doubt should enter into the mind of man. Be ashamed then, ye who are filled with such anxiety about the issue of your warfare, and are saying, like David, " I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul." Be ashamed, I say, and learn rather, like Paul, to say, " I know in whom I have believed." You may be reduced to straits in spiritual as well as temporal concerns; but they shall only issue in the fuller manifestation of God's faithfulness and truth. His promise to you is, that " your place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks ; that bread shall be given you, and your water shall be sure™:" and " He is faithful that hath promised." Trust then in him, and " he will keep you in perfect peace:" trust in him, and he will " give you all things that pertain unto life and godliness ;" nor shall you ever be " ashamed or confounded world without end."]
™ Isai. xxxiii. 16.
Matt. vii. 1, 2. Judge not, that ye he not judged. Forivith what judgment ye judge, ye shall he judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall he measured to you again.
AMONGST the many faults with which the Phari- sees of old were chargeable, that of censoriousness appears to have been peculiarly prominent. In the parable of the Pharisee and the Pubhcan, the Pharisee is represented as condemning his fellow-worshipper, and building his own reputation on the ruin of his. To correct that evil disposition, our Lord proceeds to shew the danger of indulging it. We must not however limit his observations as though they were applicable to that people only ; for they are of general utility ; and the subject they refer to is as necessary for our consideration as for theirs. Some indeed imagine, that a sermon upon such a subject as this is scarcely to be called evangelical : but it should be remembered, that in the Gospel there are two things, a foundation, and a superstructure ; that both of them are necessary to a complete building; and that if the distinction between their respective uses be kept in view, they equally tend to the edification of our souls.
In discoursing on the words before us, we must notice,