not endeavour to believe thefe promises, not only that they are true in themfelves, but also that God will make them good to us, we fail in that which is the most effential part. But, perhaps, you may fay, I have prayed long for thefe bleffings. Well, if the vifion tarry, wait for it, for it will furely come, and will not tarry. The Lord is a Cod of judgment, and bleffed are all they that wait for him, though they thould wait all their days. Call to mind past experiences of God's love, and when they are absent to sense and feeling, let them be prefent to faith, and account them as true pledges of prefent favour and of future happiness. Say with holy David, "Why art thou caft down, O my foul, and why art thou difquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I fhall yet praise him, who is the health of countenance and my God." Do not fay, I would have comfort, that I may believe; but rather fay, I would believe, that I may be comforted. CHRISTOPHILUS. my THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE POOR. And now, without a friend to aid, I ftand, O let that thought fupport my drooping foul ! accomplishment of his infiniteOW wonderfully the difpenfations of Jehovah's provi ly great and precious promifes! When the poor and the needy seek water and there is none, and when there tongues faileth for thirst, the Lord will hear them, the God of Israel will not forsake them. Their daily bread shall be given, and their water shall be sure. In the dark viciffitudes of poverty the riches of divine munificence and love are fupremely displayed. The Scriptures may be confidered as prefenting to our view a map of a vaft, barren, and inhofpitable country, through which the fubjects of grace are travelling, deftitute, as the people of Ifrael in their way to the land of promife, and in which their wants are fupplied by a conftant fucceffion of extraordinary and miraculous interpofitions. For Hagar in her diftrefs, God made the wilderness of Beersheba abound with confolation in the moment when he was abandoned by hope. His wifdom fuffered Jofeph to be carried a flave into Egypt, that his goodness might fave the venerable Jacob and his guilty fons from the horrors of famine. The Pro phet Elijah was fed by an angel under the juniper-tree, by the ravens at the brook Cherith, and afterwards by a poor widow of Zarephath, whofe barrel of meal and cruife of oil were inexhaustible while he was continued in a state of exigence. The word of God is the hiftory of his providence, the truth and glory of which have been attefted by the experience of the church in every period of extreme difficulty and diftrefs. We are compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses, who cease not day and night calling upon us to follow them in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. By the profperity of the world our minds may be debauched, and our fouls ruined; but by the poverty and afflictions of the crofs, the perfection of our holiness and happiness is fingularly promoted. What dignity did the Saviour of the world ftamp upon poverty! What contempt did he pour upon grandeur! The great multitude which stand triumphant on Mount Sion will be chiefly compofed of fuch as in this life are deftitute of every thing efteemed of consequence by ambition or avarice; though many of the greateft, and all the best men have ranked with the poor defpifed followers of the Lamb of God; men, of whom the world was not worthy; men, on whofe account the righteous Judge of the univerfe has wrought the greatest wonders of judgment and mercy. The celebrated martyrologist, Mr. John Fox, was at one time reduced to the most forlorn condition; apparently forfaken of God and man, a wretched outcaft from the comforts of friendship in heaven and earth. In this ftate he was fitting in St. Paul's church, almost spent with long fasting, his bones ftaring, his countenance pale, his eyes hollow and ghaftly, and bearing in his perfon every evidence of a starving, dying man; when He who sees and feels the afflictions of his faithful fervants, and has appointed a time for their deliverance, fent a perfon to communicate a temporary fupply, and direct his views to the profpect of brighter days. The ftranger accofted him in terms of the kindeft familiarity, and putting a fum of money into his hand, exhorted him to be of good cheer, to take proper care of himself, and to improve the means of prolonging his life; for that within a few days new hopes would arife, with ample provifion for his future neceffities. He tried with great anxiety to find out this son of consolation, but his generofity was for a memorial before God, not for the praife of men. However, his welcome prediction was happily fulfilled, for within three days Mr. Fox was raised to affluence and honour. Lo, these are parts of his ways! Many such things are with him! The darkeft nights are often fucceeded by the brightest days, the drearinefs of winter is forgotten in the beauty and riches of fummer, and the ftorms which have threatened our destruction bear us to ferene and peaceful regions. The degree and duration of adverfity are determined in the counfel of heaven; and as it fhall infallibly fubferve the religious profperity of the faints, it should be welcomed as a friend, not deprecated as an enemy. A fretful mind and a murmuring tongue will render us both incapable and unworthy of confolation, when deftitute and afflicted: But if we cheerfully confide in God, who clothes the lilies of the field, and feeds the birds of the air, every fituation will be a paradife, and from our bitterest fufferings we fhall extract our choiceft cordials. Faith has the hand of a Midas, it converts every thing into gold. In the poffeffions and exercise of it the difciples of Jefus glory in all the terrors of a mutable, diffolving world: Should the whole frame of nature round them break, They, unconcern'd, would