VERSE 17. LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear :

O THOU God of faithfulness! Thine afflicted servants look forward, with an eager desire, to the accomplishment of thy glorious promises. Though they may wish for an end to their troubles, they know very well that they are not to expect it upon earth; and that here there is no happy retreat for them, where there will be no more labor, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. They sigh after that perfect deliverance which is approaching, and of which their faith, hope, and love give them a delightful anticipation. Thou seest in their hearts, O God, a sincere desire for this; and that holy and secret disposition of their souls is as a continual prayer which thou hearest, and which is far more acceptable to thee than a vain multitude of words. For it is the heart only which can pray to thee aright; and thine ears are open to those cries and groanings only which the heart addresses to thee.

VERSE 18. To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

SOMETIMES however, O God of justice! thou avengest, in this world, the cause of the fatherless and the oppressed. In some instances, the wicked live long enough to see the ruin of their unjust prosperity; and poverty and shame succeed that abundance and worldly glory with which they were so puffed up. They labored only to elevate themselves and their families, and they have the grief to see that ruin and misery are their only portion. Their iniquities, concealed for a long time, but at length unveiled and exposed to the world, draw down upon their guilty heads, even in this life, evils which are but a prelude to those which thy justice has prepared for them in

eternity. Thy providence orders it thus, O God, to support the faith of the righteous, and to put some bounds to the pride of sinners; for if thine avenging justice was always deferred to a future world, the wicked, who are affected by present objects only, and upon whom the idea of a future state makes no impression, being assured of impunity in this life, would give themselves up to excesses, destructive of all the order of society. They would banish from the world all honesty, all shame, and all safety; and the only crimes, which they would not commit, would be those which they found themselves without power to commit. But when, O holy and righteous God! thou comest forth from thy secret places, and strikest those great blows which astonish the universe, when thou bringest down those lofty heads which were raised to the clouds, as if to affront thee in thy holy abode, then thou causest it to be known, that thou art equally the God of the earth and heaven;-the God of the present and of the firture world;-a being who makest the poor and the rich; who bringest low and who raisest up. The affrightened sinner, if he does not lay aside his disposition to do evil, forbears at least to carry it into effect; and fears that the thunder which still murmurs in the clouds will strike him next; while the righteous man is confirmed in his humble confidence in thine aid, his faith is strengthened, and he looks forward, with a calm submission, to the rewards which thou hast promised to the faithful, in the world to come.

PSALM XI.

Meditations of a saint, when persecuted by enemies, stirring up himself to forbear resentment, and to put his trust in the Lord; and seriously warning those who persecute and injure their fellow men, of the misery which will come upon them, if they do not repent.

VERSE 1. In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?

OST merciful and gracious God! Permit me

not to open mine cars to the pernicious advice which friends, possessing too little of a truly religious spirit, dare to give me. They wish me to take measures to revenge myself for the wrong done me by mine enemies; but how should I dare to present myself before thee, with hatred and vengeance in my heart, to implore thy mercy, to conjure thee not to enter into judgment with thy servant, and to beseech thee to forgive the immense debt which I have contracted to thy justice, by continual infractions of thy holy law? For thou hast expressly told us, that if we do not forgive our fellow men thou wilt not forgive us. No, my God, I wish for no other avenger than thee, for all the unjust treatment which I have received. And, in truth, it is thou only who hast a right to punish sinners, for their sins are, in reality, an affront to thee only; and thou alone canst punish without passion and without injustice. I ask of thee to avenge me of mine enemies, only from the hope that the punishment which thou shalt inflict upon them, may redound to the glory of thy name; that it may be the means of their conversion, and of producing in them that benevolent affection for me which I trust I feel for them. If thou canst be glorified by my sufferings, and by my humiliation, thy will be done; I accept with sincerity, the cup which

is presented to me, notwithstanding its bitterness. I hope that thou hast written my name in the book of life; and this hope makes me consider all things which happen to me, whether good or bad, as means which thy wisdom has prepared, and designed for my sanctification. For it is not men that we ought to regard in the blessings and evils of life; it is thou,— thou only, O God! that art the first cause and the disposer of all events, happy and unhappy. Men may wish to hurt us, or to do us good; but their good or ill will remains unfruitful and without power, any further than as it enters into the execution of thy designs of justice or mercy towards us. Under all the events of life, I will, therefore, lift mine eyes to thee. Instead of indulging anger against my fellow men, in consequence of the trouble and distress which they bring upon me,-instead of seeking to render to them evil for evil, I will pity them, I will be touched with compassion for the far greater injury which they do to themselves; and, because I am guilty in thy sight, I will humble myself under the avenging hand of thy justice, which makes use of their hatred to chastise me. At the same time, thy chastisements, by making me fear thy justice, will fill me with confidence in thy mercy; for, like a tender father, thou chastisest thy children upon earth, only because thou lovest them, and because thou desirest to make them eternally happy in heaven.

VERSE 2. For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrows upon the string, that they may priv ily shoot at the upright in heart.

WHAT have I not yet to fear, O Lord, from the malice of my persecutors? Their hatred is not to be satisfied; it furnishes them incessantly with new means to injure me. They seem to have made use of stratagem, violence, and calumny, to their full extent; yet I find them still aiming at me many new

shafts of persecution. And how can I escape them, O my God? I do not oppose stratagem to stratagem, nor violence to violence. Mildness, uprightness, and simplicity are the only arms with which I have hitherto defended myself, and with which I will defend myself hereafter. Thou knowest, O thou all-seeing God! that instead of ever having injured them in their property, their reputations, or their persons, I have always had a heart filled with tenderness towards them. I have eagerly seized all opportunities of doing them good; and have not ceased to beseech thee to shower down thy mercies upon them, and to enlighten them with regard to the deplorable injury they are doing to their own souls by their malevolence. Thou knowest, O thou who searchest the heart and triest the reins that my supplications have always had in view my own deliverance less than their salvation; and I think I would joyfully consent to suffer still more, if my sufferings could blot out the sins of which they are guilty in thy sight. I do not boast of these dispositions, as if I derived them from myself. It is to thy grace that I am indebted for them; that alone has formed them in my soul. For what have I of myself, but weakness and an inclination to sin? Thy grace has given me a heart sensible to the wants and miseries of my fellow men, a heart which does not permit me to turn away, without relief, those whom thy providence sends to me, if it is in my power to help them. mine enemies, not content with returning the favors I have done to them, with black ingratitude, endeavor to destroy, as far as in them lies, the good which I have done to others, by ascribing to me corrupt views in the services which I have rendered to them.

Yet