underneath us ever be thine everlasting arms. Hear and answer us in Christ Jesus. Amen. TUESDAY MORNING. PRAISE-PSALM CVI. 1. SCRIPTURE-GENESIS XXIX. REMARKS. Animated and strengthened by the vision of Bethel, Jacob continued his journey, and reached safely the dwelling-place of Laban. His meeting with Rachel in the fields, as she tended her father's sheep, is described with the most touching simplicity. His heart clang to her at the very first: but Laban was selfish and sordid, and would not consent to their union, except on the condition of his serving with him seven years. It was a harsh proposal, but Jacob willingly acceded to it, and we read, that the seven years seemed to him but a few days for the love he had to her.' And it is true still, that where our heart is in a work, the most difficult and laborious work, it becomes pleasant to us; especially is it so in religion. O it were a cold creed that would not let the affections be touched—that would brand the devotion of our deepest and dearest feelings to religion as fanaticism! Every true believer can say, 'the love of Christ constraineth me!' This is the strongest of all the principles that can influence human nature, stronger than all others combined. It has compelled men by a sweet violence, to consecrate all they had and all they could do to the cause of the cross; it has compelled men to renounce riches, reputation, honour, as dross for the gospel's sake; it has compelled men to leave the homes of their fathers, the old familiar faces of their youth, and to go out to the far land, to the desert isles of the sea, to preach to the stranger and the savage, the unsearchable riches of Christ. O it is an indomitable, and indestructible principle, this love of Christ: it sustains the spirit amid the worst perils; it makes the longest trials short! After the seven years of Jacob's service were ended, Laban, by a most unworthy artifice, cheated him out of the promised reward; and by driving him into polygamy, introduced strife and misery into his household ever after. How strikingly calculated was this to remind the patriarch of his own treachery to his brother Esau; to impress him with a sense of the retributive justice of God! And it were well for us to remember, that very generally, even in this life, a man reaps the fruit of his own evil doings. How often is his sin written as with fire on his punishment! The careless parent may trace it in the ruin of his family; the spendthrift in beggary and disgrace; the miser in the scattering to the winds of his hope and his fortunes; the perjured man and cheat in the scorn and loathing of his fellows; the drunkard in a diseased and withered age before its time. it is both a tormenting and a silencing scripture, I have done, so hath my God requited me!' O as PRAYER. O Lord, thou hast said, that whatever we ask of thee in the name of the Lord Jesus, believing, we shall receive. Lord, we believe; help thou our unbelief. We are by nature under the condemnation of the law; justify us through the blood of the great sacrifice. We are corrupted in thought, and word, and deed; renew us after thine own image. Our understandings are darkened; enlighten us by thy good spirit. Our hearts are cold and hard; touch us as with a live coal from off thine altar; say unto us, Live; yea, say unto us, Live, and the time will be a time of love. We are weak and helpless in ourselves; let thy grace be sufficient for us; strengthen the things which remain and are ready to die. We are dust, and return to dust again; raise us up together, and make us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. O help us with all our heart, and all our soul, to love him who first loved us; may the love of Christ be the quickening, ruling principle of our lives; may we count all things but loss and dung, that we may be found in him, and do his will. Lord, deliver us from pride, from hypocrisy, from envy, from all uncharitableness. Put it into our hearts to hate all fraud and deceit ; to be honest in all our ways; ever to do to others as we would that others should do to us. Give us that charity which is the bond of perfectness, which hopeth, and believeth, and endureth all things; and impress on us evermore, the new commandment of our Lord to his disciples, that they should love one another as he loved them.' Accept of our thanksgiving for thy preservation of us during the night that is past; take us this day under thy care and keeping; lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: and all we ask is in the name of Jesus, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. TUESDAY EVENING. PRAISE-PSALM CXVI. 1. SCRIPTURE-MATTHEW xvi. REMARKS. The pharisees and sadducees laid aside, for a time their mutual animosities, and directed their unite malice against Christ. They tempted him with request for a sign from heaven, in confirmation o his mission; but he exposed their hypocrisy and le them. Is it not so still, that many of the enemies of th gospel