SERMON XIX.

PSALM CXxxix. 13.

I will give thanks unto Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.

THE glorious works of God's almighty hand, though they surround us wherever we go, meet our eyes wherever we turn them, and attend our path which ever way we tread, are but little heeded by the thoughtless sons of men. We live in a world of wonders every thing about us is wonderful: the smallest, the commonest, the most trifling thing that we can look upon, is far beyond our understanding to account for. Yet how little impression is made upon us! we see the sun running day by day his glorious course along the heavens-we behold the moon cheering the hours of darkness

with her milder beams-but we look at them without raising our thoughts to Him who placed them there, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. We sow our seeds in the earth, and all that we think of is, to gather in our crops, and turn them to a worldly account —without remembering Who it is that giveth grass for the cattle, and herbs and fruits for the use of men. If showers descend to gladden and refresh the thirsty ground, they fall without teaching us to admire that good Providence which covereth the heavens with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth, and causeth it to fall, both the former and the latter in its season. And even when storms and tempests shake the world, though they shew us what poor helpless creatures we are, and make us glad to shelter ourselves from their fury, yet do not prevail upon to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of that God, at whose word the stormy wind ariseth, and who doeth whatsoever pleaseth Him, in heaven, and in earth, in the sea, and in all deep places. Years roll away one after the other the seasons change: the snow

of winter melts before the mild rains of spring the summer's sun ripens the grain and the fruits which we gather in in autumn, and yet we do not stop to think of Him who governs all things here below, and has given them laws which cannot be broken.

You, my brethren, who may never have given your thoughts to such things as these, may perhaps smile at the preacher who tells you, that in every flower, every blade of grass which springs up under your feet, there is more wonder, more contrivance, greater skill, than in all the noblest works which man is able to perform: yet so it is, and so the more we think of it the more we are convinced: and whether we look up to the beautiful skies above us, (those heavens which declare the glory of God,) or down upon the earth in which we dwell, (that earth which is the Lord's, and all that therein is,) we feel how impossible it is to express God's noble acts, or shew forth all His praise. From the smallest creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, up to man, whom God has made master of all-in every thing about us and around us, we

may find enough to make us admire the wisdom, the power, the fatherly care, and providence of that good, and great, and glorious Being, who did but speak the word and they were made, who commanded and they were at once created.

Look, now, at such a common thing as this look at the sparrow which makes herself a home in the thatching of your cottages. See with what care she collects together feathers, wool and moss, and hair, to build her nest with. See how the patient bird covers her eggs with the warmth of her own body, and scarcely leaves them till she has brought her young to life. See with what care and diligence she goes from place to place looking for food, and seeming to find her own happiness in providing for her children: setting, I am ashamed to say, an example which many a christian father and mother might do well to copy. And does not such a trifling, such a mean thing as this, (if any thing that God has made deserves to be called mean,) shew us the providence of Him who is the father of all things, and remind us of what our

blessed Saviour has told us-to our comfort if we are righteous, to our sorrow if we are guilty that nothing happens upon earth without Him; that not even a sparrow falleth to the ground but our heavenly Father knows it?

But the time would fail me, if I were to attempt to point out to you, even in the shortest manner, a thousandth part of the wonder and the providence which are displayed in the commonest affairs and circumstances of life, and which make every pious, every feeling, every thinking soul gladly join the psalmist in his song of praise, and cry O Lord, our governor, how excellent is thy name in all the world!

Leaving then, for the present, all other things out of our thoughts, let us shortly turn our attention to that subject, which is brought into our notice in the words which I have chosen for my text: it is one in which we are all concerned, and such ́as may well deserve to occupy for a few minutes our thoughts. I will praise thee, O God, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.