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mours of some others, either above them, or that being below them, may give accession and furtherance to their ends of enrichment, advancement, and popularity. Men set on these things forge necessities to themselves, and make vain things as necessary as food and raiment, resolving that they will have them, or fall in the chace, being wilfully and unavoidably set on them. And this is the first thing indeed to be looked to, that our desires and cares be brought to a due compass; and what would we have? Do we think contentment lies in so much and no less? Alas! when that is attained, it shall appear as far off as before. high hill, they think it reaches to the heavens; and yet if they were there, they find themselves as far off as before, at least not sensibly nearer. Men think, Oh! had I this, I were well; and when it is reached, it is but an advanced standing to look higher, and spy out for some other thing. We are indeed children in this, to think the good of our estate is in the greatness, and not in the fitness of it for us. He were a fool that would have his clothes so; and think the bigger and longer they were, they would please him the better. And certainly as in apparel, so in place and estate, and all our outward things, their good. lies not in their greatness, but their fitness for us: as our Saviour tells us expressly, that man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things he possesses.'-Luke xii. 19. Think you great and rich persons live more content? believe it not. they will deal freely they can tell you the contrary; that there is nothing but a show in them; and that great estates and places have great griefs and cares attending them, as shadows are proportioned to their bodies. So then, I say, this is first to be regulated; all childish, vain, needless cares are to be discharged, and as being unfit to cast on thy God, are to be quite cast out of thy heart. Entertain no care at all but such as thou mayest put into God's hands, and make his on thy behalf; such he will take off thy hand, and undertake for thee."

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REFLECTIONS

ON SELECT PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE.

Behold he taketh away, who can hinder him?JOR ix.12.

AND who, but they whom self-will has made stupid, would desire to hinder? The watchful parent takes from his child the thing with which he might amuse himself to his own injury. So God from his misjudging child in pity takes away the dangerous gift, of which the possession might work him ill. But alas! the indocile child resists the deprivation, as if it were some injury done him —he would at all risks keep his plaything, for little else is this world's good at best, and take all consequences rather than be deprived of it. Will our Father yield to us? No, if he loves us, surely not. What should we say of the parent who yielding to his children's tears, would leave in their hands the things that might destroy them? What could we say but that he loved them not? O then when He in heaven hears not our cries and regards not our weepings, and resists our entreaties, let us not say he loves us not. Nay rather give it he taketh away, let us not attempt to hinder. It is true we cannot-for he is too strong for us: what he will take, he will take whether we will yield or not-but this is not sufficient. Submission is forced, but why not acquiesce? When by some threatening providence he says, "I must take from thee that thing thou lovest "why hang back, and say "I cannot part from it?-It must be parted from perhaps for thine own safety-Would it not be rather wise to say -"Behold, for I will not hinder?" Surely he loves a cheerful giver, one who yields not grudgingly and of necessity-gives up cheerfully what is demanded of him, though it were the delight of his eyes and the beloved of his bosom; and not with grudging unwillingness because he must, but with entire acquiescence because he feels it good, submits to his providence and does not call it

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hard. Man says "I cannot part from it, and cannot do without it"-God says "you cannot keep it." Ah! cease the foolish contest. Who can hinder Him? And who but madmen would? Total strangers to the consequences of every thing, as an infant to the sharp edge of the glittering blade he grasps, our Father does but kindly to force it from our hold, and we do only madly to complain that it is wrested from us, and murmur over that as loss which is no more than rescue.

Celui qui séduit lui-même son cœur n'a qu'une vaine religion.-1 JAC. v. 26.

LES gens qui étoient éloignés de Dieu se croyent bien près de lui dès qu'ils commencent à faire quelques pas pour s'en rapprocher. Les hommes les plus polis et les plus éclairés ont là-dessus la même ignorance et la même grossièreté qu'un paysan qui croiroit être bien à la cour parce qu'il auroit vu le roi. On quitte les vices qui font horreur; on se retranche dans une vie moins criminelle, mais toujours lâche, mondaine, et dissipée : ou juge alors de soi, non par l'évangile, qui est l'unique règle qu'on doit prendre, mais par la comparaison qu'on fait de la vie où l'on est avec celle qu'on a ménée autrefois. Il n'en faut pas davantage pour se canoniser soi-même, et pour s'endormir d'un profond sommeil sur tout ce qui resteroit à faire pour le salut. Un tel état est peut-être plus suspect, qu'un désordre scandaleux. Ce désordre troubleroit la conscience, réveilleroit la foi, et engageroit à faire quelque grand effort: au lieu que ce changement ne sert qu'à étouffer les remords salutaires, qu'à établir une fausse paix dans le cœur, et qu'à rendre les maux irrémédiables.

