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draws near to death, and judgment, and eternity. | nigh to us, that we are slow to perceive them Yes, all those objects shall be even worse to the yet, and that because of their very nearness, soul, than the worms destroying Herod were to and of the aspect they bear, as being things Lis wretched body-they shall be as scorpions, allowed, lawful, and expedient. We are placed tormenting the soul, while it feels itself hurried in the providence of God in several earthly and away, and finds itself now departing hence, and temporal relations, the one to the other. These going to meet with an offended, omnipotent God. relations produce corresponding affections. The Beware of the sin of Herod. Beware of the beneficent Author of our being, by whose hand sin of his flatterers. Have I never received with we are fearfully and wonderfully made, has imgratification the praises of men, when they seemed planted those affections in the human heart. to forget in bestowing them, to whom they were The exercise of them is not forbidden; it is comreally due? Have I this day, been guiltless in manded. But the exercise, and the excess of this matter? Nay, how can I but be, in inter- them, are very different things. And what is the course with my fellow-men, guilty of it, when excess, the undue exercise of them? It is, when by nature I am so prone to seek the honour the objects of those affections occupy the heart, that cometh from them, unless I be found in more than God and the Saviour; when the cherthe knowledge and love of God, sanctifying him ishing of them receives from us more heed, more in my heart; and devoting myself and my all to actual service of the heart, than God himself his glory's cause. Alas, this very sin, of taking receives as the object of our reverence, and love, to ourselves the glory that is due to God, cleaves and obedience. to us, and does most easily beset us. And in the acknowledgments made to benefactors, most justly due in their place, even in the exercise of gratitude and respect, most justly due for benefits received-how prone is the mind to forget the hand of the Lord in the dispensations of his goodness, and to give to the creature the glory due to God only!

Beholding and feeling the supremacy of God in his works of providence and of grace, would not make us thankless or ungrateful to men when they do us good, but would enable us truly to be grateful, and would bring us, in a believing spirit of love, to seek more and more their spiritual and eternal welfare. We are beset on every hand with dangers, and grace alone can uphold and deliver us, and can make us followers of God by Jesus Christ as dear children, glorifying him in all things, as our Father in heaven. O, let me never be satisfied, but in beholding and feeling the claims of his grace upon me, that I may live to his glory.

And the blessed Redeemer here explains this folly, while he affectionately warns his people of their great danger, in the exercise of their lawful affections. He takes the endearing relations of this life, and he speaks in words that cannot but come home to the conscience and soul of those who have even begun to know him in truth. In whichever of these relations, then, or if in each and all of them, the good providence of God has placed the believer, let him realize his own danger, and beware of the sin, the sin of loving father, or mother, or son, or daughter, more than God. No obligations of a temporal kind can equal those of children to parents. No human relationship can demand such returns. They cannot be more than fulfilled in any case, whatsoever the special circumstances be. The commandment of God sanctions this. It confirms the full extent of filial ties. But there are higher obligations even than these. We owe our parents themselves to God, and our own very being. Our parents, whatever their love to children, whatever the faithfulness and the tenderness of their duties, cannot save a soul. Their love, in this, let it be even the warmest Christian love, is in itself altogether unavailing. But the love of God, the Father of our spirits, the former of the abundant provision. The love of Christ is our bodies;—that can save us; and it hath made stronger than death. He himself gave up to the death, to endure for ruined souls the punishment WHEN the mind has been awakened and enlight-due to their sins; he underwent the wrath and ened in such measure as to feel the evil of sin, and to realize the danger of those sins that do so easily beset us; yea, when we are brought earnestly to seek deliverance from them, there are dangers so

THIRTEENTH DAY.-MORNING.

'He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me,' Matt. x. 37.

curse of God, to procure the soul's salvation from everlasting death and destruction.

Am I, then, realizing these claims? Parental love may desire, that the soul of the beloved child

should inherit the knowledge of God, the faith of | may be shed abroad in my heart—that I may Christ, and through him all the principles of spirit- feel continually my obligations to thy redeeming ual and eternal life. Alas, how unavailing of itself. love, as God in three persons; and that it may It cannot reach to renew the heart, to take away be truly and constantly the prevailing desire of its natural unbelief, or to instruct it savingly, or my soul-that whatsoever others may do, as for with converting power. But the love of the Spirit me and my house, we shall serve the Lord. brings him even into the soul, the guilty soul, to convert it, to enlighten it, to renew and to sanctify it by the effectual operation of his saving grace, and by revealing Christ in the soul.

THIRTEENTH DAY.-EVENING.

