among whom we minister, will be led to a knowledge of their own proper character and condition. Our blessed Lord, at the conclusion of his Sermon on the Mount, shews us how we should apply our subjects to the hearts and consciences of our hearers. In the words before us he describes,
I. The character and condition of the godly —
Their character is drawn in simple but compre- hensive terms —
[" They come to Christ :" this is absolutely necessary to their entrance on the divine life: till they have come to Christ under a sense of their own guilt and helplessness, they have no pretensions to godliness; they are obnoxious to the curse of the law, and the wrath of God^.
After they have come to Christ, " they hear his sayings ;" they sit at his feet, like Mary^," desiring to be fully instructed in his mind and will. With this view they study the Holy Scrip- tures, and " meditate in them day and night :" with this view also they attend the ordinances, and " receive the word, not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God*^."
They do not, however, rest in hearing his sayings; but they go forth to " do them." They desire to know his will in order that they may do it. They love the most searching discourses, because by them they discover the evil of their own hearts, and are led to aspire after a fuller conformity to the Divine image: nor would they rest, till they feel every " thought and desire captivated to the obedience of Christ."]
Their condition is exhibited in an apt similitude —
[A man who builds his house upon a rock, shews that, however temperate the weather may be at the time he is build- ing, he expects tempests to arise: and when the storms do come, he feels himself secure, from a consciousness that his house is so constructed as to withstand their violence.
Now a godly man resembles him in foresight and in security. He knows that, though he may at present be able to live in some tolerable comfort without religion, it will not be always so : he feels that, when misfortunes, troubles, sickness, and death shall come, he will be miserable without a well-founded hope of immortality. Hence he will not be satisfied with any religion that will not stand the test of scriptural examination ; for he knows that no other will prove sufficient in the hour of trial.
When the storms blow, and the tempests beat upon him,
a John iii. 18, 36. and v. 40. b Luke x. 39.
c 1 Thess. ii, 13.