reflection. But is it usual then for cares and troubles to diminish as we increase in years? Every successive period of existence, from youth to old age, has its own disquietudes; and what was in early life only doubt, and indecision, and delay, too frequently terminates in hardness of heart. And will a wise man defer till to-morrow, in relation to such matters the duty of to-day? Alas! alas! how delusive are the promises of future years! To convince us of the uncertainty of all earthly enjoyments, and earthly prospects, we have no need to recur to ages which are past: the events which fall under our own observation, proclaim with a voice not to be misunderstood, the vanity of all expectations, which are founded upon the morrow. They warn us as with the sound of a trumpet, Prepare to meet thy God.* This opportunity is your own, another you may not possess: and even if life should be prolonged, what advantage can you reap by the delay? Who shall secure to you hereafter the possibility of repentance? Who can promise that the mercy which has been deliberately slighted, shall not eventually be withheld? that God will not at * Amos iv. 12. length, according to his own awful declaration, laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh ?* II. THE ADMONITION. If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. Think not to unite the pleasures of sin with the hope of the gospel; to be at the same time the servants of righteousness and of iniquity: if it be right that you should take this world for your portion, be at ease in the pursuit of it: let no apprehensions of futurity, no alarms of conscience, check you in your course. But if the Lord be God, let it be your determination to serve him; not with a mixed, and doubtful, and partial obedience, but with the undivided purpose of the heart; honouring him in the means of grace, obeying him in the gospel of his Son, seeking earnestly for the blessings of his Spirit, repentance unto life, the remission of sins, the purifying of the mind, the quickening and effectual power of that grace, which God alone can bestow, and which through faith in Christ Jesus, he is willing to impart to every one who sincerely and diligently seeks it. Do not err, my beloved brethren; do not deceive yourselves by the persuasion that you follow *Prov. i. 26. God aright when your service is merely nominal, however fair; let it be the worship and devotion of the soul. Serve him heart, and with a willing mind. dying advice of David to his son; with a perfect Such was the and the argu ment by which he enforced it may be addressed with equal propriety to every one among us; if thou seek Him, He will be found of thee: but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever.* 1 Chron. xxviii. 9. SERMON II. THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. JEREMIAH xxiii. 24. "Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord ?" If these questions were to be answered by the conduct of men rather than by their acknowledgments, we might suppose it to be a prevailing opinion, that the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard them.* So remarkably does all concern upon this subject seem to be discarded by multitudes around us, that the displeasure of the Almighty on account of sin, excites in them no apprehension, and imposes upon them no restraints. To such an awful extreme may this principle be carried, that as we learn from this chapter, even prophets, who * Psalm xciv. 7. spake in the name of the Lord, have been known to declare a vision of their own hearts,* and to pervert the words of the living God.† It is with express reference to these daring deceivers, that the sacred writer, as in the person of Jehovah, urges the strong appeal which has just been read, Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the Lord? I. This passage asserts the OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD; a doctrine repeatedly brought forward in the Holy Scriptures, and in terms so clear as to admit of no evasion. Thus we read; The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Hell and destruction are before the Lord; how much more then the hearts of the children of men.§ Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Not to multiply passages of a similar purport, we may observe, that the whole of the inspired writings implies the doctrine, and would be inexplicable without it; hence * Jer. xxiii. 16. + Jer. xxiii. 36. Heb. iv. 13. |