are truly alive to God " We shall offer him the
sacrifice of praise continually'"," and " render to him the calves of our lips"."]
2. Of willing service —
[The Jews were, by the very covenant they had entered into at their circumcision, bound to consider themselves as "a holy people, a kingdom of priests :" and we also, by virtue of our baptismal vows, are " a chosen generation, a royal priest- hood, an holy nation, a peculiar people °." The vows then made, it will be our labour, and our delight, to perform. As the holy angels are " doing God's will, hearkening to the voice of his word," so we shall be studying to know his will, and be standing ready to execute it to the utmost of our power. It is astonishing what an alteration a principle of religion makes in the soul in this particular ! The natural man lives only to himself : the spiritual man lives, or at least endeavours to live, wholly to the Lord ; to have no will, no way, no desire, no thought, but what will be pleasing and acceptable in his sight. That which was the first expression of piety in Paul, is the first of every converted soul ; " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " A \dew of him as our Master and our Father will ensure this?: and in proportion as religion increases in the soul, will be our endeavour to " glorify God vvith our bodies and our spirits, which are his^."]
3. Of humble dependence —
[Religion leads us to realize in our minds the thought of God's superintending care and effectual agency in our behalf. It does not bring us only to a sense of our obligations to him, but, if we may so speak, to a sense of his obligations to us : for, if " we be his people, he also is our God : " and he, by virtue of his covenant and oath, is as much bound to employ all his glorious perfections for us, as we are to improve all our faculties and powers for him. What a blessed thought is this I In what an exalted view does it place religion, which, if it calls us to duties, invests us also with the most glorious privileges ! It teaches us to " call upon him in every time of ti'ouble," per- suaded that " he will hear us," and give us ever increasing occasion to "glorify his name." This realizing sense of his presence, this assurance of his eflTectual interposition in every time of need, is the crown and summit of religion : it most of all glorifies God, and ensures beyond a doubt the richest testi- monies of his approbation.]
Let US LEARN then from hence,
1. How to estimate aright our own character —
ni Heb. xiii, 15. « Hos. xiv. 2. ° 1 Pet. ii. 9.
P Mai. i. 6. q Rom. xii. 1. 1 Cor. vi. 20.