Library of the Theological Seminary PRINCETON » NEW JERSEY From the Library of Professor Joseph Addison Alexander 1860 BX 5133 .W89 1848 Woodward, Henry, 1775-1863. Short readings for family prayers Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/shortreadingsforOOwood SHORT READINGS FAMILY PEAYERS; ESSAYS, .tNB SERMONS. THE REV. HENK^*WOODWARD, A.M.. PORMKRLV OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, O.KKORIV, HECTOR OP PETHAED 1 THE DIOCESK OF CASUl L. LONDON : J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY. 1848. LONDON : PBTOTFI) BY G. J. PALMER, SAVOV STRKHT, STBANn. THE HONOURABLE BARON PENNEFATHER, IN TOKEN OF HIGH KE.SPECT FOR HIS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CHARACTER, AND OF SINCERE GRATITUDE FOR A LONG CONTINUED SERIES OF PERSONAL KINDNESSES BOTH FROM HIMSELF AND FROM ONE WHO IS NOW A SAINT IN HEAVEN, THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE INSCRIBED B\' HIS MUCH OBLIGED AND AFFECTIONATE FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. ADVERTISEMENT. 'J'he greater part of the conten ts of this volume has apj)eared from time to time in " The Church of England Magazine," " The Christian Observer," and "The Christian Examiner." The lesser pieces with which the work opens were intended to be ftirnished in sufficient num- bers to supply a " short reading" for every day in the year. But time and leisure for the comple- tion of such a purpose failing, the author here presents a sample of his original design. CONTENTS. SHORT READINGS FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 1 . On New-year's Day . . . Page I 2. On January 2 . . . . .5 3. On the Wise Men . . . . b A. Thoughts on the Sabbath . . .13 5. On Jacob's Dream . . . .18 6. On the Will and Affections . . .22 7. Children's Stories . . . .28 8. On Luke xxii. 70 .... 32 9. Separation from the World the Essence of Salvation 40 10. Connexion of the Old and New Testaments a Proof of the Truth of Revelation . .46 1 1 . The World Compared to a Spider's Web . . ,51 12. Psalm 1. 23 .... . .-,4 13. On the Miraculous Draught of Fishes — Luke v. 11. Part 1 . . . .61 14. Ditto, Part 2 . . . . . e.^ 15. Ditto, Part 3 . . . .70 16. Ditto, Part 4 . . . . .74 * Viii CONTENTS. 17. On Hezekiah's Sickness. 2 Kings xx 1 . .79 18. The Paralytic healed. Matt.ix.6 . . 86 19. Present Sorrows and Future Joys Contrasted 90 20. On St. John the Baptist's Day . . .95 21. On the Rich Foci . Luke xii. 16— 21 . Parti . 99 22. Ditto, Part 2 . . . . .104 23. Widow of Nain. Luke vii. 1 1—15 . . 108 24. Blind Bartimeus. Mark x. 46— 52 . .11.3 25. The Fountain of Living Waters. Jeremiah ii. 13 . 124 26. Our Temptations common to Man. 1 Cor. x. 13 . 132 27. On God's Jealousy .... 136 28. On Christ's Condescension in Washing His Dis- ciples' feet. John xiii. 5 . . .140 29. Typical Nature of the foregoing. John xiii. ver. 7 . 144 30. Infinite Depth of Scripture. Johniii. 16 . . 149 31. Lifinite Comprehensiveness of the Mind of Christ. John xiii. 1 . . . . .153 32. Why the Dying Saint feels Parting less than do his Surviving Friends . . . .15/ 33. On Numbering our Days. Psalm xc. 12 . . 162 34. On Offering ourselves a Living Sacrifice. Rom. xii. 1 . . . . . .167 35. On Sanctification as Necessary to Future Happi- ness. John xvii. 17 . • .1/1 36. On stilling the Tempest. Luke viii. 24 . .177 37. On Christ's Feet Anointed. Luke vii. 36— 50 . 184 38. On the Death of Moses . . . .188 39. On Deuteronomy xxxii. 29 . . .193 40. On Rizpah the Daughter of Aiah. 2 Sam. xxi. 10 l.f)6 41. On Naaman the Syrian. 2 Kings v. . .201 42. On St. John the Evangelist's Day . . .204 CONTENTS. ESSAYS. ESSA.Y I. On the Cessation of Miracles in the Christian Church ESSAY II. On Visible and Invisible Spectators of our Conduct. Part 1 .... ESSAY III. Ditto, Part 2 . . . ESSAY IV. Past Miscarriages of Youth ESSAY V. How to Spend a Day .... ESSAY VI. On Early Rising .... ESSAY VII. On the Value of a Day ESSAY VIII. On Modern Extremes in Rehgion ESSAY IX. On free Grace and Holiness ESSAY X. Thoughts on the Present Famine in Ireland X CONTENTS. ESSAY XI. On Constitutional Dissimilaritj'- to the World ESSAY XII. On the Three-fold State of Man ESSAY XITI. On the Risibihty of Man ESSAY XIV. Unfaithfulness and Infidelity contrasted ESSAY XV. Thoughts on the Present Dispensation ESSAY XVI. On Antepasts of the Future State ESSAY XVII. On a Proneness to think Ourselves Despised ESSAY XVIII. Thoughts on Education ESSAY XIX. On the Converting Power of the Law . ESSAY XX. On Wanderings in Prayer CONTENTS, xi * SERMONS. SERMON I. ON THE CHARACTER OF GOD. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John iv. 16. . . 313 SERMON II. ON THE ANOINTING THE FEET OF JESUS. Then said Jesus, Let her alone : against the day of my b\iry- ing hath she kept this. John xii. 7. . . 430 SERMON III. god's SUFFICIENCY AND MAn's RESPONSIBILITY. Wherefore my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Phil. ii. 12, 13. . . I.tO SERMON IV. THE THIEF ON THE CROSS. To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. Luke xxiii. 43. 46.5 SERMON V. god's KNOWLEDGE OF THE HEART. If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god ; shall not God search this out ? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. Psalm xliv. 20, 21 . . . . . m Xll CONTENTS. SERMON VI. ON THK TRINITY. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water : and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and hghting upon him : And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matt. iii. 16, 17. . . . . . . 508 SERMON VII. ON BELIEF IN CHRIST. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. AcTsxvi. 31. . . . . .521 SERMON VIII. ON THE COMPARATIVE FEAR OF GOD AND MAN. Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass ; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretch- ed forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. IsAiAH h. 12, 13. . . . . . 536 SHORT READINGS FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. I. JANUARY 1. How prone are we, amidst the various calls of life, to forget the one thing needful, the only con- cernment worth our care ! It is, then, a merciful provision that the stream of time does not run on in one continuous flow, but that it is broken up and separated into larger portions, which are for " signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years." These changes and vicissitudes present us successively with renewed occasions and en- couragements to amend our lives, and to set out, as it were, on a new score. Deeply conscious, as we all must be, of the negligences, sins, and follies of the past, it gives fresh vigour to the mind, to fix. on some given point, that we may start from thence anew, and " forgetting those 2 SHORT READINGS tilings which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, may press toAvard the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." It is this very thought which gives its vitalizing energy to the Gospel message, and renders it, when it reaches the heart, " the power of God unto salvation." I mean the thought, the transporting thought, that now the former things are as if they had never been ; that all the endless items of our accounts with God, confused, entangled, beyond our power to calculate, arrange, or settle, are clean blotted out of the book of life, and have vanished like a dream when one awaketh ; that we are henceforth become as other men ; that the future is a free field of action, and is now all that we have to look to ; that in a word, " old things are passed away, and all things are become new." This, I say, is the germ of that regenerating princij)le, the spring of that new being, the spark of that celestial fire which God imparts to the soul when he " gives to us eternal life, that life which is in his Son." In the very nature of things there is something encouraging to the mind and elevating to the spirits, in the simple idea of setting out afresh. Let us avail ourselves, then, of the present oppor- tunity. A new year this day opens to our view. Let us hear its voice, for it is the voice of Him % FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. o who calls it into being. Its voice is like the striking of the clock, to one who has but a few hours to live, or who may never hear the solemn stroke again. The new year emphatically repeats the lesson of all former ones, — " Prepare to meet thy God:" " Boast not thyself of to morrow, for thou knowest not what a day," still less a year, " may bring forth." Remember, that if you out- live these coming months, they will leave you, only to reappear again, and to bear their testi- mony for or against you at the day of judgment. But, while we do not disregard the warnings, let us look to the encouragement which this renewal of our lease of life suggests. For the past, let it remind us, that there is full and unreserved forgiveness, if we repent and accept of mercy freely offered. For the future, the voice of the new year says (and shall not all that is within us echo the sound 1) " Keep those commandments which are their own reward : continue in those ways of pleasantness, and paths of peace : walk as children of the light, as children of the sunshine of God's presence : ' live no longer unto your- selves, but unto Him who died for you and rose again.' " If we purchase some valuable, rare, and ornamental article, when it is new and fresh we watch vigilantly and anxiously, that nothing should touch it or come near it which could in- B 2 4 SHORT READINGS jure its polish, or put the least part of its ma- chinery in disorder. Let us, then, consider this rising year as an instrument of value beyond all conceivable calculation, placed in our hands, that we may thereby fit and prepare our souls for heaven. Let us say, each of us individually, to ourselves, " Now, with the blessing of God, I will start from this point, and begin my life afresh. I will watch and pray against every sin, and more especially against whatever may be the sin that doth most easily beset me. I will guard with a holy jealousy against the first encroachments of the tempter. I will, with the grace of God, pre- serve this new page, which now ojiens in the book of life, free from every blot or stain of im- purity or defilement. I will, in the language of the collect for this day, seek ' the true circum- cision of the Spirit, that my heart and all my members being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, I may in all things obey God's blessed will, through Jesus Christ my Lord.' " FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 5 II. JANUARY 2. Assembled as we are on this second morning of the year, we cannot perliaps improve the oc- casion better, than by asking ourselves how we have kept the resolutions formed yester- day. How would it be with us, if this were to serve as a sample of the whole, and if the year were to be altogether such as this first day of it has been ? How have we improved the time ? How have our tempers been regulated, and our passions ordered ? Have we resisted, or have we yielded to the ordinary temptations — to anger, fretfulness, indolence, or pride ? In what cur- rents have we suffered our thoughts to flow ? How have we been in our closets, and in secret prayer ? Have we " as much as lay in us, lived peaceably " and amiably with