MEDITATION XXXII.
MEDITATION XXXII.
A MEMORANDUM FOR HIM WHO GOES ABROAD.
June 28, 1757.
Sometimes the call of Providence; and sometimes a covetous heart to amass riches—carry men abroad.
If a man cannot exercise his religion with liberty in his native country, which he can find in another land, then he may be said, instead of going abroad, only to go home. But, on the contrary, he who wanders from the place where God delights to dwell, and relinquishes Zion, which God has called his rest, may indeed be said to go abroad; and unless his reasons are valid, when impartially weighed, he ought not to go. On no account should you go with a design to remain in another place—unless the gospel gladdens the distant region. But when you are away, remember a few things, that you may not forget yourself.
1. Be always under the impression of God's omnipresence and omniscience. You can never wander out of the hollow of his hand, or swim beyond his cognizance.
2. Keep in mind the solemn tribunal, where the complete register of all your actions shall be brought forth; such and such a sin at home, such and such a sin abroad—with such and such aggravations.
3. Know that it is better to stand alone, than fall with many. It will not excuse your wickedness, that you were among the wicked, for sinners shall be bound in bundles, that they may burn the fiercer.
4. Think much on death, that you may not be too much charmed with the vanities of life.
5. Oppose sin in others with courage, for the righteous shall be bold as lion; though the wicked flees when none pursues.
6. Remember the deceitfulness and uncertainty of riches; so shall you neither be puffed up with the possession, nor pained at the loss of them.
7. Be not jeered out of your religion, or flouted out of your devotion; better be the object of man's ridicule, than the subject of God's wrath.
8. Set not your heart on any intended acquisition abroad, and so you shall not return home disappointed.
9. Mark providences, and you shall see God's hand in everything.
10. Let Zion and the people of God have a place in your prayers, and you shall again have a place in Zion among the people of God.
11. Since you can not have God in his public ordinances, seek the God of ordinances in private daily; and, when deprived of the preached word, esteem and peruse the written word the more.
12. Be not hasty in making acquaintances, nor rash in choosing your friends.
13. Meditate often; a secret good rises from this secret exercise.
14. Examine your condition often; it is the sign of a bankrupt never to open his books, nor look into his accounts.
15. Let prayer be your daily pleasure and engagement. To be much in the presence of an earthly king makes a courtier. But the presence of the King of kings makes a Christian, an angel.
16. Think much on the unseen world, and let the certainty of that which is to come, dispel the delusion of the present, which so quickly passes away.
17. As you may never again see your native country, and your father's house, let heaven be your native country, and then death shall bring you to your better home.
18. Eye God's glory in everything, and prefer the approbation of God and your own conscience, to the applause of men.
19. Double your diligence. Satan will double his temptations, sins and snares will multiply around you; therefore multiply your cries to God, keep in your strong hold, and act faith on him at all times.
20. Beware that you live not to yourself, the world, or for time. But live above the world, for eternity, and to God.
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