were a higher office of affection to preserve the the heart. It does not prohibit any outward sin, body than to save the soul? Does a mother's it aims at the destruction of its principles within natural affection lead her to devote days of toil and nights of restlessness to nurture the body, and save it from harm, and keep it in comfort, and should not her Christian affection lead her to yet nobler offices, to a manifestation of love as untiring and watchful, that its soul may be saved from harm, that it may be nurtured in grace, that it should know the joy and comfort of feeding upon that bread which cometh down from heaven, whereof if a man eat he shall never die? The main question with every parent ought to be, Am I educating my children for eternity? Has the grace of God touched their hearts? Have they laid hold on the hope set before us in the gospel? Till this end is reached, the duty of the parent is not discharged, and the likelihood is that all his other labour will be fruitless. If children are not taught to walk in the truth of God, there is no security that they will walk in truth at all. They practically tell the greatest lie who deny the testimony of God regarding his Son, and they are capable of every other lie. The belief of this testimony lies at the foundation of all truth, and secures the perfect establishment of it. Let all therefore, who desire to be found walking in the truth, strive to have their faith strengthened, and in lively exercise. To walk in the truth is the most delightful, because the most satisfactory evidence of a renewed heart. All the saints of God rejoice in the spectacle. It gladdens the hearts of the people of Christ, to know of a man that he walks in the truth, for of this man they know that he walks in Christ. It is a delight to God, who is well pleased when he beholds his children walking in truth. Let us then remember the temptations to which we are exposed distrusting our own deceitful hearts-leaning on the strength of the Lord-and waiting for his guidance, be careful to maintain a consistent testimony—to vindicate and manifest the truth of God by walking in it, as he hath given us commandment, and to rebuke the lying vanities of the world by a conduct becoming the gospel. TENTH DAY.-MORNING. the soul. No commandment of God indeed has any lower aim than this. His law is eminently spiritual. Its demands cannot be satisfied with a mere outward obedience. All the preceding precepts we have considered, had for their object the subordination of the heart to a willing obedience. From the very beginning, indeed, God had made known to men that he could accept of nothing less as an offering than the devotion of the whole heart to his service. His commandment is, 'My son, give me thine heart.' The Jews, even when they had rendered an outward obedience to the first commandment, are thus reproached by the mouth of the prophet; 'Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their hearts far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men; therefore I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.' During the earthly ministry of Christ, the threatening quoted above had been fulfilled upon the Jews; the wisdom of their wise men had perished, and they deceived themselves into the belief that a mere outward conformity to the law would please the God of the spirits of all flesh. Among the very first labours of his ministry, therefore, Christ set himself to destroy this delusion: 'Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you, That who soever is angry with his brother without a caus“, shall be in danger of the judgment.' He thus showed that the law did not regard merely the withholding of the hand from the commission of crime, but condemned every unregulated and evil passion in the heart. And thus also the apostles taught the will of the Lord. It results, indeed, from the fact that God is a spirit, that he can only be served by the Spirit. The obedience that does not come from the heart, is in his sight no obedience at all. The transgression of the law by the heart in any of its desires, is what he condemns. But though this be true of all God's precepts, it 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou is the one now before us which speaks most plainly shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his and unequivocally of the cognizance he takes of mun-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, the heart. It does not prohibit us from putting nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neigh-forth our hand to appropriate that which we bour's,' Exod. xx. 17. covet, as the other precepts do; it prohibits the THIS Commandment is addressed immediately entertainment of the covetous desire. It may be and exclusively to the desires and affections of that there shall no act result from the desire. The fear of punishment, the fear of shame, may | We sin against this commandment, then, when restrain the hand, and the covetous man, as far we love and desire the things of the world more as he is subject to our observation, may be upright than God-when we feel our chief satisfaction in in all his ways. But God looks into the heart. them-when we prefer worldly prosperity above His law is addressed directly to it. He prohibits the health and welfare of our souls-when we are the unlawful desire as well as the unlawful act. distrustful of God's providence, and careful and It is worth while also to notice the perfect troubled about many things, to the neglect of the unity and coherence of all the divine command- one thing needful-when we repine at our outward ments, and to observe how true it is that he who condition, and are impatient under losses and offendeth in one point is guilty of all. In regard worldly injuries-when we use the world not to to this precept, for instance, we may observe how serve God but to please our own appetites-when impossible it is to violate its requirements with- we are envious of another's prosperity-when we out transgressing also the first commandment. too earnestly wish ourselves placed in the same The first commandment forbids idolatry, but we circumstances of comfort