HERE is but one true religion; all else are counterfeit. There is but one religion that can take a man to heaven; all others are useless. And the religion that can take a man to heaven is a religion that renders him fit for heaven. For heaven itself would be a place of punishment to those who were unfit for its society and averse to its enjoyments; and a religion would be justly discredited that promised admission to a state of perfect holiness and happiness, and yet had no obvious tendency to prepare man for that condition.

      Man is made fit for heaven by being restored [142] to the divine image, favor, and fellowship. A religion that does not do this is but an empty profession. All true religion leads to fellowship with God. Satan destroys man only by separating him from God. All pain and sorrow are in this, and the judicature of heaven knows no higher punishment than "an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power." It is much to be feared that this great object of religion is overlooked by many of those who make a profession of Christianity. How often this seems to be regarded merely as a system of redemption or salvation! How often it is looked upon from a selfish point of view, as something which a man may add to his other possessions; as something which may be acquired, like property, for private and personal advantage! How often it is conceived to be something which is offered to men as a commodity, which they may obtain upon certain terms, of which the ministers of the Gospel are supposed to be the negotiators!

      But Christianity is very far from being a mere system of redemption from sin, or salvation from [143] punishment, or selfish rewards for obedience. It designs not only to bestow remission of sins, but to effect a renovation--a regeneration of the soul. Indeed, it is not too much to affirm that it can be a means of salvation only as it is a means of renovation--in other words, that no one can be saved by it who is not renewed by it. Hence, no one can be truly said to possess himself of religion, since, on the contrary, it is religion itself which takes possession of man, and, "in Christ Jesus," nothing is of the least avail but "a new creature."

      The person thus renovated is a spiritual one. He is "created anew in righteousness and true holiness." He is "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." He is a living temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is to him the earnest of a spiritual inheritance--the antepast of an eternal reunion with God.

      Yet how many there are who seem to have no such conceptions of the nature and intentions of the Gospel; who are but spots in the divine love-feast of Christianity, clouds without rain, [144] trees that bear no fruit, failing fountains which mock the thirsty traveler! They profess to follow Christ, but in works deny him. They are sensual because they have not the Spirit, and, like those who partook of the loaves and fishes, seek Jesus from selfish motives, indisposed to receive his spiritual instructions, and ignorant of the nature of his reign. Those declarations which are the most precious to the sincere believer, are to them "hard" sayings which they can not hear, and which, if forced upon their attention, will speedily expose their true character and designs.

      How great a master of the heart was Jesus, who could thus detect and exhibit the false zeal of selfishness, and disperse the thronging multitude of seeming friends! How pertinent the question to the remaining few: "Will ye, also, go away? "How unavailing the ready sponsorship of Cephas with him who knew that, even among those selected by himself, there was one betrayer!

      Many, indeed, are called, but few are chosen in the dispensation of the Gospel. The good seed of the heavenly kingdom falls often on [145] uncongenial soil, where it finds no depth and can establish no permanent relation. How many who seem to enjoy great privileges here, will fail to be acknowledged in the day of final account by him who weighs the actions and appreciates the motives of men! It is not a mere verbal acknowledgment of the Lordship of Jesus, nor, as many seem to suppose, a mere connection with his church, that will take a man to heaven. An outward union to the church is, indeed, an important movement--it is one step in the way; but heaven is high--it needs more than one step to gain it!

      Some seem strangely to imagine that it is only the grosser and more public vices that religion proscribes. They appear to think that a Christian may cherish envy and avarice in his heart; that he may live at variance with his neighbor and suffer anger to rankle in his bosom, and yet continue within the pale of salvation. They distinguish sins into venial and mortal, and suppose that strife, enmity, and uncharitableness are really less offensive to God than robbery and murder. They themselves fear and abhor the [146] thief and the assassin because they have something to lose by them, and think that the Divine Being will regard them with the same feelings of displeasure, and look, as they do, with greater allowance upon the person who secretly envies or hates his brother. They forget, however, that to him who looks upon the heart, anger and avarice are the real crimes--the very causes which lead to those consequences so much more criminal in the sight of men. They are ignorant that the works of the flesh--the workings of the carnal mind--are all alike hateful to God, who needs not to await the overt act before he ascertains the secret character, and with whom no outward decency of behavior can cloak the moral turpitude of the soul.

