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continually to the Author and giver of the Bible. In the daily enjoyment of this light of revelation, we are apt, from the commonness of the blessing, to forget our infinite obligations to the Giver; in the same manner that we fail to appreciate the privilege of that sun which daily moves in grandeur through the heavens. But blot the sun from the firmament, and what would be the situation of our world! So, blot out the Bible, and who can tell the horrour of that night, which must hang over the everlasting destinies of us all! Read the Bible, then, with gratitude to its Heavenly Author.

Read the Bible, also, under a deep sense of your inability at once to comprehend it.-Though the most essential truths of the Bible are plain; and though, by prayerful diligence, we may learn enough of the Scriptures to make us wise unto salvation; still, it must be confessed with humility, that in them are some things hard to be understood, and many things which we cannot yet fully comprehend. Let no one be startled at this, as though it were a vain thing for God to have given us a Bible above our immediate comprehension. Does not the kind parent present his child a book even before he understands its alphabet?

There must be a beginning and a gradual progress of improvement in the Book of divine knowledge, as well as in books of human science. On this point experience confirms what analogy suggests. The student, who consults his Bible by day and by night, finds its channels of knowledge widening and deepening the farther he advances. And whatever current of divine truth he pursues, he finds it expanding into a boundless ocean of intelligence. And could he live to the age of Methuselah, and be all the while exploring the Sacred Volume with the penetration of an angel's mind, I apprehend he would still exclaim, with increasing wonder and delight, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

Read the bible with the solemn and hearty resolution to do the will of God, just as fast as you learn it.-0, it is madness, it is impious mockery, for a poor worm to come near the Holy Oracles with a mind unyielding and disobedient to the heavenly voice. God cannot reasonably be expected to pour his cheering light on such a mind. But if any man WILL DO HIS WILL, he shall know of the doetrine, whether it be of God. Let there be first a willing

mind, and the word of truth will not fail to illumine every path of duty; and the Spirit of truth will sanctify every effort. Settle it therefore in your heart, that you will obey, unreservedly.

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LESSON LXXXIV.

The ways of God are equal.-BIBLE.

IF the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God; and not that he should return from his ways and live?

But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

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Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; Is not my way equal? are not your ways unequal? When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Yet saith the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

Cast away from you all your transgressions where

by ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live

ye.

LESSON LXXXV.

Of bridling the Tongue.-BIBLE.

BEHOLD, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governour listeth.

Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

Therewith bless we God, even the father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.

Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

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LESSON LXXXVI.

Indolence.-DENNIE.

He who surveys the paths of active life, will find them so numerous and long, that he will feel the necessity of early rising, and late taking rest, to accomplish so much travel. He who pants for the shade of speculation, will find that literature cannot flourish in the bowers of indolence and monkish gloom. Much midnight oil must be consumed, and innumerable pages examined, by him whose object is to be really wise.

Among the various men, whom I see in the course of my pilgrimage through this world, I cannot frequently find those who are broad awake. Sloth, a powerful magician, mutters a witching spell, and deluded mortals tamely suffer this drowsy being to bind a fillet over their eyes. All their activity is employed in turning themselves like the door on a rusty hinge, and all the noise they make in the world is a snore.

When I see one, designed by nature for noble purposes, indolently declining the privilege, and, heedless, like Esau, bartering the birthright, for what is of less worth than his red pottage of lentils,-for liberty to sit still and lie quietly, I think I see, not a man, but an oyster. The drone in society, like that fish on our shores, might as well be sunken in the mud, and enclosed in a shell, as stretched on a couch, or seated in a chimney-corner.

LESSON LXXXVII.

Idleness avoided by the Observation of Order.—BLAIR.

By attending to order, you avoid idleness, that most fruitful source of crimes and evils. Acting upon a plan, meeting every thing in its own place, you constantly find innocent and useful employment for time. You are never at a loss how to dispose of your hours, or to fill up life agreeably. In the course of human action, there are two extremes equally dangerous to virtue; the multiplicity of

affairs, and the total want of them. The man of order stands in the middle between these two extremes, and suffers from neither: he is occupied, but not oppressed. Whereas the disorderly, overloading one part of time, and leaving another vacant, are at one period overwhelmed with business, and at another either idle through want of employment, or indolent through perplexity.

Those seasons of indolence and idleness, which recur so often in their life, are their most dangerous moments. The mind, unhappy in its situation, and clinging to every object which can occupy or amuse it, is then aptest to throw itself into the arms of every vice and folly. Farther; by the preservation of order, you check inconstancy and levity. Fickle by nature is the human heart. It is fond of change; and perpetually tends to start aside from the straight line of conduct.

Hence arises the propriety of bringing ourselves under subjection to method and rule; which, though at first it may prove constraining, yet, by degrees, and from the experience of its happy effects, becomes natural and agreeable. It rectifies those irregularities of temper and manners to which we give the name of caprice; and which are distinguished characteristics of a disorderly mind. It is the parent of steadiness of conduct. It forms consistency of character. It is the ground of all the confidence we repose in one another. For, the disorderly we know not where to find. In him only can we place any trust, who is uniform and regular; who lives by principle, not by humour; who acts upon a plan, and not by desultory motions.

The evening of the day before his death, General Washington complained of slight indisposition; and, after a single cup of tea, repaired to his Library, where he remained writing until between eleven and twelve o'clock. Mrs. Washington retired about the usual family hour; but becoming alarmed at not hearing the accustomed sound of the Library door, as it closed for the night, and gave signal for rest in the well-regulated mansion, she arose again, and continued sitting up, in much anxiety and suspense.

At length the well-known step was heard on the stair; and upon the General's entering his chamber, the lady

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