who have experienced it, can duly appreciate. And they who have so learned "to rest upon divine protection, gather thence a force and faith, which human nature in itself could not attain."

Such are the conclusions, which we should draw, and the benefits, which we should derive, from our knowledge of the Divine Omnipresence. Whither shall we go from the Spirit of God, or whither shall we flee from his presence? In the solitude of our chambers, in the tumult of the world; in our daily occupations, in our accidental pursuits; in our hours of sadness, and in our moments of joy; in our devotions to the throne of life, and in our guilty compliance with the ways of death, we are still in the presence of that great Being, in whom we live, and move, and exist. The sinner may follow a multitude to do evil: but his individual offence is yet seen, and recorded, with perfect clearness. He may retire into solitude: but in solitude is God found. In the darkness, as in the light, in the inmost recesses of the most artful heart, as well as in the actions, the eye of the most Highest can read the very hidden thoughts. What manner of persons, then, ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness. How careful so to live, as in the

4 Bacon. Essay on Atheism.

presence of our eternal and impartial judge: so to purify our thoughts from all hypocrisy, as before one who knoweth them all: and so to endure the trials of life and the pains of death, as conscious of a continual support, which the world can neither give, nor take

away.

LECTURE XIV.

ON THE SCRIPTURAL ESTIMATE OF TALENT.

Psalm CXI. 10.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for

ever.

The estimate, which religion forms of many things, is totally different from that made by the world at large. It has frequently been observed, that the dispositions most esteemed by society, ambition, emulation, the love of distinction, and the ardour for fame, are the very qualities against which the injunctions of the Gospel are most expressly directed: and also that when their consequences are carefully and accurately traced, these dispositions are found to be as generally injurious, as they are by the inconsiderate generally approved. Thus reason, which perhaps never

might have discovered the tendency of certain rules of action, can discern the supreme wisdom, which forbids them, when they are forbidden. And few, if any, moralists, who have written since life and immortality were brought to light through the Gospel, fail to acknowledge that the patience under injuries, the quietness, the long-suffering, the forbearance, the relinquishment of self, which is so constantly enjoined by the Gospel, are the very habits of thought, and action, which are especially conducive to the general interest of mankind.

But it has not, I think, been so often noticed, that the Scriptures contain also an estimate of talent peculiar to themselves. The world is very apt to be struck with what are called great abilities. An acute and penetrating intellect, which seizes with avidity, and retains with accuracy, the impressions made upon it, is what the most anxious parent would often pray, in sincerity of heart, might be bestowed upon the child of his affections. And if he were told that in encouraging such a wish, unless it embraced far more important, though less splendid, qualifications, he was only seeking to draw down misery both upon him, who was the object of it, and upon society at large, he might perhaps consider the objector merely as a setter forth of strange opinions.

Still it is true, that those very talents, which are most admired in the world, are singularly liable to abuse; and when abused, or even when partially misapplied, tend in an eminent degree to render the possessor miserable.

Examples there are both numerous and well known, in which the very acuteness, which might have been employed to the noblest purposes, has been perverted to serve the ends of party, to sharpen the acrimony of resentment, and point the stings of vengeance. Literary history unfortunately recounts too many instances of men, who begun life under every circumstance of encouragement, and yet have, in the end, afforded an awful warning. A vivid imagination, uncontrolled by religious principle, encouraged by indulgence, fed with popular applause, has become the severest punishment to its own possessor. The same ingenuity, which might, under proper restraint, have discovered, and successfully investigated, tracts in the realms of science hitherto unexplored, has been employed in ingeniously heightening and combining imaginary injuries; and in giving reality to the phantoms of caprice. However fanciful such subjects of unhappiness may be, they are still felt, and acted upon. And they are peculiarly painful in this respect, that, existing only in the mind of the sufferer,