to please him, and to live according to his laws, nor is he regardless of the impious conduct of those perverse beings who waywardly live according to their own wills, without any respect to him, when it is their duty, and the first law of their nature to honour and obey him. Doubt not that "in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him;" not for his own sake indeed, (we must add as christians,) but through the all-sufficient merits of Christ. My brethren, entertain never so mean an opinion of yourselves, as unworthy of God's regard, and you cannot do wrong; you think and feel as you ought, but beware that you do not, in so doing, also dishonour God, and derogate from his infinite perfections; for you do in fact no less than this, if you give way to the fear that you are placed beyond the sphere of his observation, and are too insignificant to be objects of his providential care. Solomon, when he had built a temple for the worship of God, had as just an opinion of his greatness as you can have, and knew well enough that the narrow building which he bad erected could not confine him that he should be no where else, but yet he did not doubt that he would be present there, as well as in every other place other place throughout the universe. "But will God indeed dwell upon the earth?

behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee,-how much less this house that I have builded! Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee to day, that their eyes may be open towards this house night and day." And if you reflect as he did, on God's omnipresence, you will perceive that you cannot, without disparagement of that essential attribute of the divine nature, imagine it possible to be any where, where you are not surrounded by God, or rather involved and subsisting in him; so true is that which David says, "O Lord, thou hast searched me out and known me, thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising; thou understandest my thoughts long before; thou art about my bed and about my path, and spiest out all my ways; for lo, there is not a word in my tongue, but thou, O Lord, knowest it altogether. Whither can I go then from thy spirit? or whither can I go then from thy presence?" David, it may be, had this confirmed by revelation, but does not natural reason say the same? God is omnipresent; where will you place him in the universe? Where does he dwell? To what region of the world will you limit him? His glory may be more manifested in one place than

in another, but where is he not present, in his true nature, the same omniscient, almighty God? Is he not here upon earth, as much as in the most distant globe? Is he not in the most obscure corner of the earth, as much as in any the most conspicuous quarter of it? Is he not, in your own closet, in your own heart, as much as in the highest and furthest region of infinity? We speak these things familiarly, too often unmindful all the while of the awful fact that God is present with us at the moment that we utter them. May he forgive our irreverence, and dispose us always to reflect with becoming seriousness on the solemn truth, and to humble ourselves in secret adoration before the great being who is around us, and within us, hearing all we say, and seeing all we do.

if

not.

But, my brethren, I say you dishonour God, you fear that he knows you and perceives you He knows you intimately, as intimately as any other part of his creation; he cannot be ignorant of you, it is contrary to his nature. And does he not interest himself about you? Is it any trouble to him to superintend your concerns, to notice your behaviour, to dive into your thoughts? I do not say merely that it is no trouble; I do not say merely that it is easy to him; I say that it is impossible that he should not do it, otherwise he

would not be God; but being God, he is present in the very centre of the earth, as perfectly as in the loftiest heavens; and the minutest blade of grass that grows, is formed and supported by him, as if it absorbed his undivided attention; while he is equally intent upon directing the movements of the countless suns and constellations that roll throughout his boundless dominions. This reason itself tells us; as it is certain, that if there ever was a time when God was not, there can be no time when he was,-so it is equally certain, that if there be a place where God is not, there can be no place where he is. Therefore away with all dismal apprehensions that you are out of his sight, or too insignificant for his care, or you will be guilty of the impiety of denying his existence, or denying that he is God.

The appeal from reason to the scriptures on this subject will receive a very speedy decision. For what are the scriptures? An account of God's dealing with men; a record and monument of the great interest which he condescends to take in human affairs. And are these scriptures addressed merely to the mass of mankind, as if they constituted one body and one soul? Are they not addressed to every separate individual in his own distinct person? You look upon them perhaps sometimes as if they were written for others,

none.

without feeling your own private interest in them. But what others? Try to produce one reason, why the word of God should relate to any other, more than to yourself; whoever you are, you can find God cares for you then as much as for any other individual of the human species; accepts your prayers, (if offered aright) as favourably; imparts the aid of his Holy Spirit to you as freely; desires your happiness and salvation as fully; extends the benefit of his dear Son's death to you with a strict impartiality; for " he willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." He would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. But as nothing can be more decisive, or more strongly expressed than what our blessed Saviour has said on the subject of the providential care which God exercises over the minutest things, and particularly over all that relates to man, I shall content myself with quoting his words on this subject, and trust that they will fully satisfy every anxious christian, who is ever distressed by the thought lest through his own insignificancy he should be overlooked and forgotten amidst the great works of the creation, and the more important occupation of the divine mind. "I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet