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and upon which it is founded: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." The apostle grants, nay proves, that to eat meat offered to idols was an indifferent act; in itself, neither good nor evil. But circumstances might make it improper. If a heathen was likely to be encouraged in his idolatries, or a weak brother shaken in his faith, the act became a blameable one. Thus all indifferent acts require to be put under this kind of conditional discipline. Circumstances may give them a moral character and importance, which call for the aid of the fear and love of God. All our apparently indifferent actions are therefore to be, if I may so speak, disposable, ready, and available, for the service and promotion of the divine glory.

The common pursuits and projects of human life, should be subject to godly principle. We do not sufficiently remember that we are not our own, when we embark our bodies or minds in new schemes and engagements, without regard to the will and blessing of God. How plain are our directions in these matters. “Go to now, ye that say, To day, or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that." *

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And even those actions which are thought most strictly indifferent-least capable of subserviency to

• James iv. 13, 14, 15.

any end that is great or remote-must be placed under the regulation and guardianship of our master principle. May not a multitude of these actions be preserved from taint, from corruption, from degeneracy, by setting the Lord always before us? And it is perhaps not well understood how large a proportion of these indifferent actions, may be made to point directly to God-may be shaped into piety-elevated into forms of definite obedience turned to pure gold-without, as some may fear, sinking into teazing scrupulosity and undignified puerility. There is a holy art, a celestial skill, which may do much in this work of christian refinement. Whilst an ungodly temper stamps life and all its actions with one character of evil, and the very "ploughing of the wicked is sin; a true and pervading regard for God elevates the entire existence, hallows the whole of life, and tinges with glory all its parts :-" holiness to the Lord is written upon the bells of the horses,"-the common things of life are consecrated, and meaning and dignity are given to what was least significant and least worthy.

XIV. It may perhaps be thought an appropriate close to this enumeration, to remark that the circumstances of a Christian's death will often furnish apt, ample, and important occasions for acting to the glory of God. We have already heard the authority of scripture upon this point. We may recur to it with advantage. "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we› live unto the Lord; and whether we die, WE DIE UNTO THE LORD, whether we live therefore or die,

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we are the Lord's." There are many aspects in the death of a holy man in which the truth of these devout and sublime statements is seen; and various modes in which it becomes practically and cheerfully recognized. It appears in the undismayed mind with which he meets the summons, and watches the approaches of mortality. It shows itself in the purity, elevation, and strength of the devotion which marks his passage. It is manifest in the simple, selfrenouncing, absolute, unshaken trust, which, in that dread hour, he reposes in the grace and faithfulness of "God in Christ." It is apparent in that willing testimony which he bears to the mercy, truth, and wisdom of God's past dealings with him. It is observed in the eagerness with which he witnesses to the value, sweetness, and power of the gospel in the extremity of endurance or of need. It is conspicuous in that zeal for God which prompts the dying lips to utter words of counsel, warning, and encouragement, and which seeks to lodge a witness and a memorial in the hearts and consciences of survivors. It is heard in the wrestling prayers which are breathed forth for the peace of Zion, and the prosperity of the cause of God. It shines beautifully in the calm confidence with which he looks across the valley of death into eternity; in the holy pantings of desire "to depart and to be with Christ; " in the willingness, the gladness, with which he exchanges the scenes and attachments of earth, for the blessed and everlasting vision of God; and in the joyous and chastened readiness with which he waits his glorious

* Rom. xiv. 7, 8.

and blissful change. "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto them also that love his appearing.' "Blessed are the dead, who" thus "die in

the Lord!"

*2 Tim. iii. 6, 7, 8.

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AN aim so high as that we contemplate, it is evident, must have corresponding motives, and will not be sustained but by the presence of such motives in the mind. There will be a constant tendency to sink down from this elevated position to the earthly, and the selfish, and the lower ends which usually attract human pursuit, from which nothing can secure us, but the distinct apprehension and powerful energy of appropriate and commanding inducements. Let us then investigate the motives which ought to prevai in this case.

I. Our derived being and dependent relation, render it a most natural and obviously becoming thing, to seek the glory of God.-It will help us much in arriving at just conclusions on this subject, to understand well what we are, whence we are, and how far we are dependent. If God has made us, and not we ourselves;" if our bodies, with all their delicate, complicated, and wonderful machinery, were created by the power and skill of God; if our minds

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