rancour takes the place of charity, the devil is sure of triumph, whichever side gains the victory.

Isaac was a man of meditation; we find him at eventide walking forth to meditate in the field. He chose that tranquil hour and secluded walk to give his thoughts a solemn, devout direction; amidst the works of nature he held communion with his God. The incident enforces a duty and privilege too often neglected by Christians. Pious meditation is enjoined by precept and example throughout the Scriptures. "O how I love thy law !” says the Psalmist; "it is my meditation all the day long;" and, speaking of the blessed saint, who is like the ever green and fruitful tree, "planted by the rivers of water," he declares that he meditates upon the law of God both “ day and night." So our divine Master, pressed as he was by cares and merciful duties, found sweet comfort and strength in retirement for this sacred purpose. On the other hand, the reason assigned for the ignorance of God in those who have the means of knowledge, is, that they "do not consider."

The importance of meditation is readily seen when we remember that the food of the Christian is truth, which must be digested as well as received. If forethought and retrospect be necessary for the business of this life, how much more must it be for the life to come! What is faith but the application and appropriation of truth to ourselves? What is repentance but a sorrowful review of past sin, and a careful determination of our future course? What is hope but an enjoyment by anticipation of the blessed promise? Is self-examination necessary? We cannot go through the salutary process but by meditation. Is it our duty to rule our conduct by the law of God? We cannot do so without meditation; neither can we otherwise feel the constraining influence of Christ's law to holy devotedness.

It is to the neglect of this duty that the Christian may trace many of his wants and difficulties. He often complains that he

cannot keep his thoughts from wandering, and that his heart is cold in prayer; yet, perhaps, he has entered his closet, and, after a hurried reading of a little Scripture, knelt before God without preparation for the difficult exercise of communing with the heartsearching and inscrutable One. He has not reminded himself by meditation of the service he wishes to perform. He pronounces the words of adoration, but he does not feel their power, because he has not meditated on the character, the perfections, and presence of God. He uses phrases of confession, but he has not reviewed his conduct that he might remind himself of his sins. He only begins, and his mind labours to recall the mercies he has enjoyed, while the terms of thanksgiving are on his lips; and he asks for future blessings, though he has omitted to inquire of his heart what the graces are that he needs. No wonder that his thoughts wander. Five minutes of prayer, made intelligent by five minutes of meditation, is worth an hour of attempted prayer without such a preface. No wonder that he has doubts concerning Scriptural truth, while he reads the Scriptures without meditating on their meaning! One verse well digested is worth a chapter superficially glanced over. No wonder that he is betrayed into sin and hesitates as to his duty, when he has not meditated on his probable temptations and the claims of Providence! No wonder that he gains no benefit from the exercises of the sanctuary, when he has neither prepared his mind by previous meditation, nor by subsequent reflection impressed upon his soul the lessons he heard! No wonder that he grows not in grace, while he gives his thoughts carefully to his temporal concerns, and fences in no hour for holy thoughts alone! Sweet is the season and the scene of such pious meditation! Angels hover around us then, and heavenly voices whisper to our hearts, as we bathe our spirits in the clear wells of truth, freshening their wings for an upward flight.

Isaac was a man of retirement. Abraham was distinguished by

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bold enterprise; Jacob, by active and persevering industry; but Isaac lived remote from bustle and brilliant exhibitions; yet was he dear to the Lord, and the God of Abraham and Jacob was the God of Isaac also. He pleased his God, and ripened for heaven at home in the circle of his household. Prominence of station and parade of notoriety are far from necessary to a life of piety and usefulness. To comply faithfully with the duties of our lot, whatever that may be, is the requisition which God makes of his believing servants. It is not for the praise of men that we are to live, though we should so live that they may glorify our Master; but the eye of God can see us in the humblest walks and the most secluded sphere of duty. On the day of divine retribution, when shame and everlasting contempt will be poured upon the laurelled conqueror and the world-applauded hypocrite, the angels of heaven will delight to honour, as favourites of their King, many who have lived unknown, it may be, despised by men. If God, by his providence, bid us come up higher!" we are not to shrink from the prominence; but until then we should not crave the excitement of a public theatre, nor murmur that our lot is low or our influence apparently small. If we will but faithfully inquire, we shall find plenty of work laid to our hand, and whatever our hands find to do, we are to do with our might. The sphere which God assigns to us is that where we may best serve him, and there we are most safe. In our families, in the circle of our neighbourhood, we may fill up all our time with obedient usefulness, and the God of Israel will own us, if we be faithful, in the day of revelation.

