THE RAISING OF LAZARUS.

THE Saviour can accomplish his purposes in a manner peculiarly his own. All the friends of Lazarus would have supposed, that as soon as Jesus was informed of his affliction he should have hastened to the scene of distress, and at least have expressed his sympathy. How eagerly did the sisters long for him! How did their hearts bleed over his delay! How often, wringing their hands, did they look out of the window; and send a servant to look down the Galilean way-" "Where is he? If he comes not soon, it will be too late." And now Lazarus has breathed his last; and the house is filled with wonder, perplexity, and grief! Even when Jesus arrives they can hardly forbear a reflection. "Lord," said Martha, " if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." Mary also complained in the same way. But hear him. "All has been proper and necessary. I know what I have done, and why I have done it. I know it now; and you will know it soon. Then you will be glad with me. Then you will see that it was far better that Lazarus should be raised from the dead after he had lain in the grave four days, than have been only recovered from a bed of sickness."

Thus the Lord brings the blind by a way that they know not. His thoughts are as much above our thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth. And with regard to ourselves-Is it not well for us that things were not always according to our mind? Has he not often advanced our welfare by events which seemed perfectly adverse to it? We were tempted to charge him foolishly and unkindly; yet, after a while, we perceived how in the dispensation, his wisdom and kindness were peculiarly at work for our good. And what we know not now, we shall know hereafter. Let us, therefore, when our notions and his schemes disagree, distrust our own judgment, and confide in the rectitude of his conduct. Let us not think of regulating his sun by our dial, but our dial by his sun. Let us not judge of his word by his providence, but of his providence by his word. Let us not judge of his heart by his hand, but of his hand by his heart. Where can we find his heart to judge by? In the promises-in the cross-He loved us and gave himself for us. Before we undertake to amend, let us be assured that there is something wrong; and before we censure, let us at least understand. Who knows what is good for a man in this life? How liable we are to err, from pride, from worldly-mindedness, from impatience, from unbelief! Let us judge nothing before the time. He will give a good account of himself at last; and bring us over to his own mind. But till we walk by sight, let us walk by faith; and believe now, what we shall know then, that "his work is perfect, his ways are judgment." "He hath done all things well."

JAY.

THE RAINBOW.-Genesis ix. 16.

THE bow is a fair representation of the good-will of God to man. It speaks the language of mercy to ourselves, while it puts us in remembrance of the visitation of wrath to others, in former times. It shines upon the very clouds which were the instruments of that wrath, and thus assures us, that in the midst of judgment God remembers mercy, and gives support to our faith when there appears any ground for fear. It shines the brightest on the darkest cloud, just as the Divine perfections are most gloriously displayed in seasons of deepest affliction. It is, as the old writers have remarked, a bow which shoots no arrow; or, if it were to shoot, would send it away from, instead of towards the earth.

But there is one peculiar circumstance connected with the appearance of the rainbow, which, in interest and importance, claims our attention above all the rest. It never appears but when the sun shines its brightness is in proportion to the power of his rays: it is caused by his light, and is the reflection of his beams. And to what do the tokens of the covenant of grace owe all their lustre ?

By what are all our evidences of salvation produced? Entirely by the shining of the Sun of righteousness. Here, then, the rainbow brings us to HIM, who is the theme of all ministrations, the ground of our hopes, and who should be the one great object of our love and admiration-the God-man Christ Jesus.

C.

THE WAY TO DESTRUCTION.

THERE is a destruction which a good man may laugh at, destruction and famine, Job v. 22; but hell and destruction are no laughing matters.

Question. What is the way that leads to this destruction?

Answer. The way of sin : every act of sin deserves it, Rom. vi. 23; but a course of sin leads directly to it. If the tenour of the conversation be sinful, the tendency of it is towards destruction. This way that leads to destruction may be divided into three paths:

1. The path of profaneness and immorality. There is a way which many walk in, and it leads to destruction—who live in the allowed violation of the laws of moral virtue, especially those two great ones of justice and temperance. The way of deceit, and violence, and oppression, leads to destruction, Rom. iii. 13. 16. Gen. vi. 11. 13. The way of drunkenness and gluttony, Prov. xxiii. 31, 32. The way of uncleanness, Prov. ii. 18. v. 5. vii. 27. This is certain, that vice is as surely ruinous to the soul, as unbelief. The New Testament gives awakening cautions to this purpose, 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Eph. v. 5, 6; the end of those whose God is their belly is destruction, Phil. iii. 19. If nominal christians adopt the vices of pagans, what can they expect but utter destruction? See who shall have their portion without, Rev. xxi. 8. Such practices, under the cloak of a visible profession, will be the more aggravated.

