truly astonishing :) and lastly, as a testimony of their gratitude; a sense of which they desired to retain to the end of life ; and to transmit to their latest posterity.
O that there were in all of us such an heart ! that we could see in such a view our obligations to God ! and that we were thus forward to express our sense of them in every possible way! The preservation of our lives is not indeed so manifest, as in their case ; but it is not at all less the work of God. Think of the diseases and accidents to which we have been exposed, and the havoc made by them on those around us ; and you shall see that we, no less than the Israelites, are indebted for our lives to the good providence of our God. Apply the same thought to our souls; and then say, whether we have not as
abundant calls for gratitude, as they How then shall
we testify our gratitude to God? I answer, Whatsoever he has given to us for a prey, that let us present to him for a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Has he given us time, and health, and money, and influence ; and, above all, has he infused an heavenly life into our souls? let us devote it all to him, and "glorify him with our bodies and our spirits which are his." The Israelites thought their jewels would be ill employed as ornaments for their wives or daughters, when they might be of use for the service and honour of God : thus should we also estimate whatever we possess ; not by the gratification it will afford to our pride and vanity, but by the good it will enable us to do to our fellow-creatures, and the service in which it may be em- ployed for our heavenly Benefactor. This only would I ob- serve in relation to it, that we must first give up ourselves to God, and then our property c. Without our hearts no sacri- fice whatever will be accepted of him: but if we " give ourselves to him as living sacrifices, we shall perform a holy, a reason- able, and an acceptable serviced:" and every victory we gain, together with every blessing we enjoy, whether public and national, or private and personal, demands it at our hands.]
c 2 Cor. viii. 5. d Rom. xii. 1.