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and glory your portion, and can you suppose that bread and water will be denied to you? Have you all spiritual blessings in heavenly places by Christ Jesus, and can you suppose that inferior blessings will be unconferred? Impossible!"Be careful for nothing, then; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." He will withhold no good thing: then,

First: no necessary instruction. There is, we admit, a great diversity in the intellectual attainments of the people of God: some are versed in astronomy, others shine in different departments of science; some are celebrated as linguists, like the lamented Greenfield; others are distinguished as poets, like the immortal Watts; a few are capacitated to guide the destinies of empire, like David and Hezekiah: but the great majority are uninformed in worldly science, and destitute of such capabilities, for "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence." The Lord imparts to his people, however, such a measure of enlightening grace, that they become wise to salvation; they speak the language of Canaan; know Him whom to know is life everlasting. That promise is ever fulfilled, “All thy people shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children." They do not fail to discover the evil of sin, the worth of the Saviour's righteousness, the harmony of divine truth, the glory and immortality of the divine perfections, the interesting offices and characters of their glorious Surety as their Prophet, Priest, King, Physician, Shepherd, Head, Forerunner, Advocate, Saviour, and Judge. They do not fail to discover their need of the agency of the Holy Spirit, to quicken them to works of faith, and labours of love, to fortify them against temptation, to assist them in prayer, to impart consolation, to bear witness to their adoption, and destination to the mansions of unfading glory. "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, whereby ye know all things." "God hath hidden these things from the wise and prudent, but hath revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight." If, therefore, the unlettered Christian is taught and led into the path of life, i instructed to choose the good and refuse the evil, if qualified to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, if enabled to

"read his title clear

To mansions in the skies,"

no good thing, no necessary instruction is withheld from him.

:

Secondly: the Lord will withhold no good thing: that is, no needful correction. It is not impossible that your mind may decline in its attachment to spiritual things; your Bible may be neglected, and your closet too: favoured with prosperity, you may think more frequently of the streams than of the fountain from which they flow and if ever you are guilty of this folly and impiety, then you may justly apprehend some corrective providence to awaken you to a sense of your guilt and danger in forsaking the fountain of living "If my people," saith the eternal and gracious God, "forsake my law, then will I visit their iniquities with a rod, and their transgressions with stripes; but my loving-kindness will I not take away, nor suffer my faithfulness

waters.

to fail." And O, is it not better to be chastened and reformed now, than to be unreclaimed from a ruinous course and destroyed hereafter? We say with the Apostle, "No chastening for the present is joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, it yieldeth afterward the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby." If the cup of earthly joy is snatched from your hand, and you are induced thereby to drink more frequently of that river, the streams of which make glad the city of God; if the loss of health, or children, or property, endear to you the true riches, make you a more frequent attendant at the throne of grace, and a more humble and diligent student of the mysteries of redemption, it is a good thing for you: it will turn to your account, and furnish materials for praise throughout eternity. But if you would avoid suffering, you must abstain from sinning; grieve not the Holy Spirit of God; then your peace shall be as a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea. O, aspire, unceasingly aspire to live this life: it will ensure to you the smile of divine complacency: it will throw a halo of light and peace around your path, inferior only to that realized by the blessed around the throne.

If, however, I address afflicted and sorrowful Christians, recollect your afflictions and sorrows are the fruits of your sins. Learn, then, to say with David, "I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have rebelled against him." You are placed in the crucible that your purification may thereby be effected; that you may come forth from the furnace as gold seven times purified. Seek, then, assiduously seek, this result of your trials: then will you be able to say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted: the bitter was sweet, the medicine food. Happy affliction, that weaned me from the world, from self, from sense and sin; that fixed my attention on things above. No good thing was withheld, because no needful correction was withheld."

Thirdly the Lord will withhold no requisite support. It were easy to advance proof of this position did the limits of this service allow. David was conscious of its truth when he sang the twenty-third Psalm: all departed believers have proved its truth and reality: and numberless promises forbid you to entertain the slightest doubt in reference thereto. Lift up the voice of praise, then: "As your day so shall your strength be:" "When thou passest through the waters, I,” saith the Lord, “will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon you." In the comprehensive words of the text, "No good thing shall be withheld from you." Such is the ample and illustrious portion of those that walk uprightly; that is, of those whose hearts are changed, whose motives are pure, whose lives are upright, who walk with God. And this portion is theirs not because of their walking uprightly the power to walk uprightly is an imparted power; it cannot, therefore, be the procuring cause of any blessing, much less of every blessing. Still it is equally true that your enjoyment of God will ever be in proportion to your watchfulness and spirituality of mind. If you walk contrary to God he will walk contrary to you.

Put off the works of darkness, then, with hatred and determination: walk in the light of truth and holiness: heaven and glory are at hand: wait and watch

for the bright and morning star, for Jesus and the resurrection. The light of faith shews you the dawning of that day when, upborne on some angel wing, you shall pass through the outer court of the starry heavens into the regions of the blessed. There you shall be nourished with the bread of heaven, and indulged to drink of the sweet streams of everlasting happiness, at the marriage-supper of the Lamb which may the God of love and mercy grant. Amen.

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The Proclamation of the Gospel

CROSSMAN, F. G., A.M... The Sufferings and Glorification of the Believer
CUNNINGHAM, J. W., A.M. The Rebuilding of the Walls of Jerusalem

DALE, T., A.M...

DEALTRY, W., D.D...... The Supreme Importance of the Soul
DILLON, R. C., A.M.
DODSWORTH, W., A.M... The Second Adam “a Quickening Spirit"
DUNN, T.
The Lord God a Sun and Shield

EVANS, J. H., A.M....... The Design and Benefit of Chastisement

HAMBLETON, J., A.M..... Yielding ourselves unto God....

Harrow.

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The Conversion of St. Paul

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The Preciousness of the Word of the Lord in the Day of Evil 297
Christian Sympathy ......

353

The Analogy between the Works of Nature and the Works
of Grace

409

LEACH, W. B........... Noah's Preservation and Sacrifice

200

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MADDOCK, H. W., A.M... Diligence in seeking Salvation...
MELVILL, H., A.M....... The Massacre of the Innocents.
The hidden Things of God....

289

31

142

The Joy of Angels in the Success of Redemption.....
The Heavenly Temple

225

529

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TYLER, J. E., B.D.

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The Repeated Invitations of the Gospel..

Inequality in Human Condition God's own Appointment

The Sufferings of Christ considered in Connexion with his
Character

The Fact, Evils, and Remedy of Drunkenness
Christ's Agony and Bloody Sweat in the Garden

David's Experience characteristic of the Christian's
The Lepers of Samaria

The Sinfulness of Unbelief

The Solicitude of Christ for Incorrigible Sinners

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467

495

516

. 317

505

261

The Commendation and Reward of the Benevolent Man
God the Bestower of all good Gifts....

The Cure of Naaman

... The Israelites' Deliverance by the Hand of Gideon........ 281

WILLIAMS, J., B.D....... The Parable of the Sower

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219

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