March 13

very poor. And surely it is not favouring the levelling scheme, to oppose a state of things in which some have every thing and others nothing. Let there be poor as well as rich, but let them not only exist but live; let there be poor, but let them have employment, and food, and clothing. Where this is not the case, a country has retrograded, something wrong has entered, and till it be rectified there can be no solid and lasting peace or safety.

The truth should also lower the impression of these distinctions upon our minds. This should be felt, First, in judging others. Let us not only or principally regard them by outward and adventitious claims, but by their moral and religious worth. Character is independent of circumstances. In our eyes let a vile person be condemned, however rich; and let us honour them that fear the Lord, however poor. Yet, says Solomon, the poor is despised of his neighbour, but the rich hath many friends. Secondly, in judging ourselves. Let us not suppose that we are nothing if we are poor. A proper self-respect is as far from pride as it is from meanness, and is even a source of duty. If we are poor, let us remember we are not overlooked; that we are not excluded from any thing essential to our happiness; that we are not prevented even from acquiring greatness and dignity. We can be great in the sight of the Lord. We can gain the unsearchable riches of Christ. We can be greater conquerors than Alexander. We can appear in a glory that will eclipse the splendour of the universe. The poor have the Gospel preached unto them.—Let us not imagine we are every thing if we are rich. There are many foolish as well as hurtful lusts which attend wealth. Let us beware of them, and not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. We may be rich, and yet weak and mean and wicked and miserable. Let us not be proud of our condition. Who made us to differ from others? He who can easily bring us down; he who will soon call us to give account of our stewardship. Shall we disdain others? He that despiseth the poor reproacheth his Maker; but he that hath pity on the poor, happy is he. Our wealth is not designed for hoarding or extravagance; but that we may give to him that needeth in all good things. If the clouds be full, they empty themselves upon the earth.

MARCH 13.—"I withheld thee from sinning against me."—Genesis 20:6.

So said God to Abimelech the king of Gerar, when he sent to take Sarah, Abraham's wife. But it will truly apply to every individual of the human race, though not in the same circumstances.

All sin is against God—There is a propensity in man to the commission of it—and God's agency is necessary to restrain us from it. Some of our fellow-creatures have gone great lengths in iniquity; and have acted more like incarnate demons than human beings. These show us what our depraved nature is capable of, when placed in conditions favourable to temptation, and affording both opportunity and power. And yet even these have some restraints. The worst characters that ever lived never committed a thousandth part of the wickedness they would have committed had they not been checked and hindered. If God did not interpose there would be no

living in a state of society. And the interposition of God is to be seen even in the laws and provisions of civil government. A magistrate is a terror to evil-doers. The gallows, the prison, the pillory, the stocks, are not only instruments of justice, but means of grace; and while we lament the necessity, we are thankful for the use of them.

Various are the ways in which God withholds us from sin. He has numberless providential precautions. Sickness has interrupted a course of iniquity which health would have continued. Worldly losses have led to the abandonment of schemes which vanity and pride had been devising. What Christian has not in some instances gone astray, and whose experience has not enabled him to explain the threatening or rather the promise: "Behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now?" A thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet him, saved Paul from being exalted above measure through the abundance of his revelations. David had been insulted by Nabal, who was such a son of Belial that no one could speak with him. He deeply felt the provocation, and was upon the road resolved to avenge himself. But Nabal had a wife who was as kind and prudent as she was beautiful; and upon the report of the approaching danger she hastened to meet David with a present, and a soft answer, which turneth away wrath. And what was the happy result? "And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me: and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand." How much evil has often been prevented by a wise and seasonable reproof! Faithful are the wounds of a friend. How many have had reason to bless God for a pious education! How much do they owe, in their preservation from sinful courses or actions, to the impressions of early sentiment, the influence of a father's example, the recollection of a mother's tears, and the Scriptures which had been lodged in the memory! There are restraints from domestic discipline and devotion. Can a man who says, with Joshua, "As for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord," and who performs family worship every morning and evening, act like others? Does a man make a profession of religion? He is bound to avoid things which others may think themselves at liberty to indulge in. Is he a minister or an office-bearer in the Church? What a safeguard becomes the reputation, the consistency that he must maintain! Some persons are averse to things which gender an increase of moral obligation; but we ought to value a state or a station in proportion as it tends to rescue us from sin. How often have men been checked on the brink of evil by a passage in some book, or by the address of the preacher in a sermon! How does God withhold men from sinning by the power of conscience! The advantage of this principle which it is so difficult to subdue or to silence is unspeakable. It operates in a thousand instances where human legislation has no effect. Tyrants who have found them-