affect to seek other testimonies to its truth tha those that have been given already? They shut the eyes to these, however close, and varied, and incor testible, and wish new ones. They dare to prescribe | death of Jesus Christ. We believe that he is into God the evidence he ought to have furnished in behalf of his revelation; they will not be convinced except on terms themselves propose. They are perfectly satisfied to act, in common life, on the most slender probabilities; they will be content with nothing short of demonstration, not even with demonstration itself, in religion. Alas, it is not the deficiency of signs, nor the difficulty of interpreting them, that makes men infidel; it is an evil heart. Unless we believe in Christ, for the sake of the words he spoke, and the works he did, and the lives and deaths of his apostles, no other evidence will be given us; and though it were, it would be impotent to convert us. Jesus asked his disciples, Whom do men say that I am.' Well doth it become us to put the question to ourselves, What think we of Christ? Do we feel that he is the very Saviour we need? Is he precious in our eye, as he in whom all the prophecies and types of Old Testament history meet and centre? Can we take up the words of zealous, ardent Peter, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the most high God?' Let us never forget that no one can say in faith, 'That Jesus is the Lord,' but by the Holy Ghost. It is on this solemn truth that the church is founded as on a rock; blessed be God for the promise that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.' How singularly has this promise been verified in its past history? The church of Christ has been tried in every possible way. She has been despised, and ridiruled, and scourged; she has had to contend with kings of the earth, and with traitors within her own bosom; she has passed through the calm and the storm together. Is it not fair to argue that, since neither the extravagance of persecution nor of indulgence, neither indifference nor fanaticism, has proved effectual to subvert her, she will continue unscathed to the end. The arm of the omnipotent has been often raised in her defence, and she has but emerged from every trouble into which the ungodly have cast her, ay, sometimes as from the very ashes, fresher and fairer than before. Jacob shall arise though he be small. The ark may be tossed, but it shall never perish. To thousands still the dust of Zion shall be precious, and Jerusalem preferred to their chiefest joy. But let us not rest in vain boastings of the perpetuity of Zion, while ourselves have not sought and found a refuge in it. What matters it to me that all the malice of men and devils are impotent against it if I have neither part nor lot in the covenant? it is not enough that we call ourselves by the name of Jesus; unless we have the spirit, unless we take his cross and follow him, we are none of his. The time is coming when the most careless of us wil be brought to confess that this were our best portion. O what comment can add to the touching, straining pathos of these simple words, 'What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? PRAYER. O Lord, in thy presence, and at thy footstool, we would plead no other merits than the life and deed the Christ, the Son of the most high God: Amen. Hear and WEDNESDAY MORNING. PRAISE-PARAPHRASE II. REMARKS. Jacob formerly suffered from adversity; he is now 1. Prosperity has its sorrows as well as adversity. suffering from prosperity. Twenty years before he was obliged, having nothing but his staff in his hand, chap. xxxii. 10. to flee from the face of his brother Esau; now, in his affluence, he is obliged to flee from the face of Laban and his sons in the land of Syria. Jealousy, and envy, and hatred towards him, had filled their minds, on account of the prosperity wherewith God had blessed him, as they conceived, at their expense. They forgot, or overlooked, his patience under the dishonest treatment he had met with at their hands; the faithful and long continued services he had performed for them; the prosperity wherewith they themselves had been blessed on his account; the debt of gratitude they owed to him and his God; and the tender regard they ought to have felt and shown towards him and his wives and children, as members of their own family; as bones of their bones, and flesh of their flesh. 2. What a selfish being is man! principle the love of the world! It nearest relatives, the choicest friends. What an evil separates the It expels or excludes every generous emotion, every holy affection. 'Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him,' 1 John ii. 15. 