In yours, my dear hearer, I see an altar consecrated to yourself. You are the idol whom you worship, whom you exalt above every thing else, for whom you wish for all things, and at the foot of whom you would fain see all the world kneel.

My brethren, is there an altar in your hearts erected to the only living and true God? Are you the temple of God, and does God's Spirit dwell within you? So long as there is no altar erected to God in your souls, there can be none in your houses; "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?

Be converted, then, in your hearts! Die to the world, to sin, to yourselves even, and live to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Immortal souls, Christ hath redeemed you at a great price! He gave his whole life on the cross for you. Learn, then, "that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." "Wherefore come out from among idols, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

O happy is that family, my brethren, which has embraced that God who says, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people"! Happy for time, and happy for eternity! How can you hope to meet with those whom you love near Christ in heaven, unless with them you seek Christ on earth? How shall you assemble as a family there, if you have not as a family attended to heavenly things here below? But as to the Christian family which shall have been united in Jesus, it will, without doubt, meet around the throne of the glory of Him whom it will have loved without having seen. It will only change its wretched and perishable dwelling for the vast and eternal mansions of God. Instead of being a humble family of the earth, united to the whole family of heaven by the same ties, it will have become an innumerable and glorious family. It will surround the

throne of God with the hundred and forty-four thousand, and will say, as it said on earth, but with joy and glory, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power.

O, my brethren, if but one father or mother would now resolve to meet together in the presence of the Lord, if one single person not yet bound by domestic ties were to resolve to raise an altar unto God in his house when he shall be so bound, and would, in some future day, so act that abundant blessings would descend upon him and his, I would give thanks unto God for having spoken!

Dear hearer! may the Lord so affect your heart that you may now exclaim, "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord!"

Amen.

265

ESSAYS.

ESSAY I1

LUTHERANISM AND CALVANISM.

THEIR DIVERSITY ESSENTIAL TO THEIR UNITY.

"Each of these religions deems itself the most perfect: CALVINISM believes itself to be most conformed to what Jesus Christ has said; and LUTHERANISM to what the Apostles have done."-Montesquieu, Esprit des Lois, Book xxiv, Chap. 5.

THE times are pressing. It is becoming necessary to aim

at

to seek, according to the apostolic precept, that which will truly contribute to the edification of the Church. This thought has determined me to lay before you the following question:

What in our Reformed French churches has characterized the past year?

It is, if I mistake not, a new manifestation of principles which have frequently been designated by the names of parties opposed to us, but which, we desire to mention only in terms of kindness; and for this reason we will call them (using a name dear to us) the principles of Lutheranism.

Lutheranism and the Reform2 possess distinct characters, but they are not separated so much by errors as by diversities. 1 This essay, originally in the form of a discourse, was read before the Evangelical Society of Geneva, at its anniversay in 1844.

It is thought best to add, that much of what is said of Lutheranism in this discourse is applicable only to that of Europe, and cannot be said of that of this country.-Trans.

2 The reader must remember that the author uses the term Reformation to designate the grand work of the sixteenth century in general, while the word Reform is employed when the work of Zwingle and Calvin is especially referred to.-Trans.

God has chosen that this diversity should exist, that in the end the Reformation might be complete. Having in the beginning proposed to make immense bodies move round the sun, his powerful hand impressed them with two contrary forces; the one tending to drive them from the centre, the other to attract them toward it. It is from these apparent contradictions that the motion of the universe and the admirable unity of the heavenly system results. So it was in the days of the Reformation. Opposite tendencies were necessary for this work, and these very tendencies enhance its admirable unity.

"In the garden of my Master

There are many kinds of flowers." 1

So wrote a Christian author.2 Shall we then look for one blossom only? Ah! let us not, like unskilful gardeners, tear up those indigenous plants, the culture of which is suited particularly to our soil and climate, and supply their place with exotics, which require other soil, and which would perish in our hands.

Yes, let us understand this well: there is not only friendship and harmony between Lutheranism and the Reform; there is more than this—there is unity.

First, they possess that thorough unity which results from the same living faith animating both. They believe alike in man's entire inability to do good; they believe in God manifest in the flesh; in atonement by his blood, and regeneration by his Spirit, in justification by faith in his name, in charity, and in good works by virtue of their communion with him. But it is not of this unity of identity that we wish to speak at present. We go much farther: we intend to show that Lutheranism and the Reform are one, in their very diversities; whence we infer that, instead of being effaced, most of these diversities -and especially those relating to the Reform which we have to defend should be carefully preserved. Such is our position. defend—should

And those who, hearing us to-day, enumerate the characters, so different in themselves, that distinguish Lutheranism from

1 "Dans le jardin de mon Maître

Il est toutes sortes de fleurs."

2 Tersteegen.

the Reform, would fall into a grave error should they exclaim with painful surprise, "What, then! are not these so many friends the less, and so many enemies the more!" The body and the soul differ vastly in their respective attributes, yet they form but one being. Man and woman have very opposite capaities and duties, yet are but one flesh. In Christ, humanity and divinity were certainly distinct, yet they together constitute but one Saviour. So Lutheranism and the Reform, though very different, are yet in unity.

Shall we speak of their strifes? But is there never any strife between the body and the spirit? between the husband and the wife? Was there not strife in Christ himself, between his humanity and divinity? "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," cried his humanity, shuddering at the approach of the cross. Strife, indeed, but strife when overcome, far from being opposed to unity, is essential to it, at least on earth.

I believe that the time is now near at hand when the struggle shall be over, and the union of Lutheranism and the Reform will be triumphant, if the rash friends of the former do not endeavour to force the latter to submit to its laws. Bear in mind that the Reform, which is essentially the friend of proselytism, does not strive to make proselytes within the pale of Lutheranism; it loves it; it venerates it; it leaves it to its own strength, or rather, to that of its God. But, strange to say, Lutheranism, (certainly not that of Germany nor of Geneva,) Lutheranism, generally passive in its character, advances heedlessly, seemingly desirous of taking from us our patrimony, and substituting itself for the three centuries' work of our Reformers. It is indeed necessary in order to effect unity, to destroy one of the two members? This may be one method, but it is not ours. Lutheranism has important duties to discharge toward the Reform, and too well do we know the noble principles of the excellent men who, in Germany, are its true supporters, not to be convinced that they will perform them well.

If one of two friendly and allied armies has been beaten and dispersed by the common enemy while the other has remained in its camp, marshalled under its leaders and its standards,