Is very decided, yet is far too little noticed. Selfishness is having regard to our own interests in dislinctionfrom those of others; self-love has rcgnrd to our own interests in harmony with those of others. 'l'he first is sinful; the second is lawful; yea, more, to fight ngninst our highest interests would be wrong. We may demur to the maxim that" utility is the foundation of virtue," and rightly so, if" utility" be taken in the selfish aspect thereof. Bnt if by "utility" we mean "the tendency to promote the hi)!hcst good over the widest sphere, for all time," then the maxim is lifted up to a higher level, and becomes at least practically wholesome, even if it may be objected to on philosophical grounds. If, then, we do but entertain a right and scriptural view of what our highest interests are, it is lawful for us, and even binding on us, to have a regard to them; and it is to the desire in that direction that the passage before us makes its appeal. JI. JT IS SHOWN HERE THAT THERE IS A COURSE OF LIFE WHICH IS APP0Th'TED FOR US BY GoD. The appointments of God for us are specified here. We are to "fear the Lord." Evidently this is to be a fear, not of dread, but of love; for see ver. 5. In Ps. cxxx. 4 we read, "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." God forgives, and so takes away the fear of the offender, that the fear of offending may take its place. There is to be dread of sin, but not of God. The fear is to be suffused with tenderness and brightened with joy (Ps. xxxiii. 1). See the phrases in this section, even touching in their pathos-" God," "thy God," "the God of thy fathers." Y~a, it is our own God who lays down our life-rules, and by all the force of his tender love would he win us to obedience. III. IN FOLLOWING Gon's APPOINTED WAY WE ENSURE OUR OWN HIGHEST GOOD. (Vers. 2, 3.) The elements of good which obedience ensures are: 1. Peace. \Ve remarked above that the fear of God, which we are called on to cherish, is one based on trust. The Christian form of this is reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ in all the aspects in which he is revealed to us as ours. 'fhe effect of this is named in Rom. v. 1. Then there will be peace of conscience (see Isa. xxxii. 17; Phil. iv. 6, 7; Matt. xi. 29). 2. Harmony. Our nature will be in self-accord when what we a.re and do corresponds to what we ought to be and do. '!'here will be no schism between the judgment and the affections. 3. Health. Other things being equal, the man who is most obedient to God's laws will have the soundest health in body, soul, and spirit. The gladsomeness and ease of a sound and well-balanced constitution will be his. Hence: 4. Continuance will be a part of the reward-" that thy days may be prolonged" (see Ps. xci. 16; cf. Eph. vi. 3; Ps. xxxvi. 9, 28, 34). The forms in which the rewards of loyalty to God will show themselves are very varied. The individual will find that godliness has "promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." The family will find that "he blesseth the habitation of the just." The city will find that the keeping of God's com- mandments is among the things "which belong unto its peace.'' And "the righteous nation which keepeth the truth" will find that "salvation doth God appoint for walls and bulwarks" (see Isa. xxvi. 1, 2; xlviii. 17). It is a remarkable instance of the Divine condescension to our ways of thinking, feeling, and acting, that our God should. stoop to teach us what is profitable to ourselves, and that he should deign in mercy to reward with honour and peace those who fear him (Ps. !xii. 12). Mercifully meeting us on the low ground on which we too frequently stand in looking out for profit, God would raise us up to the higher platform of a pure, self-abandoning self-forgetfulness and love, in which we are content to be nothing, that God may be all in all. For observe- !\'. APPARENT EXCEPTIONS TO THIS RULE ARE EXCEPTIONS ONLY IN APPEARANCE, Sometimes obedience to God may be attended with a most unusual amount of affliction or of persecution. Take, e.g. the roll of worthies referred to in Heh. xi. 32-39. Can we say it was for their "profit" to serve God? Most certainly we can. For: 1. By their endurance they became witnesses for God, and served their generation in the very ~ay they would most have desired could they h9.ve seen as God sees. 2. Their afflic- t~ons were the means of purit'yincr their characters, strengthening their principles, and. ~1pening their virtues. 3. In the n~idst of all, God was himself to them" their exceeding Joy;" and what they had fa him was, even on earth, an ample recompense for all that they had suffered/or him. 4, '!'hey had respect to the recompense of reward (Heb. xi. 10, 16, 26). 6. '!'heir sufferings are long ago forgotten in the rest of the unseen state 122 THE BOOK OF o:gtrTmRON"OMY. (c11. vt. 1-20.
wl1erc they arc II inheriting the promises" (Heb. vl. 12). They had faith to belle'l"e th~m an<l patience to wait for them, an<l now they have entered into" the rest." Who n~cd wish to change their lot for the emoothest and most prosperous career of a nmn "without God in the world"? Virtue may for a while seem "to have tho worst of it," but "they that an• losers for God shall never be losers by him in the end." Y. OBEDIENCE IS EXPECTED TO BE THE RESULT OF AN INTELLI0ENT AND cur,TURED FAITH, AKD NOT OF A DLIND ONE. Ver. 1, "'!'he Lord your God commanded to teach you." No,Yhere !ms the adage, "Ignorance is the mother of devotion," less warrant than in the \\·ord of God. The priests of a spurious or alien faith may inculcate blind submission. Not so any of the inspired writers, whether legislators, prophets, or apostles. Men were to be taught not only what God required, but why he required it, that they might render him the homage of a heart quickened to love through the truth which reached the understanding and II commended itself to every m11n's con- science." God appeals to reason (Isa. i. 18).