within me." "Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word:" and therefore it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes."

But not only is affliction capable of being converted into good; religion instructs us, that for that very purpose it is sent upon us. The Gospel accordingly represents almighty God, in whose hand are" the issues of life," and who dispenses health and sickness at his pleasure, in the light of a tender and affectionate Father,

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loving those whom he chasteneth, and Scourging every son whom he receiveth; correcting us, not like the fathers of our flesh, after his own pleasure, but for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness "." Let us consider some of the a ways, wherein affliction frequently does act, and wherein under proper regulation it always ought to act; and we shall be induced to agree with the royal Psalmist and the holy Apostle; to acknowledge

with the latter the mercy and loving-kindness of God in "correcting" us; and to confess with the former, that "it is good for us to be afflicted."

1st. Affliction is good, inasmuch as it affords opportunity for Reflection, without which we can never properly know, what we are or what we want. But necessary

as Reflection is, in order to make us acquainted with our spiritual concerns, it is seldom that we have leisure, if we have the inclination, to engage in it. In the hurry of business or of pleasure, good impressions are not easily made upon our hearts; or, if made, are not easily retained. If we "hear the word, we go forth; and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." But when affliction removes us from the anxious and fascinating scenes of active life; when it diminishes our interest in the world by secluding us from its presence; when it closes our eyes upon the bustle, and our ears upon the tumult, of business and pleasure; we have then less to withdraw our attention from our spiri

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tual state, and to prevent us from " communing with our own hearts in our chamber, and being still." Meditation is no unimportant branch of a Christian's duty; and the bed of sickness, or the chamber of affliction, is no inconvenient place, wherein to practise it. Many are the minutes, the hours, the days, the weeks, wherein, as the body is deprived of its vigour, the soul is the only part capable of exertion. "Behold now is the accepted time! now is the day of salvation"!" Happy is that person, whose thoughts can now be directed into their proper channel; and who can be made an example of the saying of the Preacher, that "the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning c."

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2ndly. Affliction is good, as it tends to create in us Humility. Take a man from among the healthy and the strong: exulting in his prowess, proud of his independ ence, self-confident, and self-sufficient; he speaks and acts, as if he "lived and moved and had his being" from no power superior

to his own. Follow him to the retreat of affliction; visit him on the bed of sickness, perhaps of death, and-" how art thoufallen from heaven, O Lucifer, Son of the Morning!" His health is banished and succeeded by disease; his strength is converted into weakness; instead of being independent of others, he has, and he feels that he has," no power in himself to help himself;" instead of having need of nothing, he is, and he knows that he is, "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." It is well, where this consciousness of weakness is accompanied with that lowliness of mind, to which it ought to lead, and which it should seem, by natural consequence, disposed to produce. It is well, where a sense of the infirmity of our bodies will carry our thoughts farther, and awaken us to an impartial examination, and a conscientious estimate, of the state of our souls.

For 3dly, Affliction is good, as it is the means of leading us to Repentance. He, who contemplates the situation of his body under sickness, and considers how ineffec

tual are his own exertions, to add one hour to his existence, or to put off for a moment the appointed period, when he shall fall into "the dust of death," cannot but think with lowliness and self-abasement of a frame, so perishable, frail, and impotent. Has he then a more flattering, a more cheering, a more encouraging prospect, when he looks to his soul? Is not his soul as much oppressed with sin, as his body is with disease? Is not his soul under the sentence of spiritual, as his body is of natural, death? Is he not as incapable of administering a remedy to the one, as to the other; and, if he trusts to his own powers, must they not equally perish without reprieve? Drawing hastily near and more near to the brink of that gulph, which parts the visible from the invisible world; approaching that dread tribunal, where he expects to hear the sentence of God denounced upon sinners, depart from me, ye wicked, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels;" conscious that his own sins have comprehended him in the number of the wicked, and brought him under the sentence of

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