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SUNDAY XXIII.

ON GRATITUDE TO GOD.

"BE glad, then, ye children, and rejoice in the Lord your God!-for ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord, who hath dealt wonderously with you." The only way properly to estimate your present comforts, is to consider how much you would lament the loss of them; and on this principle, reflect what misery would result from the deprivation of those things you are apt to esteem the most inconsiderable.

While you are surrounded with the necessary supplies of daily food, you are entirely inattentive to the means by which it is procured; nor do you reflect on the dreadful consequence of scarcity. But if the Almighty Power, who presides over the universe, and directs the revolving seasons in their course, should see fit to withhold "the former or the latter rain," so as to prevent the earth from yielding her increase, imagine, if you can, the evils that would follow. Those who have never experienced

the cravings of hunger, can form no idea of its horrors: but you may judge, in some degree, of its violence, from the terrible recital of its effect; and the pathetic description which is given of the famine in Samaria, may represent its misery to a susceptible mind. The sacred historian informs us, that during the reign of Jehoram, the son of Ahab, Benhadad, the king of Syria, went up and besieged Samaria and as a punishment for the sins of the people, he was suffered to prevail against them, and surrounded the city, so as to prevent the inhabitants from receiving their usual supply of provisions : which occasioned such severe famine, that those things which would have been despised, and accounted as refuse in the season of plenty, were esteemed as valuable dainties in this calamitous period; "for an ass's head was sold for fourcore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver." But even this miserable kind of sustenance was beyond the reach of the poor, who, destitute of riches, had no means to obtain any relief which might mitigate their agonies. They were therefore driven to the

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most shocking expedients to preserve life: "And as the king was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my Lord, O King! And he said, If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? Out of the barn-floor, or the wine-press?" The stores usually laid up in these repositories had been long exhausted, therefore the unhappy monarch had no means to relieve the necessity of his miser. able petitioner; "And the king said unto her, What aileth thee?" And she answered, "This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him; and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him; and she hath hid her son. This heart-piercing account is frequently perused with indifference, from the want of that attention which its subject demands. "It was recorded for our admonition," and represents the most dreadful of all calamities, war and famine, as the consequence of disobedience to God. Yet the same Being still continues to preside over us, at this day, who was the Governor of the people of

Israel. From him we receive the blessing of plenty, and every temporal gift as well as moral endowment. His command can at any time "turn a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." Consider, then, my young friend, while you are so happy as to rejoice in abundance, and may "eat bread to the full," that you should partake of the comforts of life with a thankful spirit, and at all times remember the hand "who filleth all things living with plenteousness." Figure to your self what would be your situation, if you should be deprived of sustenance.

In the melancholy picture above exhibited, and which has but too often been realized, you behold the rage of hunger surmounting every impulse of nature, and every tie of affection. One mother forgetting the force of parental love, and murdering her own son to support her existence; another, though she hid her wretched offspring for his preservation, being perhaps satisfied for that moment by the dreadful banquet which relieved her exhausted frame, who, had her distress been continued, would most likely also have yielded to the same deplorable

necessity. With what transport must these wretched sufferers have hailed the next day's returning plenty, when the prophecy of Elisha was accomplished, and "a measure of fine flour sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gates of Samaria." This prediction appeared so incredible, from the desolate state of the afflicted city, that a "lord on whose hand the king leaned, when it was pronounced, destitute of faith in the Divine promise, and perceiving no probable means to occasion such an event, replied, with indignant contempt, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in Heaven, might this thing be! intimating his doubt of the possibility of the fact. He considered (as too many are apt to do) the supply of provisions as depending solely on natural causes; but, as an Israelite, he surely might have remem. bered that the arm of Jehovah had frequently controlled the order of nature for the preservation of his people. And justly did he suffer for his disbelief in the word of infinite truth, by "seeing the abundance with his eyes," without being permitted to eat of it.