service, which will more than compensate you for those trials and afflictions which He has warned you to expect. You will have a contented and resigned spirit, which the word of God has well called a continual feast1. You will know how "both to abound, and to suffer need 2 ;" and feel even your chastisements and sufferings deprived of their sting and bitterness, by recollecting that they are from the hands of your Father, who thus proves that you are His children, that He loves you, and is determined, by such a course of discipline, to make you partakers of his holiness, and by these light and momentary afflictions, to work

for

66 you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Besides all this, the Lord has promised many and great blessings, even in this life, to those that fear him, and put their trust in His mercy. "Godliness," saith St. Paul, "hath promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come In the words immediately pre

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ceding our text, the Psalmist saith, "No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly;" and in the 34th Psalm, "O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints; for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." Our Saviour encourages and commands us to depend on our Heavenly Father for a supply of food and raiment, and that which is necessary for our sustenance, "For," saith the blessed Jesus, "your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you'." There are more painful trials of faith even than the want of these things. It is hard to submit to be cut off in the midst of your days, to leave your wife a widow, and your infant children orphans: and yet God saith to such an one, "Leave thy fatherless

children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me1."

But the most insupportable of all afflictions is, to be deprived of that mysterious consolation, which is designed in Holy Scripture by the light of God's countenance. We all know what untold comfort and alleviation we can receive from the face of a friend, even though he can do no more to assuage our pain than by the tenderness of his looks to express his sympathy in our sufferings. To the devout man, in like manner, this inexpressible sense of the Divine presence is more precious than life itself, and, in the lowest depth of human misery and destitution, diffuses such joy and peace throughout the soul, as no one but the humble and brokenhearted can possibly conceive. For, as the Holy Scripture saith, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him But yet religion is one thing, and the consolations of religion another. And He, who has joined them together, can, if it seem good to His inscrutable wisdom, separate them for a time. 2 Ps. xxv. 41.

1 Jer. xlix. 11.

2 "

This, it would seem, was the last and bitterest pang in the sufferings of our blessed Master. He bore unmoved the ingratitude and scorn of men. His soul was undisturbed by the tortures of the scourge, the crown of thorns, and the cross. But when the light of His Father's countenance was for one moment withdrawn, His human nature tottered under the stroke, and he cried out, in the agony of a broken heart," My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Still His faith survived. His confidence in God never forsook Him. In the extremity of His desolation He cried out with a loud voice, "Father, into thine hands I commend my spirit." God was His father still, and in that confidence He breathed forth His spotless soul. "He bowed his head and gave up the ghost." Here was the triumph of faith. This was the blessedness of the man that putteth His trust in God.

The most glorious spectacle that God in heaven can look down on and angels can applaud, is the humble soul passing through this hour of more than mortal trial. To see one,

who has long known the vanity of all earthly enjoyments, and set his affections habitually on Christ and heaven;-one who has borne the whole variety of human wretchedness; or, it may be, the more dangerous trial of prosperity, with an unmoved loyalty and affection, and an unshaken confidence in his Father's love ;-to see him put upon his last great trial; and, when that face is hid, which is the end of his being, and the object of all his desires; when all is dark without, and desolate within; to hear him sing a strain so sad, so touching, and yet so sweet, that even the heavenly choir are mute until the melody of that song is wafted to the throne of God, "As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come, and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is now thy God? Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my counte