all idolatry, all false conceptions of God's character. They do not like to retain God in their thoughts, and so they make for themselves gods more congenial to their own nature and their own desires, and set them up in their hearts to worship them.

In what I have now said, I believe I have given you, as far as it goes, a true representation of the character in which God reveals Himself in Scripture, as well as in that actual daily government under which we all live.

And He

When He made man at first, He made him good and upright, like His other works-He gave him a place, a work, and a law. attached a penalty to the breach of that law. When man broke His law, and forfeited his place in the scale of creation, God did not utterly destroy him, but ordained a way by which he might be restored, and from thenceforth treated him at once as a fallen being, and as one to whom restoration was possible. Throughout the Bible, mankind is spoken of as being actually under God's displeasure, and God is described as He is in relation to a fallen and rebellious race. His goodness and His love are only represented as

they are exhibited in the material world, or in His own chosen people.

This is a great and a serious matter. I commend it to your thoughtful consideration, with a hearty prayer that the Holy Spirit will take of the things of God and make you understand them—showing you both how the truth is, and how right and fit it is that it should be so-teaching you first of all to regard God as a holy God and a just, and giving you assurance that you will yet find in Him a living, inexhaustible fountain of Love, if you are willing to return to your right place and become His children again in His eternal Son.

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SERMON II.

WHAT IS MAN?

Ps. viii. 4, 5.

"What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?

"For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour."

THERE is a necessary connection between the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. The revelation which tells us the truth concerning God, tells us at the same time the truth concerning man; and the more clearly we apprehend the complete idea of the Divine character, the more correctly do we estimate the true position of human nature.

The will of God, as far as it is known to us, is the standard of right; and we cannot even make the attempt to ascertain this, without, at the same time, measuring ourselves by it. And thus, even if there had been no express declaration on the part of God, of what man is in

His sight; if the Bible had been only a revela. tion of God Himself, it would have taught us and made us feel what we are.

And this surely it is essential that we should know. We cannot seriously and intelligently set about the work which God has given us to do, without understanding who and what we are, what we are made for, what we may aim at and hope for, what are our powers and capacities. For as, on the one hand, many perplexing questions are suggested to us in regard to the nature and attributes of God, so also very many doubts arise from the mysterious, complicated nature of mankind, the strange mixture of good and evil, the capacity for the highest excellence and happiness, with the sad tendency to sin and wretchedness, the inward consciousness of an immortal nature, and the bondage under which the whole race lies to the wants and infirmities of animal life.

Indeed, it is possible that the nature and the actual condition of the human race is as often a ground of unbelief, as anything that is directly revealed of the character and government of God.

I shall try, by the blessing of God, to put

C

this question before you, in such a manner as to help you in your purpose of devoting yourselves worthily to the service of God-to lower, perhaps, the estimate you may have formed of your actual condition; but to raise greatly, I hope, your thoughts of the capacities of your nature, and the ends for which you are what you are.

Our thoughts on this point will be simple and practical. The general question, “ What is man, and to what end was he placed on the earth?" involves the yet more direct and important question for each of us, "What am I, and why am I where I am, and what I am this day ?"

Men are very keen in their inquiries, and very distinct in their conclusions, when they set themselves to investigate the nature and constitution of other orders of God's creatures. From the structure of a plant or an animal, and from the position in which it is placed, they show the end for which it was created, and take delight in observing how exactly it is adapted to fill the place, and to accomplish the purpose, for which it was evidently appointed; and, in most cases, as soon as we have made ourselves sufficiently