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Lord." It was thus that Peter, joining himself with the Christians of his day, could say, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.” Thus, therefore, we should walk before him "in newness of life;" thus we should ask continually, "What wilt thou have me to do?" Thus by his mercies we should "present our bodies a living sacrifice." Oh! it well becomes Christians to be thankful. It is a pleasant thing to give thanks to the Lord. This is a part of heaven; it is the beginning of heaven, and that which will endure forever. The other parts of our religion will soon cease; faith will be swallowed up in sight, hope in fruition; there will be nothing for repentance when we are freed from all our evils; there will be no room for prayer when we are "filled with all the fulness of God:"

FEB. 26.

"Then shall we see, and hear, and know

All we desired and wish'd below,

And every power find sweet employ

In that eternal world of joy."

They all with one consent began to make excuse.

The

first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. Luke xiv. 18-20.

openly, till they have "Oh," they will say,

OBSERVE, these characters do not flatly and positively refuse; they were ashamed to do this. Sin is always a shameful business, and men do not love to plead for it dressed it up in some false notion or name. "covetousness is a very bad thing, but we are to lay up for the children." "Oh," they will say, "pride is an abominable thing, but we are to show a proper spirit." And so of the rest. Observe, also, that all these excuses were derived from things that were lawful, yes, lawful in themselves; and it is by these things lawful in themselves that thousands perish. The last step of a

The space

virtue, and the first step of a vice, are contiguous. which separates between a duty and a sin is often no more than a hair's-breadth. At this barrier the enemy takes his station, that, when he finds us coming to the verge of permission, he may, as easily as he can, draw us over, and induce us to transgress. So the first says, "I have bought a piece of land, and I must needs go and view it." Would it not have been wiser to have seen it before he bought it? But men are always fools when they plead for irreligion. The second says, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them." Why did he not prove them before he bought them? Suppose, after he had bought them, he should find them blind, and lame, and diseased: what would he have done then? The third is bolder still:-"I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." Why could he not have come? Could he not have brought his wife along with him? Was there not room enough for them both? Would she not have been as welcome as himself? Or was the lady indisposed to go? This is not likely; women are always more inclined to religion than the men. But, if this had been the case, he should have gone alone. Oh, how often are we injured and ruined by improper regard to our fellow-creatures, our friends, our relations! There are persons who suppose that error may destroy; but they forget that truth may destroy also, and that we read that the gospel itself may become "the savour of death unto death." They know that the devil can damn them, but they forget that a child can do the same, or a mother, or a father, and that our Saviour has said, "He that loveth father, or mother, or son, or daughter, more than me, is not worthy of me." Because Felix saw that it pleased the Jews, he left Paul bound. Because Herod saw that his murdering James pleased the Jews, he proceeded to take Peter also. The young man in the gospel was humble and inquiring, and gained the Saviour's affections; but he went away sorrowful, "for he was very rich." The seed sown among the thorns sprang up in time; but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choked it, and it became unfruitful.

FEB. 27. We that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. 2 Cor. v. 4.

AND burdened with what? How numberless are the evils under which believers groan, and by which they are pressed down to the ground! It would be endless to particularize them, but we may arrange them under two classes. First, Those evils which Christians endure in common with their fellow-creatures. "For man," says Job, "is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." Secondly, The burdens of the Christian comprehend those painful things that are peculiar to themselves, the persecutions for Christ's sake which they experience from the world, the temptations of Satan, and, above all, they groan, being burdened with their sins. "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart faileth me." At the beginning of the Christian life, we are enabled, by application to the blood of sprinkling, to have the "conscience cleansed from dead works to serve the living God," and to enter into rest with regard to justification; but then, after this, in the remains of them, sin continues to be burdensome to the Christian all through life, and will be increasingly burdensome in proportion as he is increasingly holy. Paul was a singular sufferer, but he did not speak of any of his sufferings as he did of this, the sin that was still dwelling in him; that when he would do good evil was present with him; and how to perform that which was good he found not, and therefore he says, "Oh, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Christians therefore groan often under moral infirmities. While the people of the world sneer at them as if they were licentious, as if they were always ready to plead for sin, Christians groan under the burden of those infirmities which their adversaries never feel as sins at all. You may lay any heavy load upon a dead man, and he does not feel the burden; you may drive a sword through his body, and he will neither move nor cry; but a living body feels the least pressure, and a mote in the eye will make the sufferer wretched for the time. So it is with the Christian. Oh, there is enough here to induce Christians to groan, being burdened! It is said of that beautiful bird, the bird of paradise, that being once caught and caged it never leaves off sighing till it is set

free.

That bird is the Christian; he never leaves off sighing till he enters the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

FEB. 28.—He will joy over thee with singing. Zeph. iii. 17. OBSERVE, here is not only joy felt, but it makes itself known. For this singing (what a thought! God singing over his people!) may be heard, and it is intended to be heard, and intended to be heard by themselves. God would have them, like Enoch, have the testimony of faith with them. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant." How often he says to the soul, "I am thy salvation"! Alone, in the house of God, in affliction, in the valley of the shadow of death, with regard to all these, how often have Christians said,—

"Oh! what immortal joys I felt,

And raptures all divine;
When Jesus told me I was his,

And my Beloved mine!"

And God designs that his singing over his people should be heard by the world at large. Therefore by the prophet Isaiah he says, "Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people; all that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed." How often has he made a visible distinction between them and others in the dispensation of his providence! as we see in the case of Noah in the deluge, and Lot in the overthrow of Sodom, and of the Israelites in the plagues of Egypt. And if his people are allowed in public calamities to suffer with others, they do not suffer like others, for he can indemnify them by inward supports. and by eternal remuneration. But he causes this to be known to others by the dispensations of his grace as well as his providence. We know how high the godly stand in the conviction and esteem of the wicked. In company they may join in the laugh and mockery against them; but oh! when we witness them when they are alone, and when they think on that eternity on the borders of which they must know they continually stand, how often do we find them saying, with Balaam, "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." And

if the wicked do not choose to hear their God making declarations of his love to them now in life,-if they choose to pass through life deceived,-another world will soon undeceive them, for "then will he return to discern between the righteous and the wicked,-between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not." Wherefore, if God thus delights in his people, let others be careful how they oppose or injure them; for he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of God's eye, that is, the tenderest part of the tenderest of all beings. Who would strike the child of a giant whilst he was standing by? Who would strike a king's servant whilst he was present? Let men take care what they do with regard to God's children. He has bent his bow and made ready his arrow to shoot at the persecutors. On the other hand, they are so dear to him, that all that is done for them he considers as done for himself. He "He that receiveth you says, receiveth me." "Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, ye did it unto me." And let us be followers of God as dear children; let us judge according to God's judgment, and let us regulate our conduct by God's conduct. In our eyes, let a vile person be contemned; but let us honour them that fear the Lord, whatever their external circumstances may be. Let us say, with David, "I am a companion of all them that fear thee, of them that keep thy precepts; the saints that are in the earth, and the excellent, in whom is all my delight."

FEB. 29. This is love, that we walk after his commandments. 2 John 6.

WHILE God is the Father of his people, he is also their Master. He is good to them, but his goodness does not deprive him of his authority. He maintains this inviolable, even for their own welfare, and he has therefore given us not only exceeding great and precious promises, but commands; and our apostle says, "This is love;"-that is, the effect, the experience, the evidence of love:-" that we walk after his commandments." This fruit of love, according to our apostle, bears two characteristics. First, He reminds us that it is practical, consisting in nothing less than walking. In Scripture you will observe that walking never refers to a single action, but to our conduct at large. "And herein," says the apostle, "is love." Not that we read, that we

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