To all of you, then, I would address the following requests : —
1. Seek to form a right estimate of religion — [Religion is not, as too many imagine, a source of me- lancholy, but a fountain of unutterable joyr. If it deprive you of carnal delights, it will give you infinitely richer and purer pleasures in their stead — ]
2. Endeavour to get an experimental acquaintance with it in your own souls —
[Be not satisfied with speculative views of divine truth ; but get such a sense of it as shall fill your mouth with praise, and cause you to " sing in the ways of the Lord" all the day long. The command to you, as much as to any child of man, is, " Rejoice evermore : rejoice in the Lord alway ; and again, I say, rejoice" ]
3. Labour to circulate the knowledge of it through the whole world —
[Blessed be God ! the higher ranks are now beginning to mingle their praises with those of the other classes of the community. The circulation of the word of God, and the sending forth of missionaries to explain and enforce it, are now objects of solicitude to an extent that they have never been, since the days of the Apostles. Unite then, all of you, in this blessed work ; and cease not, till " all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God."]
r Prov. iii. 17.
god's views of the lowly and of the proud.
Ps. cxxxviii. 6. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly : but the proud he knoweth afar off.
WHATEVER we find in Scripture to have been God's dealings with his people of old, the same may we expect to receive from him at this day, so far as our situation and circumstances require it. His in- terpositions, either in a way of chastisement or pro- tection, may be less visible than formerly ; but they are neither less certain, nor less real. We may ima- gine, that, because we are not under a Theocracy, as the Jews were, we are not authorized to believe that the great God of heaven and earth will interest him- self about us : but in every age " his eyes are still
732.1 god's views of the lowly and of the mouD. 449
both upon the evil and the good ;" and " though he be high, yet will he have respect unto the lowly : but the proud he will behold afar off."
In this declaration of the Psalmist we see,
I. A truth acknowledged"1 —
[God is high, even " the high and lofty One who in- habiteth eternity, whose name is Holy V " Heaven is his throne, and earth his footstool c." " The heaven of heavens cannot contain him d." " He dwelleth in light which no man can approach unto ; and him no man hath seen, or can see e." His greatness is displayed in all the works of creation, which
sprang into existence at his command f In all the
works of Providence, also, is it manifested g ; for " in him all
things live, and move, and have their being h "
We may say, then, respecting him, that " He is great, and greatly to be feared; and that his greatness is unsearchable '."]
This truth being unquestionable, let us consider,
II. The proper bearing of it on the different classes
of mankind —
Because of the greatness of the divine Majesty, both good men and wicked, though on different prin- ciples, imagine, that he will not condescend to notice them ; the good, from a sense of their own un wor- thiness ; and the wicked, from an idea that it would derogate from God's honour to concern himself about the affairs of men. But he will notice, and in a way suited to the characters of each,
1. "The lowly"—
[As David, in reference to the temple which he desired to build, said, " Will God in very deed dwell with man on the earth ? " so persons under a sense of their own sinfulness are often ready to think that God will never listen to their prayer,