creases the peril ten-fold. The man who is walking on the edge of a precipice, but cannot be prevailed upon to take heed to his steps, is almost sure to fall over. A constant sense of your peril will arouse you to caution. Do, do consider in how many instances prosperity has been injurious to the souls of men—of men that once stood high in the church as well as in the world. It is the green and flowery mount from which many have slided down into the bottomless pit; for it has proved to many the occasion of apostacy. And even should it not lead to this, still, without great watchfulness and prayer, without incessant struggling, you will be sure to lose your spirituality, and gain much injury to your soul. In that case, the more you have of earth, the less you will have of heaven; your gain here will be a loss to you there. There are, as I have already said, degrees of glory; higher and lower seats in heaven; gradations of honour, and of capacity for bliss in paradise; and though your worldly-mindedness may not be such as to unchristianize you, yet it may be enough to make you Christians of a low standard, and therefore fit for only one of the lowest stations of the kingdom of God; while, on the other hand, sanctified prosperity may meeten you for one of the highest. Thus your prosperity will extend to both worlds; it will be immor. tal, and you will be made ruler of ten cities.

Give yourselves, then, to prayer. Call upon God. His grace can be made sufficient for you, and nothing else can.

He giveth more grace, and you need more. "Ask and you

shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you."

Remember Lot's wife." Remember the prosperous man, whose goods increased in abundance; but who was cut off in one night from his prospects, his possessions, and his folly. Remember the rich man who was clad in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day, but who died, and

in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments; and to whose request for only a drop of cold water, no other answer was given than, "Remember thou hast had thy consolation." May you not pluck the fruits of unsanctified prosperity for ever and ever in hell; but gather the harvest of a well employed abundance in the kingdom of heaven throughout eternity.

CHAPTER XV.

THE PROFESSOR IN ADVERSITY.

Ir is hard to say which is the more difficult and dangerous effort, to ascend or descend a steep and rocky mountain. In So it either case, to proceed with safety, is no easy matter. is a difficulty with some to decide, whether prosperity or adversity be more perilous to the Christian. Each has its snares, and each requires caution, watchfulness, and prayer. Each brings on a crisis in our religious history, and makes It is an undoubted fact, that by us either better or worse. far the greater number of God's people have been found, hitherto, in the humble vale of poverty, or in the secluded retreats of adversity; a fact, which, in connexion with what the scriptures say, is a strong presumption, that in the judg ment of omniscient and infallible wisdom, piety is likely to God could cause the sun ever to flourish most in the shade. shine upon his people, and prevent any cloud from obscuring for a moment his rays; it is not for want of power to make poor. All them rich, that he suffers any of his children to be things are at his disposal and under his direction; he could give them all a patrimony in this world, which would exalt them above their fellows. He could make them all by acquisition, great in fame, and rank, and wealth-but he does not― Each of and therefore it must be best that he should not. look at the cross and say with an apostle, “He them may up for that spared not his own Son, but freely delivered him

us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" There is no answering that logic: the conclusion is as just as the premises are true. The disproportion between a crumb and a kingdom is not so great as that between a kingdom and God's only-begotten Son. He that hath the Son may infer, with absolute certainty, that he has every thing else, which infinite wisdom sees it best he should have; there is nothing more certain under the heavens, than that infinite love, after having given a man Christ, can withhold nothing else that is for his real good.

How then should a professor conduct himself in adversity, so as to glorify God? By adversity, I intend three classes of persons,-the poor-the unfortunate-and the afflicted. I am aware that the word is usually restricted to the middle class; but if I were to use it in this limited sense, I should exclude many whom I wish to address.

There are some duties which are common to all these three classes alike.

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Submission to the will of God is one of them.—By submission, I mean the repression of all repining language, the resistance of all rebellious feeling, and the determined opposition of all hard thoughts of God, as if he had dealt unkindly or severely with us; together with an acquiescence in all he does as right and good. The temper, for instance, which is expressed in such language as this: "It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth good to him." I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it." The grounds of submission are clear views and a firm belief of God's power, wisdom, and love-such a deep sense of our sins as leads us to say, It is of the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, wherefore then should a man complain, a living man for the punishment of his sins, since he hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.”—A strong and steady faith in Christ for pardon, peace, and hope

-a vivid apprehension of eternal glory-and a settled assu rance that all things work together for good to them that love God. These are the grounds of submission, which cannot exist where they are not, and cannot be absent where they are. A murmuring, complaining, fretful, and peevish Christian, whose words approach as near as possible to rebellion against God, disgraces and belies every principle of his profession.

Somewhat of Christian cheerfulness should be manifested by all persons in adversity. If they would glorify God; if they would cause the light of their principles to shine forth; if they would adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour; if they would appear different from other men; they must break the silence even of submission with the words of contentment, and if possible with the notes of praise. They must sing like the nightingale, and shine like the glow-worm in the dark. They must rejoice in the Lord, delight themselves in God, repose their aching heart on the covenant of grace, and exult in the assurance that in heaven they have an enduring substance. As they sit amidst the fragments of their broken cisterns, they must be heard singing the words of the prophet, "With joy will I draw water out of the wells of salvation." Thus will they glorify God, when the smile of cheerfulness on their countenance looks like the bow upon the cloud, and they render the dark scene of their sor. rows, a means of displaying the resplendent beauties of the Sun of Righteousness. O, how is God honoured by the Christian in adversity, when all his conduct as well as his words seem to say "I have lost much, but I still possess infinitely more than I have lost or can lose. With Christ as my Saviour, God as my Father, salvation as my portion, and heaven as my home; how can I be thought poor or wretched?"

There are also duties peculiar to each of the three classes which I have specified.