REV. EDWARD PAYSON, D. D.

PASTOR OF THE SECOND CHURCH IN PORTLAND.

BENE ORASSE EST BENE STUDUISSE. LUTHER.

COMPILED BY

REV. ASA CUMMINGS,

EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN MIRROR.

IN THREE VOLUMES.-VOL. II.

PORTLAND:

HYDE AND LORD.

1849.

S

s.Cr.

INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.

THE essential principle, the life-giving point of Christianity, is JESUS CHRIST. As to spiritual religion, the religion of the heart, "Christ is all and in all." COL. III. 11.

The power which the Christian religion exerts, is the power of a personal affection-personal affection for an object the most elevated and admirable, "the chief among ten thousand, the one altogether lovely." There is no power on earth to be compared, in its absorbing and transforming influences, with the power of personal affection, as we see in the attachment between husband and wife and the mutual love of parent and child. Take away or diminish by any means this personal affection and veneration for Christ, and the transforming efficacy of the gospel is gone.

The object of the Christian religion is to reproduce, in men, "the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus," on a smaller scale indeed, but with every lineament distinctly developed, and all in due proportion; and this transformation is produced in concurrence with the actings of a personal affection, by the steady contemplating and admiring of the moral glory of Christ. "We all with open (unveiled) face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even us by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 COR. III. 18.

The Christians of whom we read in the New Testament, were able to live the Christian life, amid all the bitter trials and cruel persecutions to which they were subjected, mainly by the personal influence of Jesus Christ over them. They "considered him who endured such contradictions of sinners against himself, lest they should become weary and faint in their minds." HEB. XII. 3. In discouragement they remembered the miracles, the transfiguration, the ascension; in sorrow and suffering they called to mind Gethsemane and Gabbatha and Calvary; in sharp conflicts and wrestlings they reflected on the scene in which Jesus said: "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour-Father glorify thy name." JOHN XII. 27, 28. And thus were they able to endure.

His absence from earth did not in the least diminish the power of his personal influence over them. Says the apostle who once denied him, "Whom

having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1. 8, 9. And says the other apostle who never left his side but stood by him to the last: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life; -declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with usand -that your joy may be full." 1 JOHN I. 1-4. Christ himself assured them that his personal influence, so far from being diminished by his absence, would actually be increased by it. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you." JOHN XVI. 7, 14. These assurances are not confined to the apostles; they are intended for all believers. "If any man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” JOHN XIV. 23, compare XVII. 20, 21 and REV. III. 20. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day and forever." HEB. XIII. 8; and if these promises were ever realized, they can be realized now-if they are phantoms now, they were always phantoms, and Christ was a deluder when he said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you." JOHN XIV. 27.

If it was ever the duty and privilege of Christians to live in a state of joyous, uninterrupted confidence in Christ and conscious personal affection towards him, it is their duty and privilege to do so now; and if professors of religion generally are far away from this state of mind, it is only because they are generally far away from Christ their Saviour.

DR. EDWARD PAYSON had a living consciousness of these truths beyond what is common even to Christian ministers. In his preaching, in his conversation, and above all, in his prayers, there was a glowing, ardent, allabsorbing personal sympathy with Christ, such as broke forth with so splendid imagery in the last words of his dying testimony. No one can form an adequate conception of what he was from any of the productions of his pen. Admirable as his written sermons are, his extempore prayers and the gushings of his heart in familiar talk were altogether higher and more touching than any thing he ever wrote. It was my custom to close my eyes when he began to pray, and it was always a letting down, a sort of rude fall, to open them again when he had concluded, and find myself still on the earth. His prayers always took my spirit into the immediate presence of Christ, amid the glories of the spiritual world; and to look round again, on this familiar and comparatively misty earth, was almost painful. At every prayer I heard him offer, during the seven years in which he was my spiritual guide, I never ceased to feel new astonishment, at the wonderful variety and depth and richness and even novelty of feeling and expression which were poured forth. This was a feeling with which every hearer sympathized, and it is a fact well known, that Christians trained under his influence were generally remarkable for their devotional habits.

For the satisfaction of those who were not personally acquainted with Dr.