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XI.

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.*

MATTHEW XVi. 1-3.-The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting him desired that he would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather; for the sky is red: And in the morning, It will be foul weather to-day; for the sky is red and lowering. ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

[PREACHED AT BRISTOL, FOR THE NATIONAL SCHOOLS, NOVEMBER 28, 1820.]

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So violent were the prejudices excited by our Saviour's preaching, that those who could agree in nothing besides agreed in the attempt to discredit his authority, and destroy the effects of his ministry. An instance of this is presented in the words just read, in which we find the Pharisees and Sadducees forgetting their mutual antipathy in their common hostility to the pretensions of Jesus Christ. The Pharisees, as you are aware, were a sect among the Jews, who had multiplied to an enormous extent their additions to the law of Moses; which, together with the other parts of the Old Testament, they received as inspired. The Sadducees, a sort of religious skeptics, generally supposed to have confined their belief to the missions and writings of Moses, rejected the doctrines which connect us with a future world; the resurrection of the body, and the existence of spirits. These two parties, at variance on all other occasions, concurred on this; and both, "tempting" our Lord in the hope of ruining his reputation, "desired that he would shew them a sign from heaven;" an indication that he was the Messiah, yet more miraculous and convincing, according to their idea, than any he had before exhibited. By this "sign from heaven," they probably meant some direct manifestation of the Divine glory, without that intervention of second causes which seems to have impaired in their minds the impression of the miracles they had witnessed. They imagined that an immediate vision of the Divine Majesty would afford an evidence of his being the Messiah, more unequivocal and satisfactory than could be afforded by any performances however supernatural. Such a notion was delusive, and arose entirely from the depraved and obdurate state of their minds. When we find those who are already in possession of sufficient evidence yet demanding more than is given, we may be sure that, in such cases, no evidence would be sufficient. Accordingly, it is not the practice of the Divine government to comply with such unreasonable desires :

Printed from the notes of the Rev. Thomas Grinfield.

but, while he that hath, or that improves his present advantages, shall receive abundantly more: from him that hath not, or that uses not what he has, even that which he hath shall be taken away.

From the suggestion of the words first read, I propose to consider some of the most obvious and palpable signs which the present age exhibits of the advancement of our Saviour's kingdom; and I shall take occasion to remark previously, that it is an important part of wisdom, a duty which as Christians we ought not to neglect,-to discern the signs, to watch the moral aspect of the times in which we live. We are not, indeed, called or qualified to penetrate into futurity; but we may study with advantage that portion of providence in relation to the church and the world with which we are most nearly connected.

Of the benefits to be derived from this study, the first is, that we shall thus learn more of the intentions and character of the Divine Being. The providence of God is the execution and development of his mind. In observing the course of providence, we see the operations of his hand, and read his will as truly in its fulfilment as in his written revelation. Again: our devotion should be modified, to a certain extent, by the signs of the times. In our prayers, we may derive encouragement from these to plead with God for the accomplishment of his own gracious designs and promises: we may adapt our humiliation to the demand of the season; acknowledge the hand that wards off impending evils or crowns us with signal favours; and be reminded what benefits we may appropriately implore. And, once more such a habit of advertence to the prominent features of the age may be useful in the regulation of our active duties. In our exertions to promote the good of mankind and the glory of God, we are not merely to regard his general will as applicable to all times alike; we are to inquire, also, his particular design in reference to the existing state of things,-to study what he would have us do at such a particular crisis. Does He appear, for instance, by various concurring events, to be preparing for the more extensive and rapid diffusion of the gospel? Then it becomes our appropriate duty to provide whatever means seem the best adapted to promote that transcendent object. Some persons, who are sufficiently attentive to the more private details of Christian duty, take but little interest in the fortunes of the universal church: a failure which, in such cases, arises principally from that inattention to the signs of the times reprehended by our Saviour in the text.