Je me suis confessé, dites vous, assez exactement des foiblesses de ma vie passée; je lis de bons livres, et je prie Dieu, ce me semble, d'assez bon cœur. J'évite au moins les grands péchés; mais j'avoue que je ne me sens pas assez touché pour vivre comme si je n'étois plus du monde, et pour ne plus garder de mesures

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avec lui. La religion seroit trop rigoureuse, si elle rejetoit de si honnêtes tempéramens. Tous les raffinemens qu'on nous propose aujourd'hui sur la dévotion vont trop loin, et sont plus propres à décourager qu'à faire aimer le bien. Ce discours est celui d'un Chrétien lâche, qui voudroit avoir le paradis à vil prix, et qui ne considère pas ce qui est dû à Dieu, ni ce que sa possession a couté à ceux qui l'ont obtenue. Un homme de ce caractère est bien loin d'une entière conversion. It ne connoit, ni l'étendue de la loi de Dieu, ni les devoirs de la pénitence. On peut croire que si Dieu lui avoit confié le soin de composer l'évangile, il ne l'auroit pas fait tel qu'il est, et nous aurions assurément quelque chose de plus doux pour l'amour-propre. Mais l'évangile est immuable, et c'est sur lui que nous devons être jugés. Prenez au plutôt un guide sûr, et ne craignez rien tant que d'être flatté et trompé.

FENELON.

My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.-PSALM civ. 34.

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STRANGELY, in the ears of the thoughtless and the ungodly, sounds the language of a devoted spirit. Say our hearts thus-" My meditation of him shall be sweet?" Of him who takes note of every movement of my soul, and loathes and abhors the faintest touch of evil, and has the power and has the will to destroy what he abhors and to punish what he loathes? Of him whom I have forgotten, neglected, braved? Can it be sweet to meditate on him? It is sweet to meditate on things we love, on things we delight in-on those from whom we expect benefit, and from whom we have deserved it. But how can it be sweet to a sinner to meditate on his God, the great obstacle to his safety and his happiness, without whom he might indulge his propensities and be at rest for the consequence? This is impossible-while there is a debt uncancelled between us and our God, it cannot be sweet to us to think of him: conscience will never be

so stupified, as to leave gladness in our hearts when the avenger of sin is thought of. It must be a very altered state of mind in which this language of the Psalmist is understood and honestly repeated; and it is wonder that men unreconciled to God, do not perceive in reading the Scripture how unsuited to them is the language it puts into their mouths. Surely if they did perceive, they would not go forward so unconcernedly, without pausing to examine why that which must be truth in itself, being the word of God, is not the truth of them. Rather would they exclaim, "Sweet to meditate on God? It is so terrifick I dare not think of him lest it scare my mind to madness. There must be something wrong in this." Yes, and there is wrong-and so long as it remains thus, God and you are of different minds, and he is not your friend, or at least he has not avowed himself as such for on a friend who loves us we delight to meditate. There is need then of a change; such change as may make the mention of God musick to your ear and gladness to your heart, and the thought of him the sweetest solace of your troubled spirit. This may be so. It is so in heaven, and it is so far so on earth as man is reconciled to his once offended Maker. Whatever be the sense of sin, it is sweet to think that God will subdue it-whatever be the fear of judgment, it is sweet to think that God will avert it. In sorrow, in shame, in temporal and spiritual danger, in time and through all eternity, a devoted spirit has gladness in the Lord, gladness that cannot be found in any thing beside.

But ye see me because I live, ye shall live also.— JOHN xiv. 19.

As the absence of Christ during the time of his burial, being only three days, was but a little while in respect of the Apostles: so with respect to ourselves, it is but a little while to the end of our life, or even to the end of the world-for every thing passes away as a dream, a shadow, or a flash of lightning. It is a matter of great import

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