara, and Sartog, that all paper money circulating be exchanged for new through the Kaima Volga Bank, and the old destroyed.
"The attention of medical authorities is concentrated on Selitreno and neighboring districts.
"The St. Petersburg Sanitary Commission propose to cleanse the canal and organize large hospitals, which could be anchored in the Gulf of Bothnia; also to organize Sanitary Committees in each district, city and province.
"LONDON, February 11.—The Privy Council has ordered a careful inspection of the bills of health and of the crews and passengers of vessels arriving from the Black Sea.
"ROME, February 11.—The President of the Board of Health, speaking to-day in the Chamber of Deputies, predicted that if the plague penetrated Europe it would destroy a third of the population.
"The Government has ordered a twenty days' quarantine against arrivals from Egypt.
"ALEXANDRIA, February 11.—Vessels with foul bills of health have been refused admission into Egyptian ports.
"BELGRADE, February 11.—Servia has formed a partial cordon on her Turkish frontiers against the plague."
The latest reports are somewhat conflicting. The Court Physician to the Czar, although he confesses the mortality was over 80 per cent. where it raged, considers it nearly extinct. We cannot credit such an opinion. Even if it appears to abate, there is every reason to expect it to appear in other localities. The following is a brief extract from a letter dated St. Petersburg, Feb. 22. "The plague in Russia has spread in the southern provinces at a rapid rate. Thousands upon thousands have died within the last five days. All the physicians ordered to the care of the sick have died within twenty-four hours after their arrival. The corpses are burned, and so are the houses in which the people die. Whole towns have been laid waste during the past few days. The Government has placed a cordon of soldiers around the infected provinces so that the people cannot get out and spread the disease. Any who attempt to break through the cordon are shot dead on the spot. The people are beginning to feel uneasy all over the Empire. The Government does not allow the news to get out. All reports are suppressed. Nobody can get out of the Empire."
Brazil is suffering terribly from famine and disease. The small pox is carrying off a great many, and for several days it has been reported that the plague has appeared there. It is well-known that famine largely prevails in the north of Africa. Fears are expressed that "half the inhabitants of the southern provinces of Morocco will have perished by starvation and disease," before another year, because of the scarcity caused by last year's drouth. All this prepares the way for the plague, and renders it more probable that its spread will be quite general.
But the evidence of "the sure word of prophecy" is disregarded. In this time of calamity wickedness increases, and the authority of God is despised. Even the watchmen continue to say, "to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." Sudden destruction impends, yet the delusive cry of "peace and safety" is heard on every hand. We are thankful that not all are thus blinded; that there are honest, God-fearing ones who are willing to be warned, and to prepare for the perils and plagues of the last days.
The two Covenants.
By John Nevins Andrews
PAUL, speaking of the old covenant, said, "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second." Let us now consider wherein the first covenant was faulty. It was not because it was so closely connected with the law of God, for the new, or better, covenant is even more intimately connected with the law of God than was the first, or old, covenant. The old covenant gave man the law of God upon tables of stone; but the new puts it in his heart. It was not because the law was faulty; for that is so perfect that even under the New Testament it is made the standard by which sin is shown. Ps. 19:7-11; Rom. 3:19, 20, 31; 1 John 3:4, 5. But Paul plainly intimates wherein the new covenant is better69than the old one. It is "established upon better promises." Heb. 8:6. Then it follows that the first covenant was established upon promises not so well adapted to man's case; and this very fact is, of itself, a decisive proof that the first covenant was not simply the law of God, but a contract between God and his people. Let us now examine the nature of the promise upon which the first covenant was made. Jeremiah designates the first covenant as made when Israel came forth out of Egypt. And thus he has laid open this covenant, and the nature of that promise upon which it was established. Jer. 11:3, 4: "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you; so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God." The promise of the Lord that he would be their God was upon condition that they obeyed his voice. Nay, the condition was even stronger than this: "Do them according to all which I command you; so shall ye be my people." But suppose they should fail to do this? Then the promise was forfeited. Surely, fallen man needs a better promise than this. It was just in God to require a man to live in exact conformity with his perfect law; but it was inevitable that man would forfeit his title to the promises of God. It is true that there were in the ceremonial law ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary connected with the first covenant. Heb. 9 and 10. But these could not take away sins. They could only point forward to Christ. The promises of the first covenant were upon condition of obedience to God's perfect rule of right. But such promises were insufficient to meet the helpless condition of fallen man.
