says the Wise Man, " will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sin." (Wis. i. 4.) Remember that your Advocate is uncreated wisdom itself.
MONDAY.
The Benefit of Adoption.— I.
I. " Behold, what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be named, and should be the sons of God!" (1 John iii. 1.) This Father of mercy was not satisfied with sending His only Son to redeem us; He has also adopted us for His children. This favor is greater in proportion to the meanness of the person adopted, the dignity of God who adopts you, and the sublime condition to which He elevates you. What is more vile or base than man, and what more exalted than God? As to his body, man is nothing but a composition of the dust of the earth, subject to a thousand infirmities, and destined to become ultimately the food of loathsome worms. As to His soul He is constantly subject to sin, an abyss of ignorance, and a model of inconstancy. Reflect how contracted are his intellectual faculties, how small is His portion of knowledge, and to what miseries He is subject. Hence Job exclaims, " What is man, that Thou shouldst magnify him, or why dost Thou set Thy heart upon him?" (Job vii. 17.)
II. On the other hand, God, who has adopted you, is infinitely great, good, and almighty. What a dignity it is to be the adoptive Son of such a being! If it were considered a wonderful elevation in the Patriarch Joseph to be taken out of prison and made Lord of Egypt (Gen. xli. 40), in Saul to have been taken by the Prophet when seeking his father's asses, and anointed
