To him the heart is open: all things are naked before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. He lays bare the inward parts, just as the knife exposed the inward parts of the sacrifice; and, for this purpose, his word is "quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword," working in the hearts and consciences of men, "piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

We ought to ENDEAVOUR TO PROFIT BY THESE CONSIDERATIONS: and although we cannot impart to ourselves the accuracy of full and unerring observation and judgment, yet, at least, the consideration of the circumstances in which we are placed, and of our tendency to error, ought to lead us to watch with jealousy the judgment we form, remembering that we are not in a state of infallibility, and that it is seen at the bar of Him who executeth righteousness.

In the first place, then, we should suspect the judgment that we form of the outward appearance, and the importance we are sometimes led to attach to it. The case recorded in the text is one special proof, out of many, of the vast importance attached to the outward form. How many there are who value others, or esteem themselves, merely on account of a little superiority of form; forgetting how great the probability that a more agreeable form may cover a worse heart; forgetting how soon it is to die; and how vain it is to claim superiority and precedence over each other on such poor and perishable grounds as these. O, what labour, study, and expense are bestowed by many thereon, to bring into notice that outward form, on which the worm must speedily feast. Let such persons remember that God looketh at the heart. He who scatters the brilliant ornaments on the insect's wing, judges not by the outward appearance, but by the state of the heart. Why should we estimate so highly that which is so soon to decay? Let us learn from the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and from the destruction that wasteth at noon-day, the madness of priding ourselves on distinctions which a single hour may destroy.

How erroneous is the estimate that men in general are disposed to form of character. We yield the meed of our applause without hesitation to certain combinations of character, which we see calculated to attract and to dazzle. We bow before the display of human power in its demonstrations in the different paths of science and philosophy. We follow in the train of the bold and the bustling-applaud the men of ready wit and fluent diction: but how frequently do we pass, unnoticed, the men of quiet and unobtrusive habits, and despise the patient investigator because he is not adorned with that which is fitted to attract, in order to regard that which is most calculated to produce effect. We should remember that God" divideth unto every man severally as he will;" and while he will assuredly require a strict account from every man of the talent committed to his trust, he will as strictly require of each the way in which the gifts have been received which he bestowed severally on his servants.

How false is the estimate we form of character generally. We are perpetually the slaves of our own prejudices: led by a few external blandishments, we mistake that which is faulty for that which is good, and account all that glitters gold. In every class of society, and every pursuit of life, what ruinous error in this respect obtains. Both in the business of the world and in the Church of God, men judge by other rules than the balance of the sanctuary, and frequently become the prey and the victim of their own folly. If we really look out for

men as our friends, patterns, teachers, or guides, men who wear the religion of our blessed Master-if, instead of hastily saying with Samuel, when he pronounced of Eliab, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before him,"-if we waited, and prayed, and examined, we should be spared many a disappointment; they who were really worthy of our regard would be made manifest; and of others, the gradual development would declare in reference to them, "Thou art weighed in the balance, and found wanting." In all these several cases, let us suspect ourselves; let us move forward cautiously, watching with jealousy over our own hearts; and we shall be saved from many a sinful disposition.

How much deeper is our error in the defective and partial standard by which we judge ourselves; and yet we are willing to acknowledge we stand on a very different ground for judgment. Conscience brings us near to God; even we do not bear with the outward appearance. No man can so completely turn away from his inward conscience as not to know something that is passing withinsomething of his defects; in some measure, in fact, to look at the heart. One of the great sins of men, however, is the settled, resolute habit of looking only to external and superficial merits, and trying to destroy all consciousness of the future by the follies of the life that is present. But this will never do. The man will not be judged by his attainments, but his opportunities; and if, through wilfulness, we remain ignorant of self, ignorant of that humbling knowledge which all might attain, our Judge will deal with us, not by what we have turned away from, but by what we ought to have discovered. It is an awful sinfulness of the heart not to come to the light that is provided in order that our deeds may be made manifest. But when we come to avail ourselves of the power of conscience, which God has bestowed upon us, and to scrutinize our thoughts, our affections, our motives, by the light of truth, what a humiliating thought to us is that of God's omniscience. The kingdom of God is within. We make a fair show in the flesh; we preserve from external exposure that which is evil and so man, who "looks on the outward appearance," often gives his fellow men credit for humility, and devotion, and love, to a degree far beyond their several attainments. But "the Lord looketh on the heart." Yes; the sudden and half-formed thought-the treachery and restlessness of vanity and self-conceit the suppressed voice of secret jealousy-the bitterness of malevolence-the cringing of servility-the swellings of pride-all are before Him who searches the heart, and tries the reins of the children of men. There is no deceiving the great Judge; neither a voluntary humility, nor a sound philosophy, nor a sanctimonious exterior, nor a devotional attitude, nor a calling him "Lord, Lord," will avail in the place of an honest heart, a sincere repentance, a faith unfeigned.

