Mourner, ours is a work of sympathy and love. We feel for your distress, and we desire to alleviate it. Accept, then, this basket of selected flowers. In it you will find, as best and fairest, richest in perfume and most influential in refreshing your dejected spirit, the Rose of Sharon. Keep this constantly before you, and cherish it most fondly. It has proved itself to be in all times the "consolation of Israel." In it you will find the Lily of the Valley. Contemplate it. Its place where found is humble; and imitate it here. and He whom it figures to us, when all was accomplished, "bowed his head," and so must we, in full resignation to the will of God. In it ye will find the Vine; seek to extract from its precious fruit the wine of spiritual consolation, "which maketh glad the heart of man.” In

it ye

It droops its head, indeed;

will find the Tree beneath whose shadow the believer sits with great delight, and whose fruit is sweet unto his taste. Take up this blessed position, and eat this nourishing food. If ye are brought by your affliction to find spiritual consolation and spiritual experience, the dark day will be a day of transport, joy, and triumph to you. It may be the day of your selection from amidst the crowds of the godless and the thoughtless, by the great Disposer of all events. It may fulfil in your case those words of the prophet Zechariah-"It shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light." Accept our offering of sympathy and love. Peruse its pages; and while ye do, forget not the throne of grace, but plead with God that the sentences herein contained may emit sweet fragrance.

Go, book, then, and float far and wide! Pilot it, O

God, to the homes where the waters of affliction have 66 come in unto the soul." Direct the mind of the mourner to select the passage that best can still the anguish. Accompany it always with thy Holy Spirit, that it may accomplish effectually its mission; for without the cooperation of the Spirit, all is vain. May that Spirit which, as the wind, bloweth where it listeth, carry on its wings these rich perfumes, and, bearing them into the mourner's heart, which is desolate and sad, make it as a palace rich in eastern fragrance! May it silence by the strains of consolation the wailings of anguish and despondency, and give the key-note to the loud anthems of praise which the believer, in his full trustfulness of God, pours out even from the gloomy darkness of the sick chamber! Make the advent of this book to the sorrower's home a blessing; and grant that the great result of this gathering of these gems from the treasury of Christian writings may be, the awakening true spiritual joy in the heart of the sorrowful, and the advancement of thy glory by the evidenced resignation of the afflicted to thy will! Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace, good will towards men!"

JAMES MCCONNEL HUSSEY.

CONTENTS.

À KEMPIS, THOMAS

BICKERSTETH, R. ..

BOLTON

CUMMING, DR.

DALE, T.

IX. The contemplation of Christ in his pas-
sion a source of consolation to the
believer in adversity, and when ca-
lumniated by man.

XVIII. Of the necessity of bearing the cross.

XXII. The promises of God's Word a support
to the believer under trial.

I. Reasons of the afflictions of God's child-

ren.

XXXIII. The day will dawn on the child of God
after a night of darkness.

LII. Meditation on the life to come.

XLVII. The restored son; or, reunion of the

righteous dead.

LI. Final bliss.

XXIII. Hope.

XLVI. Consolation in bereavement. Letters to

his friends.

XXI. The believer's rock in overwhelming

sorrow.

XXXI. Miraculous light in the darkness of
affliction.

HORNE, BISHOP...... XII. They that sow in tears shall reap in

joy.

HUSSEY, J. McCONNEL..

XXV.
XXVIII.

Introductory remarks.

The furnace of affliction.

Trial, and glorious prospect beyond.

XXXII. Complaints against God unjustifiable.
XXXVIII. The saints' winter time beneficial.
Triumphant bliss for departed saints.

XLV.

MASSILLON.

MELVILL, H..

MOORE, D..

XIV. Joy the end of suffering.

II. True religion the only source of consola-
tion to the afflicted, and God their
only hope.

XXIV. Great afflictions a proof of the special
regard of God for us.

XXVII. The beneficial tendency of affliction.

LIII. The dying Christian's glimpses of the
spiritual world.

XX. On trusting in God in spiritual de-
spondency.

XXX. On dark and desponding thoughts in
religious convictions.

XXXIV. The light of the world.

SHERLOCK

in joy.

V. They that sow in tears shall reap
X. When you hear yourself reproached.

XXXVII. On being crossed in any worldly desires

or interests.

XXXIX. Whilst suffering severe affliction.

XL. During any bodily pain.

XLI. When you are sad or discontented.