But, my brethren, if even the professed Infidel, he who pretends to believe that there is no God, is still, in spite of himself, unable to forget Him, the mere profligate and worldly-minded man is even less able to do so. True; God is not in all his thoughts: but He is in some of them. And the remembrance of an offended Judge, whose wrath is as sure as it is irresistible, will inevitably come between such a person and his guilty pleasures. I do not say that long habits of sin will not deaden the voice of conscience, and cause the Holy Spirit to strive less and less with the guilty soul, but even in the most hardened there will be seasons when, do what it may, it cannot escape from forebodings of God's anger, and of the worm that dieth not. And we have the evidence of many a transgressor to the fact, that when all he most desired was in his reach, the gratification of his lust, his covetousness, his pride, his malice, or his dishonesty, still, in the moment of fruition, the power of enjoyment was taken away, by that small voice, which bade him think of the future consequences of "There is no peace, saith my God, to the

his act. wicked."

It appears then, that in one sense, even the most ungodly man alive does not forget God. The text, therefore must apply to something short of total forgetfulness: and if it does, then there is very good

cause why it should set us upon examining ourselves; for although it is evident that even if we would, we could not altogether forget God, it is, nevertheless, much to be feared that none of us remember Him as we ought to do.

Now which be they who can be said to forget God? I answer all those who do not habitually remember Him; who do not make it their first object on every occasion to learn how He would have them act; who do not take His law for a lantern to their feet and a light unto their paths; and who do not make obedience to His will the rule of their existence, as conscious that He is near them and sees them at all times.

And such persons may be found among those who are in the world's opinion decent and respectable, whose morals are unexceptionable, and who are diligent in attendance on all the outward ordinances of the Church.

For instance, a man may be regular in his daily prayers at home, regular in frequenting public worship and yet if he does this as a mere form, uttering words with his lips, while his heart, and soul, and affections are occupied with something else, and thus insulting Him, whose long-suffering has borne with his manifold transgressions, and Whose bountiful goodness has given him life and health, and all things,

what can be said of such an one but that he "forgets God?" And in proportion, as any of us give way to this temptation, do we involve ourselves in the condemnation pronounced in the text.

So again, the man who is afraid of doing what he knows to be right, lest he should incur the ridicule of the world, and be set down as weak-minded, and bigoted, and enthusiastic: or he who does what is right, but professes to do so on other grounds than because he desires to serve God, is not he one who has forgotten that the Lord his God is a jealous God? Has he not reason to apply to himself that fearful threat; "Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this sinful and adulterous generation, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the Holy angels?" Now seeing that as there are various manners of committing this sin, so there are various degrees of guilt attaching thereto, it will be well for each of us to ascertain that we have in this respect altogether escaped the crime of forgetting God. And when we remember the compromises men make with their consciences, and their cowardly contrivances for escaping the charge of being righteous overmuch; when we reflect with what sensitiveness we shrink from any step which seems like opposition to the way of the world, have we not cause for apprehension lest

we may have in a greater, or lesser measure, denied our Lord?

Again; what shall be said of those who act habitually as though they were unmindful of the attributes of God? of His all-seeing eye, and fatherly hand? of His power, and purity, and truth, and mercy, and justice? of those who comfort themselves with the profane, irreverent thought that He is even such an one as themselves, and that therefore He will sacrifice one attribute to another, be merciful at the expense of His justice, or sacrifice His truth to His tender compassion? Are not such persons forgetful of God, of What He is, and Who He is? And are not each of us liable to fall into the same condemnation, whereinsoever we indulge the thought that He will appear on the judgment seat, under a different character from that in which He has revealed Himself to us in the Bible?

From what has been said, you will, I think, perceive that it is no imaginary and unreal danger against which I would put you on your guard, but one that is constant, urgent, and the more insidious, because less suspected. We all profess to believe in God, and to serve Him. We are really subjects of His kingdom, and members of His Church in possession of singular advantages, and inestimable privileges. Nominally, we are living as if we appreciated

them; but the peril to us all is, lest we should be selfdeceived, and (like the Jews of old time, who called themselves the children of Abraham, while they would not do His works,) persuade ourselves that we remember God, as He expects us to remember Him, when, in point of fact, we have only just not forgotten Him utterly.

But, as I have already reminded you in the opening of this discourse, anything approaching to forgetfulness of God is a far more heinous offence in us, than in those of whom David spake in the text. Unto whom much is given, of him will much be required. From the moment when we were incorporated by baptism into the body of Christ, we were no longer in the condition in which we were by nature. In ourselves, as well after Baptism as before, we are helpless creatures: but in Baptism we receive the gift of an in-dwelling grace to enable us to serve and please God. We are, therefore, without excuse if we forget Him. The Holy Spirit was poured into our hearts in order that we should not forget Him. It is His office to bring all things to our remembrance both as to what we should do, and what we should avoid. The more we obey His suggestions, the more acute will become our sense of obedience; the more we try to remember, the more entirely will he preserve us from forgetting. At all times, and under all