On another occasion he remarked-" Man's judgment must be a very small thing in the eyes of God, or he would not suffer persons, who really love him, to be assailed with so many revilings and reproaches.

“Let us but keep ourselves from real guilt, and we need not be disturbed about any idle reports raised against us. Such reports, whether believed or not believed, are easily forgotten, for the world has always some fresh business in hand. It is right to prevent or correct them, if we can do it becomingly, otherwise it is not worth while to think about them.

"There are occasions when it is very helpful to our composure and equanimity, to look at our debtor account, and not merely at the credit side. We may have a real claim to another's deference, and still may be in many respects inferior to him. It is right that the younger should defer to and honour the elder; but it is equally right that the elder should not insist too much upon bare seniority. For others may be in their best bloom and vigour, while we are already in the decline of both. And let us not forget, that with all our eldership, we are but of yesterday." Bengel was himself quite an example of the equanimity he here recommends; which made some persons of very buoyant spirits regard him as rather grave, or not cheerful enough; whereas, others of sombre temperament or of weak spirits accounted him a very cheerful person.

Charity hopeth all things.

In passing by the place of execution at Stuttgart, Bengel turned to his companion and remarked, with much emotion, “Will it not be said of many a one in the world above, all was well with him HERE?""

On Palm Sunday, 1741, a gallery broke down in the parish church of Schorndorf, by which several lives were lost. Bengel hearing of it said, "I always hope well of those who are visited with extraordinary trials and calamities. God, I think, thus 'uses sharpness' with them, because he has a favour unto' them."

On another occasion he observed, "Statesmen and rulers are not always actuated by sinister motives upon vitally religious questions that come under their notice. What with their variety of avocations, party entanglements, comprehensive commissions, and so forth, they have often neither time nor opportunity for looking properly into the true bearing of such questions; thus, for want of adequate information to proceed upon, they are some

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times perplexed even to anxiety, at not being able to find the punctum saliens, the gist of the matter in hand; and the regret they have expressed at being obliged to refrain from taking any active or preventive part in it, has been perfectly sincere."

Eleemosynary Compensation.

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"I neither forget, nor ever mean to forget, that the grace God is not to be purchased with money, or works of righteousness that we have done. Only as some portion of the unrighteous mammon adheres to all our temporal enjoyments, I am accustomed to give away more than usual whenever any sickness occurs in my family."

False Rumours.

Some hostile troops, in the spring of 1742, having reached the neighbourhood of Herbrechtingen, every one, even Bengel, fled with his movables to a more secure part of the country. This, however, turned out to be needless. A report was afterwards spread that Bengel, the seer of futurity, had boasted of knowing beforehand, that the enemy would not advance so far; for that a scrap of paper, inscribed, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther," had been found upon his table. His son-in-law, Williardt, having informed him of this report, he replied, “There is not a word of truth in it. Had it been so, why did we fly? And I am now glad we did so; for it serves to confute the idle rumour. I used to think such ridiculous stories originated from ignorant simplicity; but now I see they are purposely invented and wantonly uttered; for here there is not the shadow of a fact to have occasioned misconception. I should have liked well enough to pass unslandered through the world; but now we are again reminded that it cannot be done. Still it is but a temporal evil. I have long had occasions in plenty for noticing publicly the proverb, All men are liars;' and at présent, as if to pay me for my trouble, I have a practical proof of it played off upon myself."*

* One of the most flagrant instances of the kind was found in a work published by a person signing himself P. Kepner, which professed to give "Instruction how a sincere child of God may in special cases ask counsel of the Omniscient, and obtain an answer ;” and which purported to have been "drawn up according to the system of J. A. Bengel." Upon this strange "Instruction" Bengel expressly remarked, that he neither held nor taught any thing of the sort.

A Signal from the Finger of God.

On the tenth of June, 1742, a very large oak in the manor wood of the abbey seminary at Herbrechtingen, was struck by lightning, and considerably damaged. A herdsman shortly afterwards passed under it with his drove, and Bengel observed, that "the word of Jesus (with which he cursed the fig-tree) was in its nature more powerful than this thunderbolt; for that the fig-tree instantly withered to the very roots. That all the force

of the elements issues from the personal word of God, the LOGOS; and that a tree, thus struck, ought not to be cut down for common use, but to be allowed to stand as a signal to point at the majesty and power of the Almighty."

The little Martyr.

Hearing the story told of the child who meekly bled under the rod of his unfeeling father, and only said, after he had been so severely used, "He cannot for all this beat the Lord Jesus out of my heart;" Bengel remarked, "I know not how it is, but I feel more delighted at hearing such a story, than in reading Arnold or Taulerus."

