FEBRUARY 2.

"Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I flyaway, and be at rest." Psa. 55: 6.

    WHOSE exclamation is this? It is obviously the language of a man not at rest. And if we read the preceding and following verses, we shall find that the complainant was indeed really in trouble. And so are many. It seems inseparable from humanity. Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

    But who was this man ? One of those deemed the darlings of Providence, a man who had experienced one of the most marvellous revolutions recorded in history. For he was originally nothing more than a shepherd, but rose from obscurity, and became a hero, a renowned conqueror, a powerful monarch. God had given him the necks of his enemies and the hearts of his subjects, and we might have supposed him sated with victory and glory, and dominion and riches. But, from the midst of all this, he sighs, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest." For, with all his aggrandizements, how much did he suffer from implacable malevolence!  How much also from some of his own officers, and especially his nephew Joab, the commander-in-chief!  After rearing his fine palace of cedar, he could not for a length of time take possession of it, for he was sick nigh unto death, and week after week saw the graves ready for him. And suppose they had then brought out his crown, and imposed it upon him, would this have eased an aching head, or have relieved the anguish of a disordered body ? What is an ornamented room in the rage of a fever? His own house also was not so with God. What a distracted and wretched family!  His daughter is humbled. The incestuous brother is murdered. The murderer becomes a traitor, and drives his father as well as king into exile. In his flight, he is told that Ahithophel, his bosom-friend and counsellor, is among the conspirators with Absalom. Who can tell what other sorrows corroded him? "The heart knoweth his own bitterness." There are griefs that we cannot pour even into the bosom of intimacy. There are thorns in the nest that pierce through the down that lines it, known and felt only by the occupier. Did David never regret the loss of the privacy of Bethlehem ?

    The spirit that is in us lusteth to envy. We are prone to think that, though generally men are born to trouble, there are some exempted individuals, and that though, commonly considered, this earth is a vale of tears, there are some privileged spots. And it is worthy our observation, that these exceptions always belong to others, and always to those who are above us. Is the servant happy? He will be when he is master. Is the master happy? He will be when he is rich. Is the rich man happy? He will be when he is ennobled, and has distinction as well as gold. Is the nobleman happy? He will be when he is king. Is the king, the king, happy? " Oh," says he, " Oh that I had wings like a dove!  for then would I fly away, and be at rest."

    Let us remember this, and not be afraid when one is made rich, and the glory of his house is increased. Let us check the risings of ambition, and not seek great things to ourselves. Let us learn, in whatsoever, state we are, to be content, and follow the moderation of the patriarch, who asked only for bread to eat, and raiment to put on, and a safe return to his father's house in peace.

Felicity depends not upon external condition, but the state of the mind. Paul was happy in prison ; Nero was miserable in a palace. Haman, after telling his wife and his friends all his promotion and glory, adds, "Yet all this availeth me nothing so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." " On that night could not the king sleep."

"Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep,
He, like the world, his ready visit pays
 Where fortune smiles."

    But is this true? Sleep, sound, wholesome, refreshing sleep, has least to do where fortune smiles. His ready visits are paid to the early rising, the temperate, the diligent ; the sleep of a laboring man is sweet. " The wretched," indeed, " he forsakes." But where does he find them ? Here is one of them, the ruler of one hundred and twenty-seven provinces-on that night could not the king sleep. Ahab, the monarch of Israel, is melancholy and sick, and cannot eat, because he cannot obtain Naboth's little parcel of ground for a garden of herbs, and neither his happiness or health could go on till his worthy helpmate taught him to gratify his wish by the destruction of the noble-minded peasant. How wise was the answer of the Shunamite, when Elisha offered to speak for her to the king : "I dwell among my own people." If we are not content with such things as we have, we shall never be satisfied with such things as we desire. If there is a difference in outward conditions, it lies against those who fill the higher ones. Their want of occupation------the listlessness, far worse than any labor, they feel----the little relish they have of natural refreshment---their sufferings from weak nerves and timid spirits---their squeamish anxieties about their health----the softening of their disposition by indulgence and ease, so that they are unable to endure----their sensibility under trifling vexations, which others despise----their leisure to brood over a progeny of dangers----the envies to which they are liable----their cares, fears, responsibilities, and dependence----the unreasonable things looked for from them, and their inability to give satisfaction to expectants : where shall I end? These, and a thousand other things, should be enough to show the poor and the busy that those who are placed above them are taxed in the same proportion.

    Neither, however, is the opposite state the most desirable. As far as happiness depends on an outward condition, there lies, between the extremes of prosperity and adversity, penury and affluence, the most eligible choice. If life be a pilgrimage, man the traveller is best prepared for advancing, not when the shoe pinches, or when it is large and loose, but when it fits ; not when he is destitute of a staff to lean upon, or when he has a large bundle of such articles to carry, but when he has one which affords him assistance without incumbrance. Pray we therefore, "Remove far from me vanity and lies : give me neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with food convenient for me : lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain."

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