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them, or, at all events, none which David and Elijah were not at liberty to dispense with. But Naomi had no right whatever to discourage the pious purposes of her daughters: if she had chosen to dispense with their attendance on her, she had no authority to dissuade them from devoting themselves to God. Remember, then, the true limits of your authority: it may be, and should be, energetically used for God: but it must not, even in advice, be used against him. Your influence is great; and on it may depend the salvation of your offspring. Oh, what a grief must it have been to Naomi, in after life, that she had given such fatal counsel to her apostate daughter! And who can tell what cause you may have to bewail the discouraging of pious emotions in your children, even in one single instance? And think not that even piety renders this caution unnecessary. Rebekah was pious; yet when she feared that her beloved Jacob would lose the birthright, what a device did she suggest, and with what horrid impiety did she urge him to adopt it?! Beware, I say, of following Naomi in this respect; and rather use your influence, like Lois and Eunice, for the training of your Timothy to the highest attainments of piety and virtue.]

2. To young people—

[Cultivate, to the utmost, an affectionate and obediential spirit towards your parents. This is a frame of mind peculiarly pleasing to God. When he enjoined it in the Decalogue, he wrote it with his own finger on a tablet of stone: and it is distinguished above all the other commandments by this, that it was "the first commandment with promise'." The exercise of this spirit pre-eminently characterized our blessed Lord in his early days: "He went down with his parents to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." This is the best return that you can make to your parents for all the care which they take of you, and all their labours for your good. Especially, if, like Naomi, they be brought into affliction and penury, forsake them not then; but rather redouble your attentions to them; and account no sacrifice too great to make, if by any means you may be a comfort to them in their declining years.

At the same time be attentive to the concerns of your souls. Embrace the God of Israel as your God; and worship him, and serve him, and "cleave unto him with full purpose of heart." And let no hopes of improving your temporal condition, either in marriage or in any other way, draw you aside from him. Renounce all for God; and "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord." If

P Gen. xxvii. 12, 13.
Luke ii. 51.

q 2 Tim. i. 5.

t Acts xi. 23.

r

Eph. vi. 2.

others turn from the Lord, and go back unto the world, do not ye follow them. Even though they be your near relatives, with whom you have been bound in ties of the closest amity, let them not prevail: yea, though their prudence be proposed to you as the fittest pattern to follow, and the proposal come from the highest authority, still be faithful to your convictions; and be faithful to your God. This will issue most to your satisfaction; this will bring you peace at the last: for so it is written; "Hearken, O daughter, and incline thine ear: forget, also, thine own people, and thy father's house : so will the King greatly desire thy beauty: for He is thy Lord; and worship thou him"."]

u Ps. xlv. 10, 11.

CCLXXIX.

THE CHANGES MADE BY TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES.

Ruth i. 19. It came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi ?

TO seek the applause of man is wrong: but to merit it, is most desirable. A man of worthless character creates no respect in the minds of others; so that, if ill befall him, he finds but little sympathy in the bosoms of those around him: whereas a good man under misfortune, excites a general commiseration; and every one takes a lively interest in his affairs. This is beautifully exemplified in the history before us. Naomi was certainly a woman of piety, and much esteemed. In a season of dearth she had left her country with her husband and sons; and, after ten years' absence, she returned in a bereaved and destitute condition, having lost her husband and her two sons, and having no attendant but a daughterin-law, as poor and destitute as herself. Yet, behold, she no sooner reaches the place of her former abode, than the whole city is moved with her misfortunes, every one feeling for her as for a sister, and with tender concern exclaiming, "Is this Naomi?"

The circumstance here recorded will lead me to shew you,

I. What changes take place in life

This is altogether a changing scene; every day bringing with it something new, to elevate or depress our minds. Some changes are of a favourable nature, such as the growth of our children in wisdom and stature; the advancement of our friends in wealth and honour; and, above all, the conversion of the gay and dissipated to the knowledge of our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. These things sometimes occur so suddenly and beyond our expectation, that we scarcely know how to credit them; and we are ready to ask, with pleasing surprise, Is this Naomi, whom I remember not long since under such different circumstances?

But it is rather of afflictive changes that our text leads us to speak: and we shall notice them,

1. In relation to temporal matters—

[What effects are wrought by disease or accident in the space of only a few days, we all are well aware. The person who but as yesterday was flourishing in health, vigour, beauty, is become enfeebled, emaciated, yea, a mass of deformity, so that you exclaim, with almost incredulous surprise, Is this Naomi? Nor are changes less quickly made in the outward circumstances of men, one day living in affluence and all the splendour of wealth; the next, reduced to penury and shame. The age in which we live has been fruitful in such examples, princes and nobles having taken refuge, and found subsistence from the hands of charity, in our happy isle; and, since that period, multitudes of our most opulent merchants having fallen from the highest pinnacle of grandeur to insignificance and want. Nor is it uncommon to behold a man, who by his talents has commanded universal admiration, brought, through disorder or through age, to a state of more than infantine fatuity; so that he can be no longer recognised but as a wreck and ruin of the former man.

