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SERM.
Y-j
THE
SOUL
DRAWING NEAR
TO
COD.
ßg
lost,
and disappear under the brighter light
of
this
Sun."
Created
beauties, with
all
their little
glimmerings,'
tempt
the
soul
toward them, when
God
is
absent;
as
a
think.
ling
candle entices
the
silly
fly
at
midnight
to
hover
about
the rays
of
it;
but
the candle faints
under
the
broad
beams
of
rising day
-
light
;
it
has no
power to
at-
tract
those little buzzing
animals
in the morning, and
it
is
quite
invisible
at
noon.
So
the
very
approach
of God
makes
creatures
appear
more contemptible and worthless
in
the esteem
of a
devout christian; a God
near
at
hand
will
drive the
creatures afar
off;
and
a:present.
God
will
command the world
to
utter
absence.
None
of
the
tempting
vanities
of
life
come
in sight,
and
sometimes
not
the most
important
concerns
of it
remain
before
the
eye
of
the saint, when
God appears
and
fills
the
view
and prospect
of
his
spirit.
The
soul
is
taken up
with
spiritual
things,
therefore carnal
ones
vanish; it
is
enter,:
tamed
and
filled
with the
majesty
of God, the
riches
of
grace,
redeeming
grace;
with the glory
of Christ Jesus,
the beauty
of
his
person, the
honour
of
his
characters,
his
various
excellencies,
and
the
super-eminence of
his
offices,
both
in
the
constitution and
discharge
of
them
;
the
soul
is
then warmed
with
a
zealous
concern for the
church
of
Christ,
and
big
with
the
designs
of
the
honour
of
God,
while
it
forgets the world.
Or at
such
a
season
as this,
when
we
get
near
to
God
in
prayer,
if
we
think
of
any
of
the
creatures,
it
is
all in
order
to the
honour
of
God.
If
I
think of a brother, or
father, or
child.
"
O
may they all be
instruments
in
thine hand, for thy
honour
here among
men,
and for
ever among
blessed angels
!"
The
soul
does
not
ask
for
riches and glories
on
earth
for them
:
but,
"
May they
live in thy sight,
O
Lord
!"
If
it
thinks
of
the comforts
of
life,
or
blessings
of
prosperity,
"O
let
holiness to the
Lord
be
written upon them
all
;
for
I
would
not
have
one
of
them,
but what
may subserve
thine
honour
in
the
world."
If
the soul thinks
of
its
pains and sorrows, and
reproaches,
it
longs for
the sanctification
of
them
at
present,
and
the removal
of
them in
due
season,
that it
may serve its
God
the better.
Thus
the
spul
is,
as
it
were,
taken
out
of
self,
when
it
gets
near
to
God.
"
Let
me
have the conveniences
of
life,
says
the chris-
tian,
not
so
much
for
my
ease,
as
that
I
may
better
ad-