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rod of painful chastisement, and our many wan- | is now high time to awake out of sleep.' How derings from duty and from God to be repressed vile and unprofitable does the service of sin apwith a holy severity. What improvement and pear to them who look back upon it; what advantage might we not reap, if we habituated profit had ye in those things whereof ye are now erelves to reflect more carefully upon all the ashamed, for the end of those things is death?' way that the Lord our God has led us; what cause for humiliation would we not find in our manifold sins; and what motives for gratitude that we were not permitted utterly to perish, in being given over to our hearts' lusts.

The habit of devoutly reviewing God's dealings with them has always been characteristic of his genuine people, and has eminently tended to advance their best interests; deepening their sense of his manifold mercies, showing then the duty of continuing to trust in him, and suplying them with a source of wisdom and experience of a peculiarly important and valuable nature amidst the temptations and trials of life. An instance of this we have in the history of David, who when Saul would have dissuaded him from encountering Goliah, as not able to t with him in battle, called to mind the rciful preservation vouchsafed to him on previous occasions of peril by the favour of God, and said, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. In the case of the great apostle of the Gentiles, how frequent and solemn are the references which he makes to his former unconverted state, when he was a persecutor and injurious, and how profound is the admiration and gratitude which he expresses that he should have been counted worthy to receive mercy, and to be made a preacher of that gospel which be went about to destroy. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting."

How infinitely unmerited must the mercies of God, which they have so richly enjoyed, apPar to those who habituate themselves to a areful consideration of all the way in which he iled them. To us belongeth confusion of face, our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, ecause we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him. Neither Lave we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets,' Dan. ix. 8-10.

What motives to repentance and to new tience arise from a saving consideration of Ing-suffering and forbearance of God. It

How should the remembrance of past mercies be treasured up as an incentive to bless God for his goodness, and as a reason for patiently submitting to his will on the day of trouble. 'Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil?' 'Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.'

It is valuable to form a connected view of God's dealings; to see them in their principle and in their end, as all designed to advance his own glory and to work together for good to them who love him. How many erroneous impressions and false views would it not correct, concerning what is truly good for man, thus to consider the ways of the most High. 'We call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up.' But a juster estimate would teach us to esteem the lowly, the afflicted, the poor and contrite in spirit; those whose trials, though numerous, have all been sanctified, as the alone blessed and truly happy. Better is it to choose with Moses, to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy all the riches and honours of Egypt. In the end, how shall the redeemed, on taking a retrospect of all the way in which God has led them, approve of the wisdom and faithfulness of every dispensation which he allotted in the journey of life. They shall sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty just and true are all thy ways, thou King of saints'

FOURTEENTH DAY.-MORNING.

In him we live, and move, and have our being,' Acts xvii. 28.

THE reason at the present day, and with the many religious advantages we enjoy, why any do not glorify God as God, neither are thankful, is not that they are ignorant of his nature and perfections, as the omnipotent God, and the supreme Benefactor, but that they do not desire to retain the knowledge of God in all their thoughts. The age of idolatry has for ever passed away; but still is there reason for the expostulation and rem

strance which was originally addressed to the house | honour. He is the sovereign source of all riches, of Israel, being applied to us, in all its original force and wisdom, and power, and excellence; the and severity: Hear, O heavens; and give ear, O Author of life, and of its every enjoyment. His earth, for the Lord hath spoken; I have nour-presence forms the light and glory of heaven; his ished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know; my people doth not consider.' How inadequately do we realize our dependence upon God, the intimacy of his continued presence, the operation of his sustaining hand, the ceaseless communications of goodness which flow to us from his boundless liberality. Although he is the strength of our lives, the health of our countenance, and the length of our days, may not weeks, and months, and even years pass away without our rendering to him any homage, or expressing any gratitude, or testifying the least consciousness of his Almighty power and unwearied care. And when this is considered, how can any pretend to deny the depravity of human nature, or that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God?'

