Abstract:
Thomas Erskine’s introductory essay to the works of John Gambold argues that true moral and spiritual transformation arises not from exhortation or self‑effort but from the “circumstances” God reveals in the gospel—namely, the free, unconditional joy of reconciliation with God through Christ. Erskine contrasts human inability to control the circumstances that shape character with God’s unique power to alter the deepest “relation” of a person—their standing before their Creator—and insists that only the joy of believing in God’s pardoning love can produce willing obedience and holiness. He presents Gambold as a vivid example: a man who abandoned fruitless moral striving when he discovered the Moravian message of Christ as complete wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and whose writings radiate the childlike joy and spiritual realism that flow from this faith. The essay ultimately commends Gambold’s works not for literary merit alone but for their capacity to bring eternal realities into living contact with the soul and to awaken the joy that renews character.
It has long been received as a maxim amongst those who have studied politics in connection with the philosophy of human nature that the surest and shortest way of making men good subjects and good citizens is to make them happy subjects and happy citizens. When we say that a man is happy as a subject, or as a citizen, or as a member of any society, we feel that we are just saying, in other words, that he is attached to the government, or state, or society under or in which he lives, and that he is, of course, disposed to fulfil the duties connected with these relations. It is a maxim founded on the instincts of man, and however it may be neglected in practice, it has too much obvious truth in it to be often controverted in the abstract. Some speculative philanthropists have given this maxim a more splendid and imposing form. They say, “Surround a man with circumstances and you make of him what you please. Command his circumstances, and you command his character.” This proposition has not met with so favorable a reception as the other, although it is probably intended to convey precisely the same idea, namely, that a man’s character depends on or is molded by events and facts external to himself. Indeed, it is impossible to make a man happy in any relation without commanding his circumstances in some degree—and so those who admit the first proposition are bound in reason to admit the second. Perhaps the equivocal use of the word circumstances may have occasioned some part of the coldness with which it has been received. But certainly, the chief part is to be ascribed to the unmasked openness with which it comes forward. It assumes a postulate which can never be granted, namely, that it is in the power of man to command circumstances to an indefinite extent. Men may flatter themselves that they can make each other happy in general, but when they are brought to particulars, they know and acknowledge that their power is very limited, that they cannot a vert pain, or death, or remorse. We are in the habit of calling a man’s visible relations, and especially his fortune, health, and family circle exclusively his circumstances and as we have many proofs that these circumstances in their most prosperous state cannot ensure happiness, we think ourselves entitled to deny it of all circumstances. But everything which comes in contact with a man’s feeling or thought, everything which occasions joy or sorrow, hope or fear, love or hate may come properly under the denomination of circumstances. In truth, every feeling arises from some circumstance or cause in contact with us and yet external to us, and we know neither happiness nor misery except from circumstances. It is no exaggeration then to say that if we could command the circumstances of a man, we could also command his happiness and his character. But of whom can it be said without exaggeration that he really can command the circumstances of any sensitive and intelligent and immortal being? The relations of human existence are numerous and to each of these relations belong its peculiar circumstances. Men are fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, friends, masters, servants, rulers and subjects. They are connected by blood, by business, and by mutual interest and there are many supposable circumstances in these relations capable of producing much joy or much sorrow. Who can command these circumstances? Moreover, men are creatures accountable to their Creator. This is the grand and permanent relation. All other relations cease with our life and even with the lives of others. A man ceases to be a father when he dies himself or when all his children are dead—he ceases to be a husband when his wife is dead—but he cannot cease to be a creature whilst his existence continues in any mode or form whatever. Who can command the circumstances of this relation? Who is it that can surround the spirit of a man with the light of the divine countenance? and make this light an abiding and a continual circumstance accompanying him through life and bringing into near and distinct vision the undisturbed, unfading, and increasing glories of eternity? Who is he that can remove from a mind convinced of its rebellion against God and of the justice and awfulness of his displeasure who can remove from such a mind the fearful looking for of judgment? Besides, this great relation is not only permanent, it is also the root and the regulator of all the rest. Who placed us in these various passing relations? Our Creator. And our relation to him it is which binds us to fulfil the duties of these relations faithfully.