those around us ? or have we by unkindness and petty provocations disturbed the quiet or comfort of the domestic scene? If we can answer these questions satisfactorily, let us thank God, take courage, and go forward. If not, let us not waste our time, or exhaust our strength in unavailing sorrow or unprofitable re- gret ; but let us fly at once to the mercy-seat for 6 SHORT READINGS pardon. Let us return to the path of happiness and duty, before we have gone still farther from it. Let us apply the remedy, before the disease has become worse. Let us with redoubled energy renew the resolutions of yesterday. The first lesson appointed for this day,* sets before us the most animating motives for thus resolving. It shows us how God can create worlds and systems out of nothing ; nay, how he can educe beauty, and harmony, and order, out of confusion and emptiness. " God said, let there be light, and there was light." And why may not He, " who caused the light to shine out of darkness, shine in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ ?" He has promised to do so, if we earnestly pray for grace, and faithfully improve that grace when given. When God had in five days accomplished his preparatory works, when He had divided the light from the darkness, the waters from the waters, and the dry land from the seas, when He had filled the earth with fertility, and adorned it with all the varieties of vegetable beauty, when He had fixed his two great lights in heaven, and " made the stars also," when He had brought forth all the various tribes of " the living creatures * Gen. i. FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 7 after their kind," when all was ready, and God saw that all was good, and when everything seemed waiting for the entrance of the chief actor upon the stage, " God said. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Behold the position which we ought to occupy, the attitude in which we ought to stand before God and his creation ! And, though we fell from our first estate, yet, blessed be God, if we be in Christ Jesus, we have fallen only that we might rise again, and " put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." Let us keep in mind " how holily and justly and un- blameably we should behave ourselves " who bear this sacred character and this divine im- pression. Let us remember that we are placed here as representatives of the sovereign Ruler of this lower world. Such we are, both by creation and redemption ; and, consequently, " what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy con- versation and godliness ?" Let us then go forth this day upon our several calls of duty, and let us, as with one soul, resolve that, " whatsoever we do, we do all to the glory of God." 8 SHORT READINGS III. ON THE WISE MEN. " Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Wliere is he that is born King of the Jews ? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him." In the homage paid by these eastern sages to the infant Saviour, we have a faithful representa- tion of the nature of the Christian dispensation, >>ome first-fi'uits of that kingdom whose founda- ' ? are laid in humility. And if it be true that in every system of religion there is a moral affinity and correspondence between the worshipper and the object worshipped, there is, doubtless, a fine exemplification of that truth in the spectacle here presented to our view ; men distinguished as the magi for depth of learning, and jirofoundly versed in every branch of human science, prostrate in adoration before the cradle of an infant, and that infant none other than incarnate Godhead. Thus, according to the principle laid down, the worship- pers of a child must become as little children themselves. It is true that these wise men had the witness of a sign from heaven ; and that they FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 9 had, in all probability, ancient prophecies, which led them to hail that star as the herald of one to appear in more than earthly glory. Nay, we cannot doubt that an immediate revelation to their own minds gave more detailed and explicit know- ledge of his auspicious birth. But still, had these Gentiles jjossessed, in however rich and abundant stores, the wisdom of this world only, they could not but have been offended at the lowly scene which Bethlehem presented. Their traditionary reports had spoken of a Prince, to whose sceptre all nations must bow down. Their expectations, at least, were such as taught them to believe that all Jerusalem M'ould be filled with the rumour of this new-born King. But, when they found they alone, though Gentiles and strangers in Jeru- salem, were concerned about the matter, till, by their own report, they aroused the fears and jea- lousy of Herod ; and when, directed by the star, they saw the meanness and destitution that pre- vailed— the stable, the manger, the babe swathed in such swaddling-clothes as poverty could wrap around him — no credence but that of supernatural faith could have withstood the reluctance of flesh and blood to discern the glory which was thus mysteriously veiled and entombed within such thick enclosures. In vain would the star, like the finger of God, point to the consecrated spot. 10 SHORT READINGS Science, falsely so called, could have resolved it into a meteoric exhalation, or a mere illusion of the senses. They might, on entering the lonely dwelling, have heard from his virgin mother the wondrous story of his birth ; how the Holy Ghost had come upon her, and the power of the Highest had overshadowed her. She might have told them that, though ministering in all maternal offices to his childish wants, " her soul did mag- nify him as the Lord, and her spirit rejoiced in him as God her Saviour." But could nature, alive to temporal things, and dead to things eternal, have " believed her report ?" Doubtless, while she bore that treasure in her womb, she was not silent in his praise ; and yet, " to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed ?" If her testimony had been available, would she have been driven with her child and Saviour, to make her abode with the beasts that perish ? The incarnation no less than the atoning sacri- fice, the manger no less than the cross, was " to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness." " No man can say that," in his birth, his life, or death, "Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." It was not their knowledge of the stars, or their insight into the hidden mysteries of nature ; it was not flesh and blood, which revealed unto these Gentile, saints, a God enshrined in FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 11 helpless infancy. No. It was the divine inspira- tion, which alone can teach the heart, and render it the recipient of celestial light. It was the still small voice from heaven, which said, " In that manger behold your God." It was the wisdom from above, which brought down these sages before " him whom man despiseth," and whom the world rejected. As Christ was in the days of his flesh and in- fancy, so is his religion now. And he who will espouse his cause and interest, must himself be- come as a little child, in innocence, in simplicity, in insensibility to the world's attraction, and in enfranchisement from its anxiety and cares. He must, at least, earnestly desire that blessed state of mind : he must hunger and thirst after that right- eousness. As the magi set out from distant lands, and traversed inhospitable regions, that they might present themselves as worshippers of the infant Jesus, so must those who would now come to Christ break through all associations, and sever every tie which would bind them to this earth. They must, by an inward renunciation, loose themselves from all that cleaves too closely to their hearts. They must, in a spiritual sense, " get them out of their country and from their kindred, and come into the land which God will show them." Nor, if our constant inquiry be, 10 12 SHORT READINGS " Where is He that is born King of the Jews ?" " if we seek Jesus which was crucified," and de- sire that better country where He now lives and reigns, need we fear or faint, though we have yet to travel many a dark and dreary stage. If we have once seen the true directing star, " the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ;" if we have not been " disobedient to the heavenly vision," but owned and recog- nised it as our effectual calling ; He who shined in our hearts will never leave us nor forsake us. He may for a little moment seem to hide his face. We may for a time " walk in darkness, and have no light." But let us " trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon our God ;" and ere long the star will reappear. Nay, there have been in- stances where the light which beamed like open- ing heaven at the first conversion of the soul, has withdrawn, and through many a lengthened year refused to shine with its early lustre. But, as life's journey has hastened to its close, lo, the luminary of the morning has risen as an evening star, and pointed to the bright regions where Jesus dwells, and lightened the darkness of the valley of the shadow of death, and caused the soul, while passing through, to " rejoice with exceeding great joy." FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 13 IV. THOUGHTS ON THE SABBATH. There is no commandment in which God's paternal goodness and indulgence appear more conspicuousl}', than " Hallow my sabbaths." The Sabbath is a day which He has invited us to pass with Him, in the most intimate and endearing converse. He has given us six days in each week to pursue our worldly callings, and to " do all that we have to do." But, with the affectionate con- descension of a father. He has reserved this one day to himself, that his children may not, by too long intervals of absence, be estranged from Him ; that they may periodically return from the labours and avocations of the world, to the peaceful shelter and pure enjoyments of their Father's dwelling. On this day the doors of his temple are thrown open. On this day young and old, rich and poor, master and servant, are equally invited to God's house, and to His company, to " come before His presence with thanksgiving, and to shew them- selves glad in Him with psalms" — to sit as guests around his table, and with all the ease of filial confidence, to taste the pleasures, and to delight in the abundance of his habitation. But the Sabbath is not only a gracious conde- 14 SHORT READINGS scension, it is moreover a profoundly wise provision for our everlasting welfare. We are sent into this world, merely for the purpose of preparing us for another. Six days in the week are allowed us for our worldly callings, that, amidst the trials, and temptations, and difficulties of life, we may prac- tise self-denial and self-control ; that we may make proof of our fidelity to God ; that, tossed upon the waves of this troublous ocean, we may learn the more to prize, and be fitted to enjoy with increased delight, that peaceful haven " where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the w^eary are at rest." Thus the six days' toil is intended to enhance our future blessedness. But the Sabbath's repose is a means altogether of another kind. It is not, like the former, designed to heighten the