We must serve either the one or the other; and that not merely for this short life, but for all eternity. * Continuation of this subject in the following extracts, entitled, FAMILIAR ADVICE AND PIOUS 1. "WHEREFORE do you complain so much of the afflictions which you suffer? It is because you will not distinguish in them the hand of God; and your selflove hinders you from perceiving it. Renounce yourself, and God will not abandon you; place your trust in Him, and he will help you. He sends these afflictions to awaken your soul, and to recal you to the love and obedience which you * The reader will perceive in the following pages some repetitions of preceding thoughts and advices; but the translator did not think that circumstance sufficient to justify her in omitting them. owe to him. Our misfortune is, that we too readily give up all our thoughts and affections to the creature, instead of the Creator; and this soon leads us into great sin: God therefore prepares for us a course of events, through which he by degrees takes from us the objects of our excessive, and, therefore, sinful affections; and thus (unless we wilfully resist Him) he recals us to himself. This operation is painful to us, and causes great anguish; but God sees it necessary to our eternal salvation. Do you accuse the surgeon of cruelty, who (when your flesh is corrupted) must, of necessity, cut to the bone, in order to save your limb?—No; for you are sure that in like manner he would treat his only son. 2. Our gracious God never afflicts us but for our good. He has no pleasure in the miseries of his children, but he pierces to the bottom of our hearts, that he may heal the ulcer which is there. I When deprived of what we value, we weep under his hand, as a child does after some hurtful instrument which, in kindness, is removed from its reach.What we think we have lost, God has placed in safety for us, where it can do us no harm; and he will restore it to us, for ever, if we make ourselves worthy of it. 3. You know that no event can take place, no trial or affliction can come upon you, unknown to God; why will you not, then, confide in him? He has numbered the very hairs of your head; he has counted the sands of the sea, and not one of them can be lost without his knowledge. Our Saviour says, that a sparrow cannot fall without his Providence-how much more shall he save you, O ye of little faith! What to your narrow view appears of such magnitude, is nothing in the sight of God; a little more or less of this life to his creatures, are differences of no account in respect of eternity.-Eternity! O wonderful and sublime idea! compared with it, what is this life; and what matters it whether this body of mine, this poor frail dust, this vase of clay, be broken a little sooner or later? 4. Oh, how short and deceitful are the views of man! You lament the untimely fate of those who are called away in the flower of their years, or in the height of their prosperity; but for what do you lament?-God has taken the favoured one from a corrupt world, from the midst of iniquity, and from the temptations of the devil: What, then, has he lost? On the contrary, is not the change to him his exceeding gain? But you will say, the bitter loss is mine: yet, examine it a little; you have lost the poison of worldly felicity, the cause, perhaps, of that forgetfulness of God, into which you were falling. Confess, then, the mercy of God, in that stroke which has taken him from the evil to come; and is preparing you, through it, to work out your own salvation. O how truly is God our tender and merciful Father, even when he appears to crush and overwhelm us, till we are ready to rebel against him!-Oh, folly and delusion of mortality! Life passes away as a torrent rolls on its course. Already the past is to us as a dream; the present, even while we enjoy it, is sliding from us; days, months, years press on: Yet a few moments, and all in this world will (to us) be at an end. Alas! the time which we now account so long and so heavy, will appear to have been too short, if we have to look back on it unimproved. Whatever, therefore, be your sorrow, how great soever your trial, submit yourself courageously and humbly to God; it is true, your sufferings may be severe, but God knows them to be so, and sees that they are good for you. The world, perhaps, has smiled upon you, and prosperity |