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the proud and wealthy rush by in triumph, while you are poor and in sorrow, hear the voice of your Father saying, "My Son! had I loved them, I should have corrected THEM too. I give them up to the ways of their own hearts: but to my children, if I give sorrow, it is that I may lead them to a crown of glory that fadeth not away!"

IT is by faith that we contemplate unseen things. To the eye of a clown, a planet appears but a twinkling star: but, if he looked through a telescope, and were able to calculate, he would perceive that it was a great world, and would be astonished at its distance and magnitude. While the gay and the busy are moving on their little mole-hills, full of anxiety, faith thus reaches beyond the world: it views death as at hand: it looks at heaven, and catches a glimpse of its glory: it looks at hell and sees the torments of the condemned: it looks at judgment, and realizes that awful day: it looks at eternity, and says Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen,are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal.

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WHERE there is a real character, a man will not sit down in the Christian conflict, and say, "If I must carry about with me this body of death, I must submit. I must bear these enemies as quietly as I can." No! he will say, as St. Paul seems to say, "I will be on no terms with sin! I will raise an outcry against the corrupt nature! I will triumph in my Physician! His grace is sufficient for me: I will wait for a cure, and wait for it in the appointed way. I see light, and hope, and liberty; and I thank Godthat, if I am a sinner, yet I am a saved sinner!”,

GOD hath set the day of prosperity and the day of adversity, the one over against the other--as the clouds are gathered, for rain, by the shining of the sun: and, if for a moment they are blown aside, we must expect their return. Where, in our sky, should we look for clouds?-where it is brightest: where our expectations are highest. Our sharpest sorrows arise out of our sweetest comforts. Rachel said, Give me children, or else I die: and, in obtaining what she esteemed her highest comfortwhat she would have at any rate-was hidden the cause of her sharpest grief. God gave her children; and, in bearing her second child, it came to pass, as her soul was in departing (for she died,) that she called his name Ben-oni-the son of my

sorrow.

WHO is the most miserable man on earth?-and whither shall we go to seek him?-Not to the tavern! not to the theatre! not even to a brothel!- but to the church! That man who has sat Sabbath after Sabbath under the awakening and affecting calls of the gospel, and has hardened his heart against these calls-HE is the man whose condition is the most desperate of all others. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida!—and thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.

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GIVE every kind of knowledge its due attention and respect: but what science is to be compared to the knowledge of Christ crucified? Had a traveller lost his way in some desert, where he had wandered till he was fainting with hunger and thirst, for what would he first ask?-for music?-for paintings?No!-he would ask for bread-for water! Any thing else offered him would be a mocking of his misery.

WHAT an oppressive burden is taken off a Chris tian's shoulders, by his privilege of leaving all consequences, while in the path of duty, to God! He has done with-"How shall I bear this trouble?""How shall I remove this difficulty?"-"How shall I get through this deep water?"-but leaves himself in the hands of God.

We may form some idea of the joys of heaven, by the innocent pleasures which God grants us on earth. Here is a fine situation, with wonderful prospects-every thing to delight the senses: yet all this we find in a world which is under a curse! what then may we not expect in a heavenly world, where God exercises all his power for our blessedness?

HOWEVER ill men may treat us, we should never give them a handle to say that we misbehaved ourselves. Were I to meet my most bitter adversary, and know that he was come with the most malicious intentions, I should endeavor to be so on my guard, that he could not lay his finger, with truth, on any part of my conduct.

THE MOTIVE determines the quality of actions. One man may do a penurious act, because he knows he shall be put to difficulties if he does not: another may do the same from mere avarice. The king of Edom offered up his son on the wall, and his abominable cruelty excited just indignation: but Abraham, having in intention offered up his son, is held forth to all generations for this act as the father of the faithful.

Ir is always a sign of poverty of mind, where men are ever aiming to appear great: for they, who are really great, never seem to know it.

WHAT the world calls the best company is such, as à pious mechanic would not condescend to keep: he would rather say, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity!

ONE way of reading the Bible with advantage is, to pay it great homage: so that, when we come to any part which we cannot connect with other passages, we must conclude that this arises from our ignorance, but that the seeming contrarieties are in themselves quite reconcilable.

YOUNG Christians, on setting out in life, often mistake greatly in not sufficiently attributing events to the immediate providence of God. They are not reluctant, at the end, to acknowledge that their way has been directed; but they do not enough mark it as they go on. There is a habit of saying "Such a thing may TURN UP," as if it depended on chance; whereas nothing will turn up, but what was ordered long before. One cause of this evil is, that the divinity of our day deals too much in common-place: certain fundamental truths are set forth; and if a man professes these truths, too little account is made of the faith, dependance, and other graces of a Christian. When a man becomes a Christian he is written upon, as it were, "TO BE PROVIDED FOR!"-and he ought, therefore, to notice, as he goes on, how Providence does provide for him.

MEN mistake in nothing so much, as when they resist their dispensation: for, while God shutteth up a man, there can be no opening. Resistance does but make the dispensation harder to be borne. Job says, He teareth himself in his angers

but shall the Rock be removed because of thee! The man is, as it were in a labyrinth; and the hand, which brought him in, must be the hand to conduct him out.

WE require the same hand to protect us in apparent safety, as in the most imminent and palpable danger. One of the most wicked men in my neighborhood was riding near a precipice, and fell over: his horse was killed, but he escaped without injury: instead of thanking God for his deliverance, he refused to acknowledge the hand of God therein: but attributed his escape to chance. The same man was afterward riding on a very smooth road: his horse suddenly tripped and fell, and threw his rider over his head, and killed him on the spot, while the horse escaped unhurt.

Ir a man is dead in sin, our attempting to correct his false notions is like laying a dead man straight, who before was lying crooked. The man is dead, and will remain so; though, before, he was lying crooked, and is now lying straight. It matters little what right notions we may have, while we are dead in sin; for we shall never act up to them, till God awakens our hearts.

To have too much forethought, is the part of a WRETCH: to have too little, is the part of a FOOL.

SELF-WILL is so ardent and active, that it will break a world to pieces, to make a stool to sit on.

WE are too little acquainted with the sacred character of God. A certain man sold a possession, and brought a certain part of the price. We should have thought this a generous act: but God saw

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