happi- ness to come, by force of contrast. It is meant rather to prepare us for it, by use and habit. It is a day appointed for us to learn the graces and practise the virtues of the blessed ; and that we may form tastes and tempers congenial to the life, the nature, and the element of heaven. If this truth were duly considered, it would be pro- ductive of the best effects. Men would perceive, that to hope for salvation and to neglect the Sabbath, is a contradiction in the very notion of it ; for, in fact, the Sabbath is so far an actual FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 15 anticipation of that heaven to which salvation leads, that the mind that delights not in God's peculiar day, wants the very substance and es- sential principle out of which our future happiness must grow. It is a fundamental error to imagine of heaven as of some fine and brilliant place, in which all, if indiscriminately admitted by God's indulgence, would be happy. No : heaven is a state of mind rather than a place ; and its highest happiness is but the full measure and perfection of that inward peace and joy which those experi- ence who love God's Sabbath, and call it a delight. Heaven is an everlasting Sabbath. And our Sab- baths here are prelibations and miniatures of Heaven. They are, as it were, rehearsals of those glorious harmonies which we shall celebrate in eternity. It is on this day, and by our feelings towards this day, that we can best ascertain whe- ther we should be really happy in heaven. It is on this day that we must try our wings, before we can take our flight to the land of saints and angels It is on this day, that streams flow down from heaven to earth, which he who tastes without a relish, would only loathe and turn away from the fulness of the parent fountain. The truth is, that he who wakes upon a Sabbath morning, and rises with no reflection but that it wants the interest of a common day, and is distinguished 16 SHOKT READINGS from the other portions of the week only by a gloomy absence of amusement; he who kindles at such a season with no glow of heart, and re- sponds with no grateful movement of the soul to that still small voice which calls him to a Sab- bath's calm delights, its innocent enjoyments, its harmless pleasures, its cheerful worship, its com- munion with heaven — the mind, I say, which is thus insensible, wants the essential element of the religious life. It is devoid of that seed out of which a happy immortality alone can grow. If admitted to Heaven it would there pine away an irksome being, an existence without savour, an insupportable load of life, a vacuity and dreariness to whose eternal sameness and insipidity it would prefer annihilation, or, in idea at least, the rest- less excitements of hell itself. ' These thoughts are serious and awful ; and could not but alarm — if duly weighed — the negligent or wicked. But to those who have any portion of sincerity in religion, there is every thing conso- latory and encouraging in such views. They re- move that gloomy veil which, to the mere natural eye, overhangs the future world — those shapeless horrors in which imagination invests the dark descent of death, and the cheerless and still darker void which lies beyond it. They cheer the pious soul with a lively hope, that after death the scene FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 17 will not be altogether strange and new ; that what it loved on earth it will find improved in heaven ; that the enjoyment of the Sabbath is a " tasting of the powers of the world to come ;" and differs in degree only, not in kind or nature, from the blessedness above. But to make the Sabbath operate with its full effect, it should be observed, not only with indi- vidual piety, but with public reverence. In places where it is thus hallowed, its gracious influences descend in copious streams. It is this which, above all other means of grace, early engages the youthful mind, and wins it to the service and to the love of God. After the bustle and labours of an active week, it sees with unspeakable delight all things around assume the air of peace. No anxieties disturb the noiseless and gentle pleasures of this happy day. No voice is heard in the streets ; no sounds invade the ear but the bell which sum- mons to the house of prayer, but psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, ascending upon the wings of faith and love to heaven. This is indeed a Christian festival ; this is like a day which the Lord has made. These are the Sabbaths which would bring down God's blessing upon this coun- try— which would fill her barns with plenty, which would make her oxen strong to labour, which would bless her victuals with increase, so 18 SHORT READINGS that there would be no decay, no leading into captivity, and no complaining in her streets. V. JACOB'S DREAM. (Gen. xxviii.) If, in the high-wrought and artificial system in which we live, home be still the centre around which our fondest recollections gather, and to- wards which our purest affections point; and if, as we leave that magic spot, we feel to drag a lengthening chain, and turn again and again to take a parting look, and bid another last farewell ; how much stronger must have been this attraction, and with how much tenderer ties must the heart have been bound to the domestic altar, in the days of patriarchal simplicity and of pastoral life. To artless shepherds, unaccustomed to the face of strangers — unpractised in those ways which, more or less, constitute all, in these latter times, citizens of the world — nothing could have been more try- ing or appalling than to quit the paternal roof, the well known haunts of childhood — scenes beyond which their steps had never strayed before, and in absence from which no single day of life had ever been passed. Such was the call which sum- moned Jacob from his country, his kindred, and FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 19 his father's house. At the command of Isaac he sets forth, leaving- all that he loved on earth be- hind him, to seek his fortune in a strange land. " And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set ; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep." (ver. 10, 11.) Can any thing present to the mind a more tho- rough picture of dreariness and desolation ? Far from that home which he had in all probability never left before, fatigued by a journey on foot of forty miles, no bed but the earth to lie on, no pillows but the stones, no canopy but the heavens, and those involved in night ; the sun gone down, all dark and silent as the grave : if the thoughts of Jacob had taken their colouring from the sur- rounding scene, how dense a cloud and deep a melancholy bad overhung his soul ! But those who walk by faith are " never less alone than when alone." The God before whom he had walked can make the night as clear as the day, and " turn the shadow of death into the morning." Without the patriarch was one monotony of gloom ; but what visions and living scenes of light opened to his view within ! " And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it c 2 20 SHORT READINGS reached to heaven ; and behokl the angels of God ascending and descending on it." (ver. 12.) If he had felt himself deserted, and uncheered by social intercourse and human converse, there now bursts upon his sight a prospect so animated, so peopled, and so filled with life, as at once to eclipse the brightest exhibitions of this lower world. If his distant home weighed with painful pressure, as under similar circumstances it often does, upon the heart of Jacob ; if the thought arose, as, alas ! it too often will, that now he would meet no eye that had ever seen the face, no ear that had ever heard the voice, of those he had left behind ; how cheering must have been the sight, how comfortable must have been the words, when looking up the ladder which united earth to hea- ven, *' Behold the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac." I am the God before whom that father from whom you have now been parted, walked ere you were born, and before whom he continues to walk, up to this present moment. He is now in my view — my eyes are now upon him — and he is under the shadow of my wings. I will never leave him nor forsake him. No evil shall befal him ; neither shall any jDlague come nigh his dwelling. And for thyself, behold I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 21 goest, and will bring thee again into this land ; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. Such were the scenes which passed in the cham- bers of imagery within, while, if any human eye had seen him, the patriarch would have presented no appearance but that of loneliness and desertion. And so it is, in a certain sense, with all his spiri- tual descendants. The substance of his dream is the waking certainty which their faith reveals. Though strangers on earth, they " see," by faith, " heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." They see in Jesus, the true ladder, the new and living way into the holiest. Though wandering far from their earthly home, they find a home in God. He who is their God, is the God of all they love in Him. If separated for a time from family and friends, He will bring them all together again. If it be for their good, He will give them their heart's desire " in this present time." If not, He will defer the blessing, only that they may have a still happier meeting, a still more joyful reunion in the world to come. 22 SHORT READINGS VI. ON THE WILL AND AFFECTIONS. Many are the troubles of the righteous. They are not only sharers in those sorrows which are common to man : they have trials peculiar to themselves. They live in a land of strangers : they are aliens from the sympathies of the world around them : they are constrained to dwell with Meseck, and to have their habitation amongst the tents of Kedar. They are alone in the midst of the general crowd ; and often do they sit in soli- tary places and adopt the psalmist's sore com- plaint : " I became a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours ; and they of mine acquaintance were afraid of me ; and they that did see me without conveyed them- selves from me. I am clean forgotten as a dead man out of mind : I am become like a broken vessel." Thus repelled from abroad, this pressure of the surrounding atmosphere drives the lonely pilgrim to seek a refuge in his own interior, and to fly from the world without to the world within. There, at his happier moments, " a good man is satisfied from himself :" God is sensible to his 8 FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 23 heart, and he wants nothing. There he " lies down in green pastures, and beside still waters." There " The calm retreat, the silent shade, With prayer and praise agree." " There, if the Spirit touch the soul, And grace her mean abode, O, with what peace, and joy, and love She communes with her God !" But how fluctuating is the heart of man ! How often and how quickly does " the cloudy and dark day" succeed that happy sunshine of the breast ! How often is the Christian disposed to say, " O, that it were with me as in months past !" At such moments of depression the child of God is not unfrequently inclined to think that the sun of his happiness is set, to rise no more. He is no longer sensible of the divine presence : he walks no longer in ways of pleasantness and paths of peace : he feels no spontaneous movement of the affec- tions, no joyful flow of love towards God ; and concludes that, because the streams are dried up, the fountain also itself has failed. He fears that the root of loyalty has withered in his soul, that the vitality of religion is extinct, in a word, that the love of God has no longer a dwelling-place in his heart. 