of the Most High it has ever proved "as the fining-pot to the silver, and the furnace to the gold."

Of how many can it be testified as of Manasseh, "when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers." 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12. What multitudes can adopt the Psalmist's words, "before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept Thy word!" That there is no necessary connection between sorrow and sanctity is too lamentably apparent to need any proofs. We read in the book of the Revelation of those who "gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven;" of God's professing Israel it is testified by the prophet Jeremiah, "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved," Jer. v. 3; whilst the affecting appeal remains on record concerning Ephraim, "why should ye be stricken any more and more."

more ? ye will revolt

What an awful monu

ment of unsanctified affliction is Pharaoh! Again and again was the rod applied: stroke after stroke was sent; but in place of benefit, a fearful process of induration was going on, until "Pharaoh's heart was hardened" to that degree that it became insensible to every impression : mercies and judgments appealed in vain to a "conscience seared" as "with a hot iron"! How solemn the aspect in which such considerations exhibit the hearts of the children of men !! How deep the responsibility under which the mourner is placed! Not a sorrow, for the use or abuse of which he shall not ere long have to give account: not a trial which he should not regard as a talent for whose due improvement he shall yet be held responsible. How prone are we to attach the name of mercies only to God's pleasant gifts! how erroneous such a plan! Oh! in that world where all is light, we shall learn to estimate things differently. There we shall see that our most bitter trials

numbered with our choicest mercies, and then shall we strike our harp in tones of highest praise, in the remembrance of those sorrows which once pierced our souls with anguish.

But the all-important question suggests itself, "have our trials hitherto proved benefits or injuries, blessings or curses ?" This all hangs upon the reception they have met. Have we been enabled to greet them as angels of God, bearing to us messages of solemn import which we are concerned aright to interpret and earnestly to heed? or have we only sought to bid the unwelcome intruder away, or writhed in rebellious impatience whilst constrained to endure His presence? The rod has in every instance a voice, instructing, correcting, rebuking, or revealing, as it may be; and it becomes each one to whom it is addressed to "hear" it, and seek to ascertain the import of the message which it bears. Happy were it for the majority of sufferers if, in place of being chiefly

concerned for the removal of their trial, they were primarily anxious to discover why it has been sent, and how its gracious purposes can be answered; were the cry not so much, "remove Thy stroke from me," as "wherefore contendest Thou with

me?"

MISTAKES INTO WHICH THE MOURNER SOMETIMES FALLS.

T must not be concluded, from anything already stated, that we mean to assert, that the measure of individual guilt is always to be decided by the amount of individual suffering; or that the one bears exact proportion to the other. This is the scene of education and exercise, not of retribution; and whilst our God ever maintains the discipline of His family, and promotes the welfare of His children, in "punishing them for all their iniquities," (Amos. iii. 2,) by the loving corrections of His rod, (Psal. lxxxix. 30-33;) "scourging every son whom He receiveth," often do we see the wicked "flourishing like a green bay tree," "not in trouble as other men," "let alone," to follow the devices and desires of their evil hearts, until the scene of probation is for ever quitted, and the