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The illumination he spreads is not the cold barren light of the moon, but the shining of the spring sun, which not only enlightens, but warms and enlivens, and fills the earth with fertility and beauty.

Let this direct and encourage us. It is the Lord alone that } teaches us to profit: he alone can render the most common truth/ impressive and influential. Moses had seen the Egyptians destroyed in the Red Sea, and all the multitudes of his brethren buried in the wilderness. And needed he to be taught the doctrine of mortality? Knew he not that the days of our years are threescore years and ten? and that the period of human life is as uncertain as it is short? Yet he felt that no less a teacher than God was necessary to instruct him properly and therefore he prays, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." And do we not see the need of this continually? Our neighbours fall around us. Death enters our houses. We feel the attacks of disease; and the decays of nature; and yet how do we live? as dying creatures? or as those who suppose they are to live here always?

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But while we feel our need of this teaching let us remember that he gives his holy Spirit to them that ask him. If we perish for lack of knowledge, our sin will lie at our own door. "If any lack▸ wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." We are incapable of conducting ourselves, but here is an infallible Director, who offers to accompany us, and would never leave us nor forsake us, and requires nothing but our submission-May the language of my heart be, "Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day."

OCTOBER 11.-" Man dieth."-JOв xiv. 10.

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BUT how came he to die? He was not made mortal like the beasts that perish. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, because all have sinned."

But now there is not a day, or an hour, or a moment, in which man dieth not. The frequency of the occurrence hinders much of the force and seriousness of the impression it is otherwise so adapted to produce. "They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it." And not only the commonness but the irksomeness of the event is unfriendly to consideration. The subject is too gloomy and repulsive to engage the thought of the generality of mankind: and the main concern of thousands is to keep it, or banish it from their minds. Yet their putting the evil day far off is not putting it away. The way to die safely is to die daily. Young says, "Familiar thoughts will smooth the road to death" and the royal preacher tells us, "sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart."

We often see a fellow-creature in situations and circumstances peculiar to himself, and in which we shall not be called to follow

him: but when we see man dying we behold an emblem and an in stance of our own destiny; and we should bring home the case, and say, by-and-by I shall require these attentions-What I now hear and see I shall experience-My soul will refuse dainty meat-a shivering will seize my trembling limbs-and the world will recede from my view, and appear like land to the mariner entering the ocean. Infinitely diversified as human conditions are, they all terminate in the same result. All are of the dust, and all turn to dust again, Death is the way of all the earth

And what is it for man to die? It is an event the most solemn and affecting, whatever view we may take of it. It is the termination of all his busy concerns in life, and suffers him to interfere no more in any thing that is done under the sun. It is his farewell to earth with all its possessions and attractions; his eye will no more see good. It is the disruption of all his ties of friendship and kindred here; to say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. It is the destruction of his body, so fearfully and wonderfully made, and the reducing of it to such a state of loathsomeness, as compels the survivors to bury their dead out of their sight, and to inscribe over the sepulchre

"How loved, how valued once, avails thee not,

To whom related, or by whoin begot :

A heap of dust alone remains of thee,
"Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be."

It is his entering into a new and untried mode of being; his transition from a course of action to a state of retribution. It is a thing that cannot be repeated, and the consequences of which are irreversible: it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judg

ment.

So far one event happeneth to all: but there is a vast difference in men's dying, according as they are morally and religiously considered. The wicked is driven away in his wickedness. His death, indeed, is not always very dreadful in the manner. There is sometimes a strange senselessness that attends it. Frequently even the danger of dissolution is concealed from him, and he dies “a slow sudden death." The poet's words are not true, "Fools men may live, but fools they cannot die:" for observation shows us that commonly men die as they live. The Scripture says of many of them, "They have no bands in their death, but their strength is firm." This is sometimes indeed affected rather than real. When they have died with a kind of levity and sportiveness it has been by way of diversion. They would indeed have it supposed to be a proof of the absence of fear; but it is the effect of its prevalence-So the schoolboy passes the churchyard "whistling aloud to keep his courage up." I have heard from dying lips exclamations of anguish and horror, which I should not like to publish. These are often attributed to disease; and the poor wretch is supposed to be under the influence of delirium—and it may be so-But whatever may be the manner of departure, as to those that die in their sins, the consequences are dreadful beyond imagination. If they even fall asleep as gently as lambs, they awake with the devil and his angels.

But the dying chamber of the children of God and the heirs of immortality is none other cut the house of God and the gate of heaven.

We are affected to see them going; it would be criminal not to feel, and to pray, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. We lose much by their removal; but our loss is their gain. Dying to them is but resting from their labours; is but departing to be with Christ, which is far better-The righteous hath hope in his death. “I know," says he, "whom I have believed. Mine eyes have seen his salvation. The warfare is accomplished. Let me go forth and take the crown of glory that fadeth not away. Let me leave this vale of tears and enter into the joy of my Lord”—

"O glorious hour, O blessed abode,
I shall be near, and like my God;
And flesh and sense no inore control
The sacred pleasures of my soul."

Do all the Lord's people die in rapture? By no means. Various circumstances may affect their views and feelings, but they all die equally safe, and the issue is equally glorious. And in general the Lord is peculiarly indulgent to his dying followers. Their peace is compared to a river, and that river enlarges as it approaches the sea-Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. Peace not only compared with the end of others, but with much of his own previous course. As to his condition and experience, the day was dark and distressing, but at eventide it was light. All this the Christian may safely commit unto the Lord. It♦ is his duty and privilege to take no thought for the morrow. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof, and also the good. And these shall be proportioned to each other by him who has commanded us to seek for grace to help in time of need, and has promised that as our day is so shall our strength be.

