are as really dependent on God for daily food as Israel in the wilderness, when fed with bread from heaven by a continual miracle, though our dependence is not so visible, nor so sensibly felt.

The number and magnitude of the wants of creatures may convince us, that nothing short of the alsufficiency of God can supply them. How large the quantity of vegetable and animal productions is required in one day for the sustenance of a single town, a city, a nation-for the whole world! And yet what is a city, a nation, a world of men, when compared with the whole creation, which everywhere teems with life, and whose wants are all to be supplied. The air, earth, and seas abound with animated beings: and whose providence could superintend, or bounty supply, a family of such amasing extent, and whose necessities are so various and so vast? Oh Lord! The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season.

The means by which our supplies reach us, afford additional proof of the care of God over us. He does not provide for us immediately, so much as through the medium of second causes; and though we may be insensible of that hand which puts all in motion, yet is it no less engaged than if we were supplied by miracle. There is a connection of causes in all the works of God: every part of the creation tends to supply the wants of the other and what is this but the operation of His hand, who hath so arranged and connected the different orders of beings as to render them mutually subservient? The earth abounds with verdure, the air with salubrity, the clouds pour forth their waters upon the earth, the sun its genial rays, and all the elements are enriched with blessings for man: but all these are only the opening of God's hand. Tender parents have supplied our wants, during our infancy and youth; endeared connections have been formed, which have proved a source of perpetual enjoyment; in seasons of difficulty, affectionate friends have kindly aided us, and supplies have come from quarters

the least expected.

And yet these are but the means which the Father of mercies has employed for the satisfying of our desires, while he himself is the great source from whence all our comforts are derived.

What then shall we render to the Lord, for all his benefits? All the return which he demands of us is that of a thankful heart. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.' But where has been our gratitude and praise? The worst thing that was said of one of the worst of men was, ' He hath eaten at my table, and lifted up his heel against me.' How awful the idea, to be an enemy to God amidst all this profusion of goodness; and what an aggravation in the conduct of the sinner, to despise these riches, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth him to repentance.

If such be the bounty of providence, what encouragement have we to trust in the Lord under all our wants and difficulties. With what ease can he supply us! By how many ways unknown to us can he give a favourable turn to our affairs! And what proofs have we of this in the late abundant harvest. (1802) But lately we were as a nation on the brink of ruin: our affairs at home and abroad were highly disastrous, and pregnant with encreasing calamity. But behold, how easily the Lord can change the face of adversity into gladness. The earth is full of his riches; he hath crowned the year with his goodness, and his paths have dropped fatness upon us. The pastures are clothed with flocks, the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing,

But if such be the bounties of his providence, what must be the riches of his grace. If such be the opening of his hand, what must be the fulness of his heart. If he so abundantly satisfies the desires of nature, much more those of grace. That which is done generally in one case, is done universally in the other. Not one seeking soul shall perish for want of spiritual desire be unsatisfied which terminates in Christ. He

good, nor any

will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.'

While we cherish gratitude for temporal blessings, let us not rest satisfied with them as our portion. God gives these to all, to the wicked as well as to the righteous. To Nabal he gave flocks and herds in abundance, and to Nebuchadnezzar all the kingdoms of the world. But let us rather covet Joseph's portion; not the precious things of the earth, and the fulness thereof;' but the good will of him that dwelt in the bush.' With Jabez, let us desire to be blessed indeed;' and with Mary, choose 'the better part, which shall never be taken away from

us.'

If to supply all creation, it is sufficient that God opens his hand only, what must the blessings of Redemption be, which could only be procured by the blood of Christ. In respect to power, God was sufficient for the latter, as well as the former; but power alone could not accomplish it. There were difficulties in the way of communicating spiritual blessings, which nothing short of an infinite sacrifice could remove: and of these there is not a gift his hand bestows, but cost his heart a groan.' How invaluable the blessings which come to us through such a medium; and how far superior in importance to all the riches of the universe.

Can we survey these proofs of divine beneficence, and not feel the most powerful motives to kindness and liberality to the poor and needy? Shall we not be followers of God as dear children, and be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect; who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust? The exercise of genuine benevolence assimilates us to his likeness, and confers on us the exalted dignity of participating in his felicity; while selfishness debases us to the lowest state of meanness, and deprives us of the most luxurious enjoyments.

Reader! Has the Lord opened his hand, and satisfied thy desires; are thy garners full, affording all manner of

store? Remember what the Lord hath commanded thee: 'Thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother; but thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress; of that wherewith thy God hath blessed thee, thou shalt give unto him.' Deut. xv. 7—14.

VANITY OF THE HUMAN MIND.

The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Psal. xciv. 11.

SURELY it is the design of God in all his dispensations and by all the discoveries of his word, to stain the pride of all flesh. The dust is the proper place for a creature, and that place we must occupy. What a humbling thought is here suggested to us. Let us examine it.

(1) If vanity had been ascribed to the meaner parts of the creation; if all inanimate and irrational beings, whose days are as a shadow, and who know not whence they came, nor whither they go, had thus been characterised, it had little more than accorded with our own ideas. But the humiliating truth belongs to man, the lord of the lower creation; to man, that distinguished link in the chain of being, which unites in his person mortality and immortality, heaven and earth. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

(2) Had vanity been ascribed only to the exercises of our sensual or mortal part, or of that which we possess in common with other animals, it had been less humiliating. But the charge is pointed at that which is the peculiar glory of man, the intellectual part, his thoughts. It is here, if any where, that we excel the creatures which are placed around us. We can contemplate our own

existence, dive into the past and the future, and understand whence we came, and whither we go. Yet in this tender part are we touched. Even the thoughts of man are vanity.

(3) If vanity had been ascribed merely to those loose and trifling excursions of the imagination, which fall not under the influence of choice, a kind of comers and goers, which are ever floating in the mind, like insects in the air on a summer's evening, it had been less affecting. The soul of man seems to be necessarily active. Every thing we see, hear, taste, feel or perceive, has some influence upon thought, which is moved by it as the leaves on the trees are moved by every breeze of wind. But thoughts' here include those exercises of the mind in which it is voluntarily or intensely engaged, and in which we are in carnest; even all our schemes, contrivances, and purposes. One would think, if there were any thing in man to be accounted of, it should be those exercises in which his intellectual faculty is seriously and intensely employed. Yet the Lord knoweth that even these are vanity.

(4) If during our state of childhood and youth only, vanity had been ascribed to our thoughts, it would have been less surprising. This is a truth, of which numberless parents have painful proof; yea, and of which children themselves, as they grow up to maturity, are generally conscious. Vanity at this period, however admits of some apology. The obstinacy and folly of some young people, while they provoke disgust, often excite a tear of pity. But the charge is exhibited against man. 'Man at his best estate is altogether vanity.

(5) The decision proceeds from a quarter from which there can be no appeal. The Lord knoweth it. Opinions dishonourable to our species may sometimes arise from ignorance, sometimes from spleen and disappointment, and sometimes from a gloomy turn of mind, which views mankind through a distorted medium. But the judgment given in this passage, is the decision of Him who cannot