enjoy the rain and dew of heaven, turning the wilderness into a garden or a field, which the Lord has blessed. These are the Lord's doings, and they are marvellous in our eyes.

III. We learn from the subject not to be proud, or elated with prosperity.

Success often renders the person "another man." His deportment, his opinions, his affections, his language, are changed. His elevation has made him dizzy; he is intoxicated with self-complacency. Is this wise or rational? Is the sick man proud of his hospital? Will the inmates of the alms-house boast of their comfortable apartments? Why then do men boast of their genius, their talents, or acquirements? These are the gift of God. What have they which they have not received? "Shall the axe boast itself

against him that heweth with it?"

To cure your pride, remember that in the midst of your prosperity, you are still dependent; your blessings are on the wing. To day your fields are promising; tomorrow comes a frost, and your hopes are gone. As your orchards this morning, covered with blossoms, delighting the eye, and perfuming the air, will soon lose their beauty, the flowers fallen, and scattered by the winds, so your felicities of health, and friends, possessions, and pleasures, of every name, will vanish away, to return no more. Is here reason for pride?

Will you boast of your bounties, when you recollect that the same favours are sometimes granted to the most worthless of the human family? No man knoweth love or hatred, by his worldly circumstances.

Nabal was rich, and Haman and Herod were powerful. Absalom by the charms of his person, and his captivating address, stole the hearts of Israel. He who lifted up his eyes in torment, crying for a drop of water, had been "clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day." Have you not known some of the vilest men, as rich, as distinguished in society, as prosperous, as you are? Where, then, is the ground for pride or self-complacency? The splendour of wealth, the friendship of the world, the pleasures of sense, are such a miserable portion, that God often confers them on the most wicked men. Your highest transports of success establish no claim to merit, give no decisive proof of the divine favour. As a further remedy for pride and exultation, consider how inadequate is your success to satisfy your desires, to make you happy. Who is so rich, as not to feel a painful desire for greater possessions? "How delightful it would be," says the landholder, "had I only this house, or that field, or meadow, or yonder grove, added to my farm.”

What prince or conqueror does not thirst for more extensive power and dominion? Like the all-devouring grave, the heart of man is perpetually crying "Give, give." Earthly good is not adapted to the wants of an immortal mind. Never is it satisfied with objects of sense; they leave an aching void. The soul of man, though fallen, and in ruins, like a fallen temple, exhibits the tokens of her former elevation and grandeur; she turns away dissatisfied with worldly good. As the ocean is not filled with all the rivers of the world, pouring in their floods from gen

eration to generation, so the mind of man is not satisfied with all the streams of worldly prosperity. They furnish no cause for pride and vain glory.

IV. If all our success and consolation come from God, is it not presumptuous to depend on ourselves, or our hopeful means of success, while we neglect God.

Let all those, who confide in their own strength, remember that "the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor riches to men of understanding. "Time and chance," or rather the providence of God, governs all. The weakest army often raises the shout of victory. Ancient and modern days are replete with stories of this sort. Neglecting God, you neglect Him who gives power and efficacy to your own efforts, and all the means which you employ. The resolution is marked with atheism, when, without reference to God, you say, "to day, or tomorrow, I will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain." You know not what will be on the morrow. What is your

life? It is a vapour.

"If the Lord will, I Every thing respect

Every devout man will say, shall live, and do this or that." ing the future is uncertain, any further than we can learn the divine will. If you can find a promise, if you plead the promise, and believe the promise, your object But while you neglect God, relying on your own strength, or skill, or other flattering means, your hopes are on the sand; your confidence is vain; disappointment is at the door. Or should you succeed,

is sure.

your success will not be prosperity; it may involve you, with Joseph's brethren, in remorse and shame.

"Delight thyself in the Lord, and he will give thee the desire of thine heart."

Hezekiah exulted with vain glory, while he displayed his treasures before the servants of the king of Babylon. At the very sight they probably conceived the idea of bearing them away in triumph, while the prophet is commanded to announce to him the sad tidings, that "all that is in thine house shall be carried to Babylon, nothing shall be left, saith the Lord. Thy sons shall be captives in the palaces of Babylon." Learn, then, to acknowledge God in all thy ways, and he will direct thy paths. He will give success to thine affairs; not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.

SERMON XII.

PROVERBS xxii, 29.

Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean

men.

ACTION is every-where manifest. The sun is turning on his axis; the stars are moving in their courses; the earth is revolving in its orbit. Winds blow,rivers run, oceans roll. Birds are on the wing; cattle rove round a thousand hills; man goeth forth to his labours; angels are ascending and descending between heaven and earth. God himself works ;God is the most constant and powerful Agent in the universe. Though perpetually giving life and activity to his creatures, He never rests nor tires. A wakeful, active spirit pervades his works. Were a planet to stop in its course, it would destroy or derange the system. If a man is idle, it disturbs the moral order around him; a train is laid for unnumbered evils: Most of the troubles in this life; all the miseries of the life to come, result from the wrong employment of time.