The circumstances of Naomi lead me to mention yet another change, namely, that of family bereavements. We have seen persons in the full enjoyment of domestic happiness, with children, numerous, healthy, playful, the joy and delight of their parents, by successive strokes brought to a state of widowhood and desolation. Behold the disconsolate widow, "weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are not;" and because the husband, who was her stay and

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her support, is either languishing on a bed of sickness, or wrested from her by resistless death! In a word, see Job encircled with his family, and in the fullest possession of all that the world could give him: Ah! how fallen! how destitute! What a complete picture of human misery, and of the vanity of all sublunary good!]

2. In relation to spiritual concerns

[The most distressing sight is that of one who once was hopeful as to the concerns of his soul, but has "left off to behave himself wisely," and launched forth into all manner of dissipation: or, if a more pitiable object can present itself to our view, it is that of one, who, after attaining an eminence in the Christian life, has fallen into a state of wilful and habitual sin, and brought public disgrace upon his holy profession. David will here naturally occur to our minds. Look at him: "Is this David?" the man so abhorrent of evil, that he would not suffer a person who should utter a falsehood to dwell in his sight? Ah! how fallen! how unlike this murderer is to "the sweet singer of Israel," " the man after God's own heart!" And Solomon, too; Is this Solomon? that perfection of wisdom, whom all proclaimed as the wisest of the human race, now so infatuated, as to seek his happiness in a number of wives and concubines; and so impious, as both to gratify them, and to unite with them, in the most abominable idolatries"? Is this Solomon? I say: Who can believe it?

But must we go back to those distant ages for instances of human frailty and depravity? Would to God that they were of such rare occurrence, that none had ever arisen in our own remembrance. But wherever the Gospel is preached, instances will be found of persons who "ran well for a season only," and who, though they "began in the Spirit, have ended in the flesh." Look at any such persons now, and see how unlike they are to their former selves! "How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed!"]

But, that we may duly improve these occurrences, let us consider,

II. What feelings the contemplation of them should inspire

We should not be uninterested spectators of such events: they should excite in us,

1. Sympathy

We

[In no case should we exult over fallen greatness. read, indeed, of the triumphant utterance of joy at the fall of

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the Babylonish monarch, agreeably to the predictions respecting himAnd similar exultation was felt at the destruction of Jerusalem; as it is said: "All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?" But though these gloryings were permitted by God for the punishment of his enemies, they are not recorded for our imitation. We, like our blessed Lord, should weep over the desolations even of our bitterest enemies. We should "bear one another's burthens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." The sight of misery, wheresoever it is found, should call forth our tenderest sympathy, and cause us to "weep with them that weeps." This is particularly suggested by the conduct of the people at Bethlehem: "The whole city was moved" at the sight of this poor widow, whom they had not seen for the space of ten years; and one sentiment of compassion filled all ranks of people, saying, "Is this Naomi?" So let it be with us, whether we be able to relieve the sufferer, or not. The very feeling of compassion will be pleasing to our God; and will assimilate us to that blessed Saviour, who pitied us in our low estate, and “ who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich"."]

2. Contentment

[In such a changeable world as this, what is there for us to covet? Shall we desire riches? How soon do "they make themselves wings, and fly awayi!" Shall we affect honour? How soon may our Hosannahs be turned into, "Crucify him, crucify him!" As for pleasure, of whatever kind, so vain is it all, that "even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness." Indeed, the whole world, even if we could possess it all, is but "vanity and vexation of spirit." If we "have wives, our true wisdom is to be as though we had none; if we weep, to be as though we wept not; or, if we rejoice, as though we rejoiced not: if we buy, to be as though we possessed not; and, if we use this world, as not abusing it: because the fashion of this world passeth away'." If changes of the most calamitous nature occur, we should remember, that "nothing has happened to us but what is common to man," and nothing but what may issue either in our temporal or eternal good. There are not wanting instances of the deepest reverses being themselves reversed: for Job's

e Isai. xiv. 4-11. d Lam. ii. 15.

g Rom. xii. 15. * Prov. xiv. 13.

Almost this whole passage should be cited.

e Luke xix. 41, 42.

h 2 Cor. viii. 9.

11 Cor. vii. 29-31.

f Gal. vi. 2.

i Prov. xxiii. 5.

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