IT REFLECTIONS ON PSALM LXV. 11. Thou crownest the Year with thy Goodness. is recorded of the wicked, that they will not behold the operations of Jehovah's hand; when his judgments are abroad in the earth, they will not see; and when his mercy is eminently displayed, they remain alike insensible: but those who are savingly enlightened from above, see something of his glory in all the works of nature; they hear his voice in every event of his providence: as affectionate children, they tremble when he frowns; they rejoice when his glory is made manifest. Sentiments of this kind appear to have imprest the mind of the Psalmist, when he utterred these words. He celebrates the awful justice and the infinite compassion of his heavenly Father, in the former part of this Psalm, and then sweetly concludes with these words: "Thou crownest the year with thy goodness," &c. May we not take up the words with admiration and gratitude, when we review the mercies of the past year? At its commencement the clouds appeared to gather blackness all around us; we were ready to fear, lest we should experience cleanness of teeth in all our streets, the sword of war, God's sore judgment, hung heavy over our land, and peace appeared afar off; and yet, in the midst of deserved wrath, our 'God has remembered mercy; he has restored unto us this invaluable blessing, and answered the prayers of his people. Oh! how great is his goodness! He has also given unto us an abundance of the fruits of the earth! He has caused our fields to stand thick with corn, and our vallies to laugh and sing!" He has literally" crowned the year with, goodness." But let us pursue the subject still further, and behold his goodness in a spiritual point of view: First, As it respects our own souls. How many of our fellow-sinners have been called to, appear at the bar of God, altogether unprepared, without an interest in the Redeemer's blood; and who are now suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, without hope of mercy, while we are permitted to continue under the joyful sound of salvation! "Bless the Lord, O our souls, and forget not all his benefits, who crowneth us with loving-kindness and with tender mercies." Again, Let us behold his goodness, as manifested to the church at large, since the commencement of the past year. His glorious Gospel has been extending its benign in fluences, fuences, many sinners have felt its quickening power, who were heretofore dead in trespasses and sins, new temples have been erected for the worship of the true God, where the god of this world appeared to reign triumphant, benighted villages have been visited with the light of life,fresh labourers have been sent forth into the Gospel-harvest, missionaries have been preserved amid surrounding dangers, in various parts of the globe, while peace attends our British Israel! May we not exclaim with the admiring Psalmist, "Thou, O Lord, hast crowned the year with thy goodness!" What sentiments of gratitude, what ardent zeal, what activity in his service, ought these things to enkindle in every one who feels a real regard for the glory of God his Saviour, and the eternal interests of his fellow-men! What a ground of consolation, also, is the goodness of a Covenant-God to every real believer, when he considers that the God of providence and of grace is his God, who will crown with everlasting blessedness the acceptable year of his redeemed, and bring them all to his own right hand, where his goodness will inspire new songs of praise for ever and ever! Stockwell. SIR, ANSWER TO A QUERY. To the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine. T. J. YOUR Correspondent, who signs Stroper, wishes to be informed how the words of our Saviour could be verified, which he spake of himself *, "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" and yet Christ was crucified on the Friday, and rose again on the Sunday †. In answer to this, it may be proved, as it often has been, that this expression and many others, are merely Jewish ways of speaking; and exactly agree with the event to which they allude, when they are rightly explained. It must be observed, that the Jews count their natural days, or days of twenty-four hours, very differently from what we do; for we reckon from twelve o'clock at night • Matt. xii. AV, + See Evan. Mag. vol. ix. p. 472, to to twelve the next night; but they reckoned from sunset to sunset; all the time between, they called a day: just as Moses did when he said, "the evening and the morning were the first day. And from even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath *." Another thing to be observed on this head, is, that they teckoned, as indeed all nations do, any part of a day of twenty-four hours for a whole day. To this purpose an eminent Jewish writer, Aben Ezra†, speaking on the law for circumcising an infant on the eighth day, says, That if the infant were born but one hour before the first day was ended, it was counted for one whole day and so, for the same reason, the part of the day that was past when it was circumcised, was reckoned a whole day, if only one hour of the evening was past with which that day began. Reckon ing then, that the first day began on our Thursday at sunset, and ended upon Friday at sunset, and because our Lord died about three in the afternoon of that day, reckoning that part of the day for a whole day, by this means we have one day. Saturday is, on all hands, allowed to be another day; and as the third day began on Saturday at sunset, and our Saviour rose on the morning following, that part of the day is fairly computed for the third day. The expression, on the