The Anxious Inquirer

A VERY interesting and useful book might be written on the religious manuals, which in different churches and different ages have most ijowerfully affected the pojDular religious life; I refer to such works as the De Iinitatione of Thomas a Kempis, the “Introduction to a Devout Life” of Francis de Sales, Jeremy Taylor’s “Holy Living and Dying,” Law’s “Serious Call,” Doddridge’s “Rise and Progress.” That there are real and very important harmonies between Cathohc and Protestant, Anglican and Puritan, Arminian and Calvinist, when they lay aside the rigid technicalities of controversy, and strive to minister to the spiritual strength and joy of simple and untaught men, is obvious to every student of devotional literature; that there are real and very important differences, is not less obvious. They differ in their ideal of spiritual perfection, in the relative importance they assign to particular “means of grace,” to particular elements of spiritual experience, to particular lines of duty. Although membership of the same church and profession of the same creed wUl not produce absolute uniformity of opinion in reference to the directions that should be given to those who are endeavouring to recover the image of God, it is impossible that our conceptions of the religious life in its origin, the methods and forces by which it is developed, and the type of its ultimate perfection, should be iminfluenced by our theory of Christian doctrine.

“THE ANXIOUS INQUIEER.”

John Wesley’s theology could never have issued in a religious experience of fear and sadness like that expressed in “The Christian Year;” and Mr Keble’s theology is wholly incompatible with the vigour and triumph of the Wesleyan Hymn-book.

Should any competent writer ever attempt such a review of the most famous devotional books of the great churches of Christendom, Mr James’s “Anxious Inquirer” will claim very careful notice. Its very title declares its vital connexion with that remarkable movement to which the popular religious life of England in our own times owes its origin. The necessity of a conscious, personal application to the Lord Jesus Christ for the pardon of sin and release from its power, as distinguished from the theory that forgiveness and the germ of holiness are invariably imparted to the unconscious infant at the font, and that the adult who was baptized in childhood has rather to seek the development of a life already possessed and the confirmation of privileges already conferred, than a complete change in his relation to God, and a complete renewal of his spiritual nature; in other words, the doctrine of conversion, has been from the beginning one of the principal articles in the brief confession of the evangelical party. To arouse the unpardoned and unregenerate to inquiry, and then to direct them to the Lord Jesus as the Saviour of sinners, has been the great aim of all who have been animated by the true spirit of the chiefs of the Evangelical Revival. The great cry of Whitfield and Wesley and their immediate successors was,” Flee from the wrath to come a gross, sensual, godless people had to be stung and startled into religious earnestness, and, God helping them, they did their work by reiterating the truths which first alarm the irreligious by the discovery of their guilt and danger, and then lead the terrified penitent to trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation. Whether sufficient care and thought have been devoted to the culture and discipline of moral and spiritual excellence by the Evangelical ministry, both in and out of the Establishment, need not be discussed in this place; Mr James, at least, was altogether free from blame in that direction.

But the characteristic element of then’ preaching has not

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been the inciilcatiou in detail of Christian duty, or the declaration of those aspects of Christian doctrine which cherish a loftydevotional life. Their special vocation has been to warn the impenitent of coming judgment, and to entreat the guilty to rely on Christ for the pardon of sin, and the regeneration of their nature by His Holy Spirit. Mr James’s book, “The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation Directed and Encouraged,” is a complete and permanent expression of the genius and principles of the whole movement. Its populai’ity is a proof that any future student of the religious history of the nineteenth century, who wishes to learn by what religious teachhig vast multitudes of persons in these days were practically guided, may, with confidence, seek an answer in its pages. It was published in 1834; I have lying before me now the sixth edition, which was published in 1835. Writing to Dr Sprague in 1839, Mr James tells him that the Tract Society had issued 200,000 copies. An account of the languages into which it has been translated and some extraordinary illu.strations of its usefulness, will be found later in this chapter.

I have frequently heard good and thoughtful men, whose theology is in perfect accordance with that of the “Anxious Inquirer,” declare their inability to discover the secret of its power. There are many other books which explain with equal clearness the evangelical doctrines of repentance, faith, and conversion; why should this have achieved its unique success?

It is my conviction that any intelligent man who has had much experience in the instruction and guidance of the class of persons for whom it was written will be able, after a careful study of it, to solve the difficulty.

Between seventeen and eighteen years have passed by since, on my knees and in keen distress about my personal salvation, I first read through the “Anxious Inquirer.” Night after night I waited with eager impatience for the house to become still, that in undisturbed solitude I might agonise over the book which had taught so many to trust in God. It is with a feeling approaching reverence and fear that I now attempt an estimate of the chief

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contents of the little volume wliicli is so intimately associated with some of the most sacred passages of my personal history.

The opening sentences are instinct with a spirit which has moved the hearts of thousands and tens of thousands of readers. In innumerable instances the book has been placed in the hands of persons already greatly troubled by the conviction of their guilt and peril, and intensely anxious to escape from their present wretchedness, and from the penalty of eternal exile from God by which they are threatened in the world to come: such readers have found evidence on the very first page that the author is as much in earnest as themselves; that instead of writing a theological treatise for the instruction of their understandings, he sees very clearly all their danger, and is profoundly concerned for their salvation. Others have begun to read with sluggish carelessness, but have been startled at once by discovering what a very serious enterprise the wi’iter had undertaken, and have come to feel that if he wrote with such a solemn impression of the transcendent importance of his subject, it becomes them to read with devout anxiety. He thinks his book will be remembered in heaven with joy, or in hell with remorse. The subject is of such awful moment that it must not be read like other books, and he gives directions how to read it: —

“It may seem strange to some persons, that I should give directions for the performance of an act so well understood as the pei-usal of a book; and especially the perusal of a book of so simple and elementary a kind as this. But the fact is, that midtitudes either do not know, or do not remember at the time, how to read to advantarje; and, therefore, profit but little by what they read. Besides, simple and elementary as is this treatise, it is on a subject of infinite and eternal importance, and is perused in the most critical season of a man’s everlasting history; when, in a very peculiar sense, every means of grace, and this among the rest, will be either ’ a savour of death unto death, or of Ufe unto Uf e,’ to the reader. Tremendous idea! But strictly true.

“Reader, whosoever thou art, it is no presumptuous thought of the author, to believe that thou wilt remember the contents of this small treatise, either with pleasure and gratitude in heaven, or with remorse and despair in heU. Can it then be an impertinently officious act, to remind thee how to read with advantage what I have wiitten?” T

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

The directions themselves are admirable, and I doubt not have guided in innumerable instances the first earnest endeavours of the soul to enter into real and living communion with the Unseen and the Eternal.

“Take the book with you,” writes the author, “into your closet; I mean your place of retirement for prayer; for, of course, you have such a place. Prayer is the very soul of all religion, and privacy is the very life of prayer itself. This is a book to be read when you are alone; when none is near but God and your conscience; when you are not hindered by the presence of a fellow-creature from the utmost freedom of manner, thought, and feeling; when, unobserved by any human eye, you could lay down the book, and meditate, or weep, or fall upon your knees to pray, or give vent to your feelings in short and sudden petitions to God. I charge you then to reserve the volume for your private seasons of devotion and thoughtfulness: look not into it in company, except it be the company of a poor trembling and anxious inquirer, like yourself.”

