soul, I am thy salvation." How soothing and encouraging is the presence and attention of a friend in distress, standing by ready to comfort, ready to wipe off with a soft hand the falling tear. Many have been there; many have said to those around, "Pity me, pity me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me." Some are perhaps ready to say, "Well, I have shed tears enough, God knows!" Nay, but he does not know it! you have not shed enough, or you would not be shedding them now. "He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men;" and not one of those tears shall be shed in vain, and not one of them is forgotten before God.

APRIL 14.-I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
Ps. cxix. 113.

THOUGH the Jews lived under a dispensation which abounded with carnal ordinances, many of them were very far from being carnal men. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews holds forth some of them as examples for Christian imitation, and commands us "not to be slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Now, there are persons who seem to imagine that the religion of the Jews consisted in the paternity of Abraham, the rite of circumcision, numerous sacrifices and ceremonial observances. But it consisted in none of these; it was essentially the same with the Christian. The difference was not in the body, but in the dress; not in the reality, but in the degree:-"God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." They worshipped the same God; their theology is our theology; their morality is our morality; and the book of Psalms is a magazine of Christian experience, and especially this psalm. Now, this belongs to what we call experimental religion. Experience means knowledge derived from experiment, in contradistinction to speculation and theory. Much has been said, especially since the days of Bacon, of experimental philosophy; and why may we not say much also of experimental religion? Is not the one as capable of trial and realization as the other? It is pleasing to hear men talk of things through which they have actually and feelingly passed,-the pilgrim of his travels, the soldier of his wars, the patient of his cure; especially if we are

in the same relation, if we are travellers, if we are soldiers, if we are patients: we are then desirous of hearing something that suits our circumstances, and on which we can rely. “I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love." David here speaks of his hatred and of his love. These are two very powerful passions and principles. We are all the subjects of them; and if a man does but know what to do with his hatred and his lovethat is, where to place them, and how to exercise them-he may be called a wise man. You remember the language of Solomon: -"A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart at his left." How is this? Why, physically considered, every man's heart is at his left hand; but Solomon uses the word "heart" metaphorically; he means by it the affections; and when he says, "A wise man's heart is at his right hand," he means that he rightly exercises them, or dexterously; the word dexterous being derived from dexter, the Latin word for the right hand. The object of hatred should be always something bad; the object of love should be always something good. And this would be the case in a perfect being. This was the case in man before the fall; but the fall perverted every thing, and, in consequence of it, men have been lovers of evil and haters of good. But the design of the gospel is to rectify all this confusion, and to put things in proper order again. In the Acts, the apostles are spoken of as "men who are come to turn the world upside-down:" and the testimony is very true; not indeed in the sense-the factious, seditious sense of their accusers, but in their own sense, and with regard to their own aim, which was "to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God;" and to make men (C new creatures;" with whom old things had passed away, and all things had become new. Let us, therefore, endeavour to consider and improve what David says of his aversion:-"I hate vain thoughts ;" and what he says of his affection:-"But thy law do I love."

APRIL 15.-I, even I, am he that comforteth you. Isa. li. 12. How great and worthy of admiration is the condescension of God! The heaven of heavens cannot contain him, yet he dwells verily with men upon the earth. "All nations are before him as nothing, less than nothing, and vanity." "As for man, his days

are as grass," "his foundation is in the dust;" he is "of yesterday, and knows nothing." But this is not all: we are unworthy as well as mean, and guilty as well as poor; and therefore we may well exclaim, "Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" How astonishing is the manifestation of this! How wonderful the way in which he himself by anticipation has represented in the Scriptures the condescension and tenderness of the divine regards, that he will "put our tears into his bottle," and that he will write them in his book"! There is only one passage in the Scriptures where his condescension is represented in a still more wonderful way. It is where David says, "Thou shalt comfort him upon the bed of languishing; thou shalt make all his bed in his sickness." There is the Eternal and the Almighty attending upon his sick child; and, as it is in the margin, " He shaketh up the bed," and maketh his bed, so God chooseth to represent himself. Let us, as Young says,—

"Not stop at wonder, but imitate and live."