A Memento to be Temperate.

"Some well-meaning friends whom I have gone to dine with, have been very apt to press me to eat. I can excuse them; for they only help me to be upon my guard.-Dishes ought not to be so daintily served up as they commonly are; they should contain what is serviceable to refreshment and health, but not be studied for pampering. God's injunctions to the Israelites concerning meats, while they evidently proceeded upon the physical as well as religious condition of that people, had also respect to the constitution of mankind in general. For surely they contain many a good rule for discretion and moderation in diet; and we should make use of them accordingly."

One Consequence of the Fall.

As a labouring person was carrying home upon his shoulders a heavy truss of grass for his cattle, Bengel observed, "See how man is obliged to be servant to the brutes. Surely there is a meaning in this. God intends it for our humility; for it may remind us how the Fall has abased us."

* The oak was accordingly suffered to stand.

Does depravity increase as the world grows older? For men have complained in almost every age, that the world was growing worse instead of better. Are we then to conclude that human nature has really waxed worse and worse from the period of the Fall to the present day?

Bengel observed upon this subject, that the whole human race is in God's eye as one single tree, from which he cuts away at certain times many an injurious branch, while he suffers the good ones to remain. Human wickedness, like such injurious branches, is always on the increase for a season; that is, till God makes havoc upon it by the visitations of his providence. Corruption thus remits a little, but soon returns to its strength; and then another tempest arrives and checks its increase. A stone cast into a pond among a multitude of frogs interrupts their croaking for a while, but the concert soon recommences.

How to account for the increasing Worldliness of those who hear faithful Preachers.

A friend having expressed his surprise that persons quite of a worldly stamp should be found among the regular hearers of a very faithful minister, he replied, "This does not much surprise me; for it is become fashionable among worldly people to touch upon religion; and it is even considered a deficiency in polite education to be totally ignorant of it; indeed it is a kind of accomplishment amongst us to be able to talk correctly about it. Therefore some very worldly persons think it worth the trouble to find out and attend the most popular preachers, and sometimes real preachers to the conscience, will, strange to say, be only the more popular with them; but for no other reason that I can imagine, except that worldly pleasures are the more decidedly relished for having been, as such hearers think, too warmly attacked. For their consciences having been thus a little disquieted, they run with renewed eagerness into the vanities which they have been hearing unduly denounced; and they do so in order to smother the scruples which the preacher has raised in their minds. O what a responsibility awaits such persons; and indeed all professed Christians who are of a worldly character! Though God's pure word is presented to them in ever such a variety of ways, though the provision be ever so daintily served up, none of them really relish it at heart. As

well might the preacher have the restless and ungovernable waves of the sea before him, and think to control them with the rod (of Moses), or (at least) with the words (of Christ) " Peace, be still!" All is without effect. Many (at hearing the plain declarations of the gospel,) seem as if they were tormented before the time; and in the midst of their "fearful looking for of judgment," they count it gain to enjoy all the worldly pleasures they can. And though such persons have been certain of dying in an hour's time, they have seldom discovered any inclination to relinquish a single gratification of their lust; for lust is absolutely their free will. Thus to the present day we see how little amendment has been wrought by all the means vouchsafed, and very little more will be wrought while the present Dispensation remains on its ancient footing. "THERE MUST COME AN AWAKENER." When it was here remarked, that "if such shall be the state of things, it would be of little use to enter into the ministry;" Bengel replied, "But the testimony to be borne to the truth, (by public preaching and private admonition,) must still proceed. Our own private design of faithfully executing our commission, is one thing; but our public design, namely, to witness the good effect of our labours, is another. The former of these surely we may always realize."

The Distinction between Converted and Unconverted.

"What is the difference between the faults of the unconverted and the faults of the converted? The former shoot beside the target altogether; and the latter do not hit the middle.

"Children of God are more ready than others to forgive the offences of their fellow-men; and this even when under stronger temptation than others, to lay such offences to heart. As it is the influence of grace that disposes them sincerely to forgive, so they are glad to evince its good effect in their conduct; though what they have to forgive is often more severely felt by them than it could be by unconverted men: for the latter are not so tenderly sensible of good and ill, and they give and take accordingly; whereas a real servant of Christ and child of God becomes, by the grace which prevails within him, more sensible and impressible. He deals gently with his fellow-men; but on this very score it affects him the more painfully, that, in despite of his moderation and kindness, they do not cease to treat him with unfeelingness and asperity.”