Nor is it enough that the reader is alone, he must read “with deep seriousness,” being charged to “take it up with something of the awe that warns you how you touch a holy thing;” “with earnest prayer,” for “it will convey no experimental knowledge, relieve no anxiety, dissipate no doubts, afford neither peace nor sanctification, if God do not give His Holy Spirit; and if you would have the Spirit, you must ask for His influence.” Moreover, there is a warning against reading too much at a time, a recommendation to meditate on what is read, to read regTilarly through in order, to turn to all the passages of Scripture and chapters which are quoted, and which for the sake of brevity the author has only referred to without quoting the words.

In the First Chapter the profound earnestness of the writer appears even more impressively than in the Introduction. He evidently feels the terrible magnitude of the sin and of the danger by which the heart of the reader is troubled; he is as much alarmed as though he were still personally exposed to the “wrath to come:” —

“No wonder you should be anxious; the wonder is, that you were not concerned about this matter before, that you are not more deeply solicitous now, and that all who possess the Word of God do not syaipatliise with you in this anxiety. Everything justifies solicitude and condemns indifference. Unconcern about the soul, indifference to salvation, is a most irrational, as well as a most guilty state of mind. The wildest enthusiasm about these matters is less surprising and unreasonable, than absolute carelessness, as will appear from the following considerations: —

“.... Every day brings you nearer to everlasting torments or felicity. You may die any moment; and you are as near to heaven or hell as you are to death. No wonder you are asking, ‘What shall I do to be saved ^’

“This solicitude is reasonable if you consider that the eternal loss of the soul is not a rare, but a very common occurrence. It is so tremendous a catastrophe, that if it happened only once in a year, or once in a century, so as to render it barely possible that it should happen to you, it would be unpardonable carelessness not to feel some solicitude about the matter: how much more, then, when, alas! it is an everyday calamity. So far from its being a rare thing for men to go to hell, it is a much rarer thing for them to go to heaven. Our Lord tells us, that the road to destruction is thronged, while the way to life is travelled by few. Hell opens its mouth wide, and swallows up multitudes in perdition. How alarming is the idea, and how probable the fact, that you may be among this number! Some that read these pages will very likely spend their eternity with lost souls; it is therefore your wisdom, as well as your duty, to cherish the anxiety which says, ‘What shall I do to be saved]’”

His earnestness is not exhausted in the first few pages; it burns and glows in the heart of the writer tUl the last sentence of the last chapter is written, and not only animates and fires all he writes, but becomes in several places uncontrollable, and expresses itself in renewed and direct appeals and entreaties. This vehement solicitude commands the confidence of the reader and sustains his own anxiety; the teaching is in some places deficient in clearness, but the fervour never cools; and increased clearness would have been bought at too high a price by the sacrifice of intensity.

Nor was the excitement artificial, for the “Anxious Inquirer” was not addressed to mere imaginary readers; chapter after chapter was written for a number of young men and women

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whom Mr James was meeting every week, and for whose salvation he felt all the concern of a faithful minister of Christ. This gave vigour by giving concentration to his holy passion. It is not possible for an author to write with the same sustained solicitude for a thousand unknown persons who may some day read his book, as for fifty or sixty peoi:)le, every one of whom he knows well, every one of whom is, at the very time he writes, exciting his deepest sympathies, every one of whom has come to him in sorrow and doubt asking the questions which his book is intended to answer, and alarmed at dangers from which the book shews the way of escape.

And the fact that Mr James wrote for living persons, perplexed and misled by mistakes with which, week after week, he had practically to deal, enabled him to produce a book having a reality and truth which no mere theorist could attain. Nearly every direction, nearly every element of instruction has evidently been suggested by the actual mistakes and dangers of his “Inquirers’ Class.”

I greatly doubt whether any mere speculative divine would have written the chapter on “Religious Impressions, and the Unspeakable Importance of Retaining and Deepening Them.” It would have seemed the most natural way for an evangelical theologian to have passed at once from Chapter I. on “The Reasonableness and Necessity of Deep Solicitude about Salvation,” to explain the nature of Repentance or Faith, or to develop the Divine provision for removing human guilt, and cleansing the human heart; but, to a minister writing his book in his study in the morning, and expecting to meet a large class of persons newly aroused to religious anxiety, in his vestry in the evening, it was a more natural thing to postpone full and explicit doctrinal teaching to certain necessary practical directions. This suggested the remarkable chapter (Chapter II.) in which the reader is solemnly told that he must “admit the possibility of losing” his convictions of sin and religious impressions; that he should “dread the idea of relapsing into indifference;” that he should make “it a subject of devout and earnest prayer, that God would render these impressions permanent by the effectual aid of His Holy Spirit,”

“THE ANXIOUS INQUIEEE.”

“It is of infinite consequence that you should, at this stage of your religious history, deeply ponder the great truth, that all true piety in the heart of man is the work of God’s Spirit. Do not read another line till you have well weighed that sentiment, and have so wrought it into your heart, as to make it become a principle of action, a rule of conduct. Every conviction will be extinguished, every impression will be effaced, unless God himself, by His own sovereign and efficacious grace, render them permanent. If God do not put forth His power, you vnH as certainly lose every pious emotion as you now possess any. You may as rationally expect light without the sun, as piety without God. Not a single really holy feeling Tvill ever come into the mind, or be kept there, but by God. Hence, the object and the use of prayer are to obtain this gracious influence. Prayer is the first step in the divine life, prayer is the second, prayer is the third, and indeed it is necessary through the whole Christian course. Awakened sinner, you must pray. You must find opportunity to be alone; you must cry mightily unto God; you must implore His aid; you must give up a portion of your sleep, if you can command no time in the day for prayer.”

As the writer had not paused to discuss whether a sinner should pray before believing in Christ, neither does he stay to discuss whether he should endeavour to forsake sin before believing in Christ: for these subtle questions, the consideration of which is not unimportant, however, to him who has the guidance of souls, Mr James’s vigorous common sense had no inclination; anyhow, it must be right and good to pray, and right and good to avoid sin, and so he proceeds to say —

“If you would retain your impressions, and persevere in the pursuit of salvation, you must at once determine to give up whatever you know to he sinful in your conduct, and you must also he very watchful against gin. Thus runs the direction of the Word of God: ‘Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon,’ (Isaiah Iv. 6, 7.) To the same effect is the language of one of Job’s friends: ‘If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him; if iniqiuty be in thine hand, put it far away,’ (Job xi. 13, 14.) It is right for you at once to know, that the salvation which is in Christ is a deliverance from sin. ‘Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins,’ said the angel to Joseph, when he announced the approaching

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

nativity of Christ. ‘Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works,’ (Titus ii. 1 4.) It is of immense consequence that you should at once have a distinct idea that the salvation you are beginning to seek is a holy calling. Whatever is sinful in your temper, such as maUce, revenge, violent passions; or whatever is sinful in your words, in the way of falsehood, railing, backbiting; or whatever is sinful in your practice, in the way of Sabbath-breaking, injustice, unkiudness, undutifulness to parents or masters; — must immediately be given up without hesitation, reluctance, or reserve. The retaining of one single sin, which you know to be such, will soon stifle your convictions, and efface all your impressions. If you are not willing to give up your sins, it is not salvation you are seeking.”

