This will melt you down in self-abasement; each past folly will prove a way-mark to your future conduct, and stimulate you to walk more humbly with God-Let the morning teach you that you have another day's work to do. The worldling opens his eyes from sleep, probably before nature lifts the grey eye-lids of the morning; and, with eagerness, begins to review and to adjust his business for the day. Diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, is a Scripture maxim, binding upon the disciples of Jesus. Such, however, will view the secular business of life as a secondary object, and first direct themselves to God for ability to perform the work of the day, as alloted in all its parts by infinite wisdom. In this you will readily perceive that you have something to do for the honour of your God; duties to be discharged for the benefit of your family; some act of forbearance, charity, or good-will, to your fellow creatures; and something for your own progress and growth in grace. Of all men, Christians have the most important work cut out for them; none are idle but those who bear the name, without the nature of Christianity. Your past experience, however small, must corroborate with the Scripture testimony, that you know not what a day may bring forth. Duties, losses, benefits, temptations, sor rows, perhaps in forms unknown to you before, may await you. In each you will be called to exercise those tempers which shall prove either your honour or your grief. With cool reflection, therefore, begin the day; and every adverse providence will make the less impres sion upon you; every duty will be more cheerfully performed. The husbandman, arising from his bed of rest, in order to combat the labour of the field, finds it necessary to partake of a repast at his table, that his animal strength may be renewed. This will teach you, that another part of your morning's devotion is the lively exercise of FAITH. What animal food is to the body, that, and more than that, Christ is to the soul. He is the bread of life, and the water of life; and every hungry soul, by faith, knows what it is to be satisfied with his fullness. Faith, amidst the graces of the soul, is somewhat like the main spring in your watch: when properly wound up, it sets the whole in motion; gives you the time of day, or evidence of salvation, comfort and duty; for it works by love. You must, recollect, the Israelites were to gather the manna in the morning, although they were to eat of it all the day long; and you will find an essential benefit in a morning's believing meditation on the person and offices of Jesus Christ, who alone can maintain the life of your soul amidst the changes of the day. To these directions let me add, as nature and custom dictate' you in the morning to adjust your person with apparel, so may you, by the hand of faith, put on the Lord Jesus-as a robe of righteousness, a garment of salvation, and as a complete suit of armour. Thus, with spiritual food and raiment, you may venture into the more busy scenes of life, and hope to close the day in peace. To stimulate you in this happy morning exercise of faith, it is said, Messiah's goings forth are prepared as the morning ; that he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. Each of these beautiful figures are to instruct you what Christ hath done in his incarnation and resurrection; and what he will be to you by the influence of his grace; consequently, he is the proper object for your believing meditation every morning. To establish you more firmly, fail not to read a portion of the Scriptures, and plead the influence of that divine Spirit, who was promised to testify of Christ, to guide you into all truth, and, of course, prove your everlasting Comforter. The next part of your morning devotion I shall name, is PRAYER AND PRAISE. These are what I may call twin duties, recommended by Paul and other disciples. And these are inseparable in the breathings of a pious heart; because we cannot approach God in prayer for a present blessing, but what, on the least recollection, we must praise him for what we have received. In the exercise of these duties reflection is necessary to arrange our wants and our mercies; and faith, in order to plead the promises, and to be persuaded that God will assuredly grant us a supply. I do not suppose you are so perfect as that, in the performance of these duties, you are always free and happy, and meet with no opposition. So far from it, it is much easier for a person to read, hear, or preach, than to pray; because prayer is the most spiritual of all duties: it is what our depraved nature disrelishes; and, because we gain more by this than any other duty, Satan strives to interrupt. Neglect of prayer is one great cause why many professors are so extremely unsavory in their conversation, and so dark in their evidences of salvation. Rollin, in his ancient history, somewhere relates, that an Heathen commander told his foiled army, "I lost the battle to day, because I sought not the protection of the gods in the morning." Remember, few professors, who fall by temptations in the day, but what may trace their misfortunes to an habitual neglect of morning devotion. Earnestly look to God for a praying, believing heart, and for the Spirit of supplications. Rather than arise abruptly from your knees in prayer, accustom yourselves earlier to arise from your beds. David says, I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried, O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. Indeed, David had every reason to look up in firm confidence of his prayer being heard, his person preserved, and his soul abundantly blessed through the course of the day, let the duties or the sufferings that await him be what they may. Although the benefits resulting from morning devotion produce their own reward, and fail not to habituate you to its delightful performance, yet it may afford you a pleasing stimulus to recollect, that the stones which good old Jacob had for his pillow in the night, he arose early in the morning to erect into a pillar of memorial of God's goodness in making the place to him a Bethel. Moses went up on the mount early in the morning, and was admitted to converse with God face to face, as a man converseth with his friend. Joshua arose early with the Ark, and took Jericho. I shall conclude my advice to you on> this interesting subject, by calling your recollection to morning devotion as a just emblem, and an happy presage of your resurrection by Christ from the sleep of death; when, with David, and all the ransomed throng, you will behold the face of Emmanuel in righteousness, and be satisfied when you awake up with his likeness. LECTURE XXXV. THE ROOT OF THE MATTER. JOB xix. 28. -The Root of the matter is found in me.. THE root of the matter being found in Jób, was s reason he assigned against the persecution he suffered from the lips of his professed friends. Why persecute ye me, seeing the root of the matter is found in me? A very singular expression. Let us inquire what is that root possessed by Job, and who it is that may be said to find it. 1. Root, in general, is the first principle of any thing. It is that part of a plant concealed in the ground, contains virtually the essence of the plant, imbibes the juices of the earth, and transmits them to the other parts for their nutrition. In the formation of man, as a rational being, he was, no doubt, possessed of a moral principle of action; a root from whence the fruit of obedience should abound to his Creator. Thus God pronounced him very good! Ah! how baneful the powers of sin, which at once stripped this goodly tree of its fruit, and poisoned the very root! With this root of iniquity, all the offspring of Adam are born into the world; and from thence proceed those baneful fruits, so dishonourable to God, destructive to society, and fatal to the possessor. To correct human |