THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 173 



spiritual shipwreck. (1 Tim. i. 19.) Against this 

 calamity neither height of station, nor weight of 

 learning, nor the counsel of friends has been sufficient 

 to protect such characters. They have been suddenly 

 engulphed in that vortex of worldliness, or sensuality, 

 where their weakness is fully exposed, and their ruin 

 is almost inevitable. 



Happily, however, instances of this signal defection 

 from the truth, are perhaps as uncommon as the de- 

 struction of one of those " Lords of the deep," through 

 the treacherous agency of a sunken rock, or a coral 

 reef. But there are comparatively few whose course 

 has not sometimes been threatened by a danger of this 

 sort ; though some there may be whose religious 

 career rather resembles that of a rock fixed amidst the 

 ocean surges, than a vessel sailing through these, with 

 dangers above, beneath, and around. Such a charac- 

 ter is beautifully described by one of the Greek Fathers, 

 St. Gregory Nazianzum, * He who honours and follows 

 what is good for its own sake, inasmuch as he is a 

 lover of stability, possesses this quality. He retains 

 an intense desire of that which is excellent ; thus pre- 

 senting something godlike to view, and being able to 

 say that which may be said of God, " I am not ano- 

 <45 



