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for whom it was not intended, the Saviour goes on to discuss at great length the discordance that in old time, and at all times since man egressed from Paradise, had subsisted between him and his creatures, for which they stand before him condemned and rejected; and to show the necessity there was that those who called themselves his disciples, and were reconciled and restored, should come over to his mind, and be agreed with him in all things in which he stands at variance with the world. What the unregenerate are, and what the believer must not be, comes thus to be minutely discussed the cha racters are placed in perpetual opposition-the world is convicted of wrong in every thing-even its best things -in most things the avowed opinions of men are wrong

-or where these are right, their conduct is often not conformed to them-or where both opinion and conduct are right, the secret motive, the hidden principle is in the wrong: their worship, their prayers, their kindliest dispositions towards each other, their very devotions to the Deity-all are in the wrong; and the contrast of their characters is made the standard of Christian excellence. "Be not like unto"-" But thou"-is the language addressed throughout to those whom God distinguishes with his approbation and his blessing.

But whence is all this discordance? Are not all these the creatures of God? Have they not his laws written on their hearts, delivered to them from his mouth, registered in his own eternal word? They hear, they read, they profess to know-what is the matter that they come to no agreement? Jesus takes no direct notice of this he enters on no regular discussion-but passing at once from the consequences to their cause, he pronounces a truth, that without any immediate connexion with what has been said, answers the question and explains the whole. Nay, these few and simple words are a comment upon the conduct of the whole world, that solves, as it were, the riddle of all our contradictions and inconsistencies, the opposition to our own interests, and blindness

to our own advantage, and falseness to our own professions. Two powers, in direct opposition to each other, claim our service. A few of us determine boldly for the wrong master-serve him heartily and honestly, take his wages, and say we are content. Another few-I wish they be not the fewer-determine for the right master, and unworthily yet honestly serve him-prefer his wages, though we cannot earn them-will take hire of no other, lest he disown us-fighting his battles ill, but forsaking not his colours-cowards and poltroons often, but foregoing our allegiance never. The greater number, in Christian countries at least, are trying to serve both masters; and the consequences are exactly what the Preacher says they will be. Look around, look within, and see if it be not so.

We need not describe what our Master is who claims our services, nor the right he has to them. It is He who made us, and gave us, with existence, the means, the laws, and the ultimate object of existence. He is God-all to us that that great word implies. The other power is expressed by a most comprehensive term, the fittest that could have been selected to express the meaning. It is a Hebrew word, signifying riches, gain-from its supposed derivation, any thing that is trusted or confided in. This is what is often called in Scripture the world, not meaning the people of the world, but the things of the world—our pleasures, interests, and possessions in it-essentially our riches, our Mammon. It may be gold dug from the deep mine, it may be honour won from the suffrages of men, it may be sensual indulgences, extracted from the properties of nature, it may be mental gratification of the powers or passions of our own minds -all are alike our riches or what we esteem such; and so far as they are opposed to, or separate from the laws prescribed by our Maker when he created us, or to the purpose for which he created us, they are the Mammon here spoken of.

"Ye cannot serve two masters:" their commands so

different, their wages so different. How is it possible? Why then do we not choose between them, and be faithful? Because we like the service of the one and the wages of the other-that is, we wish to live in the service of Mammon, and die in the service of God-but how can we do this? We will enroll ourselves among the servants of God, and call him our Master, and in the mean time we will do the bidding of the other; or at least so divide our service as to get hire of both. You cannot-it is impossible. Ten times a day the balance will stand suspended, and demand the weight of a preference to turn it-ten times an hour duty and eternity will contend with the interests of earth for the unhallowed barter of your services, and risk to be out-bidden. No, it cannot be that the heart should be twice disposed of, and doubly occupied-the result must be, and is, what the prophet prophesies. "Either he will hate the one and love the other--or he will hold to the one and despise the other."

