solicitude, putting our trust in the unerring wisdom and gracious providence of God. Hab. iii. 17, 18; Phil. iv. 6. Let us by experience prove how God's grace can abound towards us in the greatest straits, and let us glory in our infirmities. 2 Cor. xii. 9. Let us never question the right of God to do what he will with his own; much less set up our wisdom against his. Job xxxiv. 33; Matt. xx. 15. Let us remember that our sins deserve far worse than we have ever received. Neh. ix. 16, 17; Micah vii. 9. Nor will our sufferings be long. They will last but for a little moment and be gone for ever. 2 Cor. iv. 17. Let us only believe and they will do us good. Rom. viii. 28.

Those parents are not wise, who live, and risk their own souls to heap up riches for their children. A good name is the best inheritance we can leave to posterity. When to that we add a good example, a good education, good counsel, and good principles, there is but little more that is valuable in an inheritance. At all events, it is God's blessing that maketh our children rich and addeth no sorrow. Let us commit them to him in hearty prayer, and be not over-anxious respecting their temporal wants. "The LORD will provide." "I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."

And let not the poor envy the rich. When all is told, the latter have not many advantages. In eating and sleeping, they are frequently worse off than the poor. "The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep." Eccles. v. 12.

The rich can live no longer, can die no more easily, can fill no larger space in the grave, than the poor. What profit then has he of all his wealth? He works hard for years to amass a fortune. He spends the residue of his life in watching that fortune for his victuals and clothes. "What good is there to the owners of riches saving the beholding of them with their eyes." Eccles. v. 11.

Let all men seek the true riches. "Sell that ye have, and give alms: provide for yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth. corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Luke xii. 33, 34. If God has denied you great things here, seek the more diligently for glory, honour, immortality, and eternal life. Poverty is no virtue. Your poverty will not save you; but it ought to remind you of your greater wants, and to make you the more earnest in seeking the unsearchable riches of Christ.

But let us not forget that we are never out of danger till we reach our heavenly home. The way to heaven is like the way that Jonathan and his armour-bearer ascended. There is a sharp rock on one side, and there is a sharp rock on the other side. Leighton: look below us, it raises

"We pervert all: when we our pride; and when above us, it casts us into discontent. Might we not as well, contrariwise, draw humility out of the one, and contentment out of the other?" "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." 1 Pet. ii. 11.

Good writers have stated that this commandment

requires full contentment with our condition, and that it forbids ambition, envy, the inordinate love of what we possess, greediness after more, repining at providences and grieving at our neighbours' good. All these things have been noticed in previous pages of this book.

The great requisition of this command is fervent love, charity out of a pure heart towards our neighbour. This excellent grace is so fully explained in the New Testament, and especially by Paul in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, and we have so many good popular treatises upon it, that the reader's time and attention will not be asked any longer to this subject.

CHAPTER XXV.

HOW MAY WE KNOW OUR SINS?

NE of the most difficult attainments is such a know

ON ledge of our own defects, errors and sins as shall

lead us to right apprehensions of Christ and his salvation. Self-delusion is natural to man. He is wedded to self-righteousness. He naturally denies the charge of guilt. Like the Jews of old, men cry out, "What have we spoken and done so much against thee?" Even those who are somewhat enlightened from above, when they fall into error, are ready to say, "We are rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing,' while they are poor, and miserable, and blind and naked. This self-justifying spirit keeps men from a knowledge of sin and from accepting Christ. It destroys tens of thousands. Those who indulge it reject mercy because they do not feel any need of mercy. Benjamin and all his brethren declared that none of them had the silver cup. They thought they were telling the truth. But they had not looked to see whether they had it or not. When they searched, they found it right in the mouth of Benjamin's sack. So if men would honestly search their lives and hearts. by the light of the law, they would find out that they were undone. "By the law is the knowledge of sin."

Take these rules for knowing your own hearts. 1. Diligently compare them with the law of God. Study the letter of the law. Acquire a knowledge of its true spirit and scope. Let it be your daily business to go through the dark chambers of the soul with these ten lighted candles and see what is wrong.

2. Consider what your friends say of you. It is a pity that some convert a friend into a foe if he suggests that they are in error. Such must be let alone. They will probably work out their own destruction with greediness. When one is disposed to seek the truth, however, he may get useful hints and suggestions from pious and judicious friends. Ps. cxli. 5. And as friends are prejudiced in our favour, we may give full credit to what they say, unless we have positive proof that they are mistaken. David was bound to receive Nathan's reproof. Peter would have acted foolishly, if he had flared up against Paul for reproving him.

3. Weigh well what those say who are unfriendly to you. "It is lawful to learn from an enemy.' Bitter enemies sometimes fabricate statements and frequently exaggerate and misrepresent. Sometimes they nearly hit the nail on the head, and sometimes they tell the plain truth, which others are afraid to speak. A shrewd enemy commonly attacks the weak points of character. What do your enemies say of you? Do they charge you with pride, or malignity, or covetousness, or vanity, or ingratitude, or hardness of heart? Improve what they say.

4. Observe what that is which always comes to your mind when inclined to pensiveness or melancholy. Some indeed are so beset with a sense of guilt that