There is implanted in human nature a principle of emulation, the design of which is to excite us at the view of whatever is noble and excellent; and, as God is the perfection and the source of all excellency, the ultimate design of the principle was unquestionably to excite us to an imitation of himself. But here now is the grand mistake: we wish to imitate God as the greatest of beings; whereas we ought to wish to imitate him as the best of beings. We are disposed readily enough to make him our model in his natural perfections, and would, if we could, know as he knows; we would "thunder with a voice like his;" we would have others under our management, like him. But this imitation of God is the way to sink, not rise; this is the very essence of sin. Thus Adam and Eve fell, who wished to be "as gods, knowing good and evil." This is the way that Lucifer fell. "I will be," said he, "like the Most High." This is the way the devils fell: they abode not in their first estate, but must think of a better, and would not be content with such things as they had, and so in aspiring they were cast down to hell. We are required to make God our model in his moral perfections, to be holy as he is holy, patient as he is patient, to hold fast the profession of our faith because he is faithful that

hath promised, to be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful, to be like the Son of God: he was the "image of the invisible," and when he was upon earth "God was manifest in the flesh." Let us contemplate him and seek to be like him. "Be ye therefore," says the apostle, "followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savour." Let all wanderers and weepers repair here. God is able to comfort us in all our tribulation. If, therefore, we are sufferers in any way, let us beware of worldly dissipation and of infidel reasonings. But let us draw near to the God of all grace and the God of all comfort. If we approach him in the Son of his love, he will receive us graciously and love us freely. Let us say, with David, "All my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee." And in a little time we shall enter his presence, and be able to say, "Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling," and "I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living," and show forth all his praise.

APRIL 16.-He is a babe. Heb. v. 13.

THE apostle does not refer to a babe by nature. This, indeed, is one of the most lovely, attractive, and interesting objects in creation. It seems impossible not to consider his destination and the powers in his nature not yet unfolded; we think of the spirit inspired by the Almighty, which dwells within the beauteous shrine. When we see the bud, we think of the flower; when we see the dawn, we think of the day; when we see a crown, we think of a king. How should we have felt towards a Newton, or towards a Milton, if, dandling them on our knee, we had known at the time all the splendours of fame to which they were born? But who knows what any babe may become, however humble its birth, or however mean his external condition? The princess opened the ark of bulrushes, and the babe wept; and she had compassion on him, and said, "This is one of the Hebrew children;" but that forlorn, friendless babe was to become the son of Pharaoh's daughter, the scourge of Pharaoh, the destruction of Egypt, the deliverer of the Jews, the king in Jeshurun, and the prophet of the Most High. But a babe is

not to be a babe always: we expect to see him grow; and, indeed, we soon witness the process. It is scarcely possible to look at such a being and not remember the exhortation, "Despise not one of these little ones," or without calling Hannah to mind; and, above all, can we forget Him who "grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man"? But Paul refers not to a babe natural, but to a babe spiritual; for there is an infancy in the church as well as an infancy in the family,—an infancy morally as well as corporeally; and this religious infancy is twofold. First, There is a real and proper religious infancy. We always look for it at the commencement of the divine life; for Christians are new creatures, and therefore they have a beginning, and the beginning is small. But they grow; they "go from strength to strength;" they "wax stronger and stronger;" they "increase with all the increase of God;" from babes they become young men, and from young men fathers in Christ. Secondly, There is an improper and a reprovable religious infancy. It is this the apostle speaks of: for observe his language: he does not say, "You were such as needed milk, and not strong meat;" but "Ye are become such." If we saw a man playing with toys, we should be ready to say, "Why, you are too old and too big for this;" but we should not say this if we saw a child. "When I was a child," says Paul, “I spake as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things." And if, after a child is weaned and grown and put to a public school, he should cry after his mother, and by a supposable transformation become a babe, crying for the rattle and the knee, why, we should be shocked and offended. Such a thing is physically impossible, but not morally and religiously so; it is the very thing the apostle has in view: his language, indeed, is metaphorical, but there is truth in it, and let us get towards it. Christians are commanded to advance in religion, and they are expected to grow in grace: but is this always the case? Is it commonly the case? Are there not many instances in which, instead of increase, there is decrease,— instead of going forward, there is going backward? We read of the "first days of Israel ;" and does not the Saviour reprove the church of Ephesus, and say, "Remember from whence thou art fallen, and do the first works"?