The truth of this solemn saying appears on every side of us. We have only to look round the world and mark the things on which most men set their affections, in order to see it proved in a hundred ways. Riches, and honours, and rank, and pleasure, are the chief objects for which the greater part of mankind are living. Yet these are the very things which God declares to be " vanity," and of the love of which He warns us to beware! Praying, and Bible-reading, and holy living, and re- pentance, and faith, and grace, and communion with God, are things for which few care at all. Yet these are the very things which God in His Bible is ever urging on our attention ! — The disagreement is glaring, painful, and appalling. What God calls good, that man calls evil ! What God calls evil, that man calls good !
Whose words, after all, are true P Whose estimate is
correct P Whose judgment wiU stand at the last day ?
By whose standard will all be tried, before they receive
their eternal sentence P Before whose bar will the
current opinions of the world be tested and weighed at
last? These are the only questions which ought to
influence our conduct ; and to these questions the Bible
returns a plain answer. The counsel of the Lord, — ^it
alone shall stand for ever. The word of Christ, — it alone
shall judge man at the last day. By that word let us
live. By that word let us measure everything, and every
person in this evil world. It matters nothing what man
thinks. "What saith the LordP" — ^It matters nothing
what it is fashionable or customary to think. " Let God
be true, and every man a liar." (Eom. iii. 4.) The
more entirely we are of one mind with God, the better