was under, and the workings of his heart when he was in affliction, that, upon every review of this psalm, he might call to mind the good impressions then made upon him, and make a fresh improvement of them. To the same purpose was the writing of Hezekiah, when he had been sick. To put others in mind of the same things which he was himself mindful of, and to teach them what to think, and what to say, when they are sick and in affliction, let them think as he did, and speak as he did. He deprecates the wrath of God in his affliction. Those that would escape the wrath of God, must pray against that more than any outward affliction, and be content to bear any outward affliction, while it comes from, and consists with the law of God.M. HENRY.

MR. AMBROSE SERLE, an excellent layman, who wrote several valuable works, observes, in his "Christian Remembrancer," that "Sickness is a dismal scourge to the ungodly, and a painful spur to the gracious. To the one, it is the harbinger of terror and misery; but, to the other, a solemn remem

brancer indeed, both of the vanity of all earthly things, and of the nearer and nearer approach of immortal glory."

PSALM XXXviii. 6-8.-I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: [or a scorching or burning, that is, a fever:] and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken : I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

If such be the effects of sin in this life, and upon those who are still the favourites of Heaven, what will be its effects in the life to come, and upon those who are left to wither for ever beneath the Divine frown? Oh, let us learn, ere it be too late, that sin is an evil and bitter thing.-DR. MORISON.

Return, O holy Dove, return,

Sweet Messenger of rest!

I hate the sins that made thee mourn,

And drove thee from my breast.-CowPER.

PSALM XXXIX. 4.-Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

Lord, give me to consider how frail I am;

how scanty the stock of life is; and how faint the spirits, which are as the oil to keep the lamp burning. We find, by daily experience, that the earthly house of this tabernacle is mouldering, and going to decay: Lord, make us to consider this, that we may secure mansions in the house not made with hands.-M. HENRY.

Almighty Maker of my frame,

Teach me the measure of my days!
Teach me to know how frail I am,

And spend the remnant to thy praise.

MRS. STEELE.

PSALM XXXIX. 7.-And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

Hope is the great stock of believers; it is that which upholds them under all the faintings and sorrows of their mind in this life, and in their going "through the valley of the shadow of death." It is the helmet of their salvation, which, while they are looking over to eternity, beyond this present time, covers and keeps their head safe amidst all the darts that fly round about them. In the present dis

comfort and darkness of mind, and the saddest hours they meet with in this life, hope is that which keeps up the soul, and is that which David cheered up his soul with: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance," Psalm xlii. 5. And, even in this point, the "children of this world" have no great advantage of the "children of God," as to the things of this life; for much of their satisfaction, such as it is, does hang, for the most part, on their hope; the happiest and richest of them do still piece it out with some further expectation: something they look for beyond what they have, and the expectation of that pleases them more than all their present possessions. But this great disadvantage they have all their hopes are but heaps of delusions and lies; and either they die, and obtain them not, or, if they obtain them, yet they obtain them not, they are so far short of what they fancied and imagined of them beforehand. But the hope of the children of God, as it is, without fail, sure, so it is inconceivably

E

full and satisfying; far beyond what the largest apprehension of any man is able to

reach.

"Hope in God:" what is wanting

there?-ABP. LEIGHTON.

Oh! what would adversity be without hope? This is the last lingering light of the human bosom, that continues to shine when every other has been extinguished. Quench it, and the gloom of affliction becomes the very blackness of darkness-cheerless and impenetrable. -DR. WARDlaw.

Christ is my life, my joy, my hope,
Nor can I sink with such a prop.

DR. WATTS.

PSALM XXXIX. 9.-I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

Such an awful apprehension David had of God, as transcendently superior to him, and not accountable for his proceedings. When any impatient thoughts arise, we should presently chain them up, for there is folly and fury in them. What am I, that my sullen spirit should dispute against the orders of