hear the mighty crack, Happiness generally fhuns the abodes of grandeur, and takes up her dwelling with the humble poor. Behold Dives clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring fumptuously every day, while Lazarus, expiring of difeafe and hunger on a dunghill, thinks of nothing but his difmiffion and the glory that should follow. The ungodly who profper in the world are the most pitiable objects in creation; furrounded with the means of happiness, they are ftrangers to intellectual, domeftic, and focial pleasures, madly devoted to the flavery of gain and gaiety; and thus they promote and aggravate the lofs of their fouls. Their neglect of the poor, their contempt of the religious, will pierce them through with innumerable agonies, when from the depth of perdition they fee the Lord Jefus leading THEM to fountains of living water. The unregenerate, though they call empires their own, have no treasure in heaven. Their fplendid attire attracts the admiration of the vulgar, their high-founding titles, their fumptuous fare, their magnificent houfes, may agitate the paffions of the difcontented; but the man who is illuminated by the grace of God will fee the fire and brimftone flaming about their boafted poffeffions, and esteem the REPROACH of Christ greater RICHES than all the treasures of nature. The happiness of God's people is independent of the world. It is their prerogative to be humble and thankful in the uncertain fmiles of the world, to be refigned and joyful under its frowns, for God is the strength of their hearts and their portion for ever; and in this reflection every fear is absorbed, and every defire fatisfied. Our ftreams may be dried up, but the fountain is inexhauftible. Our gourds may wither and die, but the tree of life in the midft of the city of God will for ever retain its beauty and fertility. The gain of the believer is above-above the reach of political anarchy, the stagnation of commercial profperity, and all perfonal or relative tribulation. His treasure cannot be loft by accident, nor corrupted by time; as it was not acquired by his exertions, it is inherited without folicitude or oftentation. However parodoxical it may found, the faints gain most by their loffes; they are enriched by poverty; they are most enlarged when in their greatest straits; they are strengthened by weakness; that which is the death of the worldling is their life. Though deftitute they possess all things, and while they are defolate and deferted they bear precious fruit, and exult in the friendship of God and the elect myriads of his fpiritual kingdom. Affured that he has pledged the honour of his immutable love on their behalf, they run with patience the race that is set before them unfpeakably thankful that he has given them the lot of those who fear him, in the momentary fufferings of life, and the reverfion of eternal happiness in heaven. GOD AND MAMMON IRRECONCILEABLE. No man can serve two Masters, Math vi. 24. THE ingenuity of many is ever on the stretch for the difcovery of fome expedient, by which to accommodate the oppofite claims of God and Mammon. They are unwilling to relinquish the hope of heaven, yet refolved to continue, for the purposes of prefent convenience, in the interefts of hell. They are for a Saviour, without a crofs; the triumphs of future glory, without the conflicts of the prefent warfare. The experience of every preceding age and generation declares the folly and impracticability of fuch an endeavour; yet each one is willing to fuppofe, that, however others may have failed, he fhall certainly fucceed. He flatters himself that his keener forefight, or more zealous addrefs will be fully adequate to every occurrence, and enable him to furmount thofe dangers, which, to thousands, have proved fo fatal. Befotted foul! Can there be conceived an attempt fo fraught with impiety and bafe ingratitude as this? What is the defign? To blend the interests of light and darkness: To establish a friendly commerce between heaven and hell: To reconcile Chrift and Belial in the fame communion.-No; let it be had in everlasting remembrance that our divine Immanuel can never be served with a divided heart: Is He not fupremely worthy of the whole ? How fhamefully difingenuous, then, to entertain the most diflant defire to alienate his property, or partially to deny his claim! Duplex can laugh in the theatre, or be ferious in the house of God: Can perufe the pages of infpiration, or display his talents in the ftudies of the card-table. With the fame hand he gathers the profits of injustice, or contributes to the public caufe of religion. Without embarraffment, he pushes round the cup of intoxication, or receives the memorials of a bleeding Saviour. Does the friendly voice of admonition warn him of the iffue of fuch proceedings ?-he pleads neceffity, and vindicates or excufes his finful compliances by obferving, We must live: But why should Duplex be fo unwilling to remember, that, We must also die? If a man commence a profeffor of the Gospel without regeneration, though his name be changed, the principles of nature ftill rule. He toils or dreams through the duties of religion, but is only unbent and happy among the pleasures of fin. This is the genuine fource of time-ferving in religion: This the fatal, though hidden root, from which springs that frequent apoftacy which blackens the records of the Chriftian Church. Who feels himfelf inclined to imitate the conduct of the idiot, who, perceiving the river too deep to ford, refolved to wait till all the ftream ran by? Yet he adopts a refolution equally egregious, and infinitely more ruinous, who attempts to serve two masters, the views and fervices of whom are eternally oppofite and irreconcileable. Of neceffity, Either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other: Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. FIGLINUS. |