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destined receptacle and such is the weakness of our principles, and the strength of our imperfections, that this publicity, to a certain extent, seems necessary to stimulate our languid zeal. But it has given opportunity, and that opportunity has been eagerly embraced, to establish a system of unhallowed vanity between the different denominations and the various congregations into which the Christian church is divided. Who can have heard the speeches, read the reports, and witnessed the proceedings of many of our public meetings, convened for the support of missionary societies, without being grieved at the strange fire, and diseased offerings, which have been brought to the altar of the Lord? The object of the meeting was good, for it was the destruction of an idolatry as insulting to Jehovah as that which Jehu destroyed; but, like the king of Israel, hundreds of voices exclaimed in concert, "Come, see our zeal for the Lord!" The image of jealousy was lifted up in the temple of Jehovah; adulatory speakers chaunted its praises, in compliments upon the liberality of the worshippers; the multitude responded in shouts of applause to the tribute paid to their zeal; the praise of God was drowned amidst the praise of men; and the crowd dispersed, in love with the cause, it is true, but more for their own sakes, than for the sake of God, or of the heathen world.

Difficult indeed it is, with such hearts as ours, to do any thing entirely pure from all admixture of a sinful nature; but when we take pains to make our zeal known; when we employ effort to draw public attention upon us; when we wish and design to make ourselves talked of as a most extraordinary,

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liberal, and active people; when we listen for praises, and are disappointed if they do not come in the measure we expected, and feast upon them if they are presented; when we look with envy on those who have outstripped us, and find no pleasure in any future efforts, because we cannot be first; when we look with jealousy on those who are approaching our level, and feel a new stimulus, not from a fresh perception of the excellence of the object, but from a fear that we shall be eclipsed in public estimation; when we talk of our fellow workers, or to them, with disdain of their efforts, and with arrogant ostentation of our own ;—then, indeed, have we employed the cause only as a pedestal on which to exalt ourselves; in pulling down one kind of idolatry, we have set up another, and rendered our contributions nothing better than a costly sacrifice to our own vanity. All this is a want of that Christian love which "vaunteth not itself, and is not puffed up."

True zeal is modest and retiring; it is not like the scentless sunflower, which spreads its gaudy petals to the light of heaven, and turns its face to the orb of day through his course, as if determined to be seen; but like the modest violet, it hides itself in the bank, and sends forth its fragrance from its deep retirement. It employs no trumpeter, it unfurls no banner, like the hypocrite; but while conferring the most substantial benefits, it would, if it were possible, be like the angels who, while ministering to the heirs of salvation, are unseen, and unknown, by the objects of their benevolent attention.

Observe the manner in which love operates to the destruction of this evil. Love, as we have already had frequent occasion to remark, is a desire to promote the happiness of those around us; but proud and vain persons tend materially to impair this happiness. They generally excite disgust, frequently offer insult, and sometimes inflict pain. Their object is to impress you with a degrading sense of inferiority, and thus to wound and mortify your feelings. Caring little for your peace, they pursue a career of contumely and scorn, dreaded by the weak and despised by the wise. It is impossible to be happy in their society; for if you oppose them, you are insulted-if you submit to them, you are degraded.

Love is essentially and unalterably attended with HUMILITY; humility is the garment with which it is clothed, its inseparable and invariable costume. By humility, we do not intend the servility which crouches, or the meanness that creeps, or the sycophancy which fawns; but a disposition to think lowly of our attainments, a tendency to dwell upon our defects, rather than our excellences, an apprehension of our inferiority compared with those around us, with what we ought to be, and what we might be. It is always attended with that modest deportment, which neither boasts of itself, nor seeks to depreciate any one: humility is the inward feeling of lowliness-modesty is the outward expression of it; humility leads a man to feel that he deserves little-modesty leads him to demand little.

"The ancient sages, amidst all their panegyrics

upon virtue, and inquiries into the elements of moral excellence, not only valued humility at an exceedingly low estimate, but reckoned it a quality so contemptible, as to neutralize the other properties which went, in their estimation, to the composition of a truly noble and exalted character. These sentiments have been adopted, in modern times, by the great majority both of the vulgar and of the philosophers, differing from their predecessors chiefly in this circumstance,-the more complete absence of that humility and modesty which would have adorned them, and in their determined and obstinate rejection of that true standard of character, after which the ancients so eagerly sought. By the touchstone which Christianity applies to the human character, it is found that pride and independence, which the world falsely dignifies with the epithet honourable, are really base alloy; and that of every character formed upon proper principles, and possessed of genuine worth, humility is at once a distinguishing feature and the richest ornament. And on this subject, as on every other, Christianity accords with the sentiments of right reason-that it is unquestionably the duty of every intelligent (especially every imperfect) creature to be humble; for they have nothing which they have not received, and are indebted, in every movement they make, to an agency infinitely superior to their own."

Now, as divine revelation is the only system which, either in ancient or in modern times, assigns to humility the rank of a virtue, or makes provision for its cultivation, this in an eminent degree does both. It assigns to it the highest place, and a sort of

preeminence among the graces of piety: bestows upon it the greatest commendations, enforces it by the most powerful motives, encourages it by the richest promises, draws it into exercise by the most splendid examples, and represents it as the brightest jewel in the Christian's crown. Every thing in the word of God is calculated to humble us; the description which it contains of the divine character, combining an infinitude of greatness, goodness, and glory, compared with which the loftiest being is an insignificant atom, and the purest heart as depravity itself; the view it gives us of innumerable orders of created intelligences, all above man, in the date of their existence, the capacity of their minds, and the elevation of their virtue; the account it preserves of the intellectual and moral perfection of man in his pristine innocence, and the discovery which it thus furnishes of the height from which he has fallen, and the contrast it thus draws between his present and his former nature; the declaration it makes of the purity of the eternal law, and the immeasurable depth at which we are thus seen to lie beneath our obligations; the history it exhibits of the circum. stances of man's fall, of the progress of his sin, and of the numberless and awful obliquities of his corruptions; the characteristics it affixes to his situation as a sinner, a rebel, an enemy of God, a child of wrath, an heir of perdition; the method it presents, by which he is redeemed from sin and hell,-a scheme which he neither invented, nor thought of, nor aided, but which is a plan of grace, from first to last, even the grace of God, manifested in and through the propitiation of Christ-a plan, which, in

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