humble and penitent, he may apply to himself all those comfortable promises of full and entire forgiveness with which the Scripture abounds; for comfort and encouragement is what he for the present most needs. But as soon as ever he begins to presume upon God's favour, to think lightly of his own unworthiness, and to relax in his watchfulness over his conduct, then the sterner sentences of the law are addressed to him; the fearful threatenings denounced against the stout-hearted, against them that are at ease in Zion, against those that laugh and are full, are all turned against him; and what worldly censure or worldly punishment can urge him so strongly to flee from evil and to choose the good, as that perfect mixture of kindness and strictness which is displayed in the dispensations of God?

So much, then, for the effect produced on the sinner himself by the fear of God. Let us now consider how it acts upon us with regard to our treatment of the sins of others. In the first place, it will lead us to judge rightly of the comparative guilt of different offences, and to value them, not according to the opinion of men, but according to the word of God. We shall thus be sometimes more severe towards a fault than we otherwise should have been; but we shall always be led to act with a truer kindness towards the person of the offender. In our care of our children and of our

families, in our behaviour towards those with whom we are any way connected, we shall follow, no doubt, a very strict and high standard of duty: waste of time and opportunities, a love of pleasure, a careless spirit, or a worldly one, will be all of them things which we shall strive to check wherever our power or our influence may enable us. But in our personal treatment of those who have done wrong, we shall carefully put away those feelings which lead to severity further than God has sanctioned; we shall take care to be angry without sin, that is, to keep our anger unmixed with any selfish feelings of wounded pride or disappointment. There have been instances on record, of men retaining throughout their lives so strong a sense of some particular crime, by which they have been directly or indirectly the sufferers, that they never could prevail on themselves to forgive the offender. Now, most assuredly, such unforgiving persons are amongst those on whom the judgment of God will fall most heavily, and of whom it may be said that mercy itself rejoices in their judgment. It is in vain that they would talk of the greatness of the injury done to them, of the dishonour which has been brought upon them, of the stain which has been thrown upon a family, and a name hitherto without reproach. How will such excuses be received before the judgmentseat of Christ, when brought forward to justify

disobedience to one of his most solemn and most earnestly repeated commands? They who plead them will only be reminded of the warning given to them in the Scriptures, "If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses." But he who looks upon

sin with the eyes of a Christian, will here, as in all other things, strive after his imperfect measure to copy the perfections of God. He will be ready and eager to forgive, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven him; but he will not be too indulgent to an offender, lest by a false kindness he should do him a real harm, and mar the sincerity of his repentance, by making all things appear smooth to him too suddenly: but he will most carefully watch himself, lest in his severity he should not be seeking God's honour, but his own; and he will remember that the character of a judge ill becomes him who has himself cause every night and morning to pray to God, the Judge of all, for forgiveness of his own offences.

It is remarkable, however, that while the Scripture enforces the most entire indifference to the censure of the world, and condemns so often and so justly the fear of man; yet it teaches us to shock no man's opinion of us arrogantly, and to consider, in all trifling matters, as much as we can, how we may please others; not for our sake, but for theirs. So nicely and beautifully drawn is the picture of

Christian perfection, that it inculcates at once the most entire independence of mind, and the most delicate consideration for the feelings of others; and the same Apostle who had said that it was to him a very small thing to be judged of man's judgment, said also in the very same Epistle, "that he had made himself servant unto all, that he might gain the more souls to Christ; that he was made all things to all men, that he might by all means save some." But here is the excellence of Christian compliance, that it regards the favour of men, not as an end, but as a means: it does not covet it for its own sake, but that men, by learning to look upon Christians favourably, might be persuaded to become altogether Christians themselves. It is plain, however, that the path of our duty becomes here exceedingly difficult; and that we are in danger, the ministers of the Gospel particularly, of deceiving ourselves as to our real motive, and of loving popularity and the praise of men for its own sake, and not as a means of recommending to those who admire us the name and service of our Lord. Here then is a very anxious and important subject of inquiry, which may well deserve our separate consideration.

SERMON XX.

1 CORINTHIANS X. 33.

I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

:

Ar the end of my last sermon, after speaking of the utter mischief of following the opinion of men as a motive of action, I said that the Gospel did not permit us nevertheless needlessly to shock the feelings of others, but commanded us, on the contrary, to try to please other people, for their sakes, however, and not for our own. I said, too, that here the path of our duty became exceedingly difficult because there was a great risk of our being led into false and wrong compliances, under pretence of winning over worldly persons to a love of the Gospel and thus, instead of gaining them, we might chance to lose ourselves. However, as a duty does not become less a duty because it is difficult, it will be my endeavour to point out the way in which, by God's grace, we may safely walk in it, without falling into error either on the right hand or on the left.