They

good for me. I have ever found them so. are happy means in the hands of the Holy Spirit to mortify my corruptions, to subdue my pride, my passion, my inordinate love to the creature. They soften my hard heart, bring me on my knees, exercise and increase faith, love, humility, and self-denial. They make me poor in spirit, and nothing in my own eyes. Welcome the cross! Welcome deep adversity! Welcome stripping Providences."

Humbled in the lowest deep,

Thee I for my suffering bless;
Think of all thy love, and weep
For my own unfaithfulness:
I have most rebellious been,
Thou hast laid thy hand on me,
Kindly visited my sin,

Scourged the wanderer back to thee.

Taught obedience to my God

By the things I have endured,
Meekly now I kiss the rod,

Wounded by the rod and cured;
Good for me the grief and psin,
Let me but thy grace adore,
Keep the pardon I regain,
Stand in awe and sin no more.

CHARLES WESLEY.

PART SECOND.

SCRIPTURE EXAMPLES OF WIDOWS

CHAPTER I.

NAOMI, RUTH, AND ORPAH.

The fullness and appropriateness of scripture are as delightful as they are wonderful. In that precious volume is to be found something suited to every character, every case, and every vicissitude of life. Promises, precepts, and prospects of every variety, present themselves to all who are desirous of being directed, sanctified, and comforted. But if any one should think there is nothing which meets the specialities of her case, it cannot be the widow. This living form of human woe is found in very diversified circumstances in the Word of God. And to these I now direct the attention of the reader.

The first example which I present is the little group of widows, consisting of Naomi, and her two daughters-in-law.

The book of Ruth where this touching story is to be found, was written probably by Samuel, as an introduction to the historical portion of scripture which immediately follows it; or else it may be regarded as a beautiful episode of the inspired narrative, containing the account of a family, which as it stands in the line of David's ancestry, and therefore in that of the Messiah, is for this reason as important as its short annals are tender and interesting.

We are informed by the sacred writer of this book, that a famine having arisen in the land of Judea, Elimelech, a Jew of some note among his countrymen, fled with his wife Naomi, and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, into the land of Moab, to which the scarcity had not extended. How far he was justified in such a step, by which he left all the public ordinances of true religion, to sojourn in a land of idolaters, we cannot decide. If, indeed, there were no other means of preserving life, it would be wrong to condemn him; but if it were only with a view to obtain a comfortable subsistence, more easily, cheaply, and abundantly, than he could do in Judea, he was to be censured; and some have considered the afflictions which befel him in the land of Moab, as an expression of the divine displeasure for resorting to it. Let us never for any temporal

advantages give up such as are spiritual; for worldly ease and prosperity, purchased at the expence of religion, are dearly bought: and at the same time, let us be cautious how we pretend to interpret the affairs of Providence, and to declare that event to be a work of divine displeasure, which is only one of the common occurrences of life.

One false step is often productive of a long train of consequences, which extend far beyond the individual by whom the error is committed, and involves others in danger, or distress; this is especially true in the case of a parent. Elimelech, as we have already said, had two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, who having arrived at manhood, and being removed from all intercourse with Jewish females, married two of the women of the idolatrous land in which they now dwelt. This being contrary to the Mosaic law, which forbad the Jews to intermarry with strangers, was unquestionably wrong. But what could their father expect, who had exposed them to the peril ? Religious parents should neither form associations, nor contract friendships with gay worldly people, nor choose a residence for the sake of their society; for by doing this, they are almost sure to unite their children in marriage with the ungodly.

The family was now settled in Moab, and Judea seemed, if not forgotten, yet forsaken. Alas! how soon and how suddenly was the domestic circle in this case, as in many others, invaded and broken up, and all the gay visions of earthly bliss dissipated like the