Nothing is more characteristic of Paul's mind than the way in which, upon every suggestion, he ascends to great principles. He begins with what it seems must be a homely and practical and almost trivial discussion concerning idol feasts. But now and again, before he quits the subject, he rises to some sublime truth and principle. What could be a grander precept in itself, what could be worthier of acceptance by all rational beings, not to say all sincere Christians, than the command of the text? - "Do all to the glory of God."

I. THE PRINCIPLE IS TO BE EXPLAINED.

1. What is the glory of God? It is the bringing into prominence of his attributes, the working out of his purposes, and this especially by intelligent and voluntary beings. It is the gratitude which all owe, the obedience to which all me summoned, which show forth God's glory.

2. How can men do aught to God's glory? Not surely by the mere invocation of God's Name, so common and customary among Jews and Mohammedans. But they may fall in with his purposes, reverence his laws, recommend his service, utter his praise.

II. THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLE IS TO BE EXHIBITED.

1. It is so minute and searching that it extends to the most ordinary and trivial acts of life. Even eating and drinking are included; probably they are mentioned here upon the suggestion of meals partaken in common with idolaters. "Epictetus, on being asked how any one could eat so as to please God, answered, 'By eating justly, temperately, and thankfully.'" If a heathen moralist could take so noble a view of religion, shall Christians sever their daily life and its manifold occupations from the high aims and sacred motives of their lofty vocation in Christ?

2. It is so vast that nothing escapes it. It is universal in its operation, "embracing all things." No interest in life is so wide, no relationship so sacred, no occupation so honourable, as not to come under this principle, which can give dignity and sweetness to all the functions of human life.

III. THE ADVANTAGES OF THIS PRINCIPLE ARE TO URGED.

1. It delivers him who adopts it from miserable and debasing self seeking. How many there are who do all things to the glory of self! And what a degrading and deteriorating influence does such an aim exercise over the character of those who adopt it! On the other hand, to live for God is to rise at a bound above the murky atmosphere of earth into the serenest air of heaven itself.

2. It conduces to the well being of society. When all men seek their own, society is afflicted with discord and is threatened with dissolution. When all seek their Maker's honour, this common aim and endeavour tend to sympathy, harmony, cooperation.

3. It is an aim in life just and satisfying to the mind - the right aim and motive, and the only one of which we shall never repent and never feel ashamed.

4. It is a stable and eternal aim. With this design and hope the angels serve and wait and praise in heaven. And the glorified saints who have finished their course on earth, when translated to the presence of God, may change place and occupation, but the end and aim of their being remains the same, for it is capable of no improvement, of no elevation. - T.

I. THE TRUE MEANING OF THE PHRASE.

1. The glory of God is —(1) The essence, person, or majesty of God; i.e., God Himself, who is the fountain of glory (2 Peter 1:17).(2) The manifestation of God's perfections (Isaiah 43:7; 1 Corinthians 11:7). And because in every one of the Divine perfections there is something distinctly worthy of praise, it is not unprequent to call any one of those perfections the glory of God.

(a)The Divine power (Psalm 19:1; John 11:4, 40).

(b)The Divine mercy and goodness as the attributes wherein God chiefly delights (James 2:13, "Mercy glorieth over judgment"; see also Romans 9:23; Ephesians 3:16). These are also called the glory of Christ (John 1:14). And even the glory of a man (Proverbs 19:11; see also Ephesians 1:14; Romans 11:32).

2. The glorifying God is(1) The acknowledgment which creatures make again to God —(a) In worshipping (Psalm 29:1; Revelation 4:11; Revelation 19:7); and because the heathen gave this to others instead of the true God St. Paul charges them (Romans 1:21) with knowing God but glorifying Him not as God.(b) By thanks particularly returned for special benefits received (Luke 17:18).(c) By acknowledgment of His government and supreme dominion in the world (Philippians 2:11; Revelation 11:13). Belshazzar, for neglecting this, was reproved by Daniel (Daniel 5:22). And Herod, in Acts 12:23.(2) Confession of past sins with true humiliation (Joshua 7:19).(3) Actual repentance, and forsaking of sin, by real amendment (Revelation 16:9).(4) Habitual holiness (1 Corinthians 6:20; Philippians 1:11). In a word: whatever tends to the true honour of religion, to its promotion among men, are the things which promote the glory of God. Hence the apostles, in their exhortations to the practice of any virtue, urge this argument — that it will be to the glory of God (Romans 15:5; and text; see also Colossians 3:17; 1 Peter 4:11; Titus 2:10).

II. WHAT IT IS THAT IS REQUIRED OF MEN IN PRACTICE IN ORDER TO THEIR SATISFYING THE PRECEPT. He who will in all things promote the glory of God, must —

1. Show forth the sense he has of God upon his mind, by acts directly religious (Hebrews 10:24; Psalm 107:31; Revelation 5:13).

2. Resolve against being at any time guilty of any action which is sinful (Romans 2:23; Numbers 15:30; Isaiah 5:24; 1 Corinthians 10:22).

3. In all actions of moment, although not directly religious, expressly intend the glory of God as the main end.

4. The same in the smallest and most inconsiderable actions of life. The Scripture represents all, even irrational and the very inanimate creatures (Psalm 148:2, etc.) as glorifying God, because they act regularly, according to the nature He has given them, and by His command. Much more, then, may even the most common actions of men be justly said to be done to the glory of God, when they are done, as becomes men and Christians. Conclusion:(1) The text rebukes those who, far from doing all things to the glory of God, do, on the contrary, dishonour Him by open sin.(2) Those who, though they do not dishonour God by acts directly irreligious, yet are careless and negligent in matters of religion.(3) Such as have indeed a zeal for religion, but not according to knowledge, placing the main stress on ceremonies unworthy of God; or in opinions and notions, which through their obscurity or their disagreeableness to the everlasting gospel, hinder, instead of promoting, the glory of God.(4) Even the best of men have need to be admonished, to be more and more deligent in all their actions, to do everything to the glory of God: not with a superstitious anxiety or burdensome preciseness, but with a cheerful application of everything that occurs in life, to the promoting of truth and virtue among men.

(S. Clarke, D.D.)

1. To do everything for God's glory is the great law of the universe. For this the flower blooms, the bird warbles, the rivers murmur, etc., and from the standpoint of celestial science all seemingly anomalous facts and antagonistic forces yield to the same law.

2. This is also the law of God's moral universe; all actions of all spiritual creatures work out the same Divine purpose. Even sin is working out God's declarative glories — like the thick cloud, a background for His rainbows; like the black night, revealing His stars. The moving invitations of the gospel are not urged lest God should come short of His ultimate glory. Note: —

I. THE CONSTANCY OF THIS RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE.

1. Our religious life is no more to be confirmed to Sabbaths and sanctuaries than is our eating and drinking. Holiness to the Lord ought to be inscribed as well on the bells of our horses as on the bells of our sanctuaries. And all the sounds of busy civilisation — the axe, the chisel, the saw, the wheels, yea, the joyous laugh, should blend with the new song of the redeemed in heaven unto the glory of God.

2. That it is not so, practically, we all know. To profess religion has come to mean little more than to go to church and partake of the sacrament. There may be during the entire six days an arrest of all thought of God. But now comes the Sabbath, and, lo! a sudden resurrection of buried Christianity. Practical Christianity is no sanctuary sensation; it is the conscientious discharge of all duty with a desire therein to honour Jehovah. It makes the whole world a temple, and the whole life a priesthood.

II. ITS UNIVERSALITY. The apostle speaks of actions seemingly trivial to be done religiously. The taste of our times is for great things in religion. As the summer tourist hurries carelessly by all the tamer beauties of the landscape, and can experience no rapture save on the height of some mountain, or in the spray of some waterfall, so nothing less than a powerful revival seems to many a season or sphere wherein God can be honoured. Now, against this disposition our text is launched. Its practical wisdom will appear if we consider —

1. That life is made up of little things and trivial occurrences. As in nature there is but one Mount Blanc, and one Niagara, so in grace there occur but few great crises. In the mass and in the main, if we do anything for God, it must be in the ever-recurring things of our daily life.

2. That though one might occasionally do some great thing for God, yet this neglect to honour Him in these small things would destroy all the good influence of the grander achievements. Let a man be as ardent as Peter, as eloquent as Paul, as loving as John, if in his common life he is vain, or proud, or selfish, then it will be as the dead fly of Solomon — the savour of his godliness is an offence.

3. That the absence of small graces destroys the very essence of the greater. So dependent are all Christian principles one upon another, that they cannot even exist separately. Let a man be all patience without courage, and he becomes more a sheep than a saint; let him be all courage without gentleness, and he is simply a tiger. Zeal without knowledge is a devouring fire in a harvest-field; and even love without labour is a scorching sirocco, withering the strength of the becalmed mariner.

4. That even in regard of His own actions God is more sensibly glorified in small things than in great. Strictly speaking, God's great things are only an aggregate of little things. Mount Blanc is but a masonry of sand-grains; Niagara only a multiplication of rain-drops. And to a simply philosophic mind God is more wonderful when feathering the insect's wing than when upholding the great orbs of astronomy.

5. How often false are our reckonings of what is great and small. Great actions are such only as produce great results: and so shortsighted are we in respect to life's issues, that we can never know when we are doing great things or small.

6. How it requires and manifests a higher style of piety to do well the small thing than the great. Naaman found it easier to conquer mighty cities than to go down in childlike obedience to the Jordan. Martyrdom itself, under the influence of a grand heroism, is among the easiest of all things. It requires less piety to do this splendid thing for God than to subdue every selfish and carnal thought, to love an insolent and provoking enemy. Paul found it easier to combat Ephesian beasts than to bear his thorn in the flesh; and Peter, who could plunge into the sea, and flash his sword for Christ, could neither keep his temper nor govern his tongue.

7. The importance of these smaller things in religion, inasmuch as they abound in the spheres of our pleasures. If we may eat and drink to God's glory, then as certainly we may gather bright flowers and listen to singing birds. We may gratify all taste of art, literature, and science. God wants His children, even on earth, to be happy. Conclusion: What a blessed world this would become under the full play of so heavenly a principle! What a prodigious power it would give to the gospel in the eyes of gainsaying men if, instead of this mere Pharisaism of sanctuaries and sacraments, it was seen to inspire its disciples with all the practical graces of truth, honour, public spirit, brotherly kindness, and charity.

(C. Wadsworth, D.D.)

This injunction is abused by those who pay no attention to it at all, and by those who, by giving it the most literal and matter-of-fact interpretation, worry themselves over every little detail of conduct.

I. WHAT IS MEANT BY, AND WHEN IS A THING DONE FOR, THE GLORY OF GOD?

1. No deeds of ours add to or detract from God's glory. He is Himself the source of His own glory. When we do anything for the glory of God, it is to bring His glory out. A man who acts worthily, as God enjoins, causes men to acknowledge the source and origin of his worthiness. Thus the mother is honoured when her son is honoured; so, too, her virtue shines again in the virtue of her daughter.

2. This definition does away with that objective obedience to our text upon which so many insist, and substitutes a subjective form of obedience. Take a business man, as he sits in his office, or pushes past you on the streets. Of what is he thinking? Is it of wife and children? Not at all. In thought he is making a bargain. Yet he is a father and a husband as truly as if he had his boy on his knee, and his wife by his side. A carriage-maker does not make a wheel all at once, but spoke by spoke; and, when he is shaping a spoke or a felly, he is thinking about that, and not of the entire wheel. The highest motive is not always necessary or proper. A butcher is doing his duty; but it would be nonsense to ask him if he used his knife for the glory of God. A Christian has no right to vulgarise his religion by such forced interpretations.

3. The passage, then, is to be taken in its large, general sense. It has no application to pudding and pies, playing chess, etc. It is intended to cover the main tendency of a life, and not particular acts and transient states of feeling. It is globular, and not atomic. It is vast as the earth, and not minute and special as a grain of sand.

II. THE APPLICATION. It is an exhortation to all men, and especially to all Christitus —

1. To give in all their doings a due recognition of God. By nature man is his own god. Self-love rules. But Christians are people whose nature has been renewed. Still, we are not immaculate. We are pushed against and soiled. Even the best forces of our nature lead us astray. Economy, unless watched, becomes sordidness; ambition, unscrupulousness; pride, arrogance; self-esteem, vanity. The goal is lost sight of in the dust of the course, and, owing to the multitude and rush of the runners, we get excited, lose control, and, like a vicious or frenzied horse, when in the very home-stretch — bolt. This text, therefore, exhorts us to recognise God in all our plans and purposes — His authority over us, His ownership in us, His gracious love for us. Put this recognition of God as a pilot at the helm of your life, and your soul will come to the conclusion of its voyage as a rich-freighted ship. Even trouble will be to you, in your relation to God, what night is to the sky above your head. Its shadows are, indeed, sombre and oppressive; but without its darkness you would never have known the stars.

