seek our ruin," desiring to have us that he may sift us as wheat," if, perchance, he may find us to be unprofitable chaff, only fit for the unquenchable fire. Here then is evil within and around you, open and disguised. You must be watchful, or you will enter into temptation such as you will hardly escape from. How shall you be safe if you omit watching? Your thoughts, and desires, and affections must be watched. Their first movements and inclinations must be eyed with suspicious caution, lest any evil secretly mingle with them, and lead you into unexpected sin. Mark well what effect the world, its pleasures, and its business have upon you. Does it harden your heart and deaden your feelings? Does it render you dull to things spiritual and heavenly? Does it make you heedless and fearless of sin, and cause you to feel no shock at witnessing impiety? And has Satan persuaded you that you have nothing to fear from him, and that he does not really seek to "devour" your soul? Look well to these things: be watchful over them, for these are signs by which you may discover your peril in time. But prayer, diligent and fervent prayer, must be joined with watchfulness. Go then to your closet. Seek there the presence of God. Lay bare before Him the weakness and the helplessness of your own heart. Bewail the inconstancy of your resolutions, and the power of sin over your soul, and then call upon him for light, and strength, and grace. Beg Him not to let you perish, not to suffer your feet to slip, not to leave you to wander away from Him, but to recall your affections to Himself; and to lift you up when you are down, and to rescue you whenever Satan seems to be getting the advantage of you. Here is safety for you. "The flesh is weak," but watchfulness by God's grace will remedy that weakness: "the spirit is" often "willing," and God will make 1 Luke xxii. 31. 2 Matt. xxvi. 41. it more willing if you heartily pray, and will enable it to bring its pious but faint desires to good effect. PRAYER. Almighty God, give us, we beseech Thee, a spirit of watchfulness and prayer, that by Thy grace the willingness of our spirit may gain stedfastness and strength, and prevail against the weakness of the flesh; so that we may attain to a holy diligence in resisting Satan, and in serving Thee with undivided affection all our days, to Thy honour and glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. IX. THE COMFORT OF CASTING OUR BURDENS Ps. lv. 22.-Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. HERE is the secret of strength and comfort to the soul. There are many burdens which weigh heavily upon men, and bow down their spirits to the dust. Some are laid upon them by God for the trial of their faith and patience; others are brought upon them by themselves, through their own folly and wickedness. The evil may come from many quarters; the relief can come from one only, even God. What a burden is sin! When a man finds that he is tied and bound with the chain of his sins, unable to break off from his evil habits, daily doing what daily he is vexed with himself for having done, and fearing what may come upon him through the just vengeance of God, is not his sin a heavy load upon his heart? And what a burden is the punishment of sin! Surely David felt it so when he beheld his own children rebellious, bloodthirsty, adulterous, and incestuous; and found, as the Lord had warned him, that the sword never departed from his house because of his own deepdyed guilt. And what a burden is affliction! To behold the objects of our love and care snatched from us, our homes made cheerless and desolate, our necessities and cares multiplying, and our hopes and expectations all brought to nothing-all this lies heavy upon the soul. In these and in all troubles where shall we find relief? Whither shall we fly for ease? To God's mercy, to His never-failing compassions we may look, and He never will fail us. If we will go to the Lord, confessing and bewailing our sins, beseeching Him to take away all our offences, and to give us the comfort of His help again, the prayer of the broken and contrite heart He will in nowise cast out. The Lord will put away all His displeasure, and turn Himself from His wrathful indignation We may indeed be made to suffer awhile, the Lord "chastening us for our profit that we may be partakers of His holiness;" but the Lord will sustain us and bless us. Whatever troubles the heart and casts it down is a burden; sorrow, distress, alarms, oppressions, destitution, remorse, these and such like are a burden to bear. Do you feel yourself oppressed with any weight? Are you afflicted or distressed in mind, body, or estate? Go, cast your burden upon the Lord, be it what it may. Go to Him in humble penitence, striving to put away all those sins by which you have offended Him. Go, in faith, trusting in His everready goodness. Confide yourself to Him as to a loving Father, reconciled to us through Christ. Hide nothing from Him; pour out every sorrow before Him; commit yourself into His hands to do for you whatever is needful, not doubting that He will provide for all your real necessities; and resolve to be content with whatever He ordains or bestows. He 1 Heb. xii. 10. will be a shield and defence, a comfort, a light, and salvation to you. You may still have to "suffer awhile," but God will "stablish, strengthen, settle ," and "make you perfect in every good work to do His will." He will uphold you with the arms of His mercy, and keep you in perfect peace because your trust is in him. you, PRAYER. O heavenly Father, the God of all consolation and love, the helper of all them that need, the never-failing support of all that trust in Thee, teach us in all our necessities and troubles still to fly to Thee for succour. Let the contrite, O Lord, find comfort in Thy pardoning mercy, the weak receive support under their trials through Thy gracious assistance. Wipe away the tears of the sorrowful, defend the helpless, provide for the sick and needy. And that we may not provoke Thee to visit us any more with Thy displeasure, keep us in the way of righteousness, and sanctify all thy dispensations to the improvement of our souls in Christian faith and love. Hear this our prayer, O merciful Father, for Jesus Christ's sake. X-A HEAVENLY CONVERSATION. Philip. iii. 20.-Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a high calling as Christians. We are enrolled by baptism among the servants and soldiers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and called to be citizens of the new and heavenly Jerusalem-that "glorious Church," which the Lord will at the last day "present to himself holy and without blemish," as the spouse whom He 11 Pet. v. 10. 2 Heb. xiii. 21. loves. 1 We are thus separated from the world, and brought into a state of salvation: we are taken from darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God. Eternal life and happiness are set before us in the Gospel; and we are pressingly invited to embrace them. Ought not this heavenly calling to affect us mightily? Ought not these blessed privileges to awaken high thoughts and desires within us? Let those who know of nothing beyond this world, dote upon its empty honours and pleasures. But surely he in whose ears God's invitation to heavenly joys have sounded, should be wholly intent upon those lasting glories and blessings to which he is so graciously called. Look, then, upon this world in its true light. Regard it not as the place of your enjoyment, but of your trial. Consider yourself as sent here not to heap up to yourself all possible earthly indulgences, but rather to exercise yourself in godliness, to acquire a taste for things spiritual and heavenly, and to prepare yourself in the thoughts and affections of your heart for eternal blessedness with Christ. Here God is "humbling and proving you, and seeing what is in your heart, whether you will obey him or no "2whether you will walk by faith, or whether by sight— whether you will renounce all confidence in yourself and your own works, and will come unto Christ as your only Hope, your Lord and Master, the King of Glory. See, then, that your life and your calling agree together. Are not heavenly joys set before you? and are they not of infinite value? Be indifferent, then, about worldly things; cast away all anxieties about them. Regulate your use of such worldly goods as you have in a spirit of piety and brotherly love. If you should be "despoiled of" them, lay it not to heart, for you know that you "have a better and an enduring substance." If you have scarcely possessed a reasonable sufficiency of them, rejoice the more that 1 Ephes. v. 27. [168] 3 2 Deut. viii. 2. 3 Heb. x. 34. B |