Having offered these suggestions, I shall now advert to some plain, unequivocal signs and indications of the present age. I call them plain and unequivocal, in distinction from such as may be thought of an ambiguous character. With respect to some of these signs, while events are passing by us, there may be differences of sentiment; differences which will probably disappear when another generation shall look back upon our own times. In contemplating an object, we find it necessary to recede to a certain distance, in order that we may the more comprehensively survey what pressed too closely and became

too prominent, during our nearer approach; and thus the present portion of providence will be better understood, in all its bearings, when the events which compose its principal features shall have been for some time passed. The following remarks, however, will be confined to the most striking peculiarities of the present age.

1. Of these, the first I shall mention is, the great increase of mental exertion. Some periods have been marked by intellectual inaction; the human mind has appeared as in a state of torpor and dormancy: not a luminary has broken the prevailing darkness; not a distinguished name has been left behind: knowledge has been not merely stationary, it has not merely not been progressive, it has retrograded. Such was that period in which, after the decline of the Platonic philosophy, Aristotle reigned in all the schools, and was idolized as the secretary of nature, who dipped his pen in intellect. From his dictates there was no appeal; and, what was most remarkable, his empire extended to theology. As nothing can convey a higher idea of the intellectual greatness of that extraordinary man, than the unrivalled despotism he then exercised over human minds, so nothing can present a more humiliating picture of the weakness of those minds than the depth of mental degradation to which they thus descended. The Reformation was the great instrument in undermining and demolishing that longestablished system of intellectual despotism and degradation. Under the light diffused by the Reformers, men awoke from the trance of ignorance and infatuation in which they had slept for ages; they felt those energies of thought and reason which had been so long disused; they began to investigate truth for themselves; they started to that career of genius and science which has ever since been rapidly advancing. Had this been the only benefit it produced, the Protestant Reformation would deserve to be numbered among the noblest achievements of mental energy: viewing it in this light, even infidels have applauded Luther and his associates.

Since that era the greatest advances have been made in every department of science, physical and moral; more especially during the last century, in which the progress of knowledge has been more rapid than, perhaps, during any similar period of human history. In addition even to the grand discoveries of Newton, respecting the laws of nature and the system of the universe, such a mass of varied information has been accumulated, that Newton himself, could he witness the present state of his own science, would be astonished at advances he never anticipated. Every year, nay, almost every day has added something; while the registers of discovery have found it no easy task to keep pace with the rapidity of its march. The nomenclature of the preceding fifty years has been found so inadequate to the demands of the latter half-century, that it has become entirely obsolete and a new nomenclature may be required by another age. This is remarkably exemplified in the department of chymical science: nor has less been accomplished in moral and political philosophy. The genius of legislation has been greatly elucidated within the present age. The principle of religious toleration and liberty of

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conscience, which required for its demonstration the reasoning powers of the immortal Locke, is now universally acknowledged. In a word, philosophy has been completely popularized, and mingles with every order of society, from the palace to the cottage: all approach its illumination, all participate in its benefits.

It is true that we cannot boast, in these latter times, of oratory or poetry equal to that of Demosthenes or of Milton. These arts, being derived from nature, the natural emanations of enthusiasm and fancy, are early brought to perfection; and are probably cultivated with less advantage in a more refined state of society. The case is different with respect to the pursuits of science and philosophy: these are permanently and interminably progressive: the induction of facts, the investigation of phenomena and principles, are susceptible of perpetual advancement: and if it were preposterous to suppose that those great masters of poetry and eloquence will ever be superseded, or perhaps even equalled, it were not less preposterous to deny that the present amount of knowledge,-immense as it now appears,-may yet, to a future generation, appear comparatively inconsiderable. Invention has exhausted its powers: the stores of philosophy are inexhaustible. In every successive age, it must be allowed, the increase of science, though continual, becomes less and less observable: it is during the infancy of knowledge that its growth is most apparent; afterward the vast general extent renders us less sensible of every new accession; just as in a large assemblage of buildings, like that which composes your own city, we are scarcely aware of its constant enlargement; while, in a village, every particular addition becomes an object of attention. Thus, less surprise is excited in the present age than would have been felt in any preceding period, by every fresh augmentation of our intellectual stores. It is an age of universal curiosity, in which ignorance is felt as a calamity. The extensive circulation of books, and the multitude of cultivated minds, distinguish this period beyond comparison with any that has preceded it. Never before was that prophetic feature of the latter days so strikingly exhibited-" Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."

