to unite " the fear of the Lord with the comforts of the Holy Ghost m." Be watchful then, that you do not by any unhallowed dispositions " grieve the Holy Spirit11 ;" but endeavour to " walk in the fear of the Lord all the day long0."]
m Acts ix. 31. n Eph. iv. 30. ° Prov. xxiii. 17.
Ps. lxxviii. 8. A generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
HISTORY is universally considered as a source of the most valuable instruction, since it sets before us the actions of men, under all the most important circumstances of life, and teaches us what to avoid, and what to follow. But in this point of view the inspired history is of incomparably greater value than any other, because it portrays the conduct of men under an infinitely greater variety of circum- stances than any other history can do, and does it also with far greater truth and certainty. Its im- portance in this respect is strongly marked by the Psalmist in the preceding context. He calls on the whole Jewish nation to listen to mm, whilst he sets before them the dealings of Jehovah with their ancestors, and their conduct towards him: and he charges them to impart the information to their children, in order to its being transmitted through successive generations to their latest posterity; that all might learn their obligations to God, and be instructed to avoid the evils into which their an- cestors had fallen : " that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments : and might not be, as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God."
With a view to a similar improvement of the sub- ject for ourselves, I will point out, I. The character of that generation —
To estimate this aright, we must consider what might reasonably have been expected of them —