The TROUBLES of LIFE ; ; vf . , lFA }f[I.IJR DESCRIPTION OF THE TROUBLES OF The disappointed Lover, The Unhappy Husband, The IVidozoer ; and lastly, The Child, of Sorrow. ' Ti H > Voor Laborer, Utile Shopkeeper, The Great Tradesman, TkSidlif Man, TO WHICH IS ADDED, IheSTORYoftheGUINEAnnd the SHILLING, Befog a Cure for 'f'K.tr-.'iLr in General. iint BY H ^WARD and EVANS, CsT theChea P Repository for Uott and Religious mini' U 30(1 l ' y X " n S- Lane » West-Sn.nhliekL.and WAP ' N °" 1D0 ^ ?iccadi,I y^ London. By S. L lD ' Bath; ;incl by all Booksellers, Newsmen, and ( ers in Town and Country. 0wance be made to Shopkeepers and Hawkers. Pri ce One Penny, Or 6s. per Hundred. «nteren at Stationers $«U. The TROUBLES oTl^ MAN is born to trouble as the ward/' It is not every one t? fl|D believes this melancholy truth" Yo pecially are apt to imagine that the wortffi pleasure and enjoyment; their heart, beat with expectation as they enter into it ; and th J dom calculate on trials, losses, and disappoint ] I propose here, in the first place, to present,! young and sanguine readers the picture of a h'i the chief troubles of life. Let us first describe the case of a person in k and declining circumstances. The Poor Laborer. Reader, thou art one, as I will suppose, «j heretofore, by dint of hard work, didst provides self with bread, but now thy family has prorata thy wife, dear woman ! has brought thee trail year; thine own health also has begun . rather torf cline, so that as thy charges increase, thy living grows smaller and smaller— thou art not| reduced to actual want, but thou art in dreadcij for the slender stock which thou hast got tow is now wasting day by day : already poverty W to stare thee in the face ; already thou hast paw a spoon, or a piece of less necessary furnitureJ perhaps a Sunday -coat, and in another week # jnust part with thy wife's cloak, and perhaps *J per blanket also ; thou dost hope indeed to n the more needful articles, but it is very m whether thou wilt ever do it; thou seemest J descending gently by the same way that rti trod before thee, down into the workhou^J some friendly hand forbid not, perhaps a 10 *' fuljaiL ( 3 > ;^r" . Vewi U now draw a picture of that distress to J in e aliving which is common in a little higher The Little Shopkeeper. be thou art one, who having married a K two ago; didst then set out merrily in the fa in some little shop, fitted up on the occasion g every pound, as thou didst then calculate, would produce by this time another pound, by due dih- ice in thy calling. The little substance which thy deceased father left thee, and thy wife brought tke, were put together for a capital, from which nere to arise these ample profits of the shop, but 4! the war has happened, trade is grown dull — - thou hast gone into it at a wrong time, or hast cho- sen a wrong branch of commerce; thou didst turn Werin silks, just when when the silk trade began Wining; in gauzes which went out of fashion in the s ^me year, or in hair powder, and now the use of it or thou hast hired, perhaps, a large house f to sake of having with it a better shop, mean- 8 to let a part in lodgings, and to live with thy lit- family in one snug corner of it : but thou hast ^ »n getting lodgers, thou wast obliged the oth M borrow a small sum of an old trusty friend, KL promise °f secrecy, lest it should hurt fiei ftt m tya^T f uia not c are to trust thee— thou must UllSt hrp I A t0 ' day ' and if he faUS thee ' th0U L y e *y thou didsc a pp j y to a second 1^ ' ut ne was low in purse, he was borrowing short T e ! limself > or he was engaged just then, "athi ln not Cllre tc > trust thee— thou must *bre I : A and if he taIiS thee * th ° U onfn? per ' la P s to morrow: thou hast been go- uptcy, L m ° nths Ul the same daily dread of bank- yet th °u art counted to live in comfort, i 4 ) 1 for thou earnest about with thee a cheerful Io in thy face sits smiling plenty and ease, and J fort, and satisfaction, and thy shop shines with itg usual lustre — for it is thus thou dost bear thy pat with many others, in spreading over the world an outward shew of happiness, but at the same time there is grief, and pain, and gnawing care, and fear and error in thy heart. Nor ought we to think that all those are free from keen anxiety whose bread, comparatively speaking is very sure, for imaginary wantsmajk the cause of real misery. The Great Tradesman.. Observe that great and once thriving trader, he had saved awhile ago ten thousand pounds— but m the last year he has gone back in the world; some new patent has been invented ; some cheap stop risen up ; some unexpected rival has entered . town— he feels almost as much at the droppii«« of his trade, as if he was suffering with actual* ger. To be thrown, as he calls it, out ot his j mer bread, to see the downfall oFh,son , ceie lJ and thriving shop, to part also with his P J country box, and to sell his new horsed and to retire, in short, with only ei e ht ^ tc4W sand pounds in hand, instead of the eX P aS ty, is one of the most hard and trying _ ' gravely tells you, that ever was expen But let us draw anothei picture o fhumP The Sick Man. ^ Thou art one perhaps on whom ^JtuH apace, but thou art of a very sicwy frf { },e Alas! all thy wealth cannot pui* . ors d healthy body— it cannot soothe tny i ( * ) rthv disorder; physicians are called in, . va in— they do but send thee from place |ttti ! 