third day, is about ten times used in the New Testament on this occasion, and therefore must serve for explaining the other phrases, but once or twice at most made use of: such as that of Christ's rising after three days; the meaning of which expression is fairly shewn, where we read that Rehoboam said to the people & Come again unto me after three days;" and yet we find, {" "that the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the King commanded, saying, come again to me on the third day." A plain instance, that both phrases mean the same thing. As for the expression of our Saviour's being three days and three nights in the heart of the earth; from the foregoing observations, the account of that is very easy; for the Jews, like us, had no one word by which to express a day of twenty-four hours, or, as the Greeks called it, a daynight, as we might do. They sometimes styled it a day, as we do; but at other times, a day and a night; so that we are to understand by the expression of three days and three nights, no more than that Jesus was to be in the grave three days, * Lev. xxiii, 32-— See also Acts xxviii. 27. compared with verse 33. 4 On Lev. xxii. 3. 4 Mark vii. 33 § 2 Chron. X. 5. || Ver. 12. as we would express it, reckoning, inclusively, the first and last for two of them, and counting the pieces of days for whole ones; and of this way of speaking, there is a remarkable instance in the book of Esther +: she declares that she would fast with her people, the Jews, three days, night and day; and yet we find her ‡, upon the third day at a banquet with the King and Haman, her adversary. By this, therefore, it plainly appears, that Jesus rose from the grave at the time foretold by him; and thus the prediction was fully accomplished. + Chap. iv. 16. B. B. Chap v. 1. ORIGINAL LETTER OF MRS. BAXTER, To the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine. Bus is R. B Yours, &c. W. M. Litt 44 "I'LL pray for you, according to the best of my judgment; wife. and I'll tell you for what, That you may know what to pray for, for yourself. 1st. I'll pray that your thoughts may be turned to the magnifying of God's love; that you may remember that he is as good as he is great; and that you may be as sensible of his mercy as of your own unworthiness. "2dly, I'll pray that you may have so lively an apprehension of your everlasting felicity, as may make you long to be with Christ. "3dly. That you may have more self-denial, and more of that humility which makes you little in your own eyes. "4thly. That you may be less tender and liable to commotion and disquiet of mind, and less sensible of unkindnesses and bodily dangers; yea, and of sin itself, while the sense of it hinders the sense of inercy.-A meek, a quiet, and a patient spirit is of great price in the sight of God. I will pray that you may be delivered from too much inward passion of fear, grief, and discontent. "5thly. I will pray that no creature may seem greater, better, or more regardable, or necessary to you, than it is; and that you would look on all as walking shadows, vanity, and ars, further than you see God in them, or they lead you up to to him, that they may never be overloved, overfeared, overa trusted, or their thoughts too much regarded. "6thly. Above all, I will pray that you may be less selfwilled, and not be too passionately, or iminoveably set upon the fulfilling of your own will; but may have a will that is compliant with the will of God, and can change as he would have it; and will follow him, and not run before him; and can endure to be crossed and denied by God and man,without discomposedness and impatient trouble of mind. "7thly. Ishall pray, that seeming wisdom may not entangle you, either in the concealment of any thing that greatly needs your friend's advice, or in the hiding of your talents by unprofitable silence, as to all good discourse upon the emity which you have to hypocrisy; and that you will not live in sins of omission, for fear of seeming better than you are. By this, you may know wherein I think you faulty. The best creatures' affections have a mixture of creatures' imperfections; and therefore need some gall to wean us from the faulty part. God must be known to be our rest, and therefore the best creatures to be but creatures. O miserable world! where we can have no fire without smoke, and when our dearest friends must be our greatest grief; and when we begin in hope, in love, and joy, before we are aware, we fall into an answerable measure of distress. Learn by experience, when any condition is inordinately, or excessively sweet to thee, to say, "From hence must be my sorrow." ANECDOTE. SEEING a tree grow somewhat irregular, in a very neat orchard (says Mr. Flavel) I told the owner, it was a pity that tree should stand there; and that, if it were mine, I would root it up, and thereby reduce the orchard to an exact uniformity. He replied, "that he rather regarded the fruit than the form; and that this light inconveniency was abundantly preponderated by a more considerable advantage. This tree," said he, "which you would root up, hath yielded me more fruit than many of those trees which have nothing else to commend them but their regular situation."I could not but yield to the reason of this answer; and could wish it had been spoken so loud, that all our uniformity men had heard it; who would not stick to root up many hundreds of the best bearers in the Lord's orchard, because they stand not in exact order with other more conformable, but less beneficial trees, who do, perdere substantiam propter accidentia, destroy the fruits to preserve the form. Flavel's Husbandry Spiritualized. |