Worldly companions must be forsaken. “All those scriptural means which are calculated and intended to keep up a due sense of religion in the mind must be used.” And these directions are admirably closed with a warning against mistakes which half the number of those who have just begun to think in earnest about serving God almost invariably commit.

“It is of consequence that you should here distinctly understand, that the grace of God in your salvation is rich and free. Your exertions in seeking salvation do not merit or deserve it; and if you receive it, you will not have it granted to you as the reward of your own efforts to obtain it. To imagine that you can claim the grace that is necessary to your conversion, because you profess to seek it, is to follow the wretched example of those who, in ancient times, went ’ about to estabUsh their own righteousness, and did not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God.’ Your deep convictions, impressions, and sohcitude; your many tears; your earnest prayers; your dihgent attendance upon sermons; and your partial reformations, can claim nothing in the way of reward from Him; nor is He bound to save you for that which has no reference to His glory; till you believe God’s pi-omise, He is imder no obUgation, even to Himself, to save you. Notwithstanding all your concern, you lie at His mercy; and if you are saved, it is of pure favour.”

“These are awful instances, and prove by facts, which are unanswerable arguments, that it is but too certain that many seek to enter in at the strait gate, but do not accompKsh their object. And why? Not because God is unwilling to save, but because they rest in impressions, without going on to actual conversion. It is dangerous, then, reader, as well as unwarranted, to conclude that you are sure to be saved, because you now feel anxious to be saved. It is very true that where God has begun a good work He will carry it on to the day of Christ Jesus; but do not conclude too certainly that He has begun it. You may take encouragement from your present state of mind to hope that you will be saved; but that encouragement should rather come from what God has promised, and what God is, than from what you feeL To regard your present state of mind, therefore, vdth complacency; to conceive of it as preferring any claim upon God to convert you; to look upon it as affording a certainty that you will be ultimately converted, a kind of pledge and earnest of salvation, instead of considering it only as struggles after salvation, which may or may not be successful, according as they are continued in a right manner; is the way to lose the impressions themselves, and to turn back again to sin or the world. The true light in which to consider your present solicitude, is that of a state of mind which, if it terminate in genuine faith, and which it is probable it may, will end in your salvation: consequently, your object should be to cherish your anxiety, and seek the grace of Jehovah to give you sincere repentance towards God, and true faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The chapter on Knowledge will probably be thought by many very open to adverse criticism. The attempt to illustrate and enforce in twenty pages such great subjects as the moral character of God, the nature and requirements of His law, the evil of sin, the doctrine of original and inherent depravity, the design of Christ’s mediatorial office and work, the evangelical doctrine of justification, and the nature and necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit, could hardly be successful. It was in all probability this chapter to which a young friend of mine particularly referred, who told me that the “Anxious Inquirer” had suggested more diflBculties than it had removed. But if the amount of theological knowledge which was likely to be possessed by most of its readers is taken into account, it will be seen that a fuller and more thorough discussion of these great truths might have been worse than useless. Enough is said to afford practical guidance to the untaught; more elaborate and exact explanations might in some instances have puzzled and repelled; in others they might have stimulated a purely speculative activity which would have been likely to divert the soul from its search after God. It is very possible for us to be so solicitous about making the truth clear to the understand-LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

ing, that the theoretical interest awakened in our discussions of the way of salvation shall gradually deaden the anxiety of the heart to secure salvation itself.

A sounder objection may be taken to Mr James’s want of distinctness in his teaching on a subject so important as the nature of justification. On page 37* he writes — “The justification of an innocent person is pronouncing him just, on the ground of his own conduct; but how can a sinner, who is confessedly guilty of innumerable transgressions, be justified? Now, you will see at once that the term in reference to him is a little different, and signifies, not that he is righteous in himself, but is treated as if he had been, throiirjh the righteousness of Christ imputed to him. ‘Justification,’ says the Assembly’s Larger Catechism, ’ is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners, in which He pardoneth all their sins, accejDteth and accounteth their persons righteous in His sight, not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone.’”

This is a very unequivocal declaration of agreement with the doctrine that justification consists in the imputation to the believer of Christ’s obedience and satisfaction. Had he said nothing more, his teaching would have been jierfectly definite and unambiguous. Whether true or not, the theory of “imputation” taught in the Assembly’s Catechism is free from all censure on the ground of indistinctness. Its simplicity is equal to its clearness; a child may understand it. But thirty lines below he explains that “this is what is meant by the imputed righteousness of Christ, that the sinner is accepted by the Divine favour out of regard to what Christ did and suffered on his behalf,” — a statement which might not only be accepted by many who are most firmly opposed to the “imputation” doctrine, but almost suggests a different theory. It is clearly one thing to say that Lord Raglan’s sufferings and achievements in the Crimea are “imputed” to his son, and that therefore his son receives a pension; and another thing to say that “out of regard” to Lord Raglan’s services, his son receives a pension.

* Sixth Edition.

“THE A^’XIOUS IXQriEEK.”

This, however, might have passe.l unnoticed, but a careful reader of the paragraphs immediately following the passages I have quoted wHl see other traces of vacillation on this great subject. On page 38 it is affirmed that “justification means not merely pardon, but something more;” on the next page, pardon and justification are virtually identified. Indeed, it was Mr James’s habit to teU his congregation that pardon and justification are substantially the same. His great anxiety was to distinguish justification as a change of our personal relationship to God, from sanctification as a change of our personal character; and the Adrtual identification of justification with pardon enabled him to do this with great ease. There was an obvious practical benefit to be gained in making justification and pardon almost identical; it enabled him to make the distinction between justification and sanctification plain to the most ill-informed and undisciplined minds. To secure this advantage, he seemed almost indifferent to the two theological difficulties in which he manifestly placed himself. If justification be substantially the same as pardon, it cannot consist in the imputation to the sinner of Christ’s obedience and satisfaction; and secondly, the attempt to distinguish between the two blessings, after affirming them to be substantially the same, must prove a failure.

It would be an error to suppose that this question is one of merely speculative and theological interest. If justification and pardon be “substantially” identified, the soul when conscious of needing a renewal of pardon, will practically suppose that its justification needs renewal too; in other words, that it is standing in precisely the same unsheltered and perilous condition which preceded its original reconciliation to God. But if such a theory of justification be held as leaves that great and permanent blessing imafiected by the infirmities, follies, and sins which are daily confessed, and need daily forgiveness, the soul will be exempted from the shock and injury it must receive if thrown back day after day into the wretchedness and horror of being under the Divine condemnation. Mr James saw that justification abides with the soul as long as faith abides; but through making it sub-LIFE UP JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

stantially the same as pardon, for which we need to seek God’s mercy every day, he reduced the permanent blessing of justification to insignificance and worthlessness.

