the conscience. It deadens moral sensibility. It renders the means of grace unimpressive, by familiarity It provokes God to withhold or withdraw the influ ence that is essential to their success.

But, admitting that we always ought to have an end in view, WHAT OUGHT THAT END TO BE?-Not curiosity and amusement. This was the case with Ezekiel's hearers. They went to his preaching as persons go to a concert. He was to them as a pleasant song.

Not criticism and cavilling. Many are wiser than their teachers. They come to judge, not to learn; and make a man an offender for a word. Many came to our Saviour to "catch him in his talk."

Not any outward advantage. A man, by his attending the Gospel, may secure himself reputation, business, or friendship. This is trading in divine things. And what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?

Not the quieting of conscience. Some are at ease in Zion, because they hear the word of truth, though they do it not. But the Apostle tells us, they deceive their ownselves: and our Lord calls them fools, because they build upon the sand.

But the end should be

To obtain the conversion of the soul to God. This is the very design of the ministry itself. And how many have we known, since we attended the word, who have been turned from the error of their ways, into the path of peace! Has faith come to us by hearing? Has this efficacy ever been our aim-our wish-our prayer?

It should also be, to gain all needful instruction.

This was the case with many who came to hear John. The people, the publicans, and the soldiers, severally said to him-"And what shall we do?" They did not inquire after the duty of others, but after their own. David went to inquire in God's temple; and said, I will hear what God the Lord will speak. The best disposition we can go in, is when we have no partialities, and can sincerely ask, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?-Not shunning to hear all the counsel of God; or counting the preacher our enemy, because he tells us the truth.

It should be, to have divine things re-applied and re-impressed. If we do not want new information, it is desirable to be reminded of forgotten truth, and to have our knowledge reduced to experience and practice. The principle of divine grace cannot be lost. But what changes do believers feel in their frames! how often do their souls cleave unto the dust! And here they obtain quickening, according to his word. And by waiting upon Him their strength is renewed.

It should be also to aid in upholding the public means of grace for the advantage of others. How adapted to usefulness is the institution of preaching! We may judge what a neighbourhood would be with out the ministry of the word, when we see what it is even with it. Here are always to be heard calls to repentance, and proclamations of pardon. Here are always furnished solace to the afflicted, and excitement to the careless.

It is lamentable that so little of this spirit is to be found in the midst of so much hearing as there is in our day. We read of a concourse of people in the Acts, occasioned by the clamour of Demetrius, of

whom it is said, "Some cried one thing, and some another; for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together." With the exception of the crying out, this is a fair representation of many a religious audience. A few are informed and principled; but the mass have no aim, or an improper one.

In another view, it is pleasing to see a place filled with hearers. They are in the way; and God may meet with them. His grace is sovereign and free. Some, who came with no serious design, have been convinced of all, and judged of all; and confessed that God was in the midst of them of a truth. Yet his · sovereignty is not our rule, but our resource. What he may do, is one thing; what he will do, is another. He has said, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." And though he is sometimes found of them that seek him not, he is always found of them that seek him.

JULY 6.-EVENING.

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back-side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him." EXOD. iii. 1, 2.

IN the history of Moses we find three distinct periods Each of them consisted of forty years. The first he passed at the court of Pharaoh. The second as a shepherd in Midian. The third as the leader and ruler of Israel in the wilderness-So changeable often is human life-So little do we know at the commencement of our course what directions it will take, or what designs the Lord has to accomplish, either for us or by us. He giveth none

account of any of his matters: but he says, "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and

not forsake them."

Who can conjecture, when a child is born, how ever disadvantageous the circumstances in which he is placed, what are the destinations of Providence that await him? What a character was here! What wonders did he perform! What a space does he fill in the records of antiquity, as a deliverer, a commander, a lawgiver, an historian, and a prophet of the Lord! What a tax of admiration and gratitude. has he levied upon all ages! Yet all this importance was once hid for three months in successive conceal ments, launched in an ark of bulrushes on the Nile, and, by a concurrence of circumstances, apparently the most casual, discovered, saved, and advanced to glory, honour, and immortality!

God works like himself. He does indeed employ means: but while men depend upon their instruments, his instruments depend upon him; and he so uses them as to shew that the excellency of the power is not of them, but from himself. When, without hire or reward, a whole nation was to be released from the iron grasp of the most powerful tyrant of the day, who appeared before him with this sublime demand,"Let my people go, that they may serve me?" Not a trained soldier, not an experienced and renowned officer; but a shepherd, with no sword by his side, but only a crook in his hand, and no less than eighty years old, when, according to the language of his own beautiful psalm, our "strength is labour and sorrow."

The place where he received his surprising commussion was the neighbourhood of Horeb, a place rendered afterwards so famous and memorable. What a contrast between his condition at the foot of the same mountain then, and his state now! Now a solitary keeper of a few sheep; then king in Jeshurun, ascending up to meet the Most High face to face; receiving the mandates of infinite purity and rectitude written with the finger of God; and subsisting forty days and forty nights by the Divine power! This must have been a most interesting spot to Moses!

It is worthy of observation, that God in his manifestation found him usefully employed. The occupation indeed was lowly; but though a very learned man, and delicately brought up in a palace, he did not deem the keeping of sheep beneath him, when called to it by the providence of God. Humility is a lovely and blessed endowment. It enables a man to accommodate himself to events, and teaches him how to be abased, as well as how to abound; it leads him to exercise the graces, and perform the duties of his present condition. For many who know what it is to be abased, do not know how to be abased. Their minds do not come down and harmonize with their circumstances. They are humbled, but not humble; they would rather break than bend. Yet is there any thing dishonourable in any kind of honest labour? How much more respectable is a profession, or a calling, however common, than what Bishop Sanderson said were the plague and disgrace of the country in his day, (what would he have said had he lived in ours?) beggary and shabby gentility! Hands were given us not to be folded, but used. Adam was