"cuckow bids the husbandman dispatch the labours "of the fpring." How folemnly do all things invite me to haften to the day of God! remembering that the fpring-feafon of gofpel-opportunities, shall quickly be ended! "Yonder the fparrow chirps.' Petty bird, but JEHOVAH'S care; my Father's charge. Am not I much more fo? though, when forfaken of him I mourn, yet let me cleave to his houfe; nesle in the walls of divine perfections and promifes, and in the covering of Jefus' righteoufnefs. "How of

"ten have noify birds decoyed me from their neft !” Alas, how often hath Satan, by a noify world, decoyed me from obferving his haunts in my foul ! how often, by manifold delufion, hath he decoyed me from Jefus, my true, my everlasting reft!

"HERE is a farmer's dwelling: how hard yonder << poultry follow after one, who at laft fhuts them σε out!" But, bleffed Lord, him that cometh unto thee, thou wilt in no wife caft out.-Follow him, my foul, though he hide, though he threaten to exclude thee: knock, and it fhall be opened.-IN, Lord, I muft be; IN I will be: though thou flay me, yet will I truft in thee. "Yonder another calls them "to the hungry feast of a few corns, or crumbs :"how they run! how they flighter to it!" And when Jefus inviteth me to feast on all his fulness, fhall not I beftir myfelf? Without a moment's delay, fhall not I run! fhall not I fly to him? fhall not my foul long, yea, faint for God, and heart and flesh cry out for him?"Here the feathered dam fcarce nou"rifleth herfelf, but prepares food for her young: "how kindly fhe invites them to eat!-Anon the "will call them to hide themselves under her wings." Jefus became poor, that we tl rogh h's poverty might become rich :" he himfelf was hung: y, to prepar: food for us; his morfel he will not cat alone;

but

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but helpless, fatherless, finful men, muft eat thereof.How often would he gather us, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and we will not t! "How fiercely fhe flieth upon every one who attempts to "hurt her young; and expofeth her own life in "their defence !" Ye favage mothers learn her ways, and be wife. But, O Jefus, how didft thou expofc thyfelf to the wrath of devils, and men, nay, to the vengeance of Heaven, that thou mighteft fave and protect me! "But why do this feathered tribe lift

66

up their heads when they have drunk? is it to "render thanks to their heavenly Benefactor?" Sharp rebuke to thefe, worfe than brutal men, who feed, who live without acknowledging their Maker: harp rebuke to my ingratitude; what mercies do I receive from God, without rendering unto him according to the benefits done me?-Ask now, my foul, What fhall I render to him for all his gifts? I will take the cup of falvation, and will call on the name of the Lord: now will I pay my vows to him in the presence of all his people.

"YONDER appear the demolished and falling cotss tages of the poor." Alas, how our farmers add boufe to boufe, and field to field, till there be no place for others; but themselves left alone in the midst of the land! Read they no Bible, to inform them that such conduct is accurfed of God? Know they not, that he that oppreffeth and driveth out the poor, reproacheth his Maker, their guardian, and brings vengeance on himfelft? But bleffed be the Lord, that none can demolish the "everlafting covenant, our house eternal in the heavens; our God, who is our dwelling place in all generations :" none fhall deprive us of our poffeffion.Ye children of po Ifa. v. 8, 9, 10. Prov, xxii. 16,

+ Matth. xxiii. 37. and xxiii. 10, 11.

verty, fear the Lord, and he will make you houses.

"HERE, in the adjacent field, the ewes bring "forth their young, and lick them into comeliness.” O my parent Chrift, am I not the travail of thy foul? Kindly kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth, and make me clean through the word thou haft fpoken to me. Polluted monfter I am; but let thy time be a time of love; let me be washed; let me be fanétified; let me be juftified; in thy name, O Lord Jefus, and by the Spirit of our God. Love me, and wall me from my fins in thy blood. "Thefe lambs are brought forth in good licking, and most are immediately able to follow their dam." No creature is born fo helpless as man: let therefore my help and my fafety come from the Lord, who made beaven and earth. "Here the tender fhepherd carries 66 a weak lamb in his arms." Sweet memorial of my adored Redeemer! he carries weak and infirm faints, nay, all his lambs in his bofom of inconceivable love. God is their refuge, and underneath them are the everlasting arms of his power and grace. "Sweet

