The Fourth of June.

LET EVERY MAN ABIDE --- 1 Corinthians 7:20.

"Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called." --- 1 Corinthians 7:20.

Most of the employments of life are in their own nature lawful; and all those that are so may be made a substantial part of our duty to God, if we engage them only so far, and for such ends, as are suitable to beings that are to live above the world.

This is the only measure of our application to any worldly business; it must have no more of our hands, our hearts, or our time, than is consistent with a hearty, daily, careful preparation of ourselves for another life. For since all true Christians have renounced the world to prepare themselves, by daily devotions and universal holiness, for an eternal state of quite another nature, they must look upon worldly employments as upon worldly wants and bodily infirmities; things not to be desired, only to be endured and suffered, till death and the resurrection have carried us to an eternal state of real happiness.

A person's being called into the kingdom of grace is not to make void the duties that arise from his perculiar calling or situation in life, but to enforce the practice of them in such a way as may be most to the glory of God. He therefore that does not consider the things of this life as of little moment, or even nothing, in comparison of the things that are eternal, cannot be said either to feel or believe the greatest truths of Christianity.

Lord, save me from my calling's snare,
From fraud, and from the love of gain;
My hand be filled with worldly care,
But all my heart with thee remain.