-with the highest possible happiness of the whole,—and are therefore worthy to be supremely regarded. As he is a being of universal benevolence, he frames his laws and conducts his whole administration with the view to promote the good of his creatures. The happiness of the universe which he has made is his interest; it is this upon which he has set his heart. God does not sit upon his throne as a tyrant; the glory with which he encircles himself is not a selfish glory, but is identified with the highest good of his creatures. This is his great object, his great interest. For this he makes laws, and attaches a penalty to their transgression. These laws are necessary for the general happiness. What would be the condition of this world-of all worlds-if there were no such laws in existence; if there were no common centre around which the whole community of moral intelligences should move in harmonious concert; if there were no God to hold them responsible for their deviations from those rules, without which it were impossible for men or angels to live together and be happy? Those who are not devoted to the interests of that being who is the fountain of benevolence, sin not only against God, but against the universe. A conspiracy against him, is a conspiracy against the general good. Those who allow their own selfish desires to interfere with his government, are doing all in their power to break up the order and harmony of the creation, and to bring it into anarchy. They are arraying themselves against every other interest but their own private good. He who sets up self for his idol, is prepared to do any thing for the accomplishment of his object, though it might ruin all beings but himself, and prostrate even the throne of God. Whoever refuses to yield entire submission to his will, is tending towards this point. But for the restraints which are thrown around him, we know not how soon the last trace of loveliness would vanish from his heart,-how soon even the appearance of humanity, and generosity, and nobleness, would leave that abandoned spirit. This is the character of him who is not devoted to the interests of his Maker. This is the character which the Lord declares he has no use for. In God's eye, every selfish being is a useless being. And is it not fit that he should disown him? Is it not fit that the being, whose name is Love, should regard him as a nuisance-a blot upon the face of his creation? Is it not fit that at the appointed time he should give out the sentence of execution, "Take him away, he is not the Lord's."

We see then the grounds on which the Lord adopts the principle, that whatever is not entirely devoted to his interests, is useless, and worthy only of destruction: let us also notice some of the most striking operations of this principle in the dealings of God with men.

1. We see the operation of this principle in the dealings of God with the wicked in the present world. Wherever there have been instances of notorious wickedness, there God has generally manifested, by some awful dispensation of his providence, his utter abhorrence of sinners and their works. How often, when men have grown bold in sin, has he struck down upon the world some fearful judgment, that has told, in language too plain to be misunderstood, how absolutely worthless he regards every thing not devoted to his use? In the early ages of the world, he gave a signal illustration of this principle, when he brought in a flood of waters upon the earth, to blot out from under heaven every trace of the ungodly, with their houses, and cities, and herds, and flocks, and all the goodly possessions he had given them. When, before that great destruction commenced, his eye looked down upon the world he had built, he beheld it crowned with fertility and beauty, and filled with every abundance which the heart of man could desire. Splendid dwellings, and villages, and cities, were rising on the plains; the cultivated fields were spread out like a garden before the eye; the beasts of the earth were roaming the fields and forest in their strength and gladness; and the fowls of heaven were rejoicing over the beauty of that bright_world, when God looked upon it in his wrath. As we cast back our eye upon the world that then was, we are led to inquire, Is all this happiness, this scene of loveliness, this glory of the Lord's creation, to be destroyed? Is it possible that to-morrow he will stretch out his hand upon it, and make it desolate and dreary as the original chaos? Surely, might the sons of men say, here is an amount of wealth, and happiness, and glory, which is worth preserving. But God thought not so. It was nothing to him that the earth was full of life and joy; it was nothing to him that beast and bird were sporting on a thousand hills; it was nothing to him that the valleys were ripe with the harvest, that the vineyards were clustering in their richness, or that the trees were heavy with golden fruit; it was nothing to him that houses and villages, filled with youth, and gladness, and beauty, were planted thick in all the earth-since they were in the hands of his enemies. The world and its glory he regarded as worthless, if it could not be his. So long as it was used to gratify the selfish desires of wicked men, he could not find in it one redeeming quality, to induce him to spare it. So he resolved to spoil all its glory; to set it up as a beacon to warn the coming ages, that every thing not devoted to him he would devote to ruin. And the warning told, in a voice that heaven and earth might hear. When the great destruction came, it was a most awful illustration of the principle upon which God acts in regard to the things that are not his. Earth's guilty inhabitants understood it, as they climbed the tops of the mountains, and the

waves of the Lord chased them; they saw and felt how fearful a thing it was to be given up of God, as beings for whom he had no further use. The righteous family that floated above the desolate waters understood it; and angels knew what God meant, when he thus disowned the race of men which he had created. Would that sinners in later ages could understand this principle of God's government, and perceive, in season, what will be the end of all those who are not the Lord's.

God gave another fearful illustration of the worthlessness of every thing which has been perverted from his service, when he overthrew the cities of the plain. He cared not for their wealth and splendor, so long as they were abusing the gifts and advantages he had bestowed upon them. If righteousness had been there, then indeed would not these cities have been worthless in the sight of heaven. Had there been even fifty, nay twenty, nay, had there been but ten good men in all Sodom, God would have regarded it as worth preserving. Even the only man, whom the Lord acknowledged as his, must be removed before the fiery desolation could begin. But no sooner had this pious man and his family gone out from amongst the cities, than their use in God's creation was done, and nothing further with them had he to do, but to make them vessels of his wrath; " and they are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." And had it now come to be the case with this earth, that there were no Christians here to sanctify it for the Master's use, we have no reason to suppose it would longer stand. No, the moment the last trace of his government was gone, God would look upon it as a nuisance, and would quickly turn its kingdoms into ruins.

