mine eye shall no more see good; thine eyes are upon me, and I can live no longer;" in all this he was mistaken. Good he lived to see, greater than he had ever known: greater good in his own experience greater in his family-greater in his substance, and in all that concerned him.

The commencement of Jehovah, however, is particularly worthy of observation. In the very depths of the earth, covered with disease, and still bereft of all he once possessed, is Job selected to the high office of a mediator before God. As much as to say, that a good man, when at his lowest, might even then rank high above all around him in divine favour; that though he walk in darkness, without a ray of the sun of providence to beam upon him: so far from this being an index of his actual condition in the sight of God, it might be the reverse. What an answer, then, was Job, in this low condition, to many of the false, though, in other respects, powerful reasoning of his friends? "Offer up for yourselves a burnt-offering," said Jehovah to them, "and my servant Job shall pray for you; for him will I accept (though he has been, and is still despised of men); lest I deal with you after your folly."

Immediately after this marked and singular vindication of his character, the imputation of which had been to him the bitterest ingredient in his cup of wo, see the Almighty turning his captivity, or reversing his affliction, by redressing, individually, every grievHis health is re-established: his high respectability of character more than returns; his relatives and neighbours, who once stood aloof, or shuddered at the sight of him, come bending around him—either

ance.

afraid of disregarding such a favourite of Heaven, or eager to obtain the benefit of his intercessions and instructions. Instead of being considered the greatest sinner in the land, he is raised, not merely to the authority of a judge among men, as he had been before; he has been elevated to the higher ground of a mediator. To crown the whole, as a testimony that his beloved children were not in the same condition with his other perishable property; that they were "not lost, but gone before;" he has precisely the same number of sons, and the same of daughters, by the same mother! The property of Job, in every kind, had been exactly doubled. Now, the same number of children being restored to him in this world, has been supposed to indicate, that, with those who had gone before, these were doubled also. But whatever may be thought of this conjecture, there can be no doubt that Job was singularly blest in both families. Both were distinguished at once for obedience to him, and affectionate harmony among themselves. The former family has been already noticed; and the latter had so acted as to be ranked with the former among the number of the blessings by which God had distinguished him. His sons, and his sons' sons, even to the fourth generation, dwelt around him and for each of his daughters he provided an inheritance " among their brethren." For one hundred and forty years also did this extraordinary man survive to enjoy his family comforts; so that, instead of being written childless, or his grey hairs descending with sorrow to the grave, he leaves a numerous posterity, and does not expire till he "is old and full of days," or satisfied with life.

;

A more eminent instance of the divine blessing resting on a parent and his family, we do not meet with in the whole compass of divine Revelation. And though Eliphaz the Temanite could little imagine that his words would ever literally be verified, in the experience of his deeply-afflicted friend, yet so it was:

And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace;
And thou shalt visit thy habitation, and not sin:

Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great,

And thine offspring as the grass of the earth:

Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age,

Like as a shock of corn cometh in, in its season.-Job v. 24, 25.

Having now" heard of the patience of Job, and seen the end of the Lord," that he is still very pitiful and of tender mercy: having disposed of this confessedly difficult and mysterious case; let me now remind the reader, that though, in conscientious paternal conduct, when met by filial obedience, there may be a tendency to the prolongation of human existence; and certainly the opposite characters very often live not out half their days; still the blessing promised consists not in temporal or sublunary good, although this becomes a frequent, if not a general associate. In the blessing of God there is something infinitely superior. It consists in mercy, the vestibule to all spiritual good; or in righteousness, the summary of all to which mercy alone can introduce. "The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; to such as keep his covenant, and to those who remember his commandments to do them."

In illustration of this blessing descending, I shall,

in this section, only refer to the Father of the faithful; and I the rather select him, because here is a proof that the Almighty had been acting on the same principle, long before it was committed to writing on Sinai. Nor let it be thought that, in selecting Abraham, I point too high. There is nothing recorded respecting this eminent man, so far as my reference goes, which was recorded "for his sake only," but "for us also ;" and with regard to his domestic character, in particular, there is certainly nothing recorded which is inimitable. Even "those who are not of the circumcision" must, if his children, walk in the steps of the patriarch: and it will be found that they actually do so, just in proportion as they prize and indulge the hope of sitting down with him in the heavenly Canaan. "Abraham," said the Lord, "I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing." Fall of the divine blessing, it should be his felicity to impart blessing to thousands. Accordingly, all the true blessedness which the wide world is now enjoying, may be traced up to Abraham and his posterity. «To him and them, under God, are we indebted for the Scriptures-the Saviour-the church,-for his posterity are the stock on which the church is grafted!" The sources of some of our largest rivers are unknown; great enterprise has been shewn in tracing them up, while eager curiosity has waited and longed for certain accounts of final success. Let the Christian here observe from whence a mightier current has come, and he will at last arrive at a single tent in the land of Canaan-a single family-a single home. Among its inmates, he is directed to the Father; for of him God had said, "I know Abraham, that he

will command his children and his household after him; and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that (in order that) the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." What! it may be said, is it after all come to this? Was not the promise of God spontaneously free and absolute? Did he not say, "Abraham, I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a blessing? Yes, he did; but still the most absolute promise may, and the most absolute promise must, have an appropriate and congruous channel in which to run. Down this channel, therefore, the Almighty sent his choicest favours, widening and deepening its course; and though many of Abraham's posterity acted, alas! unworthy of their first father, yet there ever was a remnant who walked in his footsteps. Jehovah would keep his covenant, and preserved his posterity distinct, till out of it came the Messiah, blessing all nations! Nay, what constitutes at this hour his greatest moral miracle, distinct he preserves that posterity still :

Mysterious race! depriv'd of land and laws,

A general language, and a public cause;
With a religion none can now obey;
With a reproach which none can take away :
A people still, whose common ties are gone;
Who, mix'd with every race, are lost in none !

If the cloud which burst over poor King Saul was long of drifting to leeward, and forty years afterwards was still discharging its thunders; on the other hand, the blessing of which Abraham was full, is, it seems, not even yet exhausted! Yes; the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Even now, in his conduct towards the Jews, there is more of design