true my nearest and dearest friends may be removed by death; but in him I have a store of dearer and diviner relatives. My riches may fly away as on eagle's wings, but in him I have the treasures of eternity; so that it is but for a moment, and in the meanest things, that I can sustain any loss. My name may be reproached among men, but here is a divine antidote against that, that my name is written in the Lamb's book of life, who will confess it before his Father, and before assembled men and angels. My soul may be troubled, and my mind broken, but in him I have health and tranquility for both, for he alone giveth quietness, and when he giveth it, none can cause trouble. My soul desires much, but in him is more than my soul can desire. My wants are great, and my necessities many, but in him I find an overflowing abundance that supplieth all. My situation for a time may be lonely and desolate, but in him I find the divinest company, the dearest converse, and in his presence a paradise below. Sin and sinners may cause me daily sorrow, but in him that saves from both, I have abundant consolation. The things of this world may all seem jointly to go against me, but in him the things of the next world shall all assuredly make for me. I may wander from one place of the world to another, and be persecuted hither and thither for his sake; but he, who is every where present, shall be ever with me,and nothing shall be able to separate me from his love. My comforts may all fall off, like the blasted blossoms of the orchard; but in him ten thousand more noble comforts shall flourish, and never fade nor wither. Every day may bring me new disappointments (and what else should I look for in a perishing world?) but in him I shall never be disappointed, even to eternity. Here infirmity may often break off my noblest exercises; but in a

little I shall put on the immortality of bliss, and rest neither day nor night in his praises, yet never be wearied. Here doubts and darkness may distress me, but in him is my direction and my light. In a word, I may be a complication of wants and adversities, crosses and calamities, disappointments and distresses, sorrow and concern; but, in a word again, whatever my exigence can demand, whatever my soul can desire, is fully, wholly, and eternally in him. Therefore, though death in a few moments may advance to put a period to my time, and cut me off from the world below, yet then shall my felicity begin, when, to sum up all my bliss, enjoying the fellowship of the world above, I shall for ever be with the Lord.

MEDITATION XCV.

THE BIRTH-DAY.

Quiberon Bay, May 30, 1760.

THE observation of nativities seems to be both ancient and universal, but by none more splendidly kept than those, who, not attending to the end of their creation, have but little reason to rejoice that ever they were born. Of old, a king's birth-day, in its consequences, cost our Saviour's forerunner his head; but at many such feasts now-a-days, the Saviour himself is crucified afresh, and put to open shame.

Surely to be is desirable, but to be happy is much more so; and who can claim this, but such as remember the day of their death oftener than the day of their birth,and choose rather to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting? If joy belongs to any on their birth-day, surely it is to those, who not only know,

that on such a day of the year they become one of the numerous family of mankind, but also can, by solid arguments, and on good grounds infer, that, by the second birth, they are of the family of the living God. Though Job and Jeremiah, in their anguish, cursed their day, yet when the storm passed over, their souls returned to their quiet rest, and irreprehensible joy: however, he who only waits for the manifestation of that glorious life, which has neither change nor end, may, to the praise of God, with an exulting breast, talk in an opposite strain: "Let the day prosper wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man-child conceived. Let that day be brightness, let God regard it from above, and let the light shine upon it. Let light, and the beaming hope of eternal life, beautify it to me. Let serenity dwell upon it, and the brightness of the day banish every gloom from it. As for that night, let the beauty of the day be spread upon it; let it be joined and added as a remarkable day to the days of the year, and let it come chief to me among the number of my months. Lo, let that night be solemn and sweet, while my anthem imitates the song above, and my soul, on wings of faith, mixes with the adoring multitude on high."

There are a variety of arguments against carnal feasting on my birth-day. Had I come into the world laughing, I might live feasting, and die rejoicing; but as I came in weeping, and breathed my first breathing in disquiet and cries, so it teaches me to live sober, and die serious. Since we are all born under the curse, why such a noisy commemoration of that day, when another sinner first burdened the earth, when another rebel against Heaven first breathed the common air? But if we are to acknowledge it as a mercy that we were born, as no doubt it is, yet it is not the way to

show our gratitude to the Most High, by pampering perishing clay. God will not be praised over our cups; then his name is often blasphemed. Such a practice. is consistent in an idolatrous Belshazzar and his guests, towards gods who neither see nor hear, but he who is a Spirit will be spiritually honored.

A back-look on my life, may hinder carnal mirth on its commencement. Sin and vanity twisting with every day of my life, should make me consider on my birthday with more enlarged views than the sons of sense can take, how I have fallen from the noble end for which I was created, how I have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, I who have an immortal soul within me, that shall live to eternity.

One thing, however, I should consider, that since I came into this world, many thousands of my contemporaries have gone into the unseen world. The spreading forest of my acquaintance is fearfully thinned by the felling axe of death. It is a chilling thought, that so many of my companions, who lately made a figure in the gay world, are now wrapt up in an eternal gloom. Many of my school-fellows and comrades, of my friends and neighbors, are now no more; yea, into my father's family, since I made one of the number, death, though not a stranger before, has made five desolating visits, besides the redoubled blows, that made me fatherless and motherless; and though, in unbounded goodness, I survive, yet all these occurrences cry to me, that I also in a little must remove, and be no more.

In this contracted span, there are not many now who reach three-score years; yet, at such a calculation, my sun is at his height, my day arrived at noon; and shall I not yet put away the foilies of youth, when I know not but my sun may go down at noon, never more to rise? Then henceforth may I be the man, yea, more,