ON SPIRITUALITY AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS.

THE PURSUIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

[SUMNER.]

We need but a little acquaintance with mankind, in order to perceive that their pursuits are exceedingly various; the objects which they "thirst after" widely different. Some make pleasure their idol; and, to attain it, throw off all restraint, “doing even what they list." Others have no higher view than the acquisition of wealth, and the providing largely for the present and future support of their families. With others, to attain a place of great distinction, to be widely known, and enjoy a high reputation among men, appears of all things the most desirable. In the meantime, God is forgotten, his worship is neglected, his Scriptures despised, his will unknown; whether he has made a revelation, or whether such lives conform to it, is no more considered than if it concerned a different race of beings. I need hardly say, then, that all who live with these views mainly before their eyes, are going astray more or less widely, more or less dangerously. Our Lord's blessing applies not to them. No blessing, but rather wo, attaches to those who are "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God"

(2 Tim. iii. 4), even if their pleasures are what it is common to term innocent: should they be of a guilty nature, we are distinctly assured that those who seek them "have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ or of God." (Eph. v. 5.) No blessing attaches to the covetous man, who is declared to be "an idolater" (Col. iii. 5), and reminded, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" (Mark viii. 36.) No blessing attaches to the lover of worldly honours and distinctions; for "know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" (James iv. 4.) "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof." (1 John ii. 16.) The business of life, therefore, is to seek that which shall not "pass away; shall abide for ever," when human reputation is of no value, and earthly pleasures fail, and worldly goods perish, with those who have trusted in them. That which shall so abide is RIGHTEOUSNESS. RIGHTEOUSNESS is the first and great concern. In due subordination to this main object, let a man taste of pleasure, as a traveller would taste of a spring by the wayside; let him labour in his vocation, that he and his family may eat of the bread of industry, and be thankful; let him gratefully enjoy such honours as belong to the understanding with which God has endued him, or to the station in which God has placed him. But let not these be the principal objects of his wishes or pursuits, so that he shall at any time be ready to say, when I attain these, I shall be satisfied: let them be, rather, the fruit which he plucks by the way, as he travels through the wilderness of this world, than the chief support and provision of his journey, or still more the objects for which he takes it; let him not "hunger and thirst after" reputation, or pleasures, or

wealth, as things necessary to his existence, or even to his happiness. No, my brethren, "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness;" the righteousness required by him: then, if earthly blessings are added unto you, receive them, enjoy them, acknowledge them, as the gifts of a gracious and merciful Creator. If, on the contrary, they are withheld, doubt not that there is mercy in denying no less than in giving; remember that the Lord often "chasteneth" those most whom most he "loveth" (Hebrews xii. 6); that it is a faithful promise, "that all things shall work together for good to them that love him" (Rom. viii. 28), however wearisome or painful the present dispensation may appear: for those who "hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled," be satisfied in the end.

But there is another class of persons, who, though not absolutely "despising the righteousness of God," like those to whom I have been hitherto alluding, are yet very careless, very indifferent respecting it. They do not, indeed, throw off religion, or altogether neglect its forms, or run into any excesses which might injure their character. But they take up with any idea of the will of God, and of the extent of Christian duty, which others may hold, or which may suit their own practice; they seek no personal interest in their Redeemer, and cannot, even in the lowest sense, be said to "live unto him who died for them." (2 Cor. v. 14.) They do not strive to go on unto perfection, or to "grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Peter iii. 18.) Such persons, perhaps, in the eyes of the world or the opinion of Christian charity, may pass with little to blame. But, as an anxious parent or a skilful physician will often discover an unsoundness in the constitution which a slight observer might deem secure, so is it with the health of the soul: the sincere friend, the zealous minister, cannot but see symptoms of alarming danger in this supine indifference; can

The Scripture is given as our rule of RIGHTEOUSNESS: it acquaints us with the will of God; it points out the method of acceptance which he has revealed, and the way of living which he has prescribed. What is this sacred book to you? Is it the book which you most frequently study and consult, and are most ashamed to be ignorant of? Is it the book by which you habitually desire to regulate your thoughts, and words, and deeds? Or do you drive it from your recollection, whenever it suggests that the mode in which you live, and the habits which you indulge, are contrary to the divine law? He, surely, who is longing "after righteousness" will not turn away from the Counsellor who shows him what it is, and how it is to be attained.

Again: private prayer and the public worship of God, when sincerely practised, inspire us with an increasing knowledge and love of the "way of righteousness." Is it in this view that we are regular in private devotion? Is it in this light that we see the public services of the Church? As what are able to convert or amend the heart, and bring it to the temper which God requires? Or do we merely treat them as forms which it is decent to observe, without seeking, or caring for, any holy effects and consequences? He who is earnestly desiring to gain an object, will watch every step in his progress, will mark what has hindered and what has advanced him in it: he needs no exhortation to profit by every opportunity within his reach. For example, the holy sacrament is a public testimony that we are "living in the faith of the Son

of God;" that for our salvation, our eternal life, we are looking to the sacrifice which we there commemorate. Experience fully proves that nothing more surely draws down the grace of the Redeemer, or more powerfully assists the Christian in his onward progress, than a reasonable and devout attendance at that holy table. Those, then, who attend it with no reasonable sense of the service in which they engage, and, above all, those who abstain from that service altogether, have a positive evidence against themselves that they, at least, are not "hungering and thirsting after righteousness." He that is, will feel the value of this spiritual feast, and neither want persuasions to bring him, nor allow any trifling hindrance or vain excuse to detain him away.

Again: if we desired to know what spirit a man was of, we should naturally look to the society which he preferred, the books which he studied, the conversation which he promoted. Inquire of yourselves by this rule. In what light do you treat religious persons, religious books, religious conversation? Do you avoid them, turn away from them with a sneer, or regard them with aversion? Or do you eagerly apply to them all, when opportunity permits, as efficacious means of promoting the great end before you? Of course, I am far from insinuating that no conversation can be innocent, and no books useful, except those that bear upon religious points. I am not now prescribing a rule, but proposing a test; and if "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matt. xii. 34), let me ask whether a man can be "hungering and thirsting after" that which he never talks of, never studies, and eagerly dismisses from his thoughts?

Once more: if you are making the attainment of righteousness your leading object, you habitually avoid whatever tends to withdraw you from it: you are afraid of worldly pleasures; you disencumber yourself, as far as possible, of worldly cares. Here, again, take an example from those