"The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time; and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away. The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again; but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth. For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints: they are preserved for ever; but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.

"The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart: none of his steps shall slide. The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged. Wait on the Lord, and keep his way; and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. I have seen 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.

"Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him."

1. THE WORDS OF THE LORD.

"The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace, or crucible of earth, purified seven

times."-Psalm xii. 6.

The words of GOD are not

like those of deceitful boasting man, but true and righteous altogether. Often have they been put to the test, in the trials of the faithful, like silver committed to the furnace in an earthly crucible; but, like silver, in its most refined and exalted purity, found to contain no dross of imperfection, no alloy of fallibility in them. The words of Jehovah are holy in His precepts, just in His laws, gracious in His promises, significant in His institutions, true in His narrations, and infallible in His predictions.-Bishop Horne.

2. UNBELIEF.

"The fool hath said in his heart There is no

God.'"-Ps. xiv. 1.

the seat of both.

Infidelity is the beginning of sin; folly the foundation of infidelity; and the heart "Their foolish heart (says St. Paul

of the heathen, Rom. i. 21.) was darkened." The sad consequence of defection in principle, is corruption, in practice-"They are corrupt, they have done abominable things."-Bishop Horne.

"The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God."Ps. x. 4.

The counsels of heaven are not known by the wicked, because they are not sought after; and they are not sought after, because of a diabolical self-sufficiency, which, having taken possession of his heart, displays itself in the countenance, and reigns throughout the man. He wants no prophet to teach him, no priest to atone for him, no king to conduct him; he needs neither a Christ to redeem, nor a Spirit to sanctify him; he believes no Providence, adores no Creator, and fears no Judge.-Bishop Horne.

Precisely such were the notions of the French philosophers. The Gospel of Jesus Christ had been long mystified, and its doctrines made subservient to intrigue and domination; but its beams of light, truth, and benevolence, had gone forth, and rendered systematic corruption and despotism, odious and intolerable: still the partially-enlightened understanding was controlled by the force of education, habit, and expediency; and hence, imperfect efforts; and, at length, a monstrous compound of philosophy, and atheismuniversal fraternity, and national aggrandisementnational perfection, and indiscriminate homicide and devastation.

This hydra, sprang from the blood shed by Louis XIV.; became perceptible during the power of the Regent, Orleans; and was active in the reign of Louis XV. Voltaire, Diderot, D'Alembert, and Frederick II. of Prussia, headed the movement against Church depravity; but, ceasing to discriminate, the Gospel was denounced in common with the corruptions and figments of Papacy; and "beat down and crush Christianity" were the words of their ordinary pledge and recognition. They rejected the doctrine of a Providence, and ascribed events to fortune, chance, or necessity; they conceived man to be wholly material, and denied a future state and the moral administration of GOD; and they pronounced death to be an eternal sleep, and every different opinion imposture and bigotry.

J. J. Rousseau, although depraved and sceptical, resisted this flood of infidelity, anarchy, and terror; and exclaimed, “People, you are misled. There is a GOD who punishes guilt, and rewards virtue." But, his voice was now powerless; and, when the movement took place, France, within a period of ten years, beheld three millions of human beings sacrificed to that bloody Moloch-SCEPTICAL PHILOSOPHY.

These infuriated infidels, to maintain their ascendancy, at certain periods, expelled from their body every member who was suspected of any humane

tendency their agents were planted on every hand; and they had guillotines erected in every town, and village. The people were awoke, in the dead of the night, by the firing of cannon and roll of the drum, and ordered to the army; they were astounded, but, on looking around, beheld the dissevered heads and trunks of unfortunate men, who had refused to march at the first summons, only that they might take a last farewell of their families. Man was valueless; and war was prosecuted by rapidity of movement, reiterated attack, and numerous armies.

The graphic pen of Chateaubriand has sketched many of these scenes of destruction; one we copy literally: "while the armies were forming, the prisons were filled with all the wealthy persons of France. At Nantes, they were drowned by thousands; and at Lyons, the crowded dungeons were opened and grape shot fired upon the victims. The guillotine was at work day and night; and, the ordinary machines being too slow for the operations of the executioner, the artists of death invented a kind, at Arras, which decapitated many at a single blow. The public streets were so inundated with blood, as to become impassable; and it became necessary to change the place of execution. It was in vain that immense pits were opened to receive the dead bodies; they were soon filled, and new ones obliged to be dug. Grey-headed