Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. Exod. ii. 9.

AS Moses was ordered to be saved by the most

cruel enemy's daughter, so Satan himself, even when he meditates our destruction, must be a means of our life. So also Matt. xii. 48. Who is my mother, &c. Isa. viii. 10, and ix. 6. O LORD JESUS, if thou art a child born unto me, and I am willing to receive thee as my Immanuel, thou wilt be my shield and exceeding great reward, and defend me powerfully against all my enemies. O my dear SAVIOUR, if thou art mine, all is mine, even thy Father, thy Spirit, and thy heavenly glory, all accidents, all enemies must work for my good, and be instruments and ministers of my salvation. O that I may, trusting in thee, never fear anything, but thinking directly it is mine, may only make good use of everything. Thus even the very worst would turn to my greatest blessing; and without it perhaps I should want as needful a thing as a mill or a ship does when destitute of wind and water.

My soul, survey thy happiness,

If thou art found a child of grace:
How richly is the Gospel stored!
What joy the promises afford!

All things are now the gift of GOD,

And purchased with our SAVIOUR'S blood;
While the good Spirit shows us how

To use and to enjoy them too.

If peace and plenty crown my days,

Then help me, LORD, to speak thy praise;
If bread of sorrows be my food,
Those sorrows work my real good.
Whatever fills my temporal cup,
Make me with gratitude to sup,
And trust the faithful promise given,
That I shall dwell with thee in heaven.

Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart unto the Lord. EPH. v. 19. Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns. COL. iii. 16. Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. ACTS xvi. 25.

IF

F we are obliged to promote the temporal good of our neighbour, how much more the spiritual, by edifying discourses! But how is it? The children of GOD, when a person visits them (says a certain divine), are sometimes troubled, and know not what discourse to enter upon at last they begin an unprofitable discourse, or at least they suffer others to do it, and are silent at it. I will tell you what I have done in such cases: I first prayed to GOD, saying, "O good GOD, here I receive a guest, and have nothing to set before and treat him with; I pray thee to give me the right bread for him;" which the LORD was pleased to hear in such a gracious manner, that I could sooner enter into an edifying discourse. And thus we keep our conscience clean; and though perhaps the lips were frozen up at first, they are thawed and opened by prayer. Some foolish philosophers, to the great offence of others, mock at divine things, and even at prayer; as if we needed no other help than our own depraved reason and will. But what St. Paul says (Rom. i. 22) is fulfilled in them :-" Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools." What will become of these poor scoffers upon their dying bed, and at the day of judgment! O that they would take warning while it is time.

66

Now if some proper hour appear,

Let none be overawed;

But let the scoffing sinners hear
That we can speak for GOD.

Tell his disciples, and Peter (who was deeply fallen) especially. MARK XVi. 7. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation. for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 JOHN ii. 1, 2. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees. HEB. xii. 12.

H

AST thou been slack, unfaithful, and fallen away? O poor soul, thou art not to make light of it; but why wilt thou continue in thy fallen condition any longer, and complain? Get thee up and ask pardon of CHRIST; he is ready to forgive and receive thee again, like Peter, "having received gifts for the rebellious." Delay not to lay hold of thy ransom, which is greater than all the sins of the world; nay, the ransom is paid for this very sin, and a pardon purchased by it already. Therefore sue it out and be not discouraged, nor listen to the temptation of giving up hope, and turning back to the world. The LORD even now reaches forth his hands to thee anew by this very word; come, lift thyself up at it, and be careful for the time to come to be so much more cautious, humble, and gentle towards others; for a Christian's foot may trip; but when recovered, it slides deeper into humility.

Salvation! O the joyful sound,

'Tis pleasure to mine ears;
A sov'reign balm for every wound,
A cordial for my fears.

Buried in sorrow and in sin,
At hell's dark door I lay;

But I arise, by grace divine,
To see a heavenly day.

Behold, we come unto thee, JER. iii. 22, (and) I
will come unto you. JOHN xiv. 18. A lively
representation of this happy meeting. See
LUKE xix. 4-6. Zaccheus ran before, and
climbed up into a sycamore-tree to see him: for
he to
was pass that
And Christ said un-
way.
to him, Make haste and come down, for to-day
I must abide at thy house.

My dear SAVIOUR, since I come to thee, and

thou to me, we shall certainly meet one another. Who will oppose and obstruct it? The devil and sin? Oh no! this wall of separation is pulled down. CHRIST says, "Come unto me; I am not an angry judge, but a loving Mediator between God and thy frightened conscience: keep to me, and fear no wrath. I sit here, that, believing in me to make intercession for thee with God, no wrath or disgrace can befall thee. Should wrath and punishment come upon thee, it must first come upon me: wrath is quite impossible." Yes, O my soul, it is indeed impossible; for thy JESUS is the dear Son of GOD, in whom dwells all the fulness of grace, and the Father, looking upon him, his wrath must vanish away, and everything in heaven and earth be changed into smiles of love and grace. Eph. i. 6. Dangers and conflicts being hot, GOD hastens with his assistance. At other times he tarries, and the work of our whole renovation goes on by little and little, that, improving in the exercise of patience and faith, we may also bear with others, and learn not only to quicken our diligence, but also to wait for him.

In thine own ways, O GOD of love,
We wait the visits of thy grace;
Our soul's desire is to thy name,
And the remembrance of thy face.

Ps.

Mine iniquities are gone over my head; as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. Xxxviii. 4. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. MATT. xi. 28.

T is a sure sign that a man is awakened out of

dream. In the drawing up of water out of a deep well, so long as the bucket is under water, we feel not the weight of it; but as soon as it comes above water, it begins to hang heavy on the hand. When a man dives under water, he feels no weight of the water, though there may be many tons of it over his head; whereas a tub half full of the same water, taken out of the river, and set upon the same man's head, would be very burdensome to him, and make him soon grow weary of it. In like manner, so long as a man is overhead in sin, he is not sensible of the weight of sin, it is not troublesome to him; but when he begins once to come out of that state of sin wherein he lay and lived before, then beginneth sin to hang heavy upon him, and he groans under the weight thereof. So long as sin is in the will, the proper seat of sin, a man feels not the weight of it, but, like a fool, it is sport and pastime to him to do evil. It is therefore a good sign that sin is removed out of its seat, out of its chair of state, when it becomes burdensome to us; and such a sense of sin may well be considered as an entrance into a state of grace. Give me, O LORD, a true sense of my sin, and an apprehension of the mercy of GOD in CHRIST, and ability to embrace him as my Redeemer and Saviour.

Give me, O LORD, the broken heart,

Which mourns for sin with inward smart,

And will to thy dear cross repair,

And seek and find its healing there.