The following passage from the “Course of Faith,” published in 1852, will further illustrate the point under discussion: —

“Justification, I say at once, is substantially the same as pardon. The two words convey the same, or nearly the same idea. The apostle appears to use them couvertibly where he says, ‘To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered: blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin.” In these verses,’ says Dr Wardlaw, ’ the forgiveness of iniquity, the covering of transgression, the non-imputation of sin, are evidently considered as amounting to the same thing with the imputation of righteousness; and this also is the same as justifying the ungodly: for David is represented as describing under one set of phrases the blessedness which the apostle expresses by the others.’ Still, as the apostles, in the language of the New Testament, so generally employ the word justification rather than the word pardon, there must be some reason for this, which I think is to be found in the two foUoMing considerations: First, The word justification, while it means pardon, is used to convey the idea of the method by which this pardon is bestowed — that pardon consistent with justice; so that the word embraces both the blessing and the way of its bestowal, according to the demands of the law. Secondly, It denotes a general and permanent state of pardon, and not merely a particular act. By justification we are brought into a new and permanent relation, a state of favour. Justification is our introduction into this abiding condition; so that though pardon may be needed, and may be granted to us in this state from day to day, justification cannot be said to be repeated every day. By justification we pass from the state of an enemy into that of a chUd. In this view of it it is equivalent vtdth adoption, and in this condition we may and do receive the paternal forgiveness day by day, though not the judicial clearance. Justification is the act of the judge reUeving us from the sentence of condemnation, and bringing us into a state of favour; while subsequent acts of pardon are the expression of the Father in passing by our transgressions. Still, I repeat, the two terms are substantially the same thing, and justification is pardon. They are certainly never enumerated together as two distinct blessings. We never read of par- “THE ANXIOUS D^QUIEEE.”

don and justification. I know it has been common with some of the old divines to represent them as distinct; to consider justification as given to us on the ground of Christ’s active obedience, and pardon on the ground of His passive obedience, or sufferings unto death. No such distinction, however, is made by the apostles; and as Dr Wardlaw says in reference to this subject, there is no need for our being more minute in our distinctions than these inspired men. Our being introduced into a state of pardon through the atonement of Christ is justification.”

In the fifth chapter of the “Anxious Inquirer” there is another illustration of LIr James’s want of firmness and clearness in his statement of Christian doctrine. It was, no doubt, his conviction that faith is Trust in Christ, based on the belief of certain traths about Him; and this is very distinctly taught on page 59. But on pages 57 and 58, it would appear to an ordinary reader as though the writer accepted that definition of faith which makes it nothing more than the intellectual belief of the truths that relate to the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savioui’ of mankind. He says —

“You will probably wish to know a little more about this transcendently important state of mind; and I shall, therefore, set before you —

“1. What you are to believe. Faith, in general, means a belief of whatever God has testified in His Word; but faith in Christ means the belief of what the Scripture saith of Him; of His person, offices, and work. You are to believe that He is * the Son of God.” God manifest in the flesh God-man — Mediator: for how can a mere creature be your Saliour? In faith you commit your soul to the Lord Jesus. ^Tiat! into the hands of a mere creature? The divinity of Christ is thus not merely an article of faith, but enters also into the foundation of hope. You are required to believe in the doctrine of atonement; that Christ satisfied Divine justice for human guilt, having been made a propitiation for our sins; and that now His sacrifice and righteousness are the only ground or foundation on which a sinner can be accepted and acquitted before God You are to believe that all, however previously guilty and unworthy, are welcome to God for salvation, without any exception, or any difficulty whatever. You are to believe that God really loves the world, and is truly willing and waiting to save the chief of sinners, and that He therefore is benevolent to you: and thus, instead of dwelling in the idea of a mere general or universal love, you are to bring the matter home to yourself, and to believe that God has

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good-will towards you, lias given Christ to die for you; you are a part of the world which God loved, and for which Christ died, and you are not to lose yourself in the crowd. You are not to consider the scheme of redemption for any body, or for every body, but yourself; but you are to give the whole an individual bearing upon yourself. You are to say, ‘God is well disposed towards me; Christ is given for me; died for me as well as for others; I am invited; I shall be saved if I trust in Chi-ist; and I am as welcome as any one to Clirist.’ Faith is not a belief in your own personal religion, this is the assurance of hope; but it is a belief that God loves sinners, and that Christ died for sinners, and for you amongst the rest: it is not a belief that you are a real Christian, but that Christ is willing to give you all the blessings included in that term. It is the belief of something out of yourseK, but still of something concerning yourself. The object of faith is the work of Christ for you, not the work of the Spirit in you. It is of great consequence you should attend to this, because many are apt to confound these things. If I promise a man alms, and he really bcheves what I say, and expects relief, /, in the act of jyromising him, am the object of his faith, and not the state of his own mind in the act of believing. If, therefore, you would have faith, or, possessing it, would have it strengthened, you must fix and keep your eye on the testimony of Christ, which you find in the gospel.”

The sentences that I have italicised obviously imply a different theory of faith from that which is stated in the rest of the paragraph.

The paragraph generally describes faith as a belief of Christian truth; the italicised passages imply that it is a belief in Christ himself founded on the belief of Christian truth. This latter, which is the only sound view, is very clearly enunciated in the next paragraph, which describes how a sinner is to believe: —

“I will now shew you now you are to believe. But is this necessary? There is no mystery in faith when we speak of beUeving a fellow-creature. When the rebel is required to believe in the proclamation of mercy sent out by his sovereign, and to come and sue for pardon; or when the beggar is required to believe in the promise of a benefactor who has promised him relief, does it enter into his mind to ask how he is to believe 1 What, in each of these cases, does faith mean? A belief that the promise has been made, and a confidence in the person who made it that he will fulfil his word. Behold, then, the whole mystery there is in faith! It is a belief that Christ really died for sinners j that” THE A2XI0rS INQUIKEE.” all who depend upon Him alone shall be saved; and a trust in Him for salvation. Yes, it is, if we may substitute another vrord as exjjlanatory of faith, TRUST in Christ. Faith, and confidence in Christ, are the same thing.”

In explainiug how a siuncr is to believe, the author had in his mind a different kind of belief from that which was present to him when describing what he is to believe.

Let not these observations be thought idle or hypercritical If I might be pardoned for speaking again of the time when the ‘■■ Anxious Inquii-er “was my trusted guide through anguish and fear to a quiet trust in Christ, I would refer to the difficulties by which I was personally and for some time beset, through mistake on this very point. I supposed, in common with many others, passing through a similar experience, that faith in Christ is a belief of the doctrines enumerated by Mr James in the chapter on Knowledge. That error would naturally be confirmed by very much that I have quoted from the chapter on Faith, and as the truer teaching in the same chapter was inconsistent both with my own ideas and with the previous statements of the author, it was not unnatural that I should faU to notice, or at any rate to receive it. Hence I continued to suppose that I was to be saved by believing the history of the Lord Jesus Christ and the great evangelical doctrines concerning His natm-e and death. Conscious that I had not attained the rest and strength which ought to follow “saving faith,” I began to think that perhaps my belief was powerless, because it was the mere result of education, and not of independent inquiry. Under this impression, I turned in my boyish simplicity to Paley’s “Evidences of Christianity,” hoping that, when I had verified for myself the historical foundations of Christian truth, my belief would rest on a right basis and exert greater powder.

