because it consists in the exercise of our affections upon God himself: but it is impossible so to conceal our piety, that the world shall not discern its operations ; for it must influence us in the whole of our life and conversation : and if any one think to maintain an upright walk before God, and at the same time to escape the reproaches of an ungodly world, he deceives his own soul. We might as well hope that light should pass un- observed in darkness, as that a man who fears God should pass unnoticed through a world that lieth in wickedness. The world unite with those who are of the same mind and spirit with themselves : and so must the godly do : and " in the excellent of the earth must be their chief delight." And the man who, through fear of the cross, draws back from the society of the saints, has yet to learn what is meant by being ashamed of Christ, and what portion all such persons have to expect at his hands1. Let all therefore learn to confess Christ openly be- fore men, and to " follow him without the camp, bearing his reproach :" and instead of shunning the cross, let all learn to re- joice and glory in it, and to " account, as Moses did, the reproach of Christ a greater treasure than all the riches of Egypt."]
2. In a way of caution —
[Whilst we advise all not, through fear, to shun religious society, we would affectionately guard all against placing their religion in social converse of any kind. It is not always those who " speak most one to another " that are the best in God's estimation : on the contrary, those who are the most forward to talk, are often the least humble, and the least correct in their secret deportment. Persons of this description ought to be peculiarly jealous of themselves, lest, whilst they pretend to be seeking the edification of others, they be in reality filled with self-conceit, and advancing only their own glory. God, who sees the heart, often beholds a thousand times more piety in the humble hearer, than in the admired speaker : and there- fore it is particularly marked in my text, that God noted in his book the frame of those " who thought upon his name." Yes, the thinkers, if I may so speak, whilst lamenting perhaps their incapacity to speak, and admiring, almost with envy, the fluency of others, are often noticed by God with pre-eminent delight ; whilst the speakers, being filled with pride and self-sufficiency, are objects of his abhorrence. Let none then pride themselves in their fluency, or be dejected for the want of it : but let all remember, that, when " God shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart, they, and they only, shall have praise of Godm," whose fear of him was accompanied with love, and evidenced by an humble, holy, heavenly deportment.]
1 Mark viii. 34—38. «» 1 Cor. iv. 5.