SERMON XVIII.

1 CORINTHIANS iv. 3, 4.

With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing of myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.

THE great portion of mankind are in the habit of reversing these words of the Apostle : "With them it is a very small thing that they should be judged by the Scriptures, or by God's judgment; but he that judgeth them is themselves or the world." For though God's word can give them no encouragement or hope, yet do they not feel hereby condemned, so long as the voice of the world, or that of their own hearts, both equally deceitful, tell them that all is right with them. But what is more surprising is, that many people who, if we were to ask them which they most regarded, would be quite shocked at the thought of setting up the opinions of men against the word of God; yet in fact are, in their practice, much more governed by their regard to the former than to the latter. The truth is,

over us.

that the fear of man is a feeling which grows up with us from our infancy; and we are not aware, perhaps, of the full dominion which it possesses It is often encouraged by the very education which is designed to root out other bad habits; and it is so disguised under fair names, or mixed up with something that is amiable, or at least allowable, that we become enslaved to it without suspicion. Combined with this, it happens often that they who do read the Bible, pass over much too slightly those passages which speak of the friendship of the world being enmity with God; of its being a bad sign when all men speak well of us; and other things to the same effect: satisfying themselves with the explanation, that all this language referred only to the heathen world, and that in a Christian country it is not applicable. Yet it is too much to assume that the world is really become Christian, because the Gospel in this country is the religion established by law.

The mischief which arises from this habitual anxiety about the good opinion of men, is more than can be told. It is speaking strongly, but truly, to say, that it makes the whole of our life unchristian; that it dethrones our Maker from his lawful authority, and sets up an idol in his place; that it makes us heathens as completely, for all purposes of our souls' danger, as if we were to bow

down and offer sacrifice to a graven image. Let us then first see what the case actually is amongst a very great number of people: and then examine what the Gospel requires it to be, and how far it allows or encourages that natural feeling which makes us desirous to win the good opinion of our neighbours, and which is the origin of those mighty motives of human action-the love of honour, and the fear of reproach.

The foundation of a great part of the evil is the want of accustoming children, from a very early period, to be influenced by the love or fear of God. On the contrary, they have too often no other motives placed before them than those of pleasing their parents, of being thought well of by all their friends, of being liked by every body if they are good, and disliked if they are bad. In this manner they learn to attach a value to the opinion of others for its own sake, and without any distinction whether the world in general is capable of forming a just opinion or not. Besides, it is natural to wish to be thought well of by other people, because we often derive solid benefits from a good reputation, and great inconvenience from a bad one; so that here is a great temptation not only to care too much for the opinion of men, but to care for it without any regard to the good or bad character of those who entertain it; because a bad man, no less than a good one, may have it in his power to do us harm

if he thinks ill of us. The actual convenience or inconvenience of being well or ill esteemed by our neighbours is apt then to make us, of itself, too anxious about the praise and favour of men; and this tendency, instead of being checked by education, is too often encouraged by the keeping out of sight the higher motives of the love and fear of God, and by holding out the praise or favour of men, under one name or another, as the continual and chief excitement to good conduct. In some states of life, as in the army and navy, for example, this is carried to a still greater length; for there the maintaining an unblemished character in the eyes of men of his own profession, is really exalted into an idol to which every thing else is sacrificed; and honour, which is but another name for the good opinion of men, is confessedly the very jewel of a soldier's life, and without which life, in his eyes, loses all its value. But here is a double evil: for not only is the fear of man put into the place of the fear of God, but it is the fear of a class of men who are naturally apt to attach the highest value to a quality of a very second-rate importance, namely, courage; and to think comparatively little of a failure in the much higher points of justice, charity, and self-denial. Nor yet is it the better part of courage only that is esteemed it is not only firmness, and patient fortitude, and a resolute contempt of danger when it stands in the way of duty; but it is also that sort

:

of courage which is closely connected with pride and selfishness-an impatience of affront, and a love of superiority. Here, then, the judgment of men does not only stand in the place of the judgment of God, but it absolutely holds a different language it teaches us to value qualities which God disregards, or even which he condemns; and it draws off our attention from those higher virtues, without which every soul is abhorred by him, and is liable to his heaviest punishment. And when men lead a life whose main object is to be approved by such a judgment, it must needs be that their principles and conduct are far different from those which their Maker requires of them: that they are often hurried into crimes of which they never have the means of repenting.

But it is most useful to remark, that neither in this case nor in any other are great and flagrant crimes the means by which souls are generally lost. Murder and suicide, those horrible extremities into which the fear of man's opinion sometimes leads, are in comparison seldom committed; and every one flatters himself that he would shrink from the commission of them. "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" would be the answer of many a man, if he were told that the feeling on which he was acting in his daily practice were precisely those which might bring him one day or other to become a murderer. Nay, even if we do not