And 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. THE grace of God dealing with the soul, is like an invader beset on every hand with active enemies. It is indeed, as Christ was himself, personally in the world, opposed, and persecuted. He came to his own, and his own received him not. And when his saving grace establishes any true spiritual principle in the soul, and that principle

Blessed, adorable Saviour, thou hast purchased all these eternal, unspeakable blessings to undone souls like mine; helpless and perishing, and shall I give the preference, even to an earthly parent? May thine own grace prevent it, may it put and keep me in thy love! And if thy providence have placed me in the relation of parent to children, loved as my own soul, blessed Lord, deliver mine from the idolatry of their inordinate love. Thou hast commanded me to care for them, to make temporal provision for their wants, to nourish and cherish them. The excess of this my heart's affection toward them, even were all my other sinful departings from thee, and from the giving of glory to thy name, rebuked and crucified-the excess of this affection, would lead me to forget, and to deny that Lord and Saviour, by the know-secks its own exercise, it is opposed, and if grace ledge of whom alone both they and I can be saved-it would lead me to dishonour thee by a life of worldliness, and of ungodly pursuit of carthly benefits.

The grace of God truly bringeth salvation. It places every thing in the place justly due to it. It ennobles the human affections. It graces and dignifies the exercise of the affections, keeping them subject to God. It makes his people desire not only temporal benefits to those on whose behalf their affections are exercised; but raising the soul to the knowledge and contemplation of spiritual and eternal objects, it draws forth the soul's affections, in seeking an interest in these, as the good part, that cannot be taken away, to those toward whom the legitimate affection is cherished.

Do I resign these the objects of my love and regard, to Christ? Yes, surely, I must, if I do love him more than them. But if I love them morethen I deny him, and the calls and offers of his grace, and all my cares and toils will only tend to bring those who are committed of God to my care, into the same destroying snares as I myself am caught by. Keep me back from presumptuous sin, O Lord, in loving these more than thee; and cleanse me from secret faults, in which I am so prone to deny thee. Make me what thou wouldst have me to be, by thine own grace, that thine own love

itself, the everlasting fountain from which the principle comes, hinder not, the begun principle must be overborne and extinguished. The great business which grace has to do with the soul, is, to cast forth its idols, to redeem it from their guilt and their power, to bring, in one word, the soul to God-that he may be in truth and reality the God of that individual soul, and the soul his, by the exercise and power of redeeming love. This divine grace has greatly abounded toward sinners of mankind, and especially, may we say, to all who are within hearing of the gospel, and within the reach of its merciful and gracious invitations. God is by the gospel addressing himself to sinners every day, setting the way of salvation before them, and testifying to them by his word, what the salvation is which he offers, the preciousness of its blessings, and their need to receive them. And it is a truth beyond all controversy, that this message of reconciliation, fraught with blessings to men, does come nigh, very nigh to individual souls, by the gospel's outward and commanded ministrations, in private and in public.

Whether it have yet taken effect upon the individual soul, is the question of utmost importance. Even with those upon whose souls it has taken no saving effect, in whom nothing of the good work is yet begun by it-there is

felt a distinct conviction of its truth, and of their desire, or the heart, or the will, and they will not own need to receive its blessings. seek this preparation of the heart from God. All this is brought out and realized in the sinner's practical doings, when he is found avoiding God in secret, neglecting the means of grace, refusing to pray-despising the word—and perhaps all the other ordinances of the gospel.

And when these invitations and offers press themselves on the understanding and conscience; when the mind fully realizes, that supreme heed to it is necessary; it is even then alas, that sinners, with one consent, begin to make excuse.' They are occupied with the world, and its pursuits engross their thoughts and their cares.

We find the Saviour here, exposing these excuses, detecting them, as it were, while by this parable, he is loudly calling upon every one, to take heed to themselves. The instances given are just examples of what passes in the minds of hearers of the gospel message.

Why go now, and see the piece of ground? Is there any danger of losing it? And why, sinner, wilt thou hasten and hurry to thy occupation of earthliness, and refuse first to seek the Lord? It is because of thine own enmity to God, and to all that pertains to his glory. This thy sin shall find thee out, and shall condemn thee in the righteous judgment of God. Why forsake God, why deny to seek his salvation, for going to prove thy five yoke of oxen? Just because thou seekest not to be engaged in the service of God.

And we have especially to remark and consider, that the occupations here stated are all lawful. There is nothing sinful in the engagements themselves. They are all such as believers may be engaged in. But there is, notwithstanding, deceit in making them an excuse. God does not by the gospel desire that we should go out of the world;' but he invites and entreats us, to be separated from its ruling power. The sinner feels, that by giving heed to the gospel's real offers, he would be detached and separated from the element in which he loves to breathe and to move the element of this world's ascendancy over him. It is his own love of this element, his own enmity to the power of the gospel that dictates and prompts the excuse. Cannot the gracious God who calls him bless his basket and his store, and is it not that God who does verily bless him already in his person, in his bodily health, in his temporal lot? But he is unwill-sel and guidance of God being asked. ing, if we may so speak, to have any personal, direct, and immediate business with God. He might prosecute every worldly calling, and have his heart engaged in seeking the Lord; but this latter, is what he dislikes.

