His name, and declare His doings among the people"; or at least you should say with him, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul."

VI. DAYS OF PARTICULAR SPECIFICATION. These should be remembered. We will mention three of these. Birthdays, Nuptial days, and New Years' days.

First, Birthdays. These days should be remembered. Then you come into contact with God as His creatures, for He has made you, He formed your bodies, and framed your spirits within you, and you are called upon to "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth." And you ought to look back upon that period, and say with the Psalmist, "O Lord, I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvellous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect, and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." And as you think of the country in which you were born, you should daily bless God that you were not brought forth in a heathen, or Mahommedan, or a Jewish, or a Popish country, but you have had your existence where "the lines have fallen unto you in pleasant places;" where your understandings have had every advantage; where you have civil and religious freedom, and where spiritually too, you are fed with the finest of the wheat, and where with oil out of the rock you have been satisfied. How thankful should you be that you are not in the condition of poor Job, whose suffering and anguish of spirit constrained him to say, "Let the day perish wherein I was born. Let that day be darkness; and as for that night, let it not come into the number of the months."

I suppose there is no harm in a man stealing from himself; let me therefore read a few lines derived from "Jay's Morning Exercises: ""How dreadful must it be to say with Voltaire, 'who can without horror consider the whole world as the empire of destruction? It abounds with wonders: it also abounds with victims. It is a vast field of carnage and contagion. In man there is more wretchedness than in all the other animals put together. He loves life, and he knows that he must die. If he enjoys a transient good he suffers various evils, and is at last devoured by worms. This knowledge is

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his fatal prerogative: other animals have it not. He spends the transient moments of his existence in diffusing the miseries which he suffers; in cutting the throats of his fellow creatures for pay; in cheating and being cheated; in robbing and being robbed; in serving that he might command; and in repenting of all he does. The bulk of mankind are nothing more than a crowd of wretches equally criminal and unfortunate; and the globe contains rather carcases than men.' I tremble at the review of this dreadful picture to find that it contains a complaint against Providence itself: 'and I wish I had never been born." Now let us hear the language of the excellent Hallyburton: "I shall shortly get a very different sight of God from what I have ever had, and shall be made meet to praise Him for ever and ever. Oh, the thoughts of an incarnate Deity are sweet and ravishing. Oh, how I wonder at myself, that I do not love Him more, and that I do not admire Him more. What a wonder that I enjoy such composure under all my bodily pains, and in the view of death itself! What a mercy that, having the use of my reason, I can declare His goodness to my evil! I long for His salvation; I bless His name; I have found Him, and die rejoicing in Him. Oh, blessed be God that I was born! Oh, that I was where He is ! I have a father and mother, and ten brothers and sisters in heaven, and I shall be the eleventh. Oh, there is a telling of this Providence, and I shall be telling it for ever! If there be such a glory in His conduct towards me now, what will it be to see the Lamb in the midst of the throne? Blessed be God that ever I was born!"

Well, now, what a mercy is it, if you can connect your new birth with your first, and can say with Paul, "God who has separated me from my mother's womb, hath called me by His grace, and revealed His Son in me." If this be not your case, my dear hearers, at the beginning of this year, let me beseech you to pray that it may be so.

Secondly, Nuptial Days. These should be remembered. They are some of the most important and most interesting in the whole course of your lives. Then it is that you leave individuality, and enter upon social life, and you find yourself in a state of relationship that surpasses all natural ties. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh." And Oh, what reason have you to be thankful, if you have a helpmeet; if now you are walking together as fellow heirs

of the grace of life, and are helpful to each other in the way everlasting. If, indeed, you have disregarded the divine command to "marry only in the Lord," why you may expect that, having walked contrary to Him, He will walk contrary to you, and cause your own backslidings to reprove you. And if you,

O wife, instead of finding the days of your espousals the gladness of your heart, have been deceived without any blame on your side, still may you look up to the Lord, and say, "Save with thy right hand, and hear me !" If you cannot take sweet counsel together, and walk to the house of God in company, seek Him alone; He can sanctify, and overrule this deepest of all afflictions. I have known more than one who has been chosen on this furnace of affliction, and where a bad husband has done what many ministers have laboured in vain to accomplish.

Thirdly, New Years' Days. These should be remembered. We have entered upon a new period of existence, and you should remember you never had such a New Year's Day before, because it has left you one year nearer the Bar of Christ, where you will have to give an account of the deeds done in the body, whether they have been good or whether they have been evil. We wish you to remember that, though you have been brought through another year, many have been carried down to the regions of death. They have now seen corruption, while you are living to praise God.

We would have you praise as well as rejoice at such a time, and surely you will indulge one reflection before we proceed further, and say with Job" when a few years are gone, I shall go the way whence I shall not return." Would it be useful for you to ask "May I not this year die? Have I guarantees to pass safely through? Is not life uncertain ?" Oh, how many dangers are there that lie in wait to make us afraid! Surely you would not think of entering upon a new year without praying that you may be prepared for all that awaits you, and without asking God to be your companion and guide. What would you think of passing through another year without seeking God to be your Guide and Guard and Comfort? without seeking His pardon and sanctifying grace, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ for all your duties and trials, that though you know not what a day may bring forth, you may still rejoice; knowing that

"It can bring nothing with it,
But He will bear you through."

He will never leave nor forsake you; that if you live it may be to serve Him, and if you die, it may be to enjoy Him for ever. I wish you all, therefore, a Happy New Year; but then it must be a holy one in order to be a happy one. May great grace descend upon you all! "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace."

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VI.

FORGETFULNESS OF GOD.

A FAST-DAY SERMON.

(Preached on the 28th of September, 1849.)

"And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek Him for all this."-HOSEA vii. 10.

THE history of the Jews is very peculiar; it abounds with wonders, miracles, and signs; and in perusing it, nothing strikes us more than the frequency and severity of God's reproaches concerning them, some of which may be considered as expressed by the eloquent Isaiah: "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah ! sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord; they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger; they have gone away backward." Hence some may be tempted to suppose that their case was peculiar, but are we better than they? By no means. They were fair specimens of our common nature; and we may say in the words of Dr. Watts,—

"There in a glass our hearts we see,
How fickle and how false are we !"

And we wonder not that Adam in his private thoughts should say, "I should never have been able to believe in the truth of the history of the Jews had I not known my own heart, and known that it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." The general resemblance between them and us, especially as to the means of improvement, and the non-improvement of these means, is the ground of our discourse this