world, is present, sensual, temporary, and too often procured by ungodly devices.

II. An immoderate concern for the things of the world implies a distrust of God's providence, which is so manifestly exerted in what he does for ourselves or for his other creatures.

Is not life more than meat, and the body than raiment ? If so, then he who possesses power to give the greater, cannot want ability to impart the less. The being which he has conferred, is a sort of pledge for its maintenance. If Christ be our shepherd, we may, from that relation, expect to be provided with pasture.

Again. It is natural to suppose that God's regard will be extended in a more especial manner, to such of his creatures as are of the most excellent nature. If then the animal life of birds or the vegetable life of flowers, be not unworthy of the divine care, we may infer that his affection will be more intense towards us whom he has created in his own spiritual image, and hath endowed with the faculties of an immortal soul. Are we not of more value than many sparrows? If God so clothe the herbage which to-day is, and to-morrow is fuel for the oven, will he not much more clothe us? In the midst of this varied care which embraces the universe, shall we mistrust, O God, thy paternal love towards ourselves? How can we deem ourselves excluded from that almighty hand which filleth all things living with plenteousness?

III. An inordinate anxiety for the affairs of this world causes us to relapse into heathenism: "After all these things do the Gentiles seek."

And shall it be said that Christians, under their anxieties, have not more resources than the nations plunged in the darkness of ignorance? Well might they complain under the pressure of worldly sorrow. Given up to all the errors of impiety and superstition, they had no just idea of God's providence; and their hopes extended not beyond the narrow boundary of this world: well, therefore, after these things, might the Gentiles seek.

But you (might our Saviour say) you to whom I have revealed the designs of God in all the grandeur of his mercies; you to whom I have promised treasures beyond the power of moth and rust; your minds should be more enlightened. Is it

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the world which absorbs your thoughts? Behold, I present nobler and better objects: direct your chief solicitude to the discharge of those virtues, which prepare the Christian for a better world: seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.

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If, indeed, we knew the gift of God, and him who speaketh to us, we should find, in communion with Christ, all the graces necessary for our different wants. Pious and Christian souls, we appeal to you: to you, who, firm in the faith of Christ, have never abandoned this anchor of salvation: in all your alarms, is it not true that the sublime principles of our holy religion have been your joy and consolation? Does anxiety assail you? does the burden of the day, does the thought of the morrow, oppress your heart? You remember him who hath said, Take no thought for your life: the very hairs of your head are all numbered: in patience, possess ye your souls: I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Your confidence in these Gospel promises composes your agitated soul: it softens your anxious feelings: it embellishes all nature before your eyes: it gives you that contented spirit, which is the greatest of gains: it teaches you both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and

to suffer need. You no longer, with unreasonable care, look forward to the morrow. You take no over-anxious thought of all those advancing days, which will soon be swallowed up in oblivion :-you extend your views into eternity.

If, then, such be our folly as rational beings;—if such be our wickedness, as Christians,-by indulging excessive anxiety respecting future events; let us commit ourselves, cheerfully and contentedly, like dutiful sons, to the protection and guidance of that Parent who will not abandon his children. If we sincerely believe his superintending providence, let us live as if we did believe it: industriously, indeed, and warily but, at the same time, implicitly and resignedly; casting all our care upon God: for he careth for us. Let us feel assured, that, in the hour of sickness and privation, in the season of adversity the back will be suited to the burden; and that rays of unexpected hope will cheer the very darkest gloom. While rebellious spirits, by kicking against the goads, make the iron of affliction enter more deeply into their souls; Christian faith will have its perfect work by blunting the arrows of calamity; by creating feel

ings and dispositions suited to the exigence; and by conciliating all the indulgencies and alleviations of a compassionate God, who beholds our comportment under trial. If we thus possess our souls in patience, we may adopt the language of the Psalmist; "God is our hope and strength; a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear, though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea. The Lord of Hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our refuge." (STANHOPE, chiefly.)

MATTHEW, vii. 1–5.

§ 45. Rash judgment forbidden. LUKE, vi. 37-42. JUDGE not with rigour, and ye shall not be judged with severity. Condemn not censoriously, and ye shall not be condemned. Forgive offences; and ye shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given to you: men shall pour into your lap good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over; for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with the same measure ye mete withal, it shall be measured back to you.

