Jesus must be the position of the Christian, whatever be the circumstances of his soul.

But here perhaps I am addressing some in the camp of the Egyptians, who are ready to say, O, this is all very well to those who see the Word of God as you Christians see it; but for us on the dark side, of what use is it? What can we do, while the Word of God is to us a sealed book, or nothing but a pillar of salt or of darkness to us? Why, we will tell you. Come over upon our side. Come with us and we will do you good. Change your position. Leave your Egyptian encampment, and come over upon Israel's borders, and trust in Israel's God, and then you I will see the Word from the same side that we do, and it will be all bright and glorious. Why is there any dark side at all? The darkness is in you, and not in God's Word. It is because you stand afar off, on your side, not God's, and at a distance. "Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?" What can we, or God's Word, or all evidence do for you, or even God himself, so long as you leave not your present position and habitude of heart, but stay in it, putting yourself on the side of God's enemies, the side on which you see nothing in God's Word but a flaming sword, turning every way against you at the Gate of the Paradise of Life?

Indeed, it is the heart of the sinner that must change, or the Word of God can never be otherwise than as that flaming sword. A man will find it life to his soul only in Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Sealed as it may be to you now, there is enough in it, plain as the daylight, which you not only may understand, but which you cannot help understanding, and which condemns you utterly. Come to it in Christ, come applying to him as your teacher, and you will speedily find it both plain and full of interest. You will see and feel its evidence as God's Word. It will speak to you as to the prophets. It will come between you and every evil. It will be not only

a revelation from God, but the revelation of God to your soul, and in God's light you will see light. You will take the part of God in all things, and God will take your part. You will esteem all his precepts concerning all things to be right, and you will hate every false way. You will be able to say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” You will find his Word to be the daily food of your soul; and the difficulties that now perhaps press upon you will be changed into occasions of adoration and of faith. The hard places of Scripture, that seem to you, seen through the atmosphere of guilt, with dreadful faces thronged, and fiery arms, will wear the aspect of glorious guardian angels. All things will put on, towards you, the look and disposition of your soul towards God. If that be a frame of love, all things will come to you as ministers and messengers of love. If your affections go out after God, all things will be full of him, in his Word, and in his Works, and in his Providence, and everything in which you see him will fill you with sacred delight.

And thou, sad sufferer under nameless ill,
That yields not to the touch of human skill,
Improve the kind occasion, understand
A Father's power, and kiss his chastening hand.
To thee the day-spring and the blaze of noon,
The purple evening and resplendent moon,
The stars that, sprinkled o'er the vault of night,
Seem drops descending in a shower of light,
Shine not, or undesired and hated shine,
Seen through the medium of a cloud like thine.
Yet seek Him; in his favor life is found,

All bliss beside, a shadow or a sound.

Then, heaven eclipsed so long, and this dull earth,
Shall seem to start into a second birth;

Nature, assuming a more lovely face,

Borrowing a beauty from the works of grace,
Shall be despised and overlooked no more,
Shall fill thee with delights unfelt before,
Impart to things inanimate a voice,

And bid her mountains and her hills rejoice.

The secret cause of infidelity is perhaps invariably a darkness in the mind produced by wrong affections, by the love of sin in the heart, by such a state of things there, that the soul feels anxious and uneasy in the presence of God, and gloomy beneath the light of his attributes. Nothing but God's Spirit can overcome that. Such a state of things will bring a pillar of cloud and darkness between the soul and God, and will make the soul desire and endeavor to see God in other lights than those in which he shines in the Word of the truth of the gospel. Hence, the beginning, the existence, and the increase of error. If there were a clear, open, frank, trusting, sunny heart towards God, there would be a clear, unmistaken, Scriptural view of God. And hence the pointed condemnation we everywhere meet with in God's Word, against error and infidelity, as being not only the consequence of guilt, but in itself guilt.

All religious error, that involves the soul in a conflict against the God and the piety of the Scriptures, is sinful, and leads to sin. There are indifferent points, in regard to which it may be said, Neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not, are we the worse. And there may be errors in judgment, even with the best intentions; although, if man were not a fallen being, it may be doubted whether there would ever have been any error, even in that. But a loving, humble heart, that comes to God in his Word for light, God will never suffer to go seriously astray. And indeed a loving, humble heart not only has the light of God's Word to go by, but possesses also the Interpreter of God's Word, dwelling in the soul, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but who will guard the soul from error, and lead it into all truth. Without this, the soul's speculations are presumption.

And while she dotes, and dreams that she believes,
She mocks her Maker, and herself deceives;

Her utmost reach, historical assent,

The doctrines warped to what they never meant.
The truth itself is in her head as dull

And useless as a candle in a skull;

And all her love of God a groundless claim,

A trick upon the canvas, painted flame.

So whenever any soul departs from the truth, we shall find the beginning of such departure, in the neglect of that Divine Spirit, and in human prejudice and pride. A man flatters self instead of consulting God, submitting to God, and thence comes a perverted judgment, a crooked sight, a partial, prejudiced view of things; and a very little declination from the truth, followed on, will lead the soul fearfully astray, after long following. And then a man dreams. that his very errors are marks of originality, independence, and intellectual greatness. Just as if a man with strabismus should fancy that he has a more perfect eye than all his neighbors, because he sees cross-wise, while they see only straight forward.

7

CHAPTER XIV.

The trials of faith.-Trials of character, and trials to mend character.Inward and external trials.-Christian sympathy.

Ir is singularly beautiful to behold the sacred light that shines through periods of sorrow. Some of the simple hymns of Cowper transmit that light as an opal; for they were the childlike record of his own experience, and they have given a household language, as familiar as that of childhood, to some of the dearest processes of the Divine life.

Trials must and will befall;

But with humble faith to see
Love inscribed upon them all,
This is happiness to me.
Trials make the promise sweet,
Trials give new life to prayer,
Trials bring me at his feet,

Lay me low, and keep me there.

Trials are among the most signal way-marks in the Pilgrimage of Faith, trials at the beginning, trials in the continuance, trials at the end. Yet not trials always, nor trials unmingled, but enough constantly, or at intervals, to prove thee and show thee what is in thy heart, and to lead that heart for healing and rest to God.

When comforts are declining

He grants the soul again

A season of clear-shining,
To cheer it after rain.