are leaning upon broken reeds, and that every thing on earth is but "vanity and vexation of spirit." But "amidst all the changes and chances of this mortal life," amidst all the difficulties we have to contend with, the dangers we have to surmount, or the tribulations through which we have to pass, on the straight and narrow path that leads to eternal glory, as long as we feel conscious that we are habitually offering to God, through Christ, the sacrifices of a truly penitent and contrite heart, together with continual prayers for His mercy, thanks for His favours, and a life of consistent obedience to His commandments; so long we have the blessed privilege of being assured, that our God is "causing all things to work together for our good, both here and hereafter;" and may apply the words of Solomon to ourselves, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths,"

Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, &c.

SERMON VI.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SCRIPTURAL FEAR OF GOD, AND THAT WHICH IS FALSE AND HYPOCRITICAL.

PROVERBS I. 7.

The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of
Knowledge.

THE desire of knowledge seems, in a greater or less degree, to be an innate propensity of the human mind. "Vain man, saith Zophar, would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt." Whether this is to be regarded as one of the consequences of Adam's having tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge, or as one of the inseparable concomitants of reason and reflection, remains a matter of doubt; but certain it is, that there is a never-ceasing insatiable craving in the human breast after something new. From the meanest curiosity of the clown, to the sublimest researches of the philosopher, an ardent desire of adding to the stock of ideas is more or less observable in every child of fallen Adam.

Considered simply by itself, without any reference to consequences, this desire of knowledge, so natural to the human race seems neither good nor bad. But when viewed with respect to its object and tendencies, it appears to be a matter of the most vital importance. For constituted as the mind of man is, the creature of education and habit, having nothing to work upon except its own ideas, and indebted for all those ideas to the outward objects with which it is conversant, it follows as a matter of necessity, that a man's moral character must be very much influenced by the nature and degree of his knowledge. For, as on the one hand, it can scarcely be expected that that man should be good who knows nothing but what is evil; so, on the other hand, the more the objects of our knowledge have a tendency to excite holy and profitable ideas in our minds, the greater reason there is (humanly speaking) to hope that our characters shall be proportionally exalted and sanctified.

Now the misfortune, my Beloved Brethren, never to be sufficiently deplored is, that such is the depravity of our nature, and such the perversity of our will, that this desire of knowledge, when left to itself, is sure to take an evil direction. Had we been permitted to speculate upon what should be likely to form the most interesting objects of enquiry to a rational creature, placed as man is in

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this world of mystery, we might reasonably have supposed, that the great ends of his being would have been the first and principal objects of his curiosity. The questions, "What am I?" " Who placed me here?" For what purpose was I created?" "Whither am I going?" and "What will become of me after death?" would, it might natu rally have been expected, have excited his earliest attention. But no, experience, proves that this is not the fact. These are not the subjects respecting which fallen man desires information. His thirst after knowledge is, for the most part, limited to the fleeting perishing things of time and sense; and the utmost of his ambition is, generally, to know those things which may most easily gratify his passions, promote his interest, satisfy an idle curiosity, add to his importance, or procure him applause and admiration in the eyes of his fellow

creatures.

It was probably a train of such reflections as these that drew from the wise monarch of Israel the declaration in our text, which seems to be a most suitable introduction to that series of profitable instructions which he was writing for the benefit of his beloved Son. "The fear of the Lord," he says, "is the beginning of knowledge." That is as much as to say, The first step to that wisdom which alone is truly profitable to man is,to fear God." All knowledge, of whatsoever kind

or degree, which does not tend to produce this fear in our hearts, is worthless and delusive. Until a man has learned truly to fear and honour his Creator, he has learned nothing that can be of the least advantage to his immortal soul; and no matter what other knowledge he may be possessed of, no matter whether he be as sage as Socrates, or as profound as Aristotle, he may be assured of this, that "he knoweth nothing as he ought to know it.” 66 Man that is in honour and understandeth not (says David) is like the beasts that perish.".

Now these words of Solomon in our text suggest to us, my Beloved Brethren, two subjects for profitable meditation. First, the question, What is the nature of that fear of the Lord of which he speaks? And secondly, In what respects this fear of the Lord is to be regarded as the "beginning of knowledge." Let us humbly pray that the blessed Spirit of Truth may be pleased to assist us in these our meditations, and to render them profitable to our souls.

First, with respect to the nature of that fear of the Lord, of which Solomon speaks in our text. In order to understand this aright, it is to be kept in mind that the word "fear," as it is used in Scripture and in common conversation, has (as we shall see in the sequel of this discourse) two significations. It either means to fear a thing as an object of terror, or to fear it as an object of