has dealt the blow-wherefore He contends? "Affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground," Job v. 6; how important is it that the principle which these words unfold be deeply graven on the heart! the instruments of our trials are so usually around us and about us, "of the dust," that we are wont to rest our eyes on them, in place of realizing the invisible hand that employs them. Like Jonah, we quarrel with the worm that feeds upon our gourd, in place of viewing it as the mere instrument of His pleasure, whose are alike the worm and the gourd. "The Almighty hath afflicted me," cries the bereaved Naomi; and every repining is silenced, every murmur is hushed into peace.-"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away,"-exclaims the patriarch Job, and looking thus beyond the Sabeans aud the Chaldeans, he can add, "blessed be the name of the Lord." Never can we experience submission under our trials, and never shall we find support, until our hearts embrace this soul-settling, soul-silencing, soul-upholding truth, "my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me." Lam. i. 12. The moment we descend to instruments, and get entangled amidst second causes, the balance of the soul is lost, and we are tossed and disquieted as upon the troubled surface of a stormy sea. Child of sorrow, whatever be the nature of thy trial-however largely the creature may prove instrumental in its infliction, remember who it was "prepared" alike the "gourd, the "worm," and the "vehement east wind," to prove the executioners of his wise and loving purposes to poor, rebellious, wayward Jonah: be assured, "it is the Lord," who imparts to any comfort its power to refresh, or withers what He finds abused, and perverted into a snare; it is He who sends the blight upon our earthly prospects, that He may D win our hearts for better things; He who poisons the stream at which He finds us content to drink, that He may teach us the happiness of saying, "all my fresh springs are in Thee;" He who scourges us by those creatures we would fain worship, and often converts our household gods into "His sword." Yes, "it is the Lord" who makes our own sin to correct us; and if " we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us; and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits, and live?" Heb. xii. 9. 66 Behold, I am vile: what shall I answer Thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth." Job xl. 4. We believe there is no better preparation for trial, and no surer guarantee for a suitable deportment in the furnace, than a deep conviction of individual guilt. If we only understood in any measure how completely we have forfeited every blessing by our exceeding sinfulness, we should feel bowed down and crushed under the weight of benefits with which He daily loadeth us, in place of presuming to quarrel with the great Proprietor for saying of any one of them, "I have need of it." There is nothing more astonishing to a heart possessing an insight into its own depravity than the sparing mercy of the Lord. Yes, the matter of surprise to such is, not that He removes, but that He continues so many of His blessings to those who are provoking Him to jealousy every hour by the idolatry of the gift, and neglect of the Giver. Child of affliction, whatever be thy grief, whether thou mournest a withered gourd, the loss of something dearer to thee than thyself, departed health, or fugitive riches, Oh ask what use didst thou make of the gift whilst it was thine? how far did it answer the legitimate purpose of every bestowment by leading thee to closer and more grateful affiance in the Giver? and if "thy heart condemn thee," and thou art constrained |