And even in the most devoted servant of the people of God, how much cause is there for him to abhor himself. How much is there to make us blush when we think that the holy eye of God is upon us. If we rightly felt our guilty condition, how could we indulge a haughty carriage, a boastful diction, or a flaunting behaviour? If we thought of the eternity to which we are destined, how little should we think of bodily or mental distinction; how little we should pride ourselves on talents, or acquirements, or attractive manners! How should we dwell on the magnitude of our own deliverance from eternal ruin; and think only of the free grace which is extended to the whole race of mankind. Consider again, how this view of the dealings of God exaits the grace of

redemption. God looks through every exterior form which may cover the heart. How terrible is his book of remembrance, the indestructible register of the evil deeds of all his creatures! Nothing can hide from him the doings of each and every one of the innumerable host. But while the Lord looked at the heart of man, and rightly estimated all its manifold dealings, he determined to redeem him. "The Lord looked down from heaven," we are told; and when he saw that there was none righteous-no, not one, then his own arm brought salvation. He knew the amount of the evil that was in the creature he determined to redeem, or the remedy would not have been adequate. But what a thought it is that the Lord should so provide for the cure of sin in all its disgusting forms, and, in his pity, should blot it out for ever by the blood of his own Son! To an ignorant man, a stranger to the extent of sin, this may appear light and trifling; but to him who knows the strength of corruption by his own daily and resolute struggle against it-to him who watches his own thoughts-to him who has seen the torch of scriptural truth flashing its holy light through the chambers of imagery within-to him who is gradually becoming conformed to the method of judging of that God who "looketh at the heart," it becomes the subject of daily and increasing wonder that the Lord should even turn in mercy towards a being so low as man. It is almost inconceivable that such a price should be paid for such a race; and nothing but such evidence as God has vouchsafed, could make us believe it.

"The Lord looketh at the heart." If his inspection is such at all times, how much more solemn is the thought of his coming, when he shall judge the secrets of men's hearts at the last day! The hour is coming when we must all stand before the bar of God; and he shall judge the world in righteousness. That thought ought to come with all solemnity and force on the mind of every responsible being. To that God who looketh on the heart we must give account of every idle word. Oh, let men pause as they think of the account they must give. Let memory run back on the doings of past years-on the secret thoughts, speculations, and desires. What say you to your sins-the whole catalogue of a life of sin, finding you out at the last day? What say you to meet the guilt of your past sins, and to bear the indignation of the Lord in the day of his fierce anger? That day will bring to light all our vanity, and anger, and malice, and covetousness. What a scene shall we each then behold! How vain will then be all the flimsy concealments by which we hide ourselves from men! The naked heart, as it has been in its naked defilement ever to God, shall then be laid before the universe.

How blessed, my brethren, to have found, ere that day come, a real friend in the mercy of the Omnipotent God himself—to have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope he has set before us-and to have found peace in his pardoning blood. It is blessed indeed when the forgiven sinner finds his happiness in God. "Thou hast redeemed me; thou calledst me by thy name; I am thine. All my trials, all my infirmities are before thee: my interests are under thy protection and care; and to thee all the vicissitudes of my being, and all the variations of my frame, and all the internal trials of my spirit, are fully known." It is blessed indeed, when, through covenant mercy, we find our habitual repose and consolation in those infinite attributes of equity and power, which, but for the exercise of mercy, necessarily would have been to us, a consuming fire.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF BLESSING

REV. W. DODSWORTH, A.M.

MARGARET STREET CHAPEL, CAVENDISH SQUARE, NOVEMBER 9, 1834.

"The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himse.. PROVERBS, xi. 25.