So the apostle says: "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second." Heb. 8:7. But because the people of Israel broke the covenant of the Lord, he justly finds fault with them, and seeks to give the place to a second and better covenant, established upon better promises. And hence it is, that God, by his prophet, gives the people of Israel to understand that they have forfeited the blessings of that covenant, and that the branches of their olive tree will be broken off. Jer. 11. And following this announcement, a few years later, is the cheering promise of a new covenant. Jer. 31:31-34. It was about 600 years before the birth of Christ that the new covenant was thus foretold. The apostle Paul makes the following expressive comment: "In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." Heb. 8:13. Thus it appears that the first covenant had in Jeremiah's time become old, and thenceforward, to its close, it was "ready to vanish away." And when our Lord came to do his work, he took away the first that he might "establish the second." Heb. 10:9.
Let us now consider the excellence of the new covenant, and learn wherein it is a better covenant than the one which it supersedes. Here are the terms of this covenant: "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Jer. 31:33, 34.
Certainly, this is "the better covenant," and these are the "better promises." Let us enumerate them. 1. "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." 2. "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." 3. "They shall teach no more every man his neighbor; . . . for they shall all know me." 4. "I will forgive their iniquity." 5. "I will remember their sin no more."
This is a very remarkable list of new-covenant blessings. First and foremost in this enumeration, stands a promise concerning the law of God. Surely, this is worthy of our notice. But what is this promise respecting the law? Is it, "I will abolish my law"? No. Is it, "I will change my law"? No. Is it, "I will supersede my law by a better code"? By no means. It is very different indeed from such declarations as these. This is the promise: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." He will make his law a part of their very being; He will establish it in their affections; he will engrave it upon the table of their hearts. This is wonderful indeed. The law of God is still uppermost in the mind of its Author. The first covenant required obedience to the law of God, but failed to secure it. The second covenant insures obedience by making the law a part of the very nature of those with whom the covenant is made. God does not leave his law till he has accomplished that which he has spoken, the raising up of a people who shall obey him from their hearts.
The first covenant was made concerning the law of God. In a still higher sense this is true of the second. The great work of the new covenant is to take away the carnal mind, which is enmity against the law of God, so that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Rom. 8:1-7.
But how is it that the second covenant is so much more efficacious than the first in securing obedience to the law of God? The answer is found in the difference between Sinai and Calvary. At Sinai the law of God entered in terrible majesty, but the hard heart of sinful man is incapable of submitting to the law of God. The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, and, indeed, cannot be. At Calvary enters, not the law of God, but the lamb of God, as our great sin-offering. Not the condemning law, but the sin-atoning sacrifice, is the central object upon the hill of Calvary. And yet the law was present there to strike the Son of God with the sword of divine justice. Gal. 3:13. How astonishing the events of Calvary! The new covenant is given to us in the blood of Christ. We have pardon through his blood. With his stripes we are healed. Mercy and truth meet together in the sacrifice made for us by the Son of God.
The new covenant proposes to save those who have broken the law of God. It is able to forgive their sin, the transgression of the law, and not only to pardon them for violating the law of God, but to put that law in their hearts so that it shall be their very nature to obey it. This is what the Bible means by conversion. Rom. 7:7-25; 8:1-9; Acts 3:19. But the Mediator of the covenant can thus give life to the guilty, only by the sacrifice of his life. We have life from his death. We have pardon from his blood. We have grace from the fountain of his grace. The new covenant is a system of salvation wherein God is shown to be just, even in the very act of justifying the sinner, and wherein the law is shown to be established even by the doctrine of justification by faith. Rom. 3:24-26, 31.
If we place the blessings of the new covenant in chronological order, they will stand thus: 1. The forgiveness of sins. 2. The writing of the law in the heart. 3. The blotting out of sins so that they shall be remembered no more. 4. God fully unites himself to his people, thenceforward forever to be their God, and they to be his people. 5. All shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest.
But the forgiveness of sins is upon condition of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 20:21. Repentance involves, 1. Godly sorrow for sin; 2. Confession of sin; 3. Reparation of wrong acts, when it is in our power to make it. 4. Change of conduct, so that we cease to transgress, and henceforward obey. And faith in our Lord Jesus Christ views him, 1. As our great sin-offering, and accepts his blood as our only ground of pardon; 2. As our great High Priest to plead our cause when we come to God for mercy and grace; 3. and finally, he views his life as the perfect example of that obedience which the law of God requires, and the perfect pattern after which we must pattern. J. N. A.