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dently perceive that you have not been there in vain; but that your journey answered the purpose. A spiritual blessing is worth obtaining, were we to go for it on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem."

SECT. VI.-Diary and Letters during 1783 till the month of August of the same year.

There are no thoughts in the Diary on the first day of this year: the only instance of neglect during the time it was written. Intervals of inattention are incident to the most active minds. The most sedulous occasionally let pass unnoticed seasons and opportunities capable of being advantageously improved. This never happens without some loss to the spiritual interest of the soul; as the neglect of attention to any worldly concern is to our worldly advantage. Labour and profit, attention and improvement, are as connected and dependant on each other in spiritual as in temporal things. "The labour of the righteous tendeth to life." "The hand of the diligent maketh rich." Such is our proneness to neglect or forget improveable opportunities, that it is well sometimes to have customs or usages to obtrude them on our attention. This is the case in some parts with respect to new year's day. Divine service is usually had on the occasion. And for several important seasons of the year, particular services are enjoined by our church; which is of no small advantage, being means of conferring great benefits and of preventing that forgetfulness so incident to our depraved minds. We shall begin with the Diary.

The good and fruitful ground.

"Jan. 15. That grace may thrive and grow in

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our hearts, and that we may abound in all the fruits of the Spirit, it must have full possession of our hearts, it must grow singly there, with no root of bitterness" growing up with it. Hence in part the church is called "a garden enclosed;" where nothing is permitted to grow but what is planted there for real use, profit and delight. The seed of God's word will not grow together with " 'cares, pleasures and riches;" but only in a single heart, which is entirely appropriated to it only. It is not the passing of these things through the mind, that prevents the growth and perfection of grace, but. their taking root there and growing as in their own proper soil, peculiarly suited to them. "Cares and riches" do often fall in the way of a Christian: and he is sometimes obliged to handle these "thorns" to his great uneasiness. But they must be carefully kept out of the heart, that no such bitter roots may grow there. The thorns and briars exhaust the soil and prevent the influences of the sun. Though the good seed may have taken root and grow, yet it will bring forth no fruit unto perfection: there will be only appearances of fruit in the ear, but no real grain. If the cares, or the riches, or the pleasures of the world, no matter which, whether singly or together, are rooted in the heart together with the word, the fruits of the Spirit cannot thrive. Can love, joy, peace, grow with the riches, pleasures and cares of this world? No: they are as different and as opposite to each other as light and darkness. Who has ever yet seen meekness, patience, longsuffering, goodness; gentleness, temperance, &c. growing and thriving with such "thorns and briars ?"

"We may have been enlightened and may have tasted of the heavenly gift, the good word of God, and

the powers of the world to come; yet if after all this rain from heaven, we bear thorns and briars, we can receive no blessing from God, but be nigh to a cursing. The only soil which produces fruit is "the good and honest heart," the enclosed garden, well cultivated and manured by the heavenly husbandman. It is not like the wayside where the seed is trodden and devoured by birds but where it is kept. Nor like the stony ground word is understood and re

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hard and shallow; but the ceived; it enters deep into the heart, is rooted and fixed in its very centre; and being so deeply rooted, it cannot be plucked up by satan, nor scorched by the heat, which instead of causing it to wither, makes it grow the faster. Nor is it like the thorny ground, where no fruit grows to perfection; but is free from thorns and briars, cares, riches and pleasures of this world; which though they may necessarily at times engage the mind, are not allowed to take root in the heart.—The fruits of the Spirit only prove the heart to be good and honest. Where there is no love, joy and peace, there is no good soil.-Where these fruits grow, they grow singly; nothing else can spring up with them.-O for a single heart and a single eye! Without this we are unstable in all our ways, uncomfortable and unfruitful, making, it may be, a fine appearance, but bringing no fruit unto perfection."

Strength according to the day-Continual progress.

"Jan. 20. The believer marvels no less than his enemies, that he, a poor, weak and contemptible creature, should have been able to stand his ground so long and persevere in his course. He has been often fearful that all was over with him. He being so weak and his enemies so strong, he has often expected to be cast down

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to rise no more. But there has been always grace to help in time of need; and he still goes on from strength to strength. Though he is going on from one temptation to another and from one difficulty to another; yet he is also going on from one strength to another. Wherever he meets with a difficulty, he meets also with help exactly proportioned to it. He has not the strength of to-day to encounter the difficulties of to-morrow; but when to-morrow comes, he finds strength sufficient for him. He is still going on to strength as well as to difficulties, and to what is equal to the day and to its evils. Thus the righteous lives daily by faith. He is scarcely saved he has just strength enough, but none to spare. Indeed we want no more than daily bread for our souls as well as for our bodies. In spiritual as well as in temporal things, we are to take no thought for the morrow: for the morrow, when it comes, will take thought of the things of itself. To think for the morrow, is to anticipate its evils; as if the evils of to-day were not sufficient and as much as we could bear. We must remember the promise" As thy days, so shall thy strength be." If therefore we anticipate to-day the evils of to-morrow, we must grapple with them in our own strength; for God has promised only strength sufficient for the evils of to-day. For bread and strength for to-day we have the sure word of promise to depend on, even sufficient for our greatest need. This is enough for our peace and comfort. If our journey will not be at an end to-morrow, we shall still have strength to support us under its evils. Our Saviour compares the increasing supplies afforded by the Spirit daily to the believer, to a "well of water springing up into everlasting life." It affords supplies enough for to-day, so it will for to-morrow;

yea, it will spring up into everlasting life. Though we dry up the streams of to-day, yet the well itself can never be exhausted: it shall be in us, and will to-morrow spring up as abundantly as ever. It is an inexhaustible well therefore the believer's supplies of strength and comfort can never fail; but from strength to strength, from faith to faith, he will go on in holiness and in the divine life, till he appear before God in Zion. This view sets forth beautifully the believer's perseverence in opposition to temptations and difficulties, and also his continual progress in holiness: he goes on from strength to strength.

"But this is not all; for the apostle tells us, that he goes on too" from glory to glory." His glory has a daily addition made to it. The sight he hath of the glory of the Lord becomes still clearer; and the effect on himself is greater; it is from glory to glory. He sees new glory in the person and offices of Christ. The truths of the gospel become through the increasing light of the Spirit daily more glorious. And in proportion as he discovers new excellencies in these transcendent and unsearchable mysteries, he is himself changed from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. He is cast, as it were, into the mould of the gospel; and his soul is more and more transformed by every renewed impression. What he has already seen of the Lord's glory, makes him long to see still more. He sees glimpses of greater glory still, which he wishes to attain to. And when his desire is obtained, he rests not, but would still go on to glory. He digs deeper and deeper into the unsearchable riches of Christ. would comprehend more fully what still he finds passeth knowledge. To make progress, to go on from

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