I.

There shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.- Luke, xiii. 28.

HERE is an argument for a holy life perhaps not much attended to, but drawn from the most acute feelings of the human heart. If you lead a bad life, you may not only have your own positive misery to bear, but the additional distress of seeing yourself for ever excluded from those you most valued, who are entering into a state of happiness. Here is a punishment arising, as perhaps most of our future punishments do, immediately from our vices. Envy is a vile passion, and here probably it becomes a source of endless punishment. This seems to be the meaning of our Saviour's observation. What an exaggerated punishment must it be (if there were no other punishment provided), for parents to be shut out from children children from

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from parents; wives from husbands - husbands from wives; brothers, sisters, and friends-all thus separated, and under such afflicting circumstances to those who are shut out in misery. It is a punishment probably only on the guilty; for it is not likely that the righteous should be disturbed by affections for those who had lost God's favour their earthly friendships, not resting on the stable foundation of religion, but on pleasing manners, good sense, or worldly accomplishments of different kinds, fade naturally away, when these are lost. Nothing surely, but such virtues as are the offspring of religion, can be the foundation of a heavenly friendship.

How strong a motive should this be to those who have an affection for pious persons, to qualify themselves in such a manner as will enable them to meet their friends in a happy futurity?

II.

It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. 1 Sam. iii. 18.

THIS was the submissive answer of the pious Eli, on his receiving a threatening message from the Lord, for not sufficiently restraining the wickedness of his sons. It is one of those aphorisms of which Scripture is full; and which are so well calculated to be always carried with us for constant use. The world is full of affliction. A state of trial must necessarily be supported by afflictive circumstances. Adversity is equally necessary as prosperity, to try the hearts of men. But it is a happy thing that we have here a rule which is sufficient, if we would piously attend to it, to support us under the worst of our afflictions; It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good he knows, with unerring certainty, what is best for all his creatures: he doth not willingly afflict the children of men; but tempers

the affliction always with a view to their good. What a happiness therefore ought we to think it, to be always under the care of so righteous a Master, who will treat us, we may be assured, like a father. We may be reminded also, that submission is even naturally the best way to make suffering easier; for, in spite of us, the Lord will do what seemeth him good. We may kick against the pricks'; but we shall only hurt ourselves.