help. Read your Bible. Apply its principles to your hearts. Wait Wait upon the Lord. Persevere. Get deep and practical views of religion. Fly from Sin, and the occasions of it. Break off from evil habits. Avoid every hindrance to spirituality. Consult your minister and your religious friends. Cultivate a holy fear of God. Watch. Pray. Walk circumspectly. Seek ye the Lord while He may be found: call upon Him while He is near. So shall you partake

the streams of grace here, and come to the fountains of eternal blessedness hereafter !

SERMON XX.

RELIGION.

DEUTERONOMY V. 28, 29.

And the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep my commandments always!

IT is of great importance to consider frequently what is the character of that religion which God requires and delights in. Our own hearts are so prone to deceive us as to the real nature of true godliness, and the systems of man are so varied and imperfect, adapted by them to every different sphere and circumstance of life, that it is only by a resolute breaking away from self-deceit and prejudice, and a steady, honest contemplation of Scripture truth, that

we can catch any just idea of that religion which is pure and undefiled in the sight of God.

Such an idea seems to be set before us in the solemn words of God in our text. May He who uttered them enable us to receive and feel them!

Our text refers to many particulars already mentioned by Moses, respecting the feelings and conduct of the Israelites, and it marks these with the Divine approbation. But it plainly intimates, by the earnest wish subjoined to this testimony, that there was much yet to be desired for the completion of that character which God required in his people.

From these particulars, thus referred to, we may learn, First, What is insufficient to constitute true religion; and, Secondly, What is necessary to make our religion satisfactory to God.

I. WHAT IS INSUFFICIENT TO CONSTITUTE TRUE RELIGION.

Our text intimates that there are many things entering into the composition of religion, and indeed essential to it, which yet are by no

means of themselves sufficient to fill up the proper notion of it.

True religion, then, in the first place, consists not merely in FEAR.

The Israelites had already exhibited this feeling very strongly. They had been impressed with a solemn awe, by the tremendous manifestations which accompanied the delivery of the law from Mount Sinai, when "the Lord God showed them his glory, and his greatness, and they heard his voice out of the midst of the fire." They acknowledged the presence of the God of the whole earth, and they bowed before Him in trembling reverence. "This was well." But this was not the whole of Religion. This was to entertain a proper veneration for the holy Jehovah. But it was mixed up with much of servile dread; and its effect was to make them shrink from intercourse with God, and to "desire that these words might not be spoken to them any more."

FEAR, then, though important and necessary, is but the first step in religion. The altogether careless sinner goes on in the security of his foolish heart, thinking no evil, and crying Who is Lord over me? His notions of God are so

low and worldly that he dreads not to trans* Deut. v. 24.

gress his law, or hopes to elude his righteous vengeance. But, if it please God to look in mercy on such a man, the first thing necessary is to rouse him from his dream of security, and to alarm his careless mind. God is manifested to him, perhaps, in all his terrors. Clouds and darkness are round about Him, and the awful sanctions of his holy law are revealed in a voice of thunder. The heart of the astonished sinner sinks within him; he begins to entertain a salutary fear; he comes now to perceive with what a holy and jealous God he has been trifling; and a trembling awe creeps over him.

But let him not rest here. Let him not be satisfied that he has gained some reverence, of the Almighty God, and feels perhaps some dread of grossly offending Him. All this may sink down into a mere servile and formal endeavour to buy off his soul by the bribe of his own performances; or to lull it into ease, by a superstitious round of heartless services; or to stifle its feelings by keeping out God from all his thoughts. Fear is good; it is necessary; but it is not all. Who is there, among the most careless and the most formal, who does not sometimes fear and tremble before God? When He speaks in the rollings of the storm; when He sends forth his voice, yea, and that a