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PERSEVERANCE.

There are few difficulties that hold out against real attacks; they fly, like the visible horizon, before those who advance. A passionate desire and an unwearied will can perform impossibilities, or what seem to be such, to the cold and the feeble. If we do but go on, some unseen path will open among the hills. We must not allow ourselves to be discouraged by the apparent disproportion between the result of single efforts and the magnitude of the obstacles to be encountered. Nothing good nor great is to be obtained without courage and industry; but courage and industry must have sunk in despair, and the world must have remained unornamented and unimproved, if men had nicely compared the effect of a single stroke of the chisel with the pyramid to be raised, or of a single impression of the spade with the mountain to be levelled. All exertion, too, is in itself delightful, and active amusements seldom tire us. Helvetius owns that he could hardly listen to a concert for two hours, though he could play on an instrument all day long. The chase, we know, has always been the favourite amusement of kings and nobles. Not only fame and fortune, but pleasure is to be earned. Efforts, it must not be forgotten, are as indispensable as desires. The globe is not to be circumnavigated by one wind. We should never do nothing. It is better to wear out than to rust out,' says Bishop Cumberland. 'There will be time enough for repose in the grave,' said Nicole to Pascal.

As a young man, you should be mindful of the unspeakable importance of early industry,

since in youth habits are easily formed, and there is time to recover from ill defeats. An Italian sonnet justly, as well as elegantly, compares procrastination to the folly of a traveller who pursues a brook till it widens into a river and is lost in the sea. The toils as well as risks of an active life are commonly overrated, so much may be done by the diligent use of ordinary opportunities; but they must not always be waited for, We must not only strike the iron while it is hot, but strike till it is made hot.' Herschel, the great astronomer, declares that ninety or one hundred hours, clear enough for observations, cannot be called an unproductive year.

The lazy, the dissipated, and the fearful should patiently see the active and the bold pass them in the course. They must bring down their pretensions to the level of their talents. Those who have not energy to work must learn to be humble, and should not vainly hope to unite the incompatible enjoyments of indolence and enterprise, of ambition and self-indulgence.

NOTHING HARMS US BUT OUR OWN WILLS.

THERE is nothing in the whole world able to do us good or hurt, but God, and our own will: neither riches nor poverty, nor disgrace nor honour, nor life nor death, nor angels nor devils; but willing or not willing as we ought. Should hell itself cast all its fiery darts against us, if our will be right, if it be informed by the divine will, they can do us no hurt; we have then, if I may so speak, an enchanted shield, that is impenetrable, and will bear off all. God will not hurt us, and

hell cannot hurt us, if we will nothing but what God wills. Nay, then we are actuated by God himself, and the whole divinity flows in upon us; and, when we have cashiered this self-will of ours, which did but schackle and confine our souls, our wills shall then become truly free, being widened and enlarged to the extent of God's own will,' Hereby we know, that we know CHRIST indeed,' not by our speculative opinions concerning him, but 'by our keeping of his commandments.'

ADVERSITY.

'It was a high speech of Seneca, (after the manner of the Stoics,) that "the good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things belonging to adversity are to be admired:" "Bona rerum secundarum optabilia, adversarum mirabilia." Certainly if miracles be the command over nature, they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher speech of his than the other, (much too high for a heathen,) "It is true greatness to have in one the frailty of a man, and the security of a God:" Verè magnum, habere fragilitatem hominis, securitatem Dei." This would have done better in poesy, where transcendencies are more allowed; and the poets, indeed, have been busy with it; for it is in effect the thing which is figured in that strange fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not to be without mystery, nay, and to have some approach to the state of a Christian, "that Hercules, when he went to unbind Prometheus," by whom human nature is represented, "sailed the length of the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher," lively describing Christian resolution, that saileth

in the frail bark of the flesh through the waves of the world. But to speak in a mean: the virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude; which in morals is the more heroical virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament: adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God's favour. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes: and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see in needle-works and embroideries it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground: judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.'

OF PRAYER.

Oun prayers should run parallel to promises; we should ask nothing of God but what we have an intimation he will do for us: our needs and necessities would not be sufficient argument; but the principal argument is the word of God. Finding a promise in the word, faith fixes there, and presseth God from it; and a believer so praying cannot be denied, unless God deny himself. The

word of God is himself; it is his will: so the soul may go with a holy boldness unto God; for the thing that is promised is half done. God may keep us in suspense a while; but he expects we should live upon the word, and hang on it till the time of the promise comes. All that faith labours for is to work the soul to assurance that God will deal with us according to his word. And if I can make it out that such a promise belongs to me, I have enough to live on.

When a man is assured God hath given him his Son, he will then easily be induced to believe and expect, how shall he not with him give me all things? If once he looks upon God as a Father, he will then easily conceive what Christ says, If fathers that are evil can give good things to their children, how much more shall your Father give his Spirit to them that ask him? and if he gave his Son when we did not pray to him, how much more shall he with him give us all things we pray for?

In trading, he gets most by his commodity, that can forbear his money the longest so does the Christian, that can with most patience stay for a return to his prayer. Such a soul shall never be ashamed of its waiting.

The gift of prayer may have praise from men ; but it is the grace of prayer, that has power with God.

Pray for them thou lovest. Thou wilt never have any comfort of his friendship, for whom thou dost not pray.

Prayer is a key, which, being turned by the hand of faith, unlocks all God's treasures.

In prayer, it is better to have an heart, without words, than words without an heart.

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