so they refuse to return, they go on in their sins, they frame excuses. As they forget the past, so they imagine God does. As they chiefly regard sins committed against society; so they think God. As they are not alway sincere in their threatenings; so God. As they are swayed by fair professions; so God. As they judge favorably of their own case, and impute their faults to circumstances; so God. As they remember not their own sins in their true aggravations, but excuse and palliate them ; so God. As they compare themselves with others, and frame a relative justification; so they conceive God to do.

One end of the ministry of the word, therefore, is to scatter these vain refuges, and bring God in his real glory and authority before the sinner's conscience; to show him the divine Judge, and place him under his eye. Behold the culprit now trembling before the tribunal of his Judge! Behold the thoughtless sinner arraigned at the bar of omniscience! Behold the awakened transgressor grappling with the immediate terrors of the Almighty! I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

2. And where is the great mystery of the atonement of our Lord, if the scriptural character of God be forgotten or unknown? Redemption proclaims the infinite holiness of God, supposes it, goes on the admitted truth of the Divine justice, purity, righteousness. Without these, the idea of atonement is impossible; and if they are lowered and obscured, it loses all its glory.

Nothing indeed so offends the pride and self-confidence and independence of the human heart, as the holiness and justice of God-not compromised, much less denied, not even limited in their scope and exercise, but displayed, satisfied, exalted, glorified

in the atonement of Christ. But nothing so cheers and delights the penitent, who views God's infinitely holy character, and estimates his own guilt, negligence, and ingratitude in the light of that matchless glory.

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3. And where are the operations of the Holy Spirit; what the necessity, what the place for them, if God be not indeed so infinitely pure as the Bible represents? Why do men lower the doctrine of the mysterious birth of the spirit; why do they lessen. the necessity of our becoming new creatures," of our being "quickened from a death of trespasses and sins," of our being "partakers of a divine nature,” of our having a new heart and a right spirit ?" Why do they content themselves with a dead faith, dead privileges, dead works, a dead hope, a dead profession? Because they have thought God" altogether such an one as themselves," and that therefore" a name to live whilst they were dead" might possibly suffice.

4. And where is prayer, if our conceptions of Him whom we approach are unscriptural? Who has not felt the difficulty of realising the Divine presence, when addressing himself to him in secret, even when he has long cultivated the highest ideas of the glorious character of God? Who has not felt the arduous task of fixing his thoughts on God as he is? But if low ideas of that great Being are habitual to the mind, there can be no prayer; no heartfelt approach to God as a Father, for spiritual blessings. "He that cometh to God must believe that he is."

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5. And what is our public worship, without God in his true character? If he be not a Spirit, why should we aim to worship him in spirit and in truth?" But if he be" the King eternal, immortal, invisible;" if he be the "Father of our spirits;" if he be the object of adoration to the angels and archangels

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and all the company of heaven; if he be the one adequate, suitable, and glorious end of our being, of our affections, of our hopes; then to go up to his courts" is the highest honor, as well as paramount duty, of his reasonable creatures.

6. And what will become of purity and truth in our domestic circles and the discharge of our public obligations, if the God of purity and truth be less glorious than the Scriptures represent him?

The main cause of the polygamy of Asia, with all its consequent pollutions and miseries, is the loss of the knowledge of the one holy and pure Creator and Lord of all. The main cause of the want of truth and fidelity in Asia, and of the prevalence of cunning, deceit, lies, is that there is no God of truth who tries the hearts of men, known amongst them.

In Christianity, all, all is God. The Bible is the book that goes to correct the strong tendency in fallen man to false conceptions of his glory, by insisting on the just character of God in every part of its revelation, and connecting with that character all the doctrines, all the promises, all the threatenings, all the duties of religion.

Let, then, no slight nor perfunctory conceptions of the great God creep over our minds, however prevalent amongst the heathens around us! Keep up in your hearts the just impression of the Divine cha racter. Remember that idolatry is no trifling sin; and that the departure of man's affections from God, and their transfer to the creature, is the sum and substance of this great provocation. Remember that all the evil in the world, whether professedly Christian or otherwise, springs from this one source-man's either visibly or in secret making a god after his own heart. Remember that he who entertains false conceptions of the Lord of all, lives in fact AN ATHEIST in the world. "God is not in all his thoughts ;"

he blots out God from his own creation. And can any thing, I ask you, be more provoking to the eyes of his majesty? What would a PRINCE think of his subjects, if he knew that they were all rebelling against him, and transferring their allegiance to his most fell adversary? Would a FATHER, think you, account it a small offence if his own children were to deny his character and right over them; to treat him with neglect or insult, and to shew reverence to any one rather than to himself? Would a HUSBAND call it a petty transgression, if his spouse quitted his abode, and scattered her ways" to every stranger?

Do not these and similar persons justly require, first of all, the love, the reverence, the allegiance of heart of those standing in the subordinate relations we have described? And yet these obligations are faint compared with those lying upon us towards our heavenly Sovereign, our divine Father, our rightful Bridegroom and Lord.

But because we forget all this, and frame loose notions of a God like unto ourselves, we think little of our guilt. We say, "Who is the Lord, that we should obey him?" We say, "We will not have this King to reign over us.”

Let us repent, then, ere it be too late. Let us return to our Father, our Benefactor, our Preserver, our Savior, as revealed in the astonishing mercies of redemption in Christ Jesus.

Let us further learn to adhere closely to the one Book which our almighty Lord has revealed to us for our guidance as to his nature and will. Nothing has ever brought back any nation from idolatry to just ideas of the one true God, but THE BIBLE, and the influences of the Holy Spirit which accompany that book, and are confined, so far as we can observe, to the dissemination of its inspired record. Nothing has ever reformed decayed and idola

trous Christian Churches, but the Bible. The necessity of revelation, not only as once made known at the call of Abraham, or at the legation of Moses, or the promulgation of the gospel; but as perpetually propagated amongst a wandering, lost world, as perpetually applied by the holy missionary, recurred to by the pastors and ministers of the Christian Church, exalted and honored as the one authoritative standard of truth, and perpetually employed as the sword of the Spirit for the individual conviction and conversion of the sinner, and the guard against false conceptions of the divine Being; this necessity is written as by a sun-beam on the whole religious history of mankind.

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Let us set the Lord always before us," so that we may not sin against him.” Let us be "jealous," exceedingly jealous, " for the Lord God of hosts." Let affronts put upon God be as "a sword in our bones." Let us realise a present God. Let us say, with Hagar, at every moment of temptation, "Thou God seest me." Let a holy awe fill our minds when the name of the Holy One is introduced. Let us never take that name in vain," by a familiar, light, perfunctory use of it. In public and private worship, let us remember the great Being whom we approach. In troubles and afflictions, let us bear in mind who it is that chastens, and let us say with David, "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, for it was thy doing." In all difficulties springing from the mysterious purposes of the Most High, or his unexplained operations, let us say with Abraham, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Especially, let us imitate God in his glorious character of mercy, love, compassion, forbearance, condescension! This involves all the Divine perfections; GOD IS LOVE. Let our ideas of him be so elevated and scriptural in this respect, that we