We suppose all Christians will agree that God is a Spirit eternal and
infinite, unchangeable and unaccountable, omnipotent, omnipresent, and
omniscient, most wise, most true, most holy, and most good, without
beginning or without end. Such from eternity were his qualities, and
such to eternity they will remain.
In contemplation of these characteristics of Jehovah, we are led to
deduce that God must originally and essentially within himself be
eternally happy. “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my
pleasure.” _Isa._ xlvi. 10. If it is proper to say that God has desires,
then it must be his desire that his “counsel shall stand,” because it is
inconsistent with happiness to be unable to gratify desire or fail in
counsel; besides, it would prove some deficiency of power. Before God
created some other being or thing, he existed alone. Can it be said he
had wants? For what purpose then did he create other things? What object
had he in view? The object must have been worthy of calling forth his
action. What other object could have been worthy of his action than
himself? Because his work must in all its parts reflect his power, his
every quality, we must therefore conclude God is the sole and ultimate
end of every thing he does. If all the labours of Deity were not solely
for himself, then of the greatness and rectitude of many of his
providences and acts, perhaps none could ever be comprehended or even
perceived by mortals. For God legislates not merely for a city, a tribe
or nation, but for the universe: not for an hour, a day or a thousand
years, but for eternity. “I know that whatsoever God doeth it shall be
for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it; and God
doeth it, that men shall fear before him.” _Eccl._ iii. 14.
If God himself is the ultimate end of all things, then that moral
philosopher, a poor, ignorant man, a worm of but momentary existence,
mistakes, who teaches in substance that true religion, that is, worship
of God, consists in an advantageous, successful, and well-directed
selfishness in favour of himself; for, upon that principle the vilest
enemy may take shelter under the cloak of his adversary,—but will he be
the more worthy? If God is the supreme object of creation, then this
righteous selfishness must be in extreme opposition to God. There are
important deductions emanating from these reflections, which we are
unwilling to deprive others the pleasure of drawing out for themselves.
The use God makes of his creations proves the end for which he made
them. We might rest here; but we have heard some say that God’s object
in creation was the happiness of all his sentient creatures. If so, then
they all would be happy; which is not the fact. Human misery is the
first object we behold everywhere. True, man can never have a very
competent idea of God. His powers of thought are too low; his
associations too trivial. But if the object God had in creation was the
development of his own glory, then there can be no greater conformity
unto God than there is knowledge of his character. Hence, where we see,
hear, and learn the most of God, we become the most pure and holy.
Holiness depends on a knowledge of God. The reason is obvious: a holy
man is a more perfect exhibition of the Divine character. If so, then
the happiness of man depends upon his perception of God. Therefore man
can never be happy only in proportion as he is holy. But if the glory of
God is the ultimate end of creation, and if the happiness of his
rational creatures depends upon their perception of him, then the
ultimate end secures in the highest possible degree their happiness.
The great cause of human misery will be found to proceed from the
unquenchable desire in the unregenerate man to rebel against God—to set
up a government of his own, more wise than he conceives the government
of God to be; in fact, he does not perceive his government, for he has
no perception of him.
We might deduce an argument in proof that a perception of God is
happiness to man, from the formation of his mental powers. To whom does
it not give deep distress to behold what we call talent and virtue hid
in obscurity and bowed down beneath oppression and want? To whom does it
not give great delight to perceive a lucid manifestation of these
qualities? The great object in the individual creation of man is his
improvement; his advance towards an approximation of being able to see
God as he is. The business of angels and saints in heaven is to
intensely seek after a more full knowledge of God.
If the happiness of man is thus dependent upon his perception of the
greatness and power of God, then we may conclude that a continued
manifestation of it is essential to him in producing before his mind an
increasing brilliancy of view of the great Jehovah.
The order and gradation in the power bestowed on the different objects
his hand has made, displaying his foresight in the work of creation,
from the seraph down to the veriest mite, would seem an arrangement that
might furnish the mind of man or an angel with never-ending study, with
a never-ending employment to find out God.
If the wide and permanent diversity of character and condition in the
present world, and in that which is to come,—if the relations we find
between man and man,—if the great sacrifice for sin and the redemption
wrought therefrom,—if the eternal wrath of Jehovah against the
incorrigible sinner, all in combination manifest the greatest display of
the power and perfections of God;—in short, if the providences of God
collectively, as we see them manifested in the world, are the true
developments of his character, then it will follow that they all, in
combination, terminate in the greatest good, and, in their external
consequences, subserve to the greatest extent of happiness to which the
human mind, in the pursuit of its only legitimate employment, is now or
ever will be susceptible.
The first deduction is that sin must always be accompanied with misery,
but that holiness is as surely accompanied with happiness, no matter
what may be the physical condition. It may not be improper here to
advert to one of the characteristics of our intellectual constitution,
which is this: whatever is presented to the mind calling on its energy
and our physical action can never be approached by us with any tolerable
degree of perfectedness unless by constant and long-continued
repetitions; whence we say, “practice makes perfect.” Whereas, whatever
is presented wherein we are wholly passive, repetition and familiarity
are in constant action to diminish, weaken, and wash out the impressions
first made. Examples in proof of the first position are found in the
necessary and long-continued exertions before we become adepts in the
arts and practices of civilized life. In the African savage, often, many
generations of constant exertion in the same direction are required
before that race is found to have attained such a state of
perfectibility in these things as is required to sustain a position in
civilized life; and it is to this they owe their state of pupilage among
the civilized races.
Examples of the second position are found in the ready and quick
adaptation of ourselves to the condition in which we are placed: even
our senses, from constant repetition and familiarity, often cease to
loathe that which was obnoxious. The mind to which the starry firmament
is first unfolded will be filled with astonishment and wonder; but the
familiarity of a constant gaze does not even excite an emotion.
This characteristic of the human intellect gives strong proof of the
power and wisdom of God. For through its means, all in civilized and
Christian life and practice, from the king upon the throne down to the
slave, are rendered equally happy and contented with their condition.
Therefore he is not a correct philosopher who measures the happiness of
a lower grade in life by his own feelings.
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