But why need I mention individual instances, in which the operation of this principle has been illustrated by the dealings of God with wicked nations? All history is full of them. The annals of the world show most distinctly this one point, that where a people abandon God, he will abandon them. If he do not destroy them by any direct interference of his avenging hand, yet such a relationship has he constituted between virtue and prosperity, that in the ordinary course of things, no nation can long escape destruction, which has given itself up to notorious wickedness. The evils attendant upon luxury and idleness, and every kind of vice, are sufficient in their ordinary operation, to ruin, in a short period, the most flourishing and powerful people on earth. In this case, God has only to say, "Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone;" and destruction follows of course.

To individual sinners, also, God often shows how little he regards their selfish interests. When they are just about to lay their hand upon some gilded pleasure-some coveted honors, he brings disappointment, and dashes their hopes in the dust. He shows

them that it is not his will that their unhallowed desires for earthly happiness should be gratified. The interest they so dearly cherish he thwarts by a thousand adverse providences. The honors they love, he despises; their wealth he looks upon as corrupted; and often, when they have advanced to great lengths in sin, he sweeps away their wealth on the wings of eagles; their possessions he lays desolate, and blots out their proud honors. Why does God thus thwart their plans, but because they are despicable in his esteem? Why ruin their possessions and honors, but because he regards them as nothing worth?

But God does not fully exhibit this principle of his government in all his dealings with sinners in the present world, because here is not the state of reward and punishment, but only of probation. God blasts the sinner's prosperity often enough to let him know that he sets no value upon it; but still he gives him prosperity enough to let him fill up his cup of wickedness. Sometimes the enemies of God are seemingly the most highly prospered of any on earth; their wealth rolls in like an ocean, and they flourish like the green bay-tree. Honors wait for them among their fellows, and they have all that heart can wish. They become mighty in power, and the years of their life are many. But this is not, because God values such enjoyments of theirs. It is because he will let them have their fill of worldly prosperity, and show out, in lively colors, the full picture of their depravity. It is because he has assigned this world to them, to see whether they will use it to his glory, or whether they will abuse it, and waste its advantages and blessings upon their own lusts, and turn them into weapons wherewith to overthrow his righteous government. He gives them this little season of enjoyment, because it is to be all they will receive throughout the period of eternal ages. Sinners therefore do greatly err, when they suppose they are the objects of God's favor, because they sometimes meet with prosperity. They ought rather to form their judgment from those cases, where God manifestly disregards, and tramples on their worldly interests. These cases give the true idea of the estimation in which he holds them and their possessions. These show distinctly that God values not the gratification of their selfish desires, that he is willing to disappoint them, and that whenever he does not blast all their prospects of earthly good, it is for some other reason than because he loves and esteems them.

2. We see the operation of the same principle in the dealings of God with Christians. Indeed, its operation here, if the Christian will but watch the providences of God, may be more clearly seen than in the case of sinners. For he deals with his children on this express principle, that whatever idols they set up, to fix their affections upon, he will take away from them. This is the discipline

by which he trains them to greater piety in this world, and prepares them for a seat in his kingdom. When the Christian takes his heart off from the interests of the Redeemer's cause, God almost invariably brings him into scenes of disappointment and distress, and takes from him the worldly objects which he held so dear, to show him that he must have nothing in his possession which is unconsecrated. Thus, while passing through this life, he is constantly undergoing a discipline, which, if it were duly observed, would teach him most distinctly how little his master values those things which are devoted merely to the gratifications of earth. He would find, by proper attention to the dealings of Providence, that whenever worldly interests get the uppermost seat in his heart, God adapts his chastisements to the circumstances of the case, in such a manner as to root out those interests, and to lead him to put his trust and his treasure in heaven. We are told in the sacred word, that if we are without chastisements, we are not the Lord's children; for the Lord loveth whom he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. The wicked may indeed sometimes be left to go on amid prosperity, and fill up the measure of their cup; but the Lord does not suffer his children to go on so. If then professed Christians find themselves enjoying a high degree of prosperity, while at the same time they are refusing to surrender themselves and all they possess wholly to the Lord-if, when they wander away from him, and set up other interests of their own, they do not find that these interests are torn from them,-if no trouble, no disappointment, no chastising stroke from the Father's hand comes upon them, in consequence of such disobedience, then they have great reason to fear that God does not own them. Both sinners, and every thing which is in their control, God regards as useless; but in respect to Christians, only those things of theirs does he regard as useless, which they have neglected to consecrate to his service. These idols he will indeed take away; but themselves he looks not upon as he does upon sinners-he regards them as his; and sooner would he see heaven and earth pass away, than he would see one of them perish. But while he saves them, it is as by fire. It is not till they are stripped of every interest of their own, and their whole soul and spirit intent upon his work, that he considers them the proper recipients of unmingled blessedness.

While in this world, Christians are under constant temptations to set up for themselves interests that are in opposition to the interests of their Lord; to hold in their hands wealth, and talents, and advantages, that are undevoted. And how miserably do they resist these temptations! Oh, it is a solemn truth, that Christians oftentimes hold in their hands enough that is not the Lord's, to sink them forever, if God were not infinitely gracious. Need we inquire how they do this, and when?