24 SHORT READINGS It has been often observed that these dis- tresses, in proportion as they are deeply felt, are calculated, on calm reflection, to work out their own relief ; for we never thus lament the loss of what we do not highly value. And, if we prize the love of God at so high a rate, that very appreciation of the thing is assuredly nothing else, though in disguise and shaded from the view, than the very tendency of the soul, whose fancied absence we deplore. But there is another remedy in this case. Al- low that religion, as a fountain of happiness and well-spring of joy, is not now in perceptible life and action in the soul. Allow that, were our Saviour to address the affections, as he did the son of J onas, and say, " Lovest thou me ?" there would be " neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded." Still, distressing as this silence would be, let us try deeper ; and a cheering response may follow If the heart be right with God, however feelhigs may fluctuate, there is a principle seated there in which, after the image of Him that created it, "there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.'" This principle is the will. Here is the moral centre of gravity. To this we are to look if we are to ascertain our state towards God. It is the resolution of the will which determines the point for which we FOR FAMILY PKAYERS. 25 make, the direction in which we move, the shore to which we steer the vessel. The affections are like the winds which sometimes favour, sometimes retard her course ; but the will is like the mind that has planned her voyage, and keeps the haven where she would be continually in view, and which, however she may tack about, will, with God's good blessing, bring her in safety to the eternal shore. " Who is among you," saith the prophet, " that feareth God, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light ? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." But how shall the believer, when his affections are cold, his feelings dry, and his comforts low, be enabled to take effectually this wise and animating counsel ? Let him, I answer, pursue the following course : let him try the process I would here sug- gest. Let bim descend from the surface into the deeper strata of his heart, and there inquire how the matter stands between himself and God. There is a love of principle as well as a love of feeling. Besides the adherence of the affections, there is a preference of the will ; and it is the latter, not the former, that unequivocally denotes that the root of love is in the heart, though it seem for the present to put forth neither leaves nor branches. If, then, the child of God, as he 26 SHORT READINGS often may, feels his affections lifeless and his soul in heaviness ; if he cannot now delight himself in the Lord, or rejoice in the presence of his God ; if in this state he is tempted to doubt his accept- ance and his interest in the covenant of peace, let him thus commune with his own heart, and search out his spirit ; let him ask the witness there not whether his affections are freely flowing, but whether his will is stedfastly fixed and resolved for God ; let him, in a word, put his loyalty to the following test : " Comfortless as I may be, would I exchange the Master I have chosen for any of those ' lords many and gods many,' who would claim the allegiance of my heart ? If the fulness of the earth, and all the glories of the world were offered me, would I purchase them at the expense of deliberate apostacy from God ? Nay, would I not rather die ten thousand deaths than deny the Lord that bought me, or than even exchange these godly sorrows for any joys which the world can give ? If I had the choice, would I not ' rather suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season V Should I not 'esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of the earth ?' " If the conscience returns at once an unhesitating answer to these inquiries ; if our heart burns within us, if it glows with loyalty, if it spurns the FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 27 name of traitor, and with a high and holy in- dignation defies the charge of perfidy towards heaven ; assuredly, if these be the spontaneous movements of our soul, we cannot doubt that all is right within, or hesitate to claim an interest in those inspiring words, " Hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us." Such, then, is the process which I recom- mend, and of which, I trust, I have not un- frequently experienced the benefit myself. It is an appeal from the affections which are change- able, and which more or less are animal, to the will, which, if w e be his, is unchangeably fixed on God, and whose seat is the calm region of the spirit. And often will the believer by this ap- peal fan the very affections themselves into a flame. The response of the deeper principle beneath will agitate the surface of the soil above, and the will, aroused to make a good confession, will awaken the lighter faculties of the spiritual nature. The warmth which glows at the centre will spread itself to the remote extremities of the heart. The fountain being stirred, the stream will be set in motion, and flow back with gentle current unto God. 28 SHORT READINGS VII. CHILDREN'S STORIES. Whether children happen to be present or not, it is sometimes profitable to read the records of their simplicity, and to listen to those lessons which their unaffected piety may often teach us. I shall, then, as part of this morning's exercise, relate a touching anecdote, which I had from the clergyman of the parish where the scene was laid. In the family of a gentleman of fortune, one of a large flock of children, and but one, was, at the time referred to, brought to the knowledge of a Saviour's love. All the rest, though respectable, amiable, and naturally well disposed, were still but strangers to those blessed truths which were the treasure of her own heart. That her beloved family, that every member of the dear circle within which all her earthly interests were en- closed— that they might be brought to God, to serve Him here, and to dwell with Him hereafter — this was the constant subject of her thoughts, the matter of her ceaseless prayer. At about twelve years of age, that distemper which has summoned away so many young saints to glory commenced its fatal ravages on her frame. Dur- FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 29 ing a long and painful and wearisome sickness, she evinced a peculiar sweetness and gentleness of disposition, and, uniformly, a lamb-like patience. But still her mind was continually occupied about the spiritual welfare and everlasting salvation of her beloved relations. In this state of distressing and harassing anxiety, it pleased the Lord (can we for a moment hesitate in ascribing the inter- position to Him ?) to comfort her by a dream ; and, in that vision of the night, to send what she took as a resolution of all her doubts and an answer to all her prayers. She dreamed that she was introduced into a large apartment, Avhich formed a kind of ante-chamber to the palace of eternity. Round this room were placed her father, her mother, her brothers and sisters — all seated, and waiting in silent, unutterable suspense. When they had continued for some time, she dreamed that the door of heaven opened, and a celestial figure, which she took to be the Saviour, entered the apartment, holding in his hand a parcel of cards or tickets. He passed with a slow and deliberate motion round the circle, dis- tributing, as he advanced, a separate card to each, and then retired. For a time, an awful, anxious pause ensued. All sat still and motionless, as if afraid to examine what was written upon the several tickets. At length they took courage, 30 SHORT READINGS and simultaneously lifted them up to their eyes ; and, lo ! upon each ticket the same writing ap- peared. It consisted of but one word, and that word was — " forgiveness." Let dreams be what they may, this favoured child received the one in question as a messenger from heaven : it answered all her doubts, and cheered her on her way to an early grave. Of two little ones, the eldest not above six years old, the following account is given in a French story. These children are represented as being under the most perfect discipline ; and yet, nevertheless, their parents had observed that, without asking leave, they absented themselves frequently, at a particular hour of the day. Such conduct in children, so dutiful and amenable, led them to suspect that there must be something more than mere wantonness, to account for this periodical and mysterious withdrawal. They re- solved, then, to be upon the watch. They ob- served attentively; and the children were as usual absent. The parents went forth, and stole out, cautiously and gently, by a path, to a seques- tered and favourite spot, whither they supposed these little ones had strayed. As they walked along a thickly planted hedge-row, they thought they heard the sound of infant voices on the other side. They paused and listened. They were the FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 31 voices of tlieir own children. They were en- gaged in prayer ; and the petition they were that moment offering was for their father and mother. Thus the plot was unravelled, and the secret came to light. I have often grounded on this little story a piece of affectionate counsel to all children. Though it be the child's first duty, next to that im- mediately to God, to hide nothing which ought not to be concealed from their parents, and though openness and simplicity be the richest ornaments which youth can wear, yet there is one secret which I would advise even little chil- dren to keep from parents, instructors, and every human being. I would advise them, then, like the subjects of this story, to retire into some secluded place, and there, when all alone with God, to pray the best prayer they can ; and to tell this neither to father nor mother, nor to any living being. They will often perhaps be tempted to reveal the secret, from the love of talk, or of praise, or for the better purpose of making their parents happy. But let them resist the tempta- tion ; and there will then be a secret between God and them, known to none else besides. And this will often lead them to think of God, and to think of Him so as to make the thouo^ht delight- ful, and the sense of his presence cheering to the heart and pleasant to the soul. 32 SHORT READINGS VIIL ON LUKE xxii. 70. " Then said they all. Art thou then the Son of God?"