'While affliction thus prepares us for felicity, we may console ourselves under its pressures, by remembering, that they are no particular marks of divine displeasure: since all the distresses of persecution have been suffered by those of whom the world was not wor thy; and the Redeemer of mankind himself was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.'

But, should the christian not feel the weight of personal afflictions, there are, perhaps, sources of inquietude equally painful, from which he cannot hope to escape, and for the endurance of which he will stand in need both of faith and of patience. He will have to wrestle, not merely against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the ru lers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore he is commanded to put on the whole armour of God, that he may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil-praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit,

and watching thereunto with all perseverance:' for he that shall be found so doing will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; and though he may be greatly harassed in his march, he shall not be overcome; though he be cast down, yet he shall arise; and though faint in the conflict, finally prevail, and be more than conqueror.

Permit me, therefore, to say to you, as the sympathizing Saviour did to his mournful disciples: let not your heart be troubled in your Father's house are many mansions. Jesus is gone to prepare a place for you, and will come again, and receive you unto himself; that where he is, you may be also'-The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.' In the present world, which is fitly compared to a waste howling wilderness, where are pricking briars and grieving thorns: the christian must expect to meet with many obstructions; with much to perplex his mind, to ex

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cite discouragement, and to impede his jour ney. But, ere long, he will pass the waters of Jordan, and reach the desired haven, where he shall peacefully enjoy the object of his hope, without interruption and without satiety.

The children of God, during their pilgrim-" age on earth, bear no marks by which men of the world recognize their heavenly birth, or learn to estimate their high privileges. A good man is subject, like other mortals, to all the influences of natural evil; his harvest is not spared by the tempest, nor his cattle by the murrian; his house flames like others in a conflagration; nor have his ships any peculiar power of resisting hurricanes: his mind, however elevated, inhabits a body subject to innumerable casualties, of which he must always share the dangers and the pains; he bears about him the seeds of disease, and may linger away a great part of his life under the tortures of the gout or stone; at one time groaning with insufferable anguish, at another dissolved in listlessness and languor.

Afflictions and poverty, persecution, fines, imprisonment, and death, are not viewed by the giddy and the gay, the wise and the prudent, as indications of sonship; but as tokens of extreme depravity and enormous guilt: as expressions of divine vengeance rather than of mercy: as the frowns of an incensed judge, not as the salutary chastisements of a loving father. But some, or all of these, the children of God. experience: yea, says an apostle, and all that. will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution In the world,' said the despised Saviour, ye shall have tribulation-for if ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.'

It is usually our similitude to others, says an excellent prelate, that makes them think and speak well of us: whosoever commends another, commends something that he supposeth at least he hath in himself; and this is the reason of that wo of our Saviour wo to you when all

men shall speak well of you.' When wicked men speak well of us, it is a sign that we are too much like them. Even a heathen could say, when highly applauded by the vulgar, • What evil have I done, that these men praise me?'

The disciples of Christ are an afflicted and poor people in general, literally poor; and on this account, frequently viewed by the world as mean and contemptible. Their heavenly Father is pleased, for the best reasons, to withhold from them many things that glitter in the eye of sense; that are sure to attract notice, and which generally secure to the owner, of whatever character, unqualified tokens of adulation and respect. But the christian is not without his consolations. Exclusion from transitory good is abundantly recompensed by the contemplation of objects that dignify while they delight; that irradiate the mind and exhilarate the heart; that raise the affections above terrestrial scenes, and enable the soul, not merely to anticipate, but to realize something