ly thefe lambs browfe on the bloffoms and tender "buds of this prickly furze." How much more profitably doth Jefus feed his people with his afflicting rod! How fweetly he nourisheth them by the ordinances of his grace, which are but defpicable and troublefome to carnal men!" By these things do men live, and in them is the life of my foul: a day in thy courts is better than a thousand." "Yonder lie the remains of fome menber of the "flock, which died of itfelf, or was torn to pieces "by the ravenous beaft." How many profeffed Chriftians doth a hard winter of adverfity kill, and make them caft off all pretences to holiness! How often the hurt which we do ourfelves in trouble,

cleaves

cleaves to us afterwards; and bringeth us to the gates of death! How often, in the fpring-feafon of deliverance, doth Satan tear and flay fuch as had nobly fuftained the winter blafts of affliction! How often is a fpring of divine influence attended with murderous perfecution! "Here is a tender lamb, “whose mother is either dead or deftitute of milk."Either another muft fuckle it, or it must be carried, "home for nourishment." Lord when one friend, one outward comfort, fails me, provide me another: and when all fail, receive me home to thy glory; that where thou art, I may be alfo; that the Lamb in the midst of the throne may feed me, and lead me unto living fountains of water. "But are not the flocks. " and herds, many of them, now lean." Alas! how many are the worse of the winters of trouble !—But let them only waste the flesh of my old man; Lord, when shall he wax lean and his face grow pale? In this fpring-tide of youth, of gofpel-opportunity, and of divine influence, how great is my leanneis, my leannefs!-Oh! when fball I be fat and flourish

? ftrong as David, as the angel of the Lord? — While I enjoy a vernal refreshment of Jefus' love, I feel my leannefs end weakness more and more.---O ftrengthen me in the Lord my God.

Now I have a profpect of the fea." How faft approacheth that folemn period, when I shall stand on the fhore, and fee nothing before me but the sea, the ocean of eternity! Let Jefus' everlasting righte oufnefs be mine; and ETERNITY fhall be my glory and joy. O ETERNITY, it is thine to crown the joys above, to knit the bundle of life together. "Yonder lies a fhipwrecked veffel." What if in youth I, like her, fet fair out, and carry well, till a ftormy trial overtake me, and then make "fhipwreck of faith, and a good confcience?" My foul, be not high

minded, but fear. “How faft wonder roaring- bil"lows kifs the fhore, and die!" And what do men, even the most noify, that "cause their terror in the land of the living," but falute the fhore of life, and die? One generation cometh and another goeth away; human life affords little more than to look about us and die.-Do not I, Lord, "defire to depart and to be with thee, which is far better!" "What "excellent manure for the field, or useful ingredi"ent for grafs, are thefe fea-weeds !" Solid thoughts, fetched from the occean of eternity, are an excellent means to fructify our heart, and give us a just profpect of the vanity and emptinefs of outward enjoy

ments.

"HERE, within the watery mark, crawls the "awkward, catching crab." How like the covetous. heart, that defireth, that catcheth at every thing it feels or fees! How like the heart which holds faft deceit, and refuses to let it go! May I earnestly covet Jefus, the best thing; may I hold him fast, and refuse to let him go. "What a multitude of muffels, wilks,

and like thell-fifhes, abound on this flore! how "nicely their weak bodies are protected by their "fhelly manfions !" Since I have no might, hide. thyfelf, my foul, in Jefus Chrift: let him as my covering, my lodging, defend me from every danger. of hell or earth.

“HERE is a falt work; juft now the pans are go"ing.' What hot labour is here, to get our food feafoned! But ten thousand times hotter work was required to establish the now the everlasting covevenant of falt, and to render it "well ordered in all things, and fure ;" and to provide an infinite granary, filled with the fult of grace, to feafon our heart, our fpeech, and converfation. May all my facrifices

be.