from enviable. Verses may be written; addresses may be received; smiles may be put on but even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness. What a difference in the two following references to the birth of the individuals: 66 "Who," says Voltaire, can, without horror, consider the whole world as the empire of destruction? It abounds with wonders; it also abounds with victims. It is a vast field of carnage and contagion. Every species is without pity pursued and torn to pieces through the earth, and air, and water. In man there is more wretchedness than in all the other animals put together. He loves life, and yet he knows that he must die. If he enjoys a transient good, he suffers various evils, and is at last devoured by worms. This knowledge is his fatal prerogative: other animals have it not. He spends the transient moments of his existence in diffusing the miseries which he suffers: in cutting the throats of his fellowcreatures for pay; in cheating and being cheated; in robbing and being robbed; in serving, that he might command; and in repenting of all he does. The bulk of mankind are nothing more than a crowd of wretches, equally criminal and unfortunate; and the globe contains rather carcasses than men. I tremble at the review of this dreadful picture to find that it contains a complaint against Providence itself; and I WISH I HAD NEVER BEEN BORN." Now let us hear the language of the excellent Hallyburton, who died as he lived, full of confidence in God. "I shall shortly get a very different sight of God from what I have ever had, and shall be made meet to praise him for ever and ever. O the thoughts of an incarnate Deity are sweet and ravishing. O how I wonder at myself that I do not love him more, and that I do not admire him more. What a wonder that I enjoy such composure under all my bodily pains, and in the view of death itself. What a mercy that having the use of my reason, I can declare his goodness to my soul. I long for his salvation; I bless his name I have found him, and die rejoicing in him. O blessed be God that I WAS BORN! O that I was where he is. I have a father and mother, and ten brothers and sisters, in heaven, and I shall be the eleventh. O there is a telling in this Providence, and I shall be telling it for ever! If there be such a glory in his conduct towards me now, what will it be to see the Lamb in the midst of the throne? Blessed be God that-ever I WAS BORN." JAN. 15.-"Unto thee, O God, do I lift up my soul." Ps. xxv. 1. It is not easy to do this. We are naturally sluggish and grovelling. Who has not reason to acknowledge with shame and sorrow, "my soul cleaveth unto the dust?" It is easy enough, in duty, to lift up our hands, and our eyes, and our voices; but it is another thing to come even to his seat, to enter into the secret of his tabernacle, and to hold intercourse with the God of heaven. And yet, without this, what is devotion? And how unanswerable will all our services be to the requisition of Him who is a Spirit, and seeketh such to worship him as worship him in spirit and in truth? And without this, a real Christian is no more satisfied than God. He will not, indeed, from a principle of duty, undervalue the means of grace, and neglect private and public devotion; but he is disappointed unless he can lift up his soul unto God. And this marks the spiritual worshipper. He is not distinguished by always enjoying liberty and fervour in his holy exercises; but he mourns the want of them -while the formalist looks no further than the per formance itself, and returns from the House and Throne of God without ever enquiring whether he has had communion with Him. It is the spirituality of religion that befriends enjoyment. Nothing yields us pleasure but in proportion as the heart is engaged in the pursuit. How dull, how tiresome are those tasks, in which "In vain to heaven we lift our cries, "And leave our souls behind." But it is good to draw near to God. Then there is a sacred charm that keeps our thoughts from wandering. Then we attend on the Lord without distraction. Then we feel no weariness of spirit. We call the Sabbath a delight. We find his words, and eat them. And our meditation of Him is sweet. And when such a worshipper comes forth, he will be ready to say to all he meets, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you; that ye may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." And His recommendations are likely to have some effect. For his profit will appear unto all men. His face shines. His heart speaks. His life speaks. His character speaks. He must be impressive and influential. He will be felt-in the family-in the Church-and in the world. He cannot but do good, even without pretension-without effort. "When such a man, familiar with the skies, "Has filled his urn where those pure waters rise ; "Which tells, whence his treasures are supplied." JAN. 16.-"I know the thoughts I think towards you, saith the Lord; thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Jer. xxix. 11. WHAT can the people of God desire more? They are here assured by Himself-that he thinks of them -that he knows his thoughts towards them-that they are kind in their nature: thoughts of peace, and not of evil-and that they regard an end allowing and requiring expectation: to bring them to an expected end. He designed and procured the Jews good in Babylon but the ransomed of the Lord were to return, and come to Zion. "After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place." Here we see what was their expected end. And what did it prefigure, but "The end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls" "The end, everlasting life?" The Christian is now on the sea encountering many a wind, and feeling many a fear: but the voyage will end; and he will be brought into the desired haven. He is now on a journey; and he is often discouraged because of the way; but it will end in a better country, and at his Father's house, where are many mansions. He is now in a warfare; and though it be a good one, it is trying and painful: but the strife will soon end; and the head exchange the helmet for "the crown of glory that fadeth not away." But what characterizes the posture of the believer's mind with regard to this? Expectation. He is looking for that blessed hope. He is waiting for the Saviour from Heaven. For he is now saved by hope. Every thing now leads him forward. Creatures; ordinances; his connexions; his experience; every thing in his painful and in his pleasing feelings; all, all says, “Arise, and depart hence, for this is not your rest.' Human expectation is seldom justified by the event. If the votary do not miss his aim, he is disappointed in his object, and his heart sighs in the midst of his success. But let the Christian's expectation be as great as even the Scripture can make 99 it, the blessedness itself will be much greater; and the fruition will induce the acknowledgment, "The half was not told me." Yet the expectation is very distinguishable from the confidence of the presumptuous. Natural men find it a very easy thing to hope, because they hope without any proper sense of their unworthiness and guilt; they hope without examination, without evidence; uninformed and unauthorized. It is one of the first works of the Spirit of God to break up this state of mind; and then the man can say, with Paul, "I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." Yet while he for ever shuts this door of hope, he opens another: he turns him from the Law to the Gospel; from self to the Saviour; from going about to establish his own righteousness, to submit himself to the righteousness which is of God. Hence arises what the Apostle calls "a good hope through grace;" and the goodness consists not so much in the strength of the confidence, as in the solidity of the foundation, and the clearness and fulness of the warrant. Our Lord speaks of two builders; the one he calls a fool, the other a wise man. But the differences between them was not so much in the edifices themselves, as in the groundwork. Both structures looked fair enough to the passenger, but the house of the former was built upon the sand, and the storm carried it away; while that of the latter stood every assault, for it was founded on a rock. What a sandy base has the hope of many! How certainly and easily will be overthrown-the expectation of the sinner, the worldling, the hypocrite, and the Pharisee! But the Christian's hope maketh not ashamed: it rests on the foundation laid in Zion; and the possessor cannot be confounded, unless God can become a liar, and be chargeable with perjury-for he has not only promised, but swore: and "because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself." |