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of this kind deservedly stigmatize you?" This is the man who when desolated in his circumstances, bereaved of his connexions, and more than once the subject of disease, instead of humbling himself under the mighty hand of God, waxed worse and worse, and proceeded from evil to evil."

But in a general way, when people come into trouble, they feel, feel seriously and softened. But what is the result? It is threefold. First-It often wears off, and the effect produced is like the morning cloud and early dew that passeth away. Oh what a difference has there frequently been between the same persons in sickness and health! They "howled upon their beds." "They poured out a prayer when his chastening hand was upon them." O" let my soul live and it shall praise thee." And "spare me a little longer." "I will not offend any more." And they added to their prayer confessions, resolves, and vows. But no sooner were they raised up and set free, than they returned again to folly, and endeavour to drive from their minds the remembrance of what could only charge them with inconsistency, and clothe them with shame. Pharaoh after every plague cried, I have sinned; entreat the Lord for me; but when there was respite he hardened his heart.

Secondly-As this softening is frequently transient, so it is sometimes fatal. It seems indeed wonderful that those who know nothing of the grace of God, should often bear their troubles as they do; and that they are not always driven by the heavy pressure of anguish to distraction or despair. And so it is with not a few. They droop and sink in the day of adversity; and are swallowed up of over much sorrow. They verify the words of the Apostle; "The sorrow of the world worketh death"-It deprives them of reputation, subjects them to contempt, deprives them of support, preys upon their health, breaks down their spirits: and the sufferer gradually drops into the grave, or by self destruction is hurried from the evils of time into those of eternity-for whatever he endured here was only the beginning of sorrows. Oh how desirable is it when the heart is wounded to apply to it the balm of Gilead! and when it is softened to give it the impression of heaven! And,

Thirdly-This is sometimes the case, and the heart by suffering is softened to purpose, and the man can say with David, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." As therefore when I see the smith putting a bar of iron into the fire, I conclude he is going to work upon it, and form it for some useful purpose, which could not be done while it was cold and hard; so I always look prayerfully and hopefully towards a man when the Lord brings him into trouble. Manasseh in his distress sought the God of his father, and found him. The famine made the Prodigal think of home, and he was starved back into a return. The Grecian said, I should have been lost had I not been lost. And there are those now living who can say, I should have been poor had I not been impoverished. The darkening of my earthly prospects made me long after a better country, that is an heavenly. Ah! Happy unkindnesses and treacheries that said, "Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide"-it was you that induced me to say, "Therefore will I look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me." Ah! vain world

"Your streams were floating ine along,
Down to the gulf of black despair;
And while I listened to your song,

Your streams had e'en conveyed me there.

"Lord, I adore thy matchless grace,

That warned me of that dark abyss;
That drew me from these treacherous seas,
And bid me seek superior bliss.

"Now, from the shining realms above,

I stretch my hands, and glance mine eyes
O for the pinions of a dove,

To bear me to the upper skies.

"There, from the bosom of my God,

Oceans of endless pleasures roll-
There would I fix my last abode,

And drown the sorrows of my soul."

APRIL 13.-"The Lord maketh my heart soft."-Job xxiii. 16.

THERE is a soft heart derived from renovation. the heart soft as the God of grace.

Thus he makes

Of this the Lord speaks in the new covenant. "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." There cannot be a greater contrast than between these substances as to feeling-but the heart before conversion is stone. And after conversion flesh. Sin hardens the heart; and whatever tenderness there may be in it with regard to other things, it has none towards the things of the Spirit, till the renewing of the Holy Ghost. But when grace makes the heart soft it will appear in the following effects.

It will melt with sorrow for sin. Many are afraid of hell; but they are not affected with the sin that leads to it. Sin is the last thing some people think of; but it is the first thing with the penitent"My sin is ever before me." And this is the case even in affliction; even then sin oppresses more than trouble. This is the burden too heavy for him to bear. After the loss of an only son, a good woman once said, "Under this loss I have shed many tears for my son, but many more for my sin." Thus Ephraim was heard bemoaning himself; and what was the subject of his complaint? Not his suffering-but his incorrigibleness under it: "Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke-I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth-turn thou me and I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God." And what is the divine promise? "I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born." And repentance never flows so freely, and we never so much sorrow after a godly sort as when we are led to the cross and view the Saviour dying not only by us but for us. When the heart is made soft it will be pliant to the word of truth. An instance of this is mentioned in the experience of Josiah. "Be- " cause thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and

against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord." It is the general character of the subjects of divine grace that they "tremble at his word." The sinner sits before among the threatenings of God, as Solomon sat between his twelve lions unalarmed because they were dead. But faith enlivens them and makes them roar; and he now cries, "What must I do to be saved?" Yet we are not to imagine that he feels the divine menaces only; the promises so exceeding great and precious equally awaken his apprehensions. Oh! says he, if I miss them, and come short at last! How many feelings will the reading of one chapter, or the hearing of one sermon, excite in the soul of such a man! The Bible is his only rule, and his only judge. He dares not trifle with its contents; nor question its declarations. He yields himself to its authority without asking how can these things be; and receives with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save the soul.

If the heart be made soft we shall be compassionate towards others. Are our fellow-creatures in penury? We shall have bowels and mercies; and not say, Go in peace; be ye warmed, and be ye filled, while we give them not such things as are needful for the body. Are their souls desolate within them? We shall weep with them that weep. Are they in ignorance? In meekness we shall instruct them. Have they fallen? In meekness we shall endeavour to restore them; hating the sin, but pitying the sinner. Have they offended and injured us? We shall not be revengeful or implacable; but tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us.

