⚫tainment designed to promote friendship, and social intercourse, and gratification. And here we have it. We are not solitary partakers, but have companions the most agreeable, and excellent, and numerous. We sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, with prophets and apostles, with the noble army of martyrs; with the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven. Is it enjoyment? A man at a feast discharges himself from anxieties, and gives up himself to pleasure and delight -"a feast is made for laughter." "Joy becomes a feast," and is promoted by it. But no pleasure, no delight can resemble that which results from an experience of Divine grace. "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound." What a contrast between them and others! "Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit."

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Yet it is lamentable to think that, though all things are ready, and all are invited to the feast, many make light of it, and go their way. We are therefore commanded to "compel" you to come in, that the house may be filled. Not that violence is to be employed. The compulsion is to be suited to a rational nature; and therefore to consist only of the urgency of persuasion by argument and motive. And here the difficulty lies not in convincing the judgment-since no one, unless an infidel, will deny the propriety of complying with this call at some time-but not at present. Go thy way, therefore at this time you really, if not verbally, say to the importunity, when I have a more convenient season I will send for thee. But is not this delay and postponement infinitely dangerous? Your season, your only season, is rapidly passing away. How soon will the bridge be drawn, and the door be shut! And then the things which belong to your peace will be hid from your eyes. Admitting that according to your present feelings you are resolved to seek at some future period, that period may never come. Sickness is not always the forerunner of death. The disease too may render you incapable of thought, and then your purposed repentance will be impracticable. Impracticable it will always be unless the Spirit of God works in you; but if you resist his strivings now, what right have you to expect that he will return then, and by the most wonderful operation conquer your inveterate indisposition?

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Yea, the procrastination is as unreasonable as it is dangerous. Your compliance is as necessary to your living comfortably as to your dying safely. Though the happiness of those who receive Christ Jesus the Lord is completed above, it is begun below. They have many present attainments. They do enter into rest. Their souls are satisfied as with marrow and fatness. The Lord is their shepherd. To him they have committed all their concerns. that is really good for them is secured by his power, love, and promise. Their tormenting fears are removed. Their vain and restless desires are subdued. They have indeed their afflictions, but these are sanctified and softened; and in a little time all tears shall be wiped from their eyes. Can you imagine that God will suffer his enemies to be more happy than his friends? Can a persuasion that

God is your Father, and death your deliverer, and heaven your home, tend to make you less happy? What has the world done for you? Have you not found the way of transgressors hard? Forsake the foolish and live. All is "prepared" for you-God is ready to receive you, angels are ready to rejoice over you, believers are ready to hail you—“ All things are ready-Come unto the marriage."

NOVEMBER 23.-"HE THAT DOETH TRUTH cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."-John iii. 21. Or the individual here spoken of, the CHARACTER, the BUSINESS, and the AIM are all very instructive and improving. "He doeth truth." It is not said he What is his CHARACTER? readeth truth, heareth truth, speaketh truth, but doeth truth. Doing truth is rather a peculiar expression; and the question is how truth is to be here understood. Now there is the truth of doctrine, and the truth of sincerity.

He doeth truth according to the former of these who pays it practical attention. In this case the truth is the word of God, which is filled, not with curious speculations, but matters of unspeakable importance; and designed not to inform our judgments only, but to sanctify and govern our hearts and lives. Hence it is called, "the way of truth," because it is something in which we are to walk: we frequently read of "walking in the truth." "If ye know these things," says our Saviour," happy are ye if ye do them :" and he com pares the man who heareth his sayings and doeth them not to a fool who builds his house upon the sand and is ruined by the storm. The Apostle speaks of "the work of faith;" and tells us the word of God" worketh effectually in them that believe." The whole of it is a doctrine "according to godliness." No part of it can be uninfluential when properly regarded. Its threatenings are designed and adapted to awaken our fear. Its promises are to excite our hope. It is needless to mention its commands-these can be given for no other purpose than to be obeyed. And are we not commanded to forsake the world, to deny ourselves, to take up our cross, to follow the Saviour, to go forth to him without the camp bearing his reproach, and when we have done all to say we are unprofitable servants, and to look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life? And he that doeth this doeth truth.

