June 5

thing too hard for the Lord? Let us remember his wisdom. He knows how to afflict; and he knows how to deliver. Let us remember his goodness. Our welfare is his aim in every dispensation however trying. He spared not his own Son. Let us remember his providence. He is always near us. He numbers the hairs of our head. Let us remember his holy covenant. What promises does it contain! It insures every thing we need. This was all David's salvation, and all his desire—This is my comfort in my affliction; thy word hath quickened me—And how many can say after him—

"Had not thy word been my delight, When earthly joys were fled; My soul, oppressed with sorrow's weight, Had sunk amongst the dead."

JUNE 5.—"Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day."—Deuteronomy 32:46.

"ALL these words" were the language which he had just ended, the histories which he had recapitulated, and the positive ordinances and moral injunctions which he had again laid before them. Now if Moses enjoined the Jews to attend cordially to a portion of Revelation comparatively small, how much more does God require us to pay this regard to the whole? See then that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven—And who is now saying, "Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day."

Set your hearts to HEAR all these words. When you are forbidden to be hearers only, it supposes that you are hearers really: and when you are admonished to take heed what you hear, and how you hear, the practice itself is enjoined in the very regulation of the mode. Hearing is not only a duty, but a privilege. And when we consider not only the adaptation there is in preaching to produce the effect, but the blessing of God that attends his own institution, we need not wonder that "faith cometh by hearing."

Set your hearts to READ all these words. We cannot be hearing always; and there are times when we cannot hear at all. In such cases, reading is a substitute for hearing; and in all others reading must accompany and follow hearing. We cannot dispense with it at the family altar, or in our private retirement, without injury and sin. Hale could say, in one of his letters to his children, "If I omit reading a portion of the Scriptures in the morning, nothing goes well with me through the day."

Set your hearts to UNDERSTAND all these words. "Let him that readeth understand"—Without this the perusal will be little more than a mere mechanical exercise. We should endeavour to obtain clear and consistent views of the subject that comes under our notice; we should pause, and reflect; we should consider the design of the writer in the paragraph; observe the strain of his language; compare one part of the contents with another; and pray for the Spirit that leads into all truth.

Set your hearts to REMEMBER all these words. "By which," says the Apostle, "ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I have

written unto you." Our memory should be like the ark in which were kept the golden pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the law. Nothing can affect us morally when it is out of the mind. Some, to excuse their recollecting so little of what they read and hear, complain of their memory. Yet they recollect a multitude of things without number—This shows the natural faculty is not wanting. "But we can remember some things so much easier than others." This adds to our censure. For what things are they which you do remember most easily? Are they not those with which you are most familiar? to which you are most attentive and attached? and which are most suitable to your taste? And should not this be the case with the things of God? Can a woman forget her sucking child? Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?

Set your hearts to the PRACTICE of all these words. It cannot be imagined that they are written only to amuse curiosity, or inform the mind, or furnish materials for conversation and controversy—What are its warnings unless we are cautioned by them? or its promises unless we embrace them? In vain it shows unto us the way of salvation, unless we walk in it. It cannot profit us unless it be mixed with faith: and it works effectually in them that believe. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." "Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it."

Set your hearts to RECOMMEND and DIFFUSE them. Begin at home. "Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." Hold forth the word of life wisely in your discourse, accompanied with every holy and lovely temper. Furnish with a copy those who are destitute. Feel an anxiety that every human being may have a Bible. For this purpose, encourage and aid that glorious institution whose godlike and only aim is to spread the Scriptures at home and abroad, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the seas. Thus set your hearts unto all the words of this testimony. It is the command of God; and he who lives in the neglect of it is a rebel as much as a thief or a murderer. It is the command of the great God who is able to enforce it. It is the command of the good God, who has conferred so many benefits, and has so many claims upon you. It is the command of the only wise God, who knows what is good for you, and only demands what is a reasonable service.

—All these words too are divine—All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The very name of some authors would be enough to induce you to purchase and devour a publication. On the back of my Bible is inscribed, THE WORKS OF GOD.

They are also all important. They are not a vain thing, but our life. They are our standard. Our rule. Our medicine. Our shield. Our sword. Our bread. Our water. Our sun. The charter of our everlasting privilege—Who can tell what it has done for numberless individuals? For communities? For nations?—Who can tell what it will do in the ages to come?