When they go in, he shall go in-and they shall see his beauty, and behold his goings: for where two or three are gathered together in his name, there is he in the midst of them. Or do they enter the closet? When they go in he shall go in-and manifest himself unto them. And how often can they say, "While such a scene of sacred joys Our raptured eyes and souls employs ; A long, an everlasting day!"— But they cannot be always in devotional engagements. They have many other duties to discharge; and must go forth to meet the claims of civil and relative life-But when they go forth he shall go forth; and be with them in the farm, the shop, the road, as well as in the church and the closet. It is true therefore as to the common concerns of life. If in the evening they retire to rest, or in the morning go forth to their work and their labour; if they enter their calling or withdraw; if they begin or finish an enterprise; he is still with them. Hence they are in the fear of the Lord all the day long, and acknowledge him in all their ways, and are safe, sanctified, and happy. "The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy socl." "Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out." It is also true with regard to their sufferings. When they enter these, they often fear they shall sink; but they do not enter alone-"I will," says he, "be with him in trouble." And he comes forth with them, or they would not come forth as gold, or be able to retain the lessons and impressions they received, and to say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." Wise Christians feel more need of his presence and grace when they are coming out of a trial, than when they are going into it; though in both they are indispensable. And is there before them the valley of the shadow of death? It often dismays them. But they need fear no evil, for he is with them. Their friends indeed can attend them only to the entrance of it. But he will go with them into it, accompany them through it, and bring them out into a wealthy place. "When they go in, he shall go in; and when they go forth, he shall go forth"-He hath said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." One place seems an exception. They shall enter Immanuel's land, the rest that remains for his people: but when he goes in with them there, he will not go out. But the reason is because they shall go no more out: but they shall be for ever with the Lord. MARCH 24.-"But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple."Psalm v. 7. LET us make this noble resolution our own; and in order to this let us endeavour to understand it. Observe the singularity of the resolution. "Let others take their course, I have chosen mine. It is good for me to draw near to God. Him will I seek and serve. And though it is desirable to have company in religion, and I wish to bring all my fellow-creatures to walk with me in the way eve lasting, their determination will not influence mine-As for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple." Let us not be peculiar in little and lawful things; nor affect singularity for its own sake. This is always the mark of a vain but weak mind: the man wishes for distinction but cannot attain it by excellence, and so has recourse to eccentricity; he cannot excite notice by the goodness of his pace, and so tumbles in the road, or leaps through the hedge. But where truth and duty and conscience are concerned, singularity is a noble virtue; and no one shows such dignity of principle, and pureness of motive, and simple regard to the authority of God, as the man who goes forward according to his conviction, without the company and commendation of others, and especially when reproached and opposed by them. And them that honour me, says God, I will honour. Mark the object of the resolution. It regards the service of God in the sanctuary. I will come into thine house in the multitude of thy mercy, and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. David was fond of retirement, and was much alone in meditation and prayer. Yet he knew the closet was not to exclude the sanctu(ary, but to prepare for it; and therefore he could say, I have loved the place where thine honour dwelleth; a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. Though a king, he did not think it beneath his greatness to sanctify the Sabbath, and attend the gates of Zion; yea, he knew he was the more bound to do it, from the eminence of his station, and the influence of his example. Though a man full of employment, who had to give audience to ambassadors, orders to officers, and instructions to ministers; and had to manage the af fairs of a large and distracted empire; yet he had time for God's ordinances for he rose early-and loved order, and such beings nave leisure for every thing. Though a genius, a very wise man, a prophet, he did not neglect the institutions of religion, and say, I cannot learn more than I know already. Humility attends profound knowledge. Teach a wise man, and he will yet be wiser. He was a godly man; but under a notion of superior piety, he did not despise the means of grace; like some who say they never had so much communion with God in their lives as they now have; every day now being