Sincerity

Let us, above all things, study to be sincere in religion. What will hypocrisy avail? Can our artifice impose upon Cod? Are we able to conceal from him, under a mask of piety and goodness, the real features of our character? Do not “his eye see, and his eye-lids try, the children of men?” “There is not any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” In vain did Ananias and Sapphira secretly concert their plan, and assume 84the confidence of conscious integrity to quash any suspicion of their baseness. A good name, the esteem and friendly offices of Christians, and even worldly advantages, may be the recompense of dissimulation in this world; but what awaits in the next? “What is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?” One faint spark of genuine religion is more acceptable to God than the ardent flames with which he offers up his devotions. Let it then be your constant and earnest prayer, that through grace you may be what you profess. “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee.” The time will come, when, stript of every disguise, men shall appear in their real character; and, the false-hearted shall be exposed to the scorn of those, whose admiration they are now so eager to obtain. But then undissembled goodness shall be brought to light. Often concealed by modesty, by indigence, by reproach, and by obscurity of station, it shall be displayed at the tribunal of God, to the praise of his grace which inspired it, and to the honour of the possessor. “Thy Father, O Christian, who seeth thee in secret, will reward thee openly.”