There is another defect which was perhaps almost inseparable from the general structure of the book. Notwithstanding the author’s earnest entreaties, that his readers would look to Christ, and not to anything in themselves for salvation, there is veiy much that is calculated to confirm the common error of losing sight of Christ through looking to ourselves to discover whether we are

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

looking to Him. The act of faith is so repeatedly discussed, that the mind is likely to be diverted from the object of faith. There is a curious slip in the illustration of the difference between faith and assurance, at the end of the chapter on Mistakes. It is said, that if the ringleader of a revolt, having read a proclamation of amnesty, and having satisfied himself that it really came from the king, laid down his arms, and so fulfilled the conditions of pardon, he would not be much troubled about “assurance” he is conscious he has done what the monarch requires, and he feels he has what

the monarch promised Faith and compliance with ike

monarch’s demand luould he all that he would concern himself about.” Now, whatever anxiety the supposed rebel might have to discover adequate proof of the authenticity and unlimited reference of the proclamation, he would have none at all about his own faith in it; and it should be the aim of the Christian teacher so to represent the power and grace of the Lord Jesus, and the unconditional freeness of His gospel, that the troubled and guilty heart, forgetting itself altogether, shall trust everything to Christ. That this was Mr James’s own clear and full opinion, needs no proof or illustration; but, perhaps, it may fairly be objected to certain parts of the “Anxious Inquirer,” that faith is discussed in a manner that is likely to detain the mind with questions about the validity of its own trust in Christ, when, with simple unconsciousness of self, it should be rejoicing in that infinite love which asks for nothing as the condition of conferring pardon and the new life, but that the soul, without further solicitude, should leave all its sins where God has placed them — on the head of His own Son; and should begin at once to endeavour to live a Christian life, expecting God to supply the strength which alone can make the endeavour successful.

If, in resuming the attempt to point out some of the excellencies of this remarkable book, I occupy less space than has already been covered with the discussion of some of its deficiencies, it is not through any want of appreciation of the elements of its power. In addition to what has been already said on the writer’s manifest earnestness, which at once commands the confidence and deepens “THE AKXIOUS KQUIKER.” the anxiety of the reader, the practical wisdom of his method and order, the admirable common sense with which he sets aside discussions which might have perplexed but could not have aided those for whom he wrote, there are several other characteristics of the “Anxious Inquirer” which help to explain its popularity and usefulness.

From ;Mr James’s Autobiography it appears that his own spiritual life had not passed through the precise chronological development, which some systematic writers on conversion have insisted upon. He had known the uncertainties and vicissitudes, the temporary victories and the subsequent defeats, the vacillation and inconstancy which most commonly mark the first efforts of the soul to forsake sin and Uve for God. In the almanac, winter melts into spring, spring brightens into summer, and summer ripens into golden autumn, by regular gradations. But the seasons are too wilful to obey the almanac: far on in spring, sometimes in the very heart of summer, we have cold winds and wintry snow; and often in March or AprU we are gladdened by days of warmth and sunshine that seem to have missed their way, and to belong rather to July. It is just so in the rise and progress of religion in the soul; and it is one of the great excellencies of the “Anxious Inquirer,” that it prescribes no exactly-defined experiences through which the mind must pass in order to arrive at rest in God. The reader is not distressed by the apprehension that perhaps in his case one link in the chain has a flaw in it, and that all the links that follow are therefore worthless. The endeavour to manufacture faith in Christ and love toward God, by an elaborate process of spiritual chemistry, is a most perilous mistake; and I repeat, that the “Anxious Inquirer” is free from the imputation of encouraging this delusion.

Closely connected with this great merit is another: the book insists with uniform and unhesitating resoluteness on the duty of immediate trust in Christ. No excuse for deferring this is recognised as valid; it is a duty, and must be fulfilled at once. There is no minister who has had much practical acquaintance with the difficulties which impede the return of the heart to God,

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JA^IES.

who has not been perplexed by the subtlety of the pleas by which continued unbelief is defended. “I have not sorrow enough for sin,” says one, not remembering that Christ was exalted to give repentance as well as remission of sin. “My heart is so hard,” says another, forgetting that it is just because the heart is so hard that we should give up all our efforts to soften it, and trust in Christ to soften it for us. “I am not conscious of believing,” says another, “and therefore cannot trust in Christ to save me,” not having learned that it is with our sin and weakness and danger that we are to approach Christ, and that we shall never be conscious of faith until after we have trusted Him.

It is in the same spirit that Mr James repeatedly reminds his readers that the ground of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ does not lie in any personal qualifications or experiences: it is not sorrow for sin, confession of sin, abandonment of sin, or any irresistible persuasion of personal and special interest in the mercy of God, that is the true foundation of faith in Christ; but His sufferings and death to atone for the world’s transgressions. His infinite mercy towards our race, and His infinite resources for our salvation.

Most excellent, too, is all that is said on the difference between faith and assurance; about which, however, all teaching, even the clearest, seems almost in vain. The following passage is one of many in which this distinction is explained: —

“Faith is such a cordial belief that Christ died for sinners, as leads to a dependence upon Him for salvation; assurance, as the word is usually understood in religious discourse, means a persuasion that I do so believe, and am in a state of salvation: faith means a belief that Christ is willing to receive me; assurance means conviction that He has received me; that, in short, I am a Christian. Now, it is manifest that these two are different from each other: one of them, that is, faith, signifpng the performance of an action, or coming into a certain state; and the other, the consciousness that I have come into that state. It is also equally evident that faith must precede assurance. We must first believe that Christ died for sinners, before we can know that we have believed. The first simple act of faith is a belief that Christ died for all sinners, for the whole world; the next, as arising out of it, if it be not indeed included in it, is that He died for us as part of the world.

‘I believe, says the sinner, who is coming with confidence to Christ, ’ that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting Ufe,” (John iii. 16;) then, as I am a part of the world, I believe He loved me, and is willing to save me:’ this is faith. The soul then feels joy and peace in beUeving, love to God, gratitude to Christ, hatred of sin, subugation of the world, fellowship with the righteous. ‘Now,’ says the person, ‘I know I behave, I am conscious both of the act of believing, and also of its gracious effects: ’ this is assurance.”

The homely and direct mode in which speculative difficulties are removed, I will not say solved, the practical wisdom of many of the “cautions” given in Chapter IX., would repay careful study, and might greatly assist persons whose children and friends seek their advice in religious troubles. There is much, too, that deserves notice in the hopefulness with which the reader is encouraged to anticipate the happy issue of his anxieties, and in the skill with which considerations, calculated to repress despondency, are so stated as not to enfeeble a solitary motive to earnest solicitude. The profusion of Scripture quotations will not be overlooked by those who remember with what eagerness their souls clung, in their early conflicts, to every Divine promise of pardon and to every inspired explanation of the Christian method of redemption. The style in which the “Anxious Inqixirer” is written, notwithstanding the sentence about subjective and objective religion which occurs in the chapter on “Mistakes,” and which has moved Mr Ruskin’s mirth and provoked his criticism — I think that the eloquent critic would have cancelled his sarcasm, had he known or remembered that myriads have been consoled by this little book in the most terrible of human sorrows, and assisted by it to trust quietly in God, and live a holy life, — its style I say is, on the whole, clear, unaffected, and vigorous. Finally, it is short enough to be read through and through, even by persons who have very little time to consecrate to purposes of devotion.

