moreover he engages that in using us according to his will and for his glory, he will not fail to secure our highest interests, our best good, our eternal well-being? We do what we will with our own, though it be our own in a very subordinate sense, and though we use it exclusively for our pleasure or profit; and we concede the same right to our fellowcreatures. What if we were to say to a fellow-man, "this is yours; you made it; you daily renew your labor on it, to keep it in repair; you also paid a price for it. I surrender it up to you. I desire it should be yours. You are much better qualified to use it properly than I am," and then afterwards object to his using it as his own? How unreasonable it would be in us! How we should contradict ourselves. And is it not as unreasonable to hold similar language to God, and then complain of him?

We also consecrate to God our families--wife and children, and all. We say " These also are chine, Lord. Use them likewise for thy glory. We consecrate them to thee." Well, being consecrated, ho uses them as sacred to him; and presently, having no farther use for one of them on earth, and wanting him in heaven to fill a place there, he takes the person thither-changes his residence and societypromotes him-brings him nearer to court. Having some time before justified and begun to sanctify the individual, he at once perfects the work of holiness in him, and beatifies, glorifies him-frees him from

all sin, sorrow, pain and dread; and wipes away his' last tear. The subject of all this is in an ecstacy of joy and gratitude for what has been done to him, and would not for worlds leave the choice spot which he now occupies. Well, and what then? Why, we object, and complain, and think it hard, and almost weep dry the fountain of tears, and refuse to be comforted! and that though it was God who took that member of the family; and though he took but his own, and took it to himself; and though we are so soon ourselves to follow to the same abode; and though it was always understood and agreed upon that God should take each just when he pleased. It was one of the articles of the covenant we entered io with him. He claimed and we conceded the right. We received that creature with the express understanding that we were to give him up, when called for. We always knew it was not a gift outright, but a loan. And now shall we complain of the recall of the loan?

Oh how easy it is to convince the judgment to silence the mind! But the heart-the unmanageable heart, feels on as before. Our arguments go not down to that deep seat of emotion. There is still the void, the tumult, the ache, the longing. Only God can reason with the heart. At no bidding but his, will it ever be still and satisfied.

Again, we consecrate our property to God. Wels say, "We being thine, all ours is also thine. Thine

be it Take and use it." But let God touch it, to take any part of it away, and how distressed, and well nigh desperate it makes some who profess to be Christians! and how unlike a thing sacred, and by our act made sacred to God, we use it. "Holiness to the Lord" we inscribe on all our property, and then utterly disregarding the label, we use it exclusively for ourselves.

So also we devote life to God. But he must not on any account take it. How we tremble when we apprehend that he is going to receive what we offer to him! O death, can it be that thou hast lost thy sting? Blessed Jesus, how reluctant thy disciples are to have thee come and take them to thyself! Forgive us we know not what we do.

Once more, what strange, inconsistent beings we are! If it be one characteristic of the righteous man, that he " sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not," how much more essential to rectitude must it not be to comply with the terms of the oath, which we have sworn, not to man, but to God; and when the tendency of the oath is not our hurt, but our greatest, and most lasting good! As Christians, we have sworn to God. We have taken the sacrament -and that often, and not without deliberation. Many oaths are on us. And now shall we change? Shali we draw back? Shall we refuse to perform, or, as the case may be, to submit, because of some trifling inconvenience, some transient evil, which God can

and will make to conduce to our ultimate and eter nal good?

36. The Pity of the Lord.

There is a great deal of the Bible which seems not to be believed even by those who profess and suppose that they believe it all. And this is true, if I mistake not, of what some would call the best parts of the Bible-those parts, for example, which speak of the kind feelings of God towards his creatures, and especially towards those of them who fear him. I suspect that even Christians read them with a sort of incredulity. They seem to them almost too good to be true. But why should not God feel towards us as he says he does? Is he not our Father? Has he not nourished and brought us up as children? Why should it be thought a thing incredible with us, that God should feel as a father does towards his children? I never read that 103d Psalm, but I stop at the 13th verse: Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him;" and I read it a second time, and I find myself asking, not merely in admiration, but with some degree of unbelief: Can it be that the Lord pities us, and pi

ties us like as a father his children? I know the Lord is good to all. How can he, who is love, bʊ other than benevolent? It were contrary to his nature not to be. But pity expresses more than goodness-more than benevolence. There is an urmovedness in mere goodness. But in pity the heart melts, and the eye weeps, and the whole soul is moved as from its seat. And this is especially true of a parent's pity. Can it be possible that God pities after that manner?" O yes, it is possible; and it has passed out of the limits of possibilities into the circle of facts. The Lord pitieth them that fear him-pitieth, as a father, you, if you fear him. His feelings towards you are fully up to those which you can conceive, or from experience know to be those of the most tender parent towards his children. Yes, God pities you. That nature which is love, feels and exercises compassion towards you in your sorrows and trials. That great heart is affected by your misery and griefs, as our hearts are, when at the sight of suffering we weep. Yes, Christian, God is sorry for you. Oh what a thought this for an hour of trial! What a sentiment this to bear suffering with! What if thou dost suffer? Is it not enough that God pities thee? We should be willing to suffer, if he will sympathise. We should never know what divine sympathy is, if we did not sufer. This one consideration-that God pities, is worth more than all philosophy.