August 15

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 7:9.

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 Judah. 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 restlessness 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 Remaliah, 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 significant 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 ennobled! 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 hands, eternal in the heavens."—2 Corinthians 5:1.

Some things in these words are very plain; others may involve a little 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