[It is an insult to God to make his gifts a pedestal for the exaltation of self. You will remember, that he complains of his people of old, because they appropriated his corn, and his wine, and his oil," to the honouring of others who were his rivals in their esteem k. And this is the very thing which every man does, who takes to himself the honour of those gifts which have been conferred upon him by God. And how indignant Jehovah is at such treatment, we may see in his expostulations with Sennacherib : " I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. For he saith, By the strength of my hands / have done it, and by my wisdom ; for I am prudent ; and / have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures ; and / have put down their inhabitants, like a valiant man : and my hand hath found, as a nest, the riches of the people ; and, as one gathereth eggs that are left, have / gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped." Now, hear Jehovah's reply to this soliloquy : " Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith ? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it ? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood1." Tell me, I pray you, what would you have been above the beasts, if God had not en- dowed you with reason ? or, what had you differed from the meanest of the human race, if God had not made you to differ ? Your distinctive powers afford you ground enough for gratitude ; but none for self-applause : and if, like Herod, you take to yourselves the credit which your ignorant or par- tial friends may accord to you, like Herod you shall become monuments of God's just and fiery indignation. You may not be eaten up with worms in this life : but you shall surely bear his displeasure in the world to come. " God is a jealous God :" and " his glory will he not give to another111." " From him does every good and perfect gift proceed";" and to him must all the glory of it be ascribed : " He that glorieth, must glory only in the Lord0."]
3. For the benefit of your own souls —
[" Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit ? there is more hope of a fool than of himp." To what purpose will you possess gifts, if they prove only a curse unto you ? But such they really are, to all who pride themselves in them: for "God scorneth the scorners; but giveth grace unto the lowly q." If
k Hos. ii. 5, 8, 9. « Isai. x. 12—15.
m Exod. xx. 5. Isai. xlii. 8. n Jam. i. 17.
0 Jer. ix. 23. and 1 Cor. iv. 7. P Prov. xxvi. 12. <i Prov. iii. 34. with 1 Pet. v. ~>.