2. To a wise gravity. I fear that half the lives lived are frivolous lives. Not a few are living without an object. How dare you live in idleness (you call it leisure) when the best voices of the world are calling for help? How dare you fritter away your time in self-amusement? Help some one; lift some one.Conclusion:

1. The first thing for one to do who would live for the glory of God is to live without sin. He who sins cannot glorify God. It is in virtue and personal holiness that man most glorifies his Maker.

2. If he would glorify God, the average state of a Christian's soul should be a happy one. Christians should sing while they work, as birds while building their nests and gathering food for their young.

(W. H. H. Murray.)

I. THE VARIOUS USE OF THIS PHRASE IN SCRIPTURE. We are said in Scripture to glorify — i.e., honour — God —

1. By a solemn acknowledgment of Him and His perfections in worship (Psalm 86:9); but especially in praise and thanksgiving (Psalm 86:12; Matthew 5:16; Luke 5:25; Luke 17:18).

2. By the acknowledgment of sin and repentance for it (Joshua 7:19; Jeremiah 13:16; Revelation 16:9); because in so doing we acknowledge God's authority and the righteousness of those laws which we have broken.

3. By our holiness and obedience (1 Corinthians 6:20). Thus our Saviour glorified God (John 17:4), and bids us do so (John 15:8). So likewise St. Paul prays for the Philippians (Philippians 1:11).

4. By our sufferings for His cause and truth (John 21:19).

5. When the honour and advantage of religion is consulted —

(1)By faithful ministers (1 Peter 4:11).

(2)By maintaining the peace and unity of the Church (Romans 15:5, 6).

(3)By abstaining from things likely to cause scandal, as in the argument concluded by the text.

II. THREE THINGS MUST CONCUR THAT OUR ACTIONS MAY BE DONE "TO THE GLORY OF GOD."

1. They must be materially good; we must do what God commands, and avoid what He forbids.

2. They must be done with regard to God, and out of conscience to our duty to Him, and not for any mean or temporal end. If we serve God to please men, if we profess godliness for gain, though the actions be never so good, yet all their virtue is lost.

3. They must not be spoiled by any bad circumstance; for circumstances may render that which is lawful in itself unlawful.

III. HOW FAR WE ARE BOUND ACTUALLY TO INTEND AND DESIGN THE GLORY OF GOD IN EVERY PARTICULAR ACTION OF OUR LIVES.

1. This is morally impossible, and therefore cannot be obligatory.

2. It is not necessary, any more than it is for a man who takes a journey every step of his way actually to think of his journey's end.

3. A habitual intention to glorify God in the course of our lives is sufficient; because this will serve all good purposes, as well as an actual intention upon every particular occasion.

IV. IS A MAN BOUND TO PREFER THE GLORY OF GOD BEFORE HIS OWN ETERNAL HAPPINESS, as Moses and St. Paul seem to have done?

1. If we could admit the supposition that the two might come in competition, there could be no obligation to choose eternal misery, for that would be to choose sin, the cause of it. And sin is not to be chosen in any case; no, not for the glory of God (Romans 3:7, 8). As to the instance of Moses, the phrase of "blotting out of the book of life" probably signifies no more than death. St. Paul's was a vehement and hyperbolical expression of his mighty affection to his brethren according to the flesh.

2. The supposition is senseless. By seeking the glory of God we directly promote our own happiness; the two are inseparably linked together.

V. INFERENCES.

1. See here the goodness of God, who is pleased to esteem whatever is for the good of men to be for His glory.

2. Here is a great argument to us to be very careful of our duty, and to abound in the fruits of holiness, because hereby we glorify God.

3. We should in all our actions have regard to the honour and advantage of religion, the edification, peace, and unity of the Church; because in these things we do in a peculiar manner glorify God.

(Abp. Tillotson.)

This is one of those brief and wonderful sentences whose simplicity is the mark of their Divine original. In these few words there is that truth after which the best earthly philosophy was always reaching forth in vain. This great principle —

I. INVOLVES THE SOLUTION OF THE DARK MYSTERY OF LIFE AND OF OURSELVES.

1. When men of old looked forth into the world around them, they saw everything in broken lights and endless contradictions: good and evil, pain and pleasure, so mingled that the whole constitution of things was hopelessly entangled. They knew not how a good God could permit such misery, nor how an evil God should mingle so much blessing with His curses. And if they turned their thoughts inward, they found the darkness thicken over them. There was such a mixture of great and small, of good and bad. They could not settle wherein their chief good lay, or whither time was bearing them. The voice of God within haunted and distracted them: that unwritten living law, which they continually transgressed, tormented and embarrassed them.

2. Now, on all this confusion rose the gospel of Christ, as a harmonising light.(1) In the world around might now be seen the work of a good and holy God, marred by the sin and wilfulness of his creatures. There was this clue to the continued entanglement, that He was even now working to bring good out of evil.(2) Now man saw why he was so full of greatness and littleness. He saw that the sin which had tormented him was not himself, but his enemy, which, by breaking his relation to God, had taken from him all the true end of his being — the service of a holy God; yea, had brought the strife which had consumed him within his own heart. But he now learned also that his Lord had taken his very nature, that He might constitute Himself the perfect and righteous Head of the fallen race, and so present him again as holy and acceptable before God. Here, then, the mystery was solved. Now, when he met with sin or misery, it was not as a mystery, but as a detected enemy. He knew his place in God's world, and he knew the secret of its apparent contradictions; he could take that place, and walk amongst those contradictions, and hear, with a living meaning flowing forth from them, the words, "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

II. IS THE PRACTICAL SPRING OF A NEW ACTIVITY OF LIFE. Every man who has not learned to look upon himself, and all around him, in this light, must be infected more or less with the benumbing spirit of the Manichaean philosophy, which leads him to make his religion principally a speculation — to satisfy himself with better feelings, though his works are evil, and which must diminish the hearty, straightforward service of God.

III. RESTORES HIS BROKEN RELATIONS TO HIS FELLOW-MEN, amongst whom, and for whom, he is to work. Believing, as he does, that Christ has redeemed the whole race, every man has, through Christ, become again his brother.

IV. GIVES HIM A HAPPY LIBERTY IN HIS WORK. He is working for God, and with God's providence; he need not perplex himself about results: these are God's, not his. It is from this that great deeds spring; it is in this spirit that a man can be contented to labour in the Church for some good end, which may not be accomplished for ages to come. And this spirit of liberty will animate and ennoble all that he does. In his labours it will take away those low present ends which ever haunt and enfeeble self-servers and self-worshippers. In his intercourse with others it will deliver him from the need of those petty distinctions by which men who live on lower rules seek to mark out for themselves a separate path of holiness. In a high and noble sense, "all things are lawful to him." The arts and knowledge of this world, all its triumphs and its stores, he dares to take and to use freely as gifts of his God, as knowing that all things are sanctified to him. And this gives a glory to all his occupations, whilst it keeps him from sinful exultation in any. There can neither be great nor small in services done to God; His greatness makes all equal. Whether he be ruling an empire or ministering to a beggar, what matters it if he is ministering as God's freedman? And this will reach down to the meanest things — to the service even of his body, as well as of his spirit; and will do its work upon those secret springs of the will by which the man is moved and governed. Conclusion:

1. Many allow, within their hearts, low aims and barren earthly motives, on the plea that "to do all to the glory of God" is an overstrained attempt, except for some few saints of a higher level, or that it is a species of service which they can hardly render, who, with full hands and busy heads, are just entering upon the throng and bustle of life. Let us look into this. Life here, as faith reveals it, is the opportunity of performing certain outward actions from certain inward motives, on the necessary condition that every action will strengthen the motive from which it springs, and make it tend towards growth into a habit; this tendency, moreover, being accelerated, if its direction be evil, by the corruption of our nature — if good, by the gracious influences of the blessed Spirit of God. Thus, then, the opportunities of outward action offered to each one of us are the seeds of our future character for good or for evil, in time and in eternity. Thus, then, this busy opportunity of working, which is made the excuse for not doing all to God's glory, is, in fact, our special call to do all from this very motive: for he who enters on every day's actions in this spirit, strengthens the upgrowth of this spirit within himself: he who performs them from a worldly spirit, makes himself worldly. It is this which will, and must, colour his whole being.

2. If, then, we have such need of this earnest exhortation, let us inquire how we may nourish within ourselves this only worthy habit of doing "all to the glory of God."(1) Strive to possess your souls with a higher estimation of the will of God. As self-worship is your danger, bring yourself into the presence of Jehovah, and the idol of man's majesty must fall before Him.(2) To this reverence for God's will add this: that you strive to realise your true position in this world, as one whom Christ hath redeemed. Without this, God's majesty and might must be to us a continual terror. His will cannot be the will of a Father, unless we so look unto Him.(3) As springing out of this, strive to sanctify every act and under-taking by a special reference to your heavenly Father.

(Bp. S. Wilberforce.)

I. THE SCRIPTURES AND COMMON SENSE TEACH THAT THE GLORY OF GOD IS THE ONLY PROPER END AND RULE OF ALL THINGS. For this they were created. By the glory of God is meant His Divine perfection, His essential and infinite excellence, which renders Him the object of admiration and adoration. To act for the glory of God is to act so that His glory is manifested, acknowledged, and admired. The text is therefore an exhortation —

1. To make that end the highest commanding end of our actions.(1) Some make their end —

(a)Their own happiness.

(b)Their country.

(c)Their kind.

(d)All beings.(2) These are false ends. Their selection vitiates religion because it makes something besides God the motive and the end of action — i.e., it substitutes for religion something that is not religion.

2. To make that the rule of our actions. When anything is to be done or left undone —(1) The rule is not —

(a)Whether it will be agreeable or disagreeable to ourselves, or to others, i.e., popular.

(b)Nor whether it will be expedient or inexpedient.(2) But whether it will tend to make men admire and worship God or not.

II. THIS IS A RULE WHICH APPLIES TO EVERY-THING, GREAT AND SMALL.

1. To the choice of a profession.

2. In determining where we are to labour.

3. In deciding on the distribution and occupation of our time.

4. In determining our outward conduct towards others, our conformity to the world.

5. In deciding on the thoughts, feelings, and purposes which we shall cherish.

6. In the way we bear reproach, neglect, sickness, etc. In short, it is a simple comprehensive universal rule.

III. THE REASONS WHY WE SHOULD ADOPT IT.

1. God's glory is the highest end.

2. God Himself has made it the end of creation, providence, and redemption.

3. Christ made it His end.

4. All saints and angels do the same.

5. It is essential to the order and happiness of the universe. What would result if, instead of making the sun the centre of our system, some little satellite should set up, or be set up, as such?

6. The making of any other end our object is the sum and essence of idolatry.

7. It brings the whole life into perfect harmony, inward and outward. It promotes holiness, happiness, and usefulness.

8. It is the end which we must promote, either by our salvation or perdition.

(C. Hodge, D.D.)

I. THE GLORY OF GOD IS THE HONOUR WHICH REDOUNDS TO HIS NAME FROM THE EXHIBITIONS OF HIS POWER, WISDOM, AND GOODNESS IN THE NATURAL AND IN THE MORAL WORLD.

1. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Heaven and earth are full of His glory. But to believe, to admire, and to adore, is all the part which we can take in this province of His glory. We cannot in any way contribute to it.

2. The natural world, however, is not the only or the most exalted domain of God's glory. In the kingdom of mind the majesty of God is more especially enthroned. The affections, the moral sentiments, the intellectual faculties proceed most from Him, they are nearest to Him, they are most like Him. In this province we are not only allowed but expected to act. Our Maker has so endowed us that in the hall of His presence and on the steps of His throne we may assume the station of our birthright, and work with Him and for Him. He has given us faculties to be improved, and affections to exercise, and reason that we might regulate all; and we consult His glory by answering these designs. He bids us help forward the cause of holiness and study the happiness of our fellowcreatures; and so far as we obey these commands, we increase the sum and the splendour of His glory in the world; for what is His glory, but the triumph of religion and benevolence?

