or what, is against you. Only " encourage yourselves in the Lord your God :" " in the mount of difficulty the Lord will be seeny;" though you are no better armed than Gideon's band with their lamps and pitchers, you shall put to flight all that oppose your progress z : and though you are as unfit for exer- tion as a travailing woman, you shall reach in safety the Zion that is above.]
y Gen. xxii. 14. z Judg. vii. 20, 21.
Jer. xxxi. 10 — 14. Hear the word of the Lord, 0 ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattereth Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall floiv together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd : and their souls shall be as a tuatered garden ; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together : for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied ivith my goodness, saith the Lord.
THERE is a beauty and richness in the inspired volume which is not to be found in any human com- position : and we cannot but consider it as a very serious injury to the Church, that the habit of ex- pounding Scripture, which was so prevalent amongst the Reformers, is now almost wholly laid aside. Though we may speak many good things from a de- tached portion of Scripture, yet we never can give so great weight to any passage by our own comments, as it receives from its own context : and the more entirely God himself is permitted to speak, provided there be unity in the subject, the better. Take the passage which we have just read : it is capable of being made the ground-work of many discourses ; but the force and interest which it derives from being