3. What a mercy, whether we be rich or poor, to know that the God of Jacob changeth not, and that his purposes cannot be frustrated! The same God is equally watchful over our interests, and knows and takes the proper time and way of delivering us out of temptation and difficulty, and the power and malice of enemies. Let us be this day led by the Spirit of our covenant God, as Jacob was; and, in the use of means, above all, in the exercise of faith, let us leave all our concerns, for time and eternity, in the hands of him who died to save us. 4. How much are we indebted to the restraining grace and providential government of God! In this chapter we see how Laban was kept from injuring Jacob; and, in chap. xxxiii. we find that the same restraining grace prevented Esau from injuring him. Were it not for the restraints which God imposes, in an infinite variety of ways, upon the tempers and dispositions of ungodly men, the world would be ten thousand times worse than it is, and the righteous would have no living at all. But let us fear no evil; for if God be for us, who can be against us? PRAYER. O God of Jacob, we would approach thee in the name of Jesus, and adore thee in the glorious and endearing character of an electing, a loving, a redeeming, a covenant-making, and covenantkeeping God. We would bless thee for the bible, that reveals thy character, and contains a record of thy dealings with thy people of old. We would rejoice in believing that, however mysterious may be the ways in which thou leadest the objects of thy wondrous love, thou wilt keep them as the apple of thine eye, and bring them at last, by the right way, into a city of habitation. Be pleased to make an everlasting covenant with each one of us, and to manifest thyself unto us, in another way than thou dost unto the world. Dwell in our house as in thy Bethel, and let thy Spirit dwell in our hearts as in his holy temple. Visit us with those communications of thy grace, and intimations of thy love, and manifestations of thy glory, wherewith thou art sometimes pleased to refresh the souls and lighten the burdens, and sweeten the troubles and guide the steps, and animate the hopes, and elevate the affections of thy weary people. O these unspeakably precious privileges we ar utterly unworthy, for our sins are more numerou and aggravated than tongue can tell or heart con ceive; but worthy is the Lamb that was slain and in him thou art at once a just God and Saviour. Behold, O God, our Shield. Thou, i the riches of thy grace, and wonders of thy love hast been pleased to appoint thy Son to be th people's shield from the corruption of their ow nature, the fiery darts of the wicked one, the temp tations of the world, and the curse of a broke law. Enable us, by thy Spirit, to put on an employ aright this shield for the purposes fo which it is provided. Let Christ be our all an in all. Let him be precious to each one of us. I our wants let us have faith wherewith to dra out of his fulness; in our weakness let us be foun leaning on him for strength; in our fears let realize the might of Jesus; in our transactions wit our fellow-creatures let us imitate his example and in the multitude of our thoughts within u about sin, and the world, and salvation, and deat and eternity, let Calvary's cross be the star guide us; and the grace of the Sufferer the then of our praise, and the foundation of our hope Whatever be thy dealings with us this day, fo bid that we should dishonour thy name, or grie thy Spirit; and however painful may be t duties or trials to which we may be called, 1 us be supported under them by the assuran we have that the God of Jacob changeth n and that those whom he hath once loved, loveth, and guideth, and protecteth unto t end. Should the world frown on us, let us ha the smiles of thy countenance. Should we in perplexity, let the God of Bethel direct If enemies pursue our souls, let us know thee our hiding-place. If we be called to sickness death, let the Lord hear, and the name of t God of Jacob defend us. With ourselves would bear on our spirits all with whom we connected. May they be a seal on the heart a on the arm of the great high priest before throne. May our friends be friends of Jes and may our enemies receive forgiveness throt his blood. Let all the children of affliction sanctified and comforted by the Holy Gh Let the dying be prepared for their great char Let the troubled in mind have from thyself peace which the world cannot give. Let minis of the gospel be faithful and successful. Let kingdom come. Hasten the time, Lord, when the posterity of Jacob shall believe in Jacob's God, and when all the nations of the earth shall be blest in Jesus Christ, and participate in the glories of his reign. We would thank thee for thy care of us through the past night, and for the mercies of the morning. We would bless thee for all thy goodness towards us in time past. Whatever trials we may have experienced, we still acknowledge that we have more reason to sing of mercy than of judgment, and it is because thy compassions fail not that we are not consumed. Help us to honour thee through the day. Keep us from evil. Sanctify us wholly. Let no weapon formed against us prosper. Let us be found in Christ, and then we shall be safe in life, and death, and through eternity. Hear, pardon, and accept us for his sake, and the glory shall ever be thine in him. Amen. WEDNESDAY EVENING. PRAISE PSALM XXVII. 