, he will not always miss communion; and this prepares him for
other duties, and arms him against temptation; as the promise is
concerned to keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him.
'If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that
ask him.' 'So shall ye know the Lord, if ye follow on to-know him.'
'Delight thyself in God, he will give thee the desire of thy heart.'
'Nevertheless, I will be inquired of by the house of Israel,' etc.
'If his children forsake my laws, and go astray, I will visit their
faults,' etc. 'Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.'
'But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,' etc. 'Thy
Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.' All is laid
before us in the Scriptures, in the view of comfort during our
pilgrimage, as well as the certainty of our inheritance in the end;
the ground whereon we stand, our danger, and the means of safety.
See Eph. 6:11.

"There is provision made in the covenant for great comfort,
consistent with human frailty and imperfection, but not with
carelessness and negligence. While, therefore, we rejoice in the Lord,
we have good reason to join trembling with our exultation; while
standing high in comfort, to take heed lest we fall, through the
deceitfulness of sin. We carry about with us 'a body of sin and
death;' 'the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he
may devour.' We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with
principalities and powers,' etc. We live in a world lying in
wickedness; the captives of sin and Satan exerting every faculty to
banish all thoughts of God, death, and eternity; contriving, with
unwearied industry and amazing ingenuity, new gratifications for body
and mind in endless variety, suited to all constitutions, all tempers
and dispositions, and to those in all circumstances. Of these, the
most rational are the most subtle, and, in the hand of the enemy, the
most calculated to keep men ignorant of themselves, their misery, and
of the great salvation; and alas, by these he often _spoils_
unwary Christians, who, though heirs of heaven, heirs of God, and
joint-heirs with Christ, are, during their minority, subject to like
passions with themselves, and ever in danger of being spoiled of their
comforts when off their guard.

"With the people of the world Christians have much to do: they
are fellow-