Of these inferior relations, some are more important to our happiness than others. Thus, a man’s peace is not so much destroyed by having a worthless servant or by meeting with a reverse of fortune as by having a wicked son or a false friend. Whilst the circumstances belonging to the more important relations of life continue favorable, adverse ones in the less important can be easily supported. But one unfavorable circumstance in the closer and nearer relations will often cast its own dark shadow over a uniform prosperity in all the lower relations. We find that this is the case in the temporary relations of this world, and it is so also in the first and highest relation. A man can generally escape from what is painful in this world’s relations. He can leave his country and whatever it contains if he does not like it, or if he cannot do this, he knows that a few years must free him from oppressive rule, from bad health, from unkind friends, and from all other evils peculiar to this life. The thought of a near deliverance is a powerful mitigator of affliction. There are many hours too, in which he may withdraw himself from his circumstances of sorrow, and then he may have some repose. But if the circumstances of his chief relation, his state before God, be favorable, then, even in the midst of the most overwhelming of this world’s calamities, he is an enviable man. There may be and will be, in spite of occasional eclipses, a deep substantial peace within him, the reflected image of the Sun of Righteousness. He does not look on passing events as the channels of joy or sorrow but as the indications of his gracious Father’s will calling him to the exercise of faith and love, those holy principles in the perfection of which consists the perfection of happiness, he hath a refuge which the world sees not and into it he flees and is safe. He can even rejoice in tribulations whilst he thinks of “the man of sorrows” and of the exceeding and eternal weight of glory, which is wrought out by these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, he looks forward to the glorious morning of the eternal sabbath, and he feels that he is free and happy forever.
But if the circumstances of this highest relation be wrong, all is wrong. They may be wrong and often are without being felt to be so. There are many who have not set down their relation to God in the list of their relations, who have never regarded his favor or displeasure as circumstances of their condition and who have never looked into eternity as their own vast, untried dwelling-place, destined to be either their heaven or their hell. And yet this is the chief relation and these are the chief circumstances of their being. The very root of the moral existence of such persons is dead. Their circumstances are, in truth, most deplorable and their insensibility to pain from them arises from palsy, not from health. But in some, just so much animation remains that these mighty circumstances are felt to be unfavorable, and then they blacken existence and convert it into anguish. They poison every other relation and paralyze action in every other duty. Escape is impracticable. The only remedy lies in having these circumstances altered. But who can command these circumstances? Can man command them? A man who is happy as a father, or a friend, or a citizen will be found to fulfil the duties of those relations better than another equally conscientious who is unhappy in these relations—because the one will act cheerfully and from the heart, whilst the other acts from the less lively principle of a sense of propriety. And where there is no conscientiousness on either side, the man who is happy in those relations will fulfil the duties arising out of them, naturally so to speak, whilst the unhappy man will as naturally neglect them. Happiness in one leading relation will often cast its own cheerful glow on the less pleasing circumstances of lower relations and fill out the concomitant duties with its own life and vigor.
Of what immense moment then must it be to have the circumstances of our highest relation, that in which we stand to our Creator favorable and happy! This would be purifying the fountain and all the streams would be pure. This would be healing the root and all the branches would be good fruit. But we must again return to that most important and critical interrogation, who can command these circumstances? Who can give a man happiness in the full view of all his relations?
There is nothing absurd in saying, “Command the circumstances of a man, and you command his character,” but there is a strange absurdity in supposing that any power short of omnipotence can command these circumstances because the chief of our relations is that in which we stand towards him who is omnipotent. God alone can command these circumstances: no one but God has authority to say that our offences and failures in that relation are forgiven—that a full satisfaction has been made on our behalf to the broken laws of the universal government—that the gates of the family of God are thrown open to us and that we are invited every moment to speak to him as to a Father and lean upon him as on an almighty and faithful and tender friend—and that the unending duration to which we are advancing is safe and peaceful, full of bliss and full of glory. The circumstances of that highest relation have been most particularly and fully made known to us in the Bible that we might have happiness, even the joy of the Lord, which, if really attained by us, will supply strength for the cheerful, and affectionate and diligent performance of every duty springing from every relation in life and will be our comfort and hiding place in every sorrow.
