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Lord God Almighty, should lead us to humble ourselves at His footstool, confessing our sinfulness in His presence, and imploring His pardoning mercy and grace through Christ our Redeemer. For if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; because we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins, and whose blood cleanseth us from all sin.8 It is thus only that we can meet with acceptance in the presence of Him who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity.

The holiness of God is not revealed in order to fill us with terror or dread; but to lead us to seek for acceptance with Him, and conformity to Him. His holiness denotes, however, not only His infinite purity, but what must be intimately connected with it, His goodness, righteousness, and truth, or His being infinitely good and gracious; and also that a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is He.10 One who is infinitely good and upright, must be diametrically opposed to every thing that is sinful. Evil cannot dwell with Him. He delights in nothing but goodness. The Psalmist makes mention of the holiness of God as a reason for continuing to seek His help in the time of distress. O my God, I

8 1 John i. 9, 7; ii. 1, 2.

9 Hab. i. 13.

10 Deut. xxxii. 4.

cry in the day time, but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, I am not silent. But Thou art holy, O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in Thee; they trusted and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee, and were delivered; they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded." Here it appears that the holiness of God was the ground of His confidence, that it would not be a vain thing for him to continue instant in prayer, notwithstanding there appeared to be a delay on the part of God to give him help from trouble. He who only is holy, is also alone good. There is none good but one, that is, God.12 And as holiness and goodness are His characteristics, if we would be like Him, we must delight in them also. The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.13 These He enables His children to bring forth in their life and conduct, to His glory and praise.

The consideration of the infinite holiness of God should produce the same effect upon us as the proclamation of it does in His more immediate presence. With our whole hearts we should worship and adore Him in the deepest self-abasement, who alone is worthy to receive eternal blessing and honour and glory and power.1 It was His infinite holiness which led the Father of heaven to provide for the redemption of fallen

11 Psalm xxii. 2-5. 12 Matt.xix. 17. 13 Eph. v.9. 14 Rev. v. 13.

man; since without satisfaction being made to His justice, no transgressor of His law could possibly be admitted into His blissful and glorious presence. He therefore provided the means whereby mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace embraced each other;15 whereby God could be just, and the Justifier of the ungodly, 16 through faith in the redemption of His beloved Son; and the unrighteous and unholy might be washed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." Let us contemplate this Divine attribute with gratitude and praise, while we seek earnestly to be numbered among those of whom it is said, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, but imputeth righteousness without works, or independently of his own merits or deservings; and in whose spirit there is no guile.15 May we, as those who are reconciled to God by the death of His Son, live and walk day by day in this world as in His presence, as seeing Him who is invisible, and hereafter be admitted to see Him as He is, and be made like Him in His eternal kingdom and glory. The text makes mention,

Secondly, Of the almighty power of this most holy One; while the proclamation is made,

15 Ps. lxxxv.10; xxxii. 1,2. 16Rom. iii. 26; iv. 5; v.10. 171 Cor.vi.11.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Here we see that almighty power is ascribed in heaven to the Triune Jehovah, as well as infinite holiness. He is the Lord God Almighty. His almighty power is peculiarly displayed in the works of creation. Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are, and were created. As His eternal power and Godhead are manifested by the things that are made, which are all the works of His hands, they who do not glorify God their Creator, are without excuse.18 So the apostle Paul argues. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handy work ;19 but how few of the sinful children of men are led "from nature up to nature's God!" How few, in consequence of the wonders of creation with which they are surrounded, look beyond things visible and temporal, to Him of whose glory the whole earth is full. We find the Psalmist saying, When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that Thou visitest him.19 The workmanship Divine, which he beheld all around him, filled him with a sense of his own nothingness, and with gratitude for the goodness of God to His creatures. Such ought to be the effect produced upon our minds

18 Romans i. 20.

19 Psalm xix. 1; viii. 3, 4.

whenever we contemplate the works of creation. They should lead us, on the one hand, to the most exalted ideas of the Divine power and glory; and on the other, to the utmost selfabasement before Him on account of our own insignificance and unworthiness, and the most fervent gratitude for His goodness to us, His undeserving creatures. But it is important to observe, that as He who is infinitely holy hateth all sin, His almighty power is engaged to punish the transgressors of His holy law; and as He loveth righteousness, He is engaged to protect them that trust in Him from the power of all His and their enemies; and therefore no weapon that is formed against them shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against them in judgment, shall be condemned.20 It may therefore be said, Happy is that people that is in such a case; yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord.21

Thirdly, Eternity is also ascribed to the Lord God Almighty in the text. He was, and is, and is to come. This is an explanation of the word Jehovah; and it shows that there never was a time or period in which He did not exist. He was before all things. He brought the universe into existence. He was from everlasting. How is the mind of man lost in the contemplation of a Being who was without beginning. He is the

20 Isaiah liv. 17.

21 Psalm cxliv. 15.

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