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that are tempted. Such is the benefit of an Example; which shews us how to act and how to feel in the hour of trial-for he also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps. Such is the benefit of Divine Influence; for by dying, he obtained for us the dispensation of the Spirit, which is therefore called his Spirit, and, without the supply of which, we must fail and sink-but his grace is sufficient for us.

How encouraging, too, is it to think of the issue of his sufferings. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God. Your sorrows also will have an end-and the same end. It is a faithful saying: for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified together.

FEBRUARY 1.-"Do ye now believe?" John xvi. 31.

THIS was in reply to the profession of his disciples. They had said unto him, "Now speakest thou plainly: now we are sure that thou knowest all things-by this we believe that thou camest forth from God."

It is not easy to lay the emphasis with perfect certainty; and yet, according as it is laid, the language will strike us with some shades of difference. We may consider the words as an enquiry. “Do ye now believe? I have a right to ask, and I do ask." He is not inattentive to our condition, and experience; our deficiencies, and improvements— And though he needeth not that any should testify of man, because he knoweth what is in man; yet he will know these things from ourselves; that we may be urged to consider and be affected with our own communications.

We may consider them as a censure. "Do ye now believe? You ought to have believed long ago -yet, hitherto it would seem, according to your own avowal, you have not: that is, as you ought to have done, and as you might have done. How strange and blameable, that, with all your advantages, you have been, even down to this hour, filled with hesitation and doubts." For he can reprove, as well as encourage. Do ye not yet remember? Do ye not yet understand? After his resurrection, he upbraided them with their unbelief, and hardness of heart.

We may consider them as a check to presumption. "Do ye now believe? You think so; but have you not expressed yourselves with too much confidence? You now consider yourselves confirmed believers: and you suppose that you shall never err again; fail again. I know you better than you know yourselves. Imagination is not reality: and events will prove, that you have much less faith than you now suppose" Behold the hour cometh and is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone."

There is a difference between hypocrisy and instability. We may feel what we utter at the time; but emotions are not principles: impulses are not dispositions. There may be goodness; but it is like the morning cloud and early dew, that soon passeth away. How often do we become a wonder, as well as a grief, to ourselves! How little do we know of our own hearts, till we are tried.-The little ants disappear in the cloudy and rainy day; and the observer might suppose they were all dead. But let the sun shine forth; and they are again all alive, and in motion. There is the same mud at the bottom of the water when calm; but the waves thereof cast up the mire and dirt.

Let us not therefore make too much of frames and feelings nor imagine, because we are now

walking in the light of God's countenance, that we shall never again mourn his absence. Behold, the hour cometh when we may consider all our present joy as only a delusion. Do we now believe? A change in the weather, a depression of animal spirits, may renew all our doubts and fears; and make us all apprehension again.

Therefore let us rejoice with trembling. Let us remember our own weakness; and instead of depending on the grace that is in us, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

"Beware of Peter's word,

"Nor confidently say,

"I never will deny thee, Lord;
"But grant I never may.

"Man's wisdom is to seek

"In God his strength alone;

"And e'en an angel would be weak
"That trusted in his own."

FEB. 2.-"O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest."

Ps. lv. 6.

WHOSE exclamation is this? It is obviously the language of a man not at rest. And if we read the preceding and following verses, we shall find that the complainant was, indeed, really in trouble. And so are many. It seems inseparable from humanity. Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.

But who was this man? One of those deemed the darlings of Providence: a man who had experienced one of the most marvellous revolutions recorded in history. For he was originally nothing more than a shepherd; but rose from obscurity, and became a hero, a renowned conqueror, a

powerful monarch. He had given him the necks of his enemies and the hearts of his subjects; and we might have supposed him sated with victory, and glory, and dominion, and riches. But from the midst of all this he sighs, "O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away, and be at rest!" For, with all his aggrandizements, how much did he suffer from implacable malevolence! How much also from some of his own officers, and especially his nephew Joab, the commander-in-chief! After rearing his fine palace of cedar, he could not for a length of time take possession of it: for he was sick nigh unto death; and week after week saw the graves ready for him. And suppose they had brought out his crown and imposed it upon him-would this have eased an aching head, or have relieved the anguish of a disordered body? What is an ornamented room in the rage of a fever? Then his own house was not so with God. What a distracted and wretched family! His daughter is humbled. The incestuous brother is murdered. The murderer becomes a traitor, and drives his father, as well as king, into exile. In his flight, he is told that Ahithophel, his bosom friend and councillor, is among the conspirators with Absalom. Who can tell what other sorrows corroded him! The heart knoweth his own bitterness. There are griefs that we cannot pour even into the bosom of intimacy. There are thorns in the nest that pierce through the down that lines it, but are known and felt only by the occupier. Did David never regret the loss of the privacy of Bethlehem?

The spirit that is in us lusteth to envy. We are prone to think that, though generally men are born to trouble, there are some exempted individuals; and that though, commonly considered, this earth is a vale of tears, there are some privileged spots. And it is worthy our observation, that these exceptions always belong to others, and always to

those who are above us. Is the servant happy? He will when he is master. Is the master happy? He will when he is rich. Is the rich man happy? He will when he is ennobled, and has distinction as well as gold. Is the nobleman happy? He will when he is king. Is the king-the king happy? Oh, says he, oh that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away and be at rest!

Let us remember this, and not be afraid when one is made rich, and the glory of his house is increased. Let us check the risings of ambition, and not seek great things to ourselves. Let us learn in whatsoever state we are, to be content; and follow the moderation of the Patriarch, who asked only for bread to eat, and raiment to put on, and a safe return to his father's house in peace.

Felicity depends not upon external condition, but the state of the mind. Paul was happy in prison, while Nero was miserable in a palace. Haman, after telling his wife and his friends all his promotion and glory, adds, Yet all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. On that night could not the king sleep.

"Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep-
"He, like the world, his ready visit pays
"Where fortune smiles."

But is this true? No. No. Sleep, sound, wholesome, refreshing sleep, has least to do where fortune smiles. His ready visits are paid to the early rising, the temperate, the diligent: the sleep of a labouring man is sweet. "The wretched," indeed, "he forsakes." But where does he find them? Here is one of themthe ruler of one hundred and twenty-seven provinces-on that night could not the king sleep. Ahab, the monarch of Israel, is melancholy, and sick, and cannot eat, because he cannot obtain Naboth's little parcel of ground for a garden of herbs; and neither his happiness or health could go on till

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