4, 5. EXPLANATORY REMARKS. from the person of Jesus, of the glory that dwelt within him, and probably was preparatory to his ath, for they spake of 'the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.' Moses and Elias appeared do homage to him as the great prophet and lawaver, from whom they received and to whom they surrendered their commission. They appeared glory,' and thus would encourage and cheer the sciples in the trials that awaited them. happiness of heaven, when a partial and transient glimpse of the glory of Christ and of two of his redeemed ones, on the mount, could have so ravished the heart of Peter, that, in the ecstasy of enjoyment he said, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here!' There are moments in which some of God's peculiar people, on earth, have a foretaste of the glory and happiness that await them in the upper world, and then it is natural enough to say, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here.' But however desirable high spiritual enjoyments may be in themselves, they are not unfrequently followed by great trials; and we should remember that the hidings of God's face may be as necessary and profitable, though not so agreeable to the soul, as would be the smiles of his countenance. 3. If the Father gave such testimony of his satisfaction in his Son, and expressed so divine a desire that we should hear him, what miserable infatuation must they be under, that see no beauty in his person, and that heed not the gracious words that profatuation. Sin may have its pleasures now, but it has none in death, none in eternity. Love to Christ may have its cross and sorrows now, but it has no sting at death, and occasions no pain when crowned with an eternal weight of glory. ceed from his mouth! Let us beware of such in PRAYER. O Lord God, thou art the wonderful one. Thou art wonderful in thyself, and wonderful in all thy works and ways. Thou art specially wonderful in thy redeeming love. We would Ver. 1-9. There is a probable tradition that the bless thee for a Saviour, and that Saviour every bly mount is Tabor, situated near Cana and Nazareth in Galilee. The ascent would probably have way worthy of the God that provided him, and required a day, and, from this, and other circum-infinitely suited to the guilt and misery of the stances, it would appear that the transfiguration took poor objects for whom he is provided. May it place during the night season. Jesus went to pray, be given us, on his behalf, to believe in his and the three disciples fell asleep. The same three name, and to behold his glory. May we now so were with him afterwards in the garden, and fell realize thy gracious presence, as that we shall asleep while he prayed there. The transfiguration have reason to say, from our sweet experience, pears to have been a visible, external emanation, Lord, it is good for us to be here.' Let us feel our hard hearts melted and enlarged by a sense of our personal interest in Jesus; and let the eyes of our minds be so opened, as that we shall behold the evil of sin, and the worthlessness of every thing worldly, in comparison with the excellency of the knowledge of thy beloved Son, in whom thou hast declared thyself wellpleased. Holy Father, enable us, by thy Spirit, to accept him as our friend, by loving him; as our guide, by following him; as our Saviour, by trusting in him. Let us have pardon of sin, and peace with thee through his blood. As thou art well pleased with him, be well pleased with us for his sake. Adopt us into thy family. Give us thy Holy Spirit. Create in us clean hearts, and renew right spirits within us. Draw the desires of our souls towards thyself; and while we remain in the world, let us live near to thee, and by the faith of thy Son. Let us realize and exhibit to the world the constraining influence of his PRACTICAL REMARKS. 6 1. What a glorious event is the death of Christ! Angels desire to look into its wonders. Moses and Las came from heaven to speak with him concernng it. All the redeemed glory in it as the source their salvation, and as the masterpiece of God's wadom and power. Let us commemorate it as often as we have opportunity, with becoming love, Aumility, and gratitude; and let the contemplation of it expel every unholy fear, and excite every holy tion. It is Christ that died; who can condemn It is Christ that died; who would sin any More? 2. How great must be the glory and complete the 1 THURSDAY MORNING. PRAISE-PSALM CXXI. 1. EXPLANATORY REMARKS. We yesterday morning left Jacob, after he had parted with Laban, at Mizpah, and offered sacrifice to the God of his father. We now find him on his way to Canaan, and the angels of God meeting him in a place, to which he gave the name Mahanaim, (signifying two hosts or camps, or the camp of God;) and which afterwards became one of the four Levitical