II. BUT WE ARE TOLD TO DO ALL TO HIS GLORY. HOW IS THIS ALL-INCLUDING REQUISITION TO BE FULFILLED? We cannot always have the Deity in our thoughts, nor consider whether every occupation will conduce to His glory. Neither can we be always engaged in the high concerns of worship and piety. How then is the precept to be obeyed?

1. Take an instance from domestic life. When we say of an exemplary son that he conducts himself in all things to the honour of his father, we do not mean that in every transaction he had his father's image and approbation in view, but that he was determined never to bring disgrace upon his father's name, that he was ever watchful of his father's interests, and that he so carried the paternal injunctions in his heart that he referred to them unconsciously, and was preserved by a habit of obedience to them from being guilty of practices which they would condemn.

2. Just in this manner may we, the children of God, do all to His glory. When we read a book we do not slowly spell every word; it would certainly be no proof of our scholarship if we did. The accomplished arithmetician calculates his sums without turning over at every process to the simple tables. Religious principle, well instilled and thoroughly received, is present and operative, though unobtrusively and unostentatiously so, through every chapter, page, and paragraph of life.

(F. W. P. Greenwood, D.D.)

1. The universe may be likened to a great machine, the prime motive power of which is God; and man the one who is set to tend upon it. So long as he keeps his place, all is well; but when, instead of regulating his own acts and motions by the movements of the machinery, he throws himself recklessly into the midst of its wheels and levers, he is crushed.

2. The doctrine of the text is that true religion belongs to all the interests of life, or, rather, they all belong to it. False religions are confined to time, place, circumstance; and are satisfied with man's homage in part. They may be compared to chemical attraction, where one particular body has an affinity for another particular body and only for that; whilst true religion is like the attraction of gravitation, which draws all bodies to its centre. The whole man is God's creature, the object of God's care, the purchase of the blood of Christ: should less than the whole man then be sanctified? God's glory should be consulted —

I. IN EATING AND DRINKING. The apostle would have us recognise God as the bountiful Benefactor who openeth His hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness. He would not have man eat as the dumb beast eats. He would not have the Christian eat as even many men eat. What a beautiful lesson our Lord hath left us on this subject! About to feed the people miraculously, He called the people to thanksgiving, and in it led the way. How inconsistent excess in eating and drinking, and a form of thanksgiving at meat! It looks as though we would make God the "minister of sin." How degrading thus to live to eat, and not rather simply eat to live to God's glory! The taking of food, if sanctified by religion, is eucharistic, involves devotion in act and habit in one of its highest forms.

II. IN THE USE OF SPEECH In order for speech to glorify God it must be —

1. Truthful. God is a God of truth, and He requires truth.

2. Pure. Impurity of thought is wicked; impurity of speech is worse.

3. Habitually temperate and sedate. We need run into no cynical or ascetic extremes, but still it should be remembered that the spirit of Christianity is not a spirit of frivolity.

4. Reverent.

5. Benevolent.

6. Devout.

III. IS THE USE OF TIME. Time has but two proper uses, and all others are insignificant in comparison. The first is, to be spiritually wise in, to make our peace with God in; and then, having obtained reconciliation with God through the blood of His Son, to serve Him in it, by the aid of His Spirit, to our lives' end.

(W. Sparrow, D.D.)

I. WHAT IS IT TO GLORIFY GOD? We glorify God —

1. By seeking to know Him, because thus we arrive at a better comprehension of His excellence.

2. By constantly acknowledging Him, because we thus declare in the strongest terms how worthy He is of our admiration and regard.

3. By loving Him, because we thus acknowledge His superiority to every earthly object.

4. By serving Him, because we thus testify that His service is perfect freedom.

5. By delighting in Him, because we thus show that He is greater, and better, and more desirable than all things.

II. THUS TO GLORIFY GOD IS THE CHIEF END OF MAN. This I proceed to prove. The design of the Creator in making all things was to exhibit to intelligent beings His own glory. It is absurd to suppose that any created thing could have been made for itself alone. We know not at what period creation commenced; but before that took place God was as happy as when creation appeared. And how? — in the contemplation of His own excellences. But then these excellences could not have been seen if intelligent creatures had not been made. Such a manifestation of His glory was the end for which we were formed. Man therefore is bound by the original law of his creation, in whatsoever he does, to "do all to the glory of God." When God first created man, this was his high office, to be a high-priest, to offer up sacrifices of praise to God continually. When man sinned, he lost sight of this great object; he no longer sought the Divine glory, but began to live to himself.

III. FROM THIS GENERAL STATEMENT WE MAY DERIVE SOME REFLECTIONS.

1. Doctrinal. We are taught by this subject —(1) To take a most affecting view of the nature of sin. Sin is nothing less than robbing God of His glory.(2) The only principle laid down in Scripture as constituting evangelical virtue. "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God": this is the only motive which the gospel recognises and of which God will approve.

2. Practical. Regard this as a motive to vigilance and industry; for this demands the exertion of your whole powers of soul and body. Mark how this rule applies alike to all your employments, and to all your relaxations — will they glorify God? If not, they ought not to be engaged in.

(J. F. Denham, A.M.)

(text; Psalm 73:25, 26): —

I. THE GLORIFYING OF GOD.

1. Its nature. To glorify is either to make glorious or to declare to be glorious. God glorifies, i.e., makes angels or men glorious; but man cannot make God glorious, for He is not capable of any additional glory (Job 35:7). God is glorified, then, only declaratively (Psalm 19:1). Man declares His glory —(1) By his heart. Honouring God with the lips only is but a very lame and unacceptable performance. He ought to be glorified —

(a)By our understanding, thinking highly of Him, and esteeming Him above all others.

(b)By our wills, choosing Him as our portion and chief good.

(c)By our affections, loving Him, and rejoicing and delighting in Him above every other.(2) By his lips (Psalm 1:23). Therefore man's tongue is called his glory (Psalm 16:9), not only because it serves him for speech, which exalts him above the brutes, but because it is given him as a proper instrument for speaking forth the glory of God.(3) By his life (Matthew 5:16).

2. In what respects is God's glory man's chief end?(1) It is man's end —

(a)It is the end which God aimed at when He made man (Proverbs 16:4; Romans 11:36).

(b)It is the end of man as God's work. Man was made fit for it (Ecclesiastes 7:29). The very fabric of a man's body, whereby he looks upward, while the beasts look down, is a palpable evidence of this.

(c)It is the mark to which man should direct all he does (text; Psalm 16:8).(2) It is man's chief end, that which God chiefly aimed at, and that which man should chiefly aim at. God made man for other ends, as to govern, use, and dispose of other creatures (Genesis 1:26); but still these are subordinate. There are some ends which men propose to themselves, which are simply unlawful, and which are not capable of subordination to the glory of God, who hates robbery for burnt-offering. But there are other ends, in themselves lawful, but sinful, if they be not subordinate to the glory of God. Now, God's glory is made our chief end —

(a)When whatever end we have in our actions, the glory of God is still one of our ends. We may eat and drink for the nourishment of our bodies; but this must not jostle out our respect to the glory of God.

(b)When it is that which we chiefly design. All other sheaves must bow to that sheaf: as a diligent servant designs to please both the master and his steward, but chiefly the master.

(c)When it is the perfection of what we design, beyond which we have no more view. Thus we should eat that our bodies may be refreshed, so that we may he the more capable to glorify God. Thus we are to seek salvation, that God may be glorified.

3. The extent of this duty. This must be the end —(1) Of our natural rations (text).(2) Of our civil actions, working our work, buying and selling, etc. (Ephesians 6:7; Proverbs 21:4).(3) Of our moral and religious actions (Zechariah 7:5). We must pray, hear, etc., for God's glory.

4. The reason of the point is, because God is the first principle, therefore He must be the last end. He is the first and the last, the Alpha, and therefore the Omega. God is the fountain of our being; and therefore seeing we are of Him, we should be to Him (Romans 11.).

II. THE ENJOYMENT OF GOD FOR EVER.

1. The nature of this enjoyment.(1) There is an imperfect enjoyment of God in this life; which consists —

(a)In union with Him, or a saving interest in Him, whereby God is our God by covenant. By this union Christ and believers are so joined that they are one spirit, one mystical body.

(b)In communion with God, which is a participation of the benefits of that saving relation, whereof the soul makes returns to the Lord in the exercise of its graces, particularly of faith and love.(2) There is a perfect enjoyment of God in heaven. This consists in —

(a)An intimate presence with Him in glory (Psalm 16:11).

(b)Seeing Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

(c)A perfect union with Him (Revelation 21:3).

(d)An immediate, full, free, and comfortable communion with Him, infinitely superior to all the communion they ever had with Him in this world, and which no mortal can suitably describe.

(e)Full joy and satisfaction resulting from these things for ever (Matthew 25:21).

2. The order of this enjoyment.(1) It is a part of man's chief end, and, in conjunction with glorifying of God, makes it up.(2) Glorifying of God is put before the enjoying of Him, because the way of duty is the way to the enjoyment of God (Hebrews 12:14). The pure in heart, and they who glorify God now, shall alone see God, to their infinite joy in heaven.

3. The enjoyment of God is man's chief end in point of happiness, the thing that he should chiefly seek. For this end, consider —(1) What man is.

(a)He is a creature that desires happiness, and cannot but desire it.

(b)He is not self-sufficient; and therefore he is ever seeking something without himself in order to be happy.

(c)Nothing but an infinite good can fully satisfy the desires of an immortal soul.(2) What God is.

(a)God is the chief good, for He is the fountain good, and the water that is good is always best in the fountain.

(b)God is all good. There is nothing in Him but what is good. All that is good is in Him; so that the soul, finding Him commensurate to its desires, needs nothing besides Him.

(T. Boston, D.D.)

I. ALL THINGS TEND TO PROMOTE THE GLORY OF GOD.

1. In nature (Psalm 19:1; Psalm 139:4).

2. In Providence.

3. In grace.

(1)The incarnation.

(2)The resurrection.

(3)The gospel of the grace of God. The full development, however, of the works and purposes of grace will be in heaven.

II. SIN TENDS TO HINDER THE PROMOTION OF THE GLORY OF GOD with regard to —

1. Nature. It closes the eyes, so that it is not seen as showing forth the wisdom and power of God. It stops the ears, so that its voice, proclaiming the goodness and greatness of its Almighty Creator, is not heard. It darkens the understanding (Romans 1:18-22).

2. Providence. By this our country is distinguished above all other countries; but how is this mighty influence and vast wealth employed? Has not sin perverted our maritime power, so that the visits of our sailors to heathen countries have proved serious hindrances to the spread of the gospel? Are not commercial prosperity and national property sadly abused and obviously misemployed? Not to mention the thousands spent by the lovers of pleasure at places of vanity and dissipation, I would call your attention to what is expended on intoxicating liquors.

III. IN WHAT WAY THE GLORY OF GOD MAY BE PROMOTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TEXT.

1. As to eating and drinking. The glory of God is promoted when these exercises fit us for the service of God. If, on the contrary, we eat or drink that which disables us from serving God, then they can in no way promote the glory of God.

2. As to abstinence. Total abstinence from intoxicating drinks may be promotive of the glory of God —(1) When the money usually spent on such liquors is better employed.(2) When done with a view to the benefit of our fellow-creatures.(3) When done with a desire to remove hindrances to the spread of truth and godliness. Conclusion:

1. Whatever others may think of these things, and however they may be determined to act, let us have no part at all in the drunkard's ruin.

2. Be sure you bear in mind that temperance is not regeneration.

(J. F. Witty.)

A king is made glorious by the obedience of his subjects. The parent is honoured by the child. Not by his running around the neighbourhood and saying, "Oh, what a great man my father is!" or, "What a beautiful woman my mother is!" but by studiously fulfilling their wishes. The teacher is honoured, not by what the pupil says, but by what he does. And we honour, or glorify, God by fulfilling His commands. The command of the Bible is, Amid all the thousand questions of life, ask yourself, What is the will of God? Ascertain what this is, and then settle your casuistry by aiming to fulfil it.

I. This leads to THE SUPREME QUESTIONS OF MOTIVES. Ordinarily a motive is supposed to be that which draws out of a man a line of conduct. But this is wrong. E.g., we say that gold is the motive which impels the miser. No; gold wakes up his avarice, but his will is working in him the desire of acquisition; and the motive power is the faculty, and not the thing which sets the faculty in motion. We say that a man works because he wants food; the truth is, that hunger is the thing which moves him towards the food. The question, therefore, becomes not, What end induces such a course of action? but, What faculties worked in such a course of action? and then you can ask, What was it that started those faculties? Let us look closer at this.