He doeth truth according to the latter of these who acts consistently with his convictions of it. There are many who resist their belief; or, as the Apostle says, "hold the truth in unrighteousness:" the word is, imprison it. They will not suffer it to enter their temtheir conduct. They believe that the world is vanity pers, and sway and vexation of spirit, and the belief is true, yet it does not induce them to forsake it. They believe that the worship of God in their families is a duty, and the belief is true, yet they neglect it. The same may be said of a thousand other things. But the man that doeth truth gives up himself to his convictions, and follows them whithersoever they lead him, regardless of consequences. He may have little knowledge for the time, but he conforms to it; for sincerity cannot consist with the omission of any known duty, or the Nathanael was she very man in our indulgence of any knows ein

text; and therefore our Lord said of him, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." He had laboured under considerable mistakes; but he loved retirement, and had been alone praying to be made wise unto salvation. He had little light, but he sought for more; he was open to advice and reproof; he complied with Philip's invitation, "Come and see" for thyself; and upon our Saviour's intimation, "When thou wast under the fig tree I saw thee," he exclaimed, "Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel"-And upon this Jesus promised to show him "greater things than these."

There are some who are not equally prudent and kind. They are not tender of persons who cannot for the time go all their lengths. Yet were not they led into their present views step by step? Have they not been for years learning what they do not yet sufficiently understand? And do they wonder that others are not completely initiated in a few days or weeks? What a difference is there between the dawn and the day! and yet is not the one the beginning and the pledge of the other? And "the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." And "then," says the prophet, "shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." If I see a man convinced of sin, humbled under a sense of his unworthiness, delivered from the spirit of the world, and seriously engaged in the use of the means of grace, let me not be harsh because he feels some doubts and difficulties from which others are now delivered: let me affectionately admonish him, as far as he has already attained, to walk by the same rule, and mind the same thing, assured that if in any thing else he be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto him in his own time, and way, and degree. Let me not engage him in angry disputes, or force upon him the deep things of God which he is unprepared to receive; but leave him for time, and observation, and experience to enlarge his views, and be willing to teach him as he is able to hear it. Paul gave strong meat to them that were of full age, and who by reason of use had their senses exercised to discern both good and evil: but he fed babes with milk-Some give babes strong meat, yea, and even the bones of controversy!

It is well for persons to try their ground, and to feel their own way; and he walketh surely that walketh uprightly; and he that doth his will shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. Some of the most eminent characters that have adorned the Church attained their evangelical sentiments by degrees, and principally derived them from experience. The changes in nature are gradual; the seasons melt into each other; there are no disruptions. There also things are slower in their growth in proportion to their value. The oak, the king of the forest, does not shoot up all at once like nettles and reeds. The mushroom is the vegetation of a nightWe are not fond of mushroom-converts. We have never been

taught by the result to admire those who instantly become so wise, talkative, disputatious, and decisive. Their knowledge gets dangerously in advance, while its companions and guardians, experience and practice, are left so far behind. The knowledge they boast of VOL. II.

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is like the head of a rickety child, too large for the other parts of the body; it is the effect not of strength, but of weakness and disease; and by destroying proportion, not a beauty, but a deformity. Whatever be the defects of him that doeth truth, he may be known by this-If he has not the light, "he cometh to the light.”

NOVEMBER 24.-"He that doeth truth COMETH TO THE LIGHT, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.”—John iii. 21.

WHAT is his BUSINESS?

"He cometh to the light." He is not averse to it. He is not afraid of it. Why should he wish to shun it? It is for the thief, the murderer, the adulterer, to feel the morning as the shadow of death; not the man who is honestly going forth to his work and to labour until the evening. "If," says the man that is upright in the way-" if I am not right, I wish, above all things, to be right, and to be led into all truth. Hide nothing from me. Where my soul and eternity are concerned I dread delusion. I cannot bear uncertainty. Let me come to the light. And how does he this? He does it five ways.

