he is the representative of God's wisdom; and if he has come to length of days, he is the picture of God's eternity; therefore, in every aged saint, you may trace out much of heavenly resemblance, and, hence, you require no further sanction to listen to them; for you anticipate what I advise; wherever the least and lowest trace of the divine image appears, that image is to be revered, and loved, and held in all due reverence; old men, therefore, are to be listened to, not for their own sake merely, but for the good of others; it is their privilege no less than their duty to rehearse the noble acts of the Lord, and to tell what things He has done for their soul! SECTION XLIII. ENUMERATION OF PAST MERCIES. TIMOTHEUS.-PHILEMON, &c. Timotheus.-What a treasure is the sacred Scriptures! how full of comfort and instruction! What a staff to lean upon through life! It seems to me that all God's dealings with his people in times past, are intended to be but so many exercises for the unseen future; and so far as I can judge and read my own heart, numbers make no difference; the divine government of a whole nation is that of one individual: and, on the other hand, one gracious man's experience is a kind of epitome of that of a whole believing world! Philemon.-Truly so; and in this view I would have you read in a prayerful spirit all the pages of revealed truth; every part contains a rich vein of inexhaustible wealth; you may dig again and again into its deep and fathomless resources, and instead of having exhausted, or even explored the whole, new spiritual strata will open up more and more to your astonished view: this has been my happiness for many a long year; and though the well-springs of life are now fast ebbing out, and "I am bringing my years to an end, as a tale that is told," still the words of salvation are as fresh and new, as consolating and instructive as ever. As it regards the history of God's ancient people, in days gone by, unquestionably we may read our own in theirs, spiritually; for more than threescore years I have travelled with them; their desert of sin has been the desert of my soul; their journeyings in the wilderness, toward Canaan, my soul's progress towards heaven. I have had to encounter spiritually, the same painful experiences and the same signal mercies too, that befel them naturally. I have passed through their encouragements and discouragements, their trials and perplexities-their unbelieving hearts and rebellious spirits, their backslidings and short-comings I have felt within me; yea, the enemies also I have encountered, which hung upon them front and rear, and on both sides of them all their journey through. Timotheus.-Now, as you are a man so full of years, and experience likewise, we should all so much like to hear your account of the gracious dealings of God with your soul; and more especially in immediate connection with the biography, the travels, and history of that most remarkable people to which you have alluded. Philemon.-Nothing will afford me more pleasure; for whoever received more unexpected and more undeserved mercies? and who can be so base and so guilty of black ingratitude, as to be unwilling to record them? Surely, were I to try to sum up all, they would be more in number than I am able to express! a whole eternity will hardly be long enough for such an object and for such an enumeration! Timotheus. And yet our past mercies should not obliterate the feeling of present ones. Philemon.-Far from it; for as our present mercies should renew the remembrance of all the past, so every fresh act of unworthiness, or sin, should recall to our minds the memory of all former guilt the recollection of the past will strengthen for the future, and thus every present act of grace and mercy towards the soul will be like so many streams, whereby we are led step by step, till we get to the fountain-head of all mercy. Timotheus.-But there are many good Christians who appear to me to fail much in this duty. How rarely do we hear the expressive language of David, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;" and then comes the sweet inference-it will do so- "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." Philemon.-Shameful ingratitude! And yet, such is the blindness of the human heart, the perversion of the will, and the besotted state of many of the children of men, after the greatest possible mercies received, that after the greatest deliverances granted to them, after bitter and most sore experiences passed through; yet they will still continue to practice this sin of ingratitude, and to live in utter forgetfulness of God! The Lord grant that this may not be the case with any of you: if God has already bestowed blessings on you, or freed you from burdens—if he has providentially brought you into trouble, and, with unexpected Providences, brought you out-if he has lightened your spirit, and taken off the weight of soul-oppression, see that you never forget, much less be unwilling, to make mention of them. Say to all around, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul." (Ps. lxvi. 16.) Timotheus.-This puts me in mind of a sweet anecdote told by another dear old saint of God, and when I was young in grace, and but little read, or skilled in the words of righteousness, it reached my conscience; it made upon my tender heart a deep impression, and were I to live as long as yourself, I could never forget it. Speaking of gratitude to God, the remembrance of mercies received, and the recording of his gracious dealings, "Look," said the old saint, "at yonder doves, and by their example learn a lesson of thankfulness. Do you not observe, that after every grain of corn they pick up they immediately cast their eyes upward? That attitude," added he, "is the natural expression of thanksgiving." I felt the reproof, and if I have not done the same in expression always, in feeling, at least, I have never forgotten it. What you have just suggested, appears to throw light upon that remarkable passage in the book of Canticles: Solomon there (Cant. v. 12.) compares the church of the living God to doves' eyes; and, I suppose, because every member of the spiritual church desires to express his gratitude to God for every grain of mercy he receives. Philemon. It is even so; and this is all the recompense the Lord looks for it is all the spiritual rent he asks at the door of our dwellings; it is all the revenue he has, or seeks at our hands; and it is all the returns he ever expects; and if we do but make him all the returns of praise and : |