1. Right and wrong consist not in action but in the end or purpose. I take from a store an object of great value and carry it home. Another man takes it and carries it home. In both cases the action is precisely the same; but there is a special reason why that man is a thief and I am not. God has never put a faculty into the mind of a man which is not, in its own sphere and degree, right. If it be wrong, it is because it is acting out of the proper degree and out of its own sphere.

2. Many faculties act, in regard to the other faculties, with co-operation, or with a normal alternation. Many men say, "What was the motive by which I was guided?" And when they look into their minds there is a perfect jumble of motives, as they interpret them. A man says, "I am afraid I was not actuated by right motives; for I can discern the traces of other motives." The normal activity of the mind, in every case, is the result, not of a single faculty, but of all the faculties. The revolution of forces which go to make up the process of your thought in a single hour is a more stupendous work than any that was ever performed in a laboratory. If it were possible for a man to put sensitised paper in his hat and have everything that he thought or felt stamp itself thereon the journal of an hour thus recorded would take him two days to read. And yet men are troubled because there is not a singleness of motive which inspires their action!

3. The power of any action in men depends, not on the singleness, but on a combination of faculties. Instead of other faculties invalidating any course of conduct, or making it inferior, its value depends upon the other faculties which are concentrated in the production of it. The highest condition of the mind is that in which all the pipes in the multiform organ are uttering their appropriate sounds in the proper way.

4. Moral character is to be determined or primary and regnant motives and not simply by auxiliary ones. Thus a man says, "I have made up my mind to join the Church; but I do not know that I am sincere in wishing to do it." What is the matter? "Well, nothing would please my wife and my mother so much; and I have thought perhaps it was to please them that I was going to join it." Well, it is right that you should inquire whether these are the prime feelings; but, if you say, "I see that the time is going fast with me, and that if ever I am to change and get a hold on heaven I must do it soon, and now I am determined to obey my Master according to the best of my ability," there is a motive that should be sovereign; and if then, when that is settled, you think that everybody who loves you will be happy, this collateral motive will be a help to the other. Again, thoughts of personal interest are not wrong under such circumstances. Godliness is profitable for this world and for that which is to come; only see that your chief motive is to glorify God.

II. THE SUBJECT THROWS LIGHT UPON QUESTIONS WHICH HAVE ARISEN IN THE MINDS OF MANY WHO HAVE NOT TAKEN THE COMFORT IN THEIR RELIGIOUS LIFE WHICH THEY MIGHT IF THEY HAD BEEN BETTER INFORMED AS TO THEIR DUTY.

1. On the one side is the danger of indifference to all motives. Men ought to want to do the best things from the best motives, i.e., with their noblest faculties; but it is better to do a right thing from the poorest motive than not at all. If you make the condition of right living onerous the great mass will be discouraged. If you say to a man, "You have before you an ideal of Christian duty, and you must live up to that, you must act from the highest motives — for if those motives are adulterated by lower ones, they go for nothing"; you screw the man up till he is like a violin-string that goes squealing higher and higher until by and by it snaps and no longer has any power. There are thousands who began honestly to live a Christian life, but on whom were put tests, until they were screwed so high that the feeling in them snapped; and now they are in despair, and say, "There is no use of my trying any longer."

2. There is great feebleness, and a great want of generous momentum in the Christian life, which comes from the consciousness of one's self. Any course of self-examination is mischievous that puts a man all the time upon thinking of himself; under which a man is continually asking himself, "Am I going right now?" — saying, e.g., at ten o'clock, "Well, I have gone right all day so far"; but at twelve says, "Have I had the glory of God before me up to this time?" You are not to sit and brood over your possible conduct. You are to take your direction and be sure it is right, and then make a fire, and put on steam, and go ahead, and trust yourself on the way.

(H. W. Beecher.)

1. The praises of God should not be kept only for Sunday. A Christian's whole life should be a life of praise. Every day sees all nature singing its Te Deum, and shall we alone keep silence?

2. All our lives are woven of a different pattern, but in all we can trace the golden thread of God's mercy, of Christ's redeeming love. When we remember how little we have deserved God's goodness, how little we have done for Him who doeth all for us, surely our lips must break forth into praise. We owe Him "our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life," etc.

3. But we must praise God not only with our lips but in our lives, making our life one long hymn of praise. To do this you must make it —

I. A CONTENTED LIFE. Murmuring lips can shape no praises. There is the legend, that one day Elijah appeared suddenly in the crowded market-place of a great city. The prophet, on being asked who among that crowd would be saved, pointed to two mechanics talking and laughing merrily together. These men had done no great thing, but they were contented with such things as they had, they worked honestly and cheerfully at their trade, they thanked God for His mercies, and never spoke evil of their neighbours. So the man or woman who takes what God sends, be it sunshine or shower, and can look up and say truly, "Thank God," who works cheerily without grumbling, "as unto the Lord, and not unto men," such an one praises God. If men would understand this, they would not look on their work as a curse, but a blessing. The reason why it is so hard to get working-men to church is because they have never learned to praise God in their work, and so they do not care to praise Him in His holy temple.

II. BY HELPING TO MAKE OTHERS HAPPY, AND BY LEADING THEM TO JESUS. I believe that the sight of a mother teaching her little one to pray, or that of a gentle friend soothing the sorrows of an invalid, or leading a wrong-doer to a better mind, are precious in God's eyes above all the great works of the greatest men of all time. These things, like Mary's ointment, are remembered for ever. The sacrifice of love is the best praise offered to the all-giving God. it was said by one of old that life consisted of two heaps; a large one of sorrow, a small one of happiness. And whoever carried a little atom from one to the other did God service. To make others happy, especially to make them good, is an offering of a sweet-smelling savour to the Lord. They tell us that they can trace in the sandstone the marks of a raindrop that fell a million years ago. So the smallest act of love done for God shall leave its mark, if not seen here in time, it will be visible in eternity.

(H. J. W. Buxton, M.A.)

In all ages there has been a tendency to set apart certain days, places, and occasions for worship; and these have their importance. A man cannot be so much of a Christian on Sunday that he can afford to he a worldling all the rest of the week. If a steamer put out for Southampton, and go one day in that direction and the other six days go in other directions, how long will it take the steamer to get to Southampton? And though a man may seem to be voyaging heavenward on the Sabbath, if, during the following six days he is going towards the world, the flesh, etc., he will never ride up into the harbour of heaven. We want to bring the religion of Christ into —

I. Our EVERY-DAY CONVERSATION. When a dam breaks, and two or three villages are overwhelmed, or an earthquake swallows a city, then people begin to talk about the uncertainty of life, and imagine that they are engaged in religions conversation. No. You may talk about these things and have no grace in your heart. If there is anything glad, beautiful, important about religion we ought to be continuously speaking about it. And yet how few circles there are where it is welcome! As on a summer day, when the forests are full of life and carol, if a hawk appear in the sky the forests are still; just so I have seen a lively religious circle silenced on the appearance of anything like religious conversation. But then we must live religion or we cannot talk it. If a man is cross, uncongenial, and hard, and then begins to talk about Christ and heaven, everybody is repelled by it.

II. OUR EVERY-DAY EMPLOYMENTS. "Oh," you say, "that is very well if a man handle large sums of money, or if he has an extensive traffic; but my sphere is too humble for the action of such grand principles." Who told you so? God watches the faded leaf as certainly as He does the path of the sun. And the moss makes as much impression upon God's mind as the cedar. When you have anything to do in life, however humble it may seem to be, God is always there to help you to do it. A religion that is not good in one place is not worth anything in another place. The man who has only a day's wages in his pocket as certainly needs the guidance of religion as he who rattles the keys of a bank. Plato once said that spirits of the other world came back to this to find a body and a sphere of work. One came and took the body of a king and did his work. Another took the body of a poet and did his work. After a while Ulysses came, and he said, "Why, all the fine bodies and all the grand work are taken. There is nothing left for me." And some one replied, "Ah! the best one has been left for you — the body of a common man, doing a common work, and for a common reward." A good fable for the world, and just as good a fable for the Church. "Whether ye eat or drink," etc.

III. OUR EVERY-DAY TRIALS. For severe losses, for trouble that shocks like an earthquake, we prescribe religious consolation; but for the small annoyances of last week, how much of the grace of God did you apply? "Oh!" you say, "these trials are too small for such application." My brother, they are shaping your character, souring your temper, wearing out your patience, and making you less and less of a man. A large fortune may be spent in small change, and a vast amount of moral character may go away in small depletion. A swarm of locusts will kill a grain-field sooner than the incursions of three or four cattle. Rats may sink a ship. One lucifer match may send destruction through a block of storehouses. Catherine de Medici got her death from smelling a poisonous rose. Columbus, by stopping and asking for a piece of bread and a drink of water at a Franciscan convent, was led to the discovery of a new world. There is an intimate connection between trifles and immensities, between nothings and everythings. Now, be careful to let none of those annoyances go through your soul unarraigned. Compel them to administer to your spiritual wealth. Our Government does not think it belittling to put a tax on trifles. The individual taxes do not amount to much, but in the aggregate to millions of dollars. And I would have you put a high tariff on every annoyance that comes through your soul. This might not amount to much in single cases, but in the aggregate it would be a great revenue of spiritual strength and satisfaction. A bee can suck honey even out of a nettle, and if you have the grace of God in your heart you can get sweetness out of that which would otherwise annoy.

IV. OUR EVERY-DAY BLESSINGS. When the harvests are in we assemble in churches and are very thankful. But every day ought to be a thanksgiving day. We have to see a blind man led by his dog before we begin to bethink ourselves of what a grand thing it is to have eyesight. We have to see some wounded man hobbling on his crutch, or with his empty coat sleeve pinned up, before we learn to think what a grand thing God did for us when He gave us healthy use of our limbs. We are so stupid that nothing but the misfortunes of others can rouse us up to our blessings. The cow that stands under the willow chewing its cud looks very thankful; and who can tell how much a bird means by its song? The aroma of the flowers smells like incense, and mist arising from the river looks like the smoke of a morning sacrifice. Oh, that we were as responsive! Yet, who thanks God for the water that gushes up the well and that foams in the cascade, and that laughs over the rocks, and that patters in the shower, and that claps its hands in the sea? Who thanks God for the air, the fountain of life, the bridge of sunbeams, the path of sound, the great fan on a hot summer's day? Who thanks God for this wonderful physical organism? We take all these things as a matter of course. But suppose God should withdraw these common blessings?

(T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.)

Man must not separate his life from God. By so doing he ruins his own soul. Can the stream continue to flow when disconnected from the fountain? Can the tree blossom and fruit when uprooted from the earth? Can a boy say, "Father I can do without you"? Let everything you do, then, have reference to God. Do all things to His glory.

I. How?

1. Let everything we do show the intention of God in our existence. The flowing of the river, the fruit and fulness of the tree, the shining of the sun, etc., are exhibitions of God's purposes in those objects. Does your life tell what God's intention is with it? If so, you glorify God.

2. Let everything be done in obedience to God. We live in the midst of a complicated system of laws — physical, mental, moral. Obedience to these is glory to God.

3. Let all things be so done that when they are completed they shall be to the praise of God's wisdom, power, and love. The artist is moved by his genius and paints a picture. When exhibited the genius of the artist is praised. Every good man has in his heart the inspiration of God. Let him, then, so act that when his works are completed they shall be to the glory of God.

II. IN WHAT?

1. In business.(1) Here religion is an absolute necessity. Business requires —

(a)Integrity, and religion makes a man just, truthful, etc.

(b)Strength and health in business.Let men do the business of life in the spirit of religion, and a voice shall break over them saying, "The everlasting arms are underneath thee; thou shalt not bear thy burden alone. Cast thy burden on the Lord."(2) Religion connects the business of this life with the affairs of another. Business is a dull leaden cloud in itself: let in the light of eternity upon it and it becomes glorious.

2. In government.(1) The government of a family is never done well without religion. The development of your boys and girls will never be beautiful if you rule the home without God.(2) The government of society cannot be well done without religion. A great city is likely to become a mass of sin and misery without it.(3) No nation was ever yet governed well without some kind of religion. Rome began to decline when the priests began to laugh at each other, and the thinkers to ask, "What is truth?" France tried to govern without God, and the wicked attempt ended in the Reign of Terror.

3. In literature. This to work for good must be permeated with the principles of religion.

(1)Truth.

(2)Purity.

(3)Kindness.The truth of criticism should be baptized with love.

