from it as for life! Had Lot's wife resisted the first wish to look back, she had not lost her life. Had David crushed the first sinful wish, or had he fled at once from temptation, he had not fallen as he did fall. And so it is with every one; and with all sins. As it regards public sins, you will be likely to do so. If you are tempted to intemperance, you will naturally shun the companions, the places, or the hours, by which you have been tempted. But in regard to the sins of the heart you are in danger of not doing so.

Be careful not to trust yourself alone, except barely long enough for secret devotion. Be careful and watch over the heart, and not give way to roving thoughts, or to the delicious dreams of reverie; the flames which they kindle will scorch the soul. Make it a part of every day's work to learn something about God's Word which you never knew before. Make it the man of your counsel, and the guide of your life. Keep a good book in your room; and from that draw materials for thought and reflection. Keep the mind full of good thoughts, and constantly add to your mental furniture.

4. If you would be free from secret sins, be constantly mindful of the presence of God.

You may have seen a man given to profaneness; whose throat was an open sepulchre, restrained and checked by the presence of a man who loathed the taking of God's name in vain. You do not suppose that a man could plot treason, if he were conscious that the eye of the best patriot in the land was upon him! The eye of a mere mortal can control the tongue of blasphemy, and check the soul great in sin. How much more will the eye of the great God do it, if you will remember the presence of that eye! We are apt to shut God out of the thoughts; but remember when you sin, though the eye of man cannot see you; though the tongue of man cannot reprove you, yet there is one present who sees all! No veil of midnight can shut Him out. No bolting of the door can keep Him away. The sun in his brightness looks not more directly down upon you, than does the eye of our God!

Go to the secrecy of your chamber, and there sin, and you hear him crying in your ears, "Oh! do not that abominable thing which I hate !" You hear him cry, "Hell is veiled before me, and destruction hath no covering !" Oh! you would not, you could not, you would not dare to live in sin; secret sin; any sin; if you only realized that God is with you at all times, in all places, marking down your sins in the books of the judgment !

My hearers, I speak to you with the more feeling and earnestness to-day, because I do believe your great danger of losing the soul, and becoming the everlasting enemy of God, arises, not so much from your open, as from your secret sins. They seem small; seem of little consequence; but these are

the little foxes which destroy the vines. Are you not ashamed to commit open sins, because man will see you? And should you not be ashamed to commit secret sins, when God sees you? Are you afraid of the rebukes and the reproaches of man; the loss of character among worms of the dust? and O! are you not afraid of the reproaches of conscience to eternity; afraid of the eternal wrath and displeasure of the great God?

The contest for your soul is now going on. Sin has entered your heart; the tempter hath found an highway to that heart; your passions, your appetites, your habits, your feelings, all draw you into sin; while conscience, and light, and truth, and mercy, and the Spirit of God, try to bring you back to heaven! This contest is sometimes so severe that you are sensible of it; your color comes and goes; the spirit; the deathless spirit within you shudders, and you are afraid! Oh! when will this contest end? When will you slay every sin; all sin; bring all out, as the magicians of Ephesus did their corrupting books, and burn them! When will you? Till you do, sin will rule you; sin will hurry you onward, onward, and far away from righteousness, and peace, and God!

SERMON CCLXVI.

BY REV. JOHN TODD.

SELFISHNESS THE GREAT SIN.

PHIL. ii.21.—All men seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's.

THE clouds which gather in the sky, and the waters which they pour over the earth, are ministers to an end. The waters minister to the earth; the earth ministers to the grass, and the tree, the grass and the tree minister to the cattle, the flocks, and the fowls of the air; these again, have an end, and minister to the wants, the comforts, and the luxuries of man. But man does not minister to the cloud, the stream, the earth, the grass nor the beast; he was was not made to be the servant of either, or all of these.

What, then, is his end? Where does he centre, since everything else centres in him? He must stop at himself, and live for himself; or else he must go up higher, and make God his centre, and the object for which he lives. Which ought he to do?

You will say he ought to make God the centre of all, and the object, above all others, of his aims. So says the conscience; and so says the Bible. But do men do this? Do we? or is the text true, all men seek their own-not the things of Jesus Christ?

But, you will say, may I not seek my own-my own happiness? Is there not a natural self-love, deeply planted in every heart, and which is lawful? I reply, Yes, there is. We are commanded to preserve our own lives, to take care of character, to take care of all our true interests for time and eternity. We are directed to love our neighbor as ourselves, which we could not do, unless we first loved ourselves: and when we are commanded to lay down our lives for God, we are not to put off this self-love for Christ, we have it still appealed to, in the offers of eternal life as a reward.

