Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek ABRAHAM'S INTERCESSION FOR THE CITIES OF Gen. xviii. 23-25.- "And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked; and that the righteous should be as the GARRISON SERMONS. 66 SERMON I. CHRISTIAN LOYALTY. PROVERBS xiv. 34. Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people." THAT God, as being the Creator of the world, should exercise supreme dominion over the affairs of men, can be denied only by those who are ready to deny the fact Almighty and self-existing Being, the great and glorious Jehovah. The Almighty is indeed represented throughout the Bible as taking an ever-watchful B 2 interest in the affairs of men, as ruling supreme" according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth." And not only are the most high and enduring rewards, even "glory and honour and immortality," offered to our acceptance and encouragement in "the way of righteousness,"-not only are the terrors of future and eternal wrath brought forward to deter men from the commission of crime, from the perpetration of all manner of sin and iniquity; but motives of present interest, of present honour and advantage, are brought forward and urged upon the attention, to persuade men to the observance and practice of whatsoever things are true, honest, just, and pure. And whether as individuals, or as members of society,—as we love our own selves, or as we love the land of our nativity, the country whose name we bear, we are exhorted to "live soberly, righteously, and godly.' 1 Dan. iv. 35. 2 Rom. ii. 7. 3 Titus ii. 12. |