I am thankful that this imperfect discussion of one of the most remarkable uninspired books which any section of the Christian Church possesses is but an introduction to the author’s own U

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

account of it. A separate chapter in the Autobiography is devoted to the “Anxious Inquirer.”

Autobio- I come now to a work, compared with the usefulness of which that of all my other books is but as the small dust of the balance; a work, the results of which fill me with adoring wonder, gratitude, and love. I will first state the circumstances which led to the writing and publishing of it. About the year 1832, or it may be a year later or earlier, a series of special religious services was held in Birmingham. The ministers of the neighbouring towns, for many miles round, were invited to attend for solemn conference on subjects connected with their ministry. Three mornings were thus spent, much, I believe, to the edification of those present. The utterances of the heart were free and flowing, and an unrestrained exchange of sentiment took place on the most momentous of all topics. I wish these meetings were more frequent. The one held a few years ago at Chester was a season of uncommon solemnity. They should not be periodical, or they would become formal. But occasional gatherings of the labourers in the Lord’s vineyard would give a new impulse to zeal, and a new encouragement to hope. The evenings of these three days were devoted to the congregations, when addresses were delivered on subjects bearing upon conversion, and the Lord’s Supper was administered. One of the addresses, delivered by Dr Ross, then of Kidderminster, now of Sydney, to the thoughful but undecided hearer of the gospel, produced a very deep and general impression, so that many persons were brought under most serious concern about their souls. I am persuaded that occasional special religious services, when conducted with judgment, and in which the pastor himself, whatever auxiliary help he may obtain, takes a leading part, are rational, scriptm-al, and useful. Churches, like individuals, are in danger of sinking into a lukewarm state; formality settles down upon them, and stagnancy is the result. True, the best state of things is where the stated ministry is such as to keep up perpetual freshness, vigour, and vitality in the church. Happy the church, and happy its pastor, where such ministrations are enjoyed. But even “THE ANXIOUS INQUIEEK.”

here some occasional means to bring out the awakened are clesir- Autobiographical.

able. In all our congregations there are many who have been impressed by the word, and who go on in this state of mind without coming to any decision. They are concerned; they do not totally give up religion nor wholly embrace it. Now, one of the great benefits of special services is, that they bring such persons to a point, and lead in very many cases to decision. Such have been the results in my ovm case.

After the services to which I now allude as having been held ui the town, veiy many came to me at the time appointed for seeing them, deeply anxious about their souls’ salvation. I conversed with them, of course; but as one is wont in dealing with inquirers, I lent them books to read. I made use of Doddridge’s “Rise and Progress,” which, notwithstanding its formal divisions and systematic form, is an admii’able book, and has been greatly honoured and blessed of God. It is certainly too long, and contains too much for a mere inquirer. Hence, now when I use it, which I frequently do, I tell the persons into whose hands I place it, not to read more of it than about the ten or twelve first chapters. An inquirer that has not yet found peace with God, need not be led through the whole course of Christian life. I still found the lack of some little work, suitable for persons inquiring after salvation, which should be long enough to lay open the scheme of salvation, with the perplexities and difficulties that beset the entrance upon the narrow way of life eternal, and the encouragements which should animate the inquirer in his struggle for the crown of gloiy. As I knew of none that exactly met my desires, I set to immediately to write something more suited to the object. I believe I was animated by a pure desire to glorify God in the salvation of souls. Perhaps there was less admixture of self-seeking and vain-glory in the writing of this book than in any other of my works. I wanted to lead the anxious into peace and joy in believing. Of course, I had no anticipation of the wonderful success which followed its publication. How could I? Had the veil been then lifted up, and had it been shewn me in perspective what a course that book was to run, I should have regarded it as

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

Autobio- a dream. The first two editions were printed and published bygraphical.

myself, and sold very rapidly. The Religious Tract Society caught sight of it, and proposed to purchase the copyright. Aware of the facilities possessed by that invaluable institution for getting their works into a much wider circulation than any private author can do, I immediately consented; and have ever been thankful to God for this arrangement. I place this society next in value and importance to the Bible and Missionary Society. It is a fountain of blessings to the world, and seemed raised up of God especially for the times in which we live, when the press, that source of sweet waters and bitter, is sending forth such floods of demoralising publications. / above many authors have cause to speak with gratitude of its worth and operations. It has extended my usefulness to the remotest boundaries of the globe, wherever the English language is known. It has sent out several of my publications, — my Pastoral Addresses, “The Young Man from Home,” and some other minor things; but the “Anxious Inquirer,” in the extent of its circulation and amount of its usefulness, swallows up all the others. It has procured the translation of this work into Gaelic, “Welsh, German, French, Swedish, Malagasy. Besides these languages, it has by other means been preached in Dutch, Singakse, and one of the East Indian dialects. The number of copies issued from the society’s depot up to the present time is more than half-a-million. To me it has ever been a source of joy and thankfulness to consider that, apart from the direct usefulness of the book, it has been to the Tract Society a source of considerable profit; thus enabling that institution to extend its usefulness in grants and gratuities to all parts of the world.

It is delightful to me to know that the circulation of this work has been more extensive in America than it has been even in this country. If I speak of its usefulness, it is not in a spirit of boasting and vain-glory, but with a feeling of the profoundest humility. None but myself can conceive of the degree in which God has deigned to honour and bless this little unpretending publication. Eor this He has employed persons of all ranks in society and all denominations of religion. Cleraymeu of theAutobio-Established Church have not scrupled to use it, though penned by a Dissenter. They thought it to be an instrument adapted to their purpose, and have manifested as much zeal in its distribution as any of the ministers or members of my own denomination. Had I preserved all the letters I have received, both from other countries and my own, of its usefulness, they would have formed a book. I sometimes regret that I have not done so; but perhaps it would have ministered to my vanity. I have often reproached myself for insensibility and want of gratitude in not feeling more when accounts came of its usefulness. The tidings have become as common things. A fiftieth part of the intelligence which has reached me would fill some men’s breasts with gladness and gratitude. It has never been ray practice to send instances of good from the perusal of it to the periodicals of the day. One instance out of many I may here relate. In one of the back settlements of America, where a stated ministry had not yet been fixed, a single copy of the “Anxious Inquirer” had found its way. It was lent from one person to another, and seven-and-twenty persons were thus hopefully converted to God by the perusal of the solitary copy found among them.

