is here a little and there a little,"* that they To be sure, there are taught in the way. is nothing more desirable in experience than to look with a broken heart on a wounded, and bruised, and bleeding Saviour. This is all plain and easy; but if stumbling-blocks are to be removed out of the way, it is right to be informed that sinners are welcome to come to Jesus with their hard hearts, and with their impenitence: let them add these to their other sins, and the sum total will be, that they are but sinners, and "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." But the term broken heart has a very different meaning to what is generally supposed. It is a common expression, without attending to it strictly, to say, Such a one died of a broken heart, and another is heart-broken with grief; but, as we say such a person is a bankrupt, or broken in his fortune, as we * Isaiah 28. † 1 Timothy 1. say the broken soldier, or the ruined spendthrift, so to be poor in spirit, and broken in heart, is to be reduced to such a state as to be sensible that we are ten thousand talents in debt, and have nothing wherewith we may discharge this mighty sum. This is to be broken in heart; and as the bankrupt, who ought not, according to law, to possess a single farthing, is content, or ought to be content, to receive a favour from his friend, without manifesting pride in the refusal; so the bankrupt as to spiritual and eternalthings, shews his pride more than his humility in not coming, just as he is, to Jesus Christ for life eternal. He may be encouraged to do this for "him that cometh he will in no wise cast out;"* and "the Lord is nigh to the broken of heart, and saveth the contrite of spirit."+ John 6. † Psalm 94. 18. margin. ESSAY IV. ON INCREASING STRENGTII. As thy days, thy strength. Deut. 33. 25. THIS is part of the blessing of Moses, the man of God, on the tribe of Asher; and it contains much more than is usually supposed. It is generally quoted wrongly; and the sense, ry this manner of reading, is much limited, if not entirely pervertedreading day" as if it were the singular: "As thy day is, so shall thy strength be;" intimating, that when the day of affliction, the day of temptation, or the day of alversity, comes on, that there will be strength given equal to it. So far there certainly is a truth in it; but there are so many exceeding great and precious promises suited to these days, and every other day, that the believer may live to see, that to view the passage only in this light might lead him. to overlook the special promises that are adapted to his peculiar circumstances-such as these: "When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou passest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee;"*" When the poor and the needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them;"-"When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up;"-" When I fall I shall arise; when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me;" and many others: not to mention our Lord's declara'tion-"Take no thought for the morrow:: let the morrow take thought for the things of itself." But those who are more careful in reading their Bible have discovered that the |