which he expected from them. But no words have such efficacy for this purpose, as the words of God. David had perished in the day of his affliction, unless the law of God had been his delight. His afflictions were many, his griefs often great; but they never overwhelmed him, for the statutes of God were his song in the house of his pilgrimage.

Would you comfort them that are cast down? Study the doctrines and promises of the Bible; make yourselves acquainted with the records of the experience of afflicted saints; and pray for the tongue of the learned, that you may be enabled to make seasonable applications from this spiritual dispensary, to the broken in heart.

Remember that

Are you grieved in your minds? it is sinful and dangerous to brood perpetually over your sorrows. In order that you may have comfort restored, retire and read your Bibles, and see that ye resist not, by the indulgence of unbelief, that Spirit who is promised as a comforter. In the 14th, 15th,

and 16th chapters of John's Gospel, are contained those words of Christ, by which he conveyed strong consolation to his disciples, when sorrow had filled their hearts, because he was about to leave them. Can there be greater sorrows on any earthly account, or are there any griefs too desperate to be relieved by such consolations?

Ver. 26. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour; but the way of the wicked seduceth them.

The wise man does not say that the righteous is more excellent than the wicked, but gives the unrighteous man the best designation of which truth will admit, for after all possible allowances are made on the side of the unrighteous, the superior excellency of the righteous man is still unquestionable.

The righteous man is possessed with the faith of Christ, and this faith works by love to God and man. He is not selfish in his disposition, but makes it his settled principle of conduct, to glorify God and to do good to man. He is under the government of inward principles, that render him steady in his good purposes, and dispose him, not only to seek for glory, honour, and immortality, but to perform conscientiously the duties of his station, and of every relation in which Providence shall be pleased to place him.

His neighbour may exceed him in many of those possessions and qualifications which are valued in the world, but the righteous man is still more excellent in every thing that is truly valuable. His neighbour

may be able to perform more splendid acts of generosity, but he wants that charity without which it profits a man nothing to part with all his goods. He may possess wit, and the wisdom of the world; but that is foolishness with God, and can bear no comparison with that wisdom which is unto salvation. He may be very rich, but he has no interest in the unsearchable riches of Christ. He may be a duke, or a prince of the blood; but he is not a child of God, nor an heir of heaven. He may be clothed with purple, and fare sumptuously every day; but he is not clothed with the robe of righteousness, nor does he feed on the hidden manna. He may live in a magnificent palace, but he has no title to the house not made with hands, and to the mansions which Christ hath gone to prepare for his followers. He may be admired by men, but the righteous man is an eternal excellency in the eyes of God, and the Lord of hosts is to him a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty.

Why then do men despise the righteous, and toil themselves in the chase of those things that are not to be compared with the objects that make the righ

teous so excellent? Because their way seduceth them. They are seduced by the devil and the world, otherwise they would not walk in such dangerous paths, and in their wicked progress their seduction grows upon them. They are more and more infatuated with the deceitful charms of the world, and despising the genuine worth of righteousness, are bewildered and lost in the pursuit of vanities and lies.

Let us pray for the Spirit of wisdom, that our understandings may be enlightened to discern the true nature and the incomparable excellency of righteousness; for the light of the body is the eye, and the understanding is the light of the soul, and the whole course of our lives will be directed by it *.

Ver. 27. The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting; but the substance of a diligent man is precious.

It is a great happiness for a man to eat of the labour of his hands, and a great misery for a man to be deprived of the fruits of his industry. Disappointment of hope is a grievous thing, especially when that hope is the fruit of a man's own labour; and the disappointment is mingled with bitter reflections on the toils sustained, with a view to the expected advantage. But no disappointment of this kind is more grievous than that of the sluggard, to whom labour is a burden which nothing but necessity can render supportable.

If the slothful man took nothing in hunting, it would vex him; but to take, and not to roast,-this is altogether intolerable, and must make his heart sick; for his labour is vain, his hope makes him ashamed, and Providence fights against him, depriving him of what he had got, at the very time that he thought himself sure of enjoying it.

• Matt, vi. 20, 21.

"But the substance of a diligent man is precious." His toils sweeten his gains, and he enjoys them with pleasure and thankfulness. The blessing of the Lord infuses a sweetness into his substance, so that, (though little), it affords him more pleasure than the wicked and indolent can derive from great riches.

The substance of a diligent Christian, though small, is very precious to him, because it is not the fruit of his labours only, but of his prayers also, and he discerns in it the love of his heavenly Father, who, while he gives him the pardon of his sins, gives him also daily bread.

Ver. 28. In the way of righteousness is life; and in the path-way thereof there is no death.

Solomon knew very well that Zion's travellers must die, but it is a kind of happy impropriety to call the death of the righteous by its own name. Christ's death was truly death, but the death of them that die in the Lord is only a sleep *, for Christ hath abolished death, and secured an uninterrupted life to them that believe in him t.

There is nothing that can subject the righteous man to the curse of the first, or to the power of the second death. Nothing can deprive him of that life which is hid with Christ in God.

What man is he that desireth immortal life? Let him enter into the new and living way. There let him walk, and in it he shall find no death .

1 Thess. iv. 14,

Job xi. 25. xxvi. 15.

Isa. xxxv. 8, 9.

CHAPTER XIII.

Ver. 1. A wise son heareth his father's instruction : but a scorner heareth not rebuke.

THE reason why so many will not regard instruction, and listen to rebuke with meekness, is, that they think it a disparagement to their good sense. But in what does man's wisdom lie? Not in being infallible, or in needing no reproof, but in being sensible that he is liable to error and sin, and in a humble disposition to reverence instruction even when administered in the form of reproof, and enforced by needful correction. He is an unkind father who never checks the froward inclinations and behaviour of his children; and he is a proud and haughty scorner who receives the rebukes of a father, or of any other wise person, with contempt and aversion. Eli's sons disregarded the mild admonitions of their father. Their father was punished in them for his excessive lenity, and they were destroyed for their stubborn contempt of advice.

If a wise son will regard the instructions and reproofs of a father, how much more should we be in subjection to the Father of spirits! and how fatal is the stubbornness of those who cry not when he bindeth them!

Ver. 2. A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth : but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence.

Trees are often planted by one man and dressed by