Think of these things, my friends:  for true they are, and true they will remain, whether you think of them or not.  And take the warning of the second Psalm, which is needed now as much as it was ever needed—­“Be wise now therefore, O ye kings, be learned, ye that are judges of the earth.  Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with reverence.  Worship the Son, lest He be angry, and so ye perish from the right way.  If His wrath be kindled, yea, but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.”

But you are no kings, you are no judges.  Is it so?  And yet you boast yourselves to be free men, in a free country.  Not so.  Every man who is a free man is a king or a judge, whether he knows it or not.  Every one who has a duty, is a king over his duty.  Every one who has a work to do, is a judge whether he does his work well or not.  He who farms, is a king and a judge over his land.  He who keeps a shop, a king and a judge over his business.  He who has a family, a king and a judge over his household.  Let each be wise, and serve the Lord in fear; knowing that according as he obeys the law of the Lord, he will receive for the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil.

Not kings? not judges?  Is not each and every human being who is not a madman, a king over his own actions, a judge over his own heart and conscience?  Let him govern himself, govern his own thoughts and words, his own life and actions, according to the law of the Lord who created him; and he will be able to say with the poet,

   My mind to me a kingdom is;
   Such perfect joy therein I find
   As far exceeds all earthly bliss.

But if he governs himself according to his own fancy, which is no law, but lawlessness:  then he will find himself rebelling against himself, weakened by passions, torn by vain desires, and miserable by reason of the lusts which war in his members; and so will taste, here in this life, of that anger of the Lord of which it is written; “If His wrath be kindled, yea, but a little, ye shall perish from the right way.”

Therefore let each and all of us, high and low, take the warning of the last verse, and worship the Son of God.  Bow low before Him—­for that is the true meaning of the words—­as subjects before an absolute monarch, who can dispose of us, body and soul, according to His will:  but who can be trusted to dispose of us well:  because His will is a good will, and the only reason why He is angry when we break His laws, is, that His laws are the Eternal Laws of God, wherein alone is life for all rational beings; and to break them is to injure our fellow-creatures, and to ruin ourselves, and perish from that right way, to bring us back to which He condescended, of His boundless love, to die on the Cross for all mankind.

SERMON XI.  GOD THE TEACHER.

PSALM CXIX. 33, 34.