from the happiness of his children. Could they but realize the paternal love of God, as a fact which events have obscured, but cannot disprove-could they behold Him ruling to bless and to save-could they remember that Christ, weeping over the sinners of Jerusalem, was an expression of the Father's tenderness and grace-they would instantly feel that the sweetest incense they could offer was that of a penitent heart, and that to repose on infinite love, in the spirit of the faith of ancient believers, of Abraham, of Moses, and of Daniel, could not but draw down upon them the blessing pronounced upon those, of whom it is testified, that " they pleased God." Tyrannic power may delight in impressing fear and dread, but to Him who is rich in mercy we offer the most acceptable homage, when we flee for refuge to the shadow of His wings!

DISCOURSE II.

CONSIDERATIONS PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE TO
THE AFFLICTIONS OF THE RIGHTEOUS.

Combet ya, comårt ye my people, saith your God.

Tus general course of events as we have already seen, is made tributary to the purposes of God in his moral government. The wass of evi, spralling as it is to the imaginaflew will be rendered subservient to the trial and purifcation of meridie human beings.

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Physical end is opposed to meri 18 1 corrective and a remedy-and is may be received as ar axemazie truch, that in te suferings of you were fever, deir targgressions would

multiplied, and the human race would be precipitated into a course of progressive and rapid degeneracy. And, viewed in this impressive light, the miseries of the world, great as they are, instead of undermining our confidence in God, illustrate his goodness; since he exhibits a far more exalted benevolence in inflicting pain, which shall operate to our advancement in moral excellence, and qualify us for a more extensive happiness hereafter, than he would do by consulting our present ease at the expense of our nobler destinies.

Having once arrived at the conclusion, on satisfactory evidence, that the Divine government is moral, remedial, parental, it is not necessary to our consolation, that in every particular instance of evil to be endured, we should trace its direct bearing upon the merciful designs of Heaven. It would betray ignorant presumption, to expect that we could follow the footsteps of the Eternal, when his way is in the deep. It is enough for us to know, that "The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,

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fainteth not, neither is weary!" In what we do know, we have a warrant for implicit reliance when he doeth "great things and unsearchable." Having, indeed, given us an ample demonstration of his character, as our Heavenly Father, it is not improbable, that one reason of the mystery and the gloom which He throws over the aspect of events, is, to try how far we have learned to cast ourselves with filial trust on his care-whether we really believe that he is good.

But we are not confined to the general considerations already stated. To those who are the children of the adoption by faith in Christ Jesus, the Christian Scriptures open a large field of consolation, by giving particular assurances of the Divine favour, to every individual who lives in communion of spirit with the Redeemer, and in Holy friendship with God.

There is an exact adaptation, in the Scriptures, of facts and promises to the actual condition of human nature. Infinite love is seen stooping to meet the fears and anxieties

of our feeble state. Our doubts, our apprehensions, our embarrassments, are beautifully, mercifully anticipated. Provision is designedly made for them; and the consolations of the Gospel are found, by the happy experience of believers, to be the most appropriate remedies for sorrow and despondency, administered by that Saviour, who "never breaks the bruised reed." But for the light that is thrown upon this subject by the sacred page, it must be admitted, that the fact, that the faithful are doomed "through much tribulation, to enter the kingdom,” would be itself a difficulty exceedingly perplexing, and hard to be reconciled with their interest in the love of God, or with the nature of the Christian redemption as a remedial œconomy for the abolition of all evil. Our ignorance or our impatience might have suggested, that it was natural, it was reasonable, that they who accept the proffered grace, who are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ,—that they, should be put into a state of immediate happiness. Or, that if they were not at once