on every side walk in silence and sadness, like a ghost among the tombs. What Job calls his friends, "physicians of no value," 'miserable comforters," will apply to all our dependencies and expectations separate from God. Even in laughter the heart will be sorrowful. Our successes, like the quails of the Jews, will poison us while they gratify: our prosperity will destroy us: and at the end of our days the fool and the wretch will acknowledge the truth of Jonah's confession, "they that observe lying vanities forsake thei: own mercies; salvation is of the Lord."

True comfort is to be found in God only; in the hore of his mercy; in the evidence of his friendship; in the freedom of his service in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. But they who seek it in him shall not be confounded. He has insured to those who flee for refuge to this hope, strong consolation, by a promise confirmed by an oath and what he promises he is able to perform. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. No depth of distress is below his reach. He can create comfort when there is nothing to derive it from. He can extract it out of the most unlikely materials. He can bring order out of confusion, strength out of weakness, light out of darkness.

Sufferer! think of Him! It is his prerogative and delight to comfort them that are cast down." Why should you faint or despond? Are the consolations of God small with thee? Does not He say, “I, even I, am he that comforteth thee ?”

Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief. Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side."

APRIL 15.-"Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me.”—Psalm li. 11.

WE may see what David prized by what he deprecates. There were many calamities at the thought of which his heart might have trembled. He could remember how God for his disobedience had punished his predecessor Saul, and had rent the kingdom from him. He knew how God by Nathan had threatened himself; and he could not help feeling the announcement, that the child should die, and the sword never depart from his house. Yet he does not say, Ó let me escape the rod-do not deprive me of my throne-or involve my family in trouble and disgrace. This is what many would have implored. But David prays, "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me." They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; and thus it is with men of the world; they are satisfied as long as their friends and health, their corn and wine, abound. Tell them of the hiding of God's countenance, and the loss of the comforts of the Holy Ghost, and they know not your meaning, and are ready to treat you with scorn o pity. They judge of every thing by a fallacious standard. "Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord understand all things." They weigh every claim in the balance of the sanctuary. They walk by faith and not by sight. No evils there fore appear to them like those which regard the welfare of the soul and eternity.

The most awful evils

And their judgmer is founded in truth. are spiritual evils. And these are more peculiar to the dispensation under which we live. Temporal judgments were common under the law, when offenders were often punished immediately, sensibly, visibly. We see this in the case of Lot's wife, Miriam, Uzzah, and many others recorded in the Old Testament. But under the Gospel inflictions are more spiritual. Here men are given up to a hard heart, a reprobate mind, a seared conscience; to vile affections; to strong delusion; to believe a lie. The spirit of slumber falls upon them. The word and ordinances of religion become barren and unprofitable. By the fascinations of error they are so bewitched that they cannot obey the truth. Yet they are easy. For these are judgments that do not alarm; it is the very nature of them to stupify. Oh! it would be a thousand times better to lose all your substance and beg your bread from door to door; a thousand times better to be robbed of health, and never enjoy another hour of ease, than for God thus to punish you. And though you will not and ought not to pray for sufferings absolutely, if you are like-minded with David you will be willing that God should deal with you in any way rather than say, "He is joined to idols, let him alone”— And this will be your most earnest prayer: "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me. But was David in danger of this? We do not like to get rid of an apparent difficulty by denying a revealed truth. And such appears to us the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints. We are therefore confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in them will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Yet first, the effect deprecated may take place in a measure and degree. God was provoked to leave Hezekiah in the business of the ambassadors of Babylon, and it showed what was in his heart. And God may be so grieved as to suspend the comforts of the Holy Ghost, and all joy and peace in believing. And secondly, by yielding to temptation, a partaker of divine grace may be reduced to such a state of darkness and horror and anguish, as to apprehend God's entire abandonment of him for ever. This was David's case. His fall had broken his bones, closed his lips, deprived him of the joy of God's salvation, and made him fear that he was cut off from before his eyes.

Such an evil and bitter thing is it to sin against God. So surely will our backslidings reprove us. If his children walk not in my judgments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. The way to walk comfortably is to walk consistently. I am always sorry to see some professors so calm and happy as they are. With their levity of temper, and vain conversation, and worldly conformities, and neglect of the means of grace-were they the Lord's people, surely he would show that they are not walking so as to please him. Them that honour me, I wit honour. Blessed is the mar that feareth always.

APRIL 16.-" Ye were as sheep going astray."-1 Pet. ii. 25.

THE words seem to be, if not a quotation from, yet an allusion tɑ the language of Isaiah-" All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." If there be truth in this supposition, two things are asserted by the prophet which are not repeated by the Apostle. The one is, the universality of the charge -All we like sheep have gone astray. There is no difference between Jew and Greek. The Scripture has proved all under sin. The other is, the diversification of the depravity-We have turned every one to his own way. Though all are guilty, each has some particular iniquity to which he is attached, by his constitutional complexion or his outward circumstances. And here it is that many are deluded. They flatter themselves by comparison, and are satisfied because they are free from some crimes chargeable upon others; not considering that they also are wanderers, only in another road. A straight line is always the same; but there are millions of crooked ones. There was only one ark by which any could be saved; but there were numberless abysses in which they could be drowned. Nothing, says a good writer, is more lamentable, than to near people who are all wrong disputing among themselves which is right. Yet this is common. But the lover of pleasure and the lover of gold; the profligate and the pharisaical; the open offender and the close hypocrite; the superstitious Papist and the forma Protestant, are all in the same condition with regard to their safety. Let us remember that the Scripture is our only rule of judgment, and that it matters not what we think of ourselves, or others think of us-if we are destitute of faith in Christ and true holiness. "He that believeth not the Son hath not life:" and "without holiness no man shall see the Lord."