— Luke xxii. 70. To me there is no passage in the whole of our blessed Saviour's afflicted life more touching or affecting than that in which He replies with so much meekness to the taunting and insidious ques- tion of his persecutors, " Art thou the Christ ? tell us " (Luke xxii. 67). There is something in his answer which graphically paints the total want of all fair justice with which He was treated, the capricious cruelty which would force Him to speak, when all He could say was vain, and when He was, at the very moment, in the hands of those that hated Him: " He said unto them. If I tell you, ye will not believe ; and, if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go." Nor does the scripture pencilling contain, amidst its boldest lights and shades, a sublimer specimen of that humiliation and glory which were so won- drously united and contrasted in the person of " Emmanuel, God with us," than that which is here presented : " Hereafter," says this helpless prisoner., fast bound in misery and iron, " shall FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 33 the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God." It was upon this announcement that all with one voice exclaimed, " Art thou then the Son of God ?" It was, I need not say, in no spirit of fair inquiry that these words were spoken. No ; it was either that they might find accusation against Him, or that they might insult Him by a self-answered question, and one which only heaped scorn and ridicule upon his high pretensions. It was such a mode of questioning as that, " Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead ?" (John viii. 53.) Or that, " Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham ?" (John yiii. 57.) But, in whatever sjiirit these words were then employed, we may not unprofitably occui:»y a few moments in accommodating them to certain cases, in which we may imagine them to have been spoken. 1. Let us conceive, then, one who had been in- volved in the clouds of the socinian heresy, and from whose eyes had been intercepted " the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Let us, then, conceive the power of truth prevailing, the mists of doubt dis- persing, the Sun of righteousness for the first time arising, the soul constrained to acknowledge and the tongue to confess " that Jesus Christ is Lord, D 34 SHORT READINGS to the glory of God the Father." " Art thou then the Son of God ?" would then be not so much a question as a mode of speaking which only- added emphasis to persuasion ; as much as to say, " Can I believe so glorious a truth ? Is it possi- ble that it can be real ?" It would be adopting with still more expressive point and meaning, the exclamation of Nathaniel, " Thou art the Son of God : thou art the King of Israel ;" the confession of St. Peter, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God ;" the compellation of St. Thomas, " My Lord and my God." Another connection in which we may suppose these words, is the following : There is in man a strange capacity of entertaining religious truths, " with eyes that see not, ears that hear not, and a heart that will not understand." The scripture verities are not questioned ; but they strike like blunted arrows, and cannot pierce the conscience. They are like faultless statues, complete in every part, but cold and motionless, the images at once of life and death. There is a physical sensation produced at times by immersion of the head in water, which much resembles this spiritual torpor: some lodgment in the orifice of the ear, or other elfect of bathing, dulls the sense of hearing, and makes us feel altogether in a kind of dreamy state, FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 35 as if the objects around us were but the shadows of themselves, as if those well known words were nothing but the literal fact : " All the world's a stage. And all the men and women merely players." Thus we continue in a half-waking state, till sud- denly the bubble within and the bubble around us burst, the spell is loosed, the hallucination ceases, the ear drinks in the reality of clear sounds, and all nature is itself again. In such a manner does faith arouse the slumbering soul. It exhibits no- thing but what it had in its dreams already seen. But it now exhibits them to awakened senses. The natural man is as one groping in a dark room. Such an one may range from object to object, he may feel them, and conjecture, sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly, what they are. But let the curtains be drawn aside, and the blessed light come in, and then he has a clear apprehension of all that he was imperfectly conversant with before. He then sees the rich and varied ornaments that surrounded him, and the brilliancy of the whole scene. What seemed but a worthless trifle, shines forth as a costly gem. What was to him a mere flat and unmeaning surface upon the wall, now exhibits itself as the triumph of the painter's art, a treasure which none but the favoured few could D 2 36 SHORT READINGS purchase. So it is that, when the inward vision of the soul is clouded, the realities of eternity, though notionally entertained, are, to every prac- tical purpose, as though they were not. But, when the veil is taken off the heart, the Sun of righte- ousness shines out, and illuminates the whole ho- rizon ; and object after object brightens into spirit and into life. It is in such a transition from dark- ness to light that we would imagine to ourselves the rapture with which the awakened spirit would exclaim, " Art thou then the Son of God ?" With far different emotions might these words have been repeated by that celestial messenger whom we read of in the forty-third verse of this chapter : " And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, stremjthening Him." How lately had this exalted being, perhaps, taken his station with the cherubim in their glittering ranks or with the " bright seraphim in burning row," or with whatever order of the celestial worshippers he might especially appertain to ; and there, in prostrate adoration, and with wings outstretched to cover his face, have united with all the com- pany of heaven in crying unto Him that sat upon the throne, " Holy, holy, holy !" But how little could even an angelic mind conceive the immensity of this transition ! How little could he measure the depths of the abyss of woe into which the King FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 37 of glory had descended from a throne so far above all heavens ! This angel, we will suppose, is sum- moned to go forth upon some embassy of mercy to this world of sorrow, and rejoices at the thought that he is now about to prop some fainting head, or still some throbbing heart ; and lo, he lights upon the spot to which his commission points. And often, perhaps, as he had ministered relief to human suffering, and had witnessed scenes of woe, yet an exhibition now meets his eyes to which he had beheld no parallel before : no sorrows that he had seen before were like unto that sorrow; it was of deeper dye and keener anguish than them all. It was the case of one whose " visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men." It was the case of one who looked in vain for any to pity Him or to com- fort Him ; of one cut off from human sympathies, and an outcast from the divine compassions ; of one whom both earth and heaven had renounced, both God and man had forsaken. He finds Him in that dark hour, when even his lamb-like pa- tience was driven to confess that " his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;" when with strong cries and tears He prayed, that if it were possible the cup might pass from Him ; when He reiterated that cry, and when, " being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly ; and his 38 SHORT READINGS sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground/' Now, what if this angel did not know, at first, who this mysterious stranger was ; what if, through the veil, that is to say, his suffering flesh, a glory beyond that of men or angels began to emit its light, and to shine more and more, till full conviction reached this pure ce- lestial mind. We know that there is nothing so touching to every generous feeling as the sight of fallen greatness — as earthly dignity brought down to bear with hardships, poverty, and contempt. How, then, would the heart of an angel beat with emotions too high for utterance at the sight of humbled Deity, at the glory of the eternal God- head fast bound in misery and trampled in the dust ! With what mingled sensations, above our lower nature to conceive, might he have burst into the exclamation, " Art thou then the Son of God ?" Finally, with what ecstatic bliss will faithful souls repeat these words when they behold Him " whom not having seen they loved," now beam- ing forth in the effulgence of uncreated light, and seated on the throne of the Majesty on high ! In Him they will recognise that condescending Sa- viour who did not disdain to visit them with his felt presence, to refresh their spirits, and to revive their hearts ; to whom they often fled for sym- 6 FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 39 pathy when the world neglected them and passed them by, wlien " men separated them from their company," and said all manner of evil falsely for the Son of man's sake ; in whose converse they sought relief as in that of one who experimentally knew what the human heart can feel ; who was himself " a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief ;" who bore the proud man's contumely, and hid not his face from shame and spitting. With what rapture will they exclaim, when they see that Saviour seated at the right hand of the Ma- jesty on high, " Art thou then the Son of God ?" " Yes," they will say, " We believed that glorious truth when passing through the clouds below ; but still it was often ours to pray, ' Lord, I be- lieve; help thou mine unbelief.' The thought was too good news, too great happiness to be true : we mistrusted our senses. At times we feared it was but the offspring of our own heart's desire, the figment of a flattering dream. Then we saw through a glass darkly, but now face to face : then we knew in part, but now we know even as also we are known. Now our fondest hopes are realized ; they are all the sober certainties of waking bliss. Yes, thou art the King of glory, 0 Christ. Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory and honour and power, for thou hast loved 40 SHORT READINGS US and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and na- tion. Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." IX. SEPARATION FROM THE WORLD THE ESSENCE OF SALVATION. That great salvation which was the price and purchase of Emmanuel's blood, consists of two distinct parts : — 1. He " delivered us from the wrath to come." He died in our place. " He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with his stripes we are healed." By the offering of himself He made re- conciliation for us in heaven. He satisfied the divine justice, and cleared a channel for the di- vine compassions to flow down. He brought all God's attributes to harmonize and blend in man's salvation ; so that " mercy and truth are met to- gether; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Such was the great work wrought by FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 41 the Redeemer for us ; a work by which the king- dom of heaven was opened to all believers. 