God, the humble and believing dependence upon his word and his truth?

These words, then, give us the sum and substance of practical religion. They describe that state of moral character to which we are expected to arrive by the due improvement of the means of grace which God had vouchsafed to us. They pourtray the full development of those christian graces, which God has expressly ordained for us to cultivate and cherish. "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

First, then, we are to do justly. Justice is one of the most prominent attributes of God's holy and divine character. "Just and true are all thy ways, O Lord God of hosts." The simple consideration of this grand attribute of Deity will convince any one, that, as nothing but that which is in correspondence with his character can possibly please him; so it is in vain to hope for his favour, unless truth and justice be also the guiding principles of our hearts and lives. Our words and actions must be regulated by truth and integrity; any allowed deviation from either one or other of these duties, is as completely at variance ith the Christian character, as the known indul

of any more open and flagrant sin. "Here

rcise myself," said the apostle, "that

18

SERMON II.

PRACTICAL RELIGION.

MICAH VI. 8.

He hath showed thee, O man, what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

THE chapter before us opens with a solemn expostulation of God with his chosen people, for their ingratitude towards him, after his great and abundant mercies towards them. He brings a charge against them, and calls upon the mountains to judge between them. "Hear, O ye mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth, for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel." Jehovah asks whether the services which he has required of his people have been such as to weary them; whether they have been too burdensome to them, after the repeated acts

of deliverance and protection which he had vouchsafed to perform on their behalf. He instances two of the more remarkable passages in their history, as examples of his general dealings with them; namely, the deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, under the guidance of Moses and Aaron; and also the defeat of the designs of Balak, assisted by Balaam, whose curses were indeed changed into blessings, by the interposition of God; and whose fatal devices for the corruption of Israel, though for a time awfully destructive, were not suffered finally to prevail against the people of the Lord. These signal mercies, selected from numberless others, are expressly called to the remembrance of the Jews, that they may know the "righteousness of the Lord." The prophet then appears to proceed in the description of the feelings of a Jew, conscious that the accusation of ingratitude was but too well founded, and that the crime was aggravated by the abundant mercy of God. He introduces such a person, deeply penitent, and anxiously inquiring, how he shall propitiate his offended God, and serve him acceptably for the time to come. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" To these questions, prompted, as it would appear, by penitence and earnest anxiety to escape the vengeance of God, the prophet returns the gracious answer of Jehovah, showing the vanity of these several modes of expiation, and pointing out the only effectual method of securing the favour of the Almighty. "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

It has been supposed by some persons, that these words are to be understood as the questions of Balak, and the replies of Balaam, to which the preceding verse alludes. But it cannot be imagined to be probable, that the consultations of the king, or the answers of the prophet, had any reference to the arrangement of an acceptable mode of worshipping Jehovah, but only to the purpose for which Balaam came, namely, to curse Israel. The wishes of the king and the intentions of the prophet were in unison; and though at last, when Balaam found that all his enchantments and his costly sacrifices were ineffectual to change the intentions of God towards his people, his spirit did break out into the words of sublime prophecy, and the language of unchecked longing for a share of their blessedness; yet soon he returned to his base hatred of the chosen nation, and, instead of giving counsels of

holiness to Balak, he framed temptations to ungodliness for Israel; and he prevailed, to a great degree, by the arts which he suggested, to draw down the anger of God upon that people, whom he was not permitted to curse with his lips.

It would seem, then, more just, to consider the passage immediately in connexion with the text, not as bearing reference to Balak and Balaam, but, according to our previous statement, as expressing the anxious desire of a penitent Jew to obtain the favour of God; and the answer of God by his prophet to such an interesting inquiry. We have, then, in the verses immediately preceding the text, the inquiries of a penitent and awakened Jew, respecting the mode of his restoration to the divine favour.

It is one peculiarity of a state of habitual sin, that it blinds the faculties of the mind, and keeps the sinner in the most dangerous ignorance of his real condition. It draws off his attention from the future, and leaves him unconcerned respecting the account which he must one day give before the judgment-seat of Christ. In order that a sinner may take the first step towards salvation, there must be the illumination of the mind by the spirit of grace; there must be the conviction of danger, and the anxiety to escape from it; there must be the casting off all indifference to his eternal interests; the strong desire to obtain reconciliation with an offended