      It is not mere formal adoration of a carved, a graven, or a molten image that constitutes idolatry. On the contrary, it is the giving the heart's affections to any thing that is not God. Any thing may become an idol except God, and he only is free from idolatry who loves the Lord his God with "all his heart, and mind, and soul, and strength." "Alas!" cried the leader of [147] Israel, "the people have sinned a great sin, and have made unto them gods of gold." What matters it whether it be a golden calf or a golden eagle, if it usurp the place of Him who should be the delight of the soul, the charm of the heart, the lord of the affections and desires? He who enshrines the passion of avarice in his bosom is as great an idolater as he who bows before the hideous image of Vishnu; yet the crime of covetousness, like that of witchcraft, seems to be unknown in modern days, and to have wholly disappeared from the revised codes of ecclesiastical discipline.

      But the Christian is one who has "renounced the hidden things of dishonesty," and has no desire to avail himself of the license afforded by modernized Christianity. His divine code of morals tolerates no "fashionable vices," and permits no venial crimes. Renovated in heart, he "purifies himself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit," and "perfects holiness in the fear of the Lord." Influenced by the sublime motive of love to God, and strengthened with all might by the Divine Spirit in the inner [148] man, he triumphs over the world and its allurements, and enjoys a celestial purity and peace which the world can neither give nor take away.

      Doubtless, there are many who make a vain profession of the Gospel. Actuated by a transient sympathy, a momentary impulse; driven by fear, or attracted by visionary hopes, they become ostensibly members of the Church of Jesus Christ, yet remain forever ignorant of the "power of godliness," and strangers to the "faith that overcometh the world." Like the flying fish that springs from the briny wave, with glittering scales, to sparkle for a moment in the solar rays and sink again from view into its original and proper element, so do these heartless professors, for a brief period, appear in the sunlight of the Gospel, only to return immediately to their natural and appropriate place--the world.

      But the course of the true believer is like that of the passenger bird which sets forth to seek a more congenial clime. It pauses not upon its journey, except to gather the simple [149] food which is necessary to subsistence. It stops not to spend the precious hours in bowers of love, but speeds its lofty flight, with wing unwearied, until it has reached the peaceful regions where it can find secure repose.

      The Christian religion, in short, proposes nothing less than an entire transformation of the human character. This must be accomplished, or there can be no well-grounded hope of future bliss. It is not by the establishment of mere formal or ceremonial relations with the Deity, or with the Christian Church, that this is to be attained. True relations, indeed, exist only as effects or consequences of a change of heart. And these are not mere abstract relations, but true relationships.

      Among men we have often true relationships where we have no family resemblance, as where children are unlike their parents. But, in the spiritual world, we can have no true relationship without likeness. The pure in heart are related to each other because they are alike, and they are related to God and will be admitted to his presence because they resemble him. It is not [150] the space between heaven and hell that separates the righteous from the wicked, but their contrariety of character and their alienation of soul.

      How true it is, then, that only by a conformity to the divine character men can become partakers of the salvation of God! How evident it is that only by a renovation of heart men can be prepared for heaven! He who seeks a foreign land will wisely learn its laws and language, and provide himself with its current coin, and secure to himself friends who will receive him there. How sedulously should the Christian, then, labor to render himself thus familiar with heaven, and thus to furnish himself with such sterling attributes of character as are stamped with the image and superscription of Christ! How earnestly he should seek, by fellowship with God here and by keeping his commandments in faith and hope and love, to provide for himself friends who will receive him into the eternal mansions! [151]

[CITS 142-151]