perish. I am in the wide ocean of difficulty and distress. Corruptions rage; temptations assault; fiery darts of the enemy fly thick around me: I groan under the sense of a hard heart and an absent God." Hear the voice of thy Lord, "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted;-for a small moment I have forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee," Isa. liv. 7, 11. Judge not of God's love by thy sense and feeling; but by his word of truth, the stability of his promises, and the security of his oath. He may be battering down thy life of sense, to make thee strong in faith; strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. These disciples, though in a terrible storm, were safe; because Jesus was in the ship, though asleep. So is every disciple where Jesus dwells in the heart by faith. The affection of God's love never ceases, though storms surround us, and the comfort of love may seem asleep. And as with these disciples, so shall it be, O christian; thou shalt find thy loving Saviour ever near to hear, and almighty to deliver thee. God's moment is thy mercy. In the deeps of distress are God's wonders known. "In the mount of the Lord, Jehovah-jireh; the Lord will provide, it shall be seen.' What saith thy Lord? "Call upon me in time of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." It is the joy of faith to reply, "Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance," Psalm

xxxii. 7.

OCT. 30.-Go, tell his disciples, and Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, -Mark xvi. 7.

How different is the gospel from the law! One is the voice of condemnation, terror, and wrath; the other speaks nothing but grace, peace, and love. God's children only murmured for water, and even meek Moses is in wrath, and calls them "rebels." Here the disci

ples had acted most basely and ungratefully to their loving Saviour; for they added sorrow to his distress, when they all forsook him and fled; and Peter above all the rest; for, as if Jesus was the most abandoned wretch, Peter, with oaths and curses, denied that he knew him. What could they expect, but that his first message should be, Go, tell those apostate rebels, I am risen from the dead; they shall receive their just deserts; vengeance is mine, I will repay them? Be astonished, O heavens! Hear, wonder, and love, O ye backsliding children! devils are not permitted to terrify, but angels commissioned to comfort them. Tell his disciples; amazing! Disciples still! How unworthy the very name! Yet more, lest his message should prove a dagger to poor Peter's heart, and he should write these bitter things against himself: "I am no disciple. Though all the rest forsook and fled from Jesus, yet not one of them sinned with so high a hand as I. I not only forsook him, fled from him, but denied him with oaths, cursed and swore most bitterly that I knew him not. Woe is me! the Lord told me Satan had desired to have me; so it must be." No, no, Peter, "whom thy Lord loves, he loves to the end;" he hates putting away. "Not all that sin or hell can say, can turn his heart, his love away." Peter's name is in the commission of comfort. Did he sin above the rest? Yet, grace superabounds, therefore he is particularized above the rest. "He goeth before you to Galilee; there shall ye see him." But for this comfortable message, poor Peter would have dreaded to see Jesus. He is gone before to glory; there shall we see him. But for the comfortable message we have had from him, of his love and salvation, we might dread to see him. But who shall set bounds to his love? Will any trembling disciple say, The Lord hath forsaken, my Lord hath forgotten me? True, thou mayst deserve it; but he deals not with thee after that manner: though a sinner, a backsliding, hell-deserving sinner, the chief of sinners, yet still his name is Jesus, his na

ture is love. It is the joy of his heart, and the work of his life, "to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them," Heb. vii. 25.

OCT. 31.-If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.-John viii. 36.