1Sl in search of health -thy schemes in life ,11 n(r >v broken, for thy life itself is in dan I Once thou didst hope to see many days, and f'rrvsome woman of thine acquaintance whose £ is still haunting thy imagination, and to^be oyful parent of children, but this sad disorder Lushed all thy hopes to pieces -though rolling health and in the prime of life, in the moment ^attaining every thing which thy fond heart could reh, the cup of happiness is snatched from thy lips, aid thou art .driven away to an untimely grave. The Disappointed Lover. I Bat thou art one perhaps that is crossed in love, liwarm, and eager, and impatient affection thou Lsiiest one who neglects, avoids, or even despises thee— perhaps she loved or seemed to love thee [once, but she has lately jilted thee ; or perhaps she I loves thee still, but prudence forbids the match;-- pds have interfered strongly with their autho- rity^ the obedient girl has kindly, though reso- Wy, entreated thee to take leave of her for ever. |tioiuit confident, nevertheless, in thine own mind, |t if she were partner of thy lot, thou couldst tor any state of life with pleasure— poverty would e 'io poverty, pain itself would lose its nature in E^I^SQciety.but'withoutWi life is insup- ™e, and that death which others dread, is be- L^ ver y object of thy gloomy wishes and ex- ' |) l]t The Unhappy Husband. hkvHi' t0 reverse the picture; thou art one Li . * n the fondness and eagerness of youth > ned th e very object of thy choice. O, what mm i sT^^r^ a happy man ! what an enviable, lot i. tu , . 1 little time the charm is broken ^ H fades; a horrible temper aiso quite "1 first, is broken out She whom thouJSfJJ] rrels ' pan torment; thou must now'pay the forfeit" oftbil to as an angel is become a very fury tract thy family day by day ; and thf fiJl ot thy life has become thy grief, thy shame. prudence, by bearing this worst of'burthem'M thy remaining days— nay, thou must also bear," silence, lest thy shame should be publish much the more, and lest thy wife's ill terapersloi be worked up even to frenzy, if thou shouldstmak the smallest complaint. " But why will you describe human life so gloom- ily ? perhaps some reader may reply, for my parti have a wife, who instead of being such a \nm\m you have painted, is most exemplary and affection- ate and kind.*' We will now draw another picture of human calamity. The Widower. Observe that wife, so pleasing in her person, so cheerful also in her temper, so valuable as tie industrious and clever parent of her many chM and so attentive and affectionate also to km band. Early love united them, unreserved intimacy has endeared them still further, and a long tion has rendered them now quite needful to*, other— the husband's life is bound up in thaW wife, in a degree of which he is hardly yet* See her begin to sicken and to grow a littfe p J At first the disease is trilling— she has wa in the dewy night and caught a cold, but tn ^ has increased, and it is now three month* ^ unlucky dav. The tender husband begin ^ armed. Love indeed is apt to be anxjou , ( 7 ) . Ilim not to be afraid. Another month ^K, 5S cough is not removed Her F sses ' i^k her sleep forsakes her, and many ^S^sehsue^t are now the fed- ^ Sppyhosband? He walks with a tf£,aSL a neglected dress, over the ? nd he th nks his own life already too great ^^tobi borne- As the danger begins to lb hi state of susnence also is affecting be- favourable change, and in a day or two aftei he is Sffrantic with fear. In the mean time hi o n health, through long watching, begins mater ally tofail. And now her end draws near. 1 nat race, once so beautiful, begins to be deformed by a ghast« iyhue, the lips are turned pale and quivering, the tongue is parched, the very reason fails her, so that k knows not the voice of her husband, though he calls her by her name. At last a cold sweat is ob- served to be passing over her limbs, her eye is fixed, the last agony arrives, and she expires in his arms. what a dreary scene does the world now present to this husband, uho a few months before, ws boasting of his happiness, and to this once ena- moured lover! And here let it be remarked, that this sort of eve "t is one that is by no means uncommon. It is pewhich every family has to witness. Let every 0vin 8 husband remember, tnat he has to see the when he shall be thus separated from his wife, f se that the wife has to endure a like separation ^ her husband. Let him reflect that it often ea j| ens . als °> that in proportion as the pleasure in ard en °t ? r ' S SOCiet y nas been g reat > and tbe love Series' f partln S P an g is found to be very severe. 