your example, by your influence, by direct or indirect teaching, by a right use of money-perhaps by ways which do not discover themselves to you, until you have made some resolute advance in this path of duty. However limited your range may be, (the more limited from the circumstances of your broken health,) yet you will always find some within your reach to whom you may exhibit this gracious and loving spirit; your own immediate family, the friends who visit your sick chamber, the servants who minister to your wants. Assume no functions, undertake no duties but those which belong to "that state of life to which it has pleased God to call you." In that state you will find, if you seek, abundant employment. Such engagements will supply the best preservative against the many forms of selfishness which beset the hours of sickness; and that some preservative is then needed, they who watch over their hearts under such circumstances can abundantly testify. In these pursuits you will find a source of true and sustained cheerfulness, most unlike that false and transient excitement with which the world seeks to dissipate the thoughts of the sorrowful and suffering.

But, whether doing or enduring, beware of fancying that you have a fund of faith, or hope, or patience, laid up within, to which you can always resort, and independent of Him who supplies by his Spirit daily strength to his people. For in the moment that you look from Him to yourself, you will find yourself left alone with impatience and distrust,

and ready to sink under the burthen of those cares which He would have borne for you.

Life to others is very bright, notwithstanding your distress. Let not the contrast between their condition and your own hinder your being cheered by the happiness around you. If God is with you in your sorrow, pray that He may be with them in their joy. If some have wept with you who weep, endeavour on your part to rejoice with them that do rejoice. It may cost you at first a struggle before you can fully sympathize in their happiness. But the effort will daily become less let it not be seen of men, and thus become poisoned by that selfish littleness which evermore claims notice of the sacrifices it makes.

66

Nor should we close our hearts against the marvellous beauty of God's creation which lies around us. The clouds of sorrow must not so come down upon us as utterly to obscure that reflexion of Him which yet is left to us here. The perfection of its first days is indeed gone, and with fallen man it 'groaneth and travaileth together" in mysterious sympathy. But it is still most beautiful. We may neither form a fanciful mock-religion for ourselves out of our admiration for "the things that are seen," which cannot of course satisfy the needs of an immortal spirit; nor yet turn coldly away from God's great works. Ours should be, in this, the safer path of humility and faith; and we should rejoice in them as what our Master's hands have made. They are evidences of his power, and witnesses of

his love; and it is good for us to live under their calming and elevating influences.

Many of those who will read these pages are, I trust, gaining the truest and best blessings from the afflictions which have been sent to them. If this be your case, how full even this present time is of encouragement and of blessing. Could you formerly have imagined that under these circumstances of pain and grief-when all around is dark -all within could ever be so full of light? True to his promises, God is now blessing you with that peace which passeth all understanding, and which abides with you undiminished amidst all the vicissitudes of life.

Are you sometimes filled with longings to depart -to leave all this suffering behind, and to pass from the strife of the battle-field to the rest of the victors? Yet remember that you are "immortal till your work is done." One can imagine what it must be for you, lying now at the very gates of Paradise, to be obliged to take up again the burthen of life, and to look forward to long years here, amongst us whose sky is so often dimmed by temptation, grief, and weariness. But do not be discouraged; for if you are giving yourself truly to the service of God, darkness shall be made light,-your Lord shall lead you, and the wilderness and the solitary place shall be gladdened by his presence. In joy and in grief you shall find Him near; your strength in temptation, your shield in danger, your guide in difficulty.

b

You long now to be with Him; but all along the journey of life He will be with you-your unseen but ever present Defence.

Wait then his time in whose unchangeable faithfulness is all your trust. Consider the immeasurable depths of his wisdom. You cannot assign the limits of time, place, or circumstance, within which He may design to work his sovereign will in you. After marvelling long at the character and duration of this trial, perhaps a ray of light may touch some object before unnoticed, and reveal all that has been hitherto hidden in such darkness. Can you say that you have yet received the full measure of blessing which this affliction was designed to bring? Perhaps the well-being of others depends, far more than you can know or even imagine, on the prolongation of this trial to you: since one of the strongest evidences of the reality and power of religion is seen in the constancy of the faithful in the midst of suffering, and in the good which God brings for them out of such seeming evil.

We are encompassed by many living witnesses in the Church, who, having long endured tribulation, can bear testimony to the power of his sustaining love now, from the midst of their trials; while others, who once gave their testimony to the same truth, have been one by one called away to exchange that condition in which they received from their Lord sympathy in suffering, for that in which they are made partakers of his joy.

Our Lord is carrying on this work from age to

age before the eyes of the Church.

Doubtless there

are some to whom you are thus appointed as a witness:-to but few perhaps—yet if but to one, be thankful that to you it is assigned to strengthen that one in the faith.

If this book should help you to interpret truly the meaning of God's afflictive dispensations, teaching you in any measure their nature, purposes, and effects; and leading you to look through their outward show of mere pain and loss to their inner significance and real character-if thus you are confirmed in an humble, holy confidence in God, and are quickened to a more diligent following of Him -if you perceive that while every trial is attended by its peculiar duties and responsibilities, it brings with it heavenly blessings also; and if the practical knowledge of these truths should lead you, by his grace, to a closer and more abiding union with Him, then indeed the object of these pages will have been fully accomplished. May He graciously allow this blessed issue. May your heart be cheered and encouraged by his promises, and may you look beyond these hours of trial to the hope set before you in the Gospel. The Lord is indeed at hand. He is returning to his waiting Church. We know neither the day nor the hour-but He brings with Him everlasting joy for all them that love his appearing. "I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.