Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/222

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218
a sacred nearness
[ser. xi.

man is unholy; he is conceived and born in sin. Sinful thoughts, desires, affections and tempers, he freely indulges in, while sinful practices and pursuits are engaged in by him with delight. God is just; but man is unjust. He is unjust to himself, as he fails to bestow the attention that is due to the paramount interests of his spiritual nature. This being the case, he cannot be otherwise than unconcerned about the spiritual and eternal concerns of his fellow-creatures. He is unjust towards God, in withholding that reverential fear and devout service to which he has an indisputable claim. God is good. His goodness, like the bright sun in the heavens, shines along the pathway of every child of Adam that comes into the world. In all his works and ways, he evidently has a kind regard to the happiness of the creatures he has made. But unrenewed man is so far from bearing the moral likeness of his Maker in this respect, that, on the