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stewardship. They are called husbandmen, but neither care to plant nor to sow, to water nor to manure. They are called vine-dressers, but take little pains in the vineyard; they have the greatest charge in the world, and many take least care: a description of ministers of this sort you have in Isa. lvi. 10-12. But Paul was not such a shepherd; for three years' space he ceased not, day nor night, but in public, and from house to house, he warned his hearers with tears, Acts xx. 31; and happy are those people that meet with labourers like-minded with him.

O my soul, despise not the ministry, but honour them for their works' sake, especially those that labour in the word and doctrine, 1 Tim. v. 17; for those are worthy of double honour. In thy place and station, mind both the welfare of thy own soul and those about thee; and let not the blood of souls be laid at thy door.

O my God, forgive all my former neglects, and, for the future, though I be unprofitable, let me not be unfaithful.

I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved, 2 Cor. xii. 15.

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, 2 Tim. iv. 2.

Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, Heb. xiii. 7, 8.

XLVII.-UPON PROMISING TREES AFTERWARDS

BLASTED.

In an early spring, when there was great likelihood of much fruit, when the trees were richly beautified with plenty of buds and blossoms, and there was great expectation of a plentiful year of fruit; behold! in a moment, all our hopes were dashed, and the trees were suddenly blasted with lightning, or a storm, and so those that just before were in the height of their pride and glory were now made barren, and the very leaves as well as blossoms scorched! This sudden Divine providence shows to us the power of God in disposing of our outward enjoyments; for as he does for his people's sin and abuse of his mercies threaten to take away his corn in the time thereof, and his wine in the season thereof, and recover his wool and his flax, which he had given to cover their nakedness, Hos. ii. 9; so hath he power to take away other fruits of the field, and to frustrate the hopes of the husbandman; for the power to give and to take away he has reserved in his own hands. Accordingly this providence, dark as it seemed, yielded me some light and taught me this profitable lesson, not to but overmuch confidence in any earthly enjoynent how promising soever, nor to call any thing my own before I have it in my possession, nor depend upon it too much then, for there is uncertainty and vanity written upon all these outward things: they are like Jonah's gourd which grew up in a night, and perished in a night; and have a worm bred in them that many times

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eats out their very hearts. When God blows upon any earthly enjoyment, it often vanishes away and comes to nothing; "Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.-Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it," Hag. i. 6, 9.

Oh how much would it conduce to our happiness, to set a light esteem upon these so transitory, so fading enjoyments, and to resign up our wills to God's will in all things; then should we never be frustrated in our expectations or disappointed in our hopes, and what is best for us would surely come to pass: but when we expect great matters, and they fall short of our expectation, then we are apt to be cast down, and our hearts despond; but if we expect little, we shall not be much troubled if it prove but little. "Wilt thou set thine eyes," saith Solomon,

upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings and fly away," Prov. xxiii. 5. The same day, for aught we know, found Job the richest man in all the east, and left him poor even to a proverb. "I have

seen," says the psalmist, "the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found," Psa. xxxvii. 35, 36.

How oft may we see, in our times, great families rooted out! God blows upon them, and

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they wither, their great estates dwindle into nothing, and that by an insensible hand of God, when no man can give an account or reason of it. Many who appeared likely to thrive and grow rich in the world, we have seen suddenly come to nothing. Many again there are who have had promising parts, great natural gifts and endowments, and to whom God had lent many talents; but they not improving them, God has called them in and given them to those who would better employ them. It is no uncommon thing to observe a wane and decay of God's gifts in those that use them not; their abilities fail apace when once they begin to fail, till at last God lays them aside as broken vessels, and causes them to be forgotten," as a dead man out of mind," Psa. xxxi. 12; till finally, as unprofitable and unfaithful servants, they are cast into outer darkness, Matt. viii. 12. Many, in our times also, there are who have had seeming grace, and like the glow-worm made a great show in a dark night; yet has their light been ultimately extinguished, and their lamps gone out for lack of oil.

O my soul, promise not thyself great things in the world, neither content thyself with small things for eternity; be as earnest for grace as others are for gold, and make as sure for heaven as others do for the world. If thou wilt plant, let it be in a better soil, then mayest thou expect a better increase; neither wind nor sun, frost nor snow, thunder nor lightning, can blast or nip the flowers of paradise.

Lord, take off my affections from the world, nd set them upon Christ; then shall I never be isappointed of my hopes.

XLVIII.-UPON FRUIT LEFT ON THE TREES AFTER SHAKING.

In the autumn, when the fruit became ripe and was gathered in, yet I beheld here and there an apple, plum, or other fruit still remaining on the trees, which adhered to its stem, notwithstanding all the force and violence that had been used in shaking; but these were only a few, and those commonly the soundest and most durable. This brought to my mind the command of God in the time of the law, Lev. xix. 9, 10; xxiii. 22; Deut. xxiv. 19, where God commands the Jews, when they reaped their fields, to leave some of the corners thereof standing, and not to gather up the gleanings, but to leave them for the poor, and when they shook their olives and other fruit trees, to leave some clusters remaining, and not to gather all the fruit; that so it might be for the poor and needy of the land, and for the stranger for meat. We see how the great Husbandman and chief Proprietor of wealth acts in his distribution of it; how he takes care of the poor that they should be fed; and has appointed where they shall have their meat, and commanded his stewards to give it them in due season: he would have the full cups of the rich to overflow into their empty dishes: those that feed the poor entertain Christ himself at their table as a guest.