The Glory of God His Chief End, and the Highest Motive in Christian Service.

THE Scriptures instruct us that the glory of God is the chief and ultimate end in all His works. The proof of this is hardly necessary. One passage alone contains comprehensively the substance of many : “Of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever, Amen." (Rom. xii. 36.) The meaning of this statement cannot be mistaken. It declares that God is the author and sustainer of all things, and that to Him they all tend. As He brought them into existence, so He is the end to which all their movements are directed. By the glory of God we must understand the manifold perfections, which in their infinite fulness and harmonious exercise belong to Him. When that glory is said to be the end of His works, it must refer to the manifestation of these perfections. Each existing thing cannot furnish scope, as is plain, for the display of all of them at the same time; but each supplies occasion for the exhibition of those particular excellences which are appropriate to it. There is an obvious distinction between the physical and the moral. In the former we have the manifestation of what are termed the natural perfections of God. To these the objects in question are mainly confined. As it regards the moral perfections of His nature, we must turn to His dealings with His intelligent and accountable creatures. There we find disclosures of those higher excellences which set Him before us as infinitely glorious and attractive. These natural and moral perfections belong immutably to His nature. As He loves them supremely, so He must regard with complacency their exercise in all His operations in nature and providence and grace alike. This must be His supreme end. As might be expected, the glory of God assumes its most perfect form in the Gospel of Christ. The Redeemer is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. In the person and work of Christ the character of God is made known as it is disclosed nowhere else. In His cross the righteousness, grace, and love of God are pre-eminently displayed, so as to throw all that was previously known of these perfections into the shade. Accordingly our Lord declares, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."

These remarks may serve to show that the glory of God is the end in view in all His operations. Nothing can be more simple and comprehensive. Human theories can help us little to right conceptions of this matter; indeed, they are hardly admissible. Whatever is true and good in them is embraced in the one great end. It is easy to under

stand that what may be the chief end may include many particulars important in their place but quite subordinate. These particulars do not so much stand alone as are involved in the main object. It is so here. Sin has complicated matters. To a person with defective views of sin, the actual state of things in the world must occasion great perplexity; the aspects of Providence must seem very dark. Not so with him who has been brought to understand the evil of sin. He will expect to find what he actually sees. Righteousness belongs to God. Hating sin as He does, He must express His displeasure against it—not indeed that the wisest can determine the form, the measure, and the time when the judgment of righteousness must take effect, still less the parties on whom it will fall. With such matters we are incompetent to deal. They are far out of our reach. But the mind of the believer, falling back on the character of God, is at rest even in the most distressing scenes. In his conviction, righteousness is an element in the divine character essential to His glory. An unrighteous God suggests an idea from which every rightly constituted mind must revolt. Wisdom, indeed, is necessary to decide the mode and the season in regard to which that righteousness must find suitable expression. Still, as the Lord loveth righteousness, He must approve its exercise when the occasion requires it, however terrible its effects may prove. His glory is displayed alike in the manifestation of His righteousness as in the exercise of His mercy. What can be compared with those moral excellences which exist in harmonious exercise in God? And to act uniformly in accordance with them and seek their prevalence is the noblest end we are capable of conceiving. It comprehends all good either desirable or possible.

Should it be objected that to represent God as making His glory His chief end betokens defect and infirmity, it is enough to reply that this is to apply a rule, true indeed in its relation to man, to the blessed God, to whom it is in no sense applicable. For a man to seek his own glory is not glory. He does not live for himself. He sustains relations to others. He has duties to discharge to them, and his own interest must not be consulted in disregard of the interests of those with whom he is connected. This is a vicious principle, the very essence of selfishness. How widely different is it with the blessed God. He stands alone in immeasurable superiority over all; whatever exists is absolutely His property. His is a condition of independence. As He is the most excellent being, so the manifestation of His excellences, regulating all His procedure, is the highest and noblest end which can be imagined. It is right in itself, and can be productive only of good.

The true dignity and blessedness of intelligent creatures are found

only in conformity to God. This requires that their views and principles are in harmony with those of God, that their estimate of things and their aims are the same, and that in short they have made God's end their own. Nothing like this is found in men naturally. They are universally sinners and enemies to God by wicked works. They bear no resemblance to Him in the elements of their characters. However diversified may be their ends they are all earthly. They terminate on themselves, on their own honour, advantage or enjoyment. With this state of things the Gospel of Christ is designed to deal, and the object of His redemptive work is to produce a radical change on them--not simply to avert punishment but to create a new heart and a right spirit within them. It aims at an inward and complete reconciliation to the character and service of God. Nothing short of this will do. The circumstances under which this work is accomplished present great variety. In some it is rapid, decisive and unmistakable. In others it is slow and even doubtful for a time. There are degrees of grace, and the highest attainment is reached only when self is lost in an intense desire to glorify God. Sometimes this state is realised from the commencement, when the clearness of light and the abundance of grace bestowed lift the man above self into a new sphere. Saul of Tarsus is an instance of this. His conversion was sudden; his decision was prompt. As he expresses it, "when God revealed His Son to me immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." All personal considerations were cast behind him. His credit, his personal friendships, his worldly prospects were all sacrificed that he might glorify God in the Gospel of His Son. This was his end, to which he simply and unflinchingly adhered to the close of his life. But it is far from being always so. Often the first impressions are faint. His own sin and dangers chiefly engross the convert. By tardy and insensible steps he gains some true apprehension of the Gospel, though to the last the influence of his mistake will be felt by him. What is personal is blended with and shades the glory of God, so that the influence of the latter is feebly felt. If his conversion may not be questioned, there is a large measure of carnality observable about him. His religion, if sincere, is defective, and is attended to himself with no small uncertainty and distrust.

