September 22

Had this prayer been improper, the receiver ought to have rebuked it; but he encouraged it. Let us not be afraid, with all the first Christians, and immensely the majority ever since, to call upon his name. Let us bring all our complaints to him. He is the author and finisher of faith. He has the words of eternal life. He quickeneth whom he will. He alone can relieve us; but in him all fulness dwells. You will make no progress in the Divine life if you think of advancing without him. Your growth in grace is not the offspring of your own resolutions and exertions, but your being under his agency, and receiving the supply of his Spirit—your living in the Spirit—walking in the Spirit. "Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."

SEPTEMBER 22.—"Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor."—Psalms 68:10.

THE acknowledgment refers to the gracious attention of God to Israel his pensioners, while they sojourned in the wilderness. They were destitute of all ordinary supplies, but "he commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and rained down manna upon them to eat, and gave them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels food: he sent them meat to the full." We are not to look for miraculous provision; but God has not forsaken the earth, nor forgotten to be gracious. Let us observe the nature of this goodness, and the subjects for whom it is prepared.

The goodness of God appears in the produce of the ground, not only for man, but beast. Indeed man is concerned in the brute creation, and a deficiency with regard to them would materially affect his own welfare. But while the Lord cares for oxen, and causes the grass to grow for the cattle, he provides corn for the more immediate service of man. This forms, owing to our dependence upon it, what the Scripture calls "the whole stay and staff of bread." Judea was famous for this noble production. Moses calls it "a land of wheat." By a boldness of metaphor he speaks of "the kidneys of wheat." In the restored prosperity of this highly-favoured people, this commodity is not overlooked: "They shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord for wheat"—"The barns shall be full of wheat"—

But let us pass from Judea to our own country; a land the Lord careth for, and whose inhabitants are "fed with the finest of the wheat." Who that has lately watched the springing of the earth, seen the vallies standing thick with corn, heard the little hills rejoicing on every side, and shouted as the precious treasure was safely conveyed into the garner, can help exclaiming, "Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor." And shall we expose ourselves to the reproach of the prophet, "Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest."

Two things in this case may hinder or weaken the impression of his goodness. The one is the constancy of its return. It is easy to see that this is really an argument for greater thankfulness, unless we are to be evil because God is good; for surely the commonness of benefits multiplies them, and increases our obligation in a corresponding degree. Yet what is usual ceases to strike; what is frequently repeated, and returns continuously in a fixed and known regularity, arrives without emotion, and is regarded as a thing of course. When the manna first fell upon the ground every eye would be turned towards heaven; but it soon became "this light food." And one reason why God sometimes withdraws or suspends an enjoyment is, that we may learn to feel the worth by the want of the blessing.

The other is, the means he employs. These keep us from seeing his hand; yet that hand worketh all in all. Away with the semi-infidelity of philosophers. He has established no mechanical laws which render his continual presence unnecessary. Instruments are nothing without his agency. If they succeed, it is only because he uses them. Second causes are moved by the first: "I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel." David therefore fixes our eye at once upon God; and says, "Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it; thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly; thou settlest the furrows thereof; thou makest it soft with showers; thou blessest the springing thereof; thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.

Miracles rouse attention for the moment, but the ordinary workings of Divine Providence are no less truly wonderful in themselves: yea, the instant and immediate production of an effect develops less of his perfections than the securing of it by various and numberless combinations, not one failing. We admire the word that multiplied five loaves into a sufficiency to feed a large multitude; but whose operation is it that annually increases the seed that is sown "and dies," thirty, sixty, and one hundred fold? If we have faith enough to see God only in extraordinary events, our godliness will be very occasional and limited. But there are some who live in his presence, who "walk with God," who confess him in every trial and comfort, and are preparing for that heaven where God is "all in all."

If some things would prevent our gratitude, others are adapted to excite and strengthen it. Let us, if we would be impressed with this goodness, think,

First, how easily he could have destroyed our hopes. All was suspended upon his will. War might have ravaged and desolated our fields. Insects, blasts, and mildew, were at his nod. The heavens over us might have been as brass, and the earth under us as iron, through continued and scorching heat. Excessive rains might have deluged the soil, injured the ripening of the corn, and hindered the ingathering.

Secondly, let us reflect how dreadful the effects of dearth would

have proved. He has not only relieved, but indulged us. With how many sounds, and perfumes, and colours, and relishes, has he gratified our senses. But these might have been withheld without annihilating human support. We never feel in viewing a flower as we do at the sight of an ear of corn. It is when we lean on the stile and see the waving bounty, or when we walk through the pathway of the standing ears; it is then we exclaim, "Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor." It is not difficult to convince men of the importance of what relates to their bodies. The flesh cries out, and if denied ease or food will be heard. Animal appetites often return, and the relief of them is even essential to the preservation of life. What so powerful as the cravings of hunger! We have also relations to be provided for as well as ourselves. Many have families: some have large families. What is it for a mother to hear a child cry for want and have no sustenance to give it!

