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The good desired, and wanted most,
Out of thy richest grace supply;
The sacred discipline be given,

To train and bring them up for heaven."

JANUARY 4.

AUGUSTINE.

Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.-Psalm xxxix. 12.

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WHEREOF shall I rejoice? Whereof should I groan? rejoice on account of what is past, I groan longing for these which are not yet come. Hear my prayer, and give ear unto my cry. Hold not thy peace at my tears. For do I now no longer weep, because I have already passed by, have left behind so great things as these? Do I not weep much the more? For, He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. The more I long for what is not here, do I not so much the more groan for it until it comes? do I not so much the more weep until it comes? Do I not weep for it, so much the more that scandals multiply the more that iniquity aboundeth, the more that the love of many waxeth cold? Do I not say, O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears? Hear my prayer, and give ear unto my tears; hold not thy peace from me. Let me not become deaf to all eternity, Hold not thy peace from me. Let me hear thy voice! For God speaketh in secret; he speaketh to many persons within their heart, and loud is the sound heard there in the profound silence of the heart, while with a loud voice he saith, I am thy salvation. It is on account of this voice wherewith God saith unto the soul, I am thy salvation, that he prays, God would not hold his peace from him. Hold not thou thy peace from me.

For I am a sojourner with thee. But with whom am I a sojourner? When I was with the devil, I was a sojourner; but then I had a bad host and entertainer; now, however, I am with thee; but I am a sojourner still. What is meant by a sojourner? I am a sojourner in the place from which I am to remove; not in the place where I am to dwell for ever. The place where I am to abide for ever should be rather called my home. In the place from which I am to remove I am a sojourner; but yet it

is with my God that I am a sojourner, with whom I am hereafter to abide, when I have reached my home. But what home is that to which you are to remove from this estate of a sojourner? Recognize that home, of which the apostle speaks, We have an habitation of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. If this house is eternal in the heavens, when we have come to it, we shall not be sojourners any more. For how should you be a sojourner in an eternal home? But here, where the Master of the house is some day to say to you, "Remove," while you yourself know not when he will say it, be thou in readiness. And by longing for your eternal home, you will be keeping yourself in readiness for it. And be not angry with him, because he gives thee notice to remove, when he himself pleases. For he made no covenant with thee, nor did he bind himself by any engagement; nor didst thou enter upon the tenancy of this house on a certain stipulation for a definite term: thou art to quit, when it is its Master's pleasure. For therefore is it that you now dwell there free of charge. For I am a sojourner with thee, and a stranger. Therefore it is there is my country it is there is my home. I am a sojourner with thee, and a stranger. Here is understood with thee. For many are strangers with the devil: but they who have already believed and are faithful, are, it is true, strangers as yet, because they have not yet come to that country and to that home: but still they are strangers with God. For so long as we are in the body, we are strangers from the Lord, and we desire, whether we are strangers, or abiding here, we may be accepted with him. I am a sojourner with thee; and a stranger, as all my fathers were. If then I am as all my fathers were, shall I say that I will not remove, when they have removed? Am I to lodge here on other terms, than those on which they lodged here also ?

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SUCH was our Lord's question to Peter. And with a similar question we may regard our Lord as addressing every one of us. And when we remember that Paul has said, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha,” well

may we be solicitous to be able to respond, "Lord, thou that knowest all things, knowest that I love thee.". True love to Christ will show itself in the natural and genuine effects of so strong and spiritual a grace. And by these we may determine whether we love Christ or not.

First-A universal, cheerful, and constant obedience to his holy commandments, is an evidence of love to him. "If a man," saith Christ, "love me, he will keep my commandments." There is a twofold love, a love which descends, and a love which ascends; a love of bounty and beneficence, and a love of duty and service. So then, as a father doth then only in truth love his child, when, with all care, he provides for his present education and future subsistence; so a child doth then truly love his father, when, with all reverence and submission of heart, he studies to please and to do him service. And this love, if it be free and ingenuous, by how much the more, not only pure and equal in itself, but also profitable unto him the commandment is, by so much the more carefully will it endeavor the observation thereof. And therefore since the soul of a Christian knows, that as God himself is good, and doth good; so his law, which is nothing but a ray and glimpse of his holiness, is likewise good in itself, and doth good unto those which walk uprightly; it is hereby inflamed to a more sweet and serious obedience thereunto; in the keeping whereof, there is for the present so much sweetness; and in the future so great a reward. "Thy word," saith the Psalmist, "is very pure; therefore thy servant loveth it."

