October 21

me to forsake the foolish, and live, and go in the way of understanding—But we do not limit the Holy One of Israel. There is hardly any thing but the Lord has dignified by making use of it in the calling of sinners to himself. Afflictions, as we see in the case of Manasseh; parental example; the admonition of a friend; the reading of a good book, of a mere tract—Where shall we end? "Lo! all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living."

After they are brought to God by converting grace his people are not suffered to apostatize from him. But they may backslide. Their faith may tail in the exercise, though not in the principle. Their love may wax cold. They may grow indifferent to the service of God, and rarely and lifelessly attend the means of his appointment. Yea they may yield to temptation, and fall into sin, and cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of. And what is the consequence? The Lord hides his face, and they are troubled—"O that it was with me as in months past, when the candle of the Lord shone upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness; while as yet the Almighty was with me." The loss and the remembrance of their former peace and joy; galling reflections; from their own minds; brotherly rebukes; outward trials and disappointments—these are the means he employs to bring them back to himself from whom they have revolted, and who is yet saying, Return, ye backsliding children—I will heal your backslidings.

But as long as they remain here they are from home. This is not their rest. But there remaineth a rest for the people of God. And he has devised means to remove them from the kind of exile in which they now are, to their own country, from whence they were borne, and whither they long to return. He has appointed an hour in which they are to depart out of the world unto the Father. Death is the way, and however trying, the right way to the city of habitation. By death their banishment is entirely ended, and their restoration perfected for ever. "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

OCTOBER 21.—"Whose I am, and whom I serve."—Acts 27:23.

This was the language of Paul, when he informed his fellow-sufferers of the angelical vision with which he had been favoured in the night. But others may adopt the same avowal.

He calls God his owner when he says, Whose I am, and asserts nothing that is peculiar to himself. We also are his. He has numberless claims to us; and these claims we should feel and acknowledge. They are founded in creation: in providence: in redemption: in self-dedication. The Corinthian converts "gave

themselves unto the Lord." And there has been a time in the experience of every Christian, when he has done the same. And he has often renewed the surrender since. And the more he reflects upon it the more he approves of his conduct, and glories in the thought that he is not his own, but the Lord's.

Yet when he adds, and whom I serve; some may be ready to say, "Ah! Paul did serve him. He was called to be an Apostle; to preach the Gospel, to write Scripture, to plant churches, to work miracles. Never did one man perhaps do so much in glorifying God and serving his generation as he—But what can I do? Can I serve him?" But let it be observed that the service of God is not confined to great offices and talents. These do not depend upon us, but are dispensed by the Lord of all as he pleases; and he looks to the heart, and where this is towards him, desires are actions. Where there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not. He sees benevolence where nothing is given; and martyrdom where nothing is suffered. "Let her alone; she hath done what she could."

"No blank, no trifle Nature made or meant. —If nothing more than purpose in thy power, Thy purpose firm, is equal to the deed. Who does the best his circumstance allows, Does well, acts nobly—angels could no more."

The service of God is very extensive, and is not to be confined to what many only mean by it. It reaches further than express acts of devotion. The means of grace are indeed both duties and privileges; and they who do not value them are either in an unconverted or a backsliding state. In a proper frame of mind good men will sanctify the Sabbath, repair to the sanctuary, and retire to read the Scripture, and pray and meditate. But they will regard these things only as means of grace, in the use of which they renew their strength, and gain fresh supplies of the Spirit of Jesus Christ to enable them to fill up Christianly the whole of their stations in life. They therefore serve God in the week as well as on the Sabbath, and in their own dwellings as well as in the temple. They acknowledge him in all their ways; and whether they eat or drink, or whatever they do, they do all to the glory of God. A constant regard to his word as their rule, and his honour as their end, elevates common actions into moral, and moral into spiritual; and thus the magistrate while on the bench, and the traveller while upon the road, and the tradesman while in the shop, and the labourer while in the field, and the mother while training up her infant charge, are all doing the work of the Lord, and have the testimony that they please him.

Servants, besides their known, usual, regular course of action, are liable to particular and occasional calls of service which cannot be previously prescribed. Thus we are to observe the movements of Providence, and fall in with those duties which grow out of events. In this spirit David said, "on thee do I wait all the day;" holding himself always in readiness to receive orders, and in effect asking, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

"They also serve that wait." There is a suffering as well as a