To ascertain this, we must refer to the object around which our
thoughts ought continually to circulate. The Scriptures assert that
this object is _the glory of God_; that for this we ought to think,
to act, and to speak; and that in thus thinking, acting, and
speaking, there is involved the purest and most endearing bliss. Now
it will be found true of the most amiable men, that with all their
good society and kindliness of heart, and all their strict and
unbending integrity, they never or rarely think of the glory of God.
The question never occurs to them--Will this redound to the glory of
God? Will this make his name more known, his being more loved, his
praise more sung? And just inasmuch as their every thought comes
short of this lofty aim, in so much does it come short of good, and
entitle itself to the character of evil. If the glory of God is not
the absorbing and the influential aim of their thoughts, then they
are evil; but God's glory never enters into their minds. They are
amiable, because it chances to be one of the constitutional
tendencies of their individual character, left uneffaced by the Fall;
and _they an just and upright_, _because they have perhaps no
occasion to be otherwise_, _or find it subservient to their interests
to maintain such a character_."--"Occ. Disc." vol. i. p. 8.

Again we read (Ibid. p. 236):

"There are traits in the Christian character which the mere worldly
man cannot understand. He can understand the outward morality, but
he cannot understand the inner spring of it; he can understand
Dorcas' liberality to the poor, but he cannot penetrate the ground of
Dorcas' liberality. _Some men give to the poor because they are
ostentatious_, _or because they think the poor will ultimately avenge
their __neglect_; _but the Christian gives to the poor_, _not only
because he has sensibilities like other men_, but because inasmuch as
ye did it to the least of these my brethren ye did it unto me."

Before entering on the more general question involved in these
quotations, we must point to the clauses we have marked with italics,
where Dr. Cumming appears to express sentiments which, we are happy to
think, are not shared by the majority of his brethren in the faith. Dr.
Cumming, it seems, is unable to conceive that the natural man can have
any other motive for being just