as our neighbour. All are told by the apostle that covetousness is idol- these affections of the soul are prohibited in the atry. To entertain and to cherish a covetous commandment. Their dominion over our own desire, is essentially to worship and love another hearts may be detected by us, if we are careful than the true God; it is to exalt some worldly to observe the tenor of our thoughts and converobject to that place in the affections which God sation. If the world constitutes to us the most claims as exclusively his own. That thing, what- ordinary and most pleasing subject of our thoughts, are covetous. Out of the abundance of ever it may be, which a man supremely desires, is we his God, and he renders to it that service which the heart the mouth speaketh; and we have a God claims. He gives it the first place in his affec- covetous heart, if our conversation turns habitutions. This character given by the apostle to ally, naturally, and easily upon our worldly the sin of covetousness will help us materially to condition, and the means of making it better. see the extent to which this precept reaches, the Against all these things the commandment speaks, authority which it claims over all the desires of and it speaks with the authority of God.. the heart, and what it is that in its essence and spirit it prohibits. Thus, for example, should we be disposed to flatter ourselves into the belief that because we do not covet what our neighbour possesses, we keep the commandment, the definition of the apostle is sufficient to undeceive us. Covetousness is idolatry, and if we inordinately love the world and the world's wealth, or other pleasures, more than we love God, though we desire not to obtain them from another, we transgress this law. It is the worldly mind, the excessive love of the world's goods, which constitutes the essence of the sin; the modes of procuring the world's pleasures are but ways of gratifying the covetous desire. Thus also we may deceive ourselves by supposing that we are not covetous, because we have no inordinate desire to obtain more than we have. But it is plainly possible we may have enough to satisfy our worldly appetites, and thus be under no temptation to covet more than we possess. This, however, does not free us from the sin of covetousness, which is idolatry. If we love our worldly possessions more than we love God, we really worship and serve them. TENTH DAY.-EVENING. 'Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet,' Rom. vii. 7. THIS is a very remarkable testimony to the peculiar spirituality of the very terms of the tenth commandment. It would appear as if it were possible for a man to persuade himself that he satisfies the demands of all the others by an outward compliance, but this speaks directly and expressly to the inward desires. It prohibits every carnal affection. It revealed to the apostle the lust of his own heart. In the connection in which the word lust here stands, it obviously includes every sin in the heart, and before it had any outward manifestation. The apostle is speaking of the method by which he arrived at the knowledge of his own sinfulness. He had at one period of his life regarded himself as perfectly righteous, for he had walked in the way of the straitest sect of The instance adduced the Pharisees. He did not then know that the by Christ of a contented worldly man is a preg-law condemned sin in the heart as well as in the nant proof of this. He is described as saying: life. But when he came to reflect that the law 'Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many said, 'Thou shalt not covet,' he perceived that years; take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry.' every lust, that is, every desire after what the law prohibits, was thereby condemned, and thus he His law requires perfect and unchanging love as knew himself to be a sinner. The law against the spring of every action-love that knows no covetousness, then, is a law especially directed forgetfulness-that has the constant and entire against the sins of the heart. Every desire and affection of the soul which lusts after things forbidden, is by this commandment condemned. Here we have set before us the entire spirituality of the law. In this one sentence, Thou shalt not covet,' we are forbidden to entertain sin even in our thoughts. It is most important that we should thus regard the law of God-that we should have a right knowledge of its extent and spirituality. The personal experience of the apostle is just the experience of every sinful man. He testifies that he was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and he died; that is, he thought himself a righteous and just man, until God, in his grace, gave him to see that his commandments reached every thought and desire of the heart, and then he knew himself to be a vile and condemned sinner-that sentence of death had been already pronounced upon him, and then he was led to the cross of Christ. He was first of all brought to cry: 'O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' before he was led to thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so it is in regard to every man. Faith in Christ presupposes a faith in our own utter hopelessness without him. Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. His invitation is to them that labour and are heavy laden, and it is certain that only the convinced sinner will come to Christ, for he only feels his need of such a Saviour. But it is by the law we acquire the knowledge of sin. Without an adequate sense of its depth and spirituality, as condemning every nnholy desire, we either know not that we are sinners at all, or we have no proper sense of the utter hopelessness of our condition. And thus the Pharisaical imagination is fostered, that if in any tolerable manner we discharge the duties we owe to our neighbour, and observe the religious rites which have been imposed upon us, we are not in a very bad state. We may possibly need a little mercy extended to us, and this we will look for from a God who has been revealed as very merciful. He will not condemn us for the few sins of which we have been guilty, and so far as we cannot justify ourselves, we will have our transgressions covered by the merits of Christ. His merits will atone for the little that is defective or wrong in our conduct. If we reason thus, we have not yet learned God's law, nor found the real meaning of the words, 'Thou shalt not covet.' ascendancy in the soul—that occupies the whole heart, and subordinates all things to itself. What is it though we do not formally worship another God, if other lords besides him have really the dominion over our affections? What though we do not make an image, and bow down before it, so long as the chambers of our imagination are occupied with visible and earthly things? What though we be not guilty of open profanity, if we take the name of God in vain, by rendering to him the heartless service of the lips? What though we refrain from our worldly employments on the sabbath, when there is not a scene of busier occupation in the world than would be presented were all our memories and hopes, our calculations for the future, and our reflections for the past, laid bare, and discovered to be of the earth? We rest our bodies, and they are refreshed, but our minds obtain no rest from worldly cares, and are not refreshed with the dews of the heavenly spirit. And so of all the commandments of God, did God but unveil to us our own hearts, and show us the entire breadth and extent of his law; it might be demonstrated to our own conviction that so far from doing any thing which came up to the full measure of obedience, our very righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The law as a schoolmaster would bring us to Christ. We would cry out, What shall we do to be saved?' Nothing but Christ would satisfy us. O that God would give us more of this divine knowledge! that we might see more of our own vileness! that we might see we had no life in ourselves! We would then cast aside the filthy rags whereby we seek to cover our nakedness, and he would clothe us with that robe which is the righteousness of the saints. Covetousness would then die, when we ourselves became dead, and were unable to say with the apostle: I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now lead in the flesh is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.' ELEVENTH DAY.-MORNING. 'And covetousness, which is idolatry,' Col. iii. 5. THE identity between covetousness and idolatry consists in this, that the covetous man places that love and confidence in riches which are due to God alone. Riches become to him a god. His supreme affections are placed upon them, and it is in them he confides. He does not in his heart depend upon God; he has no confidence in his wisdom and goodness. It is not because he looks to God, who openeth his hand and satisfieth the desires of every living thing, that he says to his soul, take thine ease,' but because he has much goods in store for many years. There is an obvious and deep malignity in this sin, which must make it very hateful to God. It strikes at the root of all religion, and undermines its foundations. It is a deliberate sin, not perpetrated under the influence of some sudden gust of passion, but a habitual state of the soul. All the acts to which it leads are acts of contrivance and forethought. It is a sin of love and choice, the setting up a false end, and steadfastly prosecuting it, not an error in the means of attaining a good end. It is a sin which deposes God from the throne of our hearts, and sets up his creatures as objects of our highest affection. It delights in the creature and not in God, and seeks riches as the highest happiness, and therefore the apostle testifies, if any man loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him,'—the friendship of the world is enmity against God. It is a contempt and disbelief of all God's promises, for he who really believes all that God has said of the happiness of heaven, could not prefer the world to it. It brings man nearly to a level with the beasts that perish, for their object and end, like that of the covetous man, is a mere temporal provision. It is therefore a perverting of the very end of existence. Man was made to glorify God; the covetous man gives all the glory to the creature, and he does this as a habit. His covetousness is not an occasional act, but a habitual state of mind, indicated by a habitual course of life. It involves the highest contempt of God-the most hardened unbelief-the vilest ingratitude. It perverts God's creatures to an end the reverse of that for which they were bestowed. It is using the gifts of God to cast dishonour upon him, and converting the mercies bestowed for our use and benefit into instruments of perdition. Such is the character of this sin, so heinous is it in its nature. It is the basis of all other offences, for it is thus written, the love of money is the root of all evil,' As the love of God is the source of all good, the fountain of all virtue, that which destroys this love must be the greatest of all sins, because containing the germ of every other. When its proper character is considered, it is wonderful that men should be subject to it. There cannot be a stronger proof of their blindness and infatuation. Reason herself might teach us the utter folly of it, as it is shown with such convincing power in the parable: The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?' It is this certainty of a speedy death which marks the utter folly of covetousness. We cannot keep what we may have spent a life time to acquire. We cannot make a covenant with death that it shall not call away the soul, and what happiness can we have in that from which we may so soon be called away? We add to the bitterness of death. He to whom the last enemy comes in the midst of poverty, in desolation and distress, can leave the world without a pang. But what bitterness must it be, just when we have finished our careful preparations for years of easy indulgence, to be laid hold on by death! But the folly of covetousness is not only to be seen in this. It may fail of its object from other causes than want of time. We have received this admonition, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through