While engaged in the preparation of this Memoir, I received a Editorial, note from a gentleman in the north of England, who informed me that eight or nine friends who happened to be together were conversing about their religious history, and they discovered that they had all found in the “Anxious Inquirer” the guidance and stimulus by which they had been led to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. In a subsequent part of the Autobiography I find two other facts illustrating the usefulness of this remarkable book, and think it best to insert them here: —

A scene once occurred at a meeting of the [Congregational] Union Autobioin London which made a deep impression on all who were pre- ^’’^p’^^’^”^’ sent. A Dutch minister, by the name of Dr Beets, a poet and a highly respectable member of the Established Church, sent in word

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

Autobio- to the secretary that if permitted he should wish to be present and graphical, g^^j,^,.^ ^-^q meeting. He was introduced and allowed to speak.

He announced his name and position, and declared that he had come from Holland, not only to be at the meeting, but to meet me and to present to me two volumes of my works which he had translated into Dutch, and to inform me of the benefit which had resulted from my “Anxious Inquirer” in the language of his country. He knew of twelve students for the ministry who had been converted by the perusal of that book. He addressed me and the meeting in terms so impressive and affecting as to call from myself a response which, together with his own words, melted the whole audience into tears. Dr Leifchild (I think he was the person) rose, and said that such was their emotion, it was impossible to go on with mere dry business till their feelings had a little subsided, and suggested that they should all unite in prayer, which they accordingly did. Dr Beets has since translated other of my books into Dutch.

It is a little remarkable, that at another of the meetings of the Congregational Union, a Mr De Leifde, from Amsterdam, was present, who had come over to England to solicit subscriptions for carrying on an extensive system of home operations in Holland. His address after the dinner at Kadley’s Hotel was most deeply interesting and affecting. Many were weeping, and all rejoicing. And on relating his conversion, he told us he had been a Socinian, but that some one lent him a little book with an earnest exhortation to read it. That book was the “Anxious Inquirer” in Dutch. It was the means of his conversion, and from that time he had devoted himself to the work of evangehsing his country, which he stated is overrun with Socinianism and Kationalism. He sat next to me at the dinner, and laid his hand upon my shoulder, when, with much emotion, he owned me as his spiritual father.

The day of judgment alone will disclose what has resulted from the issue of this little and apparently insignificant publication.

“THE ANXIOUS INQUIKEE.”

Now, I am extremely anxious to call attention to the fact of the Autobiousefulness of this work, as demonstrating what kind of religious truth, and what method of presenting it, God blesses for the conversion of souls. This is a momentous lesson to learn. The salvation of souls is the supreme end of the ministry. He who does not see this, has mistaken the whole scheme of Christianity. The ends of the ministry must of course be identical with the ends for which Christ died upon the cross. If He died to save sinners, ministers must preach to save sinners. To convince men of sin and righteousness and judgment, to bring them to repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, to build them up in their holy faith and guide them onwards to eternal life, must be the design of ministerial instruction. It is greatly to be feared that the orthodox doctrine of conversion — that is, the turning of the sinner by the regenerating power of the Spirit from sin to God through Christ, in other words, the necessity of an entire inward change of heart — begins in many of our Dissenting pulpits to be merged in vague general notions of a religious state, which implies no quickening from a death of sin to a life of righteousness. I hold by the nature and necessity of regeneration and conversion, as set forth in the writings of the Evangelical school, whether Episcopalian, Dissenter, or Methodist, and I hold that this is the teaching of the Word of God. This, and only this, is the teaching which God has blessed in every age, country, and church of the world. Do we not see in the preaching of those by whom this doctrine, if not formally denied, is neglected, an obvious want of spiritual effect? Where are the sinners turned from the errors of their ways? What do we see there of broken- heartedness on account of sin, of joy and peace in believing, of true holiness and righteousness? Are the churches of such preachers fields which the Lord hath blessed?

We do not mean to deny that conversion is not the only end of the ministry. The child must not only be born, but fed, nursed, and educated. Christians are to be edified, as well as sinners regenerated. The flock of Christ is to be fed with truth and defended from error. There is to be in the ministry both an evan-LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

Autobio- gelising character and an instructive one. It has been thought graphical. gome that these, though not of course opposed, are so dissimilar as almost to require distinct and separate instrumentalities. This, however, is quite erroneous, though a class of itinerant evangelists, well skilled in dealing with the souls of men and in methods of awakening them from the slumber of sin, might be useful as an auxiliary to our stated pastors. Still the pastor must be both the evangelist and the subsequent instructor. No doubt a great portion of every faithful minister’s labours should be devoted to the conversion of the unconverted classes of his hearers. In most ordinary congregations, these greatly outnumber the true Christians. Surely, surely these ought not to be neglected. I have ever taken the views of holy Baxter on this subject, as enforced in the following quotation from his “Reformed Pastor:” —

“It is so sad a case to see men in a state of damnation, wherein if they should die they are remedilessly lost, that methinks we should not be able to let them alone either in pubUc or private, whatever other work we have to do. I confess I am forced frequently to neglect that which should tend to the further increase of knowledge in the godly, and may be called stronger meat, because of the lamentable necessity of the unconverted. Who is able to talk of controversies, or nice unnecessary points, yea, or truths of a lower degree of necessity, how excellent soever, while he seeth a company of ignorant, carnal, miserable sinners before his face that must be changed or damned 1 Methinks I even see them entering on their final woe! Methinks I even hear them crying out for help, and speediest help! Their misery speaks the louder, because they have not hearts to seek or ask for help for themselves. Many a time have I known that I had some hearers of higher fancies, that looked for rarities, and were addicted to despise the ministry, if he told them not somewhat more than ordinary; and yet I covdd not find in my heart to turn from the observation of the necessities of the impenitent for the humouring of these, nor to leave speaking to the apparently miserable for their salvation to speak to such novelists; no, nor so much as otherwise should be done to the weak for their confirmation and increase in grace. Methinks as Paul’s spirit was stirred within him when he saw the Athenians so addicted to idolatry, so it should cast us into one of his paroxysms to see so many men in great probability of being everlastingly undone; and if by faith he did indeed look upon them as within a step of hell, it should more effectually untie our tongues than they teU us that Croesus’ “THE Als-XIOUS i:QUIEEE.” danger did his son’s. He that -will let a sinner go to hell for vrant of speaking to him, doth set less by souls than the Redeemer of souls did, and less by his neighbour than internal charity vnH allow him to do by his greatest enemy. Oh, therefore, brethi-en, whomsoever you neglect, neglect not the most miserable! “WTioever you pass over, forget not poor souls that are under the condemnation and curse of the law, and may look eveiy hour for the infernal execution, if a speedy change do not prevent it. Oh, caU after the impenitent, and ply this great work of converting souls, whatever else you have undone.”*

Now, then, assuming the position that conversion should be a Autobiographical

leading object in the ministry of every faithful preacher of the gospel, we come again to the inquiry, what kind of truths, and what methods of preaching them, are likely to accomplish this end? It might seem almost unnecessary to ask such a question. But if one may judge from the preaching of many, thei-e is yet some need of setting this forth.

