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ry one does that which is right in his own eyes, and of confes quence every thing goes wrong. He may withhold what is due, and the family ftarves. The food may be improperly mixed, and thereby changed into poifon. He may be injudicious, and the aliment of the healthy and vigorous is administered to the puny and feeble, while the delicate nourish ment that fuits ficklinefs and imbecility is prefented to maturity and ftrength. He may be deliberately wicked, and betray the truft which he was appointed to guard. As a contraft to this melancholy picture, turn your eyes to the portrait of that faithful steward, and able minifter of the New Teftament, the apoftle of the Gentiles, in the folemn appeal which he makes to the elders of Ephefus, on bidding them a final farewel "Ye know, from the first day that I came into Afia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, ferving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations which befel me by the lying in wait of the Jews; and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have fhewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to houfe, teftifying both to the Jews, and alfo to the Greeks, rea pentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jefus Chrift. And now, behold, I go bound in the fpirit unto Jerufalem, not knowing the things that fhall befal me there: fave that the Holy Ghoft witneffeth in every city, faying, that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, nei. ther count I my life dear unto myfelf, fo that I might finish my courfe with joy, and the miniftry which I have received of the Lord Jefus, to teftify the Gospel of the grace of God." "I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men ; for I have not fhunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God-remember, that, by the space of three years, I ceafed not to warn every one night and day with tears. I have fhewed you all things, how that fo labouring ye ought to fupport the weak; and to remember the words of the Lord Jefas, how he faid, it is more bleffed to give than to receive." But there is an appeal ftill more folemn and affecting, and in circumftances infinitely more interesting, that of the chief Shepherd himself, addreffed to his heavenly Father, in the near profpect "of his decease which he fhould accomplish at Jerufalem." "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gaveft me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own felf, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifefted thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gaveft them me; and they

have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things, whatfoever thou haft given me, are of thee: for I have given unto them the words which thou gaveft me: and they have received them, and have known furely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didft lend me." "Holy Father, keep through thine own name thofe whom thou haft giv en me, that they may be one, as we are."

5. Let not the conftant and regular operations of Deity, in the course of nature and providence be overlooked. Like the people who "did eat of the loaves and were filled," we take and enjoy the repaft, but difcern not the miracle which produced it. The naturalift traces the progrefs of vegetation as an amusement, as à branch of science. The husbandman purfues it as his destined occupation, he cafts feed into the ground, leaves it there and goes to fleep, obferves it day after day Springing and growing up, he knoweth not how; firft the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear, but his eye and his heart are all the while fet on the time of putting in the fickle, when the harveft is come. The eager merchant too watches the procefs, as a commercial fpeculation, as favorable or unfavorable to his plans of buying, and felling, and getting gain. With what a different eye does a devotional fpirit contemplate Deity fpreading a table for every thing that lives! The Chriftian confiders the fare upon his own board, whether fimple or fumptuous, flowing in whatever channel, coming from the eaft or from the west, from the fouth or from the north, as a supply immediately furnished by the hand of his heavenly Father, as children's bread, as a foretafe of the rich provifion of his Father's house above. This communicates to ordinary things a relish unknown to the banquets of the luxurious and the proud. With the five thousand he beholds his God in perfon feeding him. He paffes from the table which he calls his own, and at which his divine Mafter fat as a guest, though invifible, to that which Jefus emphatically calls his, and he finds it replenifhed" with all the fulness of God." He eats and is fatisfied, he goes on his way rejoicing, he advances from ftrength to ftrength, he mounts up as on eagles' wings, he runs and is not weary, he walks and faints not. Thus may every one of us in the Zion that is above appear before God. "The grace of the Lord Jefus Chrift, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghoft, be with you all. Amen."

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