2. But still, our justification before God would be but a mere negative thing, it would be but a mere escape from an outward hell, if the seeds of misery were left within us; if there were not some remedy for the diseases, some cure for the maladies of the soul ; if there were no friendly hand to stop the throbbings of the heart, no soothing voice to say to the perturbations of man's anxious bosom, " Peace ; be still." Man wants more than to be freed from pain. He was made for hajjpiness ; and he can find no rest with- out it. Indeed, it is idle to talk of neutrality as it respects our weal or woe. We are incapable of this blank existence. To us, the privation of en- joyment is the essence of misery. To us, separa- tion from God is not simple loss. It is not the absence of good alone : it is the presence of all evil. It is not unconscious sleep, but a night of distracted dreams, wandering upon the dark mountains, amidst *' Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell." The truth is, there is seated in the soul, bound up in the primitive constitution of man's being, a hungering and thirsting after uncreated good ; an 42 SHORT READINGS appetite for enjoyments pure and infinite, which, if mocked with counterfeits of bliss, if denied the bread of heaven and the water that springeth up into everlasting life, reacts upon itself and recoils upon the soul, and is, in fact, the true worm that dieth not, and fire that is not quenched. Salvation, then, is not merely neg'ative or re- lative : it is a positive and substantive thing ; a real blessing and actual condition of the mind and heart. It is, in a word, precisely to the soul what health is to the body. But it is manifest that so mighty a work as that of man's moral re- novation must admit of degrees, and exist in dif- ferent stages of advancement. And thus, the Scriptures speak of babes in Christ, of young men, and of fathers. Still, though capable in degree of more or less, there must be something in kind which consti- tutes salvation. There must be some definite line which separates between the evil and the good. What, then, is that line ? How shall we " dis- cern between the righteous and the wicked, be- tween him that serveth God, and him that serveth Him not ?" The question is not, observe, about the perfection, but about the essence of the thing. Nor, again, is the point in hand of a forensic kind: it is not salvation taken in the sense of " deliverance from the wrath to come," nor of ac- FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 43 ceptance with God. No : it is simply this : What is that moral condition, that character of the mind, that preparedness of the heart, that prin- ciple infused into the soul itself, which implies that, if we were at this moment taken into eter- nity, we should be happy ? This question, is I think, answered in that one sentence of our Lord s great intercessory prayer — " They are not of the world, as I am not of the world " (John xvii. 16). Whoso answers to this description, whatever may be his comparative state of ghostly strength or weakness, has the necessary qualifica- tion, and is " meet to be partaker of the inherit- ance of the saints in light." We seem to be placed in the midst of a scheme of things which is the precise opposite of that in which holy and happy spirits live above. " The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," these form the prime elements of that which Scripture calls emphatically " the world." This compound of carnal grossness and artificial glare is essentially contrasted with the pure in- nocence and genial sunshine which gladden the path and rejoice the hearts of the blessed in hea- ven. The human mind, then, is so constructed that it cannot tend at once in contrary directions : it cannot choose things repugnant to each other; for " no man can serve two masters." " If any 44 SHORT READINGS man love the world," says St. John, " the love of the Father is not in him." Such is the trial to which we are exposed, the ordeal we have to pass, the test to which the temper and quality of our spiritual taste and tendencies are now put. On the one hand, a vain and voluptuous world opens out its imposing scenes of earthly honours, pomp, and glory, displays its soft enchantments, exhibits the most seductive objects to the fancy, flatters the senses, and invites the heart to " take its fill of pleasures." On the other hand appears, though faintly and upon the distant horizon, the dawn of a celestial day : disclosing, it is true, calmer and purer delights than earth can yield ; displaying a softer landscape and more lovely scenes than those on which the sun of this world shines. But these are rather the " shadow of good things to come, than the very image of the things ;" rather earnests of a future inheritance, than the inheritance itself. They are so far, ne- vertheless, first-fruits of the heavenly harvest, samples of the produce of the celestial soil, fore- tastes of the blessedness to come, as to serve the purpose I have before alluded to. They put to the test our fitness for those abodes of innocence and glory which the Scripture represents the ha- bitations of the just to be. Thus, the great busi- ness of this life is to make our choice between FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 45 two rival candidates for the heart. The main point to be determined here is, to which of two systems of attraction we will yield the tendency of our souls. We are not gifted with self-sup- port, nor are we formed to stand alone. We are mere adjectives, and to something substantive we must attach ourselves. To some current we must yield : against some supporting prop we must in- cline. We are, in the very essence of our being, dependent creatures. On what, then, shall we depend? " He that soweth to the flesh," says the apostle, " shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." Here, then, is our salva- tion, or our ruin. Two attractions are at work. One would draw us up, and the other down. The cross and the world prefer at once their rival claims. The cross conjures us, by a Saviour's faithfulness and love, to turn to it ; and points to the narrow way which leads to heaven. The world holds out her intoxicating cup of brilliancy and pleasure, and strews with flowers the broad and treacherous way which leadeth to destruction. Such is the option we have to make. But choose we must ; and on that choice our everlasting weal or woe depends. 46 SHORT READINGS X. THE CONNEXION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTA- MENTS A PROOF OF THE TRUTH OF REVELA- TION. It has been observed, that the most startling objections to the truth of revelation turn over, on the fullest examination, to the side of its strongest evidences. Thus, the harsher traits of the divine administration, the sweeping desolations and wholesale massacres of which God's people are his appointed instruments — what does all this myste- rious dispensation prove? That the Scriptures give a false representation of the divine nature, and therefore cannot be true ? No : it shows, on the contrary, that the characters which the Old Testament attributes to Jehovah are not fictitious ones, but precisely those which have been in all ages displayed by that invisible Providence which rules the world. It is " at his word the stormy wind ariseth." It is by his command that earth- quakes, famines, plagues, and pestilence spare neither age nor sex, neither tender mothers nor their helpless infants. Well, then, what is all this but the very same harshness of administra- tion, carried on by unseen agency, in which, ac- cording to the sacred history, a visible and human machinery is employed ? Nor let it be said, " 0, FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 47 but there is a difference between these two. An- gels, or whatever ministering spirits God may be pleased to send as executioners of his wrath, may be so constituted that to bear such etern commis- sions and to inflict such woes may not re-act upon themselves, and impart a character of ferocity to their minds ; whereas, man is so formed that he assimilates to the work in which he is habitually engaged, whether it be to save or to destroy." But, even if this principle did apply to the ex- terminating Jew, and that the sense that he acted by divine command, and was not a voluntary but necessitated agent ; if this, and other correctives of a system so replete with mercy, did not alto_ gether counteract this tendency, yet, does not the acknowledged Sovereign, who sends plague and pestilence, employ, not by a word of com- mand from heaven, but by his all-directing provi- dence— does He not, I say, employ man as the instrument of man's destruction ? Who that be- lieves there is a God can doubt that it was his hand which let loose the northern deluge upon the Roman empire, and that bared the bosom of America to the Spaniard's sword ? These are the present mysteries of an inscrutable Providence : these are the clouds which now intercept our view, but which will, at the appointed season, clear away, when all is lost in one bright and universal 48 SHORT READINGS blaze of evidence that " God is love." But still these darker lines of the divine administration answer, amongst others, this valuable purpose : they identify ihe character of God, as set forth in the Scripture, with the character of God as wit- nessed by the phenomena which we see around us. They enable us to take up the language of the apostle, and to say to the objector, " Is He the God of the Jews only ? Is he not of the Gentiles ? Yes, of the Gentiles also." If we wanted arguments to prove, what is as clear as proof can make it, that the Old and New Testaments are a true revelation, there is one which comes with peculiar force to my own mind. It is this : What could induce the authors of the latter to identify their system with the former, but a firm conviction that it was of God ? What could induce them to refer to it as inspired, and to make themselves responsible for it ; to impli- cate themselves, and make common cause, with an institution in many respects so wholly at vari- ance with their own? What but an assurance that, though clouds and darkness might rest upon it, it was nevertheless divine? Compare the simple and spiritual worship of the Gospel with the gorgeous and pompous ceremonial of the Jewish ritual. Compare the lives of the Old Tes- tament saints, their multiplication of wives and FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 49 concubines, with the spotless purity which the New Testament enjoins. Compare the bloody wars and vaunting triumphs of Israel over its prostrate foes, with the non-resistance, the long- suffering, the love of enemies, which the Gospel breathes in every page ; and then account for it, if you can, why the Author of the Christian reli- gion, his apostles and evangelists, should have encumbered themselves with a vast machmery apparently so little to their purpose, so practically opposed to the main points they had to carry, so repugnant to the philosophy of the world and to the prejudices of those Gentiles to whom it was their object to preach the Gospel ? What, I say but madness could have induced them (if, as some allege, they were benevolent forgers of a pious fraud) to have allied themselves to, and en- tangled themselves with, a system which could only clog the wheels of their undertaking, and re- tard its