a Sabbath, every place a temple, every creature a preacher-Believe them not. God knows what is in man, and what is needful to him, and has appointed his ordinances for our welfare and though a painted man does not want food, a living one cannot dispense with it. A real Christian feels his necessities and deficiencies; and knows by experience where his heart has been enlarged, and his strength renewed. He has found God for a refuge in his palaces. Strength and beauty are in the sanctuary. The manner in which he would accomplish the resolution is worthy our notice. It includes two things. He would do it impressed with a sense of divine goodness. I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy. How can we reflect and not feel this? The worship itself is a privilege. It is a mercy that we have a sanctuary-It is a mercy that we have liberty to assemble together -It is a mercy that we have health and strength and leisure for divine worship-It is a mercy that we have a disposition to avail ourselves of the privilege-It is a mercy that we repair to the service, knowing that it is not a vain thing to seek the Lord, and able to plead the promise, I will make the place of my feet glorious. But we need not confine the subject. To creatures so unworthy and guilty as we are, every thing is mercy: the air we breathe; the water we drink; our food; our sleep. Let us think in what a multitude of mercies we come together; public and private; personal and relative; temporal and spiritual: redeeming mercies, justifying mercies, renewing mercies-Let us dwell on the plentitude of his undeserved favours, that we may not murmur or even complain of a few trials, but come before his presence with singing and praise. He would also do it filled with holy veneration. And in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. This fear is not dread, and therefore comports with the cheerfulness of which we have been speaking. The first believers walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost: and we are commanded to serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. We are to) be in the fear of the Lord all the day long-but God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of them that are about him. Nothing more becomes his majesty and purity, his omniscience and omnipresence. Nothing more becomes our meanness and vileness; and the importance of the work in which we are engaged; and the consequences depending. We sing and pray and hear for eternity. We are responsible for all our opportunities. We never leave the house of God as we enter itHow dreadful is the place! It is none other but the house of God, and the gate of heaven-and of hell! To some the word preached will be the savour of life unto life; to others it will be the savour of death unto death. Nothing is so likely to secure our edification by the means of grace, as a solemnity of mind in our attendance. And where it prevails, the eyes will not rove all over the place. Sleep and drowsiness will be excluded. We shall not leave the sanctuary with levity, and fall into vain and idle discourse. Nor shall we ever come to it without reflection and prayer. MARCH 25.-"I am in a strait betwixt two."--Phil. i. 23. NOTHING is more trying and distressing than a state of uncertainty, indecision, and perplexity-or being in a strait between opposing claims, one of which only can be chosen. What a strait was David in when he had to choose between pestilence, and war, and famine! And what a strait was Jacob in between his wish for relief and the fear of sending Benjamin! Paul is here in a strait, but it is between two things, each of which is agreeable and inviting. We might have been sure that whatever weighed with him would be something pertaining to Christ. Accordingly his drawing was, on the one side, the enjoyment of his Lord's presence in heaven; and on the other, the serving of his people on earth. Let us notice the former of these-"Having a desire to depart to be with Christ, which is far better." The Apostle means death; but he avoids the name, and calls it a departure. We are much more influenced by words than we may imagine; and as there is so much to render death formidable, we should, as far as possible, soften it even in the representation. And the Scripture does this. It tells us that if a man keeps the sayings of Christ, "he shall never see death." Is he then exempted from the law of mortality? No: but death is so changed with regard to him, that it does not deserve the name. It is therefore a gathering to his people, a falling asleep, a putting off this tabernacle, a departure "I long to depart." Does the Apostle refer to a mariner loosing anchor from a foreign shore to depart for his own country? or to a traveller departing from an inn to which he has turned aside for a night to go on his way ? or to a prisoner departing fron: his dungeon and chains to enjoy his freedom? or to a soldier departing for his peaceful home after his warfare is ended? The death of a Christian furnishes all these images and fulfils them. But how surely does the representation remind us of the complex nature of man! If nothing survived at death, death would be a cessation, not a departure. We do not say an animal