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in order to obtain perfect and eternal happiness; represents sin as odious to himself and ruinous to our best interests; and requires us to recognise him as infinitely good. None is truly good but God, Matt. 19 : 17, and Psalm 34 : 9. With the full assurance of this, therefore, we may confidently approach him in prayer; and in this character, it is our duty to render him adoration and praise. Psalm 119 : 68, and 33: 5, and 145 : 7,9. This truth should banish all undue anxiety on our part, when called to endure the trials and afflictions of life.

4. The love of God, as exbibited to our world, affords also the truest ground of consolation to the believer. A single illustration of this is all that is necessary. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16; see also Tit. 3 : 4,5. Greater love than this it is impossible to conceive of. Such is the love he still bears our guilty race; and in an especial manner those who have fled to him through Christ. Here then “is firm footing; here is solid rock; this can support

On this is based that overwhelming argumentum à fortiori of Paul in Rom. 5:6–11; see also Rom. 8 : 28–39. One can hardly keep his pen from running rampant on these topics ; but our limits allow us barely to suggest them.

5. Omitting reference to the other attributes, the last that we shall specify is the immutability of God. If he is immutable, he is the same Being still as when he gave bis Son for us; uttered the promises ; and sustained, cheered, and protected his people through all past ages. And that he is immutable, the whole Bible testifies. “I the Lord change not,” Mal. 3:6.' The Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, Jas, 1:17, see also Num. 23:19, and Heb. 1:10—12, with Ps. 102: 27, 28, and Heb. 6:17, 18.

As an illustration of this truth, it is worthy of remark also, that God has implanted within our very souls a disposition to calculate upon the unvarying uniformity of nature. The Psalmist, in Ps. 119:89—91, in which he reasons from nature up to nature's God, advances an argument and illustration on this subject, which is very satisfactory, and is well calculated to evince the solidity of the ground on which our faith may rest with the surest confidence in the goodness of God. “For ever, O God, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations; thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thy ordinances; for all are thy servants."

This disposition is manifested in the earliest stages of childhood. The little infant, who has listened to the noise made by the nurse in shaking its rattle, takes it into its own hand, and

one

| Chalmers, with his usual power and felicity, has illustrated this thought of his Sermons.

fully expects by shaking it to witness a repetition of the sound. A child who has burnt its hand by reaching at the candle, will carefully avoid a repetition of the act. And

after an acquaintance of eighty or a hundred years with the movements of nature, the aged man entertains the same undiminished confidence in their uniformity. So uniform are her operations that we unhesitatingly calculate

upon

them. All men continue to believe that fire will burn, and ice cool; rivers flow, and the ocean bear ships upon its bosom. And were her operations not thus uniform, what would have been the result? The aged would have died with no more advantage derived from their experience, than the infant of a week old; nor could we, from knowing the past, make any provision for the future. How could the husbandman venture to sow his fields, seeing he had as much reason to expect a harvest of ice and snow as of grain. Such must have been the effect if man could not repose the most implieit confidence in the uniformity and regularity of nature. Hence, perhaps, God allows the performance of miracles but seldom, and at distant intervals ; lest he should diminish the confidence which his creatures repose in the uniformity of her operations. “ Thou hast established the earth and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances ; for all (of them) are thy servants."

Now if God is thus constant in the operations of nature; if he never disappoints that reasonable expectation herein, which himself hath implanted within us; I ask, will he disappoint the confidence which we repose in his declarations—disappoint us without any inducement for so doing? Will he disappoint those who labor to serve him faithfully; those whom he loves; when he has all nature obedient to his will; and when it is just as easy for him to fulfil his promises, as it could possibly be to break them ? Shall we behold all things sure and settled in his works, and yet everything unsettled and indetermined in his revealed will ? "The very idea is so munstrous that no sane mind could harbor it a moment. For if he adheres to the principles established in creation, much more will he adhere to everything that he has uttered. The grounds of that confidence, therefore, which he has given us in the constancy and uniformity of the operations of nature, and which he never suffers to be disappointed, are even less strong than that which we may exercise in relation to his promises. If he will stand fast to his appointed ordinances in nature, much more will he maintain his own avowed and often repeated declarations,

See here, follower of the Savior, the solidity of that ground on which you may rest your faith and confidence in God, notwithstanding all the mysterious and awful phenomena witnessed here.

Finally; the uncontrollable authority of Jesus Christ furnishes also a delightful ground of assurance. All power is his : completely and entirely his. Would he then die for his people, and yet fail to adopt all requisite measures to secure their ultimate salvation, and to overcome whatever dangers and difficulties may befall them ? He exercises perfect dominion over all creatures, and over all events; and by an Apostle he has assured us that all things work together for the good of them that love God; for them who are the called according to his purpose. Whatever else we cannot understand, this we can understand. Here we have solid ground upon which to rest our hopes; and reason for being joyful even in sorrow. What! would this all-powerful Redeemer permit anything in the dark and mysterious events of this world to shut us out of his love ? Never ! At his mercy-seat the child of God will find an unfailing source of consolation. It is his hand that administers all our chastisements; and nothing can befall us but by his permission. No mysterious trial or difficulty can meet us without his will. Then there are express declarations on record, that nothing shall tear the lambs of his purchase from the arms of their Divine shepherd. “They shall never perish, and none shall pluck them out of my

hands."

See also Ps. 23:1, and 121:3, 4, and Rom. 8:31–39. Now his power and authority are such that he can fully accomplish all these declarations.