2. A second feature by which the present age is distinguished is an increased attention to the instruction of the lower classes.

The time has been when the education of youth in the inferior walks of society was entirely neglected: it is only during a later period that the first impulse was given to that vast machine of universal instruction, which continues to operate with increasing energy. It is painful to reflect on the unnatural separation, in whatever relates to the mind, which formerly subsisted between the common people and those who fill the higher ranks of the community; the monstrous chasm which divided the gross barbarism of the former from the superfluous refinement of the latter. It seemed as if an entire oblivion had taken place, in reference to their original fraternal relation, as members of one family, children of a common father. There is little, it is true, in poverty, to gratify the taste or the imagination; but it is time, surely, to lose sight of those merely adventitious accompaniments which glitter VOL. III.-D d

on the eye of fancy and refinement,-time to recognise, in the humblest portions of society, partakers of our nature, with all its high prerogatives and awful destinies: it is time to remember that our distinctions are exterior and evanescent, our resemblance real and permanent; that all is transient but what is moral and spiritual; that the only graces we can carry with us into another world are graces of Divine implantation; and that, amid the rude incrustations of poverty and ignorance, there lurks an imperishable jewel,-a principle transcending in its value the whole material creation,-a soul, susceptible of the highest spiritual beauty, destined, perhaps, to adorn the celestial abodes, and to shine for ever in the mediatorial diadem of the Son of God! Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones.

Among the instances of an increased attention to the welfare of the lower classes may be numbered those improvements in the penal code of our laws, which have been proposed by a living lawyer,* who appears to me at least to have understood the true nature of legal justice much better than it has been comprehended heretofore. When so much light is thrown upon a subject,—before very imperfectly investigated, the most important amendments may be anticipated in the laws, especially those which affect the criminal's life; and we may hope the time is not distant when, in conformity with the Divine standard, the crime of murder shall be regarded as the only proper subject of capital punishment.

In short, we appear at length to have become sensible that every thing merits our earnest attention and encouragement which tends to promote the intellectual, moral, and civil improvement of that vast portion of the population in which the majority of numbers and physical strength resides, and which virtually includes the destiny of the nation; that broad basis of the pyramid of society, which, while it continues sound, affords stability to the whole, but by a rent in which the entire fabric must be endangered. Nothing in nature can be conceived more frightful, nothing more fatal to the existence of an empire, than an unprincipled, profligate, irreligious, turbulent populace; quiet perhaps at the present moment, but ready on the first occasion to break out into fury and violence. It is a volcano, covered with a surface of verdure, but prepared to scatter desolation around on the first eruption that may disturb its fearful quiescence; it is an edifice raised upon a mine, and constantly exposed to the peril of an explosion from the precarious ground and terrible materials beneath! We have witnessed, in a neighbouring kingdom, an example of the horrors to which a nation may be subjected by the unrestrained depravity of an uninstructed and irreligious populace-horrors which Heaven avert from ourselves! which exceed the conception of the most gigantic imagination! For nothing in the most savage part of the brute creation can parallel those fiery excesses of popular passion, which desolate whatever is social, whatever is sacred, in the institutions of mankind! But on "the evils of popular ignorance" it is the less necessary to enlarge here, as the subject has been recently illustrated by a living writer.t

* Sir James Mackintosh.

† Rev. John Foster.

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