the shadow of death." But were the change far more beyond the reach of human probability than it is, there would be no resason to doubt of its ultimate accomplishment, since Omnipo- tence is pledged to effect it : It shall take place, "for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."]
Micah iv. 5. For all people will walk every one in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.
IT has been objected to Christianity, that it creates divisions in families, and in the world at large. But how should it not produce these effects, when the whole world is immersed in idolatry ; and the direct end of Christianity is, to "turn men from idols, to serve the living God ?" See the prophet's account of " the last days :" " It shall come to pass, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains ; and it shall be exalted above the hills ; and people, even all nations, shall flow unto ita." What can this import ? What, but a general conversion to Christ ; and, as far as that change shall extend, the determination here formed ; " Every one will walk in the name of his God : and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever?"
Let us notice here, I. The practice of the world —
Every unregenerate man is an idolater —
[Idolatry may be found no less amongst the professed servants of Jehovah, than amongst the worshippers of stocks and stones. Idolatry, in fact, is " the loving and serving of the creature, rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever- more V Now it is a fact, that every man, in his unregenerate state, is under the dominion of some lust, which leads him captive. All are not governed by the same lust: the desires and appetites of men differ amongst different persons, and in the same person at different periods of his life. In youth, we
a ver. 1,2. b Rom. i. 25.
1207.] world's and christian's god contrasted. 295
are chiefly impelled by a love of pleasure and sensual indul- gence. In middle age, we aspire after honour and advance- ment in the world for ourselves and our children. In more advanced life, the love of money not unfrequently gains an ascendant over us ; and, at all events, a love of ease and quiet. Now, wherever these, or any other dispositions, operate upon us more powerfully than the love of God, they become, in fact, our god. As the sensual man is said to " make a god of his belly c;" and the covetous man to make an idol of his goldd; so the votaries of any created being or enjoyment are, in reality, despisers of the one true God, and worshippers of idols.]
Whatever be the supreme object of a man's affec- tions, "in the name of that he walks" —
[The young men are never weary in the pursuit of plea- sure. Behold the gay, the dissipated, the voluptuous ! From the nature of things, they cannot always be in a direct pursuit of their object : but it is never out of their minds, at least never so far removed, but they can revert to it with delight, and renew, in contemplation, the feelings which have already been indulged even to satiety. Of this the records of the whole world will testify : and he can know little of himself, who needs be told that it has been his own experience. The Apostles themselves confess this to have been once their own course e; nor has there been an exception to it, in the state of unconverted man, from the fall of Adam to the present moment.]
In direct opposition to this is,
II. The determination of the true Christian —
He also has his God —