cities within the territories of the tribe of Gad, Joshua xxi. 38. From Mahanaim, Jacob from prudential motives, and in conformity to eastern customs, sent messen love. O let us be dying daily to sin, and living continually to the praise of the glory of thy grace. We would confess and lament the many sins of omission and commission, whereof we have been this day guilty. We are indeed great sinners. What a mercy to know that thy Son is a great Saviour, and that, where our sin aboundeth, thy grace doth much more abound. Make us debtors to the riches of thy grace, in Christ Jesus, for pardon and eternal life. We would praise thee for the many comforts of the day. It is to thy unmerited goodness we are indebted for every comfort. We desire to be enabled to bless thee even for our troubles. It surely becometh us to bless the Lord at all times, and in all circumstances. We would bless the God that with-gers to his brother Esau, who had become prince of holdeth or taketh away, as well as the God that giveth. We would love the God that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, as well as the God that shineth on our tabernacle. What shall we render unto the Lord for all his benefits to us? O to have hearts to love and praise thee! O to be enabled to say with Job, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.' We desire to commit ourselves and all our concerns to thy holy and fatherly keeping through the night. Enable us to do it with the confidence of children. Be a wall of fire and defence around us and our dwelling. Take charge of all whom we ought to remember before thee. Upon our relatives, and well-wishers, and benefactors, we implore thy special blessing. For our enemies we implore forgiveness. Lord, increase our faith, that we may do it from the heart. The sick, and the afflicted, and the poor, and the dying, we would remember with compassion and sympathy. May their diseases be healed, and their wants supplied, and their spirits supported, and saved by the gracious Redeemer at thy right hand. We would pray the neighbouring country, called Edom, from the name of its chief and proprietor, Gen. xxv. 30. This country, which was situated to the south of Judah and Moab, and extended southward to the eastern gulf of the Red Sea, had been given by special grant, by God, to Esau and his posterity. Ver. 24. There seems no reason to doubt, that the Christ in human form, though not in human flesh man that wrestled with Jacob, was the Lord Jesus in reality. He had previously appeared in human form to Abraham, Lot, and others. Having in the covenant of redemption, undertaken to become God manifest in the flesh, he was pleased occasionally, and before the fulness of time, to assume the appearance of a man to some of his favoured expecknowledge of the manner in which, as the promised Messiah, he was to accomplish the salvation of his people. Jacob knew not at first, Him with whom he wrestled. He afterwards knew him to be God. The customary abstinence of the children of Israel from eating of the sinew which shrank, is a remarkable illustration and proof of the truth of the sacred record in the case of Jacob. tants; and thus to communicate to Israel some PRACTICAL REMARKS. have we any right to look for dreams to direct us 1. We cannot expect a vision of angels, neither in our difficulties. But still the angels of God are about us as ministering spirits; and we have the Bible, which is a more sure guide than dreams or visions, to be a light to our feet, and a lamp to our paths. 2. We have here a combination of the prayerfulness, and watchfulness, and prudential diligence in business, that becometh a Christian. Jacob, in his distress, went to pray. He then prudently exercised the reason and power which God had given him, to protect himself and his property. And his watchfulness is very remarkable. for ministers at home, and missionaries abroad. May they have the spirit and presence of their Master, and labour successfully in his strength. We pray for the edification of saints and the conversion of sinners. In the seed of Abraham we feel a peculiar interest. Lord, send deliverance to Jacob. Gather the outcasts of Israel. Let them be taught by thyself that Moses and Elias have surrendered their commissions to Jesus of Nazareth. Let idolatry cease every where, and Jesus be crowned Lord of the whole earth. Now, Lord, forgive the sin of this ap3. We have an exemplification of God's gracious proach unto thy presence. Prepare us for what-dealing, with his own spiritually exercised people. ever thou art preparing for us. Prepare us for the solemnities of a dying hour, and for the still more awful solemnities of a judgment-day. And do all for thine own Son's sake. Amen. And thus does God, by his providence, or by a more when they are weary, or strengthen them when they than ordinary supply of his Spirit, refresh his people are weak, or give them such a sense of his love, and such a manifestation of his glory, as will elevate thei |