fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness, let us beware of exciting the displeasure of our great benefactor, by the want of a becoming confidence in his mercy, who remembereth whereof we are made, and who pitieth them that fear him even as a father pitieth his own children.

Happy is the man who thus feareth always! he will honour God by a daily reliance upon his promise, and devote to his service what he receives from his bounty. Such a man will make straight paths for his feet, passing securely through a thousand snares and dangers, without once turning aside to the right hand or to the left. Such a man, in the honourable cause of God, is prepared to wrestle not only against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places. He considers no danger too great to be encountered, nor any privation too painful to be endured, in his way to the kingdom. There his best treasures are laid up, and thitherward the warmest wishes of his heart are continually flowing out; while for the joy that is set before him, he endures the cross and despises the shame, comforting himself

everywhere and on all occasions with the soothing thought, that he is counted worthy to suffer with his suffering Lord.

And now, brethren, permit me to shut up this discourse with a two-fold exhortation.

1. Charge it upon yourselves to cultivate a thankful remembrance of past mercies.

When Jacob was constrained to wander alone from the house of his father in search of the distant dwellings of Laban, it is recorded of him, that he vowed a vow unto the Lord, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in the way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, shall be God's house.

The desire of Jacob was fully granted, and the remembrance of this mercy accompanied him to his grave. On his return to his own country and kindred, he not only visited the place in which he had vowed this vow unto the Lord, but he consecrated the spot anew by rearing there an altar to the God of his fathers. And it is worthy to be

upon

noted, that he manifested a thankful remembrance of this whole transaction even his death-bed, when in blessing Joseph he expressed himself thus-The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

As favoured dependents of the same God, it equally becomes us to retain a grateful sense of all his paternal dealings with us. He has led us and fed us all our life long. In our fathers' well remembered abodes he had us under his peculiar care and keeping; and, since that time, at home and abroad, in every place we have visited, and through every change we have passed, his preserving grace and overflowing bounty have marked every step of our course. Let us then, like Jacob, remember our Bethels, and never be remiss in paying the vows which we vowed unto the Lord in the day of our distress.

2. Exercise an unwearied reliance upon the divine promise.

The God, before whom we stand is a covenant-keeping God. Our fathers trusted

in him and were holpen. They found him ever mindful of their wants, ever faithful to his word, and disposed to do them good in a thousand unexpected ways. His gracious dealings with them are recorded for our encouragement, that we also may learn to trust him as they did, and fearlessly to leave all our concerns in his hand. They knew that God was on their side, in every struggle they were called to make; they knew that the power, the promise, and the providence of Jehovah were all engaged in their favour; they knew that all their steps were marked, that all their tears were numbered, and all their supplications recorded. In this faith they met their several trials, and by the lively exercise of this grace they were brought triumphantly through them all.

Would you, my brethren, have oil for the wheels of your spirit, that they may convey you swiftly, smoothly, and sweetly, along the most rugged paths, and through the most wearisome labours; then call to remembrance the works of the Lord in ancient times, and say to yourselves, with a confidence becoming the christian professionThis God is our God for ever and ever: He shall be our guide even unto death.

See, then, that

ye

honour God by an unshaken dependence on his word, that true and faithful word, which, while it ultimately relates to our inheritance above, condescendingly provides for our sustenance by the way. Enquire not how it shall be with you in days and years to come; but quietly leave the morrow to take thought for the things of itself; knowing that time and eternity, with all their hidden concerns, are at the absolute disposal of your reconciled God and Father. He hath expressly covenanted, that day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, shall never fail; till we reach those upper regions, in which the wants, the toils, and the sufferings of this temporary state shall be known no more— where we shall neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns—where we shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more—where the sun shall no more be our light by day, nor the moon by night: but where the Lord himself shall be our everlasting light, and the days of our mourning be ended.