departed this life. If we buried a beast we should not inscribe on a stone, "Here lies his body"-Here lies the whole of him. But over the grave of a man we say, "Here lies the body"-or, " Here repose the remains"-For "there is a spirit in man:" and when "the dust returns to the dust whence it came, the spirit returns to God who gave it." The effect of this death is "to be with Christ." It is obvious the | Apostle supposed that a separate state immediately followed the dissolution of the body, as he says in another place expressly," Absent from the body, and present with the Lord." Had he expected that he should not be with Christ till the resurrection, his dying would have been of no advantage to him. It might have freed him indeed from his sufferings: but he is not speaking of what he should leave, but of what he should reach. In a blessed sense Christ was with him here; and this, with all his trials, was better than annihilation till the last day. It is useless to say the period would seem only as a moment to the individual-for this is not the question-the difficulty lies here--that let the term be long or short, such inaction and insensibility could not be better than the presence of Christ with Paul even in this life. I love the very words the Holy Ghost useth. Paul does not say I long to depart to be in heaven. This is his meaning-but he speaks in a way that while it expresses the blessedness, characterizes it also at the same time. To be in heaven is to be with Christ. Our Lord affirms this himself in his promise to the thief-“This day thou shalt be with me in paradise." And in his prayer for the disciples-"That they may be with me where I am to behold my glory." Is this our heaven? Could such happiness make us hapру ? Whatever that state be, we must be prepared for it by a conformity to it in our views and feelings here. What a delightful prospect is the social intercourse of that world! If Socrates could comfort himslf that he was going to Museus and other worthies that had lived before him, what is the attraction of a Christian, that he is going to join his own beloved connexions, and the martyrs, and the apostles, and the prophets, and the patriarchs, and the innumerable company of angels-and above all, "the Lord of all," the most wonderful of all characters, the most endeared of all benefac tors, the most precious of all friends! We have not only the nature and effect of this death, but the preeminency of the blessedness to which it leads. It is strongly expressed. It is "better"—“ far better.” Far better than what! It would be saying little to say that it was far better than his trials, far better than to be stoned at Philippi, than to fight with beasts at Ephesus, than to be a night and a day in the deep, than to be in perils among false brethren. It would also be little to say that it was far better than all his temporal comforts. These a Christian does not undervalue; yea he is grateful for them, and enjoys them with a relish peculiar to himself. But he has something even now superior to all outward good-The means of grace and the comforts of the Holy Ghost. But to be with Christ is far better than these: as the day is far better than the dawn, and the inheritance and the vintage are far better than the earnests and the first fruits only. Our communion with him here is distant and often intercepted-there it will be perpetual and immediate. We love the streams-but what is the fountain! We love the house of prayer-but what is the temple in which they serve him day and night! "Thine earthly Sabbaths, Lord, we love; But there's a nobler rest above: MARCH 26.-"Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith."-Phil. i. 24, 25. VOLTAIRE, in his letters to one of his confidential friends and admirers, more than once says, I hate life, and I dread death. How different were the views and feelings of Paul! He did not dread death, but could say, "I long to depart to be with Christ, which is far better." And so far was he from hating life, that he valued it as affording him opportunity to glorify his Saviour, and to serve his people according to his will. We have seen one part of his straitLet us look at the other. Whether he derived his persuasion from a knowledge that his bonds were manifest in all the palace, and that efforts were making in his favour by the saints in Cæsar's household, or from an inspired intimation, we cannot determine: but he was confident that he should not only escape death, but be released from imprisonment. Thus he would be debarred from a state which, as to personal enjoyment, he deemed far better than every thing else, and intensely longed after, and yet he speaks of it with more than acquiescence. What an instance of self-denial was here! How backward are some to make any sacrifice in order to do good. They cannot forego a luxurious meal to furnish a poor family with a plain one. They cannot give up a little variety in dress to clothe a naked child. But Paul is willing to resign heaven itself, though he was sure it was his own and every kind of suffering rendered it desirable-in order to be useful. Self-denial is the first lesson Christianity requires; and every part of it tends to inspire us with a disposition to look, not |