The doctrine of our entire and constant dependence upon God, obviously lays us under a variety of very solemn and important duties to our supreme Benefactor. Of these, gratitude evidently holds the first rank, together with all those devout acknowledgments by which it ought to be expressed. It is meet that we celebrate the lovingkindness of God every morning, and show forth his faithfulness every evening. Submission is another important duty, implying resignation to the divine will, and contentment with our lot, and with all the events and circumstances by which it may be marked. A cheerful alacrity in duty is farther required; that we live as seeing him who is invisible, and that we walk worthy of all the mercy and goodness which we are daily receiving from his hand.

Elevating views of the perfections and character of God are peculiarly adapted to sustain our zeal in his service, and to engage our habitual homage and reverence towards his holy name. How honourable, how blessed, to be the worshippers and servants of him who filleth heaven and earth with his presence, who is the supreme Proprietor of countless worlds, and the beneficent Author of all being, and all excellence. Under what an infinitely important light is religion and all its duties seen, when viewed in connection with the glory and majesty of him who is the supreme and only potentate, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. That he should allow us to know him, that he should admit us to confide in him, and hold communion with him, and serve him, what a distinction is it, what an unspeakable

frown sheds darkness and desolation on every region on which it falls. With what reason should we acknowledge, with emotions of the liveliest gratitude and wonder, the infinite mercy and goodness of God. He that is mighty hath done great things for us, holy is his name. His mercy is on them that fear him, from generation to generation. He has put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, and he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever,' Luke i. 49–56.

Little as the puny and short lived actors on the scene of time may think of that eternal and Almighty Being who, in the infinitude of his power, wisdom, and goodness, created and upholds this vast and glorious universe, with every thing it contains, he is no distant or unconcerned spectator of its interests or movements; he sits not retired in viewless majesty, leaving the works of his hands to be the sport of accident: he surrenders not the sceptre of his kingdom to any delegated power, as if he could be weary, or needed to find relief by dividing, with any other, the care and anxieties of empire; neither does the perfection of his government, nor the incommunicable attributes of his nature, admit of such a severance between the Creator and his works; he alone is exclusively and essentially self-existent, and independent; and other beings, from the very necessity of their nature, can only live, and move, and act through him; as a ray of light lives in its connection with the centre of illumination whence it emanates; as the stream exists and flows only whilst it continues connected with the fountain from which it has its birth, in like manner all things exist in their dependence upon God, who sustains them in being and in the possession of their every property, so that the moment he withdraws from any of them his sustaining hand, or intercepts the communication of his gracious blessing, they instantaneously and unavoidably perish.

Let the consideration of this great truth be deeply and permanently impressed upon the heart; thus will the ever-varying scene of human life, with all its ceaseless changes, lead forth your thoughts to God, and constitute a daily renewed source of piety and praise; thus will you be taught to cherish a lowly estimate of yourselves,

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and of your various resources, faculties, and bless- | acknowledgment, that he ordains, in righteousings, for the continuance of which every moment ness and faithfulness, whatever comes to pass. you are dependent upon the divine will; and Many seem to live as if God only interposed on thus will you feel the duty of engaging in all great occasions, and in connection with afflictive your labours and enterprises in a spirit of prayer- dispensations; and that the ordinary tenor of ful reliance upon the help and favour of God, and providence was a current which flowed smoothly with the sincere desire and intention, that what- of its own accord, and which required no immeever you do may prove acceptable in his sight, and diate acknowledgment of the hand of God to be conducive to his glory. Go to now, ye that say, made. They cherish no practical impression of To-day, or to-morrow, we will go into such a the doctrine of a particular providence, or of the city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, influence which it should constantly exercise upon and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall their minds. It is, indeed, the inestimable privibe on the morrow; for what is your life? It lege of the afflicted to know that God is a refuge is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, to the distressed, and a very present help in the and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to time of trouble; but beware of quenching the gratesay, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, ful emotions which his goodness should awaken, or or that,' James iv. 13-15. of forgetting, in the day of ease and prosperity, that all your well-springs are in God. It is one and the same Almighty Ruler who holds all our destinies in his hand; who both killeth and maketh alive, who maketh poor and who maketh rich, who bringeth low and who lifteth up.'

FOURTEENTH DAY.-EVENING.

'A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord
directeth his steps,' Prov. xvi. 9.
ENDOWED with powers of reason and reflection,
it is not only allowed, but required, that we
should devise our way; yet should it always be
in accordance with the dictates of God's revealed
word, and in submission to the decrees and de-
terminations of his most holy and blessed will.
The sin consists in man leaning to his own
understanding,' doing what seemeth good in his
own eyes, and fixing his plans and his pur-
poses without reference to the sovereign purpose
or mind of God. Go to now, ye that say, To-
day or to-morrow we will go into such a city,
and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and
get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on
the morrow. For what is life?
your
It is even
a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then
vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If
the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that.
But now ye rejoice in your boastings; all such
rejoicing is evil.'

It forms an important and interesting part of practical religion to refer all things to God; to trace his hand guiding and directing whatever comes to pass, and to acknowledge, with habitual reverence and submission, the wisdom of all his ways, and the righteousness of all his dispensations. In those examples of piety which the scriptures have transmitted for our instruction, nothing is more distinguishable than the habitual and devout recognition of God in all things which has been usual with his people. Their brighter and their darker experience alike embodies the

The doctrine, that God rules over all, and that there is nothing too great to dispense with his care, and nothing too little to be beneath his notice, is accordant with the testimony of scripture, and all the most enlightened and exalted views which reason, as well as revelation, can form of his nature. We see, within the limits of our contemplation, no inconsiderable portion of that vast progression of being which seems to retire to an infinitude beneath, which cannot be followed for its minuteness, and to rise to another infinitude above, which cannot be comprehended or contemplated for its vastness and sublimity. But is there any point, within this range, where an indication is presented that the care of God ceases, or that his creative and governing power and wisdom ceases? Are the discoveries of the telescope replete with a beauty, and order, and magnificence, which evidently proclaim the glory of God; but are the secrets of the microscope the development of a confusion and chaos which indicates that there lies in the humbler regions of existence a province to which the presence and the power of God has manifestly been denied? The opposite has most unequivocally and brilliantly been demonstrated to be the case. The limb of the most ephemeral insect is formed as curiously and skilfully, and is as admirably adapted for the ends of its existence, as the arms and members of a man. The eye of the invisible animalcule has its fluids, and lenses, and nerves as appropriately adjusted and placed for the purposes of vision, as that of the horse or the elephant. And not to overlook the illustration of Christ-the hair of our head,

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What then is the loving-kindness of

as it seems, with its tubu- | night.' itudinal and transverse God? Herein is love, not that we loved God, by which it lives and but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the ces its mechanism a production propitiation for our sins.' use than the lofty cedar, or the aa, the ornament of nature, and the pride

rindest landscapes.

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For God so loved

the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed on him, might not perish, but have everlasting life;' and 'God comin a acty the whole framework of nature, mendeth his love towards us, in that while we tine wicie system of providence hangs so were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' The genemock tegober, and is so mutually dependent in ral goodness of God is daily seen in a thousand ists that it is impossible to say whether forms, in the preservation of man and beast, and “k wisavin and care of God are more necessary in the opening of his hand to supply every thing tag sattuu minng the great or the minute events that lives; but that special love of God to a sinwd sour. How often may events, upon which ner, that pities his miseries, heals his diseased series of the world hinge, depend upon soul, washes away his guilt, restores him to his ggy the most trivial and contempti- Father, enrobes him in righteousness, and makes by the aistory of the Old Testament, for in-him an heir of glory-all this is only to be found up not find God inflicting his most and seen in the promise, incarnation, working, sufNe upon his proud and vain-glori- fering, atonement, resurrection, ascension, and inkos by employing, not the higher but tercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yea, in this, Vor order of causes; sending the fly, the and in this alone, was manifested the love of best the caterpillar as the ministers of God towards us, because that God had sent his sex vi sex sex, and death. The distinction which only begotten Son into the world, that we might so nevrend to establish between a general and live through him.' Do we not then inquirewww.74 providence, as if God concerned himself how may we best show forth this love? The work the one but not with the other, is founded answer is easy. The love of Christ constraineth 494 44 evident misconception of the nature of us; because we thus judge, that if one died for The truth is, things great and small are all, then were all dead, that they who live wly and inseparably linked together, that the should not henceforth live unto themselves but band which shall guide the one must govern the unto him that died for them and rose again.' erher, and the mind which dictates the decrees regulate.worlds, must also appoint and ad4 the course of the minutest events. Be asd then, that nothing connected with your yondition can be the effect of chance, or the result of blind fatality, but is the effect of the wise, and Just, and holy determination of your heavenly Father Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever and

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Might we not then expect to hear every professing Christian exclaim- Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword; nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us; for I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' But alas! of how many may it be said-and O, mine own heart, beware lest it be also said of thee- The ass knoweth his owner and the ox his master's crib, but Israel doth not know,

my people doth not consider.'