He comes to the light by self-inspection. There are cases in which he will more solemnly and expressly examine himself: sich as the close of the year; and when he is approaching the table of the Lord; and when under those events, which are called by the sacred writers trials, because they are intended to show us what manner of spirit we are of. But he will be habitually a self-observer, and will look not only at his actions, but especially at his motives and the state of his heart.

He comes to the light by attention to the Scriptures. To their decisions, and counsels, and reproofs, he endeavours to lay himself fairly open. And instead of turning away from those parts which more particularly bear upon his own office and condition, towards them he will look more frequently and fully. "Am I a parent? Am I a member of a church? Am I poor? Am I prosperous? Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?"

He comes to the light by hearing the word preached. The minister is to take forth the precious from the vile; to discriminate characters, to divide the word of truth, and to give to every hearer And he that doeth truth his appropriate encouragement or censure. will receive his words with meekness. He will not try to bribe the prophet, or desire him to prophesy smooth things. He will not be offended because the preacher is faithful; but will say to him, as Eli did to Samuel, who had received a message from God concerning him, "What is the thing that the Lord hath said unto thee? I pray thee hide it not from me: God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide any thing from me of all the things that he said unto thee." Such a man is likely to apply too much to himself rather than too little. And this will commonly be the case with regard to those things which are said to unmask hypocrites, and to exclude the usurpers of religious privileges. It is not easy, says Bishop Hall, to beat out the dogs without making the children cry.

He cometh to the light by religious intercourse. "They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward." And whom

can they better consult, than those who know the way, not from maps and books only, but from having, and some of them a long time, travelled in it themselves. They feel an interest in such inquiries, and will be sure to sympathize with them; and will be able to solve many a doubt, and remove many a fear. They can speak from their own experience. And blessed be God there are few neighbourhoods now in which such helpers as these are not to be found-and the Lord add to his people, how many soever they be, a hundred-fold!

Above all, he doth this by prayer; humble, and earnest, and persevering prayer, for divine teaching. This is indeed coming to the light; it is coming to the fountain of light, coming to "the Father of lights," from whom every good and every perfect gift descends. He will convince us that the way of man is not in himself, and that no means, however good in themselves, can render needless his own agency. But none teacheth like him. He can make the very deaf to hear, and the blind to see. Under the influence of his direction, the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein. Happy they who are brought to his feet, and are crying from the heart, 'Lead me in thy truth, and guide me; for thou art the God of my salvation, on Thee do I wait all the day." "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." They will not, they cannot seek him in vain. He has said, and the Scripture cannot be broken, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"

NOVEMBER 25.-"Ee that doeth truth cometh to the light, THAT HIS DEEDS MAY BE MADE MANIFEST, THAT THEY ARE WROUGHT IN GOD."-John iii. 21. WHAT is his AIM?

"That his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."

The aim is personal : "His deeds." There are some who live much abroad, and are eager to pry into the affairs and condition of others, and it extends even to their religious concerns. But we are commanded to commune with our own hearts." When our Lord had foretold the duty and destiny of Peter, Peter should have instantly prayed, "Lord, prepare me for all thy will;" but instead of this he asks concerning John, "Lord, and what shall this man do?" But our Saviour, far from encouraging such curiosity, said, “What if I will that he tarry till I come? What is that to thee? Follow thou me." Many, it is to be feared, in reading and hearing, think more of others than of themselves; but we should endeavour to bring home the subject, whatever it be, to our own souls-"Am I neglecting this duty? Do I stand exposed to this threatening? Am I the heir of this promise? Have I any part or lot in this matter? Is my heart right in the sight of God?" This is the case with the man that "doeth truth and cometh to the light."

The aim is practical: that "his deeds"-Not his opinions and