they may oppose, or threaten, or persecute. It is to be unseduced by their smiles, by their allurements, by their promises. It is to act independently of them, from conviction and disposition. It is not to be "conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their mind." It is to dare to be singular, like Noah, in an ungodly world. It is to be able to say, with David, "Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I will keep the commandments of my God," or with Joshua, "Choose this day whom ye will serve; but, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." The man who thus lives overcomes the world; the man who thus lives, though he is in the world, is not of it; he is in the world as the soul is in the body,-in it, indeed, but not of it,-in it, but of another quality. And however busy this man may be, however much he may be engaged in the things and with the men of the world, yet such a man as this is not carried away by what the apostle calls "the cares of this world," and he is not acted upon by what he calls "the spirit of the world." He has received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. But now let us notice how the victory is achieved:— "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith," and by no other means is it possible to overcome. It is only by faith that the secret is manifested to the conscience that "the "When I can say my God is mine, FEB. 23. Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle. 2 Pet. i. 14. By this HERE we have the Christian's present residence. "We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened," says Paul; and here Peter says, "I must put off this my tabernacle." tabernacle they mean the body. It is the same to the soul as a dwelling is to the inhabitant; but, you will observe, the apostles do not call it a palace, or a mansion, or even a house, but only a tabernacle. Paul was by craft a tent-maker; his hands, therefore, had been often employed in the construction of such residences as these. He well knew that a tent or a tabernacle had a roof but no foundation-was a temporary accommodation—a movable body, easily taken down, easily injured, easily destroyed. Ah! do what we will with these bodies of ours, they are really no better than tabernacles,-earthly tabernacles. Nurse them as we please, pamper them, as some do, dress them, idolize them, indulge them in every kind of luxury, after all, dust they are, and unto dust they will return. "Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth, and my age is as nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his best estate is altogether vanity." But let us now see how the apostles distinguish our souls from our bodies, and how they place them above our bodies. They speak as if our bodies did not even belong to our persons. "We that are in this tabernacle;" and Peter here avails himself of the same allusion:-"I must put off this my tabernacle;" as if we could live and act without our bodies. This is possible, and the soul is the man, and the soul is the inhabitant that is in the body, but not of it; it is not of the same material, the same quality, the same origin. Do what we will we can never save the tabernacle, but the tenant may be saved; and surely it must be our wisdom to make its salvation our immediate and our main concern; and, therefore, our Saviour, who well knew the value of the soul, from the price of our redemption which he paid for it, meets us in all our worldly pursuits, and asks, "What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Yet there are many persons who have no more regard for their souls than if they had none, or as if they deemed them unworthy of one moment's thought. This is the case with them not only while they Paul says, live, but often even when they die. They discover the same indifference then; they employ the physician; they call in the lawyer; they dispose of their substance; they arrange their funeral; they tell their survivors where, and how, and when, they choose to be buried: but not a word escapes them concerning their soul, and not one of their cruel relatives, or attendants in the room with them, dares to break this delusion and say to them, Have you, then, no soul? Is the soul provided for? Is your soul safe? After death is the judgment: and where will you be in the day of the Lord Jesus? FEB. 24. We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 2 Cor. v. 4. Now, from hence there are three things that may be remarked. The first is, that the primitive Christians were men of just the same passions as we are. We sometimes think they were a peculiar people, a superior kind of beings; at least, that they were strangers to all those feelings of ours which are fearful and wretched. No; they also were encompassed with infirmities. There was nature as well as grace in them; and, though God had made them holy, yet they felt the effects of guilt Secondly, we may observe that the fear of death does not show any want of religion. Dr. Conyers, one of the best of men, often used to say, "I am afraid to die, though I am not afraid of death." There is much in this to intimidate some. As Dr. Watts says, "The pains, the groans, and dying strife, Still we shrink back again to life, Fond of our prison and our clay." Why, this is easily accounted for: "no man," says the apostle, "ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it." Nature can never be pleased with its own dissolution. We see the aversion there is to it even in birds and beasts, as well as in us, though they have no dread with regard to a future state. The fear of death is as natural to us as hunger, or thirst, or sleep; and we are no more accountable for it; the chief thing is, only to have it properly guided and regulated. Why, Adam, in his state of innocency, felt this fear of death; and, therefore, the menace was addressed to him:"In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Unless he had feared death this would have been no threatening at all. And our Lord and Saviour, who had a sinless humanity, who knew no sin as well as did no sin, our Saviour himself thus feared; and, therefore, the apostle says, "He prayed unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard, in that he feared;" for he said, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." Now, we can easily conceive that a man may be attached to a thing, may desire a thing, and not like the way by which it is gained. There is a man, we will suppose, who has a diseased limb, and the removal of it is essential to his recovery. What does the man want? Not amputation, you may be sure, but recovery. And can we question his desire for the one because he shrinks from the other? No; he longs for the cure, and only dreads the operation. A man may have a family, a lovely and attractive family, in America; he may long to be with them, but when he comes down and sees the Atlantic he may shudder. I do not question his wishing to be with them because he dreads the sea. Dr. Watts has also admirably expressed this in one of his hymns: "Oh, could we make these doubts remove, These gloomy doubts that rise, And see the Canaan that we love, With unbeclouded eyes!" (Ah! "the Canaan that we love." We may love Canaan, we may long to be there, while we shudder at Jordan's stream that rolls between.) Thirdly, We should endeavour to rise above these feelings; for we must remember that death, after all, is the only way by which we can enter into life. It is the only-and, we may be assured, the right way to the city of habitation. What is impossible to nature may be possible to grace; we may, therefore, be raised above the depressing fear of death. And in order to this, we should endeavour to view death as much as possible under every sort of representation given of it in the Scripture. Death to the believer is falling asleep in Jesus-going home-departing to be with him, which is far better. Our minds should dwell, not upon what is forbidding, but upon what is beyond : "Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood Let us keep our eyes on that blessed state,-Immanuel's land,and think less of the shadow of death which is to usher us into it. If it be a dark valley, it is a short one, and there is one who has engaged to go with us through it, whose rod and whose staff shall comfort us. FEB. 25.-Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Ps. ciii. 1. THERE are three things which should be regarded by us as a stimulus to gratitude. The first is to dwell upon the blessings we have received. We are affected by mercies; and it is well we are. We should dwell upon the suitableness of them,—their importance and value. Take the blessing of deliverance from all our spiritual enemies. Let us ask ourselves, What would have been the consequence if I had been left a victim of sin, or of the world, or death, or the grave? What do I owe to that Saviour who rescued me? The second is to get an increasing sense of our own unworthiness. We shall always find that gratitude deepens humility, and that proud people are ungrateful for whatever is done for them: they consider it as only doing a duty, not conferring a favour. What reward have their benefactors? But take a man who is humble, and he will in the same proportion be thankful. When we are convinced that we are unworthy of all God's mercies, when we look not only to years of unregeneracy, but to years of conversion,-to years since we have known God, or rather "been known of him,"-what will be our language? "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!" Then, Thirdly, We should be greatly concerned to get an assurance of our own interest in the blessedness of the Lord. Yes, it will touch the spring of all our feelings and affections, when we can say, with David, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplication;" or, as he says in the eighteenth Psalm, "I will love thee, O Lord my strength. The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." Thus expressing his property in God nine times in one verse; and no wonder, therefore, that he should say, "I love thee, O |