"Again thou didst chasten them sore, let loose the corruptions of men upon them, and suffer them to fall before their enemies. Thou deliveredst thy strength into captivity, and thy glory into the hands of their enemies. "Yet, O Lord, again didst thou deliver them, and sentest provision for them by thine own covenant. Thou didst choose David thy servant, and take him from the sheep-folds. Thou broughtest him to feed Jacob thy people, and Israel thine inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. "Such are the people with whom thou hast still to do. Such, O God of infinite mercy, such the God with whom we sinners have to do, even 'the Lord God, merciful and gracious, keeping mercy for thou sands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty.' O what could man or angel have done with this last character of thy name? Thy covenant makes provision. In Christ Jesus, our blessed substitute, all is reconciled. Thy name is one; the just God, and the justifier of the ungodly who believe in Jesus; This God is our God; we will make mention of his righteousness, and his only. By his own covenant, in his own time, and by means of his own providing, he will revive us. Amen." "APRIL, 1804 "All my desire is before thee, and it is all contained in thy well-ordered covenant. Many years of vanity, of idolatry, of backsliding, wandering, and folly have passed over my head since I first took hold of thy covenant. How fickle, false, and deceitful have I proved; yet thou knowest, thine own Spirit through all my wanderings testified in my heart, that out of the channel of this covenant there could be neither safety nor comfort; and never, so far as I can remember, have I deliberately chosen to be dealt with by any other. Its corrections and chastisements have reached the deepest sensibilities of my heart. Thine arrows stuck fast in me, thy hand pressed me sore; there was no soundness in my flesh, neither rest in my bones, because of my sin; mine iniquities went over my head, were a burden too heavy to bear. I was feeble and sore broken, and roared by reason of the disquiet of my heart. My lovers and friends stood aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stood afar off. I was ready to halt, and my sorrow was continually before me; yet even in my darkest, deepest afflictions, when deep called to deep, and thy waves and billows were passing over me; when my soul seemed sinking in the mire where there was no standing, I groped in the dark; my heart panted, my strength failed, and the light of mine eyes seemed gone out. I was weak with my groaning; in the night I made my bed to swim with my tears; yet even then, by that same covenant by which I was suffering, light sprang out of darkness, glimmering hope in the midst of despair. I remembered the