ped of all vindictive feelings, for they do not belong to Him, and clad in all the blandishments of love, be devoutly beheld in the person and completed work of His only begotten Son; and comfort, rich and everlasting, cannot fail to be the result.

а

Perhaps the reader may be a total stranger to the sorrows of a broken heart. Allow me, in this case, to state, that divine mercy stands equally removed from weakness, as it does from vindictive cruelty; and, be assured, that so long as hardness of heart renders thee insensible to the Christian's sorrows, thy unbelief of heart will keep thee a stranger to the Christian's joys.

"Come then-a still small whisper in your ear

He has no hope who never had a fear;
And he that never doubted of his state,
He may perhaps-perhaps he may-TOO LATE."

CUMBERLAND.

R. E.

THE PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED, A CAUSE OF STUMBLING TO DAVID.

THAT God should be the ruler of the world, and that his enemies should be exalted to high places, while the bulk of his friends should occupy the lowest ranks of society, is a thing that no one man, judging without information from the Scriptures, could have anticipated. If God is a kind Father in the dispensation of his bounty, will he not give a Benjamin's portion to his children? Would an earthly father exalt strangers over his children? Would he pour out plenty to his enemies, and measure out a scanty subsistence to his own family? Yet God has usually, in the government of this world, put power into the hands of his enemies, and placed his own children under them. Nay, he has often neglected his dearest children under the iron sceptre of oppression, and permitted the blood of his martyrs to drench the earth. He has given his enemies empire and riches; while he suffers many of his friends to languish in poverty and oppression. How few of the rulers of the world in any age have served God? How few of the noble and the rich have been the true followers of the Lamb? Not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but the base things of this world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen.

This is so contrary to our wisdom, that even after we have read it in the word of God, we are inclined to overlook it, and are ready to stumble as often as we cease to walk by faith. In poverty, how natural is it to us, to repine when we think on the riches of the wicked? When

weary with labour, we are prone to lamentations when we reflect on the ease and comforts of many who know not God. In sickness, we are ready to look around us, and reflect with impatience how many wicked men scarcely ever experience the want of health. The most advanced disciple of Jesus is not proof against this temptation. Though he has fully examined the subject from the word of God, though he has seen the wisdom of this sovereign procedure in the providence of God, though he has taught it to his brethren, and warned them of its danger, he would fall before the first assaults of this enemy, if not upheld by the mighty power of God through faith. As often as these poisoned arrows dart into the mind, they would destroy us, if not quenched by the Spirit of God through faith.

David himself was not proof against the assaults of this temptation. He was stumbled with the prosperity of the wicked, and was recovered only by understanding the matter as discovered to him in the house of God. "But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When

1 thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they'

brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee."-Ps. lxxiii. 2-22.

Let the people of God, therefore, who, assailed with this temptation in their privations, calamities, sufferings, and oppressions, imitate the Psalmist; and, considering the evil of the wicked, let them rather pity them, than envy their momentary prosperity. Who would envy the ox fattening for the slaughter? Who then should envy the fading glory of ungodly men? "Fret not thyself because of evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb."-Ps. xxxvii. 1, 2.

Though the Lord now appears to overlook his enemies, or even to heap favour on them, while he calls his people to privations and sufferings, yet it is only as it were for a moment. The discrimination will soon be made. "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him that prospereth in his way, because of the man that bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming.". Ps. xxxvii. 3-13. The Holy Spirit, through Solomon, gives us a like exhortation. Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked; for there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the wicked shall be put out."-Prov. xxiv. 19, 20.

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Art thou in poverty, my brother? Wouldst thou ex

change thy heavenly inheritance for the estate of that man of pride? Dost not thy heart reply, away with the accursed thought. Why then dost thou repine at thy present lot, and envy the prosperity of that son of Belial? Dost thou grudge the malefactor the comforts afforded him on the scaffold? Art thou sick, or suffering privation? Wouldst thou exchange thine everlasting portion for the health and athletic constitution of that oppressor of the people of God? If not, be not only contented but

thankful.

DEMETRIUS.

ORTHODOXY SAFE AND SUSTAINING IN THE HOUR OF DEATH: EXAMPLES.

No. II.

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."-Ps. cxvi. 15. "The memory of the just is blessed."-PROV. x. 7.

A DESIRE to witness how religion will enable a man to bear himself in trying situations, is a natural and laudable curiosity. The reality of religion is in this way principally evinced :- -we see it exemplified::-we see it in life and action:-we see it in its power, and in its triumphs :we see it commended to our conscience in the most convincing manner,-and we are induced to take it up, because we feel assured of what it will do for us in time of need, from what we see it do in the season of extremity for others.

As death is the most important and trying event in the history of every human being, we are anxious to know how those who professed to have religion reigning in their breasts, and shaping all their ends and conduct, have been able to encounter the shock of the last enemy. We inquire with avidity after the behaviour of eminent Christians in their last moments, and their dying words are eagerly published and long remembered. Accounts of dying scenes are not less useful than curious: the spectacles themselves preach more powerfully than the pulpit, and leave impressions on the minds of both the good and the evil, which shall be remembered throughout eternity. It is better, we are told, to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart; for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. We learn to die;-. we learn to live. We see the utter emptiness of all sub

lunary good, that support in the last hour can be drawn only from religion; and that the soul can carry nothing with it into eternity but the fruits of the spirit and the blessings of salvation. Witnessing the joy and triumph of the expiring Christian, victorious alike over love of life and fear of death, we thank God and take courage; our faith and hope are quickened into more vigorous exercise; and when we behold the bed of death, not bordered round with terrors, but lit up and bright with light from heaven, we retire wishing and praying, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."

"There is nothing in history," says Addison, "which is so improving, as those accounts which we meet with of the deaths of eminent persons, and of their behaviour in that dreadful situation." Here Christian biography is rich with facts. Those whose office leads them to visit the chamber of death, often witness that the happiness in which we read of Christians dying, is no fiction. From the lips of how many of the faithful as their souls wait for the salvation of God, do mourning relatives as they watch the closing scene, hear the passionate ejaculation fall, I desire to depart and be with Christ." Cases in which persons depart this life with a hope full of immortality, so frequently come under our own observation, or are reported to us on such unquestionable authority, that we are prepared to admit the truth, and appreciate the worth of those dying testimonies to the efficacy of religion, which eminent saints have been honoured of God to exhibit; and which piety has delighted to put on record for the benefit of succeeding generations. Is the death of his saints precious in the Lord's sight? Let it not be valueless in ours. Did he delight to honour them in the hour of their departure with abundant communications of his sustaining and consoling grace? Then let us esteem their memory blessed. Let the records of their dying experience be regarded as a rich inheritance, and be held in the everlasting remembrance of the church. Did these holy men all die in faith? Had they a lively hope in their death? Let us give all diligence to be followers of such a cloud of witnesses both in living and in dying, that we may obtain the same precious faith, and evince the same full assurance of hope in the end; that the same thanksgivings to God for the victory may be heard an our dying chamber, as in theirs; and that our friends