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disposition and kindness of God towards his people! When an image is applied to God, we must separate from it all its imperfections. A father may be unable to defend a child; he is sometimes absent from it: he cannot be always awake, and inspecting it; he may be ignorant of the cause of its complaint; he may not know what is good for it; he may decline in affection, and become heedless and negligent; he may become cruel, and abandon his charge. But nothing of all this can apply to Him, who bears us in all the way that we go.

Yea, we must not only strip the image of imperfection when we apply it to God, but we must attach to it divinity. Every human relation, however complete, is yet finite in its exercise and excellence: but His attributes are infinite. His love passeth knowledge. "He is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think."

Well-hast thou seen in the wilderness, how the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went? Let the sight affect your admiration, and induce you to exclaim, "Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou visitest him?" We talk of condescension; but what is the difference between one creature and another; one worm and another-But what is God! what are we! how mean, unworthy, guilty!-Let it draw forth

Your gratitude; and call upon your soul, and all that is within you, to bless his holy Name. "To him that led his people in the wilderness; for his mercy endureth for ever."

-Let it encourage you.

You are not yet come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you; but he is with you in the way; and with you as your father; engaged to do all that such a relation requires. He has said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Reason from the past to the future,

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and, "because he has been your help, therefore, under the shadow of his wings, rejoice."-Let him be

Your example. Job was a father to the poor, not a tyrant, or an overseer. Be kind, as well as bountiful. Be ye followers of God. In him the fatherless findeth mercy: let him find it in you also. "Be ye merciful, even as your Father which is in heaven is merciful."-Recommend him to others, and say to them, "Come with us, and we will do you good, for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel."-Oh, that the young, who are entering this wilderness world, would place themselves under his care, and beseech him to be the guide of their youth.-Oh, that the bereaved would think of Him, who can more than repair the losses which make them bleed. "When my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up."

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JAN. 29.-" And shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. John xiv. 32.

THERE is a relation between Christ and Christians, and a conformity founded upon it; so that what He says, they may subordinately adopt as their own language.

There are cases in which they may be alone— and there are cases in which they ought to be alone-and there is one case in which they must be alone: and yet they are not alone, because the Father is with them.

They may be alone, by the dispensations of Providence. By death, lover and friend may be put far from them, and their acquaintance into darkness; and bereavements may force from solitude the

sigh, "I watch, and am as a sparrow upon the housetop." They have often been driven out of society by the wickedness of power. Their connexions have abandoned them through falseness, or deserted them through infirmity. And this is no inconsiderable trial. Our Saviour felt the desertion of his disciples; and said, "I looked for some to take pity, and there was none, and for comforter, and found none;" but looking upward, he said, “I am not alone, for the Father is with me. Joseph was separated from his family, and sold into Egypt, but the Lord was with Joseph. John was banished into the isle of Patmos; but there he had the visions of the Almighty, and was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. "At my first answer," says Paul, "no man stood by me, but all men forsook me; notwithstanding the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me."-Yes; whoever dies, the Lord liveth. Whoever fails us, He is firm. "He is faithful that hath promised. He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

They ought to be alone, by voluntary solitude. Not that they are to become recluses, by abandoning their stations, and shunning intercourse with their fellow-creatures. The Christian life is a candle; but a candle is not to be placed under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that it may give light to all that are in the house: and our light is to shine before men: and they are to see our good works, and glorify our Father who is in heaven. But occasional and frequent retirement for religious purposes, is a duty-and it will be found our privilege. We shall never be less alone than when alone. "Go forth," says God to Ezekiel, "into the field, and there will I talk with thee." Isaac, at eventide, was meditating in the field, when the Lord brought him Rebecca. Jacob was left alone, when he "obtained power with God," and with man, and prevailed. Nathanael was seen and encouraged under

the fig tree. Peter was by himself praying upon the housetop when he received the Divine manifestation. If the twelve Patriarchs, or the twelve Apostles, lived near us, and their presence drew us off from our closets, their neighbourhood would be a serious injury to us. No creature can be a substitute for God. And it is alone we hold the freest and fullest communion with Him. It is there the secret of the Lord is with us, and he shews us his covenant. There we become acquainted with ourselves. There we shake off the influences of the world. It is good to be there—

"Be earth with all her scenes withdrawn ;
"Let noise and vanity be gone;

"In secret silence of the mind,

"My heaven, and there my God, I find."

- Men may live in a crowd, but they must die alone. Friends and ministers can only accompany us to the entrance of the pass. None of them can speak from experience, and tell us what it is to die. And it is a way we have not gone ourselves heretofore. But the Christian, though alone, is not alone-even here. "Yea," says David, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."

"Death is a melancholy day

"To those that have no God."

But how must it be softened and cheered to those that have! O to have a God, the God of all grace, at hand, a very present help in that time of trouble; laying underneath his everlasting arms; shedding around the light of his countenance; communicating the joy of his salvation; and insuring the glory to be revealed-in ways beyond all our present experience and thought!

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"O my God, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Thou hast holden me by my right hand, Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon the earth I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

JAN. 30.—“ And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually; and when he had declared all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa."

Acts x. 7, 8.

SUCH was his obedience to the heavenly vision. It was immediate, and well executed.

He did not himself go for Peter. This he would have readily done, but he was ordered by the angel to send; and his presence was proper and necessary at home. He was a man in office: and in command. He had a weighty trust reposed in him: and we are to abide with God in our callings.

The messengers he employed, were two of his household servants-which shews him to have been a man of some estate, besides his profession: and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually. Observe here-the officer himself was a devout man, and he has not only devoted, but devout soldiers. The master was godly, and the servants are the same: for it is said, Cornelius feared God with all his house; like Joshua, who said, "As for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord." This correspondence between the head and the members of the family, may be accounted for two ways. First; such a man will choose, as far as he can, those

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