4. In science. Men of science need the light of religion for the sake of their own science. If you were to read a book that you could not understand, would it not be of immense advantage to have the author present to explain it? The material world is God's book, and if you would understand its higher hieroglyphics you must pray.

5. In philosophy, which is the noble attempt of the greatest minds to answer three great questions. Now there are no answers so wise and deep as the old ones. Whence? From God. How? Nobody knows. Why? That the universe might be filled with blessedness to the glory of God.

(T. Jones, D.D.)

I. CONTRAST THIS PRINCIPLE WITH WHAT NATURALLY INHABITS OUR OWN BOSOMS, and we shall then be fully convinced that this text must have God for its Author. Believe me when I tell you that we are all, in every thought, and word, and action, engaged in undeifying God and deifying ourselves. I do not mean to say that there are not many amiabilities in members of civil society which ought to endear them to us; but, mark me! you will find the loveliest of these amiabilities in the brute creation. I refer you to the ingenuity and love with which the parent brute defends its young. It does everything it could possibly do, even if possessed of the reasoning powers of man. We hear a great deal of human friendship: human friendship, without the grace of God, I boldly assert, is inferior to the friendship of a dog. There is a something awfully defective in the best works of man — in all his loveliest emotions. "God is not in all his thoughts," he is a withered branch separated from the parent tree.

II. I WOULD ASSIGN THE MOST SATISFACTORY REASONS WHY GOD SHOULD BE GLORIFIED IN ALL OUR THOUGHTS, WORDS, AND ACTIONS.

1. God glorifies Himself in calling all things into existence. Saints and angels are triumphing in this truth in heaven, and ever will triumph in it.

2. For the same reason He preserves everything in existence, namely, to glorify Himself.

3. It is for His own glory that He governs all things; and we should bear this in mind while courting at His hands the sublimest principles of action.

4. God glorifies Himself in His mercy infinitely more than in anything else.

5. He glorifies Himself in His vengeance.

6. The obedience of all innocent beings is fully influenced by this principle, or rather they have this end fully in view, the glory of God in all things.

III. HOW GOD TEACHES MAN THIS SUBLIMEST PRINCIPLE OF ACTION?

1. By convincing him of sin in its evil and desert — in its evil, as being committed against God — in its desert, as meriting nothing less than His eternal wrath and condemnation.

2. By revealing His Son in the heart of man.

3. By conferring a new disposition upon man — a disposition that involves the glory of God in all His beauty and perfections.

(W. Howels.)

I. BY THE TERM "GLORY," WHEN REFERRING TO GOD, WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND HIS ESSENTIAL ATTRIBUTES AND CHARACTER, especially as displayed in the works of creation, providence, and grace. It may serve to illustrate this definition, to consider that the glory of any human beings consists in the display of those parts of their conduct which are deemed worthy of admiration. Thus the false glory of warriors and conquerors has ever been sought to be promoted by the declaration and celebration of their deeds of valour; the glory of the beneficent, by the record of their acts of charity; and the glory of men of science by the name they acquire for the discoveries which they make. Those who desire to extend the glory of such persons effect their object by extending the knowledge of what has been accomplished by the subjects of their admiration; and in proportion to the degree of manifestation, is the amount of glory attained. So with respect to the Divine character, the glory in itself is infinite, because it consists in the uncreated excellency of infinite perfection; but the manifestation of the glory is increased or diminished according to our knowledge or ignorance of the attributes and acts and character of the most high God.

II. CONSIDER THIS GLORY AS THE END OF GOD IN CREATION, PROVIDENCE, AND GRACE, and how the creatures are made subservient thereto. It is quite conceivable that Jehovah might have continued to delight Himself alone, without putting forth any act of creative power; but it became His infinite goodness to communicate and reveal itself by giving being to various ranks of intelligent creatures. After He had created the angels, He might have paused for ages longer before He condescended to form the material world, or to people it with inferior beings. But it was His blessed will to increase the happiness of the angels, by increasing their knowledge of Himself; and therefore the command went forth, the earth arose out of chaos, and the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy, at the new manifestation of the Divine glory. Wisdom and love and power were magnified by their being put forth into exercise. The glory of the Divine attributes doth shine brighter and brighter until the perfect day, and a fuller and fuller disclosure of them may be looked forward to, in the kingdom of God. They dwell, as in a fountain, in Jehovah; they streamed forth as a wide and rapidly increasing river in the works of creation and preserving Providence; but they spread into a searchless and unbounded ocean in the displays of redeeming grace.

III. NOTICE SOME OF THE PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS ARISING OUT OF THE SUBJECT THUS UNDERSTOOD.

1. If our only true enjoyment is to be found in the knowledge of the glory of God, this fact affords a new argument for highly estimating that whereby this glory is revealed.

2. In order to carry out into our habitual conduct the precept of the inspired apostle, it is necessary that we cordially acquiesce in the design of God. As long as we adopt any other end, we are pursuing vanity and lies.

3. Diligently cultivate the use of those means which are fitted to increase our knowledge of God.

4. Before engaging in any pursuit, consider how it bears upon the great ultimate end of all things. God hath given you mental faculties, and you ought to employ them; but see that they are employed about those objects which tend to promote His glory. God hath given you affections, and these affections are not to lie dormant; but see that they are awake to objects becoming a pilgrim and a stranger upon earth. He permits you to enjoy intercourse with your fellow-men; but see that your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt. It is in the way of self-denial, of lowliness, of dependence, that fresh revelations of Divine beauty meet the traveller in his journey heavenward.

5. Consider the variety of ways in which we may advance the Divine glory.

(H. Craik.)

One great object of religion is to bring men to a sense of the duty which they owe to God.

I. To understand THE NATURE OF THE PRINCIPLE which St. Paul here inculcates we should observe the cases before him, in the context from which he takes occasion to prescribe this general rule. This chapter contains advice upon three particular cases of conscience. The first respects the lawfulness of assisting at idolatrous feasts, such as were held in pagan temples, and in honour of the pagan worship. Of these entertainments some Christians, it appears, who were less careful to please God than to gratify their worldly connections, condescended to partake. The second case was that of buying such flesh in the market; for whatever part of the animal was not consumed on the altar, or distributed for presents and entertainments, was exposed publicly to sale. And to this the apostle gives his decided sanction. "Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no questions for conscience sake." The third case respected the propriety of eating these same meats at the table of a heathen acquaintance, and this is resolved like the last. Being invited as to a common meal, you are in general to partake of it as such, without either uneasiness or remark. "Whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience sake." This leads to the general conclusion — not only in these cases but in all others — "Whether ye eat or drink," or abstain from either; in a word, "whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God." We see, then, that the principle here inculcated is of the soundest, most enlightened, and vigilant kind: sound, as forbidding strictly whatever is really an offence: enlightened, as it discriminates what; is sinful from what only seems so to be: and watchful, in attending not merely to an action as it stands alone, but even to those possible effects of it which might bring dishonour to God. The great rule of our life must be regard to God's honour, and this rule must be applied on occasions when we perhaps think little of responsibility.

II. Having thus examined the nature of the principle, let us proceed to SHOW ITS OPERATION IN SANCTIFYING THE COMMON ACTIONS OF LIFE. It is not often that the best of men have a due sense of the value of Christian principle in this point of view. And as to the world at large they can scarcely understand the application of it. With them religion is confined to acts of worship, morality is the principle of our duty to man; and interest, inclination, custom, convenience are to direct the vast variety of human actions which are less perfectly of the moral kind. Thus, in all the ordinary conduct of their lives, in their business and their amusements, in the connections they form, and the society they frequent; in the use of their time, their influence, their fortune, or their talents; in the management of their families; in their habits of personal indulgence; in their common discourse; in their general bearing and behaviour they live altogether without regard to God. But let us take a particular instance or two. Take first the duties of any humble and laborious calling — of a husbandman, of a mechanic, of a servant, of one who must labour for a subsistence, and whose whole time is occupied in the work of his vocation. If a man submits to this lot as a mere act of necessity, if he goes through his toil with cheerfulness, because he thus supplies his wants, or procures his humble comforts, or hopes one day to improve his condition; though he may be acting well and wisely in some points of view he does nothing to the glory of God. But suppose that he thus reflects on his condition, and says, "I will therefore go to my labour cheerfully: I will pursue it diligently, as God's appointment: I will consider this as my place in the great family of His creatures, and endeavour to serve Him in it." Such views would consecrate the labours of the day. Thus would a man be glorifying God. But there may be a question of some importance here. Are these reflections to be continually passing in the mind? Or, is nothing done to the glory of God, when we do not place it thus distinctly before us, as our express and particular object? I answer, when the principle exists and thrives, such reflections will of course be frequently occurring. But when it is well-formed and established we shall act by it on all common occasions, not so much from reflection as from habit; and be led into the feelings and duties which our object demands without recalling it expressly to our thoughts. A parent who lives for the welfare of her child has no need to reason with herself upon the matter; nor, in every single act which promotes her object, to have it strongly or expressly in her eye. She feels rather than reasons, she acts rather from habit than deliberation.

2. Let me briefly show the operation of this same principle in another instance. There are various peculiar duties attached to every rank and relation in life. To parents and children for example, to husband and wife, to master and servants. The duties of these relations may be performed, and decently performed, without any regard to God. A heathen parent may have a tenderness of affection for his children which all mankind must admire. In such cases natural affections or ordinary motives do that, in part, which the aid and control of a higher principle would enable them to do much better — and God is only so far glorified as the general order and harmony of His creatures demonstrates the perfection of the Creator. But where the heart is renewed, and a regard to God implanted, the influence of this principle will extend to the various relations of life, and all their duties be placed on a new footing. Thus our very amusements and relaxations should be enjoyed upon principle. As far as they are subservient to right ends they may be indulged with a good conscience. Thus, too, the food and rest which we require should be taken upon Christian principles. Such then are the objects we shall keep in view, and such the motives from which we shall act in proportion as we feel the power and possess the true spirit of the gospel. And now let us turn to our own consciences and hearts. What is our prevailing principle? Is it the fear and love of God? Or is it our own gratification or temporal advantage alone? I say alone, because we may conscientiously seek our own advantage when it is in subserviency to the will of God. That will and our own interest point frequently to the same line of conduct. Again, let this subject convince us of the error of those who confine religion to devotional duties. Lastly, would we possess this principle of doing all things to the glory of God, let us first seek to have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. The effect is a great one, the motive which produces it must therefore be powerful. Let us love God, and we shall serve Him faithfully and universally.

(J. Venn, M.A.)

When persons are convinced that life is short, when they feel that the next life is all in all, then they are apt to undervalue this life altogether, and to forget its real importance. This state of mind is chided in figure in the words of the holy angels to the apostles, when they say, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?" In various ways does the thought of the next world lead men to neglect their duty in this; and whenever it does so we may be sure that there is something wrong and unchristian. Now I am far from denying that a man's worldly occupation may be his cross. Again, I am far from denying that under circumstances it may be right even to retire from the world. But I am speaking of cases when it is a person's duty to remain in his worldly calling, and when he does remain in it, but when he cherishes dissatisfaction with it: whereas what he ought to feel is this — that while in it he is to glorify God, not out of it, but in it, and by means of it, according to the apostle's direction, "not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Now what leads such a person into this mistake is that he sees that most men who engage cheerfully and diligently in worldly business, do so from a worldly spirit, from a low carnal love of the world; and so he thinks it is his duty, on the contrary, not to take a cheerful part in the world's business at all. But surely it is possible to " serve the Lord," yet not to be "slothful in business"; not over devoted to it, but not to retire from it.

1. "Do all to the glory of God," says St. Paul, in the text; nay, "whether we eat or drink"; so that nothing is too slight or trivial to glorify Him in. We will suppose a man who has lately had more serious thoughts than he had before, and determines to live more religiously. In consequence of the turn his mind has taken he feels a distaste for his worldly occupation. The ill-instructed man will at once get impatient and quit it; or if he does not quit it, at least he will be negligent and indolent in it. But the true penitent will say to himself, "No; if it be an irksome employment, so much the more does it suit me. I deserve no better. I am bound to afflict my soul for my past sins. Far from repining, I will, through God's grace, go cheerfully about what I do not like. I will deny myself. I know that with His help what is in itself painful will thus be pleasant as done towards Him. But leave it without a call from God, I certainly must not. On the contrary, I will work in it the more diligently, as far as higher duties allow me."

