Night meditations for those who may then continue long awake.

As wearisome nights are appointed to many, (Job vii. 4.) especially in sickness, they may profitably and comfortably beguile the tedious hours, like David, who, during the darkness and silence of the night, was frequently employed in devout meditation, and in communing with God and his own heart. [See Ps. iv. 4. xvi. 7. lxiii. 6. cxix. 55.] The proper subjects of nocturnal meditation, which present to those who have been accustomed to it, are innumerable. But as many are incapable of suggesting to themselves suitable materials for so important a purpose, the following meditations may be acceptable and useful, if they wish to employ their night thoughts religiously, when they cannot compose themselves to sleep.

1. Meditation when laid down in bed. Creating darkness, and forming light, are the effects of God's power and goodness. The sable curtains of the night are now drawn; and nature seems hushed in silence, whilst many retire from labour to sleep. Often have I experienced this blessing. I have laid down in safety, slept, awaked, and bèheld the light of the morning, for God has preserved me. But, because I have frequently been = indulged with this blessing, shall I conclude this succession of the morning to the night will always continue? This night may possibly (though not Every probably) be my last: I may never behold another morning: I may open my eyes in a world of endless day, or of perpetual night. What is my true state? Am I a Christian indeed? Grant, O Lord, that, if I awake no more in this world, I may awake in thy likeness, and be for ever with thee!

2. Meditation on waking out of sleep. Sleep is undoubtedly a blessing. The senses seem over

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whelmed, and the powers of reason suspended. I am like one raised from a state of death. "Each "night we die, each morn are born anew." Death therefore is justly compared to sleep. Blessed are they who sleep in Jesus. (1 Thess, iv. 14.) I now behold the morning light. What are the duties which I should (if able) attend this day? The business of the world calls for my attendance. Man is formed for action. Our first parents in Paradise were placed there not to live in idleness, but to cultivate that beautiful garden, in which they resided. May I then attend with cheerfulness and diligence to the business of the advancing day. May God amidst all the dangers of it defend me; may integrity and uprightness preserve me; and may I, whilst I am diligent in business, be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

3. Meditation on waking in pain or sickness. How uncertain is this world, and all the enjoyments of it! I laid myself down to rest free from pain or sickness. But how different is it with me now I awake! I am now exercised with great pain. Think, O my soul, of that dreadful state, in which all they will be, who from the sleep of death shall awake in pain intolerable and endless! What are the paths (or sickness) I now feel, compared with my deserts! Let me think on the reason I have for patience and submission to the will of God. "Shall a living man complain, a man "for the punishment of his sins?" (Lam. iii. 39.) What are these pains, compared with what I might feel! What are these pains, compared with what will be felt by all who live and die under the power and guilt of sin! Grant, O Lord, that the pain which I now feel may be removed: but if it be thy pleasure that it should continue, may I bear it with patience, and may it be the means of preparing me for that world of happiness, where there is no sickness, nor pain, no sin, nor sorrow,

but perfect holiness and uninterrupted happi

ness.

4. Meditation in the darkness of the night. What darkness now surrounds me! No object is visible. How gloomy! how dismal the scene! This seems a resemblance of the state of the world as sinners against God. Affliction and distress are the consequences of sin. Without the light of the Gospel men live in darkness, and see not the way which leads to happiness. They seek for it in the things of the world, but seek for it in vain. Unhappy the state of those, who are thus improperly seeking rest, but find none: there is no rest for the soul but in God, whose favour is the chief good, for in his favour there is life. Unhappy therefore must be the state of those who are employed in works of darkness! "They live with

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out God in the world:" they have no pleasing prospects beyond this world: darkness, eternal darkness is before them. The light of the actual sun, which dispels the darkness of the night, and brings the light of day, is a blessing to the world: but O how great the blessing of the light of the Gospel, which discovers to us the nature of salvation, and the way in which it may be obtained. Grant, O Lord, that whilst I enjoy this light, I' may improve it to thy glory, to my own advantage, and be at length received into the world of endless light and joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

5. Meditation in a stormy night. The wind blows, the rain descends, or lightnings flash, and peals of thunder roll. How greatly am I favoured by Providence, that I have an habitation, in which I find a shelter from this storm, whilst many of my fellow-creatures (some of them much better than myself) are exposed to the inclemency of it. It is said of Christ in prophecy, that "he shall be an "hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the

"tempest." (Isai. xxxii. 2.) How important is real religion! The time draws near, when God will come with darkness, blackness, and an horrible tempest, and when fire and brimstone shall be rained down on all who disobey God, and make light of the Gospel. How terrible that day! May I now be found walking in the ways prescribed by Christ! May I be really united to him, as a living branch in the vine! and may I be found in him at death. In him only there is any shelter from the storms of divine vengeance, which will fall on a guilty world.

6. Meditation on the shortness of life. Life, how short! It is but a span; and like the flower of the field, which soon fades away; or like a fleeting shadow. Yet what folly is there in the heart of man! How they presume on long life, and are pleased with anticipating the pleasures of it, or are distressed with the anticipation of the troubles of it. But how amazing is it, that, though life is so short, men should take so much pains to make it shorter! Great numbers shake the glass of life, as if its sands were not falling fast enough. Is not this the case with every one who is intemperate, and with those who follow the lusts of the flesh? Unhappy are all such. They are to appearance built for fourscore or an hundred years, yet is their constitution soon sapped, and they sink by their own guilt before the noon of life.

7. Meditation on the certainty of death. "There " is a time to be born, and a time to die." (Eccles. iii. 2.) Though I may now be in health, yet I know not how soon I may be arrested by sickness, and be seized with the pangs of death. That awful time will surely come. Though death may in my own apprehension have been nearer to me than at present; yet in reality I never was so near to death as at the present moment. Every beating pulse makes the number less. May I realize this scene,

and be prepared for it by dying daily to sin, and by living daily to righteousness. Our Lord has warned us to take heed to ourselves, lest at any "time our hearts should be overcharged with the 66 cares of this life, and so the day come upon us "unawares." (Luke xxi. 34.) Help me, O Lord, to read thy word with diligence and understanding, so that, when death shall be commissioned to deprive me of life, I may neither be surprised nor alarmed, like those who have put this time far from them, and paid no attention to a preparation for it.

8. Meditation on the consequence of death. Death separates the soul from the body. The body remains an inactive, lifeless lump of clay; and, however beautiful it once was, it becomes offensive even to those to whom it was most dear. They are compelled to say, (as Abraham said of the once beautiful Sarah,) " Bury the dead out of my sight." (Gen. xxiii. 4.) This body of mine, now warm in bed, must soon be cold as clay; laid in the dark grave; become food for worms; and moulder into its original dust. But the soul, the immortal part of man, is not destroyed by death. It lives. Who can say what scenes will open upon the soul when separated from the body? It lives; and is susceptible of joy, or sorrow. Grand and glorious must that day be, when the last trumpet shall sound, and the bodies, which have been laid in the grave, shall arise, and be re-united to the souls which resided in them while on earth.

9. Meditation on the future judgment. The dead shall be raised: the whole world shall appear before God. What an assembly will this be! Every individual must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. The books shall be opened. Every character will then be examined, that "every man may receive according to that which he hath "done in the body, whether it be good or bad."

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