Thirdly, we must not forget how much we have deserved his displeasure. We cannot estimate properly his goodness without considering our unworthiness of the least of all his mercies. Here there is a difference between us and other creatures. The eyes of all wait upon him, and he giveth them their meat in due season. But they have never offended him, they have always fulfilled the end of their being. But we have renounced our allegiance to him, we have followed idols, we have joined in alliance with his foes, and have daily and hourly provoked him to his face—What claim has a rebel upon his gracious sovereign? or a runaway servant who has robbed him, upon a kind muster? Where is the benefactor who would continue his bounties after numberless proofs of ingratitude, and enmity, and insult? Where then should we have been if God had rewarded us according to our iniquities? Our guilt has been aggravated beyond that of any other country, by reason of our pre-eminent advantages. Surely it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. Surely at the end of another harvest we are constrained to exclaim, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us; but to thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake."

But we are here reminded not only of the nature of his goodness, but the subjects of it: "Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor." It is not for them exclusively. "The king is served by the field." A supply for the poor is of course a supply for the rich; and it is easy to see that a suspension of the Divine goodness would involve all ranks. The rich can no more create than the poor; and should the course of vegetation be stopped by him who has power to destroy as well as to produce, what profit would a man have of all the wealth he possessed? Wealth would be nothing if it could not be laid out; and if the time ever came, which the Lord forbid! in which there was neither earing nor harvest, the proprietor, as well as the peasant and the pauper, would perish. But it is spoken in reference to the poor, because,

First, they are the larger mass of mankind, and whatever pride may think, in the eye of reason, policy, and revelation, by far the most important, useful, and necessary part.

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Secondly, they would be more peculiarly affected by deficiency. Dear purchases can be made by the rich, who, as the price of provisions advances, can follow it; but the poor are speedily straitened, and become a prey to scarceness; and every door is shut against them but that of precarious charity.

Thirdly, to encourage those in humble and trying life to depend upon him. What he did formerly he does now. He prepares of his goodness for the poor. He may try you, and require proof of your confidence, before he communicates relief: but "the needy shall not always be forgotten, the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever." "Trust in the Lord, and do good, and dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." And, "a little that a righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many wicked."

Fourthly, to enforce our attention to them from the Divine example. We see how he had his eye upon the poor in the Jewish economy. It is delightful to read the various provisions concerning them in the law of Moses. All the earth spontaneously yielded the seventh year, belonged to the poor. At harvest the owners were not to cut down the corners of their fields, they were to scatter some handfuls behind them for the gleaner, and if they dropped a sheaf they were not to go back for it. See what is said with regard to their borrowing and pledges: "If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: for that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious." Again: "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry." Hear James calling men away from the gold ring and gay clothing: "Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?" And, "Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth." We enveigh not against the distinctions and ranks of life; yea, we would maintain them, and are persuaded the invasions of them are no more advantageous to inferiors than to their superiors. Yet they may be carried to an extreme. Neither would we wish to relax for one moment the apostolic law, that "if any man will not work, neither shall he eat." It was never the design of Providence that the poor should be fed without labour; but if they are willing to labour, and cannot procure a decent and comfortable support for themselves, something must be wrong somewhere in the state of the community: and rulers and subjects should remember the awful admonition: "Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?" "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I

arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him."

Every season shows his goodness on behalf of the poor. Let us be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful; and followers of God as dear children. "If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth." What a responsibility attaches to the affluent! What a disgrace, what a curse will their abundance be without diffusion! "Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." Let us thus fall in with the designs of God in befriending the necessitous. The poor we have always with us, and their distresses are great. Let us feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, and cheer those who are ready to perish, and cause the widow's heart to sing for joy: and be so many little images of him who prepares of his goodness for the poor. It will be one of the best ways in which we can show our gratitude on the present occasion—But let us sing a song of praise to the Author of all good, in the language of David, so beautifully versified by Watts—

"Good is the Lord, the heavenly King, Who makes the earth his care, Visits the pastures every spring, And bids the grass appear.

"The clouds, like rivers rais'd on high, Pour out, at thy command, Their watery blessings from the sky, To cheer the thirsty land.

"The soften'd ridges of the field Permit the corn to spring; The valleys rich provision yield, And the poor labourers sing.

"The little hills on every side Rejoice at falling showers; The meadows dread in all their pride, Perfume the air with flowers.

"The barren clods, refresh'd with rain, Promise a joyful crop; The parched grounds look green again, And raise the reaper's hope.

"The various months thy goodness crowns; How bounteous are thy ways; The bleating flocks spread o'er the downs, And shepherds shout thy praise."

SEPTEMBER 23.—"And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined."—Isaiah 25:6.

We might remark here the author of the entertainment; and the place where it was to be made; and the richness of the provision: but let us notice only the universality of the design. When men make a feast they invite only their relations and friends, or their rich neighbours, who can bid them again, and make a recompense.