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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.

ISAIAH xl. 1.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

THE general course of events, as we have already seen, is made tributary to the purposes of God in his moral government. The mass of evil, appalling as it is to the imagination, will be rendered subservient to the trial and purification of innumerable human beings. Physical evil is opposed to moral as a corrective and a remedy-and it may be received as an axiomatic truth, that if the sufferings of

were fewer, their transgressions would

be 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,

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 fiets and promises to the actual condition of human nature. Iufaite love is seen stooping to meet the fars and anxieties

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of our feeble state. Our doubts, our appre-
hensions, our embarrassments, are beauti-
fully, mercifully anticipated. Provision is
designedly made for them; and the consola-
tions of the Gospel are found, by the happy
experience of believers, to be the most appro-
priate 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 tri-
bulation, 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 re-
conciled to God through Jesus Christ,-that
they, should be put into a state of immediate
happiness. Or, that if they were not at once

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