motion ; nay, to all human appearance, forbid the possibihty of its advance ? Will it be said that the object was merely to conciliate the Jews ? This might indeed be urged, if the ori- ginators of the new dispensation had not shown that they were ready to encounter death rather than make one single compromise with the pre- judices of that people. How is it possible, then, that men so holy, so heavenly, so strictly vera- E 50 SHORT READINGS cious, should build the very foundation of their system upon falsehood, and this in order to con- ciliate those whose favour they would in no other instance sacrifice one jot or tittle of principle to secure ? But will it still be argued, in spite of all this, that the apostles, though lovers of truth, found it so essential to the new religion to engraft it on the predictions of the old, that, in this one particular, they yielded to expediency at the ex- pense of right, and thus fabricated a scheme which seemed to correspond to, and fulfil the Jew- ish prophecies ? Absurd as such a notion alto- gether is, yet, if even for a moment we could entertain it, we might expect to find that there would be some pains taken to disentangle the pro- phecies from the context in which they are found_ I mean so far as to sliow that Christianity, though founded on the former, had no concord nor agree- ment with the latter. Such would naturally be the wish and the endeavour of men circumstanced as this hypothesis contemplates, of persons who were the fabricators of a system of purity, holi- ness, and charity, grounded by a pious fraud (if such a case were possible) on the proi)hecies of the Old Testament. Such men would, doubtless, have been anxious to vindicate themselves from the charge of adopting, in the lump, that scheme of which the prophecies formed a part. They FUR FAMILY PRAYERS. 51 would have disclaimed all connexion with its bloody sacrifices, its gorgeous ritual, its ministra- tions of death. There would be elaborate expla- nations, at least, on these topics. There would be something to indicate that they were felt to be weak points, and that the case stood in need of some apology. But nothing of the kind appears ; and it is on this fact that I rest my argument. I repeat it, that nothing can satisfactorily account for the manner in which the originators and writers of the New Testament appeal to the Old? but a certain knowledge and unhesitating convic- tion upon their part that the latter was a divine economy, " whose builder and maker was God." XI. THE WORLD COMPARED TO A SPIDER'S WEB. A CELEBRATED historian has observed that no instance has been recorded in which an army has ventured to ford a river, in front of an enemy, without coming off victorious. If this be true, it may, in a great measure, be accounted for, not only by the bravery which such a movement in- dicates, but by the resistless impetus which the effort itself imparts. It seems, indeed, in the usual course of providence, that all important dis- coveries, all great undertakings for the advance- E 2 SHORT READINGS ment of science or the benefit of mankind, should pass throngli some medium of discouragement, be- fore they make their way to an establislied posi- tion in the world. And this is wisely ordered. It puts the genuineness of new plans and systems to a test. It secures society from being over- charged ^vith novelties, j^erplexed with crude in- ventions and idle theories. All such schemes are met, at first, by an opposition which tries their strength. They have to pass through an ordeal of resistance, through which, without intrinsic energy, they cannot force their way. And thus, what is spurious and abortive perishes in the birth: it dies by its own exhaustion, and thereby saves society the trouble of examining its claims, and relieves public opinion from the pains of becoming its executioner. This may explain to us, in a measure, why it is that we have been placed in this system of things around us ; why an immortal spirit should be des- tined to pass through such a medium as this world in its progress to eternity. It is to put it to the very test which I have already described. It is that the society of the blessed above may consist of none but genuine members, faithful souls, loyal spirits, soldiers who have fought a good fight, have borne the cross, and won the crown. " These are they," says the elder to St. John, "which came FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 53 out of great tribulation, and have washea their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Rev. vii. 14.) What, then, is that which the scripture emphatically styles " the world ?" It is, as it were, a web of sin and vanity woven by Satan himself. And this web is spread across the road which leads from earth to heaven, to catch, to entangle, and to destroy the souls which would pass from hence to a better country. But what he intends for destruction, God overrules for needful and salutary probation. This dense and resisting medium is the great in- strument of our trial. It stands between us and the land of inheritance which lies before us ; and pass through it we must, if we would reach that blessed country. But do all succeed in the at- tempt ? Do all even make the effort ? Alas, no! The far greater part yield to the resistance, and with contented indolence lie entangled in the web, and perish in the snare. Thus does this world present to the eyes of invisible spectators a ghastly sight, like that of the insect's web ; a texture rich in spoils, set thick, and teeming with the dying and the dead. A few there are, however, and have been in all ages, who have sought and found deliverance ; a few chosen spirits of ethereal mould ; a band of conquerors, who have held on their way and 5G SHORT READINGS But many may admire these words, and yet feel unable to ascend the Leights on which we blend our devotions with those of celestial wor- shippers. "How," they say, "are we to attain to this blessed state, and to lay hold upon this great salvation?" I answer first by prayer — by fer- vent, humble, persevering prayer ; and secondly by endeavouring to lead a " godly, righteous, and sober life." To this latter my text applies ; and, therefore, to this consideration I shall now con- fine myself. " And to him that ordereth his con- versation aright will I show the salvation of God." This most practical and important doctrine is set forth elsewhere abundantly in scripture. It is the theme to which our blessed Saviour himself fre- quently recurs. " If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." "If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me : and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." " If a man love me, he will keep my words : and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." These are most encouraging passages. FOR FAMILY PRAYEKS. 57 They seem to tell us, that, while we should pray without ceasing for things above us, there are, nevertheless, duties, daily and hourly duties, which for the present we can by divine grace perform, and in the performance of which we can please God ; that, though the summit on which eternal sunshine dwells may appear far distant, nevertheless there is a pathway thither on which we can now set out, and which leads by gradual steps to that inviting eminence ; that impossi- bilities, or things above us, are not required of us ; that God does not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed; that we are not called on to " ascend into heaven, (that is, to bring Christ down from above,) for the word is nigh us, even in our mouth, and in our heart," saying, " Lo, this is the way, walk ye in it.'* This morning, upon waking, the thought suddenly occurred to me — What if I should jmss this day better than I have ever passed a day be- fore; what if I should be able to look back at night, and to thank God for the most profitable and best spent day of my whole life ! The very idea was animating beyond expression. And why should not this be the first thought which presents itself to us every morning ? Our span of life is divided into these lesser por- tions, that each should be a kind of miniature of 58 SHORT READINGS life, that the morning should be an image of youth, and that, if we have not been so happy as to devote our first years to God, we may make the best compensation in our power by dedicating to him our earliest hours. Bishop Kenn says, " make my very dreams devout." And surely if, while we utterly abhorred all thoughts of any justifying righteousness in ourselves, we so lived that as each sun descended it might leave us with a parting smile — that as the night approached the closing day might seem almost to whisper, " Well done, good and faithful servant :" — we might not only lie down in peace, but hope for dreams, if dreams were sent, of purity, of heaven, and of brighter scenes to come. Hoav far this great sal- vation is attainable here below, let us not waste oiu* time with efforts theoretically to define ; but let us rather resolve to try the experiment ourselves. Let us put to practical proof at what degrees of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost "vve may, even when burdened with the flesh, arrive. And for this purpose let us store our me- mories with chosen texts of scripture ; and let us often repeat them to our own hearts, and more particularly when we awake from the refreshment of sleep. I mean such passages as " Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth :" " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see FOR FAMILY I'RAYERS. 59 God :" " Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all these things shall be added unto you." Surely these animating calls, these enlivening motives, these precious promises, are not held up to view that they may mock and tantalize the appetites of the soul. No ; there is a rest which remaineth even here for the people of God ; there is a haven to which they may fly — a pavilion in which they may be hidden from the provoking of all men and from the strife of tongues. And thus shall every one that seeks find the truth of that faithful saying — " To him that orderetli his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God." But the full salvation of God we shall not be- hold till we see with other than these eyes of flesh and blood. That glorious day is yet to come when in higher strains than those of David the celestial choirs will sing, " The Lord hath made known his salvation : his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of" angels and of men. There is implanted in our original constitution a thirst for glory ; an appetite of which brilliancy of display and splendour of exhibition are the appro- ])riate objects and connatural food. Here counter- feits of true glory, shadows of the bright sub- stances above, are suftered to blind the eyes of them that believe not, and to mock the vision of CO SHORT READINGS those who walk by sight and not by faith. But " to him that ordereth his conversation aright" God will shew greater things than these. