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DIVINE SUMMARY OF HUMAN DUTY.

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humility strives to offer an acceptable service to the Author of his being. Does God speak? he listens to his words with an awful reverence; he reposes an unlimited trust in His veracity. Does God declare his will? with unbounded. faith he receives His sovereign mandates, and submits to their influence. A sacred reverence for the authority of God keeps him in the path of His divine commandments, and leads him to watch over his conduct with trembling anxiety. But humility towards God does not consist entirely in the dread of His power, and it by no means consists in that slavish terror which enfeebles the energy of the mind, and destroys the vitals of our happiness. The Deity hath deigned to reveal Himself to us under the endearing images of our father and friend. He hath softened the sense of His greatness by giving us a view of his beneficence and love. We ought therefore to cherish sentiments of gratitude and affection, and the contemplation of the divine goodness should inspire our hearts with confidence and joy. Think not, then, that piety casts a gloom over the face of nature. Think not that sullen and dejected it retires from the world to dwell on nothing but subjects of melancholy. Think not that the sigh of sadness or the tears of penitential sorrow are its whole employments. True, the ravages of sin, the imperfections of finite nature, may cause it to hide its face for a time in all the bitterness of grief. But soon will the light of the divine countenance be restored, and that voice of heavenly consolation be heard which speaketh peace to the soul. Then piety appears arrayed in all its beauty and luster. It harmonizes with every generous feeling of our nature, and ennobles the enjoyments of life. It confers new dignity on man; and the sense of this dignity affords a new theme of gratitude and love.

Now may we be convinced of the propriety of applying the epithet "good" to humility or piety towards God. Alas, it is only in the sense of His wise providence that we can find any rational support to the soul amidst the present scenes of obscurity and confusion! Man mourns over his

afflictions; cares and anxieties distract his mind. Following after peace, earnest in the pursuit of happiness, the events of every day convince him of the fallacy of his hopes -every hour brings on new topics of lamentation and complaint. What then shall he do? Shall he sit down under the despondency of continual apprehension, destitute of all hope in futurity, and incapable of the sublime exertions of virtue? In sullen despair shall he drag out his miserable existence without a generous sentiment to elevate his mind, and without a ray of consolation to cheer the gloom of life? No; let the infinite wisdom and unbounded goodness of God be impressed on his mind; let him contemplate those provisions which the Author of nature hath made for the encouragement and comfort of His creatures; and let him fit himself by the exercises of humility and piety for the enjoyment of the blessings which these provisions insure; -then will be dispelled those clouds of sorrow and darkness which overhung his mind; the peace of his soul will be completely restored. Resting with an humble assurance on the favor of his God, he looks forward with joy to that felicity which His goodness gives him reason to expect. Amidst the storms and the tempests of life he extends his prospects to the regions of everlasting peace. Let us therefore recognize the goodness of genuine humility. It is good in the moral sense, because in the eye of reason and of virtue it naturally results from that relation which subsists between man and his Maker; and it is good also in the natural sense, because it alleviates the evils of this present life, and prepares us for the enjoyment of eternal felicity.

In the same manner we must acknowledge the goodness of benevolence. The exercises of pure and perfect benevolence would convert this vale of tears into a paradise of bliss. Under its benign influence want and its attendant evils would be banished from the earth; men would feel little of the evils, and would enjoy in perfection the blessings of life. Why has the populous city become an habitation for the beasts of the desert? Wherefore is that a dreary wilderness which was formerly crowned with the

