The Scripture Guide, a Familiar Introduction to the Study of the Bible [pp. 201-221]

1839.] Critical Study of the English Bible.
still. The objectionable forms, in which religious ardor
shows itself, are mere external indications, that there is something wrong in the religion which produces them. The
restless, turbulent, censorious spirit, which so generally reigns,
is the product of shallow, superficial views and exercises in
the hearts of men. Now the study of the Bible, among
ministers and people, while it will unfit them for fanatical
excess, will give them deeper insight into their own hearts,
and make them feel that there is more to be done there than
they supposed. And instead of imagining, as some have
taught, that their own souls will take care of themselves if
they are faithful, as they call it, to the souls of others; they
will learn that they cannot do a worse thing for their neighbours, than to let their own souls run to waste. Instead of
believing that the care of our own hearts will make us selfish and indifferent to others, they will learn, that it is only
out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks to advantage; that the opus operatum of external effort, made
from stress of conscience or a vague feeling of benevolence,
is likely, in the long run, to do more harm than good; and
that the only sort of active effort likely to be lasting, and
ultimately useful, is that which overflows, without constraint,
froIn the swelling of a heart which has been filled, in secret
places, and by means with which a stranger intermeddleth
not. We have only to lift up our eyes, in these days of reaction and collapse, to see multitudes who, in keeping other
men's vineyards, have let their own vineyard run to desolation; and we may even w'alk upon the graves of some
who have preached to other men like sons of' thunder or.
sons of consolation, and themselves been cast away. And
thus it will be till this process is inverted by a closer acquaintance with the truth of God; till, instead of trusting to
mere effort for religion, men shall trust to religion for the effort
which is wanted. Then there will be less talk about moral
machinery, but more profound and intimate communion with
that God, without whose finger all machinery stands still, or
falls to pieces, or explodes. The stream of men's religion
will make less noise than it now does; it will foam less; it
will cast up far less mire and dirt; but instead of being
sucked in by the sands of the first desert, it will gradually rise
and overflow its banks, not with a transient and impetuous
inundation, but with general expansion, until stream meets
stream, and all dividing lines are lost in one great gathering
of the waters.
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