"strength;" we will be continually deriving, from the delightful exercises of religion and the gracious influences of the Spirit, accessions of grace and of faith to enable us to support the evils of life, to struggle with our spiritual enemies, and to advance with increasing joy through this dreary wilderness.

And we will go on from company to company. The followers of Christ, united in the bonds of the spirit and of love, will hold sweet and frequent communion together, and by their mutual consolations encourage and assist each other under the common distresses and dangers of this state of warfare and of pilgrimage, and every one of them will appear at last perfect before God in the heavenly Zion.

Ah! my friends, this is a thought, this a hope sufficient to support our minds under still greater evils than those of the present life. Did the pious inhabitants of Judea travel through the wilderness, a long and a tedious journey, that they might worship God for a few days in Jerusalem, and then return home through the same dreary and uncomfortable way? and can any toils or dangers deter us from going up through

the wilderness of this world, when we know that religion offers all its inexhaustible comforts to support and refresh our spirits; when we know that Jesus is the unseen, but kind companion of our way, and will assist us in every difficulty, and defend us from every danger; and when we know that he will conduct us in safety to the heavenly Jerusalem, to dwell there for ever, that we shall never again enter on the thorny path of life, but enjoy an eternal repose from every care and every sorrow, and forget the light afflictions of this momentary state, in those everlasting pleasures which are at the right hand of God?

VERSE 8. O Lord God of Hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob.

VERSE 9. Behold, O God, our Shield, and look upon the face of thine Anointed.

Having described the blessedness of those who dwell in the house of God, and of those who come to it at certain seasons from the remotest part of Judea, David here offers up a prayer to his Maker, that he too might be allowed to visit his holy place.

He addresses God under those encouraging titles, which render him the proper object of religious worship; ແ as the Lord "God of Hosts," who has the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth under his command, and is possessed of power to deliver him out of the hands of his enemies, and to restore him to the exercise and enjoyment of his wonted privileges; as the "God of Jacob," i. e. a God in covenant with his own peculiar people, who hath promised to be a father to them, and especially to hear and answer their prayers; for he never said to any of the seed of Jacob, "Seek ye my face in vain." He farther prays that God (who is the shield or defence of his people amid all the dangers to which they can be exposed) would look upon him, not as men dó upon their enemies and persecutors, but that he would "look upon the face of "his Anointed." The face being often in Scripture put for the whole man, and for the condition and character of the man, the phrase may imply, that God would not look upon the Psalmist as a sinner and transgressor of his holy laws, but with an eye of mercy and love, as the man whom

prince and peasant have equal access, and which are the purest source of Locour and of happiness to both

In this fleeting scene, my brethrem, various parts are assigned us: Some are powerful, some are dependent; some are rich, and some are poor; some are engaged in one occupation, some in another: but no situation in which we are placed by Divine Providence, no occupation which it may be our lot to exercise, is in itself mean or degrading. Whatever be our rank, and whatever be our employment, let us still be honest, and virtuous, and pious; there all the honour lies: let us avoid vice and folly; these are the only sources of disgrace. Is the poor man contented, honest, industrious, and resigned to the arrangements of his heavenly Father? he is as noble, as great, perhaps more so, than the proudest monarch upon earth. He exercises and improves the talents God hath given him; and what can the greatest do more? He walks in the path of the just, which," like the shin❝ing light, shineth more and more unto "the perfect day ;" and where is the man that can appear in a situation more honour

able? He is co-operating with the Divine Spirit, in carrying forward his immortal soul to perfection; and who can boast of an employment more important and digni fied? He holds fellowship in the exercises of prayer and praise with the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and where is the man that enjoys a society more noble or more delightful? He aspires to those glories, and to those joys, which are as exalted as heaven, and as eternal as the soul; and who can entertain an ambition and a hope more ravishing and more transporting?

VERSE 11. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

It is, my brethren, what makes the courts of the Lord so amiable and so desirable, that they are the courts of Him who is a "sun and shield." God is a "sun," because he is to the soul what the natural sun is to the world. As the sun

enlightens the world by his beams, so does God enlighten the soul of his servants by his word and spirit. He dispels the