trust will be plain to you, and I think is important. The circumstance, you recollect, as related by the writers of the gospel history, was briefly this: Our Lord, having embarked with his disciples, in a ship, on the lake of Gennesareth, there came on a storm, and the ship was covered with the waves. Jesus, we are told, was asleep the while "in the hinder part of the ship." And his disciples, greatly frightened at the fury of the storm, "came to him, and awoke him," saying, "Master, Master, we perish. And Jesus arose and rebuked the wind; and said unto the sea, Peace, be still; and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." II...Now, there are words of God coming to us, through the mouth of his prophet, which are these: "I, the high and lofty One, who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is HOLY, I dwell with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit! I revive the spirit of the humble," the good, and just. But the wicked are like the troubled sea, where it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. "There is no peace to the wicked!"* There is no peace; there can be no peace, our own hearts say, to the wicked. All history, all time, all experience, all observation, tells the same truth: "There is no peace to the wicked!" they are like the troubled sea, lashed by unseen winds - stirred by unseen power-driven to and fro, so that they cannot rest. Darkness above-darkness all around-darkness within-storm and darkness, the unchanging aspect in which their spirits move. 66 III Now, All," it is written, "have sinned;" all like sheep have gone astray; all like sheep, more or less, do go astray. And St. John tells us," If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."+ · There were "angels who kept not their first estate!" Man kept not his. And in the sins and the follies, the crimes and the sorrows, which darken the history of all people; in the vices-the imprudences—the MADNESS, of every one of us now; we see that, * See Isaiah lvii. passages. +1 John i. 8, 9. See parallel which without the written word of God, there would be no way of accounting for; but which, for us possessing the Bible, points every day, every hour, and every moment, indeed, to the time when, "by one man, sin entered into the world," with all its consequences. In every sorrow, in every perplexity, in every evil thought, in every deceit, in every "fallen countenance,"* in every tortuous tongue, we discern mementos of our condition sufficient to remind us of our fallen state. ALL sin, more or less; vice is never entirely absent from us, how widely soever the degrees of vice vary in different characters. Perfection is not attainable by us in this our present state of existence. While our proneness to evil exists, so long as this disease of our nature continues, which it does to the end of our lives, (we are born in sin; and, into sin, in this world, we are ever in danger of falling;) so long as this fact remains the same, sin will at times make inroads on the best of mankind, on those, i. e. who have attained the highest degrees of comparative excellence. This being the case, this being the real *See Gen. iv. 5. truth, as it is written, and as the hearts of mankind can testify, there are, therefore, moments when the feelings of the very best of us are likely to vent themselves in some such expression as this, Why art thou so cast down O my heart; why art thou so disquieted within me ?"* 66 And thus, although, with thanks to God, we may not be tossed in the fearful and unimaginable hurricane into which daring impiety has borne the souls of some; still, transgressors as we all are in some degree, it cannot be otherwise, than we should at times feel the disquietude, as of troubled waters, though it be in proportion as the motion within a harbour to that out at sea, yet to an extent sufficient to remind us of the words of David, the "man after God's own heart." Deep calleth unto deep, with the voice of thy waters: thy waves and billows pass over my spirit."+ 66 When this is experienced, let us sympathize with David further, and "wait in confidence for God, for yet again shall we praise Him;" let us seek in prayer "his light and faithfulness;" and, as the stag thirsteth after the See French and Skinner's Translation, † 1 Sam. xiii. 14. Ps. xlii. 7. * Psalm xlii. 5. London, 1830. brooks of water, day and night, let us go in search of his peace,-let us seek relief at the waters of life. IV..." Whosoever is athirst," saith the voice of God, "let him come, and drink of those waters freely."* "Whosoever labours and is heavy laden, let him come," saith Christ, "for I will give him rest."+ "Strive to enter in at the strait gate." "Labour not for that meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life."‡ "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things shall be added unto you."§ Such words as these should be sufficient to make us lift up our hearts, which are cast down; such words should be listened to; the voice which speaks those words, openly and in secret, should be regarded! Almighty God comes unto his own, and his own reject him: but, as many as receive Him, to them he gives power to become his children; those who, believing in Him, keep his commandments, which are not grievous. *Rev. xxii. 17. † Matt. xi. 28. |