falsity, pertaining to the world as we now find it, so these fluctuations partake of a like varied and indeterminate character. And who hath not experienced them? What Christian what humble and earnest-seeking disciple of the Lord, hath not, more than once, been made the subject of the like vacilla tions? A man, for example, starts out upon the course of a new life, is convicted of his evils, repents of them, and truly commences the regenerate work. For a time he does well. He may be always doing well, but it is not always so apparent to him. He acquires new truth, realizes more deeply the divine Word of the Lord; eternity, with all its hopes, and fears, and infinite realities, becomes to him a matter of more than mere speculation; he is alive to spiritual conviction, is thoroughly aroused, the old scales have fallen from his eyes, and he sees, oh, what wonders, and glories, and prospects before him! Shame and humiliation seize upon him for his past life; his understanding is stimulated by the new spirit, his affections touched, and he resolves henceforth to pursue the path which leads to heaven. But how little he yet knows of the "great and terrible wilderness" through which he is to travel! Yet still he is elated, and it is of the mercy of God that he should be. He has made some successful resistance, and has received some delights of the new life he has commenced. But they are mostly, perhaps, delights of the understanding; for the understanding can be elevated into the very light of heaven, and partake somewhat of its joys, while the will is yet in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. But now it is that he is greatly refreshed and inspirited. He is mortified that he never saw so much before. He feels himself a new man, in a dear and beautiful sense of the word. He says, perhaps, with David-"O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory." But this very light into which he is now elevated, by and by reveals new evils in him; he sees for the first time what he never could have believed before, that there are depths in his soul which he had never dreamt of; that his spiritual nature is a thing not to be trifled with; that it is more heavenly, and more devilish, than any human moralities or earthly philosophies had ever presented to him; that the very light of eternity which has broken into his poor soul, and the holiness of angel visions, and of Him who is himself the very Soul and Centre of Perfection, in all his majesty and glory,- that all this reveals to him such a contrast in his own sin-deformed and polluted character, that he turns from the contemplation with a sense somewhat of discouragement. He is oppressed and humiliated. There occurs to him, perhaps, the language of the patriarch: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job, 42 5, 6.) Then it is that the spirits of evil are let in upon him to stir up his evil. He is now in a condition to profit by their aid. They can show him what he could not see himself. But, "not a hair of his head" will the great Father suffer them to injure; the angels of mercy stand ever by him to minister to him in this most necessary trial. But he falls and oh, how low!-from his high ecstatic state-sinks away into discouragement and misery, and is overwhelmed with evil! Perhaps goes venting his ill humor upon his companions around him; perhaps is somewhat ashamed that he ever made so fully the profession of religion; perhaps, in fine, is throroughly miserable, — a scorn in his own eyes, and a reproach with his acquaintance. "I looked for comforters, and found none." : It is a true picture; it is this which is presented all through the Psalms, and in many other portions of the Word. These are the fiery trials that purge men's souls. We pine in secret over a hidden grief that we dare not reveal to any fellow mortal, and we go, perhaps, more penitently than ever, to Him who hath bidden us confess to Him, and lay our burden at his feet. Thus it is that we gain strength and encouragement for renewed efforts. We rise by the light of the same Sun with which we fell, and by the same reverse steps, till gradually again the glory-smitten summits appear to our eyes, we are uplifted into heavenly ethers, and feel the play of warmer and more joyful affections. "Out of the depths" we cried unto the Lord, for it was there alone that we could be made to cry. Such is the Divine Providence in all such cases. It is only through such vicissitudes that we gain at last the heavenly rest. At each wave of the advancing process we gain somewhat upon the previous state; "we sink to rise to higher heights," are humiliated to be exalted. One truth in this experience it is of the utmost importance to know. Always, in temptations, when the moments of despair come, then it is that the Lord is nearest. For it is this very sense and realization of our own evils that causes the despair. And this is caused by an influx of the Divine Goodness and Truth. We fall, at such times, into the extreme of conviction. By the light of truth and the operations of the Holy Spirit, our sins have become intolerable. The work has penetrated more to the interiors. Then it is that we feel most miserable of all. But then it is that the Lord is nearest. Even so it was with Christ. It was the last temptation, on the cross, that caused Him to cry out "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The reason was, it was the inmost and the severest of all, as touching the very vitals of the humanity itself. But so far from being forsaken of God at that time, the unition of the Divine with the Human was then about being completed. So also it was in Gethsemane; but the face of a strengthening angel then became present at the scene; and so it is with every man. It is in these most trying and crushing scenes that the power of sin is most effectually broken with us. The old life is expiring amid groans and pains. But we must not deceive ourselves in this matter; we must not think that because we suffer so much, that this is always an evidence of the death of self. The truth is, it is the life of self that suffers. Were there not so much of the old life remaining, we should not so feel the dying. It is the throbbing heart-strings and nervous susceptibility of the “old man "that now shrinks from the separating process. When perfect death is effected, there is no more pain, nor sorrow, nor anguish. But I am aware that I am describing an experience that will not be appreciated by many a nominal Christian; they will say that they have never experienced any thing so hard; and it may be that they will never need to. But O God, how many do! It is not for all to pass through these heaviest trials. The trials are great in proportion to the evils in the hereditary to be exterminated, and the height of angelic accomplishment to be attained. Some that do not go so high, do not suffer so much. But here another truth should be known. There are some even of those who finally come into heaven and enjoy exalted stations there, who are yet permitted to pass through all this life, not much disturbed or troubled by its fluctuating fortunes. They are comparatively exempted from the common lot of necessary trial. The reason is, many times, that they are so stated and circumstanced in this world that they cannot, in temptations, be sufficiently protected by angels. They would sink under them. Therefore they are spared till their entrance into another life. There they can be properly defended, and there they must drink their cup of the common suffering. (A. C. 270.) There is no heavenly perfectness without it, and whether here or there, there is only one thing to do when it comes; welcome it and drink it, saying-"Not my will, but thine, O God, be done!" We not only have fluctuations of state-ups and downs of spiritual experience, but irregularity in the course of natural life. There is probably no one characteristic of human life more marked and observed, than its frequent labyrinthic course through every possible variety of experience, from change to change, in the shifting fortunes of the world. What a picture or map of one life might be drawn, if it could only be seen in all its bearings, as it has reference to the states of the soul! For let us not think that this mere surface experience - this seeming maze without a plan, has no complete and systematic connection with our inner life, for it must have; it is, either individually or collectively, or both, an outbirth from it and a ministration to it. It is necessarily so, from the sure operation of the law of correspondence between all things inward and all things outward. The whole material world is the result and ultimate of the Divine creative Essence through the spiritual world. Spiritual causes and material effects, — this is the law of the universe. And so in human society. Should we have all this external, in the way and fashion which we do have it, were it not for the internal? Has not confusion proceeded from interiors to exteriors, and not vice versa? And order also? and beauty? What were the surface without the soul? Here, then, we find ourselves fixed in a system of divine |