"Thou shalt have no other gods before Were there nothing else to draw the soul to God, but the goodness of his hand in his creative and providential bounties, are these not more than sufficient to condemn the ungodly spirit, the earthly heart, baser than earth itself, that forgets him? Do not all these wonders proclaim, 'I am the Lord thy God!' I have wrought, and fashioned, and framed all these things, and thee too, child of the dust, heir of immortal destiny; my hand sustains them, and thee in the midst of them; and forgettest thou God thy Creator?

Ir is a grievous thought, a most painful reflection, that the remembrance of God should be shut out from his own works: that his divine wisdom should have no acknowledgment, no homage rendered to it, no submission given to it; that his power which has created and which sustains all things should be despised, and even defied; and that his most bountiful goodness should have as its return from a world filled with its provisions, ingratitude and rebellion.

He hath not left himself without witness. The heavens declare his glory, and the firmament showeth forth his handy-work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night teacheth knowledge concerning him.

What mind can look forth on the glorious scene which creation now unfolds, without feeling that God, the Almighty God, is present by his works? The heavens above testify of him, declaring his infinite power and wisdom; and abounding goodness is proclaimed in every thing that is now beheld on earth. Inanimate creation itself seems to rejoice, and to be glad at the presence, and in the goodness of the all-wise and Almighty Creator. Can I tread upon the springing herb, upon the painted flower, upon the nourished earth, without being rebuked for a heart insensible to the glory and goodness of God, the Almighty Creator? Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?' He is the only rebel against thee in this world, where thy creative hand hath placed him, surrounded with such glorious manifestations of thy wisdom, and power, and good

O my soul, put not away from thee, any longer, these serious, these solemn, these precious reflections, for they are, indeed, thy life. This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou las sent.' The soul continuing in its spiritual ignorance cannot is a nominal worship, what an outward profesgive to the Lord the glory due to his name. What sion, when not founded upon, and arising from a real knowledge of God in the heart, what can it be, but a mere mockery of God, and as entirely a deceiving of the soul itself, it is as a mockery of him.

When the apostle Paul came to the city of Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he beheld the city wholly given to idolatry. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you,' (Acts xvii. 23.) This is a fixed principle in all real, spiritual, and divine worship, that no glory can be given to God, without the true and real knowledge of God being established as an active principle in the soul.

How many and divers are the motives and views that may draw men to make an outward and formal acknowledgment of God! It is an overwhelming thought, if all the worship we have hitherto been rendering to God, has been rendered from other motives than the true knowledge of him in the soul itself. God has not been glorified in any, in all such worship. Nay, he has been most grievously dishonoured. Has the inscription upon the altar at Athens been found upon all the worship which I have hitherto rendered? Let me now make settlement of this awfully important question, between God and my own soul; and let me not be deceived as to the reality of my own personal condition before him! Surely the soul cannot give glory to God, without actively obeying his will, without being really engaged in this as the true business of life, and without the light of the knowledge of his

own glory so shining into the heart, as to render this knowledge of God a fixed principle there. He cannot be served or honoured, no glory is given to his name. He is not remembered by the soul—the understanding is not exercised on the moral and eternal perfections of God, as any real object to which the mind is subject. Such a principle, then, is what the mind requires, to have it, and to have it habitually in exercise. Many, and impressive, and clear, as are the manifestations which he gives of his own glory, there is a principle of darkness in the soul which rejects these manifestations, and refuses to be instructed by them. He is indeed the God of glory. O how glorious his divine and adorable being and character, when in the plenitude of his goodness, and wisdom, and love, there is a way ordained and established by himself, in which this principle of evil can be subdued in the soul, and his own knowledge brought into it, and made to prevail in it. May not every human being truly feel, that there is need of such dealing with himself; such divine teaching, such divine power to come to the soul, as would really dispel its darkness, and bring in light, and change the practical character of the inward and outward man-so, that, as God had been formerly forgotten and dishonoured, he might now be remembered and glorified in a willing and filial obedience? The name of the Lord is truly revealed, his being and his character made known, by the Lord Jesus, instituting, and perfecting in him this most glorious way, in which divine grace is brought so to operate mightily, and effectually, and savingly upon the souls of sinful men.

We give, then, unto the Lord the glory due unto his name, when we seek him unto our selves, that he should, as God the Spirit, through the Lord Jesus Christ, so work mightily in our own souls. This is the grace freely and fully offered to us in the gospel of our salvation. This is the attitude, even of our beginning to glorify God, our so coming to him, and so waiting upon him, for this grace, to deal savingly with us, and to renew us in the spirit of our mind. Ask, and ye shall receive; seek,

ye

Thy

revealed to the soul in that glorious and heavenly beauty and majesty.