God has denounced and rejected a divided heart-but even that is more than is sometimes offered: or the division is so unequal, the preference so decided, that the more favoured possessor has small reason to complain of rivalship. Our love for the Mammon of this world is sufficiently demonstrable in the sacrifices so willingly, so gaily made to it-the toil, the care, the watchfulness bestowed on it. Conscience, our acknowledged duty, and our eternal interests, are not too much to be yielded to its demands-the three-score years and ten, or fourscore years allotted us, are not too much to be expended in restless anxiety to obtain, or as restless efforts to enjoy it: nay, when it has no more to bestow on us, and is about to depart from us for ever, our love is so true, so constant, it grows but the stronger for the recession of its object, and we love the world for nothing when it can give no more. The converse of the sentence is a fearful subject-there are few hearts so seared with earthliness as not to shudder at the idea that they should hate the

God that made them-we would not that any one should reflect upon it, and admit it of themselves. But we know very well what things are accepted in the world as symptoms of affection, and what would be construed as indications of averseness: to shun the presence, to dislike the name, to ridicule the words, to oppose the plans, to revile the friends, habitually, systematical, and of fixed design-we know by what name such conduct towards any earthly friend or master would be called.

But, whatever be true of the secret feelings of our hearts, however we may persuade ourselves we love what we do not serve, and prefer in the secret affections of our bosoms the being we thus outrage,-the actual share of obedience shown to each is too obvious to be denied. If drawing the inference from what we see, we may not conclude that men love the world and hate their God, we may take what we see in evidence of itself, and admit that men-the larger number of those who profess to serve both masters, do certainly, "hold to the one and despise the other."

In opinion, avowed opinion, how very little comparative weight is allowed to the mind of God, even where clearly and unequivocally declared. It is the weakest of all arguments in human discourse, to prove that God has given his judgment on the point in question: the judg ment of the world and its established maxims, are in the scale as all to nothing. In conduct-when is the despised, neglected master allowed to take precedence of his rival? Our time-if he ask that, he must wait till we have to spare-it is small portion we can yield to him, and that unwillingly and at inconvenience; so much are we pressed with the demands of our more honoured Master. And of that we spare to him, he must be content it is the worst we have-our hours of sickness, inability, or enforced solitude-the wearisome seventh day-or more likely the seventh part of it-of an enjoyed and busy week-the pis aller of a mind that will not please itself or employ itself with him, till it can find

neither pleasure nor employment in any thing else. Our talents-some hold them for pleasure, and some for gain, some for the purchase of each other's love, and some for the benefit and improvement of mankind. But who considers that he holds them for his Maker's service, or expends them in the extension of his power and the furtherance of his glory? Our obedience-if we have any doubts as to the opposition of the commands of these two masters, we have but to look again through the preceding verses of this sermon, which we all receive as from the lips of Deity, to be satisfied that they are not agreed. But even to this we need not go-it will be enough to watch the movements of our own hearts for some little space attentively, to perceive that interest and inclination are perpetually in competition with the law of perfect holiness and God's just decrees, and do commonly prevail against them: this is so far from being a secret, that very few will venture, or may escape ridicule if they do venture to allege God's commands as a reason why they do a thing, or his prohibition as a reason why they determine to forego it. And in fact, it is no reason, so long as by preference they hire themselves to another master, and by preference take his wages: it must be that one is despised-left neglected and forgotten, if not openly denied and set at nought.

The secret of all our equivocations and defections is in the text of the Preacher. We have a Master kind, loving, and most bountiful-the giver of all that we have, the guarant of all that we expect-Maker, Preserver, Redeemer, and Disposer, in time and in eternity. By duty and by interest we should serve him, and him only should we serve. But we have chosen for ourselves another master in the Mammon of this transitory world-its pleasures, its profit, its business, its toysease, credit, indulgence-any thing it is natural to the heart of man to love-would that sin itself, that loathsome object of most unnatural affection, were not among the number. If we have courage to make our choice

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