But let us be very strict over ourselves. The love of self and the world, though they may be weakened, are not subdued, and their influence is often discovered, by habitual observation, in a thousand subtle forms. Nothing leads to self-examination so directly, as the frequent and devout contemplation of the Deity in His wonderful works, and in the display of His infinite goodness. This, like letting in the sun's rays, will discover to us our dark spots, and while it increases our humility, will lead us to a kind and merciful consideration of the faults and imperfections of our neighbours.
September Twenty-fourth.
THE FOLLY AND WICKEDNESS OF DECEPTION.
"For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone."—Jer. ix. 10.
THESE words describe a most awful condition of the Church, as well individual as general; every principle of moral and spiritual goodness being in a state of desolation. Mountains are referred to in the Holy Word, to describe the supreme or highest state of goodness existing in the church, or in the soul of man; or else to depict the opposite condition, according to the subject treated of. The future glorious church is to be established on the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills, and all nations are to flow unto it: that is, the church in the last days will be erected upon the supreme principle of goodness and holiness. Its inmost or loftiest virtue will be supreme
