May 3

speculations! How will children, when they meet their ungodly parents, rise up against them in the judgment, and cause them to be put to death! How in the world of torment will the seduced execrate the seducer! the murdered the murderer! and the pupil of infidelity the wretch that led him into the paths of the destroyer! How dreadfully did the writer of this article once hear a fine young man, while dying, exclaim, again and again, "O curse you, Voltaire!"—Angels curse them: "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof"—The Judge of all will curse them—He "will say unto them on his left hand, Depart, ye cursed!"—

And, Christians, were you ever in danger of this? Were you ever once a curse yourselves? How humbling is the review! What godly sorrow does it call for! It seems enough to make you weep, if possible, tears of blood, to think that there are some in hell, and others going thither, whom you have led astray and encouraged! You, surely you, can never forgive yourselves! But if God has forgiven you, you ought to love much; and be concerned, as you have been a curse, to become a blessing.

MAY 3.—"Ye shall be a blessing."—Zechariah 8:13.

WHAT a difference is there between the state of nature and grace! The transition from the one to the other verifies and explains the words of the prophet: "Instead of the thorn, shall come up the fir tree; and instead of the brier, shall come up the myrtle tree." Hence says God—"As ye were a curse!"—"Ye shall be a blessing."

For the change affects them not only personally, but relatively. It begins with themselves, but it extends to others; and a zealous concern for the salvation of their own souls is always accompanied with a benevolent anxiety for the salvation of their fellow-creatures. Their exertions for this purpose are indeed often ungratefully received; and they are reproachfully desired to keep their religion to themselves. But this is enjoining upon them an impossibility. They cannot but speak the things which they have seen and heard—If these should hold their peace, the stones would cry out—The fire must burn—The spring must rise up. Others are not only excused, but commended—even if they err in the manner, who strive to heal the sick, to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry: but Christians are called intermeddlers when they would exercise the noblest charity of all, which is spiritual mercy. Not that they neglect the body—Jesus himself did not. But he that converteth a sinner from the error of his ways shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

David therefore said, "I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee." What a blessing was Andrew to his brother Peter! and Philip to his friend Nathaniel! and the woman of Samaria to her fellow-citizens!—"Many believed on him for the saying of the woman." In this way God carries on his cause. He makes us the subjects of his grace, and then the mediums and the instruments. He could call fifty at once in a village. But what is commonly the case? One is called first. He soon pities the condition of others; and he goes to the minister by whom

he was awakened, and informs him of the ignorance of his poor neighbours, and says, "Come over and help us." He goes: and a number believe and turn unto the Lord. A single grain of corn will produce several ears; these ears will produce many ears more; and the increase in time will be sufficient for the semination of a field, a province, a country—So says God of his people, "I will sow them in the earth." Thus churches are raised. Thus kingdoms are evangelized.

Why are good men called "the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof?" "The salt of the earth?" "The light of the world?" "A dew from the Lord?" But to express the advantages others derive from them. And who can tell the extent of the benefits produced by their prayers, example, and influence? We are persuaded that none of them are useless: and he who has been the means of the salvation of one soul, has done more than the hero who has delivered a whole empire from civil bondage—for "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth"—But what blessings have some individuals proved! Think of Howard in his journeys of compassion—of Thornton and Reynolds in the diffusions of their bounty—of Luther in the work of the reformation—of Watts in his psalms and hymns—of Whitfield in his preaching—of a father and mother who bring up a family of children in the fear of the Lord—of the two or three individuals that brought Christianity to this favoured country—of the few missionaries who landed in the South Sea Islands, and induced whole communities to turn from dumb idols to serve the true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven!!

But they are made a blessing not only as they bless others, but as they are blessed by them. With regard to Joseph's offspring, the dying patriarch "blessed them that day, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh." What did Balaam but bless them, though he was employed to curse, when he said, "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!"—"The Lord his God is with them, and the shout of a King is among them!"—"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." And thus their very enemies are inwardly constrained to admire and extol those whom they pretend to despise, and in words even revile. But how cordially are they blessed by those to whom they have been useful! With what satisfaction does Job speak of this—"When the ear heard me it blessed me!"—"The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me." "Blessed be my mistress," says a servant: "I was ignorant as a heathen when I entered her family; but she has led me into the way everlasting." "Blessed for ever be my precious mother," says many a child, "whose easy and gentle endeavours brought me up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Their fellow-Christians bless them as their brethren, companions, and helpers. Ministers say, "The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord." "And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among all people: all that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed"—For, "Come," will the Judge say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

VOL. I.