40 Power of Evangelical Preaching. tion, till at length he cried out, 'This is just what I want-just what I want;' and threw away his bloody sandals in the presence of the natives, and embraced Christianity. Oh what power is there in atoning blood to affect the soul! and what sensations are those, when instead of thinking of Christ as a "public exemplar," and "Teacher," we can say, "He loved ME, and gave himself for ME.” CHAPTER III. Prayer.-Unitarian directions.-The Mediator.-Unitarianism excludes the Mediator.-How the Father is greater than Christ.—The Unitarian at the Sacrament. -Reason for Promiscuous Communion.-Conclusion and Review.-Danger of Reliance on Good Men.Excellencies of Mr. Ware's Treatise. The next thing which we observe in this book, is the very peculiar manner in which the subject of prayer is treated. There are directions given such as we had never before seen. The very nature of prayer requires that it be spontaneous. But the sentences which follow made us feel that the religion which this book teaches does not inspire the soul with such emotions as David expresses when he says, 'As the hart panteth for the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God.' "First of all, when the hour has arrived, seek to excite in your mind a sense of the divine presence, and of the greatness of the act in which you are engaging. Summon up the whole energy of your mind. Put all your powers upon the stretch." "In this way make an effort after a devout temper." 42 Unitarian Directions. We need nothing more to convince us of the insufficiency of this system, as it regards the life of piety in the soul. These rules will be in vain so long as the soul is destitute of the love of God; and where the love of God exists, they will be useless. We conceive it to be easy for a minister of this religion, and for a few of the more serious amongst its followers, who spend their lives in sober contemplation, to practice secret prayer; but the very fact that such prescriptions as those above quoted are given, shows, we should fear, that, as a general thing, those who embrace this religion, find prayer a toilsome exercise. With us, the first evidence of piety is the almost involuntary pouring forth of the soul before God. was adduced by the Saviour himself as the proof of Paul's conversion--" Behold he prayeth." Did Ananias need to give the young convert rules for obtaining a devout spirit, or direct him to "make an effort after a devout temper?" We judge no man upon the subject of secret prayer; we dare not look into that place of which Christ has commanded that the door be shut; we reason merely from the directions which it was deemed necessary to give This in such a book as this, intended as an assistant in forming the religious character. We should never give such rules to young Christians in our congregations. If we perceived. that they were in a state that called for them, we should preach to them from a solemn question which was asked to try the spirit of a suspected self deceiver, 'Will he always call upon God? We teach that there is no such test of real religion as the inquiry, 'Do you love secret prayer? Is it easy or constrained? If the latter, all'efforts after a devout temper' when the hour has arrived, we should fear would be without effect. This system of religion presents another great difficulty. The Bible makes a Mediator necessary in order to acceptable prayer. In the book before us, as already quoted, Christ is spoken of once as Mediator, as an Advocate, and as Intercessor. It always seems to us as if the writers upon this system were troubled, when obliged to speak of Christ in these offices. We cannot see why they might not entirely dispense with these names. For if God requires no atonement for the forgiveness of sin, and no atoning Saviour on whose account we 44 Unitarianism Excludes may be accepted and pardoned, what need is there of an Advocate to "appear in the presence of God for us?" And if Christ has done nothing which God looks upon as the ground of a sinner's salvation, with what propriety can he be called an Intercessor? Does the man Christ Jesus plead, to make the Father propitious? This is too much like old, misrepresented Calvinism. Our system makes these terms of great meaning. Christ having atoned for our sins, may with great propriety and beauty be called our Advocate; for when a penitent pleads for mercy, the remembrance of what Christ has done constitutes the reason why that sinner should be forgiven. Christ is our Advocate; just as if, in the legal sense of the word, he produced such considerations from the law of God, and from the fact that he had become the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, that God can justify and yet be just. And thus, in like manner, when a sinner acknowledges his guilt, and strict justice requires his punishment, Christ, having done that which enables the Lawgiver to suspend the operation of the law, is to the soul what an interceding friend Thus |