Luke, vi. 39. And in order to enforce this considerate and kind disposition, Jesus spake a parable unto them. Can the blind guide the blind? Will they not both fall into a ditch? If ye are not lenient and charitable in your judgment to others, so far from being my disciples, ye will be the blind leading the blind, and deceive yourselves and followers. What the preceptor is, such generally is the scholar. The disciple is not superior to the teacher: but every one will be complete and perfected as his Master to whom he is attached. How important, therefore, is it, that ye should be accurate teachers and guides, lest the highest attainments of your disciples should leave them short in the true principles of my Gospel.

Matt. 3. Luke, 41. And why dost thou look at that little infirmity which is but as a splinter in thy brother's eye; while thou observest not the much greater fault which is like a beam in thine own eye: 4, or how, with what appearance of justice, canst thou say to thy brother, Permit that I may take the splinter out of thine eye, while thou thyself beholdest not the beam in thine own eye? 5. Thou hypocrite! first clear out the beam from thine own eye; and then wilt thou clearly discern how to remove the mote out of thy brother's eye.

SINCE the welfare of society requires that bad men should be visited by private rebuke and by publick punishment; it is evident that our Saviour's injunction of not judging or condemning is exclusively directed against those rash and hasty judges who condemn the conduct of their neighbour with hasty, groundless, harsh, and unwarrantable censure.

If it were necessary to multiply dissuasives from rash and uncharitable censure, it might be asked, whether our eye is really so penetrating as to discern the secret motives which have actuated the object of our condemnation. We might shew that hasty censure where it blackens reputation, is, in its ultimate effect, as deadly, though cruelly slower than the dagger of the assassin. We might shew that rash censure, though not arising from a malicious intention, yet eventually has all the venom of slander and detraction. We might shew the ingratitude of sporting with the character of those who, perchance, are favourably disposed towards us. We might point out the inhumanity of embittering the distress of him who is sufficiently unhappy for having been guilty; and who, perhaps, has made his peace with God by a sincere repentance: but let us restrict our meditations to the motive suggested in the words, "Judge not, that ye may not be judged." This judgment may be considered as the judgment of men; and the judgment of God.

We should not be censorious of others, as ever we would not be served, by men, in the same kind. They may be faulty, indeed, in making such returns: but it can hardly be expected that, when other men see we make free with their characters, they will not make free with ours. They will even think themselves obliged, in their own defence, to scan our actions more narrowly than they would otherwise do; and very probably, in their turn, be as rash and uncharitable upon us, as we have been upon them. Divine Providence wisely and justly permits it that men who fish for scandal, are very often met with in their own way: and it seems to give a general satisfaction, when they are effectually exposed.

We should avoid censoriousness, if we wish to escape the judgment of God. Without repentance, we may expect him to animadvert severely upon this sin in particular; which, upon many accounts, may be esteemed a very great and heinous sin. It is a direct invasion of God's province; anticipating the work

of the Great Day; on which account St. Paul exhorts the Corinthians (1 Ep. iv. 5), "Judge nothing before the time till the Lord come; who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." Pretend not to judge of things out of the cognizance of men now, and that are designed to be so till the great Day, as the secrets of the heart: otherwise, you will usurp God's place.

Is not censoriousness a judging men for things wherein they are not accountable to us, but to God only? "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own Master, he standeth or falleth." (Rom. xiv. 4.) "Why dost thou judge or set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." In such matters as St. Paul is speaking of in these passages, every man is to give account of himself to God: but men have no right to call one another to account: therefore, to judge another in these things, is to thrust ourselves into God's province.

We may expect that God will proceed with rigour in judging our offences against him, if we are rigid censors of our neighbours. He will never exceed the measures of justice: but if we allow uncharitableness, we are to expect no mercy: thus St. James declares, that "he that hath shewed no mercy, shall have judgment without mercy." And what then must become of us? If God be strict to mark all our real iniquities, can we stand? Can we answer him for one of a thousand of our actions? The uncharitable are excluded from any hope of the benefit of Gospelgrace.

In endeavouring to guard ourselves against a censorious spirit, let it be a settled resolution with us, to maintain a good opinion of every one, till we are obliged by evidence to surrender it. This is a duty we owe to God and man; and our suspicions, especially our reflections, should never out-run or exceed the discovery which men make of themselves.

Let us often recollect the evils included in censoriousness; that it arrogates divine prerogatives; is a constant act of injustice to our neighbour; and a plain violation of the Golden Rule of doing to others as we would be done unto.

Let us carefully avoid and mortify the usual incentives to a censorious temper. Idleness and want of good employment, often lead people to this vile practice: many set up for judges of