blessings of plenty-where innocence and peace took up their abode, and nothing was heard but the voice of joy? We are not to say that Nature was unkind, or that she delights in the misery of her children. We have seldom to ascribe it to the ravage of the elements, or to any of those evils which are essential to our state, but to the wickedness and depravity of the human heart-to the dire effusions of passion to the mad ambition of wealth and of power. These are the principal sources of human wretchedness; and these it is the direct tendency of benevolence to suppress. Under its happy reign all would enjoy the exquisite pleasures of loving and of being beloved-pleasures which are congenial to the heart and make up the chief part of our happiness. Though the powers of nature should conspire to rob us of our peace, yet the voice of love would invite us to gladness. Though the heavens should withhold their rain, and the earth forbear to yield its increase; or though the fair face of nature should be overcast in the gloom of night, and the blast of the storm should threaten to overwhelm us; yet supported by the kind endearments of friendship, we may continue unruffled and serene, and our minds be open to the most feeling enjoyments. On the other hand, let everything without unite to gratify our desires and increase our enjoyments; let the labor of the year be crowned with success; let the seasons join in concert for our accommodation and ease; let the sun dispense in due proportion his cheering influences; let the fury of the tempest be allayed, and all around us be clothed in mildness and beauty; unless the heart of man accords with the beneficence of nature-unless his mind is open to the warm impressions of sympathy and love-misery will still be our lot; the tale of wo will still be heard in our streets; and this world will continue the abode of wretchedness. The sufferings of Job were aggravated in the extreme. Yet the loss of his wealth, the ravages of disease, the death of his children, the dissolution of the most endearing connections in nature, were all unable to shake the patient fortitude of his mind. Still could he raise to heaven the voice of gratitude and resignation:

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The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away; blessed be His But when his companions and friends, instead of allaying the anguish of his grief, instead of taking upon them the part of a comforter, began to insult him with their bitter accusations, then the vigor of his mind was unequal to the arduous contest, and his soul, no longer able to support itself, was subjected to the mingled emotions of indignation and grief. Nature is kind enough, if we were only kind to one another. But often, alas! do the dark designs of malice work in our breasts; often do the silly emotions of pride and of envy obstruct the enjoyments of social intercourse. O that the principle of benevolence within us were powerful enough to eradicate these passions from our hearts. O that we were sacrificing our absurd notions of importance and dignity, our views of interest and ambition, to that great object-the good of others. O that the sufferings of our fellow-men were calling forth the tears of sympathy, and rousing to exertions of beneficence and love; then the burdens of life would bear light upon us, and our days would pass in the pure enjoyment of innocence and virtue.

Let us now proceed to consider the religion of Jesus in its connection with the spirit of the text.

Justice, mercy, and piety, are all that are or can be required of us by God. Hence if we are bound to acquiesce in the doctrines and to obey the precepts of the gospel, this acquiescence and this obedience must be the consequence of one or other of those duties which are enjoined in the text. Faith in the religion of Jesus must be the necessary effect of walking humbly with God, if the testimony of the apostles and evangelists be entitled to belief. This will appear from considering the nature of that evidence by which Christianity is supported. Those arguments for its truth which are derived from our experience of the usual conduct and behavior of men have never been refuted. And on the validity of these arguments, we are capable of forming a right, unerring judgment; since the conduct of men in all states and circumstances is the subject of daily observation. But whence are the objections of our opponents derived?

They are derived from some supposed defect in the scheme or dispensation of Christianity; from something which they imagine to be inconsistent with the nature of God, or unworthy of His perfections. But can this invalidate the force of that evidence which we know how to measure and ascertain? When reasoning on the conduct of men, we can form our conclusions with certainty and precision; but when reasoning on the conduct of God, we are involved in the clouds of ignorance and error. We are unable to scan the ways of Jehovah, to trace the operations of unerring wisdom. We cannot determine on the rectitude of the divine dispensations, since we know them not in all their relations and all their extent. It is not for us, the frail insects of a day, who are yet in the childhood of existence, who scarce have had time to look about us in the immense theater of being; it is not for us to oppose the feeble powers of our reason to the wonders of Omnipotence. When we know the mechanism of the universe, when we are acquainted with the laws by which its vast operations are conducted, when we can trace the connections which run through the various systems of being-then, and then only, are we entitled to decide on the propriety of the means which the Author of nature may adopt for the completion of His designs. Seeing then our ignorance in the ways of God, we must be cautious of making some supposed inconsistency with His attributes a ground of rejecting what is proposed as the revelation of His will. No opinion that we may form of His conduct. can ever be the criterion of its truth or falsehood. But the case is different with regard to the conduct of men; here we can reason with all the confidence of truth. Shall therefore a mere assumption on the methods of the divine administration counterbalance those arguments on which alone we are capable of deciding with assurance? I leave it to the determination of sound philosophy. Thus Christianity approves itself to our understandings as being divinely inspired, and we fail in our duty to God if we believe not its doctrines nor submit to its precepts.

When inquiring into the divine will we would observe that