THE book of Proverbs contains a perfect code of rules for the guidance of human life. There can be no doubt that whosoever will take this book as his monitor, and will walk in the way that it prescribes, will, in the highest and best sense, be most prosperous and successful in all his ways. The great object of the book is to exhibit to us the different consequences flowing from opposite principles, and opposite sources of conduct. It gives us the assurance that a course of conduct founded upon the divine will, and regulated by the divine precepts, will be attended with ultimate prosperity; and, on the contrary, that where the temptation to present gratification is yielded to, at the expense of principle, ultimate evil must flow from it.

Such an assurance pre-eminently implies the continued control and direction of a superintending Providence. For. it must be admitted, the natural tendency of things in this present fallen world, is by no means such as to secure a prosperous result to rectitude of conduct, and failure to that of a contrary character. It must be admitted that we often witness the inversion of this order; the wicked succeed in their plans of unrighteousness, while, to all appearance, the righteous often suffer, not only notwithstanding their righteousness, but even on account of it.

How, then, are we to reconcile this matter of fact with the authority of the inspired Word of God? Does it not seem to contradict the whole testimony of this book, indited, as we know it is, by the Spirit of God? In order to the solution of this difficulty, we must consider the character of the dispensation under which this book was written. The Jews were ostensibly, as well as really, under the immediate government of God; a government sanctioned by temporal rewards and punishments. On condition of their obedience they were promised great temporal prosperity; and, on the other hand, judgments of a temporal character in case of disobedience. This gave to the government of God over them what we may term a visible character. There was an ostensible Moral Governor: God stood to them in a distinct relationship from that in which he stood to the rest of mankind. He was their own immediate Ruler and Protector, the King of their nation, the Author of the laws which bound them as individuals, and of the civil polity which united them together as a community And hence the Jew, even apart from all considerations of a future

state, was entitled to look, even in this life, for a providential sanction to his conduct, when his ways were such as pleased the Lord. There is no question, then, that the Jew, taking the book of Proverbs as the guide of life, would find its truths realized to him in their literal and most obvious sense in this present world. In this present life he would find the blessing in obedience: he would find, looking no further than the present scene of things, that "as righteousness tendeth to life, so he that pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own hurt." If cases of an opposite character occur, they would be the exception, not the rule; and exceptions also of such a character as might be reconciled with the overruling government of God.

In the establishment of such a government, we might doubtless perceive one great end of God's separating a people, as he did the Jews, from the rest of the world, and placing them under peculiar laws of his own enactment, taking the rule of them into his own immediate hand. He here in his dealings with the Jews, held up before the world a specimen of his righteous government. In his dealings with that people, he affords an emblem, a visible emblem, of his dealings with others. In the midst of all the inequalities which sin has introduced, faith might indeed rest upon the word, that, "verily there is a God that judgeth the earth," and that ultimately righteousness will prosper, and wickedness will be punished: but, by selecting a nation in whose history this government is exemplified; a nation in the conduct of which God held up a visible picture, as it were, of his own dealings, he has made this truth manifest to the very senses of man; he has afforded, as in a figure, a faithful record of his dealings with the children of men.

Now one grand and leading feature of distinction between the Jewish and Christian dispensations is this, that the one was addressed to the sense, the other is addressed to faith; the one dealing with visible things, the other dealing with invisible things. Not indeed, as we are well assured, that the substance of these spiritual things (if we may use the term) could be received under the Old Testament dispensation in any other way than by faith; but then there were sensible objects all the way through, through which faith was to act; the sacrifices, for instance, of bulls and goats-the temple made with handsand all the burdensome ritual of the Jewish ceremonial. It was consistent, then, with the general character of the dispensation, that the sanction of God's moral government should be manifested to the senses, and also that God should shew, after a visible manner, his approbation of good, and his hatred of evil. But, as we have observed, it is the essential character of the Christian dispensation, that it has to do, not with the things which are visible, but with the things which are invisible: "We look not at the things which are seen and temporal, but at the things which are unseen and are eternal." Our calling is expressly to walk by faith, and not by sight and hence it is but consistent with this distinction, that while God's providential government over his people is not less real under the Christian dispensation, that yet it should be less manifest : and those things which would be perplexing to us if we attempt to judge of God's ways by sense, become reconcileable with his character and with his promises when regarded in the judgment of faith.

I have entered more at length into this preliminary matter, because, perhaps, a plausible objection might be raised against the truth asserted in the text, and