Such a heart is also very sensible of the divine goodness. The man, instead of complaining of what he wants, wonders at what he possesses and enjoys. He feels that he is unworthy of the least of all his mercies. What claims have I upon him? I was a poor, blind creature, but he has opened mine eyes. I was naked, and he clothed me. I was a child of wrath, and he has made me an heir of glory. What shall I render? Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

A man whose heart God has made tender will be alive to his glory. He will mourn to hear his name blasphemed, and to see his gospel despised. He will be sorrowful for the solemn assembly, and the reproach of it will be his burden. He will be holily fearful lest he should grieve his Holy Spirit, or cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of. His glory will touch every spring of action in his soul; and he will be daily asking the Lord what wilt thou have me to do?

O what a blessing is such a heart as this! It is better than thousands of gold and silver. It prepares for all the manifestations of divine love; and it insures them.

Who feels a hard heart? The very feeling shows some sensilebility. Who longs for a soft one? Let him ask of God, who is Amon more ready to hear than we are to pray, and who "despiseth not the prayer of the destitute."

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How much, both as to duty and privilege, depends upon the views we entertain of "Him with whom we have to do!" And while born to trouble as the sparks fly upward, and passing through a vale of tears, and feeling even in our best estate some heart's bitternessfor "full bliss is bliss divine;" what can be more encouraging and delightful than to regard him as "THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT?"

And how well does he deserve this beneficent title! Every com-> fort we have in the creature is from him. If sleep comforts us when we are weary, or food comforts us when we are hungry, it is from his goodness. If when he sendeth abroad his ice like morsels and none can stand before his cold, we have houses to defend us, raiment to cover us, fuel to warm us, it is from him. When the spring returns, whose sun calls us to go forth into the fields and gardens? Who regales all our senses? Who charms the ear with these melodies? the eye with these colours? the smell with these perfumes? and the appetite with these tastes? Who gives us those benign and joyous and grateful sensations which we feel when the lambs sport themselves? and the apple-tree is dressed among the trees of the wood? and the hay appeareth? and the full corn waves in the ear? and the reaper fills his hand, and he that bindeth sheaves his bosom? and the little hills rejoice on every side? and the year is crowned with his goodness?

Who has not by accident or disease been confined to the chamber of weariness and pain; and who by the sympathies, attentions, and soothings of the tenderest friendship, has comforted you upon the bed of languishing, and made all your bed in your sickness? And who when the graves were ready for you, and you said, I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world, Who comforted you by the return of ease, the re-glowing of health, the renewal of your strength, the resumption of your liberty-so that all your bones said, "Who is a God like unto Thee?"

Has a friend like ointment and perfume rejoiced your heart by the sweetness of his counsel ? or has a minister been the helper of your faith and joy? The Lord gave him the tongue of the learned, that he should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. God comforted you by the coming of Titus.

The heathens made idols of every thing that afforded them relief and comfort; and thus they loved and served the creature more than the Creator. Let us not resemble them; but remember that whatever may be the medium of our comfort, God is the only source of it. Thus the instrument instead of seducing us from God, will be a conductor to him; and the stream will lead us to the "fountain of life." God will not give his glory to another; and we cannot affront him more than by substituting any thing in the place of him. This will provoke him to strike the idol that robs him of his praise out of the way; or cause him by disappointing us in the moment of application to say, "Am I in God's stead? If the Lord help thee not, whence should I help thee?" If we will not make him our trust, he will make that whereon we lean to smite us. He can take --comfort out of all our possessions and enjoyments, so that in the midst of our sufficiency we shall be in straits, and with cheerfulness

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on every side walk in silence and sadness, like a ghost among the tombs. What Job calls his friends, "physicians of no value," "miserable comforters," will apply to all our dependencies and expectations separate from God. Even in laughter the heart will be sorrowful. Our successes, like the quails of the Jews, will poison us while they gratify: our prosperity will destroy us: and at the end of our days the fool and the wretch will acknowledge the truth of Jonah's confession, "they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies; salvation is of the Lord."

True comfort is to be found in God only; in the hope of his mercy; in the evidence of his friendship; in the freedom of his service; in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. But they who seek it in him shall not be confounded. He has insured to those who flee for refuge to this hope, strong consolation, by a promise confirmed by an oath;' and what he promises he is able to perform. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. No depth of distress is below his reach. He can create comfort when there is nothing to derive it from. He can extract it out of the most unlikely materials. He can bring order out of confusion, strength out of weakness, light out of darkness.

Sufferer! think of Him! It is his prerogative and delight to "comfort them that are cast down." Why should you faint or despond? } Are the consolations of God small with thee? Does not He say, "I, even I, am he that comforteth thee?"

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Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief. Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side."

APRIL 15.-"Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me."-Psalm li. 11.

WE may see what David prized by what he deprecates. There were many calamities at the thought of which his heart might have *trembled. He could remember how God for his disobedience had punished his predecessor Saul, and had rent the kingdom from him. He knew how God by Nathan had threatened himself; and he could not help feeling the announcement, that the child should die, and the sword never depart from his house. Yet he does not say, Ó let me escape the rod-do not deprive me of my throne-or involve my family in trouble and disgrace. This is what many would have implored. But David prays, "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy Spirit from me." They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; and thus it is with men of the world; they are satisfied as long as their friends and health, their corn and wine, abound. Tell them of the hiding of God's countenance, and the loss of the comforts of the Holy Ghost, and they know not your meaning, and are ready to treat you with scorn or pity. They judge of every thing by a fallacious standard. "Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the Lord understand all things." They weigh every claim in the balance of the sanctuary. They walk by faith and not by sight. No evils therefore appear to them like those which regard the welfare of the soul and eternity.

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