Seeing then that the power of Jesus Christ is without limits, and his authority uncontrolled, what has his Church to apprehend from anything that can befall it? What has the feeblest of all his flock to fear? The terms accident, fortune, luck, chance and casualty, are without meaning, as respects our state on earth—or if they have a meaning, it can only be as names for the unknown operations of a superintending Providence. God determines the direction of every event. In his sight, that mass of confusion and disorder, which the chaos of human affairs perpetually presents to our view, is all regularity and order. He is superintending and directing all, and will fulfil all his pleasure.

Where, then, is left any room for undue anxiety, or for immoderate care respecting events that occur or may occur in our earthly course? This anxiety fills the heart with passions which annoy and corrupt it; and tend to alienate our affections from God, and from the higher objects of virtue and religion. We mean not to deny that something depends upon ourselves. The good man, when devising his own way, and carrying out his plans, has his appropriate place in an order of means which Providence employs to bring about its designs, a part of which is his own ultimate happiness. But it still depends upon an unseen hand, whether our projects shall be overturned, or crowned with success. have faithfully performed your duty, therefore, “take no thought for the morrow." It is, with all its unfolded events, in the hands of God; and there we may entrust it with confidence and safety.

The most perfect science of human government cannot avoid,

When you

oftentimes, sacrificing individual interest to the general good. In the Divine economy, however, this state of things has no existence. God conducts his vast plans to perfection; but never is the individual interest of one virtuous being sacrificed to promote that end. The ultimate general good is the ultimate good of every virtuous individual of his innumerable family of intelligent and dependent creatures. This is the perfection of government; and this perfection exists in the Divine administration. It is precisely the system unfolded to view in the Word of God. Rom. 8:38.

There is nothing, therefore, which should be permitted to shake our confidence in the goodness and equity of God's moral government. When we see nations overturning ; tyranny prevailing, and the sacred cause of Poland and liberty trampled in the dust; or when we see our own freedom tamely yielded by our degenerate rulers into the hands of mobs and their ruffian leaders; and our blood-bought institutions threatened with subversion by the wily emissaries of foreign despots ;-or, on a smaller scale, when we see infidelity prevailing; and the church distracted through the unhallowed passions of worldly spirits who have intruded within her sacred enclosure; or see removed from our midst the most needed and useful of our Savior's followers—shall these things dismay us? Shall we tremble for the ark of God, or doubt the ultimate triumph of his cause on earth? Never! We will confide in Thee, blessed Jesus : assured, that though “clouds and darkness are round about Thee, righteousness and judgment are the establishment of thy throne."

Thus sustained and comforted, the child of God can flee to his bosom when anxious, afflicted, or oppressed. Here, the feeblest of the flock will meet an equal welcome with the strongest ; and shall not fail to find hope and comfort. Follower of Jesus, be content there to abide : “For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee; neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith Jehovah, who hath mercy upon thee." "When thou passest through the waters,

“ I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle

thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior." Is. 54: 10, and 43:2, 3.

ARTICLE VIII.

EXPOSITION OF JOHN II: 4.

Translated from the German of DR. W. F. BESSER, by Prof. WM. M. REYNOLDS, Gettysburg, Pa. CONSIDERABLE difficulty still attaches to those words of our Savior : Τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοὶ, γύναι ; οὔπω ἥκει ἡ ὥρα μου, in which he refuses the request indirectly made by Mary in the remark, οἶνον ουκ ἔχουσι. In the following hints we shall endeavor to show, that the granting of Mary's request by our Lord, in the miracle of changing the water into wine, is not contradictory of his previous refusal; but that between the two moments of refusal and compliance, something intervenes which presents a sufficient motive for our Lord's change of conduct.

In the first place, it may be considered as decided, that Mary, when directing the Savior's attention to the want of wine, desired and expected a miraculous supply from him. Bengel remarks upon the words, oivov bux exovo" She says, I wish you to retire, that the rest of the company may do the same, before their poverty is exposed. Such being Mary's idea, the answer of Jesus is not only not harsh, but full of affection." According to this, our Lord, in the words, ono xɛi i boa uov, would merely say; "the hour for doing what you suggest, i. e. retiring, is not yet come. But the hour for aiding was come. "" This explanation does not accord with the phrase ga uov which Bengel himself appears to have felt. It would be singular indeed, for our Lord to express the idea, "I shall remain," by the words, "Mine hour is not yet come." In John 7: 6, to which an appeal may be made, the phrase, ὁ καιρὸς ὁ ἐμός, results from the contrast with ὁ καιρὸς ὁ ὑμέτερος, and even here, there is implied in the words, "My time is not yet come," more than the mere refusal to go to Jerusalem; they at the same time answer the appeal, "Show thyself unto the world." As his time to show himself unto the world was not yet come, so neither was his time to travel publicly to Jerusalem yet come. And further, it does not appear that our Lord's language would lose any of its harshness, by supposing this to be Mary's meaning. The expression, T ἐμοὶ καὶ σοὶ, γύναι ; does not naturally harmonize with the construction which Bengel puts upon it. But, finally, and this would of itself decide the matter, the context is throughout opposed to this explanation. Mary directs the servants to obey the Savior's orders; she therefore evidently expects some sort of relief from him. But that she was, as Bengel will have it, first brought by our Lord's answer to the idea, that as he would not retire he would perform a miracle, can scarcely be made to appear probable. In the same way does Mary's state of feeling, as made known by her words to the servants, stand opposed to Calvin's view, according to which her words, olvov bux exovoi, merely exhibit her "anxious sympathy," whilst she neither expected nor re