And as the psalmist here is calling upon men of every degree, so to worship the Lord in his sanctuary, and among his people, so let me seek, that I may be joined in spirit to those who are so made the subjects of divine grace, that I may have communion with God himself, by Jesus Christ, through faith, and fellowship with all his saints;-for while the soul is not thus savingly instructed, it can have no communion with God. What is God making known to us, by all his works, and especially by the glorious works of his grace, but that he seeks us so to be brought nigh to himself? He is saying to us by all these: I am the Lord thy God. I have given myself to be your God and Redeemer in the person of my beloved Son. O! how inexpressibly great the claims of God in Christ upon us! upon me, as an individual soul, thus to give glory to his name! Let me give myself to God-surely it is my reasonable service. It is the true happiness of the soul to be permitted, and to be enabled so to glorify God. How adorable the holiness of the Lord. How sublime his eternal purity-and how high the exalted state of those who are made partakers of his holiness, by the crucifying in them of the body of sin, and by the transforming of their souls, even to bear his image, in his imitable perfections.

Is it not on this, that our souls should be fixed, as their best and highest attainment. And giving to the Lord the glory due unto his name, is now to put our trust in the word of his gracious promises, and to wait upon him, who will also do it. When the soul is quickened to behold the glory of the Lord, it shall be changed into the same image, more and more, by the indwelling power of him who begins the blessed work; and then the soul's increasing delight shall be, to give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; and to worship him in the beauty of holiness.

EIGHTH DAY.-MORNING.

we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him,' 1 John ii. 3, 4.

THE mind of man is incessantly occupied, and most commonly upon objects external to itself. Its habitual exercise is to direct itself to objects from which it expects to derive profit, or plea

sure, or happiness. It seeks knowledge of such objects. It is not satisfied with any summary kind of knowledge concerning them, but seeks to have experience of the value, or excellency, or goodness that is in them. It is in this way that the minds of men are engaged from day to day, and from year to year, while their time is passing speedily away, precious time, which bears with it as it comes, and as it departs, an awful amount of responsibility to him who in his great mercy and kindness bestows it.

What

What is man? What is his destiny? is mine, an individual human being? Am I made for this world only? Have I not within this my frail body of dust, a being that is immortal, dwelling? My soul is my being, and my body, my frail body, is but what philosophers call an accident, or a certain fact, or quality, or circumstance, connected with this soul, which is my proper and real being. The soul could exist without the body at all. There are spirits without bodies-angels; and the soul, which is my true being, shall yet, and I know not how soon, pass into the spiritual and eternal world, to live there without any connection with the body, until the morning of the resurrection; and even then, after this mortal, that is, the body, shall have put on immortality, it shall be a very different body from what it now is. If indeed in Christ, it shall be raised up a glorious body, fashioned like to Christ's, and have no longer any interest in the objects with which it is now connected on earth.

Now, why should the mind be occupied, and so exclusively occupied, with things of an earthly and temporal kind? The connection that the soul has with them all, is but transitory, and incalculably short, at the very best. What is a man profited, should he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' This earthward course and tendency of the mind, of all its desires, and thoughts, and imaginations, and affections, is a sore and a destructive evil. They that are of the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.' But if we live after the flesh we shall die-the soul shall die—that eternal death, which is to be eternally separated from God, and to be for ever the object of his just and eternal wrath. Then, to have true knowledge of God, is the one thing needful. Without having this in the soul, it is now already separated from God. It is an alien to God, a stranger to him, and also an enemy. The greatest, the most precious knowledge, is to know the Lord. The soul is dependant upon him for blessedness, for happiness, for true peace, and for all lasting enjoyment. But

many imagine themselves to have knowledge of God, when they have it not. Their minds are not exercised in beholding, or in considering his glorious excellencies, his eternal perfections, or in realizing their own dependence upon God, or his eternal supremacy over them, or his righteous sovereignty. He is the fountain and source in himself, of all good. Do I know this? Do I realize this in my own soul? Let me consider this. Let me watch my own mind in its continual workings and occupancy. Let me examine whether it be towards God, and to the remembrance of his name, my mind is tending, or going forth. And if it be not, then I am surely spending my money for that which is not bread, and my labour for that which satisfieth not.'

Now the soul being brought to have true knowledge of God, will then know his will. That will of his is expressed in his holy commandments. He shows to us, by these, what manner of persons he would have us to be. Alas, how entirely different are we, from what God so expressly seeks that we should be! But if we be walking onward from day to day, in our own earthly desires, and vain imaginations, not seeking to be conformed to the will of God, not desiring to do his commandments, or to obey them—it is made known most clearly in this part of his divine testimony, that we know not God-yea, that we have no right, no saving knowledge of him at all! Of all subjects that can ever occupy the mind here, in this life, this is the most important. Let it be received and treated as such, and not put away. Are you saying that you know God? Are you not making this profession, outwardly, in the world, and by joining with those who call themselves believers, or Christians, in the visible church? And is this a true profession which you have been making? Let the word of God himself judge it. His Spirit, here, by the apostle John, makes the case to be a very plain one indeed. If one say that he knows God, and keeps not his commandments, that person is a liar, and the truth is not in him.' We ought, in connection with this most important testimony, ever to bear in mind, that saying of the Redeemer, If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!' (Matt. vi. 23.) Every one, mostly, will say that they have knowledge of God; or they will say that they trust and hope that they have it. It is too evident, that beneath such a profession, there lies much uncertainty concerning themselves, and their personal state and condition. Undoubtedly, from the nature of the heart that is in us, its depth of deceitfulness, there may be difficulty, by examina