[There is no rod which has not a voice to us. Our very sins may be permitted, in order to humble us, and to make us niore thankfully cleave to the Savdour. Our trials, of whatever kind, are to purge away our dross, and to fit us for our eternal rest. To view them in this light will greatly compose our minds ; instead of fretting against the Lord, we shall be thank- ful to him ; and instead of increasing our misery, we shall make it a source of joy.]
Prov. XX. 4. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.
ARGUMENTS from analogy, when the analogy itself is just, are easy of apprehension, and well cal- culated to convince the mind : and one distinguished excellence of the Book of Proverbs is, that it abounds with such arguments ; and without any formal state- ment of premises and conclusions, presents the truth to us in short, sententious aphorisms, that are plain, obvious, incontrovertible. Whoever has made the least observation on human affairs, must have seen the evil consequences of neglecting our proper busi- ness in life, whether in husbandry, or trade, or any other line : and it is easy to infer from thence, that similar consequences must attend a neglect of our Christian duties. Nor is it necessary that this ana- logy should be always pointed out to us : the whole scope of that divinely inspired book naturally leads us to make a spiritual improvement of the hints, which, in their literal sense, apply only to the things of this life.
Let us then in this view consider,
L The sluggard's conduct —
The duties both of the husbandman and the Chris- tian require industry —
[It was a part of the curse introduced by sin, that man should obtain his bread by the sweat of his brow : nor will the earth yield us any thing but briers and thorns, unless we bestow much pains in the cultivation of it. Our attention to it must be unremitted : it is not the labour of a month or a year that will suffice : we must repeat again and again the same processes, in order to guard against the noxious weeds that would overrun'