2. A second reason which will animate the Christian will be a desire of letting his light shine before men.

3. Thankfulness to Almighty God, nay, and the inward life of the Spirit itself, will be additional principles causing the Christian to labour diligently in his calling. He will see God in all things. He will recollect our Saviour's life. Christ was brought up to a humble trade. Thus he will take his worldly business as a gift from Him, and will love it as such.

4. True humility is another principle which will lead us to desire to glorify God in our worldly employments if possible, instead of resigning them. Christ evidently puts His greater blessings on those whom the world despises. He has bid His followers take the lowest seat.

5. Still further, he will use his worldly business as a means of keeping him from vain and unprofitable thoughts. One cause of the heart's devising evil is, that time is given it to do so. The man who has his daily duties, who lays out his time for them hour by hour, is saved a multitude of sins which have not time to get hold upon him.

6. Lastly, we see what judgment to give in a question sometimes agitated, whether one should retire from our worldly business at the close of life, to give our thoughts more entirely to God. On the whole, then what I have said comes to this, that whereas Adam was sentenced to labour as a punishment, Christ has by His coming sanctified it as a means of grace and a sacrifice of thanksgiving, a sacrifice cheerfully to be offered up to the Father in His name. It is very easy to speak and teach this, difficult to do it; very difficult to steer between the two evils — to use this world as not abusing it, to be active and diligent in this world's affairs, yet not for the world's sake, but for God's sake.

(Plain Sermons by Contributors to "The Tracts for the Times.")

1. That God's glory is the end of our being.

2. That God's glory should be the end of our doing.

3. The ground of both these, because both being and doing are from Him, therefore they ought to be both for Him. Goal is independent altogether and self-sufficient. This is His royal prerogative, wherein He infinitely transcends all created perfection. He is of Himself, and for Himself, from no other, and for no other, but of Him, and for Him are all things. But the creature, even the most perfect work, besides God, it hath these two ingredients of limitation and imperfection in its bosom. It is from another and for another. It hath its rise out of the fountain of God's immense power and goodness, and it must run towards that again, till it empty all its faculties and excellencies into that same sea of goodness. Dependence is the proper notion of a created being, dependence upon that infinite independent being, as the first immediate cause and the last immediate end. You see then that this principle is engraven in the very nature of man. It is as certain and evident that man is made for God's glory, and for no other end, as that he is from God's power, and from no other cause. And there is the more reason of it that His Majesty's seeking of His own glory is not prejudicial to the creature's good, but the very communication of His fulness goes along with it; so that in glorifying Himself He is most beneficial to His own creatures. "All things are of Him and for Him," but man in a peculiar and proper way. As God in making of man, He was pleased of His goodness, to stamp him with a character of His own image, and in this He puts a difference between man and other creatures that be should have more plain and distinct engravings of Divine majesty upon him, which might show the glory of the workman. So it appears that he is in a singular way made for God as his last end. As he is set nearer God, as the beginning and cause than other creatures, so he is placed nearer God as the end. But you may ask, what is it to glorify God? Doth our goodness extend to Him? Or is it an advantage to the Almighty that we are righteous? No indeed. And herein is the vast difference between God's glorifying of us and sanctifying of us, and our glorifying and sanctifying of Him; God calls things that are not and makes them to be; but we can do no more, but call things that are, and that far below what they are. God's glorifying is creative, ours only declarative. He makes us such, we do no more but declare Him to be such. This then is the proper work that man is created for, to be a witness of God's glory, and to give testimony to the appearances and out-breakings of it, in the ways of power, and justice, and mercy, and truth. Other creatures are called to glorify God, but it is rather a proclamation to dull and senseless men, and a provocation of them to their duty. The creatures are the books wherein the lines of the song of God's praises are written, and man is made a creature capable to read them, and to tune that song. They are appointed to bring in bricks to our band, and God has fashioned us for this employment, to make such a building of it. We are the mouth of the creation, God will open the mouths of asses, of babes and sucklings, and in them perfect praises (Psalm 8:1, 2). Epictetus said well, "If I were a lark I would sing as a lark, but seeing I am a man what should I do but praise God without ceasing?" It is as proper to us to praise God as for a bird to chant. All beasts have their own sounds and voices peculiar to their own nature, this is the natural sound of a man. Now as you would think it monstrous to hear a melodious bird croaking as a raven, so it is no less monstrous and degenerate to hear the most part of the discourses of men savouring nothing of God. If we had known that innocent estate of man, oh, how would we think he had fallen from heaven! This, then, is what we are bound unto by the bond of our creation; this is our proper office and station God once set us into when He assigned every creature its own use and exercise. This was our portion (and oh, the noblest of all, because nearest the King s own person) to acknowledge in our hearts inwardly, and to express in our words and actions outwardly, what an one He is, according as He hath revealed Himself in His Word and works. Well, then, without more discourse upon it, without multiplying of it into particular branches, to glorify God is in our souls to conceive of Him, and meditate on His name, till they receive the impression and stamp of all the letters of His glorious name, and then to express this in our words and actions, in commending of Him, and obeying of Him. Our soul should be as wax to express the seal of His glorious attributes of justice, power, goodness, holiness, and mercy. And as the water that receives the beams of the sun reflects them back again, so should our spirits receive the sweet warming beams of His love and glorious excellency, and then reflect them towards His Majesty with the desires and affections of our souls. All our thoughts of Him, all our affections towards Him, should have the stamp of singularity such as may declare there is none like Him, none besides Him; our love, our meditation, our acknowledgment should have this character on their front, there is none besides Thee. Thou art, and none else. And then a soul should by the cords of affection to Him, and admiration of Him, be bound to serve Him. Then a soul will glorify God, when love so unites it to God, and makes it one spirit with Him, that His glory becomes its honour and becomes the principle of all our inward affections and outward actions. Now, when we are speaking of the great end and purpose of our creation we call to mind our lamentable and tragical fall from that blessed station we were constitute into. "All men have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). His being in the world was for that glory, and he is come short of that glory. O strange shortcoming! Short of all that he was ordained for! What is he now meet for? For what purpose is that chief of the works of God now? But behold! the goodness of the Lord and His kindness and love hath appeared towards man, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through Jesus Christ" (Titus 3:4, 5). Our Lord Jesus, by Whom all things were created, and for whom He would not let this excellent workmanship perish so, therefore He goes about the work of redemption. A second creation more laborious and also more glorious than the first, that so He might glorify His Father, and our Father. This is the end of His second creation as it was of the first; "We are His workmanship created to good works in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:10). We once came short of our end. God's glory and our happiness; but know that it is attainable again. We lost both, but both are found in Christ. Awake then and stir up your spirits else it shall be double condemnation, when we have the offer of being restored to our former blessed condition, to love our present misery better. You are sent into the world only for this business, to serve the Lord. Now what will many of you answer? If you speak the truth you must say, "Lord, I spent my time in serving my own lusts, I was taken up with other businesses and had no leisure, I was occupied in my calling," etc. Even as if an ambassador of a king should return him this account of his negotiation, I was busy at cards and dice, I spent my money, and did wear my clothes. Though you think your ploughing, and borrowing, and trafficing, and reaping very necessary, yet certainly these are but as trifles and toys to the main business. Oh, what a dreadful account will souls make! Know, my beloved, that you were not made for that purpose, nor yet redeemed either to serve yourselves or other creatures, but that other creatures might serve you, and ye serve God (Luke 1:74, 75). And this is really the best way to serve ourselves, and to save ourselves, to serve God. Self-seeking is self-destroying; self-denying is self-saving, soul-saving. Here is a compendious way to glorify God. Receive salvation of Him freely, righteousness and eternal life, and this sets a seal to God's truth, and grace, and mercy: and whoso counts the Son worthy to be a Saviour to them, and sets to their seal of approbation to Him whom God the Father hath sent and sealed, he also honours the Father, and then he that honoureth the Father hath it not for nothing, "for them that honour Me, I will honour" (1 Samuel 2:30), says the Lord; and "he that serves Me him will My Father honour" (John 12:26).

(Hugh Binning.)

It is difficult for us, accustomed to the use of the phrase, "the glory of God," to imagine the fresh interest and the new dignity with which this clear ringing sentence of the apostle must have invested even the humblest lives of those who first listened to it. To some, no doubt, such as the proselyte Titus Justus, or Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, who had found in the Church the true Israel of God, the real goal of Judaism, the idea of the Divine glory being the end of life was not strange. But to the Greek converts the contrast between their present life and a past, from which an interval of at most three years separated them, must have come home with an almost overpowering force. Now they were instinct, unless indeed they were losing it by self-will, with the power of a new life, for "they were washed, they were sanctified, they were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of their God." Now they were the glad possessors of a revelation from on high, such as gave them the key to understanding the world's history and their own. A little before, the skill and power and beauty of life, regarded as merely human, had thrilled them, but it was satisfaction on the surface with the present world which had been complete.

1. It is, I think, worth while, by strong and true efforts of the imagination to rescue the apostle's magnificent axiom from the insincere conventionality with which we too often drape it, as we strive to realise the power which must have marked the moment of its earliest enunciation. Are some of the younger among us perplexed, are some of the older tempted almost to despair, at the fact of our age being distinguished by efforts, not seldom both earnest and honest, to reconstruct morality, whose basis we had rightly believed to be Divine, on foundations purely of man's making? The explanation is not far to seek. History will tell you that when (as in the thirteenth century, or the sixteenth, or the eighteenth) there is a decay of personal religion in men's relationship to God, to self, to the world, a desire to have morality as our very own, apart from God, is sure to appear. We know what the Church of Corinth had become. And yet, in a centre of luxury and license, face to face with a Church which would have been pronounced by modern objectors to missions as "a total failure," or else as an imposture, the apostle loses neither nerve nor heart. Impurity, conceited folly, untempered feeling, unhallowed rivalry, spiritual decay, these shall all be things of the past; each pulsation of the pure moral enthusiasm of the regenerated life will throw the whole being of those Corinthians upon revealed truth; each new perception of revealed truth will increase the volume of the moral force of their entire being; and, therefore, "whether they eat or drink, or whatsoever they do, they will do all for the glory of God."

2. The principle then was set before men whom, despite whatsoever imperfections, St. Paul could discern an inextinguishable power, such as would enable them to make it the chief among the final aims of their lives. The power which we have striven to realise must not be forgotten, if we would understand the maxim. Apart from the power of which the apostle and the Corinthian converts alike were conceivers, the maxim might indeed have been impressive, but it would have awakened no response. Instead of being, as it has become, the possession of multitudes, it would, like the wonderful saying of , or Seneca, or M. Aurelius, have been nothing more than the word of a solitary thinker. But the Corinthians felt that it was not a mere sentiment.

3. And, certainly, the principle has been tested long enough to make us confident in adopting it as the end which shall determine conduct, especially as no other end has yet been found to be adequate, or other sanctions to be really influential.(1) To St. Paul, as to his Jewish converts, the principle, although now instinct with a vivifying spirit unknown in their earlier days, was not strange. The main instrument in St. Paul's mental education, even while he sat at the feet of the renowned teacher whom his contemporaries fondly named "The Beauty of the Law," had undoubtedly been the creed of Judaism, the fulness of which in its developed form became known to him when an apostle as it had never been known before. "The Lord our God is one Lord." You may have sometimes wondered how it was that a nation which, except at rare intervals, must have seemed to the empires around so paltry and so down-trodden as the Jewish nation, did nevertheless most clearly contain within itself a recuperative force. Where, you may have asked, can we find the secret of its vitality? You may find it, if you will, at every stage of its progress. It is revealed in the Divine charge to Abraham: "I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect." It prompts the large-hearted prayer of the great Lawgiver: "Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory." It is the explanation of Elijah's steadfast will; he lives in the consciousness of a Presence higher than any which eye can see: "As the Lord, the God of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand." Isaiah finds in it, as he faces Eastern speculations, the true interpretation of creation. The Divine voice, which "awakened morning by morning " his listening ear, speaks to him of "every one that is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory." In the manifestation of the God-like character Jeremiah traces a grandeur which no philosophy, no military splendour, no commercial enterprise can supply; "Let him," so ran the Divine message, "that glorifieth God, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord, which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord."(2) If you would begin, still better if you are continuing to live a "godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of God's holy name," put honestly and humbly, not shirking some inevitable shame, the life of the Son of God made Man side by side with your own. It is the fault of this restless, often superficial, age to be always adopting new plans, which too often end in a humiliating collapse. Let us be content for once with an old plan, which no one is yet known to have honestly tried and to have found a failure.(3) He has now, in His manhood, thus triumphed through sacrifice, been the one final end which His Body, the Church, representing her unseen Head amid the things of time and sense, has in her truest moods set before herself.(4) The experience of St. Stephen has been the experience of the Church just in proportion as her members "have been filled with faith and the Holy Ghost." If the glory of God has really been the one aim to which every other consideration, whether of ease, or of work, or of policy, or of success, has been honestly and consciously subordinated, then the Church has gained that vivid sense of the splendour and energy of the unseen and eternal, that profound conviction of the present fellowship of the interceding Lord, who in His majesty loves each one still, which is the secret of strength alike to the society and the individual. No one felt it more than St. Paul. "Why," he thinks, "were we received into the Church at all?" There is but one explanation of mercy so undeserved; not to promote our private happiness, but "Christ received us to the glory of God." "Unto Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever." What is the aim of the final consummation? "The Lord" will come "to be glorified in His saints." Nothing lower than the image of Christ in His glory imprinted on the hearts, not only of bishops and confessors, "whose praise is in all the churches," but of lowly and untutored multitudes of slaves, of little children, can possibly account either for the Church's growth or for those first triumphs of the Cross.

