rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. But Jeshurun waxed fat; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation.

How the manner of life we have described should lead to worldliness of spirit and conduct, will be easily perceived. The present state of man is affirmed to be, of the earth, earthy. It is the tendency of human nature to regard earthly pleasures as the main end of life; and where there are most of the requisites to obtain such pleasures, there is the greatest probability of their being sought under this mistaken impression as to their true value and design. The prosperous have all the channels of gaiety and dissipation open to them; and, as surely as they are prosperous, there will not be wanting those who will beckon them onward in forbidden paths. The first impulse of human nature is to do as required; but difficulties, perhaps, interpose, partly from the suggestions of prudence, partly from the dictates of conscience. These it may take some time to remove but what appeared at first to be unlawful, becomes, in a little while, matter of doubt, and the next step is to comply with it. In this manner an absorbing worldliness is often allowed to put aside the claims both of religion and of humanity. Dress, furniture, equipage, fashionable parties, all have their

fascinations, are at command, and all serve to weave out the snare of the destroyer.

The victims of disease and sorrow, of poverty and want, how little have they to endear the earth to them? With such it is indeed a wilderness, a prison-house. But the man who can call his dwelling his own, and the lands which encircle it his own; or who, in any place, can soon surround himself with abundance; how hard a lesson has he to learn if he would overcome the world, or use it as not abusing it! His pride, his vanity, his sensual taste, all dispose him to comply, when urged to conform himself with the course of things around him. The broad way, which leads to the chambers of death, is smoothed at his presence; and, on either side, allurements are crowded forth, which do not obtrude themselves on the notice of the children of adversity. Thus the tendency of each earthly blessing, unless sanctified by religion, is to render us more earthly, and more fearful of death; more opposed to what is heavenly, and more enslaved to the tendencies of the lost. A new tie, in every such case, is added to the present; and a new power is given to the feeling which induces a shrinking from the future.

We have mentioned FORGETFULNESS OF GOD as another dangerous consequence often found in the train of prosperity. When did David learn to forget his Maker? Not while watching his sheepfold, nor while flying from the face of Saul. It was when at rest in his greatness, as the monarch of

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the chosen people. What was the state which Moses saw as most pregnant with danger to the Israelites? These are his words- When thou shalt have eaten, and art full, THEN beware lest thou forget the Lord that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. And as the man of God feared it would be, so it was. Israel, when the season came, lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation. When men grow rich, they generally forget the companions of their poverty. And that gospel which is preached to the poor,-how commonly is it forgotten when men reach the level of those who have learnt to put some fashionable corruption in its room; their Christianity being a thing to be determined by the taste of the new caste to which they aspire, as much as the most trivial thing that fashion may influence.

In adversity, though the heart be as hard as that of Pharaoh, there are moments when men are constrained to ask that the Lord may be entreated for them. But, while no evil presses to require the intervention of mercy, they too commonly live as though there were no God:-the affairs of life glide on, and, leaving them insensible to their dependance on divine aid, the thought of such dependance is excluded from their mind. So long as the calm lasts, the Almighty may be as one who sleeps. It is when the storm threatens, that his presence is remembered;-then, his commanding word is felt to be of infinite moment.

The church, like individuals, has had her seasons

of prosperity; and these, as in the case of individuals, have been frequently followed by intervals of fiery trial. It has then become manifest, that the time in which the enemy sows his seed in greatest profusion, is when Christians are allowed to repose beneath the sunshine of worldly favour. While that favour lasts, the wheat and the tares grow up together: but, in times of persecution, the Son of God comes forth with his winnow in his hand, that he may cleanse his floor; and a separation takes place between the precious and the vile, resembling that which is to mark the proceedings of the last day. The men who abide at such seasons, are those who have learnt to endure hardship, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. And to this, the habits of the self-indulgent and the worldly are soon found to have been most unfavourable. The man of pampered flesh must faint when exposed to severe privation, or considerable suffering. The mind, whose busy thoughts have been absorbed in a multitude of little things, is far below the greatness necessary to enduring the crossdespising the shame! Not a few, also, who are engaged in less trivial pursuits, must still be described as forgetting God: and estranged from the contemplation of his excellencies, such men fall into every kind of delusion as to their own character, their obligations, and their prospects hereafter. Notwithstanding all his mercifulness, they have been unmindful of the God of Truth, and have become the dupes of error as a punish

ment. It is a fearful thing when men do not like to retain God in their knowledge. It was this evil which fastened the curse of a reprobate mind on the ancient heathen; and their abused prosperity is assigned as one of the causes of so much depravity.

There is a sin, however, to which the abuse of prosperity leads, which is even more to be dreaded. We refer to that IMPIOUS INDEPENDENCE OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT with which prosperous men are too frequently chargeable. On this point the language of Job is especially forcible and instructive:- Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. THEREFORE they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit should we have if we pray unto him? The case of Nebuchadnezzar will both illustrate and confirm this description. Hear his words-Is not this great Babylon that I have built, for a house of the kingdom, by the might of MY power, and for the honour of MY majesty.

Prosperous men, if they do not adopt this