God upon that mind. Therefore the only way to love our neighbor as ourselves, and with truly benevolent feelings, is first to enlarge the mind with love to God.

To a mind therefore which does not pervert its faculties, that is, to a holy mind, the character of God appears inexpressibly glorious and attractive. The noontide splendor of the sun, the milder beauty of the moon, the cheering influence of diffused light, the genial warmth of the solar rays, the refreshing fragrance of perfumes, the soothing or spiritstirring power of harmonious sounds, the mingling colours of the rainbow, the sustaining and invigorating influence of food, the exhilarating power of wine, that maketh glad man's heart, and the tenderness and joy of the purest and most ardent of all human attachments, are but faint and feeble emblems, to shadow forth the sweet influence upon the soul of the knowledge and love of that pure and perfect one, whose favor is life, and whose loving kindness is better than life. Thus far concerning the mind alone.

Let now a mind thus devoted to God, be connected with a secondary material system, from which originate the natural affections. Let this system be sustained by animal life; let the origin, progress, support, and comfort of this life, depend upon sensation and appetites of various kinds, and upon such material elements as tend to gratify these powers of sensation and these appetites. And let this whole system be designed to illustrate the relations of the soul to God, and the influence of his knowledge and love upon the soul-then properly to regulate this secondary material system will be easy, and it will at once coincide with the main design of the law of God, and give daily assistance in fulfilling the higher duties of the mind. Such is the human body. Examine therefore the human mind according to principle, examine its union with the body, examine the structure of the body, the social affections, the powers of sensation, and the appetites, and you will find that the law of God is merely a comprehensive statement of the only possible way in which a man can become

perfectly happy; and that if it fully regulates the mind, its benign effects will also be experienced in regulating the powers and faculties of the body. The Bible is the key to both mind and body; it explains their union, and how to perfect both. And the influence of the knowledge and love of God, is the power which gives harmony and perfection to both. And no man can cultivate properly either his intellect, or his heart, or his social feelings, or his bodily faculties, who neglects the law of God.

Why then, it may be asked, do such prejudices exist in this world against God and his law? Why do so many dislike him, and his word, and his service? And why do so many, who, for reputation's sake profess to love him, entirely evade the claims of his law, and live selfish and worldly, if not immoral lives? And why do so many complain of the severity of the penalty? These questions are easily answered. It is not because God is unlovely, or unkind, or unfeeling, or because the penalty of his law is too severe. But because pain is caused in a sinful mind, by a view of holiness and by its influence. Let us consider the penalty, as arising from this cause.

Experience teaches us that to the pure, perfect purity is lovely, to the sinful it is terrific-not because it is in itself unlovely, but because it produces in a sinful mind a conviction of unworthiness and guilt, and calls for confession and humility and repentance. But a sinful mind is of course a proud mind, and pride always produces a tendency to self-justification, and an aversion to the pain and shame which precede and attend penitence and confession, until the joy of pardoned sin is felt. Of course a sinful mind in the presence of God, would be deeply pained by the purity and loveliness of his character. And until pride is overcome, an increasing sense of the purity and loveliness of God, will but fill the soul with increasing pain and shame. Anger also will immediately arise from these painful sensations, and as the exciting cause increases in power, will more and more inflame the mind.

During this process, depravity will increase, and of course. the mind will become more and more sensitive, more and more irritable, and more easily kindled into a flame of anger. Moderate degrees of truth and holiness will inflame such a mind, as a current of common air inflames kindled charcoal fully dry. Pure and perfect holiness and truth will raise it to a flame like that produced by oxygen, operating in like circumstances. What then must be the influence of the full energy of the truth and holiness of God, upon a sinful mind? Will not God seem to him like a consuming fire? Would it not imply a want of truth, and purity, and ardent feeling in God, if it were not so? But the truth and ardent feelings of God are immeasurably great and exhaustless. And the same manifestation of the character of God that satiates the desires and increases the purity of the righteous, will be regarded by a selfish mind with increasing pain and fear and anger. But if a mind is such as to be angry at the sight of truth, and love, and diffusive benevolence, the criminal cause of misery lies in the sinfulness of its own character, and not in the character of God. And if the endless increase and diffusion of good is viewed by any mind with angry eye, the mind which is such as to be inflamed by a cause like this, must burn forever and ever. For shall a finite, sinful mind, claim the right to impede the progress of infinite good? If any man is so fool-hardy and guilty as to throw himself into a furnace, is God to be blamed for his destruction? Or shall God be under obligations to suspend the operation of fire upon the body, and thus encourage others to do the same, and thus subvert the laws of the material world? Apply these principles to the moral world, and the whole mystery of endless punishment ceases. It is a voluntary burning during all its endless duration. It is the burning caused by the fruitless conflict of unhumbled pride with the truth and benevolence of God, by the anguish of defeat, which conscience pronounces just, and by the fire of anger, kindling more and more, as God's benevolence entirely frustrates

selfish and malevolent designs. This is the import of these inspired words "thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger, the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. For they intended evil against thee, they imagined a mischievous device which they are not able to perform. Be thou exalted, Lord, v in thine own strength, so will we sing and praise thy power." Selfishness, then, which is forbidden by the law of God, is the cause of all the miseries of a sinful mind, engaged in a hopeless and endless controversy with God. No wonder then that a proud and selfish mind should dislike a being so pure, and gentle, and lovely, because he is yet so energetic in the exercise of moral influence, as entirely to frustrate all selfish designs.

Were the mind of any man who is now entirely selfish, to be exposed to the purity and loveliness of God, he would find himself so pained by the disclosure which it would make of his own deformity and ill desert, that he would be irritated and enraged at once, and kindle into a flame of anger. Experience throws light on this subject; the angry feelings of proud and haughty minds, in view of a true exhibition of the character of God, imperfectly made by man, or the deeper distress caused by the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, when he presents more clearly the truth and purity of God, show on a small scale what would be the effects upon them of a perfect vision of God. Should the Lord Jesus Christ be revealed from heaven to such in all his glory, he would seem to them to appear in flaming fire, with his mighty angels, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; and they would be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, should he now come to be adored by his saints, and admired by all them that believe. The character of Christ is the same; but in benevolent minds it would excite admiration and love, in selfish minds it would awake fear, kindle volun

tary and guilty anger, and pain them forever like flaming fire. That he is so holy, is a cause of gratitude and praise to all who are pleased with pure and gentle love, diffusing itself with ever increasing energy and glory and perfection. Another view of this subject may be taken. The mind has unbounded desires and undying energy. If it desires to be satiated with the knowledge and love of God, its eternal happiness is certain, for God is exhaustless. But if it has insatiable and selfish desires of praise, or of power, or of sensual gratification, its eternal misery is certain. For the desires will be eternal and increasing, but the means of gratifying them will cease at death. For the holy will admire none but God and holy beings. And all selfish beings desire pre-eminence, and none will concede it to another, and all the objects of worldly ambition will cease. For the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, are of the world, and the world passeth away and the lust thereof. The result will be everlasting hunger of soul, everlasting and burning thirst, a fever of insatiable desire, forever increasing, forever unsatisfied. In accordance with this it is written, "When I spake ye did not hear, but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed; behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit." But it is evident here, as before, that the misery of the mind arises from voluntary and perverse desires. And it is an excellence in God, that his character is not such as to satisfy them.

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I have been thus particular as it regards the law of God, and the reward which arises from keeping it, and the punishment which arises from disregarding it, because many seem to ascribe to God a kind of omnipotence, as it regards rewarding and punishing mind, altogether inconsistent with