But whatever calls to consideration we may have hitherto slighted, whatever opportunities we have hitherto neglected, once again the morning invites us, by its peculiar arguments, to show forth the loving-kindness of the Lord. He has watched over us while we slept; he has spared us to another day; he has caused his sun again to arise-the emblem of the Sun of righteousness, with healing in his wings,' he sets duty before us, both for ourselves and for others; and

shall the Giver of all good be forgotten, his love man who is likest him, must be most blessed; unfelt, his name unpraised?

'O! thou my soul, bless God the Lord,
And all that in me is

Be stirred up, his holy name

To magnify and bless.

Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God,
And not forgetful be

Of all his gracious benefits

He hath bestowed on thee.
All thine iniquities who doth
Most graciously forgive,
Who thy diseases all, and pains,

Doth heal, and thee relieve.
Who doth redeem thy life that thou
To death may'st not go down ;
Who thee with loving-kindness doth,
And tender mercies crown.'

But while the morning thus calls to the showing forth of love, the evening calls for our testimony to God's faithfulness. The evening first suggests God's faithfulness to his promise of mercy, after the endurance of the deepest provocation, and after the infliction of the most terrible judgment. To Noah he promised, 'while the earth remaineth, sed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and samer and winter, and day and night, shall not The return of the night is therefore a new attestation to the truth of him who hath said, 'my covenant I will not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David'—that is, the true David, the beloved, as the name David signifies his seed shall endure ever, and his throne as the sun before me; it shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.'

for

This 'faithfulness' of God, this 'immutability of his counsel, confirmed by an oath,' is indeed the strong consolation' of sinners 'who have ded for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before them. But, as it is impossible for God to he, so to believers there is no just cause of doubt, nor to the chief of sinners' any ground kr despair. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and return to the Lord, and he will have mercy upon and to our God, for he will abundantly

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and he is likest God who knows most of his love in sending his Son, and his faithfulness in keeping covenant.

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2. It is good for others that, by our morning and evening sacrifice, we bear witness to their consciences of their obligations to God, and if God will thereby convince their judgments, move their affections, decide their waverings, and confirm their purposes, that seeing our good works, they may glorify our Father who is in heaven.' There is not merely a chain of moral dependency between God and man, but also a similar chain between man and man; and did we reflect how much the eternal salvation of our neighbours may be connected with our example, we would see a new form of goodness in every holy duty, and feel a new obligation to its private and pub

lic observance.

6

FIFTEENTH DAY.-EVENING.

The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord,' Prov. xvi. 33. WHEN events proceed with great regularity, we are disposed to refer them to some law, or to some known or unknown agent, by whose influence they are produced. Thus the regular succession of day and night, the exactly measured changes of the moon, the varying yet certain positions of the planets, and even the departures and the returns of the comets, are all attributed to the operation of one common law of gravity, pervading both earth and heaven. But when events occur without any apparent order, and without any assignable agent, men are disposed to attribute them to fortune, to chance-words that mean nothing but the exclusion of a law, and even of God, from any part or management in the plan or production of these events.

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Now, with the first of these views the word of God most exactly agrees. And when the believer, taught by his word and Spirit, considers the heavens,' the scripture tells him they are the works of God's fingers;' and when he views the moon and the stars,' he is told that God has ordained them.' But the word of God goes farther; and when it conducts the believer to consider those events in which all appears disorderly and fortuitous; where he sees no direct agent, and can discover no abiding law; even there he is assured the same God rules, a similar law pervades, a similar plan is arranged; and that with equal regularity-though the principle be un

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