Nor does religion destroy this, but on the contrary, the Christian loves himself, as he would love any instrument with which to honor God.

Every creature is made to honor God; and when the Christian sees himself (an immortal being) brought back to become a means of promoting God's glory, he cannot but rejoice.

But though you may love yourself, and seek to gratify yourself, in eating, in drinking, in dress, in anything till you come to a certain point; yet, pass beyond that point, and it becomes sinful. Where, then, is that point? I reply, it is where you place your desires or will before God's; it is where he has pronouneed it to be sinful.

You may eat and drink, because, to a certain extent, it gratifies yourself; but the moment you do not eat and drink, and do all for the sake of glorifying God, it is sinful. You may plough, or seek for property in any other labors, but if you make yourself the chief end, it becomes sin. Thus, the ploughing of the wicked is sin. You may sacrifice or pray; but if you do it merely to ease your conscience-to secure your own exclusively it is an abomination to the Lord.

All sin consists in seeking your own happiness, without regard to God, or anybody else. Thus envy is self—grieved that you have not, and want what somebody else has-and if carried out, it would take what it wants at any expense of the happiness of others—that is, it would become murder. Impatience is self, checked in its enjoyments; or uneasy because enjoyments do not flow fast enough. Wrath is self-defending self against some evils, real or imaginary, which have been, or are to be received. Pride is a constant desire to have self raised above others to be admired, to be as gods, and if carried out, would not stop short of the throne of God. Hence, all sin is seeking to gratify self in some way or other without regard to the commandments of God, or the happiness of others. Hence, in Romans men are said to live to sin, while in Corinthians they are said to live to themselves, and in my text "all men seek their own."

Hence too, it is so difficult to convert the soul to God; it is the renouncing self, which has been the God and the master of the soul, and enthroning Jehovah in its place.

What I have said will involve the following propositions. which I propose briefly to prove.

1. That men naturally prefer themselves to God. This is seen in the estimation in which we hold ourselves. Who does not think too highly of himself, more highly than others do of him-his talents, standing, influence! Who does not in his thoughts, compare himself with those below him, rather than with those above him. Who does not secretly cherish the thought that those above him are really inferior to himself, though some fortuitous circumstance may now give them some little superiority?

It is seen in our taking credit to our own wisdom in all that we accomplish. When men are crossed and disappointed they charge the blame-where? Not to themselves, but to luck, to fortune, to their stars, and to other causes! When they are prospered they give credit to themselves"; "is not this great

Babylon which I have builded? for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty ?" See that worm of the dust walking on the battlement of his palace, and talking about his power, and his majesty—making in himself a god, and preferring himself to Him who creates nations, and hangs the heavens beaming in glory over him.

There was a certain rich man, and he said I will pull down, I will build greater; I will say to my soul, eat, drink; thou hast much goods laid up for thee, and all was for himself! And there came a voice from heaven, thou fool! thou hast preferred thyself to God, yet for all this God will bring thee unto Judgment! Have you not seen cases very similar? Do not men prefer themselves to God?

See how we love flattery!

Four hundred and fifty prophets shall stand and flatter Ahab; and he is pleased: one shall tell him the truth, and he commands Amon, the governor of the city, to put him in the dungeon, and feed him on the bread and water of affliction.

The people shall shout to Herod that his is the voice of a God, and that poor man shall receive it all and be a god, till the Eternal rises up and hurls him into the dust of death!

Let the commands of God come in the way of the human heart; and see if the head of John, the greatest prophet ever born of woman, will not be cut off!

Our preferring ourselves to God is seen again, in our being so troubled at the injuries which we receive, and not at all troubled by those which GOD receives. I can give you a case exactly in point. Saul was commanded by God to destroy the Amalekites, even their cattle; but he was so avaricious that he chose to set aside God's wishes, and follow his own. it. And when Samuel reproves him, what does he say?

He does

Why, that he spared the cattle in honor of God by devoting them as sacrifices! Too religious to obey God! And when Samuel denounces the judgment of God upon his avarice and hypocrisy, is he concerned because he has dishonored GOD. No, not in the least; but he begs that his own honor may be provided for, and begs Samuel to honor him before the elders. of Israel! And yet this same man wanted to kill his own son, Jonathan, because he tasted a little honey in the hour of victory, not even knowing that Saul had forbidden it! So jealous for his own honor, and so indifferent to that of God! Is not this just what human nature now is? Let a merchant be proved to be dishonest, and at what are he and his friends grieved? Because God has been despised and his commands trampled on; or because his own reputation has been tarnished?

A child grows up in indulgence; becomes idle, vicious, wicked, and loses all character. At what is the sorrow? That he is dishonoring God, his Maker, or his family?