X. A NOCTURNAL.

DAVID, surveying the firmament, brake forth into this consideration: When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars, which thou hast created; what is man, &c. [Psalm viii. 3.]

How cometh he to mention the moon and stars, and omit the sun? The other being but his pensioners, shining with that exhibition of light which the bounty of the sun allots them.

It is answered, This was David’s night meditation, when the sun, departing to the other world, left the lesser lights only visible in heaven; and as the sky is best beheld by day in the glory thereof, so it is best surveyed by night in the variety of the same.

Night was made for man to rest in. But when I cannot sleep, may I with this psalmist entertain my waking with good thoughts. Not to use them as opium, to invite my corrupt nature to slumber, but to bolt out bad thoughts, which otherwise would possess my soul.