REFLECTIONS

ON EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK.

SUNDAY.

The Omnipresence of God, and the practical Inferences from it.

"O Lord, thou hast searched me out, and known me: thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising thou art about my path and about my bed, and spiest out all my ways."

How true, how astonishing is this thought! God, my Maker, is ever present with me. He is infinite in being, and therefore must be every where. He is infinite in knowledge, and therefore every thing must be known to him. No creature is too inconsiderable for his notice. The friends, the relations, and acquaintance, whom I see and converse with every day, know not half so much of my conduct as He does, nor are half so attentive to it. How hourly careful should I be, then, to approve myself to Him! Among my relations and friends, there are some whom I regard more than the rest, either out of greater affection for their goodness and kindness, or out of reverence for their greater wisdom and dignity, or out of interest, as being capable of doing me more good or hurt. All these motives of the highest regard are joined in Him. His excellence is more than thought can conceive: whatever is beautiful, or good, or amiable in the world, flows from Him as its source. In Him is all greatness and majesty, all wisdom and knowledge : every thing that is glorious, awful, venerable. My hourly dependence is upon Him, and all my expectations through an eternity to come. From Him I have received my life, my being, every power and faculty of soul and body. Every innocent delight I

enjoy, is His gift: in every danger, He is my present help. No power but His could guide me safely through the intricate mazes of life. Hitherto His providence has carefully watched over me, and His right hand has held me up: and through all my future life, He, who is truth itself, has promised never to fail me nor forsake me, if on my part, I will but serve Him faithfully, as in my baptismal vow I have promised to do. That blessed covenant I am going to renew by partaking of the holy Sacrament. Had not our blessed Saviour died to redeem mankind, we must all have appeared before an all-seeing God, of infinite justice and holiness, without security of being considered otherwise than as objects of displeasure. But we know that He looks upon us now as objects of the tenderest mercy. He invites us to pour our hearts before Him," at all times: to call upon Him in the time of trouble :" " to look unto Him, and be saved." O my soul, in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.

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MONDAY.

The Improvement of Time, and Self-examination.

"Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness." Our Lord and Saviour has pronounced this blessedness, and through his grace I hope to partake of it. Hunger and thirst naturally prompt us to seek, without delay, the means of satisfying them. What then is the food of the mind? Wholesome instruction and religious meditation. If then I sincerely hunger and thirst after righteousness, I shall be frequently feeding my mind with pious books and thoughts. I shall make the returns. of these meals as regular as I can, and seldom shall I find any necessity strong enough to make me miss them a whole day together. But then it ought to be remembered too, that even these, the best hours

of my life, ought never to encroach upon the duties and employments of my station, whatever they may be. Am I in a superior station of life? My duty probably takes in a large compass: and I am accountable to my Maker for all those talents intrusted with me by Him, for the benefit of my fellow-creatures. I must not think of living to myself alone, or devoting that time to imitate the employment of angels, which was given me for the service of men. Religion must be my chief end, and my best delight: it must regulate all I think or do; but whatever my station is, I must fulfil all its duties. Have I leisure and genius? I must give a due portion of my time to the elegant improvements of life; to the study of those sciences that are an ornament to human nature; to such things as may make me amiable and engaging to all whom I converse with, that by any means I may win them over to religion and goodness. For if I am always shut up in my closet, and spend my time in nothing but exercises of devotion, I shall be looked upon as morose and hypocritical, and be disregarded as useless in the world. When this life is ended, we have a whole eternity before us to spend in those noblest employments, and highest delights. But man, in this low state of mortality, pays the most acceptable obedience to God, by serving his fellow-creatures.

What is there so gladdening as religious thoughts? Be my state ever so mean and toilsome, as a Christian I am equal to the greatest monarch upon earth. Be my misfortunes and sorrows ever so severe, as a Christian I can look beyond death to an eternity of happiness, of happiness certain, and unspeakable. These thoughts, therefore, I should keep upon my mind through the whole week: they should be the amusement of my labour, and the relief of my weariness and when my heart is thus ready, I shall gladly take every opportunity to sing and give praise. I shall awake early to worship that God who is my

defence and my delight; and I shall close every evening with prayer and thanksgiving to Him, whose "ways are ways of pleasantness, and all whose paths are peace." In all my common conversation I shall have my eye continually up to Him, who alone can direct my paths to happiness and improvement, and crown all my endeavours with the best success. I shall try to be something the better for every scene of life I am engaged in; to be something the wiser for every day's conversation and experience. And let me not fear, but that if I daily thus faithfully strive to grow in holiness, be my growth at the present never so imperceptible, I shall in due time arrive at the measure of the fulness of stature in Christ."

TUESDAY.

The Duty of constant Employment.

"I must work the work of Him who sent me, while it is day." If our blessed Saviour, infinitely great and excellent, was, when he assumed human nature, so far from being exempted from the general law of nature imposed on our first father and all his race, who is there amongst men that shall plead an exemption? The duty of employment is two-fold. First, as we are active and spiritual beings, ill would it become us to sit wrapt in indolence, and sleep away a useless life. Constant activity, and extensive usefulness, is the perfection of a spiritual being. The great God himself is infinitely active. "My Father worketh hitherto," saith our Saviour, " and I work." In their various degrees all the orders of angels are "ministering spirits." In the happy worlds above all is life and activity: and shall man, who is so fond of life, lose his little portion of it in a lazy, slothful, half state? Shall he quench those sparks of immortality that glow in his bosom, and content himself with being, for three parts of his time, little

better than a lump of organized clay? Innocent man in Paradise was not made for idleness. But guilty fallen man is peculiarly born to labour, and to trouble. Equally just and merciful was the doom pronounced to Adam, "In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread. Human nature, corrupted and depraved by the fall of our first parents, would be incapable of employing ease and leisure to any happy purposes. Greatly do we need constant employment to keep us out of the reach of those temptations from within, and from without, that in idleness particularly assault us. Greatly do we need to have much of our minds taken up with perpetual attention to necessary business and hourly duty, that they may not prey too much upon themselves. Labour and pain are the necessary, though unpalatable medicine of our souls. Shall we refuse to follow the prescription of that heavenly Physician, who drank the bitterest cup for us? Toil and trouble are the just punishments of guilty human nature: shall we rebel against our awful Judge? Activity and employment are the law of our being; and shall we not obey our sovereign Ruler, our great and good Creator?

We ought to think nothing beneath us; nor to desire any thing but what is allotted to us. We ought to imagine nothing our own; and surely, therefore, not our time: yet how apt are we to think it quite a hardship put upon us, if any small portion of it is to be spent disagreeably, and if we have not hours, and days, and years, to indulge in careless idleness and giddy pleasures!

WEDNESDAY.

On the humble and religious Enjoyment of the Blessings of Life.

"And God saw every thing that He had made, and behold it was very good."