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avenger of his law; and their influence is often sufficiently powerful to darken the splendours of a court, and to impart additional honour to the gloom of a prison. No external circumstances can deprive the humble expectants of happiness through the Gospel of many sources of enjoyment; and no distinction of rank, and no elevation of honour, can always suppress in the wicked a sense of wretchedness and degradation.

CHAPTER XI.

THE CONSIDERATION OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD, CONTINued.

THE question returns, how can we reconcile with the infinite goodness of God, those evils which man cannot possibly by his wisdom or his conduct prevent, and a large share of which the servants of God are always called to endure? They are foretold by Him whose servants] they are, "that in the world they shall have tribulation,—that it is through much tribulation they must enter into the kingdom of God," and that "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." And in accordance with this testimony, the sublimest representation which is given us of glorified redeemed in heaven, holds them forth to our view as having come out of great tribulation, and having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

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It is a sufficient reply to this question, though not

the only reply that can be given to it, that man is guilty, and therefore deserves to suffer; and that, though all who believe and obey the Gospel are relieved from this guilt, and delivered from exposure to future punishment on account of it, it perfectly accords with boundless benevolence and mercy, that God should make temporary sufferings, due to them on account of sin, the means of trial and preparation for a state which is sinless. The sufferings, which no forethought and no integrity of man can prevent, are natural to a state of apostacy and revolt; and they to whom the largest proportion of them is allotted, however exalted may be their piety, will ever acknowledge, that they are far less than their iniquities deserve. Those sufferings are, besides, through the tender mercy of God, converted into means of moral discipline, which operate not merely in checking the progress of transgression, but in correcting, improving, and purifying the heart, and in adapting the whole inner man to a higher and a happier state. He who appoints us to suffer and to endure, in thus converting evil into means of good, has a regard to the chief and the eternal happiness of his creatures, and shews by the very afflictions which he calls us to feel, the exercise of his compassion as well as of his wisdom. If, indeed, the existence of man were limited to the present life, it might be doubtful with some, whether this spiritual improvement could be considered an adequate compensation for the suffering of positive evil-the endurance of pain, and disease, and sorrow. If man be only to exist for a moment, we should be apt to say, let that be a moment of unmixed enjoyment.

But

when reason suggests, and revelation assures us, that an existence of an endless duration is assigned to man, that the course through which he is passing in this life is preparing him for the enjoyment of another, and that the happiness of immortality will bear some proportion to the holy and spiritual attainments made in this his earlier state of being, every doubt is removed; and on the bed of sickness or of death, we can believe in His infinite mercy and love, who makes our "light affliction, which is but for a moment, work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." To deepen our conviction of this important truth, and to be satisfied that all things under the direction of the moral government of God, are made to work together for good to them that love Him, let us see how fully trials and afflictions, of whatever kind, conduce to this end.

I. These trials and afflictions exercise and strengthen our best affections and habits. There are certain of our virtues that could scarcely have been formed, but for the scenes of trial and moral discipline through which we have to pass. How could we have patience, at least, how could we ascertain its existence and strength, without affliction to exercise it; or fortitude, without dangers and difficulties to encounter; or resignation to the will of God, if our condition required no acquiescence; or the necessary and commanding habit of self-denial, if our circumstances were greatly different from those in which we are placed? If these, as well as other christian graces, are strengthened by exercise graces which are so essential to the happiness of heaven, does it not shew that the loving-kind

ness.

ness of our heavenly Father surrounds us with means, however painful, calculated to improve them? Is there not in the influence of sorrow, and especially when accompanied with the diviner influence of religion, something which has a tendency to soften the human heart? It is on this account that it is better to go to the house of mourning than to that of gladWe cannot remain thoughtless while we visit the abode of disease, and misery, and despair; while we witness the bereavements of the widow and the orphan; while we see the friend of our heart suffering the bitterness of death; or while we bid a final farewell to the guide of our youth, the tender parent, whose privilege perhaps it was to make knowledge and piety the happiness of our lives. Will not the dominion of pride, and vanity, and worldliness be weakened, amid scenes where all human hopes become fallacious, and where the mind, deprived of every other source of consolation, seeks relief in that pure religion which is the only abiding companion of helplessness and sorrow? Do we not learn from experience, that it is in such circumstances that spiritual and devotional feelings are peculiarly cherished—those feelings and affections which fit us for the society of the spirits of the just made perfect, and for the immediate presence of God? Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth; therefore, despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty."

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Perhaps, to the view of angels, our world affords not a spectacle of greater interest and moral loveliness than a truly christian family overtaken with affliction, assailed by disease and poverty, but animated under

them by the hope of the Gospel,-and long cast as a burden on the kind and constant ministry of one of its inmates. There are affections here awakened and cherished that will find their noblest exercise in the heavenly world; where those afflictions, to which, under the Holy Spirit, they owe their strength, will be no more. What spirituality of mind, what fortitude, and patience, and trust in God are kept in exercise in a situation where the lingering trial is scarcely noticed by the world, and in a solitude where the sympathy and support of an unseen and almighty Friend are the only source of consolation!

If, then, true holiness be essential to real happiness, and if, under the dispensation of divine grace, affliction be made the means of promoting it in the soul, he surely must be in the best situation for obtaining a meetness for heaven, who must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. In place of repining at the severity of the discipline by which we are prepared for future happiness, it becomes us rather to adopt the triumphant language of the Apostle, and say, We reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."

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II. The pressure of affliction is greatly lessened by the views which the Gospel gives of future happiness. Revelation has clearly shewn the connexion between this state of being and a future, and the sub

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