to steal.' We may by many accidents be deprived of all that we have amassed in a single hour. Riches take to themselves wings and flee away. The thief may rob us-fire may consume our stores-the storms of heaven may destroy the increase of our fields—those to whom money is lent on usury may become bankrupt. We have in truth no security for the continuance or the increase of worldly possessions but in the goodness of God, and we do our utmost to destroy that security by employing his mercies to dishonour and contemn him. But even suppose we were permitted to get and to retain all that covetousness lusteth after, it would still be stamped with folly. The world could not satisfy us-we would have no lasting enjoyment from it. To use the words of an old English Divine, According to continual experience it is the nature of all things pleasant only to sense or fancy, presently to satiate: no beauty can long please the eye, no melody the ear, no delicacy the palate, no curiosity the fancy; a little time doth waste away, a small use doth wear out the pleasure which at first they afford; novelty commendeth ELEVENTH DAY.-EVENING. 'Tet your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor for sake thee, Heb. xiii. 5. and ingratiateth them: distance representeth true that the sinner, who retains his enmity them fair and lovely: the want or absence of against God, cannot possibly derive consolation them rendereth them desirable: but the presence from such a promise; for to him the abiding preof them dulleth their grace, the possession of sence of God would be the very consummation them deadeneth the appetite to them.' A sin so of misery. Yet it may be plain, even to them, heinous so dishonouring to God-so contrary to that when this enmity has been destroyed, and reason—so destructive of the soul, cannot but be the soul has been taught to delight in God, abhorrent to God. He has not only shown this the constant feeling of his presence may cause abhorrence by directing a law against it, he has such a fulness of satisfaction as to leave nothing expressed a special dislike to it. The covetous else to desire. This might be inferred from what are described as those whom the Lord abhorreth. reason and experience tell us of the sources of conIt should be a special object with us then to strive solation and happiness opened up to us in the world. against this sin. Its remedy lies in the love of It is admitted that the highest enjoyments which God, in confiding faith in the wisdom and good- the world furnishes, arise from the relationships ness of his dispensations. Let us therefore ever in which God has placed us. It is not in the pray that the love of God may be shed abroad gratification of the mere sensual appetites that in our heart, and our affections set on the things the most complete satisfaction is found on earth, above. but in the communion of heart with heart. And were we desirous of presenting a picture of earthly comfort, we would be obliged to colour it with the felicities of friendly and affectionate intercourse, to place on the very foreground of the picture a representation of that loving intercourse which opens up the heart, and brings into activity the strongest and best sentiments of which it is capable. We would imagine a fellowship constantly THE promise contained in the text is one which maintained springing from deep affection, develophas often been repeated for the consolation of ing itself in the communion of mind with mind; God's people. It is peculiarly appropriate to a the interchange of thought and sentiment. And time of adversity and distress, or when God calls it might be conceived that such a communion as ns to engage in any arduous undertaking, in the this was maintained throughout a long lifetime, prosecution of which our flesh and heart faint and and daily becoming closer and more dear, till there fail. But there are no circumstances in which a could be no enjoyment felt apart and alone, but child of God can be placed in which he may not the most grateful happiness in union. Still farappropriate the promise, and realize all the bless-ther we might conceive that there is a wide disedness which it is fitted to impart. It is only parity between the parties who maintain this when we forsake God that he forsakes us. His intercourse; that, on the one hand, it consisted presence may be realized at all times, and if we very much in bestowing, and on the other, of but open a door of entrance for him, he will come receiving, and that such affection being hallowed in and take up his abode with us, and give us to by the tenderness to which comparative helplessenjoy the blessedness of communion with him. ness gives rise on the one side, and by docility It is because we rather seek our happiness in other and reverence on the other, gave free scope for things, which is to be found in God alone, that he the exercise of all the tender susceptibilities of the hides from us his gracious countenance, and leaves heart. And wherefore should it be regarded as a us to ourselves. The promise is here given to visionary and delusive thing that the child of God, enforce the injunction contained in the text. in a communion with him, which, from His very We are enjoined to let our conversation be with- nature, must give scope for the exercise of the out covetousness, and to be content because God highest and best faculties of the soul which must hath said he will never leave nor forsake us. It enkindle and invigorate every fresh and delighttherefore plainly sets before us this truth, that ful emotion of the heart; should enjoy a happiwhen God is our portion, we have nothing farther ness inconceivably greater than could elsewhere to desire; and truly the Lord is an abundant and be tasted, and withal so full and perfect, as to satisfying portion, even though we had nothing leave no room for covetousness to desire more? besides. In the habitual contemplation of all that is majestic and powerful, of all that is lovely and desirable; of the infinite in every perfection; in the delightful This may in part be made apparent, even to those who have never tasted of his grace. It is |