more likely to drive us from our sins, and draw us to himself, than his leading us in the path of sorrow. Indeed we find the most experienced believers in all ages, counting their afflictions among their greatest mercies. It was when Job was in trouble, that we find him thus addressing the Almighty, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.' David also acknowledges the benefit of afflictions, "before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word." "it is good for me that I have been af flicted, that I might learn thy statutes." And the prophet Jonah, when flying from the presence of the Lord, was brought back to the path of duty by affliction. We are told, that he prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and said, "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me." The Apostle St. James tells us, in the name of himself, and his fellow Christians, "Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience * Job, xlii. 5, 6. Jonah, ii. 1, 2. +Psalms, cxix. 67, 71. § James, v. 11. of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." "If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons.' 99 When such is the merciful design of our heavenly Father in sending afflictions, well may we exclaim with the Psalmist, +"Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law. O surely it is not without abundant reason that the Apostle declares "we glory in tribulations also." Even in our deepest affliction, my brethren, there is some consolation in the thought, that our heavenly Father is dealing with us as children, whom he is desirous of bringing back to himself,—that he is searching for us as for lost sheep, and that he himself, and all his holy angels, will rejoice when we return to him. Surely there is not one individual among us, who has ever had a thought of eternity in his mind, that would not rather suffer the severest chastisement with the conso * Heb. xii. 6, 7. + Ps. xciv. 12. Rom. v. 3. ling idea, that it was a message of love sent to recall him from his wanderings, and to draw him closer to his Saviour, than to live under that hopeless sentence once pronounced upon some of the Israelites,Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone." But as there is a +"godly sorrow, which worketh repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of; So there is also a sorrow of the world, that worketh death;-a sorrow which brings us NOT NEARER to God, which, after it has been effaced by the hand of time, leaves us in the same state, in which it found us ;-such a sorrow has all the pain and grief of godly sorrow, without the blessed fruits which it produces. Such tribulation worketh neither patience, experience, or hope, no benefit is to be reaped from it, either here, or hereafter; and those who endure it, those who taste the bitter cup of affliction, but refuse the healing remedy, that is sent along with it, are either left to eat of the fruit of their own way, and to be filled with their own devices, left under that hopeless sentence "he is joined to idols let him alone," or else the long suffering mercy of God visits them with some * Hosea, iv. 17. +2 Cor. vii. 10. heavier calamity, that at length they may return to him and live. There is also another way of receiving affliction, that renders it useless to us; it is when we consider it as in some measure making an atonement for our sins, for thus we worship it as another Saviour, and deny the sufficiency of the precious blood of Christ, which can alone atone for our guilt, and "cleanse us from all our sins," for, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." But when we receive afflictions, as the corrections of a merciful Father, who sends them for our good, when they draw us closer to our Saviour, make us more mindful of his salvation, and more earnest and zealous in his service, then they fulfil his kind intentions, in chastening those whom he loves. As he himself declared, when he was revealed in his glory to the beloved disciple, "as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous and repent." To such a mourner, that merciful promise shall be fulfilled, "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall, doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” * Isaiah, liii. 5. †'Revelations, iii. 19. ‡ Ps. cxxvi. 6. |