On the bosom of Jesus' love I rest my soul; my soul, which never found rest before, finds here a home. Who will say I have no right to place myself within his heart, to live in his affections, to cling to him? Who will rob me of this place of repose since Jesus freely offered it to me?

The sun always shines, though clouds sometimes intercept the brightness of his rays. So with Jesus. The light of his love is ever the same, it is only the dark clouds of unbelief that render it obscure. Let unbelief be rent away, and the sunlight of Jesus' love is beaming in the soul; and his language is: "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

There is a flower which is said always to follow the sun, -its going down, its rising up, and its noonday hight. In cloudy as well as fair weather it bends toward the luminary and king of day. Thus should the eye of faith always be directed to the Sun of Righteousness. Christian disciple, never fear, although the winds arise and the tempests beat. Thy Saviour is behind the storm. His unseen hand is stretched out still. Seize it, hold on. This may be Elijah's whirlwind to carry thee to heaven. Thy soul may mount higher than ever before, from such experiences. Faith sees light in darkness, and brightness in obscurity. As the flower to the sun, as the needle to the pole, so let thine eye ever turn to Jesus, and the darkness shall be light about thee.

When our wills are subject unto God's, all is well. He smooths the path for us; and we journey on praising his

name.

Well may grace be called the Divine nature, for God brings light out of darkness, comfort out of sorrow, and richness out of poverty; so does grace bring day out of night, sweet out of bitter, plenty out of want, and glory out of shame. It turns copper into gold, pebbles into pearls, sickness into health, weakness into strength, and little

into abundance; having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

Oh, how sweet is a harbor after a long storm, a sunshiny day after a dark tempestuous night, and a warm spring after a sharp winter. The miseries and difficulties that a man meets with in this world will exceedingly sweeten the glory of that other world.

The humble soul perceives the rod in a Father's hand, honey upon the top of every twig, and sugar at the bottom of the bitterest cup. He knows that God's house of correction is a school of instruction; and so he can sit down and bless when the rod is upon his back.

Affliction is called by some "the mother of virtue." Manassah's chain was more profitable to him than his crown. Luther could not understand some scriptures till he was in affliction; and it was among his remarks, "that for the most part when God set him upon any special service for the good of the church, he was brought into some trial or other."

"In every thing give thanks." The language of an humble soul is, If it be thy will that I should be in darkness, I will bless thee; and if it be thy will that I should be again in light, I will bless thee; it thou wilt comfort me, I will bless thee; and if thou wilt afflict me, I will bless thee; if thou wilt make me poor, I will bless thee; and if thou wilt make me rich, I will bless thee; if thou wilt give me the least mercy, I will bless thee; and if thou give me no mercy at all, I will bless thee. Though he slay me, yet will I trust

in him."

66

The flowers smell sweetest after a shower; vines bear the better for bleeding; the walnut tree is the most fruitful when most beaten. So saints thrive most internally when they are most externally afflicted.

Socrates said of his enemies,"They may kill me, but they cannot hurt me." So afflictions may kill us, but they cannot hurt us; they may take away my life, but they cannot take away my God, my Christ, my crown.

As the water lifted up Noah's ark nearer heaven, and as all the stones that were about Stephen's ears did but knock him the closer to Christ, the Corner Stone, so all the strange, rugged providences that we meet with shall raise us nearer heaven and nearer to Christ our Lord.

Where God refuses to correct, there he resolves to destroy. There is no man so near the edge, so near the flames, so near hell, as he whom God will not so much as spend a rod upon. Jerome says he accounts it a part of unhappiness not to know adversity, and that he judges those to be miserable who have not been miserable. Nobody, says another, seems more unhappy to me than he to whom no adversity has happened.

The ball in the emblem says, The harder you beat me down, the higher I shall bound towards heaven. So afflictions do but elevate and raise a saint's affections to heavenly things. Though the cross be heavy, yet he who laid it on our shoulders, will bear the heaviest end of it himself.

There is no water so sweet as the saint's tears, when they do not overflow the banks of moderation. Tears are not mutes; they have a voice, and their oratory is of great prevalence with Almighty God. Wine was the nearest when the watering pots were filled with water up to the brim. Thus oftentimes mercy and deliverence are nearest when our afflictions are at the highest.

Give me the comforts of God, and I can well bear the taunts of men. Let me lean upon Christ, and I fear not the distractions of care. If my heavenly Father will grant me his benediction and the light of his smile, 'tis

enough. Come on foes and persecutors, the Lord God is my sun and shield; he will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Gather, ye clouds, and environ me, I carry a sun within; blow, winds of the frozen north, I have a fire of living coal within; yea, death, slay me, for I have another and nobler life.

Tried saints are constrained to love their Redeemer : not only on account of deliverance from trouble; but also because of that sweet comfort which he affords them whilst they are enduring the cross. They have found adversity to be a wine-press, in which the juice of the grapes of Eschol could be trodden out; an olive-press, to extract the precious oil from the gracious promises. Christ is the honey-comb, but experience must suck forth the luscious drops; he is frankinsence, but grievious trials must burn out the perfume; he is a box of spikenard, but the hard hand of trouble must break the box and pour out the ointment.

A portion of the Lord's family live usually in the shade: they are like those modest flowers which bloom nowhere so well as in the thickest glades of the forest. But whatever our frame or feeling, the heart of Jesus is never more full of love, which is as sure in the night of darkness, as in the brightness of the day of joy.

The Lord's prisoner in the dungeon of Aberdeen thus penned a record of his acquiescence in his Master's will: Oh, what I owe to the file, to the hammer, to the furnace of my Lord Jesus! who hath now let me see how good the wheat is which goeth through his mill, to be made bread for his own table. Grace tried, is glory in its infancy. Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, that makeeth deep furrows on the soul, when I know that he is a wise Husbandman, and purposeth the harvesting of a bountiful crop.

Aged and mellow saints have so sweet a savor of Christ in them that their conversation is like streams from Leba

non, refreshing to him who delights to hear of the glories of redeeming love. They have tried the anchor in the hour of storm; they have tested the armor in the hour of battle; they have proved the shadow of the great rock in the burning noontide in the weary land. We must dive into the same waters would we bring up the same pearls.

Oh, mourner, say not that thou art the chief target for all the arrows of the Almighty; take not to thyself the bitter preeminence of woe; for thy fellows have trodden the valley also, and upon them are the scars of the thorns and briars of the dreary pathway.

It is the highest stage of manhood to have no wish, no thought, no desire, but Christ, to feel that though like a sere leaf, we are blown in the blast, we are quite careless whither we are going, so long as the Master's hand guides us according to his will; or, rather, to feel that though like the diamond, we must be exercised with sharp tools, yet we care not how sharply we may be cut, so that we may be made fit brilliants to adorn his crown.

Better walk on rugged rocks than on slippery ice. If we lose our roll it is in the harbor of ease, not in the valley of Baca. Few Christians backslide while under the rod; it is usually when ou the lap of plenty that believers sin.

The air from the sea of affliction is extremely beneficial to invalid Christians. Continued prosperity, like a warm atmosphere, has a tendency to unbind the sinews, and soften the bones; but the cold winds of trouble make us sturdy, hardy, and well braced in every part. Uninterrupted success often leads to an undervaluing of mercies and forgetfulness of the Giver; but the withdrawal of the sunshine leads us to look for the sun.

They are only half men in whom the divine fire of sorrow hath never burned. They only can attain the highest