8 w alike kind are to be expected also, again t 8 ) again in life. At one time » h i ? ^^urse of naS'^^ Pare a much-honoured uncle or patron wh , , anot W a second father, now a brother Ir'z^ ^ fnend and companion is torn atay '"[^ blooming hopeful, and perhaps a, ™, ? w ' hurried into an untimely does death oftentimes repeat his stroke'^ Japs the mourner has scarcely whped'avvav I ^ for one beloved relative or child iw ayl " stes " aer connection is alifc ^ torn from ^ and buried in the same tomb ^ Cmk ^ Rnf I . TllE , CH1LD °F SoRkOW. *»ut let us speak now of those who mivhp«n tk3:* C £ y d ' le , ChlIdien of S-row yt are some persons who seem to have every £ ^ Ke^amst them; they have had neither! and r l ev i • neS? ' the hea,th of other W meet uf l S ' U ,r e,r famiI * a " d at length thej A cct Uiti , sc addlUonal calamjt . her 8 I grey hairs are brought down in sorrow to the ami i nere are some mothers, of whom it may be re- narkeo, that though they have many children,]* tney never succeed in rearing (hem. Imagined ypursi II a mother who is now poor and helpless, and a widow woman also, who has brought forth i large family of children. By the time she W reached old age, she is bereft at length of them all, broken down with age and adversity, the lamp of life feebly burning, she may be like. ed to the shat- tered trunk of an ancient tree, the root of which has still a little life in it, though the lightening 1* deprived it of its once flourishing branches. We sometimes hear also of a single survivor of ten or tifteen children, and if we enquire, we perhaps ( 9 ) fi d that this extraordinary mortality is to be ao ted for, by there having been a taint in the Softlie family, of which taint this surviving hild has also partaken, and has already suffered much pain from it, though it's death is not yet ar- nve( | Nothing methinks can be more sorrowful mdevcn desperate, than the lot of such a sickly, perhaps deformed, and though in c ome sense pitied, vet, at the same time neglected being; it seems only to have lived to bear the anguish oi its disor- der and to witness the mortality of its family. But it is ti m e to break off from this melancholy subject. We have hitherto avoided introducing any thing religious into the characters we have drawn, be- cause we wished to paint the misery strongly which we could not have done if the comforts ot Christian- ity had made a part of the picture. We will en- deavor, to explain ourselves in the first place, by the following story. The Guinea and the Shilling. It happened once, that a person was travelling on toot a lung way from home, with exactly a gui- nea and a shilling in his pocket ; as he walked by the side of a hill, in taking out his purse, one of the pieces dropped out, through an unlucky hole Pich there was in it; it proved, however, most Wunately to be only the shilling ; he looked around p for the piece which was lost, with some care, "hether it. had got hid in the long grass, on his Wnand, or whether it had rolled off a long way * » the hill to the left, or whether it had even ne y d mt0 the nver at the bottom, is what he L]QQL C : 0uid discover. He spent about half an hour ln g round and round after it, 'till he began La th ^ lat ^ G WaS ^ )0:H1 £ more time and trouble le piece of money u^as worth, so he proceed- ls ' ,,f, s journey, -comforting himself as he ( 10 p in such case ( 1°> ) tas others which have no hope, for if we be- r ° W "that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." > the body must decay, and must be carried It'ii to the tomb : f earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust'to dust." But soon " the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible." Soon "this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality ; and then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory — O death where is thy sting, grave where is thy victory." That mor- tal part of our deceased friend, which we are lodg- ing so mournfully in the grave, is compared in scripture to the seed which is planted in the earth, and of which the husbandman does not allow him- seif to regret the loss, for the joy of that future in- crease which is to spring from it ; the seeming loss of the seed, and its burial under the earth are ne- cessary, in order to its bursting out again; ** that which thou soKvest," says the Apostle, " is not quickened except it die, so also is the resurrection of the body." And h ow glorious is that chatige which lis to experience after death, " it is sown in cor- ruption, it is raised in incorruption, it is sown in dis- honor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power, it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." Faith then believes this testimony of God, expects the promised change, Remands the use and benefit cf .death, and even pones to it, The christian husband and his wife < lv e many a time converged together concerning thl * expected change, and it has-been a chief busi- ness of their life to be prepared for it, and however Arable their lot in this world may have been, eatli the y know