It has often struck us as a very remarkable fact that principles which are generally recognized as most reasonable and true when applied to the affairs of this life should be instantly rejected as unreasonable and contemptible when applied to the great concerns of eternity. We can easily suppose the smile of scorn with which a political philosopher would look upon us if in reply to his question, “What is the best way of leading back a nation of rebels to obedience to lawful authority and of engaging them again in the peaceful duties of civil life?” We should return this answer, “Why, the best way is to inculcate upon them the duty of submission, to explain to them the particulars in which that duty consists, and to enforce upon their minds the guilt and the danger of revolt.” He would probably give us to understand that we knew nothing about the matter, and he would have very good reason to do so. But is it not strange that if we asked him, “What is the best way of making careless sinful men good subjects of the King of heaven?” he should almost to a certainty give us an answer if he thought the question deserved one at all in all respects similar to that very reply which he had so deservedly scouted when made by us to his political problem. He would tell us, “Oh you must explain their duties to them and press them on their observance.” Suppose then that we were just to turn the tables on him and ask him to answer his own question and to allow us to answer ours. The answers would be very much alike except in so far as the revolt against human authority had arisen from misgovernment. He would say, “All unnecessary causes of irritation must be removed, a full and unconditional amnesty must be proclaimed, pledges must be given which may destroy all possible suspicion of the sincerity of the government, perfect security and safety must be immediately guaranteed, and subsequent promotion in the state ascertained to them in proportion to their qualifications.” We might then say to him, “Take away the first clause of your answer, (for there is no unnecessary cause of irritation under God’s government), and the remainder may stand for ours. We could particularize, if you wished it, the nature of that amnesty which God has proclaimed, and we could tell of the unutterable pledge of his sincerity which he has given, even the Son of his love, but your political scheme contains the outline of the Christian dispensation, and your rejection of the latter, whilst you defend and preach the former, ought at least to make you suspect that you are not quite so candid a philosopher as you think yourself or that at least you have made a wrong comparative estimate of the importance of the different relations in which you are placed, having excluded that one from the contemplation of your reason which certainly claimed more than all others the fulness of its powers.” It is most probable too that the free and unconditional, and all-including amnesty which he considers the wisest, and best, and most unassailable position in his political scheme becomes the marked object of his severe moral censure when it meets him in the Christian plan under the name of free grace. In the real business of life (as he would term it), he fully and intelligently recognizes the principle that the character of a man is molded by his circumstances, and, therefore, when he designs to affect the character, he turns his skill and his power towards the circumstances which may influence it. He sees plainly within this field that the true and right fulfillment of the duties belonging to any relation in life is best secured by happiness in that relation. But as soon as his mind is called to another field of contemplation—as soon as eternity is substituted for time and the divine authority for this world’s rulers, although human beings still continue the subjects to be influenced and operated on—his wisdom seems to forsake him, he rejects measures which in all analogous cases he admires and proposes expedients which he would blush to mention in any other case. There is evidently a most undeniable truth in what the Bible says of the disinclination of the natural man to receive the things of the spirit. There is nothing astonishing in his rejecting the humiliating fact that he is deservedly under a sentence of condemnation which would forever exclude him from the light and favor of heaven—nor can we wonder that he should hesitate about receiving the fully developed history of that love which surpasses knowledge—but we may well wonder that he does not perceive that it is happiness and happiness derived from known circumstances in this highest relation as in all other relations which can alone produce a full and cheerful performance of the duties arising out of it—we may well wonder that he who apprehends so thoroughly the uselessness and inefficiency of mere precepts and delineations of duty in the political, and civil, and social relations of life when unsupported by circumstances in those relations, understood and felt as constraining motives of action should yet exclude from his religious system everything living and moving and exciting, all circumstances in the relation of the creature to the Creator which might lead to happiness and so animate performance whilst he retains only the moral aphorisms and exhortations which are chiefly intended as the descriptions of the feelings and character which a belief of the revealed circumstances would produce and which can never by any process of inculcation reproduce themselves in minds constructed like ours.
The cheerful and willing obedience which flows from an affectionate heart is the only service acceptable to him whose name is love and whose law is the law of liberty. And can this be without joy? What draws the affection of the heart? Something amiable, something which pleases and produces delight. So, joy is at the very spring of love and alacrity and without joy there is nothing graceful, or noble, or free in action.
