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CHAP. IX.

MEANS BY WHICH TO IMPROVE AND EXCEL IN OUR AIMS TO ACT TO GOD'S GLORY.

As we have been surveying our comprehensive theme there have not been wanting abundant proofs, that although the glory of God is the end sought by real christians, this is yet done but very defectively and partially by many, and but imperfectly by all of them. To adduce these proofs in the shape of arguments can be scarcely requisite, so evident and unquestionable is the fact. As monitors and remembrancers however, they may be advantageously presented. They will be found to answer a salutary end if they deepen the personal conviction of imperfection and deficiency. This is in effect the intimation afforded by the multiplied exhortations we have mentioned. They point strongly and significantly "to what is lacking" in our godliness. They are addressed to christians who are already accustomed to glorify God, and their propriety must rest upon the fact, that those on whom they are urged have as yet but imperfectly attained: else there would be no necessity, no occasion, no room for these injunctions. They all proceed upon the assumption of imperfection, and whenever read or heard, tend to remind us that in many things

we still "fall short of the glory of God."

This natural deduction is strengthened by our common observation—an observation the results of which have come before us again and again in the course of our present inquiries. How often have we had, as we have passed along, to mark and to deplore the low degrees, the feeble workings, the partial application, the frequent intermissions, the slow growth of the pure and noble principle we have attempted to describe! What deficiency, what faintness, what failure, what unworthy dereliction, have we had occasion to lament! But we find a still more powerful and affecting demonstration in our own minds. How repeated, how profound, and how painful a consciousness have we of the great disparity between the requirement and our degree of conformity! Do we not often lose sight altogether of the end we profess to seek? Do we not oftener view it as through a dimmed and hazy atmosphere? Do we not look to it as with an infant's gaze, and move towards it as with palsied limbs? Is there not such irregularity, such feebleness, such partiality, such failing in our regard to the honour of God, as often to bring it into serious suspicion, sometimes into deep and distressing doubt, whether we have any genuine regard to it at all? And this suggestion brings before us another memento of our imperfection-the frequent, or at least occasional comfortlessness of the mind. If our aim were perfect, would not the heart be at rest? Would any room be left for questioning its own safety, if it reposed with perpetual satisfaction in God's glory as its end? Would the chill and coldness of suspicion and doubt ever come over it, if it always basked in the sunbeams of this glory? Would not

all its cheerless wanderings end, if it were held to this centre? Would not restless cares, perturbations, darkening and conflicting passions, consuming griefs, all sink beneath that sweet calm and beautiful harmony which are the natural and sure effect of entire and unvarying subordination to God? Such being the undenied and unquestioned imperfection of this aim in Christians, they are required to remedy the evil. Regard for God's glory has to be cherished, augmented, strengthened, and heightened. Such is the significancy of all injunctions to glorify God. Addressed as they are for the most part to believers, they are not, of course, exhortations to something altogether new, but to the perpetuation and advancement of something already known and pursued. When thus addressed to us, they do not so much call upon us to begin, as to continue, to improve, and to perfect, what has already been begun. And if these exhortations to act to the divine glory, signify that we are to do so in a greater degree, that we are to persevere and be habitual in so doing, that we are therein to advance, to improve and to excel, they do in effect command and urge us to use all appropriate means to acquire this improvement and this eminence. When therefore these means are known to exist, it is incumbent upon us to search them out; and when they are discovered, they ever afterwards become binding upon us. With these impressions let us go to the enquiry; and our investigations will not then be curious and speculative, but practical, efficacious, and useful. Amongst the means of acquiring more uniform and exalted aims to glorify God, we may not omit

I. Distinct and settled apprehensions of what it is to do all things to the glory of God. That many do thus act, and some in an eminent degree, without being able to frame a very intelligible notion of the expression by which it is designated, and with still less ability to shape what apprehension they have of it into appropriate language, it is not needful nor desired to deny. But whilst all this is grantedwhilst it is conceded that "praise is perfected out of the mouth of babes and sucklings" whilst the heart may, so to speak, get before the understanding in this path of godliness-whilst the strong tendencies of a holy mind may instinctively press on even in comparative darkness-whilst the hallowed affections of the spiritual man will struggle forward and force channels for themselves through an intellect unprepared and unshaped for their flow; yet if it be needful at all to know the divine requirements in order to obey them, it must be proportionably desirable to know them distinctly and thoroughly. If it be important to "understand what the will of the Lord is" in any case; if it be reasonable to pray that God would "teach us his statutes;" if "spiritual understanding" has anything to do with godly affections and holy life; if the knowledge of any of the divine requirements is the natural and rational order of preparation for their performance; then how truly momentous must be the bearing upon a christian's spirit and demeanour, of the views he forms of that vital and comprehensive requirement which we have examined and urged, and to which we now seek to direct and lead the willing mind. But it is the less necessary to stay upon the proof of this point, as we have already considered it in the introductory parts

of this volume. We say then at once, gain correct and definite apprehensions of this subject. Understand well what is meant by doing all to the glory of God. Comprehend the thing itself. Then see how other things resolve themselves into this. Mark too how large a place it fills in experimental piety; how like an attractive centre, it draws round it numerous affections, motives and exercises. Keep sight of its pervading presence and power over the whole practice; and learn how, like a great law of nature, it spreads every where, influencing, preserving, regulating, holding together all the parts of the moral system, which it urges forward in a safe and orderly direc tion. Be familiar with its action upon the whole heart, and its business with the whole life. Get a clear, well-formed, established notion of it. Let your apprehension of it be a real transcript of the requirement, that it may have in your mind all the explicitness, the fixation, the unalterableness of the law itself; so that you may be able to recur to it on all occasions, with safety, ease and confidence. Especially regard the requirement as proposing to you an end-one which will not only be accomplished by some means, but which you are to pursue-which you are to care about the promotion of which you are to engage in as your business-the necessary occupation of your life-the high vocation of your intelligent and immortal being. Recognise it especially as an unequivocal and imperious obligation. Do not suppose it left to your option. Do not think it an eminence to which a few do well to aspire, but which the many may safely neglect. Do not imagine it the possible attainment only of a select and privileged order among christians. Let all neglect of the

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