Joseph Holden Pott

“ You will not wonder that our Blessed Lord should so mark the value of the life which now is, and its connexion, by a right improvement of it, with the life of glory. We are bound, indeed, to bless God for all the dispensations of his hand, for they all serve for good; but we must not reverse the language, not of natural feeling only, but of more just conceptions of the purposes for which life is given, or be led to think that death is the boon, and that a return to this life could be no blessing. ”

“ Our Lord showed him plainly what the true breadth of the commandment was. Thus he required no more of him than that which became the bounden duty of many in the days of trouble which succeeded. Many were made to feel the force of that never-changing precept, which demands the sacrifice of all things sublunary, where the bond of Truth cannot otherwise be kept. There was no sacrifice, then, proposed to this aspiring youth, nothing counselled, beyond the verge of the commandment; and the test to which he was put was but the fruit of his overweening zeal. ”

“ The use of learned pains will thus appear, as well as of every method of right reasoning in the study of the sacred Scriptures, the rule of faith and duty for which we have to bless God daily.
I may now touch upon the best and only safe ground of trust which we have to take in any season of review, when past portions of our lives are recalled to our consideration. We may look, now, to the hope of pardon, and allowance for things done amiss, or things left undone; and blessed be God that ground has been laid, or who could stand in judgment in the last account? ”

“ But we may remark in general, that we do not form a right judgment of the Providence of God, if at any time we speak with disparagement of the term of human life, as too short for the accomplishment of things which form its proper end. We should consider, rather, that in all cases the gift of life is made capable of some sufficient share of the mercies and salvation of the Lord. ”

“ But the rules of pastoral advice derive their obligation from the simplest forms of truth; were it otherwise, how would they meet the varied calls for choice and resolution which come forward in the course of human life? If the truth itself has no special period for the height and measure of its growth in human breasts, yet it has for its perpetual standard God’s own eternal attributes. In those perfections of the Deity, the sure test of truth is established. Our Lord’s apostle takes this ground ”

“ The thread of life, which, in this case, was so soon severed from the parent’s bosom, was fastened to the throne of heaven, and death has no power to dissolve it. The Conqueror of Satan, who brought life and immortality to light, will not exclude those little ones, whom He once called into his presence, from the rescued train of countless multitudes who shall hear that glad word of introduction, “Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me.” ”

“ Nothing but a new apostasy from God would render man, in his state of promised rescue and encouragement and in the new term of his probation, an enemy to God. Before that horrible desertion from his worship, the Most High made his visit to the patriarchal altar, and gave that memorable declaration of his will, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?” ”

“ There were those who sustained in some sort the credit of the human race. They sought a refuge in their own reflections from false worship, and delusions gross, impious, and far below the character of man. ”

“ They reduced the rule of life and of well-doing to some fixed points; prudence, justice, fortitude, the love of truth, the scorn of falsehood or deceit, self-government, with other noble qualities, exhibited plain characters of man’s first resemblance to the Author of his being. ”

“ If the call hence comes in somewhat of maturer years, though still in the days of youth, the young man will have lived long enough to have learned the rudiments of saving knowledge, and to have practised the first lessons of Christian faith and Christian duty; and thus the best end for which the loan of life was given, will have found that happy earnest of its future fulness. ”

“ Will you say, that the pardoned son, who returns to the right path by a true repentance, and fills his father’s heart with well placed and unwonted joy, is in all respects to be preferred to the son who never left the right path from an early day? ”

“ It is much to be observed, in such general statements, that the Apostles of our Lord never failed to add to their reasonings with Jew or Gentile, scribe or sophist, such comprehensive testimonies of the grounds of faith and the fruits of holiness in those who continue true to their engagement, as will leave no room for uncertain tests or bold opinions, for endless fluctuations in the mind and conduct, with doubts and difficulties of our own creating. ”

“ Again, as the truth itself is always true, and virtue, which is its image, is no less uniform and constant, most groundless and injurious must be those restrictions which would shut out any one real virtue or its exercise from the Christian pattern ”

“ The neglect of this rule has brought more strifes and divisions into the Christian world than almost any thing that can be named. Take an instance if you think fit; there is more joy when that which is lost is found again, than for that which was never lost. ”

“ It is true, that in the revelations of God’s will there are things which no human faculties, or even those of the purest of created beings in the realms of light, could penetrate, until the Most High so graciously revealed them,—things which relate to his own Essence, with his purposes and counsels for the redemption of mankind ”

“ If such shall be the purpose and endeavour, it matters less at what period the foot is stayed, provided it be found in the right path when the day of travel or of any special charge shall close. But in such case, when we can no longer walk together as companions, there must be the word of exhortation for those who have to go forward—let it then be the word of the apostle—to “walk worthy of your vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ”

“ You may reverse the proposition if you think fit, and say, with truth, that every virtue puts on the Christian character, not from any date of their adoption, but as they are cherished and enhanced p. 24by new motives and inducements, and strengthened by the bond of unity and concord in the Christian household.
Can I forget at this moment, befriended as I have been in the past scene of my labours, that among the virtues which some would leave to the heathen, together with the patriot spirit and the courage to maintain it, Friendship has been made to share the sentence of exclusion? ”

“ Are not such the men who strive most eagerly to press others into their train from all quarters where they can obtrude themselves and spread their pestilent opinions, and lay their destructive snares? ”

“ They who will own no guide in the way they have to tread, had need be well acquainted with the road.
It would be well if such men, who despise all guides, would be content to go alone—but was it ever so seen in all the world? ”

“ This appears in all the articles of faith, and in all the acts of duteous service; it appears in all that God hath done for us in the great work of our redemption more especially, and in all that he requires of us in order to a future recompense. ”

“ Nor will you wonder, in comparing the longer with the shorter term of life, that the suit of supplicating parents in our Lord’s days, whether for the child or for the youth, was so often granted by a restoration to a more protracted term of life. ”

“ If David, too, seems sometimes querulous in his pleas for the enlargement of his days, yet he added a good and becoming reason for it, that he might show the power of God to that generation in which his eventful lot was cast, and make it known to those who were to come. ”

“ If, again, the thread of life shall have been continued to later periods of its course, no doubt the p. 10opportunities for all those advantages to which life can minister, will render it at all times a blessing and a boon. ”

“ In avoiding partial views and misapplications of what is true, the more numerous and more general and plainer testimonies, and those which admit but of one construction, will be the guiding light for reconcilement and consistency—not for preference, for that would still be but a partial view. ”

“ Certainly not the boastful and punctilious Pharisee; certainly not those who have keener eyes for the faults of others than for their own defects. Excellent are the words of our Lord’s apostle, and now most seasonable in their application ”

“ They who enjoyed long lives of old time, indulged, it must be owned, in some complaints which showed more of the weakness of our common nature, than of that proficiency for which the loan of life, whatever p. ”