Do we wish, then, to perform fully the duties belonging to our various relations? Then joy must be infused into the circumstances of those relations. But how is this to be done? Who can command the gifts of fortune or nature? Who can stay the approach of sickness or death? Aye, and what are we to do for the other world? Will the joy of these temporary relations, supposing that we obtain it, carry us forward in healthy and cheerful action through another state of being? Let us be wise in this inquiry and beware of wasting our time and our strength in vain attempts. Joy, infused into the circumstances of any passing relation, perishes when that relation perishes. But there is a permanent relation, and it also is the root from which all other relations grow. Oh, how desirable to have joy infused here that it might, like living sap, circulate through the whole tree of human relations and bring forth much fruit on every branch! And praised be our God who hath shed forth joy abundantly on the circumstances of this relation, even joy unutterable and full of glory. He hath drawn aside the veil and hath let in upon us the light of his own eternal blessedness. He hath done more. He hath said, “Come up hither.” He hath changed our scene and our circumstances from earth to heaven—he hath given us a place in the upper sanctuary—he hath surrounded us with the privileges of his children—he hath joined us to the general assembly and church of the first born whose names fill the bright and happy rolls of heaven, yea he hath united us to himself.
But it may be said, “Are the circumstances of this high relation contained in a revelation made to sinners in general or to certain individuals in particular for surely there are but few who seem to be happy with God?” The revelation is to sinners in general, but the things contained in it are the circumstances of those only who believe in it. You do not command the circumstances of a blind man when you surround him with visible objects. They are not his circumstances for they do not come in contact with his thought or feeling. In like manner, the blessings of the gospel are not the circumstances of a man who does not believe the gospel—for they do not come in contact with his thought or feeling. No man can rejoice in that which he does not believe, and it is by peace and joy in believing that the character is purified and sanctified and made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.
God has, in his revealed word surrounded us with circumstances of peace and glory when we deserved to be surrounded with circumstances of terror and despair. Our hearts have departed from God and chosen things which he abhors. We think little of him and feel little about him and regard not his honor and desire none of his ways. And yet we are his creatures and, as such, are bound to obey him at the peril of our happiness forever. He hath pronounced a sentence of condemnation against every sin—every departure of the will or of the affections from him. Who is there that has not incurred this sentence? And yet, oh! who could bear its infliction? None need bear it but those who refuse the message of mercy. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The divine and human natures were united in the person of Christ—he became our representative—he suffered the sentence which had been pronounced against us—Jehovah was well pleased for his righteousness’ sake, for thus the law was magnified and made honorable. The work of atonement was declared complete by the resurrection of the surety, and pardon and acceptance and eternal life were proclaimed to be the free gift of God through the Saviour’s name to the chief of sinners. Joy must be the immediate result of believing that guilt and danger and condemnation are done away, that eternity is secure and happy and that the almighty master of our destiny, the Judge whom we have offended is our gracious father and our kind and compassionate friend. Hath God then revealed to us circumstances of joy in our eternal relation with himself and shall we refuse to drink, yea, to drink abundantly of these waters of gladness that our hearts may be refreshed and filled with a holy alacrity to run in the way of all his commandments? Somewho profess to believe the gospel do yet refuse to drink of these waters because, alas! they have hewn out to themselves in the passing relations of life cisterns which one day they will find to be broken cisterns that can hold no water.
But some there are of spiritual minds and humble hearts who refuse to drink because they think themselves unworthy. “Let the advanced Christian rejoice” say they, “but it would be presumptuous in such polluted sinners as we are to rejoice.” Ought not a polluted sinner to rejoice that he is forgiven? and farther, it is this holy grateful joy which God has appointed as the means of cleansing and renewing your nature. “Incline your ear and come unto me,” saith the Lord, “hear and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” “Happy are the people that know the joyful sound.” If you were called on to rejoice in yourselves, you might wait till you were better, and long you would have to wait, but when you are called on to rejoice in Christ, why should you wait? He and his salvation continue always the same, and the greater sinner you are, so much the greater and the more joyful is your deliverance. What made the shepherds rejoice? What made the Ethiopian eunuch and the Philippian jailor rejoice? Nothing in themselves, surely. No, it was the exhilarating intelligence that sin was pardoned, that peace was restored between the Holy One who sitteth on the throne of heaven, and the rebellious outcasts of this earth. This is the joy which must lead the way if we hope to make advances in the Christian course. There is another joy to be sure, but it never leads the way it is not called the joy of the Lord—it consists in the consciousness that the work of God’s Spirit is going on in our souls and that our hearts have, amidst many sins, been faithful to him who loved us. The way to obtain this latter joy is to abound in the former.
