after riches, and honour, and prosperity, he is appointing us to live in poverty, obscurity, and affliction. It is most for his honour and our own good that we should not move in the sphere on which we may have fixed our hearts, but which is thickly strewed with snares, and dangers, and temptations.

And, indeed, it pleased God to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings. In a most emphatic sense, the life of the Author of Christianity was a life of suffering; and He has left us an example of patience and obedience, while he has smoothed the rugged way, and divested it of its native terrors, by having pursued this path to heaven, where he now sits enthroned in light which is inaccessible, and calls his people to follow him. And if they would be with him where he is, why should they hesitate to tread in his footsteps, or fear the thorny way? There is no affliction or privation which the Christian is called to suffer here, to which Jesus was a stranger; for he has "borne our griefs and carried our infirmities." Since it has pleased the Father to bruise him, who was his only-begotten Son, and who was especially the object of his tenderest regard, it is not surprising that his people should be called to share the same burden, nor that they should esteem it light, and easy to be borne.

Besides, he who knew the extremes of human wo, has promised (after they have suffered awhile) rest for the weary: he has invited the heavy-laden to himself, for he will give them peace and rest on earth by his presence, while he has prepared for them a crown of glory which fadeth not away in the mansions of the blessed : He knows that it is sin which invests affliction with its fearful aspect; and that this is the grand mean of discovering, in the hearts of his children, the secret lurking-places and fastnesses of this cruel enemy. Were it not for the influence of sin over the heart, we should be enabled, in the exercise of faith, and hope, and patience, to rejoice in tribulation; we should no longer be averse to its corrective discipline, however painful; we should quietly rest ourselves in God, under every changing scene; we should rejoice in being counted worthy to suffer for his sake. But for the agency of sin, we should be bewildered by no clouded prospects, we should be harassed by no distressing doubts and perplexities; we should be agitated by no fearful retrospect; and we should be relieved from the recollection of mispent hours, cold affections, and innumerable wanderings from the Rock of our salvation. These we contemplate as in a great degree the causes which have rendered necessary the affliction under which we suffer.

Solid peace of mind will be thus obtained, in exchange for that feeble security which arises from distorted views of ourselves, our principles, and conduct, or from carelessness and neglect.

This tranquillity is confirmed by the augmented capacity of the mind for the enjoyment of the pleasures of religion. Suffering has an immediate tendency, not only to multiply the sources of our moral happiness, but to give such an increased sensibility to the conscience, so much additional power of discrimination to the judgment, and of renewed fervour to the affections, that we become more careful in our walk and conversation, more heavenly-minded, more attached to the ways of religion and the oracles of divine truth; we increasingly fear sinning against God, and in walking more circumspectly we obtain peace.

When affliction accomplishes the design with which God has commissioned it, it produces repentance and contrition: for, "behold this self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!"* In all

*2 Cor. vii. 11.

this, it is evident, that repentance forms the groundwork of the superstructure, and that "godly sorrow" is the great end and design of sanctified affliction. It is sin alone which renders painful that suffering which is intended to discover to us its secret malignity and influence. We are probably by no means aware of its extent: we may be slumbering in placid ease, flattering ourselves that we are travelling with our faces towards a heavenly world, and preparing for its blest, inheritance; while, in fact, we are unprofitable servants; while we come under the curse denounced against those who are "at ease in Zion;" while we are making no progress in the divine life, but are rather retrograde, than advancing day by day in the knowledge and love of God; while we are constantly deviating from the line of rectitude prescribed by the word of God, and while our hearts are estranged from the fountain of living waters by a thousand cares and solicitudes.

But we are visited by affliction; we are brought acquainted with ourselves, and are obliged to fly for refuge to the only Source of real comfort; the visionary fabric of our own righteousness is dissipated, and we discover in our bosoms, instead of peace and holiness, nothing but folly, sin, and error. Our attention has been absorbed by objects of inferior importance, while we have

scarcely fixed one wandering affection upon God. We find much sin, where we had fancied there existed little else than purity; and thus are we brought to repent and confess our sin to God, and to seek his pardon through the sacrifice of a crucified Redeemer. We are awakened from a state of lethargy as to our present and future prospects, and oblivion of our past mercies, to a consciousness of our aberrations from God.

It is well to contemplate the gracious Dispenser of affliction, rather than refer its origin to those secondary causes which are governed by the great First Cause. While we confine our views to the events which have been appointed to accomplish the trials with which we are visited, we shall be involved in endless perplexities. We shall, perhaps, regret that our conduct has been instrumental in bringing about the very cause of our sorrow; and shall imagine a thousand neglected opportunities of having escaped the present source of our affliction. We shall be equally anxious to calculate the events to which this may give rise, to devise plans whereby we may avoid our burdens, and elude the consequences with which they are attended. Thus will the mind be harassed by care, so long as its finite views are engaged on the subject of its sorrow; but when we regard a gracious God accomplishing his designs in us, through the