will be their greatest gain ; to fcs is, in this case, to be promoted to honour—it', if, having fared but moderately at home, a man?] got some good place abroad, and the earlier deaH of the wife, is but like the wife's setting sail to th new country, in an earlier ship, knowing that tie husband is soon to follow; the parting in such case may be a little melancholy, but then the separation will be short, and if the tears begin to rise, they are presently restrained again, at the thought of tie vast improvement which is about to be experienced in their fortune. The Child of Sorrow. And now, if Christianity is so needful in the case of all those individual troubles of life, how mud more so must it be when a thousand troubles meet together. Ye unbelieving men who put from you the hope of a future world, and the blessed consola- tions of the Gospel, come now and contemplate with me the case of that person who is oppressed with poverty, w orn down at the same time with sickness, and utterly desperate as to this world.— Behold that miserable object, that wretch deformed in person as well as destitute of friends, that Laza- rus, who lies at the gate full of sores, and isbeg ing a few crumbs of bread ! Go now and comfort him with those consolations which infidels haveto offer tc the afflicted. I suppose you will bid P hope for a little better health, and will recomjen it to him to take the medicine proper for his flis^ der. But, alas! medicine cannot help hjin» . the physician has told him so. You will still ^ haps encourage him to expect, however in ^ or other, some more happy turn in his ^ But his case is desperate; the friends took care of him, and w hom he tenderly 4ead j his pain also his daily growing r ( 15 ) his disease is mortal. Well then, as it is a case of necessity, you advise him to be resigned ; but re- signed to what? Resigned to want and sickness, and totheloss of all things? Resigned to misery as long as he lives, and after this resigned to a gloomy and hopeless death ? You give him no ground for re- signation. Resignation, on your plan, is contrary toreason! You boast of your reason, but you are of all men most unreasonable, if you pretend you can supply the miserable with comfort. No, you must own the case is beyond you, and, like the Le- vite, you must turn your face another way, and ieave him in the ditch, till some Christian comes, like the good Samaritan, and pours into the wounds the oil and wine of the ©ospel. Butletus now shew how these heavy afflictions may be turned even into blessings. Ah! how many arc there who, at setting out in life, have been fa- vored with much worldly happiness, yet, during a ' this time, no thanks have been excited to God Jo was the giver of it, but, by and by, troubles 12 T e ; and then the heart has be £ un t0 be torM ?r !. sappoinled and des P«>rate as to this WWni y have turned cheir thoughts to a better, or2°?, W [ th ^ overwhelmed with losses, hvelT?? bv keenan g'^ b in their bodies, they «t a longmg look towards that world, where ^vTgZ 01 u u CkneSS ' nor sorrow ' nor P aia > f|« s ^ ( R J? °° shall wipe away all tears from our Htoth* t , ys the Pr ophet, in the name of So i Sr " ellt f^, ' 1 chose thee in the ^ midst 3 k l^ he called these Israelites in ^fcther sin «° ns in Bab y Jon ' ™ he had S* to the Vk affl f tion s of Egypt. St. Paul %s fiS V^ ' and > e became foi- ^uchaffl;! Lord * haviD S received the A fttfl «**9n, and with joy of the; Hcly ( 16 ) passed ought tot owe them, to Ghost." Some there are who seem to fav through troubles only that they may be brow state of " peace and joy in believing" they that cheerfulness which you now see in thei.., some former glotfm. () nce they were gay and thoughtless, as some of our readers may now be, and their joy was then as the cracking of thou, which was soon over ; but now there is anewfouo. dation for their happiness. Now they trust not in riches or health, in wife or children, for they have found all these to be but as a broken reed, onwhich if a man leans, it shall surely fail him. They have learnt to " trust therefore in the living God," and in the sure mercy of a Saviour— being weaned frap the world, they now have learnt that holy art of . tisiHSf it, so as not to abuse it, knowing that "te time is short, and that the fashion of this id passeth away." Come lite, come death, conjej* ness, poverty or disgace, come loss ot to 001^ trouble* of whatever-kind; they sUn d ug * None oi>ese things now move themr U they may finish their course with joy. M l now measuring the value of every th ng J* dency to promote their eternal goocf^n ^ whatever circumstances they "therefore comforted by that f^^At that "all things shUll work them that love God, to them that aie cording to the purpose/' ; g ^m What a new view then does t^J^ji ■of the afflictions of life. I? Wjen ^ ^ -and it turns others even « , p poin« to consider every one of ^fj^^i wise and Merciful Being, who ff^p M4 and who, while he Se*mJ ^^fatfj;?" is perhaps only showering downm . ^ F 1 ' T HE BNU. upon us. 1 n