that darkness is opposed to light; or that stormy and restless passions are, to the calmness and serenity of a well-ordered soul. In this view, vicious indulgences have an evil and a danger in them, that men are not aware of. It is not, merely, that they provoke God to anger. They do, by their own operation, impair the soul, and render it incapable of knowing and enjoying God. As a man debilitated, and loaded with disease, clings to his sick room, and dreads to expose himself to the genial outward air, or to walk forth amid those scenes, which, to the healthful, are scarce less than "opening paradise;" so does the distempered soul feel, instinctively, averse from God, and prefer the chambers of death, to the brightness and purity of his presence. For God is, in reality, light, and expansion, and liberty, to the soul. When the pure in heart see God, they enjoy, in some sense, the foretaste of their eternity. The air they breathe, visits them from happier realms, and more genial climes, like

-" odours from the spicy shore

Of Araby the blest."

There is, in fact, to the spiritual mind, a real, vital union with God. It is harmonised to his nature: and He who is the very fountain of the soul itself, touches the springs of life within it, and sends joy and gladness through all its regions.

It is on this account, that the Apostle declares, that to be spiritually-minded, is life and peace; while to be carnally-minded, is death-separation from the source of life, and enmity against God. It is not, that the sinner is, in intention, opposed to God. It would be mere madness, to defy the Almighty, and challenge God to personal combat. No. This is not the kind of enmity which subsists. It is an enmity to his nature; an opposition always deepest, where it is least perceived. But, in truth, if the slave of vicious pleasure, would soberly think, he might well know, how wide the breach is between him and God. For his mind is opposed to purity, to virtue, to spirituality, to holiness. He has no sacred pleasure, in God's holy word. He calls not the Sabbath a delight. In the retirement of his closet, he is a stranger to the consolations, which flow from prayer. In the calm serenity of nature, he sees nothing to compose and purify his heart; and raise the eye of contemplation, to a new heaven, and a new earth. And why? Because the impurity of his pleasures, has vitiated his tastes; sullied the mirror of his soul; and removed him far from God.

For it is not with God, as he is in himself, retired within the incomprehensible and inaccessible light of his own essence, that we have to do. It is in his works, his word, his secret influences

upon the heart, that God is made known to man. And if we feel not after him, and find him, there, we are without God in the world. We are at enmity with God, unless we see him in all around us; and find him, as a spring of happiness, within us. If we do not love those draughts and characters of God, which we have seen; how can we love that God, whom we have not seen? If we have no taste for the copy, on which his living nature is impressed; how can we have any relish for the bright original? No. Whatsoever things are pure, and lovely, and of good report, are the channels, through which the affections move towards God. They emanate from him, and flow back to him again. And he who loves God, is drawn by a divine attraction, into those blessed paths, which lead us to his presence. Hence it is, that if we walk in darkness, we have no fellowship with the Father, and with the Son. The mind cannot move, or the heart be drawn, in opposite directions and he who loves sinful pleasure, cannot love God. He is driven by an adverse current. His whole nature is opposed to the first and great commandment.

To all such persons, and to all the worshippers of those idols, which the world sets up; to all these does the true God speak, in the solemn and gracious words before us.

It was when God had rescued his people, with a mighty hand; had been their shield and their saviour, in every danger; had covered them with his wings by day, and cheered them with his presence by night;-it was at that season he gave this great commandment: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." The same gracious Being calls to us: but after a deliverance far greater than our fathers knew; after mercies, of which their mercies were but the distant types and shadows. He who died, that we might live; he who sowed in tears, that we might reap in joy; he who bled upon the cross, to win our hearts, and save our souls; he echoes to us the same eternal law; "Hear, O Israel. I am the Lord thy God: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and mind, and soul, and strength.”

Nor is this commandment a severe duty imposed. It is the highest privilege that God can bestow, or that a creature can receive. It is a commandment enjoined, not for God's sake, but for our own because that the worship of false Gods, is essential misery; and the service of the true God, the only happiness. In this view, the Father of mercies is grieved, for those that wilfully depart from him. "My people," saith he,

"have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water."

If, my brethren, these affecting words, in any sense, apply to you, commune with your own hearts, and thus let conscience, for a moment speak:-"What is the end of all I am pursuing? Is wealth, or greatness, or prosperity in the world, the highest point to which my hopes aspire? Are, then, the rich, the great, the prosperous, happy? And if they are not happy, what avail their riches, and their greatness? Again, am I not, every day which passes, of this busy life, drawing nearer and nearer to its close? What fruit have years brought me, except that I am growing older? What is it, then, after all, that I am doing? I am hunting after shadows. Even if successful, I am heaping up riches, that my children perhaps may be injured by them, or that strangers may scatter them. I am rushing into eternity, with an earthly mind. I am throwing away my soul, and reaping nothing in return. I am preparing to meet my God, by devoting my days, my soul, and mind, and strength, to idols, which can neither profit, nor deliver."

These are reasonings, which we should all do well, seriously to address to our own hearts. We cannot be too watchful, that no idol defile that