It is a generally admitted truth, that in proportion to thelength of any
element, is its danger of losing indepth what it gains in space. This axiom in
physics may equally apply to religion. In proportion to the prevalence of a
profession of Christianity may be, in the same ratio, its shallowness and
superficiality. While, therefore, we hail with gladness and hope every new
impulse given to the cause of evangelization, and the corresponding interest
awakened in the popular mind, we yet rejoice with trembling. We pause, and
inquire\u2014What will be the actual gain to vital religion from all this? When the
attraction of novelty ceases, and the excitement of impassioned appeals
evaporates, and the glow of what is simply and only natural and sympathetic,
subsides, how much of the residuum that remains vital, spiritual, and
permanent? This is a question of grave and solemn import. A false profession
of religion, a spurious conversion, an invalid title to heaven, is of all fallacies
and delusions the most momentous and fatal!

The following pages are an attempt to supply a corrective to this evil. They by
no means propose to cover the entire ground. They rather seek to portray the
man of God in some of the essential and prominent features of his holy
character, and to trace a few of the stages of his Christian experience; making

the Lord Jesus Christ\u2014the Divine Man\u2014the central object of the picture.
Brevity in the unfolding of each subject has been studied, with the view of
introducing, into so limited a work, as great and rich a variety of topic as
possible. To the blessing of the Triune God, and to the prayers of the man of
God, this small volume is devoutly commended. (April 1863)

It is admitted by all conversant with Christian evidence that theinternal
proofs of tithe truth of Christianity surpass all others. This is undoubtedly so
as to the evidence of experience. An individual may not be able thoroughly to
understand either the external or the internal evidences of Christianity, but
let him have the evidence of personal experience and he is convinced. No
reasoning can overthrow, no sophistry can weaken, no assertions can remove
it. A man that has the experience of the truth in his heart is armed with a
mighty weapon with which to confront and confound his foes.

We do not say that there will not arise occasional mental difficulties and
spiritual despondencies, casting a momentary cloud-veil upon the luster of his
hope. But this we affirm, and affirm it fearlessly, that as it is impossible to
admit the sun within a room and then sanely question its light, so is it
impossible for Christ to take up His abode in the heart of a poor sinner
unattended by clear and demonstrable evidence. Nor is this evidence confined
to himself; others are compelled to acknowledge that he is a man of God, that
he has "passed from death unto life that his Christianity is more than a

The narrative which suggests it will be familiar. The prophet Elijah enters the abode of mourning. The heir and hope of the house was a corpse\u2014the young child lay dead. And the prophet, prompted by the instinct of humanity, as of gratitude for the hospitalities of that home, cried to God for the resuscitation of the child. And the Lord answered the prophet: "And the soul of the child came unto him again, and he revived." In view of prayer so prevalent, and of a divine answer so immediate, the gladsome mother exclaimed, "Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth

This touching incident in the life of the prophet is highly suggestive. The truth
we propose to illustrate by it is\u2014the visibility of Christian evidence, as
authenticating divine grace in the soul of man. A Christian should be known
as such by every act of his life. He should be as a city set upon a hill; a
lighthouse planted on a rock-bound coast, whose light is as luminous and
unmistakable as its influence is welcome and salutary. His principles, his
practice, his spirit, his whole carriage and life should be such as to inspire the
exclamation, "By this I know that you are a man of God."

Let me first direct the reader's attention to the dignity of the Christian
character\u2014the Man of God. The world has its men of mark. There is the man
of intellect, and he is known as such. The world looks upon him as a learned
man, admires him as a man of culture. We may here venture the remark, that

There is, too, the man of rank. It is true it is an empty title that he wears, still
he has a right to wear it, for God gave it to him. His Christianity\u2014if he is a
Christian\u2014does not demand its surrender. He should use his coronet for God,
and remain in the calling wherein grace has called him. There is the man of
wealth. Money is, perhaps, his god, and there are not lacking those who
worship the man as the impersonation of the deity. We do not assert that
wealth is in itself a crime\u2014it is the abuse of wealth that is the sin. To love it,

prodigally, are both abuses wealth, and both are an abomination in the sight
of God.
Then there is the man of taste and pleasure. Music, painting, sculpture,
sensual delights, are the absorbing objects of his pursuit; and the world
admires and cheers him on, for the world loves its own. Thus the world has its
men of mark, its men of distinction whom it delights to honor.

But the Church has its men of distinction too. They are styled, "men of God." Who and what is a man of God? The world cannot match him\u2014we challenge it, and say, "Bring out your man ofintellect, measure him with the renewed mind, the intellect taught and disciplined by God the Spirit, trained in God's school, on whose faculties the light of heaven has shone\u2014he is in comparison but a dwarf! Bring forth your man ofrank, the coronet glittering upon his