father to give up his child and surrender all hope of his restoration to obedience and favor. And he says, "how shall I give thee up?" But that is the very language of God respecting Ephraim. It is inspiration. How does the father hail the first symptom of relenting in his child; how does he exult, even in the faint prospect of his being restored to him; and when he sees him beginning to return, how does he not wait to welcome him, but go forth to meet and embrace him! such is the pity of the Lord to them that fear him.

Just

A father's pity is such that it does not forget its object. It is never out of his thoughts. He needs not to be reminded of it. Can he forget? Can the other parent, the mother? Can she? Yes, in some cases, he may and she may. "Yet, saith God, will not I." If such is the commiseration God has for his children, how entirely calm and free from painful solicitude they may be, "casting all their care upon him, for he careth for them; being careful for nothing, but in all things by prayer and thanksgiving, making known their requests unto God, taking no thought," since he takes. thought for them.

And if such is the pity of the Lord, what will not his bounty be? What the munificence of his bounty, that it may be in proportion to the tenderness of his compassion? It is large now, but how much larger it will be, when he has no longer any occasion for pity and forbearance-when misery is no more, and sighing has ceased, and God's hand has, for the last time, passed across the weeping eyes, and wiped away the final tear? What must be his generosity, whose pity is so

great? What will he not do for them, having so felt for them? What must be the glory of that place to which he will take them, after he shall have made them perfect through sufferings? What exalted honors, what ecstatic joys must he not have in reserve for them, whom he came down here to weep with, and now takes up thither to rejoice with?

And if such is the pity of the Lord to them that fear him in this state of most imperfect sanctification, his pity towards them while with their sufferings there is mingled so much sin, what will be his complacency in them, when they shall have ceased to sin, and shall be perfectly conformed to his image? How will he delight himself in them, when there is nothing in them any longer, in which he cannot take the purest delight!

If thou art the object of such pity, be thyself the subject of similar pity. Pity as thou art pitied. Cared for, thyself, care for others. Let the case of others reach thy heart, as thine reached God's. Hast thou no tears for others' woes; thou, for whom so many have been shed? Nor give to misery merely thy tear. Tears did not save thee, nor can they save others. Speak the word of consolation; reach out the hand of help; do the substantial deeds of kindness.

TERMS OF RECONCILIATION WITH GOD.

The unreasonableness and impiety of all the objections made by sinners against the provisions, terms and offers of the Gospel, are most manifest to any one who duly considers, that the conditions of every reconciliation ought naturally to come from the party offended, especially if he be a superior, and more especially if he stand to the offender in the relation of a lawgiver and sovereign. It is not for the offending subject to say, on what terms peace and harmony shall be restored between him and his offended sovereign. It is the sovereign's sole and unquestionable prerogative to ordain the terms. Favor is a thing that cannot be claimedit must be offered. To God, therefore, must we look for the terms of reconciliation between him and us.

In the case of those who have sinned against God, the Sovereign, offended is the only being who can know on what terms it is fit and proper that he should be reconciled to his offending subjects. None but the lawgiver, whose law it is that has been violated, can say, under what circumstances it is safe and right that he should forgive the violation of his law. None but he has the means of judging what terms will best secure the honor of his government and the good of the offender. Thus our reason is unable to anticipate on such a subject, and is guilty of the boldest presumption in pronouncing, that on such and such terms God ought to be, and doubtless will be, reconciled to man. No

His own

cherub or seraph ever was so daring, or so confided in his own powers. Inasmuch, therefore, as they must. come from Him, and reason cannot tell what they ought to be, we see the necessity of a communication from God, revealing the conditions of human salvation. The sovereign has evidently a right to exercise a great deal of authority in making his terms. good pleasure is a sufficient reason for any article that he chooses to introduce into the conditions of reconciliation. He is not bound to explain, why the conditions are such as they are. The offender ought not to ask an explanation. We allow thus much to earthly sovereigns and to human parents. A father may connect his favor and blessing with the performance of conditions by his child, the reason and propriety of which he does not explain, and which to the child may appear to be purely arbitrary. And may not God do the same? Is he bound to tell us why he connects our pardon and happiness with these conditions and not with others? May we call him to account for the terms on which he proposes to be reconciled to us, and suggest others which we think would have been more suitable, and refuse to do what he commands, until he explains why he commands it?

Another remark having a bearing on this subject, and one which can hardly fail of convincing all candid men of the unreasonableness of cavilling at the conditions of salvation and the positive institutions of the Gospel, is, that an Omnipotent Being has ordained them. When a feeble fellow creature prescribes a certain course for you to pursue, to secure a desirable object, it is your

right and your duty to ask why he prescribes that and not another, and what tendency those means have to that end. It is your right and duty, because there are certain established laws of nature, according to which all things act and all causes operate, and no man can control these causes. Every substance has its fixed qualities, whereby it acts in a particular manner on other substances, and every man may be equally acquainted with them. Consequently, when a man tells you that certain operations will produce certain results, you have a right to hesitate and to inquire whether it be in accordance with the known laws of nature, and the known powers and qualities of the substances concerned. The only case where you may properly decline such inquiry, is when, for want of previous research, or on account of present feebleness of body or mind, and the pressing necessity of immediate action, you either act yourself in blindness, or entrust your case to another, in whose skill or ability you confide rather than jeopard a longer continuance of inaction. Yet the exception proves the rule. when it is God that prescribes, the case is altogether different. Man is the subject of nature; but God is nature's legislator; and the laws which he gave to her, he can repeal, or suspend, or modify, at his pleasure. The promise of God connects cause and effect more indissolubly than any law of nature can. God has suspended the latter; the former never. If that which

But

he commands us to make use of as a means, has no natural tendency to secure the end, yet his omnipotence can give it such a tendency. If a man should