The words are a metaphor; a metaphor often used by the sacred writers, and therefore just and pertinent. Indeed nothing can be more significant of the danger and misery of a sinner than a strayed sheep. The welfare of the sheep depends on the care of the shepherd. If they wander beyond his protecting arm, they are liable to be destroyed by beasts of prey; or if they leave his pasturage they are likely to perish for want of food: for though they can go astray of themselves they cannot defend themselves, nor provide for themselves, or of themselves find their way back. They are therefore lost unless sought after. The metaphors of the Scripture, however, though strong in their allusion, are often only partial. But they are more forcible by being limited; for by stretching a comparison tɩ each every thing, we weaken it as well as render it ridiculous. Sheep in going astray are not guilty, but they would be criminal and deserving all they suffered, if they were possessed of reason, and after having been under the superintendence of the kindest shepherd, and allowed to want no good thing, they should knowingly abandon him, and wilfully incur every kind of peril and wretchedness. And s not this the emblem of our conduct? Did not God make man oright? Did not the inspiration of the Almighty give him understanding? Was he not placed in a condition of safety, peace, and appiness? Was he not fenced in by divine commands? Ap

prized of the consequences of going astray? And warned against them ?--Yet astray he went!

In the

And thus we reach the fact which the words were intended to express-the natural state of men as alienated from the life of God They are as sheep going astray. They go astray from their duty to God. Thus they forsake him as their Lord and owner. As he made them, and gave them all their powers, possessions, and enjoyments, they are bound to serve and obey himn: but they prefer their own will to his authority, and live in the violation of his laws which are all holy and just and good. They go astray from their happiness in God. Thus they forsake him as their portion, following after rest and satisfaction apart from the supreme good. All wish for nappiness; but where do they naturally seek it? pleasures of sin, in the dissipations of the world, in science, fame, riches, power, friendship. They do not seek it in the favour, the image, the presence, the service of God. They wish to be happy without God. They ask, "Who will show us any good?" but do not pray, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. If ever they go to God, it is when fear or affliction urges them. Dc they delight themselves in the Almighty? Do they always call upon God? They go astray from their recovery by God. Thus they forsake him as their Saviour; who, instead of abandoning them when they departed from him, remembered them in their low estate, and provided means the most suitable and adequate for their restoration. He spared not his own Son, but gave him up as a propitiation for their sins. IIe sends them the gospel; beseeches them_by his ministers; and urges the message by a thousand motives-But they make light of it: they turn away from him that speaketh, and neglect so great salvation. Yea, they oppose it; and if ever they think of returning to God, it is by a way of their own devising in preference to his. They go about to establish their own righteousness, instead of submitting themselves to the righteousness which is of God; and act in their own strength, instead of being strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; thus frustrating him in his greatest delight, and robbing him of his highest glory.

Reflect upon each of these: and remember, Christian, this was once your own state. Look back; and acknowledge that ye yourselves also were once foolish and disobedient. But after this the loving-kindness of God our Saviour, towards you, appeared. If you are justified, you were once condemned: if alive, you were once dead: if found, you were once lost. How happy that you can be addressed as those who were once going astray, but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls!

APRIL 17. He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified."-Heb. ii. 11. THE Apostle here speaks of Christ and of Christians as concerner in the same work, but differently concerned. He is the agent, thes are the subjects-He sanctifieth, and they are sanctified. We ate not however to suppose that in this work they are passive; or tha he acts upon them as a mechanic operates upon stone and wood, which are insensible and unconscious of the process. He does not sanctify them without their knowledge, and consent, and choice, and

exertion. According to his good pleasure he works in them to will and to do. He makes them the instruments, as well as the subjects; and so engages them, that the work is represented as their work as well as his. Hence it is enjoined, as well as promised, and we are called upon to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit; and are assured that he who has the hope of Christ in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

But there is no inconsistency here. We believe, but he enables us to believe. We exercise repentance, but he gives us repentance unto life. Ve bear the fruit, but it is the fruit of the Spirit, and in him is all our fruit found-and therefore we are called trees of righte ousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified.

To sanctify admits of two imports. The first is separation or setting apart from common to sacred use. Thus the tabernacle and all the vessels of the sanctuary under the law, were sanctified. No change took place in their qualities, but only in their appropriation and use-They were sanctified by consecration. And there are some who contend that in this sense only are we sanctified by the purpose of God. To plead for a real change of nature, for a growth in grace, or for any thing in ourselves, though not derived from ourselves, is legal, genders to bondage, and obscures the glory of the Gospel. So it was always. Jude tells us of ungodly men who turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness: and James mentions those who relied on a faith without works, and which was dead, being alone. This sense of sanctification indeed applies to the people of God, but it involves another. "The Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself." "God hath from the beginning chosen them to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth."

The second meaning therefore is renovation-Hence we read of being renewed in the spirit of our minds; of being made partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the pollutions of the world through lust. There is a real operation in all the subjects of divine grace, which delivers them from the power of darkness; and destroys the love of sin; and renders true holiness their delight and pursuit. Paul therefore says, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of the mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God"-The latter depends upon the former. We cannot be consecrated to God till we are renovated. The reason is that by nature we are depraved, and have no love to God or concern to please him. But when this divine change takes place, then what God purposed is actually exemplified, and we dedicate ourselves to him, considering ourselves as no longer our own, and using all we are, and all we have, to his service and in his praise.

Hence sanctification is more than natural amiableness, outward reformation, and mere morality. Morality does not include holiness, but holiness includes morality, and makes provision for it in the Eurest and noblest way.

Sanctification too is not confined to any particular faculty, but extends to the whole nature of man. We read of being sanctified wholly, body, soul, and spirit. The work is not finished in any part, but it is begun in every part. There is a difference between the operations of art and of lite. The progress of the former is succes