desires which in their very indulgence will promote our happiness.

In order to this, what better directory can there be, than that which is given us in our text: "Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart?" What is the. import of this comprehensive counsel? It is as if the inspired Psalmist had said: "Direct thy views and thy affections to the Author of being and of blessedness. No longer employ thyself in hewing out broken cisterns, which can hold no water;' but resort, with ardent desire and grateful delight, to 'the fountain of living water.' Delight and solace thyself in the admiring contemplation of the chief good, and the chief joy of all who have discovered

the secret of happiness." And is there not to be found the highest delight in the manifestations of divine glory, and especially of divine love? Is there not delight in beholding the Justice which governs the world, and the holiness which adorns the throne of

Deity, blended with the mercy which "blotteth out transgressions," and "the love which passeth knowedge?'' Surely there is delight ineffable in being authorized to say, “This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death.-O God, I will praise thee: thou wast angry with me; but thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me. Behold, the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation!”

Cherish such delight as this; and its effect, in regulating the desires of the heart, will be equally powerful and salutary. It will induce a progressively ardent desire to discern more of "the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ;" to spend your days more constantly in the light of his countenance; and to attain higher qualifications for his service on earth, and for his immediate presence in heaven. Now, if in these desires themselves there are elements of true delight, so also will there be in the studies and the efforts and the prayers and the thanksgivings which they will dictate, and still more in the progressive attainment of the things desired. And in all this there is no danger of mortifying and heart-withering

disappointment. When we desire these things, and ask them at the throne of the heavenly grace, we desire and we ask according to the will of God; "and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us; and if we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."

Thirdly, Let us cherish those desires which will most effectually repress and exclude the evil inclinations of the heart.

Delight thyself in the Lord, as thy chief good, and then thy prevailing desire will be to glorify thy God, by every affection of thy heart, and every

action of thy life. Delight thyself thus in the Lord, and thy most pleasurable desire and expectation for the future, will spring from the hope of seeing God, and of being for ever with him. Thus wilt thou attain a spiritual mind, a heavenly temper, looking and aiming not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; remembering that the things which are seen are temporal, but that the things which are not seen are eternal. Thou wilt cultivate the desires and the affections of a pilgrim and stranger upon earth, "desiring a better, that is, a heavenly country;" and rejoicing in "the hope of the inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that