Secondly-Another evidence of love to Christ, is a free, willing, and cheerful suffering for him and his gospel. "Unto you," saith the apostle, "it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." We see how far a human love, either for their country, or of vainglory, has transported some heathen men, to the devoting and casting away their own lives: how much more should a spiritual love of Christ put courage into us to bear all things, and "to endure all things for him, who bare our sins, and our stripes, and our burdens for us, which were heavier than all the world could lay on! And this was the inducement of that holy martyr Polycarp, to die for Christ, notwithstanding all the persuasions of the persecutors, who, by his apostasy, would fain have cast the more dishonor upon the Christian religion, and, as it were, by sparing

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him, have the more cunningly persecuted that: "This eightysix years," saith he, "I have served him; and he never, in all that time, hath done me any hurt; why should I be so ungrate ful as not to trust him in death, who in so long a life hath never forsaken me?"-"I am persuaded," saith the apostle, “that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Nothing able to turn away his love from us, and therefore nothing should be able to quench our love to him. "Many waters," that is, by the usual expression of the holy Scriptures, many afflictions, persecutions, temptations, "can not quench love, neither can the floods drown it."

Thirdly-A zeal and jealous contention for the glory, truth, worship, and ways of Christ. Wicked men pretend much love to Christ, but they indeed only serve their own turns; as ivy, which clasps an oak very close, but only to suck out sap for its own leaves and berries. But a true love is full of care to advance the glory of Christ's kingdom, and to promote his truth and worship; fears lest Satan and his instruments should by any means corrupt his truth, or violate his church ;—as the Apostle to the Galatians professes the fear which his love wrought in him toward them, "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain." So we find what contention, and disputation, and strife of spirit, the apostles and others in their ministry used, when Christ and his holy gospel was any way either injured by false brethren, or kept out by the idolatry of the places to which they came.

Lastly-A longing after his presence, a love of his appearing, a desire to be with him, which is best of all; a seeking after him, and grieving for him, when for any while he departs from the soul; a waiting for his salvation, a delight in his communion, and in his spiritual refreshments; "a communing with him in his secret chamber, in his houses of wine, and in his galleries of love." By which lovely expressions the Wise Man has described the fellowship, which the church desires to have with Christ, and that abiding and supping of Christ with his church, feasting the soul with the manifestations of himself, and his graces unto it.

"Hark, my soul, it is the Lord;
'Tis thy Saviour,-hear his word.

Jesus speaks, he speaks to thee :-
Say, poor sinner, lov'st thou me?"

"Lord, it is my chief complaint
That my love is still so faint,
Yet I love thee and adore : .

O for grace to love thee more!"

JANUARY 6.

J. TAYLOR.

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.— Rom. viii. 25.

CONSIDER, it is a good which is absent that we hope for: when it is come, and brought to pass, hope is at the journey's end. "Say to the righteous it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings." It shall be well; "say-it shall." It is not paid down, as we say, in ready money, but we have a good bond for assurance.

Let one object upon this, "Doth not hope deferred afflict the soul?" Yet be not disheartened: it is better than so. For first, we have somewhat in hand; because that which faith lays hold of, is really and actually its own: now hope is faith's rent-gatherer, and takes up that which faith claims upon the bargain which Christ hath made for us.

To be clearer yet: "We are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance." You see, then, that though we have not the inheritance as yet, we have the earnest of it; and an earnest penny is more than nothing. Here I must distinguish between a pledge and an earnest. A pledge is laid down for assurance to repay that which was lent; but an earnest is given upon a bargain, to keep that till the rest be brought in. Now the earnest we receive of the kingdom to come is the seal of the Spirit, an imprinted comfort that it shall be ours, a seal that can not be defaced, a comfort that can not be taken from us. So much as you have of that seal, so much you have of the earnest: therefore, you can not say that hope hath quite nothing to stay its longing. The blossoms of the spring do not only promise, but are God's earnest, to represent the fruits which will wax ripe in autumn.

I will make it out in another similitude. He that is in a merchant's warehouse, where spices are stored up, shall have

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