pect that it will be perfected in heaven. Let no pressure of worldly business be deemed a sufficient apology for the neglect, or careless performance of your devotions morning and evening. Immediately after you awake from the repose of the night, before your minds are distracted with the cares, or your hands occupied with the labors of the day, appropriate a little time for conversing with the Father of spirits, and humbly committing yourselves to his protection; take a view of the duties which you may probably be called to discharge, or the difficulties to be encountered, or the temptation to be resisted and then expostulate for his sympathy and support throughout the whole. Many christians can attest from long, and repeated experience, that they have been supported under every trial, and prospered in every pursuit just in proportion as they were enabled to begin the day with a humble reliance on the Lord.. "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. They that trust in the Lord are like mount Zion which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. Commit thy way to the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass." These are the promises of a covenanting God, and they have been realized times without number in the experience of his children. The most trifling disappointment has frequently unhinged them when relying on their own wisdom, or strength, while on the other VOL. 3.

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hand the heaviest cross has been easily borne along when their confidence was placed on the sufficiency of Jehovah for support. In the one instance they have "been wearied in the land of peace," while relying on an Almighty arm by the prayer of faith "they have easily surmounted the swelling of Jordan." Stir up your souls therefore by frequent contemplations of your own weakness, and the plenitude of promised grace to a holy importunity in this duty. Upon no occasion venture forward to your secular employments without reading some particular portions of scripture, and afterwards committing yourselves to the divine direction by supplication. It is unreasonable to object that such is the poverty of your lot, or such the pressure of worldly business that you have not opportunity for the exercises of religion. You can easily find leisure for every thing that involves your temporal prosperity or comfort: You find leisure for eating when nature requires nourishment; you find leisure for dressing your bodies when you wish to go abroad, and make a decent appearance among men; you find leisure for sitting and conversing with a friend who occasionally calls to visit you; and is the living God, who created you; who sustains you from hour to hour; who is constantly "crowning you with loving kindness, and tender mercies," the only friend to whose call you cannot attend? or are the interests of your souls and eternity

the only concerns which may lie neglected? Oh, brethren, if there be any consolation in Christ; any reality in the fellowship of his love "be not henceforth slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." How may we sink in humiliation when we consider the importunity to which others have attained in the duty of prayer, wrestling two, or four, or six hours in the twentyfour with the living God, and how may we deplore our own loss when we recollect the advantages which they have derived from this exercise? At the throne of their Father they have often received "the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.' Employed in pouring out their souls before him in devout supplication they have felt secure amidst all the storms of life; they have experienced "a peace which passeth all understanding;" which the highest earthly prosperity could not impart, and which all the shocks of adversity could not ruffle. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." And the same prayers which issue in the peace and profit of the christian himself, may descend in showers of blessing on his family, on the congregation with which he is connected, and on the church through the world.

"Ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence: And give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." AMEN.

These were more noble than those in Thessalo-nica, in that they-searched the scriptures. daily.

THESSALONICA, which is here noticed by the Evangelist, was the chief city of Macedonia, and celebrated for itscommerce, and wealth, and luxury. There a church was planted by Paul at an early period of his ministry, to which as is generally supposed his two first epistles were addressed. Berea to which the apostle repaired after his departure from Thessalonica was also a city of Macedonia, but inferior to the other in extent, and population, and splendor: Yet the citizens of Berea were pronounced more noble than those in Thessalo-nica: "The Lord God seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance," on the dress, the address, and other external accomplishments and advantages, "but the Lord looketh on the heart; he notices whether it be humble, and con-trite, and spiritual: He esteems his own image impressed on the soul, and appearing in the general behaviour, infinitely more than all the endowments either of learning or wealth: Lazarus with the divine love shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, al

though exposed in the open street, and obliged to ask his bread from door to door, is beheld with complacence by angels, and the God of angels, while the rich man swelling with pride, although clothed in purple, and occupying a palace, is regarded with indignation and scorn-An individual, or a family, or a city, rises in the estimation of God in proportion as they obey his commandments, and act for his glory. "Them that honor me I will honor, but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." The Bereans were therefore reckoned "more noble than those of Thessalonica in that they searched the scriptures daily."

Secret prayer, ona late occasion, was recommended to you as a reasonable and profitable service. It is designed at present to enforce the reading of the sacred oracles as an ordinance no less important, and an ordinance incumbent on each individual. Indeed these two duties are very properly connected. In prayer we converse with God, and while we search the scriptures we hear him conversing with us: In the former exercise we familiarly make known to him our fears, our desires, our hopes, and in the latter he communicates to us his pleasure and purposes concerning us both in time and eternity: As example is usually more impressive than precept, the part of sacred history which I have chosen must be considered as peculiarly appropriate for recommending to our attention the scriptures of