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive," the glories which will one day burst upon our view, when we behold the things which God hath prepared for them that love him ; when, " out of the celestial Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath sinned ;" when he who maketh his enemies his footstool, receives the diadem from his eternal Father, and all the host of heaven unite in the universal chorus, " Crown him, crown him Lord of all." 0 what scenes will open upon the soul when we behold the angels " clad in robes of virgin white ;" the saints with their crowns of gold ; the martyrs with garlands around their brows, and palms of victory in their hands ; the innocents going forth to meet the conquering soldiers of the cross with hymns, the celestial counterpart of those purest songs of earth, when God out of the mouths of babes and sucklings ordaineth strength ! What bliss will it be to look round and see joy in every face, to hear no sighs, to discern no heavings of the bosom, no tears that trickle down the cheeks, no looks which tell of rooted sorrows in the heart ! And amongst this happy group, what bliss will it be again to behold those relatives and friends FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. Gl whose loss had weaned us from the world — to feel that this reunion is a waking certainty, and not the mockery of a dream — to know that we have at last reached that happy country into which no enemy shall ever enter, and from which no friend shall ever dejiart ! Such is the blessedness which awaits the faithful servant of his God, the man that ordereth his conversation aright. XIII. ON THE MIRACULOUS DRAUGHT OF FISHES. " And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him." Luke v. II . These are the concluding words of a most in- teresting occurrence, the whole of which let us proceed to review. Were we to indulge in fancies, we might imagine that we saw internal evidence of St. Luke's profession, as a painter, in the picturesque beauty of his descriptions : " And it came to pass that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake ; but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets." (ver. 1, 2.) Suppose this all presented to the eye, and there G2 SHORT READINGS cannot be a more interesting picture. Tlie cir- cumstance of our Lord's preaching from the water denotes tliat the day was serene, and the lake in soft repose. Two ships, anchored in safety, and undisturbed by a breath of wind, stand in, close to the shore. The fishermen, who had gone out of them, were now in the very attitude which a painter would desire — washing their nets. Along the fields, which gently rose from the margin of the water, numbers were pressing down, and a i-ural congregation were collecting to hear the word of God. To give this anxious multitude the opportunity they sought, and to gain a point from which his voice could reach them all, our Lord resolves to avail himself of his position, and erect his pulpit on the bosom of the water. " And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship" (ver. 3). He thus freed himself from the pressure of the crowd, amidst which his voice would have been inaudible; and from the inclination of the ground he had the whole assemblv ranoi'ed before him. But our Lord designed on this occasion to teach not only by words, but by deeds and miraculous signs, and to make the great abyss the scene of his operations : " When he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, FOR FAMILY PRAYERS 63 Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught." (ver. 4.) Our Lord's command to his disciples, first of all, to thrust out a little from the land, and then to launch out into the deep, may suggest to us some important lessons. It is thus that he would gradually wean our hearts and affections from the world. One wholly ignorant of naval affairs imagines that the vessel is in safety in proportion as it is near the shore ; but the experienced ma- riner knows that he is never so safe as M'hen he " occupies his business in great waters ;" and that where there is good sea-room he may dismiss his fears. It is thus that the heart is naturally disposed to cling to those things in which all its dangers lie, and to look for happiness to the real causes of its misery. As the body is but the grosser copy of the mind, and shadows forth its w^ants, its desires, its appetites, and is, in fact, in the world of matter, what its better part is in the world of spirits, so do corporeal and mental mala- dies exhibit corresponding features. The languid sufferer, immured in his sick chamber, dreads the contact of the open day, and shrinks from the soft breath of heaven, as if death, and not health, were in the breeze. And thus it is in the moral dis- tempers of our nature : we love our chains, and 8 G4 SHORT READINGS shrink back from the hand which would set us free. We resemble the legion who besought our Saviour, " that he would not command them to go out into the deep." We had rather, like them, that he would suffer us to enter into the herd of swine ; we would bury ourselves in flesh ; we would encircle ourselves with creatures ; we would close the windows, and kindle our own tapers, and shut out the eternal day, and the light of the everlasting sun. But still the counsels of religion, and the calls of conscience, and the commands of God, urge us to quit the shore, and launch out into the deep. But how are we to obey this call ? Let us first be sure that we understand its mean- ing; and let us be assured that it is no harsh nor unfriendly voice. It is not the voice of one who desires to distress us, or to do violence to our feel- ings. No, it is the invitation of one who wills our happiness, and who alone can know how that happiness is to be attained. He does not forbid us to love those objects who are dear to us as our own souls, or freely to enjoy the blessings he be- stows ; but he does forbid a too close adhesion, or giving our whole hearts, to them. This is the an- choring to the shore from which he would free the soul. He is himself that mighty deep into which he would launch the vessel. There she FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 05 may let loose her sails, and open all her canvass to the breeze, and fear no rocks beneath, nor tem- pests from above. Let us then learn from this passage to keep the first and great commandment, and to give the un- bounded affections of the soul to God alone. This it is which sets all things right, and puts every thing in its due position. The heart is then lodged in that safe shelter, and rests upon the only bed where it can find repose. Nor does the first super- sede or make void the second commandment, which is like unto it, and flows from it as its na- tive fountain. No, it establishes that law, and turns that sweet precept into a blessing, inferior only to itself : it separates the thorn from the flower, and frees the tenderest affections from all their penalties and pains : it enables us to commit all we love, as well as all we are, into the hands of him who withholdeth no good thing from those that trust in Him. XIV. PART II. Nothing can be more natural than the apparent unwillingness of Simon to undergo new labours, after a fatiguing night of unavailing effort. Nor can we fail to admire how this reluctance was F 66 SHORT READINGS overruled by implicit obedience, and by simple faith. Ver. 5 : " And Simon answering' said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing : nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net." How many might these discouraging hours of fruitless pain remind of re- ligious services without felt comfort ; of prayers without life, without unction, without wing to rise to, or answer returned from, heaven ! How many could say of the season of devotion, " What a weariness is it !" How many reckon the tedious minutes as they pass ; and, when the welcome close draws near, feel relieved by the thought that a necessary duty has been discharged ! How many congratulate themselves that conscience will no longer dog them, and whisper in their ears, " Pay me that thou owest :" " remember you have not said your prayers !" Uncomfortable as such a state may be, let us ever shun those evil counsellors whose language is, " These prayers are worse than none : it is better to offer no sacrifice than such a mockery as this." On the contrary, prayer is a command of God ; and it is our duty to pray, though the exercise may, for a time, be dry and comfortless and barren. If we cannot call forth the sAveet flow of the affections, and love God with the sensible emotions of the heart, let us love him with the mind, with the understanding, 6 FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. 67 and with the strength ; and offer to him at least a reasonable service. If Ave cannot deliglit our- selves in approaching God, let us resolve on being sincere and in earnest while we do so. Let us aim at calm fixedness of thought ; and, in spite of much wandering, let us persevere. Let us pray earnestly, that we may be enabled to pray affec- tionately; and, though we may be long without the answer we desire, it will come at last, and will not tarry. We may toil all the night, and take nothing ; yet, remembering the exhortation of him who taught that " man ought always to pray, and not to faint," let us say, " Nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net." Let us persevere in this spirit of patience and of hope, and we shall, ere long, be abundantly rewarded. Ver. 6 : " And, when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes ; and their net brake." Alas, there is always some flaw, some want, something to remind us that this is not our rest, in every human blessing. As we find the rich man, when his wealth poured in with unex- pected plenty, not filled with joy but harassed with anxiety ; saying, " What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits ?" so these poor fishermen were likely to gain nothing by their unusual success but the spoiling of their nets. Without new efforts and new aid all Avould F 2 68 SHORT READINGS have been lost. Ver. 7 : " And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came^ and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink."' Here again new perils arise, and all pro- ceedino- from what Avould be termed their good fortune. Behold, then, a lively image of those dangers which await the soul when, after long- and toilsome waiting, it receives new light and life, and that abundantly, from the fountain of the grace of God. At this happy crisis, we are " like them that dream :" " our mouth" is " filled with laughter, and our tongue with siuging." Never- theless, this bright season is not unattended by its peculiar dangers. By this season, I mean no less than the first conversion of a wandering soul to God ; I miean that crisis of its history, and that auspicious moment, when it rises out of darkness into marvellous light ; when the veil is thrown aside, and scenes unknown before start into view ; when old things are passed away, and all things are become new. The heart is then purged from its dross : the mists of impurity disperse: the drag- chain is taken from off the soul ; and it now runs — nay flies, as upon angel's wings, in the way of God's commandments. Such is the happiness of one who finds out God ; such are his "joy and peace in believing ;" when the days of his espou- FOR FAMILY PRAYERS. G9 sals are come, and when lie sits down as a bride at the marriage-supper of the Lamb. Nevertheless, the effervescence of this new wine is fran