THE CHRISTIAN'S JOY IN SUFFERING.

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that in suffering they are partakers of His sufferings, and shall be partakers of His glory.

Many afflictions will not cloud and obstruct this, so much as one sin: therefore, if ye would walk cheerfully, be most careful to walk holily. All the winds about the earth make not an earthquake, but only that within.

Now this joy is grounded on this communion, [1.] in sufferings, then, [2.] in glory.

1. Even in sufferings themselves. It is a sweet, a joyful thing to be a sharer with Christ in anything. All enjoyments wherein He is not, are bitter to a soul that loves Him, and all sufferings with Him are sweet. The worst things of Christ are more truly delightful than the best things of the world; His afflictions are sweeter than their pleasures, His reproach more glorious than their honours, and more rich than their treasures, as Moses accounted them. Heb. xi. 26. Love delights in likeness and communion, not only in things otherwise pleasant, but in the hardest and harshest things, which have not any thing in them desirable, but only that likeness. So that this thought is very sweet to a heart possessed with this love: What does the world, by its hatred, and persecutions, and revilings for the sake of Christ, but make me more like Him, give me a greater share with Him, in that which He did so willingly undergo for me? When He was sought for to be made a king, as St. Bernard remarks, He escaped; but when he was sought to be brought to the Cross, He freely yielded Himself. And shall I shrink and creep back from what He calls me to suffer for His sake? Yea, even all my other troubles and sufferings, I will desire to have stamped thus, with this conformity to the suffer

ings of Christ, in the humble, obedient, cheerful, endurance of them, and the giving up my will to my Father's.

The following of Christ makes any way pleasant. His faithful followers refuse no march after Him, be it through deserts, and mountains, and storms, and hazards, that will affright self-pleasing, easy spirits. Hearts kindled and actuated with the Spirit of Christ, will follow Him wheresoever He goeth.

As He speaks it for warning to His disciples, If they persecute me, they will persecute you, so He speaks it for comfort to them, and sufficient comfort it is, If they hate you, they hated me before you, John xv. 18, 20.

2. Then add the other: see whither it tends. He shall be revealed in His glory, and ye shall even overflow with joy in the partaking of that glory. Therefore, rejoice now in the midst of all your sufferings. Stand upon the advanced ground of the promises and the covenant of Grace, and by faith look beyond this moment, and all that is in it, to that day wherein everlasting joy shall be upon your heads, a crown of it, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. Isa. li. 11. Believe in this day, and the victory is won. Oh! that blessed

hope, well fixed and exercised, would give other manner of spirits. What zeal for God would it not inspire! What invincible courage against all encounters! How soon will this pageant of the world vanish, that men are gazing on, these pictures and fancies of pleasures and honours, falsely so called, and give place to the real glory of the sons of God, when this blessed Son, who is God, shall be scen appearing in full majesty, and all His brethren in glory with Him, all clothed in

their robes! And if you ask Who are they, Why, these are they who came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Rev. vii. 14.

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.

COMFORT IN AFFLICTION.

OH! thou who dry'st the mourner's tear,
How dark this world would be,
If, when deceived and wounded here,
We could not fly to thee!

The friends who in our sunshine live,
When winter comes, are flown;
And he who has but tears to give,
Must weep those tears alone;
But thou wilt heal that broken heart,
Which, like the plants that throw
Their fragrance from the wounded part,
Breathes sweetness out of woe.

When joy no longer soothes or cheers,
And ev'n the hope that threw
A moment's sparkle o'er our tears,
Is dimm'd and vanish'd too!

Oh! who would bear life's stormy doom,
Did not thy wing of love

Come brightly wafting through the gloom,
One Peace-branch from above?

Then sorrow, touch'd by thee, grows bright
With more than rapture's ray;

As darkness shows us worlds of light

We never saw by day.

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MOORE.

BROKEN-HEARTED, WEEP NO MORE, BROKEN-HEARTED, weep no more!

Hear what comfort He hath spoken,
Smoking flax who ne'er hath quench'd,
Bruised reed who ne'er hath broken :-
"Ye who wander here below,
Heavy laden as you go,

Come, with grief, with sin oppress'd,
Come to me, and be at rest!"

Lamb of Jesus' blood-bought flock,
Brought again from sin and straying,
Hear the Shepherd's gentle voice-
'Tis a true and faithful saying:-
"Greater love how can there be
Than to yield up life for thee?
Bought with pang, and tear, and sigh,
Turn and live!-why will ye die ?"

Broken-hearted, weep no more!
Far from consolation flying;
He who calls hath felt thy wound,
Seen thy weeping, heard thy sighing :

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Bring thy broken heart to me;
Welcome offering it shall be;
Streaming tears, and bursting sighs,
Mine accepted sacrifice."

ANONYMOUS.

CONFIDENCE IN GOD AMIDST AFFLICTIONS.

Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to Him in welldoing, as unto a faithful Creator.

NOTHING doth so much establish the mind amidst the rollings and turbulency of present things, as both a look above them, and a look beyond them; above them to the steady and good Hand by which they are ruled, and beyond them to the sweet and beautiful end to which, by that Hand, they shall be brought. This the Apostle lays here as the foundation of that patience and peace in troubles, wherewith he would have his brethren furnished. And thus he closes this chapter in these words: Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

The words contain the true principle of Christian patience and tranquillity of mind in the sufferings of this life, expressing both wherein it consists, and what are the grounds of it.

I. It lies in this, committing the soul unto God. The word which is added, is a true qualification of this, that it be in well-doing, according to the preceding doctrine, which the Apostle gives clearly and largely, ver. 15, 16. If men would have inward peace amidst outward trouble, they must walk by the rule of peace, and keep strictly to it. If you would commit your soul to the keeping of God, know that He is a holy God, and an unholy soul that walks in any way of wickedness, whether known or secret, is no fit commodity to put into His pure hand to keep. Therefore as you would