good. There is a medium here between impatience and indifference. When a Christian is in a proper frame of mind, he will be content to live, if the pleasure of God requires it; but he will be ready to go. "What is my condition here, but a vale of tears, a wilderness of briers and thorns, an enemy's country! I cannot pray without distractions. I cannot sing without some jarring notes. When I would do good evil is present with me. How partial always, and how often interrupted, is my communion with God., How remotely do I now feel from that state, in which we shall behold his face in righteousness, and be for ever with the Lord.”—

AUGUST 15.-"If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established."Isaiah vii. 9.

THIS closes the address of Isaiah to Ahaz and his people on a very interesting occasion. It was this. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, had confederated together to invade and destroy Ju dah. They had begun their march, and were spreading desolation and terror: and when Ahaz heard, "his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind." The figure is uncommonly expressive, and shows the rest lessness and bendings of their minds under the violence of fear Isaiah was ordered to go and encourage him, not for his own sake, for he was a very wicked prince, but for the sake of the house of David. Two things are observable. First, he was to take along with him his son Shear-jashub. The reason for this does not appear; unless there was a reference to the import of his name, which signified, a remnant shall return. Secondly, the very spot is specified where he should meet Ahaz; "At the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the high way of the Fuller's Field." Perhaps he was there to order the water-works, so as to secure them from the enemy; or perhaps he was to be there passing by accidentally. If so, we see that occurrences and movements the most minute and contingent with regard to us lie open to God's view, and the greatest consequences hinge upon them.

But what was he to say to him? "Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaljah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, Let us go up against Judah and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass." Yea, the assurance goes on to announce not only that the designs of these adversaries should be defeated, but that they themselves would be speedily destroyed. All this however is closed with a very sig nificant reflection: "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established."

This betrays an apprehension that the message was not likely to be readily and firmly credited-Such fools, and so slow of heart are we to believe all that the prophets have spoken! It also shows that God does not regard us as merely passive in religion. We are not under his influence like timber under the saw, the chisel,

and plane, unconscious and inactive. He does not work upon us, but in us; and he works in us to will and to do. What he does for us, he does also by us. Neither is his operation like the agency of a charm, whose process no one can explain, and during which the patient may as well sleep as wake. If we are taught, we must understand and receive: we are not carried, but led into all truth. If he blesses us, he stirs us up to value and seek after his favours; and the asking is as necessary as the giving-yea, the one is the medium of the other.

It might seem here as if faith was in our own power. It is not so in every respect and it is not so in any respect as to nature. But what is impossible to nature is possible to grace. Without Christ we can do nothing; but through his strengthening of us we can do all things. And therefore as his grace is sufficient for us, and attainable by us, we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit; and he said to Thomas, Be not faithless, but believing; and he said to his disciples, "Have faith in God;" and he upbraided them for their unbelief.

But the principal thing is the essentiality of faith to religious. stability: "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." There are three kinds of stability in the Christian life. A stability of judgment—This refers to the truths of religion. A stability of practice-This refers to the duties of religion. And a stability of hope--This refers to the comforts of religion. Each of these faith is able to produce: but faith alone can produce them. Let us reflect upon all this

And then we shall soon see enough to condemn and bewail in unbelief, not only as it dishonours God, but as it robs the soul, and leaves it stripped, wounded, and half dead; a prey to error, temptation, and grief. Who can imagine the aggregate of the good which it has prevented in our experience, ever since we have known God, or rather, have been known of him? Oh what characters might we have been!-how firm, how free, how happy, how useful, how enn bled! And what has kept us back from all this honour? "An evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH.

AUGUST 16.-"We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with nands, eternal in the heavens."-2 Cor. v. 1.

SOME things in these words are very plain; others may involve a ittle difficulty. The Apostle obviously intends the body when he speaks of "the earthly house of this tabernacle:" and nothing can be a juster representation of it. Man is not a machine; or a mere mass of organized matter. He has something more than flesh and blood. There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding. What we see is not the agent, but only the instrument; not the inhabitant, but the dwelling. The body is called "an house" for its accommodation. The soul might have had another residence given it, and a very inferior one. Injured as the structure is by sin, it has enough of excellence yet in it to excite admiration, and induce us to say, "I am fearfully and

wonderfully made." Galen, a physician atheistically inclined, after examining the body in the number, the perfection, and the exquisite adaptation of all the parts, was fully convinced of the being of God, and composed a beautiful hymn to his praise. No mechanism will bear a comparison with that of the animal economy. It would be much more reasonable to suppose that a watch made itself, than that the eye, in which there are such marks and proofs of design and contrivance, should be the effect of chance. But it is an "earthly" house-earthly in its composition; earthly in its support; earthly in its destination-"Dust thou art," says the sentence, and "unto dust shalt thou return." It is the case not only with the body of the peasant, but of the prince-" His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his dust." And so it must be with the relics of the most endeared connection. The beauty of Sarah, who had endangered kings, was soon despoiled of its charms, and after a wish, how natural! to keep even the lovely shrine a little longer, Abraham was compelled to say, "Bury my dead out of my sight"-So the bereaved go, and inscribe over the grave of the once sparkling eye, and the once ruby lip, and the once fascinating tongue

"How lov'd, how valued once avails thee not,

To whom related or by whom begot:

A heap of dust alone remains of thee,

'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be."—

It is also the earthly house of this "tabernacle." This reminds us of its weakness, frailty, and danger. A tabernacle, though covered, has no foundation; it has no nails fastened in a sure place, but pins and cords instead; it is a moveable, temporary, slender abode, soon taken down, and easily destroyed-The Apostle therefore speaks of its being "dissolved."

