present all consideration of the peculiarities of religion, I say, seek an honest and an upright heart. Let your minds be open to the reception of truth, and jour wills be determined to em- brace it. Let conscience act its part, and execute the office of a faithful monitor within you ; and let your lives be regulated altogether by its dictates. Let not prejudice or passion or interest blind you : let not the whole world cause you to swerve from the path of duty. Be bold for God ; and " serve him, without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all your days." In a word, " Quit yourselves like men," and " be faithful unto death." Like Moses, be ready to suffer affliction with the people of God ; and in due season you shall, like him, receive an ample recompence of reward.]
2. Seek real happiness —
[This also is an object of universal desire. But be sure to seek it in the way in which alone it can be found. If you "sow iniquity, you can reap nothing but vanity:" if you "sow the wind, you must reap the whirlwind." God has determined, that " whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap : he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption : but he who soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlast- ing m." It is the harvest which repays the husbandman for all his labours. Look ye to that: and know, that "the sufferings of this present life, however great or numerous they may be, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." As for appearances of integrity, be not satis- fied with them: they cannot but issue ill at the last. "Knowest thou not," says Zophar, "since man was placed upon the earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment ? Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever, like his own dung ; and they that have seen him shall say, Where is he n ?" " Seek, then, the honour that cometh of God," and the happiness that will endure. Then, when those who laughed now shall weep, you who wept now shall laugh and sing for joy to all eternity °.j
m Gal. vi. 7, 8. n Job xx. 4 — 7. ° Luke vi. 21, 25.