A SABBATH AT HOME.

"How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude!
But grant me still a friend in my retreat,
When I may whisper,-solitude is sweet.
Yet neither these delights, nor aught beside,
That appetite can ask, or wealth provide,
Can save us always from a tedious day,
Or spin the dullness of still life away:
Divine communion, carefully employed,

Or sought with energy, must fill the void." COWPER.

As I had taken a severe cold, and the morning was very stormy, I resolved to forego the gratification of attending the public services of religion. After the family was gone, I returned to my own room, from whence I viewed, with pleasure, the rustic cottagers, and some few of the more respectable inhabitants of the village, braving the severity of the weather, as they pressed towards the church. This scene alternately elevated and depressed my spirits; but as the bell ceased to toll, I became more composed, and betook myself to reflection.

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"Here I am, solitary and alone, while others are uniting in the solemn exercises of prayer and praise. I shall not hear this day, the gospel's joyful sound.' I shall not feel that sacred glow of passion which has been enkindled within my breast in past seasons, when I have been holding fellowship with the saints. My harp, tuned to the songs of Zion, I must now hang up as a useless instrument, and spend these

Consecrated hours'

in the solitude of silence. But the cause of my grief became a source of gratitude. There was a time, when, like too many who profess and call themselves Christians, I went to the house of prayer,' if not with reluctance, yet with indifference; and when prevented from going, I felt no loss of happiness. But now, no place presents such powerful attractions, and when I am rendered incapable of visiting it, my spirit sinks within me. To what cause is this change of inclination and disposition to be ascribed? What cause? The influence of the truth on my heart. Public worship now, is not so much a duty as a privilege; my taste is formed for its various parts; its length does not weary me; I love the habitation of

the Lord's house, and the place where his honour dwelleth. Yes, there I heard the word of truth-there I felt its power, there my wounded spirit was healed

there I have been animated with fresh courage to press onwards to the mark of the prize of my high calling,there I have been raised above the conflicting passions and interests of this world, in the contemplation and enjoyment of things unseen and eternal. there I have united with others in singing,

Welcome, sweet day of rest,

That saw the Lord arise;

Welcome to this reviving breast,
And these rejoicing eyes!

The King himself comes near,
And feasts his saints to-day;
Here we may sit, and see him here,
And love, and praise, and pray.
'One day amidst the place
Where my dear Lord hath been,
Is sweeter than ten thousand days
Of pleasurable sin.

My willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this,

And sit and sing herself away

To everlasting bliss.'

"But now I am forbidden to partake of these sublime enjoyments. I am a solitary pilgrim in my own chamber. But I am not alone. The Lord of the sabbath is here. Delightful thought! Consolatory fact! His presence is not confined to the temple! His attention is not limited to the great congregation, He dwells in every house, in every closet, in every heart, He hears every domestic address, every secret prayer, every silent meditation of him. He can bless ine, and make this sabbath at home, more profitable than any one I have ever spent within the courts of his house."

There is no reading which has such a powerful effect on the mind of a Christian, as the reading of the Scriptures. "Indited under the influence of Him to whom all hearts are known, and all events foreknown, they suit mankind in all situations, grateful as the manna which descended from above, and conformed itself to every palate. The fairest productions of human wit, after a few perusals, like gathered

flowers, wither in our hands, and lose their fragrance; but these unfading plants of paradise become, as we are accustomed to them, still more and more beautiful; their bloom appears to be daily heightened; fresh odours are emitted, and new sweets extracted from them. He who hath once tasted their excellencies, will desire to taste them yet again; and he who tastes them oftenest, will relish them best. But there is no portion of the sacred volume which I peruse with so much pleasure in the seasons of retired devotion, as the Psalms of David. Though composed upon particular occasions, they are adapted for general use; and while the imagination is delighted with the beauty of the style in which they are composed, the mind is elevated by the sentiments which they express, and refreshed by the inexplicable unction of piety which they distil. Bishop Horne's commentary on the Eighty-Fourth Psalm, afforded me much enjoyment, and which I will now transcribe for the spiritual benefit of those of my readers, who, like myself, may sometimes be compelled to spend a Sabbath at home."

1. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! "Thus ardently doth a banished Israelite express his love for Zion, his admiration of the beauty of holiness. Nay, Balaam himself, when from the top of Peor he saw the children of Israel in their tents, with the Glory in the midst of them, could not help exclaiming, 'How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob! and thy tabernacles, O Israel!' Numbers xxiv. 5. How amiable, then, may the Christian say, are those eternal mansions, from whence sin and sorrow are excluded; how goodly that camp of the saints, and that beloved city, where righteousness and joy reign triumphant, and peace and unity are violated no more; where Thou, O blessed Jesus, Lord of hosts, King of men and angels, dwellest in glorious majesty, constituting by thy presence the felicity of thy chosen."

2. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God.

“It is said of the Queen of Sheba, that upon beholding the pleasantness of Jerusalem, the splendour of Solomon's court, and, above all, the magnificence

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of the temple, with the services thereia performed, there was no more spirit in her.' What wonder, therefore, if the soul should be deeply affected, while, from this land of her captivity, she beholdeth, by faith, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city and court of the great King, with all the transporting glories of the church triumphant; while in her meditations, she draweth the comparison between her wretched state of exile upon earth, and the unspeakable blessedness of being delivered from temptation and affliction, and admitted into the everlasting courts of Jehovah.' Whose heart doth not exult and shout aloud for joy, at the prospect of rising from the bed of death, to dwell with the living God, to see the face of him, in whom is life, and the life is the light of men? Did the Israelites from all parts of Judea, go up, with the voice of jubilee, to keep a feast at Jerusalem; and shall Christians grieve, when the time is come for them to ascend, and to celebrate an eternal festival in heaven?"

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3. Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.

"The Psalmist is generally supposed, in this verse, to lament his unhappiness, in being deprived of all access to the tabernacle, a privilege enjoyed even by the birds, who were allowed to build their nests in the neighbourhood of the sanctuary. It is evidently the design of this passage, to intimate to us, that in the house, and at the altar of God, a faithful soul findeth freedom from care and sorrow, quiet of mind, and gladness of spirit, like a bird that has secured a little mansion for the reception and rearing of her young, And there is no heart endued with sensibility, which doth not bear its testimony to the exquisite beauty and propriety of this affecting image."

4. Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee. Selah.

Here the metaphor is dropped, and the former sentiment expressed in plain language. Blessed are,' not the mighty and the opulent of the earth, who are clothed in purple, and fare sumptuously at the feast of convivial mirth, but they that dwell in thy house,' the minister of the eternal temple in heaven, the

angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect; there, every passion is resolved into love, every duty inte praise, hallelujah succeeds hallelujah; they are still, still for ever praising thee. And blessed, next to them, are those ministers and members of the church here below, who, in disposition, as well as in employment, do most resemble them."

5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them.

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Not only they are pronounced blessed who dwell in the temple, but all they also who are travelling thi therward, and who are, therefore, meditating on their journey, and on the way' which leadeth to the holy city, trusting in God to strengthen,' and prosper, and conduct them to the house of his habitation, the place where his glory dwelleth. Such a company of sojourners are Christians going up to the heavenly Jerusalem such ought to be their trust in God, and sụch the subject of their thoughts."

6. Who passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well: the rain also filleth the pools.

7. They go, from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

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After numberless conjectures offered by commentators upon the the construction of these two verses, it seemeth impossible for us to attain to any other than a general idea of their import; which is this, that the Israelites, or some of them, passed, in their way to Jerusalem, through a valley that had the name of Baca,' a noun derived from a verb, which signifies, to 'weep,' that in this valley they were refreshed with plenty of water; that with renewed vigour they proceeded from stage to stage, until they presented themselves before God in Zion. The present world is to us the valley of weeping in our passage through it we are refreshed by the streams of divine grace flowing down from the great fountain of consolation; and thus we are enabled to proceed from one degree of holiness to another, until we come to the glorified vision of God in heaven itself."

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8. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, Q God of Jacob. Seiah.

9. Behold, O God, our shield, and look upon the face of thine Anointed.

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