We know no author who has illustrated the origin and tendency of the joy of the Lord so simply, so beautifully, or so strikingly as John Gambold, the author of the following productions. His mind was evidently of a very fine order. In his youth, he had mixed philosophical mysticism and theology together. He had formed an elevated and pure and holy idea of perfect goodness he felt his obligation to attain to it—he attempted it long—and at last sunk under the mortifying and heart chilling conviction that he was only adding sin to sin without advancing a single step towards his high object. Whilst he was in this melancholy condition, it pleased God that he should meet with one of the Moravian brethren who declared to him the simple gospel “that Christ is made of God unto us wisdom, and justification, and sanctification, and redemption,” that the only atonement that ever could be made for sin was already made and accepted, that we neither could take away our guilt by any scheme of our own nor was it necessary for Christ’s blood had done it and that now we are called on and invited as blood-bought and well-beloved children to follow him who had so loved us, to keep near to him as the fountain of our life and happiness, and to testify our gratitude to him by obeying his commandments.
Pardon is proclaimed through the blood of Christ and sanctification is the fruit of faith in that pardon. Mr. Gambold gave up his laborious and unsuccessful efforts, and he walked by faith, in humble and peaceful holiness, rejoicing in him who is the strength of his people. The simple, child-like joy for sin blotted out did for his soul what all his efforts, and sincere efforts they were, could never accomplish. This joy is his great theme. But we cannot rejoice by endeavoring to rejoice, any more than we can love by endeavoring to love. It is by keeping the glorious and blessed circumstances of our relation to God before our mind that we shall feel and continue to feel a natural and unforced joy which will produce a natural and unforced walk in the way of God’s commandments.
But what is the guard against the abuse of this doctrine? Let us look for it in the nature of Christian joy and in its object. Christian joy is not a mere joy for deliverance from misery. It is joy for a deliverance effected by the atonement of Jesus Christ. This joy, therefore, has respect to the procuring cause of the deliverance as well as to the deliverance itself. In the work of redemption are embodied all the divine attributes in perfect harmony. Joy becomes thus associated in the mind of the believer with each of these attributes, and it is this same joy which transcribes them on his heart. The object of the gospel and of the joy arising from a faith in the gospel is to conform us to the will and likeness of God. The law is thus the guard against the abuse or misinterpretation of the gospel. The law represents the character of God and of perfect happiness. and the gospel was given to associate that character with joy and thus to write the law upon our hearts. If, then, we believe and rejoice and yet do not grow in obedience to the law of God, we may be assured that it is not the true gospel which we are believing nor true Christian joy which we are feeling. We must turn to the cross and to the word which reveals the cross and to the Spirit who alone can shine upon the word. Let us not be jealous of joy but only let us be careful that it is “joy in the Lord.” Joy is the first fruit of the gospel of Christ and if we believe and yet do not rejoice, we may be assured that we have either added to the gospel or taken something from it—it is not the very gospel of Christ that we believe. This joy may consist with much sorrow as it did in the case of those first teachers who were sorrowful yet always rejoicing. It takes away the poison from sorrow and leaves only its tenderness. The exhortation to rejoice in the Lord was not so often repeated without good cause. If this glorious joy once filled our hearts, it would leave no room for sorrow or for those poor joys which, in their fading produce sorrow or for the base and turbulent and perplexing anxieties, passions, and appetites which for the most part fill up the life of man. If the soul saw itself ever surrounded by the light of that love which shone so bright on Calvary—if it saw every event and duty in life illuminated by that love—if the eternal world were ever present to it as its own home and as the place where redeeming love is the very element of life, where unmixed blessedness reigns, where the tie which unites the Father of spirits to his children is felt in all its ecstatic endearment, and where the whole happy family are continually advancing in their Father’s likewise without fear of change and without the possibility of falling—0 how buoyant would its spirits be! How freely, how boldly, how nobly, and yet how humbly and tenderly would it pass along the course of its existence! In every action it would feel itself a commissioned agent of heaven; it would know that it is called to fulfill purposes which it will require an eternity to unfold; it would have no will of its own but would act or suffer according to the will of God, looking up to his Fatherly face and rejoicing in his benignant smile.
