ways." Wherever we are, therefore, there should be that inscription, which Hagar saw, " Thou God seest me." O how circumspect would our conduct then be ! How continually would that question recur to our minds, " What will my God approve ? " That this is the frame of mind which every child of God will cultivate, is beautifully represented by St. Paul in his address to servants : he tells them how the servant of God does act towards his heavenly Master, and proposes it
as a pattern for them towards their earthly masters p
Let us " not be mere eye-servants, as men-pleasers," but exert ourselves at all times to please our God, as servants do under the immediate eye of their master.]
3. In a cheerful obedience to his commands —
[This is to walk before God in deed and in truth q : and to produce this, is the very end of all God's mercies towards us. Surely, if we are in any measure sensible of our obligations to God, we shall not account any of " his commandments grievous." We shall not wish so much as one of them to be relaxed, but shall attend to all of them without partiality and without hypocrisy. Happy would it be for us if more of this gratitude were found amongst us. Happy would it be if the love which God has shewn to us in Christ Jesus constrained us to live altogether unto God ; so that we could make the same appeal to him that Hezekiah did, "Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight r." This is the surest test of our integrity, and the most acceptable expression of our gratitude to God.]
In our reflections on this subject, we cannot but view in it abundant matter, 1. For our humiliation —
[How many mercies have we received, yet never stood amazed at the goodness of our God ! Were it only this, that our souls are not consigned over to everlasting death, we should have cause to bless our God day and night. Only reflect a moment, how dreadful it would have been to be cut off in our sins, and to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where there is nothing but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth ! And yet who amongst us has not richly deserved it ? who has not been in constant danger of it from day to day? Our sins have been more in number than the hairs of our head; yet not a thousandth part so great as they would have been, if we had been left to carry into act all the evil dispositions of our hearts. Truly if we have not run into the same enormities as others, it is God, and God alone, who has made the difference
p Eph. vi. 5—8. <3 1 Kings ii. 3, 4. r Isai. xxxviii. 3.