I. It is glorifying God when we aim purely at his glory. It is one thing to advance God’s glory, another thing to aim at it. God must be the Terminus ad quem, the ultimate end of all actions. Thus Christ, ‘I seek not mine own glory, but the glory of him that sent me’ (John 8:50). A hypocrite has a squint eye, for he looks more to his own glory than God’s. Our Saviour deciphers such, and gives a caveat against them in Matthew 6:2, ‘When thou givest alms, do not sound a trumpet.’ A stranger would ask, ‘What means the noise of this trumpet?’ It was answered, ‘They are going to give to the poor.’ And so they did not give alms, but sell them for honour and applause, that they might have glory of men; the breath of men was the wind that blew the sails of their charity; ‘verily they have their reward.’ The hypocrite may make his acquittance and write, ‘received in full payment.’ Chrysostom calls vain-glory one of the devil’s great nets to catch men. And Cyprian says, ‘Whom Satan cannot prevail against by intemperance, those he prevails against by pride and vainglory.’ Oh let us take heed of self-worshipping! Aim purely at God’s glory.
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