of the moral system, and think him not present amid the mighty workings of the wills and affections of mankind. From the imperfect distribution of present happiness or affliction, they infer a disregard of good and bad, and forget that difficulties are necessary to a state of probation, and the most exalted virtues must be

tried by embarrassments. The success of treacherous skill they consider as the reward of villany; and from the misfortunes that harass the righteous, they argue, that the Almighty regards not integrity with present favour, or that he regards it not at all. Empires may rise and fall by the virtues and vices of a people; moral convulsions may shake the very being of society to its foundation; the tempestuous whirlwind of human passions may be directed through a course of horrors and enormities to a beneficent result; and yet the Almighty hand that guides the whole remains invisible to their perverted understanding.

Once more, and most commonly of all,

we break the first commandment, when we "trust in uncertain riches," more than "in the living God.". This is that covetousness, which St. Paul expressly terms "idolatry." Wealth is heaped upon

wealth, often but to breed new wants, and make us greater beggars than before. It enjoins new toils, and prompts new cares. It engrosses all the affections, as it has long ago occupied every aspiration and ambition. And "if," says holy Job in his affliction,-"if I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; this also were an iniquity; for I should have denied the God that is above."" "Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches," said David, when he prophesied the fall of Doeg. And, "children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God," said our Lord himself.3

1 Job, xxxi. 24. 2 Psalm, lii.

3 Mark, x. 24.

These then, and such as these are the habits of mind and life, which we must avoid if we would keep the first commandment. The power and wisdom of God are infinite. His providential care penetrates to earth's dark centre, preserves and orders all things above and below, threads the whole creation, and suspends it, as it were, the footstool to his throne. Where ends the mighty pile, reared by the fiat of the heavenly Architect? where is the boundary wall that looks into the vale of non-existence? where is the strange abode of nothing? or is there no proud period of the plan, to pronounce the work accomplished, the creation closed? has the universal Father impregnated with a breath the womb of distant space, and brought forth brother creations from inanity, barren now no more? With the same ease he summons into being the single grain, and all the vast magnificence of worlds. "Let there be light and there was light." The sun came forth like a bridegroom out of his

chamber, and rejoiced as a giant to run his course. The dark abyss was illumined by his splendour, and the orbs of our heavens borrowed refulgence from his fire. Who knows that there are not other systems, and other suns beyond? who is he that can set Omnipotence a bound? "The Lord omnipotent reigneth." "The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, and who shall disannul it? His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" "O Lord, how manifold are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all!" "O· the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"

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Open your eyes upon the creation round: Christ himself gives the lesson in the 6th of St. Matthew and 12th of Luke. Behold the heaven, and the earth, and the wise economy of the universe. Was ever machinery so skilfully adapted? was ever family so providentially supplied? was ever empire so well governed? All in their different ranks and stations: each to sustain his own part, and discharge his

D

own proper duties: yet all linked together in indissoluble dependence. Some subordinate, and some superior; mineral, and vegetable, and animal. And all flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another of beasts. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial. God has made them all. He has made those of heaven, which are immortal; and those of earth, which are perishable. He made that great leviathan, which took his pastime in the waters: he made the worm, and little insect which we tread upon. He made the oak, the stately monarch of the forest, under which have sat the generations of our forefathers: he made the flower of the field, which springeth up in the morning, and ere the night fall, it is cut down, and fadeth away. And from the least to the greatest his Providence provides for all. He sustains the little birds, that invoke him with the melody of their morning song: "They sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father