JANUARY 3. "This year, perhaps, the hand of death That awful hand may stop my breath THIS is a solemn consideration with which to enter on a new year; but if we shrink back from entertaining it while in health, how shall we be able to ponder it in our mind when sickness brings us to our couch? Death, however terrific to poor human nature, and to the Christless, graceless soul, is actually set down in the catalogue of the believer's rich blessings. Not that it is so, abstractedly considered, but it is so, in that it liberates the soul from its earthly prison, and is the event that admits it to a state in which it mounts, and soars away; and leaving all that is mortal and vain, all that is sinful and sorrowful, behind, it enters into everlasting life and glory in the kingdom of its Redeemer; and there it lives and reigns with him for ever. Lord, God Almighty! thou that hearest and answerest prayer, give us grace to look on every setting sun with a composed, a tranquil, and happy mind, while we remember it is quite possible that it has shone on us for the last time here below. May we keep all our earthly concerns settled up as much as possible with the close of every day, and so stay our souls on thee in the faith and hope of the gospel, as to be kept in perfect peace. Lord, I pray thee "To keep this foolish heart of mine And in affliction I shall sing, JANUARY 4. "It is sown in corruption: it is raised in incorruption." IN contemplating the nature of the human frame, there is much to raise our admiration of the divine Architect, and much to humble, and to distress ourselves. The body, fearfully and wonderfully as it is made, is, in its present nature, a corruptible body. "One of the most striking characteristics of the human frame, in its present state, is its universal tendency to decay. This frequently appears, and often fatally, in its earliest existence, and at every succeeding stage of its progress. It is, however, most visible and affecting after it has passed the middle point of life. Then decay arrests it in many forms, and with irresistible power; then the limbs gradually stiffen, the faculties lose their vigour, the strength declines, the face becomes overspread with wrinkles, and the head with the locks of age. Health, at the same time, recedes by degrees, even from the firmest constitution; pains multiply, feebleness and languor lay hold on the whole system, and death at length seizes the frame as his prey, and changes it to corruption and to dust. "A mighty and glorious difference will be made in our nature, when the body revives from the grave. All the evils and accidents which befel it in the present world will have then lost their power. Hunger, thirst, weakness, declension, death, and corruption are bounded by the tomb. Those who rise to the resurrection of life, will hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.' Firm, enduring, unassailable by distress, and proof against the undermining progress of years, they will, like gold tried in the fire,' remain bright and indestructible through the endless succession of ages."-(Dwight.) JANUARY 5. "Thy kingdom come."-Matt. vi. 10. He who taught us thus to pray has, by the mouth of his holy prophets and apostles, affirmed that its arrival is sure and certain. The kingdom here prayed for is the spiritual kingdom, and reign, and rule of Christ Jesus; and it will extend its blessed sway over every climate and kingdom of the earth, and be set up and established in every heart wherever a descendant of Adam exists. And oh, what a new and glorious scene will the world then present! Hitherto it has groaned and travailed together in pain, under the awful effects of sin! Every crime that man can commit, both against God. and against his fellow man, has been, and still is committed. Every sort of misery that lust and violence, fraud and oppression, murder, wrong and robbery can produce, have been and still are inflicted. Men have brutalized themselves far beyond the brute creation; and often have they proved more cruel to each other than the lions. and tigers of the desert. But this state of things is to come to an end. Where sin hath abounded, grace is much more to abound; and this moral desert is to blossom as the rose. This wilderness, now so barren of every thing good, is to become as the garden of Eden. In other words, the whole world is to be brought under the renovating and purifying influence of the Gospel of Christ. The whole earth is to be filled with the knowledge, the saving knowledge of the Lord, as the waters fill the sea. The whole family of mankind will individually and collectively become the regenerated and sanctified sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. Oh, thou God of all grace, in whose hands are the hearts of all men, and with whom are the issue of all events, hasten this thy glorious kingdom among us, for Jesus Christ our Redeemer's sake. 66 JANUARY 6. Thy kingdom come."-Matt. vi. 10. It is a plainly declared fact that there are a diversity of orders and ranks among the inhabitants of heaven. And there is every reason to believe that, during the millennial age on earth, there will be distinctions and diversities of rank and talents, and of moral and spiritual attainments, as well as in the various callings, pursuits, and employments of mankind; nor will such an arrangement deduct from the happiness of any individual on earth, any more than the present arrangements of heaven deduct from the perfect felicity of saints and angels above. It is sin, and not the diversified orders and ranks among men, which ever has occasioned, and which now occasions all the misery that afflicts mankind and embitters human life. But sin will be wonderfully diminished, during the millennium, by these two great acts of a merciful and gracious God; namely, Satan will be forbidden to tempt, deceive, or perplex mankind; and a large portion of the sanctifying Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh. No sooner shall this happen, but the kingdom of God will be come; and his will and pleasure will be done on earth by all men, and under all circumstances. Whatever forms of government shall then regulate the affairs of different nations and of different churches, all will be done after the will of God, and carried forward in the very spirit of the Gospel of Christ, and harmony and love will pervade the whole! Thus there will not be a single plant growing in the whole vineyard of spiritual or of temporal affairs but what the Lord hath planted. Through all ranks, and in every heart, will be found love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, and truth; and God will be glorified in all things, through Jesus Christ our Lord. JANUARY 7. "For thus saith the LORD, Behold I will extend peace unto her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream."-Isaiah lxvi. 12. THIS, with many similar predictions, are given as descriptive of that millennial happiness which shall in due time bless the world-when the real, holy, and happy Church of the first-born shall lengthen its cords and fix its stakes to the uttermost limits of the habitable globe; and all its children be "holiness unto the LORD." Oh! blessed and happy time, "when none shall hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain”—when every heart shall be a living purified temple of the Holy Ghost, when every tongue shall find its sweetest employ in singing and proclaiming the praises of God, and every hand shall be stretched forth in acts of kindness towards every man that needs its help. Yet will this be an earthy state, and infinitely below the felicity of that rest which remains for the people of God in heaven. For even in the millennial age, men will be subject to decay, to pain, and sickness, and death. Nor can it be otherwise but that some portion of trial and sorrow will at times find way to the heart of every child of God, so long as the soul is present with the body and absent from the Lord. Yet will the Lord Jehovah extend his peace as a river-it shall flow on, and it shall widen, and deepen in all the blessings and enjoyments of still nearer and sweeter communion with God and his Christ, until, like an earthly river, it mingles with the ocean, the endless boundless ocean of the manifested love of God in his own presence and kingdom for ever, and for ever. Ó Lord God of Hosts, hasten this time, and sanctify, bless, and save mankind according to thy many great and precious promises, for Jesus Christ's sake. |