166 / 514
158
fiHâ
HF1315130
tIPE
OP
'A CHRISTIAN".
DEANf.'IX.
upon.
The
suns
of
ambition
follow
after
grandeur
and
power;
the animals
of
pleasure pursue
all
the luxuries
of
sense
;
the
miser
hunts
after
money,
and
is
ever
dig
-
ging for
gold.
It
is
visible
enough what these
wise men
live
upon.
But
the
christia.n;
who lives in the power
and glory
of
the divine
life,
seeks
after
none
of
these;
any
farther
than
as
duty leads
him,
and
the
supports
and
conveniencies
of
life
are
needful,
in
the
present state
of
his
habitation
in
the
flesh.
The
sinner
wonders what
it
is
the
saint
aims at, while he neglects
the tempting
idols
that
himself adores, and
despises
the gilded vanities
of
a
court, and abhors
the
guilty
scenes
of
a voluptuous
life.
Christ
and
his
children
are,
and
will
be,
signs
and
wen-
ders
to
the
age
they
live
in
;
Is.
viii.
18.
compared
with
Heb.
ii.
13:
The
men
of
this world
wonder what a christian
can
have
to
say
to
God
in so
many
retiring
hours
as
lie
an.
points for that end; what strange
business
he
can
ern
ploy himself
in'; how he
can lay
out
so
much time
in
affairs, which
the
carnal
mind has no
notion
of.
On
the other
hand, the saint, when he
is
in
a lively frame;
thinks
that
all
the
intervals
of
his
civil
life;
and
all
the
vacant
seasons
that
he
can
find
between the necessary
duties
of
his
worldly
station,
are
all
little enough
to
transact
affairs
of
such awful
importance
as
he
has to do
with
God,
and little enough
to
enjoy those secret plea-
sures
which
the
stranger
is
unacquainted
with.
The
children
of
God
pray
to
their
heavenly'
Father
in secret,
and they
feel
unknown refreshment and delight
in
it;
and they
are
well
assured,
that
-their
Father
who
seeth
in
secret
will
hereafter
reward them
openly,
Mat.
vi. 6.
It
is
no
wonder,
that
the
profane
world reproaches
true
christians'
as dull,
lifeless
creatures,
animals
that
have neither
soul
nor spirit
in them,
because they
do
not
see
them
run
to
the
same excess
in
things
of
the
lowerlife.
Alas
!
they
know
net that
the
life
of
a
chris-
tian
is..on
high;
they
see
it
not, for it
is
hidden;
and
therefore
they
wonder
we:
are not
busily engaged
in
the
same
practices and pursuits
as they
are;
1
Pet.
iv.
4.
They think
it-
strange
that
we
run
not
to the same
ex-
cesses
of
riot.
The
world
sees
nothing
of
our
inward
Ia-
bour
and
strife against
f'esh and
serf,
our
sacred
contest
for
the.prize.of glory;
they know
nothing
of
oúr earnest