But we thus see that though the religion of Jesus does not exempt us from dying as men, it prevents our dying like them. It prepares us for the change. It turns the curse into a blessing. It brings to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Lord, so teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

OCTOBER 12.-"Full of grace and truth."-JOHN i. 14.

In another place it is said, "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." But things may come by a person who is not possessed of them; or he may possess them, and not be filled with them-But he was "full of grace and truth."

"Grace" peculiarly signifies goodness, kindness, tenderness, mildness. And was he not full of these? We cannot tell what kind of person he had, but we are sure of his temper and disposition. It was prophesied of him that he should come down like rain upon the mown grass; that he should gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that were with young; that a bruised reed should he not break, and a smoking Hay should he not quench-And follow him in the days of his flesh

See him having compassion upon the multitude, because they had nothing to eat. Hear him saying to the poor and afflicted, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Ask the woman who was a sinner whether he was not full of grace, when he said, "Go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee." Ask the widow of Nain whether he was not full of grace, when he met her at the funeral of her only son, and said unto her, Weep not, and restored her last comfort to her embrace? See him in sight of Jerusalem weeping over it, not at the thought of the sufferings they were going to inflict upon himself, but of the miseries they were drawing down upon their own heads.

The influences of the Spirit are often called grace, because they flow from the free and undeserved favour of God. Of these he was full. He had every moral excellency in him, and in a perfect degree. All his people have the same spirit in measure, but he had it without measure. He was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. If the holiest man on earth were to dwell with you, you would find a deficiency in his grace. But Jesus was full of grace. Grace was poured into his lips, into his life: it filled every thing he said, every thing he did.

And he was replenished not only for himself but for us. It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell. And in him we are blessed with all spiritual blessings. Thus in the famine Joseph had all the corn, and Pharaoh said to the people, Go unto Joseph. Yet his stores, though great, continually diminished, and at length were exhausted. But the fulness of Jesus, however numberless the relieved, remains the same, and could supply myriads

more.

He was also "full of truth." It would be a low sense to say that he was full of sincerity. But as he did no sin, so neither was guile found in his mouth. What therefore he said, could be relied upon by those who heard him; and as you have his words you may rely upon them too. But he was full of truth, as truth is opposed to figure or to error. The one is the truth of reality or accomplishment. The law was a shadow of good things to come; but he was the body. There was enough in him to realize and verify all the types, ceremonies, and sacrifices of the preceding dispensation. He was the true bread that came down from heaven; the true rock that followed the people in the wilderness; the true tabernacle; the true temple-or the truth of all this.-The other is the truth of doctrine. Darkness had covered the earth, and gross darkness the people but for this end was he born, and for this cause came he into the world, to bear witness to the truth. What truth? For there are many kinds of truth. The truth he communicated was religious truth; the highest kind of truth; the truth that makes us wise unto salvation; the truth that shows us how we can be pardoned and sanctified, and attain eternal life. To be led into all this truth is wisdom, liberty, and happiness. Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound. Go away! Lord to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

OCTOBER 13.-" Peter, therefore, was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him."-Acts xii. 5.

Ir is pleasing and useful to contemplate the wise and good in trying scenes: to see what they do in the hour of danger and distress: what is their resource, and how they make use of it. The church was now in a state of great suffering and alarm, on account of Peter's imprisonment and intended execution; but alone, and at their family altars, and in their social and public meetings, they made prayer unto God for him. Prayer is the refuge and solace. of those who are in any trouble-It is therefore graciously prescribed; "Call upon me in the day of trouble." "Is any afflicted? let him pray." It is one of the designs of affliction to excite us to pray more frequently, and more earnestly: and God, who knows the importance of the exercise, and what will conduce to it, says, I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early."

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We also see that intercession or praying for others, as well as for ourselves, is a duty. Thus our Lord teaches us, when we pray, to say, "Our Father" and "give us day by day our daily bread." Thus we are commanded to pray for all men-and surely therefore for the servants of Christ, and those who are suffering according to the will of God. Let us not be selfish in our devotions. Let us be grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Let us weep when we remem ber Zion: and give the Lord no rest till he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Indeed Christians ought to value intercession as a great advantage afforded them. They wish to relieve others, but how little can they do for the distressed personally? They long to be useful in the cause of their Lord and Saviour; but many of them are denied this luxury, as far as it depends upon office, talent, and wealth: but all have influence-all can prayall have power with God-he despiseth not the prayer of the destitute, but will hear their prayer.

The church here was fully aware of this; and we see the weapons, so to speak, with which the first Christians fought against their enemies and for their friends. If, says the Saviour, my kingdom was of this world, then would my servants fight-indeed they would, and show that kind of courage which the many only admire. But his kingdom is not from hence: and therefore though they do fight, the weapons of their warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through God. They are submission, patience, tears, pray- . ers. The church therefore thinks not of violence or resistance: yea, they do not draw up a petition and present it to Herod. They go at once, not to the jailer, but the judge; not to the servant, but the Lord of all. They knew that Herod was under his controul: and therefore prayer was made for Peter continually. The Lord exercises a twofold empire over men. The one is spiritual and saving; when he enlightens and sanctifies them: and puts his laws into their minds; and writes them in their hearts. The other is providential; when, without converting them, he changes their purposes, or defeats their pursuits. Thus it is said, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and he turneth it like the rivers of water;" which, led into another channel by the husbandman, retain

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