PSALM 1xxviii. 38, 39.-But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

He, feeling for them as a father for his children, made an atonement for their iniquity; and, though they often grieved his Spirit, and rebelled against him, yet he seldom punished them; and, when he did chastise. them, he took their feeble, perishing state always into consideration, and knew how much they needed the whole of their state of probation, and therefore he bore with them to the uttermost. How merciful is God!DR. ADAM CLARKE.

Severe afflictions have been necessary to recover us from our backslidings; and though we are not mere hypocrites in returning to the Lord, yet we have soon forgotten the salutary lesson. If our hearts have, perhaps, been sincere, yet they have not been stedfast with him, so that it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed with our fellow

sinners; and we have cause to review, with shame and gratitude, every stage of our journey through the wilderness.-THOS. SCOTT.

PSALM lxxxvi. 7.-In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee.

Prayer is the solace of trouble. There is some relief in tears, and therefore nature is provided with them. It eases and soothes the bursting heart, to pour our grief into the ear of a friend, who, having rejoiced when we rejoiced, will weep when we weep. But, oh! how good is it to draw near to God! How delightful is it, like Job, to pour out our tears unto him; and resemble the child that sobs himself asleep in his mother's arms, and on his mother's breast.-JAY.

"It is true," observes MR. BUCK," a good man is always a praying man; he considers prayer as the grand mean of intercourse with God. But how differently he feels in the hour of affliction to what he does at other times! He has often reason to lament over the insensibility of his heart, and the cold

manner in which his supplications are presented before the throne. But, when affliction comes, what life and energy does it put into his prayers! He does not then want words to express himself; it is not then a for al service; his whole heart is engaged; yea, he finds it his privilege that he can take his afflictions to God, and that, while he is surrounded by the tempest, he can implore the protection of Him who hath all things under his command. Ah, how many can look back to the place of affliction, and say: "There it was my soul poured out many prayers to the Lord; there I prayed indeed; there I knew what communion with God meant; there I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.'

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PSALM lxxxviii. 7.-Thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves.

A righteous man considers his afflictions as coming from the hand of God; and thus we should all learn to receive them. They must necessarily come, and when they come,

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they must be borne; but they can only be borne with submission, as we see God in them. A man in affliction is a pitiable sight; but a man in affliction, without God, is an awful one. Oh, how I pity that poor creature, laid upon the bed of languishing, full of pain, without food, without medicine, without one kind friend to smooth his pillow, to put into his hand a suitable remedy, to raise him up, or afford him the least mean of help: but I pity from my heart, a thousand times more, the miserable wretch that lies bound with the cords of affliction, and struggling with disease, without any sense of a Divine Providence, without acknowledging that it is the hand of God, and who never once cries to Him, who alone can heal, and can save. Christian, it is your privilege, under all the sorrows you are called to bear, to look up, and say, "The Lord reigneth.-Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne," Psa. xcvii. 1, 2. It is true, you cannot develop the whole of the Divine plan, yet you can bear your testimony, and say: "It is good for me to be

afflicted." Yea, yours is the privilege to hope, yours to trust, yours to rejoice, yours to look forward with pleasing anticipation to the happy period when the clouds shall pass away, and the light of heaven shine without interruption for ever.-BUCK.

Floods of tribulation heighten,
Billows still around me roar;

Those who know not Christ, they frighten,
my soul defies their power:

But

Sweet affliction

Thus to bring my Saviour near.-PEARCE.

PSALM lxxxix. 30-33.-If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

Observe what affliction is to God's people. 1. It is but a rod; not an axe, not a sword: it is for correction, not for destruction. This notes gentleness in the affliction, such a rod as yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. 2. It is a rod in the hand of God. I will