[How often has that which never could be effected by- prosperity been produced by adversity. In prosperity, for the most part, we forget God ; but " in the time of adversity we consider." " In their affliction," said God of his people of old, " they will seek me early :" " they will pour out a prayer, when my chastening is upon them." And have you found it thus with you ? Then, however painful your afflictions may have been, they call rather for congratulation than condolence. The prosperity of the soul is that which alone is of any real value. Look to it then, that, in whatever ye decay, ye grow in grace : and know, that if only ye keep your eyes fixed, not on things visible and temporal, but on those which are invisible and eternal, " your light afflictions, which are but for a moment, shall work for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory-."]
m 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.
Deut. vii. 6 — 10. Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special 2^eople unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people (for ye were the fewest of all people) but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bond- men, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know there- fore that the Lord thy God he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations ; and repay eth them that hate him, to their face, to destroy them : he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.
THERE is in man a strange reluctance to contem- plate the sovereignty of God : but, if duly improved, there is no subject more comforting to the soul, or more calculated to promote practical religion. It is this on which Moses insists, in order to deter the Israelites from connexions with the heathen, and to induce them to maintain inviolable the command- ments of their God.