But what means "a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens?" Some suppose that it is a description of the resurrection-body. The body, when glorified, may well be thus expressed: but the reference here is to something nearer, something to be found at death, and enjoyed before the revival of the body; as we see in the verses immediately following. It is therefore a representation of the blessed condition into which the soul enters as soon as it leaves "dull mortality behind." The Apostle would intimate that the soul does not die with the body. It does not resemble Job's sons; when the house fell with them, they were crushed in the ruins; but here while the house is destroyed the resident escapes. The believer at death is not like an ejected tenant, forced out of his present dwelling without having another provided to receive him. "I go," said Jesus, "to prepare a place for you:" "where I am there shall also my servants be." This blessed abode is characterized by four articles. The first tells us that it is solid. It is not a tabernacle, but a building." The second that it is reared by a divine agency. It is a building "of God," and "not made with hands." The third marks its perma nence. It is "eternal." The fourth shows its situation. It is “in the heavens." We must arise and depart hence to enjoy it.

But here is a confidence expressed with regard to it: "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have

a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." The confidence is twofold: the confidence of faith and the confidence of hope. The first regards the reality of the thing. The belief of this is necessary. Some deny it; others doubt it: but Christians know it. This knowledge was not possessed by the heathens. None of them ever thought of the restoration of the body: but many suppose that they believed in the immortality of the soul. Yet what was their belief? Did they ever teach the doctrine publicly? Did they ever reason from it as a principle? Did they ever urge it as a motive in their morals? They could not; they were not convinced themselves. Seneca dared not decide whether death destroyed the soul or delivered it. And he who, of all their philosophers, spake the best upon the subject, left suspicions at death that his mind was not satisfied. But, as Paley says, among a thousand conjectures one of them happened to be right; and with them it was nothing better than conjecture-they had no proof of the thing itself: and if, as he justly adds, nothing more is known in religion than is proved, "life and immortality were brought to light through the Gospel." Now every Christian, however poor and illiterate, admits it as a fact; and though he cannot evince the certainty of his belief, as many did in the first ages, who suffered the loss of all things, yet he acts upon it, and in the whole course of the religious life "walks by faith, and not by sight."

There is also the confidence of hope. This regards not the reality of the state only, but our own claim to the possession of it. The one of these does not necessarily produce the other. How many, alas! are there, who believe there is such a glorious state, who have either no expectation of enjoying it, or an unfounded one that will issue in the most ureadful disappointment. They never, how strange! give themselves a moment's concern about it; though nothing can be of equal importance; and they know it! And know that if they do not receive a happy inmortality they must endure a miserable one; and thus the greatest blessing will prove the greatest curse!

Yet all the partakers of divine grace do not possess this confidence equally. We read of the full assurance of hope, which supposes inferior degrees of it. We may also observe that no degree of it, however established, is free from fluctuations. The confidence of appropriation therefore, even in the Lord's own people is not so extensive as the confidence of belief. Neither is it essential to their safety-Yet how necessary is it to their comfort. How desirable is it amidst the troubles of life, and the growing infirmities of nature, to know that "when the earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved, we shall have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation:" and "give me a token for good." What a question then arises here-"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, and who shall dwell in his holy place?" The best way to ascertain your title to the inheritance of the saints in light is, to look after your meetness for it. Your hope of the one without the other is presumption and madness: for can you imagine that God will bring you into a condition which it is impossible for

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you to fill or enjoy? But if he has prepared you for the blessedness, be assured he has prepared the blessedness for you. It is a holy state- and if you now love holiness: it is a state in which Christ is all in all-and if you are now rejoicing in him as your portion, "He that hath wrought you for the self same thing is God, who hath also given you the earnest of the Spirit."

AUGUST 17.-" And Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and, as they followed, they were afraid."-Mark x. 32.

THEY were now, it is said, in the way going up to Jerusalem, where he was to suffer and die upon the cross, after enduring every kind of insult and cruelty. But a circumstance is added which is worthy of our attention-" Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and, as they followed, they were afraid." That this is not mentioned without design may be inferred from the bre vity of the Evangelists. Had every thing pertaining to the his tory of our Lord been recorded, the world could not have contained the books that would have been written. But when it is necessary to comprise much in a little, a writer if wise, will introduce nothing that is insignificant and uninteresting-The incident therefore is mentioned to show how far he was from being unwilling to advance to the post of danger. The action intimates how full of zeal and courage he was; and that in the knowledge of all that Jay before him he was eager to engage in the conflict. Many have vapoured away while the enemy was not at hand: and the children of Ephraim, carrying bows and spears, yet turned their back in the day of battle-Such a difference is there between an imaginary and a real, between a prospective and a present encounter. But this distinction does not apply to him. He who in the beginning said, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, I delight to do thy will; yea, thy law is within my heart," could also say as the scene approached, "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am straitened till it be accomplished!" and after administering the memorials of his death, he arose from the table, and said, "That the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence." Oh! if we were as willing to receive the blessings of his great salvation, as he was to procure them for us by anguish and blood, we should all be able immediately to rejoice in him with joy unspeakable and full of glory!

At other times he seemed to give his disciples the precedence. When any advantage was to be gained he followed them. It is an honour and a privilege to preach the word first in any place: and this privilege and honour he conferred on his disciples; for he sent them" before his face into every city and place whither he himself should come." But when the call was to suffer and die he went before them, to stimulate, encourage, and embolden them, by his own example-And who would not follow where he leads the way? How well may we glory in any fellowship with him! How fully may we be assured of the goodness of the cause! How confidently may we reckon upon our succour and success! "Lord," by thy grace "I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest."