and the little are alike objects of his care; where he who counts the stars,' likewise numbers the hairs of our heads;' where he who 'raises up' Pharaoh, or hews down' Nebuchadnezzar, suffers. not even a sparrow to fall to the ground' without his knowledge and consent.

discovered—and that with equal certainty--though | have been planned, the remainder is fortuitous; the event be not anticipated-will all things but we glorify him for a world where the great work together for good to them that love God.' Nay, the scriptures cast their light even beyond this region of obscurity, and discover that even those events that arise from the sins of mensins which God hates, which his law denounces, and which his justice will punish-sins of which God is not, and cannot be the author-are yet under the control of his government, advance his designs, fulfil his purposes, and illustrate his perfections, as much as those events that arose from obedience to his commands and devotedness to his glory. Thus Joseph informs his brethren who had sold him unto Egypt, Be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life.' In which words, Joseph does not mean to say, 'Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves for the sins of envy and covetousness, which induced you to sell me hither; but be not grieved nor angry for the mere act of selling me, which event God has overruled to our common preservation. Indeed, in an evil world, such as this world confessedly is, if God were deprived of the means of over-ruling and directing those events that originate from the sins of men; if while 'the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God,' the wrath of man did not accomplish the plans of God; and if the wrath of man did not praise him;' and if the remainder of the wrath he did not restrain,' little would remain of this world as the field of God's man-cal considerations. agement; and he would be virtually excluded as its moral and efficient governor.

But God is not, and cannot be excluded from governing any department of his works, or from directing any class of events. His wisdom plans, his power accomplishes all things.

But the glory of the divine plan can never be fully understood or appreciated, so long as it is confined to the mere formation and government of the world. Its true character is not discovered till we view it as providing for the salvation of sinners. It is when we see how God hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him; in whom we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,'-it is then, and not till then, that we discover the glory of a plan which originating in the depths of eternity, is developed in the fullness of time, and which runs through eternity, displaying at once the glory of God, and dispensing salvation and happiness to redeemed sinners.

This view of the divine plan, purposes, and government, is calculated to suggest many prac

1. From how many unnecessary, useless, and tormenting personal fears, anxieties, and caresshould it set the believer free! 'Give no thought for your life,' said our Lord, 'what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life (which God still continues,) more than meat, and the body (which he still upholds) more than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do We they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of

How blind is man when he will not see this! how perverse when he will not acknowledge it! We praise an architect for the beauty, grandeur, stability, and convenience of a dwelling. praise a mechanist for the ingenuity of his invention, and its perfect adaptation to effect his purposes; and if in the dwelling we perceive some apartments of which we cannot discover the intention, or in the machine some wheels or springs of which we cannot discover the use-surely we do not conclude the apartment formed no part of the original plan, or that the wheel and the spring arose without and beyond the intention of the mechanist. And so, comparing carthly with heavenly things—so is it with God. We glorify him, not for a world totally without a design; not for a world in which, though some few parts

But seek ye first the kingdom | very pitiful." of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.'

all the rest, but surrounded by multitudes of inferior thoughts, plans, and designs, of which there seems no end. Multitudinous as the waves of the sea, man's thoughts are rolling on; and as wave succeeds wave with voice and motion unexhausted, so thought succeeds thought not only undiminished but increasing still.

dwell. 'Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of,' was addressed, by our Lord, to believers in the days of his flesh, and are certainly as truly applicable in the days of his absence in glory.

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4. The 'devices' of man's natural heart are, when thoroughly examined, deliberate plans against God. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast their cords from us.' Yea, though they be the 'cords of love,' tender and attractive, though they be the bands of a man,' rational in evidence, and binding in conscience, yet hand joins in hand,' with combined and borrowed might, to break them violently asunder, and cast them contemptuously away.

2. But the thoughts of man's heart are characterized by Solomon as devices,' when contrasted with the 'counsel' of the Lord. Now a device is either some plan by which inventive ingenuity supplies a deficiency, overcomes an obstruction, or accomplishes an unexpected end; or it implies some subterfuge in which cunning, hypocrisy, or dishonesty, secretly meditate or attempt what openly they dare not avow. And, in this last sense it is, that the heart of man-of man unrenewed in the spirit of his mind-is charged with many devices.' How many are In these 'devices' against God, however, not the devices by which profession labours to pass for God, but man, generally appears the object of principle! How many the 'devices' by which antipathy. Of this fact, Balak and Balaam are hypocrisy labours to deceive others, and often two of the most notable examples. So far from succeeds, for a time, in deceiving itself! How professing to devise any thing against him, Balak many the 'devices' by which infidelity seeks to sought his object, professedly, by worshipping evade the evidence of God's word and the warn- God. Balaam was God's professed prophet ings of conscience! How many the 'devices' by and priest; and both Balak and Balaam acwhich worldliness excuses its love of forbidden knowledged God's power and, in their own perpleasure, and covetousness its love of unhallowed verted senses, both sought his favour and blessgain! How many the 'devices' of lukewarm heartsing. But while the ostensible object of their which have forgotten their first love,' to account devices' was the ruin of Israel, the real object for, or excuse, or rest satisfied with, their spirit- of each was the frustration or reversal of an acual declensions! How many the 'devices' of the knowledged 'counsel' of God. prayerless, whether in the closet, the family, or the congregation, to evade that fellowship' with God, and that acquaintance with their own hearts, which prayer absolutely requires! And how many the 'devices' of dying and accountable beings, to banish the thoughts of that death which is at the door, and of that 'wrath to come' in the judgment that follows! And yet, these are but a few of the most coinmon and superficial of the 'devices' of man's heart. Beyond all these, there is an endless, a nameless, and undistinguish-repeal, by their neglect, the ordinance of the able multitude of 'vexing thoughts,' or vain imaginations, or forms of deep deceitfulness,' or 'errors,' which the heart they inhabit cannot fully understand, and of secret faults' from which even the believer requires daily to be 'cleansed.' 'Our Father who art in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses,' is alike the language of self-know-ness, are as the morning cloud and the early ledge, experience, humility, and faith.

3. The 'devices' of man's heart are generally, for a time at least, secret from the world; and, as we have discovered by the word of God, are sometimes hidden from the heart where they

In their devices' against God, it is farther to be observed, that while God himself, so far from being the declared object of opposition, may be the object of professed respect, still the opposition is really against himself, because it is against his law, or ordinances. Thus a human legislature repeals, in part at least, the law of the sabbath-a partial repeal that includes, in principle, the repeal of the whole; and not a few professed followers of the Lamb do all in their power to

Lord's supper, though enforced by the highest of all authorities, and the most touching of all appeals, the dying request and injunction of the Redeemer.

5. The last characteristic we shall notice in the 'devices' of man is, their invariable disappointment. Man's devices,' like his righteous

dew. Like Jonah's gourd they expand in a night, bloom in the morning, and promise a permanent shade through the day; but the worm of sin is knawing at the root unseen, and when he most needs a hiding place from the wind,' and

'a shadow in the heat,' man's head is left defenceless-and disappointed in his hopes, dissatisfied with himself, disgusted with the world, if grace prevent not, he is found loudly murmuring and vainly contending against his Maker.

But God's ways are not man's ways.' His 'counsels' embracing empires and churches, and descending to families and individuals, surveying the whole circle of birth, and life, and death, ruling in all the variations of joys and sorrows, of gains and losses, successes or disappointments; in all these his counsels' shall stand. They cannot fail of their accomplishment, for they are planned in unerring wisdom; they cannot fail of a blessing to them that love the Lord Jesus, for they are based on eternal love. Neither is he a man that he should change, nor the Son of man that he should repent, but while all other things are uncertain and unstable, the counsel of the Lord that shall stand.'

sume into smoke; they shall consume away. But the steps of the good man-the man made good by the renewing of the Holy Ghost-the steps of the good man are ordered by the Lord. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him in his hand. The law of his God is in his heart-written there by the love of the Lord Jesus-‘and none of his steps shall slide.'

SIXTEENTH DAY.-EVENING.

We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.' Rom. viii. 28. AMONG the marks of a true believer, knowledge holds a conspicuous place. A believer in Jesus knows what no other knows. No man knoweth the Son but the Father, and none knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.' The believer knows that his Redeemer liveth.' The believer knows that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, he has a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.' And, amidst all the darkness, difficulties, and contradictions of a 'present evil world' he knows that all things work together for good.'

But let not the believer be impatient, or disappointed, if the 'devices' of man appear for a time too wise or too strong for the counsel' of the Lord. Hear, O humble believer, hear thou the word of the Lord. 'Fret not thyself because of evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him; fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way; because of the man that bringeth wicked devices to pass. For they shall soon be cut down as the grass, and wither as 1. The wisdom and knowledge of God work the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; together with our ignorance and folly for good. so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom shalt be fed. Delight thyself in God, and he shall and knowledge of God! To the wisdom of give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy God we are indebted for the whole plan of way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he redemption. The wisdom of God devised the shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth means for rendering the plan effectual. The thy righteousness as the light'-even the righte- wisdom of God has counteracted the malice, ousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ the cunning, and the power of all enemies. The unto all and upon all them that do believe wisdom of God has destroyed the wisdom of the thy judgment as the noon day'-even the judg-wise, and brought to nothing the understanding ment of grace, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

and

And whilst sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed,' neither let the wicked presume, nor the believer doubt. The counsel' of the Lord must be an emanation of his nature, and pattern of his character; and as God is 'long-suffering' his judgment must wait upon mercy. 'But yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs, they shall con

of the prudent. Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom'-its own favourite but vain philosophy-knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching,' rather by the preaching of foolishness-'to save them that believe.'

2. The Almighty power of God works together with our weakness, the weakness of God is stronger than men.' His power sustains us in weakness, and upholds our goings, so that our footsteps do not slide. His power subdues our wills, brings our every thought into the captivity of Jesus; works in us mightily both to will and to do of his good pleasure, so that we who of