6. Not on thy love, nor faithfulness,
Canst thou at all depend;

But on thy Lord, and nothing less,
Thy only faithful Friend.

The promise upon which the above lines are founded, was given to Joshua at a very memora ble time: Moses was dead: Israel was brought to the borders of Canaan: Joshua, their leader, was to bring them into the promised land: he had to subdue thirty-one kings. (Chap. 22, 24.) Jericho, the first place to be subdued, never could have been subdued by mere physical strength; and doubtless many laughed at the supposed folly of the Israelites while marching seven times round the walls, blowing with the trumpets of ram's horns. Paul the Apostle, di rected by the Spirit, gives us to understand how it happened that Jericho was subdued: " By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they wer compassed about seven days:"-By faith in what! In the promise of that God who cannot lie. From which we may observe, that faith, in its highest acts, is above sense, reason, and feeling: it draws no assistance whatever from the creature; nor can flesh and blood stop its actings, it being of the operation of God; no, nor all the "little hells" that it is possible for a child of God to ex

perience; and many such he doubtless does experience. He lives (when he lives honourably) by the faith of the Son of God, who loved him, and gave himself for him. Lord! enable me, and all thy dear people, to live and walk more by faith, and less by sight and sense; and in all our troubles, within and without, never suffer us to live in doubt of the accomplishment of thy precious promises; but believe, that, as thou art faithful, thou wilt fulfil in us all the good pleasure of thy will, and the work of faith with power.

29.

MERCY,

All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.---Ps. xxv. 10.

1. THE dealings of God with his own,
To such as his covenant keep,
Are mercy; and mercy alone
Preserves them, awake or asleep.
There's mercy in bodily pain;

There's mercy in mental distress;
There's mercy when toss'd on the main,
And when they're becalm'd, nothing less.

2. There's mercy when call'd to endure
Reproaches, for Jesu's dear name:
Sweet mercy preserves them secure,
And wipes away sorrow and shame.
There's mercy in every loss,

And mercy in every rod;
There's mercy in every cross,

And all from a covenant God!

God is rich in mercy. Christ is a merciful and faithful high Priest. Saints are to be looking for the mercy of the Lord, unto eternal life.-Be liever! when you see and judge properly you behold mercy in every providence—mercy in every preservation, both of the body and mind, And, as mercy is built up for ever, by him who is thy Covenant God, the precious streams of mercy will not cease flowing, but follow thee all the days of thy life.

30.

THE BELIEVER UNDER A CLOUD.

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me.---Job xxix, 2.

1. JESUS, my soul's athirst for thee, Absent from thee I cannot rest; Come now, reveal thyself to me,

2. My base ingratitude I mourn,

A needy, helpless sinner still;
Dear Lord, I wait thy sweet return,
Thy gracious promise to fulfil.

3. Ah! whither shall thy captive flee?
Thy captive hastens to be loos'd;
And would repose his trust in thee,
Though oft by Zion's foes refus'd.

4. O! could my faith behold that face,

Who once proclaim'd himself my God: Sweet was his voice, and rich his grace, But now I feel his smarting rod.

3. Sweet were the days and months I past, How pleasant did the seasons roll!

"Twas the new wine, of purest taste, That charm'd my love-sick saved soul.

6. Jesus is still the sinner's Friend,

Although the billows roll between;
And, since his love is to the end,

Ere long he'll change my gloomy scene.

Those interviews with which Jesus is pleased to favour many of his people in their early days, leave a deep and lasting impression on their minds; an impression, which neither age nor infirmity can fully erase. Jacob, after a lapse of many years, and but a short time before his death, when he was blessing Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph, refers to that memorable event, the Bethel visit, and other blessed seasons of deliverance, which he had been favoured with by the " Angel of the Covenant." Sometimes, under great and painful darkness of soul, the believer is able to maintain the fullest persuasion, that, what he has known and experienced, was by the special teaching of God the Spirit; and still, resting by faith on the eternal veracity of the Promiser, is led to expect the Sun of Righteousness to arise again, upon his benighted soul, with healing in his wings: He will return again, he will have compassion upon us, &c.