Be not envious at content stir in thy bosom! the foolish, when thou seest the prosperity of the wicked. Thuo hast a better inheritance, and better company, and all thy concerns shall come to a better issue, than theirs. Repress every hard thought of thy munificent Shepherd. Believe his truth; believe it against the objections of sense, and the calumnies of Satan; believe it without staggering, and thine eyes shall see his salvation. Whatever be the judgment of thine own ignorance, and of the world's malice, he is leading thee by a right way; and this thou shalt confess, with wonder and praise, when he shall have brought thee to thy city of habitation! Go on, then, in his strength; set up thy banners in his name; and inscribe them with this triumphant motto: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. LECTURE. PSALM VIII. 1. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. 3. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4. What is man, that thou art mindful of him ; and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5. For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. 6. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 7. All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; |