The mind of Mr. Gambold was evidently deeply affected with these views. The first of the two Sermons which are contained in this volume was preached at a time when the free grace of the gospel was not much known in England and never did any uninspired Sermon give a plainer or a sweeter exhibition of it. The Drama describes Christianity during the first ages. The Author’s familiar acquaintance with the fathers enabled him to put much life and truth into the picture. Did we consider it our business to speak of the merits of this Drama as a poetical work, we could praise it highly. The reader of taste and discernment will discover much in it which proves the very uncommon powers of the Author, and which would not have disgraced the first writers in our language. I may instance the last speeches in the dialogue between the two Deacons in the opening scene—the exhortations of Ignatius before leaving Antioch—and the whole concluding scene of the Drama. There are, perhaps, other parts which may strike Christians more as, for example, the scene in which the conversion of the Soldier is described, and beautiful most assuredly it is. We remember at present only one passage in Shakespeare which is directly and unequivocally Christian and that occurs in Measure for Measure in the scene between Isabella and Angelo. She is persuading him to pardon her brother, and she says,
All the souls that were, were forfeit once;
And He that might the vantage best have took,
Found out the remedy: How would you be,
If He, which is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? O think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.
This is certainly in the good, though not in the highest style of the first genius that probably the world has ever seen, and yet there are many passages in Ignatius not inferior to it. There is to be sure a degree of stiffness and formality about the piece, but all of that which is disagreeable wears off upon acquaintance, and what remains rather accords with the unworldly character of the persons represented and so adds to the general truth and interest. His second Sermon, on “Religious Reverence,” though not equal throughout, contains some striking thoughts couched in most powerful phraseology. There is a remarkable expression of devotedness in his first Hymn and a most sweet and refined loveliness in the poem entitled “The Mystery of Life.”
It is impossible to read his works without being convinced that he enjoyed much communion with God and was much conversant with heavenly things and that hence he had imbibed much of the spirit and caught much of the tone of the glorified church above. There is a strong reality in his writings, and, oh, it is the great matter after all to have the things of eternity brought into sensible contact with our minds as present substantial circumstances producing immediate feeling and action and not allowed most fatally and foolishly to be mere subjects for conversation or texts for speculative discussion. If these things be present with us as real circumstances, they will be the sources of real joy, of real confidence for eternity, and of real consistency of conduct whilst we are in this world. Plain unsophisticated minds are the fittest recipients of Christian truth. They have been accustomed to dealing with realities, and thus the facts of revelation, when admitted, naturally come to them and operate on them as realities. On the other hand, metaphysicians and poets are very apt to convert the gospel into an ingenious argument and a beautiful dream. We must become as little children and learn Christianity not as judges but as those who are to be judged by it. Let us follow this servant of God as he followed Christ. He was long bewildered in his search after happiness and holiness; at last, he found them in the cross. Leaning on this, he walked in peace and godliness whilst here and departed hence in the sure hope of glory. His mind was evidently of a high order—his turn of thought is powerful and original—his imagination is of a fine ethereal quality—and his expression vigorous and striking. But our business is not with human genius, but with Christian doctrine. We do not recommend this book for the passing pleasure which it may afford but for the permanent profit, which by the divine blessing may be derived from it. We recommend it as a perspicuous and serious illustration of divine truth, and our prayer is that the eyes of our minds and of the minds of all who read it may be opened by the Spirit of God to discern more and more our need of salvation and the fulness and preciousness of that salvation which is in Christ Jesus. “Now unto Him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen”
Τ. Ε.
Edinburgh, July 1822
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