Our most glorious Sovereign, Lord, and King, Jesus, like some mighty conqueror, whose subjects have been taken captive by an enemy, delivers them from their captivity, and restores them to all the rights and privileges of his kingdom. Alas! in what a deplorable state doth he find our souls! Taken captive by the devil at his pleasure; slaves and vassals to his will and power; under worse than Egyptian bondage; "tied and bound with the chain of our sins;" bond-slaves to our corrupt lusts and passions. In this hopeless, helpless, deplorable state we all continue, without power, will, or desire to be set at liberty. Nay, we are pleased with the drudgery of sin and Satan, in love with our bondage, fancy ourselves enjoying perfect freedom. But, when our mighty Deliverer comes, he makes us free indeed. He bursts our bonds asunder, casts away our cords from us: rescues our souls, as a prey from the mighty, and the lawful captives are delivered. He makes us "free citizens of the New Jerusalem;" and gives us the privilege of adoption, to be the sons of God, by faith in him. Then are we the Lord's freemen; made free from sin, Satan, the law, and death. How great is Jesus' power! how rich his love! how free and sovereign his grace! all came unmerited, unsought by us. Unbounded is this freedom. So we shall find it in a blissful eternity. But here, though made free indeed in our spirits, yet we shall daily experience enemies and opposers to our uninterrupted enjoyment of it. Sin, though its guilt is washed away in Christ's blood, and its power destroyed in the soul, will yet

rage and war in our members. Satan, though overcome and cast out, will often rally his forces, and wage war against us. As Luther says, "he who hath Christ for his King and God, let him be assured, hath the devil for his enemy, who will work him much sorrow, and plague him all the days of his life. But let this be our comfort and great glory, that we poor sinners have the Lord of life, death, and of all creatures, clothed with our flesh and blood, sitting on the right hand of God, ever living, ever praying for us, who ever defends and protects us." Though the demands of the law are all fulfilled, its curse taken away, and there is no condemnation to us that are in Christ Jesus; and though death is disarmed of its strength and sting, through his victory; yet, we enjoy the sweet sense and comfortable experience of all this only while we stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and are not entangled with any yoke of bondage, Gal. v. 1.

NOVEMBER.

Nov. 1.—We wrestle, &c.-Eph. vi. 12.

It is too common for God's children, when exercised with sharp conflicts of soul, to write bitter things against themselves. But, we do well always to remember, we are travelling through the territories of an implacable and powerful enemy, whose malicious spirit delights in harassing and distressing us, in every part, soul and spirit, as well as flesh: and that herein we are not alone; but it is the common lot of all our brethren, more or less. Take, my brethren, the prophets and apostles, as examples herein. We shall find them, at times, under severe trials and sore conflicts of spirit. But know, Satan, our adversary, is a conquered foe. He can go no further than our own loving Saviour permits him. Our exercises last not one moment longer than our dear Lord sees needful. None of them shall

issue in our destruction; but in Satan's flight, our soul's deliverance, and our God's glory. And, like everything else that befalls us, "they work together for our good."

Our enemies are spiritual powers, princes, rulers, who for number may be styled legion. Their nearness to, and easy access to our spirits, in a way of striving and struggling for the mastery, in order to cast us down, is here justly styled, wrestling. Here the combatants are closely joined, and grapple with each other. Our greatest danger lies in our feet being tripped off the ground; whereby we may be maimed and bruised by a fall. Happily for us, we stand by the power of God through faith. We stand upon this sure foundation, "The Lord knoweth them who are his." Jesus knows that his people will be exposed to onsets of the enemy; but no power, subtlety, or malice shall prevail. Our dear Preserver says, "None shall pluck them out of my hands:" I, as man and Mediator, hold them by love. "My Father is greater than I." He also keeps them, by his irresistible and almighty power. Yet, alas! it must be owned that conflicts for the season are grievous;-to be attacked by a powerful, invisible foe, whose element where he rules, as well as the time of battle, is always in darkness; therefore most afflicting to the children of light. One blessed end of all our trials, is to teach us not to trust in ourselves; but to cry to the Strong for strength. Oh, what a soul-strengthening, heart-reviving, and spirit-refreshing voice speaks from heaven to us! Hear, O soul, it is the voice of the Captain of thy salvation. Wast thou ready to think, he had left thee to thy own weakness? No: "Fear thou not, for I am with thee. I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness," İsa. xli. 10.

Nov. 2.-Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice.-Phil. iv. 4.

"He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast,"