SERMON XXXI.

IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING GOD IN OUR THOUGHTS.

PSALM X. 4.

God is not in all his thoughts.

THIS is one of the most concise and expressive descriptions possible of the wicked man. We might, indeed, point to his immoral acts, to his unholy deportment, to his evil thoughts and words, as marks of his state; but here we have one broad and general test of his character "God is not in his thoughts." Wicked men may not be all equally inclined to the same sin: their education and habits may be very different: they may be high or low, rich or poor, decorous or profligate: but, amidst all these and various other points of difference, we shall uniformly find that in one respect they agree, they are not habitually impressed with a sense of the presence, the power, and the majesty of God; they do not live as under his immediate inspection and controul; heaven and hell, death and eternity, are not the great

subjects that occupy and engross their souls. In like manner, true Christians may differ in numerous respects: their knowledge, their faith, their practical experience, may be very various : but in this they uniformly agree,—that God is in their thoughts; that though they may not view all subjects alike, and may even contend respecting matters of subordinate interest, they yet possess in common one fixed, general, pervading sentiment of the presence and inspection of the Almighty. They do not, and cannot, dismiss from their thoughts those supremely important subjects which relate to God and the unseen state; and they view the care of their soul, and the securing the inheritance of heaven as the great object of their concern in this fleeting and perishable world.

The heart of the wicked is the only place in the creation of God, from which, if we may so speak, the Creator is banished. "If we go up to heaven, he is there; if we go down to hell, he is there also." In the one, he is ever present by his mercy; and in the other, by his anger. Angels would not forget him, and condemned spirits cannot. Even upon earth, also, the heart of the righteous is open to his reception. So that it is the sinner only who can put away the thought of God; and speak, and live, and feel as though his being were but a fable. The heart of such a man is a blank, as respects the sensible

presence of theAlmighty: there is no throne prepared for his reception, there is no anxiety to invite his influences. God is not in all his thoughts.

Among the ideas which the words of the text appear to suggest, as connected with this subject, we may inquire,

First, into the causes of such a state of mind; Secondly, into the evils resulting from it; and Thirdly, into the method of overcoming it.

First. The causes of such a state of mind penetrate much deeper than may at first sight appear. When we consider man as he came from the hands of his Maker-in the likeness of God; perfect in soul and body; with a heart fixed in love, and gratitude, and admiration upon the great Author of all his blessings; with whom, as well as with the whole celestial world, he held daily and hourly communion-we must confess that it could be no slight cause that has effected so complete a change. To pass from constant and delightful intercourse to total forgetfulness and indifference, surely could not have happened without some marked and important step to point out the first defection. And this we find to have been in fact the case. It is nothing temporary or accidental that causes the forgetfulness of which the Psalmist complains the evil is general and radical. It has its source in our original apostacy; it extends

to us all by nature; no man is free from its influence. From the moment in which Adam plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree, a desire to avoid the presence of God entered his soul; and a similar desire has ever since characterised his posterity. Thus we are said to live "without God in the world." We are so deeply altered and depraved, that He who is the First and the Last, the great and glorious Being who inhabiteth the praises of eternity, no longer dwells by nature in the contaminated regions of our hearts. Other gods have had dominion over us. Our lusts and passions, our evil tempers and unholy pleasures, absorb those thoughts which ought to be devoted to the Most High. The fall of man has destroyed that image in which we were created: the understanding, being darkened and perplexed, no longer comprehends the Divine nature; the affections, alienated and depraved, no longer love it: the judgment no longer sets it up as the great pattern and model for our imitation. In a word, though God is ever present with us, though every thing around us testifies his power and his mercy, though in Him we live and move and have our being, yet, such is our character since the entrance of sin into the world that we are dead to his perfections and insensible of his presence. We do not perceive him, because we do not love to do so.

The

spiritual ear is deaf, and the spiritual eye blind; the heart is cold, and the perceptions are deadened.

Thus, in a general point of view, may we trace the thoughtlessness of mankind with respect to God, to the depraved state of our nature, as one of the unhappy consequences of the Fall. But subordinate to this primary and leading cause there are individual causes, which, though but results of the former, become in their turn new and fruitful causes of the same effect. The constant pressure of worldly concerns, even when lawful, tends to banish God from our thoughts. The objects that surround us, though small and of little moment in themselves, yet by their nearness and number greatly impede our apprehension of the Almighty. Every thought that would ascend to heaven is checked in its flight; and in the fatigue and pressure of daily events we are too much occupied and interested to spend one reflection upon Him who gave us the very power to think at all, and to whom we are indebted for all the blessings we enjoy.

But mere inattention, or urgent worldly employment, is not the whole cause why God is not more in the hearts of men. They wilfully and deliberately banish him from their thoughts. They are anxious to forget him. The consciousness of his presence gives them pain; so that they are for ever contriving new methods of losing