son's business to settle it with himself whether he be not of the number; if he be, he sees what is to be done.” But, to refer more immediately to your own experience. It is your duty to keep in memory God's gracious dealings with your soul in times past. The Israelites were commanded by the Lord, Exod. 16: 32, 33, to fill a pot with manna, and lay it up before the testimony as a memorial of the bread rained down from heaven when God brought his people out of the land of Egypt. The stone which the prophet Samuel raised between Mizpeh and Sher was a remembrancer. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us !" 25 CHAPTER X. THE CONVERT UNDER SORE TEMPTATION. I Do not wonder that, instead of peace, you have “ trouble," in all your borders." When a prisoner has escaped, the "hue and cry" is immediately raised. So long as he remained safe in the cell, there was quietness and peace in the prison; but if he have broken his fetters, and forced back bolts and locks, and got loose, the jailer will try to raise the country after him. The devil was your jailer, and he kept you a close prisoner: but one mightier than he has forced open your prison doors; and there were none present to say to the enraged fiend, as St. Paul to the distracted jailer, "Do thyself no harm; we are all here." No, bless God, he is minus of one. One! hallelujah! hundreds have vacated their cells lately, as if an earthquake had shaken hell's prison; and they are free from his hellish grasp, at least, for the present. And it will be their own fault if they are ever again within the grasp of his power. Your case bears no small resemblance to that of the Israelites. When they toiled at the brick-kilns of Egypt, and bowed their necks uncomplainingly to the yoke of Pharaoh, it was well. They endured the hardships of a degrading slavery, but Pharaoh thought very well of them. The Lord God, at length, broke from off them the yoke of that tyrant, and, with a strong hand, brought them forth from a cruel bondage. But Pharaoh pursued them with "horsemen and chariots of war," intending to slay, or terrify them back again into bondage. And thus it was with you. When in the devil's service, he gave you plenty of work, hard work, hushed your guilty fears, and thus rendered you a willing captive. No sooner, however, did you begin to struggle for liberty, than he changed his voice concerning you. The Lord came down with an outstretched arm and a strong hand, and bade the oppressed go free. The tyrannical and galling yoke of Satan was rent off from your soul, and you left his service and territories in triumph. The old tyrant, the devil, it seems, is aroused; - all hell's legions are out in pursuit! "And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? - Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." Exod. 16: 15. Go forward, my dear friend; and that God who interposed his power so miraculously in behalf of the Israelites at the Red Sea will surely overthrow your spiritual enemies. Your present conflicts are severe, but you should consider them rather as tokens of the safety of your state. I was once highly pleased and profited by the following sentiments of an old divine. May they prove a blessing to you! "The less peace you have from the devil, the more pleasure you may take in the reflection that you have escaped out of his clutches. The more restlessly he follows you with the fury of many temptations, the more sweetly and securely, if you give way to the counsel of the prophets and the work of faith, may you repose your wearied soul upon the comfortable assurance of being certainly a child of God." Bradford, the martyr, you may remember, considered his sufferings only as so many evidences that he was in the right way. A good man, many years ago, foiled the devil with the following weapon: : “I am now, in Christ, a new creature; and that is what troubles thee, Satan. I might have continued in my sins long enough ere thou wouldst have been vexed at it; but now I see thou dost envy me the grace of my Saviour." The tempter, finding himself discovered and resisted, retreated from the field. As to your fear of backsliding, I can only say to you as did an aged Christian to one troubled with a similar apprehension: "So long as you fear, and are humbly dependent upon God, you shall never fall, but certainly prevail.' The individual, I believe, till the end of life, realized the truth of the remark. Satan is a shrewd and crafty antagonist. He has encountered many a Christian, and has even "measured swords" with Jesus Christ himself. Whatever the weapons are you chose to fight with, he will never fail to try what metal they are made of. I well remember, at a particular and somewhat trying period of my Christian life, one who had more faith and courage than myself said: "The glorious splendor of the Christian armor in the sixth chapter of Ephesians is able, my brother, to dazzle the devil's eyes, daunt his courage, and drive® him from the field." I replied, mournfully, "Perhaps so; but I think the devil is determined to examine mine pretty closely, as if to try of what sort of metal it is made." That advice of the apostle is particularly applicable to you just now: "Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Neither fret nor murmur; quietly wait upon God, and endure to the end of this trial, and those graces of the Spirit which are as yet imperfect shall be brought unto a state of complete perfection. "Patient wait in sore temptation, Let no murmuring thought arise; Calm attend thy Maker's will; Pain nor death shall e'er confound thee, Only know him and be still." If faithful, you will lose nothing, but be an infinite gainer by these trials. If they drive you to seek purity of heart, all shall be well; you will then be safer than now, because not so liable to depart from God, nor so easily corrupted by the devil. Indwelling sin is his faithful ally, but a most treacherous and dangerous foe to the soul. "A holy Christian," said a good man, "is like gold. Now, cast gold into the fire, or into the water; cast it upon the dunghill, or into the pleasant garden; cast it among the poor, or among the rich,―among the religious, or among the licentious; yet still it is gold,—still it retains its purity and its excellency. Holiness is conservative; it is the preserver of the soul. It was holiness that enabled St. Austin to thank God that his heart and the temptation did not meet together. "As things are in their nature and principles," says Flavel, "so they are in their operations and effects; fire and water are of contrary qualities, and when they meet, they effectually oppose each other. Sin and holiness are so opposite, that if sin should cease to oppose holiness, it would cease to be sin; and if holiness should not oppose sin, it would cease to be holiness." When holiness has charge of the soul, every bad thought injected by the devil is repulsed with a holy indignation. There is a great difference in the effects of a spark falling upon a marble floor, clean and white, and a floor sprinkled with gunpowder. Nevertheless, my dear friend, if you are faithful to God, though you have to contend with indwelling sin, and "various temptations," God will never forsake you, so long as you maintain the contention. The Tyrians bound their idol gods with chains, lest, in the time of danger, they should desert their old friends; but our God has bound himself with the chains of his promises, that he will not leave nor forsake us. Consider the following comforting promise: "For he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Heb. 13: 5. An old writer comments upon the above passage thus: “The Greek has five negatives, and may thus be rendered: 'I will not, not leave thee, neither will I not, not forsake thee.' The precious promise, you will perceive, is renewed five times, that we might have strong consolation and vigorous confidence." The words were originally spoken to Joshua: "As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee nor forsake thee." A blessed promise this; and it may be righteously claimed by every spiritual warrior in the army of Jesus Christ. It was afterward quoted by David, for the encouragement of his son Solomon: "Be strong and of good courage, and do it ; fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord." 1 Chron. 28: 20. It is repeated again in the book of Psalms : My loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." Any one reading the Greek of Heb. 13: 5 cannot fail to see |