Page images
PDF
EPUB

heart; but thou hast stricken me, by pouring forth the cup of thy wrath on my people, and by the other severe afflictions which I have endured: Thou hast stricken me, and I am awakened: Thou hast humbled me, and I am returned to thee.

This is the most natural effect produced by tribulations. They facilitate every duty, and by causing us to experience both the treachery and weakness of creatures, and the vanity and emptiness of the world, enable us with ease to withdraw our affections from them, and fix them totally on God.

Come, then, my Christian Brethren let us pour forth the sorrows of our hearts before the throne of all grace and consolation. Under the shadow of the cross, we may forget our woes, our tribulations, and our sighs. Hitherto we have indulged the feelings of human anxiety and impatience a thousand times have we

wished that the eternal wisdom of God would bow down to the senseless projects of our hearts; that he would adopt and follow our plans; guide us through this life by the paths that would be the most agreeable to us. Senseless mortals! as if we were wiser and better acquainted with the things that are for our peace, than the Great Sovereign Lord and Arbiter of All, in whose hands alone are truth and judg

ment!

Never have we entered into the designs of his Providence, as they regard our everlasting happiness. Never have we maturely considered, that the afflictions which he sends, are the means by which he proposes that we should work out our salvation. Let us, for the time to come, throw ourselves without reserve into his arms: in the meditation of his holy law, and in submission to his eternal decrees, let us seek that permanent consolation,

which we have never found in the enjoyment of creatures, and which will not only alleviate all our tribulations on earth, but will also ensure to us an eternal recompense in the kingdom of heaven.

496

ON SS. PETER AND PAUL,

You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the uttermost parts of

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

WITH what fidelity

were these injunctions of our Lord fulfilled by the great apostles, whose festival we this day celebrate! With what undaunted courage did they publish the name of Jesus in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria! With what unwearied perseverance do we behold them traversing kingdoms and empires, scattering the seeds of faith, and every

where disseminating the inspired maxims of their crucified Jesus! With what invincible patience did they endure imprisonments and stripes, perils by sea, and perils by land, watchings and fastings, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and finally, death itself in the cause of their Lord and Master! Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the whole world, Rom x. 18.

But it is not by expatiating on the labours and sufferings of these great apostles that I propose, at present, to recommend myself to your attention: my object is to shew that we ourselves are bound to suffer. We, too, like the apostles, are called to be witnesses to Jesus; and although we are not all enjoined to preach the gospel in the hearing of surrounding multitudes, still it is the duty of every individual amongst us, to give testimony to the truth by the innocence of his life and

« PreviousContinue »