Especially should this theme be commended to the hearts of Christian women. There are some, who weakly and wickedly impugn the wisdom of Providence which has inhibited them the more prominent and notorious occupations of masculine engagements. It is not the more remarkable, that are the more important virtues, in the estimation of God. The highest office ever intrusted by God to one of our sinful race, was hers, who, as the

spouse of a poor man, in their quiet home amidst the hills of Judea, led with a mother's hand the Jesus of his people up to manhood. The piety of the two faithful women who nursed young Timothy and fed his growing soul with the bread of life, has exerted a more extensive and salutary influence upon the world, than all the princes who ever won the acclamations of the populace. What office so high and holy as that which moulds, by divine grace, the character of childhood in the image of God! What duty so necessary, as the embellishment of home and household with domestic peace and familiar piety! If ever woman deserves the name of angel, it is when she is the guardian spirit of the earthly rest that remains for man wearied and harassed by the bustle of the gross external world—then is she, indeed, a messenger sent to earth with blessed presages of heaven. Man, with all his physical strength and rugged faculties, is little worth, without the inspiring grace and constancy of woman's power. Her hand must buckle on his armour for the conflict, her hand cheer his fainting spirit, her hand bind up his wounds, her smile be the guerdon of his behest; and if his mere sinewy prowess win the victory, more than half the glory belongs to her. Nay, there is more genuine heroism, more generous valour in her patient endurance, her faithful watchings by the bed of the helpless, her quiet devotedness to the comfort of others, than in all the feats of arms which heraldic chivalry has ever blazoned. Her resigned submission to not unfrequent tyranny from a brutal husband, that, peradventure, she may win back to honour and religion him whom all besides has abandoned, but to whom she clings with a love which no unkindness can change, and even crime cannot divorce, has in it more than the firmness of the martyr who sings amidst the brief pangs of the fatal flame. He suffers before the crowd an affliction which, compared to hers, is "light and but for a moment." She suffers long under the eye of God alone. She often drinks a fearfully bitter cup, but she will share the joy of Him who

drank the cup of trembling for us. Oh! let woman see to it that our homes be holy, and the world will lose half its sin!

Isaac was a man of affliction. His retirement was no retreat from sorrow. He could not escape the lot of man-the wages of sin; but grace turned his trials into a discipline more precious than the refining of gold. His spirit, humbled as it was, was not pure. It needed the persecutions of men to teach him that earth was not his rest, and the troubles of his own household bade him not lean even upon the most beloved of creatures. "He learned obedience," like his holy Lord, "by the things that he suffered." The disciple of the Man of Sorrows must expect His baptism of tears.

"The path of sorrow, and that path alone,

Leads to the land where sorrows are unknown."

We cannot escape sorrow by shrinking from duty. We may be tempted to fly from our external trials by secluding ourselves from the world which we are bound to serve; but God can send into our very families, as He did into that of Isaac, what will be to us a grief of mind.” The best comfort in trial is to know that we have met it in the way of duty; for then we have the assurance of our heavenly Father's faithfulness, the sympathy of our once suffering Lord, and the promise of that heaven where pious sorrow will be overpaid by everlasting joy. God's love is first to fill our hearts, and then every other affection will be blessed in the holy atmosphere; but upon nothing less than the Infinite should our hearts be set, for there is nothing steadfast but God, nothing certain but His will, and nothing satisfying but His favour.