"Pity me, pity me, O ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me." Thirdly, those which are produced by our being bereaved of them. There are few but have felt these losses: while some have had peculiar reason to sigh, "I sit, and am alone, as a sparrow upon the house top."-"Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness." Oh! the anxieties that precede the anguish that accompanies-the dreariness that follows the feeling of heart-desolation that arises at the sight of the walks in which we communed with them, the seats they occupied, the books they folded down, the flowers they planted-the nightly visitations of thought when darkness and wakefulness let in busy memory, to recall the past, and open the wounds afresh which time had tried to heal! Their Fourthly, Those which are inflicted by their improper conduct. Even the sincere are imperfect; and may wound us by ignorance, rudeness, wayward temper, misapprehension, and censure without cause. But some are altogether vanity and lies. friendship is a mere flash of feeling. It is the working of selfishness, during which they make you their scaffolding, and then lay you aside. They only elevate to depress; they only flatter to spread a snare for your feet; they only insinuate themselves into your bosom to prove the viper there. Thus therefore we often hear of being wounded in the house of friends. But though many make the complaint, few seem concerned to improve it. And thus they bleed in vain, while it is possible for them to derive a remedy for the poison, and to turn their losses into gain. In all these murmurings or lamentations about friends, we should do well to inquire whether we have done nothing to deserve what we suffer: for often we may trace our sin in our trials. The blame is not always on the side of the censured: the most complaining is frequently the most culpable. He that will have friends must shew himself friendly; and attachment must be supported in the same way that it was gained. We should also consider whether we do not com plain without just cause. We talk of the wounds we have received, when perhaps they are hardly incisions skin-deep. We are not to look for perfection; but. remember that as every relation in life is filled with fallen creatures, so it will necessarily partake of human infirmity. And what! are we to exact from others a faultlessness which they never met with in us? Neither should we become, in these cases, misanthropic; harbourers of suspicions; and railers against our fellow-creatures at large. David said, "All men are liars:" but it was "in his haste ;" and he acknowledged his rashness and injustice. We may, however, regulate and modify our regard, and especially our dependence and expectation: and we ought to hear the voice of the word, when it is feelingly enforced by events: "Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?" Blessed is the man who trusteth in the Lord; and whose hope the Lord is. He will not, he cannot fail us. See the use the Prophet made of what he was compelled to acknowledge— "Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house. Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me." Should we not also do well to make the conduct of our fellow-creatures towards us a glass in which to contemplate our conduct towards God? Then must our severity fall upon ourselves much more heavily than upon others. For what are our claims upon our connexions, compared with God's claims upon us? And what are the forgetfulness, and ingratitude, and perverseness, and unkindness, and treachery of those we have befriended, compared with the instances of vileness, which our infinite Benefactor has constantly to witness in us? It is a good turn which Watts gives to our reflections upon the state of the Jews "Great God! how oft did Israel prove, By turus, thine anger and thy love! How fickle and how false they be." SEPTEMBER 17.-MORNING. "Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee." MATT. xvii. 27. IN the midst of this supernatural scene, a sanction is thus given by our Saviour to the use of means. The supply was, in its source, preparation, and an nouncement, miraculous; yet Peter, who is to receive it as a favour, is to procure it by his instrumentality. The peculiar nature of the instance only renders it the more conclusive: for if our Lord would not dispense with the use of means in an extraordinary case, surely he will not dispense with it in an ordinary one. Some good, but not very wise, people seem to think that instrumentality detracts from the Divine glory; and that God is honoured more by acting im-mediately. But instru mentality supposes and requires agency: and the means themselves are always the Lord's own; and he gives them their success. His producing an effect by various concurrences and co-operations displays more of his perfections, and gives more opportunity to observe them, than his causing a result by an instant volition. Here was something which Peter could do, and something which he could not do. He could not replenish the fish with the money, or make it to swim in the direction of his bait: but he could procure the bait and throw in the hook; and in the most likely place; and stand; and watch. Why does he not cause the fish to spring ashore? and appear at once upon Peter's table? Because he would not sanction indolence. Because he would render even his miracles moral, as well as marvellous. Because his exertions were not a mere parade of power; but a display of wisdom and goodness, meeting indigence, relieving weakness, confirming faith but not encouraging folly and presumption; teaching us to trust, but forbidding us to tempt him. In like manner, there is always something which we cannot do; and something which we can do. But the evil is, that we commonly derive from the former excuses for our neglect of the latter; and so God's agency becomes a reason for our inactivity, instead of exciting our diligence. But this is perfectly contrary to the meaning of the Apostle, when he says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure." In natural things we are wiser. Can the husbandman produce an ear of corn? He knows it is perfectly impossible. But he can manure, and plough, and sow; and in the use of these he expects the Divine efficiency-but never in the neglect of them. No man can quicken his own soul. Yet there are means which are designed and adapted to save us: and we can pray, "Come, thou north wind; and blow, thou south." It is thus that religion possesses the evidence of analogy; and, in the God of grace, we see the God of nature. He feeds the fowls of the air, not by putting it into their mouths; but by furnishing provision; and giving them wings, and eyes, and feet, and beaks to find and make it their own. "That thou givest them, they gather❞—And thus, "he satisfies the desire of every living thing." He could warm us without the fire, and sustain us without food; but we know what would be the consequence were we to disregard these, under a notion of honouring him by a dependence on his agency. Though the effect here was beyond the means, yet there was an adaptation in them. Peter was a fisherman; and he is employed in his own line: and his |