Blame undoubtedly attaches to this condition. The tendency of spiritual life is to grow-to acquire strength-to rise above early mistakes until it reaches the measure of the stature of a perfect man in Christ. Nothing can hinder this but unfaithfulness and declension, the first symptoms of which should awaken alarm. To the eye of God the Christian life may be found in its greatest purity and strength in some

of the poorest of His people, whose will has been brought into entire submission, who accept trial with unmurmuring resignation, and to whom the honour of God is everything. When our chief anxiety is expressed in the language of Joshua, "What wilt thou do unto thy great name;" when our credit and reputation are of little account in comparison with the glory of God, it will impart an elevation of character and a singleness of aim which will reveal themselves in our service. This is sound Christianity the grand qualification for great usefulness. Men of this spirit have always been the most successful as a rule. They who thus honour God will be honoured by Him. This is what every Christian should earnestly strive after as the aim of his life and essential to his peace, usefulness and well-grounded assurance of future glory.

JOHN KELLY.

Thankfulness.

If all the hands that have clasped my own
Had ceased from their tender hold;
If all the eyes that for me have shone
Were averted now and cold;

If every voice that has thrilled my ear
Had changed in its fondest tone;
If every heart that has brought good cheer
Were turned away from my own;

If every step that has come to me
Over the summer's soft grass,
Had chosen another way more free,
And I sat to hear it pass;

If every soul that has leaned to mine,
With its kindling touch so dear,

Had dropped the cup with its rare sweet wine,
And left me a-thirsty here;

I still would say, looking up to God,
"I thank Thee for what has been:
For the joys that lie beneath the sod,
And never may bloom again."

JENNIE HARRISON.

SUCCESS.-Constant success shows us but one side of the world, for as it surrounds us with friends, who will only tell us our merits, so it silences those enemies from whom alone we can learn our defects.

The Metropolis of New England.-No. 4.

ITS RELIGIOUS CELEBRITIES.

BOSTON antiquaries refer to a house which stood, fifty years ago, a little south of the entrance to Pemberton Square. It had small diamond panes in the window, and at that time was considered the oldest dwelling in the place. There had lived John Cotton, a patriarch of the city, memorable on account of his great influence in guiding the early fortunes of Massachusetts.

He was born at Derby in 1585, and studied at Cambridge, where he obtained a Fellowship in Emanuel College, of Puritan celebrity. Through the ministry of Dr. Sibbs, he became deeply religious, and having first adopted colonistic views of doctrine, he afterwards embraced the Independent theory of discipline. Having been appointed to the living of St. Botolph, in the town of Boston, in Lincolnshire, he succeeded in winning the inhabitants to his opinions; and we are informed that he conducted "worship without the fetters and formality of a liturgy or those vestments and ceremonies which were empowered by the commandments of men." He formed a congregational Church, as did some of the English incumbents afterwards under the Commonwealth; and such a proceeding could not but bring him into trouble. At the end of twenty years' popular ministration he was on the point of being brought before the High Commission Court, where for such an offence as he had committed, he could expect nothing else than severe punishment. The Earl of Dorset interposed on his behalf, with what effect appears from the following communication, in which there must have been infused a strong dash of bitter sarcasm :-"If Cotton had been guilty of drunkenness or uncleanliness," said the Earl, "or any such lesser crime, he could have obtained the clergyman's pardon; but as he was guilty of Nonconformity and Puritanism, the crime went beyond the reach of mercy."

Advised to seek safety by flight, the incumbent of St. Botolph's determined to emigrate to New England, and in 1633 arrived there; a child having been added to his family by the way, who received the very singular but descriptive name of Seaborn. Mr. Cotton was accompanied by two companions, Hooker and Stone. "A glorious triumvirate," the people said; and indulging in a humour for puns, so ingrained in Englishmen, they added-"We have Cotton for clothing, Hooker for fishing, and Stone for building."

Being possessed of superior ability, of considerable eloquence, of distinguished learning, particularly in the sacred languages, and of longstanding reputation among the Puritans, Cotton brought with him to his new home high prestige and influence. Enjoying, moreover, the friendship of Winthrop, and the good opinion of his compeers, he was elected to the pastorate in Boston, Massachusetts, and took a foremost position in the colony, with a large share in its civil and ecclesiastical government. If we may judge from a sermon he preached at an election soon after his arrival, we should conclude that he had lofty conceptions of a ruler's power,