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abounding with love and joy, do join together, both in heart and voice, in the cheerful and melodious singing of His praises.-BAXTER.

JANUARY 12.

"Christian! seek not yet repose,"
Hear thy guardian angel say';
Thou art in the midst of foes;
"Watch and pray."

Should Israel have settled his rest in the wilderness among serpents and enemies, and heaviness, and famine? Should Noah have made the ark his home, and been loath to come forth when the waters were fallen? Should the mariner choose his dwelling on the sea, and settle his rest in the midst of rocks and sands, and raging tempests? Should a soldier rest in the midst of fight, when he is in the very thickest of his enemies and the instruments of death compass him about? I think he cares not how soon the battle is over. And are not Christians such travellers, such mariners, such soldiers? Have you not fears within, and troubles without? Are we not in the thickest of continual dangers? We cannot eat, drink, sleep, labour, pray, hear, etc., but in the midst of snares and perils, and shall we sit down and rest here? O Christian, follow thy work, look to thy danger, and hold on to the end; win the field, and come off the ground, before thou think of a settling rest.-BAXTER.

JANUARY 13.

He was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words. 2 CORINTHIANS xii. 4.

If I had spoke with Paul when he was new come down from the third heavens, and he might have revealed to me the things which he had seen; oh, what would I give for an hour's such conference! How far would I go to hear such a narration! Why, I must shortly see those very things myself: yea, and far more than Paul was then capable of seeing ; and yet I shall see no more than I shall possess. If I had but spoken one hour with Lazarus when he was risen from the dead, and heard him describe the things which he had seen in another world, if God would permit and enable him thereto, what a joyful discourse would that have been! How many thousand books may I read before I could know so much as he could have told me in that hour! If God would have suffered him to tell what he had seen, the Jews would have thronged more to hear him than they did to see him. Oh, but this would have been nothing to the sight itself, and to the fruition of all that which Lazarus saw.-BAXTER.

JANUARY 14.

If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.-JOHN xiv. 14.

He will do the very thing we ask if that be best; otherwise He will do something for us which, all things considered, shall be better; so that our prayer is still answered: as, if we ask something that is really good, so that it would conduce to some good end we have in our eye, if He gives us something that will conduce more to that end than that particular thing we asked would, He doth not only do what we asked, but more. As when St. Paul prayed that the thorn in his flesh might be removed, and our Lord answered, "My grace is sufficient for thee;" the apostle looked upon his prayer as fully answered, although he had not the very thing he prayed for; because it was better to have the grace of Christ always sufficient for him, than to be freed from any particular trouble. And thus it is that Christ usually doth what we ask; if He doth not do the thing itself, He doth that which is better, and which we, therefore, would have asked, if we had known it as well as He.-BEVERIDGE.

JANUARY 15.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?-ROMANS vii. 24.

Lord, many times I am aweary quite

Of mine own self, my sin, my vanity-
Yet be not Thou, or I am lost outright,
Weary of me.

And hate against myself I often bear,

And enter with myself in fierce debate:
Take Thou my part against myself, nor share
In that just hate.

Best friends might loathe as if what things perverse

We know of our own selves, they also knew:

Lord, Holy One! if Thou who knowest worse
Should loathe us too!

TRENCH.

JANUARY 16.

I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.-REVELATION xxi. 3.

And what, we may ask, will be the employment of the redeemed in their future home? We may not doubt that the study of the works of God, which even here have engaged the intellect and constituted the delight of the most excellent among the children of men, will there be continued. What

mines of gladdening contemplation exist in the millions of forms and varieties of which this material world is composed! How inexhaustible the treasures of earth, sea, and sky! And as the creation around us is the means of life and comfort, of usefulness and instruction, of gratitude and praise to all the dwellers here below; so we have every reason to believe the new creation, the new heaven and earth which shall replace those which now exist, will be the means of enjoyment and happiness to the redeemed, in a degree far beyond our present powers of conception. When we call to mind, indeed, that there God will be all in all, His glory pervading all, and sustaining all things, a field of contemplation opens before us, not only exalted and immense, but literally infinite and divine.-Badger.

JANUARY 17.

When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh his enemies to be at peace with him.-PROVERBS XVI. 7.

And, not only they, but all things else shall work for your good, so long as ye continue in His favour who governs and disposes of all things as He pleases. For when ye are reconciled to Him, He will look upon you as His friends, His favourites, His children, and will deal accordingly with you. He will take you under His own particular care and conduct. He will hide you under His wings, that no evil may come near, to hurt you. He will bless

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