kiah, to lengthen life. Our fields may be cultivated with all imaginable care-we may sow the best corn that can be procured--but if the will of the Lord be so, we can reap nothing but disappointment. If he designs to chastise a guilty people by sending a famine upon them, he can make a worm, or a dew, hail, storm, or lightning, to blast man's hope in a moment, and to teach him that except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it, and that except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. Psalm cxxvii. 1. If it be his will, to fill a sinner with remorse of conscience, he can make him cry out with Cain my punishment is greater than I can bear-or with Joseph's brethren, when they imagined that vengeance was about to overtake them, we are verily guilty concerning our brother-or with Judas, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. All hearts are in his hand; his power rules over all; none can stay that hand or resist successfully that power. When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? And when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? Whether it be done against a nation or a man only-Job. xxxiv. 29. Who could have imagined that the cruelty exercised towards Joseph by his brethren, which was manifested by his captivity, sale, and banishment, would

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have led to the fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the Heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore. Gen. xxii. 17. This one instance is sufficient to prove to us, that there is an overruling Providence; that the very events which seem to happen fortuitously, or are brought about by the craft, the wrath, or the unbelief of man, are made to praise the Lord, by becoming instrumental to the accomplishment of his most gracious purposes of love and mercy. If the book of Providence were studied, faith would be more strengthened, and the mind would have a livelier apprehension of the mysterious ways in which God often moves, and be taught the impropriety of judging him by feeble sense. If this book be read with diligence by him who is acquainted with the word of life, and instructed by the Holy Spirit, he cannot fail to join with all the cordiality, and affection of a believing mind, in that majestic ascription of praise which is contained in 1 Chron. xxix. 11-12.-Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come out of thee, and thou reignest over

all; and thine is the power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. Now, therefore, O God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But the brightest display of infinite wisdom, love, power, and providential arrangement, is made in the wondrous plan devised for the salvation of sinners through Jesus Christ-of this I shall speak, now that I come to state,

Thirdly-The duty incumbent on man to be satisfied with his lot. A sinner by nature and practice, man deserves no blessing from his Maker-he can lay no claim to a continuance of present mercies, nor has he in himself any ground to hope for fresh ones-of course every thing he enjoys is unmerited; it is the free gift of God, and whatever his hand bestows, it can in a moment take away. Is it for such a being as this to be dissatisfied with what he possesses, because others possess more? Is it for him to compare his mercies with his supposed merits, and to maintain that the former are outnumbered by the latter? Is it for him to envy the health, or riches, or honours, or ease, which others enjoy? Is it for him to think that he is hardly dealt with, while oppressed by pain, sickness, hunger, or thirst-when a moment's reflection ought to convince him that any thing short of hell is a

blessing? Besides this, we are apt to make a false estimate of the happiness of others; we judge from outward appearances, and these are, with few exceptions, deceitful. Could we draw back the curtain, and see the actual condition of those whose situation is perhaps envied, we might probably see just cause why we should be satisfied with our own. Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and honourable, but he was a leper-and the situation of the little maid who waited upon his wife was preferable to his. 2 Kings v. 1-2-3. Haman had abundance of riches and a multitude of children: he was advanced above the princes and servants of the king-but there was a crook in his lot also-and with a satanic malignity he declared, all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew, sitting at the king's gate. Esther v. 13. Read the history of the various families mentioned in the Scriptures, and you will find that all the art and power of man were unable to make that straight, which the Lord hath made crooked—and if the condition of all your families were laid open to public view, how much misery would appear, where at present nothing can be seen but comfort? When all are receiving the very opposite to what they deserve, surely the voice of mur

which will be In this view of

muring ought to be hushed-and we ought from a sense of the loving kindness of the Lord, to put to ourselves this question, wherefore doth a living man complain-a man for the punishment of his sins? Lam. iii. 39. Life is a great blessing, although it may be accompanied by many anxious cares and oppressive afflictions: it is during life that the preached Gospel is heard; that the sinner is made acquainted with the wages of iniquity, and is instructed to seek deliverance out of the hands of his enemies; that he is to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; that he is to entertain the hope realized in the eternal world. it, Hezekiah cried out, when the Lord added to his days, the living, the living, he shall praise thee as I do this day. Is. xxxviii. 19. What would those give for life, who were deprived of it and happiness together? Who are now shut out not only from the Sun in the natural, but also from the Sun of Righteousness in the spiritual firmanent. Who are now complaining with cause, as they had often complained without it, and are smarting under a rod inconceivably more severe than any with which they were ever scourged before. Every condition of life has its peculiar trials-but those have most abundant cause of thankfulness,