not to be required to go to the desired effect! And what an impious importance they may be setting on what they suffer through the delay! Let it be considered, that the delay may be intended for the very important and necessary object of impressing a more full and humbling conviction. of their own helplessness. In the interval the mind tries, and tries again, its own strength. Let it be considered, that if there be a genuine spiritual sense of want, the delay augments the apprehension of the importance of the objects desired. Reflect, how feebly this importance is felt, even in Prayer. And when the desired good is granted to this stronger sense of its value, the receiver is grateful for the preceding discipline which did thus contribute to heighten his estimate of it; he says, "I am now thankful that I did not sooner obtain it."

Consider, how many things divine wisdom may see necessary to be done, in a man's mind and his circumstances, before a certain gift is granted, and before it is fit to be granted. There even may be some little-suspected sinful principle requisite to be brought to light to the petitioner's conscience, and mortified. It is always certain that God's best gifts will be so given as to magnify his mercy and abase the receiver in his own sight. If all this be reflected on, the petitioner, under any delay, may well believe that God has a good reason for it.

Consider, again, the different classes of the good things that men have to pray for. There are many things which men are permitted to ask of God, but under an acknowledged uncertainty whether they will be given. The promises respecting them are not absolute. They are not indispensable to our supreme interest. We may not have them, and yet enjoy the divine favour and be happy for Of this class we may mention health,-the prolonged life of friends-the indulgence of Providence upon worldly

ever.

pursuits. Things of this class are to be prayed for with an express submission not to receive them. And to fail of obtaining them, even after many prayers, will be a cause for the exercise of devout resignation.

But, in praying for blessings of the nobler order, there is no requirement of submission in the same sense. The petitioner is required never to submit, in the sense of yielding not to receive the good. To the last breath he is still to persist. The Promises are absolute as to ultimate success, to the man who in earnest seeks, and perseveres to seek, the divine favour-acceptance in Jesus Christ-the sanctification of his soul-eternal salvation. Therefore men are to "pray always and not faint."

But here also, God maintains a sovereign discretion, as to the manner, circumstances, degrees, and times of his favourable manifestation. He appoints as he will, the whole process of discipline through which his praying servant shall be conducted to the final attainment. And there may be very protracted and painful delay, in granting the tokens of prayer answered—such as, a decided consciousness of an effectual operation on the mind,-a firm trust for pardon through Jesus Christ, the subduing of internal evil,-a prevailing hope of eternal happiness, or victory over the fear of death.

What else can the

This he must do, willing to resign all

But still men are to "pray always." suppliant do where else can he go? and persevere to do, unless he can be for lost. Let him survey the immense accumulation of the Divine Promises; let him contemplate the all-sufficiency of the mediation of Christ; let him recall to his meditation the many examples of a happy success. Finally, let us "be followers of them who now, through faith and patience, inherit the Promises."

Feb. 20, 1825.

LECTURE LI.

THE LOVE OF MONEY.

1 TIMOTHY vi. 10.

"The love of money is the root of all evil.”

THE analogy between the evil things in the natural and in the moral world has some exceptions. One is suggested by our text. A mischievous vegetable root (say, of a worthless weed, or of an offensive or poisonous production) springs up into only one kind of evil. But here, in the moral soil, we have one thing named as the root of all evil. In the principles of moral evil there is a dreadful provision for supernumerary mischief.

It is not, however, meant that literally all the evils there are spring from the love of money,—but that it is the cause of many and various ones. Now surely, a vicious principle which produces so many bad effects should be exposed, and forcibly protested against. And that not seldom,—if we consider that a thing which has a variety and multitude of bad effects is always working some of them; it has not a single and temporary operation.

How comes it, then, to be so unusual, in the discourses of our Christian teachers, to fix upon this vice, with adequate terms of reprobation? Is it, that they are afraid lest they should give offence and provoke anger ?-For, truly, covetousness, though its most obvious character be that of a cold and hard disposition, is yet a very irritable and resentful one. Or, is it, because there is a difficulty in stating, discriminatively, what "love of money" (in kind or degree)

amounts to the vice of covetousness; so that this disposition in a man might be brought plainly to the test?

We will not attribute this omission to a notion that it is no GOSPEL preaching to expose and censure an evil which our Lord and his Apostles seized every occasion to condemn and warn against, in the most emphatic language.

No;

It cannot be, neither, that the Christian ministers never descry any signs of the existence of such a thing, anywhere among their congregations, or even their churches. often enough, when disclosing their thoughts in converse with a few confidential friends, they are heard alluding, with imputations of this vice, to individual professors of religion, even within their own communion,-sometimes sorrowfully, sometimes indignantly. The indignant feeling one has sometimes heard expressed in terms to this effect :-namely, "When there occurs, in the conduct of some person in one of our churches, some single circumstance of very marked impropriety, perhaps from the surprise of temptation, exciting a sudden impulse of temper or passion, we are under the necessity of taking account of it-and proceeding to an act of severe censure-perhaps to the length of exclusion from our society. But, there is at the very same time among us, and concurring in this very proceeding, a man, of good property perhaps, who is evidently and unquestionably actuated by a constant intense love of money. He is known by his neighbours and acquaintance to be both parsimonious and avaricious. And of his parsimony at least, we, as a religious society, have too sensible proof. But he professes himself a disciple of Christ-has given a very rational and apparently sincere account of how he was brought to become such. In his religious opinions he is true to the evangelic standard. He is punctual and serious in all our religious services, public and private; quite regular, decorous, and correct in the

tenor of his conduct; no scandals, no frivolities, and no transgressions of the bare rules of legal justice in his deal ings. But then, there is this one habitual, pervading vice, of covetousness. Does not this constitute a much greater amount of what is contrary to Christianity than many an act of misconduct for which we would exclude a person from our communion? But we do not know how to take formal cognizance of it, or to shape the charge against him. And so, between this difficulty, and the judgment of charity, we are constrained to keep silence, and to treat him as an honourable member of our Christian society."

Cases more or less answering to this description are far enough from being uncommon in the experience of churches. and their ministers. But whatever difficulty they may involve, let not, at any rate, the teachers of religion be deterred, in their public ministrations, from declaring against this vice, most explicitly, and not unfrequently. Let them not be afraid to read for their text, “Covetousness, which is idolatry;" or this good text of ours, "The love of money is the root of all evil.”

The plainest mode of illustration would be, after describing the passion itself, to represent, specifically, several of the "evils" in which it shows its character and operation. The passion ("the love of money") exists under various modifications. In some few of its subjects, it appears to be pure, unmixed, exclusive; terminates and is concentrated upon just the money itself,-(that is, the property) the delight of being the owner of so much. "It is mine! so much!" It is the fervent desire of being able to say, "So much more I am worth!" The whole soul is absorbed in this one sentiment. This is plain, genuine idolatry.

But, in much the greater number of instances, the passion involves a regard to some relative objects. In some it is