And it appears that those with one consent making such excuses, carry the same spirit of mind with them into every relation of life. Instead of seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, instead of acknowledging God, and surrendering themselves and their all to him, and rejoicing to have communion with him, in all their undertakings, and in all their relations, they put away from them the claims of God, as if they had no need of his blessing, or guidance, or grace.

O, how futile, how deceitful, how false, these excuses! We hear persons, thus complaining, or stating in mitigation of their felt guilt, in disregarding the gospel, in refusing to make real business of seeking salvation, that they have no time. They are so pressed with its occupations!

Pressed! it is by the power of sin, of the enmity of the carnal mind, that they are pressed, and restrained, and retained by their own consent in their spiritual bondage, in their alienation from God. God grants them the time, he bestows upon them the means of grace, and they refuse instruction, they decline to seek the Lord. They dislike the whole subject-matter of the gospel; and thus they reject the counsel of God, against them

They have the time; but they have not the

Stop, O deceived soul, and consider thy way! Stop, and think for once, solemnly, upon the God with whom thou hast to do, and upon the endless eternity before thee; and despise no longer the offers of redeeming love to thy soul. Wretched are those relations entered into, without the coun

This last excuse is the most guilty of all. It is the most important step in this life; and instead of seeking to be brought by it nearer to God, to serve and honour him, in the institution of his own merciful and beneficent appointment, his authority and his blessing upon it are alike despised. O, how the soul is hardened in these progressive steps of a daring impiety! The world indeed may prosper for a season, but guilt is accumulating, and will yet speak forth in a voice of awful and overwhelming terror.

But, believer, consider thou also thine own danger. Cleave to God with full purpose. Let not the world detach thee from God, or allure thee away from communion with him, through the means and ordinances of his grace. Cleave to these. It is in and through them, that God commands the blessing, by Jesus Christ, upon the souls of his people. O, watch and pray, lest thou enter into temptation, and lest the world and its pursuits obtain ascendancy over thee. It seeks to

regain that ascendancy, wherever grace is seeking to dislodge it from the heart. Wait upon the Lord, and he will give thee strength; yea, I say, wait thou upon the Lord, O my soul!

FOURTEENTH DAY.-MORNING.

"Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord! Isa.

xxxi. 1.

THERE is sin here reproved, to which the heart is naturally prone. It is not unfrequently, alas, a sin of those to whom God has shown much of his loving-kindness and mercy.

One would suppose, that God had shown so much of his own power and goodness to the children of Israel, that they or their children's children should never have thought of seeking any other aid than his in the day of their trouble, any other safety than the strength of his Almighty arm, in the time of their threatened calamities, or in the presence of all their enemies. So, however, it was, that they sought help from Egypt, the last quarter to which we should suppose they would ever think of applying. Was it any failure in the faithfulness of God toward them that caused them to do this? Were they straitened in him? No! assuredly. But it was their unfaithfulness to God, in his covenant-it was this that brought their calamities upon them; and it was this that made them now look toward Egypt for help. Moralists tell us, that if we injure an individual, doing him wrong, we hate that very person more than others; and it is thus, with respect to God. When his Spirit has been striving with us, when we have received convictions of duty, and of our own danger as sinners; when an individual has been constrained under a sense of guilt, and apprehension of coming wrath to seek the Lord, and to give heed to his word; when he has been brought really to feel, that there is reality in godliness, and that his interest is to pursue it—and when yet again sin prevails, and he yields to its allurements, and ceases to wait upon God-then assuredly it will happen, that such an individual will experience more decided hostility and enmity to the power of godliness in the soul, than if he had never felt any conviction of sin at all.

Because of his own unfaithfulness, not only is the power of sin again strengthened within him, but there is real and positive enmity to God's

authority, and to the invitations and offers of his grace, quickened in the heart, and brought into very fearful activity.

How does such an individual do the same thing spiritually, as that which the children of Israel are here stated to have been doing? He conforms to the world-he seeks countenance and support to himself, not from the openly wicked, at least in the first instance, but from those who pay a formal outward homage to godliness by their stated bodily services. He sets up to himself their standard; he measures himself This he does, when he has by their measure. felt so much as to enable him very clearly to perceive, that such persons have no living and real regard to the interests and the subject-matter of true and vital godliness. He will still seek to consort with them, valuing their communion, because it is worldly, and avoiding communion and fellowship with the godly, because he feels that they are spiritually minded. He will seek to satisfy conscience with the performance of literal duties, and to build his hopes on his own performance of these.

This is truly to go down to Egypt for helpsuch an individual may endeavour to satisfy himself, in thinking that such persons are 'many,' that they are reputable in the world, that they perhaps have a name, even in the visible church, of being worthy persons, well-disposed, laudable in their outward doings, and are possessed of much name and much influence in society. But, alas, when secret convictions are stifled, when light received is sinned against, when conscience is trampled upon, and the workings of the Spirit quenched-there is nothing in such a course but woe.' Idolatry has begun it; the love of idols; and if persisted in, everlasting confusiou and shame will be its end. It is an evil and a bitter thing to forsake the God of salvation, and such a course of conduct is to forsake him.

O! my soul, watch. If one idol obtain the ascendancy, this downward course is before thee. It is a broad way, and many walk in it. Flesh and blood may relish it for a time; but it is not the way of peace.

Others there are, who take offence at the humbling truths of the gospel when they are first presented. They have never once allowed themselves to lay the subject-matter of those truths to heart at all. They are filled with prejudices, and the more that the truth is pressed upon them, their prejudices are the more kindled into active enmity. They have recourse to the wisdom of this world— they seek defences to themselves in their carelessness of God, and of gospel truth. They lean in their

hearts, even to infidel opinions, though they may not perhaps dare to avow them. They are silent on all matters of practical godliness, and they eschew every duty of godliness in private especially; or if haply they pray, it is with a decided preference to their own wisdom, not looking to the word or counsels of God, but hardening their hearts against them. And what produces this? It is the love of sin, the love of the world and its pleasures, and vanities, its associations, and honours, and gains. They feel themselves supported and defended from the attacks of truth by the multitudes that live as they seek to live themselves. They rejoice in the weaknesses, and failings, and backslidings of those who have been making professions of godliness. This course is indeed a course of 'woe.' But such is the world's expediency, in all matters of true and real godliness. They seek their strength from sin, their counsels from sinners, and not from God. They go down to Egypt for help.

Whatever I have hitherto experienced of the truth in its power-in that experience there is no safety to my soul. How many did 'run well' for a season, and yet have been hindered and led astray, and turned aside from the way of salvation. It is said of the righteous that God is their strength. The Lord Jesus is the righteousness and the strength of his people. Cleave thou to him, my soul, and prove the all-sufficiency of his promised and offered grace to keep thee from falling; he is my fortress and my rock, and in him let me trust—the God of my health-may his name in me be praised.

FOURTEENTH DAY.-EVENING.

Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin,' Isa. xxxi. 6, 7. How merciful and gracious is our God! To the backslider he speaks in accents of mercy and of beseeching intreaty. How great is that mercy which does call upon us to turn to him. O backsliding children, saith the Lord.' heal their backslidings; I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.' 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.' Ah, when we consider what we have been, in the

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spirit of our minds, even during one day, how great is our need of being turned, and brought back to God! What can we for one hour engage in, but the evil heart is found departing from the living God, by the power of its unbelief and its earthliness. How high our professions, our solemn professions, in private and in public-and how unworthy our practical conduct!

The daily life is a daily and an hourly shortcoming. The impressions made are effaced by the world, by its associations and objects. Ere we yet think of our danger, sin is committed, because its principles still abound in the heart. Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God.'

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Let me approach the throne of heavenly grace, where the glory of God appears above the mercyseat, as the righteous and the sin-forgiving God, through the merits and intercession of the crucified and exalted Redeemer. It is here alone, that I can receive the mercy to pardon, and the grace to help in time of need. Have I not, this day, forgotten the Lord, and has not the world and its objects and relations assumed the place of ascendancy in my spirit? And shall we sin because grace abounds? God forbid. Let the grace of God speak to my soul, and persuade it into nearness and closeness with God in my walk. Lord, search thou and try me, make known to me the evil ways that are in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Enable me to look, and to see what my idols are-let me behold them in their true shape, as they are seen of thee to be my idols. Let my soul behold them revealed in the light of the knowledge of thine own glory, to whom all love and obedience of the heart and affections are due-and then, and then only shall I hate them, and cast them away. Ah, if mine be a real turning to God, from whom all have so

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deeply revolted—they shall be thus beheld, whcther they be silver or gold, or whatever allurement. Let the guilt of serving them be brought home to leave me not under their power. In the heart my conscience by the revelation of faith:-Lord, there is deep deceitfulness; and I think I ceive why it is that the Lord thus speaks of idols of silver and idols of gold. I know that I have Turn, | idols, yea, that my deceitful heart does turn aside I will after objects which I know to be vanity, to be but of little value, even in a worldly sense-objects that I regard not even as any way essential to my temporal lot, or to my personal gratification. I have seen, and felt, and proven their vanity. But still even by these I am ensnared, from day to day. These are my idols of silver-O, let grace come, let strength from above be ministered,

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