not find that they ever had one relenting thought before. So the widow mentioned in 1 Kings xvii., when her son was seized with a sudden and fatal sickness, said to Elijah, "What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?" Under a smarting rod, guilt that had lain for weeks, perhaps for years, without giving the least disturbance, now starts up, and strikes home. Job, when his body was full of sores, was made to possess the iniquities of his youth, Job xiii. 26; and David, in the midst of great outward affliction, makes this the heaviest part of his complaint; "For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me," Psa. xl. 12. But no sooner had he confessed his transgression to the Lord, and the Lord had forgiven the iniquity of his sin, than presently he seemed to be in another world; he was all peace and praise: "Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt

preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance." Bodily pain is easily borne, when all is peace within.-LAVINGTON.

LAM. iii. 1.-I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

God is sometimes angry with his own people; yet it is to be complained of, not as a sword to cut off, but only as a rod to correct: it is to them "the rod of his wrath;" a chastening, which, though grievous for the present, will, in the issue, be advantageous. By this rod, we must expect to see affliction; and if we be made to see more than ordinary affliction by that rod, we must not quarrel; for we are sure the anger is just, and the affliction mild, and mixed with mercy.-M. HENRY.

While rods are in the Father's hand,

A Father's heart reveal,

And teach the child to understand

Thy loving-kindness well.

Support his heart, and hold his head,

And sanctify the rod;

Purge out the dross which health has bred,
And draw his heart to God.-Berridge.

LAM. iii. 19, 20.-Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

It becomes us to have humbled hearts under humbling providences; and to renew our penitent humiliation for sin, upon every remembrance of our afflictions and miseries.

Thus

we may get good by former corrections, and prevent further.-M. HENRY.

I charge my thoughts be humble still,

And all my carriage mild,

Content, my Father, with thy will,
And quiet as a child.

The patient soul, the lowly mind,

Shall have a large reward:
Let saints in sorrow lie resign'd,

And trust a faithful Lord.-DR. WATTS.

LAM. iii. 22.-It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

There is mercy in this, that it is no worse. Am I afflicted? It might have been hell, as well as this. There is mercy in God's supports under it. Others have sunk, and I might have been left to sink and perish under my burdens. There is mercy in deliverance out of it. This might have been everlasting darkness, that should never have had a morning. Oh the tenderness of Christ over his afflicted!-FLAVEL.

"Two things," says MASON, "should comfort suffering Christians, namely, all they suffer is not hell; yet it is all the hell they shall ever suffer."

LAM. iii. 39.-Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

Why should we murmur and complain, since we justly suffer what we suffer, and it is the Lord's condescension that he will make some good use of these sufferings to our eternal happiness, that we may be capable of

Life

everlasting consolation. His justice should stop murmurings. "Wherefore doth a living man complain?" If he complain, he can complain of none but himself, that evil choice he hath made for his own soul, which it may be he would never have thought of but upon this occasion. His punishment here carrieth no proportion with his offence: it is punishment in the singular number, sins in the plural; one punishment for many acts of sin and a living man on this side hell— what is this to everlasting torments? cannot be without many blessings to accompany it; while living, we may see an end of this misery, or have time to escape those eternal torments, which are far worse. The form of the words showeth why we should thus expostulate with ourselves, "Wherefore doth a living man complain?" Why do we complain? God hath not cut us off from the land of the living, nor cast us into hell; it is the punishment of sin, and it is far less than we have deserved.-DR. MANTON.

"Our lusts," says RUTHERFORD, “are cords fiery trials are sent to burn and