straitened in your views or exertions this evening. You will have faith in God; and, like the woman for whom Elisha interfered, you shall have oil enough to pay your debt, and enough remaining for you and for your children. We are advised by Solomon not to become sureties for others' debts. But, in this case, I think I dare be surety for many of you. You will continue, or even increase, your stated and occasional contributions to this great cause. I have been speaking to men: your compassion will be instead of rhetoric. I have been pleading for the cause of Christ, and of souls bought by his blood, with Christians: your consciences will supply the lack of eloquence.

1

XIX.

SECRET THINGS AND THINGS REVEALED.

PREACHED ON BEHALF OF SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.

THE SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO THE LORD OUR GOD: BUT THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE REVEALED BELONG UNTO US AND TO OUR CHILDREN FOR EVER, THAT WE MAY DO ALL THE WORDS OF THIS LAW.-Deuteronomy xxix, 29.

It was the original sin and folly of our first parents to aspire after a degree of knowledge which God their Maker had denied them at the period of their creation, and of which he had afterward prohibited the pursuit. In this unlawful desire of knowledge which is too high for us, and to which it is the appointment of God that in our present state we shall not attain, we, their posterity, too frequently imitate their example. Vain man would be wise; wise in things which are placed beyond the reach of his faculties, and which, if known, could only minister to the gratification of a barren and unhallowed curiosity. And by the investigation of these hard and difficult questions, which elude the grasp of human understanding, he not only loses his time, (the most precious of his providential talents,) but is diverted from those better studies in which he might by diligent attention succeed; studies which are essential to his present and future welfare, and which alone tend to make him wise unto salvation.

But let it not be inferred, from these remarks, that I am disposed to countenance or recommend a stupid inattention to truth, or an estrangement from the pursuit of wisdom. Let me not be deemed the advocate of ignorance, or the enemy of real science and useful learning. The desire of knowledge is natural and laudable. It is implanted in the human mind by the all-wise Creator, and may answer the most valuable purposes. But, like every other natural desire, it has certain

objects to which it ought to be directed; certain bounds and limits, beyond which it should not be indulged. What those limits are our text plainly informs us; while it cautions us against presuming to transgress them. It admonishes us that the things which are secret belong unto God; and, therefore, we ought not to perplex ourselves concerning them. It tells us that revealed things belong unto us, and to our children; and are, therefore, the proper and legitimate subjects of our attention and study.

I. "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God."

1. There are many things which, by the appointment of God, remain impenetrable secrets to mankind in the present state. This assertion may be proved by almost innumerable instances.

(1.) Look into the natural world. This is full of secrets. It presents to us, on every side, truths which the wisest philosopher cannot fully comprehend; facts for which he cannot account; mysteries which he cannot fathom; questions which he cannot solve. Who can satisfactorily explain the formation of his own body? Who can give us an accurate account of the nature of his own soul? Who understands the essence of pure spirit? Who can tell by what means the union of body and soul is accomplished and maintained, or by what method they mutually act upon and influence each other? Who can show what is meant by the immensity of space? Who can estimate the Creator's wonder-working power when he sketched out the lines of this globe, and said,

"Be these thy bounds,

This be thy just circumference, O world!"

Who is acquainted with the number, or with the exact use of the heavenly bodies? Is every star the central sun of a system like ours? Is each of these luminaries a habitable world? If so, who, and of what nature, are the beings that reside there? Who can point out the specific causes of the difference between one mineral and another, one vegetable and another? But it is needless to enumerate questions of this sort. It is

evident that of the world about him man necessarily knows but little. There are, doubtless, innumerable things in the creation of God of which we never heard, never thought; and with those that have come under our observation we are very imperfectly acquainted. Our bodies, our souls-the earth, the air, the ocean-all are full of inscrutable mysteries. The great Sir Isaac Newton, after all his labors and discoveries, makes this honest acknowledgment: "We do not at all know what the substance of anything is."

(2.) Look into the moral world, and you will find still further proofs of the narrow limits which Heaven has assigned to human knowledge. The judgments of God are to us unsearchable; and his ways of providence, as well as of grace, are past finding out. We are assured, indeed, that, "as for God, his work is perfect." He does nothing superfluous or useless, and he leaves nothing undone that it would be wise and right to do. He does all things well. Yet, in the government of the world, clouds and darkness are round about him, and he hides the reasons of his administration from us in thick darkness. What he does, and why he does it, we cannot know now; and we must be content to bow with implicit submission before his sovereign wisdom, power, and love. We see but part of his ways, and that part is sufficiently full of mystery to puzzle the wisest inquirer. Holy Job states one difficulty of this kind when he asks, "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?" The excellent of the earth, the lights and ornaments of the world, are frequently cut off in the prime of their lives and the height of their usefulness, while those who are the burdens of society, and the pests of their generation, are spared to hoary hairs. Why this is permitted who can fully tell? The uninterrupted success and prosperity of many rich but wicked men, and the severe and multiplied afflictions which often fall to the lot of the truly good and holy, are facts which many, besides Asaph, (who has recorded his temptations respecting them in Psalm lxxiii,) have found it hard to reconcile with the character and perfections of the righteous Lord who loveth righteousness; and they are among the mysteries which eternity alone will

unravel. How strange does it seem that the advent of Jesus Christ, and the promulgation of Christianity, were delayed to so advanced a period of time; and that, for some purposes of wisdom and goodness not fully developed at present, the fallen sons of Adam were left for about four thousand years without a clear revelation of some of the most important truths! Who can account for the very narrow limits to which the blessings of the Christian dispensation are at present confined? Though it prescribes the remedy for those moral disorders of which all mankind are sick; though all have equal need of the life and comfort it imparts; though it proclaims a universal Saviour, and the offer of universal grace, how partially are its benefits diffused! It is not preached at all to more than the one-sixth part of the inhabitants of the globe; the remaining five-sixths being entangled to this day in the gross superstitions of heathenism, or deeply sunk in the reveries of Mohammedan delusion. Yet these, as well as we who are indulged with evangelical privileges, are the workmanship of Jehovah's hands, and the purchase of his Son's blood; for he is the God of all the ends of the earth, and of them that dwell in the broad sea. How mysterious, then, even allowing for much human unfaithfulness, is this important difference in their condition!

(3.) But, further, with respect to those things which have been partially revealed unto us, there are many particular circumstances that are still concealed, many secrets which belong unto the Lord our God. Even of those subjects with which we are best acquainted, we must confess that we do but "know in part," and "see through a glass, darkly." For instance, the nature of God is an unfathomable depth, in which our thoughts and investigations are soon confounded and lost. Of all the titles usually ascribed to the Deity, none is more appropriate than "the Incomprehensible." For who can by searching find out God? who can find out the Almighty to perfection? What man, perhaps I might ask, also, what angel, understands the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence? The fact we confidently believe on the authority of the Bible; the manner we pretend not to know. And when men, wise above what is written, have attempted