more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building, fitly framed together, GROWETH UNTO AN HOLY TEMPLE IN THE LORD in whom ye also are builded together for AN HABITATION OF GOD THROUGH THE SPIRIT."* The office of the priests, whose business it was continually to present sacrifices to God, is the apt and lively image employed by the divine Spirit, to point out the hallowed life of Christians whose obligation and whose delight it is to glorify God by offering spiritual sacrifices. But for this priesthood, as for the former, we learn from the same authority, men must be selected, fitted, and anointed. There must be a qualification and an introduction. We must be made priests unto God. The representation of Christiansunder the idea of a temple, is as appropriate, as it is magnificent and beautiful. What an image of glorifying God! The abode of the Shechinah. The scene of sacrificial blood and incense. The place of praise and prayer. The resting place of the covenants and the law. The resort of a worshipping nation, and the testimony to the world of the power, and goodness, and glory of the Lord. The church is a temple. God dwells in it. He manifests his glory there. He is sought there. He accepts sacrifice and incense there. But this temple must be built. It must consist of "lively stones." And this temple must be consecrated too, and in a sense more real, more solemn, and more affecting than that of Solomon. 209 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, fand 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, perturba tions, 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 Goď 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 |