2. The path of practical atheism and irreligion—this also leads to destruction ? If a man be ever so just, and honest, and sober, and yet lives in a constant neglect of the duties of piety and devotion, lives without prayer and the word of God, that omission will be undoubtedly fatal-if " without God" in the world, then "without hope," Eph. ii. 12; these are the ungodly, Psa. lxxiii. 12. It is not enough to give others their due, but we must give God his; and if he have it not, he will recover it. It is certainly damning to cast off fear and restrain prayer, to count the things of God strange things and small things, and the duties of religion needless. This is the way of mere worldlings, that are for no more religion than is necessary to maintain the reputation of a fair honest man, their time and thoughts are otherwise employed, and all regard to God is cast behind their backs.

3. The path of hypocrisy and dissimulation in religion. This also leads to destruction; this is a back-way to hell, which many

fall into that escape the two former. There is "a way that seems right," Prov. xiv. 12; many a one that is neither openly profane, nor visibly irreligious, yet keeps up those secret haunts of sin, which will be destroying under the cloak of a plausible profession. They say "Lord, Lord," but that is all, their hearts are not right with him; they have the form of godliness, but deny the power, 2 Tim. iii. 5. Hypocrites in heart, though saints in life, heap up wrath, Job xxxvi. 13; nay, they have the surest and sorest place in this destruction, Matt. xxiv. 8. Thus sin leads to destructior. as a way leads to a place; that is, it tends to this destructionwickedness goes thitherward. Sin alienates the heart from God nay, exasperates it against God, and so works its eternal separation from him. It will certainly end in this destruction by the just and righteous judgment of God; the Lord of life hath said it, and all the world cannot reverse it, Ezek. xviii. 4. Gal. iii. 10. Rom. vi. 21; the eternal truth of God has tied such a knot between sin and death,t hat if we draw iniquity with cords of vanity, we draw misery along with it. M. HENRY.

From a Volume of his Sermons, lately published by the Religious Tract Society, from the original Manuscripts.

THE DESCENDANTS OF SETH.

CAIN went out from the presence of the Lord. We have, however, every reason to suppose that Adam continued to dwell in the fear of Jehovah. Whether he had other children alive at the death of Abel, we are not informed, but the double loss of the martyr and of the apostate, was supplied by the birth of another son, whom Eve named Seth, or appointed; "For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.' He was not, indeed, what she had fondly expected Cain to be himself the promised Seed, but he was the ancestor of Him that is mighty to deliver. Nor are we without an important and interesting record concerning Seth; we read of the birth of his son Enos, and that "then began men to call upon the name of the Lord;" a clear proof that Seth and his family began to distinguish themselves from those who neglected the fear and worship of Jehovah. Or, if the words are taken in a sense they will bear, "Then he, Seth, was made to begin to call in the name Jehovah," we have in them a testimony to the effects of Divine grace, that he was enabled to discern the value of the promised Redeemer, and to place all his reliance upon Him, and to train his descendants in the same faith, fear, and love.

The children of Seth are called by the name of Sons of God. We have no particulars of their occupations, nor any account of their successful pursuit of the refined arts and luxuries of life, therefore we may conclude that their days passed away in ac

cordance with primitive simplicity, and the employments which alone are necessary for the support of a God-fearing people; as described by a christian poet:

"There fruits and flowers, in genial light and dew,
Luxuriant vines, and golden harvests grew;

By freshening waters, flocks and cattle stray'd,

While youth and childhood watched them from the shade:
Age, at his fig-tree, rested from his toil,

And manly vigour till'd the unfailing soil;
Green sprang the turf, by holy footsteps trod,
Round the pure altars of the living God."

Of this race we have only the record of their names, and we have little to notice concerning Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, and Jared. Each of them lived to an age of which we can form little idea as connected with the present life of man. It was to nine hundred years, and we have no reason to suppose but that they retained their powers and faculties through the whole of this lengthened period. How should we be startled to meet an aged man who could relate to us that he had been one of the band who pressed forward to meet the Norman William, when that monarch invaded England's shores; who should tell us of the part he took in erecting some of those ruined monasteries and castles of which scarcely a vestige remains; who himself had listened to the words of truth as plainly preached by Wickliff; who had witnessed the first martyr burned in Smithfield for refusing to worship a piece of bread as his God; who could, from his own personal knowledge, correct many of the statements recorded in history, and, by a brief description of what really occurred, consign volumes of historic doubts and surmises to oblivion! But the antediluvian patriarchs did exist through a period equal to what has been described. Surely the life of man must then have differed in many respects from its present circumstances, or they must have been weary of it for centuries before they were summoned hence. But let us remember, that a life spent in the fear of God, is neither tedious nor vain; and this we may believe was the experience of many of the descendants of Seth. From the lips of Adam they heard the full history of the creation of paradise; of the unhappy hour when Eve listened to the wiles of Satan; of the fall and the promised recovery of man; receiving the full instructions which, we may well believe, would flow from the lips of the venerable parent of the human race. Surely, while listening to themes like these, hours and days would rapidly pass away. And other subjects, alas, too soon became of deep interest to these patriarchal fathers. Some of those, who bore the title of Sons of God, forgetting the ways of peace and holiness, saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and took them wives o all that they