We and all the world around us are of God; not part of him, nor born of him according to nature, nor proceeding from his substance, but still of him in that we owe our being entirely to him, who drew us from nothing by his almighty power. Nothing could ever have existed outside of God himself except through the wonderful, incomprehensible act of creation. From nothing, nothing of itself could come; all things are from and of God, who created them from nothing. By his almighty power, then, we have been created, and by it now we are sustained. We could not live for a moment except by his continual support. It is only by his aid that we can draw a single breath, walk a single step, or perform the simplest act. The winds and the waters, and all the powers of nature, as we call them, are his powers, too, which he lends to us, and makes subservient to our use. And in him we live and move and are. He is nearer to us than we to ourselves. It is not only that he makes us live; it is his life by which we live; our life comes from and belongs to his eternal life. The life of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is in himself; ours is in him. {279} To him, then, the one and only true God, "be glory," as the Apostle says, "for ever and ever." How often we say these words, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," and how little do we think of what they mean! If all that we are and have is from God, by him and in him, how can we set ourselves apart from him, or claim anything for ourselves against him? How can we glory in ourselves, or desire glory from others, when all glory, praise, and honor belong of necessity to him from whom, by whom, and in whom all things are? For this is what it means when we say, "Glory be to God." Not some glory or praise or recognition of his greatness from us, as a sort of tax or tribute which we must pay to keep the rest for ourselves. No, when we have given glory to God as we should, there will be nothing left for us to keep. This is the perfection of the creature, to prostrate itself at the foot of its Creator's throne, and to cast all the crowns it has received before him that sitteth thereon, and to say with the angels and saints in heaven, "Thou art worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, because thou hast created all things, and for thy will they were and have been created." ------------------- Sermon LXXXIII. The Mystery Of The Holy Trinity. _Go ye, therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost._ --St. Matthew, xxviii. 19. {280}