serving God. Surely He is a good Master. Let but your hearts be right with him, and " none of his commandments will appear grievous to youy :" on the contrary, you will find that " in keeping his commandments there is great reward2," and that your labour shall not be in vain with respect to the eternal world. " Be ye faithful unto death, and he will give you a crown of life a."]
y 1 John v. 3. z Ps. xix. 11. a Rev. ii. 10.
Hos. iv. 1 7. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone.
THERE is a day of grace, wherein God strives with men by his Spirit : this past, he abandons them to impenitence and obduracya. The precise period of its termination is, in mercy, concealed from us ; but we are all concerned to deprecate the judgment de- nounced against Ephraim in the text :
I. The sin of Ephraim —
Ephraim, to which Jeroboam belonged, compre- hends all the ten tribes. These were devoted to the worship of the idols that were in Dan and Bethel. Nor could they be drawn from it by any of the means which God used —
Though we do not imitate them in this, we are not free from spiritual idolatry —
[Idolatry is described to be a loving and serving of the creature more than the Creator15. Hence covetousness and sensuality are spoken of under that termc. Now who has not yielded that love, fear, and confidence to the creature, which are clue to God alone ? " Who can say, I am pure from this sin?" ]
We have, in truth, been "joined" to idols —
[Many are the means which God has used to bring us to himself. Yet we have not been wrought upon effectually by any of them. Neither mercies vouchsafed, nor judgments threatened, have been able to prevail. We rather have
a Luke xix. 42. b Rom. i. 25.
c Col. hi. 5. Phil. hi. 19.