Just ruffles o'er th' opposing stone, Do thou, O Lord, my striving bless, SCRIPTURE DIFFICULTIES. AN exacter knowledge in language and circumstances, would cause many difficulties in the Bible to vanish like shades before the light of the sun. Jeremiah, to describe a furious invader, saith; Behold he shall come up as a lion from the swelling of JORDAN against the habitation of the strong. One would be apt to think this passage odd and improper; and that it had been more reasonable to have said, a lion from the mountain or the desert. But travellers who have seen the river Jordan bounded by low lands, with many reeds or thickets affording shelter to wild beasts (which being suddenly dislodged by a rapid overflowing of the river, rush into the upland country) perceive the force of the camparison; and that the difficulty proceeds, not from nonsense in the writer, but from ignorance in the reader.-Bp. Berkeley (Minute Philosopher. Dial. vi. 7.) "THIS IS A FAITHFUL SAYING." THE expression, “This is a faithful saying," which occurs repeatedly in these later Epistles (of St. Paul), indicates in all probability so many christian proverbs, familiar in the mouths of that generation of believers. Thus, in the first Epistle to Timothy, we have, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all men to be received, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners:' This is a faithful saying, 'If a man desire the office of a Bishop, he desireth a good work:' This is a faithful saying, That therefore we both labour and suffer reproof, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe.' In the second Epistle; "It is a faithful saying, 'If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we suffer, we shall also reign with him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us.'"-(Keble: Primitive Tradition, pag. 14.) [God grant that we may treasure up, as maxims and rules of life, these faithful sayings of Holy Scripture. Amen.] HEAR the just law, the judgement of the skies! COWPER. QUESTIONS TO NON-COMMUNICANTS. 1. Is it not certain, that we ought to obey Jesus Christ? 2. Is it not certain, that we ought to understand his words in their plain meaning, unless we are sure that that cannot be the true meaning? 3, Did not Jesus Christ say; Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you?" [John, vi. 53.] 4. Did not Jesus Christ say, that the bread which he brake was his body, and the wine his blood of the New Testament? and did he not tell his disciples to eat of that bread, and drink of that cup? [Matthew, xxvi. 26, 27, 28.] 5. Can we eat the very flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his very blood, in the common meaning of the words? 6. Can we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood in any way that is so likely to be the way meant, as that of eating the bread which He called his body, and drinking the wine, which He called his blood? which bread and wine He desired his disciples to eat and drink in remembrance of him? 7. Does not St. Paul say that the cup of blessing is the communion (that is, the sharing in or partaking of) the blood of Christ; and the bread the communion of the body of Christ [1 Cor. xi. 16.] 8. Does not St. Paul say that by eating this bread, and drinking this cup do we shew forth the Lord's death till he come? [1 Cor. xi. 26.] 9. Does not this prove, that this manner of shewing forth the Lord's death is for Christians of every age of the world? 10. Has not the Church all along believed, that partaking of this Sacrament is a means of conveying spiritual life to us? is, sacramentally but really, eating the flesh, and drinking the blood of Christ? 11. Is the opinion of the Church of Christ for 1800 years to go for nothing? 12. If we do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood in this Sacrament, do we eat his flesh and drink his blood in any sense? If so, in what sense? 13. Have we any grounds for thinking that we can have life in us, without eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ? 14. If we are held back from partaking of the Sacrament by any particular hindrance, do we pray that that hindrance may be removed? 15. Are many men held back from partaking of this Sacrament by real unfeigned humility? 16. If a man is not fit to partake of this Sacrament, is he fit to die? LAY OUT YOUR THOUGHTS WELL. If you have a brook running by your land, you will endeavour to turn it over your ground, that seeing it must run, it may as well run that way where it may do good, as run in vain. So when your thoughts must run, is it not better that you turn them to your own hearts, and states, to prepare for the world that you are ready to step into, than to let them run in vain. If you see a man go into a wine cellar (though it be his own) and pull out all the spigots, and let all the wine run about the cellar, and suffer nobody to catch it, or be the better for it, what would you conceive of the wisdom or charity of that man? Your thoughts are a thing more precious than wine, and such a thing as should not be spilt. And yet is not this your every day's practice? You are before Him that knows your thoughts: deny it if you can. What hours of the day can a man come to you, and find your thoughts altogether idle? What minute of an hour can a man come and ask you, What are you now thinking of? and you can truly say, nothing! I know as long as you are awake, you are alway thinking of somewhat, (and perhaps when you are asleep) and what is it on? This body shall have a thought, and that body a thought: every word you hear, and every wrong that is done you, and almost every thing you look upon, shall have a thought: and God and your own salvation shall have none: that is, you will lose them, and let them run in waste, but you will do no good with them, nor take any profit by them to yourselves. Have you any thing that better deserves your consideration than God, and your salvation? Certainly God hath more right to your thoughts, than any thing else that you can place them on. Your flesh, your friends, your worldly business, are neither so honorable, so necessary, or so profitable subjects, as God and Heaven are. As there is more profit to be got by the tillage of fruitful land, than barren heath; or by digging in a mine of gold, than in a clay-pit; so is there more pleasure and profit to be gotten in one hour's serious thoughts of your salvation, than in thinking all your life-time of the world. At least, methinks, you should consider how disproportionately and unequally you lay out your thoughts. Cannot you spare God the tenths? no nor the hundredth part of them? Look back upon your lives, and trace your thoughts from day to day, and tell me how many hours in a week, in a month, or in a year, you have spent in serious thoughts of the state of your souls, and of the life to come. BAXTER. HABITS are soon assumed, but when we strive To strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive. COWPER. WHEN ancient opinions and rules of life are taken away, the loss cannot possibly be estimated. BURKE. WIILLAM WORTLEY. ADAM BRENT and William Wortley had come back in an angry discontented state of mind from the small town of N--. They had been to apply to the Board of Guardians for "their money;" but were told by a rather rough, but honest-looking farmer, that he did not know they had any money of theirs. When did you bring it, my lads? he said; and which of us did you give it to? Wortley was a little put out by this question; but his companion tried to make out, that every man had a right to so much for each child from the parish. The Chairman explained to them, that the law gave no man a right of this kind; though the parish was still bound to support all who could not support themselves. On going into the cases, it proved to be only would not, as far as these applicants were concerned; they had not had work, it is true; but they had not chosen to look about for it. The bread of idleness was as good to them as the bread of industry, if they could get as much of it; or rather it was a deal better; for if ever two men disliked hard work, these did; and as to any unwillingness to be supported by others, they would have laughed at you, if you had talked to them about it. Of course they received no relief from the Board, because the members of it knew that there was plenty of work to be had for asking. They returned home vext and out of humour: but they had very different homes to go to. Brent's a wife was a violent-tempered woman, who had brought him little money saved in service: they had begun with keeping a shop; but the husband's idle habits soon ran away with all the profits, and lost all the customers. The money they had set up with, was soon gone; and they had not been married six months, before Adam was a day labourer, and the neat house, with its shop and back parlour, was obliged to be given up for one of the humblest cottages in the village. The change was a miserable one to both, for to neither of them was it softened by christian feeling. It did not humble them; but it put them into bad humour with each other and with all the world. They learnt no lesson of prudence from what had happened: Sally had all along been alive to her husband's folly, and foreseen the ruin it would bring upon them; but she did not see, that it was her part to do all she |