December 16

"The Spirit like a peaceful dove, Flies from the realms of noise and strife; Why should we vex and grieve his love, Who seals our souls to heavenly life?"

DECEMBER 16.—"Ah Lord God! behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and THERE IS NOTHING TOO HARD FOR THEE."—Jeremiah 32:17.

Much of true godliness consists in our holding communion with God not only in his relations, but in what we call his attributes or the perfections of his nature. We should especially do this, as our circumstances and experience render the exertion of any one of them in particular peculiarly needful and reasonable. This might be exemplified with regard to our misery and his mercy, our guilt and his grace, our ignorance and his wisdom. But what is the practical use we should make of the truth before us? a truth which all will readily acknowledge in speculation? "Nothing is too hard for thee."

Why then surely we should flee from his wrath, and seek an interest in his favour. Who would not dread the displeasure of Omnipotence? Who knoweth the power of his anger? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God. His wrath is almighty. It can arm every creature against me, from an insect to an archangel. It can operate immediately upon my mind without the intervention of instruments. It can reach me, where no mortal foe can touch me, beyond death and the grave. Hence, said the Saviour, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him." But if he can be an almighty enemy, he can be an Omnipotent friend. He can cause all creatures to be at peace with me; and make all things to work together for my good. If he loves me and provides for me, the providence, the love is attended with infinite means and resources: and eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

"And can this mighty Lord Of glory condescend? And will he write his name, My Father and my Friend?"

He has rendered it more than possible. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" He waits to be gracious, and is exalted to have mercy upon us. He has established a ministry of reconciliation. By his servants God himself beseeches you to be reconciled unto God!

If nothing is too hard for him, let me depend upon him for the renovation of my depraved nature. Indeed when I consider myself, and think of the work that is to be accomplished, that it is not a mere change of opinion, a reformation of manners, but a transformation by the renewing of the mind, I should see no medium between utter despondency and that hope which leads me to this rock which is higher than I. He is the God of all grace. He can enlighten this understanding, dark as it is. He can soften this heart, hard as it is. He can render my duty my privilege; my work my pleasure. He can put his Spirit within me, and cause me to walk in his sta-

tutes and judgments to do them. He can give me a sense of his pardoning love under the deepest sense of my unworthiness and desert, and purge my conscience from dead works to serve the living God. He is also adequate to the continuance and carrying on of the good work after he has begun it. Through all my dangers he can preserve me to the end of my course, and make me more than a conqueror. Under every burden he can sustain me. In every duty his grace is sufficient for me—Nothing is too hard for him.

This should animate us to do good in hopeless cases. I call these cases hopeless in reference to ordinary means and mere human agency: but there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. He has a mighty arm, strong is his hand, and high is his right hand. Who brought Manasseh to himself after he had sinned away all the effects of a pious education, and had sunk to the lowest depths of vice? By whom were the Corinthian converts washed, justified, sanctified? Let ministers who look down upon hearers who have grown into impenitence under their labours; let fathers and mothers whose hearts are bleeding over children of disobedience; let all who are striving in their stations to save a soul from death, encourage themselves in the Lord their God, and remember that he is able even of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

Let the reflection also sustain and comfort us when useful and valuable instruments are called away. There is much idolatry in our hearts, of which we are not aware till the idols are laid hold of and removed—Then we groan and exclaim, "My wound is incurable;" "Mine eye shall no more see good." Yet when the stream is dried up, is the fountain exhausted? When the husband and the father are withdrawn does he not still live who is the Father of the fatherless and the Husband of the widow? Many a dying saint, in the midst of weeping dependants, has felt, as a cordial to his heart, the Divine assurance, "Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widow trust in me." We may apply this still more to the cause of God. Here he uses means, and we ought to esteem them, but we must not depend upon them, or suppose that any of them are essential to his work. The government of the Church is not suspended upon men, however wise and qualified, but upon the shoulder of Him who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. With him is the residue of the Spirit. When Elijah was taken, Elisha was left, and endued with a double portion of his spirit. What should we have said had we lived when Paul, when Luther died? Had we seen the prisons filled, and the stake fed with pious victims, what would have been our fears for the reformation? But these prisons, these fires only extolled, and increased and recommended it. The professors, the preachers suffered as evildoers, even unto bonds, but the word of God was not bound. Yea, the things that happened unto them turned out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel.

Finally, If nothing is too hard for the Lord, let it establish our confidence in his word of prophecy and promise, whatever seems to oppose the accomplishment of it. We cannot absolutely depend upon the word of men, for they are changeable! and if they continue in the same mind they may be unable to fulfil their engagements. But with God there is no variableness nor shadow of turning, neither can he be ever incapacitated to perform with his