prietor; nor without offending against the laws of the country, established by divine authority. Take heed how you encourage wishes, which may be inconsistent with a strict sense of duty. That, which may be lawful or even requisite in another, may be improper, if not sinful, in you. In comparing your inclinations with your duty, in order that you may be certified what you may innocently do, remember that there are a variety of circumstances to be considered, the omission of which will lead to error. The proposal of Ahab was fair and equitable, and in another country than that of Israel, might have been accepted: in Israel it was against the law; the proposal therefore was injurious, and the desire, which occasioned it, was sinful. After all, the law of God must be your guide: look to that with a single eye; yield to it with singleness of heart, with unreserved obedience to what you sincerely believe it to teach; and it will not materially mislead you. Whatsoever things it teaches you to be "true, honest, just, pure, lovely, praise-worthy, virtuous, think on these

things;" and " abstain from all appearance of evilf.”

Further; the example of Ahab may warn us against the danger of brooding over our disappointment, when we fail of attaining the object of our wishes; and may prompt us to turn our eyes aside to those instances of mercy, which a bountiful Providence has been pleased to exert in our behalf. It was but a short time after a wonderful and special display of power, which God had manifested in delivering Ahab and his people from an invading enemy, and crowning them with a complete victory, that the Israelitish monarch conceived the wish of possessing the vineyard of Naboth. On the disappointment of his hope, instead of engaging in the active concerns of his kingdom, or enjoying the great and manifold blessings, with which it had pleased the Almighty to visit him, he came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him:

and he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread." The tempter profited by the occasion, and soon scattered his tares into a heart, so well prepared to receive them and to make them grow. Have you suffered yourself to cherish a desire, which you find a difficulty in gratifying, and which you know ought not to be gratified? Continue not to indulge it: brood not over it; dwell not on it; but banish it instantly from your bosom. Let your thoughts be occupied on harmless or useful subjects: let them be turned to the business of your calling: let them be lifted up in thanksgiving to the Giver of all good for the blessings, which he permits you innocently to enjoy ; and in devout prayer for the aid of his grace, to enable you to resist temptation and to deliver to deliver you from evil. "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you 5."

Further; at all times, and especially at such times as these, be cautious, whom

James iv. 7, 8.

you admit to be the partner of your counsels, the friend of your inmost heart. It is recorded as a signal example of depravity in the nefarious career of Ahab, that he united himself by the closest and tenderest bond to an idolatrous and unprincipled woman. The consequence was deplorable, but natural. His own inclination to evil received a fresh impulse from hers: corrupt himself, he became more and more hardened by the accession of her corrupt passions instigated by her, in the particular example, that has now been passing before our eyes, as well as in the general tenor of his life, he proved himself an apostate from God, and by natural consequence, (for religion is the only sure foundation of morality,) the enemy of man: and he has left behind him a fatal memorial of the powerful influence of vice on social intercourse, in the testimony of the sacred historian, that "there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up." such an example, transmitted timony, be cautious in the

Warned by

on such tesselection of

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your friends; be especially cautious in the selection of your nearest and dearest friend; you are " pilgrims and strangers upon earth;" you are "travelling towards a better country, that is an heavenly:" your present prosperity and comfort, and your future happiness depend in no small degree upon your companions, and particularly upon the wife of your bosom. Remember the judgment of Solomon, “ A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband; but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones h."

Finally; from the narrative of the guilt and punishment of Ahab let us read the awakening doctrine of retributive justice, which the scriptures uniformly inculcate; and be persuaded, that whatever be the circumstances of the sinner, sooner or later "the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himi." In elder times, when the providence of God was specially manifested in the government of his peculiar people, an immediate temporal punishment

h Prov. xii. 4.

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i Ezek. xviii. 20.