pledge of security to the moral interests of the universe. He can and does rejoice in God as holy, and just, as well as good.

The views entertained of the Divine beneficence, by those who are not taught of God, are often very incorrect and unscriptural. Some make it wholly indiscriminate; alleging that it covers all the sins of all mankind; and in its ultimate action, makes no difference "between him that serveth God, and him that serveth Him not." To exalt this trait, they merge another equally important, viz., His justice. This is evidently a very distorted and erroneous view of the Divine character. Some can see no goodness in God unless He heaps favors on themselves. The measure of His blessings to them, is the rule by which they judge of the gracious acts of their Creator; not reflecting that according to the Bible, He may after all be giving them their good things only in this life.

How much more comprehensive, as well as correct and scriptural, are the views of the pious soul! His Bible teaches him that God is

"good, and that He doeth good, and that His tender mercies are over all His works." He views Him as benevolent; and as exerting His benevolence to make His creatures happy, yet not at the sacrifice of His justice and His truth. He considers the Divine Being as acting on a great and comprehensive plan, in which, though temporal favors are given to men with apparent disregard to their moral characters, yet all things are working together for the good of the pious; whilst even temporal blessings are often so perverted and abused by the wicked, through their depravity, that they become at last the witnesses of God against them. To the eye of a Christian, God sits regent over all the universe, and conducts the affairs of His mighty empire, with a view to promote His own glory. It is this enlarged conception which enables the Christian to cast aside the petty claims of self, and to exult in the fact, that, "the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." Sovereignty is a glorious attribute of God. Wisdom to devise the best plans, and power omnipotent to secure

their accomplishment-and this too, without destroying the accountability of man, or lessening his dependence on Divine aid—are the grand and mysterious features of that government instituted and administered by the Eternal One. Is there here no room for joy? Has the soul no solid basis for praises in all this? Have not these views a direct tendency to establish the heart in confidence; to make it feel that the temporary obstructions to the triumph of truth and virtue will only, in the end and under the jurisdiction of God, make that triumph the more complete and glorious?

To rejoice in God we must view His character as it is revealed in His holy word—we must have affections in unison with it-we must feel that inward approbation, and submission, and love which result from the renewal of the Holy Ghost; and then, not only shall we entertain right views of God, but the conception will act on the soul with a cheering, as well as a sanctifying influence,

CHAPTER IX.

THE RELATION OF PIOUS JOY TO THE DOCTRINE OF PROVIDENCE.

The Bible teaches the doctrine of a particular providence. "Not a sparrow," says Jesus, "shall fall on the ground without your Father;" and "even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." "The steps of a good man," says another," are ordered by the Lord." This doctrine is, by the pious man, not only believed, but practically recognized, in all the business and events of life; and it is this prac tical recognition alone that constitutes it a foundation of joy.

How many are there, who do not sympathize in the least with this view of Divine providence! They are willing to instal the great Creator on the universal throne, and pay Him the homage due to a distant and comparatively uninterested monarch; too lofty to stoop to the

affairs of men, and too much absorbed in His vast empire above, to interfere in the concerns of this diminutive sphere. Hence, we hear so much of chance, of fortune, of second causes, and so little of the Divine hand in the vicissitudes of nations and of individuals.

But what say ye, who thus think and act, to the view which our Savior gives us? The bird that folds its wing and falls to the earth, or that is arrested by the archer's arrow and drops bleeding to the ground, is directed in its fall by the hand of God. Yea, even the hairs of our heads, insignificant as they may singly seem, are still noticed and numbered by the Almighty. Not a step that we take, nor a purpose that we accomplish, do we take, or accomplish independent of Him. What say ye to this view of a Divine providence? This is the view that brings God near ; that acknow ledges His hand in the minutest affairs of life; and yet derogates not from His dignity as the maker and mover of the spheres. He who lighted up the sun, formed the moth that bathes

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