October 19

Affections, which are the effects of sin, are made "the fruit to take away sin." Creature comforts are often to the soul what suckers are to the tree; and the heavenly Husbandman prunes us to secure the sap for the bearing. We are tried, that we may come forth from the furnace as gold, losers indeed, but gainers by the loss, deprived only of what injured our excellence; and rendered more valuable and useful.

But in what manner is the work accomplished? The Lord could at once execute the blessed deliverance, but as the Canaanites were driven out by little and little, so he gradually subdues our iniquities. Hence we read of "the inward man being renewed day by day:" and of our being "changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." We must therefore distinguish between the commencement and the finishing of this glorious renovation. It will not be completed till death, but it is now begun; and the very complaints of the believer are proofs that he is not what he once was, but approves things that are excellent, and delights in the law of God, and feels his remaining corruptions to be his burden and grief. Simon Brown, formerly minister of the Gospel in London, was so enervated and depressed as to believe that his soul was annihilated, and that he and no more soul than a horse. Yet he continued praying, and preaching, and publishing, as if he had two souls instead of having none; his reasonings abundantly disproving all their conclusions. Thus we have met with Christians who imagined they had no grace, while they lived so conscientiously and consistently, mourned for sin so deeply, prized the Scripture so highly, and loved the Lord Jesus so fervently, that they seemed to every one but themselves to have a double portion of the Spirit. When a man is nailed to the cross he may linger on for awhile, but his doom is fixed: and "our old man is crucified." A tree, after it is plucked up by the roots, has some sap left in it, and will even throw out shoots; but we know that in such a case it cannot revive: the radical, essential support is cut off—It must wither and die. Let us thank God and take courage. The conflict may be protracted, and we may sometimes be ready to faint, but there is nothing doubtful in the issue: and the result is not more glorious than sure.

OCTOBER 19.—"David carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite."—2 Samuel 6:10.

It was a solemn and awful appeal David made, when "he sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob; surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob." Accordingly as soon as he was fully enthroned over all Israel, he resolved to bring up the ark from Gibeah, where it had long been, and place it in Jerusalem, where it would be public and accessible. But at first the enterprise more than failed. The appointed and prescribed mode of conveying the ark was on the shoulders of the Levites. On the present occasion this was strangely and very culpably overlooked. It was carried in a new

cart; and it was driven by Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinidah. "And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of firwood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nachan's threshing-floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God." The event seems mysterious. His judgments are a great deep. But will not the Judge of all the earth do right? We are sure there is no unrighteousness with God. We know also that he alone is the adequate judge of moral conduct. By him actions are weighed. He sees them in their principles and motives; and unerringly estimates the circumstances of extenuation or aggravation attached to them. Let us give him time, and we shall be constrained to acknowledge, "Thou art justified when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest."

David was both displeased and terrified. His displeasure was very censurable. Did it become him to resent what God had done, and be angry because the breach had defeated his plan, and disappointed his expectation—especially too, when all this would have been prevented, had he consulted the law, and conformed to it? But so true is it, "a man's foolishness perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord." His terror was more excusable, and might have been salutary. "God will be known by the judgments which he executeth." When he strikes some he intends that others should hear and fear, and turn unto the Lord. And it is well for us to feel our unworthiness and desert; and to inquire whether we who are spared are not equally guilty with those who are cut off—and also whether, though spared now, we shall escape always? Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.

But David's alarm was servile and excessive. He therefore broke up the assembly, and began his return home, saying, "How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?" "So David would not remove the ark of the Lord unto him into the city of David: but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite." The event to Obed-edom was wholly unexpected. Little did he imagine, when he rose in the morning and joined the holy procession, that before he retired to rest his house would be the tabernacle of the Lord, towards which the eyes and thoughts of all the pious would be turned, and his name be had in everlasting remembrance. So Saul went out to search for his father's asses, and before he returned was anointed king over Israel. When David was carrying provender to his brethren in the camp, how little did he dream that in the course of a few hours he should be the conqueror of Goliath, and the deliverer of his country, and hear it shouted, "Saul hath slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands." As to evil or as to good, we never know what a day may bring forth; and therefore we should never presume or despair. We talk of novels and romances; but we need not have recourse to fiction. What marvellous coincidences diversify actual life! "Time and chance happen to all." Nothing is indeed casual with regard to God. He sees the end from the beginning; and works all things after the counsel of his