men; and from this state of blindness he will advance to the presumption of justifying himself before God. It is one of the most difficult things in all the world for a man to see himself, not in the general, casual, or common acceptation of the term, a sinner, but a real deformed and abject soul before God. The proudest men in the world talk about their being sinners: born in sin, regenerated by grace, and made the children of God by baptism, and continually renewed through the means of grace preserved in the Church; and speak of conversion, justification, and sanctification in the most accurate, proper, and appropriate terms. The covenant of God is known to them, and they profess to accept it; and nothing hurts their spirits more than to be told they are proud, self-willed, censorious, and obstinate sinners. Yes, the very proudest can talk of these things, as though they were familiar with all the movements of divine grace upon the soul, and had no pride in them; yet they affect to pity all the world around them, and know not the great pity which they themselves require. In fact, they think themselves righteous in their belief-in their conduct-in their faith, and can talk deeply of these things; but yet have no repentance at all. The Almighty has chosen in the book of Job to the full extent of this natural pride of heart in man. He permits Job to justify himself in his integrity before three proud men-Eliphaz, the Temanite; Bildad, the Shuhite; and Zophar, the Naamathite. These three men exalt thsmselves over the afflicted man, and talk very wisely to him, but are themselves but boasters in the sight of the Lord: they are miserable companions to an afflicted soul, because they accuse him of sins he seems to himself never to

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have been guilty, and of which they themselves are not convicted, and cannot, therefore, convict him— in fact, they were not penitent before God in the true acceptation of the term; and neither was Job, though infinitely superior in wisdom, patience, virtue, and integrity, than any of them. Job had answered them all-put them to silence-confounded them; and, from having conquered their arguments, he advanced to the presumption of contending even with the Almighty in the persuasion of his own innocence and integrity. So do men deceive themselves, until they positively begin to fancy they may stand in the sight of Omnipotence just as if they had done nothing wrong. A man who has subdued in his own idea the natural force of some strong temptation, until he sees it as it were at the distance of many thousand leagues from him, will not unfrequently imagine that he can contend with any one, as if he had attained unto righteousness by the perfection of his own integrity, and may even be induced to say as Job said— "Oh, that one would hear me: my desire is, that the Almighty will answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me. I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him." Oh, what vain fools are we, if the Almighty, who alone is our strength to conduct us from the path of sin, do but leave us for a moment-what are the thousand, ten thousand steps, that we have taken from our sin? In one stride it overtakes us becomes the familiar friend beside us, and all the steps we have gone must be gone over again; for there we fall, and none but the Almighty's hand can lift us up again. Oh, let

us, every one of us, walk with God, and pray Him never to let us trust our own strength, but ever to be with us, and defend us against the secret foes of our own household. This is the only way to walk in safety, to do as David says "I will set the Lord always before me: therefore shall I not be removed." The last words of Job in justification of himself are these "If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain: if I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life: let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley." As much as to say, "If there is anything on earth that can utter a complaint against me, then let me perish." The words of Job are ended. This, then, was the end of Job's justification; and we can scarcely imagine any assertion of integrity to be greater. Proud man, in every condition of life, is apt to say much the same thing. How many of us here present do but too often seek to justify our own integrity in the same way. What do I hear men constantly affirming "I defy any man (says one) to say I ever injured another man in the course of my life." But when I hear a man say so, do I not know that he lies before God, and in the secret depths of his soul professes a species of self-justification to which he has no right nor title? Oh, if I could open that man's eyes for one moment, and just let him see in truth the abomination of that lie in its full extent, he would be dumb in one instant: he would see that all his confident boasting only went as far as what men like himself counted injury. No one could say he stole : no one could say he murdered any one: no one could say he did not honour his

parents: no one could say that he committed adultery: no one could say he had perjured himself by taking a false oath in a court of justice: no one could say he had coveted his neighbour's house, his wife, his servants, nor anything that was his. Let me bring that man into the courts of the Lord's house, and examine him before the Almighty according to the spirit of truth, not according to the mere letter and definition given by carnal man; and not only would I tell him in the language of solemn truth that he was a liar, but he should be a self-convicted one before his God, and say of a truth as Job did-" I have uttered that I understood not; I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." O, foolish man, how long, then, will ye go on in that species of carnal deception which will not let you see yourselves as ye really are-sinners without a single word of excuse to utter before God; but honestly to say,' not with the lips, but with the heart, "We have left undone those things we ought to have done, and have done all those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us." This is the beautiful language-solemn truth which, if uttered as we miserable sinners ought to utter it, from the deep consciousness of the multitude of our offences, both against God and our neighbour, would have much greater comfort than all our exclamations of, "I never injured any one in my life!" No man who seeks his own gratification at the expense of another but does another an injury, let it be what it may; for selfishness is of itself injurious to others' happiness: better is it to know and observe this truth of our text-“ If any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right

and it profited me not, God will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light." Come, then, this is friendly language to us all; and though we may have had busy mockers in life, who have gnashed upon us with their teeth, like the false friends of Job; and though, like Job, we may have sought to justify ourselves before God; let us rejoice that God preserves us a true friend like Elihu, the son Barachel, the Buzzite, to speak the solemn truth in our ears, that we may come to the sincerity of repentance-confession of our sins to God without any kind of mental reservation whatsoever :-"I have sinned, O Lord, and perverted that which was right and it profitted me not "—is the way to have our souls saved. They set us about searching for some satisfaction with God for our sins they move in us a desire to be saved from the yawning gulf of destruction, the everlasting pit, which was digged up for the ungodly. Oh, that I could move all souls to see how truly sinful they have been, and are, that they might honestly say— "I have sinned and perverted that which was right:" this is the place of true repentance, when we meet before God as sinners-when we come to give Him the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart. This came to Job, like Elias to the Jews, like John the Baptist the forerunner of Christ; for He called Job and his persecutors to repentance, before the Almighty took upon Himself to speak. And, oh! that we who stand here to pray you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God, could but persuade you to sincere repentance. We should hear no more of your self-confident boasting: we should hear you telling us no more that you never injured any one: