in this very manner.

I. The term "_good_," it must be said in the first place, is very
different, both in the language of the bible and in the estimation of
the truly wise, from what it usually represents in the language and
opinion of the world. The bible teaches us to view all things in their
consequences, and in their real and essential nature. View things in
their consequences, in their final end and issue, if you would view
them at all justly or wisely. Ease, and health, and worldly wealth,
and success may be good, just as the plentiful feast is good, provided
a man has temperance and soundness of constitution properly to partake
of it; but, if he is likely to indulge to a surfeit, or if every
morsel is food to some mortal disorder, and every cup adds strength to
a fever that is raging in his veins, no one in reason would call such
an entertainment good to such a man. And just so with the good things
of this present life: the Christian does not unreasonably deny that
prosperity is pleasing, health desirable, friends and relations deeply
attaching to us, and the smiles of social endearment or public favour
greatly captivating; but neither does he, like the world, consider
them to be necessarily all they seem to be, good to all persons, and
under all circumstances; he does not forget that earthly and bodily
good is just what it becomes in the use of it; that many times the use
can hardly be separated from the abuse; that lawful things, when
unlawfully or idolatrously used, are just as evil as unlawful
ones--nay, rather, that for a few comparatively who have perished from
a hardened course of forbidden pleasure, multitudes have been for ever
lost by allowed indulgences. Till he sees, then, the application made,
and the resulting consequences of any worldly boon, he does not call
the possessor happy, nor the possession good, nor very eagerly or
supremely does he desire it either for himself or others.

But, again, the things _really and essentially good_ in their very
nature and inseparable qualities are those which, in the estimation of
the mere world, are held in no account whatsoever. What the bible
chiefly esteems, and the world wholly neglects, are spiritual
blessings,--the good things of the soul of man, "the precious things
of heaven, even of the everlasting hills." Those precious things, the
goodwill of him who is the great I AM--the peace of God which passeth
all understanding--the luxury of promoting the g