4. Certainly, this principle so tested, these powers so clearly recognised, cannot be explained on the supposition of having sprung from what is with some boldness described as "the sacred soil of the human heart." The dominant influence and aim were high indeed in Rome. Reverence for law and the paramount claims of the public interest are alike noble, but they are not conscious of relationship with God nor the sovereignty of His will. The Hellenic mind, at its best, delighted in beauty and in truth, but if these were occasionally identified in poetic imagery with the supreme good, it knew nothing of the will and love of an unseen Person. In the philosophy, if not in the practice of those vast Buddhist systems, which still number among their adherents perhaps four hundred and seventy millions of mankind, there is no doubt an energetic sympathy with many forms of goodness, but the end of human life, in which, indeed, there is held to be no abiding principle, has ever been the purely individual object of perfection of self. No, the spring of this "rushing river of consciousness of God," with all the quickening power enabling those who drink of it to glorify Him more, is not found in the human heart. It flows from beneath the throne of God and of the Lamb, but it meets as nothing else can do the cravings of our being.

5. Each heart here, and perhaps, the hearts of those who are the youngest and appear the lightest, most of all knows as none other can describe its own want, but it asks still to be assured of the blessedness of making the Divine glory its final aim. "The principle," it says, "is no doubt practical; it has well stood the test of time; it is unquestionably unique; but, will it give me what I feel to be so sore a need, will it give me honestly and truly the peace which passeth all understanding?" Note the path by which St. , baffled, tempted, driven by overwhelming passion almost into entire wreck, returned to God. See how his thirst for truth, as keen as that of the most ardent student in this University, was satisfied by the gift of the Divine revelation. See how the undisciplined will, which craved in all its licentiousness for salvation, became the possessor of true freedom by the action of the Divine Redeemer. In mental and moral helplessness, it was not merely or chiefly an example, however beautiful, for which Augustine craved. He needed a Saviour "full of grace and truth," who would enable him to attain the true end of his creation.(2) And yet, with all the experience of history, with all the lives of the saints, with the calm beauty and majestic order of the natural world, with the "gospel of the kingdom and all its marvellous power of appropriating and assimilating everything that is noble and salutary around it," it is as sad as it is strange to note how largely this which is pre-eminently the end of life is set aside and practically forgotten. Even, as we learn from his biography, it was in earlier life almost like a new revelation to one so pure and so true as the late Lord Chancellor Hatherley, who in after years could say, "Enough for me if I may sit in loving adoration of Him in the extremest confines of His courts," to learn that the "glory of God's holy name" is, after all, the object which must determine and sanction the life of devotion, of righteousness, and of self-discipline.

6. Is it not then the ease that a conscious sense of promoting the Divine glory is just, what is needed to reanimate and to control the energies of public worship? And we feel with David, that "the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God"; we begin to discern that public worship is not a matter of sentiment or taste, but of duty.

7. And if from childhood we had only been taught that there is an object in prayer far higher than the supply of our daily needs, there would never have been that stagnation in private devotion which, too often, explains a creeping paralysis of moral effort.

8. And many a home clouded with disappointment, embittered by ill-concealed jealousies, because there is no one common aim, disunited because, in forgetting the Divine will, its organising principle is gone, earthbound by thoughts only of what is material, and therefore temporary, would at once be lit up with new hope, if it were felt that the family too were not for man only, but for the Lord God.

9. Work, now and then, could not be unaffected. These riches of the Eternal Wisdom committed to our stewardship are, as Richard Hooker felt, for Him "to show beneficence and grace in them." "All things have been created through the Son of His love, and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." How splendid a motive, to throw by grace every energy of will, and heart, and mind into our appointed task. Such is the final end of life — an end which, if desired in early manhood, will at once consecrate and harmonise the discipline of self and the service of men. Already we are the sons of God, and a son must surely reflect in himself and on his brethren his Father's character.

(Preb. Worlledge, M.A.)

Do you want to have religion in daily life? See to it that it exists in your heart, that you love God with your whole soul, and you will not fail to render daily sacrifice acceptable to your Maker. There is a reason why religion is possible in daily life. It is that daily work brings out the Christian temper, shows the Christian character and develops it. Christianity is like a beautiful tree, with the branches of sturdy virtue growing on it, and healing leaves quiver on those branches, and occasionally it is covered with the blossoms of kindness and gentleness; and in the summer-time of the soul it is laden with the fruits of generosity and self-sacrifice. Where shall we plant that tree? To put it in some close courtyard, where neither scorching sun nor biting wind can reach it, would be to make it languish and die. No! out in the open, among other plants and trees, where broad sunshine is felt and winds are blowing — there it must be reared if it is to be healthy. There are things to be resisted in daily life which show how necessary every-day religion is. Every man takes a lower self with him which stands like a demon at his elbow. You hear its cynical laugh and its hissing whisper, "Take care of number one." That lower self has to be resisted by young people at home, by older people in shopping, by business men in dealing with other business men. There is injustice standing with a stiletto before us with threatening mien; a coward at heart but a bully in manners. Resist him. There is impurity sliding stealthily along the pavement. Resist him. Intemperance destroys with its poison tens of thousands. Oh! in the name of all that is noble and powerful in God's truth, resist him. It is said that we do not lay enough stress on the doctrines of Christianity in thus teaching, as we so often do, the necessity of a practical religion. But I think we shall see that the two cannot be divorced from one another. You cannot have religion in daily life unless you have Christ in daily life. To have Him is to have His teaching, and the truths which explain His mission and character. Take some of the principal ones, and we shall see how they illustrate and enforce our subject.

1. The incarnation. This teaches us that God was in the flesh, that the very God came to our common duties. What could be more inspiring than the knowledge of this fact? Why, it at once brings God down to be our Guide and Helper. Our common life is no longer common when we find ourselves side by side with the very God who undertakes our work for us and with us.

2. The Atonement is a cardinal doctrine. How can we understand and apply it? Apply it to daily sins, to common guilt; to the transgressions which we ourselves have committed. It is an awful struggle, this fight against sin. It was said that Constantine saw a flaming cross in the sky on the night before his battle with Maxentius, and that thenceforth he gave his soldiers the sign of the cross on their shields. This is a parable of what we must do. By the blood of Christ we conquer. In the power of the Cross we can go forward.

3. There is the doctrine of inspiration. We see a book before us which professes to tell us how to live, how to work, how to believe, how to die, how to enter eternal felicity. We might discuss that statement and define it, and refine upon it for years, and get no nearer any valuable truth. But if once we turn to the Book, and seek to guide daily life by its precepts, all becomes clear. We get inspiration in actual experience, and our souls are lifted near to God.

4. Nay, the very Godhead is best understood in the light of every-day life. How can we ever penetrate the great mystery of the Trinity? Yes, it is there that we understand who God is and what He may be to us. Every breath tells of His power, every blessing witnesses of His kindness, every incident points to His Providence, and death itself is the door that admits to His presence chamber. Oh! how glad and solemn, how beautiful and responsible your life may be; redeemed from triviality and sin, you are now a child of God by faith in His Son, an heir of immortality and marching forward to glory! Remember, then, whose you are, and whom you serve.

(S. Pearson, M.A.)

1. Worth considering, indeed, is this command; for though it has been in the Bible for eighteen hundred years, it is seldom read, seldomer understood, and still more seldom put into practice. This is the especial curse of our day, that religion does not mean, as it used, the being like God and showing forth God's glory; but the art of saving our own miserable souls from hell, and getting God's wages without doing God's work, as if that was anything but selfishness. And therefore it is that people have forgotten what God's glory is.

2. It is a wonder, indeed, that we are saved from hell, much more raised to heaven; and yet the more we think of it the less wonder we shall find it. God has done for sinful men only just what was to be expected from such unutterable generosity as His is. And recollecting this, we shall begin to forget self and look at God; and in thinking of Him we shall get to worshipping Him.

3. This is what we must try at — to find out what God is: and has He not shown us what He is? He who knows Christ knows God; and that knowledge will help us to show forth God's glory. He is His own glory. As you say of any very excellent man, you have but to know him to honour him; or of any very beautiful woman, you have but to see her to love her; so men have but to see and know God to love and honour Him.

4. When we delight to honour our Father we shall try to make every one honour Him. Now nothing is so infectious as example. If you wish your neighbours to see what Jesus Christ is like, let them see what He can make you like. One man who does not put his religion on with his Sunday coat, but wears it for his working dress, and lets the thought of God grow into and through him till everything he says and does becomes religious, that man is worth a thousand sermons — he is a living gospel, he is the image of God.

5. Would not such a life be a heavenly life? We should then be sitting in heavenly places with Jesus Christ, and having our conversation in heaven. We are in heaven now — if we had but faith to see it. Get rid of those carnal, heathen notions about heaven, which tempt men to fancy that after having misused this place for a whole life, they are to fly away when they die, like swallows in autumn, to some place where they are to be very happy. Heaven is not a mere place. All places are heaven if you will be heavenly in them. Heaven is where God is and Christ is; and hell is where God is not and Christ is not.

(C. Kingsley, M.A.)

1. St. John, as Cassian relates, amusing himself one day with a tame partridge, was asked by a huntsman, how such a man as he could spend his time in so unprofitable a manner. To whom St. John replied, "Why dost thou not carry thy bow always bent?" "Because," answered the huntsman, " if it were always bent I fear it would lose its spring and become useless." "Be not surprised then," replied the apostle, "that I should sometimes remit a little of my close attention of spirit to enjoy a little recreation, that I may afterwards employ myself more fervently in Divine contemplation." In the broad sense of the term, recreation must form an integral part of human life, which is made up of graver and lighter passages. Man's mind is so constituted that it cannot be always on the strain; so it seeks and finds a safety-valve in the lighter passages of life, through which its natural elasticity vents itself. Therefore if recreation is a constituent part of life, recreation must be capable of being sanctified.

2. Recreation is for the mind what sleep is for the body. No man's body could long endure the stress and burden of daily life without sleep. And no man's mind could long endure any mental pressure without recreation. It is wonderful what the body gains in sleep, and it is no less wonderful how much the mind may gain in recreation. That recreation is abused is no argument whatever against its possible utility. Sleep itself is not beneficial but mischievous if it be not well regulated. Consider —

I. THE PRINCIPLE BY WHICH ALONE ANY RECREATION CAN BE SANCTIFIED. Like work, it must be engaged in with a view to God's glory. Eating and drinking, the taking of nourishment, is a species of recreation. To take nourishment is to refresh the body, even as to take recreation is to refresh the mind. If then the taking of nourishment may be made conducive to Gods glory, and brought within the scope of His service, so also, without doubt, may the taking of recreation.

II. AS TO THE DIFFERENT FORMS OF RECREATION, the following suggestions may be offered.

1. Care must be taken that there may be nothing in them contrary to the will and Word of God.

2. It does not follow that because it is abstractedly innocent, it is therefore allowable. There are many amusements which to the pure are pure, but which with persons whose imaginations have been fouled by evil, throw serious temptations in their way. Let no man or woman for the sake of a paltry amusement venture within arm's length of a temptation. To do so were to turn into a mockery the petition — "Lead us not into temptation." If the circumstantials of any amusement are such as effectually to preclude secret prayer, the realisation of God's presence, etc., to us such amusement is forbidden, though Scripture may be silent upon it. Yet it is quite possible that our neighbour, whose mind is possessed of more recollectedness and self-control than ours, may partake of it innocently.

3. The more amusing amusements are the better, busy lives have not time for many; let such as are taken, then, be thoroughly refreshing. Yet what a perfect burden are many forms of so-called amusement! The ordinary recreation of ordinary persons very much resolves itself into conversation with friends or casual acquaintance. Yet how miserably stale, flat, and unprofitable much of it is! How often is foreign travel, one of the best and most intelligent forms of recreation, turned from a pleasure into a burden by the silly, scrambling way in which it is embarked upon!

4. Although anything like severe application would interfere with the end of recreation, it is very much to be wished that a good education embraced some knowledge of those lighter subjects of study, which, as they turn upon Nature, can be taken up and pursued wherever Nature is found. Nature is God's pure work, unsullied by sin; and therefore the study of it is a pure delight to those who love Him.

5. All excess in recreations must be avoided. They are not, and must not be, regarded as the earnest business of life.

6. Our longer periods of leisure should always be made to pay to God the tax of additional devotion.

(Dean Goulburn.)

I was talking the other day to a friend of mine whom I had known some years before as an easy-going youth, just drifting with the hour, a present pleasure shaping his life. I found him an earnest and devoted Christian, a leader in the work of God's word. I was anxious to know what had led to the change, and soon I had the chance of a quiet talk with him. "How did this all come about?" I asked. He told me that one week-day afternoon he was passing some place of worship, and seeing the people going in he strolled in with the rest. He sat and listened to an earnest appeal from the speaker, and began to think more seriously than he ever had done about his life and what he should do with it. "Here am I just beginning life," he said to himself, "what is really the best thing I can do with it? I can go in for money, and perhaps make it; but I shall have to leave it behind, and I must die a pauper however much I make. I can go in for pleasure and get it for awhile perhaps, but that can't last for ever; or I might give myself right up to God, and live with all my heart to serve and please Him. That will last longest and be best for now and ever." So he started then and there; and since that day he had tried to make that the purpose of his life.

(M. Guy Pearse.)

Corinthians, Israelites, PaulCorinthAnything, Drink, Drinking, Eat, Eating, Glory, God's, Question, Whatever, Whatsoever, Whether1. The sacraments of the Jews are types of ours;
7. and their punishments,
11. examples for us.
13. We must flee from idolatry.
21. We must not make the Lord's table the table of demons;
24. and in all things we must have regard for our brothers.

1 Corinthians 10:31

     5386   leisure, nature of
     5629   work, ordained by God
     5635   work, and redemption
     5636   work, and rest
     5909   motives, importance
     8223   dedication
     8409   decision-making, and providence
     8437   giving, of talents
     8440   glorifying God

1 Corinthians 10:15-31

     5773   abstinence, discipline

1 Corinthians 10:23-31

     5010   conscience, matters of

1 Corinthians 10:30-31

     5856   extravagance

Ninth Sunday after Trinity Carnal Security and Its vices.
Text: 1 Corinthians 10, 6-13. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9 Neither let us make trial of the Lord, as some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents. 10 Neither murmur ye, as …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

December the Twelfth Relating Everything to God
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God." --1 CORINTHIANS x. 23-33. And so all my days would constitute a vast temple, and life would be a constant worship. This is surely the science and art of holy living--to relate everything to the Infinite. When I take my common meal and relate it to "the glory of God," the common meal becomes a sacramental feast. When my labour is joined "unto the Lord," the sacred wedding turns my workshop into a church. When I …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Mental Prayer.
"Pray without ceasing."--1 Thess. v. 17. There are two modes of praying mentioned in Scripture; the one is prayer at set times and places, and in set forms; the other is what the text speaks of,--continual or habitual prayer. The former of these is what is commonly called prayer, whether it be public or private. The other kind of praying may also be called holding communion with God, or living in God's sight, and this may be done all through the day, wherever we are, and is commanded us as the …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

Doing Glory to God in Pursuits of the World.
"Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."--1 Cor. x. 31. When persons are convinced that life is short, that it is unequal to any great purpose, that it does not display adequately, or bring to perfection the true Christian, when they feel that the next life is all in all, and that eternity is the only subject that really can claim or can fill their thoughts, then they are apt to undervalue this life altogether, and to forget its real importance. …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

The Limits of Liberty
'All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. 24. Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth. 25. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake. 26. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. 27. If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed togo, whatsoever is set before you eat, asking no question for conscience sake. 28. But if any man …
Alexander Maclaren—Romans, Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V)

Men Often Highly Esteem what God Abhors.
Ye we they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts for that which is highly esteemed among men, is abomination in the sight of God." -Luke xvi. 15. CHRIST had just spoken the parable of the unjust steward, in which He presented the case of one who unjustly used the property of others entrusted to him, for the purpose of laying them under. obligation to provide for himself after expulsion from His trust. Our Lord represents this conduct of the steward as being wise in the …
Charles G. Finney—Sermons on Gospel Themes

God's Glory the Chief End of Man's Being
Rom. xi. 36.--"Of him and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever." And 1 Cor. x. 31--"Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." All that men have to know, may be comprised under these two heads,--What their end is, and What is the right way to attain to that end? And all that we have to do, is by any means to seek to compass that end. These are the two cardinal points of a man's knowledge and exercise. Quo et qua eundum est,--Whither to go, and what way to go. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Communion with Christ and his People.
AN ADDRESS AT A COMMUNION SERVICE AT MENTONE. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread."--1 Cor. x. 16, 17. COMMUNION WITH CHRIST AND HIS PEOPLE. I WILL read you the text as it is given in the Revised Version: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ?" …
Charles Hadden Spurgeon—Till He Come

The Rock of Ages
(Ninth Sunday after Trinity.) 1 Corinthians x. 4. They drank of that Spiritual Rock which followed them; and that Rock was Christ. St. Paul has been speaking to the Corinthians about the Holy Communion. In this text, St. Paul is warning the Corinthians about it. He says, 'You may be Christian men; you may have the means of grace; you may come to the Communion and use the means of grace; and yet you may become castaways.' St. Paul himself says, in the very verse before, 'I keep under my body, and …
Charles Kingsley—Town and Country Sermons

Heaven on Earth
1 COR. x. 31. "Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." This is a command from God, my friends, which well worth a few minutes' consideration this day;--well worth considering, because, though it was spoken eighteen hundred years ago, yet God has not changed since that time;--He is just as glorious as ever; and Christian men's relation to God has not changed since that time; they still live, and move, and have their being in God; they are still His children--His …
Charles Kingsley—Twenty-Five Village Sermons

Touching Jacob, However, that which He did at his Mother's Bidding...
24. Touching Jacob, however, that which he did at his mother's bidding, so as to seem to deceive his father, if with diligence and in faith it be attended to, is no lie, but a mystery. The which if we shall call lies, all parables also, and figures designed for the signifying of any things soever, which are not to be taken according to their proper meaning, but in them is one thing to be understood from another, shall be said to be lies: which be far from us altogether. For he who thinks this, may …
St. Augustine—Against Lying

But, as I had Begun to Say, Whether the Fruit an Hundred-Fold be virginity...
47. But, as I had begun to say, whether the fruit an hundred-fold be virginity dedicated to God, or whether we are to understand that interval of fruitfulness in some other way, either such as we have made mention of, or such as we have not made mention of; yet no one, as I suppose, will have dared to prefer virginity to martyrdom, and no one will have doubted that this latter gift is hidden, if trial to test it be wanting. A virgin, therefore, hath a subject for thought, such as may be of profit …
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

Here Peradventure Some Man May Say, "If it was Bodily Work that the Apostle...
14. Here peradventure some man may say, "If it was bodily work that the Apostle wrought, whereby to sustain this life, what was that same work, and when did he find time for it, both to work and to preach the Gospel?" To whom I answer: Suppose I do not know; nevertheless that he did bodily work, and thereby lived in the flesh, and did not use the power which the Lord had given to the Apostles, that preaching the Gospel he should live by the Gospel, those things above-said do without all doubt bear …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

Nor, Because I Called Ruth Blessed, Anna More Blessed...
10. Nor, because I called Ruth blessed, Anna more blessed, in that the former married twice, the latter, being soon widowed of her one husband, so lived long, do you straightway also think that you are better than Ruth. Forsooth different in the times of the Prophets was the dispensation of holy females, whom obedience, not lust, forced to marry, for the propagation of the people of God, [2242] that in them Prophets of Christ might be sent beforehand; whereas the People itself also, by those things …
St. Augustine—On the Good of Widowhood.

Perseverance of Saints.
FURTHER OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 4. A fourth objection to this doctrine is, that if, by the perseverance of the saints is intended, that they live anything like lives of habitual obedience to God, then facts are against it. To this objection I reply: that by the perseverance of the saints, as I use these terms, is intended that, subsequently to their regeneration, holiness is the rule of their lives, and sin only the exception. But it is said, that facts contradict this. (1.) The case of king Saul is …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

The Saint Resumes the History of Her Life. Aiming at Perfection. Means Whereby it May be Gained. Instructions for Confessors.
1. I shall now return to that point in my life where I broke off, [1] having made, I believe, a longer digression than I need have made, in order that what is still to come may be more clearly understood. Henceforth, it is another and a new book,--I mean, another and a new life. Hitherto, my life was my own; my life, since I began to explain these methods of prayer, is the life which God lived in me,--so it seems to me; for I feel it to be impossible that I should have escaped in so short a time …
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

Of Resisting Temptation
So long as we live in the world, we cannot be without trouble and trial. Wherefore it is written in Job, The life of man upon the earth is a trial.(1) And therefore ought each of us to give heed concerning trials and temptations, and watch unto prayer, lest the devil find occasion to deceive; for he never sleepeth, but goeth about seeking whom he may devour. No man is so perfect in holiness that he hath never temptations, nor can we ever be wholly free from them. 2. Yet, notwithstanding, temptations …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Man's Chief End
Q-I: WHAT IS THE CHIEF END OF MAN? A: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. Here are two ends of life specified. 1: The glorifying of God. 2: The enjoying of God. I. The glorifying of God, I Pet 4:4: That God in all things may be glorified.' The glory of God is a silver thread which must run through all our actions. I Cor 10:01. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial; …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

But one Sometimes Comes to a Case of this Kind...
24. But one sometimes comes to a case of this kind, that we are not interrogated where the person is who is sought, nor forced to betray him, if he is hidden in such manner, that he cannot easily be found unless betrayed: but we are asked, whether he be in such a place or not. If we know him to be there, by holding our peace we betray him, or even by saying that we will in no wise tell whether he be there or not: for from this the questioner gathers that he is there, as, if he were not, nothing else …
St. Augustine—On Lying

Indeed in all Spiritual Delights, which Unmarried Women Enjoy...
27. Indeed in all spiritual delights, which unmarried women enjoy, their holy conversation ought also to be with caution; lest haply, though their life be not evil through haughtiness, their report be evil through negligence. Nor are they to be listened to, whether they be holy men or women, when (upon occasion of their neglect in some matter being blamed, through which it comes to pass that they fall into evil suspicion, from which they know that their life is far removed) they say that it is enough …
St. Augustine—On the Good of Widowhood.

For that Both History of the Old Testament...
8. For that both history of the Old Testament, and ætiology, and analogy are found in the New Testament, has been, as I think, sufficiently proved: it remains to show this of allegory. Our Redeemer Himself in the Gospel uses allegory out of the Old Testament. "This generation," saith He, "seeketh a sign, and there shall not be given it save the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so also shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights …
St. Augustine—On the Profit of Believing.

W. T. Vn to the Christen Reader.
As [the] envious Philistenes stopped [the] welles of Abraham and filled them vpp with erth/ to put [the] memoriall out of minde/ to [the] entent [that] they might chalenge [the] grounde: even so the fleshly minded ypocrites stoppe vpp the vaynes of life which are in [the] scripture/ [with] the erth of theyr tradicions/ false similitudes & lienge allegories: & [that] of like zele/ to make [the] scripture theyr awne possession & marchaundice: and so shutt vpp the kingdome of heven which is Gods worde …
William Tyndale—The prophete Ionas with an introduccion

The Lord's Supper
And as they did eat, Jesus took bread,' &c. Mark 14: 22. Having spoken to the sacrament of baptism, I come now to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is the most spiritual and sweetest ordinance that ever was instituted. Here we have to do more immediately with the person of Christ. In prayer, we draw nigh to God; in the sacrament, we become one with him. In prayer, we look up to Christ; in the sacrament, by faith, we touch him. In the word preached, we hear Christ's voice; in the …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

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