I now come to the “Anxious Inquirer,” and I might have taken up Doddridge’s “Rise and Progress,” AUeine’s “Alarm,” Baxter’s “CaU,” and, among modern publications, “The Sinner’s Friend,” “Come to Jesus,” with all the innumerable religious tracts that are being issued by the various societies in this day. But I dwell upon the “Anxious Inquirer,” not from any spirit of vain-glory, God is witness, but because it is a work widely circulated, well known, and greatly blessed.

Now, let any critic, or other person of sound judgment, examine the book itself. He will find no literary talent, no philosophical research, no profound theology, no novelties of sentiment, no pretension to logic, rhetoric, or poetry, — nothing but one of the simplest and most elementary treatises in the English language; — a book which contains nothing that can puff up its author with pride — a book which any one of the thousand of evangelical ministers of all denominations would have written, had he sat down with such a purpose, — the mere alphabet of the Christian religion, which, whatever cause its success might occasion to its

* There is a blank left for the quotation in Mr James’s MS., and nothing to indicate to what particular passage of the “Reformed Pastor” he alludes; but there can be little doubt that he was thinking of the extract given in the test. — Ed.

3U

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

Autobio- author for adoring gratitude, can certainly yield no materials to giaphicai. y.^ pride. Yet this elementary, this simple, this humble, this comparatively insignificant little book, has been honoured of God to do a mighty work in the earth in the way of converting souls. What, then, are its contents? what the truths it illustrates? The spirituality and eternal obligation and unabated requirements of the moral law — the tremendous evil and awful consequences of sin — the condemnation of the whole human race by the law they had violated — the atonement of Christ, by His death on the cros.s, for the sins of the world — the infinite love and grace of God, in His willingness to receive the chief of sinners — the nature and necessity of repentance and of the new birth — the justification of the sinner in the sight of God by faith without works — the indispensable necessity of the work of the Spirit of God to enlighten, to renew, and sanctify the soul; together with some instructions calculated to remove perplexities, to overcome difficulties, and to aSbrd encouragement to the soul convinced of sin and inquiring after salvation. Such are the truths, and the method of presenting them, contained in this work. There, of course, are not to be found theological subtleties, or matters of controversy. If, then, these truths are thus powerful to awaken the conscience, when set forth in a book, and addressed to the soul through the medium of the eye, how much more powerful for this end might it be expected they would prove when addressed to the soul through the medium of the ear! Faith more frequently cometh by hearing than by reading. For one converted by reading, scores, if not hundreds, are converted by hearing. It is the preaching of the cross — not, of course, as the results of the “Anxious Inquirer,” and other similar works prove, to the exclusion of reading — that is the power of God unto salvation. But, then, it must be the preaching of the cross. There are certain truths, and these are set forth in this little treatise, that constitute the converting element of sermons; I say, the converting element, i.e., the truths, and manner of discussing them, that are adapted to convert the soul to God.

And here be it remarked, it is not only the truths themselves, but the manner of treating them, that constitutes the convert- “THE ANXIOUS LNQUIKEE.”

ing element. If the doctrines which are unto salvation be Autobiotreated in a mere argumentative form — if they are set forth in an ^p’“‘^ abstract or in a cold, heartless manner, or are addressed simply to the intellect, or are garnished with rhetorics or ornamented with poetic imagery, so that the imagination shall be appealed to rather than the heart and conscience, little, even with the gospel, can be expected in the way of conversion. It is the gospel addressed in simple earnestness to the soul that will move it. Now, I would by no means set up the “Anxious Inquirer” as a perfect standard for the manner of treating gospel truths and commending them to the heart and conscience. Yet I may, without the least violation of modesty, affirm that there is some measure of simplicity in the work. There is a plain, affectionate earnestness in the work. And do not these two words, “affection” and “earnestness,” include the very essentials of a successful ministration of the gospel? They are intimately related; for can there be affection without earnestness, or earnestness where there is no affection? In listening to some preachers of the gospel, you perceive a deplorable want of both these. All is didactic, heartless intellectuality. The preacher is a lecturer on the gospel; and the sermon is a mere lecture: all true — perhaps clear — but there is nothing which makes the audience feel that the preacher loves them, is intensely anxious to save them, and is preaching to them the gospel for this very purpose. No minister can be a good and effective preacher of the gospel who does not produce on the minds of his hearers the conviction — “This man is intent on saving our souls. He would save us if he could.” What can interest us like the interest manifested for us! How weighty a motive-power is the exhibition of a sincere and ardent affection! To see a man rousing up all the energies of his soul to do us good — using all the powers of persuasion, the tear starting in his eye, the flush spreading over his face, the very muscles of his countenance work, till we seem to feel his very hand laying hold with a grasp of our soul to save us from perdition! Oh, the force there is in such preaching! This gave the charm, the power, and, in subordination to the Spirit of God, the success to Whitfield’s preaching.

LIFE OF JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

Autoino- Now, may I not lay claim for something of this in the “Anxious graphical, yyy.^j, 2» Must not the reader feel that the author loves him, and is in earnest for his salvation? Does not the book engage his attention, as the appeal of one that is concerned for his welfare? Must he not say, “Well, if no one has before cared for my soul, this man does. Here I have found a friend who is concerned for my eternal wellbeing?” May I not ascribe much of the success of the book to its affectionate earnestness? And may I not again and again repeat the inference, that if this is successful in a book, may it not be expected under God to be still more successful in a sermon?

TO THE REV. DK PATTON,
ON PUBLISHING THE “ANXIOUS INQUIRER” IN AMERICA.

“Edobaston, Api-il 14, 1834.

“My dear Brother, — You requested me some time since to forward the sheets of any work I might in future send from the press, to secure the copyright on your side of the Atlantic. I have taken your advice, and have herewith sent you about half of a little tiling I have prepared for inquirers. I do not know that it is of sufficient magnitude or value to sell for anything in your literary market; but if it be ever so small a sum, it will be a drop in the stream of holy liberality, and may serve by that drop to water the parched places of the earth. If you can obtain anything for it, you may appropriate it to your Education Society. The title I propose is this: ‘The Anxious Inquirer after Salvation Directed and Encouraged.’ The treatise is after the plan of Dr Henry’s book; but I have always found that volume too lengthy, and there is also a want of perspicuity in the style. I have aimed at great simplicity and conciseness. The other portion shall follow as soon as it is out. I have forwarded a copy through the medium of two different houses, lest a single one should fail.

“We are still much in a bustle about our claims as Dissenters. I think it likely we shall succeed, though perhaps not this session of Parliament. Religion is stagnant, I fear. There is but little doing. Men are almost wholly taken up with ’ the things that are seen and temporal.’

“Before you receive this, you will have seen our brethren Eeid and Matheson. I hope their visit will be productive of benefit to the churches of both hemispheres.

“I have sent you a copy of a most delightful work not long since “THE AXXIOUS IJ<-QUIRER.” published in this country. Oh, what men were those missionaries! May God pour out His Spirit upon all living labourers, and make them more like those who have entered on their rest!

“Kind regards to Mrs Patton, in which my wife unites. — Your affectionate brother,

“J. A. jAilES.

“F.S. — I will send the volumes by the next parcel The remaining chapters will be: Mistakes — Perplexities — Discouragements — Cautions — Encouragements.”