SERMON XXXI.

[PREACHED JANUARY, 1831.]

GENESIS I. 31.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

THE happiest man alive, he who in his own person and particular fortune has met with the fewest troubles,-cannot seriously think upon these words without finding in them, indeed, matter for a sermon. No man, however much of happiness he may himself have tasted, can have lived so out of the world, and with his eyes and ears so closed to every thing passing around him, as to fancy, for an instant, that if God were now to look upon made, he could say Much more, then, who had tasted a

every thing that he had that it was very good.

would men in general, mixed draught of good and evil in life; and, above all, that numerous class of persons with

whom the evil has far outweighed the good,much more would these be struck with the words of the text, and think how little the state of the world, as it had presented itself to their observation, agreed with that prevailing character of goodness which God found in all his works, when he first rested to behold the things which he had made.

"God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." He saw the natural world, and the moral world, and found that both alike were good. On the one hand, there were the sun, the moon, and the stars; the earth, and the sea; all plants and trees which grow upon the earth; all living creatures, whether insects, fishes, birds, or beasts, by which it is inhabited and on the other hand, there was man, newly created after God's image. All the other works of creation, without disorder, and without failure, obeyed the laws of their Maker; and man, also, after his measure, rendered a more worthy obedience, because it was the obedience of a reasonable soul and of a willing spirit.

Let us go on for about sixteen hundred years from the time when all had been declared thus good and happy. We shall then

find the sun no longer giving his light, the earth and the sea no longer keeping their appointed bounds, the plants and trees no more yielding their fruits and flowers, the living creatures no more in their appointed order, glorifying God by the wonderful varieties in their manner of living and ways of enjoyment; and for man, we shall no longer find him "very good," at peace with God and with his brethren, holy and happy. But we shall find the world in ruin, the sun hidden by perpetual clouds, the sea burst from its limits, and covering the whole face of the land, plants and trees destroyed, living creatures overwhelmed in the waters, or leading an unnatural life in the close prison of the ark, and men, themselves, accursed of God, full of ungodliness, and violence, and selfishness, and, therefore, cut off, all except eight persons, and destroyed, together with that world which their sins had polluted. And, instead of blessing the works of his hands, and seeing that all was very good, "God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth."

Since that time, thousands of years have passed away; and what is the state of things

now? In the other parts of God's creation there is a mixture of good and evil; and although the heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth is full of his riches, yet still, in the uncertain seasons and scanty harvests which sometimes visit us, we may trace the marks of God's judgment, and must confess that all is not "very good," is not entirely free from evil now. But if we look to man; although God has doubtless reserved to himself a remnant, not of seven thousand only, but of seventy times seven thousand, who have not bowed the knee to Baal, nor taken the mark of the beast into their foreheads, yet, in general, it is not only imperfect good that we see, but prevailing evil the earth is filled with ungodliness, and selfishness, and violence. All the sins of the old world are amongst us; and how long will it be ere the punishment of the old world overtakes us also?

Such is the state of things now around us; and the words of the text have told us what, on the other hand, it once was. And if we read on a very little way in the book of Genesis, beyond the part from which the text is taken, we shall see what first changed the world from good to evil; and shall thus be able to

understand what it is that makes it so evil now. Hence, too, we may learn how to divide rightly the different kinds of evil from which we are suffering, and how we may endeavour, with God's blessing, to find for each its proper remedy.

We know that the sentence passed upon mankind after the first sin, was made up of two parts :-the necessity of labour; and that loss of God's favour, and everlasting banishment from his presence, which is all contained in the Scripture meaning of the word "death." In this life, then, man was to endure perpetual labour, and he was to have no hope beyond the grave: he was to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow so long as he continued upon earth; and when the time of his going hence was come, he was to go down into darkness, and to be shut out for ever from Him who is the only fountain of life and joy.

The necessity of labour has been provided for ever since, by certain unerring laws of God's providence, which he has made to be the ministers of his righteous judgment. It is provided for mainly by the curse pronounced upon the earth: "Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee;" that is, if left to itself, and if men will not bestow